Responses in growth and dynamics of the shade-tolerant species Theobroma subincanumto logging gaps in the Eastern Amazon.

Aim of study: To assess responses of the shade-tolerant species Theobroma subincanum in relation to canopy gaps created by reduced impact logging (RIL). Materials and methods: A managed forest in themunicipality ofMoju, Pará state,Brazil, harvested in 1997 through RIL was monitored during 12 years (1998-2010). Nine logging gaps were selected and classified in small, medium, and large. Four 10 m x 50 m strips starting from the gap?s border towards the forest and following the directions of cardinal points were installed. Each strip was divided in five 10 m x 10 m plots. Density, diameter distribution (DBH ≥ 5 cm with intervals = 5 cm), and diameter growth were measured. Main results: No significant changes in seedling density of T. subincanum were found, and its diameter distribution followed the reverse ?J? shape during all monitoring time. T. subincanum presented diameter growth of 0.15 cm year-1 with highest Periodic Annual Increment in diameter up to three years, and stabilization in nine years after RIL. The species responded to a growth gradient inversely proportional to the gap?s border distance (p = 0.001) but not to gap size and plots direction in cardinal points around the gap. Research highlights: Shade-tolerant species such as T. subincanum have sensible and positive growth responses to disturbances caused by RIL even when seedlings received low amounts of indirect sunlight. These positive responses should be considered in the management of production forests

MET nucleotide variations and amplification in advanced ovarian cancer: characteristics and outcomes with c-Met inhibitors.

PurposeMET alterations including amplifications and nucleotide variations have been associated with resistance to therapy and aggressive clinical behavior.Experimental designThe medical records of patients presenting to the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Phase I Clinic with relapsed or metastatic ovarian cancers and known MET nucleotide variation or amplification status were reviewed retrospectively (n=178). Categorical and continuous clinical and molecular characteristics were compared using Fisher's exact and Wilcoxon rank-sum tests, respectively. Univariate and multivariate survival were assessed via Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression analysis, respectively.ResultsMET amplification occurred in 4 (3.5%) of 113 patients, whereas nonsynonomous nucleotide variations were present in 9 (7.4%) of 122 patients. No patients exhibited concomitant amplification and variation. MET variations were observed only in white women with high-grade ovarian tumors, whereas amplifications were observed in both black and white women with high-grade serous ovarian primary tumors. No patients (n=4) exhibiting a MET alteration achieved an objective response when treated on a c-Met inhibitor phase I trial. In addition, ovarian cancer patients treated with a c-Met inhibitor with multikinase activity trended towards a longer time-to-failure compared with those treated with a c-Met-specific inhibitor (median: 1.5 vs. 4.5 months, p=0.07).ConclusionsMET alterations occur in a minority of patients with ovarian cancer. c-Met inhibitors with multikinase activity may exhibit less activity in ovarian cancer than c-Met specific drugs. These findings warrant further investigation

Improving healthcare delivery with new interactive visualization methods

Over the last years, the implementation and evolution of computer resources in hospital institutions has been improving both the financial and temporal efficiency of clinical processes, as well as the security in the transmission and maintenance of their data, also ensuring the reduction of clinical risk. Diagnosis, treatment and prevention of human illness are some of the most information-intensive of all intellectual tasks. Health providers often do not have or cannot find the information they need to respond quickly and appropriately to patient’s medical problems. Failure to review and follow up on patient’s test results in a timely manner, for example, represents a patient’s safety and malpractice concern. Therefore, it was sought to identify problems in a medical exams results management system and possible ways to improve this system in order to reduce both clinical risks and hospital costs. In this sense, a new medical exams visualization platform (AIDA-MCDT) was developed, specifically in the Hospital Center of Porto (CHP), with several new functionalities in order to make this process faster, intuitive and efficient, always guaranteeing the confidentiality and protection of patients’ personal data and significantly improving the usability of the system, leading to a better health care delivery.FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (UID/CEC/00319/2019

Mashups: An Approach to Overcoming the Business/IT Gap in Service-Oriented Architectures

For quite a long time already, great importance has been attached to the concept of Service-Oriented Architectures for future IT-architectures. However, a major challenge in implementing this concept lies in the gap between the functional department and IT department. Mashups, an architecture also based on services, try to avoid this gap by letting the user himself integrate the services. The following article analyzes similarities and differences between both architecture approaches, and explains to what extent and in which cases Mashups could complement a Service-Oriented Architecture

Systematics of Palicoureeae (Rubiaceae): recent advances in Brazilian groups

Palicoureeae (Rubiaceae) has its centre of diversity in the neotropics and comprises about 1500 species. Two genera with great diversity considering the Brazilian Flora are Palicourea Aubl. and Rudgea Salisb. with ca 170 and 70 species, respectively. These numbers are still underestimated, especially because several species of Psychotria L. subgenus Heteropsychotria Steyerm. need to be transferred to Palicourea, and there are several undescribed species of Rudgea. Some of our recent studies focused on resolving some taxonomic gaps and phylogenetic questions with these genera. Considering Palicourea, phylogenetic analyses are being conducted with sections Codonocalyx, Solenocalyx, and Suteria, which include 15 species of Atlantic Forest. The monophyly of sections is being tested using molecular markers. Considering Rudgea, we are investigating its diversity in the Northeast region of Brazil, trying to answer how many species occur in the region and how climatic changes may affect its distribution. Besides, the domatia of Rudgea are also being investigated, since these structures have an important taxonomic value, but its description is not very clear in the literature. These studies are being conducted with field work, especially in eastern Brazil, exsiccatae analyses, mostly from Brazilian herbaria, and from images of digital herbaria. The phylogenetic analyses used rps16, psbA-trnH, trnL-F, and ITS markers, and were conducted using maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference. Regarding the phylogenetic inference of Palicourea, the preliminary results showed that Codonocalyx, Solenocalyx, and Suteria do not have molecular support to be sustained as monophyletic taxa. Regarding the diversity of Rudgea, there are at least 22 (~31% of the total) species in Northeast Brazil, with 18 occurring in the state of Bahia. However, there are 12 uncertain taxa still being analysed. Finally, a new proposal to classify the domatia of Rudgea is being carried out, to accommodate variation and intermediate types of domatia. Acknowledgments: CAPES, FAPES, and FAPESP