New tools in dry eye disease research: a more efficient clinical trial design using controled environment and molecular biomarkers, and a new clinical questionnaire

The main aims of this doctoral thesis were 3: 1) to study the usefulness of a new two-step design of clinical trials using a controlled environment chamber to evaluate the safety and efficacy of new dry eye disease (DED) therapies; 2) to evaluate the effect of a common DED therapy on clinical symptoms and signs and tear inflammatory molecule levels at different time points (i.e. pre- and post-treatment, pre- and post-adverse environmental condition [ACE; 23°C temperature, 5% relative humidity, 0.43 m/s localized airflow] exposure), identifying different biomarkers (disease severity, therapeutic efficacy, and disease activity); 3) to analyze why clinical symptoms usually fail at translating what patients feel and to develop a new and simpler questionnaire that can detect changes in DED-related symptoms between two time-points in an easier and yet more accurate way than the current questionnaires. Methodology: To meet the first and second aims, a single-center, double masked, randomized, vehicle-controlled, phase II clinical trial was conducted, assessing the efficacy of topical 0.1%-fluorometholone in moderate-to-severe DED patients for ameliorating the worsening of the ocular surface when exposed to an adverse environment. A total of 41 patients randomly received one drop 4 times daily of either topical 0.1%-fluorometholone (FML group) or polyvinyl alcohol (PA group) for 22 days. During the 4 visits of the study (V1, day 0, baseline / V2; day 21, pre-ACE exposure / V3, day 21, post-ACE exposure / V4, day 22, 24h post-ACE exposure) DED signs and symptoms were evaluated. Also, tear samples were collected at the beginning of each visit for further analysis. An immune bead-based array analyzed the concentrations of 18 molecules (EGF, IFN-γ, TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-1RA, IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-8/CXCL8, IL-10, IL-12, IL-13, IL-17A, IP10/CXCL10, MCP-1/CCL2, MIP-1α/CCL3, RANTES/CCL5 and MMP-9).Instituto Universitario de Oftalmobiología AplicadaDoctorado en Ciencias de la Visió

Poesia na infância e formação de leitores

Este artigo apresenta um conjunto de estratégias para ler e apreciar a poesia em contexto escolar, particularmente nos primeiros anos da escolaridade. A poesia é concebida como um tipo de texto onde a elevada concentração sígnica e a multivalência semântica, expandidas pela plurissignificação da conjugação dos elementos do conteúdo com os da expressão, possibilita, ao leitor, o contato emocional e afetivo com o estado de coisas do mundo empírico e histórico-factual, sugerindo percursos hermenêuticos plurais para o seu acesso, conhecimento e reflexão. Assume-se, ao longo do texto, que a fruição do texto poético é relevante na criação de hábitos leitores, aspeto crucial para a formação de leitores capazes de ler voluntariamente em quantidade e em qualidade.This article presents strategies for reading and appreciating poetry in schools, particularly in the early elementary grades. Poetry is conceived as a type of text where the high concentration of symbolism and the semantic multi-valence, expanded by the plural signification of the conjugation of the elements of content with those of expression, allow the reader to have emotional contact with the state of things from the empiric and historic-factual world, suggesting plural hermeneutic paths to their access, knowledge and reflection. The paper understands that the fruition of the poetic text is important in the creation of readers’ habits, an essential factor for the formation of readers who are capable of reading voluntarily in quantity and quality.Este texto presenta un conjunto de estrategias para leer y apreciar la poesía en el contexto de la escuela, en los primeros años. Se entiende que la poesía es un tipo de texto adonde la elevada concentranción sígnica y la multivalencia semántica, expandidas por la plurisignificación del conjunto de elementos del contenido conjugados con los de la expresión, posibilita, al lector, el contacto emocional y afectivo con el estado de cosas del mundo empírico e histórico-factual, sugiriendo caminos hermenéuticos plurales para su acceso, conocimiento y reflexión. Se defiende que el fruir del texto poético es relevante para la creación de hábitos lectores, aspecto crucial para la formación de lectores que leen voluntariamente en cuantidad e con cualidad.CIEC - Centro de Investigação em Estudos da Criança, UM (UI 317 da FCT

End-of-day dryness, corneal sensitivity and blink rate in contact lens wearers

Purpose: To study the relationship among the variables intensity ofthe end-of-day (EOD) dryness, corneal sensitivity and blink rate in soft contact lens (CL) wearers. Methods: Thirty-eight soft CL wearers (25 women and 13 men; mean age 27.1 ± 7.2 years) were enrolled. EOD dryness was assessed using a scale of 0–5 (0, none to 5, very intense). Mechanical and thermal (heat and cold) sensitivity were measured using a Belmonte’s gas esthesiometer. The blink rate was recorded using a video camera while subjects were wearing a hydrogel CL and watching a film for 90 min in a controlled environmental chamber. Results: A significant inverse correlation was found between EOD dryness and mechanical sensitivity (r: −0.39; p = 0.02); however, there were no significant correlations between EOD dryness and thermal sensitivity. A significant (r: 0.56; p < 0.001) correlation also was observed between EOD dryness and blink rate, but no correlations were found between blink rate and mechanical or thermal sensitivity. Conclusions: CL wearers with higher corneal sensitivity to mechanical stimulation reported more EOD dryness with habitual CL wear. Moreover, subjects reporting more EOD dryness had an increased blink rates during wear of a standard CL type. The increased blink rate could act to improve the ocular surface environment and relieve symptom

Operations and control of unmanned underwater vehicles

Operations and control of unmanned underwater vehicle systems arediscussed in terms of systems and technologies, vehicles, operational deploymentsand concepts of operation. The notions underlying the specification of single vehicleoperations are contrasted to new concepts of operation to illustrate the challengesthey pose to control engineering. New research directions are discussed in thecontext of the theories and techniques from dynamic optimization and computerscience. The overall discussion is done in the context of the activities of theUnderwater Systems and Technology Laboratory from Porto University

The association of the step duration in an incremental protocol in the rower ergometer and the maximal lactate steady state intensity

This study aims to analyse which are better step duration related to the maximum lactate steady-state test (MLSS) intensity and the intensity equivalent to the accumulation of 4mmol/L lactate (AnT4) determined through an incremental protocol using a rowing ergometer, using different steps durations (step3min, step5min, step7min). Ten elite Portuguese rowers (25.1 ± 4.82 years; 177.5 ± 5.50 cm; 69.8 ± 2.74 kg) performed rowing ergometer protocols to determine the maximum lactate steady state (MLSS). Subsequently, incremental tests were realised to determine AnT4, using different step durations (step3min, step5min, step7min). The results showed a strong correlation between MLSS and AnT4 (r>0.90; p<0.001) obtained AnT different steps (step3min, step5min, step7min). However, the determined intensity equivalent to 4mmol/L obtained with different step durations that showed the highest correlation with MLSS (246.5 ± 35.20W) was verified in the protocol of 7minute steps (251.5 ± 35,72W). The present study indicates that the use of 7 minutes steps is the most appropriate for determining the AnT4 intensity related to the aerobic component of a high-performance rowing athlete

Using clustering techniques for intelligent camera-based user interfaces

The area of Human-Machine Interface is growing fast due to its high importance in all technological systems. The basic idea behind designing human-machine interfaces is to enrich the communication with the technology in a natural and easy way. Gesture interfaces are a good example of transparent interfaces. Such interfaces must identify properly the action the user wants to perform, so the proper gesture recognition is of the highest importance. However, most of the systems based on gesture recognition use complex methods requiring high-resource devices. In this work, we propose to model gestures capturing their temporal properties, which significantly reduce storage requirements, and use clustering techniques, namely self-organizing maps and unsupervised genetic algorithm, for their classification. We further propose to train a certain number of algorithms with different parameters and combine their decision using majority voting in order to decrease the false positive rate. The main advantage of the approach is its simplicity, which enables the implementation using devices with limited resources, and therefore low cost. The testing results demonstrate its high potential

Bio-inspired enhancement of reputation systems for intelligent environments

Providing security to the emerging field of ambient intelligence will be difficult if we rely only on existing techniques, given their dynamic and heterogeneous nature. Moreover, security demands of these systems are expected to grow, as many applications will require accurate context modeling. In this work we propose an enhancement to the reputation systems traditionally deployed for securing these systems. Different anomaly detectors are combined using the immunological paradigm to optimize reputation system performance in response to evolving security requirements. As an example, the experiments show how a combination of detectors based on unsupervised techniques (self-organizing maps and genetic algorithms) can help to significantly reduce the global response time of the reputation system. The proposed solution offers many benefits: scalability, fast response to adversarial activities, ability to detect unknown attacks, high adaptability, and high ability in detecting and confining attacks. For these reasons, we believe that our solution is capable of coping with the dynamism of ambient intelligence systems and the growing requirements of security demands

Human periprostatic adipose tissue promotes prostate cancer aggressiveness in vitro

Background - Obesity is associated with prostate cancer aggressiveness and mortality. The contribution of periprostatic adipose tissue, which is often infiltrated by malignant cells, to cancer progression is largely unknown. Thus, this study aimed to determine if periprostatic adipose tissue is linked with aggressive tumor biology in prostate cancer. Methods - Supernatants of whole adipose tissue (explants) or stromal vascular fraction (SVF) from paired fat samples of periprostatic (PP) and pre-peritoneal visceral (VIS) anatomic origin from different donors were prepared and analyzed for matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) 2 and 9 activity. The effects of those conditioned media (CM) on growth and migration of hormone-refractory (PC-3) and hormone-sensitive (LNCaP) prostate cancer cells were measured. Results - We show here that PP adipose tissue of overweight men has higher MMP9 activity in comparison with normal subjects. The observed increased activities of both MMP2 and MMP9 in PP whole adipose tissue explants, likely reveal the contribution of adipocytes plus stromal-vascular fraction (SVF) as opposed to SVF alone. MMP2 activity was higher for PP when compared to VIS adipose tissue. When PC-3 cells were stimulated with CM from PP adipose tissue explants, increased proliferative and migratory capacities were observed, but not in the presence of SVF. Conversely, when LNCaP cells were stimulated with PP explants CM, we found enhanced motility despite the inhibition of proliferation, whereas CM derived from SVF increased both cell proliferation and motility. Explants culture and using adipose tissue of PP origin are most effective in promoting proliferation and migration of PC-3 cells, as respectively compared with SVF culture and using adipose tissue of VIS origin. In LNCaP cells, while explants CM cause increased migration compared to SVF, the use of PP adipose tissue to generate CM result in the increase of both cellular proliferation and migration. Conclusions - Our findings suggest that the PP depot has the potential to modulate extra-prostatic tumor cells' microenvironment through increased MMPs activity and to promote prostate cancer cell survival and migration. Adipocyte-derived factors likely have a relevant proliferative and motile role

Por um Plano Nacional de Educação (2011-2020) como política de Estado

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Rehabilitative treatment of cleft lip and palate: experience of the Hospital for Rehabilitation of Craniofacial Anomalies - USP (HRAC-USP) - Part 2: Pediatric Dentistry and Orthodontics

The aim of this article is to present the pediatric dentistry and orthodontic treatment protocol of rehabilitation of cleft lip and palate patients performed at the Hospital for Rehabilitation of Craniofacial Anomalies - University of São Paulo (HRAC-USP). Pediatric dentistry provides oral health information and should be able to follow the child with cleft lip and palate since the first months of life until establishment of the mixed dentition, craniofacial growth and dentition development. Orthodontic intervention starts in the mixed dentition, at 8-9 years of age, for preparing the maxillary arch for secondary bone graft procedure (SBGP). At this stage, rapid maxillary expansion is performed and a fixed palatal retainer is delivered before SBGP. When the permanent dentition is completed, comprehensive orthodontic treatment is initiated aiming tooth alignment and space closure. Maxillary permanent canines are commonly moved mesially in order to substitute absent maxillary lateral incisors. Patients with complete cleft lip and palate and poor midface growth will require orthognatic surgery for reaching adequate anteroposterior interarch relationship and good facial esthetics