Microplastic ingestion has been reported for several marine species, but the level of contamination in transitional systems and associated biota is less known. The aim of this study was to assess the ...occurrence of microplastic ingestion in three commercial fish species: the sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax), the seabream (Diplodus vulgaris) and the flounder (Platichthys flesus) from the Mondego estuary (Portugal). Microplastics were extracted from the gastrointestinal tract of 120 individuals by visual inspection and digestion solution. A total of 157 particles were extracted from 38% of total fish (96% fibers), with 1.67 ± 0.27 (SD) microplastics per fish. Significantly higher amount of ingested microplastics was recorded for D. vulgaris (73%). The dominant polymers identified by μ-FTIR were polyester, polypropylene and rayon (semi-synthetic fiber). It is reported for the first time the presence of this pollutant in fish populations from the Mondego estuary raising concerns on their potential negative effects.
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•Microplastics occurred in 38% of three fish species from the Mondego estuary.•The highest abundance of microplastics was recorded in Diplodus vulgaris.•Fibers represented 96% of microplastics found in all analysed fish•Polyester, rayon and polypropylene were the dominant polymers identified by μ-FTIR.
The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted global public health. Infant mortality rate (IMR), a vital statistic and key indicator of a population's overall health, is essential for developing ...effective health prevention programs. Existing evidence primarily indicates a decrease in IMR during the COVID-19 pandemic. We conducted a national-level analysis to calculate IMR and describe its course over the years (from 2016 until 2022), using a month-by-month analysis.
Data on the number of deaths under one year of age was collected from the Portuguese E-Death Certification System (SICO), and data on the number of monthly live births was obtained from Statistics Portugal. The IMR was calculated per month, considering the previous 12 months' cumulative number of deaths under one year of age and the number of live births.
In Portugal, the IMR decreased before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The lowest values were observed in September and October 2021 (2.15 and 2.14 per 1000 live births, respectively). The IMR remained below the threshold of three deaths per 1000 live births during the pandemic's critical period.
Portugal has achieved remarkable progress in reducing its IMR over the last 60 years. The country recorded its lowest-ever IMR values during the COVID-19 pandemic. Further studies are needed to fully understand the observed trends.
Urban areas’ population has grown during the last century and it is expected that over 60% of the world population will live in cities by 2050. Urban parks provide several ecosystem services that are ...valuable to the well-being of city-dwellers and they are also considered a nature-based solution to tackle multiple environmental problems in cities. However, the type and amount of ecosystem services provided will vary with each park vegetation type, even within same the park. Our main goal was to quantify the trade-offs in ecosystem services associated to different vegetation types, using a spatially detailed approach. Rather than relying solely on general vegetation typologies, we took a more ecologically oriented approach, by explicitly considering different units of vegetation structure and composition.
This was demonstrated in a large park (44ha) located in the city of Almada (Lisbon metropolitan area, Portugal), where six vegetation units were mapped in detail and six ecosystem services were evaluated: carbon sequestration, seed dispersal, erosion prevention, water purification, air purification and habitat quality.
The results showed that, when looking at the park in detail, some ecosystem services varied greatly with vegetation type. Carbon sequestration was positively influenced by tree density, independently of species composition. Seed dispersal potential was higher in lawns, and mixed forest provided the highest amount of habitat quality. Air purification service was slightly higher in mixed forest, but was high in all vegetation types, probably due to low background pollution, and both water purification and erosion prevention were high in all vegetation types.
Knowing the type, location, and amount of ecosystem services provided by each vegetation type can help to improve management options based on ecosystem services trade-offs and looking for win-win situations. The trade-offs are, for example, very clear for carbon: tree planting will boost carbon sequestration regardless of species, but may not be enough to increase habitat quality. Moreover, it may also negatively influence seed dispersal service. Informed practitioners can use this ecological knowledge to promote the role of urban parks as a nature-based solution to provide multiple ecosystem services, and ultimately improve the design and management of the green infrastructure. This will also improve the science of Ecosystem Services, acknowledging that the type of vegetation matters for the provision of ecosystem services and trade-offs analysis.
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•We mapped ecosystem services in an urban park with high spatial detail.•Ecosystem services varied widely with vegetation type.•Native forest provided the most ecosystem services.•Urban parks should not be seen homogenous units regarding ecosystem services.•Nature-based solutions can help managers to optimize ecosystem services provision.
The European Union has been allocating funds for the energy transition to meet escalating global energy demands while minimising the environmental impact. This paper focuses on the impact of ...post-pandemic policies on photovoltaic technology in Italy and Portugal, specifically analysing self-consumption schemes and energy communities. A techno-economic assessment identified optimal PV systems for four families in each country, considering financial incentives. Italy offers Superbonus 110 and Ecobonus schemes, while Portugal provides access to the Environmental Fund. Profitable PV systems with storage are feasible in Italy but not in Portugal. Superbonus 110 favours smaller systems, Ecobonus supports larger ones, and Portuguese policies prioritise smaller systems. Simulations of energy communities for the same families showed that in Italy, the best configurations consist of families acting as producers with larger PV capacities and smaller batteries. In contrast, in Portugal, the policies favour smaller PV systems without batteries, resulting in optimal configurations where families are solely consumers. This research underscores diverse national approaches to post-pandemic energy policies and their nuanced impacts on PV technology in Italy and Portugal. It can be concluded that energy communities offer greater profitability than individual self-consumption schemes. This is because individual households continue to prioritise self-consumption and personal savings while selling their excess energy at a more favourable price than what they would receive from the grid.
•In Italy, there are financial incentives and in Portugal, electricity cost reductions.•The models used the Net Present Value and the Internal Rate of Return as indicators.•In Italy, Superbonus 100 favours smaller systems, while Ecobonus supports larger ones.•Smaller systems without batteries for self-consumption are more profitable in Portugal.•Energy communities are more economically viable in both countries.
Lawrence S. Graham focuses on the implications of the Portuguese case for understanding more fully broader, cross-national patterns in politics and governance, showing how the Portuguese case may ...constitute an alternative model especially for Latin America and Eastern Europe.
Long-COVID-19 impacts health-related quality of life (HR-QoL) but data is scarce. The aim of this study was to describe and prospectively assess the prevalence and risk factors for long-COVID-19 ...after hospital discharge, and to evaluate its impact on patient HR-QoL.
Single-centre longitudinal study including all COVID-19 patients discharged between December 2020 and February 2021. Patients were contacted remotely at three, six and nine months. Data were collected as follows: 1) Long-COVID-19 symptoms were self-reported; 2) HRQoL were assessed using the 3-level EuroQoL-5D (EQ-5D-3L) questionnaire. Pregnant women, demented, bedridden, and non-Portuguese-speaking patients were excluded.
The three-, six- and nine-month assessments were completed by 152, 117 and 110 patients (median age: 61 years; male sex: 56.6%). Long-COVID-19 (≥ 1 symptom) was reported by 66.5%, 62.4% and 53.6% of patients and HR-QoL assessment showed impairment of at least some domain in 65.8%, 69.2% and 55.4% of patients at three, six and nine months, respectively. Fatigue was the most common long-COVID-19 symptom. Anxiety/depression domain was the most frequently affected in all three time-points, peaking at six months (39%), followed by pain/discomfort and mobility domains. Long-COVID-19 was associated with the impairment of all EQ-5D-3L domains except for self-care domain at each time-point. Neither intensive care unit admission nor disease severity were associated with long-COVID-19 nor with impairment of any EQ-5D-3L domain. After adjusting for sex, age, frailty status, and comorbid conditions, long-COVID-19 remained significantly associated with HR-QoL impairment at three (OR 4.27, 95% CI 1.92 - 9.52, p < 0.001), six (OR 3.46, 95% CI 1.40 - 8.57, p = 0.007) and nine months (OR 4.13, 95% CI 1.62 - 10.55, p = 0.003) after hospital discharge. In a longitudinal analysis, patients reporting long-COVID-19 at three months had an EQ-5D-3L index value decreased by 0.14 per visit (p < 0.001) compared to those without long-COVID-19 and both groups had a non-significant change in mean EQ-5D-3L index over the nine-month period (time-point assessment, Z = 0.91, p = 0.364).
Clinical sequelae associated with long-COVID-19 can persist for at least nine months after hospital discharge in most patients and can impair long-term HR-QoL in more than half of patients regardless of disease severity, and clinicodemographic characteristics.
