Habitat suitability model for european wild rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) with implications for restocking

The European wild rabbit, Oryctolagus cuniculus, is a key species in the Iberian ecosystems. However, its populations are seriously depleted. Therefore, the development of habitat suitability models could be an important step towards the establishment of management and recovery plans. An habitat suitability model was developed for the rabbit in the 4,606 ha of the Peneda-Gerês National Park (northern Portugal). The framework was based on 3 steps: (1) construction of an habitat suitability model using the logistic regression of presence/absence of rabbits on habitat variables, (2) location of suitable habitat on a map, with the help of a Geographic Information System (GIS), by applying the above-obtained regression coefficients to the digitalized data of a land-cover map, and (3) delineation of the best potential sites for restocking. In June-July 2000, presence/absence of rabbits was determined by the presence/absence of pellets, warrens and individuals on 86 100-m radius random circular plots, i.e. 3.14 ha each representing the area occupied by a family group in summer. The initial dataset was divided into 56 sampling plots to build the model and 30 sampling plots (15 with rabbits and 15 without rabbits) for cross-validation. Measured habitat variables were % cover of tall scrubland, % cover of rocks, and interspersion (an index measuring the amount of intermixture of forage and shelter patches). These variables were calculated for all pixels of a digital land-cover map, using a moving 100-m radius window approach. Plots on which wild rabbits were present had a mean 10+3.4%(SE) percentage of rocks, 16.3+3.8% percentage of tall scrubland and an interspersion index of 0.9+0.09 (vs 1.3+0.7, 2.7+1.5 and 0.4+0.05 for “absence” plots, P 50%), distributed over 106 patches. Three clusters of suitable patches were delineated, assuming a critical threshold distance of 200 m between neighbour patches (distance equal to the mean dispersal ability of rabbits) for their inclusion into the same group. In that way, an area of 508.7 ha (11% of the study area) including the best potential site for restocking was delineated. Results suggested that management efforts should be aimed at promoting the connection between the three habitat-patch clusters. The framework presented provides a method for accurate and rapid assessment of habitats suitable for wild rabbit and could assist managers in identifying the best potential restocking sites

Sistemas dunares do litoral de Esposende

Ciência Viva - A.N.C.C.T. (Programa Operacional Ciência Tecnologia Inovação - POCTI)Ministério da Ciência e da Tecnologia - Ciência Viva - Biologia no Verão 2001

O que é ser criança? Da genética ao comportamento

Este artigo foi originalmente publicado em Novos Desafios à Bioética, Porto Editora, 2001. Foi reeditado, neste número especial de Análise Psicológica, com as devidas autorizações.Cada gene só se pode exprimir em função do modo como cada fase ambiental da evolução humana modela a força potencial da natureza. A expressão genómica com todas as suas influências é, de facto, condicionada pelas sucessivas interacções entre o que é potencial e o que são os sucessivos ambientes que constituem o envelope do biológico, desde o núcleo ao citoplasma, desde a célula ao tecido, desde o órgão ao corpo total, desde o corpo à relação com o outro mais significativo nos primeiros tempos de vida e que é a mãe, até às outras todas relações sociais com os outros mais ou menos preferenciais que a família e a sociedade vão proporcionando, nas sucessivas etapas do ciclo da vida. O mito determinista que tanto nos legou em termos de significado nas primeiras relações, cruza-se com as outras realidades influenciais através das quais sabemos que nunca nada está perdido em função da extraordinária capacidade de adaptação humana em todos as fases potenciais da vida. O modelo etológico ter-nos-á influenciado a pensar em termos de sobrevivência quando caracteriza a evolução em termos de competência de espécies na mira de garantir aquela mesma sobrevivência. Porém, a caracterização da espécie humana vai no sentido de uma evolução complexa destinada a garantir competências susceptíveis de condicionar capacidades decisivas como são as de constituir família e de cooperar em grupos sociais com objectivos comuns, cada vez mais complexos. Ser Criança significa o destino de vida feita relação e afecto.Each gene can only express itself according to the way in which each environmental phase of human evolution configures the potential force of nature. Genomic expression and its influences is conditioned by the successive interactions between what is potential and the successive environments that constitute the biological envelope, from the nucleus to the cytoplasm, from the cell to the tissue, from the organ to the total body, from the body to the relationship with the meaningful other during the first years of life, which is the mother, and all the other social relationships with members of the family and society, in the several stages of the life cycle. The determinist myth that left us so much in terms of the meaning of the first relationships intersects with the other influential realities which show that nothing is ever lost, due to the extraordinary human capacity for adaptation in all the potential phases of life. The ethological model has influenced us to think in terms of survival by characterising evolution as species’ competences to guarantee survival. However, the characterisation of the human species is based on the idea of a complex evolution, aimed at guaranteeing the competences and skills needed to create families and cooperate in social groups with common goals, which are more and more complex.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

