Publications by authors named "Apolinario A"

Article Synopsis
  • Photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting using tungsten trioxide (WO) nanoplatelets was studied to enhance hydrogen production efficiency through optimized synthesis parameters like temperature, time, and layer thickness.
  • The research revealed that using a multilayer approach (up to six layers) at low temperatures (90 °C for 12 hours) could boost photocurrent significantly, with five layers showing over a 70% increase compared to single-layer configurations.
  • Morphological features, particularly the fractal dimension of the nanoplatelets and specific crystallographic orientations, were found to significantly influence PEC performance, with advanced X-ray diffraction analysis confirming their critical role in photocurrent enhancement.
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The retinoid fenretinide (FENR) is a promising compound for preventing breast cancer recurrence but faces challenges due to poor solubility and low bioavailability. This study explores the development of dissolving microneedles (MNs) containing FENR-loaded ethosomes for minimally invasive breast cancer chemoprevention, aiming to enhance local drug distribution. Ethosomes were formulated using ethanol, propylene glycol, soya lecithin, water, and polysorbate 80 micelles.

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The transition to the third dimension enables the creation of spintronic nanodevices with significantly enhanced functionality compared to traditional 2D magnetic applications. In this study, we extend common two-dimensional magnetic vortex configurations, which are known for their efficient dynamical response to external stimuli without a bias magnetic field, into the third dimension. This extension results in a substantial increase in vortex frequency, reaching up to 5 GHz, compared to the typical sub-GHz range observed in planar vortex oscillators.

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Introduction: The use of clear aligners as an alternative to fixed orthodontic appliances has become popular due to the aesthetic demands of adult patients seeking orthodontic treatment. However, orthodontists' lack of knowledge about the legal consequences of their activities, and the lack of solid scientific evidence raise concerns regarding civil liability in this type of treatment. Marketing campaigns of manufacturing companies often exaggerate promises of results, and ignore the lack of scientific evidence.

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In this study, nanostructured lipid carriers (NLC) were developed and employed to obtain in situ thermosensitive formulations for the ductal administration and prolonged retention of drugs as a new strategy for breast cancer local treatment. NLC size was influenced by the type and concentration of the oil phase, surfactants, and drug incorporation, ranging from 221.6 to 467.

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Seriniquinone (SQ) was initially described by our group as an antimelanoma drug candidate and now also as an antifungal drug candidate. Despite its promising in vitro effects, SQ translation has been hindered by poor water-solubility. In this paper, we described the challenging nanoformulation process of SQ, which culminated in the selection of a phosphatidylcholine-based lamellar phase (PLP1).

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Functional compressive bandaging (FCB) is a therapeutic resource used to control lymphedema resulting from the treatment of breast cancer. However, the reliability of the technique is unknown. We evaluated intra- and inter-rater reliability of the spiral technique in the four-layer FCB of the arm and forearm in breast cancer survivors with lymphedema.

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Zero thermal expansion (ZTE) composites are typically designed by combining positive thermal expansion (PTE) with negative thermal expansion (NTE) materials acting as compensators and have many diverse applications, including in high-precision instrumentation and biomedical devices. La(Fe,Si)13-based compounds display several remarkable properties, such as giant magnetocaloric effect and very large NTE at room temperature. Both are linked via strong magnetovolume coupling, which leads to sharp magnetic and volume changes occurring simultaneously across first-order phase transitions; the abrupt nature of these changes makes them unsuitable as thermal expansion compensators.

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Herein, we developed an ethosomal hydrogel based on three types of ethosomes: simple, mixed (surfactant-based micelles and lipid vesicles) or binary (comprising two type of alcohols). Ethanol injection was employed for vesicles preparation, and sodium alginate, as gelling agent. We purposed the local-transdermal administration of the off-the-shelf retinoid fenretinide (FENR) for chemoprevention of breast cancer.

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It is widely accepted that the use of topical sunscreens has medical importance with potential to prevent skin damage by protecting from solar ultraviolet radiation (UVR) effects. Pharmaceutical emulsions require an optimal qualitative and quantitative combination of emollients, emulsifiers and others compounds such as softening agents and, for sunscreens, a combination of chemical and physical UV filters. Herein, we applied the quality by design (QbD) concept to achieve stable and effective compounded sunscreen emulsions.

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One of the main goals of many augmented reality applications is to provide a seamless integration of a real scene with additional virtual data. To fully achieve that goal, such applications must typically provide high-quality real-world tracking, support real-time performance and handle the mutual occlusion problem, estimating the position of the virtual data into the real scene and rendering the virtual content accordingly. In this survey, we focus on the occlusion handling problem in augmented reality applications and provide a detailed review of 161 articles published in this field between January 1992 and August 2020.

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Despite the high incidence of breast cancer, there are few pharmacological prevention strategies for the high-risk population and those that are available have low adherence. Strategies that deliver drugs directly to the breasts may increase drug local concentrations, improving efficacy, safety and acceptance. The skin of the breast has been proposed as an administration route for local transdermal therapy, which may improve drug levels in the mammary tissue, due to both deep local penetration and percutaneous absorption.

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Thin polycrystalline CoFeGe films with composition close to stoichiometry have been fabricated using magnetron co-sputtering technique. Effects of substrate temperature (T) and post-deposition annealing (T) on structure, static and dynamic magnetic properties were systematically studied. It is shown that elevated T (T) promote formation of ordered L2 crystal structure.

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Objective: To analyse the automatic classification performance of a convolutional neural network (CNN), Google Inception v3, using tomographic images of odontogenic keratocysts (OKCs) and ameloblastomas (AMs).

Methods: For construction of the database, we selected axial multidetector CT images from patients with confirmed AM ( = 22) and OKC ( = 18) based on a conclusive histopathological report. The images ( = 350) were segmented manually and data augmentation algorithms were applied, totalling 2500 images.

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Vesicles, generally defined as self-assembled structures formed by single or multiple concentric bilayers that surround an aqueous core, have been widely used for biomedical applications. They can either occur naturally (e.g.

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This work reports, for the encapsulation of l-asparaginase, an anticancer enzyme into hybrid PMPC-PDPA/PEO-PBO asymmetric polymersomes previously developed by our group, with loading capacities with over 800 molecules per vesicle. Enzyme-loaded polymersomes show permeability and capacity to hydrolyze l-asparagine, which is essential to cancer cells. The nanoreactors proposed in this work can be potentially used in further studies to develop novel therapeutic alternatives based on l-asparaginase.

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Highly ordered anodic hafnium oxide (AHO) nanoporous or nanotubes were synthesized by electrochemical anodization of Hf foils. The growth of self-ordered AHO was investigated by optimizing a key electrochemical anodization parameter, the solvent-based electrolyte using: Ethylene glycol, dimethyl sulfoxide, formamide and N-methylformamide organic solvents. The electrolyte solvent is here shown to highly affect the morphological properties of the AHO, namely the self-ordering, growth rate and length.

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Polymersomes are versatile nanostructures for protein delivery with hydrophilic core suitable for large biomolecule encapsulation and protective stable corona. Nonetheless, pharmaceutical products based on polymersomes are not available in the market, yet. Here, using commercially available copolymers, we investigated the encapsulation of the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) L-asparaginase, an enzyme used to treat acute lymphoblastic leukemia, in polymersomes through a quality-by-design (QbD) approach.

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l-Asparaginase (ASNase) is an amidohydrolase used as a chemotherapeutic agent for the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). The nanoencapsulation of this enzyme is strategic to avoid its immediate immunogenic effects that lead to a decrease in the enzyme half-life. In this work, ASNase-containing nanoparticles (NPs) were prepared by double emulsification, through an ultrasonic sonicator or an Ultra-Turrax, using two copolymers of 50:50 (w/w) poly (lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) with different ranges of molecular weight (24-38 kDa and 30-60 kDa) and varying the concentration of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as a stabilizer (0.

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L-Asparaginase (ASNase) is a vital component of the first line treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), an aggressive type of blood cancer expected to afflict over 53,000 people worldwide by 2020. More recently, ASNase has also been shown to have potential for preventing metastasis from solid tumors. The ASNase treatment is, however, characterized by a plethora of potential side effects, ranging from immune reactions to severe toxicity.

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Magnetic shape memory alloys are under intensive investigation due to their unusual physical properties, such as magnetic shape memory effect, magnetic field induced superelasticity, direct and inverse magnetocaloric effect etc., promising for novel applications. One of the intriguing properties of these materials in a single phase state is a giant magnetoresistance.

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Polymersomes (PL), vesicles formed by self-assembly of amphiphilic block copolymers, have been described as promising nanosystems for drug delivery, especially of biomolecules. The film hydration method (FH) is widely used for PL preparation, however, it often requires long hydration times and commonly results in broad size distribution. In this work, we describe the challenges of the self-assembly of poly (ethylene glycol)-poly(lactic acid) (PEG-PLA) into PL by FH exploring different hydrophilic volume fraction () values of this copolymer, stirring times, temperatures and post-FH steps in an attempt to reduce broad size distribution of the nanostructures.

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Objective: assess the effects of ischemic compression and kinesiotherapy on the rehabilitation of breast cancer survivors with chronic myofascial pain.

Methods: A randomized, controlled, blinded clinical trial was performed with 20 breast cancer survivors with myofascial trigger point in the upper trapezius muscle. Patients were randomly allocated to ischemic compression + kinesiotherapy (G1, n = 10) and kinesiotherapy (G2, n = 10).

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Objective: The purpose of this study was to correlate upper limb volume and arterial and venous blood flow velocity in breast cancer survivors.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 30 women with lymphedema and a mean age of 55.60 years (standard deviation = 8.

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