Between the centre and the margins: Services location, economic (re)structuring and quality of life in metropolitan periurban areas.

This paper aims to discuss the specificities of the role of services in the economic structuring and in the social liveliness and attractiveness of periurban areas. Drawing upon on the result of an empirical work developed in 5 different parishes of Lisbon Metropolitan area, which represent five categories of periurban spaces previously identified, it is analysed the role of services in these “in-between” territories and the way they are important in the spatial economic structuring of these areas and in the quality of life and well-being of their inhabitants and users. A tentative typology for framing the analysis of the role of services on periurban metropolitan spaces is suggested and some policy implications are pointed out.

Abstraction and use of groundwater for heating buildings in a hard rock environment

In order to turn more efficient the heating of class rooms in the lower floor of the old building of the University of Évora (a XVI century building), five drillings were organised inside the area of the university (Figure 1). The purpose was to use the temperature differential of groundwater in relation to air, by means of a heat exchanger, and use this process to heat the rooms using less energy, turning the heating process less expensive. The wells were drilled in fractured rocks (gneisses), and the purpose was to locate them at least around 100 m one from each other, whilst trying to have a hydraulic connection in-between. From the five initial wells, four were successful in terms of productivity, but just two of them (RA1 and RA2) proved to be hydraulically connected. The wells were equipped with screens for all their drilled depth (100 m), except for the first six meters and some two or three pipes of six meters each, to allow space for the installation for submersible pumps. The length of the installed screens guarantees a good efficiency of the system. In the wells with no connection, the heating system can work using each single well for abstraction and injection, but the process is much less efficient than in the cases where interaction between wells is possible through the rock’s fracture network.

Adaptation and validation of HIV Antibody Testing Attitude Scale in Portuguese

Introduction; The awareness of HIV positiveness is important for health of the individual and of the comunity. The identicatio of HIV antibodies is possible both using conventional lab tests and quick result tests. In the bibliography it was made clear that there are no instruments in Portuguese to assert the reactions to the HIV quick tests and it was therefore considered it would be useful to adapt and validate a scale in Portuguese, since the language is the official language of 7 different countries and spoken by more than 250 milion people, Objectives: the purpose is to validate a version in European Portuguese of the HIV Antibody Testing Attitude Scale. Methods: the study refers to methodological research for the adaptation and validation of an instrument of attitude measurement. A translation and back-translation was prepared and a trial test was then carried out. A total of 317 students, lectures and co-workers of a Portuguese University was interviewes. Ethical principles were taken into consideration. the pool was obtained in the seven components of the University campus. Results: 3 trials of factorial testing of the main components of 5, 4 and 3 factors. It ended up a solution of 3 factors that explains 50.82% of the variability. In the analysis of the inter-items correlation values of between 0.018 and 0.749 were observed. The internal consistency reveals an alpha Cronbach coefficient of 0.860 as a whole, and in between 0,865 and 0.659 in the 3 factors. Conclusions: this version of the instrument shows that the psychometric properties allow its use in the Portuguese speaking countries.

Repensar=Reutilizar. o abandono como oportunidade. Fábrica Robinson: o instante na construção de um tempo provisório

Esta investigação procura mostrar/problematizar programas que questionem a reutilização de lugares, através de uma proposta de projeto provisório de arquitetura, no panorama do Património Industrial, num processo de revitalização. O intuito é procurar modelos/ações que possam responder às transformações, partindo do problema do abandono, dos espaços pós-industriais. O objetivo principal consiste em criar um processo de aproximação à problemática da reutilização cujo processo de elaboração de projeto encontra nas suas formas de produção e operação um discurso que faz a síntese entre prática artística, posição curatorial e arquitetura, na elaboração de um programa para um lugar revitalizando-o. O objeto deste estudo faz parte de uma investigação de pesquisa por projeto e encontra lugar no conjunto arquitetónico da Fábrica Robinson, em Portalegre, cuja apropriação inicial de parte do Convento de S. Francisco dá hoje lugar ao Espaço Robinson. O reconhecimento deste conjunto, como lugar de encontro entre um passado recente e um futuro pendente, marcou a proposta projetual. Proposta de projeto temporário cujo conceito estabelece a viabilidade de apropriação como forma de atuação provisória, subjacente ao ato de reutilizar, criando novos programas de ocupação, promovendo novas ideias e definições de património e assim devolvendo o significado às estruturas industriais vazias. O que preservar e como conservar pode demarcar a importância de salvaguarda deste património e a previsão da sua transmissão para o futuro, fixada pela ideia de preservação. A Fábrica Robinson e a revitalização urbana deste espaço configura, hoje, uma nova oportunidade para estes conjuntos arquitetónicos, e a importância da sua salvaguarda, na valorização do Património Industrial. O trabalho pretende demonstrar a ordem de relação entre programa e lugar no debate interdisciplinar e a hipótese de concretização projetual que preencha um vazio temporalmente suspenso; ABSTRACT: Rethinking = Reuse: The abandonment as opportunity Robinson Factory: The instant in the construction of a provisory time This research aims to show architectural programs that question the reuse of places in the context of industrial heritage, through an architectural design, in a revitalization process. The aim is to look to models / actions that, starting with the abandonment problem, may answer to the post-industrial spaces transformations. The main goal is to create an approximation process to the problem of reuse, whose project design process finds in its production and operations forms a symbiosis between artistic practice, curatioral approach and architecture, in the development of a program to revitalize a place. The object of this study is part of a research project / research by design concerning the architectural complex Fábrica Robinson located in Portalegre, whose original appropriation of part of Convento de S. Francisco is today occupied by Espaço Robinson. The acknowledgment of this complex as a space placed in-between a recent past and a pending future marked the design proposed. A temporary design proposal whose concept establishes the validity of the temporary action, underlying to the act of reuse, creating new occupation programs, promoting new ideas and heritage definitions and thus given back meaning to the empry industrial structures. What to preserve and how to save may mark the importance of safeguarding this heritage and the prediction of its transmission to the future, set by the idea of preservation. The Fábrica Robinson and the urban regeneration of this area sets itself as a new opportunity to safeguard these architectural ensembles and enhance the value of the industrial heritage. This study intend to show the relationship between the program and a vacant place, through a temporary proposal, supported by the interdisciplinary debate and the hypothesis of design implementation that completes a void temporarily suspended.

Matlab simulink modeling of photovoltaic cells for understanding shadow effect

Irradiation is the main component for producing the electricity from solar energy. When obstacles come in between the sun and the PV cell then it doesn’t get sufficient irradiance to produce enough electricity. Shadowing has a great impact on photovoltaic cell. The main fuel of PV cell is solar radiation. Using solar radiation, a photovoltaic cell produces electricity. The shadow on a PV cell decreases the output of the photovoltaic cell. It has been already shown in different papers that shadow effect decreases the output of the PV cell. There are different kinds of shadow effects which are observed, some minimize the PV cell output and some reduce the output to zero. There are different types of shadow based on their effects on the photovoltaic cell. The shadow has also effects depending on whether the PV cells are connected in series connection or in parallel connection. In series when one cell is out of order then the whole series of the PV cells will not work but in parallel connection if one cell is damaged, the others will work because they work independently. According to the output requirement the arrangement of the PV cells are made in series or parallel. Simulink modeling is made for series and parallel connection between two PV cells and the shadow effect is analyzed on one of the PV cells. Using SIMULINK, the shadowing is simulated on the two PV cells, where in one system they are in series and in another system they are in parallel. Slowly the irradiance is decreased to simulate the shadow effect. Simulation of the shadow effect gives an idea about the output of the PV cell system when system has shadow on the PV cells. Here the shadow effect on the two PV cells using series and parallel combinations are simulated and analyzed for understanding the effects on output.