Symbolic dynamics generated by a hybrid chaotic systems

We consider piecewise defined differential dynamical systems which can be analysed through symbolic dynamics and transition matrices. We have a continuous regime, where the time flow is characterized by an ordinary differential equation (ODE) which has explicit solutions, and the singular regime, where the time flow is characterized by an appropriate transformation. The symbolic codification is given through the association of a symbol for each distinct regular system and singular system. The transition matrices are then determined as linear approximations to the symbolic dynamics. We analyse the dependence on initial conditions, parameter variation and the occurrence of global strange attractors.

Para uma pedagogia do reconhecimento: da concriação à pratica vocativa

Esta dissertação assume, na sua maior abrangência, a feitura de uma articulação entre a sustentação originária e constitutiva do ser humano, a manifestação concreta do sentido existencial do ato pedagógico e os seus modos de realização: dialógico, comunitário, personalista e humanista. Neste sentido, a nossa proposta passa inicialmente por uma procura do sujeito através do alcance da pessoa, do homem ao indivíduo (nas suas diversas vicissitudes), até à sua concretização numa consciência pedagógica precursora do agir, do conhecer, do sentir e, fundamentalmente, do ato de “Reconhecer”, este tido, por nós, como o processo fundamentador e fomentador de uma Pedagogia do Reconhecimento. É um percurso inovador na medida em que parte de uma Antropologia Filosófica e de uma Antroposofia, passando pelos meandros processuais da consciência lonerganiana e da fenomenologia buberiana da relação, pretendendo promover, no seu culminar, uma ambiência cultural de pedagogia dialógica inserida num topos comunitário, pressuposta e implicitamente proposta numa Teoria do Reconhecimento, que se situa na geografia disciplinar da Filosofia da Educação, e nas “Dinâmicas das Relações Interpessoais”. Temos, pois, que o seu epílogo é o reconhecimento: como resultado radical e subtil manifestado na intersubjetividade. A Pedagogia do Reconhecimento como concriação e ação vocativa está fundamentada num itinerário de estruturas idiossincráticas de sustentação do modo como “ser-aí” se faz (constrói e realiza). Partiremos da desaxialização do “Eu” tópico (anthropos) para uma estrutura transversal dialógica. Entendemos que toda a vida verdadeira é relação, afirmação buberiana que, só por si, derruba a clássica fronteira tópica e abre espaço à condição dialógica e essencial do fazer do ser humano. O papel do reconhecimento do “outro”, no homem, é um fenómeno de dialogicidade que abole as fronteiras dialéticas da pura argumentação e permite o brotar da reciprocidade; Abstract: This dissertation intends, in its greater scope, to make a link between the original and constitutive support of the human being, the concrete manifestation of pedagogical act's existential sense and its embodiments: dialogical, personalistic, communitarian and humanist. Our proposal initially goes through a search of the Self through the achievement of the person, from Man to the individual (in its various vicissitudes), till its development in a pedagogical conscience that is a precursor of action, knowing, feeling and, fundamentally, of the act of “Recognize”, as a justifying and instigating process of a Pedagogy of Recognition. It is an innovative path in the sense that it initiates itself from a Philosophical Anthropology and from an Anthroposophy and it continues through the procedural intricacies of lonerganian consciousness and buberian phenomenology of relation, intending to promote, in its culmination, a cultural ambience of dialogic pedagogy, inserted in a communitarian topos, presupposed and implicitly proposed in a Recognition Theory, that places itself in the disciplinary geography of Philosophy of Education and in the “Dynamics of Interpersonal Relationships”. Therefore, the epilogue is the recognition: as a radical and subtle outcome, expressed in the intersubjectivity. The Pedagogy of Recognition as co-creation and vocative practice is based on a route of idiosyncratic structures of support of the way in how to be there is done (built and accomplished). We start from the de-axialization of the topic “Self” (anthropos) to a transversal dialogical structure. We defend that all true life is relationship, a buberian statement that all alone drops the topical classical border and makes room for the dialogical and essential condition of doing of the human being. The role of recognition of the “other”, in Man, is a dialogical phenomenon that abolishes the dialectic borders of pure argument and allows the sprouting of reciprocity.

DNA barcoding: an effective tool to overcome morphological identification constraints in the assessment of the ecological quality

DNA barcoding has the potential to overcome taxonomic challenges in biological community assessments. However, fulfilling that potential requires successful amplification of a large and unbiased portion of the community. In this study, we attempted to identify mitochondrial gene cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) barcodes from 1024 benthic invertebrate specimens belonging to 54 taxa from low salinity environments of the Mira estuary and Torgal riverside (SW Portugal). Up to 17 primer pairs and several reaction conditions were attempted among specimens from all taxa, with amplification success defined as a single band of approximately 658 bp visualized on a pre-cast agarose gel, starting near the 5' end of the COI gene and suitable for sequencing. Amplification success was achieved for 99.6% of the 54 taxa, though no single primer was successful for more than 88.9% of the taxa. However, only 68.5% of the specimens within these taxa successfully amplified. Inhibition factors resulting from a non-purified DNA extracted and inexistence of species-specific primers for COI were pointed as the main reasons for an unsuccessful amplification. These results suggest that DNA barcoding can be an effective tool for application in low salinity environments where taxa such as chironomids and oligochaetes are challenging for morphological identification. Nevertheless, its implementation is not simple, as methods are still being standardized and multiple species

Urban public policies: towards the improvement of landscape ecological system. The case-study of the city of Évora, Portugal.

The Charter of European Planning 2013 presents a Vision for the future of European cities and regions, highlighting the sustainability of cities and the preservation of urban ecosystems, integrating the man-made environment with the natural ecosystems and contribute to the well-being and quality of life of their inhabitants and other stakeholders. Thus, urban public policies are crucial to the improvement of the landscape ecological system, achievable by city planning and design. The paper aims to analyse if public urban policies in Portugal have been integrating strategies and/or guidelines to enhance the ecological system of the landscape. Then, which new perspectives are possible, framed by the recently approved law Bases of Public Policy of Soils, Land Management and Urban Planning (2014). This new law, in contrast with the previous ones, don’t allow reserving land to urbanize, in municipal master plans. Moreover, it is possible to revert land classified for urban purposes in those plans into rustic soils (when it is not yet infra-structured or built). It allows creating new planning and design dynamics, convert several areas and including them in the urban ecological structure, essential to the enhancement of landscape ecological system. This is a filed of work where landscape architecture has huge responsibilities, by associating and harmonize man-made environment with natural systems, enlightening sustainability consistent with conservation and improvement of Nature while contributing to the well-being and quality of life of Man. A sustainability that is ethical, aesthetic, ecological and cultural. The study is supported by a case study – the city of Évora. The ultimate goal is to propose measures to promote larger and better integration of ecological component in urban public policies, framed by the new territorial management law, taking into account and highlighting the specificities of the landscape system – Man and Nature – at the local level.

An R package for simulating metapopulation dynamics and range expansion under environmental change

The metapopulation paradigm is central in ecology and conservation biology to understand the dynamics of spatially-structured populations in fragmented landscapes. Metapopulations are often studied using simulation modelling, and there is an increasing demand of user-friendly software tools to simulate metapopulation responses to environmental change. Here we describe the MetaLandSim R package, mwhich integrates ideas from metapopulation and graph theories to simulate the dynamics of real and virtual metapopulations. The package offers tools to (i) estimate metapopulation parameters from empirical data, (ii) to predict variation in patch occupancy over time in static and dynamic landscapes, either real or virtual, and (iii) to quantify the patterns and speed of metapopulation expansion into empty landscapes. MetaLandSim thus provides detailed information on metapopulation processes, which can be easily combined with land use and climate change scenarios to predict metapopulation dynamics and range expansion for a variety of taxa and ecological systems.

Dynamic Match Analysis

Recent technological development has enabled research- ers to gather data from different performance scenarios while considering players positioning and action events within a specific time frame. This technology varies from global positioning systems to radio frequency devices and computer vision tracking, to name the most common, and aims to collect players’ time motion data and enable the dynamical analysis of performance. Team sports—and in particular, invasion games—present a complex dynamic by nature based on the interaction between 2 opposing sides trying to outperform 1 another. During match and training situations, players’ actions are coupled to their performance context at different interaction levels. As expected, ball, teammates’, and opponents’ positioning play an important role in this interaction process. But other factors, such as final score, teams’ development level, and players’ expertise, seem to affect the match dynamics. In this symposium, we will focus on how different constraints affect invasion games dynamics during both match and training situations. This relation will be established while underpinning the importance of these effects to game teaching and performance optimization. Regarding the match, different performance indicators based on spatial-temporal relations between players and teams will be presented to reveal the interaction processes that form the crucial component of game analysis. Considering the training, this symposium will address the relationship of small-sided games with full- sized matches and will present how players’ dynamical interaction affects different performance indicators.