Aos ombros de gigantes: o contributo de Cláudia Sousa para a fundação da arqueologia dos primatas

Cláudia Sousa was a founding member of the newly emerging and interdisciplinary field of primate archaeology. This discipline employs an archaeological approach to the study of nonhuman primates through the observation of their material culture - i. e. objects produced during tool use and manipulation - and has significant implications in the study of human evolution

Problemas de comportamento na adolescência: relação com a estrutura familiar e práticas educativas parentais

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Psicologia (área de especialização em Psicologia da Justiça)Os problemas de comportamento assumem na adolescência uma expressão de relevo, especialmente no quadro da visão deficitária e negativa de que este período é objeto. Pesquisas nesta área procuram identificar os fatores de risco e de proteção, sendo que a família ou, mais especificamente, a estrutura familiar e as práticas educativas parentais, podem atuar em ambos os sentidos. A família assume assim, enquanto contexto social de referência, um papel determinante no desenvolvimento cognitivo e psicossocial dos seus elementos e mesmo na adolescência, em que filhos tendem a procurar uma maior autonomia e distanciamento dos pais, a qualidade desta relação assume grande relevância, estando associada a uma melhor adaptação social dos menores (Guimarães, Hochgraf, Brasiliano & Ingberman, 2009). Inerente à família, outro aspeto abordado é a estrutura familiar, no âmbito da qual as dimensões em análise no presente estudo, coesão e hierarquia, não tão amplamente investigadas, podem ajudar a explicar a manutenção ou aparecimento destes problemas. O presente estudo visa analisar, em 60 famílias - trinta das quais com adolescentes tendo processo de promoção e proteção instaurados, sinalizados por comportamentos desadequados, e outras trinta, cujos adolescentes não têm processo de promoção e proteção instaurado - de que forma a estrutura familiar e o comportamento parental se relacionam com os problemas de comportamento nos adolescentes, e averiguar se estes se diferenciam entre os grupos definidos. Para a prossecução deste objetivo, adotou-se uma metodologia de investigação quantitativa, constatando-se que existem diferentes associações entre a coesão e hierarquia ao nível de algumas das síndromas que fazem parte dos problemas de comportamento internalizante e externalizante. Assim, verifica- -se uma associação entre a coesão com a síndroma de queixas somáticas e comportamento agressivo. Quanto à hierarquia, existe uma associação com a síndroma do isolamento, comportamento delinquente e queixas somáticas. Nas práticas educativas inadequadas, constatou-se uma correlação negativa entre as práticas punitivas com a síndroma de isolamento e queixas somáticas; entre as práticas fisicamente abusivas com a síndroma de isolamento e comportamento delinquente; e entre as práticas inadequadas e emocionalmente abusivas com o comportamento delinquente. Relativamente às diferenças entre os grupos constituintes da amostra, as famílias com adolescentes sem processo de promoção e proteção relataram maiores níveis de coesão e de hierarquia, enquanto as famílias de adolescentes com processo de promoção e proteção instaurados relatam maior recurso às práticas punitivas, fisicamente abusivas e emocionalmente abusivas.Behavioral problems in adolescence assume an expression of relief, especially in the context of vision loss and negative that this period is the object. Research in this area seeks to identify the risk factors and protective, and the family, or more specifically, family structure and parenting practices, can work in both directions. The family assumes well as the social context of reference, a role in cognitive and psychosocial development of its elements and even in adolescence, when children tend to seek greater autonomy and distancing from parents, the quality of this relationship is of great importance, is associated with better social adjustment of children (Guimarães, Hochgraf, Brasiliano & Ingberman, 2009). Inherent to the family, another aspect addressed is the family structure, within which the dimensions in analysis the present study, cohesion and hierarchy, not as widely investigated of, may help explain the emergence or maintenance of these problems. This study aims to analyze, in 60 families - thirty of which are teenagers taking process initiated promotion and protection, indicated by inappropriate behavior, and other thirty, whose teenagers have no protection and promotion process in place - how the family structure and parental behavior related to behavior problems in adolescents, and to investigate whether these differ between groups defined. To achieve this goal, we adopted a methodology for quantitative research, noting that there are different relationships between cohesion and hierarchy to the level of some of the syndromes that are part of internalizing behavior problems and externalizing. Thus, there is an association between cohesion with the syndrome somatic complaints and aggressive behavior. As for the hierarchy, there is an association with the syndrome of isolation, delinquent behavior and somatic complaints. Inadequate educational practices, there was a negative correlation between the punitive practices with the syndrome of isolation and somatic complaints; practices among physically abusive with the syndrome of isolation and delinquent behavior; and inadequate practices and emotionally abusive to delinquent behavior. Regarding the differences between the constituents of the sample groups, families with teenagers without protection and promotion process reported higher levels of cohesion and hierarchy, while families of adolescents with process promotion and protection instituted report increased use of punitive practices, physically abusive and emotionally abusive

