Diferenças na intensidade de alteração química de sedimentos Pliocénicos a norte e sul do Mondego

Procede-se a uma análise comparativa de características mineralógicas e geoquímicas (elementos maiores), usadas na definição de intensidade de altyeração química, de sedimentos pliocénicos colhidos na margem Atlântica a norte e sul do rio Mondego. Ainda que se note alguma influência da granulometria dos sedimentos nas características composicionais, as unidades a norte do Mondego revelam sempre alteração química menos intensa que as unidades a sul do Mondego. Estas diferenças justificam-se por proveniência distinta e não devem ter qualquer significado climático

A telerehabilitation system based on wireless motion capture sensors

The constant growth of the elderly population in the world creates new challenges and opportunities in health care systems. New technological solutions have to be found in order to meet the needs and demands of our aging society. The welfare and quality of life of the elderly population must be a priority. Continuous physical activity will play an important role, due to the increase of the retirement age. However, physiotherapy can be expensive, even when the desire movements are autonomous and simple, also requires people to move to rehabilitation centres. Within this context, this paper describes the development and preliminary tests of a wireless sensor network, based on wearable inertial and magnetic sensors, applied to the capture of human motion. This will enable a personalized home-based rehabilitation system for the elderly or people in remote physical locations.Project “AAL4ALL”, co-financed by the European Community Fund FEDER through COMPETE – Programa Operacional Factores de Competitividade (POFC).FCT – Foundation for Science and Technology – Lisbon, Portugal, through project PEst-C/CTM/LA0025/2013

Process intensification of gas-liquid flows with a novel constricted oscillatory-meso tube

GLD-8 - 8th International Conference on Gas-Liquid and Gas-Liquid-Solid Reactor EngineeringA novel constricted meso-tube (4.4. mm internal diameter) operated with oscillatory flow mixing has recently demonstrated enhanced volumetric mass transfer coefficients ( kLa) for continuous gas-liquid flows. Values of kLa up to 0.16 s-1 were obtained with a very low air-inflow rate (QG = 0.28 ml min-1) for the continuous running of a liquid phase (QL = 1.58 ml min-1), while in the presence of fluid oscillations. This is a one-order of magnitude improvement in the O2 transfer efficiencies in comparison with those values typically found for the most common-aerated reactors (e.g. stirred tank reactor, bubbles column, air-lift reactor). The design of novel multiphase, scaled-down reactors based on this novel tube’s geometry allows the intensification of gas-liquid flow processes through reducing the required processing volumes and the improved performance in terms of mixing, residence times and mass transfer. As a correct design does require a full understanding of the mass transfer processes, the different contributions of the mass transfer coefficient and the gas-liquid interfacial area in the global kLa enhancement were explored and herein reportedinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Design and implementation of a wireless sensor network applied to motion capture

This paper describes the development of a wireless sensor network prototype and its application in a motion capture system based on inertial and magnetic sensors. The system presents a portable and modular architecture and allows the monitoring of several users at the same time using a single wireless network. The target application requires the wireless sensor network to operate efficiently under high loads, since it generates data intensive traffic and needs to support a high number of sensor modules. Other requirements imposed by the application are real-time operation and reliable data delivery. In order to provide the quality of service required by the application, an enhanced version of the LPRT medium access control protocol was developed and implemented in devices compliant with the IEEE 802.15.4 standard at the physical layer. Simulation results show that the proposed modifications improve the performance of the protocol. The implementation of the protocol is validated through the experimental results presented.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - projeto PTDC/EEA-TEL/68625/2006

A model for the decision-maker preferences in a polymer extrusion process

The NN-DM is a method developed to find a mathematical model that represents the Decision-Maker (DM) by employing an artificial neural network (NN) in situations in which the preferences can be represented by a utility function. This paper presents further developments to the NN-DM method to find a model in a polymer extrusion process. The form of the DM's interaction, the domain assignment, the ranking process, and the performance assessment are adapted to a real context of a multi-objective optimization problem followed by a design decision. The DM is then requested to fill a matrix expressing his preferences considering pairwise comparisons expressing ordinal relations only. Two multi-objective optimization problems are tested, each one with three estimates of different Pareto-optimal fronts. The adapted NN-DM method is able to provide a model which sorts the available solutions from the best to the worst according to the DM's preferences.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Signal feature extraction for sewing analysis using non-linear tecniques

Comunicação apresentada no International Symposium on Industrial Electronics, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, 9 - 11 Junho 2003.This paper describes the measurement of a proc-ess variable in industrial sewing machines using a piezoelectric sensing system and non-linear filtering and processing tech-niques. The objective is to obtain a measure of the needle pene-tration and withdrawal forces in a fabric, which can be used to detect faulty processing conditions causing second-rate quality products. Aimed for future real-time applications, currently the measurement process has been optimised for laboratory use. It provides the means for experimentation leading to the development of further processing techniques able to detect fault conditions automatically, a completely innovative indus-trial application. The signal is acquired by a piezoelectric sensor introduced in the needle support bar. With this set-up, the sensor provides not only the forces related to needle-fabric interaction, but also other, undesired components, that are reduced with specifi-cally developed techniques. This paper presents the advantages and drawbacks of the measurement set-up and describes the optimization of the complex processing techniques used to ex-tract the relevant information from the signals.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia - POSI/SRI/38944/2001

Development and characterization of cotton elastic yarns to improve wear comfort of bi-elastic thin fabrics

Clothing is our second skin, beyond the aesthetic function it primarily has the protective function. One cannot speak about clothing design without mentioning comfort and we may even say that they are not dissociable. The clothing design, in conceptual sense, cannot be successful if it does not take into account the comfort component. Among the many comfort dimensions, the sensorial and ergonomic dimensions of comfort which influence the sensory perception and the ability of a garment to "well fit", are largely determined by the elastic properties of the yarns and fabrics. The present work, relates to the development of cotton elastic yarns for bi-stretch woven fabrics, designed for high-quality women's fine shirting. The yarns were manufactured by the conventional core-spinning method, using different filaments in the core and cotton fibres as sheath. The physical-mechanical properties of the yarns were evaluated to assess their performance ability to improve bi-stretch fabrics wear comfort.FEDER funds through the Competitivity Factors Operational Programme - COMPETE and by national funds through FCT – Foundation for Science and Technology within the scope of the project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007136

Terras raras nos sedimentos Pliocénicos entre os rios Vouga e Mondego (Portugal) = Rare earth elements in the Pliocene sediments between rivers Vouga and Mondego (Portugal)

A geoquímica de sedimentos argilosos do Pliocénico é usada para determinar as principais fases transportadoras de terras raras. Foram consideradas 3 fácies, associadas a sedimentação em planície de inundação e em pântano-lago, e dois sectores. A concentração de terras raras pesadas é substancialmente maior nos sedimentos de pântano-lago que nos de planície de inundação. Ainda que os minerais de argila integrem parte das terras raras, o xenótimo e a monazite são os principais minerais a transportar aqueles elementos. Outras fases (p. ex. matéria orgânica) em sedimentos de pântano-lago devem reter uma parte significativa das terras raras, em particular das terras raras pesadas. As concentrações de terras raras nos dois sectores não são muito diferentes, sugerindo que a proveniência era similar

La responsabilidad del pensar

Barranquilla: Ediciones Uninorte, 2008. 630 pp