Innovative manufacturing process for hybrid pultruded products based on cork and polymeric pre-shapes

Pultruded products are being targeted by a growing demand due to its excellent mechanical properties and low chemical reactivity, ensuring a low level of maintenance operations and allowing an easier assembly operation process than equivalent steel bars. In order to improve the mechanical drawing process and solve some acoustic and thermal insulation problems, pultruded pipes of glass fibre reinforced plastics (GFRF) can be filled with special products that increase their performance regarding the issues previously referred. The great challenge of this work was drawing a new equipment able to produce pultruded pipes filled with cork or polymeric pre-shaped bars as a continuous process. The project was carried out successfully and the new equipment was built and integrated in the pultrusion equipment already existing, allowing to obtain news products with higher added-value in the market, covering some needs previously identified in the field of civil construction.

Pre-meal tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) intake can have anti-obesity effects in young women?

The effect of pre-meal tomato intake in the anthropometric indices and blood levels of triglycerides, cholesterol, glucose, and uric acid of a young women population (n=35, 19.6 ± 1.3 years) was evaluated. During 4 weeks, daily, participants ingested a raw ripe tomato (~90 g) before lunch. Their anthropometric and biochemical parameters were measured repeatedly during the follow-up time. At the end of the 4 weeks, significant reductions were observed on body weight (-1.09 ± 0.12 kg on average), % fat (-1.54 ± 0.52%), fasting blood glucose (-5.29 ± 0.80 mg/dl), triglycerides (-8.31 ± 1.34 mg/dl), cholesterol (-10.17 ± 1.21 mg/ dl), and uric acid (-0.16 ± 0.04 mg/dl) of the participants. The tomato pre-meal ingestion seemed to interfere positively in body weight, fat percentage, and blood levels of glucose, triglycerides, cholesterol, and uric acid of the young adult women that participated in this study.

Os estudos de astronomia em Portugal de 1850 a 1950

Dissertação de Doutoramento em História da Ciência

Francine Benoit e a cultura musical em Portugal : estudo das críticas e crónicas publicadas entre 1920- e 1950

Dissertação de Mestrado em Ciências Musicais

Projeto de fundações e estrutura de um edifício em Lisboa

Trabalho de Projeto para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Civil na Área de Especialização em Estruturas

Studies on human anti-rabies immunization in Brazil: I - Evaluation of the 3 + 1 pre-exposure vaccination schedule under field conditions

The currently used pre-exposure anti-rabies immunization schedule in Brazil is the one called 3+1, employing suckling mouse brain vaccine (3 doses on alternate days and the last one on day 30). Although satisfactory results were obtained in well controlled experimental groups using this immunization schedule, in our routine practice, VNA levels lower than 0.5 IU/ml are frequently found. We studied the pre-exposure 3+1 schedule under field conditions in different cities on the State of São Paulo, Brazil, under variable and sometimes adverse circumstances, such as the use of different batches of vaccine with different titers, delivered, stored and administered under local conditions. Fifty out of 256 serum samples (19.5%) showed VNA titers lower than 0.5 IU/ml, but they were not distributed homogeneously among the localities studied. While in some cities the results were completely satisfactory, in others almost 40% did not attain the minimum VNA titer required. The results presented here, considered separately, question our currently used procedures for human pre-exposure anti-rabies immunization. The reasons determining this situation are discussed.

Studies on human anti-rabies immunization in Brazil: II - Preliminary evaluation of the 2-1-1 schedule for human pre-exposure anti-rabies immunization, employing suckling mouse brain vaccine

This study reports preliminary results of virus neutralizing antibody (VNA) titers obtained on different days in the course of human anti-rabies immunization with the 2-1-1 schedule (one dose is given in the right arm and one dose in the left arm at day 0, and one dose is apllied on days 7 and 21), recommended by WHO for post-exposure treatment with cell culture vaccines. A variant schedule (double dose on day zero and another on day 14) was also tested, both employing suckling mouse brain vaccine. A complete seroconversion rate was obtained after only 3 vaccine doses, and almost all patients (11 of 12) presented titers higher than 1.0 IU/ml. Both neutralizing response and seroconversion rates were lower in the group receiving only 3 doses, regardless of the sample collecting day. Although our results are lower than those found with cell culture vaccines, the geometry mean of VNA is fully satisfactory, overcoming the lower limit recommended by WHO of 0.5 IU/ml. The 2-1-1 schedule could be an alternative one for pre exposure immunization, shorter than the classical 3+1 regimen (one dose on days 0, 2, 4 and 30) with only three visits to the doctor, instead of four.

Projeto de comportamento térmico, certificação energética e ensaios acústicos

O presente relatório incluído na Unidade Curricular de Dissertação/Projeto/Estágio do Mestrado (DIPRE) em Engenharia Civil do Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto (ISEP) e desenvolvido no âmbito do estágio curricular realizado na empresa Asl & Associados, tem como principais objetivos a minha integração no mercado de trabalho e obtenção de experiência profissional. Neste trabalho, serão abordados temas como as introduções teóricas ao Comportamento Térmico e Acústico de Edifícios de Habitação, estudos de casos práticos como o Projeto de Comportamento Térmico de uma grande intervenção, Certificação Energética de edifícios existentes com base no Regulamento de Desempenho Energético dos Edifícios de Habitação e Ensaios Acústicos de Edifícios de acordo com o Regulamento dos Requisitos Acústicos dos Edifícios. O projeto realizado consistiu no estudo do comportamento térmico do edifício na Avenida Marechal Gomes da Costa nº802, no Porto. Nesse estudo realizou-se a verificação das soluções construtivas, por vezes foram propostas alterações das mesmas de modo a verificar os requisitos impostos pelo REH e foi realizada a emissão do seu pré-certificado. A maior parte do período em que decorreu o estágio na empresa foi preenchida com a realização de certificados energéticos de frações autónomas e de moradias. Para a recolha da informação necessária à sua elaboração, foram efetuadas várias vistorias aos imóveis referidos. Foram também efetuados durante o estágio, ensaios acústicos a edifícios de habitação e comércio e elaborado o respetivo relatório de ensaio.

The influence of pre-departure training on expatriate adjustment: an empirical investigation with portuguese international assignees

This chapter examines the cross-cultural influence of training on the adjustment of international assignees. We focus on the pre-departure training (PDT) before an international assignment. It is an important topic because in the globalized world of today more and more expatriations are needed. The absence of PDT may generate the failure of the expatriation experience. Companies may neglect PDT due to cost reduction practices and ignorance of the need for it. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews to 42 Portuguese international assignees and 18 organizational representatives from nine Portuguese companies. The results suggest that companies should develop PDT programs, particularly when the cultural distance to the host country is bigger and when there is no previous experience of expatriation to that country in the company. The study is original because it details in depth the methods of PDT, its problems, and consequences. Some limitations linked to the research design and detailed in the conclusion should be overcome in future studies.

Global and Partitioned Multiprocessor Fixed Priority Scheduling with Deferred Pre-emption

This article introduces schedulability analysis for global fixed priority scheduling with deferred preemption (gFPDS) for homogeneous multiprocessor systems. gFPDS is a superset of global fixed priority pre-emptive scheduling (gFPPS) and global fixed priority non-pre-emptive scheduling (gFPNS). We show how schedulability can be improved using gFPDS via appropriate choice of priority assignment and final non-pre-emptive region lengths, and provide algorithms which optimize schedulability in this way. Via an experimental evaluation we compare the performance of multiprocessor scheduling using global approaches: gFPDS, gFPPS, and gFPNS, and also partitioned approaches employing FPDS, FPPS, and FPNS on each processor.

Projeto de estruturas de um edifício

O trabalho a apresentar tem como objetivo a aplicação dos conceitos adquiridos academicamente ao longo de todo o curso em Engenharia Civil num projeto de estruturas de um edifício. Este estudo surge no decorrer de um estágio curricular desenvolvido na empresa Segropol – Sociedade de Engenharia, Projetos e Obras, Lda. A partir das plantas de arquitetura, o projeto foi desenvolvido essencialmente em 4 etapas: conceção estrutural, pré-dimensionamento, validação das soluções estruturais e elaboração de peças desenhadas e pormenores construtivos. Para a definição e obtenção das soluções estruturais de uma estrutura é essencial realizar um enquadramento de toda a regulamentação aplicável, de modo a que todas as disposições associadas à segurança e estabilidade de um edifício sejam cumpridas. A análise e dimensionamento dos elementos foi efetuada com recurso ao programa de cálculo automático CYPE. Apresentando esta empresa vários serviços na área da fiscalização, é abordado neste documento um levantamento de vistorias de um loteamento, agrupando as diferentes anomalias e irregularidades detetadas.

Regards croisés francophones et portugais : les images des Portugais dans la littérature romanesque contemporaine (1950-2000)

Tese de doutoramento em Línguas e Literaturas Românicas, Literatura Românica Comparada

Alpiarça, 1950. As rotinas da sobrevivência e o meomento de uma bala

O objectivo desta comunicação é confrontar as perspectivas que, dentio dos gmpos sociais dominantes e dos assalariados no Portugal mral salazarista, foram convocadas por um mesmo acontecimento, dando legibiUdade às configurações de classe que, num tempo social determinado - o im'cio da década de 50 em Portugal - permitem identificar o interesse dos gmpos e as relações entie os níveis local e nacional, bem como a detecção de um instante de mudança nas relações das forças sociais. A investigação de que representa uma fase dos resultados, decorre há cerca de tires anos, envolve uma equipa interdisciplinar, dirigida pelos professores Jorge Crespo e Femando Rosas, e é composta pelas três investigadoras, inseridas num projecto financiado pela Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (programa PRAXIS XXI). Além de uma pesquisa documental^ os dados aqui apresentados constitiiem uma etapa entie o levantamento extensivo, levado a cabo por todo o país, e uma pesquisa de caracter intensivo, atendendo à pecuUaridade de um lugar e às características de um momento

The importance of physical education classes in pre-school children

The purpose of this study was to analyse differences between total physical activity (TPA) and moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) of pre-school children during daily school hours when they attended the physical education class (PED) and school days without PE class (NPED) and to assess the contribution of PE classes to TPA in school hours. The sample was composed of 193 pre-school healthy children (96 girls) aged from three to five years old and was conducted between February and December of 2008. Children wore accelerometers for at least four consecutive days during school hours. Data were analysed with specific software, age-specific counts-per-minute cut-off points and a 5 s epoch were used. Independent and general linear model repeated measures were used to assess differences between gender and differences between different days within each gender, respectively. Boys engaged more MVPA than girls (P < 0.05). During PED, pre-school children engaged significantly more in TPA and MVPA than during NPED (P < 0.05). PE class contributed, on average, 27.7% for the TPA and 32.8% of daily MVPA during PED in both gender. The results of this study suggest that structured PA such as a PE class increased the daily TPA and MVPA level of pre-school children.

Archaeometallurgical study of pre and protohistoric production remains and artefacts from Southern Portugal

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Doutor em Conservação e Restauro, especialidade Ciências da Conservação