Estudo e avaliação da sustentabilidade do aproveitamento da água da Ribeira dos Bispos (São Miguel)

Mestrado (Trabalho de Projeto), Engenharia e Gestão de Sistemas de Água, 13 de novembro de 2019, Universidade dos Açores.Nos últimos anos tem-se assistido a uma subida dos preços dos combustíveis fósseis o que motiva a procura por outras soluções que promovam o desenvolvimento sustentável. A necessidade de aumentar e diversificar as formas de produção de energia elétrica suscitou mudanças na política energética que incentivam a produção através de recursos de origem renovável. A quantidade de água que é desperdiçada para o mar nos Açores, sem que lhe seja dado qualquer uso, é elevada e isso motiva a procura desse recurso para a sua valorização. Assim, passa pelos objetivos deste projeto valorizar o recurso água, através do conhecimento das características gerais de uma mini-hídrica de baixa queda e os procedimentos que antecedem a fase de construção ou no caso estudado, a fase de transformação de antigos moinhos para produção de energia. Pretende-se realizar o dimensionamento dos principais componentes que constituem uma mini-hídrica, nomeadamente, o canal de adução e o conjunto turbina-gerador. O estudo da arte foi realizado para dois pequenos moinhos, situados na ribeira dos Bispos, no concelho da Povoação, após a impossibilidade de aproveitamento na ribeira do Purgar, devido à falta de dados sobre o caudal e à inexistência de zonas com queda de água significativa. Analisou-se as características do local (queda), do recurso hídrico (caudal) e infraestruturas existentes, permitindo a escolha da turbina, a verificação do canal de adução, estimar a potência nominal a instalar e a energia produzida em ano médio. Por último, foi feito um estudo de viabilidade considerando a valorização patrimonial a par do aluguer dos moinhos para turismo rural.ABSTRACT: In recent years, we’ve been watching a rise on fossil fuels price, which motivates the search for other solutions that promote sustainable growth. The need to increase and diversificate the ways of producing electric energy evokes changes on our energy policy that encourage its production through resources of renewable origin. The amounts of water that is wasted for the Açores sea, without any use, its high and that motivates a search for this resource and its appraisement. There for, goes through the objectives of this dissertation valorize the water resource, through the general knowledge of a mini-hydric whit low fall and the procedures that precede the construction phase or in the study case, transformation phase of old mills for the energy production. It is intended to do a dimensioning of the main components that constitute a mini-hydric, namely, the aduccion channel, and the turbine-generator compound. The art study was done for two small mills, located in Ribeira dos Bispos, on the Povoação district, after the impossibility of exploitation in Ribeira do Purgar, due to lack of data on the flow rate and the lack of significant waterfall zones. The characteristics of the place were analyzed (fall), of the hydric resource (flow rate) and existing infrastructure, allowing to choose the turbine, the aduccion chanel verification, estimate the nominal potency to install and the energy produced in the average year. Lastly, it was made a viability study considering the patrimony increase at par to the renting of the mills for rural tourism

Ciclos integrales de biomasa y desarrollo local. Experiencias aplicadas

Históricamente, la gestión de la biomasa ha constituido una fuente básica de energía y ha contribuido a generar empleo y actividad económica. La difusión los combustibles fósiles y la ampliación de la red eléctrica restringieron el uso de la biomasa (fundamentalmente leña). En otros contextos territoriales este uso se mantuvo y se vio acompañado de importantes innovaciones tecnológicas.Las problemáticas asociadas al consumo de combustibles fósiles han propiciado en la última década un auge de las energías renovables y entre ellas la biomasa. La creación de ciclos integrales de producción y aprovechamiento de biomasa a partir de materiales residuales puede generar interesantes dinámicas favorecedoras del desarrollo local. El artículo, aparte de presentar el estado de la cuestión en la materia, analiza varias de estas experiencias y las ventajas e inconvenientes que suponen

Evaluation of the eNutri automated personalised nutrition advice by users and nutrition professionals in the UK

Nutrition apps have great potential to support people to improve their diets, but few apps give automated validated personalised nutrition advice. A web app capable of delivering automated personalised food-based nutrition advice (eNutri) was developed. The aims of this study were to i) evaluate and optimise the personalised nutrition report provided by the app and ii) compare the personalised food-based advice with nutrition professionals’ standards to aid validation. A study with nutrition professionals (NP) compared the advice provided by the app against professional Registered Dietitians (RD) (n=16) and Registered Nutritionists (RN) (n=16) standards. Each NP received two pre-defined scenarios, comprising an individual’s characteristics and dietary intake based on an analysis of a food frequency questionnaire, along with the nutrition food-based advice that was automatically generated by the app for that individual. NPs were asked to use their professional judgment to consider the scenario, provide their three most relevant recommendations for that individual, then consider the app’s advice and rate their level of agreement via 5-star scales (with 5 as complete agreement). NPs were also asked to comment on the eNutri recommendations, scores generated and overall impression. The mean scores for the appropriateness, relevance and suitability of the eNutri diet messages were 3.5, 3.3 and 3.3 respectively

Diferenças em características morfológicas e fisiológicas foliares entre Tabebuia aurea e T. impetiginosa estão relacionadas aos seus ambientes típicos de ocorrência

Tabebuia é um gênero representativo do bioma Cerrado, ocorrendo em formações savânicas e florestais, que diferem em termos de microclima, disponibilidade hídrica e propriedades do solo. Neste trabalho foi realizado um estudo comparativo de parâmetros morfológicos e fisiológicos entre duas espécies, sendo Tabebuia aurea (Silva Manso) Benth. & Hook. f. ex S. Moore típica de ambientes savânicos, como o cerrado sensu stricto, enquanto T. impetiginosa (Mart. Ex DC.) Standl é tipicamente encontrada nas matas de galeria, que margeiam os cursos de água. As duas espécies foram amostradas em ambientes savânicos, expostas a condições semelhantes de alta luminosidade. A espécie savânica apresentou maiores valores de espessura foliar, massa foliar específica, espessura do pecíolo, assimilação máxima de CO2, condutância estomática, transpiração e concentração foliar de carotenóides. A espécie de mata destacou-se pelos maiores valores de área foliar específica, comprimento do pecíolo e de assimilação de CO2 em base de massa, parâmetros que contribuem para maior taxa de crescimento e de tolerância ao sombreamento. Esta distinção funcional entre as duas espécies em vários atributos foliares, mesmo quando situadas num mesmo tipo de ambiente, pode ser o resultado da história evolutiva dessas espécies em resposta às diferentes pressões seletivas nos ambientes típicos de ocorrência.The genus Tabebuia is representative of the Cerrado biome, occurring in savanna and forest formations. These vegetation types are associated with distinct environmental conditions in terms of water availability, microclimate and soil properties. We compared morphological and physiological traits between Tabebuia aurea (Silva Manso) Benth. & Hook. f. ex S. Moore, which is typical of the savanna vegetation, and T. impet iginosa (Mart. ex DC.) Standl, which is commonly found in the gallery forests that occur along streams and rivers. Both were sampled in savanna conditions under full sun. The savanna species had higher values of leaf and petiole thickness, specific leaf mass, maximum CO2 assimilation on a leaf area basis, stomatal conductance, transpiration and in leaf concentration of carotenoids. The forest species stood out by higher values of specific leaf area, petiole length and of CO2 assimilation on a mass basis, parameters related to shade tolerance and higher growth rates. This functional distinction in a range of leaf traits that was maintained when both were naturally growing under similar environmental conditions, suggests that these are probably the result of differences in the evolutionary history of the two species in response to the contrasting environmental conditions in the typical habitats where they occur

Modificaciones a la ley de proteccion al consumidor: derecho a retracto y tratamiento de otros contratos

88 p.Este estudio tiene por objeto analizar la evolución de la Ley de Protección al consumidor y sus actuales modificaciones, específicamente el derecho a retracto y los contratos que contempla dicha Ley. La elaboración de la memoria se sustenta principalmente en una revisión bibliográfica, tanto nacional como extranjera, junto con algunos aspectos de las discusiones parlamentarias sobre dichas modificaciones. Del estudio antes mencionado se puede observar que la Ley de Protección al Consumidor, ha ido evolucionando cada vez mas, dando un ámbito mayor de protección para el consumidor, que los contratos se alejan de la teoría clásica de contratación, y que el derecho retracto pasa a ser una gran excepción a nuestra legislación

Popular nutrition-related mobile apps: a feature assessment

Background: A key challenge in human nutrition is the assessment of usual food intake. This is of particular interest given recent proposals of eHealth personalized interventions. The adoption of mobile phones has created an opportunity for assessing and improving nutrient intake as they can be used for digitalizing dietary assessments and providing feedback. In the last few years, hundreds of nutrition-related mobile apps have been launched and installed by millions of users. Objective: This study aims to analyze the main features of the most popular nutrition apps and to compare their strategies and technologies for dietary assessment and user feedback. Methods: Apps were selected from the two largest online stores of the most popular mobile operating systems—the Google Play Store for Android and the iTunes App Store for iOS—based on popularity as measured by the number of installs and reviews. The keywords used in the search were as follows: calorie(s), diet, diet tracker, dietician, dietitian, eating, fit, fitness, food, food diary, food tracker, health, lose weight, nutrition, nutritionist, weight, weight loss, weight management, weight watcher, and ww calculator. The inclusion criteria were as follows: English language, minimum number of installs (1 million for Google Play Store) or reviews (7500 for iTunes App Store), relation to nutrition (ie, diet monitoring or recommendation), and independence from any device (eg, wearable) or subscription. Results: A total of 13 apps were classified as popular for inclusion in the analysis. Nine apps offered prospective recording of food intake using a food diary feature. Food selection was available via text search or barcode scanner technologies. Portion size selection was only textual (ie, without images or icons). All nine of these apps were also capable of collecting physical activity (PA) information using self-report, the global positioning system (GPS), or wearable integrations. Their outputs focused predominantly on energy balance between dietary intake and PA. None of these nine apps offered features directly related to diet plans and motivational coaching. In contrast, the remaining four of the 13 apps focused on these opportunities, but without food diaries. One app—FatSecret—also had an innovative feature for connecting users with health professionals, and another—S Health—provided a nutrient balance score. Conclusions: The high number of installs indicates that there is a clear interest and opportunity for diet monitoring and recommendation using mobile apps. All the apps collecting dietary intake used the same nutrition assessment method (ie, food diary record) and technologies for data input (ie, text search and barcode scanner). Emerging technologies, such as image recognition, natural language processing, and artificial intelligence, were not identified. None of the apps had a decision engine capable of providing personalized diet advice

A Genetic Linkage Map Using an F1 Population in Rubber Tree (Hevea brasiliensis) based on microsatellite markers. P0527

The construction of molecular gene linkage map in Hevea requires specific methodology because of high heterozygosity. Unlike annual crops, a cross between two heterozygous parents in Hevea can yield information up to four alleles, which are segregated further. The mapping population was a full-sib progeny (F1 progeny) derived from a cross between the cultivars PB217 and PR255. A set of 603 microsatellite primer pairs was tested for polymorphism the two parents and six F1 progenies genotypes. Linkage map was obtained using OneMap (Margarido et al., 2007). LOD Score 4.5 and recombination fraction of 0.40 was considered to determine linkage between markers. In total, 288 marks were genotyped (230 SSR genomic loci and 58 EST-SSR). The map consists of 288 markers, distributed in 23 linkage groups (LG) and 2833.8 cM in length with an average genetic distance of 9.8 cM between adjacent markers. The largest group has 228.7 cM (29 markers) and the smallest has 10.3 cM (4 markers). SSRs provide powerful tool for genetic linkage map construction that can be applied for identification of QTL. Importantly, the marker linked to the QTL can be further applied to MAS in rubber tree breeding program for selecting plant that contains desirable phenotype. The map is not saturated enough and some chromosome regions could not be linked. The chromosome number accepted today, for most Hevea species, is 18 (2n=36). The present map will be used for yield rubber QTL mapping and other important economical characteristics. (Texte integral