Shrinking the plan. A middle-class wishful thinking in the outskirts of Lisbon

In the 1960s and 1970s, large-scale Portuguese architectural production was largely promoted by the State. This took further aspects after the 1974 revolution when housing construction became one of the pillars of the new state policy. It is in this context that Manuel Vicente develops the project for Quinta do Bacalhau in different times: 1– Before 1974 by EPUL as part of UNOR 26 of which M. Vicente was the coordinator, 2– From 1974 as a SAAL operation after the site was taken over by a residents' committee, 3– After 1976, as it was built outside the revolutionary period by a housing cooperative and financed by the state. Unlike most SAAL projects – small, contained and with low-row houses –, and despite the ideologically marked circumstances of this period, it presents somehow ostentatious. Volumes of broad and generous features, incorporation of commerce on the ground floors like a boulevard, contrast with the dominant model, thus raising some questions: – to what extent did a particular class position correspond to a certain typology, style, etc.? – wouldn't this imply an aspiration to the same “rights” as the middle-class, as far as architecture is concerned? M. Vicente remains throughout his life in an ideologically multifaceted position. Close to the Communist Party, he has a cosmopolitan experience still in the 1960s being in touch with the Western capitalism – in the United States and in Macao – and in close contact with the speculation and profit markets. It has thus a double folded stance regarding the state-sponsored housing and low standards one, as if responding to the residents were the same as responding to himself. In this communication we intend to analyse through drawings of the project how the notion of housing for “a middle-class” crossed through the project. This argument is revealed in a plan of a dwelling with dimensions close to middle-class, which is later reduced to smaller areas, but “keeping” architectural qualities.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

From “boat to plate”: creating value through sustainable fish supply chain visibility

Environmental concerns about the scarcity of marine resources are critical driving forces for firms aiming to prepare their supply chains for sustainability. Building on previous work, this paper highlights the mplementation of good practices geared towards sustainable operations in the seafood department, which were pursued in an exploratory retailer case. Outcomes of the adopted environmentally and socially acceptable fish retailing strategies, ranged from traceability, to self-certification and eco-labelling. The consequences for business were, as follows: stronger collaboration and trust across the chain of custody, improvement of sponsors’ image and of consumers’ loyalty and, progress in the Greenpeace retailers’ evaluation ranking.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Utilização de minhocas na estabilização de resíduos orgânicos: Vermicompostagem.

Criação das minhocas.bitstream/CNPAB-2010/27133/1/cot008.pdfed. rev. mod

Caracterização agronômica de novos genótipos de mamoeiro na Chapada do Apodi.

O mamoeiro (Carica papaya L.) possui expressiva importância econômica para o Brasil, destacando-se como segundo maior produtor mundial. Em 2012 o país produziu 1.517.696 toneladas de mamão (FAO, 2012). No Brasil o mamoeiro é cultivado na quase totalidade do seu território, merecendo destaque os estados da Bahia, Espirito Santo, Ceará e Rio Grande do Norte, que são responsáveis por 87,35% da produção nacional (IBGE, 2013)

Improving buildings refurbishment through operative conditions evaluation

As EU existing buildings stock account for 40% of the total energy consumption, it is important to take measures to reduce these needs and, consequently, reduce the EU external energy dependency as well as reducing the greenhouse gas emissions, in accordance with what is prescribed in the EU Directive 2002/91/EU on Energy Efficiency in Buildings (EPBD) and reinforced with the "EPBD-recast". The implementation of energy efficiency measures in the existing building stock is necessary to meet the 2020 targets. Thus, energy refurbishment of existing buildings is essential to achieve these goals. However, during the buildings refurbishment, energy issues should not be the only concerns since the indoor air quality is also as important. When planning a building refurbishment it is then necessary to take into account the energy efficiency exigencies and also the indoor air quality. To do so, the main problems of the existing buildings should be identified, in order to do the right choices regarding the refurbishment project. This work presents a study carried out in a large office building to identify the main pathologies, related to the energy efficiency and also to the indoor air quality. The study encompasses an “in-situ” evaluation of the operating conditions, indoor air quality and air change rate. The main objective of this study was to support the development of a refurbishment project of the building that can optimize the energy efficiency, but also the relevant parameters to the Indoor Air Quality. The results showed that the building has a poor envelope thermal resistance, inadequate shading systems and also several problems regarding high concentration of some pollutants like CO2 or VOC

Portuguese EPBD based regulation put side by side with energy simulation tools

In 2002 EU implemented the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive which led to the revision of the buildings thermal codes. The transposition of EBPD into the Portuguese legislation was made through three regulations: RCCTE for residential buildings, RSECE for office buildings and SCE that establishes the energy labelling system. The national code RCCTE sets two methodologies for assessing the energy performance of buildings: a simplified methodology and a more detailed one, depending if it is an existent or a new building. It has been observed that since the entrance into force of these codes, the project teams are using the RCCTE methodologies as tools to estimate the energy consumption of buildings. In this work it was tested the accuracy of this approach, performing two studies: one where the energy needs obtained with the RCCTE methodology were compared with the ones obtained with a dynamic simulation tool; and another where the same energy needs were compared with the ones obtained with a simplified RCCTE methodology foreseen for existing buildings. With the studies performed it was verified that the RCCTE methodology is accurate enough, except for the coldest regions, where another kind of tool should be applied. The simplified methodology showed inaccurate results and must be used with caution. However, with some corrections, important improvements can be achieved

