Controllability results for impulsive mixed type functional integro-differential evolution equations with nonlocal conditions

In this paper, we establish the controllability for a class of abstract impulsive mixed-type functional integro-differential equations with finite delay in a Banach space. Some sufficient conditions for controllability are obtained by using the Mönch fixed point theorem via measures of noncompactness and semigroup theory. Particularly, we do not assume the compactness of the evolution system. An example is given to illustrate the effectiveness of our results.

Combined mutation differential evolution to solve systems of nonlinear equations

This paper presents a differential evolution heuristic to compute a solution of a system of nonlinear equations through the global optimization of an appropriate merit function. Three different mutation strategies are combined to generate mutant points. Preliminary numerical results show the effectiveness of the presented heuristic.

Legal and political regulation of higher education in Portugal: an evolutionary perspective on the current policy issues and the problem of order

The higher education system in Europe is currently under stress and the debates over its reform and future are gaining momentum. Now that, for most countries, we are in a time for change, in the overall society and the whole education system, the legal and political dimensions have gained prominence, which has not been followed by a more integrative approach of the problem of order, its reform and the issue of regulation, beyond the typical static and classical cost-benefit analyses. The two classical approaches for studying (and for designing the policy measures of) the problem of the reform of the higher education system - the cost-benefit analysis and the legal scholarship description - have to be integrated. This is the argument of our paper that the very integration of economic and legal approaches, what Warren Samuels called the legal-economic nexus, is meaningful and necessary, especially if we want to address the problem of order (as formulated by Joseph Spengler) and the overall regulation of the system. On the one hand, and without neglecting the interest and insights gained from the cost-benefit analysis, or other approaches of value for money assessment, we will focus our study on the legal, social and political aspects of the regulation of the higher education system and its reform in Portugal. On the other hand, the economic and financial problems have to be taken into account, but in a more inclusive way with regard to the indirect and other socio-economic costs not contemplated in traditional or standard assessments of policies for the tertiary education sector. In the first section of the paper, we will discuss the theoretical and conceptual underpinning of our analysis, focusing on the evolutionary approach, the role of critical institutions, the legal-economic nexus and the problem of order. All these elements are related to the institutional tradition, from Veblen and Commons to Spengler and Samuels. The second section states the problem of regulation in the higher education system and the issue of policy formulation for tackling the problem. The current situation is clearly one of crisis with the expansion of the cohorts of young students coming to an end and the recurrent scandals in private institutions. In the last decade, after a protracted period of extension or expansion of the system, i. e., the continuous growth of students, universities and other institutions are competing harder to gain students and have seen their financial situation at risk. It seems that we are entering a period of radical uncertainty, higher competition and a new configuration that is slowly building up is the growth in intensity, which means upgrading the quality of the higher learning and getting more involvement in vocational training and life-long learning. With this change, and along with other deep ones in the Portuguese society and economy, the current regulation has shown signs of maladjustment. The third section consists of our conclusions on the current issue of regulation and policy challenge. First, we underline the importance of an evolutionary approach to a process of change that is essentially dynamic. A special attention will be given to the issues related to an evolutionary construe of policy analysis and formulation. Second, the integration of law and economics, through the notion of legal economic nexus, allows us to better define the issues of regulation and the concrete problems that the universities are facing. One aspect is the instability of the political measures regarding the public administration and on which the higher education system depends financially, legally and institutionally, to say the least. A corollary is the lack of clear strategy in the policy reforms. Third, our research criticizes several studies, such as the one made by the OECD in late 2006 for the Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education, for being too static and neglecting fundamental aspects of regulation such as the logic of actors, groups and organizations who are major players in the system. Finally, simply changing the legal rules will not necessary per se change the behaviors that the authorities want to change. By this, we mean that it is not only remiss of the policy maker to ignore some of the critical issues of regulation, namely the continuous non-respect by academic management and administrative bodies of universities of the legal rules that were once promulgated. Changing the rules does not change the problem, especially without the necessary debates form the different relevant quarters that make up the higher education system. The issues of social interaction remain as intact. Our treatment of the matter will be organized in the following way. In the first section, the theoretical principles are developed in order to be able to study more adequately the higher education transformation with a modest evolutionary theory and a legal and economic nexus of the interactions of the system and the policy challenges. After describing, in the second section, the recent evolution and current working of the higher education in Portugal, we will analyze the legal framework and the current regulatory practices and problems in light of the theoretical framework adopted. We will end with some conclusions on the current problems of regulation and the policy measures that are discusses in recent years.

Estratégias de investimento em mercados liberalizados de energia elétrica

Dissertação para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Electrotécnica Ramo Energia

Professional and community satisfaction with the Brazilian family health strategy

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the strengths and limitations of the Family Health Strategy from the perspective of health care professionals and the community. METHODS: Between June-August 2009, in the city of Vespasiano, Minas Gerais State, Southeastern Brazil, a questionnaire was used to evaluate the Family Health Strategy (ESF) with 77 healthcare professionals and 293 caregivers of children under five. Health care professional training, community access to health care, communication with patients and delivery of health education and pediatric care were the main points of interest in the evaluation. Logistic regression analysis was used to obtain odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals as well as to assess the statistical significance of the variables studied. RESULTS: The majority of health care professionals reported their program training was insufficient in quantity, content and method of delivery. Caregivers and professionals identified similar weaknesses (services not accessible to the community, lack of healthcare professionals, poor training for professionals) and strengths (community health worker-patient communications, provision of educational information, and pediatric care). Recommendations for improvement included: more doctors and specialists, more and better training, and scheduling improvements. Caregiver satisfaction with the ESF was found to be related to perceived benefits such as community health agent household visits (OR 5.8, 95%CI 2.8;12.1), good professional-patient relationships (OR 4.8, 95%CI 2.5;9.3), and family-focused health (OR 4.1, 95%CI 1.6;10.2); and perceived problems such as lack of personnel (OR 0.3, 95%CI 0.2;0.6), difficulty with access (OR 0.2, 95%CI 0.1;0.4), and poor quality of care (OR 0.3, 95%CI 0.1;0.6). Overall, 62% of caregivers reported being generally satisfied with the ESF services. CONCLUSIONS: Identifying the limitations and strengths of the Family Health Strategy from the healthcare professional and caregiver perspective may serve to advance primary community healthcare in Brazil.

Complex evolution of a multi-particle system

This paper studies a discrete dynamical system of interacting particles that evolve by interacting among them. The computational model is an abstraction of the natural world, and real systems can range from the huge cosmological scale down to the scale of biological cell, or even molecules. Different conditions for the system evolution are tested. The emerging patterns are analysed by means of fractal dimension and entropy measures. It is observed that the population of particles evolves towards geometrical objects with a fractal nature. Moreover, the time signature of the entropy can be interpreted at the light of complex dynamical systems.

Le Crétacé inférieur de la marge atlantique portugaise: biostratigraphie, organization séquentielle, evolution paléogéographique

This paper gives a short description of main stratigraphic unities from the early Cretaceous in Estremadura and Algarve, with their lithological, sedimentological and paleontological characteristics. The distribution of facies enable to propose a paleogeographic frame including eroded high areas and sedimentary low areas roughly parallel to the present coast. The early Cretaceous from Estremadura is splited up into three megasequences each one with regressive then transgressive tendencies: this fact must be connected with the leading action of distensive, slow or sudden, movements. Beyond the hercynian fault of Messejana, Algarve presents a different sedimentary evolution during the early Cretaceous.

Outsourcing das actividades de marketing digital nas PME

Dissertação de Mestrado Apresentado ao Instituto de Contabilidade e Administração do Porto para a obtenção do grau de Mestre em Marketing Digital, sob orientação de Professor Doutor Freitas Santos

O papel da certificação NP 4427:2004 no desenvolvimento das práticas de gestão de recursos humanos em organizações portuguesas

Este estudo tem como objetivo determinar o papel que a certificação pela Norma Portuguesa 4427:2004 – “Sistemas de Gestão de Recursos Humanos – requisitos” (NP 4427:2004) assume no desenvolvimento das práticas de Gestão de Recursos Humanos. Neste sentido, foi realizada uma abordagem teórica à evolução temporal e conceptual da Gestão de Recursos Humanos e identificadas as melhores práticas que reconhecem nas pessoas um indispensável e estratégico ativo organizacional. Posteriormente é apresentada a NP 4427:2004 e o seu enquadramento no contexto organizacional português. Apresentando-se como uma temática moderna no âmbito da Gestão de Recursos Humanos, o presente estudo questiona se as empresas certificadas pela NP 4427:2004 promovem práticas de Recursos Humanos estratégicas, se o grau de intervenção destes Departamentos, no desenvolvimento das práticas, é maior nas empresas certificadas pela NP 4427:2004, e se os responsáveis destes setores possuem qualificação específica na área de Recursos Humanos. A um universo de 95 empresas foi aplicado um inquérito por questionário, que permitiu concluir que as organizações certificadas pela NP 4427:2004 promovem práticas de Recursos Humanos estratégicas e envolvem Departamentos de Recursos Humanos com elevado grau de intervenção no desenvolvimento das mesmas, sendo que os seus Responsáveis não possuem formação específica na área dos Recursos Humanos.

A capacity sharing and stealing strategy for open real-time systems

This paper focuses on the scheduling of tasks with hard and soft real-time constraints in open and dynamic real-time systems. It starts by presenting a capacity sharing and stealing (CSS) strategy that supports the coexistence of guaranteed and non-guaranteed bandwidth servers to efficiently handle soft-tasks’ overloads by making additional capacity available from two sources: (i) reclaiming unused reserved capacity when jobs complete in less than their budgeted execution time and (ii) stealing reserved capacity from inactive non-isolated servers used to schedule best-effort jobs. CSS is then combined with the concept of bandwidth inheritance to efficiently exchange reserved bandwidth among sets of inter-dependent tasks which share resources and exhibit precedence constraints, assuming no previous information on critical sections and computation times is available. The proposed Capacity Exchange Protocol (CXP) has a better performance and a lower overhead when compared against other available solutions and introduces a novel approach to integrate precedence constraints among tasks of open real-time systems.

As Relações Públicas e a gestão de artistas numa editora musical

Trabalho de projeto apresentado à Escola Superior de Comunicação Social como parte dos requisitos para obtenção de grau de mestre em Gestão Estratégica das Relações Públicas.

Origin and evolution of Upper Triassic to Miocene clay-mineral associations from the eastern Algarve of Portugal

XRD-analyses of pelitic deposits of Upper Jurassic to Miocene age occuring in the eastern Algarve (Portugal), give evidence of the occurrence of detrital clay minerals of continental origin as well as of conspicuous neoformations of marine provenance. The vertical succession of clay-mineral associations indicates the existence of three distinctive evolutionary cycles which are thought to reflect tectonically controlled transgressive-regressive events.

Hydrogen evolution and consumption in AOT–isooctane reverse micelles by Desulfovibrio gigas hydrogenase

The enzyme hydrogenase isolated from the sulphate reducing anaerobic bacterium Desulfovibrio gigas was encapsulated in reverse micelles of AOT–water–isooctane. The enzyme ability to consume molecular hydrogen was studied as a function of the micelle size (given by Wo = [H2O]/[organic solvent]). A peak of catalytic activity was obtained for Wo = 18, a micelle size theoretically fitting the heterodimeric hydrogenase molecule. At this Wo value, the recorded catalytic activity was slightly higher than in a buffer system(Kcat = 169.43 s−1 against the buffer value of 151 s−1). The optimal buffer used to encapsulate the enzyme was found to be imidazole 50 mM, pH 9.0. The molecular hydrogen production activity was also tested in this reverse micelle medium.

Screening for depressive symptoms in older adults in the Family Health Strategy, Porto Alegre, Brazil

OBJECTIVE To analyze the prevalence of depression in older adults and associated factors. METHODS Cross-sectional study using a stratified random sample of 621 individuals aged ≥ 60 from 27 family health teams in Porto Alegre, RS, Southern Brazil, between 2010 and 2012. Community health agents measured depression using the 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale. Scores of ≥ 6 were considered as depression and between 11 and 15 as severe depression. Poisson regression was used to search for independent associations of sociodemographic and self-perceived health with both depression and its severity. RESULTS The prevalence of depression was 30.6% and was significantly higher in women (35.9% women versus 20.9% men, p < 0.001). The variables independently associated with depression were: female gender (PR = 1.4, 95%CI 1.1;1.8); low education, especially illiteracy (PR = 1.8, 95%CI 1.2;2 6); regular self-rated health (OR = 2.2, 95%CI 1.6;3.0); and poor/very poor self-rated health (PR = 4.0, 95%CI 2.9;5.5). Except for education, the strength of association of these factors increases significantly in severe depression. CONCLUSIONS A high prevalence of depression was observed in the evaluations conducted by community health agents, professionals who are not highly specialized. The findings identified using the 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale in this way are similar to those in the literature, with depression more associated with low education, female gender and worse self-rated health. From a primary health care strategic point of view, the findings become still more relevant, indicating that community health agents could play an important role in identifying depression in older adults.

Bifacial dye-sensitized solar cells: a strategy to enhance overall efficiency based on transparent polyaniline electrode

Dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) is a promising solution to global energy and environmental problems because of its clean, low-cost, high efficiency, good durability, and easy fabrication. However, enhancing the efficiency of the DSSC still is an important issue. Here we devise a bifacial DSSC based on a transparent polyaniline (PANI) counter electrode (CE). Owing to the sunlight irradiation simultaneously from the front and the rear sides, more dye molecules are excited and more carriers are generated, which results in the enhancement of short-circuit current density and therefore overall conversion efficiency. The photoelectric properties of PANI can be improved by modifying with 4-aminothiophenol (4-ATP). The bifacial DSSC with 4-ATP/PANI CE achieves a light-to-electric energy conversion efficiency of 8.35%, which is increased by ,24.6% compared to the DSSC irradiated from the front only. This new concept along with promising results provides a new approach for enhancing the photovoltaic performances of solar cells.