Ponto de fantasia, ponto de esquadria e cartografia náutica no tempo das descobertas

Durante o período dos descobrimentos e expansão marítima europeia a posição do navio no mar era determinada recorrendo a dois métodos: o método do ponto de fantasia, desenvolvido durante o século XIII no Mediterrâneo e baseado nas direcções indicadas pela agulha de marear e nas distâncias estimadas pelos pilotos; e o método do ponto de esquadria, introduzido pelos portugueses durante o século XV, e baseado na determinaçãoda latitude por métodos astronómicos. Na ausência de quaisquer erros na medição dos rumos, distâncias e latitudes, as duas posições são teoricamente coincidentes. Contudo, e devido ao facto de, no ponto de esquadria, a latitude observada prevalecer sempre sobre os outros elementos de informação, essa coincidência não se verifica na presença da declinação magnética. Enquanto no ponto de fantasia o efeito da declinação magnética se reflecte tanto em latitude como em longitude, no ponto de esquadria só a longitude é afectada

Bycatch and discard survival rate in a small-scale bivalve dredge fishery along the Algarve coast (southern Portugal)

Although the bivalve dredge used on the Algarve coast (southern Portugal) is highly selective for the target species, in some periods of the year the bycatch can exceed the catch of the commercial species. The present study aimed to quantify the bycatch and discards, estimate damage and mortality, and propose management measures to minimize discards and mortality. A total of 15 fishing surveys (60 tows) were performed using two types of dredges (“DDredge” targeting Donax trunculus and “SDredge” targeting Spisula solida and Chamelea gallina). Of the 85257 individuals (392.4 kg) of 52 taxa that were caught, 73.4% belonged to the target species, 22.1% to commercially undersized target species and 4.5% to bycatch species. Bycatch rates were lower for SDredge (13.5% in number and 6.3% in weight) than for DDredge (46.0% in number and 32.9% in weight). Damage and mortality rates were also lower using SDredge (1.3% and 1.0% of the total catches, respectively) than using DDredge (4.0% and 2.8% of the total catches). Survival experiments revealed the diverse vulnerability of the taxa and confirmed the influence of the damage score on the mortality rate. The results gathered in the present study encourage the adoption of a bycatch reduction device to reduce both direct and indirect mortality.This study was performed within the framework of the research project “Science Technology and Society Initiative to Minimize Unwanted Catches in European Fisheries (MINOUW)” funded by the Research and Innovation Action (RIA) of the EU Horizon 2020 programme.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Design and validation of an innovative 3D printer containing a co-rotating twin screw extrusion unit

This paper presents the design and validation of an innovative 3D printer containing a co-rotating twin screw extrusion unit (Co-TSE). Single screw print heads were developed in the mid-2000s as an alternative to filament-based 3D printers, but they have limited process flexibility and mixing capacity. The new design accepts material in powder or micro-pellet form, and its dispersive and distributive mixing capacity can be fine tuned by setting output and screw rotation speed independently. The design combines a miniaturized modular Co-TSE operated under starve-fed conditions with a benchtop Cartesian platform. Numerical calculations were performed to ascertain whether the appropriate thermomechanical environment for polymer processing could be created by the proposed design. A prototype was built and extrusion tests were performed under different operating conditions, using polypropylene and a 90/10 wt% polypropylene/polystyrene blend. Two screw configurations were used, with and without kneading discs, to assess the response of the extrusion unit in terms of flow characteristics and mixing performance. The restriction to flow created by the mixing elements determines the starting melt position, and the average residence times, while their shearing and extensional action enhances homogenization effectiveness. The screw configuration and rotation speed do not affect the output, which depends only on the feed rate. Preliminary deposition tests were conducted to determine the feasible printing parameters. A standard tensile test specimen, a square scaffold and a multicolored rectangular box were successfully printed, validating the innovative design. The mechanical properties of printed test specimens were within the expected values.This work was supported by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), grants 2016-4/442109 and 142348/2018-0, and by the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES), finance code 001

From the portolan chart of the mediterranean to the latitude chart of the atlantic

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor in Information Management, specialization in Geographic Information SystemsIn this thesis a methodology for the systematic geometric analysis and modeling of pre-Mercator nautical charts is proposed and tested, aiming at contributing to better understand their geometric properties and methods of construction. The suggested approach involves the application of a series of cartometric techniques: georeferencing, on the basis of a sample of control points of known geographic coordinates; the interpolation of the geographical graticules implicit to the representations; the assessment of scales of distance and latitude; the assessment of the navigational accuracy, by comparing the latitudes, directions and distances measured on the charts with the corresponding exact values, affected by magnetic declination; and the identification of the routes underlying the charts’ construction. A numerical model was developed using the concept of ‘multimensional scaling’, here generalized to distances and directions measured on a spherical Earth, to simulate the main geometric features of the charts. To estimate the spatial distribution of the magnetic declination in various times two sources were used: the historical observations made by D. João de Castro in 1538 and 1541, and a recent geomagnetic model

The equilibrium mixed layer depth in the tropical Atlantic: the rotation stress and penetration of radiation effects.

This thesis examines the effects of the rotation stress mechanism and the penetration of shortwave radiation below the sea - surface in determining a one dimensional equilibrium mixed layer depth. Starting with the Obukhov-scale equilibrium theory for the surface ocean boundary layer, a revised equilibrium theory, which includes rotation stress and radiation effects, is presented. This new theory is applied using climatological boundary conditions for the tropical Atlantic Ocean and the results are compared with the observed climatological mixed layer depth. In general, the response of the revised model is an improvement over the Obukhov theory alone. Because the quality of the results is limited by uncertainties in the boundary conditions, no detailed evaluation of the model response is justifiable. However, it is concluded here that the physical mechanisms of rotation stress and penetration of radiation are important in determining a steady-state equilibrium depth of mixing for the tropical Atlantic.http://archive.org/details/equilibriummixed00gaspLieutenant Commander, Portuguese NavyApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Next-Gen Cytogenetics and the Hidden Complexity of Genomic or Chromosomal Rearrangements

Human developmental abnormalities are devastating conditions that account for almost half of all full-term neonatal deaths in developed countries. For individuals who survive, congenital anomalies often confer lifelong disability and their impact on public health is profound. However, the genetic etiology and genomic architecture contributing to the vast majority of these conditions remain unknown. Separately, and in addition, the genetic etiologies of recurrent infertility remain to be elucidated. The current low resolution diagnostic techniques are insensitive to the full mutational spectrum contributing to human developmental abnormalities and infertility, the poor understanding of the molecular alterations introduced by genomic rearrangements, and the lack of a fully annotated human genome hinders predictive diagnostics. This study results from collaboration between a Portuguese Consortium including clinical geneticists and the Developmental Genome Anatomy Project (DGAP) from Harvard Medical School. First, a group of cases were comparatively analyzed using genomic array and Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS). Subsequently, NGS of whole-genome large-insert libraries was applied for the identification of genomic or chromosomal rearrangements at nucleotide resolution in a series of cases, including two prenatal samples. Presently, this high-throughput technology is the only approach able to identify the full spectrum of structural variants, in a time frame that allows its application even for prenatal samples.The introduction of NGS into clinical cytogenetics surely will create a high-throughput, sequence-based Next-Gen Cytogenetics that will catalyze a dramatic advancement in clinical diagnostics. Therefore the understanding of the molecular pathology of these chromosome rearrangement-associated developmental disorders and infertilities will contribute to an improved prediction of the phenotypic consequences of these rearrangements