Benefícios da atividade física e desportiva para estudantes do ensino superior : os estudantes/atletas do IPCB

O acesso ao Ensino Superior e a frequência deste nível de ensino para todos os jovens estudantes, mas principalmente para os que se deslocam da sua cidade natal, promove várias alterações nas rotinas e estilos de vida (Small et al., 2013; Kemmler et al., 2016). Estas alterações originam substanciais mudanças comportamentais que acarretam com frequência comportamentos mais sedentários e comportamentos alimentares mais deficitários, que podem originar constrangimentos no estado de saúde (Ferrara, 2009; Small et al., 2013), entre outros. Ao deslocarem-se da proximidade dos seus pais, dos grupos a que pertencem, e com o aumento da sua autonomia, grande parte destes jovens abandona a prática desportiva e deixa de ter acesso às refeições confecionadas pelos progenitores, recorrendo, em muitas das refeições, a comidas de fácil confeção/acesso, normalmente de pouca qualidade nutricional e grande valor calórico (Álvarez et al., 2015; Dalky et al., 2017).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Differential temporal beta‐diversity patterns of native and non‐native arthropod species in a fragmented native forest landscape

An important factor that hinders the management of non‐native species is a general lack of information regarding the biogeography of non‐natives, and, in particular, their rates of turnover. Here, we address this research gap by analysing differences in temporal beta‐diversity (using both pairwise and multiple‐time dissimilarity metrics) between native and non‐native species, using a novel time‐series dataset of arthropods sampled in native forest fragments in the Azores. We use a null model approach to determine whether temporal beta‐diversity was due to deterministic processes or stochastic colonisation and extinction events, and linear modelling selection to assess the factors driving variation in temporal beta‐diversity between plots. In accordance with our predictions, we found that the temporal beta‐diversity was much greater for non‐native species than for native species, and the null model analyses indicated that the turnover of non‐native species was due to stochastic events. No predictor variables were found to explain the turnover of native or non‐native species. We attribute the greater turnover of non‐native species to source‐sink processes and the close proximity of anthropogenic habitats to the fragmented native forest plots sampled in our study. Thus, our findings point to ways in which the study of turnover can be adapted for future applications in habitat island systems. The implications of this for biodiversity conservation and management are significant. The high rate of stochastic turnover of non‐native species indicates that attempts to simply reduce the populations of non‐native species in situ within native habitats may not be successful. A more efficient management strategy would be to interrupt source‐sink dynamics by improving the harsh boundaries between native and adjacent anthropogenic habitats.Portuguese FCT‐NETBIOME – ISLANDBIODIV grant 0003/2011.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A discussion on different techniques for GIS data collecting, precision, accuracy and quality of database

Nowadays, is a common sense the importance of geotechnologies in urban planning, transportation engineering and other different areas of knowledge. The Geographic Information System (GIS) is one of the geotechnologies that has been used increasingly. The collection of information and creation of a database are the most expensive, complex and important task in a GIS project. The collection of information results from the direct and indirect measurement of the real world. The reason for creating databases is to register and the maintain the different sources of collecting information. This paper has the objective to present the different techniques for data collection as input in GIS, as well as a brief discussion on the cost associated with the collection of data. Furthermore, comments on precision, accuracy and the quality of database are given.

Book review: what is environmental history? by J. Donald Hughes

In the second edition of What is Environmental History?, J. Donald Hughes outlines the development of the study of the relationship between humans and nature across time. In tracing the emergence of the field, Hughes’s work underscores the extent to which environmental history is a necessarily interdisciplinary endeavour covering a wide geographic scope. Paulo Rui Anciaes positions this as a text to be approached as a concise reference work to supplement environmental history research

The best bookshops in Tirana, Albania

Paulo Rui Anciaes explores Tirana, Albania’s best bookshops. If there’s a bookshop that you think other students and academics should visit when they’re undertaking research or visiting a city for a conference, find more information about contributing after this article

Book review: justice and fairness in the city: a multidisciplinary approach to ‘ordinary’ cities edited by Simin Davoudi and Derek Bell

In Justice and Fairness in the City: A Multidisciplinary Approach to ‘Ordinary’ Cities, editors Simin Davoudi and Derek Bell present a collection that explores notions of justice in and of the city, with particular focus upon the case of Newcastle. Traversing a range of themes, including questions of mobility, food poverty, education and green space, this cohesive volume underscores the interwoven sites and spaces of inequality experienced within contemporary cities, finds Paulo Rui Anciaes

