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This article aims to point out transdisciplinary research processes, within the scope of an ongoing artistic research project, called performative research - “Transpersonal Body”, with a methodology guided by the practice and verification of transpersonal psychology, that is, as an intuitive and integrative investigation. We will weave relationships between the performative processes (through the very experience of a physical and sensitive doing, which necessarily produces a transformation of “behavior”), the ritual performance, and the analysis of transpersonal experiences, as contributions to the represent(action) of the body and rite, in the study of symbols and archetypes of the feminine spiritual universe in the context of contemporary art and culture.We will analyze in more depth the video-performance “The Gnome”, 2021, as a case study generated from the tale “A Menina Sem Mãos”, which deals with the initiation of women into the subterranean forest, based on the ritual of resistance. The video brings together elements of the order of both individual and collective mythologies, namely it incorporates certain synchronous forces of the “Wild Mother”.This is an artistic investigation, of the transpersonal order, which aims to contribute to an individual, ethical and collective change, understanding by “science” the spiritual knowledge and practice in its entirety, intending to demonstrate how technology (image and moving images) can to contribute to the transforming experience of the symbolic dimension in the fields of Art, Technology and Spirituality.

Introduction: Sorafenib was the first therapy used for systemic treatment of unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Multiple prognosis factors associated with sorafenib therapy have been described. Objectives: The aim of this work was to evaluate survival and time to progression (TTP) on HCC patients treated with sorafenib, and check for predictive factors of sorafenib benefit. Materials and Methods: Retrospectively, data from all HCC patients treated with sorafenib in a Liver Unit from 2008 to 2018 were collected and analyzed. Results: Sixty-eight patients were included; 80.9% were male, the median age was 64.5 years, 57.4% had Child-Pugh A cirrhosis and 77.9% were BCLC stage C. Macrovascular invasion (MVI) was present in 25% of the patients and 25% of the subjects had other extrahepatic metastasis. The median survival was 10 months (IQR 6.0–14.8) and median TTP was 5 months (IQR 2.0–7.0). Survival and TTP were similar between Child-Pugh A and B patients: 11.0 months (IQR 6.0–18.0) for Child-Pugh A and 9.0 months (IQR 5.0–14.0) for Child-Pugh B (p = 0.336). In univariate analysis, larger lesion size (LS >5 cm), higher alpha-fetoprotein (AFP >50 ng/mL), and no history of locoregional therapy were statistically associated with mortality (HR 2.17, 95% CI 1.24–3.81; HR 3.49, 95% CI 1.90–6.42; HR 0.54, 95% CI 0.32–0.93, respectively), but only LS and AFP were independent predictive factors, as shown in multivariate analysis (LS: HR 2.08, 95% CI 1.10–3.96; AFP: HR 3.13, 95% CI 1.59–6.16). MVI and LS >5 cm were associated with TTP shorter than 5 months in univariate analysis (MVI: HR 2.80, 95% CI 1.47–5.35; LS: HR 2.1, 95% CI 1.08–4.11), but only MVI was an independent predictive factor of TTP shorter than 5 months (HR 3.42, 95% CI 1.72–6.81). Regarding safety data, 76.5% of patients reported at least one side effect (any grade), and 19.1% presented grade III–IV adverse effects leading to treatment discontinuation. Conclusions: We observed no significant difference in survival or TTP in Child-Pugh A or Child-Pugh B patients treated with sorafenib, as compared to more recent real-life studies. Lower primary LS and AFP were associated with a better outcome, and lower AFP was the main predictor of survival. The reality of systemic treatment for advanced HCC has recently changed and continues to evolve, but sorafenib remains a viable therapeutic option.

The universality’s myth power, and the sense of the sacred exercises, is explored in the multimedia installation performance “Arquétipo(grafia) obscura do feminino”, from the Russian tale “Vassalissa, the Wise”. The confrontation between Present Body/Virtual Body (and transpersonal) versus Time/Space dynamics (real and digital, and sound / word dialogue in the image) is related to an ancient psychic mapping about induction in the underground and wild world of the Female God, and with the recognition of the primordial woman’s instinct in varied ritualistic tasks. This Project refers to the meaning of the represent(action) of the body and the rite, focusing on the study of the symbols and archetypes of the female spiritual universe, and in the context of contemporary art and culture (namely, in the interaction between Art and Technology - creation image and moving images). We will try to demonstrate how these new devices can contribute to a deeper experience of the symbolic dimension and to the symbiosis between Art, Tecnhology and Spirituality. Raising this question: how does the crossing of the performative body, through the image (video in real time) and digital technology, reflect new modus operandis, with direct implications in a more expanded notion of the representation of Painting?

