Coordinated multi-robot formation control

Tese de doutoramento. Engenharia Electrotécnica e de Computadores. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 201

Monitoring Stress and Promoting Awareness at the Workplace

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Improving efficiency in organizations by monitoring stress and promoting awareness and wellbeing at the workplace

Stress at the workplace has been associated with an increase in absenteeism and presenteeism in organisations, with a high impact regarding productivity and co-worker's wellbeing at the workplace. The paper addresses such concerns by considering an approach that can act preventively by implementing a framework for early detection of stressing symptoms. The aim is to provide the organisation with a situational-awareness tool to keep the decision-maker well informed about any suspicious situation requiring the user attention, providing insights based on the co-worker wellness and specific needs, prompting in this way a healthy policy environment at the workplace. The research challenge addresses observing coworkers based on parameters associated with health indicators and understands how their physical and mental behaviour at the workplace can be affected by stress levels, including studying the impact derived from the conditions provided at the workplace environment. The paper presents an ongoing research work for early recognition of the identified risk factors, and to engage the workers in becoming proactive in their workplace. The primary goal of this model is to monitor the risk factors with impact on managing stress at the workplace. From a management viewpoint, the proposed model addresses the general theory of systems, as each variable in a system interacts with other variables so completely that cause and effect cannot be separated, as the workplace and the collaborators are linked together in order to maintain an equilibrium as is the best efficiency and efficacy at organizations. We expect to develop an integrated, systematic and dynamic model to support decision-makers (e.g., health supervisor) with the embedded knowledge required to choose the best possible intervention for the maximum benefit of the client (i.e., co-worker). The Boyd Cycle complements the decision-making process in order for health professionals to make more informed decisions in useful time. The Boyd Cycle assumes the existence of constant feedback and reorientation based on existing information and intuition, promoting the management of the workers and environment information, leading to adjustments in the workplace in real-time. The research will adopt the Design Science Research Methodology (DSRM) approach, where each informational artefact is generated to address the challenges identified for the target group. The study object for the proposed model is the health sciences with a focus on the nursing discipline and will be validated using interviews, panels of experts and later with the use of simulations.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

What explains continuance intention in smartwatches?

Nascimento, B., Oliveira, T., & Tam, C. (2018). Wearable technology: What explains continuance intention in smartwatches? Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 43, 157-169. DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2018.03.017Smartwatch is a recent and significant development in the domain of wearable technology. We study continuance intention and its determinants, using a combination of the expectation-confirmation model (ECM) with habit, perceived usability, and perceived enjoyment, to explain the continuance intention of smartwatches. Based on a sample of 574 individuals collected from the USA, we show that relationships of ECM enhance the continuance intention, such as confirmation, perceived usefulness, and satisfaction, and also the role of habit and perceived usability. Additionally, we find that habit was the most important feature to explain the continuance intention of smartwatches. The paper ends with a discussion of the study's limitations and implications.authorsversionpublishe

The relationship between architeture and nursing

Objective: To identify the contributions that the nursing profession can make to the architecture of the health spaces in order to make them the most appropriate and sustainable as possible. Methods: Systematic review of the literature. Used the Nursing & Allied Health Collection databases: Comprehensive, CINAHL Complete, Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts; & MedicLatina. The articles were selected with the following criteria: 1. Full-text articles; 2. Peer-reviewed articles. 3. Articles published between 1994 to 2014. We selected 10 of the 117 articles presented. Results: Nurses can provide valuable contributions in accordance with its practice and holistic view of the patient that may lead to health outcomes, not only for patients and their families but also for multidisciplinary teams working in the various contexts of care such as acute care, primary care and long-term care, improving the work satisfaction and reducing the turnover. Healthy healthcare environments are associated not only with better health outcomes but also with better management of human and financial resources. Conclusions: it should be promoted a partnership and coordination between architecture and nursing, to promote healthy environments for patients and professionals, working together to eliminate architectural barriers and investing in financial and ecological sustainability of spaces. Further studies are needed to support this evidence.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

A utilidade de informações de livre acesso à biodiversidade para a representatividade de anuros da Mata Atlântica e Cerrado brasileiro

Muitas coordenadas geográficas de espécies estão disponíveis apenas em coleções biológicas, sendo muitas vezes de difícil acesso. No entanto, existem iniciativas recentes para compilar e organizar esses dados de biodiversidade em escala global. Nós avaliamos a efetividade dessas ferramentas gratuitas de acesso à informação biológica para representar a ocorrência de anuros nos hotspots brasileiros Cerrado (CER) e Mata Atlântica (MA). Nós compilamos os registros de pontos de ocorrência de todas as espécies disponíveis em ambos os hotspots e identificamos regiões com alta e baixa representatividade de ocorrências de anuros para ambos os hotspots utilizando duas ferramentas gratuitas de busca por informação biológicas (The Global Biodiversity Information Facility - GBIF; projeto SpeciesLink). Foram registrados 13130 pontos de ocorrência para 409 anuros da Mata Atlântica (~77% das espécies conhecidas) e 12729 pontos para 176 espécies do Cerrado (~85% das espécies conhecidas). A densidade dos pontos de ocorrência não está distribuída aleatoriamente ao longo de ambos os hotspots. A maioria dos registros da MA está concentrada no sudeste do Brasil, sendo que as áreas mais densas no CER ocorrem em áreas de transição com a MA. Comparando com estudos prévios que utilizaram dados de coleções não implementadas nas ferramentas utilizadas neste estudo, concluímos que o GBIF e SpeciesLink não hospedam coleções biológicas importantes para anfíbios do CER e MA.Many geographic coordinates of species are only available in biological collections, and sometimes it is difficult to access these data. However, recent initiatives promise to compile and organize such biodiversity data at a global scale. We evaluated the effectiveness of open-access biodiversity information for forecasting the occurrence of anurans in two Brazilian hotspots - the Atlantic Forest (AF) and the Cerrado (CER). We compiled all available point-occurrence records for anuran species in both hotspots and identified the regions in each of the two hotspots having the highest and lowest number of anuran occurrences based on information from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and the SpeciesLink project. A total of 13,130 point-occurrence records were recovered for 409 anurans from the AF (~77% of the known species) and 12,729 records for 176 species (~85% of the known species) from the CER. Density of point occurrence data is not randomly distributed within the hotspots. The greatest density of Atlantic Forest records is in southeastern Brazil, and the densest areas in Cerrado occur in the transitional zones to the Atlantic Forest. Comparison of these results with previous studies based on traditional museum information revealed that many important collections of anurans from these hotspots are not included in GBIF and SpeciesLink

THE USE OF QFD AS A TOOL FOR QUALITY IMPROVEMENT IN THE RETAIL SALES AREA

The objective of this work is to use the QFD - Quality Function Deployment methodology to identify the desired and expected quality of the products and services in the sales area of a retail trade. The results will be obtained through VoC (Voice of Customer), which consists of data collection by interviewing and then a closed questionnaire, translating the real needs of the consumer into requirements of products and services. With the application of the QFD in the company it was possible to identify the target audience as well as its requirements, being necessary to carry out a planning to put in practice the opportunities raised. In view of these improvements, the company has had positive results both in product development and improvement in the production process and people, presenting to the company a growth of 7.7% in its sales.The QFD proved to be an excellent tool to aid in the quality management of the company, because it was possible to identify the main requirements and needs, thus allowing for more assertive information, eliminating assumptions

O cemitério dos vivos e a distinção entre autor e personagem no campo estético

Resumo: Este trabalho aborda a questão do aspecto autobiográfico e sua relação com categorias literárias como autor, enquanto consciência que objetiva a obra, e personagem, entidade responsável por vivenciar o todo da narrativa. Nessa perspectiva, na sustentação da tese de que os personagens criados por Lima Barreto não devem ser automaticamente associados ao escritor, analisaremos o texto de O cemitério dos vivos, escrito pelo autor carioca. Como suporte teórico, os conceitos de autor-pessoa, autor-criador e personagem, à luz da visão de Bakthin (2010), serão observados. Além desta fundamentação teórica, esclarecimentos bakthinianos apresentados por Faraco (2009) também se mostram consideráveis para ilustrar que, apesar de determinadas semelhanças, autor e personagem são, de fato, distintos