On the reuse of SLS Polyamide 12 powder

In the Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) technique, the great majority of the powder involved is not included in the final printed parts, being just used as a support material. However, the quality of this powder is negatively affected during the process since it is subjected to high temperatures (close to its melting temperature) during a long time, i.e., the printing cycle time, especially in the neighborhood of the printed part contour. This type of powder is relatively expensive and large amounts of used powder result after each printing cycle. The present paper focuses on the reuse of Polyamide 12 (PA 12) powder. For this sake, the same PA 12 powder was used in consecutive printing cycles. After each cycle, the remaining non-used powder was milled and filtered before subsequent use. Properties of the powder and corresponding prints were characterized in each cycle, using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), computed tomography (CT), and tensile tests. It was concluded that subjecting the same powder to multiple SLS printing cycles affects the properties of the printed parts essentially regarding their morphology (voids content), mechanical properties reproducibility, and aesthetical aspect. However, post-processing treatment of the powder enabled to maintain the mechanical performance of the prints during the first six printing cycles without the need to add virgin powder.O.S.C. acknowledges funding by National Funds through the FCT—Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, References UIDB/05256/2020 and UIDP/05256/2020. A.C.A. acknowledges the partial support of the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), Portugal, under the UIDB/04436/2020 project

Triplite-zwieselite, fluorapatite and isokite evolution products from the Sítio do Castelo mine at Folgosinho, Guarda

A mina Sítio do Castelo explorou em meados dos anos 70 uma importante massa quartzosa na proximidade da povoação de Folgosinho. Os trabalhos a céu aberto bem como as diversas galerias expuseram corpos fosfáticos intensamente oxidados, onde foi possível observar uma grande variedade de fosfatos secundários. O reconhecimento de vários corpos fosfáticos permitiu definir dois tipos de ocorrências: 1- Triplite – zwieselite como único fosfato primário; 2- Triplite - zwieselite em associação com fluorapatite e isokite. A alteração destes fosfatos em combinação com sulfuretos (esfalerite, arsenopirite e calcopirite) resulta em diferentes associações paragenéticas, as quais servem de argumento para a proposta das linhagens evolutivas que lhes correspondem.In the mid 70's, the ‘Sitio do Castelo’ mine has exploited an important lens of quartz near the village of Folgosinho. The open pit, as well as the several galleries, has exposed intensely oxidized phosphatic bodies, where it was possible to observe a wide variety of secondary phosphates. The recognition of several phosphatic bodies allowed definig two types of occurences: 1- Triplite - zwieselite phosphate as the sole primary phosphate; 2- Triplite - Zwieselite in association with fluorapatite and isokite. The weathering of these phosphates in combination with several sulphide minerals (sphalerite, arsenopyrite and chalcopyrite) resulted in different paragenetic associations, which serve as argument for the proposed evolutionary paths.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia com fundos nacionai

Interleaved Sequence RNNs for Fraud Detection

Payment card fraud causes multibillion dollar losses for banks and merchants worldwide, often fueling complex criminal activities. To address this, many real-time fraud detection systems use tree-based models, demanding complex feature engineering systems to efficiently enrich transactions with historical data while complying with millisecond-level latencies. In this work, we do not require those expensive features by using recurrent neural networks and treating payments as an interleaved sequence, where the history of each card is an unbounded, irregular sub-sequence. We present a complete RNN framework to detect fraud in real-time, proposing an efficient ML pipeline from preprocessing to deployment. We show that these feature-free, multi-sequence RNNs outperform state-of-the-art models saving millions of dollars in fraud detection and using fewer computational resources.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, to appear in SIGKDD'20 Industry Trac

Hydrogel depots for local co-delivery of osteoinductive peptides and mesenchymal stem cells

The outcome of cell-based therapies can benefit from carefully designed cell carriers. A multifunctional injectable vehicle for the co-delivery of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) and osteoinductive peptides is proposed, to specifically direct hMSCs osteogenic differentiation. The osteogenic growth peptide (OGP) inspired the design of two peptides, where the bioactive portion of OGP was flanked by a protease-sensitive linker, or its scrambled sequence, to provide faster and slower release rates, respectively. Peptides were fully characterized and chemically grafted to alginate. Both OGP analogs released bioactive fragments in vitro, at different kinetics, which stimulated hMSCs proliferation and osteogenesis. hMSCs-laden OGP-alginate hydrogels were tested at an ectopic site in a xenograft mouse model. After 4 weeks, OGP-alginate hydrogels were more degraded and colonized by vascularized connective tissue than the control (without OGP). hMSCs were able to proliferate, migrate outward the hydrogels, produce endogenous extracellular matrix and mineralize it. Moreover, OGP-groups stimulated hMSCs osteogenesis, as compared with the control. Overall, the ability of the proposed platform to direct the fate of transplanted hMSCs in loco was demonstrated, and OGP-releasing hydrogels emerged as a potentially useful system to promote bone regeneration