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) generally appears to have milder clinical symptoms and fewer laboratory abnormalities in children. It remains unknown whether children and young people with inflammatory chronic diseases who acquire SARS-CoV-2 infection have a more severe course, due to either underlying disease or immunosuppressive treatments.To assess the epidemiological features and clinical outcomes of children and young people with inflammatory chronic diseases followed at Pediatric Rheumatology Clinics who were infected with SARS-CoV-2.A multicentric prospective observational study was performed. Data on demographic variables, clinical features and treatment were collected between March 2020 and September 2021, using the Rheumatic Diseases Portuguese Register (Reuma.pt) and complemented with data from the hospital clinical records.Thirty-four patients were included, 62% were female, with a median age of 13 [8-16] years and a median time of inflammatory chronic disease of 6 [3-10] years. The most common diagnoses were juvenile idiopathic arthritis (n=22, 64.7%), juvenile dermatomyositis (n=3, 8.8%) and idiopathic uveitis (n=3, 8.8%). Twenty patients were on conventional synthetic disease modifying drugs (csDMARDs) and 10 on biologic DMARDs (bDMARDs). Five patients had an active inflammatory disease at the time of infection (low activity). Seven patients had an asymptomatic infection while 27 patients (79%) had symptoms: cough (n=12), fever (n=11), rhinorrhea (n=10), headache (n=8), malaise (n=8), fatigue (n=7), anosmia (n=5), myalgia (n=5),dysgeusia (n=4), odynophagia (n=4), chest pain (n=2), diarrhea (n=2), arthralgia (n=1), vomiting (n=1) and conjunctivitis (n=1). No patient required hospitalization or directed treatment, and all recovered without sequelae. In 8 patients there was a change in the baseline medication during the infection: suspension of bDMARDs (n=4), reduction of bDMARDs (n=1), suspension of csDMARDs (n=4) and reduction of csDMARDs (n=2). Only in one patient with juvenile dermatomyositis (who discontinued bDMARDs and csDMARDs), the underlying disease worsened.This is the first study involving children with inflammatory chronic diseases followed at Rheumatology Clinics and SARS-CoV-2 infection in Portugal. In our cohort, mild illness was predominant, which is consistent with the literature. There was no need for hospitalization or specific treatment, and, in most cases, no worsening of the underlying disease was identified.

Research has demonstrated that maternal emotion regulation strategies (self-criticism and self-compassion), mental health, and family functioning impacts child functioning. Due to the paucity of studies, we aimed to analyze: (1) the associations between maternal emotion regulation strategies, psychopathological symptomatology, family functioning, and mother’s perceived child social and emotional behavior (SEB); (2) the differences in mother’s perceived child SEB, according to maternal, child and family characteristics; (3) the predictive role of maternal emotion regulation in mother’s perceived child SEB. A sample of 431 mothers (25-59 years), with children aged 4-17 years (55.5% male), answered the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, the Systemic Clinical Outcome and Routine Evaluation, the Brief Symptom Inventory, the Forms of Self-Criticizing/Attacking and Self-Reassuring Scale, and the Self-Compassion Scale. The results showed positive associations between self-criticism, maternal psychopathological symptomatology, worse family functioning and child social and emotional problems, as well between maternal self-compassion and child prosocial behaviors. Mothers who reported low income, elementary school education, a history of psychiatric illness and whose children had early behavior changes perceived more social and emotional difficulties in their children. Maternal self-criticism was the main predictor of child social and emotional difficulties. In conclusion, maternal emotion regulation strategies and psychopathological symptomatology are associated with family functioning and child SEB. Resumo: A investigação demonstra que as estratégias de regulação emocional maternas (autocrítica e autocompaixão), saúde mental e funcionamento familiar têm impacto no funcionamento da criança e do adolescente. Devido à escassez de estudos, temos como objetivos analisar: (1) as associações entre estratégias de regulação emocional materna, sintomatologia psicopatológica, funcionamento familiar, e a perceção materna do comportamento social e emocional dos filhos ; (2) as diferenças na perceção materna do comportamento social e emocional dos filhos consoante as características da mãe, dos filhos e da família; (3) o papel preditivo da regulação emocional materna na perceção materna do comportamento social e emocional dos filhos. Uma amostra de 431 mães (25-59 anos), com filhos de 4-17 anos (55,5% do sexo masculino), respondeu ao Questionário de Capacidades e Dificuldades, Systemic Clinical Outcome Routine Evaluation (SCORE-15), Inventário de Sintomas Psicopatológicos, Escala das Formas do Autocriticismo e Autotranquilização e Escala de Autocompaixão. Os resultados mostraram associações positivas entre o autocriticismo, a sintomatologia psicopatológica materna, pior funcionamento familiar e problemas sociais e emocionais dos filhos, e entre autocompaixão materna e comportamento prossocial dos filhos. Mães que relataram baixos rendimentos, educação escolar básica, história de doença psiquiátrica e cujos filhos tiveram alterações no comportamento precoce perceberam mais dificuldades sociais e emocionais nos seus filhos. O autocriticismo materno foi o principal preditor das dificuldades sociais e emocionais das crianças e adolescentes. Em conclusão, as estratégias de regulação emocional materna e a sintomatologia psicopatológica estão associadas ao funcionamento familiar e ao comportamento social e emocional dos filhos. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

The investigation of land use changes by anthropic processes, spatially and temporally, is a fundamental tool to establish correlations between landscape patterns and processes and management of the buffer zone of Conservation Units. This study aimed to analyze the forest fragmentation and land use dynamics in the buffer zone of the Rio Doce State Park (PERD), located in Minas Gerais, Brazil, for the year 2015. Its buffer zone was delimited to a radius of 10 km, covering a total area of 128.893,36 ha. Land use classification was based on Landsat 8 image, orbit 217, point 73 and 74, and two types of ecosystems were identified: natural and anthropic. In the thematic mapping, the pressure of the anthropic use over the natural was notified, as well as the high number of forest fragments, which is a negative impact on the resilience required for the conservation of biodiversity and the local Atlantic forest. The fragments have different shapes and sizes and are distributed throughout the buffer zone of the PERD. There is a need to adopt conservation strategies, such as environmental education, reforestation techniques, recovery of degraded areas and ecological corridors. Even with a worrying current scenario, this finding makes it possible to establish an optimistic point for biodiversity conservation, associated with a tendency to reduce the forces of direct changes on natural systems.

Retrorectal cystic hamartomas are rare congenital lesions that can undergo malignant transformation, and adenocarcinoma is the most frequently described histological type. The authors describe a case of a 53-year-old female patient with a localized well-differentiated adenocarcinoma that developed in a retrorectal cystic hamartoma. The patient was submitted to surgery (a Kraske procedure), with an R1 resection, followed by adjuvant radio-chemotherapy. After 23 months of follow up, the patient remains free from disease recurrence. Given the rarity of this entity, this case allows us to reflect on the differential diagnosis, therapeutic approach and patients’ follow-up.

Metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) to the right atrium without invasion of the inferior vena cava is a very rare and difficult diagnosis, especially when the primary tumour is yet to be known. A 68-year-old man with symptoms of heart failure was admitted to the emergency department; his transthoracic echocardiogram showed a mass comprehending almost the totality of the right atrium, obliterating its entrance nearly completely and impeding the normal auricular–ventricular flux, described as a possible auricular myxoma. The patient was promptly transferred to cardiothoracic surgery and submitted to an urgent surgery to completely remove the mass, which was macroscopically described as suspected of malignancy. Further investigation demonstrated a single nodule in the liver with malignant imaging characteristics, and the histology confirmed the diagnosis of metastatic HCC of the right atrium, without metastatic disease elsewhere. He was then submitted to radiofrequency ablation and medicated with sorafenib. The disease progressed slowly but subsequently involved the inferior vena cava and portal vein, culminating in his death 4 years and 3 months after the diagnosis. Although the prognosis for metastatic HCC may be poor, especially with intracavitary heart metastasis, this case shows that an aggressive initial approach with surgical metastasectomy may prolong the median survival of the patients.

The impact of international rating agencies addressing political risk in Iberian private companies is a factor of the outmost importance for corporate decisions concerning capital structure and leverage, although not yet properly addressed in recent research. The financial crisis in the new millennium together with the notation of Portugal by international rating agencies raised issues about political risk impact in the financing of companies and how changes in political risk could affect the perception of the of managers about the capital structure of the companies. The time frame has been selected for incorporating recent and large financial crisis with an impact on the country’s political risk change, from 2003 to 2015. Starting with correlations between Leverage and variables Return on Assets, Return on Equity, Dimension, Tangibility, Sales Variation, Political Risk, and Critical Political Risk, the results were determined through an empirical investigation with a new econometric model. On the Credit Rating Agencies' notations, Critical Political Risk is a dummy variable. We analyse the problem of how this notation affects domestic Political Risk and affects enterprises' capital structure, taking into account the influence of this international notation. Our premise was supported by evidence: when political risk rises, leverage began to decrease. Further study interests include determining how CPR affects each firm, calculating risk per company, and analysing the impact of Rating Notation on financing decisions in private companies from the Iberian Market.

In this study, we used machine learning techniques to reconstruct the wavelength dependence of the absorption coefficient of human normal and pathological colorectal mucosa tissues. Using only diffuse reflectance spectra from the ex vivo mucosa tissues as input to algorithms, several approaches were tried before obtaining good matching between the generated absorption coefficients and the ones previously calculated for the mucosa tissues from invasive experimental spectral measurements. Considering the optimized match for the results generated with the multilayer perceptron regression method, we were able to identify differentiated accumulation of lipofuscin in the absorption coefficient spectra of both mucosa tissues as we have done before with the corresponding results calculated directly from invasive measurements. Considering the random forest regressor algorithm, the estimated absorption coefficient spectra almost matched the ones previously calculated. By subtracting the absorption of lipofuscin from these spectra, we obtained similar hemoglobin ratios at 410/550 nm: 18.9-fold/9.3-fold for the healthy mucosa and 46.6-fold/24.2-fold for the pathological mucosa, while from direct calculations, those ratios were 19.7-fold/10.1-fold for the healthy mucosa and 33.1-fold/17.3-fold for the pathological mucosa. The higher values obtained in this study indicate a higher blood content in the pathological samples used to measure the diffuse reflectance spectra. In light of such accuracy and sensibility to the presence of hidden absorbers, with a different accumulation between healthy and pathological tissues, good perspectives become available to develop minimally invasive spectroscopy methods for in vivo early detection and monitoring of colorectal cancer.The application of machine learning methods to noninvasivelike diffuse reflectance spectra allowed us to reconstruct the absorption coefficient spectra of human healthy and pathological mucosa tissues from the colorectal wall. Consequently, we were able to obtain differentiated blood and pigment content in both tissues, which can be used for the development of new noninvasive diagnostic methods for colorectal cancer., The work of L. M. Oliveira was supported by the Portuguese Science Foundation (Grant No. FCT-UIDB/04730/2020). The work of V. V. Tuchin was supported by a grant of the Government of the Russian Federation (Registration No. 2020-220-08-2389).

Significant research efforts have been devoted to characterizing smallholding productive systems and assessing the relative contribution of small-scale farming to global food production. However, there is a noted paucity of studies addressing the determinants of and contributors to income generation of smallholders around the world, particularly in the Amazon forest. Moreover, while road development in the Amazon has been heavily discussed, the impacts of infrastructure projects, such as road paving, on smallholders’ livelihoods remain uncertain. Here we explore the relevance of agriculture, livestock rearing and collection of non-timber forest products (NTFP) as income providers of smallholders in the Amazon forest in Madre de Dios-Peru, after the paving of Interoceanic South Highway (ISH), a large infrastructural project connecting Acre state in Brazil with Cusco in Peru. We interviewed 62 smallholder families in an area of 403 km2 along the road from Inapari to Mazuko near the tri-national border of Brazil, Peru and Bolivia. We applied a multinomial statistical model to estimate the proportion of annual net revenue related to each productive system from selected predictor variables. Our results show that smallholders’ net revenue originates from a mix of productive systems including agriculture (rice, corn), livestock rearing (cows) and others (poultry, pigs, sheep) as well as NTFP extractivist activities (Brazil nut). Average net revenue is of USD 35.2 ± 25.7 ha−1yr−1 suggesting that economic returns to smallholders remain low even after the paving of ISH. This indicates that connection with markets alone is not sufficient to increase rents of smallholder families.

