Optimization of bioplastics production from cheese whey

Dissertation presented in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in Biotechnology

On chaos, transient chaos and ghosts in single populations models with allee effects

Density-dependent effects, both positive or negative, can have an important impact on the population dynamics of species by modifying their population per-capita growth rates. An important type of such density-dependent factors is given by the so-called Allee effects, widely studied in theoretical and field population biology. In this study, we analyze two discrete single population models with overcompensating density-dependence and Allee effects due to predator saturation and mating limitation using symbolic dynamics theory. We focus on the scenarios of persistence and bistability, in which the species dynamics can be chaotic. For the chaotic regimes, we compute the topological entropy as well as the Lyapunov exponent under ecological key parameters and different initial conditions. We also provide co-dimension two bifurcation diagrams for both systems computing the periods of the orbits, also characterizing the period-ordering routes toward the boundary crisis responsible for species extinction via transient chaos. Our results show that the topological entropy increases as we approach to the parametric regions involving transient chaos, being maximum when the full shift R(L)(infinity) occurs, and the system enters into the essential extinction regime. Finally, we characterize analytically, using a complex variable approach, and numerically the inverse square-root scaling law arising in the vicinity of a saddle-node bifurcation responsible for the extinction scenario in the two studied models. The results are discussed in the context of species fragility under differential Allee effects. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Wetland Habitat Studies using various Classification Techniques on Multi-Spectral Landsat Imagery: Case study: Tram chim National Park, Dong Thap Vietnam

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

EduMCA: an approach to Educational Mobile Content Adaptation

As the variety of mobile devices connected to the Internet growts there is a correponding increase in the need to deliver content tailored to their heterogeneous characteristics. At the same time, we watch to the increase of e-learning in universities through the adoption of electronic platforms and standards. Not surprisingly, the concept of mLearning (Mobile Learning) appeared in recent years decreasing the limitation of learning location with the mobility of general portable devices. However, this large number and variety of Web-enabled devices poses several challenges for Web content creators who want to automatic get the delivery context and adapt the content to the client mobile devices. In this paper we analyze several approaches to defining delivery context and present an architecture for deliver uniform mLearning content to mobile devices denominated eduMCA - Educational Mobile Content Adaptation. With the eduMCA system the Web authors will not need to create specialized pages for each kind of device, since the content is automatically transformed to adapt to any mobile device capabilities from WAP to XHTML MP-compliant devices.

Estudo e desenvolvimento de sistema de cobrança de portagens baseado em NFC

Tese para obter o grau de Mestre em Engenharia Electrónica e Telecomunicações

Afetação de recursos em sistemas de produção

O problema do escalonamento, por ser um dos factores fundamentais na tomada de decisão para uma boa gestão das operações, tem sido alvo de um amplo estudo, tanto na sua componente teórica como na sua componente prática. A importância de um escalonamento correto das operações é preponderante, quando as pequenas diferenças, em termos de tempos de produção, podem ter um grande impacto na competitividade da organização. Em muitas unidades produtivas, existem máquinas capazes de realizar as mesmas operações com diferentes desempenhos. Isto pode dever-se à necessidade de flexibilizar os recursos ou mesmo a uma atualização da capacidade produtiva. Embora os problemas de máquinas diferentes em paralelo tenham sido alvo de um vasto estudo, muitos deles não são passíveis de ser resolvidos através de métodos exatos. O problema de minimização do makespan (Rm||Cmax), é NP-hard, sendo habitualmente abordado através de heurísticas. Entre as heurísticas utilizadas em problemas de minimização do makespan em máquinas diferentes em paralelo, é possível identificar duas filosofias de afectação: a que utiliza os tempos de processamento para alocar as tarefas e a que utiliza as datas de conclusão. Nesta dissertação, pretende-se dar uma contribuição para a resolução do problema de afectação de recursos em sistemas de produção. Para tal, foram propostas as heurísticas OMTC 3 e Suffrage One. A contribuição consiste na proposta de versões híbridas e modificadas das heurística MCT e Suffrage, uma vez identificadas várias características que podem limitar o seu desempenho, como o facto da heurística MCT alocar as tarefas numa ordem aleatória ou a heurística Suffrage alocar mais que uma tarefa por iteração. Finalmente, procedeu-se à realização de testes computacionais, para avaliar o desempenho das heurísticas propostas. Os testes realizados permitiram concluir que a heurística OMTC 3 apresentou um melhor desempenho que a heurística MCT.

Levantamento de práticas ambientais e energéticas de PMEs em Portugal

Para qualquer empresa o seu maior objetivo passa pela produção de lucro e, atualmente, esse aspeto está diretamente relacionado com a sua capacidade de manter uma gestão que incorpore a responsabilidade social, ambiental e económica, em prol de um desenvolvimento global mais sustentável. As grandes empresas já iniciaram e continuam este processo de mudança, desenvolvendo medidas e estratégias neste sentido. Porém, apesar de representarem o grosso do tecido empresarial, as Pequenas e Médias Empresas só agora começam a dar os primeiros passos em direção a uma gestão mais ponderada ambiental e energeticamente. Com este trabalho pretende-se reunir informação relativa às Pequenas e Médias Empresas portuguesas de forma a compreender quais as principais áreas de atuação, as medidas que poderão ser implementadas e, consolidar o ponto de situação deste sector acerca dos vários temas ao nível do meio ambiente e da energia. Para tal, foram realizados levantamentos energéticos e aplicado um questionário acerca dos comportamentos e práticas ambientais. Verificou-se que apesar da grande maioria das empresas analisadas já terem ponderado a importância e as vantagens da eficiência energética, ainda são poucas as organizações que têm implementados planos, estratégias ou instrumentos para melhoria do seu desempenho ambiental e energético.

ESEIG Mobile: an m-learning approach in a superior school

In recent years, mobile learning has emerged as an educational approach to decrease the limitation of learning location and adapt the teaching-learning process to all type of students. However, the large number and variety of Web-enabled devices poses challenges for Web content creators who want to automatic get the delivery context and adapt the content to mobile devices. In this paper we study several approaches to adapt the learning content to mobile phones. We present an architecture for deliver uniform m-Learning content to students in a higher School. The system development is organized in two phases: firstly enabling the educational content to mobile devices and then adapting it to all the heterogeneous mobile platforms. With this approach, Web authors will not need to create specialized pages for each kind of device, since the content is automatically transformed to adapt to any mobile device capabilities from WAP to XHTML MP-compliant devices.

Noble metal nanoparticles - Au and Ag - for biodetection

Dissertation submitted for obtainment of the Master’s Degree in Biotechnology, by the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia

Knowledge management in multinational companies: the repatriates’ role in the competitive advantage in subsidiaries

This paper addresses the topic of knowledge management in multinational companies (MNCs). Its purpose is to examine the role of expatriates in knowledge acquisition and transfer within MNCs. Specifically it focuses on knowledge acquisition and transfer from one MNC head office located in Germany to two Portuguese subsidiaries as a basis for competitive advantage in their Portuguese subsidiaries. A qualitative research methodology is used, specifically through an exploratory case study approach, which examines how international assignments are important for the role of expatriates In knowledge acquisition and transfer between foreign head offices and their Portuguese subsidiaries. The data were collected through semi structured interviews to 10 Portuguese repatriates from two Portuguese subsidiaries of one foreign MNC. The findings suggest that the reasons that lead to expatriating employees from Portuguese subsidiaries to foreign head offices are connected to (1) knowledge management strategies to development the subsidiary’s performance; (2) new skills and knowledge acquisition by future team leaders and business/product managers in Portuguese subsidiaries; (3) procuring knowledge, from agents in head office, to be disseminated amongst co-workers in Portuguese subsidiaries; (4) acquiring global management skills, impossible to acquire locally and; (5) developing global projects within MNC. Also our results show that knowledge acquisition and transfer from foreign head office, through subsidiaries’ expatriates, contributes directly to the Portuguese subsidiaries’ innovation, improved performance, competitive advantage and growth in the economic sectors in which they operate. Moreover, evidence reveals that expatriation is seen as a strategy to fulfil some of the main organisational objectives through their expatriates (e.g., create new products and business markets, develop and incorporate new organisational techniques and processes, integrate global teams within multinational corporation with a responsibility on the definition of global objectives). The results obtained suggest that expatriates have a central role in acquiring and transferring strategic knowledge from MNC head office to their subsidiaries located in Portugal. Based on the findings, the paper discusses in detail the main theoretical and managerial implications. Suggestions for further research are also presented. The study’s main limitation is the small size of the sample, but its findings and methodology are quite original and significant.

KM and politics at the highest level: an exploratory analysis

This paper analyzes Knowledge Management (KM) as a political activity, made by the great political leaders of the world. We try to inspect if at the macro political level KM is made, and how. The research is interesting because given that we live in a Knowledge society, in the Information Era, it is more or less obvious that the political leaders should also do KM. However we don’t know of any previous study on KM and world leaders and this paper wants to be a first step to fill that gap. As a methodology we use literature review: given this one is a first preliminary study we use data we found in the Internet and other databases like EBSCO. We divide the analysis in two main parts: theoretical ideas first, and an application second. The second part is it self divided in two segments: the past and the present times. We find that rather not surprisingly, KM always was and is pervasive in the activity of the world leaders, and has become more and more diverse has power itself became to be more and more disseminated in the world. The study has the limitation of relying on insights and texts and not on interviews. But we believe it is very interesting to make this kind of analysis and such studies may help improving the democracies in the world.

Linking transformational leadership and organisation commitment

The main goal of this paper is to analyse the impacts of transformational leadership on organisational commitment. To this effect we developed a case study following a quantitative methodological approach. The research was conducted at the Serralves Foundation (Porto, Portugal) to empirically test the proposed research model and its hypothesis. The empirical results confirm that transformational leadership are not significantly influenced by commitment. As the main limitation of this study we highlight the fact that it does not consider the leaders’ perspective on their subordinates’ behaviour.

Phenylketonuria: Protein content and amino acids profile of dishes for phenylketonuric patients. The relevance of phenylalanine

Phenylketonuria is an inborn error of metabolism, involving, in most cases, a deficient activity of phenylalanine hydroxylase. Neonatal diagnosis and a prompt special diet (low phenylalanine and natural-protein restricted diets) are essential to the treatment. The lack of data concerning phenylalanine contents of processed foodstuffs is an additional limitation for an already very restrictive diet. Our goals were to quantify protein (Kjeldahl method) and amino acid (18) content (HPLC/fluorescence) in 16 dishes specifically conceived for phenylketonuric patients, and compare the most relevant results with those of several international food composition databases. As might be expected, all the meals contained low protein levels (0.67–3.15 g/100 g) with the highest ones occurring in boiled rice and potatoes. These foods also contained the highest amounts of phenylalanine (158.51 and 62.65 mg/100 g, respectively). In contrast to the other amino acids, it was possible to predict phenylalanine content based on protein alone. Slight deviations were observed when comparing results with the different food composition databases.

Participação de crianças com multidificiência e deficiência visual em actividades na escola : orientações para a intervenção

O crescente reconhecimento das limitações das crianças com multideficiência e deficiência visual, quer nas interacções com os parceiros quer de uma forma geral nos ambientes em que se inserem, motivou este estudo, que pretendeu analisar o nível de participação destas crianças em actividades na escola. Considerando a importância de contribuir com informação para orientações na intervenção educativa de crianças com MDVI, realizou-se um estudo que analisa o seu comportamento e envolvimento em actividades da escola. Para a realização deste estudo, observaram-se os comportamentos de três crianças com MDVI, com idades compreendidas entre os 9 e os 10 anos, em três ambientes da escola, nomeadamente a sala de aula, o refeitório e o recreio, e em três actividades (pintura, jogos, almoço, saltar à corda, andar de baloiço e subir escadas) de forma a analisar o seu envolvimento e limitações nas actividades. Na análise dos dados das observações foram identificadas quatro categorias de participação: Inicia, Perde Oportunidade, Inicia com Apoio e Comportamento Potencialmente Comunicativo, registando-se valores que permitiram encontrar características dos comportamentos das crianças observadas, assim como o seu nível de participação em actividades na escola. Os resultados do estudo permitiram verificar que a participação das crianças em actividades está condicionada pelos ambientes em que estão envolvidas, e não pelas problemáticas que cada criança apresenta.----------------------------------------ABSTRACT: The motivation of this study is the increasing knowledge and awareness of children who have multiple disabilities and a visual impairment (MDVI) and the limitation with their peer interactions and in general. The purpose of this study was to analyze the participation level of children with MDVI in school activities. Considering the importance of contributing with guidelines for educational intervention with children with MDVI, we did a study that analyzes the behavior and the level of participation of MDVI children in school activities. In this research study we observed the behavior of three children with MDVI, of 9/10 years old, in three different environments at school; the classroom, the canteen and the playground, and in different activities (painting, playing games, having lunch, skipping rope, etc), in order to analyze their participation and their activity limitations in the activities referred. Data analysis identified four categories of participation: Initiation; Missed Opportunities; Initiation with support and Potentially communicative behavior. Results of data analysis allowed us to find out characteristics of children´s behavior, as well as their level of participation in activities. The main findings of this research allowed us to verify that the child’s engagement in activities depends on the environments where they are located and not on their disability.

ESEIG Mobile: an m-learning approach in a superior school

In recent years, mobile learning has emerged as an educational approach to decrease the limitation of learning location and adapt the teaching-learning process to all type of students. However, the large number and variety of Web-enabled devices poses challenges for Web content creators who want to automatic get the delivery context and adapt the content to mobile devices. This paper studies several approaches to adapt the learning content to mobile phones. It presents an architecture for deliver uniform m-Learning content to students in a higher School. The system development is organized in two phases: firstly enabling the educational content to mobile devices and then adapting it to all the heterogeneous mobile platforms. With this approach, Web authors will not need to create specialized pages for each kind of device, since the content is automatically transformed to adapt to any mobile device capabilities from WAP to XHTML MP-compliant devices.