A Nova Formulação de Calcipotriol/Dipropionato de Betametasona em Espuma Cutânea para o Tratamento da Psoríase

Psoriasis is a chronic, inflammatory, immune-mediated, potentially disfiguring and disabling skin disorder, affecting over 100 million individuals worldwide. Calcipotriol plus betamethasone fixed-combination (0.005% Cal/0.064% BD) is the recommended topical treatment for psoriasis. However, topical treatments are associated to lack of efficacy and low adhesion rates due to poor cosmetic characteristics’ formulations, and vehicle issues. To answer the need for improving patients’ acceptability and adherence, an innovative Cal/BD aerosol foam formulation was developed for the topical treatment of adults with plaque psoriasis. Phase II and III clinical trials have consistently shown that the two-compound formulation is more effective and safer than its individual ingredients in the same vehicle. Cal/BD aerosol foam formulation has proved higher efficacy in clinical studies, and a pooled analysis of the main clinical studies has demonstrated that this does not occur at the safety profile expense. Furthermore, Cal/BD aerosol foam has shown a significantly improved efficacy compared with more traditional formulations, such as ointments, gels, and lotions. The improved efficacy and safety profile of this new formulation, together with the once-daily treatment, a more acceptable tolerability profile, and an early and rapid response, offers improved convenience and better acceptance over the twice- -daily applications required for the respective monotherapies, which may improve adherence to treatment, leading to faster and greater improvements in HR-QoL, representing a useful therapeutic option to the management of patients with plaque psoriasis. Further clinical investigations to explore the possibility of Cal/BD aerosol foam treatment ability to provide long-term psoriasis’ management are required.A psoríase é uma doença inflamatória crónica da pele, imunomediada, potencialmente desfigurante e incapacitante, que afeta mundialmente mais de 100 milhões de indivíduos. A combinação fixa de calcipotriol e betametasona (0,005% Cal/ 0,064% BD) é o tratamento tópico recomendado. No entanto, os tratamentos tópicos estão associados a falta de eficácia e baixa adesão, nomeadamente devido às fracas propriedades cosméticas das formulações disponíveis. Para melhorar a aceitação e a adesão dos doentes, foi desenvolvida uma espuma cutânea de Cal/ BD para tratamento de adultos com psoríase. Os ensaios clínicos de fase II e III mostraram que a formulação fixa dos dois compostos é consistentemente mais eficaz e mais segura do que os ingredientes individuais, considerando o mesmo veículo. A espuma cutânea demonstrou maior eficácia em estudos clínicos, sendo que uma análise conjunta dos principais estudos mostrou que isso não ocorre à custa do perfil de segurança. Além disso, a espuma cutânea Cal/ BD mostrou uma melhoria significativa da eficácia em comparação com pomadas, géis e loções. O perfil de eficácia e segurança melhorado desta nova formulação, maior tolerabilidade e resposta mais rápida, aliados a uma menor frequência de tratamento (1x por dia), oferece maior conveniência e melhor aceitação do que as respetivas monoterapias (2x por dia) podendo, eventualmente, melhorar a adesão ao tratamento, conduzindo a melhorias mais significativas na qualidade de vida dos doentes, representando uma opção terapêutica mais vantajosa para os doentes. São necessários mais estudos para explorar a possibilidade desta espuma cutânea permitir a gestão da doença a longo prazo

Using the Portuguese case to establish lines of differentiation

UID/CCI/04667/2016While a far from recent phenomenon, fake news has acquired a very special significance in the wake of the latest US elections. Against a broad background of different definitions and subtypes that require us to find a new, broader definition of the concept of fake news, the main debate about it concerns its scope and reach, which vary primarily in terms of intentionality and exactly how it disrupts the information process. With the discussion also focusing on the threats to (McChesney, 2014; Fisher, 2018) and opportunities for (Beckett, 2017) journalism itself, we seek to expand the debate on fake news to its impact on the dimension of trust in news. The starting point is Fletcher and Nielsen’s (2017) idea that, because they don’t make a clear distinction between real and fake news, Internet users feel a generalised sense of distrust in the media. Using data from the latest (2018) Reuters Digital News Report survey of a representative sample of the Portuguese Internet-using population, we describe the main reasons why the Portuguese (increasingly familiar with fake news and disinformation and their impacts) have been displaying higher levels of trust in news than counterparts in other countries, such as the United States –reasons that are linked to Portugal’s media system and historical context.publishersversionpublishe

How earnings announcement impact Faang stock prices?

