The role of firms in the Portuguese gender wage gap

This paper follows the methodology proposed by Card et al. (2016) in order to investigate the role of firms in the Portuguese gender wage gap. It was found that firm components account, on average, for 9.8% of the gender pay gap and that its relevance increases for older and less educated workers. The sorting channel is the main driver of these components and the bargaining effect was proven to be sensitive to the normalization strategy. Additionally, it was found that, on average, women are 1.6 percentage points less likely to move to higher-paying firms than their male counterparts

Evaluation of the accumulation and toxicity of pharmaceuticals in lettuce plants

Doutoramento em Engenharia do Ambiente / Instituto Superior de Agronomia. Universidade de LisboaPharmaceutical products (considered emerging contaminants) are a growing source of environmental contaminants, mainly due to their high daily use by the population. The main objective of this work was to study the absorption of pharmaceuticals and their main effects on lettuce metabolism. The experimental tests were carried out in hydroponic culture, contaminating lettuce plants with three selected pharmaceuticals, carbamazepine (CBZ), metformin (MTF) and acetaminophen (ACT). Three concentrations (0.1, 1 and 5 mg L-1), of each pharmaceutical were tested as well as three different time points (1, 8 and 15 days). CBZ and ACT uptake was measured in roots and leaves, and it was possible to observe that both pharmaceuticals were absorbed by roots and translocated to the leaves. MTF quantification was not carried out, yet the effects resulting from its presence in growth medium were analysed. Plants subjected to the highest concentrations of CBZ (5 mg L-1) showed visible symptoms of toxicity, such as a reduction in leaf and root biomass, as well as a decrease in root length. The main results point to different responses according to the pharmaceutical applied. The three contaminants showed to increase the concentrations of stress indicators (hydrogen peroxide and malondialdehyde). Consequently, the enzymes involved in the detoxification of reactive oxygen species showed different patterns over time and according to the applied concentration. The ability to tolerate different concentrations of CBZ, ACT and MTF reflects the global antioxidant response of lettuce. In general, these mechanisms showed to be more effective in contaminations with ACT and MTF than with CBZ. Proteomic analysis allowed a detailed study of different proteins involved in detoxification processes and cellular regulation processes. CBZ proved to be the contaminant that most influenced proteins abundance in roots, comparing to control, while in the leaves, this trend was observed in contamination with ACTN/

Evolution of Ecosystem Services in an urbanizing catchment

Resumo A sociedade depende dos serviços que os ecossistemas fornecem, cujo valor é baseado nos efeitos que cada serviço tem no nível de bem-estar da sociedade. Devido às mudanças e substituições dos sistemas naturais, a urbanização tende a diminuir a capacidade de fornecer serviços do ecossistema. Em busca de uma sociedade mais eficiente, resiliente e sustentável, esta dissertação pretende estudar os serviços ambientais prestados pelos ecossistemas de acordo com a evolução do uso do solo entre 1958-2012, e com um maior nível de detalhe nos dias de hoje, numa bacia hidrográfica periurbana mediterrânea: Ribeira dos Covões. Este estudo foi feito através da quantificação dos serviços do ecossistema utilizando uma matriz, e do seu mapeamento usando SIG (Sistemas de Informação Geográfica) para análise e tratamento de dados. Com esta dissertação, concluiu-se que as variações no uso do solo são um processo relevante na mudança do fornecimento de serviços do ecossistema, e podem influenciar este fornecimento de forma negativa. O potencial fornecimento de serviços dos ecossistemas na área de estudo tem vindo a decrescer, mas não muito. Sendo uma área ainda não completamente urbanizada, este trabalho ajuda a pensar qual a melhor forma de desenvolver e organizar a área de estudo de uma forma sustentável, de modo a preservar os ecossistemas e os serviços por eles prestados. Palavras-chave: Serviços dos Ecossistemas. Bem-estar. Evolução. Quantificação. Mapeamento. Uso do Solo. Abstract Society depends on the services that ecosystems provide to it, whose value is based on the effects that each service has on the level of society well-being. Due to the changes and substitutions of natural systems, urbanization tends to decrease the capacity to provide Ecosystem Services. In pursuit of a more efficient, resilient and sustainable society, this dissertation intends to study the environmental services provided by ecosystems in accordance with the evolution of land use between 1958-2012, with a greater level of detail nowadays, in a Mediterranean peri-urban catchment: Ribeira dos Covões Catchment. This study was made through the quantification of Ecosystem Services using a matrix, and its mapping using GIS (Geographic Information Systems) for data analysis and treatment. With this dissertation, it was concluded that variations in land use are a relevant process in the change of Ecosystem Services supply, and they can influence this supply negatively. The potential supply of Ecosystem Services in the study area has been declining, but not much. Being an area not completely urbanized, this work helps to think about which the best way to develop and manage the study area, in a sustainable way, in order to preserve the ecosystems and the services they provide. Keywords: Ecosystem Services. Well-being. Evolution. Quantification. Mapping. Land Use

Comparison between a traditional (horse manure) and a non-conventional (cork powder) organic residue in the uptake of potentially toxic elements by lettuce in contaminated soils

The use of natural organic correctives is a current agricultural practice that may have advantages for the production of plants in contaminated soils. Cork powder is a natural sub-product of the cork industry that has several potential benefits compared to more commonly used soil amendments. In this work, an evaluation was performed of the use of cork powder (a non-conventional organic residue) and horsemanure (traditionally used in agriculture) to control the availability of potentially toxic elements in artificially contaminated soils. Four concentrations were used for each element: Cr (100 to 800 mg kg-1), Ni (37.5 to 300mg kg-1), Zn (150 to 1200mg kg-1), Cd (1.5 to 12mg kg-1) and Pb (150 to 1200mg kg-1). The accumulation of these elements in lettuce plants grown in pots under controlled conditions was evaluated. With the exception of Cd, no significant differences were detected in the absorption of the different elements by lettuce plants at the studied amounts of correctives applied (1% for cork powder and 0.5% for horse manure). Cadmium was the element that accumulated most in lettuce. Cork powder was shown to be less effective than horse manure in controlling the bioavailability of these elements in the soil. Further tests with chemically modified cork products could improve its efficiencyinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Remote Sensing for Land Use / Land Cover Mapping in Almada

Monitoring land use and land cover is an extremely important task which, if properly carried out, can assist in decision making about urban and territorial planning, thus pro- viding an improvement in the citizens’ quality of life. In Portugal, and more specifically in the Almada municipality , the main tool used in this task is Carta de Ocupação de Solo (COS), a map which represents 83 classes of land use and land cover. Despite its useful- ness, COS has certain limitations, such as low spatial resolution, due to the minimum mapping unit of 1 hectare, and low temporal resolution, as it is developed through the analysis of orthophotos and released every 3 to 5 years. These constraints lead to a map which is not adequate to continuously track land-use and land-cover changes, especially with the increasingly fast pace of urbanization. This research work investigated the application of machine learning classification algorithms with Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 imagery, and derived products, to LULC map- ping in Almada. As such, maps were developed for 2018 using the two most common approaches to LULC classification: pixel-based (PBIA) and object-based (OBIA). Multiple combinations of satellite data and derived products, as well as two classifiers were tested for each approach. A comparison of two methods of collecting ground truth data, manual and semi-automatic, was also produced. The best results were obtained in the PBIA approach, using the manually collected ground truth and the Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) classifier with the combina- tion of Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 imagery and textural features obtained through Sentinel- 2 data. The classification model obtained a kappa score of 0.994, and produced an ac- curate LULC map, which has some limitations in separating Agriculture and Other Vegetation, but is able to identify with great precision Artificial Territories, Forests and Bare and sparsely vegetated areas.A monitorização da utilização e ocupação do solo (LULC) é uma tarefa de extrema im- portância que, sendo adequadamente realizada, pode auxiliar na tomada de decisões de ordenamento do território, providenciando assim uma melhoria na qualidade de vida dos cidadãos. Em Portugal, e mais especificamente no concelho de Almada, a principal ferramenta utilizada nesta tarefa é a Carta de Uso e Ocupação do Solo (COS), um mapa que divide o solo em 83 classes. Embora notavelmente útil, a COS possui determinadas limitações, entre as quais baixa resolução espacial, devido á unidade mínima cartográfica de 1 hectare, e baixa resolução espacial, sendo desenvolvida através da análise de ortofo- tos e disponibilizada a cada 3 a 5 anos. Estas limitações levam a que este mapa não seja adequado para a monitorização contínua de alterações ao nível da utilização e ocupação do solo, especialmente com o ritmo cada vez mais acelerado do crescimento urbano. Este trabalho de investigação estudou a aplicação de algoritmos de classificação de machine learning com imagens de Sentinel-1 e Sentinel-2 e produtos derivados, para a cartografia de uso e ocupação de solo em Almada. Assim, foram desenvolvidos mapas para o ano 2018 explorando duas metodologias frequentemente utilizadas em problemas de classificação de uso e ocupação do solo: baseada em píxeis (PBIA) e baseada em objetos (OBIA). Para cada abordagem foram testadas várias combinações de imagens de satélite e produtos derivados, assim como dois classificadores automáticos. Foi também produzida uma comparação entre dois tipos de ground truth: obtida manualmente, e de uma forma semi-automática. Os melhores resultados foram obtidos na abordagem baseada em pixeis, utilizando a ground truth manual e o classificador Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) com a combinação de imagens de Sentinel-1, Sentinel-2 e atributos de textura calculados através de imagens de Sentinel-2. Este modelo de classificação obteve um coeficiente kappa de 0.994 e produziu um mapa de uso e ocupação do solo com boa precisão e que, embora tenha algumas limitações ao nível de separação das classes 2. Agricultura e 3. Outra vegetação, identifica com exatidão as classes Territórios Artificializados, Florestas e Espaços descobertos ou com pouca vegetação

Palladium(II) and platinum(II) bis(thiosemicarbazone) complexes of the 2,6-diacetylpyridine series with high cytotoxic activity in cisplatin resistant A2780cisR tumor cells and reduced toxicity

NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in JOURNAL OF INORGANIC BIOCHEMISTRY 125 (2013): 26-31 DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jinorgbio.2013.04.005Preparation and characterization of four novel 2,6-diacetylpyridine bis(4N-tolylthiosemicarbazonato) palladium(II) and platinum(II) complexes, [PdL1-2] and [PtL1-2], are described. All compounds have been characterized by elemental analysis and by IR and NMR spectroscopy, and the crystal and molecular structures of complexes [PdL 2] and [PtL2] have been determined by a single crystal X-ray diffraction. The ligands act as dianionic tetradentate donors coordinating to the metal center in a square planar geometry through the N pyridinic atom and the Niminic and the S atoms from one thiosemicarbazone arm, the fourth coordination position is occupied by the Nhydrazinic of the other arm. The new compounds synthesized have been evaluated for antiproliferative activity in vitro against NCI-H460, HepG2, MCF-7, A2780 and A2780cisR human cancer cell lines. The cytotoxicity data suggest that [PdL1], [PdL2] and [PtL2] may be endowed with important antitumor properties since they are capable of not only circumventing cisplatin resistance in A2780cisR cells but also exhibiting high antiproliferative activity in breast cancer MCF-7 cells. Subsequent toxicity study, in LLC-PK1 cells, has also been carried out and shows that none of these compounds are in vitro toxic in the tested concentration rangeWe are grateful to Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Instituto de Salud Carlos III of Spain (PI080525 and PI1100659) for financial suppor

Implicações diagnósticas e prognósticas da positividade do HIF1-alfa nos colangiócitos de doentes com atresia biliar

A atresia biliar é uma doença que se inicia exclusivamente no período neonatal e é a causa mais frequente de colestase neonatal. Consiste numa obstrução parcial ou total das vias biliares extra-hepáticas com posterior destruição progressiva dos ramos biliares intrahepáticos, constituindo uma colangiopatia crónica. Verifica-se uma rápida progressão da fibrose, que se associa à necessidade de transplante hepático nestes doentes. O tratamento é cirúrgico, em que numa primeira abordagem é realizada uma portoenterostomia de Kasai, procedimento que visa restabelecer a drenagem biliar para o intestino. Apesar de alguns doentes terem uma boa resposta à cirurgia de Kasai, a grande maioria acaba por desenvolver complicações como malnutrição e hipertensão portal, sendo o transplante hepático já a única opção terapêutica nesta fase. A etiologia da atresia biliar não é completamente conhecida e a existência de variadas formas clínicas sugere uma multiplicidade de fatores causais. A atresia biliar associada à malformação esplénica (BASM), a forma cística, a forma associada à presença de IgM positiva para citomegalovírus no sangue e a forma isolada são as entidades clínicas descritas, sendo a atresia biliar isolada a mais frequente (70-80% dos casos). Anormalidades imunológicas, ambientais e genéticas foram reconhecidas como agentes envolvidos. Para além destes fatores, tem sido estudada uma associação entre atresia biliar e uma possível colangiopatia isquémica. Anormalidades vasculares e a variação na disponibilidade de oxigénio nas células podem causar uma disfunção da via metabólica antioxidante, levando a um aumento de espécies reativas de oxigénio, que foram também relatadas em doentes com atresia biliar e associadas à sua patogenia. Uma sobre expressão de fatores induzidos por hipoxia em doentes com atresia biliar isolada foi também reportada. Com esta dissertação pretende-se fazer uma revisão narrativa de literatura atualizada, através de uma pesquisa por palavras-chave no motor de busca PubMed, com discussão focada no papel da hipoxia na fisiopatologia da atresia biliar e a importância que a positividade do fator induzido por hipoxia 1-alfa (HIF1-a) poderá ter em questões de diagnóstico e prognóstico.Biliary atresia is a disease that initiates exclusively in the neonatal period and it’s the most frequent cause of neonatal cholestasis. It consists of a partial or total obstruction of the extrahepatic bile ducts, with subsequent progressive destruction of the intrahepatic bile branches, constituting a chronic cholangiopathy. There’s a rapid progression of fibrosis that is associated with the need for liver transplantation in these patients. Treatment is surgical. Initially, a Kasai portoenterostomy is performed, a procedure that aims to restore biliary drainage to the intestine. Although some patients have a good response to the Kasai surgery, almost all of them end up developing complications such as malnutrition and portal hypertension, and liver transplantation is the only therapeutic option at this stage. The etiology of biliary atresia is not completely known and the existence of several clinical forms suggests a multiplicity of causes. Biliary atresia associated with splenic malformation (BASM), the cystic form, the form associated with the presence of positive IgM for cytomegalovirus in the blood, and the isolated form are clinical entities described, with isolated biliary atresia being the most frequent (70-80% of cases). Immunological, environmental and genetic abnormalities were characterized as agents involved. In addition to these factors, an association between biliary atresia and a possible ischemic cholangiopathy has been studied. Vascular abnormalities and variation in oxygen availability in cells can cause dysfunction of the antioxidant metabolic pathway, leading to an increase in reactive oxygen species, which have also been reported in patients with biliary atresia and associated with its pathogenesis. An overexpression of hypoxia-induced factors in patients with isolated biliary atresia has also been reported. With this thesis we intend to make a narrative review of updated literature, through a search for keywords in the PubMed search engine, discussion focused on the role of hypoxia in the pathophysiology of biliary atresia and the importance that hypoxiainduced factor 1 – alpha positivity may have on diagnostic and prognostic issues

Os diferentes tipos de avaliação: avaliação formativa e avaliação sumativa

A avaliação é uma ferramenta do sistema escolar. Divide-­‐se em três grandes categorias: prognóstica, formativa e sumativa. Em estágio, o trabalho desenvolvido focou-­‐se na necessidade de avaliação formativa e no significado e influência da avaliação sumativa. A avaliação escolar define o percurso dos alunos em diferentes momentos e condiciona a forma de alunos e professores compreenderem o que é educação

Editora Moraes. Percurso entre 1958-1974

Trabalho de Projecto apresentado para cumprimento dos requisitos necessários à obtenção do grau de Mestre em Ediçao de TextoUma editora insere-­‐se no seu tempo histórico. A editora Moraes foi fundada por um grupo de católicos socialmente empenhados. Neste trabalho de projecto apresentam-­‐se os objectivos do grupo, seja através de testemunhos deixados por vários dos seus membros, seja através do catálogo da editora. Procura-­‐se reflectir sobre a evolução do grupo e das suas edições, apontando pistas para uma investigação ulterior

Exposição e acumulação de elementos potencialmente tóxicos em plantas de colza Brassica napus L.

Mestrado em Engenharia do Ambiente - Instituto Superior de AgronomiaThe main objective of this work was to evaluate the effects and the response to stress induced by potentially toxic elements, arsenic, cadmium and copper by salinity in rapeseed plants, aiming to realize the potential of rapeseed in phytoremediation. The physiological parameters like biomass and the percentage of dry matter of stems and leaves were evaluated. It was also evaluated the chlorophyll content by Hansatech method. Changes in biomass were more evident in terms of As and NaCl contamination. The chlorophyll content of plants exposed to Cu and Cd proved to be very low, a result that was revealed through plants with obvious signs of necrosis and chlorosis. The concentrations of MDA and H2O2 revealed a heterogeneous behavior, especially with the higher concentration of MDA rape plants with Cu and NaCl and the highest concentration of H2O2 in the NaCl experiment. The mineral content of the plant was different in the various experiments, particularly the absorption of iron was affected by the presence of the PTE. The concentrations of PTE and NaCl were determined at the level of substrate, stems, leaves and seeds