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The demographic aging in Portugal is an evident reality, with the population over 65 years old representing about one-fifth of the total population. This trend is a result of decreasing birth rates and increasing longevity. Although life expectancy has increased, the number of healthy years for those who reach 65 years old is relatively low. This demographic change presents challenges in the areas of health, economy, and society. The study of aging is important, considering the distinct characteristics and needs of this age group. This article presents a thematic section on aging in Portugal, with three articles addressing the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on daily mobility and quality of life of the elderly. The first article presents the results of the Grampcity project, which reveal significant restrictions for quality aging, amplified by the effects of the pandemic. The second article discusses the choice of place of residence after retirement, with significant differences between rural and urban residents. The third article analyzes the integration of the Age-Friendly Principles defined by the World Health Organization in health and aging programmatic documents in Portugal. The authors conclude that it is necessary to deepen health policies to meet the needs of elderly populations and better coordinate national and regional documents. [Extracted from the article]

The short shelf life of platelet concentrates (PC) of up to 5–7 days leads to higher wastage due to expiry. To address this massive financial burden on the healthcare system, alternative applications for expired PC have emerged in recent years. Engineered nanocarriers functionalized with platelet membranes have shown excellent targeting abilities for tumor cells owing to their platelet membrane proteins. Nevertheless, synthetic drug delivery strategies have significant drawbacks that platelet-derived extracellular vesicles (pEV) can overcome. We investigated, for the first time, the use of pEV as a carrier of the anti-breast cancer drug paclitaxel, considering it as an appealing alternative to improve the therapeutic potential of expired PC. The pEV released during PC storage showed a typical EV size distribution profile (100–300 nm) with a cup-shaped morphology. Paclitaxel-loaded pEV showed significant anti-cancer effects in vitro, as demonstrated by their anti-migratory (>30%), anti-angiogenic (>30%), and anti-invasive (>70%) properties in distinct cells found in the breast tumor microenvironment. We provide evidence for a novel application for expired PC by suggesting that the field of tumor treatment research may be broadened by the use of natural carriers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Extracellular Vesicles (EV) play a critical role in the regulation of regenerative processes in wounded tissues by mediating cell-to-cell communication. Multiple RNA species have been identified in EV, although their function still lacks understanding. We previously characterized the miRNA content of EV secreted over hiPSC-cardiomyocyte differentiation and found a distinct miRNA expression in hiPSC-EV driving its in vitro bioactivity. In this work, we investigated the piRNA profiles of EV derived from key stages of the hiPSC-CM differentiation and maturation, i.e., from hiPSC (hiPSC-EV), cardiac progenitors (CPC-EV), immature (CMi-EV), and mature (CMm-EV) cardiomyocytes, demonstrating that EV-piRNA expression differs greatly from the miRNA profiles we previously identified. Only four piRNA were significantly deregulated in EV, one in hiPSC-EV, and three in CPC-EV, as determined by differential expression analysis on small RNA-seq data. Our results provide a valuable source of information for further studies aiming at defining the role of piRNA in the bioactivity and therapeutic potential of EV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extracellular vesicles (EV) are an attractive therapy to boost cardiac regeneration. Nevertheless, identification of native EV and corresponding cell platform(s) suitable for therapeutic application, is still a challenge. Here, EV are isolated from key stages of the human induced pluripotent stem cell‐cardiomyocyte (hiPSC‐CM) differentiation and maturation, i.e., from hiPSC (hiPSC‐EV), cardiac progenitors, immature and mature cardiomyocytes, with the aim of identifying a promising cell biofactory for EV production, and pinpoint the genetic signatures of bioactive EV. EV secreted by hiPSC and cardiac derivatives show a typical size distribution profile and the expression of specific EV markers. Bioactivity assays show increased tube formation and migration in HUVEC treated with hiPSC‐EV compared to EV from committed cell populations. hiPSC‐EV also significantly increase cell cycle activity of hiPSC‐CM. Global miRNA expression profiles, obtained by small RNA‐seq analysis, corroborate an EV‐miRNA pattern indicative of stem cell to cardiomyocyte specification, confirming that hiPSC‐EV are enriched in pluripotency‐associated miRNA with higher in vitro pro‐angiogenic and pro‐proliferative properties. In particular, a stemness maintenance miRNA cluster upregulated in hiPSC‐EV targets the PTEN/PI3K/AKT pathway, involved in cell proliferation and survival. Overall, the findings validate hiPSC as cell biofactories for EV production for cardiac regenerative applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The adult heart is a vital and highly specialized organ of the human body, with limited capability of self-repair and regeneration in case of injury or disease. Engineering biomimetic cardiac