Abstract
Purpose: The aim of this study is to validate the current applicability of arteriovenous access banding in high flow access (HFA) and/or haemodialysis access-induced distal ischaemia (HAIDI). Methods: This retrospective study was conducted at the GEV (Grupo de Estudos Vasculares) vascular access centre. The clinical records of consecutive patients undergoing banding for HAIDI and HFA symptoms, between June 2011 and January 2015, were reviewed until April 2015. All vascular access patients' consultation records and surgical notes were reviewed. We analysed and compared patients' age, gender, comorbidities, symptoms and intraoperative ultrasound control. We defined technical failure as recurrence of symptoms, requiring new banding. Excessive banding, access thrombosis, rupture and false aneurysm development were registered as complications. Primary clinical success was defined as improvement of symptoms or effective flow reduction after banding, with no need for reintervention. If one reintervention was necessary, we have defined it as secondary clinical success. Results: Overall, 119 patients underwent banding: 64 (54%) with HAIDI and 55 (46%) with HFA. The HAIDI group was significantly older (65 +/- 13 years compared with 56 +/- 22 years, p = 0.001) and had significantly greater number of patients with diabetes (56% vs 24%, p = 0.004). Primary success was achieved in 85 patients (71.4%) and the secondary success rate was 84.9%. Older age (p = 0.016) and intraoperative ultrasound control (p = 0.012) were significantly associated with primary success. Conclusions: Our results do not corroborate the high incidence of thrombosis previously reported as associated with AV access banding and suggest that ultrasound control is crucial for preventing technical failure. The procedure was effective on both compared groups.

Abstract
Dysfunction problems with vascular access are a concern to patients and dialysis units. The vascular surgeon should analyse such dysfunction and perform a careful assessment of the vascular network in order to find new fistula layouts. We introduce and discuss the case of creation of a radiocephalic fistula with outflow into the forearm basilic vein through rotation of the forearm basilic vein toward the cephalic vein in the forearm of an 88-year-old hemodialysis male patient. This technique enables extending fistula patency and improves cost efficiency.

Abstract
End stage renal disease (ESRD) patients should be educated to maintain and preserve the arteriovenous fistula (AVF) in the best condition. The purpose of this work was to evaluate self-care frequency and factors that influenced such frequency. A prospective study was performed in 101 hemodialysis patients. Self-care behaviors were measured with the Scale of Assessment of Self-Care Behaviours with Arteriovenous Fistula in Hemodialysis. A regression model was used to determine the relevant predictors of self-care frequency and their influence. The incidence of self-care behaviors was 71.0%. The regression model showed that self-care behaviors were positively influenced by gender (female), ESRD etiology (hypertension, polycystic kidneys and other kidney diseases), duration of AVF and negatively by the existence of previous AVF and health professional (doctor). The frequency of self-care behaviors was lower than expected and below an appropriate standard. Education programs designed to improve self-care behaviors with AVF should be further explored in a prospective randomized trial.

Abstract
Aim of study: The study aims to evaluate the maximum potential stocking level in cork oak (Quercus suber L.) woodlands, using the ecologically-based size-density relationship of the self-thinning law. Area of study: The study area refers to cork oak forests in mainland Portugal, distributed along its 18 districts from north to south. Material and Methods: A dataset with a total of 2181 observations regarding pure cork oak stands was collected from the Portuguese Forest Inventory (NFI) databases and from research plots. The dataset was subjected to two filtering procedures, one more restrictive than the other, to select the stands presenting the higher stocking values. The two resulting subsets, with 116 and 36 observations, from 16 and 10 districts of mainland Portugal, respectively, were then used to assess and describe the allometric relationship between tree number and their mean diameter. Main results: The allometric relationship was analysed and modelled using the log transformed variables. A slightly curvilinear trend was identified. Thus, a straight line and a curve were both fitted for comparison purposes. Goodness-of-fit statistics point out for a good performance when the data is set to the uppermost observed stocking values. A self-thinning line for cork oak was projected from the estimated relationship. Research highlights: The self-thinning model can be used as an ecological approach to develop density guidelines for oak woodlands in a scenario of increasing cork demands. The results indicate that the recommendations being applied in Portugal are far below the maximal potential stocking values for the species. It is therefore of the utmost importance to review the traditional silvicultural guidelines and endorse new ones.

Abstract
The use of industrial by-products to produce new types of cement-substitute binders is gaining significant momentum, especially through the alkaline activation technique. However, the exact curing conditions that should be considered with each binder variation have not yet been fully understood. The aim of the present work is thus the statistical analysis of the effects of several factors, namely filler/precursor ratio and curing humidity, on the compressive strength of different mixtures prepared with mine tailings (filler), fly ash (precursor) and an alkali activator based on sodium hydroxide. Five different types of mixture were prepared, with filler/precursor ratios of 80/20, 60/40, 40/60, 20/80 and 0/100. All the specimens were cured at 80 degrees C for 7 days, after which they were submitted to a uniaxial compression strength (UCS) test. Three different values of curing humidity were considered, namely 25%, 50% and 75%. Each UCS value was the average of 9 different specimens tested. The aim of the present research is to establish how much these two factors (inert/precursor ratio and curing humidity) influence the UCS. For that purpose, a two-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), with interaction, was performed; followed by a Tuckey's Post hoc test. The results showed statistically significant differences for at least one humidity value F(2,127) = 31.647 (p<0.001) as well as one inert/precursor ratio F(4,127) = 371.64; (p<0.001) and for interaction F(8,127) = 9.33; (p<0.001). To evaluate which level or levels are different a Tuckey's Post hoc test was performed. This test revealed that the humidity value of 50% presented statistically significant differences regarding the remaining two values. In addition, it was concluded that this humidity value (50%) leads to lower binder's resistance. Concerning the inert/precursor ratio, the nonsignificant differences only occur between the 80/20 and 60/40 cases, although the strength values increase, in general, as the ash percentage increases. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Abstract
The expansion of social networks has contributed to the propagation of information relevant to general audiences. However, this is small percentage compared to all the data shared in such online platforms, which also includes private/personal information, simple chat messages and the recent called ‘fake news’. In this paper, we make an exploratory analysis on two social networks to extract features that are indicators of relevant information in social network messages. Our goal is to build accurate machine learning models that are capable of detecting what is journalistically relevant. We conducted two experiments on CrowdFlower to build a solid ground truth for the models, by comparing the number of evaluations per post against the number of posts classified. The results show evidence that increasing the number of samples will result in a better performance on the relevancy classification task, even when relaxing in the number of evaluations per post. In addition, results show that there are significant correlations between the relevance of a post and its interest and whether is meaningfully for the majority of people. Finally, we achieve approximately 80% accuracy in the task of relevance detection using a small set of learning algorithms. © 2017 Copyright is held by the owner/author(s).