Lexical, morphological and syntactic development in toddlers between 16 and 30 months old: a comparison across European Portuguese and Galician

The main aims of this study were to investigate the relationship between the lexical size and the emergence of morphological and syntactic markers in toddlers between the ages of 16 and 30 months and to compare these results between Galician and European Portuguese. Parents of 3012 Portuguese toddlers and those of 1081 Galician toddlers completed the MacArthur–Bates Communicative Development Inventory: Words and Sentences. The results indicated that the number of words, the ability to combine words and the number of different morphemes produced increased with age. The ability to combine words was used as an indicator of syntactic development; this ability was also associated with the toddlers’ lexical size. In both samples, gender morphemes seemed to be the first to have their production generalized, followed by the plural and the past participle. The production of gender morphemes was accompanied by a small lexical size, whereas the imperfect tense and the person mark onset were associated with large lexical sizes. The implications of these results for charting the continuity between lexical, morphological and syntactical development are discussed.CiPsi - Psychology Research Centre, Uminho (UID/PSI/ 01662/2013), Portugal. National Funds through the FCT (Foundation for Science and Technology) and co-financed by European Regional Development Funds (FEDER) through the the National Strategic Reference Framework (QREN) - FCOMP- 01-0124-FEDER-029556 and through the Competitiveness and Internationalization Operational Program (POCI) with the references and POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007562CIEC – Research Centre on Child Studies, IE, UMinho (FCT R&D unit 317), Portugal. BPD/102549/2014info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Using coarse-grained molecular dynamics to understand the effect of ionic liquids on the aggregation of Pluronic copolymer solutions

This study is aimed to enhance the understanding of the interaction between ionic liquids (ILs) and non-ionic Pluronic triblock copolymers in aqueous two-phase micellar systems (ATPMS) used for the selective separation/purification of hydrophobic biomolecules. The ILs allow a precise control of the cloud point phase separation temperature (CPT), particularly important when the stability of the molecule is highly dependent on temperature. The effect of choline-based ILs, with two different counter-anions, chloride and hexanoate, was evaluated using molecular dynamics simulations (MD) for F-68 and L-35 Pluronic aqueous solutions. The simulations revealed the role played by the anions during the Pluronic self-assembly, with choline chloride hindering Pluronic aggregation and the choline hexanoate favouring micelle formation and coalescence, in agreement with the experimental data. A detailed study of the accessible surface area of Pluronic showed a progressive dehydration of the Pluronic hydrophilic micelle corona in choline hexanoate mixtures promoting inter-micelle interactions and, consequently, micelle coalescence. With the addition of choline hexanoate, it was observed that the hydrophilic segments, which form the micelle corona, twisted towards the Pluronic micelle core. The electrostatic interaction is also shown to play a key role in this IL–Pluronic aqueous solution, as the hexanoate anions are accommodated in the Pluronic micelle core, while the choline cations are hosted by the Pluronic micelle corona, with the ions interacting with each other during the self-assembly process. In addition, a comparison study of F-68 and L-35 aqueous solutions shows that the IL impact depends on the length of the Pluronic hydrophilic segment. This work provides a realistic microscopic scenario of the complex interactions between Pluronic copolymers and ILs.This work was developed within the scope of the project CICECO-Aveiro Institute of Materials, UIDB/50011/2020 & UIDP/50011/2020, financed by national funds through the FCT/MEC and when appropriate co-financed by FEDER under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement. The authors acknowledge the research contract under the project CENTRO-01-0145- FEDER-000005: SusPhotoSolutions: Soluções Fotovoltaicas Sustentáveis. G. Pérez-Sánchez and N. Schaeffer acknowledge the national funds (OE), through FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I. P., in the scope of the framework contract foreseen in the numbers 4, 5 and 6 of the article 23, of the Decree-Law 57/2016, of August 29th, changed by Law 57/2017, of July 19th. A. M. Lopes acknowledges the support from the State of São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP/Brazil, processes #2017/10789-1 and #2018/10799-0). J. F. B. Pereira also acknowledges FAPESP through the project 2014/16424-7.publishe

Estimating the cumulative effects of the nature-based tourism in a coastal dolphin population from southern Kenya

Due to the growth of nature-based tourism worldwide, behavioural studies are needed to assess the impact of this industry on wildlife populations and understand their short-term effect. Tourism impact on dolphin populations remain poorly documented in developing countries. This study investigates the effects of nature-based tourism on the behaviour of the Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) in southern Kenya. We used Markov chain models to estimate transition probabilities between behavioural states in the presence and absence of tourist boats, and assess the overall behavioural budgets. Based on these data and the tourism intensity in the area, we quantified the potential tourist boat disturbance over the period 2006-2013. Our results demonstrated that tourist boat interactions affected dolphins' behavioural budgets, with a significant decrease in the overall amount of time travelling and an increase in diving. The average duration of travelling and resting decreased significantly in the presence of boats. Although the cumulative tourism exposure was not significant for the dolphin population at their current levels, these impacts should be taken into consideration with the potential tourism growth in the area. This is particularly important if tourism reaches periods of high intensity, as we have shown that these periods could have a significant impact for the species, particularly where home-range and core areas are highly overlap by this activity. Understanding the effect of human disturbance variations from previous years may help to predict the consequences on dolphin populations, towards achieving a more ecological and economic sustainability of the activity

Characterization of IHF Binding to DNA Four-Way Junctions and Forks

The objective of the study is to characterise the mechanical properties of Ti-15Zr binary alloy dental implants and to describe their biomechanical behaviour as well as their osseointegration capacity compared with the conventional Ti-6Al-4V (TAV) alloy implants. The mechanical properties of Ti-15Zr binary alloy were characterised using Roxoli

REM technology to help fulfill the landing obligation in European fisheries towards more sustainable fishing

Póster.-- Iberian Symposium on Modeling and Assessment of Fishery Resources, 19-22 October, Vigo, SpainThe main control measures used in EU fisheries are the use of logbooks, monitoring of vessel geographic positions and the inspections of the vessels at sea (patrol vessel surveillance) and at the ports (inspection of the landings). Many studies indicate that this traditional control measures are not effective within the current Landing Obligation rules. The Remote Electronic Monitoring (REM) is currently considered as one of the best future alternatives for the control of fishing activity. In fact, many fleets have already incorporated this technology into their activity to respond to the requirements of regional fishing organizations and control authorities in many countries of the world. The aim of this work was to test the implementation of innovative technologies based on artificial vision devices for catch composition determination and data management technologies installed on board. A study case including onboard observer trials and an automatic device was carried out to characterize discards and record unwanted species occurrence in commercial vessels. The “iObserver system” was implemented to improve the quality and availability of data and consequently to deepen knowledge on the status of the fisheries resources. This technology is aimed to be able to identify and quantify the catch (targeted and discarded) without interfering with the activity of fishermen. Once the data (species and biomass estimation) is acquired by iObserver, information is pre-processed and transmitted to land (to management servers). This system will allow real-time decision making for the fishing activity in order to eventually perform a more selective fishing. Automatic estimates of discards by species allow to take real-time decisions, avoid areas/times with high discards rates and potentially to comply with landing obligationN

A High Spatial Resolution Mid-Infrared Spectroscopic Study of the Nuclei and Star-Forming Regions in Luminous Infrared Galaxies

We present a high spatial (diffraction-limited) resolution (~0.3") mid-infrared (MIR) spectroscopic study of the nuclei and star-forming regions of 4 local luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs) using T-ReCS on the Gemini South telescope. We investigate the spatial variations of the features seen in the N-band spectra of LIRGs on scales of ~100 pc, which allow us to separate the AGN emission from that of the star formation (SF). We compare our Gemini T-ReCS nuclear and integrated spectra of LIRGs with those obtained with Spitzer IRS. The 9.7um silicate absorption feature is weaker in the nuclei of the LIRGs than in the surrounding regions. This is probably due to the either clumpy or compact environment of the central AGN or young, nuclear starburst. We find that the [NeII] luminosity surface density is tightly and directly correlated with that of Pa-alpha for the LIRG star-forming regions (slope of 1.00+-0.02). Although the 11.3um PAH feature shows also a trend with Pa-alpha, this is not common for all the regions. We also find that the [NeII]\Pa-alpha ratio does not depend on the Pa-alpha equivalent width (EW), i.e., on the age of the ionizing stellar populations, suggesting that, on the scales probed here, the [NeII] emission line is a good tracer of the SF activity in LIRGs. On the other hand, the 11.3um PAH\Pa-alpha ratio increases for smaller values of the Pa-alpha EW (increasing ages), indicating that the 11.3um PAH feature can also be excited by older stars than those responsible for the Pa-alpha emission. Additional high spatial resolution observations are essential to investigate, in a statistical way, the star formation in local LIRGs at the smallest scales and to probe ultimately whether they share the same physical properties as high-z LIRGs, ULIRGs and submillimiter galaxies.Comment: 23 pages (apjstyle), 19 figures, accepted for publicacion in Ap

Distribuição de espécies arbóreas em fragmentos de vegetação natural no Município de Prado - extremo sul da Bahia.

O presente trabalho é parte de estudo que avalia a relação entre os solos e a distribuição de espécies arbóreas nativas de uma região de Mata Atlântica do sul do Estado da Bahia, visando subsidiar a implantação de corredores ecológicos entre dois importantes remanescentes florestais, o Parque Nacional do Descobrimento e o Parque Nacional do Monte Pascoal. São reportados os resultados de levantamentos florísticos e estruturais de fragmentos de floresta secundária ( ?capoeiras?), distribuídos em diversas condições edáficas do município de Prado.bitstream/CNPS/11843/1/circtec_17_2002_especies_arboreas.pd