Estudou-se, pela metodologia dos litter-bags, a decomposição de agulhas de Pinus pinaster (PP) e de folhas de Eucalyptus globulus (EG), considerando a taxa de decomposição e a dinâmica de libertação dos nutrientes mais relevantes para a sustentabilidade dos sistemas florestais. Os estudos decorreram no litoral da Região Centro (Furadouro, Óbidos), quer com folhas de EG quer com agulhas de PP, no interior da Região Norte (Vila Pouca de Aguiar), com agulhas de PP, e numa situação intermédia com folhas de EG (Pegões e Rio Maior). Para igual período, a taxa de decomposição das agulhas de PP, estimada pelo modelo exponencial simples, foi inferior à determinada para as folhas de EG, sendo a diferença mais acentuada na fase inicial da decomposição (6 meses), em que a perda de peso das agulhas de PP foi cerca de metade da observada para as folhas de EG. Durante a fase inicial decomposição, tanto das folhas de EG como das agulhas de PP, ocorreu uma assinalável libertação de P, K e de Mg. A libertação do N dependeu da taxa de decomposição, observando- -se imobilização para as agulhas de PP com mais baixa taxa de decomposição, e libertação rápida para as folhas de EG com mais elevada taxa de decomposição. No caso do Ca o factor diferenciador foi a espécie, sendo a respectiva libertação baixa para as agulhas de PP, mas acentuada para as folhas de EG. As folhas verdes de resíduos de abate de EG decompuseram-se e libertaram os nutrientes mais rapidamente do que as folhas senescentes da mesma espécie.

Spinal arachnoiditis, an inflammatory process involving all three meningeal layers as well as the nerve roots, is a cause of persistent symptoms in 6% to 16% of postoperative patients. Although spinal surgery is the most common antecedent associated with arachnoiditis, multiple causes have been reported, including infection, intrathecal steroids or anesthetic agents, trauma, subarachnoid hemorrhage and ionic myelographic contrast material--both oil soluble and water soluble. In the past, oil-based intrathecal contrast agents (Pantopaque) were associated with arachnoiditis especially when this material was introduced into the thecal sac and mixed with blood. Arachnoiditis is apparently rarely idiopathic. The pathogenesis of spinal arachnoiditis is similar to the repair process of serous membranes, such as the peritoneum, with a negligible inflammatory cellular exudate and a prominent fibrinous exudate. Chronic adhesive arachnoiditis of the lower spine is a myelographic diagnosis. The myelographic findings of arachnoiditis were divided into two types by Jorgensen et al. In type 1, "the empty thecal sac" appearance, there is homogeneous filling of the thecal sac with either absence of or defects involving nerve root sleeve filling. In type 2 arachnoiditis, there are localized or diffuse filling defects within the contrast column. MRI has demonstrated a sensitivity of 92% and a specificity of 100% in the diagnosis of arachnoiditis. The appearance of arachnoiditis on MRI can be assigned to three main groups. The MRI findings in group I are a conglomeration of adherent roots positioned centrally in the thecal sac. Patients in group II show roots peripherally adherent to the meninges--the so called empty sac. MRI findings in group III are a soft tissue mass within the subarachnoid space. It corresponds to the type 2 categorization defined by Jorgensen et al, where as the MRI imaging types I and II correspond to the myelographic type 1.

We present a CFO estimation algorithm and an associated channel estimation method for broadband OFDM systems with transmitter diversity. The CFO estimation algorithm explores the TD structure of the transmitted symbols carrying pilots and data, relying solely on the data component present on the symbols to estimate the CFO, thus avoiding additional overhead like training symbols or null subcarriers. An intermediate output of the CFO algorithm provides an easy-to-get initial CIR estimate that will be improved with the utilization of a TD LMMSE filter. The feasibility of the investigated methods is substantiated by system simulation using indoor and outdoor broadband wireless channel models. Simulation results show that the joint algorithms provide a near optimal system's performance.

Leigh syndrome (LS) is a rare, progressive neurodegenerative mitochondrial disorder of infancy. It is a genetically heterogeneous disease. The mutations in SURF1 gene are the most frequently known cause. Here two cases of LS likely caused by SURF1 gene variants are reported: a 39-year-old male patient with a novel homozygous deletion (c.-11_13del), and a case of a 6-year-old boy with the same deletion and a nonsense mutation (c.868dupT), both in heterozygosity. Blue native PAGE showed absence of assembled complex IV. This is the first report of a variant that may abolish the SURF1 gene initiation codon in two LS patients.

In this paper we propose a simple, yet flexible and efficient, channel estimator for the uplink in broadband orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. The processing is performed in the time-domain, by extracting the Channel’s Impulse Response (CIR) for each user from a joint training signal. In this OFDM system, the pilot sequence we advocate, where all users share the same pilot sub-carriers, consists of one OFDM-symbol endowed with time-shifted properties per user, which isolates each user’s CIR and is robust against multi-user interference. The feasibility of our approach is substantiated by system simulation results obtained using BRAN-A broadband mobile wireless channel model.

A pilot sequence design for MIMO-OFDM systems is investigated where all transmit antennas share the same sub-carriers to convey pilot symbols. The pilot sequences are endowed with phase-shifting properties, granting the receiver the possibility of extracting the impulse responses for all channels directly from the antennas’ time-domain received signals, without co-channel interference. A linear processing of the timedomain samples is all that is needed to get the channel impulse responses, resulting in an algorithm with very low computational load. The feasibility of the investigated method is substantiated by system simulation using indoor and outdoor broadband wireless channel models.

In this paper we revisit the carrier frequency offset (CFO) estimation and removal for broadband orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. We propose an algorithm that explores the time-domain (TD) properties of transmitted symbols carrying pilots and data. A careful examination of the components that constitute the TD received symbols leads to the definition of a simple, yet effective, cost function. In a real scenario, the cost function presents a bowl shape with a single global minimum easily identifiable (no local minima). The proposed method is independent of the channel estimation and decision, presenting a very low computational load. The feasibility of the investigated method is substantiated by system simulation using BRAN-A broadband wireless channel model. Simulation results show that the impact of the residual CFO in the system¿s performance is minimal.

A method to estimate the channel impulse response using the received serial data in time-domain, without using DFT operations, is investigated. The processing required by the proposed method is substantially reduced when compared with LS-DFT channel estimation method, with no performance degradation. Furthermore, this method can incorporate the results of other published works that are DFT-based, at little or no added complexity, to improve the estimate of channel impulse response.

An uplink Minimum Mean Square Error (MMSE) channel estimator for broadband Multicarrier Code Division Multiple Access (MC-CDMA) systems is investigated. All nodes in the system share the same sub-carriers to convey the pilot symbols. Due to the use of uncoded pilot sequences endowed with time-shifted properties, the Base Station (BS) has the ability to extract each node’s channel impulse response (CIR) from the combined signal in the time-domain without multiuser interference. The feasibility of the investigated method is confirmed by system simulation using BRAN-A broadband wireless channel model.