Beginning in the late '30s, stock market event studies intend to provide more information about market movements and behavior, around the major events during the year, allowing market players to make better and more sustained investment decisions. This paper analyzes how the FAANG stocks behave when quarterly earnings announcement results are reported. To answer this question, we compare the performance of 7 different announcements for each firm, by the calculation of the abnormal returns, using 3 different normal models with 2 different extensions, and test the statistical robustness with 4 different statistical tests. Our results showed different price reactions around events, but consistent high abnormal returns on an individual event and period analysis on the day after the announcement. Results also revealed that on a multi-period analysis, the stocks are not consistently positive or negative, leading to symmetric high abnormal returns and a low percentage of abnormal performance. At the same time, on a multi-event analysis, results, by type of news, show significant under and overreactions on the stock market price movements. However, the efficient market hypothesis is not consistent when the news, resulting from the announcement, incorporate the stock price. From a safety perspective, this study emphasizes on the necessity to consider the impact of quarterly earnings announcement reports, on FAANG stock prices, and consequently on market players’ investment decisions.Com início no final dos anos 30, os estudos sobre eventos nos mercados de capitais surgem com o intuito de proporcionar mais informação sobre os movimentos e o comportamento do mercado, em torno dos maiores eventos anuais, permitindo aos players de mercado tomar decisões de investimento mais sustentadas. Esta tese analisa como é que as ações FAANG reagem, quando é anunciado o relatório dos resultados trimestrais das empresas. Para conduzir a análise, iremos comparar a performance de 7 anúncios, diferentes para cada empresa, através do cálculo dos abnormal returns, utilizando 3 modelos normais com 2 extensões diferentes, e testar a robustez estatística através de 4 testes. Os resultados demonstram diferentes reações dos preços em torno dos eventos. Mais precisamente, abnormal returns elevados e consistentes, no dia após o anúncio, numa análise individual. Os resultados também revelaram que, numa análise de vários períodos, as ações não apresentam consistência positiva ou negativa, levando a abnormal returns simétricos e uma percentagem reduzida de abnormal performance. Ao mesmo tempo, numa análise multi-eventos, os resultados, de acordo com o tipo de notícias, são significativamente baixos e demonstram reações exageradas nos movimentos de preço no mercado acionista. No entanto, a Hipótese de Mercado Eficiente não é consistente quando as notícias relacionadas com os anúncios trimestrais incorporam o preço da ação. De forma geral, o estudo enfatiza a necessidade de considerar o anúncio dos resultados trimestrais nos preços das ações FAANG e, consequentemente, nas decisões de investimento dos players de mercado

Impacto dos biossimilares no tratamento da psoríase

Copyright © Ordem dos Médicos, 2013Psoriasis is an immune-mediated inflammatory skin disease with a profound impact in patient’s quality of life. In Portugal, it is estimated that psoriasis affects approximately 250 000 persons. The understanding of psoriasis’ immunopathogenesis led to the development of biological therapies that selectively target disease’s mechanism of action. As in other fields of medicine, biological therapies revolutionized the treatment of psoriasis, with proven safety and efficacy. These agents are an alternative to conventional systemic therapies and an important tool at the disposal of dermatologist in the management of moderate to severe psoriasis. Currently, it is estimated that approximately 6 000 individuals are eligible for the use of biological therapies in Portugal. The available armamentarium includes: Adalimumab (Humira®, Abbvie), Etanercept (Enbrel®, Pfizer), Infliximab (Remicade®, Janssen Biotech) and Ustekinumab (Stelara®, Janssen Biotech).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

E se também o Melanócito participasse na Fisiopatologia da Psoríase? E esta, hein?!

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Data quality issues in environmental sensing with smartphones

This paper presents the results of a study about the performance and, consequently, challenges of using smartphones as data gatherers in mobile sensing campaigns to environmental monitoring. It is shown that there are currently a very large number of devices technologically enabled for tech-sensing with minimal interference of the users. On other hand, the newest devices seem to broke the sensor diversity trend, therefore making the approach of environmental sensing in the ubiquitous computing scope using smartphones sensors a more difficult task. This paper also reports on an experiment, emulating different common scenarios, to evaluate if the performance of environmental sensor-rich smartphones readings obtained in daily situations are reliable enough to enable useful collaborative sensing. The results obtained are promising for temperature measurements only when the smartphone is not being handled because the typical use of the device pollutes the measurements due to heat transfer and other hardware aspects. Also, we have found indicators of data quality issues on humidity sensors embedded in smartphones. The reported study can be useful as initial information about the behaviour of smartphones inner sensors for future crowdsensing application developers.This work has been supported by COMPETE: POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043 and FCT - Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2013.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio