Portuguese Plan for Promoting Efficiency of Electricity end-use: policy, methodology and consumer participation

Trabalho apresentado na 12th Conference on Sustainable Development of Energy, Water and Environment Systems, 4-8 outubro 2017, Dubrovnik, CroatiaThe Portuguese Electricity Demand-Side Efficiency Promotion Plan (PPEC) is a voluntary financial mechanism, under which several entities, among them electric utilities, may submit proposals of measures that contribute to the reduction of electricity consumption or load management. PPEC is of the schemes that provide financial support to the implementation of measures whose results contribute to the commitments made under the Portuguese National Energy Efficiency Action Plan (NEEAP). In the first edition of the PPEC only three energy services were addressed while in the most recent PPEC edition, the sixth, measures addressed nine energy services. Also, the participation of consumers and other agents in cost-sharing has increased, razing the investment in energy efficiency from other actors besides that from the program administrator. PPEC, although a voluntary mechanism, has proven to be a very competitive one, involving an increasing number of sectors of the economy, measures and addressed energy services.N/

The Smart Stage: Designing 3D interaction metaphors for immersive and ubiquitous music systems

This conceptual paper describes a work in progress in the process of design and implementation of the Smart Stage, an interactive music system prototype for collaborative musical creativity in immersive and ubiquitous environments. This system is intended to have a low entry barrier, thus more forgiving to users with lesser experience or knowledge in music, and it is designed with affordances to support intuitive progress in improvisational performance in a collaborative setting. We present a preliminary technical overview of the system and a first case study of a 3D interaction metaphor for granular synthesis, developed for this environment.Innovation Agency (Agência de Inovação, ADI, Portugal) and Quadro de Referência Estratégico Nacional (QREN, Portugal): VisualYzARt: Visual programming framework for augmented reality and ubiquitous natural user interfaces (QREN-ADI ref: 23201) and COMPETE - Programa Operacional Factores de Competitividade (POFC

Avaliação estrutural do aço rápido M3/2 sinterizado através da tecnologia DMLS

O estudo da sinterização do pó de aço rápido M3/2 pela tecnologia DMLS baseou-se na utilização de diferentes parâmetros de processo e na optimização da respectiva distribuição granulométrica e densidade aparente. O material foi sinterizado em linha, área e volume utilizando uma distância entre linhas de varrimento constante (0.30mm), três velocidades de varrimento do laser (50, 150, 250mm/s) e duas potências de laser (154 and 180W). O aço rápido M3/2 foi utilizado tal qual e com diferentes adições de uma fracção fina do mesmo material de modo a aumentar a densidade aparente

Take advantage of glutamine anaplerosis, the kernel of the metabolic rewiring in malignant gliomas

Glutamine is a non-essential amino acid that plays a key role in the metabolism of proliferating cells including neoplastic cells. In the central nervous system (CNS), glutamine metabolism is particularly relevant, because the glutamine-glutamate cycle is a way of controlling the production of glutamate-derived neurotransmitters by tightly regulating the bioavailability of the amino acids in a neuron-astrocyte metabolic symbiosis-dependent manner. Glutamine-related metabolic adjustments have been reported in several CNS malignancies including malignant gliomas that are considered ‘glutamine addicted’. In these tumors, glutamine becomes an essential amino acid preferentially used in energy and biomass production including glutathione (GSH) generation, which is crucial in oxidative stress control. Therefore, in this review, we will highlight the metabolic remodeling that gliomas undergo, focusing on glutamine metabolism. We will address some therapeutic regimens including novel research attempts to target glutamine metabolism and a brief update of diagnosis strategies that take advantage of this altered profile. A better understanding of malignant glioma cell metabolism will help in the identification of new molecular targets and the design of new therapies.publishersversionpublishe

Diffusion coefficients of perfluorinated n-alcohols in water and heavy water: experiment and computer simulation

Fluorinated surfactants find nowadays many industrial applications due to their enhanced ability to lower surface tension in aqueous solutions [1]. As a result of their extensive use, emissions of fluorinated surfactants became frequent and, because of their persistent character, have been increasingly found in the environment [2]. Both the development of theoretical models to study the environmental fate of those pollutants and the design of unit operations (e.g. adsorption) used for their removal require the knowledge of some key properties such as the diffusion coefficients in water. n-alcohols with perfluorinated carbon chains can be regarded as the most simple fluorinated surfactants, being suitable to be used as model substances that can make easier the molecular interpretation and the theoretical treatment of fluorinated surfactants in a systematic way. On the other hand, the smallest perfluorinated n-alcohols find applications in many fields, such as the pharmaceutical industry, polymer production and refrigerant technology as components of working fluids. We have recently reported intra-diffusion coefficients of 2,2,2-trifluoroethanol in water for dilute solutions as a function of composition and temperature, obtained both experimentally (NMR spin-echo) and by computer simulation (molecular dynamics) [3]. The results obtained by molecular dynamics closely reproduce the experimental ones, which has encouraged us to attempt predicting the dynamic properties of aqueous solutions of the higher fluorinated alcohols and other fluorinated surfactants. In this work, the intra-diffusion coefficients of 2,2,3,3,3-pentafluoropropan-1-ol, 2,2,3,3,4,4,4-heptafluorobutan-1-ol and 2,2,3,3,4,4,5,5,5-nonafluoropentan-1-ol in water and heavy water were measured experimentally by NMR spin-echo technique and compared with results obtained from computer simulation (molecular dynamics). The comparison that can be done between experimental and simulation results is used to test the theoretical models for this chemical family of substances and enriches the molecular interpretation of the results, which can be useful to anticipate trends for more complex fluorinated surfactants. [1] Buck, R. C.; Franklin, J.; Berger, U.; Conder, J. M.; Cousins, I. T.; de Voogt, P.; Jensen, A. A.; Kannan, K.; Mabury, S. A.; van Leeuwen, S., Integr. Environ. Assess. Manage 2011, 7, 513−541 [2] D’Hollander, W.; de Voogt, P.; De Coen, W.; Bervoets, L., Rev. Environ. Contam. Toxicol. 2010, 208, 179–215 [3] Pereira, L. A. M.; Martins, L. F. G.; Ascenso, J. R.; Morgado, P.; Prates Ramalho, J. P.; Filipe, E. J. M., submitted to publicatio

Metabolic Profiles Point Out Metabolic Pathways Pivotal in Two Glioblastoma (GBM) Cell Lines, U251 and U-87MG

Funding Information: The institutions are funded by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia/Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Ensino Superior (FCT/MCTES, Portugal) through national funds to iNOVA4Health (UIDB/04462/2020 and UIDP/04462/2020), to MOSTMICRO-ITQB (UIDB/04612/2020 and UIDP/04612/2020), and the Associated Laboratory LS4FUTURE (LA/P/0087/2020). Filipa Martins was funded by an FCT individual Ph.D. fellowship (2020.04780.BD). Luis G. Gonçalves was financed by a FCT contract according to DL57/2016, (SFRH/BPD/111100/2015). This work benefited from access to CERMAX, ITQB-NOVA, Oeiras, Portugal with equipment funded by FCT, project AAC 01/SAICT/2016. Publisher Copyright: © 2023 by the authors.Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most lethal central nervous system (CNS) tumor, mainly due to its high heterogeneity, invasiveness, and proliferation rate. These tumors remain a therapeutic challenge, and there are still some gaps in the GBM biology literature. Despite the significant amount of knowledge produced by research on cancer metabolism, its implementation in cancer treatment has been limited. In this study, we explored transcriptomics data from the TCGA database to provide new insights for future definition of metabolism-related patterns useful for clinical applications. Moreover, we investigated the impact of key metabolites (glucose, lactate, glutamine, and glutamate) in the gene expression and metabolic profile of two GBM cell lines, U251 and U-87MG, together with the impact of these organic compounds on malignancy cell features. GBM cell lines were able to adapt to the exposure to each tested organic compound. Both cell lines fulfilled glycolysis in the presence of glucose and were able to produce and consume lactate. Glutamine dependency was also highlighted, and glutamine and glutamate availability favored biosynthesis observed by the increase in the expression of genes involved in fatty acid (FA) synthesis. These findings are relevant and point out metabolic pathways to be targeted in GBM and also reinforce that patients’ metabolic profiling can be useful in terms of personalized medicine.publishersversionpublishe

Metallurgical evaluation of laser sintered M3/2 HSS powder

Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) is one of the leading commercial rapid tooling (RT) technologies that produce 3D fully functional parts and tools directly from a CAD model. High Speed Steels (HSS) have the desired combination of hot hardness, wear resistance and toughness needed for applications such as cutting tools, special tools, inserts and dies that can be successfully developed in a near net shape by DMLS. This paper presents a study of DMLS of commercial water atomized M3/2 powder with different apparent densities. The effect of apparent density and DMLS process parameters on the surface morphologies and microstructure of laser sintered M3/2 powder was analysed and the optimum processing conditions to reduce balling effect were identified. Laser sintered M3/2 HSS with energy densities between 2.4 and 12 J/mm2 produced a coarse roughness (Rz) ranging from 135 to 234μm. The lowest roughness (65μm) was obtained with 36J/mm2, the highest laser energy density value used. The microstructure of laser sintered M3/2 HSS consisted of austenite, martensite and a fine carbide structure

Probing the Structure of Liquids with 129Xe NMR Spectroscopy: n-Alkanes, Cycloalkanes, and Branched Alkanes

The liquid organization of linear, branched, and cyclic alkanes was studied using atomic 129Xe as a NMR probe. 129Xe chemical shifts have been experimentally determined for xenon dissolved in a total of 21 alkanes. In order to allow the comparison of the different solvents at similar thermodynamic conditions, the measurements were performed over a wide range of temperatures, from the melting point of the solvent up to 350 K. The results were rationalized in terms of the density, nature, and organization of the chemical groups within xenon’s coordination sphere. Additionally, molecular dynamics simulations were performed using established atomistic force fields to interpret and clarify the conclusions suggested by the experimental results. The analysis is able to interpret previous results in the literature for ethane and propane at very different experimental conditions

Excess Thermodynamics of Mixtures Involving Xenon and Light Linear Alkanes by Computer Simulation

Excess molar enthalpies and excess molar volumes as a function of composition for liquid mixtures of xenon + ethane (at 161.40 K), xenon + propane (at 161.40 K) and xenon + n-butane (at 182.34 K) have been obtained by Monte Carlo computer simulations and compared with available experimental data. Simulation conditions were chosen to closely match those of the corresponding experimental results. The TraPPE-UA force field was selected among other force fields to model all the alkanes studied, whereas the one-center Lennard−Jones potential from Bohn et al. was used for xenon. The calculated and for all systems are negative, increasing in magnitude as the alkane chain length increases. The results for these systems were compared with experimental data and with other theoretical calculations using the SAFT approach. An excellent agreement between simulation and experimental results was found for xenon + ethane system, whereas for the remaining two systems, some deviations that become progressively more significant as the alkane chain length increases were observed

Towards a multimodal analysis of European Piano Schools of Music Performance

This study aims to characterize representative performances by experienced pianists in order to determine main influential trends in performance, derived specifically from traditional piano practices referred to as National Piano Schools. The methodology of this exploratory study departs from a musicological empirical analysis in articulation with recent technological developments for metric methods. It allowed an analysis of gesture and musical semantics by applying a multimodal approach for capturing the pianist performance based on the extraction of features’ sets specifically targeted to each piano school. In this paper we describe the quantitative analysis approach based on motion capture.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio