Controlo e gestão da rede de postos de abastecimento : o caso da J.H. Ornelas & Suc., Lda.

Dissertação de Mestrado, Ciências Económicas e Empresariais, 15 de Dezembro de 2015, Universidade dos Açores.

Acompanhamento e integração dos novos colaboradores da SATA

Dissertação de Mestrado, Ciências Económicas e Empresariais, 15 de Dezembro de 2015, Universidade dos Açores.

Efeito de tratamentos químicos e biológicos na qualidade e valor nutritivo de silagens de erva

Dissertação de Mestrado, Engenharia Zootécnica, 15 de Dezembro de 2014, Universidade dos Açores.

Redução das desigualdades sociais na utilização de serviços odontológicos no Brasil entre 1998 e 2008

OBJETIVO: Analisar o acesso e utilização de serviços odontológicos no Brasil. MÉTODOS: Foram utilizados os dados da Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios de 2003 e 2008, comparando-os com os de 1998. Investigaram-se as variáveis de acesso e uso de serviços odontológicos nas idades de três, seis, nove, 12, 15 e 19 anos e no primeiro (Q1) e no quinto (Q5) quintis de renda familiar per capita. As análises consideraram o desenho amostral complexo. RESULTADOS: A proporção de pessoas que nunca consultaram o dentista diminuiu (18,7% em 1998, 15,9% em 2003 e 11,7% em 2008). Houve importante redução na diferença absoluta de não utilização do serviço odontológico a partir dos nove anos entre Q1 e Q5 de 1998 a 2008, diminuindo para cerca de metade aos 15 (30,3 pontos percentuais - pp para 16,1 pp) e aos 19 anos (20,4 pp para 9,9 pp). As razões entre Q1 e Q5 para consulta recente ao dentista diminuíram em todas as idades, principalmente entre zero e seis anos (Q5/Q1 de 3,2 para 2,6); a utilização do Sistema Único de Saúde para atendimento odontológico aumentou nos Q1 e Q5, com redução na razão entre os grupos Q1/Q5 de cerca de 20%. A utilização do Sistema Único de Saúde para atendimento odontológico aumentou cerca de 8% no Q1 e 35% no Q5 entre 2003 e 2008. CONCLUSÕES: Houve avanço considerável na redução das desigualdades no acesso e aumento na utilização de serviços odontológicos no Brasil entre 1998 e 2008. Entretanto, as iniquidades entre os grupos sociais ainda é expressiva.

Gruta da figueira brava (Arrabida): Geological setting

Separata do Tomo XXXVIII das Memories da Academia das Ciencias de Lisboa (Classe de Ciencias)

Catálise de hydrocraking baseado em zeólitos

Trabalho Final de Mestrado para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Química

Modelo com regimes para os preços e a liquidez de acções em bolsa

Dissertação apresentada à Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa para obtenção do grau de mestre em Matemática e Aplicações - Ramo Actuariado, Estatística e Investigação Operacional

Volunteering for a Lifetime? Volunteers’ Intention to Stay in Portuguese Hospitals

The current study aims to study Hospital volunteers’ intention to stay in an organization through understanding motivation, management factors, and satisfaction. A total of 304 Hospital volunteers, mainly women, completed a questionnaire measuring motivations, management factors, satisfaction, and intention to stay. In this study, structural equation modeling was used. Results demonstrate that there is a positive relationship between (a) motivation and satisfaction, (b) management factors and satisfaction, (c) satisfaction and intention to stay, and (d) motivation and management factors. These results present important outcomes that should be reflected in the way organizations operate. This research indicates aspects which are most valued by volunteers and allows NPOs to design and establish appropriate and assertive management policies.

Transient Spaces: unsettling boundaries and norms at the cultural event Noc Noc, Guimarães, Portugal

