Repositório RCAAP

O ciclo de replicação do HIV na célula do hospedeiro começa com a ligação da glicoproteína de superfície viral ao receptor CD4 e aos receptores das quimiocinas (co-receptores) presentes na membrana das células. Com este trabalho pretendemos avaliar a contribuição do CCR8 como co-receptor alternativo para os isolados de HIV-1 e HIV-2 e caracterizar a capacidade para infectar macrófagos derivados de monócitos (MDM), por parte dos isolados que venham a revelar capacidade para utilizar este co-receptor. Tentou-se ainda estabelecer uma correlação entre o co-receptor utilizado e os dados imunológicos e clínicos dos indivíduos a partir dos quais os vírus foram isolados. Os resultados obtidos demonstraram que o CCR8 é eficientemente utilizado não apenas por isolados de HIV-2, mas particularmente por isolados de HIV-1. Observámos também que o uso do CXCR4, isoladamente ou em conjunto com o CCR5 e/ou CCR8, foi mais frequentemente observado em isolados de HIV-1 do que de HIV-2. Directamente relacionado com isso é a constatação de que a não utilização do CXCR4 é significativamente mais comum em isolados HIV-2; ambos os resultados podem ser associados com a progressão mais lenta para a doença, geralmente observada em indivíduos infectados com HIV-2. A capacidade de alguns isolados virais para utilizarem co-receptores alternativos, para além do CCR5 e CXCR4, pode ter impacto na eficácia da terapêutica com inibidores de entrada e possivelmente também na patogénese do HIV. A caracterização da capacidade de estirpes de HIV-1 e HIV-2, com diferentes perfis de utilização de co-receptores, infectarem MDM, permite-nos concluir que não existe uma relação entre o biotipo dos isolados estudados e a infecção produtiva destas células. No entanto, apesar de não ter sido possível detectar actividade da RT nas culturas de MDM, constatamos que houve integração do DNA viral no genoma celular. Concluímos que isto se pode dever ao limiar de sensibilidade do método de quantificação de RT, ou pode ser consequência de algum factor de inibição que esteja a actuar pós-transcrição reversa e integração, ou ainda pode ser devido à ausência de algum factor celular necessário à conclusão do ciclo de replicação. Não nos foi possível estabelecer uma correlação entre os co-receptores usados e os dados imunológicos e clínicos dos indivíduos infectados.

This volume, co-edited by Arnaldo do Espírito Santo, Cristina Costa Gomes and Enrique Rodrigues-Moura, collects thirteen studies (in Portuguese, English and Spanish) revealing a set of documentary funds, most of them unpublished, which point to new research paths in the context of intercultural relations between Europe, with a special focus on Portugal, and China between 1600 and 1800. These essays open up new lines of research, whether related to individual paths taken by cultural intermediaries, or related to collective strategies for transferring knowledge and information, or related to contact and conviviality with alterity. Such new lines of research were made possible by revisiting known archives and documentary collections, as well as unveiling new collections and unpublished documents that were pivotal to have a broader knowledge of the exchanges taking place between China and Europe in the Early Modern Age.

There is widespread interest in the possibility that music training enhances nonmusical abilities. This possibility has been examined primarily for speech perception and domain-general abilities such as IQ. Although social and emotional processes are central to many musical activities, transfer from music training to socioemotional skills remains underexplored. Here we synthesize results from studies examining associations between music training and emotion recognition in voices and faces. Enhancements are typically observed for vocal emotions but not for faces, although most evidence is cross-sectional. These findings are discussed considering the design features of the studies. Future research could explore further the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying musician-related differences in emotion recognition, the role of predispositions, and the implications for broader aspects of socioemotional functioning.

Hallucinations are a prominent transdiagnostic psychiatric symptom but are also prevalent in individuals who do not require clinical care. Moreover, persistent psychosis-like experience in otherwise healthy individuals may be related to increased risk to transition to a psychotic disorder. This suggests a common etiology across clinical and non-clinical individuals along a multidimensional psychosis continuum that may be detectable in structural variations of the brain. The current diffusion tensor imaging study assessed healthy individuals to identify possible differences in white matter associated with hallucination proneness (HP). This approach circumvents potential confounds related to medication, hospitalization, and disease progression common in clinical individuals. We determined how HP relates to white matter integrity in selected association, commissural, and projection fiber pathways putatively linked to psychosis. Increased HP was associated with enhanced fractional anisotropy (FA) in the right uncinate fasciculus, the right anterior and posterior arcuate fasciculus, and the corpus callosum. Although FA in cortico-cerebellar pathways revealed no relationship, streamline quantity between the left cerebellum and the right motor cortex positively correlated with HP. These findings support the notion of a psychosis continuum, providing first evidence of structural white matter variability associated with HP in healthy individuals. Furthermore, alterations in the targeted pathways likely indicate an association between HP-related structural variations and the putative salience and attention mechanisms that these pathways subserve.

The ability to recognize emotions undergoes major developmental changes from infancy to adolescence, peaking in early adulthood, and declining with aging. A life span approach to emotion recognition is lacking in the auditory domain, and it remains unclear how the speaker’s and listener’s ages interact in the context of decoding vocal emotions. Here, we examined age-related differences in vocal emotion recognition from childhood until older adulthood and tested for a potential own-age bias in performance. A total of 164 participants (36 children [7–11 years], 53 adolescents [12–17 years], 48 young adults [20 –30 years], 27 older adults [58 – 82 years]) completed a forced-choice emotion categorization task with nonverbal vocalizations expressing pleasure, relief, achievement, happiness, sadness, disgust, anger, fear, surprise, and neutrality. These vocalizations were produced by 16 speakers, 4 from each age group (children [8 –11 years], adolescents [14 –16 years], young adults [19 –23 years], older adults [60 –75 years]). Accuracy in vocal emotion recognition improved from childhood to early adulthood and declined in older adults. Moreover, patterns of improvement and decline differed by emotion category: faster development for pleasure, relief, sadness, and surprise and delayed decline for fear and surprise. Vocal emotions produced by older adults were more difficult to recognize when compared to all other age groups. No evidence for an own-age bias was found, except in children. These findings support effects of both speaker and listener ages on how vocal emotions are decoded and inform current models of vocal emotion perception.

Self-voice attribution can become difficult when voice characteristics are ambiguous, but functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) investigations of such ambiguity are sparse. We utilized voice-morphing (self-other) to manipulate (un-)certainty in self-voice attribution in a button-press paradigm. This allowed investigating how levels of self-voice certainty alter brain activation in brain regions monitoring voice identity and unexpected changes in voice playback quality. FMRI results confirmed a self-voice suppression effect in the right anterior superior temporal gyrus (aSTG) when self-voice attribution was unambiguous. Although the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) was more active during a self-generated compared to a passively heard voice, the putative role of this region in detecting unexpected self-voice changes during the action was demonstrated only when hearing the voice of another speaker and not when attribution was uncertain. Further research on the link between right aSTG and IFG is required and may establish a threshold monitoring voice identity in action. The current results have implications for a better understanding of the altered experience of self-voice feedback in auditory verbal hallucinations.

Roma communities are a disadvantaged minority in Europe which is particularly underrepresented in social and educational research. This study aimed to investigate the predictors of Roma mothers’ educational aspirations for their children in the Czech Republic, Greece, and Portugal. Participants included 461 mothers with a Roma background (135 from the Czech Republic, 130 from Greece, and 196 from Portugal), with a child between 3 to 6 (n=181) or 9 to 12 (n=280) years old. Data were based on mothers’ reports, obtained during a structured in-person interview. Material deprivation (microsystem level), frequency and quality of interactions with non-Roma parents, as well as the quality of parent-teacher interactions (mesosystem level), predicted Roma mothers’ educational aspirations. Findings suggest that, in addition to microsystemic variables such as material deprivation, mesosystemic predictors such as those examining contact with non-Roma parents may play an important role in shaping Roma mothers’ educational aspirations and need to be further examined.

Youth in residential care typically struggle to construct a positive sense of self, given their often highly adverse life experiences. However, the processes that explain youth’s self-representations process in residential care have not been systematically analyzed. Based on the symbolic interactionism theory, this study addressed this gap in the literature by testing the Looking Glass Self Hypothesis (LGSH) in this development context within the relationship between youth and their main residential caregiver. Participants were 755 youth from 71 residential care units in Portugal, 12–25 years old, and their respective main caregiver (N = 300). Through a multi-mediator model, we examined whether caregivers’ actual appraisals of the youth in care were associated with youth’s selfrepresentations via caregivers’ reflected appraisals (i.e., youth’s perceptions of their main caregiver’ appraisals of them). Results supported the LGSH in the context of youth-caregiver relationships in residential care, emphasizing the important role of residential caregivers in youth’s self-construction process.

Social cognitive models suggest a crucial role played by perceived barriers in promoting healthy behaviors, including healthy eating. We aimed to develop a new questionnaire to assess parental perceived barriers to healthy feeding in young children and perform the instrument’s preliminary psychometric evaluation. The initial pool of items was developed based on reviews and qualitative studies. First, we conducted an online, descriptive, cross-sectional study with 278 parents of 2–6-year-old children to examine its factorial structure and internal consistency. Then, a second study with 168 parents from a similar population assessed convergent/discriminant and known-groups validity. The exploratory factorial analysis confirmed the scale’s theoretical structure. Five scales were found: Child-Related Barriers, Parent-Related Barriers—Vegetables and Fruit, Parent-Related Barriers—Added Sugars, Social Context-Related Barriers, and Cost-Related Barriers. All scales presented adequate reliability. We found weak to moderate, negative, and significant correlations between child- and parent-related barriers regarding vegetables and fruits, feeding practices to promote children’s eating self-regulation, and food parenting self-efficacy. Additionally, parents who perceived their children as easy and well-regulated reported significantly fewer child-related barriers than parents with poorly self-regulated and inhibited children. The results support the instrument’s preliminary psychometric adequacy regarding its validity and reliability and corroborate earlier empirical studies about the main parental barriers when promoting young children’s healthy eating habits.

Childhood chronic illness is associated with deleterious effects on caregivers’ mental health and children’s socio-emotional development. This study investigated the mediation role of caregivers’ mental health on the association between children’s chronic illness and internalizing and externalizing behavioral problems in a sample of low-SES Brazilian families. Participants comprised 111 primary caregivers of 113 children aged between 7 and 11 years. A sample of 57 caregivers of children with chronic illness and a comparison group of 54 caregivers of healthy children were assessed regarding the following variables: family SES (Hollingshead criteria); caregivers’ sleep disturbances (PSQI), common mental disorders symptoms (SRQ20); stress (LISS); and children’s internalizing and externalizing problems (CBCL/6-18). The chronic illness group scored higher than the healthy group in all the assessed variables, with the exception of the externalizing problems variable. Moreover, caregivers’ mental health problems presented positive correlations with children’s behavior problems and negative correlations with family SES. Using SEM, mediation analysis highlighted that caregivers’ sleep disturbances, common mental disorders symptoms, and stress as a unidimensional latent variable (caregivers’ general mental health problems) mediated the relationship between children’s chronic illness and their behavior problems. Children’s chronic illness was associated with higher levels of mental health problems in caregivers, which in turn were linked to children’s higher externalizing problems (partially mediated) and internalizing problems (totally mediated). Psychosocial intervention and policies addressing caregivers’ mental health and financial support to lowincome families may benefit the socio-emotional development of chronically ill children.

O presente trabalho enuncia problemáticas e premissas que constituem uma reflexãosobre as potencialidades das instituições culturais e seu consequente relacionamentocom os públicos e comunidades envolventes. Nesta perspectiva, o tema central do estudo é a abordagem da relação entre as galerias de arte e os públicos culturais no contexto actual da cidade do Porto. Partindo de um debate teórico sobre a noção de públicos e as suas práticas de recepção cultural, apresentam-se dados empíricos de primeira mão para a caracterização dos públicos da cultura, no caso das galerias de arte. Entre outros pilares de construção do objecto de estudos e de apresentação de recomendações pragmáticas, destaca-se a necessidade de desenvolvimento de novos paradigmas de actuação na aproximação e relacionamento quotidianos com os públicos culturais

Cuidar um doente terminal, envolve a prestação de cuidados integrais que respondam às suas necessidades mais prementes, incluindo as espirituais. Neste trabalho exploratório procurou-se aprofundar esta temática, através da obtenção de dados empíricos sobre: a) avaliação e abordagem das necessidades espirituais (NE); b) identificação de quais as barreiras encontradas e recursos utilizados na sua abordagem; e c) importância que os profissionais atribuem aos seus auto-cuidados espirituais. Foi construído um questionário ad hoc auto-administrado – Questionário Sobre Necessidades Espirituais, ao qual se anexou o Spiritual Well-Being Questionnaire. Estes questionários foram distribuídos via correio, tendo sido enviados 177 exemplares e devolvidos 57. A categorização das NE foi baseada na proposta taxonómica construída por Puigarnau, et al.87, na qual evidenciaram 3 domínios. No domínio interpessoal obtiveram-se 44% do total de expressões recolhidas, no intrapsíquico, 17% e no transpessoal, 39%. Mais de 50% dos profissionais admitiram apresentar dificuldade em identificar este tipo de necessidades, 40% expressaram muitas vezes ou sempre abordar o tema com os seus doentes e apenas 27% referiram que este não é abordado nas sessões clínicas de trabalho. Todos os elementos da equipa interdisciplinar deverão ser responsáveis pela prestação de cuidados espirituais, embora os assistentes espirituais (72%), os capelães (72%) e os psicólogos (60%) tenham sido considerados os profissionais com mais formação na área e disponibilidade para o fazer. Foram obtidas 257 barreiras, 195 das quais, relacionadas com os próprios profissionais, 53 com o doente e/ou família e 9, com factores institucionais. Relativamente aos 175 recursos encontrados, estes foram agrupados nas seguintes categorias: competências cognitivas (≈49%), afectivas (≈13%), de comunicação (≈34%), pessoais (≈1%) e atitudes defensivas (≈3%). Porém, 85% dos profissionais referiram não aplicar qualquer instrumento de rastreio e 91%, não utilizar protocolo e/ou metodologia que lhes permita intervir estruturadamente. Os participantes evidenciaram um valor médio/elevado (3,7; DP=.51) de bem-estar espiritual. Realça-se a importância de dispor de um modelo universal de atenção espiritual, coadjuvado por instrumentos de rastreio e protocolo/metodologia estruturados, bem como, a possibilidade de vir a desenvolver um grupo de trabalho sobre espiritualidade, a nível nacional.

Existing research examining the academic performance of youth in residential care has often overlooked the contextual factors contributing to youth achievements. Guided by an ecological perspective, this study aimed to investigate the associations between various dimensions of residential care settings’ (RCS) organizational social context (i.e., organizational climate, structure, and work attitudes) and youth’s academic achievement, considering the mediating role of youth-caregiver relationship quality in those associations. The study was based on a sample of 699 young people aged 12–25 (M = 16.18; SD = 2.07), and their respective main residential caregivers (N = 242) and case managers (N = 168), from 55 RCS in Portugal. Given the hierarchical structure of the data, analyses were performed using multilevel modelling. Results showed that the association between caregivers’ reports of the residential care setting organizational social context, specifically regarding caregiver engagement and centralization (i.e., authority hierarchy), and youth’s academic achievement (i.e., higher scores in Math and Portuguese language) was mediated by lower levels of negative interactions with caregivers, reported by the youth. The findings demonstrate the need for an ecological, multilevel perspective, in addressing youth’s academic achievement in residential care. Awareness and appropriate resources should be directed at improving child-caregiver relationship quality and social climate of RCS, among other efforts, to improve poor academic performance of youth in residential care.

