Energy certification of existing residential buildings: adaptations to the energy transition

In Portugal, the energy certification of existing buildings is mandatory since 2009 in the sales or lease contract. This obligation, imposed by the first legislation of the SCE (Energy Certification System) was based on the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive from 2002. Since then, the SCE legislation has been undergoing constant changes. The last change concerns Decree-Law No. 101-D / 2020, with practical application from July 1, 2021. More than a decade later and considering that the validity period of the energy certificate for residential buildings is ten years, the objective of this work is to present a reflection on the evolution of concepts and methodologies for calculating energy performance. The procedures for issuing the energy certificate, the content, and the graphic image, will also be analyzed. For this purpose, a single-family building, built in the 1990s and certified in November 2010, is used as an example.info:eu-repo/semantics/submittedVersio

Energy rehabilitation of residential buildings: proposed solutions for Bragança city

Portugal is committed to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, intending to comply with the Paris Agreement on climate change and global warming. Renovating existing buildings is particularly relevant for decarbonization, and the long-term renovation strategy (LTRS) defines how to achieve this goal. In Bragança city, more than 50% of the existing buildings are recent, built after 1981, and only 6% of them consider the first regulation based on the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive. It can be concluded that there is a considerable number of buildings, built without any legislation or based on poor thermal legislation, which requires adaptations to the new requirements of thermal comfort and energy performance in the coming years. Based on a study of the residential energy buildings characterization in the city of Bragança, this work intends to present a set of intervention proposals to improve their energy efficiency, meeting the requirements of recent national legislation on the energy performance of buildings following the LTRS Principles.info:eu-repo/semantics/submittedVersio

Marital Satisfaction of Portuguese Families in Times of Social Lockdown

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic represents a global threat and crisis situation, and its wide-reaching impact has also affected marital satisfaction. Dysfunction of the marital system puts the survival of the family unit at risk. This research aimed to determine the level of marital satisfaction of Portuguese families during the social lockdown and the association between the variables under study. A descriptive, exploratory study was conducted. During the social lockdown, 276 people of Portuguese nationality and residing in Portugal were recruited using nonprobabilistic convenience sampling. Marital satisfaction in the pandemic phase showed low values that may be associated with the social, economic, and political context experienced by the pandemic situation. Future research must be carried out in order to identify, prevent, and intervene in situations of violence. In addition, future research should explore not only marital satisfaction during the current pandemic but a more systemic assessment of marital relations during crises, expanding the impact of marital satisfaction in family functioning.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Cuidadores familiares: o que eles necessitam? Uma revisão integrativa

OBJETIVO Este estudio tuvo como objetivo identificar cuáles son las principales necesidades manifiestas por el cuidador familiar en el cuidado a la persona dependiente. MÉTODO Se llevó a cabo una revisión integrativa de la literatura en el período entre 2010 y 2015 con el recurso de instrumentos de búsqueda específicos, en las bases de datos EBSCO y SCOPUS. RESULTADOS Fueron seleccionados 11 artículos. El análisis de la evidencia científica permitió organizar los resultados en cinco áreas temáticas: la transición al cuidar, el ser responsable de todo, la importancia del soporte, el acceso a los apoyos formales, la comunicación y la información en la toma de decisión. CONCLUSIÓN Los resultados demuestran que el cuidador presenta innumerables necesidades en áreas distintas, las que se deben abordar en las intervenciones de enfermería.OBJETIVO Este estudo teve como objetivo identificar quais as principais necessidades manifestadas pelo cuidador familiar no cuidado à pessoa dependente. MÉTODO Realizou-se uma revisão integrativa da literatura no período entre 2010 e 2015 com o recurso de instrumentos de busca específicos, nas bases de dados EBSCO e SCOPUS. RESULTADOS Foram selecionados 11 artigos A análise da evidência científica obtida permitiu organizar os resultados em cinco áreas temáticas: a transição para o cuidar, o ser responsável por tudo, a importância do suporte, o acesso aos apoios formais, a comunicação e a informação na tomada de decisão. CONCLUSÃO Os resultados demonstram que o cuidador apresenta inúmeras necessidades em áreas distintas,as quais devem ser abordadasnas intervenções de enfermagem.OBJECTIVE Aimed to identify the main needs expressed by family caregivers in caring for adependent person. METHOD An integrative review of the literature in the period between 2010 and 2015 using specific search engine tools in the EBSCO and SCOPUSdatabases. RESULTS 11 articles were selected, and the analysis of the scientific evidence obtained allowed for organizing the results into five thematic areas:transition into care, being responsible for everything, the importance of support, access to formal support, communication and informationprocesses. CONCLUSION The results showed that caregivers have many needs in different areas, which should be addressed in nursing interventions

Methamphetamine promotes a-tubulin deacetylation in endothelial cells: The protective role of acetyl-L-carnitine

Methamphetamine (METH) is a powerful psychostimulant drug used worldwide for its reinforcing properties. In addition to the classic long-lasting monoaminergic-disrupting effects extensively described in the literature, METH has been consistently reported to increase blood brain barrier (BBB) permeability, both in vivo and in vitro, as a result of tight junction and cytoskeleton disarrangement. Microtubules play a critical role in cell stability, which relies on post-translational modifications such as a-tubulin acetylation. As there is evidence that psychostimulants drugs modulate the expression of histone deacetylases (HDACs), we hypothesized that in endothelial cells METH-mediation of cytoplasmatic HDAC6 activity could affect tubulin acetylation and further contribute to BBB dysfunction. To validate our hypothesis, we exposed the bEnd.3 endothelial cells to increasing doses of METH and verified that itleads to an extensivea-tubulin deacetylation mediated by HDACs activation. Furthermore, since we recently reported that acetyl-L-carnitine (ALC), a natural occurring compound, prevents BBB structural loss in a context of METH exposure, we reasoned that ALC could also preserve the acetylation of microtubules under METH action. The present results confirm that ALC is able to prevent METH-induced deacetylation providing effective protection on microtubule acetylation. Although further investigation is still needed, HDACs regulation may become a new therapeutic target for ALC

Effect of increased air pressure in gluconic acid production by Aspergillus niger

Gluconic acid (GA) is an organic acid with many applications in food and chemical industries. GA is produced mainly by biotechnological processes and Aspergillus niger is the most used microorganism. This acid is obtained by the oxidation of glucose catalyzed by the enzyme glucose oxidase and this reaction has a high oxygen demand. Usually, oxygen is the major limiting factor of the process in common stirred tank bioreactors. This limitation can be overcome by increasing the total air pressure of the bioreactor. The goal of this work is the study of the improvement of oxygen mass transfer rate (OTR) from air to culture medium in the production of GA by A. niger 9213 using an hyperbaric bioreactor. Batch cultures were performed using glucose as substrate in the presence of calcium carbonate, in a stainless steel stirred tank bioreactor of 400 mL of working volume, at 1 vvm of aeration rate under 1 bar and 4 bar of total air pressure, corresponding to OTR values of 384 mg·L-1h-1 and 768 mg·L-1h-1, respectively. The increase of air pressure led to a significant improvement of GA production. A 5-fold increase on GA productivity was reached (around 3 g·L-1h-1) by the air pressure raise as well as on glucose uptake rate. The positive effect of pressure on GA production by A. niger was obtained using spores solution as inoculum or a pre-grown mycelium culture. The use of air pressure increase is an effective alternative way of OTR improvement and this showed its applicability for GA production. It presents several advantages compared to the use of oxygen-enriched air that is costly and requires special handling.This study was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) under the scope of the strategic funding of UID/BIO/04469/2019 unit and the PhD grant SFRH/BD/129475/2017, and BioTecNorte operation (NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000004) funded by the European Regional Development Fund under the scope of Norte2020 - Programa Operacional Regional do Norte.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Biotransformation/separation routes to obtain pure enantiomers

The objective of the work presented in this thesis was the development of an innovative approach for the separation of enantiomers of secondary alcohols, combining the use of an ionic liquid (IL) - both as solvent for conducting enzymatic kinetic resolution and as acylating agent - with the use of carbon dioxide (CO2) as solvent for extraction. Menthol was selected for testing this reaction/separation approach due to the increasing demand for this substance, which is widely used in the pharmaceutical, cosmetics and food industries. With a view to using an ionic ester as acylating agent, whose conversion led to the release of ethanol, and due to the need to remove this alcohol so as to drive reaction equilibrium forward, a phase equilibrium study was conducted for the ehtanol/(±)-menthol/CO2 system, at pressures between 8 and 10 MPa and temperatures between 40 and 50 oC. It was found that CO2 is more selective towards ethanol, especially at the lowest pressure and highest temperature tested, leading to separation factors in the range 1.6-7.6. The pressure-temperature-composition data obtained were correlated with the Peng-Robinson equation of state and the Mathias-Klotz-Prausnitz mixing rule. The model fit the experimental results well, with an average absolute deviation (AAD) of 3.7 %. The resolution of racemic menthol was studied using two lipases, namely lipase from Candida rugosa (CRL) and immobilized lipase B from Candida antarctica (CALB), and two ionic acylating esters. No reaction was detected in either case. (R,S)-1-phenylethanol was used next, and it was found that with CRL low, nonselective, conversion of the alcohol took place, whereas CALB led to an enantiomeric excess (ee) of the substrate of 95%, at 30% conversion. Other acylating agents were tested for the resolution of (±)-menthol, namely vinyl esters and acid anhydrides, using several lipases and varying other parameters that affect conversion and enantioselectivity, such as substrate concentration, solvent and temperature. One such acylating agent was propionic anhydride. It was thus performed a phase equilibrium study on the propionic anhydride/CO2 system, at temperatures between 35 and 50 oC. This study revealed that, at 35 oC and pressures from 7 MPa, the system is monophasic for all compositions. The enzymatic catalysis studies carried out with propionic anhydride revealed that the extent of noncatalyzed reaction was high, with a negative effect on enantioselectivity. These studies showed also that it was possible to reduce considerably the impact of the noncatalyzed reaction relative to the reaction catalyzed by CRL by lowering temperature to 4 oC. Vinyl decanoate was shown to lead to the best results at conditions amenable to a process combining the use of supercritical CO2 as agent for post-reaction separation. The use of vinyl decanoate in a number of IL solvents, namely [bmim][PF6], [bmim][BF4], [hmim][PF6], [omim][PF6], and [bmim][Tf2N], led to an enantiomeric excess of product (eep) values of over 96%, at about 50% conversion, using CRL. In n-hexane and supercritical CO2, reaction progressed more slowly.(...

Uncovering the business opportunity prototype: Cognitive and learning aspects of entrepreneurial opportunity recognition in higher education

JEL Classification System: L260 Entrepreneurship; M130 New Firms; StartupsThe research project underlying this thesis focuses on three main aspects of entrepreneurship. First, we focus on opportunity recognition as the point of departure for entrepreneurial thinking and entrepreneurial activity. Secondly, we propose that basic perceptive cognitive structures (such as prototypes) are fundamental to recognize opportunities at early stages of development of the entrepreneurial mindset. Third, we focus on cognitive and learning aspects of opportunity recognition with individuals in higher education. To explore these topics, the present thesis is divided in two parts. Part I focuses on the theoretical and empirical development of the topic on business opportunity prototype for opportunity recognition and includes three studies. Study 1 provides a systematic literature review of prototypes in entrepreneurship research. A theoretical model based on this analysis is presented and empirically tested on the remaining studies of the thesis. Study 2 explores the role of the context of business opportunity recognition on the identification of its prototypical features. Study 3 proposes a simplified business opportunity prototype to describe how individuals with no entrepreneurial experience perceive business opportunities from early stages of the entrepreneurial mindset. Part II focuses on the training and learning aspects of cognitive structures regarding opportunity recognition and includes one empirical study. Study 4 focuses on the effect of cognitive training and experiential learning on the development and accuracy of the business opportunity prototype. Moreover, the moderator role of positive affect towards entrepreneurship is tested in the learning process. This thesis aims to contribute to the enrichment of entrepreneurship as a field of research from a theoretical and conceptual, empirical, and practice perspectives.O presente trabalho de investigação foca três aspetos principais da investigação em empreendedorismo. Primeiramente, este trabalho foca o reconhecimento de oportunidades como o ponto de partida para o pensamento e atividade empreendedores. Em segundo lugar, propomos que estruturas cognitivas básicas, como os protótipos, são fundamentais para reconhecer oportunidades de negócio numa fase inicial do pensamento empreendedor. Em terceiro lugar, focamos aspetos relacionados com a aprendizagem e desenvolvimento destas estruturas cognitivas em indivíduos no ensino superior. Esta tese está organizada em duas partes. A Parte I destina-se ao desenvolvimento teórico e empírico sobre o protótipo de reconhecimento de oportunidades de negócio e inclui três estudos. O estudo 1 apresenta uma revisão de literatura sistemática sobre protótipos na investigação em empreendedorismo. O estudo 2 analisa o papel do contexto de reconhecimento de oportunidades de negócio na identificação das suas características prototípicas. O estudo 3 propõe um modelo simplificado de protótipo de reconhecimento de oportunidades de negócio para explicar a forma como indivíduos em estados iniciais da experiência empreendedora percecionam oportunidades. A Parte II foca o desenvolvimento e aprendizagem cognitiva com foco no reconhecimento de oportunidades de negócio. Esta parte inclui um estudo empírico (estudo 4) que analisa o efeito do treino cognitivo e aprendizagem por experiências no desenvolvimento e utilização eficaz do protótipo de reconhecimento de oportunidades de negócio. O papel moderador dos afetos positivos relativamente a atividades empreendedoras é explorado neste processo de aprendizagem. Esta tese pretende contribuir para o enriquecimento teórico, conceptual e empírico da investigação em empreendedorismo, fornecendo igualmente importantes contribuições para a prática da atividade empreendedora