Cities are increasingly expected to be creative, inventive and to exhibit intense expressivity. In the past decades many cities have experienced growing pressure to produce and stage cultural events of different sorts and to develop new strategies that optimize competitive advantages, in order to promote themselves and to boost and sell their image. Often these actions have relied on heavy public investment and major private corporation sponsoring, but it is not always clear or measured how successful and reproductive these investments have been. In the context of strained public finances and profound economic crisis of European peripheral countries, events that emerge from local communities and have low budgets, which manage to create significant fluxes of visitors and visibility, assume an increased interest. In order to reflect and sketch possible answers, we look to an emerging body of literature concerning creative cities, and we focus on the organisation of a particular cultural event and its impact and assimilation into a medium size Portuguese city. This paper looks at the two editions (2011 and 2012) of one of such events – Noc Noc – organized by a local association in the city of Guimarães, Portugal. Inspired by similar events, Noc Noc is based on creating transient spaces of culture which are explored by artists and audiences, by transforming numerous homes into ephemeral convivial and playful social ‘public’ environments. The event is based on a number of cultural venues/homes scattered around the old and newer city, which allows for an informal urban exploration and an autonomous rambling and getting lost along streets. This strategy not only disrupts the cleavages between public and private space permitting for various transgressions, but it also disorders normative urban experiences and unsettles the dominant role of the city council as the culture patron of the large majority of events. Guimarães, an UNESCO World Heritage City was the European Capital of Culture in 2012, with a public investment of roughly 73 million euro. By interviewing a sample of people who have hosted these transitory art performances and exhibitions, sometimes doubling as artists, the events’ organizers and by experience both editions of the event, this paper illustrates how urban citizens’ engagement and motivations in a low budget cultural event can strengthen community ties. Furthermore, it also questions the advantages of large scale high budget events, and how this event may be seen as unconscious counter movement against a commodification of cultural events and everyday urban experience at large, engaging with the concepts of staging and authenticity.

A Gestão de Recursos Humanos nas Organizações de Economia Social

Introdução: O peso das organizações de Economia Social enquanto agentes económicos, com importância ao nível do emprego e da riqueza criada na prestação de serviços, é bastante significativo e cada vez mais reconhecido no contexto da União Europeia. No presente contexto de crise mundial o terceiro sector parece ganhar novo espaço e novas atenções, à imagem do que foi sucedendo desde as primeiras ideias avançadas para uma economia social, surgidas justamente com a crise vivida pelos operários do século XIX. Neste contexto, e dado os valores e princípios que idealmente regem a economia social, importa estudar a Gestão de Recursos Humanos que poderá ocupar um importante papel, uma vez que se considera que, devido à natureza do trabalho desenvolvido por estas organizações, as pessoas são o seu ativo mais importante e, como tal, a forma como cada organização gere os seus Recursos Humanos poderá influenciar o seu desempenho organizacional. A eficácia e eficiência são cada vez mais uma prioridade nestas organizações, face à conjuntura económica desfavorável e à diminuição do seu financiamento pelo Estado. Objetivos: Caraterizar a Gestão de Recursos Humanos nas Organizações de Economia Social. Método: Realizar uma revisão sistemática da literatura sobre esta temática com recurso a base de dados científicos. Resultados: O trabalho põe em relevo a importância da Gestão de Recursos Humanos nas Organizações de Economia Social em Portugal. A análise deste contexto específico pode trazer resultados proeminentes para um setor cuja importância é fulcral e crescente. Conclusões: Nesta crescente fase de profissionalização, as Organizações de Economia Social poderão usufruir de importantes melhorias se apostarem em políticas, processos e boas práticas de GRH. Além disso, uma forte aposta na GRH poderá ser um importante elemento diferenciado, num setor que se apresenta cada vez mais competitivo e preocupado com a melhoria da sua performance.

Strategic Planning and Organizational Effectiveness in Social Service Organizations in Portugal

This study aims to understand the reality of social service organizations, the level of implementation of the strategic planning as well as the impact of its application on organizational effectiveness. At first, we will group organizations in clusters according to the level of strategic planning implementation and its degree of effectiveness. Secondly, we will analyse all the different groups. Given the growing number of social service organizations and the consequent complexity of their structures, it turns out the need for these organizations adopt formal management techniques. Strategic planning is a valuable strategic management tool and one of its main objectives is to make organizations more effective. Therefore, the research has been conducted in order to determine if strategic planning is implemented in social service organizations and which effects has its application on organizational effectiveness. The survey, applied to 220 social service organizations, allowed us to gather them into different clusters, showing that different levels of strategic planning determine distinct degrees of organizational efficiency. Finally, it should be noted that findings of this research may be essential to decision makers of these organizations, because it was shown that the adoption of strategic planning has a positive influence on organizational effectiveness of social service organizations.

Perspectives of the Internal Public in a Cultural Event: the Case of Noc Noc, Guimarães - Portugal

Given the significant impact that cultural events may have in local communities and the inherent organization complexity, it is important to understand their specificities. Most of the times cultural events disregard marketing and often marketing is distant from art. Thus an analysis of an inside perspective might bring significant returns to the organization of such an event. This paper considers the three editions (2011, 2012 and 2013) of a cultural event – Noc Noc – organized by a local association in the city of Guimarães, Portugal. Its format is based in analogous events, as Noc Noc intends to convert everyday spaces (homes, commercial outlets and a number of other buildings) into cultural spaces, processed and transformed by artists, hosts and audiences. By interviewing a sample of people (20) who have hosted this cultural event, sometimes doubling as artists, and by experiencing the three editions of the event, this paper illustrates how the internal public understands this particular cultural event, analyzing specifically their motivations, ways of acting and participating, as well as their relationship with the public, with the organization of the event and with art in general. Results support that artists and hosts motivations must be identified in a timely and appropriate moment, as well as their views of this particular cultural event, in order to keep them participating, since low budget cultural events such as this one may have a key role in small scale cities.

The Context Influence in Volunteers Motivations

Volunteers working in different areas or different NPO (Non-profit Organisations) are significantly different according to several variables, namely in terms of motivation, satisfaction and permanence. Thus, the main goal of this research is to understand volunteers’ motivations and the influence of the context on it. Additionally, demographic variables might have an important impact on volunteers’ activities, be an important predictor of volunteering and, at the same time, influence their time commitment. In this paper we present data from twelve different NPO - 10 hospitals and 2 food banks. The model of data collection was a survey conducted by self-administered questionnaire. The results showed significant differences between the volunteers’ belonging to the two organisations and their motivations, confirming that volunteer’ motivations differ according the type/nature of organisation; this is particularly important because the field in which one works is influenced by a self-evident affinity with shared ideologies, religious convictions, and collective identities. These results present important outcomes that should be reflected in the way organisations act. Keywords: Volunteering; Occasional and permanent volunteers; Motivations; Non-profit organisations.

Dynamic behaviour of soft core sandwich beam structures using kriging-based layerwise models

Sandwich structures with soft cores are widely used in applications where a high bending stiffness is required without compromising the global weight of the structure, as well as in situations where good thermal and damping properties are important parameters to observe. As equivalent single layer approaches are not the more adequate to describe realistically the kinematics and the stresses distributions as well as the dynamic behaviour of this type of sandwiches, where shear deformations and the extensibility of the core can be very significant, layerwise models may provide better solutions. Additionally and in connection with this multilayer approach, the selection of different shear deformation theories according to the nature of the material that constitutes the core and the outer skins can predict more accurately the sandwich behaviour. In the present work the authors consider the use of different shear deformation theories to formulate different layerwise models, implemented through kriging-based finite elements. The viscoelastic material behaviour, associated to the sandwich core, is modelled using the complex approach and the dynamic problem is solved in the frequency domain. The outer elastic layers considered in this work may also be made from different nanocomposites. The performance of the models developed is illustrated through a set of test cases. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Measles serodiagnosis: standardization and evaluation of a dot-ELISA

A Dot-ELISA using a measles virus (MV) antigen obtained by sodium deoxycholate treatment was standardized and evaluated for IgM and IgG antibody detection in measles patients and measles-vaccinated subjects. A total of 192 serum samples were studied, comprising 47 from patients with acute and convalescent measles, 55 from 9-month old children prior to measles vaccination and 41 from children of the same age after vaccination, and 49 from patients with unrelated diseases. The diagnostic performances of the IgG Dot-ELISA and IgG immuno fluorescence test (IFT) were found to be close, varying from 0.97 to 1.00 in sensitivity and the specificities were maximum (1.00). Nevertheless, the sensitivity of the IgM Dot-ELISA (0.85) was higher than that (0.63) of the IgM IFT, although both assays had comparably high (1.00) specificities. The IgM Dot-ELISA in particular proved to be more sensitive in relation to other assays studied by revealing antibodies in 80.0% (12/15) of vaccinated children on the 15th day after immunization. In contrast the IgM IFT, failed to detect antibodies in the same group of vaccinated children. The stability of the MV antigen was longer than that of the IFT antigen, and the reproducibility of the Dot-Elisa was satisfactory.