The Influence of Water Quality on the Structural Development of Vessels: Smart Dimensioning Process

In fact, it is pivotal the development, use, and management of the best and most suitable coatings to be supplied to vessels—especially those designed for long journeys; not only to increase their stability and safety but also to minimize their maintenance cost. In this regard, it should be also considering the function, the vessel typology and its routes, as well as the quality of the waters by which it will navigate. Topics that are critical to promote a better dimensioning process of vessels. Thus, the present chapter, via an extensive literature review articulated with practical approaches, aims to define relevant directions for vessels structural development processes regarding the water quality (sea or river waters), where they will outline their routes. Therefore, the study looks for a relationship between the vessels structural coating design process and the quality of the water where they navigate. Moreover, such a process not only will optimize/minimize the costs with the periodic maintenance of the vessels linings, but also to relate it with its routes—contributing to the revitalization of their structural dimensioning

Major roads have a negative impact on the Tawny Owl Strix aluco and the Little Owl Athene noctua populations

The increasing road networks threaten ecosystems by direct effects such as increased mortality due to collision with vehicles and by various indirect effects leading to road avoidance. We censused Tawny Owls Strix aluco and Little Owls Athene noctua in 2005, 2007 and 2009 in a rural landscape in Southern Portugal in order to study the effects of roads and habitat characteristics on Tawny Owl density and Little Owl presence. The presence of both owl species in the 70 census locations was coherent among years. Our results showed that Tawny Owl density near major roads was lower, with the negative effects extending possibly up to 2 km. The probability of Little Owl presence was also negatively affected by the proximity to major roads. The negative effects of roads were significant even considering habitat preferences and spatial autocorrelation, which had the most marked effect on the density or presence of both owls. The reduced occupancy by Tawny Owls and Little Owls of habitats near major roads may be caused by several factors, including increased mortality, disturbance caused by high traffic density, and increased fragmentation. Traffic noise in particular may affect intra-specific communication and hunting efficiency. Consequently, habitat near roads may represent lower-quality territories for owls

Wildfire patterns and landscape changes in Mediterranean oak woodlands

Fire is infrequent in the oak woodlands of southern Portugal (montado) but large and severe fires affected these agro-forestry systems in 2003–2005. We hypothesised transition from forest to shrubland as a fire-driven process and investigated the links between fire incidence and montado change to other land cover types, particularly those related with the presence of pioneer communities (generically designed in this context as “transitions to early-successional communities”). We present a landscape-scale framework for assessing the probability of transition from montado to pioneer communities, considering three sets of explanatory variables: montado patterns in 1990 and prior changes from montado to early-successional communities (occurred between 1960 and 1990), fire patterns, and spatial factors. These three sets of factors captured 78.2% of the observed variability in the transitions from montado to pioneer vegetation. The contributions of fire patterns and spatial factors were high, respectively 60.6% and 43.4%, the influence of montado patterns and former changes in montado being lower (34.4%). The highest amount of explained variation in the occurrence of transitions from montado to earlysuccessional communities was related to the pure effect of fire patterns (19.9%). Low spatial connectedness in montado landscape can increase vulnerability to changes, namely to pioneer vegetation, but the observed changes were mostly explained by fire characteristics and spatial factors. Among all metrics used to characterize fire patterns and extent, effective mesh size provided the best modelling results. Transitions from montado to pioneer communities are more likely in the presence of high values of the effective mesh size of total burned area. This cross-boundary metric is an indicator of the influence of large fires in the distribution of the identified transitions and, therefore, we conclude that the occurrence of large fires inmontado increases its probability of transition to shrubland

Site para apoio ao plano contingência para a gripe A (H1N1)v do Centro Regional do Porto da Universidade Católica Portuguesa

O Centro Regional do Porto da Universidade Católica Portuguesa (CRP-UCP) criou o seu plano de contingência para a Gripe A (H1N1) e decidiu divulgá-lo articulando-o com um site. Site este construído de raiz (Julho 2009) para conter diversas informações actualizadas, formulários de comunicação de ausência por Gripe e associado a todo este processo de divulgação surgiu uma newsletter. São apresentados resultados intercalares.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Caffeine Consumption and Mortality in Diabetes: An Analysis of NHANES 1999–2010

Aim: An inverse relationship between coffee consumption and mortality has been reported in the general population. However, the effect of coffee consumption in diabetes remains unclear. We aimed to evaluate the association of caffeine consumption and caffeine source with mortality among patients with diabetes.Methods: We examined the association of caffeine consumption with mortality among 1974 women and 1974 men with diabetes, using the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 1999–2010. Caffeine consumption was assessed at baseline using 24 h dietary recalls. Cox proportional hazard models were fitted to estimate hazard ratios (HR) for all-cause, cardiovascular, and cancer-related mortality according to caffeine consumption and its source, adjusting for potential confounders.Results: A dose-dependent inverse association between caffeine and all-cause mortality was observed in women with diabetes. Adjusted HR for death among women who consumed caffeine, as compared with non-consumers, were: 0.57 (95% CI, 0.40–0.82) for <100 mg of caffeine/day, 0.50 (95% CI, 0.32–0.78) for 100 to <200 mg of caffeine/day, and 0.39 (95% CI, 0.23–0.64) for ≥200 mg of caffeine/day (p = 0.005 for trend). This association was not observed in men. There was a significant interaction between sex and caffeine consumption (p = 0.015). No significant association between total caffeine consumption and cardiovascular or cancer mortality was observed. Women who consumed more caffeine from coffee had reduced risk of all-cause mortality (p = 0.004 for trend).Conclusion: Our study showed a dose-dependent protective effect of caffeine consumption on mortality among women with diabetes

Assessment of environment, land management, and spatial variables on recent changes in Montado land cover in southern Portugal

Montado decline has been reported since the end of the nineteenth century in southern Portugal and increased markedly during the 1980s. Consensual reports in the literature suggest that this decline is due to a number of factors, such as environmental constraints, forest diseases, inappropriate management, and socioeconomic issues. An assessment on the pattern of montado distribution was conducted to reveal how the extent of land management, environmental variables, and spatial factors contributed to montado area loss in southern Portugal from 1990 to 2006. A total of 14 independent variables, presumably related to montado loss, were grouped into three sets: environmental variables, land management variables, and spatial variables. From 1990 to 2006, approximately 90,054 ha disappeared in the montado area with an estimated annual regression rate of 0.14 % year-1. Variation partitioning showed that the land management model accounted for the highest percentage of explained variance (51.8 %), followed by spatial factors (44.6 %) and environmental factors (35.5 %). These results indicate that most variance in the large-scale distribution of recent montado loss is due to land management, either alone or in combination with environmental and spatial factors. The full GAM model showed that different livestock grazing is one of the most important variables affecting montado loss. This suggests that optimum carrying capacity should decrease to 0.18–0.60 LU ha-1 for livestock grazing in montado under current ecological conditions in southern Portugal. This study also showed that land abandonment, wildfire, and agricultural practices (to promote pastures, crops or fallow lands) were three significant variables influencing montado loss

FATORES DE RISCO PARA CALCIFICAÇÃO AÓRTICA E IMPACTO DA CALCIFICAÇÃO DO COLO PROXIMAL E SACO ANEURISMÁTICO NA SUA PROGRESSÃO PÓS-EVAR

A diminuição de diâmetro do saco aneurismático pós-EVAR representa o principal preditor de ausência de complicações precoces. Contudo, ocorre em apenas 60% dos pacientes. Apesar de vários relatos demonstrarem que a calcificação do colo proximal e do próprio saco aneurismático constituem fatores de risco negativos para a diminuição do saco aneurismático, a respetiva influência reveste-se de grande controvérsia. Adicionalmente, ainda que bem conhecidos os fatores de risco de calcificação aórtica, pouco se sabe relativamente à forma como condicionam a calcificação nos diferentes segmentos da artéria. Dadas as alterações morfológicas de uma artéria aneurismática, será de esperar uma ativação hemodinâmica diferencial nos seus diferentes segmentos. Esta revisão centra-se, portanto, em descrever quais os fatores de risco que influenciam a calcificação do colo proximal e do próprio saco aneurismático, assim como a sua influência na progressão do saco no período pós-EVAR

HABILIDADES PROFISSIONAIS DETERMINANTES DO SUCESSO EM VENDAS

This paper seeks to identify professional sales abilities and practices considered as determinants to successful sales procedures and, at the same time, this study highlights the ability in knowing how to listen to the client as already well knownd among sales professionals and deemed as the most important. Based upon a qualitative survey carried out with 499 national professional sellers, the results confirm and ratify the ability in knowing how to listen as the most relevant to successful sales actions. Taking into account the outcome and seeking to maximize the individual satisfaction of clients aimed at strengthening the client-supplier relationship, this study stresses that the success of sales actions becomes increasingly dependant on client-seller relationship reducing, this way, the importance of old sales process. The authors of this paper develop a particular approach of sales abilities determinant of successful sales, with emphasis on 3 main intangible variables which influence sales actions, such as client needs, client-supplier trust relationship and seller abilities. Finally, the authors stress the emotional aspects that influence the buying decision.Este trabajo tiene el objetivo de identificar las habilidades y prácticas profesionales consideradas determinantes para las acciones de venta exitosa. Parte del supuesto de que la habilidad de saber escuchar ya es reconocida, por los prefesionales investigados, como la más importante entre las consideradas determinantes. Las investigaciones realizadas con prefesionales de ventas en todo el país ratifican y confirman que la habilidad de saber escuchar es la más importante en el proceso de ventas. En base a los resultados y preocupados en maximizar la satisfacción individual de cada cliente, el trabajo constata que el éxito en las acciones de venta pasa a ser, cada vez más, una función de la relación cliente-vendedor, descalificando el carácter eminentemente técnico del proceso de ventas. Los autores de ese artículo desarrollan una perspectiva particular respecto de las habilidades determinantes del éxito en ventas, poniendo énfasis en tres variables intangibles principales que condicionan el proceso: la necesidad del cliente, la relación de confianza y la habilidad del vendedor. Los autores destacan aún los aspectos emocionales que influyen en la decisión de compra.O presente trabalho procura identificar habilidades e práticas profissionais consideradas determinantes para as ações de venda bem-sucedidas e pressupõe que a habilidade em saber ouvir já é reconhecida, entre os profissionais investigados, como a mais importante dentre aquelas apontadas como determinantes. Adotou-se uma abordagem particular acerca das habilidades determinantes do sucesso em vendas, com enfoque em três principais variáveis intangíveis que condicionam o processo de venda: a necessidade do cliente, a relação de confiança vendedor-cliente e a habilidade do vendedor. Pesquisas realizadas com profissionais de vendas a nível nacional ratificam e confirmam a habilidade em saber ouvir como a mais relevante para vendas. Com base nos resultados da pesquisa com 499 vendedores nacionais preocupados em maximizar a satisfação individual de cada cliente, o trabalho constata que cada vez mais o êxito em ações de venda passa a ser função do relacionamento cliente - vendedor, desqualificando, assim, o caráter eminentemente técnico do processo da venda. Por fim, o artigo destaca os aspectos emocionais que mais influenciam a decisão de compra, indica pistas e sugere a realização de novos estudos sobre o tema