Ubiquitin-specific proteases: Players in cancer cellular processes

Ubiquitination represents a post-translational modification (PTM) essential for the maintenance of cellular homeostasis. Ubiquitination is involved in the regulation of protein function, localization and turnover through the attachment of a ubiquitin molecule(s) to a target protein. Ubiquitination can be reversed through the action of deubiquitinating enzymes (DUBs). The DUB enzymes have the ability to remove the mono-or poly-ubiquitination signals and are involved in the maturation, recycling, editing and rearrangement of ubiquitin(s). Ubiquitin-specific proteases (USPs) are the biggest family of DUBs, responsible for numerous cellular functions through interactions with different cellular targets. Over the past few years, several studies have focused on the role of USPs in carcinogenesis, which has led to an increasing development of therapies based on USP inhibitors. In this review, we intend to describe different cellular functions, such as the cell cycle, DNA damage repair, chromatin remodeling and several signaling pathways, in which USPs are involved in the development or progression of cancer. In addition, we describe existing therapies that target the inhibition of USPs.This work was funded (in part) by the Programa Operacional Regional do Norte and co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund under the project “The Porto Comprehensive Cancer Center” with the reference NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-072678—Consórcio PORTO.CCC— Porto.Comprehensive Cancer Center. The authors acknowledge the support from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) that funded the contract to MC through the project PTDC/MED-ONC/31438/2017 (The Other Faces of Telomerase: Looking beyond Tumor Immortalization). The project is supported by NORTE 2020 under the PORTUGAL 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)/COMPETE 2020?Operacional Program for Competitiveness and Internationalization (POCI) and by Portuguese funds through FCT

The influence of overweight and obesity in the oral health of a sample of Portuguese adults

Background: Overweight and obesity may lead to different problems in various body systems and in the oral cavity. Dental caries and periodontal disease have been related with overweight. The aim of this study was to assess how overweight and obesity have impact on the lifestyle, oral habits and oral pathologies. Methods: We conducted an observational cross-sectional study where we applied a questionnaire to 140 individuals from Lisbon and Viseu, Portugal., which 70 had a normal Body Mass Index (BMI) (control group) and 70 had an excessive BMI. We also made an oral observation in each individual to record the permanent teeth decayed, missing and filled index (DMFT), the Community Periodontal Index and the oral hygiene status. Results: From the final sample, 30% of the subjects with overweight brushed their teeth once a day or less, while the majority (62.9%) of the control group brushed twice a day. In the oral examination, 70% had calculus, while in the control group only 22.5% presented calcified plaque. The DMFT was higher among the obesity group in comparison with the control group. Regarding periodontal disease, the participants with overweight need more dental intervention (81.4%) in contrast with the control group (14%). Conclusions: Most overweight and obese individuals present precarious oral hygiene habits, higher prevalence of dental caries, and worse periods of periodontal health. They are not aware of the repercussions of the association between their cariogenic diet, oral health and overweight.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Corrections to the Boltzmann mean free path in disordered systems with finite size scatterers

The mean free path is an essential characteristic length in disordered systems. In microscopic calculations, it is usually approximated by the classical value of the elastic mean free path. It corresponds to the Boltzmann mean free path when only isotropic scattering is considered, but it is different for anisotropic scattering. In this paper, we work out the corrections to the so called Boltzmann mean free path due to multiple scattering effects on finite size scatterers, in the s-wave approximation, ie. when the elastic mean free path is equivalent to the Boltzmann mean free path. The main result is the expression for the mean free path expanded in powers of the perturbative parameter given by the scatterer density.Comment: 12 page

Sparse error gait image: a new representation for gait recognition

The performance of a gait recognition system is very much related to the usage of efficient feature representation and recognition modules. The first extracts features from an input image sequence to represent a user's distinctive gait pattern. The recognition module then compares the features of a probe user with those registered in the gallery database. This paper presents a novel gait feature representation, called Sparse Error Gait Image (SEGI), derived from the application of Robust Principal Component Analysis (RPCA) to Gait Energy Images (GEI). GEIs obtained from the same user at different instants always present some differences. Applying RPCA results in low-rank and sparse error components, the former capturing the commonalities and encompassing the small differences between input GEIs, while the larger differences are captured by the sparse error component. The proposed SEGI representation exploits the latter for recognition purposes. This paper also proposes two simple approaches for the recognition module, to exploit the SEGI, based on the computation of a Euclidean norm or the Euclidean distance. Using these simple recognition methods and the proposed SEGI representation gait recognition, results equivalent to the state-of-the-art are obtained

Avaliação dos impactos ambientais do sistema de produção integrada de uva de mesa na região do Submédio São Francisco.

O objetivo deste estudo foi analisar os impactos ambientais do sistema de produção integrada de uva na região do Submédio São Francisco, que é o principal pólo de exportação desta fruta no país

Análise dos custos de produção e da rentabilidade do sistema típico de produção de banana orgânica, na região do Vale do Submédio São Francisco.

Edição dos Resumos do 7 Congresso Brasileiro de Agroecologia, Fortaleza, dez. 2011

A spatiotemporal deep learning approach for automatic pathological Gait classification

Human motion analysis provides useful information for the diagnosis and recovery assessment of people suffering from pathologies, such as those affecting the way of walking, i.e., gait. With recent developments in deep learning, state-of-the-art performance can now be achieved using a single 2D-RGB-camera-based gait analysis system, offering an objective assessment of gait-related pathologies. Such systems provide a valuable complement/alternative to the current standard practice of subjective assessment. Most 2D-RGB-camera-based gait analysis approaches rely on compact gait representations, such as the gait energy image, which summarize the characteristics of a walking sequence into one single image. However, such compact representations do not fully capture the temporal information and dependencies between successive gait movements. This limitation is addressed by proposing a spatiotemporal deep learning approach that uses a selection of key frames to represent a gait cycle. Convolutional and recurrent deep neural networks were combined, processing each gait cycle as a collection of silhouette key frames, allowing the system to learn temporal patterns among the spatial features extracted at individual time instants. Trained with gait sequences from the GAIT-IT dataset, the proposed system is able to improve gait pathology classification accuracy, outperforming state-of-the-art solutions and achieving improved generalization on cross-dataset tests.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Análise dos custos de produção e da rentabilidade do sistema de produção de manga orgânica, na região do Vale do Submédio São Francisco.

Edição dos Resumos do 7 Congresso Brasileiro de Agroecologia, Fortaleza, dez. 2011

Análise do custo de produção e rentabilidade do cultivo da uva fina de mesa sem sementes produzidas na região do Submédio São Francisco.

A região do Submédio São Francisco é atualmente um dos principais pólos de produção e o maior de exportação de uva do país, com uma área plantada de cerca de 10 mil hectares, concentrados principalmente nos municípios de Petrolina, Pernambuco e Juazeiro, Bahia. Trata-se de cultivos que demandam alta tecnologia e grande consumo de capital, situação que exige que o produtor, além de alcançar uma alta produtividade física, obtenha também adequada rentabilidade econômica. Este trabalho teve como objetivo analisar o custo de produção e a rentabilidade da uva fina de mesa sem sementes produzida na região do Submédio São Francisco. Os dados foram levantados nas empresas típicas de produção e exportação de uva da região em estudo. Para a determinação da viabilidade econômica da exploração em um ano de produção plena, utilizou-se o método de orçamentação parcial e para a determinação da viabilidade de todo o empreendimento, procedeu-se a análise do fluxo de caixa descontado através dos métodos do valor presente líquido, da taxa interna de retorno e do payback. A pesquisa apontou que nas análises de desempenho econômico e financeiro estudadas nesta investigação, a exploração da uva sem sementes despontou como um empreendimento de alta viabilidade econômica