Cork: a strategic material

Cork is a material whose applications have been known since Antiquity, especially in floating devices and as stopper for beverages, mainly wine, whose market, from the early twentieth century, had a massive expansion, particularly due to the development of several cork based agglomerates. Cork is closely related to the maintenance of biodiversity, the heart of sustainable development, and the reduction of emissions and sequestration of CO2, aspects that, additionally to the environmental importance, are also economically very important (Gil, 2011). Other services such as the formation of the landscape, soil protection, regulation of hydrological cycle, are also very sound (Pereira, 2007). Cork regenerates after each stripping, and the cork tree survives the lost of an important quantity, often more than 50% of the total trunk and branches' surface. The fact that corks are made of the bark harvested from living trees has lead environmentalists to encourage the use of cork over other, less natural, alternatives

Cork: sustainability and new applications

Cork is a strategic material used in multiple applications and its use has accompanied mankind since the days of Ancient Egypt. The cork oak forests are extremely well adapted to the semi-arid regions of southern Europe and northern Africa (western Mediterranean). These forests help to prevent the advance of desertification, improve water penetration into the soil and hydrological regulation, promote soil conservation, and being the perfect habitat for many animal and vegetables species. Consequently, these forests promote biodiversity. Save the cork forests, increasing the area and the quantity and quality of cork produced and develop new products with high added value are essential actions. The loss of the economic importance of the cork activity would lead to an uncertain future of cork oak forests, promoting biodiversity loss, land abandonment (social desertification), and also social imbalance. This could lead to the disappearance of one of the most sustainable industries based on forest products, beyond the environmental and nature problems created. One of the ways to decrease the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is the production of long-life products based on plant biomass, which include without doubt, cork products. Furthermore, these materials are “carbon neutral” at the time of decomposition or energy recovery

REDECOR: Rede temática do sobreiro e da cortiça

A REDECOR - Rede Temática do Sobreiro e da Cortiça teve início numa outra rede designada por RTC (Rede Temática da Cortiça) criada, em 2004, no âmbito da Sociedade de Portuguesa de Materiais e da sua Divisão de Materiais de Origem Florestal, de âmbito mais restrito, rede essa que se pretendeu alargar numa fase posterior, dando origem à REDECOR

Environmental, sustainability and ecological aspects of cork products for building

This paper summarizes the environmental and ecological aspects, sustainability aspects related to the production and utilization of cork products in the field of building. Cork based products still lack the desired level of information and diffusion within stakeholders in the design and selection of materials for construction, compared with other competing products. However, they potentially offer aspects of sustainability and energy efficiency are in the order of the day. Also considered are green building and sustainable materials which are concepts that are increasingly considered by engineers, architects and other technicians and even by consumers. This paper refers to cork materials for building and their relation with all these concepts

Élites locales y sus bases sociales en la América Portuguesa : una tentativa de aplicación de las análisis de redes sociales

As análises de redes sociais (social network analysis) foram desenvolvidas para o estudo das relações existentes entre os agentes, de forma a demonstrar com maior clareza as teias que se formam nas interações humanas. Tal metodologia de análise dá especial atenção às conexões sociais, sejam estas de parentesco, amizade, afinidade, ou quaisquer outros tipos indicados pelo pesquisador que, além de definir a qualidade das relações, aponta sua intensidade, baseado em critérios pré-estabelecidos. Para testar esta metodologia, vamos lançar mão de um caso particular, uma parcela da elite da Capitania do Rio Grande de São Pedro, sul da América Portuguesa, em finais do século XVIII. Neste trabalho, identificamos a existência de um “bando” na fronteira sul do Estado do Brasil, com forte atuação no contrabando. A metodologia empregada e o gráfico gerado foram relevantes, não apenas para a testar algumas hipóteses, mas também para a identificação de novos problemas.Los análisis de redes sociales (social network analysis) fueron desarrollados para el estudio de las relaciones existentes entre los agentes, para demostrar con claridad los vínculos que se forman en las interacciones humanas. Esta metodología de análisis pone especial interés en las conexiones sociales, sean de parentesco, amistad u otras formas indicadas por el investigador que, además de definir la calidad de las relaciones, apunta su intensidad, basado en criterios relevantes. Para evaluar esta metodología, se elegió un caso particular, una parte de la élite de la Capitania de Rio Grande de São Pedro, ubicada en el sur de la América Portuguesa, a finales del siglo XVIII. En este estudio, identificamos la existencia de un bando en la frontera sur del Estado de Brasil, con fuerte actuación en el contrabando. La metodología empleada y un esquema gráfico generado fueron significativos, no solo para testar algunas hipótesis, pero también para plantear nuevos problemas

Further evidence on the PPP analysis of the Australian dollar: non-linearities, fractional integration and structural changes

The aim of this paper is to analyse the empirical fulfilment of the Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) theory for the Australian dollar. In order to do so we have applied recently developed unit root tests that account for asymmetric adjustment towards the equilibrium (Kapetanios et al., 2003) and fractional integration in the context of structural changes (Robinson, 1994, and Gil-Alana, 2008). Although our results point to the rejection of the PPP hypothesis, we find that the degree of persistence of shocks to the Australian dollar decreases after the 1985 currency crisis.PPP, Real Exchange Rate, Unit Roots, Non-linearities, Fractional integration

Paints including cork particles for better thermal and acooustic behavior

Neste trabalho são referidas novas tintas com incorporação de partículas de cortiça de modo a obter-se um melhor comportamento destas a nível do isolamento térmico e da absorção acústica (reverberação). Estas tintas são obtidas por mistura de tintas correntes para interiores e exteriores de edifícios com partículas de cortiça com diferentes granulometrias e em diferentes proporções. As tintas com cortiça apresentam uma menor condutividade térmica e uma maior absorção acústica (diminuição do eco), conduzindo a um melhor comportamento térmico e acústico quando comparadas com as tintas correntes, contribuindo para uma melhor habitabilidade

Characterization of insulation corkboard obtained from demolitions

This work shows details from the demolition of the cold chambers of DOCAPESCA (one of the biggest European companies working in the fishing industry) near Lisbon, in Portugal, namely related with the insulation corkboard (ICB). ICB is a product made of granules of cork which are expanded (steam-backed) in autoclaves and agglomerated together by pressure and temperature (>300ºC) without any exogenous glue. Samples were collected and tests were carried out with ICB obtained from this demolition (after 41 years in use) to verify some characteristics in order to compare these with ICB specifications. The conclusion is that, after several decades of intensive use, ICB shows a thermal behavior better than the specified limit for ICB in relevant standards

the demand of mineral resources

info:eu-repo/semantics/draf

Financial time series forecasting using artificial neural networks

This study builds an artificial neural network framework with the use of stacked autoencoders (SAE) to extract deep denoised features, and long short-term memory (LSTM) to generate forecasts for the next-day adjusted closing price of S&P500. Data for seven different stock indices, technical indicators, and macroeconomic variables is used to train three different models: a 'price model' which predicts the next-day price, a 'change model' which predicts the relative change in price, and a ’binary model’ which predicts the probability of a price increase. The models were judged based on predictive accuracy and profitability. Results show the models either fail to generalize well or fall prey to a vicious minimum approximating a naive predictor. Furthermore, the models appear particularly poor at predicting breaks in the series, likely due to their infrequency. This might provide evidence supporting the efficient market hypothesis.Este estudo constrói modelos de redes neuronais artificiais com o uso de "stacked autoencoders" (SAE) para extrair variáveis latentes sem ruído e "long short-term memory" (LSTM) para gerar previsões para o "next-day adjusted closing price" do S&P500. Dados para sete índices de ações diferentes, indicadores técnicos e variáveis macroeconómicas são usados para treinar três modelos diferentes: um 'modelo de preço' que prevê o preçoo do dia seguinte, um 'modelo de mudança que prevê a mudança relativa no preçoo e um 'modelo binário' que prevê a probabilidade de um aumento de preço. Os modelos foram avaliados com base na sua precisão preditiva e lucratividade. Os resultados mostram que os modelos falham em generalizar bem ou caem num mínimo vicioso que se aproxima de um "naive predictor". Além disso, os modelos parecem particularmente fracos a prever quebras na série, provavelmente devido à sua infrequência. Isto pode fornecer evidências que apoiam a hipótese do mercado eficiente