Soil erosion changes in Portugal between 1990 and 2018

Project Work presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Geographic Information Systems and ScienceSoils provide important regulating ecosystem services and have crucial implications for human well-being and environmental conservation. However, soil degradation and particularly soil erosion jeopardize the maintenance and existence of these services. This study explores the spatio-temporal relationships of soil erosion to understand the distribution patterns of sediment retention services in mainland Portugal. Based on Corine Land Cover maps from 1990 to 2018, the InVEST Sediment Delivery Ratio (SDR) model was used to evaluate the influence of sediment dynamics for soil and water conservation. Spatial differences in the sediment retention levels were observed within the NUTS III boundaries, showing which areas are more vulnerable to soil erosion processes. Results indicated that the Region of Leiria, Douro and the coastal regions have decreased importantly sediment retention capacity over the years. However, in most of the territory (77.52%) changes in sediment retention were little or not important (i.e. less than 5%). The statistical validation of the model proved the consistency of the results, highlighting the usefulness of this methodology to analyse the state of soil erosion in the country. These findings can be relevant to support strategies for more efficient land use planning regarding soil erosion mitigation practices.Os solos fornecem serviços de ecossistemas reguladores e têm implicações cruciais para o bem-estar humano e conservação do ambiente. No entanto, a degradação dos solos, particularmente a erosão do solo, coloca em risco a manutenção e a existência destes serviços. Este estudo pretende analisar a distribuição espaciotemporal da erosão do solo, compreendendo os padrões espaciais da retenção de sedimentos em Portugal continental. Suportado pela utilização dos mapas Corine Land Cover de 1990 a 2018, o modelo Sediment Delivery Ratio (SDR) do InVEST foi utilizado para avaliar a influencia das dinâmicas dos sedimentos para a conservação dos solos e água. Variações espaciais dos níveis de retenção de sedimentos dentro dos limites dos NUTS III foram observados, mostrando quais as áreas mais suscetíveis aos processos de erosão do solo. Os resultados indicam ainda, que na Região de Leiria, Douro e nas regiões costeiras a capacidade de retenção de sedimentos decresceu significativamente no decorrer dos anos. No entanto, na maioria do território (77,52%) as mudanças em retenção de sedimentos foram pouco ou nada importantes (isto é, menos de 5%). A validação estatística do modelo comprova a consistência dos resultados, destacando a utilidade desta metodologia para a análise do estado da erosão do solo no país. Estas descobertas podem ser relevantes para apoiar estratégias para um ordenamento de território mais eficiente, relativamente às práticas de mitigação da erosão do solo

Strategic information management as a tool against fake news:The case of FamilySearch

The Religious Institution “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” (LDS) is the foundation of FamilySearch. Offers a genealogy service and is linked to the church's Family History Department. FamilySearch is an entity that, because of the reliability of the information it provides, presents itself as a reliable source against false news published against people or institutions.N/

Contabilidade de gestão: apuramento do custo de produção vinícola, na empresa Quinta da Vacaria 1616 – Vinhos, SA.

