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This qualitative investigation explored the social and academic experiences of socially anxious adolescents and young adults in Portugal and the US as they lived through the restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants were 10 Portuguese adolescents (mean age = 16.9 years; 50% female) and 7 young adults in the US (mean age = 19.67 years; 71% female; racially/ethnically diverse). Participants completed a semi-structured interview evaluating how the pandemic and social restrictions impacted social anxiety symptoms and associated functional impairment in social and academic domains. Thematic analysis was used to categorize responses across developmental stages and countries. Findings show consistent patterns across cultures, with symptoms of SAD extending to virtual contexts. Participants reported avoidance behaviors that were reinforced by social distancing mandates and declines in academic engagement during remote learning. Anticipatory anxiety about the return to normal social routines was also evident. Schools should be aware of the impact of social confinement on socially anxious students as they return to in person school schedules and social demands.

Impact of nonbiological factors (NBF) on survival was investigated in a large cohort of adolescents and young adults (AYA) with lymphoma in the US. We found that uninsured and Medicaid AYA beneficiaries with classical Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL) and non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) are at significantly increased risk of death when compared with their insured counterpart even after adjustment for other factors affecting survival. NHL AYA patients residing in lower income counties are at increased risk of death. The strong association of NBF with survival indicates opportunities to improve survival of AYA lymphoma patients by improving access/quality of care in the US.

Self-compassion is associated with healthy ageing and may be a protection factor of older adults' mental health in face of negative life events and other factors such as insecure attachment. However, fear of self-compassion may constitute an obstacle to promoting self-compassion. The role of self-compassion on the psychological (mal)adjustment of older adults requires further research with robust designs, and fear of self-compassion has not been studied in this population. We will test the moderator and mediator role, respectively, of self-compassion and fear of self-compassion, and we will analyse the longitudinal developmental trajectories of these variables.A repeated-measures design with three data collection moments across 6 months, using a sample (180-200 participants) of community residents aged ≥65 years. Data will be collected using traditional (i.e. pencil-and-paper questionnaires) and online (i.e. Google Forms) methods. Path analyses will be conducted to test moderation and mediation models. Latent growth curve analyses will be conducted to study the within-person change and between-person differences in change over time of self-compassion and fear of self-compassion.We expect that participants with higher self-compassion will show better psychological adjustment, regardless of attachment quality and negative life events. We expect that insecure attachment and more negative life events will increase the participants' fear of self-compassion, which will decrease their psychological adjustment. Additionally, we expect that self-compassion and fear of self-compassion will show stable developmental trajectories during 6 months. Our results will contribute to better understand protection factors of older adults' mental health, which may guide future psychological interventions.

A landmark event in the transition from interphase to mitosis in metazoans is nuclear envelope breakdown (NEBD). Many events important for mitosis occur prior to NEBD, including condensation of replicated chromosomes and assembly of kinetochores to rapidly engage spindle microtubules. Here we show that nuclear-enriched protein phosphatase 4 (PP4) ensures robust assembly of the microtubule-coupling outer kinetochore prior to NEBD. In the absence of PP4, chromosomes exhibit extended monopolar orientation after NEBD and subsequently mis-segregate. A secondary consequence of diminished outer kinetochore assembly is defective sister chromatid resolution. After NEBD, a cytoplasmic activity compensates for PP4 loss, leading to outer kinetochore assembly and recovery of chromosomes from monopolar orientation to significant biorientation. The Ndc80-Ska microtubule-binding module of the outer kinetochore is required for this recovery. PP4 associates with the inner kinetochore protein CENP-C; however, disrupting the PP4–CENP-C interaction does not perturb chromosome segregation. These results establish that PP4-dependent outer kinetochore assembly prior to NEBD is critical for timely and proper engagement of chromosomes with spindle microtubules.

