Aircraft Engines Maintenance Costs and Reliability: An Appraisal of the Decision Process to Remove an Engine for a Shop Visit Aiming at Minimum Maintenance Unit Cost

Dissertação apresentada como requisito parcial para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Estatística e Gestão de Informação.

Engineering of bacterial exopolysaccharides: from synthesis to properties

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

A systems biology framework for pathway level culture media engineering: pplication to Pichia pastoris cultures

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

Derivation and consistency checking of models in early software product line engineering

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Doutor em Engenharia Informática

Classical design thinking to organization design in the tourism sector

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

An approach to teach Calculus/Mathematical Analysis (for engineering students) using computers and active learning – its conception, development of materials and evaluation

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Doutor em Ciências da Educação

Implementação, documentação e avaliação da aplicação de Lean Maintenance no Sistema de Armas Epsilon

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia Mecânica

Bioprocess engineering of induced pluripotent stem cells for application in cell therapy and pre-clinical research

Dissertation to obtain Master Degree in Biotechnology

Microbiology of membrane bioreactors for wastewater treatment: a molecular approach

Dissertation presented to obtain the Ph.D degree in Engineering and Technology Sciences, Biotechnology.

Making connections: engineering and language issues in teaching english for specific purposes

Tese apresentada para cumprimento dos requisitos necessários à obtenção do grau de Doutor em Línguas, Literaturas e Culturas

In vitro maintenance of Angiostrongylus costaricensis does not provide physiological conditions for egg laying

Fifteen pairs (male/female) of Angiostrongylus costaricensis were kept in vitro in Waymouth medium for three days to evaluate the amount and duration of egg laying. At 24, 48 and 72 hours, the mean egg counts were 321, 24 and 4 eggs/10 microliters, respectively. Most of the eggs were eliminated within the first 24 hours, suggesting they are expelled under non-physiological conditions. These results indicate that in vitro conditions are not appropriate for drug trials of egg-laying inhibitors for treatment of abdominal angiostrongylosis.

A distributed platform for the volunteer execution of workflows on a local area network

Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Computer Science

Process Engineering of Stem Cells for Clinical Application

Over the last decade, human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) have garnered a lot of attention owing to their inherent self-renewal ability and pluripotency. These characteristics have opened opportunities for potential stem cell-based regenerative medicines, for development of drug discovery platforms and as unique in vitro models for the study of early human development.(...)

Hydroxyapatite porous structures for bone tissue engineering

Esta dissertação teve como objetivo o desenvolvimento de espumas porosas de hidroxiapatite (HA) baseadas em réplicas invertidas de cristais coloidais (ICC) para substituição óssea. Um ICC é uma estrutura tridimensional de elevada porosidade que apresenta uma rede interconectada de poros com elevada uniformidade de tamanhos. Este tipo de arquitetura possibilita uma proliferação celular homogénea e superiores propriedades mecânicas quando comparada com espumas de geometria não uniforme. O cristal coloidal (CC) - o molde da espuma - foi criado por empacotamento de microesferas de poliestireno (270 μm) produzidas por microfluídica e posterior tratamento térmico. O molde foi impregnado com um gel de hidroxiapatite produzido via sol-gel utilizando pentóxido de fósforo e nitrato de cálcio tetrahidratado como percursores de fósforo e cálcio, respectivamente. A espuma cerâmica foi obtida num único passo depois de um tratamento térmico a 1100oC que permitiu a solidificação do gel e a remoção do CC. A análise por espetroscopia de infravermelho por transformada de Fourier (FTIR) e difração de raios-X (XRD) revelou uma hidroxiapatite carbonatada tipo A com presença de fosfatos tricálcicos. As propriedades mecânicas foram avaliadas por testes de compressão. A biocompatibilidade in vitro foi demonstrada através de testes de adesão e proliferação celular de osteoblastos.

Functional characterization and directed engineering of redox proteins for a rational improvement of Bioelectrochemical systems

In recent years, new methods of clean and environmentally friendly energy production have been the focus of intense research efforts. Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) are devices that utilize naturally occurring microorganisms that feed on organic matter, like waste water, while producing electrical energy. The natural habitats of bacteria thriving in microbial fuel cells are usually marine and freshwater sediments. These microorganisms are called dissimilatory metal reducing bacteria (DMRB), but in addition to metals like iron and manganese, they can use organic compounds like DMSO or TMAO, radionuclides and electrodes as terminal electron acceptors in their metabolic pathways.(...)