"The needs of women in the postpartum period: A scoping review.".

Background: The postpartum period is critical and challenging for women, implying emotional, physical, social and spiritual changes. For a positive postpartum experience, it is important to receive consistent information and support from health professionals. However, this is not always the case, as care is more focused on the newborn, forgetting the needs of the puerperal woman.

Parents' Needs When Experiencing the Transition to Twin Parenthood.

(1) Background: The transition to twin parenthood is a demanding challenge with a higher risk of maternal and fetal complications during pregnancy and a postpartum period that involves caring for more than one newborn at the same time with similar and simultaneous needs. (2) Aim: To find out about parents' needs when experiencing the transition to twin parenthood and to describe the intervention of their specialized nursing support network. (3) Methodology: A descriptive exploratory study, based on a proper non-probabilistic sample of 15 nurses and 55 couples who are parents of twins, using two online questionnaires publicized on social networks.

On the role of syllable structure in atypical phonological development: Evidence from the acquisition of /l/ by Portuguese children.

The alveolar lateral is phonetically and phonologically complex. Previous studies have shown that /l/ is one of the last segments to be acquired by typically developing Portuguese children. However, little is known about how Portuguese children with atypical development acquire /l/.

Life beyond Loss: A Retrospective Analysis of the Impact of Meaning of Life Therapy on the Grieving Process of Cancer Patients' Family Caregivers.

Oncological disease in the palliative stage is a huge challenge for patients and their family caregivers (FCs) due to the fact that it confronts them with death, as well as physical, psychological, and existential suffering. Meaning of Life Therapy (MLT) is a brief structured psycho-existential intervention aiming to help patients in a meaning-making life review process, promoting end-of-life adaptation. The Life Letter (LL) resulting from MLT is an element that facilitates communication between the patient and their caregivers.

Protracted phonological development of a Portuguese six-year-old from the perspective of nonlinear phonology.

As a contribution to a special issue with individual profiles in protracted phonological development (PPD), we present a European Portuguese-speaking six-year-old, "Vicente". By age six years, Portuguese-learning children have generally mastered most of the phonology. However, Vicente showed severe persisting PPD, which was negatively impacting his general socialisation.

Direct Costs of COVID-19 Inpatient Admissions in a Portuguese Tertiary Care University Centre.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has posed greater financial pressure on health systems and institutions that had to respond to the specific needs of COVID-19 patients while ensuring the safety of the diagnosis and treatment of all patients and healthcare professionals. To assess the financial impact of COVID-19 patients admitted to hospitals, we have characterized the cost of COVID-19 admissions, using inpatient data from a Portuguese Tertiary Care University Centre.

Methods: We analysed inpatient data from adult patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who were admitted between March 1, 2020 and May 31, 2020.

Disruption of protein phosphatase 1 complexes with the use of bioportides as a novel approach to target sperm motility.

Objective: To design protein phosphatase 1 (PP1)-disrupting peptides covalently coupled to inert cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) as sychnologically organized bioportide constructs as a strategy to modulate sperm motility.

Design: Experimental study.

Setting: Academic research laboratory.

Design, synthesis and biological evaluation of pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidine-based protein kinase D inhibitors.

The multiple roles of protein kinase D (PKD) in various cancer hallmarks have been repeatedly reported. Therefore, the search for novel PKD inhibitors and their evaluation as antitumor agents has gained considerable attention. In this work, novel pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidine based pan-PKD inhibitors with structural variety at position 1 were synthesized and evaluated for biological activity.

Profiling Signaling Proteins in Sertoli Cells by Co-immunoprecipitation.

Sertoli cells are crucial for germ cell support, create a suitable environment for spermatogenesis, and integrate information from the nervous system and germ cell line. To fully understand the role of Sertoli cells, it is necessary to characterize the protein-protein interactions. Identifying the interactome of a given protein may provide leads about the role and molecular mechanism of such protein in Sertoli cells.

Sertoli Cell Preparation for Co-immunoprecipitation.

Most techniques to study protein-protein interactions, gene expression or signal transduction, among others, in Sertoli cells, depend on obtaining a protein extract of such cells. This is accomplished by lysing the Sertoli cells and solubilizing the intracellular proteins. Depending on the purpose of your study, the technique used to lyse and consequently obtain protein extracts from Sertoli cells must be considered.

[Use of bronchial blocker in emergent thoracotomy in presence of upper airway hemorrhage, and cervical spine fracture: a difficult decision].

Female, 85 y.o., weighting 60 kg, multiple trauma patient.

Signaling mechanisms in mammalian sperm motility.

The goal of sperm is to fertilize the oocyte. To achieve that purpose, it must acquire motility in the epididymis and hyperactivated motility in the female reproductive tract. Motility is only achieved when the sperm presents a fully functional flagellum, is capable of producing energy to fuel the movement, and suffers epididymal maturation and capacitation.

Study on the short-term effects of increased alcohol and cigarette consumption in healthy young men's seminal quality.

Many studies have reported a negative impact of lifestyle factors on testicular function, spermatozoa parameters and pituitary-gonadal axis. However, conclusions are difficult to draw, since studies in the general population are rare. In this study we intended to address the early and late short-term impact of acute lifestyle alterations on young men's reproductive function.

Unravelling the Power of Omics for the Infertile Aging Male.

The aging phenomenon is intrinsically responsible for diseases and lifestyle-associated conditions afflicting the aging male. In particular, male infertility seems to result from deleterious lifestyle choices. However, the aging effect at the individual gene/protein level is poorly discussed and valuable information is certainly missing.

Non-stop lab week: A real laboratory experience for life sciences postgraduate courses.

At the Portuguese universities, practical classes of life sciences are usually professor-centered 2-hour classes. This approach results in students underprepared for a real work environment in a research/clinical laboratory. To provide students with a real-life laboratory environment, the Non-Stop Lab Week (NSLW) was created in the Molecular Biomedicine master program at the University of Aveiro, Portugal.

Physical Activity, Exercise, and Mammalian Testis Function: Emerging Preclinical Protein Biomarker and Integrative Biology Insights.

Exercise and physical activity have long been recognized for health promotion and to delay the onset of many pathological situations such as diabetes and cancers. Still, there appears to be an upper limit on the beneficial health effects regarding intensity and frequency of exercise training. In humans, the effect of exercise training in the male reproductive system has been studied mainly through the analysis of semen quality parameters, with inconsistent results.

Profiling signaling proteins in human spermatozoa: biomarker identification for sperm quality evaluation.

Objective: To determine the correlation between semen basic parameters and the expression and activity of signaling proteins.

Design: In vitro studies with human spermatozoa.

Setting: Academic research institute.

The power of the yeast two-hybrid system in the identification of novel drug targets: building and modulating PPP1 interactomes.

Since the description of the yeast two-hybrid (Y2H) method, it has become more and more evident that it is the most commonly used method to identify protein-protein interactions (PPIs). The improvements in the original Y2H methodology in parallel with the idea that PPIs are promising drug targets, offer an excellent opportunity to apply the principles of this molecular biology technique to the pharmaceutical field. Additionally, the theoretical developments in the networks field make PPI networks very useful frameworks that facilitate many discoveries in biomedicine.

TGF-β cascade regulation by PPP1 and its interactors -impact on prostate cancer development and therapy.

Protein phosphorylation is a key mechanism by which normal and cancer cells regulate their main transduction pathways. Protein kinases and phosphatases are precisely orchestrated to achieve the (de)phosphorylation of candidate proteins. Indeed, cellular health is dependent on the fine-tune of phosphorylation systems, which when deregulated lead to cancer.

TCTEX1D4 interactome in human testis: unraveling the function of dynein light chain in spermatozoa.

Studies were designed to identify the TCTEX1D4 interactome in human testis, with the purpose of unraveling putative protein complexes essential to male reproduction and thus novel TCTEX1D4 functions. TCTEX1D4 is a dynein light chain that belongs to the DYNT1/TCTEX1 family. In spermatozoa, it appears to be important to sperm motility, intraflagellar transport, and acrosome reaction.

TCTEX1D4, a novel protein phosphatase 1 interactor: connecting the phosphatase to the microtubule network.

Reversible phosphorylation plays an important role as a mechanism of intracellular control in eukaryotes. PPP1, a major eukaryotic Ser/Thr-protein phosphatase, acquires its specificity by interacting with different protein regulators, also known as PPP1 interacting proteins (PIPs). In the present work we characterized a physiologically relevant PIP in testis.

[Identification of therapeutic and diagnostic targets through yeast two hybrid system: molecular biology in medicine].

In the last decades, molecular biology development was driven medicine, mainly in identification of novel therapeutic and diagnostics targets. In cells, proteins are the main responsible for the functioning of all cellular processes, from DNA synthesis to RNA and protein production, transport of cellular components and structural composition of the cell. Proteins are also an important component of signaling pathways between cells.

Grammar and frequency effects in the acquisition of prosodic words in European Portuguese.

This paper investigates the acquisition of prosodic words in European Portuguese (EP) through analysis of grammatical and statistical properties of the target language and child speech. The analysis of grammatical properties shows that there are solid cues to the prosodic word (PW) in EP, and the presence of early word-based phonology in child speech shows that EP children are aware of these cues. It is thus hypothesized that grammatical properties could play a role in the development of the PW by promoting the early production of the different word shapes found in the language.