Low-Complexity Equalisers for Offset Constellations in Massive MIMO Schemes

This work was supported in part by the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER), through the Competitiveness and Internationalization Operational Program of the Portugal 2020 Framework, in part by the Regional OP Centro under Grant POCI-01-0145-FEDER-030588, in part by the Regional OP Lisboa under Grant Lisboa-01-0145-FEDER-03058, in part by the FCT/MEC through national funds of MASSIVE5G Project under Grant SAICT-45-2017-02 and PES3N Project under Grant 2018-SAICT-45-2017-POCI-01-0145-FEDER-030629, in part by the UID/EEE/50008/2019 Project, and in part by the FCT Ph.D. under Grant SFRH/BD/108522/2015.Massive multi-input-multi-output (m-MIMO) schemes require low-complexity implementations at both the transmitter and the receiver side, especially for systems operation at millimeter wave (mmWave) bands. In this paper, we consider the use of offset constellations in m-MIMO systems operating at mmWave frequencies. These signals are designed to have either an almost constant envelope or be decomposed as the sum of constant-envelope signals, making them compatible with strongly nonlinear power amplifiers, which can have low-implementation complexity and high amplification efficient, making them particularly interesting for mmWave communications. We design and evaluate low-complexity frequency-domain receivers for offset signals. It is shown that the proposed receivers can have excellent performance/complexity trade-offs in m-MIMO scenarios, making them particularly interesting for future wireless systems operating at mmWave bands.publishersversionpublishe

Geometric and kinematic analysis of Au particles hosted in arsenopyrite into the shear corridor of Argas-Cerquido-Serra de Arga (Minho)

Na vertente oriental da Serra de Arga, no Minho, ocorrem diversas zonas de cisalhamento polifásico que focaram fluidos hidrotermais responsáveis por mineralizações auríferas. Algumas das zonas de cisalhamento confluem numa estrutura mestra configurando um duplex em flor positiva. As mineralizações ocorrem em ganga quartzosa e compreendem tungstatos e, posteriormente, sulfuretos de As, Fe, Zn, Cu, Pb, Bi, sulfossais de Pb, Bi, Ag, Bi nativo, electrum e ouro nativo. A diversidade paragenética manifesta heterogeneidade ao longo das estruturas cisalhantes apresentando menor diversidade em níveis topográficos inferiores da zona de cisalhamento mestra tornando-se parageneticamente mais complexa a cotas superiores da estrutura em flor. A análise geométrica, sistemática e detalhada das partículas auríferas permitiu definir uma tipologia para os estádios auríferos sucessivos relacionando-os com a receptividade reológica e deformacional do hospedeiro arsenopirítico em diferentes fases da sua evolução e reorganização paragenética.On the eastern slope of the Serra de Arga, Minho, several polyphase shear zones occurs composing a positive duplex flower structure promoting gold hydrothermal mineralizations. The mineralization occurs in quartz gangue and is essentially composed of tungstates and sulphides of As, Fe, Zn, Cu, Pb, Bi, sulfosalts of Pb, Bi, Ag, native Bi, electrum and native gold. The paragenetic diversity manifests heterogeneity along the shear structures presenting less diversity in lower levels of the main shear and becoming more complex at the higher levels of the flower structure. The analysis of the shape, size and geometry of gold particles structure allowed the establishment of a typology of auriferous successive stages related to the rheological behaviour and deformation of arsenopyritesFundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

Hydrothermal tungstates of Serra de Arga, northern Portugal: Relation to Be mineralization

Cristais primários de scheelite e volframite mostram composições similares quando se comparam os índices primordiais atribuídos a pré – concentrações de tungsténio exalativas (SEDEX) e metassomáticas do Domo de Covas com as mineralizações hidrotermais subsequentes alojadas em cisalhamentos. As volframites metassomáticas, de remobilização, e as que estão em interface com minerais hidrotermais de baixa temperatura, apresentam maiores conteúdos de molécula ferberítica. A stolzite é o tungstato estável perante a mineralização de Pb-Bi-Ag que ocorre na nos cisalhamentos tardios. Em paragénese com este tungstato ocorre raspite e uma assinatura berilífera representada por bertrandite e/ou esmeralda (berilo vanadífero). Nos mesmos cisalhamentos, a transição de volframite e scheelite para stolzite, nos episódios deformacionais mais tardios, tem equivalência no fenómeno de diluição aurífera que é atribuído aos fluidos parentais da mineralização de electrum. Assim, em condições hidrotermais de baixa temperatura e em espaços dilatacionais tardios ocorrem, em equivalência paragenética, electrum, ferberite, stolzite-raspite, bertrandite e berilo vanadífero (esmeralda).Primary crystals of scheelite and wolframite have similar compositions when the earlier SEDEX to metassomatic mineralizations of Covas Antiform are compared to the late hydrothermal assemblages hosted in shear zones. Late metassomatic and remobilization related wolframites, as well as those in contact with hydrothermal assemblages of low temperature hold higher contents of ferberitic molecule. Stolzite is the stable tungstate in presence of Pb-Bi-Ag mineralization in late shear environments. In the same paragenesis, raspite, bertrandite and/or emerald (vanadian beryl) may occur. At the same shear domains, the late-stage transition from wolframite and scheelite to stolzite is paragenetically equivalent to the Au dilution phenomenon attributed to electrum-generating fluids. Thus, at a lowtemperature hydrothermal stage and inside late-dilatational spaces, electrum, ferberite, stolzite, bertrandite and emerald do precipitate in the same conditions