Medicinal plants: Past and present uses in several communities from the North-eastern Portugal

XX Symposium of Brazilian Medicinal Plants & X International Congress of Ethnopharmacology. S. Paulo, Brasil.

Chimpanzees Share Forbidden Fruit

PLoS ONE - www.plosone.org, V.9, e886

Wild species used in the traditional pharmacopoeia of Tr��s-os-Montes (Portugal)

XX Symposium of Brazilian Medicinal Plants & X International Congress of Ethnopharmacology. S. Paulo, Brasil.

Jurassic plant macroremains from Portugal

Mem. Acad. Ci��ncias Lisboa, Classe Ci��ncias, XXXVII: 25-47

Innovation through virtual communities of practice: motivations and constraints in the knowledge-creation process

This paper appears in International Journal of Projectics. Vol 4(1), pp. 39-49

Cities and emerging networks of learning communities

In the 21st century the majority of people live in urban settings and studies show a trend to the increase of this phenomenon. Globalisation and the concentration of multinational and clusters of firms in certain places are attracting people who seek employment and a better living. Many of those agglomerations are situated in developing countries, representing serious challenges both for public and private sectors. Programmes and initiatives in different countries are taking place and best practices are being exchanged globally. The objective is to transform these urban places into sustainable learning cities/regions where citizens can live with quality. The complexity of urban places, sometimes megacities, opened a new field of research. This paper argues that in order to understand the dynamics of such a complex phenomenon, a multidisciplinary, systemic approach is needed and the creation of learning cities and regions calls for the contribution of a multitude of fields of knowledge, ranging from economy to urbanism, educational science, sociology, environmental psychology and others.

Contributions to the Eocene palaeontology and stratigraphy of Beira Alta, Portugal III - Eocene plant remains from Naia and Sobreda (Beira Alta, Portugal)

The result of research conducted in trunk fragments from the Coja Arkoses Formation at Naia and Sobreda is reported. It is also reported the palynological study of the lutaceous black level surrounding the Naia trunk. Comparisons with trunks from Nave de Haver are established. Comments on palaeoecology and palaeoclimatology are presented.

Portuguese entrepreneurial women ��� fostering learning communities

This article repports findings on a project - DONA EMPRESA - that the Portuguese Association of Women Entrepreneurs has been promoting for four years now. The project aims at supporting unemployed women, having a business idea, to create their own employment. So far about one hundred enterprises have been created in the scope of this project, their surviving rate being very high after one year of business running.

Characterization of Pinus spp. needles by gas chromatography and mass spectrometry: Application to plant-insect interactions

Disserta����o apresentada para obten����o do Grau de Doutor em Ci��ncias do Ambiente pela Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ci��ncias e Tecn

Functional and molecular characterization of SR45, a plant-specific factor involved in sugar and stress signaling in Arabidopsis thaliana

Dissertation presented to obtain the Ph.D degree in Molecular Biology

Novel insights into plant vascular development: disclosing a mechanism to maintain thermospermine homeostasis in the xylem

Dissertation presented to obtain the Ph.D degree in Biology

Regulation of gene expression by SnRK1 kinases and miRNAs during the plant stress response

Dissertation presented to obtain the Ph.D degree in Plant Physiology

Modelling of a wastewater treatment plant using GPS-X

Dissertation to obtain the degree of Master in Chemical and Biochemical Engineering

Beriberi epidemic within rural Muslin fishing communities in Guin�� - Bissau

Beriberi, ou cardiopatia e polineuropatia ligada �� defici��ncia de tiamina, foi, antigamente, um flagelo nas popula����es. Os mais not��veis surtos de beriberi ocorreram ap��s o advento da moagem de massa de arroz, em v��rias zonas da ��sia, no final do s��culo XIX. Com a descoberta de vitamina B1, "anti-beriberi", e, subsequentemente, o enriquecimento de alimentos e as campanhas de sensibiliza����o de sa��de p��blica, a doen��a foi esquecida por muitos profissionais de sa��de. Contudo, sabe-se que, hoje em dia, em diferentes partes do mundo, muitos casos de beriberi s��o os focos prim��rios de epidemias de outras defici��ncias potencialmentes fatais, em comunidades vulner��veis. Determinados alimentos, assim como o ��lcool, s��o conhecidos para reduzir a absor����o de vitamina B1. A Encefalopatia de Wernicke, a defici��ncia de tiamina mais conhecida pelos m��dicos que trabalham em pa��ses desenvolvidos, est�� associada �� ingest��o de ��lcool. Estudos recentes demonstraram, por um lado, atrasos significativos do desenvolvimento neurolingu��stico em crian��as alimentadas com leite sem tiamina, assim como uma poss��vel correla����o entre mal��ria grave e deficiencia em Vitamina B1, o que refor��a a import��ncia desta vitamina na sa��de das popula����es. A Guin��-Bissau, um pa��s fragilizado pelos conflitos coloniais e p��s-coloniais, instabilidade pol��tica, tr��fico de droga e deficiente acesso �� Sa��de, continua sendo um dos pa��ses mais pobres do mundo. A maioria da popula����o vive da agricultura de subsist��ncia, pesca e colheita de caj��. O Isl��o �� practicado por quase metade da popula����o, e as religi��es animistas e crist��s comp��em as outras religi��es principais do pa��s. De acordo com a f�� isl��mica, os mu��ulmanos da Guin��-Bissau praticam o jejum, em fun����o da luz do dia, durante o m��s de Ramad��o. Existe pouca investiga����o publicada sobre os efeitos nutricionais e na sa��de deste ritual. Este trabalho �� o primeiro a relacionar uma defici��ncia de micronutrientes ao m��s sagrado do Ramad��o. Esta tese apresenta casos cl��nicos de beriberi em comunidades rurais mu��ulmanas, que ocorreram no final da ��poca das chuvas, que coincide com o m��s de Ramad��o. A an��lise dos dados mostra que, uma vez que alguns dos doentes apresentavam os mesmos sintomas, repetidamente, todos os anos, estes casos podem refletir a ponta do iceberg da ocorr��ncia de beriberi na Guin��-Bissau. Parte da discuss��o centra-se na necessidade de mais investiga����o para confirmar o grau de defici��ncia na popula����o em geral, efeitos de defici��ncia de tiamina relacionados com a mal��ria, e consequ��ncias poss��veis da defici��ncia marginal, a longo prazo, desta vitamina na sa��de. A discuss��o apresenta ainda sugest��es pr��ticas para a redu����o da incid��ncia da defici��ncia de vitamina B1 na Guin��-Bissau.

Identifying the urban communities of New York City using bikeshare data from NYC citibike

This study identifies a measure of the cultural importance of an area within a city. It does so by making use of origindestination trip data and the bike stations of the bike share system in New York City as a proxy to study the city. Rarely is movement in the city studied at such a small scale. The change in strength of the similarity of movement between each station is studied. It is the first study to provide this measure of importance for every point in the system. This measure is then related to the characteristics which make for vibrant city communities, namely highly mixed land use types. It reveals that the spatial pattern of important areas remains constant over differing time periods. Communities are then characterised by the land uses surrounding these stations with high measures of importance. Finally it identifies the areas of global cultural importance alongside the areas of local importance to the city.