Introduction: Translation of genome-wide association study (GWAS) findings into preventive approaches is challenged by the identification of the causal risk variants and the understanding of the biological mechanisms by which they act. We present using allelic expression (AE) ratios to perform quantitative caseecontrol analysis as a novel approach to identify risk associations, causal regulatory variants, and t...
Background: Serum dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP-4) has drawn particular interest as a biomarker in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), as this protease inactivates several peptides that participate in the inflammatory cascade. Methods: Two prospectively recruited cohorts consisting of 195 patients (101 had Crohn’s disease [CD] and 94 had ulcerative colitis [UC]) were evaluated using clinical indexes and followed up...
Background: The loss of response to adalimumab (ADL) has been related to low serum concentrations at trough. Currently, most methods commercially available for the quantification of ADL are enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) based, with a turnaround time of approximately 8 h, delaying the target dosage adjustment to the subsequent infusion. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the performance of the newly...
No Alentejo os cursos de água superficiais são conhecidos por conter excesso de nutrientes, derivados das práticas agrícolas, e/ou pelo excesso de metais, provenientes das atividades mineiras. As águas de escorrência de drenagem mineira ácida (DMA) são caracterizadas por conterem valores relativamente baixos de pH, valores elevados de sulfatos e de metais pesados. Uma vez que os metais pesados não são biodegrad...
A maioria das acções de educação ambiental empreendidas com as crianças e jovens portugueses visa, tradicionalmente, os resíduos e a água e, mais recentemente, a eficiência energética. As acções educativas que dão a conhecer os valores da biodiversidade, à escala regional ou local, são menos frequentes, e poucas têm um carácter prático e/ou experimental, pelo que a maioria das pessoas, mesmo se empenhada em pro...