Small and medium enterprise competitiveness: Internationalization strategy: internationalization process of prego gourmet to the brazilian market

Field lab: SME competitivenessThis work project has the objective to internationalize a Portuguese fast food chain, named Prego Gourmet, to the Brazilian market, more specifically, to enter in the Sao Paulo fast food industry in the end of 2013, through studies of the internal and external environment. Hence, this work project is a prospective analysis of what the company should do in order to internationalize, analysing the entry mode, collaborative arrangements, and implementation plan. Finally, a risk assessment, recommendations and main conclusions are done to support the internationalization process. Concluding, the study enlightened the best entry mode to Brazil, having recommended entering São Paulo through a Joint Venture creating a master franchising and allocating a country manager to Brazil

To integrate or not to integrate? A matter of choice for universities

What is the right location for a university campus? Universities have a preponderant role in today’s societal models. They have been in the core of development — economic, social, sustainable, inter alia — and their role within urban context has changed in order to respond to the university mission — that nowadays includes of civic engagement as well as a stronger participation in economies, through the development of startups and innovation ecosystems. This paper relies on the premise that, even in a post-pandemic world, the Campus is still a window to the world, it can shape the perception people have of the University, can be used as a branding asset and, most of all, impacts the lives of everyone living, learning, and working there. The Campus is a very powerful tool, one that universities worldwide have been using as a way of positioning themselves, of attracting students and faculty, and also creating synergies and relationships with companies. It shapes the relationships created inside and outside of it. As such, this research argues that universities can be key elements in generating and enabling dynamic synergies, promoting the presence of students, academics, and learning spaces in urban contexts. To accomplish this, universities should preserve their spatial identity and uniqueness, while guaranteeing the existence of adequate places for all learning related activities and embodying inclusion and sustainable development, promoting encounters and interaction. These two needs, for inclusion and livelihood while safeguarding some privacy coexist creating some tension for all campus users. With this issue in mind, this paper explores an analytical framework for university campuses within urban fabrics, understanding the different types of urban insertion and connections established with local and regional players, and exploring the dichotomy between closeness centrality and betweenness centrality, as variables than can be used to balance the tension between integration and privacy that affects university campuses and academic communities worldwide. Four compact university campuses that host similar functions are used to test the methodology: Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, Canada; Aalto University in Espoo, Finland; MIT in Cambridge, MA, USA; and Yale University, in New Haven, USA. This paper relies on syntactic analysis to provide deeper information and some clarification on the university location and accessibility within the urban fabrics

Topological strings on noncommutative manifolds

We identify a deformation of the N=2 supersymmetric sigma model on a Calabi-Yau manifold X which has the same effect on B-branes as a noncommutative deformation of X. We show that for hyperkahler X such deformations allow one to interpolate continuously between the A-model and the B-model. For generic values of the noncommutativity and the B-field, properties of the topologically twisted sigma-models can be described in terms of generalized complex structures introduced by N. Hitchin. For example, we show that the path integral for the deformed sigma-model is localized on generalized holomorphic maps, whereas for the A-model and the B-model it is localized on holomorphic and constant maps, respectively. The geometry of topological D-branes is also best described using generalized complex structures. We also derive a constraint on the Chern character of topological D-branes, which includes A-branes and B-branes as special cases.Comment: 36 pages, AMS latex. v2: a reference to a related work has been added. v3: An error in the discussion of the Fourier-Mukai transform for twisted coherent sheaves has been fixed, resulting in several changes in Section 2. The rest of the paper is unaffected. v4: an incorrect statement concerning Lie algebroid cohomology has been fixe

An Invitation to Symplectic Toric Manifolds

Este artigo é uma introdução a variedades simplécticas tóricas para não especialistas, começando com uma breve síntese de variedades simplécticas e acções hamiltonianas. As variedades simplécticas tóricas formam já um tema extenso, ao qual a modesta lista de referências abaixo não faz justiça – o objectivo deste texto não é ser exaustivo ou justo, mas simplesmente deixar entrever o que são estes espaços e a razão pela qual o leitor poderá querer adicioná-los ao seu repertório de objectos geométricos

Simultaneous deformations and Poisson geometry

We consider the problem of deforming simultaneously a pair of given structures. We show that such deformations are governed by an L-infinity algebra, which we construct explicitly. Our machinery is based on Th. Voronov's derived bracket construction. In this paper we consider only geometric applications, including deformations of coisotropic submanifolds in Poisson manifolds, of twisted Poisson structures, and of complex structures within generalized complex geometry. These applications can not be, to our knowledge, obtained by other methods such as operad theory.Comment: 32 pages. Results in Section 2 improved (Lemma 2.6 and Corollaries 2.20, 2.22). Corollary 2.5 and Corollary 2.11 added. Final version, accepted for publicatio

Clifford-Finsler Algebroids and Nonholonomic Einstein-Dirac Structures

We propose a new framework for constructing geometric and physical models on nonholonomic manifolds provided both with Clifford -- Lie algebroid symmetry and nonlinear connection structure. Explicit parametrizations of generic off-diagonal metrics and linear and nonlinear connections define different types of Finsler, Lagrange and/or Riemann-Cartan spaces. A generalization to spinor fields and Dirac operators on nonholonomic manifolds motivates the theory of Clifford algebroids defined as Clifford bundles, in general, enabled with nonintegrable distributions defining the nonlinear connection. In this work, we elaborate the algebroid spinor differential geometry and formulate the (scalar, Proca, graviton, spinor and gauge) field equations on Lie algebroids. The paper communicates new developments in geometrical formulation of physical theories and this approach is grounded on a number of previous examples when exact solutions with generic off-diagonal metrics and generalized symmetries in modern gravity define nonholonomic spacetime manifolds with uncompactified extra dimensions.Comment: The manuscript was substantially modified following recommendations of JMP referee. The former Chapter 2 and Appendix were elliminated. The Introduction and Conclusion sections were modifie

Symplectic Origami

An origami manifold is a manifold equipped with a closed 2-form which is symplectic except on a hypersurface where it is like the pullback of a symplectic form by a folding map and its kernel fibrates with oriented circle fibers over a compact base. We can move back and forth between origami and symplectic manifolds using cutting (unfolding) and radial blow-up (folding), modulo compatibility conditions. We prove an origami convexity theorem for hamiltonian torus actions, classify toric origami manifolds by polyhedral objects resembling paper origami and discuss examples. We also prove a cobordism result and compute the cohomology of a special class of origami manifolds.Comment: v2; 42 pages, 18 figures; significant revision; to appear in Int. Math. Res. Not.; first published online December 2, 201

THE FUTURE OF VETERINARIANS IN DAIRY HERD HEALTH MANAGEMENT

The future of the Veterinary Practice in Dairy Health Management has changed and will change more drastically from our point of view in the next years. The consumer’s pressure and the Media are more and more concerned about animal welfare, traceability of animal products and safety of products of animal origin. On the other hand the Farmers in Europe have to produce under strong rules (competing with other countries outside Europe), which are normally very expensive to put in practice, and the veterinarians should adapt their knowledge to the new challenges, because without their work and cooperation, dairy farming will have no future. In that sense, the old veterinary practice has to go in other ways, otherwise the Veterinarians will loose clients and the animal population in Europe will be reduced. The Dairy farmers will ask for support in other areas besides clinical: efficacy, management, welfare, profitability, nutrition, prophylaxis, economics, reproduction, environmental protection, grassland management, etc.Cattle practitioners should be able to give answers in several subjects and this sets the challenge to our profession - Veterinary preparation has to be very strong in single animal species, particularly in Dairy or beef cows. The cattle practitioner has to look beyond, but he should never forget that “the single animal” has to be looked at as one unit of the herd, which means that without a very good knowledge of the single animal he will be insufficiently prepared to solve herd problems, and the Herd is the sum of several animals. We all know that very often one single animal allows us to implement herd strategies and develop prophylactic programs.We are convinced that the veterinary profession, and in our case the Cattle Medicine should have the ability to evolve, otherwise the Veterinarian as we know him will miss the train in the next years