Criminal Liability of Organizations, Corporations, Legal Persons, and Similar Entities on Law of Portuguese Cybercrime: A Brief Discussion on the Issue of Crimes of “False Information,” the “Damage on Other Programs or Computer Data,” the “Computer-Software Sabotage,” the “Illegitimate Access,” the “Unlawful Interception,” and “Illegitimate Reproduction of the Protected Program”

Abstract: in Portugal, and in much of the legal systems of Europe, «legal persons» are likely to be criminally responsibilities also for cybercrimes. Like for example the following crimes: «false information»; «damage on other programs or computer data»; «computer-software sabotage»; «illegitimate access»; «unlawful interception» and «illegitimate reproduction of protected program». However, in Portugal, have many exceptions. Exceptions to the «question of criminal liability» of «legal persons». Some «legal persons» can not be blamed for cybercrime. The legislature did not leave! These «legal persons» are v.g. the following («public entities»): legal persons under public law, which include the public business entities; entities utilities, regardless of ownership; or other legal persons exercising public powers. In other words, and again as an example, a Portuguese public university or a private concessionaire of a public service in Portugal, can not commit (in Portugal) any one of cybercrime pointed. Fair? Unfair. All laws should provide that all legal persons can commit cybercrimes. PS: resumo do artigo em inglês.

Cancer incidence in eighteen cities of the State of São Paulo, Brazil

OBJECTIVE: As in Brazil cancer registries are mostly based on large cities, there are no estimates per state or per region and information on the disease incidence in the vast in-land areas is very scarce. An incidence survey was conducted in 18 major cities of the state of São Paulo, excluding the capital, aiming to collect information about cancer incidence in the state of São Paulo. METHODS: Of the 18 cities in state of São Paulo included in the survey, all had available resources for cancer management. Data from the year of 1991 were collected by the personnel of the Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (Brazilian Institute of Statistics), who were especially trained by the study coordinators at the Fundação Oncocentro de São Paulo (Cancer Center of São Paulo). The collected data were processed and analyzed at the Oncocentro. Data collection, processing, and analyses were performed according to the recommendations of the International Agency for Research on Cancer. RESULTS: Although some discrepancies were observed in cancer incidence rates between the cities, results obtained for all 18 cities combined were remarkably close to those recently found for the city of São Paulo in the year 1993. One remarkable finding was the relatively high cancer incidence rates in both sexes in the city of Santos. CONCLUSIONS: The very similar all-sites cancer incidence rates found in the year 1991, when compared to those for the city of São Paulo in the year 1993, are suggestive that all regions have common cancer-related factors. Nevertheless, other explanations, such as the inclusion in the study of prevalent cases, as well as of non-residents, may have occurred in both studies, biasing the results. There is a need of further studies to confirm the high cancer incidence in Santos.

Climatology of the Iberia coastal low-level wind jet: weather research forecasting model high-resolution results

Coastal low-level jets (CLLJ) are a low-tropospheric wind feature driven by the pressure gradient produced by a sharp contrast between high temperatures over land and lower temperatures over the sea. This contrast between the cold ocean and the warm land in the summer is intensified by the impact of the coastal parallel winds on the ocean generating upwelling currents, sharpening the temperature gradient close to the coast and giving rise to strong baroclinic structures at the coast. During summertime, the Iberian Peninsula is often under the effect of the Azores High and of a thermal low pressure system inland, leading to a seasonal wind, in the west coast, called the Nortada (northerly wind). This study presents a regional climatology of the CLLJ off the west coast of the Iberian Peninsula, based on a 9km resolution downscaling dataset, produced using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) mesoscale model, forced by 19 years of ERA-Interim reanalysis (1989-2007). The simulation results show that the jet hourly frequency of occurrence in the summer is above 30% and decreases to about 10% during spring and autumn. The monthly frequencies of occurrence can reach higher values, around 40% in summer months, and reveal large inter-annual variability in all three seasons. In the summer, at a daily base, the CLLJ is present in almost 70% of the days. The CLLJ wind direction is mostly from north-northeasterly and occurs more persistently in three areas where the interaction of the jet flow with local capes and headlands is more pronounced. The coastal jets in this area occur at heights between 300 and 400 m, and its speed has a mean around 15 m/s, reaching maximum speeds of 25 m/s.

The insular shelves of the Faial-Pico Ridge (Azores archipelago): a morphological record of its evolution

Shelves surrounding reefless volcanic ocean islands are formed by surf erosion of their slopes during changing sea levels. Posterosional lava flows, if abundant, can cross the coastal cliffs and fill partially or completely the accommodation space left by erosion. In this study, multibeam bathymetry, high-resolution seismic reflection profiles, and sediment samples are used to characterize the morphology of the insular shelves adjacent to Pico Island. The data show offshore fresh lava flow morphologies, as well as an irregular basement beneath shelf sedimentary bodies and reduced shelf width adjacent to older volcanic edifices in Pico. These observations suggest that these shelves have been significantly filled by volcanic progradation and can thus be classified as rejuvenated. Despite the general volcanic infilling of the shelves around Pico, most of their edges are below the depth of the Last Glacial Maximum, revealing that at least parts of the island have subsided after the shelves formed by surf erosion. Prograding lava deltas reached the shelf edge in some areas triggering small slope failures, locally decreasing the shelf width and depth of their edges. These areas can represent a significant risk for the local population; hence, their identification can be useful for hazard assessment and contribute to wiser land use planning. Shelf and subaerial geomorphology, magnetic anomalies and crustal structure data of the two islands were also interpreted to reconstruct the long-term combined onshore and offshore evolution of the Faial-Pico ridge. The subaerial emergence of this ridge is apparently older than previously thought, i.e., before approximate to 850 ka.

Bioenergy competency centre: study of the bioenergy potencial in the centre region of Portugal.

Dissertação apresentada como requisito parcial para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Ciência e Sistemas de Informação Geográfica

Application of the EcoBlock method to eco-design - electric hand dryers versus paper towels

Sustainable Construction, Materials and Practice, p. 426-432

Quantification of urban land use intensity - A case of Dhaka City of Bangladesh

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Geospatial Technologies.

Analysis of urban land use and land cover changes: a case of study in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Geospatial Technologies

Determination of the most suitable oil pipeline route using GIS least cost path analysis

The Keystone XL has a big role for transforming Canadian oil to the USA. The function of the pipeline is decreasing the dependency of the American oil industry on other countries and it will help to limit external debt. The proposed pipeline seeks the most suitable route which cannot damage agricultural and natural water recourses such as the Ogallala Aquifer. Using the Geographic Information System (GIS) techniques, the suggested path in this study got extremely high correct results that will help in the future to use the least cost analysis for similar studies. The route analysis contains different weighted overlay surfaces, each, was influenced by various criteria (slope, geology, population and land use). The resulted least cost path routes for each weighted overlay surface were compared with the original proposed pipeline and each displayed surface was more effective than the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.

An integrated approach to Physcomitrella patens transcriptomics reveals importantclues of the evolutionary development of plant organs and sexual reproduction

Land plant evolution required the generation of a new body plan that could resist the harsher and fluctuating environmental conditions found outside of aquatic environments. Unraveling the genetic basis of plant developmental innovations is not only revealing in terms of an evolutionary point of view, but it is also important for understanding the emergence of agronomically important traits. Comparative genetic studies between basal and modern land plants, both at the genome and trancriptome levels, can help in the generation of hypotheses related to the genetic basis of plant evolutionary development.(...)

The establishment mode choice of German multinational enterprises in Brazil: A comparative approach

We examine the drivers behind the establishment mode choice of German multinational enterprises (MNEs) in the sectors of Automotive, Chemicals and Mechanical Engineering in Brazil for the years 1993-2013 using a novel sample of primary data obtained directly from German MNEs. Based on prevalent theories found in the literature, we test the most common hypotheses on our sample. Firms with high R&D activities and firms with prior market knowledge in Brazil in from of previous sales offices are more likely to enter Brazil by a Greenfield investment. We also show that it is the specific private ownership of the German so-called hidden champions that drive those specific SMEs to enter Brazil by Greenfield, a sneaking suspicion that has been made before. Finally, we show that the establishment mode choice between Brazil and the USA only deviates to a low extent, with German MNEs preferring to enter Brazil by Greenfield and the USA by M&A. Thereby, we provide valuable insights for future research in this field.

DISTRIBUTION AND FEEDING ECOLOGY OF THE AFRICAN TILAPIA Oreochromis mossambicus (TELEOSTEI, PERCIFORMES, CICHLIDAE) IN SURINAME (SOUTH AMERICA) WITH COMMENTS ON THE TILAPIA-KWIKWI (Hoplosternum littorale) (TELEOSTEI, SILURIFORMEs, CALLICHTHYIDAE) INTERACTION

The geographical distribution of the African Tilapia Oreochromis mossambicusin Suriname is restricted to a narrow strip of land along the Atlantic coast. Within the coastal plain, O. mossambicusoccurs in brackish lagoons, oligohaline canals, and shell-sand pit lakes. Physico-chemical characteristics and phytoplankton composition of representative Tilapia water bodies are described. Blue-green algae and fine flocculent detritus are dominant food items in the diet of the Tilapia, while Rotifera and microcrustacea are also important in the diet of larvae and juveniles. Intraspecific diet overlap among ontogenetic stages of the Tilapia did not differ significantly from 1, which means that these diets showed complete overlap. Interspecific diet overlap between the Tilapia and the indigenous armoured catfish Hoplosternum littoralewere moderate or low. The results are discussed in relation to recent developments in the Surinamese fisheries and aquaculture sector.

Assessment of NDVI, land surface temperature and precipitation anomalies for drought monitoring in Bayankhongor province, Mongolia

During the last decade Mongolia’s region was characterized by a rapid increase of both severity and frequency of drought events, leading to pasture reduction. Drought monitoring and assessment plays an important role in the region’s early warning systems as a way to mitigate the negative impacts in social, economic and environmental sectors. Nowadays it is possible to access information related to the hydrologic cycle through remote sensing, which provides a continuous monitoring of variables over very large areas where the weather stations are sparse. The present thesis aimed to explore the possibility of using NDVI as a potential drought indicator by studying anomaly patterns and correlations with other two climate variables, LST and precipitation. The study covered the growing season (March to September) of a fifteen year period, between 2000 and 2014, for Bayankhongor province in southwest Mongolia. The datasets used were MODIS NDVI, LST and TRMM Precipitation, which processing and analysis was supported by QGIS software and Python programming language. Monthly anomaly correlations between NDVI-LST and NDVI-Precipitation were generated as well as temporal correlations for the growing season for known drought years (2001, 2002 and 2009). The results show that the three variables follow a seasonal pattern expected for a northern hemisphere region, with occurrence of the rainy season in the summer months. The values of both NDVI and precipitation are remarkably low while LST values are high, which is explained by the region’s climate and ecosystems. The NDVI average, generally, reached higher values with high precipitation values and low LST values. The year of 2001 was the driest year of the time-series, while 2003 was the wet year with healthier vegetation. Monthly correlations registered weak results with low significance, with exception of NDVI-LST and NDVI-Precipitation correlations for June, July and August of 2002. The temporal correlations for the growing season also revealed weak results. The overall relationship between the variables anomalies showed weak correlation results with low significance, which suggests that an accurate answer for predicting drought using the relation between NDVI, LST and Precipitation cannot be given. Additional research should take place in order to achieve more conclusive results. However the NDVI anomaly images show that NDVI is a suitable drought index for Bayankhongor province.

Tree species diversity in a seasonally-dry forest: the case of the Pinkaití site, in the Kayapó Indigenous Area, Southeastern limits of the Amazon

This study investigates patterns of forest structure and tree species diversity in an anthropogenic palm grove and undisturbed areas at the seasonally-dry Pinkaití research station, in the Kayapó Indigenous Area. This site, managed by the Conservation International do Brasil, is the most southeastern site floristically surveyed in the Amazon until now. The secondary and a nearby undisturbed forest were sampled in a group of 52 floristic plots of 0.0625-ha (25x25-m) where all trees with DBH > 10 cm were measured and identified. The analyses were complemented with other two floristic plots of 1-ha (10x1000-m). The present study has shown that the Pinkaití, like other seasonally-dry forests, have great heterogeneity in forest structure and composition, associated with biotic characteristics of the most important tree species, natural disturbance and history of land-use. The palm grove, moderately dominated by the arborescent palm Attalea maripa (Aubl.) Mart., presented high tree species diversity and was floristically similar to undisturbed forests at the study site. It is discussed the importance of large arborescent palms for the seasonally-dry Amazon forests regeneration.

Copper toxicity for Scinax ruber and Rhinella granulosa (Amphibia: Anura) of the Amazon: Potential of Biotic Ligand Model to predict toxicity in urban streams

In the last years many populations of anurans have declined and extinctions have been recorded. They were related to environmental pollution, changes of land use and emerging diseases. The main objective of this study was to determine copper sensitivity of the anuran of the Amazon Rhinella granulosa and Scinax ruber tadpoles at stage 25 and Scinax ruber eggs exposed for 96 h to copper concentrations ranging from 15 µg Cu L-1 to 94 µg Cu L-1. LC50 at 96 h of Rhinella granulosa Gosner 25, Scinax ruber Gosner 25 and Scinax ruber eggs in black water of the Amazon were 23.48, 36.37 and 50.02 µg Cu L-1, respectively. The Biotic Ligand Model was used to predict the LC50 values for these species and it can be considered a promising tool for these tropical species and water conditions. Copper toxicity depends on water physical-chemical composition and on the larval stage of the tadpoles. The Gosner stage 19-21 (related to the appearance of external gills) is the most vulnerable and the egg stage is the most resistant. In case of contamination by copper, the natural streams must have special attention, since copper is more bioavailable.