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Pterospartum tridentatum Willk. (prickled broom) is an autochthonous plant, common in Portuguese territory. The yellow flowers are used in traditional medicine, as a potential cure for all body illnesses, mainly for throat irritation treatment or for diabetes, hypertension and hypercholesterolemia therapy.Despite its traditional use, no toxicological assessment has been performed as we know. A high antioxidant activity of P. tridentatum flower water extract was acessed in good agreement with its ESI-MS spectrum that revealed the presence of several flavonoids, as luteolin-O-(O-acetyl)-glucuronide, luteolin-O- glucuronide or isorhamnetin-O-hexoside. Mitocondrial respiratory rates (state 4, state 3 and FCCP-stimulated respiration) and respiratory indexes (respiratory control and P/O ratios) showed no consistent decrease of respiratory and phosphorylative efficiencies for the concentrations tested (up to 500 μg.mL-1). Cytotoxicity evaluation, using MTT assay, was reliable with the previous results. In conclusion, for the concentration range commonly used P. tridentatum flowers usage can be regarded as harmless and trustworthy.

Fruits of variety “Judia” (Castanea sativa Mill.) were collected in different climatic locations during 2006 and 2007 and the average of sum temperature (degree-days, °D) were 2457 °D and 2147 °D (May–October), respectively. In 2007, the fruits were 38% bigger and contained 50% more starch than those from 2006 but they had less 6.41% crude fat content. In 2006, nuts from the coldest place (Valpacos: 1895 °D) were the biggest (62.5 fruits/kg) and had the highest content in starch (400.7 g/kg DM) contrarily to the fruits from the hottest place (Murca: 2751°D), which were the smallest (157.1 fruits/kg). In 2007, the biggest fruits were yielded in Macedo Cavaleiros (2163 °D) 46.4 fruits/kg, repeating Murca with smallest fruits (66.0 fruits/kg). The Nei genetic distances between trees ranged between 0.0 and 0.227 proving that all of them are from the same variety. Los frutos de la variedad “Judia” (Castanea sativa Mill.) fueron recolectados en diferentes zonas climaticas, durante 2006 y 2007, con un promedio s...

The main purpose of this research is to analyse what strategies are pursued in order to protect self-esteem when it is threatened by a negative self-evaluation of school competence. Participants were 838 secondary-school students from the seventh to the ninth grades. Data were collected using Harter’s Self-Perception Pro le for Adolescents, together with a Scale of Attitudes towards School. Our results show that there are signi cant differences between the self-esteem enjoyed by successful and unsuccessful students in the seventh grade; such differences disappear in the eighth and ninth grades. They also reveal success-related differences in domain-speci c self-evaluation. We also found that students with low levels of academic achievement attribute less importance to school-related areas and reveal less favourable attitudes towards school. We discuss these results in terms of Harter’s self-esteem model and Robinson and Tayler’s self-esteem protection model.