Controlo da atenção em contexto social na esquizofrenia : efeito da carga percetiva no processamento de expressões faciais

Mestrado em Psicologia ForenseA esquizofrenia é uma das doenças mais severas e incapacitantes do foro psiquiátrico. Estudos anteriores indicam que os pacientes com esquizofrenia têm dificuldades em identificar, discriminar e reconhecer expressões faciais. Analogamente, outros estudos sublinham a existência de prejuízos nos processos de controlo da atenção, que indicam que informação deve ser atendida e que são responsáveis por direcionar a atenção para a informação relevante. A interferência de estímulos irrelevantes pode ser determinada pelo nível de carga percetiva da tarefa (Lavie, 1995, 2005). Porém, quando estes estímulos são biologicamente significativos (e.g., faces humanas), o seu processamento (automático e preferencial) tende a não ser afetado pelo nível de exigência da tarefa. Os indivíduos com esquizofrenia parecem ser especialmente sensíveis à presença de distratores emocionais. Contudo, até ao momento, não foi examinado este efeito em função da carga percetiva. O presente estudo teve como objetivo verificar se os pacientes com esquizofrenia são mais sensíveis ao processamento de estímulos emocionais irrelevantes, mesmo em tarefas que exigem uma elevada quantidade de recursos atencionais. 22 participantes com esquizofrenia ou perturbação esquizoafetiva e 22 participantes sem perturbação mental (com idades e sexo equivalentes) realizaram uma tarefa de discriminação de letras-alvo com estímulos emocionais irrelevantes (expressões faciais de raiva, de nojo, alegres e neutras). As letras-alvo eram acompanhadas por cinco letras distratoras, que podiam ser iguais (condição de carga percetiva reduzida) ou diferentes (condição de carga percetiva elevada). Era solicitado aos participantes que discriminassem a letra-alvo, entre as letras distratoras, e que ignorassem a expressão facial apresentada. Foram analisados os tempos de resposta e as taxas de acerto da tarefa de discriminação. Os resultados indicaram que os pacientes (em comparação com o grupo de controlo) eram mais suscetíveis à interferência dos estímulos irrelevantes, especialmente na condição de carga percetiva elevada, o que é consistente com a existência de prejuízos no controlo da atenção. Também nos pacientes, as faces alegres resultaram numa maior interferência quando a tarefa era mais exigente. Contrariamente, as faces neutras foram as que menos interferiam, imediatamente seguidas das faces de raiva. Deste modo, os resultados sugerem que os indivíduos com esquizofrenia apresentaram um enviesamento atencional para faces alegres e comprometimentos ao nível do reconhecimento de faces ameaçadoras (i.e., de raiva). Este estudo forneceu uma nova visão sobre os prejuízos atencionais em contexto social na esquizofrenia.Schizophrenia is one of the most severe and disabling psychiatric conditions. Previous studies have shown that patients with schizophrenia have difficulties in identifying, discriminate and recognize facial expressions. Furthermore, other studies underline an impaired attentional control processes, that determine which information should be attended and that are responsible for guiding attention towards to relevant information. The interference of irrelevant stimulus can be determined by the task perceptual load (Lavie, 1995, 2005). However, when this stimulus are biological significant (e.g., human faces), its processing tends to be unaffected by task demand. Individuals with schizophrenia appears to be highly sensitive to the presence of emotional distractors. Yet, to ours knowledge, no study have instigated this effect in terms of perceptual load. Thus, the purpose of this study was to test whether patients with schizophrenia are more sensitive to processing irrelevant emotional stimulus, even when the task demands a high amount of attentional resources. 22 participants with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder and 22 healthy controls, matched for age and gender, performed a target-letter discrimination task with emotional task-irrelevant stimulus (angry, disgust, happy and neutral facial expressions). Target-letters were presented among five distrator-letters, which could be the same (low perceptual load) or different (high perceptual load). Participants should discriminate the target-letter among the distractor-letters, and ignore the facial expressions presented. The response times and accuracy were analyzed. The results showed that patients with schizophrenia (compared to controls) were more prone to distraction by task-irrelevant stimulus, especially under high load, which is consistent with damages in control of attention. Fur such individuals, happy faces result in a higher interference when the task was more demanding. In contrast, neutral faces caused less interference, followed by angry faces. Thereby, the results suggested that patients with schizophrenia exhibit an attentional bias for happy faces and impaired recognition of threatening faces (i.e., angry faces). This study provided a new vision about attentional deficits in social context in schizophrenia

Clínica e cirurgia de animais de companhia: nutrição em doentes oncológicos

Este relatório foi realizado no âmbito da conclusão do mestrado integrado em medicina veterinária, sendo constituído por duas partes. A primeira parte descreve as atividades desenvolvidas na área da clínica e cirurgia de animais de companhia, durante o estágio realizado no Hospital Veterinário das Laranjeiras. As atividades desenvolvidas e acompanhadas durante o período de estágio foram registadas e, após análise estatística, apresentadas sob a forma de frequências relativas. A segunda parte deste relatório consiste numa monografia relativa ao tema “Nutrição em Doentes Oncológicos” com respetiva revisão bibliográfica e exposição de caso clínico; ### ABSTRACT: SMALL ANIMALS CLINICAL AND SURGERY PRACTICE - Nutrition of Oncology Patients In this report we describe the activities in the area of small animal clinical practice during the training held at the Veterinary Hospital of Laranjeiras. The first part of this report consists of a statistical analysis of clinical activities developed and followed during the training period. The data will be organized in the form of relative frequencies. The second part of this report consists of a monograph on the theme "Nutrition of Oncology Patients" with the description of a clinical case

A utilização da banda desenhada em tarefas de cariz investigativo no ensino da História e da Geografia

O presente relatório é o resultado de uma prática investigativa realizada no âmbito da Prática de Ensino Supervisionada (PES) integrada no Mestrado em Ensino da História e da Geografia no 3.º Ciclo do Ensino Básico e no Ensino Secundário, sobre a utilização da banda desenhada em tarefas de cariz investigativo no ensino da História e da Geografia. O objetivo deste trabalho é, pois, compreender como é que a banda desenhada utilizada para o envolvimento em tarefas de cariz investigativo pode contribuir para desenvolver competências de diversos domínios na disciplina de Geografia (competências analítico-conceptuais, competências técnico-metodológicas e competências atitudinais), e na disciplina de História (atitudes e valores, aptidões e capacidades e conhecimentos). Esta prática ocorreu em dois momentos: o primeiro momento, na Escola Básica e Secundária Passos Manuel (concelho de Lisboa), no âmbito da disciplina de Geografia B, com uma turma do 10.º ano e uma turma do 11.º ano, ambas do curso Profissional Técnico de Turismo. O segundo momento, na Escola Secundária Miguel Torga (concelho de Sintra), no âmbito da disciplina de História, numa turma do 9.º ano e noutra do 12.º ano, onde se implementou a banda desenhada em tarefas de cariz investigativo. Neste trabalho, é feita uma reflexão teórica sobre a temática e uma abordagem ao método de investigação utilizado, a investigação qualitativa. Seguidamente apresenta-se a proposta didática e algumas experiências de aprendizagem desenvolvidas, tendo sempre em atenção o tema deste relatório. Os resultados alcançados permitiram evidenciar os contributos da utilização da banda desenhada em tarefas de cariz investigativo para as aprendizagens significativas dos alunos.The present report is the result of an investigation which took place under supervised teaching within a master’s degree on History and Geography for the middle and upper secondary levels. It concerns the use of comic strips for inquiry tasks in History and Geography teaching. The purpose of this assignment is to understand how the use of comic strips in inquiry tasks may contribute to develop different skills in several areas of the subject Geography (analytical, conceptual, technical and methodological skills as well as behavioral skills), and of the subject History (behavior, values, skills, abilities and knowledge). The research took place in two moments: the first, at the Secondary School Passos Manuel (in Lisbon), within the subject of Geography B, involving a 10th and an 11th grade class, both of the Professional Tourism Course. The second moment happened at the Secondary School Miguel Torga (in Sintra), within the subject History, involving a 9th and a 12th grade class, where comic strips were used in the teaching process for inquiry tasks. This assignment aims to be a theoretical reflection on the topics, the investigation method used and the qualitative investigation, followed by a didactic proposal and some teaching experiences, always bearing in mind the topic of this report. The results allow highlighting and classifying the use of comic strips in inquiry tasks as relevant and meaningful learning experiences for the students

