Browsing by Author "Carneiro, Liliana"
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- Development of a biossensor for prostate cancer using sarcosine as biomarkerPublication . Almeida, Maria; Carneiro, Liliana; Sales, M. GoretiProstate cancer is the most common type of tumor disease in men, making the development of new methods that allow an earlier detection extremely important. One of these methods concerns the use of biosensors to diagnose specific biomarkers for this type of cancer. Biomarkers could be amino acids, proteins or nucleic acids. In this work, the amino acid sarcosine was selected for biosensor development, making use of a molecularly-imprinted polymer (MIP) as biorecognition element. In healthy persons, sarcosine is not present or occurs in negligible concentrations in urine in heathy individuals, but individuals with prostate cancer are expected tohave higher concentrations of sarcosine. In turn, growing interest in the integration of MIP materials in biosensors has led researchers to design novel formats for electrochemical sensors. MIPs are a class of cross-linked polymers with specific recognition sites that are complimentary in shape, size and binding groups to the template.
- Time windows vehicle routing problem to on-time transportation of biological products on healthcare centresPublication . Pereira, Maria Teresa; Oliveira, Marisa; Ferreira, Fernanda A.; Barreiras, Alcinda; Carneiro, LilianaThis paper addresses a Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP) applied to the field of healthcare. Biological products are collected from patients at the local healthcare centers and transported to hospital laboratories for further processing and analysis. This paper analyses and determines a set of vehicle routes to perform on-time transportation of biological products from local healthcare centers to the main hospital, considering all technical issues. We sought to develop a solution to the Vehicle Routing Problem with Pickups and Deliveries (VRPPD) to effectively collect biological products, and parallelly deliver medical supplies to local healthcare units - gloves, masks, sanitation accessories, and disposable tools. We also aimed to implement a solution suitable for a larger cluster of healthcare centers. The mathematical model allowed for an efficient route design, considering distances, service times, travel times, total route time, and vehicle availability for other tasks. The mathematical model (VRPPDW) presents a feasible improvement to the solution currently used by the healthcare units. It allows for pickup and delivery of other items as required, and can be adapted if other collection points are to be added, providing a strong route and service times optimization. We were able to achieve a 95-min reduction, thus saving €2,222.64 per year. This solution required no further investment thus avoiding any reallocation available resources.