Estuaries are productive environments used by many fish as nursery grounds. The initial stages of fishes are highly vulnerable to (a)biotic factors, and anthropogenic pressures, influencing fish ...larvae assemblages along the estuary. Microplastics (MPs < 5 mm) are particularly dangerous to early life stages of fishes because their ingestion can induce gut blockage, limiting food intake or exposing organisms to contamination due to MPs capacity to absorb pollutants. Present work aimed to investigate the contamination of an urban impacted estuary (Douro estuary, NW Portugal) by MPs, and study the abundance and distribution of MPs and fish larvae in this estuary. Monthly sampling surveys were performed from December 2016 to December 2017, in nine stations along the estuary. Sub-surface planktonic horizontal trawls were performed to collect fish larvae and MPs. Planktonic samples were sorted, and fish larvae identified. MPs density was determined using a protocol optimized in our laboratory. A total of 1498 fish larvae belonging to 32 taxa were collected, with a mean density of 11.66 fish larvae 100 m−3. During the spring-summer period, it was observed the typical increase in the density and diversity of the larval assemblage. Diversity was generally low, with the high dominance of very few taxa, namely the common goby, Pomatoschistus microps. Different types of MPs were found, namely fibers, soft/hard plastic, colorful/transparent plastic, in a total of 2152 particles, with a mean density of 17.06 MPs 100 m−3. Hard MPs and fibers were the most predominant types, representing 83% of the total MPs collected. In some months the number of MPs surpassed the number of fish larvae, with an average ratio of 1.0 fish larvae:1.5 MPs. Such results are concerning, highlighting that a higher availability of MPs may facilitate their ingestion by fish and therefore increase possible impacts in these communities.
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•First assessment of microplastics contamination in Douro estuary (Portugal)•Microplastics, including hard fragments and fibers were present over the year.•Average ratio of 1 fish larvae:1.5 microplastics•There was not a temporal or spatial overlap between fish larvae and microplastics.
The impact of effluent wastewaters from four different hospitals: a university (1456 beds), a general (350 beds), a pediatric (110 beds) and a maternity hospital (96 beds), which are conveyed to the ...same wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), was evaluated in the receiving urban wastewaters. The occurrence of 78 pharmaceuticals belonging to several therapeutic classes was assessed in hospital effluents and WWTP wastewaters (influent and effluent) as well as the contribution of each hospital in WWTP influent in terms of pharmaceutical load. Results indicate that pharmaceuticals are widespread pollutants in both hospital and urban wastewaters. The contribution of hospitals to the input of pharmaceuticals in urban wastewaters widely varies, according to their dimension. The estimated total mass loadings were 306gd−1 for the university hospital, 155gd−1 for the general one, 14gd−1 for the pediatric hospital and 1.5gd−1 for the maternity hospital, showing that the biggest hospitals have a greater contribution to the total mass load of pharmaceuticals. Furthermore, analysis of individual contributions of each therapeutic group showed that NSAIDs, analgesics and antibiotics are among the groups with the highest inputs.
Removal efficiency can go from over 90% for pharmaceuticals like acetaminophen and ibuprofen to not removal for β-blockers and salbutamol. Total mass load of pharmaceuticals into receiving surface waters was estimated between 5 and 14g/d/1000 inhabitants.
Finally, the environmental risk posed by pharmaceuticals detected in hospital and WWTP effluents was assessed by means of hazard quotients toward different trophic levels (algae, daphnids and fish). Several pharmaceuticals present in the different matrices were identified as potentially hazardous to aquatic organisms, showing that especial attention should be paid to antibiotics such as ciprofloxacin, ofloxacin, sulfamethoxazole, azithromycin and clarithromycin, since their hazard quotients in WWTP effluent revealed that they could pose an ecotoxicological risk to algae.
•In-depth monitoring of pharmaceutical presence in hospital effluents of four different types of hospitals•Evaluation of contribution of hospital wastewater into urban wastewater influent in terms of pharmaceutical loads•Environmental Risk Assessment regarding presence of pharmaceuticals in hospital effluents and wastewater effluents•Prioritization of 10 selected pharmaceuticals in hospital and WWTP effluents based on the Environmental Risk Assessment performed
This research aims at analysing the mechanical performance of concrete with recycled aggregates (RA) from construction and demolition waste (CDW) from various locations in Portugal.
First the ...characteristics of the various aggregates (natural and recycled) used in the production of concrete were thoroughly analysed. The composition of the RA was determined and several physical and chemical tests of the aggregates were performed.
In order to evaluate the mechanical performance of concrete, compressive strength (in cubes and cylinders), splitting tensile strength, modulus of elasticity and abrasion resistance tests were performed.
Concrete mixes with RA from CDW from several recycling plants were evaluated, in order to understand the influence that the RA's collection point, and consequently their composition, has on the characteristics of the mixes produced.
The analysis of the mechanical performance allowed concluding that the use of RA worsens most of the properties tested, especially when fine RA are used. On the other hand, there was an increase in abrasion resistance when coarse RA were used. In global terms, the use of this type of aggregates, in limited contents, is viable from a mechanical viewpoint.
•Concrete with fine and coarse recycled aggregates (RA) from construction and demolition waste (CDW).•CDW from five recycling plants with a wide variety of compositions.•Analysis of the influence of the RA's source, composition, size and incorporation ratio.•Proof of the feasibility of the use of these RA in terms of concrete's mechanical performance.
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