Hábitos tabágicos dos pais de alunos do 1.º Ciclo do Ensino Básico: implicações para a intervenção

A evidência de que a exposição ao Fumo Ambiental do Tabaco (FAT) é prejudicial para a saúde, em todas as fases da vida do ser humano, particularmente na infância, é consistente, robusta e consensual. Os principais responsáveis pela exposição das crianças ao fumo ambiental do tabaco no domicílio são os pais. Os objectivos deste artigo são: 1) Caracterizar os hábitos tabágicos dos pais/mães dos alunos; 2) Determinar a prevalência de pais/mães, que fumam no domicílio; 3) Identificar alguns factores sócio-demográficos relacionados com o consumo de tabaco no domicílio; 4) Relacionar as opiniões dos pais/mães da amostra, relativamente ao tabagismo activo e passivo, com os hábitos tabágicos. O estudo realizou-se no final do ano lectivo de 2006/2007, consistindo na aplicação de um questionário anónimo de auto preenchimento a uma amostra constituída por um total de 515 pais (272 mães e 243 pais), de alunos com idades entre sete e dez anos. São elevadas as percentagens de pais fumadores que fumam em casa, pondo em risco a sua saúde e dos conviventes, especialmente a dos seus filhos. Este estudo mostra a necessidade de todos os que lidam com pais fumadores ajam, no sentido de proteger as crianças desta agressão.The evidence that exposure to Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS) is health damaging, in all stages of human life, particularly during childhood, is consistent, strong and has consensus. The main responsible for child exposure to environmental tobacco smoke at home are the parents. The goals of this paper are: 1) To determine the prevalence of the sample students’ fathers/mothers who smoke at home; 2) To identify some social-demographical factors related to tobacco consumption by the students’ fathers/ mothers, at home; 3) To relate fathers/mothers’ opinion regarding active and passive smoking with their tobacco consumption. The study took place in the end of the 2006/ 2007 school year, consisting on the application of a self-filling anonymous questionnaire to a sample of 515 parents (272 mothers and 243 fathers), parents of students aged between seven and ten years old. The main conclusion that can be drawn from this study is that there is a high percentage of smoking parents who smoke at home, putting their health and the health of the ones who live with them at risk, especially their children. This study shows the need for everyone who deals with smoking parents (paediatricians, family doctors, teachers, etc.) to act accordingly to protect children from this aggression. Implications for action are discussed

Advances in the genotyping of thrombosis genetic risk factors: clinical and laboratory implications.

Since FV-Leiden polymorphism was first described in 1994, a growing number of polymorphic loci have been identified in association with increased genetic risk for thrombophilia. Often however, these risk factors have been studied in isolation of the remaining known phenotype linked polymorphisms. This fact has, at least in part, been justified by the laborious techniques traditionally used in the genotyping studies, as well as its relatively high costs. Another major problem concerning these studies has been the non-negligible incidence of dubious genotypes, resulting from the manual, labour intensive techniques applied, and their sometimes difficult to read output's. These difficulties have also hampered the widespread use of genotyping data in the clinical assessment of the genetic risk levels both in patients and their relatives, leaving some clinicians less than convinced about its clinical usefulness. Recently however, the introduction of new genetic techniques in the clinical genetics laboratory has started to change this picture. Most notably, the advent of Real-time-PCR has brought the possibility of genotyping patients and controls at a large scale, with increased specificity, automation and speed. Moreover, the use of these techniques in the clinical genetics setting has not only increased the quality of the results, but most importantly has also increased our capability of answering questions at a deeper level. Among the new questions that can now be answered without increased costs and uncertainty is the study of the association of genetic risk factors in thrombophilia. Our results show that indeed even common polymorphic loci may increase our ability to further discriminate the genetic thrombosis risk of individual patients and relatives. It must however be noted that the innovation level in the clinical genetics lab is just starting to grow. In fact we haven't even started to experience the advantages brought about by the genome program, and its massive identification of SNP's. The technology to test these is also presently being refined, and is expected to go from research to the clinical lab in the near future. Only then, can we expect to define with high certainty the combined genetic risks for such complex pathologies as the thrombophilias

Effects of no tillage on the abundance and diversity of soil and olive tree canopy arthropods.

Soil tillage is a traditional practice in the olive groves of Trás-os-Montes region (Northeast of Portugal) where the soil is maintained without any vegetal cover. However, this agronomic practice may have dangerous environmental effects of several orders. In this way, with the present work we aimed to contribute for the knowledge about the effect of two soil management practices in the olive grove (traditional tillage in comparison to no tillage) on the arthropods abundance and diversity of the olive grove soil and the olive tree canopy with special reference to Formicidae family. The work was developed between April and October of 2004, in two continuous plots submitted to the following agronomical practices: one plot submitted to frequent tillage to control weeds, and the other plot was no tilled. Monthly, the soil fauna was evaluated by 30 pitfall traps and olive canopy fauna was monitored by the beating technique of 25 trees per plot. The recovered material was sorted and identified. The results showed the existence of a diverse and rich fauna associated to the soil of olive grove and olive tree canopy. The olive soil arthropods are constituted mainly by Formicidae and Collembola

Detection by ELISA of predators of Prays oleae (Lepidoptera: Plutellidae) in a portuguese olive orchard

Over 900 predators were collected during two years from a Portuguese organic olive orchard, and tested in a serological bioassay for Prays oleae predation. The highest number of predators tested positive during the phyllophagous and antophagous generations of P. oleae. Ants were the most commonly found predators, followed by Coleoptera, Hemiptera and spiders

Estudo preliminar sobre as formigas (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) associadas ao olival da Terra Quente Transmontana (Nordeste de Portugal).

Com o presente estudo pretendeu-se contribuir para identificar as principais espécies de formigas associadas ao olival da Terra Quente Transmontana (Nordeste de Portugal) e por outro lado, conhecer diferentes aspectos do seu comportamento, como os que se referem à época de maior ocorrência das diferentes espécies, ao período do dia em que apresentam maior actividade nas árvores e à sua importância na protecção contra espécies nocivas. As observações decorreram entre Abril e Junho de 1999, num olival de cerca de 50 anos de idade, isento de tratamentos fitossanitários há vários anos e conduzido em regime de sequeiro. Com periodicidade semanal seleccionaram-se ao acaso três árvores, cujo tronco se observou durante 10 minutos em quatro períodos distintos do dia - 9, 11, 15 e 17 horas -, para recolha de todas as formigas presentes. Estas identificaram-se como pertencentes a dez espécies: Crematogaster scutellaris Oliv., Tapinoma nigerrimwn Nyl., Tetramorium semilaeve André, Cataglyphis hispânica Emery, C. ibérica Emery, Camponotus piceus Leach, C. lateralis Oliv., C.foreli Emery, Leptothorax angustulus Nyl. e Plagiolepis pygmaea (Latr.). T. nigerrimum foi a espécie mais abundante, quer no conjunto dos exemplares identificados, com 89,4% destes exemplares, quer em cada uma das datas de amostragem e períodos do dia. A maior actividade registou-se nas amostragens correspondentes às 9 e 17 horas, quando se obtiveram 30,7% e 30,2% do total de exemplares. Nove dos indivíduos recolhidos transportavam presas visíveis, que eram, em seis casos, lagartas de Prays oleae (Bern.), num caso um adulto de Euphyllura olivina Costa e noutro, uma ninfa de Psocoptera e um indivíduo não identificado. Das formigas que transportavam presas, três pertenciam à espécie T. nigerrimum, três a C. piceus, duas a C. hispânica e uma a C. scutellaris