Improving the Knowledge on Seismogenic Sources in the Lower Tagus Valley for Seismic Hazard Purposes

The Lower Tagus Valley, that includes the metropolitan area of Lisbon, has been struck by several earthquakes which produced significant material damage and loss of lives. Their exact location remains unknown. Our goal is to shed some light into the seismogenic sources in the area using seismic reflection and geological data. In areas with no seismic coverage, potential-field data interpretation was carried out. Seismicity was overlaid to the potential seismogenic structures and high-resolution data was acquired in order to confirm which structures have been active into the Quaternary. Three major fault-zones affecting the Neogene were identified: V. F. Xira, Samora-Alcochete and Pinhal Novo. For the first fault, strong evidences suggest it is active. The other two fault-zones and other structures previously unknown can be correlated with several epicentres. Empirical relationships between maximum moment magnitude and fault area indicate that MW > 6.5 earthquakes can be expected for the larger structures

Evolution of density perturbations in decaying vacuum cosmology: The case of non-zero perturbations in the cosmological term

We extend the results of a previous paper where a model of interacting dark energy, with a cosmological term decaying linearly with the Hubble parameter, is tested against the observed mass power spectrum. In spite of the agreement with observations of type Ia supernovas, baryonic acoustic oscillations and the cosmic microwave background, we had shown previously that no good concordance is achieved if we include the mass power spectrum. However, our analysis was based on the ad hoc assumption that the interacting cosmological term is strictly homogeneous. Now we perform a more complete analysis, by perturbing such a term. Although our conclusions are still based on a particular, scale invariant choice of the primordial spectrum of dark energy perturbations, we show that a cosmological term decaying linearly with the Hubble parameter is indeed disfavored as compared to the standard model.Comment: Version accepted for publication in Physical Review

Generation of higher derivatives operators and electromagnetic wave propagation in a Lorentz-violation scenario

We study the perturbative generation of higher-derivative operators as corrections to the photon effective action, which are originated from a Lorentz violation background. Such corrections are obtained, at one-loop order, through the proper-time method, using the zeta function regularization. We focus over the lowest order corrections and investigate their influence in the propagation of electromagnetic waves through the vacuum, in the presence of a strong, constant magnetic field. This is a setting of experimental relevance, since it bases active efforts to measure non linear electromagnetic effects. After surprising cancellations of Lorentz violating corrections to the Maxwell's equation, we show that no effects of the kind of Lorentz violation we consider can be detected in such a context.Comment: v2: 13 pages, no figures, section IV considerably rewritten, main results unchanged and are now obtained in a simpler way. To appear in PL

Modificações na composição química e padrão de fermentação em silagens de seis híbridos de milho.

Empresas de melhoramento genético vegetal lançam vários híbridos de milho no mercado todos os anos. Grande parte desses híbridos é utilizada para a produção de silagem. Dessa forma, esse trabalho objetivou estudar as principais modificações da composição química e o padrão de fermentação das silagens produzidas por seis híbridos de milho (HD 9481, P 3041, C 435, HT 951005, HT 47C e AG 5011). As plantas inteiras do milho foram ensiladas no estádio de maturidade fisiológica (3/4 de "linha do leite"), em silos laboratoriais de PVC, com 10 cm de diâmetro. A forragem foi avaliada com 0 (zero), 1, 3, 5, 7, 14, 28 e 56 dias após a ensilagem. Foram analisados os teores de matéria seca (MS), de carboidratos solúveis (CS), de fibra detergente neutro (FDN), de proteína bruta (PB), de nitrogênio amoniacal e o pH. Os teores médios de MS nas silagens variaram de 34,51 a 42,90%. A maior parte dos CS foi consumida até o 5º dia da fermentação. Os teores de PB e de FDN permaneceram praticamente estáveis durante a ensilagem. Os valores de pH se estabilizaram a partir do 5º dia da fermentação, para a maioria dos híbridos, e foram sempre menores que 3,82 no 56º dia. Os teores de nitrogênio amoniacal, embora não tenham se estabilizado até o 56º dia da ensilagem, foram sempre menores que 10%. As silagens foram classificadas como de boa qualidade

Consumo e digestibilidade aparente da matéria seca, da proteína bruta e da energia de silagens de quatro genotipos de sorgo (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) por ovinos.

The nitrogen balance, the consumption and the apparent digestibility of dry matter, crude protein and the energy of the silages of four genotypes of sorghum were evaluated. The consumption of dry matter and crude energy did not differ among the hibrids. The largest apparent digestibility of dry matter, crude energy and the consumption of digestible dry matter and energy, were observed for BR601 genotype. The largest consumption of crude protein, was observed for BR700 and the smallest for AG2002 genotypes (P<0.05). The largest apparent digestibility of protein was observed for BR601 and the smallest one for BR701 (P<0.05) genotype. The consumption of digestible protein was larger for BR601 and BR700. All treatments showed positive nitrogen balance and did not differ among them