Dendritic cells (DCs) are professional antigen-presenting cells, which display an extraordinary capacity to induce and regulate T-cell responses. Because of their immunoregulatory capacities and because very small numbers of activated DCs are highly efficient in generating immune responses against antigens, DCs have been extensively used in clinical trials in order to elicit or amplify immune responses against cancer. While clinical trials provide evidence that dendritic cells vaccines are safe and elicit immunological responses in most patients, few complete tumor remissions have been reported. To improve the clinical efficacy, it is mandatory to design novel and improved strategies that can boost adaptive immunity to cancer helping to overcome regulatory T cells and allowing the breakdown of the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. The association of DCs vaccines with conventional chemo- and radiotherapy protocols could enhance DCs activation and antigen cross-presentation, selectively eliminating immunosuppressive cells, thus reverting the immunosuppression state caused by cancer, suggesting that relevant chemoimmunotherapy associa- tions could fully exploit DC capacity to trigger anticancer responses. 

The effects of different soil management practices and irrigation on plant water relations, physiological response and productivity of chestnut stands in Northeastern Portugal were assessed during four growing seasons (2003 to 2006). Treatments were: conventional soil tillage up to 15–20 cm depth with a tine cultivator thrice a year (CT); no tillage with spontaneous herbaceous vegetation (NV); no tillage with rainfed seeded pasture (NP); and no tillage with irrigated seeded pasture (NIP). Results suggest that soil water availability was the most critical parameter for chestnut productivity over the study period. In all treatments, high predawn leaf water potentials (-0.40 to -0.55 MPa) were observed during the dry seasons of 2003, 2004 and 2006, showing no critical conditions for plant productivity, which is ascribed to water availability in deep soil layers. In contrast, in 2005, an extremely dry year, water potentials decreased and varied from -1.46 to - 1.72 MPa in late summer, showing unfavourable conditions for nut production. Maintenance of spontaneous herbaceous vegetation without irrigation enhanced productivity of chestnut stands as compared with the conventional tillage system and the no tillage system with seeded pasture. Productivity in the soil watering system (NIP treatment) was not significantly different from that observed in the NV treatment. Therefore, studies on the irrigation strategy should be developed, in order to increase its efficiency especially in stands with young trees

The preparation of polyaniline (PANi)-cellulose acetate (CA) blends by casting films from a suspension, is reported. Two membranes were prepared from different solvents, one with a homogeneous and the other a heterogeneous dispersion of PANi in CA matrices. The membranes were characterized by X-ray diffraction, SEM, DSC, and FTIR, and the results were compared with those obtained for pure CA and PANi films. The transport properties of water and sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) in membranes of the PANi-CA blends and of CA were analysed. The transport of SDS and water depends on both the bulk/polymer density and the PANi content. In the homogeneous blend, the interaction between SDS and the polymer plays an important role in the transport mechanism. An irreversible interaction is observed, which can be monitored by UV-vis spectroscopy. The spectra of homogeneous, highly transparent PANi-CA blends show a pronounced sensitivity to SDS concentration, with detection limits [SDS]>=0.1 mM for films with a PANi concentration of 0.05% w/v.