Some reflections on acquisition, processing and analysis of statistical data in forest soils

Beyond the classical statistical approaches (determination of basic statistics, regression analysis, ANOVA, etc.) a new set of applications of different statistical techniques has increasingly gained relevance in the analysis, processing and interpretation of data concerning the characteristics of forest soils. This is possible to be seen in some of the recent publications in the context of Multivariate Statistics. These new methods require additional care that is not always included or refered in some approaches. In the particular case of geostatistical data applications it is necessary, besides to geo-reference all the data acquisition, to collect the samples in regular grids and in sufficient quantity so that the variograms can reflect the spatial distribution of soil properties in a representative manner. In the case of the great majority of Multivariate Statistics techniques (Principal Component Analysis, Correspondence Analysis, Cluster Analysis, etc.) despite the fact they do not require in most cases the assumption of normal distribution, they however need a proper and rigorous strategy for its utilization. In this work, some reflections about these methodologies and, in particular, about the main constraints that often occur during the information collecting process and about the various linking possibilities of these different techniques will be presented. At the end, illustrations of some particular cases of the applications of these statistical methods will also be presented.

Anaerobic bacteria: an investigation of metabolic important enzymes: a novel type of oxygen reductase and enzymes of the tetrapyrrole biosynthesis

Desulfovibrio desulfuricans was the first species of a sulphatereducing bacterium to be isolated, in 1895. Since that time, many questions were raised in the scientific community regarding the metabolic and ecological aspects of these bacteria. At present, there is still a myriad of open questions remaining to be answered to enlarge our knowledge of the metabolic pathways operative in these bacteria that have implications in the sulfur cycle, in biocorrosion, namely in sewers and in oil and gas systems, and in bioremediation of several toxic metals. The work presented in this dissertation aimed at contributing with new insights of enzymes involved in two different metabolic systems on Desulfovibrio species, namely enzymes that play a role in the response to oxidative stress and that are involved in the haem biosynthetic pathway.(...)

The Cenomanian-Turonian transition in West Central Portugal: ammonites and biostratigraphy

The Upper Cenomanian and Lower Turonian ammonite assemblages from the onshore sectors of the West Portuguese Margin are reviewed after new studies on the type section of Figueira da Foz, and correlative sections of Baixo Mondego. The faunal succession shows a strong contribution of vascoceratids and other ammonites with North African and Tethyan affinities. Euomphaloceras septemseriatum (Cragin, 1893), Kamerunoceras douvillei (Pervinquere, 1907), Fagesia catinus (Mantell, 1822), Neoptychites cephalotus (Courtiller, 1860), and Thomasites rollandi (Thomas & Peron, 1889) are for the first time mentioned to Portugal. The Upper Cenomanian is recognised after a set of 3 assemblage zones: Neolobites vibrayeanus z., Euomphaloceras septemseriatum z ., and Pseudaspidoceras pseudonodosoides z. The carbonate succession shows an important unconformity across the Cenomanian-Turonian boundary, associated to subaerial exposure, and to the development of a palaeokarst over Upper Cenomanian units. The first Lower Turonian carbonates are yielded a single but diverse ammonite assemblage of middle Lower Turonian age (Thomasites rollandi z.). This biozone was previously recognised in Central Tunisia by G. Chancellor et al. (1994).

Evolução da ocupação e da perda de solo numa pequena sub-bacia da Bacia Hidrográfica do Rio Sado

Dissertação apresentada na Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa para a obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia do Ambiente,Perfil Gestão de Sistemas Ambientais

Quimiotipagem do Cryptococcus neoformans. Revisão da literatura. Novos dados epidemiológicos sobre a criptococose. Nossa experiência com o emprego do meio de C.G.B. no estudo daquela levedura

