Analysis of Forest Fires by means of Pseudo Phase Plane and Multidimensional Scaling Methods

Forest fires dynamics is often characterized by the absence of a characteristic length-scale, long range correlations in space and time, and long memory, which are features also associated with fractional order systems. In this paper a public domain forest fires catalogue, containing information of events for Portugal, covering the period from 1980 up to 2012, is tackled. The events are modelled as time series of Dirac impulses with amplitude proportional to the burnt area. The time series are viewed as the system output and are interpreted as a manifestation of the system dynamics. In the first phase we use the pseudo phase plane (PPP) technique to describe forest fires dynamics. In the second phase we use multidimensional scaling (MDS) visualization tools. The PPP allows the representation of forest fires dynamics in two-dimensional space, by taking time series representative of the phenomena. The MDS approach generates maps where objects that are perceived to be similar to each other are placed on the map forming clusters. The results are analysed in order to extract relationships among the data and to better understand forest fires behaviour.

Dynamic Analysis and Pattern Visualization of Forest Fires

This paper analyses forest fires in the perspective of dynamical systems. Forest fires exhibit complex correlations in size, space and time, revealing features often present in complex systems, such as the absence of a characteristic length-scale, or the emergence of long range correlations and persistent memory. This study addresses a public domain forest fires catalogue, containing information of events for Portugal, during the period from 1980 up to 2012. The data is analysed in an annual basis, modelling the occurrences as sequences of Dirac impulses with amplitude proportional to the burnt area. First, we consider mutual information to correlate annual patterns. We use visualization trees, generated by hierarchical clustering algorithms, in order to compare and to extract relationships among the data. Second, we adopt the Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) visualization tool. MDS generates maps where each object corresponds to a point. Objects that are perceived to be similar to each other are placed on the map forming clusters. The results are analysed in order to extract relationships among the data and to identify forest fire patterns.

Proposal for shared services performance management model applied to portugueses public administration

Comunicação apresentada no 8º Congresso Nacional de Administração Pública - Desafios e Soluções, em Carcavelos de 21 a 22 de Novembro de 2011.

Portuguese public managers and administrative reform in the global context of competitiveness

Comunicação apresentada no 27th International Congress of Administrative Sciences "Global Competitiveness and Public Administration: implications for education and training" em Abu Dhai, United Arb Emirates de 9 a 14 de Julho de 2007.

How to link organizational competences in public organizations?

Comunicação apresentada na 17ª Conferência Anual da Network of Intitutes and Schools of Public Administration (NISPA) em Birdua, Montenegro de 14 a 16 dem Maio de 2009.

Sharing best practices in introducing and teaching ethics principles to public administration employees : research report

O projeto, financiado pelo Programa Aprendizagem ao Longo da Vida, decorreu entre 1 de agosto de 2011 e 31 de julho de 2013 e foi coordenado pelo Instituto de Administração Pública de Praga, tendo como parceiros a Escola de Economia e Direito de Berlim, a Escola Nacional de Administração Pública da Polónia e o INA, de Portugal. A coordenação portuguesa do estudo esteve a cargo da Prof. Doutora Helena Rato e da Dra. Matilde Gago, com a colaboração do Prof. Doutor César Madureira e da Dra. Margarida Quintela, ex investigadores do INA, atualmente na DGAEP.

How can public administration reforms instill (or not) cooperation among the society?

Comunicação apresentada na Conferência Anual do IASIA, em Paris, a 6 de julho de 2015

The selection of senior civil servants in the context of the different public administration models: an issue of accountability

Comunicação apresentada no Congresso do IIAS-IISA no âmbito do IX Grupo de Estudo: Serviço público e política, realizado em Ifrane, Marrocos de 13 a 17 de junho de 2014

Educating for earthquake science and risk in a tectonically slowly deforming region

Over the past decade, scientists have been called to participate more actively in public education and outreach (E&O). This is particularly true in fields of significant societal impact, such as earthquake science. Local earthquake risk culture plays a role in the way that the public engages in educational efforts. In this article, we describe an adapted E&O program for earthquake science and risk. The program is tailored for a region of slow tectonic deformation, where large earthquakes are extreme events that occur with long return periods. The adapted program has two main goals: (1) to increase the awareness and preparedness of the population to earthquake and related risks (tsunami, liquefaction, fires, etc.), and (2) to increase the quality of earthquake science education, so as to attract talented students to geosciences. Our integrated program relies on activities tuned for different population groups who have different interests and abilities, namely young children, teenagers, young adults, and professionals.

The role of Public Health Laboratory in the problem os salmonellosis in São Paulo, Brazil

From 1950 to 1990 a total of 45,862 strains (31,517 isolates from human sources, and 14,345 of non-human origin) were identified at Instituto Adolfo Lutz. No prevalence of any serovars was seen during the period 1950-66 among human sources isolates. Important changing pattern was seen in 1968, when S. Typhimurim surprisingly increased becoming the prevalent serovar in the following decades. During the period of 1970-76, S. Typhimurium represented 77.7% of all serovars of human origin. Significant rise in S. Agona isolation as well as in the number of different serovars among human sources strains were seen in the late 70' and the 80's. More than one hundred different serovars were identified among non-human origin strains. Among serovars isolated from human sources, 74.9%, 15.5%, and 3.7% were recovered from stool, blood, and cerebrospinal fluid cultures, respectively. The outbreak of meningitis by S. Grumpensis in the 60's, emphasizes the concept that any Salmonella serovars can be a cause of epidemics, mainly of the nosocomial origin. This evaluation covering a long period shows the important role of the Public Health Laboratory in the surveillance of salmonellosis, one of the most frequent zoonosis in the world.

Human enterovirus infection in stray dogs. Some aspects of interest to public health

To investigate the possible role of domestic animals as reservoirs of human enteroviruses, we studied 212 stray dogs captured in different areas of the municipality of São Paulo. The captured animals were divided into 19 groups of 10 to 20 dogs each; faeces of 126 of the 212 dogs were processed for enterovirus isolation. The following viruses were isolated from 12 dogs: poliovirus type 1 (2 dogs), poliovirus type 3 (1 dog), echovirus type 7 (8 dogs) and echovirus type 15 (1 dog). Of the 12 infected animals, four had specific homotypic neutralizing antibody titres > 16. All 212 animals were tested for the presence of neutralizing antibodies to human enteroviruses. The frequency of neutralizing antibodies present in titres of > 16 was 10.3%, 3,8% and 4.3% for vaccinal prototypes of polioviruses 1, 2 and 3 respectively; 1,9%, 1.4% and 1.5% for wild prototypes of the same viruses, 11.3% for echovirus 7, and 2.4% for echovirus 15. The proportion of dogs with neutralizing antibodies varied with the virus studied. Some indication of the susceptibility of dogs to infection with human enteroviruses was demonstrated, and the importance of this fact for the Plan for Global Eradication of the Wild Poliovirus is discussed.

Public works policy in Portugal: a case study in unsustainability

International Journal of Engineering and Industrial Management, nº 1, p. 195-208

Environmental pressures and impacts of public sector organizations: the case of the Portuguese Military

Progress in Industrial Ecology, An International Journal, nº 4(5), p. 363-381

The state of environmental performance evaluation in the public sector: the case of the Portuguese defence sector

Journal of Cleaner Production, nº 17, p. 36-52

Environmental performance policy indicators for the public sector: The case of the defence sector

Journal of Environmental Management, nº 82 p. 410–432