Las comunidades liquenicas saxicolas ombrofobas de la costa del SE de EspaÑa comprendidas entre el Penyal d'Ifac (Alicante) y Almeria

The ombrophobic saxicolous lichen communities in the coastal SE Spain, between the Penyal d'Ifac (Alicante) and Almeria. The authors describe the calcicolous and silicicolous communities, as observed by them in the coast of SE Spain. They include the whole in a new alliance, Roccellion phycopsis, with two associations characterized by a number of thermophilous Trentepholia -containing species, belonging to order Arthoniales, and neighbouring from taxonomic and ecologic viewpoints. All the studied communities are aerohygrophilous, heliophobic and fairly to scarcely photophilous.

Governança no setor público: diagnóstico das práticas de gestão da Polícia Federal à luz do estudo 13 do PSC/IFAC

No Brasil, a sociedade observa atônita a corrupção, o descaso com o dinheiro público e a prestação de serviços essenciais, que ficam aquém de suas expectativas. Para que haja mudanças no setor público, torna-se imprescindível a adoção de boas práticas de governança que promovam a adequação dos serviços prestados, de forma que possam se tornar mais eficientes e eficazes. Nessa seara, incluem-se as instituições provedoras de segurança pública, que, para cumprir suas atribuições, precisam estar bem equipadas, possuir recursos humanos suficientes e apresentar uma gestão íntegra, transparente e responsável. Nesse contexto, esta dissertação teve como objetivo diagnosticar as práticas de gestão da Polícia Federal e compará-las aos padrões de boa governança no setor público recomendados pelo Estudo 13 do PSC/IFAC. Os resultados demonstraram que grande parte das práticas de gestão adotadas pela Polícia Federal apresenta-se em conformidade com as boas práticas de governança sugeridas no referido Estudo. Destacaram-se positivamente as práticas relacionadas a padrões de comportamento e a estruturas e processos organizacionais. Por outro lado, constatou-se a inexistência de um código de conduta próprio e a ausência de treinamento inicial do membro do grupo governante, quando de sua nomeação ou durante seu mandato. Quanto às práticas de gestão relacionadas a controle, foram diagnosticadas falhas em gestão de riscos, em decorrência da falta de aplicação em todos os objetivos organizacionais. Comportamento semelhante foi observado no controle interno, que, apesar de ser constantemente monitorado, não pode ser avaliado quanto à adequação e efetividade. Quanto às práticas relativas a relatórios externos, constatou-se que a instituição elabora relatórios equilibrados, transparentes e de fácil compreensão, em conformidade com a legislação vigente e padrões contábeis. Entretanto, a Polícia Federal não demonstrou expressamente o cumprimento de códigos de governança, tampouco empregou indicadores de desempenho suficientes para mostrar que os recursos vêm sendo usados com eficiência. Concluiu-se que a Polícia Federal adota boas práticas de gestão, mas ainda pode implementar outras recomendações de boa governança, contribuindo para que o país caminhe para atingir a excelência na gestão dos recursos públicos e assuma uma posição de destaque no cenário internacional.

Análisis de la aplicación de las Normas Internacionales de Educación para Contadores Públicos, emitidas por IFAC, realizado en la ciudad de San Miguel

La presente investigación, contiene un análisis sobre el grado de aplicación de las Normas Internacionales de Educación para Contadores Profesionales emitidas por la Federación Internacional de Contadores por sus siglas en ingles IFAC, para lo cual se realizó con una muestra de Contadores y Auditores en el Ejercicio Profesional de la ciudad de San Miguel, procurando proporcionar resultados apegados a la realidad. Se pretende obtener información para hacer un análisis sobre las Normas Internacionales de Educación para Contadores Profesionales y determinar su grado de aplicación en los Contadores y Auditores en el ejercicio profesional en la Ciudad y de San Miguel, estudiamos las Normas Internacionales de Educación para Contadores Profesionales emitidas por la Federación Internacional de Contadores (IFAC), y conocer la opinión de los Estudiantes Egresados de Contaduría Pública y / o Contadores y Auditores en el ejercicio profesional sobre las Norma de Educación Continuada emitida por el Consejo de Vigilancia de la Profesión de la Contaduría Pública y Auditoría. La investigación se desarrolló para determinar el grado de aplicación de la Norma de Educación Continuada y la Norma Internacional de Educación para Contadores Profesionales en el área de San Miguel. De los contadores se seleccionaron 21 profesionales de manera aleatoria que ejercen contabilidad y/o auditoría de los cuales 17 laboran en su totalidad en el área metropolitana y los restantes se desarrollan además en otras zonas del país. La principales áreas en las que desarrollan los 21 contadores encuestados son: el 47.7% labora en una firma de auditoría y un 28.6% en contabilidad, de los cuales corresponden a diez y seis contadores respectivamente de la muestra tomada. Asimismo cinco de ellos se desempeñan en el sector privado equivalente al 23.8%. Finalmente dos contadores encuestados laboran en el sector público y dos en el sector financiero en un equivalente al 4.8% en cada área.

Lineamientos para la aplicación de la Norma internacional sobre control de calidad No.1, emitida por la Federación internacional de contadores (IFAC), para firmas de auditoría.

Ante la problemática observada sobre la limitada información existente para la implementación de la Norma Internacional de Control de Calidad No 1 en las firmas de auditoría de El Salvador, y como respuesta para determinar cuáles son las principales causas que la originan, se decidió efectuar esta investigación que tiene como finalidad determinar si la aplicación de lineamientos basados en la norma, permiten a las firmas proporcionar calidad en los trabajos que desarrollan. Por tal razón, el objetivo final de este trabajo es proponer una guía para la implantación de la norma, que contribuya al control y supervisión de las firmas. La investigación se basó en el método hipotético deductivo, empleando un estudio de tipo interpretativo descriptivo, que mediante técnicas e instrumentos como el muestreo, la encuesta y la sistematización bibliográfica permitió determinar las valoraciones y conclusiones siguientes: Las firmas de auditoría están compuestas por un mayor número de asistentes, los cuales conocen en alguna medida el contenido y aplicación de la Norma Internacional de Control de Calidad No 1; sin embargo, aun con un conocimiento aceptable, las firmas no poseen políticas y procedimientos de calidad de manera integral para sus prácticas de auditoria. Así mismo, se conoció que la mayoría de sus dirigentes promueven en el personal que los trabajos sean desarrollados con estándares de calidad. Para esto se apoyan de memorándums y circulares, pues se consideran más accesibles para comunicar y documentar las decisiones tomadas al interior. En el mismo sentido, se logró observar que la mayoría de las firmas ejecutan evaluaciones de calidad continuas, a través de la supervisión de su personal; sin embargo, hay otros factores que son pasados por alto al no tener bien establecidos y por escrito los lineamientos de la empresa. Que se suma con los medios poco efectivos para divulgar la información. Por lo tanto, se sugiere dar seguimiento y fortalecer programas de capacitación relacionados con la instrucción en los principios éticos y el desarrollo del trabajo fijados por el Consejo de Vigilancia de la Profesión de la Contaduría Pública y Auditoria. Complementar el aspecto de la supervisión, con los demás elementos que integran un sistema de control de calidad; así como fortalecer la cultura interna de estos estándares; esto, mediante parámetros de medición que verifiquen los resultados obtenidos por la implementación y promoción de políticas y procedimientos. Por último, tomar como herramienta para documentar y comunicar decisiones basadas en la norma, en esta propuesta.

The internationally standardized process of public accounting: the perspective of different stakeholders in Portugal

New Public Management (NPM) led to great pressures for to introduce and adapt businesslike accounting in the public sector (Hood, 1995; Lapsley, 2008; Lapsley et al., 2009), specially the transition from cash basis to accrual-based accounting. In consequence, since the last 20 years we assist to a movement towards internationally standardized of public sector accounting that led to the publication of 32 International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) for all public sector entities from national central governments to local governments (IFAC, 2008). These standards are accrual-basis and they emphasize the balance sheet approach, the fair value measurement and the revenue-expense approach (Hints, 2007). The main innovations are associated with the use of the balance sheet approach and the fair value measurement because, traditionally, public accounting systems are mainly focused on the revenue-expense approach and on historical cost valuation (Oulasvirta, 2014).

Convergência brasileira aos padrões internacionais de contabilidade pública vis-à-vis as estratégias top-down e bottom-up

O Brasil está em processo de convergência de sua contabilidade pública em relação aos padrões internacionais desenvolvidos pela Federação Internacional dos Contadores (Ifac). A implementação de sistemas de informação contábil é geralmente realizada por meio das abordagens top-down ou bottom-up. Assim, este estudo tem por objetivos: 1) identificar a abordagem adotada pelo governo federal brasileiro; 2) descrever o modelo de implementação do sistema de informação contábil público no Brasil; e 3) mapear o fluxo de informações e atores envolvidos no processo de convergência. A abordagem qualitativa foi adotada utilizando a pesquisa documental e análise de conteúdo de documentos disponíveis para operacionalizar a pesquisa. Foi identificado que o Brasil utiliza a abordagem middle-up-down, que favorece a interação entre múltiplos atores no processo, diferentemente da abordagem top-down, que segue o modelo internacional divulgado.

The convergence of the Central American countries to International Accounting Standards

Abstract: In the last few decades, Central American countries are making a significant effort in order to modernize their governments' legislation both on financial management and systems of financial information. In this sense, these countries aim to enhance the quality of public financial information in order to improve decision-making processes, decrease the level of corruption, and keep citizens informed. In this context, the purpose of this paper is twofold. Firstly, to assess the degree of similarity of the financial information that is being developed by Central American governments with regard to the recommendations set up by Ipsas, and secondly, to analyse the efforts and the strategies that those countries are carrying out in the process of implementing those standards. To determine the differences in the information containing the annual financial statements issued by national public authorities and the recommendations set up by Ipsas we conducted a deductive content analysis. In view of the results we can say that the quality of annual financial statements presented by the countries in Central America, in comparison to the recommendations by the Ipsas concerning Ifac information, is not enough. Hence, in order to operate significant changes, it is still necessary to create new strategies for the implementation of the Ipsas.

A multi-agent based approach for intelligent smart grid management

The spread and globalization of distributed generation (DG) in recent years has should highly influence the changes that occur in Electricity Markets (EMs). DG has brought a large number of new players to take action in the EMs, therefore increasing the complexity of these markets. Simulation based on multi-agent systems appears as a good way of analyzing players’ behavior and interactions, especially in a coalition perspective, and the effects these players have on the markets. MASCEM – Multi-Agent System for Competitive Electricity Markets was created to permit the study of the market operation with several different players and market mechanisms. MASGriP – Multi-Agent Smart Grid Platform is being developed to facilitate the simulation of micro grid (MG) and smart grid (SG) concepts with multiple different scenarios. This paper presents an intelligent management method for MG and SG. The simulation of different methods of control provides an advantage in comparing different possible approaches to respond to market events. Players utilize electric vehicles’ batteries and participate in Demand Response (DR) contracts, taking advantage on the best opportunities brought by the use of all resources, to improve their actions in response to MG and/or SG requests.

ANN based support for distributed energy resources scheduling in smart grids

The future scenarios for operation of smart grids are likely to include a large diversity of players, of different types and sizes. With control and decision making being decentralized over the network, intelligence should also be decentralized so that every player is able to play in the market environment. In the new context, aggregator players, enabling medium, small, and even micro size players to act in a competitive environment, will be very relevant. Virtual Power Players (VPP) and single players must optimize their energy resource management in order to accomplish their goals. This is relatively easy to larger players, with financial means to have access to adequate decision support tools, to support decision making concerning their optimal resource schedule. However, the smaller players have difficulties in accessing this kind of tools. So, it is required that these smaller players can be offered alternative methods to support their decisions. This paper presents a methodology, based on Artificial Neural Networks (ANN), intended to support smaller players’ resource scheduling. The used methodology uses a training set that is built using the energy resource scheduling solutions obtained with a reference optimization methodology, a mixed-integer non-linear programming (MINLP) in this case. The trained network is able to achieve good schedule results requiring modest computational means.

Intelligent energy resources management in the context of smart grids

Smart grids are envisaged as infrastructures able to accommodate all centralized and distributed energy resources (DER), including intensive use of renewable and distributed generation (DG), storage, demand response (DR), and also electric vehicles (EV), from which plug-in vehicles, i.e. gridable vehicles, are especially relevant. Moreover, smart grids must accommodate a large number of diverse types or players in the context of a competitive business environment. Smart grids should also provide the required means to efficiently manage all these resources what is especially important in order to make the better possible use of renewable based power generation, namely to minimize wind curtailment. An integrated approach, considering all the available energy resources, including demand response and storage, is crucial to attain these goals. This paper proposes a methodology for energy resource management that considers several Virtual Power Players (VPPs) managing a network with high penetration of distributed generation, demand response, storage units and network reconfiguration. The resources are controlled through a flexible SCADA (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition) system that can be accessed by the evolved entities (VPPs) under contracted use conditions. A case study evidences the advantages of the proposed methodology to support a Virtual Power Player (VPP) managing the energy resources that it can access in an incident situation.

A wireless sensor network platform for structural health monitoring: enabling accurate and synchronized measurements through COTS+custom-based design

Structural health monitoring has long been identified as a prominent application of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), as traditional wired-based solutions present some inherent limitations such as installation/maintenance cost, scalability and visual impact. Nevertheless, there is a lack of ready-to-use and off-the-shelf WSN technologies that are able to fulfill some most demanding requirements of these applications, which can span from critical physical infrastructures (e.g. bridges, tunnels, mines, energy grid) to historical buildings or even industrial machinery and vehicles. Low-power and low-cost yet extremely sensitive and accurate accelerometer and signal acquisition hardware and stringent time synchronization of all sensors data are just examples of the requirements imposed by most of these applications. This paper presents a prototype system for health monitoring of civil engineering structures that has been jointly conceived by a team of civil, and electrical and computer engineers. It merges the benefits of standard and off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware and communication technologies with a minimum set of custom-designed signal acquisition hardware that is mandatory to fulfill all application requirements.

A new least-squares approach to differintegration modeling

Signal Processing, Vol. 86, nº 10

Remote and mobile experimentation: pushing the boundaries of an ubiquitous learning place

Concepts like E-learning and M-learning are changing the traditional learning place. No longer restricted to well-defined physical places, education on Automation and other Engineering areas is entering the so-called ubiquitous learning place, where even the more practical knowledge (acquired at lab classes) is now moving into, due to emergent concepts such as Remote Experimentation or Mobile Experimentation. While Remote Experimentation is traditionally regarded as the remote access to real-world experiments through a simple web browser running on a PC connected to the Internet, Mobile Experimentation may be seen as the access to those same (or others) experiments, through mobile devices, used in M-learning contexts. These two distinct client types (PCs versus mobile devices) pose specific requirements for the remote lab infrastructure, namely the ability to tune the experiment interface according to the characteristics (e.g. display size) of the accessing device. This paper addresses those requirements, namely by proposing a new architecture for the remote lab infrastructure able to accommodate both Remote and Mobile Experimentation scenarios.

Remote experimentation: integrating research, education, and industrial application

This paper presents a low-cost scaled model of a silo for drying and airing cereal grains. It allows the control and monitor of several parameters associated to the silo's operation, through a remote accessible infrastructure. The scaled model consists of a 2.50 m wide × 2.10 m long plant with all control and monitor capacities provided by micro-Web servers. An application running on the micro-Web servers enables storing all parameters in a data basis for later analysis. The implemented model aims to support a remote experimentation facility for technological education, research-oriented tutorials, and industrial applications. Given the low-cost requirement, this remote facility can be easily replicated in other institutions to support a network of remote labs, which encompasses the concurrent access of several users (e.g. students).