A produção de culturas ao ar livre em modo de produção biológico, no Algarve: um diagnóstico do sector e contas de cultura

Dissertação de mestrado, Hortofruticultura, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade do Algarve, 2014

Marketing no sector farmacêutico: o impacto da cor da embalagem

Dissertação de mestrado, Ciências Farmacêuticas, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade do Algarve, 2015

Organização flexível do conhecimento : estratégias para a retenção e transmissão do conhecimento e do saber-fazer nas empresas do sector metalúrgico, metalomecânico e electromecânico

Trabalho de projecto de mestrado, Ciências da Educação (Formação de Adultos), Universidade de Lisboa, Instituto de Educação, 2011

Low emission zones: the likely effects on the freight transport sector

London’s air quality has improved over recent decades, but is still the worst in the UK. Road transport emissions play an important part in this pollution. A low emission zone (LEZ) would help to accelerate the introduction of cleaner vehicles, and reduce the numbers of older, more polluting vehicles operating in London. The survey work carried out indicates that there is support among goods vehicle operators for an LEZ in London, depending on the precise scheme definition. Operators would generally try to comply with LEZ regulations, with most companies either using technical approaches to ensure that their London vehicle fleet complied with the required emission standard or by redeploying vehicles with the appropriate emission standard from other locations.

Low emission zones: the likely effects on the freight transport sector

London's air quality has improved over recent decades, but is still the worst in the UK. Road transport emissions play an important part in this pollution. A low emission zone (LEZ) would help to accelerate the introduction of cleaner vehicles, and reduce the number of older, more polluting vehicles operating in London. Survey results indicate that there is some support among goods vehicle operators for a LEZ in London, depending on the precise scheme definition. Operators would generally try to comply with LEZ regulations, with most companies either using technical approaches to ensure that their London vehicle fleet complied with the required emission standard, or redeploying vehicles with the appropriate emission standard from other locations.

Risk under performance-based contracting in the UK construction sector

As a method of procuring the services of the built environment, performance-based contracting (PBC) seeks to link the building supplier to longer term commitments than has traditionally been the case in the construction sector. By rewarding the building producer according to the way that building or structure delivers the users' requirements, rather than according to a list of assembled parts, a number of additional risks are taken by contractors, including fitness for purpose, costs and briefing. The extent to which contractors recognize these risks and their methods of dealing with them vary considerably and are influenced by their attitudes towards risk. As the risks associated with PBC are seen as large, uninsurable, and vulnerable to changing client requirements, the majority of respondents would reject the use of PBC as a method of contracting. Nevertheless, PBC may be used under particular conditions, where rewards are deemed sufficient to compensate for the additional risk to the contractor of undertaking work on the basis of a stream of payments paid over the life of a structure depending on the satisfactory performance of the building or as part of a private finance initiative.

Logistics and the waste sector: a London case study

London has traditionally exported most of its waste to former mineral workings in surrounding counties for landfill. Many of these sites are being filled and opportunities for new sites are limited. Virtually all waste reprocessing and recycling facilities, with the exception of textile sorting and some facilities for glass and organic waste composting, are outside London. The Mayor of London's Vision for Waste in London is that by 2020, municipal waste should not compromise London’s future as a sustainable city. This will involve managing waste better, so that its impact on the local and global environment and on London communities, economy and health is minimised. The majority of waste and recyclable materials in London are currently collected and transported for recovery, disposal or reprocessing by road in large vehicles. Environmental costs include, adding to congestion, noise, energy usage, air pollution, and accidents. The Mayor is keen to increase recycling and reuse of waste materials in London, and to ensure that as more of London's waste is diverted away from landfill sites to recycling facilities. Several projects and initiatives have been established and these are reviewed in the paper.

Improving energy efficiency in the road freight transport sector: the application of a vehicle approach

Several approaches can be used to analyse performance, energy consumption and CO2 emissions in freight transport. In this paper we define and apply a vehicle-oriented, bottom up survey approach, the so called ‘vehicle approach’, in contrast to a ‘supply chain approach’. The main objective of the approach is to assess the impacts of various freight transport operations on efficiency and energy use. We apply the approach, comparing official statistics on freight transport and energy efficiency in Britain and France. Results on freight intensity, vehicle utilisation, fuel use, fuel efficiency and CO2 intensity are compared for the two countries. The results indicate comparable levels of operational and fuel efficiency in road freight transport operations in the two countries. Issues that can be addressed with the vehicle approach include: the impacts of technology innovations and logistics decisions implemented in freight companies, and the quantification of the effect of policy measures on fuel use at the national level.

Supporting interoperability frameworks in the UK public sector

This paper describes the design and implementation of a component based software application, which alleviates the problem of software interoperability in the UK public sector. We analyze the current interoperability frameworks across the United Kingdom (UK) and European Union (EU) and propose a software solution that enhances such interoperability initiatives. Our example scenario is placed within a UK local authority, which shares data stored within the Police databases, for making efficient and more accurate operational decisions. The prototype, implemented as a J2EE application and built upon existing databases, proves our concept that it is possible to achieve data and application interoperability without integrating data sources and without using XML formats for data sharing.