Diogo Sousa | Universidade do Porto (original) (raw)
Papers by Diogo Sousa
Milhoes de pacientes com glaucoma irao perder a visao, tornando-se uma necessidade desenvolver te... more Milhoes de pacientes com glaucoma irao perder a visao, tornando-se uma necessidade desenvolver terapias neuroprotetoras que podem ser usadas, em conjuncao com medicamentos hipotensores, para impedir a morte de celulas ganglionares da retina (RGC). Recentes avancos na compreensao da fisiopatologia do glaucoma e um fator chave na patogenese da neuropatia glaucomatosa. Com base nos achados em doencas semelhantes, a hipotese de que melhorando o fluxo sanguineo do nervo optico da retina podem resultar em uma protecao significativa nas CGR e prevenir a perda da visao no glaucoma. O sildenafil, uma droga vasodilatadora que inibe PDE5, aumentando assim os niveis de cGMP e prolongando seus efeitos, sendo que foi demonstrado melhorar a sobrevivencia de varios lesoes degenerativas. Esta breve revisao resume alguns dos avancos mais importantes que tiveram no entendimento sobre esta doenca e um possivel tratamento.
Primary neoplasms of the heart are rare in all domestic species, however, paragangliomas occur in... more Primary neoplasms of the heart are rare in all domestic species, however, paragangliomas occur in dogs. In this case report, a Golden Retriever breed was sent to the Pathology Department of Veterinary Veterinary Hospital - UNESP, Botucatu with sudden death. At necropsy, the heart showed neoformation adjacent to the caudal vena cava and in the right atrium and, in both lungs were observed many nodes. The collected material was processed and stained with hematoxylin-eosin. It was also performed immunohistochemical panel for anti-cytokeratin, anti-vimentin, anti-desmin, smooth muscle anti-alpha actin, anti-factor VIII and anti-enolase specific neuron (NSE). Based on the clinical and morphological findings, anatomical, histological, additionally, to positive immunoreactivity for NSE, the tumor was characterized as a paraganglioma grade 2 of malignancy. This report aims to contribute by adding data to the literature of this neoplasm.
PADTAD 2010 - International Workshop on Parallel and Distributed Systems: Testing, Analysis, and Debugging, 2010
Transactional Memory allows programmers to reduce the number of synchronization errors introduced... more Transactional Memory allows programmers to reduce the number of synchronization errors introduced in concurrent programs, but does not ensures its complete elimination. This paper proposes a pattern matching based approach to the static detection of atomicity violation, based on a pathsensitive symbolic execution method to model four anomalies that may affect Transactional Memory programs. The proposed technique may be used to to bring to programmer's attention pairs of transactions that the programmer has misspecified, and should have been combined into a single transaction. The algorithm first traverses the AST tree, removing all the non-transactional blocks and generating a trace tree in the path sensitive manner for each thread. The trace tree is a Trie like data structure, where each path from root to a leaf is a list of transactions. For each pair of threads, erroneous patterns involving two consecutive transactions are then checked in the trace tree. Results allow to conclude that the proposed technique, although triggering a moderate number of false positives, can be successfully applied to Java programs, correctly identifying the vast majority of the relevant erroneous patterns.
![Research paper thumbnail of [Synchronous gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) and multiple digestive neoplasms, benign and malignant]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/83924113/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](Chirurgia (Bucharest, Romania : 1990)
Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) are a broad category of mesenchymal, non-epithelial primar... more Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) are a broad category of mesenchymal, non-epithelial primary tumors of the digestive tract, located in the wall of hollow viscera, from the esophagus to the anus and often in adjacent mesentery and omentum. They are clinically unpredictable (may be discovered incidentally during an imagistic investigation or during surgery for other pathological entity, or at necropsy) and also have an unpredictable behavior (GISTs with very low risk, with low or moderate malignancy, which have benign histopathologic features but can recurr or can metastasize). The case we present here represents a rare association between a synchronous gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) and multiple gastric benign and malignant tumors.
ACS Omega
The concept of molecular metamorphosis is described. A molecule (flavylium cation) generates a se... more The concept of molecular metamorphosis is described. A molecule (flavylium cation) generates a sequence of other different molecules by means of external stimuli. The reversibility of the system allows for the flavylium cation to be recovered by other external stimuli, completing one cycle. Differently from supramolecular chemistry, molecular metamorphosis is not a bottom-up approach. All events occur at the bottom. The procedures to characterize the kinetics and thermodynamics of the cycles are summarized. They are based on direct pH jumps (addition of a base to the flavylium cation) and reverse pH jumps (addition of an acid to equilibrated solutions at higher pH values). Stopped flow is an indispensable tool to characterize these systems. The following metamorphic cycles will be described to illustrate the concept: (i) introducing the flavanone in the metamorphic system and illustrating the concept of a timer at the molecular level; (ii) response of the flavylium-based metamorphosis to light inputs and the write-lock-read-unlock-erase molecular switching system; (iii) a one-way cycle of direct−reverse pH jumps; (iv) interconversion of the flavylium cation with 2,2′-spirobis[chromene] derivatives; (v) 6,8 A-ring substituent rearrangements.
Molecules
Presently, water quantity and quality problems persist both in developed and developing countries... more Presently, water quantity and quality problems persist both in developed and developing countries, and concerns have been raised about the presence of emerging pollutants (EPs) in water. The circular economy provides ways of achieving sustainable resource management that can be implemented in the water sector, such as the reuse of drinking water treatment sludges (WTSs). This study evaluated the potential of WTS containing a high concentration of activated carbon for the removal of two EPs: the steroid hormones 17β-estradiol (E2) and 17α-ethinylestradiol (EE2). To this end, WTSs from two Portuguese water treatment plants (WTPs) were characterised and tested for their hormone adsorbance potential. Both WTSs showed a promising adsorption potential for the two hormones studied due to their textural and chemical properties. For WTS1, the final concentration for both hormones was lower than the limit of quantification (LOQ). As for WTS2, the results for E2 removal were similar to WTS1, a...
International Journal of Research in Orthopaedics
An osteochondroma is a type of cartilaginous tumour, that frequently affects long bones. In the s... more An osteochondroma is a type of cartilaginous tumour, that frequently affects long bones. In the scapula, although rare, this benign tumour is the most frequently encountered. The symptoms at this location are usually related to the mass effect that it can produce. Surgery is recommended when symptoms of compression, pain or an increase in size are noticed. The authors present a case of a 11 year-old-boy with an osteochondroma on the ventral surface of the scapula, that cause a pseudo winging of this bone and pain, with indication for surgical excision. Pseudo scapula alata should be differentiated from the true one, which is a dynamic dyskinesia. In the presence of this static deformity the surgeon must keep in mind other diagnosis as a scapular osteochondroma or other mass effect lesions. This benign tumour does not frequently suffer malignant transformation. Surgery can lead to a complete resolution of the symptoms, and if done properly decrease to almost zero the rate of recurren...
International Journal of Research in Orthopaedics
A 73 years old female diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis for over 30 years with an end-stage rig... more A 73 years old female diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis for over 30 years with an end-stage right elbow arthritis (stage V of Larsen’s classification) with a major instability. The patient presented gross deformity and severe pain with critical limitation of limb function. The patient was treated with a total elbow arthroplasty with an intraoperative olecranon fracture. At six months follow up, the patient presents with an excellent active range of motion and painless joint, without daily activities limitation.
Open Engineering, 2016
Many studies concerning morphing aircraft concepts in which enhanced performance and increased en... more Many studies concerning morphing aircraft concepts in which enhanced performance and increased energy efficiency are two of the main goals have been recently conducted. Some of those concepts deal with wing span changes. In line with those, in a variable-span wing of the telescopic type, the cross-sections of the sliding panels, whether be two, three or more, must be made geometrically compatible among them. This requirement serves two purposes: to minimize the aerofoils’ geometric discontinuity which negatively affects wing drag and lift; and to provide a simple structural support between any two sliding panels. This paper describes the methodology employed to develop geometrically compatible aerofoils obtained from a constant geometric offset applied to a given initial aerofoil. This methodology is used to create inward offset aerofoils and outward offset aerofoils. The geometric and aerodynamic characteristics of the resulting offset aerofoils are compared with those of the origi...
Revista Portuguesa de Endocrinologia, Diabetes e Metabolismo, 2016
Projecto De Tese De Mestrado Em Engenharia Informatica, 2009
The Journal of Urology, 2016
Tumors were managed by partial nephrectomy (67.5%), radical nephrectomy (19.4%), percutaneous rad... more Tumors were managed by partial nephrectomy (67.5%), radical nephrectomy (19.4%), percutaneous radiofrequency ablation (10.4%), and cryoablation (2.4%). Of the 131 patients who underwent nephron-sparing interventions, 7.6% returned to dialysis and 5.3% developed tumor recurrence, during a mean follow-up of 2.85 years. Of those who had partial nephrectomy, 3.6% developed local recurrence, requiring subsequent complete transplant nephrectomy. During a mean follow-up of 3.12 years, 9 patients were deceased, of which 2 were cancer-specific mortalities. CONCLUSIONS: Current management of SRMs in transplant allograft kidney mirrors management of renal masses in the average population. Compared to the non-transplant population, the incidence of papillary RCC in the transplanted allograft is much higher (42% vs. 10-15%). While papillary RCC is known to have an increased incidence in ESRD native kidneys, the majority of the transplant allograft kidneys were healthy at time of transplant. As life expectancy improves for renal transplant patients, SRMs will likely become more prevalent. Proper surveillance of this subpopulation is imperative, as acceptable oncological outcome of allograft tumors is achievable.
Journal of Gastrointestinal Cancer, 2015
ABSTRACT This paper addresses the problem of designing a communication device to people with comm... more ABSTRACT This paper addresses the problem of designing a communication device to people with communication disorders who are unable to communicate using speech. Physical disabilities and motor co-ordination problems are sometimes responsible for the difficulty in face to face communication and can make the production of speech difficult or impossible. The Alternative and Augmentative Communication (AAC) devices are a valid solution to help these people to communicate. Usually these devices are heavy, expensive, difficult to transport and their use can be impractical on a day-to-day basis. Additionally, AAC traditional devices operate in a static form (using switches) not taking into account the remaining physical user interaction. In this paper we propose a new AAC device, portable and wearable (on clothes or fashion accessories). A voice playback device, with capture and reproduction abilities has been developed (words and sounds). It is able to reproduce until eight different pre-recorded sounds. Taking advantage of the capabilities of an accelerometer, the system output automatic sound messages, such as "yes" and "no", accordingly to the patient head movements. The first prototype boards were developed and tested. Test results have shown satisfactory performance and the sound quality is quite good, for the application requirements. To our best knowledge, the proposed device present unique characteristics, such as reduced dimensions, low weight and power autonomy, currently not available in commercial solutions, what can foresee a promising future for the use of the proposed device as AAC wearable electronics.
International Journal of Quantum Chemistry, 2007
Potential energy surfaces (PES) are crucial to the study of reactive and nonreactive chemical sys... more Potential energy surfaces (PES) are crucial to the study of reactive and nonreactive chemical systems by Monte Carlo (MC) or molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Ideally, PES should have the accuracy provided by ab initio calculations and be set up as fast as possible. Recently, neural networks (NNs) turned out as a suitable approach for estimating PES from ab initio/DFT energy
Journal of Virological Methods, 2006
Quantitation of HIV-1 RNA levels in plasma has an undisputed prognostic value and is extremely im... more Quantitation of HIV-1 RNA levels in plasma has an undisputed prognostic value and is extremely important for evaluating response to antiretroviral therapy. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the performance of the real-time PCR COBAS TaqMan 48 analyser, comparing it to the existing VERSANT 3.0 (bDNA) for HIV-1 RNA quantitation in plasma of individuals infected with different HIV-1 subtypes (104 blood samples). A positive linear correlation between the two tests (r 2 = 0.88) was found. Quantitation by the COBAS TaqMan assay was approximately 0.32 log 10 higher than by bDNA. The relationship between the two assays was similar within all subtypes with a Deming regression of <1 and <0 for the Bland-Altman plots. Overall, no significant differences were found in plasma viral load quantitation in different HIV-1 subtypes between both assays; therefore these assays are suitable for viral load quantitation of highly genetically diverse HIV-1 plasma samples.
Milhoes de pacientes com glaucoma irao perder a visao, tornando-se uma necessidade desenvolver te... more Milhoes de pacientes com glaucoma irao perder a visao, tornando-se uma necessidade desenvolver terapias neuroprotetoras que podem ser usadas, em conjuncao com medicamentos hipotensores, para impedir a morte de celulas ganglionares da retina (RGC). Recentes avancos na compreensao da fisiopatologia do glaucoma e um fator chave na patogenese da neuropatia glaucomatosa. Com base nos achados em doencas semelhantes, a hipotese de que melhorando o fluxo sanguineo do nervo optico da retina podem resultar em uma protecao significativa nas CGR e prevenir a perda da visao no glaucoma. O sildenafil, uma droga vasodilatadora que inibe PDE5, aumentando assim os niveis de cGMP e prolongando seus efeitos, sendo que foi demonstrado melhorar a sobrevivencia de varios lesoes degenerativas. Esta breve revisao resume alguns dos avancos mais importantes que tiveram no entendimento sobre esta doenca e um possivel tratamento.
Primary neoplasms of the heart are rare in all domestic species, however, paragangliomas occur in... more Primary neoplasms of the heart are rare in all domestic species, however, paragangliomas occur in dogs. In this case report, a Golden Retriever breed was sent to the Pathology Department of Veterinary Veterinary Hospital - UNESP, Botucatu with sudden death. At necropsy, the heart showed neoformation adjacent to the caudal vena cava and in the right atrium and, in both lungs were observed many nodes. The collected material was processed and stained with hematoxylin-eosin. It was also performed immunohistochemical panel for anti-cytokeratin, anti-vimentin, anti-desmin, smooth muscle anti-alpha actin, anti-factor VIII and anti-enolase specific neuron (NSE). Based on the clinical and morphological findings, anatomical, histological, additionally, to positive immunoreactivity for NSE, the tumor was characterized as a paraganglioma grade 2 of malignancy. This report aims to contribute by adding data to the literature of this neoplasm.
PADTAD 2010 - International Workshop on Parallel and Distributed Systems: Testing, Analysis, and Debugging, 2010
Transactional Memory allows programmers to reduce the number of synchronization errors introduced... more Transactional Memory allows programmers to reduce the number of synchronization errors introduced in concurrent programs, but does not ensures its complete elimination. This paper proposes a pattern matching based approach to the static detection of atomicity violation, based on a pathsensitive symbolic execution method to model four anomalies that may affect Transactional Memory programs. The proposed technique may be used to to bring to programmer's attention pairs of transactions that the programmer has misspecified, and should have been combined into a single transaction. The algorithm first traverses the AST tree, removing all the non-transactional blocks and generating a trace tree in the path sensitive manner for each thread. The trace tree is a Trie like data structure, where each path from root to a leaf is a list of transactions. For each pair of threads, erroneous patterns involving two consecutive transactions are then checked in the trace tree. Results allow to conclude that the proposed technique, although triggering a moderate number of false positives, can be successfully applied to Java programs, correctly identifying the vast majority of the relevant erroneous patterns.
Chirurgia (Bucharest, Romania : 1990)
Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) are a broad category of mesenchymal, non-epithelial primar... more Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) are a broad category of mesenchymal, non-epithelial primary tumors of the digestive tract, located in the wall of hollow viscera, from the esophagus to the anus and often in adjacent mesentery and omentum. They are clinically unpredictable (may be discovered incidentally during an imagistic investigation or during surgery for other pathological entity, or at necropsy) and also have an unpredictable behavior (GISTs with very low risk, with low or moderate malignancy, which have benign histopathologic features but can recurr or can metastasize). The case we present here represents a rare association between a synchronous gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) and multiple gastric benign and malignant tumors.
ACS Omega
The concept of molecular metamorphosis is described. A molecule (flavylium cation) generates a se... more The concept of molecular metamorphosis is described. A molecule (flavylium cation) generates a sequence of other different molecules by means of external stimuli. The reversibility of the system allows for the flavylium cation to be recovered by other external stimuli, completing one cycle. Differently from supramolecular chemistry, molecular metamorphosis is not a bottom-up approach. All events occur at the bottom. The procedures to characterize the kinetics and thermodynamics of the cycles are summarized. They are based on direct pH jumps (addition of a base to the flavylium cation) and reverse pH jumps (addition of an acid to equilibrated solutions at higher pH values). Stopped flow is an indispensable tool to characterize these systems. The following metamorphic cycles will be described to illustrate the concept: (i) introducing the flavanone in the metamorphic system and illustrating the concept of a timer at the molecular level; (ii) response of the flavylium-based metamorphosis to light inputs and the write-lock-read-unlock-erase molecular switching system; (iii) a one-way cycle of direct−reverse pH jumps; (iv) interconversion of the flavylium cation with 2,2′-spirobis[chromene] derivatives; (v) 6,8 A-ring substituent rearrangements.
Molecules
Presently, water quantity and quality problems persist both in developed and developing countries... more Presently, water quantity and quality problems persist both in developed and developing countries, and concerns have been raised about the presence of emerging pollutants (EPs) in water. The circular economy provides ways of achieving sustainable resource management that can be implemented in the water sector, such as the reuse of drinking water treatment sludges (WTSs). This study evaluated the potential of WTS containing a high concentration of activated carbon for the removal of two EPs: the steroid hormones 17β-estradiol (E2) and 17α-ethinylestradiol (EE2). To this end, WTSs from two Portuguese water treatment plants (WTPs) were characterised and tested for their hormone adsorbance potential. Both WTSs showed a promising adsorption potential for the two hormones studied due to their textural and chemical properties. For WTS1, the final concentration for both hormones was lower than the limit of quantification (LOQ). As for WTS2, the results for E2 removal were similar to WTS1, a...
International Journal of Research in Orthopaedics
An osteochondroma is a type of cartilaginous tumour, that frequently affects long bones. In the s... more An osteochondroma is a type of cartilaginous tumour, that frequently affects long bones. In the scapula, although rare, this benign tumour is the most frequently encountered. The symptoms at this location are usually related to the mass effect that it can produce. Surgery is recommended when symptoms of compression, pain or an increase in size are noticed. The authors present a case of a 11 year-old-boy with an osteochondroma on the ventral surface of the scapula, that cause a pseudo winging of this bone and pain, with indication for surgical excision. Pseudo scapula alata should be differentiated from the true one, which is a dynamic dyskinesia. In the presence of this static deformity the surgeon must keep in mind other diagnosis as a scapular osteochondroma or other mass effect lesions. This benign tumour does not frequently suffer malignant transformation. Surgery can lead to a complete resolution of the symptoms, and if done properly decrease to almost zero the rate of recurren...
International Journal of Research in Orthopaedics
A 73 years old female diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis for over 30 years with an end-stage rig... more A 73 years old female diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis for over 30 years with an end-stage right elbow arthritis (stage V of Larsen’s classification) with a major instability. The patient presented gross deformity and severe pain with critical limitation of limb function. The patient was treated with a total elbow arthroplasty with an intraoperative olecranon fracture. At six months follow up, the patient presents with an excellent active range of motion and painless joint, without daily activities limitation.
Open Engineering, 2016
Many studies concerning morphing aircraft concepts in which enhanced performance and increased en... more Many studies concerning morphing aircraft concepts in which enhanced performance and increased energy efficiency are two of the main goals have been recently conducted. Some of those concepts deal with wing span changes. In line with those, in a variable-span wing of the telescopic type, the cross-sections of the sliding panels, whether be two, three or more, must be made geometrically compatible among them. This requirement serves two purposes: to minimize the aerofoils’ geometric discontinuity which negatively affects wing drag and lift; and to provide a simple structural support between any two sliding panels. This paper describes the methodology employed to develop geometrically compatible aerofoils obtained from a constant geometric offset applied to a given initial aerofoil. This methodology is used to create inward offset aerofoils and outward offset aerofoils. The geometric and aerodynamic characteristics of the resulting offset aerofoils are compared with those of the origi...
Revista Portuguesa de Endocrinologia, Diabetes e Metabolismo, 2016
Projecto De Tese De Mestrado Em Engenharia Informatica, 2009
The Journal of Urology, 2016
Tumors were managed by partial nephrectomy (67.5%), radical nephrectomy (19.4%), percutaneous rad... more Tumors were managed by partial nephrectomy (67.5%), radical nephrectomy (19.4%), percutaneous radiofrequency ablation (10.4%), and cryoablation (2.4%). Of the 131 patients who underwent nephron-sparing interventions, 7.6% returned to dialysis and 5.3% developed tumor recurrence, during a mean follow-up of 2.85 years. Of those who had partial nephrectomy, 3.6% developed local recurrence, requiring subsequent complete transplant nephrectomy. During a mean follow-up of 3.12 years, 9 patients were deceased, of which 2 were cancer-specific mortalities. CONCLUSIONS: Current management of SRMs in transplant allograft kidney mirrors management of renal masses in the average population. Compared to the non-transplant population, the incidence of papillary RCC in the transplanted allograft is much higher (42% vs. 10-15%). While papillary RCC is known to have an increased incidence in ESRD native kidneys, the majority of the transplant allograft kidneys were healthy at time of transplant. As life expectancy improves for renal transplant patients, SRMs will likely become more prevalent. Proper surveillance of this subpopulation is imperative, as acceptable oncological outcome of allograft tumors is achievable.
Journal of Gastrointestinal Cancer, 2015
ABSTRACT This paper addresses the problem of designing a communication device to people with comm... more ABSTRACT This paper addresses the problem of designing a communication device to people with communication disorders who are unable to communicate using speech. Physical disabilities and motor co-ordination problems are sometimes responsible for the difficulty in face to face communication and can make the production of speech difficult or impossible. The Alternative and Augmentative Communication (AAC) devices are a valid solution to help these people to communicate. Usually these devices are heavy, expensive, difficult to transport and their use can be impractical on a day-to-day basis. Additionally, AAC traditional devices operate in a static form (using switches) not taking into account the remaining physical user interaction. In this paper we propose a new AAC device, portable and wearable (on clothes or fashion accessories). A voice playback device, with capture and reproduction abilities has been developed (words and sounds). It is able to reproduce until eight different pre-recorded sounds. Taking advantage of the capabilities of an accelerometer, the system output automatic sound messages, such as "yes" and "no", accordingly to the patient head movements. The first prototype boards were developed and tested. Test results have shown satisfactory performance and the sound quality is quite good, for the application requirements. To our best knowledge, the proposed device present unique characteristics, such as reduced dimensions, low weight and power autonomy, currently not available in commercial solutions, what can foresee a promising future for the use of the proposed device as AAC wearable electronics.
International Journal of Quantum Chemistry, 2007
Potential energy surfaces (PES) are crucial to the study of reactive and nonreactive chemical sys... more Potential energy surfaces (PES) are crucial to the study of reactive and nonreactive chemical systems by Monte Carlo (MC) or molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Ideally, PES should have the accuracy provided by ab initio calculations and be set up as fast as possible. Recently, neural networks (NNs) turned out as a suitable approach for estimating PES from ab initio/DFT energy
Journal of Virological Methods, 2006
Quantitation of HIV-1 RNA levels in plasma has an undisputed prognostic value and is extremely im... more Quantitation of HIV-1 RNA levels in plasma has an undisputed prognostic value and is extremely important for evaluating response to antiretroviral therapy. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the performance of the real-time PCR COBAS TaqMan 48 analyser, comparing it to the existing VERSANT 3.0 (bDNA) for HIV-1 RNA quantitation in plasma of individuals infected with different HIV-1 subtypes (104 blood samples). A positive linear correlation between the two tests (r 2 = 0.88) was found. Quantitation by the COBAS TaqMan assay was approximately 0.32 log 10 higher than by bDNA. The relationship between the two assays was similar within all subtypes with a Deming regression of <1 and <0 for the Bland-Altman plots. Overall, no significant differences were found in plasma viral load quantitation in different HIV-1 subtypes between both assays; therefore these assays are suitable for viral load quantitation of highly genetically diverse HIV-1 plasma samples.