Effects of team task structure on team climate for innovation and team outcomes

In this cross-sectional study we analyzed, whether team climate for innovation mediates the relationship between team task structure and innovative behavior, job satisfaction, affective organizational commitment, and work stress. 310 employees in 20 work teams of an automotive company participated in this study. 10 teams had been changed from a restrictive to a more self-regulating team model by providing task variety, autonomy, team-specific goals, and feedback in order to increase team effectiveness. Data support the supposed causal chain, although only with respect to team innovative behavior all required effects were statistically significant. Longitudinal designs and larger samples are needed to prove the assumed causal relationships, but results indicate that implementing self-regulating teams might be an effective strategy for improving innovative behavior and thus team and company effectiveness.

Climate change impacts on portuguese energy system in 2050

Dissertação apresentada na Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa para a obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia do Ambiente, perfil Gestão e Sistemas Ambientais

Integrated analysis of climate, soil, topography and vegetative growth in Iberian viticultural regions

The Iberian viticultural regions are convened according to the Denomination of Origin (DO) and present different climates, soils, topography and management practices. All these elements influence the vegetative growth of different varieties throughout the peninsula, and are tied to grape quality and wine type. In the current study, an integrated analysis of climate, soil, topography and vegetative growth was performed for the Iberian DO regions, using state-of-the-art datasets. For climatic assessment, a categorized index, accounting for phenological/thermal development, water availability and grape ripening conditions was computed. Soil textural classes were established to distinguish soil types. Elevation and aspect (orientation) were also taken into account, as the leading topographic elements. A spectral vegetation index was used to assess grapevine vegetative growth and an integrated analysis of all variables was performed. The results showed that the integrated climate-soil-topography influence on vine performance is evident. Most Iberian vineyards are grown in temperate dry climates with loamy soils, presenting low vegetative growth. Vineyards in temperate humid conditions tend to show higher vegetative growth. Conversely, in cooler/warmer climates, lower vigour vineyards prevail and other factors, such as soil type and precipitation acquire more important roles in driving vigour. Vines in prevailing loamy soils are grown over a wide climatic diversity, suggesting that precipitation is the primary factor influencing vigour. The present assessment of terroir characteristics allows direct comparison among wine regions and may have great value to viticulturists, particularly under a changing climate.

Moisture recycling in the Iberian Peninsula from a regional climate simulation: spatiotemporal analysis and impact on the precipitation regime

The contribution of the evapotranspiration from a certain region to the precipitation over the same area is referred to as water recycling. In this paper, we explore the spatiotemporal links between the recycling mechanism and the Iberian rainfall regime. We use a 9 km resolution Weather Research and Forecasting simulation of 18 years (1990-2007) to compute local and regional recycling ratios over Iberia, at the monthly scale, through both an analytical and a numerical recycling model. In contrast to coastal areas, the interior of Iberia experiences a relative maximum of precipitation in spring, suggesting a prominent role of land-atmosphere interactions on the inland precipitation regime during this period of the year. Local recycling ratios are the highest in spring and early summer, coinciding with those areas where this spring peak of rainfall represents the absolute maximum in the annual cycle. This confirms that recycling processes are crucial to explain the Iberian spring precipitation, particularly over the eastern and northeastern sectors. Average monthly recycling values range from 0.04 in December to 0.14 in June according to the numerical model and from 0.03 in December to 0.07 in May according to the analytical procedure. Our analysis shows that the highest values of recycling are limited by the coexistence of two necessary mechanisms: (1) the availability of sufficient soil moisture and (2) the occurrence of appropriate synoptic configurations favoring the development of convective regimes. The analyzed surplus of rainfall in spring has a critical impact on agriculture over large semiarid regions of the interior of Iberia.

Matching CO2 large point sources and potential geological storage sites in mainland Portugal

Dissertação apresentada na Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia do Ambiente, Perfil Gestão e Sistemas Ambientais

Assessment of climate change statistical downscaling methods: Application and comparison of two statistical methods to a single site in Lisbon

Dissertação apresentada na Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa para a obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia do Ambiente

Gestão de instalações eléctricas para optimização do desempenho, eficiência e qualidade de energia em grandes edifícios com integração de Miniprodução

As alterações climáticas e as emissões de CO2 são questões que suscitam a nível internacional e nacional o desenvolvimento de estratégias que atenuem os seus impactes. A Eficiência Energética (EE) é essencial para que num futuro próximo não haja impactes significativos no meio ambiente devido a elevado e ineficiente consumo energético. A União Europeia (UE) e Portugal têm desenvolvido políticas e programas que estimulam a eficiência energética, bem como a diminuição de gases com efeito de estufa (GEE) e a promoção da utilização de fontes de energia renovável. Por outro lado vivemos numa sociedade que passa cerca de 80% do seu tempo em edifícios e, nestes, é consumida 40% da energia mundial. Com uma dependência energética superior a 80%, Portugal tem vindo a apostar, nos últimos anos, em fontes de energia renovável. Esta aposta serve como substituição de fontes, mas não leva directamente à redução de consumos. A redução da factura de energia só pode ser atingida com uma maior eficiência energética e melhores práticas de gestão de energia em edifícios, transportes e industria. Esta dissertação centra-se especificamente num conjunto de edifícios públicos, património municipal da autarquia de Matosinhos, cujo modelo de fornecimento da energia eléctrica é passível de análise crítica no sentido de uma optimização radical ao nível da concepção da rede e exploração, com consequente redução de custos ao nível da facturação. Esta nova metodologia de exploração e gestão de sistemas eléctricos incidirá na criação de um “campus” energético autárquico resultante do novo layout da rede e respectivo fornecimento de energia a partir da rede de distribuição pública. O estudo permitirá fornecer ferramentas fundamentais para a gestão municipal e empresarial ao nível da sustentabilidade energética nos edifícios públicos com abrangência aos serviços empresariais. De referir que a gestão das instalações eléctricas para optimização do desempenho, eficiência e qualidade de energia é aplicável aos 308 municípios nacionais com relevância para as empresas que apresentam consumos significativos nos seus edifícios. Enquanto funcionário da Câmara Municipal de Matosinhos, este município foi uma escolha natural como referência, na análise da relação existente entre a administração local e a gestão da energia. Para ajudar à análise foi efectuado um benchmarketing a cinco edifícios municipais: Edifício dos Paços do Concelho, Biblioteca Municipal Florbela Espanca, Palacete Visconde Trevões, ex-Edifício dos SMAS e Edifício do ex-Tribunal, visando potenciar a correcta gestão de energia destes edifícios por parte das entidades que os gerem, perante novas oportunidades de melhoria e soluções encontradas. Como contributo às metas impostas pela Directiva 2009/28/CE para 2020, a qual prevê uma redução de 20% no consumo final de energia através da eficiência energética, a incorporação de 20% de energia renovável no consumo energético global e a consequente redução em 20% da emissão de GEE, é apresentado um estudo ao nível de um parque fotovoltaico com a componente técnica e económica.

The European challenge of KM and innovation: a skills and competence portfolio for the knowledge worker in SME's

This chapter appears in Innovations of Knowledge Management edited by Montano, D. Copyright 2004, IGI Global, www.igi-global.com. Posted by permission of the publisher.

An Ethos Theory of Party Positions on European Integration: Poland and Beyond

Since 1989, five parliamentary elections have been the stage for the foundation and demise of political parties aspiring to govern the new democratic Polish state. The demise of the AWS before the 2001 elections after ten years of attempts to create a centre-right core party resulted in a new splintering of the right-wing, and the centre-right became again devoid of a pivotal formation. While Eurosceptic parties in average gain 8 percent of the vote, in the 2001 Polish parliamentary elections Eurosceptic parties gained around 20 percent of the vote. In Poland right-wing parties show an unusual propensity for Euroscepticism. The persistence and increased importance of nationalism in Poland, which has prevented the development of a strong Christian democratic party, effectively explains the levels of Euroscepticism on the right. After the autumn 2005 parliamentary elections the national conservative party, Law and Justice, formed a governing coalition with the national Catholic League of Polish Families, creating one of the first Eurosceptic governments. Although this work does not intend to provide a theorisation of party systems development, it shows that the context of European integration fostered nationalists’ divisiveness of, and provoked the splitting of the right the unusual propensity of parties for Euroscepticism makes Poland a paradigmatic case of the kind of conflicts over European integration emerging in Central and Eastern European party systems.

The European Project Semester at ISEP: Learning to Learn Engineering

The European Project Semester at ISEP (EPS@ISEP) is a one semester project-based learning programme addressed to engineering students from diverse scientific backgrounds and nationalities. The students, organized in multicultural teams, are challenged to solve real world multidisciplinary problems, accounting for 30 ECTU. The EPS package, although focused on project development (20 ECTU), includes a series of complementary seminars aimed at fostering soft, project-related and engineering transversal skills (10 ECTU). This paper presents the study plan, resources, operation and results of the EPS@ISEP that was created in 2011 to apply the best engineering education practices and promote the internationalization of ISEP. The results show that the EPS@ISEP students acquire during one semester the scientific, technical and soft competences necessary to propose, design and implement a solution for a multidisciplinary problem.

Paleoclimatic correlations between Western european continental and marine areas Contribution of big villafranchian fauna

It is very difficult to make paleoclimatic correlations between continental and marine areas, but it is possible with biostratigraphic data. Reliable correlations can be made only between broad periods: between 3.5 and 3 Ma, around 2.4 Ma, until 1.6 Ma and after 1.6 Ma. The arid Mediterranean phases led to the disappearance of the European Villafranchian fauna (1.0 Ma).

The European Project Semester at ISEP: the challenge of educating global engineers

Current engineering education challenges require approaches that promote scientific, technical, design and complementary skills while fostering autonomy, innovation and responsibility. The European Project Semester (EPS) at Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto (ISEP) (EPS@ISEP) is a one semester project-based learning programme (30 European Credit Transfer Units (ECTU)) for engineering students from diverse scientific backgrounds and nationalities that intends to address these goals. The students, organised in multidisciplinary and multicultural teams, are challenged to solve real multidisciplinary problems during one semester. The EPS package, although on project development (20 ECTU), includes a series of complementary seminars aimed at fostering soft, project-related and engineering transversal skills (10 ECTU). Hence, the students enrolled in this programme improve their transversal skills and learn, together and with the team of supervisors, subjects distinct from their core training. This paper presents the structure, implementation and results of the EPS@ISEP that was created in 2011 to apply the best engineering practices and promote internationalisation and engineering education innovation at ISEP.

Convergence to the European Energy Policy in European countries: case studies and comparison

Purpose – Our paper aims at analyzing how different European countries cope with the European Energy Policy, which proposes a set of measures (free energy market, smart meters, energy certificates) to improve energy utilization and management in Europe. Design/methodology/approach – The paper first reports the general vision, regulations and goals set up by Europe to implement the European Energy Policy. Later on, it performs an analysis of how some European countries are coping with the goals, with financial, legal, economical and regulatory measures. Finally, the paper draws a comparison between the countries to present a view on how Europe is responding to the emerging energy emergency of the modern world. Findings – Our analysis on different use cases (countries) showed that European countries are converging to a common energy policy, even though some countries appear to be later than others In particular, Southern European countries were slowed down by the world financial and economical crisis. Still, it appears that contingency plans were put into action, and Europe as a whole is proceeding steadily towards the common vision. Research limitations/implications – European countries are applying yet more cuts to financing green technologies, and it is not possible to predict clearly how each country will evolve its support to the European energy policy. Practical implications – Different countries applied the concepts and measures in different ways. The implementation of the European energy policy has to cope with the resulting plethora of regulations, and a company proposing enhancement regarding energy management still has to possess robust knowledge of the single country, before being able to export experience and know-how between European countries. Originality/Value – Even though a few surveys on energy measures in Europe are already part of the state-of-the-art, organic analysis diagonal to the different topics of the European Energy Policy is missing. Moreover, this paper highlights how European countries are converging on a common view, and provides some details on the differences between the countries, thus facilitating parties interesting into cross-country export of experience and technology for energy management.

Distance continuing education for enterprises in European Universities

Proceedings of EDEN 10th Anniversary Conference, 10-13 June 2001 Stockholm, Sweden

Promotion of gender equality and social inclusion of unemployed groups in Portuguese European Founds Frameworks (1990-2007): overview and critical reflection

Comunicação apresentada no 38º Congresso Mundial do Instituto Internacional de Sociologia, em Budapeste, Hungria, de 26 a 30 de Junho de 2008.