Smart Cities Research Center

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Raising Awareness for Sustainable Development Goals Through Hands-On Experiments

Publication . Costa, Maria Cristina; Mateus, D. M. R.; Pinho, Henrique J. O.

With the aim of protecting our planet, the United Nations defined 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), which requires the involvement of all countries to make an endeavour to achieve better living conditions. In this regard, stakeholders such as governments, regional and international organizations, and civil society need to work together to make efforts to meet these objectives. In addition, Higher Education Institutions have a crucial role, not only in developing research and disseminating SDG practices but also in intervening in society. This paper presents a collaborative project led by a Higher Education Institute and targeted to the school community. With the objective of strengthening consciousness for the development of good practices related to SDG, a workshop was prepared and implemented with primary school teachers. Besides providing knowledge about SDG, several hands-on experiments were presented to teachers to be reproduced with their students. Based on participant observation and enquiry forms applied to teachers and students, it was verified that the project was effective in enhancing recognition of teachers and students about the importance of providing good practices related to SDG. It is concluded that collaboration between higher education institutions and schools can trigger the implementation of sustainable development practices in the community.

2024Conference object

Embargoed access

Isolation, Identification, and Characterization of Phosphate-Solubilizing Bacteria from Tunisian Soils

Publication . Amri, Marwa; Rjeibi, Mohamed Ridha; Gatrouni, Marwa; Mateus, D. M. R.; Asses, Nedra; Pinho, Henrique J. O.; Abbes, Chaabane

Soil microorganisms play an important role in maintaining natural ecological balance through active participation in carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, and phosphorous cycles. Phosphate-solubilizing bacteria (PSB) are of high importance in the rhizosphere, enhancing the solubilization of inorganic phosphorus complexes into soluble forms available for plant nutrition. The investigation of this species of bacteria is of major interest in agriculture, as they can be used as biofertilizers for crops. In the present study, 28 isolates of PSB were obtained after the phosphate enrichment of soil samples from five Tunisian regions. Five PSB species were identified by 16S rRNA gene sequencing including Pseudomonas fluorescens, P. putida, and P. taiwanensis, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia, and Pantoea agglomerans. Solid and liquid Pikovskaya’s (PVK) and National Botanical Research Institute’s (NBRIP) media containing insoluble tricalcium phosphate were used for the evaluation of the phosphate solubilization ability of the bacterial isolates by two methods: visual evaluation of the solubilization zone around colonies (halo) and determination of solubilized phosphates in liquid medium by the colorimetric method of the vanado-molybdate yellow. Based on the results of the halo method, the isolate of each species that showed the higher phosphate solubilization index was selected for evaluation of phosphate solubilization by the colorimetric method. In the liquid media, the bacterial isolates showed phosphate solubilization ranging from 535.70 to 618.57 µg mL−1 in the NBRIP medium, and 374.20 to 544.28 µg mL−1 in the PVK medium, with the highest values produced by P. fluorescens. The best phosphate solubilization ability and higher reduction in broth pH, which indicates higher organic acid production, were achieved in NBRIP broth for most of the PSB. Strong correlations were observed between the average capability of PSB to solubilize phosphates and both the pH and total phosphorous content in the soil. The production of the hormone indole acetic acid (IAA), which can promote plant growth, was observed for all five PSB species. Among them, P. fluorescens obtained from the forest soil of northern Tunisia showed the highest production of IAA (50.4 ± 0.9 µg mL−1).

2023-03-18Journal article

Open access

Promoting Education for Sustainable Development: A Collaborative Project Between a Higher Education Institution and the Surrounding School Community

Publication . Mateus, D. M. R.; Costa, Maria Cristina; Gomes, Marcela M. M. S.; Pinho, Henrique J. O.

This chapter describes good practices developed by a higher education institution from Portugal in the context of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). In addition to discussing the role of higher education in society, it also focuses on an intervention project on the local school community aimed at raising awareness and disseminating good attitudes related to Sustainable Development (SD). The intervention project results from a partnership between a higher education institution, a teachers training centre and schools. In this context, several hands-on experiments were developed by higher education teachers, researchers and students, and implemented in a teachers’ professional development programme. Based on questionnaires (N = 63) and participant observation, an empirical study was conducted. Besides increasing their knowledge about SDG, teachers recognized the role of schools in raising awareness to promote SD practices, and valued the role of higher education in supporting them in these initiatives. It is concluded on the importance of developing collaborative partnerships with schools and other stakeholders to raise awareness, disseminate and increase SD practices in the community. The experience developed in the field may interest researchers, policymakers, and anyone interested in promoting Sustainable Development initiatives.

2022-07-06Book part

Restricted access

A Multilingual Lexicon-based Approach for Sentiment Analysis in Social and Cultural Information System Data

Publication . Jardim, Sandra; Mora, Carlos; Santana, Tiago

Sentiment analysis, also known as opinion mining, has become ubiquitous in our society, with applications in online searching, computer vision, image understanding, artificial intelligence and marketing communications. In this paper, is described an unsupervised automatic method of multilingual lexicon-based sentiment analysis algorithm, with a dictionary- based approach. The developed algorithm was tested in the sentiment analysis of users' publications on a digital tourism platform. The results obtained demonstrate the efficiency of the solution, which presents a high accuracy in the classification of publications in four different languages.

2021-06-24Conference object

Open access

Contribution of Constructed Wetlands for Reclaimed Water Production: A Review

Publication . Pinho, Henrique J. O.; Mateus, D. M. R.

Freshwater scarcity is a growing threat to sustainable development, which can be mitigated by adequate management of water resources. Agriculture and related activities consist in the main use of freshwater, but several other human activities present relevant contributions. Because most of the water uses imply the generation of resultant wastewater, the production and use of reclaimed water by appropriate technologies can be part of the solution to that issue. Considering that the use of constructed wetlands (CWs) can be a relevant contribution to the production of reclaimed water, as an eco-friendly alternative to costly advanced water treatment technologies, this work is a review of the last decade of literature on the use of CWs to produce reclaimed water. The results point to a usual focus on the production of reclaimed water for agriculture or urban spaces irrigation. In order to potentiate a broader application of CWs, some directions of future research and use of this green technology are proposed.

2021-09-24Conference object

Open access