Children, space, and the urban street: an ethnomathematics posture

Dissertation presented for the PhD Degree in Education Science – Curricular Theory and Science Teaching, by Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia

The intersection of people, technology and local space. PPGIS and Web in practice for participatory planning

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

Innovation through virtual communities of practice: motivations and constraints in the knowledge-creation process

This paper appears in International Journal of Projectics. Vol 4(1), pp. 39-49

China's space program : a new tool for PRC "soft power" in international relations?

When China launched an anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon in January 2007 to destroy one of its inactive weather satellites, most reactions from academics and U.S. space experts focused on a potential military “space race” between the United States and China. Overlooked, however, is China’s growing role as global competitor on the non-military side of space. China’s space program goes far beyond military counterspace applications and manifests manned space aspirations, including lunar exploration. Its pursuit of both commercial and scientific international space ventures constitutes a small, yet growing, percentage of the global space launch and related satellite service industry. It also highlights China’s willingness to cooperate with nations far away from Asia for political and strategic purposes. These partnerships may constitute a challenge to the United States and enhance China’s “soft power” among key American allies and even in some regions traditionally dominated by U.S. influence (e.g., Latin America and Africa). Thus, an appropriate U.S. response may not lie in a “hard power” counterspace effort but instead in a revival of U.S. space outreach of the past, as well as implementation of more business-friendly export control policies.

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

Master Erasmus Mundus Crossways in European Humanities

Public Participation geographic information systems in developing countries: lessons from Uganda on the impacts of interactive screens PPGIS and community perceptions of space

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

Structural transformation and specialization patterns in the product space: assessing China and India

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Economics from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

Renova black toilet paper: The creation of a glocal market space

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Management from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

THE U.S. and European M&A cycles: A Markov switching and state space approach

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Finance from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

Towards cryogenic liquid –vapor energy storage units for space applications

Dissertation to obtain the Doctoral degree in Physics Engineering

The additive effects in matrix dispersed liquid crystals

Dissertation presented at Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia from Universidade Nova de Lisboa to obtain the degree of Master in Chemical and Biochemical Engineering

Studying urban space and literary representations using GIS: Lisbon, Portugal, 1852-2009

This article proposes a methodology to address the urban evolutionary process, demonstrating how it is reflected in literature. It focuses on “literary space,” presented as a territory defined by the period setting or as evoked by the characters, which can be georeferenced and drawn on a map. It identifies the different locations of literary space in relation to urban development and the economic, political, and social context of the city. We suggest a new approach for mapping a relatively comprehensive body of literature by combining literary criticism, urban history, and geographic information systems (GIS). The home-range concept, used in animal ecology, has been adapted to reveal the size and location of literary space. This interdisciplinary methodology is applied in a case study to nineteenth- and twentieth-century novels involving the city of Lisbon. The developing concepts of cumulative literary space and common literary space introduce size calculations in addition to location and structure, previously developed by other researchers. Sequential and overlapping analyses of literary space throughout time have the advantage of presenting comparable and repeatable results for other researchers using a different body of literary works or studying another city. Results show how city changes shaped perceptions of the urban space as it was lived and experienced. A small core area, correspondent to a part of the city center, persists as literary space in all the novels analyzed. Furthermore, the literary space does not match the urban evolution. There is a time lag for embedding new urbanized areas in the imagined literary scenario.

Optimização do processo de devolução de medicamentos fora do prazo de validade

RESUMO - Durante todo o seu ciclo de vida, o medicamento está sujeito a padrões de qualidade, segurança e eficácia, alicerçados numa atuação conjunta dos responsáveis pela sua colocação no mercado, das autoridades competentes nacionais e comunitárias. Os diferentes intervenientes estão sujeitos a um conjunto de obrigações e procedimentos que englobam também a sua fase final de retirada do mercado, devolução, recolha e valorização ou reciclagem. Neste trabalho é caracterizada a cadeia de distribuição do medicamento assim como o seu fluxo físico no sentido inverso, ou seja, o processo de devolução e de tratamento ambientalmente adequado para os resíduos de medicamentos. A maioria da literatura a respeito das devoluções de medicamentos enfatiza a vertente ecológica do sistema de logística inversa. Neste trabalho, as questões ambientais são discutidas , mas o objectivo primário focaliza questões económicas relacionadas com o processo de devoluções. São apresentadas as possíveis vantagens teóricas da criação de um sistema centralizado de gestão de devoluções, por oposição ao atual sistema de circuitos dispersos. Com a aplicação de um inquérito a armazenistas com larga responsabilidade no processo de devoluções, pretendeu-se avaliar os custos inerentes ao atual modelo. Os resultados obtidos indicam que existe margem potencial para reduzir custos neste processo, para a grande maioria dos armazenistas. Na área específica dos medicamentos fora de prazo de validade, o crescente desenvolvimento e aperfeiçoamento dos processos de devolução poderá direcionar-se no sentido da criação de centrais de devolução centralizadas.

Pedestrian Priority Zones in the Context of Urban Mobility and Valorization of Public Space

The second half of the XX century was marked by a great increase in the number of people living in cities. Urban agglomerations became poles of attraction for migration flows and these phenomena, coupled with growing car-ownership rates, resulted in the fact that modern transport systems are characterized by large number of users and traffic modes. The necessity to organize these complex systems and to provide space for different traffic modes changed the way cities look. Urban areas had to cope with traffic flows, and as a result nowadays typical street pattern consists of a road for motorized vehicles, a cycle lane (in some cases), pavement for pedestrians, parking and a range of crucial signage to facilitate navigation and make mobility more secure. However, this type of street organization may not be desirable in certain areas, more specifically, in the city centers. Downtown areas have always been places where economic, leisure, social and other types of facilities are concentrated, not surprisingly, they often attract large number of people and this frequently results in traffic jams, air and noise pollution, thus creating unpleasant environment. Besides, excessive traffic signage in central locations can harm the image and perception of a place, this relates in particular to historical centers with architectural heritage.