Household Dysfunction Is Associated With Bullying Behavior in 10-year-old Children: Do Socioeconomic Circumstances Matter?

This study measured the prevalence of bullying behavior in 10-year-old children and investigated the effect of the socioeconomic context on the impact of household dysfunction on bullying. We studied 5,338 members of the Portuguese Generation XXI birth cohort. Information on involvement in bullying, socioeconomic characteristics, and household dysfunction was collected by trained interviewers using structured questionnaires. Being a victim of bullying was reported by 14.4% of participants, being a bully by 1.4%, and being a bully-victim by 3.9%. Being a victim or both bully-victim, simultaneously, was more frequent among children from medium-high income families. Also, children from low-income families who reported household substance abuse, witnessed parents' intimate partner violence, and were victims of physical violence, were more frequently victims of bullying; and those who experienced family violence were more frequently involved as bully-victims. Among children from medium-high income families, all these household adversity experiences significantly increased the odds of being victim, bully, or bully-victim. Thus, although children from medium-high income families are less likely to experience adversity at home, when it happens, there is a greater effect on their behavior, suggesting that better socioeconomic circumstances do not seem to act as a protective factor.The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the Operational Programme Competitiveness and Internationalization and national funding from the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education under the projects “BioAdversity: How childhood social adversity shapes health: The biology of social adversity (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016838; info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/FCT/9471 - RIDTI/PTDC/DTP-EPI/1687/2014/PT) and HIneC: When do health inequalities start? Understanding the impact of childhood social adversity on health trajectories from birth to early adolescence (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-029567; info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/FCT/9471 - RIDTI/info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/FCT/9471 - RIDTI/PTDC/SAU-PUB/29567/2017/PT017/PT)”; Unidade de Investigação em Epidemiologia - Instituto de Saúde Pública da Universidade do Porto (EPIUnit) (info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/FCT/6817 - DCRRNI ID/UIDB/04750/2020/PT); Administração Regional de Saúde Norte (Regional Department of Ministry of Health) and Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian; PhD Grant info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/FCT/POR_NORTE/SFRH/BD/108742/2015/PT (to SS) co-funded by the FCT and Human Capital Operational Programme of the European Social Fund (POCH/FSE Program) and FCT Investigator contracts info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/FCT/CEEC IND 2017/CEECIND/01516/2017/CP1406/CT0001/PT (to SF)

Early socioeconomic circumstances and adverse childhood experiences in 10-year-old children

Background Evidence showed that adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are associated with the development of disease later in life and premature death. Examining the occurrence of these experiences at early ages would contribute to intervene and therefore to reduce health inequalities. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of ACEs among 10-year-children and to examine its association with early socioeconomic circumstances. Methods At the fourth wave of the population-based birth cohort Generation XXI, from Porto, Portugal, 5153 children completed a self-report questionnaire on 9 experiences related to household dysfunction and physical and emotional abuse. Socioeconomic circumstances included household income, maternal and paternal education, and history of parental unemployment. Logistic regression was performed to calculate the Odds Ratios (OR) and 95% Confidence Intervals (95%CI). Results A high prevalence of physical and emotional abuse was reported by children from low socioeconomic circumstances. A graded relationship between socioeconomic circumstances and cumulative ACEs was observed, for instance, low household income was associated with increased number of ACEs (one event [OR = 1.10; 95%CI: 0.89-1.36], two events [OR = 1.41; 95%CI: 1.15-1.73], three events [OR = 1.67; 95%CI: 1.34-2.06], and four or more events [OR = 2.05; 95%CI: 1.64-2.55]). Also, living with one parent or none of them increased the likelihood of reporting multiple ACEs (OR = 5.50; 95%CI: 4.23-7.13). Conclusions Children from low socioeconomic circumstances were more likely to report multiple adverse experiences in the first decade of life. These findings support that children from less advantaged environments might be at a higher risk of co-occurrence of adverse experiences during their childhood

Early socioeconomic circumstances and cardiometabolic health in 10-year-old children

Background Social adversity is thought to become biologically embedded during sensitive periods of development, setting children on a trajectory of increased risk for later chronic diseases. Thus, social differences are expected to be expressed as biological alterations and might have their origins in early life. Therefore, we aim to estimate the association between early socioeconomic position (SEP) and cardiometabolic health during childhood. Methods Data from 2962 participants in the population-based birth cohort Generation XXI, from Porto, Portugal, was collected following standardized procedures at all study waves. Early SEP definition included household income, parental education and occupation at child’s birth. Cardiometabolic health was characterized at the age of 7 and 10, considering the triglycerides, cholesterol, fasting glucose, body mass index, systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Logistic regression was used to estimate the association between early SEP and a favorable cardiometabolic health profile. Results A favorable cardiometabolic profile was observed in almost half of participants at both ages, particularly among high SEP children who remain more frequently without alterations. For girls, higher paternal education at 7 years (OR:1.49;95%CI:1.03-2.15) and higher SEP at 10 were associated with better cardiometabolic health profile. In boys, a better cardiometabolic health profile was observed with increasing levels in maternal and paternal education and occupation, but at the age of 10, social differences were more evident according to parental education. Conclusions We provide evidence that children from more advantaged SEP at birth have an increased likelihood of presenting better cardiometabolic health at early ages. Social differences in cardiometabolic health biomarkers are already found in childhood, suggesting that the short-term impact of early life SEP on the physiology dysregulation takes place already in the first decade of life

Characteristics and outcome of patients with newly diagnosed advanced or metastatic lung cancer admitted to intensive care units (ICUs)

BACKGROUND: Although patients with advanced or metastatic lung cancer have poor prognosis, admission to the ICU for management of life-threatening complications has increased over the years. Patients with newly diagnosed lung cancer appear as good candidates for ICU admission, but more robust information to assist decisions is lacking. The aim of our study was to evaluate the prognosis of newly diagnosed unresectable lung cancer patients. METHODS: A retrospective multicentric study analyzed the outcome of patients admitted to the ICU with a newly diagnosed lung cancer (diagnosis within the month) between 2010 and 2013. RESULTS: Out of the 100 patients, 30 had small cell lung cancer (SCLC) and 70 had non-small cell lung cancer. (Thirty patients had already been treated with oncologic treatments.) Mechanical ventilation (MV) was performed for 81 patients. Seventeen patients received emergency chemotherapy during their ICU stay. ICU, hospital, 3- and 6-month mortality were, respectively, 47, 60, 67 and 71%. Hospital mortality was 60% when invasive MV was used alone, 71% when MV and vasopressors were needed and 83% when MV, vasopressors and hemodialysis were required. In multivariate analysis, hospital mortality was associated with metastatic disease (OR 4.22 [1.4-12.4]; p = 0.008), need for invasive MV (OR 4.20 [1.11-16.2]; p = 0.030), while chemotherapy in ICU was associated with survival (OR 0.23, [0.07-0.81]; p = 0.020). CONCLUSION: This study shows that ICU management can be appropriate for selected newly diagnosed patients with advanced lung cancer, and chemotherapy might improve outcome for patients with SCLC admitted for cancer-related complications. Nevertheless, tumors' characteristics, numbers and types of organ dysfunction should be taken into account in the decisional process before admitting these patients in ICU.Peer reviewe

Information system for monitoring and assessing stress among medical students

Author ProofThe severe or prolonged exposure to stress-inducing factors in occupational and academic settings is a growing concern. The literature describes several potentially stressful moments experienced by medical students throughout the course, affecting cognitive functioning and learning. In this paper, we introduce the EUSTRESS Solution, that aims to create an Information System to monitor and assess, continuously and in real-time, the stress levels of the individuals in order to predict chronic stress. The Information System will use a measuring instrument based on wearable devices and machine learning techniques to collect and process stress-related data from the individual without his/her explicit interaction. A big database has been built through physiological, psychological, and behavioral assessments of medical students. In this paper, we focus on heart rate and heart rate variability indices, by comparing baseline and stress condition. In order to develop a predictive model of stress, we performed different statistical tests. Preliminary results showed the neural network had the better model fit. As future work, we will integrate salivary samples and self-report questionnaires in order to develop a more complex and intelligent model.QVida+ project (Estimação Contínua de Qualidade de Vida para Auxílio Eficaz à Decisão Clínica), funded by European Structural funds (FEDER-003446), supported by Norte Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement

Phototriggered release of tetrapeptide AAPV from coumarinyl and pyrenyl cages

Ala-Ala-Pro-Val (AAPV) is a bioactive tetrapeptide that inhibits human neutrophil elastase (HNE), an enzyme involved in skin chronic inflammatory diseases like psoriasis. Caged derivatives of this peptide were prepared by proper N- and C-terminal derivatisation through a carbamate or ester linkage, respectively, with two photoactive moieties, namely 7-methoxycoumarin-2-ylmethyl and pyren-2-ylmethyl groups. These groups were chosen to assess the influence of the photosensitive group and the type of linkage in the controlled photorelease of the active molecule. The caged peptides were irradiated at selected wavelengths of irradiation (254, 300, and 350 nm), and the photolytic process was monitored by HPLC-UV. The results established the applicability of the tested photoactive groups for the release of AAPV, especially for the derivative bearing the carbamate-linked pyrenylmethyl group, which displayed the shortest irradiation times for the release at the various wavelengths of irradiation (ca. 4 min at 254 nm, 8 min at 300 nm and 46 min at 350 nm).Thanks are due to the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT, Portugal) for financial support to the portuguese NMR network (PTNMR, Bruker Avance III 400- Univ. Minho), FCT and FEDER (European Fund for Regional Development)- COMPETE-QREN-EU for financial support through the Chemistry Research Centre of the University of Minho (Ref. UID/QUI/00686/2013 and UID/QUI/0686/2016). A PhD grant to A.M.S. (SFRH/BD/80813/2011) is also acknowledged.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A Multivariate Analysis of United States and Global Real Estate Investment Trusts

Using daily data for the period February 2006 to July 2013 we examine the return and volatility linkages between the two main United States REIT sub-sectors and global linkages between the Americas, Europe and the Asia Pacific regions using the BEKK-GARCH and the DCC-GARCH models. We find that there is no evidence of any volatility spillovers between the US sub-sectors. By contrast, we find evidence of volatility spillovers between the Asia Pacific and the Americas, the Asia Pacific and Europe but no spillovers between the United States and Europe. Our results suggest that the REIT market is becoming increasingly globalized and that investors need to consider time varying volatility and correlations across different regions of the world when forming their optimal portfolio-allocations