Context-dependence of race self-classification: Results from a highly mixed and unequal middle-income country.

Ethnic-racial classification criteria are widely recognized to vary according to historical, cultural and political contexts. In Brazil, the strong influence of individual socio-economic factors on race/colour self-classification is well known. With the expansion of genomic technologies, the use of genomic ancestry has been suggested as a substitute for classification procedures such as self-declaring race, as if they represented the same concept.

Mode of Delivery in Drug-Dependent Pregnant Women: A Case Control Study.

. To determine the contribution of drug use during pregnancy to the route of delivery. .

Anabolic Effect of Insulin Therapy on the Bone: Osteoprotegerin and Osteocalcin Up-Regulation in Streptozotocin-Induced Diabetic Rats.

Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) is associated with several skeletal alterations, particularly in conditions of poor glycaemic control. Insulin therapy is the major conservative treatment for T1DM; however, the effects of this hormone on bone markers of T1DM rats are limited, and the regulatory mechanisms remain elusive. Therefore, the evaluation of molecular and non-molecular parameters in a chronic animal model of T1DM-induced bone loss, treated with and without insulin, may help in elucidating the insulin mechanisms.

Public perceptions of personalised nutrition through the lens of Social Cognitive Theory.

Social Cognitive Theory has been used to explain findings derived from focus group discussions ( N = 4) held in the United Kingdom with the aim of informing best practice in personalised nutrition. Positive expectancies included weight loss and negative expectancies surrounded on-line security. Monitoring and feedback were crucial to goal setting and progress.

Fruit and vegetable consumption in a sample of 11-year-old children in ten European countries--the PRO GREENS cross-sectional survey.

Objective: To describe fruit and vegetable intake of 11-year-old children in ten European countries and compare it with current dietary guidelines.

Design: Cross-sectional survey. Intake was assessed using a previously validated questionnaire containing a pre-coded 24 h recall and an FFQ which were completed in the classroom.

Dietary availability in elderly Portuguese households.

Objective: To identify dietary availability and its time trends in elderly Portuguese households.

Design: A set of four cross-sectional studies based on the Household Budget Surveys was used. The dietary data were described using the daily per capita availability of food and beverages, energy and selected nutrients (macronutrients, different lipid fractions and simple sugars).

Does eating family meals and having the television on during dinner correlate with overweight? A sub-study of the PRO GREENS project, looking at children from nine European countries.

Objective: Family meals have been negatively associated with overweight in children, while television (TV) viewing during meals has been associated with a poorer diet. The aim of the present study was to assess the association of eating family breakfast and dinner, and having a TV on during dinner, with overweight in nine European countries and whether these associations differed between Northern and Southern & Eastern Europe.

Design: Cross-sectional data.

Factors influencing European consumer uptake of personalised nutrition. Results of a qualitative analysis.

The aim of this research was to explore consumer perceptions of personalised nutrition and to compare these across three different levels of "medicalization": lifestyle assessment (no blood sampling); phenotypic assessment (blood sampling); genomic assessment (blood and buccal sampling). The protocol was developed from two pilot focus groups conducted in the UK. Two focus groups (one comprising only "older" individuals between 30 and 60 years old, the other of adults 18-65 yrs of age) were run in the UK, Spain, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Germany (N=16).

Association between parenting styles and own fruit and vegetable consumption among Portuguese mothers of school children.

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the association between parenting styles and own fruit and vegetable consumption among Portuguese mothers of school children. A cross-sectional study was performed in Portugal as part of the Pro Children cross-sectional European survey. Portuguese mothers (n 1601) of 11-13-year-old school children were included in the present study.

Attitudes toward genetic testing and personalised nutrition in a representative sample of European consumers.

Negative consumer opinion poses a potential barrier to the application of nutrigenomic intervention. The present study has aimed to determine attitudes toward genetic testing and personalised nutrition among the European public. An omnibus opinion survey of a representative sample aged 14-55+ years (n 5967) took place in France, Italy, Great Britain, Portugal, Poland and Germany during June 2005 as part of the Lipgene project.

Bowel wall thickening in children: CT findings.

