Ultrastructural and molecular characterization of Glugea serranus n. sp., a microsporidian infecting the blacktail comber, Serranus atricauda (Teleostei: Serranidae), in the Madeira Archipelago (Portugal)

A new microsporidian infecting the connective tis sue of the coelomic cavity of the blacktail comber Serranus atricauda, in the Madeira Archipelago (Portugal), is described on the basis of morphological, ultrastructural, and molecular features. The microsporidian formed large whitish xenomas adhering to the peritoneal visceral organs of the host. Each xenoma consisted of a single hypertrophic cell, in the cyto plasm of which mature spores proliferated within parasitophorous vacuoles surrounded by numerous collagen fibers. Mature spores were ellipsoidal and uninucleated, mea suring an average of 6.5 ± 0.5 μm in length and 3.4 ± 0.6 μm in width. The anchoring disk of the polar filament was subter minal, laterally shifted from the anterior pole of the spore. The isofilar polar filament coiled in 18–19 turns, forming two rows that surrounded the posterior vacuole. The latter occupied about one third of the spore length. The polaroplast surround ing the apical and uncoiled portion of the polar filament displayed two distinct regions: a lamellar region and an electron-dense globule. Molecular analysis of the rRNA genes, including the internal transcribed spacer region, and phylogenetic analysis using maximum likelihood and neigh bor joining demonstrated that this microsporidian parasite clustered with some Glugea species. Based on the differences found both at the morphological and molecular levels, to other members of the genus Glugea, the microsporidian infecting the blacktail comber is considered a new species, thus named Glugea serranus n. sp.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Ultrastructural and molecular characterization of a microsporidian infectingSerranus atricauda(Teleostei, Serranidae) in the Madeira Archipelago

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Tumors of the Foot and Ankle: A Single-institution Experience

Tumors of the foot and ankle are rare, and the particular clinicopathologic features, therapeutic approach, and outcomes in this setting are not well established. From January 2000 to December 2010, 72 patients with primary musculoskeletal tumors of the foot and ankle, both benign and malignant, were treated at a single institution. Of the 72 patients, 56% were female. The median age was 52 years. Of the 72 tumors, 62 (86.11%) were located in the foot and 10 were located in the ankle; 63 (87.5%) were soft tissue tumors and 9 (12.5%) were bone tumors. Overall, 56 (78%) were benign tumors and 16 (22%) were malignant tumors. The most frequent soft tissue and bone diagnosis was giant cell tumor. The median follow-up period was 49 months. The vast majority of the tumors were located in the foot. Benign tumors were dominant, outnumbering malignant tumors by more than 3 to 1. The diversity of the histologic benign types was evident, with giant cell tumor, angiomyoma, and lipoma the most frequent. Regarding the malignant tumors, a clear male predominance was present, the median age was 45 years, and the most frequent tumor was synoviosarcoma. The 9-year overall and disease-free survival rate was 65% and 40%, respectively

Transition of free convection flow inside an inclined parallel walled channel: effects of inclination angle and width of the channel

Transition of free convection flow in an inclined parallel walled channel has been investigated numerically by employing k–ɛ turbulent model. Particular attention is paid on how the inclination angle and width of the channel affect the transition process of the flow developing in the channel. The upper plate of the channel is heated isothermally and facing downward, while the lower one is kept under the adiabatic condition. The inclination angle of the channel is varied from 0° to 85° with respect to its vertical position while the distance separating the two plates is systematically reduced from 0.45 to 0.06 m. Distributions of velocity, turbulent kinetic energy and local heat flux are presented to examine the critical distance and the results obtained show good agreement with experimental data available in the literature

Pru p 3 sublingual immunotherapy ultra-rush protocol is safe and clinically effective

Introduction. Sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT) with Pru p 3 can prevent severe allergic reactions to LTP-containing foods, but the standard initiation protocol is time-consuming. Objectives. Establish the safety of a novel ultra-rush initiation protocol for SLIT with Pru p 3. Methods. Prospective study comparing the side effects of the standard vs novel ultra-rush initiation protocols of SLIT with Pru p 3 in patients with anaphylaxis to LTP. Results. Fifteen patients were included (standard initiation, 5; ultra-rush initiation, 10), 80% females. All patients had oropharyngeal pruritus during initiation, 80% with spontaneous recovery, but no other gastro-intestinal, respiratory, cutaneous or systemic side effects occurred in any patient of both groups. Conclusion. The novel ultra-rush protocol halved the build-up time without increasing side effects.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A novel microtubule de-stabilizing complementarity-determining region C36L1 peptide displays antitumor activity against melanoma in vitro and in vivo

Short peptide sequences from complementarity-determining regions (CDRs) of different immunoglobulins may exert anti-infective, immunomodulatory and antitumor activities regardless of the specificity of the original monoclonal antibody (mAb). In this sense, they resemble early molecules of innate immunity. C36L1 was identified as a bioactive light-chain CDR1 peptide by screening 19 conserved CDR sequences targeting murine B16F10-Nex2 melanoma. The 17-amino acid peptide is readily taken up by melanoma cells and acts on microtubules causing depolymerization, stress of the endoplasmic reticulum and intrinsic apoptosis. At low concentrations, C36L1 inhibited migration, invasion and proliferation of B16F10-Nex2 cells with cell cycle arrest at G2/M phase, by regulating the PI3K/Akt signaling axis involving Rho-GTPase and PTEN mediation. Peritumor injection of the peptide delayed growth of subcutaneously grafted melanoma cells. Intraperitoneal administration of C36L1 induced a significant immune-response dependent anti-tumor protection in a syngeneic metastatic melanoma model. Dendritic cells stimulated ex-vivo by the peptide and transferred to animals challenged with tumor cells were equally effective. The C36 VL CDR1 peptide is a promising microtubule-interacting drug that induces tumor cell death by apoptosis and inhibits metastases of highly aggressive melanoma cells

Direito e administração pública: estudos em homenagem a Maria Sylvia Zanella Di Pietro

Divulgação dos SUMÁRIOS das obras recentemente incorporadas ao acervo da Biblioteca Ministro Oscar Saraiva do STJ. Em respeito à lei de Direitos Autorais, não disponibilizamos a obra na íntegra.Localização na estante: 35(81) D598a

Prognostic significance of MUC2, CDX2 and SOX2 in stage II colorectal cancer patients

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) remains a serious health concern worldwide. Despite advances in diagnosis and treatment, about 15 to 30% of stage II CRC patients subjected to tumor resection with curative intent, develop disease relapse. Moreover, the therapeutic strategy adopted after surgery is not consensual for these patients. This supports the imperative need to find new prognostic and predictive biomarkers for stage II CRC. Methods: For this purpose, we used a one-hospital series of 227 stage II CRC patient samples to assess the biomarker potential of the immunohistochemical expression of MUC2 mucin and CDX2 and SOX2 transcription factors. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to generate disease-free survival curves that were compared using the log-rank test, in order to determine prognosis of cases with different expression of these proteins, different mismatch repair (MMR) status and administration or not of adjuvant chemotherapy. Results: In this stage II CRC series, none of the studied biomarkers showed prognostic value for patient outcome. However low expression of MUC2, in cases with high expression of CDX2, absence of SOX2 or MMR-proficiency, conferred a significantly worst prognosis. Moreover, cases with low expression of MUC2 showed a significantly clear benefit from treatment with adjuvant chemotherapy. Conclusion: In conclusion, we observe that patients with stage II CRC with low expression of MUC2 in the tumor respond better when treated with adjuvant chemotherapy. This observation supports that MUC2 is involved in resistance to fluorouracil-based adjuvant chemotherapy and might be a promising future predictive biomarker in stage II CRC patients.This work was supported by FEDER - Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional funds through the COMPETE 2020 – Operacional Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalisation (POCI), Portugal 2020, and by Portuguese funds through FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia/Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação in the framework of the project “Institute for Research and Innovation in Health Sciences” (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007274) and projects POCI-01-0145-FEDER-029017 and POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016390. Diana Pádua acknowledges FCT for financial support through a PhD fellowship (SFRH/BD/146186/2019). The funding bodies played no role in the design of the study and collection, analysis, and interpretation of data and in writing the manuscript

Diet, physical activity, and behavioural interventions for the treatment of overweight or obesity in preschool children up to the age of 6 years (Review)

Background Child overweight and obesity has increased globally, and can be associated with short‐ and long‐term health consequences. Objectives To assess the effects of diet, physical activity, and behavioural interventions for the treatment of overweight or obesity in preschool children up to the age of 6 years. Search methods We performed a systematic literature search in the databases Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, CINAHL, and LILACS, as well as in the trial registers ClinicalTrials.gov and ICTRP Search Portal. We also checked references of identified trials and systematic reviews. We applied no language restrictions. The date of the last search was March 2015 for all databases. Selection criteria We selected randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of diet, physical activity, and behavioural interventions for treating overweight or obesity in preschool children aged 0 to 6 years. Data collection and analysis Two review authors independently assessed risk of bias, evaluated the overall quality of the evidence using the GRADE instrument, and extracted data following the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions. We contacted trial authors for additional information. Main results We included 7 RCTs with a total of 923 participants: 529 randomised to an intervention and 394 to a comparator. The number of participants per trial ranged from 18 to 475. Six trials were parallel RCTs, and one was a cluster RCT. Two trials were three‐arm trials, each comparing two interventions with a control group. The interventions and comparators in the trials varied. We categorised the comparisons into two groups: multicomponent interventions and dietary interventions. The overall quality of the evidence was low or very low, and six trials had a high risk of bias on individual 'Risk of bias' criteria. The children in the included trials were followed up for between six months and three years. In trials comparing a multicomponent intervention with usual care, enhanced usual care, or information control, we found a greater reduction in body mass index (BMI) z score in the intervention groups at the end of the intervention (6 to 12 months): mean difference (MD) ‐0.3 units (95% confidence interval (CI) ‐0.4 to ‐0.2); P < 0.00001; 210 participants; 4 trials; low‐quality evidence, at 12 to 18 months' follow‐up: MD ‐0.4 units (95% CI ‐0.6 to ‐0.2); P = 0.0001; 202 participants; 4 trials; low‐quality evidence, and at 2 years' follow‐up: MD ‐0.3 units (95% CI ‐0.4 to ‐0.1); 96 participants; 1 trial; low‐quality evidence. One trial stated that no adverse events were reported; the other trials did not report on adverse events. Three trials reported health‐related quality of life and found improvements in some, but not all, aspects. Other outcomes, such as behaviour change and parent‐child relationship, were inconsistently measured. One three‐arm trial of very low‐quality evidence comparing two types of diet with control found that both the dairy‐rich diet (BMI z score change MD ‐0.1 units (95% CI ‐0.11 to ‐0.09); P < 0.0001; 59 participants) and energy‐restricted diet (BMI z score change MD ‐0.1 units (95% CI ‐0.11 to ‐0.09); P < 0.0001; 57 participants) resulted in greater reduction in BMI than the comparator at the end of the intervention period, but only the dairy‐rich diet maintained this at 36 months' follow‐up (BMI z score change in MD ‐0.7 units (95% CI ‐0.71 to ‐0.69); P < 0.0001; 52 participants). The energy‐restricted diet had a worse BMI outcome than control at this follow‐up (BMI z score change MD 0.1 units (95% CI 0.09 to 0.11); P < 0.0001; 47 participants). There was no substantial difference in mean daily energy expenditure between groups. Health‐related quality of life, adverse effects, participant views, and parenting were not measured. No trial reported on all‐cause mortality, morbidity, or socioeconomic effects. All results should be interpreted cautiously due to their low quality and heterogeneous interventions and comparators. Authors' conclusions Muticomponent interventions appear to be an effective treatment option for overweight or obese preschool children up to the age of 6 years. However, the current evidence is limited, and most trials had a high risk of bias. Most trials did not measure adverse events. We have identified four ongoing trials that we will include in future updates of this review. The role of dietary interventions is more equivocal, with one trial suggesting that dairy interventions may be effective in the longer term, but not energy‐restricted diets. This trial also had a high risk of bias

“We live in a plural world”: a framework for rapid interdisciplinary and community engagement

Designing effective products and services requires a sensitive understanding of the people for whom you are designing. There are a number of established approaches for achieving this, all of which are predicated on notions of community participation in research and development work. However, such participatory approaches are often deemed to be too specialized and time-consuming to be used at scale. Taking the opportunity generated by four concurrent RiseWise secondments in Guimarães, Portugal, we developed, trialled, and evaluated a framework for working together across disciplines and levels of experience, and with a local community of older adults. This chapter details this work and makes two key contributions. In describing our approach to engaging with a diverse group of older people through their local community association, we first provide a framework for inclusive and efficient community involvement. Secondly, we reflect on the experience of consolidating approaches and knowledge across disciplines within the research team, and on the impact that working closely with the community had on the research team.RiseWise (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research and Innovation Staff Exchange under grant agreement 690874