Il progetto e l’attività di ricerca-azione: contenuti e obiettivi

Il progetto e le sue attività

GIOVANI E LAVORO IN AFRICA: ripensare le categorie e i panorami futuri. Una prospettiva antropologica

Introduzione alle dinamiche "giovani e lavoro in Africa" sotto una prospettiva antropologica

Cuidadores informais: dificuldades ao cuidar e necessidades de quem cuida

Como consequência de uma população envelhecida, existe a necessidade de analisar os cuidados prestados, nomeadamente aos idosos dependentes. O papel da família, em especial do cuidador informal, na prestação de cuidados tornou-se fundamental para promover o conforto, bem-estar e qualidade de vida das pessoas em situação de dependência. O presente estudo procurou investigar acerca dos cuidadores informais da Unidade de Cuidados Continuados do Centro Humanitário de Elvas da Cruz Vermelha Portuguesa, a fim de identificar as suas características, dificuldades e necessidades ao cuidar o idoso dependente. A questão de partida que norteou esta investigação pode ser sintetizada do seguinte modo: Quais as mudanças no quotidiano do cuidador informal, no plano das dificuldades e das necessidades, decorrentes dos cuidados prestados aos idosos dependentes? Como objetivo geral procurou-se identificar as mudanças percecionadas pelos cuidadores informais após assumirem a prestação de cuidados ao idoso dependente. Decorrente deste objetivo geral, os objetivos específicos passaram por: traçar o perfil dos cuidadores informais a nível sociodemográfico, compreender a relação existente entre cuidadores e idosos, identificar os fatores que conduziram à sua situação de cuidador, tipificar a duração e os tipos de cuidados prestados pelos cuidadores aos idosos, identificar as dificuldades sentidas no quotidiano e analisar as necessidades percecionadas pelos cuidadores informais. Apoiamo-nos na metodologia qualitativa, com especial enfoque na utilização da técnica de recolha de dados da entrevista, acompanhada por uma análise de conteúdo, quer do resultado apurado por via das entrevistas, quer a partir de vários documentos que serviram de base às reflexões teóricas e metodológicas inerentes à investigação realizada. A amostra é composta por quinze cuidadores informais. As dificuldades identificadas pelos nossos participantes foram o esforço físico e emocional, a saúde na generalidade, a restrição na vida pessoal, social, familiar e no trabalho e o insuficiente apoio formal enquanto que as necessidades foram o suporte informal, o suporte formal, o apoio financeiro, a formação/conhecimento e o reconhecimento do papel de cuidador informal através de políticas sociais.As a result of aging populacion, there is a need to evalvate the care provided, namely the elderly dependente. The role oh the family, especially the informal caregiver, in the provision of care becames fundamental to promote Comfort, well-being and quality of life for dependentes. The presente study sought to study the informal caregivers of da Unidade de Cuidados Continuados de Longa Duração e Manutenção do Centro Humanitário de Elvas da Cruz Vermelha Portuguesa with to objetive of identify their characteristics, difficulties and needs. The starting point is: What are the changes in the daily care of the informal caregiver, in terms of the difficulties and needs, resulting from the care given to dependent elderly people? The gerenal objetive is to identify the changes perceived by informal caregivers after taking care of the dependente elderly. The specific objetives are lay out the profile of informal caregivers at the sociodemographic level, understanding the relationship between caregivers and the elderly, identify the factor that led to the caregivers situacion, duracion types and of care provided by caregivers to the elderly, identify the difficulties experienced and analyze the needs of informal caregivers. We rely on the qualitative methodology, with a special focus on the collection technique of the interview, accompanied by an analysis of the content of the interviewed results and the various documents that served as the basis for the theoretical and methodological reflections. The sample is composed of fifteen informal caregivers. The difficulties identified by our participants were physical and emotional stress, general health, restriction in personal, social, family and work life and insufficient formal support and the needs were informal support, formal support, financial support, training / knowledge and recognition of the role of informal caregivers through social policies

Tutorías entre iguales, del concepto a la práctica en las diferentes etapas educativas

En el primer apartado conceptual, se revisa el concepto de tutoría entre iguales opares, entendido como una forma de aprendizaje entre estudiantes, organizadageneralmente en parejas, en la que uno de ellos adopta el rol de tutor (y aprendeofreciendo ayuda pedagógica a su compañero) y el otro, de tutorado (y aprende porla ayuda ajustada y permanente que le ofrece el tutor). Asimismo, se caracterizanlas diferentes prácticas de tutoría entre iguales según la edad o nivel de los parti-cipantes y según el carácter fijo o recíproco de su desarrollo. Ese apartado finalizacon la aportación de resultados de investigaciones que avalan la potencialidad deesta metodología cooperativa en diferentes áreas curriculares y etapas educativas.En el segundo apartado, se presentan distintos programas educativos, apoyados en resultados de investigación, que ilustran la implementación de la tutoría en-tre iguales en cada una de las etapas educativas. Así, en primaria se presenta un programa educativo para la mejora de la comprensión lectora; en secundaria, un programa de apoyo de tutores de enseñanza media superior para la finalización de la enseñanza media, y en la universidad, distintas iniciativas para ayudar a incorporar a los nuevos estudiantes a la vida institucional y académica, evitar el rezago y el abandono o apoyar el aprendizaje académico.El artículo concluye con la concordancia entre la necesidad de avanzar en el desarrollo de metodologías como la presente, capaz de promover un aprendizaje ac-tivo, autónomo y personalizado, y la potencialidad y versatilidad de los resultados obtenidos por los programas que, a modo de ilustración, se han presentado

Salivary gland ultrasonography: a highly specific tool for the early diagnosis of primary Sjögren's syndrome

INTRODUCTION:Recently, a great interest has arisen for salivary gland ultrasonography (SGUS) as a valuable tool for the assessment of major salivary gland involvement in primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS. The aims of this study were to test the accuracy of SGUS for the early detection of pSSand to compare the diagnostic performance of SGUS with minor salivary gland biopsy (MSGB) and unstimulated salivary flow (USFR) in this context. METHOD:Patients with suspected pSS and symptoms duration of ≤5 years were consecutively enrolled in this study. The diagnosis of pSS was made according to the AECG criteria. SGUS was performed by two radiologists blinded to the diagnosis and a previously reported ultrasound scoring system (De Vita et al. 1992, cut-off ≥ 1) was used to grade the echostructure alterations of the salivary glands. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS v16. RESULTS: This study included 50 pSS patients and 57 controls with no-SS sicca symptoms. The mean(SD) age of the pSS group was lower than non-SS group (47(13) vs 53(12)yrs, p = 0.006). No further differences between the two groups were observed. Patients with pSS showed a significantly higher SGUS score in comparison with controls (mean(SD) = 2.1(1.8) vs 0.0(0.4), p = 0.000). The SGUS cut-off ≥ 1 showed a sensitivity (SE) of 66 %, a specificity (SP) of 98 %, a positive predictive value (PPV) of 97 % and a negative predictive value (NPV) of 73 % for pSS diagnosis. The SGUS score correlated also with patients' MSGB/FS and USFR. CONCLUSIONS: This study confirmed the good performance of SGUS for the early non-invasive diagnosis of pSS. Further research in larger international cohort of patients is mandatory in order to assess the role of SGUS in the diagnostic algorithm of pSS

The immediate impacts of COVID-19 on European electricity systems: a first assessment and lessons learned

The worldwide spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 forced most countries to intervene with policies and actions—including lockdowns, social-distancing and smart working measures—aimed at mitigating the health system and socio-economic disruption risks. The electricity sector was impacted as well, with performance largely reflecting the changes in the industrial and commercial sectors operations and in the social behavior patterns. The most immediate consequences concerned the power demand profiles, the generation mix composition and the electricity price trends. As a matter of fact, the electricity sectors experienced a foretaste of the future, with higher renewable energy penetration and concerns for security of supply. This paper presents a systemic approach toward assessing the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the power sector. This is aimed at supporting decision making—particularly for policy makers, regulators, and system operators—by quantifying shorter term effects and identifying longer term impacts of the pandemic waves on the power system. Various metrics are defined in different areas—system operation, security, and electricity markets—to quantify those impacts. The methodology is finally applied to the European power system to produce a comparative assessment of the effects of the lockdown in the European context

An integrative genomic approach reveals coordinated expression of intronic miR-335, miR-342, and miR-561 with deregulated host genes in multiple myeloma

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The role of microRNAs (miRNAs) in multiple myeloma (MM) has yet to be fully elucidated. To identify miRNAs that are potentially deregulated in MM, we investigated those mapping within transcription units, based on evidence that intronic miRNAs are frequently coexpressed with their host genes. To this end, we monitored host transcript expression values in a panel of 20 human MM cell lines (HMCLs) and focused on transcripts whose expression varied significantly across the dataset.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>miRNA expression was quantified by Quantitative Real-Time PCR. Gene expression and genome profiling data were generated on Affymetrix oligonucleotide microarrays. Significant Analysis of Microarrays algorithm was used to investigate differentially expressed transcripts. Conventional statistics were used to test correlations for significance. Public libraries were queried to predict putative miRNA targets.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We identified transcripts specific to six miRNA host genes (<it>CCPG1</it>, <it>GULP1</it>, <it>EVL</it>, <it>TACSTD1</it>, <it>MEST</it>, and <it>TNIK</it>) whose average changes in expression varied at least 2-fold from the mean of the examined dataset. We evaluated the expression levels of the corresponding intronic miRNAs and identified a significant correlation between the expression levels of <it>MEST</it>, <it>EVL</it>, and <it>GULP1 </it>and those of the corresponding miRNAs miR-335, miR-342-3p, and miR-561, respectively. Genome-wide profiling of the 20 HMCLs indicated that the increased expression of the three host genes and their corresponding intronic miRNAs was not correlated with local copy number variations. Notably, miRNAs and their host genes were overexpressed in a fraction of primary tumors with respect to normal plasma cells; however, this finding was not correlated with known molecular myeloma groups. The predicted putative miRNA targets and the transcriptional profiles associated with the primary tumors suggest that <it>MEST</it>/miR-335 and <it>EVL/</it>miR-342-3p may play a role in plasma cell homing and/or interactions with the bone marrow microenvironment.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our data support the idea that intronic miRNAs and their host genes are regulated dependently, and may contribute to the understanding of their biological roles in cancer. To our knowledge, this is the first evidence of deregulated miRNA expression in MM, providing insights that may lead to the identification of new biomarkers and altered molecular pathways of the disease.</p

antiproteinuric effect of chemokine c c motif ligand 2 inhibition in subjects with acute proliferative lupus nephritis

Background/Aims: To test the role of chemokine C-C motif ligand 2 (CCL2) in the pathogenesis of lupus nephritis (LN), we evaluated the effects of CCL2 inhibition by bindarit therap

Occurrence of hashimoto thyroiditis among the first- and second-degree relatives of systemic lupus erythematosus patients with Hashimoto thyroiditis

Occurrence of Hashimoto thyroiditis among the first- and second-degree relatives of systemic lupus erythematosus patients with Hashimoto thyroiditis