Photo-realistic interactive virtual environments for neurorehabilitation in mild cognitive impairment (NeuroVRehab.PT) : a participatory design and proof-of-concept study

© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is characterized by cognitive, psychological, and functional impairments. Digital interventions typically focus on cognitive deficits, neglecting the difficulties that patients experience in instrumental activities of daily living (IADL). The global conjecture created by COVID-19 has highlighted the seminal importance of digital interventions for the provision of healthcare services. Here, we investigated the feasibility and rehabilitation potential of a new design approach for creating highly realistic interactive virtual environments for MCI patients' neurorehabilitation. Through a participatory design protocol, a neurorehabilitation digital platform was developed using images captured from a Portuguese supermarket (NeuroVRehab.PT). NeuroVRehab.PT's main features (e.g., medium-sized supermarket, the use of shopping lists) were established according to a shopping behavior questionnaire filled in by 110 older adults. Seven health professionals used the platform and assessed its rehabilitation potential, clinical applicability, and user experience. Interviews were conducted using the think-aloud method and semi-structured scripts, and four main themes were derived from an inductive semantic thematic analysis. Our findings support NeuroVRehab.PT as an ecologically valid instrument with clinical applicability in MCI neurorehabilitation. Our design approach, together with a comprehensive analysis of the patients' past experiences with IADL, is a promising technique to develop effective digital interventions to promote real-world functioning.TThis research was carried out as part of the doctoral studies of the first author (Ref: PDE/BDE/127784/2016) and for which she received scholarships from the following entities: Nippon Gases Portugal and Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia through the European Social Fund and Human Capital Operational Programme, co-financed by Portugal 2020 and European Union. The work was partially supported by LASIGE Research Unit, ref. UIDB/00408/2020 and ref. UIDP/00408/2020.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

IDE-OTALEX C. The big challenge of the first Crossborder SDI between Spain and Portugal

The SDI implementation is an average difficult work. There should be an understanding between political and scientific interests, technological advances and it is also quite recommended to meet the needs of citizens. A cross-border SDI implementation, where three levels of administration belonging to two countries must be considered, may seem impossible to do, but it is not only a possible task, but also an enriching and useful task to study the reality of the territory and its sustainable development. IDE OTALEXC is the first crossborder spatial data infrastructure characterized for being a distributed, decentralized, modular and collaborative system, based on standards OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium), W3C (World Wide Web Consortium), ISO (International Organization for Standardization) and open source technology

OTALEX-C, BASIS FOR OPPORTUNITIES OF NEW RESEARCH PROJECTS AND DEVELOPMENTS. GENERAL STUDIES: THE EURO-CITY ELVAS-BADAJOZ

La civilización es una realidad evolutiva continua que fomenta la reformulación de las metodologías de planificación y la ordenación del territorio para adaptar los viejos métodos a las necesidades actuales. Requiere una presencia ineludible del proceso empírico, con herramientas e indicadores que pueden, en la gestión territorial y la intervención local, contribuir a la implementación de la sostenibilidad creciente y el desarrollo funcional. Este trabajo, además de detallar el alcance global del proyecto, pone de relieve las metodologías utilizadas para la identificación y análisis de áreas territoriales específicas y también contempla el nuevo marco de investigación y las oportunidades de desarrollo creadas por el Proyecto OTALEX-C. Enmarcado dentro del ambito de la region EuroACE y del Proyecto OTALEX-C, un estudio de caso relacionado con la Eurociudad de Elvas-Badajoz será analizado y evaluado. Un protocolo establecido en 2013 entre las ciudades de Elvas y Badajoz conducio a la creación de la Euro-ciudad. Sin embargo, tres años más tarde, varias cuestiones muestran poca claridad. A este respecto, la identificación, el análisis y la evaluación de los factores que pueden influir en el éxito territorial en las zonas transfronterizas se consideran fundamentales para lograr un desarrollo sostenible mediante proyectos y estrategias de cooperación transfronteriza, lo que conduce a una mejora de las normas de vida de los habitantes transfronterizos. Hoy en día, la investigación muestra que los efectos e impactos que los proyectos de CBC representan en la región no son visibles. Las regiones europeas donde se han encontrado similitudes pueden verse como un paso más en el que se pueden aplicar descripciones y métodos idénticos. Algunas de estas soluciones pueden encontrarse en el Proyecto de CBC de Elvas-Badajoz

Altas Doses de VP-16, Ciclofosfamida e Irradiação Corpórea Total Hiperfracionada Seguida de Transplante Alogeneico de Medula óssea: Um Regime Agressivo e Bem Tolerado no Tratamento de Neoplasias Hematológicas de Mau Prognóstico – Resultados Preliminares

No período de agosto/86 a fevereiro/87, três pacientes foram tratados com VP-16-1800mg/m2, em infusão única em 26 horas no dia -6, seguida por Ciclo fosfamida (EDX) 50mg/kg/d nos dias -4 e -3. Irradiação corpórea total (ICT) 1000 cGy em 5 frações de 200cG y nos dias -2, -1 e 0. O transplante de medula óssea (TMO) foi realizado no dia O utilizando doadores HLA compatíveis. O estudo incluiu três pacientes: um paciente portador de Leucemia Linfoblástica Aguda (LLA) em 1.ª recaída medular; um paciente portador de Leucemia Mielóide Crônica (LMC) em 2.ª fase crônica e um paciente portador de LLA em 2.ª remissão. A idade variou entre quatro e 29 anos. A principal toxicidade apresentada por este regime foi mucosite severa que ocorreu nos três pacientes. Todos os três pacientes apresentaram ulcerações orais e um deles apresentou diarréia hemorrágica com volume superiora dois litros. Em todos os pacientes o quadro se resolveu nas três semanas que se seguiram ao TMO. Um paciente apresentou alterações eletrocardiográficas significativas sem, entretanto, ocorrerem manifestações clínicas de cardiotoxicidade. A eficácia do regime pode ser testada no paciente em recaída que permanece em remissão 210 dias pós-TMO. No paciente portador de LMC houve eliminação do cromossomo Ph1. Concluímos que VP-16/EDX/ICT é um regime eficaz e bem tolerado no tratamento de neoplasias hematológicas

Multidimensional chromatin profiling of zebrafish pancreas to uncover and investigate disease-relevant enhancers

The pancreas is a central organ for human diseases. Most alleles uncovered by genome-wide association studies of pancreatic dysfunction traits overlap with non-coding sequences of DNA. Many contain epigenetic marks of cis-regulatory elements active in pancreatic cells, suggesting that alterations in these sequences contribute to pancreatic diseases. Animal models greatly help to understand the role of non-coding alterations in disease. However, interspecies identification of equivalent cis-regulatory elements faces fundamental challenges, including lack of sequence conservation. Here we combine epigenetic assays with reporter assays in zebrafish and human pancreatic cells to identify interspecies functionally equivalent cis-regulatory elements, regardless of sequence conservation. Among other potential disease-relevant enhancers, we identify a zebrafish ptf1a distal-enhancer whose deletion causes pancreatic agenesis, a phenotype previously found to be induced by mutations in a distal-enhancer of PTF1A in humans, further supporting the causality of this condition in vivo. This approach helps to uncover interspecies functionally equivalent cis-regulatory elements and their potential role in human disease.This study was supported by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (ERC-2015-StG-680156-ZPR and ERC-2016-AdG-740041-EvoLand to J.L.G.-S.). J.B. is supported by an FCT CEEC grant (CEECIND/03482/2018). J.L.G.-S. is supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (BFU2016-74961-P), the Marató TV3 Fundacion (Grant 201611) and the institutional grant Unidad de Excelencia María de Maeztu (MDM-2016-0687). R.B.C. was funded by FCT (ON2201403-CTO-BPD), IBMC (BIM/04293-UID991520-BPD) and EMBO (Short-Term Fellowship). J.Tx. (SFRH/BD/126467/2016), M.D. (SFRH/BD/135957/2018), A.E. (SFRH/BD/147762/2019), and F.J.F. (PD/BD/105745/2014) are PhD fellows from FCT. M.G. was supported by the EnvMetaGen project via the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant 668981). This work was funded by National Funds through FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., under the project UIDB/04293/2020”

OBSERVATORIO TERRITORIAL Y AMBIENTAL ALENTEJO, EXTREMADURA, CENTRO (OTALEX C): DE GIS A IDE.

In the scope of the Spain-Portugal INTERREG projects and FEDER funded POCTEP program, OTALEX C (Territorial and Environmental Monitoring Alentejo Extremadura Center) project aims at studying of various territorial, socioeconomic and environmental indicators. It is the fundamental objective of this project, to develop a geo-portal accessible via internet, for anyone, so that the information will be useful in making decisions related to land use and therefore sustainable development of the environment. Under this general framework over the past fifteen years, we have developed different projects that have set the standardization of data between Portugal and Spain, also was designed GIS systems, and developed regional models and indicator systems, culminating in the current Spatial Data Infrastructure SDI-OTALEX C

East Asia Today

East Asia attracts growing interest in the West. Th e region is the world’s hotbed of economic growth, led by burgeoning China aided by more advanced Asian economies investing heavily in manufacturing and trading networks involving China. Western entrepreneurs clamor to join the China wave

Sustainability Indicators in the Southwest of Iberian Peninsula. Highlighting the Euro-region EUROACE: The OTALEX-C Project.

EUROACE is the name given to the Euro-region covering Alentejo and Centro in Portugal and Extremadura in Spain, since the biophysical perspective, it is mainly characterized by the topography and climate of the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula. The evolution of these two variables have allowed developing a wide variety of soils and a considerable amount of their typologies diversity, as well. The OTALEX C Project team, a cooperation formed by the direct collaboration of Portuguese and Spanish entities creating an active cross-border cooperation (CBC) strategy, belonging to the three levels of administration: national, regional and local. Sharing common problems was enable to develop common solutions for the territories as the example of the OTALEX C Spatial Data Infrastructure (IDE OTALEX C) - a set of indicators that may contribute to the sustainability of the mentioned territory. Those indicators cover a lot of biophysical variables: hydrology, climate, soil, vegetation, and fauna, among many others. The criteria selection of such indicators was carried out taking into account the possibility of a constant updating on the EUROACE territory, as well as they adapting to the Sustainable Development Indicators (SDIs), which are used by the EU Sustainable Development Strategy (EUSDS). With the data collection procedure has been possible to relate soil, weather and vegetation, enabling to analyze issues regarding with the ecosystems functioning as well as their biodiversity and vegetal distribution on the soil, which along, with their structure shape the landscape, where the arboreal stratum constitutes one of they principal components. Major results show that those indicators are helpful tools for territorial management which favoring the conservation and sustainable development of the territories.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

IDE-OTALEX C - primeira IIG transfronteiriça: desenvolvimento, desafios e sustentabilidade.

O Projecto OTALEX foi financiado pelo programa europeu INTERREG IIIA e teve como objectivos estudar e dar a conhecer a realidade de um território, composto pelas regiões do Alentejo em Portugal e da Extremadura em Espanha, separadas convencionalmente pela fronteira administrativa mas unidas pelas suas características físicas, ambientais, sociais e económicas. Tratam-se de espaços rurais de baixa densidade demográfica onde os recursos naturais, culturais e a qualidade do ambiente constituem os seus atractivos fundamentais. A IDE OTALEX é o resultado do esforço, do compromisso e da colaboração entre instituições da fronteira, com implicação aos três níveis administrativos: Nacional, Regional e Local. Apresentam-se os trabalhos de homogeneização e estandartização de dados territoriais do Alentejo e da Extremadura, através de clientes de visualização de mapas, consulta de topónimos e de catálogo, no âmbito da directiva INSPIRE.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio