Publications by authors named "Varela P"

Introduction The literature highlights the crucial role of midwives in assessing and managing perinatal mental health and in providing information to women about related issues. However, research also indicates significant gaps in midwives' knowledge and skills needed to fulfill this role. Data suggest that while midwives are interested in providing mental health support, they lack the confidence, knowledge, and training to do so effectively.

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  • Child malnutrition is a significant issue in Sub-Saharan Africa, stemming from the low nutritional quality of locally available complementary foods.
  • The study aimed to create nutritious, affordable canned porridges using African indigenous crops and ingredients, ensuring they meet dietary requirements for vitamins and energy.
  • The resulting porridge, made with orange fleshed sweet potato and leguminous/cereal flours, provided essential nutrients and tasted better than traditional options, all while being cost-effective.
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  • Ustekinumab is approved for treating ulcerative colitis (UC), and this study evaluated its long-term effectiveness and tolerability in real clinical settings.
  • In a multicenter analysis of 620 UC patients, 25% discontinued treatment, with baseline anemia, steroid use, and severe disease linked to higher discontinuation rates.
  • At 16 weeks, 40% of patients were in steroid-free remission, and treatment was generally safe with no adverse effects on other conditions, indicating good long-term durability for difficult-to-treat cases.
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Background: Telemonitoring for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) has not consistently demonstrated superiority over standard care; however, noninferiority may be an acceptable outcome if remote care proves to be more efficient.

Objective: This study aims to compare the remission time and quality of life of patients with active IBD managed through standard care versus the TECCU (Telemonitoring of Crohn Disease and Ulcerative Colitis) app.

Methods: A 2-arm, randomized, multicenter trial with a noninferiority design was conducted across 24 hospitals in Spain.

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In this study, nine commercial ice creams and four prototypes were assessed. For the sensory analysis, quantitative descriptive analysis (QDA), and temporal dominance of sensations (TDS) methodology were used. According to the QDA results, full-composition ice cream showed significantly higher differences (p < .

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To cope with environmental stresses, organisms, including lactic acid bacteria such as O. oeni, produce stress proteins called HSPs. In wine, O.

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Hybrid scaffolds that are based on PLA and PLA/PMMA with 75/25, 50/50, and 25/75 weight ratios and functionalized with 10 wt.% of bioglass nanoparticles (n-BG) were developed using an electrospinning technique with a chloroform/dimethylformamide mixture in a 9:1 ratio for bone tissue engineering applications. Neat PLA and PLA/PMMA hybrid scaffolds were developed successfully through a (CF/DMF) solvent system, obtaining a random fiber deposition that generated a porous structure with pore interconnectivity.

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Background And Aims: Familial inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) history is a controversial prognostic factor in IBD. We aimed to evaluate the impact of a familial history of IBD on the use of medical and surgical treatments in the biological era.

Methods: Patients included in the prospectively maintained ENEIDA database and diagnosed with IBD after 2005 were included.

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Background: some patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) treated with antiTNF develop drug-induced psoriasis (antiTNF-IP). Several therapeutic strategies are possible.

Aims: to assess the management of antiTNF-IP in IBD, and its impact in both diseases.

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Culture is a well-known driver of food choices, and therefore, it could also impact food pairing preferences. Food pairing has been studied from different approaches; however, little cross-cultural research has been done. This work explored food and beverage pairing using projective mapping (PM) to create maps of food-beverage combinations.

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  • - The study focused on Generalized Pustular Psoriasis (GPP), a rare and serious skin condition, examining its course, treatment approaches, and how often patients used healthcare services in Portugal from 2002 to 2023.
  • - It assessed 59 adult patients, revealing that most had a history of another psoriasis type and faced significant health issues, with 64% requiring hospitalization and many experiencing severe symptoms such as fever and high white blood cell counts.
  • - Despite treatment, 98% of patients had at least one flare-up, and only a small number showed improvement by the study's end, indicating a need for better understanding and new treatment options to alleviate the disease's impact.
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TSPO is a ubiquitous transmembrane protein used as a pharmacological marker in neuroimaging. The only known atomic structure of mammalian TSPOs comes from the solution NMR of mouse TSPO (mTSPO) bound to the PK11195 ligand and in a DPC surfactant environment. No structure is available in a biomimetic environment and without PK11195 which strongly stiffens the protein.

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  • This study assessed the effectiveness of tildrakizumab, a biologic drug, for treating moderate-to-severe psoriasis over 52 weeks in Portugal, revealing significant improvements in patients’ conditions.* ! -
  • Out of 54 participants, mean PASI scores dropped drastically from 17.8 at the start to 1.3 by week 52, with over 85% achieving a PASI score of 5 or lower.* ! -
  • The findings indicate that tildrakizumab is both effective and generally safe, with only a small percentage of patients experiencing infections and a high treatment continuation rate of 88.9% after 52 weeks.* !
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Background: Fear of childbirth is a frequent health issue for pregnant women. The Wijma Delivery Expectancy/Experience Questionnaire (W-DEQ) is a widely used instrument to measure the fear of childbirth during the antenatal period. The aim of the study was to assess the psychometric properties of the W-DEQ (version A) in a sample of Greek pregnant women.

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Gestational hypothyroidism may lead to preeclampsia development. However, this pathophysiological is unknown. We expect to find a shared mechanism by comparing hypothyroidism and preeclampsia.

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In contrast to taste sensitivity, the assessment of texture or tactile sensitivity has received relatively little attention in the food context. Texture plays an important role in food preferences and food intake, and individual differences make it important to understand physiological drivers of perception as tactile sensitivity. The multi-dimensional and dynamic aspects of texture perception suggest there is not one single method that can explain individual differences.

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To cope with environmental stresses, bacteria have developed different strategies, including the production of small heat shock proteins (sHSP). All sHSPs are described for their role as molecular chaperones. Some of them, like the Lo18 protein synthesized by Oenococcus oeni, also have the particularity of acting as a lipochaperon to maintain membrane fluidity in its optimal state following cellular stresses.

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The classical Non-Homologous End Joining (c-NHEJ) pathway is the predominant process in mammals for repairing endogenous, accidental or programmed DNA Double-Strand Breaks. c-NHEJ is regulated by several accessory factors, post-translational modifications, endogenous chemical agents and metabolites. The metabolite inositol-hexaphosphate (IP6) stimulates c-NHEJ by interacting with the Ku70-Ku80 heterodimer (Ku).

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This narrative review revises the scientific evidence of recent years on healthy eating in children and adolescents, making sense of promising avenues of action, from a food system perspective. A conceptual framework is provided to better understand how eating habits of children and adolescents are shaped to identify key multisectoral approaches that should be implemented to promote healthier diets. The following influencing factors are discussed: individual factors (physiological and psychological factors, food preferences and food literacy competencies), factors within the personal and socio-cultural food environments, external food environments, and the supply chain.

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Food literacy has emerged as a key individual trait to promote the transformation of food systems toward healthy and sustainable diets. Childhood and adolescence are key periods for establishing the foundations of eating habits. Different food literacy competencies are acquired as children develop different cognitive abilities, skills, and experiences, contributing to the development of critical tools that allow them to navigate a complex food system.

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Objective: To determine the diagnostic accuracy of urinary NT-proBNP levels in the detection and classification of the severity of respiratory distress in neonates after birth.

Methods: We compared the urinary NT- proBNP levels between the respiratory distress (RD) group and the control group on the 1st, 3rd, and 5th day of life (DOL).

Results: The RD group (55 neonates) showed higher levels of NT-proBNP compared to the control group (63 neonates) on DOL1 (585.

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The aim of the present work was to explore children's reaction to sugar reduction in the context of the implementation of nutritional warnings in Uruguay. The study was composed of two sessions involving three evaluation conditions: tasting without package information, package evaluation without tasting, and tasting with package information. A total of 122 children, ages ranging between 6 and 13 years old (47% girls) were involved in the study.

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Brewer's spent grain (BSG), a by-product of the brewing industry, has great potential as food additive. BSG is particularly rich in protein and fibre content which makes it an ideal nutritional fortifier for biscuits. However, adding BSG to biscuits can lead to changes in sensory perception and consumer acceptance.

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Eastern Boundary Upwelling Systems (EBUS) deliver cold, nutrient-rich waters, influencing coastal biota from the molecular to the ecosystem level. Although local upwelling (U) and downwelling (DU) conditions are often known, their influence on body attributes of relevant species has not been systematically compared within and between EBUS (i.e.

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