Veritati
Repositório Institucional da Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Entradas recentes
Starts residencies e territórios criativos: arte, ciência, tecnologia e inovação aberta na Europa
Publication . Teixeira, Luís; Oliveira, Carla Esmeraldo
Transformação digital e desfasamento tecnológico nos museus públicos portugueses: uma análise crítica das políticas culturais e estruturais
Publication . Reis, Catarina dos; Teixeira, Luís
Toward Port wine authenticity: from spectrum to signature
Publication . Ferreira, V. S. Fernandes; Lima, Manuel; Ribeiro, Natália; Ferreira, A. C. Silva
Port wine is a fortified wine whose aging process involves marked molecular transformations that influence both sensory properties and commercial classification. Oxygen exposure and temperature are the main factors governing this evolution. Different oxidation regimes, from prolonged oxidative aging in wood to comparatively lower oxygen exposure in bottle, contribute to the differentiation of Port wine categories such as Colheita, Tawny, Vintage, and Late Bottled Vintage. At the molecular level, carbohydrates, amino compounds, and phenolic compounds are interconnected through aging-related oxidative reactions, including Strecker degradation, Maillard-type pathways, and the formation of furanic compounds derived from sugar degradation. These oxygen-dependent chemical trajectories may generate infrared spectral signatures that evolve predictably with age. In this study, FTIR spectroscopy was evaluated as a rapid and nondestructive approach for Port wine age estimation and authenticity assessment. A data set comprising 7281 spectra from four commercial categories was analyzed using classical chemometric methods and machine learning models. For category classification, a support vector machine with a radial basis function kernel achieved 95.88% accuracy and an ROC-AUC of 0.9945. For age prediction, a deep ensemble model achieved an R2 value of 0.9803 and a mean absolute error of 1.25 years. A hybrid two-stage random forest model, designed to account for category-specific aging regimes, achieved comparable performance, with an R2 of 0.9630 and a mean absolute error of 1.28 years, while requiring lower computational resources. Leveragebased prediction intervals provided per-sample uncertainty estimates with a 97.7% empirical coverage. Feature importance analysis identified three main spectral regions, around 1740, 1050, and 1600−1450 cm−1 , associated with ester-, alcohol-, and phenolicrelated functional groups, respectively. These regions are consistent with known chemical transformations occurring during Port wine aging. The results demonstrate that FT-IR spectroscopy, combined with appropriate modeling strategies, can support rapid, nondestructive, and scalable estimation of Port wine age, offering a promising complementary tool for certification and authenticity control.
Full-scale multipurpose ozonation in urban wastewater with strong textile input: removal of colour, micropollutants, pathogens and antimicrobial resistance indicators
Publication . Campinas, Margarida; Vaz-Moreira, Ivone; Viegas, Rui M. C.; Mesquita, Elsa; Ribeiro, Diana; Ruivo, Afonso; Soares, Joana; Paíga, Paula; Delerue-Matos, Cristina; Faria, Gabriela; Silva, Catarina; Costa, Cláudio; Manaia, Célia M.; Rosa, Maria João
Understanding multipurpose ozonation performance under realistic and variable wastewater conditions is critical for investment decisions under the revised EU Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive (EU-UWWTD). As most studies focuses on single treatment objectives or homogeneous municipal effluents, integrated evaluations are particularly needed for industry-influenced wastewaters, where ozone reactivity and process efficiency can differ markedly. This study aims to provide a holistic assessment of full-scale ozonation by simultaneously investigating the responses of chemical and biological contaminants, as well as microbial community dynamics, to variable ozone doses applied primarily for textile colour control. To our knowledge, this is one of the first integrated full-scale studies of ozonation in a strongly textile-influenced urban WWTP (51% of total inflow). Ozonation performance was assessed through three full-scale experimental campaigns, each evaluating three ozone doses in the range of 0.4–1.0 mg O₃/mg TOC. The study evaluated colour removal, micropollutant abatement, pathogen and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) indicators reduction, by-product formation, acute toxicity and surrogate parameters for process monitoring. Ozonation had little effect on bulk organic parameters but achieved 50–84% colour removal and near-complete elimination of terrestrial humic-like fluorescence. High organic matter content and colour constrained ozone exposure, shifting micropollutant abatement towards predominantly OH-driven oxidation. Nevertheless, ozonation alone achieved ≥80% removal of the monitored micropollutants at ozone doses ≥0.65 mg O₃/mg C, indicating its major contribution towards EU-UWWTD compliance targets. Somatic coliphages and bacteria log-reductions ranged from 0.9 to >2.3 and from 0.2 to 1.2, respectively. Acute toxicity was reduced, whereas AMR gene abundance showed limited sensitivity to ozone dose. Post-treatment microbial regrowth was observed, particularly at higher ozone doses, including bacterial groups carrying resistance genes, suggesting a selection-like process. Operational surrogate indicators (A254, A436, colour-scan and PARAFAC components) were identified/validated to support process monitoring and EU-UWWTD implementation in complex wastewater matrices.
Burnout in palliative care: an ethical perspective
Publication . Pereira, S. M.; Fonseca, A. M.; Carvalho, A. S.; Teixeira, C. M.
Burnout refers to a loss of energy, which usually happens when the person feels “burned”, either in physical and psychological terms. A burned out person evidences signs of distress in his/her daily behaviour, and it turns to be almost impossible to function normally due to exhaustion. Repeated contact with suffering, dying and death and the need to face ethical challenges and dilemmas due to professional practice in palliative care may be stressful, demanding and a risk factor for burnout. Despite this fact, from a study conducted between September 2008 and July 2009, we realized that burnout levels in Portuguese nurses and physicians who work in palliative care teams were low. One of the main protective factors enounced during interviews and observations was an ethic of care in the relation professionals have with patients, relatives and also between professionals. Aims: (i) to build an ethical perspective of burnout syndrome in palliative care; (ii) to enounce the main ethical dilemmas considered by Portuguese physicians and nurses who work in palliative care; (iii) to reveal the ethic of care as a protective factor for burnout in palliative care; (iv) to consider the ethical principle of responsibility as a demand for burnout prevention. Results: Although burnout is commonly studied by psychologists, it seems clear that it has en ethical perspective in a triple dimension: first, due to its consequences, both for patients and relative as for professionals themselves; second, due to the ethic of care as one of the most relevant protective factors that contribute to avoid burnout; third, due to the ethical demand in order to develop active strategies that prevent burnout, which is simultaneously an individual, team and organizational responsibility. Conclusion: Our results structure an ethical view for burnout syndrome in palliative care, related to its risk and protective factors and also to the active prevention strategies used by palliative care teams.