Sentidos insignificantes

Para Henri-Pierre Jeudy las sociedades actuales están desbordadas. No en la perspectiva de tener objetos o personas en exceso, lo que sería fácilmente cuestionado, sino en la medida en que las sociedades actuales desbordan el sentido. La profusión de discursos e imágenes que circulan en la sociedadcontemporánea hace a los propios objetos y a las propias personas insignificantes, fomentando, particularmente, la creciente indiferencia frente a una realidad de naturaleza imaginada y discursiva que no pauta ninguna conexión con una realidad preexistente. La informaciónque los medios producen y circulan sin cesar y en todos los sentidos, constituye su propio referente. En otras palabras, se considera la realidad representada como realidad expresa, cayendo en total tautología, que, de acuerdo con L. Sfez, caracteriza a la sociedad contemporánea.For Henri-Pierre Jeudy, societies today are overflowing. Not from the understanding of having objects or persons in excess, which could easily be contested, but rather that there is an overflowing of senses in societies today. The profusion of discourses and images that circulate in contemporary society makes objects and people themselves insignificant, encouraging particularly the growing indifference to a reality made ofimages and discursive in nature that does not display any anchorage in a pre-existing reality. The information, the media produces and circulates, ceaselessly and in every way, constitutes its own referent. In other words, represented reality is considered as reality expressed, falling completely in tautism (contraction of tautology and autism), which, according to L. Sfez, characterises contemporary society

How does strategic and tactical alignment, effort coordination, internal communication and process standardization affect PT’s efficiency and effectiveness on e-mail and SMS marketing strategies?

The following project at Portugal Telecom (PT) is motivated by the needs employees stated, namely strategic alignment, coordination, communication and process standardization. After analyzing the data collected, the results stated this unit is aligned with the overall strategy, but lacks tactical unity. There is lack of coordination damaged by the poor communication, and 25% of the e-mails and SMSs collected have content going against the standardization rules. It is suggested the development of inter-department shared goals, monitoring of every e-mail and SMS through a unit-wide software, joint planning in activity scheduling and enforcing standardized guidelines through courses and regular monitoring

A dynamic identity for the Azores archipelago

This research project aims to define certain aspects of dynamic identities and create an identity of the same nature for the archipelago of the Azores. The research questions of this project were the following: What is a dynamic identity? What makes an identity dynamic? How and when to use the different created variations? The hypothesis of this research project is, a dynamic identity for the Azores can appeal to the community as well as to its visitors. To accurately respond to the research questions, various subjects related to visual identities and identify were studied. The research conducted focused on the progress of visual identities through time and how they evolved from static to dynamic. It also briefly studied other concepts such as design programmes, brands and branding. To understand the state of visual identities, several cases of static and dynamic identities were critically analysed. The resulting dynamic identity changes according to the weather in the Azores. Through the development of the identity another process named action research was used. Several questionnaires were developed to improve the final design solution. Based on the final questionnaire, the dynamic identity was very well received by community and visitors alike. We managed to answer the research questions, but unfortunately due to insufficient data the hypothesis could not be considered valid in a larger scale.Este projeto de investigação visa definir certos aspetos relacionados com identidades dinâmicas, criar uma identidade da mesma natureza para o arquipélago dos Açores. As questões de investigação foram as seguintes: O que é uma identidade dinâmica? O que faz uma identidade ser dinâmica? Como e quando usar as diferentes variações criadas? A hipótese deste projeto é se, uma identidade dinâmica para os Açores consegue apelar à comunidade, bem como para os seus visitantes. Para responder com precisão às questões de investigação, vários assuntos relacionados com identidades visuais e identidade foram estudados. A pesquisa realizada focou-se no progresso das identidades visuais ao longo do tempo, e de como houve a evolução de estática para dinâmicas. Também foram estudados outros conceitos, como programas de design, brands e branding. Para compreender o estados das identidades visuais, vários casos de identidades estáticas e dinâmicas foram criticamente analisados. A identidade dinâmica desenvolvida muda de acordo com o clima dos Açores. No decorrer do desenvolvimento da identidade outro processo denominado action research foi utilizado. Foram desenvolvidos vários questionários de modo a melhorar a solução final do projeto. Com base nos resultados do último questionário, observamos que a identidade dinâmica foi muito bem recebida pela comunidade e pelos visitantes. Conseguimos responder às questões de investigação, mas infelizmente devido a dados insuficientes a hipótese não pôde ser validada

FastM: Design and Evaluation of a Fast Mobility Mechanism for Wireless Mesh Networks

Although there is a large volume of work in the literature in terms of mobility approaches for Wireless Mesh Networks, usually these approaches introduce high latency in the handover process and do not support realtime services and applications. Moreover, mobility is decoupled from routing, which leads to inefficiency to both mobility and routing approaches with respect to mobility. In this paper we present a new extension to proactive routing protocols using a fast mobility extension, FastM, with the purpose of increasing handover performance in Wireless Mesh Networks. With this new extension, a new concept is created to integrate information between neighbor wireless mesh routers, managing locations of clients associated to wireless mesh routers in a certain neighborhood, and avoiding packet loss during handover. The proposed mobility approach is able to optimize the handover process without imposing any modifications to the current IEE 802.11 MAC protocol and use unmodified clients. Results show the improved efficiency of the proposed scheme: metrics such as disconnection time, throughput, packet loss and control overhead are largely improved when compared to previous approaches. Moreover, these conclusions apply to mobility scenarios, although mobility decreases the performance of the handover approach, as expected

Tourism development potential in an insular territory : the case of Ribeira Grande in the Azores

The Autonomous Region of the Azores is one of the most sustainable destinations in the world. Being an archipelago comprised of nine small islands, quality and sustainability are critical features in the tourism sector, inducing the need for thorough and technical strategic development processes. Ribeira Grande is an important municipality in the Azores, which envisioned tourism as a strategic sector to develop when the partial liberalization of the air passenger transport sector occurred in 2015. However, this destination had little tourism maturity and competitiveness and required some structural planning work. The development of a strategic plan for tourism for the municipality of Ribeira Grande, including the selection of tourism products, is explained in detail in this article, which highlights the main challenges and results of the process.N/

Elaboração de protocolo para a calibração de estações sísmicas e revisão da escala de magnitude local para a região dos Açores

Dissertação de Mestrado, Vulcanologia e Riscos Geológicos, 26 de fevereiro de 2019, Universidade dos Açores.A atividade sísmica que ocorre nos Açores, derivada do enquadramento geodinâmico do arquipélago, é monitorizada continuamente de forma a garantir uma resposta eficaz às autoridades de proteção civil. Uma das etapas mais importantes para a avaliação da perigosidade sísmica é o conhecimento da magnitude dos eventos sísmicos. Em 2010 foi possível implementar o cálculo da magnitude local (ML) considerando, para além dos sensores sísmicos calibrados, a influência do sistema de telemetria utilizado na resposta dos mesmos, através de uma calibração própria. De forma a garantir a fiabilidade dos cálculos de magnitude local, em 2017 foi efetuada a calibração conjunta de sismómetros e da rede telemétrica, com recurso a uma mesa de calibração absoluta desenvolvida pela Lennartz, modelo CT-EW1, com uma precisão de 1%. Tal permitiu uma reavaliação integrada da resposta dos sensores sísmicos e da influência dos sistemas de telemetria utilizados e, consequentemente, a atualização dos ficheiros de resposta usados pelo software de análise sísmica SEISAN, com novos parâmetros mais adequados à realidade atual da rede sísmica. Pela comparação dos resultados entre os ficheiros de resposta obtidos antes e depois da calibração de 2017, para um mesmo evento sísmico, verificaram-se ligeiras diferenças, sendo estas expectáveis considerando o espaço de tempo decorrido entre as duas calibrações. Após a validação dos ficheiros de resposta, reavaliaram-se os parâmetros utilizados na equação para cálculo da ML, utilizando uma base de dados mais alargada em relação à utilizada para obtenção do modelo em uso pelo CIVISA desde 2010. Este processo conduziu à definição de uma nova equação, mais adequada relativamente à equação antecessora. Para além da equação proposta, são apresentadas novas correções por estação, que permitem atenuar discrepâncias que ocorram no cálculo da ML, fruto de características locais das próprias estações. A amplificação local demonstrou não ser um fator preponderante em 17 das 26 estações estudadas, tendo, no entanto, algumas estações apresentado correções superiores a 0,4. De forma a permitir a deteção atempada de problemas e a adaptação da resposta a todas as alterações que possam ocorrer ao nível da instrumentação, é recomendável a aplicação deste método de calibração nos procedimentos de rotina de gestão e manutenção da rede sísmica. É recomendada também a aplicação da nova equação e valores de correção por estação nos procedimentos de análise de rotina do CIVISA.ABSTRACT: The seismic activity that occurs in the Azores archipelago, result of its geodynamic setting, continuously monitored in order to guarantee an effective response to the civil protection authorities. One of the most important steps for the seismic hazard assessment is the knowledge of each seismic event magnitude. Since 2010, it has been made possible to implement the local magnitude (ML) determination considering, in addition to calibrated seismic sensors, the influence of the existing telemetry system in the response signal of the sensors through a proper calibration. In order to guarantee the calculations reliability of local magnitude, in 2017 the joint calibration of seismometers and telemetric network was carried out. An absolute calibration table, model CT-EW1 developed by Lennartz, with the precision of 1% was used, allowing an integrated reassessment of the response of the seismic sensors and the influence of the telemetry systems used and, consequently, the updating of the response files used by SEISAN seismic analysis software with new parameters, more adequate to the actual reality of the seismic network. By comparing the results between the response files obtained before and after the 2017 calibration, for the same seismic event, slight differences were verified, these being expected considering the time elapsed between the two calibrations. Following the validation of the response files, the parameters used in the determination of the ML equation were re-evaluated using a broader database than the one used to obtain the current model used by CIVISA since 2010. This process led to the definition of a new equation, more appropriated when compared with the previous equation. Furthermore, new corrections by station are presented, and allow to reduce the disparities that occurs when calculating the ML, resulting from local characteristics from the stations. Local amplification is not a key factor on 17 of the 26 studied stations, nevertheless, some stations displayed corrections greater than 0.4. In order to allow the early detection of problems and the adjustment of the response to all changes that may occur at an instrumentation level, it strongly recommended to apply this calibration method to routine procedures in the management and maintenance of the seismic network. Moreover, the application of the new equation and correction values for each station recommended in the daily procedures of CIVISA routine analysis

O impacto do clima de segurança organizacional nos comportamentos de segurança numa amostra de Bombeiros : o efeito mediador do stress profissional

Tese de mestrado, Psicologia (Psicologia dos Recursos Humanos, do Trabalho e das Organizações), Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Psicologia, 2011A presente investigação estudou a relação entre clima organizacional de segurança e comportamentos de segurança e analisou o papel do stress profissional enquanto mediador da relação entre estas variáveis. A amostra é constituída por 52 bombeiros no activo. Os dados usados neste estudo resultam da aplicação do Inventário Clima de Segurança Organizacional (Silva, Lima & Baptista, 2004) e do Inventário de Stress Profissional (Spielberger & Vagg, 1999). Os resultados obtidos mostram que o clima organizacional de segurança está relacionado positivamente com os comportamentos de segurança. No entanto, verifica-se que o clima organizacional de segurança se relaciona negativamente com o stress profissional. Constata-se ainda que o stress profissional não apresenta uma relação significativa com os comportamentos de segurança pelo que não se confirma o efeito mediador do stress profissional na relação entre clima organizacional de segurança e comportamentos de segurança. Apresentam-se também as principais limitações do estudo e sugestões para investigações futuras para o desenvolvimento e promoção da segurança no seio das organizações.This research studied the relationship between organizational safety climate and safety behaviors. On the other hand, this study examined the role of job stress as a mediator of the relationship between these variables. The sample consists of 52 firefighters on active duty. The data used in this study result from the application of Organizational Safety Climate Inventory (Silva, Lima & Baptista, 2004) and the Job Stress Survey (Spielberger & Vagg, 1999). The results show that the organizational safety climate is positively related to safety behaviors. However, it appears that the organizational safety climate is negatively related to job stress. This study established that job stress does not present a significant relationship with safety behaviors. Therefore, the mediating effect of job stress in the relationship between safety climate and safety behaviors is not confirmed. This research also presents the main limitations of the study and suggestions for future research for the development and promotion of safety within organizations

Wages and Job Satisfaction in Portugal

The interest in the analysis of job satisfaction has increased among economists. Indeed, reported levels of satisfaction have been seen as a good predictor of individual behaviour such as job turnover, productivity and absenteeism. Because of this, several studies have tried to identify the determinants of job satisfaction. This paper is concerned with job satisfaction in Portugal. For this purpose, we use the first six waves of the European Household Panel Data (ECHP). The panel nature of the data allows us to use a random effects estimator in order to control for unobservable individual heterogeneity. The results indicate that wages matter for job satisfaction but do not tell the whole story. In particular, having a good health status, a permanent contract and working the public sector influences positively the level satisfaction. We also find a great heterogeneity in satisfaction by regions, even in a small country as Portugal. These findings are valid for overall job satisfaction as well as for satisfaction with specific job domains such as pay, security, type of work and hours worked. Key words: job satisfaction, wages, regions, unobserved heterogeneity JEL Code: J28

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