Interoperability between information systems concerning electronic records of patients

The problematic over the interoperation between institutions in underdeveloped countries always presents good opportunities for science to contribute to substantial improvements in the real-world issues. The basic support systems such as the health institutions are among the ones that can most benefit from scientific advances. This paper reports an analysis done over the interoperability between health institutions, specifically regarding the interaction between medical centres and clinical laboratories where the main interoperability instrument is the patient record. This research was validated with a real practical use case that is presented in this paper. In order to make the information stored in different software applications of the national health system (SIS), more specifically in the Dr. Ayres de Menezes hospital, in the country of São Tomé and Príncipe, interoperable with the information systems of the clinical laboratories that support the hospital, two different applications were developed (Patient Management System and Clinical Analysis Laboratory Management System) to implement the interoperability between them. The Patient Management application requests medical exams from your Medical Appointment dashboard. The second application receives the exam request and after exams are processed and validated, the second system sends the result to the requesting application. To make the interoperability service effective, the SOAP protocol was used, which allowed the exchange of information synchronously between these two applications, allowing for faster transactions of patients' pathological data, and greater confidentiality of this same information.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Bone tissue engineering : state of the art and future trends

Although several major progresses have been introduced in the field of bone regenerative medicine during the years, current therapies, such as bone grafts, still have many limitations. Moreover, and in spite of the fact that material science technology has resulted in clear improvements in the field of bone substitution medicine, no adequate bone substitute has been developed and hence large bone defects/injuries still represent a major challenge for orthopaedic and reconstructive surgeons. It is in this context that TE has been emerging as a valid approach to the current therapies for bone regeneration/substitution. In contrast to classic biomaterial approach, TE is based on the understanding of tissue formation and regeneration, and aims to induce new functional tissues, rather than just to implant new spare parts. The present review pretends to give an exhaustive overview on all components needed for making bone tissue engineering a successful therapy. It begins by giving the reader a brief background on bone biology, followed by an exhaustive description of all the relevant components on bone TE, going from materials to scaffolds and from cells to tissue engineering strategies, that will lead to engineered bone.Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology through funds from POCTI and/or FEDER programs

Novel starch-based scaffolds for bone tissue engineering : cytotoxicity, cell culture, and protein expression

Starch-based biomaterials and scaffolds have been proposed for several biomedical applications. In the present work new scaffolds based on a 50/50 (wt%) blend of corn starch/ethylene-vinyl alcohol (SEVA-C) were studied. These scaffolds were processed by a melt-based technology, which has been used before with other starch-based materials but never with SEVA-C. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) observation showed that the developed porous structures were 60% porous with pore size between 200 and 900 μm and a reasonable degree of interconnectivity. Moreover, scaffolds presented a compressive modulus of 117.50 ± 3.7 MPa and a compressive strength of 20.8 ± 2.4 MPa. Cytotoxicity evaluation was performed according to ISO/EN 10993 part 5 guidelines, and revealed that the developed scaffolds were nontoxic and did not inhibit cell growth. Direct contact assays were also carried out by use of a cell line of human osteoblast-like cells (SaOS-2). Cells were seeded (3 × 105 per scaffold) and allowed to grow for 4 weeks at 37°C, in a humidified atmosphere containing 5% CO2. Total protein assay showed that the cells were able to grow for the 4 weeks of the experiment. These data were further confirmed by SEM. Moreover, a cell viability assay (MTS test) demonstrated that cells were perfectly viable after the 4 weeks of culture, showing the adequacy of the developed structure in supporting them. Finally, Western blot analysis revealed that osteopontin was being actively expressed by the cells, which, in association with collagen deposition observed by SEM, seems to indicate that bone extracellular matrix was being deposited. Consequently it is believed that starch-based scaffolds should be considered as an alternative for bone tissue-engineering applications in the near future.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT

Conservation of Orbital Angular Momentum in Stimulated Down-Conversion

We report on an experiment demonstrating the conservation of orbital angular momentum in stimulated down-conversion. The orbital angular momentum is not transferred to the individual beams of the spontaneous down-conversion, but it is conserved when twin photons are taken individually. We observe the conservation law for an individual beam of the down-conversion through cavity-free stimulated emission.Comment: Submitted for publication in Phys. Rev. Let

In vivo response to starch-based scaffolds designed for bone tissue engineering applications

Our purpose was to evaluate the in vivo endosseous response to three starch-based scaffolds implanted in rats (n ¼ 54). We implanted the three scaffold groups; a 50/50 (wt %) blend of corn starch and ethylene-vinyl alcohol (SEVA-C), the same composition coated with a biomimetic calcium phosphate (Ca-P) layer (SEVA-C/ CaP), and a 50/50 (wt %) blend of corn starch and cellulose acetate (SCA), all produced by extrusion with blowing agents, into distal femurs proximal to the epiphyseal plate, for 1, 3, or 6 weeks. Our results showed that at 1 week considerable reparative bone formed around all scaffold groups, although the bone was separated from the scaffold by an intervening soft tissue interfacial zone that comprised two distinct compartments: the surface of the scaffold was occupied by multinucleate giant cells and the compartment between these cells and the surrounding bone was occupied by a streaming fibrous-like tissue. The extracellular matrix of the latter was continuous with the extracellular bone matrix itself, labeled positively for osteocalcin and appeared mineralized by backscattered electron imaging. All three scaffolds showed a similar tissue response, with the soft tissue interface diminishing with time. No bone contact was observed with SEVA-C at any time point, only transitory bone contact was observed with SEVA-C/CaP at 3 weeks, but SCA exhibited direct bone contact at 6 weeks where 56.23 6 6.46% of the scaffold surface was occupied by bone. We conclude that all materials exhibited a favorable bony response and that the rapidly forming initial ‘‘connective tissue’’ seen around all scaffolds was a very early form of bone formation

Monoolein-based lipoplexes (DODAB/MO/DNA) as non-viral vector for transfection- from physicochemical characterization to biological application

Cationic liposomes/DNA (lipoplexes) have been widely used as non-viral vectors for transfection, the role of the neutral lipid in liposome formulation being determinant for the efficiency of this process [1,2]. In this work, we studied the potential of monoolein (MO) as helper lipid for cellular transfection. Lipoplexes composed of pDNA and dioctadecyldimethylammonium bromide (DODAB)/1-monooleoyl-rac-glycerol (MO) at different molar ratios (4:1, 2:1 and 1:1) were investigated, as well as different cationic lipid/DNA ratios. The physicochemical properties of the lipoplexes (size and charge), the formation of the lipoplexes, the effect of MO on pDNA condensation and the effect of heparin on percentage of pDNA release from the lipoplexes were also studied by Ethidium Bromide (EtBr) exclusion assays, Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS), Zeta Potential (æ) and electrophoresis. The cytotoxicity, transfection efficiency, as well as the intracellular localization of labeled DNA were evaluated on 293T cells. It was found that the presence of MO not only increases the efficiency of pDNA compactation, but also affects the physicochemical properties of lipoplexes, which could possibly interfere with lipoplex-cell interactions. The DODAB:MO (2:1) and (4:1) formulations were capable of efficiently mediate in vitro cell transfection. These results were consistent with fluorescence microscopy studies, which illustrated that lipoplexes were able to gain entry into the cytosol and deliver pDNA to the nucleus. Understanding the structure–activity relationship of MO based lipoplexes will give direction toward the development of safe and efficient gene delivery systems.Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) for financial support to Center of Physics and Center of Molecular & Environmental Biology and funding through projects PTDC/QUI/69795/2006 and SFRH/BD/46968/2009

Monoolein as helper lipid for non-viral transfection in mammals

Lipoplexes composed of pDNA and DODAB/MO at different molar ratios (4:1, 2:1 and 1:1) and different cationic lipid/DNA charge ratios were investigated. The physicochemical properties of the lipoplexes (size and charge), the pDNA complexation, and the effect of heparin on pDNA release, were studied by Dynamic Light Scattering, Zeta Potential, and Ethidium Bromide exclusion assays. The cytotoxicity, transfection efficiency and the intracellular localization of DNA were evaluated on 293T cells.The Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) for the financial support to the Center of Physics and Center of Molecular & Environmental Biology and funding through projects PTDC/QUI/69795/2006 and SFRH/BD/46968/2009 are acknowledged

Nitrogen compounds prevent H9c2 myoblast oxidative stress-induced mitochondrial dysfunction and cell death

Oxidative stress has been connected to various forms of cardiovascular diseases. Previously, we have been investigating the potential of new nitrogen-containing synthetic compounds using a neuronal cell model and different oxidative stress conditions in order to elucidate their potential to ameliorate neurodegenerative diseases. Here, we intended to extend these initial studies and investigate the protective role of four of those new synthetic compounds (FMA4, FMA7, FMA762 and FMA796) against oxidative damage induced to H9c2 cardiomyoblasts by tert-butylhydroperoxide (t-BHP). The data indicates that FMA762 and FMA796 decrease t-BHP-induced cell death, as measured by both sulforhodamine B assay and nuclear chromatin condensation evaluation, at non-toxic concentrations. In addition, the two mentioned compounds inhibit intracellular signalling mechanisms leading to apoptotic cell death, namely those mediated by mitochondria, which was confirmed by their ability to overcome t-BHP-induced morphological changes in the mitochondrial network, loss of mitochondrial membrane potential, increased expression of the pro-apoptotic proteins p53, Bax and AIF and activation of caspases-3 and -9. Importantly, our results indicate that the compounds’ ROS scavenging ability plays a crucial role in the protection profile, as a significant decrease in t-BHP-induced oxidative stress occurred in their presence. Data obtained indicates that some of the test compounds may clearly prove valuable in a clinical context by diminishing cardiac injury associated to oxidative stress without any toxicity.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - Bolsa SFRH/BD/17174/2004, PTDC/QUI/ 64358/200

Applied genomics: the brazilian experience.

Projeto/Plano de Ação: 01.06.10602-03