Filipa Soares Pires

Design of a spiral-mode microstrip antenna and matching circuitry for ultra-wide-band receivers

The expanding use of wireless devices has prompted the need of larger bandwidths by these devices. This need is a result of larger bit-rates or the use of different standards using different frequency bands. In this work, the design and test of a wide band antenna and its matching circuit is presented The wide band antenna is of the Archimedes type because it has a compact size and can be easily manufactured using inexpensive PCB technology. The possibility of including the matching circuitry in the same PCB is also studied.

Acute fibrinous and organizing pneumonia: A report of 13 cases in a tertiary university hospital.

IntroductionAcute fibrinous and organizing pneumonia (AFOP) is a rare diffuse pulmonary disease, but it is not yet known whether it is a distinct form of interstitial pneumonia or simply a reflection of a tissue sampling issue. MethodsCross-sectional evaluation of clinical and radiological findings, treatments, and outcomes for patients with histologically confirmed AFOP at a tertiary university hospital between 2002 and 2015. ResultsThirteen patients (7 women, 53.8%) with a mean ± SD age of 53.5 ± 16.1 years were included. The main symptoms were fever (69.2%), cough (46.2%), and chest pain (30.8%). All patients presented a radiological pattern of consolidation and 5 (38.5%) had simultaneous ground-glass areas. Histology was obtained by computed tomography-guided transthoracic biopsy in 61.5% of cases and by surgical lung biopsy in the remaining cases. Several potential etiologic factors were identified. Eight patients (61.5%) had hematologic disorders and 3 had undergone an autologous hematopoietic cell transplant. Two (15.4%) had microbiologic isolates, 5 (38.4%) had drug-induced lung toxicity, and 2 (15.4%) were classified as having idiopathic AFOP. In addition to antibiotics and diuretics used to treat the underlying disease, the main treatment was corticosteroids, combined in some cases with immunosuppressants. Median survival was 78 months and 6 patients (46.2%) were still alive at the time of analysis. ConclusionOur findings for this series of patients confirm that AFOP is a nonspecific reaction to various agents with a heterogeneous clinical presentation and clinical course that seems to be influenced mainly by the severity of the underlying disorder.

The role of genetic polymorphisms at the chromosomes 5p15, 6p12, 6p21 and 15q25 in non-small-cell lung cancer prognosis: a Portuguese prospective study

Genome Wide Association Study (GWAS) variants on chromosome 15q25 and 5p15 and genetic polymorphisms on the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) gene showed that they may contribute to lung carcinogenesis. Therefore, this study was performed in order to assess the role of GWAS, and VEGF variants in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) prognosis.