Practices and trends of telework in the Portuguese industry: the results of surveys in the textile, metal and software sectors

The aim of the TeleRisk Project on labour relations and professional risks within the context of teleworking in Portugal – supported by IDICT – Institute for Development and Inspection of Working Conditions (Ministry of Labour), is to study the practices and forms of teleworking in the manufacturing sectors in Portugal. The project chose also the software industry as a reference sector, even though it does not intend to exclude from the study any other sector of activity or the so-called “hybrid” forms of work. However, the latter must have some of the characteristics of telework. The project thus takes into account the so-called “traditional” sectors of activity, namely textile and machinery and metal engineering (machinery and equipment), not usually associated to this type of work. However, telework could include, in the so-called “traditional” sectors, other variations that are not found in technologically based sectors. One of the evaluation methods for the dynamics associated to telework consisted in carrying out surveys by means of questionnaires, aimed at employers in the sectors analysed. This paper presents some of the results of those surveys. It is important to mention that, being a preliminary analysis, it means that it does not pretend to have exhausted all the issues in the survey, but has meant that it shows the bigger tendencies, in terms of teleworking practices, of the Portuguese industry.

Human activity recognition with accelerometry: novel time and frequency features

Human Activity Recognition systems require objective and reliable methods that can be used in the daily routine and must offer consistent results according with the performed activities. These systems are under development and offer objective and personalized support for several applications such as the healthcare area. This thesis aims to create a framework for human activities recognition based on accelerometry signals. Some new features and techniques inspired in the audio recognition methodology are introduced in this work, namely Log Scale Power Bandwidth and the Markov Models application. The Forward Feature Selection was adopted as the feature selection algorithm in order to improve the clustering performances and limit the computational demands. This method selects the most suitable set of features for activities recognition in accelerometry from a 423th dimensional feature vector. Several Machine Learning algorithms were applied to the used accelerometry databases – FCHA and PAMAP databases - and these showed promising results in activities recognition. The developed algorithm set constitutes a mighty contribution for the development of reliable evaluation methods of movement disorders for diagnosis and treatment applications.

Evaluation of mechanical soft-abrasive blasting and chemical cleaning methods on alkyd-paint graffiti made on carbonate stones

In the context of this dissertation several studies were developed resulting in submission and publication “Evaluation of mechanical soft-abrasive blasting and chemical cleaning methods on alkyd-paint graffiti made on calcareous stones” to Journal of Cultural Heritage. (http://dx.doi.org/10.101 /j.culher.2014.10.004)

Evaluation of outpatient child-adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) in Attica-Greece

ABSTRACT: Background: Childhood is a critical time for social and emotional development, educational progress and mental health prevention. Mental health for children and adolescents is defined by the achievement of expected developmental, cognitive, social and emotional skills. The development of child-adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) is a necessity for each country, not only as a prevention measure for the wellbeing of people, but also as an investment to the future of countries. Qualitative evaluation of services is the only way to ensure whether services function under quality standards and increase the possibility of better outcomes for their patients. This study examines the greek outpatient CAMHS against the British Standards of National Institute of Excellence for community CAMHS. The Standards assessed refer to the areas of Assessment, Care and Intervention. Objectives: The main objectives of the study are 1) to evaluate Greek outpatient CAMHS in the Attica region 2) to promote the evaluation process for mental health services in Greece. Methods: Due to the fact that Greek services are based on the British model, the tool used was the British self-review questionnaire of Quality Network for Community CAMHS(QNCC).The tool was translated, adapted and posted to services. Twelve out of twenty outpatient CAMHS of Attica (including Athens) responded. Data was collected and performed by the Statistical Package for Social Sciences SPSS. Results: The study resulted that the CAMHS examined, meet moderately the British Standards of 1) Referral and Access, 2) Assessment & Care planning, 3) Care & Intervention. Two out of twelve services examined, meet the standards of "Assessment and Care" in a higher percentage between 75% and 100%. Conclusions: The paper describes a satisfactory function of CAMHS in Attica prefecture taking into consideration the extremely difficult political situation of Greece at the time of the research. Strong and weak domains are identified. Also the translation and adaptation of British tools promote the evaluation process and quality assurance of Greek CAMHS.

The transformation of work? A quantitative evaluation of changes in work in Portugal

This report is made for the Work Package 15 of WORKS project and tries to develop more information on the Portuguese situation in the work structures changes in the recent years. It starts with an analysis of socio- economical indicators (Macro economical indicators, Employment indicators, Consumption, Technology at the workplace, Productivity), and then approaches the situation in terms of work flexibility in its dimensions of time use and New forms of work organisation. It traces employment in business functions with a sectoral and occupational approach, and analyses the occupational change in South Europe with particular relevance to Portugal (skill utilisation and job satisfaction, occupational and industrial mobility, quantitative evaluation of the shape of employment in Europe. Finaly are analysed the globalisation indicators.

Assessment of climate change statistical downscaling methods: Application and comparison of two statistical methods to a single site in Lisbon

Dissertação apresentada na Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa para a obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia do Ambiente

Software languages engineering: experimental evaluation

Dissertação apresentada na Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Informática

Industry level foresight: designing foresight methods for Lithuanian energy sector

Enterprise and Work Innovation Studies,6,IET, pp.9-51

Viabilidade económico-financeira do projecto da Unidade de Cuidados Continuados Integrados de Longa Duração e Manutenção da Fundação COI : estudo de caso

RESUMO - Este trabalho consiste numa análise sobre a viabilidade económico-financeira do projecto de construção de uma Unidade de Cuidados Continuados Integrados de Longa Duração e Manutenção pela Fundação COI, que pretende ser uma resposta adequada à diversidade de fenómenos que têm origem no envelhecimento populacional, inserindo-se no modelo de prestação de cuidados de saúde e apoio social preconizado pela Rede Nacional de Cuidados Continuados Integrados. Em termos estruturais, numa primeira fase, o trabalho faz uma análise sobre o estado da arte dos cuidados continuado, nomeadamente através da sua conceptualização e enquadramento, focando os aspectos e características da RNCCI, nomeadamente os aspectos relacionados com a sustentabilidade financeira e os desafios futuros que este sector da saúde se confronta. Numa segunda fase, o trabalho apresenta o projecto de investimento alvo do estudo de caso, mediante o enquadramento histórico e caracterização da Fundação COI, sendo descrita especificamente a tipologia de longa duração e manutenção e o projecto em termos da sua estrutura física e humana. Numa terceira fase, o trabalho estuda a racionalidade do projecto de investimento, através da análise económico-financeira. Tendo-se concluído, com a utilização de indicadores de avaliação e decisão de investimentos, que a ULDM, é viável. Deve-se contudo ter em conta que a sua viabilidade é sensível a hipotéticas alterações de cenários, nomeadamente perante diferentes taxas de ocupação ou alteração do modelo de pagamento. ----------------------- ABSTRACT - This paper consists on analyzing the economical and financial viability of a project of Integrated Continuous Cares on Long-Term and Maintenance Unit (LTMU), managed by COI Foundation, that can create a correct social answer on the various aspects and phenomenon’s that have their origin in an aged population. This kind of project belongs in the role model of social and health cares of the National Network of Integrated Continuous Cares (NNICC). In a first stage the paper is focused on the analysis of the state of the present services of the continuous cares in Portugal, more concretely of his conceptualization and social frame, putting under the lights the aspects and characteristics of the NNICC, more closely the parts related to their financial sustainability and the challenges that this health sector faces nowadays. The next stage is about the investment project applied to this case-study, given his social and historical frame and attending to the specific characteristics of the COI Foundation. It’s also describing its specific LTMU typology under the involved physic and human structure. Finally this paper study the investment project rationality trough scientific methods like its economic–financial analysis. The conclusion, using decision and evaluation procedures that lead to financial indicators, is that the LTMU, is viable. However, the viability of the project is sensible to an hypothetical change of scenario, namely with different rates of change of occupation or type of payment.

Evaluation of different natural ingredients as satiety inductors

Dissertation to obtain a Master’s Degree in Chemical and Biochemical Engineering

Parallelization of web processing services on cloud computing: A case study of Geostatistical Methods

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Geospatial Technologies.

Evaluation of a volunteered geographical information trust measure in the case of OpenStreetMap

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Geospatial Technologies.

Evaluation of thermal remote sensing for detection of thermal anomalies as earthquake precursors: a case study for Malatya-Pütürge-Doganyol (Turkey) Earthquake, July 13, 2003

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Geospatial Technologies.

Automated segmentation, tracking and evaluation of bacteria in microscopy images

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia Biomédica