Soil microbial biomass in organic farming system.

Agricultural production systems have to combine management practices in order to sustain soil's profitability and quality. Organic farming is gaining worldwide acceptance and has been expanding at an annual rate of 20% in the last decade, accounting for over 24 million hectares worldwide. Organic practices avoid applications of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, rely on organic inputs and recycling for nutrient supply, and emphasize cropping system design and biological processes for pest management, as defined by organic farming regulation in the world. In comparison with conventional farming, organic farming has potential benefits in improving food quality and safety. Plant production in organic farming mainly depends on nutrient release as a function of mineralization processes in soils. The build-up of a large and active soil microbial biomass is important pool of accessible nutrients, therefore, is an important priority in organic farming. In organic farming, there is positive effect of quantity and quality of inputs of organic residues on soil microbial biomass. In this way, the organic systems are extremely important for the increase of the soil fertility and the maintenance of the environmental sustainability

Satisfação conjugal e parentalidade biológica e adoptiva

Tese de mestrado, Psicologia (Psicologia Clínica e da Saúde - Núcleo de Psicologia Clínica Sistémica), 2008, Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências da EducaçãoO presente estudo, pretendendo uma comparação entre famílias portuguesas biológicas e adoptivas, tem como objectivo analisar a percepção de Satisfação Conjugal e a sua respectiva influência nos Estilos Parentais praticados, com o intuito de compreender a teia de relações existente entre os domínios da Conjugalidade e da Parentalidade. Os 171 sujeitos que compõem a amostra, dos quais 99 com filhos biológicos e 72 com filhos adoptivos, responderam a um Questionário de dados Sócio Demográficos, à Escala de Avaliação da Satisfação em Áreas da Vida Conjugal (EASAVIC) (Narciso, 2001) e a uma versão reduzida do Questionário de Dimensões e Estilos Parentais (QDEP) (Robinson, Mandleco, Olsen & Hart, 2001). Identificada uma relação positiva e directa entre as variáveis em estudo, os dados obtidos indicam uma percepção elevada de satisfação conjugal para ambos os tipos de família, embora com valores não significativamente mais salientes para as famílias em circunstâncias adoptivas (tal como sugere a literatura). Como seria de esperar, associada a tais resultados surge uma predominância do estilo autoritativo quer para as famílias biológicas quer para as famílias adoptivas. Os resultados alcançados sugerem, ainda, um efeito do tipo de família quanto à utilização de um estilo parental autoritário. Este apresenta um valor menos evidente no caso das famílias biológicas, contrastando com o estilo permissivo que ocupa a mesma posição de menor preponderância no caso das famílias adoptivas.The present study, by doing comparison between biological and adoptive Portuguese families, as the purpose to analyze the perception of Marital Satisfaction and its influence in Parental Styles, with the aim of understanding the web of relationships between the domains of Marital Relations and Parenting. The 171 subjects that arrange the sample, 99 with biological children and 72 with adoptive children, asked a Social-Demografic Questionnaire, the Evaluation Scale of Satisfaction in Marital Life Satisfaction (ESSAML) (Narciso, 2001) and to a short-version of the Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire (PSDQ) (Robinson, Mandleco, Olsen & Hart, 2001). Identified a direct and positive relationship between the variable in study, the data obtained indicate a high perception of Marital Satisfaction for both type of families, although with values not significantly more salient for families in adoptive circumstances (just as the literature suggests). As might be expected, associated to those results emerge a predominance of the Autoritative Style either to biological families or to adoptive families. The data still suggests an effect of the type of family as concerns to the use of an authoritarian parenting style. This one presents a less evident value in the case of adoptive families, contrasting with permissive style that occupies the same position of smaller preponderance in case of adoptive families

Human rights and project pedagogy: ways for education on values

Este artigo apresenta as discussões e os resultados parciais de uma pesquisa longitudinal desenvolvida durante quatro anos em uma escola de ensino fundamental. Seu objetivo era investigar se o trabalho com projetos, utilizando a Declaração Universal dos Direitos Humanos como referência, poderia se mostrar como um bom instrumento para a reorganização dos espaços, dos tempos e das relações escolares, auxiliando na formação ética dos estudantes. Como resultado do trabalho, além da descrição de estratégias de ação e da sistematização dos procedimentos que podem levar as escolas à implementação de tal proposta, conseguimos demonstrar como um trabalho sistematizado de educação em valores éticos e democráticos pode levar a uma maior consciência ética e sócio-política.This article presents the discussions and partial results of a four-year longitudinal research, developed in a Brazilian elementary school. The main goal was to investigate if a project-based curriculum, using the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a reference, could help the school to reorganize its spaces, times and relationships, contributing to students' ethical development. As a result, besides the description of strategies and the systematization of procedures that may lead schools to succeed in implementing such proposal, we have demonstrated how an educational process based on values can help students to develop greater ethical and sociopolitical consciousness

Case study : the Metro Transportes do Sul Concession & Risk Sharing and Public Financial Compensations

Objective: The goal of this study is to provide a case-study on the Metro Transportes do Sul (MTS) Concession trough an analysis of the risk sharing and financial compensations. Over the last 20 years, Portugal has been experiencing a large wave of PPP contracts. Concessions experiencing unbalance risk allocation is a constant problem in important projects and the MTS concession has been the most recent example of it. Renegotiation Agreement, calculation of compensations, traffic forecasts, no connection among bodies and unbalanced risk allocation are some of the reasons for a detailed analysis of this concession project Methodology: This paper is divided in two categories: First, a description of the concession contract, the delays in the MTS concession and the renegotiation process; Secondly, an analysis of the financial compensation from the Government and the Risk Allocation situation. Findings: This paper concludes that due to the inaccurate traffic forecast and the lack of coordination among the different bodies in the concession project there is a strong imbalance in the current risk allocation the Government was bound to be the largest contributor of the MTS concession trough financial compensations to the concessionaire Recommendation: The recommendations to this concession project are ground on the idea of a better management of the concession in general, avoiding Demand risk ex-ante, providing better technical condition for monitoring and controlling and more important, analyses traffic forecast on more solid indicators

Recovery of Software Architecture from Code Repositories

The goal of this work is to create an approach and tool that will a) extract architectural-significant information from code repositories, namely from resources such as dockerfiles and terraform configurations; b) use of the extracted information to synthesise architectural models that will be kept in-sync with the code repositories automatically; c) support the mechanisms that will allow a team to supply any additional details to the architectural model that can't be inferred directly from the repositories. This approach is expected to reduce information redundancy between code and textual documentation, and still allow an integrated and machine-readable view of the overall software architecture of a system.Architecture can be the result of multiple intangibly connected parts spread across source code and other development artifacts. This makes it difficult to describe the architecture without resourcing to auxiliary documentation that puts this information together. Most of the times, this documentation is manually created, render it a costly process which overtime starts to be desregarded and the documentation becomes out of date and sometimes obsolete. Automating the recovery of the architecture using artifacts that are already present on the source code could potentially improve the way documentation is updated and used

La salud oral en el pueblo indígena Wajãpi del estado de Amapá, Brasil

Este artigo tem como objetivo descrever alguns aspectos das representações sócioculturais da população indígena Wajãpi/AP, identificar os hábitos e as transformações nos padrões alimentares deste povo e fazer um paralelo deste contexto com o perfil epidemiológico em saúde bucal. O estudo foi desenvolvido através de uma pesquisa quali-quantitativa, onde através dos registros discursivos, observacionais e epidemiológicos buscou-se conhecer a concepção e a condição de saúde bucal entre os Wajãpi/AP. Os resultados demonstraram que a intensificação do processo de contato com a sociedade nacional introduziu a prática do assalariamento, proporcionou mudanças de hábitos e influenciou o aumento do consumo de alimentos industrializados. A polarização dos componentes que constituem o índice CPO-D e a condição dentária encontrada evidenciam diferenças no acesso ao tratamento em saúde bucal segundo a localização geográfica das aldeias. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACTThe article aims to present some aspects of the social and cultural representations of the Wajapi indigenous people (Amapá State, Brazil), to identify habits and changes in their alimentary patterns as well as to do a parallel of this context with their epidemiological oral health profile. The study was developed as a quali-quantitative research where interviews, observations and an oral health survey were used to know the conceptions and conditions about the Wajapi’s oral health. The results showed that the intensification of the contact with the Brazilian national society introduced the wage payment practice, provided habits modifications and influenced the consumption of industrialized food and alimentary diet changes as well. The polarization of the DMFT components showed differences regarding the access to oral health treatment according to the geographical location of the villages. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ RESUMENEste artículo tiene por objetivo describir algunos aspectos de las representaciones socioculturales de la población indígena Wajãpi del Estado de Amapá, Brasil, identificar los hábitos y las transformaciones en los patrones de alimentación de este pueblo y hacer un paralelo de este contexto con el perfil epidemiológico en slud oral. El estudio fue desarrollado por medio de una investigación cuali-cuantitativa, en donde mediante registros discursivos, observacionales y epidemiológicos, se objetivó conocer la concepción y la condición de salud oral entre los indígenas Wajãpi del Estado de Amapá, Brasil. Los resultados demostraron que la intensificación del proceso de contacto con la sociedad nacional introdujo la práctica de la remuneración asalariada, proporcionó cambios de hábitos e tuvo influencia en el aumento del consumo de alimentos industrializados. La polarización de los componentes que constituyen el índice CPO-D y la condición dental encontrada, dejan evidente las diferencias en el acceso al tratamiento en salud oral, según la localización geográfica de las aldeas

Promoting healthy eating standards on children through CSR educational programs: an evaluation of impact on eating preferences, attitude towards the brand and perceived brand reputation

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Management from the NOVA – School of Business and EconomicsThe purpose of this research is to evaluate the influence of brand sponsored education interventions on children’s eating preferences, attitude towards the brand and perceived brand reputation. An experiment was conducted, involving 122 third grade children who where invited to participate in a fictional brand sponsored nutrition education session, and subsequently completed a structured questionnaire and a drawing task. The results suggested that nutrition based Corporate Social Responsibility education programs can lead children to develop improved eating preferences and higher perception of brand reputation. However, the research revealed no impact on attitude towards the brand

International strategy : foreign direct investment opportunities for German Firms in Portugal

This dissertation’s purpose is to study the attractiveness of the Portuguese automobile industry as a destination for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), particularly of German companies. In order to analyze this, both the perspective of the Portuguese authorities and of German companies already operating in Portugal were considered and interviews were conducted to representatives of these German companies, who shared their experience and perspective on this matter. The results suggest that the automobile sector in Portugal is one of the most dynamic and innovative in the national economy, having a significant contribution in the GDP and export level. Further, it’s the most appellative sector to German FDI in Portugal. From the interviews we can also conclude, that Portugal gathers all the necessary conditions to be a successful FDI destination, in terms of physical, technological and human resources. However, this fact has not been adequately promoted. Some measures and reforms must be taken at an industry and national level in order to restore the trust of foreign investors in the Portuguese economy and to improve the level of FDI in Portugal.A finalidade deste trabalho é estudar a atractividade da indústria automobilística portuguesa como um destino para o Investimento Directo Estrangeiro (IDE), em particular de empresas alemãs. De forma a analisar esta questão, serão consideradas tanto a perspectiva das autoridades portuguesas como das empresas alemãs que já operam em Portugal, tendo sido realizadas entrevistas com representantes de tais empresas alemãs, os quais partilharam a sua experiência e perspectiva sobre o tema. Os resultados sugerem que o sector automóvel em Portugal é um dos mais dinâmicos e inovadores na economia nacional, tendo uma contribuição significativa no nível do PIB e das exportações. Além disso, trata-se do sector mais apelativo para o investimento alemão em Portugal. A partir das entrevistas também podemos concluir que Portugal reúne todas as condições necessárias para ser um destino de IDE bem-sucedido, em termos de recursos físicos, tecnológicos e humanos. No entanto, este facto não tem sido adequadamente promovido. Algumas medidas e reformas terão de ser tomadas, tanto a nível da indústria como a nível nacional, com o fim de restaurar a confiança dos investidores estrangeiros na economia portuguesa e melhorar o nível de IDE em Portugal

Incm & Nova Sbe Pbl project - retirement law query system: performance analysis & evaluation of bert for extractive question-answering of portuguese retirement law

This study presents a performance evaluation of the model BERT for an Extractive Question Answering task applied to the domain of Portuguese Retirement Law. By using multiple standard metrics in information retrieval solutions, the study measures how the Portuguese BERT performs as a semantic search solution on Portuguese Retirement Law by comparing its answers with a testing set composed of 180 questions and answers provided by INCM. The study revealed that the solution showed positive results. A form was also distributed to INCM, which indicated positive feedback when comparing it with the current solution implemented. This project showed that the Portuguese BERT is a very promising tool that can be used for Extractive Question Answering and for semantic search on various other domains

Indicadores altmétricos y de citación en la producción científica en ScienceOpen: estudio descriptivo para Brasil, España y Portugal.

Objective. To describe evidences of certain bibliographic issues and their influence on altmetrics and bibliometrics indicators, considering a set of Brazilian, Spanish and Portuguese articles. Design/Methodology/Approach. From an exploratory approach, a total of 133 articles, available in ScienceOpenand best-positioned from the altmetrics counts, have been analyzed according to characteristics as publication date, authorship and collaboration, subject area, language, number of citations and, finally, altmetrics values derived from altmetric attention scores and mentions collected by Altmetric. Results/Discussion. Data show differences among countries regarding some issues —for example, number of authors by article, or language of publication— for the best-positioned articles in altmetrics rankings. For the whole sample, it is remarkable that more recent articles obtain more mentions and shared authorship is usual. Conclusions. Altmetrics evaluate visibility and reception of academic articles in web and social media, so they enrich citation data and extend the scope of the scientific production beyond the academic community. It is required to study and understand the social impact of science and to identify which elements of the publication process have direct influences over the popularization of scientific research. Originality/Value. Besides of dealing with a sample of Ibero-american articles, usually underrepresented in bibliometric databases, this study emphasizes the complementary role of the different dimensions that have to be taken into account in scientific communication