Avaliação do comprometimento funcional na esquizofrenia

BACKGROUND: The assessment of functioning disability in patients with mental disorders and mainly in schizophrenia has increased in the last years. The social function impairment is nowadays recognized as an important symptom of schizophrenia. Many tools to measure social function impairment have been developed. OBJECTIVE: This article discusses the assessment of functioning disability in schizophrenic patients. METHOD: The results of recently reported reviews of the literature are summarized and commented. RESULTS: Several studies have evaluated the importance of Personal and Social Performance assessments in schizophrenia. These assessments have been shown as a reliable outcome measure in clinical trials and rehabilitation programs. CONCLUSION: Axis V has been inserted to the multiaxial system in DSM-III for assessing global function in mental disorders. DSM-IV has brought axis V up to date with improvements of accurate scales for clinical practice. Personal and Social Performance scale (PSP) was developed by Morosini et al. (2000). PSP is a useful and practical scale for assessing rehabilitation and pharmacology interventions in schizophrenic patients.CONTEXTO: A necessidade de avaliar o comprometimento de aspectos funcionais em transtornos psiquiátricos tem assumido crescente importância, particularmente no que se refere ao estudo da esquizofrenia. O funcionamento social deficiente é considerado na atualidade um importante sintoma da esquizofrenia. Vários instrumentos de mensuração para o acompanhamento da reabilitação desses pacientes foram desenvolvidos até o momento. OBJETIVO: Este artigo discute a avaliação do comprometimento do funcionamento social na esquizofrenia. MÉTODO: Resultados de recentes revisões da literatura são resumidos e discutidos. RESULTADOS: Vários estudos têm abordado a importância da análise da performance social e pessoal na esquizofrenia. Essa avaliação tem se mostrado uma medida de desfecho confiável em estudos clínicos e programas de reabilitação. CONCLUSÃO: O DSM-III apresentou uma proposta inovadora com a divisão diagnóstica multiaxial, onde foi incluído o eixo V com o objetivo de avaliar o funcionamento global de pacientes com transtorno mental. Atualmente, encontramos esse eixo atualizado no DSM IV com a proposta do uso de escalas mais precisas para a prática clínica. A escala de Performance Social e Pessoal (PSP) desenvolvida por Morosini et al. (2000) é considerada útil e prática e tem servido como instrumento de mensuração no processo de reabilitação e os resultados das intervenções farmacológicas de pacientes com esquizofrenia

Can Gender and Age Impact on Response Pattern of Depressive Symptoms Among College Students? A Differential Item Functioning Analysis

Background: Self-reported depressive complaints among college students might indicate different degrees of severity of depressive states. Through the framework of item response theory, we aim to describe the pattern of responses to items of the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), in terms of endorsement probability and discrimination along the continuum of depression. Potential differential item functioning of the scale items of the BDI-II is investigated, by gender and age, to compare across sub-groups of students.Methods: The 21-item BDI-II was cross-sectionally administered to a representative sample of 12,677 Brazilian college students. Reliability was evaluated based on Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Severity (bi) and discrimination (a) parameters of each BDI-II items were calculated through the graded response model. The influence of gender and age were tested for differential item functioning (DIF) within the item response theory-based approach.Results: The BDI-II presented good reliability (α = 0.91). Women and younger students significantly presented a higher likelihood of depression (cut-off > 13) than men and older counterparts. In general, participants endorsed more easily cognitive-somatic items than affective items of the scale. “Guilty feelings,” “suicidal thoughts,” and “loss of interest in sex” were the items that most likely indicated depression severity (b ≥ 3.60). However, all BDI-II items showed moderate-to-high discrimination (a ≥ 1.32) for depressive state. While two items were flagged for DIF, “crying” and “loss of interest in sex,” respectively for gender and age, the global weight of these items on the total score was negligible.Conclusions: Although respondents' gender and age might present influence on response pattern of depressive symptoms, the measures of self-reported symptoms have not inflated severity scores. These findings provide further support to the validity of using BDI-II for assessing depression in academic contexts and highlight the value of considering gender- and age-related common symptoms of depression

Potenciales y desafíos en la aplicación de metodologías activas en la enseñanza de Fisioterapia: visión del alumno

O presente trabalho visa analisar algumas percepções e sugestões dos acadêmicos frente à aplicação destas metodologias em um curso de Fisioterapia. Para tal, utilizou-se a aplicação dos dois primeiros níveis do modelo de Kirkpatrick, utilizando-se dispositivos como questionários de autoavaliação. 83 acadêmicos participaram da pesquisa. Concluiu-se que a aplicação de metodologias ativas de ensino-aprendizagem facilita o trabalho em grupo e atende as expectativas dos alunos frente ao aprendizado sobre o tema, porém, é necessário adequar algumas etapas, especialmente a estratégia para não restem dúvidas para os alunos no final do processo.The present study aims to analyze some perceptions and suggestions of the academics regarding the application of these methodologies in a Physiotherapy course. The first two levels of the Kirkpatrick model were used, applying devices such as self-assessment questionnaires. The sample consisted of 83 college students. It was concluded that the application of active teaching-learning methodologies facilitates group work and attends to students' expectations of learning about the subject, however, it is necessary to adapt some steps, especially the strategy so that there is no doubt for students in the end of the process.El presente trabajo con el objetivo de analizar algunas percepciones y sugerencias de los académicos frente a la aplicación de metodologías activo en el curso de Fisioterapia. Para tal fin, se utilizó la aplicación de los dos primeros niveles del modelo de Kirkpatrick, utilizando dispositivos como cuestionarios de autoevaluación. 83 académicos participaram da pesquisa. Se concluyó que la aplicación de metodologías activas de enseñanza-aprendizaje facilita el trabajo en grupo y atiende a las expectativas de los alumnos de aprender sobre el asunto, sin embargo, es necesario adaptar algunos pasos, principalmente la estrategia para que no haya dudas en finales del proceso

