Certification of quality management systems under ISO 9000 versus business bottom line: empirical evidence

Esta investigación, tiene como objetivo principal la posible correlación entre la calidad y los beneficios que proporciona, tanto humanos, económicos y tecnológicos, materializados en un incremento de los resultados, lo que permitirá algunas empresas resolver los desafíos y oportunidades en el mundo de hoy, cada vez más interconectado. La aplicación de las herramientas de calidad puede resultar clave para el éxito de las organizaciones, proporcionando una ventaja competitiva en la actual economía mundial y una mayor satisfacción de sus clientes en términos del valor que perciben. De forma más explicita, esta investigación pretende demostrar la relación entre la certificación ISO 9001, la medición de los costes de la calidad y los resultados de la empresa, sobre la base de un estudio empírico. Por lo tanto, este trabajo de investigación tiene como objetivo estudiar y entender la importancia de aplicar sistemas de gestión de calidad total y control de costes en la gestión de la calidad de la empresa. En particular, estamos especialmente interesados en si la aplicación de estas herramientas aumenta el resultado de la empresa. Para lograr este objetivo, hemos desarrollado un estudio empírico de las empresas certificadas por el NP EN ISO 9001:2000, en Portugal, en la región de Ribatejo (Distrito de Santarém) y recopilar datos sobre si la empresa añade valor.Quality is the main focus of the current paper, as well as the great importance of its benefits to businesses. These benefits, which shall consubstantiate increased earnings, are deemed as significant to companies from an economical, technological and human resources point of view, considering also that its development may facilitate the entrepreneurial capacity of firms to deal with the ever evolving challenges and opportunities of the current interconnected world. More specifically, the current investigation aims to demonstrate the existence of an objective relation between the standard ISO 9000 certification, quality costs measuring and earnings, based on our empirical study. So, the current investigation was aimed to study and understand the importance of the implementation of total quality management systems as well as quality cost control in a firm’s quality management system. In particular we would like to understand whether the implementation of quality tools has a positive influence in a firm’s earnings. In order to fulfil such objective within the Portuguese context, we have developed an empirical study which targeted companies accredited under NP EN ISO 9001:2000 on a particular sub-region of Portugal (Ribatejo, Santarém’s district), and collected data in order to verify whether the implementation of such quality management systems adds value to those companies

Multi-region routing

Dissertação apresentada na Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa para a obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Electrotécnica e de ComputadoresThis thesis proposes a new inter-domain routing protocol. The Internet's inter-domain routing protocol Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) provides a reachability solution for all domains; however it is also used for purposes outside of routing. In terms of routing BGP su ers from serious problems, such as slow routing convergence and limited scalability. The proposed architecture takes into consideration the current Internet business model and structure. It bene ts from a massively multi-homed Internet to perform multipath routing. The main foundation of this thesis was based on the Dynamic Topological Information Architecture (DTIA). We propose a division of the Internet in regions to contain the network scale where DTIA's routing algorithm is applied. An inter-region routing solution was devised to connect regions; formal proofs were made in order to demonstrate the routing convergence of the protocol. An implementation of the proposed solution was made in the network simulator 2 (ns-2). Results showed that the proposed architecture achieves faster convergence than BGP. Moreover, this thesis' solution improves the algorithm's scalability at the inter-region level, compared to the single region case

Energy-efficient diversity combining for different access schemes in a multi-path dispersive channel

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Doutor em Engenharia Electrotécnica e ComputadoresThe forthcoming generation of mobile communications, 5G, will settle a new standard for a larger bandwidth and better Quality of Service (QoS). With the exploding growth rate of user generated data, wireless standards must cope with this growth and at the same time be energy efficient to avoid depleting the batteries of wireless devices. Besides these issues, in a broadband wireless setting QoS can be severely affected from a multipath dispersive channel and therefore be energy demanding. Cross-layered architectures are a good choice to enhance the overall performance of a wireless system. Examples of cross-layered Physical (PHY) - Medium Access Control (MAC) architectures are type-II Diversity Combining (DC) Hybrid-ARQ (H-ARQ) and Multi-user Detection (MUD) schemes. Cross-layered type-II DC H-ARQ schemes reuse failed packet transmissions to enhance data reception on posterior retransmissions; MUD schemes reuse data information from previously collided packets on posterior retransmissions to enhance data reception. For a multipath dispersive channel, a PHY layer analytical model is proposed for Single-Carrier with Frequency Domain Equalization (SC-FDE) that supports DC H-ARQ and MUD. Based on this analytical model, three PHY-MAC protocols are proposed. A crosslayered Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) scheme that uses DC H-ARQ is modeled and its performance is studied in this document; the performance analysis shows that the scheme performs better with DC and achieves a better energy efficiency at the cost of a higher delay. A novel cross-layered prefix-assisted Direct-Sequence Code Division Multiple Access (DS-CDMA) scheme is proposed and modeled in this document, it uses principles of DC and MUD. This protocol performs better by means of additional retransmissions, achieving better energy efficiency, at the cost of higher redundancy from a code spreading gain. Finally, a novel cross-layered protocol H-ARQ Network Division Multiple Access (H-NDMA) is proposed and modeled, where the combination of DC H-ARQ and MUD is used with the intent of maximizing the system capacity with a lower delay; system results show that the proposed scheme achieves better energy efficiency and a better performance at the cost of a higher number of retransmissions. A comparison of the three cross-layered protocols is made, using the PHY analytical model, under normalized conditions using the same amount of maximum redundancy. Results show that the H-NDMA protocol, in general, obtains the best results, achieving a good performance and a good energy efficiency for a high channel load and low Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR). TDMA with DC H-ARQ achieves the best energy efficiency, although presenting the worst delay. Prefix-assisted DS-CDMA in the other hand shows good delay results but presents the worst throughput and energy efficiency

Radiographic healing patterns after tooth-borne distraction in canine model

The osteogenesis distraction technique applied to the craniofacial skeleton is an alternative treatment for dentofacial deformities. Despite the advantages of tooth-borne distractors, few studies have evaluated their clinical implementation in sagittal d

Crise económico-financeira e o financiamento bancário às pequenas e médias empresas: o caso do sector da construção

A presente investigação tem como intuito analisar o impacto das recentes crises económicofinanceiras no financiamento bancário às pequenas e médias empresas (PME), focando-se maioritariamente no sector da construção. Procede-se à explicação da génese da crise financeira mundial, também denominada de crise do subprime, bem como da crise da dívida soberana dos países da Zona Euro. É efectuado, de forma sintética, um enquadramento macro-económico e incluem-se projecções para o futuro, perspectivando-se novos desafios. Depois de analisada a importância das PME para a economia portuguesa, apresentam-se as suas principais fragilidades, destacando-se a respectiva estrutura de capital e as dificuldades evidenciadas no recurso ao financiamento bancário. São também dissecadas as respostas obtidas a um questionário remetido ao conjunto de bancos e instituições financeiras de crédito que concedem crédito ao universo de empresas em estudo. Por último, procura-se aferir em que medida um conjunto de rácios e indicadores financeiros poderão explicar o peso do crédito bancário no financiamento da actividade das PME do sector da construção. Para o efeito, apresenta-se um modelo de regressão linear múltipla, tendo-se recorrido, para selecção das variáveis independentes, a alguns rácios comummente utilizados na análise financeira e a outros obtidos através de uma revisão bibliográfica à temática da estrutura de capital. O resultado final do modelo aponta para um poder explicativo sobre a variável dependente não negligenciável (R2 = 42%).The current investigation’s main purpose is to analyze the recent financial crisis impact on the small and medium enterprises (SME) financing, focusing mainly on the construction sector. The genesis of the world financial crisis, also known as subprime crisis, is explained, as well as the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis origin. A macroeconomic view is synthetically presented and some projections for the future are included, with new challenges being mentioned. After analyzing the importance of the SME in the Portuguese economy, we present its main fragilities, with a focus on capital structure and the difficulties regarding bank financing. The answers from a questionnaire sent to the banks and financial institutions that concede credit to SME are also examined. Lastly, we try to understand if a set of financial ratios and indicators can explain the bank financing contribute to the construction sector SME’s financing. To that purpose, a multiple linear regression model is presented, including as independent variables some ratios, which are commonly used in financial analysis, and other indicators obtained from a bibliographic review on the capital structure subject. The model’s final results indicate a non negligible explanatory power on the dependent variable (R2 = 42%)

Satisfação conjugal, procura de sensações e motivações para a infidelidade

Orientação: Barbara GonzalezA finalidade desta investigação foi estudar a (in) satisfação conjugal, procura de sensações e motivações para a infidelidade. Os instrumentos utilizados foram “Escala de Avaliação da Satisfação da Vida Conjugal” (EASAVIC), “Sensation-Seeking Scale – V” e “Motivations for Infidelity Inventory” (MII). Como critérios de seleção, os participantes deveriam encontrar-se numa relação heterossexual com uma duração mínima de 2 anos. O sistema de recolha de dados utilizado foi o modelo e-survey. A investigação de natureza transversal, recolheu uma amostra de conveniência, não probabilística constituída por 243 participantes com uma média de idades de 41,22 anos (DP=11.60), que variaram entre os 22 e os 79 anos. A maioria dos participantes era do género feminino (n= 133; 54,7%), casado (n= 134; 55.1%), apresentava formação académica ao nível do secundário (n=88; 36.2%) e encontrava-se empregado (n= 201; 82.7%). Quanto aos resultados, os homens mostraram níveis significativamente mais elevados de satisfação conjugal na área de funcionamento [t (235.78)= 3.04; p=.003], na área do amor [t (238.61)= 2.35; p=.019] e satisfação conjugal global [t (238.17)= 2.87; p=.004] quando comparados com as mulheres; os homens mostraram níveis significativamente mais elevados do que as mulheres no que respeita à infidelidade [χ(1)=16.49; p= .000]; a infidelidade física/sexual foi superior nos homens e a infidelidade emocional foi superior nas mulheres [χ(1)=24.41; p= .000]; os participantes que ponderaram vir a ser infiéis ao (à) seu (sua) companheiro(a) apresentaram índices significativamente mais elevados de procura de sensações [t (241)= 5.13; p=.000]; e participantes com elevados níveis de procura de sensações (SS) apresentaram níveis significativamente mais elevados de motivações para a infidelidade do que pessoas com baixos níveis de procura de sensações [t (241)= -5.64; p=.000].The goal of this investigation was to study the conjugal (in) satisfaction, sensation seeking and motivations to infidelity. The tools used were “Escala de Avaliação da Satisfação da Vida Conjugal” (EASAVIC), "Sensation-Seeking scale - V" and "Motivations for Infidelity Inventory" (MII). As a selection criteria, all the participants needed to be in a heterosexual relationship for a minimum duration of two years. The data collection system used was the 'e-survey' model. The natural transverse investigation, collected an unbiased sample consisting of 223 participants with an average age of 41.22 years (DP=11.60), which varied in between 22 and 79 years old. The majority of the participants were of the female gender (n=133; 54.7%), married (n=99, 55.1%), had completed a high school education (n=88, 36.2%), and were employed (n=201, 82.7%). When it comes to the results, men had significantly higher levels than women of marital satisfaction in the area of functioning [t (235.78) = 3.04; p = .003], in the area of love [t (238.61) = 2.35; p = .019] and overall marital satisfaction [t (238.17) = 2.87; p = .004]; men had significantly higher levels than women when it came to infidelity [χ(1)=16.49; p= .000]; physical/sexual infidelity was superior in men and emotional infidelity was superior in women [χ(1)=24.41; p= .000]; the participants that thought of being unfaithful to their partners had significantly higher levels of sensation seeking [t (241)= 5.13; p=.000]; the participants with high levels of sensation seeking (SS) were highly motivated towards infidelity compared to individuals with lower levels of sensation seeking [t (241)= -5.64; p=.000]

The antimicrobial effect of wine on Listeria innocua in a model stomach system

A model stomach, containing a food matrix and a synthetic gastric Xuid, was used to study the bactericidal eVect of ingested wine on Listeria innocua. Volumes of wine equivalent to the ingestion of one glass and half a bottle, led, over a period of less than 2 h, to a reduction of 3 and 4 logarithmic cycles of the initial population respectively. The inXuence of ethanol and organic acids, wine constituents with known antimicrobial properties, was investigated. Ethanol exhibited a higher bactericidal eVect than the mixture of the main wine organic acids. When testing the organic acids separately, malic and lactic acids were found to have the strongest eVect. The combination of ethanol with the organic acids acted synergistically but to a lesser extent than wine itself. The results suggest that the ingestion of wine during a meal may diminish the quantity of Listeria persisting further in the alimentary tract

Efeitos dos Sistemas de Apoio à Modernização Administrativa no desenvolvimento do e-Gov em Portugal

