Assessing spatio-temporal changes in marine communities along the Portuguese continental shelf and upper slope based on 25 years of bottom trawl surveys.

The Portuguese continental coast is influenced by several oceanographic processes and is located near the confluence of three biogeographic realms (from the North Atlantic, South Atlantic and Mediterranean). Given these features, the topography of the Portuguese coast, possible variations in fishing effort and reported increasing sea surface temperature in the last decades, we hypothesized that changes in marine communities in space and time occurred since 1990. In this study, research survey data collected yearly along the Portuguese continental slope (20-500 m deep) from 1990 to 2016 were analysed with the objective of identifying spatio-temporal changes. Latitude and depth were found to play a major role in communities' spatial differentiation, probably associated to temperature, and three ecological areas were defined (north, southwest and south). In the studied period, Macroramphosus spp. abundance showed a marked decrease in all areas whereas Sparids increased in abundance in the south. Despite these major changes and fluctuations in species abundance over time no major trends in communities were observed. Fishing activity, environmental conditions (including climate change) and biotic factors are all drivers possibly responsible for those changes.

Qualidade de vida dos idosos do Concelho da Praia da Vitória / Quality of life of the elderly in the Municipality of Praia da Vitória

As alterações demográficas do envelhecimento e a qualidade de vida das pessoas idosas são preocupações que nos levaram a realizar este estudo científico que tem como objetivo perceber a qualidade de vida dos idosos do Concelho da Praia da Vitória com 75 e mais anos. O estudo pretende saber qual a perceção que os idosos têm acerca da qualidade de vida, doença, vida independente, relações sociais, sentidos e bem-estar psicológico, caraterizar as variáveis sociodemográficas (idade, género, estado civil e escolaridade), o nível de rendimento mensal dos mesmos e analisar a qualidade de vida face às características dos idosos e a cada uma das suas varáveis. Do Universo identificado a partir do Centro de Saúde da Praia da Vitória, de 1518 pessoas idosas com idades iguais ou superiores a 75 anos foi criada uma amostra estratificada por freguesias no total de 304 pessoas idosas. O instrumento de medida utilizado para medir a perceção dos idosos sobre a qualidade de vida foi um questionário com Alpha de Cronbach de 0,8 composto pela escala IAQdV de Fonseca et al., (2009). Da análise dos resultados obtidos constatou-se que a idade média é de 80,7 anos, o género mais representado foi o feminino, os idosos possuem o ensino básico sendo na maioria casados e tendo em média o rendimento mensal no valor compreendido entre 201€ e 400€. Nenhuma das variáveis sociodemográficas estabeleceu diferenças significativas com a qualidade de vida. Pelo contrário, todas as outras variáveis do estudo estabeleceram diferenças significativas com a qualidade de vida. Sobre a perceção da qualidade de vida global, verificamos que 39,8 % dos idosos da amostra a referiu como suficiente.

The demographic alterations of aging and the quality of life of older people are the reasons for this scientific study. Its goal is to understand the quality of life of elderly people aged 75 or more in the council of Praia da Vitória. This study aims to know the perception that the elderly have about the quality of life, illness, independent living, social relationships senses, psychological well-being, the characteristics about the sociodemographic variables (age, gender, civil status, scholarity) and the level of monthly income of the same elderly and to analyze the quality of life of elderly according to their characteristics and to the variables of the scale. A stratified sample by parishes, of 304 people was drawn from the identified universe of 1518 elderly people aged 75 years old or more registered at Centro de Saúde da Praia da Vitória. The instrument of measure used, to evaluate the perception of older people about quality of life, was a questionnaire with Cronbach's Alpha of 0.8 consisting of a scale IAQdV from Fonseca, et al (2009). From the analysis of the obtained results it was verified that the average age is 80.7, the most frequent gender is female, the elderly finished basic education, the majority of them are married and they have an average monthly income between 201€ and 400€. About perception of global quality of life, it was verified that 39.8 % of the elderly people of sample reported their as being sufficient. About the perception of independent living, social relationships, senses and psychological well-being was good. The illness was the variable over which the elderly had poor perception. None of the socio-demographic variables established significant differences with the quality of life. Otherwise, all the other variables in study, established significant differences with quality of life.