Entrepreneurship Strategies in a Portuguese and in a Polish Region

In the present paper we will consider strategies of innovation, risk and proactivity as entre/ intrapreneurship strategies. This study was done in a Portuguese and in a Polish region. In Portugal the region was Vale do Sousa, located in the northern Portugal. The Polish region was Lublin Voivodeship and it is situated in the south-eastern part of the country. The study focused on Industrial and Construction sectors. In order to get a valid sample, a group of 251 firms were analysed in Portugal, and 215 in Poland. However, the minimum sample size in Poland should be 323. Since this is a work in progress, we are aiming for this number of questionnaires. Each strategy was analysed individually for both regions and the results pointed to a lack of culture of entrepreneurship in firms’ management. Only Proactivity presented a positive result in firms’ management. Polish firms tend to be more innovative and more risk takers, while in proactivity Portuguese ones present a slightly higher result. Combining the strategy results, it was possible to identify that 61.2% of Portuguese firms present a low level of entrepreneurship, while 60% of Polish firms present a moderate level. Considering intrapreneurship good levels, while Portugal account for 5.2% this figure is 19.1% in Poland.

Entrepreneurship Strategies in Family and Non-family Businesses

The goal of the present paper is to analyse the classic entrepreneurship strategies (Innovation, Risk and Proactivity) in small and medium-sized businesses. However as presented in the title, the study will go further by comparing the results of those strategies in familiar and nonfamiliar businesses. This study was carried on in construction and industry sectors, in the region of Vale do Sousa, in the north of Portugal. In order to classify businesses as familiar or non-familiar types two criterion were adopted: (1) Management Control, (2) Family Employability. On the opposite to some studies that present a larger percentage of familiar businesses in national and European entrepreneurial fabric, the criterion used leaded to a larger number of non-familiar businesses (53%). The results showed that in general SMEs in this region are not following entrepreneurship strategies. Analysing the entire sample without a separation of businesses by nature (familiar/non-familiar) only proactivity showed to be more present in the managerial decisions. There is a lack of innovation and risk culture. Comparing the groups only on proactivity tests was possible to verify some differences. It was concluded that non-familiar businesses are more proactive than familiar ones. Between those groups there are no statistical differences on the means of the variables innovation and risk. At the same time some tests were conducted to test the differences on the variable entrepreneurship. The results were similar to innovation and risk strategies: There are no significant differences on entrepreneurship between these groups of businesses.

User modeling and recommendation strategies for tourism

Mestrado em Engenharia Informática

Educational policies, territories and actors strategies

The purpose of this paper is to analyse how educational policies about school violence are reinterpreted and implemented at school level and if this process contributes to a more pluralistic and democratic school. A research carried out in 3 clusters of schools showed that the diversity of understandings and strategies to face school violence, higher within the territories than between them, was associated to the school board's agendas and the legitimacy of the different actors to interpret and act within the national policies framework. There was a high consistency between violence management strategies and the ways schools faced social and cultural diversity. Those who favour more inclusive strategies to deal with violence tend to provide higher educational opportunities in schools, inversely, those who favour repressive strategies are more likely to support educational and social selective strategies, with less educational offer; less participation of teachers, students and parents in violence regulation.

Tradução e legendagem do documentário Fárria

Trabalho de Projeto Apresentado ao Instituto de Contabilidade e Administração do Porto para a obtenção do grau de Mestre em Tradução e Interpretação Especializadas, sob orientação da Mestre Graça Chorão e coorientação da Mestre Paula Almeida

Optimal strategies for marine wildlife tourism in small islands

Tese de Doutoramento, Ciências Económicas e Empresariais (especialidade de Economia), 18 de Junho de 2015, Universidade dos Açores

Entidades gestoras de reabilitação urbana : modelos de gestão urbana e sua aplicação num contexto insular

Dissertação de Mestrado, Património, Museologia e Desenvolvimento, 30 de Setembro de 2015, Universidade dos Açores.

Immune responses in Bathymodiolus azoricus upon Vibrio challenges : approaches to characterize mussel survival strategies and physiological adaptations in deep sea extreme environments

Tese de Doutoramento, Ciências do Mar, especialidade de Biologia Marinha, 18 de Dezembro de 2015, Universidade dos Açores.

Assessment of data-driven modeling strategies for water delivery canals

The aim of this paper is to develop models for experimental open-channel water delivery systems and assess the use of three data-driven modeling tools toward that end. Water delivery canals are nonlinear dynamical systems and thus should be modeled to meet given operational requirements while capturing all relevant dynamics, including transport delays. Typically, the derivation of first principle models for open-channel systems is based on the use of Saint-Venant equations for shallow water, which is a time-consuming task and demands for specific expertise. The present paper proposes and assesses the use of three data-driven modeling tools: artificial neural networks, composite local linear models and fuzzy systems. The canal from Hydraulics and Canal Control Nucleus (A parts per thousand vora University, Portugal) will be used as a benchmark: The models are identified using data collected from the experimental facility, and then their performances are assessed based on suitable validation criterion. The performance of all models is compared among each other and against the experimental data to show the effectiveness of such tools to capture all significant dynamics within the canal system and, therefore, provide accurate nonlinear models that can be used for simulation or control. The models are available upon request to the authors.

