“Not storing the samples it’s certainly not a good service for patients”: Constructing the Biobank as a health place

Biobanks have been established from the beginning of the millennium as relevant infrastructures to support biomedical research. These repositories have also transformed the paradigm of collecting and storing samples and associated clinical data, moving these practices from the healthcare services and research laboratories to dedicated services. In Portugal, the establishment of biobanks is happening in the absence of a specific legal framework, turning it difficult to fully understand the scope of their action. This ethnographic research explored how establishing a biobank challenges the dynamics between healthcare and biomedical research. The ethnography intended to follow the path of biological samples from the hospital, where they were collected, to the biobank in a research institute, where they were stored. Findings suggest that although the nature of the biobank’s technical work seemed to inscribe it as a research-oriented setting, the biobank’s daily work was performed through symbolic action in the logic of care. Biobank staff constantly recalled the human nature of the samples, and they built complex illness narratives of each sample, promoting a connection with the absent donor. These practices were crucial to constructing the biobank as a health place, one that was designed to be life-saving in the near future.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Digital informed consent: Possibilities and challenges in biobanks for health research

Biobanks are key infrastructures in biomedical research, storing and providing biological samples, personal and clinical data. Informed con- sent is a central piece of the process, as a means to respect each parti- cipants’ dignity, integrity and to acknowledge their capacity to express autonomous decisions. Providing adequate information, while ensuring the voluntariness of their decision are essential to an effective consent. Requesting informed consent usually takes place in the context of heal- thcare, where paper forms are still widely preferred, when not manda- tory and when person to person relationships are crucial. As biobanks are moving fast to implement automated protocols from biological samples processing to data collection, it is relevant to discuss the challenges posed by the digitalization of informed consent. To this end, such transition will be critically discussed using dynamic consent as a starting point to highlight the opportunities of digital tools, but also the relevance of healthcare context.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Modelling of an R-290/POE ISO 22 Variable Speed Air Conditioner System under SEER Conditions

Air-conditioning applications using propane (R-290) have several environmental and thermodynamic advantages over more commonly used refrigerants, such as R-410A and R-22. This paper presents the development of a mathematical model for variable capacity air conditioning systems that use R-290/POE ISO 22 as refrigerant/lubricant. The thermodynamic performance of the refrigeration system is evaluated in terms of the SEER (Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio). The thermodynamic properties of the refrigerant/lubricant mixture were obtained from a departure-function approach using the Peng-Robinson equation of state. The effect of the oil on the condenser and evaporator heat transfer coefficients and pressure drops was also taken into account. Sub-models were developed for each component of the air conditioning system, including the connecting lines and the scroll compressor.

Os portugueses e os biobancos: um primeiro mapeamento de uma realidade emergente

Nesta intervenção, venho apresentar alguns aspetos sobre a realidade portuguesa dos biobancos, tanto do ponto de vista do público e da sociedade civil, como dos biobancos que existem em Portugal.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Os portugueses e os biobancos: um primeiro mapeamento de uma realidade emergente

Nesta intervenção, venho apresentar alguns aspetos sobre a realidade portuguesa dos biobancos, tanto do ponto de vista do público e da sociedade civil, como dos biobancos que existem em Portugal.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Performance of prototypes for the ALICE electromagnetic calorimeter

The performance of prototypes for the ALICE electromagnetic sampling calorimeter has been studied in test beam measurements at FNAL and CERN. A $4\times4$ array of final design modules showed an energy resolution of about 11% /$\sqrt{E(\mathrm{GeV})}$ $\oplus$ 1.7 % with a uniformity of the response to electrons of 1% and a good linearity in the energy range from 10 to 100 GeV. The electromagnetic shower position resolution was found to be described by 1.5 mm $\oplus$ 5.3 mm /$\sqrt{E \mathrm{(GeV)}}$. For an electron identification efficiency of 90% a hadron rejection factor of $>600$ was obtained.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figure

apeNEXT: A Multi-Tflops LQCD Computing Project

This paper is a slightly modified and reduced version of the proposal of the {\bf apeNEXT} project, which was submitted to DESY and INFN in spring 2000. .It presents the basic motivations and ideas of a next generation lattice QCD (LQCD) computing project, whose goal is the construction and operation of several large scale Multi-TFlops LQCD engines, providing an integrated peak performance of tens of TFlops, and a sustained (double precision) performance on key LQCD kernels of about 50% of peak speed

