The Core Competencies of the Portuguese Supervisor's Sign Language Interpreters’ Students

The aim of this research was to identify the supervisor's profile of the Portuguese sign language interpreters students that improves and develops their knowledge and skills. We conducted a qualitative study using different methods to collect data, such as interviews and a modified Delphi technique, for which we created an inventory with several competencies based on a literature review. Given the specificity of this area, we felt the need to conceptualize and create a new competence – “gesture performance” defining its specificity. With this paper we pretend to describe the Delphi technique and publicize its results.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Quality control and productivity in oak timber - from forest to the primary processing

Oak timber is valuated for its beauty, good mechanical properties and natural durability and may have multiple uses. An understanding of the factors that affect oak timber quality is essential. It is important to have quality control of physical, mechanical and technological wood characteristics in order to define the better primary processing and end-use. Silviculture may significantly impact wood quality and final stand value. Specific prescriptions will depend on species, site conditions, desired end product and management options. An appropriate silviculture with optimized technological operations allows a well use of wood even with small diameters. Adequate wood classification is required in order to optimize industrial processes and improve product quality. Quality criteria and procedures for round and sawtimber are referenced

Heart and brain responses to real versus simulated chess games in trained chess players: a quantitative EEG and HRV study

The aim of the present study was to investigate how the heart and the brain react to playing chess with a computer versus in a real context in chess players. We also aim to investigate if familiarization with simulated practice leads to changes in heart rate variability (HRV) and the electroencephalographic (EEG) power spectrum. We designed a cross-sectional study, enrolling 27 chess players. They were randomly assigned to 3 minutes plus 2-second chess games: one with a computer (simulated scenario), and another in a real context. Additionally, participants were divided into two groups according to their level of familiarization of playing chess in a computer context. While they were playing, HRV and EEG were continuously recorded. Differences in HRV and EEG theta power spectrum between playing chess in a real or a simulated scenario were not found in chess players (p-value > 0.05). When participants were divided into groups (familiarized and unfamiliarized with simulated chess practice), significant differences were observed in HRV and EEG (p-value < 0.05). The EEG theta power spectrum was significantly lower, and HRV was higher in unfamiliarized players during the simulated scenario, which could indicate that they were less focused in a simulated environment than in a real context. Therefore, familiarization with simulated environments should be taken into account during the training process to achieve the best performance.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Alianças estratégicas: condicionantes das vantagens competitivas sustentáveis. O caso da fileira hortofruticola do Oeste

Não basta dizer que existem programas de desenvolvimento rural, ideias, conhecimento, inovação, colaboração, e que é premente proceder a mudanças em termos de atitudes e comportamentos, pois o que em nosso entender é essencial e imperioso é passar à acção, fazendo uso de estratégias de actuação partilhadas e consistentes no tempo, que potenciem a criação de valor, quer a nível de produtos, processos, modelos de negócios, formas de negociação, comercialização e de repartição mais justas de valor, com aplicações correctas de métodos de gestão e de organização, novas formas de intervenção na produção, quer seja pela agricultura de precisão, pelo reforço dos níveis de exportação, por maior produção biológica, ou seja, as combinações são variadas e complexas, mas terão de ser aplicadas no terreno, de forma concertadas e colectivas. O enfoque, os objectivos e as atitudes terão de passar a ser cada vez mais assentes e fortalecidos nas vertentes das intervenções e aplicações práticas e empresariais, passando a valorizar-se cada vez mais e a reconhecer-se os resultados e suas evoluções, sendo que o cariz teórico assente na aprendizagem e na inovação é essencial e crítico, contribuindo para a evolução e para a mudança, porque ideias e projectos sempre existiram, porém terão de passar à prática com consistência, transformando-se em decisões e acções concretas perante a economia real. O reforço dos níveis de confiança e de competitividade, serão por certo as tónicas essenciais para confrontar o “paradigma da globalização”, pois produtos de qualidade e reconhecidos, bem como condições para os produzirmos e nos diferenciarmos pela vertente da excelência já são requisitos do nosso quotidiano nacional. No entanto as economias de escala terão de ser fortalecidas, assim como as relações com as cadeias de valor agroalimentares e industriais associadas à fileira. O sector está muito fechado sobre si próprio, precisa de ser alvo de um forte rejuvenescimento empresarial, o que passa pela captação de jovens agricultores, dinamizar a abertura das mentalidades dos empresários já instalados, urge promover e estabelecer fortes ligações com as organizações de produtores, mas privilegiando aquelas que demonstrem elevados níveis de coordenação e de eficiência técnica, formativa, e com fortes ligações ao mercado nacional e internacional, fazendo igualmente uso e partilha de interesses e saberes com os centros tecnológicos e de competências, pois a aprendizagem e a inovação são condicionantes multiplicadores para a evolução, situação que aparentemente não está a ser ainda devidamente fomentado na região Oeste, pelo menos com a dinâmica e a expressão que deveria ter, sendo esta a região com maior número de organização de produtores do sector, e com fortes índices de crescimento nos produtos hortofrutícolas nacionais

Visualização cartográfica assistida num ambiente SOLAP

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia InformáticaO conceito Spatial OLAP introduz a visualização cartográfica nos sistemas Business Intelligent/OLAP. Esta tem grandes potencialidades para melhorar a análise de grandes quantidades de dados georreferenciados e o respetivo processo de tomada de decisão. O potencial que é possível obter da visualização cartográfica depende fortemente do uso apropriado não só das variáveis visuais como também de outros elementos que possam ser utilizados para representar informação no mapa (ex.: gráficos). Porém, num ambiente SOLAP, o analista deveria estar apenas focado em procurar informação útil abstraindo-se de como deve ser construída uma visualização cartográfica adequada. Neste trabalho, é proposto um modelo para assistir o utilizador na construção de visualizações cartográficas. O modelo proposto considera: (i) a meta-informação existente sobre os modelos multidimensionais; (ii) a interrogação realizada; (iii) os dados resultantes. Através do modelo proposto, pretende-se assistir o utilizador na construção de mapas temáticos apropriados. Neste trabalho é proposto: (i) um modelo para descrever tipos de visualização; (ii) um modelo para descrever o contexto analítico SOLAP; (iii) uma metodologia para a seleção adequada dos tipos de visualização aplicáveis em cada contexto analítico SOLAP e sua instanciação. O modelo de cartografia assistida em ambiente SOLAP proposto neste trabalho foi implementado sobre protótipo SOLAP+

How Long Do the Dead Survive on the Road? Carcass Persistence Probability and Implications for Road-Kill Monitoring Surveys

Background: Road mortality is probably the best-known and visible impact of roads upon wildlife. Although several factors influence road-kill counts, carcass persistence time is considered the most important determinant underlying underestimates of road mortality. The present study aims to describe and model carcass persistence variability on the road for different taxonomic groups under different environmental conditions throughout the year; and also to assess the effect of sampling frequency on the relative variation in road-kill estimates registered within a survey. Methodology/Principal Findings: Daily surveys of road-killed vertebrates were conducted over one year along four road sections with different traffic volumes. Survival analysis was then used to i) describe carcass persistence timings for overall and for specific animal groups; ii) assess optimal sampling designs according to research objectives; and iii) model the influence of road, animal and weather factors on carcass persistence probabilities. Most animal carcasses persisted on the road for the first day only, with some groups disappearing at very high rates. The advisable periodicity of road monitoring that minimizes bias in road mortality estimates is daily monitoring for bats (in the morning) and lizards (in the afternoon), daily monitoring for toads, small birds, small mammals, snakes, salamanders, and lagomorphs; 1 day-interval (alternate days) for large birds, birds of prey, hedgehogs, and freshwater turtles; and 2 day-interval for carnivores. Multiple factors influenced the persistence probabilities of vertebrate carcasses on the road. Overall, the persistence was much lower for small animals, on roads with lower traffic volumes, for carcasses located on road lanes, and during humid conditions and high temperatures during the wet season and dry seasons, respectively. Conclusion/Significance: The guidance given here on monitoring frequencies is particularly relevant to provide conservation and transportation agencies with accurate numbers of road-kills, realistic mitigation measures, and detailed designs for road monitoring programs

Micro-firms way to succeed: How owners manage people

This study explores the configurations of people management practices in micro-firms and their relation with entrepreneurial orientation and firm performance in a four-year window. Based on the ability-, motivation- and opportunity-focused practices framework, we identify configurations of HRM practices used in micro-firms and, in conjugation with entrepreneurial orientation, how they affect employee growth and net income. We analyzed data collected from 114 micro-firm owners combined with firm objective performance measures using Multiple Correspondence Analysis and Cluster Analysis. Results show a taxonomy of three configurations of HRM practices associated with different entrepreneurial orientation strategic postures in micro-firms: “Financial centric HRM practices”, “Operations centric HRM practices”, and “People centric HRM practices”. We assume that configurational methods can help uncover the complexity of the interplay between HRM practices and strategic postures on micro-firm performance. This study contributes to the literature in micro-firms by revealing effective people-related managerial practices on performance.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Climate change impacts on water supply: implications for reservoir management in upper Sabor, northeast Portugal

Climate change scenarios project warmer temperatures and less precipitation in Mediterranean watersheds. This can aggravate drought conditions, with negative impacts on water supply. Here, reservoirs may play an important role to mitigate these impacts. However, the implications of climate change are not always considered in the reservoir planning and management. This study aimed to address this issue for the Upper Sabor watershed, northeast Portugal. This is a medium watershed (403km2), part of the Sabor river, a tributary of Douro (one of the major rivers in the Iberian Peninsula). It is a mountainous watershed (up to 1500m), characterized by humid Mediterranean climate, with three dry months in summer. Almost 52% of the area is occupied by shrubland and 18% agriculture. Water supply for about 33 000 people has been based almost exclusively in one reservoir, but constant problems of water supply in dry summers, which coincide with a doubling of population due to summer holidays, led to the construction of a new reservoir in 2015. The Soil andWater Assessment Tool (SWAT) model was used for a climate change impact assessment, considering the current water supply regime (single reservoir) and the construction of the new reservoir. SWAT was calibrated and validated against daily-observed discharge and reservoir volume, with a good agreement between model predictions and observations. Results from four GCMs (General Circulation Models) for two scenarios (RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5) were statistically downscaled and bias-corrected with ground observations; climate scenarios for 2021-2040 and 2041-2060 were compared with a control period in 1981-2000. In the future, a general increase of temperatures is expected in the Upper Sabor watershed, especially in the maximum temperature under RCP 8.5 scenario for 2041-2060 (Tmax: +2.88ºC). The change in precipitation is more uncertain, with larger differences according to the selected climate model. Annual precipitation would slightly decrease in RCP 8.5, less than 1% change compared to 1981-2000. However, seasonal changes would be more significant, with more precipitation in winter (+ 6.8%) and much less in spring and summer (-13.2% and -14.9%, respectively). In turn, an annual increase in precipitation is expected under RCP 4.5 for 2021-2040 (+1.8%) and a higher decrease for 2041-2060 (+6.4%), when compared to RCP 8.5. For hydrological impacts, SWAT results showed a small reduction in river discharge, more pronounced under RCP 8.5 for 2041-2060, for the spring and summer months. Results showed that the existence of two reservoirs will solve the water supply problems in current conditions, but in future conditions the reliability of this solution will decrease, especially under scenario RCP 8.5 for 2041-2060 (reliability of water supply below 80%). Here, the variability given by the different climate models simulated in SWAT brings some uncertainty. The main conclusion of this study is that the solution for water supply in this region, calculated taking only present-day climate into account, will be inefficient for water supply management under future climates. Taking climate change into account would have avoided the need for further investment in the near future. It is a mountainous watershed (up to 1500m), characterized by humid Mediterranean climate, with three dry months in summer. Almost 52% of the area is occupied by shrubland and 18% agriculture. Water supply for about 33 000 people has been based almost exclusively in one reservoir, but constant problems of water supply in dry summers, which coincide with a doubling of population due to summer holidays, led to the construction of a new reservoir in 2015. The Soil andWater Assessment Tool (SWAT) model was used for a climate change impact assessment, considering the current water supply regime (single reservoir) and the construction of the new reservoir. SWAT was calibrated and validated against daily-observed discharge and reservoir volume, with a good agreement between model predictions and observations. Results from four GCMs (General Circulation Models) for two scenarios (RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5) were statistically downscaled and bias-corrected with ground observations; climate scenarios for 2021-2040 and 2041-2060 were compared with a control period in 1981-2000. In the future, a general increase of temperatures is expected in the Upper Sabor watershed, especially in the maximum temperature under RCP 8.5 scenario for 2041-2060 (Tmax: +2.88ºC). The change in precipitation is more uncertain, with larger differences according to the selected climate model. Annual precipitation would slightly decrease in RCP 8.5, less than 1% change compared to 1981-2000. However, seasonal changes would be more significant, with more precipitation in winter (+ 6.8%) and much less in spring and summer (-13.2% and -14.9%, respectively). In turn, an annual increase in precipitation is expected under RCP 4.5 for 2021-2040 (+1.8%) and a higher decrease for 2041-2060 (+6.4%), when compared to RCP 8.5. For hydrological impacts, SWAT results showed a small reduction in river discharge, more pronounced under RCP 8.5 for 2041-2060, for the spring and summer months. Results showed that the existence of two reservoirs will solve the water supply problems in current conditions, but in future conditions the reliability of this solution will decrease, especially under scenario RCP 8.5 for 2041-2060 (reliability of water supply below 80%). Here, the variability given by the different climate models simulated in SWAT brings some uncertainty. The main conclusion of this study is that the solution for water supply in this region, calculated taking only present-day climate into account, will be inefficient for water supply management under future climates. Taking climate change into account would have avoided the need for further investment in the near future

