Expression of methylthioadenosine phosphorylase (MTAP) in pilocytic astrocytomas

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES Pilocytic astrocytomas (PAs) are the most frequent astrocytomas in children and adolescents. Methilthioadenosine phosphorylase(MTAP) is a tumor-suppressor gene, the loss of expression of which is associated with a poor prognosis and better response to specific chemotherapy in leukemia and non-small-cell lung cancer. The expression of MTAP in brain tumors remains largely unknown and its biological role in PA is still unexplored. Our aims were to describe the immunohistochemical MTAP expression in a series of PAs and relate it to the clinicopathological features of the patients. METHODS We assessed MTAP expression on immunohistochemistry in 69 pediatric and adult patients with PA in a tissue microarray platform. RESULTS Retained expression of MTAP was seen in >85% of the tumors compared to in the nonneoplastic adjacent tissue. Only 3 supratentorial tumors showed a complete loss of MTAP expression. No significant association with clinicopathological features or overall survival of the patients was found. CONCLUSIONS MTAP expression is retained in PAs and is not an outcome predictor for these tumors. Nevertheless, a subset of patients with PAs exhibiting a loss of MTAP could potentially benefit from treatment with specific chemotherapy, especially when lesions are recurrent or surgical resection is not recommended.

Automatic generation of ETL physical systems from BPMN conceptual models

ETL conceptual modeling is a very important activity in any data warehousing system project implementation. Owning a high-level system representation allowing for a clear identification of the main parts of a data warehousing system is clearly a great advantage, especially in early stages of design and development. However, the effort to model conceptually an ETL system rarely is properly rewarded. Translating ETL conceptual models directly into something that saves work and time on the concrete implementation of the system process it would be, in fact, a great help. In this paper we present and discuss a hybrid approach to this problem, combining the simplicity of interpretation and power of expression of BPMN on ETL systems conceptualization with the use of ETL patterns to produce automatically an ETL skeleton, a first prototype system, which has the ability to be executed in a commercial ETL tool like Kettle.

A Gß protein and the TupA Co-Regulator bind to protein kinase A Tpk2 to act as antagonistic molecular switches of fungal morphological changes

A Gß protein and the TupA Co-Regulator Bind to Protein Kinase A Tpk2 to Act as Antagonistic Molecular Switches of Fungal Morphological Changes

Study of the retinoic acid regulated genes in the rodent hypothalamus controlling growth and appetite and the potential for the epigenetic control

Dissertação de mestrado em Bioquímica (área de especialização em Biomedicina)

Pseudomonas aeruginosa diversification during infection development in cystic fibrosis lungs

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Engenharia Biomédica (área de especialização em Engenharia Clínica)

Adipogenic cell sheets to recreate in vitro adipose tissue microenvironments

Cell sheet (CS) engineering, taking advantage of cellular self-matrix organized as in native tissue, has been largely explored, including by us, for different purposes [1â 3]. Herein we propose for the ï¬ rst time, the use of human adipose stem cells (hASCs)-derived CS to create adipose tissue analogues with different levels of maturation. hASCs were cultured on UpCellTM thermo-responsive dishes for 1, 3 and 5 days under basal conditions previously established by us [3]. The inï¬ uence of pre-differentiation time and respective cell number, over CS stability and differentiation was assessed. Mechanically robust CS were only obtained with 5 days pre-differentiation period. Adipogenesis was followed along the culture assessing the variation of expression of mesenchymal (CD73, CD105 but not CD90) and adipogenic (PPARg, FABP4 and LPL) markers by ï¬ ow cytometry, immunocytochemistry and RT-PCR. Increased ratio of differentiated cells was achieved for longer pre-differentiation periods, while maturation degree was modulated by the maintenance medium. Independently of the overall CS differentiation/maturation level, 3D constructs were fabricated by stacking and further culturing 3 CS. Thus, by varying the culture conditions, different 3D adipose tissue-like microenvironments were recreated, enabling future development of new tissue engineering strategies, as well as further study of adipose tissue role in the regeneration of different tissues.

A radiodifusão no Brasil e em Portugal e a invasão dos brasucas: uma nova linguagem

Tese de Doutoramento em Ciências da Comunicação (área de especialização em Sociologia da Comunicação e da Informação).

Da experiência narrativa em diferentes media

No decorrer das últimas décadas, com o avanço das tecnologias de comunicação audiovisual, temos assistido a uma discussão sobre a utilidade de outros meios de expressão que não os audiovisuais, e nos últimos anos com a pressão económica da cultura dos videojogos, assiste-se mesmo à ideia de que tudo pode e deve ser comunicado audiovisualmente e interactivamente. Nesse sentido, este texto pretende lançar algumas ideias sobre o uso de diferentes media na comunicação narrativa, nomeadamente levando em conta o tipo de conteúdo que se pretende transmitir.

O impacto das redes socias na cessação do contrato de trabalho: liberdade de expressão versus justa causa de despedimento

Dissertação de mestrado em Direito e Informática

The internet in young people's everyday life: listening to portuguese teens' voices

[Excerto] Children and young people today go about their lives in an increasingly mediatized fashion. Their daily lives are inhabited by a variety of media, ranging from the so-called new media to the more traditional ones, which have an impact on how they perceive, get to kno,v and represent the world, how they interact with others, how they build their identity, and how they study, have fun and organize their daily lives. The media ecosystem, namely the digit.:tl environments, opened up opportunities to communicate, participate, create and produce information. Apparently, children and young people now have more means and opportunities at their disposal to express and share their ideas, interests and opinions, but are they actually taking advantage of such potential? \'(that uses are they making of these means? Does the Internet, in fact, enable the younger generations to create a new communication culture of expression and participation (...)?