373 research outputs found
Decennial comparison of changes in social vulnerability: a municipal analysis in support of risk management
The concept of Social Vulnerability (SV) is characterized and distinguished by its complexity and multidisciplinarity. This concept takes into account the specific characteristics of the individual and his social and economic relations, as well as the physical environment where he is inserted. These differentiating characteristics make Social Vulnerability (SV) an indispensable work tool in the process of characterizing and understanding the degree of exposure of communities, as well as evaluating their capacity for resilience and recovery from hazardous events.
This paper presents a comparison between the SV performed in 2008 with the results obtained in 2017 for the 278 municipalities of mainland Portugal. The methodology was based on the work developed by the Center for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra, which is distinguished by the fact that SV is composed of two components: Criticity and Support Capability. The analysis of SV and its components was done using Principal Components Analysis (PCA) starting from an initial set of 235 variables (90 for Criticality and 145 for Support Capability).
With respect to Criticality, the results point out the importance of factors related to the economic condition, employment and factors related to the disadvantaged population and risk groups. Support Capability is strongly influenced by the population density and the most relevant factors for the final results are those related to civil protection response, economic and environmental dynamism and logistic and service capacity. Regarding the SV spatial distribution, the highest values are located mainly in the central and northern parts of the country, with emphasis on the Douro river valley and surrounding municipalities; also a general decrease of SV was recorded in the southern regions from 2008 to 2017.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Complexification of Gauge Theories
For the case of a first-class constrained system with an equivariant momentum
map, we study the conditions under which the double process of reducing to the
constraint surface and dividing out by the group of gauge transformations
is equivalent to the single process of dividing out the initial phase space by
the complexification of . For the particular case of a phase space
action that is the lift of a configuration space action, conditions are found
under which, in finite dimensions, the physical phase space of a gauge system
with first-class constraints is diffeomorphic to a manifold imbedded in the
physical configuration space of the complexified gauge system. Similar
conditions are shown to hold in the infinite-dimensional example of Yang-Mills
theories. As a physical application we discuss the adequateness of using
holomorphic Wilson loop variables as (generalized) global coordinates on the
physical phase space of Yang-Mills theory.Comment: 25pp., LaTeX, Syracuse SU-GP-93/6-2, Lisbon DF/IST 6.9
Structure formation in binary colloids
A theoretical study of the structure formation observed very recently [Phys.
Rev. Lett. 90, 128303 (2003)] in binary colloids is presented. In our model
solely the dipole-dipole interaction of the particles is considered,
electrohidrodynamic effects are excluded. Based on molecular dynamics
simulations and analytic calculations we show that the total concentration of
the particles, the relative concentration and the relative dipole moment of the
components determine the structure of the colloid. At low concentrations the
kinetic aggregation of particles results in fractal structures which show a
crossover behavior when increasing the concentration. At high concentration
various lattice structures are obtained in a good agreement with experiments.Comment: revtex, 4 pages, figures available from authors due to size problem
Intrasubband and Intersubband Electron Relaxation in Semiconductor Quantum Wire Structures
We calculate the intersubband and intrasubband many-body inelastic Coulomb
scattering rates due to electron-electron interaction in two-subband
semiconductor quantum wire structures. We analyze our relaxation rates in terms
of contributions from inter- and intrasubband charge-density excitations
separately. We show that the intersubband (intrasubband) charge-density
excitations are primarily responsible for intersubband (intrasubband) inelastic
scattering. We identify the contributions to the inelastic scattering rate
coming from the emission of the single-particle and the collective excitations
individually. We obtain the lifetime of hot electrons injected in each subband
as a function of the total charge density in the wire.Comment: Submitted to PRB. 20 pages, Latex file, and 7 postscript files with
Figure
Contaminação de água subterrânea por substâncias de limpeza da neve em estradas: o caso do sector de Nave de Santo António – Covão do Curral (Serra da Estrela, Centro de Portugal)
