A structural equation model of self-regulation and healthy habits as an individual protective tool in the context of epidemics evidence from COVID-19

The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.Objective: The present study aims to explore the mediation role of self-regulation on health-related behaviors adoption or maintenance, mental health, and well-being during the COVID-19 confinement in a sample of adults in Portugal. Design: One-hundred fifty individuals (118 females, 32 males; Mage = 33.57 year; SD = 12.71) filled an online survey to assess self-regulation, healthy behaviors, mental health, and well-being perception, during the early months of the pandemic (June–August, 2020). Main Outcome Measures: Self-regulation capacity, adoption or maintenance of healthy habits, mental health, including stress management, and the perception of one’s well-being were evaluated using a structural equation model (SEM). Results: Self-regulation had direct effects on healthy habits and mental health and indirect effects on well-being and mental health mediated by healthy habits. In specific, a positive direct effect on healthy habits (β = 0.497, p < 0.001) and a negative direct effect on mental health (β = −0.428, p < 0.001); and a positive indirect effect on well-being perception, mediated by healthy behaviors and mental health (β = 0.253, p = 0.003), and a negative indirect effect on mental health, mediated by healthy habits (β = −0.208, p = 0.003). Additionally, healthy habits exerted direct effects on well-being perception and mental health. A positive direct effect on well-being perception (β = 0.254, p = 0.012), and a negative direct effect on mental health (β = −0.418, p < 0.001) were further observed. No direct effect of mental health was observed in well-being perception (β = −0.199, p = 0.068). Finally, a negative correlation was observed between self-regulation and weeks of confinement (r = −0.208, p = 0.021). Conclusion: Self-regulation seems to be a good indicator of adopting a healthy lifestyle and better mental health and well-being in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Future preventive actions and interventions to build long-term global preparedness for future health emergencies, such as COVID-19, should explore the importance of self-regulation as an important individual and collective protective factor.This study was conducted at the Psychology Research Center (PSI/01662), School of Psychology, University of Minho, and supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) through the Portuguese State Budget (UIDB/PSI/01662/2020). This study was also supported by the project 2018-1-PT01-KA201-047417, funded by the ERASMUS+ Education and Training National Agency. SS was supported by the project PTDC/PSI-ESP/28228/2017, funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER). AS-F was supported by FCT and the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education, through the national funds, within the scope of the Transitory Disposition of the Decree No. 57/2016, 29th of August, amended by Law No. 57/2017 of 19 July. MF was supported by the UMINHO/BIM-CNCG/2021/29 Research Fellowship funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT). SC acknowledges the Psychology for Positive Development Research Center (PSI/04375), Lusíada University of Porto, Porto, Portugal, supported by national funds through the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, I.P., and the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education (UID/PSI/04375/2019)

Increased nucleus accumbens volume in college binge drinkers-preliminary evidence from manually segmented MRI analysis

IntroductionBinge drinking (BD) is characterized by high alcohol intake in a short time followed by periods of withdrawal. This pattern is very common during adolescence and early adulthood, a developmental stage marked by the maturation of the fronto-striatal networks. The basal ganglia, specifically the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) and the caudate nucleus (CN), are part of the fronto-striatal limbic circuit involved in reward processes underlying addictive behaviors. Abnormal NAcc and CN morphometry has been noted in alcoholics and other drug abusers, however the effects of BD on these subcortical regions have been poorly explored. Accordingly, the main goal of the present study was to address potential morphological alterations in the NAcc and CN in a sample of college binge drinkers (BDs).MethodManual segmentation of the NAcc and the CN was performed in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) of 20 college BDs and 16 age-matched alcohol abstainers (18-23 years-old).ResultsA two-way mixed ANOVA revealed no group differences in the volumetry of the CN, whereas increased NAcc volume was observed in the BD group when compared to their abstinent control peers.DiscussionThese findings are in line with previous automatically segmented MRI reports highlighting abnormalities in a key region involved in drug rewarding processes in BDs.This study was conducted at the Psychology Research Centre (PSI/01662), School of Psychology, University of Minho, and supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology and the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education (UID/PSI/01662/2019), through the national funds (PIDDAC). This study was also supported by the project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-028672, funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER). SS was supported by the SFRH/BD/88628/2012, Doctoral Fellowship of the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, co-financed by POPH/FSE through QREN. EL-C and AC were supported by the FCT and the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education, through the national funds, within the scope of the Transitory Disposition of the Decrete No. 57/2016, of 29th of August, amended by Law No. 57/2017 of 19 July

Biocompatible and biodegradable functional coatings with natural occurring materials for the corrosion protection of Mg alloys

Magnesium alloys are amidst the most innovative materials for biomedical applications, as they show a set of unique properties, namely appropriate mechanical properties and biodegradability, when compared to other alloys. Although these properties make them suitable for medical implants, the main challenge is the uncontrolled corrosion. Mg degradation is fast, inhomogeneous, localized and often accompanied by hydrogen formation which can lead to complications in vivo. Here, we propose the development of a functional coating, containing natural-based capsules for the controlled release of biocompatible corrosion inhibitors and well known pharmaceutical agents. Empty and loaded capsules toxicity tests were performed as a first step for materials selection. Subsequently, they were incorporated into polyetherimide (PEI) coatings and tested using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) under aggressive conditions. The obtained results showed a successful synthesis of natural-based microcapsules, constituting a fast, simple and environmentally friendly method. Additionally, the high cell proliferation observed in the presence of the aforementioned materials demonstrates their low toxicity. Preliminary results carried out with capsule-modified coatings show that the incorporation of Ca2+-loaded gelatin capsules in PEI coatings leads to barrier and active corrosion protection properties improvement and that anti-inflammatory agent ibuprofen may have a role in active corrosion protection as well.publishe

Freeform 3D printing using a continuous viscoelastic supporting matrix

Embedded bio-printing has fostered significant advances toward the fabrication of soft complex tissue-like constructs, by providing a physical support that allows the freeform shape maintenance within the prescribed spatial arrangement, even under gravity force. Current supporting materials still present major drawbacks for up-scaling embedded 3D bio-printing technology towards tissue-like constructs with clinically relevant dimensions. Herein, we report a a cost-effective and widely available supporting material for embedded bio-printing consisting on a continuous pseudo-plastic matrix of xanthan-gum (XG). This natural polisaccharide exhibits peculiar rheological properties that have enabled the rapid generation of complex volumetric 3D constructs with out of plane features. The freedom of design within the three orthogonal axes through the independent and controlled bio-printing process opens new opportunities to produce on demand large arbitrary shapes for personalized medicine. Additionally, we have demonstrated the versatile functionality of XG as a photocurable gel reservoir to engineer perfused cell-laden hydrogel constructs, addressing other practical biomedical applications such as in vitro models and organ-on-chip platforms.publishe

Combined tools for surgical case packages contents and cost optimization: a preliminary study

This paper presents a solution proposal based on mathematical and statistical tools to optimize Surgical Case Packages of an Operating Room (OR) in a Portuguese public hospital that it is the most complex environment in a hospital. In this particular hospital, more than 27000 surgeries/year are performed, employing, sometimes, misadjusted composition of standard surgical packages and non-optimized grouping of surgical instruments. Problem consequences are, among others, high transport of various surgical cases packages; high number of open cases and delays in surgical times following surgery. These type of problems are waste that do not add value to the service in the context of Lean Healthcare and must be eliminated using the most suitable tools. After the analysis, different tools were used: combinatorial analysis to optimize surgical cases composition and statistical analysis to identify the instruments usage and surgical basic case patterns. An optimization model was developed which produced a sterilizing initial solution of 135.24€. By identifying the most commonly employed instruments, it was concluded that some instruments have never been used and others rarely and some patterns were identified. The results achieved were based on minor sample and in a form of data collection that needs some adjustments.The authors want to acknowledge the Portuguese public hospital involved and to the ESGI initiative. The authors also would like to express their acknowledgments to national funds by COMPETE: POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043 and FCT - Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2013.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Estudo da Basic Need Satisfaction in General Scale para a língua portuguesa

Este estudo descreve o processo de adaptação da versão portuguesa, de 21 itens, da Basic Need Satisfaction in General Scale da teoria de auto-determinação. O instrumento é composto por três subescalas que correspondem às três necessidades básicas (a) competência, (b) autonomia e (c) relações de pertença. Foi administrado em dois estudos independentes, 420 e 408 participantes respectivamente, com amostras de conveniência da comunidade. A primeira fase incluiu tradução, retroversão e retradução; inspecção da equivalência lexical e de conteúdo; e reflexão falada. No processo de adaptação é aferido se a validade de conteúdo está de acordo com a teoria original. O estudo métrico revela valores baixos na consistência interna em algumas das subescalas. Numa análise exploratória inicial, em ambos os estudos, emergem três factores no scree plot, a maioria dos itens apresenta carga factorial apropriada no primeiro factor. Os resultados sugerem que a escala poderá ser utilizada na população portuguesa assumindo os princípios teóricos definidos pelos autores originais e reconhecidos na investigação.Abstract: This paper describes the adaptation process of the Portuguese version, comprised of 21 items, of the Basic Need Satisfaction in General Scale of self-determination theory. This instrument consists of three subscales that correspond to the three basic needs of (a) competence, (b) autonomy and (c) relatedness. It was administered in two independent studies, with 420 and 408 participants respectively, with convenience samples extracted from the community. The first phase included translation, back translation and retroversion; inspection for lexical equivalence, content validity and cognitive debriefing. In the adaptation process we evaluated whether the content validity was consistent with the original theory. Psychometric properties reveal low internal consistency in some of the subscales. In an initial exploratory analysis, in both studies, three factors emerged in the scree plot and most of the items displayed appropriate factorial load in the first factor. The results suggest that the scale may be used in the Portuguese population assuming the theoretical principles defined by the original authors and recognized in research

A protocol to evaluate retinal vascular response using optical coherence tomography angiography

Copyright © 2019 Sousa, Leal, Moreira, do Vale, Silva-Herdade, Aguiar, Dionísio, Abegão Pinto, Castanho and Marques-Neves. 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 termsIntroduction: Optical coherence tomography angiography (OCT-A) is a novel diagnostic tool with increasing applications in ophthalmology clinics that provides non-invasive high-resolution imaging of the retinal microvasculature. Our aim is to report in detail an experimental protocol for analyzing both vasodilatory and vasoconstriction retinal vascular responses with the available OCT-A technology. Methods: A commercial OCT-A device was used (AngioVue®, Optovue, CA, United States), and all examinations were performed by an experienced technician using the standard protocol for macular examination. Two standardized tests were applied: (i) the hypoxia challenge test (HCT) and (ii) the handgrip test, in order to induce a vasodilatory and vasoconstriction response, respectively. OCT-A was performed at baseline conditions and during the stress test. Macular parafoveal vessel density of the superficial and deep plexuses was assessed from the en face angiograms. Statistical analysis was performed using STATA v14.1 and p < 0.05 was considered for statistical significance. Results: Twenty-four eyes of 24 healthy subjects (10 male) were studied. Mean age was 31.8 ± 8.2 years (range, 18–57 years). Mean parafoveal vessel density in the superficial plexus increased from 54.7 ± 2.6 in baseline conditions to 56.0 ± 2.0 in hypoxia (p < 0.01). Mean parafoveal vessel density in the deep plexuses also increased, from 60.4 ± 2.2 at baseline to 61.5 ± 2.1 during hypoxia (p < 0.01). The OCT-A during the handgrip test revealed a decrease in vessel density in both superficial (55.5 ± 2.6 to 53.7 ± 2.9, p < 0.001) and deep (60.2 ± 1.8 to 56.7 ± 2.8, p < 0.001) parafoveal plexuses. Discussion: In this work, we detail a simple, non-invasive, safe, and non-costly protocol to assess a central nervous system vascular response (i.e., the retinal circulation) using OCT-A technology. A vasodilatory response and a vasoconstriction response were observed in two physiologic conditions—mild hypoxia and isometric exercise, respectively. This protocol constitutes a new way of studying retinal vascular changes that may be applied in health and disease of multiple medical fields.This study was supported by the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon, AstraZeneca Foundation – 14th Grant.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Retinal vascular reactivity in type 1 diabetes patients without retinopathy using optical coherence tomography angiography

Copyright © 2020 The Authors. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-No-Derivatives 4.0 International License.Purpose: We hypothesize that patients with type 1 diabetes (T1D) may have abnormal retinal vascular responses before diabetic retinopathy (DR) is clinically evident. Optical coherence tomography angiography (OCTA) was used to dynamically assess the retinal microvasculature of diabetic patients with no clinically visible retinopathy. Methods: Controlled nonrandomized interventional study. The studied population included 48 eyes of 24 T1D patients and 24 demographically similar healthy volunteers. A commercial OCTA device (AngioVue) was used, and two tests were applied: (1) the hypoxia challenge test (HCT) and (2) the handgrip test to induce a vasodilatory or vasoconstrictive response, respectively. The HCT is a standardized test that creates a mild hypoxic environment equivalent to a flight cabin. The handgrip test (i.e., isometric exercise) induces a sympathetic autonomic response. Changes in the parafoveal superficial and deep capillary plexuses in both tests were compared in each group. Systemic cardiovascular responses were also comparatively evaluated. Results: In the control cohort, the vessel density of the median parafoveal superficial and deep plexuses increased during hypoxia (F1,23 = 15.69, P < 0.001 and F1,23 = 16.26, P < 0.001, respectively). In the T1D group, this physiological response was not observed in either the superficial or the deep retinal plexuses. Isometric exercise elicited a significant decrease in vessel density in both superficial and deep plexuses in the control group (F1,23 = 27.37, P < 0.0001 and F1,23 = 27.90, P < 0.0001, respectively). In the T1D group, this response was noted only in the deep plexus (F1,23 = 11.04, P < 0.01). Conclusions: Our work suggests there is an early impairment of the physiological retinal vascular response in patients with T1D without clinical diabetic retinopathy.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

What drives idiosyncratic volatility over time?

We document the patterns of market-wide and firm-specific volatility in the Portuguese stock market over the 1991–2005 period and test several explanations for the behavior of firm-level idiosyncratic volatility. Unlike previous studies we find no evidence of a statistically significant rise in firm- specific volatility. On the contrary, the ratio of firm-specific risk to total risk slightly decreases. We show that this result stems from new listings of large privatized companies that display lower firm-specific risk. Our findings are consistent with the idea that changes in idiosyncratic volatility are related to changes in the composition of the market.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Implementation of a parentage control system in Portuguese beef-cattle with a panel of microsatellite markers

A study was conducted to assess the feasibility of applying a panel of 10 microsatellite markers in parentage control of beef cattle in Portugal. In the first stage, DNA samples were collected from 475 randomly selected animals of the Charolais, Limousin and Preta breeds. Across breeds and genetic markers, means for average number of alleles, effective number of alleles, expected heterozygosity and polymorphic information content, were 8.20, 4.43, 0.733 and 0.70, respectively. Enlightenment from the various markers differed among breeds, but the set of 10 markers resulted in a combined probability above 0.9995 in the ability to exclude a random putative parent. The marker-set thus developed was later used for parentage control in a group of 140 calves from several breeds, where there was the suspicion of possible faulty parentage recording. Overall, 76.4% of the calves in this group were compatible with the recorded parents, with most incompatibilities due to misidentification of the dam. Efforts must be made to improve the quality of pedigree information, with particular emphasis on information recorded at the calf's birth