The influence of digital marketing on the choice of a fuel brand

With the advent of social platforms, digital marketing strategies have been gaining a lot of importance among companies, in order to segment and approach their target audiences and consequently improve their performance. This study aims to examine the influence of digital marketing when choosing a Fuel Brand. It presents data from a questionnaire developed for reviewing an individual’s social media habits and the most important variables in Fuel Brand choice. The research was performed utilizing various methods of analysis. To see the differences on a demographic level and compare the respondent’s results to measure social media habits, a pivot table analysis was made. A correlation matrix was built to measure the correlation between digital marketing and its predictor variables, clustering was made to differentiate the types of customers and optimize a brand’s approach towards each, and a logistic regression was made to verify if there was any underlying variable that affected the influence of digital marketing when choosing a Fuel Brand. According to the study’s results, a Fuel Brand's investment in social platforms suffers from a lack of advertising and exposure towards the benefits of actually utilizing these, meaning that if well leveraged, a Fuel Brand’s digital efforts can effectively gain them a competitive advantage.Com o desenvolvimento das plataformas digitais, as estratégias de marketing digital têm vindo a adquirir uma importância significativa em qualquer que seja a empresa, sendo vistas como uma forma de segmentar um público-alvo, e consequentemente, otimizar o seu desempenho no método de abordagem a cada. Esta pesquisa, visa examinar a influência do marketing digital na escolha da marca de combustível. Com uma demonstração de dados de um questionário, desenvolvido para rever os hábitos de comunicação social de um indivíduo e as variáveis mais importantes na escolha de uma marca de combustível, esta investigação foi realizada utilizando diversos métodos de análise. De forma a medir as diferenças a nível demográfico e comparar os resultados de um inquirido para medir os hábitos dos meios de comunicação social, foi feita uma análise de Pivot Table. Após isso, foi construída uma matriz para medir a correlação entre o marketing digital e as suas variáveis preditoras, seguido por uma segmentação para diferenciar os tipos de clientes e otimizar a abordagem de uma marca de combustível em relação a cada um deles através de uma análise de segmentação, terminando com uma regressão logística que visou verificar se existia alguma variável subjacente que afetasse diretamente a influência do marketing digital ao escolher uma marca de combustível. De acordo com os resultados do estudo, o investimento de uma marca de combustível em plataformas sociais sofre de falta de publicidade e exposição dos benefícios da sua utilização regular, significando que, os esforços digitais de uma marca de combustível, se otimizados, podem efetivamente adquirir lhes uma vantagem competitiva

Community-Based Rehabilitation a burden or an opportunity?: the case of Mongolia inclusion of children with cognitive disabilities

Dissertação apresentada à Universidade Fernando Pessoa como parte dos requisitos para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Acção Humanitária, Cooperação e DesenvolvimentoA tese de mestrado Community-Based Rehabilitation (CBR) - a burden or an opportunity? The case of Mongolia inclusion of children with cognitive disabilities, estuda a forma como a CBR se constituí como um instrumento de afirmação da cidadania e coesão social. No plano teórico estabelece o quadro conceptual da CBR e da cidadania, no plano metodológico fundamenta as escolhas do estudo de caso, dando especial atenção ao caso da “grey literature”, validação e generalização dos resultados. Da análise do caso CBR Mongólia, foi possível encontrar evidência importante do impacto nas áreas: da governação, produção de legislação, “accountability”, influência das partes interessadas na implementação de programas de acção; na educação, além de promover a educação inclusiva, foram também identificadas influências na definição dos curricula universitários e na formação profissional dos técnicos de saúde e de educação; já no que respeita à formação da opinião, foram identificadas importantes acções junto dos jovens, nos media e na organização das partes interessadas sob a forma de organizações; foi também possível constactar a importância do CBR na coesão territorial, que se reveste de grande importância para um dos países com menor densidade populacional, em todas estas vertentes foi também possível verificar a importância das ONG’s como veículo de promoção do CBR e da cidadania de diversa forma, definição de políticas, planeamento e implementação de programas, suporte técnico, formação, etc.The master thesis Community-Based Rehabilitation (CBR) - a burden or an opportunity? The case of Mongolia inclusion of children with cognitive disabilities, studies how CBR is constituted as an instrument for the affirmation of citizenship and social cohesion. At the theoretical level defines the conceptual framework of CBR and citizenship, in regards to the methodology it substantiates the choices underlying the case study, giving special attention to the case of "gray literature", validation and generalization of the findings. The analysis of the case CBR Mongolia, enabled to find significant evidence of the impact on the following areas: governance, production of legislation, accountability, the influence of stakeholders in the implementation of action programs; in education in addition to promote inclusive education, were also identified influences within the definition of university curricula and the vocational training of health workers and education; regarding to the formation of opinion, important actions were identified among young people, in the media and organization of stakeholders in the form of organizations; it was also possible to observe the importance of CBR on territorial cohesion, which is of great importance to a country with one of lowest population densities, in all these aspects it was also possible to confirm the importance of NGOs as a vehicle to promote CBR and citizenship on different ways, policy, planning and program implementation, technical support, training, etc.Олон нийтийн оролцоонд түшиглэсэн сэргээн засал – дарамт уу эсвэл боломж уу? сэдэвт магистрын ажил нь Монгол улсын оюуны хөгжлийн бэрхшээлтэй хүүхдийн нийгэм дэх оролцоонд олон нийтэд түшиглэсэн сэргээн засалтын иргэний эрх болон нийгмийн харилцан шүтэлцээний уялдааг гаргаж ирэх гол арга хэрэгслийг хэрхэн бүрдүүлдэг талаар судалсан. Судалгааны арга зүйн хувьд авч үзэхэд олон нийтэд түшиглэсэн сэргээн засалт ба иргэний эрхийн үзэл баримтлалын хүрээ нь онолын түвшиндээ кейс судалгааны үр дүнг “албан бус судалгаа”-г ашиглан нотлоход чиглэгдсэн. Монгол улсын олон нийтэд түшиглэсэн сэргээн засалтын талаар судлах явцад дараах чухал үр дүнгүүд гарч ирлээ. Үүнд: засаглал, хууль тогтоомжийн боловсруулалт, хариуцлага, үйл ажиллагааны үндсэн хөтөлбөрүүдийг хэрэгжүүлэхэд хамтрагч байгууллагуудын нөлөөлөл, ялангуяа боловсролын хүрээнд авч үзэхэд боловсролд тэгш хамруулахыг дэмжих, их дээд сургуулийн сургалтын хөтөлбөр, эрүүл мэнд болон нийгмийн ажилтнуудын мэргэжлийн сургалтуудын хөтөлбөрүүдийн тодорхойлолт, түүнчлэн залуучуудын бодол, ойлголт чухал нөлөөтэй болох нь нотлогдсон. Мөн хэвлэл мэдээллийн байгууллага, хүн амын нягтшил багатай газар олон нийтэд түшиглэсэн сэргээн засалт илүү чухал болох нь ажиглагдаж байна. Үүнээс харахад төрийн бус байгууллагууд нь олон нийтэд түшиглэсэн сэргээн засалт болон тэдний эрхийг бодлого, төлөвлөлт, хөтөлбөр хэрэгжүүлэх, техникийн туслалцаа үзүүлэх, сургалт хийх гэх мэт олон замаар дэмжихэд гол хөдөлгөгч хүч болж чадах нь батлагдаж байна

Risk modelling in times of crisis

Financial market states of high volatility in bear markets are often characterized by an increase in correlation, decreasing the diversification benefits as markets behave more homogeneously. This research focuses on the expectations of correlation and volatility across different asset classes on a risk-parity portfolio by using different measurements of risk to analyze how differently they perform, especially in times of higher volatility and correlation. This work project objective is to measure the impact of dynamically adjusting the variance-covariance matrix when such risk measures alter significantly. Moreover, a clustered risk parity portfolio will be computed with the optimal returns from the asset classes, further improving performance

Enforcement and accounting quality in the context of IFRS: is there a gap in the literature?

Purpose Existing research has concluded that accounting quality is influenced not only by the quality of accounting standards, but also by enforcement systems. Therefore, enforcement is one of the key factors for ensuring International Financial Reporting Standards’ (IFRS) compliance and achieving accounting quality. However, one still does not know what has been studied about this relationship in scientific literature. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to identify, recap and evaluate the current state of research on the relationship between IFRS enforcement and accounting quality, to provide a critical overview of publications in this field and to identify future areas of interest. Design/methodology/approach Supported by a structured literature review, this paper fills in a research gap by conducting a scientometric analysis of papers on the relationship between IFRS enforcement and accounting quality construed in a broad sense. It reviews papers published between 2006 and 2019 selected from the Web of Science database, particularly analyzing main journals, authors, geographic areas of study, methods used, specific topics explored and future lines of research to be developed. Findings Main findings show a shortage of studies analyzing IFRS enforcement practices in individual countries and, in turn, the impact these practices may have on the accounting quality. This gap calls for further research to know the effectiveness of the IFRS-related enforcement mechanisms. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no previous scientometric studies focused on the enforcement of IFRS and accounting quality. This study fills this research gap and improves the understanding about what has been published on the topic, also proposing an agenda for future research that can help regulators to adjust policies for the implementation and enforcement of IFRS.This study was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) and the Portuguese Ministry of Education and Science through national funds, being jointly funded by the Research Center in Political Science, University of Minho (UIDB/ CPO/00758/2020), the Centre for Research in Economics and Management, University of Minho (UIDB/03182/2020), and the Centre for Business and Economics Research, University of Coimbra (UIDB/05037/2020)