Book review: rights of way to Brasília Teimosa: the politics of squatter settlement by Charles J. Fortin

The site of Recife’s Brasília Teimosa favela emerged as a flash point of economic and political interests in the 1930s and the scene of subsequent strife into the 1980s. This book aims to unearth events surfacing through periods of revolution, dictatorship, populism, Cuban Communism, the 1964 military coup d’état and crackdown to the amplified reverberation of civil society voices and engagement decades later. Paulo Rui Anciaes finds that the book helps us to understand the type of context that feeds the resentment against the state that explodes once in a while, as we have seen in the wave of protests that have recently swept Brazilian cities

Visual aspects of transport: the last frontier for transport and health research?

BACKGROUND: Transport infrastructures such as roads, car parks, and railways, have a large imprint in urban landscapes. Two perspectives can be considered: 1) View from the infrastructure – what users of motorised modes see when travelling. This view can be enjoyable and relaxing, but also distracting, fatiguing, and disturbing, with possible impacts on road safety and stress. 2) View of the infrastructure - what people see from buildings or when walking around. Visually intrusive infrastructure (e.g., elevated roads) may reduce residential satisfaction and subjective wellbeing. These visual aspects of transport have received little attention as a link between transport and health, when compared with other sensory aspects of the local environment (e.g., noise, air pollution). This study reviews the literature on the health and wellbeing effects of views from/of transport infrastructure, bringing together evidence scattered across many disciplines. METHODS: 1) View from infrastructure: A systematic review was performed, focusing on car drivers, and separating the effects of different types of roadside landscapes and visual elements. 2) View of the infrastructure: A narrative review was performed, given the small number of studies found. RESULTS: 1) View from infrastructure - most evidence relates to the driving task (e.g., distraction, fatigue), not to wider wellbeing aspects (e.g., stress). Monotonous views are consistently linked to fatigue and roadside advertisements linked to distractions. Roadside vegetation has a mix of positive and negative effects on stress and safety behaviour. There is mixed evidence on the effect of other visual elements (e.g., memorials, drones, utility poles, wind turbines) on distraction and safety behaviour. The links between long-term exposure to certain views and car commuter stress have not been studied. 2) View of infrastructure - Studies have found associations between lower subjective wellbeing and views of busy roads and/or car parks, for people at home, in their workplaces, or walking. Views of roads have also been linked with a slower recovery from stress and with reduced restorativeness of green areas. The only study testing the link between views of roads and physical activity did not find significant evidence CONCLUSIONS : Some links have been identified between visual aspects of transport and road safety, stress, and subjective wellbeing. However, the evidence is still incomplete, not covering all the relevant visual characteristics of transport infrastructure and all possible effects on health and wellbeing. This is a gap in the transport and health field, requiring more empirical studies

Urban transport, pedestrian mobility and social justice: a GIS analysis of the case of the Lisbon Metropolitan Area

Urban transport projects redistribute accessibility and environmental quality across the city, potentially creating disadvantages for some social groups. This thesis investigates whether these effects are cumulative or compensatory in the case of the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, analysing inequalities in the light of competing principles of social justice. The novelty of this research lies in the interpretation of local environmental effects as factors restraining the mobility of pedestrians. We propose a series of GIS-based indicators, including community severance and noise exposure of pedestrians on the way to work and walking around their neighbourhoods. We found that projects giving priority to private transport have a disproportionate effect on the pedestrian environment of the elderly and low-qualified populations. The analysis addresses two of the most pressing issues in transport equity analysis. The first is the spatial heterogeneity in patterns of inequality. We estimate relationships between socio-economic variables and indicators of the local effects of transport using alternative comparison areas, defined in terms of centrality and commuting destinations. We found that the social distribution of those effects is sensitive to location and spatial scale. The second issue is the nature of the processes leading to inequalities. We show that accessibility and pedestrian mobility have an influence on neighbourhood socio-economic recomposition and on patterns of settlement in newly developed areas. We also analyse the implications of integrating distributive concerns in transport planning. In the design of the optimal route alignment for a new road, these concerns may increase aggregate community severance costs. In the application of traffic restriction policies, there are trade-offs between the welfare of different groups of concern in terms of time to work and pedestrian exposure to noise. In both cases, the achievement of equity may not be compatible with the party-political interests of the policy-maker