Phrenic nerve study as outcome in clinical trials for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited trading as Taylor & Francis Group on behalf of the Montreal Neurological Institute-Hospital This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Introduction: Respiratory tests are fundamental for monitoring respiratory function in ALS, and essential in clinical trials. Slow vital capacity (SVC) was canceled in some countries to prevent COVID-19 transmission. We aimed to test phrenic nerve motor responses as an option to SVC in clinical trials. Methodology: Patients followed-up in our unit were selected respecting inclusion criteria used elsewhere: possible/probable/definite disease; onset-age 18-80years; disease duration from disease duration ≤24months; body mass index (BMI)>20kg/m2; respiratory subscore of the revised ALS functional rating scale (ALSFRS-R)≥11; upright SVC ≥ 70%. We added normal phrenic responses (meanPhrenAmpl, ≥0.4mV). All patients were on riluzole. SVC and meanPhrenAmpl were recorded at study entry (T0) and 24 weeks later (T1). Decays were determined. Sample size was calculated for a treatment effect of 30% on the decay rate. Results: We included 317 ALS patients (191 males, 225 spinal-onset), mean onset-age 59.9 ± 10.7 (31-80)years, mean onset BMI 25.48 ± 3.2 (20.1-35)kg/m2, mean disease duration 10.5 ± 5.6 (1-24)months, mean ALSFRS-R 41.54 ± 4.3 (22-47) and respiratory subscore 11.83 ± 0.38 (11-12). MeanPhrenAmpl and SVC were weakly but significantly correlated at T0 and T1. At T1, MeanPhrenAmpl decayed 16.94 ± 16.45% and SVC 13.5 ± 16.86%. For the proposed drug effect, 174 and 272 patients would be needed to recruit using respectively meanPhrenAmpl and SVC decline as the primary outcome measurement (accepting no dropouts). Discussion: Contrary to SVC, meanPhrenAmpl is non-volitional and not associated with aerosolization risk. Lower recruitment number (98 patients less) would be needed, translating shorter inclusion period, trial length and costs, and probable lower missed data rate. MeanPhrenAmp is an alternative test in ALS clinical trials.This work was funded by Comprehensive evaluation of circulating MicroRNA as diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (PTDC/MEC-NEU/31195/2017).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Antibody functionalized gold nanoparticles for mitochondria targeting and hyperthermia: a proof of concept in colorectal cancer

Colorectal cancer (CRC) has a high incidence and mortality rate, and traditional cancer therapies are not enough to treat and improve cancer patients' quality of life. Therefore, new therapeutic approaches are being studied, mainly focusing on improving the targeting specificity, not only to cancer cells but also to certain cellular compartments. Mitochondria are a promising target organelle for cancer therapies since they are involved in both cell health (being the cell's engine) and cell death (e.g., apoptosis). Nanomedicine provides effective multifunctional nanocarriers for a range of innovative cancer therapeutic strategies. Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), due to their high surface area to volume ratio, have specific features that make them a great bet on cancer treatment. Among them, unique optical characteristics and the high capability in surface modifications. It has been shown that using a green laser that triggers an enhanced photothermal conversion by AuNPs this leads to cancer cells’ death. Thus, this work aimed to assess whether targeting mitochondria of cancer cells followed by hyperthermia could improve cancer cell death by destabilizing or disrupting mitochondria. With this purpose, AuNPs were functionalized with a specific antibody against Hexokinase I (anti-Hexokinase I), a protein expressed in the mitochondrial outer membrane (MOM). This new nanoformulation (AuNP@PEG@Anti-Hexokinase I) was successfully synthetized and characterized prior to in vitro assays with a CRC cell line- HCT116. Then, internalization and mitochondrial targeting in HCT116 cells were assessed by complementary techniques, and all together seemed to indicate that AuNP@PEG@Anti-Hexokinase I had specificity for targeting mitochondria. Hyperthermia effect of AuNP@PEG@Anti-Hexokinase I did not have prominent outcomes, however, further studies are required. This study provides an initial step towards modulating mitochondria targeting using nanomedicines towards improved cancer therapies.O cancro colorretal (CCR) apresenta alta incidência e taxa de mortalidade e as terapias tradicionais atualmente aplicadas não são suficientes para tratar e melhorar a qualidade de vida dos doentes. Nos últimos anos, novas abordagens terapêuticas têm sido estudadas, principalmente com o foco em melhorar a seletividade da terapia, não apenas para células cancerígenas, mas também para determinados compartimentos celulares. As mitocôndrias são organelos promissores para o direcionamento de terapias anticancerígenas, uma vez que estão envolvidas tanto na sobrevivência como na morte celular. A nanomedicina permite desenvolver formulações à nano-escala, multifuncionais, para uma variedade de estratégias terapêuticas inovadoras anticancerígenas. As nanopartículas de ouro (AuNPs), devido à sua alta razão entre área superficial e volume, possuem características que as tornam promissoras no tratamento do cancro. Entre elas, propriedades óticas e superfícies facilmente modificadas. Estudos prévios demonstraram que irradiar AuNPs com um laser verde desencadeia uma conversão foto-térmica, que pode ser utilizada para promover a morte das células cancerígenas. Assim, este trabalho teve como objetivo avaliar se o direcionamento de AuNPs para as mitocôndrias seguido de hipertermia poderia induzir morte celular induzida por disfunção ou rompimento das mitocôndrias. Com este objetivo, as AuNPs foram funcionalizadas com um anticorpo contra a Hexoquinase I (anti-Hexoquinase I), uma proteína expressa na membrana externa mitocondrial (MOM). O nanoconjugado AuNP@PEG@Anti-Hexokinase I foi sintetizado e caracterizado com sucesso antes de serem realizados ensaios in vitro com uma linhagem de células de CRC (HCT116). A internalização e o direcionamento mitocondrial foram avaliados por técnicas complementares que em conjunto pareciam indicar que AuNP@PEG@Anti-Hexokinase I tinha especificidade para reconhecer e se ligar às mitocôndrias. O efeito de hipertermia das AuNP@PEG@Anti-Hexokinase I não teve resultados promissores, no entanto, requerem-se mais estudos. Este trabalho constitui um passo inicial para direcionar nanoformulações para mitocôndrias melhorando as terapias anticancerígenas

How do ESEIG´S faculty and librarian work togther in order to promote student´s Knowledge management skills?

Information practices and learning strategies, i.e. knowledge management, are gaining acceptance in the field of Education. Knowledge management can be described as a set of practices that help to improve the use and sharing of data and information in decision-making. This paradigm shift, at a national scale, was driven by the Bologna Declaration by assuming that students play an active and central role in their training. Projects like "Tuning Educational Structures n Europe” and “Defnton and Selecton of Competences” mentons nformaton literacy skills (ILS) as a strategy for the individual to thrive in the 21st century. This requires a critical analysis on the nature of the information itself and of the informational skills that are needed as a basis for decision-making, issuing opinions and execution of duly informed and reasoned actions. This short-paper shows the relationship between the full time faculty of the School of Management and Industrial Studies (ESEIG) of Polytechnic Institute of Porto (IPP) and ESEIG ́s lbraran. We assess, by a questonnare appled to both faculty and ESEIGs ́ librarian, how they face collaboration among them in order to achieve a good performance in terms of information literacy of that student community. This study shows how these actors perceive their roles within the information literacy education in this context. We conclude that there is growing concern on the part of faculty to promote students acquisition of information literacy skills, but that collaboration with the librarian did not reach the parameters considered yet satisfactory by the information literacy movement. Finally, action proposals are presented to that community in order to facilitate dialogue and collaboration between those actors, in order to promote the acquisition of ILS by the students. Some proposals are presented in order to enhance and improve the relationship between them, and thus improve ILS that students acquire.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Chimpanzee play sequences are structured hierarchically as games

