Stratigraphy and sequence correlations in the Lower Cretaceous around Lisbon

The cliffs along the Atlantic coast near Lisbon—between Cascais and Guincho Beach, near Ericeira, and north of Cape Espichel—exhibit perfectly preserved Lower Cretaceous formations, with a large variety of sedimentary deposits (siliciclastics and carbonates) and recorded environments (from open distal platform to fluvial systems and palaeosols). These exposures allow the stratal, sedimentological, palaeontological, mineralogical, and geochemical patterns of depositional sequences during the Valanginian–Albian to be analyzed. The series representing the deepest marine environments are found in the vicinity of Cascais, with deposits in more proximal positions being observed both northwards (the Ericeira area) and southwards (Cape Espichel). The cyclic variations in sea level at the second-order scale record the tectonic events linked to the initial episodes of the northward propagation of the opening of the Atlantic. The sea-level changes observed at the third-order scale are registered by transgressive and highstand systems tracts. Lowstand systems tracts are very scarce in these shallow environments.publishersversionpublishe

Explaining ATLAS and CMS Results Within the Reduced Minimal 3-3-1 model

Recently the ATLAS and CMS collaborations announced the discovery of a higgs particle with a mass of $\sim 125$ GeV. The results are mildly consistent with the Standard Model Higgs boson. However, the combined data from these collaborations seem to point to an excess in the $h \rightarrow \gamma \gamma$ channel. In this work we analyze under which conditions this excess may be plausibly explained within the reduced minimal 3-3-1 model, while being consistent with bb, WW, ZZ and $\tau^+\tau^-$ channels. Moreover, we derive the properties of the heavy neutral and the doubly charged scalars predicted by the model. We then conclude that at a scale of a few TeV, this model provides a good fit to the ATLAS and CMS signal strength measurements, and therefore stands as an appealing alternative to the standard model.Comment: 23 pages, 9 figures. References adde

Entrepreneurial self-efficacy in Italy: an empirical study from a gender perspective

Entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) is a key factor for the promotion of entrepreneurship. Literature emphasizes the need for and, indeed, recommends a gender perspective in the study of ESE. The aim of this study is twofold: To begin analyzing some of the psychometric properties of the McGee, Peterson, Mueller, and Sequeira (2009) ESE scale in the Italian context, and to explore the gender differences in the ESE levels in an Italian sample of entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs. Confirmatory factor analysis, multigroup confirmatory factor analysis and a 2 × 2 MANOVA were conducted. The results support the possible use of McGee et al.'s ESE scale in the Italian context. Furthermore, they reveal that the gender difference in the sample of non-entrepreneurs is greater than in the entrepreneur sample. The main practical implication is that women entrepreneurs should receive specific training both before and after creating a new venture.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Combining type I and type II seesaw mechanisms in the minimal 3-3-1 model

The minimal 3-3-1 model is perturbative until energies around 4-5TeV, posing a challenge to generate neutrino masses at eV scale, mainly if one aims to take advantage of the seesaw mechanism. As a means to circumvent this problem we propose a modification of the model such that it accommodates the type I and type II seesaw mechanisms altogether. We show that the conjunction of both mechanisms yield a neutrino mass expression suppressed by a high power of the cutoff scale, $M^5$, in its denominator. With such a suppression term we naturally obtain neutrino masses at eV scale when $M$ is around few TeV. We also investigate the size of lepton flavor violation through the process $\mu \rightarrow e\gamma$.Comment: about 15 pages, no figure

PHYTOENERGY: energetic valorisation of phytoremediation derived biomass

There are presently more than 3 million contaminated sites all over EU, according to the EEA (report 25186 EN), with the contamination with heavy metals being of particular concern, as they are not degradable. Soil recovery is thus becoming an urgency and diverse approaches can be applied. From these, phytoremediation has shown to be an attractive low cost alternative as it promotes the establishment of a vegetation cover, stabilizing these degraded sites and allowing for the slow extraction of the contaminants. In spite that the fate of the harvested plants is a common complication for its implementation, it can also represent an opportunity for producing added value. This work intends to assess the possibility of the production of biodiesel resulting from the transterification of sunflower seed oil with bioethanol resulting from the processing of sunflower stems. Sunflower plants growing either in agricultural and metal contaminated soils were assessed and the quality of the successive energetic products was evaluated. Sunflower seeds were used for oil extraction, with observable extraction efficiencies of up to 20 ml oil/m 2 ; plant stems were used for bioethanol production with yields of up to 280 ml/m 2 ; finally, biodiesel was generated via transterification. The final biodiesel as well as the obtained oil and bioethanol were characterized and it was possible to observe that the contamination of the soils with metals did not affect significantly the quality of the products, namely in concerning metal levels. This study reports thus the successful energetic valorisation of plants grown in degraded soils.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Responses of six Brachiaria spp. accessions to root zone flooding.

Título em português: Resposta de seis acessos de capim-braquiária ao alagamento do solo

How did the COVID-19 pandemic and digital divide impact Ciganos/Roma school pathways?

The COVID-19 pandemic forced the Portuguese government to declare various lockdowns between 2020 and 2022. The first State of Emergency was enforced in March 2020, in which face-to-face classroom teaching was repeatedly interrupted. At that time, families were expected to provide the necessary supplies for digital learning, with some support from the government, municipalities, civil society, and local institutions. Nevertheless, many families already lived under precarious conditions before the pandemic, and so the lockdown measures increased their vulnerability, with a probable impact on student school attendance and conditions enabling academic success. Since Ciganos/Roma are part of this vulnerable population, we intend to explore how the COVID-19 pandemic impacts the school pathways of these students, namely in secondary education, where they represent a minority group. The data are derived from a variety of qualitative sources collected during research carried out in the two Metropolitan Areas in Portugal. The COVID-19 pandemic affected the youngsters’ access to classes and their motivation to attend school, and opens the discussion about how because of the government’s universal measures, by failing to consider social diversity, in particular Ciganos/Roma Ciganos/Roma families, this pandemic crisis may disproportionally affect the education of their children and youth. The findings highlight, firstly, that these impacts continue to be rendered invisible and naturalized in the public sphere and, secondly, that the measures and legislation underlying the pandemic effects continue not to include Ciganos in policymaking processesinfo:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Assessment of the potential of sunflower grown in metal-contaminated soils for production of biofuels

Environmental biotechnology needs solutions that are associated with a low budget and cleaner remediation, and which are connected to resources and energetic valorization, to be able to encourage a circular bioeconomy. A prospective resolution for heavy-metal-contaminated soils is the application of phytoremediation approaches merged with bioenergy generation using the resulting biomass. Sunflower (Helianthus annuus) has been studied as a feedstock for biodiesel generation, and appears to be very attractive for biogas and bioethanol production. The current study reports an innovative energetic valorization approach of H. annuus biomass derived from the application of a phytoremediation strategy devised to remove Zn and Cd from an industrially contaminated soil (599 mg Zn kg−1 and 1.2 mg Cd kg−1)—and its comparison to the analysis of the same energetic valorization pathway for sunflower plants growing in an agricultural non-contaminated soil. After plant harvesting, bioethanol was produced from the aboveground tissues, and applied in the transesterification of the oil obtained through seed extraction for the generation of biodiesel. Also, biogas production was assessed through the root’s biomass anaerobic digestion. Similar yields of oil extraction—0.32 and 0.28 mL g−1 DW—were obtained when using seeds from H. annuus cultured in contaminated and non-contaminated soils, respectively. The production yield of bioethanol was superior using biomass from the agricultural non-contaminated soil (0.29 mL g−1 DW) when compared to the industrial metal-contaminated soil (0.20 mL g−1 DW). Zinc was measured in minor levels in bioethanol and oil (ca. 1.1 and 1.8 mg mL−1, correspondingly) resulting from the biomass cultivated in the industrialized soil, whereas Cd was not detected. The production yield of biogas was superior when using root biomass from H. annuus cultivated in agricultural non-contaminated soil (VS max. ca. 104 mL g−1) when compared to the one deriving from the industrial contaminated soil (VS max ca. 85 mL g−1). Generally, results demonstrate that substantial production yields of the tested biofuels were attained from biomass resulting from phytoremediation, corroborating this integrated original approach as a valuable alternative for the phytoremediation of HM-polluted soils and as an important strategy for plant biomass valorization.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The Transversarium-Bifurcatus Zone boundary at Rocha (Peral area, East-Central Algarve, Portugal)