Avaliação da função muscular do ombro, em jogadores de voleibol, com e sem dor

Introdução: A sequência de activação e a actividade muscular, são importantes na coordenação do movimento da omoplata com a elevação do úmero. Objectivos: Avaliar sequência de activação, actividade e força de músculos do ombro comparando jogadores com/sem dor. Metodologia: Amostra de 15 atletas (7 - grupo experimental; 8 - grupo controlo). Avaliou-se electromiograficamente o Deltóide Anterior, Grande Peitoral, Trapézio Superior, Trapézio Inferior e Infra- Espinhoso na diagonal do Isocinético (90°/s; 180°/s). Resultados: Encontraram-se diferenças na sequência e tempos de activação; não havendo diferenças na actividade, peak torque e rácio antagonistas/agonistas. Conclusão: A dor crónica afectou sequência e tempos de activação muscular.Introduction: Muscles recruitment patterns and activity, are important in coordinating scapular motion with humeral elevation. Purpose: Evaluate shoulder muscles recruitment patterns, muscles activity and strength, comparing volleyball players with/without shoulder pain. Methods: Study with fifteen subjects (7 - experimental group; 8 - control group). It was analyzed the electromyographic activity of Anterior Deltoid, Pectoralis Major, Lower and Upper Trapezius and Infraspinatus, in the Isokinetic diagonal (90º/s; 180º/s). Results: There were differences of muscles recruitment patterns, however it didn´t happen for muscles activity, peak torque and ratio antagonist/agonist. Conclusion: Chronic pain influenced temporal sequence of muscles recruitment and muscles activation time