Characterization of all Surgical Specimens Provided by a Portuguese Department of Ophthalmology over a 13 Year Period

INTRODUCTION: We intend to evaluate clinically, topographically and morphologically all surgical specimens sent by the Department of Ophthalmology of Hospital de Braga to the Department of Pathology of the same hospital. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Two hundred and fifty eight surgically obtained specimens, from the Department of Ophthalmology of Hospital de Braga, analyzed in the Department of Pathology, from January 2002 to June 2015, were characterized. Data was arranged according to year, age, sex, topography and morphological diagnosis according to the SNOMED® coding system. RESULTS: Mean age at time of diagnosis was 54.6 years old; 52.3% were male subjects. The number of specimens was relatively stable until the year 2010, with a significant increase between 2011 and 2013. Most specimens sent corresponded to eyelid (54.7%), followed by conjunctiva (26.7%); the most common pathological diagnosis was malignant epithelial lesions (22.48%), followed by melanocytic tumours (22.09%) and benign epithelial lesions (17.05%). DISCUSSION: The results are distinct from previous publications presumably because of differences between the populations submitted to analysis. CONCLUSION: This is the first indexed publication characterizing surgical specimens from a Department of Ophthalmology in Portugal; moreover, it also includes an extensive review of global epidemiological data about ophthalmic surgical specimens.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Analysis of the quality of hospital information systems Audit Trails.

BACKGROUND: Audit Trails (AT) are fundamental to information security in order to guarantee access traceability but can also be used to improve Health information System's (HIS) quality namely to assess how they are used or misused. This paper aims at analysing the existence and quality of AT, describing scenarios in hospitals and making some recommendations to improve the quality of information. METHODS: The responsibles of HIS for eight Portuguese hospitals were contacted in order to arrange an interview about the importance of AT and to collect audit trail data from their HIS. Five institutions agreed to participate in this study; four of them accepted to be interviewed, and four sent AT data. The interviews were performed in 2011 and audit trail data sent in 2011 and 2012. Each AT was evaluated and compared in relation to data quality standards, namely for completeness, comprehensibility, traceability among others. Only one of the AT had enough information for us to apply a consistency evaluation by modelling user behaviour. RESULTS: The interviewees in these hospitals only knew a few AT (average of 1 AT per hospital in an estimate of 21 existing HIS), although they all recognize some advantages of analysing AT. Four hospitals sent a total of 7 AT - 2 from Radiology Information System (RIS), 2 from Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS), 3 from Patient Records. Three of the AT were understandable and three of the AT were complete. The AT from the patient records are better structured and more complete than the RIS/PACS. CONCLUSIONS: Existing AT do not have enough quality to guarantee traceability or be used in HIS improvement. Its quality reflects the importance given to them by the CIO of healthcare institutions. Existing standards (e.g. ASTM:E2147, ISO/TS 18308:2004, ISO/IEC 27001:2006) are still not broadly used in Portugal.publishersversionpublishe

How does predicate invention affect human comprehensibility?

During the 1980s Michie defined Machine Learning in terms of two orthogonal axes of performance: predictive accuracy and comprehensibility of generated hypotheses. Since predictive accuracy was readily measurable and comprehensibility not so, later definitions in the 1990s, such as that of Mitchell, tended to use a one-dimensional approach to Machine Learning based solely on predictive accuracy, ultimately favouring statistical over symbolic Machine Learning approaches. In this paper we provide a definition of comprehensibility of hypotheses which can be estimated using human participant trials. We present the results of experiments testing human comprehensibility of logic programs learned with and without predicate invention. Results indicate that comprehensibility is affected not only by the complexity of the presented program but also by the existence of anonymous predicate symbols

Flow cytometry and targeted immune transcriptomics identify distinct profiles in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia receiving tyrosine kinase inhibitors with or without interferon-α

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativeco mmons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/ zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the dat

Oftalmopatia de Graves em idade pediátrica

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Modulation of CD4 T cell function via CD6-targeting

In recent years molecules involved on the immune synapse became successful targets for therapeutic immune modulation. CD6 has been extensively studied, yet, results regarding CD6 biology have been controversial, in spite of the ubiquitous presence of this molecule on virtually all CD4 T cells. We investigated the outcome of murine and human antibodies targeting CD6 domain 1. We found that CD6-targeting had a major impact on the functional specialization of CD4 cells, both human and murine. Differentiation of CD4 T cells towards a Foxp3+ Treg fate was prevented with increasing doses of anti-CD6, while Th1 polarization was favoured. No impact was observed on Th2 or Th17 specialization. These in vitro results provided an explanation for the dose-dependent outcome of in vivo anti-CD6 administration where the anti-inflammatory action is lost at the highest doses. Our data show that therapeutic targeting of the immune synapse may lead to paradoxical dose-dependent effects due to modification of T cell fate.Funded by UID/BIM/50005/2019, project funded by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) / Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Ensino Superior (MCTES) throught Fundos do Orçamento do Estado, pela Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) ( PTDC/DTP-FTO/3080/2014 ); and by the project SRecognite Infect - ERA/0003/2015 using national funds through FCT . Funders did not have a role in study design, data collection, analysis, and interpretation, or in the writing of the manuscript

Pro-inflammatory polarization and colorectal cancer modulate alternative and intronic polyadenylation in primary human macrophages

Macrophages are essential cells of the immune system that alter their inflammatory profile depending on their microenvironment. Alternative polyadenylation in the 3'UTR (3'UTR-APA) and intronic polyadenylation (IPA) are mechanisms that modulate gene expression, in particular in cancer and activated immune cells. Yet, how polarization and colorectal cancer (CRC) cells microenvironment affect 3'UTR-APA and IPA in primary human macrophages remains unknown. Here, primary human monocytes were isolated from healthy donors, differentiated and polarized into a pro-inflammatory state and ChrRNA-Seq and 3'RNA-Seq were performed to quantify gene expression and characterize new 3’UTR-APA and IPA mRNA isoforms. Our results show that polarization of human macrophages from naïve to a pro-inflammatory state causes a marked increase both in proximal polyA site selection in the 3'UTR and in IPA events, in genes relevant for macrophage functions. Additionally, we found a negative correlation between differential gene expression and IPA during pro-inflammatory polarization of primary human macrophages. As macrophages are abundant immune cells in the CRC microenvironment that either promote or abrogate cancer progression, we investigated how indirect exposure to CRC cells affects macrophage gene expression and 3'UTR-APA and IPA mRNA events. Co-culture with CRC cells alters the inflammatory phenotype of macrophages, increases the expression of pro tumoral genes and induce 3’UTR-APA alterations. Notably, some of these gene expression differences were also found in tumour-associated macrophages of CRC patients, indicating that they are physiological relevant. Upon macrophage pro inflammatory polarization SRSF12 is the pre-mRNA processing gene that is most upregulated. After SRSF12 knockdown in M1 macrophages there is a global downregulation of gene expression, in particular in genes involved in gene expression regulation and in immune responses. Our results reveal new 48 3’UTR-APA and IPA mRNA isoforms produced during pro-inflammatory polarization of primary human macrophages and CRC co-culture that may be used in the future as diagnostic or therapeutic tools

Consensus Recommendations of the Multiple Sclerosis Study Group and the Portuguese Neuroradiological Society for the Use of Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Multiple Sclerosis in Clinical Practice: Part 2

INTRODUCTION: Magnetic resonance imaging is recognized as the most important diagnostic test in the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, differential diagnosis and evaluation of progression/therapeutic response. However, to make optimal use of magnetic resonance imaging in multiple sclerosis, the use of a standard, reproducible and comparable imaging protocol is of uttermost importance. In this context, the Portuguese Society of Neuroradiology and the Group of Studies of Multiple Sclerosis, after a joint discussion, appointed a committee of experts to create recommendations adapted to the national reality on the use of magnetic resonance imaging in multiple sclerosis. This document represents the second part of the first Portuguese consensus recommendations on the use of magnetic resonance imaging in multiple sclerosis in clinical practice. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The Portuguese Society of Neuroradiology and the Group of Studies of Multiple Sclerosis, after discussing the topic in national meetings and after a working group meeting held in Figueira da Foz, May 2017, appointed a committee of experts that have developed several standard protocols on the use of magnetic resonance imaging on multiple sclerosis by consensus. The document obtained was based on the best scientific evidence and expert opinion. Portuguese multiple sclerosis consultants and departments of neuroradiology scrutinized and reviewed the consensus paper; comments and suggestions were considered. Standardized strategies of magnetic resonance imaging referral in clinical practice for diagnosis and follow-up of multiple sclerosis were published in the first part of this paper. RESULTS: We provide magnetic resonance imaging acquisition protocols regarding multiple sclerosis diagnostic and monitoring and the information to be included in the report for application across Portuguese healthcare institutions. CONCLUSION: We hope that these first Portuguese magnetic resonance imaging guidelines will contribute to optimize multiple sclerosis management and improve patient care in Portugal.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Sensitivity enhancement in thermoreflectance microscopy of semiconductor devices using suitable probe wavelengths

In this paper we present an experimental and theoretical study of the thermoreflectance response as a function of the probe wavelength for layered microelectronics structures. The investigated sample consists of a polycrystalline silicon conducting track grown on a SiO2-coated Si substrate. Thermoreflectance measurements were carried out in the wavelength range from 450 to 750 nm with the track biased in modulated regime. An oscillating pattern is observed in the spectral region where the upper layer is transparent. Such oscillations are due to the interference resulting from the multiple reflections at the interfaces. Using a thermo-optical model, we show that the optical constants (n and k) of the materials, which are wavelength dependent, as well as their temperature derivatives (dn/dT and dk/dT), strongly influence the thermoreflectance signal. The optical thicknesses of the layers, mainly determined by the real part of the refractive indices, define the period of oscillation. On the other hand, the imaginary part of the refractive indices establishes the cutoff wavelength of the oscillations. Below this cutoff wavelength, the probe light does not penetrate the material and the upper-surface reflectance dominates the signal. (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics.98