Time and Cell Type Dependency of Survival Responses in Co-cultured Tumor and Fibroblast Cells after Exposure to Modulated Radiation Fields

Advanced radiotherapy techniques such as intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) achieve high levels of conformity to the target volume through the sequential delivery of highly spatially and temporally modulated radiation fields, which have been shown to impact radiobiological response. This study aimed to characterize the time and cell type dependency of survival responses to modulated fields using single cell type (SCT) and mixed cell type (MCT) co-culture models of transformed fibroblast (AG0-1522b) cells, and prostate (DU-145) and lung (H460) cancer cells. In SCT cultures, in-field responses showed no significant time dependency while out-of-field responses occurred early, and plateaued 6 h after irradiation in both DU-145 and H460 cells. Under modulated beam configurations MCT co-cultures showed cell-specific, differential out-of-field responses depending on the irradiated in-field and responding out-of-field cell type. The observed differential out-of-field responses may be due to the genetic background of the cells, in particular p53 status, which has been shown to mediate radiation-induced bystander effects (RIBEs). These data provide further insight into the radiobiological parameters that influence out-of-field responses, which have potential implications for advanced radiotherapy modalities and may provide opportunities for biophysical optimization in radiotherapy treatment planning.

Motor deficits in children with autism spectrum disorder: A cross-syndrome study

Recent research suggests that children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience some level of motor difficulty, and that this may be associated with social communication skills. However, other studies show that children with language impairments, but without the social communication problems, are at risk of motor difficulties as well. The aim of the present study was to determine if children with ASD have syndrome specific motor deficits in comparison to children with specific language impairment (SLI). We used an independent groups design with three groups of children (8-10 years old) matched on age and nonverbal IQ; an ASD group, an SLI group, and a typically developing (TD) group. All of the children completed an individually administered, standardized motor assessment battery. We found that the TD group demonstrated significantly better motor skills than either the ASD or SLI groups. Detailed analyses of the motor subtests revealed that the ASD and SLI groups had very similar motor profiles across a range of fine and gross motor skills, with one exception. We conclude that children with ASD, and SLI, are at risk of clinically significant motor deficits. However, future behavioural and neurological studies of motor skills in children with ASD should include an SLI comparison group in order to identify possible autism specific deficits.

Delivering a Research-Enabled Multistakeholder Partnership for Enhanced Patient Care at a Population Level: The Northern Ireland Comprehensive Cancer Program

The last 20 years have seen significant advances in cancer care in Northern Ireland, leading to measureable improvements in patient outcomes. Crucial to this transformation has been an ethos that recognizes the primacy role of research in effecting heath care change. The authors' model of a cross-sectoral partnership that unites patients, scientists, health care professionals, hospital trusts, bioindustry, and government agencies can be truly transformative, empowering tripartite clinical-academic-industry efforts that have already yielded significant benefit and will continue to inform strategy and its implementation going forward.

A Burkholderia Type VI Effector Deamidates Rho GTPases to Activate the Pyrin Inflammasome

Burkholderia cenocepacia is an opportunistic pathogen of the cystic fibrosis lung that elicits a strong inflammatory response. B. cenocepacia employs a type VI secretion system (T6SS) to survive in macrophages by disarming Rho-type GTPases, causing actin cytoskeletal defects. Here, we identified TecA, a non-VgrG T6SS effector responsible for actin disruption. TecA and other bacterial homologs bear a cysteine protease-like catalytic triad, which inactivates Rho GTPases by deamidating a conserved asparagine in the GTPase switch-I region. RhoA deamidation induces caspase-1 inflammasome activation, which is mediated by the familial Mediterranean fever disease protein Pyrin. In mouse infection, the deamidase activity of TecA is necessary and sufficient for B. cenocepacia-triggered lung inflammation and also protects mice from lethal B. cenocepacia infection. Therefore, Burkholderia TecA is a T6SS effector that modifies a eukaryotic target through an asparagine deamidase activity, which in turn elicits host cell death and inflammation through activation of the Pyrin inflammasome.

O azeite na alimentação humana

O azeite virgem é o sumo resultante da azeitona (fruto da Oliveira, Olea Europea L.) que conserva o sabor, aroma e todas as propriedades do fruto do qual tem origem, pelo que, possui características organolépticas particulares, colocando-o num lugar cimeiro entre as gorduras (Cenzano et al., 1988; March, 1994). É, além disso, a única gordura vegetal que pode ser consumida directamente, virgem e crua (Gonçalves Ferreira, 1994; March, 1994). O seu valor calórico é de 9 Kcal/g, a mesma proporção de qualquer outra gordura, animal ou vegetal (Gonçalves Ferreira, 1994; Peres, 1994).

Visual cortex frontend: integrating lines, edges, keypoints and disparaty

We present a 3D representation that is based on the pro- cessing in the visual cortex by simple, complex and end-stopped cells. We improved multiscale methods for line/edge and keypoint detection, including a method for obtaining vertex structure (i.e. T, L, K etc). We also describe a new disparity model. The latter allows to attribute depth to detected lines, edges and keypoints, i.e., the integration results in a 3D \wire-frame" representation suitable for object recognition.

Aplicação de métodos de customer relationship management ao tratamento de dados para o desenvolvimento de negócios

Tese de Doutoramento, Gestão, na especialidade de Marketing, Faculdade de Economia, Universidade do Algarve, 2007

Avaliação das propriedades anti-radicalares de frutos e legumes

Dissertação de mest., Engenharia Biológica, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade do Algarve, 2009

Produção de um agente de controlo biológico de doenças pós-colheita, em reactor biológico, a partir de resíduos de alfarroba. Estudos de transferência de massa.

Dissertação mest., Engenharia Biológica, Universidade do Algarve, 2009

Habiletés langagières en relation avec la compréhension en lecture chez des adolescents en difficulté d'apprentissage et scolarisés dans un Centre de formation en entreprise et récupération

Dans la société occidentale, la maîtrise ou non de la lecture a une influence majeure sur le fonctionnement d'un individu dans la société en influençant sa réussite scolaire et son insertion socioprofessionnelle. Dans ce mémoire, nous nous interrogeons à savoir quelles sont les habiletés langagières entrant en relation avec la compréhension en lecture. Une évaluation individuelle des processus d'identification des mots, de la compréhension orale et écrite de même qu'une évaluation du niveau de vocabulaire maîtrisé à l'oral ont été effectuées auprès d'adolescents âgés de 15 à 16 ans. Les analyses montrent que leurs difficultés de compréhension en lecture ne sont pas associées à des difficultés d'identification de mots, mais bien à une faiblesse au niveau du vocabulaire oral. Ces résultats vont dans le même sens que les recherches sur le sujet qui démontrent que le vocabulaire joue un rôle important dans la compréhension de texte chez les adolescents.

Estudo da deterioração da gamba Parapenaeus longirostris (Lucas, 1846)

Dissertação de mest., Tecnologia de Alimentos, Instituto Superior de Engenharia, Univ. do Algarve, 2010

Desenvolvimento de filmes com microencapsulação de agentes naturais: aplicação na preservação de salmão

Dissertação de mestrado, Tecnologia dos Alimentos, Instituto Superior de Engenharia, Universidade do Algarve, 2015

Monocyte differentiation toward regulatory dendritic cells is not affected by respiratory syncytial virus-induced inflammatory mediators.

Airway epithelial cells were shown to drive the differentiation of monocytes into dendritic cells (DCs) with a suppressive phenotype. In this study, we investigated the impact of virus-induced inflammatory mediator production on the development of DCs. Monocyte differentiation into functional DCs, as reflected by the expression of CD11c, CD123, BDCA-4, and DC-SIGN and the capacity to activate T cells, was similar for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)-infected and mock-infected BEAS-2B and A549 cells. RSV-conditioned culture media resulted in a partially mature DC phenotype, but failed to up-regulate CD80, CD83, CD86, and CCR7, and failed to release proinflammatory mediators upon Toll-like receptor (TLR) triggering. Nevertheless, these DCs were able to maintain an antiviral response by the release of Type I IFN. Collectively, these data indicate that the airway epithelium maintains an important suppressive DC phenotype under the inflammatory conditions induced by infection with RSV.