TIMETABLING, A COMPLEXIDADE NA GERAÇÃO DE HORÁRIOS EM INSTITUIÇÕES DE ENSINO

A geração de horário de aulas acadêmico apresenta-se como um problema de timetabling.  Nesse caso o problema é determinar uma sequência de encontros entre estudantes e professores, em um espaço de tempo pré-definido sem que aconteçam conflitos  e “janelas”, levando em conta as restrições de cada professor e a quantidade de aulas semanais de cada disciplina. O objetivo deste trabalho é mostrar os métodos existentes na literatura que tratam do problema e, a partir daí, desenvolver um software com uma interface que permita a confecção de horários com funcionalidades como a verificação de conflitos e “janelas” de um professor. Para o desenvolvimento desse software foi usado o Microsoft visual Studio 2010 em conjunto com a tecnologia asp.net, que oferece amplas ferramentas para desenvolvimento Web e devido a sua integração com o mesmo foi usado o SQL Server Express para criação do Banco de Dados

Pneumonia em Idosos no Brasil em 2024: Análise Atual da Morbidade Hospitalar e Seus Impactos

INTRODUCTION: Pneumonia is a serious lung infection that especially affects the elderly, due to the fragility of the immune system and the presence of comorbidities. This study analyzes the incidence, risk factors and hospital costs associated with hospitalizations for pneumonia in the elderly in Brazil, highlighting the need for effective prevention and management strategies to reduce its impact. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to analyze hospital admissions for pneumonia in the elderly in Brazil from January 2024 to May 2024, with emphasis on distribution by age group, patient sex, types of care and hospital costs. METHODOLOGY: This is a quantitative retrospective study using data from the SUS Hospital Information System (SIH/SUS), accessed via the TABNET/DATASUS secondary database. Hospitalizations, age group, patient sex, types of care and hospital costs due to HF in Brazil between January 2024 and May 2024 were analyzed. The analysis used descriptive statistics and tabulation in a Microsoft Excel 2016 spreadsheet, with results presented in tables in Microsoft Word 10. RESULTS: The results indicate that the Southeast Region leads in hospitalizations for pneumonia in the elderly (57.74%) and also in hospital expenses (R$74,085,867.55). The most affected age group is those aged 80 and over, with 44.50$ 74.085.867,55). A faixa etária mais afetada é a de 80 anos ou mais, com 44,50% das internações. Predominam internações femininas e de urgência, refletindo a gravidade dos casos e a necessidade de intervenções médicas imediatas em todo o país. CONCLUSÃO: Portanto, a análise evidencia a alta prevalência de pneumonia em idosos, com maior incidência na Região Sudeste. A predominância de internações urgentes e os altos custos hospitalares destacam a gravidade da doença e a necessidade de intervenções imediatas. Estratégias de prevenção e manejo eficazes são essenciais para reduzir o impacto da pneumonia nessa população vulnerável

Fc Effector Function Contributes to the Activity of Human Anti-CTLA-4 Antibodies.

With the use of a mouse model expressing human Fc-gamma receptors (FcγRs), we demonstrated that antibodies with isotypes equivalent to ipilimumab and tremelimumab mediate intra-tumoral regulatory T (Treg) cell depletion in vivo, increasing the CD8+ to Treg cell ratio and promoting tumor rejection. Antibodies with improved FcγR binding profiles drove superior anti-tumor responses and survival. In patients with advanced melanoma, response to ipilimumab was associated with the CD16a-V158F high affinity polymorphism. Such activity only appeared relevant in the context of inflamed tumors, explaining the modest response rates observed in the clinical setting. Our data suggest that the activity of anti-CTLA-4 in inflamed tumors may be improved through enhancement of FcγR binding, whereas poorly infiltrated tumors will likely require combination approaches

Allele-Specific HLA Loss and Immune Escape in Lung Cancer Evolution

Immune evasion is a hallmark of cancer. Losing the ability to present neoantigens through human leukocyte antigen (HLA) loss may facilitate immune evasion. However, the polymorphic nature of the locus has precluded accurate HLA copy-number analysis. Here, we present loss of heterozygosity in human leukocyte antigen (LOHHLA), a computational tool to determine HLA allele-specific copy number from sequencing data. Using LOHHLA, we find that HLA LOH occurs in 40% of non-small-cell lung cancers (NSCLCs) and is associated with a high subclonal neoantigen burden, APOBEC-mediated mutagenesis, upregulation of cytolytic activity, and PD-L1 positivity. The focal nature of HLA LOH alterations, their subclonal frequencies, enrichment in metastatic sites, and occurrence as parallel events suggests that HLA LOH is an immune escape mechanism that is subject to strong microenvironmental selection pressures later in tumor evolution. Characterizing HLA LOH with LOHHLA refines neoantigen prediction and may have implications for our understanding of resistance mechanisms and immunotherapeutic approaches targeting neoantigens. Video Abstract [Figure presented] Development of the bioinformatics tool LOHHLA allows precise measurement of allele-specific HLA copy number, improves the accuracy in neoantigen prediction, and uncovers insights into how immune escape contributes to tumor evolution in non-small-cell lung cancer

Fc-Optimized Anti-CD25 Depletes Tumor-Infiltrating Regulatory T Cells and Synergizes with PD-1 Blockade to Eradicate Established Tumors

CD25 is expressed at high levels on regulatory T (Treg) cells and was initially proposed as a target for cancer immunotherapy. However, anti-CD25 antibodies have displayed limited activity against established tumors. We demonstrated that CD25 expression is largely restricted to tumor-infiltrating Treg cells in mice and humans. While existing anti-CD25 antibodies were observed to deplete Treg cells in the periphery, upregulation of the inhibitory Fc gamma receptor (FcγR) IIb at the tumor site prevented intra-tumoral Treg cell depletion, which may underlie the lack of anti-tumor activity previously observed in pre-clinical models. Use of an anti-CD25 antibody with enhanced binding to activating FcγRs led to effective depletion of tumor-infiltrating Treg cells, increased effector to Treg cell ratios, and improved control of established tumors. Combination with anti-programmed cell death protein-1 antibodies promoted complete tumor rejection, demonstrating the relevance of CD25 as a therapeutic target and promising substrate for future combination approaches in immune-oncology

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear un derstanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5–7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8–11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world’s most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepre sented in biodiversity databases.13–15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may elim inate pieces of the Amazon’s biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological com munities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple or ganism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region’s vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most ne glected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lostinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Photography-based taxonomy is inadequate, unnecessary, and potentially harmful for biological sciences

The question whether taxonomic descriptions naming new animal species without type specimen(s) deposited in collections should be accepted for publication by scientific journals and allowed by the Code has already been discussed in Zootaxa (Dubois & Nemésio 2007; Donegan 2008, 2009; Nemésio 2009a–b; Dubois 2009; Gentile & Snell 2009; Minelli 2009; Cianferoni & Bartolozzi 2016; Amorim et al. 2016). This question was again raised in a letter supported by 35 signatories published in the journal Nature (Pape et al. 2016) on 15 September 2016. On 25 September 2016, the following rebuttal (strictly limited to 300 words as per the editorial rules of Nature) was submitted to Nature, which on 18 October 2016 refused to publish it. As we think this problem is a very important one for zoological taxonomy, this text is published here exactly as submitted to Nature, followed by the list of the 493 taxonomists and collection-based researchers who signed it in the short time span from 20 September to 6 October 2016