Sérgio Pereira

The Fukushima nuclear disaster and its effects on media framing of fission and fusion energy technologies

This paper presents results of a comparison of media coverage of fusion and fission energy technologies in three countries (Germany, Spain and Portugal) and in the English language international print media addressing transnational elite, from 2008 to 2012. The analysis showed that the accident in Fukushima in March 2010 did not have significant impact on media framing of nuclear fusion in the major part of print media under investigation. In fact, fusion is clearly dissociated from traditional nuclear (fission) energy and from nuclear accidents. It tends to be portrayed as a safe, clean and unlimited source of energy, although less credited when confronted with research costs, technological feasibility and the possibility to be achieved in a reasonable period of time. On the contrary, fission is portrayed as a hazardous source of energy, expensive when compared to research costs of renewables, hardly a long-term energy option, susceptible to contribute to the proliferation of nuclear weapons or rogue military use. Fukushima accident was consistently discussed in the context of safety problems of nuclear power plants and in many cases appeared not as an isolated event but rather as a reminder of previous nuclear disasters such as Three Miles Island and Chernobyl.

Bilateral synchronous testicular seminoma: A rare presentation of a rare disease

OBJECTIVE To present a case of a bilateral synchronous testicular seminoma in a young male clinical stage IIB. MATERIAL AND METHOD A 37 years old man presented a bilateral testicular mass with elevated tumoral markers. Histology of frozen section revealed bilateral seminoma and bilateral radical orchiectomy was performed. RESULT Enhanced chest and abdominopelvic staging CT scan revealed a lymphadenopathy of 30 mm within the inter-aortocava nodal chain (stage IIB). Patient received three cycles of BEP. Three months later 18F-FDG PET showed no evidence of hypermetabolic activity and serum tumoral markers were normal. CONCLUSION Bilateral testicular germ cell tumors are a rare disease. Management of this tumors is controversial. Bilateral radical orchiectomy is the standard of care, nevertheless, in order to preserve fertility and androgen production, an organsparing surgery can be attempted in selected cases. Although prognosis is good, with overall survival rates similar to patients with unilateral disease, life-long close follow-up may be advocated due to relapse risk.

A Prospective Randomized Trial Comparing the Vienna Nomogram and a Ten-Core Prostate Biopsy Protocol: Effect on Cancer Detection Rate

&NA; We performed a prospective randomized study of men undergoing prostate biopsy randomized to a Vienna nomogram protocol (group A) or a 10‐core protocol (group B). The results suggest that the use of the Vienna nomogram does not significantly increase the overall cancer detection rate compared with a 10‐core biopsy scheme. Further prospective randomized studies, with adequate sample sizes, are needed to definitively determine the best prostate biopsy protocol. Background: We evaluated whether the Vienna nomogram increases the detection rate of transrectal ultrasound‐guided prostate biopsy compared with a 10‐core biopsy protocol. Patients and Methods: In the present prospective randomized study, men eligible for prostate biopsy were randomized to a Vienna nomogram protocol (group A) or a 10‐core protocol (group B). They were further stratified according to age (≤ 65, > 65 but ≤ 70, and > 70 years) and prostate volume (≤ 30, > 30 but ≤ 50, > 50 but ≤ 70, and > 70 cm3). The cancer detection rate (CDR) was compared between the groups by logistic regression analysis, with adjustment for age as necessary, overall and with age and prostate volume stratification. Additional statistical analysis was performed with Fishers exact test for contingency tables and the Mann‐Whitney U test for 2 independent samples. P < .05 was considered statistically significant. A subgroup analysis was performed for patients with serum prostate‐specific antigen levels of 2 to 10 ng/mL. Results: From January 2009 to July 2010, 456 patients were enrolled, 237 to the Vienna nomogram group and 219 to the 10‐core group. No significant differences were found in serum prostate‐specific antigen or prostate volume between the 2 groups. Multivariate analysis with adjustment for age revealed no significant differences in CDR, with 42.6% in group A and 38.4% in group B (P = .705). When stratified by age and prostate volume, no statistically significant differences were found in the CDR between the groups in all subclasses. Also, in the subgroup analysis, CDR was not significantly different, 37.9% versus 34.7% for groups A and B, respectively (P = .891). Conclusion: These results study suggest that the use of the Vienna nomogram does not significantly increase the overall CDR compared with a 10‐core biopsy scheme. Further prospective randomized studies, with adequate sample sizes, are needed to definitively determine the best prostate biopsy protocol.

Media analysis of the representations of fusion and other future energy technologies

Media representations of energy have a relevant impact on public opinion and public support for investment in new energy sources. Fusion energy is one among several emerging energy technologies that requires a strong public investment on its research and development. This paper aims to characterise and compare the media representations of fusion and other emerging energy technologies in Portugal and in Spain. The emerging energy technologies selected for analysis are wave and tidal power, hydrogen, deep sea offshore wind power, energy applications of nanotechnology, biofuels from microalgae and IV generation nuclear fission. This work covered the news published in a selection of newspapers in Portugal and Spain between January 2007 and June 2013.