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The activity of thermalism in Portugal is millenary. Thermalism is an activity that uses natural mineral water in treatments for therapeutic benefit under medical supervision, in a Medical Spa. The exploitation of the natural mineral water, available in the Medical Spa, is the responsibility of a Technical Director, professional with know-how in the field of hydrogeology, who provides natural mineral water from the aquifer system, at the abstraction head, in order be stored, distributed, and used in the various consumption points. Thalassotherapy, the use of salt water from seas or saltwater lakes, is already used in Portugal, either traditionally in loco or in some spas and other units, with activities or practices similar to those of thermalism. In some cases, it is already guided by a medical hydrologist, however, this activity is not yet legally framed in the same situation as thermalism. In the present work it is proposed that thalassotherapy can and should be supplied by salt water captured from an aquifer system, in full saline wedge, in order to be integrated with the proper rules of exploitation of the hydrogeological domain. Only in this way, the natural saltwater resource will have the potential to be obtained with adequate stability in its quality and thus, be able to fit into the legislative program similar to that of natural mineral waters. In this context, this paper presents some elements of an academic case study, carried out in Cabo Espichel (Sesimbra), where, it is proposed a project of a mixed spa, with a component of classic thermalism, to be supplied by water natural mineral to be captured and legalized, and with a thalassotherapy component, based on a capture of natural salt water to be captured in a free aquifer on a beach area. Finally, some detailed elements of a groundwater abstraction, with natural saltwater, idealized in a way that does not affect the environment, that is, without any negative environmental impact, are also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The milling activity in Portugal at one time in its history was fundamental to the progress of the population. Mills of various types were used, including hydraulic mills, associated with water courses, constituting a real flour industry, because several products were made from them, including wheat, rye, corn, and other cereal bread. Society evolved, technology changed, and these mills were abandoned and are now vernacular constructions, in many cases in complete ruin. The mills of the hydraulic type, are located on the banks of water courses, often framed in a natural environment and landscape of high quality, favorable to ecological tourism, rural tourism and other similar low impact. It is in this context, that we understand that this vernacular heritage should not be lost, and therefore, the present case study is presented, with a proposal for the rehabilitation of a set of 14 mills on the Torto river in Sanfins, municipality of Valpaços in northern Portugal, for an eco-park of rural tourism and nature. Thus, this paper, after a geographic framing and the presentation of local natural features, presents a brief summary of the mills heritage and its importance, to then present some conceptual aspects that led to this proposal. In the proposal a park is planned with various equipment in a main nucleus, which in itself enhances the site in tourist and economic terms, with the network of mills to be rehabilitated for small rural tourism residences, including also a museum-mill, a playground and a parking area a picnic park, among others facilities. Finally, some final notes are presented, highlighting that this proposal is a solution, resulting from academic work, whose fundamental objective is to present the problem that is important from a scientific and historical point of view, but also intends to attract an investor, either state or private, so that when this project is carried out, not only is a tribute to a people, an era and a culture, but also an input to the local and regional economy, that contributes to the pride and the empowerment of local populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interpreting the 3D model for the 2D drawing is a difficult task for majority of the mechanical and civil Engineering studying the premier courses. Few of the students do it naturally and most of the students need to be trained to have the skilled feature. The paper is mainly focused on the Methodologies applied in teaching to facilitate the accession of a multidimensional object which is a 3-D dimensional object by which a maturity related skill is focused. The methodologies have been developed keeping in view of targeting the first years at a university in Portugal. Students after having the primary contact with 2D project representation whereby the manual drawing is focused first and then the students progressively elaborate the CAD in the starting with 2D interpretation and then finally coming to a conclusion with the 3D projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

São Pedro do Sul medical spa facilities are supplied by natural hot mineral water, from several groundwater abstractions, one of which is a natural hot spring with a temperature around 68.6°C, maintaining a constant flow of about 10 L/s, as registered in the last decades, although it can be likely that, according to the available data, this flow and temperature has presented itself steady for past millenniums. Well, a natural resource, with these characteristics, was certainly a motive of search and likely even disputes most probably since the time of the last glaciation, more than 10,000 years ago, in which the entire region where São Pedro do Sul is currently located, it would have been essentially covered by snow. This situation, since the most ancient times, has had an almost constant occupation leading to various constructions that suffered metamorphoses over time, with perfect evidence found at the time of the Romans, around 2000 years ago, later during the reign of the first king of Portugal (King Afonso Henriques) around 1169 A.D, ending at the time period of the last Portuguese Queen (Queen D. Amélia), around 120 years ago. Currently, the São Pedro do Sul medical spa has two bathing facilities operating simultaneously: the Thermal Center (known today as D. Afonso Henriques Bathhouse), and Rainha D. Amélia Bathhouse. It has been the Medical Spa of Portugal that has had the most revenues for several decades, having already exceeded in some years the 5.000.000 € /year, essentially from the classical health thermalism, although in the concession it is also officially stated the use of wellness thermalism, the sale of cosmetic products and the sale of energy from the heat produced by the resource. Thus, due to the importance of this resource, it is fundamental to have research on the various areas of knowledge associated with it. In the present paper, after a brief presentation of factual elements about the place, characteristics of the resource, and economic elements, an explanation is made about the place and equipment for the exploitation of the resource, presenting elements about the human occupation around it, throughout the time, showing finally, the actual panorama of the organization of the thermal space, between the Bathhouses and other types of equipment, as hotels, gardens, leisure spaces, and others, of the area of the São Pedro do Sul medical Spa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable mobility has become a central topic for reflection and debate when defining active urban policies. In opposition to traditional mobility focused on private cars, sustainable urban mobility aims to respond to society's travel needs of comfort, safety, and time with healthy, environmental-friendly, and economical solutions. Soft mobility modes, especially cycling, are an alternative capable of reversing the trend on private car use in urban areas. Cycling has been playing an important role in urban sustainable development in the last decade, being one of the main strategies of urban mobility plans. The present study presents a review of the main European Union (EU) and Portuguese cycling strategies. The methodological approach includes the collection and analysis of the main EU and Portuguese documents discussing the challenges and options for urban mobility, especially those focused on cycling. These strategies aim to promote the use of bicycles on commuting trips and the reduction of greenhouse gas (CO2) emissions, thus contributing to a more sustainable urban environment and healthier communities, the main objectives of the EU's cycling strategies. Conclusions point out that it was mainly in the last 10 years that specific plans for the promotion of the use of bicycles and other soft modes emerged in Portugal, but only in the last 5 years, financing conditions were created to support municipalities in this task. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work we describe and characterize students’ allocation satisfaction in the Portuguese public higher education system, through the students' own point of view, namely in academic engineering programs, extending previous studies by the author’s team. We compare the ratio provided by the Portuguese Ministry of Education with the institutions' point of view, the demand satisfaction index with the ratio proposed, and the applicants’ satisfaction index for the Pre- and Post-Bologna period. The dataset used in this paper was provided by the Portuguese Education Institute and covers the results of the national contest from 1997 to 2015. Non-parametric tests were performed in order to assess whether there are significant differences between the ratios and to allow a better understanding of the applicants’ satisfaction index in engineering courses during Pre- and Post-Bologna period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A high rate of corporate bankruptcy can be devastating to economic and entrepreneurial ecosystem, especially among countries with a high concentration of Micro, Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs). Most bankruptcy studies focus on large companies, ignoring the fact that SMEs play a key role in achieving the objectives of job creation and economic growth, which are particularly relevant in the peripheral countries of the European Union. Considering the relevance of these companies to the Portuguese economy and the scarcity of empirical studies, in this paper we offer a preliminary study about the determinants of survival of SMEs operating in Portugal. Unlike to the traditional models (i.e., static models tending to ignore the longitudinal factor of time to predict corporate bankruptcy) this study applies the Cox proportional risk model in order to predict, based on historical