Ocean bottom seismic noise : applications for the crust knowledge, interaction ocean-atmosphere and instrumental behaviour

Tese de doutoramento, Ciências Geofísicas e da Geoinformação (Geofisíca), Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências, 2014

Análisis del Ejército Zapatista de Liberación Nacional como modelo de guerrilla estética, a la luz de la teoría de la resistencia planteada por Jacques Rancière

Justo ahora, cuando parece haberse agotado el entendimiento del zapatismo como movimiento revolucionario tradicional, esta monografía propone dar un doble salto mortal para destruir las barreras obsoletas de las teorías revolucionarias y aterrizar en lo que Rancière llama la Resistencia de los Sin Parte. El alarido bestial se transforma en palabra para sacudir las estructuras más íntimas del orden y actualizar la pésima partición de los lugares y las funciones comunes en la comunidad. Las partes mal contadas acceden a la palabra para reclamar una partición justa de lo común, e inscribir así las libertades como axiomas para el todo comunitario. Lo descolorido toma color, lo oculto es visto, lo incontado entra en el conteo de las partes, lo que no tiene rostro ni voz es ahora escuchado, las sombras adquieren cuerpos y los cuerpos adquieren vida. La resistencia por la incorporación cambió para siempre la política tradicional mexicana, al punto de que ésta ha dejado de llamarse como tal para quien escribió esta investigación. La palabra común, la imagen del líder Marcos, y los símbolos como el pasamontañas, hacen que la rebelión zapatista sea una rebelión desde y para los sin parte, una voz para incorporar a los sin voz: el rostro indefinido de una máscara que defiende con enjundia a los olvidados y los devuelve a la arena de los vistos. Chiapas habla, los fantasmas resucitan, las partes mal contadas reclaman una justa partición de lo visible en la comunidad. Marcos y los suyo se han salido con la suya.

Less popular but more democratic? Corrie, Clarkson and the dancing Cru

The central cultural experience of modernity has been change, both the ‘creative destruction’ of existing structures, and the growth, often exponential, of new knowledge. During the twentieth century, the central cultural platform for the collective experience of modernising societies changed too, from page and stage to the screen – from publishing, the press and radio to cinema, television and latterly computer screens. Despite the successive dominance of new media, none has lasted long at the top. The pattern for each was to give way to a successor platform in popularity, but to continue as part of an increasingly crowded media menu. Modern media are supplemented not supplanted by their successors.

Managing wetlands sustainably as ecosystems : The contribution of the law (part 1)

The ways in which a society set standards of behaviour and of conduct for its members vary hugely. For example, accepted practices, recognised customs, spiritually or morally inspired norms, judicially declared rules, executively formulated edicts, formal legislative enactments or constitutionally embedded rights and duties. Whatever form they assume, these standards are the artificial construction of the human mind. Accordingly the law - whatever its form - can do no more and no less than regulate or set standards for human behaviour, human conduct, and human decision-making. The law cannot regulate the environment. It can only regulate human activities that impact directly or indirectly upon the environment. This applies as much to wetlands as components of the environment as it does to any other components of the environment or the environment at large. The capacity of the law to protect the environment and therefore wetlands is thus totally dependent upon the capacity of the law to regulate human behaviour, human conduct and human decision-making. At the same time the law needs to reflect the specific nature, functions and locations of wetlands. A wetland is an ecosystem by itself; it comprises a range of ecosystems within it; and it is part of a wider set of ecosystems. Hence, the significant ecological functions performed by wetlands. Then there are the benefits flowing to humans from wetlands. These may be social, economic, cultural, aesthetic, or a combination of some or of all of these. It is a challenge for a society acting through its legal system to find the appropriate balance between these ecological and these human values. But that is what sustainability requires.The ways in which a society set standards of behaviour and of conduct for its members vary hugely. For example, accepted practices, recognised customs, spiritually or morally inspired norms, judicially declared rules, executively formulated edicts, formal legislative enactments or constitutionally embedded rights and duties. Whatever form they assume, these standards are the artificial construction of the human mind. Accordingly the law - whatever its form - can do no more and no less than regulate or set standards for human behaviour, human conduct, and human decision-making. The law cannot regulate the environment. It can only regulate human activities that impact directly or indirectly upon the environment. This applies as much to wetlands as components of the environment as it does to any other components of the environment or the environment at large. The capacity of the law to protect the environment and therefore wetlands is thus totally dependent upon the capacity of the law to regulate human behaviour, human conduct and human decision-making. At the same time the law needs to reflect the specific nature, functions and locations of wetlands. A wetland is an ecosystem by itself; it comprises a range of ecosystems within it; and it is part of a wider set of ecosystems. Hence, the significant ecological functions performed by wetlands. Then there are the benefits flowing to humans from wetlands. These may be social, economic, cultural, aesthetic, or a combination of some or of all of these. It is a challenge for a society acting through its legal system to find the appropriate balance between these ecological and these human values. But that is what sustainability requires.

Are motivational deficits part of the behavioural phenotype of Down syndrome?

Motivational deficits are generally accepted to be part of the behavioural phenotype associated with Down syndrome (DS). A motivational profile comprising low or inconsistent levels of task persistence, avoidance of challenging activities and over-dependence on adult direction has been described. However, comparisons are usually made between children with DS and those who are developing typically, without the inclusion of samples with intellectual disability (ID) from aetiologies other than DS. Such comparisons are needed to determine the extent to which motivational deficits are specific to DS, as opposed to being a feature of ID generally. Methods: The current study collected data about the personality-motivation profiles of children in three groups matched for mental age. They consisted of 80 typically developing (TD)3–7 year old children, 62 children with DS aged 7–15 years, and 54 children with moderate ID aged 7–15 years. Parents completed the 37-item EZ-Personality Questionnaire (EZPQ; Zigler et al., 2002), a measure of personality-motivational functioning. Results: There were significant differences between TD children and those with ID on all EZPQ scales. In most respects children with DS did not differ significantly from others with moderate ID, although they were rated as having greater expectancy of success and fewer negative reactions. Conclusion: The finding that children with DS are less motivated than TD children of the same mental age is consistent with previous studies in which parents have rated motivation. It seems, however, that motivation difficulties are associated with ID more generally, rather than being specific to those with DS. The study raises questions about phenotypic versus experiential effects on motivation for children with ID.

Ventilation distribution in rats : part 2 – a comparison of electrical impedance tomography and hyperpolarised helium magnetic resonance imaging

Background: Hyperpolarised helium MRI (He3 MRI) is a new technique that enables imaging of the air distribution within the lungs. This allows accurate determination of the ventilation distribution in vivo. The technique has the disadvantages of requiring an expensive helium isotope, complex apparatus and moving the patient to a compatible MRI scanner. Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) a non-invasive bedside technique that allows constant monitoring of lung impedance, which is dependent on changes in air space capacity in the lung. We have used He3MRI measurements of ventilation distribution as the gold standard for assessment of EIT. Methods: Seven rats were ventilated in supine, prone, left and right lateral position with 70% helium/30% oxygen for EIT measurements and pure helium for He3 MRI. The same ventilator and settings were used for both measurements. Image dimensions, geometric centre and global in homogeneity index were calculated. Results: EIT images were smaller and of lower resolution and contained less anatomical detail than those from He3 MRI. However, both methods could measure positional induced changes in lung ventilation, as assessed by the geometric centre. The global in homogeneity index were comparable between the techniques. Conclusion: EIT is a suitable technique for monitoring ventilation distribution and inhomgeneity as assessed by comparison with He3 MRI.

Neural bases for individual differences in the subjective experience of short durations (less than 2 seconds)

The current research was designed to establish whether individual differences in timing performance predict neural activation in the areas that subserve the perception of short durations ranging between 400 and 1600 milliseconds. Seventeen participants completed both a temporal bisection task and a control task, in a mixed fMRI design. In keeping with previous research, there was increased activation in a network of regions typically active during time perception including the right supplementary motor area (SMA) and right pre-SMA and basal ganglia (including the putamen and right pallidum). Furthermore, correlations between neural activity in the right inferior frontal gyrus and SMA and timing performance corroborate the results of a recent meta-analysis and are further evidence that the SMA forms part of a neural clock that is responsible for the accumulation of temporal information. Specifically, subjective lengthening of the perceived duration were associated with increased activation in both the right SMA (and right pre-SMA) and right inferior frontal gyrus.

