Effects of domestic sewage on characteristics of mangrove communities and their functioning in East Africa

Tese de doutoramento, Biologia (Biologia Marinha e Aquacultura), Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências, 2010Disponível no document

A contribution to the improvement of the Bodum Data Center

This work was developed to support an internal project at Bodum Portuguesa, Produção de Artigos Metálicos, SA. Bodum is a multinational company offering customers coffee, tea, and home accessories solutions according to Bodum’s values. Bodum is a company that creates products with excellent design at affordable prices, based on the principle that ”form follows functionality,” keeping sustainability, environmental responsibility, and the well-being of its employees and the planet in mind. Bodum’s current CEO, Peter Bodum, has said, “Good design does not have to be expensive”. This project aims to solve the problem of obsolete servers, the lack of resources, and the waste of processing power on Bodum’s servers. Today they have servers with OS Windows 2008 R2, which is quite old. Insufficient resources slow the servers regarding performance, processing, and communication. With this project, the company will gain more efficient servers. It will also be possible to have current services and applications with greater capacity and performance, which is an immediate need. The project involves migrating six physical servers in Switzerland, Denmark, Australia, the United States of America, Japan, and China. This project aims to improve the perfor mance of those servers while migrating to new servers with the latest operating systems version and more advanced hardware. There is a need to do this migration to ensure better performance of the servers and better control. The new servers are already purchased and placed in their respective locations, and some are already in use, making this migration more complicated than usual. Simply, it is necessary to migrate the old servers to the new ones. After analyzing the scenario, an improvement proposal was made since the servers are not virtualized. A request was made to the company administration proposing to virtualize the new servers before migration. This request is still awaiting a response. If this request is accepted, the new servers will become virtual machines, and the old servers will migrate to the new ones. If the request to virtualize the servers is refused, the migration will still be made to the new servers without virtualizing them. Furthermore, after performing the mentioned migration, a proposal will be made to mi grate the information system infrastructure to a cloud. This proposal includes an analysis of the company’s current system and a comparison with an identical scenario hosted on a cloud providing the company with all the necessary information about the processes and procedures of migration to the cloud. If the company plans to move services to the cloud, it will already have all the information it needs. The implementation of the Cloud infrastructure and the respective migration of the whole system is left for future work if the company’s board of directors agrees. This thesis will undoubtedly serve as a basis for its implementation.RESUMO:Atualmente existe um projeto interno na empresa Bodum Portuguesa, Produção de Ar tigos Metálicos, SA. A Bodum é uma empresa multinacional que oferece soluções de café, chá e acessórios para casa para todos os tipos de clientes de acordo com os valores da Bodum. A Bodum é uma empresa que cria produtos com excelente design a preços acessíveis, com base no princípio de que “a forma segue a funcionalidade”, mantendo a sustentabilidade, a responsabilidade ambiental e o bem-estar de seus colaboradores e o planeta em mente. Como o atual CEO da Bodum, Peter Bodum, disse “Bom design não tem de ser caro”. Este projeto visa solucionar o problema de os servidores serem obsoletos, a falta de recursos e também o desperdicio da capacidade de processamento. Atualmente os servi dores da Bodum ainda possuem Windows server 2008 R2, que é bastante antigo e a falta de recursos resulta em fraco desempenho dos servidores e até falhas. Com o desenvolvimento deste projeto, a empresa vai ficar com servidores mais atuais e por consequência mais eficientes, também vai ser possível usufruir de serviços com mais funcionalidades isto com uma maior capacidade de processamento e armazenamento, o que no imediato é uma necessidade da empresa. O projeto consiste na migração de seis servidores físicos, localizados na Suíça, Dina marca, Austrália, Estados Unidos da América, Japão e China. Este projeto visa melhorar a desempenho de servidores da empresa, pois a migração irá ser feita para novos servi dores com versões mais atuais do sistema operativo e também com hardware mais recente e avançado. Esta migração é necessária no sentido de garantir melhor desempenho dos servidores e controlo. Neste momento, os novos servidores já foram adquiridos e colo cados nos respetivos locais e alguns dos servidores até já estão a ser utilizados, o que tornará essa migração um pouco mais complexa do que o normal. Na perspetiva da empresa o objetivo principal deste projeto é migrar tudo o que está nos servidores antigos para os novos. Depois de uma breve análise ao sistema da Bodum, foi feita uma proposta de melhoria, uma vez que os servidores não são virtualizados. Com o propósito de melhorar o sistema existente, foi feita uma proposta de virtualização dos novos servidores antes de se realizar a migração, caso a proposta de virtualização dos servidores seja aceite, primeiro os servidores serão virtualizados e só depois é que será feita a migração dos servidores antigos para os novos já virtualizados. Caso o pedido para a virtualização dos servidores acima mencionados seja recusado, a migração será realizada de forma direta de servidor físico para servidor físico. Após realizar a migração mencionada, vai ser feita uma proposta para migrar as in fraestruturas do sistema de informação da Bodum para uma nuvem. Será feito uma análise do sistema atual e uma comparação com um cenário idêntico na nuvem. Com isto, a empresa vai ter em sua posse todas as informações necessárias sobre os processos e procedimentos de migração para a nuvem. No futuro, se a empresa pretender migrar os serviços para a nuvem, já terá o conhecimento para o fazer. No que diz respeito a uma migração para a nuvem de toda a infraestrutura da empresa, essa etapa será para realizar como trabalho futuro caso a empresa assim o entenda. Este projeto vai servir, sem dúvida, de base para a sua implementação

O contributo da utilização do Skype para a melhoria das aprendizagens em contexto de educação pré-escolar

A investigação realizada teve como objetivos refletir e problematizar o contributo do Skype numa melhoria das aprendizagens em contexto de Educação Pré-Escolar. Assumindo uma importância cada vez maior, as tecnologias digitais estão, cada vez, mais presentes na vida quotidiana de todos, inclusive das crianças. Neste sentido, esta investigação teve como objetivo promover a comunicação e intercâmbio entre crianças de duas salas de jardim de infância em diferentes contextos pré-escolares através da aplicação Skype no sentido de se melhorarem as respetivas aprendizagens. Esta investigação realizou-se no Jardim de Infância da Quinta das Violetas, em Castelo Branco, no qual participaram 20 crianças com idades compreendidas entre os 3 e os 5 anos, as quais interagiram com outras 20 crianças, com o mesmo intervalo de idades, do Jardim de Infância de S. Miguel, em Enxara do Bispo. Em termos metodológicos, optou-se por uma abordagem de tipo investigação-ação. A observação participante constituiu a técnica principal, com recurso a registo de imagens e notas de campo. Os participantes da investigação foram: a própria investigadora, os grupos de crianças, e respetivos educadores de infância das duas salas intervenientes. Realizaram-se, também, inquéritos por questionário aos encarregados de educação e inquéritos por entrevista a duas educadoras da instituição que não participaram na investigação. A análise dos dados revela um nível de participação ativa das crianças em atividades que envolvem as TIC notando-se um clima de maior motivação, de acordo com os registos vídeo e das notas de campo. Quanto às entrevistas realizadas às educadoras de infância, após a análise de conteúdo, é dada grande importância às TIC, porém verifica-se a existência de uma falha quanto à formação dos docentes nesta área. Em relação aos inquéritos por questionário, aplicados aos encarregados de educação, verifica-se que, em termos globais, a utilização das TIC em contexto educativo (Educação Pré-Escolar), é vista como um aspeto positivo. Apesar do sentimento dos inquiridos ser consensual em encontrar vantagens nas TIC, as suas opiniões não demonstram ser fortemente claras e objetivas no que toca a uma adoção mais sistemática e regular das TIC em contexto de jardim de infância.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Skype : ferramenta digital colaborativa em contexto de Educação Pré-Escolar

A investigação foi realizada na Prática Supervisonada em Educação Pré-Escolar, tendo-se utiliza¬do o Skype com o objetivo de se promover um contexto de aprendizagem colaborativo entre dois Jardins de InfânciaThe research was carried out in the Supervised Practice in Pre-School Education, using Skype with the main aim to promote a collaborative learning context between two kindergartensinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Effects of pharmaceuticals on the reproduction of aquatic organisms: a meta-analysis

Trabalho de projecto de mestrado, Bioestatística, Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências, 2019Pharmaceutical compounds have been discharged into the environment for as long as they have been produced. Many of these pharmaceuticals can disperse directly into the environment or through sewage plants, contaminating rivers, estuaries and interacting with non-target organisms. Though their concentrations in the aquatic environment are often low, these drugs are designed to produce biological effects at low concentrations, targeting specific metabolic pathways. Though research on the impacts of pharmaceuticals in aquatic organisms is growing substantially, we still lack clear understanding on the topic. This study aims to provide quantitative insight on the effects of antidepressants in the reproduction of fish and crustaceans. To address this, multilevel meta-analysis was performed. It consisted of 19 studies from research literature investigating effects of antidepressant exposure in fish or crustaceans’ reproduction according to specific selection criteria. Following standard procedures used in meta-analytic studies, heterogeneity analysis was performed and the moderating effect of concentration, exposure time, organism group and toxicant was tested. Additionally, publication bias was also addressed. The results showed that, overall, there is no significant association between antidepressant exposure and the reproduction of fish and crustaceans. Moderator analysis revealed, however, that concentration is a significant moderator for fish and crustatea fecundity. Fish and crustatea showed contrary results when accounting for this moderator. The former had a small, yet positive effect (g=0:368), meaning that increased concentrations result in increased fish fecundity, and the latter a negative, in magnitude slightly larger, effect (g = 0:453), meaning a decrease in crustaceans’ fecundity with a concentration rise. These findings help us understand that though antidepressants can have effects on reproductive outcomes in aquatic organisms, as narrative reviews address, other factors can have an important role. In spite of this, more research on the subject is need since meta-analysis are only as statistically powerful as the number of studies they include