O presente trabalho, além da revisão da literatura sobre quimiotipagem do C. neoformans, com novos dados sobre a epidemiologia da criptococose, teve por finalidade principal a caracterização das duas variedades desta levedura em pacientes com neurocriptococose, HIV + e HIV -. As variedades neoformans e gattii estão hoje bem definidas bioquimicamente, com o emprego do meio C.G.B., proposto por KWON-CHUNG et al. (1982) 24. O isolamento do C. neoformans var. gattii das flores e folhas do Eucalyptus camaldulensis e do Eucalyptus tereticornis, na Austrália, através dos trabalhos de ELLIS & PFEIFFER (1990)16 e PFEIFFER & ELLIS (1992)41, possibilitou investigações epidemiológicas das mais interessantes sobre este microrganismo, levedura capsulada a qual SANFELICE50, 51, na Itália, em 1894 e 1895 despertou a atenção do meio médico. BUSSE8, em 1894, descrevia o primeiro caso de criptococose humana sob a forma de lesão óssea, simulando sarcoma. As pesquisas nacionais sobre o assunto em foco foram destacadas, seguindo-se a experiência dos Autores com o meio de C.G.B. (L - canavanina, glicina e azul de bromotimol). Foi possível, através deste meio o estudo de 50 amostras de líquor, sendo 39 procedentes de aidéticos (78%) e 11 de não aidéticos (22%). De pacientes HIV+, 37 (74%) foram identificados como C. neoformans var. neoformans e 2 (4%) como C. neoformans var. gattii. Dos HIV- 8 ( 16%) foram classificados como C. neoformans var. neoformans e 3 (6%) como C. neoformans var. gattii. Através deste trabalho, evidencia-se a importância da neurocriptococose, principalmente entre os aidéticos, demonstrando-se mais uma vez o interesse do meio CGB na quimiotipagem do C. neoformans em suas duas variedades, ganhando em importância a demonstração de que duas espécies de eucalipto podem funcionar como "árvores-hospedeiras" para o Cryptococcus neoformans var. gattii.

Práticas educativas e internamento de jovens em Portugal na transição do século XIX para o século XX - A Colónia agrícola correcional de Vila Fernando

Inaugurada em 1895 junto a Elvas, a Colónia Agrícola Correcional de Vila Fernando procurava a regeneração de jovens por meio do trabalho, buscando também acabar com as péssimas condições a que estavam sujeitos os jovens ao serem encarcerados com os adultos, nas cadeias do país. Analisaremos, no período compreendido entre finais do século XIX e início do século XX, os diferentes processos educativos presentes no quotidiano da instituição, nas práticas do trabalho, da formação profissional e do ensino escolar, procurando averiguar, numa perspetiva histórico-pedagógica, de que modo a instituição foi capaz de conciliar o carácter disciplinador do trabalho com a reintegração social.

Current distribution of Achatina fulica, in the State of São Paulo including records of Aelurostrongylus abstrusus (Nematoda) larvae infestation

The currently known distribution range of Achatina fulica Bowdich, 1822, in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, is presented. The record of A. fulica naturally infested with Aelurostrongylus abstrusus larvae (Railliet, 1898) (Nematoda: Metastrongylidae) can be found in the city of Guaratinguetá. It was found A. fulica with Metastrongylidae larvae without known medical and veterinary importance in the cities of Carapicuíba, Embu-Guaçu, Itapevi, São Caetano do Sul, São Paulo and Taboão da Serra.

O corpo e o movimento na aprendizagem musical . Problemáticas e conteúdos teóricos

Relatório de Estágio apresentado para cumprimento dos requisitos necessários à obtenção do grau de Mestre em Educação Musical no Ensino Básico

Aplicações Práticas da Radioterapia nos Cancros Ginecológicos

A Radioterapia é uma das especialidades com maior importância na ginecologia oncológica. O estadiamento da doença é, sempre que possível, cirúrgico actuando a Radioetrapia quer como terapêutica adjuvante (ex: neoplasia do endométrio), neo-adjuvante com o objectivo de reduzir as dimensões e permitir uma cirurgia num tumor previamente irresecável (ex: neoplasia do colo do útero) ou exclusiva caso as dimensões tumorais impossibilitam de todo uma abordagem cirúrgica. Por outro lado têm vindo a ser empregues cada vez mais protocolos de Quimioradioterapia no sentido de uma potenciação da terapia com resultados encorajadores.

Coexistência de Morfeia, Vitíligo e Diabetes Auto-Imune Latente do Adulto

Cerca de 30% dos adultos com morfeia apresentam simultaneamente outras doenças auto-imunes, o que suporta a presença de mecanismos de auto-imunidade na patogénese desta doença fibrosante da pele e tecidos subjacentes. Os autores descrevem o caso de um doente do sexo masculino, 27 anos, que notou o aparecimento na região abdominal,cerca de 1 ano antes da observação, de placa eritematosa, ovalada, endurada,assintomática, com crescimento progressivo. Referiu vitiligo acro-facial desde os 12 anos de idade e antecedentes maternos de vitiligo e tiroidite de Hashimoto. A avaliação histopatológica evidenciou escasso infiltrado inflamatório perivascular e espessamento das fibras de colagénio, suportando o diagnóstico clínico de morfeia. Na avaliação laboratorial destacou-se a marcada elevação no título do auto-anticorpo anti-descarboxilase do ácido glutâmico, permitindo o diagnóstico de diabetes auto-imune latente do adulto (LADA), uma forma de diabetes tipo 1 de início tardio. A morfeia e o vitiligo são dermatoses raramente descritas em simultâneo, apesar da sua provável etiologia auto-imune. Neste doente, a investigação de outras doenças auto-imunes permitiu o diagnóstico de LADA. Esta associação, raramente descrita, favorece a hipótese auto-imune.

Da identidade feminina na ficção portuguesa de oitocentos : voz(es) de mulher, perspectiva(s) de autor

Tese de Doutoramento apresentada ao Departamento de Filología Moderna, Facultad de Filología, Universidad de Salamanca

Ruling the Empire: The Portuguese Colonial Office (1820s-1926)

Portugal was one of the first and most enduring European colonial powers of modern times: 1415 and 1975 mark the beginning and the end of a long empire cycle that left impressive imprints in many places. Since it started, the overseas expansion and the exploration of the colonial resources were closely articulated with state-building and the preservation of national independence. A forerunner at the Great Age of Discoveries, but a latecomer in the era of industrialization, in the 19th and early-20th centuries Portugal was a peripheral country, and the economic gap with the rich and industrialized core of Europe was wide. During this period, however, the country faced the critical challenge of ruling vast and geographically scattered overseas territories, and of preserving them from the greed of strong imperialist powers. This article starts by outlining the major developments in the Portuguese colonial policy over a century, since the 1820s until 1926. The independence of Brazil (1822) was a crucial turning point, which brought about a shift towards Africa. The First Republic (1910-1926), pervaded by a nationalist ideology, gave a new impetus to the efforts towards a more effective colonisation. Symptomatically, a Ministry of Colonies was then established for the first time. Second, it describes and analyses the transformation of the central office for colonial affairs – from a small ministerial department to an autonomous ministry -, stressing the increasing bureaucratic specialisation, the growth of the apparatus and its staff, and the introduction of new criteria for the selection and promotion of permanent officials (namely a higher profile given to careers in local colonial administration). Finally, it presents a collective biography of both the politicians (Cabinet ministers) and the administrators (directors-general) who ran the Colonial Office for a large period of the Constitutional Monarchy (from 1851 to 1910) and during the First Republic, thus enabling to assess the impact of regime change on elite circulation and career patterns.