Num momento em que a gestão sustentável dos recursos hídricos se assume como uma das maiores preocupações à escala mundial, as regiões de montanha têm vindo a ser reconhecidas como Reservatórios de Água (PROGRAMA UNESCO IHP-VI). O facto de muitas destas áreas se localizarem a altitudes elevadas e serem recortadas por rodovias obriga a frequentes operações de limpeza de neve, especialmente no inverno. A aplicação de substâncias químicas como cloreto de sódio e cloreto de cálcio na promoção da fusão do gelo e na limpeza da neve das estradas constitui um problema ambiental de elevado interesse científico, social e económico. Devido às suas características geológicas, geomorfológicas e climáticas, a Serra da Estrela é considerada estratégica para a gestão da água em Portugal. No presente trabalho apresentam-se alguns resultados hidrogeoquímicos que indicam que a utilização dos referidos sais na limpeza do gelo e da neve das rodovias contribui para a contaminação dos recursos hídricos
Clustering transitions in vibro-fluidized magnetized granular materials
We study the effects of long range interactions on the phases observed in
cohesive granular materials. At high vibration amplitudes, a gas of magnetized
particles is observed with velocity distributions similar to non-magnetized
particles. Below a transition temperature compact clusters are observed to form
and coexist with single particles. The cluster growth rate is consistent with a
classical nucleation process. However, the temperature of the particles in the
clusters is significantly lower than the surrounding gas, indicating a
breakdown of equipartition. If the system is quenched to low temperatures, a
meta-stable network of connected chains self-assemble due to the anisotropic
nature of magnetic interactions between particles.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
Rare decay Z --> neutrino antineutrino photon photon via quartic gauge boson couplings
We present a detailed calculation of the rare decay Z --> neutrino
antineutrino photon photon via the quartic neutral gauge boson coupling
Z-Z-photon-photon in the framework of the effective Lagrangian approach. The
current experimental bound on this decay mode is then used to constrain the
coefficients of this coupling. It is found that the bounds obtained in this
way, of the order of , are weaker than the ones obtained from the
analysis of triple-boson production at LEP-2Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, to appear in Physical Review D Brief Report
Population overlap and habitat segregation in wintering Black-tailed Godwits Limosa limosa
Distinct breeding populations of migratory species may overlap both spatially and temporally, but differ in patterns of habitat use. This has important implications for population monitoring and conservation. To quantify the extent to which two distinct breeding populations of a migratory shorebird, the Black-tailed Godwit Limosa limosa, overlap spatially, temporally and in their use of different habitats during winter. We use mid-winter counts between 1990 and 2001 to identify the most important sites in Iberia for Black-tailed Godwits. Monthly surveys of estuarine mudflats and rice-fields at one major site, the Tejo estuary in Portugal in 2005-2007, together with detailed tracking of colour-ringed individuals, are used to explore patterns of habitat use and segregation of the Icelandic subspecies L. l. islandica and the nominate continental subspecies L. l. limosa. In the period 1990-2001, over 66 000 Black-tailed Godwits were counted on average in Iberia during mid-winter (January), of which 80% occurred at just four sites: Tejo and Sado lower basins in Portugal, and Coto Dontildeana and Ebro Delta in Spain. Icelandic Black-tailed Godwits are present throughout the winter and forage primarily in estuarine habitats. Continental Black-tailed Godwits are present from December to March and primarily use rice-fields. Iberia supports about 30% of the Icelandic population in winter and most of the continental population during spring passage. While the Icelandic population is currently increasing, the continental population is declining rapidly. Although the estuarine habitats used by Icelandic godwits are largely protected as Natura 2000 sites, the habitat segregation means that conservation actions for the decreasing numbers of continental godwits should focus on protection of rice-fields and re-establishment of freshwater wetlands
Description of the nucleolar activity and karyotype in germinative cell lines of Rhodnius domesticus
A molecular dynamics study on the equilibrium magnetization properties and structure of ferrofluids
We investigate in detail the initial susceptibility, magnetization curves,
and microstructure of ferrofluids in various concentration and particle dipole
moment ranges by means of molecular dynamics simulations. We use the Ewald
summation for the long-range dipolar interactions, take explicitly into account
the translational and rotational degrees of freedom, coupled to a Langevin
thermostat. When the dipolar interaction energy is comparable with the thermal
energy, the simulation results on the magnetization properties agree with the
theoretical predictions very well. For stronger dipolar couplings, however, we
find systematic deviations from the theoretical curves. We analyze in detail
the observed microstructure of the fluids under different conditions. The
formation of clusters is found to enhance the magnetization at weak fields and
thus leads to a larger initial susceptibility. The influence of the particle
aggregation is isolated by studying ferro-solids, which consist of magnetic
dipoles frozen in at random locations but which are free to rotate. Due to the
artificial suppression of clusters in ferro-solids the observed susceptibility
is considerably lowered when compared to ferrofluids.Comment: 33 pages including 12 figures, requires RevTex
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