Hazard assessment of storm events for the battery, New York

The environmental and socio-economic importance of coastal areas is widely recognized, but at present these areas face severe weaknesses and high-risk situations. The increased demand and growing human occupation of coastal zones have greatly contributed to exacerbating such weaknesses. Today, throughout the world, in all countries with coastal regions, episodes of waves overtopping and coastal flooding are frequent. These episodes are usually responsible for property losses and often put human lives at risk. The floods are caused by coastal storms primarily due to the action of very strong winds. The propagation of these storms towards the coast induces high water levels. It is expected that climate change phenomena will contribute to the intensification of coastal storms. In this context, an estimation of coastal flooding hazards is of paramount importance for the planning and management of coastal zones. Consequently, carrying out a series of storm scenarios and analyzing their impacts through numerical modeling is of prime interest to coastal decision-makers. Firstly, throughout this work, historical storm tracks and intensities are characterized for the northeastern region of United States coast, in terms of probability of occurrence. Secondly, several storm events with high potential of occurrence are generated using a specific tool of DelftDashboard interface for Delft3D software. Hydrodynamic models are then used to generate ensemble simulations to assess storms' effects on coastal water levels. For the United States’ northeastern coast, a highly refined regional domain is considered surrounding the area of The Battery, New York, situated in New York Harbor. Based on statistical data of numerical modeling results, a review of the impact of coastal storms to different locations within the study area is performed.

Advances in preservation of fruits and vegetables with bioactive coatings

Bioactive compounds are a large group of compounds (antimicrobials, antioxidants, nutrients, etc.), but its use in edible fi lms and coatings for application on fruits and vegetables has been very important because nowadays the consumers demand fruits and vegetables that are fresh, healthy, high quality and easy to prepare. A number of investigations have shown that the use of additives in edible fi lms and coatings improve its functionability and provide compounds for human health. However, it is necessary to continue research that can generate specifi c or tailor-made edible fi lms and coatings for each product with the best characteristics for preservation. In this review we present and analyze the concepts, progress and perspectives in the design and application of edible fi lms and coatings for fruits and vegetables in order to defi ne the challenges and opportunities that this topic of study in the fi eld of science, technology and food engineering.

Insider threats: the major challenge to security risk management

Security risk management is by definition, a subjective and complex exercise and it takes time to perform properly. Human resources are fundamental assets for any organization, and as any other asset, they have inherent vulnerabilities that need to be handled, i.e. managed and assessed. However, the nature that characterize the human behavior and the organizational environment where they develop their work turn these task extremely difficult, hard to accomplish and prone to errors. Assuming security as a cost, organizations are usually focused on the efficiency of the security mechanisms implemented that enable them to protect against external attacks, disregarding the insider risks, which are much more difficult to assess. All these demands an interdisciplinary approach in order to combine technical solutions with psychology approaches in order to understand the organizational staff and detect any changes in their behaviors and characteristics. This paper intends to discuss some methodological challenges to evaluate the insider threats and its impacts, and integrate them in a security risk framework, that was defined according to the security standard ISO/IEC_JTC1, to support the security risk management process.

Pervasive business intelligence platform to improve the quality of decision process in primary and secondary education – A Portuguese case study

Business Intelligence (BI) can be seen as a method that gathers information and data from information systems in order to help companies to be more accurate in their decision-making process. Traditionally BI systems were associated with the use of Data Warehouses (DW). The prime purpose of DW is to serve as a repository that stores all the relevant information required for making the correct decision. The necessity to integrate streaming data became crucial with the need to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the decision process. In primary and secondary education, there is a lack of BI solutions. Due to the schools reality the main purpose of this study is to provide a Pervasive BI solution able to monitoring the schools and student data anywhere and anytime in real-time as well as disseminating the information through ubiquitous devices. The first task consisted in gathering data regarding the different choices made by the student since his enrolment in a certain school year until the end of it. Thereafter a dimensional model was developed in order to be possible building a BI platform. This paper presents the dimensional model, a set of pre-defined indicators, the Pervasive Business Intelligence characteristics and the prototype designed. The main contribution of this study was to offer to the schools a tool that could help them to make accurate decisions in real-time. Data dissemination was achieved through a localized application that can be accessed anywhere and anytime.

Entre Tapas e Beijos: estudo sobre a violência doméstica contra a mulher no Estado da Paraíba (Brasil), após a entrada em vigor da Lei Maria da Penha (Lei nº 11.340/2006)

Dissertação de mestrado em Direitos Humanos

Production of secondary metabolites in cell suspension cultures of Ocimum sanctum L.

Dissertação de mestrado em Plant Molecular Biology, Biotechnology and Bioentrepreneurship

Lack of the transcription factor hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-1α in macrophages accelerates the necrosis of Mycobacterium avium-induced granulomas

Accepted Manuscript

HOXA9 as a key regulator in glioma initiation, aggressiveness and response to therapy

Tese de Doutoramento em Ciências da Saúde

Noise mapping for an urban area: study case: old city of Damascus, Syria

Dissertação de mestrado em Engenharia Urbana