C��lulas Endoteliais e Recupera����o Visual

Na revis��o bibliogr��fica encontramos perdas de c��luas endoteliais que v��o dos 4 aos 25%. Os v��rios estudos comparam EEC com e sem OVD, EEC e facoemulsifica����o, cataratas de diferente "dureza", entre outras vari��veis. Tamb��m a idade, a ruptura do saco ou a perda de v��treo influenciavam estes resultados. As novas tecnologias para facoemulsifica����o como a pe��a de m��o Ozil torsional que como o nome indica tem a capacidade de movimento torsional lateral (que desbasta a catarata al��m do movimento longitudinal da pe��a de m��o convencional que emulsifica) torna os gestos cir��rgicos mais eficazes e seguros, reduzindo o traumatismo endotelial. Os AA fizeram um estudo prospectivo em que distribu��ram 40 olhos de forma aleat��ria em dois grupos: 20 olhos foram operados por faco torsional e as restantes 20 cataratas foram operadas por faco convencional. Neste estudo comparativo entre faco torsional e convencional, o primeiro necessitou de menos ultrasons (0,048 versus 0,083), obteve uma acuidade visual m��dia ligeiramente melhor (0,63 versus 0,54) e menor perda celular endotelial (3% versus 6,9%), no 1�� dia de p��s-operat��rio. Como se sabe, s��o m��ltiplos os factores que influenciam o resultado cir��rgico: o local e tamanho da incis��o, a composi����o das solu����es salinas, os dispositivos visco-el��sticos, os produtos potencialmente t��xicos aplicados intra-operatoriamente, o tempo de cirurgia, a dureza da catarata, al��m das t��cnicas cir��rgicas e dos aparelhos utilizados.

Do Spirituality and Faith Make a Difference? Report from the Southern European Psycho-Oncology Study Group

OBJECTIVE: In the last decade, some attention has been given to spirituality and faith and their role in cancer patients' coping. Few data are available about spirituality among cancer patients in Southern European countries, which have a big tradition of spirituality, namely, the Catholic religion. As part of a more general investigation (Southern European Psycho-Oncology Study--SEPOS), the aim of this study was to examine the effect of spirituality in molding psychosocial implications in Southern European cancer patients. METHOD: A convenience sample of 323 outpatients with a diagnosis of cancer between 6 to 18 months, a good performance status (Karnofsky Performance Status > 80), and no cognitive deficits or central nervous system (CNS) involvement by disease were approached in university and affiliated cancer centers in Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Switzerland (Italian speaking area). Each patient was evaluated for spirituality (Visual Analog Scale 0-10), psychological morbidity (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale--HADS), coping strategies (Mini-Mental Adjustment to Cancer--Mini-MAC) and concerns about illness (Cancer Worries Inventory--CWI). RESULTS. The majority of patients (79.3%) referred to being supported by their spirituality/faith throughout their illness. Significant differences were found between the spirituality and non-spirituality groups (p ��� 0.01) in terms of education, coping styles, and psychological morbidity. Spirituality was significantly correlated with fighting spirit (r = -0.27), fatalism (r = 0.50), and avoidance (r = 0.23) coping styles and negatively correlated with education (r = -0.25), depression (r = -0.22) and HAD total (r = -0.17). SIGNIFICANCE OF RESULTS: Spirituality is frequent among Southern European cancer patients with lower education and seems to play some protective role towards psychological morbidity, specifically depression. Further studies should examine this trend in Southern European cancer patients.

Avalia����o da Estereopsia em Crian��as sob Terap��utica Oclusiva por Ambliopia e Rela����o desta com a Acuidade Visual

Introdu����o: A ambliopia �� a principal causa de diminui����o da acuidade visual em crian��as. O diagn��stico e tratamento precoces s��o fundamentais para o sucesso terap��utico. A oclus��o continua a ser o tratamento mais utilizado nesta patologia. Objectivos: Este estudo teve como objectivo a avalia����o da estereopsia em crian��as com ambliopia sob terap��utica oclusiva e a sua rela����o com a acuidade visual. Material e M��todos: Estudo prospectivo que incluiu 35 crian��as com ambliopia, por anisometropia, estrabismo ou ambos, a fazer terap��utica oclusiva. Em cada consulta foi avaliada a melhor acuidade visual corrigida (MAVC) e a estereopsia para perto. Resultados: A idade m��dia no in��cio do estudo era de 6,17 anos (intervalo 3-9 anos) e o seguimento m��dio foi de 17 meses (intervalo 6-24 meses). Ap��s tratamento com oclus��o houve uma melhoria da MAVC m��dia de 0,5 para 0,84 (p<0,001) e da estereopsia para perto de 1148 para 415 segundos de arco (p<0,001). Observou-se uma correla����o linear significativa entre a melhoria da AV e da estereopsia (0,001<p<0,01). Conclus��o: Podemos dizer que, em crian��as com ambliopia, ap��s tratamento com oclus��o, a melhoria da acuidade visual est�� relacionada com uma melhoria da estereopsia.

Application of Visual-Inertial SLAM for 3D Mapping of Underground Environments

The underground scenarios are one of the most challenging environments for accurate and precise 3d mapping where hostile conditions like absence of Global Positioning Systems, extreme lighting variations and geometrically smooth surfaces may be expected. So far, the state-of-the-art methods in underground modelling remain restricted to environments in which pronounced geometric features are abundant. This limitation is a consequence of the scan matching algorithms used to solve the localization and registration problems. This paper contributes to the expansion of the modelling capabilities to structures characterized by uniform geometry and smooth surfaces, as is the case of road and train tunnels. To achieve that, we combine some state of the art techniques from mobile robotics, and propose a method for 6DOF platform positioning in such scenarios, that is latter used for the environment modelling. A visual monocular Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (MonoSLAM) approach based on the Extended Kalman Filter (EKF), complemented by the introduction of inertial measurements in the prediction step, allows our system to localize himself over long distances, using exclusively sensors carried on board a mobile platform. By feeding the Extended Kalman Filter with inertial data we were able to overcome the major problem related with MonoSLAM implementations, known as scale factor ambiguity. Despite extreme lighting variations, reliable visual features were extracted through the SIFT algorithm, and inserted directly in the EKF mechanism according to the Inverse Depth Parametrization. Through the 1-Point RANSAC (Random Sample Consensus) wrong frame-to-frame feature matches were rejected. The developed method was tested based on a dataset acquired inside a road tunnel and the navigation results compared with a ground truth obtained by post-processing a high grade Inertial Navigation System and L1/L2 RTK-GPS measurements acquired outside the tunnel. Results from the localization strategy are presented and analyzed.

Combining sparse and dense methods in 6D Visual Odometry

13th International Conference on Autonomous Robot Systems (Robotica), 2013, Lisboa

6D Visual Odometry with Dense Probabilistic Egomotion Estimation

Proceedings of the International Conference on Computer Vision Theory and Applications, 361-365, 2013, Barcelona, Spain

Real-Time Visual Ground-Truth System for Indoor Robotic Applications

The robotics community is concerned with the ability to infer and compare the results from researchers in areas such as vision perception and multi-robot cooperative behavior. To accomplish that task, this paper proposes a real-time indoor visual ground truth system capable of providing accuracy with at least more magnitude than the precision of the algorithm to be evaluated. A multi-camera architecture is proposed under the ROS (Robot Operating System) framework to estimate the 3D position of objects and the implementation and results were contextualized to the Robocup Middle Size League scenario.

Calibration Method for Underwater Visual Ground-Truth System

This work presents an automatic calibration method for a vision based external underwater ground-truth positioning system. These systems are a relevant tool in benchmarking and assessing the quality of research in underwater robotics applications. A stereo vision system can in suitable environments such as test tanks or in clear water conditions provide accurate position with low cost and flexible operation. In this work we present a two step extrinsic camera parameter calibration procedure in order to reduce the setup time and provide accurate results. The proposed method uses a planar homography decomposition in order to determine the relative camera poses and the determination of vanishing points of detected lines in the image to obtain the global pose of the stereo rig in the reference frame. This method was applied to our external vision based ground-truth at the INESC TEC/Robotics test tank. Results are presented in comparison with an precise calibration performed using points obtained from an accurate 3D LIDAR modelling of the environment.

Probabilistic Egomotion for Stereo Visual Odometry

We present a novel approach of Stereo Visual Odometry for vehicles equipped with calibrated stereo cameras. We combine a dense probabilistic 5D egomotion estimation method with a sparse keypoint based stereo approach to provide high quality estimates of vehicle���s angular and linear velocities. To validate our approach, we perform two sets of experiments with a well known benchmarking dataset. First, we assess the quality of the raw velocity estimates in comparison to classical pose estimation algorithms. Second, we added to our method���s instantaneous velocity estimates a Kalman Filter and compare its performance with a well known open source stereo Visual Odometry library. The presented results compare favorably with state-of-the-art approaches, mainly in the estimation of the angular velocities, where significant improvements are achieved.

Tromboses Abdominais M��ltiplas por D��fice de Prote��na C

Os autores apresentam o caso cl��nico de uma doente do sexo feminino, de 58 anos, sem antecedentes pessoais relevantes, sujeita a ressec����o extensa jejuno-ileal, num hospital de Luanda, por trombose da art��ria mesent��rica superior. Posteriormente transferida para o servi��o 1 do Hospital dos Capuchos, foi diagnosticada a exist��ncia de tromboses a n��vel das veias porta, mesent��rica superior e eixo espl��nico. Os estudos efectuados revelaram d��fice de prote��nas C e S. O estudo paralelo da filha e neta revelou, tamb��m, d��fice de prote��na C.

Miosite Orbit��ria Idiop��tica

A miosite orbit��ria idiop��tica �� uma doen��a inflamat��ria de etiologia desconhecida, que deve constituir sempre um diagn��stico de exclus��o, cujo conhecimento tem evolu��do com as novas t��cnicas de imagem. Os autores descrevem o caso cl��nico de um doente do sexo masculino, 69 anos, que inicia subitamente um quadro cl��nico caracterizado por dor peri-orbit��ria �� direita e diplopia, ao que se seguiu, passado uma semana, diminui����o da acuidade visual homolateral. �� observa����o, era de real��ar marcada diminui����o da acuidade visual, oftalmoplegia, proptose e hipostesia ��lgica no territ��rio do V par do mesmo lado. Faz-se refer��ncia aos aspectos tomodensitom��tricos e �� resposta �� corticoterapia, devido �� sua import��ncia no diagn��stico desta patologia.

Influ��ncia das Vari��veis Antropom��tricas na Prote��na C Reactiva

Introdu����o: A obesidade �� um problema generalizado e crescente, assim como um dos componentes da S��ndrome Metab��lica (SM). Em popula����es saud��veis, a prote��na C reactiva (PCR)correlaciona-se com medi����es de obesidade. Objectivos: Analisar numa popula����es de doentes com doen��a card��aca, se se mant��m a correla����o entre a PCR e as vari��veis de SM, assim como a rela����o entre a PCR e a doen��a arterial coron��ria (DAC). Material e M��todos: Estudo de 1231 doente admitidos para procedimento card��aco invasivo electivo. Obtiveram-se dados antropom��tricos, valores de PCR, assim como identifica����o das vari��veis componentes de SM. Compar��mos os grupos distribu��dos de acordo com o ��ndice de Massa Corporal (IMC) e correlacion��mos com PCR e outras vari��veis. Resultados: A frequ��ncia global de SM foi de 59%. A PCR foi significativamente mais elevada em doentes obesos, comparada com doentes com peso normal ou excesso de peso. A PCR correlacionou-se significativamente com todos os factores de risco. As melhores correla����es foram obtidas com o per��metro abdominal, ��ndice de massa corporal e n��mero de componentes de SM. O melhor limiar da PCR para predizer SM foi de 0,38 mg/dL. Os factores de risco,incluindo as medidas de obesidade explicam apenas 3,3 ��� 3,5% da vari��ncia da PCR. O sexo foi o factor que melhor se correlacionou, seguido pelo colesterol-HDL. Das vari��veis antropom��tricas, apenas o ��ndice de Massa Corporal contribuiu para a vari��ncia. N��o se detectou nenhuma associa����o entre a PCR, SM e a presen��a de DAC. Conclus��es: Em doentes com doen��a card��aca, encontr��mos uma associa����o significativa entre a PCR, vari��veis antropom��tricas e SM, contudo n��o t��o significativas como o previamente descrito em popula����es saud��veis. O n��mero de componentes de SM �� tamb��m um factor importante para influenciar a PCR.

Treatment of Hepatitis C Virus Infection in Kidney Transplant Recipients: Case Report

Chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection exists in a large proportion of patients undergoing renal transplantation. Nowadays it is not considered to be an absolute contraindication to transplantation; however, it is associated with an increased risk for the patient and accounts for a shorter half-life of the renal allograft. We present three transplant recipients who displayed serious hepatic dysfunction after renal transplantation due to an HCV infection. In two of these cases, the liver biopsies established the diagnosis of FCH. In the third case, the liver biopsy was compatible with the early stages of FCH. All patients were started on peg-interferon alfa 2-b and ribavirin with subsequent normalization of hepatic function and early complete viral responses.

A m��sica e o texto visual como forma de motiva����o na aprendizagem da l��ngua estrangeira

Tese de mestrado em L��nguas, Literaturas e Culturas