Quasi degenerate Neutrino Masses with Universal Strength Yukawa Couplings

A simple ansatz is proposed for neutrino and charged lepton mass matrices, within the framework of universal strength for Yukawa couplings. In this framework all Yukawa couplings have equal moduli and the flavour dependence is only in their phases. We take into account the solar neutrino deficit and the atmospheric neutrino anomaly, assuming three neutrino families only. The ansatz leads in a natural way to small mixing involving neutrinos of quasi degenerate masses, as required to explain the solar neutrino deficit in the nonadiabatic MSW solution, while having the large mixing necessary to explain the atmospheric neutrino anomaly.Comment: 10 pages, LATEX, no special macros, no figures, no table

Google Earth Engine based monitoring of cork and holm oak woodlands NDVI trends in Portugal

ComunicaçãoThe Mediterranean area currently suffers a general decline of oak woodlands’ health and productivity. Cork oak (Quercus suber L.) and holm oak (Quercus ilex L.) are widely exploited in Portugal and are an important economical and ecological resource for the country. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) is a common remote sensing index used as a proxy for vegetation biomass, chlorophyll activity, health and stress. NDVI can be monitored for 34 years (1984-2017) at 30-meter of resolution using Landsat imagery. The online platform Google Earth Engine (GEE) allows the free access and fast handling of this huge amount of satellite images. Objective: Providing to researchers, land owners and policy-makers a high-resolution map of cork and holm oak long-term trends for the whole PortugalN/

Regimes de fogo em Portugal: o caso particular dos montados

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Cork oak woodland land-cover types classification: a comparison between UAV sensed imagery and field survey

This work assesses the use of aerial imagery for the vegetation cover characterization in cork oak woodlands. The study was conducted in a cork oak woodland in central Portugal during the summer of 2017. Two supervised classification methods, pixel-based and object-based image analysis (OBIA), were tested using a high spatial resolution image mosaic. Images were captured by an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) equipped with a red, green, blue (RGB) camera. Four different vegetation covers were distinguished: cork oak, shrubs, grass and other (bare soil and tree shadow). Results have been compared with field data obtained by the point-intercept (PI) method. Data comparison reveals the reliability of aerial imagery classification methods in cork oak woodlands. Results show that cork oak was accurately classified at a level of 82.7% with pixel-based method and 79.5% with OBIA . 96.7% of shrubs were identified by OBIA, whereas there was an overestimation of 21.7% with pixel approach. Grass presents an overestimation of 22.7% with OBIA and 12.0% with pixel-based method. Limitations rise from using only spectral information in the visible range. Thus, further research with the use of additional bands (vegetation indices or height information) could result in better land-cover type classification.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Produtividade Da Crotalaria Juncea Sob Podas E Densidades De Semeadura Nos Tabuleiros Costeiros Do Piauí

The northern region of Piauí state is an important center of irrigated organic fruit farming, wherein sandy soils with low organic matter content are predominant, besides climate with high temperatures, long periods of water deficit and constant wind. Given this situation, it becomes necessary to investigate alternative management options able to meet the challenges of agricultural productivity. In this context, green manuring becomes an important practice, mainly when using fast-growing species and with great potential for biomass production. Thus, a study was carried out at Embrapa Meio-Norte to measure Crotalaria juncea biomass yield after thinning and at various sowing densities. The evaluated parameters were plant height, stem diameter, number of branches per plant, fresh and dry weight of shoots and roots. The results showed that sowing density had no influence on plant height; however, unthinned plants reached greater heights, which might have been due to reduced competition for light. Thinning had no effect on diameters of plant stem base; on the other hand, lower planting densities promoted larger diameters also due to less competition. Likewise, the number of branches per plant was not affected by thinning, being greater at lower planting densities on account of less competition. Thinned plants achieved higher averages of fresh shoot weight. Nevertheless, shoot dry biomass was greater at higher planting densities. Furthermore, both fresh and dry weight of roots were not influenced by any of the adopted treatments. © 2016, Universidade Federal Rural do Semi-Arid. All rights reserved.29487888

Valorisation of kraft lignin by using vanillin and lignin-based polyurethanes: Use of the biorefinery concept

In kraft pulp mills, the capacity of the recovery boiler is very often a limiting factor to the increase of the pulp production. Until several decades ago, an upgrade to boiler system for dealing with higher quantities of black liquor was the only alternative. The possibility of lignin extraction from black liquor seems to be much more attractive, either for energy production or combustion elsewhere, or to serve as feedstock for chemicals production. Since the beginning of the 90’s, associate Laboratory LSRE/LCM has been focused on overcoming expansion limitations in pulp industries and, in this work, we show an alternative to this industry segment for the utilization of lignin and producing high added value chemicals from renewable biomass materials. Based on the biorefinery concepts, an integrated process for producing vanillin from kraft lignin oxidation has been proposed and each of the needed unit operations has been investigated to provide a deeper scientific understanding on this subject.FCT - projects POCTI/EQU/33198/99, POCI/EQU/61738/2004 and Grant SFRH/BD/18415/2004. CYTED IV.17/2002-2006. Luso-French actions F13/06 and F32/08

Using satellite image fusion to evaluate the impact of land use changes on ecosystem services and their economic values

Shuangao, W., Padmanaban, R., Mbanze, A. A., Silva, J. M. N., Shamsudeen, M., Cabral, P., & Campos, F. S. (2021). Using satellite image fusion to evaluate the impact of land use changes on ecosystem services and their economic values. Remote Sensing, 13(5), 1-21. [851]. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13050851Accelerated land use change is a current challenge for environmental management world-wide. Given the urgent need to incorporate economic and ecological goals in landscape planning, cost-effective conservation strategies are required. In this study, we validated the benefit of fusing imagery from multiple sensors to assess the impact of landscape changes on ecosystem services (ES) and their economic values in the Long County, Shaanxi Province, China. We applied several landscape metrics to assess the local spatial configuration over 15 years (2004–2019) from fused image-ries. Using Landsat-7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+), Landsat-8 Operational Land Im-ager (OLI) and Indian Remote Sensing Satellite System Linear Imaging Self Scanning Sensor 3 (IRS LISS 3) imageries fused for 2004, 2009, 2014 and 2019, we reclassified land use/land cover (LULC) changes, through the rotation forest (RF) machine-learning algorithm. We proposed an equivalent monetary metric for estimating the ES values, which also could be used in the whole China. Results showed that agriculture farmland and unused land decreased their spatial distribution over time, with an observed increase on woodland, grassland, water bodies and built-up area. Our findings suggested that the patterns of landscape uniformity and connectivity improved, while the distribution of landscape types stabilized, while the landscape diversity had a slight improvement. The overall ES values increased (4.34%) under a benefit transfer approach, mainly concerning woodland and grassland. A sensitivity analysis showed the selected economic value (EV) was relevant and suitable for the study area associated with our ES for LULC changes. We suggested that changes in landscape patterns affected the ESV trends, while the increases on some LULC classes slightly improved the landscape diversity. Using an interdisciplinary approach, we recommend that local au-thorities and environmental practitioners should balance the economic benefits and ecological gains in different landscapes to achieve a sustainable development from local to regional scales.publishersversionpublishe

Phytochemical characterization and biological activities of green tea (Camellia sinensis) produced in the Azores, Portugal

Background: Green tea is not only one of the most widely consumed beverages worldwide, but is also known for its health promoting and therapeutic effects. Green tea is cultivated in areas with high humidity and acidic soils in China, Indonesia and Japan. Those places have well-marked dry and rainy seasons. In opposite, Azores have a climate with constant average annual rainfall and, unlike eastern regions, relatively constant air humidity throughout the year. While a brand implemented on the Portuguese market, the quality of green tea produced in Azores must be guaranteed. Quality control measures based on phytochemical determination of the chemical composition and biological activities are needed in order to address whenever climate changes interferes significantly with composition and biological effects. Purpose: Make the phytochemical characterization of various extracts of green tea leaves coming from Azores and evaluate the anti-cancer activities of the extracts in order to compare the obtained results with those of teas coming from eastern regions. Methods: Phytochemical characterization (catechins, oxyaromatic acids, flavonols, alkaloids and theanine) and total catechins contents (TCC) was performed by using HPLC-DAD analysis, in infusions (5–7 min and 30 min), maceration and methanolic extracts of Camellia sinensis samples coming from Azores, Portugal. The antioxidant activity of extracts was measured by the DPPH assay and the total phenolics contents (TPC) were estimated using the Folin-Ciocalteu colorimetric method. The cytotoxic activity towards drug sensitive and multidrug-resistant leukemia cell lines was determined by the resazurin assay. Results: The TCC was higher in methanolic extracts and lower in maceration, as epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) and epicatechin gallate (ECG) concentrations were significantly higher in methanolic extracts and were only residual in maceration extracts. Maceration extracts showed the highest content of gallic acid, indicating that methanol extracts contained more flavonols of higher molecular weight and/or that maceration may lead to the degalloylation of catechins. The amount of o-caffeoylquinic acid extracted was significantly higher in methanolic samples. Short-term extraction at high temperatures resulted in high amounts of neochlorogenic acid. The contents of glycosylated quercitin-3-d-galactoside and kaempferol-3-glucoside were small in maceration samples and high in methanolic samples. Caffeine was easily extracted by methanol (99%) compared with water, while extraction of the amino-acid l-theanine was impossible with methanol. TPC values correlated linearly with DPPH• IC50, with infusion samples showing the best antioxidant capacities. The aqueous and the methanol/water extracts were active in multidrug-resistant and drug sensitive cancer cells.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio