Labour Agency and Transnational Environmental Regulation - A Study of the Relevance of Global Framework Agreements

This thesis analyses how the growing role of labour actors in processes of environmental regulation is reflected in and influenced by the negotiation and implementation of global framework agreements that include environmental provisions (EGFAs). Departing from previous studies of GFAs, the thesis provides a thoroughly contextualised thematic analysis of GFAs focussed on environmental issues, using a trans-disciplinary approach, combining legal and sociological perspectives through the prism of labour environmentalism. It asks how the inclusion of environmental provisions is connected to other processes of environmental regulation, including through the agency of labour actors, mainly unions, at different scales. Data collection involves the creation of a database of EGFAs consisting of statistical information and an extensive account of their content, and an analysis of three case studies, chosen from the database and informed by semi-structured interviews and focus groups carried out with union and management representatives at various scales. Relying on a bourdieusian analytical framework articulated around the ‘thinking tools’ of field, habitus and capital, the thesis makes a methodological contribution by weaving together the analysis of the content of EGFAs and the cases. Ultimately, the thesis provides an empirical, analytical and theoretical understanding of practices of negotiation and implementation of EGFAs. Emphasising that context matters, it shows that these practices are connected to political, legal and organisational regulatory processes involving labour actors at multiple scales. The agency of labour actors in these processes relates to their capacity to connect to multi-scalar and multi-directional networks through the articulation of abstract rules, standards, notions, etc. with concrete situations. Focussing on processes of environmental regulation, prevalent approaches were found to be informed by different conceptions of the relationship between labour and nature and to translate into various understandings of the role of EGFAs, ranging from endorsement of companies’ CSR policies and practices to instruments of social and environmental justice

Labour productivity in state-owned enterprises

In the aftermath of the Global and Financial Crisis (GFC), between 2013 and 2015, the Portuguese government revoked four holidays for both public sector and private employees. We test whether the revocation had an effect on labour productivity in State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) in Portugal. Moreover, we also study whether such effects are different taking into account the SOEs managed by the Central Government or the Local and Regional Governments. Our results show that revocation of holidays did not impact labour productivity for either central or local and regional government managed SOEs. Though revocation of holidays espoused to improve productivity, the policy seems to have served a ceremonial purpose, but not an economic oneinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Música entre 0 e 1

O presente texto pretende, de uma forma resumida, e consequentemente não exaustiva, dar ao leitor uma perspectiva sobre o que é a digitalização do som e sobre as possibildades oferecidas por essa forma de representação sonora nos dias de hoje. Após uma breve descrição do processo de digitalização, será feita uma descrição das novas possibilidades que se abrem para análise e manipulação do som, assim como das vantagens na representação digital do som em projectos artísticos interdisciplinares servindo como veículo de interactividade entre as artes digitais

Algumas Aplicações do Software Geogebra ao Ensino da Geometria Analítica

Ao lecionar a geometria analítica nas turmas do 3ª ano do Ensino Médio, sempre observava que a maioria dos alunos não se lembrava das principais propriedades da geometria plana, e tinha muita dificuldade em fazer a analogia entre esta e o plano cartesiano. Visando a melhorar esse aprendizado, pensei em uma proposta de intervenção que fizesse o aluno trabalhar, de uma forma mais prazerosa, esse conteúdo. Com o advento da computação e do software GeoGebra, tentei elaborar aulas práticas, em duplas ou individual, para que eles pudessem revisar e aprofundar os principais conceitos da geometria analítica plana. Esse trabalho foi então elaborado de forma a fazer com que os alunos pudessem visualizar e aprofundar os conhecimentos previamente estudados no Ensino Fundamental e nas séries iniciais do Ensino Médio, visando a uma revisão mais aprofundada. Ele foi planejado com questões de modo a que o aluno analisasse certas propriedades previamente escolhidas, discutisse os resultados obtidos, a partir de algumas indagações, elaborasse argumentos que comprovassem as observações obtidas e descrevesse, de forma clara e sucinta, as relações e condições para explicar os conceitos e propriedades estudadas

The program in electronic music composition and musical production at the School of the Arts of the Polytechnic Institute of Castelo Branco

This paper presents the program in electronic music composition and musical production at the School of the Arts of the Polytechnic Institute of Castelo Branco (http://www.esart.ipcb.pt). This study program offers a 1st cycle degree and is functioning since the academic year of 2005/2006. At the conference, we will present the curriculum of the program, some recent work by the students, and the next phase in the program development, which includes making contacts with people and institutions to further develop the program through ERASMUS exchanges of faculty and students, hiring of new faculty members, and eventual creation of an European partnership for a 2nd cycle degree. Keywords: New academic programs in electronic music, electronic music, musical production, multimedia

A CONTOUR-BASED JAZZ WALKING BASS GENERATOR

This paper describes a contour-based algorithm for the real- time automatic generation of jazz walking bass lines, fol- lowing a given harmonic progression. A brief description of the walking bass procedure will be presented, and also a brief survey on some common implementations and tech- niques. This algorithm was implemented in the Max/MSP graphi- cal programming environment

Development and test of resistive superconducting fault current limiter; acting time and its recovery conditions

Resistive-type of superconducting fault current limiters (RSFCL) have been developed for medium voltage class aiming to operate at 1 MVA power capacity and short time recovery (< 2 s). A RSFCL in form of superconducting modular device was designed and constructed using 50 m-length of YBCO coated conductor tapes for operation under 1 kV / 1 kA and acting time of 0.1 s. In order to increase the acting time the RSFCL was combined with an air-core reactor in parallel to increase the fault limiting time up to 1 s. The tests determined the electrical and thermal characteristics of the combined resistive/ inductive protection unit. The combined fault current limiter reached a limiting current of 583 A, corresponding to a limiting factor of 3.3 times within an acting time of up to 1 s

Estrutura e distribuição espacial de andirobeiras (Carapa spp.) em floresta de várzea do Estuário Amazônico.

O objetivo geral deste trabalho foi avaliar se a densidade de ocorrência de andirobeiras é dependente da distância do rio Amazonas, analisando sua distribuição espacial e a estrutura diamétrica da população em um trecho de floreta de várzea no Estado do Amapá. Esse trabalho faz parte do projeto Florestam (Ecologia e manejo florestal para uso múltiplo de várzeas do estuário amazônico) e foi desenvolvido em uma área de proteção ambiental (APA) de 136,59 ha, localizada no Distrito da Fazendinha, município de Macapá - AP (00°03’04,24”S e 51º07’42,72”W). Foram lançados 3 transectos perpendiculares à margem do rio Amazonas, distanciados entre si a cada 500 m, para orientar no direcionamento e localização das árvores