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La quête de décarbonisation et de décentralisation du réseau électrique actuel a permis une forte pénétration des ressources énergétiques distribuées en bordure du réseau de distribution. La diversité, la complexité et le nombre croissant de ces ressources énergétiques posent actuellement un défi à leur gestion. Cela a entraîné l'émergence de divers écosystèmes énergétiques qui utilisent diverses stratégies et initiatives organisationnelles communautaires comme formes de techniques de gestion. Il existe également des modèles commerciaux et des structures de gouvernance correspondants qui sont innovants et technologiquement perturbateurs pour les opérations du réseau actuel. Une analyse de cinq cas représentatifs de ces communautés d'énergie renouvelable est réalisée en utilisant des projets réels comme études de cas. Les domaines d'intervention pris en compte dans cette étude comprenaient les structures organisationnelles et de gouvernance, les rôles et la relation entre les principales parties prenantes/propriétaires, la façon dont ces écosystèmes interagissent avec le réseau électrique et le rôle des collaborations. Les résultats de l'étude ont révélé que chaque catégorie d'écosystème a des structures organisationnelles et de gouvernance similaires, bien qu'elles puissent être constituées différemment. En termes de propriété, il a été constaté que les coopératives énergétiques, les municipalités et les communautés possédaient une plus grande part de ces ressources énergétiques. En outre, il a été constaté que la plupart de ces écosystèmes interagissaient avec le réseau en fournissant de l'énergie excédentaire de la communauté au réseau électrique, tandis que d'autres fonctionnent de manière isolée du réseau. À l'exception d'un cas, tous les autres ont montré des éléments de collaboration comme faisant partie intégrante de leur mode de fonctionnement. La búsqueda de descarbonizar y descentralizar la red eléctrica actual ha permitido una alta penetración de los Recursos de Energía Distribuida en el borde de la red de distribución. La diversidad, complejidad y número creciente de estos recursos energéticos suponen actualmente un reto para su gestión. Esto ha dado lugar a la aparición de diversos ecosistemas energéticos que utilizan diversas estrategias e iniciativas organizativas basadas en la comunidad como formas de técnicas de gestión. También hay modelos de negocio y estructuras de gobierno correspondientes que son innovadores y tecnológicamente disruptivos para las operaciones de la red actual. Se realiza un análisis de cinco casos representativos de estas Comunidades de Energías Renovables utilizando proyectos de la vida real como casos de estudio. Las áreas de enfoque consideradas en este estudio incluyeron estructuras organizativas y de gobernanza, roles y la relación entre las partes interesadas/propietarios clave, cómo estos ecosistemas interactúan con la red eléctrica y el papel de las colaboraciones. El resultado del estudio reveló que cada categoría de ecosistema tiene estructuras organizativas y de gobernanza similares, aunque pueden estar constituidas de manera diferente. En términos de propiedad, se encontró que las cooperativas de energía, los municipios y las comunidades poseen una mayor parte de estos recursos energéticos. Además, se descubrió que la mayoría de estos ecosistemas interactúan con la red al suministrar el exceso de energía de la comunidad a la red eléctrica, mientras que otros operan aislados de la red. Aparte de un caso, todos los demás mostraron elementos de colaboración como un componente integral de su modo de operación. The quest to decarbonize and decentralize the current power grid has enabled high penetration of Distributed Energy Resources at the edge of the distribution network. The diversity, complexity and growing numbers of these energy resources currently pose a challenge to managing them. This has resulted in the emergence of various energy ecosystems which use diverse community-based organizational strategies and initiatives as forms of management techniques. There are also corresponding business models and governance structures that are innovative and technologically disruptive to the operations of the current grid. An analysis of five representative cases of these Renewable Energy Communities is performed using real-life projects as case studies. The focus areas considered in this study included organizational and governance structures, roles, and the relationship between key stakeholders/owners, how these ecosystems interact with the power grid, and the role of collaborations. The outcome of the study revealed that each category of ecosystem has similar organizational and governance structures although they may differently be constituted. In terms of ownership, energy cooperative, municipalities, and communities were found to own a greater share of these energy resources. Furthermore, most of these ecosystems were found to interact with the grid by supplying excess energy from the community to the power grid whilst others operate in isolation from the grid. Apart from one case, all the others showed elements of collaborations as an integral component of their mode of operations. وقد مكن السعي إلى إزالة الكربون واللامركزية من شبكة الطاقة الحالية من الاختراق العالي لموارد الطاقة الموزعة على حافة شبكة التوزيع. يشكل تنوع موارد الطاقة هذه وتعقيدها وأعدادها المتزايدة حاليًا تحديًا لإدارتها. وقد أدى ذلك إلى ظهور مختلف النظم الإيكولوجية للطاقة التي تستخدم استراتيجيات ومبادرات تنظيمية مجتمعية متنوعة كأشكال لتقنيات الإدارة. هناك أيضًا نماذج أعمال وهياكل حوكمة مقابلة مبتكرة ومدمرة تقنيًا لعمليات الشبكة الحالية. يتم إجراء تحليل لخمس حالات تمثيلية لمجتمعات الطاقة المتجددة هذه باستخدام مشاريع واقعية كدراسات حالة. وشملت مجالات التركيز التي تم النظر فيها في هذه الدراسة الهياكل التنظيمية والحوكمة، والأدوار، والعلاقة بين أصحاب المصلحة/المالكين الرئيسيين، وكيفية تفاعل هذه النظم الإيكولوجية مع شبكة الطاقة، ودور التعاون. كشفت نتائج الدراسة أن كل فئة من فئات النظام الإيكولوجي لها هياكل تنظيمية وحوكمة متشابهة على الرغم من أنه قد يتم تشكيلها بشكل مختلف. من حيث الملكية، وجد أن تعاونيات الطاقة والبلديات والمجتمعات تمتلك حصة أكبر من موارد الطاقة هذه. علاوة على ذلك، وجد أن معظم هذه النظم الإيكولوجية تتفاعل مع الشبكة من خلال توفير الطاقة الزائدة من المجتمع إلى شبكة الطاقة بينما تعمل النظم الأخرى بمعزل عن الشبكة. وبصرف النظر عن حالة واحدة، أظهرت جميع الحالات الأخرى عناصر التعاون كجزء لا يتجزأ من طريقة عملياتها.

Nowadays, the use of a drug to modify a person's behavior with criminal intentions has become a growing public concern. In fact, stealthy drink spiking with certain drugs can cause the incapacitation of a potential victim of assault and in extreme cases can even lead to death. Belonging to the group of drugs used to commit drug-facilitated crimes is glibenclamide, which not only exhibits high sedation secondary effects but when subject to an overdose intake can lead to intense hypoglycemic episodes that could end with death. Suicide attempts and homicides through overdose with glibenclamide have already been reported. In this work and for the first time, it was developed a new methodology for detection of glibenclamide in spiked liquid samples (teas) by fluorometry (λ(ex)=300 nm; λ(em)=404 nm). The novel methodology was also implemented in a miniaturized and portable automatic flow system based in the concept of multipumping with an in-line pre-separation unit. The separation of the drug from the liquid samples was achieved through adsorption of the drug into activated charcoal packed within a mini column followed by elution with a solution composed by ethanol, hydrochloric acid and the surfactant CTAB (70%, 1.0 mol L(-1), 0.01 mol L(-1), respectively). The results allowed to obtain a linear working range for glibenclamide concentrations of up to 50 mg L(-1) (r=0.9999) and the detection limit was about 0.81 mg L(-1) of glibenclamide.

Abstract This paper addresses the importance of the probabilistic analysis in determining the wave energy potential to support the design of electrical generators for wave energy conversion. The irregular activity of ocean waves induces variable frequencies and amplitudes of operation for point absorbers electrical generators, which may lead to the construction of inefficient electrical machines. Applying probabilistic models to describe the ocean wave's behavior allows the determination of the values most likely to be sampled for ocean-state parameters. Knowing these values, the most expected ocean wave potential can be determined and a proper device design can be performed. This work also refers to the importance of using the joint probability models instead of the marginal ones. Seven locations at the Portuguese coast are evaluated in order to determine their wave energy resource potential.

Since 2019, the world has been experiencing a pandemic period due to the COVID-19 virus, which has brought the need for organizations in general, healthcare organizations and their professionals in particular, to focus on innovation as a way to fight an utterly unknown virus. Thus, this study aims to understand how nurses and their personal factors (stress, anxiety, work engagement, organizational support) impact their innovative behaviour and innovation outputs, contributing to innovation in the current pandemic period through changes in thoughts, values, behaviours and relationships among healthcare professionals and their organizations. For this purpose, the Job Demands-Resources model was used as a reference, and the measurement instrument was applied to 738 nurses working in healthcare units in Portugal. Therefore, it was found that the nurses’ personal factors have a positive effect on the nurses’ innovative behaviour and innovation outputs, with the innovative behaviour having the most significant impact on innovation outputs, which will benefit healthcare organizations and the healthcare provided to patients during the pandemic, through innovative behaviours and products. It is also possible to understand how the available resources and the demands imposed on nurses interfere with their innovative behaviour (Job Demands-Resources model).

