Associação dos níveis de actividade física habitual com a coordenação motora, as habilidades motoras e a aptidão física em crianças

O nível de actividade física habitual (AF) é um factor importante na prevenção de uma série de doenças crónicas. Supõe-se que os hábitos de AF que se instalam durante a infância poderão perdurar até à idade adulta, contudo não estão esclarecidos quais os factores associados à adesão à prática de AF. O objectivo foi estudar os efeitos da coordenação motora (CM), das habilidades motoras (HM) e da aptidão física (ApF) no nível de AF habitual em crianças. A amostra foi constituída por 143 crianças (meninas n = 69, meninos n = 74) com idades compreendidas entre os 4 e os 9 anos. Foi utilizada a bateria Fitnessgram para avaliar a ApF. A coordenação motora foi avaliada através da bateria KTK. As HM foram avaliadas com a bateria TGMD2. A AF foi avaliada através de pedometria, tendo sido registado o número de passos ao longo de uma semana completa. Para análise foi considerada a média diária de passos. Foi realizada uma regressão múltipla passo-a-passo, tendo a AF como variável dependente. De todas as variáveis apenas a avaliação locomotora da bateria de habilidades motoras TGMD2 foi retida como preditor dos níveis de AF. A variância explicada é baixa (1%)

Carpal Synovitis with Capitate Bone Tuberculosis in a Child

We present a 10-year-old boy with 2-month duration non-traumatic wrist pain and inflammatory signs. Due to elevated inflammatory markers on blood tests, with an increase in radiocarpal and intercarpal joints synovial fluid and no bony lesions, the patient was submitted to wrist arthrocentesis for the suspicion of septic arthritis. The patient did not improve on conventional treatment, however. An MRI showed synovitis around the carpus and a lytic lesion of the capitate bone due to osteomyelitis. A biopsy was able to identify the causative agent as Mycobacterium tuberculosis, and the patient was treated with antibiotics. He improved significantly, with no pain and signs of normal capitate bone remodelling on the last radiograph.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Mathematical retroreflectors

Retroreflectors are optical devices that reverse the direction of incident beams of light. Here we present a collection of billiard type retroreflectors consisting of four objects; three of them are asymptotically perfect retroreflectors, and the fourth one is a retroreflector which is very close to perfect. Three objects of the collection have recently been discovered and published or submitted for publication. The fourth object - notched angle - is a new one; a proof of its retroreflectivity is given.Comment: 32 pages, 19 figure

Governing locally for sustainability: public and private organizations’ perspective in surf tourism at Aljezur, Costa Vicentina, Portugal

This study explores how a rural municipality of low population density and strong tourism intensity for the practice of recreational activities can exert a sustainable collective action in the policies and strategies of planning and development of local tourism. The study focuses on the case study of the municipality of Aljezur, in Portugal, and is applied to a dominant tourism-recreational activity, surfing. Based on a survey of relevant stakeholders, namely private and public organizations, it was possible to obtain indicators of local environmental, economic and social convergence. These allowed elaborating a proposal for a municipal sustainable management charter of the surfing tourism in the region. The conception of this charter and the consequent strategies moves the management of local tourism destinations to higher levels of institutional sustainability.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Ecophysiological potential of the Dão terroir for the production of Touriga Nacional red grapes

Proceedings - IX International Terroir Congress, 2012Aiming to evaluate the potential of the portuguese Dão winegrowing region for the production of Touriga Nacional (TN) red grapes, climatic, ecophysiological and viticultural data from two different climatic years (2004, wet year and 2005, dry year) are presented and discussed. The data was collected in the control non-irrigated plants of an irrigation experiment installed at the Dão Research Station, Nelas, Portugal. The vineyard is established in a typical granitic soil and trained on a vertical shoot positioning. According to the Géoviticulture Multicriteria Climatic Classification System, the Dão region is classified as temperate/temperate warm for the heliothermal index, with cool nights (night cold index) and moderately dry (dryness index). In 2004 the predawn leaf water potential presented always values higher than -0.2 MPa from flowering to harvest but in 2005 moderate to severe water stress was observed during the ripening period (-0.4 MPa at veraison to -0.6 MPa at harvest). Leaf stomatal conductance and photosynthetic rate displayed a decreasing pattern from flowering to harvest in both years but attained much lower values in the 2005 ripening period as compared to that of 2004. The yield was similar in both years but 2005 showed lower sugar content, similar titratable acidity and a higher anthocyanin berry skin content. Our data shows that the Dão terroir presents a high inter-annual climate variability which has important repercussions on TN responses being the most unfavorable climatic years those were the high temperatures are coincident with water stress during the first half of the ripening period. In those years irrigation should be applied in order to obtain better quality grapes

Layer-by-layer deposition of antimicrobial polymers on cellulosic fibers : a new strategy to develop bioactive textiles

In recent years, there has been an increase of infectious diseases caused by different microorganisms and the development of antibiotic resistance. In this way, the search for new and efficient antibacterial materials is imperative. The main polysaccharides currently used in the biomedical and pharmaceutical domains are chitin and its derivative chitosan (CH) and alginates (ALG). In this study, a simple technique of Layer by Layer (LbL) of applying polycation CH and polyanion ALG was used to prepare CH/ALG multilayers on cotton samples via the electrostatic assembly with success. The CH/ALG cotton samples (functionalized) were investigated for their antibacterial properties towards Staphylococcus aureus and Klebsiella pneumonia using the international standard method JIS L 1902:2002. The antibacterial activity of the functionalized samples was tested in terms of bacteriostatic and bactericidal activity, and results showed that the samples exhibited a bacteriostatic effect on the two bacteria tested, as expected. In addition, samples with five layers (CH/ALG/CH/ALG/CH) were more effective in inhibiting bacterial growth. This new coating for cellulosic fibers is a new strategy and may open new avenues for the development of antimicrobial polymers with potential application in health-care field.The authors would like to thank Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia (FCT) for the funding granted concerning the project - PTDC/EBB-BIO/113671/2009 (FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-014752) Skin2Tex. Also, we would like to thank Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional (FEDER) through COMPETE - Programa Operacional Factores de Competitividade (POFC) for the co-funding

Amino acids in the development of Prodrugs

Although drugs currently used for the various types of diseases (e.g., antiparasitic, antiviral, antibacterial, etc.) are effective, they present several undesirable pharmacological and pharmaceutical properties. Most of the drugs have low bioavailability, lack of sensitivity, and do not target only the damaged cells, thus also affecting normal cells. Moreover, there is the risk of developing resistance against drugs upon chronic treatment. Consequently, their potential clinical applications might be limited and therefore, it is mandatory to find strategies that improve those properties of therapeutic agents. The development of prodrugs using amino acids as moieties has resulted in improvements in several properties, namely increased bioavailability, decreased toxicity of the parent drug, accurate delivery to target tissues or organs, and prevention of fast metabolism. Herein, we provide an overview of models currently in use of prodrug design with amino acids. Furthermore, we review the challenges related to the permeability of poorly absorbed drugs and transport and deliver on target organs.NV acknowledges support from Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT, Lisbon, Portugal) and FEDER (European Union), award number IF/00092/2014/CP1255/CT0004. NV also thanks FCT for the IF position and Fundação Manuel António da Mota (FMAM, Porto, Portugal) and Pfizer (Portugal) for support for the Nuno Vale Research Group. The contents of this report are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the FCT, FMAM and Pfizer