São Miguel, the largest island of the Azores, corresponds to one of the most seismically active areas within the archipelago. During historical times it was affected at least six times by destructive earthquakes, which were responsible for thousands of deaths. Several seismic crises are related both to volcanic eruptions and unrest episodes, being the cause of significant damage over more restricted areas. The central region of the island has been the most active in recent years and is characterized by the occurrence of seismic swarms, generally with low-magnitude events (M D 2), that are clustered both spatially and temporally. A significant relevant seismic swarm occurred between May and September 2005 and was associated with an episode of volcanic unrest. Another part of the seismicity recorded on São Miguel is associated with submarine volcano-tectonic structures that are located near the island, some of which are the source of the strongest earthquakes. The spatial distribution of b-values shows that high values (i.e. b . 1) are mainly associated with the Fogo-Congro region, whereas low b-values (i.e. ,1) are more common offshore. The spatial distribution of bvalues in the Fogo-Congro region is suggestive of the existence of material and/or stress heterogeneities, and this is supported by a mixture of fault plane solutions.

A growing number of studies have found that the gut microbiota is involved in a variety of psychological processes and neuropsychiatric disorders, which include mood and anxiety disorders. Consumption of dairy products may contain bioactive compounds and probiotic bacteria with various therapeutic benefits. The aim of the study was to investigate possible associations between the frequency of consumption of different types of dairy products and the state of anxiety in university students. The subjects were 311 Azorean university students, 231 women and 80 men, with an average age of 20.5 years. Subjects completed a quantitative questionnaire on the frequency of dairy product consumption and a short version of the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) test. Among dairy products, semi-skimmed milk was the most commonly consumed, followed by cheese (ripened), drinking yogurt, skim milk, and set yogurt, while fresh cheese, whole milk, and dairy ice cream were the least common. Discriminant analysis showed that consumption of fermented products (yogurt and cheese) was significantly higher (P < 0.05) in the group with low anxiety level (score <40 in STAI test) than in the group with higher anxiety level (score ≥ 40). In this analysis, 62.4% of the initially grouped cases were correctly classified according to the frequency of fermented products consumption. No correlations were found between anxiety and unfermented dairy products. The results indicate that the consumption of fermented dairy products has a positive effect on reducing anxiety in young Azorean university students.

Health-conscious consumers are increasingly paying attention to healthy diets and focusing on natural bioactive compounds in foods and their effects on mental health. This opens new opportunities for the study of artisanal cheeses as biofunctional foods. In the work described in this Research Communication, the gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) content of seven different Portuguese cheeses produced from unpasteurized cow, sheep, and goat milk and granted with protected designation of origin (PDO) status was analysed. The PDO cheeses made from cow milk analysed in this study were São Jorge (3, 4, 7, 12 and 24 months of maturation) and Pico cheeses. PDO cheeses made from sheep milk were Serra da Estrela, Serpa, Nisa and Azeitão. Cheeses made from sheep and goat milk included Beira Baixa yellow cheese. The GABA content in the Azorean PDO cheeses (made from cow milk) ranged from 1.23 to 2.64 g/kg of cheese. Higher variations in GABA content were observed in cheeses made from sheep and goat milk (0.73–2.31 g/kg). This study provides information on the GABA content in different Portuguese PDO cheeses and shows that hard or semi-hard ripened cheeses are a suitable matrix for GABA production by lactic acid bacteria.

Particle Physics is a field of science that studies the particles that make up all matter, their interactions and applications. From observations made in high school textbooks, it was noted that there is no organization of content in a way that helps the student to understand such content. Between November 2020 and March 2022, working with the Institutional Scholarship Program for Teaching Initiation (PIBID) of the Degree in Physics at Campus Santa Cruz/RN, an Interactive eBook was created whose theme was Introduction to Physics of Particles. The preparation of the eBook followed the steps: bibliographical research, research by development platforms, art selection and didactic organization of the content. The eBook has been divided into: Introduction, Standard Model of Particle Physics, Properties of Particles, Quarks, Leptons and Bosons, also containing the pages with References and Appendices at the end. The introduction addresses the most widespread conception of the atom and how matter is formed from it. The second topic presents the standard model table and some characteristics such as mass, energy and spin. The third topic brings an explanation about the properties of particles. The fourth topic presents the types of Quarks and how they interact with each other and with other fundamental particles. In the fifth topic, Leptons and their role in radioactive decay are described. Finally, the nature of bosons and their role in the Standard Model theory are described. It is important to highlight that the eBook has multimedia in addition to texts, figures, hyperlinks and links to YouTube videos. It is expected that this eBook will be used in Modern and Contemporary Physics classes in High School and that it can contribute to the improvement of the teaching and learning process of Modern and Contemporary Physics.