Towards a better integration of the sediment biogeochemistry in the modelling of the coastal systems

Ecological models have been signficantly improved during the last decades, leading to more realistic predictions of coastal water processes under different forcing. Even though benthic sediments play an important role in biogeochemical processes occurring in the water column, in the past, very few modelling studies have taken into account these contributions. Recent efforts are being put into the implementation of coupled models, including the biogeochemistry processes occurring at both the upper benthic layer and the water column. This step is important, as along with the river supply, benthic nutrient regeneration can contribute significantly to the phytoplankton growth and the primary production. During the validation process, due to the important number of parameters involving these models, the application of Sensitivity Analysis for selecting the most important model parameters is highly needed. The importance of these processes and tools in the ecological modelling of coastal systems is discussed in this paper.publishe

Climate change impact in the Ria de Aveiro lagoon ecosystem: a case study

Climate change and global sea-level rise are major issues of the 21st century. The main goal of this study is to assess the physical and biogeochemical status of the Ria de Aveiro lagoon (Portugal) under future climate scenarios, using a coupled physical/ eutrophication model. The impact on the lagoon ecosystem status of the mean sea level rise (MSLR), the amplitude rise of the M2 tidal constituent (M2R), the changes in the river discharge, and the rising of the air temperature was investigated. Under MSLR and M2R, the results point to an overall salinity increase and water temperature decrease, revealing ocean water dominance. The main lagoon areas presented salinity values close to those of the ocean waters (~34 PSU), while a high range of salinity was presented for the river and the far end areas (20–34 PSU). The water temperature showed a decrease of approximately 0.5–1.5 C. The responses of the biogeochemical variables reflect the increase of the oceanic inflow (transparent and nutrient-poor water) or the reduction of the river flows (nutrient-rich waters). The results evidenced, under the scenarios, an overall decreasing of the inorganic nitrogen concentration and the carbon phytoplankton concentrations. A warm climate, although increasing the water temperature, does not seem to a ect the lagoon’s main status, at least in the frame of the model used in the study.publishe

Understanding the impact of introducing Lambda expressions in Java Programs

Background: The Java programming language version eight introduced several features that encourage the func­ tional style of programming, including the support for lambda expressions and the Stream API. Currently, there is a common wisdom that refactoring legacy code to introduce lambda expressions, besides other potential benefits, simplifies the code and improves program comprehension. Aims: The purpose of this work is to investigate this belief, conducting an in­depth study to evaluate the effect of introducing lambda expressions on program compre­hension. Method: We conducted this research using a mixed­method approach. For the quantitative method, we quantitatively analyzed 158 pairs of code snippets extracted directly either from GitHub or from recommendations from three tools (RJTL, NetBeans, and IntelliJ). We also surveyed practitioners to collect their perceptions about the benefits on program comprehension when introducing lambda expressions. We asked practitioners to evaluate and rate sets of pairs of code snippets. Results: We found contradictory results in our research. Based on the quantitative assessment, we could not find evidence that the introduction of lambda expressions improves software readability— one of the components of program comprehension. Our results suggest that the transformations recommended by the aforementioned tools decrease program comprehension when assessed by two state­of­the­art models to esti­mate readability. Differently, our findings of the qualitative assessment suggest that the introduction of lambda expression improves program comprehension in three scenarios when: we convert anonymous inner classes to a lambda expression, use structural loops with inner conditional to an anyMatch operator, and apply structural loops to filter operator combined with a collect method. Implications: We argue in this paper that one can improve program comprehension when he/she applies particular transformations to introduce lambda expressions (e.g., re­placing anonymous inner classes with lambda expressions). Also, the opinion of the participants highlights which kind of transformation for introducing lambda might be advantageous. This might support the implementation of effective tools for automatic program transformations

Investigating ozone episodes in Portugal: a wavelet-based approach

During the summer season, ozone concentrations regularly exceed the legislation limits in the North of Portugal, namely at Douro Norte monitoring station. The origin of such ozone episodes has been widely reported in several studies although uncertainties regarding its origin still remain. This work intends to investigate how the ozone concentrations measured at the Douro Norte nearest stations, located at west and east directions, are related to those measured at Douro Norte by means of coherence and phase transformations methods. The episodes were selected according to the magnitude of the hourly ozone peaks and the occurrence of exceedances of the threshold value at least in two sites. The results point out that 60 % of the selected episodes highlight significant dependence between Douro Norte station and the other two monitoring sites, with different phase signal and a delay range from 2 to 4 h.The authors wish to thank the financial support of the Comiss˜ao de Coordenac¸ ˜ao e Desenvolvimento Regional do Norte (CCDR-N). Thanks are extended to the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology for the financial support through the Project MAPLIA (PTDC/AAG-MAA/4077/2012), and the PhD grant of Carla Gama (SFRH/BD/87468/2012) and the Pos-Doc grant of S. Gouveia (SFRH/-BPD/87037/2012), and CIDMA/UA project PEst- OE/MAT/UI4106/2014 (Centro de Investigac¸ ˜ao e Desenvolvimento em Matem´atica e Aplicac¸ ˜oes, CIDMA/UA, Aveiro, www.cidma.mat. ua.pt), and IEETA/UA project PEst-OE/EEI/-UI0127/2014 (Instituto de Engenharia Electr´onica e Telem´atica de Aveiro, IEETA/UA, Aveiro, www.ieeta.pt).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Consumo alimentar e sua relação com o câncer: uma revisão integrativa / Food consumption and its relationship with cancer: an integrative review

Introdução: o câncer é uma doença originada de um crescimento desordenado de células que invadem órgãos e tecidos, podendo espalhar-se para outros órgãos, o que é conhecido como metástase. Ele constitui uma das principais causas de mortalidade no Brasil e, ainda que haja controvérsias, sugere-se que determinados alimentos estão associados com ao câncer, alguns com efeito protetor, outros com efeito promotor da doença. Objetivo: identificar os hábitos alimentares de pacientes oncológicos e verificar sua relação com o câncer. Métodos: Buscou-se publicações nas bases de dados PubMed e LILACS, no período de 2005 a 2020, nos idiomas português, inglês e espanhol, após determinados critérios de seleção. Resultados: a amostra foi composta por 6 (seis) publicações, as quais foram divididas em dois grupos a partir do tipo de câncer estudado. Ambos os grupos tiveram resultados compatíveis, onde apresentaram os efeitos promotores e protetores de determinados alimentos como vegetais, frutas, carnes e laticínios, e os mecanismos que justificariam seus efeitos. Conclusão: os resultados mostraram que existe relação entre os hábitos alimentares e o câncer, assim como os prováveis mecanismos utilizados. Destaca-se a necessidade de orientação da população em relação aos alimentos e seus efeitos no organismo, a fim de prevenir o processo de carcinogênese através de uma dieta que contenha alimentos ricos em fibras, vitaminas e minerais, de forma a promover a saúde. 

Nutritional efficiency of Stylosanthes guianensis cv. Mineirão according to soil correction

The main expectation for using leguminous plants in pastures is improving animal production and reducing production costs. This research was carried out in a greenhouse, in order to evaluate the effect of two soil acidity correctives and P rates on P, Ca, Mg, Si, raw protein (RP), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF), and in vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD) contents of Stylosanthes guianensis cv. Mineirão. A randomized blocks design was used in a 5x2 factorial arrangement, with five P rates (50 mg dm-3, 100 mg dm-3, 200 mg dm-3, 400 mg dm-3, and 800 mg dm-3 of soil) and two soil correctives (lime and Ca and Mg silicate), with three replications. Both lime and silicate applications, previously to the phosphate fertilization, assured P, Mg, Ca, RP, NDF, and ADF contents, in plants of Mineirão, compatible with good performances of grazing animals. The increase in the silicon content in Mineirão, resulting from silicate application, did not reduce the IVDMD. The substitution of lime by Ca and Mg silicate did not affect the nutritional value of the Mineirão subjected to phosphorus rates