The Lusiad, or Portugals historical poem by Luís Vaz de Camões and edited by Michael W. Charney

Luís Vaz de Camões (c. 1524-1580), the famous Lisbon poet, composed Os Lusiades in 1572 to glorify the expedition and exploits of Vasco da Gama in the Indian Ocean. It is a lengthy and epic poem, consisting of ten cantos, the portion relating to mainland Southeast Asia limited to a portion of the last of these. Only this portion is reproduced below. The chief utility of this information for the historian is that it helps us to understand how much, by 1572, Portuguese at home knew about the region. Some information is of special interest, such as the reference to the Gwe. The following translation was made in 1655 by Richard Fanshaw and printed in London for Humphrey Moseley at the Prince’s Arms in St. Paul’s Church-yard. According to the translator’s preface, Fanshaw completed the translation on 1 May 1655 at Tankersley Park. The following text is derived from the British Library original (shelfmark g.11385). Other English translations include Vise Strangford’s version of 1804 (n.p.: Carpenter, BL shelfmark B28.a.31), Edward Quillinan’s version, with notes by John Adamson, of 1853 (n.p.: Edward Moxon, BL shelfmark x15/3449), William Julius Mickie’s 1877 edition (London: George Bell & Sons, BL shelfmark W53/4181), and others in the twentieth century. As the first English translation, the one most late seveneteenth and eighteenth century English travelers would have read, warrants special attention. Edited for the SOAS Bulletin of Burma Research by Michael W. Charney

Evolução recente do litoral de Cacela Velha (Ria Formosa)

Dissertação de mest., Biologia e Geologia (Educação), Faculdade de Ciências do Mar e do Ambiente, Univ. do Algarve, 2007A costa Sul do Algarve, como de resto todas as costas do planeta, sofreu influências das regressões e transgressões do mar ao longo de milhões de anos. A actual morfologia costeira é em parte a herança das variações do nível médio relativo do mar nos últimos milhares de anos, mais especificamente nos últimos 10 000 anos (Holocénico). O sistema de ilhas barreira da Ria Formosa é constituído por penínsulas e ilhas que delimitam um ambiente lagunar interior de elevado valor ecológico e económico. Os processos destrutivos e construtivos actuaram de forma diferenciada ao longo do tempo em cada ilha e península modelando o sistema conhecido por Ria Formosa. O presente trabalho, tem como objectivo principal reconstituir a evolução recente da zona lagunar adjacente à povoação de Cacela Velha. Para tal, recorreu-se por um lado, ao estudo textural de várias amostras recolhidas em sondagens bem como à sua datação por radiocarbono e por outro lado a pesquisa bibliográfica e paleocartográfica. Este trabalho ambiciona ainda, através da análise dos conteúdos programáticos da disciplina de Biologia e Geologia do 3º ciclo do Ensino Básico e Secundário, expor as potencialidades educativas da área em estudo. Os resultados obtidos revelam uma rápida evolução do litoral de Cacela Velha, à escala secular, induzida pelas variações do nível médio relativo do mar. A história geológica da região associada a variações do nível do mar e a alterações climáticas, bem como as ferramentas utilizadas nesta pesquisa, podem ser utilizadas como ferramenta para promover nas escolas do ensino básico e secundário o ensino das Geociências

SMART PANEL: medição, controlo e monitorização num clique

Na sociedade atual, a preocupação com o ambiente, por um lado, e com o conforto e a segurança, por outro, faz com que a sustentabilidade energética se assuma como uma forma de intervenção adequada às exigências de qualidade de vida e à eficiência no âmbito da economia. Nesta conformidade, é incontornável a mais-valia do Smart Panel, um quadro elétrico inteligente criado pela Schneider-Electric com vista à consecução daqueles desideratos. Iremos abordar, neste artigo, a gama de produtos que perfazem esta tecnologia, fazendo uma breve descrição de cada um deles, expondo de seguida um exemplo de aplicação desta tecnologia. Numa fase posterior apresentaremos as vantagens do Smart Panel face à tecnologia tradicional (até hoje a mais comum) no que respeita ao controlo de um quadro elétrico, Sistema de Gestão Técnica Centralizada

Geography, Institutions, and Compared Development in Africa

Recent years have seen a significant improvement in the economic performance of some African countries. The resulting increased dispersion in income levels across Africa, combined with the pertinence of detecting regional role models renders an intra-African analysis more attractive. In this paper I estimate the respective contribution of institutions, geography, and policies in determining income levels in sub-Saharan Africa. I find that income per capita in this region can be explained to a large extent with a few variables - quality of economic institutions, trade, population density in the 19th century, investment, mineral resources, and a dummy variable for small island nations. Contrary to other regions in the world, some policy variables remain significant after controlling for institutions in Africa. Measures of geography (climate, disease ecology, rainfall) have no direct effect on income levels once institutional quality is controlled for.

Geography, European Settlements and Compared Development in the Americas

The interplay between factor endowments, institutional development and economic performance has received considerable attention in recent years. This paper exploits the importance of geographic factors and institutional structures for explaining patterns of settlement and examines how these influenced growth outcomes. I find evidence that prospective European migrants preferred to settle in regions with favourable natural endowments and institutional packages designed to attract them. These settlers not only benefited from a growth-inducing institutional framework but also contributed actively to its quality in a mutually reinforcing relationship. Countries that competed for migrants achieved higher income levels through institutional development and better provision of public goods. Finally, my findings show that the link between European migrants and economic development is not linear, as the positive effects of attracting European settlers on institutions and public goods are set off only when European populations grow to outnumber other ethnic groups. Countries where European migrants remained a minority were more likely to develop institutions that advantaged a small elite and eliminated opportunities for the bulk of the population.

Identity over fragmentation:the case of Vila Nova de Gaia

Porto and VilaNova de Gaia: two cities have grown around the same natural infrastructure, but have developed in totally different ways. Porto, the second city in the country is defined by its culture and very well-known for the Port Wine that has actually always been produced and handled in Gaia. Gaia became just a periphery, never having the chance to create its own identity, despite its amazing landscape where its trading post was settled. Gaia is currently a crossing land – it acts both as a passage for those commuting to Porto and as dormitory. Its urban tissue is mainly consolidated along one axis alone, being that all remaining territory has been despised - in some cases almost abandoned, in others impossible to intervene on due to normative constraints. Strategic territory planning has been growing as a promising alternative within land development policies. Based on new methodological grounds it is supported by prospective analysis, flexible and adaptable measures and local agent involvement and aims at defining structuring development axes and improving territorial competitive performance. The purpose of this work is to highlight the importance of addressing Gaia’s weaknesses and to present an approach through which they can be addressed. Hence, two parallel nonexclusive scenarios are drawn: the first one for short term implementation, aiming to take into consideration the current economic conjuncture; the second one, requiring larger investments, retrieves some already made (and well-known) proposals that shall not be forgotten and shall, hence, be considered on the long-term.Peer Reviewe

A note on the ϵ-indicator subset selection

The ϵ-indicator subset selection selects a subset of a nondominated point set that is as close as possible to a reference point set with respect to the ϵ-indicator. This selection procedure is used by population-based heuristic approaches for multiobjective optimization problems. Given that this procedure is called very often during the run of the heuristic approach, efficient ways of computing the optimal subset are strongly required. In this note, we give a correctness proof of the ϵ-indicator subset selection algorithm proposed by Ponte et al. (2012) [1] for the bidimensional case as well as several algorithmic improvements in terms of time complexity. Extensions to larger dimension are also discussed

Tumor fibroso localizado da pleura: análise de 11 novos casos

ABSTRACTWe present a retrospective revision of a pathology, rare in his incidence (5% of the pleural tumours) and singular in his characteristics, analyzing the presentation forms, surgical treatment and results.The solitary tumours of the pleura are a rare entity, whose biological behaviour is not related with immunohistochemical characteristics; although considered benign, they present sensitive recidivation index and metastization, independently of the volume that they present.The surgery is the only available treatment, and complete surgical excision is decisive.From August 1995 to January 2003, in the casuistry of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery in Santa Marta’s Hospital, were analyzed all the patients with the diagnosis of localized fibrous tumour of the pleura (TFLP). In this context, were identified 11 patients with a medium age of 57,54 years old, 6 of them females, in which the diagnosis of located fibrous tumour of the pleura was established; 6 of the tumours were classified as malignant.All the patients were submitted to surgical excision, with different techniques, without significant intra-operative mortality or intra-hospital morbidity, despite the difficulty of surgery in the most voluminous tumours (one of the tumours weight was 2,5 kg).The follow up elapsed between 4 and 84 months (average – 39,4 months).One patient died 13 months after the surgery, after several crises of lung embolism (that began without determinable relationship with the surgery or the initial pathology), despite the controlled ambulatory anti-coagulation.REV PORT PNEUMOL 2003; IX (6): 493-50

Coaches perceived importance of drills items in basketball players' long term development

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the importance that basketball coaches give to drills items during basketball players' development. Data were collected using a questionnaire previously validated by specialists. Eleven drillsrelated items were tapped: opposition, competition, repetition, execution speed, execution technique, length, timing, decisionmaking, space, game and enjoyment. The sample was divided according to sex and stage of long-term development: initiation, orientation, specialization, or high-performance. No significant differences were found in opposition, cooperation, repetition, execution speed, execution technique, timing, space and game. Significant differences in assigned importance of coaches working with boys in drills length were found. Coaches reinforced the importance of drills length in high-level performance. These results could be related with coaches' experience, while they consider selecting those drills that allow developing simultaneously all training factors (technical, tactical, physical and psychological). Also, significant differences in assigned importance of coaches working with boys to decision-making were found, suggesting that it should be the subject of more intense development primarily in later stages of development, i.e., after 19 years of age. Thus, results seem to reinforce the importance of anticipating handling decision-making in practice drills, increasing players' experiences and developing the ability to beat the opponents. Finally, significant differences in assigned importance of coaches working with both sexes to enjoyment were found. Results suggest that in early stages coaches attribute a great importance to enjoyment. However, in later stages, the importance decreases significantly

Reliability Estimation Using EM Algorithm with Censored Data: A Case Study on Centrifugal Pumps in an Oil Refinery

This work is funded by National Funds through the FCT—Foundation for Science and Technology, I.P., within the scope of the project Ref. UIDB/05583/2020. Furthermore, we would like to thank the Research Centre in Digital Services (CISeD) and the Instituto Politécnico de Viseu for their support.Centrifugal pumps are widely employed in the oil refinery industry due to their efficiency and effectiveness in fluid transfer applications. The reliability of pumps plays a pivotal role in ensuring uninterrupted plant productivity and safe operations. Analysis of failure history data shows that bearings have been identified as critical components in oil refinery pump groups. Analyzing historical failure data for such systems is a complex task due to censored data and missing information. This paper addresses the complexity of estimating the Weibull distribution parameters using the maximum likelihood method under these conditions. The likelihood equation lacks an explicit analytical solution, necessitating numerical methods for resolution. The proposed approach presented in this article leverages the expectation maximization (EM) algorithm for estimating the Weibull distribution parameters in a real-world case study of a complex engineering system. The results demonstrate the superior performance of the EM algorithm with censored data, showcasing its ability to overcome the limitations of traditional methods and provide more accurate estimates for reliability metrics. This highlights the importance of obtaining results through these methodologies in the analysis of reliability and in facilitating more informed decision making in complex systemsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio