Lifestyle Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Rural Areas: The Case of Tourism Entrepreneurs

Lifestyle entrepreneurs play an important role in innovation and sustainability in rural destinations. Their competitiveness depends largely on how they explore their link to the place and generate innovation. To analyze the relationship between the link to the place and innovation, this article uses survey data from a sample of 221 rural lifestyle entrepreneurs. Using PLS-SEM modeling, the results indicate that place familiarity and relational capital positively influence innovation. Furthermore, place familiarity reveals as an important factor for improving relational capital. In its turn, the degree of relational capital contributes positively to the small firm’s knowledge absorption. The results also reveal that, although there is no direct relation between knowledge absorption and innovation, relational capital mediates the relationship between place familiarity and innovation and that there is an indirect relationship between relational capital and innovation, through the mediating effect of knowledge absorption. These results provides important elements for rural tourism destination decision making on innovation and competitiveness

Influência da sazonalidade no teor de carotenoides em frutos

Os carotenoides são compostos bioativos com efeitos positivos na saúde e alguns têm função nutriente provitamina A. A composição em carotenoides dos alimentos pode variar quantitativa e/ou qualitativamente. Este trabalho teve como objetivo avaliar o teor de carotenoides em vários frutos, disponíveis no mercado português, uvas, laranjas, pêras e maçãs, em diferentes estações do ano

Chimpanzee included in the genus Homo? How Biology teachers from three Latin American countries conceive it

This work intended to understand the biology teachers’ conceptions about the humans’ position regarding other animal species. It was carried out in three countries with contrasting secularism conditions: Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. Teachers were asked to answer, in a Likert-type scale, to the question B7 of the European project BIOHEAD-CITIZEN: “The Chimpanzee should be included in the genus Homo, notably because 98.5% of its DNA is identical to that of Homo sapiens”.. Results were analyzed within the KVP model framework and the Barbour’s four categories of relationship between science knowledge and religion. The majority of teachers surveyed in the three countries rejected the idea of including the chimpanzee in the genus Homo, suggesting the conception of human beings having a special position in relation to other animal species, despite evidence of current molecular biology. The religiosity in all countries were similar, therefore no specific influence could be tested regarding the inclusion of chimpanzee in genus Homo. This study also indicates that it is important to study further the training of biology teachers in the three countries to verify how they are being trained and evaluate their knowledge regarding molecular biology, phylogeny and evolution.CIEC - Centro de Investigação em Estudos da Criança, IE, UMinho (UI 317 da FCT)Projeto Estratégico da FCT: UID/CED/00317/201

Experimental validation of a constructive system for earthquake resistance of masonry infill walls

Este artigo apresenta o trabalho experimental desenvolvido na Universidade do Minho para a validação de uma solução de paredes de enchimento de alvenaria em edifícios de betão armado. É apresentado o processo de validação experimental baseado em ensaios cíclicos no plano e fora do plano, onde se verifica a influência da presença da parede de enchimento no comportamento global do sistema. Estes ensaios foram realizados em provetes de escala reduzida (1:1,5). Todos os ensaios foram realizados em controlo de deslocamento, utilizando um padrão de carregamento definido com base nas recomendações da FEMA 461.This article, presents the experimental work carried out at the University of Minho for the validation of constructive system of masonry infill walls in reinforced concrete buildings. It is showed the experimental validation process, based on cyclic tests for in-plane and out-of-plane directions, where it evaluates the influence of the masonry infill wall on the overall system behaviour. These experimental tests were performed in reduced scale specimens (1: 1.5). All tests were performed in displacement control using a load pattern based on the FEMA 461 recommendations.Sétimo Programa-Quadro da União Europeia para a investigação, desenvolvimento tecnológico e demonstração nos termos do acordo de subvenção Nº 606229FCT (Fundação Portuguesa para Ciência e Tecnologia), através do projeto ISISE, UID/ECI/04029/201

Chemoenzymatic epoxidation of citronellol catalyzed by lipases

AbstractThe chemoenzymatic epoxidation of a terpene alcohol, citronellol, is reported. Some experimental conditions, such as the use of lipases from different sources, oxidizing agents (H2O2 or urea–hydrogen peroxide, UHP), reaction time, acyl donor type (C6–C16), temperature (15–40°C) and the influence of organic media, were evaluated. In most cases, citronellol oxide 2 or the ester citronellol oxide 3 were obtained. Depending on the reaction conditions, high yields of products 2 or 3 were obtained (>99%). CAL-B was the most effective catalyst in this reaction. For epoxide 2, the highest yields of 80% and 77% were obtained at 20°C and 25°C, respectively, using UHP as an oxidizing agent and octanoic acid as an acyl donor. The organic medium appears to be one of the most important parameters in the reaction. Using chloroform or dichloromethane, product 2 was obtained at a >99% yield after 24h. When different mixtures consisting of varied organic solvents and an imidazolium-based ionic liquid (IL) were used, the results were dependent on both the solvent and IL counter-ion (18–75%)

Green dyeing of polyamide with increased anti-UV properties

[Excerpt] Introduction: During the last few decades, ecological concerns related to the use of the synthetic dyes, have led to a greater motivation for the development of processes that use natural products. This strategy has been applied to improve theincreasingly necessary sustainability of wet textile processes.Natural dyes are available in nature in different shadesandthey can be exploited for coloring textilesandto improveother properties such as UV protection and antimicrobial activity. Among them, those obtained from eucalyptus leaves, mainly composed by tannins (gallic acid and ellagic acid) and flavonoids (quercetin and rutin), appear to be interesting for textile finishing applications. The eucalyptus leaves, arean abundant, inexpensiveand readily available forestresidue.However, despite the recognized properties of this type of compound, its use in polyamide dyeing was not reported in our literature review.The present study aimed to develop dyed polyamide 6 knittedfabrics with increased UV protection using a naturaleucalyptus leavesextract. [...]Authorswishing to acknowledge the Project UID/CTM/00264/2019 of 2C2T –Centro de Ciência e Tecnologia Têxtil, funded by National Founds through FCT/MCTES

Out-of-plane strengthening of masonry infills using textile reinforced mortar (TRM) technique

Published online: 29 May 2021The out-of-plane collapse of masonry infills during seismic actions resulted in human life losses and huge repair or reconstruction costs. These problems will result in disturbance of the operational functions of the buildings. The main scope of this research is to analyze the efficiency of different strengthening techniques based on textile reinforced mortar (TRM) technique and using steel connectors in the out-of-plane direction. To accomplish the objectives, four half-scale specimens were tested under uniform out-of-plane loads applied by an airbag to each mass of the infill cyclically. The performance of the textile reinforced mortar technique by using two different meshes was also evaluated experimentally. Besides the protection of the infill from collapsing and protection of human lives, using TRM technique enhances the out-of-plane response of the specimen but its connection to the infill has to be deeply investigated.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT

Effect of barrel-to-barrel variation on color and phenolic composition of a red wine

Tangible variation of sensory characteristics is often observed in wine aged in similar barrels. Barrel-to-barrel variation in barrel-aged wines was investigated in respect of the most important phenolic compounds of oenological interest. A red wine was aged in 49 medium-toasted oak (Quercus petraea) barrels, from four cooperages, for 12 months. The resulting wines were evaluated for chromatic characteristics, anthocyanin-related parameters, total phenols, flavonoids and nonflavonoids phenols, flavanol monomers, and oligomeric and polymeric proanthocyanidins. PCA and ANOVA were applied to investigate the relationships between barrels and to assess cooperage and individual barrel effect. Three cooperages influenced the wine similarly during aging. Anthocyaninrelated parameters showed the highest variation, 25–37%, other phenolics varied 3–8.5%, and with two exceptions, chromatic characteristics changed 1.7–3%. The relationship between the number of barrels and the expected variation for each analytical parameter was calculated, as reference for future measurements involving barrel lots, either in wine production or experimental designinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Seismic performance of Portuguese masonry infill walls: From traditional systems to new solutions

The use of masonry infill walls in reinforced concrete structures are a common solution in Portugal and other European countries for more than 50 years. These walls are used as exterior enclosures to build the envelope of the buildings, or as interior partitions to divide the different spaces of the houses. In the building construction practice these walls are built only after the hardening of the reinforced concrete elements. For that reason, they are assumed as non-structural elements, and not considered in the structural design of the building. However, when buildings are subjected to seismic action, these walls assume a structural behavior. This leads in many cases to the existence of an unsatisfactory behavior of infill walls, resulting in damage of the walls, which put human lives in dangerous and cause extensive economic losses. This seismic vulnerability of masonry infill walls is well recognized by the scientific community and has been observed in many works carried out in the last decades, as well as the recent earthquakes in southern Europe. In the case of a seismic event of high intensity in Portugal, it is expected that similar problems will occur in the Portuguese masonry infill walls, given the similarity of the construction typologies, in southern Europe. It is therefore important to study the masonry infill walls used in Portugal over the years, to fully understand their seismic behavior, and thus be able to propose and study reinforcement systems for existing walls and new masonry infill systems for new construction. Thus, in this paper is made a characterization of masonry infill walls typologies used in Portugal over the years. A review of the mechanical behavior of masonry infill walls is carried out using several In-Plane and Out-of-Plane tests performed at the University of Minho and other studies carried out in Portugal. Several strengthening techniques possible to be used in this type of walls are presented, as well as some mechanical characterization tests of these strengthening solutions applied on Portuguese infills walls. Finally, are presented two proposals for new systems of masonry infill walls to be used in new construction, with the objective of present a better seismic behavior in this type of elementsEuropean Union’s Seventh Framework Program for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement No 606229, which support this work. This work was also supported by FCT (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, within ISISE, project UID/ECI/04029/2013, and through a doctoral scholarship reference SFRH/BD/125094/201

Paredes de alvenaria de enchimento e a ação sísmica: reabilitação e inovação

Neste trabalho apresentam-se os principais resultados da investigação efetuada na Universidade do Minho relacionada com a análise do comportamento de paredes de enchimento sujeita a ações sísmicas e metodologias de reforço com a proposta de um novo material desenvolvido na perspetiva de reabilitação destas paredes construídas em regiões sísmicas. Apresentam-se também algumas possibilidades para construção nova de paredes de enchimento que visam um desempenho melhorado quando sujeitas a ações sísmicas