Human-robot teamwork: a knowledge-based solution

Dissertação apresentada na Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Electrotécnica e de ComputadoresTeams of humans and robots pose new challenges to the teamwork field. This stems from the fact that robots and humans have significantly different perceptual, reasoning, communication and actuation capabilities. This dissertation contributes to solving this problem by proposing a knowledge-based multi-agent system to support design and execution of stereotyped (i.e. recurring) human-robot teamwork. The cooperative workflow formalism has been selected to specify team plans, and adapted to allow activities to share structured data, even during their execution. This novel functionality enables tightly coupled interactions among team members. Rather than focusing on automatic teamwork planning, this dissertation proposes a complementary and intuitive knowledge-based solution for fast deployment and adaptation of small scale human-robot teams. In addition, the system has been designed in order to improve task awareness of each mission participant, and of the human overall mission awareness. A set of empirical results obtained from simulated and real missions proved the concept and the reusability of such a system. Practical results showed that this approach used is an effective solution for small scale teams in stereotyped human-robot teamwork

Alvenaria estrutural com elementos de madeira

Apesar da madeira e da alvenaria dialogarem constantemente no contexto construtivo, não é comum elas se fundirem nas suas funções. A madeira surge maioritariamente associada a elementos estruturais finos, formando um esqueleto, ou a elementos de revestimento, e a alvenaria associada a paredes resistentes ou simplesmente de enchimento. O que aqui se propõe, é combinar técnica e material, geralmente desassociados, procurando utilizações mais rentáveis, combinando funções estruturais e protectoras aos edifícios. Para o efeito, apresenta-se uma série de ensaios preliminares realizados no Laboratório de Ensaio de Estruturas da Universidade do Minho (LEST) que garantiram informações preciosas para o desenvolvimento de um tijolo de madeira. Os dados recolhidos nos ensaios permitem ainda a previsão da resposta global das paredes construídas utilizando estes tijolos de madeira. Realizaram-se ensaios de compressão de tijolos, avaliando quer a resposta mecânica quer o fenómeno da fluência, e ensaios de flexão de paredes, em particular, ensaios de flexão para estudo do comportamento das juntas horizontais e verticais das paredesAlthough wood and masonry constantly dialoguing in a constructive context, it is unusual to merge them in their roles. The wood comes mostly associated with slender structural elements, forming a skeleton, or cladding, and masonry as bearing walls or associated with simply filling. The aim of this work is to combine the technique and the materials, normally disassociated, looking for more profitable uses, combining structural and protective functions of the buildings. For that, a series of preliminary tests, performed at the Laboratory for Testing of Structures of the University of Minho (LEST), were performed. These tests supplied valuable information to the development of a wooden brick. Data collected from the tests also allow the prediction of the global response of the walls built using these wooden bricks. Compression tests of wooden bricks, assessing the mechanical response and the creep, and bending tests of walls studying the behaviour of bed and head joints, were performed

Spray impingement modelling: Evaluation of the dissipative energy loss and influence of an enhanced near-wall treatment

The goal of the present research is to contribute to improve the knowledge about the spray impingement topic through a numerical study that is aimed at investigating the impact of using the dissipative energy terms that are available in the literature when they are embedded into a specific dispersion model. Comparing all the numerical approaches, a non-negligible disagreement is observed between the relationship proposed in the original model and the other ones drawn from the literature. This fact evidences the influence of the energy dissipated term on the secondary atomization outcome. The present work also provides a comprehensive study on the estimation of the energy dissipated during the splash event. This is a major contribution to the permanent literature since the few works found only addressed the spread regime. In addition, this paper gives an in-depth analysis on the influence that an enhanced treatment of the boundary layer in the region close to the wall may have in the simulation of such flows. The work revealed that this near-wall droplets tracking method provides an alternative way to increase the accuracy of the dispersed phase and achieve more consistent results without the necessity of a direct mesh refinement.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologiainfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Influence of the Spread/Splash Transition Criteria in the Spray Impingement Modeling

The present paper reports a numerical study of a spray impinging on a surface through a crossflow. This work is intended to study the influence of the spread/splash transition criteria in the modeling of the spray impingement phenomenon. Several experimental correlations available in the literature are inserted in the same base model and the results are tested against experimental data. It can be concluded that the employment of an accurate transition criteria can improve the quality of the results.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologiainfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Liquid film dynamic on the spray impingement modelling

The present paper addresses a liquid film sub-model included into a computational model that aims at reproducing the spray impingement phenomena. This numerical extension incorporates the spread of the liquid film over the neighbouring nodes due to the dynamic motion induced by the film inertia but also the exchange of mass between the liquid layer and the incident and splashing particles. Moreover, the dimensionless film thickness parameter is introduced into the sub-model by mean of an experimentally-deduced correlation that can be fitted and updated to specified conditions. In order to realize how the model behaves with different influencing parameters, a thorough investigation is performed: the results that are obtained with and without the liquid film sub-model are compared against the experimental data for two crossflow rates. The integration of the computational extension with the spread/splash transition criterion is also evaluated by considering two types of transition criteria: one that takes into account the effect of the film thickness and one that does not. The results show that the latter option in combination with the sub-model do not distinctly enhance the simulation results, contrary to what happens using the transition criterion that considers the film thickness as an influencing parameter. In this case, the model with the computational extension reveals better prediction results than the one without it, which indicates the necessity of considering the liquid film formation for spray impingement simulations but also a splash threshold that takes into account the influence of the film thickness.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologiainfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio