Portugal’s interest in the context of security and defence policy and maritime affairs. Some theoretical considerations as part of the relationship between Portugal and the European Union

With the accession to the European Union, Portugal became part of an area that has been moving towards greater economic and political integration. In this process, Member States have delegated part of their powers to European institutions, hoping that decisions on matters of joint interest can be made more effectively at European level. However, the current economic and financial crisis has revealed weaknesses in the European construction process that have highlighted the difficulties in achieving the convergence of Member States' national interests. In these circumstances, this study aims to evaluate whether Portugal’s interest is being properly safeguarded given the strategies and common policies enacted by the European Union within the framework of security and defence policies and affairs of the sea. To this end, the concept of national interest is analysed in the first part in order to establish a common understanding of the subject. In the second part, Portugal’s current interests are identified and the third examines EU’s interests in the areas under review. The fourth part reflects on how national interests connect with European interests, seeking to highlight the opportunities to be seized and the threats to be addressed. The analysis concluded that it is not easy to identify a clear European interest in the field of security and defence, while in the area of maritime affairs that interest is evident and requires securing the exclusive competence of the Union in the management of the biological resources of the sea. The defence of Portugal’s national interest requires proper monitoring of the negotiations leading to the building of sector strategies and common EU policies

Coaching psicológico : um estudo de casos

Tese de mestrado, Psicologia (Secção de Psicologia dos Recursos Humanos, do Trabalho e das Organizações), Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Psicologia, 2012A questão de investigação nuclear procura integrar a análise da estabilidade das mudanças produzidas e os factores facilitadores e inibidores envolvidos no processo de coaching. A revisão de literatura circunscrita ao tema, bem como a apresentação de dois estudos de caso explicitam a importância e significado do coaching psicológico. O Coaching consiste num processo orientado por objectivos, em que o coach trabalha com o coachee/cliente, ajudando-o a identificar e a construir soluções possíveis que lhe permitam alcançar os objectivos por si delineados (Grant, 2006). Trata-se de uma relação de ajuda, desenvolvida com população não-clínica e focada em soluções e resultados (Grant, 2003). Ao lidar com pessoas no âmbito da sua complexidade biopsicossocial, ajudando-as a obter mudanças sustentáveis (Palmer, 2010), considera-se o Coaching uma área da Psicologia, designando-se por Coaching Psicológico a abordagem que enquadrou este trabalho. Foi baseado em 2 estudos de caso, enquadrados teoricamente por um modelo integrativo de coaching psicológico, baseado na evidência e focado em soluções (Green & Grant, 2003; Skiffington & Zeus, 2003), ancorado na teoria de autodeterminação de Deci & Ryan (2000) e em modelos humanista, cognitivocomportamental, motivacional e psicocorporal. Os dados recolhidos 12 -18 meses depois da finalização do processo de coaching (follow-up), apontam como triggers da mudança, a motivação, a obtenção de pequenas mudanças iniciais (quick-wins) e a prática de exercício físico. A qualidade da relação de coaching e as competências intra e interpessoais do coach parecem ser um pilar essencial do processo bem como a possibilidade de abordagem de emoções e sentimentos “difíceis”, pela assumpção prévia de um compromisso de confidencialidade. O prazer, o humor e o divertimento parecem funcionar como estimuladores da curiosidade e motivadores da acção, alavancando a saída da “zona de conforto”. Ferramentas de coaching como a metáfora parecem funcionar como facilitadores da compreensão por parte do coachee, e orientadora da acção. As características do local das sessões parece aportar, igualmente, uma funcionalidade facilitadora ao processo. Este trabalho abre caminho ao aprofundamento destas questões através de uma maior diversificação de casos estudados, apontando várias linhas de investigação a desenvolver, futuramente.The nuclear research matter intends to integrate the analysis of the stability of the changes made and the facilitating and inhibiting factors involved in coaching. The literature review related to this thematic, as well as the presentation of two case studies clearly demonstrate the importance and significance of coaching psychology. Coaching is described as a goal oriented process, where the coach works with his coachee/client, helping him or her to identify and create possible solutions which allow them to achieve the objectives they outlined for themselves (Grant, 2006). It’s a relationship based on cooperation and developed with the non-clinical population and focused on solutions and results (Grant, 2003). By dealing with people within their biopshycosocial complexity, helping them to obtain sustainable changes (Palmer, 2010), Coaching is considered a Psychology subject, designated Coaching Psychology the approach that framed this paperwork. This, was based on two case studies, framed by a theoretically integrative model of coaching psychology, evidence-based and focused on solutions (Green & Grant, 2003; Skiffington & Zeus, 2003), grounded in the theory of self-determination of Deci & Ryan (2000) and humanistic, cognitive, behavioural, and motivational and mind-body models. Data collected 12 -18 months after the completion of the coaching process (follow-up), indicate as triggers of change, motivation, obtaining small initial changes (quick-wins) and physical exercise. The quality of the coaching relationship and the coach’s intra and interpersonal competences seem to be a key element of the process as well as the possibility to approach emotions and tough feelings, by the assumption of a prior confidentiality commitment. Pleasure, humour and having fun seem to work as enhancers of curiosity and action stimulators, leveraging the output from the comfort zone. Coaching tools as metaphor seem to be perceived as understanding facilitators and action oriented by the coachee. The characteristics of the location of the sessions seem to also anchor a feature facilitating the process. This paperwork leaves the way for further development of these issues through greater diversification of cases studied, aiming several lines of investigation that can be developed in the future

Redescription of Coryphopterus tortugae (Jordan) (Osteichthyes: Gobiidae), A Valid Species of Goby from the Western Atlantic

New descriptive and ecological information obtained from western Atlantic (mainly Colombian Caribbean) material has led to the recognition of Coryphopterus tortugae (Jordan) as a valid species of gobiid fish. It is distinguished from Coryphopterus glaucofraenum Gill, the species with which it was previously confused, by its more elongated shape, its pigmentation characteristics, and its more restricted habitats

Disfluency Detection Across Domains

This paper focuses on disfluency detection across distinct domains using a large set of openSMILE features, derived from the Interspeech 2013 Paralinguistic challenge. Amongst different machine learning methods being applied, SVMs achieved the best performance. Feature selection experiments revealed that the dimensionality of the larger set of features can be further reduced at the cost of a small degradation. Different models trained with one corpus were tested on the other corpus, revealing that models can be quite robust across corpora for this task, despite their distinct nature. We have conducted additional experiments aiming at disfluency prediction in the context of IVR systems, and results reveal that there is no substantial degradation on the performance, encouraging the use of the models in IVR domains.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Menu Recommendation system using Machine Learning

Developing a recommendation menu system for restaurants based on the restaurant data and/or city food purchase data to help and change the way restaurants build their menu. Using Data Analysis and Machine Learning to build a project that aims to solve the problem of restaurants and chefs when it comes to preparing menus, the latter with ingredients and dishes that encourage their customers to order more, come back and recommend the restaurant. Helping chefs to create dishes for their restaurants with more accuracy and higher probability to be ordered by their customers. The project will cover tools to build the predictions, the project plan, collect datasets, manipulate data and evaluate the aspects of the situation. The main business goal of our project is to predict what ingredients customers would like to eat and, from that, give restaurants ingredient suggestions to create their next menu. By providing an efficient ingredients decision maker, it will simplify the way menus are elaborated and improve overall customers satisfaction. Another motivating factor in choosing this project was its potential to help society tackle the huge problem of food waste and the inequalities this entails

An integrated GPS/PDA/GIS telegeoprocessing system for traffic & environment

The development of sustainable urban transport networks is a present priority for world leaders, national governors and local authorities. The challenge is to increase mobility reducing the adverse impacts of transport. The potential of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) to provide solutions for the 21st century sustainable urban transport system has already been demonstrated in several piecewise applications. An integrated framework that addresses the needs of municipal authorities, that integrates the data spread through different sources, that supports the intelligent traffic & environment operations, and that provides information to the citizens steering their involvement and commitment is of critical importance and can be the enabler towards the creation of more efficient, safety, and environmental-friendly transport networks that promote the citizens’ quality of life. This work describes an integrated GPS (Global Positioning System) / PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) / GIS (Geographical Information System) system which is part of the mentioned framework. The system includes prototypes for mobile urban traffic data acquisition, with a GPS -equipped vehicle, a PDA application and wireless communications, and for a geodatabase with a related Web application for urban traffic & environment. Their integrated operation is exemplified for a real urban transport system.Postprint (published version