Metodologia para diagnóstico e intervenção em edifícios correntes: habitação social no Porto e Recife

De acordo com o INE (2010), o parque de habitação social distribui-se por 246 Municípios, sendo constituído por cerca de 97 mil fogos e 22 mil edifícios. O município do Porto detém 12 682 fogos, correspondendo a 13% do total. Durante o ano de 2009 os municípios portugueses executaram obras de conservação em 2 252 edifícios (10,2% do total) e procederam à reabilitação de 6 636 fogos (6,8% do total). Este património municipal gerou, em 2009, uma receita média por fogo de 706 euros, entre rendas cobradas e fogos vendidos. Por seu lado a despesa média (incluindo os encargos fixos) ficou-se pelos 676 euros por fogo. Atendendo apenas a estas rubricas de receitas e despesas relacionadas com o parque de habitação social dos municípios, verifica-se a existência de um “défice” nas regiões do Norte de 12,7 milhões, o que demonstra o investimento em curso actualmente. O Município do Porto registou um défice superior a 1 000 euros por fogo (receita de 604 euros e despesa de 1 718 euros). A Habitação Social resulta de uma necessidade passada e presente de pensar nas pessoas, isto é, pensar numa política de valorização da qualidade de vida da população que passando muito pela habitação, não acaba nela. A política social da habitação dá início a um processo global de melhoria da qualidade de vida das pessoas, sendo necessário fazer coincidir a melhoria das condições de alojamento, com a melhoria das condições envolventes aos conjuntos habitacionais. Só com uma participação activa dos moradores é possível a sua identificação com o conjunto habitacional onde residem. A missão descrita é incompatível com habitação social em deficiente estado de conservação ou mesmo muito degradada, tal como se verifica em inúmeros países. Importa desta forma assegurar a reabilitação deste património construído e a sua posterior conservação. Nos últimos anos ocorreram desenvolvimentos muito significativos no que diz respeito à capacidade de utilizar técnicas experimentais (in situ ou em laboratório) e simulações em computador. Um aspecto relevante é que a engenharia “de conservação” deve ter uma abordagem e capacidade diferentes das usadas em construções novas. Frequentemente, os materiais e técnicas tradicionais são desconhecidos para os envolvidos. Também se verifica que a tendência das entidades reguladoras e dos projectistas para que os regulamentos actuais sejam cumpridos. Isto é muitas vezes inaceitável, visto que os regulamentos foram escritos tendo em mente outras formas de construção, pelo que a sua aplicação em materiais, tecnologias e formas tradicionais é excessivamente conservadora ou penalizadora. A necessidade de reconhecer a diferença entre o projecto moderno e a conservação também é relevante no contexto dos custos associados à contribuição da engenharia. O procedimento habitual de cálculo de honorários de engenharia, como uma percentagem do trabalho realizado, está claramente em oposição com as melhores práticas de conservação. Ser capaz de recomendar não tomar qualquer medida pode, na realidade, implicar mais estudos e mais custos reais do que uma recomendação para grandes intervenções. Os procedimentos das intervenções modernas exigem um levantamento cuidado da construção, bem como a compreensão da sua história, tendo em vista obter um diagnóstico claro, que requer muitas vezes técnicas de inspecção adequadas e experiência adquirida relevante, num processo muito semelhante à medicina Após reconstituir o historial do paciente (o edifício) e requerer exames (técnicas de inspecção e ensaios), é possível um diagnóstico. Este diagnóstico permite, se necessário, uma terapia adequada (projecto de intervenção) e o respectivo controlo de resultados (monitorização dos resultados). Tendo em vista demonstrar a abordagem metodológica necessária, no presente artigo serão apresentados casos de estudo em Portugal e Brasil, onde os autores estiveram envolvidos

Safety analysis of modern heritage masonry buildings : box-buildings in Recife, Brazil

Box-buildings are structural masonry buildings named as such because of their shape. There are around 5,000 of them in Recife, Brazil. This paper presents a safety analysis of one box-building that suffered collapse on December 2007. The research aims at quantifying the safety of this type of existing buildings and at better understanding their structural behavior to try to identify the reasons for the collapse. A finite element model was prepared and a set of nonlinear numerical analyses were performed. The results of the analyses show good agreement between the observed damage in the real building and the damage achieved numerically at the current condition (LF=1). The model thus seems to represent satisfactorily the real behavior of the building but the safety factor obtained seems too conservative and does not justify the collapse observed in reality. Since results show that the building should not have failed under normal working conditions, a collapse assessment about why the building fell is therefore provided and a sensitivity analysis was performed in order to understand the importance of the material parameters and their influence on the structural response of the building

Quality monitoring of biodiesel and diesel/biodiesel blends: a comparison between benchtop FT-NIR versus a portable miniaturized NIR spectroscopic analysis

A methodology such as near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy, which enables in situ and in real-time analysis, is crucial to perform quality control of biodiesel, since it is blended into diesel fuel and the presence of contaminants can hinder its performance. This work aimed to compare the performance of a benchtop Fourier Transform (FT) NIR spectrometer with a prototype of a portable, miniaturized near-infrared spectrometer (miniNIR) to detect and quantify contaminants in biodiesel and biodiesel in diesel. In general, good models based on principal component analysis-linear discriminant analysis (PCA-LDA) of FT-NIR spectra were obtained, predicting with high accuracies biodiesel contaminants and biodiesel in diesel (between 75% to 95%), as well as good partial least square (PLS) regression models to predict contaminants concentration in biodiesel and biodiesel concentration in diesel/biodiesel blends, with high coefficients of determination (between 0.83 and 0.99) and low prediction errors. The miniNIR prototype’s PCA-LDA models enabled the prediction of target contaminants with good accuracies (between 66% and 86%), and a PLS model enabled the prediction of biodiesel concentration in diesel with a reasonable coefficient of determination (0.68), pointing to the device’s potential for preliminary analysis of biodiesel which, associated with its potential low cost and portability, could increase biodiesel quality control.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Evaluation of structural intervention in the Quartel das Esquadras, Almeida (Portugal)

The Quartel das Esquadras is an 18th century infantry barrack located within the limits of the bulwarked fortress of Almeida, in Portugal. An ongoing adaptive reuse project of the building aims to recover its full capacity and also its importance to the fortified village of Almeida, by implementing a variety of new uses. While adaptive reuse projects of historical buildings are a very recommendable solution for maintaining those constructions whose use has become obsolete, these projects demand careful study because they may introduce changes in the structural behaviour of the buildings to preserve.The architectural intervention results in the need of the structure to withstand new and diverse imposed loads, as well as inserting passages and communication systems to enable a proper contemporary use of the building, fulfilling architectural requirements and current building codes. As the current configuration of the structure will be altered, the main objective of this paper is to evaluate the suitability of some of the proposed structural interventions. Such evaluation requires a good understanding of the current state of the structure and the alterations proposed by the project. The current condition has been characterized following a multidisciplinary approach comprising historical research, visual inspection, non-destructive testing and structural analysis. The alterations proposed by the project have been described, identifying possible sources of major structural problems. A portion of the building particularly affected by the alterations has been selected to carry out structural analysis. A comparative safety assessment of the selected area in both current and altered condition has been done through finite element modelling and nonlinear static analysis, resulting in an identification of the weaker points against the new implemented loads and alterations. Finally, proposals for the implementation of the studied intervention, as well as recommendations for future research and analyses, have been given.- (undefined

Evaluation of structural intervention in the Quartel das Esquadras, Almeida (Portugal)

The Quartel das Esquadras is an 18th century infantry barrack located within the limits of the bulwarked fortress of Almeida, in Portugal. An ongoing adaptive reuse project of the building aims to recover its full capacity and also its importance to the fortified village of Almeida, by implementing a variety of new uses. While adaptive reuse projects of historical buildings are a very recommendable solution for maintaining those constructions whose use has become obsolete, these projects demand careful study because they may introduce changes in the structural behaviour of the buildings to preserve. The architectural intervention results in the need of the structure to withstand new and diverse imposed loads, as well as inserting passages and communication systems to enable a proper contemporary use of the building, fulfilling architectural requirements and current building codes. As the current configuration of the structure will be altered, the main objective of this paper is to evaluate the suitability of some of the proposed structural interventions. Such evaluation requires a good understanding of the current state of the structure and the alterations proposed by the project. The current condition has been characterized following a multidisciplinary approach comprising historical research, visual inspection, non-destructive testing and structural analysis. The alterations proposed by the project have been described, identifying possible sources of major structural problems. A portion of the building particularly affected by the alterations has been selected to carry out structural analysis. A comparative safety assessment of the selected area in both current and altered condition has been done through finite element modelling and nonlinear static analysis, resulting in an identification of the weaker points against the new implemented loads and alterations. Finally, proposals for the implementation of the studied intervention, as well as recommendations for future research and analyses, have been given.This work was financed by FEDER funds through the Competitiveness Factors Operational Programme - COMPETE and by national funds through FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology within the scope of the project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007633

Biochemical network analysis of protein-protein interactions to follow-up T1 bladder cancer patients

PM003/2016). LBC, JLC, CL, RB, and HMS acknowledge the funding provided by the Associate Laboratory for Green Chemistry LAQV which is financed by national funds from FCT/MCTES, Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia and Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Ensino Superior, through the projects UIDB/50006/2020 and UIDP/50006/2020. HMS acknowledges the Associate Laboratory for Green Chemistry-LAQV (LA/P/0008/2020) funded by FCT/MCTES for his research contract. LBC thanks the FCT/MCTES for his Ph.D. grant (SFRH/BD/144222/2019). The mass spectrometry proteomics data have been deposited to the ProteomeXchange Consortium via the PRIDE [30] partner repository with the data set number PXD026784. Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The AuthorsBladder cancer (BCa) is a prevalent disease with a high risk of aggressive recurrence in T1-stage patients. Despite the efforts to anticipate recurrence, a reliable method has yet to be developed. In this work, we employed high-resolution mass spectrometry to compare the urinary proteome of T1-stage BCa patients with recurring versus non-recurring disease to uncover actionable clinical information predicting recurrence. All patients were diagnosed with T1-stage bladder cancer between the ages of 51 and 91, and urine samples were collected before medical intervention. Our results suggest that the urinary myeloperoxidase to cubilin ratio could be used as a new tool for predicting recurrence and that dysregulation of the inflammatory and immune systems may be a key driver of disease worsening. Furthermore, we identified neutrophil degranulation and neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) as key pathways in the progression of T1-stage BCa. We propose that proteomics follow-up of the inflammatory and immune systems may be useful for monitoring the effectiveness of therapy. Significance: This article describes how proteomics can be used to characterize tumor aggressiveness in patients with the same diagnosis of bladder cancer (BCa). LC-MS/MS in combination with label free quantification (LFQ) were used to explore potential protein and pathway level changes related to the aggressiveness of the disease in 13 and 17 recurring and non-recurring T1 stage BCa patients. We have shown that the MPO/CUBN protein ratio is a candidate for a urine prognosis tool in BCa. Furthermore, we identify dysregulation of inflammation process as a driver for BCa recurrence and progression. Moreover, we propose using proteomics to track the effectiveness of therapy in the inflammatory and immune systems.publishersversionpublishe

Integrated structural safety analysis of San Francisco Master Gate in the Fortress of Almeida

After more than 300 years of being exposed to human and nature actions the Master Gate of San Francisco in Almeida, Portugal, has sustained visible extended damage. Although its importance, as a historical monument, is undeniable, no attempts have been done so far to determine its level of safety. In this article, several models are developed in order to achieve this goal. A brief description of the Gate's history is presented followed by a summary of the inspection and diagnosis procedures employed in this study and the results obtained from them. Later, the type of numerical models selected are discussed as well as the methodologies used to represent damage. Finally results from the numerical models are presented in a first attempt to identify the safety level of this historic construction. Results indicate that although the structure has lost a great percentage of its original capacity is still safe.This work was financed by FEDER funds through the Competitiveness Factors Operational Programme - COMPETE and by national funds through FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology within the scope of the project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007633.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Radar investigation on civil structures using 3D data reconstruction and transmission tomography

Non-destructive investigation using Ground Penetrating Radar is becoming more popular during the inspection of civil structures. Currently, traditional 2D imaging is also used as a preliminary tool to find possible areas of interest for more detailed inspection, which can be accomplished by 3D image reconstruction or tomography techniques. In this paper, a general overview of the work done at University of Minho regarding these techniques is presented. Data acquisition was performed on two masonry walls and on one large concrete specimen. In case of masonry specimens traditional 2D imaging was supplemented by the use of transmission tomography. Data acquisition on the concrete specimen was done in reflection mode and results were further processed using 3D reconstruction software. Results from these specimens are very promising. Radar tomography and 3D image reconstruction techniques provided much more detailed information about structural integrity and shapes and location of the voids placed inside the tested specimens relatively to 2D imaging originally used for potential target identification.Portuguese Foundation for the Science and Technology (FCT) - “Sustainable Bridges” European project by the grant number FP6-PLT-01653, grant number POCTI SFRH/BD/6409/200

Ab initio modeling of defects in silicon, germanium and SiGe alloys

Understanding the most elemental defects in semiconductors is a fundamental step to grasp the countless solid-state reactions that may occur during crystal growth, device processing and operation stages. The higher carrier mobilitity in SiGe alloys and germanium, when compared with silicon, and the necessity to a higher K dielectric than SiO2 makes these semiconductors the most contendors to a new generation of electronic devices. Our aim is to model self and impurity point defects in SiGe alloys and germanium, and compare with their equivalent complexes in silicon. We use density functional theory and pseudopotentials to determine the structural, electronic and vibrational properties. The calculations are performed in a 32 CPU PC cluster, in Physics Department of Aveiro University.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT).INTAS

Semi-synthesis of small molecules of aminocarbazoles: tumor growth inhibition and potential impact on p53

The tumor suppressor p53 is inactivated by mutation in approximately 50% of human cancers. Small molecules that bind and stabilize those mutants may represent effective anticancer drugs. Herein, we report the tumor cell growth inhibitory activity of carbazole alkaloids and amino derivatives, as well as their potential activation of p53. Twelve aminocarbazole alkaloids were semi-synthesized from heptaphylline (1), 7-methoxy heptaphylline (2), and 7-methoxymukonal (3), isolated from Clausena harmandiana, using a reductive amination protocol. Naturally-occurring carbazoles 1–3 and their amino derivatives were evaluated for their potential effect on wild-type and mutant p53 activity using a yeast screening assay and on human tumor cell lines. Naturally-occurring carbazoles 1–3 showed the most potent growth inhibitory effects on wild-type p53-expressing cells, being heptaphylline (1) the most promising in all the investigated cell lines. However, compound 1 also showed growth inhibition against non-tumor cells. Conversely, semi-synthetic aminocarbazole 1d showed an interesting growth inhibitory activity in tumor cells expressing both wild-type and mutant p53, exhibiting low growth inhibition on non-tumor cells. The yeast assay showed a potential reactivation of mutant p53 by heptaphylline derivatives, including compound 1d. The results obtained indicate that carbazole alkaloids may represent a promising starting point to search for new mutp53-reactivating agents with promising applications in cancer therapy.The authors thank to national funds provided by FCT—Foundation for Science and Technology and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and COMPETE under the Strategic Funding of CIIMAR UIDB/04423/2020 (Natural Products and Medicinal Chemistry) and LAQV/REQUIMTE (UID/QUI/50006/2020), the project PTDC/SAU-PUB/28736/2017 (reference POCI-01–0145-FEDER028736), PTDC/DTP-FTO/1981/2014-POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016581). We also thank FCT for the fellowship SFRH/BD/128673/2017 (J. Loureiro). Ploenthip Puthongking thanks Thailand Research Fund (DBG6080006), Thailand