Fault activity studies in the Lower Tagus valley and Lisbon region using geophysical data

he Metropolitan Area of Lisbon and the Lower Tagus Valley (LTV) region are located in central Portugal and inhabited by nearly 4 million people. The region has suffered throughout its history the effect of destructive earthquakes caused by hidden faults, possibly related to the plate boundary, which is sited approximately 400 km south of the region (Figure 1). In spite of low slip-rates and big recurrence times that have been estimated for these local, regional faults, they can produce moderate-to-large earthquakes that cause large damage and loss of life, as in 1344, 1531, or 1909 (e.g. Justo and Salwa, 1998; Cabral et al., 2003; 2013). The shorter occurrence time of the earthquakes might be owing to the existence of multiple active faults and/or time clustering owing to stress drop caused by proximal faults (e.g. Carvalho et al., 2006). Therefore, the seismic hazard and risk evaluation of the region has long been a reason of concern. Geological outcrop and geomorphologic mapping identified several regional faults in the LTV region that could be the source the historical earthquakes, but some of them do not affect. Quaternary sediments and lacked the proofs that they were active faults. On the other side, in the vast quaternary alluvial plains that cover the region, it was difficult to identify active faults, as the sedimentation/erosion rates erase any possible surface rupture caused by the low slip-rate faults (<0,35 mm/y). By the late-20th century, seismic reflection data that had been acquired for the oil-industry till the beginning of the 1980s began to be used to identify the major hidden fault zones (e.g. Cabral et al., 2003; Vilanova and Fonseca, 2004; Carvalho et al., 2006). Potential field data was also used to locate active faults in the areas where no seismic data is available (Carvalho et al., 2008; 2011). Though a few more active faults have been proposed, the vast majority of authors agree that the following active faults threaten the region: Nazaré-Caldas da Rainha, Lower Tagus Valley, Ota, Azambuja, Vila Franca de Xira (VFX), Pinhal Novo and Porto Alto faults (Garcia-Mayordomo et al., 2012; Vilanova et al., 2014). In this work, we discuss the acquisition, processing and interpretation of near surface geophysical works carried out over three of these faults — the VFX, Porto Alto and Azambuja faults — in order to confirm they have had activity during the Holoceneera. Their location is shown in Figure 2. We further estimate some of its fault parameters (vertical displacement, slip-rate, length, etc.) and respective implications in terms of seismic hazard

Caracterização de Puccinia hemerocallidis causadora do primeiro surto de ferrugem de lírio-de-um-dia na Europa

Daylily (Hemerocallis spp.) is an ornamental plant widely used in gardens. Daylily rust, caused by the fungus Puccinia hemerocallidis, has disseminated through all continents only in the 21th century, except in Europe, where it has been considered a quarantine disease by the European Plant Protection Organisation. In Portugal, since November 2015, typical rust symptoms were observed in daylily plants in gardens in Lisbon, Alentejo, Algarve and Madeira, attaining high prevalence, incidence and severity. The causal agent was identified as P. hemerocallidis and the Koch’s postulates were fulfilled. Phylogenetic data suggest that this fungus may have been introduced from North America. Using flow cytometry, the genome size of the P. hemerocallidis populations present in Portugal was estimated to be 345 Mbp (0.3533 pg DNA/1C). For such analysis Rhamnus alaternus was validated as a DNA standard, exhibiting a nuclear content of 0.680 pg DNA/2C. The identification of this disease in diverse locations in Portugal represents a threat to European breeding and nursery industries, since there are the appropriate conditions for inoculum maintenance and propagation from Portugal to the rest of Europeinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Probabilistic constraint reasoning

Dissertação apresentada para obtenção do Grau de Doutor em Engenharia Informática, pela Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências e TecnologiaThe continuous constraint paradigm has been often used to model safe reasoning in applications where uncertainty arises. Constraint propagation propagates intervals of uncertainty among the variables of the problem, eliminating values that do not belong to any solution. However, constraint programming is very conservative: if initial intervals are wide (reflecting large uncertainty), the obtained safe enclosure of all consistent scenarios may be inadequately wide for decision support. Since all scenarios are considered equally likely, insufficient pruning leads to great inefficiency if some costly decisions may be justified by very unlikely scenarios. Even when probabilistic information is available for the variables of the problem, the continuous constraint paradigm is unable to incorporate and reason with such information. Therefore, it is incapable of distinguishing between different scenarios, based on their likelihoods. This thesis presents a probabilistic continuous constraint paradigm that associates a probabilistic space to the variables of the problem, enabling probabilistic reasoning to complement the underlying constraint reasoning. Such reasoning is used to address probabilistic queries and requires the computation of multi-dimensional integrals on possibly non linear integration regions. Suitable algorithms for such queries are developed, using safe or approximate integration techniques and relying on methods from continuous constraint programming in order to compute safe covers of the integration region. The thesis illustrates the adequacy of the probabilistic continuous constraint framework for decision support in nonlinear continuous problems with uncertain information, namely on inverse and reliability problems, two different types of engineering problems where the developed framework is particularly adequate to support decision makers

Comportamentos alimentares de alunos de 10-17 anos em cantinas escolares : um estudo de caso

Os refeitórios escolares devem ser espaços de socialização que promovam refeições aprazíveis, práticas alimentares adequadas e que contribuam para capacitar os alunos a fazerem escolhas e consolidarem hábitos alimentares saudáveis. Embora as refeições servidas possam ser nutricionalmente equilibradas, tal não garante que os consumos realizados pelos alunos também o sejam, pelo que importa averiguar as suas escolhas no refeitório e o consumo efetivo. Nesta perspetiva, caracterizou-se o serviço de alimentação oferecido no refeitório numa escola do Alentejo Central e analisaram-se os comportamentos dos alunos do 2.º e do 3.º Ciclo, ao almoço. Identificaram-se aspetos positivos e eventuais necessidades de melhoria da sua alimentação para elaborar recomendações que a beneficiem. Para tal, recorreu-se a uma pluralidade de técnicas de recolha de informação, nomeadamente, análise documental, observação sistemática, entrevistas semiestruturadas e questionários, conjugando metodologias qualitativas e quantitativas e procedeu-se à análise integrada e triangulação dos dados obtidos. Verificou-se que o refeitório reunia condições para prestação do serviço a que se destinava. As refeições servidas eram hipocalóricas, qualitativamente aceitáveis, no entanto, o aporte nutricional variava também com as escolhas e preferências dos alunos em função da sua maior ou menor aceitação dos alimentos. O género e o Ciclo de Ensino condicionam os comportamentos alimentares dos alunos e a sua satisfação com o serviço de alimentação escolar. As raparigas consumiram mais sopa e vegetais e os rapazes mais pão e fruta. Os alunos do 2.º Ciclo faziam consumos alimentares mais saudáveis que os do 3.º, ingerindo com maior frequência peixe, acompanhamento de vegetais e fruta, sendo estes últimos muito mais críticos e exigentes com o serviço. Sublinha-se a necessidade de ter em consideração o género e o Ciclo de Ensino dos alunos, aquando do planeamento programas de intervenção em Educação para a Saúde relacionados com a alimentação nos refeitórios escolares.CIEC - Centro de Investigação em Estudos da Criança, UM (UI 317 da FCT

Students’ food consumption in a school canteen : analysis of what they choose from the canteen gallery and what they discard, by gender and age

