Isabel Correia

Vanadium polypyridyl compounds as potential antiparasitic and antitumoral agents: New achievements

In the search for new therapeutic tools against diseases produced by kinetoplastid parasites five vanadyl complexes, [V(IV)O(L-2H)(phen)], including 1,10-phenanthroline (phen) and tridentate salicylaldehyde semicarbazone derivatives as ligands have been synthesized and characterized in the solid state and in solution by using different techniques. EPR suggested a distorted octahedral geometry with the tridentate semicarbazone occupying three equatorial positions and phen coordinated in an equatorial/axial mode. The compounds were evaluated in vitro on epimastigotes of Trypanosoma cruzi, causative agent of Chagas disease, Leishmania panamensis and Leishmania chagasi and on tumor cells. The complexes showed higher in vitro anti-trypanosomal activities than the reference drug Nifurtimox (IC(50) values in the range 1.6-3.8 μM) and increased activities in respect to the free semicarbazone ligands. In vitro activity on promastigote and amastigote forms of Leishmania showed interesting results. The compounds [VO(L1-2H)(phen)] and [VO(L3-2H)(phen)], where L1 = 2-hydroxybenzaldehyde semicarbazone and L3 = 2-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzaldehyde semicarbazone, resulted active (IC(50) 2.74 and 2.75 μM, respectively, on promastigotes of L. panamensis; IC(50) 19.52 and 20.75 μM, respectively, on intracellular amastigotes of L. panamensis) and showed low toxicity on THP-1 mammalian cells (IC(50) 188.55 and 88.13 μM, respectively). In addition, the complexes showed cytotoxicity on human promyelocytic leukemia HL-60 cells with IC(50) values of the same order of magnitude as cisplatin. The interaction of the complexes with DNA was demonstrated by different techniques, suggesting that this biomolecule could be a potential target either in the parasites or in tumor cells.

Belief in a just world, justice concerns, and well-being at Portuguese schools

This article investigates the meaning of the belief in a just world (BJW) for justice cognition at school and for subjective well-being. We hypothesized that BJW should serve as a resource helping to maintain positive well-being and to assimilate experienced injustice. The results of two studies with Portuguese school students (7th–12th grade) and one with university students were consistent with our hypotheses. The more the students endorsed the BJW, the more they evaluated their school grades and their teachers’ and their peers’ behavior towards them as just and the more they were satisfied with life in general. Moreover, the more students felt fairly treated by their teachers, the less they felt distressed at school. Life satisfaction varied however independently of school-specific justice cognitions. This pattern of results persisted when controlled for achievement (grades) as well as for personality dispositions such as self-efficacy, self-esteem, and general trust. The implications of these results for further studies on adolescent development are discussed.RésuméCet article étudie le rôle de la croyance dans un monde juste (CMJ), dans les cognitions de justice à l’école et dans le bien-être subjectif. Nous avons formulé l’hypothèse que la CMJ devrait servir de ressource pour soutenir un sens de bien-être positif et pour assimiler l’injustice expérimentée. Les résultats de deux études avec des étudiants portugais du secondaire (7ème-12ème classe) et une étude avec des étudiants universitaires furent consistants avec nos hypothèses. Plus les étudiants soutenaient la CMJ, plus ils évaluaient leurs notes scolaires et le comportement de leurs enseignants et collègues vis-à-vis d’euxmêmes comme étant justes et plus ils se sentaient satisfaits avec leur vie en général. En outre, plus les étudiants se sentaient bien traités par leurs enseignants, moins ils se sentaient angoissés à l’école. Cependant, la satisfaction avec la vie variait indépendamment des cognitions de justice spécifiques à l’école. Ce pattern de résultats persistait quand le succès (notes), aussi bien que des dispositions de personnalité telles que auto efficacité, auto estime et confiance générale, étaient contrôlés. Les implications de ces résultats pour des études sur le développement des adolescents sont discutées.

School Bullying : Belief in a Personal Just World of Bullies, Victims, and Defenders

This paper applies just world reseach to the analysis of bulling at school and examines the relation hetween the belief in a personal just world (BJW) and self-reported behavior in bullying situations. The hypotheses tested were that the more strongly student endorse the personal BIW, the less likely the should be to bully others the less likely they should see themselses as victims and the more likely they should be to defend victims of bullying The participants were 187 Portuguese students in the. I 7th to 9th grade The results showed that the stronger the adolescents endorsementsof the BJW, the less likely they were to engage in buillying behavior and this association persisted when controlled for emotional empathy. Defending the victim or becoming a victim was unrelated, however The implications of these results for further studies on bullying and victimization are discussed.

Moral Disengagement, Normative Beliefs of Peer Group, and Attitudes Regarding Roles in Bullying

This article examines how moral disengagement, empathy, belief in a just world, and peer group normative beliefs regarding the roles of bully and defender of the victim are associated with attitudes regarding the roles of the bully and the defender of the victim. Two hundred ninety-two students from grades 6–9 participated. Results showed that more positive attitudes regarding role of bully were predicted by higher levels of moral disengagement, whereas more positive attitudes regarding the role of defender of the victim were predicted by lower levels of moral disengagement. The perception of the normative beliefs of the peer group also predicted the attitudes of participants regarding the respective role.

Belief in a just world and well-being of bullies, victims and defenders: a study with Portuguese and Indian students

Abstract Previous findings characterize the belief in a just world (BJW) as a valuable resource for maintaining positive well-being and assimilating injustice. The present cross-sectional study applies just world research to school bullying and tested the hypotheses that the personal BJW is positively correlated with subjective well-being, here particularly school distress. In this paper the generalizability of this association is tested in victims, bullies, and defenders, and across gender and also two countries with different cultures, Portugal and India. We will test if BJW can best be interpreted as a personal resource (main effect) or a buffer (moderator) for the distress of victims, bullies and defenders of the victims. The participants were 465 school students (Portuguese sample: 187 students aged between 12 and 18 years; Indian sample: 278 Indian students aged between 14 and 17 years). Overall, the results of the study supported the personal resource hypothesis. The stronger the adolescents’ endorsements of the BJW the less they felt distressed at school, and this was true independent of their bullying behavior and within both sexes and across both samples, although boys, bullies, and Portuguese adolescents experienced more distress and defenders experienced less distress at school.

Personal and general belief in a just world as judgement norms

Research on the belief in a just world (BJW) has focused on its intra-individual functions (e.g., psychological well-being) and its inter-individual consequences (e.g., derogation of victims). Recent theorizing, however, has indicated that the BJW may also have more societal functions and consequences, serving as a legitimizing device of the status quo. The studies in the current paper focus on this latter view and are based on Alves and Correias ( 2008 ) research which found that the expression of high personal and general belief in a just world is injunctively normative. Two experimental studies aimed at ascertaining three issues: (1) the dimension(s) of social value (social utility and/or social desirability) on which the BJW normativity anchors; (2) whether the expression of moderate BJW is also injunctively normative; and (3) whether the injunctive normativity of the BJW is related to perceptions of truth. Results indicate that moderate and high personal and general BJW are normative. Yet, whereas the normativity of personal BJW anchors both on social utility and social desirability, that of general BJW anchors only on social utility. We discuss personal and general BJW as judgement norms, whose normativity may not be personally acknowledged (in the case of general BJW) and does not necessarily derive from being perceived as true, but from the fact that such norms carry social value at least in individualistic societies.

Does the belief in a just world bring happiness? Causal relationships among belief in a just world, life satisfaction and mood

Abstract Belief in a just world (BJW) has been shown to be positively correlated with the two components of subjective wellbeing (SWB): life satisfaction and positive affect. Although both directions of causality are theoretically possible and the BJW theory explicitly states that direction of causality is from BJW to SWB, until now the causal direction of these associations had not been empirically tested. The three experimental studies presented in this paper include manipulations of either BJW, mood or life satisfaction. A total of 338 undergraduate students participated. There were no effects of experimentally induced mood changes on BJW (Study 1) but the saliency of life satisfaction reinforced BJW (Study 2). An increase in self-reported life satisfaction when BJW is primed was found (Study 3), although the activation of BJW had no impact on the mood of the participants (Study 3). Therefore, the present results show that transient affective states do not influence or are influenced by BJW, and that t...

To believe or not to believe in a just world? The psychological costs of threats to the belief in a just world and the role of attributions.

Belief in a Just World (BJW) research has typically studied how individuals maintain and defend their beliefs from possible threats. However, none of this work has examined the psychological costs of threats to ones BJW. In the present research we tested its consequences on self-esteem. Focusing on threats related to relevant in-groups, we aimed to (1) understand the role of group identification in these processes and (2) identify the psychological mechanisms that can counteract their possible negative effects. In two studies we found that for individuals who were highly identified with the involved groups, perceiving a threat to their BJW led to low self-esteem. Conversely, we did not find such effects for low identifiers. Finally, we also found that causal attributions have a protective role in these processes. Results showed that in the face of a threat to BJW, making weaker internal attributions mitigates its harmful impact on self-esteem.

Norms regarding secondary victimization of bullying victims: Do they differ according to the victim’s categorization?

Two studies with a 2 valence of the image (positive, negative) x 2 victims category (ingroup; outgroup) between-subjects design, investigated the existence of prescriptive norms regarding secondary victimization of bullying victims as well as the influence of the categorization of the victim on those same prescriptive norms among 7th graders. Study 1 addressed a scenario of physical bullying. Study 2 addressed a scenario of verbal bullying combined with social exclusion. Results showed that norms prescribe that the ingroup victim of physical bullying should be the least secondarily victimized. Furthermore it was found that for both types of bullying a positive image can be conveyed by secondarily victimizing more an outgroup victim than an ingroup victim.

Linfoma intravascular do pulmão: A propósito de um caso clínico com boa resposta à terapêutica

Intravascular lymphoma is a very rare form of large B cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, characterised by the presence of lymphoma cells in the lumina of small vessels only, particulary in the capillaries. We report a 54 year-old female non-smoker, admitted to hospital for further examination of a four month long clinical condition involving high fever, night sweats, unqualified weight loss and progressive dyspnea. Patient’s temperature was 38.5 oC, pulse 100/min and respiratory 22 cycles/min. Patient’s haemoglobin was 9.4 g/dL, she had leukocytosis, elevated LDH and arterial blood gas analysis with moderate hypoxaemia (FiO2 1 l/m: PaO2-63.6 mm Hg). Chest X-ray revealed diffuse interstitial changes. All the possible causes of unknown origin fever were excluded. Diagnosis was made through lung biopsy and treatment with combined chemotherapy and rituximab was prescribed leading to a 48 hours clinical remission. We present this case to show how difficult this diagnosis can be and how a good response to therapy is possible. Rev Port Pneumol 2008; XIV (6): 857-868