Configuração Familiar, Perceção de Funcionamento Familiar e Autoconceito Adolescente: estudo exploratório sobre a perceção de funcionamento familiar e autoconceito do filho adolescente em famílias nucleares intactas, monoparentais, reconstituídas e alargadas

Tendo em conta as alterações que se observam atualmente na estrutura e nas configurações familiares, tem sido questionado o impacto que estas alterações têm no funcionamento da família e no autoconceito dos adolescentes. O presente estudo tem como objetivo analisar como se relacionam, em distintas configurações familiares, a perceção dos adolescentes e seus pais sobre o tipo de funcionamento familiar e o autoconceito dos filhos adolescentes. Participaram neste estudo 70 agregados familiares, representados por 70 filhos adolescentes, 67 mães e 40 pais. Foi aplicada a Escala de Avaliação da Adaptabilidade e Coesão Familiar II (FACES II) à díade parental e ao filho para avaliar a perceção de funcionamento familiar e a Piers-Harris Children’s Self-Concept Scale 2 (PHCSCS-2) para avaliar o autoconceito dos filhos adolescentes. Não foram observadas diferenças estatisticamente significativas nas configurações familiares face ao funcionamento familiar percebido, à excepção da perceção de funcionamento familiar do adolescente que é em regra mais negativa do que a dos pais. No entanto, as famílias nucleares intactas revelaram scores de coesão e adaptabilidade médios mais satisfatórios comparativamente com as famílias de outras configurações (incluem-se as monoparentais, as reconstituídas e as alargadas). O autoconceito parece variar nas várias configurações familiares, sendo que são os adolescentes das famílias nucleares intactas que têm perceção de autoconceito superior. Constatou-se, ainda, a existência de associação entre a perceção de funcionamento familiar e o autoconceito do adolescente, no sentido em que quanto mais funcional a família se perceciona, melhor o autoconceito do filho adolescente. Realça-se a pertinência de promoção de intervenções no sentido de potenciar a resiliência individual e familiar perante as adversidades, nomeadamente, as transições familiares. / Bearing in mind the current changes in family structures and configurations, questions have been raised as to how these changes have impacted on the functioning of families and on the adolescents’ self-concept. The aim of this study is to examine how the perception that adolescents and their parents, as part of different family configurations, have on the type of family functioning relates to the self-concept of adolescents or adolescent children. This study involved 70 households represented by 70 adolescents, 67 mothers and 40 fathers. We applied the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scale II (FACES II) to the combination parent and child to assess the perception of family functioning, and the Piers-Harris Children’s Self-Concept Scale 2 (PHCSCS-2) to assess the self-concept of adolescents. No statistically significant differences were observed in the family configurations based on the perceived family functioning, with the exception to how the adolescent perceives the family functioning, which is usually more negative than that of the parents. Nevertheless, the average cohesion and adaptability scores of the unbroken nuclear families were more satisfactory compared to those of families with different configurations (that includes single parent families, reconstituted families, and extended families). The self-concept seems to vary in the different family configurations, with adolescents from unbroken nuclear families having a higher self-concept perception. It also became evident that there was an association between the perceived family functioning and the self-concept of the adolescent, in the sense that the more the family perceives itself as being functional, the better the self-concept of the adolescents. This study stresses the relevance of promoting interventions to encourage individual and family resilience to respond to adversities, in particular family transformations

Tabelas de invalidez

Mestrado em Ciências ActuariaisEm Portugal, as tábuas de invalidez utilizadas são na maior parte dos ca s os , baseadas na experiência das Resseguradoras. Estas empresas baseiam-se em experiências estatísticas feitas em várias partes do mundo e é suposto reflectir as características mais ou menos universais da frequência de invalidez. Mas, uma vez que as condições sociais, económicas, climatéricas específicas de cada país têm influência nas taxas de invalidez, surge a necessidade de existirem tabelas de invalidez coerentes com a população portuguesa. O presente trabalho desenvolve a teoria do ajustamento pelo método analítico por forma a obter taxas de invalidez. Este método pressupõe que a invalidez possa ser descrita por uma lei matemática dependente de certos parâmetros, cuja estimação é, nesta dissertação, efectuada pelo método da máxima verosimilhança, pelo método dos mínimos quadrados e por um método desenvolvido por Mexia, o método da semilinearização. Observe-se que a lei é do mesmo tipo da ajustada por Bernardino para a mortalidade da população portuguesa. Baseado em dados de indivíduos expostos ao risco e de indivíduos que entram em invalidez permanente em cada idade, classificados por sexo, nos anos de 1992 a 1997 é realizada uma aplicação à entrada em invalidez permanente em Portugal. Aplica-se ainda a teoria dos vórtices estocásticos para obter uma distribuição limite estacionária para os efectivos de inválidos permanentes nas várias idades. Mostra-se como utilizar essa distribuição estacionária para obter um minorante para o custo incorrido pela Segurança Social.In Portugal, the disability tables in use are in most cases based on the experience of Reassurance companies. These companies are based on statistics experiences made in several parts of the world and are supposed to reflect the characteristics of the frequency of disability, which are more or less universal. But once that the specific social, economical and climate conditions of each country influence upon the disability rates, the existence of disability tables in coherence with portuguese population urges. The actual paper focuses on the theory of adjustment according to the analytical method in order to obtain disability rates. This method rests upon the idea that disability can be described by a mathematical law, which depends on certain parameters that are estimated in this paper according to the methods of maximum likelihood, least squares and the one developed by Mexia, the semilinearation. It must be noted that the law is of the same type that the one adjusted by Bernardino to the mortality of Portuguese population With data from the individuais exposed to the risk and from those that go into permanent disability in each age, classified by sex, in the years of 1992 to 1997 an application to the going into permanent disability is carried out in Portugal. The theory of stochastic vortices is still applied to obtain a boundary stationary distribution to the number of permanent disabled in the various ages. A way to use that stationary distribution to obtain a minimum amount of the costs for Social Security is shown.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

hsCRP and E-Selectin as Markers of Endothelial Dysfunction in Children with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus

Introduction: This study investigated the levels of inflammatory biomarkers in healthy children and those diagnosed with type 1 diabetes (T1DM), some of whom were affected by endothelial dysfunction (ED), characterized by increased inflammation and reduced vasodilatation. Methods: Thirty-one T1DM children showing no symptoms of vascular diseases and diagnosed by ultrasound techniques as ED-positive (T1DM-ED) or negative (T1DM), and 58 sex-age-matched healthy children were investigated for circulating levels of E-selectin, s-ICAM and s-VCAM, MMP-9, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), and IL-6. Results: No differences were observed in s-ICAM, MMP-9, and IL-6 levels between case and control groups. Significantly higher levels of s-VCAM (p= 0.0001) were found in the T1DM (1359.1 ± 273 ng/mL) and T1DM-ED (1358.2 ± 112 ng/mL) groups; (control - 828.5 ± 212 ng/mL). Higher levels of E-selectin (p = 0.001) were found in the T1DM-ED group (331.2 ± 77 ng/mL); (control - 222.2 ± 74 ng/mL). The values of hsCRP were higher (p = 0.002) in the T1DM-ED group (0.36 ± 0.2 mg/L) relative to control (0.15 ± 0.1 mg/L) and T1DM (0.19 ± 0.2 mg/L). The results suggest that E-selectin and hsCRP can be useful markers of ED in children with T1DM.publishersversionpublishe

Plasma Extracellular Vesicle-Derived TIMP-1 mRNA as a Prognostic Biomarker in Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma:A Pilot Study

The tumor microenvironment has gained a lot of attention from the scientific community since it has a proven impact in the development of tumor progression and metastasis. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are now considered one of the key players of tumor microenvironment modulation. Clear cell renal cell carcinoma (ccRCC) is the most lethal urological neoplasia and presents a high metastatic potential, which reinforces the need for the development of more effective predictive biomarkers. Our goal was to evaluate the applicability of EV-derived matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases (TIMPs) as prognostic biomarkers for ccRCC. To do so, we studied the plasma EV content of 32 patients with localized ccRCC and 29 patients with metastatic ccRCC. We observed that patients with localized disease and tumors larger than 7 cm presented higher levels of plasma EV-derived TIMP-1 mRNA when compared with patients presenting smaller tumors (p = 0.020). Moreover, patients with metastatic disease presented higher levels of EV-derived TIMP-1 mRNA when compared with patients with localized disease (p = 0.002) and when we stratified those patients in high and low levels of TIMP-1 EV-derived mRNA, the ones presenting higher levels had a lower overall survival (p = 0.030). EV-derived TIMP-1 mRNA may be a good prognostic biomarker candidate for ccRCC

Plasmatic miR-210, miR-221 and miR-1233 profile:Potential liquid biopsies candidates for renal cell carcinoma

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) represents a challenge for clinicians since the nonexistence of screening and monitoring tests contributes to the fact that one-third of patients are diagnosed with metastatic disease and 20-40% of the remaining patients will also develop metastasis. Modern medicine is now trying to establish circulating biomolecules as the gold standard of biomarkers. Among the molecules that can be released from tumor cells we can find microRNAs. The aim of this study was to evaluate the applicability of cancer-related miR-210, miR-218, miR-221 and miR-1233 as prognostic biomarkers for RCC. Patients with higher levels of miR-210, miR-221 and miR-1233 presented a higher risk of specific death by RCC and a lower cancer-specific survival. The addition of miR-210, miR-221 and miR-1233 plasma levels information improved the capacity to predict death by cancer in 8, 4% when compared to the current variables used by clinicians. We also verified that hypoxia stimulates the release of miR-210 and miR-1233 from HKC-8, RCC-FG2 and 786-O cell lines. These results support the addition of circulating microRNAs as prognostic biomarkers for RCC

SARS-CoV-2 introductions and early dynamics of the epidemic in Portugal

Genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 in Portugal was rapidly implemented by the National Institute of Health in the early stages of the COVID-19 epidemic, in collaboration with more than 50 laboratories distributed nationwide. Methods By applying recent phylodynamic models that allow integration of individual-based travel history, we reconstructed and characterized the spatio-temporal dynamics of SARSCoV-2 introductions and early dissemination in Portugal. Results We detected at least 277 independent SARS-CoV-2 introductions, mostly from European countries (namely the United Kingdom, Spain, France, Italy, and Switzerland), which were consistent with the countries with the highest connectivity with Portugal. Although most introductions were estimated to have occurred during early March 2020, it is likely that SARS-CoV-2 was silently circulating in Portugal throughout February, before the first cases were confirmed. Conclusions Here we conclude that the earlier implementation of measures could have minimized the number of introductions and subsequent virus expansion in Portugal. This study lays the foundation for genomic epidemiology of SARS-CoV-2 in Portugal, and highlights the need for systematic and geographically-representative genomic surveillance.We gratefully acknowledge to Sara Hill and Nuno Faria (University of Oxford) and Joshua Quick and Nick Loman (University of Birmingham) for kindly providing us with the initial sets of Artic Network primers for NGS; Rafael Mamede (MRamirez team, IMM, Lisbon) for developing and sharing a bioinformatics script for sequence curation (https://github.com/rfm-targa/BioinfUtils); Philippe Lemey (KU Leuven) for providing guidance on the implementation of the phylodynamic models; Joshua L. Cherry (National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health) for providing guidance with the subsampling strategies; and all authors, originating and submitting laboratories who have contributed genome data on GISAID (https://www.gisaid.org/) on which part of this research is based. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not reflect the view of the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Health and Human Services, or the United States government. This study is co-funded by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia and Agência de Investigação Clínica e Inovação Biomédica (234_596874175) on behalf of the Research 4 COVID-19 call. Some infrastructural resources used in this study come from the GenomePT project (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-022184), supported by COMPETE 2020 - Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalisation (POCI), Lisboa Portugal Regional Operational Programme (Lisboa2020), Algarve Portugal Regional Operational Programme (CRESC Algarve2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), and by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Modelação estatística das co-infecções da SIDA em países da União Europeia

Dissertação apresentada para obtenção do Grau de Doutor em Matemática, especialidade de Estatística, pela Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências e TecnologiaNeste trabalho utilizam-se dados da WHO relativos a 12 países da UE (os únicos para os quais se conhece a informação suficiente) para estudar nos mesmos as co-infecçõeses da SIDA. Concretizando, pretendia-se testar a hipótese de que as co-infecções relevantes erama Hepatite B, Hepatite C e a Tuberculose e ordenar os países. Para realizar estes objectivos começou por se ajustar modelos logit às incidências das várias doenças. Seguidamente de modo a relacionar a incidência da SIDA com a das coinfecções utilizou-se uma variante adequada da Partial Least Squares (PLS), a retro-PLS. Quer esta variante, quer parte das técnicas para ajustamento dos modelos logit foram desenvolvidas especificamente para este trabalho. A retro-PLS foi aplicada separadamente em quatro cenários que consideravam diferentes co-infecções: Cenário I: Hepatite B, Hepatite C, Tuberculose; Cenário II: Hepatite A, Hepatite B, Hepatite C, Tuberculose; Cenário III: Hepatite B, Hepatite C, Salmonellosis, Tuberculose; Cenário IV: Hepatite A, Hepatite B, Hepatite C, Salmonellosis, Tuberculose. Uma vez aplicada a retro-PLS utilizou-se a Análise de Componentes Principais (ACP) para condensar a informação. Ordenou-se os países a partir dos valores da primeira componente. Finalmente utilizou-se o índice de concordância de Kendall para mostrar que as ordenações obtidas para os quatro cenários eram concordantes. As principais conclusões que se obteve foram: 1) as co-infecções relevantes são a Hepatite B, Hepatite C e a Tuberculose; 2) os países do Sul da Europa (Itália, Grécia, Portugal) situam-se em posição oposta aos do Norte da Europa (Finlândia, Suécia).Bolsa de Doutoramento(SFRH/BD/41243/2007