Improving housing quality as markefing strategy

Prospective housing clients in Portugal face up a marked lack of information on the characteristics of housing products, which most often turn out to be very different of their expectations. This lack of information does not allow them to relate adequately quality and cost. Furthermore, housing products are not adequately differentiated owing to an inefficient approach to the market from the part of different actors in the property sector, which makes difficult the understanding of the true needs and wishes of the client. Nowadays, in a highly competitive housing market, it is increasingly needed to weigh the quality of supply, for housing investment is one of the most important decisions of the Portuguese households. Due to the fact that competition on that market is almost exclusively based on price, there is a need for change in the culture of the housing sector that would promote adequate strategies of marketing and quality. This research project has as the main aim to develop a support tool for the construction enterprises in the housing sector in order to improve the value of their products/services and, to a certain extent, the competitiveness of the sector. The model, which is specifically developed for the town of Bragança, is based on information collected from users in newly occupied housing. It was done through the use of a questionnaire- survey conducted on respondents from fourteen multi-family housing, which were built by four contractors/developers

Emerging and innovative techniques for arsenic removal applied to a small water supply system

The impact of arsenic on human health has led its drinking water MCL to be drastically reduced from 50 to 10 ppb. Consequently, arsenic levels in many water supply sources have become critical. This has resulted in technical and operational impacts on many drinking water treatment plants that have required onerous upgrading to meet the new standard. This becomes a very sensitive issue in the context of water scarcity and climate change, given the expected increasing demand on groundwater sources. This work presents a case study that describes the development of low-cost techniques for efficient arsenic control in drinking water. The results obtained at the Manteigas WTP (Portugal) demonstrate the successful implementation of an effective and flexible process of reactive filtration using iron oxide. At real-scale, very high removal efficiencies of over 95% were obtained.(undefined

Interaction of wine mannoproteins and arabinogalactans with anthocyanins

Wine polymeric material (WPM), which includes polysaccharides, proteins, and polyphenolic compounds, interacts with anthocyanins. To determine the contribution of polysaccharides in these interactions, the diffusion performance of anthocyanins along a dialysis membrane was determined in the presence and absence of isolated mannoproteins (MP) and arabinogalactans (AG) from WPM. Furthermore, to estimate the extent of the interaction between WPM and polyphenolic compounds, the activation energy (Ea) required for their diffusion in the presence of WPM was determined. AG, generally more abundant than MP in wine, interact in a greater extent with anthocyanins, showing their relevant contribution for WPM/anthocyanins interactions. The Ea for the diffusion of polyphenolic compounds in presence of WPM indicated the occurrence of interactions with relative weak to strong intensities (2.6–50.8 kJ/mol). As not all polyphenolic compounds were able to be released from WPM, stronger interactions, possibly by covalent linkages, are involved, providing new insights on WPM/polyphenolic compounds relationships.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Androgens and low density lipoprotein-cholesterol interplay in modulating prostate cancer cell fate and metabolism

Background: Androgens, the known drivers of prostate cancer (PCa), have been indicated as important metabolic regulators with a relevant role in stimulating lipid metabolism. Also, the relationship between obesity and the aggressiveness of PCa has been established. However, it is unknown if the androgenic hormonal environment may alter the response of PCa cells to lipid availability. Purpose: The present study evaluated the effect of 5 alpha-dihydrotestosterone (DHT) in regulating lipid metabolism, and the interplay between this hormone and low-density lipoprotein (LDL)-cholesterol in modulating PCa cells fate.Methods: Non-neoplastic and neoplastic PCa cells were treated with 10 nM DHT, and the expression of fatty acids transporter, fatty acid synthase (FASN), and carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1A (CPT1A) evaluated. PCa cells were also exposed to LDL (100 mu g/ml) in the presence or absence of DHT.Results: Treatment with DHT upregulated the expression of FASN and CPT1A in androgen-sensitive PCa cells. In contrast, LDL supplementation suppressed FASN expression regardless of the presence of DHT, whereas aug-menting CPT1A levels. Our results also showed that LDL-cholesterol increased PCa cells viability, proliferation, and migration dependently on the presence of DHT. Moreover, LDL and DHT synergistically enhanced the accumulation of lipid droplets in PCa cells.Conclusions: The obtained results show that androgens deregulate lipid metabolism and enhance the effects of LDL increasing PCa cells viability, proliferation and migration. The present findings support clinical data linking obesity with PCa and first implicate androgens in this relationship. Also, they sustain the application of phar-macological approaches targeting cholesterol availability and androgens signaling simultaneously.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Improving housing quality as a marketing strategy

