Mobilidade sustentável : interação entre veículos motorizados e utentes vulneráveis da via pública

Mestrado em Sistemas Energéticos SustentáveisO automóvel tem sido nas últimas décadas o principal meio de transporte para a realização de deslocações diárias. Este é um panorama tanto a nível Nacional como Europeu e deve-se ao crescimento económico e aos investimentos centrados em infraestruturas rodoviárias. A organização das atividades e o planeamento nos meios urbanos está, muitas vezes, projetada em função do automóvel e pouco preparado para outras formas de mobilidade, nomeadamente para peões e ciclistas. Existe uma necessidade de mudança deste panorama e a necessidade de uma sociedade que privilegie os modos de transporte suave. No entanto, surge a necessidade de garantir a segurança dos utentes mais vulneráveis da via pública. Esta dissertação de Mestrado tem como principal objetivo analisar de que forma a sinistralidade viária para peões e ciclistas tem evoluído nas freguesias abrangidas pela atividade da Polícia de Segurança Pública (PSP) de Aveiro e quais as principais dificuldades que estes enfrentam nas suas deslocações diárias. Para alcançar este objetivo foram analisados dados de sinistralidade viária fornecidos pela PSP do comando distrital de Aveiro que envolviam a interação de veículos motorizados e utentes vulneráveis da via pública (peões ou ciclistas). Numa segunda fase foi elaborado um inquérito, com o objetivo de perceber as principais dificuldades encontradas pelos utentes da Universidade que privilegiam os modos de deslocação suave nas suas viagens diárias. Este estudo revelou que para a área em estudo, no concelho de Aveiro, o número de acidentes que envolvem a interação de veículos motorizados com utentes vulneráveis da via pública aumentou 5% de 2012 a 2013 e 4% de 2013 a 2014. Os utentes com idades superiores a 55 anos revelaram-se os mais vulneráveis, não só em termos de número de ocorrências mas também na gravidade de lesões, representando 50% de mortes e feridos graves, Em termos de atropelamento de peões existe uma forte tendência para peões do sexo feminino (73%), em oposição ao perfil do condutor atropelante onde 69% são do sexo masculino Em relação a acidentes envolvendo ciclistas, 68% dos lesados são do sexo masculino. Uma possível explicação poderá consistir numa maior utilização de bicicletas por parte dos mesmos, como foi comprovado na amostra recolhida no inquérito, mas não existem mais estatísticas em Aveiro sobre a distribuição por género dos utilizadores de bicicleta. Do inquérito efetuado conclui-se que os principais problemas encontrados pelos utentes inquiridos são, à semelhança de peões e ciclistas, a falta de sensibilização dos automobilistas e as condições meteorológicas. Em terceiro lugar encontra-se, para os peões, o aumento do risco de atos de vandalismo e assaltos e, para os ciclistas, a falta de vias dedicadas. Por outro lado, as principais motivações são, tanto para peões como para ciclistas, o custo reduzido ou nulo e a facilidade de locomoção.In the last few decades the private vehicle has been the most commonly used transportation mode for daily journeys. This is a National and European trend and it is due to the economic growth and the investments focused on the road infrastructures. Because of that reason, the cities have been often organized in terms of planning with especial attention to road vehicles and not well prepared for pedestrians and cyclists. There is a need to change this behavior to a society that privileges the soft modes of transport. However, there is the necessity to ensure the safety of the most vulnerable users of public roads. This Master dissertation is focused on understanding how road accidents have evolved for pedestrians and cyclists in Aveiro and what are the main difficulties that people using soft modes face in their daily journeys. In order to reach this objective, road accidents’ data (given by the Police force “PSP” of Aveiro) were analyzed. These data represents the interaction of motor vehicles and vulnerable road users (pedestrians or cyclists). In a second stage, a survey was prepared with the objective to understand the main difficulties of the university community who use the soft modes in their daily journeys. This study revealed that in Aveiro the number of accidents involving motor vehicles and vulnerable users has increased by about 5% over 2012/2013 and 4% in 2013/2014. The users with more than 55 years old are more vulnerable, not only in terms of the number of occurrences, but also in the severity of the injuries, accounting for 50% of deaths and serious injuries. In terms of collisions with pedestrians, there are more female pedestrians affected (73%) while the driver profile has more tendency to be male (69%). In relation to accidents involving cyclists, 68% the victims are men. This can be possibly explained because there are more men cyclists than women as was verified in the sample of the survey, but there is a lack of statistics in Aveiro on the gender distribution of cyclists. From the survey it has been pointed out that the main problems found are the lack of drivers’ awareness and weather conditions. The third reason was the increase on the risk of vandalism and assaults (for the pedestrians) and the lack of dedicate cycle lanes (for the cyclists). On the other hand, the main motivations for both are the reduced cost and the locomotion simplification

Integrated impact assessment of shares, automated and electric mobility

Major transformations in the road transportation sector such as vehicle automation, electrification, and shared mobility, create opportunities to tackle sector challenges. Despite the promising positive impact, little is known about the real potential and the effective sustainability of a combination oh these emerging mobility systems. The proposed doctoral research plan intends to understand and quantify the environmental and energy-related impacts of shared, fully automated, and electric mobility. A fundamental understanding of the upstream and downstream environmental impacts of a product and a system considering SAEVs fleet adjusted to different travel demands will be conducted in a life cycle assessment (LCA) approach. The assessment of potential environmental impact reduction has always been a research hotspot; however, most studies are only focused on operational impact. Moreover, the impact of SAEVs in the road network considering presence, routing, location, access to charging stations and scheduling will be addressed. Hence, automated driving decisions and distinguishing normal from recurring driving patterns are required to develop a framework for generating an automated mobility service. Attention will be given to the application of SAE mobility both at urban and inter-urban scales. The evaluation of the impacts of emerging mobility systems requires a comprehensive set of criteria. Results of the research intend to culminate into a feasibility study combining environmental, economic, and consumer perspective viability of the examined systems. The main research questions of this study are: 1) Which routing strategies should be adopted for energy-efficient driving decision?; 2) What are the impacts of SAEVs systems through a life cycle concept?; 3) What is the potential of SAEVs to manage traffic demand at urban and interurban scales?publishe

Estudo do tempo de prateleira de sangria tinta

Dissertação de mestrado em Tecnologia e Ciência AlimentarNos últimos anos têm ocorrido alterações no setor alimentar, despoletadas pelas exigências dos consumidores, estando relacionadas com a garantia da segurança e qualidade alimentar dos produtos adquiridos, em paralelo com a sua facilidade de preparação. O tempo de prateleira é definido como o período entre a produção e o consumo de um produto alimentar, durante o qual este se encontra num estado de qualidade satisfatória, em termos de valor nutricional, de sabor, de textura e de aparência. A sua determinação é um processo habitual na indústria alimentar, podendo ser realizada através de estudos de armazenamento e/ou princípios de cinética química. Os objetivos deste trabalho foram a caraterização físico-química de sangrias comerciais tintas, de forma, a estabelecer comparação com a sangria Casal Garcia, e determinar o tempo de prateleira da mesma através de um ensaio de envelhecimento acelerado. A primeira parte do trabalho consistiu na caraterização físico-química da sangria Casal Garcia, de sangrias tintas já comercializadas em Portugal e nos EUA e de uma sangria desenvolvida na empresa. A seguinte etapa incluiu a determinação do tempo de prateleira da sangria Casal Garcia através do ensaio de envelhecimento acelerado com diferentes conservantes, avaliando parâmetros de qualidade, quer físico-químicos, quer microbiológicos. O tempo de prateleira foi calculado a partir da equação de Arrhenius em relação ao parâmetro de qualidade, a cor. A seguinte etapa incluiu um controlo de qualidade físico-químico, microbiológico e sensorial de quatro lotes de sangria Casal Garcia, com diferentes tempos de armazenamento. Por último, foram realizadas análises físico-químicas e análises sensoriais, com diferentes tipos de testes de novas formulações de sangria desenvolvidas. Em relação à caraterização físico-química de sangrias comerciais, verificou-se que 55,6 % dos produtos avaliados possuem o ácido sórbico como conservante. No ensaio de envelhecimento, o DMDC demonstrou ter o maior espectro de ação anti-microbiana. O tempo de prateleira obtido para a sangria Casal Garcia foi de 10 meses e de 28 meses, tendo em conta Q10 e um fator de aceleração, respetivamente, usando a coordenada de cor b*, antes de atingir valores positivos, indicativos de cor amarela. No controlo de qualidade dos lotes de sangria de um ano de armazenamento, verificou-se que apesar do teor de SO2 livre estar abaixo do recomendado, foi suficiente para o controlo microbiano e segurança do produto. Uma sangria com glicosídeos de steviol demonstrou ter um boa aceitabilidade.In recent years there have been changes in the food sector, triggered by consumer demand, and being related to ensuring the safety and food quality of the products purchased, in parallel to its ease of preparation. The shelf life is defined as the period between production and consumption of a food product, during which it is in a state of satisfactory quality, in terms of nutritional value, taste, texture and appearance. Determining it is a usual procedure in the food industry, it may be performed through storage studies and/or principles of chemical kinetics. The objectives of this study were the physicochemical characterization of commercial red sangrias, in order to provide comparison with the Casal Garcia sangria and determine the shelf life of the same through an accelerated aging test. The first part of the work consisted on the physico-chemical characterization of the Casal Garcia sangria, of red sangrias already marketed in Portugal and in the USA, and of one sangria developed in the company. The next step includes determining the shelf life of the Casal Garcia sangria through accelerated aging test with different preservatives, evaluating quality parameters, whether physical, chemical or microbiological. The shelf life was calculated from the Arrhenius equation regarding the quality parameter, the color. The next step included a physico-chemical quality control, microbiological and sensory four lots of Casal Garcia sangria, with different storage periods. Finally, physico-chemical analysis and sensory analyzes were performed, with different types of sangria developed by new formulations tests. In relation to the physico-chemical characterization of commercial sangrias, it was found that 55,6 % of the evaluated products have sorbic acid as a preservative. In the aging test the DMDC shown to have the greatest microbial action spectrum. The resulting shelf life of Casal Garcia sangria was of 10 months and 28 months, taking into account Q10 and acceleration factor, using the color coordinate b*, before reaching positive values indicating yellow. In the quality control of sangria batch with a year of storage, it was found that despite the free SO2 content is below the recommended, it was sufficient for microbial control and safety of the product. A sangria with steviol glycosides has shown to have a good acceptability

Vulnerable road users and motor vehicles involved in crashes: application to portuguese road safety data

In the last decades the private vehicle has been the most commonly used transportation mode for daily journeys. This is a National and European trend and it is due to the economic growth and the investments focused on the road infrastructures. Because of that reason, cities have been often organized in terms of planning with especial attention to road vehicles and not well prepared for pedestrians and cyclists. There is a need to change this behavior to a society that privileges the active transportation modes. However, there is the need to ensure the safety of the most vulnerable users. This Dissertation was focused on analyzing the trends of road crashes involving cyclists and pedestrians and what are the main difficulties that people using active modes face in their daily journeys. In order to reach this objective, crashes registrations involving motor vehicles and vulnerable road users (pedestrians or cyclists) in the city of Aveiro were analyzed (given by the Public Safety Police “PSP” of Aveiro). In relation to accidents involving cyclists, 68% the victims are men; this can be possibly explained because there are more men cyclists than women as was verified in the sample of the survey, but there is a lack of statistics in Aveiro on the gender distribution of cyclists involved in accidents. In a second stage, a survey was prepared with the objective to understand the main difficulties of the university community who use the active modes in their daily journeys. From the survey it has been pointed out that the main problems found are the lack of drivers’ awareness and weather conditions. The third reason was the lack of dedicate cycle lanes. On the other hand, the main motivations for biking are the reduced cost and the easiness of mobility

Opinião dos reclusos do estabelecimento prisional do Vale do Sousa sobre o Teatro Universitário de Intervenção do Centro de Aconselhamento e Orientação de Jovens da FPCCSIDA

O Teatro Universitário de Intervenção (TUI), constitui uma valência do Centro de Aconselhamento e Orientação de Jovens (CAOJ), o qual faz parte da Fundação Portuguesa “A Comunidade Contra A SIDA” (FPCCSIDA). O TUI constituído por duas voluntárias universitárias orientadas por uma professora do CAOJ, promove junto de grupos de reclusos, a criação de sketch utilizando o Teatro do Oprimido através da técnica de Teatro Fórum. Esta metodologia de intervenção consiste na dramatização de uma problemática social por sketch, escolhida pelos reclusos inscritos no teatro, onde se identifica com facilidade o(s) oprimido(s) e o(s) opressor(es). Através de um Curinga, facilitador da interação atores e público, convida-se um espetador, também recluso, que substitua o oprimido, dando uma solução assertiva ao conflito em cena. O objetivo desta ação educativa é prevenir comportamentos de risco, reduzir a discriminação pelo VIH/SIDA e promover a reinserção social. As temáticas abordadas desde maio de 2014 a janeiro de 2015, abrangendo um total de 100 reclusos do Estabelecimento Prisional de Vale do Sousa foram a discriminação pelo VIH/SIDA e o Racismo. Com o objetivo de caracterizar a perceção dos reclusos relativamente à eficácia deste tipo de intervenção foram entrevistados 24 reclusos. Os resultados obtidos mostram que de acordo com a maior parte dos reclusos, o teatro fórum, tem vantagens em relação a outro tipo de abordagens pedagógicas, pois além de lhes permitir refletir sobre as situações problema, vivenciam as possíveis soluções, interiorizando comportamentos e atitudes assertivas promotores de saúde possibilitando efetivamente a reinserção social.CIEC - Centro de Investigação em Estudos da Criança, IE, UMinho (UI 317 da FCT), PortugalFundos Nacionais através da FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia) e cofinanciado pelo Fundo Europeu de Desenvolvimento Regional (FEDER) através do COMPETE 2020 – Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalização (POCI) com a referência POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007562info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A Rare Event Modelling Approach to Assess Injury Severity Risk of Vulnerable Road Users

