The Syrian chaos. The conflict in Syria: consequences for Europe's security and defence

The Arab Spring has increased the chaos in the region by replacing the local and historical dictatorships with a political power vacuum. The struggle between Sunni and Shi’ite factions is being used as a tool of geo-strategic alignments and regional geopolitics, and also a clash within Muslim civilisation. Radical Islamic religious groups have taken advantage of the dispute to create a new political model, probably a new world order. A revolutionary reality, the Islamic State, takes its place in world politics. Europe is now threatened both by cross-border religious terrorism and massive flows of migrants at an extended period of economic stagnation. There is disagreement within the EU as jihadist attacks continue. Europe remains on maximum alert and in some cases in a state of emergency.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The European dilemma: consequences of the new migration on European security and defence

European Union is experiencing its greatest dilemma since setting out on its project. With human rights, democracy and freedom as its political and constitutional identity, EU has been forced to reconsider its strategies in order to defend itself and protect its citizens. Politicians continue to alter the local, regional and communitarian legal system, placing legal barriers – and much more – before non-EU immigrants. This puts the community’s ethos in jeopardy and the fear of the other is changing irreversibly the acquis communautaire, the legal corpus that has taken years to create. The panic and weakness of our political leaders has not reassured the people, nor there has been any evidence of reason or dignity in the search for solutions. The extreme reaction has weakened us all and has also undermined European Union’s political aspirations to be a major global player. The difficulty of assimilating a large number of migrants with strong cultural identities of their own, who share a different religion from the majority of the native population, also presents a challenge to unity. They are accustomed to an anthropological political dialectic of dominated/dominant that is different from the European Union reality. Marginalisation and social exclusion will only increase as a result of the lack of assimilation policies as will xenophobia. Radical political changes will follow these social facts.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Editorial: The impact of stress on cognition and motivation

This work was supported by FEDER funds, through the Competitiveness Factors Operational Programme (COMPETE), and by National funds, through the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), under the scope of the project POCI-01- 0145-FEDER-007038. This article has been developed under the scope of the project NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000013, supported by the Northern Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the Portugal 2020 Partnership Agreement, through the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER), and the BIAL foundation, Porto, Portugal (grant number PT/FB/BL-2016-206)

Erotomania: Bibliographic Review and Case Report

A Erotomania, também conhecida por Síndrome de Clérambault, consiste na convicção delirante de que se é amado por uma pessoa de estatuto superior com quem não se partilha uma relação de proximidade. Constitui um subtipo da perturbação delirante crónica no DSM-IV-TR, com muito baixa incidência e de predomínio no sexo feminino. Pode apresentar-se de modo independente- forma primária, ou associada a quadros psicóticos como Esquizofrenia e Doença Bipolar- forma secundária. O delírio permanece constante e imutável- forma fixa, ou sofre alterações com a mudança do objecto amoroso- forma recorrente. Pretende-se, com este trabalho, rever a informação existente na literatura sobre a Erotomania e apresentar um caso clínico ilustrativo da doença. Não tendo sido relatado na literatura nenhum caso de Erotomania primária, forma fixa do delírio, com a totalidade dos critérios de diagnóstico de Ellis & Mellsop para a forma pura da doença, as autoras consideraram pertinente o seu contributo.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Temperature dependence of the first order Raman scattering in thin films of mc-Si:H

The temperature effect on microcrystalline silicon (mc-Si:H) films produced by R.F. magnetron sputtering has been studied by Raman spectroscopy. The thermal behaviour of mc-Si:H films and crystalline silicon is compared and interpreted on the basis of anharmonic effects. We have studied the first order Raman spectra of our films for several Ar+ laser powers. Our results show a blue shift and a broadening of the Raman spectra with increasing the laser power. This effect is not due to structural changes since it is reproducible. The sample temperature has been calculated according to the well known relation between Stokes and anti-Stokes components. Our results show that the temperature effect is stronger in mc-Si:H than in crystalline silicon. This difference can be attributed to the size of the microcrystals, which are imbedded in a amorphous matrix surrounded by a third phase called grain boundary

Structural studies and influence of the structure on the electrical and optical properties of microcrystalline silicon thin films produced by RF sputtering

Microcrystalline silicon thin films were produced by reactive magnetron sputtering on glass substrates under several different conditions (RF power and gas mixture composition). The film structure was studied by X-ray diffractometry (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Raman spectroscopy, allowing the determination of crystal sizes, crystallinity and mechanical strain. These parameters were evaluated by fitting a pseudo-Voigt function to the X-ray data, and by the application of the strong phonon confinement model to the Raman spectra. The degree of crystallinity and the presence of single crystals or crystal agglomerates, which was confirmed by TEM, depends on the preparation conditions, and strongly affects the optical spectra and the electrical transport properties.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - PRAXIS XX

Simuliidae da Amazônia IVl) Descriçao de Simulium fulvinotum sp. n. (Diptera Nematocera)

The authors present a description of the male and, female, and of both pupa and larva of Simulium fulvinotum sp. n. of material bred in laboratory and collected from Igarapé do Tarumã and from Igarapé do Gigante, at Ponta Negra, in the vicinity of Manaus, as allied to the larva and pupa of Simulium amazonicum GOELDI, 1905 and Simulium goeldi Cerqueira and Nunes De Melco, 196

Piezoresistor sensor fabrication by direct laser writing on hydrogenated amorphous silicon

In this paper we report on the 532 nm Nd:YAG laser-induced crystallization of 10 nm thick boron-doped hydrogenated amorphous silicon thin films deposited on flexible polyimide and on rigid oxidized silicon wafers by hot-wire chemical vapor deposition. The dark conductivity increased from ~10-7 -1cm-1, in the as-deposited films, to ~10 and 50 -1cm-1 after laser irradiation, on rigid and flexible substrates, respectively. Depending on type of substrate, laser power and fluence, a Raman crystalline fraction between 55 and 90% was measured in HWCVD films, which was higher than observed in rf-PECVD films (35 - 55%). Crystallite size remained small in all cases, in the range 6-8 nm. Due to a very high conductivity contrast (>7 orders of magnitude) between amorphous and crystallized regions, it was possible to define conductive paths in the a-Si:H matrix, by mounting the sample on a X-Y software-controlled movable stage under the laser beam, with no need for the usual lithography steps. The resistors scribed by direct laser writing had piezoresistive properties, with positive gauge factor ~1. The details of the laser interaction process with the Si film were revealed by scanning electron microscopy imaging.(undefined