“Nós fazíamos faísca um com o outro” : História de vida de um homicida

Dissertação de Mestrado apresentada ao ISPA - Instituto UniversitárioNo âmbito de um estudo qualitativo, o presente trabalho tem como base a história de vida de um sujeito do género masculino, de 30 anos de idade, que se encontra a cumprir pena por crime de homicídio num estabelecimento prisional da zona da grande Lisboa. O objectivo do trabalho prende-se com a compreensão dos significados e motivos que conduziram o sujeito à passagem ao acto, através da análise da sua trajectória de vida e do processo criminógeno. Para aceder à história de vida recorremos às entrevistas não estruturadas e semi-directivas, à função do próprio investigador e ao diário de campo. A história foi recolhida em contacto directo com o sujeito, tendo em atenção as suas vivências, experiências e acontecimentos importantes, dando espaço ao sujeito para se contar livremente. O método usado revelou-se eficaz pois permitiu aceder a uma compreensão do funcionamento psicológico do sujeito que, por sua vez, possibilitou entender como o acto homicida se inscreveu na vida do participante. A base da interpretação da história foi a teoria de Etienne De Greeff, através da análise de conteúdo e do biograma. Na discussão atendemos, também, à teoria psicanalítica e desenvolvimental, de modo a completar a compreensão da passagem ao acto. Compreendemos que o participante sofreu um processo criminógeno lento, marcado pela humilhação e por fenómenos de falsa compensação. As vivências traumáticas da infância, que conduziram a uma vinculação deficitária, a uma instabilidade emocional e ao insucesso na passagem pelo Édipo, apresentaram-se como facilitadores da passagem ao acto homicida.ABSTRACT: Within a qualitative study, this work is based on the life story of a male subject, aged 30, which was sentenced for the crime of murder and its now doing time in a prison in the Greater Lisbon area. The aim of the work is to understand the meanings and motives that led the subject to pass to the act, by examining his life path and his criminogen process. To access his life story we use the non-structured and semi-directives interviews, the role of the researcher and a field diary. The story was collected in direct contact with the subject, taking into account his experiences and major events, giving space to the subject to talk freely about himself. The method has proved effectiveness because it allowed to understand the psychological functioning of the subject which, in turn, allowed to understand how the homicidal act was part of the subject’s life. The interpretation of the history is based on the theory of Etienne De Greeff, through a content analysis and a biogram. In the discussion we also attended to the developmental and psychoanalytic theory in order to complete the understanding of the passage to the act. We understood that the participant has a slow criminogen process, marked by humiliation and the phenomena of false compensation. The traumatic experiences of childhood, which led to a week attachment, emotional instability and a failure in the passage by Oedipus, were facilitators of the transition to the homicidal act

Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy v. group psychoeducation for people with generalised anxiety disorder: randomised controlled trial

Background: Research suggests that an 8-week mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) course may be effective for generalised anxiety disorder (GAD). Aims: To compare changes in anxiety levels among participants with GAD randomly assigned to MBCT, cognitive–behavioural therapy-based psychoeducation and usual care. Method: In total, 182 participants with GAD were recruited (trial registration number: CUHK_CCT00267) and assigned to the three groups and followed for 5 months after baseline assessment with the two intervention groups followed for an additional 6 months. Primary outcomes were anxiety and worry levels. Results: Linear mixed models demonstrated significant group × time interaction (F(4,148) = 5.10, P = 0.001) effects for decreased anxiety for both the intervention groups relative to usual care. Significant group × time interaction effects were observed for worry and depressive symptoms and mental health-related quality of life for the psychoeducation group only. Conclusions: These results suggest that both of the interventions appear to be superior to usual care for the reduction of anxiety symptoms

Lack of benefits for prevention of cardiovascular disease with aspirin therapy in type 2 diabetic patients - a longitudinal observational study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The risk-benefit ratio of aspirin therapy in prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains contentious, especially in type 2 diabetes. This study examined the benefit and harm of low-dose aspirin (daily dose < 300 mg) in patients with type 2 diabetes.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This is a longitudinal observational study with primary and secondary prevention cohorts based on history of CVD at enrolment. We compared the occurrence of primary composite (non-fatal myocardial infarction or stroke and vascular death) and secondary endpoints (upper GI bleeding and haemorrhagic stroke) between aspirin users and non-users between January 1995 and July 2005.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Of the 6,454 patients (mean follow-up: median [IQR]: 4.7 [4.4] years), usage of aspirin was 18% (n = 1,034) in the primary prevention cohort (n = 5731) and 81% (n = 585) in the secondary prevention cohort (n = 723). After adjustment for covariates, in the primary prevention cohort, aspirin use was associated with a hazard-ratio of 2.07 (95% CI: 1.66, 2.59, p < 0.001) for primary endpoint. There was no difference in CVD event rate in the secondary prevention cohort. Overall, aspirin use was associated with a hazard-ratio of 2.2 (1.53, 3.15, p < 0.001) of GI bleeding and 1.71 (1.00, 2.95, p = 0.051) of haemorrhagic stroke. The absolute risk of aspirin-related GI bleeding was 10.7 events per 1,000 person-years of treatment.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In Chinese type 2 diabetic patients, low dose aspirin was associated with a paradoxical increase in CVD risk in primary prevention and did not confer benefits in secondary prevention. In addition, the risk of GI bleeding in aspirin users was rather high.</p

