La Vila do Castelo (Guimarães): perspectivas de un espacio desaparecido

Guimarães Castle is one of the most important Portuguese identity symbols, having been classified, on March 19, 1881, as a 1st class historical monument. During the 19th century, several attempts were made by the City Hall to protect the monument from the degradation of time and to intervene in the surrounding area, enabling its enjoyment by the population. As part of the Centennial Celebrations of the Foundation and Restoration of Portugal (1940), the Portuguese State undertook to restore the monumental complex. In this project it proceeded to the expropriation and demolition of the buildings of a series of streets, about which today there is no memory. Starting from the linkage of cartography prior to the demolition with geohistorical sources and serial historical sources, such as property tax records and lists of inhabitants, we seek to recover the image of a space of the city of Guimarães, which, in the early twentieth century, was the object of a profound urbanistic transformation.El Castillo de Guimarães es uno de los símbolos identitarios más importantes de Portugal, el cual ha sido clasificado el 19 de marzo de 1881, como monumento histórico de primera clase. Durante el siglo XIX, fueron varias las tentativas que realizó la Cámara Municipal (Câmara Municipal) para proteger el monumento de la degradación del paso del tiempo y se procedió a intervenir en el espacio circundante, posibilitando su disfrute por parte de la población. En el ámbito de las celebraciones que conmemoran el Centenario de la Fundación y la Restauración de Portugal (1940), el Estado portugués se comprometió a recuperar el conjunto monumental. Este proyecto supuso la expropiación y demolición de los edificios de una serie de calles, de las que hoy no existe memoria. Partiendo de la complementariedad de la cartografía anterior a la demolición con fuentes geohistóricas e históricas seriadas, como los registros fiscales de propiedad y las listas de habitantes, procuramos recuperar la imagen de un espacio de la ciudad de Guimarães, que, en el inicio del siglo XX, fue objeto de una profunda transformación urbanística

Cooperative Behaviour of specific tasks in multi-agent systems and robot control using dynamic approach

In order to foster research and development in a multi-agent robotic environment three fundamental improvements on the robots need to be carried out: a) a very reliable and robot control which works at high speeds and a dynamic approach is described in this work; b) Cooperative behaviour is very important since without it there is no ball pass, and that is becoming more and more necessary; c) Upwards kick, since traditional horizontal kickers are already very common. Other improvements were carried out in the robots but due to lack of space in this paper are not described. This paper describes how these three issues were tackled by the MINHO team and shows their next directions

High accuracy navigation in unknown environment using adaptive control

Aiming to reduce cycle time and improving the accuracy on tracking, a modified adaptive control was developed, which adapts autonomously to changing dynamic parameters. The platform used is based on a robot with a vision based sensory system. Goal and obstacles angles are calculated relatively to robot orientation from image processing software. Autonomous robots are programmed to navigate in unknown and unstructured environments where there are multiple obstacles which can readily change their position. This approach underlies in dynamic attractor and repulsive forces. This theory uses differential equations that produce vector fields to control speed and direction of the robot. This new strategy was compared with existing PID method experimentally and it proved to be more effective in terms of behaviour and time-response. Calibration parameters used in PID control are in this case unnecessary. The experiments were carried out in robot Middle Size League football players built for RoboCup. Target pursuit, namely, ball, goal or any absolute position, was tested. Results showed high tracking accuracy and rapid response to moving targets. This dynamic control system enables a good balance between fast movements and smooth behaviour

Seasonal succession of small planktonic eukaryotes inhabiting surface waters of a coastal upwelling system

19 pages, 7 figures, 1 tableSmall eukaryotes (0.2–20 μm cell‐size) represent a significant fraction of the microbial plankton community in shelf waters of NW‐Spain. The community composition of small eukaryotes living at the surface and at the base of the photic zone was analysed by means of 18S rDNA high‐throughput sequencing on a circa‐monthly basis over a 23 months period. Ostreococcus was the most abundant taxon in surface waters, showing marked peaks in read abundance in spring and late summer, while Syndiniales dominated at the base of the photic zone. A well‐defined seasonal pattern of community composition, linked to the succession of the dominant taxa, was found in surface waters. Seasonality was less apparent at the base of the euphotic zone. Temporal changes in abiotic factors significantly correlated with changes in community composition in surface (r = 0.71) and at the base of the photic zone (r = 0.38). Changes in community composition significantly correlated with changes in community function‐related variables (including biomass, primary production and respiration) only in surface water (r = 0.36). Co‐occurrence network analyses revealed 45 significant interspecies associations among the 50 most abundant taxa with highly connected OTUs belonging to cryptophyceans. The network topology, with small‐world characteristics, suggests a stabilizing role of biotic interactions to environmental disturbanceThis research was supported by the Xunta the Galicia through DIMENSION project (grant EM2013/023) and by Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitivity (MINECO) trough ENVISION project (grant CTM2014‐59031‐P) in collaboration with the ‘Instituto Español de Oceanografía’ (IEO) RADIALES project. Esther Barber‐Lluch was funded by an F.P.I. MINECO fellowshipPeer reviewe

Geoeconomic variations in epidemiology, ventilation management, and outcomes in invasively ventilated intensive care unit patients without acute respiratory distress syndrome: a pooled analysis of four observational studies

Background: Geoeconomic variations in epidemiology, the practice of ventilation, and outcome in invasively ventilated intensive care unit (ICU) patients without acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) remain unexplored. In this analysis we aim to address these gaps using individual patient data of four large observational studies. Methods: In this pooled analysis we harmonised individual patient data from the ERICC, LUNG SAFE, PRoVENT, and PRoVENT-iMiC prospective observational studies, which were conducted from June, 2011, to December, 2018, in 534 ICUs in 54 countries. We used the 2016 World Bank classification to define two geoeconomic regions: middle-income countries (MICs) and high-income countries (HICs). ARDS was defined according to the Berlin criteria. Descriptive statistics were used to compare patients in MICs versus HICs. The primary outcome was the use of low tidal volume ventilation (LTVV) for the first 3 days of mechanical ventilation. Secondary outcomes were key ventilation parameters (tidal volume size, positive end-expiratory pressure, fraction of inspired oxygen, peak pressure, plateau pressure, driving pressure, and respiratory rate), patient characteristics, the risk for and actual development of acute respiratory distress syndrome after the first day of ventilation, duration of ventilation, ICU length of stay, and ICU mortality. Findings: Of the 7608 patients included in the original studies, this analysis included 3852 patients without ARDS, of whom 2345 were from MICs and 1507 were from HICs. Patients in MICs were younger, shorter and with a slightly lower body-mass index, more often had diabetes and active cancer, but less often chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and heart failure than patients from HICs. Sequential organ failure assessment scores were similar in MICs and HICs. Use of LTVV in MICs and HICs was comparable (42·4% vs 44·2%; absolute difference -1·69 [-9·58 to 6·11] p=0·67; data available in 3174 [82%] of 3852 patients). The median applied positive end expiratory pressure was lower in MICs than in HICs (5 [IQR 5-8] vs 6 [5-8] cm H2O; p=0·0011). ICU mortality was higher in MICs than in HICs (30·5% vs 19·9%; p=0·0004; adjusted effect 16·41% [95% CI 9·52-23·52]; p<0·0001) and was inversely associated with gross domestic product (adjusted odds ratio for a US$10 000 increase per capita 0·80 [95% CI 0·75-0·86]; p<0·0001). Interpretation: Despite similar disease severity and ventilation management, ICU mortality in patients without ARDS is higher in MICs than in HICs, with a strong association with country-level economic status