Browsing by Issue Date, starting with "2022-10"
Now showing 1 - 10 of 14
Results Per Page
Sort Options
- Divided-difference operators from the geometric point of viewPublication . Rebocho, M. N.It is presented a study of general divided-difference operators having the fundamental property of leaving a polynomial of degree n−1 when applied to a polynomial of degree n.
- Development of alkali-activated foamed materials combining both mining waste mud and expanded granulated corkPublication . Beghoura, Imed; Gomes, João Paulo de CastroIn Portugal, the significant amount of mine waste mud from tungsten mining operations has led to growing concerns about their ecological and environmental impacts such as the occupation of large areas of land, generation of powder and the contamination of surface and underground water. Furthermore, natural by-products in general, and natural cork particles in particular, have been used to manufacture new materials which not only provide good thermal insulation but also have a limited impact on the environment and a lower cost. Alkali-activated foamed materials have been introduced in the field of alkali-activated materials which have been produced from different raw and waste materials. It has been proposed as a new idea that involves the production of lightweight materials, thus combining the performance and the benefits of energy-saving (Carbon footprint) with the reduction of the cradle-to-gate emission obtained. Besides, in order to reduce the density of the alkali-activated materials holes or lightweight aggregates can be added for such purposes. Therefore, in this research, novel alkali-activated lightweight foamed materials (AALFM) from a combination of tungsten mine waste mud (TWM), waste glass (WG), and metakaolin (Mk) using alkali activators solution of Sodium Silicate (SS) and Sodium Hydroxide (SH) was developed and combined with natural expanded granulated cork (EGC) using aluminium powder (Al) as a foaming agent. The objective of this study is to develop a new alkali-activated foamed tungsten-based binder/mortar and to characterize the cork waste composite made from this binder/mortar and natural granulated aggregates (EG-Cork). Cork, which is the exterior bark of Quercus suber L., a natural, organic, and lightweight plant tissue with a high dimensional stability substance. Physical properties of tungsten-based alkali-activated binder/mortar such as bulk density, thermal conductivity and pore sizes distribution were provided. The formulations of the alkali-activated binders are based on a combination of tungsten waste mud (TWM), waste glass (WG), and metakaolin (Mk). The mechanical and thermal properties of alkali-activated foamed materials produced were then tested. The research work includes three main phases. The first part shows the feasibility to produce new improved lightweight foamed alkali-activated materials using Panasqueira tungsten waste mud (TWM) as major raw material incorporating expanded granulated cork (EGC). During this preliminary study, a series of mixes containing mining waste mud, milled waste glass, metakaolin and Ordinary Portland Cement, in different proportions, were prepared. The influence on porosity, density, and compressive strength of incorporating granulated expanded cork at different percentages was first studied with potential applications in artistic, architectural, and historical heritage restoration. The second part investigates the influence of different precursors’ particle sizes on the physical and mechanical properties, such as density, porosity, expansion volume, and pore size by image analysis. The design and development of tungsten-based alkali-activated foams (AAFs) were studied systematically. Moreover, the manufactured AAFs with enhanced compressive strength from non-calcined tungsten waste mud (raw material) by changing the precursor particle sizes showed results of the same level or even higher as other research results obtained with fly ash and MK. The third part of the research investigates the effect of the incorporation of expanded granulated cork (EGC) to produce alkali-activated lightweight foamed materials (AALFM) with thermal properties. The findings indicate that experimental research on different combinations of raw materials particularly tungsten mining waste mud (TMWM) contribute to the development of alkali-activated materials (AAMs) and alkali-activated foamed materials (AAFMs). These new improved materials can be used as building materials with enhanced properties such as compressive strength, density, thermal conductivity, and fire resistance. This doctoral research contributes to a sustainable development by promoting the complete recycling and use of mining wastes as construction materials.
- Estilos de Liderança, Transformação Digital e Performance de IES públicas: Uma análise comparativa entre Brasil, Espanha e PortugalPublication . Carvalho, Alba Katarine Marques de; Leitão, João Carlos Correia; Alves, Helena Maria BaptistaA Nova Gestão Pública desencadeou diversas reformas e mudanças no contexto do Ensino Superior Público. Uma delas é o foco acrescido na performance, o que redobra o interesse de estudar abordagens e práticas de gestão e liderança, que possam surtir impactos diversos na performance. A liderança académica tem passado por uma crise devido à necessidade de lidar com todas as questões em torno das Instituições de Ensino Superior (IES), sendo também considerada capaz de moldar a performance das IES. Outra fonte de mudança surgiu associada à transformação digital (TD) das IES, em face do avanço das tecnologias, da necessidade de se aprender em qualquer lugar e a qualquer momento e, mais recentemente, da pandemia do Covid-19, a qual forçou as IES a aderirem e a avançarem rumo à TD. Este tipo de transformação também é considerado na literatura como sendo um fator capaz de influenciar a performance das IES. Ressalta-se que a liderança desempenha um importante papel para a adoção das Tecnologias da Informação e Comunicação (TIC) nestas instituições. Neste âmbito de investigação, verificou-se que ainda são poucos os estudos sobre a liderança académica. O que gera a necessidade de se investigar os principais estilos de liderança adotados em IES públicas e como estes se relacionam com a TD e as diferentes dimensões de performance de IES. Outra lacuna observada foi a falta de estudos que versem a influência da TD sobre estas diferentes dimensões da performance. Desta forma, o objetivo geral desta tese é estudar as relações entre os estilos de liderança, a transformação digital e a performance de IES públicas, efetuando uma análise comparativa entre os contextos brasileiro e ibérico. Através de uma revisão sistemática da literatura, da administração de um inquérito por questionário a gestores de topo das IES, e da elaboração e aplicação de um índice compósito de transformação digital, visou-se responder aos seguintes objetivos específicos: identificar os principais estilos de liderança abordados na literatura, bem como os mais adotados nas IES estudadas; verificar como os estilos de liderança impactam a adoção das TIC em diferentes dimensões da performance; investigar o papel de cada estilo de liderança sobre diferentes dimensões da performance das IES; verificar a hipotética atuação moderadora da cultura organizacional e da autonomia, sobre a relação entre os estilos de liderança e a performance das IES; investigar o papel da transformação digital sobre diferentes dimensões de performance das IES; e testar a hipótese de que os estilos de liderança adotados moderam a relação entre a transformação digital e a performance das IES. Esta investigação respondeu aos objetivos elencados e trouxe importantes contributos para a literatura e para os gestores de IES públicas. No primeiro estudo verificou-se que o estilo de liderança mais abordado nos artigos analisados é o transformacional; a dimensão da performance mais estudada é a que representa as atividades de ensino e aprendizagem; e os aspetos da TD mais discutidos são os que concernem aos sistemas de aprendizagem online e tecnologias diversas. Adicionalmente, a liderança tranformacional e outros estilos como a liderança estruturada, a partilhada, a Leader-member exchange e a transformacional criativa foram associadas positivamente ao avanço da TD nas IES nas dimensões de performance referentes ao ensino/aprendizagem, transferência e internacionalização. No segundo estudo, identificou-se que, nas IES brasileiras, os estilos de liderança adaptativo integrativo, cibernético, voltado para o conhecimento, estratégico e transformacional influenciam de forma positiva e significativa a performance, não ocorrendo o mesmo para as IES ibéricas. Para além disso, a autonomia de pessoal revelou ter um efeito moderador positivo e significativo sobre a relação entre os estilos de liderança e a performance das IES brasileiras. Neste estudo também foi identificada uma influência positiva e significativa de determinados tipos de cultura e de autonomia sobre a performance das IES brasileiras e ibéricas. No terceiro e último estudo, constatatou-se