Fitness professionals’ pedagogical intervention

It is recognised the importance of fitness professionals’ intervention for fitness centres’ quality and participants’ satisfaction and retention. The objective of this article is to present several studies that show some particular aspects of pedagogical intervention which must be taken into account for participants’ satisfaction and retention, namely encouragement, instruction and pay attention to participants. Some implications for the practice of fitness professionals’ pedagogical intervention are presented.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Enzimas: qué son y para qué sirven

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¿Por qué proliferan las células?

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Doble hélice, genes y cromosomas

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Formação para Profissionais de Fitness: Exemplo da Licenciatura em Desporto, Condição Física e Saúde

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Ants as storytellers in Mediterranean riverscapes

Doutoramento em Restauro e Gestão Fluviais / Instituto Superior de Agronomia / Faculdade de Arquitectura / Instituto Superior Técnico. Universidade de LisboaRiverscapes support high levels of biodiversity, but are increasingly threatened by global change drivers. Ants are among the most diverse and successful insects on earth and have the ability to respond well to environmental changes. There is a lack of knowledge on the factors that drive ant biodiversity in Mediterranean riverscapes. This thesis aims at studying ant communities in Mediterranean riverscapes, and understand how they respond to disturbance (e.g., land use and invasive species) and to structural attributes of the riverine landscape (e.g., patch typology, spatial configuration and habitat quality), in terms of their richness, abundance and ability to provide ecosystem services. For these purposes, we selected crop and non-crop habitats of the riverine mosaic of three main study areas: a) riparian corridors of Catalonia, Spain; b) riparian corridors and floodplain areas of central Portugal; and c) irrigated cropland of southern Portugal. Ant communities showed to be very sensitive to human-disturbance reflecting a broader perspective of the local ecological status. Based on ants’ responses to different stressors and landscapes elements, we found that land use was the main driver influencing ant communities. However, this might be dependent on the combined factors inherent to the overall disturbance of a particular land use. The Ecological Infrastructure (EI) of less disturbed systems, associated to a reduced abundance of invasive species, showed the highest capacity to provide ant-mediated services. In agricultural areas, ant species are likely recruited from ant communities of the neighbouring EI. Moreover, we found that the Argentine ant may negatively impact native ant communities, particularly in disturbed areas. This thesis has contributed to increment knowledge about ants in riverscapes by providing a biological assessment tool that takes full advantage of ants’ ability to indicate human-disturbance and by providing new insights on the role of EI in ant-diversity conservation in agroecosystems.N/

A Challenge to Lepton Universality in B Meson Decays

One of the key assumptions of the Standard Model of fundamental particles is that the interactions of the charged leptons, namely electrons, muons, and taus, differ only because of their different masses. While precision tests comparing processes involving electrons and muons have not revealed any significant violation of this assumption, recent studies involving the higher-mass tau lepton have resulted in observations that challenge lepton universality at the level of four standard deviations. A confirmation of these results would point to new particles or interactions, and could have profound implications for our understanding of particle physics.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication in Natur

A Qualidade em Atividades de Grupo de Fitness: Construção e Validação do Questionário “Qualidade do Instrutor de Fitness – Atividades de Grupo” (QIF-AG)

Sabendo que comportamentos inadequados ou não gostar do instrutor são motivos invocados pelos praticantes de atividades de grupo de fitness para abandonar a prática, é cada vez mais recomendado aos ginásios implementar estratégias para diminuir o abandono e aumentar a fidelização dos praticantes (Franco, Pereira, & Simões, 2008). Pelo referido, é objetivo deste trabalho construir e validar um questionário que permita avaliar a qualidade do instrutor em atividades de grupo de fitness. A construção teve por base um modelo teórico constituído por 4 dimensões e 25 categorias (Campos, 2015). Após cumprimento das várias fases subjacentes a este processo, nomeadamente após análise fatorial exploratória e confirmatória, o questionário QIF-AG é considerado válido, apesar de com algumas limitações, apresentando uma estrutura fatorial com 2 fatores correlacionados: Qualidade Relacional (11 itens) e Qualidade Técnico-pedagógica (14 itens).The quality in fitness group activities: construction and validation of the questionnaire "Fitness Instructor Quality - Group Activities" (QIF-AG): Knowing that inadequate behaviors or don’t like of the instructor are reasons presented by group fitness participants to dropout, it is increasingly recommended to gyms to apply strategies do decrease the dropout and increase the loyalty of participants (Franco, Pereira, & Simões, 2008). By that, the aim of this study is to construct and validate a questionnaire to assess the quality of the group fitness instructor. The construction was based on a theoretical model with 4 dimensions and 25 categories (Campos, 2015). After completing of the several underlying phases of this process, in particular after the exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, the questionnaire QIF-AG is considered valid, although with some limitations, presenting a factorial structure with 2 correlated factors: Relational Quality (11 items) and Technical-pedagogical Quality (14 items).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Impact of the invasive argentine ant in citrus agroecosystems: effects on the diversity and frequency of native ant species foraging on tree canopy

The invasion of the Argentine ant, Linepithema humile (Mayr) (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) can alter the entire ecosystem with serious impacts on the native community structure (e.g., ant diversity) and processes (e.g., trophic interactions) leading to biodiversity loss and pest outbreaks. Most studies addressing these impacts have been conducted in natural or semi-natural areas, few are those conducted in agricultural ecosystems, such as citrus orchards. These are dominant agricultural ecosystems in Mediterranean landscapes. Furthermore, most studies have been conducted in a short span, not evidencing seasonal fluctuations. In this work, we assessed the ecological impact of the Argentine ant on the native ant communities in citrus orchards, in the region of Algarve, southern Portugal. By using principal response curve, we compared seasonal variation on ant assemblages in invaded and uninvaded citrus orchards foraging on tree canopy from a two-year sampling. The Argentine ant had a marked negative impact on the native ant community foraging on citrus canopy. In the uninvaded orchards, the native ant community had a rich assemblage composed of 16 ant species, in its majority (72%) controlled by the dominant species Lasius grandis Forel, Tapinoma nigerrimum (Nylander) and/or Pheidole pallidula (Nylander). In the invaded orchards, the native ant community was poorer and highly modified, mostly dominated by the Argentine ant (80%). Apparently, the only native ant species not a ected by the presence of the Argentine ant was Plagiolepis pygmaea (Latreille). A significant negative e ect was found between the proportion of infested trees by L. humile and the number of native ant species per orchard. Di erences in the native ant community in the invaded and uninvaded orchards persisted over seasons and years. However, negative impacts were higher in the spring and summer, and less pronounced in the autumn. We discuss implications for citrus pest managementinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Propuesta de un sistema de registro administrativo permanente de graduados y egresados de la Facultad de Medicina Veterinaria y Zootecnia y de la Facultad de Ciencias Agrícolas en el período 2006-2009

Esta Tesis fue realizada dada la necesidad de que la Facultad de Medicina Veterinaria y Zootecnia y la Facultad de Ciencias Agrícolas cuenten con un Sistema de seguimiento de graduados y egresados eficiente y se convierta en una herramienta que permita adoptar políticas que buscan la excelencia académica. El estudio comienza haciendo un diagnóstico del registro actual en las facultades, encontrando deficiencias administrativas e información desactualizada. Para entender la situación actual de graduados y egresados se planteó una encuesta de la que se obtuvo una serie de indicadores relevantes para cumplir con los objetivos propuestos. Finalmente se propone un Sistema de Registro Permanente de graduados y egresados que busca que el funcionamiento administrativo sea más eficiente y vaya acorde a los requerimientos actuales de la Universidad Central del Ecuador.This Thesis was made due to the need of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and Zootechnics as well as the Faculty of Agricultural Science of having an efficient tracking system of graduates and become a tool to adopt policies aimed at academic excellence. The study begins with a diagnosis of the current record in the faculties, with enabled the discovery of administrative deficiencies and outdated information. To understand the current situation of graduates, and survey was carried out, obtaining a series of relevant indicators to meet the objectives. Finally we propose a Permanent Registration System of graduates aiming for the more efficient administrative work and go according to the current requirements of the Central University of Ecuado