Para que o setor do vinho assegure a sua sustentabilidade a médio e longo prazo, é necessário assegurar a relação qualidade/preço e para isso, é necessária uma constante análise à evolução do mercado, às preferências dos consumidores, mas também o controlo e gestão dos custos que irão ter, com todo o processo de produção e venda. É aqui que a Contabilidade de Gestão, assume um papel fundamental enquanto sistema de informação e gestão de recursos. Neste estudo será analisado mais propriamente o Vinho do Porto. Este vinho faz parte da história de Portugal e é um património cultural coletivo de trabalho e experiências, saberes e arte, que passam de geração em geração. O Vinho do Porto foi e é um produto chave da economia nacional sendo também um valor simbólico que distintamente representa a portugalidade no mundo (Instituto dos Vinhos do Porto). O objetivo desta dissertação foi propor à empresa um sistema de custeio baseado nas atividades, para quando tiver as instalações preparadas para proceder a todo o processo de produção de Vinho do Porto, possa tanto a valorizar a produção, como o custo da uva como objeto final e posteriormente o custo do vinho do porto já engarrafado. Com esta proposta pretende-se melhorar o sistema contabilístico da empresa atualmente. Deste modo procedeu-se a análise e repartição dos gastos anuais e procedeu-se ao apuramento do custo unitário das atividades e dos produtos, bem como a análise dos resultados obtidos.In order to the wine sector to warrant its sustainability in the medium and long term, it’s necessary to ensure the quality/price ratio and, for this, it’s necessary to analyze the evolution of the market, consumer preferences, and also control and management of costs that they will have, with the entire process of production and sale to the market. It is here that Management Accounting takes on an essential role as an information and resource management system. In this project, Porto Wine will be analyzed more specifically, that it is part of the history of Portugal, a cultural heritage of work and experiences, knowledge and art, which pass from generation to generation. Porto Wine was and is a key product of the national economy and even more a symbolic value that distinctly represents Portugal in the world (Porto Wine Institute). The main goal of this dissertation was to propose to the company a costing system based on activities, when for it has the facilities prepared to proceed with the entire process of Porto Wine’s production. With that, it has pretended to rectify the faults that may exist in the company's accounting system today. In this way, the analysis and division of annual expenses were carried out, the unitary cost of activities and products was calculated, as well as the analysis of the results obtained

Learning from the historic city: architectural heritage rehabilitation and GIS, the URS-Viseu novo (Portugal) legacy

All cities share a similar challenge: "How to rehabilitate the historic centre without denigrating its identity and at the same time encourage private investment in built cultural heritage in order to avoid its degradation?" The historic centres are the oldest and most central areas of the cities, defining their identity, but have fallen into economic, social and residential decay, in part by the abandonment and aging of their most outstanding buildings. The presented paper intends to study the projects promoted by the Portuguese Municipality of Viseu, namely through the Urban Rehabilitation Society Viseu Novo, in short URS Viseu Novo. This revitalization strategy of the Historic Centre of Viseu aims to identify the buildings’ most relevant problems, the rehabilitation’s proposed objectives and the feasible solutions to renovate them promoting youth housing, cultural events and others. A contextualization analysis of the URS's work in the historic area of Viseu is presented through the inventory of its interventions using Geographic Information Systems (GIS). GIS spatial analyses, syntheses and conclusions can be used for the presentation of rehabilitation solutions duly framed in the goals and environment intended for these noble areas. As a result of this work, and starting from this principle, another research is being developed and serves as theme for the Integrated Master in Architecture Dissertations, highlighting the relevance and pertinence of this theme.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The role of network science in glioblastoma

Network science has long been recognized as a well-established discipline across many biological domains. In the particular case of cancer genomics, network discovery is challenged by the multitude of available high-dimensional heterogeneous views of data. Glioblastoma (GBM) is an example of such a complex and heterogeneous disease that can be tackled by network science. Identifying the architecture of molecular GBM networks is essential to understanding the information flow and better informing drug development and pre-clinical studies. Here, we review network-based strategies that have been used in the study of GBM, along with the available software implementations for reproducibility and further testing on newly coming datasets. Promising results have been obtained from both bulk and single-cell GBM data, placing network discovery at the forefront of developing a molecularly-informed-based personalized medicine.This work was partially supported by national funds through Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) with references CEECINST/00102/2018, CEECIND/00072/2018 and PD/BDE/143154/2019, UIDB/04516/2020, UIDB/00297/2020, UIDB/50021/2020, UIDB/50022/2020, UIDB/50026/2020, UIDP/50026/2020, NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000013, and NORTE-01-0145-FEDER000023 and projects PTDC/CCI-BIO/4180/2020 and DSAIPA/DS/0026/2019. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under Grant Agreement No. 951970 (OLISSIPO project)

Biodiversity and health: investing in biodiversity protection towards health gains

FCT_UIDB/05608/2020. FCT_UIDP/05608/2020.Biodiversity is declining faster than at any time in human history and the direct drivers of change in nature with the largest global impact are related to human activities: land and sea use changes; direct exploitation of organisms; climate change; pollution; and invasion of alien species. The One Health approach, and other holistic approaches, integrate human, animal, and plant health, as well as the health of their shared environment, informing and supporting a multidisciplinary and holistic approach that integrates monitoring, planning, and evaluation to optimize co-benefits and outcomes for public health. This chapter intends to provide a systematic overview on how conserving nature and biodiversity can contribute to improving the implementation of the One Health and other holistic approaches, to prevent new pandemics and to promote well-being. A detailed analysis regarding how the targets in the updated zero draft of the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework can contribute to improving the implementation of the One Health or other holistic approaches was performed, aiming to support the ambition and commitment needed. Additionally, a list of indicators is proposed to guarantee a suitable monitoring framework and to adequately incorporate the value of biodiversity for health, well-being, and more specifically contributing to the reduction of the risk of new pandemics. This work highlights the importance of preventing biodiversity loss for human health and well-being. The linkages between biodiversity and human health reinforce the need for holistic approaches such as One Health to understand the intricate linkages between the health of plants, animals, humans, and our shared environment.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Osteogenic induction of hBMSCs by electrospun scaffolds with dexamethasone release functionality

Electrospun structures were proposed as scaffolds owing to their morphological and structural similarities with the extracellular matrix found in many native tissues. These !brous structures were also proposed as drug release systems by exploiting the direct dependence of the release rate of a drug on the surface area. An osteogenic differentiation factor, dexamethasone (DEX), was incorporated into electrospun polycaprolactone (PCL) nano!bers at different concentrations (5, 10, 15 and 20 wt.% polymer), in a single-step process. The DEX incorporated into the polymeric carrier is in amorphous state, as determined by DSC, and does not in"uence the typical nano!bers morphology. In vitro drug release studies demonstrated that the dexamethasone release was sustained over a period of 15 days. The bioactivity of the released dexamethasone was assessed by cultivating human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (hBMSCs) on 15 wt.% DEX-loaded PCL NFMs, under dexamethasone-absent osteogenic differentiation medium formulation. An increased concentration of alkaline phosphatase and deposition of a mineralized matrix was observed. Phenotypic and genotypic expression of osteoblastic-speci!c markers corroborates the osteogenic activity of the loaded growth/differentiation factor. Overall data suggests that the electrospun biodegradable nano!bers can be used as carriers for the sustained release of growth/differentiation factors relevant for bone tissue engineering strategies.This work was partially supported by the European Network of Excellence EXPERTISSUES (NMP3-CT-2004-500283). The Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology was acknowledged for the PhD grant of A. Martins (SFRH/BD/24382/2005)

The influence of patterned nanofiber meshes on human mesenchymal stem cell osteogenesis

A specially designed electroconductive collector enables the electrospinning of P-NFM composed of areas of parallel/uniaxially aligned fibers and areas of random/orthogonal nanofiber distribution. The biological relevance of P-NFM is demonstrated using hBMSCs as an autologous cell source. The structures induce cell orientation along the uniaxially aligned fibers, mainly during earlier culturing periods under basal and osteogenic differentiation conditions. The microtopography of the P-NFM also controls the deposition of mineralized extracellular matrix along the pre-defined fiber direction. Genotypic characterization confirms the successful differentiation into the osteogenic lineage.European Integrated Project GENOSTEM (LSH-STREP-CT-2003-503161); European Network of Excellence EXPERTISSUES (NMP3-CT-2004-500283); Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology for the project Naturally Nano (POCI/EME/58982/2004) and the PhD grant SFRH/BD/24382/2005

Biodegradable nanofibers-reinforced microfibrous composite scaffolds for bone tissue engineering

Native bone extracellular matrix (ECM) is a complex hierarchical fibrous composite structure, resulting from the assembling of collagen fibrils at several length scales, ranging from the macro to the nanoscale. The combination of nanofibers within microfibers after conventional reinforcement methodologies seems to be a feasible solution to the rational design of highly functional synthetic ECM substitutes. The present work aims at the development of bone ECM inspired structures, conjugating electrospun chitosan (Cht) nanofibers within biodegradable polymeric microfibers [poly(butylene succinate)—PBS and PBS/Cht], assembled in a fiber mesh structure. The nanofibers-reinforced composite fiber mesh scaffolds were seeded with human bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (hBMSCs) and cultured under osteogenic differentiation conditions. These nanofibers-reinforced composite scaffolds sustained ECM deposition and mineralization, mainly in the PBS/Cht-based fiber meshes, as depicted by the increased amount of calcium phosphates produced by the osteogenic differentiated hBMSCs. The osteogenic genotype of the cultured hBMSCs was confirmed by the expression of osteoblastic genes, namely Alkaline Phosphatase, Osteopontin, Bone Sialoprotein and Osteocalcin, and the transcription factors Runx2 and Osterix, all involved in different stages of the osteogenesis. These data represent the first report on the biological functionality of nanofibers-reinforced composite scaffolds, envisaging the applicability of the developed structures for bone tissue engineering.This work was partially supported by the European Network of Excellence EXPERTISSUES (NMP3-CT-2004-500283). It was also acknowledged by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology for the Ph.D. grant of A. Martins (SFRH/BD/24382/2005)

Um caso comum com questões complexas - uma reflexão bioética

Introduction: Provision of health care, especially at the end of life, harbours daily ethical issues in which some are highly complex. Aim: To promote an ethical analysis based on theoretical and practical knowledge in order to sensitize health care providers to the development of an ethical reflective process in their daily clinical practice, avoiding the dissemination of “ethical illiteracy”, a harmful practice for providing quality health care. Materials and Methods: Based on a simple case in a daily clinical practice, this article intends to carry out a bioethical analysis of complex issues based on fundamental ethical principles. Results: The application of a systematic and organized analysis method, based on fundamental ethical principles, allows decision-making, reducing the characteristic uncertainty of some ethical conflicts, especially at the end of life. On the other hand, this reflexive analysis allowed us to conclude about the multiplicity of possible courses of action in decision-making. Conclusion: The provision of care at the end of life is full of making ethical decisions of lesser or greater complexity, in which different values ​​and perspectives may conflict. Therefore, they must be identified, analyzed and discussed so that the optimal course of action is taken in order to diminish the conflict of values, reducing the deleterious consequences for patients, their families, health care providers and, ultimately, the health system.Introdução: A prestação de cuidados de saúde e, em especial nos doentes em fim de vida, coloca questões éticas diárias, algumas delas de grande complexidade.  Objetivo: Promover uma análise ética fundamentada em conhecimentos teóricos e práticos com vista a sensibilizar os profissionais de saúde para o desenvolvimento de um processo reflexivo ético na sua prática clínica diária, evitando a disseminação do “analfabetismo ético”, prática deletéria para a prestação de cuidados de saúde de qualidade.  Materiais e Métodos: Com base num caso clínico comum na prática clínica diária pretende-se efetuar uma análise bioética de problemas complexos tendo em conta os princípios éticos fundamentais.  Resultados: A aplicação de um método de análise sistematizado e organizado, baseando-se nos princípios éticos fundamentais, permite a tomada de decisão, diminuindo a incerteza característica de alguns conflitos éticos, sobretudo no final de vida. Por outro lado, esta análise reflexiva permite-nos concluir acerca da multiplicidade de cursos de ação possíveis na tomada de decisão. Conclusão: A prestação de cuidados no final de vida é repleta de decisões éticas de menor ou maior complexidade, nas quais diferentes valores e perspetivas podem entrar em conflito. Consequentemente, estes devem ser identificados, analisados e discutidos para que seja tomado o curso de ação ótimo que permita lesar o menor número de valores em conflito, diminuindo as consequências deletérias para os doentes, suas famílias, profissionais de saúde e, em última análise, sistema de saúde.  &nbsp