A growth model for the quadruple helix innovation theory

We propose a theoretical growth model with which to frame analytically the Quadruple Helix Innovation Theory (QHIT). The aim is to emphasise the investment in innovation transmission mechanisms in terms of economic growth and productivity gains, in one-high-technology sector, by stressing the role played by the helices of the Quadruple Helix Innovation Model: Academiaand Technological Infrastructures, Firms of Innovation, Government and Civil Society. In the existing literature, the relationship between the helices and respective impacts on economic growth does not appear clear. Results are fragiledue to data weakness and the inexistence of a theoretical framework to specify the relationship between the helices. Hence our motivation for providing the QHIT with a theoretical growth model. Our intent is to model the importance of emerging, dynamically adaptive, and transdisciplinary knowledge and innovation ecosystems to economic growth. We .nd that higher economic growth rate is obtained as a result of an increase in synergies and complementarities between different productive units, or an incease in productive government expenditure.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

Innovation economy, productive public expenditures and economic growth

Innovation is the main engine of growth in an increasing number of economies. Innovation economies are, according to the Quadruple Helix (QH) Innovation Theory, sustained by four pilars – Firms, Academia, Government and Consumers –, all operating in a systemic, interactive environment. We provide a model that gives analytical body to the QH theory and links formally innovation to economic growth. We aim to emphasise the equally important roles of the four helices sustaining an innovation economy and its long run growth. In particular, given the downwards pressure on Government expenditures, we analyse the effects of an increase in public expenditures on economic growth, which we find positive in the short, medium and long-run.COMPETE; QREN; FEDER; Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

O ordenamento do território e a estrutura ecológica de Vila Nova de Famalicão

Dissertação de mestrado em Gestão Ambiental e Ordenamento do Território, apresentada à Escola Superior Agrária do Instituto Politécnico de Viana do CasteloO conhecimento do passado de uma região constitui um dos suportes para explicarmos a paisagem que presentemente observamos e, poderá ser, o ponto de partida para entendermos a complexidade dos problemas de ordenamento com que hoje nos deparamos. Atualmente, pela facilidade de obtenção de recursos criamos excedentes que não valorizamos, com a agravante de produzirmos resíduos em quantidades cada vez mais insustentáveis. Este fenómeno conduz a uma artificialização do Meio, designado por “regressão ou desfasamento do natural”. Assim, o crescimento urbano, a par da intensificação da dispersão das atividades e do povoamento originaram a perda quase absoluta dos valores naturais espelhados nos múltiplos habitats que a área em estudo encerrava, aliada à perda dos serviços dos ecossistemas e à degradação e depauperização dos recursos naturais – solos, florestas, água - contribuindo, cada vez mais, para um acentuar das divergências entre o Homem e a Natureza (meio ambiente). No caso concreto de Vila Nova de Famalicão, este aglomerado urbano apresentou, ao longo da sua história, ritmos e intensidades diferenciadas quando observado numa perspectiva espácio-temporal. Tentar-se-á ao longo desta Dissertação, dar a conhecer como se efetuou essa expansão, caracterizá-la funcional e espacialmente, aferir de que modo é que aquelas transformações contribuíram para a perturbação do “estado inicial de equilíbrio do território” e, numa fase final, mas nunca acabada, propor soluções passíveis de contribuírem para uma melhor gestão do território, A Estrutura Ecológica do território urbano da Cidade e do Concelho onde esta está inserida deverá, obrigatoriamente, ser um complemento dos outros instrumentos de ordenamento/gestão do espaço.The knowledge of the past of a region is one of the supports to understand and explain the landscape that we presently observe and may be the starting point for understanding the complexity of spatial planning issues with which we are faced today. Currently, as it is easy to obtain resources, we create surpluses we don’t value, with the aggravating factor of producing waste in increasingly unsustainable quantities. This phenomenon leads to an artificialization of the environment, defined as "regression or lag of the natural". Thus, urban growth, together with the intensification of the dispersal of activities and of the settlement, originated almost absolute loss of natural values mirrored in multiple habitats included in the area under study, together with the loss of the services of ecosystems and the degradation and depletion of natural resources – soils, forests, water – increasingly contributing to accentuate the differences between man and nature (environment). In the specific case of Vila Nova de Famalicão, this urban agglomerate presented, throughout its history, rhythms and differentiated intensity when observed from a spatiotemporal perspective. Throughout this dissertation, it will try to make known how this expansion took place, characterize it functionally and spatially, assess how those changes contributed to the disruption of the "initial state of equilibrium of the territory" and, in a final but never finished stage, propose solutions which can contribute to a better management of the territory. The ecological structure of the urban territory of the city and of the county where it is located must necessarily be a complement to other instruments of spatial planning/management

Auditoria energética a uma unidade industrial seguindo o SGCIE

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Engenharia MecânicaHoje em dia há uma crescente preocupação por parte dos consumidores em eliminar, reduzir ou conter custos associados aos elevados consumos de energia e à proteção do meio ambiente. Em Portugal, grande parte das instalações industriais são antigas, traduzindo-se em tecnologia ultrapassada e pouco eficiente e na utilização da energia de forma ineficiente, implicando consumos desnecessários. No entanto, as pequenas empresas nacionais não são abrangidas pelo Sistema de Gestão dos Consumos Intensivos de Energia (SGCIE), estas não se encontram estimuladas legalmente a melhorar a forma como usam a energia. A presente dissertação, executada sob a alçada da One – Eficiência e Engenharia, Lda., teve como finalidade a elaboração de uma auditoria energética e avaliação de medidas de eficiência energética a uma empresa de fabrico de borrachas técnicas, que no ano civil de 2020 apresentou um consumo global de 275.1 tep, pelo que ao abrigo do Decreto-Lei n.º 68-A/2015, não se encontra na obrigatoriedade de cumprir o regulamento SGCIE, mas foi vontade dos responsáveis da empresa aderirem de forma voluntária. Desta forma encontra-se obrigada a racionalizar os seus consumos de acordo com as metas legais (Decreto-Lei n.º 71/2008, de 15 de abril, alterado pelo Decreto-Lei n.º 68-A/2015), nomeadamente e até ao final do período de 8 anos de aplicação do ARCE: a redução de 4% do consumo específico e da intensidade energética; a manutenção ou redução do valor da intensidade carbónica. Fizeram-se visitas à empresa, para uma análise da instalação e dos equipamentos existentes, sendo também pedida documentação relativa aos consumos da empresa. Foram realizadas monitorizações com um equipamento de análise de consumos de energia da empresa durante um período de tempo. O conjunto de informações recolhido foi posteriormente analisado e estudado, resultando num conjunto de sugestões e medidas para futura implementação na empresa. É importante referir que o principal objetivo destas medidas de utilização racional de energia (MURE) visa melhorar o desempenho energético e económico da empresa, sem afetar o processo produtivo. Com os resultados da auditoria, avaliou-se o potencial, em termos económicos e ambientais, de implementação de todas as medidas propostas para otimização da eficiência energética. Se forem implementadas todas as medidas propostas, a instalação deverá obter uma redução de 22% no seu consumo específico de energia primária.In this day and age, consumers are increasingly concerned about eliminating, reducing or containing the costs associated with high energy consumption and the protection of the environment. Most industrial facilities use outdated technologies that lead to the inefficient use of energy and to avoidable energy consumption. However, national small companies are not covered by the Intensive Energy Consumption Management System (SGCIE) regulation, so that they are not legally encouraged to improve the way they use energy. This dissertation, carried out under the auspices of One – Eficiência e Engenharia, Lda., aimed to prepare an energy audit and to evaluate the need of energy efficiency measures for a company manufacturing technical rubbers, that in 2020 presented a global consumption of 275.1 tep, which is why, under Decree-Law n.º 68-A/2015, it is not mandatory to comply with the SGCIE regulation, but it was the will of the company's managers to adhere voluntarily. In this way, the company will rationalize its energy in accordance with the legal goals (Decree-Law 71/2008, amended by Decree-Law 68-A/2015), namely: reduction of 4% of specific energy and energy intensity, preservation of the carbon intensity values. Visits were made to the company for an analysis of the installation and existing equipment, and documentation on the company's consumption was also requested. Monitoring was carried out with the company's energy consumption analysis equipment over a period. The set of information collected was later analysed and studied, resulting in a set of suggestions and measures for future implementation by the company. It is important to mention that the main objective of these measures for the rational use of energy is to improve the energy and economic performance of the company, without affecting the production process. With the results of the audit, the potential, in economic and environmental terms, of implementing all the measures proposed to optimize energy efficiency was assessed. By implementing all these proposed measures, the company will achieve a 22% reduction in primary energy consumption

Multi‑mechanical waves against Alzheimer’s disease pathology: a systematic review

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia, affecting approximately 40 million people worldwide. The ineffectiveness of the available pharmacological treatments against AD has fostered researchers to focus on alternative strategies to overcome this challenge. Mechanical vibrations delivered in different stimulation modes have been associated with marked improvements in cognitive and physical performance in both demented and nondemented elderly. Some of the mechanical-based stimulation modalities in efforts are earlier whole-body vibration, transcranial ultrasound stimulation with microbubble injection, and more recently, auditory stimulation. However, there is a huge variety of treatment specifications, and in many cases, conflicting results are reported. In this review, a search on Scopus, PubMed, and Web of Science databases was performed, resulting in 37 papers . These studies suggest that mechanical vibrations delivered through different stimulation modes are effective in attenuating many parameters of AD pathology including functional connectivity and neuronal circuit integrity deficits in the brains of AD patients, as well as in subjects with cognitive decline and non-demented older adults. Despite the evolving preclinical and clinical evidence on these therapeutic modalities, their translation into clinical practice is not consolidated yet. Thus, this comprehensive and critical systematic review aims to address the most important gaps in the reviewed protocols and propose optimal regimens for future clinical application.FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia) through the grant with reference SFRH/BD/09375/2020, and in the scope of the projects UIDB/04436/2020, UIDP/04436/2020, and NORTE-01- 0145-FEDER-000023, funded by the European Fund for Regional Development (FEDER) of the Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalization (POCI), by Portugal 2020

Dynamic management of distributed machine learning projects

Given the new requirements of Machine Learning problems in the last years, especially in what concerns the volume, diversity and speed of data, new approaches are needed to deal with the associated challenges. In this paper we describe CEDEs - a distributed learning system that runs on top of an Hadoop cluster and takes advantage of blocks, replication and balancing. CEDEs trains models in a distributed manner following the principle of data locality, and is able to change parts of the model through an optimization module, thus allowing a model to evolve over time as the data changes. This paper describes its generic architecture, details the implementation of the first modules, and provides a first validation.This work was supported by FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within projects UIDB/04728/2020 and EXPL/CCI-COM/0706/2021

Ultraspinning instability of rotating black holes

Rapidly rotating Myers-Perry black holes in d>5 dimensions were conjectured to be unstable by Emparan and Myers. In a previous publication, we found numerically the onset of the axisymmetric ultraspinning instability in the singly-spinning Myers-Perry black hole in d=7,8,9. This threshold signals also a bifurcation to new branches of axisymmetric solutions with pinched horizons that are conjectured to connect to the black ring, black Saturn and other families in the phase diagram of stationary solutions. We firmly establish that this instability is also present in d=6 and in d=10,11. The boundary conditions of the perturbations are discussed in detail for the first time and we prove that they preserve the angular velocity and temperature of the original Myers-Perry black hole. This property is fundamental to establish a thermodynamic necessary condition for the existence of this instability in general rotating backgrounds. We also prove a previous claim that the ultraspinning modes cannot be pure gauge modes. Finally we find new ultraspinning Gregory-Laflamme instabilities of rotating black strings and branes that appear exactly at the critical rotation predicted by the aforementioned thermodynamic criterium. The latter is a refinement of the Gubser-Mitra conjecture.Comment: 38 pages, 6 figures, 1 tabl

How does the Alzheimer’s disease brain respond to optomechanical stimuli?: a narrative review

This abstract will be presented as a poster at the 4th International Brain Stimulation Conference, in December 2021, in Charleston, USA.Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative condition with enormous social and economic impact at a global scale. Given the inefficacy of the pharmacological treatments developed so far in decelerating/blocking AD pathology, the study and development of so-called alternative (i.e., non-pharmacological) and non-invasive therapies has become one of the major focuses of biomedical research on AD in recent years. Indeed, several researchers have demonstrated the therapeutic potential of optical and mechanical (i.e., optomechanical) stimuli in brain lesions. Among them, photobiomodulation (PBM, the application of modulated red/NIR light for therapeutic purposes) and tailored ultrasonic waves applied to the brain through transcranial ultrasound stimulation (TUSS) are at the forefront of clinical interventions with the potential to improve associated neuropathology and symptomatology of AD (e.g., reduction of protein aggregates deposition in the brain, increased functional connectivity and synchronization of neuronal activity, cognitive improvements), both at the preclinical and clinical levels. However, the biologic mechanisms differentially activated/stimulated during optomechanical stimulation are far from being understood. There are no proven data about the bioavailability of the stimulus energy and their bioeffects on signaling pathways, inflammation and clearance mechanisms, as well as on how these alterations relate with the behavioral improvement observed. Thus, this review compiles and describes possible biological mechanisms and alterations through which optomechanical stimuli can be effective in mitigating AD neuropathology and clinical symptoms. The topics reviewed here will be crucial for further development in the field of alternative, noninvasive brain stimulation approaches against AD, also contributing to all therapeutic interventions by transcranial stimulation in the future, enabling the development of customized therapies