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- Current trends and challenges of fecal microbiota transplantation—An easy method that works for all?Publication . Almeida, Cátia; Oliveira, Rita; Baylina, Pilar; Fernandes, Rúben; Teixeira, Fábio G.; Barata, PedroThe gut microbiota refers to bacteria lodges in the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) that interact through various complex mechanisms. The disturbance of this ecosystem has been correlated with several diseases, such as neurologic, respiratory, cardiovascular, and metabolic diseases and cancer. Therefore, the modulation of the gut microbiota has emerged as a potential therapeutic tool; of the various forms of gut microbiota modulation, fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is the most approached. This recent technique involves introducing fecal material from a healthy donor into the patient’s gastrointestinal tract, aiming to restore the gut microbiota and lead to the resolution of symptoms. This procedure implies a careful donor choice, fine collection and handling of fecal material, and a balanced preparation of the recipient and consequent administration of the prepared content. Although FMT is considered a biological therapy with promising effects, side effects such as diarrhea and abdominal pain have also been claimed, making this a significant challenge in the application of FMT. Bearing this in mind, the present review aims to summarize the recent advances in understanding FMT mechanisms, their impact across different pathological conditions, and the associated side effects, emphasizing the most recent published data.
- Potential anticancer activity from food-isolated fungi extractsPublication . Ferreira, Diogo; Rocha, Ana Catarina; Baylina, Pilar; Sieiro, Carmen; Fernandes, RúbenFungal species have demonstrated great potential to produce a wide range of metabolites, including enzymes, antibiotics, and other bioactive compounds with therapeutic interest. Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the most frequent cancers in men. This type of tumors have high levels of heterogeneity, leading to therapeutic failures and increasing resistance against chemotherapeutic drugs. Hence, is essential to research new therapeutic agents against PCa. Exploring the rich reservoir of fungal diversity, this study aims to uncover bioactive compounds that may serve as valuable candidates for developing novel therapeutics against prostate cancer. Isolation from chestnuts, chestnut flour and sunflower seeds led to the creation of a fungal collection of 165 isolates. Fungi isolates grew in flask cultures for 15 days, and culture broths were extracted with ethyl acetate. Human prostate epithelial cells (HPepiC) and the human prostate cancer cell line (PC3) were exposed to the fungal extracts at a concentration 100 μg/mL, and cell viability was evaluated by MTT assay. Results show that several fungal extracts significantly reduce the viability of tumor cells, with some showing little to no effect on healthy human cells, however, species identification is essential to carry on our studies.
- Can psychosocial work factors influence psychologists’ positive mental health?Publication . Barros, C.; Fonte, C.; Alves, S.; Baylina, P.Working in healthcare can entail intense emotional demands that increases susceptibility to occupational risk factors. Psychosocial risk assessment can contribute to promoting awareness of the effects of work on positive mental health. To explore and analyse the influence of psychosocial work factors on positive mental health among psychologists. A cross-sectional study of 339 psychologists was conducted. Two instruments were used for data collection: the Mental Health Continuum—Short Form (MHC-SF) to assess well-being and the Health and Work Survey (INSAT) to assess psychosocial work factors. This study identified psychosocial work factors that affect psychologists’ positive mental health, namely, emotional well-being was affected by ‘Need help from colleagues’ (β = −1.091), ‘Have no one I can trust’ (β = −1.253) and ‘Complex work’ (β = 0.751); psychological well-being was affected by ‘Intense work pace’ (β = 1.151), ‘Not able to participate in decisions’ (β = −3.695) and ‘Complex work’ (β = 1.520); and social well-being was affected by ‘Always changing roles and tasks’ (β = −1.810) and ‘Not able to participate in decisions’ (β = −2.470). Psychosocial work factors such as work organization, work relationships and emotional demands influence psychologists’ positive mental health. Social support at the workplace and having challenging and autonomous work can promote mental health. It is important to develop better organizational practices to promote mental health and well-being among these professionals.
- Existe relação entre a infeção por SARS-COV-2 e diabetes MELLITUS em Portugal?Publication . Correia, C.; Fernandes, Rúben; Baylina, Pilar; Faria, B.Em 2019 assistiu-se ao aparecimento da doença causada pelo SARS-CoV-2 que é conhecida como COVID-19, na China. A pandemia do COVID-19 foi declarada em 2020, pela OMS e ainda hoje assola todo o mundo. A COVID-19 é altamente infeciosa e a maioria dos pacientes tem mais de 50 anos, sendo que estes apresentam pelo menos uma comorbilidade associada, entre as quais a Diabetes mellitus (Dm). A Dm é uma doença metabólica em que se verificam níveis elevados de glicose no sangue, durante um longo período. Neste trabalho pretende realizar um estudo bioestatístico da relação entre infeção por SARS-CoV-2 e Dm em Portugal. Neste estudo foram utilizados os dados estatísticos disponibilizados pela Direção Geral de Saúde, Ministério da Saúde, Instituto Nacional de Estatística e PORDATA, relativamente a 2020. O estudo bioestatístico e respetivas análises foram realizadas utilizando o software IBM SPSS Statistics. Os dados foram testados para verificar a sua normalidade usando teste de Shapiro-Wilk. Dado não se verificar a normalidade, calculou-se a correlação de Spearman. A correlação entre as variáveis foi investigada nas diferentes regiões. A correlação entre as variáveis total de casos e diabéticos, o valor p é de <0.001 o que indica que o coeficiente de correlação de 0.964 é estatisticamente significativo. O coeficiente de correlação positivo indica que quando a proporção de população com Diabetes aumenta, a proporção de população com COVID-19 também aumenta. Este estudo explorou a correlação entre COVID-19 e Dm e usando todos os dados disponíveis até 31 de dezembro de 2020, para Portugal. Os resultados deste trabalho mostram um coeficiente de correlação positivo bastante significativo entre as duas doenças (COVID-19 e Dm). Isto indica que se a prevalência de Dm aumenta, a prevalência de casos COVID-19 também aumenta.
- The influence of miRNAs on radiotherapy treatment in prostate cancer – a systematic reviewPublication . Soares, Sílvia; Guerreiro, Susana S.; Cruz-Martins, Natália; Sousa Pinho Faria, Isabel Maria; Baylina, Pilar; Sales, Maria Goretti; Correa-Duarte, Miguel A.; Fernandes, RúbenIn the last years, extensive investigation on miRNomics have shown to have great advantages in cancer personalized medicine regarding diagnosis, treatment and even clinical outcomes. Prostate cancer (PCa) is the second most common male cancer and about 50% of all PCa patients received radiotherapy (RT), despite some of them develop radioresistance. Here, we aim to provide an overview on the mechanisms of miRNA biogenesis and to discuss the functional impact of miRNAs on PCa under radiation response. As main findings, 23 miRNAs were already identified as being involved in genetic regulation of PCa cell response to RT. The mechanisms of radioresistance are still poorly understood, despite it has been suggested that miRNAs play an important role in cell signaling pathways. Identification of miRNAs panel can be thus considered an upcoming and potentially useful strategy in PCa diagnosis, given that radioresistance biomarkers, in both prognosis and therapy still remains a challenge.
- Fatores psicossociais de risco nos psicólogos: qual o impacto no bem-estar social?Publication . Barros, C.; Fonte, C.; Alves, S.; Baylina, PilarA prática da psicologia pode ser muito desgastante e emocionalmente exaustiva, o que a torna suscetível a riscos ocupacionais, nomeadamente, riscos psicossociais. O objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar os fatores psicossociais de risco e explorar os preditores de saúde mental e bem-estar, nomeadamente o bem-estar social. 339 psicólogos participaram do estudo e os resultados identificaram elevado ritmo e intensidade de trabalho, falta de autonomia e iniciativa, níveis altos de exigência emocional e alguns fatores significativos, ao nível das relações de trabalho. Foram identificados preditores de bem-estar social, mais concretamente: Estar sempre a mudar de função e de tarefas (β = -1,810), e Não poder participar nas decisões (β = 2,470). É importante desenvolver melhores práticas organizacionais para promover a saúde mental e o bem-estar social.
- Does body mass index infuence surgical options and overall survival in breast cancer patients?Publication . Luís, Carla ; Fernandes, Rute ; Dias, João ; Pereira, Deolinda ; Machado, Firmino ; Baylina, Pilar; Fernandes, Rúben ; Soares, RaquelObesity is a relevant risk factor in breast cancer (BC), but little is known about the efects of overweight and obesity in surgical outcomes of BC patients. The aim of this study is to analyse surgical options and associated overall survival (OS) in overweight and obese women with BC. In this study, 2143 women diagnosed between 2012 and 2016 at the Portuguese Oncology Institute of Porto (IPO-Porto) were included, and the clinicopathological information was retrieved from the institutional database. Patients were stratifed by body mass index (BMI). Statistical analysis included Pearson's chi-squared test with statistical signifcance set at p
- Health promotion conceptual evolution and program development: a literature ReviewPublication . Félix, José; Santos, Paula Clara; Baylina, PilarThe World Health Organization defends prevention and health promotion among communities as a driver of economic and social development, where the individual level of health literacy determines health choices such as adopting healthy lifestyles, managing individual healthcare and preventing chronic diseases. Currently, health promotion is guided by a set of values, being these principles essential for identifying needs and priorities, planning, implementing, evaluating and determining the health promotion programs, that can be defined as a set of programmed, integrated and interrelated strategies and actions that aim to promote health, prevent risks, reduce years of life lost due to disability and increase quality of life. There are several models for planning health promotion programs, such as the Precede-Proceed Model, the Multivariate Approach to community Health (MATCH) Model, the Mapped Intervention Model and the Social Marketing Model. A good planning of a health promotion program can effectively reduce the health costs.
- Management system certification benefits: where do we stand?Publication . Fonseca, Luís; Domingues, José Pedro; Baylina, Pilar; Calderón, MarioPurpose: The implementation and certification of Management Systems International Standards, such as ISO 9001 and ISO 14001, achieved a high international recognition, with more than 1 million organizations with their Quality Management Systems certified worldwide. Researchers have been paying considerable attention to this theme and the number of published articles has robustly grown. Although on an overall basis, the research results support the existence of positive impacts on the adoption and certification of these International Standards, there are various inconsistencies and contradictory results, leading to some controversy over its impacts for organizations. This study aims to bring a longitudinal time perspective to this area of research, analyzing the articles published since 1996, on the benefits of Management Systems Certification. A longitudinal perspective of countries of authors origin, keywords and journals is presented, complemented with an evaluation of the research results. Design/methodology/approach: A Bibliometric Study supported the research, with data collected from Web of Science, SCOPUS, and Research Gate data bases. Following the detailed analysis of the journal titles, articles abstracts and their full content, an evaluation scale was adopted to assess if the results support the existence of a positive relationship between Management System Certification and economic, financial or stakeholder results. Findings: The results evidence a steep increase in the number of publications addressing Management Systems Certification benefits, that mainly originate from Europe (48%) and East Asia and Pacific (23%), with Spain as the leading country (accounting for 14% of the total number of articles published between 1996 and April 2017). Journal of Cleaner Production (Environmental Management System Certification) and Total Quality Management and Business Excellence journal (Quality Management Systems Certification) are the leading journals for disseminating the research and the most used keywords are “Quality/Environment”, “ISO 9001/14001”, “Performance”, “Management Systems” and “Certification”. There are also insights that the research is now open to other Management Systems either than Quality and Environment. The systematic review of the selected papers shows that the Management Systems adoption and certification brings fairly positive benefits (average 2,34 in a 1 to 5 Likert type scale) for the certified organizations, although some variations are observed. Some avenues for future research should consider the reliability and validation of measures; sampling and biases errors; the identification of control, moderating and mediating variables; the consideration of time and situational contingencies; and the search for explanations for cause and effect relationships. The results of this research support the view that the investigation of Management Systems Certification benefits is indeed an issue of high academic and practitioners interest. This research, although subject to some subjective evaluation of the authors, and acknowledging that the research articles are not always comparable, aims to give some insights for this continuous research field. Research limitations/implications: Although the authors took measures to minimize subjectivity, it should be noted that the evaluation could be subject to the authors own interpretation and the research articles are not always comparable. Originality/value: This research presents a longitudinal and comprehensive evaluation of the articles published since 1996 addressing the topics of the benefits of Management System Certification. It highlights trends and gives contribution for future research, on a field of intense academic and practitioners interest.
- Healthcare-associated infections – on developing effective control systems under a renewed healthcare management debatePublication . Baylina, Pilar; Moreira, PauloThe development of control systems to sustain the level of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) is an emerging issue for healthcare management. This is partly due to the perception that HAI became a serious negative impact factor on the performance of healthcare organizations and on related public health dimensions. Throughout the decade of 1990 a significant number of international programmes were developed to understand and to promote effective HAIs prevention and control systems: Patient Safety and the quality improvement of healthcare organizations became common concepts in healthcare management. However, regardless of advances in infection control systems, the rates of incidence of HAIs remained relatively unchanged in the last decades. The purpose of this study is to point out barriers that recent international literature has identified as factors hindering the successful development of control systems to prevent HAIs. The international debate on possible alternatives to strengthen this common healthcare management issue, benefits form one such update. A literature review was conducted in a 3-month period by two investigators. The BioMed Central, Pubmed, Emerald, and B-on databases were searched for articles published between January 2006 and September 2011. A standard form was created for data extraction. A total of 49 articles met inclusion criteria. Within the analysed articles, 26 were developed in Europe, 15 were developed in North America; 6 were developed in Asia, and 2 in Australia. Thirty (30) different barriers to effective HAIs control systems were identified. The barriers were clustered by dimensions and sub-dimensions. The largest number of barriers clustered, are associated with structures and processes and also barriers associated with healthcare management processes.