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Summary Infrastructure must become more resilient as the global climate changes and also more affordable in the economic and political context of a post-COVID world. We can solve this dual challenge and drive global infrastructure investment into a more sustainable direction by taking our cues from Nature.

Using a production function approach, we estimate that the economic value of biotic pollination to Georgia’s agriculture increased from $425 million in 2009 to $488 million in 2017 in real terms. We perform spatial analysis to reveal county-level spatial patterns and temporal trends in that value. Using a unique set of pollinator survey data, we also compare the locations of biotic pollinators to the areas they bring the most economic value to, which provides insights on the variation in the dependency of the crop mix to pollination services.

Globally, rising seas, coastal erosion, extended dry periods, and flooding contribute to decreased water security and increased disaster incidence. Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) are increasingly advanced as innovative responses to promote adaptation and build resilience, and they are arguably more sustainable than traditional gray infrastructure. There is a growing body of information regarding the material, social, and technological advances that constitute NBS and the ways in which nature can complement traditional built infrastructure. However, critical gaps remain. Promoting a coupled systems approach, we explore fundamental challenges, including issues of participation and equity, economic valuation, scalar mismatches, the integration of natural and built infrastructure, and governance. NBS do not entail quick solutions, and to reach their full potential NBS require a fundamental rethinking of society’s relationship with nature.

The risk of catastrophes is related to the possibility of occurring extreme values. Several statistical methodologies have been developed in order to evaluate the propensity of a process for the occurrence of high values and the permanence of these in time. The extremal index. (Leadbetter in Z Wahrscheinlichkeitstheor Verw Geb 65:291306, 1983) allows to infer the tendency for clustering of high values, but does not allow to evaluate the greater or less amount of oscillations in a cluster. The estimation of. entails the validation of local dependence conditions regulating the distance between high levels oscillations of the process, which is difficult to implement in practice. In this work, we propose a smoothness coefficient to evaluate the degree of smoothness/oscillation in the trajectory of a process, with an intuitive reading and simple estimation. Application in some examples will be provided. We will see that, in a stationary sequence, it coincides with the tail dependence coefficient. (Sibuya in Ann Inst Stat Math 11:195-210, 1960; Joe in Multivariate models and dependence concepts. Monographs on statistics and applied probability, vol 73. Chapman and Hall, London, 1997), providing a new interpretation of the latter. This relationship will inspire a new estimator for., and its performance will be evaluated based on a simulation study. We illustrate with an application to financial series., The authors thank the reviewers and the associated editor for the important and valuable comments that contributed to the improvement of this work. The first author was partially supported by the research unit Centre of Mathematics and Applications of University of Beira Interior UIDB/00212/2020 - FCT (Fundação para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia). The second author was financed by Portuguese Funds through FCT-Fundao para a Cincia e a Tecnologia within the Projects UIDB/00013/2020 and UIDP/00013/2020 of Centre of Mathematics of the University of Minho, UIDB/00006/2020 of Centre of Statistics and its Applications of University of Lisbon and PTDC/MAT-STA/28243/2017.

Organic farming can play an important role in rural development and food production, by reinforcing the trend toward sustainable agriculture and its purpose of ecosystem conservation. The agribusiness of organic farming is particularly relevant in family farming, given the labor availability and the short marketing circuits. The innovative techniques of organic farming, namely with soil fertility, weed and pest control, opens a wide range of possibilities in its development and extension. The expectation of organic farming profitability in small-scale family farming, supported by known successful examples, were the theme of a field study on Lis Valley Irrigation District to assess the constraints to its expansion in order to outline the procedures for the acquisition of technical knowledge, the adaptation of technologies, the support for the conversion of production models, and the specialized training of farmers for action. Results revealed that the: (i) farmer&rsquo, s land structure, (ii) their mature age, (iii) low education level, and (iv) markets, are the main constrains for organic farming development. Furthermore, other uncertainties were identified, namely: (i) the certification process, (ii) the knowledge of new technologies, especially of crop protection, and (iii) the marketing problems to guaranteeing profitability. This study concludes that organic farming has significant potential for development in the Lis Valley and that the efforts and resources of the various stakeholders, namely the state, need to be harmonized to deliver effective support to farmers to promote organic farming that prioritizes: (i) rural development policies, (ii) supporting land restructuring, (iii) modernization of irrigation, (iv) stimulation of young farmers, (v) conversion and implementation of innovative technologies, (vi) the organization of farmers for better productive efficiency, and (vii) to facilitate market access.

