Performance management in primary healthcare services: evidence from a field study

Health services

Scheduling a cutting and treatment stainless steel sheet line with self-management capabilities

With advancement in computer science and information technology, computing systems are becoming increasingly more complex with an increasing number of heterogeneous components. They are thus becoming more difficult to monitor, manage, and maintain. This process has been well known as labor intensive and error prone. In addition, traditional approaches for system management are difficult to keep up with the rapidly changing environments. There is a need for automatic and efficient approaches to monitor and manage complex computing systems. In this paper, we propose an innovative framework for scheduling system management by combining Autonomic Computing (AC) paradigm, Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) and Nature Inspired Optimization Techniques (NIT). Additionally, we consider the resolution of realistic problems. The scheduling of a Cutting and Treatment Stainless Steel Sheet Line will be evaluated. Results show that proposed approach has advantages when compared with other scheduling systems

Information technology service management: an experimental approach towards IT service prediction

Dissertation presented to obtain a Masters degree in Computer Science

A importância da gestão baseada na criação de valor para o acionista (Value-Based Management): o caso do Grupo Galp Energia

A avaliação de empresas sempre constituiu um tema de elevada reflexão, sendo que vários especialistas tentam encontrar os modelos que melhor se adaptam a situações específicas e para as quais precisam de determinar um valor. No contexto empresarial português começa a ganhar significância a prática da gestão orientada para a criação de valor (Value-Based Management). O conceito de Value-Based Management assistiu a um particular desenvolvimento nos últimos 20 anos como resultado da globalização e desregulamentação dos mercados financeiros, dos avanços nas tecnologias de informação e do aumento da importância dos investidores institucionais. Vários analistas apresentaram evidência de que as empresas que adotam sistemas VBM melhoram o seu desempenho económico em relação a outras de dimensão semelhante no mesmo setor. É neste contexto que o EVA (Economic Value Added) se apresenta como uma métrica de desempenho privilegiada nos processos de controlo das decisões estratégicas tomadas. No presente trabalho pretendemos abordar o conceito da gestão baseada na criação de valor e a sua importância para o acionista, o que implica rever outros modelos de avaliação tradicionais baseados no valor contabilístico. Como métrica de avaliação do desempenho passado da empresa ao nível da criação de valor vamos dar particular importância ao estudo do EVA, fazendo referência à possível correlação entre esta métrica e o MVA (Market Value Added). O objetivo principal é analisar empiricamente a relação do EVA como medida de desempenho associada à criação de valor para os acionistas com a performance da empresa. Com efeito, vamos efetuar um estudo de caso, que vai incidir sobre um grupo empresarial português, referência no seu setor de atividade, o Grupo Galp Energia, cotado na Euronext Lisbon. Pensamos que a crescente prática da gestão baseada na criação de valor nas empresas cotadas em Portugal e a necessidade de aferir os resultados desta, tornam esta investigação pertinente, para além do facto de serem poucos os estudos empíricos à questão da criação de valor e a sua correlação com o valor acrescentado de mercado e com o valor de mercado dos capitais próprios das empresas cotadas em Portugal.

Risk management of new product development process

Dissertation submitted to Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia of Universidade Nova de Lisboa for the achievement of Integrated Master´s degree in Industrial Management Engineering

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

Web GIS to support irrigation management: a prototype for SAGRA network, Alentejo Portugal

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

Estimation of vegetation carbon stock in Portugal using land use/ land cover data

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

The contribution of multitemporal information from multispectral satellite images for automatic land cover classification at the national scale

Thesis submitted to the Instituto Superior de Estatística e Gestão de Informação da Universidade Nova de Lisboa in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Information Management – Geographic Information Systems

On sampling collection procedure effectiveness for forest soil characterization

One of the most important measures to prevent wild forest fires is the use of prescribed and controlled burning actions as it reduce the fuel mass availability. The impact of these management activities on soil physical and chemical properties varies according to the type of both soil and vegetation. Decisions in forest management plans are often based on the results obtained from soil-monitoring campaigns. Those campaigns are often man-labor intensive and expensive. In this paper we have successfully used the multivariate statistical technique Robust Principal Analysis Compounds (ROBPCA) to investigate on the sampling procedure effectiveness for two different methodologies, in order to reflect on the possibility of simplifying and reduce the sampling collection process and its auxiliary laboratory analysis work towards a cost-effective and competent forest soil characterization.

Integration of e-portfolios in learning management systems

The LMS plays a decisive role in most eLearning environments. Although they integrate many useful tools for managing eLearning activities, they must also be effectively integrated with other specialized systems typically found in an educational environment such as Repositories of Learning Objects or ePortfolio Systems. Both types of systems evolved separately but in recent years the trend is to combine them, allowing the LMS to benefit from using the ePortfolio assessment features. This paper details the most common strategies for integrating an ePortfolio system into an LMS: the data, the API and the tool integration strategies. It presents a comparative study of strategies based on the technical skills, degree of coupling, security features, batch integration, development effort, status and standardization. This study is validated through the integration of two of the most representative systems on each category - respectively Mahara and Moodle.

Integrated ecological-economic modelling and assessment aproach for coastal ecosystem management

Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Sciences and Technology, New University of Lisbon, for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Environmental Sciences