In 2019, an estimated 155 million people aged between 15 and 24 were smokers. It is also known that 82.6% of current smokers started smoking between 14 and 25 years old. Tobacco uses in adolescents and young adults can lead to the development of serious and potentially life-threatening health problems. The aim of the present investigation is to identify and describe the practices related to the consumption of tobacco products and their distribution according to gender among students at the University of Algarve. This is an exploratory, cross-sectional study with a quantitative approach. For inferential statistics, a non-parametric analysis (χ²) was performed. The sample consisted of 326 university students, 75.5% female, with an average age of 26.03 years. In this sample, 45% of men and 57.7% of women reported never having smoked. In male students, the pattern of combined consumption is more frequent, with female students preferring conventional cigarettes. Statistically significant differences were found between genders for the pattern of tobacco consumption, the number of colleagues/peers who smoke, the opinion about tobacco-free outdoor spaces and the knowledge about new forms of tobacco/nicotine consumption. The university campus is identified by students as the second space where they most consume tobacco products and where they are most exposed to tobacco smoke. This fact forces a reflection on the strategies to be implemented to develop a healthier university.

Background: Mosquitoes from the Aedes (Ae.) genus are vectors of dengue, Zika, chikungunya, and other arboviruses, posing a significant public health threat. In 2005, Aedes aegypti was detected for the first time in Madeira Island, Portugal, in the city of Funchal, and has since become established in the region. In 2017, Aedes albopictus was detected for the first time in mainland Portugal. These invasion events require targeted entomological surveillance, which demands substantial human resources and a high management capacity for traditional vector monitoring. Following promising results obtained in laboratory conditions, a field-deployable model of a bioacoustic sensor for the automatic classification of mosquitoes integrated with a Biogents Sentinel trap as part of the VECTRACK system was tested in three regions in Portugal. Methods: The VECTRACK system was deployed in three locations: Funchal on Madeira Island, and Palmela and Algarve on mainland Portugal. Catch bags were manually inspected at intervals ranging from daily to weekly, resulting in a total of 38 captures in Madeira, 10 in Palmela, and 7 in the Algarve. Manual identifications were compared with those generated by the VECTRACK system, and the degree of correlation between the two datasets was assessed using Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient. Results: A total of 176 mosquitoes were captured in Madeira, 732 in Palmela, and 143 in the Algarve. Both manual and sensor-based identifications demonstrated similar performance, with high correlation observed between the two methods. Spearman’s rank correlation coefficients indicated high agreement for both female and male mosquitoes across all sites: Madeira: females = 0.84, males = 0.92, Palmela: females = 0.99, males = 0.84, Algarve: females = 0.98, and males = 0.99, all with p-values < 0.001. Conclusions: The VECTRACK system demonstrated strong performance in accurately distinguishing mosquitoes from non-mosquitoes, differentiating between Aedes and Culex genera, and identifying the sex of individual specimens. These promising results provide a solid foundation for the development of automated early warning systems and enhance mosquito surveillance strategies, which are critical for timely responses to potential vector-borne disease outbreaks.