Assessing the drivers of virtual knowledge management impact in European Firm’s performance : an exploratory analysis

E-Business is a phenomenon that has progressed over the past decades at record speed, with considerable promise and hype. It has been embraced with varying degrees of enthusiasm and impact by both large firms and Small and Medium Enterprises (SME). Parallel with its development, E-Business has attracted research interests, seen in a plethora of new modules, programmes, models and tools. Knowledge Management (KM) is one tool that seams to gain a more relevant role, especially as managing knowledge has become increasingly important to all companies. Appropriate KM practices within organisations can be seen as one of the prerequisites to the enhancement of continuous performance improvement in the interne-based context. Thus, our aim is to develop a conceptual framework related to KM practices in a virtual context and to identify the nature of the relationship existing in those knowledge-driven elements and performance achievements. This paper aims to bridge the gap between the KM and e-business performance-related literatures from the viewpoint of European firms by establishing a model tested in European companies. For this purpose, we used a structural equation modelling analysis. The results show that KM has a positive impact on the maximization of e-business performance and that some elements individually have a positive influence on e-business performance. As limitations of the study, we consider the need for more research into this field and the inclusion of news elements such as technological readiness and management support to KM initiatives. The present study advances knowledge on the nature of the relative importance of different components of Internet-based KM as drivers of e-business performance and reinforces its importance as an integrated e-business tool.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Fontes hidrotermais : laboratórios naturais de acidificação oceânica

A secção Biologia é coordenada pelo Professor Universitário Armindo Rodrigues.[…]. Em 2010 foi desenvolvido um estudo na Universidade dos Açores sobre os efeitos das fontes hidrotermais de superfície na composição química, anatomia e estrutura calcária de Corallina elongata, uma alga calcária abundante nos Açores. Este trabalho, publicado na “Marine Pollution Bulletin”, revelou que, apesar da acidez nas fontes hidrotermais, e contrariamente ao esperado, as algas, embora mostrando sinais externos de alguma dissolução, apresentavam paredes celulares mais espessas, ou seja, com maior deposição de Carbonato de Cálcio. O gás libertado pelas fontes hidrotermais (CO₂), para além de acidificar a água do mar, também é um elemento fulcral na obtenção de energia pelas algas e pelas outras plantas através da fotossíntese. Ora, a maior disponibilidade de CO₂ potencia o metabolismo da alga fazendo com que esta tenha uma maior taxa de crescimento, contrariamente ao que era inicialmente esperado. […]info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Internet sales as a new mode of internationalization

The way that organizations explore the Internet has been the focus of a substantial body of scientific studies and non-academic reflection. The main goal of this study is to analyze the potential of the internet as a mode of internationalization and the factors that influence the results of the adoption of this mean to access foreign markets. For this purpose, we examine the determinants of the level of international sales made via internet estimating an ordered probit model. The results show that the importance of previous experience in using the internet and developing international activity, together with the level of internet marketing budget , the level of investment on internet sophistication, the firm dimension, the business age and the type pf activity are variables that determine the results obtain in the international sales trough the internet.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Aproximação organizacional à estratégia de internacionalização das cadeias de franchising

Este trabalho analisa os factores que diferenciam as empresas de franchising que se expandirão para o estrangeiro das que apenas actuam em Portugal. Permite verificar quais os factores que condicionam a internacionalização destas empresas e em que medida estas divergem das suas congéneres estrangeiras. Utiliza-se uma base de dados das empresas de franchising a actuar em Portugal e a metodologia empregue consistiu na estimação de um modelo logit que permite verificar a influência de factores como o sector de actividade, valor de entrada, valor de investimento, duração do contrato, a experiência de franchising e a nacionalidade, na definição de actividade internacional. As conclusões apontam para a existência de um relacionamento positivo, com a internacionalização, relativamente ao valor de entrada e de investimento, uma relação inversa com o número de anos de início do franchising e uma maior propensão para a internacionalização nas empresas estrangeiras a operar em Portugal face às empresas portuguesas.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Análise de custos em obras de reabilitação de edifícios

A presente comunicação apresenta um estudo em curso sobre a análise de custos em obras de reabilitação de edifícios no Laboratório Nacional de Engenharia Civil (LNEC), no âmbito do projecto ProNIC [1]. Este projecto é constituído por uma aplicação informática onde são definidos trabalhos de construção numa estrutura de capítulos. Cada trabalho é arrumado nessa estrutura e constitui o seu nível inferior. Assim, com base nas descrições dos trabalhos existentes no ProNIC, estão a ser levantados os custos unitários dos trabalhos de reabilitação de edifícios e a respectiva composição de recursos. A quantificação destes custos apresenta dificuldades uma vez que os mesmos se baseiam fortemente na experiência do orçamentista e na consideração global dos trabalhos a efectuar. Contudo, a existência de bases de dados com valores médios em diferentes países da Europa, aliada a alguns preços globais existentes em empresas de construção e entidades promotoras deste tipo de intervenção, podem fornecer indicadores que servem de base para o cálculo das fichas de composição de custo, de que se apresentam exemplos

We are all School

The project “We are all school” aimed to break down barriers between the school and the community, to convey the idea that we all have something to add to the school, as we are all educational agents. Our intention was to give more visibility to the activities that the school develops with the community in general. As this community is made up of people from different parts of the world, with diverse cultures and knowledge, we set out to look for  their experiences and knowledge so that the school could benefit from the richness of this diversity. We also set out to involve the whole community more actively, valuing all the knowledge that could be carried to benefit the full learning path of students, regardless of their origin or social position

Identification of extreme wind events using a weather type classification

ABSTRACT: The identification of extreme wind events and their driving forces are crucial to better integrating wind generation into the power system. Recent work related the occurrence of extreme wind events with some weather circulation patterns, enabling the identification of (i) wind power ramps and (ii) low-generation events as well as their intrinsic features, such as the intensity and time duration. Using Portugal as a case study, this work focuses on the application of a weather classification-type methodology to link the weather conditions with wind power generation, namely, the different types of extreme events. A long-term period is used to assess and characterize the changes in the occurrence of extreme weather events and corresponding intensity on wind power production. High variability is expected under cyclonic regimes, whereas low-generation events are most common in anticyclonic regimes. The results of the work provide significant insights regarding wind power production in Portugal, enabling an increase in its predictability.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Evaluation of patients' discomfort regarding regional anesthesia: 8AP6‐7

Background and Goal of Study: Regional anesthesia may cause physical and psychological discomfort. 50% of patients scheduled for urologic procedures undergo regional anesthesia, and their comfort represents a concern to the anesthesiologist. This study aims to: 1. identify factors related to patients’ discomfort regarding regional anesthesia(position for anesthesia and surgery procedures, puncture site pain, room temperature, audio-visual perception, sensitive/motor blockade); 2. Evaluate patients’ satisfaction with anesthesia. Materials and Methods: Af ter approval from the Hospital Ethics Committee all patients over 18years old, scheduled for urologic surgery, understanding Portuguese and anesthetized with spinal anesthesia were included. Patients in day case surgery or with incomplete medical records were excluded. We performed a questionnaire(with closed ended questions) in the first 24 hours af ter surgery and consulted anesthesia records. We asked yes or no questions, used a 1-10 scale to evaluate pain and a 1-4 scale to evaluate satisfaction. Because there isn’t a valid questionnaire in the literature to evaluate what we aimed to, we created one based on multiple articles1,2. Results and Discussion: 50patients were included; mean age 65 years old (min.32, max.89); 78% males and 70% ASAII. 75%denied discomfort during positioning for back puncture and 58% referred cold during anesthesia or surgery. One person was uncomfortable in the surgical position and no one considered being awake uncomfortable; sensitive/motor blockade was uncomfortable for 22%. Spinal was more painful than the venous puncture for32%; for 50%venous puncture was more painful and for 18%pain was similar. Patients were satisfied or very satisfied with the anesthetic technique and would choose the same technique in the future in 98% of cases. Conclusion: Although this questionnaire is not validated, it allowed us to understand that cold during anesthesia/surgery is a problem for most patients but this is easily solved. It also showed us that most patients are not uncomfortable with positioning during procedures, being awake and not feeling the legs.Interestingly only about one third of the patients thought that the back puncture was more painful than the venous puncture. In general we consider spinal anesthesia a good choice for these patients and we are satisfied that patients don’t find it uncomfortable and are also satisfie

Multitask and transfer learning for cardiac abnormality detection in heart sounds

We present a deep learning model for the automatic detection of murmurs and other cardiac abnormalities from the analysis of digital recordings of cardiac auscultations. This approach was developed in the context of the George B. Moody PhysioNet Challenge 2022. More precisely, we consider multi-objective neural networks, with several Transformer blocks at their core, trained to perform 3 distinct tasks simultaneously: murmur detection, outcome classification and audio signal segmentation. We also perform pre-training with the 2016’s Challenge data. We entered the challenge under the team name matLisboa. Our results on the hidden test dataset were: Murmur score (weighted accuracy): 0.735 (ranked 15th). Outcomes score (cost): 12593 (ranked 16th).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio