First records of fishing gear incrustated in corals and gorgonians from the Atlantic coast of Portugal

Plastic pollution is now in the public and scientific domain as an emerging issue of global concern due to their potential effects to nature and the society. There is high evidence that plastics are now present in virtually all aquatic ecosystems and are ingested by several organisms, however, little is known about their impact on deep marine ecosystems and especially on the deep-sea reefs built by emblematic cold-water corals species. The occurrence and abundance of these organisms in the Portuguese Atlantic coast is still largely unknown. During recent sampling campaigns aiming at mapping these ecosystems in the Portuguese coast, preliminary analyses showed the presence of nylon plastic lines in the stony cup corals of Dendrophylliidae, in Dendrophilia ramea, and a hook-andline fishing gear incrustated in Gorgonian organisms, in Leptogorgia sarmentosa, collected in two different areas (north and central coastal area of Portugal, 30-50m depth). The derelict gear is mainly composed of nets, ropes and lines made of non-biodegradable plastics and have been also reported as causing tissue loss and fragmentation in corals and gorgonian habitat. This preliminary assessment reveals that the occurrence of the species in sedimentary grounds makes it especially vulnerable to bottom contact with fishing gear as bottom trawling and should be better investigated and communicated to local stakeholders. The spatial distribution of these populations, as well as a first attempt to characterize its habitat and the levels of plastics will be explored in the next months as an approach to describe the habitat’s suitability and the vulnerability for the species in the area. This is a first assessment but further studies are foreseen which include monitoring these habitats and see how they interact with fishing gears over time in these areas, which will be also presented and discussed.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

O Segredo de Justiça no Processo Penal Português – A possibilidade de os jornalistas se constituírem como assistentes

A presente investigação centra-se num dos grandes problemas que atualmente a Justiça enfrenta: a violação do Segredo de Justiça. Violado de forma sistemática pelos órgãos de comunicação social,- embora o façam muitas vezes nas entrelinhas e de forma subtil- a verdade é que a Justiça e a comunicação social encontram-se hoje de costas voltadas, tendo a Justiça “tomado conta dos noticiários”.N/

A intervenção em centro educativo: fatores de risco e de proteção e o seu papel na reinserção social

Este trabalho aborda a intervenção com menores delinquentes, bem como o papel daeducação no seu processo de reintegração social. Visa, considerando os dados da reincidênciasocial, ler o quotidiano de um Centro Educativo localizado no Norte de Portugal à luz daliteratura sobre a intervenção e reinserção de menores delinquentes. Através de uma análisequalitativa, analisam-se os fatores de risco associados à reincidência e a forma como sãotrabalhados ao longo da intervenção. Ao mesmo tempo, analisa-se e aprofunda-se a questãodos fatores de proteção e a forma como estes são trabalhados e potenciados para inverter atrajetória do jovem, bem como o papel ocupado pela educação na possível inversão docomportamento delinquente.Outro foco de investigação foi o trabalho desenvolvido pelos Centros Educativos epela Direção Geral de Reinserção e Serviços Prisionais após a saída do jovem do Centro.Constatou-se que a falta de estruturas de continuidade influencia a reintegração social dojovem. Para além da falta de estruturas de continuidade, influenciam ainda o sucesso dareintegração social do jovem a falta de apoio familiar, a ausência de um projeto de vida, oregresso ao seu antigo grupo de pares e, talvez o mais importante de todos os fatores, a faltade oportunidades. Para além disto, verifica-se que a educação se apresenta, por um lado, comoum fator de risco devido aos altos valores de absentismo, por outro, no momento da saída, etendo em conta a idade dos jovens, apresenta-se como um fator de proteção. Contudo, apesarda escola assumir um importante papel, constata-se a existência de um amplo espaço paramelhorias na relação entre a escola e os jovens

Quantifying marine macro litter abundance on a sandy beach using unmanned aerial systems and object-oriented machine learning methods

UIDB 00308/2020 REM/30324/2017 IT057-18-7252 UIDB/04292/2020Unmanned aerial systems (UASs) have recently been proven to be valuable remote sensing tools for detecting marine macro litter (MML), with the potential of supporting pollution monitoring programs on coasts. Very low altitude images, acquired with a low-cost RGB camera onboard a UAS on a sandy beach, were used to characterize the abundance of stranded macro litter. We developed an object-oriented classification strategy for automatically identifying the marine macro litter items on a UAS-based orthomosaic. A comparison is presented among three automated object-oriented machine learning (OOML) techniques, namely random forest (RF), support vector machine (SVM), and k-nearest neighbor (KNN). Overall, the detection was satisfactory for the three techniques, with mean F-scores of 65% for KNN, 68% for SVM, and 72% for RF. A comparison with manual detection showed that the RF technique was the most accurate OOML macro litter detector, as it returned the best overall detection quality (F-score) with the lowest number of false positives. Because the number of tuning parameters varied among the three automated machine learning techniques and considering that the three generated abundance maps correlated similarly with the abundance map produced manually, the simplest KNN classifier was preferred to the more complex RF. This work contributes to advances in remote sensing marine litter surveys on coasts, optimizing the automated detection on UAS-derived orthomosaics. MML abundance maps, produced by UAS surveys, assist coastal managers and authorities through environmental pollution monitoring programs. In addition, they contribute to search and evaluation of the mitigation measures and improve clean-up operations on coastal environments.publishersversionpublishe

Mini-review and discussion of a potential standardization

Gonçalves, G., Andriolo, U., Gonçalves, L. M. S., Sobral, P., & Bessa, F. (2022). Beach litter survey by drones: Mini-review and discussion of a potential standardization. Environmental Pollution, 315(15 December), 1-8. [120370]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2022.120370The abundance of beach litter has been increasing globally during the last decades, and it is an issue of global concern. A new survey strategy, based on uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAV, aka drones), has been recently adopted to improve the monitoring of beach macro-litter items abundance and distribution. This work identified and analysed the 15 studies that used drone for beach litter surveys on an operational basis. The analysis of technical parameters for drone flight deployment revealed that flight altitude varied between 5 and 40 m. The analysis of final assessments showed that, through manual and/or automated items detection on images, most of studies provided litter bulk characteristics (type, material and size), along with litter distribution maps. The potential standardization of drone-based litter survey would allow a comparison among surveys, however it seems difficult to propose a standard set of flight parameters, given the wide variety of coastal environments, the different devices available, and the diverse objectives of drone-based litter surveys. On the other hand, in our view, a set of common outcomes can be proposed, based on the grid mapping process, which can be easily generated following the procedure indicated in the paper. This work sets the ground for the development of a standardized protocol for drone litter data collection, analysis and assessments. This would allow the provision of broad scale comparative studies to support coastal management at both national and international scales.publishersversionpublishe

Evaluation of the cytotoxicity (HepG2) and chemical composition of polar extracts from the ruderal species Coleostephus myconis (L.) Rchb.f.

