Previous research has shown that exchanges of support within social networks reduce the loneliness of older adults. However, there is no consistent evidence on how types of support (instrumental and ...emotional) and the direction of that support (giving and receiving) are related to loneliness, and whether the effects are culture-specific. The aim of this study was to investigate support exchanges and their effects on loneliness in Spain and the Netherlands. We suggest that cultural differences, such as more interdependent cultural values in Southern Europe and more independence-related values in Northern Europe, influence social realities such as the social support exchanged. In Spain relationships with family members are determined by mutual obligations; older people expect to receive instrumental support from them. However, in Northern Europe independence is highly valued and intimacy and closeness are shown primarily by confiding about personal matters. This paper examined data from two comparable surveys, one in Spain (N=646) and one in the Netherlands (N=656). Older adults in Spain provide for, and receive, high amounts of instrumental support and this proved to be a protective factor against loneliness. An alternative pattern was found in the Netherlands where respondents provided more and received more emotional support than Spanish older adults; emotional support is a protective factor in the Netherlands (but only for support received).
Background: Mental health is an important issue in general practice/family medicine. The Patient Health Questionnaire for Depression and Anxiety (PHQ-4) allows depression and anxiety screening and ...psychologic distress evaluation. PHQ-4 cross-cultural adaptation and concurrent validation was the objective of this paper in a population of general practice/family medicine (GP/FM) doctors. Methods: Translation, linguistic verification and back-translation, internal consistency, and reliability of the final translated tool were performed for the cultural adaptation of the PHQ-4 scale. The European Quality of Life 5 Dimensions 3L (EQ-5D-3L) scale and the “Sentimentos Negativos – Negative Feelings”, subscale of the “Questionário da Avaliação da Sobrecarga da Gestão da Multimorbilidade em Medicina Geral e Familiar – Questionnaire of Evaluation of Burden of Management of Multimorbidity in General Practice and Family Medicine” SoGeMM-MGF) were used for concurrent validation. Descriptive, inferential, and correlational statistics were used, according to the distribution of data, with a p-value of <0.01 for statistical significance being defined. Conclusion: PHQ-4 scale cultural adaptation and concurrent validity were made, PHQ4 being a valid and reliable screening tool, to assess anxiety, depression, and psychological distress.
Social inclusion of children and young people and the curbing of school failure, dropout, and early school leaving is are central concerns of the European educational policy and are seen as means to ...prevent unemployment, poverty, and social exclusion. In Portugal, as in other European countries, to address this issue, several programs have been designed and developed. This article aims to investigate how teachers, technicians, and parents involved in a socio-educational practice of student grouping envisage processes that contribute to overcoming school failure, dropout, and early school leaving. This qualitative case study took place in a Portuguese municipality within a school-based nationwide intervention programme. From the voices of the educational agents consulted, some vectors of institutional, dispositional, and situational dimensions were identified that contribute to overcoming ‘barriers to access and participation in education’, which promote some changes among students at an individual level. The research findings highlight processes, factors, and logics of action that allow teachers to work closely with their students and tailor the pace and curriculum contents to their needs, thereby enhancing students’ academic performance.
Glycerophosphoinositol (GPI) is a compatible solute present in a few hyperthermophiles. Interestingly, different GPI stereoisomers accumulate in Bacteria and Archaea, and the basis for this ...domain-dependent specificity was investigated herein. The archaeon Archaeoglobus fulgidus and the bacterium Aquifex aeolicus were used as model organisms. The synthesis of GPI involves glycerol phosphate cytidylyltransferase (GCT), which catalyzes the production of CDP-glycerol from CTP and glycerol phosphate, and di-myo-inositol phosphate-phosphate synthase (DIPPS), catalyzing the formation of phosphorylated GPI from CDP-glycerol and l-myo-inositol 1-phosphate. DIPPS of A. fulgidus recognized the two CDP-glycerol stereoisomers similarly. This feature and the ability of
P nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to distinguish the GPI diastereomers provided a means to study the stereospecificity of GCTs. The AF1418 gene and genes aq_185 and aq_1368 are annotated as putative GCT genes in the genomes of A. fulgidus and Aq. aeolicus, respectively. The functions of these genes were determined by assaying the activity of the respective recombinant proteins: AQ1368 and AQ185 are GCTs, while AF1418 has flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD) synthetase activity. AQ185 is absolutely specific for sn-glycerol 3-phosphate, while AQ1368 recognizes the two enantiomers but has a 2:1 preference for sn-glycerol 3-phosphate. In contrast, the partially purified A. fulgidus GCT uses sn-glycerol 1-phosphate preferentially (4:1). Significantly, the predominant GPI stereoforms found in the bacterium and the archaeon reflect the distinct stereospecificities of the respective GCTs: i.e., A. fulgidus accumulates predominantly sn-glycero-1-phospho-3-l-myo-inositol, while Aq. aeolicus accumulates sn-glycero-3-phospho-3-l-myo-inositol.
Compatible solutes of hyperthermophiles show high efficacy in thermal protection of proteins in comparison with solutes typical of mesophiles; therefore, they are potentially useful in several biotechnological applications. Glycerophosphoinositol (GPI) is synthesized from CDP-glycerol and l-myo-inositol 1-phosphate in a few hyperthermophiles. In this study, the molecular configuration of the GPI stereoisomers accumulated by members of the Bacteria and Archaea was established. The stereospecificity of glycerol phosphate cytidylyltransferase (GCT), the enzyme catalyzing the synthesis of CDP-glycerol, is crucial to the stereochemistry of GPI. However, the stereospecific properties of GCTs have not been investigated thus far. We devised a method to characterize GCT stereospecificity which does not require sn-glycerol 1-phosphate, a commercially unavailable substrate. This led us to understand the biochemical basis for the distinct GPI stereoisomer composition observed in archaea and bacteria.
Perinatal hypoxia-ischemia represents a significant risk to CNS development, leading to high mortality rates, diverse damages, and persistent neurological deficits. Despite advances in neonatal ...medicine in recent decades, the incidence of HIE remains substantial. Motor deficits can manifest early, while cognitive impairments may be diagnosed later, emphasizing the need for extended follow-up. This review aims to explore potential candidates for therapeutic interventions for hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), with a focus on cognitive deficits. We searched randomized clinical trials (RCT) that tested drug treatments for HIE and evaluated cognitive outcomes. The results included studies on erythropoietin, melatonin, magnesium sulfate, topiramate, and a combination of vitamin C and ibuprofen. Although there are several indications of the efficacy of these drugs among animal models, considering neuroprotective properties, the RCTs failed to provide complete effectiveness in the context of cognitive impairments derived from HIE. More robust RCTs are still needed to advance our knowledge and to establish standardized treatments for HIE.
On February 15, 1941, a storm caused one of the major natural disasters in the Iberian Peninsula in the past century. The storm made landfall in the north of Portugal, leading to a large surge in the ...Tagus estuary. Adverse meteorological conditions combined with a high spring tide led to extensive flooding of dry land, causing severe damage and casualties. A suite of regional and local scale models is developed to analyze the event and the relative contributions of the different forcing agents to the extreme water levels. Quantitative and qualitative validations show that the models adequately reproduce this type of events. The models are then used to assess the inundation in the upstream reaches of the estuary where extensive agricultural lands are protected by dikes. Results show that over 25km2 could be inundated today, a value that would increase threefold for a sea level rise of 0.5m. Then, the relative importance of the different forcing mechanisms on the extreme water levels is investigated through numerical experiments. It is shown that the regional surge and the setup induced by swell are the two main drivers of the inundation. In particular, the modulation of the wave setup by tides induces a semi-diurnal signal which is amplified by resonance inside the estuary.
•Hindcast of the most severe storm of the 20th century in the Iberian Peninsula.•Physical drivers for flooding are identified.•Regional surge and swell-driven setup are the main causes of storm surge.•Wave setup is modulated by tides and amplified by resonance.•Extensive agricultural lands can be submerged.
Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) is a rare genetic hyperinflammatory syndrome that occurs early in life. Macrophage activation syndrome (MAS) usually refers to a secondary form of HLH ...associated with autoimmunity, although there are other causes of secondary HLH, such as infections and malignancy. In this article, we reviewed the concepts, epidemiology, clinical and laboratory features, diagnosis, differential diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of HLH and MAS. We also reviewed the presence of MAS in the most common autoimmune diseases that affect children. Both are severe diseases that require prompt diagnosis and treatment to avoid morbidity and mortality.
This study aims to investigate the impacts of the built environment on traffic safety at a zonal level using a newly developed crash-related zone system. Traffic analysis zones (TAZs) have been ...widely employed to analyze traffic safety at a macroscopic level. However, this zone system use may present problems. Unlike previous studies, in which new zoning systems were created from aggregating TAZs, in this study the new zone system, formed by traffic safety analysis zones (TSAZs), is created from the smallest available census units. Geographically Weighted Negative Binomial Regression (GWNBR) models are used and a comparative analysis between non-spatial global crash prediction models and spatial local GWPR (Geographically Weighted Poisson Regression) and GWNBR models using the two zonal systems is presented. We find that TSAZs based models performed better than TAZs based models, especially when combined to the GWNBR technique. Our results show that several features of the built environment are significant crash predictors, and that the relationships among these features and traffic safety vary across space. By combining a crash-related zonal system with spatial GWNBR models to understand the built environment effects on traffic safety, the results of the analysis can help urban planners to consider traffic safety proactively when planning or retrofitting urban areas.
•A new zone system is created by aggregating the smallest available census units•Geographically Weighted Negative Binomial Regression (GWNBR) models are used•The relationships between injury crashes and the built environment vary across space•Models based on the new zone system performed better than TAZs based models
Perinatal hypoxia-ischemia (HI) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality among newborns. Infants with HI encephalopathy may experience lasting consequences, such as depression, in adulthood. In ...this study, we examined depressive-like behavior, neuronal population, and markers of monoaminergic and synaptic plasticity in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) of adolescent rats subjected to a prenatal HI model. Pregnant rats underwent a surgery in which uterine and ovarian blood flow was blocked for 45 min at E18 (HI procedure). Sham-operated subjects were also generated (SH procedure). Behavioral tests were conducted on male and female pups from P41 to P43, and animals were histologically processed or dissected for western blotting at P45. We found that the HI groups consumed less sucrose in the sucrose preference test and remained immobile for longer periods in the forced swim test. Additionally, we observed a significant reduction in neuronal density and PSD95 levels in the HI group, as well as a smaller number of synaptophysin-positive cells. Our results underscore the importance of this model in investigating the effects of HI-induced injuries, as it reproduces an increase in depressive-like behavior and suggests that the HI insult affects circuits involved in mood modulation.
•Prenatal hypoxia-ischemia increased depressive-like behavior in young rats.•A reduced number of neurons in the PFC was a result of prenatal hypoxia-ischemia.•This model of prenatal hypoxia-ischemia may affect synaptic activity in rats.
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