“PhenoWorld”: a new multidimensional strategy for studying behaviour in rodents

Tese de Doutoramento em Ciências da Saúde

Artificial thymus: a tissue engineering strategy

The thymus is the central organ responsible for the generation of T lymphocytes (1). Various diseases cause the thymus to produce in- sufficient T cells, which can lead to immune-suppression (2). Since T cells are essential for the protection against pathogens, it is crucial to promote de novo differentiation of T cells on diseased individuals. The available clinical solutions are: 1) one protocol involving the transplant of thymic stroma from unrelated children only applicable for athymic children (3); 2) for patients with severe peripheral T cell depletion and reduced thymic activity, the administration of stimu- lating molecules stimulating the activity of the endogenous thymus (4). A scaffold (CellFoam) was suggested to support thymus regen- eration in vivo (5), although this research was discontinued. Herein, we propose an innovative strategy to generate a bioartificial thymus. We use a polycaprolactone nanofiber mesh (PCL-NFM) seeded and cultured with human thymic epithelial cells (hTECs). The cells were obtained from infant thymus collected during pediatric cardio-tho- racic surgeries. We report new data on the isolation and characterization of those cells and their interaction with PCL-NFM, by expanding hTECs into relevant numbers and by optimizing cell seeding methods.

A geographic opportunistic forwarding strategy for vehicular named data networking

Studies in Computational Intelligence, 616

Cationic Liposomes as antigenic delivery systems: development of an immunoprotective strategy against Candida albicans

Tese de Doutoramento Biologia Molecular e Ambiental - Especialidade em Biologia Celular e Saúde

Contribution of the evaluation strategy and the use of hearing protection for the uncertainty associated with occupational exposure to noise

Doctoral Thesis for PhD degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering

Promoting sustainability as a strategy to mitigate the effects of economic downturn on the construction industry

During the recent years followed by the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), most of business and industries around the globe have been hardly hit to the limit that it still struggling to survive, suffering from the crisis financial consequences. For instance, in the construction industry; many construction projects have been suspended or totally cancelled. Nevertheless, among this dilemma, a call has been raised to use the sustainable practices to mitigate the effects of the GFC on construction industry. For the first look, it seems that there is contradiction since the sustainable solutions are often associated with an increase in the initial cost, undoubtedly, the sustainable practices have many advantages in both economic and environment aspects, however, the question which needs to be addressed here is, to what extent using such sustainable practices can mitigate the negative effects of the economic downturn on construction industry. Therefore, it is a challenging argument for using such sustainable construction from its economic perspective, however, this paper is aiming to present the economical benefits of sustainable practices in construction industry, and trying to clear the doubt of the high initial costs of the sustainable construction through studying the life cycle benefit of green building.

The effect of high-fat diet on rat’s mood, feeding behavior and response to stress

An association between obesity and depression has been indicated in studies addressing common physical (metabolic) and psychological (anxiety, low self-esteem) outcomes. Of consideration in both obesity and depression are chronic mild stressors to which individuals are exposed to on a daily basis. However, the response to stress is remarkably variable depending on numerous factors, such as the physical health and the mental state at the time of exposure. Here a chronic mild stress (CMS) protocol was used to assess the effect of high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obesity on response to stress in a rat model. In addition to the development of metabolic complications, such as glucose intolerance, diet-induced obesity caused behavioral alterations. Specifically, animals fed on HFD displayed depressive- and anxious-like behaviors that were only present in the normal diet (ND) group upon exposure to CMS. Of notice, these mood impairments were not further aggravated when the HFD animals were exposed to CMS, which suggest a ceiling effect. Moreover, although there was a sudden drop of food consumption in the first 3 weeks of the CMS protocol in both ND and HFD groups, only the CMS-HFD displayed an overall noticeable decrease in total food intake during the 6 weeks of the CMS protocol. Altogether, the study suggests that HFD impacts on the response to CMS, which should be considered when addressing the consequences of obesity in behavior.