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

Portucel: Pulp and Paper: Equity Investment Report

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

Optimização da aprovação de produtos para afinação nas tinting machines

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia Química e Bioquímica

Peptidoglycan assembly machines: The Staphylococcus aureus Penicillin-Binding Proteins

Dissertation presented to obtain the Ph.D degree in Biology

Avatars and the «Imitation Game» – can machines smile?

Considering Alan Turing’s challenge in «Computing Machinery and Intelligence» (1950) – can machines play the «imitation game»? – it is proposed that the requirements of the Turing test are already implicitly being used for checking the credibility of virtual characters and avatars. Like characters, Avatars aim to visually express emotions (the exterior signs of the existence of feeling) and its creators have to resort to emotion codes. Traditional arts have profusely contributed for this field and, together with the science of anatomy, shaped the grounds for current Facial Action Coding System (FACS) and their databases. However, FACS researchers have to improve their «instruction tables» so that the machines will be able, in a near future, to be programmed to carry out the operation of recognizing human expressions (face and body) and classify them adequately. For the moment, the reproductions have to resort to the copy of real life expressions, and the presente smile of avatars comes from mirroring their human users.

Predictive analytical and numerical modeling for orthogonal cutting

In this thesis, a predictive analytical and numerical modeling approach for the orthogonal cutting process is proposed to calculate temperature distributions and subsequently, forces and stress distributions. The models proposed include a constitutive model for the material being cut based on the work of Weber, a model for the shear plane based on Merchants model, a model describing the contribution of friction based on Zorev’s approach, a model for the effect of wear on the tool based on the work of Waldorf, and a thermal model based on the works of Komanduri and Hou, with a fraction heat partition for a non-uniform distribution of the heat in the interfaces, but extended to encompass a set of contributions to the global temperature rise of chip, tool and work piece. The models proposed in this work, try to avoid from experimental based values or expressions, and simplifying assumptions or suppositions, as much as possible. On a thermo-physical point of view, the results were affected not only by the mechanical or cutting parameters chosen, but also by their coupling effects, instead of the simplifying way of modeling which is to contemplate only the direct effect of the variation of a parameter. The implementation of these models was performed using the MATLAB environment. Since it was possible to find in the literature all the parameters for AISI 1045 and AISI O2, these materials were used to run the simulations in order to avoid arbitrary assumption.

Lab on paper: biossensores colorimétricos de papel para a detecção de membros do complexo Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Este trabalho foi realizado no âmbito do projecto Lab on Paper, desenvolvido no Centro de Investigação de Materiais (CENIMAT) da Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa (FCT - UNL)

Towards printed carbon nanotube transistors on paper substrates

This thesis reports the work performed in the optimization of deposition parameters of Multi – Walled Carbon Nanotubes (MWCNT) targeting the development of a Field Effect Transistors (FET) on paper substrates. The CNTs were dispersed in a water solution with sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) through ultrasonication, ultrasonic bath and a centrifugation to remove the supernatant and have a homogeneous solution. Several deposition tests were performed using different types of CNTs, dis-persants, papers substrates and deposition techniques, such as spray coating and inkjet printing. The characterization of CNTs was made by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Hall Effect. The most suitable CNT coatings able to be used as semiconductor in FETs were deposited by spray coat-ing on a paper substrate with hydrophilic nanoporous surface (FS2) at 100 ºC, 4 bar, 10 cm height, 5 second of deposition time and 90 seconds of drying between steps (4 layers of CNTs were deposited). Planar electrolyte gated FETs were produced with these layers using gold-nickel gate, source and drain electrodes. Despite the small current modulation (Ion/Ioff ratio of 1.8) one of these devices have p-type conduction with a field effect mobility of 1.07 cm2/V.s.

Seroepidemiological study of human cysticercosis with blood samples collected on filter paper, in Lages, State of Santa Catarina, Brazil, 2004-2005

INTRODUCTION: Human serofrequency of antibodies against Taenia solium antigens was determined and risk factors for cysticercosis transmission were identified. METHODS: Individuals (n=878) from periurban and rural locations of Lages, SC, were interviewed to gather demographic, sanitary and health information. Interviews and blood sample collections by finger prick on Whatman filter paper were performed from August 2004 to May 2005. Observation determined that 850 samples were suitable for analysis and were tested by ELISA using vesicular fluid of Taenia crassiceps heterologous antigen. To ensure the reliability of the results, 77 samples of the dried blood were matched with sera. The reactive samples were submitted to a serum confirmatory immunoblot (IB) test using purified Taenia crassiceps glycoproteins. RESULTS: The ELISA results for the dried blood and serum samples were statistically consistent. ELISA was positive in 186 (21.9%) out of 850 individuals. A group of 213 individuals were asked to collect vein blood for IB (186 with positive result in ELISA and 27 with inappropriate whole blood samples) and 130 attended the request. The IB was positive in 29 (3.4%) out of 850 individuals. A significant correlation (p = 0.0364) was determined among individuals who tested positive in the IB assay who practiced both pig rearing and kitchen gardening. CONCLUSIONS: ELISA with dried blood eluted from filter paper was suitable for cysticercosis population surveys. In Lages, human infection was associated with pig rearing and kitchen gardening. The prevalence index was compatible with other Latin American endemic areas.