Vulnerable road users (VRUs) represent a large portion of fatalities and injuries occurring on European Union roads. It is therefore important to address the safety of VRUs, particularly in urban areas, by identifying which factors may affect the injury severity level that can be used to develop countermeasures. This paper aims to identify the risk factors that affect the severity of a VRU injured when involved in a motor vehicle crash. For that purpose, a comparative evaluation of two machine learning classifiers&mdash decision tree and logistic regression&mdash considering three different resampling techniques (under-, over- and synthetic oversampling) is presented, comparing both imbalanced and balanced datasets. Crash data records were analyzed involving VRUs from three different cities in Portugal and six years (2012&ndash 2017). The main conclusion that can be drawn from this study is that oversampling techniques improve the ability of the classifiers to identify risk factors. On the one hand, this analysis revealed that road markings, road conditions and luminosity affect the injury severity of a pedestrian. On the other hand, age group and temporal variables (month, weekday and time period) showed to be relevant to predict the severity of a cyclist injury when involved in a crash. Document type: Articl

Bioprocessing of sugarcane molasses into gluconic acid by Aureobasidium pullulans: effect of oxygen transfer rate in stirred and airlift bioreactors

The bioconversion of glucose to gluconic acid (GA) by Aureobasidium pullulans is an extremely oxygen-consuming bioprocess. The utilization of low-cost raw materials, instead of pure glucose or glucose syrup, is a step forward in the development of a sustainable process for GA production. For the first time, sugarcane molasses (ScM), which is approximately 20 times cheaper than pure glucose, was used as the substrate for GA production by A.pullulans in three bioreactors typology stirred tank (STR) operating at atmospheric pressure (400 rpm and 600 rpm), pressurized STR (1 bar and 4 bar of total air pressure), and airlift bioreactor (1 vvm and 2 vvm). For each bioreactor tested, the highest GA production was obtained in highly aerated cultures 600 rpm (STR), 4 bar (pressurized STR), and 2 vvm (airlift). Among the bioreactors, the highest GA titers were obtained in STR (67 g·L-1) and airlift (75 g·L-1), though the productivity was considerably lower in airlift. Simultaneously with GA synthesis, a considerable amount of fructooligosaccharides was produced in the first hours of the process, particularly in the airlift bioreactor (64 g·L-1). The findings of this work demonstrated, for the first time, the ability of A. pullulans to use ScM as a cheap substrate for the simultaneous production of GA and FOS, providing a novel strategy for the sustainable and economical production of both added-value compounds, according to the circular bioeconomy assumptions.Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) - UID/BIO/04469/2019, PhD grant SFRH/BD/129475/2017 and LABBELS-Associate Laboratory in Biotechnology, Bioengineering and Microelectromechanical Systems, LA/P/0029/2020.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Introducing new criteria to support cycling navigation and infrastructure planning in flat and hilly cities

The main objective of this work is to quantify the energy consumption, travel time, difficulty of each route and also safety levels for cyclists in different alternative routes. For this study, cyclists ride a conventional bicycle equipped with a GNSS and the energy required is quantified with Bicycle Specific Power Methodology (BSP). Cyclists also wore an equipment to record the heart rate called Vital Jacket and a video camera to record road conflicts between cyclists and cars. The aforementioned methodology was applied to three different routes chosen in the Portuguese cities of Aveiro (flat terrain) and Porto (hilly). For the flat city, the average energy expenditure was 44, 5 Wh/km while for the hilly area the energy expenditure was 96,05 Wh/km. For each origin-destination pair by choosing an appropriate route it is possible to save about 28% energy in Aveiro and 35% in Porto. Regarding route comfort, the average number of car overtaking maneuvers to the bicycle was used as indicator, while road safety was based on historical data. The tradeoffs identified and variation magnitude of variables analyzed suggest the information provided would be useful for cyclists with heterogeneous profiles as well as to support management authorities in order to maximize the attractiveness of the various routes.publishe