Irrigation districts play a decisive role in Portuguese agriculture and require the adaptation to the new water management paradigm through a change in technology and practices compatible with farmers&rsquo, technical know-how and economic sustainability. Therefore, improvement of water management, focusing on water savings and increasing farmers&rsquo, income, is a priority. In this perspective, an applied research study is being carried out on the gravity-fed Lis Valley Irrigation District to assess the performance of collective water supply, effectiveness of water pumping, and safety of crop production due to the practice of reuse of drainage water. The water balance method was applied at irrigation supply sectors, including gravity and Pumping Irrigation Allocation. The average 2018 irrigation water allocated was 7400 m3/ha, being 9.3% by pumping recharge, with a global efficiency of about 67%. The water quality analysis allowed identifying some risk situations regarding salinization and microbiological issues, justifying action to solve or mitigate the problems, especially at the level of the farmers&rsquo, fields, according to the crops and the irrigation systems. Results point to priority actions to consolidate improved water management: better maintenance and conservation of infrastructure of hydraulic infrastructures to reduce water losses and better flow control, implementation of optimal operational plans, to adjust the water demand with distribution, improvement of the on-farm systems with better water application control and maintenance procedures, and improvement of the control of water quality on the water reuse from drainage ditches. The technological innovation is an element of the modernization of irrigation districts that justifies the development of multiple efforts and synergies among stakeholders, namely farmers, water users association, and researchers.

We define a multivariate medial correlation coefficient that extends the probabilistic interpretation and properties of Blomqvist's $\beta$ coefficient, incorporates multivariate marginal dependencies and it preserves a partial ordering stronger than concordance relation. We illustrate the results in some models and provide an application on real datasets., The rst author was partially supported by the research unit Centre of Mathe matics and Applications of University of Beira Interior UIDB/00212/2020 - FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia). The second author was nanced by Portuguese Funds through FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia within the Projects UIDB/00013/2020 and UIDP/00013/2020 of Centre of Mathematics of the University of Minho, UIDB/00006/2020 of Centre of Statistics and its Applications of University of Lisbon and PTDC/MAT-STA/28243/2017.

When collecting samples, sometimes failures of observations occur and consequently missing data. This can have an impact on the analysis and subsequent inference, especially if the study focuses on the extreme values where the data is more scarce. In this work, we analyze the effect of different types of failures on the dependence within the tail of a stationary series. We will also present some examples., The first author was supported by Portuguese Funds through FCT — Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia within the Projects UID/MAT/00013/2013 of Centre of Mathematics of the University of Minho, UID/Multi/04621/2019 of Center for Computational and Stochastic Mathematics, UID/MAT/00006/2019 of Centre of Statistics and Its Applications, and PTDC/MAT-STA/28243/2017. The second author was partially supported by the research unit UID/MAT/00212/2019 — FCT (Funda¸c˜ao para a Ciˆencia e a Tecnologia).

Previous research has found that the manner in which forests are managed reveals forest owners' goals and management preferences for their properties. In this study, we attempt to predict forest owners' participation in payments for ecosystem services (PES) programs using observable forest management in southeast Georgia, U.S. For this task, we rely on forest property characteristics identified from publicly available aerial images and databases. We examine whether and how forest property characteristics are related to family forest owners' preferences towards PES programs. The results from a random parameter logit model indicate that forest owners in southeast Georgia with planted pine forests, bottomland hardwood forests, or residential structures are more likely to participate in hypothetical PES programs. The results also indicate that forest owners' willingness to accept compensation to participate in PES programs is negatively related to the proportion of planted pine and bottomland hardwood forest areas, and to the existence of a residential structure on one's property. Findings of our study indicate the potential of revealed forest property characteristics in identifying and targeting PES programs.

Wild-harvested plants face increasing demand globally. As in many fisheries, monitoring the effect of harvesting on the size and trajectory of resource stocks presents many challenges given often limited data from disparate sources. Here we analyze American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius L.) harvests from 18 states in the eastern U.S. 1978–2014 to infer temporal patterns and evidence of population declines, and we test the effects of local environmental and socioeconomic factors on ginseng harvesting at the county level 2000–2014. Despite rising prices, annual wild ginseng harvests decreased from a high point in the late 1980s to early 1990s, then, in most, increased after 2005 or 2010 - suggesting range-wide overexploitation notwithstanding federal regulations that, since 1999, restrict minimum harvest age. County-level harvest rates increased with available habitat, road density, poverty and unemployment, but decreased when public land formed a large proportion of county area. Harvests were largest in the Southern Appalachian region. Poverty and accessibility were strongly related to high levels of harvesting. A key implication is that to conserve valuable wild native plant products while also improving local livelihoods, wild cultivation and good stewardship practices must be strongly promoted. Our approach to assessing the condition of wild populations offers a broad template that could be adapted to other wild-harvested plants.

