Guarda Nacional Republicana e Autoridade Tributária e Aduaneira: Colaboração e cooperação na Região Autónoma da Madeira

O presente estudo pretende dar a conhecer a forma como a Guarda Nacional Republicana e a Autoridade Tributária e Aduaneira se relacionam no cumprimento de uma das suas missões: o combate à fraude e evasão fiscais na Região Autónoma da Madeira. Esta investigação tem como objetivo geral compreender como é que o Comando Territorial da Madeira e a Autoridade Tributária e Aduaneira cooperam e colaboram entre si. Assim, para aprofundar esta investigação, formulou-se a seguinte questão de partida: “Quais os mecanismos de colaboração e de cooperação existentes entre a GNR e a Autoridade Tributária e Aduaneira na Região Autónoma da Madeira?”. Deste modo, para complementar e responder melhor a esta questão, surgiram questões derivadas, que, por sua vez, deram origem a hipóteses através de um método hipotético-dedutivo. Consequentemente erigiu-se um enquadramento normativo que permite dar suporte à recolha de dados, e um trabalho de campo que proporcionou conhecimentos oriundos dos responsáveis institucionais. Por fim, estas duas partes em harmonia permitiram a verificação das hipóteses. Na articulação da parte teórica e da parte prática realizada, conclui-se que o Comando Territorial da Madeira colabora e coopera com a Autoridade Tributária e Aduaneira na realização de operações conjuntas no âmbito operacional e na partilha constante de informações e que a Autoridade Tributária e Aduaneira, representada na Região Autónoma da Madeira pela Alfândega do Funchal, atua em operações conjuntas com esta Unidade no combate às infrações aduaneiras. Por fim, o Comando Territorial da Madeira tem procurado realizar operações conjuntas no âmbito fiscal não sendo, no entanto, acompanhada neste objetivo pela Direção Regional dos Assuntos Fiscais.The present study intends to show how Guarda Nacional Republicana and the Tax Authority and Customs relate in the fight against fraud and tax evasions in the Autonomous Region of Madeira. This research aims to understand how the Territorial Command of Madeira and the Tax Authority and Customs cooperate and collaborate among themselves. Thus, to better exploit the research, we formulated the following central question: "What are the existing collaboration and cooperation mechanisms between the GNR and the Tax Authority and Customs of the Autonomous Region of Madeira?". In order to complement and respond to this question, derived questions emerged, which in turn, originated hypothesis, supported by the hypothetical-deductive method. The methodology used for the elaboration of the work was divided into two parts: the theoretical part that allowed us to start the collection of data, and the practical, part the fieldwork, that provided us information on the part of institutional leaders. Finally, these two parts together allowed us to verify the hypothesis. At the articulation of the theoretical part and the practical part, it could be concluded that the Territorial Command of Madeira exercises collaboration and cooperation with the Tax Authority and Customs in joint operations in an operational framework and in constant sharing of information. It could also be concluded that the Tax Authority and Customs is represented in the Autonomous Region of Madeira by Funchal's Customhouse, acts in joint operations with the Territorial Command of Madeira in the customs field. The Territorial Command of Madeira has been looking to undertake joint operations in the tax field, however, the Regional Directorate of Tax Affairs hasn't been putting up an effort for that to happen

Failure analysis of GRP pipes under compressive ring loads

Tese de mestrado. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 199

Maximizing the Social Welfare of Virtual Power Players Operation in Case of Excessive Wind Power

The integration of growing amounts of distributed generation in power systems, namely at distribution networks level, has been fostered by energy policies in several countries around the world, including in Europe. This intensive integration of distributed, non-dispatchable, and natural sources based generation (including wind power) has caused several changes in the operation and planning of power systems and of electricity markets. Sometimes the available non-dispatchable generation is higher than the demand. This generation must be used; otherwise it is wasted if not stored or used to supply additional demand. New policies and market rules, as well as new players, are needed in order to competitively integrate all the resources. The methodology proposed in this paper aims at the maximization of the social welfare in a distribution network operated by a virtual power player that aggregates and manages the available energy resources. When facing a situation of excessive non-dispatchable generation, including wind power, real time pricing is applied in order to induce the increase of consumption so that wind curtailment is minimized. This method is especially useful when actual and day-ahead resources forecast differ significantly. The distribution network characteristics and concerns are addressed by including the network constraints in the optimization model. The proposed methodology has been implemented in GAMS optimization tool and its application is illustrated in this paper using a real 937-bus distribution network with 20.310 consumers and 548 distributed generators, some of them non-dispatchable and with must take contracts. The implemented scenario corresponds to a real day in Portuguese power system

Time Series Stochastic Properties Of Growth Miracles And Growth Disasters

Preliminary findings of this research suggest significant stochastic properties differences between growth miracles and growth disasters. Miracles’ real GDP per capita exhibit at least one unit root whereas disasters’ is either stationary or has a negative unit root. Average growth rates appear to be significantly different. Average population growth rate is stationary for disasters, for miracles the existence of a negative unit root cannot be rejected. Consumption for miracles is either stationary or tends to decline, for disasters is stationary or tends to increase. Investment average and volatility are apparently significantly greater for miracles. Government expenditures for disasters are non stationary, for miracles are stationary with an incipient tendency to decline. Moreover, average government expenditures apparently are greater and more volatile for disasters. Finally, openness is stationary for disasters and for miracles it has at least one unit root

Scheduling strategies for the furniture industry

Technological developments and more demanding production standards have constantly been pushing the envelope, changing the perception of what is possible and desired in manufacturing processes. Such improvements are often made at marginal cost, yet have the potential to significantly benefit performance, enabling a strong competitive advantage. In this case study, a factory in the furniture industry is considered, where there are vast improvement opportunities and an increase in flexibility is needed. Furthermore, this problem can be best approximated by the flow shop model and the most critical characteristic is sequence-dependent setup times. To address this problem, an iterated greedy with local search meta-heuristic is implemented, which will be responsible for scheduling production orders in the way that best suits makespan and, consequently, productivity. Additionally, OptQuest, the optimiser functionally built into the Flexsim simulating software was also tested against the meta-heuristic and, still through simulation, a local rule was implemented, which allowed each workstation to define its own sequence of jobs, to minimise setup times. Lastly, the best performing of the previous methods was also compared to the original heuristic that had previously been specifically created for this problem. Through testing, it was found that the iterated greedy with local search meta-heuristic was able to generate solutions that had a much better makespan value than the ones produced by OptQuest, while the local rule was not able to provide significant improvement. Then, the meta-heuristic was compared to the original heuristic and, although the newly implemented algorithm did not consider all characteristics of the problem, productivity far outperformed that of the original technique

Defining Electricity Tariffs Using the Knowledge About the Consumers Profiles in ELECON Project

The increasing importance of the integration of distributed generation and demand response in the power systems operation and planning, namely at lower voltage levels of distribution networks and in the competitive environment of electricity markets, leads us to the concept of smart grids. In both traditional and smart grid operation, non-technical losses are a great economic concern, which can be addressed. In this context, the ELECON project addresses the use of demand response contributions to the identification of non-technical losses. The present paper proposes a methodology to be used by Virtual Power Players (VPPs), which are entities able to aggregate distributed small-size resources, aiming to define the best electricity tariffs for several, clusters of consumers. A case study based on real consumption data demonstrates the application of the proposed methodology

Proximity-aware interactive displays for rehabilitation centres

Abstract in proceedings of the Fourth International Congress of CiiEM: Health, Well-Being and Ageing in the 21st Century, held at Egas Moniz’ University Campus in Monte de Caparica, Almada, from 3–5 June 2019.This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The new ecological-architectural imperative

No actual contexto do século XXI, amplamente integrado numa ‘Era Ecológica’ e alegadamente em plena ‘Época do Antropo-ceno’, cresce o consenso geral em torno da especificidade do momento de mudança que atravessamos e da necessidade de proceder a readaptações e desenvolver acções mais coadunáveis com uma nova realidade sócio-ecológica. Torna-se cada vez mais evidente que o fenómeno global das alterações climáticas e o corrente processo de urbanização planetária estão profundamente relacionados com o agravamento de cumulativos problemas ambientais, económicos e sociais que se conjugam numa profunda ‘crise ecosistémica’, no epicentro da qual surgem as cidades e, inevitavelmente, a Arquitectura. Hoje confrontada com profundos ‘desafios ecológicos’ – que afectam a sua própria ‘orgânica’ interna –, a Arquitectura procura libertar-se de preconceitos e readaptar-se a novas realidades, através de uma ‘metamorfose’ disciplinar que lhe permita evoluir novos modos de interpretação e acção – ‘ecologização’. Nesse sentido, enunciamos aqui a génese e os fundamentos de/para um novo imperativo ecológico-arquitectónico.In the context of the 21st century, broadly integrated in the ‘Ecological Era’, and allegedly in the epoch of the ‘Anthropocene’, grows a general consensus regarding the specificity of the current moment of change and the need of proceeding to re-adaptations and developing actions more compatible with a new socio-ecological reality. It is increasingly evident that the current phenomena of global climate change and the ongoing process of planetary urbanization are deeply interrelated with the aggravation of cumulative environmental, economic and social problems that combine in a profound ‘ecosystemic crisis’, at the epicenter of which are cities and, inevitably, Architecture. Now confronted with profound ‘ecological challenges’ – that affect its own internal organic –, Architecture seeks to overcome preconceptions and readapt to new realities, by means of a disciplinary ‘metamorphosis’ that allows it to evolve new modes of interpretation and action – ‘ecologization’. In this sense, we enunciate the genesis and the fundamentals of/towards a new ‘Ecological-Architectural imperative’

Day-ahead Resource Scheduling Including Demand Response for Electric Vehicles

The energy resource scheduling is becoming increasingly important, as the use of distributed resources is intensified and massive gridable vehicle (V2G) use is envisaged. This paper presents a methodology for day-ahead energy resource scheduling for smart grids considering the intensive use of distributed generation and V2G. The main focus is the comparison of different EV management approaches in the day-ahead energy resources management, namely uncontrolled charging, smart charging, V2G and Demand Response (DR) programs i n the V2G approach. Three different DR programs are designed and tested (trip reduce, shifting reduce and reduce+shifting). Othe r important contribution of the paper is the comparison between deterministic and computational intelligence techniques to reduce the execution time. The proposed scheduling is solved with a modified particle swarm optimization. Mixed integer non-linear programming is also used for comparison purposes. Full ac power flow calculation is included to allow taking into account the network constraints. A case study with a 33-bus distribution network and 2000 V2G resources is used to illustrate the performance of the proposed method