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The mucus covers the fish's body, working as a protective barrier. Besides physical protection, mucus provides molecules that protect the fish from pathogens damaging 1,2. These include antimicrobial peptides secreted in the mucus, which play an essential role in defense against microbial pathogens since these belong to the innate immune system2,3. In this study, two adult Halobatrachus didactylus individuals were captured from the wild in Sesimbra. Then, mucus collection was performed by scraping the dorsal-lateral body of the fish with a sponge. Our objective was the identification of new peptides with bioactive potential in mucus samples by chromatography analysis. Size exclusion highperformance liquid chromatography (SE-HPLC) analysis performed on mucus samples from the two individuals revealed a similar profile with an intense highlight peak which resulted in a distribution of about 775 Dalton. With interest in that peak, the two mucus samples were pooled for fractionation by SEC. The resulting fraction was analyzed by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LCMS/MS) to identify the most probable peptide sequences. Identification from databases did not provide reliable results, indicating a lack of information on the matrix analyzed. We resorted to de novo sequencing with good results using PEAKS Studio software. Five identified peptides were selected according to their bioactivities predicted in silico. Furthermore, the five identified peptides were synthesized, and the molecular size was validated by SE-HPLC analysis. Overall, this chromatographic approach enabled the identification of promising peptides, which bioactivities will be evaluated in vitro in future work.

O processo de internacionalização tornou-se inevitável com a globalização e a maior integração das diversas economias. O acesso a mercados externos permite encontrar novas oportunidades de negócio, todavia exige uma maior capacidade de resposta das empresas. A internacionalização das empresas, principalmente das Pequenas e Médias Empresas (PMEs), tem um papel importante no desenvolvimento económico de qualquer país, e quando implementado com sucesso, tende a proporcionar grandes níveis de prosperidade económica e social, a exemplo do Japão e da Alemanha. A indústria conserveira é das mais antigas em Portugal, tem empresas em actividade com mais de 160 anos de existência e, desde a sua oriegm, orientadas para a exportação. Atualmente, laboram 22 empresas de conservas de peixe, 18 no Continente e 4 na Região Autónoma dos Açores, demonstrando uma enorme resiliência às alterações dos mercados internacionais, (ANICP, 2020). O presente relatório visa descrever o meu estágio curricular realizado na Associação Nacional dos Industriais de Conservas de Peixe, que se focou, quase exclusivamente, na temática da internacionalização. O estágio teve como objetivo o auxilio nas tarefas de secretariado, marketing e conteúdo digital e, principalmente, estudar as oportunidades e desafios da expansão internacional das conservas de peixe para o mercado dos Emirados Árabes Unidos. Assim, este relatório tem uma dupla vertente, descrever as tarefas realizadas ao longo do meu estágio, mas inclui também as componentes conceptuais e técnicas do estudo de internacionalização realizado, no âmbito de uma pesquisa analítica, para avaliar as potencialidades e enunciar os desafios que se colocam às empresas do sector, na abordagem ao mercado dos Emirados Árabes Unidos. O objetivo serve que a informação tratada permita aos industriais de conservas de peixe definir uma estratégia bem-sucedida na abordagem àquele exigente mercado do Médio Oriente. The process of internationalization has become inevitable with globalization and the greater integration of different economies. Access to foreign markets makes it possible to find new business opportunities, however it requires greater responsiveness from companies. The internationalization of companies, mainly Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), plays an important role in the economic development of any country, and when successfully implemented, tends to provide great levels of economic and social prosperity, as in Japan and Germany. The canning industry is one of the oldest in Portugal, it has companies in activity with more than 160 years of existence, since its origin, oriented towards exportation. There are currently 22 canned fish companies in operation, 18 on the mainland and 4 in the Autonomous Region of the Azores, demonstrating enormous resilience to changes in international markets, (ANICP, 2020). This report aims to describe my curricular internship at the Associação Nacional dos Industriais de Conservas de Peixe, which focused almost exclusively on the theme of internationalization. The internship aimed to help with secretarial, marketing, and digital content tasks and, mainly, to study the opportunities and challenges of the international expansion of canned fish to the United Arab Emirates market. Thus, this report has a double aspect, describing the tasks carried out during my internship, but also includes the conceptual and technical components of the internationalization study carried out, within the scope of an analytical research, to assess the potential and enunciate the challenges that arise. companies in the sector in approaching the United Arab Emirates market. The objective is that the processed information will allow fish canning industry to define a successful strategy in approaching that demanding Middle Eastern market.

We combine consistently dated benthic carbon isotopic records distributed over the entire Atlantic Ocean with numerical simulations performed by a glacial configuration of the Norwegian Earth System Model with active ocean biogeochemistry, in order to interpret the observed Cibicides δ13C changes at the stadial-interstadial transition corresponding to the end of Heinrich Stadial 4 (HS4) in terms of ocean circulation and remineralization changes. We show that the marked increase in Cibicides δ13C observed at the end of HS4 between ~2000 and 4200 m in the Atlantic can be explained by changes in nutrient concentrations as simulated by the model in response to the halting of freshwater input in the high latitude glacial North Atlantic. Our model results show that this Cibicides δ13C signal is associated with changes in the ratio of southern-sourced (SSW) versus northern-sourced (NSW) water masses at the core sites, whereby SSW is replaced by NSW as a consequence of the resumption of deep water formation in the northern North Atlantic and Nordic Seas after the freshwater input is halted. Our results further suggest that the contribution of ocean circulation changes to this signal increases from ~40 % at 2000 m to ~80 % at 4000 m. Below ~4200 m, the model shows little ocean circulation change but an increase in remineralization across the transition marking the end of HS4. The simulated lower remineralization during stadials than interstadials is particularly pronounced in deep subantarctic sites, in agreement with the decrease in the export production of carbon to the deep Southern Ocean during stadials found in previous studies.

A cidade é um produto complexo que combina recursos físicos e aspetos culturais, históricos, sociais e económicos que influenciam na formação da sua identidade. Dessa forma, a identidade de uma cidade é o seu ADN: uma combinação distinta e herdada de bens, história, características e cultura que a define interna e externamente e tem o poder de unificar pessoas e lugares. Como a identidade é a base sobre a qual a imagem de uma cidade é criada, é de grande importância considerar como as cidades constroem e desenvolvem a sua identidade. A cidade de Matosinhos apresenta-se como objeto de estudo, destacando as características únicas da cidade que definem a sua identidade cultural. A ligação profunda ao mar continua a ser a característica mais importante que define a identidade de Matosinhos. É possível notar esta relação em vários aspetos, uma vez que Matosinhos tem uma das melhores infraestruturas portuárias do país (o porto de Leixões), uma gastronomia rica em sabores do mar (um polo de atração turística), um rico património com monumentos e esculturas dedicadas ao mar, bem como importantes tradições e celebrações que contribuem para preservar o espírito da sua comunidade. Esta relação é também evidente nas inúmeras atividades económicas que dependem do mar, bem como nas horas de lazer desfrutadas pelos locais e turistas que visitam as praias e o mar para tirar proveito desta caraterística especial de Matosinhos. Da mesma forma que o mar contribui para definir a identidade de Matosinhos, revela também como Matosinhos afirma a sua posição para o desenvolvimento de uma economia azul sustentável. The city is a complex product that combines physical resources as well as cultural, historical, social, and economic aspects that influence the formation of its identity. In this way, the identity of a city is its DNA: a distinct, inherited combination of assets, history, characteristics, and culture that defines it internally and externally and has the power to unify people and place. Because identity is the foundation upon which a city's image is created, it is vital to consider how cities build and develop their identity. The city of Matosinhos will be the object of study, highlighting the city's unique characteristics that define its cultural identity. The deep connection to the sea remains the most important feature that characterises Matosinhos' identity. It is possible to note this relationship in several aspects since Matosinhos has one of the best port infrastructures in the country (the port of Leixões), a gastronomy rich in sea flavours (a pole of tourist attraction), a rich heritage with many monuments and sculptures dedicated to the sea, as well as important traditions and celebrations that contribute to preserving the spirit of its community. This relationship is also evident in the numerous economic activities that rely on the sea, as well as the hours of relaxation enjoyed by locals and tourists who visit the beaches and the sea to take advantage of this Matosinhos special feature. In the same way that the sea contributes to define the identity of Matosinhos, it also reveals how Matosinhos affirms its position for the development of a sustainable blue economy.

In the marine environment, sound can be an efficient source of information. Indeed, several marine species, including fish, use sound to navigate, select habitats, detect predators and prey, and to attract mates. Therefore, all the abiotic, biotic and manmade sounds that comprise the soundscape, have the potential to be used to assess and monitor species and marine environments. Passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) involves the use of acoustic sensors to record sound in the environment, from which relevant ecological information can be inferred. This thesis studied marine soundscapes, with special attention on fish communities, anthropogenic noise, and applied several methods to analyse acoustic recordings. Most of the focus was on the Tagus estuary, where the presence of two highly vocal species is known: the Lusitanian toadfish (Halobatrachus didactylus) and the meagre (Argyrosomus regius). Azorean and Mozambique soundscapes were also analysed. Several methods were applied to extract information and to visualize soundscape characteristics, including sound recognition systems based on hidden Markov models to recognize fish sounds and boat passages. Analysis of several types of marine environments and time scales showed several advantages and disadvantages of different methods. The use of sound pressure level on different frequency bands allowed the quantification of daily and seasonal patterns. Ecoacoustic indices appear to be cost-effective tools to monitor biodiversity in some marine environments. Using automatic recognition, vocal rhythms (diel and seasonal patterns) and vocal interactions among individuals were also characterized. Furthermore, boat noise effects on fish were studied: we encountered impacts on the audition, vocal behaviour and reproduction. Overall, we used PAM as a tool to remotely assess and monitor soundscapes, biodiversity, fish communities’ seasonal patterns, fish behaviour, species presence, and the effect of anthropogenic noise aiming to contribute for the management and conservation of marine ecosystems.

This data set contains the age model and air-sea CO2 exchange tracer ([CO32-]as) of deep water core NEAP 4K and Intermediate water core GGC90. Seawater [CO32-]as is calculated following the approach in Yu et al. (2019). The Seawater [CO32-]as reconstructions at GGC90 are obtained based on [CO32-] and [PO43-] from Lacerra et al. (2019) and Umling et al. (2019), but these data have not yet been used to infer air-sea CO2 exchange histories. Importantly, building upon previous work (Lund et al., 2015), 23 new radiocarbon dates substantially improve the GGC90 age model. We present new deep-water [CO32-] and [PO43-] reconstructions at NEAP 4K using benthic foraminiferal B/Ca and Cd/Ca, respectively. The age model for NEAP 4K is based on 4 new and 13 published radiocarbon dates (Hall et al., 2004) and new Neogloboquadrina pachyderma (sinistral) coiling ratios. Based on the novel approach to reconstruct upper Atlantic air-sea CO2 exchange signatures, we provide evidence for a net release of CO2 via the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean, which contributes to the millennial atmospheric CO2 rise during Heinrich Stadial 1.

We report the results of an aquaria-based experiment testing the effects of suspended particles generated during potential mining activities, on a common habitat-building coral species in the Azores, Dentomuricea aff. meteor. Corals were collected from the summit of Condor Seamount (Azores, NE Atlantic) at depths between 185-210 m in August 2014. Coral fragments were maintained in 10-L aquaria and exposed to three experimental treatments for a period of four weeks at the DeepSeaLab aquaria facilities (Okeanos-University of the Azores): (1) control conditions (no added sediments); (2) suspended polymetallic sulphide (PMS) particles; (3) suspended quartz particles. PMS particles were obtained by grinding PMS inactive chimney rocks collected at the hydrothermal vent field Lucky Strike. Both particle types were delivered at a concentration of 25 mg L-1. The putative effects of PMS particles were evaluated through measurements of the coral physiological responses at the levels of the organism (oxygen consumption, ammonium excretion), tissue (bioaccumulation of metals) and cell (enzyme activity and gene expression).

Increasing upwelling intensity and shoaling of the oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) is projected for Eastern Boundary Upwelling Systems (EBUSs) under ocean warming which may have severe consequences for mesopelagic food webs, trophic transfer, and fish production also in the Humboldt Current Upwelling System (HUS). To improve our mechanistic understanding, from February 23, 2017 until April 14, 2017 we performed a 50 days mesocosm experiment in the northern HUS (off Callao Bay, Peru) and monitored the zooplankton development prior to and following a simulated upwelling event through the addition of deeper water of two different OMZ-influenced subsurface waters to four of in total eight mesocosms. To elucidate plankton dynamics and trophic relationships, we followed the temporal development of the mesozooplankton community in relation to that of phytoplankton, analyzed the fatty acid composition and gut fluorescence of dominant copepods, and determined the stable isotope (SI) and elemental composition (C:N) of dominant zooplankton taxa. Zooplankton samples were collected from the mesocosms over the entire experiment duration using an Apstein net (17 cm diameter, 100 µm mesh) to determine abundance and taxonomic composition of the zooplankton community, and to analyze fatty acid composition, gut fluorescence and elemental composition of dominant zooplankton. Furthermore, abundance and biomass of zooplankton groups was estimated from scanned ZooScan images.

Explicação sobre o problema do Lixo Marinho, seus impactos e possíveis soluções integradas numa abordagem de gestão de resíduos (em inglês). info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Ingredientes naturais têm sido usados tradicionalmente por milénios e a sua aplicação em cremes tópicos, loções e preparações dentro da medicina tradicional e tradições de cura em muitas culturas têm sido observadas. Nos últimos 20 anos, estudos laboratoriais e clínicos têm identificado os benefícios de uma variedade de ingredientes naturais para cuidados de pele. Consequentemente, alguns destes ingredientes e compostos estão a ser desenvolvidos, usados ou considerados não só para efeitos anti idade, mas também para distúrbios dermatológicos. Certos ingredientes como lama marinha e quitosano, têm sido identificados como benéficos no tratamento de psoríase e dermatite atópica, devido às suas propriedades anti-inflamatórias. Para combater acne, sargafurano e diterpenóides cembrene são considerados eficazes. Já para a hiperpigmentação e capacidades antioxidantes, florotaninos e fucoidano estão entre os compostos que se consideram mais benéficos. Pesquisa adicional é necessária para determinar, confirmar e elucidar os benefícios destes ingredientes na prevenção e controlo dos distúrbios de pele. Natural ingredients have been used traditionally for millennia and their application in topical creams, lotions and preparations within the traditional medicines and healing traditions of many cultures has been observed. Over the last 20 years, clinical and laboratory studies have identified the benefits of an array of marine natural ingredients for cosmetic. Consequently, a number of these ingredients and compounds are today being developed, used or considered not only for anti-aging effects, but also for use in dermatologic disorders. Certain ingredients, such as sea mud and chitosan, have been identified as beneficial in the treatment of psoriasis and atopic dermatitis, due to their anti-inflammatory properties. For combating acne, sargafuran and cembrene diterpenoids are considered efficacious. As to hyperpigmentation and antioxidative capabilities, phlorotannins and fucoidan are among those compounds found to be most beneficial. Additional research is needed to determine, confirm and elucidate the benefits of these ingredients in the prevention and management of skin disease. Trabalho Final de Mestrado Integrado, Ciências Farmacêuticas, 2021, Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Farmácia.