A. P. Marques

The Portuguese version of the Body Image Scale (BIS) – psychometric properties in a sample of breast cancer patients

PURPOSE The aim of this study was to analyse the psychometric properties of the Portuguese version of the body image scale (BIS; Hopwood, P., Fletcher, I., Lee, A., Al Ghazal, S., 2001. A body image scale for use with cancer patients. European Journal of Cancer, 37, 189-197). This is a brief and psychometric robust measure of body image for use with cancer patients, independently of age, cancer type, treatment or stage of the disease and it was developed in collaboration with the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Quality of Life Study Group. METHOD The sample is comprised of 173 Portuguese postoperative breast cancer patients that completed a battery of measures that included the BIS and other scales of body image and quality of life, in order to explore its construct validity. RESULTS The Portuguese version of BIS confirmed the original unidimensional structure and demonstrated adequate internal consistency, both in the global sample (alpha=.93) as in surgical subgroups (mastectomy=.92 and breast-conserving surgery=.93). Evidence for the construct validity was provided through moderate to largely sized correlations between the BIS and other related measures. In further support of its discriminant validity, significant differences in BIS scores were found between women who underwent mastectomy and those who underwent breast-conserving surgery, with the former presenting higher scores. Age and time since diagnosis were not associated with BIS scores. CONCLUSIONS The Portuguese BIS proved to be a reliable and valid measure of body image concerns in a sample of breast cancer patients, allowing a brief and comprehensive assessment, both on clinical and research settings.

Centrifuge Modeling of Liquefaction Effects on Shallow Foundations

Earthquake-induced liquefaction is a major concern for structures built on saturated cohesionless soils in seismically active regions, as it often causes failure of critical structures such as bridges and quay walls, which severely restricts post-earthquake emergency response and economic recovery. The destructive consequences of this phenomenon have remarkably increased since it was firstly identified in US and Japan in 1964. This paper describes an investigation on the performance of shallow foundations susceptible to seismic liquefaction, considering the particular vulnerability that this type of foundation has shown in the field during past earthquakes. The research program included three dynamic centrifuge experiments, conducted at the Schofield Centre, University of Cambridge, UK, as part of a SERIES’ TNA Use Agreement focusing on the magnitude of liquefaction effects on shallow foundations, under different conditions, including interaction effects between adjacent structures, and on the assessment of the performance of innovative mitigation techniques, particularly narrow densified zones combined with selectively positioned high-capacity vertical drains.

Unraveling the crosstalk between cell sheets of human adipose stem cells and keratinocytes

Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) for MTC (SFRH/BPD/96611/2013),RPP(SFRH/BPD/101886/2014)

Hind limb ischemia in type 1 diabetic mice as useful tool to evaluate the neovascularization of tissue engineering constructs

Acknowledgments: TCS and RPP acknowledge RL3-TECT-NORTE-01-0124-FEDER-000020, co-financed by ON.2-O Novo Norte; and FCT grants: SFRH/BPD/101952/2014 and SFRH/BPD/101886/2014, respectively. LPS acknowledges FCT grant SFRH/BD/78025/2011.