Prospective housing clients in Portugal face up a marked lack of information on the characteristics of housing products, which most often turn out to be very different to their expectations. This lack of information does not allow them to relate quality and cost adequately. Furthermore, housing products are not adequately differentiated owing to an inefficient approach to the market from the part of different actors in the property sector, which makes the understanding of the true needs and wishes of the client difficult. Nowadays, in a highly competitive housing market, it is increasingly necessary to weigh the quality of supply, for housing investment is one of the most important decisions of the Portuguese households. Due to the fact that competition in that market is almost exclusively based on price, there is a need for change in the culture of the housing sector that would promote adequate strategies of marketing and quality. The main aim of this research project is to develop a support tool for the construction enterprises in the housing sector in order to improve the value of their products/services and, to a certain extent, the competitiveness of the sector. The model, which is specifically developed for the town of Bragança, is based on information collected from users of newly occupied housing. It was done through the use of a questionnaire- survey conducted on respondents from fourteen mu/ti-fami/y residences, which were built by four different contractors/developer

Remoção de arsénio em sistemas em sistemas de abastecimento de água. Um caso de estudo

A presença de arsénio nas origens de água para consumo humano é um problema que tem suscitado uma preocupação crescente a nível mundial devido à sua repercussão na saúde pública, originando, a sua exposição prolongada, lesões cutâneas graves e perturbações neurológicas incapacitantes. Vários estudos epidemiológicos vieram confirmar a potencial acção cancerígena de algumas espécies de arsénio, levando a OMS a recomendar uma redução drástica no valor-guia (de 0,050 para 0,010 ppm) da norma de qualidade da água para consumo humano. A União Europeia aprovou a Directiva n.º 98/83/CE (Drinking Water Directive - DWD), que impôs a adopção desse novo limite (0,010 ppm) a partir de 25/12/2003, mantendo-se esse valor paramétrico na legislação portuguesa em vigor (DL 306/2007, de 27 de Agosto). Esta alteração legislativa colocou muitas origens de água de pequenos e médios sistemas de abastecimento numa situação de incumprimento, ainda que sazonal, implicando que as entidades gestoras desses sistemas de abastecimento de água tivessem de promover a adaptação das técnicas utilizadas para remoção de arsénio em ETA já existentes, através da realização de obras de reconversão, ou de construir/ampliar ETA, de modo a instalar processos de remoção de arsénio até então não necessários. Quando a substituição dessas origens de água se revela impossível ou demasiado dispendiosa, a remoção do arsénio na água bruta coloca-se como a única opção viável para se obter uma água segura para consumo humano, tornando pertinente o desenvolvimento de tecnologias de remoção inovadoras, mais eficientes e economicamente sustentáveis, aplicáveis a sistemas de abastecimento. de pequenos e médios aglomerados populacionais. Neste trabalho faz-se uma síntese dos principais impactos da ingestão (por via hídrica) de arsénio na saúde humana e dos principais processos de tratamento (convencionais e emergentes) utilizados nas águas para consumo humano, incluindo uma análise das respectivas eficiências, de modo a estabelecer critérios de selecção dessas tecnologias em função das características da água bruta a tratar e/ou dos esquemas de tratamento, no caso de ETA já existentes. Neste contexto, apresenta-se o caso de estudo da reabilitação da ETA de Manteigas, efectuada pela empresa Águas do Zêzere e Côa (AdZC), onde se implementou, com o sucesso que os resultados obtidos demonstram, uma solução eficaz e economicamente sustentável de correcção dos níveis de arsénio numa água bruta com excelente qualidade microbiológica, baseada num processo de filtração reactiva, que utiliza o óxido de ferro como material adsorvente, permitindo eficiências de remoção muito elevadas (superiores a 90%