The 1755 earthquake in the Algarve (South of Portugal): what would happen nowadays?

The 1755 Lisbon earthquake, which reached a magnitude of 8.5, remains the most powerful and destructive to hit Europe so far. Within minutes, many lives were lost, populations displaced, livelihoods, homes and infrastructures were destroyed. Although frequently associated to the city of Lisbon, one of the most important European cities at the time, this earthquake caused similar damage and casualties, if not greater, in the southwest of the Algarve, where the seismic intensity was estimated at IX-X Mercalli Intensity Scale. Some time later a tsunami increased the number of victims and the amount of damage. In some locations the tsunami caused greater destruction than the earthquake itself. The tsunami hit both coasts of the North Atlantic; however, the more destructive damage occurred in the Portuguese coast, south from Lisbon, in the Gulf of Cadiz and in the Moroccan coast. The downtown of Lisbon was flooded by waves that reached a height of 6 m. The water flooded an area with an extension of around 250 m from the coast. In the Southwest part of Algarve the waves reached a height between 10 and 15 m and the flooded area was much larger. Through the analysis of recent research works on the assessment of the 1755 tsunami parameters and the interpretation of the more reliable historical documents, it is our intention to analyse the destructive power of the tsunami in the Algarve and delimit the flooded area. Using simple techniques of simulation it is our intention to assess the impacts nowadays of the occurrence of a tsunami similar to the one that hit the Algarve in 1755, which would probably affect a greater number of people, buildings and infrastructures. This assessment is an important instrument not only in terms of disaster preparedness but also for the integration of risk mitigation measures in land use planning

Metallicity dependence of HMXB populations

High-mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs) might have contributed a non-negligible fraction of the energy feedback to the interstellar and intergalactic media at high redshift, becoming important sources for the heating and ionization history of the Universe. However, the importance of this contribution depends on the hypothesized increase in the number of HMXBs formed in low-metallicity galaxies and in their luminosities. In this work we test the aforementioned hypothesis, and quantify the metallicity dependence of HMXB population properties. We compile from the literature a large set of data on the sizes and X-ray luminosities of HMXB populations in nearby galaxies with known metallicities and star formation rates. We use Bayesian inference to fit simple Monte Carlo models that describe the metallicity dependence of the size and luminosity of the HMXB populations. We find that HMXBs are typically ten times more numerous per unit star formation rate in low-metallicity galaxies (12 + log(O/H) < 8, namely < 20% solar) than in solar-metallicity galaxies. The metallicity dependence of the luminosity of HMXBs is small compared to that of the population size. Our results support the hypothesis that HMXBs are more numerous in low-metallicity galaxies, implying the need to investigate the feedback in the form of X-rays and energetic mass outflows of these high-energy sources during cosmic dawn.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic

Lamotrigine treatment of aggression in female borderline patients, Part II: an 18-month follow-up

Borderline patients often display pathological aggression. We previously tested lamotrigine, an anti-convulsant, in therapy for aggression in women with borderline personality disorder (BPD) (J Psychopharmacol 2005; 19: 287–291), and found significant changes on most scales of the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI) after eight weeks. To assess the longerterm efficacy of lamotrigine in therapy for aggression in women with BPD, this 18-month follow-up observation was carried out, in which patients (treated with lamotrigine: n = 18; former placebo group: n = 9) were tested every six months. According to the intent-to-treat principle, significant changes on all scales of the STAXI were observed in the lamotrigine-treated subjects. All subjects tolerated lamotrigine relatively well. Lamotrigine appears to be an effective and relatively safe agent in the longer-term treatment of aggression in women with BPD

Fitotecnia da cultura do melao.

O melão é uma das espécies olerícolas de maior expressão econômica e social para a Região Nordeste do Brasil. A sua introdução no país se deu através de imigrantes europeus, tendo se desenvolvido inicialmente no Rio Grande do Sul, que foi o maior produtor nacional até o final da década de sessenta. A sua expansão ocorreu somente depois de 1970, quando emergiram importantes pólos de produção nos Estados de São Paulo, Pará e na Região do Sub-médio do São Francisco (Bahia e Pernambuco).bitstream/item/211250/1/folh-06883.pdfApostila distribuida no V Curso de Hortalicas Irrigadas no Nordeste Brasileiro, 1999, Petrolina, PE

Zonal flows and long-distance correlations during the formation of the edge shear layer in the TJ-II stellarator

A theoretical interpretation is given for the observed long-distance correlations in potential fluctuations in TJ-II. The value of the correlation increases above the critical point of the transition for the emergence of the plasma edge shear flow layer. Mean (i.e. surface averaged, zero-frequency) sheared flows cannot account for the experimental results. A model consisting of four envelope equations for the fluctuation level, the mean flow shear, the zonal flow amplitude shear, and the averaged pressure gradient is proposed. It is shown that the presence of zonal flows is essential to reproduce the main features of the experimental observations.Comment: 19 pages, 7 figure

Fasceíte Necrosante após Mobilização e Infiltração Intrarticular do Ombro com Betametasona

Necrotizing Fasciitis is a rapidly progressive, potentially fatal infection of superficial fasciae and subcutaneous tissue, usually resulting from an inciting trauma to the skin. Medical literature refers few cases of necrotizing fasciitis related to intra-articular infiltrations, that often lead to patients death. This report describes the clinical events on a 55 year-old diabetic patient who developed upper extremity Necrotizing Fasciitis, 18 days after shoulder mobilization and intra-articular infiltration, due to Staphylococcus epidermidis. An early surgical debridement was performed and antibiotherapy was established, resulting in a successful outcome, despite the functional disability. We point out, through this case, the possibility of intra-articular injections of drugs causing Necrotizing Fasciitis, especially in risk patients

Integration of physical operations in the hydrometallurgical processing of spent Zn-MnO2 batteries

The recycling of spent Zn-MnO2 batteries by hydrometallurgy involves the leaching of material previously treated by physical processing to allow the liberation of electrode particles and the separation of unwanted scrap. The integration of these physical operations with leaching is therefore crucial for the optimization of the process, allowing achieving high recovery yields of zinc and manganese and minimizing reactants consumption and iron contamination. In this paper, several options involving physical processing and leaching with sulphuric acid are presented and discussed. After batteries shredding and disaggregation, the separation of steel scrap was performed by sieving or magnetic separation, and the remaining solids were treated by leaching. These options were compared, in terms of metals recovery and contamination, with the alternative of direct leaching of all the shredded fractions without physical treatment. The separation of the steel scrap by sieving or magnetic separation allowed the removal from the circuit of 37 or 49% of iron, respectively, with losses of 15 or 6% of zinc and 2 or 4% of manganese. Therefore more than 50% of iron remained in the process, which was attributed to the presence of iron oxides formed by the corrosion of the battery cases. In the leaching operation, zinc dissolution was very effective (yields above 97%) while manganese is strongly depended from the process option, being its leaching proportional to the presence of scrap (yields of 80%, 56% and 43%, respectively in direct leaching, sieving / leaching and magnetic separation / leaching). These results showed that iron plays an important role in the reductive leaching of manganese species (III or IV), and so the presence of steel scrap in leaching, besides disadvantages concerning solutions contamination, contributes positively for the leaching efficienc

The CWKB particle production and classical condensate in de Sitter spacetime

The complex time WKB approximation is an effective tool in studying particle production in curved spacetime. We use it in this work to understand the formation of classical condensate in expanding de Sitter spacetime. The CWKB leads to the emergence of thermal spectrum that depends crucially on horizons (as in de Sitter spacetime) or observer dependent horizons (as in Rindler spacetime). A connection is sought between the horizon and the formation of classical condensate. We concentrate on de Sitter spacetime and study the cosmological perturbation of $k=0$ mode with various values of $m/H_0$. We find that for a minimally coupled free scalar field for $m^2/H_0^2<2$, the one-mode occupation number grows more than unity soon after the physical wavelength of the mode crosses the Hubble radius and soon after diverges as $N(t)\sim O(1)[\lambda_{phys}(t)/{H_0^{-1}}]^{2\sqrt{\nu^2-1/4}}$, where $\nu\equiv (9/4 -m^2/{H_0^2})^{1/2}$. The results substantiates the previous works in this direction. We also find the correct oscillation and behaviour of $N(z)$ at small $z$ from a single expression using CWKB approximation for various values of $m/H_0$. We also discuss decoherence in relation to the formation of classical condensate. We also find that the squeezed state formalism and CWKB method give identical results.Comment: 19 pages, revtex, 5 figure