RCAAP Repository

Ethical issues that arise during the care of a pregnant woman with cancer are challenging to physicians, policymakers, lawyers, and the bioethics community. The main purpose of this scoping review is to summarize existing literature regarding the bioethical dilemmas when a conflict arises in the maternal-fetus dyad, like the one related to cancer and pregnancy outcomes. Moreover, we illustrate the decision-making process of real-life case reports. Published data were searched through the PubMed and Google Scholar databases, as well as in grey literature, using appropriate controlled keywords in English and Portuguese. After identification, screening, eligibility and data extraction from the articles, a total of 50 was selected. There are several established ethical frameworks for conflict resolution and decision-making. Pragmatic theoretical approaches include case-based analysis, the ethics of care, feminist theory, and traditional ethical principlism that scrutinizes the framework of autonomy, justice, beneficence, and non-maleficence. In addition, society and practitioner values could mediate this complex ethical interplay. The physician must balance autonomy and beneficence-based obligations to the pregnant woman with cancer, along with beneficence-based obligations to the fetus. Ethical challenges have received less attention in the literature, particularly before the third trimester of pregnancy. Best, unbiased and balanced information must be granted both to the patient and to the family, regarding the benefits and harms for the woman herself as well as for the fetal outcome. Based on a previously validated method for analyzing and working up clinical ethical problems, we suggest an adaptation of an algorithm for biomedical decision-making in cancer during pregnancy, including recommendations that can facilitate counseling and help reduce the suffering of the patient and her family.

This study analyzes the relationships and dynamics between material production, foreign direct investment (FDI), economic activity, carbon productivity, the stock market, and green tech, both in a global and European context, using panel vector autoregressive methodology (PVAR). The empirical evidence obtained for the Global Group reveals four significant and positive unidirectional causality relationships, where aggregate material production is the prominent variable. For the EU-15 group, six significant causality relationships were detected, among them three negative and three positive unidirectional relationships. The stock markets shock reveals to be the most dominant variable, despite FDI standing out as causing the greatest shock effect. Nevertheless, in the European context, limited evidence of dematerialization is detected. Economic recessions show a generally negative effect, which contrasts with the economic Kitchin cycles, which reveal the effect of a generally positive relationship.

This article examines Nelisita (Carvalho, 1982), an Olunyaneka-language feature fiction film made in the early years of Angolan cinema, and draws a historiography of its marginal production and ensuing scattered reception. Combining a historical approach to the film’s production and circulation, with an ethnographically-driven analysis of its recent screenings at a village sharing an Olunyaneka background, I discuss insights gained from its reception by an audience familiar with the cultural context portrayed on screen. Along with the history of the film’s production and circulation, the villagers’ engagement with the film sheds light on the evolving politics of cinema in Africa, particularly the complex relationships between popular and film festival audiences, film studies and visual anthropology. I examine shifting continuities and ruptures with regards to the film’s intricate social history, and analyse the production and reception of Nelisita as an experiment that highlights differing ways in which films can work as a contact zone.

O presente trabalho de investigação tem como principal objetivo o estudo das diversas estratégias utilizadas na tradução especializada de português para chinês, com especial atenção para as expressões “com características chinesas”, de forma a atingir uma equivalência linguística aceitável, e tendo como base diversos exemplos da obra de Yu Hua, China em Dez Palavras. Com isto mente, esta investigação inicia-se com uma breve introdução ao estilo de escrita e características principais presentes na obra de Yua Hua, salientando desde já o importante estudo realizado sobre as expressões "com características chinesas". Estas que, por um lado, refletem, em muitos aspetos, o próprio retrato espiritual da nação chinesa, mas que, por outro, e tendo em conta a sua tradução problemática, acabam por sofrer perdas de significado e equivalência no seu conteúdo ao serem traduzidas para leitores portugueses. De forma a evitar ou minimizar estes inconvenientes, e mantendo sempre que possível um respeito pelas ideias veiculadas no texto original, o tradutor é assim constantemente desafiado, com cada caso emerge, na melhor ou mais acertada estratégia de tradução a utilizar de forma a atingir uma maior “aproximação” na equivalência relativa e transmitir com o maior nível de rigor as ideias e palavras do autor original. Considerando que, atualmente, obras chinesas traduzidas para português são poucas e escassas, e há uma evidente inexistência de estudos detalhados que recaiam sobre as estratégias utilizadas na tradução do chinês para português, o presente trabalho de investigação afigura-se importante na abertura de futuros caminhos e ensaios especializados que se dediquem, ou que detenham uma particular atenção, à tradução de expressões "com características chinesas", integrando estes domínios do saber.

A Escultura Pública na Cidade de Lisboa (1974-2004) é o tema desta investigação que tem como objectivo principal estudar, documentar, analisar e inventariar as obras escultóricas instaladas durante um período de trinta anos no espaço público desta cidade. Para este efeito, pretendemos não só proceder a uma análise estética das peças, mas averiguar todo o processo, da ideia original à encomenda e concretização dos projectos. Para obter uma perspectiva completa deste fenómeno ainda pouco investigado em Portugal, averiguaremos o papel de todos os agentes envolvidos na implantação de obras de arte no contexto urbano, quer as entidades públicas e privadas, quer os artistas e respectivas equipas de trabalho. Por outro lado, é uma investigação que se desenvolve à luz da teoria da arte pública proposta por diversos teóricos ao longo das últimas décadas, da mesma forma que apresenta uma nova perspectiva deste conceito, através do qual se estrutura toda a refl exão crítica sobre os casos mais representativos do panorama artístico da cidade. As obras serão analisadas em diferentes contextos, no plano individual através do aprofundamento das relações estético-perceptivas com o espaço público, em termos estilísticos procurando averiguar as suas afi nidades formais e no âmbito da trajectória artística de cada autor em particular.

Subcellular compartmentalization of splicing factors has been proposed to play a role in the regulation of alternative splicing. In the present work we have addressed this issue using adenovirus-infected cells to visualize an alternative splicing switch at the single cell level. The adenovirus gene expression program requires the activation of distal alternative 3 splice sites during the late phase of infection in major late transcripts. We have established in situ hybridization conditions that allow for the specific detection of 3 alternatively spliced adenoviral mRNAs from the L1 transcript family. Results show that the switch from proximal to distal 3 splice sites correlates with a massive reorganization of splicing factors in the cell nucleus, involving their recruitment from nuclear speckles to sites of viral transcription. This observation raises the possibility that the subnuclear organization of splicing factors may be regulated in response to events that lead to the activation of alternative splicing programs.

Objectives: Evaluate the chemical composition, microstructure, wettability, roughness, adhesion quality and structural integrity of three micropatterned silica (SiO2) coatings for zirconia substrates, and to compare their in vivo bone-to-implant contact (BIC) with the non-coated zirconia surface (3Y-TZP), in order to evaluate the effects of micropatterning on osseointegration. Materials and methods: Three micropatterned SiO2 coatings (flat, lines and pillars topographies) produced by soft lithography and sol-gel, and 3Y-TZP surface were analysed by SEM/EDS, XRD, contact and non-contact profilometry, wettability, scratch resistance and friction test. Zirconia discs with each of the surfaces were placed on tibias of 12 white New Zealand rabbits. Two healing periods were established: 4 and 8 weeks. Histomorphometric evaluation with the measurement of BIC was performed. Comparisons among the groups or within the groups were performed by independent t-test, ANOVA. Kruskal-Wallis test and Mann-Whitney U test were used for analysis. The level of significance was set at p < 0.05. Results: Lines and pillars coatings showed the highest roughness Ra values of all tested surfaces. For distilled water, the lines coating generated the most hydrophilic surface. The adhesion strength of silica coatings on zirconia was higher for lines and pillars surfaces. Pillars coating has a tendency to the higher initial coefficient of friction. The integrity and topography characteristics were not significantly affected after friction test. SiO2 coated surfaces exhibited significantly higher BIC values for cortical and medullary bone after 4 weeks, and for cortical bone after 8 weeks. The pillars micropatterned surface presented the highest total BIC values after 4 and 8 weeks of healing. Conclusions: Sol-gel and soft-lithography techniques can successful produce micropatterned silica coatings with well-defined geometries. The pillars micropatterned surface seems to show a higher degree of osseointegration than all other surfaces. Surface micropatterning may be a viable alternative for surface modification of zirconia implants.

Bone is the most frequent site for metastasis for many cancers, notably for tumours originating in the breast and the prostate. Tumour cells can escape from the primary tumour site and colonize the bone microenvironment. Within the bone, these disseminated tumour cells, as well as those arising in the context of multiple myeloma, may assume a state of dormancy, remaining quiescent for years before resuming proliferation and causing overt metastasis, which causes bone destruction via activation of osteoclast-mediated osteolysis. This structural damage can lead to considerable morbidity, including pain, fractures and impaired quality of life. Although treatment of bone metastases and myeloma bone disease is rarely curative, disease control is often possible for many years through the use of systemic anticancer treatments on a background of multidisciplinary supportive care. This care should include bone-targeted agents to inhibit tumour-associated osteolysis and prevent skeletal morbidity as well as use of appropriate local treatments such as radiation therapy, orthopaedic surgery and specialist palliative care to minimize the impact of metastatic bone disease on physical functioning. In this Primer, we provide an overview of the clinical features, the pathophysiology and the specific treatment approaches to prevent and treat bone metastases from solid tumours as well as myeloma bone disease.

Background and purpose: Experimental studies suggest inflammation can contribute to blood barrier disruption and brain injury in cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT). We aimed to determine whether blood biomarkers of inflammation were associated with the evolution of brain lesions, persistent venous occlusion or functional outcome in patients with CVT. Methods: Pathophysiology of Venous Infarction-Prediction of Infarction and Recanalization in CVT (PRIORITy-CVT) was a multicenter prospective cohort study of patients with newly diagnosed CVT. Evaluation of neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and C-reactive protein (CRP) concentrations in peripheral blood samples was performed at admission in 62 patients. Additional quantification of interleukin (IL)-6 was performed at day 1, 3 and 8 in 35 patients and 22 healthy controls. Standardized magnetic resonance imaging was performed at day 1, 8 and 90. Primary outcomes were early evolution of brain lesion, early recanalization and functional outcome at 90 days. Results: Interleukin-6 levels were increased in patients with CVT with a peak at baseline. IL-6, NLR and CRP levels were not related with brain lesion outcomes or early recanalization but had a significant association with unfavourable functional outcome at 90 days (IL-6: OR = 1.28, 95% CI: 1.05-1.56, P = 0.046; NLR: OR = 1.39, 95% CI: 1.4-1.87, P = 0.014; CRP: OR = 1.756, 95% CI: 1.010-3.051, P = 0.029). Baseline IL-6 had the best discriminative capacity, with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve to predict unfavourable functional outcome of 0.74 (P = 0.031). Conclusions: Increased baseline levels of NLR, CRP and IL-6 may serve as new predictive markers of worse functional prognosis at 90 days in patients with CVT. No association was found between inflammatory markers and early evolution of brain lesion or venous recanalization.

The cause of autosomal-dominant retinitis pigmentosa (adRP), which leads to loss of vision and blindness, was investigated in families lacking a molecular diagnosis. A refined locus for adRP on Chr17q22 (RP17) was delineated through genotyping and genome sequencing, leading to the identification of structural variants (SVs) that segregate with disease. Eight different complex SVs were characterized in 22 adRP-affected families with >300 affected individuals. All RP17 SVs had breakpoints within a genomic region spanning YPEL2 to LINC01476. To investigate the mechanism of disease, we reprogrammed fibroblasts from affected individuals and controls into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and differentiated them into photoreceptor precursor cells (PPCs) or retinal organoids (ROs). Hi-C was performed on ROs, and differential expression of regional genes and a retinal enhancer RNA at this locus was assessed by qPCR. The epigenetic landscape of the region, and Hi-C RO data, showed that YPEL2 sits within its own topologically associating domain (TAD), rich in enhancers with binding sites for retinal transcription factors. The Hi-C map of RP17 ROs revealed creation of a neo-TAD with ectopic contacts between GDPD1 and retinal enhancers, and modeling of all RP17 SVs was consistent with neo-TADs leading to ectopic retinal-specific enhancer-GDPD1 accessibility. qPCR confirmed increased expression of GDPD1 and increased expression of the retinal enhancer that enters the neo-TAD. Altered TAD structure resulting in increased retinal expression of GDPD1 is the likely convergent mechanism of disease, consistent with a dominant gain of function. Our study highlights the importance of SVs as a genomic mechanism in unsolved Mendelian diseases.

A key symptom of frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is difficulty interacting socially with others. Social cognition problems in FTD include impaired emotion processing and theory of mind difficulties, and whilst these have been studied extensively in sporadic FTD, few studies have investigated them in familial FTD. Facial Emotion Recognition (FER) and Faux Pas (FP) recognition tests were used to study social cognition within the Genetic Frontotemporal Dementia Initiative (GENFI), a large familial FTD cohort of C9orf72, GRN, and MAPT mutation carriers. 627 participants undertook at least one of the tasks, and were separated into mutation-negative healthy controls, presymptomatic mutation carriers (split into early and late groups) and symptomatic mutation carriers. Groups were compared using a linear regression model with bootstrapping, adjusting for age, sex, education, and for the FP recognition test, language. Neural correlates of social cognition deficits were explored using a voxel-based morphometry (VBM) study. All three of the symptomatic genetic groups were impaired on both tasks with no significant difference between them. However, prior to onset, only the late presymptomatic C9orf72 mutation carriers on the FER test were impaired compared to the control group, with a subanalysis showing differences particularly in fear and sadness. The VBM analysis revealed that impaired social cognition was mainly associated with a left hemisphere predominant network of regions involving particularly the striatum, orbitofrontal cortex and insula, and to a lesser extent the inferomedial temporal lobe and other areas of the frontal lobe. In conclusion, theory of mind and emotion processing abilities are impaired in familial FTD, with early changes occurring prior to symptom onset in C9orf72 presymptomatic mutation carriers. Future work should investigate how performance changes over time, in order to gain a clearer insight into social cognitive impairment over the course of the disease.

Com o presente artigo é nosso propósito refletir sobre o projeto de militarização da infância desenvolvido nas escolas centrais ou graduadas do município de Lisboa, durante a primeira grande experiência de descentralização do ensino em Portugal. A afirmação dos batalhões escolares – ligada à ideia do cidadão-soldado enquanto parte do culto cívico da nação – é explicada no quadro de redes educativas internacionais. Por outro lado, além de darmos atenção às práticas rituais desenvolvidas em determinados momentos solenes e festividades (grandes eventos da história da nação), não deixaremos de estabelecer relação entre a instrução militar e outras áreas curriculares, nomeadamente, a educação física e a educação moral e cívica. Interessa- nos, aliás, perceber de que forma as práticas militares penetraram no quotidiano escolar. Por fim, exploramos as controvérsias que acompanharam a implementação da instrução militar nas escolas municipais de Lisboa e que ditaram, a partir de meados da década de 1880, o seu progressivo ocaso.

Os estudos da radioatividade e o impulso científico e industrial associado à produção de radiações marcaram profundamente a medicina portuguesa no começo do século xx. Neste artigo explora-se o modo como uma noção biomédica do cancro emergiu nessa época, intimamente associada ao desenvolvimento de uma “economia das radiações” que se apoiava nos usos clínicos e científicos da radioatividade. Argumenta-se que essa economia se baseou em ambos os conceitos de “cancro” e de “radiações”, que se constituíram como objetos de fronteira, capazes de sustentar, no caso português, uma nova ecologia institucional da medicina através do seu potencial mediador entre diversos interesses políticos, científicos, médicos e industriais.

