Isabel Soares

Outcome of first-ever acute ischemic stroke in the elderly

Our purpose was to evaluate the outcome of patients aged 70 years or older with a first-ever acute ischemic stroke and to identify the factors which determine poor outcome. Data from 115 patients, non-disabled prior to stroke, consecutively admitted to a medical department of a teaching hospital over a 30-month period, were prospectively collected at stroke onset and 6-month follow-up. Clinical and brain imaging findings and functional status were recorded. Predictors of unfavorable outcome at 6 months, defined as a modified Rankin Scale score >2, were analyzed by multiple logistic regression. The mean age of this cohort was 78.6 years (SD, 5.7) and 66.1% were women, 73.9% had hypertension, 25.2% diabetes, 36.0% atrial fibrillation (AF), 33.9% heart failure (HF), 15.8% previous transient ischemic attack (TIA), 47.8% a Charlson comorbidity index (CCI) score >1 and 52.2% a baseline National Institute of Health stroke scale (NIHSS) score ≥ 6. At 6 months, 54 patients (47%) had unfavorable outcome and the independent predictors of poor outcome were the initial systolic blood pressure and the NIHSS score on admission. In conclusion, near 50% of these old patients were dependent or dead 6 months after stroke onset and the main predictor of poor outcome was the neurological severity of stroke.

Potential impact of viral load and genetic makeup of HIV type 1 on mother-to-child transmission: characterization of env-C2V3C3 and nef sequences.

HIV-1 mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) was evaluated in terms of the molecular characterization of the env and nef genomic regions and quantification of maternal RNA viral loads. Assignment of viral subtype was achieved by direct sequencing of PCR 1172 products amplified from proviral DNA in 45 HIV-1-nontransmitting mothers (NTM), along with 13 pairs of HIV-1-transmitting mothers (TM) and their infected children (C). Analysis of the env C2V3C3 and nef sequences revealed that subtypes G and B, and their genetic combinations (AG, BG), accounted for over 84.5% of all viruses identified. The genetic structure form envA-nefG was the most commonly observed, with a lower frequency in the NTM (13.3%) compared to the TM (23.1%) group. A greater number of genetic forms was observed among NTM, namely the presence of sequences assigned to subtypes D and F, as well as the intergenetic A/J, and C/U, recombinant forms, along with a mosaic provirus with a complex putative envA-nefEGE genetic structure. No significant differences were found when RNA viral loads were evaluated as a function of the viral subtypes. Nevertheless, a relatively high quantification of HIV-1 RNA was obtained in the NTM group, emphasizing the importance of the compliance and effectiveness of therapeutic schemes to control viral replication and reduce the risk of HIV vertical transmission. V3 sequences displaying features associated with the R5 phenotype dominated in both groups. Both C2V3C3 and Nefs functional domains were conserved during HIV-1 vertical transmission.

Exploring Nightlife and Urban Change in Bairro Alto, Lisbon†

Over the last three decades culture has played a central role in the urban renewal of many cities worldwide. The inner city has thus become a socially, politically controlled “theatre of consumption” (Ritzer 2010). Correspondingly, the urban night has emerged not only as a significant space–time of productive economic activity but also as a key strategy in the urban regeneration of downtowns (Chatterton and Hollands 2003; Farrer 2008, 2011; Hae 2011, 2012; Tadié and Permanadeli 2015; among others). In some Southern European cities the rise of new urban nightscapes in their historical neighborhoods (Crivello 2009; Garcı́a-Pérez 2014; Nofre 2013) is largely connected to urban, social, and economic impacts caused by the neoliberalization of the city (Brenner and Theodore 2005). This is the case of Bairro Alto in Lisbon (Portugal), where the university student and tourist nightlife in this historical neighborhood of the Portuguese capital may be seen as part of a broader public and private-led strategy of internationalization of the city as advertised on the website of the Lisbon Tourism Promotion Agency: “Lisbon’s nightlife is known as one of the longest and most vibrant in the whole of Europe and the world.”2 Indeed, over the past 10 years, the exponential growth of international tourists visiting Lisbon and the increasing attractiveness of the Portuguese capital for hosting national and international university students have caused some social, spatial, economic and cultural impacts in the inner city (Galhardo 2014; Malheiros et al., 2012; Mendes 2006, 2011, 2014; Nofre 2013; Rodrigues 2010). But how is student and tourism-related nightlife contributing to the urban change in Bairro Alto? This article aims to explore the interplay between the urban night and recent urban transformations in this quarter by arguing that recent urban change in Bairro Alto has much to do with its nighttime touristification and studentification. To do so, we have divided the article into two main parts. The first aims to show the role of the local

Insights and directions for sociological approaches to saving: The case of a Financial Education Programme for children in Portugal

The recent contexts of financial and economic crises have fostered discourses and initiatives for encouraging people to save. Despite there being, for the sake of sustainability, a generalized support to educational measures for increasing savings from early childhood, a complete understanding of why and how people save has not yet been attained. The absence of sociological attention to the engagement of consumers in such financial decisions is particularly scant. This article takes the case-study of a financial education programme for children to suggest future directions for the sociological investigation of savings. Literature review and the analysis of a Portuguese programme revealed a clear absence of sociological insights in financial education programmes’ contents and procedures. However, sociological research has already come to relevant findings about social aspects and processes of financial decisions that allow for a better understanding of how consumers, and children in particular, learn about and behave in relation to money, consumption and savings. In our view, the study of savings should pay more attention to several adjoining, concurrent and complimentary practices encompassed in the consumption process. This article contributes not only to fill in the literature gaps identified by the study, but also to counter-offer non-judgemental research regarding current literature on the subject.

At the intersection of risk: when literary journalism and sociology study urban problems by means of akin methodologies

Literary journalism, or long form reporting, intersects sociological research at the methodological level when analysing urban problems. To establish the connection between literary journalism and sociology, we focus on the influence early literary journalists had on the sociological/imagological and narrative construction of social problems and how literary journalism continues to be a tool in the unveiling of risk-related issues such as the exploitation of cheap labour and the degradation of urban environments. We examine a corpus of literary journalism texts through qualitative methods, namely content and discourse analysis, to conclude that literary journalism and sociology resort to the same data gathering methodologies, interviews, surveys and statistics, while narratively exposing life at the socioeconomic peripheries.

Unindo as pontas soltas com a análise de conteúdo etnográfica

Having the basis for a better, deeper and sustained discussion over a selected content and problem is one of the challenges one may face when a traditional research technique, such as content analysis, is applied in a less common approach as is ethnographic content analysis. The objective of this paper is to undertake a critical discussion about ethnographic content analysis, a specific approach that combines various technical resources, enabling new measures to achieving intriguing and rich results and in-depth discussion, considering a content corpus or data selected. This paper aims at contributing to a critical review of ethnographic content analysis, its advantages and limitations, as well as its potential as an alternative focus and strategy. The type of results expected from the implementation of this feature is either textual or statistical nature, which allows a more comprehensive approach and focuses on multiple details of the construction categorical process.