Constraints-led approach and synergetic behaviour in volleyball performance

O objetivo desta tese foi investigar a Abordagem Baseada nos Constrangimentos (ABC) e comportamento sinergético no voleibol. Enquadrados pela dinâmica ecológica investigámos conceitos teóricos relacionados com o comportamento sinergético individual e coletivo e aplicamos a ABC em equipas de voleibol. Inicialmente, apresentámos uma revisão narrativa dos princípios da ABC e pedagogia não-linear sugerindo dois exemplos para aplicação em treino. De seguida, produzimos dois artigos de opinião sobre o papel das estruturas de biotensegridade no comportamento sinergético individual e coletivo. Nos estudos experimentais implementámos a ABC para guiar os atletas através das fases de “Search”, “Discover” e “Exploit”. Primeiro, numa equipa de cadetes feminina manipulámos os constrangimentos da tarefa de forma a respeitar as diferenças individuais e comparar a precisão no remate após o treino, assim como, analisar a estratégia temporal na estrutura coordenativa da corrida e chamada de remate. Os resultados mostram que respeitar as diferenças individuais promovem melhor performance (i.e., na precisão do remate) e que congelar os graus de liberdade numa componente da estrutura coordenativa da chamada foi a estratégia associada com mais precisão no remate. De seguida, implementámos um estudo com jogadoras peritas para comparar frequências de contacto na defesa entre o jogo formal, a estratégia tradicional de defesa e a estratégia de coletivamente atender a variáveis especificadoras no decorrer da jogada. Adicionalmente, medimos a sincronização da defesa em situações de sucesso e insucesso defensivo. Resultados mostram que coletivamente atender a variáveis especificadoras no decorrer da jogada promove maior frequência de contactos e que as jogadas de sucesso defensivo estão associadas a alterações na sincronização no decorrer da jogada. Por último, com jogadores jovens de elite comparámos os efeitos na performance de ataque entre treinar de acordo com os princípios da ABC e com uma abordagem tradicional. Também tivemos como objetivo predizer quais as variáveis espácio-temporais que foram exploradas pelos jogadores nos ataques com sucesso. Resultados mostram um aumento da performance com a ABC e que variabilidade na chamada e consistência no ponto de contacto da bola aumenta a probabilidade de atacar com sucesso.The aim of this thesis was to research the Constraints-led Approach (CLA) and synergetic behaviour in volleyball performance. Grounded on ecological dynamics framework we researched theoretically concepts related to individual and collective synergetic behaviour and experimentally implemented the CLA with volleyball teams. First, we presented a narrative review on the principles of CLA and nonlinear pedagogy providing two practical examples to apply to the sub-phase of volleyball attack. Next, we advanced a position statement and a novel hypothesis on the crucial role of biotensegrity structures in individual and collective coordinative structurers (i.e., synergies). In the experimental studies we implemented CLA to guide the performers trough the phases of “Search”, “Discover” and “Exploit”. First, with a team of young female volleyball players we manipulate task constraints to accommodate individual differences and compare spike accuracy after training as well as understand time strategies in the coordinative structure of the horizontal approach. Results show that accommodating individual differences enhances performance (i.e., spike accuracy) and freezing degrees of freedom maintaining high variability in a component of the coordinative structure of the horizontal approach was the strategy of movement re-organization associated with higher spike accuracy. Next, we implemented a study with expert female volleyball players to compare frequencies of defensive ball contacts between real game, traditional defense strategy and “online” attunement to specifying variables. Additionally, we measure group synchronization in successful and unsuccessful defense situations. Results show that collectively attuning to relevant information promotes significant higher frequencies of defense ball contact than pre-determined strategies of action and successful defensive plays are associated with “online” significant changes in group synchronization. Finally, with young male elite volleyball players we aimed to compare the effects of training based on CLA principles to a traditional approach on attack performance. Also, aimed to predict what spatial temporal variables were exploited by the players to achieve successful attacks. Results showed a significant improvement in attack performance for CLA, and we found that variability at the end of the planting step and consistency at ball contact increased the chances of a successful attack

Cascas de árvores e seus extractos taninosos: propriedades e aplicações

De forma a dar uma contribuição para o desenvolvimento de processos tendentes ao aproveitamento da casca de pinheiro bravo, recurso abundante em Portugal, é apresentada, de uma forma resumida, a importância que os extractos da casca ou do cerne ricos em taninos de algumas espécies florestais têm hoje em dia, assim como as próprias cascas. Inclui-se uma definição do termo taninos e aborda-se a sua química. Discutem-se as suas principais aplicações actuais, sejam as já implantadas a nível industrial, sejam os últimos resultados de investigação, no que diz respeito ao curtimento de peles, aos adesivos para madeira, a produtos farmacêuticos e biocidas, a resinas de troca iónica, a painéis de casca e a combustíveis

Policy Based and Trust Management for Critical Infrastructure Protection

http://cmuportugal.org/tiercontent.aspx?id=2940Critical infrastructure (CI) services are consumed by the society constantly and we expect them to be available 24 hours a day. A common definition is that CIs are so vital to our society that a disruption or destruction would have a severe impact on the social well-being and the economy on a national and an international level. CIs can be mutually dependent on each other and a failure in one infrastructure can cascade to another interdependent infrastructure to cause service disruptions. Methods to better assess and monitor CIs and their interdependencies in order to predict possible risks have to be developed. This work addresses the problem of the quality of information exchanged among interconnected CI, the quality of the relationship in terms of trust and security and the use of Trust and Reputation management along with the Policy Based Management paradigm is the proposed solution to be applied at the CI interconnection points for information exchange

Enterprise Intelligence based on Ontology Metadata

Organizations define business models as part of its strategic thinking from which build performance evaluation structures focused on the effectiveness and efficiency of their goals. Usually the business model is captured in various organization representations with little interoperability between them. On the other hand, the performance are evaluated using business intelligence systems. Despite the usage of metadata in business intelligence and organization representation model system, metadata are normally not reused for the purpose of ensuring business concepts alignment. This article consolidates a vision of organizational metadata from various forms of representation of the business model, but implemented as ontology to support an organizational intelligence

Validation of the Portuguese version of the Fertility Adjustment Scale

There is an urgent need to provide healthcare professionals and midwives with validated tools as to improve fertility adjustment and promote well-being of couples with infertility. The purpose of this study was to test validity of the Fertility Adjustment Scale among people undergoing assisted reproductive techniques. A cross-sectional and methodological study was conducted, and a total of 104 Portuguese adults undergoing fertility treatment were recruited through fertility-related websites. The Fertility Adjustment Scale was administered along with the Spiritual Well-Being Questionnaire and the Resilience Scale for adults as a measure of concurrent validity. Scores revealed the sample’s lack of adjustment to fertility. A significant correlation with measures of resilience provided evidence of convergent validity. There was a significant association of fertility adjustment with time of consultation and the cause of infertility. A Fertility Adjustment Scale with six items is a reliable tool that offers early recognition of patients’ difficulties in adaptation to fertility problems during assisted reproductive techniques, which could be beneficial in not only an early recognition of healthcare intervention but of a more individualized approach to such patients.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Application of Functional Analysis in a Product of the Furniture Industry: Bookcase

The value analysis methodology uses a structured and methodical job plan contemplating several steps to assure the success in their application. The most known and distinctive phase is functional analysis, nowadays an autonomous tool of value analysis. In order to characterize the customer’s needs in a clear language and to quantify the value of a product (a bookcase) of the furniture industry, a functional analysis study was developed. With this functional analysis it is intended to describe the functions that the product performs, provide a better knowledge of the product, to evaluate the degree of satisfaction of the product through its functional performance and facilitate the search for alternative solutions.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Responsabilidade Social e Gestão Fiscal? O Caso da "Missão Continente Sorriso"

O interesse por este tema surgiu pelo facto de termos conhecimento que as iniciativas de Responsabilidade Social Empresarial (RSE) podem ter impactos fiscais favoráveis no contexto dos mecenas, pelo que foi escolhido um projecto de RSE da SONAE para realizar um estudo aplicado. Assim, este trabalho tem como principal objectivo determinar, na percepção dos consumidores, quais foram as motivações da SONAE para “apadrinhar” o projecto “O Livro das Melhores Receitas da Família”; para tal realizou-se um questionário a uma amostra de clientes do «Hipermercado Continente». O tratamento estatístico dos dados recolhidos permitiu verificar que a maioria dos inquiridos entende a RSE como uma forma de contribuir para o desenvolvimento da economia, melhorando a qualidade de vida dos trabalhadores e da sociedade em geral. Acresce que consideram que as principais motivações da SONAE para “apadrinhar” esta causa são o fortalecimento da sua imagem de marca e reputação empresarial, bem como o aproveitarem dos benefícios fiscais (BF) associados à mesma; BF dos quais cerca de metade dos inquiridos não tinha conhecimento de que o mecenas podia usufruir, contudo, não obstante considerarem esse facto inaceitável, um número considerável de inquiridos afirma que irá continuar a comprar o livro, apoiando esta causaThe interest in this theme occurs due to the fact that we know that the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives can have favorable tax impacts in the sponsors’ context, so a CSR project from SONAE was chosen to carry out a study. Thus, this work has as main objective to determine, in the perception of the consumers, what were the motivations of SONAE to “sponsor” the project “The book of the better family recipes”; a questionnaire was applied on a sample of clients of the «Continente Hypermarket». The statistical treatment of the data collected showed that the majority of respondents consider CSR as a way to contribute to the development of the economy, improving the quality of life of workers and society in general. In addition, they consider that SONAE's main motivations for “patronizing” this cause are to strengthen of the image and business reputation, as well as to take advantage of the tax benefits associated, from which about half of the respondents were unaware that SONAE could benefit from them, however, even though they considered this to be unacceptable, a considerable number of respondents stated that they would continue to buy the book, supporting this caus

Main elements involved in the startup scalability process: a study on Brazilian agtechs

Purpose – The study aimsto analyze the main elements associated with the evolution of Brazilian agtechsfrom the initial conception of the business model to becoming companies in the scale-up stage.Design/methodology/approach –The exploratory research was conducted based on data collected throughin-depth interviews. The answers were analyzed quantitatively using descending hierarchical classification(DHC) and correspondence factor analysis (CFA) and qualitatively using content analysis.Findings – Five main elements were identified as responsible for the evolution of the companies up to theirentering the scale-up phase: (1) governance, (2) decisions inherent to resource allocation, (3) monitoring ofstrategic, tactical and operational activities, (4) fostering human capital development and (5) business modelvalidation. Each element presents a set of performance indicators that show the scalability of thesecompanies.Practical implications – The model developed can help companies that have not yet advanced from theconception of the business model to the scalability of different sectors, in addition to agribusiness.Social implications – Proposal of a model that presents the main elements that impact on scalability andrespective indicators that contributed to the scalability process of Brazilian agtechs.Originality/value –This study contributed to advancing the knowledge on the organizational life cycle (OLC)of agricultural startups, particularly regarding the factors responsible for their scalability

Ulcerative colitis: let's talk about extent

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic inflammatory disease in which clinical course varies substantially between patients. The extent of the disease is usually pointed out as one of the factors responsible for this variation. With this study, we pretended to evaluate the differences in natural history and pharmacological therapy prescription between left-sided and extended UC

Accept mobile: a mobile tool for the SINMETRO accept information system

Increasing demand of mobile applications for on-site data acquisition pushes the development of flexible and easy to use mobile tools, with great advantages over the traditional computer-based approaches. The Accept System from SINMETRO allows data gathering for quality control, in the form of Inspection sheets. Such tool allows quality assurance by monitoring some samples of a given material, for instance milk, wine, and even maintenance management. This paper presents a mobile application in the Accept System that allows a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) device to perform data gathering based on XML Inspection templates. Using .NET Compact Framework through C#, and database the technologies SQL Server and SQL Server CE, we developed Accept Mobile. Accept Mobile uses the Remote Data Access (RDA) mechanism to send data over to the server through a synchronization service, while also providing the needed support for disconnected operation. We prove that the mobile application is very convenient and provides enough functionality for the user to dismiss the portable computer, although the main application was never developed with mobility concerns in mind