Optical Satellite Remote Sensing of the Coastal Zone Environment — An Overview

Optical remote-sensing data are a powerful source of information for monitoring the coastal environment. Due to the high complexity of coastal environments, where different natural and anthropogenic phenomenon interact, the selection of the most appropriate sensor(s) is related to the applications required, and the different types of resolutions available (spatial, spectral, radiometric, and temporal) need to be considered. The development of specific techniques and tools based on the processing of optical satellite images makes possible the production of information useful for coastal environment management, without any destructive impacts. This chapter will highlight different subjects related to coastal environments: shoreline change detection, ocean color, water quality, river plumes, coral reef, alga bloom, bathymetry, wetland mapping, and coastal hazards/vulnerability. The main objective of this chapter is not an exhaustive description of the image processing methods/algorithms employed in coastal environmental studies, but focus in the range of applications available. Several limitations were identified. The major challenge still is to have remote-sensing techniques adopted as a routine tool in assessment of change in the coastal zone. Continuing research is required into the techniques employed for assessing change in the coastal environment

Quantification of the total suspended matter concentration in the sea breaking zone from in situ measurements and remotely sensed data - two empirical approaches

Remote sensing techniques can be used to calculate suspended sediment concentrations and to understand the flux and distribution of sediments driven by mechanisms such as tides and waves, river discharges, etc. The main objective of this study is the quantification of the Total Suspended Matter (TSM) concentration in the sea breaking zone for a particular area of the Portuguese coast, around Aveiro. The methodology used was based on in situ measurements and multi spectral satellite images. In situ experimental techniques (maritime platform, aerial platform, simulation on the beach and water sample collection in the breaking zone) were used to determine a relationship between the TSM concentration and the seawater reflectance in the breaking zone. Spectral reflectance was measured with a spectroradiometer and water samples were simultaneously collected. Empirical relationships were established between TSM concentration and the equivalent reflectance values for sensors SPOT/HRVIR, TERRA/ASTER and Landsat/TM at visible and Near Infra Red (NIR) bands computed from the experimental data. Satellite images from ASTER, SPOT HRVIR and Landsat TM were used together with the same empirical models. These satellite images were calibrated and atmospherically corrected. Equations of linear, polynomial, logarithmic, power and exponential models were tested for the satellite image bands on the visible and near infrared. The coefficients of determination (R-2) were also calculated for each model. The results obtained from the two approaches, in situ measurements and directly from the multi spectral satellite images, were analysed

Semi-Automatization of Support Vector Machines to Map Lithium (Li) Bearing Pegmatites

Machine learning (ML) algorithms have shown great performance in geological remote sensing applications. The study area of this work was the Fregeneda–Almendra region (Spain–Portugal) where the support vector machine (SVM) was employed. Lithium (Li)-pegmatite exploration using satellite data presents some challenges since pegmatites are, by nature, small, narrow bodies. Consequently, the following objectives were defined: (i) train several SVM’s on Sentinel-2 images with different parameters to find the optimal model; (ii) assess the impact of imbalanced data; (iii) develop a successful methodological approach to delineate target areas for Li-exploration. Parameter optimization and model evaluation was accomplished by a two-staged grid-search with cross-validation. Several new methodological advances were proposed, including a region of interest (ROI)-based splitting strategy to create the training and test subsets, a semi-automatization of the classification process, and the application of a more innovative and adequate metric score to choose the best model. The proposed methodology obtained good results, identifying known Li-pegmatite occurrences as well as other target areas for Li-exploration. Also, the results showed that the class imbalance had a negative impact on the SVM performance since known Li-pegmatite occurrences were not identified. The potentials and limitations of the methodology proposed are highlighted and its applicability to other case studies is discussed.The authors would like to thank the financial support provided by FCT—Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., with the ERA-MIN/0001/2017—LIGHTS project. The work was also supported by National Funds through the FCT project UIDB/04683/2020—ICT (Institute of Earth Sciences). Joana Cardoso-Fernandes is financially supported within the compass of a Ph.D. Thesis, ref. SFRH/BD/136108/2018, by national funds from MCTES through FCT, and co-financed by the European Social Fund (ESF) through POCH—Programa Operacional Capital Humano. The Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y Universidades (Project RTI2018-094097-B-100, with ERDF funds) and the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) (grant GIU18/084) also contributed economically

Editorial: Macrophages role in integrating tissue Signals and Biological Processes in Chronic inflammation and Fibrosis

Univ Sao Paulo, Immunol Dept, Sao Paulo, BrazilINSERM, Paris, FranceUniv Fed Sao Paulo, Nephrol Div, Med Dept, Sao Paulo, BrazilUniv Sao Paulo, Renal Physiol Lab, Fac Med, Sao Paulo, BrazilUniv Fed Sao Paulo, Nephrol Div, Med Dept, Sao Paulo, BrazilWeb of Scienc

Enhancing charge storage capacity of cellulose-sweat-based electrolyte flexible supercapacitors with electrochemically exfoliated free-standing carbon yarn electrodes

