Repositório RCAAP

Classical molecular analyses of Mycobacterium bovis based on spoligotyping and Variable Number Tandem Repeat (MIRU-VNTR) brought the first insights into the epidemiology of animal tuberculosis (TB) in Portugal, showing high genotypic diversity of circulating strains that mostly cluster within the European 2 clonal complex. Previous surveillance provided valuable information on the prevalence and spatial occurrence of TB and highlighted prevalent genotypes in areas where livestock and wild ungulates are sympatric. However, links at the wildlife–livestock interfaces were established mainly via classical genotype associations. Here, we apply whole genome sequencing (WGS) to cattle, red deer and wild boar isolates to reconstruct the M. bovis population structure in a multi-host, multi-region disease system and to explore links at a fine genomic scale between M. bovis from wildlife hosts and cattle. Whole genome sequences of 44 representative M. bovis isolates, obtained between 2003 and 2015 from three TB hotspots, were compared through single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) variant calling analyses. Consistent with previous results combining classical genotyping with Bayesian population admixture modelling, SNP-based phylogenies support the branching of this M. bovis population into five genetic clades, three with apparent geographic specificities, as well as the establishment of an SNP catalogue specific to each clade, which may be explored in the future as phylogenetic markers. The core genome alignment of SNPs was integrated within a spatiotemporal metadata framework to further structure this M. bovis population by host species and TB hotspots, providing a baseline for network analyses in different epidemiological and disease control contexts. WGS of M. bovis isolates from Portugal is reported for the first time in this pilot study, refining the spatiotemporal context of TB at the wildlife–livestock interface and providing further support to the key role of red deer and wild boar on disease maintenance. The SNP diversity observed within this dataset supports the natural circulation of M. bovis for a long time period, as well as multiple introduction events of the pathogen in this Iberian multi-host system.

The current investigation focus on the functions of the monster through eras, in the western world, with a special emphasis in the way it is visually portrayed in our current times, through Drawing applied to concept art which is a widely used tool in videogames and in educational contexts, when it comes to artistical studies. We started by focusing on the cultural and societal framework in which the monster was present as well as its functions in them. Our focus was on the analysis of fantastical beings under an artistical point of view, through an extensive observation of visual elements that are needed to their creation and that are transversal to both Drawing and Painting notions – in both analogical or digital mediums. These knowledges are used in the field of concept art, as exploration methods in several steps of the artistic and conceptual process of making a videogame. We defined the several elements that allow us to relate emotionally with monsters and also how they work in the field of videogames. Next, using our teaching experience and the analysis of interviews, we evaluated the advantages existing in the subjects that can be articulated with the theme of fantastical monsters to create a better learning experience in the field of visual arts. Finally, we analysed all the gathered information regarding interviews to four distinct social groups: students/teachers, creators/executants, consumers and others dilettantes. Having said results our goal is to contribute to a better comprehension of the utility of monsters in actuality, giving emphasis on its several visual and artistical representations, the way it can be used in classroom context and finally how it evolved to have such a strong association to videogames

The Macaronesian islands constitute an enormous reservoir of genetic variation of wild carrots (subtribe Daucinae; Apiaceae), including 10 endemic species, but an accurate understanding of the diversification processes within these islands is still lacking. We conducted a review of the morphology, ecology, and conservation status of the Daucinae species and, on the basis of a comprehensive dataset, we estimated the genome size variation for 16 taxa (around 320 samples) occurring in different habitats across the Macaronesian islands in comparison to mainland specimens. Results showed that taxa with larger genomes (e.g., Daucus crinitus: 2.544 pg) were generally found in mainland regions, while the insular endemic taxa from Azores and Cabo Verde have smaller genomes. Melanoselinum decipiens and Monizia edulis, both endemic to Madeira Island, showed intermediate values. Positive correlations were found between mean genome size and some morphological traits (e.g., spiny or winged fruits) and also with habit (herbaceous or woody). Despite the great morphological variation found within the Cabo Verde endemic species, the 2Cvalues obtained were quite homogeneous between these taxa and the subspecies of Daucus carota, supporting the close relationship among these taxa. Overall, this study improved the global knowledge of DNA content for Macaronesian endemics and shed light into the mechanisms underpinning diversity patterns of wild carrots in the western Mediterranean region.

Evolution is a key concept of biology, fundamental to understand the world and address important societal problems, but research studies show that it is still not widely understood and accepted. Several factors are known to influence evolution acceptance and understanding, but little information is available regarding the impacts of the curriculum on these aspects. Very few curricula have been examined to assess the coverage of biological evolution. The available studies do not allow comparative analyses, due to the different methodologies employed by the authors. However, such an analysis would be useful for research purposes and for the development of appropriate educational policies to address the problem of a lack of evolution acceptance in some countries. In this paper we describe the steps through which we developed a valid and reliable instrument for curricula analysis known as FACE: “Framework to Assess the Coverage of biological Evolution by school curricula.” This framework was developed based on the “Understanding Evolution Conceptual Framework” (UECF). After an initial pilot study, our framework was reformulated based on identified issues and experts’ opinions. To generate validity and reliability evidence in support of the framework, it was applied to four European countries’ curricula. For each country, a team of a minimum of two national and two foreign coders worked independently to assess the curriculum using this framework for content analysis. Reliability evidence was estimated using Krippendorf's alpha and resulted in appropriate values for coding the examined curricula. Some issues that coders faced during the analysis were discussed and, to ensure better reliability for future researchers, additional guidelines and one extra category were included in the framework. The final version of the framework includes six categories and 34 subcategories. FACE is a useful tool for the analysis and the comparison of curricula and school textbooks regarding the coverage of evolution, and such results can guide curricula development.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) can be highlighted as one of the most significant health concerns among the last decades, for which antimicrobial drug use in food-producing animals has contributed as one of the major drivers. Food-producing animals are one of the most important and rapidly expanding commercial agricultural sectors worldwide but there is currently limited knowledge on the temporal and geographical distribution of scientific research on antimicrobial resistance in food-producing animals. We provide a global overview of the spatial and temporal trends of scientific knowledge on AMR in food-producing animals. Peer-reviewed papers of AMR on food-producing animals were retrieved from the Web of Science, systemized and dissected. The final validated dataset contained 1341 occurrences observations covering the 1957–2018 period. There has been a shift of research efforts, both geographically and temporally, emphasizing regional differences in food animal production and changing practices in the food production industry. It becomes evident that many regions have been poorly surveyed, wherein intensified sampling and testing efforts should be most valuable. This systematization of knowledge will be crucial in helping to determine how to optimally allocate limited resources available for AMR monitor and control, aiding in the prediction where the threat of new resistant infections will be greatest. AMR research in food-producing animals in developing countries is markedly growing, reflecting changes in food animals production systems but also posing a particularly significant threat, not only due to intensive animal production, but also exacerbated by poor sanitation. We highlight that the use of antibiotics in food producing animals is pervasive, calling for urgent action. These findings raise the possibility to finetuning key priorities on AMR global issues.

The best preserved and most complete lava flow sequences of the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP) in Morocco are exposed in the Central High Atlas and can reach up to 300 m in thickness. Four distinct formations, emplaced in subaerial environments, are classically recognized: the Lower, Intermediate, Upper and Recurrent formations. These formations are separated by paleosoils and sedimentary sequences (mudstones, siltstones, sandstones, limestones), that are in general less than two meter-thick and may exceptionally reach a thickness of 80 m, representing minor periods of volcanic quiescence. CAMP lava flows of the Central High Atlas can be grouped into two main categories: subaerial compound pahoehoe flows and simple flows. The former type is exclusively confined to the Lower and Intermediate Formations, while simple flows occur in the Upper and Recurrent Formations. The dominance of compound flows in the two lowermost units of the CAMP suggests a slow emplacement during successive sustained eruptive episodes. Instead the thick single flows characterizing the Upper and Recurrent units indicate higher effusive rates. Basaltic pillow lavas (always of short lateral extent: 10 to 100 m), showing radial jointing and vitreous rinds, identical to those found in the Western Meseta, are occasionally associated with hyaloclastites in the base of the Intermediate Formation, immediately above clastic sediments, or in the Upper Formation. The occurrence of pillow lavas does not imply a generalized subaqueous environment at the time of the lava emission. Instead, they represent subaerial flows that entered small lakes occupying depressions on the volcanic topography of the Lower and Intermediate Formations. The short lateral extent of the pillow lavas and their constant stratigraphic position, the existence of lava flows with unequivocal subaerial characteristics associated to sediments containing fossilized wood, clearly indicate onshore emplacement.

