FMR de materiais com transição de reorientação de spin

Mestrado em Engenharia FísicaDois filmes finos altamente texturados de NdCo5 policristalino produzidos por deposição de laser pulsado (PLD), com diferentes direcções de crescimento, [0001] e ̅ (amostras Nd015 e Nd010, respectivamente), foram caracterizados estrutural- e magneticamente por difracção de raios-X (DR-X) e ressonância ferromagnética (FMR). O estudo por DR-X foi realizado com um difractómetro X’Pert da Philips. O estudo por FMR foi efectuado na região de temperaturas entre os 5 K e 315 K, usando um espectómetro ESP 300E da Bruker, cavidade cílindrica (TE011) e crióstatos de hélio e azoto. A direcção não usual de crescimento de um dos filmes, [10 ̅0], requereu o desenvolvimento de expressões não dísponíveis na literatura para análise das constantes de anisotropia da energia magnetocristalina. Foram desenvolvidos métodos numéricos para a análise das dependências angulares e das dependências com a temperatura dos campos de ressonância. Os estudos por FMR confirmaram a forte dependência das constantes de anisotropia com a temperatura, o seu elevado valor e a influência da energia do campo de desmagnetização nas temperaturas de transição de reorientação de spin. As elevadas constantes de anisotropia e energia do campo de desmagnetização são responsáveis pelo desvio dos campos de ressonância dos modos saturados para janelas de medição muito além da capacidade experimental (1.5 T) e permitem apenas analisar modos não saturados num restrito número de ângulos e temperaturas. Apesar de serem filmes altamente texturados, a presença de várias fontes de alargamento da linha de ressonância e a sobreposição de vários modos não saturados numa só linha FMR resultou em larguras da ordem dos 5 kG e dificultou o cálculo das constantes de anisotropia da energia magnetocristalina. Para a amostra Nd015, calcularam-se as constantes K1 e K2, tendo-se determinado que à temperatura ambiente as constantes valiam -2.45105 J/m3 e 1.35105 J/m3, respectivamente. Este resultado confirma os resultados obtidos através de medições de magnetização num SQUID e indica que a magnetização se encontra num regime de cone-fácil à temperatura ambiente.Two highly textured thin films of polycrystalline NdCo5 prepared by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) and with different growth directions, [0001] and [10 ̅0], were caractherized structuraly and magnetically by X-ray diffraction and ferromagnetic resonance (FMR), respectively. The XRD analysis was carried out with a Philips X’Pert diffractometer. The FMR measurements were performed at temperatures ranging from 5 K to 315 K equipped with a Bruker ESP 300 E spectrometer in the X-band (9.36 GHz), a cylindrical (TE011) cavity and a helium and nitrogen flux cryostat. The unusual growth direction of one of the samples required a development of magnetocrystalline energy expressions not available in literature in order to study the evolution of the anisotropy constants with the temperature and confirm the spin reorientation transitions. Numerical methods were developed to analyse the angular and temperature dependences of the resonant fields. FMR studies confirm a strong temperature dependence of the anisotropy constants, their high value and the influence of shape anisotropy in the spin reorientation transition temperatures. The large anisotropy constants are responsible for the shift of the resonance fields of the saturated modes to values much above than those of the measurement window and allow only to analise non-saturated modes for a restricted number of temperatures and angles. Even though the films are highly textured, the presence of several sources of linewidth broadening and the superposition of several non-saturated modes in a single FMR line resulted in large linewidths and made it difficult to obtain numerical values to the anisotropy constants. For the Nd015 sample, we calculated room temperature values of the anisotropy constants K1 and K2 to be -2.45105 J/m3 and 1.35105 J/m3, respectively. This result confirms the results of SQUID measurements obtained by other groups and indicates that the magnetization is in an easy-cone regime at room temperature

Cross-Fire : a grid platform to integrate geo-referenced web services for real-time risk management

Fire propagation simulation tools are useful at different levels of forest fire management. From prescribed fire planning to fuel hazard assessment or to the development of fire suppression strategies on wildfires or even training activities. Nevertheless, real time use of such tools is still very limited among the operational authorities for several reasons: lack of good real time data, lack of training or even lack of confidence on the capabilities of actual systems, among others. Wildfire management is a relevant Civil Protection (CP) activity that involves many different and autonomous actors, from public bodies to research centres and should some how reach the general public as an information and alert system. It requires a fast and reliable risk management support system, with real-time or near real-time availability of critical geo-referenced data and settings-based forecasts for fire spreading. CP applications require a strict integration of human and physical resources that must be shared in a coordinated and effective way and be available for the whole emergency procedure. The GRID and Virtual Organizations (VO) enable such integration by providing the coordination and the sharing of the available interconnected resources (computing, storage, communication, sensors and actuators) geographically scattered across national borders. On the another hand, OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium) based geo-web services are being adopted worldwide, as the technology to support the development of complex distributed applications over grid platforms, to deal with data from many different sources, including meteorological stations and satellites. Recent work clearly showed the advantage of the OGC proposals for open standards for geospatial interchange formats, over past legacy formats and applications.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

The two faces of tumor-associated macrophages and their clinical significance in colorectal cancer

© 2019 Pinto, Rios, Durães, Ribeiro, Machado, Mantovani, Barbosa, Carneiro and Oliveira. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.Macrophages are one of the immune populations frequently found in colorectal tumors and high macrophage infiltration has been associated with both better and worst prognosis. Importantly, according to microenvironment stimuli, macrophages may adopt different polarization profiles, specifically the pro-inflammatory or M1 and the anti-inflammatory or M2, which display distinct functions. Therefore, concomitantly with the number of tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs), their characterization is fundamental to unravel their relevance in cancer. Here, we profiled macrophages in a series of 150 colorectal cancer (CRC) cases by immunohistochemistry, using CD68 as a macrophage lineage marker, CD80 as a marker of pro-inflammatory macrophages, and CD163 as a marker of anti-inflammatory macrophages. Quantifications were performed by computer-assisted analysis in the intratumoral region, tumor invasive front, and matched tumor adjacent normal mucosa (ANM). Macrophages, specifically the CD163+ ones, were predominantly found at the tumor invasive front, whereas CD80+ macrophages were almost exclusively located in the ANM, which suggests a predominant anti-inflammatory polarization of TAMs. Stratification according to tumor stage revealed that macrophages, specifically the CD163+ ones, are more prevalent in stage II tumors, whereas CD80+ macrophages are predominant in less invasive T1 tumors. Specifically in stage III tumors, higher CD68, and lower CD80/CD163 ratio associated with decreased overall survival. Importantly, despite the low infiltration of CD80+ cells in colorectal tumors, multivariate logistic regression revealed a protective role of these cells regarding the risk for relapse. Overall, this work supports the involvement of distinct microenvironments, present at the intra-tumor, invasive front and ANM regions, on macrophage modulation, and uncovers their prognostic value, further supporting the relevance of including macrophage profiling in clinical settings.This work was financed by FEDER—Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional funds through the COMPETE 2020—Operacional Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalisation (POCI), Portugal 2020, and by Portuguese funds through FCT/MCTES in the framework of the project MAGICIAM: a MAcrophaGe Immunomodulatory-delivery system to prevent Cancer Invasion and Metastasis (POCI-01-0145-FEDER-031859). FCT further supported this work under MP PhD grant (PD/BD/81103/2011), CD post-doctoral grant (SFRH/BPD/99442/2014), and MO FCT Investigator grant (IF/01066/2012).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Three Cases of Exclusively Extragenital Canine Transmissible Venereal Tumor (cTVT)

Background: Canine Transmissible Venereal Tumor (cTVT) is a neoplasia that affects mainly the genital organs of dogs, but can rich extragenital sites as well. It´s a tumor characterized microscopically by the presence of vacuolized round cells. Transmission occurs by implantation of these cells in non-affected tissues and the treatment is based on vincristine chemotherapy.Cases: Case 1. A 5-year-old intact male Poodle, presenting an increase volume of nasal plane came for veterinary care at a private veterinary clinic. The animal had bilateral bloody nasal secretion and dyspnea. The external genitalia had no alterations. The cytological evaluation confirmed cTVT. Treatment with vincristine sulfate weekly showed a rapid responsewith improvement of the respiratory condition, total remission of the mass and absence of neoplastic cells in cytology. Case 2. A 5-year-old mixed-breed canine bitch, weighing 6.7 kg, was brought to the State University of Santa Cruz Veterinary Hospital (UESC-VH), showing an increase volume in the nasal plan region, with complaints about sneezing, nasal bleeding,respiratory distress with approximately 4 months of evolution. The owner informed that the mother of these female dog, that lived in the same environment, died a month before the beginning of clinical signs of the bitch of this case, and showed a reddish vaginal mass with intense bleeding. Intranasal exfoliative cytology showed moderately cellular sample compatible with cTVT. The treatment with vincristine sulphate for 6 weeks, showed completely remission of all clinical signs. Case 3. A 3-year-old mixed-breed male dog was brought to the UESC-VH with a reddish, friable mass located in the left eye. The citology confirmed the clinical suspicion of cTVT. After six weekly sessions of chemotherapy with vincristine sulfate, the tumor regressed and a new cytological evaluation was performed, without visible of tumor cells. By the end of the treatment, the dog was diagnosed with phitisis bulbi, and one year later, due to recurrent ulcerative keratitis, the enucleation was performed and the histopathological examination of the eye did not identify the presence of tumor cells.Discussion: Two of the dogs cited in this report had freely streets access, without supervision of the owners, and they are likely to have contracted cTVT on one of those occasions. The animal’s care style acts as a risk factor for the development of neoplasia. Regarding the third animal, the close contact with another female dog, who had compatible vaginal cTVTclinical signs was probably the factor that determined the transmission. None of the animals cited in this report had lesions on their external genitalia. The extragenital presentation may be attributed to the social behavior of licking and sniffing the genitalia of carrier animals, which may lead to the natural implantation of the viable cells of the cTVT into the ocular and nasal mucosa. About the clinical signs manifested, in the cases of involvement of the nasal structures, the main signs described in literature are bloody nasal secretion, sneezing, dyspnea and increased nasal plane volume, and are similar to those observed in the animals cited in this report. In the case of ocular cTVT, the increase volume with impairment and deformity of all ocular structures, as well as pain and pruritus corroborate with the clinical findings observed in the literature. The cytopathological test was the diagnostic tool used in all cases cited in this report and the cytopathological findings corroborates with those described in the literature. Vincristine sulfate is the drug of choice for the treatment of cTVT cases, and in the dogs of this report, this drug was successfully used leading to complete remission of lesions and clinical signs, as observed in other studies.Keywords: nasal mucosa, ocular mucosa, venereal disease, round cells

Presenting EPIDOR: a Management Information System to support Pain Medicine/ Apresentando EPIDOR: um Sistema de Informação Gerencial para apoiar a Medicina da Dor

 Research on the prevalence of chronic pain in the Brazilian population is still insufficient regarding the electronic recording of these data and their statistical analysis. Considering this scenario, the present article presents a web system for information management on pain management - EPIDOR -, which includes the collection of data from patients with chronic pain and the generation of  dashboards from the obtained data. The data collection is performed from two inputs: chronic pain registry from the developed information system and the construction of a digital device - the Digital Survey of Pain - to follow up on the treatment of a specific group of patients. The developed system is in the implantation phase in a regional hospital and the expected result is the mapping of the pain and its epidemiology at municipal level, besides the production of consistent data about the effectiveness of the current treatment

Ecological and environmental factors affecting transmission of sylvatic yellow fever in the 2017-2019 outbreak in the Atlantic Forest, Brazil

Background: Yellow fever virus (YFV) is an arbovirus that, despite the existence of a safe and effective vaccine, continues to cause outbreaks of varying dimensions in the Americas and Africa. Between 2017 and 2019, Brazil registered un unprecedented sylvatic YFV outbreak whose severity was the result of its spread into zones of the Atlantic Forest with no signals of viral circulation for nearly 80 years. Methods: To investigate the influence of climatic, environmental, and ecological factors governing the dispersion and force of infection of YFV in a naïve area such as the landscape mosaic of Rio de Janeiro (RJ), we combined the analyses of a large set of data including entomological sampling performed before and during the 2017–2019 outbreak, with the geolocation of human and nonhuman primates (NHP) and mosquito infections. Results: A greater abundance of Haemagogus mosquitoes combined with lower richness and diversity of mosquito fauna increased the probability of finding a YFV-infected mosquito. Furthermore, the analysis of functional traits showed that certain functional groups, composed mainly of Aedini mosquitoes which includes Aedes and Haemagogus mosquitoes, are also more representative in areas where infected mosquitoes were found. Human and NHP infections were more common in two types of landscapes: large and continuous forest, capable of harboring many YFV hosts, and patches of small forest fragments, where environmental imbalance can lead to a greater density of the primary vectors and high human exposure. In both, we show that most human infections (~ 62%) occurred within an 11-km radius of the finding of an infected NHP, which is in line with the flight range of the primary vectors. Conclusions: Together, our data suggest that entomological data and landscape composition analyses may help to predict areas permissive to yellow fever outbreaks, allowing protective measures to be taken to avoid human cases