Companies have been challenged to attend to multiple objectives and to achieve appropriate decisions facing dichotomies mentioned in literature, such as shareholder versus stakeholder; financial ...versus non-financial; single versus multiple measures. Since the translation of the sustainable development concept to business by the triple bottom line (TBL), there have been attempts to implement operational approaches. This study proposes a model that helps corporate decision-making considering the TBL framework and a stakeholder view. Multi-criteria decision aid methods are used to generate a sustainability balanced single measure and performance indices. We apply the model to a Brazilian electricity corporation, where the indices are calculated from existing GRI indicators, and the use of the model within the company's strategic plan annual review is demonstrated. The findings suggest that the model has the potential to support informed decisions and the integration of corporate sustainability performance measurement and reporting activities with traditional management control systems.
•We developed a multi-criteria model to assist TBL corporate sustainability decision-making.•The proposed model captures multi-dimensionality of triple bottom line decisions.•We proposed an index to assess balanced performance in triple bottom line.•The proposed model can be part of the strategic planning.•The proposed model contributes to the integration of management control and reporting.
Chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetes, neurodegenerative and cardiovascular diseases are characterized by an enhanced state of oxidative stress, which may result from the overproduction of ...reactive species and/or a decrease in antioxidant defenses. The search for new chemical entities with antioxidant profile is still thus an emerging field on ongoing interest. Due to the lack of reviews concerning the antioxidant activity of lichen-derived natural compounds, we performed a review of the antioxidant potential and mechanisms of action of natural compounds isolated from lichens. The search terms "lichens", "antioxidants" and "antioxidant response elements" were used to retrieve articles in LILACS, PubMed and Web of Science published until February 2014. From a total of 319 articles surveyed, 32 met the established inclusion and exclusion criteria. It was observed that the most common isolated compound studied was usnic acid, cited in 14 out of the 32 articles. The most often described antioxidant assays for the study of in vitro antioxidant activity were mainly DPPH, LPO and SOD. The most suggested mechanisms of action were scavenging of reactive species, enzymatic activation and inhibition of iNOS. Thus, compounds isolated from lichens are possible candidates for the management of oxidative stress, and may be useful in the treatment of chronic diseases.
Poly(adenosine diphosphate-ribose) polymerase inhibitors target cancers with defects in homologous recombination repair by synthetic lethality. New therapies are needed to reduce recurrence in ...patients with
or
germline mutation-associated early breast cancer.
We conducted a phase 3, double-blind, randomized trial involving patients with human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative early breast cancer with
or
germline pathogenic or likely pathogenic variants and high-risk clinicopathological factors who had received local treatment and neoadjuvant or adjuvant chemotherapy. Patients were randomly assigned (in a 1:1 ratio) to 1 year of oral olaparib or placebo. The primary end point was invasive disease-free survival.
A total of 1836 patients underwent randomization. At a prespecified event-driven interim analysis with a median follow-up of 2.5 years, the 3-year invasive disease-free survival was 85.9% in the olaparib group and 77.1% in the placebo group (difference, 8.8 percentage points; 95% confidence interval CI, 4.5 to 13.0; hazard ratio for invasive disease or death, 0.58; 99.5% CI, 0.41 to 0.82; P<0.001). The 3-year distant disease-free survival was 87.5% in the olaparib group and 80.4% in the placebo group (difference, 7.1 percentage points; 95% CI, 3.0 to 11.1; hazard ratio for distant disease or death, 0.57; 99.5% CI, 0.39 to 0.83; P<0.001). Olaparib was associated with fewer deaths than placebo (59 and 86, respectively) (hazard ratio, 0.68; 99% CI, 0.44 to 1.05; P = 0.02); however, the between-group difference was not significant at an interim-analysis boundary of a P value of less than 0.01. Safety data were consistent with known side effects of olaparib, with no excess serious adverse events or adverse events of special interest.
Among patients with high-risk, HER2-negative early breast cancer and germline
or
pathogenic or likely pathogenic variants, adjuvant olaparib after completion of local treatment and neoadjuvant or adjuvant chemotherapy was associated with significantly longer survival free of invasive or distant disease than was placebo. Olaparib had limited effects on global patient-reported quality of life. (Funded by the National Cancer Institute and AstraZeneca; OlympiA ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT02032823.).
Despite great advances in the fight against cancer, traditional chemotherapy has been hindered by the dose dependent adverse side effects that reduce the usable doses for effective therapy. This has ...been associated to drug resistance in tumor cells that often cause relapse and therapy failure. These drawbacks have been tackled by combining different therapeutic regiments that prevent drug resistance while decreasing the chemotherapy dose required for efficacious ablation of cancer. In fact, new metallic compounds have been in a continuous development to extend the existing chemotherapy arsenal for these combined regimens. Here, we demonstrate that combination of a metallic compound (TS265), previously characterized by our group, with photothermy circumvents cells resistant to Doxorubicin (DOX). We first engendered a colorectal carcinoma cell line (HCT116) highly resistant to DOX, whose viability was diminished after administration of TS265. Cancer cell death was potentiated by challenging these cells with 14 nm spherical gold nanoparticles followed by laser irradiation at 532 nm. The combination of TS265 with photothermy lead to 65% cell death of the DOX resistant cells without impacting healthy cells. These results support the use of combined chemotherapy and photothermy in the visible spectrum as an efficient tool for drug resistant tumors.
With the advent of personalized medicine, there is a movement to develop "smaller" and "smarter" microdevices that are able to distinguish similar cancer subtypes. Tumor cells display major ...differences when compared to their natural counterparts, due to alterations in fundamental cellular processes such as glycosylation. Glycans are involved in tumor cell biology and they have been considered to be suitable cancer biomarkers. Thus, more selective cancer screening assays can be developed through the detection of specific altered glycans on the surface of circulating cancer cells. Currently, this is only possible through time-consuming assays. In this work, we propose the "intelligent" Lab on Fiber (iLoF) device, that has a high-resolution, and which is a fast and portable method for tumor single-cell type identification and isolation. We apply an Artificial Intelligence approach to the back-scattered signal arising from a trapped cell by a micro-lensed optical fiber. As a proof of concept, we show that iLoF is able to discriminate two human cancer cell models sharing the same genetic background but displaying a different surface glycosylation profile with an accuracy above 90% and a speed rate of 2.3 seconds. We envision the incorporation of the iLoF in an easy-to-operate microchip for cancer identification, which would allow further biological characterization of the captured circulating live cells.
Side Effects of Phototherapy on Neonates Faulhaber, Fabrízia R S; Procianoy, Renato S; Silveira, Rita C
American journal of perinatology,
02/2019, Letnik:
36, Številka:
3
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Phototherapy in neonates for treatment of pathological jaundice is an effective therapeutic tool that is widely used in neonatal units. Over the past years, a greater concern has emerged about the ...effects on the immune and inflammatory system and its potential genotoxic and side effects, especially the late ones, possibly associated with childhood diseases, showing that this treatment is not as harmless as previously believed. Numerous studies assessing these possible adverse effects of phototherapy on neonates have been published over the past years. Through this review, we seek to analyze what we know about the side effects of phototherapy in the neonatal period. The main causes of jaundice, phototherapy techniques, acute and late side effects, and effects on the immune and inflammatory system were reviewed. It was concluded that phototherapy is not a treatment free of side effects and further studies need to be conducted to elucidate its harmful effects on neonates.
Physical exercise is a low-cost, safe, and efficient intervention for the reduction of neuropathic chronic pain in humans. However, the underlying mechanisms for how exercise reduces neuropathic pain ...are not yet well understood. Central monoaminergic systems play a critical role in endogenous analgesia leading us to hypothesize that the analgesic effect of low-intensity exercise occurs through activation of monoaminergic neurotransmission in descending inhibitory systems. To test this hypothesis, we induced peripheral nerve injury (PNI) by crushing the sciatic nerve. The exercise intervention consisted of low-intensity treadmill running for 2 weeks immediately after injury. Animals with PNI showed an increase in pain-like behaviors that were reduced by treadmill running. Reduction of serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine) synthesis using the tryptophan hydroxylase inhibitor para-chlorophenylalanine methyl ester prevented the analgesic effect of exercise. However, blockade catecholamine synthesis with the tyrosine hydroxylase inhibitor alpha-methyl-para-tyrosine had no effect. In parallel, 2 weeks of exercise increased brainstem levels of the 5-HT and its metabolites (5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid), decreased expression of the serotonin transporter, and increased expression of 5-HT receptors (5HT-1B, 2A, 2C). Finally, PNI-induced increase in inflammatory cytokines, tumor necrosis factor-alpha, and interleukin-1 beta, in the brainstem, was reversed by 2 weeks of exercise. These findings provide new evidence indicating that low-intensity aerobic treadmill exercise suppresses pain-like behaviors in animals with neuropathic pain by enhancing brainstem 5-HT neurotransmission. These data provide a rationale for the analgesia produced by exercise to provide an alternative approach to the treatment of chronic neuropathic pain.
Purpose: To describe the etiology, clinical profile, duration of lagophthalmos cases and thereby, framing a decision for the management based on the severity of Exposure keratitis (EK), Facial palsy ...(FP) with each etiology and to describe the outcome of the management options. Methods: The method was a prospective review of 120 lagophthalmos cases treated at a single tertiary center from January 2018 to January 2019. The main outcome measures were analysing the association between age, etiology, duration and management of lagophthalmos. Results: Of the 120 patients studied, paralytic etiology was noted in 86 and eyelid etiology in 34 patients. The percentage of various lagophthalmos etiology documented were Bell's palsy (35.83%), lagophthalmos in ICU patients (15%), traumatic facial palsy(FP) (10.80%), stroke associated FP (6.67%), infection associated FP (6.67%), iatrogenic FP, cicatricial lagophthalmos (5%), lagophthalmos post eyelid surgeries (5%), neoplastic FP(3.33%), congenital FP (1.67%), proptosis induced lagophthalmos (1.67%), floppy eyelid syndrome induced lagophthalmos (0.83%) and lid coloboma associated lagophthalmos (0.83%). A statistically significant correlation was noted between exposure keratitis and age, with an increased prevalence age advances. The management showed significant variation with individual etiology, with some etiologies unquestionably requiring surgical management. Surgical management is crucial as the duration of lagophthalmos increases more than 6 weeks, EK involving pupillary axis and poor FP recovery. Conclusion: This study concludes that the conservative management was sufficient in all cases when the duration is less than 1 week, Exposure keratitis not involving the pupillary axis (EK< Grade II) and FP with good functional recovery ( FP < Grade III). The predominant causes being Bell's palsy, lagophthalmos in ICU patients and vascular FP. Whereas, cases with poor functional recovery of facial palsy(FP) and permanent eyelid deformation require definitive surgical management like Traumatic FP & cicatricial lagophthalmos.
Thermogravimetric analysis (TG) was used to investigate kinetic thermal decomposition process of thalidomide under non-isothermal and isothermal conditions. For the isothermal treatment, a ...methodology based on multilayer perceptron neural networks was adopted using four isothermal experimental data. These temperatures were chosen once they are near to the most important loss of mass of the material. Fifteen well-established models for solid thermal decomposition were used in the network to describe the process. The contraction models were selected by the network as a preferable set as they presented small residual error to fit the data. The neural network architecture allows quantifying the contribution of each model in the process description and also corrects the kinetic functions. Nitrogen atmosphere was used, and the experiments were performed at 293, 304, 314 and 324 °C. In the non-isothermal analysis, the activation energy was calculated through Friedman, Vyazovkin and Kissinger–Akahira–Sunose methods. For these experiments, N
2
atmosphere was also used at four heating rates: 2.5, 5.0, 10 and 20 °C min
−1
. The activation energy was calculated as 98–108 kJ mol
−1
for all the methods. The results were compared and analyzed to predict thermal decomposition for the medicines.
Kinetic study of solid’s thermal decomposition provides essential information about a system and its possible industrial applications. For complex materials, such as sewage sludge, several reactions ...can occur during the thermal process. Therefore, single-step methodologies as isoconversional analysis and kinetic model determination should not accurately describe the phenomenon. As an alternative, a better approach consists of determining the distribution of activation energy, which considers more than one reaction in the same thermal process. To obtain the kinetic model parameters or recover the activation energy distribution by thermal analysis, an ill-conditioned inverse problem has to be solved, and, therefore, Hopfield neural network (HNN) can be successfully used. In the present work, the results of HNN are compared with the traditional Levenberg–Marquardt algorithm. For this system, the distribution of activation energy model (DAEM) is adequate to represent the experimental data instead of kinetic model determination or isoconversional methods.
PDF
