Parental perspectives on Children's lifestyles: A Path for school health promotion.

The National School Health Program in Portugal advocates for healthy lifestyles. However, school health teams mostly focus their activities on educating children, whereas it is the families who are primarily responsible for managing children's lifestyles. Although the programme proposes interactive health education activities, such as meetings with the children's families, few parents participate in these activities. The project Gostar de Mim was created to bridge this gap by promoting healthy family lifestyles in school settings. The project used an evaluating instrument called the 'Parents' Booklet' packed with information. This study assessed the usefulness of the booklet in providing health information and planning family engagement. Based on the PRECEDE-PROCEED framework (PRECEDE: Predisposing, Reinforcing, and Enabling Constructs in Educational/Environmental Diagnosis and Evaluation; PROCEED: Policy, Regulatory, and Organizational Constructs in Educational and Environmental Development), this article focuses on the social and epidemiological assessment phases. We examined the health surveillance status of children aged 6-10 years (epidemiological phase) and description of health behaviours in different lifestyle dimensions (behavioural and environmental phase). The Parents' Booklet was used to identify parents' perspectives on their children's lifestyles. Data analysis of 568 Parents' Booklet (23 schools) use cases showed that the lifestyle priorities, in order, were 'sleep and rest' (95.6 %), 'energy balance' (100 %), 'oral/body healthcare' (95.6 %), 'alcohol, tobacco/other drugs' (73.9 %), 'consumerism' (91.3 %), 'leisure-time occupation' (91.3 %), and 'literacy and satisfaction at school' (86.9 %). Clearly, the Parents' Booklet was useful, as it made it possible to obtain information that allowed for participatory school health diagnosis and can guide community nursing actions that need to be developed in schools. Crucially, this tool can be useful for parents, enabling them to be more aware of their children's lifestyle via self-monitoring as well as increasing their participation in health education.

Gostar de Mim. Conscientização sobre estilos de vida saudável com famílias de crianças no ensino pré-escolar / Liking Me. Raising awareness about healthy lifestyles with families of pre-school children

Introdução: O presente Relatório de Estágio refere-se ao Estágio de Enfermagem Comunitária e de Saúde Pública, realizado no âmbito do I Curso de Mestrado em Enfermagem Comunitária ? área de enfermagem de Saúde Comunitária e de Saúde Pública da Escola Superior de Enfermagem de Coimbra sob orientação pedagógica da Professora Doutora Irma da Silva Brito, decorrido entre setembro de 2022 e fevereiro de 2023, no Agrupamento de Centros de Saúde (ACeS) Dão Lafões ? Pólo de Vouzela e na Unidade de Cuidados na Comunidade (UCC) Por Poiares sob orientação clínica dos Enfermeiros Especialistas Rui Dionisio e Paula Santos, respetivamente. Objetivos: Contribuir para a validação do instrumento ?Caderneta dos Pais?, um instrumento de avaliação de estilos de vida em crianças, segundo a perceção da família; conscientizar famílias do ensino pré-escolar sobre estilos parentais e estilos de vida saudável; Refletir acerca das competências desenvolvidas. Metodologia: Foi aplicado o método de pesquisa-ação participativa através do instrumento ?Caderneta dos Pais?, para monitorização dos estilos de vida das crianças do Ensino Pré- -Escolar e posterior intervenção, em 2 de 3 jardins de infância de um Agrupamento de Escolas, sendo que na terceira escola não foi entregue o instrumento, mas foram realizadas intervenções. Participaram no preenchimento deste instrumento um total de 18 pais, sendo que nas intervenções de educação, participaram 66 crianças e 16 pais. Resultados: Na escola A responderam apenas 7 pais/educadores, sendo que só 4 preencheram a escala de avaliação do Estilo de Vida. As áreas prioritárias de intervenção são atividade física (100%), exposição ao consumo de bebidas alcoólicas (100%) e consumismo (75%). Já na escola SM, na qual responderam 14 pais/educadores, é prioritário abordar as questões de sono e repouso (71%), equilíbrio energético (71% e 93%), normal desenvolvimento (64% e 79%), saúde oral (64%), consumismo (69% e 74%), ocupação dos tempos livres (86% e 64%) e afetos e emoções (64%). Os comportamentos observados como menos preventivos, foram: É transportado ao colo no carro; Mudam o detergente da sua embalagem original; Tomam medicamentos em frente das crianças; Deixa-o sozinho na cozinha; Deixa-o sozinho na banheira cheia de água ou piscina; e Cobrem o candeeiro com pano para reduzir a luminosidade em ambas as escolas. Conclusão: O instrumento ?Caderneta dos Pais? foi aplicado a menos de 50% dos pais de dois jardins de infância do Agrupamento de Escolas de Vila Nova de Poiares, analisando-se a utilidade do mesmo, tentando envolver as famílias na avaliação dos estilos de vida dos filhos para fomentar uma maior conscientização acerca dos mesmos. Este estágio tornou-se essencial para o treino da capacidade de reflexão sobre as competências do Enfermeiro Especialista.

Central cellular signaling pathways involved with the regulation of lipid metabolism in the liver: a review

The liver is primarilyresponsible for energy homeostasis and the regulation of lipid, carbohydrate and protein metabolism. Lipid metabolism consists of distributing lipids to peripheral tissues or ensuring their return to the liver to be reprocessed. Additionally, cellular metabolism isregulated by several molecules in different signaling pathways. Lipid homeostasis in the liver is mainly regulated by AKT, AMPK, SREBP, PPAR, and JNK. The PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway results in the biosynthesis of macromolecules and regulates lipogenesis and the expression of lipogenic genes. AMPK is an energy sensor that regulates metabolism and is activated when stored ATP is depleted, and it is responsible for the suppression of several key lipogenic factors in the liver related to cholesterol and fatty acid synthesis. SREBPs control lipogenic geneexpressionandcholesterol metabolism and actin the nutritional regulation of fatty acids and triglycerides. The continued activation of SREBPs is associated with cellular stress, inflammation and ultimately steatosis. PPARs are intrinsically important regulators of lipid metabolism. These genes are essential tovarious metabolic processes, especially lipid and glucose homeostasis, and can play a role in cell differentiation. JNK signaling is related to insulin resistance and its activation results in decreased mitochondrial activity and fat accumulation. Therefore, the study of cell signaling pathways related to lipid metabolism and liver function may help to identify abnormalities and develop strategies to manage and regulate metabolic disorders and resulting complications.

The capacitive sensing of NS1 Flavivirus biomarker.

NS1 is a biomarker for different Flavivirus diseases such as dengue (DENV), zika (ZIKV) and chikungunya (CHIKV) and was herein selectively quantified by electrochemical capacitive sensing (an impedance-derived capacitance methodology wherein the redox probe is contained in the receptive layer) mainly aiming dengue diagnosis in phosphate buffer saline and blood serum environments (up to the neat level). The capacitive sensing was compared to traditional concurrent impedimetric approach (in which the redox probe is added in the biological solution) and other transient methods stated in the literature regarding figures of merit such as limit of detection, linear range, relative standard deviation and affinity constant. Capacitive and impedimetric assays showed equivalent results for linear range, repeatability, sensitivity and constant of affinity. Nonetheless capacitive assays presented better reproducibility with a relative standard deviation (RSD) of 3±1 and 7±4 (all in percentage) in PBS and serum, respectively, meanwhile for impedimetric assays the RSD values were 9±5 in PBS and 12±6 in serum. Thus, by using capacitive assays, an improvement on the analytical performance was observed with the limit of detection about sixty-fold lower in neat serum (∼0.5ngmL-1 for capacitive over ∼30ngmL-1 for impedimetric assays) compared to traditional electrochemistry methods in general hence demonstrating the superior detection sensitivity for NS1 protein. Accordingly, redox tagged capacitive assays are suitable for the development of multiplex point-of-care neglected diseases sensing applications.

Ciprofloxacin release using natural rubber latex membranes as carrier.

Natural rubber latex (NRL) from Hevea brasiliensis is easily manipulated, low cost, is of can stimulate natural angiogenesis and cellular adhesion, is a biocompatible, material and presents high mechanical resistance. Ciprofloxacin (CIP) is a synthetic antibiotic (fluoroquinolone) used in the treatment of infection at external fixation screws sites and remote infections, and this use is increasingly frequent in medical practice. The aim of this study was to develop a novel sustained delivery system for CIP based on NRL membranes and to study its delivery system behavior. CIP was found to be adsorbed on the NRL membrane, according to results of energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Results show that the membrane can release CIP for up to 59.08% in 312 hours and the mechanism is due to super case II (non-Fickian). The kinetics of the drug release could be fitted with double exponential function X-ray diffraction and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy shows some interaction by hydrogen bound, which influences its mechanical behavior.