Digital microfluidics on paper

This thesis is one of the first reports of digital microfluidics on paper and the first in which the chip’s circuit was screen printed unto the paper. The use of the screen printing technique, being a low cost and fast method for electrodes deposition, makes the all chip processing much more aligned with the low cost choice of paper as a substrate. Functioning chips were developed that were capable of working at as low as 50 V, performing all the digital microfluidics operations: movement, dispensing, merging and splitting of the droplets. Silver ink electrodes were screen printed unto paper substrates, covered by Parylene-C (through vapor deposition) as dielectric and Teflon AF 1600 (through spin coating) as hydrophobic layer. The morphology of different paper substrates, silver inks (with different annealing conditions) and Parylene deposition conditions were studied by optical microscopy, AFM, SEM and 3D profilometry. Resolution tests for the printing process and electrical characterization of the silver electrodes were also made. As a showcase of the applications potential of these chips as a biosensing device, a colorimetric peroxidase detection test was successfully done on chip, using 200 nL to 350 nL droplets dispensed from 1 μL drops.

Fungal communities in archives: assessment strategies and impact on paper conservation and human health

The main results presented in this PhD Dissertation have been published in interna-tional journals included in the Science Citation Index (SCI)

Application of superconducting bulks and stacks of tapes in electrical machines

The present dissertation focuses on the research of the recent approach of innovative high-temperature superconducting stacked tapes in electrical ma-chines applications, taking into account their potential benefits as an alternative for the massive superconducting bulks, mainly related with geometric and me-chanical flexibility. This work was developed in collaboration with Institut de Ciència de Ma-terials de Barcelona (ICMAB), and is related with evaluation of electrical and magnetic properties of the mentioned superconducting materials, namely: analysis of magnetization of a bulk sample through simulations carried out in the finite elements COMSOL software; measurement of superconducting tape resistivity at liquid nitrogen and room temperatures; and, finally, development and testing of a frequency controlled superconducting motor with rotor built by superconducting tapes. In the superconducting state, results showed a critical current density of 140.3 MA/m2 (or current of 51.15 A) on the tape and a 1 N∙m developed motor torque, independent from the rotor position angle, typical in hysteresis motors.

Smart machines in day-to-day financial management:

Starting from Novabase’s challenge to launch in the UK Millennials a personal financial advisor mobile application, this work project aims to build a planning model to frame a business side of a launch strategy for mobile application in similar market and category. This study culminates on the design of SPOSTAC planning model. The created framework is intended to effectively and efficiently plan a launch strategy, being structured based on seven sequential elements: Situation, Product, Objectives, Strategy, Tactics, Action, and Control.

Weight concerns scale applied to college students : Comparison between pencil-and-paper and online formats

Online data collection is becoming increasingly common and has some advantages compared to traditional paper-and-pencil formats, such as reducing loss of data, increasing participants' privacy, and decreasing the effect of social desirability. However, the validity and reliability of this administration format must be established before results can be considered acceptable. The aim of this study was to evaluate the validity, reliability, and equivalence of paper-and-pencil and online versions of the Weight Concerns Scale (WCS) when applied to Brazilian university students. A crossover design was used, and the Portuguese version of the WCS (in both paper-and-pencil and online formats) was completed by 100 college students. The results indicated adequate fit in both formats. The simultaneous fit of data for both groups was excellent, with strong invariance between models. Adequate convergent validity, internal consistency, and mean score equivalence of the WCS in both formats were observed. Thus, the WCS presented adequate reliability and validity in both administration formats, with equivalence/stability between answers.

Development of an experimental setup for metal cutting research

Analytical, numerical and experimental models have been developed over time to try to characterize and understand the metal cutting process by chip removal. A true knowledge of the cutting process by chip removal is required by the increasing production, by the quality requirements of the product and by the reduced production time, in the industries in which it is employed. In this thesis an experimental setup is developed to evaluate the forces and the temperature distribution in the tool according to the orthogonal cutting model conditions, in order to evaluate its performance and its possible adoption in future works. The experimental setup is developed in a CNC lathe and uses an orthogonal cutting configuration, in which thin discs fixed onto a mandrel are cut by the cutting insert. In this experimental setup, the forces are measured by a piezoelectric dynamometer while temperatures are measured by thermocouples placed juxtaposed to the side face of the cutting insert. Three different solutions are implemented and evaluated for the thermocouples attachment in the cutting insert: thermocouples embedded in thermal paste, thermocouples embedded in copper plate and thermocouples brazed in the cutting insert. From the tests performed in the experimental setup it is concluded that the adopted forces measurement technique shows a good performance. Regarding to the adopted temperatures measurement techniques, only the thermocouples brazed in the cutting insert solution shows a good performance for temperature measurement. The remaining solutions show contact problems between the thermocouple and the side face of the cutting insert, especially when the vibration phenomenon intensifies during the cut. It is concluded that the experimental setup does not present a sufficiently robust and reliable performance, and that it can only be used in future work after making improvements in the assembly of the thermocouples.