Proyecto OTALEX C (Observatorio Territorial y Ambiental Alentejo-Extremadura-Centro)

Comunicação oral da qual só está disponível o resumo.Proyecto OTALEX C (Observatorio Territorial y Ambiental Alentejo-Extremadura-Centro)

Analysis of the difficulties in reconstructing the infrastructure damaged by natural disasters in New Zealand and Puerto Rico

Once a natural disaster damages essential infrastructure services, such as roads, bridges, electric power and potable water, the priority is to restore these services as soon as possible. Under normal circumstances, the planning, design and construction of complex infrastructure projects requires an extended period of time that in many cases lasts for years. The reconstruction of essential services after a disaster is complex not only because the amount of time that can be devoted to planning is extremely limited, but also because government agencies and their officials are under public scrutiny. The press and political institutions frequently criticize the reaction time and decisions of public officials, which increases the complexity of the projects. This article uses a five-dimensional project management model (5DPM) to identify and manage the sources of complexity in emergency projects. The article describes the sources of complexity in reconstruction projects after natural disasters hit the islands of New Zealand and Puerto Rico causing great devastation. The natural disasters analyzed in this article are the earthquakes of 2010 and 2011 in New Zealand and the hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017 in Puerto Rico. The islands, due to their geographical location, faced similar challenges in terms of the shortage of workers, and materials and equipment for reconstruction, which had to be imported. The shortage negatively impacted the response time to the emergency, the perception of the press, and public opinion about the proper handling of the emergencies. The article analyzes the sources of complexity in the reconstruction of the damaged infrastructure and concludes that the sociopolitical context is often the most complex dimension when reconstruction projects are carried out in an expeditious manner

Exciton-plasmon states in nanoscale materials: breakdown of the Tamm-Dancoff approximation

Within the Tamm-Dancoff approximation ab initio approaches describe excitons as packets of electron-hole pairs propagating only forward in time. However, we show that in nanoscale materials excitons and plasmons hybridize, creating exciton--plasmon states where the electron-hole pairs oscillate back and forth in time. Then, as exemplified by the trans-azobenzene molecule and carbon nanotubes, the Tamm-Dancoff approximation yields errors as large as the accuracy claimed in ab initio calculations. Instead, we propose a general and efficient approach that avoids the Tamm--Dancoff approximation, and correctly describes excitons, plasmons and exciton-plasmon states

Influence of cell design and electrode materials on the decolouration of dyeing effluents

[EN] Electrochemical techniques are applied in different textile processes, including wastewater treatment, as they are clean and generally operate at room temperature. In the current work, doped SnO2 electrodes (Ti/SnO2-Sb-Pt) were prepared. They were used as anodes in two electrochemical cells (simple batch mode and batch recirculation mode) to achieve the removal of two reactive azo dyes (Remazol Black 133B and Procion Yellow H-EXL) in synthetic dyeing effluents. With these electrodes, both cells exhibit similar decolouration rates. In addition, the doped SnO2 electrodes are compared with Ti/Pt electrodes in order to establish the influence of electrode material. They were applied to the treatment of four synthetic effluents containing one of the following reactive azo dyes: Remazol Black 133B, Procion Yellow H-EXL, Procion Crimson H-EXL and Procion Navy H-EXL. It was stated that the decolouration is faster with Ti/Pt anodes than with the doped SnO2 ones, but these last electrodes generate lower amount of chloroform during the electrolysis.The authors acknowledge the financial support of the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competiveness (Projects CTM2007-66570-C02; CTM2010-18842-C02; CTM2011-23583) and ACC10-CIDEM/COPCA (Project J-04015).Sala, M.; Del Río García, AI.; Molina Puerto, J.; Cases Iborra, FJ.; Gutiérrez-Bouzán, MC. (2012). Influence of cell design and electrode materials on the decolouration of dyeing effluents. International Journal of Electrochemical Science. 7(12):12470-12488. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/58057S124701248871