What is the present role for general practitioners in dementia care? Experiences of general practitioners, patients and family carers in Portugal

Background: Governments are being challenged to integrate at least part of dementia care into primary care. However, little is known about the current role of general practitioners (GPs) regarding dementia care, especially in countries that do not have dementia strategies in place. The aim of this study was to explore the experiences of GPs, persons with dementia and their family carers in Portuguese primary care settings, to better understand GPs’ contribution to dementia care. Methods: A qualitative interview study of participants recruited from six practices in different social contexts within the Lisbon metropolitan area was carried out. Purposive sampling was used to recruit GPs, persons with dementia and carers. Interviews with GPs explored dementia care comprehensiveness, including satisfactory and challenging aspects. Interviews with patients and carers explored the experience of talking to GPs about cognitive impairments and related difficulties and the type of help received. Thematic analysis of interview transcripts was carried out using the framework approach. Results: Five major themes were identified: GPs have a limited contribution to dementia care, the case of advanced dementia, doctor–patient relationships, doctor–carer relationships and management of chronic conditions other than dementia. Conclusion: General practitioners seemed to contribute little to dementia care overall, particularly regarding symptom management. The exception was patients with advanced stages of dementia, given that specialists no longer followed them up. Remarkably, GPs seemed to be alone within primary care teams in providing dementia care. These findings strongly suggest that Portuguese primary care is not yet prepared to comply with policy expectations regarding the management of dementia.publishersversionpublishe

Characterisation of physiological responses to odours in autism spectrum disorders: a preliminary study

Abnormal sensory perception is among the earliest symptoms of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Despite mixed findings, olfactory perception seems to be altered in ASD. There is also evidence that automatic responses to odours can serve as biomarkers of ASD. However, this potential use of odour-based biomarkers for ASD is still underexplored. In this study, we aimed to investigate whether physiological responses to social and non-social odours, measured with electrocardiography (ECG) and facial electromyography (EMG), can be used to characterise and predict ASD in adults. For that, we extracted 32 signal features from a previously collected database of 11 adults with ASD and 48 adults with typical development (TD). Firstly, non-parametric tests were performed, showing significant differences between the ASD and the TD groups in 10 features. Secondly, a k-nearest-neighbour classifier with a leave-one-out strategy was employed, obtaining an F1-score of 67%. Although caution is needed due to the small sample size, this study provides preliminary evidence supporting the use of physiological responses to social and non-social odours as a potential diagnostic tool for ASD in adults.This work is also funded by national funds, European Regional Development Fund, FSE through COMPETE2020, through FCT, in the scope of the framework contract foreseen in the numbers 4, 5, and 6 of the article 23, of the Decree-Law 57/2016, of August 29, changed by Law 57/2017, of July 19.publishe

ELEMENTOS PARA O DEBATE CONTEMPORÂNEO DA “QUESTÃO SOCIAL”: a importância de seus fundamentos

Abordagem do reconhecimento da centralidade da "questão social" para o exercício e formação profissional de Serviço Social, com base nas fontes marxianas, O artigo apresenta os fundamentos da ordem social burguesa como base para a compreensão do surgimento da "questão social" e suas conseqüências ideológicas e políticas. Argumenta que a contra-ofensiva burguesa, no tratamento das expressões da "questão social", lida com suas expressões como problemática de ordem individual, moral e psicológica. No contexto do capitalismo dos monopólios, são produzidas novas e reproduzidas velhas modalidades de enfrentamento da “questão social”, entre as quais se destacam os processos de refilantropização e psicologização das manifestações da “questão social”. A clareza sobre esses fundamentos é indispensável para os assistentes sociais, do ponto de vista tanto da sua formação, quanto da sua intervenção profissional

Innovation for resilience

Last decade is characterized by different types of crises and shocs in the socioeconomic systems, creating a turbulent context and calling for a better understanding of what the dynamic perspective of change is. For countries, regions and cities a better understanding of governance urges and calls for action

Needs for care and service use in dementia : baseline assessment of Portuguese participants in the Actifcare cohort study

Copyright © Acta Médica PortuguesaIntroduction: People with dementia and their relatives should have timely access to formal care in the community. The EU-Actifcare project analysed access to and use of formal services, as related to unmet needs for care. We describe the cohort study implementation and baseline results in Portugal, with a focus on needs for care and service use assessments. Material and Methods: Our convenience sample consisted of 66 dyads of community-dwelling people with mild to moderate dementia and no significant use of formal services, and their informal carers. Measures included the Camberwell Assessment of Need for the Elderly and Resources Utilization in Dementia. Results: People with dementia had unmet needs (mean 1.1; SD 1.7), mainly regarding company (23%), psychological distress (20%), and daily activities (14%). Family caregivers spent 150 minutes/day (median) providing support, and 44% had psychological distress unmet needs. Problems with access to or use of formal services, when present, were frequently due to attitudes or lack of knowledge of any or both members of the dyad. Discussion: The recruitment process was challenging, since the inclusion criteria were restrictive. Not claiming generalizability, we recruited a typical sample of Portuguese people with mild to moderate dementia and no significant formal community support. Levels and type of unmet needs found in some participants would call for formal support, were it not for problems regarding access or use. Conclusion: There are difficulties regarding timely access and effective use of formal care in dementia, along with relevant unmet needsIntrodução: As pessoas com demência e os seus familiares deveriam ter acesso atempado a cuidados formais na comunidade (centros de dia, apoio domiciliário). O projecto EU-Actifcare investigou o acesso/utilização destes serviços em países europeus. Descrevemos a implementação do estudo de coorte e a avaliação inicial em Portugal, com foco nas necessidades de cuidados e recurso aos serviços. Material e Métodos: Selecionámos uma amostra de conveniência de 66 pessoas com diagnóstico de demência ligeira a moderada (residindo na comunidade sem cuidados formais relevantes) e respetivos familiares-cuidadores. A avaliação (clínico-funcional e social) incluiu os instrumentos Camberwell Assessment of Need for the Elderly e Resource Utilization in Dementia. Resultados: Identificámos necessidades não-cobertas dos doentes (média 1,1; DP = 1,7), principalmente de companhia (23% dos casos), sofrimento psicológico (20%) e atividades diárias (14%). Os familiares-cuidadores dedicavam 150 minutos/dia (mediana) à prestação de cuidados e 44% apresentavam necessidades não-cobertas de sofrimento psicológico. Quando havia problemas de acesso/utilização dos serviços de saúde e sociais na comunidade, estes estavam frequentemente relacionados com recusa ou desconhecimento de utentes/familiares. Discussão: A seleção dos participantes não foi fácil, pela especificidade dos critérios adotados. Não almejando representatividade nacional, recrutámos uma amostra típica de pessoas em estádios ligeiros a moderados de demência, em serviços e regiões diferentes. Nalguns casos, encontrámos necessidades não-cobertas e repercussões familiares que já justificariam respostas de serviços na comunidade, não fossem os problemas de acesso/utilização. Conclusão: Na área das demências, existem dificuldades no acesso atempado e utilização efectiva de cuidados formais, coexistindo com uma cobertura menor de necessidades específicas.O projeto Actifcare em Portugal foi financiado pela Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT-JPND- -HC-0001/2012), com o apoio da iniciativa de Programação Conjunta da União Europeia – Investigação em Doenças Neurodegenerativas, JPND (EU Joint Programme – Neurodegenerative Disease Research), JPND/2013/2. Maria J. Marques foi apoiada pela FCT (PD/ BD/128011/2016) e pelo Fundo Social Europeu através do Programa Operacional Potencial Humano.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Systematic and Evolutionary Insights Derived from mtDNA COI Barcode Diversity in the Decapoda (Crustacea: Malacostraca)

