This work results from research activities within the scope of the Master’s Thesis in Sustainable Construction and Rehabilitation proceeding in the University of Minho, as well as the professional experience developed over the years as an architect. Currently there is a growing awareness and concern about climate change resulting from increased CO2 emissions in recent decades, leading governmental institutions and the general public to demand buildings that are more sustainable and energy efficient. The demand for high levels of energy efficiency that enable a reduction of primary energy consumption and therefore lower CO2 emissions, imposed by European and national legislation, as well as the implementation of the new concept of NZEB to all buildings in Europe until 2020, forces the need for AEC industry to adopt processes of interdisciplinary analysis that are more coordinated and integrated with each other, enabling shared and updated building information and knowledge through all stakeholders, from initial concept design to construction. The implementation of BIM methodologies and tools in the AEC industry, therefore, reveals itself of great importance and promotes greater efficiency in the collaborative process between different actors. With this work, one expects to comprehend the benefits and barriers to the introduction of BIM methodologies and tools in process simulation and energy analysis of buildings, as well as the analysis of the interoperability problems between BIM tools and specialized software for detailed energy analysis. In the same way, it is intended to analyse workflows that provide good efficiency, which will boost its correct implementation and adoption in the AEC industry.

An extraction method based on solid-phase extraction was developed to determine the major alkaloid components, N,N-dimethyltryptamine, harmine, harmaline, harmalol, and tetrahydroharmine, in ayahuasca using ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Coconut charcoal and menthone-thiosemicarbazone polymer were tested as new adsorbent materials. Experiments carried out at levels of 1, 5, 10, 50, 100, and 250 µg mL-1 resulted in recoveries in the ranges 45.3-115.7% for menthone-thiosemicarbazone and 40.6-116.2% for coconut charcoal. The detection and quantification limits ranged from 0.003 to 0.016 µg mL-1 and from 0.009 to 0.043 µg mL-1, respectively. The method developed was linear over the tested range (0.05-1.0 µg mL-1), with correlation coefficients ranging from 0.9969 to 0.9998. The technique was applied for analysis of the compounds in an ayahuasca sample collected from a religious group located in the city of Fortaleza, obtaining concentrations in the range from 0.3 to 19.3 mg mL-1.

Os vidros cerâmicos que contêm no seu interior nanocristais com propriedades ópticas não lineares, nomeadamente a geração de segundos harmónicos (SHG), têm um enorme potencial de aplicação na área da fotónica, podendo integrar sistemas ópticos e optoelectrónicos. Com este trabalho, pretendeu-se preparar e caracterizar amostras vítreas no sistema GeO2∙SiO2∙Nb2O5∙K2O e produzir vidros cerâmicos transparentes nanocristalinos a partir daquelas, privilegiando a cristalização em volume. Prepararam-se amostras vítreas no sistema estudado, tendo-se verificado um aumento da densidade e uma diminuição da temperatura de transição vítrea com o aumento do teor em GeO2. Tratamentos térmicos efectuados às amostras preparadas permitiram identificar as fases cristalinas K3.8Nb5Ge3O20.4 e K3Nb3Si2O13 como sendo as fases correspondentes aos primeiros picos de cristalização obtidos por DTA. Um germanosilicato com 50 mol% de formador de vidro revelou capacidade para promover cristalização em volume. De facto, obteve-se um vidro cerâmico transparente com tamanho de cristais de ~20-25 nm.

As técnicas de injecção de falhas mais utilizadas podem ser classificadas em técnicas de indução, técnicas de injecão por hardware e técnicas de injecção por software. Dentro das técnicas de injecção por hardware surgem as técnicas de injecção de falhas recorrendo à tecnologia de teste por varrimento periférico. Esta encontra-se fortemente implantada nos processadores mais recentes, fornecendo um método de acesso ao seu interior de forma a permitir operações de teste e depuração. A sua utilização para a injecção de falhas é um passo lógico e tem sido estudada desde os anos 90. Os trabalhos desenvolvidos nesta área são diversos e incluem soluções que não exigem qualquer alteração à infraestrutura normalizada e soluções que modificam as células e a infraestrutura de controlo de forma a suportarem esta funcionalidade. Estas alterações implicam atrasos temporais acrescidos e um aumento da área de silício destinada a funções de teste, tornando-se importante uma preocupação com a optimização para que a inclusão de capacidades de injecção de falhas não afecte significativamente o desempenho e o custo dos componentes onde são implementadas.

As the search continues for novel, cheaper, more sustainable, and environmentally friendly thermoelectric materials in order to expand the range of applications of thermoelectric devices, the tetrahedrite mineral (Cu12Sb4S13) stands out as a potential candidate due to its high abundance, low toxicity, and good thermoelectric performance. Unfortunately, as most current thermoelectric materials achieve zTs above 1.0, ternary tetrahedrite is not a suitable alternative. Still, improvement of its thermoelectric performance has been achieved to zTs ≈ 1 via isovalent doping and composition tuning, but most studies were limited to a single doping element. This project explores the effects of simultaneous doping with nickel and selenium in the thermoelectric properties of tetrahedrite. Simulated properties for different stoichiometric contents of these dopants, as well as the measured thermoelectric properties of the correspondent materials, are reported. One of the samples, Cu11.5Ni0.5Sb4S12.5Se0.5, stands out with a high power factor = 1279.99 µW/m·K2 at 300 K. After estimating the thermal conductivity, a zT = 0.325 at 300 K was obtained for this composition, which is the highest for tetrahedrites for this temperature. However, analysis of the weighted mobility shows the presence of detrimental factors, such as grain boundaries, disorder, or ionized impurity scattering, pointing to the possibility of further improvements.

Although cataract surgery is considered a safe procedure, post-surgery complications such as endophthalmitis and ocular inflammation, may occur. To prevent this, antibiotics and anti-inflammatories are prescribed in the form of eye drops during the post-operatory period, but they lead to a low drug bioavailability in target tissues. The objective of this work is to develop an intraocular lens (IOL) material to deliver simultaneously one antibiotic, moxifloxacin (MXF), and one anti-inflammatory, diclofenac (DFN), in therapeutic concentrations to prevent both complications. The IOL material was modified through the incorporation of functional monomers, as well as molecular imprinting with both drugs using the same functional monomers, namely acrylic acid (AA), methacrylic acid (MAA), 4-vinylpiridine (4-VP) and a combination of MAA + 4-VP. The best results were obtained with MAA. Molecular imprinting did not influence the drug release, except with AA. Application of a mathematical model predicted that the released MXF and DFN concentrations would stay above the pre-determined MIC of S. aureus and S. epidermidis and the minimum values of IC50 of COX-1 and COX-2, for 9 and 14 days, respectively. Antibacterial tests showed that the released antibiotic remained active. The physical properties of the drug-loaded MAA-hydrogel remained adequate. The developed system proved to be non-irritant and non-cytotoxic.

In this study we investigated the possibility of using layer-by-layer deposition, based in natural polymers (chitosan and alginate), to control the release of different ophthalmic drugs from three types of lens materials: a silicone-based hydrogel recently proposed by our group as drug releasing soft contact lens (SCL) material and two commercially available materials: CI26Y for intraocular lens (IOLs) and Definitive 50 for SCLs. The optimised coating, consisting in one double layer of (alginate – CaCl2)/(chitosan + glyoxal) topped with a final alginate-CaCl2 layer to avoid chitosan degradation by tear fluid proteins, proved to have excellent features to control the release of the anti-inflammatory, diclofenac, while keeping or improving the physical properties of the lenses. The coating leads to a controlled release of diclofenac from SCL and IOL materials for, at least, one week. Due to its high hydrophilicity (water contact angle ≈ 0) and biocompatibility, it should avoid the use of further surface treatments to enhance the useŕs comfort. However, the barrier effect of this coating is specific for diclofenac, giving evidence to the need of optimizing the chemical composition of the layers in view of the desired drug.

Lymphocytes activated by mitogenic lectins display changes in transmembrane potential, an elevation in the cytoplasmic Ca2+ concentrations, proliferation and/or activation induced cell death. Low concentrations of ouabain (an inhibitor of Na+,K+-ATPase) suppress mitogen-induced proliferation and increases cell death. To understand the mechanisms involved, a number of parameters were analyzed using fluorescent probes and flow cytometry. The addition of 100nM ouabain to cultures of peripheral blood lymphocytes activated with 5µg/ml phytohemagglutinin (PHA) did not modify the increased expression of the Fas receptor or its ligand FasL induced by the mitogen. However, treatment with ouabain potentiated apoptosis induced by an anti-Fas agonist antibody. A synergy between ouabain and PHA was also observed with regard to plasma membrane depolarization. PHA per se did not induce dissipation of mitochondrial membrane potential but when cells were also exposed to ouabain a marked depolarization could be observed, and this was a late event. It is possible that the inhibitory effect of ouabain on activated peripheral blood lymphocytes involves the potentiation of some of the steps of the apoptotic process and reflects an exacerbation of the mechanism of activation-induced cell death.