Funding Information: This work was financed by national funds from FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia , I.P., in the scope of the All-FiBRE project with the reference PTDC/CTM-CTM/1571/2020, ( http://doi.org/10.54499/PTDC/CTM-CTM/1571/2020 ), and the projects LA/P/0037/2020, UIDP/50025/2020 and UIDB/50025/2020 of the Associate Laboratory Institute of Nanostructures, Nanomodelling and Nanofabrication \u2013 i3N. This work was also supported by ERC-CoG-2014, CapTherPV, 647596. Publisher Copyright: © 2024 1CENIMAT|I3N, Materials Science Department, NOVA School of Science and Technology, (NOVA University of Lisbon), 282The Internet of Things (IoT) provides an interface between different electronic devices such as flexible electronics, and e-textiles to capture and receive real-time data and help humans to devise systems that will adequately respond to these environmental stimuli. The main limitations of these devices to work 24/7 are the lack of continuous power supply and easy integration into textiles to perform their functions. The other issues are poor adhesion of active materials with substrates and peeling-off of active material from the electrode substrates and consequently, degradation of electrochemical performance. A potential and evolving strategy is fabricating a current collector-less and integrable carbon yarn-based energy storage device. Herein, we are presenting a facile and novel technique to exfoliate carbon yarn fibers to enhance their electrochemical performance by 3 orders of magnitude. Activated carbon yarn wires acting as current collector-less electrodes along with cellulose acetate-based composite separators offer a large surface area to simulated sweat electrolyte ions and show a gravimetric capacitance of 11.28 Fg−1 at the scan rate of 5 mVs−1. Activated carbon yarn-based symmetric supercapacitor device in a simulated sweat solution electrolyte offers excellent cyclic and bending stability with over 95 % capacitance retention in both tests. Theoretical insight: Supercapacitors (SCs) comprise many active and passive elements. The most passive and vital elements are current collectors, separators, binders, electrolytes, and packaging. Two key elements, current collector and binders can be eliminated by developing current collector-free or free-standing electrodes. Carbonaceous materials such as graphene [1,2], carbon nanotubes (CNT) [3], porous carbon [2], and carbon onions[4,5] are common alternatives of active materials for SCs electrodes owing to their low cost, chemical stability, large surface area, and high electrical conductivity. These active materials show exceptional attributes such as long cyclic life, and high-rate capability owing to their intrinsic operation mechanism e.g., surface charge storage due to large surface area. However, they also suffer from low specific capacitance ascribed to low surface area exposed to electrolyte ions and low charge storage due to poor wettability. The most efficient technique to address this problem is to incorporate doped heteroatoms or surface functional groups such as surface oxygen groups present on the surface of carbon yarn. The inclusion of these doped heteroatoms and functional groups boosts the intrinsic properties, such as electrical conductivity, and wettability. The increased electro-active surface area offers more active sites for electrolyte ions, resulting in more charge storage and higher pseudocapacitance [6–8]. Carbon yarn comprised of long-chain carbon filaments of 2.5–5 µm in radius, excellent conductivity, high chemical and mechanical stability, and light weightiness make it a potential candidate as an active material or a free-standing electrode for SCs. However, due to its low specific capacitance, limited surface area, and low porosity, carbon yarn failed to be directly exploited as a free-standing or current collector-less electrode for flexible supercapacitor applications.publishersversionpublishe

Berberine reverts hepatic mitochondrial dysfunction in high-fat fed rats: A possible role for SirT3 activation

Berberine is an isoquinoline alkaloid with anti-diabetic properties. Despite the central role of liver and thus hepaticmitochondria inwhole-bodymetabolism, berberine effects on hepaticmitochondrial function in an obesity model are still unknown. Here, we demonstrate that berberine treatment recovers mitochondrial efficiency when altered by a high-fat feeding.Mitochondria isolated from the liver of high-fat fed rats exhibited decreased capacity to accumulate calcium and impaired oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) capacity, as shown by impaired mitochondrialmembrane potential, oxygen consumption and cellular ATP levels. Interestingly, the recovery of mitochondrial function by berberine was associated with an increased activity of the mitochondrial sirtuin 3 (SirT3). In conclusion, berberine potent protective effects against metabolic syndrome may rely on increasing mitochondrial SirT3 activity, normalizing mitochondrial function and preventing a state of energetic deficit caused by impaired OXPHOS.JST, FVD, APG and ATV were recipients of a Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia PhD scholarship (SFRH/BD/38467/2007, SFRH/BD/38372/ 2007, SFRH/BD/44674/2008 and SFRH/BD/44796/2008, respectively). This project was supported by a FCT grant PTCD/SAU-OSM/72443/ 2006

