ABSTRACT
Child routines have been recognized as positive contributors to children's development. However, in Portugal there is still a lack of instruments available to assess school-age child routines. The purpose of this study was to present the translation, adaptation, and validation studies of the Portuguese version of the Child Routines Questionnaire (CRQ), a parent self-report measure developed to assess school-age child routines. A total of 460 parents of children aged between 6 and 12 years-old participated in the study. Two studies were conducted to define the CRQ-PT factor structure. In Study 1 (n = 204 children from 6 to 12 years-old), findings from the exploratory factor analysis provided evidence for a four-factor structure (for 32 items), which explained 43.53% of the total variance. In Study 2 (n = 256 children from 6 to 9 years-old), results from confirmatory factor analysis showed good model fit indices (CFI = 0.84, RMSEA = 0.06). The total scale of the CRQ-PT (α = 0.89) and its subscales showed good internal consistency. Further evidence of construct validity was shown by weak to moderate correlations with measures of parental sense of competence and family mealtime routines. Relevant contributions of the study are underscored, namely the availability and usefulness of a reliable and valid assessment tool to evaluate the routines of Portuguese school-age children for clinical practice and research purposes.
ABSTRACT
Higher education students have faced several changes in their lives due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to explore the effect of dispositional optimism in students' fear of COVID-19 and to test the mediating role of general anxiety in the relationship between optimism and fear. Using an online survey, data were collected during the second wave of the pandemic in Portugal. The sample included 312 higher education students (76% females) aged 18-25 years old, who completed measures of dispositional optimism, general anxiety and fear of COVID-19. The results showed that higher optimism and lower general anxiety reduce fear of COVID-19. Moreover, the link between optimism and fear is fully mediated by general anxiety, showing that optimism reduces fear of COVID-19 indirectly through the reduction of students' anxiety. The role of optimism, anxiety and fear in higher education students is discussed and topics for further research are presented.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Pandemics , Female , Humans , Adolescent , Young Adult , Adult , Male , COVID-19/epidemiology , Anxiety/epidemiology , Fear , StudentsABSTRACT
Lectins hold great promise not only as reagents for diagnostics and drug discovery but also as a novel class of biopharmaceutical products. In fact, new research directions in the last years have led to major developments in the uses of plant lectins as therapeutic agents against numerous diseases in an ageing society. It is even expected that lectins may occupy an important place in the biopharmaceutical industry next to monoclonal antibodies. All these new trends are placing a tremendous emphasis on the development of new approaches for faster lectins development, selection, and optimization, including alternatives methods of purification. This article reviews the isolation and purification methods used for lectins purification. Origins and applications of lectins are described, highlighting the special features of this class of proteins, such as the carbohydrated-binding domains and their importance in the development of affinity methodologies to increase and facilitate lectins purification. Published strategies for the purification of lectins from different sources are analyzed in relation to the purification methods used, their sequence, and the number of times they are used in a purification procedure. The purity of lectins is analyzed in relation to the average overall yield and purification factors obtained for each purification scheme for these proteins and the purification steps necessary. New directions are described for improving lectins separation and purification.
