A waste collection case study

Mestrado Bolonha em Data Analytics for BusinessInnovative waste collection strategies have been established to replace conventional systems with dynamic systems that respond to the actual fill-level of waste containers. This work proposes a method for route design involved in the waste collection, focusing on minimizing the total distance travelled, for a case study of the Portuguese municipality of Caldas da Rainha. The process uses historical data of the filling percentage of each container to determine the number of weekly collections required per container to determine the number of weekly collections required per container and therefore create collection routes. More conventional approaches are based on a single average fill-up rate common to all containers, which may not represent the reality and therefore lead to inefficiencies. By analysing the available data, is concluded that all containers only require one weekly collection. A data clustering algorithm is then applied to aggregate container in groups corresponding to the same route, based on proximity. Then, routes are designed within each cluster. Finally, the selection of pairs of routes for the same day is done through a matching problem. Data limitations lie on the manual introduction of containers’ fill level and on most historical data being from the pandemic. The established methodology is applied to the glass waste collection and transportation system of Valorsul S.A. The present project aims at proposing a method for waste collection planning and explores critical considerations and future improvements based on the difficulties faced.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Information retrieval for children based on the aggregated search paradigm

This report presents research to develop information services for children by expanding and adapting current Information retrieval technologies according to the search characteristics and needs of children. Concretely, we will employ the aggregated search paradigm as theoretical framework. The objective is to develop approaches that identify the most appropriate information types and sources given a child's information request and to present this information to ease and improve his/her search experience

How authentic leadership promotes individual creativity: The mediating role of affective commitment

This study sought to provide a more comprehensive understanding of how authentic leadership can affect employees’ individual creativity through affective commitment’s mediating role. The sample included 177 leader-follower dyads from 26 private, small and medium-sized enterprises. Followers reported their levels of affective commitment and perceptions of authentic leadership, and leaders assessed each follower’s level of creativity. The results show that authentic leadership has a positive impact on affective commitment and creativity. Moreover, affective commitment fully mediates the relationship between perceived authentic leadership and individual creativity. Organizations can thus increase employees’ affective commitment and creativity by encouraging their managers to adopt more authentic leadership styles. Additional studies with larger samples are needed to determine more clearly not only authentic leadership’s influence on individual creativity but also other psychosocial and personal variables’ effects on that relationship.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Combinatorial stability of non-deterministic systems

We introduce and study, from a combinatorial-topological viewpoint, some semigroups of continuous non-deterministic dynamical systems. Combinatorial stability, i.e. the persistence of the combinatorics of the attractors, is characterized and its genericity established. Some implications on topological (deterministic) dynamics are drawn

La bioprospección como un mecanismo de cooperación internacional para fortalecimiento de capacidades en ciencia y tecnología en Colombia

Bioprospecting, defined as the exploration of biodiversitytargeted for commercial purposes, has recently become a potential strategy whereby biodiversity-rich countries can enhance their endogenous capacities to perform S&T activities, especially by interacting with more technologically developed countries. Therefore, this work focuses on analyzing the mechanism of international cooperation of a megadiverse country, as Colombia, through analysis of 342 jointly authored articles published in journals indexed in ISI and SCOPUS, information that is complemented by 12 interviews of Colombian group leaders. Results thereof evidence that Spain is the country with the highest cooperation level with Colombia. Cooperation with American countries is considered as a third priority and is intensifi ed with the participation of a European country. The poor cooperation among Colombian groups creates a disperse research agenda on widely varied topics lacking orientation and strategic priorities

Stationary measures on infinite graphs

We extend the theory of isospectral reductions of L. Bunimovich and B. Webb to infinite graphs, and describe an application of this extension to the problems of existence and approximation of stationary measures on infinite graphs.The authors would like to thank the referee for the very useful comments and suggestions that significantly improved this paper. AB would like to thank the hospitality of Universidade de Lisboa. PD was supported by Funda¸c˜ao para a Ciˆencia e a Tecnologia, through the project UID/MAT/04561/2013. MJT was partially financed by Portuguese Funds through FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia) within the Projects UIDB/00013/2020 and UIDP/00013/2020. AB, PD and MJT were partially supported by the Project “New trends in Lyapunov exponents”(PTDC/MAT-PUR/29126/2017)

Inclusive businesses as a development strategy to fight poverty: understanding how multilateral organizations promote engagement in Progressive Neoliberalism

Inclusive businesses implement policies aimed at bringing a marginalized part of the global population into value chains. This paper analyzes these social inclusion strategies which have gained increasing importance in the development debate. In order to do so, we have examined the role of two multilateral organizations – the United Nations and the World Bank – in constructing the concept of inclusive businesses and analyzed 107 cases which are considered inclusive. From the analysis of how inclusive businesses incorporate low-income people and microenterprises into value chains, we identified three central approaches: inclusion through consumption, distribution chains, and supply chains. We rely on Boltanski and Chiapello's (1999) theoretical model to understand the assumptions and dynamics behind each of these three approaches and to grasp the moral justifications that legitimize them. In this sense, such strategies are understood here as a response by capitalism to its critics, a kind of response that allows neoliberal capitalism to absorb the less threatening demands of the progressive agenda and promote new forms of engagement in the system. We conclude that these development strategies do not address the structural asymmetries of the global productive and distributive system, since they replace an agenda for decreasing inequality and poverty eradication with one of mere poverty relief and overshadow the role of the state in the development process. The first step to move beyond this approach requires bringing collective and redistributive demands back into the center of development debate.Inclusive businesses implement policies aimed at bringing a marginalized part of the global population into value chains. This paper analyzes these social inclusion strategies which have gained increasing importance in the development debate. In order to do so, we have examined the role of two multilateral organizations – the United Nations and the World Bank – in constructing the concept of inclusive businesses and analyzed 107 cases which are considered inclusive. From the analysis of how inclusive businesses incorporate low-income people and microenterprises into value chains, we identified three central approaches: inclusion through consumption, distribution chains, and supply chains. We rely on Boltanski and Chiapello's (1999) theoretical model to understand the assumptions and dynamics behind each of these three approaches and to grasp the moral justifications that legitimize them. In this sense, such strategies are understood here as a response by capitalism to its critics, a kind of response that allows neoliberal capitalism to absorb the less threatening demands of the progressive agenda and promote new forms of engagement in the system. We conclude that these development strategies do not address the structural asymmetries of the global productive and distributive system, since they replace an agenda for decreasing inequality and poverty eradication with one of mere poverty relief and overshadow the role of the state in the development process. The first step to move beyond this approach requires bringing collective and redistributive demands back into the center of development debate

From subduction to collision. a combined metamorphic, structural and geochronological study of polymetamorphic metasediments at the NE edge of the Lepontine dome (Swiss Central Alps)

This study analyses the tectono-metamorphic evolution of metasedimentary units belonging to the Valaisan and adjacent European domains at the north-eastern border of the Lepontine dome (Central Alps). The investigated area is characterized by a remarkable metamorphic gradient ranging from subduction-related HP/LT metamorphism in the NE to collision-related Barrovian overprint in the SW. Detailed structural fieldwork and petrological investigations including Raman spectroscopy of carbonaceous matter were carried out in order to reconstruct the tectono-metamorphic evolution on a larger scale. Furthermore, new 40Ar/39Ar dating of white mica and biotite reveal the timing of both subductionrelated high-pressure metamorphism and collision-related Barrovian overprint. The combination of all these investigations allows for deciphering a complete P-T-d-t path (pressure, temperature, deformation and time) of an area that occupies a key position in the Alpine orogenic belt for understanding the transition from subduction to collision. This study documents for the first time that relics of Fe-Mg carpholite indicating blueschist facies conditions occur also within metasedimentary units that are part of the north-eastern Lepontine dome where, so far, exclusively Barrovian assemblages were found. They occur in metasediments from both the Valaisan domain (Grava and Tomül nappes) and parts of the adjacent European domain (Peiden slices and Piz Terri-Lunschania unit). These high-pressure units were subsequently overprinted by a thermal event, as is documented by the growth of new minerals typical for Barrovian metamorphism. The investigated metasediments provide clear evidence for a bimodal P-T path in the north-eastern Lepontine dome characterized by the following polyphase metamorphic evolution: (1) Subductionrelated syn-D1 (Safien phase) HP/LT metamorphism under blueschist facies conditions (350-400 °C and 1.2-1.4 GPa) was established at 42-40 Ma, as revealed by 40Ar/39Ar dating of white mica associated with Fe-Mg carpholite; the early high-pressure event was followed by “cold” isothermal (or cooling) decompression during D2 nappe-stacking (Ferrera phase) for which an age of 36-33 Ma is inferred based on 40 Ar/39Ar dating of white mica replacing Fe-Mg carpholite. (2) Early collision-related greenschist facies overprint (350-425 °C) post-dating substantial decompression and associated D2 deformation was established at 32-29 Ma and affected both HP and LP metasediments. This metamorphic event clearly predates D3 deformation (Domleschg phase, ~25 Ma) as is evidenced by folded isotemperature contours. (3) Collision-related Barrovian overprint (500-590 °C and 0.5-0.8 GPa) represents a second and considerably younger (post 20 Ma) “isobaric” heating pulse only preserved in the SW part of the investigated area. Hence amphibolite facies metamorphism representing the mature stage of a colliding orogen is clearly separated by D2 and D3 deformations, as well as by an intervening greenschist facies event, from the D1 high-pressure stage. Amphibolite facies overprint occurred before and/or during the initial stages of D4 (Chièra phase), representing a second nappe-refolding event. This investigation revealed a significant time gap in the order of some 20 Ma between subductionrelated HP/LT metamorphism and collision-related MP/MT Barrovian overprint. This supports the notion of a polymetamorphic evolution associated with a bimodal P-T path. The results of this study argue that heat release from radioactive decay of vast amounts of accreted continental-derived basement nappes may play an important role in contributing much to heat production needed for amphibolite facies Barrow-type overprint. Based on field evidence, we conclude that heat transfer in the north-eastern Lepontine was essentially conductive during the latest stages of the thermal evolution