Res Publica: Citizenship and Political Representation in Portugal, 1820-1926

The term res publica (literally “thing of the people”) was coined by the Romans to translate the Greek word politeia, which, as we know, referred to a political community organised in accordance with certain principles, amongst which the notion of the “good life” (as against exclusively private interests) was paramount. This ideal also came to be known as political virtue. To achieve it, it was necessary to combine the best of each “constitutional” type and avoid their worst aspects (tyranny, oligarchy and ochlocracy). Hence, the term acquired from the Greeks a sense of being a “mixed” and “balanced” system. Anyone that was entitled to citizenship could participate in the governance of the “public thing”. This implied the institutionalization of open debate and confrontation between interested parties as a way of achieving the consensus necessary to ensure that man the political animal, who fought with words and reason, prevailed over his “natural” counterpart. These premises lie at the heart of the project which is now being presented under the title of Res Publica: Citizenship and Political Representation in Portugal, 1820-1926. The fact that it is integrated into the centenary commemorations of the establishment of the Republic in Portugal is significant, as it was the idea of revolution – with its promise of rupture and change – that inspired it. However, it has also sought to explore events that could be considered the precursor of democratization in the history of Portugal, namely the vintista, setembrista and patuleia revolutions. It is true that the republican regime was opposed to the monarchic. However, although the thesis that monarchy would inevitably lead to tyranny had held sway for centuries, it had also been long believed that the monarchic system could be as “politically virtuous” as a republic (in the strict sense of the word) provided that power was not concentrated in the hands of a single individual. Moreover, various historical experiments had shown that republics could also degenerate into Caesarism and different kinds of despotism. Thus, when absolutism began to be overturned in continental Europe in the name of the natural rights of man and the new social pact theories, initiating the difficult process of (written) constitutionalization, the monarchic principle began to be qualified as a “monarchy hedged by republican institutions”, a situation in which not even the king was exempt from isonomy. This context justifies the time frame chosen here, as it captures the various changes and continuities that run through it. Having rejected the imperative mandate and the reinstatement of the model of corporative representation (which did not mean that, in new contexts, this might not be revived, or that the second chamber established by the Constitutional Charter of 1826 might not be given another lease of life), a new power base was convened: national sovereignty, a precept that would be shared by the monarchic constitutions of 1822 and 1838, and by the republican one of 1911. This followed the French example (manifested in the monarchic constitution of 1791 and in the Spanish constitution of 1812), as not even republicans entertained a tradition of republicanism based upon popular sovereignty. This enables us to better understand the rejection of direct democracy and universal suffrage, and also the long incapacitation (concerning voting and standing for office) of the vast body of “passive” citizens, justified by “enlightened”, property- and gender-based criteria. Although the republicans had promised in the propaganda phase to alter this situation, they ultimately failed to do so. Indeed, throughout the whole period under analysis, the realisation of the potential of national sovereignty was mediated above all by the individual citizen through his choice of representatives. However, this representation was indirect and took place at national level, in the hope that action would be motivated not by particular local interests but by the common good, as dictated by reason. This was considered the only way for the law to be virtuous, a requirement that was also manifested in the separation and balance of powers. As sovereignty was postulated as single and indivisible, so would be the nation that gave it soul and the State that embodied it. Although these characteristics were common to foreign paradigms of reference, in Portugal, the constitutionalization process also sought to nationalise the idea of Empire. Indeed, this had been the overriding purpose of the 1822 Constitution, and it persisted, even after the loss of Brazil, until decolonization. Then, the dream of a single nation stretching from the Minho to Timor finally came to an end.

Fábulas, Lessing, Portugal: XVIll, XIX, XXI

Em 1821, Garrett (1799-185 4) confessa estar "imitar" (...) uma composição alemã do século passado, não se recordando porém do respectivo autor (Garrett. 1963 I: 1708). Em 1853, "O Menino e a Cobra" surge em quinto lugar no seio da pequena colectânea de nove poemas intitulada Fábulas e Contos inserta na 2ª- edição de Folhas Caídas (Monteiro, 1999, 141), O autor alemão chama-se Gotthold Ephraim lessing 0729-1781), criador da fábula imitada e intitulada Der Knabe und die Schlange - a terceira em trinta constantes do II livro, centro de obra triptica publicada em 1759 pelo editor C.F.VoB em Berlim e intitulada Fabeln. Drei Bücher. Nebs( AblumdluTlgen mit dieser Dichtungsart werwandren Inhalts. [Fábulas. Três Livros. Acrescidos de Tratados de Conteúdo Aparentado com esta Espécie Literária Igualmente em 1853, a Imprensa de Francisco Xavier de Souza em Lisboa publica Fábulas de G. E. Lessing, traduzidas do alemão pelo _Médico Cirurgído pela Escola de Lisboa Professor de Geographia, Chronologia e História no Lyceo Nacional da Mesma Cidade, etc. (Pereira, 1853: Frontispicio} de nome Joâo Félix Pereira (1822-1891). Lessing, escolhido, porque "De todos os escritores de seo tempo nenhum fez tantos serviços á litterarura alleman." {Pereira, 1853: I I}, para quem - assim na "biograplia" introduzindo as traduções - "Shakespeare C..) tinha cm sua [De lessing] opinião o mérito dramático dos gregos." (1853 :1415) e cujo estudo e discussão deste mérito fizeram "A Dratuarurgia, Euulia Gallon, o Laocoon e Narhan pertencelrjem certamente ao número dos modelos que mais contribuíram para dar á língua alleman a precisão, de que se julgava insuceptivel." (l853: 15), tornando Lessing para a sua epocha, como Lutther para a sua o verdadeiro modelo clássico." (idém, ibudem) Nesta "Biographia de Lessing" (Pereira, 1853:11-16) atesta-se o valor de criador de noventa fábulas em prosa traduzidas na integra e publicadas em edição bilingue.