This paper represents the first detailed study of the Transversarium-Bifurcatus Zone boundary in the Algarve. The boundary studied in the Peral area is associated with a stratigraphic discontinuity, whose hiatus partially affects the Transversarium-Bifurcatus Zones. A discontinuity was also recognized in the Bifurcatus-Birnammatum Zone boundary, which can be correlated with the traces of a Type II unconformity, which separates cycles 4.3-4.4 in HAQ et al. (1987), present on the South Iberian palaeomargin. An analysis was made of the ecostratigraphic evolution in the interval between the uppermost Transversarium Zone and the lower part of the Bimammatum Zone on the basis of the faunal spectra obtained. We conclude that ammonites are the most tolerant cephalopods to the ecological stress caused by the increase of inflows and the decrease of the shelf's ecospace. Benthic fauna decreased considerably in these conditions. A relatively abundant and diversified fauna ofDichotomoceras is noteworthy among the ammonites collected, as this genus was previously little known in the Algarve

Effect of flint corn processing method and roughage level on finishing performance of Nellore-based cattle

Citation: Caetano, M., Goulart, R. S., Silva, S. L., Drouillard, J. S., Leme, P. R., & Lanna, D. P. D. (2015). Effect of flint corn processing method and roughage level on finishing performance of Nellore-based cattle. Journal of Animal Science, 93(8), 4023-4033. doi:10.2527/jas2015-9051This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of flint corn processing method (CPM) and level of NDF from roughage (rNDF) on performance, carcass characteristics, and starch utilization by finishing Nellore-based cattle fed high-concentrate, flint corn-based diets. In this study, 112 Nellore type bulls (initial BW 384.07 +/- 29.53 kg and 24-36 mo of age) were individually fed using Calan gates or individual pens. The animals were used in a randomized complete block design in a 2 x 4 factorial arrangement with 2 CPM, high-moisture flint corn (HMC) or finely ground dry flint corn (FGC), with 1 of 4 levels of rNDF, 3, 8, 13, and 18% (DM basis), using sugarcane silage (SS) as roughage. Bulls were adapted to the finishing diet over a 21-d period and fed for a total of 81 d. Fecal starch (FS) concentration was determined on d 46 and 74 of the feeding period. There was a quadratic effect of rNDF on final BW (P < 0.01) and ADG (P = 0.01). Optimal concentrations of rNDF were estimated using the first derivative of second order polynomials, indicating that final BW and ADG were maximized with 13.3 and 13.0% rNDF, respectively. An interaction was observed between CPM and rNDF (P = 0.05) for DMI, with peak DMI occurring at 11.3 and 13.7% rNDF with FGC and HMC, respectively. Cattle fed HMC had 13.9% greater G:F (P < 0.01) compared with those fed FGC (0.172 vs. 0.151, respectively). There were quadratic effects of rNDF on HCW (P = 0.04) and ME intake (P < 0.01); heaviest carcass weights were estimated, in both cases, to be achieved with 12.8% rNDF. A quadratic effect of rNDF for renal, pelvic, and inguinal fat weight (P = 0.04) was observed, with a peak estimated to occur at 12.6% rNDF. An interaction between CPM and rNDF also was observed for FS (P < 0.05). Bulls fed FGC with 3% rNDF had greater FS content, and FS linearly decreased as concentration of rNDF increased. For bulls fed HMC, FS was 3.0% of DM and was unaffected by rNDF in the diet. Lower FS from bulls fed HMC suggests that availability of starch from flint corn was greater than that of FGC. For Nellore-based cattle fed a flint corn-based diet containing SS and 8% whole lint cottonseed, performance was optimized with 12.8% rNDF. In the absence of cottonseed addition to diets, optimal performance would be expected with about 14.5% rNDF