Increased arterial stiffness may be causally related to resistant hypertension. Our objective was to investigate the variables, particularly those derived from ambulatory blood pressure (BP) monitoring (ABPM), associated with increased aortic stiffness in resistant hypertensives. In a cross-sectional study, 600 resistant hypertensive patients without peripheral arterial disease were evaluated. Arterial stiffness was assessed by aortic pulse wave velocity (PWV), and was considered increased if 412 m s À1 . Statistical analyses included multiple linear and logistic regressions to assess the independent correlates of increased aortic stiffness. One hundred and sixty-eight patients (28%) had aortic PWV 412 m s À1 . Patients with increased PWV were older and had a higher prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors than did those patients with low PWV. On ABPM, patients with elevated PWV had higher daytime and night time systolic BP (SBP) and pulse pressures (PP), less nocturnal decrease in SBP and a higher prevalence of non-dipping pattern. On multiple linear regression, the independently associated variables with aortic PWV were age (Po0.001), 24-h PP (Po0.001), high-density lipoprotein (HDL)-cholesterol (Po0.001), microalbuminuria (Po0.001), fasting glycemia (P¼0.001) and a decrease in nocturnal SBP (P¼0.002). Multivariate logistic regression confirmed these results, with the non-dipping patients having a 72% higher likelihood of presenting with increased aortic stiffness (95% confidence interval: 1.12-2.65, P¼0.013). This association was observed in both the reduced and reverted dipping patterns, but not in the extreme dipping pattern. In conclusion, a blunted nocturnal decrease in BP is independently associated with increased aortic stiffness in resistant hypertensive patients. Other independent correlates are older age, diabetes, microalbuminuria, low HDL-cholesterol and a widened 24-h PP.

A reduced GFR, mainly estimated by the MDRD equation, is an independent predictor of increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in resistant hypertension. The combination of a reduced GFR and increased albuminuria identifies patients with a very high cardiovascular risk.

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Mobile web has created several opportunities for the development of assistive technologies that can support disabled people in the performance of daily life activities. Mobile applications can be developed using participatory design methods which result in customized assistive solutions. In this paper, we describe the development of a mobile application to support M, a man with cerebral palsy in his communication and professional activities, highlighting the use of a participatory design method. We discuss the changes that mobile web can bring to disabled people´s lives, in the light of this experience. We conclude that mobile web applications can be configured as interesting solutions for assistive technologies.

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Abstract. Social networks increase the challenges of designing real-world aspects whose computational abstraction is not simple. This includes death and digital legacy, strongly influenced by cultural phenomena, such as religion. Therefore, it is important to analyze youngsters" concepts of death in the web, as the Internet Generation outnumbers other groups of social network users. Besides, due to their age, many of them face other people´s death for the first time on the web. This paper analyzes to what extent these users" religion and the belief in afterlife may signal guidelines for a social network project that considers volition towards digital legacy. The data herein analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively come from a survey-based research with Brazilian high school students. The contributions for Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) studies comprise design solutions that may consider aspects of religion, death and digital legacy, also improving users" and designers" understanding on these issues in system design.