Publications by authors named "Gaspar I"

Objective: To analyze the content published in the Proceedings of the 71st Brazilian Nursing Congress and the 20th National Research Seminar in the field of sexual and reproductive health.

Method: Qualitative, descriptive study, whose data sources were the annalsof two 2019 events that were related to Sexual and Reproductive Health. Content analysis and lexical typology were carried out with the aid of the IRAMUTEq® software.

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Introduction: In 2018, the Mozambique Ministry of Health launched guidelines for implementing differentiated service delivery models (DSDMs) to optimize HIV service delivery, improve retention in care, and ultimately reduce HIV-associated mortality. The models were fast-track, 3-month antiretrovirals dispensing, community antiretroviral therapy groups, adherence clubs, family approach and three one-stop shop models: adolescent-friendly health services, maternal and child health, and tuberculosis. We conducted a cost-effectiveness analysis and budget impact analysis to compare these models to conventional services.

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  • Fear learning is crucial for survival, but traumatic experiences can lead to excessive fear responses, as seen in PTSD, through abnormal fear consolidation and overgeneralization.* -
  • Research examined the role of adenosine A receptors (AR) in fear memory; blocking these receptors after fear conditioning increased fear generalization, while activating them reduced it.* -
  • Findings indicate that ARs influence long-term potentiation in key brain areas during fear consolidation, suggesting they could be a target for treatments addressing fear-related disorders like PTSD.*
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Background: HIV treatment has been available in Mozambique since 2004, but coverage of, and retention in, antiretroviral therapy (ART) remain suboptimal. Therefore, to increase health system efficiency and reduce HIV-associated mortality, in November, 2018, the Ministry of Health launched national guidelines on implementing eight differentiated service delivery models (DSDMs) for HIV treatment. We assessed the effect of this implementation on retention in ART 12 months after initiation, and explored the associated effects of COVID-19.

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Regulated recruitment and activity of motor proteins is essential for intracellular transport of cargoes, including messenger ribonucleoprotein complexes (RNPs). Here, we show that orchestration of oskar RNP transport in the Drosophila germline relies on interplay between two double-stranded RNA-binding proteins, Staufen and the dynein adaptor Egalitarian (Egl). We find that Staufen antagonizes Egl-mediated transport of oskar mRNA by dynein both in vitro and in vivo.

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  • - The study analyzed 6,187 pediatric patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), focusing on minimal residual disease (MRD) assessment through flow cytometry (FCM) and the effects of different methotrexate (MTX) doses on survival rates.
  • - Key findings revealed that 5-year event-free survival (EFS) rates were 75.2%, with variations based on risk groups: standard risk (90.7%), intermediate risk (77.9%), and high risk (60.8%).
  • - Results indicated that MRD could be effectively assessed with FCM, and that while both MTX doses tested were similarly effective, the augmented treatment protocol showed no significant survival benefits over the standard
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Lower HMW (high molecular weight) adiponectin levels are associated with obesity, insulin resistance, and metabolic syndrome in children and adolescents. However, data on HMW levels in pediatric population with hypertension are lacking. This study aimed to examine the association and predictive capacity of HMW levels, HMW/HOMA-IR, and HMW/APN ratio with hypertension in obese children and adolescents.

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Introduction: In 2018, Mozambique's Ministry of Health launched a guideline for a nationwide implementation of eight differentiated service delivery models to optimize HIV service delivery and achieve universal coverage of HIV care and treatment. The models were (1) Fast-track, (2) Three-month Antiretrovirals Dispensing, (3) Community Antiretroviral Therapy Groups, (4) Adherence Clubs, (5) Family-approach, and three one-stop shop models for (6) Tuberculosis, (7) Maternal and Child Health, and (8) Adolescent-friendly Health Services. This study identified drivers of implementation success and failure across these differentiated service delivery models.

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  • Caffeine intake antagonizes adenosine receptors and provides neuroprotection against neurological disorders.
  • Caffeinated male mice showed no significant differences in behavior or synaptic plasticity compared to control mice, indicating caffeine doesn't adversely affect these functions.
  • Despite similar behavioral outcomes, caffeine increased the metabolic efficiency in synapses, suggesting it may help the brain cope with stress without altering fundamental neural functions.
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  • Life starts with a shift in genetic control from the mother to the embryo during a process called zygotic genome activation (ZGA), which is crucial but not fully understood in mammals.
  • Researchers found that the orphan nuclear receptor Nr5a2 plays a vital role as an activator of ZGA in mouse embryos, specifically at the two-cell stage.
  • Nr5a2 helps regulate a significant portion of ZGA genes, enhancing chromatin accessibility and binding DNA to facilitate gene activation.
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Introduction: The potential disruption in antiretroviral therapy (ART) services in Africa at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic raised concern for increased morbidity and mortality among people living with HIV (PLHIV). We describe HIV treatment trends before and during the pandemic and interventions implemented to mitigate COVID-19 impact among countries supported by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) through the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

Methods: We analysed quantitative and qualitative data reported by 10,387 PEPFAR-CDC-supported ART sites in 19 African countries between October 2019 and March 2021.

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Eukaryotic genomes are compacted into loops and topologically associating domains (TADs), which contribute to transcription, recombination and genomic stability. Cohesin extrudes DNA into loops that are thought to lengthen until CTCF boundaries are encountered. Little is known about whether loop extrusion is impeded by DNA-bound machines.

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The evolutionary origin of metazoan cell types such as neurons and muscles is not known. Using whole-body single-cell RNA sequencing in a sponge, an animal without nervous system and musculature, we identified 18 distinct cell types. These include nitric oxide–sensitive contractile pinacocytes, amoeboid phagocytes, and secretory neuroid cells that reside in close contact with digestive choanocytes that express scaffolding and receptor proteins.

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Introduction: Dolutegravir-based antiretroviral therapy (ART) is increasingly being used as the preferred first-line regimen for the treatment of HIV in low-income and middle-income countries. The National Program for the Control of STI/HIV/AIDS in Mozambique has planned a phased introduction of the tenofovir/lamivudine/dolutegravir (TLD) regimen. In 2019, concerns about a potential safety signal identified with dolutegravir identified in the results of the Tsepamo study, conducted in Botswana, led the National Directorate of Pharmacy and the National Program for the Control of STI/HIV/AIDS to establish an active pharmacovigilance surveillance system among newly placed patients on a TLD regimen.

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  • Increasing cancer survival rates have led to more cancer patients being admitted to ICUs, prompting a need to assess their outcomes compared to non-cancer patients.
  • A study analyzed 236 oncological patients admitted to a polyvalent ICU from 2013 to 2017, finding that hematological patients experienced worse outcomes, longer ICU stays, and higher treatment requirements than solid tumor patients.
  • The study concluded that the SAPS II and APACHE II scores effectively predict mortality in cancer patients, with a survival rate of 48% at six months being higher than previously reported.
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Objectives: Adherence clubs (AC) offer patient-centred access to antiretroviral therapy (ART) while reducing the burden on health facilities. AC were implemented in a health centre in Mozambique specialising in patients with a history of HIV treatment failure. We explored the impact of AC on retention in care and VL suppression of these patients.

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  • - Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) is a genetic condition affecting 1 in 200 to 250 people globally, causing severe health risks due to lack of diagnosis and treatment, with only 10% of cases being identified.
  • - The World Health Organization designated FH as a public health priority in 1998 and issued 11 recommendations to improve its diagnosis, treatment, and awareness, but there has been minimal progress in their implementation over the last two decades.
  • - In 2018, the FH Foundation and World Heart Federation held meetings to update these recommendations by gathering input from international stakeholders across various income regions to address gaps and enhance FH management.
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Autophagy ensures the turnover of cytoplasm and requires the coordinated action of Atg proteins, some of which also have moonlighting functions in higher eukaryotes. Here we show that the transmembrane protein Atg9 is required for female fertility, and its loss leads to defects in actin cytoskeleton organization in the ovary and enhances filopodia formation in neurons in Drosophila. Atg9 localizes to the plasma membrane anchor points of actin cables and is also important for the integrity of the cortical actin network.

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The molecular events that direct nuclear pore complex (NPC) assembly toward nuclear envelopes have been conceptualized in two pathways that occur during mitosis or interphase, respectively. In gametes and embryonic cells, NPCs also occur within stacked cytoplasmic membrane sheets, termed annulate lamellae (AL), which serve as NPC storage for early development. The mechanism of NPC biogenesis at cytoplasmic membranes remains unknown.

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Objective: Treatment limitation, as well as do-not-resuscitate (DNR) directives, are difficult but important to improve patients' quality of life and minimize dysthanasia. We aimed to study the approach to withholding, withdrawal, and DNR decisions, patients' characteristics, and process documentation in a general Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in Portugal.

Methods: A retrospective analysis of data regarding the limitation of treatment decisions collected from previously-designed forms and complemented by medical record consultation.

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mRNA transport restricts translation to specific subcellular locations, which is the basis for many cellular functions. However, the precise process of mRNA sorting to synapses in neurons remains elusive. Here we use Rgs4 mRNA to investigate 3'-UTR-dependent transport by MS2 live-cell imaging.

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Throughout metazoans, Staufen (Stau) proteins are core factors of mRNA localization particles. They consist of three to four double-stranded RNA binding domains (dsRBDs) and a C-terminal dsRBD-like domain. Mouse Staufen2 (mStau2)-like Drosophila Stau (dmStau) contains four dsRBDs.

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Familial hypercholesterolemia is an Mendelian dominant disorder characterized by defects of the low density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR) that result in a defective removal of LDL from plasma, which promotes deposition of cholesterol in the skin (xanthelasma), tendons (xanthomas), and arteries (atherosclerosis). Diagnosis severe clinical phenotype FH with Dutch Lipid Clinic Network Criteria, encompassing history of premature ASCVD, tendon xanthomas, and a family history of hypercholesterolemia and premature ASCVD in relatives is rare in the Portuguese FH patients. There is a variability of the phenotype in FH individuals with clinical diagnosis or genetic mutation (carriers and patients) probably due to environmental factors in the last century, a Mediterranean diet, or a diet without fat food, trans fat food, no smoking, no sedentary life that can interfere with our metabolism, or are consequences of polygenic, epigenetic, acquired defects, modifiers genes and beta-globin asymptomatic carriers.

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Site-specific modification of synthetic and cellular RNA such as with specific nucleobases, fluorophores and attachment chemistries is important for a variety of basic and applied research applications. However, simple and efficient methods to modify RNA such as at the 3' terminus with specific nucleobases or nucleotide analogs conjugated to various chemical moieties are lacking. Here, we develop and characterize a one-step enzymatic method to modify RNA 3' termini using recombinant human polymerase theta (Polθ).

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Classification, staging and treatment response criteria of pediatric NHL have been revised. Long-term survival reaches ~90% at the expense of severe acute toxicities. The outcome of refractory and relapsed cases is poor.

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