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Digital Annex for the following thesis: Vila-Viçosa, C. (2023). Natural History, Biogeography and Evolution of the Iberian white oak syngameon (Quercus L. Sect. Quercus). Ph.D. Thesis, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade do Porto, Portugal Abstract: The genus Quercus L. is one of the most diverse and important group of woody plants, particularly when considering that they are the trees that rule the Northern Hemisphere forests. Oaks have an intricate Biogeography that criss-crosses diverse climatic and edaphic gradients, encompassing a huge ambiguity in terms of species delimitation. Frequently, the taxonomic proposals brought by traditional Linnaean Botany are either insufficient or rather inflate the number of species and nomenclatural assignments, which are further diluted into inconsistent taxonomic ranks, varying from species to subspecies and varieties. The supremacy given to morphological characters that are inherently fragile and plastic, spread across the distribution areas of distinct lineages, may carry ambiguity on the identification and proper species delimitation. From the oaks that are distributed across the Western Palearctic region, the ones that are deciduous or brevi-deciduous present higher levels of ambiguity in terms of species number and their delimitation. This ambiguity is particularly strong in the circummediterranean region and in the transitional areas between the two major biogeographic Regions of the western Palearctic region, the Euro-Siberian and Mediterranean. This degree of uncertainty, which increases towards the Southern European Peninsulas, is amplified by the ease that the different species of oaks tend to hybridize among them. The present work provides a holistic framework that covers multiple areas, from the taxonomic and evolutive study of this genus, to biogeography and molecular characterization. Its major objective was to resolve the species delimitation of the Iberian deciduous and marcescent oaks and putative introgression among them, enhancing the available knowledge about species diversity, which can foster suitable species and forest conservation. A specific objective was to cross-reference the natural history revision and the different taxonomic treatments brought by distinct authors, with personal observations. These data were then incorporated into ecological modelling and molecular characterization, which in the end fed a newly updated taxonomic proposal. In Section A we obtained results from extensive field, herbaria, and literature review, updating the nomenclature of the Portuguese and western Mediterranean oaks. Section B was supported by Section A’s in-depth review and enabled finer species distribution models, nurturing both hindcast (since ca. 20 Kyr) and forecast (2070-2100) exercises of the range dynamics of Mediterranean oaks species. The study of past and future range shifts solved important pending biogeographic questions, especially related to past range-shifts. Such past-range shifts improved our knowledge on species responses to climate dynamics and allowed a better anticipation of future responses of range shifts driven by climate change. Section C encompassed the molecular characterization of Iberian white oak species and their hybrids, whose delimitation is often faltering when one intends to infer about species rank, or hypothesize about the participation of parent taxon in natural hybrid swarms. This work allowed us to solve the phylogenetic backbone of western Palearctic white oaks, suggesting a significant segregation of the Iberian pedunculate oaks and unveiling two subsections inside Section Quercus. These subsections are biogeographically well-segregated and present diverse levels of introgression among species. Results demonstrated the efficiency of RADSeq for rebuilding the reticulate phylogeny of the Eurasian white oaks, showcasing the significance of the Iberian Peninsula as a major hotspot for oak diversity. We implemented a circular approach to these methods, which retro-fed themselves in terms of insight generation, enabling a powerful strategy to solve the evolutionary history of this difficult groups of plants. We estimate that the reticulate historical biogeography of the western Palearctic white oaks deserves further scrutiny by adding vicariant oak populations from northern Africa, the Near East and southern European Peninsulas. Methods should again follow this similar additive and sequential process of adjoining deep Natural History examination, with extensive fieldwork in type populations and genome-wide molecular surveys, in order to solve this group of plants. With the present work, we were able to significantly improve on the depiction of the basic unit of Biodiversity (the Species), in the complex Quercus genus. We provided tools to enable further efforts for the conservation of the Mediterranean oak forests, which overwhelm one of the most important (and one of the most threatened) Biomes for plant conservation at the global scale.

Nowadays, many construction companies use maturity-based approaches to support decisions that have strong impact on costs and sustainability of the construction process, such as: age of pre-stressing operations, decision of propping/formwork removal; instant of subjection to load, etc. Current approaches to quality control through maturity consist in evaluating the compressive strength evolution of the concrete mix at a reference curing temperature (usually 20°C), together with the determination of the apparent activation energy (Ea) of the mix. The value of Ea is usually obtained from one of these three sources: (i) reference recommendations based on the type of cement; (ii) calorimetric testing; (iii) testing of compressive strength evolution at several distinct temperatures. The only technique of determining Ea that really addresses a mechanical property is the latter one, demanding however the deployment of many specimens and tests. Furthermore, the destructive character of this technique limits the possibility of maintaining the same specimen for the entire Ea testing, thus increasing the variability/scattering of results. The present study intended to evaluate the possibility of assessing mechanical-based activation energy for concrete through continuous or quasicontinuous assessments of E-modulus since very early ages. E-modulus is a mechanical property depending on the advancement of the hydration reaction and the temperature stories during the curing, with the interesting characteristic of allowing non-destructive testing to be carried out. This paper presents an inter-laboratory and inter-technique comparative study of E-modulus evolution at several temperatures. Three laboratories were involved, contributing with specific testing techniques applied to a single mix of normal strength concrete: 1) BTJASPE (BéTon au Jeune Age, Suivi de la Prise et du module d'Elasticité), available at IFSTTAR in France; 2) EMM-ARM (Elasticity Modulus Measurement through Ambient Response Method) available at the University of Minho in Portugal; 3) TSTM (Temperature Stress Testing Machine), available at Université Libre de Bruxelles in Belgium. Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)

Sustainability assessment and rating systems are intended to foster more sustainable design, construction, operation, maintenance and disassembly/deconstruction promoting and making possible a better integration of environment, societal, and cost concerns with other traditional decision criteria. The use of improved and building technologies can contribute considerably to better environmental cycle and then to the sustainability of the constructions. It is widely recognised in the of Building Sustainability Assessment that Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a much preferable method for evaluating the environmental pressure caused by materials, Building assemblies and the whole life-cycle of a building. Nevertheless, LCA tools are not extensively used in building design and most of building sustainability assessment and systems are not comprehensive or consistently LCA-based. Reasons for this failure above all related to the huge variety and amount of material flows and processes of building’s Lifecycle and to the complexity of the stages of a LCA. This paper will present the difficulties and possible solutions to integrate more accurate environmental methods in rating systems. In this context, the paper will also present the work that is being carried out in the development of the Portuguese Building Sustainability Assessment system (SBTool PT)

Asphalt rubber (AR) mixtures constitute an alternative to traditional hot mix asphalts (HMA), especially when considering the following characteristics: higher fatigue and higher reflective cracking resistance; noise reduction and higher friction, in these later when suitable aggregate gradations are used. However, besides these apparently sound results, a holistic approach to the associated sustainability issues should be made, considering the pavement life cycle. The work undertaken included the comparison of the AR and HMA, regarding the following parameters: (i) structural performance; (ii) life cycle analysis; (iii) environmental evaluation of greenhouse gases emissions. The results allow concluding that AR mixtures present advantages in terms of performance and emissions, although the costs of those mixtures are higher than conventional mixtures. Nevertheless, more research is needed to evaluate the life cycle performance, including the reduction of the production temperature in order to obtain more economically and environmentally sustainable mixtures. (undefined)

