Reactive oxygen species can be produced in leaf cells during normal aerobic metabolism or in a variety of exogenous factors, which may cause oxidative damage to plants, unless they have an efficient antioxidant defense system, consisting of enzymatic and non-enzymatic substances. This work raised the hypothesis that plants of Ipomoea nil cv. Scarlet O'Hara, a native species and ornamental vine of the tropics, might tolerate oxidative stress factors imposed by natural fluctuations in weather conditions through changes in the antioxidant profile.The objective of this study was to determine the variations in three leaf antioxidants in plants growing inside a greenhouse without air pollutants and exposed to varying meteorological conditions throughout the four seasons of the year and to observe if such variations are related to the oscillations in meteorological factors. Four experimental campaigns were carried out, one in each season of 2006. Each campaign lasted 28 days and started with 45 plants. Ascorbic acid (AA) concentrations and superoxide dismutase (SOD) and peroxidase (POD) activities were determined in leaves of five plants in nine sampling days of each campaign. The antioxidant responses oscillated throughout the year. The highest values were found during the spring. This seasonal antioxidant profile was associated to variations in temperature, relative humidity and global radiation. Plants of this cultivar may then tolerate oxidative stress naturally imposed by meteorological conditions.

Cognitive Radios (CR) are viewed as a solution for spectrum utilization and management in next generation wireless networks. In order to adapt themselves to the actual communications environment, CR devices require highly flexible baseband processing engines. One of the most relevant operations involved in radio baseband processing is the FFT. This work presents a reconfigurable FFT processor supporting FFT sizes and throughputs required by the most used wireless communication standards. By employing Dynamic Partial Reconfiguration (DPR), the implemented design can adapt the FFT size at run-time and specialize its operation to the immediate communication demands. This translates to hardware savings, enhanced resource usage efficiency and possible power savings. The results obtained for reconfiguration times suggest that DPR techniques are a viable option for designing flexible and adaptable baseband processing components for CR devices. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016.

Lung cancer is one of the major causes of death in the world. Small cell carcinoma is the most aggressive type and can spread rapidly. The association of a small cell carcinoma with hepatic hilar metastasis and biliary obstruction is rare. Endoscopic ultrasound allows the aspiration of a cytology sample from adenopathies for diagnostic purpose. We present the case of a patient with lung cancer, with lymph node metastasis to the hepatic hilum and extrinsic biliary tree compression. Endoscopic ultrasound allowed the definitive diagnosis of hepatic hilar metastasis of a lung small cell carcinoma. To the author's knowledge it was the first time that endoscopic ultrasound was used for the diagnosis of hepatic hilar lymph node metastasis of lung cancer.

Lung cancer is one of the major causes of death in the world. Small cell carcinoma is the most aggressive type and can spread rapidly. The association of a small cell carcinoma with hepatic hilar metastasis and biliary obstruction is rare. Endoscopic ultrasound allows the aspiration of a cytology sample from adenopathies for diagnostic purpose. We present the case of a patient with lung cancer, with lymph node metastasis to the hepatic hilum and extrinsic biliary tree compression. Endoscopic ultrasound allowed the definitive diagnosis of hepatic hilar metastasis of a lung small cell carcinoma. To the author's knowledge it was the first time that endoscopic ultrasound was used for the diagnosis of hepatic hilar lymph node metastasis of lung cancer.

Os tumores primários da aorta são raros e já têm sido associados a dissecção aórtica, sendo como tal reconhecido o sarcoma da íntima, muito agressivo, com potencial metastático precoce. Uma vez confirmado o diagnóstico, a ressecção cirúrgica pode ser curativa, não deixando o prognóstico de ser reservado, resultando na mortalidade na maioria dos casos. Descrevemos um caso de uma dissecção aórtica do tipo A, com hematoma intramural, associado a sarcoma da íntima, numa doente jovem, apresentando-se com hematoma cerebral e culminando na morte da doente.

AIM: To study the epidemiology and pathology of bovine schistosomiasis in Mozambique. BACKGROUND: - Bovine schistosomiasis is of great importance in Africa. It is caused by Schistosoma bovis; - In bovines the symptoms are similar to humans, mainly intestinal, hepato-splenic, vesical and genital; - It has been shown to be endemic through all Africa and in some Mediterranean countries (Portugal, Spain, Italy, Iraque and Israel); - Hybrids of S. haematobium and S. bovis are known to infect humans.

Bovine besnoitiosis is a parasitic disease caused by the protozoa Besnoitia besnoiti (Marotel, 1912) that presents an acute phase (with fever and anasarca) and a chronic phase (with sclerodermitis), and has been characterized by high morbidity and low mortality (Ferreira, 1985). A study on the presence of besnoitiosis was carried out in October 2001 on a beef cattle herd located in the Évora region. On this farm, where previous cases of besnoitiosis were diagnosed, 12 assymptomatic Limousine bulls, aged between 18 and 24 months, were randomly selected and studied. Skin biopsies were collected and prepared. Subsequent histopathologic analyses of the biopsies have shown that 5 (42%) of the animals studied harboured B. besnoiti cysts. Therefore, these results demonstrate the immediate need to obtain insight in to some as yet not clearly defined aspects of the physiopathogeny of this disease. Possible ways of transmission (that is, determination of intermediate as well as definite hosts) and their impact on animal production such as bovine fertility and the quality of skins for leather industry should be addressed. In addition, the cases of assymptomatic animals with B. besnoiti in the Évora district should be clarified.

INTRODUCTION: There are several risk scores for stratification of patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), the most widely used of which are the TIMI and GRACE scores. However, these are complex and require several variables. The aim of this study was to obtain a reduced model with fewer variables and similar predictive and discriminative ability. METHODS: We studied 607 patients (age 62 years, SD=13; 76% male) who were admitted with STEMI and underwent successful primary angioplasty. Our endpoints were all-cause in-hospital and 30-day mortality. Considering all variables from the TIMI and GRACE risk scores, multivariate logistic regression models were fitted to the data to identify the variables that best predicted death. RESULTS: Compared to the TIMI score, the GRACE score had better predictive and discriminative performance for in-hospital mortality, with similar results for 30-day mortality. After data modeling, the variables with highest predictive ability were age, serum creatinine, heart failure and the occurrence of cardiac arrest. The new predictive model was compared with the GRACE risk score, after internal validation using 10-fold cross validation. A similar discriminative performance was obtained and some improvement was achieved in estimates of probabilities of death (increased for patients who died and decreased for those who did not). CONCLUSION: It is possible to simplify risk stratification scores for STEMI and primary angioplasty using only four variables (age, serum creatinine, heart failure and cardiac arrest). This simplified model maintained a good predictive and discriminative performance for short-term mortality.