Mesoporous metal–organic frameworks (mesoMOFs) have gained some attention as protein immobilization agents. Herein, and for the first time, three model proteins (lysozyme, trypsin, and albumin) wer...

The electrochemical oxidation of diclofenac (DCF), a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug considered as an emerging pollutant (frequently detected in wastewater), was investigated on CNT, Pt/CNT and Ru/CNT modified electrodes based on Carbon Toray in aqueous media. The electroreactivity of DCF on these modified electrodes was studied using cyclic voltammetry and the kinetic parameters were calculated from the scan rate study. Cyclic voltammograms show several oxidation processes, which confirm the interaction between DCF and the catalyst surface necessary for direct oxidation processes. Constant potential electrolysis of DCF was carried out on carbon nanotubes (CNT) and metal supported CNT (M/CNT) modified electrodes, in 0.1 M NaOH and 0.1 M Na2CO3/NaHCO3 buffer media. The highest DCF conversion (88% after 8 h of electrolysis) was found in carbonate buffer medium, for Ru/CNT, while the best carbon mineralization efficiency (corresponding to 48% of the oxidized DCF) was obtained on Pt/CNT modified electrode in 0.1 M NaOH medium. The products of the electrolyses were identified and quantified by HPLC-MS, GC-MS, HPLC-UV-RID and IC. The results show the presence of some low molecular weight carboxylic acids, confirming the cleavage of the aromatic rings during the oxidation process., he authors thank FCT (Fundação para a Cência e a Tecnologia, Portugal) for the PhD grant of Marta Ferreira, and the financing of projects: PTDC/AAGTEC/5269/2014, Centre of Chemistry (UID-QUI/00686/2013 and UID/QUI/0686/2016), and LSRE-LCM (Base Funding – UIDB/50020/2020 of the Associate Laboratory LSRE-LCM – funded by national funds through FCT/ MCTES (PIDDAC)). This work has been developed under the scope of the projects BioTecNorte (operation NORTE-01-0145- FEDER-000004), supported by the Northern Portugal Regional Operational Programme (NORTE 2020), under the Portugal 2020 Partnership Agreement through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The authors also thank TUBITAK (Tu¨rkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Aras-tirma Kurumu, operation TUBITAK-2219) for the post-doctoral grant to Dr Sevgi Gu¨ney., info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

[Excerpt] The univariate Birnbaum-Saunders (BS) distribution was first postulated to model failure times in material science (see the work of Birnbaum and Saunders1). In this modeling, a cumulative damage exceeds a threshold to produce the failure (see the work of Leiva and Saunders 2). The univariate BS distribution is unimodal, positively skewed (although close to a symmetric distribution in some cases), supported over a positive range of values and possessor of diverse and attractive properties (see the book of Johnson et al 3). The univariate BS distribution has been extensively studied and applied (see the works of Leiva et al 4,5 ). Most of its mathematical and statistical results until 2016 were published in the book of Leiva.6 Multivariate BS distributions were derived as a natural extension to the univariate case, based on mathematical methods, with no fatigue theoretical arguments, different to the univariate BS distribution. Aykroyd et al7 published recently a review on multivariate BS distributions with some applications. In addition, cumulative damage models and their relation to times of occurrence were recently modeled in a multivariate setting for multicomponent systems by Fierro et al.8 Balakrishnan and Kundu9 conducted a complete and interesting review of the BS distribution, which considered phys ical justifications, mathematical and statistical issues, shape analysis and links to other models, as well as formulations and generalizations for the univariate case. Furthermore, extensions to multivariate and matrix-variate versions of the BS distribution were also included. This review provides a full and updated list of references on the topic. However, in the book of Leiva6 and in the review of Balakrishnan and Kundu,9 no attention was paid to an extreme value BS (EVBS) dis tribution, which has several attractive properties and a different conception with respect to its standard version. Indeed, the standard BS distribution cannot be obtained as a particular case of the EVBS distribution, as it happens with other generalizations and extensions of the BS distribution. [...], This work was partially supported by the Chilean government under the projectgrant FONDECYT 1160868 and by Portuguese funds through FCT, Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, withinthe Projects UID/MAT/00013/2013 (CMAT/Universidade do Minho) and UID/MAT/00006/2013 (CEA/UL) and by theresearch center CEMAT (Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa) through the Project UID/Multi/04621/2013

