Artisanal ceramic factories using wood combustion: A nanoparticles and human health study

The ceramics industry, resulting from developments of modern compounds, is a segment of great influence in worldwide sustainability. Artisanal ceramic factories based on wood combustion have significant risks for the creation and discharge of atmosphere nanoparticles (NPs) and ultra-fine particles (UFPs). At present, there is insufficient recognition on the influence of engineered-NPs on the atmosphere and health. Real improvements are indispensable to diminish contact with NPs. The present study demonstrates the main NPs and UFPS present in an area of intense artisanal wood-combustion ceramic manufacturing. Particulate matter was sampled for morphological, chemical, and geochemical studies by sophisticated electron microbeam microscopy, X-Ray Diffraction, and Raman spectroscopy. From NPs configuration (10 nm) were produced around the studied artisanal ceramic factories. This study presents an indication of the recent information on population and work-related contact to NPs in the artisanal ceramic factories and their influence on health

Immunomodulatory effects of recombinant BCG expressing pertussis toxin on TNF-alpha and IL-10 in a bladder cancer model

Background: Since successful treatment of superficial bladder cancer with BCG requires proper induction of Th1 immunity, we have developed a rBCG-S1PT strain that induced a stronger cellular immune response than BCG. This preclinical study was designed to compare the modulatory effects of BCG and rBCG-S1PT on bladder TNF-alpha and IL-10 expression and to evaluate antitumour activity. Methods: For Experiment I, the MB49 bladder cancer cell line was used in C57BL/6 mice. Chemical cauterization of the bladder was performed to promote intravesical tumor implantation. Mice were treated by intravesical instillation with BCG, rBCG-S1PT or PBS once a week for four weeks. After 35 days the bladders were removed and weighed. TNF-<alpha and IL-10 cytokine responses were measured by qPCR. Experiment II was performed in the same manner as Experiment I, except the animals were not challenged with MB49 tumor cells. Results: rBCG-S1PT immunotherapy resulted in bladder weight reduction, compared to the BCG and control group. There were increases in TNF-alpha in the BCG-treated group, as well as increases in TNF-alpha and IL-10 mRNA in the rBCG-S1PT group. Conclusion: These data indicate a significant reduction of bladder tumor volume for the rBCG group, compared to the BCG and PBS groups. This suggests that rBCG could be a useful substitute for wild-type BCG and that the potential modulation between TNF-alpha and IL-10 cytokine productions may have therapeutic value

Revisiting the utility of identifying nuclear grooves as unique nuclear changes by an object detector model

Background Among other structures, nuclear grooves are vastly found in papillary thyroid carcinoma (PTC). Considering that the application of artificial intelligence in thyroid cytology has potential for diagnostic routine, our goal was to develop a new supervised convolutional neural network capable of identifying nuclear grooves in Diff-Quik stained whole-slide images (WSI) obtained from thyroid fineneedle aspiration. Methods We selected 22 Diff-Quik stained cytological slides with cytological diagnosis of PTC and concordant histological diagnosis. Each of the slides was scanned, forming a WSI. Images that contained the region of interest were obtained, followed by pre-formatting, annotation of the nuclear grooves and data augmentation techniques. The final dataset was divided into training and validation groups in a 7:3 ratio. Results This is the first artificial intelligence model based on object detection applied to nuclear structures in thyroid cytopathology. A total of 7,255 images were obtained from 22 WSI, totaling 7,242 annotated nuclear grooves. The best model was obtained after it was submitted 15 times with the train dataset (14th epoch), with 67% true positives, 49.8% for sensitivity and 43.1% for predictive positive value. Conclusions The model was able to develop a structure predictor rule, indicating that the application of an artificial intelligence model based on object detection in the identification of nuclear grooves is feasible. Associated with a reduction in interobserver variability and in time per slide, this demonstrates that nuclear evaluation constitutes one of the possibilities for refining the diagnosis through computational models

Reconfigurações da docência universitária: um olhar focado no Processo de Bolonha

Resumo:O Processo de Bolonha, legislado em Portugal em 2006, através do Decreto-Lei nº 74/2006 (Portugal, 2006), anunciou a intenção de romper com o tradicional exercício da docência, focado na transmissão e reprodução dos conhecimentos existentes, e veiculou um modelo de formação centrado na aprendizagem dos estudantes. Este Processo implicou uma reorganização dos currículos do ensino universitário e exigiu uma reconfiguração do exercício da docência apoiada em uma nova concepção do papel e do trabalho dos estudantes. É no quadro desta problemática que se situa este artigo, que tem como objetivo dar a conhecer efeitos na docência universitária decorrentes do Processo de Bolonha. Para isso, o artigo, depois de caracterizar medidas políticas decorrentes do compromisso de Bolonha, analisa dados recolhidos de professores da Universidade do Porto sobre a relação entre as alterações previstas no ideário político e as condições para a sua concretização