Definition of the energy performance requirements in rehabilitation projects

Building rehabilitation is essential to achieve the targets defined by the EPBD-recast regarding energy efficiency, reduction of carbon emissions and use of on-site renewable energy sources. To propose an effective building rehabilitation it is necessary to study the best combination of available options in terms of construction solutions, technical building systems (hot water, ventilation, heating, cooling and lighting), their cost, but also their impact on the thermal and acoustic comfort and indoor air quality of the building. Also, the definition of the cost-optimal level is essential, which is the minimum lifecycle cost (including investment costs, maintenance and operating costs, energy costs, earnings from energy produced and disposal costs) of each individual measure. In this work the multi-criteria decision analysis method ELECTRE III will be applied to balance all these aspects, during the design phase of a refurbishment project, in order to assist the design team on the selection of construction solutions and technical building systems. A simple case study is presented to demonstrate the feasibility of this approach in what concerns the definition of the energy performance requirements (e.g. thickness of insulation and efficiency of the heating system/air-conditioning system etc.), of a rehabilitation project. In this example several retrofit alternatives were studied, their implementation could lead to the reduction of the energy needs of the building from 13% to 83%. With this approach it was also possible to identify the alternative with the best global performance considering the investment costs, energy needs, indoor air quality, thermal comfort, and CO2 emissions

Acoustic evaluation of beam and pot slabs with lightweight regularization layers: a case study

The objective of this work is to evaluate the acoustic performance of beam and pot slabs with regularization layers made of lightweight concrete. The study consists on the analysis of the acoustic behaviour of three types of solutions, through the execution of "in situ" measurements for the determination of the airborne sound insulation index and of the impact sound insulation index. The studied elements have the same support element (concrete slab), but regularization layers made of different materials. The regularization layers studied were: concrete with granulated expanded polystyrene, concrete with expanded clay aggregates and cellular concrete. The acoustic performance of the three slabs is evaluated and compared with the performance of conventional solutions in way of evaluating their potentialities

Sex differences and correlates of poor glycaemic control in type 2 diabetes: a cross-sectional study in Brazil and Venezuela.

OBJECTIVE: Examine whether glycaemic control varies according to sex and whether the latter plays a role in modifying factors associated with inadequate glycaemic control in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) in Brazil and Venezuela. DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: This was a cross-sectional, nationwide survey conducted in Brazil and Venezuela from February 2006 to June 2007 to obtain information about glycaemic control and its determinants in patients with diabetes mellitus attending outpatient clinics. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) level was measured by liquid chromatography, and patients with HbA1c ≥7.0% (53 mmol/mol) were considered to have inadequate glycaemic control. The association of selected variables with glycaemic control was analysed by multivariate linear regression, using HbA1c as the dependent variable. RESULTS: A total of 9418 patients with T2D were enrolled in Brazil (n=5692) and in Venezuela (n=3726). They included 6214 (66%) women and 3204 (34%) men. On average, HbA1c levels in women were 0.13 (95% CI 0.03 to 0.24; p=0.015) higher than in men, after adjusting for age, marital status, education, race, country, body mass index, duration of disease, complications, type of healthcare, adherence to diet, adherence to treatment and previous measurement of HbA1c. Sex modified the effect of some factors associated with glycaemic control in patients with T2D in our study, but had no noteworthy effect in others. CONCLUSIONS: Women with T2D had worse glycaemic control than men. Possible causes for poorer glycaemic control in women compared with men include differences in glucose homeostasis, treatment response and psychological factors. In addition, sex modified factors associated with glycaemic control, suggesting the need to develop specific treatment guidelines for men and women

Use of Physical Education Classes as a Didactic Laboratory for Teaching Mathematics: An Example with a Quadratic Function

The research objective of this study was to evaluate the use of Physical Education classes as didactic laboratory for lessons in Mathematics, presenting an alternative way to conduct classes, mainly of quadratic functions, illustrating basic concepts such as graphs plotting and determination coefficients, analyze if such use achieves some of the goals of using a Didactic Laboratory in addition to research ways to interdisciplinary with Physics. Discusses an action in which students work in groups to solve problems proposed based on empirical data obtained through play activities and measures of athletics values practiced by the students allowing may have the opportunity to produce arguments and more meaningful answers, which would improve the overall learning. The athletics and recreational activities are then used as problematic objects both empirically and qualitatively. As a result, it was observed that some of the objectives of a Didactic Laboratory are achieved when using the Physical Education classes and it appears that this feature is much more available in public schools than they are equipped with a science laboratory