Listening to music with participation: effects on musical memory and understanding

This paper approaches some pedagogical strategies to guide children on listening to music, namely (a) the activities of playing rhythms and (b) the activities of miming stories along with recorded music, which might function as possible ways of preparing children's minds to attend musical concerts. It has been argued that the acts of listening, performing and composing can nourish each other when working in articulation. The present paper combines the notions of articulation and simultaneity, by arguing that listening to music can be enhanced by simultaneous performance. It discusses some theories that describe musical thinking and understanding as complex operations dealing with different types of information, perceived through different modes (aural, visual, kinaesthetic, etc.). Listening to music with simultaneous multimodal activities gives origin to mental activations whose complexity can have benefits on mental processing. Some empirical studies show that children exposed to the multimodal experiences of miming stories and playing rhythms while listening to music demonstrate stronger musical memory and higher levels of understanding of the musical pieces than they would do if they would listen in more passive ways. In terms of memory, children tend to preserve stronger and more detailed mental images that allow them to be more successful in future identification of fragments from the musical pieces. Children also categorise different sections of the music, refer to their expected or surprising sequential interaction and show awareness of the whole musical form by comparing sections and identifying recurrence, transformation and contrast. There is also some evidence that children tend to judge more positively the musical pieces they listen to, when they mime or play along. The results might inspire teachers and musical performers in adopting preparatory listening schemes to be developed with children before attending musical concerts

Birds like it Corky: the influence of habitat features and management of 'montados' in breeding bird communities.

In the southwest part of the Iberian Peninsula the dominant land-use are the Portuguese montados and Spanish dehesas, parkland forested areas of anthropogenic origin dominated by cork oak. They form a wooded matrix with open areas, scattered woodlands and undisturbed patches of Mediterranean forest and scrublands. The montados are characterized by a rich bird community. We have focus our study in a multidisciplinary approach, evaluating how management and landscape patterns influence the bird community in order to identify potential threats to its conservation. The study was conducted in the Site of Community Importance of Serra de Monfurado were 70% of the area is cork and holm oaks. We used data from 120 10-min point counts. Using variation partitioning, we determined the independent and joint effects of Forest, Management and Habitat variables. The variation captured in bird assemblage was 65.06%. Most of the explained variation was related to the Habitat and Management variables. The explanatory variables that were highlighted as important predictors were variables that reflected tree and shrub density and cork removal. Modelling for forest species through generalized linear models (GLM) emphasize that the management plays an important role in the species distribution. The most important variables selected in models reflected cattle grazing and cork removal. Our results point out that the type of management is crucial to maintain the equilibrium in bird community associated to montados. Farmland and forest species will benefit from areas with different tree densities, small patches of Mediterranean scrubs in the understory and correct livestock numbers

A Community-Driven Validation Service for Standard Medical Imaging Objects

Digital medical imaging laboratories contain many distinct types of equipment provided by different manufacturers. Interoperability is a critical issue and the DICOM protocol is a de facto standard in those environments. However, manufacturers' implementation of the standard may have non-conformities at several levels, which will hinder systems' integration. Moreover, medical staff may be responsible for data inconsistencies when entering data. Those situations severely affect the quality of healthcare services since they can disrupt system operations. The existence of software able to confirm data quality and compliance with the DICOM standard is important for programmers, IT staff and healthcare technicians. Although there are a few solutions that try to accomplish this goal, they are unable to deal with certain situations that require user input. Furthermore, these cases usually require the setup of a working environment, which makes the sharing of validation information more difficult. This article proposes and describes the development of a Web DICOM validation service for the community. This solution requires no configuration by the user, promotes validation results share-ability in the community and preserves patient data privacy since files are de-identified on the client side.Comment: Computer Standards & Interfaces, 201

Key factors for nature value in Montados

Montados are parkland forested areas of anthropogenic origin dominated by cork oak (Quercus suber) and/or holm oak (Q. rotundifolia). They are derived from natural Mediterranean forests, where the use of woodland products (timber, charcoal and cork) is combine with cereal crops and livestock grazing in the understory (Blondel and Aronson 1999). These use resulted in a singular “savanna” like land cover pattern particularly important for the biodiversity associated with farming and forestry systems (Canteiro et al. 2011; Godinho and Rabaça 2011; Simões et al. 2012). As result of the mosaic created by this dynamic heterogeneous landscape which forms a wooded matrix with open areas, scattered woodlands and undisturbed patches of Mediterranean forest and scrublands, montados support a high biological diversity (Díaz et al. 1997, 2003; Blondel and Aronson 1999; Tellería 2001; Tellería et al. 2003; Harrop 2007). According to Tellería (2001) bird richness increases in woodlands southwards along the Iberian gradient, with montados and dehesas showing the higher scores. This pattern is related with the increase presence of edge and open area bird which appears to compensate the lost of forest birds. Due to this diversity of species, birds can have an important role in the valuation of montados as HNV. In the last decades the scientific community has given particular attention to the different roles that birds may play in montados: management options and the breeding bird communities (Camprondon and Brotons 2006; Godinho and Rabaça 2011, Leal at al. 2012; Pereira et al. 2012a; Pulido and Díaz 1992), the influence of cork extraction on birds (Godinho and Rabaça 2011; Leal et al. 2011), relevance of habitat diversity in agroforestry matrices (Leal et al. 2011; Pereira et al. 2012b)

A Produção, Difusão e Recepção de Conteúdos Telejornalísticos na Era da Convergência Digital

Neste artigo, tendo por base uma revisão bibliográfica, são expostas algumas apreciações acerca da produção, difusão e recepção de conteúdos informativos televisivos na era da convergência digital, procurando assinalar e analisar as principais transformações nestes campos. Na era da convergência digital, os processos de conceção, distribuição e consumo de conteúdos jornalísticos transmitidos através da televisão estão a ser redefinidos.UD

Birds as bio-indicators and as tools to evaluate restoration measures

Within the RIPIDURABLE Project*, birds were used to characterize ecosystems*, to monitor environmental changes and to assess results of restoration measures. Bird surveys were carried out at different space and time scales using standardised point count methods on 8 watercourses in Portugal and France. Several aspects of riparian breeding bird community variation were assessed: along a decreasing gradient of vegetation complexity, along and upstream-downstream gradient, with different surrounding landscapes, with time, with management status, with time and management status, before and after river rehabilitation. Birds appear to be new and reliable indicators for assessing restoration of riparian ecosystems, complementary to those traditionally used

Atlas das Aves Invernantes e Migradoras de Portugal 2011-2013

I atlas das aves invernantes e migradoras de PortugalEDP - Energias de Portugal Projeto co-financiado pelo Fundo EDP para a Biodiversidade 2010 Honeyguide Wildlife Holiday

A organização topográfica do GAC face aos novos equipamentos topográficos da Artilharia de Campanha Portuguesa

No âmbito do Estágio de Natureza Profissional do Tirocínio para Oficial Aluno da Arma de Artilharia (TPO), nomeadamente na componente do Trabalho de Investigação Aplicada, escolheu-se como tema de investigação a rganização topográfica do Grupo de Artilharia de Campanha (GAC) face aos novos equipamentos topográficos da Artilharia de Campanha (AC). Tendo em conta a permanente evolução tecnológica e o reequipamento do Exército Português como uma etapa de um ciclo contínuo que visa o acompanhamento dessas transformações e a adaptação às necessidades de um moderno campo de batalha, surge o interesse em saber como está a sua vertente topográfica. È desta forma que abordamos e pretendemos dar a conhecer os novos equipamentos topográficos adquiridos pelo Exército Português. De igual modo, foi nosso objectivo perceber até que ponto houve ou deverá haver alterações na organização topográfica e na execução dos trabalhos topográficos de um GAC. Julgámos ainda ser possível indicar, com base nos relatos dos militares que desempenharam ou exercem funções que implicam o relacionamento directo com os equipamentos, situações úteis para complementar a doutrina topográfica existente na AC. Os resultados obtidos demonstram que a aquisição e a utilização destes equipamentos topográficos são enormemente proveitosas para a nossa AC e para as outras Unidades que dos seus trabalhos necessitem. O desempenho da missão topográfica passou a ser mais rápido e oportuno, a informação topográfica passou a ter mais qualidade e quantidade, os novos equipamentos garantem ao GAC uma maior flexibilidade e oportunidade na ocupação das posições e contribuem para a execução de eficácias ao primeiro tiro. Quanto à organização topográfica do GAC, houve uma redução nos efectivos, consequente das menores exigências de pessoal no funcionamento destes equipamentos, perante a qual se tem cumprido a missão topográfica nos exercícios mas não com a máxima potencialização dos meios. É, sobretudo, com base neste factor que apresentamos uma proposta para a organização da “célula” de topografia do Exército Português, a Secção de Topografia.Abstract The subject of this inquiry is the training and professional period of the apprenticeship for Official student in the Artillery. We will look at the survey structure of a Field Artillery Battalion and report on the new survey instrument of the Field Artillery. We need to take into account the continuing technological evolution and the updating of the equipment of the Portuguese Army as one phase of a continuous cycle. This aims to serve the Army’s needs in the modern battlefield. We intend to give information concerning the new survey equipment, acquired by the Portuguese Army. Our objective also includes an appreciation of any changes in the survey structure which have been made, or will need to be made in the survey operations of a Field Artillery Battalion. We have interviewed military professionals who have had practical experience of the equipment, and were able to provide helpful comments about the Field Artillery Survey equipment and procedures. The results obtained show that the acquisition and the use of these survey instruments are very beneficial to our Field Artillery and to otherunits who need the survey operations. The performance of the survey mission was faster and more efficient. The survey information increased in quality and quantity. The new equipment guarantees flexibility and opportunity to the Field Artillery Battalion and fire is effective from the first shot. As regards the survey structure of a Field Artillery Battalion, there wasa diminution of the effectiveness, because of the smaller demands of equipment operators. Overall, the survey mission in the exercises is satisfactory but with reduced capacity and advantages that could be improved. It is, especially, based on this factor that we present a proposal with the new structure for the survey "cell" of the Portuguese Army, the Survey Section