195 research outputs found
Evaluation of the influence of the clinical, pathological and molecular characteristics over the possibility of local recurrence after breast-conserving surgery in patients diagnosed with ductal carcinoma in situ
No full textINTRODUÇÃO A predição da possibilidade de recorrência local (RL) e a necessidade de radioterapia (RT) de rotina são pontos ainda controversos a respeito da terapia do carcinoma ductal in situ (CDIS) de mama, tratado por ressecção segmentar mamária (RSM) e RT. OBJETIVOS: Avaliar -1. a influência de diversos fatores nas taxas de RL; 2. a eficácia dos nomogramas do Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center para CDIS, original e modificado, na predição do risco de RL; 3. a potencialidade do nomograma modificado para indicação de RT adjuvante. MÉTODOS: Estudo retrospectivo com dados coletados em prontuários de pacientes com CDIS tratados por RSM (com margens cirúrgicas livres) e RT. Foram analisados fatores clínicos, histopatológicos e moleculares. Os nomogramas do MSKCC para CDIS original (10 parâmetros) e modificado (9 parâmetros, com exclusão de RT) foram comparados em termos de predição de RL, pela análise de curvas ROC. Pacientes com estimativa de RL ³ 10% em 10 anos foram consideradas de alto risco, e < 10% como de baixo risco. Procurou-se analisar também o número de casos de RL nas pacientes com baixo e alto risco, para verificar a importância da inclusão ou de omissão da RT complementar. RESULTADOS: A incidência de RL nos 110 casos estudados foi de 7,3% (8 casos), sendo 62,5% invasivas e 37,5% in situ. O tempo de seguimento médio foi de 4,8 anos. O risco atuarial de RL foi de 5,4% em 5 anos e de 10,3% em 10 anos. As variáveis com impacto estatístico sobre o risco de RL foram a presença de comedonecrose (p = 0,03) e distância exígua do tumor até à margem (p= 0,05). As taxas de RL em 10 anos foram comparadas pelas AUC das curvas ROC e mostraram superioridade do nomograma modificado para identificá-las (p= 0,03). Foram consideradas de alto risco aos 10 anos pelo nomograma modificado 47 pacientes, com 6 RL (12,7%); de baixo risco foram 63, com 2 RL (3,1%), evidenciando tendência estatística (p= 0,12). CONCLUSÕES: 1. entre as variáveis clínicas, histopatológicas e moleculares, aquelas que mostraram ser fatores predisponentes à RL, com significância estatística, foram presença de comedonecrose e distância tumor-margem cirúrgica exígua; 2. o nomograma modificado do MSKCC para CDIS foi significativamente associado ao risco de RL, enquanto que o nomograma original não; 3. o nomograma modificado do MSKCC para CDIS demonstrou ser instrumento útil na prática, para reforçar a indicação de RT complementarINTRODUCTION: The prediction of local recurrence (LR) possibility and the necessity of routine radiation therapy (RT) are still controversial topics in the treatment of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) of the breast, managed by breast conserving surgery (BCS) and RT. OBJECTIVES: Evaluate -1. influence of several factors over LR rates; 2. the efficiency of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) DCIS nomograms, the original and modified, for LR risk prediction; 3. the potencial role of the modified nomogram for adjuvant RT recommendation. METHODS: Retrospective study with collected data in the files of DCIS patients treated by BCS (with clean surgical margins) and RT. Clinical, pathologic and molecular factors were analised. The MSKCC DCIS nomograms, the original (10 parameters) and the modified (9 parameters, with RT exclusion) were compared in terms of LR prediction, through ROC curves analysis. Patients with LR estimates ³ 10% in 10 years were considered at high-risk, whereas estimate < 10% were considered at low-risk. It was also verified the number of LR cases in patients at low and high-risk, to forecast the importance of the prescription or omission of adjuvant RT. RESULTS: The incidence of LR among the 110 studied patients was 7.3% (8 cases), being 62.5% invasives, and 37.5% in situ. Follow-up mean time was 4.8 years. The actuarial risk for LR in 5 years, was 5.4%, and 10.3% in 10 years. The variables with statistical impact were comedonecrosis (p = 0.03) and a exiguous tumormargin width (p = 0.05). LR rates in 10-years were compared by ROC curves, AUCs showing the superiority of the modified nomogram (p= 0.03). Forty seven patients were at high-risk in 10 years by the modified nomogram, and among them 6 developed LR (12.7%), 63 were at low-risk, and 2 (3.1%) had LR, evidencing a statistical tendency (p= 0.12). CONCLUSIONS: 1. comodonecrosis and exiguous tumor-margin width were predisposing factors for LR; 2. the modified MSKCC DCIS nomogram was significantly associated with LR risk, whereas the original nomogram was not; 3. the modified MSKCC DCIS nomogram seems to be an useful tool in clinical practice, aiding the reinforcement of RT recommendatio
Grasping cybersecurity: A set of essential mental models
No full textFor most people, cybersecurity is a hard to grasp notion. Traditionally, cybersecurity has been considered as a technical challenge and still many specialists view it equivalent with information security, with the notions of confidentiality, integrity and availability as starting points of thinking. And although others searched for a broader perspective, the complexity and ambiguity of the notion still thwarts a common understanding. While developing and executing a MSc cybersecurity program for professionals, the lack of a common understanding of what cybersecurity entails was again observed. Stimulated by this, we started to look for and define a new, transdisciplinary conceptualization of cybersecurity that everyone can agree upon. It resulted in two scientific papers published. This paper describes the outcomes of the continuation of our research journey. It turned out that the earlier introduced description of two key notions, namely that of cyberspace and that of cybersecurity, can still be considered as adequate starting points. Here, we describe a set of additional mental models that elaborates them and provides more detail to the meaning of the two key notions. In practice, it turned out that the additional mental models strongly support the description and analysis of existing and upcoming cybersecurity challenges and helps to understand how everybody, in his or her various roles, can or should contribute to reducing the related cyber risks to adequate levels. We further discovered that for certain cybersecurity challenges, especially those related to efficient cyber risk mitigation, we could not yet identify an adequate sub-set of mental models. This defines the agenda for near future cybersecurity research.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Information and Communication Technolog
Fragility functions for tall URM buildings around early 20th century in Lisbon. Part 2: Application to different classes of buildings
No full textThis article describes the application of the procedure for the derivation of fragility functions presented in the companion article entitled Fragility functions for tall URM buildings around early 20th century in Lisbon. Part 1: methodology and application at building level. The procedure, based on the execution of non-linear analyses, was developed to be applied to unreinforced masonry buildings considering both the in-plane and out-of-plane response. Different sources of uncertainty, both epistemic and aleatory, affecting the behaviour of these unreinforced masonry buildings are discussed and treated with a probabilistic procedure. The fragility curves determined for the different classes of buildings are compared and then combined to define the final fragility curves for these unreinforced masonry buildings. The results put in evidence the high seismic vulnerability of these buildings and the urgent need for the structural intervention and for the design of retrofitting measures in order to reduce potential losses due to future earthquakes.The first author would like to acknowledge the financial support of Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia (FCT, Ministerio da Educacao e Ciencia, Portugal) through the scholarship PD/BD/106076/2015 through the FCT Doctoral Program: Analysis and Mitigation of Risks in Infrastructures, INFRARISK (http://infrarisk.tecnico.ulisboa.pt)
Seismic assessment of nineteenth and twentieth centuries URM buildings in Lisbon: structural features and derivation of fragility curves
No full textThe article addresses the seismic vulnerability assessment of a typology of unreinforced masonry buildings constructed in Lisbon between the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries. The main architectural and structural features of these buildings are presented. This supported the identification of the main uncertainties affecting their seismic performance and the definition of classes of buildings representative of the typology. The seismic assessment includes the generation of fragility curves that combine the in-plane and out-of-plane response following different criteria and methods of analyses. The results put in evidence the seismic vulnerability of this class of buildings. Considering the earthquake-resistant code for Lisbon with a return period of 475 years, about 50% probability of having heavy damage and about 30% probability of collapse were estimated. The structural intervention on these buildings is urgent in order to reduce losses due to future earthquakes. Further studies for the assessment of similar buildings in Lisbon and elsewhere can be developed using the adopted procedure.The first author would like to acknowledge the financial support of Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia (FCT, Ministerio da Educacao e Ciencia, Portugal) through the scholarship PD/BD/106076/2015 through the FCT Doctoral Program: Analysis and Mitigation of Risks in Infrastructures, INFRARISK-(http://infrarisk.tecnico.ulisboa.pt).The authors would also like to acknowledge the contribution from Bruno Silva (Instituto Superior Tecnico) and Nuno Mendes (University of Minho) regarding the ambient vibration tests
A Generic and Automatic Test Strategy for Compiler Testing
No full textDomain-specific Languages (DSLs) are languages specifically tailored for an application or expert domain. These can be implemented as compilers, which check the correctness of an input program and translates it to a target language. Manual testing of compilers is a time consuming and labor intensive task. This motivates the development of approaches to facilitate the quality assurance process. In this thesis we present an automatic and generic test strategy for the generation of test cases for Spoofax developed compilers. We use a program generator to generate large syntactically correct programs from Syntax Definition Formalism (SDF) grammars. Additionally, we improve the program generator with an expansion of our generation algorithm to use Name Binding Language (NaBL) modules to generate partial name correct programs. We also provide a DSL to define error fixes that are used to attempt the repair of static semantic errors reported after compilation. After program generation we use a partial oracle to automatically detect failures during the invocation of the compiler. Finally, we provide a heuristic to reduce the size of generated programs, whilst preserving their failure inducing behavior. This test strategy was used to generate test cases forWebDSL, a DSL targeting the domain of developing dynamic web applications with a rich data model. The generated test cases unveiled eleven unique faults in the analysis phase of compilation. These were reported together with the programs reduced by our program shrinking heuristic and they were positively received by the WebDSL development team.Computer ScienceSERGElectrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Scienc
Ultrasound transducers for ultrafast 3D cardiovascular imaging
No full textCardiovascular diseases stand as the leading cause of death worldwide. Cardiovascular diseases are a group of disorders of the heart and blood vessels, such as atherosclerosis, congenital heart diseases, rheumatic heart diseases, and arrhythmias. Early detection of cardiovascular issues is imperative for effective treatment, and the implementation of screening programs facilitates timely identification and intervention, ultimately reducing morbidity rates. Ultrasound imaging is a widely utilized technique for assessing cardiovascular diseases due to its portability, lack of radiation exposure, and relatively lower associated costs compared to other imaging modalities such as magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography. In this thesis, we detail the development of specialized ultrasound probes for three distinct cardiovascular applications: carotid artery imaging, intracardiac echocardiography, and abdominal aorta imaging. These applications necessitate high-frame-rate 3D imaging with a wide field of view, requiring ultrasound matrix transducers with a vast number of elements and integrated electronics. We outline the design, fabrication, and characterization of three probes tailored for each specific application. ImPhys/Medical ImagingImPhys/Verweij grou
Sub Rosa Volume I: Bloom in Secret
No full textSome people read scholarly articles, others prefer graphic novels, and most prefer a good novel. Every novel comes uniquely designed by an author, giving readers characters, drama, and a carefully crafted plot that draws them in. For my senior honors project, I decided to create a novel filled with mystery, love, and an assortment of carefully selected flowers.Choosing to incorporate flowers into the core concept of my novel stemmed from having grown up surrounded by them; my grandma has a really green thumb. I use the secret language of flowers throughout my novel to communicate hidden messages to those who look for them, as well as my protagonist Iris. To do this, I have researched different floral arrangements, learning the inner-workings of the murder mystery genre, and allowing myself to work through the creative process. Straying away from my business administration major, writing a fictional novel has allowed me to grow creatively
EFFECTS OF COCAINE AND D-AMPHETAMINE ON BEHAVIOR OF RATS: I. OPERANT LEVEL OF RUNNING; II. ADJUNCTIVE AND REINFORCED BEHAVIORS ON A MULTIPLE SCHEDULE
No full textSource: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 38-07, Section: B, page: 3440.Ph.D. American University 1977.Englis
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