An analysis of cosmological perturbations in hydrodynamical and field representations

Density fluctuations of fluids with negative pressure exhibit decreasing time behaviour in the long wavelength limit, but are strongly unstable in the small wavelength limit when a hydrodynamical approach is used. On the other hand, the corresponding gravitational waves are well behaved. We verify that the instabilities present in density fluctuations are due essentially to the hydrodynamical representation; if we turn to a field representation that lead to the same background behaviour, the instabilities are no more present. In the long wavelength limit, both approachs give the same results. We show also that this inequivalence between background and perturbative level is a feature of negative pressure fluid. When the fluid has positive pressure, the hydrodynamical representation leads to the same behaviour as the field representation both at the background and perturbative levels.Comment: Latex file, 18 page

Experiência de 6 Anos de Cirurgia Micrográfica de Mohs num Hospital Português

Introduction: Mohs micrographic surgery (MMS) is a surgical method of treating skin tumors that consists of histological control of the tumor margins using horizontal slices in thin, freshly frozen layers. This technique is a preferred indication for cutaneous facial tumors (basal and squamous cell carcinoma, among others) associated with higher risk of recurrence, recurrent tumors, tumors with undefined clinical margins, when there is perivascular and perineural involvement or with aggressive histological subtypes. Methods: The authors carried out a retrospective study of a 6-year period (from July 2012 until June 2018) at a Portuguese hospital – Egas Moniz hospital, to define the characteristics of patients undergoing Mohs micrographic surgery and to evaluate the advantages of this technique. The following factors were analyzed: age, gender, provenience, diagnosis, tumor location, number of stages of MMS, type of reconstruction of the surgical defect, follow-up and recurrences. Results: A total of 835 tumors were excised, 459 in male patients and 376 in female patients. The mean age at surgery was 71 years old (range 23- 95 years). Most of the lesions submitted to MMS were basal cell carcinomas (87%) and the most common location was the nasal pyramid (43%). In 44% of the cases, it was necessary to perform more than one micrographic stage. Half of the surgical defect closures were performed by graft or skin flap. Considering patients with a follow up equal or superior to 3 years, the recurrence rate was 4.9%. Discussion: The most frequent diagnosis was basal cell carcinoma, reflecting the importance of MMS in this type of skin malignancy, in both primary and persistent/recurrent lesions. Compared to other European surgery reviews, our recurrence rate is within normal range. This fact is particularly relevant, if we consider that our institution receives patients sent from hospitals and dermatologists from all over the country, specially selected for tumor aggressiveness or previous relapse. More than half of these patients were referred from other centers and consisted of persistent/recurrent basal cell carcinomas. The follow-up at recurrence for MMS was 27.9 months, supporting that a long follow-up of these patients is necessary. Conclusion: MMS allows lower rates of recurrence compared to simple surgical excision, so its practice should be encouraged in selected tumors. The surgical control of the margins instead of the “blind margins” is an advantage in saving healthy tissue and allows the complete excision of the tumor in the same surgical time.Introdução: A cirurgia micrográfica de Mohs é um método cirúrgico de tratamento dos tumores cutâneos que consiste no controlo histológico das margens do tumor usando cortes horizontais em camadas finas congeladas a fresco. Esta técnica é uma indicação preferencial para tumores cutâneos da face (carcinoma basocelular e espinocelular, entre outros) associados a maior risco de recidiva, tumores recidivados, com margens clínicas indefinidas, quando existe envolvimento perivascular e perineural ou com subtipos histológicos agressivos. Métodos: Os autores realizaram um estudo retrospetivo de um período de 6 anos (de julho 2012 até junho 2018) num hospital Português – Hospital de Egas Moniz, para definir as características dos doentes submetidos a cirurgia micrográfica de Mohs e avaliar as vantagens desta técnica. Foram analisados os fatores: idade, género, proveniência, diagnóstico, localização do tumor, número de estádios da cirurgia micrográfica de Mohs, tipo de reconstrução do defeito cirúrgico, seguimento e recidiva. Resultados: Foram operados 835 tumores no total, 459 em doentes do sexo masculino e 376 em doentes do sexo feminino. A média de idades foi de 71 anos (intervalo entre 23- 95 anos). A maioria dos tumores submetidos a cirurgia micrográfica de Mohs foram carcinomas basocelulares (87%) localizados na pirâmide nasal (43%). Em 44% dos casos, houve necessidade de realizar mais de um estadio micrográfico. Metade dos encerramentos do defeito cirúrgico foram realizados por enxerto ou retalho cutâneo. Em doentes com seguimento igual ou superior a 3 anos, a taxa de recidiva foi de 4,9%. Discussão: O diagnóstico mais frequente foi o de carcinoma basocelular, o que reflete a importância da cirurgia micrográfica de Mohs, neste tipo de neoplasia cutânea, quer em lesões primárias como persistente/recorrentes. Salientamos que comparativamente a outras revisões europeias de cirurgia de Mohs, a taxa de recidiva dos tumores se encontra dentro dos parâmetros normais. Este dado é particularmente relevante, se considerarmos que o nosso serviço recebe doentes enviados de hospitais e dermatologistas de todo o país, especialmente selecionados quanto à agressividade tumoral ou já recidivados. O intervalo médio de recorrência para MMS foi de 27,9 meses, o que demonstra a necessidade de um seguimento a longo prazo destes doentes. Conclusão: A cirurgia micrográfica de Mohs permite menores taxas de recidiva comparativamente á excisão cirúrgica simples pelo que a sua prática deve ser encorajada em tumores devidamente selecionados. O controlo cirúrgico das margens em vez das “margens cegas” é uma mais-valia tanto na poupança de tecido são como na garantia da excisão completa do tumor num mesmo tempo cirúrgico

Actinobacteria isolated from subterranean and cultural heritage: implications for biotechnology

Due to their extraordinary properties, Actinobacteria can thrive in extreme environments, such as limestone caves, lava tubes and stone monuments. They grow forming microbial mats and speleothems on the walls and ceilings of caves, ranging from extensive coatings to small colonies (Riquelme et al. 2015). Their colour includes yellow, tan, orange, grey, pink and white. Recently, we have found abundant yellow and white-coloured bacterial mats coating the cave walls and secondary mineral deposits (speleothems) of lava tubes from La Palma Island, Canary Islands, Spain (Gonzalez-Pimentel et al. 2018) and Mount Etna in Catania (Sicily, Italy). Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM) of the coloured microbial mats revealed abundant Actinobacteria-like cells, including a variety of filaments and spore structures with smooth surface ornamentation or profuse surface appendages. The DNA-/RNA-based analyses confirmed that these microbial mats are mainly composed of metabolically active Actinobacteria (Gonzalez-Pimentel et al. 2018). It is well known that Actinobacteria, mainly isolated from marine and soil ecosystems, are an important source of bioactive compounds, with Streptomyces ranking first with a huge number of bioactive secondary metabolites (Guo et al. 2015). These compounds, not only produced by Streptomyces but also by Bacillus, are very important to the industrial sector, such as pharmacology, biofuel and food industries, as well as to the conservation of stone cultural heritage, due to their antimicrobial properties (Silva et al. 2017). In the last decades, these sectors have intensified demands for exploring novel eco-friendly bioactive compounds, which stresses the need to investigate new groups of Actinobacteria from underexplored habitats. Yet, Actinobacteria from caves have not been the target of intensive screening for bioactive secondary metabolites. Hence, Actinobacterial-like microbial mats were collected and isolated from lava tubes in La Palma and Mount Etna to investigate their biotechnological potential. The screening of antimicrobial activity was based both on culture-dependent techniques using the agar diffusion assay and on metagenomics. Our study has showed that the strain Streptomyces sp. MZ0467C isolated from La Palma lava tube has antimicrobial activity against Microbacterium, Rhodococcus, Arthrobacter, Kocuria, Sphingomonas and Paenibacillus due to its ingenious adaptations and metabolic strategies to survive under extreme environmental conditions. This demonstrates that Actinobacteria from subterranean environments are promising sources of antibacterial compounds with interest for cultural heritage conservation

Sterol and fatty acid profile in negrinha and santulhana varietal olive oils from Trás-os-Montes region

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

On Equivalence of Duffin-Kemmer-Petiau and Klein-Gordon Equations

A strict proof of equivalence between Duffin-Kemmer-Petiau (DKP) and Klein-Gordon (KG) theories is presented for physical S-matrix elements in the case of charged scalar particles interacting in minimal way with an external or quantized electromagnetic field. First, Hamiltonian canonical approach to DKP theory is developed in both component and matrix form. The theory is then quantized through the construction of the generating functional for Green functions (GF) and the physical matrix elements of S-matrix are proved to be relativistic invariants. The equivalence between both theories is then proved using the connection between GF and the elements of S-matrix, including the case of only many photons states, and for more general conditions - so called reduction formulas of Lehmann, Symanzik, Zimmermann.Comment: 23 pages, no figures, requires macro tcilate

Magnetic Properties of Weakly Doped Antiferromagnets

We study the spin excitations and the transverse susceptibility of a two-dimensional antiferromagnet doped with a small concentration of holes in the t-J model. The motion of holes generates a renormalization of the magnetic properties. The Green's functions are calculated in the self-consistent Born approximation. It is shown that the long-wavelength spin waves are significantly softened and the shorter-wavelength spin waves become strongly damped as the doping increases. The spin wave velocity is reduced by the coherent motion of holes, and not increased as has been claimed elsewhere. The transverse susceptibility is found to increase considerably with doping, also as a result of coherent hole motion. Our results are in agreement with experimental data for the doped copper oxide superconductors.Comment: 20 page

Relativistic Quantum Thermodynamics of Ideal Gases in 2 Dimensions

In this work we study the behavior of relativistic ideal Bose and Fermi gases in two space dimensions. Making use of polylogarithm functions we derive a closed and unified expression for their densities. It is shown that both type of gases are essentially inequivalent, and only in the non-relativistic limit the spinless and equal mass Bose and Fermi gases are equivalent as known in the literature.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figur