Integrated versus non-integrated perspectives of auditors concerning the new ISO 9001 revision

The process of integration of management systems is being unfolded by a great deal of companies nowadays. A crucial feature of it relates with the audit function and the integrated perceptions of the auditors. This issue is of utmost importance if one takes into account the remarkable effort developed by ISO in the last revisions (2015) of the ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 standards aiming at the standards integration by adopting a common high level structure, identical core context, and common terms and common definitions. The available drafts of the new ISO 45001 standard suggest the same effort. This paper aims, within a global research study on ISO 9001:2015, to report the integrated versus non-integrated perspectives of auditors concerning the new ISO 9001 revision based on the results from a survey conducted among IRCA auditors. It is intended specifically to assess if the perceptions from the auditors holding several certifications are different of those from the auditors that hold solely the QMS certification. Results suggest that the auditors holding several certifications foreseen more benefits from this new revision, i.e., auditors with a wider integrated perspective rate systematically higher the different dimensions assessed in this survey.The authors would like to thank to all the responding auditors for their great collaboration and will pursue this study by applying more powerful statistical tools and adding a time perspective by replicating the survey in the future. This study had the financial support of FCT-Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia of Portugal under the project UID/CEC/00319/2013. Pedro Domingues is supported by FCT Post-Doc Grant Reference SFRH/BPD/103322/2014.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Sound production in the Meagre, Argyrosomus regius (Asso, 1801): intraspecific variability associated with size, sex and context

Many fish taxa produce sound in voluntary and in disturbance contexts but information on the full acoustic repertoire is lacking for most species. Yet, this knowledge is critical to enable monitoring fish populations in nature through acoustic monitoring.Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology: PTDC/BIA-BMA/30517/2017; SFRH/BD/115562/2016; UID/MAR/04292/2019; UID/BIA/00329/2019; PTDC/BIA-BMA/29662/2017.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Courtship Sounds Advertise Species Identity and Male Quality in Sympatric Pomatoschistus spp. Gobies

Acoustic signals can encode crucial information about species identity and individual quality. We recorded and compared male courtship drum sounds of the sand goby Pomatoschistus minutus and the painted goby P. pictus and examined if they can function in species recognition within sympatric populations. We also examined which acoustic features are related to male quality and the factors that affect female courtship in the sand goby, to determine whether vocalisations potentially play a role in mate assessment. Drums produced by the painted goby showed significantly higher dominant frequencies, higher sound pulse repetition rates and longer intervals between sounds than those of the sand goby. In the sand goby, male quality was predicted by visual and acoustic courtship signals. Regression analyses showed that sound amplitude was a good predictor of male length, whereas the duration of nest behaviour and active calling rate (i.e. excluding silent periods) were good predictors of male condition factor and fat reserves respectively. In addition, the level of female courtship was predicted by male nest behaviour. The results suggest that the frequency and temporal patterns of sounds can encode species identity, whereas sound amplitude and calling activity reflects male size and fat reserves. Visual courtship duration (nest-related behaviour) also seems relevant to mate choice, since it reflects male condition and is related to female courtship. Our work suggests that acoustic communication can contribute to mate choice in the sand goby group, and invites further study

Photoswitching in azo dyes bearing thienylpyrrole and benzothiozole heterocyclic systems

Dedicated to the Centenary of the Portuguese Chemical SocietyVisible light promotes the conversion of the E-isomer of benzothiazol-2-yl and benzothiazol-6-yl diazenes to the thermal unstable Z-isomer that reverts in few seconds to the initial form. The kinetics of the thermal Z / E process is strongly influenced by the linkage position of the N]N function to the benzothiazole heterocycle. Thienylpyrrole azo dyes functionalized with benzothiazol-6-yl groups are particularly interesting since they show an excellent compromise between the switching speed (rate constants: 0.068-0.12 s-1) and the amplitude of the absorbance variation (37-42%).Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

Collembolan morphospecies (Hexapoda: Collembola) in serpentine soils: a case study in a natural ecosystem in northeastern Portugal

Serpentine soils represent challenging habitats for plants and soil dwelling organisms, such as collembolans, because they typically exhibit high levels of heavy metals (e.g. chromium, cobalt, and nickel). Serpentinized areas cover about 8000 ha in Northeastern Portugal. While the plant communities are well studied, the collembolans are virtually unknown. The data presented here represent the first effort to describe the structure of a collembolan community, using morphospecies as a surrogate of species, in a serpentinized area occupied by a natural forest of Quercus rotundifolia and Quercus faginea located nearby Bragança (Portugal). Sampling was performed during the last week of September of 2008 in a serpentinized area near Bragança (Portugal). At each of the 29 sampling points (distributed along two transects) collembolans were collected with a soil core (5 cm diameter x 10 cm depth). The collembolans were extracted from the soil (using a McFadyen apparatus), sorted, counted and finally identified to morphospecies level. The number of morphospecies observed was 37. The total abundance in the mineral horizon (1862 individuals) was not significantly different from the organic horizon (1883 individuals). The Simpson Diversity Index and Richness were higher in the organic horizon (21.7 and 35 species, respectively) than in the mineral horizon (9.9 and 30 species, respectively). The species accumulation curves showed that the estimated number of morphospecies for the mineral horizon is 36 while for the organic horizon is 38

Photochromic properties of thienylpyrrole azo dyes in solution

The photochromic behaviour of thienylpyrrole azo dyes in THF solutions was studied for the first time. The photochromic properties are strongly dependent on the substitution pattern on the dyes. Nitro-substituted thienylpyrrole azo dyes are particularly interesting since they exhibit very fast colouration/decolouration processes. The activation energies of these compounds are among the lowest values reported for heterocyclic azo dyes. These compounds show aggregation phenomena in freshly prepared solutions of THF, which lead to variable photochromic behaviours. Only after 1–5 h the solutions reach equilibrium and then reproducible photochromic behaviour can be observed.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT

Hsp70 Chaperones and Type I PRMTs Are Sequestered at Intranuclear Inclusions Caused by Polyalanine Expansions in PABPN1

Genomic instability at loci with tandem arrays of simple repeats is the cause for many neurological, neurodegenerative and neuromuscular diseases. When located in coding regions, disease-associated expansions of trinucleotide repeats are translated into homopolymeric amino acid stretches of glutamine or alanine. Polyalanine expansions in the poly(A)-binding protein nuclear 1 (PABPN1) gene causes oculopharyngeal muscular dystrophy (OPMD). To gain novel insight into the molecular pathophysiology of OPMD, we studied the interaction of cellular proteins with normal and expanded PABPN1. Pull-down assays show that heat shock proteins including Hsp70, and type I arginine methyl transferases (PRMT1 and PRMT3) associate preferentially with expanded PABPN1. Immunofluorescence microscopy further reveals accumulation of these proteins at intranuclear inclusions in muscle from OPMD patients. Recombinant PABPN1 with expanded polyalanine stretches binds Hsp70 with higher affinity, and data from molecular simulations suggest that expansions of the PABPN1 polyalanine tract result in transition from a disordered, flexible conformation to a stable helical secondary structure. Taken together, our results suggest that the pathological mutation in the PABPN1 gene alters the protein conformation and induces a preferential interaction with type I PRMTs and Hsp70 chaperones. This in turn causes sequestration in intranuclear inclusions, possibly leading to a progressive cellular defect in arginine methylation and chaperone activity

Collembolan communities in a sustainable system for production of woody biomass for energy: abundance and diversity of morphospecies.

Woody biomass for energy obtained from short rotation woody crops (SRWC) needs to be managed in a sustainable way, thus allowing ecosystem conservation. However, there is a gap in our knowledge concerning the effects of these crops on soil organisms, of which collembolans represent a good indicator of soil quality. On the other hand, soil biological sciences are strongly affected by the taxonomic skill crisis, with many groups of soil animals suffering from a taxonomic impediment in terms of identification. This problem can be reduced by using a para-taxonomic approach where morphospecies can be used as surrogates of taxonomic species. The objective of this work was to study the structure of collembolan communities in a SRWC experimental field using morphospecies. Abundance, richness, evenness and diversity indexes were used to describe the structure of the collembolan community and species accumulation curves were computed to estimate species richness in the study area. Prior to the installation of the SRWC, 106 soil samples were collected at each defined sampling point (distributed along 14 transects) using a soil core (5 cm diameter x 10 cm depth). In the laboratory, collembolans were extracted from the soil (using a McFadyen apparatus), sorted, counted and finally identified to morphospecies level. The number of morphospecies observed was 34, representing a total abundance of 3221 collembolans. The Simpson Diversity Index and richness were 27and 34, respectively. The species accumulation curves showed that the estimated number of morphospecies was 38

IS THERE ANY TRANSFER BETWEEN COUNTERMOVEMENT JUMP AND SWIMMING TRACK START PERFORMANCE?

The aim of this study was to determine if the countermovement jump could predict swimming starts performance. Ten elite swimmers performed one maximal countermovement jump on an extensometric force platform and three maximal track start on an instrumented starting block. Results showed an inverse relationship between 15 m starting time and jump variables (r = -0.86, -0.64 and -0.92 for jump height, peak vertical force and peak power, respectively; p \u3c 0.05) and no significant correlation between relative peak vertical force and start variables. Regression equation for 15 m time prediction was defined by jump height and peak vertical force (r = 0.890, adjusted r2 = 0.734). In addition, results suggest that swimmers with higher jumps and higher peak vertical force are faster on the 15m mark when using a track start

Fast thermal cis-trans isomerization of heterocyclic azo dyes in PMMA polymers

Em publicaçãoA series of heterocyclic azo dyes were dispersed in poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) matrix and the photochromic properties of the coloured films studied by UV-Vis spectroscopy. Visible irradiation of the coloured films lead to a fast decrease in the colour intensity due to the trans-cis photoisomerization reaction. When the light source was removed the spontaneous thermal cis-trans reverse isomerization occurred bringing the absorbance back to initial value with variable speed. Contrary to common azobenzenes that after photoisomerization with UV or visible light exhibit very slow thermal cis-trans back re-isomerization, that can last for hours or days, azo dyes bearing pyrrole, thiophene, thiazole or thiadiazole heterocycles display very fast switching between the two isomers (few seconds) even when dispersed in PMMA polymers.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT