Alto Douro Region Research Articles

Rethinking teacher training from an inclusive and community dialogical perspective

This quantitative survey using a structured questionnaire with closed questions and a sample of 340 participants from 20 courses (bachelor's and master's degrees) at public higher education institutions in the Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro region of the Portuguese university (University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro) and polytechnic (Polytechnic Institute of Bragança) subsystem aims to list a group of proposals for reflection and future implementation that can fill or mitigate gaps and weaknesses identified in the disciplines of the curricula related to internships. The analysis of the data reveals indicators indicating the need for a (formal and conceptual) rethinking of inclusive intervention in the context of supervision in the field of teacher training. These indicators include problems with operating in a multifaceted educational setting, enhancing an interdisciplinary, integrated and inclusive approach, rearranging curriculum and reconsidering the functional profiles and competencies of teaching staff. Therefore, the construction of a professional culture that favors an integrative and inclusive approach through the assumption of a broad profile of professional competence capable of training the teacher in a multidimensional educational context is crucial. We evaluate the necessity of encouraging research of this type involving additional factors, populations and samples in order to enable the extrapolation of data and findings to a national level providing significance and technological foundations for decisions made within the context of public education policy.

Association of lifestyle factors with semen quality: A pilot study conducted in men from the Portuguese Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro region followed in fertility support consultations.

A cross-sectional pilot study was conducted in men followed in fertility consultations, from the portuguese Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro region, in order to associate several lifestyle factors with the spermatic parameters. Of a total of 522 men, 373 were compared based on the occupational exposure to harmful factors, smoking habits and practice of physical exercise per week, and the other 149 men according to their body mass index (normal weight vs. overweight vs. obesity). In the absence of harmful occupational factors, physical exercise seems to be associated with sperm quality improvement, whether individuals smoke or not. When exposed to harmful environments, non-smokers that practice physical exercise more than two times per week tended to present the best vitality, normal morphology and sperm concentration (p>.05). However, if they smoke, physical exercise seems not enough to enhance the spermatic parameters. The BMI correlated negatively with the spermatic quality, especially with sperm concentration (p<.05). Concerning men that did not present lifestyle risks associated, the motility, midpiece and tail abnormalities, and teratozoospermia index were significantly worse on obese individuals comparing to overweight men (p<.05). Thus, patients should also be recommended to control their weight and to have a BMI under 30kg/m2 .

Bird-Watching: Visualizing the Influence of Gonçalves Dias' “Canção do Exílio”

Bird-Watching:Visualizing the Influence of Gonçalves Dias’ “Canção do Exílio” Joshua Alma Enslen (bio) and Alaina Enslen, Independent Artist (bio) Editor’s Note: Additional multimedia resources relating to the Enslen-Enslen “Bird-Watching” exhibition can be viewed by visiting: chiricu.indiana.edu On June 3, 2016, in connection with the Materialities of Literature Program of the University of Coimbra’s School of Arts and Humanities, the artist Alaina Enslen and I inaugurated an exhibition at the Museum of Science called “Bird-Watching: Visualizing the Influence of Brazil’s ‘Canção do Exílio’.” Based on our concept of Visual Literary Studies, the exhibition was the first comprehensive attempt to graphically represent the influence of Brazil’s most imitated poem. A descriptive summary on the wall of the entrance to the exhibition gave the following explanation: Written in Coimbra in 1843 by the Brazilian student Antônio Gonçalves Dias, “Canção do Exílio” is one of the most popular poems of all time. Over the last 173 years, this Romantic nationalist text has inspired thousands of variations by writers from a number of countries in every period and literary genre, especially in Brazil, where its textual reinvention continues daily on blogs and sites like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. By applying theories and methods from literary criticism, historiography, the visual arts and network science, this collaborative exhibit, based on more than a thousand texts, songs, and photographs collected over the last three years, presents various visual readings of the immense and diverse influence of the poem. Composed of 11 intertextual installations filling two large rooms, including collages, graphs, montages, film, manifesto, interactive poetry and sound,1 “Bird-Watching” was an exhibition filled with numerous visualizations, some distant and others close, some interpretatively subjective, others more data-driven. Over the course of a month, and with the help of many volunteers, each of the 11 installations was [End Page 127] carefully and painstakingly curated so that attendees were immersed in a temporal space where textuality and visuality intermingled.2 In her recent book Graphesis: Visual Forms of Knowledge Production, Johanna Drucker communicates the urgent need for scholars in the humanities to consider visualization as a potential mode for presenting research. Viewing the Digital Revolution as an unprecedented opportunity for fundamentally rethinking knowledge representation in the humanities, she writes: “Now is the moment to lift that ban of suspicion and engage the full potential of visuality to produce and encode knowledge as interpretation” (11). In that light, the University of Coimbra’s Museum of Science, the space where the Bird-Watching exhibition was held, served as something of a bridge between the textuality of traditional literary criticism and the visual possibilities of the digital. It was an artisanal middle-ground where, in a collaborative mode, Alaina and I felt free to grapple with the idea of visuality in literary studies and, more specifically, the representation of the hundreds upon hundreds of interrelated texts and photographs in the form of unpotentiated interfaces. Applying the idea of an interface as a “mediating structure” between humans and computers (Drucker 138), each installation was a visual window into the intertextual data resting at the heart of the Bird-Watching project. Earlier in our one-year stay in Coimbra, in October 2015, just a few weeks before approaching the University about the idea for an exhibition, Alaina and I, along with our four children, spent a weekend with friends in the Foz Côa Valley of the Alto Douro region. Attracted to the area by its extensive network of open-air pre-historic rock art, we visited the drawings of Penascosa. Inspired by the experience, I shortly thereafter put down on paper a working concept for visualization that would orient the exhibition. Due to the spontaneous and declaratory mode of the statement, I called it “A Critic’s Manifesto.” Yet, more true to the quip-like internet culture with which the statement necessarily coincides than to the cascading manifestoes of earlier movements and moments, the statement represents a diminutive proposition for Visual Literary Studies. It is the screen that now unites us. The computational canvas. Filled with pictures. Filled with sounds. Filled with...

A fuzzy MCDM approach for choosing a tourism destination in Portugal

In this paper, it is intended to create a methodology in order to have a multi criteria approach for choosing a tourist destination region or place. Involving a gridline scheme for selection a tourism destination, several criteria will be defined in order to create the basis for the utilisation of the model for electing a destination. The first step involves the description of the features of the possible destinations like Lisbon, Alentejo, Algarve and Alto Douro Region and in which the methodology may be applied. Tourism destination selection is a multi criteria decision making (MCDM) problem including both multi alternatives and criteria and has a great importance for many travellers. To do so, we use the fuzzy technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS), an MCDM method based on fuzzy sets in deciding about a tourism destination. Generally, it is difficult to model the real life problems with crisp data. For that reason, we take advantage of using linguistic variables to select the best tourist destination in Portugal.

"Schist" from Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (NE of Portugal): Potential Use as Natural Stone

The main purpose of this work was to increase the knowledge about the geological resources of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro region (TMAD), particularly about their “schists” (slate, phyllite and schist), due to the economic and social effects that their mining and processing can have, not only on the local economy, but also on a national level. This work presents the results of the study conducted on “schists” from TMAD, aiming for their use as natural stone. Special emphasis is given on the results obtained from the following physical and mechanical tests: compressive strength, flexural strength, apparent density, open porosity, water absorption, abrasion resistance and resistance to ageing by thermal shock. These tests were determinant to define the most suitable applications for each schistose stone that was studied, taking into account the existing groups of natural stone products. For defining the recommended applications for each “schist”, European standards for natural stone products were considered, as well as technical specifications that exist in some European countries, which were the basis for the establishment of a proposal of technical specifications for Portugal, already published by one of the authors of this work.

Entomological and ecological studies in a new potential zoonotic leishmaniasis focus in Torres Novas municipality, Central Region, Portugal

In Portugal human and canine leishmaniasis are caused by Leishmania infantum, and Phlebotomus perniciosus and P. ariasi are the proven vectors. Three main foci were identified in eighty's decade: Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro region, Lisbon region and Algarve region, but according to OnLeish observatory data, canine leishmaniasis cases have been reported from several other regions, for which sand fly species and their infection rates are unknown. This study is the first phlebotomine survey in Torres Novas municipality, Santarém District, Portugal. The main objectives were to identify the phlebotomine species, their bioecological aspects, Leishmania infection rate and the risk factors for the presence of phlebotomine species in the municipality. From June to November, 2010, 275 biotopes were surveyed with CDC light-traps. Captures covered the 17 parishes of the municipality and included domestic, peridomestic and sylvatic biotopes. Specimens were identified morphologically and females were used for molecular detection of Leishmania and bloodmeal identification. Simple and multiple logistic regression analysis were used to identify risk factors for phlebotomine presence. Nonparametric tests were used to compare densities of independent groups. A total of 1262 sand flies were captured and identified, and four species detected: P. perniciosus (73.69%), P. ariasi (8.16%), P. sergenti (6.58%) and Sergentomyia minuta (11.57%). In 71.4% localities at least one L. infantum proven vector species was present. Risk factors were identified as: high average temperatures and low relative humidities, sheltered locations and absence of strong wind, presence of pine trees as dominant vegetation, peridomestic biotopes, particularly sheep pens or proximity of sheep, poultry and house martin nests. L. infantum infection rate was 4% for P. ariasi and 0.48% for the total of Larroussius females. P. perniciosus females exhibited an opportunistic behavior, feeding in a wide variety of vertebrate hosts. The high abundance and distribution of proven vector species, together with a canine leishmaniasis seroprevalence of 7.93% in the District, and the capture of a gravid infective sand fly female, suggests that Torres Novas municipality is a potential zoonotic leishmaniasis focus in the country.

Altodouro, a new Leptospira serovar of the Pomona serogroup isolated from rodents in northern Portugal

A Leptospira strain (designated RIM 139) was isolated from the kidney of a house-mouse, Mus musculus, in Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro region of northern Portugal. The isolate showed typical leptospiral motility and morphology under dark-field microscopy and was pathogenic for hamsters.Species determination was carried out on basis of PCR products generated by species-specific primers and by sequencing of the secY gene. Putative serogroup typing was performed using the microscopic agglutination test (MAT) with a panel of rabbit anti-Leptospira sera representative of the major pathogenic serogroups. Serovar identification was carried out by a combination of monoclonal antibodies and cross-agglutinin absorption test (CAAT). The novel nature of the strain was confirmed by restriction endonuclease analysis (REA). Results showed that RIM 139 represents a new serovar. The name Altodouro is proposed for this new serovar. Speciation findings – PCR analysis of the ompL1 gene and sequencing of the secY gene – indicated that it belonged to Leptospira kirschneri as did amplification with G1/G2 and B64-I/B64-II the primer sets.

Corn's cob as a potential ecological thermal insulation material

Tabique construction is one of the main Portuguese traditional building techniques that use earth based building materials. It is peculiar building technique which uses corn's cob as a filling material for the external tabique walls. The existing tabique construction in Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro region of northeast Portugal was studied to learn from it for modern day construction. The research showed that corn's cob, an agricultural waste, has the potential to be used as a sustainable building material for thermal insulation. An experimental work concluded that there are significant similarities between the corn's cob and the extruded polystyrene (XPS) material in terms of microstructure and chemical composition. Furthermore, the results obtained from an expeditious experimental thermal procedure indicate that the corn's cob may have adequate thermal properties for building purpose.

Metabolite composition of chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) upon cooking: Proximate analysis, fibre, organic acids and phenolics

Abstract The aim of this research was to study the processing effects (roasting and boiling) on primary and secondary metabolite composition of fruits from the following chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) cultivars (cvs.) of three Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) areas in the Tras-os-Montes e Alto Douro region (Portugal): PDO Terra Fria (cvs. Aveleira, Boaventura, Cota, Lamela and Trigueira), PDO Padrela (cvs. Judia, Lada, Longal and Negra) and PDO Soutos da Lapa (cvs. Longal and Martainha). The cooking processes significantly (p

Quantitative forecasting of olive yield in Northern Portugal using a bioclimatic model

In this work the objective was to develop a bioclimatic model to forecast olive yield based on airborne pollen, soil water content, and favourable conditions for phytopathological attacks. Olive airborne pollen was sampled from 1998 to 2006 using Cour traps installed in the Tras-os-Montes e Alto Douro region, in the provinces of Valenca do Douro and Vila Nova de Foz-Coa. Meteorological data from a meteorological station located in Pinhao, near the pollen samplers, was used to calculate other independent variables. According to the bioclimatic model, at the flowering stage 63% of regional olive production can be predicted from the regional pollen index, with an average deviation between observed and predicted production of 10%. The variable soil water content enabled an increase in forecasting accuracy of about 30%, and a reduction in the average deviation between observed and predicted production of 6%. The final regression with all three variables tested showed that the bioclimatic model was able to predict the annual variability of regional olive fruit production with an accuracy of 97%, the average deviation between observed and predicted production being 3% for internal validation and 6% for external validation.

Deficiências de magnésio em solos e culturas do Norte de Portugal

Several studies carried out in Northern Portugal have drawn attention to the occurrence of magnesium deficiencies or deficient Mg nutrition in different crops. From July-August onwards symptoms of Mg deficiency can be observed in certain areas of this region in maize, fruit crops, fruit-trees and forest species. In the Tras-os-Montes and Alto Douro region and in the Entre-Douro and Minho region, Mg deficiencies in crops have been detected predominantly in soils located on schists of the Siluric and Ordovician, on schists of Precambrian and Cambrian of the Schist and Greywacke complex, and soils derived from two-mica alkaline granite. The following lithology is found in the schists and in the Schist and Greywacke complex: feldspar quartz-phyllites, phyllites, micaschists, graphytic slates, siltstones, ampelites, lydites, psamites, greywackes, phyllito-quartzites and quartzites. The soil units where low foliar Mg concentrations or visible Mg deficiencies in crops more often observed are: Dystric and Umbric Leptosols, Umbric Regosols, Dystric and Umbric Cambisols, Dystric and Umbric Fluvisols, Umbric and Aric Anthrosols and Cumulic Anthrosols. Some of the data presented here were gathered from studies where the main purpose was the confirmation of Mg deficiencies and surveys to assess the nutritional status of various crops. The majority of the studies used, as a diagnostic tool, both the foliar Mg concentrations and, in some cases, the nutrient ratios Mg/N and Mg/K. In some studies, the threshold values for the occurrence of Mg deficiencies were determined. Most studies showed correlations between foliar Mg concentrations and several soil chemical parameters, such as soil solution Mg2+, exchangeable Mg2+, ratios between exchangeable cations Mg2+/K+, Mg2+/Ca2+, Mg2+/Ca2+ + Mg2+, Mg2+/Ca2++ Mg2++K+, Mg2+/CTC, Mg2+/NH4+ and Mg2+/Al3++H+ or the combination of some of these ratios. Mg deficiency seems to be a classic problem in acid soils derived from parent material poor in Mg, but it can also be triggered by local factors or by inappropriate management practices.

Simulating the impact of socio-economic trends on threatened Iberian wolf populations Canis lupus signatus in north-eastern Portugal

Abstract The IP4 highway and the new projected road network have been changing the critical Iberian wolf (Canis lupus signatus) habitat in Tras-os-Montes e Alto Douro region (north-eastern Portugal). A holistic stochastic dynamic methodology (SDM) was developed for predicting changes in Iberian wolf population due to the new highways construction, increasing road traffic density and urbanization. The ecological indicators for wolf presence and abundance were estimated indirectly from the density of attacks on livestock. The low density of wild ungulates in the area makes livestock the main source of food for wolves. These indirect ecological indicators and state variables are the underlying database of our SDM model. This model focus on the interactions between conceptually isolated key-components, such as the density of attacks on livestock and changes in habitat conditions, providing some basis to analyse the responses of wolf populations to the environmental scenarios that will characterize the region in the future. The model proposed was preceded by a conventional multivariate statistical procedure (stepwise multiple regression analysis) performed to discriminate the significant relationships between livestock attacks and socio-environmental variables. The holistic parameters of the model were estimated from the results of the statistical treatment and from regional data regarding tendencies within the use of land. The simulation results demonstrate the SDM capability in capturing the trends of this changing region, namely by showing a dramatically decrease of wolf attacks in the region for the next decade.

Leishmania infantum MON-98: infection in a dog from Alto Douro, Portugal

We report the isolation of Leishmania infantum zymodeme MON-98 in Portugal, its first known occurrence outside the focus of El Agamy, Egypt. One dog found to be infected with Acanthocheilonema dracunculoides during a survey of canine filariosis in the Alto Douro region, north-east Portugal, was also discovered to have Leishmania in bone marrow. The isolated strain was identified by isoenzyme analysis. A search for other possible cases of L. infantum MON-98 infection in dogs, vectors and particularly humans is necessary to establish the real epidemiological importance of this zymodeme in the endemic region of Alto Douro.

In the Middle of the Myth: The Problem of Power in Gender Relations and the Alto Douro Region of Northern Portugal

Abstract: Recent ethnographic scholarship has divided Iberia into a south of male social dominance and a north of female social dominance or social equality. In this article I critique sweeping character of these distinctions through a review of ethnographies which describe instances of male dominance in northern Portugal. The particular ecological/economic conditions linked to male power in north lead me to ask if such conditions might define regions, and regional gender relations, at a level between local settlement and broad area designated the north. Analyzing my ethnographic data from northern Portugal's Alto Douro region, I suggest that they do.Resume: La production ethnographique recente etablit une division dans la peninsule iberique entre le sud ou les hommes dominent et le nord ou on trouve une domination des femmes ou l'egalite. sociale. Dans cet article, je critique le caractere absolu de ces distinctions au moyen d'une revue des ethnographies qui decrivent des cas de dominance masculine dans le nord du Portugal. Les conditions ecologiques/economiques particulieres reliees au pouvoir masculin dans le nord me conduisent a chercher si de telles conditions pourraient definir des regions et des relations regionales entre les sexes a un niveau situe entre l'etablissement local et l'aire plus large designee comme le >. Sur la base de donnees ethnographiques de la region d'Alto Douro du nord du Portugal, je pretends qu'on peut etablir un tel niveau intermediaire.IntroductionRecent publications on local gender relations in Iberia attempt to retrace lines of a cultural map that has become increasingly problematic. In this article, I question sociocultural content and spatial contouring of this map both through a focussed review of ethnographies set in northern Portugal and an analysis of data drawn from my own ethnographic work in a small northern Portuguese region called Alto Douro, world-renowned for its wine, and a puzzle piece for anyone interested in regional character of economy and culture.(f.1) My purpose is not to do away with cultural maps. Indeed, revival of notions of a area by Brogger and Gilmore (1997) and O'Neill (1995) is worth attention because of stress such a notion puts on cultural differentiation in space. In addressing this work, I mean, rather, to emphasize that approaching as a distributive phenomenon is so important as to demand great spatial precision (Gupta and Ferguson, 1997; Lomnitz-Adler, 1991, 1992; Rodseth, 1998; Wolf, 1999). Studying as distributed means trying to grasp how everyday practices, representations, understandings and identities depend both on localized space and extralocal spatial connections. Such an approach to demands close attention to regional differences, commonalities and boundaries. Our maps must be precise, and their dimensions specified. In this article I attempt to demonstrate importance of one of these dimensions: economic organization.Brogger and Gilmore (1997) claim presence of an system across southern Iberia, and a mirror image of this system in northwestern Spain and north/central Portugal. In their view, fulcral difference between two cultural systems is public power of women: in south men dominate socially by controlling public sphere, while in north women control this sphere, and thus are dominant in local society as a whole. O'Neill's (1995) work, though more focussed on a single ethnographic case, also opposes a northern to a southern cultural system.Because these articles focus on gendered social dominance and geographical difference, various approaches can be made to their claims: We can explore political functioning of honour-and-shame and Mediterranean culture as categories in academy (Goddard, Llobera and Shore, 1994; Herzfeld, 1987; Pina-Cabral, 1989). …