Cold-water coral communities in the Azores : diversity, habitat and conservation

Tese de Doutoramento, Ciências do Mar (especialidade em Ecologia Marinha), 11 de Setembro de 2015, Universidade dos Açores.

A review of power laws in real life phenomena

Power law distributions, also known as heavy tail distributions, model distinct real life phenomena in the areas of biology, demography, computer science, economics, information theory, language, and astronomy, amongst others. In this paper, it is presented a review of the literature having in mind applications and possible explanations for the use of power laws in real phenomena. We also unravel some controversies around power laws.

Current mortars in conservation: an overview

Renders are an important item in historical buildings and the need for their periodical re-application is a basic conservation procedure. In modern times there has been a trend towards the replacement of traditional pure lime mortars by new formulations including Portland cement or hydraulic lime. Apart from those interventions on specific and very important monuments, in which the use oftraditional non-hydraulic mortars can be enforced, in most of the projects involving less than first order magnitude heritage the use of some sort of hydraulic components is becoming the rule rather than the exception. The present paper describes and analyses the results of an experimental study with ten formulations of current mortars - including some that can hardly be considered as adequate conservation procedures - allowing a direct comparison in terms of some of the most relevant characteristics.

A straightforward method to obtain the cohesive laws of bonded joints under mode I loading

A simple procedure to measure the cohesive laws of bonded joints under mode I loading using the double cantilever beam test is proposed. The method only requires recording the applied load–displacement data and measuring the crack opening displacement at its tip in the course of the experimental test. The strain energy release rate is obtained by a procedure involving the Timoshenko beam theory, the specimen’s compliance and the crack equivalent concept. Following the proposed approach the influence of the fracture process zone is taken into account which is fundamental for an accurate estimation of the failure process details. The cohesive law is obtained by differentiation of the strain energy release rate as a function of the crack opening displacement. The model was validated numerically considering three representative cohesive laws. Numerical simulations using finite element analysis including cohesive zone modeling were performed. The good agreement between the inputted and resulting laws for all the cases considered validates the model. An experimental confirmation was also performed by comparing the numerical and experimental load–displacement curves. The numerical load–displacement curves were obtained by adjusting typical cohesive laws to the ones measured experimentally following the proposed approach and using finite element analysis including cohesive zone modeling. Once again, good agreement was obtained in the comparisons thus demonstrating the good performance of the proposed methodology.

Designing market-based instruments for biodiversity conservation: learning with the Australian experience and evaluating Portugal's potential

Dissertação apresentada na Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa para a obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia do Ambiente, perfil Gestão de Sistemas Ambientais

Part I : Comparing derivatization methods for amino acids – one and two-step procedures using gas chromatography – flame ion detector (GC-FID) Part II: Story of an icon from its execution until its conservation

Dissertação apresentada na Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Conservação e Restauro

MASS CONSERVATION ENHANCEMENT OF FREE BOUNDARY FLOWS IN COMPOSITES MANUFACTURING

Undesirable void formation during the injection phase of the liquid composite molding process can be understood as a consequence of the non-uniformity of the flow front progression, caused by the dual porosity of the fiber perform. Therefore the best examination of the void formation physics can be provided by a mesolevel analysis, where the characteristic dimension is given by the fiber tow diameter. In mesolevel analysis, liquid impregnation along two different scales; inside fiber tows and within the spaces between them; must be considered and the coupling between these flow regimes must be addressed. In such case, it is extremely important to account correctly for the surface tension effects, which can be modeled as capillary pressure applied at the flow front. When continues Galerkin method is used, exploiting elements with velocity components and pressure as nodal variables, strong numerical implementation of such boundary conditions leads to ill-posing of the problem, in terms of the weak classical as well as stabilized formulation. As a consequence, there is an error in mass conservation accumulated especially along the free flow front. This article presents a numerical procedure, which was formulated and implemented in the existing Free Boundary Program in order to significantly reduce this error.

Mass Conservation Enhancement of Free Boundary Mesolevel Flows during LCM Processes of Composites Manufacturing

Undesirable void formation during the injection phase of the liquid composite moulding process can be understood as a consequence of the non-uniformity of the flow front progression, caused by the dual porosity of the fibre perform. Therefore the best examination of the void formation physics can be provided by a mesolevel analysis, where the characteristic dimension is given by the fibre tow diameter. In mesolevel analysis, liquid impregnation along two different scales; inside fibre tows and within the open spaces between them; must be considered and the coupling between these flow regimes must be addressed. In such case, it is extremely important to account correctly for the surface tension effects, which can be modelled as capillary pressure applied at the flow front. Numerical implementation of such boundary conditions leads to ill-posing of the problem, in terms of the weak classical as well as stabilized formulation. As a consequence, there is an error in mass conservation accumulated especially along the free flow front. This contribution presents a numerical procedure, which was formulated and implemented in the existing Free Boundary Program in order to significantly reduce this error.

Semi-destructive in situ tests as support to the assessment of a conservation process

This paper refers to the assessment on site by semi-destructive testing (SDT) methods of the consolidation efficiency of a conservation process developed by Henriques (2011) for structural and non-structural pine wood elements in service. This study was applied on scots pine wood (Pinus sylvestris L.) degraded by fungi after treatment with a biocidal product followed by consolidation with a polymeric product. This solution avoids substitutions of wood moderately degraded by fungi, improving its physical and mechanical characteristics. The consolidation efficiency was assessed on site by methods of drill resistance and penetration resistance. The SDT methods used showed good sensitivity to the conservation process and could evaluate their effectiveness. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Spectroscopy studies on conservation issues in modern and contemporary paintings

Dissertation presented to the Faculty of Sciences and Technology of New University of Lisbon in fulfilment of the requirements for the Master’s degree in Conservation and Restoration Specialization in easel painting

Double power laws, fractals and self-similarity

Power law (PL) distributions have been largely reported in the modeling of distinct real phenomena and have been associated with fractal structures and self-similar systems. In this paper, we analyze real data that follows a PL and a double PL behavior and verify the relation between the PL coefficient and the capacity dimension of known fractals. It is to be proved a method that translates PLs coefficients into capacity dimension of fractals of any real data.

Assessing the balance between biodiversity conservation and coastal and estuarine management of the Sado Estuary Natural Reserve, Portugal, using BIO-SAFE

Dissertação apresentada na Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia do Ambiente, perfil de Engenharia Ecológica

Gender inequities in portuguese state administration: how expressive feminization and facilitating laws are not enough to guarantee effective gender equity at public work

Comunicação apresentada na 69th ASPA Anual Conference, em Dalas, Texas de 7 a 11 de março de 2008

Study of a 9th century silver earrings set from Mikulčice: corrosion, conservation and maintenance

Dissertação apresentada na Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Conservação e Restauro

Liaisons dangereuses, conservation of modern and contemporary art: a study of the synthetic binding media in Portugal

Dissertação apresentada para obtenção do Grau de Doutor em Conservação e Restauro, especialidade de Ciências da Conservação, pela Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia