Controlo de construção da barragem da Caroucha. Principais aspectos de natureza geotécnica

Descrevem-se os principais aspectos de natureza geotécnica surgidos durante a fase de construção da barragem da Caroucha, cujo controlo de construção foi assessorado pela Escola Superior de Tecnologia da Universidade do Algarve (EST/UAlg), ao abrigo de um contrato de prestação de serviços celebrado com a Direcção Regional de Agricultura do Algarve (DRAALG)

A methodological approach in order to support decision-makers when defining Mobility and Transportation Politics

Nowadays Portugal is under a large process of creation/revision of studies and plans related with land use and territorial planning, mainly due to the end of the lifetime period of the actual Municipal Master Plan, but also because of the creation of the new Metropolitan Authorities of Transportation, which will require Mobility Plans. Even though the Portuguese law doesn’t impose these Mobility Plans at the present moment, there is a general feeling about the importance of the mobility system for the society and economics in general. This is the case in highly density areas, where the need and complexity of the system requires these specific studies in order to obtain an efficient management; or in the case of low-density areas where the risk of loosing competitiveness is too high to ignore the importance of the transportation and mobility system, and the advantage of gaining local and regional competitiveness might increase the importance of the municipality in regional context. This paper intends to provide an innovative approach regarding the provision, at an early stage, of technical support to decision-makers in order to define Mobility and Transportation Policies. The opportunity provided by using adapted SWOT analysis (among others) to identify weakening or potential factors, and how to take advantage of the results, always using a cause and effect approach and a coherent policy in order to obtain high quality and effective studies and politics. The methodology relies on a two-stage process. In the first stage a summary diagnose is provided, using inputs which are supposed to well characterise the territory’s mobility patterns. Afterwards, in a second phase, these are inter-related and evaluated in order to build-up a table of options, where policies are proposed with a careful attention to its qualitative cross impact with the measures and objectives intended to be achieved. The proposed methodology was applied in the Alcobaça´s Municipality case study, which provided different lines of action in diverse subjects, such as, public and private transportation networks, parking policies and organisation, and territory competitiveness. This study was particularly relevant, since this Municipality is under great pressure of its neighbour municipalities, has a low level of regional importance and a low intra-municipal cohesion. Finally, the general opinion of the decision-makers about this technical approach is presented. Keywords: Mobility; Transportation; Land Planning and Policies; Decision-making Support

Governo e salvação do corpo : a lenta inflexão do discurso da salvação

EntretextosNeste artigo, pretende-se analisar a forma como o aparecimento do Estado moderno veio colocar o problema do capital-vida, conduzindo à magna questão da salvação do corpo como uma das suas preocupações e uma das suas metas. Interessa-nos sobretudo saber como se deu início à operação de salvação do corpo, partindo do pressuposto que a formação do Estado e do governo visam, em última análise, conservar todos os membros da sociedade. A compreensão deste problema passa pela ideia da governamentalidade, conceito que expressa o trajecto intelectual de Foucault e que contém, por sua vez, o conceito de biopoder que toma forma com a ideia de biopolítica da população e com a anatomia política do corpo. Ao contrário da cura das almas o cuidar do corpo insere-se num certo uso terapêutico que exige novas competências. Procura-se fugir da doença porque agora valoriza-se não o sofrimento mas o bem-estar (salvação do corpo). A saúde passa a ser a chave de acesso aos prazeres e não o desejo de penitência que sacralizava o sofrimento. A nova relação saúde-doença, veio colocar a necessidade de salvar o corpo, uma vez que a antiga retórica religiosa da redenção é agora substituída por um discurso laico se bem que o auto-controlo e a reflexividade, enquanto espaços de gestão da liberdade individual, façam também parte integrante do governo de salvação. A sociedade salva-se na medida em que souber salvar o corpo.This article aims to analyze how the emergence of the modern state has placed the problem of capital-life, leading to the great question of salvation of the body as one of your concerns and one of its goals. We are interested in particular how it started the rescue operation of the body, assuming that the training of state and government aimed, ultimately, keep all members of society. Understanding this problem is the idea of governmentality, a concept that expresses the intellectual journey of Foucault and contains, in turn, the concept of biopower that took shape with the idea of biopolitics of the population and the political anatomy of the body. Unlike the cure of souls taking care of the body part of a certain therapeutic use that requires new skills. Seeks to escape the disease because now is valued not suffering but the well-being (salvation of the body). Health becomes the access key to the pleasures and not the desire of penance sacralized suffering. The new relationship between health and disease has placed the need to save the body, since the old religious rhetoric of redemption is now replaced by a secular discourse although the self-control and reflexivity, as space management of individual freedom, make also part of the government of salvation. The society is saved as you know to save the body

Corpo, sociedade e escola: sensibilidade educativa

EntretextosNeste artigo analisa-se a conexão entre estas três dimensões: corpo, sociedade e escola. Se cada sociedade tem o seu padrão cultural e se a cultura não é estática porque é recriada por cada um de nós, o homem passa a ser não só intérprete mas também criador de cultura. É da relação da natureza com a cultura que nasce uma outra realidade que designamos por CORPO. A construção o corpo processa-se no plano cultural e social sendo aqui que ele é inventado, dando origem à formação de uma nova realidade suprabiológica de grande carga simbólica. É pelos mitos, ritos, crenças, que o homem atribui um significado ao mundo e a seus objectos. Acresce que a escola encerra, no dizer de Michel Foucault (1987), um tipo específico de poder - o poder disciplinar que actua sobre o adestramento do corpo. Na escola, o controlo do corpo é feito na moldura do tempo e do espaço uma vez que são vigiados os gestos, as posturas e, todas as operações do corpo - o levantar do braço, o virar a cabeça, o sentar e o levantar, o falar e o estar calado, etc. Assim, o que se nos afigura imperioso é ter uma nova sensibilidade educativa para tornar inteligível a interrelação entre corpo, sociedade e a escola.This paper examines the connection between the following three dimensions: the body, the society and the school. If each society has its own cultural patterns and culture is not of a static kind, because it is recreated by each of us, man becomes not just an interpreter but also a creator of culture. It is from the relationship between the nature and the culture that springs another reality that we call BODY. The construction of the body that takes place on a cultural and social plan while being created at this level, leads to the formation of a new supra-biological reality of great symbolic significance. It is by the myths, rituals, beliefs, that man attaches great importance to the world and its objects. Moreover, in the words of Michel Foucault (1987), school embodies a specific type of power - the disciplinary power that acts on the training of the body. At school, control of the body is made in the framework of time and space as they are watched through gestures, postures, and all operations of the body, such as the lifting of the arm, the turning of the head, the sitting and standing up, the speaking and being silent, etc. So, what if we deem as imperative is to have a new awareness of education to make intelligible the interrelationship between body, society and school

Editorial

UID/HIS/04209/2019publishersversionpublishe

Editorial

UID/HIS/04209/2019publishersversionpublishe

Molecular determinants of ligand specificity in carbohydrate-binding modules: an NMR and X-ray crystallography integrated study

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Doutor em Bioquímica – Ramo Bioquímica EstruturalThe microbial plant cell wall degradation is one of the most important processes in the global turnover of atmospheric carbon dioxide. The work presented in this thesis addressed the cellulosomes of Clostridium thermocellum and Bacteroides cellulosolvens, essential to the process of cellulose degradation, and aimed to study some of the components involved in their architecture (cohesins and dockerins) and efficiency (Carbohydrate-Binding Modules - CBMs). For this I used a combination of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), X-ray crystallography and computer modeling techniques. My objective was to help rationalize the molecular determinants of specificity of CBMs, including the CtCBMs of families 11, 30 and 44, and the mechanisms of molecular recognition between cohesins and dockerins. In Chapter I, I present a general introduction to the theme of degradation of plant cell walls, with special attention to the cellulosome and its components. In Chapter II, I discuss the structural characteristics of the CtCBM11 based on the structures obtained by NMR at 25 and 50 °C and the structure obtained by crystallography. I found that although similar, the structures show some differences, particularly regarding the binding cleft area, which explains the negative results obtained by co-crystallization. In Chapter III and IV I study the molecular determinants of specificity in modules CtCBM11, 30 and 44, based on NMR and computer modeling data. I found that the atoms of the cellooligosaccharides most important for binding are the ones at positions 2 and 6 of the central units of the ligands. Moreover, I characterized the mechanisms responsible for selection and binding of these modules to various substrates. I established that binding occurs by a mechanism for conformational selection, where the topology of the residues of the protein, the conformation of the ligand and the number of glucose units, play a fundamental role. Chapters V and VI reveal the determination of the 3D structure of the cohesin-module X-dockerin complex of C. thermocellum and the cohesin-dockerin complex of B. cellulosolvens, respectively. Both complexes belong to the type II and their analysis allowed obtaining important information about the structural features that define the cohesin-dockerin interaction. The structure belonging to C. thermocellum revealed that the module X is essential for the stability of the complex. Moreover, for the first time the 3D structure of a cohesin-dockerin complex from B. cellulosolvens was determined. In this complex the dockerin is rotated 180º when compared to other complexes. This gives the cellulosome plasticity. In the final chapters, I present the NMR and X-ray crystallography techniques I used throughout the study. Finally, I draw some general conclusions about all the work done.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia - SFRH/BD/35992/2007, and projects PTDC/QUI/68286/2006, PTDC/QUI-BIQ/100359/2008 and PTDC/BIA-PRO/103980/200

Um modelo de solução fechada para avaliação de hipotecas comerciais

O objectivo deste estudo é o desenvolvimento de uma solução analítica que permita avaliar hipotecas comerciais. Para tal, considera-se a existência de uma única fonte de risco - risco de incumprimento - e por conseguinte a existência de uma única variável de estado - o valor da propriedade hipotecada. O valor da hipoteca corresponde ao valor actual das prestações futuras do empréstimo deduzido do valor da opção de incumprimento. A maior dificuldade na resolução do modelo reside no cálculo do valor desta opção e, por sua vez, no cálculo do valor crítico da propriedade, isto é, do preço fronteira abaixo do qual a opção deve ser exercida imediatamente. Este trabalho constitui uma primeira abordagem ao desenvolvimento de soluções analíticas para a avaliação de hipotecas, recorrendo à análise de fluxos contingentes

Mortgage valuation: a quasi-closed-form solution

The substantial growth observed in commercial mortgage contracts during the last two decades justifies a greater academic effort in order to develop adequate valuation models. In the vast majority of cases, the literature in this field has presented only numeric solutions. In order to obtain these numeric solutions, highly complex calculation techniques are required, which make the process overly slow and expensive. The main objective of this work is to make a contribution in a hitherto underexplored area of financial research: the development of a contingent claims commercial mortgage valuation model with a closed-form solution. The model developed in the present paper constitutes one of the first attempts to identify closed-form solutions for commercial mortgage valuation. It is also a valid alternative to models proposed up to now in the specific field of commercial mortgage valuationinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Mortgage valuation: a quasi-closed form solution

The main objective of this study consists in developing a quasi-analytical solution for the valuation of commercial mortgages. We consider the existence of a single source of risk - the risk of defaulting on a mortgage - and therefore, the existence of a single state variable - the value of the mortgaged property. The value of the mortgage corresponds to the present value of the future payments on the loan, minus the value of the embedded American default option. The major difficulty in designing such a model consists in calculating the value of this option, since for that purpose it is necessary to determine the lowest property price below which it must be immediately exercised, i.e. the critical value of the property