Funding: This research was funded by the British Academy through Alexander Mielke's Newton International Fellowship. Alexander Mielke also received funding from the Leverhulme Trust. The long-term efforts to develop and support the research on wild chimpanzees, at the Bossou Field Station, in Guinea, were supported by grants from MEXT (#12002009, #16002001, #20002001, #24000001, #16H06283) and JSPS (Core-to-core CCSN and U04-PWS).Social play is ubiquitous in the development of many animal species and involves players adapting actions flexibly to their own previous actions and partner responses. Play differs from other behavioural contexts for which fine-scale analyses of action sequences are available, such as tool use and communication, in that its form is not defined by its function, making it potentially more unpredictable. In humans, play is often organised in games, where players know context-appropriate actions but string them together unpredictably. Here, we use the sequential nature of play elements to explore whether play elements in chimpanzees are structured hierarchically and follow predictable game-like patterns. Based on 5,711 play elements from 143 bouts, we extracted individual-level play sequences of 11 Western chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) of different ages from the Bossou community. We detected transition probabilities between play elements that exceeded expected levels and show that play elements form hierarchically clustered and interchangeable groups, indicative of at least six games that can be identified from transition networks, some with different roles for different players. We also show that increased information about preceding play elements improved predictability of subsequent elements, further indicating that play elements are not strung together randomly but that flexible action rules underlie their usage. Thus, chimpanzee play is hierarchically structured in short games which limit acceptable play elements and allow players to predict and adapt to partners’ actions. This “grammar of action” approach to social interactions can be valuable in understanding cognitive and communicative abilities within and across species.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Schottky principal G-bundles over compact Riemann surfaces

Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)- PhD grant SFRH/BD/37151/2007; projects PTDC/MAT/099275/2008; PTDC/MAT/119689/2010; PTDC/MAT/120411/2010; PTDC/MAT-GEO/0675/201

Yet another non-unique human behaviour: leave-taking in wild chacma baboons (Papio ursinus)

Simple Summary Although greeting is well-studied across animal species, its counterpart, leave taking, is little studied in nonhumans. Here, we review the previous limitations of leave-taking research and use this to develop a new method for studying leave taking in nonhumans. Using videos of chacma baboons in Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique, we compared behaviours at the end of social departures to nonsocial departures. We found that shifting orientation towards the direction of parting was significantly more likely in social departures compared to nonsocial departures. As the first evidence of leave taking in a wild nonhuman species, we suggest that leave taking is not uniquely human as previously argued, and that our method could be used to further explore the presence of leave taking in other nonhuman species. Leave taking is a common, possibly universal, feature of human social behaviour that has undergone very little empirical research. Although the importance remains unknown, it has been suggested to play an important role in managing separations, mitigating the risk, and increasing social bonding beyond the interaction itself. In nonhuman species, the literature is virtually absent, but identifying leave taking beyond humans may provide unique insights into the evolutionary history of this behaviour and shed light onto its proximate and ultimate function(s). Methods to study leave taking are not well-established, and the variation in definitions, measures, and control variables presented in past studies poses additional challenges. Baboons are a valuable model for investigating human behavioural evolution: as a flexible, highly adaptable, and social primate whose radiation is, similarly to humans, associated with the emergence of the African savannah biome. Using the framework and definition proposed by Baehren, we investigated the presence of leave taking in a wild, generalist primate and tested a range of candidate behaviours on prerecorded video footage: (1) self-scratching, (2) eye gaze, and (3) orientation in the direction of parting. Using multivariate analysis, controlling for interaction duration and individual variation, our results show that orientation in the direction of parting occurs predominantly before social separation events. These results indicate evidence of leave taking in a wild nonhuman population and contrast with previous ideas that this is a uniquely human behaviour. The presence of leave taking in baboons suggests a deep evolutionary history of this behaviour, warranting further investigation into its function and presence across other nonhuman primate species.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio