Strategic planning in small and medium-sized companies in the architecture sector in Portugal

Architecture today presents a highly competitive and turbulent market. This scenario of instability and competition has reinforced the importance of strategy and, consequently, strategic planning. The existing literature indicates that strategic planning allows companies to achieve a better strategic positioning, performance and profitability. This exploratory study aims to investigate in the architecture sector the importance given to strategy, the way strategic planning is used and, finally, what are the main obstacles that discourage its adoption. Through a set of 12 semi-structured interviews with different micro, small and medium-sized architecture studios, this research points to a limited use of strategic planning. This result is explained, on the one hand, by the lack of knowledge of strategic planning methodologies and by the fact that often financial success and market share are seen by owner-managers as secondary to other objectives, such as their intellectual satisfaction and artistic recognition of their work. The volatility of the construction sector and the small size of most architectural firms also seem to contribute to their low usage. The results of this dissertation may be of interest to owners/managers of Architecture firms and also to Architecture universities.Nos dias de hoje, o mercado da arquitetura é caracterizado por ser altamente competitivo e turbulento. Este cenário de instabilidade e concorrência reforça a importância da estratégia e, consequentemente, do planeamento estratégico. A literatura existente indica que o planeamento estratégico permite às empresas conseguir um melhor posicionamento de mercado, um melhor desempenho e rentabilidade. Este estudo exploratório tem como objetivo investigar no setor da arquitetura, a importância atribuída ao planeamento estratégico, a extensão e o modo com que é utilizado e, finalmente, quais os principais obstáculos que limitam a sua utilização. Através de um conjunto de 12 entrevistas semiestruturadas a diferentes micro, pequenas e médias empresas de arquitetura, esta investigação sugere uma utilização limitada do planeamento estratégico. Este resultado é explicado, por um lado, pela falta de conhecimento no sector das mais valias e metodologias do planeamento estratégico e pelo facto de muitas vezes o sucesso financeiro ser visto pelos donos-gestores como secundário em relação a outros objetivos, tais como a sua satisfação intelectual e o reconhecimento artístico do seu trabalho. A volatilidade do sector da construção e a pequena dimensão da maioria das empresas de arquitetura também parecem contribuir para a sua baixa utilização. Os resultados desta dissertação podem ser do interesse dos gerentes de empresas de arquitetura e também das universidades do sector

Predictors of nomophobia and online identity : the contribution of nostalgia to phone and online attachment

The presence of smartphones in everyday life has become so frequent that people cannot spend a day without checking their phones. This recent addition is defined as nomophobia, the dependency on mobile phones and the need to be constantly online, as a way to ensure one’s online presence, i.e. self-sense of online identity. However, what predicts such a need? Based on theoretical reasoning, I suggest that nostalgia, or the self-selection of positive content from the past, is associated with this dependency. Although brands began to develop content that evokes old memories, i.e. nostalgia, to link consumers with positive content from the past, it is still missing to understand the relation between nostalgia and nomophobia/online identity. In this sense, the present dissertation investigated if nostalgia predicts nomophobia/online identity and, subsequently, if this relationship is moderated by age and gender. To this end, six hypotheses, testing the relationship between nostalgia and nomophobia/online identity and their potential moderators, were elaborated. Results showed that higher levels of nostalgia translated into higher levels of nomophobia and online identity. This may be explained by the sense of continuity that nostalgia promotes. However, this relationship is not moderated by age or gender. This means that a sense of self-continuity might be a similar need across individuals. Learning this, digital marketers and brands with online presence will be able to improve their campaigns with nostalgic content, contributing to extend consumers’ online identity.A presença de smartphones no dia-a-dia dos indivíduos tornou-se tão frequente que estes não conseguem passar um dia sem verificar os seus telemóveis. Essa adição recente é definida como nomofobia, a dependência de smartphones e a necessidade de estar constantemente online, de modo a garantir a presença online, ou seja, o senso de identidade online. No entanto, o que prevê tal necessidade? Com base no raciocínio teórico, sugiro que a nostalgia, ou a auto-seleção de conteúdo positivo do passado, esteja associada a essa dependência. Embora as marcas tenham começado a desenvolver conteúdo que evoca memórias antigas, ou seja, nostalgia, para vincular os consumidores a conteúdo positivo do passado, ainda falta entender a relação entre nostalgia e nomofobia/identidade online. Nesse sentido, a presente dissertação investigou se a nostalgia prediz a nomofobia e identidade online e, posteriormente, se essa relação é moderada pela idade e género. Para tal, foram elaboradas seis hipóteses, tendo como objetivo testar a relação entre nostalgia e nomofobia/identidade online e os seus possíveis moderadores. Os resultados mostraram que níveis mais altos de nostalgia se traduzem em níveis mais altos de nomofobia e identidade online. Tal poderá ser explicado pelo senso de continuidade que a nostalgia promove. Contudo, esta relação não é moderada nem pela idade, nem pelo género. Assim sendo, o senso de auto-continuidade pode ser uma necessidade semelhante entre indivíduos. Aprendendo isso, profissionais de marketing digital e marcas com presença online poderão melhorar as suas campanhas com conteúdo nostálgico, contribuindo para aumentar a identidade online dos consumidores

Optimization and electrification to capitalize the power of the Ford brand

Automotive industry is on the path to recovery from a pandemic that blocked the market and from disruptions in the supply chain whose end does not seem to be near. The various markets across the globe are experiencing different recovery rhythms and ways of dealing with obstacles. At a time when the Electric Vehicles trend begins to gain serious weight in the market, the automotive industry is facing challenges and profound changes that promise to shake the automotive world and change the way we see mobility

Arquitectas: (Des)construindo Percursos

A presente Dissertação de Mestrado, Arquitectas: (Des)construindo Percursos, propõe uma reflexão sobre o legado das mulheres na Arquitectura e a conjuntura das parcerias entre géneros diferentes, tanto a nível nacional como internacional. Os percursos das arquitectas iniciam-se, ainda que tardiamente, graças ao gradual acesso à esfera académica em arquitectura e devido, sobretudo, às significativas alterações sociais ocorridas ao longo dos séculos. Não obstante, as contribuições femininas permanecem silenciadas, tanto as do passado como as da contemporaneidade, quer a título individual quer em parcerias sendo, geralmente, posicionadas para um segundo plano em relação ao elemento masculino da dupla. Desta forma, torna-se fundamental descortinar o protagonismo feminino e a (in)visibilidade dos seus percursos para que se possa (re) construir a representatividade, a natureza e os limites da própria disciplina. Este trabalho surge assim, na tentativa de reformular uma Arquitectura que visa incluir as perspectivas das arquitectas, expondo os cenários públicos, profissionais e educacionais vividos. Para a concretização final desta reflexão preconiza-se a análise dos percursos das arquitectas, Joana Vasconcelos e Fátima Fernandes, de forma a contribuir para a sua visibilidade e reconhecimento na Arquitectura Portuguesa.This Master Dissertation, The Female Architects: (Des)constructing Paths, requires a reflection about women´s legacy in Architecture and the work partnerships between both genders, nationally and internationally. Women jouney in Architecture started late, due to the slow acess to the gender at superior studies and, it´s directly linked with major social accomplishments made through the centuries. Even though womens work in architecture came a long way, their insight is still very invisible, like we saw happening the past. Working by themselves or in partnerships, they are still a background figure, even in partnerships the central figure is the male. It urges, to envelop womens main role and (in)visibility of their work so that it can be (re) built in terms of the representativity, nature and limits of the architecture itself. This work is an attempt to reformulate an architecture so that it includes the womens architects vision, in public life, professional and educational cenaries. As a final reflection we showcase the work of two portuguese architects Joana Vasconcelos e Fátima Fernandes as a contribution to their visibility and acknowledgment in Portuguese Architecture

Qualidade das relações de amizade e regulação emocional em adolescentes isolados-retraídos.

Dissertação de Mestrado apresentada ao ISPA – Instituto UniversitárioA presente investigação tem como principal objetivo, compreender a relação entre a qualidade da amizade e a regulação emocional, nos adolescentes isolados-retraídos. A adolescência caracteriza-se por ser uma fase de desenvolvimento humano onde os indivíduos sofrem profundas alterações a nível fisiológico, psicológico e social. Nesta etapa, as relações de amizade assumem igualmente uma enorme importância no desenvolvimento psicossocial e bem-estar dos indivíduos. Assim, o isolamento dos adolescentes, ativo e passivo, assume-se como um preditor para um desajustamento psicossocial que poderá resultar numa ineficaz regulação emocional. Partindo deste pressuposto, aplicaram-se os questionários Extended Class Play (ECP), Friendship Quality Questionaire (FQQ), Emotion Regulation Index for Children and Adolescents (ERICA) e Emotion Regulation Questionaire for Children and Adolescents (ERQ_CA), a um grupo de adolescentes entre os 12 e 15 anos de um colégio particular da zona da Grande Lisboa. Os resultados demonstram que, pelas suas características intrínsecas, os adolescentes isolados-retraídos possuem relações de amizade de fraca qualidade e, por isso, não adquirem competências psicossociais necessárias para uma eficaz regulação emocional. Por outro lado, estes indivíduos destacam-se por recorrer a estratégias de supressão como forma de modelar as suas experiências emocionais, o que tem consequências negativas tanto a nível afetivo como cognitivo e social. No que concerne ao género as raparigas possuem no geral relações de amizade de melhor qualidade e por isso mais capacidade de regulação emocional. No entanto, os rapazes isolados-retraídos possuem relações de melhor qualidade mas tendem a ter menos aptidão para modelar as suas emoções quando comparados com as raparigas.ABSTRACT: This research aims to understand the relationship between the friendship quality and emotion regulation in withdrawn adolescents. Adolescence is characterized by being a stage in human development where individuals experience profound physiological, psychological and social changes. At this period, the friendship relations also play a critical role in individuals’ psychosocial development and well-being. Therefore, adolescent’s social withdrawal, both active and passive, it is assumed to be a predictor of psychosocial maladjustment that could result in ineffective emotion regulation. Having this assumption as framework, the questionnaires Extended Class Play (ECP), Friendship Quality Questionnaire (FQQ), Emotion Regulation Index for Children and Adolescents (ERICA) and Emotion Regulation Questionnaire for Children and Adolescents (ERQ_CA), were applied to a range of adolescents aged 12-15 years from a private school in Great Lisbon. The results show that, due to its inherent characteristics, these withdrawn adolescents maintain poor friendship quality relationships and therefore do not get necessary psychosocial skills for developing an effective emotion regulation. On the other hand, these individuals stand out by using suppression strategies as a way to model their emotional experiences, which has negative consequences on emotional, cognitive and social levels. Concerning gender issues, girls have better friendship quality and therefore more ability to regulate emotion. However, social withdrawn boys have better relationship quality but tend to have less ability to shape their emotions when compared with girls

Convergence to equilibrium for many particle systems

The goal of this paper is to give a short review of recent results of the authors concerning classical Hamiltonian many particle systems. We hope that these results support the new possible formulation of Boltzmann's ergodicity hypothesis which sounds as follows. For almost all potentials, the minimal contact with external world, through only one particle of $N$, is sufficient for ergodicity. But only if this contact has no memory. Also new results for quantum case are presented

Corrosion Grade on Anchor Rods of Guyed Transmission Towers Applying Machine Committee / Grau de Corrosão em Hastes de Âncora de Torres de Transmissão Guiadas Comitê de Aplicação de Máquinas

The use of guyed structures in electric power transmission lines is a growing practice because of their cost efficiency. However, the anchor systems are subject to corrosion, which can lead to their rupture and loss of tower support. Monitoring the evolution of the corrosion of the anchor rods by visual inspection is a destructive and costly method; therefore, there is considerable interest in developing methods and tools that are capable of generating a maintenance diagnosis of the system. This work aimed to propose a classification tool for guyed towers in terms of the corrosion degree by a machine committee with neural networks and applied it to the Paraiso-Açu line located in Rio Grande do Norte in Brazil. Thirty-eight samples were collected and 33 variables related to the soil corrosion along the line were analyzed. The targets for training the networks were obtained from the inspection of anchor rods taken from the field. A simplification of the problem's dimension was proposed by principal component analysis, describing the phenomenon with 6 variables instead of 33, simplifying the practical application by massively reducing the requirements for data sampling in the field. Several network typologies were trained and the best ones in terms of their generalist and specialist capacities were combined in a machine committee for the final proposal of this work. The classification obtained by the application of the committee for 10 towers was compared with the classification from non-destructive impulse reflectometry tests and showed an 80% correlation

Pozzolanic effect investigation of silica hydrosol (SH) nanoparticles with different granulometric distributions dispersed in cement paste

The addition of nanomaterials to concrete allows structural modifications, improving their properties like mechanical strength and durability. Within these possible nanoscale materials is silica hydrosol (SH). There are many studies highlighting the influence of the surface area of SH particles on the pozzolanic reaction with cement, however little has been studied on the influence of percentage and particle size on the reaction. In this context, the objective of this work was to investigate the influence of the particle size distribution of silica nanoparticles on the pozzolanic reaction in cement pastes, from the comparison of 4 colloidal suspensions. The addition content of these particles, with different sizes, was defined as 3.00% (SH-A), 0.89% (SH-B), 0.77% (SH-C) and 0.32% (SH-D), to equalize the surface areas of all of them, so that the only variables were the percentage and particle size distribution of the silicas. The pozzolanic effect was evaluated by the direct method named Modified Chapelle test, and by indirect methods like Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT IR), and mechanical strength tests. It was concluded that for the same surface area resulting from the addition of SH, the sample that presented the best performance was the CP SH-A, which presented the largest particle size and volume of addition. However, when analysing the relative performance, regarding the concentration of SH added to the paste, the CP SH-D sample obtained the highest mechanical resistance and the highest pozzolanic index. It showed that concentration and particle size, not just surface area, influenced the performance of the nanosilica pozzolanic reaction. The conclusions obtained in the present work allow a better understanding about the addition of SH in cementitious composites and how the content and particle size of such products impact their performance.Keywords: Nanoaddition, Silica Hydrosol, Cement Paste, Pozzolanic Effect

Avaliação da taxa de corrosão do aço carbono 1040 em solo por modulação de frequência eletroquímica (EFM)

A taxa de corrosão instantânea do aço carbono 1040 enterrado em solo, por 6 meses, foi medida por meio da técnica de modulação de frequência eletroquímica (EFM) e pela resistência à polarização linear (LPR). Os resultados foram comparados entre si e com os dados de taxa de corrosão obtidos pela análise de conjuntos de materiais similares e sob mesmo tempo de exposição em campo. Os valores obtidos por EFM foram de (0,088 ± 0,008) mm/ano e, por LPR, de (0,075 ± 0,005) mm/ano. Já, pela perda de massa, foram calculadas variações de espessura deste material, de (0,064 ± 0,016) mm/ano. Assim, nas condições experimentais impostas pode-se inferir que os resultados obtidos pela técnica EFM, serviram para diagnosticar o desempenho do aço carbono 1040 submetido a um processo de corrosão em solo.Palavras-chave: Taxa de corrosão, aço carbono, solo, EFM, LPR.