Evaluation of atherosclerotic plaques with nano-probes for intravascular cardiological imaging diagnosis

Cardiovascular diseases represent the leading cause of mortality and disability worldwide. Besides, it is estimated that these numbers will increase significantly in the future. More specifically, atherosclerosis is present in most of the main cardiovascular diseases, making its study urgent and important to develop new diagnostic tools. The most relevant limitation in the current investigation of the evaluation of atherosclerosis is the impossibility to distinguish stable and prone to rupture (unstable) plaques in coronary arteries. Associated with the instability phenomena, in plaques prone to rupture, are increased thickness of tissue layers (already detectable but not provide an unequivocal diagnosis) and inflammatory processes (not yet detectable but only present when the lesion evolves higher risk to rupture). Aiming to detect the precise location of inflammatory processes, two types of contrast agents (nano probes) were synthetized, gold nanoparticles and microbubbles. Also, to replicate the behavior of human arteries, three-dimensional tissue simulating structures (phantoms) were fabricated and optimized. To evaluate the performance of the contrast agents, both in the phantoms and post-mortem human arteries, optical coherence tomography (OCT) images were acquired in a clinical environment, and other techniques were performed (confocal microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy) to characterize the samples. Microbubbles revealed to be a better contrast agent than gold nanoparticles having a clearly noticeable enhancement of the OCT signal. After the acquisition of several OCT images on both types of samples (arteries and phantoms) an automatic imaging processing software was developed to detect the presence of the contrast agents and its posterior location. The software uses MATLAB as a programming language and with a user-friendly interface the user can access numerous parameters of the analyzed image and even edit them manually. In the end of the automatic processing, the user has the information of the number of regions of interest as well as their visual location

Green Minute: an example of environmental education in Portuguese speaking countries

[Resumo] O ‘Minuto Verde’ é uma rubrica ambiental que a Quercus produz e exibe, todos os dias úteis, durante o programa de informação Bom Dia Portugal, em episódios de 60 segundos, apresentando bons conselhos para um melhor ambiente. A rubrica tem transmissão na RTP 1, RTP Informação, RTP África e RTP Internacional. No quadro de um projeto apoiado pela Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa (CPLP), e pela Fundação Gulbenkian, entre 2012 e 2014, o ‘Minuto Verde’ dedicou um conjunto de mais de 70 episódios a quatro países africanos de língua portuguesa: Cabo Verde, Moçambique, São Tomé e Príncipe e Angola. Após a tomada de consciência de uma audiência significativa do programa nestes países, através da RTP África e RTP Internacional, a Quercus considerou a realização dos programas seria um investimento relevante a prosseguir em termos de educação ambiental, aproveitando a oportunidade para sensibilização das populações dos países em causa e mostrando a boas práticas desses países aos portugueses e também ao resto do mundo.[Abstract] The ‘Green Minute’ is an environmental TV show directed by Quercus and displayed every working day during the information program “Good Morning Portugal”, in episodes of 60 seconds, presenting good advices for a better environment. The show is broadcasted on RTP 1, RTP information, RTP Africa, and RTP International. Under a project supported by the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP), and the Gulbenkian Foundation, between 2012 and 2014, the ‘Green Minute’ dedicated a set of more than 70 episodes to four African Portuguese-speaking countries: Cape Verde, Mozambique, Sao Tome and Principe and Angola. After becoming aware of a significant audience of the program in these countries by RTP Africa and RTP Internacional, Quercus considered that filming episodes in these countries would be a significant investiment to continue in terms of environmental education, taking the opportunity to raise awareness of the populations of the countries concerned and also showing good practices of these countries to the Portuguese community and also the rest of the world

The Potential of Mushroom Extracts to Improve Chemotherapy Efficacy in Cancer Cells: A Systematic Review

Chemoresistance is a challenge in cancer treatment, limiting the effectiveness of chemotherapy. Mushroom extracts have shown potential as treatments for cancer therapies, offering a possible solution to overcome chemoresistance. This systematic review aimed to explore the role of mushroom extracts in enhancing chemotherapy and reversing chemoresistance in cancer cells. We searched the PubMed, Web of Science and Scopus databases, following the PRISMA guidelines, and registered on PROSPERO. The extracts acted by inhibiting the proliferation of cancer cells, as well as enhancing the effect of chemotherapy. The mechanisms by which they acted included regulating anti-apoptotic proteins, inhibiting the JAK2/STAT3 pathway, inhibiting the ERK1/2 pathway, modulating microRNAs and regulating p-glycoprotein. These results highlight the potential of mushroom extracts to modulate multiple mechanisms in order to improve the efficacy of chemotherapy. This work sheds light on the use of mushroom extracts as an aid to chemotherapy to combat chemoresistance. Although studies are limited, the diversity of mushrooms and their bioactive compounds show promising results for innovative strategies to treat cancer more effectively. It is crucial to carry out further studies to better understand the therapeutic potential of mushroom extracts to improve the efficacy of chemotherapy in cancer cells.The Cooperativa de Ensino Superior Politécnico e Universitário (CESPU) is gratefully acknowledged for the PhD grant, no. BD/DCB/CESPU/01/2023, to Jéssica Fonseca.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A (in)eficácia das políticas europeias e nacionais para prevenir os riscos causados pelas manifestações de mudança climática nos espaços urbanos

É comum afirmar que os climas temperados mediterrânicos possuem um clima ameno, apesar de irregular (Monteiro, 2013b, p. 269). Contudo os registos seculares de temperatura da estação do Porto-Serra do Pilar demonstram que este preconceito pode ser uma falácia (Monteiro, 2013b, p. 269), e que, nestes contextos climáticos o stress sobre a saúde humana pode causar o agravamento de doenças pré-existentes ou ser mesmo o motivo para o surgimento de outras.A dificuldade começa desde logo pela seleção do critério mais adequado em cada contexto climático para identificar e contar o número de episódios térmicos extremos. Esta escolha vai influenciar muito a avaliação da gravidade do risco e, naturalmente, as políticas delineadas para prevenir os seus efeitos à escala local, regional e global.Uma leitura minuciosa do modo e dos termos em que o clima é tratado nas políticas europeias e nacionais pode ser uma boa ajuda para entender algumas das razões pelas quais as estratégias escolhidas, sobretudo nos países do sul da Europa, como é o caso de Portugal, têm sido absolutamente ineficazes.Neste contributo propomo-nos elaborar a análise das políticas e sugerir o desenho de uma estratégia verdadeiramente eficaz para incluir o clima. Para isso é necessário que consigne: i) as aspirações e as metas em concreto; ii) o sítio e a escala espacial e temporal em que será operacionalizada; iii) quem ganhará com ela; iv) quais as competências necessárias para a concretizar. Os resultados obtidos no projeto ERA NET URBAN/0001/2009 Potential impact of climate trends and weather extremes on outdoor thermal comfort in European cities - implications for sustainable urban design aplicados à Área Metropolitana do Porto servirão de âncora para a demonstração do potencial existente na ligação entre a climatologia e o planeamento urbano que urge aproveitar.It is common to emphasize that the Mediterranean temperate climates are mild although irregular (Monteiro, 2013b , p . 269) . However, century temperature records of the Porto - Serra do Pilar station show that this bias can be a fallacious mistake (Monteiro, 2013 b, p. 269), and that in such environments the stress on human health can cause severe worsening of pre-existent disease sor even be the reason for the emergence of others.The difficulty starts immediately by selecting the most appropriate criterion in each climatic context to identify and count the number of extreme heat episodes. This choice will greatly influence the assessment of the seriousness of the risk and of course the outlined policies to prevent their effects at local, regional and global scaleA perusal of the way climate is treated in European and national policies can be a good help to understand some of the reasons why the chosen strategies, especially in the southern countries of Europe as Portugal, have been completely ineffective.In this contribution we propose an analysis of the more recent policies and suggestion of the needed design changes to make them truly effective to prevent climate risks. To accomplish this commitment it is very important a detailed definition of: i ) the aspirations and goals into concrete , ii ) the site and the spatial and temporal scale at which it is operationalized iii ) who will win her iv ) the skills needed to finish .The results obtained in the project ERA NET URBAN/0001/2009 (Potential impact of climate trends and weather extremes on outdoor thermal comfort in European cities - implications for sustainable urban design) applied to the Porto Metropolitan Area will be the anchor for the demonstration of the huge potential of binding climate and urban planning

Cyclic and Dynamic Behavior of Sand-Rubber and Clay- Rubber Mixtures

In this paper, the possibility of using fine scrap tyre rubber to improve the mechanical properties of soil subjected to cyclic loading is addressed. Ground rubber (0.1-0.8 mm) in various proportions (0, 9, 33% and 100% by weight) was mixed with a uniform river sand and a lean clay. Cyclic triaxial tests with bender elements were executed to observe the behaviour of the materials and also to determine damping and shear stiffness parameters. The results have shown that the addition of rubber has significantly decreased the density and shear stiffness of both types of soils, which favours mitigation of vibrations. The shear stiffness degradation at shear strains higher than 10−3 was lower in specimens containing more rubber. Within this strain range, addition of rubber decreased the damping ratio, but increased the normalized accumulated absolute strain energy absorbed by the material. Higher rubber content in sandy specimens resulted in more elastic behaviour, with lower strain accumulation in each loading cycle, eventually resulting in a higher number of loading cycles before failure. The positive effect of rubber presence was not observed in compacted clay-rubber mixture, which sustained less loading cycles than clay alone. The influence of rubber addition in the p′-q stress space was expressed in the form of lower pore pressure generation which shifted the stress path further from the failure envelope. (c) 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG part of Springer Nature

a role for hospital statistics for better estimates and surveillance

PMID: 25548715Background. Although eradicated in Portugal, malaria keeps taking its toll on travelers and migrants from endemic countries. Disease notification is mandatory but is compromised by underreporting. Methods. A retrospective study on malaria hospitalizations for 10 consecutive years (2000-2009) was conducted. Data on hospitalizations and notifications were obtained from Central Administration of Health System and Health Protection Agency, respectively. For data selection ICD-9 CM and ICD-10 were used: codes 084(*), 647.4, and B50-B54. Variables were gender, age, agent and origin of infection, length of stay (LOS), lethality, and comorbidities. Analysis included description, hypothesis testing, and regression. Results. There were 2003 malaria hospitalizations and 480 notified hospitalized cases, mainly in young male adults. P. falciparum was the main agent of infection acquired mainly in sub-Saharan Africa. Lethality was 1.95% and mean LOS was 8.09 days. Older age entailed longer LOS and increased lethality. Discussion. From 2000 to 2009, there were 2003 malaria hospitalizations with decreasing annual incidence, these numbers being remarkably higher than those notified. The national database of diagnosis related groups, reflecting hospitalizations on NHS hospitals, may be an unexplored complementary source for better estimates on imported malaria.publishersversionpublishe

Effect of the porosity/cement ratio on the compression of cemented soil

The compression behavior of an artificially cemented soil was analyzed by the adjusted porosity/cement index using a correlation established in the recent literature. It was found that for each value of this index, defined as the ratio of porosity to the volumetric cement content, there was a unique normal compression line (NCL). The NCLs of the cemented specimens for each adjusted porosity/cement index did not converge with the NCL of the uncemented silty sand at large stresses, but reached a line parallel to it. The NCL of the cemented sand plotted further from the NCL of the uncemented sand as the porosity/cement index decreased. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)GT.1943-5606.0000698. (C) 2012 American Society of Civil Engineers

An intervention protocol proposal to modify the body image disturbance using Virtual Reality

A negative experience with one's own body has been theorized as a common antecedent of eating disorders (EDs). In fact, body image disturbance (BID) is considered a key factor in the development, maintenance and relapse of Anorexia Nervosa (AN). As yet, the mechanisms underlying this disturbance in body representation remain unclear. In this paper we present the study protocol of this novel Virtual Reality (VR) multisensorial paradigm to assess and treat BID. Participants will be asked to perform a real and virtual body size estimation task. Then, they will be assigned to one condition (experimental vs, control), and they will have to perform a task from 1st or 3rd point-ofview, in a counterbalanced manner. The 'experimental' condition task consists of touching the real abdomen while looking at the virtual one. The 'control' condition task consisted of making slow movements meanwhile looking at the virtual abdomen. Thereafter, participants will perform again the real and virtual body size estimation tasks. After ten minutes, they will perform the procedure from the other point-of-view (1st vs. 3rd). This protocol is intended to be an effective tool that allows the development of a more realistic corporal representation adjusted to the own body size. Keywords: Body Image Disturbance, Virtual Reality, Body Size Estimation, Protocol