Secreted Extracellular Vesicle Molecular Cargo as a Novel Liquid Biopsy Diagnostics of Central Nervous System Diseases.

Secreted extracellular vesicles (EVs) are heterogeneous cell-derived membranous granules which carry a large diversity of molecules and participate in intercellular communication by transferring these molecules to target cells by endocytosis. In the last decade, EVs' role in several pathological conditions, from etiology to disease progression or therapy evasion, has been consolidated, including in central nervous system (CNS)-related disorders. For this review, we performed a systematic search of original works published, reporting the presence of molecular components expressed in the CNS via EVs, which have been purified from plasma, serum or cerebrospinal fluid.

Friendship and Consumption Networks in Adolescents and Their Relationship to Stress and Cannabis Use Intention.

Background: Cannabis is an illegal psychoactive substance that's use is widespread among adolescents. During adolescence, many changes can cause stress. In this phase, the group of friends becomes increasingly important, being a situation of vulnerability for the beginning of cannabis use, either as an escape mechanism or due to peer's influence.

Heart Disease, Now What? Improving Quality of Life through Education.

Introduction: The management of chronic illness assumes a level of demand for permanent care and reaches a priority dimension in the health context. Given the importance of nursing care to post-acute coronary syndrome patients, the objective of this study is to evaluate the impact of an educational intervention program on quality of life in patients after acute coronary syndrome.

Method: Quasi-experimental study with two groups: an experimental group exposed to the educational intervention program and the control group without exposure to the educational intervention program.

Establishment versus population growth in spatio-temporally varying environments.

We consider situations where repeated invasion attempts occur from a source population into a receptor population over extended periods of time. The receptor population contains two locations that provide different expected offspring numbers to invaders. There is demographic stochasticity in offspring numbers.

When our hearts beat together: Cardiac synchrony as an entry point to understand dyadic co-regulation in couples.

The degree to which romantic partners' autonomic responses are coordinated, represented by their pattern of physiological synchrony, seems to capture important aspects of the reciprocal influence and co-regulation between spouses. In this study, we analyzed couple's cardiac synchrony as measured by heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV). A sample of 27 couples (N = 54) performed a structured interaction task in the lab where they discussed positive and negative aspects of the relationship.

A passive direct methanol fuel cell as transducer of an electrochemical sensor, applied to the detection of carcinoembryonic antigen.

This work describes an electrochemical sensor with a biomimetic plastic antibody film for carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA, an important biomarker in colorectal cancer), integrated in the electrical circuit of a direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC), working in passive mode and used herein as power supply and signal transducer. In detail, the sensing layer for CEA consisted of a Fluorine-doped Tin Oxide (FTO) conductive glass substrate - connected to the negative pole side of the DMFC - with a conductive poly (3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) layer and a polypyrrol (PPy) molecularly-imprinted polymer (MIP), assembled in-situ. This sensing element is then closed using a cover FTO-glass, hold in place with a clip, connected to the positive side of the DMFC.

Physical Activity, Resilience, Sense of Coherence and Coping in People with Multiple Sclerosis in the Situation Derived from COVID-19.

The confinement forced by COVID-19 can have repercussions on the health of people diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. The objective of this study is to analyze the relationships between physical activity, a sense of coherence, resilience and coping among people diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis during the health emergency situation. To achieve this goal, this transversal descriptive study included 84 patients that belonged to multiple sclerosis associations during the period of confinement.

Syllable effects in beginning and intermediate European-Portuguese readers: Evidence from a sandwich masked go/no-go lexical decision task.

Reading is one of the most important milestones a child achieves throughout development. Above the letter level, the syllable has been shown to play a relevant role at early stages of visual word recognition in adult skilled readers. However, studies aiming to examine when, during reading acquisition, the syllable emerges as a functional sublexical unit are scarce, and the studies conducted so far have led to inconsistent results.

Magnetoelectrics: Three Centuries of Research Heading towards the 4.0 Industrial Revolution.

Magnetoelectric (ME) materials composed of magnetostrictive and piezoelectric phases have been the subject of decades of research due to their versatility and unique capability to couple the magnetic and electric properties of the matter. While these materials are often studied from a fundamental point of view, the 4.0 revolution (automation of traditional manufacturing and industrial practices, using modern smart technology) and the Internet of Things (IoT) context allows the perfect conditions for this type of materials being effectively/finally implemented in a variety of advanced applications.

Photonics in nature and bioinspired designs: sustainable approaches for a colourful world.

Biological systems possess nanoarchitectures that have evolved for specific purposes and whose ability to modulate the flow of light creates an extraordinary diversity of natural photonic structures. In particular, the striking beauty of the structural colouration observed in nature has inspired technological innovation in many fields. Intense research has been devoted to mimicking the unique vivid colours with newly designed photonic structures presenting stimuli-responsive properties, with remarkable applications in health care, safety and security.

The cement-in-cement technique is a reliable option in hip arthroplasty revision surgery: a systematic review.

Introduction: The cement-in-cement technique for revision hip arthroplasty has many potential advantages and has recently gained widespread interest but still lacks evidence to support it. Our aim was to examine the surgical and patient-reported outcomes after cement-in-cement revision hip arthroplasty.

Materials And Methods: A systematic review was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines.

The vascularization of the peroneal tendons: An anatomic study.

Background: Arterial vascularization is intimately related to the peroneal tendon ruptures. Our purpose is to describe the vascular anatomy of peroneal tendons and assess differences in the vascularization patterns between peroneus brevis tendon (PBT) and peroneus longus tendon (PLT).

Methods: Anatomical study of 22 cadaveric lower extremities.

Twin Pregnancies, Crown-rump Length and Birthweight Discordancy: The Influence of Chorionicity.

Objective:  The purpose of the present study was to analyze the influence of chorionicity in the biometric parameters crown-rump length (CRL), birthweight (BW), crown-rump length discordancy (CRLD) and birthweight discordancy (BWD), determine the correlation between these latter two in cases of intertwin discordancy, and to analyze the influence of chronicity in the presence of these discordancies with clinical relevance (> 10% and > 15%, respectively).

Methods:  The present study was a retrospective study based on the twin pregnancy database of the Centro Hospitalar S. João (2010-2015), including 486 fetuses among 66 monochorionic (MC) and 177 dichorionic gestations (DC).

The Influence of Preeclampsia, Advanced Maternal Age and Maternal Obesity in Neonatal Outcomes Among Women with Gestational Diabetes.

Objective:  The present study aims to analyze adverse fetal or neonatal outcomes in women with gestational diabetes, including fetal death, preterm deliveries, birthweight, neonatal morbidity and mortality, as well as the synergic effect of concomitant pregnancy risk factors and poor obstetric outcomes, as advanced maternal age, maternal obesity and pre-eclampsia in their worsening.

Methods:  The present cohort retrospective study included all pregnant women with gestational diabetes, with surveillance and childbirth at the Hospital da Senhora da Oliveira during the years of 2017 and 2018. The data were collected from the medical electronic records registered in health informatic programs Sclinico and Obscare, and statistical simple and multivariate analysis was done using IBM SPSS Statistics.

Paper-Based Platform with an In Situ Molecularly Imprinted Polymer for β-Amyloid.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is one of the most common forms of dementia affecting millions of people worldwide. Currently, an easy and effective form of diagnosis is missing, which significantly hinders a possible improvement of the patient's quality of life. In this context, biosensors emerge as a future solution, opening the doors for preventive medicine and allowing the premature diagnosis of numerous pathologies.

Endoscopic Flexor Hallucis Longus Transfer for the Management of Acute Achilles Tendon Ruptures: A Prospective Case Series Report With a Minimum of 18 Months' Follow-Up.

Acute Achilles tendon rupture can be treated either surgically or nonsurgically. The flexor hallucis longus (FHL) has been used successfully in patients with large chronic Achilles tendon defects. The aim of this study was to describe the clinical outcomes of isolated endoscopic FHL transfer in patients with acute Achilles tendon ruptures at a minimum follow-up of 18 months.

Graft choice in combined anterior cruciate ligament and medial collateral ligament reconstruction.

There is a concern regarding which grafts should be used in combined anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and medial collateral ligament (MCL) reconstructions, with a paucity of recommendations focused on this specific topic.Expert opinions suggest the use of allograft-only reconstructions to limit donor-site morbidity or using at least one allograft and one autograft.When a hamstring tendon autograft is harvested, techniques that maintain both the integrity of the sartorius fascia and the gracilis are recommended because of the role that the ST-G-S (semitendinosus-gracilis-sartorius) complex plays in valgus stability in the setting of an MCL-deficient knee.

Magnetic Proximity Sensor Based on Magnetoelectric Composites and Printed Coils.

Magnetic sensors are mandatory in a broad range of applications nowadays, being the increasing interest on such sensors mainly driven by the growing demand of materials required by Industry 4.0 and the Internet of Things concept. Optimized power consumption, reliability, flexibility, versatility, lightweight and low-temperature fabrication are some of the technological requirements in which the scientific community is focusing efforts.

Surface features can deeply affect artificial grammar learning.

Three experiments explored the extent to which surface features explain discrimination between grammatical and non-grammatical strings in artificial grammar learning (AGL). Experiment 1 replicated Knowlton and Squire's (1996) paradigm using either letter strings as in the original study, or an analogous set of color strings to further explore if learning was affected by type of stimuli. Learning arose only with letter strings, but the results were mostly due to the discrimination of non-grammatical strings containing highly salient illegal features.

Mixed-effects modelling for crossed and nested data: an analysis of dengue fever in the state of Goiás, Brazil.

Dengue fever is a viral disease transmitted by the mosquito . In order to avoid epidemics and deaths, this transmitting vector must be controlled. This work assembles, for the first time, data from multiple governmental bodies describing the number of dengue cases reported, and meteorological conditions in 20 cities in the Goiás state, Brazil, from 2008 to 2015.

Management of traumatic meniscus tears: the 2019 ESSKA meniscus consensus.

Purpose: The importance of meniscus integrity in the prevention of early osteoarthritis is well known, and preservation is accepted as the primary goal. The purpose of the ESSKA (European Society for Sports Traumatology, Knee Surgery and Arthroscopy) European consensus on traumatic meniscus tears was to provide recommendations for the treatment of meniscus tears based on both scientific evidence and the clinical experience of knee experts.

Methods: Three groups of surgeons and scientists elaborated and ratified the so-called formal consensus process to define the recommendations for the management of traumatic meniscus tears.

Cartilage Restoration of Patellofemoral Lesions: A Systematic Review.

Purpose: This study aimed to systematically analyze the postoperative clinical, functional, and imaging outcomes, complications, reoperations, and failures following patellofemoral cartilage restoration surgery.

Methods: This review was conducted according to the guidelines of Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA). PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library databases were searched up to August 31, 2018, to identify clinical studies that assessed surgical outcomes of patellofemoral cartilage restoration surgery.