Soil Functional Ability for groundwater recharge related with Land Use and Tillage System in a dry Mediterranean climate, southern Portugal

Groundwater has capacities like storing, filtering and transforming, which allows regulates atmospheric, hydrological and nutrient cycles. For agronomists, groundwater recharge is defined as the quantity of freshwater derived from precipitation that infiltrates vertically downward from the land surface to below the root zone. At this point the water may move laterally to discharge in streams or downward to enter an aquifer. Fresh water sustains biomass growth in terrestrial ecosystems, and provides key ecological services that supports biodiversity, sequesters carbon and combats desertification. On the other hand, soils provide us services like give clean water and abundant crops. To do this, soils plays there function of “regulator” distributing water for the recharge of groundwater and for the use by plants and animals, regulating the drainage, flow and storing water. Soil functions are difficult to measure directly, so they are usually assessed by measuring soil quality indicators. The soil functional ability to provide groundwater recharge is dependent on the water flowing within soils, under natural conditions or ones affected by its exploitation. Thus Soil Functional Ability to recharge groundwater (SFAgr) and Land use are essential to study the environmental sustainability and agricultural production capability once groundwater is a key component of a healthy watershed. But it is necessary pay attention to the Tillage System and not only to Land Use because the same Land Use can be related with more or less soil mobilizations and that have a great influence on soil structure and its hydrological skills. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between Soil Functional Ability for groundwater recharge (SFAgr), different Land Uses and different Tillage Systems in a Dry Mediterranean climate in Alentejo, Portugal. This will be achieved by building a SFAgr, generated with combination of four properties related to water infiltration and percolation into the soil: depth; bulk density; saturated hydraulic conductivity; and drainable porosity. The saturated hydraulic conductivity was calculated by an indirect method based on texture and drainable porosity was also calculated by an indirect method though the difference between total porosity and field capacity. Each unit Soil/ Land Use/ Tillage System was analyzed in several identical units within the same catchment. When comparing SFAgr for different Land Uses and different soils, the results show a higher dependency of the groundwater recharge ability on Soil properties than on Land Use. The highest influences on SFAgr were bulk density and saturated hydraulic conductivity and the smallers were depth and drainage porosity. Better situations are where soils have bulk density rounding 1,2 covered by Cork/Holm Oak (50%) + Pasture and the worst situation are soils with bulk density greater than 1,5 even with Cork/Holm Oak (30%) + Pasture. When comparing SFAgr only for Annual Crops at same soils but having different Tillage Systems, the results showed that in both soils studied, the SFAgr was highest when Tillage System was a conservation one than when was a traditional system. The conclusions of this study for a Dry Mediterranean Climate are: 1 – Land Use influences the Soil Functional Ability to recharge groundwater, but more important than Land Use itself is the Tillage System used; 2- Tillage Systems associated with Conservation Agriculture more specifically No Tillage Systems provide better ability to recharge groundwater in clayey soils; 3 - The more years a system of No Tillage is practiced the higher Soil Functional Ability to Groundwater Recharge is expected in clayey soils

Postgraduate Medical Teaching

Os autores afirmam a urgência em reestruturar o ensino medico pós-graduado em Portugal. De uma forma critica, analisam esquematicamente a situação actual do ensino médico pós-graduado em geral e da Urologia em particular, no nosso país. Depois de enunciar as etapas para atingir o internato da especialidade, resumem o Plano de preparação para a especialidade de Urologia do Conselho Directivo do Colégio de Urologistas da Ordem dos Médicos, de 1979. 0 Plano refere-se a tempos de estágio, programas teórico e prático, e formas de avaliação dos internos e aponta ainda as características para que um serviço seja considerado idóneo. Referindo que a realidade actual não corresponde às exigências preconizadas, os autores indicam aquilo que de facto acontece. Respondendo negativamente a uma série de questões sobre pontos fulcrais para uma prática correcta do ensino pós-graduado, os autores terminam a primeira parte da sua exposição perguntando se, nas condições actuais, o resultado final da preparação dos médicos será mesmo um Especialista. Na segunda parte fazem propostas para a reestruturação do ensino pós-graduado em Portugal. Referem-se sucessivamente as seguintes alíneas: criação de institutos ou escolas médicas hospitalares de pós graduação, universitários; elaboração de um programa padrão nacional do ensino médico pós-graduado; criação de comissões para o ensino médico pós-graduado; definição exigente do perfil de serviço idóneo para o ensino médico pós-graduado; elaboração de programas individuais pelos serviços dos institutos de pós-graduação; caderneta; fiscalização da actividade dos docentes e discentes; avaliação, contínua e por provas intercalar e final; mestrado. Dado o carácter auto-explicativo dos quadros, os autores, para além de alguns comentários, apenas desenvolvem as alíneas referentes aos Institutos ou Escolas Médicas de Pós-graduação, Universitários e ao Mestrado, expondo, duma maneira sucinta, a forma como pensam que deviam ser organizados

Kinetics and Mechanism of Hydrolysis of Benzimidazolylcarbamates

Synthesis of new 2-aminobenzimidazole-1-carbamates was accomplished by carbamoylation of 2-aminobenzimidazole using different substituted phenyl chloroformates. The aqueous hydrolysis of the new compounds was examined in the pH range 1-13 at 25 oC. The evaluated kinetic parameters led to the conclusion that up to pH 4 reaction proceeds by a bimolecular attack of water to the N-protonated substrate. This is the first time this behavior is described for carbamates, and can be ascribed to the higher basicity of the benzimidazolyl moiety when compared with the carbonyl oxygen. For higher values of pH, the results are consistent with a BAc2 mechanism with nucleophilic catalysis, but while between pH 4 and pH 7 water acts as the nucleophile, for pH> 7 the hydroxide ion is the acting species

Developing daily precipitation scenarios for climate change impact studies in the Guadiana and the Tejo basins

International audienceHydrological models to evaluate the impacts of climate change in the water resources sector require spatially correlated daily precipitation scenarios as model inputs. This paper presents a practical procedure for developing such precipitation scenarios using multisite stochastic weather models or generators conditional on large-scale daily circulation patterns, based on GCM-simulated future mean sea level pressure (MSLP) fields. The procedure is demonstrated on the basis of HadCM3 and HadAM3H simulations with an example for two river basins in the Iberian Peninsula. Changes in daily precipitation scenarios for the region generated by stochastic models are consistent with large-scale precipitation scenarios from direct GCM outputs; however, more localised characteristics have to be found from downscaled precipitation scenarios rather than from direct GCM outputs. This may imply that possible changes in downscaled precipitation reflect the underlying physics in GCMs, so that downscaled daily precipitation scenarios may be more suitable for impact models than the coarse GCM outputs

Bitemarks analysis of orthodontically treated suspects – an identification approach

Abstract in proceedings of the Fourth International Congress of CiiEM: Health, Well-Being and Ageing in the 21st Century, held at Egas Moniz’ University Campus in Monte de Caparica, Almada, from 3–5 June 2019.This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The Empirical Forcing Function as a tool for the diagnosis of large-scale atmospheric anomalies

The time-mean quasi-geostrophic potential vorticity equation of the atmospheric flow on isobaric surfaces can explicitly include an atmospheric (internal) forcing term of the stationary-eddy flow. In fact, neglecting some non-linear terms in this equation, this forcing can be mathematically expressed as a single function, called Empirical Forcing Function (EFF), which is equal to the material derivative of the time-mean potential vorticity. Furthermore, the EFF can be decomposed as a sum of seven components, each one representing a forcing mechanism of different nature. These mechanisms include diabatic components associated with the radiative forcing, latent heat release and frictional dissipation, and components related to transient eddy transports of heat and momentum. All these factors quantify the role of the transient eddies in forcing the atmospheric circulation. In order to assess the relevance of the EFF in diagnosing large-scale anomalies in the atmospheric circulation, the relationship between the EFF and the occurrence of strong North Atlantic ridges over the Eastern North Atlantic is analyzed, which are often precursors of severe droughts over Western Iberia. For such events, the EFF pattern depicts a clear dipolar structure over the North Atlantic; cyclonic (anticyclonic) forcing of potential vorticity is found upstream (downstream) of the anomalously strong ridges. Results also show that the most significant components are related to the diabatic processes. Lastly, these results highlight the relevance of the EFF in diagnosing large-scale anomalies, also providing some insight into their interaction with different physical mechanisms

Automatic calibration of the SHETRAN hydrological modelling system using MSCE

Automatic calibration is preferred because it provides an objective and extensive searching in the feasible parameter space. In this study, the Modified Shuffled Complex Evolution (MSCE) optimization algorithm is applied to automatically calibrate the physically-based spatially-distributed hydrological model SHETRAN in the 705-km2 semi-arid Cobres basin in southern Portugal, with a spatial resolution of 2 km and a temporal resolution of 1 h. Twenty-two parameters are calibrated for the main types of land-use and soil. Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency (NSE) is 0.86 for calibration and 0.74 for validation for basin outlet; NSE is respectively 0.65 and 0.82 for calibration, 0.69 and 0.63 for validation of internal gauging stations Albernoa and Entradas. As for storm events, NSE is 0.87 and 0.64 respectively for Storms No.1 (during the calibration period) and No.4 (during the validation period) at basin outlet; it is 0.69 and 0.65 for Storm No.4 respectively at Albernoa andEntradas. The results are satisfactory not only for basin outlet but also for internal gauging stations

Cidade do avesso

Cada cidade, tal como cada ser humano, não se repete, é única. Lisboa é única no território que ocupa e no modo como cresce, como acomoda e se acomoda a quem a usa. Ao longo do tempo, absorve os passos, as conversas, adapta-se a cada realidade nova que se lhe impõe insistindo em manter-se viva. Dentro de Lisboa, mesmo dentro, o seu cerne são os espaços escondidos. Locais de escadas e marquises onde se estende a roupa, colocam-se as caixas do ar-condicionado e os tubos infindáveis dos restaurantes, locais de arrumos onde se guarda o que é feio mas porventura útil. Onde se esquece o que já serviu.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Coaching effectiveness within competitive youth football: youth football coaches’ and athletes’ perceptions and practices

Competitive youth sport can provide solid grounds for positive youth development (PYD). However, there is need to understand if coaches are facilitating these types of outcomes. The purpose of this study was to analyze how competitive youth sport is used to facilitate PYD. The participants in this study were four youth football coaches and 19 adolescent athletes from competitive leagues at north of Portugal. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, field notes and nonparticipant observations. The majority of the coaches communicated appropriately and facilitated positive interactions with youth athletes. Nevertheless, the participants did not implement an explicit approach towards the development of confidence, character, connection and competence (i.e., 4 C’s) which has been linked to less PYD outcomes. Performance outcomes in certain moments superseded PYD ones. Moving forward, coaches need to comprehend how they can use their interpersonal knowledge to integrate the 4 C’s within competitive youth sport.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Implementação de um Estudo de Efetividade da Vacina Contra a Gripe no Contexto Hospitalar em Portugal: Projeto EVA Hospital

Introduction: The project ‘Integrated Monitoring of Vaccines in Europe’ aimed to measure seasonal influenza vaccine effectiveness against hospitalised adults, aged 65 years and over, with influenza. We describe the protocol implementation in Portugal. Material and Methods: We implemented a test-negative design, targeting community-dwelling patients aged 65 years old and over hospitalised with severe acute respiratory illness. Patients were reverse transverse-polymerase chain reaction tested for influenza. Cases were those positive for influenza while others were controls. Most variables were collected using hospital medical records. Selection bias was evaluated by comparison with the laboratory influenza test requests database according to demographic characteristics. Crude, season-adjusted influenza vaccine effectiveness was estimated as = 1 – odds ratio, and 95% confidence intervals were obtained by conditional logistical regression, matched with the disease onset month. Results: The recruitment rate was 37.8%. Most participants (n = 368) were female (55.8%) and aged 80 years old and over (55.8%). This was similar to values for potentially eligible severe acute respiratory illness patients (80 years old and over: 56.8%, female: 56.2%). The proportion of missing values was below 2.5% for 20 variables and above 5% (maximum 11.6%) for six variables. Influenza vaccine effectiveness estimates were 62.1% against AH1pdm09 (95% confidence intervals: -28.1 to 88.8), 14.9% against A(H3N2) (95% confidence intervals: -69.6 to 57.3), 43.6% against B/Yam (95% confidence intervals: -66.2 to 80.8). Discussion: Given the non-existence of a coded admission database in either participating hospital the selection of severe acute respiratory illness due to clinical features was the feasible one. These results are only valid for the older adult population residing in the catchment area of the two participating hospitals who were admitted to a public hospital with severe influenza or SARI symptoms. Conclusion: Despite the low participation rate, we observed comparable characteristics of participants and eligible severe acute respiratory illness patients. Data quality was high, and influenza vaccine effectiveness results were in accordance with the results of meta-analyses and European season-specific estimates. The final sample size was low, which inhibited obtaining estimates with good precision.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio