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Bio&Med Search – A Platform to Help Health Professionals about Pharmacogenetics
Publication . Rocha, Andreia; Vilhena, Joana; Bernardino, Anabela; Bernardino, Eugénia; Gonçalves, Alexandrino; Ascenso, Rita M.T.
Bio&Med Search is an online platform that allows to get data from different databases; it permits the collection of information about genetic research, namely genetic variants and drug side effects associated with genetic variability. Based on the concept of pharmacogenetics people respond differently to medicines according to their genes’ variants. Nowadays, health professionals should be more and more aware of the origin of several drug severe side effects.
This proposed web platform will allow the improvement and better prescription practices by health professionals, from physicians to pharmaceuticals. With Bio&Med Search, it will be possible to access scientific information and data about genetic variants associated to certain diseases and drugs, to better suggest and adjust the patient’s medication according to its diagnostic and chemical composition of drugs and may suggest genetic tests. In this way, the error of prescription of drugs decreases and the quality of life of the patient may be improved, avoiding already described side effects. It will be possible to compare studies and literature associated to each drug, chemical composition, gene, gene variants and diseases.
Tree-Based Ensemble Methods for Complexity Reduction of VVC Intra Coding
Publication . Filipe, Jose N.; Carreira, J.; Tavora, Luis M. N.; Faria, Sergio M. M. de; Navarro, Antonio; Assuncao, Pedro A. A.
The rise of new applications and emerging services required ultra-high definition (UHD) led to the development of a new video compression standard, name Versatile Video Coding (VVC). In comparison with High Efficiency Video Coding, the new standard increases the coding efficiency, at the expense of greatly increasing the computational complexity of the encoding process, especially in UHD and 360°video. To overcome this issue, this paper presents a novel method to reduce the computational complexity of intra-coded 360°video in Equirectangular Projection format, based on 3 tree-based ensemble models to predict the maximum partition depth that should be used for intra-coding of the complex nested data structures (Quad Tree, Binary Tree and Ternary Tree) used in the VVC standard. Two different tree-based ensemble methods are studied, namely Random Forest and Extremely Randomised Trees. The experimental results achieve, on average, complexity reductions of 56.25% and 57.45% for Random Forests and Extremely Randomised Trees methods, with small loss of coding efficiency of 1.37 % and 1.46 %, respectively.
Review Paper on Transmitarray Antennas
Publication . Reis, João R.; Vala, Mario; Caldeirinha, Rafael F. S.
This paper presents a thorough review of transmitarray devices particularly aiming antenna beamsteering, gathering some of the most relevant solutions published by the scientific community in the field. First, the background for realizing 1-D and 2-D antenna beamsteering with a transmitarray is introduced. Subsequently, several examples of unit-cells for transmitarray implementation and complete transmitarray designs presented in the literature are outlined. Each solution is analyzed in detail, identifying the nature of its layout, e.g., based on microstrip patches, frequency selective surfaces (FSS), or metamaterials (MMs), and the method employed to enable electronic reconfigurability, e.g., p-i-n diodes, varactor diodes, or microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). In addition, some models with the capability of controlling the wavefront polarization modes are also included herein since these are the base of hybrid transmitarrays, i.e., transmitarray with both electronic beamsteering and polarization control. Finally, all the models are compared against each other in order to highlight their benefits and limitations, summarizing their main characteristics, such as the frequency of operation and bandwidth, insertion loss, physical dimensions, and maximum beamsteering range, when available.
Using Augmented Reality in Patients with Autism: A Systematic Review
Publication . Marto, Anabela; Almeida, Henrique A.; Gonçalves, Alexandrino
Augmented Reality (AR) technology has been used for a wide range of areas, uncovering diverse benefits regarding to its usage. Focusing on medicine, AR is being used for the last few decades in several different tasks – from surgery support to treatment of phobias and other cognitive or physiological disorders. This study intends to focus on the usage of AR in one specific pathology: the rehabilitation of people that suffer from autism. This systematic review will present an overview of the usage of AR technology, from a patients’ perspective, where strengths and weaknesses of current approaches will be pointed out, to better understand good practices to follow when using AR for autism rehabilitation. The results from this systematic review will provide valuable information for further ideas and solutions regarding to enhance Autism Spectrum Disorder patients’ wellbeing.
Assessment of the fatigue performance of heat-treated addictive manufactured TiAl6V4 specimens
Publication . Borrego, L.P.; Jesus, J. de; Ferreira, J.A.M.; Costa, J.D.M.; Capela, C.; Capela, C.
Titanium Ti6Al4V alloy has excellent mechanical properties and corrosion resistance combined with low specific weight, and is commonly used in biomedical applications, automotive and aerospace components, involving fatigue loadings. Current work studies the fatigue behavior under strain amplitude control of titanium TiAl6V4 specimens, intending to characterize fatigue strength from low to high life range after different heat treatments. Fatigue tests were carried out at room temperature, using round dog bone specimens produced by selective laser melting (SLM), where laser powder deposition occurred in layers perpendicular to the loading direction. Two batches of specimens were tested: one subjected to a stress relieve treatment and a second one treated by the hot isostatic pressing process (HIP). The material was characterized in terms of the tensile mechanical properties, cycle curve, Basquin and Coffin equations. Additional analysis of the hardness and scanning electron microscopy was carried out to complement the discussion of the results. The obtained dada showed that the stress relieved specimens exhibits significantly cyclic softening, increasing with applied strain, while HIP specimens show a practically stable cyclic behavior in relation to the monotonic curve. Material response for both treatments is well fitted by Basquin and Coffin-Manson formulations. The transition life was 187 reversals and 326 reversals, for stress relieved and HIP specimens, respectively. Fatigue life for a given strain is governed by the strain value, independently of the post manufacturing heat treatment.