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Engenharia e Gestão de Sistemas de Informação, Os avanços nas tecnologias de sequenciação como Next Generation Sequencing permitiram sequenciar o DNA de uma forma mais rápida e barata, o que permitiu aumentar rapidamente a geração de dados. Estas têm vindo a revolucionar a compreensão da biologia humana, tornando-se uma ferramenta fulcral na rotina dos peritos do domínio genómico. No entanto, os métodos de processamento tradicional não são suficientes nem escaláveis para um contexto de Big Data. Trabalho prévio anterior permitiu constatar que existem plataformas para a extração, transformação e integração de dados genómicos, mas que não estão preparadas para lidar com a heterogeneidade deste domínio uma vez que existem muitos padrões e formatos diferentes, com a dispersão pois existem centenas de diferentes de bases de dados genómicas relevantes e com a falta de interoperabilidade pois todos estes dados são difíceis de integrar ou de interconectar. Apesar da relevância dos trabalhos desenvolvidos, estes não estão preparados para o processamento distribuído de dados nem para o elevado volume de dados que os contextos de Big Data exigem. Neste sentido, o processamento em contextos de Big Data pode ser aplicado a este domínio genómico, a fim de ultrapassar estas limitações uma vez que as tecnologias de Big Data permitem processar dados de múltiplos formatos e estruturas utilizando, por exemplo, o sistema de ficheiros distribuído HDFS e os paradigmas de processamento de dados distribuídos MapReduce e Spark. Esta dissertação adotou técnicas e tecnologias Big Data com o intuito de estender o trabalho desenvolvido pelos investigadores do PROS Research Center, com um enquadramento concetual e tecnológico mais eficiente, escalável e flexível, sendo o principal foco propor e implementar uma plataforma que seja capaz de extrair, transformar e integrar dados genómicos de forma automática, partindo do conhecimento do domínio especificado pelo utilizador. A avaliação do trabalho realizado foi feita com recurso a um caso de demonstração e permitiu verificar que a plataforma proposta e implementada permite extrair, transformar e integrar dados genómicos para análises mais personalizadas com o objetivo de suportar a tomada de decisão., The advances in sequencing technologies such as Next Generation Sequencing have made it possible to sequence DNA in a faster and cheaper way, which has allowed for a rise in data generation. These have been revolutionizing the understanding of human biology, becoming a central tool in the routine of genomic domain experts. However, traditional processing methods are neither sufficient nor scalable for a Big Data context: large volumes of data available at various levels of complexity, generated at different speeds and often without structure and organization. Previous work has shown that there are platforms for the extraction, transformation and integration of genomic data, but they are not prepared to deal with the heterogeneity of this domain since there are many different standards and formats, with the dispersion since there are hundreds of different relevant genomic databases and with the lack of interoperability since all these data are difficult to integrate or interconnect. In spite of the relevance of the work developed, these are not prepared for distributed data processing or for the high volume of data that Big Data contexts require. In this sense, processing in Big Data contexts can be applied to this genomic domain in order to overcome these limitations since Big Data technologies allow processing data of multiple formats and structures using, for example, the HDFS distributed file system and the MapReduce and Spark distributed data processing paradigms. This dissertation adopted Big Data techniques and technologies in order to extend the work developed by PROS Research Center researchers, with a conceptual and technological framework that is more efficient, scalable and flexible, being the main focus to propose and implement a platform that is able to extract, transform and integrate genomic data automatically, starting from the knowledge of the domain specified by the user. The work done was evaluated using a demonstration case and it was possible to verify that the proposed and implemented platform allows extracting, transforming and integrating genomic data for more personalized analyses in order to support decision making.

The use of serious games may be an appealing and complementary way to motivate curriculum-based social and emotional learning (SEL); still, investigation into this potential usefulness is scarce. This study aims to address the usefulness of serious games within the program ‘Me and Us of Emotions’. Specifically, we analyzed the differences in children’s satisfaction in sessions that did or did not use serious games as a complement to the intervention, explored the contribution of using serious games to the global satisfaction with the program, and explored children’s qualitative feedback regarding the sessions. The participants were 232 children (122 boys and 110 girls) aged between 8 and 12 years old (M = 9.09, SD = 0.80). The measures were based on the subjective appraisals of the sessions made by the participating children, including quantitative and qualitative assessments of the degree of satisfaction of the participants. The results showed that there were similar levels of satisfaction with the sessions that did or did not use serious games as a complement to the program. However, only satisfaction with the sessions that used serious games (and not satisfaction with the sessions that did not use them) contributed significantly to explaining both the enjoyment of the activities and the interest in the subjects. Satisfaction with serious games was significantly and positively associated with fun, easiness, ability to understand the session, and ability to cope with emotions. Qualitative analysis showed three main themes, namely: positive aspects, negative aspects, and opportunities for improvement of the program. Overall, these results indicate that children’s satisfaction with the ‘Me and Us of Emotions’ program is related to serious games, suggesting the relevance of using this complementary tool more often when intervening with younger generations.

The MAP kinase and motor scaffold JIP3 prevents excess lysosome accumulation in axons of vertebrates and invertebrates. How JIP3’s interaction with dynein and kinesin-1 contributes to organelle clearance is unclear. We show that human dynein light intermediate chain (DLIC) binds the N-terminal RH1 domain of JIP3, its paralog JIP4, and the lysosomal adaptor RILP. A point mutation in RH1 abrogates DLIC binding without perturbing the interaction between JIP3’s RH1 domain and kinesin heavy chain. Characterization of this separation-of-function mutation in Caenorhabditis elegans shows that JIP3–bound dynein is required for organelle clearance in the anterior process of touch receptor neurons. Unlike JIP3 null mutants, JIP3 that cannot bind DLIC causes prominent accumulation of endo-lysosomal organelles at the neurite tip, which is rescued by a disease-associated point mutation in JIP3’s leucine zipper that abrogates kinesin light chain binding. These results highlight that RH1 domains are interaction hubs for cytoskeletal motors and suggest that JIP3–bound dynein and kinesin-1 participate in bidirectional organelle transport.

Horizontal gaze palsy and progressive scoliosis (HGPPS) is a rare autosomal recessive disorder caused by mutations in the

Relatório de estágio realizado no âmbito do mestrado em Musicoterapia, Universidade Lusíada de Lisboa, 2022 Exame público realizado em 17 de Fevereiro de 2023 O presente relatório propõe-se a descrever a intervenção musicoterapêutica realizada no âmbito do estágio curricular do mestrado em musicoterapia da Universidade Lusíada de Lisboa. A intervenção decorreu na instituição DomusVi Dom Pedro V, em Aveiro, entre outubro de 2021 e junho de 2022. Este documento inicia com uma abordagem teórica dos conceitos de envelhecimento, idoso, patologias do idoso institucionalizado e uma reflexão sobre a musicoterapia, as suas técnicas e a sua aplicação na área da geriatria. Na segunda parte, são descritos os processos metodológicos e as intervenções musicoterapêuticas realizadas durante o estágio. Os objetivos da intervenção propostos foram proporcionar uma intervenção complementar às intervenções já propostas pela instituição, no domínio psicossocial, e potenciar as competências cognitivas e relacionais dos clientes. Oito participantes receberam entre quatro a vinte e três sessões individuais durante os 8 meses de estágio, na Estrutura Residencial Para Idosos ou na Unidade de Cuidados Continuados. Destes, são apresentados em detalhe dois estudos de caso: um de uma utente com doença de Alzheimer em estado avançado e outro de uma utente com diagnóstico de parkinsonismo neurodegenerativo e iatrogénico. As intervenções foram avaliadas com recurso a formulários de registo de sessão, análise de gravações de vídeo, à escala MiDAS-PT (Sousa et al., 2020) e a uma grelha de observação. Os resultados obtidos no final da intervenção demonstram que os objetivos propostos foram cumpridos e que a musicoterapia é uma intervenção que promove as competências relacionais e interpessoais do idoso institucionalizado. This report describes the music therapy intervention performed within the scope of the curricular internship of the master’s degree in music therapy at Universidade Lusíada de Lisboa. The intervention took place at the institution DomusVi Dom Pedro V, in Aveiro, between October 2021 and June 2022. This document begins with definitions of the concepts of aging, the elderly, the diseases which affect institutionalized elderly people and a discussion of music therapy, its techniques and its application in geriatrics. It then proceeds with descriptions of the methodological processes and the music therapy interventions. During the internship, the intervention objectives were providing a complementary intervention to those already proposed by the institution, in the psychosocial domain, and enhancing the clients' cognitive and relational skills. Eight participants received between four and twenty-three individual sessions during the 8-month internship, either in the Residential Structure for the Elderly or in the Short-Term Care Unit. Among these, two case studies are presented in detail: one of a patient with advanced Alzheimer's disease and another of a patient diagnosed with neurodegenerative and iatrogenic parkinsonism. The interventions were assessed using session registration forms, video recording analysis, the MiDAS-PT scale (Sousa et al., 2020) and an observation grid. The results obtained at the end of the intervention show that the proposed objectives were met and that music therapy is an intervention that promotes the relational and interpersonal skills of institutionalized elderly people.

Objectives Southampton Mindfulness Questionnaire (SMQ) is one of the available instruments to assess mindfulness and has been described as particularly suited for clinical populations. The original study of the SMQ conceptualized it as having four facets, but yielded a single factor structure. The aim of this study was to confirm the SMQ factor structure and examine its psychometric properties in clinical and non-clinical Portuguese samples. Methods The community sample comprised 243 participants, ranging from 18 to 77 years. Additionally, to assess sensitivity, two distinct samples were used: individuals with meditation experience (n = 30) and a clinical sample (43 individuals with psychosis). Factor structure, reliability, validity, and sensitivity analyses were performed. Results Confirmatory factor analyses of the SMQ seem to support one overarching mindfulness construct containing four facets, revealing an acceptable fit through a parceling method. Significant correlations were obtained between SMQ and another mindfulness measure, and also with measures of cognitive fusion, and positive and negative affect. Results also indicated significant differences in SMQ non-judging facet between meditators and non-meditators and clinical samples. Conclusions The results indicate that although the SMQ has shown adequate reliability and validity, some limitations to the measure have been found. Further studies are needed, particularly with clinical samples, to determine how the current SMQ version could be improved and whether it should be revised.

