Rediscovery of Leptaxis vetusta (Morelet & Drouet, 1857), a subfossil land snail from the Quaternary of Santa Maria (Azores)

During a recent field work on the southern coast of the island of Santa Maria (Azores) a bulk sample of 37 shells and 25 fragments of Leptaxis vetusta was assembled from Late Pleistocene and Holocene slope deposits outcropping in the area. These specimens are the first of this rare subfossil species to be mentioned since the original descriptions of Arthur Morelet and Henri Drouet (1857). The purposes of our paper are a systematic and biometric description of L. vestuta. For the first time, the original type: locality was localized with accuracy over the southern downslopes of Pico do Facho, between Figueiral and Prainha. The subfossil specimens were collected in slope deposits and detritic fans, overlying a fossiliferous marine deposit situated over the 2-3 m abrasion platform of Praia and Prainha bay. The age and factors associated to the extinction of this species are discussed, including the destruction of the original laurel cover and the colonization by Otala lactea (Muller, 1774), a continental helicid introduced and widespread in Santa Maria.

Materials handling in hospitals: An analysis of how the storage and materials handling system can be improved, using the example of Hospital Santa Maria

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Management from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

The accounting system of the Hieronymite Monastery of Santa Maria de Belém circa 1833

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Finance from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

Brotherly love and filial obedience: the commemorative programme of the Avis princes at Santa Maria da Vitória, Batalha

This dissertation focuses on a rare 15th century commemorative programme that has thus far received little scholarly attention: the collective monument erected in the Founder’s Chapel, at the Monastery of Santa Maria da Vitória, Batalha, to house the remains of four Avis princes, members of what would become known as ‘the Illustrious Generation’. A patron is proposed for the commission of this erudite monument - the princes’ eldest brother, king Duarte I - arguing its integration into a broader propaganda programme to glorify the memory of the Avis dynasty founder, king João I. The dissertation then proceeds to discuss various highly innovative features of the monument, such as its pseudo-architectural character, its use of sophisticated heraldry and personal badges, the apparent absence of religious iconography on the tombs and, importantly, the collective nature of the programme, key to its interpretation. Using a semiotic approach, a discussion is also offered on the way the various formal, iconographic and conceptual novelties of the princes’ monument impacted on the 15th century monumental landscape in Portugal. Finally, the monument and the chapel housing it are looked at through the prism of the various readings that successive generations of viewers have projected onto it, from the time of its creation to the turn of the 20th century, in order to offer a more comprehensive understanding of the object as it stands today.