Aplicação de celulases e xilanases na reciclagem de fibras de papel

Tese de Doutoramento em Engenharia Química e Biológica (área de conhecimento em Engenharia Enzimática e das Fermentações)

A radiofrequency identification system for the 60 GHz ISM band

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Engenharia Biomédica (área de especialização em Eletrónica Médica)

The mineralogy and chemistry of the German and Portuguese tiles used to face a historic building in the Amazon region and their natural susceptibility to tropical weathering

During the 19th century, the most prominent buildings of the city of Belém were faced entirely with tiles manufactured in Portugal and Germany, which now exhibit distinct degrees of degradation. The Pinho mansion is one of the most important of these buildings and was selected for the investigation of the action of the tropical Amazonian climate on the degradation of the tiles. To achieve this objective, the tiles were mapped for organic and inorganic degradation, and samples were collected for analysis. The minerals were determined by XRD, the chemical composition by classical wet methods and SEM/EDS, and the microorganisms under the microscope. The results show that the German and Portuguese tiles are quite different in their composition. While both ceramic bodies are composed of SiO2 and Al2O3, CaO was found only in the Portuguese tile. The low Na2O and K2O contents indicate the addition of materials to reduce the fusion temperature. SiO2 and PbO are the main constituents of the glaze, with CoO and FeO being added as pigment. The ceramic body of the German tiles is constituted of quartz, mullite, and cristobalite, in contrast with the Portuguese tiles, which are made of quartz, gehlenite, diopside, calcite, and feldspars. The glazes are XRD-amorphous. The chemical and mineralogical differences between the German and Portuguese tiles indicate that they were produced from different raw materials under distinct thermal processes. The most prominent weathering-related modifications are the thin layers (German tiles), oxidation stains, dark stains, the detachment of the tile (Portuguese tiles), loss of the glaze and powdering of the ceramic body (Portuguese tiles) through the establishment of Cyanophyta and Bacillariophyta.. The distinct degradation patterns of the tiles exposed to the tropical Amazon climate are a consequence of their distinct mineralogy and chemistry.

Rhetoric on the economy: have European parties changed their economic messages?

This study analyses the determinants of dispersion of economic issue mentions in European party manifestos. We examined three main economic domains (governmental control of the economy, free market capitalism and support for the welfare state) as consequences of globalization forces, economic conditions, partisanship and electoral turnout. Employing aggregate-level Comparative Manifesto Project (CMP) data from legislative elections in 15 European countries from 1970 to 2010, we confirm that parties hold a common view of the salience of economic control of the state as a consequence of globalization pressure and economic growth levels. Partisanship of the cabinets (regardless of the political orientation) counteracted issue salience concentration in the welfare domain. Government size favoured dispersion in the free market realm. Our results do not indicate clear homogenization of parties’ economic messages in elections over the last 40 years.

PEGylated DOTA-AHA-based Gd(III) chelates – A relaxometric study

Three PEGylated derivatives of 1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane-1-((6-amino)hexanoic)-4,7,10-triacetic acid) (DOTA-AHA) with different molecular weights were prepared and characterized. Their Gd(III) chelates were studied in aqueous solution using variable-temperature 1H nuclear magnetic relaxation dispersion (NMRD) and 17ONMR spectroscopy in view of the determination of their relaxivity and the parameters that govern it. The relaxivity varied from 5.1 to 6.5 mM-1.s-1 (37 ºC and 60 MHz) with the increasing molecular weight of the PEG chain, being slightly higher than that of the parent chelate Gd(DOTA-AHA), due to a small contribution of a slow global rotation of the complexes. A variable temperature 1H NMR study of several Ln(III) chelates of DOTA-A(PEG750)HA allowed the determination of the isomeric M/m ratio (M = square antiprismatic isomer and m = twisted square antiprismatic isomer, the latter presenting a much faster water exchange) which for the Gd(III) chelate was estimated in circa 1:0.2, very close to that of [Gd(DOTA)]-. This explains why the PEGylated Gd(III) chelate has a water rate exchange similar to that of [Gd(DOTA)]-. The predominance of the M isomer is a consequence of the bulky PEG moiety which does not favor the stabilization of the m isomer in sterically crowded systems at the substituent site, contrary to what happens with less packed asymmetrical DOTA-type chelates with substitution in one of the four acetate C(α) atoms.

Implementação de sistemas de encriptação AES advanced encryption standard em hardware para segurança

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Engenharia Electrónica Industrial e Computadores

Estudo e caracterização mecânica por via experimental de modelos de subestruturas eletromecânicas aplicadas ao fabrico de transformadores de grande potência

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Engenharia Mecânica

Avaliação do impacto na saúde da mobilidade no acesso aos Campi Universitários: estudo de caso UMinho

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Engenharia Civil

“PhenoWorld”: a new multidimensional strategy for studying behaviour in rodents

Tese de Doutoramento em Ciências da Saúde

Towards the design and implementation of aspect-oriented programming for spreadsheets

A spreadsheet usually starts as a simple and singleuser software artifact, but, as frequent as in other software systems, quickly evolves into a complex system developed by many actors. Often, different users work on different aspects of the same spreadsheet: while a secretary may be only involved in adding plain data to the spreadsheet, an accountant may define new business rules, while an engineer may need to adapt the spreadsheet content so it can be used by other software systems.Unfortunately,spreadsheetsystemsdonotoffermodular mechanisms, and as a consequence, some of the previous tasks may be defined by adding intrusive “code” to the spreadsheet. In this paper we go through the design and implementation of an aspect-oriented language for spreadsheets so that users can work on different aspects of a spreadsheet in a modular way. For example, aspects can be defined in order to introduce new business rules to an existing spreadsheet, or to manipulate the spreadsheet data to be ported to another system. Aspects are defined as aspect-oriented program specifications that are dynamically woven into the underlying spreadsheet by an aspect weaver. In this aspect-oriented style of spreadsheet development, differentusers develop,orreuse,aspects withoutaddingintrusive code to the original spreadsheet. Such code is added/executed by the spreadsheet weaving mechanism proposed in this paper.

Concise server-wide causality management for eventually consistent data stores

Large scale distributed data stores rely on optimistic replication to scale and remain highly available in the face of net work partitions. Managing data without coordination results in eventually consistent data stores that allow for concurrent data updates. These systems often use anti-entropy mechanisms (like Merkle Trees) to detect and repair divergent data versions across nodes. However, in practice hash-based data structures are too expensive for large amounts of data and create too many false conflicts. Another aspect of eventual consistency is detecting write conflicts. Logical clocks are often used to track data causality, necessary to detect causally concurrent writes on the same key. However, there is a nonnegligible metadata overhead per key, which also keeps growing with time, proportional with the node churn rate. Another challenge is deleting keys while respecting causality: while the values can be deleted, perkey metadata cannot be permanently removed without coordination. Weintroduceanewcausalitymanagementframeworkforeventuallyconsistentdatastores,thatleveragesnodelogicalclocks(BitmappedVersion Vectors) and a new key logical clock (Dotted Causal Container) to provides advantages on multiple fronts: 1) a new efficient and lightweight anti-entropy mechanism; 2) greatly reduced per-key causality metadata size; 3) accurate key deletes without permanent metadata.

Dynamic wet etching of silicon through isopropanol alcohol evaporation

In this paper, Isopropanol (IPA) availability during the anisotropic etching of silicon in Potassium Hydroxide (KOH) solutions was investigated. Squares of 8 to 40 m were patterned to (100) oriented silicon wafers through DWL (Direct Writing Laser) photolithography. The wet etching process was performed inside an open HDPE (High Density Polyethylene) flask with ultrasonic agitation. IPA volume and evaporation was studied in a dynamic etching process, and subsequent influence on the silicon etching was inspected. For the tested conditions, evaporation rates for water vapor and IPA were determined as approximately 0.0417 mL/min and 0.175 mL/min, respectively. Results demonstrate that IPA availability, and not concentration, plays an important role in the definition of the final structure. Transversal SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy) analysis demonstrates a correlation between microloading effects (as a consequence of structure spacing) and the angle formed towards the (100) plane.

An integrated model for simulation of construction phasing of arch concrete dams

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Civil Engineering

Classificação e organização de objetos BIM e sua aplicação em modelos 4D&5D

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Engenharia Civil

Women users of crack: systematic review of Brazilian literature

ABSTRACT Objective To present Brazilian’s empirical studies that address this issue between the period of 2004 to 2014. Methods It is a Brazilian literature Systematic Review using the descriptors “crack cocaine” AND “women”, in the database Scopus, Lilacs, Medline and SciELO. Results From the 785 articles found, 16 articles contemplated the inclusion criteria. It was evidenced that the use of crack by women is related to physical and sexual violence, provoking HIV risks in consequence of prostitution, and social prejudice. Conclusion Given this reality, studies evaluating treatments in the Brazilian context are essential, according the specificities of women crack users.