Drawing on an ecological approach with multiple informants, this study investigated the mediating role of youth–caregiver relationship quality in associations between different features of residential care settings' organizational social context and youth's psychopathology. Participants were 378 youth aged between 12 and 25 years old, and 54 caregivers aged between 24 and 57 years old, from 29 generalist residential youth care settings in Portugal. Given the hierarchical structure of data, analyses were performed using multilevel modeling. Results revealed that organizational social contexts characterized by higher levels of engagement, stress, and centralization, as perceived by the caregivers, were associated with lower levels of youth's externalizing problems (e.g., aggressive behavior and delinquency), reported by the caregivers, via better youth–caregiver relationship quality, perceived by the youth in care. These findings highlight the relevance of creating an organizational social context in residential care settings that supports caregivers in establishing high-quality relationships with the youth in care, thereby promoting their mental health. This study contributes to the clarification of conflicting findings in previous studies of this field, by offering further empirical investigation of these issues.

Study purpose: Based on the cognitive-contextual model developed by Grych and Fincham (1990), this study explored the role of the Exposure to Interparental Violence (EIV) on adolescents’ coping and functioning from the perspectives of Portuguese professionals in the Child Protection System (CPS). Participants: Nineteen professionals from three Child Protection Agencies participated in this study (100% females). The target subjects of professionals perspectives were adolescents aged between 10 and 16 years old (M = 13.58; SD = 1.98) who have a CPS record managed by these professionals. Data was collected through a semi-structured interview guide based on the theoretical model and analysed with a thematic analysis strategy. Results: Findings revealed 7 main themes, of which two emerged exclusively from the data (i.e., Risk Factors for Interparental Conflict; Impact of the Conflict in Individual and Family Functioning) and the remaining five were anchored in the cognitivecontextual theoretical framework (i.e., Interparental Conflict; Distal and Proximal Context; Primary and Secondary Processing; Affect; Coping Behaviour and Consequences). Conclusions: This research enabled a description of the underlying aspects of the multidimensionality of EIV, and the results will be discussed considering its implications for the evaluation and intervention in this context.

Children and adolescents with maltreatment experiences show worse representations of themselves, as compared to their nonmaltreated counterparts. According to the looking-glass self hypothesis (LGSH), individuals’ self-representations (SR) stem from interactions with significant others, reflecting associations between what significant others think of them (i.e., actual appraisals), individuals’ perceptions of significant others’ appraisals of them (i.e., reflected appraisals), and SR. However, little is known about the looking-glass self process in maltreated children and adolescents. This multi-informant study aimed to test the LGSH within the mother–child relationship with children and adolescents with maltreatment experiences. Specifically, including maltreatment experiences as copredictors, this study analyzed the mediating role of mothers’ reflected appraisals (MRA) in associations between mothers’ actual appraisals (MAA) and children/adolescents’ SR. Participants were 203 children/adolescents (52.5% boys), 8–16 years old (M = 12.6; SD = 2.49), assisted by children and youth protection committees (CYPC), their mother, and their CYPC case workers. Case workers reported on child/adolescent maltreatment, children/adolescents reported on SR and MRA, and mothers reported on MAA. A multiple mediation path analysis revealed significant mediation effects of MRA between MAA and child/adolescent SR in instrumental, social, emotional, intelligence, and opposition SR, thus supporting the LGSH in the context of child/adolescent maltreatment. Also, psychological neglect was associated to worse intelligence SR, mediated by intelligence reflected appraisals. Findings emphasize the importance of the role of MRA on maltreated children and adolescents’ SR construction process, and provide useful clues to incorporate in prevention and intervention strategies targeting maltreated children and adolescents.

Individuals’ perceptions of their social images [i.e., meta-representations (MR)] and perceived stereotyping threat create involuntary stress responses that may affect important outcomes, such as self-esteem, academic achievement, and mental health. This study aimed to (1) analyze the indirect associations between residential care youth’s MR and their psychological adjustment (i.e., externalizing and internalizing problems) through their self-representations (SR) and (2) test the moderating role of youth’s age and residential unit size in those associations. A sample of 926 youth aged between 12 and 25years old filled out self-report questionnaires regarding their representations about how people in general perceive them (i.e., MR) and their SR. Residential care professionals filled in the socio-demographic questionnaires and the Child Behavior Checklist. Data were analyzed through multiple mediation models and moderated mediation models. Results showed that (1) youth’s behavioral MR were indirectly associated with higher internalizing and externalizing behavior through higher levels of behavioral SR and (2) youth’s emotional MR were associated with higher internalizing problems through higher emotional SR, but also with lower internalizing problems through lower levels of behavioral SR. These results emphasize the importance of stimulating positive SR, by showing that they can be a protective factor for youth in residential care.

This study explored the associations between the perceptions that youth in residential care have about their social images (i.e., their perceptions of how other people in general perceive them) and their self-representations, and the moderating role of social support from residential caregivers and friends in those associations. A sample of 926 youths in residential care, aged between 12 and 25 years old, filled out self-report questionnaires tapping their perceptions of their social images, self-representations, and perceived social support. Results indicated that positive youths’ perceptions of their social images were associated to youth’s positive self-representations, and that negative youths’ perceptions of their social images dimensions were associated to youth’s negative selfrepresentation dimensions. Results also indicated that support from the main residential caregiver and friends moderated associations between youth’s perceptions of their social images and self-representations, functioning as a protective factor. These findings underline the importance of youth’s perceptions of their social images and the support from residential caregivers and friends for youth in residential care.

Objectives This study aimed to analyze the relationship between family climate and identity development, and the moderating role of the development stage and (in)adaptive outcomes in that relationship. Methods A cross-sectional quantitative study was developed with 387 participants (65.4% female; 162 adolescents aged between 15–19 years and 225 emerging adults aged between 20–25 years). Data was collected using self-reported measures: Sociodemographic questionnaire, Dimensions of Identity Development Scale, Brief Symptom Inventory and Family Climate Inventory. Results The results of structural equation modeling showed moderating effects of developmental stage (Δχ2 (38) = 93.47, p = 0.009) and outcomes (Δχ2 (38) = 63.50, p = 0.006) in the relationship between family climate and identity development, suggesting that family cohesion predicted identity outcomes differently for adolescents and emerging adults, as well as for participants with adaptive and non-adaptive developmental trajectories. Also, family conflict predicted identity formation outcomes differently in function of developmental outcomes. Conclusions As high levels of family conflict and cohesion are associated to higher levels of exploration in depth, future studies should focus on enmeshed family interactional patterns and its outcomes on children across development. Our data highlights the role of family climate on the identity development in adolescence and emerging adulthood and the importance of analyzing family risk and protection factors as conditions for individual developmental outcomes.

O papel do futuro no comportamento actual dos indivíduos, em particular dos jovens, tem sido alvo de atenção ao longo do tempo, destacando-se aquele que tem vindo a ser um efeito consistente de associação entre, por um lado, a perspectivação e a construção de planos de futuro – expressados pelo conceito de perspectiva temporal de futuro (PTF) – e, por outro, a expressão de comportamentos adaptativos, que contribuem para uma maior adaptação ao meio. Dois dos contextos de estudo em que essa relação é mais abordada são os da educação e da saúde, este último especificamente ao nível da promoção de comportamentos saudáveis e da prevenção de riscos. Tendo em conta estes dois contextos, o presente trabalho pretende sistematizar e discutir um conjunto de dados, resultantes de vários estudos, e que se consideram relevantes para a evidenciação dessa relação.