Análise estrutural e dimensionamento de estruturas de membrana

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Engenharia Civil

Foamed Bitumen: an alternative way of producing asphalt mixtures

With the constant need to improve and make the production of asphalt mixtures more sustainable, new production techniques have been developed, the implementation of which implies the correct knowledge of their performance. One of the most promising asphalt production techniques is the use of foamed bitumen. However, it is essential to understand how this binder will behave when subject to the expansion process. The loss of volume of the foamed bitumen could be translated by a decay curve, which allows to determine the ideal temperature and water content added to the bitumen in order to assure adequate conditions to the mix the bitumen with the aggregates. On the present study, a conventional 160/220 pen grade bitumen was tested by using different temperatures and water contents, and it was concluded that the optimum temperature for the production of foamed bitumen (with the studied bitumen) is 150 ºC, which corresponds to a viscosity of 0.1 Pa.s. The water content mostly influence the half-life of the bitumen foam, resulting in quicker volume reductions for higher water contents.

Process simulation support in BPM tools: The case of BPMN

Due to the increasing acceptance of BPM, nowadays BPM tools are extensively used in organizations. Core to BPM are the process modeling languages, of which BPMN is the one that has been receiving most attention these days. Once a business process is described using BPMN, one can use a process simulation approach in order to find its optimized form. In this context, the simulation of business processes, such as those defined in BPMN, appears as an obvious way of improving processes. This paper analyzes the business process modeling and simulation areas, identifying the elements that must be present in the BPMN language in order to allow processes described in BPMN to be simulated. During this analysis a set of existing BPM tools, which support BPMN, are compared regarding their limitations in terms of simulation support.

Paving the way for predictive diagnostics and personalized treatment of invasive aspergillosis

Invasive aspergillosis (IA) is a life-threatening fungal disease commonly diagnosed among individuals with immunological deficits, namely hematological patients undergoing chemotherapy or allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Vaccines are not available, and despite the improved diagnosis and antifungal therapy, the treatment of IA is associated with a poor outcome. Importantly, the risk of infection and its clinical outcome vary significantly even among patients with similar predisposing clinical factors and microbiological exposure. Recent insights into antifungal immunity have further highlighted the complexity of host-fungus interactions and the multiple pathogen-sensing systems activated to control infection. How to decode this information into clinical practice remains however, a challenging issue in medical mycology. Here, we address recent advances in our understanding of the host-fungus interaction and discuss the application of this knowledge in potential strategies with the aim of moving toward personalized diagnostics and treatment (theranostics) in immunocompromised patients. Ultimately, the integration of individual traits into a clinically applicable process to predict the risk and progression of disease, and the efficacy of antifungal prophylaxis and therapy, holds the promise of a pioneering innovation benefiting patients at risk of IA.

[Re]ativar os terrenos abandonados e a vegetação nas margens do rio Tâmega e das Lagoas em Chaves

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Arquitectura

Numerical simulation of the reflow soldering process

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Mechanical Engineering

Contributos dos doutores palhaços da Operação Nariz Vermelho para a qualidade da adaptação e do desenvolvimento em contexto pediátrico: o olhar da criança e seus pais

Tese de doutoramento em Ciências da Educação (Área Especialidade em Psicologia da Educação)

Do pré-escolar para o 1º ano do ensino básico: "A Voz da Criança"

Dissertação de mestrado em Educação da Infância (área de especialização em Supervisão e Pedagogia da Infância)

A multiaplicabilidade do lúdico na aula de ELE: da motivação à aprendizagem

Relatório de estágio de mestrado em Ensino de Português no 3º Ciclo do Ensino Básico e Secundário e de Espanhol nos Ensinos Básico e Secundário