data taken from SABI, the probability whether a SME will be in financial distress. Using data between 2008-18 and controlling for spatial effect (Region), Size and Activity Sector, we found evidences on the negative relation between ownership concentration and financial distress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper aims at carrying out a study in the area of Statistics for classifying Portuguese Secondary Schools (both mainland and islands: "Azores" and "Madeira"),taking into account the results achievedby their students in both national examinations and internal assessment. The main according consists of identifying groups of schools with different performance levels by considering the sub-national public and private education systems' as well as their respective geographic location. For this, we developed an alternative educational indicator for the so-called Secondary Education indicator rankings released since 2001 by the Portuguese media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photovoltaic (PV) technology has been gaining a significant share in Portugal's renewable energy mix. In this paper we focus on the analysis of 29 PV systems (mounted and connected to the grid under the micro-generation incentive scheme in Portugal), from which 59% are DoubleSun® technology, the remaining being flat-plate systems. The period in analysis is July 2009-June 2010. A preliminary analysis of the PV systems has confirmed their high potential in Portugal and highlighted the relevance of such analysis to identify: (1) the geographical characterization of PV performance across mainland Portugal; (2) improvement of a tool [1] that predicts the potential of different PV technologies; and (3) the challenges of PV systems when installed on-field and connected to the grid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increased integration of wind power into the electric grid, as nowadays occurs in Portugal, poses new challenges due to its intermittency and volatility Wind power prediction plays a key role in tackling these challenges. The contribution of this paper is to propose a new approach, combining fuzzy clustering and PCA, that uses historical data and wind speed data to get estimates of power curves that are very accurate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teaching is a complex mission that requires not only the theoretical knowledge transmission, but furthermore requires to provide the students the necessary skills for solving real problems in their respective professional activities where complex issues and problems must be frequently faced. Over more than twenty years we have been experiencing an increase in scholar failure in the scientific area of mathematics, which means that Teaching Mathematics and related areas can be even a more complex and hard task. Scholar failure is a complex phenomenon that depends on various factors as social factors, scholar factors or biophysical factors. After numerous attempts made in order to reduce scholar failure our goal in this paper is to understand the role of "Problem Based Learning" and how this methodology can contribute to the solution of both: increasing mathematical courses success and increasing skills in the near future professionals in Portugal. Before designing a proposal for applying this technique in our institutions, we decided to conduct a survey to provide us with the necessary information about and the respective advantages and disadvantages of this methodology, so this is the brief review aim. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tourism is one of the Portuguese economy's key sectors, and its relative weight has grown over recent years. The Algarve region is particularly focused on attracting foreign tourists and has built over the years a large offer of diversified hotel units. In this paper we present multivariate time series approach to forecast the number of overnight stays in hotel units (hotels, guesthouses or hostels, and tourist apartments) in Algarve. We adjust a seasonal vector autoregressive and moving averages model (SVARMA) to monthly data between 2006 and 2016. The forecast values were compared with the actual values of the overnight stays in Algarve in 2016 and led to a MAPE of 15.1% and RMSE= 53847.28. The MAPE for the Hotel series was merely 4.56%. These forecast values can be used by a hotel manager to predict their occupancy and to determine the best pricing policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In STATIS, relations between studies are throught to be captured by the Hilbert-Schmidt product of matrices associated with a series of studies. [2] showed how to obtain a geometrical representations of the studies using the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the matrix S. In this paper we present a model and a corresponding transversal analysis. An application to elections in Portugal is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper summarizes the achievements obtained so far in the context of a research project carried out at the University of Aveiro, Portugal on both numerical and experimental viewpoints concerning Single Point Incremental Forming (SPIF). On the experimental side, the general guidelines on the development of a new SPIF machine are detailed. The innovation features are related to the choice of a six-degrees-of-freedom, parallel kinematics machine, with a high payload, to broad the range of materials to be tested, and allowing for a higher flexibility on tool-path generation. On the numerical side, preliminary results on simulation of SPIF processes resorting to an innovative solid-shell finite element are presented. The final target is an accurate and fast simulation of SPIF processes by means of numerical methods. Accuracy is obtained through the use of a finite element accounting for three-dimensional stress and strain fields. The developed formulation allows for an unlimited number of integration points through its thickness direction, which promotes accuracy without loss of CPU efficiency. Preliminary results and designs are shown and discussions over the obtained solutions are provided in order to further improve the research framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the last few years, digital data are produced, modified, and distributed freely by government organizations. According to the European Union (EU) and United Nations (UN) directives, open government data (OGD) must be available through local or central government portals providing access to a vast amount of information. However, only high-quality and easy-to-process open data may be used to extract useful information. The aim of our study is to evaluate the open data format quality provided by the central government portals for four southern EU countries (Greece, Italy, Spain, and Portugal) according to Tim Berners-Lee five levels evaluation model. These countries have several cultural, geographical, economic, and social similarities, while most of them are less developed digitally, compared to other EU countries such as Finland or Denmark. According to our analysis, most published open data in Greece and Portugal are categorized as level 1 or level 2, although Portugal tries to upgrade open data format quality and publish more medium to high-quality data. On the contrary, the majority of open datasets in the Italian and Spanish governmental portals contain medium to high-level machine-readable data, while the Italian government has published many level 4 datasets with URIs. The Greek and Portuguese governments should try to enhance OGD format quality to increase the economic and social value derived from open data analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To reach the European climate-neutrality by 2050, the strategic importance of a large energy-efficient renovation of the existing building stock is clear. Among the several retrofit solutions that can be adopted to reduce the impact of existing buildings, the addition of thermal insulation to external walls is often considered. From the building physics point of view, external thermal insulation is considered to be safer than interior one since it entails reduced risks of condensation. Nonetheless, unforeseen moisture accumulation may occur after the intervention, when dealing with traditional porous walls. To avoid moisture-related problems, correct insulation solutions must be chosen, accounting for moisture dynamics in the envelope. This study takes into analysis the massive walls of a traditionally constructed building located in the temperate climate of Lisbon. The hygrothermal behaviour of the walls, in their original and retrofitted configurations, is evaluated by means of mono-dimensional dynamic simulations. The thermal insulation solutions considered are three thermal rendering systems that are commercially available in Portugal, and they were characterized through experimental tests. For the sake of comparison, two more common insulation materials were also considered. Results show the importance of the parameters Aw (capillary water absorption coefficient) and sd (air-equivalent thickness) of the materials adopted in the retrofit. Furthermore, this study shows that for traditional porous walls the retrofitted configurations should be simulated not only under operational conditions, but also considering the drying from a very high-water content. If the latter scenario is not accounted for, moisture accumulation may be overlooked. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 90s, the experience with the Municipal Master Plans, has been showing ambiguities in the enforcement of criteria regarding the delimitation of urban perimeters. This figure of spatial planning was expected to be an instrument for the consolidation of urban areas, ensuring their urban continuity. However, this goal was not always achieved. One of the problems is the oversizing of urban perimeters, having as a result the spread of new urban developments, the creation of urban voids or the underuse of facilities and infrastructures. In low-density regions, with a population loss, these problems are even more serious, given the weak demand of buildings and urbanizations. In this sense, this study is part of an on going research, and it will be focused on the study of oversizing urban perimeters in seven low-density regions in the Interior of Portugal. All of them having in common a land-use map coming from their Municipal Master Plans which are proposing the oversizing of urban perimeters compared to demographic or urban developing dynamics. The result of over nearly three decades of these spatial planning instruments are fragmented urban areas with low levels of urbanization and building execution. Even though they have all followed particular methodologies in order to identify the proper limits of urban perimeters, in all of them this process has occurred without the verification of the existing infrastructures. The conclusions have shown that in some cases the urban voids with no demand, correspond to 1/3 of the urban perimeters as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Algarve, the southern district of Portugal, is a well-known touristic destination, since the 70s of the XX century. Besides, this emerging economic activity for the last 5 decades, the ancient economical bases were founded upon agriculture and fishery primary sector. Although agriculture is still an important motor of the region economy, the main producers are located on the fertile terraces and the traditional subsistence agriculture was practically abandoned, as well as the drystone walls used to level the slopes and create small terraces. These were used for agriculture, forestry and goat breeding purposes, but also for soil erosion control, as well as to retain and channel the rainwaters into natural or constructed reservoirs, since this is a semi-arid region and there's a shortage of water. With the rural exodus on the 70s and the replacement of the subsistence agriculture for farming production, drystone walls face abandon, only still standing due to its resilience. However, the lack of maintenance led to vegetation invasion, and consequently to wall tumbling, compromising their function and the human access to deepest forestry areas. The quantity of drystone walls in Algarve is immense and not only they make part of the constructed heritage, but they also stand up for climate change mitigation and forest fire prevention, thus an important patrimony that must be preserved. The research hereby presented aims, not only to highlight the importance of its maintenance and rehabilitation for the Algarve territory, impacting on cultural, socio-economical, environmental and sustainability indicators, but also to demonstrate the risks associated to the neglection of these structural elements and future implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently our society needs more and more scientists and technicians in order to continue its development. Moreover some areas of our society seem to be less and less interested in scientific issues. It is not possible to value something when we have no knowledge of it. This paper presents an example of a programme carried out in several Science Museums in Spain which puts the average citizen in contact with science. The main objectives of this project are: • to find innovative ideas in order to present science in a more attractive way • to emphasize the international nature of science • to stimulate European contacts • to produce materials for different levels of education • to involve researchers in science communication • to increase the scientific knowledge of citizens • to promote science within the society of participating countries • to reward the professional work of teachers and professors in their teaching activities • to recognize the efforts of journalists specializing in science [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Field Campaign has been carried on the Caia Irrigation District area pilot zone, in order to obtain ground truth for EO calibration and for an improved Irrigation Advisory System, owing to supply a more reliable and quick information to the water board district and to the farmer. These ground truth observations included weekly data on crop phenology and vegetation fraction for Maize, Sugar Beet and Tomato. The aim of the operation was to provide maps based on GIS technology of crop phenological parameters, based on methods (models and algorithms) in order to derive them from EO (for each pixel) and to obtain DEMETER products (which may involve spatial aggregation or separation). Irrigation Advisory Services using Earth Observation Technologies are important management tools, owing to improve monitoring and water management, supplying farmers with important information concerning water use in order to be in accordance with the eco-compatibility principles © 2006 American Institute of Physics [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the cointegration and causality relationships between business confidence and financial stress for the PIGS countries (Portugal, Italy, Greece, and Spain) based on monthly data covering between January 2008 and December 2019. Panel ARDL methodology and Pooled Mean Group estimation techniques are used to test the short-run and long-run relationships between the variables. The findings indicate that financial stress is significantly and negatively affected by business confidence in the examined countries in both the long run and short run. Furthermore, the current month's financial stress level is negatively affected by the last month's business confidence and financial stress levels. Finally, a univariate causality relationship running from business confidence towards financial stress is revealed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Soiling is a factor of major importance regarding any solar energy conversion technology, as in Photovoltaic (PV) panels and, namely, in concentrated solar power (CSP), since scattering due to particle deposition severely reduces the mirror’s reflectance. Concerned with this problem, a collaboration between the Renewable Energies Chair, University of Évora, Portugal and the Institut de Recherche en Energie Solaire et Energies Nouvelles, Morocco, was created to investigate and compare soiling in mirrors in both locations. This research enables the comparison between particle deposition effects in the two climates, crucial to implement mitigation measures. Southern Portugal and Northern Africa have considerable potential for future CSP installations, which makes this study relevant from an economical point of view, as it may influence the maintenance procedures and expected energy production of such CSP plants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Molten Salt as alternative heat transfer medium for parabolic trough systems shows a potential for lowering the levelized cost of electricity (LCoE). Kearney et al [1] described that a reduction of LCoE greater than 10% depending on the salt mixture is possible. In order to demonstrate the feasibility of using molten salts as heat transfer fluid as well as thermal energy storage medium in a parabolic trough solar field (SF) a demonstration plant in Évora, Portugal is being engineered, procured and constructed. It consists of one loop of HelioTrough® collectors summing up to a total irradiated length of 684 m. Safe operation is ensured by a solar field heating system comprising impedance heating and heat tracing. The thermal energy storage (TES) system thermally disconnects the solar loop from the steam generating system (SGS) for providing a solar-independent steam production. The SGS is designed to provide live steam parameters of 560°C at 140 bar by a single path once-through boiler design. In the HPS2 project the Yara MOST salt-mix will be used, it combines a low-melting temperature with high operation temperatures. The water-steam cycle is equipped with throttling equipment in order to simulate different steam turbine behaviors and allow the demonstration of sliding pressure operation in the subcritical once through-type boiler. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main goal of this study is the Reverse Logistics (RL) process, which has been the subject of several works over the years, but RL for hospital pharmacies and medicines supply in Portugal still is in a very early stage. RL is typically addressing the perspective of organizations that become active on end-of-use products, by accepting, discarding or recovering them due to economic, legal and social reasons. A survey using descriptive research methods is outlined, to consult on the implementation of RL practices for medicines supply in Portuguese hospital pharmacies, and on the current mechanisms influencing RL activities, such as socioeconomic, clinico-pharmacologic needs, and legislative factors. The expected results will indicate the relevance given by the health sector and hospital pharmacies to economic, social and legal reasons for the implementation of RL processes for medicines supply. Namely, the impact and the significance for the clinico-pharmacological needs, the financial and economic motives, the Quality of Life (QoL), the patient risks, and other specific items within the healthcare system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Time series analysis by state space models provide a very flexible tool for analysing dynamic phenomena and evolving systems, and have significantly contributed to extending the classical domains of application of statistical time series analysis. In this study, in the context of a surface water quality monitoring problem in a river basin, it is proposed an approach for the structural time series analysis based on the state space models associated to the Kalman filter. The main goals are to analyse and evaluate the temporal evolution of the environmental time series, and to identify trends or possible changes in the water quality on a dynamic monitoring procedure. The data concerns the River Ave's hydrological basin located in the Northwest of Portugal, where monitoring has become a priority in water quality planning and management because its water has been in a state of obvious environmental degradation for many years. As a result, the watershed is now monitored by seven monitoring sites distributed along the River Ave and its main streams. For the modeling process we consider the monthly dissolved oxygen concentration dataset between January 1999 and January 2014. The framework of the state space models shows versatility to incorporate unobserved components, such as trends, cycles and seasonals, that have a natural interpretation and represent the salient features of the environmental time series under investigation. From the environmental point of view, the proposed approach allows to obtain pertinent findings concerning water surface quality interpretation and change point, thus highlighting the potential value of this type of analysis, and it is also relevant to identify unanticipated changes that are important in the management process and for the assessment of water quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work proposes the use of Biostatistics methods to study breast cancer in patients of Braga's Hospital Senology Unit, located in Portugal. The primary motivation is to contribute to the understanding of the progression of breast cancer, within the Portuguese population, using a more complex statistical model assumptions than the traditional analysis that take into account a possible existence of a serial correlation structure within a same subject observations. We aim to infer which risk factors aect the survival of Braga's Hospital patients, diagnosed with breast tumour. Whilst analysing risk factors that aect a tumour markers used on the surveillance of disease progression the Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA). As survival and longitudinal processes may be associated, it is important to model these two processes together. Hence, a joint modelling of these two processes to infer on the association of these was conducted. A data set of 540 patients, along with 50 variables, was collected from medical records of the Hospital. A joint model approach was used to analyse these data. Two dierent joint models were applied to the same data set, with dierent parameterizations which give dierent interpretations to model parameters. These were used by convenience as the ones implemented in R software. Results from the two models were compared. Results from joint models, showed that the longitudinal CEA values were signicantly associated with the survival probability of these patients. A comparison between parameter estimates obtained in this analysis and previous independent survival[4] and longitudinal analysis[5][6], lead us to conclude that independent analysis brings up bias parameter estimates. Hence, an assumption of association between the two processes in a joint model of breast cancer data is necessary. Results indicate that the longitudinal progression of CEA is signicantly associated with the probability of survival of these patients. Hence, an assumption of association between the two processes in a joint model of breast cancer data is necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation is a topic of interest for the management researchers, confirmed by the creation of a Community Innovation Survey, which is an harmonised tool designed to provide information about Innovation in European Union enterprises. In this study, we use factorial analysis to identify the determinants and obstacles to innovation in Portuguese firms. The sources of innovation and cooperation to innovation are also analysed, using crossed information. For the determinants of innovation six factors were identified: Production costs and impacts to health and environment, Process and product innovation, Organizational innovation, Institutional sources of information, Others sources of information and Market sources of information. Obstacles to innovation were clustered into three groups: Knowledge and market factors, Cost factors and Reasons not to innovate. The main sources of innovation identified, in this study, are Suppliers and Clients, located in Portugal and in Europe. Cooperation partners are also majority Clients and Suppliers, in addition to other enterprises in the same group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to develop an approach for the management of a forest of maritime pine located in the north region of Portugal. The forest is classified into five public lands, the so-called baldios, extending over 4432 ha. These baldios are co-managed by the Official Forest Services and the local communities mainly for timber production purposes. The forest planning involves non-spatial and spatial constraints. Spatial constraints dictate a maximum clearcut area and an exclusion time. An integer programming model is presented and the computational results are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study looks into aerosols collected by a land-based, seven-wavelength Aethalometer, from the lower-free troposphere close to the summit of the Pico mountain (top height: 2351 m; sampling height: 2225 m), in Pico island, Azores, Portugal. Following suitable handling and preparation procedures, all samples were put through instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA; k0-variant) for elemental assessment. Archival data have been used as an input to the HYSPLIT model (courtesy of NOAA ARL READY Website) for computing isentropic, backward trajectories of air masses reaching the Pico atmosphere. The results point to significant enrichments of molybdenum and uranium in high-altitude aerosols, especially in the summer samples. A local origin for either element is most unlikely though: Pico is a rural island, and there are no comparable records from low-altitude stations in the Azores at large. On the contrary, long-range transport from remote sources in continental areas—Europe and North-Central America—is rather compatible with the synoptic, elemental pathways converging over the Pico observatory for the period under study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The remote sensing technologies are a valuable tool for the identification of water needs in irrigated crops. On the frame of DEMETER project, the Caia Irrigation District has been selected as the Portuguese pilot zone, due to it’s multi-crop production area, with a very heterogeneous cultivation pattern, where private irrigation dominates, with sprinkler “pivot” type systems. Images from Landsat 5 and 7 were used to evaluate crop coefficients and the irrigation needs in the Caia region for the years 2003, 2004 and 2005. Results were disseminated, through the IDRHa, to the farmers in near-real time during the campaign of 2005. © 2006 American Institute of Physics [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the symposium on biomathematics to be held at the Fundamentais da Universdidade de Lisboa in Portugal in 2009.