Introduction: Nitric oxide (NO) plays an important role in a wide range of physiologic and pathophysiological processes. A major mediator of endothelial function, NO regulates vasodilatory and antithrombotic actions in the vasculature and plays a role in reproductive functions, bronchodilation, bone formation, memory, insulin sensitivity, and gastrointestinal relaxation. Impaired NO bioactivity is strongly associated with endothelial dysfunction. NO, an L-arginine derivative, also exerts a variety of renal and extrarenal physiological and pathophysiological effects. It seems that NO synthetic pathway could have a key role in mediating the complex hemodynamic and hemostatic disorders associated to the progression of renal disease. It remains unclear whether endogenous NO production is increased or decreased in patients with chronic renal failure. The objective of this study was to present the effect of different dialysis treatment on NO serum concentration in patients with chronic renal failure. Patients and Methods: To evaluate endogenous NO production in these patients we studied plasma NO2 and NO3 levels (determined with the Griess method) in patients who underwent regular continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis or repeated haemodialysis and in healthy subjects. The study included 51 patients suffering from chronic renal failure and 30 healthy subjects. Results: Our results show that patients with chronic renal failure had a significantly higher NO serum concentration than controls. These values did not differ between patients on haemodialysis and those on continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis. NO serum concentration did not differ between female and male independently of the patient’s treatment. Discussion and Conclusion: From obtained results we can concluded that uremia is associated with excessive systemic NO release independently of the patient’s treatment. Alter (increase) NO synthesis may help to explain some pathological changes seen in uraemia such as bleeding tendency, a well-known complication of uremia and hemodialysis hypotension.

The paper presents two novel applications of Thomson Multitaper Analysis. It is shown how a wideband simulator of a double mobile MIMO channel could be developed based on geometrical channel model. It is also shown how modification of Discrete Prolate Spheroidal Sequences could be used to better estimation of sparse channels. A number of other potential applications is also mentioned.

The proportions of main cuts (tender loin, leg, back, shoulder, upper and lower sub-shoulder, ribs, breast, neck, belly, front and hind shank) and tissues (muscle, fat, bones and connective tissue) in the carcasses of young Simmental bulls (n = 13) and heifers (n = 13) were determined by carcass dissection and compared. Bulls had higher proportion of shoulder, neck and front shank while the share of back, ribs and breasts were higher in heifers. The share of carcass cuts of category II was higher in bulls. They also had higher proportion of muscle in most of the main cuts (leg, back, shoulder, upper and lower sub-shoulder, breast, neck and belly). In contrast, the proportion of fat tissue was generally higher in heifers’ cuts (leg, shoulder, upper and lower subshoulder, ribs, breast, neck and belly). Consequently, the proportion of muscle tissue was higher in all carcass cuts categories in bulls while share of fat tissue was higher in heifers. Proportions of bones and connective tissue in the main cuts and carcass cuts categories were similar between bulls and heifers. Overall, the average share of muscle, fat, bones and connective tissue in the carcass halves was 70.45, 7.46, 16.33 and 5.76% in bulls, and 67.09, 10.72, 16.25 and 5.94% in heifers, respectively.

Observing that bacteria resistant to antimicrobials represent a challenge in the treatment of infections, it is notorious the need of finding new substances with antimicrobial features to be used in the fight against these microorganisms. This work relates the evaluation of the antibacterial activity, toxicity and identification of the chemical components of the essential oil of Croton zehntneri (variety estragol), plant used in the popular medicine as tranquilizer and appetite stimulant. The antimicrobial activity and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) were determined by the method of diffusion in discs. The evaluation of the toxicity was held through brine shrimp test with results considered active (LC50 < 100 µg/mL). The essential oil of leaves presented antibacterial activity with all the bacteria tested except with Salmonlla typhimurium, being the best result with the Shigella flexneri with MIC of 50 µg/mL. The analysis of the chemical composition was obtained by gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC/MS) and permitted to identify a total of 97.4 % of the components, with major presence of estragol (76.8%). The presence of the latter drives us to studies with other bacteria, as the estragol was previously reported as being responsible for antibacterial activities.