Combined impacts of climate and socio-economic scenarios on irrigation water availability for a dry Mediterranean reservoir

The impacts of climate and associated socio-economic changes on water availability, including supply and demand, quality, and storage volume, were evaluated for the Vale do Gaio reservoir in southern Portugal, located in a dry Mediterranean climate and already under drought stress. The SWAT model was applied with 6 scenarios for 2071-2100, involving two storylines (A1B and B1) with individual changes in climate (-9% rainfall, increasing in winter by +28 to +30%), socio-economic conditions (an increase in irrigation demand by 11%, and a replacement of cereals and pastures by sunflower), and a combination of both. Most future scenarios resulted in lower water availability, due to lower supply (-19 to -27%) combined with higher irrigation demand (+3 to +21%). This resulted in more years with limited irrigation supplies (presently: 28%; scenarios: 37 to 43%), although limitations were mitigated by lower losses to excess discharge. Land-use changes also decreased quality by increasing P concentrations (+29 to +93%). Impacts were more severe in scenario A1B than in B1, and in combined changes than in climate or socio-economic changes only. Water availability was resilient to climate change, as impacts led only to a moderate aggravation of present-day conditions. Lower future water availability could be addressed by supply and demand management strategies and, in the most extreme scenario, by water transfers from regional water reserves; water quality issues could be addressed through land-use policies. Results also highlighted the importance of taking the characteristics of water supply systems into account when designing adaptation measures for future changes.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Communication and society:senior virtual university's contribution to sustainability during the pandemic perio

Lifelong Learning (LLL) and Sustainable Human Development (HDI) are defended by ONU focused on their educational goals and quality of life. Objective: In the pandemic period an attempt was made to evaluate the contributions of the new experience of the Senior Virtual University (SVU): the perceptions and participation in training activities and the correlation between variables. Method: This is a quantitative, cross-sectional, and correlational study involving 86 senior virtual university students, using beyond a demographic questionnaire the USVSOQ scale. Results:The USVSOQ scale has a good internal consistency (Cronbach's Alpha coefficient=0.82). There is a positive correlation (rho=0.6) and statistically significant (p<0.001) between satisfaction with the SVU and the continuity of participation of its students for the next academic year. The SUV offer is inclusive, transversal and covers the whole country. The association between suggestions for SVU improvement to be implemented in the next school year and gender is highlighted (p-value = 0.04). Conclusion: SVU prove to be a contribution to sustainability in education in periods of confinement and emergency, upskilling.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Anticipating User Needs: Insights from Design Fiction on Conversational Agents for Computational Thinking

Computational thinking, and by extension, computer programming, is notoriously challenging to learn. Conversational agents and generative artificial intelligence (genAI) have the potential to facilitate this learning process by offering personalized guidance, interactive learning experiences, and code generation. However, current genAI-based chatbots focus on professional developers and may not adequately consider educational needs. Involving educators in conceiving educational tools is critical for ensuring usefulness and usability. We enlisted \numParticipants{} instructors to engage in design fiction sessions in which we elicited abilities such a conversational agent supported by genAI should display. Participants envisioned a conversational agent that guides students stepwise through exercises, tuning its method of guidance with an awareness of the educational background, skills and deficits, and learning preferences. The insights obtained in this paper can guide future implementations of tutoring conversational agents oriented toward teaching computational thinking and computer programming.Comment: 17 pages, three figures, accepted at Conversations 2023 but not yet published in workshop proceeding

Physics-based Concatenative Sound Synthesis of Photogrammetric models for Aural and Haptic Feedback in Virtual Environments

We present a novel physics-based concatenative sound synthesis (CSS) methodology for congruent interactions across physical, graphical, aural and haptic modalities in Virtual Environments. Navigation in aural and haptic corpora of annotated audio units is driven by user interactions with highly realistic photogrammetric based models in a game engine, where automated and interactive positional, physics and graphics data are supported. From a technical perspective, the current contribution expands existing CSS frameworks in avoiding mapping or mining the annotation data to real-time performance attributes, while guaranteeing degrees of novelty and variation for the same gesture

Plano de negócio de uma Instituição Particular de Solidariedade Social: “ReViver”

Este plano de negócio incide sobre o planeamento de uma futura instituição particular de solidariedade social – a ReViver – que disponibilizará um programa inovador que pretende reinserir a população sem-abrigo do distrito de Lisboa de volta à sociedade. A análise literária existente, referente ao flagelo que se pretende combater, demonstra o gap existente no mercado português na resolução desta temática, onde Lisboa se destaca como um dos distritos com números mais alarmantes. A escassez de projetos capazes de reinserir estas pessoas na sociedade é uma clara necessidade existente. Esta instituição nascerá neste sentido, no de preencher esta lacuna e fazer verdadeiramente a diferença. A ReViver terá um programa com um modelo integrado que irá providenciar aos seus utentes uma habitação, acompanhamento especializado e um leque de serviços associados. Através de diversas parcerias, pretende-se que os utentes nunca se sintam sem o apoio, contacto, serviço ou produto que necessitem. No tempo certo, estes irão ultrapassar as mais diversas barreiras, reinventar-se e reinserir-se na sociedade, obtendo um emprego, remuneração e, claro, as respetivas responsabilidades que dele advêm. Este programa, assente num modelo integrado com diversas parcerias, será a forma mais eficiente, eficaz e viável de dar uma nova vida a quem nela já não vê qualquer esperança, sendo a Câmara Municipal de Lisboa o parceiro chave do projeto. Pela solidariedade e equidade na nossa cidade e país, vamos fazer ReViver Portugal.This business plan focuses on the development of a future private social solidarity institution - ReViver - which will provide an innovative program that aims to return the homeless population of the Lisbon district back to society. With the existing literary analysis referring to the scourge that is intended to combat, it is understood at this stage the gap in the Portuguese market in solving this theme, where Lisbon stands out as one of the districts with the most alarming numbers. The lack of projects capable of fully reinserting these people into society is a clear existing need. This institution will be born in this sense, filling that gap and truly making a difference. ReViver will have a program with an integrated model that will provide its users with housing, specialized support and a range of associated services. Through various partnerships, it is intended that users never feel helpless or without the support, contact, service or product they need. Step by step, at the right time, they will overcome the most diverse barriers, reinvent themselves and reinsert themselves into society, obtaining a job, remuneration and, of course, their respective responsibilities. This program based on an integrated model with various partnerships will be the most efficient, effective and viable way of giving new life to those who no longer see any hope in it, with the Lisbon city council being the key partner of the project. For solidarity and equity in our city and country, let's make Portugal ‘ReViver’

Identifying dead regions in the cochlea through the TEN Test

SummaryAn audiogram is not sufficient to indicate cochlear dead regions.AimTo investigate cochlear dead regions in sensorineural hearing loss subjects using the TEN test. Site: CEDALVI/ HRAC-USP-Bauru/Sao Paulo/Brazil, August 2003 to February 2004.Study DesignA contemporary cross-sectional cohort study. Material and Methods: The TEN test was applied in three groups: G1(5 women with pure-tone thresholds within normal limits); G2(4 women and 5 men with moderate sensorineural flat hearing loss); G3(19 women and 24 men with mild to severe sloping sensorineural hearing loss).ResultsIn the G1 group the TEN value required to eliminate the test tone was, on average, close to the absolute threshold for all frequencies. No dead regions were found in the ears tested in group G2. 76 ears were tested in group G3, and six showed no evidence of dead regions in the cochlea.ConclusionsThe TEN test was an effective test to indicate a dead region in the cochlea of subjects with sloping sensorineural hearing loss. There is evidence that pure-tone detection is different for subjects with high frequency sensorineural hearing loss and flat hearing loss; we observed a significant difference between the masked threshold and the absolute threshold only in sloping hearing loss and not for flat hearing loss

Serious games for the human behaviour analysis in emergency evacuation scenarios

This paper describes an experiment designed to elicit human behaviour when facing the urgent need of exiting an unknown building. This work is part of a larger effort to devise the methodological approach underlying the implementation of simulation of pedestrians and elicitation of their emergent dynamics, an experimental framework coined SPEED. To validate our experimental setup, a group of 16 experts on fire safety, emergency planning and building evacuation were consulted. The experts were solicited to answer a questionnaire, rating their gaming experiences and validating the questions in the form to be presented to subjects. Their comments were valuable inputs used in the development of the experiment described in this paper. A sample of 62 subjects was then used to test our approach, which consists in having the subjects answering a questionnaire and later on playing a Serious Game resorting to the Unity3D game engine. Some specific scenarios were carefully designed and presented to subjects, both in the questionnaire and in the game environment to maintain consistency of answers. Preliminary results are promising, showing that the challenge made players think about the various situations that might happen when facing an emergency. They are also implied to reason on their stream of decisions, such as which direction to take considering the environment and some adverse situations, such as smoke, fire and people running on the opposite direction of the emergency signage.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

P-060 Imaging examination in Small Ruminant Lentivirus Infection

Small ruminant lentivirus (SRLV) is a group of viruses that infect and transmit among ovine and caprine species. This disease is debilitating, progressive and longstanding disease, associated to high economic losses in livestock farms. Diagnosis is largely made with laboratory methods however and not being a common daily practice. Imaging examination can be a useful tool for the diagnosis of SRLV lesions. Imag- ing modalities can be used in an on-farm setting and can be easily implemented for further best-practices in identifying sheep with signs of clinical disease as early as possible. The main aim of this work was characterizing lesions of SRLV infection using imaging diagnostic techniques.Projeto: 0687_OVISPID_2_E POCTEP – Programa de Cooperação Transfronteiriço Portugal – Espanha.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A simple water balance model adapted for soil water repellency: application on Portuguese burned and unburned eucalypt stands

Soil water repellency can impact soil hydrology, overland flow generation and associated soil losses. However, current hydrological models do not take it into account, which creates a challenge in repellency-prone regions. This work focused on the adaptation for soil water repellency of a daily water balance model. Repellency is estimated from soil moisture content using site-specific empirical relations, and used to limit maximum soil moisture. This model was developed and tested using c. 2 years of data from one long-unburned and two recently burned eucalypt plantations in northern Portugal, all of which showed strong seasonal soil water repellency cycles. Results indicated important improvements for the burned plantations, with the Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency increasing from -0.55 and -0.49 to 0.55 and 0.65. For the unburned site, model performance was already good without the modification and efficiency only improved slightly from 0.71 to 0.74, mostly due to the better simulation of delayed soil wetting after dry periods. Results suggested that even a simple approach to simulate soil water repellency can markedly improve the performance of hydrological models in eucalypt forests, especially after fire.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio