Endodontia Regenerativa Como Alternativa Ao Tratamento Endodôntico Convencional: Uma Revisão Sistemática

Introdução: Nos últimos anos têm vindo a desenvolver-se metodologias de tratamento que visam substituir o tratamento endodôntico não cirúrgico (TENC) em certas situações nas quais este está atualmente indicado, e que prometem a resolução da infeção, da sintomatologia e das lesões periapicais associadas à infeção pulpar. Objetivos: Analisar o estado atual e futuras possibilidades da endodontia regenerativa em dentes permanentes maturos e imaturos necrosados e avaliar a performance clínica de tratamentos de endodontia regenerativa em dentes maturos e imaturos necrosados. Material e métodos: Foram realizadas duas pesquisas na base de dados PubMed com os termos (“regenerative endodontics”) AND (“immature teeth”) e (“regenerative endodontics”) AND (“mature teeth”), assim como uma pesquisa manual pelas guidelines da European Society of Endodontology. Resultados/Discussão: Dos 62 artigos encontrados, foram selecionados 41 que constam da bibliografia desta revisão. Foram descritos todos os objetivos e pontos fundamentais de um tratamento endodôntico regenerativo, bem como a eficácia deste tratamento, quer em dentes imaturos como em dentes maturos, assim como os protocolos descritos pela American Association of Endodontists e pela European Society of Endodontology, as estratégias disponíveis nos casos falhados de tratamentos endodônticos regenerativos (TER) e limitações atuais deste tratamento. Conclusão: A endodontia regenerativa possui um enorme potencial para se tornar num tratamento endodôntico de primeira linha, apresentando uma boa performance clínica, comparável com a dos tratamentos endodônticos tradicionais e potenciando novas realidades, como a progressão do desenvolvimento radicular e a recuperação das funções de sensibilidade e de defesa da polpa dentária. Contudo, verifica-se uma falta de conhecimento, havendo a necessidade da realização de mais ensaios clínicos com grandes amostras de pacientes, possibilitando o desenvolvimento de materiais e de protocolos que maximizem a previsibilidade dos TER.Introduction: Over the last few years there has been the development of new treatment methods that seek to replace the traditional endodontic treatment options, promising to allow the resolution of the infection, of the symptoms and of the periapical lesions associated with the infection of the pulp. Aim: To analyse the current state and future possibilities of regenerative endodontics in mature and immature permanent teeth with pulp necrosis and to evaluate the clinical performance of regenerative endodontic treatment in mature and immature permanent teeth with pulp necrosis. Material and methods: Two searches were conducted on the PubMed database using the terms (“regenerative endodontics”) AND (“immature teeth”) e (“regenerative endodontics”) AND (“mature teeth”), as well as a manual search for the European Society of Endodontology guidelines. Results/Discussion: Of the 62 articles found, 41 were selected. All the objectives and center points of regenerative endodontics were described, as well its efficacy both in mature and immature teeth. The protocols described by the American Association of Endodontists and the European Society of Endodontology were also included, as well as the available strategies for the management of failed regenerative endodontic treatment and its current limitations. Conclusion: Regenerative endodontics have a huge potential to become a first line endodontic treatment, showing a good clinical performance, comparable with that of traditional endodontic treatments and propelling new realities in this field, such as resuming root development in teeth where it had been arrested and regaining of sensibility and defense functions in the tooth pulp. However, a lack of knowledge is noticeable, revealing the need for more clinical trials with large samples, allowing for the development of new materials and protocols with the hope of improving the predictability of regenerative endodontic treatments

Viscoelastic response of an epoxy adhesive for construction since its early ages: Experiments and modelling

Epoxy adhesives have been extensively used in strengthening of reinforced concrete structures. In spite of that, research on the viscoelastic behaviour of these adhesives and its influence on the mechanical behaviour of strengthened concrete structures is scarce, particularly at the early ages of curing. The main goal of present work is to better understand the tensile creep behaviour of a specific commercial epoxy adhesive both at early ages and at long term. For this purpose, an experimental program comprising tensile creep tests was performed, in which epoxy specimens were subjected to: (i) equal stress levels but loaded at different ages, and; (ii) two different stress levels for a specific loading age. The results obtained have confirmed the viability of the principles of homogeneity and superposition, thus allowing the classification of this epoxy as linear viscoelastic. In addition, analytical simulations with Burgers model were carried out, and its predictive performance was considered insufficient at early ages, particularly upon unloading. In order to surpass some disadvantages of this model, a new framework is proposed to analytically evaluate the creep curing behaviour of this type of viscoelastic epoxy adhesives. The obtained results evidenced the capability of the proposed framework to predict the creep behaviour of an epoxy adhesive since its early ages.This work is supported by FEDER funds through the Operational Program for Competitiveness Factors - COMPETE and National Funds through FCT - Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology under the project FPReDur FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-028865 (FCT reference PTDC/ECM-EST/2424/2012) and the project VisCoDyn FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-041751 (FCT reference EXPL/ECM-EST/1323/2013), as well as the project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007633. The authors also like to thank the S&P Clever Reinforcement Ibérica Lda. company for providing the material tested in ambit of the present work. The first author wishes also to acknowledge the grant SFRH/BD/89768/2012 provided by FCT. The second author wishes also to acknowledge the grant SFRH/BDE/96381/2013 co-funded by CiviTest-Pesquisa de Novos Materiais para a Engenharia Civil, Lda and by FCT.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Comparison of 5 acute pulmonary embolism mortality risk scores in patients with COVID-19

© The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)Objective: Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a common complication of SARS-CoV-2 infection. We aimed to explore the short-term outcomes among patients with acute PE and COVID-19 and to further determine and compare the performance of the different prognostic scores (PESI, sPESI, BOVA, FAST and ESC scores) for risk-stratification in this scenario. Methods: Retrospective single-centre study of 85 patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection and PE admitted to the Emergency Department (ED). The diagnostic accuracy of each above-mentioned prognostic score was calculated post hoc, and their discriminative power was evaluated through an AUC curve. Results: Among the 85 patients, all-cause death occurred within 7 days for 6 patients (7.1%) and within 30 days for 14 patients (16.5%). Despite being older and having a higher percentage of altered mental status on presentation, non-survivors patients did not differ from survivors regarding comorbidities, traditional risk factors for venous thromboembolism and signs and symptoms at the ED presentation.Each risk stratification tool had modest discriminative power for 7-day mortality (AUC range, 0.601-0.730) with slightly lower discrimination for 30-day mortality (AUC range, 0.543-0.638). The pair-wise comparison of ROC curves showed that PESI had better predictive value for short-term mortality than ESC score (z test = 3.92, p = 0.001) and sPESI (z test = 2.43, p = 0.015); there is no significant difference between PESI and BOVA score (z test = 1.05, p = 0.295) and FAST score (z test = 0.986, p = 0.324). Conclusion: The most common risk-stratification tools for PE had modest discriminative power to predict short-term mortality in patients with acute PE and COVID-19.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Flexural behaviour of hybrid FRC-GFRP/PUR sandwich panels

The present work has been developed in the scope of the research project ‘‘Easyfloor – Development of composite sandwich panels for building floor rehabilitation”. This project aims at developing a hybrid sandwich panel, constituting an alternative construction system to conventional floor solutions, mainly for buildings rehabilitation. The developed hybrid sandwich panel is composed of a top face layer of steel fibre reinforced self-compacting concrete (FRC), a core of polyurethane (PUR) closed-cell foam and a bottom face sheet and lateral webs of glass fibre reinforced polymer (GFRP). The composite (GFRP/PUR) is manufactured by pultrusion, and its cross-section includes a sheet of GFRP between the FRC and PUR. After the production of the composite part, fresh FRC is poured onto the FRP component to materialize the top face of the panel. Full-scale tests on the developed sandwich panels have been carried out to characterize their flexural behaviour. The experimental programme included flexural tests i) on single supported panels, ii) on two panels side adhesively bonded and iii) on single panels with different connection solutions to walls. The present work includes a detailed description of the developed panels and of the experimental programme. It also presents and discusses the relevant results. The observed performance of the tested specimens is critically analysed.FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (SFRH/BSAB/150266/2019

Coronary X-ray angiography segmentation using Artificial Intelligence: a multicentric validation study of a deep learning model

© The Author(s) 2023. Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons. org/licenses/by/4.0/.Introduction: We previously developed an artificial intelligence (AI) model for automatic coronary angiography (CAG) segmentation, using deep learning. To validate this approach, the model was applied to a new dataset and results are reported. Methods: Retrospective selection of patients undergoing CAG and percutaneous coronary intervention or invasive physiology assessment over a one month period from four centers. A single frame was selected from images containing a lesion with a 50-99% stenosis (visual estimation). Automatic Quantitative Coronary Analysis (QCA) was performed with a validated software. Images were then segmented by the AI model. Lesion diameters, area overlap [based on true positive (TP) and true negative (TN) pixels] and a global segmentation score (GSS - 0 -100 points) - previously developed and published - were measured. Results: 123 regions of interest from 117 images across 90 patients were included. There were no significant differences between lesion diameter, percentage diameter stenosis and distal border diameter between the original/segmented images. There was a statistically significant albeit minor difference [0,19 mm (0,09-0,28)] regarding proximal border diameter. Overlap accuracy ((TP + TN)/(TP + TN + FP + FN)), sensitivity (TP / (TP + FN)) and Dice Score (2TP / (2TP + FN + FP)) between original/segmented images was 99,9%, 95,1% and 94,8%, respectively. The GSS was 92 (87-96), similar to the previously obtained value in the training dataset. Conclusion: the AI model was capable of accurate CAG segmentation across multiple performance metrics, when applied to a multicentric validation dataset. This paves the way for future research on its clinical uses.Open access funding provided by FCT|FCCN (b-on). Cardiovascular Center of the University of Lisbon, INESC-ID / Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

25 de Abril Sempre! Portuguese Science and the 50th anniversary of the Carnation Revolution

In 2024, Portugal celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Carnation Revolution, which brought down a long dictatorship and re-instated elemental civil liberties and democracy in the country. For Portuguese science, this revolution meant a democratisation of access to the scientific career and an increased investment in scientific research, which culminated in an unprecedented rise in scientific output. Communications Biology joins this anniversary and celebrations of freedom and democracy as basic pillars of scientific endeavour

Synthesis of new Fe(II) and Ru(II) eta(5)-monocyclopentadienyl compounds showing significant second order NLO properties

A series of new ruthenium(II) complexes of the general formula [Ru(eta(5)-C5H5)(PP)(L)][PF6] (PP = DPPE or 2PPh(3), L = 4-butoxybenzonitrile or N-(3-cyanophenyl)formamide) and the binuclear iron(II) complex [Fe(eta(5)-C5H5)(PP)(mu-L)(PP)(eta(5)-C5H5)Fe][PF6](2) (L = (E)-2-(3-(4-nitrophenyl)allylidene)malononitrile, that has been also newly synthesized) have been prepared and studied to evaluate their potential in the second harmonic generation property. All the new compounds were fully characterized by NMR, IR and UV-Vis spectroscopies and their electrochemistry behaviour was studied by cyclic voltammetry. Quadratic hyperpolarizabilities (beta) of three of the complexes have been determined by hyper-Rayleigh scattering (HRS) measurements at fundamental wavelength of 1500 nm and the calculated static beta(0) values are found to fall in the range 65-212 x 10(-30) esu. Compound presenting beta(0) = 212 x 10(-30) esu has revealed to be 1.2 times more efficient than urea standard in the second harmonic generation (SHG) property, measured in the solid state by Kurtz powder technique, using a Nd:YAG laser (1064 nm). (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

The value of multiparametric prediction scores in heart failure varies with the type of follow‐up after discharge: a comparative analysis

© 2023 The Authors. ESC Heart Failure published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Society of Cardiology. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.Aims: Multiple prediction score models have been validated to predict major adverse events in patients with heart failure. However, these scores do not include variables related to the type of follow-up. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of a protocol-based follow-up programme of patients with heart failure regarding scores accuracy for predicting hospitalizations and mortality occurring during the first year after hospital discharge. Methods and results: Data from two heart failure populations were collected: one composed of patients included in a protocol-based follow-up programme after an index hospitalization for acute heart failure and a second one-the control group-composed of patients not included in a multidisciplinary HF management programme after discharge. For each patient, the risk of hospitalization and/or mortality within a period of 12 months after discharge was calculated using four different scores: BCN Bio-HF Calculator, COACH Risk Engine, MAGGIC Risk Calculator, and Seattle Heart Failure Model. The accuracy of each score was established using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), calibration graphs, and discordance calculation. AUC comparison was established by the DeLong method. The protocol-based follow-up programme group included 56 patients, and the control group, 106 patients, with no significant differences between groups (median age: 67 years vs. 68.4 years; male sex: 58% vs. 55%; median ejection fraction: 28.2% vs. 30.5%; functional class II: 60.7% vs. 56.2%, I: 30.4% vs. 31.9%; P = not significant). Hospitalization and mortality rates were significantly lower in the protocol-based follow-up programme group (21.4% vs. 54.7%; P < 0.001 and 5.4% vs. 17.9%; P < 0.001, respectively). When applied to the control group, COACH Risk Engine and BCN Bio-HF Calculator had, respectively, good (AUC: 0.835) and reasonable (AUC: 0.712) accuracy to predict hospitalization. There was a significant reduction of COACH Risk Engine accuracy (AUC: 0.572; P = 0.011) and a non-significant accuracy reduction of BCN Bio-HF Calculator (AUC: 0.536; P = 0.1) when applied to the protocol-based follow-up programme group. All scores showed good accuracy to predict 1 year mortality (AUC: 0.863, 0.87, 0.818, and 0.82, respectively) when applied to the control group. However, when applied to the protocol-based follow-up programme group, a significant predictive accuracy reduction of COACH Risk Engine, BCN Bio-HF Calculator, and MAGGIC Risk Calculator (AUC: 0.366, 0.642, and 0.277, P < 0.001, 0.002, and <0.001, respectively) was observed. Seattle Heart Failure Model had non-significant reduction in its acuity (AUC: 0.597; P = 0.24). Conclusions: The accuracy of the aforementioned scores to predict major events in patients with heart failure is significantly reduced when they are applied to patients included in a multidisciplinary heart failure management programme.This work was supported by national funds, Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, reference number UIDB/00306/2020.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Performance of Senepol females as oocyte donors / Desempenho de fêmeas Senepol como doadoras de oócitos

The goal of this study was to evaluate the effect of the donor and the months of the year on the oocyte recovery rate in Senepol donors. Data on 604 follicular aspirations guided by ultrasound, performed on 33 healthy cows aged between two and seven years were evaluated. Data were made available through individual spreadsheets by a commercial company. All donors belonged to the same batch and breeding farm and were kept under the same food management. Viable and degenerate oocyte recovery rates and the effect of the month of collection and the individual factor of the donor were analyzed. Data were tested by analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by Tukey’s test, with a significance level of 5%. A significant number of total (27.13 ± 14.38) and viable (23.17 ± 12.94) oocytes was observed. The number of grade I oocytes was high among the donors, and the number of total and grade II and III oocytes were the least altered between the months evaluated. There was an excellent number of oocytes recovered, with variation observed according to the donor and the month of the year evaluated. 

β-ketoenamine covalent organic frameworks—effects of functionalization on pollutant adsorption

Water pollution due to global economic activity is one of the greatest environmental concerns, and many efforts are currently being made toward developing materials capable of selectively and efficiently removing pollutants and contaminants. A series of β-ketoenamine covalent organic frameworks (COFs) have been synthesized, by reacting 1,3,5-triformylphloroglucinol (TFP) with different C2-functionalized and nonfunctionalized diamines, in order to evaluate the influence of wall functionalization and pore size on the adsorption capacity toward dye and heavy metal pollutants. The obtained COFs were characterized by different techniques. The adsorption of methylene blue (MB), which was used as a model for the adsorption of pharmaceuticals and dyes, was initially evaluated. Adsorption studies showed that –NO2 and –SO3H functional groups were favorable for MB adsorption, with TpBd(SO3H)2-COF [100%], prepared between TFP and 4,4′-diamine- [1,1′-biphenyl]-2,2′-disulfonic acid, achieving the highest adsorption capacity (166 ± 13 mg g−1). The adsorption of anionic pollutants was less effective and decreased, in general, with the increase in –SO3H and –NO2 group content. The effect of ionic interactions on the COF performance was further assessed by carrying out adsorption experiments involving metal ions. Isotherms showed that nonfunctionalized and functionalized COFs were better described by the Langmuir and Freundlich sorption models, respectively, confirming the influence of functionalization on surface heterogeneity. Sorption kinetics experiments were better adjusted according to a second-order rate equation, confirming the existence of surface chemical interactions in the adsorption process. These results confirm the influence of selective COF functionalization on adsorption processes and the role of functional groups on the adsorption selectivity, thus clearly demonstrating the potential of this new class of materials in the efficient and selective capture and removal of pollutants in aqueous solutions.This work was funded by the Coimbra Chemistry Centre (CQC), which is supported by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), Portugal, through the grants ref. UID/QUI/00313/2020 and ref. UI/BD/150809/2020, co-funded by COMPETE2020-UE