Comparative analysis of inspection and diagnosis tools for ancient buildings

The survey and inspection of the state of conservation of buildings is understood as an active process of selecting information to support decision making in the rehabilitation of the built heritage. The development of new technologies applied to the integrated management of the built heritage resulted in digital tools able to support the technicians in on-site procedures. The purpose of this study was to analyse existing methods for the survey and inspection of the state of conservation of ancient buildings. It uses a qualitative methodology, focused on bibliographical survey and comparative analysis. Only methods with identical characteristics were considered: evaluation based on visual inspection of buildings with heritage value. This research shows that structuring information in computer systems is a solution to overcome the main problems pointed out in previous studies related to survey and inspection: expensive, time-consuming, inconsequential procedures and dispersed information. However, this is only valid if computer-based methods are adapted to the different geographic and chronological contexts. Future research may contribute to the development of a method that brings together this added value with a simple but objective way to diagnose the condition of ancient buildings with heritage value.The authors would like to acknowledge the support granted by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), in the scope of the Doctoral Program Eco-Construction and Rehabilitation (EcoCoRe), to the Ph.D. scholarship with the reference PD/BD/127853/2016 that was fundamental for the development of this study.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Effective Rheology of Bubbles Moving in a Capillary Tube

We calculate the average volumetric flux versus pressure drop of bubbles moving in a single capillary tube with varying diameter, finding a square-root relation from mapping the flow equations onto that of a driven overdamped pendulum. The calculation is based on a derivation of the equation of motion of a bubble train from considering the capillary forces and the entropy production associated with the viscous flow. We also calculate the configurational probability of the positions of the bubbles.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

Consensus guidelines for the use and interpretation of angiogenesis assays

The formation of new blood vessels, or angiogenesis, is a complex process that plays important roles in growth and development, tissue and organ regeneration, as well as numerous pathological conditions. Angiogenesis undergoes multiple discrete steps that can be individually evaluated and quantified by a large number of bioassays. These independent assessments hold advantages but also have limitations. This article describes in vivo, ex vivo, and in vitro bioassays that are available for the evaluation of angiogenesis and highlights critical aspects that are relevant for their execution and proper interpretation. As such, this collaborative work is the first edition of consensus guidelines on angiogenesis bioassays to serve for current and future reference

The impact of surgical delay on resectability of colorectal cancer: An international prospective cohort study

AIM: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has provided a unique opportunity to explore the impact of surgical delays on cancer resectability. This study aimed to compare resectability for colorectal cancer patients undergoing delayed versus non-delayed surgery. METHODS: This was an international prospective cohort study of consecutive colorectal cancer patients with a decision for curative surgery (January-April 2020). Surgical delay was defined as an operation taking place more than 4 weeks after treatment decision, in a patient who did not receive neoadjuvant therapy. A subgroup analysis explored the effects of delay in elective patients only. The impact of longer delays was explored in a sensitivity analysis. The primary outcome was complete resection, defined as curative resection with an R0 margin. RESULTS: Overall, 5453 patients from 304 hospitals in 47 countries were included, of whom 6.6% (358/5453) did not receive their planned operation. Of the 4304 operated patients without neoadjuvant therapy, 40.5% (1744/4304) were delayed beyond 4 weeks. Delayed patients were more likely to be older, men, more comorbid, have higher body mass index and have rectal cancer and early stage disease. Delayed patients had higher unadjusted rates of complete resection (93.7% vs. 91.9%, P = 0.032) and lower rates of emergency surgery (4.5% vs. 22.5%, P < 0.001). After adjustment, delay was not associated with a lower rate of complete resection (OR 1.18, 95% CI 0.90-1.55, P = 0.224), which was consistent in elective patients only (OR 0.94, 95% CI 0.69-1.27, P = 0.672). Longer delays were not associated with poorer outcomes. CONCLUSION: One in 15 colorectal cancer patients did not receive their planned operation during the first wave of COVID-19. Surgical delay did not appear to compromise resectability, raising the hypothesis that any reduction in long-term survival attributable to delays is likely to be due to micro-metastatic disease

Array CGH Analysis of Paired Blood and Tumor Samples from Patients with Sporadic Wilms Tumor

Submitted by sandra infurna ([email protected]) on 2016-03-01T16:49:50Z No. of bitstreams: 1 fernando2_vargas_etal_IOC_2015.pdf: 477665 bytes, checksum: 7b0ca95990e0ab5295b7e7bec530658b (MD5)Approved for entry into archive by sandra infurna ([email protected]) on 2016-03-01T17:11:58Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 fernando2_vargas_etal_IOC_2015.pdf: 477665 bytes, checksum: 7b0ca95990e0ab5295b7e7bec530658b (MD5)Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-01T17:11:58Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 fernando2_vargas_etal_IOC_2015.pdf: 477665 bytes, checksum: 7b0ca95990e0ab5295b7e7bec530658b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015Instituto Nacional de Câncer. Divisão de Genética. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil.Hospital Universitario La Paz. Institute of Medical and Molecular Genetics (INGEMM)-IdiPAZ. Section of Functional and Structural Genomics. Madrid, Spain.Hospital Universitario La Paz. Institute of Medical and Molecular Genetics (INGEMM)-IdiPAZ. Section of Functional and Structural Genomics. Madrid, Spain.Hospital Universitario La Paz. Institute of Medical and Molecular Genetics (INGEMM)-IdiPAZ. Section of Functional and Structural Genomics. Madrid, Spain / CIBERER. Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Raras, Madrid, Spain.Hospital Universitario La Paz. Institute of Medical and Molecular Genetics (INGEMM)-IdiPAZ. Section of Functional and Structural Genomics. Madrid, Spain / CIBERER. Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Raras, Madrid, Spain.Hospital Universitario La Paz. Institute of Medical and Molecular Genetics (INGEMM)-IdiPAZ. Section of Functional and Structural Genomics. Madrid, Spain.Hospital Universitario La Paz. Institute of Medical and Molecular Genetics (INGEMM)-IdiPAZ. Section of Functional and Structural Genomics. Madrid, Spain.Instituto Nacional de Câncer. Divisão de Patologia. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil.GT-CSGP Working Group.Institute of Medical and Molecular Genetics (INGEMM)-IdiPAZ. Hospital Universitario La Paz. Section of Clinical Genetics, . Madrid, Spain.CIBERER. Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Raras, Madrid, Spain / Institute of Medical and Molecular Genetics (INGEMM)-IdiPAZ. Hospital Universitario La Paz. Section of Clinical Genetics, . Madrid, Spain.Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. Departamento de Genética. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil / Fundação Oswaldo Cruz. Instituto Oswaldo Cruz. Laboratório de Epidemiologia de Malformações Congênitas. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil.Instituto Nacional de Câncer. Divisão de Genética. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil / Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. Departamento de Genética. Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil.Hospital Universitario La Paz. Institute of Medical and Molecular Genetics (INGEMM)-IdiPAZ. Section of Functional and Structural Genomics. Madrid, Spain / CIBERER. Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Raras, Madrid, Spain.Wilms tumor (WT), the most common cancer of the kidney in infants and children, has a complex etiology that is still poorly understood. Identification of genomic copy number variants (CNV) in tumor genomes provides a better understanding of cancer development which may be useful for diagnosis and therapeutic targets. In paired blood and tumor DNA samples from 14 patients with sporadic WT, analyzed by aCGH, 22% of chromosome abnormalities were novel. All constitutional alterations identified in blood were segmental (in 28.6% of patients) and were also present in the paired tumor samples. Two segmental gains (2p21 and 20q13.3) and one loss (19q13.31) present in blood had not been previously described in WT. We also describe, for the first time, a small, constitutive partial gain of 3p22.1 comprising 2 exons of CTNNB1, a gene associated to WT. Among somatic alterations, novel structural chromosomal abnormalities were found, like gain of 19p13.3 and 20p12.3, and losses of 2p16.1-p15, 4q32.5-q35.1, 4q35.2-q28.1 and 19p13.3. Candidate genes included in these regions might be constitutively (SIX3, SALL4) or somatically (NEK1, PIAS4, BMP2) operational in the development and progression of WT. To our knowledge this is the first report of CNV in paired blood and tumor samples in sporadic WT