que três dimensões da TD influenciam de forma positiva e significativa a performance na investigação, na transferência, na internacionalização e na sustentabilidade das IES brasileiras. Por seu turno, três dimensões da TD influenciam a performance na investigação e na transferência das IES ibéricas. Apesar de não ter sido confirmado o efeito moderador da liderança, este estudo contribui para a literatura de referência, ao revelar que a interação entre os estilos de liderança cibernético e partilhado, e a TD, influenciam de forma positiva e significativa a performance na investigação das IES brasileiras. Da presente tese decorrem diversas implicações teóricas e de política, para além de proporcionar vários avanços para a melhor compreensão das problemáticas referentes ao desenvolvimento da liderança, da performance e da TD, em contexto de IES. De entre as implicações teóricas desta investigação, destacam-se a importância da compreensão dos estilos de liderança e da transformação digital para um melhor entendimento da performance das IES públicas bem como das suas dimensões, tendo em vista as relações verificadas entre estes construtos; interferência da região, da qual as IES fazem parte, na existência ou não da relação entre a liderança e a performance, o que sugere a presença de outras variáveis moderadoras ou mediadoras nas diferentes regiões; a TD pode ainda surtir níveis de influência mais ou menos abrangentes sobre a performance das IES públicas, de acordo com o grau de desenvolvimento das diferentes dimensões da TD. Acresce ainda que, do conjunto de evidências agora obtidas, sugere-se a possibilidade de existirem outras variáveis moderadoras ou mediadores, por explorar, que influem nesta relação. Relativamente às implicações de política, a presente tese sinaliza aos decisores políticos e gestores responsáveis de IES, a necessidade de considerar não só aspectos de liderança, mas também de cultura e de autonomia institucionais ao planear políticas voltadas para a performance das IES. Também é sinalizado para os decisores a necessidade de considerar as deficiências relativas aos indicadores de TD no planeamento de políticas orientadas para a intensificação da TD e o reforço da performance das IES públicas. Para os gestores responsáveis de IES, este estudo traz como implicações a possibilidade de direcionar os estilos de liderança adotados por estes e de trabalhar a cultura organizacional, considerando também as restrições às diferentes dimensões de autonomia institucional das respetivas IES, de forma a possibilitar a melhoria da performance destas. Os gestores das IES brasileiras também podem direcionar os estilos de liderança cibernético e partilhado no processo de gestão das TIC, no sentido de ser melhorada a performance das atividades de investigação das instituições. Por seu turno, para os gestores das IES ibéricas, uma implicação adicional é a de focar na melhoria da dimensão de tratamento dos dados, tendo consideração que, apesar de carecer de um maior desenvolvimento, já impacta positivamente a performance destas instituições. No final de cada estudo, são ainda sugeridas linhas de investigação futuras.
- Severity classification in cases of Collagen VI-related myopathy with Convolutional Neural Networks and handcrafted texture featuresPublication . Rodrigues, Rafael; Quijano-Roy, Susana; Carlier, Robert-Yves; Pinheiro, Antonio M. G.Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is a non-invasive tool for the clinical assessment of low-prevalence neuromuscular disorders. Automated diagnosis methods might reduce the need for biopsies and provide valuable information on disease follow-up. In this paper, three methods are proposed to classify target muscles in Collagen VI-related myopathy cases, based on their degree of involvement, notably a Convolutional Neural Network, a Fully Connected Network to classify texture features, and a hybrid method combining the two feature sets. The proposed methods were evaluated on axial T1-weighted Turbo Spin-Echo MRI from 26 subjects, including Ullrich Congenital Muscular Dystrophy and Bethlem Myopathy patients at different evolution stages. The hybrid model achieved the best cross-validation results, with a global accuracy of 93.8%, and F-scores of 0.99, 0.82, and 0.95, for healthy, mild and moderate/severe cases, respectively.
