Aplicação da definição nZEB da REHVA a uma renovação de um edifício de habitação Português.

Os edifícios desempenham um papel-chave nas sociedades que estão a tentar atenuar os efeitos das alterações climáticas. Mais de 50% dos edifícios residenciais existentes na UE-25 foram construídos antes de 1970. Assim, estes edifícios são de significativa importância na redução de consumo de energia e emissões de CO2. Os edifícios de balanço de energia (quase) zero (nZEB) são uma solução possível para este problema. Este estudo tem por objetivo analisar a aplicação da metodologia nZEB no retrofitting de uma habitação típica Portuguesa de 1950. Foi demonstrado que a energia primária utilizada pode ser reduzida a um valor muito baixo (11,95 kWh/m2.ano) em comparação com o consumo de referência (69,15 kWh/m2.ano), através da aplicação das melhores técnicas atuais de construção, juntamente com a utilização de energia produzida localmente através de fontes renováveis. O uso de fontes de energia renovável permitiu que este edifício alcançasse um valor de RERp de 89%

Application of the nZEB methodology in the retrofitting of a typical Portuguese dwelling from the 60's.

Buildings and the whole built environment are in a key role when societies are mitigating climate change and adapting to its consequences. More than 50% of the existing residential buildings in EU-25 were built before 1970. Thus, these buildings are of significant importance in reducing energy consumption and CO2 emissions. The existence of more nearly zero energy buildings (nZEB) is a possible solution for this problem. This study aims to analyze the application of the nZEB methodology in the retrofitting of a typical Portuguese dwelling build in 1950. It was shown that the primary energy used can be reduced to a very low value (11,95 kWhep/m2.y) in comparison with the reference consumption (69,15 kWhep/m2.y), with the application of the best construction techniques together with the use of energy from on-site renewable sources

Impact of using solar heat pumps for domestic hot water in Portuguese residential buildings

In recent years, we have seen an improvement of existing facilities in dwellings in Portugal. Within the heat pumps systems, there is a special type known as direct expansion heat pump assisted by Solar Collector (DX-SAHP). It was calculate the SPF indicator for 30 regions of Portugal. It was analyses the potential of reductions of CO2 and primary energy use for the retrofitting of DHW preparation systems. It was found that the performances of this type of equipment are benefiting from the Portuguese climate conditions, especially in the South and in the Autonomous Regions. Best SPF was obtained for Beja. It was found in all regions of the high potential for reducing CO2 emissions and verifying a potential significant reduction of primary energy consumption

A micro-kernel API for Linux

Writing device drivers, and other programs that interact with hardware, is, typically, hard and error-prone. Due to the architecture of many operating systems in use today, such as Linux, it usually requires writing kernel level code, which is of higher difficulty than regular user space code. Additionally, kernel level code runs in kernel space, meaning that a problem in one kernel component can affect the entire system, making it crash, behave incorrectly, or open up security vulnerabilities. This dissertation proposes an interface for writing these kinds of software in user space on Linux, similar to the interfaces provided by micro-kernel operating systems. It aims to make the process of developing such software easier, and to increase the safety and reliability of the system by reducing the amount of code in kernel space and moving it into isolated user space programs

Towards Authentication of IoMT Devices via RF Signal Classification

The increasing reliance on the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) raises great concern in terms of cybersecurity, either at the device’s physical level or at the communication and transmission level. This is particularly important as these systems process very sensitive and private data, including personal health data from multiple patients such as real-time body measurements. Due to these concerns, cybersecurity mechanisms and strategies must be in place to protect these medical systems, defending them from compromising cyberattacks. Authentication is an essential cybersecurity technique for trustworthy IoMT communications. However, current authentication methods rely on upper-layer identity verification or key-based cryptography which can be inadequate to the heterogeneous Internet of Things (IoT) environments. This thesis proposes the development of a Machine Learning (ML) method that serves as a foundation for Radio Frequency Fingerprinting (RFF) in the authentication of IoMT devices in medical applications to improve the flexibility of such mechanisms. This technique allows the authentication of medical devices by their physical layer characteristics, i.e. of their emitted signal. The development of ML models serves as the foundation for RFF, allowing it to evaluate and categorise the released signal and enable RFF authentication. Multiple feature take part of the proposed decision making process of classifying the device, which then is implemented in a medical gateway, resulting in a novel IoMT technology.A confiança crescente na IoMT suscita grande preocupação em termos de cibersegurança, quer ao nível físico do dispositivo quer ao nível da comunicação e ao nível de transmissão. Isto é particularmente importante, uma vez que estes sistemas processam dados muito sensíveis e dados, incluindo dados pessoais de saúde de diversos pacientes, tais como dados em tempo real de medidas do corpo. Devido a estas preocupações, os mecanismos e estratégias de ciber-segurança devem estar em vigor para proteger estes sistemas médicos, defendendo-os de ciberataques comprometedores. A autenticação é uma técnica essencial de ciber-segurança para garantir as comunicações em sistemas IoMT de confiança. No entanto, os métodos de autenticação atuais focam-se na verificação de identidade na camada superior ou criptografia baseada em chaves que podem ser inadequadas para a ambientes IoMT heterogéneos. Esta tese propõe o desenvolvimento de um método de ML que serve como base para o RFF na autenticação de dispositivos IoMT para melhorar a flexibilidade de tais mecanismos. Isto permite a autenticação dos dispositivos médicos pelas suas características de camada física, ou seja, a partir do seu sinal emitido. O desenvolvimento de modelos de ML serve de base para o RFF, permitindo-lhe avaliar e categorizar o sinal libertado e permitir a autenticação do RFF. Múltiplas features fazem parte do processo de tomada de decisão proposto para classificar o dispositivo, que é implementada num gateway médico, resultando numa nova tecnologia IoMT

Vancomycin therapeutic drug monitoring and population pharmacokinetic models in special patient subpopulations

Vancomycin is a fundamental antibiotic in the management of severe Gram‐positive infections. Inappropriate vancomycin dosing is associated with therapeutic failure, bacterial resistance and toxicity. Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) is acknowledged as an important part of the vancomycin therapy management, at least in specific patient subpopulations, but implementation in clinical practice has been difficult because there are no consensus and agglutinator documents. The aims of the present work are to present an overview of the current knowledge on vancomycin TDM and population pharmacokinetic (PPK) models relevant to specific patient subpopulations. Based on three published international guidelines (American, Japanese and Chinese) on vancomycin TDM and a bibliographic review on available PPK models for vancomycin in distinct subpopulations, an analysis of evidence was carried out and the current knowledge on this topic was summarized. The results of this work can be useful to redirect research efforts to address the detected knowledge gaps. Currently, TDM of vancomycin presents a moderate level of evidence and practical recommendations with great robustness in neonates, pediatric and patients with renal impairment. However, it is important to investigate in other subpopulations known to present altered vancomycin pharmacokinetics (eg neurosurgical, oncological and cystic fibrosis patients), where evidence is still unsufficient

Using metaheuristics-based methods to provide sustainable market solutions, suitable to consumer needs

Nowadays the buildings sector is one of the key sectors to achieve sustainability, with the correspondent consumers, in particular, the household consumers, having the need to perform sustainable choices every day, regarding the appliances to be acquired from the market. This is not only due to government’s growing concerns about sustainability but also with the consumers on having sustainable solutions, given the different economic, social (including their comfort) and environmental needs. However, the existence of several electrical appliances on market, with all their different issues, brands and models, together with the several tradeoffs referred before, difficult the consumer’s choices, on having sustainable solutions in the market. Therefore, this work, presents an approach, by using Multi-Attribute Value Theory (MAVT), integrated with metaheuristics, which uses Evolutionary Algorithms (EA) to provide suitable and sustainable market solutions to a consumer, according to its own needs. Based on the achieved solutions and considering the relative importance, given to each consumer, and regarding each dimension of sustainability, it’s possible to achieve several savings, namely electrical and water consumption, CO2 emissions, among others. A case study shall be shown, to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed approach.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Gestão e Suporte de Cargas no Sistema Integrado de Comando e Controlo Aéreo de Portugal (SICCAP)

Este trabalho pretende analisar a gestão e suporte de cargas do Sistema Integrado de Comando e Controlo Aéreo de Portugal (SICCAP) no sentido de perceber se estes estão a contribuir de forma positiva para a maximização da disponibilidade dos dois sistemas de suporte ao fornecimento de energia, os Grupos Geradores (GGs) e as fontes de energia ininterrupta (Unit Power Supply (UPS)). Estes sistemas de importante necessidade aquando indisponibilidade de fornecimento de energia por parte do operador comercial necessitam de estar em perfeitas condições de funcionamento, e assim, manter sem interrupções o fornecimento de energia aos equipamentos e sistemas que constituem o SICCAP. Assim, este trabalho, será também muito importante e interessante no sentido em que irá expor e evidenciar de que maneira estas entidades se coordenam e se relacionam para atingirem esse objetivo. Através das entrevistas efetuadas foi possível testar qualitativamente as hipóteses que foram formuladas no sentido produzir de forma hipotético-dedutiva o conhecimento aqui elaborado e de tema anteriormente referido, e para o qual se concluí que a gestão e suporte de cargas efetuadas contribuem positivamente na maximização da disponibilidade. Por fim serão tecidas algumas recomendações e limitações do trabalho. Abstract: This work intends to analyze the management and load support of the Integrated Command and Control System of Portugal (SICCAP) in order to understand if these are contributing positively to the maximization of the availability of the two systems of support to the power supply, Generator Groups (GGs) and Unit Power Supply (UPS). These systems of important necessity, when unavailability of energy supply by the commercial operator need to be in perfect conditions of operation, and thus, to maintain without interruption the power supply to the equipment and systems that constitute the SICCAP. Thus, this work will also be very important and interesting in the sense that it will expose and demonstrate how these entities coordinate and relate to achieve this goal. Through the interviews carried out, it was possible to qualitatively test the hypotheses that were formulated in the hypothetical-deductive way of producing the knowledge elaborated here and of the aforementioned subject, and for which it was concluded that the management and support of realized loads contribute positively to the maximization of the availability. Finally some recommendations and limitations of the work will be woven.N/

Condições de emprego da força, tipo de operações, estrutura e meios

Este estudo analisa as condições de emprego da força e quais as estruturas e meios mais adequadas ao emprego do Exército na prevenção e combate às ameaças terroristas. Para enquadrar o estudo definem-se os possíveis cenários de intervenção com base no edifício legal vigente e caracteriza-se a ameaça terrorista no actual cenário estratégico. A análise do emprego do Exército neste novo ambiente operacional, incide nas condições de emprego da força em articulação, ou apoio, com as forças e serviços de segurança, nas operações de anti-terrorismo, contra-terrorismo, gestão de consequências e cooperação militar e no impacto destas novas missões na sua estrutura de forças e meios. Para esta investigação foi utilizado o método dedutivo a partir de uma pesquisa bibliográfica diversificada e o método monográfico com base em modelos de combate ao terrorismo. Em suma, este trabalho avalia as capacidades do Exército face à ameaça terrorista, indica prioridades, levanta a necessidade de legislação específica e apresenta contributos para a elaboração de um Plano Nacional de Combate ao Terrorismo e de um possível conceito de emprego do Exército. Abstract: This analysis studies the concept of force employment, the organization and the more appropriate means to the Army’s employment in the prevention and combat of terrorist threats. The background of the study defines the most probable intervention scenarios based on the current strategic environment. The analysis of the Army’s employment in this new operational framework focus on the Force concept employment in articulation, or support, of the security forces and services in antiterrorism operations, counterterrorism, consequence management and military cooperation and the impact of these missions in force and resource organization. For this investigation we used the deductive method starting from a diversified bibliographical research and we also used the monograph method based in models in the combat of terrorism. In short, this study evaluates the Army’s capabilities to face the terrorist threat, indicates priorities, raises the necessity of a specific legislation and presents a contribution for the elaboration of a National Plan to Combat Terrorism and a possible concept of employment of the Army