Spectral Library of Plant Species from Montesinho Natural Park in Portugal

In this work, we present and describe a spectral library (SL) with 15 vascular plant species from Montesinho Natural Park (MNP), a protected area in Northeast Portugal. We selected species from the vascular plants that are characteristic of the habitats in the MNP, based on their prevalence, and also included one invasive species: Alnus glutinosa (L.) Gaertn, Castanea sativa Mill., Cistus ladanifer L., Crataegus monogyna Jacq., Frangula alnus Mill., Fraxinus angustifolia Vahl, Quercus pyrenaica Willd., Quercus rotundifolia Lam., Trifolium repens L., Arbutus unedo L., Dactylis glomerata L., Genista falcata Brot., Cytisus multiflorus (L'H & eacute;r.) Sweet, Erica arborea L., and Acacia dealbata Link. We collected spectra (300-2500 nm) from five records per leaf and leaf side, which resulted in 538 spectra compiled in the SL. Additionally, we computed five vegetation indices from spectral data and analysed them to highlight specific characteristics and differences among the sampled species. We detail the data repository information and its organisation for a better understanding of the data and to facilitate its use. The SL structure can add valuable information about the selected plant species in MNP, contributing to conservation purposes. This plant species SL is publicly available in Zenodo platform.This research was supported by Portuguese national funds through FCT—Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology I.P., under MontObEO—Montesinho biodiversity observatory: an Earth Observation tool for biodiversity conservation (FCT: MTS/BRB/0091/2020). Cátia Rodrigues de Almeida was financially supported by Portuguese national funds through FCT—Foundation for Science and Technology I.P. (Grant: PRT/BD/153518/2021). Neftalí Sillero is supported by a CEEC2017 contract (CEECIND/02213/2017) from FCT. João C. Campos and Nuno Garcia are supported respectively by a research contract and grants from MontObEO project (MTS/BRB/0091/2020). Salvador Arenas-Castro is supported by a María Zambrano fellowship funded by the Spanish Ministry of Universities and the European Union-Next Generation Plan.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

SPECTROMETRY ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES FOR LCT PEGMATITE HALO IDENTIFICATION: THE ROLE OF EUROPEAN PROJECTS

Lithium-Cesium-Tantalum ( LCT) pegmatites are enriched in several raw materials. However, their small size and the limited penetration depth of the sensors, limits remote sensing approaches. This study evaluates the usefulness of hyperspectral data to identify geochemical halos related to LCT pegmatites by exploiting the information acquired in European projects. It was possible to identify key minerals and related mineralogical changes that can be due to hydrothermal alteration. Partial Least Squares Regression (PLSR) was used to model the abundance of Li, Rb and Cs. The most reliable results were obtained for Cs, with results being influenced by lithological and weathering factors. New outcomes are expected, namely mineral chemistry studies that will complement the hyperspectral results

Peripheral axonal ensheathment is regulated by RalA GTPase and the exocyst complex

Funding This work was supported by H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions [H2020- GA661543-Neuronal Trafficking to R.O.T.], Fundo Regional para a Ciência e Tecnologia [IF/00392/2013/CP1192/CT0002 to R.O.T.] and iNOVA4Health (UID/Multi/04462/2013) (co-funded by FCT-FEDER-PT2020).Axon ensheathment is fundamental for fast impulse conduction and the normal physiological functioning of the nervous system. Defects in axonal insulation lead to debilitating conditions, but, despite its importance, the molecular players responsible are poorly defined. Here, we identify RalA GTPase as a key player in axon ensheathment in Drosophila larval peripheral nerves. We demonstrate through genetic analysis that RalA action through the exocyst complex is required in wrapping glial cells to regulate their growth and development. We suggest that the RalA-exocyst pathway controls the targeting of secretory vesicles for membrane growth or for the secretion of a wrapping glia-derived factor that itself regulates growth. In summary, our findings provide a new molecular understanding of the process by which axons are ensheathed in vivo, a process that is crucial for normal neuronal function.publishersversionpublishe

Microwave-Driven Hexagonal-to-Monoclinic Transition in BiPO4: An In-Depth Experimental Investigation and First-Principles Study

Present theoretical and experimental work provides an in-depth understanding of the morphological, structural, electronic, and optical properties of hexagonal and monoclinic polymorphs of bismuth phosphate (BiPO4). Herein, we demonstrate how microwave irradiation induces the transformation of a hexagonal phase to a monoclinic phase in a short period of time and, thus, the photocatalytic performance of BiPO4. To complement and rationalize the experimental results, first-principles calculations have been performed within the framework of density functional theory. This was aimed at obtaining the geometric, energetic, and structural parameters as well as vibrational frequencies; further, the electronic properties (band structure diagram and density of states) of the bulk and corresponding surfaces of both the hexagonal and monoclinic phases of BiPO4 were also acquired. A detailed characterization of the low vibrational modes of both the hexagonal and monoclinic polymorphs is key to explaining the irreversible phase transformation from hexagonal to monoclinic. On the basis of the calculated values of the surface energies, a map of the available morphologies of both phases was obtained by using Wulff construction and compared to the observed scanning electron microscopy images. The BiPO4 crystals obtained after 16–32 min of microwave irradiation provided excellent photodegradation of Rhodamine B under visible-light irradiation. This enhancement was found to be related to the surface energy and the types of clusters formed on the exposed surfaces of the morphology. These findings provide details of the hexagonal-to-monoclinic phase transition in BiPO4 during microwave irradiation; further, the results will assist in the design of electronic devices with higher efficiency and reliability