Arcobacter is a group of bacteria widely distributed in several habitats and throughout the food chain. Considering the pathogenic potential of some species within this group, it is important to understand their distribution along the food chain, as well as the possible routes of transmission. Aiming this, a systematic review and meta-analysis-based method was used to investigate the prevalence of Arcobacter species throughout the food chain, from farm to fork, using the worldwide available data. Database search was performed using related keywords and considering studies up to March 2020. The pooled prevalence of Arcobacter in food chain was 30% (0.300; 95% CI: 0.262–0.342), ranging from 0.5 to 99.4%. The highest prevalence of Arcobacter was observed in Belgium (0.575; 95% CI:0.427–0.710) and the lower in Ireland (0.031; 95% CI:0.022–0.042). Oceania continent (0.409; 95% CI:0.173–0.697) and the countries with high income level (0.342; 95% CI:0.293–0.394) presented the highest prevalence when considering the analysis of subgroups. Arcobacter spp. presented the highest prevalence at the processing stage (0.335; 95% CI:0.270–0.406), when compared with primary and retail stage. Also, data points to the relevance of environmental sources in food contamination. Arcobacter seems to be more frequently found in animal origin products, with the highest prevalence observed for poultry-associated products (0.404; 95% CI: 0.338–0.473), being Arcobacter butzleri the most frequently found species. The results of this meta-analysis highlight the high prevalence and distribution of Arcobacter along the food chain, suggesting a high risk to human health, and the relevance of taking preventive actions in order to reduce the burden of this pathogen in food sector.

The transition from a centrally planned socialist economy to free markets brought unprecedented economic growth to Mongolia, but also severe environmental problems associated with rapid urban development. Its capital city Ulaanbaatar has experienced extreme air pollution during the winter months for almost two decades. While the impacts of local air pollution on cardiovascular and respiratory health in Ulaanbaatar are well documented, this is the first study to evaluate the relationship between particulate matter concentrations and the subjective well-being of its residents. We match newly available survey data on subjective well-being in Ulaanbaatar with particulate matter readings and weather data and estimate a significant relationship between air pollution and self-reported life satisfaction. The estimated coefficients imply a potentially large willingness-to-pay for better air quality.

The coastal area of Costa de Caparica is an important territory representing one of the main affected areas by storms such as Hercules in 2013 and 2014. This paper propose a new coastal risk assessment to coastal floods, combining GIS-based inundation analysis over the last 35 years, coastal vulnerability model based on geological and physical variables and, valuation of surface' elements exposed to storms considering territorial and human components. Along with the methodology proposed for local scale, this paper points out strengths and weakness, comparing the results with another simple method to achieve coastal risk by floods. Based on this study, the paper identifies potential directions for future research contributing in management, rescue and safety decisions with local authorities.

This paper estimates the relationship between green space and body mass index (BMI) in the U.S. We find that accounting for the heterogeneity of green space matters: BMI is significantly lower in counties with larger forestland per-capita, but not in those more abundant in rangeland, pastureland or cropland. This is after controlling for state-specific heterogeneity, and a range of environmental and natural amenities, including the presence of state parks, proximity to national parks, and outdoor recreation resources in the county, all of which have the expected negative correlation with BMI. Hence, the findings suggest that forests, public recreation lands, along with publicly available outdoor recreation resources can be valuable resources to help reduce obesity and associated public health problems.

Multivariate extreme values require the use of extreme-value copulas, as they appear in the limit of componentwise maxima. These can be characterized by the so-called Pickands dependence function. A new multivariate nonparametric estimator will be presented, along with convergence properties. Based on simulations, we will analyze its performance and compare with well-known estimators from the literature., Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT), info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Made available in DSpace on 2021-06-25T11:09:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2021-03-01 Schiff bases (SB) obtained from S-methyl dithiocarbazate and aromatic aldehydes: salicylaldehyde (H2L1), o-vanillin (H2L2), pyridoxal (H2L3) and 2,6-diformyl-4-methylphenol (H3L4), and their corresponding Zn(II)-complexes (1–4), are synthesized. All compounds are characterized by elemental analyses, infrared, UV–Vis, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and mass spectrometry. The structures of H2L2 and [Zn2(L1)2(H2O)(DMF)] (1a) (DMF = dimethylformamide) are solved by single crystal X-ray diffraction. The SB coordinates the metal center through the Ophenolate, Nimine and Sthiolate atoms. The radical scavenging activity is tested using the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay, with all ligand precursors showing IC50 values ~40 μM. Cytotoxicity studies with several tumor cell lines (PC-3, MCF-7 and Caco-2) as well as a non-tumoral cell line (NHDF) are reported. Interestingly, 1 has relevant and selective antiproliferative effect against Caco-2 cells (IC50 = 9.1 μM). Their antimicrobial activity is evaluated in five bacterial strains (Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii, Listeria monocytogenes, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus) and two yeast strains (Candida albicans and Candida tropicalis) with some compounds showing bacteriostatic and fungicidal activity. The minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC90) of HnL against Mycobacterium tuberculosis is also reported, with H2L2 and H3L4 showing very high activity (MIC90 < 0.6 μg/mL). The ability of the compounds to bind bovine serum albumin (BSA) and DNA is evaluated for H3L4 and [Zn2(L4)(CH3COO)] (4), both showing high binding constants to BSA (ca. 106 M−1) and ability to bind DNA. Overall, the reported compounds show relevant antitumor and antimicrobial properties, our data indicating they may be promising compounds in several fields of medicinal chemistry. Centro de Química Estrutural and Departamento de Engenharia Química Instituto Superior Técnico Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais Instituto de Investigação do Medicamento (iMed.ULisboa) Faculdade de Farmácia Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Professor Gama Pinto Departamento de Química e Farmácia Universidade do Algarve, Campus de Gambelas Faculdade de Ciências Farmacêuticas UNESP, C.P.582 LAQV-REQUIMTE – Laboratório Associado para a Química Verde Departamento de Química Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia Universidade NOVA de Lisboa Applied Molecular Biosciences Unit – UCIBIO Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia Universidade NOVA de Lisboa CICS-UBI - Health Sciences Research Centre University of Beira Interior, Av. Infante D. Henrique Faculdade de Ciências Farmacêuticas UNESP, C.P.582

The hedonic pricing method was applied to examine the effect of working forest conservation easements (WFCEs) on the value of surrounding land parcels in state of Georgia. Data were collected on attributes of WFCEs in 62 counties and 46,580 property sales occurring from 2001 to 2018. Results suggested that one size did not fill all and that the type of property (agricultural, commercial or residential) near a WFCE played a large role in determining potential price effects of land cover types and other attributes. Additionally, an increase in the age of the nearest WFCE had a negative price effect on surrounding properties. This research could be used in strategic management decisions to maximize both conservation and economic outcomes.

Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES) programs are used to achieve both ecosystem services and human well-being objectives. PES employs various governance structures, from top-down, national programs to local, community-managed initiatives. We compare the land use, ecosystem services and human well-being impacts of Costa Rica's national PES program with local PES programs in the Bellbird Biological Corridor. We found no difference in well-being between local PES participants and the control group; however, national PES participants had significantly larger properties and incomes than non-participants. Although many of the national PES sites contain large forested areas, the program did not incentivize changes in land use and therefore did not generate additionality. Reforestation activities are widespread in the study area and have generated locally-important ecosystem services; however, these activities cannot be attributed to current local PES due to widespread reforestation within the control group. Nonetheless, participants in local PES have planted a greater diversity of tree species, suggesting reforestation under local PES may have improved ecological benefits. Our findings suggest that while the additional, non-economic benefits of PES in this region are limited, local PES has more effectively engaged with those who are less economically prosperous, and reforestation has improved ecosystem services provisioning.

Larval dispersal mechanisms, although significantly studied, are far from being completely resolved. Local studies are needed to clarify key interactions between individual life cycles and transport processes. The Atlantic-Mediterranean connection through the Strait of Gibraltar is a particularly important area to explore these processes, as a hotspot for detecting species fluxes and/or invasions between several Large Marine Ecosystems. However, the area dynamics and the mechanisms used by larvae to cope with the system hydrological conditions are scantly explored.Summer data on decapod larvae and ocean water masses from an extended area of the southern Portugal, Gulf of Cadiz, Strait of Gibraltar and Alboran Sea were analyzed, and the larval assemblages and their potential retention/dispersal mechanisms were explored. Different larval assemblages were linked to the hydrological conditions of each basin. Shelf width differences and its influence in along/cross-shore transport were the main drivers of decapod distribution, acting as biological barriers. Larvae of mesopelagic species dominated the northern Alboran Sea innershelf, highly influenced by offshore currents. Here, nearshore processes were limited to surface waters, while in the Gulf they extended more deeply and to the outer shelf. Results on species ecological traits can easily be applied to oceanographically similar areas of world coastal regions and could be used for further development of ecological modelling studies.

Tail dependence is an important issue to evaluate risk. The multivariate extreme values theory is the most suitable to deal with the extremal dependence. The extremal coefficient measures the degree of dependence between the marginals of max-stable distributions, a natural class of models in this framework. The estimation of the extremal coefficient is addressed and a new estimator is compared through simulation with existing methods. An illustration with real data is presented.

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Using data from Oklahoma County, an area severely affected by the increased seismicity associated with injection wells, we recover hedonic estimates of property value impacts from nearby shale oil and gas development that vary with earthquake risk exposure. Results suggest that the 2011 Oklahoma earthquake in Prague, OK, and generally, earthquakes happening in the county and the state have enhanced the perception of risks associated with wastewater injection but not shale gas production. This risk perception is driven by injection wells within 2 km of the properties.

Small Islands face particular challenges in their sustainable development, and therefore require specific tailored approaches for planning and management. Unsurprisingly, protected areas have a special role in the conservation of biodiversity and natural resources crucial to the sustainability of such territories. How should the management and planning system of protected areas in small islands be, therefore, structured and operated so it can face the threats and challenges falling upon the already fragile and vulnerable insular ecosystems? This is the central question of SMARTPARKS Project. The core objective of the project consists of the conceptual development of a planning and management system for protected areas that can be integrated with the territorial management instruments in force, and that takes into consideration the specificities of insular ecosystems, correcting or perfecting the insufficiencies or flaws already pointed out to traditional planning systems of protected areas. This paper presents the SMARTPARKS Project, its rationale and main outcomes. Taking Pico Island Natural Park (Azores, Portugal) as its case study, the SMARTPARKS Project has adopted the ecosystem approach and the conciliation of conservation objectives with human needs and activities. Throughout its five tasks several studies were developed, and contributed to the functional analysis (developed during the last task) of each protected area constituting the Island Natural Park, in terms of their conservation and development values. This innovative application allows not only an integrated assessment of the protected areas but also a sustained monitoring. As pequenas ilhas oceânicas enfrentam desafios particulares com vista ao seu desenvolvimento sustentável, necessitando consequentemente de abordagens técnicas de base científica específicas no desenvolvimento das suas estratégias de planeamento e gestão territoriais. É inquestionável a relevância do papel das áreas protegidas quer na conservação da biodiversidade e dos recursos naturais, quer na sustentabilidade dos territórios por elas abrangidos. De que modo deve ser então definido o modelo de planeamento e gestão de áreas protegidas em pequenas ilhas oceânicas para poder fazer face a todas as ameaças e desafios com que se deparam estes frágeis e vulneráveis ecossistemas costeiros? Esta é a questão principal pela qual se rege o projecto SMARTPARKS. O objectivo nuclear deste projecto consiste no desenvolvimento conceptual de um sistema integrado de planeamento e gestão de áreas protegidas que possa integrar, complementar e fortalecer os instrumentos de gestão territorial vigentes, e que tenha em consideração as particularidades e especificidades destes ecossistemas insulares, corrigindo ou minimizando as falhas e insuficiências já identificadas das ferramentas e técnicas tradicionais de planeamento territorial de áreas protegidas. Este artigo apresenta o projecto SMARTPARKS, o seu contexto, a sua abordagem conceptual e os seus principais resultados. O Parque Natural de Ilha do Pico (Arquipélago dos Açores, Portugal) constitui o caso de estudo deste projecto, estando o desenvolvimento conceptual do SMARTPARKS especialmente focado numa sinergia definida pela abordagem ecossistémica e pela sua tentativa de conciliação com os objectivos de conservação com todas as necessidades e actividades humanas de cariz sócio-económico e cultural desenvolvidas no território abrangido. Ao longo do seu desenvolvimento metodológico dividido em 5 grandes tarefas, vários estudos específicos foram realizados, contribuindo nomeadamente para a análise funcional (em termos de valores para a conservação e desenvolvimento) que foi feita para cada área protegida que compõe o Parque Natural de Ilha do Pico. Esta abordagem metodológica inovadora permite não só uma avaliação integrada das áreas protegidas como também a sua monitorização sustentável.

Calado, H., Bragagnolo, C., Silva, S.F., Pereira, M. 2014. A multi-scale analysis to support the implementation of a regional conservation policy in a small-island archipelago – the Azores, Portugal. In: Green, A.N. and Cooper, J.A.G. (eds.), Proceedings 13th International Coastal Symposium (Durban, South Africa), Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 70, pp. 485–489, ISSN 0749-0208. Small islands present both exceptional biodiversity and higher vulnerability. Their isolation has been identified as the main driver contributing to preserve the unique natural capital (10 of the 34 terrestrial biodiversity hotspots listed by Conservation International are wholly comprised of islands). However, small-island archipelagos may present a great variability among islands in terms of size and population, remoteness, incomes, natural and cultural landscapes, human pressures and vulnerabilities to global changes. This inexorably leads to different values, life-styles, and land use forms, which combin...

This paper investigates the spatial variation in subjective well-being across the United States. We match individual-level survey data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) that includes a life-satisfaction question, to county-level local amenities between 2005 and 2010. We show that life satisfaction varies widely across U.S. counties (even if these are in the same state and after controlling for individual characteristics), which suggests that housing price and wage differentials are not fully compensating for differences in amenities across locations. We also show that local amenities including climate, geography, environmental externalities, and other local public goods, explain a sizable fraction of this variation, stressing the importance of environmental management across space.

There has been a growing interest for the sustainable production of formic acid (FA) in recent years considering its potential use as a hydrogen storage compound. In this context, the electrochemical transformation of carbohydrate-based biomass into formic acid in aqueous media was investigated using a filter-press type electrochemical cell. Therefore the oxidation of mono and disaccharides was carried out at NiOOH, RuO2/Ti (DSA) and PbO2 anodes, in FM01-LC (ICI) electrolyzer. The effect of carbon number of biomass compound, anode material and pH on product distribution was determined. Between the readily available carbohydrates studied in this work at NiOOH anode, in alkaline medium, d -xylose provides the highest selectivity towards formate anion, i.e. 42%. The transformation of d -glucose into formic acid, with 38% selectivity, was achieved at RuO2/Ti (DSA) in 0.5 M NaOH medium, applying a current density of 80 A m−2. The production of formate anion is mostly accompanied by the formation of oxalate anion and carbonates which constitute the by-products of the reaction. Considering that after acidification of carbonates the resulting CO2 can be easily removed and trapped by the growing plants which provide new biomass-based material, the transformation of oxalate anion (OA) into CO32− is of major importance. For this reason the oxidation of OA at DSA in 0.1 M NaOH medium was also studied. In these conditions 60% of the initial oxalate anion was transformed to CO32− at 2.5 V vs. SCE.

Constant current and constant potential electrolyses of oxalic and oxamic acids were carried out on multiwalled carbon nanotubes (CNT) and on monometallic (Pd and Pt) and bimetallic (Ru–Cu) catalysts supported on multiwalled carbon nanotubes. Both carboxylic acids were mineralized with high conversions via hypochlorite ion produced in situ, in 0.10 M NaCl medium. Highest current efficiency, corresponding to 97%, and highest reaction rate constant for oxalic acid mineralization were obtained for the Ru–Cu/CNT modified electrode, in 0.10 M NaCl medium. The mineralization of oxamic acid was achieved with a faradic yield of 96% and an energy consumption of 14.6 kWh (kg of pollutant)−1in the same medium. The conversion values obtained for the oxidation of oxalic acid in 0.50 M NaOH medium, on Pt/CNT, Pd/CNT and Ru–Cu/CNT modified electrodes, were respectively 42%, 60% and 85%. In this last medium, 88% of the initial oxamic acid (15.8 mM) was transformed to carbonate ion and nitrogen at Pt/CNT modified anode.

In this work, we introduce the s, k-extremal coefficients for studying the tail dependence between the s-th lower and k-th upper order statistics of a normalized random vector. If its margins have tail dependence then so do their order statistics, with the strength of bivariate tail dependence decreasing as two order statistics become farther apart. Some general properties are derived for these dependence measures which can be expressed via copulas of random vectors. Its relations with other extremal dependence measures used in the literature are discussed, such as multivariate tail dependence coefficients, the coefficient of tail dependence, coefficients based on tail dependence functions, the extremal coefficient ., the multivariate extremal index and an extremal coefficient for min-stable distributions. Several examples are presented to illustrate the results, including multivariate exponential and multivariate Gumbel distributions widely used in applications., Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)

The usual coefficients of tail dependence are based on exceedances of high values. These extremal events are useful and widely used in literature but an adverse situation may also occur with the upcrossing of a high level. In this context we define upcrossings-tail dependence coefficients and analyze all types of dependence coming out. We will prove that these coefficients are related to multivariate tail dependence coefficients already known in literature. We shall see that the upcrossings-tail dependence coefficients have the interesting feature of congregating both “temporal” and “spatial” dependence. The coefficients of tail dependence can also be applied to stationary sequences and hence measure the tail dependence in time. Results concerning connections with the extremal index and the upcrossings index as well as with local dependence conditions will be stated. Several illustrative examples will be exploited and a small note on inference will be given by presenting estimators derived from the stated results and respective properties., Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)

Protected areas (PAs) are considered key priorities for ensuring long-term sustainability of small islands. The traditional approach of conservation versus development is currently being replaced by an approach of "win-win" relationships. During the last decades PAs have been increasingly requested to simultaneously ensure biodiversity conservation, mainstream ecosystem services into main development policies, and accounting for leisure-related revenues to sustain local and regional economies. Following this new paradigm, the Smartparks project (Planning and Management System for Small Islands Protected Areas), encompassing this study, aimed at an innovative approach for supporting the management of PAs in small islands. In this study, we propose a methodology based on Environmental Functional Analyses (EFA) to compare the potential for conservation and the potential for use of PAs that can be used not only on small islands but also in other territories. For this purpose, a set of environmental and socio-economic components was defined and selected indicators describing each component to calculate conservation and use/development functions of PAs were established. Pico Island, in the Azores archipelago (Portugal), was selected as the case study for testing the methodology. The EFA for all PAs of Pico Island was performed identifying those with more potential for conservation or for development of human activities, and also those with high levels of conflict. A total of 34 indicators was applied (assigning a value from 1 to 3) to the 22 PAs composing the INP of Pico Island: 44% were scored with a value of 1, in both ecological and social components; 22% and 29% were scored 3 in ecological and social components respectively. Social indicators were generally considered less important than environmental ones. In general, PAs presented higher values for conservation. The results further show that the potential for conservation and/or development was consistent with the IUCN category and the objectives assigned to each PA at the time of its classification. However, most PAs are located in the conflict zone of the EFA matrix, revealing a high interaction between PAs conservation objectives and human activities, which brings concern to decision makers and PAs managers. Despite several limitations, the method allowed the performances of PAs to be compared, providing a suitable tool to support rapid assessments and monitoring of PA networks in small islands. The adaptation of the EFA to the PA domain traces a new path for estimating the multiple values of PAs and it may contribute to improve PA management and decision-making. The method could be further included as part of scenario exercise and adaptive management, supporting the prediction of the future evolution of PAs and assessing their potential for conservation in the future throughout the proposed indicators. Thus, the methodology is not exclusive for small islands contexts and, with necessary adaptations and rescaling, it could be a powerful tool in PAs network management worldwide.

Highlights • Precursor concentration affected cell viability and resveratrol yields. • Cell viability and culture conditions influenced resveratrol yields. • Results show the relevance of process monitoring for bioprocess optimization., Resveratrol is a plant secondary metabolite commonly found in peanuts and grapevines with significant health benefits. Recombinant organisms can produce large amounts of resveratrol and, in this work, Escherichia coli BW27784 was used to produce resveratrol in bioreactors while monitoring cell physiology and plasmid stability through flow cytometry and real-time qPCR, respectively. Initially, the influence of culture conditions and precursor addition was evaluated in screening assays and the data gathered was used to perform the bioreactor assays, allowing the production of 160 μg/mL of resveratrol. Cellular physiology and plasmid instability affected the final resveratrol production, with lower viability and plasmid copy numbers associated with lower yields. In sum, this study describes new tools to monitor the bioprocess, evaluating the effect of culture conditions, and its correlation with cell physiology and plasmid segregational stability, in order to define a viable and scalable bioprocess to fulfill the need for larger quantities of resveratrol.

Heavy-tailed autoregressive processes defined with minimum or maximum operator are good alternatives to classic linear ARMA with heavy tail noises, in what concerns extreme values modeling. In this paper we present a full characterization of the tail dependence of the autoregressive minima process, Yeh-Arnold-Robertson Pareto(III)., This research was financed by FEDER Funds through "Programa Operacional Factores de Competitividade - COMPETE", Portuguese Funds through FCT - "Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia", within the Project PEst-OE/MAT/UI0013/2014

Factor models have large potencial in the modeling of several natural and human phenomena. In this paper we consider a multivariate time series $\mb{Y}_n$, n≥1, rescaled through random factors $\mb{T}_n$, n≥1, extending some scale mixture models in the literature. We analyze its extremal behavior by deriving the maximum domain of attraction and the multivariate extremal index, which leads to new ways to construct multivariate extreme value distributions. The computation of the multivariate extremal index and the characterization of the tail dependence show the interesting property of these models that however much it is the dependence within and between factors $\mb{T}_n$, n≥1, the extremal index of the model is unit whenever $\mb{Y}_n$, n≥1, presents cross-sectional and sequencial tail independence. We illustrate with examples of thinned multivariate time series and multivariate autoregressive processes with random coefficients. An application of these latter to financial data is presented at the end., Helena Ferreira was partially supported by the research unit ``Centro de Matemática" of the University of Beira Interior and the research project PEst-OE/MAT/UI0212/2014 through the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) co-financed by FEDER/COMPETE. Marta Ferreira was financed by FEDER Funds through "Programa Operacional Factores de Competitividade - COMPETE" and by Portuguese Funds through FCT - ``Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia", within the project PEst-OE/MAT/UI0013/2014.