RCAAP Repository

Wildfire susceptibility maps are a well-known tool for optimizing available means to plan for prevention, early detection, and wildfire suppression in Portugal, especially regarding the critical fire season (1 July 30 September). These susceptibility maps typically disregard seasonal weather conditions on each given year, being based on predisposing variables that remain constant on the long-term, such as elevation. We employ logistic regression for combining wildfire susceptibility with a meteorological index representing spring conditions (the Seasonal Severity Rating), with the purpose of predicting, for any given year and ahead of the critical fire season, which areas will burn. Results show that the combination of the index with wildfire susceptibility slightly increases the capability to predict which areas will burn, when compared with susceptibility alone. Spring meteorological context was found better suited for predicting if the following summer wildfire season will be more severe, rather than predicting where wildfires will effectively occur. The model can be updated yearly after the critical wildfire season and can be applied to optimize the allocation of human and material resources regarding the prevention, early detection and suppression activities, required to reduce the severity of wildfires in the country.

International migration reconfigures rural places by engaging localities with globalising forces. Accommodating newcomers, be they farming labourers or lifestyle migrants is a challenge at the local level due to the clash of interests, different visions on how the land should be managed and development promoted. Using Odemira as a case study, the paper has two goals: to show the change brought about by foreign investments in agribusiness, international labourers and lifestyle migrants to a rural place; and to highlight the strategies devised by local actors in the accommodation of new demands of language and housing. Language classes for adults and housing provisions are far from satisfying the needs. Schools display more flexibility to accommodate migrant children, whereas the agribusiness firms are increasing its lobbying capacity for their interest by pushing forward the approval of an exceptional regime that authorises the installation of workers in precarious accommodation located on the farms.

A cerâmica de tipo Kuass é uma produção apenas recentemente sistematizada e representa um excelente fóssil director para os contextos dos momentos finais da Idade do Ferro no Ocidente Peninsular. A partir de finais do séc. IV a.C., é produzida em quantidades muito abundantes, reproduzindo formalmente as cerâmicas áticas de verniz negro, na área correntemente designada de Círculo do Estreito de Gibraltar . A característica mais marcante nestas produções é a aplicação de engobes de tonalidades cinzentas, acastanhadas, mas principalmente avermelhadas, que cobrem a totalidade das superfícies dos exemplares. Esta produção entra em decadência a partir do séc. II a.C., situação que se relaciona directamente com a chegada da cerâmica campaniense à Península Ibérica. A presença da cerâmica de tipo Kuass no território algarvio parece ser abundante, a julgar pelos conjuntos aqui analisados, e integra, claramente, esta área no âmbito dos circuitos comerciais, e mesmo culturais, do mundo mediterrânico ocidental. Os materiais que surgem estratigraficamente associados a estas produções quer ao nível da cerâmica comum quer dos contentores anfóricos, fornecem ainda dados importantes, em vários casos, para a caracterização de um momento cronológico bastante específico, além de revelar indícios sobre os principais produtos importados e possíveis zonas de proveniência.

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The study of dust intrusions in Portugal is still a subject on which little investigation has been made, especially in terms of their effects. Thus, this work aims to achieve two goals: firstly, to characterize the dust intrusions in the study area; and secondly, to evaluate the possible statistical association between the dust intrusion days and hospital admissions due to respiratory diseases. Dust intrusions in Portugal are prevalent during the summer season. During this season, the dust plumes tend to cover broader areas than in the other seasons and they have origin in the North African countries. In the study area for the period between 2005 and 2015, the relative risk of urgent hospitalizations due to respiratory diseases was 12.6% higher during dust intrusion days. In order to obtain this statistical association, a Distributed Lag Nonlinear Model was developed. With this work, we expect to help the development of further studies regarding North African dust intrusions in Portugal, more precisely their effects on human health.

Esta Newsletter (NL) resulta de uma parceria entre o Instituto de Saúde Baseada na Evidência e a Cochrane Portugal, e tem como objectivo disponibilizar informação sobre áreas interessantes para a prática clínica, com base na melhor evidência científica. São incluídos estudos relevantes, criticamente avaliados pela sua validade, importância dos resultados e aplicabilidade prática, resumidos numa óptica de suporte à decisão. É dada prioridade a estudos de causalidade incluindo-se ainda, quando justificado, estudos qualitativos e metodológicos, assim como revisões científicas. O conteúdo da NL é da exclusiva responsabilidade do(s) seu(s) autor(es).

Sprouting angiogenesis is fundamental for development and contributes to cancer, diabetic retinopathy, and cardiovascular diseases. Sprouting angiogenesis depends on the invasive properties of endothelial tip cells. However, there is very limited knowledge on how tip cells invade into tissues. Here, we show that endothelial tip cells use dactylopodia as the main cellular protrusion for invasion into nonvascular extracellular matrix. We show that dactylopodia and filopodia protrusions are balanced by myosin IIA (NMIIA) and actin-related protein 2/3 (Arp2/3) activity. Endothelial cell-autonomous ablation of NMIIA promotes excessive dactylopodia formation in detriment of filopodia. Conversely, endothelial cell-autonomous ablation of Arp2/3 prevents dactylopodia development and leads to excessive filopodia formation. We further show that NMIIA inhibits Rac1-dependent activation of Arp2/3 by regulating the maturation state of focal adhesions. Our discoveries establish a comprehensive model of how endothelial tip cells regulate its protrusive activity and will pave the way toward strategies to block invasive tip cells during sprouting angiogenesis.

