Virtual built realities: the case of geographical research induced knowledge

Peer Reviewe

Geography and the built environment: spatial trends in urban growth induced by a core-periphery model

This article intends to use a traditional core-periphery scenario to model urban growth as a function of peripherality. This latter variable is itself a function of timedistances and resident population. Hence, it may be decomposed in order to better understand observed patterns. The ultimate goal of this research is to understand general urban growth patterns in Continental Portugal, a territory characterized by strong polarization of activity towards two urban nodes, Lisbon and Oporto. It is also intended to understand differences between population growth and urban sprawl as this may help understanding different planning policies which were adopted in the country.Peer Reviewe

Primary Metabolite Adjustments Associated With Pinewood Nematode Resistance in Pinus pinaster

Original ResearchThe pinewood nematode (PWN) Bursaphelenchus xylophilus is the causal agent of the pine wilt disease (PWD) and represents one of the major threats to conifer forests. The detection of the PWN in Portugal, associated with Pinus pinaster, increased the concern of its spread to European forests. Despite its susceptibility to PWD, genetic variability found among P. pinaster populations has been associated with heritable PWD resistance. Understanding the mechanisms underlying tree resistance constitutes a valuable resource for breeding programs toward more resilient forest plantations. This study investigated changes in anatomy, chlorophyll a fluorescence (ChlF), and primary metabolism in susceptible and resistant P. pinaster half-sib plants, after PWN inoculation. Susceptible plants showed a general shutdown of central metabolism, osmolyte accumulation, photosynthetic inhibition, and a decrease in the plant water status. The ChlF transient rise (OJIP curve) revealed the appearance of L- and K-bands, indicators of environmental stress. In contrast, resistant plants revealed a regulated defense response and were able to restrict PWN migration and cellular damage. Furthermore, the accumulation of g-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and succinate suggested a role of these metabolites in PWD resistance and the possible activation of the GABA shunt. Altogether, these results provide new insights to the role of primary metabolism in PWD resistance and in the selection of resistant phenotypes for disease mitigationinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Dialectical polyptych: an interactive movie

Most of the known video games developed by big software companies usually establish an approach to the cinematic language in an attempt to create a perfect combination of narrative, visual technique and interaction. Unlike most video games, interactive film narratives normally involve an interruption in time whenever the spectator has to make choices. “Dialectical Polyptych” is an interactive movie included in a project called “Characters looking for a spect-actor”, which aims to give the spectator on-the-fly control over film editing, thus exploiting the role of the spectator as an active subject in the presented narrative. This paper presents a system based on a 3D sensor for tracking the spectator's movements and positions, which allows seamless real-timeinteractivity with the movie. Different positions of the body prompt a change in the angle or shot within each narrative, and hand swipes allow the spectator to alternate between the two parallel narratives, both producing a complementary narrative.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

El sentido del número en los futuros profesores de Primer Ciclo dos estudios de caso

Esta comunicación pretende presentar algunas evidencias del trabajo de investigación que se lleva a cabo en el proyecto SNUMERO, del Núcleo de investigación y Desarrollo en Educación (NIDE) del Instituto Politécnico de Leiria. Se pretende caracterizar el sentido del número en los futuros profesores de 1.er ciclo de enseñanza básica, y percibir la forma en que planifican y llevan a cabo tareas en ese ámbito, en el contexto de la práctica pedagógica. En la construcción de casos se ha empleado una metodología cualitativa de naturaleza interpretativa. Se presentan los casos de dos futuras profesoras pertenecientes al mismo núcleo de práctica. Los resultados permiten apreciar que las futuras profesoras tienen diferentes niveles de desarrollo del sentido del número, aunque ambas planifican tareas muy pertinentes en ese ámbito. La exploración de esas tareas con los alumnos presenta, en los dos casos, características propias

Creating web-based solar maps: mapping applications based on LiDAR data

Peer Reviewe

Experimental design and sample preparation in forest tree matabolomics

ReviewAppropriate experimental design and sample preparation are key steps in metabolomics experiments, highly influencing the biological interpretation of the results. The sample preparation workflow for plant metabolomics studies includes several steps before metabolite extraction and analysis. These include the optimization of laboratory procedures, which should be optimized for di erent plants and tissues. This is particularly the case for trees, whose tissues are complex matrices to work with due to the presence of several interferents, such as oleoresins, cellulose. A good experimental design, tree tissue harvest conditions, and sample preparation are crucial to ensure consistency and reproducibility of the metadata among datasets. In this review, we discuss the main challenges when setting up a forest tree metabolomics experiment for mass spectrometry (MS)-based analysis covering all technical aspects from the biological question formulation and experimental design to sample processing and metabolite extraction and data acquisition. We also highlight the importance of forest tree metadata standardization in metabolomics studiesinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Olive oil sensory analysis as a tool to preserve and valorize the heritage of centenarian olive trees

In inland areas of Portugal and some regions of the Mediterranean basin, olive production is based on traditional olive groves, with low intensification, local cultivars, aged plants, and centenarian trees. These plants play a key role in the ecosystem, contributing to carbon sequestration and possessing a high genetic diversity, particularly important for selecting cultivars more resistant to climatic changes. Appreciation of the value of this genetic diversity implies genetic, morphological, and physicochemical characterization of centenarian trees, which is expensive and time-consuming. Sensory evaluation is also of utmost importance. Thus, in this study, centenarian olive trees were selected in the Côa Valley region, a UNESCO World Heritage site. The descriptive sensory profile of their extracted olive oils was established and used to cluster the oils, using hierarchical clustering analysis, and consequently the olive trees, into five groups with similar intensities of perceived olfactory–gustatory attributes. Each cluster revealed olive oils with unique sensory patterns, presumably due to similarities of the olive trees, confirming the potential of the proposed screening approach. The identification of sensorially homogeneous oil-tree groups would reduce the number of specimens needed for subsequent morphological, genetic, and chemical characterization, allowing a cost-effective and robust future evaluation procedure.The authors are grateful to the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) for financial support from national funds FCT/MCTES to CIMO (UIDB/00690/2020) and SusTEC (LA/P/0007/2020). This work was also supported by the FCT project OLIVECOA-Centenarian olive trees of Coa Valley region: rediscovering the past to valorize the future, ref. COA/BRB/0035/2019. Nuno Rodrigues was funded by FCT-Foundation for Science and Technology, P.I., through the institutional scientific employment program-contract.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A visual programming language for soccer

The use of Information Technologies (IT) in high competition sports is an instrument often used. However, the majority of the performers, including technical teams, do not have skills to program those IT tools to their needs. In this paper we present the low level implementation of a visual programming language (VPL) that allows the user without programming expertise to produce relatively complex programs by drawing them on a web application. The VPL tool application is illustrated by applying it to detect programmed situations from a soccer game, using previously obtained tracking data. The tool can be applied to other collective ball sports

Impact of frost on the morphology and chemical composition of cv. Santulhana olives

Frost events and extreme weather phenomena greatly affect several characteristics of the olive fruit. This study evaluated the impact of frost on the morphology, composition (moisture, fat, fatty acids, tocopherols, and total phenolic contents), and antioxidant activity of olives of cv. Santulhana. A total of 14 trees from the same geographical region (Santulhão, northeast of Portugal) were chosen, including trees subjected or not subjected to frost conditions (n = 7 each). The results showed that frost led to morphological changes in olive fruits, particularly in terms of weight and diameter, which were imposed by a huge decrease in the moisture content (-20%). Fat relative content increased as a consequence of the water loss (+29% in fresh pulp weight), with a slight reduction of the relative abundance of saturated fatty acids (-4%) and tocopherol contents in the fat (-17%). However, the total phenolic contents and antioxidant activity were severely affected (-70% and -42%, respectively), with potential consequences for the olive oil stability and sensorial attributes. Principal component analysis showed that both morphological and chemical parameters could be used as biomarkers to identify olives subjected or not subjected to frost. The overall negative impact of frost on the minor antioxidant contents of cv. Santulhana olives may anticipate a quality loss of olive oils extracted from olives affected by frost.The authors are grateful to the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) for financial support by national funds FCT/MCTES to CIMO (UIDB/00690/2020) and to REQUIMTELAQV (UIDB/50006/2020) units and to the Associate Laboratories for Green Chemistry-LAQV (UIDB/50006/2020) and SusTEC (LA/P/0007/2020). Nuno Rodrigues thanks to National funding by FCT—Foundation for Science and Technology, P.I., through the institutional scientific employment program-contract. Ana I. Rodrigues thanks the financial support by OleaChain project “Skills for sustainability and innovation in the value chain of traditional olive groves in the Northern Interior of Portugal” (NORTE-06-3559-FSE-000188).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio