Search

To report a single-institutional experience with the use of Superficial X-Ray Therapy (SXRT) for head and neck non-melanoma skin cancer (N-MSC) and to compare outcomes by prescribed fractionation schedules.The medical records of 597 patients with 1021 lesions (720 BCC, 242 SCC, 59 SCC in situ) treated with kilovoltage radiation from 1979-2013 were retrospectively reviewed. The majority of patients were treated according to 1 of 3 institutional protocols based on the discretion of the radiation oncologist: 1) 22 x 2.5 Gy; 2) 20 x 2.5 Gy; 3) 30 x 2.0 Gy. "T" stage at first presentation was as follows: Tis (59); T1 (765); T2 (175); T3 (6), T4 (9); Tx, (7). All patients were clinical N0 and M0 at presentation. Chi-square test was used to evaluate any potential association between variables. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to analyze survival with the Log Rank test used for comparison. A Cox Regression analysis was performed for multivariate analysis.The median follow up was 44 months. No significant difference was observed among the 3 prescribed fractionation schemes (p = 0.78) in terms of RTOG toxicity. There were no failures among SCC in situ, 37 local failures (23 BCC, 14 SCC), 5 regional failures (all SCC) and 2 distant failures (both SCC). For BCC, the 5-year LC was 96% and the 10-year LC was 94%. For SCC the corresponding rates of local control were 92% and 87%, respectively (p = 0.03). The use of >2.0 Gy daily was significantly associated with improved LC on multivariate analysis (HR: 0.17; CI 95%: 0.05-0.59).SXRT for N-MSC of the head and neck is well tolerated, achieves excellent local control, and should continue to be recommended in the management of this disease. Fractionation schedules using >2.0 Gy daily appear to be associated with improved LC.

The specific interest for the use of bark in materials, instead than for energy recovery, is owed to circular economy considerations, since bark fibers are normally byproducts or even waste from other sectors, and therefore their use would globally reduce the amount of refuse by replacing other materials in the production of composites. For the purpose of promoting their application in polymer composites, mainly under a geometry of short random fibers, bark fibers are extracted and treated, normally chemically by alkali. Following this, investigations are increasingly carried out on their chemical composition. More specifically, this includes measuring cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin content and their modification with treatment on their thermal properties and degradation profile, and on the mechanical performance of the fibers and of the tentatively obtained composites. This work aims at reviewing the current state of studies, trying to elicit which bark fibers might be most promising among the potentially enormous number of these, clarifying which of these have received some attention in literature and trying to elicit the reason for this specific interest. These can be more thoroughly characterized for the purpose of further use, also in competition with other fibers not from bark, but from bast, leaves, etc., and pertaining to developed production systems (cotton, hemp, flax, jute, etc.). The latter are already widely employed in the production of composites, a possibility scantly explored so far for bark fibers. However, some initial works on bark fiber composites and both thermoplastic and thermosetting are indicated and the importance of some parameters (aspect ratio, chemical treatment) is discussed.

Hereditary Amyloidosis associated with variant Transthyretin (ATTRv Amyloidosis) is a progressive and highly disabling neurological disorder that affects gait. Quantitative motion analysis is useful for assessing motor function, including gait, in diseases affecting movement. A single markerless RGB-D camera enables 3D full-body motion capture in a less expensive and intrusive, and more portable way than multi-camera marker-based systems. In this study, we examine whether a gait analysis system based on an RGB-D camera can be used to detect significant changes in the gait of ATTRv amyloidosis patients over time, when compared with a 12-camera system. We acquired 3D data provided by both systems from six ATTRv amyloidosis patients, while performing a simple gait task, once (T0) and 18 months later (T1). A direct comparison of systems has already been conducted. In this work, however, for each patient, we investigated if the RGB-D camera system detects statistically significant differences between the two different acquisitions in a similar way to the reference system, and whether it is reliable to use during patients’ follow-up. The obtained results show that the differences detected between T0 and T1 for both systems follow the same tendency for 65% of the spatiotemporal gait parameters, and for 38% of the kinematic parameters (38%). The most reliable parameters were: stride duration/length, gait speed (and its variability), and arm/foot swing velocity, all with an almost perfect strength of agreement.

Hereditary amyloidosis associated with transthyretin V30M (ATTRv V30M) is a rare and inherited multisystemic disease, with a variable presentation and a challenging diagnosis, follow-up and treatment. This condition entails a definitive and progressive motor impairment that compromises walking ability from near onset. The detection of the latter is key for the disease's diagnosis. The aim of this work is to perform quantitative 3-D gait analysis in ATTRv V30M patients, at different disease stages, and explore the potential of the obtained gait information for supporting early diagnosis and/or stage distinction during follow-up. Sixty-six subjects (25 healthy controls, 14 asymptomatic ATTRv V30M carriers, and 27 symptomatic patients) were included in this case-control study. All subjects were asked to walk back and forth for 2 min, in front of a Kinect v2 camera prepared for body motion tracking. We then used our own software to extract gait-related parameters from the camera's 3-D body data. For each parameter, the main subject groups and symptomatic patient subgroups were statistically compared. Most of the explored gait parameters can potentially be used to distinguish between the considered group pairs. Despite of statistically significant differences being found, most of them were undetected to the naked eye. Our Kinect camera-based system is easy to use in clinical settings and provides quantitative gait information that can be useful for supporting clinical assessment during ATTRv V30M onset detection and follow-up, as well as developing more objective and fine-grained rating scales to further support the clinical decisions.

Resumo Este trabalho apresenta um estudo comparativo dos comportamentos térmicos de três famílias de laminados de fibra de carbono/resina epóxi, submetidas a múltiplos ciclos térmicos, via análises termogravimétricas e dinâmico-mecânicas. Este estudo procura aliar a possibilidade de utilização de retalhos de pré-impregnados de fibra de carbono com resina epóxi - um material nobre na indústria aeronáutica, por meio da comparação do comportamento térmico de um laminado preparado com retalhos de pré-impregnados (laminado R), com outros dois laminados, sendo um manufaturado com prepreg comercial (laminado A) e um terceiro obtido por impregnação manual de reforço seco de fibra de carbono com resina epóxi (laminado B). Os laminados curados a 180 °C foram submetidos a múltiplos ciclos térmicos, totalizando 40, 100 e 300 h de exposição na temperatura máxima de 180 °C. As análises termogravimétricas mostram que os laminados submetidos às múltiplas ciclagens apresentam estabilidade térmica na temperatura de 180 °C, com perda de massa relativa à umidade absorvida pelos laminados. As análises dinâmico-mecânicas evidenciam que as múltiplas ciclagens térmicas afetam pouco ou até aumentam as temperaturas de transição vítrea dos sistemas de resinas epóxis estudados. A partir dos resultados obtidos pode-se afirmar que os laminados submetidos às múltiplas ciclagens térmicas apresentam estabilidade térmica suficiente para serem utilizados, por exemplo, em ferramentais de cura de componentes aeronáuticos.

Human gait analysis provides valuable information regarding the way of walking of a given subject. Low-cost RGB-D cameras, such as the Microsoft Kinect, are able to estimate the 3-D position of several body joints without requiring the use of markers. This 3-D information can be used to perform objective gait analysis in an affordable, portable, and non-intrusive way. In this contribution, we present a system for fully automatic gait analysis using a single RGB-D camera, namely the second version of the Kinect. Our system does not require any manual intervention (except for starting/stopping the data acquisition), since it firstly recognizes whether the subject is walking or not, and identifies the different gait cycles only when walking is detected. For each gait cycle, it then computes several gait parameters, which can provide useful information in various contexts, such as sports, healthcare, and biometric identification. The activity recognition is performed by a predictive model that distinguishes between three activities (walking, standing and marching), and between two postures of the subject (facing the sensor, and facing away from it). The model was built using a multilayer perceptron algorithm and several measures extracted from 3-D joint data, achieving an overall accuracy and F1 score of 98%. For gait cycle detection, we implemented an algorithm that estimates the instants corresponding to left and right heel strikes, relying on the distance between ankles, and the velocity of left and right ankles. The algorithm achieved errors for heel strike instant and stride duration estimation of 15 ± 25 ms and 1 ± 29 ms (walking towards the sensor), and 12 ± 23 ms and 2 ± 24 ms (walking away from the sensor). Our gait cycle detection solution can be used with any other RGB-D camera that provides the 3-D position of the main body joints.

Epilepsy is a common neurological disorder which affects 0.5-1% of the world population. Its diagnosis relies both on Electroencephalogram (EEG) findings and characteristic seizure-induced body movements--called seizure semiology. Thus, synchronous EEG and (2D)video recording systems (known as Video-EEG) are the most accurate tools for epilepsy diagnosis. Despite the establishment of several quantitative methods for EEG analysis, seizure semiology is still analyzed by visual inspection, based on epileptologists' subjective interpretation of the movements of interest (MOIs) that occur during recorded seizures. In this contribution, we present NeuroKinect, a low-cost, easy to setup and operate solution for a novel 3Dvideo-EEG system. It is based on a RGB-D sensor (Microsoft Kinect camera) and performs 24/7 monitoring of an Epilepsy Monitoring Unit (EMU) bed. It does not require the attachment of any reflectors or sensors to the patient's body and has a very low maintenance load. To evaluate its performance and usability, we mounted a state-of-the-art 6-camera motion-capture system and our low-cost solution over the same EMU bed. A comparative study of seizure-simulated MOIs showed an average correlation of the resulting 3D motion trajectories of 84.2%. Then, we used our system on the routine of an EMU and collected 9 different seizures where we could perform 3D kinematic analysis of 42 MOIs arising from the temporal (TLE) (n = 19) and extratemporal (ETE) brain regions (n = 23). The obtained results showed that movement displacement and movement extent discriminated both seizure MOI groups with statistically significant levels (mean = 0.15 m vs. 0.44 m, p

Os Sistemas de Informação – para gestão ou não – são representações artificiais construídas pelo Homem para representar factos, acontecimentos e fluxos que observou no mundo real. O objectivo deste trabalho é tentar demonstrar que a evolução tecnológica de alguns subsistemas contribui para executar de modo mais preciso e com maior rapidez as funções sistémicas, sendo estas invariantes. Foi adoptada como metodologia o relato do percurso realizado pelo autor ao longo de 24 anos de actividade empresarial e 12 anos de docência universitária na área dos Sistemas de Informação, incluindo a descrição dos resultados obtidos num conjunto de projectos diversos. Sendo vulgar considerar-se que o desenvolvimento de um projecto e a construção de uma solução dependem da tecnologia existente e disponível, no presente artigo é também realçado o facto de muitas soluções construídas com tecnologia muito pouco desenvolvida, terem permitdo obter “ganhos” muito significativos, apesar de terem ocorrido há muito tempo.Information Systems, or Management Information Systems, are artificial entities created by man that show things he had perceived on real world. On this paper I try to show that the hardware and software technological evolution only had helped the to execute faster and more accurate operations. The main systemic functions remain always invariable. To prove those assertions I describe my 24 years on industry and 12 years on University.

O d,1 - Hexametilpropileno oxima marcado com o tecnécio-99m(99mTc-HMPAO) é um importante radiofármaco usado tanto para imagens tomográficas cerebrais quanto na marcação “in vitro" de leucócitos. A crescente utilização deste radiofármaco no estudo de doenças neurológicas no homem levou-nos à obtenção de "kits" de HMPAO para ser marcado pelo tecnécio-99m. Neste trabalho apresentamos o estudo experimental efetuado com "kits" liofilizados de d,1 – HMPAO99mTc desenvolvidos em nossos laboratórios, comparando inclusive com aqueles encontrados no comércio. As imagens cerebrais inicialmente foram feitas em coelhos, entretanto os melhores resultados foram obtidos em cães. Assim, selecionaram-se seis cães sem raça definida, considerados clinicamente normais para obtenção das imagens cintilográficas do cérebro e o “washout” das regiões de interesse (ROls). Os estudos experimentais em animais e a considerável redução do custo do radiofármaco mostrou-nos a possibilidade da utilização destes exames na clínica veterinária, especialmente de pequenos animais. Por outro lado, a perfusão do d,l – HMPAO99mTc mostra que a concentração do radiofármaco se faz ao mesmo tempo na região do cérebro e nas fossas nasais, demonstrando a existência de estruturas iguais às da barreira hemo-encefálica nesta última região.

Resumo O contínuo crescimento na utilização de compósitos termoplásticos em componentes estruturais na indústria aeroespacial deve-se, primordialmente, à flexibilidade de projeto, excelência de suas propriedades mecânicas e baixa massa específica, aliadas aos elevados valores de resistência mecânica e rigidez e baixa incidência de corrosão. No entanto, componentes que requerem exigências estruturais, quando expostos a ambientes agressivos como elevada temperatura e umidade, podem ter suas propriedades mecânicas sensibilizadas por esses fatores ambientais, e devem ser cuidadosamente avaliados antes de serem colocados em serviço. Embora existam diversos trabalhos na literatura reportando este problema para compósitos estruturais, poucos estudos relacionam, de maneira sistemática, a avaliação da absorção de umidade com o comportamento viscoelástico de matrizes de PPS reforçadas com fibras de carbono, quando este compósito é utilizado em aplicações aeronáuticas. Sendo assim, o objetivo deste trabalho é avaliar a influência do condicionamento higrotérmico nas propriedades viscoelásticas de laminados PPS/fibras de carbono. Os resultados mostram que os laminados condicionados em câmara higrotérmica apresentaram absorção de umidade segundo as leis de Fick, porém, não foram observadas variações significativas na temperatura de transição vítrea quando comparado compósitos condicionados e não condicionados.