Analysis of pork quality categories in slaughterhouse

Trabalho científico apresentado no I congresso Nacional das Escolas Superiores Agrárias, Bragança, 2 e 3 de Dezembro de 2015Os produtores de carne podem vir a ter perdas de rendimentos se a qualidade da carne não for avaliada de uma forma exata aquando da sua comercialização. Uma grande variabilidade ao nível das carnes frescas conduz a produtos com uma grande variabilidade, se a qualidade não for devidamente controlada. A qualidade da carne de porco é influen‑ ciada por vários fatores genéticos e não genéticos ou ambientais, incluindo‑se entre os primeiros – entre outros possí‑ veis fatores – a raça, o genótipo, o sexo, a idade, o indivíduo e o músculo e entre os segundos – entre outros fatores – a nutrição e o maneio antes do abate. Estes dois conjuntos de fatores interagem e determinam o resultado dos processos metabólicos nos períodos peri e post mortem. As características fisiológicas da musculatura esquelética também explicam a variabilidade nas suas respostas metabólicas durante o stresse sofrido antes do abate e as subsequentes velocidade e amplitude do abaixamento do pH post mortem. No sentido de determinar a variabilidade na qualidade da carne num matadouro recorremos aos valores inicial e final do pH, ao valor Minolta L* e à percentagem de exsudação durante 48 horas, no músculo Longissimus dorsi de suíno. Com base nos valores desses parâmetros, utilizando critérios existentes na literatura e com base na nossa perceção técnico‑científica das próprias amostras, elaborou‑se um sistema de categori‑ zação da carne com oito categorias. Procedeu‑se à comparação dos nossos resultados com os resultados de estudos rela‑ tivos às categorias da qualidade da carne mencionados na literatura referentes a diferentes matadouros em diferentes países, de forma a identificar possíveis razões para a variabilidade encontrada.Meat producers have yield losses if meat quality is not assessed in an exact way when it is marketed. A great varia‑ bility in fresh meat leads to a great variability on meat products if quality is not adequately controlled. The quality of pork is influenced by various factors, genetic and non‑genetic or environmental. In the first group we can include, amongst others, breed, genotype, sex, age, the individual and the muscle, and in the second, amongst others, we can include nutrition and pre‑slaughter handling. These two groups of factors interact and determine the result of metabolic processes in the peri and post mortem periods. The physiological characteristics of skeletal musculature also explain the variability in its metabolic responses during pre‑slaughter stress and the subsequent speed and amplitude of post mortem pH decline. In order to determine the variability in meat quality in a slaughterhouse, we used initial and ultimate pH values, Minolta L* value and 48 hours’ drip loss in pig Longissimus dorsi. Based on the values of those parameters and using criteria found in scientific literature a meat category system comprising eight categories was elaborated. In order to identify possible reasons for the variability that was found we carried out a comparison of our results with those of other studies related to meat quality categories in slaughterhouses in different countries.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Iberia: Spain and Portugal

Both Spain and Portugal are strongly pro-European countries. After decades of relative isolation and socio-economic backwardness under authoritarian rule, in 1986 they simultaneously joined the then European Community as a way to support their democratisation, modernisation and international reorientation (see Royo and Manuel, 2003). Since their ‘return to Europe’, the two countries have been committed EU members, both being part of the Schengen and Euro areas as well as supporting advances in foreign and security cooperation. Located on the southern fringe of Europe, with less developed economies than their Northern partners, but with rich national histories that give them special ties to many countries around the world, the two Iberian neighbours have often held similar views and worked closely together within the EU, particularly for greater social and economic cohesion as well as stronger relations with countries around the Mediterranean and in Latin America. Madrid has, however, embraced deeper European integration in a more determined way than Lisbon, particularly on security and defence matters. While Spain has tended to be closer to a more Europeanist line as seen in countries such as Germany and France, Portugal has shown more affinities with the Atlanticist leanings of the Netherlands or the UK. Greater Atlanticism has been a way for Portugal to try and differentiate itself from its bigger and only neighbour as well as balancing more continentalist perspectives in Europe in general (see Algieri and Regelsberger, 1996; Rodrigues and García Pérez, 2011). Both countries also have important socio-economic links with the UK, especially in trade, migration and tourism. However, while Portugal has historical ties of friendship with Britain, based on a centuries old alliance that is now mostly symbolic but still valued, Madrid and London have kept a relatively low profile diplomatic relationship, in part a result of the deep-rooted dispute over Gibraltar. It is against this backdrop that Spain and Portugal approached Britain’s renegotiation, referendum and vote to leave the EU

Field lab Jerónimo Martins: optimization of retail operations - from the entry to the exit: a Pingo Doce & Go Nova customer journey analysis

Recognizing the recent efforts and uses of process mining, this paper propositions the use of this analytical discipline to delineate the customer journeys at Pingo Doce & Go Nova. With a goal to detect improvement guidelines, and increase sales and profits, a curated event log on Celon is Execution Management System, a process mining software, was used to detect operational inefficiencies and outline the customers behaviors and experiences within the store, offering result-based management strategies and recommendations of future works

Autonomous Obstacle Collision Avoidance System for UAVs in rescue operations

The Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) and its applications are growing for both civilian and military purposes. The operability of an UAV proved that some tasks and operations can be done easily and at a good cost-efficiency ratio. Nowadays, an UAV can perform autonomous tasks, by using waypoint mission navigation using a GPS sensor. These autonomous tasks are also called missions. It is very useful to certain UAV applications, such as meteorology, vigilance systems, agriculture, environment mapping and search and rescue operations. One of the biggest problems that an UAV faces is the possibility of collision with other objects in the flight area. This can cause damage to surrounding area structures, humans or the UAV itself. To avoid this, an algorithm was developed and implemented in order to prevent UAV collision with other objects. “Sense and Avoid” algorithm was developed as a system for UAVs to avoid objects in collision course. This algorithm uses a laser distance sensor called LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), to detect objects facing the UAV in mid-flights. This light sensor is connected to an on-board hardware, Pixhawk’s flight controller, which interfaces its communications with another hardware: Raspberry Pi. Communications between Ground Control Station or RC controller are made via Wi-Fi telemetry or Radio telemetry. “Sense and Avoid” algorithm has two different modes: “Brake” and “Avoid and Continue”. These modes operate in different controlling methods. “Brake” mode is used to prevent UAV collisions with objects when controlled by a human operator that is using a RC controller. “Avoid and Continue” mode works on UAV’s autonomous modes, avoiding collision with objects in sight and proceeding with the ongoing mission. In this dissertation, some tests were made in order to evaluate the “Sense and Avoid” algorithm’s overall performance. These tests were done in two different environments: A 3D simulated environment and a real outdoor environment. Both modes worked successfully on a simulated 3D environment, and “Brake” mode on a real outdoor, proving its concepts.Os veículos aéreos não tripulados (UAV) e as suas aplicações estão cada vez mais a ser utilizadas para fins civis e militares. A operacionalidade de um UAV provou que algumas tarefas e operações podem ser feitas facilmente e com uma boa relação de custo-benefício. Hoje em dia, um UAV pode executar tarefas autonomamente, usando navegação por waypoints e um sensor de GPS. Essas tarefas autónomas também são designadas de missões. As missões autónomas poderão ser usadas para diversos propósitos, tais como na meteorologia, sistemas de vigilância, agricultura, mapeamento de áreas e operações de busca e salvamento. Um dos maiores problemas que um UAV enfrenta é a possibilidade de colisão com outros objetos na área, podendo causar danos às estruturas envolventes, aos seres humanos ou ao próprio UAV. Para evitar tais ocorrências, foi desenvolvido e implementado um algoritmo para evitar a colisão de um UAV com outros objetos. O algoritmo "Sense and Avoid" foi desenvolvido como um sistema para UAVs de modo a evitar objetos em rota de colisão. Este algoritmo utiliza um sensor de distância a laser chamado LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), para detetar objetos que estão em frente do UAV. Este sensor é ligado a um hardware de bordo, a controladora de voo Pixhawk, que realiza as suas comunicações com outro hardware complementar: o Raspberry Pi. As comunicações entre a estação de controlo ou o operador de comando RC são feitas via telemetria Wi-Fi ou telemetria por rádio. O algoritmo "Sense and Avoid" tem dois modos diferentes: o modo "Brake" e modo "Avoid and Continue". Estes modos operam em diferentes métodos de controlo do UAV. O modo "Brake" é usado para evitar colisões com objetos quando controlado via controlador RC por um operador humano. O modo "Avoid and Continue" funciona nos modos de voo autónomos do UAV, evitando colisões com objetos à vista e prosseguindo com a missão em curso. Nesta dissertação, alguns testes foram realizados para avaliar o desempenho geral do algoritmo "Sense and Avoid". Estes testes foram realizados em dois ambientes diferentes: um ambiente de simulação em 3D e um ambiente ao ar livre. Ambos os modos obtiveram funcionaram com sucesso no ambiente de simulação 3D e o mode “Brake” no ambiente real, provando os seus conceitos

Equity research - ENCE, Energia & Celulosa, S.A.

Mestrado em FinançasO objetivo desta avaliação é estudar uma recomendação de investimento acerca de ENCE, Energia & Celulosa, S.A. Este relatório é baseado em toda a informação pública disponível à data de 16 de outubro de 2020 e foi desenvolvido de acordo com as normas e recomendações impostas pelo CFA Institute no "CFA Research Challenge". ENCE é uma empresa Espanhola produtora de pasta de papel e de energias renováveis. Durante a unidade curricular de Equity Research tive a oportunidade de estudar esta indústria, pela qual desenvolvi especial interesse devido ás sinergias da indústria do papel e das energias renováveis. A empresa ENCE foi avaliada através do Método Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC) para a indústria, confirmado pela avaliação através do Modelo de Dividendos Descontados, bem como, da comparação dos múltiplos de empresas concorrentes. Após os estudos de avaliação, obtivemos uma recomendação de manter as ações com um preço unitário de €2.44 no final do ano de 2021, representando uma valorização de 13% face ao preço da ação à data do relatório. Esta recomendação é baseada num nível de risco elevado, visto que a empresa está altamente exposta a várias flutuações de preço das matérias-primas como a madeira e a celulose, decorrentes da crise mundial que vivemos atualmente. A empresa está empenhada em expandir os vários segmentos de atividade, concretamente, a produção de pasta de papel e co-generação de energia renovável. Esta estratégia de investimento irá garantir um crescimento sustentado para a ENCE e para os seus acionistas no futuro.The objective of the report is to study an investment recommendation for ENCE, Energia & Celulosa, S.A. This report is based on the public information available until 16th October 2020 and it was developed according to the CFA Institute recommendation for the CFA Research Challenge. ENCE, Energía & Celulosa, S.A. is a Spanish company whose purpose is to produce paper pulp and biomass energy. During the course of Equity Research, I had the opportunity to study this industry which became interesting due to the synergies between paper and forest and renewable energies segment. ENCE valuation is calculated using a Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC) Method through Free Cash Flow to the Firm (FCFF) for the industry, complemented with Free Cash Flow to Equity (FCFE), Multi-Stage Dividend Discount Model (DDM) and a Relative Multiples Valuation. At the end, the recommendation of this report is to hold the common share with a price target of €2.44 per share in the end of 2021, which represent an upside potential of 13 % comparing with price of the common share at the report date. This recommendation is based on a high level of risk, since the company is highly exposed on external factors, like wood and Bleached Hardwood Kraft Pulp price fluctuations derived from the actual worldwide crisis. The company is expanding its business segments like, paper pulp production and renewable energy co-generation. This investment strategy will guarantee a sustainable growth for ENCE and its shareholders in the future.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Ferramenta de suporte para apresentação e gestão de dados recolhidos por sistemas autónomos

A medida que as tecnologias relacionadas com os sistemas autónomos progridem, a quantidade de informação obtida dos mesmos também progride. Os sensores que constituem estes sistemas estão a tornar-se progressivamente mais eficientes e a cooperação entre grupos de sensores torna-se cada vez mais complexa. Tudo isto justifica a necessidade da existência de um sistema de uso simples, o qual obtém dados de um número elevado de sensores ou grupo de sensores e os interpreta e visualiza de forma imediata. Uma solução a esta necessidade deve procurar adquirir informação providenciada por sensores associados a sistemas autónomos, seja esta informação obtida através de ficheiros de log ou através de comunicação direta através de sockets, seguida da escrita para bases de dados da informação interpretada. A ferramenta de manipulação de bases de dados, desenvolvida em Python, utiliza “MySQL” queries de forma a criar, alterar ou apagar tabelas dentro de uma base de dados, tabelas as quais serão preenchidas com os dados interpretados a partir de logs ou comunicação com sensores em tempo real, via sockets. Por outro lado, a ferramenta de visualização online, desenvolvida em HTML (Hypertext Markup Language), PHP (PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) e JavaScript, utiliza PHP de forma a obter dados através de “MySQL” queries e utiliza gráficos e outras ferramentas visuais, disponibilizadas através de JavaScript, de forma a demonstrar os dados obtidos de forma simplificada.As the technology of autonomous systems evolves with the passage of time, so does the amount of information we can obtain from them. The sensors that are part of these systems are becoming progressively more efficient and cooperation between groups of sensors is becoming ever more complex. All of this creates a need for a simple-to-use system, that obtains sensor data from a plethora of different sensors or groups of sensors and parses and visualizes them in an immediate fashion. A solution to this need should aim to acquire information provided by sensors associated with autonomous systems, be that information obtained from previously existent log files or through direct communication utilizing sockets, followed by the writing to databases of the interpreted information. Once that information is acquired, interpreted and stored, it should then be easy to visualize and access on any platform. The database manipulation tool, developed in Python, uses “MySQL” queries in order to create, alter or delete tables inside a database, tables which will be filled with the interpreted data obtained from logs or real-time sensor communication. On the other hand, the online visualization tool, developed in HTML (Hypertext Markup Language), PHP (PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) and JavaScript, uses PHP coding to obtain data through “MySQL” queries and uses graphs and other visual tools, available through JavaScript, to convey the acquired data in a simplified fashion

Calibration, selection and mosaicing of SMART-1 AMIE images

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia Electrotécnica e de ComputadoresSmall Missions for Advanced Research in Technology (SMART-1), represented European Space Agency (ESA) first mission to the moon. It fulfilled the goal of improving the scientific knowledge of earth’s natural satellite, while testing new technologies that had never been used in space exploration. Among the on board instruments of SMART-1 was the Advanced Moon micro-Imager Experiment (AMIE). It was an imaging equipment whose mission was to map the lunar surface providing state-of-the-art resolution. Containing six filters inside its visual scope AMIE allowed the study of the surface composition by multispectral imaging. This thesis aims at building a set of maps covering approximately all the Moon surface as it was mapped by the SMART-1 spacecraft, using the 31945 images captured by the AMIE instrument. During the Earth escape phase the instrument’s CCD was damaged by radiation, causing the accumulation of dark current and invalidating the laboratorial image calibration algorithm. The acquired dataset also suffered from scattered light that got beneath the CCD filters and reduced their contrast. In order to overcome this problem, a new calibration procedure was developed using the in-flight collected data and theoretical models, as well as a method to compensate for the reduced contrast in the filters. For building the lunar maps, the images were individually analysed and classified accordingly to their visual quality and grouped by their illumination conditions, allowing the creation of visually balanced maps. Image mosaicing and projection techniques were used to compensate the geometrical distortions and compose the calibrated images into a set of 88 maps of the Moon. Increasing the flexibility of the process, a comprehensive tool that allows the edition of the images in the mosaiced maps, as well as brightness and contrast correction and adjustment is also presented

Additive manufacturing of technical ceramics

Additive Manufacturing (AM) is an area intrinsically linked to industry 4.0 because of its ability to meet some of the most significant challenges in the industry such as production of custom parts, complex geometries and direct processing (through cloud manufacturing). Due to its advantages, the market for functional parts based on inorganic materials via AM is in great development. The present study has focused on the Fused Deposition of Ceramics (FDC) process, which is suitable, in combination with post-processing steps such as debinding and sintering, for the consolidation of ceramic powder particles from filamentary materials. Although the volume content of ceramic powders is very limited, due to the absence of high pressures, the FDC has been of scientific and industrial interest due to its ability to eliminate some limitations imposed by other processes such as Selective Laser Melting (SLM), due to the sources of high energy consumption, and Powder Injection Molding (PIM), due geometric and mold cost limitations. The major challenges of this dissertation involved producing filaments for FDC, based on PIM or powder extrusion (PE) methodologies, joining the filaments of feedstock with optimized ratios of tungsten carbide powder (48.5%vol.) that should withstand the stresses involved in the FDC extrusion, and providing suitable extrusion fluidity. Afterwards, the challenges were overcome and the shaped parts through FDC were debinded and sintered. These processes led to the production of near net shape WC-10Co parts with characteristics and properties close to those resulting from conventional replicative processes of the powders

Portugal’s strategic response to Brexit: enduring Europeanisation?

Portugal is an often neglected country in the literature on small European states and one which is significantly exposed to the effects of Brexit. While being a core EU member, Portugal has a historic alliance with the United Kingdom, sharing with it an Atlanticist outlook. Drawing on the literature on small states, New Institutionalism and Europeanisation, this article deals with the effects of Brexit on Portugal’s European strategy. More specifically, it examines the country’s coping strategies vis-à-vis Brexit, the underlying drivers of these diplomatic responses, as well as their implications for the Europeanisation of Portuguese foreign policy. It is argued that Portugal has hedged its bets to balance a firm EU commitment, the protection of important ties with the UK and a strong NATO engagement. In so doing, the country has exhibited an enduring but limited foreign policy Europeanisation, even more cautiously pragmatic than in the past.This work was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) [SFRH/BPD/99579/2014, UIDB/CPO/00758/2020]

Tecnologia 5G – Porque competem USA e China?

A TECNOLOGIA É HOJE E SERÁ CADA VEZ MAISno futuro, parte integrante da vida das pessoas, das organizações e do modo como as sociedades estão organizadas. Essa presença vai aumentar não apenas em volume ou importância operacional, mas transformando o modo de vida, a forma como a sociedade se organiza e funciona e consequentemente, os modelos de relacionamento. As sociedades modernas “alimentam-se” de inovação e de tecnologia. A tecnologia de comunicações e internet móveis é hoje um “must” dos 8 aos 80