M.J.M. acknowledges funding from FCT through the grant SFRH/BPD/115566/2016. ALTALUZ (Reference PTDC/CTM-ENE/5125/2014). The optical properties of localized surface plasmon resonances (LSPR) sustained by self-assembled silver nanoparticles are of great interest for enhancing light trapping in thin film photovoltaics. First, we report on a systematic investigation of the structural and the optical properties of silver nanostructures fabricated by a solid-state dewetting process on various substrates. Our study allows to identify fabrication conditions in which circular, uniformly spaced nanoparticles are obtainable. The optimized NPs are then integrated into plasmonic back reflector (PBR) structures. Second, we demonstrate a novel procedure, involving a combination of opto-electronic spectroscopic techniques, allowing for the quantification of useful and parasitic absorption in thin photovoltaic absorber deposited on top of the PBR. We achieve a significant broadband useful absorption enhancement of 90% for 0.9 µm thick μc-Si:H film and demonstrate that optical losses due to plasmonic scattering are insignificant below 730 nm. Finally, we present a successful implementation of a plasmonic light trapping scheme in a thin film a-Si:H solar cell. The quantum efficiency spectra of the devices show a pronounced broadband enhancement resulting in remarkably high short circuit current densities (Jsc). preprint published

This research aimed to analyze attitudes and sustainable purchasing behaviors when purchasing food among Portuguese consumers of Generations Z, Y and X. Specifically, to identify statistically significant differences on the interest in ecological knowledge, level of knowledge of ecological issues, ecological purchasing habits and conscious purchasing planning and, consequently, sustainable attitudes and behaviors when purchasing food considering the generation factor. To achieve these objectives, a quantitative and cross-sectional approach was used. In this context, a questionnaire adapted from Kuźniar, Surmacz and Wierzbiński (2021) was used to collect the data. The data collection instrument was applied between September 2022 and the first fortnight of January 2023. Thus, primary data was collected based on a non-probabilistic sample for convenience that included 686 Portuguese consumers from Generations Z (n = 487), Y (n = 82) and X (n = 117). Later, the Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to identify statistically significant differences between two and three independent groups, respectively. The results confirm that generation is a differentiating factor in sustainable attitudes and behaviors. In fact, the existence of statistically significant differences between Generations Z, Y and X regarding the interest in ecological knowledge, ecological purchasing habits and sustainable attitudes and behaviors when purchasing food, are proof of this. Furthermore, it was found that Generations X and Y had identical attitudes and behaviors, differentiating them from Generation Z. Regarding the level of knowledge of ecological issues and conscious purchasing planning, attitudes were similar in the three generations analyzed. The authors are grateful to the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT, Portugal) for financial support through national funds FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC) to CIMO (UIDB/00690/2020 and UIDP/00690/2020) and SusTEC (LA/P/0007/2020). info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

The energy efficiency of buildings is nowadays one of the main concerns of the construction market. But, Indoor Environmental Quality of Buildings (IEQ) should not be disregarded. To achieve an adequate quality of buildings it is necessary to consider a set of aspects that are interconnected and influence each other, not always in a favourable way. The selection of the most suitable construction solution and materials for the building elements must consider its contribution for the IEQ (thermal and acoustic comfort, daylight conditions and the indoor air quality) inside the buildings, its energy efficiency and its environmental impact (considering the embodied energy, for example), but also the weight of the solution and its effect on the structural project of the building. The solutions adopted in buildings, usually, only optimize no more than one of the necessary comfort requirements. In many cases, the best solutions to accomplish different comfort requirements are not compatible, especially in what concerns natural ventilation and lighting strategies and the acoustic and thermal performance. So, it is necessary to have an integrated approach to ensure the best overall behaviour taking into account all of the, sometimes incompatible, comfort and energy efficiency requirements. In this work the use of a multi-criteria analysis, to balance all these aspects on the design phase, in order to assist the designer in the selection of construction solutions and materials will be presented. The selection of the most adequate construction solutions will increase the buildings IEQ, energy performance and also its environmental impact.

The exponential growth of tra c demand, and supporting network infrastructures, is leading to serious energy consumption issues. With proper routing, some network links can be put on a sleep mode if demands can be routed through other links and, with multiperiod tra c, the sleeping links can change between periods. In this paper, we address the energy e cient routing problem, and we study the tradeo between energy savings and percentage of routing paths allowed to change between periods. We present an ILP model de ning the energy e cient routing problem and we propose a GRASP based heuristic to compute good routing solutions.

Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) Fundo Social Europeu (FSE)