Ser mulher no universo laboral dos casinos analisados implica a performance de diferentes imaginários relacionados com a feminilidade apropriada. O que define a adequação de um determinado tipo de feminilidade é a natureza das funções exercidas e a posição relacional dessas funções na estrutura hierárquica da organização. Este artigo, baseado numa investigação etnográfica, tem como objetivo analisar o contraste entre as performances de género das barmaids e das pagadoras de banca no processo de trabalho de dois casinos portugueses. Segue-se uma linha teórica feminista, assente nos contributos relacionados com os fenómenos da interseccionalidade. Conclui-se que a distinção entre as performances de género das duas funções se relaciona intimamente com a categoria de classe social.

This thematic dossier1 focuses on the complex and intense field of migration movements across the Atlantic. Its articles explore how migration structurally impacts the social and cultural identities of those who move and those who do not, while addressing key topics such as aspirations and motivations, integration and positioning strategies, transnational links, and family relations at distance. It draws on a problematization of human mobility and migration that equates both movement and stasis (Faist, 2013; Glick Schiller & Salazar, 2013) and analyzes the interconnectivity of these processes in light of identity production and reproduction. The articles discuss not only the purposes and consequences of movement per se, but also, and most significantly, the uprooting activities and identity negotiations of those who migrate and those who stay behind.

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Objectives: To explore 6-month and 12-month secukinumab effectiveness in patients with axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) overall, as well as across (1) number of previous biologic/targeted synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (b/tsDMARDs), (2) time since diagnosis and (3) different European registries. Methods: Real-life data from 13 European registries participating in the European Spondyloarthritis Research Collaboration Network were pooled. Kaplan-Meier with log-rank test, Cox regression, χ² and logistic regression analyses were performed to assess 6-month and 12-month secukinumab retention, inactive disease/low-disease-activity states (Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index (BASDAI) <2/<4, Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Score (ASDAS) <1.3/<2.1) and response rates (BASDAI50, Assessment of Spondyloarthritis International Society (ASAS) 20/40, ASDAS clinically important improvement (ASDAS-CII) and ASDAS major improvement (ASDAS-MI)). Results: We included 1860 patients initiating secukinumab as part of routine care. Overall 6-month/12-month secukinumab retention rates were 82%/72%, with significant (p<0.001) differences between the registries (6-month: 70-93%, 12-month: 53-86%) and across number of previous b/tsDMARDs (b/tsDMARD-naïve: 90%/73%, 1 prior b/tsDMARD: 83%/73%, ≥2 prior b/tsDMARDs: 78%/66%). Overall 6-month/12-month BASDAI<4 were observed in 51%/51%, ASDAS<1.3 in 9%/11%, BASDAI50 in 53%/47%, ASAS40 in 28%/22%, ASDAS-CII in 49%/46% and ASDAS-MI in 25%/26% of the patients. All rates differed significantly across number of previous b/tsDMARDs, were numerically higher for b/tsDMARD-naïve patients and varied significantly across registries. Overall, time since diagnosis was not associated with secukinumab effectiveness. Conclusions: In this study of 1860 patients from 13 European countries, we present the first comprehensive real-life data on effectiveness of secukinumab in patients with axSpA. Overall, secukinumab retention rates after 6 and 12 months of treatment were high. Secukinumab effectiveness was consistently better for bionaïve patients, independent of time since diagnosis and differed across the European countries.

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In an era where climate change gained relevance and caused the highest levels of social awareness, the main objective of ClimAdaPT.Local project valued the integration of the climate dimension in municipal planning processes. Based on a questionnaire survey applied in three consecutive rounds throughout the project, this article focuses on the responses of a group of municipal officers who, together with the ClimAdaPT.Local team, developed Municipal Strategies for Adaptation to Climate Change. With the focus on the respondents' evolution concerning acquisition of knowledge, mobilization and awareness, and capacity building throughout the project, the main conclusions will be presented here.