Summer on campus - learning robotics with fun

After the academic year, summer comes and students spend some time at home without anything to do. It is time to rest but summer is long. In order to prepare youngsters for the future, the University of Minho organizes short courses (one week long) called “Summer on Campus”, on which students can work on the university laboratories, feeling the excitement of working in such places, tutored by a Professor, in small groups of 10-20 people. On these courses, they spent the mornings on the labs and the afternoons on cultural or sportive activities. They meet new friends, they learn new things and they have some fun at a University. One of those courses is called “Robotics for Juniors – come and build your own” and teaches how to build a robot.. In this course the students are first introduced to the most basic electronics components, then they are taught the basics for programming. They are given a robotic Kit Bot’n Roll which they have to assemble, soldering the electronic components, program it and they participate on small contests with the robots. The experience is well appreciated by all. This paper described this robotics course in detail and the results obtained

Real time game field limits recognition for robot self-localization using collinearity in middle-size roboCup soccer

Enabling a mobile robot to achieve its self-localization in real-time with vision only, demands for new approaches and new computer algorithms. An approach for giving game field self-localization to a Middle Size RoboCup Soccer robot can be based in two steps: finding the game field lines and evaluating the obtained coordinates calculating the robot coordinates. This paper describes a method to achieve the first step. This approach is based on an algorithm that combines three major features: edge detection, selection and collinearity search. The final target is to retrieve the line segments (defined by its two limits coordinates), which identify the game field boundary lines. These line coordinates will be used on the next step that is the process to calculate the robot position in the game field. Since this first step is to find lines in real time, it is an alternative method to the Hough Transform Method

Ecosystem Based Adaptation: Concept and Terminology in Strategic Adaptation Planning (Municipal and Inter-Municipal) in Portugal

Ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA) is a nature-based solution that has gained importance in the context of international climate policy, such as in the EU Adaptation Strategy (2013), which explicitly encourages its adoption and which should continue in The European Green Deal. This study aims to analyze how the EbA concept has been adopted in strategic adaptation planning at the municipal and intermunicipal levels in Portugal after the publication of the European adaptation strategy in 2013. Thus, a quantitative content analysis was carried out, based on EbA keywords, of municipal strategies and intermunicipal plans in Portugal. The term “ecosystem-based” has not been transposed as an explicit objective at the municipal and intermunicipal levels. All strategies and plans have included indirect references to the underlying elements of the EbA concept. This study highlights that although the EU Adaptation Strategy explicitly encourages EbA, this does not mean that it is adopted as a preferred adaptation approach at the local level in Portugal. The EbA seems to be more widely understood by the research community than by municipal technicians or private companies. It is necessary to explore how the EbA concept can be more widely accepted through the generation of co-benefits and by synergies between topics.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Phlorotannin Extracts from Fucales Characterized by HPLC-DAD-ESI-MSn: Approaches to Hyaluronidase Inhibitory Capacity and Antioxidant Properties

Purified phlorotannin extracts from four brown seaweeds (Cystoseira nodicaulis (Withering) M. Roberts, Cystoseira tamariscifolia (Hudson) Papenfuss, Cystoseira usneoides (Linnaeus) M. Roberts and Fucus spiralis Linnaeus), were characterized by HPLC-DAD-ESI-MSn . Fucophloroethol, fucodiphloroethol, fucotriphloroethol, 7-phloroeckol, phlorofucofuroeckol and bieckol/dieckol were identified. The antioxidant activity and the hyaluronidase (HAase) inhibitory capacity exhibited by the extracts were also assessed. A correlation between the extracts activity and their chemical composition was established. F. spiralis, the species presenting higher molecular weight phlorotannins, generally displayed the strongest lipid peroxidation inhibitory activity (IC50 = 2.32 mg/mL dry weight) and the strongest HAase inhibitory capacity (IC50 = 0.73 mg/mL dry weight). As for superoxide radical scavenging, C. nodicaulis was the most efficient species (IC50 = 0.93 mg/mL dry weight), followed by F. spiralis (IC50 = 1.30 mg/mL dry weight). These results show that purified phlorotannin extracts have potent capabilities for preventing and slowing down the skin aging process, which is mainly associated with free radical damage and with the reduction of hyaluronic acid concentration, characteristic of the process.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Controller and actuator of three independent DC motors In closed loop

This article describes a solution for a high power controller and actuator of three DC motors in closed loop. This controller can be applied to omnidirectional platform solutions using three motorised Swedish wheels as used by several RobCup MSL robots and Minho omnidirectional Wheelchair. Some existing controllers in the market are reviewed pointing out their characteristics and comparing them with the proposed solution. Operational characteristics and developed algorithms of the proposed system are fully disclosed