Long-term monitoring across elevational gradients to assess ecological hypothesis : a description of standardized sampling methods in oceanic islands and first results

We are launching a long-term study to characterize the biodiversity at different elevations in several Azorean Islands. Our aim is to use the Azores as a model archipelago to answer the fundamental question of what generates and maintains the global spatial heterogeneity of diversity in islands and to be able to understand the dynamics of change across time. An extensive, standardized sampling protocol was applied in most of the remnant forest fragments of five Azorean Islands. Fieldwork followed BRYOLAT methodology for the collection of bryophytes, ferns and other vascular plant species. A modified version of the BALA protocol was used for arthropods. A total of 70 plots (10 m x 10 m) are already established in five islands (Flores, Pico, São Jorge, Terceira and São Miguel), all respecting an elevation step of 200 m, resulting in 24 stations examined in Pico, 12 in Terceira, 10 in Flores, 12 in São Miguel and 12 in São Jorge. The first results regarding the vascular plants inventory include 138 vascular species including taxa from Lycopodiophyta (N=2), Pteridophyta (N=27), Pinophyta (N=2) and Magnoliophyta (N=107). In this contribution we also present the main research question for the next six years within the 2020 Horizon.

Complementarity of conventional and molecular methods in the assessment of fungal contamination caused by Aspergillus fumigatus complex in one Portuguese composting plant

The handling of waste and compost that occurs frequently in composting plants (compost turning, shredding, and screening) has been shown to be responsible for the release of dust and air borne microorganisms and their compounds in the air. Thermophilic fungi, such as A. fumigatus, have been reported and this kind of contamination in composting facilities has been associated with increased respiratory symptoms among compost workers. This study intended to characterize fungal contamination in a totally indoor composting plant located in Portugal. Besides conventional methods, molecular biology was also applied to overcome eventual limitations.

Vertex component analysis: a fast algorithm to unmix hyperspectral data

Given a set of mixed spectral (multispectral or hyperspectral) vectors, linear spectral mixture analysis, or linear unmixing, aims at estimating the number of reference substances, also called endmembers, their spectral signatures, and their abundance fractions. This paper presents a new method for unsupervised endmember extraction from hyperspectral data, termed vertex component analysis (VCA). The algorithm exploits two facts: (1) the endmembers are the vertices of a simplex and (2) the affine transformation of a simplex is also a simplex. In a series of experiments using simulated and real data, the VCA algorithm competes with state-of-the-art methods, with a computational complexity between one and two orders of magnitude lower than the best available method.

Arrow plot and CA maps on microarray preprocessing methods

Microarray allow to monitoring simultaneously thousands of genes, where the abundance of the transcripts under a same experimental condition at the same time can be quantified. Among various available array technologies, double channel cDNA microarray experiments have arisen in numerous technical protocols associated to genomic studies, which is the focus of this work. Microarray experiments involve many steps and each one can affect the quality of raw data. Background correction and normalization are preprocessing techniques to clean and correct the raw data when undesirable fluctuations arise from technical factors. Several recent studies showed that there is no preprocessing strategy that outperforms others in all circumstances and thus it seems difficult to provide general recommendations. In this work, it is proposed to use exploratory techniques to visualize the effects of preprocessing methods on statistical analysis of cancer two-channel microarray data sets, where the cancer types (classes) are known. For selecting differential expressed genes the arrow plot was used and the graph of profiles resultant from the correspondence analysis for visualizing the results. It was used 6 background methods and 6 normalization methods, performing 36 pre-processing methods and it was analyzed in a published cDNA microarray database (Liver) available at http://genome-www5.stanford.edu/ which microarrays were already classified by cancer type. All statistical analyses were performed using the R statistical software.

Development of electrochemical methods for determination of tramadol - analytical application to pharmaceutical dosage forms

A square-wave voltammetric (SWV) method and a flow injection analysis system with amperometric detection were developed for the determination of tramadol hydrochloride. The SWV method enables the determination of tramadol over the concentration range of 15-75 µM with a detection limit of 2.2 µM. Tramadol could be determined in concentrations between 9 and 50 µM at a sampling rate of 90 h-1, with a detection limit of 1.7 µM using the flow injection system. The electrochemical methods developed were successfully applied to the determination of tramadol in pharmaceutical dosage forms, without any pre-treatment of the samples. Recovery trials were performed to assess the accuracy of the results; the values were between 97 and 102% for both methods.

Determination of pesticides in fruit and fruit juices by chromatographic methods. An overview

In order to combat a variety of pests, pesticides are widely used in fruits. Several extraction procedures (liquid extraction, single drop microextraction, microwave-assisted extraction, pressurized liquid extraction, supercritical fluid extraction, solid-phase extraction, solid-phase microextraction, matrix solid-phase dispersion, and stir bar sorptive extraction) have been reported to determine pesticide residues in fruits and fruit juices. The significant change in recent years is the introduction of the Quick, Easy, Cheap, Effective, Rugged, and Safe (QuEChERS) methods in these matrices analysis. A combination of techniques reported the use of new extraction methods and chromatography to provide better quantitative recoveries at low levels. The use of mass spectrometric detectors in combination with liquid and gas chromatography has played a vital role to solve many problems related to food safety. The main attention in this review is on the achievements that have been possible because of the progress in extraction methods and the latest advances and novelties in mass spectrometry, and how these progresses have influenced the best control of food, allowing for an increase in the food safety and quality standards.

Electrochemical methods in pesticides control

The state of the art of voltammetric and amperometric methods used in the study and determination of pesticides in crops, food, phytopharmaceutical products, and environmental samples is reviewed. The main structural groups of pesticides, i.e., triazines, organophosphates, organochlorides, nitrocompounds, carbamates, thiocarbamates, sulfonylureas, and bipyridinium compounds are considered with some degradation products. The advantages, drawbacks, and trends in the development of voltammetric and amperometric methods for study and determination of pesticides in these samples are discussed.

Implementação em hardware reconfigurável de método de separação de dados hiperespetrais

Relatório do Trabalho Final de Mestrado para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia de Electrónica e Telecomunicações

Evaluation of distinct input methods of an intelligent wheelchair in simulated and real environments: a performance and usability study

This paper focuses on evaluating the usability of an Intelligent Wheelchair (IW) in both real and simulated environments. The wheelchair is controlled at a high-level by a flexible multimodal interface, using voice commands, facial expressions, head movements and joystick as its main inputs. A Quasi-experimental design was applied including a deterministic sample with a questionnaire that enabled to apply the System Usability Scale. The subjects were divided in two independent samples: 46 individuals performing the experiment with an Intelligent Wheelchair in a simulated environment (28 using different commands in a sequential way and 18 with the liberty to choose the command); 12 individuals performing the experiment with a real IW. The main conclusion achieved by this study is that the usability of the Intelligent Wheelchair in a real environment is higher than in the simulated environment. However there were not statistical evidences to affirm that there are differences between the real and simulated wheelchairs in terms of safety and control. Also, most of users considered the multimodal way of driving the wheelchair very practical and satisfactory. Thus, it may be concluded that the multimodal interfaces enables very easy and safe control of the IW both in simulated and real environments.

Local fractional variational iteration and decomposition methods for wave equation on cantor sets within local fractional operators

We perform a comparison between the fractional iteration and decomposition methods applied to the wave equation on Cantor set. The operators are taken in the local sense. The results illustrate the significant features of the two methods which are both very effective and straightforward for solving the differential equations with local fractional derivative.

Ensaios avançados com fibras ópticas = advanced characterization of optical fibers

Trabalho Final de Mestrado para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia de Electrónica e Telecomunicações

Identificação modal e simulação da resposta sísmica de barragens abóbada

Trabalho Final de Mestrado elaborado no Laboratório Nacional de Engenharia Civil (LNEC) para a obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Civil pelo Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Lisboa no âmbito do protocolo de cooperação ente o ISEL e o LNEC

Teacher placement report: investigation: action research project investigating methods for promoting creativity in double bass students attending a portuguese music school

The investigation which employed the action research method (qualitative analysis)was divided into four fases. In phases 1-3 the participants were six double bass students at Nossa Senhora do Cabo Music School. Pilot exercises in creativity were followed by broader and more ambitious projects. In phase 4 the techniques were tested and amplified during a summer course for twelve double bass students at Santa Cecilia College.

Analysis of UV spectral bands using multidimensional scaling

This study describes the change of the ultraviolet spectral bands starting from 0.1 to 5.0 nm slit width in the spectral range of 200–400 nm. The analysis of the spectral bands is carried out by using the multidimensional scaling (MDS) approach to reach the latent spectral background. This approach indicates that 0.1 nm slit width gives higher-order noise together with better spectral details. Thus, 5.0 nm slit width possesses the higher peak amplitude and lower-order noise together with poor spectral details. In the above-mentioned conditions, the main problem is to find the relationship between the spectral band properties and the slit width. For this aim, the MDS tool is to used recognize the hidden information of the ultraviolet spectra of sildenafil citrate by using a ShimadzuUV–VIS 2550, which is in theworld the best double monochromator instrument. In this study, the proposed mathematical approach gives the rich findings for the efficient use of the spectrophotometer in the qualitative and quantitative studies.

Classification of some penalty methods

Optimization problems arise in science, engineering, economy, etc. and we need to find the best solutions for each reality. The methods used to solve these problems depend on several factors, including the amount and type of accessible information, the available algorithms for solving them, and, obviously, the intrinsic characteristics of the problem. There are many kinds of optimization problems and, consequently, many kinds of methods to solve them. When the involved functions are nonlinear and their derivatives are not known or are very difficult to calculate, these methods are more rare. These kinds of functions are frequently called black box functions. To solve such problems without constraints (unconstrained optimization), we can use direct search methods. These methods do not require any derivatives or approximations of them. But when the problem has constraints (nonlinear programming problems) and, additionally, the constraint functions are black box functions, it is much more difficult to find the most appropriate method. Penalty methods can then be used. They transform the original problem into a sequence of other problems, derived from the initial, all without constraints. Then this sequence of problems (without constraints) can be solved using the methods available for unconstrained optimization. In this chapter, we present a classification of some of the existing penalty methods and describe some of their assumptions and limitations. These methods allow the solving of optimization problems with continuous, discrete, and mixing constraints, without requiring continuity, differentiability, or convexity. Thus, penalty methods can be used as the first step in the resolution of constrained problems, by means of methods that typically are used by unconstrained problems. We also discuss a new class of penalty methods for nonlinear optimization, which adjust the penalty parameter dynamically.