Societal embedding in high-speed train technology development: dominant perspective from a case study

The present article is based on the report for the Doctoral Conference of the PhD programme in Technology Assessment, held at FCT-UNL Campus, Monte de Caparica, June 9th, 2011. The PhD thesis has the supervision of Prof. António Moniz (FCT-UNL and ITAS-KIT), and co-supervision of Prof. Manuel Seabra Pereira and Prof. Rosário Macário (both from IST-UTL).

SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS OF TRACK VIBRATIONS DUE TO VERTICAL STIFFNESS VARIATION IN HIGH-SPEED RAILWAYS

High speed trains, when crossing regions with abrupt changes in vertical stiffness of the track and/or subsoil, may generate excessive ground and track vibrations. There is an urgent need for specific analyses of this problem so as to allow reliable esimates of vibration amplitude. Full understanding of these phenomena will lead to new construction solutions and mitigation of undesirable features. In this paper analytical transient solutions of dynamic response of one-dimensional systems with sudden change of foundation stiffness are derived. Results are expressed in terms of vertical displacement. Sensitivity analysis of the response amplitude is also performed. The analytical expressions presented herein, to the authors’ knowledge, have not been published yet. Although related to one-dimensional cases, they can give useful insight into the problem. Nevertheless, in order to obtain realistic response, vehicle- rail interaction cannot be omitted. Results and conclusions are confirmed using general purpose commercial software ANSYS. In conclusion, this work contributes to a better understanding of the additional vibration phenomenon due to vertical stiffness variation, permitting better control of the train velocity and optimization of the track design.

Automatic musical instrument recognition for multimedia indexing

Trabalho apresentado no âmbito do Mestrado em Engenharia Informática, como requisito parcial para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Informática

The significance of Traveler's Route Knowledge for Choice of commuting mode of transport

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

Advanced instrumentation for superheated liquid detectors in dark matter searches

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Doutor em Engenharia Física

Inteligência emocional como competência na formação do futuro gestor de saúde de instituições de saúde : proposta de uma unidade curricular

RESUMO - Introdução: A formação de um gestor neste século é um verdadeiro desafio, pois apesar das instituições de ensino superior formarem profissionais com capacidade para actuar na área da Gestão da Saúde, é difícil afirmar que tal formação seja suficiente para produzir os grandes gestores exigidos actualmente para orientarem Instituições de Saúde modernas. Assim, muitos são os estudos que têm mostrado que os gestores de saúde mais eficazes se assemelham num requisito crucial: a Inteligência Emocional (IE). Objectivos: Perceber a importância do ensino das competências emocionais nos Cursos de Mestrado em Gestão da Saúde; analisar de forma descritiva/analítica e crítica o módulo opcional de Emoção, Liderança e Coaching na Gestão da Saúde leccionado no Mestrado em Gestão da Saúde na Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública; e por fim construir uma proposta de Unidade Curricular de Inteligência Emocional. Metodologia: Realizou-se uma revisão da literatura que permitiu desenvolver e adquirir conhecimentos, conceitos e teorias na área da IE. De seguida, procedeu-se a uma análise descritiva/analítica e crítica do módulo opcional de Emoção, Liderança e Coaching na Gestão em Saúde leccionado no Mestrado em Gestão da Saúde na Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública, com base na revisão de literatura anteriormente efectuada; e por fim tentou-se construir uma proposta de Unidade Curricular de Inteligência Emocional a ser leccionada a futuros gestores de saúde. Conclusões: Este trabalho tem como principal intuito por um lado, mostrar através da vária literatura consultada que a Inteligência Emocional é uma competência essencial a ser desenvolvida pelos gestores em saúde de hoje em dia, pois as competências que a englobam fazem toda a diferença na organização, tornando os funcionários mais motivados, seguros e comprometidos com o que fazem; por outro lado foi um trabalho que permitiu reunir dados e ampliar as ideias sobre Inteligência Emocional. Da análise efectuada do módulo leccionado no Mestrado em Gestão de Saúde na Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública, o que se pode concluir é que a carga horária assim como o peso do módulo que é opcional, é pouco significativo (tendo uma percentagem apenas de 3,33% dos ECTS (Sistema Europeu de créditos curriculares que significa European Credit Transfer System) e de acordo com os dados disponibilizados pela colega Mestre Joana Areias no IV Curso de Mestrado em Gestão da Saúde, apenas 36,6% dos alunos frequentaram este módulo, o que revela que ainda nem todos os futuros gestores de saúde estão dispertos para a importância do desenvolvimento da Inteligência Emocional como competência essencial nas suas práticas.

Depreciation manipulation and its impact on firms' returns

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Finance from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

BIM-lean synergies in the management on MEP works in public facilities of intensive use – a case study

21st Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction – IGLC 21 – Fortaleza, Brazil

Benefits & drawbacks of different means of interaction for placing objects above a video footage

Public Display Systems (PDS) increasingly have a greater presence in our cities. These systems provide information and advertising specifically tailored to audiences in spaces such as airports, train stations, and shopping centers. A large number of public displays are also being deployed for entertainment reasons. Sometimes designing and prototyping PDS come to be a laborious, complex and a costly task. This dissertation focuses on the design and evaluation of PDS at early development phases with the aim of facilitating low-effort, rapid design and the evaluation of interactive PDS. This study focuses on the IPED Toolkit. This tool proposes the design, prototype, and evaluation of public display systems, replicating real-world scenes in the lab. This research aims at identifying benefits and drawbacks on the use of different means to place overlays/virtual displays above a panoramic video footage, recorded at real-world locations. The means of interaction studied in this work are on the one hand the keyboard and mouse, and on the other hand the tablet with two different techniques of use. To carry out this study, an android application has been developed whose function is to allow users to interact with the IPED Toolkit using the tablet. Additionally, the toolkit has been modified and adapted to tablets by using different web technologies. Finally the users study makes a comparison about the different means of interaction.

Towards an integrated technology management across the rail supply chain extended to society: building the case study on high-speed trains

The present paper was prepared for the course “Project III”, with the supervision of Prof. António Moniz, reporting on the author speaking notes at the Winter School on Technology Assessment, 6-7 December 2010, as part of the Doctoral Programme on Technology Assessment at FCT-UNL.

Management consulting Winning

A few decades ago, global management consulting was considered to be one of the most attractive industries due to its abnormal high profit margins and above-average growth rates. However, after the dot-com bubble in 2000 and the last global financial crisis, firms folded and growth rates declined sharply. In an attempt to overcome the uncertainty and information volatility, internationalization is commonly cited as a good strategy. WMC, a Portuguese SME founded in 2012, has now decided to expand its management consulting services. Therefore, a scoring model was created to assess selected European countries’ attractiveness taking into consideration macro and microeconomic data. Results show that Spain is the best option at the moment, mainly because it is where the company has the larger number of projects already developed and is more likely to leverage its network.

Deflation and monetary policy: A look into Japan and the Euro Area

With more than two decades of weak economic performance since the bubble burst in the ‘90s, the Japanese deflationary scenario has become the economic fate every developed economy fears to become. As the euro area continues to experience sustained low inflation, studying the Japanese monetary policy may shed light on how to prevent persistent deflation. Using an SVAR methodology to understand the monetary transmission mechanism, we find some evidence that the euro area may possess characteristics that would eventually lead to a deflationary scenario. The extent of whether it would suffer the same Japanese fate would depend on how macroeconomic policies are timely coordinated as a response to its liquidity problem and increasing public debt across member states.

Visions on high-speed trains: a methodological analysis

Based on the report for the unit “Foresight Analysis Methods” of the PhD program on Technology Assessment in 2013. This unit was supervised by Prof. António Moniz. The paper had meanwhile contributions from the supervisor and Dr. Douglas Robinson.