Detection of dengue virus and chikungunya virus in wastewater in Portugal: an exploratory surveillance study.

Background: The global distribution and prevalence of arboviral diseases have increased in recent years, driven by factors such as climate change, biodiversity loss, globalisation, and urbanisation. These diseases are often underestimated due to uneven surveillance and unreported asymptomatic cases. Current surveillance relies on vector and clinical surveillance.

From Illness to Resilience: Mediating Factors of Quality of Life in Patients with Congenital Heart Disease.

Background: Congenital heart disease (CHD) is a leading cause of childhood morbidity, with an estimated prevalence of 0.8-1%. However, advances in diagnosis and treatment now allow 90% of childhood CHD patients to survive to adulthood, leading to increased interest in their quality of life (QoL).

Whipple's Disease: A Challenging Diagnosis.

Whipple's disease (WD) is a chronic multisystemic infection caused by . It is a rare condition with a wide spectrum of clinical presentations, necessitating a high clinical suspicion to arrive at the diagnosis. We present the case of a 65-year-old woman who experienced chronic, intermittent, and migratory polyarthralgia, weight loss, anorexia, and pyrosis.

A Case Report of Whipple's Disease: A Challenging Diagnosis.

Whipple's disease is caused by a ubiquitous Gram-positive bacillus, . The disease is extremely rare, with only 1,000 cases reported worldwide. Classic Whipple's disease is characterized by a multisystemic involvement with joint (arthralgias) and gastrointestinal (abdominal pain, diarrhea, and weight loss) symptoms.

Stability and Change in Adolescents' Sense of Agency: Contributions of Sex, Multiple Risk, Pandemic Stress, and Attachment to Parents.

Although literature states that individual, relational, and contextual factors contribute to adolescents' sense of agency, more research is needed to clarify and understand how adolescents develop this belief over time. The current study examined the stability/change trajectories of the sense of agency during adolescence, specifically across high school, analyzing whether attachment to parents over time, adolescents' sex, cumulative risk in baseline, and pandemic-related stress explained these trajectories. The sample included 467 Portuguese adolescents (40.

Eagle's Syndrome Presenting as Peripheral Facial Palsy.

Eagle's syndrome (ES) is the elongation of the ossified styloid process that causes symptoms such as foreign body sensation, neck pain, and odynophagia. A styloid process greater than 25 mm in length should be considered abnormal. Facial palsy is a condition that affects the facial nerve and results in weakness or total paralysis of the facial muscles that control expression.

Parental meta-emotion, attachment to parents, and personal agency in adolescents.

Guided by attachment theory, we explored in the present study the links between parental emotion-coaching, attachment to parents, and adolescent's sense of agency. Further, we examined a possible mediating role of adolescent's attachment to parents in the association between parental emotion-coaching and sense of agency. All models control for cumulative psychosocial risk, and adolescents' sex and age, and take into account the reports of both mothers and fathers.

Case Report: Pure Red Cell Aplasia due to Angioimmunoblastic T-Cell Lymphoma.

Pure red cell aplasia (PRCA) is a rare bone marrow failure characterized by a progressive normocytic anemia and reticulocytopenia without leukopenia and thrombocytopenia. It can be associated with various hematological disorders but exceedingly rarely with angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma (AITL). We report the case of a 72-year-old woman with PRCA associated with AITL.

[Short-term neonatal outcomes of vacuum-assisted delivery. A case-control study].

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to assess the neonatal morbidity and mortality associated with vacuum-assisted vaginal deliveries compared to all other vaginal deliveries, and to identify the associated risk factors.

Material And Methods: We conducted a retrospective case-control study in a level iii maternity hospital between 2012 and 2016, including 1,802 vacuum-assisted vaginal deliveries and 2control groups: 1802 spontaneous deliveries and 909 forceps-assisted deliveries. We considered minor complications (soft tissue trauma, cephalohaematoma, jaundice, intensive phototherapy, transient brachial plexus injury) and major complications (hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy, intracranial and subgaleal haemorrhage, seizures, cranial fracture, permanent brachial plexus injury), admission to the neonatal intensive care unit and death.

A LysM Domain Intervenes in Sequential Protein-Protein and Protein-Peptidoglycan Interactions Important for Spore Coat Assembly in .

At a late stage in spore development in , the mother cell directs synthesis of a layer of peptidoglycan known as the cortex between the two forespore membranes, as well as the assembly of a protective protein coat at the surface of the forespore outer membrane. SafA, the key determinant of inner coat assembly, is first recruited to the surface of the developing spore and then encases the spore under the control of the morphogenetic protein SpoVID. SafA has a LysM peptidoglycan-binding domain, SafA, and localizes to the cortex-coat interface in mature spores.

SpoVID functions as a non-competitive hub that connects the modules for assembly of the inner and outer spore coat layers in Bacillus subtilis.

During sporulation in Bacillus subtilis, a group of mother cell-specific proteins guides the assembly of the coat, a multiprotein structure that protects the spore and influences many of its environmental interactions. SafA and CotE behave as party hubs, governing assembly of the inner and outer coat layers. Targeting of coat proteins to the developing spore is followed by encasement.

Contraception in adolescents with intellectual disability.

Objectives: The aims of the study were to investigate the reasons for first gynaecological consultation in adolescents with intellectual disability (ID) and assess how contraception is prescribed with regard to the different contraceptive methods, their medical indications, adverse effects and compliance, in comparison with a group of adolescents without ID.

Methods: A retrospective case-control study was conducted among 200 adolescents with ID (group A) and a control group of 200 adolescents without ID (group B).

Results: The main reasons for gynaecological consultation in group A were 'need for contraception' (46.

The role of ultrasound in the prediction of birth weight discordance in twin pregnancies: are we there yet?

Objective: To analyze the accuracy of ultrasound prediction of birth weight discordance (BWD) and the influence of chorionicity and fetal growth restriction (FGR) on ultrasound performance.

Methods: Retrospective analysis of 176 twin pregnancies at a Portuguese tertiary center, between 2008 and 2014. Last ultrasound biometry was recorded.

Cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the Quebec Back Pain Disability Scale to European Portuguese language.

Study Design: Cross-cultural adaptation and psychometric testing.

Objective: To conduct the cross-cultural adaptation of the Quebec Back Pain Disability Scale (QBPDS) and investigate its reliability and validity in patients with chronic low back pain (CLBP).

Summary Of Background Data: The QBPDS is one of the most commonly used scales to evaluate functional incapacity resulting from low back pain.

Physical interaction between coat morphogenetic proteins SpoVID and CotE is necessary for spore encasement in Bacillus subtilis.

Endospore formation by Bacillus subtilis is a complex and dynamic process. One of the major challenges of sporulation is the assembly of a protective, multilayered, proteinaceous spore coat, composed of at least 70 different proteins. Spore coat formation can be divided into two distinct stages.