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Os sistemas de saúde dos países industrializados enfrentam múltiplos desafios que tornam cada vez mais complexo garantir o direito à saúde de forma equitativa para toda a população. Neste contexto enquadram-se os processos de inovação tecnológica e, em particular, os ligados à introdução de tecnologias de informação e comunicação nos cuidados de saúde. À luz disto, analisar a interação entre o direito à saúde e os serviços digitais de saúde torna-se uma necessidade cada vez mais concreta, tanto quanto é compreender se, em que medida e através de que ferramentas, tal interação pode gerar uma reivindicação legal em nível individual, tentativa com a qual nos mediremos na continuação deste trabalho.

The Real-Time system for the control of the magnetohydrodynamics instabilities in FTU tokamak is presented. It is based on both a-priori information derived from statistical treatment of a database and Real-Time elaboration of live diagnostics data. The analysis codes are executed in different time threads based on multi-processors machines. The actuator is the 2×0.4MW 140 GHz ECRH system equipped with the new fast quasi-optical steerable launcher.

The automatic controller developed for MHD instability control on FTU via the real time (RT) EC launcher [1, 2] is based on the a-priori estimate of the instabilities location and on the fast elaboration of the stream of diagnostic data. A fast data acquisition system, based on existing standard FTU diagnostics, collects thermal and magnetic signals by a 12-channels ECE polychromator [3] and by a set of 22 Mirnov coils respectively. Moreover, the EC time waveform from directional couplers along the transmission line is acquired as well. This set of signals is processed in a timescale significantly shorter than the typical time step of the controller (1ms). RT elaboration algorithms aim at supplying the controller [4] with reliable information about the existence and the spatial location of the instability and about the actual ECRH deposition layer in plasma. The main algorithms blocks are ECE-ECE, ECE-Mirnov and ECE-ECRH cross-correlation, and SVD (Singular Value Decomposition) of Mirnov signals. The capabilities of effective detection, false positive resilience, and mode discrimination will be discussed through the application to actual plasma data.

Although toxin may have some advantages compared to chemotherapeutic drugs in cancer therapy, e.g. a potent cytotoxic activity and a reduced risk of resistance, their successful application in the treatments to solid tumors still remains to be fully demonstrated. In this study, we genetically modified the structure of the plant-derived single-chain ribosome inactivating protein saporin (SAP) by fusing its N-terminus to the ACDCRGDCFCG peptide (RGD-4C), an αv-integrin ligand, and explored the anti-tumor activity of the resulting protein (called RGD-SAP) in vitro and in vivo, using a model of muscle invasive bladder cancer. We found that the RGD-4C targeting domain enhances the cytotoxic activity of SAP against various tumor cell lines, in a manner dependent on αv-integrin expression levels. In a subcutaneous syngeneic model of bladder cancer, RGD-SAP significantly reduced tumor growth in a dose-dependent manner. Furthermore, systemic administration of RGD-SAP in combination with mitomycin C, a chemotherapeutic drug currently used to treat patients with bladder cancer, increased the survival of mice bearing orthotopic bladder cancer with no evidence of systemic toxicity. Overall, the results suggest that RGD-SAP represents an efficient drug that could be exploited, either alone or in combination with the state-of-the-art therapies, for the treatment of bladder cancer and, potentially, of other solid tumors.

Motivation Single-cell profiling has become a common practice to investigate the complexity of tissues, organs, and organisms. Recent technological advances are expanding our capabilities to profile various molecular layers beyond the transcriptome such as, but not limited to, the genome, the epigenome, and the proteome. Depending on the experimental procedure, these data can be obtained from separate assays or the very same cells. Yet, integration of more than two assays is currently not supported by the majority of the computational frameworks avaiable. Results We here propose a Multi-Omic data integration framework based on Wasserstein Generative Adversarial Networks suitable for the analysis of paired or unpaired data with a high number of modalities (>2). At the core of our strategy is a single network trained on all modalities together, limiting the computational burden when many molecular layers are evaluated. Availability and implementation Source code of our framework is available at https://github.com/vgiansanti/MOWGAN [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Oral health and frailty might be linked through several pathways, but previous studies are scarce. This study examined the association between oral health and components of Fried’s frailty phenotype. Methods This cross-sectional analysis was based on a sample of 992 community-dwelling persons aged 73 to 77 years observed in the 2011 follow-up of the Lausanne 65+ cohort (Lc65+) study. Data were collected through annual mailed questionnaires, interview and physical examination. Oral health was assessed according to self-reported oral pain and masticatory ability. Frailty was defined as meeting at least one criterion of the Fried’s phenotype. Results Oral pain was reported by 14.8% and chewing problems by 9.7%. Impaired masticatory ability (IMA) was more frequent in subjects with missing teeth or removable dentures (13.5%) than among those with full dentition or fixed dental prostheses (3.2%). In logistic regression analyses adjusting for demographics, alcohol consumption, smoking, comorbidity and financial difficulties, persons with oral pain and those with chewing problems had significantly higher odds of being frail (adjusted ORpain = 1.72; 95% CI 1.17–2.53 and adjORIMA1.70; 1.07–2.72, respectively). Lack of endurance was associated with both oral pain (adjOR = 3.61; 1.92–6.76) and impaired masticatory ability (adjOR = 2.20; 1.03–4.72). The latter was additionally linked to low physical activity (adjOR = 2.35; 1.29–4.28) and low gait speed (adjOR = 3.12; 1.41–6.90), whereas oral pain was associated with weight loss (adjOR = 1.80; 1.09–2.96) and low handgrip strength (adjOR = 1.80; 1.17–2.77). Conclusion Self-reported oral pain and chewing impairment had a significant relation with frailty and its components, not only through a nutritional pathway of involuntary weight loss. Longitudinal analyses are needed to examine whether a poor oral condition might be a risk factor for the onset of frailty.

Therapeutic strategies designed to tinker with cancer cell DNA damage response have led to the widespread use of PARP inhibitors for BRCA1/2-mutated cancers. In the haematological cancer multiple myeloma, we sought to identify analogous synthetic lethality mechanisms that could be leveraged upon established cancer treatments. The combination of ATR inhibition using the compound VX-970 with a drug eliciting interstrand cross-links, melphalan, was tested in in vitro, ex vivo, and most notably in vivo models. Cell proliferation, induction of apoptosis, tumor growth and animal survival were assessed. The combination of ATM inhibition with a drug triggering double strand breaks, doxorucibin, was also probed. We found that ATR inhibition is strongly synergistic with melphalan, even in resistant cells. The combination was dramatically effective in targeting myeloma primary patient cells and cell lines reducing cell proliferation and inducing apoptosis. The combination therapy significantly reduced tumor burden and prolonged survival in animal models. Conversely, ATM inhibition only marginally impacted on myeloma cell survival, even in combination with doxorucibin at high doses. These results indicate that myeloma cells extensively rely on ATR, but not on ATM, for DNA repair. Our findings posit that adding an ATR inhibitor such as VX-970 to established therapeutic regimens may provide a remarkably broad benefit to myeloma patients.