A wide variety of bowel diseases, some of which are unique to or more prevalent in pediatric patients, may manifest with intestinal wall thickening at computed tomography (CT). Common causes of bowel wall thickening include edema, hemorrhage, infection, graft-versus-host disease, and inflammatory bowel disease; more unusual causes include immunodeficiencies, lymphoma, hemangioma, pseudotumor, and Langerhans cell histiocytosis. Radiologists must be familiar with the CT signs of bowel disease and should take careful note of the bowel characteristics (eg, extent and distribution of disease involvement, bowel dilatation, mural stratification, perienteric findings) to generate an adequate differential diagnosis.

Postrenal transplantation body composition: different evolution depending on gender.

Objective: Patients receiving regular hemodialysis have a lower body mass index, which is mainly caused by the reduction of fat mass and body cell mass (BCM) and the accompanying extracellular water (ECW) expansion. Kidney transplant (Tx) recipients normally regain subnormal renal filtration, and they must cope with significant therapeutic-associated metabolic side effects, which may compromise the recovery of normal nutritional status. We investigated the influence of renal function recovery on body fluid composition during the first period post-Tx, when immunosuppressive drugs doses are at their highest.

Imaging findings after breast brachytherapy.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine whether there are imaging changes specific to partial breast radiation therapy with interstitial catheters or a single balloon.

Materials And Methods: The records of 43 of 83 patients treated with partial breast irradiation at our institution from June 1996 to October 2003 were retrospectively reviewed. The images of 27 patients who had received radiation by interstitial catheters and 16 who had received radiation by a single balloon were reviewed.

[Body mass index: sensitivity and specificity].

Introduction: Self-reported height and weight data have been used in several studies with the purpose of determining the prevalence of overweight and obesity. Despite being a simple methodology, little information exists about the reliability of these measures, namely, in university students. The objective of this study was to determine the sensitivity and specificity of self-reported body mass index (BMI) to evaluate the prevalence of overweight and obesity in university students.

Validity and reproducibility of a precoded questionnaire to assess fruit and vegetable intake in European 11- to 12-year-old schoolchildren.

Background/aims: Validity and reproducibility were evaluated of a new questionnaire to assess fruit and vegetable intakes in 11- to 12-year-old children.

Methods: The precoded teacher-assisted self-administered questionnaire included two sections: a 24-hour recall part and a food frequency part. Validity was tested in 4 countries (Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Portugal; n = 43-60 per country) using a 1-day weighed food record and 7-day food records as reference methods.

[Validity assessment of a food frequency questionnaire by comparison with a 4-day diet record].

When dietary methods are used to evaluate nutritional intake, it is important to know which methods are most appropriate to ensure validity in nutrient intake studies. Our main objective was to assess the validity of a semi-quantitative food-frequency questionnaire (FFQ) developed for Portuguese adults by comparing nutrient intake (energy and 44 nutrients) assessed by FFQ with the nutritional data from a four-day diet record (DR). The FFQ was developed by the Epidemiology Department, Faculty of Medicine, University of Porto, and allowed the subjects to indicate their daily, weekly or monthly intake of 89 foods.

Cyclosporine enhances salt sensitivity of body water composition as assessed by impedance among psoriatic patients with normal renal function.

Objective: Cyclosporine (CsA) therapy may be accompanied by a significant increase in blood pressure, either sodium (Na+) independent or Na+ dependent. The relationship between Na+ intake and body water distribution among patients treated with CsA has not been evaluated. We report the study, by bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA), of water composition changes after dietary salt manipulations both before and during CsA treatment of psoriatic patients.

Bioimpedance analysis highlights changes in body composition at the early stages of impairment of kidney transplant function.

Objective: Kidney transplantation restores renal filtration, although it does not achieve the function of 2 native kidneys, and with time it may involute back to chronic renal failure. We hypothesized that bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) might highlight differences for body compartments among kidney transplants (Tx) with different filtration rates.

Methods: Thirty transplantation patients (19 male, 11 female) were studied at 62.

Erythrocyte damage and leukocyte activation in ischemic stroke.

Background: The traditional lipid risk factors can only predict some of the cardiovascular events. Our work has focused on new potential biological markers of risk, namely leukocyte activation and erythrocyte membrane damage, in ischemic stroke cases.

Methods: Besides the traditional lipid profile, we evaluated the plasma levels of elastase and lactoferrin as markers of leukocyte activation, and membrane band 3 protein profile and membrane bound hemoglobin as markers of erythrocyte damage.