We are concerned. We are three early-career researchers in the feld of international migration and we are concerned. This concern arises from our respective feldwork. On the one hand, we witness a politics which toughens eligibility to asylum and makes the access to reside in a foreign country precarious. On the other hand, we are witnesses of an ever more polarised discourse induced by an emergency-like and securitised management of migration fows. European policies aiming at controlling migration routes favour exclusion (erections of walls, multiplication of hotspots’ logics) and death (in the last 25 years, IOM estimates account for 40,000 humans who died or disappeared on migration routes, with 6000 in 2016 only). These migration policies are the result of a selective amnesia: only certain striking fgures, facts and images participate in their production. Secondly, our concern grows while we witness a lack of circulation between scientifc knowledge and measures adopted at a political level: our researches’ results are too often confned to the scientifc sphere.

No summary/description provided

Pliocene body fossils from Santa Maria Island, Azores, have been studied for decades, but only more recently have ichnofossils received their due attention. Calcareous Pliocene deposits from the Baía de Nossa Senhora section contain numerous, diverse, well-preserved natural casts of invertebrate borings. The study of this type of fossils adds to knowledge on the dispersal of benthic faunas across oceans to volcanic oceanic islands. The borings belong to seven ichnogenera and twenty-two ichnotaxa at the ichnospecies level with more than half pertaining to Entobia, which is produced by clionaid sponges. Other borings found were produced by bivalves (Gastrochaenolites), polychaete worms (Caulostrepsis and Maeandropolydora), sipunculid worms (Trypanites), phoronid worms (Talpina) and ctenostome bryozoans (Iramena). The occurrence, ichnogeny, distribution and preservational state of the borings suggest that the bearing bioclasts have been exposed for several years on the sea floor. The borings derive from different bathymetric zones on the shelf, and their formation took place during several bioerosional phases. The association of borings belongs to the Entobia ichnofacies, which is typical of carbonate rocky shores, and shows close similarity to those described from the Paratethys, Mediterranean and partly the eastern Atlantic regions. This fits the idea that most of the Neogene shallow-water marine fauna in the Azores is biogeographically related to the eastern Atlantic shores.

A síndrome hemofagocítica ou linfohistiocitose hemofagocítica (HLH) é uma síndrome potencialmente fatal e rara, na qual há uma hiperativação dos macrófagos e dos linfócitos, causando assim um quadro de hiperinflamação. Esta síndrome pode ser secundária à infeção por Leishmania, cuja doença é endémica no mediterrâneo, incluindo em Portugal. Quer a leishmaniose visceral, quer a HLH têm uma incidência mais elevada na idade pediátrica, pelo que a suspeita diagnóstica desta associação é fundamental em Pediatria, especialmente em zonas endémicas. No presente trabalho, são apresentados e discutidos três casos clínicos de três crianças com idades compreendidas entre os 12 meses e os 5 anos de idade que, na investigação da causa do quadro de HLH, foram diagnosticadas com leishmaniose visceral. O tratamento com anfotericina B lipossómica demonstrou uma resolução total do quadro clínico e laboratorial, com excelente seguimento. Pretende-se alertar para a ocorrência desta associação nas crianças e em Portugal.

Para conhecer, analisar e explicar a emigração portuguesa precisamos de acionar e combinar múltiplas metodologias. Não está em causa, naquela afirmação, apenas a referência à utilidade da clássica combinação entre metodologias extensivas e intensivas. No estudo da emigração portuguesa começa por ser necessário combinar, desde logo, diferentes metodologias e métodos extensivos, nomeadamente a análise de estatísticas institucionais com a realização de operações de inquérito por questionário. Os dados das estatísticas institucionais permitem medir e caracterizar, em termos muito gerais, os fluxos e populações de emigrantes portugueses. As medidas são, em rigor, estimativas construídas com as estatísticas-espelho usadas para caracterizar a emigração, ou seja, com as estatísticas sobre a entrada e residência de portugueses nos países de destino. A qualidade dessas estimativas depende, pois, da qualidade das estatísticas sobre imigração nos países de destino ou, mais simplesmente, da existência dessas estatísticas. Apesar de todos os problemas que resultam quer da desigual qualidade dos diferentes sistemas estatísticos nacionais, quer da falta de harmonização dos indicadores usados em cada país, as estimativas realizadas com recursos às estatísticas-espelho são fundamentais. Não há outra maneira de medir, ainda que aproximadamente, o volume e as características gerais dos fluxos e das populações emigradas. E, sem essa medida, é impossível contextualizar e precisar o significado estatístico dos resultados de estudos que produzem os seus próprios dados através de processos de inquirição mais localizados.

Introdução: No Acidente vascular cerebral (AVC) isquémico, a trombectomia mecânica é uma importante ferramenta terapêutica. O score ASPECTS, calculado em estudos de Tomografia Computorizada (TC), é utilizado na seleção de doentes para este procedimento, necessitando de ser superior a 6 para inclusão. Os estudos de angio-TC, que são realizados simultaneamente com a TC na admissão do doente, também possibilitam a avaliação do parênquima e frequentemente demonstram áreas de hipodensidade, que podem ser diferentes das identificadas nos estudos TC. Assim, surge a questão de qual dos métodos de imagem é um melhor preditor do enfarte final, informação que pode ser muito relevante, não apenas na seleção dos doentes, mas também na determinação do prognóstico. Objetivos: Comparar o score ASPECTS em estudos de TC com o mesmo score em estudos de angio-TC, aquando a admissão de doentes com AVC isquémico agudo, submetidos a procedimentos de revascularização vascular, para predição da área de enfarte final. Será ainda avaliada a relação entre os scores e o grau de recanalização e determinar-se-á a reprodutibilidade inter-observador das medições efetuadas. Métodos: Estudo coorte retrospetivo, de doentes com AVC isquémico agudo da circulação anterior submetidos a procedimento de trombectomia no serviço de Imagiologia Neurológica do CHLN-EPE, entre 2019 e 31 de janeiro de 2020. De forma independente e cega para os dados clínicos, efetuou-se o cálculo do score ASPECTS nos estudos de TC e angio-TC à admissão e na TC às 24h. Os valores do score foram também comparados entre os subgrupos de diferentes graus de recanalização e analisados quanto à reprodutibilidade inter-observador. Resultados: Neste estudo, foram incluídos 99 doentes. Os valores do score ASPECTS na angio-TC foram, em média, mais próximos dos valores na TC às 24h. Nos doentes com TICI ≥ 2B, os valores do score na TC e angio-TC foram, em média, mais próximos dos valores na TC às 24h comparativamente aos doentes com TICI < 2B. Os valores do score ASPECTS apresentaram uma boa reprodutibilidade inter-observador. Discussão e conclusão: O valor do score ASPECTS calculado no estudo de angio-TC é um melhor preditor da área final de enfarte, relativamente ao valor obtido com a TC. Nos doentes com TICI ≥ 2B, tanto a TC como a angio-TC apresentaram um maior valor preditor comparativamente aos doentes com menor grau de recanalização. O score calculado na angio-TC pode vir a ser utilizado para uma melhor seleção dos doentes e determinação do prognóstico.

A Imunoterapia Intravesical com Bacillus Calmette-Guérin é o tratamento adjuvante recomendado para o carcinoma não-invasivo da bexiga de risco intermédio e alto, após resseção transuretral da bexiga. Apesar da sua eficácia comprovada, esta terapêutica apresenta efeitos colaterais que podem apresentar gravidade significativa, nomeadamente a BCGite. Pensa-se que esta entidade poderá ser o resultado de uma infeção disseminada por Bacillus Calmette-Guérin. A sua incidência é reportada em 3% a 7% dos indivíduos que realizam instilações intravesicais com Bacillus Calmette-Guérin. Ainda que a incidência seja relativamente reduzida, a taxa de interrupção do tratamento, com consequente redução da sua eficácia, e a morbilidade (7,4%) e mortalidade (5,4%) associadas a esta infeção disseminada salientam a importância do seu reconhecimento. A BCGite manifesta-se localmente, no aparelho genito-urinário e sistemicamente com envolvimento de órgão. Esta entidade carece de uma caracterização concisa, pois diversos estudos apresentam dados pouco claros e muitas vezes discordantes. Com esta revisão pretende-se incidir sobre os diferentes aspetos clínicos da BCGite com o objetivo de obter uma caracterização mais completa da mesma, favorecendo uma abordagem mais adequada na prática clínica. A apresentação clínica, os preditores de risco, a implementação de profilaxia, o diagnóstico e o tratamento da mesma são os principais alvos deste trabalho.

Introdução: O traumatismo crânio encefálico ligeiro tem sido associado a alterações encefálicas e défices neuropsicológicos a longo prazo. Objetivo: Procedeu-se a uma revisão sistemática da literatura com o objetivo de estudar a relação entre os achados de ressonância magnética (RM) avançada, em indivíduos com traumatismo crânio-encefálico (TCE) ligeiro, e o outcome neuropsicológico aos 6 e 12 meses após o traumatismo. Métodos: Foi realizada uma pesquisa de literatura, entre 2010 e 2020, utilizando a Pubmed, Cochrane library e Scopus. Resultados: Dos 237 artigos que resultaram da pesquisa, 15 foram incluídos na revisão sistemática. Todos os estudos incluídos relataram, pelo menos, um achado de RM após TCE ligeiro. Dez artigos documentam uma associação entre os achados de RM após o traumatismo e alterações neuropsicológicas. O TCE ligeiro pode condicionar alterações encefálicas, mesmo em doentes que não apresentem alterações agudas identificáveis por estudos de tomografia computorizada (TC) e de RM convencional. Os achados mais relevantes referem-se à utilização de estudos de RM com tensores de difusão (DTI1), demonstrando que uma redução da anisotropia fracional (FA2) e aumento da difusibilidade média (MD3) na fase aguda do traumatismo se correlacionavam com pior prognóstico neuropsicológico a longo prazo, nomeadamente ao nível da atenção, de função executiva e de memória. Adicionalmente, um melhor outcome cognitivo foi associado a tendências crescentes nos valores de FA e kurtose média (MK4) e decrescentes nos valores de MD aos 6 e 12 meses após o traumatismo. Conclusão: De acordo com esta revisão sistemática, os achados de RM avançada, em indivíduos que sofrem um TCE ligeiro, correlacionam-se com pior outcome neurocognitivo ao fim de 6 meses. Não foi possível ter resultados conclusivos relativamente a um outcome neuropsicológico aos 12 meses após o traumatismo. Estudos com técnicas de ressonância avançada podem surgir no futuro como biomarcadores in vivo para definir o prognóstico de indivíduos que sofrem um TCE ligeiro.

As fraturas pélvicas em idade pediátrica são raras e associam-se, maioritariamente, a atropelamentos e acidentes de viação. Relativamente à combinação de fraturas do anel pélvico com fraturas acetabulares, a situação é ainda mais rara. Pela raridade da situação e pelo facto de que quando ocorrem em idades precoces poderem vir a afetar o correto desenvolvimento do individuo, a abordagem atempada e correta, influencia as consequências a longo prazo dos doentes. Com este trabalho pretendo fazer a discussão de um caso clínico individual revendo e estruturando a literatura em relação à identificação e descrição das abordagens terapêuticas à fratura do anel pélvico dando destaque à associação com fraturas acetabulares e fratura-luxação da anca. Adicionalmente pretendo discutir o prognóstico e complicações das fraturas referidas. Quanto à metodologia utilizada teve por base numa pesquisa bibliográfica com dados recolhidos no Pubmed e Google Scholar, tendo sido selecionados artigos entre 2000-2021, em idade pediátrica, escritos em língua portuguesa e inglesa. Adicionalmente, para inclusão de dados do caso clínico foram utilizados os registos pessoais do médico assistente responsável pela orientação do trabalho. Apesar da falta de evidência e de consensos, existiu uma evolução no último século, preferindo-se atualmente um tratamento menos conservador. A abordagem à criança deve ser iniciada assegurando a estabilização hemodinâmica, seguindo-se a caracterização e classificação correta da fratura através de meios de imagem para tomada de decisão terapêutica consoante o grau de imaturidade da pélvis e estabilidade fraturária. Acabando o tratamento cirúrgico por ser preconizado sempre para fraturas com grande disrupção, instáveis e abertas pela maior severidade de lesões e maiores implicações a longo prazo. Em termos de prognóstico, destaca-se que um tratamento atempado e correto permite uma recuperação da funcionalidade e diminuição das complicações a longo prazo.

The theoretical and practical discourse of artistic experience and its importance in pedagogy addressed during the course of the 20th century constituted a relevant interest for the study of the harmonious development of children and youth. The present thesis presents a theoretical and practical study using references from the field of philosophy, pedagogy and art. Based on contributions by John Dewey (1859-1952), Herbert Read (1893-1968) and Elliot Eisner (1933-2014), we certify the extension of the arts in the field of life in general and pedagogy in particular, and even though, art allows the human being to be touched emotionally through a unique form of experience. We found reference and inspiration in the work of artist pedagogues such as John Cage, Tim Rollins, Joseph Beuys, Malangatana Valente Ngwenya, Bruno Munari, Madalena Cabral and Eurico Gonçalves. Artists in the educational role, often in experimental contexts display relevancy for conceptual thinking on the development of aesthetic experience in the field of art and pedagogy. Practices that present the creation of artistic structures or programs linked to reforming pedagogies that demonstrate the potential of artistic languages as an innovative concept in artistic-pedagogical programs. Such experiences also ensure that the methodology used allows for a natural shift between artist, pedagogue and researcher. Based on the theoretical references and the artistic and pedagogical practices mentioned above, we created the artistic-pedagogical program: “What I see from where I am” that takes shape in the practical part of this thesis and with which we tried to identify methods and test practices for the construction of artistic processes and products. This program was designed with an organized base structure, in artistic experimentation workshops, inspired by artistic movements of such references as: Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism and the KWY Group. The structure was designed to be flexible and adapted to different ages, heterogeneous groups, at different times and workspaces. Thus, we were able to observe the program in three different contexts: school, artistic residency and museum. The artistic activities performed during the workshops, brought about different interpretations despite of using the same materials and techniques allowing for free self-expression in childhood. They also made it possible to test the effectiveness of the strategies and resources involved in the sessions for the development of aesthetic sensitivity and openness to the arts, to be measured through the artistic objects produced, allowing participants to obtain knowledge in a metaphorical way.

The thesis intends to make a reading for the cinema of Nicolas Bourriaud's relational aesthetics and to observe how the process, understood here as an event, can produce cinema, taking into account the absence of materiality that relational theory proposes. The intention is to understand what belongs to the cinema and what belongs to the film, making a distinction between the two dimensions and, above all, trying to understand the process through which the cinema passes until it becomes a film, and the role of the director and other actors in this relational scenario. It studies the dialogues, the quality of the meetings, the nature of the relations of domination between the actors and also the relationship between the images that are inscribed in the film and those that remain outside the representation. It also tries to think about the relationships that are held in the construction of the film from the ideas of action and reaction, active force and reactive force. In an attempt to reflect on the transformation of cinema and film, he discusses the role of memory, the creation of archives and editing as decisionmaking elements that imply political and affective choices. The thesis is theoretical-practical and integrates three films – “Dream Machine”, “Halfways” and “How do you Say it in Words?” – which make up the "Trilogy of Encounter". It is from and around the questions motivated by artistic practice that the text is organized. The text also aims to clarify the methodology and choices present in the making of these films.

In recent decades, small villages in some mountainous regions in Europe have been suffering from ageing and depopulation, yet at the same time, immigrants have been arriving and settling there. This paper sheds light on the perceptions of sustainable rural development among international immigrants living in municipalities with fewer than 500 inhabitants, which are already the home to some ‘cosmovillagers’. If immigrants’ views are left unattended, an important part of reality will be lacking in the picture of mountainous areas because today immigration is qualitatively relevant in rural Europe. This paper aims to answer the following questions, among others: What dimensions of sustainability are underscored? What are the main challenges for sustainability and the proposals for improvement? What are the local sustainability challenges? This paper provides research results and insights based on original data gathered during fieldwork in the Pyrenees as well as analyses of documents, maps and statistics. Specifically, the main focus is on some several sparsely populated areas in the Lleida Pyrenees, e.g. dozens of municipalities in Alt Urgell, Cerdanya, Pallars Sobirà and Val d’Aran. Thus this paper aims to help fill that relative gap in the existing academic literature by offering original qualitative information.

No summary/description provided

Habitat loss and degradation are causing collapses in freshwater fish in the Mediterranean region, where habitat restoration actions are still hampered by poor understanding of fish habitat selection and fitness. Here, we combined field surveys and laboratorial experiments to investigate how water velocity, body size and intra-specific interactions influence habitat selection and foraging success by the highly endangered Mira chub Squalius torgalensis. Velocity negatively affected habitat selection and fitness of chub via its negative effects on prey capture rate. Small chub occupied lower velocity ranges than large chub, and both captured the most prey at the range of velocities selected in the stream. Size-based intra-specific interactions also affected capture success, with small chub capturing proportionally less prey in the presence of large chub. Our results suggest that, during base-flow conditions, restoring low and moderate velocities up to 26 cm/s will help ensure suitable habitat and improve the fitness of small and large chub occurring in interacting groups. Integrated approaches uncovering factors directly related to habitat selection and individual fitness should guide habitat restoration for fish in Mediterranean streams and may help identify critical habitat features for other endangered species.