Competitivity Factors Operational Programme Research Articles

Digitisation and Industry 4.0 in the Portuguese T&C sector

FEDER funds through the Competitivity Factors Operational Programme – COMPETE and by national funds through FCT – Foundation for Science and Technology within the scope of the project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007136”.

Sociodemographic and Clinical Variables Associated with the Risk of Buruli Ulcer Acquisition: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background: Buruli ulcer (BU) is a necrotizing skin disease caused by Mycobacterium ulcerans, with poorly understood acquisition risk factors. This review aims at evaluating the importance of sociodemographic - sex, age and family ties with history of BU - and clinical - Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) immunization, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection and gene variants - in this process. Methods: A systematic review was performed considering the following databases: ClinicalTrials.gov, Cochrane Controlled Register of Trials (CENTRAL), Current Contents Connect, Embase, MEDLINE, SciELO, Scopus and Web of Science. Eligible studies were critically appraised with The Joanna Briggs Institute checklists and heterogeneity was assessed with Cochran Q-test and I2 statistic. Published demographic data was descriptively analysed and clinical data pooled within random-effects modelling for meta-analysis. Findings: A total of 29 studies were included in the systematic review and two randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and 20 case-control studies were selected for meta-analysis. Studies show BU mainly affects age extremes, more preponderately males among children. Data pooled from RCTs do not reveal BCG to be protective against BU (odds ratio (OR) = 0·63; 95% CI = 0·38-1·05; I2 = 56%), a finding later case-control studies appear to corroborate. HIV infection (OR = 6·40; 95% CI = 2·12-19·29; I2 = 0%) and SLC11A1 rs17235409 A allele (OR = 1·86; 95% CI = 1·25-2·77;I2= 0%) are associated with increased prevalence of the disease. No definite conclusions can be drawn regarding the influence of previous family history of BU. Interpretation: These findings have direct implications on current interventions and future research programs, opening avenues on fundamental research topics and fostering the development of more cost-effective preventive and screening measures. Funding Statement: This work was developed under the scope of the project NORTE-01-0145-FEDE13, supported by the Northern Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the Portugal 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER); FEDER, through the Competitiveness Factors Operational Programme (COMPETE) and by National funds, through the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), under the scope of project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007038 and POCI-01-0145-FEDER-031312; Infect-ERA grant Infect-ERA/0002/2015; and FCT, through the PhD grant PD/BD/113699/2015 to JF, fellowship UMINHO/BI/427/2018 to NS, and postdoctoral grant SFRH/BPD/112903/2015 to AGF. Declaration of Interests: Authors state that they have no conflict of interest to declare. Ethics Approval Statement: The study was registered at PROSPERO with number CRD42019123611.

Combinatorial therapies for spinal cord injury: strategies to induce regeneration.

The authors want to acknowledge the financial support from Premios Santa Casa Neurociencias ‐ Prize Melo e Castro for Spinal Cord Injury Research (MC-04/17); from Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology [Doctoral fellowship (SFRH/BD/103075/2014) to EDG; Post‐ Doctoral fellowship (SFRH/BPD/97701/2013) to NAS; IF Development Grant to AJS]. This work is funded by national funds through FCT under the scope of grant reference TUBITAK/0007/2014 and 3599-PPCDT Project: PTDC/DTP-FTO/5109/2014. This article has been developed under the scope of the projects NORTE-01-0145- FEDER-000013, supported by the Northern Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the Portugal 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER). This work has been funded by FEDER funds, through the Competitiveness Factors Operational Programme (COMPETE), and by National funds, through the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), under the scope of the project POCI-01- 0145-FEDER-007038.

Pre-Clinical Assessment of Mesenchymal Stem Cell-Based Therapies in Spinocerebellar Ataxia Type 3

Motor uncoordination is one of the symptoms of spinocerebellar ataxia type 3/ Machado-Joseph disease (MJD), for which there is no effective treatment. In recent years, stem-cell related therapies begun to be explored for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases. Beyond their potential for cell replacement therapies, stem cells also act as immunomodulators and neuroprotectors. Despite the evidence of beneficial outcomes in this context, the short duration of the pre and clinical trials and the fact that most patients regressed to the disease stage prior to treatment, highlights the urgency to assess therapeutic efficacy in a chronic fashion. The purpose of this study was to compare the therapeutic efficacy of hMSC transplantation versus administration of their secretome in different disease-relevant regions of the CNS, using a mouse model of MJD. We observed a more marked and sustained therapeutic benefit with hMSC transplantation into the cerebellum when compared to substantia nigra/ striatum or the spinal cord, or to administration of MSC secretome. Funding Statement: This work has been funded the National Ataxia Foundation (NAF), by FEDER, through the Competitiveness Factors Operational Programme (COMPETE), project NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000013, supported by the Northern Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the Portugal 2020 Partnership Agreement, and by National funds through the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the scope of the project UID/Multi/50026/2019 and fellowships to A.N-C., B. M-P., J. S. C., F. G. T., N. S., R. L., and S. D-S. (SFRH/BPD/118779/2016, SFRH/BD/120124/2016, SFRH/BD/140624/2018, SFRH/BPD/118408/2016, CEECIND/04794/2017, PD/BDE/127836/2016 and PTDC/NEUNMC/3648/2014). Declaration of Interests: The authors have no conflict of interests to report. Ethics Approval Statement: All procedures were conducted in accordance with European regulations (European Union Directive 86/609/EEC). Animal facilities and the people directly involved in animal experiments (A.N.C, B.M.P, J.S.C., S.D.S, S.M., F.G.T, F.L., R.L., N.A.S) as well as the principal investigators (A.J.S. and P.M.) were certified by the Portuguese regulatory entity Direcao Geral de Alimentacao e Veterinaria. All the protocols performed were approved by the Animal Ethics Committee of the Life and Health Sciences Research Institute, University of Minho (Braga, Portugal) and by the national regulatory agency, Direcao Geral de Alimentacao e Veterinaria (DGAV 020317).

Numerical Simulation of Target Strength Measurements from Near to Far Field of Fish Using the Method of Fundamental Solutions

I. Perez-Arjona and V. Espinosa acknowledge funding of ACUSTUNA project ref. CTM2015-70446-R (MINECO/FEDER, UE), and UPV grants of PAID-00-15 and GVA BEST/2015/270. L. Godinho acknowledges the funding by FEDER funds through the Competitivity Factors Operational Programme - COMPETE and by national funds through FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology within the scope of the project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007633. The authors would like to thank Dr. Manuel Bou and Carlos Albino for the technical assistance with work-station procedures.

An insertion heuristic for the capacitated vehicle routing problem with loading constraints and mixed linehauls and backhauls

Thisworkwas supported by FEDER funding through the Programa Operacional Factores de Competitividade COMPETE and by national funding through the Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation (FCT) in the scope of the project PTDC/EGE-GES/11 6676/2010 (Ref. COMPETE:FCOMP-0-0124-FEDER-020430), by FCTwithin the projectscope:UID/CEC/00319/2013, and by FCT through the grant SFRH/BD/73584/ 2010 for Telmo Pinto (funded by QREN-POPH-Typology 4.1 cofundedbyMECNationalFundingandtheEuropeanSocial Fund), and by FEDER funds through the Competitiveness Factors Operational Programme - COMPETE.

Molecular interactions driving the layer-by-layer assembly of multilayers.

This work received funding from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no. REGPOT-CT2012-316331-POLARIS. The work was also funded by FEDER through the Competitive Factors Operational Program (COMPETE) and by National funds through the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) in the scope of the projects PTDC/FIS/115048/2009 and PTDC/CTM-BIO/1814/2012. The authors gratefully acknowledge Dr. Luca Gasperini (3B's Research Group, University of Minho, Portugal) for his help with the figures.