Launching advwise, a digital consulting start-up

The following research aims to analyze how Advwise, a digital consulting start-up, should position itself in the market. It intends to differentiate itself from the competition by customizing the solutions offered to the current needs of Portuguese SMEs. Specialization in a more particular target client, taking into account the type of service they value most, is also in the scope of analysis. Thus, research was conducted on the concept of digital transformation; on the importance of a business model in defining the positioning and value proposition; and on the Portuguese consulting market. The methodology used to answer the research was the elaboration of a market study, which includes an analysis to the consulting market in Portugal, to the Portuguese small and medium enterprises market, and to the competitors within the sector. Moreover, an elaboration of interviews with companies from different industries was also conducted with the same purpose, proceeding to a qualitative and thematic analysis. Three dimensions were identified: the characterization of the growth of digital transformation in the market; the positioning in the consulting market; and customer preferences. This analysis concludes that Advwise should position itself as a digital development strategist, to distance itself from traditional consulting firms and IT companies. Its focus should be on medium sized companies with greater structure and financial means, adopting a role as a digital facilitator, through an ecosystem with partners specialized in various areas of digital. Working as a cluster it will provide an A-Z service, from planning to implementation and monitoring.A seguinte investigação pretende analisar de que forma a Advwise, uma start-up de consultoria digital, se deve posicionar no mercado. Pretende diferenciar-se da concorrência através da personalização das soluções oferecidas às necessidades atuais das PMEs portuguesas. A especialização num cliente-alvo mais concreto, tendo em conta o tipo de serviço que mais valorizam, também é alvo de análise. Assim, foi realizada uma investigação sobre o conceito de transformação digital; sobre a importância de um modelo de negócio na definição do posicionamento e da proposta de valor; e sobre o mercado de consultoria português. A metodologia utilizada para responder à investigação foi a elaboração de um estudo de mercado, que inclui uma análise ao mercado de consultoria em Portugal, ao mercado das pequenas e médias empresas portuguesas, e aos concorrentes do setor. Além disso, a execução de entrevistas a empresas de diversos setores foi conduzida com o mesmo propósito, procedendo a uma análise qualitativa e temática. Foram identificadas 3 dimensões: a caracterização do crescimento da transformação digital no mercado; o posicionamento no mercado de consultoria; e as preferências dos clientes. Nesta análise conclui-se que a Advwise se deve posicionar como estratega de desenvolvimento digital, para se distanciar das consultoras tradicionais e das empresas de TI. O seu foco será nas médias empresas com uma maior estrutura e meios financeiros, adotando um papel de facilitador digital, através de um ecossistema com parceiros especializados em diversas áreas do digital. Permitirá prestar um serviço de A-Z, desde a sua planificação à sua implementação e acompanhamento

Images of Russian Otherness in France and the Iberian Peninsula at the Turn of the 20th Century

PEst-OE/EAT/UI0693/2014If collective identity seems predicated on the distinction between “self” and “other”, the notion often entails a further dichotomy, that of “positive” and “negative” otherness. This dichotomy was recast by Debussy in terms of the opposition between the “savage” and the “barbarian” – an opposition with roots in Schiller’sLetters on the Aesthetic Education of Man, an early account of the malaise inherent in the experience of modernity. The stage was thus set for the conquest of Paris by the “noble savages” of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes from 1909 onwards, as the embodiment of a regenerative Slavic energy in an age of global decadence. Through the alliance of the aesthete and the savage, a decisive impetus was given to the resurgence of the “primitive” and its gradual assimilation into modernism. In the Iberian Peninsula, in turn, the Russian “other” was increasingly perceived as a “model self” worthy of emulation, as part of the quest for a viable expression of Spanish and Portuguese identities. The examples set by Glinka, the “Five” and Stravinsky (themselves occasionally drawn to Spanish local colour) became the object of unprecedented scrutiny, as potential templates for the fruitful exploration of the national element in music, reinforced by the belief in a natural affinity between Russian and Iberian sensibilities. In this paper, I offer a discussion of French and Iberian discourses on Russian alterity, with a focus on the ideas of Debussy, Felipe Pedrell, Manuel de Falla and Luís de Freitas Branco, as reflected in their writings and compositional practices. This study deals with representations of Russian otherness in France and the Iberian Peninsula at the turn of the 20th century. The spread of Russian music in the West was driven by the omnivorous taste for the exotic characteristic of the commercial and industrial bourgeoisie of the second half of the 19th century. Further on, the Franco-Russian political and military alliance was to act as a powerful catalyst for French Russophilia. The case of Spain and Portugal is particularly relevant, because the Iberian Peninsula in many ways appears to mirror Russia’s location at the edge of the European continent, in more than a merely geographical sense. Special attention is paid to the Portuguese composer Luís de Freitas Branco and his Suite Alentejana. This work can serve as a curious document of the circuitous nature of musical nationalism, by showing how an identity could, on occasion, travel all the way from Iberia to Russia, returning, so to speak, by the back door.publishersversionpublishe

Composer-Critics in Portugal (1930-1955)

UID/EAT/00693/2013Music criticism in Portugal from the 1930s to the mid-1950s was dominated, to a large extent, by composer-critics Luís de Freitas Branco (1890-1955) and Fernando Lopes-Graça (1906-1994), the latter an ex-pupil of the former. The two composers were close associates in a number of publications, from the journal De Música to the much later Gazeta Musical. In the pages of these and other periodicals, Freitas Branco and Lopes-Graça could often be seen to express similar beliefs in their common role as catalysts of Portuguese musical life. There were also political affinities between them: although a monarchist formerly associated with Integralismo Lusitano, Freitas Branco veered towards a more left-wing position in the 1930s, whereas LopesGraça became actively involved in the political opposition, eventually becoming a member of the Portuguese Communist Party. There were also differences between Freitas Branco and Lopes-Graça in aesthetic and cultural-political matters, as shown in a number of articles in which Lopes-Graça dared to challenge some of the most dogmatic views of the elder composer, with regard to the alleged rationality of polyphony and counterpoint as opposed to harmony, the value of racialist thinking in art, or the existence of a true organic tradition in Portuguese music. These controversies reflect wider debates in the Portuguese intellectual context, spurred by conflicting conceptions of modernism, national identity and the social role of the artist, as well as by the metamorphoses of the idea of “classicism” throughout the 1930s and 40s. In this paper, I trace a number of continuities and discontinuities in the critical production of Freitas Branco and Lopes-Graça, drawing on a selection of texts. In particular, it will be my purpose to analyse the textual and rhetorical strategies used by Lopes-Graça in his more polemical writings, testimony to an ‘anxiety of influence’ towards Freitas Branco that would also find a counterpart in his own work as a composer.publishersversionpublishe

Regeneration of Pinus pinaster forests after wildfire

Wildfires are of extreme importance in Pinus pinaster forests of central and northern Portugal. Reforestation plans after wildfires are generally made without consideration for the possibility of natural regeneration. This paper addresses the question of the factors responsible for the occurrence of natural regeneration and concludes that litter accumulation, rock outcrops, slope, aspect, harvest, fire characteristics, and stand age are well related to the regeneration observed. Limitations of the model proposed are discussed

Towards PWA in Healthcare

Nowadays there is a very large number of mobile applications that use the network to offer some functionality to users and because of this, applications are limited by the network conditions, such as network latency. These mobile applications usually are developed in a traditional approach, designated as a native approach and its goal is to develop the application to a specific operating system (iOS, Android). Applications used in a working environment are known to improve its process, but the network has the potential to decrease application performance and traditional mobile development is inefficient. Healthcare is a field with huge opportunities for application development because applications have the potential to improve work efficiency and quality of patient care. This paper consists of introducing the Progressive Web Application mobile development approach in the healthcare industry as an m-Health solution. It highlights successful cases of such an approach and key features, that allow establishing a reliable and resilient mobile application, that deals with most challenges involving the network nowadays and is a valid opportunity in the healthcare business. This document also presents a mobile health application for dietary evaluation, compares the PWA approach and other traditional approaches with a SWOT Analysis, PWA success cases, the INTCare system (an intelligent decision support system available in the Centro Ho spitalar do Porto) and the opportunity to use Progressive Web App in the INTCare's Electronic Nursing Record (ENR), which is a web interface that represents clinical patient information, integrated in a new proposed INTCare system architecture design. (C) 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.This work has been supported by national funds through FCT -Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2019 and Deus ex Machina (DEM): Symbiotic technology for societal efficiency gains -NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-000026

Universal α-central extensions of Hom-Leibniz n-algebras

We construct homology with trivial coefficients of Hom-Leibniz n-algebras. We introduce and characterize universal (α)-central extensions of Hom-Leibniz n-algebras. In particular, we show their interplay with the zero-th and first homology with trivial coefficients. When n = 2 we recover the corresponding results on universal central extensions of Hom-Leibniz algebras. The notion of non-abelian tensor product of Hom-Leibniz n-algebras is introduced and we establish its relationship with universal central extensions. A generalization of the concept and properties of unicentral Leibniz algebras to the setting of Hom-Leibniz n-algebras is developed.Agencia Estatal de Investigación | Ref. MTM2016-79661-

Analysis of the far ultraviolet silicon lines in G dwarf stars

The structure of the outer stellar regions is investigated for four G type dwarfs observed with the IUE satellite. Line fluxes of the Si II lines at 1817 Å, 1808 A, and 1309 Å and Si III at 1206 Å are used to obtain temperatures and electronic densities. A temperature of 16,000 K is found from the lines at 1817 Å and 1808 Å, 26,000 K from the 1309 A line and 50,000 K from that at 1206 A. Predicted fluxes are compared with the observed ones. The significance of the results is discussed in terms of line formation regions

The alcalar study: a quality of life comparative study on institutionalised elderly

Comparative evaluation on Quality of Life (QoL) perception on different communitarian residential institutional environments for senior citizens. Method: Cross-sectional comparative study, using a deductive and a descriptive statistical method on a sample of 50 senior citizens inhabitants in the Retirement-village St. Joseph of Alcalar (Alcalar group), 56 senior residents in traditional retirement homes (RSS group) and on 52 senior attendees of day care institutions (DCI group). This research comprised on two self-applicable questioners for elderly citizens on WHOQOL-BREF e WHOQOL-Old PT. We evaluated 158 senior citizens selected from 22 Institutions. Results: QoL levels perceived by Alcalar Retirement-village inhabitants were predominantly higher than QoL levels perceived by residents in RSS and DCI attendees. The trend in QoL results obtained by the Alcalar Retirement-village inhabitants just wasn't absolute because they were overcome by DCI attendees results in some (few) areas assessed in both WHOQOL scales. Conclusion: The Alcalar Retirement-village group globally showed higher levels of Quality of Life perception by comparison with the other two group subjects' residents and attendees, respectively, from RSS and DCI.FCT- Foundation for Science and Technology [UID/SOC/04020/2013

A lenda do litoral paulista

(Primeiro Parágrafo do Artigo)O litoral paulista merece, sem favor, a designação de cenário de epopéias.

An interpretation of the line-strength indexes in old stellar populations using an evolutionary synthesis approach

Evolutionary population synthesis models with dif­ferent metallicities have been computed in order to interpret the observed Mg_2 and Hβ, line-strength indices in old stellar popu­lations. Both indices are found to be quite insensitive to changes in the slope of the IMF and the upper mass limit. These models have been applied to three different cases, with the following results: a) Galactic globular clusters do not exhibit a significant dis­persion in age, and the metallicities of the computed models resemble those estimated for the clusters. The indices for the metal-poor globulars ([Fe/H] < -1) cannot be attained with these models due to the lack of low metallicity evolutionary tracks and stellar spectra libraries. b) The line-strength gradients observed in the elliptical gal­axy NGC 5813 are due, essentially, to intrinsic variations in metallicity, and they cannot be explained just from changes in the remaining parameters of the stellar population. c) In order to synthesize the M 32 indices we must introduce a star formation elapsed for a long time-scale , the star forrnation being still significant ≈ 5 Gyr ago