Validation of the scale for evaluation of environment perception for physical activity practice in adults living in region of low socioeconomic level

O objetivo do estudo foi verificar a validade de uma escala de percepção do ambiente para a prática de atividade física em adultos. Este estudo de validação teve duas amostras: 1) Comparação da escala com dados avaliados de forma objetiva e com a prática de atividade física (767 indivíduos com 18 anos ou mais); 2) Estudo de reprodutibilidade (30 indivíduos com 60 anos ou mais). Ambas as amostras residiam no Distrito de Ermelino Matarazzo, zona leste de São Paulo, SP. A escala de percepção do ambiente para a prática de atividade física foi composta por questões embasadas na escala NEWS e numa escala de apoio social para a prática de atividade física e a versão final foi composta de 38 questões. Análises de dados: a escala foi comparada com o ambiente avaliado de forma objetiva, com o nível de atividade física e por meio de medida repetida. Os coeficientes de correlação para as questões variaram de r=0,51 a até r=0,89 e para os escores de r=0,72 a até r=0,94. Houve diferença estatisticamente significativa na média do escore de percepção de facilidades/conveniências para a prática de atividade física segundo a classificação do ambiente avaliado de forma objetiva (p<0,01). As pessoas que praticavam alguma atividade física no tempo de lazer tiveram maiores médias nos escores de facilidades/conveniências (p<0,01), percepção de segurança geral (p=0,033) e de apoio social (p=0,001). A escala apresentou resultados satisfatórios de reprodutibilidade para a amostra de idosos e de validade para os adultos, principalmente, na percepção de facilidades/conveniências

Characterisation of an ABC transporter of a resistant Candida glabrata clinical isolate

BACKGROUND Candida glabrata ranks second in epidemiological surveillance studies, and is considered one of the main human yeast pathogens. Treatment of Candida infections represents a contemporary public health problem due to the limited availability of an antifungal arsenal, toxicity effects and increasing cases of resistance. C. glabrata presents intrinsic fluconazole resistance and is a significant concern in clinical practice and in hospital environments. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to characterise the azole resistance mechanism presented by a C. glabrata clinical isolate from a Brazilian university hospital. METHODS Azole susceptibility assays, chemosensitisation, flow cytometry and mass spectrometry were performed. FINDINGS Our study demonstrated extremely high resistance to all azoles tested: fluconazole, voriconazole, posaconazole and itraconazole. This isolate was chemosensitised by FK506, a classical inhibitor of ABC transporters related to azole resistance, and Rhodamine 6G extrusion was observed. A mass spectrometry assay confirmed the ABC protein identification suggesting the probable role of efflux pumps in this resistance phenotype. MAIN CONCLUSIONS This study emphasizes the importance of ABC proteins and their relation to the resistance mechanism in hospital environments and they may be an important target for the development of compounds able to unsettle drug extrusion

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear un derstanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5–7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8–11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world’s most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepre sented in biodiversity databases.13–15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may elim inate pieces of the Amazon’s biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological com munities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple or ganism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region’s vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most ne glected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lostinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Search for heavy resonances decaying to two Higgs bosons in final states containing four b quarks

A search is presented for narrow heavy resonances X decaying into pairs of Higgs bosons (H) in proton-proton collisions collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC at root s = 8 TeV. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 19.7 fb(-1). The search considers HH resonances with masses between 1 and 3 TeV, having final states of two b quark pairs. Each Higgs boson is produced with large momentum, and the hadronization products of the pair of b quarks can usually be reconstructed as single large jets. The background from multijet and t (t) over bar events is significantly reduced by applying requirements related to the flavor of the jet, its mass, and its substructure. The signal would be identified as a peak on top of the dijet invariant mass spectrum of the remaining background events. No evidence is observed for such a signal. Upper limits obtained at 95 confidence level for the product of the production cross section and branching fraction sigma(gg -> X) B(X -> HH -> b (b) over barb (b) over bar) range from 10 to 1.5 fb for the mass of X from 1.15 to 2.0 TeV, significantly extending previous searches. For a warped extra dimension theory with amass scale Lambda(R) = 1 TeV, the data exclude radion scalar masses between 1.15 and 1.55 TeV

Measurement of the top quark mass using charged particles in pp collisions at root s=8 TeV

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