Ensaios sobre comunidades de energia renováveis

Environmental and economic trends of the last decades have forced the world to urgently rethink current energy markets and energy supply. Thus, a deeper study on Renewable Energy Communities (REC) is a recent and emerging concern due to their relevant role in some energy markets and, in some cases, their key role in the future. This new generation of citizen intervention presents itself to democratize the energy sector in all its phases, from production to supply. Community energy represents a legal form of business present throughout the world and throughout the economy, namely in agriculture, finance, general consumption, and industrial production, albeit on a smaller scale. According to the Cooperative Alliance (ICA), the definition is clear. The objectives of this business model are to increase member participation and governance to a new level; position community energy as sustainability builders, build the community energy message and ensure community identity, ensure legal structures to support community growth and secure reliable community capital, ensure member control. It is often argued that laws and regulations raise various restrictions on REC. Therefore, renewable energy development should be supported by public policy, in all European countries. The development of REC’s does not appear to be the same in all member states. Moreover, its development even seems to be different, and depending on the European country. In Southern European countries, which do not have a tradition of green energy dissemination, show a lower development of REC’s. So, through a questionnaire addressed to participants in REC’s and a questionnaire addressed to the general population, it is intended to study and better understand what citizens' energy initiatives are, their main characteristics, benefits, barriers, and the motivations of individuals who participate in them. Citizen participation is a crucial point for the development of communities. The main motivation for participation seems to be concern about environmental and climate impacts. We also observe that, in these communities, trust is pointed out as important for the development of any RE project. As for the benefits, the results lead to significant insights: firstly, it is mentioned by the survey participants that the environmental benefits outweigh the financial ones when creating and developing REC’s. Secondly, it is significant to highlight that the benefits and impacts that RECs bring to the regions where they are created are perceived as essential. On the barriers, environmental policies and costs are among the barriers that are most pointed out to the adoption and development of REC’s. Finally, it has been shown that there is a disparity between the countries of Southern Europe and those of Northern Europe, this difference being justified by economic and environmental factors and the legislative framework. In short, REC’s are significant for the energy transition and should be supported by European governments and by national and European policies.As tendências ambientais e económicas das últimas décadas forçaram o mundo a repensar urgentemente os mercados energéticos atuais e a oferta de energia. Assim, um estudo mais aprofundado sobre a Comunidades de Energia Renováveis (CER) é uma preocupação recente e emergente devido ao seu papel relevante em alguns mercados energéticos e, em alguns casos, pelo seu papel-chave no futuro. Esta nova geração de intervenção cidadã apresenta-se como uma forma de democratizar o sector energético em todas as suas fases, desde a produção até ao abastecimento. A energia comunitária representa uma forma jurídica de negócio presente em todo o mundo e em toda a economia, nomeadamente na agricultura, nas finanças, no consumo geral, e na produção industrial, ainda que em menor escala. De acordo com a Aliança Cooperativa (ICA), a definição é clara. Os objetivos deste modelo empresarial são o aumento da participação dos seus membros e a governação para um novo nível; posicionar a energia comunitária como construtores de sustentabilidade, construir a mensagem energética comunitária e assegurar a identidade comunitária, assegurar estruturas legais para apoiar o crescimento da comunidade e garantir capital comunitário fiável, assegurar o controlo dos membros. Argumenta-se frequentemente que as leis e regulamentos levantam várias restrições à CER. Por conseguinte, o desenvolvimento das energias renováveis deve ser apoiado por políticas públicas, em todos os países europeus. O desenvolvimento das CER não aparenta ser o mesmo em todos os estados-membros. Além disso, o seu desenvolvimento parece mesmo ser diferente, e dependendo do país europeu. Nos países do sul da Europa, que não têm uma tradição de disseminação de energia verde, mostram um desenvolvimento inferior de CER. Então através de um questionário dirigido aos participantes nas CER e um questionário dirigido à população em geral, pretende-se estudar e compreender melhor quais são as iniciativas energéticas dos cidadãos, as suas principais características, benefícios, barreiras e as motivações dos indivíduos que nelas participam. A participação dos cidadãos é um ponto crucial para o desenvolvimento das comunidades. A principal motivação para a participação parece ser a preocupação com os impactos ambientais e climáticos. Observamos também que, nestas comunidades, a confiança é apontada como importante para o desenvolvimento de qualquer projeto RE. Quanto aos benefícios, os resultados conduzem a importantes perceções: em primeiro lugar, é mencionado, pelos participantes no survey, que os benefícios ambientais superam os financeiros ao criar e desenvolver CER's. Em segundo lugar, é importante destacar que os benefícios e impactos que as CER trazem para as regiões onde são criadas são percecionados como essenciais. Sobre as barreiras, as políticas ambientais e os custos são das barreiras que mais são apontadas à adoção e ao desenvolvimento das CER. Finalmente, mostrou-se a existência de uma disparidade entre os países do sul da Europa e os do norte da Europa, justificando-se essa diferença por fatores económicos, ambientais e pelo quadro legislativo. Em suma, as CER mostram-se importantes para a transição energética, devendo ser apoiada pelos governos europeus e pelas políticas nacionais e europeias.Programa Doutoral em Ciências Económicas e Empresariai

A review of the biology of calcium phosphate sequestration with special reference to milk

In milk, a stable fluid is formed in which sequestered nanoclusters of calcium phosphate are substructures in casein micelles. As a result, calcium and phosphate concentrations in milk can be far in excess of their solubility. Variations of calcium, phosphate and casein concentrations in milks, both within and among species, are mainly due to the formation of the nanocluster complexes. Caseins evolved from tooth and bone proteins well before the evolution of lactation. It has therefore been suggested that the role of caseins in milk is an adaptation of an antecedent function in the control of some aspect of biomineralisation. There is new evidence that nanocluster-type complexes are also present in blood serum and, by implication, in many other closely related biofluids. Because such fluids are stable but nevertheless supersaturated with respect to the bone and tooth mineral hydroxyapatite, they allow soft and mineralised tissues to co-exist in the same organism with relative ease. An appreciable concentration of nanocluster complexes exists in fresh saliva. Such saliva may stabilise tooth mineral and help to repair demineralised lesions. In the extracellular matrix of bone, nanocluster complexes may be involved in directing the amorphous calcium phosphate to intrafibrillar spaces in collagen where they can mature into oriented apatite crystals. Thus, evidence is accumulating that calcium phosphate sequestration by phosphopeptides to form equilibrium complexes, first observed in milk, is more generally important in the control of physiological calcification

LOCATION DETERMINANTS OF FDI: A LITERATURE REVIEW

The development of economic activity and the rise in foreign direct investment (FDI) in recent decades has prompted a great deal of research into the phenomenon of multinational companies. A vast amount of empirical literature on FDI catalogues a long list of determinants that try to explain direct investment by multinational companies in a particular location, but it is noticeable that the results are not always consensual. This article provides a review of the theoretical approaches to and empirical studies on FDI in an attempt to single out the most robust factors for explaining the geographic distribution of FDI flows worldwide. It also suggests paths for future research in this area.FDI, determinants of FDI, literature review

A fisioterapia e a humanização: opinião dos alunos da licenciatura em fisioterapia da Universidade Fernando Pessoa do ano letivo 2011/2012

Trabalho apresentado à Universidade Fernando Pessoa como parte dos requisitos para obtenção do grau de Licenciada em FisioterapiaA temática humanização apresenta escassez de literatura na área de Fisioterapia, sendo necessário desenvolver novas pesquisas/ estudos que colmatem esta limitação. Neste pressuposto, este estudo tem como objetivo verificar qual a opinião dos alunos da Licenciatura em Fisioterapia da Universidade Fernando Pessoa, inscritos no ano letivo 2011/2012, sobre a humanização em Fisioterapia. A pesquisa foi conduzida segundo uma abordagem qualitativa descritiva, usando o questionário como instrumento de colheita de dados e tendo amostra constituída por 203 alunos. Os resultados revelaram que os participantes compreendem o que é a humanização em Fisioterapia e o que ela implica; no entanto, verificaram-se algumas lacunas na concretização da mesma. Ao longo da análise, constatou-se a existência de um consenso entre a opinião partilhada pelos inquiridos e a bibliografia consultada. No final o trabalho exposto permitiu sensibilizar a comunidade estudantil inquirida bem como os Fisioterapeutas para o tema apresentado. The thematic of humanization presents a deficit of literature on the Physiotherapy subject, resulting in the need to develop new researches/studies that compensate this limitation. On this basis, the goal of this study is to determine the opinion of the Physiotherapy Bachelor students of the Fernando Pessoa University, enrolled in the academic year of 2011/2012, on humanization of Physiotherapy. The research was conducted through a qualitative descriptive approach, using the questionnaire as a tool for data collection, with a sample of 203 students. The results revealed that the participants understand what the humanization of Physiotherapy is and what it implies; however, there were some gaps when defining it properly. Throughout the analysis, a consensus was verified between the opinion shared by the respondents and the consulted literature. In the end, the work presented raised awareness among the student community, as well as the Physiotherapists, to the topic presented

MODELLING TOURISM DEMAND: A COMPARATIVE STUDY BETWEEN ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORKS AND THE BOX-JENKINS METHODOLOGY

This study seeks to investigate and highlight the usefulness of the Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) methodology as an alternative to the Box-Jenkins methodology in analysing tourism demand. To this end, each of the above-mentioned methodologies is centred on the treatment, analysis and modelling of the tourism time series: “Nights Spent in Hotel Accommodation per Month”, recorded in the period from January 1987 to December 2006, since this is one of the variables that best expresses effective demand. The study was undertaken for the North and Centre regions of Portugal. The results showed that the model produced by using the ANN methodology presented satisfactory statistical and adjustment qualities, suggesting that it is suitable for modelling and forecasting the reference series, when compared with the model produced by using the Box?Jenkins methodology.Artificial Neural Networks; ARIMA Models; Time Series Forecasting

The Internationalization of SUMOL+COMPAL to Angola: a case study

The present case study has been developed in the scope of the Master in International Management from ISCTE Business School. The present case study is a result from my personal motivation to understand what are the biggest opportunities and challenges in the internationalization process of a FMCG company. With the purpose of understanding the internationalization process of a firm, including the motivations behind it, how to enter in a foreign market and how to build an international strategy, this case study follows an interpretative approach. The case study analysis has included quantitative and qualitative data. Some of them have been kindly given by SUMOL+COMPAL and another have been collected through some research. The data results reveal an increase of sales in Angola over the last five years, which reflects the importance of this market to SUMOL+COMPAL Group. In conclusion, the case study involves the reflection about the internationalization process of a company, taking into consideration the reasons behind this process, how to enter into a foreign market and how to define an international strategic plan. Therefore, this case study is relevant within the scope of International Management revealing the reality of many companies when seeking their internationalization.O presente caso de estudo foi desenvolvido no âmbito do Mestrado em International Management pelo ISCTE Business School. O presente caso de estudo resulta da motivação pessoal para compreender quais as principais oportunidades e desafios no processo de internacionalização de uma empresa de bens de grande consumo (FMCG). Com o objetivo de compreender o processo de internacionalização de uma empresa, incluindo quais as motivações que estiveram na sua origem, como entrar num mercado externo e como construir uma estratégia internacional, o presente caso segue uma abordagem interpretativa. De modo a proceder a uma análise do caso, foram utilizados dados quantitativos e qualitativos. Alguns destes foram gentilmente cedidos pela SUMOL+COMPAL e outros recolhidos através de pesquisa. Através dos dados recolhidos, os resultados obtidos revelaram um impacto no aumento nas vendas em Angola nos últimos cinco anos, o que reflete a importância deste mercado para o Grupo SUMOL+COMPAL. Em suma, o caso envolve a reflecção acerca do processo de internacionalização de uma empresa, tendo em consideração as razões que levaram à decisão de internacionalização, como entrar num mercado externo e como definir o plano internacional estratégico. Assim, este estudo revela ser relevante para a Gestão Internacional como objeto de estudo e conhecimento acerca da realidade de muitas empresas: a internacionalizaçã

Mucosal Immunity, Stress, Cognition and Functional Fitness in Sedentary and Active Elderly Men

Physical activity in the elderly has been shown to have positive effects on several chronic diseases and to improve immunity, mental health and cognition. Chronic stress as also been shown to have immuno-suppressive effects and to accelerate immunosenescence. Recently it as also been found that different types of exercise may affect cognition and dementia risk to different extents. This cross-sectional study compared a group of 16 sedentary men with a mean age of 74,5+10,17 years old and a group of 17 men engaged in moderate regular exercise, mean age 69,99+6,36 years old, and aimed to identifying markers involved in maintaining immune and mental health in the elderly. Immune and physiological markers of stress (salivary IgA, CRP, cortisol, alpha-amylase, testosterone and DHEA), psychological variables (perceived stress, self-esteem, physical self, satisfaction with life) and functional fitness (using the Rikli and Jones test battery) were evaluated. A smaller sample of subjects (8 sedentary and 10 active) was also evaluated for cognitive function using the Vienna Test System Software (Schuhfried, Austria). Four different tests were used: evaluation of reaction time to a visual stimulus, evaluation of reaction time to sound, evaluation of different components of cognitive speed and evaluation of complex and multiple reactions to different stimuli. Statistical analysis was performed using the independent samples T-test and the bivariate Pearson’s correlation for the association between variables. For the cognition tests variables the Mann-Whitney and Spearman tests were used. Results showed that the active group had significantly better results in all components of functional fitness, including upper and lower strength and flexibility, agility and balance as well as aerobic resistance. Saliva levels of CRP and IgA concentration, but not IgA secretion rates, were lower in the active group. In the psychological variables, differences between groups were only found for Physical Self in the Physical Function domain. The active group performed better for cognitive speed and for complex and multiple reactions test. Correlations were found for the navel perimeter and salivary flow rate (r=-0.32, p=0.02) and CRP (r=0.34, p=0.012) and mean reaction time to sound (r=-0.47, p=0.049); for salivary cortisol and total perceived stress (r=0.29, p=0.034). Two components of the cognitive speed test (reaction time to choose and reaction time to visual search) negatively correlated with saliva flow rate (r=-0.64, p=0.003; r=-0.52, p=0.02). Several correlations were also found for aerobic resistance and the complex and multiple reactions test. Inflammation and cognition were improved in active groups

Prevenção de riscos profissionais na construção de edifícios com estruturas em aço leve

A utilização de estruturas em aço leve em edifícios de pequeno porte tem tido um assinalável crescimento nos últimos anos, em diversos países do mundo, fruto das suas assinaláveis vantagens em termos custos, sistematização da produção, facilidade de montagem e de rapidez de execução. As caraterísticas deste sistema construtivo contribuem para a diminuição dos riscos profissionais normalmente associados à execução de estruturas tradicionais, em função da leveza dos elementos estruturais constituintes, da simplicidade das ligações, da repetição das operações de montagem, etc. Mas também introduzem outros riscos que importa considerar no planeamento da segurança de obras deste tipo, nomeadamente, os que resultam da falta de sedimentação das equipas de trabalho, frequentemente associada à sua inexperiência e informalidade, em virtude da simplicidade e da rapidez de construção permitidas pelo sistema. Relevam aqui os riscos de natureza organizacional, sem por de parte os riscos físicos, principalmente relacionados com as operações de montagem, cuja importância vem crescendo à medida que este sistema construtivo vai tendo aplicações em projetos mais complexos e em obras de maior porte. Levantam-se então, para este tipo de obras preocupações diferentes na prevenção de riscos profissionais, quando comparadas com as obras tradicionais. Ao congregar um vasto conjunto de países ibero-americanos em que este sistema construtivo tem tido grande recetividade, a rede temática CYTED despoletou a reflexão sobre este tema, como se procura analisar na presente comunicação.The use of lightweight steel frame structures in small buildings has had a remarkable growth in recent years in many countries, because of their remarkable advantages in costs, production organization, ease of fitting and execution speed. The characteristics of this building system contribute for the reduction of occupational risks normally associated to conventional building structures, due to the lightness of the structural constituents, the simplicity of connections, the repetition of assembly operations, etc. But also introduce other relevant risks in safety planning, including those resulting from the lack of settling of work teams, often associated with inexperience and informality, due to the simplicity and construction provided by the system. Organizational risks are relevant under this topic as well as the increase of physical risks, mainly related to the assembly operations, the importance of which tends to increase as the system is used in more complex projects and larger works. In view of the above, different concerns in the prevention of occupational risks may arise for this type of works, when compared to traditional construction. By bringing a wide range of Latin American countries in which this system has had considerable receptivity, the thematic network CYTED triggered the debate on this issue, as analysed in this paper