This paper explores the implementation of European Union (EU) Cohesion Policy in Portugal under the 2014–2020 programming framework (Portugal 2020) and its contribution to promoting environmental sustainability. It starts with an anatomization of the dominant analytic dimensions of the concept of sustainable territorial development. It then examines the approved projects under Portugal 2020 and relates them to the selected five dimensions of territorial sustainable development, which include a circular economy, social environmental awareness, environmental conservation, a global governance sustainability focus, and a global spatial planning sustainability focus. It concludes that the Portugal 2020’ execution rate on supporting renewable sources of energy is strangely low, in view of the untapped potential of the country in, for instance, exploring solar energy. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Abstract Despite the significant growth in the number of published life-cycle assessments of biofuels, important aspects have not captured sufficient attention, namely soil carbon emissions from land use change (LUC) and uncertainty analysis. The main goal of this article is to evaluate the implications of different LUC scenarios and uncertainty in the life-cycle energy renewability efficiency and GHG (greenhouse gases) intensity of wheat-based bioethanol replacing gasoline. A comprehensive assessment of different LUC scenarios (grassland or cropland converted to wheat cultivation) and agricultural practices is conducted, which results in different carbon stock change values. The types of uncertainty addressed include parameter uncertainty (propagated into LC (life-cycle) results using Monte-Carlo simulation) and uncertainty concerning how bioethanol co-product credits are accounted for. Results show that GHG emissions have considerably higher uncertainty than energy efficiency values, mainly due to soil carbon emissions from direct LUC and N2O release from cultivated soil. Moreover, LUC dominates the GHG intensity of bioethanol. Very different GHG emissions are calculated depending on the LUC scenario considered. Conversion of full- or low-tillage croplands to wheat cultivation results in bioethanol GHG emissions lower than gasoline emissions, whereas conversion of grassland does not contribute to bioethanol GHG savings over gasoline in the short- to mid-term.

Abstract This paper presents a new methodology for impact assessment—SIAM (Spatial Impact Assessment Methodology)—which is based on the assumption that the importance of environmental impacts is dependent, among other things, on the spatial distribution of the effects and of the affected environment. The information generated by the use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) in impact identification and prediction stages of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is used in the assessment of impact significance by the computation of a set of impact indices. For each environmental component (e.g., air pollution, water resources, biological resources), impact indices are calculated based on the spatial distribution of impacts. A case study of impact evaluation of a proposed highway in Central Portugal illustrates the application of the methodology and shows its capabilities to be adapted to the particular characteristics of a given EIA problem.

The functional trait framework provides a powerful corpus of integrated concepts and theories to assess how environmental factors influence ecosystem functioning through community assembly. While common in plant ecology, this approach is under-used in microbial ecology. After an introduction of this framework in the context of microbial ecology and enzymology, we propose an approach 1) to elucidate new links between soil microbial community composition and microbial traits; and 2) to disentangle mechanisms underlying “total” potential enzyme activity in soil (sum of 7 hydrolase potential activities). We address these objectives using a terrestrial grassland ecosystem model experiment with intact soil monoliths from three European countries (Switzerland, France and Portugal) and two management types (Conventional-intensive and Ecological-intensive), subjected to 4 rain regimes (Dry, Wet, Intermittent and Normal) under controlled conditions in a common climate chamber. We found tight associations between proxies of microbial ecoenzymatic community-weighted mean traits (enzymatic stoichiometry and biomass-specific activity) and community composition, bringing new information on resource acquisition strategy associated with fungi, Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria. We demonstrate that microbial biomass explained most of the total enzyme activity before altered rain regimes, whereas adjustments in biomass-specific activity (enzyme activity per unit of microbial biomass) explained most variation under altered rain regime scenarios. Furthermore, structural equation models revealed that the variation of community composition was the main driver of the variation in biomass-specific enzyme activity prior to rain perturbation, whereas physiological acclimation or evolutionary adaptation became an important driver only under altered rain regimes. This study presents a promising trait-based approach to investigate soil microbial community response to environmental changes and potential consequences for ecosystem functioning. We argue that the functional trait framework should be further implemented in microbial ecology to guide experimental and analytical design.