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The following study analyses the academic background and careers of 175 members of Governments and Central Banks of seven countries (Belgium, Brazil, France, Germany, Greece, Spain and United Kingdom) for the years 1975 and 2015, in order to verify whether the “Revolving Door Theory” can be applied to these cases. After some research on the curricula vitae of the members of Governments and Central Banks, we found that, for instance, that more Government and Central Bank members studied abroad for the case of the UK and US than for the other countries. We also found that it is more common for Central Bank executive members to obtain PhDs than it is the case for Government members. Moreover, external promotions in the Central Banks in 1975 were quite relevant but no cases were registered for 2015; for Governments, the trend was the exact opposite, no external promotions in 1975 but many cases in 2015. While it is not possible to find irrefutable evidence to sustain the Revolving Door hypothesis, it is still possible to find recurrent patterns in different countries that may be explained by that theory. More expanded databases and a larger selection of countries is required for that analysis.

The following study analyses the academic background and careers of 175 members of Governments and Central Banks of seven countries (Belgium, Brazil, France, Germany, Greece, Spain and United Kingdom) for the years 1975 and 2015, in order to verify whether the “Revolving Door Theory” can be applied to these cases. After some research on the curricula vitae of the members of Governments and Central Banks, we found that, for instance, that more Government and Central Bank members studied abroad for the case of the UK and US than for the other countries. We also found that it is more common for Central Bank executive members to obtain PhDs than it is the case for Government members. Moreover, external promotions in the Central Banks in 1975 were quite relevant but no cases were registered for 2015; for Governments, the trend was the exact opposite, no external promotions in 1975 but many cases in 2015. While it is not possible to find irrefutable evidence to sustain the Revolving Door hypothesis, it is still possible to find recurrent patterns in different countries that may be explained by that theory. More expanded databases and a larger selection of countries is required for that analysis.

Aproveitando a oportunidade do arranque de um ensaio de comparação de três porta-enxertos (SO4, 99R e 1103P) na casta Touriga Nacional procedeu-se ao estudo do sistema radicular de seis videiras por porta-enxerto. Avaliou-se a distribuição espacial das raízes pelo método do perfil vertical e quantificou-se a biomassa das raízes, do bacelo e do tronco. Os resultados evidenciam os seguintes aspectos: - A máxima concentração de raízes está localizada entre os 20 e os 50cm de profundidade, decrescendo depois acentuadamente com a profundidade até atingir a rocha granítica; - São raras as raízes que atingem a rocha compacta, mas observou-se a existência de raízes muito finas na zona de contacto lítico; - A distribuição radicular é muito irregular de um plano para outro de observação, não obedecendo a nenhum padrão em particular, mas fortemente dependente da compacidade e da localização espacial das unidades morfológicas resultantes do tipo de preparação do solo à plantação; - Não foram identificadas diferenças ou tendências consistentes entre os porta-enxertos testados, nem quanto à biomassa radicular nem em relação à distribuição de raízes em profundidade, nem mesmo quanto ao número de raízes por m2 (densidade); - A meia encosta, com deficiente drenagem na zona de contacto lítico, apresenta para todos os porta-enxertos menor densidade e biomassa radicular quando comparada com as posições de topo e da base da encosta; - A análise das imagens dos cepos revela uma forte assimetria quanto à distribuição espacial das raízes intra e inter porta-enxertos imputáveis à selecção, preparação e técnica de plantação do Bacelo, bem como à técnica de preparação do solo info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Recently, wood pellets have become a reliable and clean renewable fuel for residential heating, replacing fossil fuels and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Wood pellets are normally produced in industrial pellet plants (centralised production), but decentralised small-scale local production also occurs. This study applies Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to quantify and compare the environmental profile of one centralised and two decentralised alternatives for wood pellet production for residential heating in Portugal: (1) industrial wood pellets production (centralised), (2) wood pellets production at sawmills (decentralised) and (3) wood pellets production at households (decentralised). System boundaries include the stages of forest management, wood pellet production, wood pellet distribution and wood pellet energetic conversion. The impact results show that industrial pellet production ranks as the worst alternative, while pellet production at households has the best environmental profile for all the impact categories under study. However, the environmental impacts of pellet production at the sawmill do not differ greatly from those of the pellet production at households; they are 14 to 16% higher for global warming and fossil resources scarcity and 0.3 to 3% higher for the remaining impact categories. The worst environmental performance of the industrial pellet production alternative is mainly due to high electricity and diesel consumption during wood pellet production and the use of logging residues to generate heat for drying biomass feedstock. A sensitivity analysis was performed to evaluate the influence of changing the distance travelled during the transport of packed pellets to stores and sawdust to households. The results show changes in the environmental performance ranking, highlighting that for short distances, both decentralised alternatives can be more sustainable from an environmental perspective than the centralised alternative, but for larger distances, the pellet production at households should be avoided.