Pharmacotherapy, treatment satisfaction and funcional impact among fibromyalgia patients: characterization of a Portuguese sample

Fibromyalgia is characterized by widespread pain, fatigue, sleep disturbance, and psychological and cognitive problems. This disease affects mainly females in middle age and has a prevalence of 1.7% in Portugal. Treatment is symptomatic and consists of pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions. Fibromyalgia has an important impact on patient's life and can negatively affect their quality of life. Given the impact of this disease on patient's quality life, is crucial to evaluate the true influence of the pharmacological approaches on Fibromyalgia outcome.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Diagnostic Accuracy of CT Angiography for A Infrapopliteal Lesions in Patientes with Diabetic Foot Ulcers Undergoing Endovascular Revascularization

Introdução: A angiografia por tomografia computorizada (AngioTC) é aceite como técnica para seleção de doentes com doença arterial periférica candidatos a terapêutica endovascular ou cirúrgica. Não existe suficiente evidencia em relação à sua acuidade em doentes com pé diabético e patologia infrapopliteia. Objetivo: Avaliar a acuidade diagnóstica da AngioTC nas artérias infrapopliteias em doentes com pé diabético. Métodos: Estudo unicêntrico retrospetivo dos achados AngioTC e da angiografia digital de subtração em 14 doentes submetidos a revascularização endovascular periférica com pé diabético. A sensibilidade e especificidade da AngioTC foram calculadas para cada segmento arterial de acordo com uma classificação modificada da classificação de Rutherford. Resultados: A sensibilidade e especificidade global da AngioTC na deteção de lesões estenóticas significativas foi de 1 (95% C.I. 0.89-1) e 0.7 (95% C.I. 0.35-0.93), respetivamente. Por segmento arterial a sensibilidade e especificidade foram de 0.96 (95% C.I. 0.88-0.99) e 0.86 (95% C.I. 0.57-0.98) na artéria tibial anterior, de 0.98 (95% C.I. 0.90-0.99) e 0.93 (95% C.I. 0.66-0.99) na artéria tibial posterior, de 0.93 (95% C.I. 0.83-0.98) e 0.72 (95% C.I. 0.42-0.92) na artéria peroneal, respetivamente. Conclusão: A AngioTC tem excelente acuidade diagnóstica e permite a triagem de doentes diabéticos com doença arterial periférica infrapopliteia.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Cork oak (Quercus suber L.) seedlings acclimate to elevated

Leaf gas-exchange, leaf and shoot anatomy, wood density and hydraulic conductivity were investigated in seedlings of Quercus suber L. grown for 15 months either at elevated (700 lmol mol-1) or normal (350 lmol mol-1) ambient atmospheric CO2 concentrations. Plants were grown in greenhouses in a controlled environment: relative humidity 50% (±5), temperature similar to external temperature and natural light conditions. Plants were supplied with nutrients and two water regimes (WW, well watered; WS, water stress). After 6 months exposure to CO2 enrichment an increase in photosynthetic rate, a decrease in stomatal conductance and a decrease in carbon isotope discrimination (D13C) were observed, along with enhanced growth and an increase in the number of branches and branch diameter. Over the same period, the shoot weight ratio increased, the root weight ratio decreased and the leaf weight ratio was unaffected. The specific leaf area increased due to an increase in total leaf thickness, mainly due to the palisade parenchyma and starch. However, after 9 and 15 months of elevated CO2 exposure, the above-mentioned physiological and morphological parameters appeared to be unaffected. Elevated CO2 did not promote changes in vessel lumen diameter, vessel frequency or wood density in stems grown in greenhouse conditions. As a consequence, xylem hydraulic efficiency remained unchanged. Likewise, xylem vulnerability to embolism was not modified by elevated CO2. In summary, elevated CO2 had no positive effect on the ecophysiological parameters or growth of water stressed plants

Fungal diversity among different annual generations of Prays oleae

Comunicação em painelThe olives and olive oil production are important agricultural activities in Portugal. In the region of Trás-os-Montes, olive orchards are strongly affected by Prays oleae Bern., which is responsible for high losses in the olive production, as much as 40% of the expected yield. This lepidopteran presents three generations per year (phyllophagous, antophagous and carpophagous) that damage the olive tree in different organs (leaves, flowers and fruits, respectively). In an attempt to identify fungi that might cause the death of olive moths, larvae and pupae of those three annual generations were collected and surveyed for natural fungal infection. After their isolation, the fungal agents were molecularly identified by sequencing the amplified internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of rDNA. In the present work, the diversity of fungal species associated to P. oleae, in several olive orchards located in Trás-os-Montes region, is discussed. The diversity and abundance of fungal species differed between all three generations. Higher diversity was found in the carpophagous generation, followed by the antophagous and phyllophagous generations. The use of already adapted fungal species to control one of the major pests of olive groves will increase the success of a future biocontrol strategy. In this context, the identification of fungi associated to P. oleae from olive orchards provided a pool of potential biocontrol agents. In this work, Beauveria bassiana proved to be the most promising fungus to be used as biocontrol agent against olive moth, being strongly associated to the phyllophagous generation. Other fungal species presenting entomopathogenic, antagonistic and phytopathogenic characteristics were also found.This work has been supported by FCT (PTDC/AGR-AAM/102600/2008)