This article uses a multiscale approach for assessing landscape changes in one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots in Brazil, the Rio Doce State Park (PERD). In this article, we assess land use ch...

After my practical-theoretical project - TRANSPERSONAL BODY - which seeks to question the meaning of the representing action of the transpersonal and numinous body in the context of the contemporary image (whether pictures and moving images). The practice is based on painting versus cinema as an expanded field, resulting from performative contexts, and on the relationship that is proposed in the experience of the poetry of the other.The paradigm underlying the pictorial processes as an extension of the performative will be considered, in the context of the practice of ritual performance, from an anthropological perspective of the body, the study of symbols and archetypes and the verification of psychology transpersonal. For this, the video will be considered not only a documentary medium of the performative records (Practice-led Research), as well as an independent artistic object — it results as another element in the construction of the narrative of the actions between the body and the image — the performative body ritualized as an video object.To the performativity intrinsic to the project, participative observation is proposed as a study method, using processes of personal and cognitive transformation in order to enhance expanded states of consciousness; as a contribution to the process of conquering the internal image (vision) and, in a concern with the transpersonal dimension, as well as for the visual (re) enchantment, relating art and spirituality.

In this paper we present three studies that demonstrate the applicability of spectroscopy methods and optical clearing treatments in pathology identification and monitoring. In the first study, by obtaining the absorption spectra of human healthy and pathological (adenocarcinoma) colorectal mucosa tissues, it was possible to identify a higher content of a pigment in the diseased tissues. This study also shows that machine learning methods can be used to reach the same differentiated results in vivo through diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. In the second study, the combination of collimated transmittance spectroscopy with optical clearing treatments allowed to obtain the diffusion coefficients of glucose in healthy and pathological colorectal mucosa as: Dglucose=5.8x10–7 cm2/s and Dglucose=4.4x10–7 cm2/s, respectively. This study also demonstrated that the diseased tissues contains about 5% more mobile water than the healthy tissues. The third study was performed to evaluate the protein dissociation mechanism of optical clearing. By treating both healthy and pathological colorectal mucosa tissues with 93%-glycerol, a protein dissociation rate of about 3 times higher was obtained for the pathological mucosa. All the discriminating parameters that result from these studies can be obtained in the in vivo situation through diffuse reflectance spectroscopy and further studies to evaluate their values in different stages of cancer progression are of great importance to develop disease monitoring protocols., The authors of the article knew well and communicated with Ekaterina Borisova for many years, especially Valery Tuchin and in recent years Luís Oliveira. We had many joint plans to organize conferences and joint research projects, but COVID-19 mercilessly interrupted our communication. We have lost a great scientist and a person with a huge soul, sociable, but at the same time modest and kind. We will always remember our warm meetings and fruitful work with Ekaterina. This research was supported by the Portuguese grant FCT-UIDB/04730/2020. VVT was supported by grant under the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 220 of 09 April 2010 (Agreement No. 075-15-2021-615 of 04 June 2021).

In this paper, we describe the combination of ultraviolet (UV) spectroscopy with the optical clearing technique to induce new tissue windows, evaluate their efficiency, study the diffusion properties of agents and discriminate cancer. The use of highly concentrated glycerol solutions has induced high efficiency clearing effects in the UV, both in human colorectal and gingival tissues. The protein dissociation rate obtained for colorectal tissues was approximately 3 times higher in pathological than in normal mucosa and the kinetics of diffuse reflectance in the UV allowed to estimate the diffusion coefficient for water in gingival mucosa at glycerol action as (1.78 ± 0.26) × 10 -6 cm 2 /s., The authors are grateful to Dr. Yanmei Liang from the Institute of Modern Optics, Nankai Univ. (China) for providing data on the optical thickness of healthy human gingival tissue layers.