Influence of availability of shade on testicular characteristics of Santa Ines rams

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of availability of artificial shading on testicular and seminal characteristics of Santa Ines crossbred rams. Twelve 8 month old rams at 38.1 ± 5.2 kg average weight, were used in a total random design with two treatments: areas with and without available artificial shading (black polyethylene mesh screen for a 50% reduction of solar radiation). The scrotal circumference, scrotal length, scrotal volume, rectal temperature and scrotal temperature were measured twice a week. Also a biweekly analysis of the semen was carried out, measuring the volume and spermatic concentration as well as the percentage of normal spermatozoa. The results show that available shading provided for lower scrotal temperatures and higher sperm concentration, without influencing the scrotal volume and the percentage of normal spermatozoa. The testicular measures, such as the scrotal circumference and length were higher in the rams that were subjected to the no available shading treatment. The absence of differences, in some of the analyzed variables, between the two treatments, with and without available shading, could be due to high adaptability of the animals

Perforated peptic ulcer: main factors of morbidity and mortality.

World J Surg. 2003 Jul;27(7):782-7. Perforated peptic ulcer: main factors of morbidity and mortality. Noguiera C, Silva AS, Santos JN, Silva AG, Ferreira J, Matos E, Vilaça H. Surgery Department, Surgery 1, Hospital Geral de Santo António, Instituto de Ciencias Biomédicas Abel Salazar, Largo do Prof. Abel Salazar, 4099-001 Oporto, Portugal. Abstract It is well stated in the literature that medical treatment for peptic ulcer is based on a combination of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) and antibiotics to eradicate Helicobacter pylori. This treatment is associated with a high rate of immediate success and a low rate of recurrence at 12 months, although it is not effective in all patients. Peptic ulcer (PU) perforation is a serious problem that leads to high complication and mortality rates. Surgical treatment, with its various possibilities, constitutes the ideal treatment. Surgical intervention in these cases, however, can be directed to treating the perforation alone, or it can offer definitive treatment of the ulcer itself. With the hope of establishing why such complications and mortality were seen in the patients in our hospital population, we gathered the facts about PU perforations and the types of surgery performed. We studied 210 consecutive patients (150 men, 60 women) who had undergone surgery at our hospital because of perforation between January 1, 1990 and December 31, 2000. The patients' median age was 53.0 +/- 20.6 years (men 47.7 +/- 17.3 years; women 66.3 +/- 22.0 years). Altogether, 86 patients had significant associated illnesses, 62 were admitted more than 24 hours after the perforation, and 25 were admitted in shock. We performed resections in 10 patients; 88 patients were treated by suturing the perforation with or without a patch of epiploon; and 112 underwent a troncular vagotomy with drainage (VT + Dr). A total of 21 patients died (10%). Significant risk factors that led to complications were identified by statistical studies. They were a perforation that had been present more than 24 hours, the coexistence of significant associated illnesses, and resection surgery. The significant risk factors that led to death were the presence of shock at admission, the coexistence of significant illnesses, and resection surgery. There was no statistically significant difference concerning morbidity and mortality between simple closure of the perforation and definitive surgery (VT + Dr). PMID: 14509505 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE

Early gastric cancer: ten years of experience

World J Surg. 2002 Mar;26(3):330-4. Epub 2001 Dec 21. Early gastric cancer: ten years of experience. Nogueira C, Silva AS, Santos JN, Silva AG, Ferreira J, Matos E, Vilaça H. Surgery Department, Surgery 1, Hospital Geral de Santo António, Largo Prof. Abel Salazar, 4000 Oporto, Portugal. [email protected] Abstract Gastric cancer is a disease in which the main treatment is surgical extirpation. The modifications introduced in the surgical treatment over the last decades were accompanied by a clear increase of survival, which reaches global values of 61% at 5 years in Japan. One of the reasons that contribute to this improvement is early diagnosis of the lesions. In the period between January 1, 1990 and December 31, 1999 662 patients with gastric adenocarcinoma were treated in the Service of Surgery 1 of our hospital; 110 were refused surgical treatment. Of the resected patients, 91 (21.4%) were classified as early gastric cancer according to the definition of the Japanese Society of Digestive Endoscopy. There were 30 women and 61 men, with a median age of 60.2 +/- 15 years; 3 patients had a preoperative diagnosis of gastric ulcer; 2 others were operated without recent histology; and 1 patient was urgently resected for a bleeding ulcer. In all the remaining patients biopsy confirmed the presence of cancer (89%) or serious dysplasia (4.6%). The lesions had been distributed essentially in the medium 1/3 (48.3%) and distal 1/3 of the stomach. Subtotal gastrectomy was accomplished in 48 patients, total gastrectomy in 40, total desgastrogastrectomy in 3, and in 9 patients the surgery involved the spleen (8 patients) and the spleen and tail of the pancreas in 1 patient. Lymphadenectomy was not performed in 5 patients, lymph nodes by the first lymph node barrier were removed in 25 patients and by the second barrier in 61 patients (67%). Median tumor size was 26 +/- 1.8 mm. The lesion reached the mucosa in 46 patients and the mucosa and submucosa in 45. In 6 patients the removed lymph nodes were microscopically invaded (6.7%). Five patients died (5.7%). The median follow-up of the patients is 41 +/- 26 months; 7 patients died (8.1%) during this period; 4 died unequivocally of disease progression. The median survival of patients was 85% at 5 years and 80% at 10 years. In our series, survival was affected by the presence of invaded lymph nodes, not by the penetration in depth of the lesion or the size of the tumor. PMID: 11865370 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE

Efeito do SO2 e do ácido ascórbico na atividade da polifenol oxidase e peroxidase em algumas frutas e hortaliças

The objective of this work was to study the effect of SO2 and ascorbic acid on polyphenol oxidase (PPO) and peroxidase (PO) activities in some fruits and vegetables. For the fruits and vegetables PO, ascorbic acid was considered the best method of inactivat ion. On the other hand, for the fruits and vegetables PPO, SO2 was the most effective method, but did not control PO activi ty in almost all products studied. A combination of the two componds used (SO2 and ascorbic acid) seems to be the adequate method to control simultaneously both enzyme activities.No presente trabalho foi estudado o efeito do SO2 e do ácido ascórbico na atividade da polifenol oxidase e peroxidase em algumas frutas e hortaliças, visando determinar as melhores condições para o controle da reação de escurecimento. Para a peroxidase das frutas e hortaliças, o ácido ascórbico foi considerado o melhor método de inativação. Já para a polifenol oxidase das frutas e hortaliças, o SO2 foi mais eficiente, porém mostrou-se inadequado para controlar a atividade da peroxidase em quase todos os produtos estudados. Uma combinação dos compostos utilizados (SQ2 e ácido ascórbico) parece ser o metodo mais indicado para o controle simultâneo da atividade das duas enzimas

Efeito do calor na atividade da polifenol oxidase e peroxidase em algumas frutas e hortaliças

O objetivo deste trabalho foi estudar o efeito de tratamentos térmicos na atividade da polifenol oxidase e da paroxidade em algumas frutas e hortaliças, bem como estudar a possível regeneração dessas enzimas após apertização. Em termos gerais, nas frutas a polifenol oxidase apresentou maior resistência à inativação pelo calor que a peroxidase e no caso das hortaliças ocorreu o inverso. Quanto à regeneração das enzimas após apertização, o fenômeno foi constatado somente no caso da peroxidase que mostrou assim grande estabilidade às condições adversas durante aquele tratamento térmico. A polifenol oxidase por sua vez, demonstrou ser uma enzima muito sensível, não se regenerando durante o tempo em que os produtos ficaram armazenados.The objective of this paper was to study the effect of heat treatments on polyphenol oxidase and peroxidase activities in some fruits and vegetables, as well the possible regeneration of these enzymes after canning. In general, for the fruits, polyphenol oxidase presented more resistance to be inactivated than peroxidase and in the case of the vegetables the inverse ocurred. Concerning to the enzyme regeneration after canning, the phenomenon was evident only in the case of the peroxidase which showed great stability in adverse conditions found during heat processing. Polyphenol oxidase, for his turn, showed to be a very heat sensitive enzyme, as no regeneration was observed during the storage time of the processed products