Dissertação de Mestrado em Administração PúblicaO objetivo geral desta dissertação consistiu na identificação e caracterização dos efeitos observáveis, do SAMA e do SAMA2020, no desenvolvimento do e-Gov na Administração Central do Estado em Portugal. Nesta dissertação foram caracterizadas as políticas públicas, as estratégias e os planos de ação, assim como os correspondentes instrumentos de financiamento, tanto ao nível europeu, como ao nível nacional, que se destinaram à modernização administrativa e desenvolvimento do e-Gov, desde a década de 1990. Mais concretamente, foram detalhadas as características específicas dos instrumentos de apoio SAMA e SAMA2020, atentos os objetivos, destes instrumentos, ao nível da modernização administrativa e desenvolvimento do e-Gov em Portugal. Nesta dissertação foi ainda realizada a caracterização dos projetos de desenvolvimento do e-Gov apoiados pelo SAMA e pelo SAMA2020, desenvolvidos por entidades da Administração Central do Estado em Portugal, no período de 2007 a 2020. Pela observação dos relatórios de progresso, estudos e informação pública a respeito do SAMA e do SAMA2020 verifica-se que existem efeitos observáveis destes instrumentos, ao nível dos projetos apoiados. Contudo, tais efeitos observáveis não são detalhadamente analisados na literatura nesta temática, pelo que esta dissertação pretendeu colmatar tais lacunas da literatura, efetuando uma análise mais aprofundada destes efeitos, designadamente através da (i) avaliação e apreciação crítica da distribuição do investimento dos projetos apoiados, por tipologias de projetos de e-Gov e por Ministério de enquadramento dos projetos, bem como pela (ii) identificação e apreciação crítica das possíveis causas de sucessos e insucessos da realização destes projetos, através da caracterização das barreiras e facilitadores da execução dos projetos de e-Gov apoiados pelo SAMA e pelo SAMA2020. A metodologia utilizada nesta dissertação foi predominantemente qualitativa, envolvendo pesquisa bibliográfica, análise documental, entrevistas a responsáveis na matéria em estudo e inquéritos, por questionário, dirigidos aos promotores dos projetos apoiados pelo SAMA e pelo SAMA2020. Na sequência da concretização dos objetivos desta dissertação, e após realização das tarefas contidas na metodologia anteriormente explanada, foram tecidas as decorrentes conclusões globais da análise da informação recolhida e tratada. Complementarmente, foram ainda discutidas as conclusões da dissertação e indicadas as principais limitações do presente estudo e as áreas de aprofundamento da investigação que deveriam ser prosseguidas, a este respeito.The general objective of this dissertation was to identify and characterize the observable effects of SAMA and SAMA2020 on the development of e-Gov in the State Central Administration in Portugal. This dissertation has characterized the public policies, strategies and action plans, as well as the corresponding financing instruments, both at European and national level, which have been intended for the administrative modernization and development of e-Gov since the decade of 1990. More specifically, the specific characteristics of the SAMA and SAMA2020 support instruments were detailed, taking into account the objectives of these instruments in terms of administrative modernization and development of e-Gov in Portugal. This dissertation also featured the characterization of e-Gov development projects supported by SAMA and SAMA2020, developed by entities of the State Central Administration in Portugal, from 2007 to 2020. Observing the progress reports, studies and public information about SAMA and SAMA2020, it shows that there are observable effects of these instruments at the scope of the supported projects. However, such observable effects are not fully analysed in the literature on this subject, so this dissertation intended to fill such gaps in the literature, making a deeper analysis of these effects, namely through (i) evaluation and critical appreciation of the investment distribution of the supported projects, by typologies of e-Gov projects and by corresponding Ministry of the project, as well as by (ii) identifying and critically appraising the possible causes of successes and failures of carrying out these projects, by characterizing the barriers and facilitators of the execution of e-Gov projects supported by SAMA and SAMA2020. The methodology used in this dissertation was predominantly qualitative, involving bibliographic research, document analysis, interviews with those responsible for the subject under study and questionnaires directed to the promoters of projects supported by SAMA and SAMA2020. Following the accomplishment of the objectives of this dissertation, and after accomplishing the tasks contained in the methodology previously explained, the resulting global conclusions of the analysis of the collected and treated information were made. In addition, the dissertation's conclusions were also discussed and the main limitations of the present study and the areas of further investigation that should be pursued in this regard were indicated.N/