Factor structure and factorial invariance of the strengths and difficulties questionnaire among children of prisoners and their parents

Parental imprisonment has been linked to a variety of adverse psychological outcomes for children and adolescents. The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) has been widely used to assess behavioural and emotional difficulties among 7-17 year olds in the general population and more recently has been utilised among samples of children of prisoners. Previous research has variously tested traditional one-, three- and five- factor solutions to the SDQ, and more recently one bifactor solution has been examined. Based on a sample of children of prisoners (N = 724) and their non-imprisoned parent or caregiver (N = 658), the aim of the present study was to simultaneously compare nine alternative factor structures, including previously tested models and alternative bifactor solutions. Tests of factorial invariance and composite reliability were also performed. The five-factor model was found to provide the best fit for the data. Tests of factorial invariance revealed that the five-factor model provided an equally acceptable, but not identical fit, among boys and girls. Composite reliability scores were low for the Conduct Problems and Peer Problems subscales. The utility of the SDQ in measuring psychological functioning in response to parental imprisonment is discussed

A community-based parent-support programme to prevent child maltreatment : Protocol for a randomised controlled trial

The prevention of child abuse and neglect is a global public health priority due to its serious, long-lasting effects on personal, social, and economic outcomes. The Children At Risk Model (ChARM) is a wraparound-inspired intervention that coordinates evidence-based parenting- and home-visiting programmes, along with community-based supports, in order to address the multiple and complex needs of families at risk of child abuse or neglect. This paper presents the protocol for a study that will be carried out to evaluate this new service model (i.e. no results available as yet). The study comprises a multi-centre, randomised controlled trial, with embedded economic and process evaluations. The study will be conducted in two child-welfare agencies within socially disadvantaged settings in Ireland. Families with children aged 3-11 years who are at risk of maltreatment (n = 50) will be randomised to either the 20-week ChARM programme (n = 25) or to standard care (n = 25) using a 1:1 allocation ratio. The primary outcomes are incidences of child maltreatment and child behaviour and wellbeing. Secondary outcomes include quality of parent-child relationships, parental stress, mental health, substance use, recorded incidences of substantiated abuse, and out-of-home placements. Assessments will take place at pre-intervention, and at 6- and 12-month follow-up periods. The study is the first evaluation of a wraparound-inspired intervention, incorporating evidence-based programmes, designed to prevent child abuse and neglect within high risk families where children are still living in the home. The findings will offer a unique contribution to the development, implementation and evaluation of effective interventions in the prevention of child abuse and neglect. The trial is registered with the International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial Number Registe

Leprosy and rheumatoid arthritis: consequence or association?

Leprosy or Hansen's disease is a chronic granulomatous infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae with a high prevalence in some developing countries however, it is rarely seen in non-endemic regions. Arthritis has been described in all types of Hansen's disease. Chronic arthritis is known to exist even in paucibacillary forms, resolved or treated disease and in patients without reaction, suggesting a perpetuated inflammatory process. In these cases leprosy can mimic some autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis. When a patient with a history of leprosy presents with a symmetric, distal, polyarthritis the diagnosis may not be linear. Possibly it is a rheumatoid-like leprous arthritis with M leprae acting as the trigger element for the chronic process or it is an overlap condition, with a concomitant rheumatoid arthritis? A case report of a patient with a chronic inflammatory arthritis with 10 years of evolution is presented. The differential diagnosis between leprous and rheumatoid arthritis is discussed