Modeling user influence and expertise for news sources in social media

Estágio realizado no SAPO Lab, e orientado pelo Prof. Luís SarmentoTese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia Informática e Computação. Universidade do Porto. Faculdade de Engenharia. 201

Design and operational considerations of an Anaerobic Membrane Bioreactor

Anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) as a technology has grown as a prominent means of sustainable biological treatment, especially in the recent due to environmental concerns, due to less energy and space requirements, less sludge production, and methane production, which, through cogeneration can make help the system reach energy neutrality. However, membrane cost and the problem of membrane fouling remain the major issues in its widespread use. Pastry production and the resulting wastewater poses a threat to the environment due to its high biological oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) concentrations which can result in significant costs on the treatment plant. High organic strength in such wastewater make AnMBR a good choice for its treatment. This thesis reviews the current state of MBR technology and presents an AnMBR type solution to a large-scale pastry producing facility, while also striving for energy-recovery technologies through cogeneration. The proposed AnMBR design can theoretically achieve COD removal rates as high as 95% as well as a daily methane production of 2700 Nm3 or of 3,7 kWh/kg BOD removed; Keywords

Media, cheerleaders and football violence

A presente comunicação pretende contribuir para a compreensão da violência no futebol e o eventual papel das claques de futebol e dos social media no desencadear dessa mesma violência. Pretendemos assim divulgar a visão de alguns autores sobre o problema das claques no panorama futebolístico mundial, as consequências que este fenómeno pode trazer, os fatores que desencadeiam a violência e algumas soluções para prevenir a violência nos estádios de futebol. Assim, foram realizados dois estudos para perceber este fenómeno. O primeiro estudo compreende uma análise quantitativa de trinta e cinco questionários a pessoas comuns e a membros de uma claque de futebol que pretende identificar, por um lado, se estes testemunharam ou participaram em atos de violência nos estádios de futebol e, por outro lado, inventariar as razões que podem explicar essa violência. O segundo estudo baseou-se na análise dos comentários colocados no mural do facebook de uma claque de futebol, o “Esquadrão Maritimista”, com a tentativa de analisar o tipo de conteúdos aí colocados e avaliar se os mesmos instigam à violência ou não

Improvement of functional and management aspects at a wastewater treatment plant of a brewery company

The project was conducted at the Maintenance Department of Super Bock Group (Former UNICER Bebidas), in the centre of Leça do Balio, and covers an overall improvement over the Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) by implementing preventive maintenance in SAP-PM, cutting energy costs in equipment’s and by implementing key performance indicator’s (KPIs) in maintenance supervision. The main objective of the project involved the implementation of preventive maintenance in all assets of the WWTP with support of the software Systems, Applications and Products in Data Processing (SAP) to have a more rigorous level on all maintenance activities, to cut the cost of electrical energy of assets by studying the energy schedule tariffs, creating some maintenance KPIs to know how the maintenance plan is doing and to check other situations and a general monitoring of the WWTP. In the beginning, a background work is made to the topics that will be addressed in development. Then, all the steps for the decisions made and the development of each idea are explained. At the end, the results obtained show that the implementation of the preventive maintenance plan results to about 1100 assets, that the key performance indicators for maintenance supervision are an effective method for supervision and that the project of reducing electricity costs by studying energy tariffs can result in savings up to 20% of electricity costs.O projecto foi realizado no Departamento de Manutenção da Super Bock Group (ExUNICER Bebidas), no centro de Leça do Balio, e abrange uma melhoria global da ETAR através da implementação de manutenção preventiva no SAP-PM, reduzindo custos de energia eléctrica de activos e na implementação de indicadores chave de desempenho na supervisão da manutenção. Os principais objetivos do projeto envolveram a implementação de manutenção preventiva em todos os activos da ETAR com suporte do software Systems, Applications and Products in Data Processing (SAP) para ter um nível mais rigoroso em todas as atividades de manutenção, reduzir o custo de energia eléctrica dos equipamentos, estudando as tarifas sobre os diferentes horários de energia eléctrica, criar alguns indicadores chave de desempenho de manutenção para saber como o plano de manutenção está a ser realizado e para verificar outras situações e uma supervisão geral da ETAR. No início é feita uma introdução científica aos tópicos que serão abordados no desenvolvimento. Depois, são explicados todos os passos para as decisões tomadas e o para o desenvolvimento de cada ideia. No final, são mostrados os resultados obtidos em que se demonstra que a implementação do plano de manutenção preventiva resulta para cerca de 1100 activos, que os indicadores chave de desempenho para supervisão de manutenção apresentam ser um método eficaz para o mesmo e que o projecto de redução de custos de energia eléctrica estudando as tarifas energéticas pode resultar numa poupança até cerca de 20% de custos de energia eléctrica