tissue to regenerate the heart has been an ambition in the field of tissue engineering, tracing back to the 1990s. Increased understanding of human stem cell biology and advances in process engineering have provided an unlimited source of cells, particularly cardiomyocytes, for the development of functional cardiac muscle, even though pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes poorly resemble those of the adult heart. This review outlines key biology-inspired strategies reported to improve cardiomyocyte maturation features and current biofabrication approaches developed to engineer clinically relevant cardiac tissues. It also highlights the potential use of this technology in drug discovery science and disease modeling as well as the current efforts to translate it into effective therapies that improve heart function and promote regeneration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The theme of "urban mobility" has been widely discussed not only for its role in structuring urban systems and the development of cities, but also for the various problems arising from its dynamics. Such problems have jeopardized the pursuit of the goals associated with the Healthy Cities movement, promoting and improving quality of health and the urban environment according to World Health Organization guidelines. With the Lisbon Metropolitan Area as a study area, the objective of this paper is to understand if its municipalities show similar trends regarding the contributions of urban mobility to healthier municipalities, and if the trends are convergent among them. The methodology is based on an indicator board representative of the studied subject. Firstly, considering two periods (one in the 2000s and another in the 2010s), using dispersion measures we discuss the existence or not of tendencies of spatial convergence between metropolitan municipalities as well as to identify positive contributions of the various dynamics associated with urban mobility for healthier municipalities. Subsequently, the application of factorial analysis in main components followed by cluster analysis for the most recent period makes it possible to identify the different realities found in the metropolitan context. There were several spatial convergence tendencies but not a clear positive evolution for healthier municipalities in all indicators. For the recent period, a greater similarity between the municipalities of North LMA (three groups of municipalities) and a greater diversity in the South LMA (six groups of municipalities) were identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last two decades have witnessed a growing trend towards transit-oriented development (TOD) as a critical approach for achieving sustainable mobility. However, some analysts and community activists have expressed concerns that TOD could induce gentrification and potential concomitant low-income group displacements. This paper presents a systematic review of 35 quantitative research-based studies presenting evidence on gentrification outcomes resulting from transit-based interventions, published between 2000 and 2018. To our knowledge, this is the first systematic review on this topic and thus provides a useful synthesis of current empirical evidence on transit-induced gentrification. Although there is some evidence supporting the transit-induced gentrification hypothesis, methodological flaws render many of the studies' conclusions highly questionable. The findings suggest that gentrification is more closely associated with existing local dynamics, built environment attributes, and accompanying policies than transit-oriented development. In its critical analysis of research approaches, this paper warns that the incorporation of several sources of bias into study designs may engender a number of misinterpretations, thus ultimately leading to misguided conclusions and policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of Healthy City developed by the World Health Organization is a holistic concept which covers all determinants of health, divided by social, economic and environmental domains. In this sense, transport organization, allowing the access to workplaces, goods and services, but at the same time, is source of pollution, natural resource consuming and road accidents, elements of extreme relevance to the implementation of healthy city principles. In this paper, it is proposed the definition of an indicator system to evaluate the contribution of transport to healthy cities, recurring to available indicators in the Portuguese statistical system. This indicator system will be applied to Lisbon Metropolitan Area (Portugal), having its municipalities as units of analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the development of a toolkit of indicators to support spatial policy making at the local scale related to the sustainable communities agenda. This approach is based on research done through the FURBS Project (Sustainable Urban Form - Methodological Approach for Portugal), which has the objective of producing monitoring indicators of urban change in different domains and scales. The local perspective was supported by the sustainable communities concept, for its integrated analysis of urban themes and sustainability (such as housing preferences, daily mobility and social equity) developed through five case studies in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area. Various studies were conducted on different urban form typologies in order to analyse their relationship with components of sustainable communities. Through this analysis, the FURBS research team is building a