Background: Decapods are the most recognizable of all crustaceans and comprise a dominant group of benthic invertebrates of the continental shelf and slope, including many species of economic importance. Of the 17635 morphologically described Decapoda species, only 5.4% are represented by COI barcode region sequences. It therefore remains a challenge to compile regional databases that identify and analyse the extent and patterns of decapod diversity throughout the world. Methodology/Principal Findings: We contributed 101 decapod species from the North East Atlantic, the Gulf of Cadiz and the Mediterranean Sea, of which 81 species represent novel COI records. Within the newly-generated dataset, 3.6% of the species barcodes conflicted with the assigned morphological taxonomic identification, highlighting both the apparent taxonomic ambiguity among certain groups, and the need for an accelerated and independent taxonomic approach. Using the combined COI barcode projects from the Barcode of Life Database, we provide the most comprehensive COI data set so far examined for the Order (1572 sequences of 528 species, 213 genera, and 67 families). Patterns within families show a general predicted molecular hierarchy, but the scale of divergence at each taxonomic level appears to vary extensively between families. The range values of mean K2P distance observed were: within species 0.285% to 1.375%, within genus 6.376% to 20.924% and within family 11.392% to 25.617%. Nucleotide composition varied greatly across decapods, ranging from 30.8 % to 49.4 % GC content. Conclusions/Significance: Decapod biological diversity was quantified by identifying putative cryptic species allowing a rapid assessment of taxon diversity in groups that have until now received limited morphological and systematic examination. We highlight taxonomic groups or species with unusual nucleotide composition or evolutionary rates. Such data are relevant to strategies for conservation of existing decapod biodiversity, as well as elucidating the mechanisms and constraints shaping the patterns observed.FCT - SFRH/BD/25568/ 2006EC FP6 - GOCE-CT-2005-511234 HERMESFCT - PTDC/MAR/69892/2006 LusomarBo

Multigene Molecular Systematics Confirm Species Status of Morphologically Convergent Pagurus Hermit Crabs

Introduction: In spite of contemporary morphological taxonomy appraisals, apparent high morphological similarity raises uncertainty about the species status of certain Pagurus hermit crabs. This is exemplified between two European species, Pagurus excavatus (Herbst, 1791) and Pagurus alatus (Fabricius 1775), whose species status is still difficult to resolve using morphological criteria alone. Methodology/Principal Findings: To address such ambiguities, we used combinations of Maximum Likelihood (ML) and Bayesian Inference (BI) methods to delineate species boundaries of P. alatus and P. excavatus and formulate an intermediate Pagurus phylogenetic hypothesis, based upon single and concatenated mitochondrial (cytochrome oxidase I [COI]) and nuclear (16S and 28s ribosomal RNA) gene partitions. The molecular data supported the species status of P. excavatus and P. alatus and also clearly resolved two divergent clades within hermit crabs from the Northeast Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. Conclusions/Significance: Despite the abundance and prominent ecological role of hermit crabs, Pagurus, in North East Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea ecosystems, many important aspects of their taxonomy, biology, systematics and evolution remain poorly explored. The topologies presented here should be regarded as hypotheses that can be incorporated into the robust and integrated understanding of the systematic relationships within and between species of the genus Pagurus inhabiting the Northeast Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea