Performance clínica de um novo software para detetar automaticamente angiectasias na endoscopia por cápsula

Background: Video capsule endoscopy (VCE) revolutionized the diagnosis and management of obscure gastrointestinal bleeding, though the rate of detection of small bowel lesions by the physician is still disappointing. Our group developed a novel algorithm (CMEMS-Uminho) to automatically detect angioectasias which display greater accuracy in VCE static frames than other methods previously published. We aimed to evaluate the algorithm overall performance and assess its diagnostic yield and usability in clinical practice. Methods: Algorithm overall performance was determined using 54 full-length VCE recordings. To assess its diagnostic yield and usability in clinical practice, 38 VCE examinations with the clinical diagnosis of angioectasias consecutively performed (2017-2018) were evaluated by three physicians with different experiences. The CMEMS-Uminho algorithm was also applied. The performance of the CMEMS-Uminho algorithm was defined by a positive concordance between a frame automatically selected by the software and a study independent capsule endoscopist. Results: Overall performance in complete VCE recordings was 77.7%, and diagnostic yield was 94.7%. There were significant differences between physicians in regard to global detection rate (p < 0.001), detection rate per capsule (p < 0.001), diagnostic yield (p = 0.007), true positive rate (p < 0.001), time (p < 0.001), and speed viewing (p < 0.001). The application of CMEMS-Uminho algorithm significantly enhanced all readers' global detection rate (p < 0.001) and the differences between them were no longer observed. Conclusion: The CMEMS-Uminho algorithm detained a good overall performance and was able to enhance physicians' performance, suggesting a potential usability of this tool in clinical practice.(undefined

Resolving the ancestry of Austronesian-speaking populations

There are two very different interpretations of the prehistory of Island Southeast Asia (ISEA), with genetic evidence invoked in support of both. The “out-of-Taiwan” model proposes a major Late Holocene expansion of Neolithic Austronesian speakers from Taiwan. An alternative, proposing that Late Glacial/postglacial sea-level rises triggered largely autochthonous dispersals, accounts for some otherwise enigmatic genetic patterns, but fails to explain the Austronesian language dispersal. Combining mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), Y-chromosome and genome-wide data, we performed the most comprehensive analysis of the region to date, obtaining highly consistent results across all three systems and allowing us to reconcile the models. We infer a primarily common ancestry for Taiwan/ISEA populations established before the Neolithic, but also detected clear signals of two minor Late Holocene migrations, probably representing Neolithic input from both Mainland Southeast Asia and South China, via Taiwan. This latter may therefore have mediated the Austronesian language dispersal, implying small-scale migration and language shift rather than large-scale expansion

Overexpression of circulating MiR-30b-5p identifies advanced breast cancer

Breast cancer (BrC) remains the leading cause of cancer-related death in women, mainly due to recurrent and/or metastatic events, entailing the need for biomarkers predictive of progression to advanced disease. MicroRNAs hold promise as noninvasive cancer biomarkers due to their inherent stability and resilience in tissues and bodily fluids. There is increasing evidence that specific microRNAs play a functional role at different steps of the metastatic cascade, behaving as signaling mediators to enable the colonization of a specific organ. Herein, we aimed to evaluate the biomarker performance of microRNAs previously reported as associated with prognosis for predicting BrC progression in liquid biopsies. Background Breast cancer (BrC) remains the leading cause of cancer-related death in women, mainly due to recurrent and/or metastatic events, entailing the need for biomarkers predictive of progression to advanced disease. MicroRNAs hold promise as noninvasive cancer biomarkers due to their inherent stability and resilience in tissues and bodily fluids. There is increasing evidence that specific microRNAs play a functional role at different steps of the metastatic cascade, behaving as signaling mediators to enable the colonization of a specific organ. Herein, we aimed to evaluate the biomarker performance of microRNAs previously reported as associated with prognosis for predicting BrC progression in liquid biopsies. Methods Selected microRNAs were assessed using a quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction in a testing cohort of formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded primary (n = 16) and metastatic BrC tissues (n = 22). Then, miR-30b-5p and miR-200b-3p were assessed in a validation cohort #1 of formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded primary (n = 82) and metastatic BrC tissues (n = 93), whereas only miR-30b-5p was validated on a validation cohort #2 of liquid biopsies from BrC patients with localized (n = 20) and advanced (n = 25) disease. ROC curve was constructed to evaluate prognostic performance. Results MiR-30b-5p was differentially expressed in primary tumors and paired metastatic lesions, with bone metastases displaying significantly higher miR-30b-5p expression levels, paralleling the corresponding primary tumors. Interestingly, patients with advanced disease disclosed increased circulating miR-30b-5p expression compared to patients with localized BrC. Conclusions MiR-30b-5p might identify BrC patients at higher risk of disease progression, thus, providing a useful clinical tool for patients’ monitoring, entailing earlier and more effective treatment. Nonetheless, validation in larger multicentric cohorts is mandatory to confirm these findings.Research Center of Portuguese Oncology Institute of Porto (PI 74-CI-IPOP-19-2016). JL and CSG are supported by a PhD fellowship from FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (SFRH/ BD/132751/2017 and SFRH/BD/92786/2013, respectively). SS is supported by a PhD fellowship IPO/ESTIMA-1 NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000027. BMC is funded by FCT-Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (IF/00601/2012

Exercise-Based Pulmonary Rehabilitation for Interstitial Lung Diseases: A Review of Components, Prescription, Efficacy, and Safety

Interstitial lung diseases (ILDs) comprise a heterogeneous group of disorders (such as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, sarcoidosis, asbestosis, and pneumonitis) characterized by lung parenchymal impairment, inflammation, and fibrosis. The shortness of breath (i.e., dyspnea) is a hallmark and disabling symptom of ILDs. Patients with ILDs may also exhibit skeletal muscle dysfunction, oxygen desaturation, abnormal respiratory patterns, pulmonary hypertension, and decreased cardiac function, contributing to exercise intolerance and limitation of day-to-day activities. Pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) including physical exercise is an evidence-based approach to benefit functional capacity, dyspnea, and quality of life in ILD patients. However, despite recent advances and similarities with other lung diseases, the field of PR for patients with ILD requires further evidence. This mini-review aims to explore the exercise-based PR delivered around the world and evidence supporting prescription modes, considering type, intensity, and frequency components, as well as efficacy and safety of exercise training in ILDs. This review will be able to strengthen the rationale for exercise training recommendations as a core component of the PR for ILD patients

Evaluation of Bacteria and Fungi DNA Abundance in Human Tissues

Whereas targeted and shotgun sequencing approaches are both powerful in allowing the study of tissue-associated microbiota, the human: microorganism abundance ratios in tissues of interest will ultimately determine the most suitable sequencing approach. In addition, it is possible that the knowledge of the relative abundance of bacteria and fungi during a treatment course or in pathological conditions can be relevant in many medical conditions. Here, we present a qPCR-targeted approach to determine the absolute and relative amounts of bacteria and fungi and demonstrate their relative DNA abundance in nine different human tissue types for a total of 87 samples. In these tissues, fungi genomes are more abundant in stool and skin samples but have much lower levels in other tissues. Bacteria genomes prevail in stool, skin, oral swabs, saliva, and gastric fluids. These findings were confirmed by shotgun sequencing for stool and gastric fluids. This approach may contribute to a more comprehensive view of the human microbiota in targeted studies for assessing the abundance levels of microorganisms during disease treatment/progression and to indicate the most informative methods for studying microbial composition (shotgun versus targeted sequencing) for various samples types

nutrition and performance in football

Nutrition is an undeniable part of promoting health and performance among football (soccer) players. Nevertheless, nutritional strategies adopted in elite football can vary significantly depending on culture, habit and practical constraints and might not always be supported by scientific evidence. Therefore, a group of 28 Portuguese experts on sports nutrition, sports science and sports medicine sought to discuss current practices in the elite football landscape and review the existing evidence on nutritional strategies to be applied when supporting football players. Starting from understanding football?s physical and physiological demands, five different moments were identified: preparing to play, match-day, recovery after matches, between matches and during injury or rehabilitation periods. When applicable, specificities of nutritional support to young athletes and female players were also addressed. The result is a set of practical recommendations that gathered consensus among involved experts, highlighting carbohydrates periodisation, hydration and conscious use of dietary supplements.D915-7373-ED16 | Cesar LeaoN/

Semi-automatic algorithm for construction of the left ventricular area variation curve over a complete cardiac cycle

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Two-dimensional echocardiography (2D-echo) allows the evaluation of cardiac structures and their movements. A wide range of clinical diagnoses are based on the performance of the left ventricle. The evaluation of myocardial function is typically performed by manual segmentation of the ventricular cavity in a series of dynamic images. This process is laborious and operator dependent. The automatic segmentation of the left ventricle in 4-chamber long-axis images during diastole is troublesome, because of the opening of the mitral valve.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This work presents a method for segmentation of the left ventricle in dynamic 2D-echo 4-chamber long-axis images over the complete cardiac cycle. The proposed algorithm is based on classic image processing techniques, including time-averaging and wavelet-based denoising, edge enhancement filtering, morphological operations, homotopy modification, and watershed segmentation. The proposed method is semi-automatic, requiring a single user intervention for identification of the position of the mitral valve in the first temporal frame of the video sequence. Image segmentation is performed on a set of dynamic 2D-echo images collected from an examination covering two consecutive cardiac cycles.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The proposed method is demonstrated and evaluated on twelve healthy volunteers. The results are quantitatively evaluated using four different metrics, in a comparison with contours manually segmented by a specialist, and with four alternative methods from the literature. The method's intra- and inter-operator variabilities are also evaluated.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The proposed method allows the automatic construction of the area variation curve of the left ventricle corresponding to a complete cardiac cycle. This may potentially be used for the identification of several clinical parameters, including the area variation fraction. This parameter could potentially be used for evaluating the global systolic function of the left ventricle.</p

Data standardization of plant-pollinator interactions

Background: Animal pollination is an important ecosystem function and service, ensuring both the integrity of natural systems and human well-being. Although many knowledge shortfalls remain, some high-quality data sets on biological interactions are now available. The development and adoption of standards for biodiversity data and metadata has promoted great advances in biological data sharing and aggregation, supporting large-scale studies and science-based public policies. However, these standards are currently not suitable to fully support interaction data sharing. Results: Here we present a vocabulary of terms and a data model for sharing plant–pollinator interactions data based on the Darwin Core standard. The vocabulary introduces 48 new terms targeting several aspects of plant–pollinator interactions and can be used to capture information from different approaches and scales. Additionally, we provide solutions for data serialization using RDF, XML, and DwC-Archives and recommendations of existing controlled vocabularies for some of the terms. Our contribution supports open access to standardized data on plant–pollinator interactions. Conclusions: The adoption of the vocabulary would facilitate data sharing to support studies ranging from the spatial and temporal distribution of interactions to the taxonomic, phenological, functional, and phylogenetic aspects of plant–pollinator interactions. We expect to fill data and knowledge gaps, thus further enabling scientific research on the ecology and evolution of plant–pollinator communities, biodiversity conservation, ecosystem services, and the development of public policies. The proposed data model is flexible and can be adapted for sharing other types of interactions data by developing discipline-specific vocabularies of terms.Fil: Salim, José A. Universidade de Sao Paulo; BrasilFil: Saraiva, Antonio M.. Universidade de Sao Paulo; BrasilFil: Zermoglio, Paula Florencia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas. Centro Cientifico Tecnologico Conicet - Patagonia Norte. Instituto de Investigaciones En Recursos Naturales, Agroecologia y Desarrollo Rural. - Universidad Nacional de Rio Negro. Instituto de Investigaciones En Recursos Naturales, Agroecologia y Desarrollo Rural.; ArgentinaFil: Agostini, Kayna. Universidade Federal do São Carlos; BrasilFil: Wolowski, Marina. Universidade Federal de Alfenas; BrasilFil: Drucker, Debora P.. Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuaria (embrapa);Fil: Soares, Filipi M.. Universidade de Sao Paulo; BrasilFil: Bergamo, Pedro J.. Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro; BrasilFil: Varassin, Isabela G.. Universidade Federal do Paraná; BrasilFil: Freitas, Leandro. Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro; BrasilFil: Maués, Márcia M.. Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuaria (embrapa);Fil: Rech, Andre R.. Universidade Federal dos Vales do Jequitinhonha e Mucuri; BrasilFil: Veiga, Allan K.. Universidade de Sao Paulo; BrasilFil: Acosta, Andre L.. Instituto Tecnológico Vale; BrasilFil: Araujo, Andréa C. Universidade Federal do Mato Grosso do Sul; BrasilFil: Nogueira, Anselmo. Universidad Federal do Abc; BrasilFil: Blochtein, Betina. Pontificia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul; BrasilFil: Freitas, Breno M.. Universidade Estadual do Ceará; BrasilFil: Albertini, Bruno C.. Universidade de Sao Paulo; BrasilFil: Maia Silva, Camila. Universidade Federal Rural Do Semi Arido; BrasilFil: Nunes, Carlos E. P.. University of Stirling; BrasilFil: Pires, Carmen S. S.. Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuaria (embrapa);Fil: Dos Santos, Charles F.. Pontificia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul; BrasilFil: Queiroz, Elisa P.. Universidade de Sao Paulo; BrasilFil: Cartolano, Etienne A.. Universidade de Sao Paulo; BrasilFil: de Oliveira, Favízia F. Universidade Federal da Bahia; BrasilFil: Amorim, Felipe W.. Universidade Estadual Paulista Julio de Mesquita Filho; BrasilFil: Fontúrbel, Francisco E.. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso; ChileFil: da Silva, Gleycon V.. Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia, Inovações. Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia; BrasilFil: Consolaro, Hélder. Universidade Federal de Catalão; Brasi

Data standardization of plant–pollinator interactions

Background: Animal pollination is an important ecosystem function and service, ensuring both the integrity of natural systems and human well-being. Although many knowledge shortfalls remain, some high-quality data sets on biological interactions are now available. The development and adoption of standards for biodiversity data and metadata has promoted great advances in biological data sharing and aggregation, supporting large-scale studies and science-based public policies. However, these standards are currently not suitable to fully support interaction data sharing. Results: Here we present a vocabulary of terms and a data model for sharing plant–pollinator interactions data based on the Darwin Core standard. The vocabulary introduces 48 new terms targeting several aspects of plant–pollinator interactions and can be used to capture information from different approaches and scales. Additionally, we provide solutions for data serialization using RDF, XML, and DwC-Archives and recommendations of existing controlled vocabularies for some of the terms. Our contribution supports open access to standardized data on plant–pollinator interactions. Conclusions: The adoption of the vocabulary would facilitate data sharing to support studies ranging from the spatial and temporal distribution of interactions to the taxonomic, phenological, functional, and phylogenetic aspects of plant–pollinator interactions. We expect to fill data and knowledge gaps, thus further enabling scientific research on the ecology and evolution of plant–pollinator communities, biodiversity conservation, ecosystem services, and the development of public policies. The proposed data model is flexible and can be adapted for sharing other types of interactions data by developing discipline-specific vocabularies of termsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Impact of TGF-ß1 -509C/T and 869T/C polymorphisms on glioma risk and patient prognosis

Transforming growth factor beta (TGF-ß) plays an important role in carcinogenesis. Two polymorphisms in the TGF-ß1 gene (-509C/T and 869T/C) were described to influence susceptibility to gastric and breast cancers. The 869T/C polymorphism was also associated with overall survival in breast cancer patients. In the present study, we investigated the relevance of these TGF-ß1 polymorphism in glioma risk and prognosis. A case-control study that included 114 glioma patients and 138 cancer-free controls was performed. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were evaluated by polymerase chain reaction followed by restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP). Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to calculate odds ratio (OR) and 95 % confidence intervals (95 % CI). The influence of TGF-ß1 -509C/T and 869T/C polymorphisms on glioma patient survival was evaluated by a Cox regression model adjusted for patients' age and sex and represented in Kaplan-Meier curves. Our results demonstrated that TGF-ß1 gene polymorphisms -509C/T and 869T/C are not significantly associated with glioma risk. Survival analyses showed that the homozygous -509TT genotype associates with longer overall survival of glioblastoma (GBM) patients when compared with patients carrying CC + CT genotypes (OR, 2.41; 95 % CI, 1.06-5.50; p = 0.036). In addition, the homozygous 869CC genotype is associated with increased overall survival of GBM patients when compared with 869TT + TC genotypes (OR, 2.62; 95 % CI, 1.11-6.17; p = 0.027). In conclusion, this study suggests that TGF-ß1 -509C/T and 869T/C polymorphisms are not significantly associated with risk for developing gliomas but may be relevant prognostic biomarkers in GBM patients.This work was supported by Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia, Portugal (PTDC/SAU-GMG/113795/2009 and SFRH/BPD/33612/2009 to B.M.C.; SFRH/BD/88121/2012 to J.V.C.; SFRH/BD/92786/2013 to C.S.G.; PTDC/SAU-ONC/115513/2009 to R.R.)