Identification of microbial community in the urban environment: The concordance between conventional culture and nanopore 16S rRNA sequencing

IntroductionMicrobes in the built environment have been implicated as a source of infectious diseases. Bacterial culture is the standard method for assessing the risk of exposure to pathogens in urban environments, but this method only accounts for &lt;1% of the diversity of bacteria. Recently, full-length 16S rRNA gene analysis using nanopore sequencing has been applied for microbial evaluations, resulting in a rise in the development of long-read taxonomic tools for species-level classification. Regarding their comparative performance, there is, however, a lack of information.MethodsHere, we aim to analyze the concordance of the microbial community in the urban environment inferred by multiple taxonomic classifiers, including ARGpore2, Emu, Kraken2/Bracken and NanoCLUST, using our 16S-nanopore dataset generated by MegaBLAST, as well as assess their abilities to identify culturable species based on the conventional culture results.ResultsAccording to our results, NanoCLUST was preferred for 16S microbial profiling because it had a high concordance of dominant species and a similar microbial profile to MegaBLAST, whereas Kraken2/Bracken, which had similar clustering results as NanoCLUST, was also desirable. Second, for culturable species identification, Emu with the highest accuracy (81.2%) and F1 score (29%) for the detection of culturable species was suggested.DiscussionIn addition to generating datasets in complex communities for future benchmarking studies, our comprehensive evaluation of the taxonomic classifiers offers recommendations for ongoing microbial community research, particularly for complex communities using nanopore 16S rRNA sequencing

An update on genomic-guided therapies for pediatric solid tumors

YesCurrently, out of the 82 US FDA-approved targeted therapies for adult cancer treatments, only three are approved for use in children irrespective of their genomic status. Apart from leukemia, only a handful of genomic-based trials involving children with solid tumors are ongoing. Emerging genomic data for pediatric solid tumors may facilitate the development of precision medicine in pediatric patients. Here, we provide an up-to-date review of all reported genomic aberrations in the eight most common pediatric solid tumors with whole-exome sequencing or whole-genome sequencing data (from cBioPortal database, Pediatric Cancer Genome Project, Therapeutically Applicable Research to Generate Effective Treatments) and additional non-whole-exome sequencing studies. Potential druggable events are highlighted and discussed so as to facilitate preclinical and clinical research in this area.Seed Grant of Strategic Research Theme for Cancer, The University of Hong Kong of AKSC. VWY Lui is funded by the Research Grant Council, Hong Kong (#17114814, #17121616, General Research Fund; T12–401/13-R, Theme-based Research Scheme), and the Start-up Fund, School of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. W Piao is funded by the Faculty Postdoctoral Fellowship Scheme, Faculty of Medicine, the Chinese University of Hong Kong

CXADR: From an Essential Structural Component to a Vital Signaling Mediator in Spermatogenesis

Canonical coxsackievirus and adenovirus receptor (CXADR) is a transmembrane component of cell junctions that is crucial for cardiac and testicular functions via its homophilic and heterophilic interaction. CXADR is expressed in both Sertoli cells and germ cells and is localized mainly at the interface between Sertoli-Sertoli cells and Sertoli-germ cells. Knockout of CXADR in mouse Sertoli cells specifically impairs male reproductive functions, including a compromised blood-testis barrier, apoptosis of germ cells, and premature loss of spermatids. Apart from serving as an important component for cell junctions, recent progress has showed the potential roles of CXADR as a signaling mediator in spermatogenesis. This review summarizes current research progress related to the regulation and role of CXADR in spermatogenesis as well as in pathological conditions. We hope this review provides some future directions and a blueprint to promote the further study on the roles of CXADR

Regulation of junction dynamics in the testis: a new approach for male contraception

published_or_final_versionZoologyDoctoralDoctor of Philosoph

Transcription regulation in spermatogenesis

Spermatogenesis is a highly coordinated process in which diploid spermatogonia (2n) differentiate into mature haploid (1n) spermatozoa in the seminiferous epithelium. In this process, spermatogonia undergo several mitotic divisions and either enter a stem cell renewal pathway, or commit themsevles for further development. Diploid spermatocytes subsequently undergo two meiotic divisions and result in the production of haploid round spermatids. They then enter the process of spermiogenesis in which profound morphological and biochemical restructuring, such as the formation of acrosome and flagellum occur, and give rise to mature spermatozoa