Auditory icons: Design and physical characteristics.

Auditory icons are short sound messages that convey information about an object, event or situation. Originally, auditory icons have been used in computer interfaces, but are nowadays found in many other fields. In this review article, an overview is given of the main theoretical ideas behind the use and design of auditory icons.

[The journal "Broteria," Jesuit botanists and Gonçalo Sampaio. Exchange of plants and ideas, and the development of botany in Portugal].

The journal Broteria has covered a long path, since its foundation in 1902 until the mid 20's, when it stands as one of the best journals of natural history and a voice of the renewal of the natural sciences in Portugal. Broteria's success was due, mainly, to the remarkable qualities of its founders and main editors: their working capacity, intellectual standards and perseverance as well as the ability to establish a network of naturalists who sent them biological collections from remote regions and the ability to adapt to exile, while continuing to work and focusing their studies on the natural history of the exile country. The maintenance, in regular functioning, of their schools, and the opening to the collaboration of non Jesuit naturalists, such as the botanists from Oporto, also contributed to the success of Broteria.

Air filtration systems and restrictive access conditions improve indoor air quality in clinical units: Penicillium as a general indicator of hospital indoor fungal levels.

Background: High-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters do not completely prevent nosocomial fungal infections. The first aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of different filters and access conditions upon airborne fungi in hospital facilities. Additionally, this study identified fungal indicators of indoor air concentrations.

Copper, nickel and lead in lichen and tree bark transplants over different periods of time.

This work aimed at comparing the dynamics of atmospheric metal accumulation by the lichen Flavoparmelia caperata and bark of Platanus hybrida over different periods of time. Transplants were exposed in three Portuguese coastal cities. Samples were retrieved (1) every 2 months (discontinuous exposure), or (2) after 2-, 4-, 6-, 8- and 10-month periods (continuous exposure), and analysed for Cu, Ni and Pb.

Faecal coliform bacteria in Febros river (northwest Portugal): temporal variation, correlation with water parameters, and species identification.

Febros river water was sampled weekly, during 35 successive weeks, and analyzed for microbiological (total coliforms, faecal coliforms, faecal streptococci and enterococci) and chemical-physical (ammonia and temperature) parameters. All microbiological parameters were highly correlated with each other and with ammonia, suggesting that the simultaneous determination of all variables currently in use in the evaluation of the microbiological quality of waters is probably redundant, and could be simplified, and that ammonia should be tested as a sentinel parameter of the microbiological pollution load of Febros river. From the strains isolated from positive tubes of the faecal coliforms test (multiple tube fermentation technique) and retested in this assay, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella oxytoca and Klebsiella pneumoniae subsp.

The ability of biological and organic synthetic materials to accumulate atmospheric particulates containing copper, lead, nickel and strontium.

This work was aimed at finding materials that could be used as alternatives to lichens as air quality monitors since the high natural variability and the large amount of lichen collected are two drawbacks of the use of these organisms. Lichen Flavoparmelia caperata(L.) Hale was exposed in three different forms (transplant, detached from the substratum and as a biomass-ground and homogeneized) and compared to the planetree bark (Platanus hybrida Brot.

Differential sensitivity of four Lobaria lichens to copper in vitro.

Treatment of Lobaria amplissima, Lobaria pulmonaria, Lobaria scrobiculata, and Lobaria virens with 0 to 500 microM CuSO4 for 0 to 120 min at 25.0 degrees C resulted in a time- and copper-concentration-dependent decrease in the thallus total potassium content and a release of K- from the thallus, indicating that copper damaged the cytoplasmic membrane of the fungal hyphae. Lobaria pulmonaria was the most sensitive species, L virens the most resistant to copper treatment.