Mobility has been in the academic spotlight at least since the 1980s, in the wake of globalisation studies (Salazar 2013), together with post-modern trends, which called for a theoretical breach in an academic scene dominated by perspectives on structures, territory and stasis (examples of this breach can be found in Clifford 1997; Deleuze and Guattari 1987; de Certeau 1984; Virilio 1986). In this context, ‘the nomad – whether traveller, refugee, runaway’ became ‘the symbolic identity of our age’, as suggested by Kendal, Woodward and Skrbis (2009, 85). At the turn of the millennium, the world was portrayed as revolving around movement and migration, transnationalism and hybridism, networks and cosmopolitanism, liquidity and fluidity, nomads and runaways (Salazar 2020). Metaphorized as proximity and togetherness, along with cultural exchange, hybridism, networks, connectedness and cosmopolitanism, mobility was perceived by many as positive and as reducer of inequality gaps. Just as social mobility was systematically translated to its upwards trajectory towards the erasure of social, economic, and cultural inequality, physical mobility was conceived along the same lines, having the potential to challenge the ‘old’ boundaries of nationalism, ethnicity, race and even gender. In a word, mobility was equated to the promise of a more cosmopolitan, ethical, better world.

In this article, we aim to identify the actors and unpack the discourses and administrative practices used to increase current mobilities of people (Jewish immigrants, investors, tourist visitors, and evicted residents) and explore their impact on the continuity of the settler-colonial regime in pre-1948 Palestinian urban spaces which became part of Israel. To render these dynamics visible, we explore the case of Acre—a pre-1948 Palestinian city located in the north-west of Israel which during the last three decades has been receiving about one hundred Jewish immigrant families annually. Our findings reveal a dramatic change in the attempts to judaise the city: Mobility policies through neoliberal means have not only been instrumental in continuing the processes of displacement and dispossession of the Palestinians in this so-called ‘mixed city,’ but have also recruited new actors and created new techniques and opportunities to accelerate the judaisation of the few Palestinian spaces left. Moreover, these new mobility policies normalise judaisation of the city, both academically and practically, through globally trendy paradigms and discourses. Reframing migration-led development processes in cities within a settler-colonialism approach enables us to break free from post-colonial analytical frameworks and re-centre the native-settler relations as well as the immigrants-settlers’ role in territorial control and displacement of the natives in the neoliberal era.

Expanding urbanization rates have engendered increasing research examining linkages between urban environments and older adults' well-being. This mixed-methods systematic review synthesizes the evidence for the influence of urban neighborhoods' attributes on older adults' well-being. We searched for literature published up to December 2020 across six databases and performed quality assessment and thematic analysis. The results, based on 39 identified studies, showed that natural areas in neighborhoods and a sense of community are the attributes most often associated with positive effects on well-being. Transit-related variables, urban furniture, and access to healthcare are also positively related to well-being. Neighborhoods may promote well-being more effectively when these elements are considered. However, almost half of the studies did not include all environmental dimensions simultaneously, and self-reported instruments were largely preferred over more objective assessments of the environment. Future research should thus holistically examine physical, social, and service-related attributes to produce more robust evidence.

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O ModuLetter é um sistema de tipografia modular que combina os materiais do letterpress, como a madeira e o chumbo, com sensores e motores (controlados por microcontroladores Arduino® ou similares e software original dedicado), de caráter reativo e interativo, assente nos princípios preconizados por Josef Albers no seu sistema Kombinationsschrift „3“, desenvolvido e publicado durante a sua passagem pela Bauhaus. No plano estrutural e material, o sistema de Albers serviu de inspiração não só ao nível dos princípios da modularidade tipográfica no sentido mais lato e evidente do desenho, da definição das grelhas e da escolha de módulos geométricos, como também ao nível do princípio da economia de meios possibilitada pela standardização formal e modularidade dos vários componentes (Albers, 1931, p. 3), no que concerne tanto aos tipos de chumbo como às peças móveis e componentes elétricos e eletrónicos. No plano funcional e utilitário, o sistema ModuLetter possibilitará a utilizadores de todas as idades e grau de proficiência a aprendizagem dos princípios estruturantes da tipografia modular (num possível processo de introdução simplificado e lúdico para um estudo futuro mais aprofundado do desenho da letra e do type design), e dos materiais e processos de trabalho do letterpress por via de experimentações em suporte físico, e a produção de provas impressas multicolores a partir daquelas, permitindo-lhes ainda escolher neste último ponto do uso da cor entre o controlo absoluto do resultado final ou a introdução de fatores de aleatoriedade. Neste artigo são explicitadas as bases referenciais e conceptuais do projeto, assim como os seus constituintes físicos e digitais e o seu modelo de funcionamento.

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