O combate à exclusão social através de programas de Turismo Social para famílias economicamente carenciadas

O turismo oferece oportunidades para explorar novos ambientes e para participar em novas situações, que podem proporcionar vários benefícios para os turistas. Apesar do reconhecimento desses potenciais benefícios e de o turismo ser uma actividade em crescimento, permanecem algumas dúvidas acerca dos impactes sociais do turismo para os turistas e existem, ainda, muitos constrangimentos à prática turística. O baixo nível de rendimento é um desses constrangimentos, transformando o turismo numa actividade inacessível para muitos grupos na sociedade, mesmo nas economias desenvolvidas. Neste contexto, o Turismo Social aparece como tentativa de restaurar a igualdade de acesso ao turismo, integrando objectivos relacionados com o combate à pobreza e exclusão social. Não obstante esta realidade, existem poucos estudos que analisam o turismo para grupos economicamente carenciados, sendo esta uma área de investigação pouco estudada. Este estudo visa analisar os potenciais benefícios de Programas de Turismo Social para famílias economicamente carenciadas e estudar alguns Programas de Turismo Social existentes para este segmento. Com esse intuito, efectuou-se uma análise de conteúdo de diversas publicações, que permitiu: (i) conhecer o tipo de benefícios da prática turística para famílias carenciadas; (ii) verificar o surgimento recente de alguns Programas de Turismo Social para este segmento; e (iii) apresentar as principais características de cada um desses Programas

Application of lean production principles and tools for quality improvement of production processes in a carton company

"27th International Conference on Flexible Automation and Intelligent Manufacturing, FAIM2017, 27-30 June 2017, Modena, Italy"This work presents an industrial case study focused on improving the quality of production processes, using lean production tools. The analysis of the initial situation was done using cause-effect diagrams, Pareto’s analysis, study of setup times and performance indicators, allowing identifying the main problems, such as high setup times, low availability of machines, lack of organization in the working area. Improvement proposals were implemented in the bonding section, like the SMED methodology, the 5S technique and visual management. As result it was achieved an average reduction of 47% in the setup time, corresponding to 10114€ of monthly profit.This work has been supported by COMPETE: POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043 and FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2013.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Influence of Listeria innocua on the growth of Listeria monocytogenes

The growth of Listeria monocytogenes and Listeria innocua strains was monitored during this study: (i) in TSB–YE media and (ii) in a food matrix (pasteurized milk) according to the ISO 11290-1 methodology. Different inocula concentrations and mixtures were tested. The response was shown to be strain dependent. In TSB–YE the inhibition of a L. monocytogenes strain was observed in just one of the three mixtures (L. monocytogenes_1340 with L. innocua_11288) showing a reduction of 1.37 log cfu/ml after 42.5 h and 1.85 log after 66.5 h of incubation. In pasteurized milk the inhibition of L. monocytogenes by L. innocua was always observed when L. innocua was present in higher concentrations than L. monocytogenes. The reverse was also observed but only in one mixture (cocktail of six L. monocytogenes with L. innocua_ 2030c) when the initial concentration of L. monocytogenes was 100 times higher than L. innocua suggesting the phenomenon of quorum sensing. Furthermore, inhibitory activity was not caused by bacteriocins, and no correlation between the growth rate and inhibition was demonstrated.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Effective radio resource management for multimedia broadcast/multicast services in UMTS networks

WOS:000242097300001 (Nº de Acesso Web of Science)Broadcast and multicast offer a significant improvement of spectrum utilization, and become particularly important where information channels are shared among several users. Mobile cellular environments are expected to evolve with the technological approaches necessary to facilitate the deployment of multimedia services, such as streaming, file download, and carousel services. The perspective that video streaming in wireless networks services is an attractive service to end-users has spurred the research in this area. To provide for a video delivery platform in UMTS, the third generation partnership project (3GPP) addressed this problem with the introduction of the multimedia broadcast and multicast services (MBMS) in 3GPP Release 6. In this document we analyse several effective radio resource management techniques to provide MBMS, namely, use of nonuniform QAM constellations, multicode, and macrodiversity to guarantee the optimal distribution of QoS depending on the location of mobiles.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Solvation of alkane and alcohol molecules. Energy contributions

In this work we conduct a systematic ab initio study of the solvation of small alkane, monoalcohol and diol molecules, in polar solvents with different properties. A choice of basis set suitable for the type of compounds under study is presented. The various components of the solvent–solute interaction and the cavitation energy are treated individually and their variation with chain length and introduction of hydroxy groups assessed. The use of solute molecules in which controlled changes are imposed allows for an estimation of the relative contributions, thus eliminating accidental error cancellation.Fundacão para a Ciência e Tecnologia SAPIENS POCTI/35415/QUI/200

Late Holocene evolution of the Lower Tagus alluvial plain and heavy metals content: preliminary results

This paper aims to contribute to the fluvial dynamic knowledge of the Lower Tagus during the late Holocene. Two cores were done in selected geomorphological positions at the alluvial plain. Each ten centimeters of sediments were submitted to sedimentological and geochemical analyses in order to identify human contamination by heavy metals, sedimentation rates and environmental changes in the main channel position. The main conclusions are: (1) The witness of the lateral migration of the fluvial channel; (2) The very irregular sedimentation rate, from 3mm per year to 0.1mm per year; (3) The diversified contamination of fluvial sediments and fluvial channels by heavy metals, namely Cu due to cooper sulphate vineyards and Pb due to petrol and Cr from the tanning industries.Este trabajo pretende contribuir al conocimiento de la dinámica fluvial del curso inferior del río Tajo durante el Holoceno final. Se han realizado dos sondeos en lugares seleccionados de la llanura aluvial. Muestras del sedimento obtenidas cada diez centímetros se han analizado con el fin de identificar la contaminación humana con metales pesados, las tasas de sedimentación y posibles cambios en la posición del cauce principal. Las conclusiones más importantes son: (1) La prueba de la existencia de migración lateral del cauce fluvial; (2) La gran irregularidad de la tasa de sedimentación, que varia entre 0,1 y 3mm por año; (3) La variada contaminación de los sedimentos fluviales y de los cauces por metales pesados, especialmente Cu debido a la aplicación de sulfato de cobre en viñedos, Pb debido al petróleo y Cr por las industrias de curtidos.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Durability of carbon fibre reinforced polymer laminates

Due to their excellent mechanical properties and easy application Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymers (CFRP) are being successfully used to repair and renew old and damaged civil engineering infrastructures. In particular, the method of strengthening concrete members with externally bonding of CFRP laminates has become increasingly popular. In fact, extensive research has shown that this technique can lead to a substantial improvement in the fl exural and shear strength capacities of the member repaired. In such applications, materials involved will be exposed to outdoor environmental conditions, including humidity, water from rain, saline-water, ground water and high alkalinity solutions due to chemical composition of the concrete itself, as well as solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Thus, it is of great relevancy to study the durability of the materials involved, namely epoxy adhesives and CFRP laminates, as well as, the integrity of the entire system, when subjected to those environmental factors. This work is part of a much larger research study to predict the long-term behaviour of several commercial CFRP laminate/adhesive systems used in the rehabilitation of concrete structures. In the whole project it is recognised that the durability of these solutions depends not only on the durability of the composite materials but also on the performance of the systems used to bond them to the concrete. This present document provides details about the durability of CFRP laminates and the study carried out to investigate the environmental and accelerated ageing effects on three types of commercially available CFRP laminates. The changes in CFRP laminates properties after exposure up to 18 months under different environmental conditions – immersion in demineralised water, saline and alkaline solutions at room temperature, 40 ° C and 60 °C, as well as under constant humidity condensation atmosphere at 40 ° C – are reported and discussed. The results of tests performed in accelerated weathering chambers – with UV radiation – are also included. Results obtained offer valuable information about the progression of material degradation under different ageing conditions (some of them accelerated), which can be used, not only to characterise the behaviour of CFRP laminates, but also for a better understanding of the degradation mechanisms involved, which is a base for the design of service life-prediction models

New Method for Increasing Sustainable Agricultural Yield

The main objective of this study is to look for a new method, to obtain the maximum production, and the minimum economic and environmental cost. Scientific advances in bioclimatology have brought a greater understanding of the functioning of plant individuals, populations and communities, and the study and interpretation of bioclimatic indices reveals the close relationship between the values of these indices and crop yields. In cases where insufficient meteorological data are available to allow the various formulas to be applied, thermoclimatic and ombroclimatic bioindicators must be used, some of which have been collected by us in previous works. This paper contains a bioclimatic study of the southern Iberian Peninsula in relation to the main olive varieties grown in these territories. We establish the values of some key indices for cultivation: continentality index (Ic), which determines the annual thermal range and allows us to establish the period of vegetative activity (PAV); the ombrothermic index (Io), which measures the ombrotype in the different sites; and the thermicity and compensated thermicity index, which denote the thermotype in the territory (It/Itc). In the relationship between the value of the bioclimatic indices and olive production, good fits are obtained in the regression analysis with R2> 0.90, and is very positive influence of the different parameters used. In conclusion the greatest influence on the production of Ic is between 18.5-19.5, Io 3.5-4.5 and It / Itc 320-350. This allows to obtain areas of maximum production with a lower economic cost

Aplicação exploratória de análise multicritério para representação municipal da susceptibilidade a cheias rápidas em Portugal continental

[...] Este estudo descreve uma metodologia exploratória de avaliação de susceptibilidade a cheias rápidas para Portugal Continental, adotando uma abordagem multicritério, a partir de um conjunto de 9 fatores condicionantes, definidos ao município: escoamento acumulado, hierarquia fluvial de Strahler, rugosidade, declive, depósitos aluvionares, grau de impermeabilização, litologia de elevada permeabilidade, Landform Classification e escoamento anual. A atribuição do peso de cada fator baseou-se em Análise Hierárquica de Processos (AHP) [...]info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Damaging flood risk in the Portuguese municipalities

Modeling and understanding the impact of climate change on flooding processes in Mediterranean climate areas, namely in southern Europe, is a complex endeavor, which must also consider exposure and vulnerability patterns. Assuming that vulnerability plays a relevant role in explaining the degree of loss due to natural hazards, the present research compares a flood-susceptibility index with a social-vulnerability index and a historical record of flood losses, both aggregated at the municipal level. The purpose of this research is to define municipal flood risk profiles that would rank the 278 municipalities and contribute to the strategic allocation of resources and flood risk management [...]info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio