Uso da prototipagem rápida no projecto e produção de motores de combustão interna

Os motores de combustão interna são constituídos por peças de elevada complexidade, tal como a cabeça do motor. Nesta peça existem várias condutas (admissão, escape, arrefecimento), vários postiços (sedes e guias das válvulas de admissão e escape) e vários acessórios estão a ela ligada ou fazem dela parte, tal como a vela e todo o sistema de distribuição constituído por árvore de cames, balanceiros, válvulas e molas. Com tal complexidade torna-se difícil fazer o projecto, mas principalmente efectuar a produção da peça. Em particular as condutas constituem zonas de difícil acesso para remoção de material, e impõem limitações de execução. A prototipagem rápida pode ajudar tanto na fase de projecto como na de produção. Técnicas diferentes de prototipagem rápida foram aplicadas à produção de peças fundidas, de modo a serem aplicadas no motor.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - POCI/EME/59186/2004

The ‘Spirit’ of Schooling: The relevance of the sense of a calling on the school experiences of secondary-school Roma/Ciganos students

In The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (PE), Max Weber examines the ecological domination of instrumental rationality to the detriment of value-oriented action. The concept of the calling (Beruf in German) becomes a key one for interpreting the process of value rationalization. One can find Weberian value-rationality among the Portuguese Roma/Ciganos, who seek alternative livelihood strategies via schooling, although they are still characterized by a high rate of early school dropouts, with a very low number of students attending secondary education. The EDUCIG (School performance among Ciganos/Roma: action research and co-design) project was launched in 2019 to grasp the multiple factors involved in this social problem. The project interview-based analysis entailed the participation of 31 Roma/Ciganos students from the metropolitan areas of Lisbon and Porto. Results suggest that despite the social, cultural and economic constraints affecting their school pathways, the academic success of young Roma/Ciganos is facilitated by the influence of religion, specifically the Pentecostal Evangelical Church and its respective values. Moreover, we can recognize the emergence of a new ‘spirit’ in these young Roma/Ciganos, a ‘spirit’ that does not aim at instant gratification but represents an investment in the future and, simultaneously, a desire for integration.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Engine design using rapid prototyping techniques

An internal combustion engine was designed in ProEngineer. The aim of this project was to develop a proposefull tool enabling the rapid design/development of the required engine. The first non-working model was built using a rapid prototyping machine. A visual analysis of the engine head model shown various fields where improvements could be made on the engine design. Therefore, the head was re-designed taking that into account. The second phase of the project involves the actual production of low cost direct casting moulds straight from the engine design. Design and manufacture integration now possible through Rapid Prototyping techniques enabled drastic reductions of the design-development-casting process effort.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - Programa Operacional Ciência e Inovação (POCI)

Liquefied Natural Gas as an alternative fuel: a regional-level social cost-benefit appraisal

The impact from traditional marine fuels has the potential of causing health and non-health damages and contributes to climate change. Here, the introduction of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) as an energy end-use fuel for marine purposes is analysed. The aim of this study is to verify LNG’s policy implementation feasibility as a step-change for a low carbon perspective for shipping by means of developing a social cost-benefit analysis on a regional basis. Emissions from the Portuguese merchant fleet, weighted by their contribution to the National Inventory, were used to quantify and monetise climate, health and non-health externalities compared with benefits from LNG as a substitute fuel. Benefits from the policy implementation are those related to the reduction of external environmental, health and non-health impacts. Costs are those that nationals are willing to pay for. In this sense, to estimate the value of the atmospheric air - a non-market commodity - people were asked about the price they hypothetically are willing to pay by responding to a specific questionnaire. The present study, based on a social cost-benefit analysis, indicates that benefits are almost 8 times superior to the costs and is consistent with real world efficiency gains. Although it addresses Portuguese particularities, this methodology should be applied elsewhere.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Liquefied Natural Gas as an alternative fuel: a regional-level social cost-benefit appraisal

The impact from traditional marine fuels has the potential of causing health and non-health damages and contributes to climate change. Here, the introduction of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) as an energy end-use fuel for marine purposes is analysed. The aim of this study is to verify LNG’s policy implementation feasibility as a step-change for a low carbon perspective for shipping by means of developing a social cost-benefit analysis on a regional basis. Emissions from the Portuguese merchant fleet, weighted by their contribution to the National Inventory, were used to quantify and monetise climate, health and non-health externalities compared with benefits from LNG as a substitute fuel. Benefits from the policy implementation are those related to the reduction of external environmental, health and non-health impacts. Costs are those that nationals are willing to pay for. In this sense, to estimate the value of the atmospheric air - a non-market commodity - people were asked about the price they hypothetically are willing to pay by responding to a specific questionnaire. The present study, based on a social cost-benefit analysis, indicates that benefits are almost 8 times superior to the costs and is consistent with real world efficiency gains. Although it addresses Portuguese particularities, this methodology should be applied elsewhere.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Mapping the wildland-urban interface at municipal level for wildfire exposure analysis in mainland Portugal

Barbosa, B., Oliveira, S., Caetano, M., & Rocha, J. (2024). Mapping the wildland-urban interface at municipal level for wildfire exposure analysis in mainland Portugal. Journal of Environmental Management, 368, 1-11. Article 122098. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.122098 --- B.B. thanks Bar-Massada for sending the mapping of wildland-urban interface in Europe and DGT for providing the combustible materials map This work was funded by national funds through FCT—Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, I.P., under the framework of the project “Change4Fire –Modelling landcover and climatic changes for wildfire hazard assessment in future scenarios” [2022.05015.PTDC, https://doi.org/10.54499/2022.05015.PTDC], by the Research Unit UIDB/00295/2020 and UIDP/00295/2020, and UIDB/04152/2020 —Centro de Investigação em Gestão de Informação (MagIC). B. B. was supported by the Ph.D. fellowship funded by FCT [2022.12095.BD]. S. O. was funded by FCT through a CEEC contract [2020.03873.CEECIND].The Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI), where vegetation and built-up structures intermingle, encompasses a variety of territorial elements that interact spatially, being variable both in space and time. Mapping the WUI at finer scales is paramount to assess wildfire exposure and define tailored mitigation strategies. Our aim was to develop a semi-automated method to map the WUI at municipal level, leveraging recent advances in data and technology. We tested the procedure in four municipalities of mainland Portugal with different fire history, biophysical conditions, and sociodemographic contexts. We considered WUI as either intermix or interface. Our approach integrates both building location data and high-resolution vegetation maps, to calculate the density of buildings and forest cover proportion within different circular moving window sizes. Within each radius, we evaluated the total area and spatial distribution of the WUI types, as well as the number of buildings within WUI and within the fire perimeters recorded between the years 2000 and 2022 and analysed the differences between municipalities. We then compared the mapped WUI with previous WUI mappings for mainland Portugal, to identify common spots and potential spatial divergences. We found that the area mapped as WUI within all four municipalities ranged from about 400 km2 to 1135 km2 depending on the radius size. A distinct distribution for each type of WUI was observed as the radius size increased: the intermix WUI showed a tendency to increase, and the interface WUI increased only between the radius of 100 and 200 m, decreasing gradually in subsequent radii. Between 39.4% and 45.5% of the nearly 200,000 buildings in the study areas were within WUI, depending on radius size and a total of 5436 buildings were within the historic fire perimeter. Although the comparison with other maps showed fair agreement, due to differences in data and methodology, common areas mapped as WUI were found, which suggests that these areas should receive greater attention from decision-makers regarding fire management strategies, since their classification as WUI remains consistent across different methodologies.publishersversionpublishe

Simmel’s view to overcome otherness towards a democratic world

UID/SOC/04647/2019With the purpose of contextualizing in sociological terms the pervasive discrimination that Gypsies/Roma people are continuously suffering in Portugal, we explore here some contributions of Simmel's epistemological analysis, mainly from his texts Bridge and Door, Excursus on the Stranger and The Lye, the latter concerning secret societies. In this sense, it is examined how the spatial and social segregation of the Gypsies fosters the conservation of two perfectly rooted and separated moral orders. On the one hand, the Gypsy moral order, bearing on moral precepts that are based on Gypsy origins and traditions; some of them configuring a device marked by intra-ethnic secrecy as clear identity defence strategies against the assimilationist threat. On the other hand, the wider social order that penalizes gypsy people as an unreliable people. Furthermore, Gypsies also do not trust nonGypsies. Notwithstanding, and following Simmel's essay on lying, where he called on “enlightment” to “the removal of the untruths operating in social life” as “entirely democratic in character”, we argue that the existence of more social and educational opportunities for Gypsies is indispensable for the creation of a more just and solidary society. In order to investigate the conditions of possibility of a fairer and more inclusive society, we discuss the findings of an empirical investigation using a scenario-based questionnaire in 3 Portuguese secondary schools, with non-Roma students, about the best way to accommodate Roma school children in their own school. These findings point to two broad perspectives: the assimilation and individualization of the Gypsies.publishersversionpublishe

Uncovering Vegetation Changes in the Urban–Rural Interface through Semi-Automatic Methods

Barbosa, B., Rocha, J., Costa, H., & Caetano, M. (2022). Uncovering Vegetation Changes in the Urban–Rural Interface through Semi-Automatic Methods. Applied Sciences, 12(5), 1-14. [2294]. https://doi.org/10.3390/app12052294 -------------- Funding: This research was funded by Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, I.P. (FCT), under the framework of the Project “FORESTER—Data fusion of sensor networks and fire spread modelling for decision support in forest fire suppression” [name of funder] grant number PCIF/SSI/0102/2017. The APC was funded by the Research Unit UIDB/00295/2020 and UIDP/00295/2020.Forest fires are considered by Portuguese civil protection as one of the most serious natural disasters due to their frequency and extent. To address the problem, the Fire Forest Defense System establishes the implementation of fuel management bands to aid firefighting. The aim of this study was to develop a model capable of identifying vegetation removal in the urban–rural interface defined by law for fuel management actions. The model uses normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI) of Sentinel-2 images time series and is based on the Welch t-test to find statistically significant differences between (i) the value of the NDVI in the pixel; (ii) the mean of the NDVI in the pixels of the same land cover type in a radius of 500 m; and (iii) their difference. The model identifies a change when the t-test points for a significant difference of the NDVI value in the ‘pixel’ as comparted to the ‘difference’ but not the ‘mean’. We use a moving window limited to 60 days before and after the analysed date to reduce the phenological variations of vegetation. The model was applied in five municipalities of Portugal and the results are promising to identify the places where the management of fuel bands was not carried out. This indicates which model could be used to assist in the verification of the annual management of the fuel bands defined in the law.publishersversionpublishe

Automatic detection of vegetation cover changes in urban-rural interface areas

Barbosa, B., Rocha, J., Costa, H., & Caetano, M. (2022). Automatic detection of vegetation cover changes in urban-rural interface areas. MethodsX, 9, 1-7. [101643]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mex.2022.101643 ---------- This work was financed by national funds through FCT—Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, I.P., under the framework of the Project “FORESTER - Data fusion of sensor networks and fire spread modelling for decision support in forest fire suppression” [PCIF / SSI / 0102 / 2017] and is relative to a scientific Research Fellowship BI_27_20.The present work started from the need to streamline the process of monitoring changes in vegetation in the in urban-rural interface fuel management bands, defined by Portuguese legislation as areas where the existing biomass must be totally or partially removed. The model developed uses a time series of Sentinel 2 satellite images to search for changes in the vegetation cover in a 100 meters buffer around built-up areas. The use of satellite data allows analysing large areas and speeds up the task of identifying the places where fuel management took place and the places where there is a need to carry out such management. The objective of the proposed method is to give a script in Python language that can verify the cleanliness of vegetation in the fuel management ranges through multi-temporal analysis of satellite images.publishersversionpublishe