Estimation and dynamics of above ground biomass with very high resolution satellite images in Pinus pinaster stands

Biomass estimation is a tool for evaluating stands and forest dynamics. Traditional indirect methods use forest inventories and allometric functions at tree level to evaluate biomass at plot level, and an extrapolation method to assess an area. The goal of this study was the development of allometric functions for Pinus pinaster with crown horizontal projection derived from very high spatial resolution satellite images as an independent variable, as well as their application to the analysis of above ground biomass dynamics. The fitted functions show a good performance. The function used to estimate the above ground biomass per grid in 2004, 2007 and 2011 for the study area enable the evaluation of their temporal dynamics. From 2004 to 2007 it decreased in 90.5% of the study area, due to forest fires and cuts to control the pinewood nematode; from 2007 to 2011 increased in 45.6% and decreased in 51.6%, the latter corresponding to cuts to control the aforementioned disease. In 76.4% of the burnt areas, natural regeneration resulted in an increase of above ground biomass. The method's main advantages are the simultaneous evaluation of small or large areas and, when implemented in a GIS, it allows straightforward monitoring over a short period of time

Análise da materialidade: abordagens no planeamento sustentável em saúde

Os desafios da implementação da Agenda 2030 para o Desenvolvimento Sustentável têm gerado necessidades conceptuais e metodológicas específicas no âmbito do planeamento estratégico, na procura de modelos, nos vários setores da sociedade, baseados num referencial que integre os três pilares do desenvolvimento sustentável: ambiental, social e económico. A análise da materialidade é um dos métodos analíticos que apoiam o planeamento estratégico das organizações no âmbito do desenvolvimento sustentável. Com origem na área financeira, há vários anos que o conceito de materialidade tem sido alargado às áreas da sustentabilidade, sendo atualmente definido como o limiar a partir do qual as questões com potencial impacto na capacidade de uma organização para criar, preservar ou lesar o valor económico, ambiental e social para si própria, para os stakeholders e para a sociedade, se tornam suficientemente importantes para que passem a ser abordadas no respetivo planeamento estratégico. Largamente utilizada no setor empresarial, admite-se que a análise da materialidade possa contribuir para a integração das dimensões do desenvolvimento sustentável no planeamento em saúde. O objetivo desta comunicação é descrever as diferentes abordagens metodológicas da análise da materialidade e a sua potencial adequação ao setor da saúde.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Análise da materialidade: abordagens no planeamento sustentável em saúde

Os desafios da implementação da Agenda 2030 para o Desenvolvimento Sustentável têm gerado necessidades conceptuais e metodológicas específicas no âmbito do planeamento estratégico, na procura de modelos, nos vários setores da sociedade, baseados num referencial que integre os três pilares do desenvolvimento sustentável: ambiental, social e económico. A análise da materialidade é um dos métodos analíticos que apoiam o planeamento estratégico das organizações no âmbito do desenvolvimento sustentável. Com origem na área financeira, há vários anos que o conceito de materialidade tem sido alargado às áreas da sustentabilidade, sendo atualmente definido como o limiar a partir do qual as questões com potencial impacto na capacidade de uma organização para criar, preservar ou lesar o valor económico, ambiental e social para si própria, para os stakeholders e para a sociedade, se tornam suficientemente importantes para que passem a ser abordadas no respetivo planeamento estratégico. Largamente utilizada no setor empresarial, admite-se que a análise da materialidade possa contribuir para a integração das dimensões do desenvolvimento sustentável no planeamento em saúde. O objetivo desta comunicação é descrever as diferentes abordagens metodológicas da análise da materialidade e a sua potencial adequação ao setor da saúde.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Luz ao fundo do túnel? Análise de um modelo de prevenção e intervenção face ao sobreendividamento das famílias

Na actual conjuntura económica portuguesa tem-se registado uma evolução crescente de situações de sobreendividamento ou de insolvência dos agregados familiares. Associada a esta tendência, surge a preocupação, por parte dos decisores, em encontrar formas de intervenção, mais ou menos ajustadas, face aos problemas verificados. Contudo, esta problemática exige uma actuação integrada, que contemple medidas direccionadas não apenas para a intervenção mas também para a prevenção deste tipo de situações na sociedade portuguesa. Pretendemos, com a apresentação deste modelo, propor um vasto conjunto de medidas, entre as quais se conta a educação financeira, que conduzam a uma dupla actuação face à problemática do sobreendividamento (preventiva e de tratamento), atendendo aos antecedentes, de natureza diversa, que podem estar na sua origem. Este modelo será alvo de uma reflexão e análise, com vista a identificar a pertinência da sua aplicação ao actual panorama sócio-económico português.In Portugal the number of cases of over-indebtedness or insolvency of households is increasing. Due to this trend, there is a concern, on the part of decision-makers, in finding ways to intervene, to face this problem. However, this problem requires an integrated action, which includes measures aimed not only at the intervention but also at the prevention of this type of situation in the Portuguese society. Our objective is to present a model that includes a comprehensive set of measures, among whom is financial education, which involves a collective action aimed at the prevention and intervention of problems of over-indebtedness, given the track record of factors of a diverse nature that may be in its origin. This model is object of reflection and analysis, to identify the relevance of its application in the current socio-economical Portuguese conjuncture

Idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss: etiopathogenic aspects

SummarySeveral factors have been postulated to elicit the etiology of idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss. Through a bibliographic review, we made a critical analysis of the different etiopathogenic aspects of its clinical manifestation. The most recent studies concerning the possible causes of sudden hearing loss suggest vascular disorders, rupture of the inner ear membrane and autoimmune diseases; however, viral infections have received a great deal of attention in recent years. Little is known about the mechanism of sudden hearing loss. Viruses can cause sudden hearing loss in an acute infection, however the latent form, and its possible reactivation have also been considered as explanations of the cochlear injury mechanism. Even though hearing loss can be explained by a blood viscosity change, experimental and clinical studies do not show any evidence of labyrinthine fibrosis and new bone formation, or labyrinthine membrane breaks. These findings are not in agreement with vascular and rupture membrane factors, respectively. The eventual presence of antibodies against the inner ear suggests that sudden hearing loss pathogenesis may be of autoimmune nature, but the difficulty in establishing the correlation of its morphological and clinical aspects to the hearing loss also do not help to support this statement. Sudden hearing loss is still a controversial and obscure subject in several aspects

A imagem da Agricultura em Portugal

Presently the brand concept can range from personal brand to country or continent brand. We therefore consider that studying a sector of the economy, in this case Agriculture, according to the brand concept would be an added value. Agriculture is a key sector in any economy. Its main function is to guarantee food supply for the population, but it is also important its part on territory order and environment protection Starting from the importance Agriculture has in any country, we wanted to understand the image this sector has among the general public. The goal of this investigation is to characterize the image of Agriculture in Portugal, based on the associations it provokes. Associations are the purest way of obtaining the image of a brand, for they let us understand which is the positioning of a brand in the mind of its publics. Method: The present investigation follows an epistemological continuum, starting from an exploratory study of a qualitative approach (brainstorming), with the aim of obtaining a group of associations to the Agriculture sector by the general public, and then using a quantitative approach in order to generalize de results. The data has been analyzed based on the SPSS through a multidimensional unfolding analysis. Results:It was with no surprise that we verified that the image of Agriculture in Portugal is bad, translated by a group of not so favourable associations, demonstrating that it is not the pertinence of the sector that makes it attractive. Conclusions: So we conclude that the pertinence of an extremely important sector as Agriculture does not necessarily bring with it strong and favourable associations among the general public. Since Agriculture is a sector of priority concern in the context of the European Union, we consider it pertinent to replicate this study at an european level in order to understand which is the image of Agriculture in the different countries of the European Union. This type of study allows to base communication actions with the aim of altering the image of Agriculture, a fundamental sector for human life and environmental sustainability.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Quality management and supply chain management integration: a conceptual model

Recent trends in the business world has forced companies to expand their activities into new regions where they can find qualified manpower, lower production costs, high availability of raw materials giving rise to wider and more complex supply chains but also bringing in new opportunities to leverage their competitive advantages. These changes require the implementation of new organizational models with different suppliers and partners responsible for an important part of the final product and consequently to provide a service of excellence to satisfy customers. In order to produce value and optimize profitability, it is fundamental to establish successful partnerships with the supply chain organizations that can be achieved by new models of cooperation, improved communication and integration among all the supply chain partners. The use of advanced management practices is essential to accomplish these objectives. In this context, the use of integrated approaches to quality management, logistics and SCM becomes fundamental. Therefore, it will be important to take advantage of TQM and SCM synergies in order to improve customer satisfaction, increase employee´s motivation and to promote performance of the organization. In this paper, a conceptual model is presented which reflects the integration of SCM/QM and their impact in companies’ performance

The image of Agriculture in Portugal

Presently the brand concept can range from personal brand to country or continent brand. We therefore consider that studying a sector of the economy, in this case Agriculture, according to the brand concept would be an added value. Agriculture is a key sector in any economy. Its main function is to guarantee food supply for the population, but it is also important its part on territory order and environment protection. Starting from the importance Agriculture has in any country, we wanted to understand the image this sector has among the general public. The goal of this investigation is to characterize the image of Agriculture in Portugal, based on the associations it provokes. Associations are the purest way of obtaining the image of a brand, for they let us understand which is the positioning of a brand in the mind of its publics. The present investigation follows an epistemological continuum, starting from an exploratory study of a qualitative approach (brainstorming), with the aim of obtaining a group of associations to the Agriculture sector by the general public, and then using a quantitative approach in order to generalize de results. The data has been analyzed based on the SPSS through a multidimensional unfolding analysis. It was with no surprise that we verified that the image of Agriculture in Portugal is bad, translated by a group of not so favourable associations, demonstrating that it is not the pertinence of the sector that makes it attractive. So we conclude that the pertinence of an extremely important sector as Agriculture does not necessarily bring with it strong and favourable associations among the general public. Since Agriculture is a sector of priority concern in the context of the European Union, we consider it pertinent to replicate this study at an european level in order to understand which is the image of Agriculture in the different countries of the European Union. This type of study allows to base communication actions with the aim of altering the image of Agriculture, a fundamental sector for human life and environmental sustainability.Brand, Response, Associations, Publics, Agriculture

New land-based method for surveying sandy shores

The INSHORE system (INtegrated System for High Operational REsolution in shore monitoring) is a land-base survey system designed and developed for the specific task of monitoring the evolution in time of sandy shores. This system was developed with two main objectives: (1) to produce highly accurate 3D coordinates of surface points (in the order of 0.02 to 0.03 m); and (2) to be extremely efficient in surveying a beach stretch of several kilometres. Previous tests have demonstrated that INSHORE systems fulfil such objectives. Now, the usefulness of the INSHORE system as a survey tool for the production of Digital ElevationModels (DEMs) of sandy shores is demonstrated. For this purpose, the comparison of DEMs obtained with the INSHORE system and with other relevant survey techniques is presented. This comparison focuses on the finalDEM accuracy and also on the survey efficiency and its impact on the costs associated with regular monitoring programmes. The field survey method of the INSHORE system, based on profile networks, has a productivity of about 30 to 40 ha/h, depending on the beach surface characteristics. The final DEM precision, after interpolation of the global positioning system profile network, is approximately 0.08 to 0.12 m (RMS), depending on the profile network’s density. Thus, this is a useful method for 3D representation of sandy shore surfaces and can permit, after interpolation, reliable calculations of volume and other physical parameters

The recent sovereign debt crisis in the Euro zone: A matter of fundamentals?

The idea that the Euro zone sovereign debt crisis was caused by structural weaknesses degenerating into fundamental macroeconomic imbalances in the peripheral countries prevails among international institutions such as the IMF, the ECB, and the European Commission. On the contrary, some economists believe that this crisis is the consequence of major deficiencies in the architecture of economic policy making in the Euro zone that did not allow a proper response to a global systemic crisis of the financial markets that started in the United States. The objective of this paper is to provide a better understanding of the public debt dynamics in the EU, differentiating the case of Euro zone peripheral countries. We used quarterly data from 2000 to 2011 to estimate a small-scale model that takes into account the interactions between key variables. Our results do not support entirely the official view. We conclude that the cause of the adverse debt dynamics unravelling after 2007 was a sharp GDP contraction, coupled with a substantial increase in the interest cost of debt finance due to higher self-fulfilling solvency risks perceived by creditors, interacting with a higher sensitiveness of Euro zone peripheral countries to fundamentals