Education and development in early childhood in two portuguese cultural contexts: the mainland and Azores

The various aspects of a child’s development (physical, psychological, emotional, relational, cognitive, linguistic, perceptive, and motor), as well as the child’s needs and attitudes, are key throughout his/her life and have been studied over the years by various researchers. We will examine the similarities and differences observed in the education and stimulation of children in two cultural contexts: on the Portuguese mainland (Lisbon, Almada, Santarém, Almeirim, and Portalegre regions) and Azorean islands (São Miguel, Pico, and Terceira). Our research focussed on children’s upbringing and development in the following areas: food and hygiene; cognitive and linguistic development; perceptual and motor development; emotional and relational development; sleep; and play and childcare practices. We identify several aspects that contribute to children’s positive physical and psychological development in the first two years of life, both on the mainland and in the Azores, examining aspects, such as sensory stimulation, sleep, types of play, and toys.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Carbohydrate-based 1,3-oxazoline-2-thiones as original bioactive structures:synthesis and reactivity

Tese de doutoramento, Química (Química Orgânica), 2009, Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de CiênciasDisponível no document

Another Consequence of the Economic Crisis: A Decrease in Migrants’ Remittances

The effects of the current global economic crisis are widespread. The economic downturn has affected large sectors of the population in developed and developing countries and international immigrants have not been the exception. This paper documents the recent slowdown in workers’ remittances, the money that international immigrants send to their countries of origin. Current data indicates that remittance flows have decreased for all regions of the world. Latin America stands out by reporting an almost zero percent growth rate of remittances for 2008. Among Latin American countries, Mexico (the largest recipient of remittances in the region in terms of volume) seems to be the most affected with a decrease of more than US$900 million between 2007 and 2008. This article also presents evidence of the impact of some of the factors associated with the current economic crisis on remittances flows. The results indicate that there is a strong link between housing activity in the United States and remittances flows.

The financial sustainability of Microcredit in Portugal

Microcredit and microfinance emerged in the 1970’s in Bangladesh and other developing countries and expanded rapidly worldwide as a business model financially sustainable and able to fight poverty and social exclusion. Empirical evidence confirms microcredit ability to mitigate poverty but its financial sustainability is controversial. Using 2006-2009 Portuguese micro-level data, we estimate the failure rate of Portuguese micro-credit projects as 20,6%/year that, to be financially sustainable, would require a real interest rate by 25%/year. Using a territorial variable on a discrete Cox proportional hazard model with censured data, we estimate that the failure rate of those micro-credit projects located in the worst-case NUTS II Portuguese regions (Alentejo and Centro) and promoted by lower schooling people is significantly higher than best-case.Microcredit, Firms failure rate, Poverty, Financial sustainability

The impact of renewable energy sources on economic growth and CO2 emissions - a SVAR approach

Over the last years renewable energy sources (RES) have increased their share on electricity generation of most developed economies due to environmental and security of supply concerns. The aim of this paper was to analyze how an increasing share of RES on electricity generation (RES-E) affects Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Several methodologies could be used for this purpose. The Structural Vector Autoregressive (SVAR) methodology considers the interactions among all variables in the model and is well suited to predict the effects of specific policy actions or important changes in the economy. Therefore, we chose to implement this methodology. We used a 3 variable SVAR model for a sample of four countries along the period 1960-2004. The existence of unit roots was tested to infer the stationarity of the variables. The countries chosen have rather different levels of economic development and social and economic structures but a common effort of investment in RES in the last decades. Through the impulse response functions (IRF), the SVAR estimation showed that, for all countries in the sample, except for the USA, the increasing RES-E share had economic costs in terms of GDP per capita. As expected, there was also an evident decrease of CO2 emissions per capita. The variance decomposition showed that a significant part of the forecast error variance of GDP per capita and a relatively smaller part of the forecast error variance of CO2 per capita were explained by the share of RES-E.Renewables, economic growth, CO2 emissions, SVAR

Phenolics extraction from sweet potato peels: modelling and optimization by response surface modelling and artificial neural network

Sweet potato peels (SPP) are a major waste generated during root processing and currently have little commercial value. Phenolics with free radical scavenging activity from SPP may represent a possible added-value product for the food industry. The aqueous extraction of phenolics from SPP was studied using a Central Composite Design with solvent to solid ratio (30-60 mL g(-1)), time (30-90 min) and temperature (25-75 A degrees C) as independent variables. The comparison of response surface methodology (RSM) and artificial neural network (ANN) analysis on extraction modelling and optimising was performed. Temperature and solvent to solid ratio, alone and in interaction, presented a positive effect in TPC, ABTS and DPPH assays. Time was only significant for ABTS assay with a negative influence both as main effect and in interaction with other independent variables. RSM and ANN models predicted the same optimal extraction conditions as 60 mL g(-1) for solvent to solid ratio, 30 min for time and 75 A degrees C for temperature. The obtained responses in the optimized conditions were as follow: 11.87 +/- 0.69 mg GAE g(-1) DM for TPC, 12.91 +/- 0.42 mg TE g(-1) DM for ABTS assay and 46.35 +/- 3.08 mg TE g(-1) DM for DPPH assay. SPP presented similar optimum extraction conditions and phenolic content than peels of potato, tea fruit and bambangan. Predictive models and the optimized extraction conditions offers an opportunity for food processors to generate products with high potential health benefits

Seasonal photosynthesis, respiration, and calcification of a temperate Maërl bed in southern Portugal

Rhodolith (maerl) beds are biodiversity hotspots with a worldwide distribution. Maerl is the general term for free-living non-geniculate rhodoliths or coralline red algae. In southern Portugal, maerl beds are mainly composed of Phymatolithon lusitanicum, recently identified as a new species and commonly misidentified as Phymatolithon calcareum. Photosynthesis, respiration, and growth rates of the algae were measured seasonally, as well as the photosynthetic pigment composition. To characterize the seasonal and interannual patterns of key abiotic conditions in the largest described maerl bed of the Portuguese coast, temperature, irradiance, and dissolved oxygen were continuously monitored over a 2-year period. At the bed depth (22 m), temperature ranged between 14 degrees C in winter and 24 degrees C in summer, irradiance varied from 5 to 75 mu.mol m(-2) s(-1) , and dissolved oxygen from 5.8 to 7.25 mg O-2 L-1. We found a strong linear relationship (r(2) = 0.95) between gross primary production (GPP) and relative electron transport rates (rETRs). Both methods led to similar results and an average molar ratio of 0.24. Photosynthesis and respiration increased in summer and decreased in autumn and winter. In the summer of 2013, the growth rates were twofold higher (1.34 mu.mol CaCO3 g(-1) day(-1)) than in the other seasons. In winter and spring, to compensate for light deprivation and low temperature, algae increased their chlorophyll a and carotenoid concentrations while also decreasing their phycobilin concentration, in this case probably due to nutrient limitation. To isolate the role of temperature on the algae's metabolism, the photosynthetic and respiration rates of individual thalli were measured at eight different temperatures in the laboratory (from 12 degrees C to 26 degrees C). Phymatolithon lusitanicum photosynthesis increased twofold after a threshold of 18 degrees C (from 2.2 at 18 degrees C to 3.87 mu mol O-2 m(-2) s(-1) at 20 degrees C), whereas respiration increased fourfold with temperature after a threshold of 22 degrees C (from -0.38 at 18 degrees C to -1.81 (mu mol O-2 m(-2) s(-1) at 24 degrees C). The significant increases on respiration, photosynthetic rates, and maximum growth with temperature reveal that the metabolic rates of P. lusitanicum are highly sensitive to ocean warming.UIDB/04326/2020info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio