Impact of dementia on informal care : a systematic review of family caregivers' perceptions

This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.Introduction: Caregivers play a major role in providing all the support and care in daily activities for their relatives with dementia. To fully describe the influence of dementia caregiving on family caregivers’ life, we conducted a systematic review including caregivers’ perceptions about the positive and negative aspects of caring and the expressed factors. Materials and methods: We conducted a systematic review including articles from January 1998 to July 2020. Qualitative studies reporting family caregivers’ perceptions about their experiences and the effects/impact of dementia caregiving were eligible. Two authors extracted the data independently, and the analysis focused on the positive and negative aspects of dementia caregiving in caregivers’ life. Results: Eighty-one studies with 3347 participants were included in this review. The positive aspects of caregiving in caregivers’ life encompass personal accomplishment and strengthening relationships, which were enhanced by good medical counselling/formal care support and family/friends support. The negative aspects included emotional and social aspects experienced by caregivers. Other factors such as inappropriate medical/formal care support, illness progression and the costs of dementia contributed to negative appraisal. Discussion and implications: The findings provide insights into the holistic experience of caring for a person with dementia revelling the major positive and negative aspects underlying the caregiver role. The evidence emphasises the need ‘to focus on positive aspects’ and targeted interventions aimed at reducing the negative impact of caregiving, which has serious consequences on caregivers’ quality of life. A multicomplex intervention for dementia informal caregiving should be developed, committing the society to promote mental health, address these community needs and improve the quality of life of the person with dementia and their family caregivers.This review was funded by the 'Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT)' Portugal and Merck Sharp & Dohme Portugal (grant number PDE/BDE/120498/2016).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Desafios para a competitividade europeia no contexto da globalização e do alargamento

Mestrado em Gestão e Estratégia IndustrialAs economias mundiais, são hoje em dia cada vez mais confrontadas com uma elevada dinâmica de globalização, acompanhada pelo aprofundamento da competitividade entre empresas, sectores industriais e países. O comércio mundial de mercadorias assinalou importantes modificações, os fluxos de IDE sofreram alterações e a competição internacional tem registado uma tendência para a sua intensificação, gerando desta forma evoluções constantes nos padrões de especialização das empresas, sectores industriais e países. Novos países participam cada vez mais na economia internacional de mercado.É neste contexto que a União Europeia finalizou o seu mais recente alargamento sendo este uma fonte importante de oportunidades para a sua indústria, tanto nos actuais como nos novos Estados-Membros. Tal abre, por um lado, novos mercados aos seus produtos e serviços, estando as empresas comunitárias a escoar uma parte cada vez maior dos seus produtos para mercados estrangeiros. Por outro lado e simultaneamente, aumenta a concorrência das importações, podendo conduzir a uma deslocalização das actividades produtivas para países com factores de custos menos elevados. É perante esta situação que, quer a Europa de uma forma genérica, quer Portugal especificamente, não podem competir apoiando-se exclusivamente nas estruturas tradicionais de custos, desempenhando os factores competitivos de índole dinâmica um papel crucial, permitindo assim que a economias se ajustem à pressão da globalização. Estes apenas serão totalmente conseguidos se suportados em estratégias competitivas correcta e adequadamente definidas, sendo essencial uma transposição destas para as respectivas politicas públicas.Word economies are nowadays, and each time more, confronted with the dynamics of globalization. This situation will conduct to the increasing in competitiveness between companies, industrial sectors, and countries. The word trade demonstrated quite important changes, the FDI flows also suffered changes, and international competition has registered intensification tendencies, generating constant evolutions regarding specialization patterns at companies, industrial sectors, and countries. Also new countries started participating in the international market economy. It is in the described above context, that the European Union just finished its recent enlargement, being this an important font of opportunities regarding its industry, not only at the existent countries but as well as in the new members. This, will in one side, open new markets to the existing products and services, leading to the increase in exports to foreign markets. But, in the other side, and simultaneously, will increase the competition in imports, even leading to dislocation of productive activities to countries with lower productive cost factors. It is within this situation, that not only Europe, in a generic way, but also Portugal, cannot being competitive supporting themselves exclusively in traditional cost structures, given the dynamic competitive factors a crucial role, allowing those economies to adjust them to the pressure induced by globalization. But those objectives will only be achieved if supported in well defined competitive strategies,being essential a strong connection between those and the public policies.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Main reasons for rejection of deep brain stimulation surgery in candidates with Parkinson Disease

Abstract of the poster presented at the 2nd International Congress of CiiEM - Translational Research and Innovation in Human and Health Science. 11-13 June, 2017, Campus Egas Moniz, Monte de Caparica, Portugalinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

PROTEÇÃO DA DIGNIDADE DA PESSOA NÃO HUMANA: O HABEAS CORPUS DO CASO CECILIA

RESUMO A proteção da dignidade atinge contornos diferenciados quando da concessão de medida de habeas corpus para a Chimpanzé Cecília, em sentença do Terceiro Juizado da Província de Mendoza, Argentina. Utilizando-se do método de abordagem dedutivo, enquanto método de procedimento monográfico através de pesquisa pós-facto, analisar a concepção do conceito de Dignidade e sua abrangência para espécies não humanas se constitui em alteração sensível para os pressupostos relativos à cidadania e proteção dos direitos fundamentais. A consideração que o direito ao ambiente natural sadio e proteção de todas as espécies é medida de proteção da Dignidade e que esta pode ser estendida às demais espécies vivas do planeta emerge intrinsecamente da sentença prolatada. Ao dar provimento à ordem de habeas corpus a inovação influi sobremaneira na nova forma de pensar o Direito, não como um sistema estanque, mas sim capaz de atender novas demandas sociais, entre estas a proteção de todas as espécies em convivência. Exsurge peculiaridades ao examinar que a sentença de país estrangeiro deverá ser cumprida em território nacional, sem o devido exequaturdo Superior Tribunal de Justiça, vinculando ente nacional, Santuário de Chimpanzés em Sorocaba, SP, com ordem emanada da Justiça Argentina. O fazer e pensar Direito abriga a adoção de medidas ainda não aplicadas para atender circunstâncias não atendidas. Novas demandas necessitam de novas medidas e diante da inércia legislativa deve o Judiciário ser inovador para fins de garantir o efetivo exercício da cidadania e proteção da Dignidade. PALAVRAS-CHAVE: Dignidade. Cidadania. Habeas corpus. Primatas. Justiçainternacional.   ABSTRACT The protection of the dignity reaches differentiated contours when themeasure of habeas corpus is granted to Chimpanzé Cecilia, in a judgment of the Third Court of the Province of Mendoza, Argentina.Using the method of deductive approach, as a method of monographic procedure through post-facto research, analyze the conception of the concept of Dignity and its scope for non human species constitutes a sensitive alteration to the assumptions regarding citizenship and protection of fundamental rights. The consideration that the right to a healthy natural environment and protection of all species is a protection measure of Dignity and that this can be extended to the other living species of the planet emerges intrinsically from the pronounced sentence. In giving effect to the habeas corpus order, innovation has a great influence on the new way of thinking the Law, not as a watertight system, but as capable of meeting new social demands, among them the protection of all living species. There are peculiarities when examining that the sentence of a foreign country should be fulfilled in national territory, without the due exequatur of the Superior Court of Justice, linking national entity, Sanctuary of Chimpanzés in Sorocaba, SP, with order emanating from the Argentine Justice. The doing and thinking Right forces the adoption of measures not yet applied to meet unmet circumstances, new demands need new measures and before legislative inertias hould the Judiciary be innovative for the purpose of guaranteeing the effective exercise of citizenship and protection of Dignity. KEYWORDS: Dignity; Citizenship; Habeas corpus; Primates; International justice

European regulators' views on a wearable-derived performance measurement of Ambulation for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy regulatory trials

Abstract Development of novel therapies for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) are driving the need for more efficient ways of detecting changes in disease- progression in DMD [1] . However, medicines' approval must be based on outcome measures that are acceptable from a regulatory perspective. In this article, European regulators provide an update on the recent regulatory consideration of a new endpoint (Stride Velocity 95th Centile (SV95C)) that could be used in therapeutic DMD trials. This new endpoint aims to quantify a patient's ambulation directly, reliably and continuously in a home environment with a wearable device

Avaliação do Estado Mental para Estimulação Cerebral Profunda: “ON” vs. “OFF”

Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of Portuguese Movement Disorders Society, 13-15 March 2015, Ofir, Portugal.Comunicação apresentada no Congresso Nacional da Sociedade Portuguesa das Doenças do Movimento (SPDMov), 13-15 Março 2015, Ofir, Portugal

miR-335 targets LRRK2 and mitigates inflammation in Parkinson’s disease

Copyright © 2021 Oliveira, Dionísio, Gaspar, Correia Guedes, Coelho, Rosa, Ferreira, Amaral and Rodrigues. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.Parkinson's disease (PD) is mainly driven by dopaminergic neuronal degeneration in the substantia nigra pars compacta accompanied by chronic neuroinflammation. Despite being mainly sporadic, approximately 10% of all cases are defined as heritable forms of PD, with mutations in the leucine-rich repeat kinase (LRRK2) gene being the most frequent known cause of familial PD. MicroRNAs (miRNAs or miRs), including miR-335, are frequently deregulated in neurodegenerative diseases, such as PD. Here, we aimed to dissect the protective role of miR-335 during inflammation and/or neurodegenerative events in experimental models of PD. Our results showed that miR-335 is significantly downregulated in different PD-mimicking conditions, including BV2 microglia cells stimulated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and/or overexpressing wild-type LRRK2. Importantly, these results were confirmed in serum of mice injected with 1-methyl-1-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydripyridine hydrochloride (MPTP), and further validated in patients with idiopathic PD (iPD) and those harboring mutations in LRRK2 (LRRK2-PD), thus corroborating potential clinical relevance. Mechanistically, miR-335 directly targeted LRRK2 mRNA. In the BV2 and N9 microglia cell lines, miR-335 strongly counteracted LPS-induced proinflammatory gene expression, and downregulated receptor interacting protein 1 (RIP1) and RIP3, two important players of necroptotic and inflammatory signaling pathways. Further, miR-335 inhibited LPS-mediated ERK1/2 activation. LRRK2-Wt-induced proinflammatory gene expression was also significantly reduced by miR-335 overexpression. Finally, in SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells, miR-335 decreased the expression of pro-inflammatory genes triggered by α-synuclein. In conclusion, we revealed novel roles for miR-335 in both microglia and neuronal cells that strongly halt the effects of classical inflammatory stimuli or LRRK2-Wt overexpression, thus attenuating chronic neuroinflammation.This research was funded in part by UIDB/04138/2020 from Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT), Portugal. SO received a Ph.D. fellowship (PD/BD/128332/2017) from FCT.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Warming enhances lanthanum accumulation and toxicity promoting cellular damage in glass eels (Anguilla anguilla)

Cumulative and continuing human emissions of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere are causing ocean warming. Rising temperature is a major threat to aquatic organisms and may affect physiological responses, such as acid-base balance, often compromising species fitness and survival. It is also expected that warming may influence the availability and toxicological effects of pollutants, including Rare Earth Elements. These are contaminants of environmental emerging concern with great economic interest. This group comprises yttrium, scandium and lanthanides, being Lanthanum (La) one of the most common. The European eel (Anguilla anguilla) is critically endangered and constitutes a delicacy in South East Asia and Europe, being subject to an increasing demand on a global scale. Considering the vulnerability of early life stages to contaminants, we exposed glass eels to 1.5 μg L-1 of La for five days, plus five days of depuration, under a present-day temperature and warming scenarios (△T = +4 °C). The aim of this study was to assess the bioaccumulation, elimination and specific biochemical enzymatic endpoints in glass eels (Anguilla anguilla) tissues, under warming and La. Overall, our results showed that the accumulation and toxicity of La were enhanced with increasing temperature. The accumulation was higher in the viscera, followed by the head, and ultimately the body. Elimination was less effective under warming. Exposure to La did not impact acetylcholinesterase activity. Moreover, lipid peroxidation peaked after five days under the combined exposure of La and warming. The expression of heat shock proteins was majorly suppressed in glass eels exposed to La, at both tested temperatures. This result suggests that, when exposed to La, glass eels were unable to efficiently prevent cellular damage, with a particularly dramatic setup in a near-future scenario. Further studies are needed towards a better understanding of the effects of lanthanum in a changing world.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio