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The purpose of this study was to compare the sociodemographic and psychosocial characteristics reported by femalein vitrofertilization (IVF) patients interviewed alone or with the partner in heterosexual couples. During 12 months (2011–2012), all patients undergoing IVF or intracytoplasmic sperm injection at one public reproductive medicine unit, in Portugal, were interviewed on the day of the diagnosis of pregnancy, being recruited 221 women interviewed with the partner and 92 interviewed alone. Interviewers collected data on sociodemographic and obstetric characteristics; and anxiety, depression, social support and partner relationship were collected by self-administered questionnaires.χ2test was used to assess the independent association between the categorical variables and being interviewed alone or with the partner. For continuous variables, mean or median differences were compared by thet-test or the Mann–Whitney test, according to data distribution. No statistically significant differences were found in the self-reporting of depression, anxiety, social support and partner relationship or in sociodemographic and obstetric characteristics between women interviewed alone or with the partner. Although women interviewed alone were older and more frequently had children than women interviewed with the partner, no significant associations were observed. Thus, having a male partner present in the research setting during a self-administered questionnaire seems not to influence women’s responses to psychosocial measures. Other outcomes and settings need to be evaluated to support evidence-based guidelines for research on infertility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arbutoid mycorrhizae were synthesized between adult selected clones of Arbutus unedo L. and Pisolithus arhizus. Two micropropagated clones were tested: AL1, in vitro and C1 (acclimatized plants) in nursery and later in a field trial. In vitro, rooted shoots were transferred to test tubes containing the substrate previously inoculated with mycelium cultured on agar. In the nursery, two inoculation treatments were tested (vegetative inocula or dry sporocarps) and compared to control plants. In the field trial, plants from nursery inoculation treatments were compared and an additional control treatment using seedlings was implemented. Plant height was evaluated 4 months later in the nursery and 20 months later in the field trial. Roots were examined by morphological and histological studies: a) in vitro plantlets one month after inoculation and nine months after acclimatization; and b) 20 months after the field trial was established. Arbutoid mycorrhizae were observed in vitro one month after inoculation, indicating compatibility between A. unedo and P. arhizus. These showed the presence of a mantle, Hartig net, and intracellular hyphal complexes confined to the epidermal root cells. Arbutoid mycorrhizae were also observed nine months after acclimatization in inoculated and control plants. In order to confirm the identity of mycorrhizae, molecular techniques were used, in previously inoculated in vitro plants, 12 months after acclimatization. Thelephora and Hebeloma mycorrhizae, two types of highly competitive and widespread mycorrhizae on nurseries were identified. In the nursery, dry sporocarp treatment improved plant height after four months. In a field trial (20 months later), plants growth did not show significant differences. By this time, mycorrhized roots with Cenococcum geophilum and other types were identified. These results and their implications on A. unedo breeding program are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the arguments used by Portuguese ethics organizations on to the regulation of human embryo research. Documents produced between 2006 and 2010 were collected and, based on thematic content analysis, the discursive strategies were studied from a semantic approach to data. The debate focused the status of abstract embryos (human being/person or biological artifact/laboratory neostructure) and the criteria that should guide best practices and balance expectations and risks on embryo research, in which heterogeneous arguments coexist based on principialist, secular and interventional bioethics. The perspectives of those who must decide the fate of real embryos should be incorporated into the discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Estudos Feministas is the property of Revista Estudos Feministas and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Abstract: In this paper we aim to discuss how Portuguese prisoners know and what they feel about surveillance mechanisms related to the inclusion and deletion of the DNA profiles of convicted criminals in the national forensic database. Through a set of interviews with individuals currently imprisoned we focus on the ways this group perceives forensic DNA technologies. While the institutional and political discourses maintain that the restricted use and application of DNA profiles within the national forensic database protects individuals’ rights, the prisoners claim that police misuse of such technologies potentially makes it difficult to escape from surveillance and acts as a mean of reinforcing the stigma of delinquency. The prisoners also argue that additional intensive and extensive use of surveillance devices might be more protective of their own individual rights and might possibly increase potential for exoneration. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Two cases of missing children in Portugal (Joana and Maddie) have recently highlighted the dilemmas and contingencies associated with the technology of “genetic fingerprinting” for forensic purposes in the context of criminal investigations. The purpose of this article is to analyze the popular press’s discourses and representations around forensic genetics in the context of those two highly mediatized criminal investigation cases. The symbolical construction and representation of forensic genetics by the media presents a form of public exposure to beliefs on forensic genetics’ characteristics and potential. These are blended with popular cultural contexts that are constructed with reference to images of a super-science which may carry consequences in the public understanding of forensic science. The media coverage of both cases and their actual disclosure resembles the patterns of a CSI effect, insofar as real science’s capabilities and limitations are placed against fictionalized representations of forensic science. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

DNA is seen by many as the "true" basis of human identity, insofar as it is a biological structure that is, in principle, unique in each individual. This notion of "uniqueness", a fundamental pillar of criminal investigation and forensic genetics, has fostered identity politicies by modern states through the classification and storage of information about "criminals". This article explores the alignment of science and state bureaucracy for producing the "genetic-criminal" identity in the context of the Portuguese forensic DNA database for forensic purposes. We discuss the impacts of this sort of identity politicies for the management, categorization, and surveillance of individuals classified as criminals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study which modified poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) pipes to produce a sulfonated polymer with dehydrochlorinated PVC samples as intermediates. The two intermediates formed are described. According to the infrared (IR) spectra, the dehydrochlorinated samples were heterogeneous materials with different proportions of elimination products, hydroxyl substitution, and partial oxidation.

Copyright of Sociologia, Problemas e Práticas is the property of Centro de Investigacao e Estudos de Sociologia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article explores how the Portuguese legal system’s efforts to determine paternity of children born outside legal marriage, automatically initiated by the Registry Office when a birth registration does not indicate the father, reveal cultural models which reinforce the naturalisation of the differences between mothers and fathers, with significant effects on the social construction of parental roles and on expectations of family organisation and female sexual behaviour. The article relies on ethnographic data drawn from direct observation of court proceedings for the determination of paternity, as well as interviews with judges and prosecuting counsels all over the country. It is argued that judicial practices in the specific context of courtroom investigations of paternity reinforce gender inequalities in two interrelated ways. On the one hand, they are strengthened in the discursive practices performed during the course of the interactions between judges, prosecuting counsels and the mother of the child, as well as the alleged father. On the other hand, the normative model of family life and the dominant ideology of women’s and men’s relationships, which emphasise women’s socially subordinate position, are revealed by the selective use of DNA testing in paternity cases, based on the judge’s evaluation of the mother’s sexual behaviour. The article argues that legal attempts to establish the paternity of children born outside marriage—though based on novel technical and supposedly objective procedures—tend, nevertheless, to reproduce the prevailing patriarchal structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This chapter seeks to understand the role of gender relations and gender identities in the context of doing qualitative research and their impacts in the ethics of conducting qualitative interviewing. This discussion is informed by the research experience of two female researchers related with two different studies, with a particular focus on the process of conducting qualitative interviews with women and men in Portugal who had been medically diagnosed with infertility. Our aim is to focus on two main topics related to gender and ethics in the research relationships, in the context of studying infertility. First, the gender of the participant in the study: should we have interviewed women, men or couples? Should the interviewer be a woman or a man? Second, the construction of local ethics: is there a need for local ethical guidelines for researchers who use qualitative research in infertility? We will explore the emotions that we have experienced when doing qualitative research about infertility, illustrating that with empirical examples from our fieldwork. Those feelings were particularly acute due to two main factors: in the presence of social and gender inequalities (e.g., socioeconomic, professional and geographic inequalities in the access to fertility drugs for ovarian stimulation and women's physical and emotional discomfort within the fertility treatments): and by the fact that one of the researchers was confronted by some of the participants in the study with questions about her own fertility and her fulfillment of the role of being a mother. We call for a feminist research methods training program that takes into account the social, cultural, ethical and professional local contexts where the daily research relationship occurs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Big Data is seen as an increasingly important tool to support policing activities, define security governance policies and assist criminal investigations. Although significant literature has explored the predictive capabilities of Big Data, there has been less focus on the uses of Big Data in criminal investigations, focused on detection and apprehension that occur after a crime has been committed. This article aims to fill this gap through the lens of expectations of professionals involved in police cooperation in the European Union. Based upon a set of qualitative interviews, our analysis explores these professionals' expectations for the application of Big Data techniques in criminal investigations by using DNA data held in national criminal DNA databases and, therefore, potentially increasing the interoperability between genetic and non-genetic data. Our results reveal a flexible repertoire of interpretation of the expectations for the uses of Big Data in criminal investigations and its associated potential risks and benefits. The perceived benefits relate to expectations for Big Data's potential to advance cold cases and strengthen the interoperability of multiple datasets in ways that produce intelligence valuable for criminal investigations. Perceived risks concern the difficulties associated with investigating large sets of data, the potential for enforcing genetic discrimination, and threatening privacy and human rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is, at the present time, a great demand for chestnut rootstocks with improved resistance to Phytophthora cinnamomi Rands in the nurseries. New genotypes are emerging from European chestnut breeding programs and the production of thriving plants to restore old orchards with low yields due to a high incidence of diseases, namely root rot, is necessary. Micropropagation is a useful technique for clonal propagation. Nevertheless, in vitro culture propagation is genotype-dependent. Consequently, the existing protocols may demonstrate poor reproducibility and low efficacy. Thus, the need to contribute to the development of new micropropagation protocols suitable for large production of emerging genotypes. As a contribution to fill this gap, a three-step protocol was developed by using new combinations of Murashige & Skoog, Woody Plant, and adapted modified Melin-Norkrans media in different stages of the propagation process. About 90% of shoots were rooted, and after three months of acclimatization, 85% of these plants survived and were capable of continuous growth in the field. Currently, this protocol is being used in the production of several hybrid genotypes (with improved resistance to P. cinnamomi), selected from our ongoing breeding program and also in Castanea sativa Mill. and Castanea crenata Siebold and Zucc. species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under EU Law, Member States are compelled to engage in reciprocal automated forensic DNA profile exchange within the so-called Prüm system. Presently, 25 operational EU Member States exchange DNA data within the Prüm system to combat terrorism and cross-border crime. This article discusses the perceived risks and benefits of the Prüm system on the basis of a set of 37 interviews conducted in 22 EU countries, with 47 professionals operating the system (the National Contact Points – NCPs). The perceived benefits relate to the intensification of tools for combating transnational criminality; development of standardisation and harmonisation of forensic DNA testing procedures; and reinforcement of professional cooperation. The perceived risks are associated to the possibility that individuals may be prosecuted on the basis of false positives; the lack of available data to measure the effectiveness of the Prüm system; and the different modus operandi of police forces and judicial authorities. Our results reveal that perspectives on the risks and benefits of the Prüm system significantly vary according to the type of work performed by the NCPs. Our data shows a more complex range of perceived benefits and risks than those suggested in previous studies about the Prüm system. • Prüm intensifies tools for combating transnational criminality. • Other benefits entail standardisation of DNA testing and professional cooperation. • One major risk relates to growth of false positives generated by the Prüm exchange system. • Another risk is the impossibility of measuring the effectiveness of Prüm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Forensic DNA testing is a powerful tool used to identify, convict, and exonerate individuals charged of criminal offenses, but there are different views on its benefits and risks. Knowledge about public views on forensic DNA testing applied in the criminal field is socially valuable to practitioners and policymakers. This paper aims to synthesize quantitative evidence about the factors that influence public views on forensic DNA testing in the criminal field. Based on a systematic search conducted in January 2019, a scoping review was performed, targeting studies presenting original empirical data that were indexed in Web of Science and PubMed. The two authors performed eligibility and data extraction. Results: The 11 studies were conducted mainly in European countries (Italy, Portugal, Serbia, Spain, Switzerland) and the remaining derived from the USA and New Zealand. Non-representative samples were mostly used to explore the benefits and risks of criminal DNA databases, criteria for insertion and retention of DNA samples and profiles, knowledge, willingness to donate a DNA sample, and custody. The value of forensic DNA databases in protecting society from crime was emphasized. Concerns about improper access to forensic genetic data and risks to civil liberties associated with its uses were expressed. The scarce literature on Forensic DNA Phenotyping and familial searching revealed the same trend of positively valuing forensic DNA testing. Only factors related with socioeconomic position were assessed by more than two studies. Results suggested that public views on forensic DNA testing are influenced by the level of education, age, and exposure to law enforcement occupations although not in a straightforward manner. Conclusion: Further empirical research should assess standardized factors related with social and structural levels (e.g., scientific literacy, public trust in the justice system and concerns about victimization or police activity) and be performed in different national jurisdictions to enable generalization and comparison of findings. It is needed to expand empirical studies on public views about the commercialization of forensic science and the use of recent controversial techniques and new transparency and accountability models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]