Reduced order models for control of fluids using the Eigensystem Realization Algorithm

In feedback flow control, one of the challenges is to develop mathematical models that describe the fluid physics relevant to the task at hand, while neglecting irrelevant details of the flow in order to remain computationally tractable. A number of techniques are presently used to develop such reduced-order models, such as proper orthogonal decomposition (POD), and approximate snapshot-based balanced truncation, also known as balanced POD. Each method has its strengths and weaknesses: for instance, POD models can behave unpredictably and perform poorly, but they can be computed directly from experimental data; approximate balanced truncation often produces vastly superior models to POD, but requires data from adjoint simulations, and thus cannot be applied to experimental data. In this paper, we show that using the Eigensystem Realization Algorithm (ERA) \citep{JuPa-85}, one can theoretically obtain exactly the same reduced order models as by balanced POD. Moreover, the models can be obtained directly from experimental data, without the use of adjoint information. The algorithm can also substantially improve computational efficiency when forming reduced-order models from simulation data. If adjoint information is available, then balanced POD has some advantages over ERA: for instance, it produces modes that are useful for multiple purposes, and the method has been generalized to unstable systems. We also present a modified ERA procedure that produces modes without adjoint information, but for this procedure, the resulting models are not balanced, and do not perform as well in examples. We present a detailed comparison of the methods, and illustrate them on an example of the flow past an inclined flat plate at a low Reynolds number.Comment: 22 pages, 7 figure

RF/SS system for wireless local loop

In this communication we deal with the use of direct sequence spread spectrum tecllniques for radio transmission in the local loop. We present a direct sequence spread-spectrum system that is being developed to transmit signals from ISDN-U [I] interfaces between subscriber premises and the local station. Some attention is' devoted to tlie IF and RF blocks

Eficacia y seguridad del adhesivo tisular Tisuacryl en el cierre de la piel de la episiotomía

Se realizó un ensayo clínico fase III, en el Hospital Docente Materno Infantil 10 de Octubre, de Ciudad de La Habana, Cuba, entre julio de 1999 y marzo del 2000, con el objetivo de evaluar la eficacia y seguridad del adhesivo tisular Tisuacryl en el cierre de la piel de la episiotomía. Cada grupo constó de 300 pacientes, de acuerdo a los criterios de inclusión establecidos para el ensayo. En el grupo estudio se presentaron menos molestias en la episiorrafia (95.6 %) que en el grupo control (56.3 %) a los 30 minutos post parto, así como al tercer día posterior al nacimiento (97.6 % vs. 61.3 %). Al séptimo día, los resultados en el afrontamiento, estética y molestias en la herida fueron significativamente mejores con el adhesivo tisular evaluado. Los riesgos relativos de resultados adversos al séptimo día posterior al parto fueron 3.2 veces mayores en relación con afrontamiento y 2.9 veces con la estética no satisfactorias cuando se utilizó catgut cromado al comparar con el Tisuacryl. Para las molestias en la episiorrafia, el riesgo relativo se elevó a 24.2, todos con diferencias estadísticas significativas. Se concluye que el uso del adhesivo tisular Tisuacryl para el cierre de la piel en la episiotomía tiene menor probabilidad de afrontamiento y estética de la herida no satisfactoria y de menor sensación dolorosa en la herida quirúrgica que el catgut cromado.Peer Reviewe

A Influência Da Cultura Local No Processo De Ensino E Aprendizagem De Matemática Numa Comunidade Quilombola

The process of teaching and learning in Quilombola communities has been widely discussed lately due to the recent inclusion of the modality of Quilombola School Education, which should represent a breakthrough for the educational process of these communities, bringing up their own school model that allows an approach to the specific knowledge to be taught. Thus, this paper presents results obtained in research on teaching and learning mathematics, using a qualitative research approach, in the form of case study, developed in a Quilombola school in a community of Santiago do Iguape - Ba. This study results indicate the need for an effective approach to mathematical knowledge present within each cultural group, as well as a teacher training in the perspective of Ethnomathematics. Therefore, we intend to contribute elements including the discussion of the teaching and learning of Mathematics to see which relationships can be established between the experience of particular cultural group of students and the teaching of this discipline.305697299