The role of European "ro-ro" port terminals in the automotive supply chain management

The aim of this paper is concerned with the design and development of a functional framework for maritime mode integration in European automotive supply chain management when considering outbound distribution. Furthermore, it provides a readjustment of traditional concepts and terminology with findings that the role of ro-ro port terminals should be considered as decoupling points, poles and postponement platforms. Case studies examine relevant Western European ro-ro port terminals for cars and respective links to assembly/factories of vehicles localized in the hinterland and concludes that ro-ro port terminals reduce logistical friction and impedance, as well as promote space/time compression.

Contributo da análise ergonómica do trabalho para o estudo de acidentes de trabalho em enfermeiros no serviço de urgência

Mestrado em Segurança e Higiene no Trabalho.

Learning management systems usage on higher education institutions

Learning Management Systems (LMS) are used all over Higher Education Institutions (HEI) and the need to know and understand its adoption and usage arises. However, there is a lack of information about how LMSs are being used, which are the most adopted, whether there is a country adoption standard and which countries use more LMSs. A research team is developing a project that tries to fill this lack of information and provide the needed answers. With this purpose, on a first phase, it a survey was taken place. The results of this survey are presented in this paper. Another purpose of this paper is to disseminate the ongoing project.

Performance management in health centres: evidence from a field study

There has been a growing interest in research on performance measurement and management practices, which seems to reflect researchers’ response to calls for the need to increase the relevance of management accounting research. However, despite the development of the new public management literature, studies involving public sector organizations are relatively small compared to those involving business organizations and extremely limited when it comes to public primary health care organizations. Yet, the economic significance of public health care organizations in the economy of developed countries and the criticisms these organizations regularly face from the public suggests there is a need for research. This is particularly true in the case of research that may lead to improvement in performance measurement and management practices and ultimately to improvements in the way health care organizations use their limited resources in the provision of services to the communities. This study reports on a field study involving three public primary health care organisations. The evidence obtained from interviews and archival data suggests a performance management practices in these institutions lacked consistency and coherence, potentially leading to decreased performance. Hierarchical controls seemed to be very weak and accountability limited, leading to a lack of direction, low motivation and, in some circumstances to insufficient managerial abilities and skills. Also, the performance management systems revealed a number of weaknesses, which suggests that there are various opportunities for improvement in performance in the studied organisations.

Reabilitação no internamento hospitalar: prospectiva na dinâmica de actores - Implementação da governação clínica num hospital E.P.E.

Mestrado em Intervenção Sócio-Organizacional na Saúde - Área de especialização: Políticas de Administração e Gestão de Serviços de Saúde.

The active mathematics project at ISCAP

This paper summarizes a project that is contributing to a change in the way of teaching and learning Mathematics. Mathematics is a subject of the Accounting and Administration course. In this subject we teach: Functions and Algebra. The aim is that the students understand the basic concepts and is able to apply them in other issues, when possible, establishing a bridge between the issues that they have studied and their application in Accounting. As from this year, the Accounting course falls under in Bologna Process. The teacher and the student roles have changed. The time for theoretical and practical classes has been reduced, so it was necessary to modify the way of teaching and learning. In the theoretical classes we use systems of multimedia projection to present the concepts, and in the practical classes we solve exercises. To supplement our theoretical and practical classes we have developed an active mathematics project called MatActiva based on the Moodle platform offered by PAOL - Projecto de Apoio Online (Online Support Project). In the last versions of Moodle, it is possible use the TeX language to create math questions. Using this tool we created a set of interactive materials. With the creation of this new project we wanted to take advantage already obtained results with the previous experiences, giving to the students opportunities to complement their study in Mathematics. One of the great objectives is to motivate students, encourage them to overcome theirs difficulties through an auto-study, giving them more confidence and the opportunity to seeing others perspectives of the mathematics subjects. In the MatActiva project the students have a big collection of information about the way of the subject works, which includes the objectives, the program, recommended bibliography, evaluation method and summaries. It works as material support for the practical and theoretical classes, the slides of the theoretical classes are available, the sheets with exercises for the students to do in the classroom and complementary exercises, as well as the exams of previous years. Students can also do diagnostic tests and evaluation tests online. Our approach is a reflexive one, based on the professional experience of the teachers that explore and incorporate new tools of Moodle with their students and coordinate the project MatActiva.

Planificação de um sistema de informação para a unidade de formação contínua e avançada da Escola Superior de Educação do Instituto Politécnico do Porto

Projecto apresentado ao Instituto Superior de Contabilidade e Administração do Porto para a obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Assessoria de Administração

Photonics Active Filters Based on SiC Multi layer Structures: A Two Stage Active Circuit

Characteristics of tunable wavelength filters based on a-SiC:H multi-layered stacked cells are studied both theoretically and experimentally. Results show that the light-activated photonic device combines the demultiplexing operation with the simultaneous photodetection and self amplification of an optical signal. The sensor is a bias wavelength current-controlled device that make use of changes in the wavelength of the background to control the power delivered to the load, acting a photonic active filter. Its gain depends on the background wavelength that controls the electrical field profile across the device.

Programas de self-management em pacientes com DPOC: uma revisão sistemática

Introdução: Programas de self-management têm como objectivo habilitar os pacientes com estratégias necessárias para levar a cabo procedimentos específicos para a patologia. A última revisão sistemática sobre selfmanagament em DPOC foi realizada em 2007, concluindo-se que ainda não era possível fornecer dados claros e suficientes acerca de recomendações sobre a estrutura e conteúdo de programas de self-managament na DPOC. A presente revisão tem o intuito de complementar a análise da revisão anterior, numa tentativa de inferir a influência do ensino do self-management na DPOC. Objectivos: verificar a influência dos programas de self-management na DPOC, em diversos indicadores relacionados com o estado de saúde do paciente e na sua utilização dos serviços de saúde. Estratégia de busca: pesquisa efectuada nas bases de dados PubMed e Cochrane Collaboration (01/01/2007 – 31/08/2010). Palavras-chave: selfmanagement education, self-management program, COPD e pulmonary rehabilitation. Critérios de Selecção: estudos randomizados sobre programas de selfmanagement na DPOC. Extracção e Análise dos Dados: 2 investigadores realizaram, independentemente, a avaliação e extracção de dados de cada artigo. Resultados: foram considerados 4 estudos randomizados em selfmanagement na DPOC nos quais se verificaram benefícios destes programas em diversas variáveis: qualidade de vida a curto e médio prazo, utilização dos diferentes recursos de saúde, adesões a medicação de rotina, controle das exacerbações e diminuição da sintomatologia. Parece não ocorrer alteração na função pulmonar e no uso de medicação de emergência, sendo inconclusivo o seu efeito na capacidade de realização de exercício. Conclusões: programas de self-management aparentam ter impacto positivo na qualidade de vida, recurso a serviços de saúde, adesão à medicação, planos de acção e níveis de conhecimento da DPOC. Discrepâncias nos critérios de selecção das amostras utilizadas, períodos de seguimento desiguais, consistência das variáveis mensuradas, condicionam a informação disponibilizada sobre este assunto.

Organization knowledge management change from a complex adaptive systems perpective with ability for ambidexeterity

We are working on the confluence of knowledge management, organizational memory and emergent knowledge with the lens of complex adaptive systems. In order to be fundamentally sustainable organizations search for an adaptive need for managing ambidexterity of day-to-day work and innovation. An organization is an entity of a systemic nature, composed of groups of people who interact to achieve common objectives, making it necessary to capture, store and share interactions knowledge with the organization, this knowledge can be generated in intra-organizational or inter-organizational level. The organizations have organizational memory of knowledge of supported on the Information technology and systems. Each organization, especially in times of uncertainty and radical changes, to meet the demands of the environment, needs timely and sized knowledge on the basis of tacit and explicit. This sizing is a learning process resulting from the interaction that emerges from the relationship between the tacit and explicit knowledge and which we are framing within an approach of Complex Adaptive Systems. The use of complex adaptive systems for building the emerging interdependent relationship, will produce emergent knowledge that will improve the organization unique developing.

Improving management skills through business simulation

A survey was conducted among students of the Accounting and Administration undergraduate degree at ISCAP – IPP (School of Accounting and Administration of Polytechnic Institute of Porto) in order to understand their perception value of their course Business Simulation (BS). This course is provided in a business environment where students can learn by doing through the management of a company as they were in the real life, but risk-free. The learning tasks are provided in an action-oriented format to maximize the learning process. Students learn by doing a set of tasks every session and have also to produce reports and presentations during the course. BS is part of the undergraduate degree of Accounting and Administration at ISCAP – IPP since the beginning of 2003. The questionnaire we used captured the students’ perception about general and specific skills and competencies considered important for managers and accountants in the real life, about the methodology used in the course, which is totally different from the traditional form, and also about the adequacy of the course included as part of the undergraduate degree. The results showed that students’ perception is highly positive and almost all of them think they improve the skills needed for a job during the course. These results are consistent with [1] Adler and Milne’s research in which the authors found that students agree with the use of action-oriented learning tasks in order to provide them the needed attitudes, skills, and knowledge. The improvement of group skills is the most important issue for students, which can be understandable as BS is the only course from the degree in Accounting and Administration they really have to work in groups.

A new control strategy with saturation effect compensation for an autonomous induction generator drivenby wide speed range turbines

This paper presents a variable speed autonomous squirrel cage generator excited by a current-controlled voltage source inverter to be used in stand-alone micro-hydro power plants. The paper proposes a system control strategy aiming to properly excite the machine as well as to achieve the load voltage control. A feed-forward control sets the appropriate generator flux by taking into account the actual speed and the desired load voltage. A load voltage control loop is used to adjust the generated active power in order to sustain the load voltage at a reference value. The control system is based on a rotor flux oriented vector control technique which takes into account the machine saturation effect. The proposed control strategy and the adopted system models were validated both by numerical simulation and by experimental results obtained from a laboratory prototype. Results covering the prototype start-up, as well as its steady-state and dynamical behavior are presented. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The immediate effects of atlanto-occipital joint manipulation and suboccipital muscle inhibition technique on active mouth opening and pressure pain sensitivity over latent myofascial trigger points in the masticatory muscles

DESIGN: A randomized controlled trial.OB JECTIVE: To investigate the immediate effects on pressure pain thresholds over latent trigger points (TrPs) in the masseter and temporalis muscles and active mouth opening following atlanto-occipital joint thrust manipulation or a soft tissue manual intervention targeted to the suboccipital muscles. BACKGROUND : Previous studies have described hypoalgesic effects of neck manipulative interventions over TrPs in the cervical musculature. There is a lack of studies analyzing these mechanisms over TrPs of muscles innervated by the trigeminal nerve. METHODS: One hundred twenty-two volunteers, 31 men and 91 women, between the ages of 18 and 30 years, with latent TrPs in the masseter muscle, were randomly divided into 3 groups: a manipulative group who received an atlanto-occipital joint thrust, a soft tissue group who received an inhibition technique over the suboccipital muscles, and a control group who did not receive an intervention. Pressure pain thresholds over latent TrPs in the masseter and temporalis muscles, and active mouth opening were assessed pretreatment and 2 minutes posttreatment by a blinded assessor. Mixed-model analyses of variance (ANOVA) were used to examine the effects of interventions on each outcome, with group as the between-subjects variable and time as the within-subjects variable. The primary analysis was the group-by-time interaction. RESULTS: The 2-by-3 mixed-model ANOVA revealed a significant group-by-time interaction for changes in pressure pain thresholds over masseter (P<.01) and temporalis (P =.003) muscle latent TrPs and also for active mouth opening (P<.001) in favor of the manipulative and soft tissue groups. Between-group effect sizes were small. CONCLUSIONS: The application of an atlanto-occipital thrust manipulation or soft tissue technique targeted to the suboccipital muscles led to an immediate increase in pressure pain thresholds over latent TrPs in the masseter and temporalis muscles and an increase in maximum active mouth opening. Nevertheless, the effects of both interventions were small and future studies are required to elucidate the clinical relevance of these changes. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE : Therapy, level 1b. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther 2010;40(5):310-317. doi:10.2519/jospt.2010.3257. KEYWORDSDS: cervical manipulation, muscle trigger points, neck, TMJ, upper cervical.

A congestion management and transmission price simulator for competitive electricity markets

In a liberalized electricity market, the Transmission System Operator (TSO) plays a crucial role in power system operation. Among many other tasks, TSO detects congestion situations and allocates the payments of electricity transmission. This paper presents a software tool for congestion management and transmission price determination in electricity markets. The congestion management is based on a reformulated Optimal Power Flow (OPF), whose main goal is to obtain a feasible solution for the re-dispatch minimizing the changes in the dispatch proposed by the market operator. The transmission price computation considers the physical impact caused by the market agents in the transmission network. The final tariff includes existing system costs and also costs due to the initial congestion situation and losses costs. The paper includes a case study for the IEEE 30 bus power system.

Long-term price range forecast applied to risk management using regression models

Long-term contractual decisions are the basis of an efficient risk management. However those types of decisions have to be supported with a robust price forecast methodology. This paper reports a different approach for long-term price forecast which tries to give answers to that need. Making use of regression models, the proposed methodology has as main objective to find the maximum and a minimum Market Clearing Price (MCP) for a specific programming period, and with a desired confidence level α. Due to the problem complexity, the meta-heuristic Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) was used to find the best regression parameters and the results compared with the obtained by using a Genetic Algorithm (GA). To validate these models, results from realistic data are presented and discussed in detail.