Recently, many countries, including Portugal, have implemented strategies for promoting young people’s healthy lifestyles, and school canteens are seen as appropriate places to encourage healthy eating (Aracenta-Bartrina et al., 2008). In addition to educate and empower students to make healthy choices, canteens are also seen as socialization spaces where the pleasure for healthy meals must also be promoted (Atie-Guidalli, 2012). This work intended to evaluate not only the quality of the canteen food provided in a school (in the Southern region of Portugal, Alentejo) but also the students’ food choices and opinions about the canteen service, in order to assess the efficiency of the national canteen programme in this school. The aim was to find evidences of good practices as well as needs for improvement. Therefore, the objectives of this study were (i) to characterise the school canteen conditions, both the food service provided and the students’ perceptions about it; (ii) to observe the students’ food choices and preferences; (iii) to analyse students’ food consumption, i.e. what they actually eat from the complete meal and what they discard; (iv) to find significant statistic differences between gender and between school level groups; (v) and, if pertinent, to formulate recommendations to improve the canteen service and the students’ healthier behaviour.CIEC – Research Centre on Child Studies, UM (FCT R&D 317

Shear stress measurements over smooth and rough channel beds

River hydrodynamicsBed roughness and flow resistanc

Improving the Evaluation of Risk of Fall through Clinical Supervision: An Evidence

Falls are frequent adverse hospital events and the second accidental cause of death worldwide. In previous research we identified that nurses have difficulties in the application of the Morse Fall Scale (MFS) and in the falls prevention protocol. A quantitative, descriptive and correlational study was conducted with the purpose to improve nurses’ skills to evaluate patients’ risk of fall and to improve patient safety and the quality of nursing care through the implementation of a clinical supervision (CS) model. We had a convenience sample constituted by 132 patients who were hospitalized between the 19th of March and the 19th of May 2014. We collected data through several procedures such as the application of a questionnaire to assess the risk of fall and the parameterization defined in the nursing records system. The MFS was correctly applied in 69,2% and the risk of fall was monitored each 48 hours in 98,5% of the cases while in the previous research only in 33,3% and 84,1% this happened respectively. With this study we point out the improvement in the assessment and monitoring of the risk of fall with the MFS and its relationship with the implemented CS model.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

O Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social nas estratégias brasileiras de desenvolvimento: da articulação interna à expansão para América Latina

This paper traces the role of the National Bank of Economic and Social Development ―BNDES― at two distinct moments in Brazil’s economic development trajectory. The first corresponds to the implementing of economic policies based on developmental ideals, when the Bank establishes itself as a funding institution and long-term credit offerer, thus becoming the main financer of State-coordinated infrastructure and industrial sectors of the Brazilian economy. The second one, when the Bank, following liberal inspired economic policy strategies which guide governmental actions, redirects its efforts towards establishing itself as the coordinator and financer of the Brazilian asset restructure by means of mergers and acquisitions promoted by privatizations. The ownership change, more than just a change in control from state-owned to private capital, also leads to a productive diversification of industrial groups, thus, empowering the production of commodities and the civil construction sector. In such scenario, the Bank redefines its relationships with national and foreign private capital, and its presence within South America as a financer of Brazilian exports.Este artículo analiza la función del Banco Nacional de Desarrollo Económico y Social —BNDES— en dos etapas distintas de la trayectoria de desarrollo económico de Brasil: primer corresponde a la política económica de la ideología desarrollista —cuando BNDES se estableció como una institución de desarrollo convirtiéndose en el principal proveedor de crédito a largo plazo, y entonces se convierte en el financiador más importante de la infraestructura y los sectores industriales estructurantes de la economía brasileña, bajo la coordinación del Estado—; y en segundo lugar, con Brasil ya adoptado estrategias de la política económica de inspiración liberal, cuando el BNDES se vio obligado a volver a sus actividades hacia consolidarse como financiador y coordinador de la reestructuración del patrimonio neto de Brasil por medio de fusiones y adquisiciones promovidas durante el proceso de privatización. El cambio de propiedad, más que un cambio de control de la capital del estado a lo privado, también significó la diversificación productiva de los grupos industriales con el fortalecimiento de la producción de mercancías y la industria de la construcción. En este nuevo contexto BNDES redefine su relación con el capital privado nacional y extranjero, así como su presencia en América del Sur actuando como financiador de las exportaciones brasileñas.Este artigo recupera a trajetória do Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social - BNDES em dois momentos distintos do desenvolvimento econômico brasileiro: o que corresponde à condução da política econômica a partir do ideário desenvolvimentista, quando o Banco constitui-se como uma instituição de fomento e principal ofertante de crédito de longo prazo e torna-se o principal financiador da montagem da infraestrutura e de setores industriais estruturantes da economia brasileira sob a coordenação do Estado e o que, o Brasil já adotando estratégias de política econômica de inspiração liberal, o Banco reorientada a sua atuação na direção de constituir-se como coordenador e financiador da reestruturação patrimonial brasileira por meio de fusões e aquisições promovidas pelas privatizações. A mudança patrimonial mais que uma mudança do controle do capital estatal para o privado, também significou a diversificação produtiva de grupos industriais com fortalecimento da produção de commodities e do setor da construção civil. Nessa nova conjuntura o Banco redefine a sua articulação com os capitais privados nacional e estrangeiro e a sua presença na América do Sul como financiador de exportações brasileiras

Conização, exame de congelação e histerectomia planejada no tratamento de neoplasia intra-epitelial de alto grau

PURPOSE: We tested the role of frozen section examination of the cone specimen in the evaluation of the resection margin status and to rule out invasion in patients with high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia. METHODS: Twenty-five patients with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia underwent conization followed by frozen section examination and planned hysterectomy. The results of the definitive paraffin exam were compared with frozen section examination. RESULTS: In the evaluation of the margins by frozen section examination, 16 patients (64%) had positive cone margins and 9 (36%) had negative margins. The definitive paraffin examination of margin status was concordant in all the cases. Intraoperative diagnosis of invasion was made in 5 cases, and 1 of these was microinvasive. Among the remaining 20 cases, we detected 2 additional microinvasive carcinomas after paraffin study, so the diagnosis of the frozen section examination was concordant with the paraffin sections in 23/25 cases (92%). Two cases of microinvasive carcinoma were diagnosed as cervical intraepithelial neoplasia by frozen section examination and had less than 2 mm stromal invasion. CONCLUSIONS: In high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia, frozen section examination can provide immediate and precise evaluation of the cone margin status in high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia. It can identify frank invasion and permit adequate treatment in a one-stage procedure. In early microinvasive disease, frozen section examination fails to detect the area of invasion but reliably detects clear resection margins.OBJETIVOS: Foi avaliado o papel do exame intra-operatório de congelação no diagnóstico de invasão e no estado das margens cirúrgicas em pacientes com neoplasia intra-epitelial de alto grau. CASUÍSTICA E MÉTODO: Vinte e cinco pacientes com neoplasia intra-epitelial de alto grau foram submetidas a conização cervical seguida de histerectomia. O resultado do exame definitivo em parafina foi comparado com o exame de congelação. RESULTADOS: Dezesseis pacientes (64 %) tiveram margens comprometidas e 9 (36 %) livres. O diagnóstico definitivo na parafina foi concordante em todos os casos no diagnóstico do estado das margens. Em cinco casos foi diagnosticada invasão, sendo 1 caso de carcinoma microinvasivo. Entre os 20 casos restantes foram detectados 2 carcinomas microinvasivos adicionais após o exame em parafina. Desta forma o exame intra-operatório de congelação foi concordante com o exame definitivo em 23/25 casos (92 %). Dois casos de carcinoma microinvasivo foram diagnosticados como neoplasia intra-epitelial de alto grau no exame de congelação e apresentavam invasão estromal menor que 2 cm. CONCLUSÕES: O exame intra-operatório de congelação é capaz de predizer o estado das margens cirúrgicas em todos os casos de neoplasia intra-epitelial de alto grau assim como o diagnóstico de invasão franca. Nos casos de carcinoma microinvasivo este exame falha na detecção de invasão, entretanto é capaz de garantir margens livres de ressecção