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Gender equality is a matter for debate worldwide. In 2018, Portugal enacted legislation (Decree Law no. 62/2017) to balance gender representation on the executive boards of listed and public sector organizations with measures similar to those causing controversies in other countries. Thus, in accordance with previous research, a study took place to examine the attitudes towards the justice of this legislation and the role of merit in these attitudes. This study (n = 129 women and 94 men) deployed an experimentally manipulative type of affirmative action program to consider the role of individual perceptions of the justice of the legislation coupled with the influence of beliefs in meritocracy and participant gender. The results identify how the type of affirmative action impacted on the perceived justice, also influenced by merit, which seems normative and fundamental to evaluating the justice of such legally stipulated provisions. Nonetheless, objectively evaluating candidate merits revealed difficulties in disentangling this process from personality traits. ; info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

ABSTRACT In many situations, the Brazilian Legislation does not require verifying roof structures in a fire, since their failure will not endanger the stability of the structure. In fire, the steel roof of an industrial building deforms by heating in geometry similar to a catenary, resulting in horizontal forces in the upper extremities of the columns. Thus, even roofs that do not constitute a frame with the columns may lead them to collapse, and should therefore be protected against fire. Due to the small dimensions of the structural elements of the roof, fire coating is uneconomical. There is thus a problem in the design practice. A procedure based on the British literature in which horizontal load is considered in the columns is presented in this paper. Columns and foundations must support that load. That load should be determined and the columns should be checked for fire situation. The aim of this paper is to detail this procedure, adapt it to Brazilian standards and apply it to a case study.

Oxelytrum discicolle Brullé, 1840 é a espécie mais coletada de Silphidae (Coleoptera) na América Latina, constituindo um indicador forense na região Neotropical. O objetivo do trabalho é reunir informações sobre biologia e distribuição de O. discicolle, além de ferramentas para utilização desse besouro como indicador forense em casos de morte de humanos. O. discicolle é um besouro de grande porte, de cor preta com um colar vermelho. Larvas da espécie são necrófagas, já os adultos são onívoros e se alimentam tanto de larvas de dípteros quanto da própria carcaça. Nossa revisão aponta que a espécie reduz seu tempo de desenvolvimento conforme a temperatura aumenta, sugerindo que a taxa de desenvolvimento é diferente entre as temperaturas. Estudos mostram que a espécie O. discicolle é um forte indicador forense, porém para que ocorra o avanço das pesquisas de Entomologia Forense em humanos no Brasil é necessário que os Institutos de Criminalística publiquem mais dados sobre insetos que os colonizam. Além disso, são necessários mais estudos em carcaças de animais em diversas regiões e biomas diferentes, desta forma pode ser montado um mapa de distribuição da espécie em nível nacional.

The Fernandina old fortress of Lisbon started to be built in 1373. It is composed by 76 towers and 35 entrances along the fortress that is closed with an extension of 4.69 km, having two main sections: East, limited between St. George's Castle and Terreiro do Trigo Street, and West, starting also in the St. George's Castle and finished at Misericórdia Street. The construction technology of those sections is mainly rammed earth with an average height of 8 m. Some sections seem to be totally homogeneous but there are other composed of two parallel stone masonry walls with a nucleus filled with compacted earth. The thickness of the fortress wall is variable between 1.75 and 2.20 m. To build with rammed earth technique, humid excavated earth was placed in layers on a wood formwork and manually compacted reducing the thickness of each layer. A succession of compacted layers completed the formwork, which was laterally displaced to build the next rammed earth block. After completing the rammed earth level, the formwork was displaced to the upper level and the same cycle continues up to the top level of the wall fortress. Sometimes, particularly in defensive structures, air lime was added to stabilize the humid earth, obtaining the so called "military rammed earth". In the other case, the humid earthen materials were placed in layers and compacted inside the two parallel masonry walls that acted as formwork. The fortress is nowadays completely "emerged" and surrounded by the city. Several interventions mainly performed on old buildings confining with, or including, the old fortress have been held in the last years. Some of the sections present renders and repointing mortars that are not originals. Nevertheless, so far there is a lack of information on the materials, originals and applied in the history of interventions. Therefore, this study intends to present the characterization made in situ by visual observation and non-destructive techniques and in laboratory on samples that was possible to obtain from some sections of the old fortress walls. It is expected that the information from the material characterization will be useful to support decisions on future interventions, namely on the definition of repair mortars that need to be compatible and assure efficient conservation of sections that are being accessible of the old wall. ; authorsversion ; published

Considering that pesticides have been used in Europe for over 70 years, a system for monitoring pesticide residues in EU soils and their effects on soil health is long overdue. In an attempt to address this problem, we tested 340 EU agricultural topsoil samples for multiple pesticide residues. These samples originated from 4 representative EU case study sites (CSS), which covered 3 countries and four of the main EU crops: vegetable and orange production in Spain (S–V and S–O, respectively), grape production in Portugal (P-G), and potato production in the Netherlands (N–P). Soil samples were collected between 2015 and 2018 after harvest or before the start of the growing season, depending on the CSS. Conventional and organic farming results were compared in S–V, S–O and N–P. Soils from conventional farms presented mostly mixtures of pesticide residues, with a maximum of 16 residues/sample. Soils from organic farms had significantly fewer residues, with a maximum of 5 residues/sample. The residues with the highest frequency of detection and the highest content in soil were herbicides: glyphosate and its main metabolite AMPA (P-G, N–P, S–O), and pendimethalin (S–V). Total residue content in soil reached values of 0.8 mg kg−1 for S–V, 2 mg kg−1 for S–O and N–P, and 12 mg kg−1 for P-G. Organic soils presented 70–90% lower residue concentrations than the corresponding conventional soils. There is a severe knowledge gap concerning the effects of the accumulated and complex mixtures of pesticide residues found in soil on soil biota and soil health. Safety benchmarks should be defined and introduced into (soil) legislation as soon as possible. Furthermore, the process of transitioning to organic farming should take into consideration the residue mixtures at the conversion time and their residence time in soil.

Quality control (QC) of geospatial data is relevant to urban territorial management to ensure accurate data for government to make strategic decisions when planning cities. The acquisition and control of geospatial data in the Brazilian government must follow INDE - National Data Spatial Infrastructure - through the Technical Specifications. The cadastral cartography from urban areas in Brasilia was updated and divided into 10 areas. Acquired data includes classes, features, attributes and metadata on 1:1,000 scale. High resolution images and LIDAR data were used to assist the QC process. The first step of the QC was to check positional accuracy. Samples were applied for each class in the mapping block with 4% rate on the feature random selection and all features class had the same level of confidence. Then, three stages were automatically verified: logical consistency, commision and attribute thematic accuracy evaluations. The process also includes the visual interpretation for omission and classification, which involves a certain subjectivity. Everything was executed with QGIS, FME, Erdas Imagine, Postgresql, PostGIS and a plugin specifically developed for that, the DSGTools. The results show that in general, the quantity of errors were low. However, many errors were detected in the elements completeness and thematic accuracy, specially in áreas 1, 2, 3, 6 and 9. In the opposite, the logical consistency and positional accuracy presented the lowest quantity of errors, which does not diminish the relevance of these errors, since it compromises the usability of the data.

SummaryThis paper examines the effects of different levels of payment on the acceptance of vasectomy in urban Sri Lanka. Data from 496 vasectomized men are analysed by socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, post-operative problems encountered and attitudes towards vasectomy by amount of payment. The findings show that higher levels of payments have significantly enhanced the adoption of vasectomy, particularly among the low economic status group. The time of vasectomy in relation to the youngest child's age was influenced by the payment scheme. Higher monetary payments have not induced men to become sterilized who would be considered ineligible for the operation. A high level of satisfaction with the decision to have a vasectomy, regardless of payment level, was found. There was no systematic influence of payment levels on post-operative problems.

Novel species of fungi described in the present study include the following from Malaysia: Castanediella eucalypti from Eucalyptus pellita, Codinaea acacia from Acacia mangium, Emarcea eucalyptigena from Eucalyptus brassiana, Myrtapenidiella eucalyptorum from Eucalyptus pellita, Pilidiella eucalyptigena from Eucalyptus brassiana and Strelitziana malaysiana from Acacia mangium. Furthermore, Stachybotrys sansevieriicola is described from Sansevieria ehrenbergii (Tanzania), Phacidium grevilleae from Grevillea robusta (Uganda), Graphium jumulu from Adansonia gregorii and Ophiostoma eucalyptigena from Eucalyptus marginata (Australia), Pleurophoma ossicola from bone and Plectosphaerella populi from Populus nigra (Germany), Colletotrichum neosansevieriae from Sansevieria trifasciata, Elsinoë othonnae from Othonna quinquedentata and Zeloasperisporium cliviae (Zeloasperisporiaceae fam. nov.) from Clivia sp. (South Africa), Neodevriesia pakbiae, Phaeophleospora hymenocallidis and Phaeophleospora hymenocallidicola on leaves of a fern (Thailand), Melanconium elaeidicola from Elaeis guineensis (Indonesia), Hormonema viticola from Vitis vinifera (Canary Islands), Chlorophyllum pseudoglobossum from a grassland (India), Triadelphia disseminata from an immunocompromised patient (Saudi Arabia), Colletotrichum abscissum from Citrus (Brazil), Polyschema sclerotigenum and Phialemonium limoniforme from human patients (USA), Cadophora vitícola from Vitis vinifera (Spain), Entoloma flavovelutinum and Bolbitius aurantiorugosus from soil (Vietnam), Rhizopogon granuloflavus from soil (Cape Verde Islands), Tulasnella eremophila from Euphorbia officinarum subsp. echinus (Morocco), Verrucostoma martinicensis from Danaea elliptica (French West Indies), Metschnikowia colchici from Colchicum autumnale (Bulgaria), Thelebolus microcarpus from soil (Argentina) and Ceratocystis adelpha from Theobroma cacao (Ecuador). Myrmecridium iridis (Myrmecridiales ord. nov., Myrmecridiaceae fam. nov.) is also described from Iris sp. (The Netherlands). Novel genera include (Ascomycetes): Budhanggurabania from Cynodon dactylon (Australia), Soloacrosporiella, Xenocamarosporium, Neostrelitziana and Castanediella from Acacia mangium and Sabahriopsis from Eucalyptus brassiana (Malaysia), Readerielliopsis from basidiomata of Fuscoporia wahlbergii (French Guyana), Neoplatysporoides from Aloe ferox (Tanzania), Wojnowiciella, Chrysofolia and Neoeriomycopsis from Eucalyptus (Colombia), Neophaeomoniella from Eucalyptus globulus (USA), Pseudophaeomoniella from Olea europaea (Italy), Paraphaeomoniella from Encephalartos altensteinii, Aequabiliella, Celerioriella and Minutiella from Prunus (South Africa). Tephrocybella (Basidiomycetes) represents a novel genus from wood (Italy). Morphological and culture characteristics along with ITS DNA barcodes are provided for all taxa. ; Christian Lechat gratefully acknowledges Cesar Delnatte (DEAL, Martinique) fro the identification of the horst of Verrucostoma martinicensis. Alfredo Vizzini thanks Edmondo Grilli (Pescara, Italy), for comments on the text of Tephrocybella griseonigrescens. Dilnora Gouliamova was supported by a grant (D002-TK-176) from the Bulgarian Science Fund, EU F6 Synthesis program. She is grateful to K. Metodiev for permission to use the picture of Colchicum autumnale (http://www.bgflora. net/). Olga V. Morozova, Eugene S. Popov and Xiao-Lan He are grateful to V. Trunov, T.H. Li, C.Y. Deng, H. Huang and Y.W. Xia for valuable Entoloma collections. Alina V. Alexandrova was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (project N 14-50-00029). Ekaterina F. Malysheva, Olga V. Morozova, Alexander E. Kovalenko and Eugene S. Popov acknowledge financial support from the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (project 13-04-00838a and 15-04-04645a). Margarita Dueñas, María P. Martín and M. Teresa Telleria acknowledge financial support from the Plan Nacional I+D+I projects No. CGL2009-07231 and CGL2012-3559. They are also thankful to Marian Gleen (Seton Hall University, USA) for commenting on the text. Cony Decock gratefully acknowledges the financial support received from the FNRS / FRFC (convention FRFC 2.4544.10), the CNRS-French Guiana and the Nouragues staff, which enabled fieldwork in French Guiana, and the Belgian State – Belgian Federal Science Policy through the BCCMTM research programme. We also thank the CBS technical staff, A. van Iperen (cultures), M. Vermaas (photographic plates) and M. Starink-Willemse (DNA isolation, amplification and sequencing) for their invaluable assistance. ; Peer reviewed