- Recognition of G-quadruplexes in microRNA precursors by nucleolin and its implications in cancerPublication . Santos, Tiago André Afonso dos; Cruz, Carla Patrícia Alves Freire Madeira; Cabrita, Eurico José da SilvaCancer is among the most frequent pathologies, and it is responsible for high mortality rates, which tend to increase year by year. In order to restore the well-being of citizens, numerous efforts have been performed to develop new diagnostic and therapeutic approaches. However, ensuring the effectiveness of these new approaches is a challenging task. Indeed, it is necessary to study the mechanisms and molecular interactions during cancer development. Several molecular mechanisms related to cancer development have been studied in the past decades. Their study encouraged the identification of new nucleic acid structures, which can adopt alternative secondary conformations. Among these structures are G-quadruplexes (G4), three-dimensional structures formed in the genome or transcriptome of regions rich in guanines. G4 DNAs are located in key regions of the genome, including the ends of telomeres and oncogenic promoters, and have received considerable attention from the scientific community in the past two decades. On the other hand, the G4 RNAs found in non-coding regions have recently received this interest due to their importance in controlling multiple biological processes. In this way, the intermediates of microRNA biogenesis (miRNAs) that can adopt a G4 structure have been more intensely studied, focusing on microRNA precursors (pre-miRNAs). The development and/or study of small molecules (G4 ligands, molecular weight < 500 Da) with the ability to bind and stabilize/destabilize G4 structures could strongly contribute to the modulation of miRNA biogenesis. G4 ligands have shown high potential to be applied to the diagnosis and therapy of several pathologies such as neurodegenerative diseases, cancer, and viral infections. Acridine orange derivatives have been demonstrated to bind and stabilize different DNA and RNA G4 structures. Besides small molecules that bind to G4 structures, there are other approaches to control the biogenesis of miRNAs, which are also attractive. Indeed, the process is essentially modulated by proteins, which reveals its potential to be modulated by interfering with those molecules. In this way, the most widely used approach aims to influence Dicer activity, a protein with enzymatic activity that cleaves pre-miRNAs into miRNAs. However, other equally relevant approaches could be explored. Nucleolin is a protein highly expressed in cancer cells. The protein is involved in several cellular processes, including tumorigenesis, angiogenesis, and extracellular signaling pathways. Nucleolin is mainly located in the nucleolus but can also be found in the nucleoplasm, cytoplasm, and cell surface. Recently, it has been described that nucleolin is involved in miRNA biogenesis through its interaction with the microprocessor complex. However, since has been described as a protein with a high affinity for parallel G4 structures, and in cancer cells performs the transport of several molecules between the cytoplasm and the nucleus, its action at this stage of biogenesis is a robust hypothesis. In this way, this thesis aims to deal with the interaction of the G4s adopted by pre-miRNA let 7e, 92b, and 149, with ligands and nucleolin. Indeed, the expression levels of these pre-miRNAs and miRNAs have been found dysregulated in several types of cancer. In addition, the potential biological applications of the recognition of these sequences by ligands and nucleolin were addressed. The formation of G4s in the sequences of the pre-miRNA let 7e, 92b, and 149 were evaluated under different experimental conditions (concentration, ionic strength, and temperature). In addition, the stabilizing/destabilizing effect of the ligands on the G4s was evaluated and they are dependent on the experimental conditions. For example, the ligand C8, depicts a modest impact in stabilizing the G4 of pre-miRNA let 7e, but stabilized the G4s of pre-miRNAs 92b and 149. Once we established the potential of G4 ligands to stabilize the G4s present in miRNAs, we evaluated the G4/nucleolin molecular interactions in the presence and absence of ligands. In the case of the G4 in pre-miRNA let 7e, the formation of the ternary complex G4/ligand/nucleolin was observed, except in the presence of the ligands PhenDC3 and TMPyP4, which seem to destabilize the G4 structure. Thus, these two ligands have the potential to control the miRNA biogenesis by increasing miRNA let 7e expression levels. The formation of the ternary complex was not affected by the presence of C8. In the studies performed with the G4 structure of pre-miRNA 92b, the acridine derivatives showed high potential to stabilize the structure, namely C8. Also, this ligand does not significantly affect the recognition of nucleolin by G4. Therefore, the G4/C8 complex was tested in a microfluidic device to sense nucleolin in plasma samples from prostate cancer patients. Finally, even known for its enormous relevance in several cancer-associated processes and mechanisms, the G4 sequence of pre-miRNA 149 has been less studied than those previously described. Furthermore, the G4 sequence overlaps almost entirely with the miRNA 149-3p, which presents an opportunity to act at different stages of miRNA 149 biogenesis. Considering this evidence, we aim to study in-depth the G4 sequence of pre-miRNA 149 in terms of its interaction with ligands and nucleolin. Furthermore, due to its high potential, the G4 structure was tested as a potential strategy to recognize and detect nucleolin 0n the surface of cancer cells. First, the formation of the G4 structure was confirmed by several biophysical techniques and revealed a G4 structure of high structural complexity. Then, the binding mode and interaction of different G4 ligands with the G4 structure were analyzed, and the results showed a high potential of the ligand C8 to stabilize the G4 structure. We also analyzed the complete sequence of pre-miRNA 149 and demonstrated its ability to detect nucleolin using a microfluidic system manufactured by INESC-MN. Finally, the interaction of G4 and the G4/C8 complex with nucleolin was also investigated and revealed a binding pocket in the 3D structure of nucleolin domains 1 and 2. Overall, these results revealed the biological potential of the G4 sequences in pre-miRNA let 7e, 92b, and 149. The structural regulation of G4 sequences present in pre-miRNAs can enable the development of applications for cancer diagnosis and therapy. Therefore, we anticipated that structural studies of the G4/nucleolin interaction would be available in the future, leading to the emergence of new ligands with inhibitory or enhancing effects on the interaction.
- Innovative therapeutic strategies for the treatment of vaginal infectionsPublication . Tomás, Mariana Isabel Cabral; Oliveira, José António Martinez Souto de; Oliveira, Rita Manuela Palmeira deBacterial vaginosis (BV) and vulvovaginal candidosis (VVC) are the most prevalent vaginal infections, both affecting many women, with negative impact on their self-esteem and being associated with huge discomfort and changes in daily routines, especially the sexual life. VVC is predominantly caused by Candida albicans, which is considered an opportunistic pathogen, but other Candida species such as C. glabrata, C. krusei, C. tropicalis and C. parapsilosis can also be etiological agents. The most common symptoms associated with VVC are vaginal irritation, vulvar burning, pruritus, swelling and discharge with vaginal fluid usually described as “cottage cheese-like”. For the treatment VVC, standard treatment is presently based on azoles (single dose of fluconazole 150mg or Itraconazole 200 mg twice daily for one day or short-course topical formulations, such as clotrimazole cream or clotrimazole vaginal tablet 500 mg). Nevertheless, 5–8% of women of reproductive age are affected by recurrent episodes of vulvovaginal candidosis (cVVC), defined by three or more episodes occurring in a 12 months period, as a result of resistance to azoles, particularly in Non albicans Candida species cases, or re-infection. Although some women are asymptomatic, most women with of BV, experiences an unpleasant thin vaginal malodorous discharge. This clinical condition is considered to be a dysbiosis, that is the replacement of saprophytic vaginal flora, dominated by Lactobacillus spp. by dense, structured and polymicrobial biofilm primarily constituted by Gardnerella vaginalis. For the treatment of BV, international guidelines recommend the administration of metronidazole, clindamycin or tinidazole orally or intravaginally as the standard treatment. However, the treatment with these antibiotics is associated with high levels of failure and recurrence rates. These may be associated with antibiotic resistance, the inability to eradicate the polymicrobial biofilms, and failure to re-establish acidic pH and the Lactobacillus-dominated commensal flora. The aim of this work was to develop and characterize new therapeutic approaches for the treatment of vaginal infections. Specifically, we aimed to design two effective and safe products with potential to be transferred to the pharmaceutical industry: a bioadhesive sodium bicarbonate gel for the treatment of VVC and a vaginal sheet with Thymbra capitata essential oil (EO) for the treatment of BV. Bacterial vaginosis (BV) and vulvovaginal candidosis (VVC) are the most prevalent vaginal infections, both affecting many women, with negative impact on their self-esteem and being associated with huge discomfort and changes in daily routines, especially the sexual life. VVC is predominantly caused by Candida albicans, which is considered an opportunistic pathogen, but other Candida species such as C. glabrata, C. krusei, C. tropicalis and C. parapsilosis can also be etiological agents. The most common symptoms associated with VVC are vaginal irritation, vulvar burning, pruritus, swelling and discharge with vaginal fluid usually described as “cottage cheese-like”. For the treatment VVC, standard treatment is presently based on azoles (single dose of fluconazole 150mg or Itraconazole 200 mg twice daily for one day or short-course topical formulations, such as clotrimazole cream or clotrimazole vaginal tablet 500 mg). Nevertheless, 5–8% of women of reproductive age are affected by recurrent episodes of vulvovaginal candidosis (cVVC), defined by three or more episodes occurring in a 12 months period, as a result of resistance to azoles, particularly in Non albicans Candida species cases, or re-infection. Although some women are asymptomatic, most women with of BV, experiences an unpleasant thin vaginal malodorous discharge. This clinical condition is considered to be a dysbiosis, that is the replacement of saprophytic vaginal flora, dominated by Lactobacillus spp. by dense, structured and polymicrobial biofilm primarily constituted by Gardnerella vaginalis. For the treatment of BV, international guidelines recommend the administration of metronidazole, clindamycin or tinidazole orally or intravaginally as the standard treatment. However, the treatment with these antibiotics is associated with high levels of failure and recurrence rates. These may be associated with antibiotic resistance, the inability to eradicate the polymicrobial biofilms, and failure to re-establish acidic pH and the Lactobacillus-dominated commensal flora. The aim of this work was to develop and characterize new therapeutic approaches for the treatment of vaginal infections. Specifically, we aimed to design two effective and safe products with potential to be transferred to the pharmaceutical industry: a bioadhesive sodium bicarbonate gel for the treatment of VVC and a vaginal sheet with Thymbra capitata essential oil (EO) for the treatment of BV. it is designed to be used for short periods. Vaginal sheet D.O diluted at 10% w/v was biocompatible in model tissue. Concluding: two products with potential to be transferred from academy to industrial pharmacy were designed for the treatment of two common vaginal infections. A sodium bicarbonate gel and a vaginal sheet with T. capitata EO were developed to respond to the clinical requirements but also to women’s preferences, overcoming disadvantages associated with conventional dosage forms. Although the present results are promising in terms of predictable acceptability, in vivo technological performance, efficacy and safety, more complete studies are needed in a pre-clinical phase and finally clinical assays will for confirm their usefulness.
- Cyber vulnerabilities in the aviation ecosystem: reducing the attack surface through an international aviation trust frameworkPublication . Silva, Saulo José da; Silva, Jorge Miguel dos ReisNow, at the beginning of the 21st century, the aviation system is well developed, however, the community is at similar juncture as the beginning of the 2oth century, only this time the civil aviation system itself is being rapidly transformed by a wave of digital technologies that hold great promise but could also expose the aviation system to new threats. Certain aspects of the digital transformation of the aviation system, based on network connectivity, must be guided to ensure that it generates ever higher-levels of global interoperability and safety. To address this challenge, it is necessary to go back to fundamental principles. It is necessary to establish a system of identity and trust that integrates the wisdom of the Chicago Convention into the digital world that is already overtaking the aviation industry. Service providers, aircraft manufactures, and avionic producers, are all putting in place their own systems of identity and trust as a matter of necessity. That means, in the near future, an aircraft may need different digital certificates to connect with its satellite communications service provider, retrieve data from the airline operations centre, update its avionics software, download engines monitoring data and other functions. The potential number of proprietary secure links is nearly endless. This patchwork of disparate efforts to reduce the attack surface to air and ground operations will add complexity to the system that will be costly to maintain and will offer a myriad of gaps for adversaries to exploit. In the absence of global direction, different manufactures and different States will take different approaches. However, if a globally acceptable system for identity and trust that can be used by manned and unmanned aircraft indistinctively as well as by different service providers and users is available it would likely be embraced by many or all. As such, based on the new vulnerabilities brought by the evolution of the air navigation system through the intense use of digital and connected technologies, the object of this research relates to the vulnerabilities of the aviation system to a cyber-attack and the objective of this thesis is to propose a concept of operations that allows the implementation of a framework able to provide positive digital identification of all members of the aviation community through specific processes and procedures and a virtual network able to preserve the confidentiality, integrity and availability of the data and information being exchanged at the same time it increases the resilience of operations.
- O passado e o presente de uma cinematografia resistente: Tríptico Sobre o Fatalismo do Cinema PortuguêsPublication . Campos, Luís Manuel Raposo; Nogueira, Luís Carlos da CostaPortugal apresenta uma das mais baixas quotas de espectadores da União Europeia para filmes nacionais estreados em sala comercial. Com uma média aproximada de 3% obtida entre o período de 2004-2019, esta situação está longe de ter encontrado soluções ou medidas políticas que a procurem aproximar da média Europeia, de 15,5% no ano de 2018, em contraponto com os 1,9% obtidos em Portugal nesse mesmo ano. A sistematicamente baixa quota nacional em Portugal traduz e perpetua um problema de crónica insustentabilidade do setor cinematográfico, sendo um claro indicador do distanciamento do público Português com o seu cinema. Daqui resultou a questão fundamental desta tese: como se chegou a este ponto e o que é possível fazer para inverter essa tendência? Este estudo, assumindo uma forma híbrida, com três distintas partes e abordagens, tem como ponto focal a análise dos dados referentes aos apoios atribuídos pelo Instituto do Cinema e Audiovisual no âmbito da criação e produção cinematográfica entre 2004 e 2019, aos filmes estreados e aos espectadores obtidos durante esse período, enquadrada por uma contextualização histórica do Cinema Português na sua relação com o Estado e demais agentes e por um filme-esboço elaborado a partir de testemunhos e depoimentos existentes nos arquivos RTP, problematizando uma ideia latente de fatalismo que parece acompanhar a cinematografia nacional desde o seu nascimento, em paralelo com uma atitude de resistência, em certo sentido quase heróica, dos seus protagonistas.
- Cell‐Derived Vesicles for Nanoparticles' Coating: Biomimetic Approaches for Enhanced Blood Circulation and Cancer TherapyPublication . Rodrigues, Ana Carolina Félix; Fernandes, Natanael; Diogo, Duarte de Melo; Correia, I.J.; Moreira, André F.Cancer nanomedicines are designed to encapsulate different therapeuticagents, prevent their premature release, and deliver them specifically tocancer cells, due to their ability to preferentially accumulate in tumor tissue.However, after intravenous administration, nanoparticles immediatelyinteract with biological components that facilitate their recognition by theimmune system, being rapidly removed from circulation. Reports show thatless than 1% of the administered nanoparticles effectively reach the tumorsite. This suboptimal pharmacokinetic profile is pointed out as one of themain factors for the nanoparticles’ suboptimal therapeutic effectiveness andpoor translation to the clinic. Therefore, an extended blood circulation timemay be crucial to increase the nanoparticles’ chances of being accumulated inthe tumor and promote a site-specific delivery of therapeutic agents. For thatpurpose, the understanding of the forces that govern the nanoparticles’interaction with biological components and the impact of the physicochemicalproperties on the in vivo fate will allow the development of novel and moreeffective nanomedicines. Therefore, in this review, the nano–bio interactionsare summarized. Moreover, the application of cell-derived vesicles forextending the blood circulation time and tumor accumulation is reviewed,focusing on the advantages and shortcomings of each cell source.
- Severity classification in cases of Collagen VI-related myopathy with Convolutional Neural Networks and handcrafted texture featuresPublication . Rodrigues, Rafael; Quijano-Roy, Susana; Carlier, Robert-Yves; Pinheiro, Antonio M. G.Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is a non-invasive tool for the clinical assessment of low-prevalence neuromuscular disorders. Automated diagnosis methods might reduce the need for biopsies and provide valuable information on disease follow-up. In this paper, three methods are proposed to classify target muscles in Collagen VI-related myopathy cases, based on their degree of involvement, notably a Convolutional Neural Network, a Fully Connected Network to classify texture features, and a hybrid method combining the two feature sets. The proposed methods were evaluated on axial T1-weighted Turbo Spin-Echo MRI from 26 subjects, including Ullrich Congenital Muscular Dystrophy and Bethlem Myopathy patients at different evolution stages. The hybrid model achieved the best cross-validation results, with a global accuracy of 93.8%, and F-scores of 0.99, 0.82, and 0.95, for healthy, mild and moderate/severe cases, respectively.