ANÁLISE ESTRATÉGICA NERINT

The acceleration of pace of international events and processes requires a qualified analysis without the political-journalistic bias that often characterizes them. Thus, in addition to theoretical-analytical articles, we consider it necessary to publish a brief evaluation of important current events. To this end, the Brazilian Center for Strategy and International Relations (NERINT/UFRGS), member of the Center for International Studies on Government (CEGOV/UFRGS), launched the NERINT Strategic Analysis series, with the contribution of its specialized researchers and guests with thematic expertise. It will be published at the end of each volume of Austral: Brazilian Journal of Strategy and International Relations, starting with an assessment of Post-Trump Diplomacy, conflicts in Russia’s “near abroad” and the Strategic Lessons of World War II on its 75th anniversary. Since the 1990s, Itamaraty has been promoting the formation of qualified national academic personnel on themes and countries relevant to Brazilian diplomacy, business and defense. This training effort, through the promotion and funding of graduate courses, is paying off, and Brazil already has professors and researchers at an international level.A aceleração do ritmo dos acontecimentos e processos internacionais requer uma análise qualificada de conjuntura, sem o viés político-jornalístico que, muitas vezes, as caracterizam. Além de artigos teórico-analíticos, faz-se necessário publicar uma breve avaliação de acontecimentos marcantes. Para tanto, o Núcleo Brasileiro de Estratégia e Relações Internacionais (NERINT/UFRGS), integrante de Centro de Estudos Internacionais sobre Governo (CEGOV/UFRGS), lançou a Análise Estratégica NERINT, com a contribuição de seus pesquisadores especializados e de convidados com expertise temática. Ela será publicada ao final de cada volume da Austral: Revista Brasileira de Estratégia e Relações Internacionais, iniciando com uma avaliação da Diplomacia Pós-Trump, dos conflitos no entorno da Rússia e das Lições Estratégicas da II Guerra Mundial em seu 75° aniversário. Desde os anos 1990 o Itamaraty vem defendendo a formação de quadros acadêmicos qualificados nacionais sobre temas e países relevantes para a diplomacia, os negócios e a defesa do Brasil. O esforço de formação dos mesmos, via fomento de pós-graduação, está dando resultados, e o Brasil já conta com professores e pesquisadores de nível internacional

Asset prices and monetary policy : wealth effects on consumption

The aim of this paper is to test a model explaining private consumption as a function of income and wealth (financial assets plus real estate), with data from European Union (EU) countries. We know that income explains a large part of consumption as well as wealth, but concerning the effects of the latter, mainly those of changes on financial asset prices, few is known for Europe. In a general way, and according to the literature, wealth effects are less significant in continental Europe, due to the less advanced financial deregulation degree and household stock ownership, when compared with the USA or the United Kingdom. On the other hand, housing wealth effects on consumption would be more pronounced in Europe. To examine how recent developments in stock markets and housing prices may have affected consumption behaviour, we consider for the different countries a set of consumption equations that include variables related to asset prices. After studying the variables’ stationarity properties, we estimate a model with a common error-correction formulation, with the long-run relationship - having terms in the variables for which we found significant cointegrating vectors - nested in a short-run equation. We found an implied elasticity of consumption with respect to real equities prices at around two per cent and, when there is available data, an implied elasticity of consumption with respect to real residential prices between ten and twenty per cent. This weak effect of stock prices on consumer spending is broadly consistent with life cycle saving and a modest wealth effect. Nevertheless, it is still worthy to do a further study of the effects of stock market and residential wealth (and its fluctuations) on consumption and output of the different countries. The complete study of those differences and its magnitude is important even for the definition of the monetary policy by the European Central Bank (ECB) and to answer the question if it should consider asset prices in its decisions. The research presented here is a first essay preceding a deeper work on this subject, concerning economies of the EU. After this exercise we think that there is scope for future analysis on this matter that attempts to better explain the connection between asset prices and consumer spendinginfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio