2025
Authors
Amarelo, A; Amarelo, B; Ferreira, MC; Fernandes, CS;
Publication
EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF ONCOLOGY NURSING
Abstract
Purpose: To aggregate, interpret, and synthesize findings from qualitative studies on patients' experiences with chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN). Methods: A qualitative metasynthesis was conducted following the thematic synthesis approach of Thomas & Harden. A systematic literature search was performed in MEDLINE, CINAHL, Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection, and Scopus, including studies published up to December 2024. Two researchers independently conducted the screening and data extraction. They also independently evaluated the quality of the included studies. The data from these studies were then thematically analyzed and synthesized using Dorothea Orem's model. Results: Eighteen studies were included. Four main categories were identified: (1) Physical and Functional Impact of CIPN, (2) Emotional and Psychological Impact, (3) Coping Strategies and Self-management, and (4) Support and Barriers to Health. The findings revealed distinct self-care deficits related to functional limitations, emotional distress, and coping challenges. Utilizing Orem's Nursing Theory of Self-Care Deficit, these deficits were mapped onto different levels of nursing intervention, ranging from compensatory support to educational and self-management strategies, emphasizing an action-oriented approach in patient care. Conclusions: This metasynthesis highlights the complex and multidimensional effects of peripheral neuropathy on the lives of cancer patients. Applying Orem's model underscores the critical role of nurses in addressing healthcare system gaps, functional impairments, and long-term adaptation challenges to enhance supportive care for individuals suffering from CIPN.
2025
Authors
Barbosa, S; Chambers, S;
Publication
Abstract
2025
Authors
Montenegro, H; Cardoso, MJ; Cardoso, JS;
Publication
CoRR
Abstract
2025
Authors
Ferreira, P; Zolfagharnasab, MH; Goncalves, T; Bonci, E; Mavioso, C; Cardoso, J; Cardoso, S;
Publication
IEEE Portuguese Meeting on Bioengineering, ENBENG
Abstract
This study presents an explainable content-based image retrieval system for predicting post-surgical aesthetic outcomes in breast cancer patients, comparing state-of-theart vision transformers, convolutional neural networks, and B-cos architectures. Results show that vision transformers, particularly GC ViT and DaViT, outperform convolutional neural networks and B-cos architectures, achieving an adjusted discounted cumulative gain of up to 80.18%. This superior performance is attributed to their ability to model long-range dependencies while effectively capturing local information. Bcos networks underperform (64.28-70.19% adjusted discounted cumulative gain), likely due to oversimplified feature alignment unsuitable for clinical tasks. Explainability analysis using Integrated Gradients reveals that models primarily focus on breast regions but occasionally attend to irrelevant features (e.g., arm positioning, leading to retrieval errors and highlighting a semantic gap between learned visual similarities and clinical relevance. Future work aims to integrate anatomical segmentation and ensemble learning methods to enhance clinical alignment and address attention inaccuracies. Clinical Relevance-The content-based image retrieval system developed in this study aids clinicians by supporting surgical outcome prediction in breast cancer patients and streamlining the traditionally time-intensive task of manually identifying similar reference images for patient consultation. © 2025 IEEE.
2025
Authors
Proaño-Guevara D.; Lobo A.; Oliveira C.; Costa C.I.; Fontes-Carvalho R.; da Silva H.P.; Renna F.;
Publication
Computing in Cardiology
Abstract
We introduce a multimodal Signal Quality Indicator (SQI) for assessing fidelity of synchronous electrocardiogram (ECG) and phonocardiogram (PCG) signals recorded in ambulatory, non-standardized settings. The method uses a bidirectional fiducial-matching algorithm to test the temporal alignment of QRS complexes and T waves (ECG) with S1 and S2 sounds (PCG) respectively. Validation employed 564 synchronous ECG–PCG pairs collected with the FDA-cleared Rijuven Cardiosleeve at the aortic, pulmonary, tricuspid, and mitral valves sites. Expert annotations served as ground truth. In a three-class task, the SQI reached an area under the ROC curve greater than 79%, showing strong discriminative power. This physiology-based metric supports batch-online monitoring and reliable quality control of opportunistic cardiac recordings.
2025
Authors
Purificato, E; Boratto, L; Vinagre, J;
Publication
ADJUNCT PROCEEDINGS OF THE 33RD ACM CONFERENCE ON USER MODELING, ADAPTATION AND PERSONALIZATION, UMAP 2025
Abstract
The Digital Services Act (DSA) establishes a regulatory framework for online platforms and search engines in the European Union, focusing on mitigating systemic risks such as illegal content dissemination, fundamental rights violations, and impacts on electoral processes, public health, and gender-based violence. Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs) and Very Large Search Engines (VLOSEs), defined as those with over 45 million active recipients, must provide data access for research to enable investigations into these risks and the development of solutions. This tutorial is tailored for the UMAP community, addressing the implications of the DSA for user modelling research. It will cover the DSA's key provisions and definitions, outline the procedural steps for accessing VLOP and VLOSE data, and discuss the technical aspects of data access requests. Participants will also explore the challenges and opportunities involved in working with this data. By the end of the tutorial, attendees will have a thorough understanding of the DSA's data access provisions, the technical and procedural requirements for accessing VLOP and VLOSE data, and the regulation's implications for user modelling research. They will be equipped to navigate the complexities of the DSA and contribute to the development of responsible and transparent online platforms.Further information and resources about the tutorial are available on the website: https://erasmopurif.com/tutorial-dsa-umap25/.
The access to the final selection minute is only available to applicants.
Please check the confirmation e-mail of your application to obtain the access code.