Fractional model for malaria transmission under control strategies

We study a fractional model for malaria transmission under control strategies.Weconsider the integer order model proposed by Chiyaka et al. (2008) in [15] and modify it to become a fractional order model. We study numerically the model for variation of the values of the fractional derivative and of the parameter that models personal protection, b. From observation of the figures we conclude that as b is increased from 0 to 1 there is a corresponding decrease in the number of infectious humans and infectious mosquitoes, for all values of α. This means that this result is invariant for variation of fractional derivative, in the values tested. These results are in agreement with those obtained in Chiyaka et al.(2008) [15] for α = 1.0 and suggest that our fractional model is epidemiologically wellposed.

Besnoitia besnoiti and Toxoplasma gondii: two apicomplexan strategies to manipulate the host cell centrosome and Golgi apparatus

Besnoitia besnoiti and Toxoplasma gondii are two closely related parasites that interact with the host cell microtubule cytoskeleton during host cell invasion. Here we studied the relationship between the ability of these parasites to invade and to recruit the host cell centrosome and the Golgi apparatus. We observed that T. gondii recruits the host cell centrosome towards the parasitophorous vacuole (PV), whereas B. besnoiti does not. Notably, both parasites recruit the host Golgi apparatus to the PV but its organization is affected in different ways. We also investigated the impact of depleting and over-expressing the host centrosomal protein TBCCD1, involved in centrosome positioning and Golgi apparatus integrity, on the ability of these parasites to invade and replicate. Toxoplasma gondii replication rate decreases in cells over-expressing TBCCD1 but not in TBCCD1-depleted cells; while for B. besnoiti no differences were found. However, B. besnoiti promotes a reorganization of the Golgi ribbon previously fragmented by TBCCD1 depletion. These results suggest that successful establishment of PVs in the host cell requires modulation of the Golgi apparatus which probably involves modifications in microtubule cytoskeleton organization and dynamics. These differences in how T. gondii and B. besnoiti interact with their host cells may indicate different evolutionary paths.

Comparing the schedulers and power saving strategies with SPARTS

We have developed SPARTS, a simulator of a generic embedded real-time device. It is designed to be extensible to accommodate different task properties, scheduling algorithms and/or hardware models for the wide variety of applications. SPARTS was developed to help the community investigate the behaviour of the real-time embedded systems and to quantify the associated constraints/overheads.

The quest for a balanced manpower capacity: different flexibility strategies examined

To cope with permanent fluctuations in demand, organizations are challenged to organize their manpower capacity in a flexible way. Different strategies of manpower planning are being used for this purpose. Using data from the 2002 Panel Survey of Organisations Flanders, we first verify to what extent temporal, contractual and functional flexibility strategies are applied in Flemish organizations. Subsequently, logistic regression is used to analyse the link between these flexible work strategies and a ‘fitting manpower capacity’. While the results show a negative association between the use of temporal or contractual flexibility measures and a balanced manpower capacity, functional flexibility seems to be positively related. The different logics in which numerical and functional flexibility proceed can be labeled as ‘curative’ versus ‘preventive’ strategies of flexibility. Further analyses discern between various interpretations of functional flexibility and assess whether different team types make a contribution to a fitting manpower capacity.

Variações do repertório clássico nas aulas de Técnica de Dança Clássica do 4º e do 5º ano da Escola de Dança Ana Mangerição

Relatório Final de Estágio apresentado à Escola Superior de Dança, com vista à obtenção do grau de Mestre em Ensino de Dança.

Regional governance: strategies and disputes in health region management

OBJECTIVE To analyze the regional governance of the health systemin relation to management strategies and disputes.METHODOLOGICAL PROCEDURES A qualitative study with health managers from 19 municipalities in the health region of Bahia, Northeastern Brazil. Data were drawn from 17 semi-structured interviews of state, regional, and municipal health policymakers and managers; a focus group; observations of the regional interagency committee; and documents in 2012. The political-institutional and the organizational components were analyzed in the light of dialectical hermeneutics.RESULTS The regional interagency committee is the chief regional governance strategy/component and functions as a strategic tool for strengthening governance. It brings together a diversity of members responsible for decision making in the healthcare territories, who need to negotiate the allocation of funding and the distribution of facilities for common use in the region. The high turnover of health secretaries, their lack of autonomy from the local executive decisions, inadequate technical training to exercise their function, and the influence of party politics on decision making stand as obstacles to the regional interagency committee’s permeability to social demands. Funding is insufficient to enable the fulfillment of the officially integrated agreed-upon program or to boost public supply by the system, requiring that public managers procure services from the private market at values higher than the national health service price schedule (Brazilian Unified Health System Table). The study determined that “facilitators” under contract to health departments accelerated access to specialized (diagnostic, therapeutic and/or surgical) services in other municipalities by direct payment to physicians for procedure costs already covered by the Brazilian Unified Health System.CONCLUSIONS The characteristics identified a regionalized system with a conflictive pattern of governance and intermediate institutionalism. The regional interagency committee’s managerial routine needs to incorporate more democratic devices for connecting with educational institutions, devices that are more permeable to social demands relating to regional policy making.