ESACB - Artigos em revistas com arbitragem científica
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- Aboveground biomass mapping and fire potential severity assessment: a case study for eucalypts and shrubland areas in the Central Inland Region of PortugalPublication . Alegria, C.M.M.Shrubland and forestland covers are highly prone to fire. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) has been widely used for biomass quantitative assessment. The objectives of this study were as follows: (1) to compute the NDVI annual curve for two types of land cover eucalypts and shrubland areas; (2) to collect field data in these two types of land cover to estimate aboveground biomass (AGB); and (3) to produce AGB maps for eucalypts and shrubland areas by modelling AGB with NDVI, validate them with other data sources, and to compare fuel loads with fire severity levels. A study area in the central inland region of Portugal was considered. The wildfire on 4 August 2023 was considered for burn severity levels assessment using the Normalized Burn Index (NRB). The Sentinel-2 MSI imagery was used to compute the NDVI for the years of 2022 and 2023 and the NBR for the pre-fire and post-fire dates. The NDVI annual curve for 2022 showed a minimum observed between July and August, in accordance with the climatological data, and allowed differentiating eucalypts from shrubland areas. Spectral signatures also confirmed this differentiation. The fitted linear models for AGB prediction using the NDVI imagery showed good fitting performances (R2 of 0.76 and 0.77). The AGB maps provided a relevant decision support tool for forest management and for fire hazard and fire severity mitigation. Further research is needed using more robust datasets for an independent validation of the model.
- Ácidos gordos componentes e fracção esterólica em azeites monovarietais das cultivares ‘Galega Vulgar’ e ‘Azeiteira’Publication . Pintado, Cristina Miguel; Peres, Cidália; Peres, Maria de Fátima; Henriques, LuísNo azeite virgem, os ácidos gordos componentes e a fracção esterólica contribuem para o reconhecimento da qualidade, da autenticidade o das propriedades funcionais. Este estudo apresenta a composição em ácidos gordos, em esteróis e em alcoóis triterpénicos de azeites monovarietais das cultivares ‘Galega Vulgar’ e ‘Azeiteira’. Entre os ácidos gordos componentes, registaram-se, especialmente. diferenças na percentagem dos ácidos oleico, litioleico, linolénico palmítico e palmitoleico, em que o azeite ‘Galega’ revelou percentagens superiores dos ácidos palmítico, palmitoleico e linolénico. No que concerne à fracção esterólica, o β-sitosterol, o Δ-5-avenasterol e o estigmasterol revelaram especial capacidade para distinguir os azeites em estudo, registando-se percentagens superiores de Δ-¬5-avenasterol e de estigmasterol em ‘Azeiteira’. A fracção de alcoóis triterpénicos, eritrodiol e uvaol, apresentou valores inferiores ao limite vigente na legislação europeia.
- Advanced classification of Brazilian stingless bee honey by genus using comprehensive analytical techniques and chemometricsPublication . Ressutte, Jéssica; Galvan, Diego; Luz, Cynthia F.P. da; Gonçalves, Ana Margarida; Rebelo, Kemilla S.; Sattler, José Augusto G.; Passarinha, Luis A.; Gallardo, Eugenia; Anjos, O.; Spinosa, Wilma A.This study aimed to investigate Brazilian stingless bee honey (SBH) to compare their chemical compositions. Fifty-five samples from the genera Melipona, Scaptotrigona, Frieseomelitta, Tetragona, and Tetragonisca, collected from five regions were evaluated by melissopalynological and physicochemical analysis, phenolic compounds, sugar profiling, and FTIR-ATR. Multiblock Analysis (MA) was employed to discriminate and assess the influence of entomological (bee genus) and geographical origins on the honey's characteristics. Subsequently, Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) and Partial Least Squares Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA) were employed to classify the samples based on quantitative data and FTIR-ATR spectra, respectively. The primary factor influencing the chemical profile of Brazilian SBH was entomological origin. MA partially separated samples, while LDA and PLS-DA effectively predicted Melipona, Scaptotrigona, and Tetragonisca samples. Key parameters for separation using MA included sugar profile, phenolic compounds, and FTIR-ATR regions (1800–750 cm⁻¹). In the LDA model, electrical conductivity, pH, color (a*), raffinose content, reducing sugars, and trehalulose + maltose were key for classification. For PLS-DA, spectral regions 1610–1557 cm⁻¹ , 1126–960 cm⁻¹ , and 1170–915 cm⁻¹ were critical for distinguishing samples. This study enhances the understanding of how entomological and geographic factors influence Brazilian SBH characteristics and supports its traceability for quality and authenticity.
- An insight into the level of information about sustainability of edible insects in a traditionally non-insect-eating country: exploratory studyPublication . Guiné, Raquel P.F.; Florença, Sofia G.; Anjos, O.; Correia, Paula M.R.; Ferreira, Bruno M.; Costa, Cristina A.Insects have been reported as a possible alternative solution to help feed the growing world population with less stress on the planet, thus contributing to the preservation of the environment and natural ecosystems. However, the consumption of edible insects (EIs), although culturally accepted for some communities, is not readily accepted for others. Hence this work explores the level of information that people in a traditionally non-insect-eating country have about the sustainability issues related with EIs, and also some possible reasons that could motivate their consumption. The study was based on a questionnaire survey and the results were explored by descriptive statistic tools, tree classification analysis, factor analysis and cluster analysis. The results showed that the level of information is still low in general, with most people not manifesting an opinion. However, some aspects are relatively familiar to the participants (88.9% know that the ecological footprint of insects is smaller than other meats and 86.9% know that they efficiently convert organic matter into protein). Factor and cluster analysis showed three classes: cluster 1—people not informed about the facts disclosed through the true statements and also not able to distinguish the false information; cluster 2—people not informed about the facts disclosed through the true statements but who were able to distinguish the false information; and cluster 3—people well informed about the facts disclosed through the true statements but who were marginally unable to distinguish the false information. It was also found that education, sex and professional area are the most relevant sociodemographic factors associated with the level of information, and the highest motivations to consume EIs are their contribution to preserve the environment and natural resources followed by being a more sustainable option (for 64.7% and 53.4% of participants, respectively). Hence it was concluded that, although some work still needs to be done to better inform people about EIs, there is already some conscientiousness that they constitute a good and more sustainable alternative to other types of mea
- An interactive Web-GIS fluvial flood forecast and alert system in operation in PortugalPublication . Mourato, Sandra; Fernandez, Paulo; Marques, Fábio; Rocha, Alfredo; Pereira, Luísa GomesFloods are one of the natural disasters not preventable, affecting people and causing significant damage to economic activities and infrastructures. Thus, it is of foremost importance to, within a disaster risk-reduction strategy, develop a useful flood forecast and alert system to prevent people from suffering flood disasters and mitigate its consequences. This article presents the Flood Forecast and Alert System in operational mode since 2019 for the Águeda river basin located in Portugal’s centre region. This system is technologically advanced, differing from others since it uses a coupled real-time hydrologic and 2D hydrodynamic modelling supported on numerical weather prediction and a high-resolution digital terrain surface model. The system components are automatically activated and linked: i) a rainfall forecasting model (WRF), ii) a hydrological model (HEC-HMS), iii) a hydraulic model (HEC-RAS 2D), and a iv) Web-GIS platform. The hydrological model is forced with forecast precipitation for the next three days and updated every 6 h, which is crucial to generate pre-flood hazard maps. It also includes a Web GIS service for flood hazard dissemination available for civil authorities and citizens. A flood forecast and alert system is highly relevant to the community since, by enhancing knowledge, it provides the authorities responsible for assessing and managing the flood risk, responsiveness to disasters and timely decision-making, which is even more evident in the context of climate change.
- Analysis of the relationship between the weather index of fire danger and occurrences of rural fires. Case study: centro region of PortugalPublication . Pedro, Nuno; Fernandez, Paulo; Bugalho, LourdesThe aim of this study was to design an approach for establishing a plausible relationship between FWI and the monthly average burned area (ABA) and the average number of ignitions (ANI) supported by geographic information systems (GIS). The application of these results will allow the projection of burned areas in forest fires in the future, making mitigation actions possible. This approach was applied to the region of Central Portugal, and to achieve the aims of the study, the following steps were completed: (1) geoprocessing the spatial data of the daily FWI indices, burned area and number of fire ignitions and (2) developing statistical regression models capable of reproducing the variability in burned area and ignition occurrence series from FWI data during the 2001–2017 period. The predicted equations for the burned area as a function of the FWI presented high coefficients of determination for most of the considered periods, thus allowing the projection, with a high degree of confidence, of the monthly burned area values according to the various future climate scenarios. The prediction of the average number of ignitions from the FWI values class proved to be effective for establishing highly adjusted forecast models for July and August. In the spatial analysis at the district level, the ABA and ANI estimation equations were obtained from the FWI values with determination coefficients above 0.90 for most of the districts. Significant differences were observed between the districts in the number of ignitions analysed.
- Analysis of the suitability for Ecotourism in Beira Baixa region using a Spatial Decision Support System based in a Geographical Information SystemPublication . Quinta-Nova, L.C.; Ferreira, DoraEcotourism can contribute to the conservation of environmental values, as well as to the development of positive synergies between agents in the tourism sector, tourists, and the local population. The growing interest in tourist offers with low environmental impact, which supports the local economy, translates into a competitive advantage for low-density territories. Based on this principle, within the scope of the present study, it is intended to evaluate the potential of the existing natural and rural features in the Beira Baixa region, located on the Center interior of Portugal, that can anchor the creation of sustainable tourism products. Despite the undeniable interest in carrying out studies to determine an aggregate suitability index for the development of ecotourism using Spatial Multi-criteria Decision Analysis, there are still no studies carried out in Portugal. The identification of areas suitable for the development of ecotourism, and their constraints, was carried out based on the integration of nine criteria using the Analytic Hierarchy Process in a Geographical Information System environment. The results obtained reveal that the region has high suitability for the practice of ecotourism activities, given the important natural heritage. This study was innovative to show the ecotourism potential based on a diversity of criteria as an aid to public administration agents with functions in planning, territorial management, and management of support mechanisms for the tourist sector. The use of the landscape diversity criteria, which had not yet been tested in previous studies, proved to be important in determining the ecotourism potential of the region, together with the landscape value based in the importance of the Montado agrosystem, that supports a variety of sustainable tourist activities. The information produced in the study may be useful for the design of new policies for valuing natural resources through tourism.
- Analyzing the Performance of an Institutional Scientific Repository – A Case StudyPublication . Rodrigues, M.E.P.; Rodrigues, A.M.Scientific knowledge evolution is mainly based on an effective dissemination of research results. The concept of Open Access gives us the theoretical foundation of a model for accessing scientific knowledge, free from the constraints of traditional publishing and technologically supported by the Internet. Institutional Repositories are information systems that allow preserving, storing and disseminating scientific knowledge produced in higher education and scientific research institutions. They increase the visibility and the citation level of the documents. They also contribute to minimizing negative aspects like plagiarism of content because documents are exposed to peers in real time. As an alternative way to the traditional system of publishing scientific research content, repositories are developed in a cultural climate of great visibility leading to an immediate critical evaluation by peers. The Scientific Repository of the Polytechnic Institute of Castelo Branco – Portugal (RCIPCB) was created in 2009 but its official presentation took place in January 2010. Its main purposes are promoting Open Access (OA), and preserving and disseminating the scientific knowledge produced at the Polytechnic Institute of Castelo Branco (IPCB). Using DSpace as a technological platform, RCIPCB is an institutional project supported by the president of the IPCB. Therefore, the present study was developed with the aim of analyzing the performance of RCIPCB considering the evolution and growth in terms of users, archiving and self-archiving, the number of published documents (scientific) versus deposited documents in 2010 and the heterogeneity among communities/collections and its causes. Data were collected in RCIPCB, in the 2010 scientific publication list of the institute and through a questionnaire survey distributed among the members of the community with most documents deposited and those of the community with the fewest documents. For data collected in RCIPCB and in the publication list, average, standard deviation and counts were calculated. Data collected from questionnaires were analyzed with SPSS. The results show that RCIPCB indicates an asymmetric growing dynamics. Nevertheless, it reflects the institutional organization, in the sense that the communities related to the older schools possess more documents than the communities related to more recent schools. Communities having higher numbers of deposited documents seem to have also higher levels of searches and downloads. Therefore, it increases significantly the visibility of the institution and its researchers. Concerning the 2010 scientific production when compared with the deposit level of the corresponding community, the results show that the number of documents deposited is much lower than the number of published documents. Data obtained from the questionnaire answers from the communities The School of Agriculture (ESACB) and The School of Applied Arts (ESART) suggest that the strategy of communication used by RCIPCB is correct because everybody knows about the Repository. However, that is not related to the number of documents deposited. They also suggest that the strategy is not efficient and it needs some improvements in order to become effective. Considering the results it is clear that RCIPCB needs to have a mandatory depositing policy that might also be extended to user registration. Those factors would minimize both the heterogeneity and the asymmetric growth of communities and collections. Moreover, it would also decrease the difference between scientific production and the corresponding deposit in RCIPCB.
- Android library for recognition of activities of daily living: implementation considerations, challenges, and solutionsPublication . Pires, Ivan M.; Teixeira, M.C.C.; Pombo, Nuno; Garcia, Nuno M.; Flórez-Revuelta, Francisco; Spinsante, Susanna; Goleva, Rossitza; Zdravevski, EftimOff-the-shelf-mobile devices have several sensors available onboard that may be used for the recognition of Activities of Daily Living (ADL) and the environments where they are performed. This research is focused on the development of Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) systems, using mobile devices for the acquisition of the different types of data related to the physical and physiological conditions of the subjects and the environments. Mobile devices with the Android Operating Systems are the least expensive and exhibit the biggest market while providing a variety of models and onboard sensors. Objective: This paper describes the implementation considerations, challenges and solutions about a framework for the recognition of ADL and the environments, provided as an Android library. The framework is a function of the number of sensors available in different mobile devices and utilizes a variety of activity recognition algorithms to provide a rapid feedback to the user. Methods: The Android library includes data fusion, data processing, features engineering and classification methods. The sensors that may be used are the accelerometer, the gyroscope, the magnetometer, the Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver and the microphone. The data processing includes the application of data cleaning methods and the extraction of features, which are used with Deep Neural Networks (DNN) for the classification of ADL and environment. Throughout this work, the limitations of the mobile devices were explored and their effects have been minimized. Results: The implementation of the Android library reported an overall accuracy between 58.02% and 89.15%, depending on the number of sensors used and the number of ADL and environments recognized. Compared with the results available in the literature, the performance of the library reported a mean improvement of 2.93%, and they do not differ at the maximum found in prior work, that based on the Student’s t-test. Conclusion: This study proves that ADL like walking, going upstairs and downstairs, running, watching TV, driving, sleeping and standing activities, and the bedroom, cooking/kitchen, gym, classroom, hall, living room, bar, library and street environments may be recognized with the sensors available in off-the-shelf mobile devices. Finally, these results may act as a preliminary research for the development of a personal digital life coach with a multi-sensor mobile device commonly used daily.
- Antibacterial activity of Moroccan Zantaz Honey and the influence of its physicochemical parameters using chemometric toolsPublication . Elamine, Youssef; Imtara, Hamada; Miguel, Maria Graça; Anjos, O.; Estevinho, Letícia M.; Alaiz, Manuel; Girón-Calle, Julio; Vioque, Javier; Martín, Jesús; Lyoussi, BadiâaThe emergence of multidrug-resistant bacteria has prompted the development of alternative therapies, including the use of natural products with antibacterial properties. The antibacterial properties of Zantaz honey produced in the Moroccan Atlas Mountains against Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Staphylococcus aureus was evaluated and analyzed using chemometric tools. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and Minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) against S. aureus were the lowest (112.5 ± 54.5 mg/mL), revealing that this species was most sensitive to Zantaz honey. P. aeruginosa showed an intermediate sensitivity (MIC= 118.75 ± 51.9 mg/mL), while E. coli was the most resistant to treatment (MIC = 175 ± 61.2 mg/mL). Content of monosaccharides, certain minerals, and phenolic compounds correlated with antibacterial activity (p < 0.05). Principal component analysis of physicochemical characteristics and antibacterial activity indicated that the parameters most associated with antibacterial activity were color, acidity, and content of melanoidins, fructose, epicatechin, methyl syringate, 4-coumaric acid, and 3-coumaric acid.