An approach to health and safety in E.U. forestry operations – Hazards and preventive measures

Forestry in general and logging in particular continue to be among the three most hazardous sectors in European countries. The aim of this article is to characterize health and safety problems and solutions in E.U. forestry operations, and particularly in Portuguese operations. Forest types, production, employment and ownership are used to characterize the forest sector. Forestry accidents and health problems data are mentioned. Typical hazards associated to the nature of logging operations are systematized. Preventive measures, focused on a wide spectrum of measures, making safety considerations an integral feature of all operational activities from planning to organization to execution and supervision of work are emphasized in this article.

The 1st ISA forum of sociology on the “Sociological Research and Public Debate”

1st ISA Forum report

Towards a GIS-T database design and implementation for public transit planning: the case study of Dar-Es-salaam metropolitan city, Tanzania.

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Geospatial Technologies

The Cornerstones of Modern Government Maps, Weights and Measures and Census in Liberal Portugal (19th century)

Thesis submitted for assessment with a view to obtaining the degree of Doctor in History and Civilisation from the European University Institute

The role of implicit contracts: Building public works in the 1840s in Portugal

Business History, Vol 50 No 2, p147-162

Preventing human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation: the need for a bottom-up approach : the case-study of Brazilians trafficked to Portugal

Masters Thesis – Academic Year 2007/2008 - European Master’s Degree in Human Rights and Democratization (E.MA) - European Inter-university Centre for Human Rights and Democratization (EIUC) -Faculdade de Direito, Universidade Nova de Lisboa (UNL)

Factores favoráveis e desfavoráveis à adesão dos cidadãos à separação selectiva de resíduos sólidos urbanos, na cidade do seixal, enquanto cidade saudável

RESUMO - A cidade do Seixal, enquanto Cidade Saudável tem como missão a implementação dos princípios e estratégias do Projecto Cidades Saudáveis da OMS. Para tal, desenvolve programas e acções, conjuntamente com parceiros intersectoriais, com vista à melhoria da saúde e da qualidade de vida dos cidadãos residentes na cidade do Seixal, e que promova em simultâneo a participação da comunidade. A separação selectiva dos resíduos depende da participação dos cidadãos, pelo que esta investigação propõe-se estudar quais os factores favoráveis e desfavoráveis à adesão dos cidadãos à separação selectiva de resíduos sólidos urbanos, na cidade do Seixal, enquanto Cidade Saudável. O paradigma quantitativo foi o escolhido para guiar o desenvolvimento deste estudo, através do método survey (descrição numérica de uma fracção da população – amostra – através do processo de aplicação de questionários à população). O questionário desenvolvido para esta investigação será aplicado no Fórum Municipal do Seixal a uma amostra de 250 cidadãos residentes na cidade do Seixal. Para obter os resultados finais, será realizada, numa primeira fase, uma análise descritiva de todas as variáveis, que deverá incluir medidas de localização e variabilidade adequadas a cada variável. Numa segunda fase será realizada uma análise inferencial recorrendo a testes não paramétricos e paramétricos. ----------------ABSTRAT - The city of Seixal, while Healthy City, takes as a mission the implementation of the beginnings and strategies of the WHO Healthy Cities Project. Programs and actions are being developed for that purpose, jointly with intersectorial partners, with sight to the improvement of the health and of the quality of life of the resident citizens in the city of Seixal, and that it promotes in simultaneous the participation of the community. Because the selective waste separation depends on the participation of the citizens, the purpose of this investigation is to study the favorable and unfavorable factors which leads participation or not of the citizens to the selective separation of urbane solid wastes, in the city of Seixal, while Healthy City. The quantitative paradigm was the chosen one to guide the development of this study, through the survey method (numerical description of a fraction of the population – sample – through the process of questionnaires to the population). The questionnaire developed for this investigation will be applied in the Fórum Municipal do Seixal, to a sample of 250 resident citizens in the city of Seixal. To obtain the final results, we will carry out, in a first phase, a descriptive analysis of all the variables, which will include measures of location and variability appropriate to each one. In a second phase will be carried out an inferential analysis resorting to non parametric and parametric tests.

Public works policy in Portugal: a case study in unsustainability

International Journal of Engineering and Industrial Management, nº 1, p. 195-208

Environmental pressures and impacts of public sector organizations: the case of the Portuguese Military

Progress in Industrial Ecology, An International Journal, nº 4(5), p. 363-381

The state of environmental performance evaluation in the public sector: the case of the Portuguese defence sector

Journal of Cleaner Production, nº 17, p. 36-52

Environmental performance policy indicators for the public sector: The case of the defence sector

Journal of Environmental Management, nº 82 p. 410–432

The impact of pharmaceutical policy measures: a structural-break approach

Pharmaceutical spending in many other countries has had a steep increase in the last decade. The Portuguese Government has adopted several measures to reduce pharmaceutical expenditure growth, ranging from increased co-payments to price decreases determined administratively. Promotion of generic consumption has also ranked high in political priorities. We assess the overall impact of the several policy measures on total pharmaceutical spending, using monthly data over the period January 1995 – August 2008. Endogenous structural breaks (time-series) methods were employed. Our findings suggest that policy measures aimed at controlling pharmaceutical expenditure have been, in general, unsuccessful. Two breaks were identified. Both coincide with administratively determined price decreases. Measures aimed at increasing competition in the market had no visible effect on the dynamics of Government spending in pharmaceutical products. In particular, the introduction of reference pricing had only a transitory effect of less than one year, with historical growth resuming quickly. The consequence of it is a transfer of financial burden from the Government to the patients, with no apparent effect on the dynamics of pharmaceutical spending. This strongly suggests that pharmaceutical companies have been able to adjust to policy measures, in order to sustain their sales. It remains a challenge for the future to identify firms’ strategies that supported continued growth of sales, despite the several policy measures adop

Positive Epistasis Drives the Acquisition of Multidrug Resistance

The evolution of multiple antibiotic resistance is an increasing global problem. Resistance mutations are known to impair fitness, and the evolution of resistance to multiple drugs depends both on their costs individually and on how they interact-epistasis. Information on the level of epistasis between antibiotic resistance mutations is of key importance to understanding epistasis amongst deleterious alleles, a key theoretical question, and to improving public health measures. Here we show that in an antibiotic-free environment the cost of multiple resistance is smaller than expected, a signature of pervasive positive epistasis among alleles that confer resistance to antibiotics. Competition assays reveal that the cost of resistance to a given antibiotic is dependent on the presence of resistance alleles for other antibiotics. Surprisingly we find that a significant fraction of resistant mutations can be beneficial in certain resistant genetic backgrounds, that some double resistances entail no measurable cost, and that some allelic combinations are hotspots for rapid compensation. These results provide additional insight as to why multi-resistant bacteria are so prevalent and reveal an extra layer of complexity on epistatic patterns previously unrecognized, since it is hidden in genome-wide studies of genetic interactions using gene knockouts.

The Vasco da Gama Bridge on the Tagus Estuary: A paradigm of bad decision making, but good post-evaluation

World Transport Policy & Practice, Vol.6, nº2, (2000)

FROM NON-PLACE TO PLACE: A STUDY OF EUROPEAN PUBLIC SPACE AS A SPACE OF IDENTITY

Master Erasmus Mundus Crossways in European Humanities