Efficiency of strengthening techniques assessed for existing masonry buildings

The Azores archipelago is a zone with a vast cultural heritage, presenting a building stock mainly constructed in traditional stone masonry. It is known that this type of construction exhibits poor behaviour under seismic excitations; however it is extensively used in seismic prone areas, such as this case. The 9th of July of 1998 earthquake was the last seismic event in the islands, leaving many traditional stone constructions severely damaged or totally destroyed. This scenario led to an effort by the local government of improving the seismic resistance of these constructions, with the application of several reinforcement techniques. This work aims to study some of the most used reinforcement schemes after the 1998 earthquake, and to assess their effectiveness in the mitigation of the construction’s seismic vulnerability. A brief evaluation of the cost versus benefit of these retrofitting techniques is also made, seeking to identify those that are most suitable for each building typology. Thus, it was sought to analyze the case of real structures with different geometrical and physical characteristics, by establishing a comparison between the seismic performance of reinforced and non-reinforced structures. The first section contains the analysis of a total of six reinforcement scenarios for each building chosen. Using the recorded 1998 earthquake accelerograms, a linear time-history analysis was performed for each reinforcement scenario. A comparison was then established between the maximum displacements, inter-storey drift and maximum stress obtained, in order to evaluate the global seismic response of each reinforced structure. In the second part of the work, the examination of the performance obtained in the previous section, in relation to the cost of implementing each reinforcement technique, allowed to draw conclusions concerning the viability of implementing each reinforcement method, based on the book value of the buildings in study.

Providing energy efficiency location-based strategies for buildings using linked open data

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

Energy efficiency in energy policy: Empirical evidence of direct rebound effect in Portuguese households' demand for electricity

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

The effects of OF ETF creation on the price efficiency of underlying stocks

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

Hospital Efficiency: Directed internship: Deloitte & NOVA SBE

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

Comparing the efficiency of advergames vs. social networks when communicating with children

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

The impact of banks dimension on profitability, sustainability and efficiency: An analysis for the Iberian financial system

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

Design of multidimensional compact constellations with high power efficiency

Dissertação apresentada para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia Electrotécnica e de Computadores, pela Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia

Cost efficiency in the Portuguese water sector: The case of multimunicipal systems operating at the bulk level

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

An internal analysis of Amorim Turismo’s operations regarding food and beverage with a focus on operational efficiency and quality of service

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

Improving contact center cost efficiency and customer experience in a retail company

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

Development and efficiency optimizing of the human body energy converters

Nowadays it is known that the human body is continuous source of many types of energy and the devices used for collecting energy taken from the environment also have the required capabilities for the collection of the energy produced by the Human body (HB), but very limited and with very low efficiency. Low power and high yield converters are particularly needed in these cases of collecting energy from human activity and its movements due to the small amount of energy generated this way. But this situation can be improved. Enhancing or focusing the human movements by using mechanical amplifiers applied to the piezoelectric element. By doing so the input of energy in the element increases. As such increasing its output, therefore producing more energy.

Métodos de avaliação do impacto económico dos eventos adversos em meio hospitalar

RESUMO - O sistema de saúde é constantemente sujeito a pressões sendo as mais relevantes a pressão para o aumento da qualidade e a necessidade de contenção de custos. Os Eventos Adversos (EAs) ocorridos em meio hospitalar constituem um sério problema de qualidade na prestação de cuidados de saúde, com consequências clinicas, sociais, económicas e de imagem, que afectam pacientes, profissionais, organizações e o próprio sistema de saúde. Os custos associados à ocorrência de EAs em meio hospitalar, incrementam significativamente os custos hospitalares, representando cerca de um em cada sete dólares gastos no atendimento dos doentes. Só na última década surgiram estudos com o objectivo principal de avaliar esse impacto em meio hospitalar, subsistindo ainda uma grande indefinição quanto às variáveis e métodos a utilizar. O objectivo principal deste trabalho de projecto foi conhecer e caracterizar as diferentes metodologias utilizadas para avaliação dos custos económicos, nomeadamente dos custos directos, relacionados com a ocorrência de eventos adversos em meio hospitalar. Tendo em atenção as dificuldades referidas, utilizou-se como metodologia a revisão narrativa da literatura, complementada com a realização de uma técnica de grupo nominal. Os resultados obtidos foram os seguintes: i) a metodologia utilizada na maioria dos estudos para determinar a frequência, natureza e consequências dos EAs ocorridos em meio hospitalar, utiliza matrizes de base observacional, analítica, com base em estudos de coorte retrospectivo recorrendo aos critérios definidos pelo Harvard Medical Practice Study; ii) a generalidade dos estudos realizados avaliam os custos directos dos EAs em meio hospitalar, iii) verificou-se a existência de uma grande diversidade de métodos para a determinação dos custos associados aos EAs. A generalidade dos estudos determina esse valor com base na contabilização do número de dias adicionais de internamento, resultantes do EA, valorizados com base em custos médios; iv) o grupo de peritos, propôs como metodologia para a determinação do custo associado a cada EA, a utilização de sistemas de custeio por doente; v) propõe-se o desenvolvimento de uma plataforma informática, que permita o cruzamento da informação disponível no registo clinico electrónico do doente com um sistema automático de identificação de EAs, a desenvolver, e com sistemas de custeio por doente, de modo a valorizar os custos por doente e por tipo de EA. A avaliação dos custos directos associados à ocorrência de EAs em contexto hospitalar, pelo impacto económico e social que tem nos doentes e organizações, será seguramente uma das áreas de estudo e investigação futuras, no sentido de melhorar a eficiência do sistema de saúde e a qualidade e segurança dos cuidados prestados aos doentes.

Efficiency optimization of the transportation supply chain activity: the maritime option for Volkswagen Autoeuropa

Field Lab of Entrepreneurial Innovative Ventures

Health systems efficiency after the crisis in the OECD

This work evaluates the efficiency position of the health system of each OECD country. It identifies whether, or not, health systems changed in terms of quality and performance after the financial crisis. The health systems performance was calculated by fixed-effects estimator and by stochastic frontier analysis. The results suggest that many of those countries that the crisis affected the most are more efficient than the OECD average. In addition, some of those countries even managed to reach the top decile in the efficiency ranking. Finally, we analyze the stochastic frontier efficiency scores together with other health indicators to evaluate the health systems’ overall adjustments derived from the crisis.