Barcoding of entomopathogenic fungi from olive tree pests : prospects and limitations

From all the barcoding initiatives in progress, fungal barcode is probably the one where more difficulties have been encountered. While for plants and animais the barcode regions were easy to define, for fungi the choice was not so straightforward. The internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region was one of the proposed DNA regions for barcoding fungi. This is an extensively used region, for molecular systematic and identification of species, being probably the most widely sequenced DNA region of fungi. This is due to the simplicity of the amplification, related to the multicopy nature of the rDNA; the possibility of using universal primers; and the high levei of sequence variation that occurs even between closely related species. Furthermore, a significant number of identified sequences for comparison are available in the GenBank database. Although the ITS region of rDNA was chosen for some groups of fungi, the use of this region presents very limited application for others, especially for Ascomycetes. As some of the most important entomopathogenic fungi are Ascomycetes, belonging to genera Beauveria, Cordyceps, Isaria, Lecanicillium and Paecilomyces, the use of the ITS region for barcoding purpose are being complemented with other regions. This work, based on the identification of fungal entomopathogens isolated directly from cadavers of one of the major pests in olive graves, the olive moth iPrevs oleae Bern.), intends to illustrate the application of the ITS region to identify these fungal species. The use of this region proved to be useful for the identification of most of the entomopathogenic fungi found in dead larvae and pupae of P. oleae. However, the use ot ITS region for barcode purposes did not allow the identification of several isolates, proving the requiremerít of using a second barcoding region, to enable full fungal identification.This work has been supported by FCT (PTDC/AGR-AAM/02600/2008)

Identification of fungi isolated from the olive moth (Prays oleae Bern.) based on ITS region

Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) - Project PTDC/AGR-AAM/102600/200

Palynomorphs from the Gorstian (Silurian) of the Sazes Formation (Buçaco Syncline), Central Iberian Zone, Portugal - preliminary results

Occuring in a complex syncline that extends from Buçaco to Penedo de Góis, the studied area is located in the Central Iberian Zone of the Iberian Massif. In this region outcrops a well-preserved and complete stratigraphic succession of Lower Paleozoic age. At the top of the Buçaco Syncline stratigraphic succession, the Silurian Sazes Formation (Paris, 1981), is currently being studied at a palynological (miospores and chitinozoans) and macrofossil (graptolites) level, allowing a preliminary revision and completion of the initial biostratigraphy of this area. This studies will also provide information to support the undergoing surveying mapping project (1:50 000) that is being undertaken by the “Laboratório Nacional de Energia e Geologia” (Portuguese Geological Survey) (Sequeira, in prep)

Dados palinoestratigráficos preliminares do Gorstiano (Silúrico) da Formação de Sazes (Sinclinal do Buçaco)

Novos dados bioestratigráficos foram obtidos na sucessão estratigráfica do Paleozóico Inferior da região do Buçaco. A Formação de Sazes (Silúrico) está a ser estudada ao nível palinológico (miosporos e quitinozoários) e de macrofósseis (graptólitos), com o intuito de rever e complementar dados bioestratigráficos anteriormente descritos. Com base nos dados palinológicos, parte da Fm. de Sazes foi datada com mais precisão como pertencendo ao Gorstiano e, pela primeira vez nesta região, também foram identificados criptosporos. Novos dados são esperados com a continuação deste estudo

New insights on the Hirnantian palynostratigraphy of the rio Ceira section, Buçaco, Portugal

The Lower Palaeozoic successions of Portugal are well represented in the Central Iberian Zone (Cll), one of the main tectonostratigraphic domains of the Iberian Massif. Located in the CIZ, the Bu<;aco Syncline presents one of its most complete Palaeozoic sequences. With a NW-SE orientation, the Lower Palaeozoic lithostratigraphic succession, includes several Ordovician units that ranges from the Lower Ordovician (Tremadocian stage) to the Upper Ordovician (Hirnantian stage) and are unconformably overlain by the Silurian Sazes Formation, at least of Wenlock and Ludlow epochs, in the Rio Ceira Section (Fig.1). This sequence is also well known by its rich palaeontological content in macrofauna (e.g. trilobites, briozoans, echinoderms, ostracods, brachiopods, graptolites) and microfauna (conodonts, chitinozoans, acritarchs) (Delgado, 1908; Henry and Thadeu, 1971; Mitchell, 1974; Henry et al., 1974, 1976; ElaouadDebbaj, 1978; Henry, 1980; Paris, 1979, 1981; Romano, 1982; Romano et aI., 1986; Young, 1985, 1987, 1988,1989)