Playing with Technology: Young Children Making Sense of Technology as Part of Their Everyday Social Worlds

Games and activities, often involving aspects of pretence and fantasy play, are an essential aspect of everyday preschool life for many young children. Young children’s spontaneous play activities can be understood as social life in action. Increasingly, young children’s games and activities involve their engagement in pretence using play props to represent computers, laptops and other pieces of technology equipment. In this way, pretend play becomes a context for engaging with matters from the real world. There are a number of studies investigating school-aged children engaging in gaming and other online activities, but less is known about what young children are doing with online technologies. Drawing on Australian Research Council funded research of children engaging with technologies at home and school, this chapter investigates how young children use technologies in everyday life by showing how they draw on props, both real or imaginary, to support their play activities. An ethnomethodological approach using conversation analysis is used to explore how children’s gestures, gaze and talk work to introduce ideas and activities. This chapter contributes to understandings of how children’s play intersects with technologies and pretend play.

Dimethyl 2,2`-[(4-oxo-2-phenyl-4H-chromene-5,7-diyl)dioxy]diacetate:a less densely packed polymorph

The title molecule, C21H18O8, crystallizes in two crystal polymorphs,see also Nallasivam, Nethaji, Vembu & Jaswant [Acta Cryst. (2009),E65, o312-o313]. The main difference between the two polymorphs is in the conformation of the oxomethylacetate groups with regard to the almost planar [total puckering amplitude 0.047 (2) angstrom] chromene ring. In the title compound, the best planes of the oxomethylacetate groups through the non-H atoms are almost perpendicular to the chromene ring [making dihedral angles of 89.61 (6) and 80.59 (5)degrees], while in the second polymorph the molecules are close to planar. Both crystal structures are stabilized by C-H center dot center dot center dot O.

Use of part records in Merino breeding programs - The inheritance of wool growth and fibre traits during different times of the year to determine their value in Merino breeding programs

Fibre diameter can vary dramatically along a wool staple, especially in the Mediterranean environment of southern Australia with its dry summers and abundance of green feed in spring. Other research results have shown a very low phenotypic correlation between fibre diameter grown between seasons. Many breeders use short staples to measure fibre diameter for breeding purposes and also to promote animals for sale. The effectiveness of this practice is determined by the relative response to selection by measuring fibre traits on a full 12 months wool staple as compared to measuring them only on part of a staple. If a high genetic correlation exists between the part record and the full record, then using part records may be acceptable to identify genetically superior animals. No information is available on the effectiveness of part records. This paper investigated whether wool growth and fibre diameter traits of Merino wool grown at different times of the year in a Mediterranean environment, are genetically the same trait, respectively. The work was carried out on about 7 dyebanded wool sections/animal.year, on ewes from weaning to hogget age, in the Katanning Merino resource flocks over 6 years. Relative clean wool growth of the different sections had very low heritability estimates of less than 0.10, and they were phenotypically and genetically poorly correlated with 6 or 12 months wool growth. This indicates that part record measurement of clean wool growth of these sections will be ineffective as indirect selection criteria to improve wool growth genetically. Staple length growth as measured by the length between dyebands, would be more effective with heritability estimates of between 0.20 and 0.30. However, these measurements were shown to have a low genetic correlation with wool grown for 12 months which implies that these staple length measurements would only be half as efficient as the wool weight for 6 or 12 months to improve total clean wool weight. Heritability estimates of fibre diameter, coefficient of variation of fibre diameter and fibre curvature were relatively high and were genetically and phenotypically highly correlated across sections. High positive phenotypic and genetic correlations were also found between fibre diameter, coefficient of variation of fibre diameter and fibre curvature of the different sections and similar measurements for wool grown over 6 or 12 months. Coefficient of variation of fibre diameter of the sections also had a moderate negative phenotypic and genetic correlation with staple strength of wool staples grown over 6 months indicating that coefficient of variation of fibre diameter of any section would be as good an indirect selection criterion to improve stable strength as coefficient of variation of fibre diameter for wool grown over 6 or 12 months. The results indicate that fibre diameter, coefficient of variation of fibre diameter and fibre curvature of wool grown over short periods of time have virtually the same heritability as that of wool grown over 12 months, and that the genetic correlation between fibre diameter, coefficient of variation of fibre diameter and fibre curvature on part and on full records is very high (rg > 0.85). This indicates that fibre diameter, coefficient of variation of fibre diameter and fibre curvature on part records can be used as selection criteria to improve these traits. However, part records of greasy and clean wool growth would be much less efficient than fleece weight for wool grown over 6 or 12 months because of the low heritability of part records and the low genetic correlation between these traits on part records and on wool grown for 12 months.

The host range of four new biotypes of Dactylopius tomentosus (Hemiptera: Dactylopiidae) from southern USA and their potential as biological control agents of Cylindropuntiaspp.(Cactaceae) in Australia: Part II.

Eight Cylindropuntia species have naturalised in Australia and pose serious economic, environmental and social impacts. Two biotypes of Dactylopius tomentosus have been used as bio-control agents to control different Cylindropuntia species. The host range of four additional biotypes of Dactylopius tomentosus from southern USA was investigated. Feeding and development were restricted to the genus Cylindropuntia. However, they showed differences in specificity within this genus and some biotypes discriminated between the provenances of C. rosea and C. tunicata. Efficacy trials were conducted to determine whether populations of each biotype could be sustained on the naturalised Cylindropuntia species and if these populations could retard the growth or kill these plants. The acanthocarpa biotype offers potential control of C. rosea (Lorne Station), while the cylindropuntia sp. biotype shows great potential to control C. rosea (Grawin). The cylindropuntia sp. biotype also had a high impact on C. kleiniae and C. imbricata, and a moderate impact on C. leptocaulis and C. prolifera. The acanthocarpa X echinocarpa biotype had its greatest impact on C. tunicata (Grawin), killing this plant in 18 weeks. A fourth biotype, leptocaulis, was damaging to some species, but was less effective than the other biotypes. Cylindropuntia spinosior is the only naturalised species in Australia where no effective biocontrol agent has been found.

DMT of Multi-hop Cooperative Networks-Part II: Layered and Multi-Antenna Networks

We consider single-source, single-sink (ss-ss) multi-hop relay networks, with slow-fading Rayleigh links. This two part paper aims at giving explicit protocols and codes to achieve the optimal diversity-multiplexing tradeoff (DMT) of two classes of multi-hop networks: K-parallel-path (KPP) networks and Layered networks. While single-antenna KPP networks were the focus of the first part, we consider layered and multi-antenna networks in this second part. We prove that a linear DMT between the maximum diversity d(max). and the maximum multiplexing gain of 1 is achievable for single-antenna fully-connected layered networks under the half-duplex constraint. This is shown to be equal to the optimal DMT if the number of relaying layers is less than 4. For the multiple-antenna case, we provide an achievable DMT, which is significantly better than known lower bounds for half duplex networks. Along the way, we compute the DMT of parallel MIMO channels in terms of the DMT of the component channel. For arbitrary ss-ss single-antenna directed acyclic networks with full-duplex relays, we prove that a linear tradeoff between maximum diversity and maximum multiplexing gain is achievable using an amplify-and-forward (AF) protocol. Explicit short-block-length codes are provided for all the proposed protocols. Two key implications of the results in the two-part paper are that the half-duplex constraint does not necessarily entail rate loss by a factor of two as previously believed and that simple AN protocols are often sufficient to attain the best possible DMT.

Organometallic chemistry of diphosphazanes. Part 26. Ruthenium hydride complexes of chiral and achiral diphosphazane ligands and asymmetric transfer hydrogenation reactions

The half-sandwhich ruthenium chloro complexes bearing chelated diphosphazane ligands, [(eta(5)-Cp)RuCl{kappa(2)-P,P-(RO)(2)PN(Me)P(OR)(2)}] [R = C6H3Me2-2,6] (1) and [(eta(5)-Cp*)RuCl{kappa(2)-P, P-X2PN(R)PYY'}] [R = Me, X = Y = Y' = OC6H5 (2); R = CHMe2, X-2 = C20H12O2, Y = Y' = OC6H5 (3) or OC6H4'Bu-4 (4)] have been prepared by the reaction of CpRu(PPh3)(2)Cl with (RO)(2)PN(Me)P(OR)(2) [R = C6H3Me2-2,6 (L-1)] or by the reaction of [Cp*RuCl2](n) with X2PN(R)PYY' in the presence of zinc dust. Among the four diastereomers (two enantiomeric pairs) possible for the "chiral at metal" complexes 3 and 4, only two diastereomers (one enantiomeric pair) are formed in these reactions. The complexes 1, 2, 4 and [(eta(5)-Cp)RuCl {kappa(2)-P,P-Ph2PN((S)-*CHMePh)PPhY)] [Y = Ph (5) or N2C3HMe2-3,5 (SCSPRRu)-(6)] react with NaOMe to give the corresponding hydride complexes [(eta(5) -Cp)RuH {kappa(2)-P,P-(RO)(2)PN(Me)P(OR)(2)}] (7), [(eta(5)-Cp*)RuH {kappa(2)-P,P'-X2PN(R)PY2)] [R = Me, X = Y = OC6H5 (8); R = CHMe2, X-2 = C20H12O2, Y = OC6H4'Bu-4 (9)] and [(eta(5) -Cp)RuH(kappa(2)-P, P-Ph2PN((S)-*CHMePh)PPhY)][Y =Ph (10) or N2C3HMe2-3,5 (SCSPRRu)(11a) and (SCSPSRu)-(11b)]. Only one enantiomeric pair of the hydride 9 is obtained from the chloro precursor 4 that bears sterically bulky substituents at the phosphorus centers. On the other hand, the optically pure trichiral complex 6 that bears sterically less bulky substituents at the phosphorus gives a mixture of two diastereomers (11a and 11b). Protonation of complex 7 using different acids (HX) gives a mixture of [(eta(5)- Cp)Ru(eta(2)-H-2){kappa(2)-P, P-(RO)(2)PN(Me)P(OR)(2))]X (12a) and [(eta(5)-Cp)Ru(H)(2){kappa(2)-P, P-(RO)(2)PN(Me)P(OR)(2)}]X (12b) of which 12a is the major product independent of the acid used; the dihydrogen nature of 12a is established by T, measurements and also by synthesizing the deuteride analogue 7-D followed by protonation to obtain the D-H isotopomer. Preliminary investigations on asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of 2-acetonaphthone in the presence of a series of chiral diphosphazane ligands show that diphosphazanes in which the phosphorus centers are strong pi-acceptor in character and bear sterically bulky substituents impart moderate levels of enantioselectivity. Attempts to identify the hydride intermediate involved in the asymmetric transfer hydrogenation by a model reaction suggests that a complex of the type, [Ru(H)(Cl){kappa(2)-P,P-X2PN(R)PY2)(solvent)(2)] could be the active species in this transformation. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Polarisation studies on the Raman spectra of cubic crystals - Part II: Calcium fluoride and potassium aluminium sulphate

Polarisation characters of the Raman lines of calcium fluoride (fluorspar) and potassium aluminium sulphate (alum) were investigated under the following conditions. Unpolarised light was incident normally on a face of the crystal making an angle 22.5° with a cubic face and the light scattered transversely along a cubic axis was analysed by a double image prism kept with its principal axes inclined at 45° to the vertical. Under these conditions the depolarisation factors of the Raman lines belonging to the totally symmetric (A), the doubly degenerate (E) and the triply degenerate (F) modes should be respectively =1, >1 and <1. The characteristic Raman line of CaF2 at 322 cm-1 exhibited a depolarisation value less than 1, showing thereby that the corresponding mode is a triply degenerate one (F). The Raman lines observed in the spectrum of K-alum were also classified and the results were compared with those given by previous investigators using standard crystal orientations.