toolkit that could provide a common methodological framework for use in different urban contexts, and thus help planners and other professionals intervene in complex urban systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aging forces us to rethink cities as an incentive for opportunities in the daily life of the olderly. After the pandemic confinement, it was applied a survey in the context of the GRAMPCITY Project, between 2020 and 2021, to 403 people with 65 years old or more from six study areas in Portugal -- Lisbon Metropolitan Area (LMA), subdivided into the city of Lisbon, North LMA and South LMA; adding three medium cities -- Aveiro, Coimbra and Faro and its areas of influence -- were asked about their living conditions, living spaces, housing context, relational dynamics and forms of mobility. This article aims 1) understand how the experiences of the olderly people, through their practices and problems, are aligned with what constitute aspects present in the Age-friendly cities, especially in the context of a pandemic; and 2) to identify regional differences between study areas. The results show constraints to quality aging, reinforced by the pandemic, such as: living on the top floors without access to an elevator; difficulty on walking or parking or the lack of food stores or social spaces; and the duality between the support provided by family members and neighbors in a pandemic and the decrease in visits to them. Thus, a regional differentiation in the practices and perceptions of the respondents became evident, distancing the metropolitan context from the reality of medium-sized cities, namely in terms of housing conditions, relations with the community and the impact that the pandemic brought to daily life. It is concluded that some of the studied aspects deserve greater attention for an effective promotion of the Age-Friendly City, requiring a specific vision of each territory and community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a research project that was developed in three phases based on interviews with undergraduate music education students. The research is situated in Brazil where there are few music education programs in the public fundamental school system. Data analysis addressed the concept of the wide range of musical professional identities. The data analysis moved toward developing an understanding of the relation between previous musical experience of music education students and the curriculum of the music education program. What was most clear was the students' need for time to practice their instruments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Physical activity is an important health determinant for people's quality of life and well-being. This study intends to (1) identify how the practice of physical activity fits into families' daily lives; and (2) verify to what extent the practice of physical activity is influenced by the urban model, family composition, and family perceptions. A survey was applied to 410 families (corresponding to 1006 individuals) in Lisbon Metropolitan Area (LMA), Portugal, focusing on different physical activities—gym, swimming, walking/trekking/hiking, and cycling. Results are based on descriptive and bivariate data analysis and show the existence of asymmetries in the practice of physical activity in LMA. The urban context impacts the choice and frequency of physical activity practices. The typology of family and age proved to be more differentiating factors than income, being reinforced by daily lives (e.g., daily movements, transport modes, etc.). Positive self-perceptions of quality of life and health levels are also conducive to more active practices, contrary to negative perceptions of the neighborhood that are related to practices in peripheral destinations. Conclusions highlight the need for differentiated measures of physical activity promotion according to the territories and communities' characteristics in a multilevel approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable development has become the basis of several worldwide policies over the last few decades, and its role will continue to shape policies for decades to come, especially those that are focused on urban mobility. At the same time, urban mobility is included in the framework of the Healthy Cities movement. In this context, using the Lisbon Metropolitan Area (LMA), Portugal, as the study area, this article intends to answer the following research question: are sustainable urban mobility policies contributing to healthy cities? Urban mobility planning and public health instruments were compared with the discourses and practices of those responsible for the implementation of urban mobility policies and Healthy Cities projects. The results reveal that a large number of responses proposed in the mobility planning instruments are, to some extent, related to the principles of healthy cities. Also, while municipal agents tend not to consider the inclusion of those principles, they instead incorporate the concepts of sustainable development. Nevertheless, we found that both approaches overlap the policy directions of healthy cities. On the other hand, public health policies and Healthy Cities projects presented a scarce number of references to its interventions in the urban mobility domain and mainly focused on the promotion of soft modes. It is concluded that, in the case of the observed municipalities of the LMA, the healthy cities framework is greatly benefited by the inclusion of sustainable development principles in all policies, especially those for urban mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]