A Sistematizacao da Assistencia de Enfermagem (SAE) e uma metodologia cientifica desenvolvida no decorrer da pratica profissional do enfermeiro. O Processo de Enfermagem (PE) e um metodo de trabalho composto de 5 etapas que quando em conjunto com uma teoria de enfermagem direciona no planejamento da assistencia. O objetivo geral e descrever o conhecimento sobre SAE e PE dos graduandos do curso de enfermagem de uma IES privada localizada na regiao Centro Oeste. Trata-se de um estudo exploratorio-descritivo de abordagem quantitativa. Os graduandos do curso de enfermagem possuem conhecimento teorico sobre SAE e PE, e desta forma pode-se dizer que estao habilitados para desenvolverem estes processos de trabalho no futuro ambiente laboral, porem ainda e necessario estudar fatores que possam potencializar o aprendizado destes processos.

A Sistematização da Assistência de Enfermagem (SAE) é uma metodologia científica desenvolvida no decorrer da prática profissional do enfermeiro. O Processo de Enfermagem (PE) é um método de trabalho composto de 5 etapas que quando em conjunto com uma teoria de enfermagem direciona no planejamento da assistência. O objetivo geral é descrever o conhecimento sobre SAE e PE dos graduandos do curso de enfermagem de uma IES privada localizada na região Centro Oeste. Trata-se de um estudo exploratório-descritivo de abordagem quantitativa. Os graduandos do curso de enfermagem possuem conhecimento teórico sobre SAE e PE, e desta forma pode-se dizer que estão habilitados para desenvolverem estes processos de trabalho no futuro ambiente laboral, porém ainda é necessário estudar fatores que possam potencializar o aprendizado destes processos.

This study aimed to examine the mediating role of rumination, experiential avoidance, dissociation and depressive symptoms in the association between daily peer hassles and non-suicidal self-injury among adolescents. Additionally, this study explored gender differences in these associations and tested whether the proposed model was invariant across genders. The sample consisted of 776 adolescents, of them 369 are males (47.6%) and 407 are females (52.4%), aged between 12 and 18 years old from middle and high schools in Portugal. Participants completed self-report questionnaires to assess daily peer hassles, rumination in its severe component (i.e., brooding), experiential avoidance, dissociation, depressive symptoms and non-suicidal self-injury. Path analysis showed that daily peer hassles indirectly impact on non-suicidal self-injury through increased levels of brooding, experiential avoidance, dissociation, and depressive symptoms. Results indicated significant gender differences in mean scores and path analysis. Male adolescents were more likely to engage in brooding and experiential avoidance in response to external distress (particularly, daily peer hassles), whereas female adolescents were more likely to engage in non-suicidal self-injury in response to internal distress (particularly, depressive symptoms). These findings suggest relevant preventive and intervention actions to address emotion dysregulation in adolescence, by teaching them acceptance and mindfulness skills as a way of coping with stressful experiences and internal distress.

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This chapter will focus on the design of a principled learning-oriented framework for assessment at early primary level drawing on the needs of teachers working in bilingual/CLIL contexts in Portuguese schools. Resulting from action research conducted in the scope of a Master’s thesis presented at FSCH (Faculty of Social and Human Sciences) Nova Lisbon, Portugal, in 2016, the framework builds on ways of assessing both language skills and content knowledge with a view to understanding how assessment can actually promote learning. Useful guidelines and practical ideas will be presented to support teachers to incorporate assessment in their CLIL classroom practice. Learning-oriented assessment will be recommended in this framework as the assessment approach which can support CLIL teachers’ focus on progress without losing sight of achievement, thus combining formative assessment with summative assessment and always putting the learner at the heart of teaching. At the end of the chapter there will be a reflection upon the potential extensive use of the framework for assessment across education levels in the future.

Cytokinesis is the process that completes cell division by partitioning the contents of the mother cell between the two daughter cells. It involves the highly regulated assembly and constriction of an actomyosin contractile ring, whose function is to pinch the mother cell in two. Research on the contractile ring has particularly focused on the signaling mechanisms that dictate when and where the ring is formed. In vivo studies of ring constriction are however scarce and its mechanistic understanding is therefore limited. Here we present several experimental approaches for monitoring ring constriction in vivo, using the four-cell C. elegans embryo as model. These approaches allow for the ring to be perturbed only after it forms and include the combination of live imaging with acute drug treatments, temperature-sensitive mutants and rapid temperature shifts, as well as laser microsurgery. In addition, we explain how to combine these with RNAi-mediated depletion of specific components of the cytokinetic machinery.