Comparing the Productive Efficiency of Cooperatives and Private Enterprises: The Portuguese Wine Industry as a Case Study

This paper compares the efficiency of cooperatives and private enterprises in the Portuguese wine industry, employing data envelopment analysis (DEA). The use of DEA for the analysis of comparative efficiency within a sector is a key tool in evaluating organizational competitiveness. Competitiveness should be based on benchmarking the different types of organizations that comprise the viniculture sector. We conclude that Portuguese wine cooperatives, on average, are more efficient than their private counterparts. Economic implications arising from the study are discussed.cooperatives, private enterprises, technical efficiency, DEA, wine industry, Portugal, Agribusiness,

How a Reduction of Standard Working Hours Affects Employment Dynamics

On December 1, 1996, a new law was implemented in Portugal to gradually reduce the stan- dard working week from 44 to 40 hours. We study how this mandatory reduction affected employment through job creation and job destruction. We find evidence that the working hours reduction had a positive effect on employment through a fall in job destruction.Workweek reduction;policy reform;employment dynamics

How Working Time Reduction Affects Employment and Earnings

December 1, 1996 Portugal introduced a new law on working hours which gradually reduced the standard workweek from 44 hours to 40 hours. We study how this mandatory working hours reduction affected employment and earnings of workers involved. We find for workers who were affected by the new law that working hours decreased, while hourly wages increased, keeping monthly earnings approximately constant. We also find that the working hours reduction did not lead to an increased job loss of workers directly affected. Finally, we find that workers who themselves were not directly affected were influenced by the working hours reduction indirectly. If they worked in a firm with many workers working more than 40 hours before the change in law was introduced.Workweek reduction;policy reform;employment dynamics;earnings

Thermodynamics of Chaplygin gas

We clarify thermodynamics of the Chaplygin gas by introducing the integrability condition. All thermal quantities are derived as functions of either volume or temperature. Importantly, we find a new general equation of state, describing the Chaplygin gas completely. We confirm that the Chaplygin gas could show a unified picture of dark matter and energy which cools down through the universe expansion without any critical point (phase transition).Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, version "Accepted for publication in Astrophysics & Space Science

Domain of validity of Szegö quadrature formulas

AbstractAs is well known, the n-point Szegö quadrature formula integrates correctly any Laurent polynomial in the subspace span{1/zn-1,…,1/z,1,z,…,zn-1}. In this paper we enlarge this subspace. We prove that a set of 2n linearly independent Laurent polynomials are integrated correctly. The obtained result is used for the construction of Szegö quadrature formulas. Illustrative examples are given

A proposal for an air quality monitoring system for Cartagena de Indias

This paper presents an Air Quality Monitoring System for the city of Cartagena de Indias. The goal of this system is to monitor the air quality in the city and to establish the current state of the air Cartagena's citizen breathe. Data is going to be acquired through a sensor network, and the information is going to be displayed on web or mobile application allowing access from anywhere in the world to anyone that may be interested. It is expected that the availability of this information allows research centers, educational institutions, and government to design plans for prevention and improvement of the air quality in the city based on historical and real-time data. © 2019 Latin American and Caribbean Consortium of Engineering Institutions. All rights reserved

Resonant elastic and inelastic scattering. Astrophysical applications. New paradigm beyond drip-lines?

5 pages, 4 figures, Expérience GANIL/SPIRALInternational audienceTwo experimental techniques have been developed at GANIL using resonant elastic and inelastic scattering reactions in inverse kinematics. These techniques were used to study the structure of unstable nuclei. A brief description of the methods is presented through two examples of application in astrophysics. Moreover, new ideas and simple questions are put forward: what happens in the low energy tail of unbound nuclei ground state resonances

ON THE LOCALIZED PHYSICAL EXERGY DISAGGREGATION FOR DISSIPATIVE COMPONENT ISOLATION IN THERMOECONOMICS

Thermoeconomics is a discipline that connects Thermodynamics and Economics concepts, usually used for rational cost allocation to the final products of a thermal plant, by means of a model that describes the cost formation process of the overall system. Generally, exergy or monetary costs of the external resources are distributed to the final products. Exergy is the thermodynamic magnitude used in thermoeconomics and the physical exergy disaggregation has been introduced in thermoeconomics as alternatives for the isolation of the dissipative components and residues allocation. For plants with dissipative equipment, such as condenser or valve, the productive diagram, based on total exergy (E Model), need to merge this dissipative equipment with other productive components. In order to isolate the condenser, the productive diagram must use, at least, the H&S Model and to isolate the valve, the UFS Model has to be considered.Both disaggregation models greatly increase the thermoeconomic modeling complexity. Bearing this in mind, this work aims to evaluate the advantages of combining the E Model with these other models in order to adequately isolate the dissipative equipment. The plants studied herein are two different steam turbine cogeneration systems, with dissipative components (condenser or valve). The different monetary and exergy unit costs obtained for the two final products of each plant are compared and analyzed.  The results show that localized physical exergy disaggregation for dissipative component isolation in thermoeconomics is feasible, since it reduces the complexity of the productive structure and is also consistent from the point of view of thermodynamics

IMPORTÂNCIA DA DISCIPLINA ADMINISTRAÇÃO NOS CURSOS DE ENGENHARIA DA FURB

Este artigo tem como objetivo verificar a importância do ensino de administração nos cursos de engenharia tendo como base a formação e perfil do engenheiro requerido pela sociedade atualmente. A formação almejada é de um profissional de capacidade humanística, crítica e reflexiva elevada. Atualmente se espera do profissional de engenharia, não só o conhecimento técnico propriamente dito, pois já se passa pelo pressuposto que isso é uma condição inerente do profissional com uma boa formação, mas sim um conhecimento mais aprofundado de ciências humanas, sociais e gerenciais, sintetizando uma formação generalista. Acredita-se que para conseguir este perfil o profissional precisa ter em sua grade curricular básica, disciplinas de cunho humanístico social, que é o caso exemplificado neste artigo, as disciplinas de administração. Assim, como as demais áreas do conhecimento, o ensino de engenharia passa por uma constante busca de aperfeiçoamento com mudanças em seus currículos, para atender as necessidades atuais das novas tecnologias, demandas provenientes da sociedade e mercado de trabalho. Partindo do pressuposto que a inclusão das disciplinas de cunho de ciências humanas e sociais nas grades curriculares dos cursos de engenharia pode contribuir para dar suporte ao profissional em formação, analisou-se através de um questionário estruturado a disciplina de administração dos cursos de Engenharia Civil, Engenharia Química, Engenharia Industrial Elétrica e Engenharia de Telecomunicação da Universidade Regional de Blumenau, no segundo semestre de 2004. O questionamento principal é se o aluno percebe a importância deste tipo de disciplina na sua formação profissional. O resultado obtido é que o aluno, após ter quase a totalidade do conteúdo programado, consegue verificar esta importância, mas não consegue fazer ligações desta disciplina com outras de seu curso, ou seja a interdisciplinaridade dos conteúdos na visão do aluno não é alcançada em sua totalidade. Por outro lado, o perfil do docente é de uma pessoa capaz de transmitir sua experiência e trocá-las com os alunos, haja visto que muitos alunos já trabalham em sua futura área de atuaçã