Coleostephus myconis (L.) Rchb.f. (Asteraceae) is a highly disseminated plant species with ruderal and persistent growth. Owing to its advantageous agronomic properties, C. myconis might have industrial applications. However, this species needs to be comprehensively characterized before any potential use. In a previous study, the phenolic composition and antioxidant activity of different C. myconis tissues were characterized. This investigation was extended to examine the cytotoxic potential of selected plant tissues (flowers and green parts) using a HepG2 cell line by utilizing the lysosomal neutral red uptake assay or mitochondrial (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazolyl-2)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide assay. In addition, the macronutrients content, lipophilic compounds (fatty acids, tocopherols), and amino acids were also determined. C. myconis flowers were used in the senescence stage, which was previously identified as the stage that presented maximal phenolic content and highest antioxidant activity. In contrast, stems and leaves were employed due to their high biomass proportion. Regarding cytotoxicity, mitochondrial and lysosomal damage was only significant when HepG2 cells were exposed to the highest extract concentrations (stems and leaves, 0.9 mg/ml; senescent flowers, 0.3 mg/ml). Chemically, the senescent flowers were mostly characterized by their high levels of fat, amino acids (especially threonine), oleic acid, ß-, and ?-tocopherol, while stems and leaves contained high concentrations of carbohydrates, linolenic acid, and a-tocopherol. In general, these results provide information regarding the threshold concentrations of C. myconis extracts that might be used in different applications without toxicity hazards.The authors are grateful to the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) for financial support to REQUIMTE (PEst-C/EQB/LA0006/2014) and to CIMO (UID/AGR/00690/2013). J.C.M. Barreira, Carla Costa, and Filipa B. Pimentel thank FCT, POPH-QREN, and FSE for their grants (SFRH/BPD/72802/2010, SFRH/BPD/96196/2013 and SFRH/BD/109042/2015, respectively).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Genomic and transcriptomic analysis of Saccharomyces cerevisiae isolates with focus in succinic acid production

Succinic acid is a platform chemical that plays an important role as precursor for the synthesis of many valuable bio-based chemicals. Its microbial production from renewable resources has seen great developments, specially exploring the use of yeasts to overcome the limitations of using bacteria. The objective of the present work was to screen for succinate-producing isolates, using a yeast collection with different origins and characteristics. Four strains were chosen, two as promising succinic acid producers, in comparison with two low producers. Genome of these isolates was analysed, and differences were found mainly in genes SDH1, SDH3, MDH1 and the transcription factor HAP4, regarding the number of single nucleotide polymorphisms and the gene copy-number profile. Real-time PCR was used to study gene expression of 10 selected genes involved in the metabolic pathway of succinic acid production. Results show that for the non-producing strain, higher expression of genes SDH1, SDH2, ADH1, ADH3, IDH1 and HAP4 was detected, together with lower expression of ADR1 transcription factor, in comparison with the best producer strain. This is the first study showing the capacity of natural yeast isolates to produce high amounts of succinic acid, together with the understanding of the key factors associated, giving clues for strain improvement.This work was supported by the TRANSBIO project from the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013, grant agreement No. 289603), by the EcoAgriFood project (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000009) via the North Portugal Regional Operational Programme (Norte 2020) under the Portugal 2020 Partnership Agreement, and by FCT I.P. through the strategic funding UID/BIA/04050/2013.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Neuropathic pain is associated with depressive behaviour and induces neuroplasticity in the amygdala of the rat

Chronic pain is associated with the development of affective disorders but the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. Changes in brain centres implicated in both emotional and pain processing are likely to be critical in the interplay of pain control and affective emotional behaviour. In the present study, we assessed emotional behaviour and performed a structural analysis of the amygdala (AMY) in neuropathic rats after two months of hyperalgesia and allodynia, induced by the spared nerve injury model (SNI). When compared with Sham-controls, SNI animals displayed signs of depressive-like behaviour. In addition, we found an increased amygdalar volume in SNI rats. No alterations were found in the dendritic arborizations of AMY neurons but, surprisingly, the amygdalar hypertrophy was associated with an increased cell proliferation [bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU)-positive cells] in the central (CeA) and basolateral (BLA) amygdaloid nuclei. The phenotypic analysis of the newly-acquired cells revealed that they co-label for neuronal markers (BrdU + NeuN and BrdU + Calbindin), but not for differentiated glial cells (BrdU + glial fibrillary acidic protein). We demonstrate that neuropathic pain promotes generation of new neurons in the AMY. Given the established role of the AMY in emotional behaviour, we propose that these neuroplastic changes might contribute for the development of depressive-like symptoms that are usually present in prolonged pain syndromes in humans.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) Project no. POCTI/NSE/46399/2002FEDERFundação Calouste Gulbenkian Project no. 7455