Real-time monitoring of progression towards renal failure in primary care patients

First published online: December 16, 2014.

Pervasive business intelligence platform to improve the quality of decision process in primary and secondary education – A Portuguese case study

Business Intelligence (BI) can be seen as a method that gathers information and data from information systems in order to help companies to be more accurate in their decision-making process. Traditionally BI systems were associated with the use of Data Warehouses (DW). The prime purpose of DW is to serve as a repository that stores all the relevant information required for making the correct decision. The necessity to integrate streaming data became crucial with the need to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the decision process. In primary and secondary education, there is a lack of BI solutions. Due to the schools reality the main purpose of this study is to provide a Pervasive BI solution able to monitoring the schools and student data anywhere and anytime in real-time as well as disseminating the information through ubiquitous devices. The first task consisted in gathering data regarding the different choices made by the student since his enrolment in a certain school year until the end of it. Thereafter a dimensional model was developed in order to be possible building a BI platform. This paper presents the dimensional model, a set of pre-defined indicators, the Pervasive Business Intelligence characteristics and the prototype designed. The main contribution of this study was to offer to the schools a tool that could help them to make accurate decisions in real-time. Data dissemination was achieved through a localized application that can be accessed anywhere and anytime.

Indoor biological agents: evaluation of primary schools environments

Dissertação de mestrado em Human Engineering

The impact of urban noise on primary schools: perceptive evaluation and objective assessment

This paper aims to assess the impact of environmental noise in the vicinity of primary schools and to analyze its influence in the workplace and in student performance through perceptions and objective evaluation. The subjective evaluation consisted of the application of questionnaires to students and teachers, and the objective assessment consisted of measuring in situ noise levels. The survey covered nine classes located in three primary schools. Statistical Package for Social Sciences was used for data processing and to draw conclusions. Additionally, the relationship of the difference between environmental and background noise levels of each classroom and students with difficulties in hearing the teacherâ s voice was examined. Noise levels in front of the school, the schoolyard, and the most noise-exposed classrooms (occupied and unoccupied) were measured. Indoor noise levels were much higher than World Health Organization (WHO) recommended values: LAeq,30min averaged 70.5 dB(A) in occupied classrooms, and 38.6 dB(A) in unoccupied ones. Measurements of indoor and outdoor noise suggest that noise from the outside (road, schoolyard) affects the background noise level in classrooms but in varying degrees. It was concluded that the façades most exposed to road traffic noise are subjected to values higher than 55.0 dB(A), and noise levels inside the classrooms are mainly due to the schoolyard, students, and the road traffic. The difference between background (LA95,30min) and the equivalent noise levels (LAeq,30min) in occupied classrooms was 19.2 dB(A), which shows that studentsâ activities are a significant source of classroom noise.

Biodegradable drug-eluting stents: Targeting urothelial tumors of upper urinary tract

INTRODUCTION & OBJECTIVES: Urothelial tumors of upper urinary tract are ranked among the most common types of cancers worldwide. The current standard therapy to prevent recurrence is intravesical Bacillus Calmetteâ Guerin (BCG) immunotherapy, but it presents several disadvantages such as BCG failure and intolerance. Another way is to use chemotherapy, which is generally better tolerated that BCG. In this case, drugs such as epirubicin, doxorubicin, paclitaxel and gemcitabine are used. Nevertheless, intravesical chemotherapy only prevents recurrence in the short-term. These failings can be partially attributed to the short residence time and low bioavailability of the drug within the upper urinary tract and the cancer cells, resulting in a need for frequent drug instillation. To avoid these problems, biodegradable ureteral stents impregnated by supercritical fluid CO2 (SCF) with each of the four anti-cancer drugs were produced. MATERIAL & METHODS: Four formulations with different concentrations of gelatin and alginate and crosslink agent were tested and bismuth was added to confer radiopaque properties to the stent. The preliminary in vivo validation studies in female domestic pigs was conducted at the University of Minho, Braga, after formal approval by the institutionâ s review board and in accordance with its internal ethical protocol for animal experiments. Paclitaxel, epirubicin, doxorubicin and gemcitabine were impregnated in the stents and the release kinetics was measured in artificial urine solution (AUS) for 9 days by UV spectroscopy in a microplate reader. The anti-tumoral effect of the developed stents in transitional cell carcinoma (TCC) and HUVEC primary cells, used as control, was evaluated. RESULTS: The in vivo validation of this second-generation of ureteral stents performed was herein demonstrated. Biodegradable ureteral stents were placed in the ureters of a female pigs, following the normal surgical procedure. The animals remained asymptomatic, with normal urine flow. The in vitro release study in AUS of the stent impregnated showed a higher release in the first 72h for the four anti-cancer drugs impregnated after this time the plateau was achieved and the stent degraded after 9 days. The direct and indirect contact of the anti-cancer biodegradable stents with the TCC and HUVEC cell lines confirm the anti-tumor effect of the stents impregnated with the four anti-cancer drugs, reducing around 75% of the viability of the TCC cell line after 72h and no killing effect in the HUVEC cells. CONCLUSIONS: The use of biodegradable ureteral stent in urology clinical practice not only reduce the stent-related symptoms but also open new treatment therapyâ s, like in urothelial tumors of upper urinary tract. Furthermore, we have demonstrated the clinical validation in vivo pig model. This study has thus shown the killing efficacy of the anti-cancer drug eluting biodegradable stents in vitro for the TCC cell line, with no toxicity observed in the control, non-cancerous cells.The direct and indirect contact of the anti-cancer biodegradable stents with the TCC and HUVEC cell lines confirm the anti-tumor effect of the stents impregnated with the four anti-cancer drugs, reducing around 75% of the viability of the TCC cell line after 72h and no killing effect in the HUVEC cells. This study has thus shown the killing efficacy of the anti-cancer drug eluting biodegradable stents in vitro for the TCC cell line, with no toxicity observed in the control, non-cancerous cells.

The role of macroH2A1 in prostate carcinogenesis

Dissertação de mestrado em Genética Molecular