This work presents fully automated plasma-enhanced reactive thermal evaporation system (rf-PERTE) that can be used for the deposition of transparent metal oxide films with high reproducibility of their electrical and optical properties. The developed hardware/software platform enables the full control over the critical deposition conditions such as mass flow of oxygen, process pressure, current flowing through crucible and rf-power. For indium oxide films on glass substrates a resistivity of 9×10-4 Ω-cm and a transmittance of 90% in the visible spectral range were achieved without substrate heating. The system is also suitable for the deposition of transparent conducting coatings in a wide range of plastic substrates, for applications in the field of flexible sensors or solar cells. In particular, we have successfully deposited indium oxide on PEN (polyethylene naphthalate) sheets with electrical and optical properties approaching the ones of the films deposited on glass substrates.

Robots are important equipment in the modern day factory environment. To maintain and improve factory productivity, ledgers containing robotic actions may be used to identify possible bottleneck points in an assembly line or to serve as a record of in unintentional behaviours, be it of a malicious nature or not. In this paper we present Robotchain, a possible solution using blockchain technology, that prevents unwanted changes in a robotic action ledger and provides a way to use the said ledger in order to aid in production efficiency or other management requirements. This paper also presents an initial experimental study of the Tezos blockchain in order to understand the challenges related to using its advanced blockchain technology for the Robotchain implementation.

Wind research and industry partners in collaboration with the EU have created the FP7 NORSEWInD project with the main objective of delivering to the North, Baltic and Irish Sea areas high quality wind atlases for offshore wind resource assessment. The state-of-the-art atmospheric mesoscale model WRF is used to map the wind resource at 90m a.g.l. for the North Sea area. A model domain with a spatial resolution of 20x20 km is used to simulate a winter and a summer month (November 2008 and July 2009). It is coupled with a Newtonian relaxation assimilation technique to ingest surface wind data provided from QuikSCAT (QS) satellite and sea surface temperature (SST) data from GHRSST Level 4 analysis. Wind results from the model are validated against observational data from the anemometric mast FINO1 and the spatial improvement of the average wind field at 90 m a.g.l is calculated. Improvements of more than 5% were obtained from using data assimilation on the overall domain. Each source has shown a distinct impact on the analyzed periods. The QS assimilation had higher impact during the summer period whereas SST assimilation was significant during the winter period. At FINO 1 location, improvements on the vertical wind profile were obtained from the SST assimilation. The MAE and RMSE statistical parameters were slightly improved.

Com o acentuado desenvolvimento da capacidade de produção de energia eólica onshore, onde Portugal já excede,actualmente, 3500 MW de capacidade instalada, é de esperar que este número ascenda a patamares muito elevados, tendo em conta os objectivos ambiciosos que a União Europeia planeia para o sector até 2020, prevendo-se que, em 2013, Portugal atinja a meta dos 5100M de capacidade instalada. No entanto, o recurso eólico onshore nacional não é infinito, tendo o LNEG já estimado uma meta nacional para a capacidade eólica sustentável onshore para Portugal Continental de, aproximadamente, 6000MW [1], capacidade só ultrapassável com a libertação de região actualmente protegidas ambientalmente de forma severa, bem como com a introdução de impactos naõ desprezáveis sobre as populações, que seria desejável evitar. Desta forma, e para um horizonte temporal além de 2013, há que fomentar e redireccionar as oportunidades de investimento do sector para outro nicho de mercado que se espera emergente, e que é o aproveitamento da energia eólica offshore que o País dispõe [2].

data from GHRSST Level 4 analysis have been ingested to an atmospheric mesoscale numerical model using a Newtonian relaxation assimilation technique. The mesoscale model WRF was used to map the wind resource at 90 m a.g.l. for the North Sea area. A model domain with a spatial resolution of 20x20 km was used to simulate a winter and a summer month, November 2008 and July 2009. The modeled wind results have been validated against observational data from the anemometric mast FINO1. A spatial improvement of the average wind field at 90 m a.g.l. from the observational data has been assessed. Each assimilated data source has shown a distinct impact. The QS assimilation had higher impact during the summer period while the SST assimilation during the winter period. Improvements of 5% and more were obtained from using data assimilation on the overall domain. Validation with the FINO1 anemometric mast shows improvements on the average vertical wind profile while error statistical parameters were only slightly improved.

In 2010 electric energy consumption grew 4.7% in Portugal reaching 52.2 TWh, the highest annual value recorded. The wind sector continued to grow although at half rate of 2009. Presently Portugal accounts for an installed capacity of 3,987 MW, which accounted for 17% of the country's electric demand.

During 2011, Portugal experienced a strong reduction of electricity demand. With a decrease of 2.3%, the total consumption was 50.5 TWh (1). Due to a mild winter season, the most relevant renewable generation facilities (hydro and wind) experienced a strong production reduction in comparison with 2010. In 2011, Portuguese wind farms produced 21 GWh less than the previous year. It is only because of the decrease in consumption that wind penetration achieved a value of 18%. The growth of the wind sector has maintained the pace of 2010, and 315 MW were added. This amounts to a total installed capacity of 4,302 MW, representing 22% of the electric system’s installed capacity (1). In November 2011, a milestone for Portuguese offshore wind development was achieved with the successful deployment of its first offshore floating wind turbine – WindFloat (opening photo).

No âmbito do Trabalho de Investigação Aplicada, o presente trabalho subordinado ao tema “A digitalização do Campo de Batalha. Contributos para o Comando e Controlo de uma Unidade de Carros de Combate”, tem como objetivo analisar os contributos de um sistema de Comando e Controlo que permita a um Comandante de Esquadrão de Carros de Combate visualizar e comandar, em tempo real, as suas forças no Campo de Batalha. As melhorias como se pode verificar ao longo da investigação vêm tornar mais célere as comunicações, a transmissão de ordens e mensagens, existência de mais informação, aumentar a capacidade de localizar forças de um modo mais rápido e preciso, facilitar a visualização de todas as operações, diminuir a probabilidade de ocorrência de erros, aumentar e tornar mais rigorosa a forma de atuar por parte de um comandante. Para a realização deste trabalho foram investigados vários sistemas de monitorização de forças desenvolvidos pelo Exército Português e pelos Estados Unidos da América. Foram realizadas visitas a diversas Unidades do país e entrevistados vários militares envolvidos em projetos de desenvolvimento destes sistemas.

This paper investigates the inequality-growth nexus for Portugal over the period 1986-2017. Portugal is a country that has recorded a decelerating growth trajectory together with high levels of inequality, coupled with relatively low levels of human capital and productivity. We compute different measures of earnings inequality using microdata from the Quadros de Pessoal database and use them to estimate VAR and SVAR A-B models with four variables (human capital, inequality, investment and output) to empirically assess the sign of the relationship between inequality and growth, as well as the underlying mechanisms. The results from the impulse response analysis indicate that a shock to inequality has a negative impact on growth and on human capital availability, and an initial negative impact on investment which eventually becomes positive. The evidence found highlights the human capital, savings, and domestic demand channels as good candidates to explain the relationship between inequality and growth in Portugal.