Objective: This paper investigates the effectiveness of the Language Intervention Programme for the treatment of 14 preschool-aged children with primary language impairment. Patients and Methods: We used a waiting list control design, in which half the sample (7 children) received immediate intervention with the Language Intervention Programme, whereas the remaining children received treatment after a 4-week delay. The intervention consisted of 8 individual biweekly sessions. Outcome measures of language ability (receptive semantic and morphosyntactic, expressive semantic and morphosyntactic, and metalinguistic) were taken before and after intervention. Results: After 4 weeks of intervention, the experimental group showed significant improvements in language (receptive, expressive and metalinguistic skills), but no differences were found for those in the waiting control group. After 4 weeks of intervention for the control group, significant progress in language was also observed. Conclusion: The Language Intervention Programme was found to be effective in treating language skills of children with language impairment, providing clinical evidence for speech and language therapists to employ this programme for the treatment of preschool children with language disorders.

Abstract. Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Assessment (PSHA) is the most common tool used to decide on the acceptable seismic risk and corresponding mitigation measures. We propose two consistency tests to address the variability of earthquake generation models found in PSHA studies: i) one rule-of-thumb test where the seismic moment release from the model is converted to an average slip on a typical fault and compared with known plate kinematics or GNSS deformation field; ii) using a neotectonic model, the computed deformation is converted into seismic moment release and to a synthetic earthquake catalogue. We apply these tests to the W and SW Iberia slow deforming region, where two earthquake source areas are investigated: 1) the Lower Tagus Valley, one of the largest seismic risk zones of Portugal; and 2) the offshore SW Iberia area, considered to be the source for the 1st November 1755 event (M~8.7). Results show that some of the earthquake source models should be considered as suspicious, given their high/low moment release when compared to the expected values from GNSS observations or neotectonic modelling. In conclusion, PSHA studies in slow deforming regions should include a similar sanity check on their models' evaluation, downgrading the weight of poorly compliant models.

Coastal areas are home to more than 2 billion people around the globe and, as such, are especially vulnerable to climate change consequences. Climate change adaptation has proven to be more effective on a local scale, contributing to a bottom-up approach to the problems related to the changing climate. Portugal has approximately 2000 km of coastline, with 75% of the population living along the coast. Therefore, this research had the main objective of understanding adaptation processes at a local scale, using Portuguese coastal municipalities as a case study. To achieve this goal, document analysis and a questionnaire to coastal municipalities were applied, and the existence of measures rooted in nature-based solutions, green infrastructures, and community-based adaptation was adopted as an indicator. The main conclusion from this research is that 87% of the municipalities that answered the questionnaire have climate change adaptation strategies implemented or in development. Moreover, it was possible to conclude that 90% of the municipalities are familiar with the concept of nature-based solutions and all the municipalities with adaptation strategies include green infrastructure. However, it was also possible to infer that community-based adaptation is a concept that most municipalities do not know about or undervalue.

<p>Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Assessment (PSHA) is the most common tool used to decide on the acceptable seismic risk and corresponding mitigation measures. One key component of these studies is the earthquake generation model comprising the definition of source zones and recurrence relationships. Slow deforming regions are particularly challenging for PSHA since the inferred return period for large earthquakes is longer than the instrumental and historical seismicity records, and the relationship between known or probable active faults and seismicity is uncertain. Therefore, in these areas PSHA results show a large variability that impairs its acceptance by the political decision-makers and the public in general. We propose two consistency tests to address the variability of earthquake generation models found in PSHA studies: i) one rule-of-thumb test where the seismic moment release from the model is converted to an average slip on a typical fault and compared with known plate kinematics or GNSS deformation field; ii) using a neotectonic model, the computed deformation is converted into seismic moment release and to a synthetic earthquake catalogue. We apply these tests to the W and SW Iberia slow deforming region, where two earthquake source areas are investigated: 1) the Lower Tagus Valley, one of the largest seismic risk zones of Portugal; and 2) the offshore SW Iberia area, considered to be the source for the 1<sup>st</sup> November 1755 event (M~8.7). Our results show that some of the earthquake source models should be regarded as suspicious, given their high/low moment release when compared to the expected values from GNSS observations or neotectonic modelling. In conclusion, PSHA studies in slow deforming regions should include a similar sanity check on their models’ evaluation, downgrading the weight of poorly compliant models.</p>

<p>Explosive volcanic eruptions are amongst the most hazardous natural phenomena due to their potential to affect large areas of land, ocean, and airspace. Thus, understanding how volcanic ash clouds disperse is of crucial importance for the mitigation of volcanic hazard. The Azores archipelago, in the middle of the North Atlantic, is an active volcanic region with an extensive geological record of explosive eruptions from several trachytic central volcanoes. Previous studies have reported distal occurrences of Azorean tephra as far as North Africa or the British Isles, but to date there are no reconstructions of tephra dispersal patterns. In the present work, we correlate cryptotephras with their source volcanoes and reconstruct plausible eruptive scenarios using the Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model.</p> <p>Proximal trachytic tephra layers from Sete Cidades and Furnas volcanoes on São Miguel Island (Azores) have been successfully correlated with cryptotephras found in Morocco and Ireland, respectively, based on volcanic glass compositions and age constraints. The pumice fall deposit of Santa Bárbara eruption (18.7 – 19.5 cal ka BP) from Sete Cidades volcano has been geochemically correlated with cryptotephras in layer TAF_S1_R2 (< 26.5 – 24.4 cal ka BP) of Taforalt archaeological site, Morocco. Likewise, the deposits of three hydromagmatic eruptions of Furnas volcano showed good geochemical correlations with cryptotephras found in lacustrine sediments in Ireland, confirming previous studies: Furnas C (154 cal BC – 422 cal AD) compositionally matched cryptotephra layers MOR-T7, -T8, and -T9 (c. 280 AD, c. 150 AD, and c. 35 AD, respectively); Furnas I (1439-43 AD) has been correlated with MOR-T2 (c. 1400 AD); and Furnas 1630 (1630 AD) with PMG-5 cryptotephra (c. 1600 AD).</p> <p>To reconstruct possible volcanic ash clouds trajectories from Sete Cidades and Furnas volcanoes to Morocco and Ireland, we used the HYSPLIT model to perform simulations of hundreds of eruptive scenarios based on eruption source parameters of Santa Bárbara, Furnas C, Furnas I, and Furnas 1630 eruptions, and daily atmospheric conditions between 2014 and 2021. Our results show that in 52% of the simulations tephra disperses towards North Africa and in 8% towards the British Isles. Also, in 9% of the cases tephra heads to both North Africa and the British Isles in the same simulation and in the other 31% of the cases tephra disperses in different directions.</p> <p>Although the frequency of explosive eruptions in the Azores is relatively low, a future explosive event may have tremendous economic consequences not only to the archipelago, but also to the entire North Atlantic airspace, as the predominant westerly atmospheric circulation pattern will most probably disperse volcanic ash clouds across some of the world’s busiest air routes. Therefore, eruptive scenario modelling based on past eruptions is a fundamental tool to improve the assessment of volcanic hazard.</p>

No abstract

Abstract. Probabilistic seismic hazard assessment (PSHA), despite its deep criticism, is still the most common tool used to decide on the acceptable seismic risk and corresponding mitigation measures. We propose two consistency tests to address the variability of earthquake generation models found in PSHA studies: (i) one rule-of-thumb test where the seismic moment release from the model is converted to an average slip on a typical fault and compared with known plate kinematics or GNSS deformation field and (ii) a test where using a neotectonic model the computed deformation is converted into seismic moment release and to a synthetic earthquake catalogue. We apply these tests to W and SW Iberia slowly deforming region, where two earthquake source areas are investigated: (1) the Lower Tagus Valley, one of the largest seismic risk zones of Portugal; and (2) the offshore SW Iberia area, considered to be the source for the 1 November 1755 event (M ∼ 8.7). Results show that some of the earthquake source models should be considered suspicious, given their high/low moment release when compared to the expected values from GNSS observations or neotectonic modelling. This analysis allowed for a downgrade of the weight of poorly compliant models in the PSHA analysis, and thus for a more realistic hazard assessment, and can be integrated in other studies of similar settings.

No abstract