The British and South African approaches to asylum based on sexual orientation and gender identity

Since the 1980’s it has been possible to claim asylum on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity in some countries. Most studies on this topic focus on countries in the Global North. Therefore, there is still a lack of research that comparatively analyses the Global North with the Global South. The aim of this article is then to analyse and compare the approaches of two countries that grant refugee status on the basis of sexuality and gender identity, one in the Global North (the United Kingdom) and one in the Global South (South Africa)

The first Strigocis Dury (Coleoptera, Ciidae) from the southern Neotropical region and a provisional key to world species

Strigocis vicosensis Lopes-Andrade, sp. n. is described based on specimens from a single locality (type locality: Viçosa, state of Minas Gerais, southeastern Brazil), being the southernmost record of a Strigocis Dury species. Diagnostic to this new species are the dorsal vestiture consisting of stout yellowish bristles, pronotal punctures separated from each other by at least 0.75× puncture-width and sutural flange of elytra not diverging near apex. Males have both frontoclypeal ridge and anterior pronotal margin produced forward and emarginated at middle forming two small subtriangular plates, and a small abdominal sex patch. Among the New World Strigocis, it most resembles Strigocis bilimeki (Reitter), of which images of male terminalia, as far as ventral and dorsal SEM images of males are also provided. The morphological limits of Strigocis are briefly discussed and redefined, and a provisional key to the world species is provided

Wind Risk Assessment in Urban Environments: The Case of Falling Trees During Windstorm Events in Lisbon

Trees bring many benefits to the urban environment. However, they may also cause hazards to human population, being the major causes of injuries and infrastructural damage during strong wind events. In the city of Lisbon, strong winds rather frequently result in tree falls, depending on the season and meteorological conditions. This paper presents a methodology to analyse tree damage due to strong wind events in urban environments. Each occurrence has been recorded by the Lisbon Fire Brigade and Rescue Services (Regimento de Sapadores Bombeiros de Lisboa - RSBL). Information provided by RSBL relating to the period of 1990-2005 was considered along with hourly wind speed and direction, species, fitossanitary conditions and urban parameters. To ensure that the fallen trees were caused by strong winds, only days with three or more occurrences of fallen trees were selected. It was found that in summer, northerly winds are responsible for 11% of tree falls, with winds from other directions (west, southwest and south) responsible for 5%. From autumn to spring, perturbed weather conditions originating from the west, southwest and south are responsible for 84% of fallen trees. The majority of tree falls occurred when wind speed surpassed 7 m/s in the six hours prior to their fall. Some recommendations to the Civil Protection Agency and the Fire Department are presented to improve the mission of collecting information. This research is a contribution to the assessment of wind risk in Lisbon

Wind risk assessment in urban environments: the case of falling trees during windstorm events in Lisbon

Trees bring many benefits to the urban environment. However, they may also cause hazards to human population, being the major causes of injuries and infrastructural damage during strong wind events. In the city of Lisbon, strong winds rather frequently result in tree falls, depending on the season and meteorological conditions. This paper presents a methodology to analyse tree damage due to strong wind events in urban environments. Each occurrence has been recorded by the Lisbon Fire Brigade and Rescue Services (Regimento de Sapadores Bombeiros de Lisboa - RSBL). Information provided by RSBL relating to the period of 1990-2005 was considered along with hourly wind speed and direction, species, fitossanitary conditions and urban parameters. To ensure that the fallen trees were caused by strong winds, only days with three or more occurrences of fallen trees were selected. It was found that in summer, northerly winds are responsible for 11% of tree falls, with winds from other directions (west, southwest and south) responsible for 5%. From autumn to spring, perturbed weather conditions originating from the west, southwest and south are responsible for 84% of fallen trees. The majority of tree falls occurred when wind speed surpassed 7 m/s in the six hours prior to their fall. Some recommendations to the Civil Protection Agency and the Fire Department are presented to improve the mission of collecting information. This research is a contribution to the assessment of wind risk in Lisbon

Plataforma para rastreio neonatal com suporte a múltiplos formatos de dados e patologias

It is currently difficult to find a society that is not surrounded by new technologies, which are constantly emerging and evolving. With this technological evolution, many areas also began to enter a new era, as is the case of medicine, more specifically the screening of metabolic diseases in newborns. For a long time, it has been a great concern to discover the reasons why newborn babies, apparently healthy, die. With the emergence of new analysis techniques, it was possible to begin to unravel and find solutions to avoid these fatalities. Nowadays, there are already programs for diagnosing metabolic diseases in newborns and equipment capable of analyzing samples that allow diagnosing these diseases. In order to support technicians who examine the data coming from these equipment, and to prevent errors, there was a need to create systems capable of providing this support.Atualmente é dificil encontrar uma sociedade que não se rodeie com as novas tecnologias, que não param de surgir e evolir. Com esta evolução tecnológica, muitas àreas começaram também a entrar numa nova era, como é o caso da medicina, mais especifiacamente o rastreio de doenças metabólicas em recém nascidos. À muito tempo, que é uma grande preocupação descobrir os motivos aos quais levavam bebés recém nascidos, aparentemente saudáveis, a vir a falecer. Com o aparecimento de novas técnicas de análise, foi possível começar a desvendar e encontrar soluções para evitar essas fatalidades. Nos dias de hoje, já existem programas para diagnóstico de doenças metabólicas em recém nascidos e equipamentos capazes de analisar amostras que permitem diagnosticar essas doenças. Tendo em vista dar suporte a técnicos que examinam os dados vindos desses equipamentos, e prevenir erros, houve a necessidade de criar sistemas capazes de dar esse apoio.Mestrado em Engenharia Informátic

The type of advertising appeals on consumer responses : a study on green advertising

The present dissertation aims to understand the impact of the type of advertising appeals (high vs low visually emotional) on consumer responses (Attention to the advertisement, Likelihood of Purchase and Willingness to Pay) to green advertising. Additionally, the mediating role of type of emotions was tested in the relationship between the type of advertising appeals and consumers’ responses. Based on a review of the academic literature, an experimental study was conducted, and results show that consumer responses, especially attention to the advertisement, are more impacted when a high visually emotional advertisement is presented. Additionally, negative rather than positive emotions show to mediate the relationship between visually emotional advertising appeals and consumers’ attention to the advertisement, as well as, the likelihood of purchase a sustainable product, such as bamboo toothbrush.A presente dissertação tem como objetivo compreender o impacto dos diferentes tipos de publicidade (alto versus baixo visualmente emocional) nas respostas dos consumidores (Atenção ao Anúncio, Intenção de Compra e Disposição para Gastar) a publicidade sustentável. Adicionalmente, o papel mediador do tipo de emoções foi testado na relação entre o tipo de apelo publicitário e a resposta dos consumidores. Baseado na revisão de literatura, foi desenvolvido um estudo experimental, e os resultados demonstram que as respostas dos consumidores, especialmente no que diz respeito à atenção ao anúncio, são fortemente condicionadas e mais favoráveis quando um anúncio tem um maior impacto emocional. Além disso, as emoções negativas demonstram mediar a relação entre o tipo de publicidade visualmente emocional e a atenção dos consumidores ao anúncio aquando comparadas com as emoções positivas. Estas têm também um impacto na probabilidade de compra de um produto sustentável, nomeadamente escova de dentes de bambu

Characterization of MsmX: A multitask ATPase from Bacillus subtilis

Transport across biological membranes is fundamental for cell survival and is mainly accomplished by specialized membrane proteins known as transporters. The ABC-type transporters constitute one of the largest and most diverse transporter superfamilies and are found in all three domains of life (Archaea, Bacteria and Eukarya). These permeases utilize the binding and hydrolysis of ATP to power the directional transport of a wide variety of substrates across membranes, ranging from ions to macromolecules. The ABC transporters have a modular architecture comprising two transmembrane domains (TMDs) that form the translocation pore and two nucleotide-binding domains (NBDs) that hydrolyse the necessary ATP for the translocation process. Until the last few years, NBDs were thought to be exclusive of each transporter complex, however it was discovered that several bacterial species ABC transporters share the same energy-generating component. In the Gram-positive model organism Bacillus subtilis ten ABC transporters are predicted to be involved in sugar uptake and eight of these systems do not display a gene encoding a putative NBD protein in their vicinity. Recent studies, demonstrated that MsmX interacts with several of these eight distinct ABC sugar importers. Thus, unlike other NBDs, MsmX was shown to be multitask serving as energy-generating component to several sugar importers. Other examples of multitask ATPases are also found in Streptococcus and Streptomyces species and are involved in the uptake of carbohydrates. So a better understanding of these multitask ATPases may have an important impact in therapy development for pathogenic bacteria since carbohydrate utilization is essential for microorganisms survival. In this work we demonstrate that B. subtilis can be used as a model to study multitask ATPases from other Gram-positive pathogenic species. A genetic system was developed to test in vivo the functionality of MsmX homologs from pathogenic species: Bacillus thuringiensis, Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus pneumoniae. The results show that the proteins are capable to play the role of MsmX in the cell, although with a different degree of efficiency. Functional analysis studies of MsmX indicate that modifications in the N- and C-terminal amino acid sequence do not affect its function. Moreover, by mutagenesis we show both in vitro an in vivo that the Lys 43 of MsmX, a conserved amino acid of NBDs, is essential for ATP hydrolysis. Additionally, the MsmX production and purification protocol was improved for further crystallography studies and biochemical characterization