The role of planning and accounting in SMEs

Mestrado Bolonha em ManagementAs Pequenas e Médias Empresas (PME) têm assumido um papel cada vez mais relevante nas estruturas económicas, especialmente ao nível do crescimento económico, criação de emprego, inovação e diversidade de mercado. Para este crescimento das PME, há vários fatores críticos associados, entre os quais o planeamento estratégico, a contabilidade organizada, e a evolução tecnológica. Este estudo pretende investigar as relações entre os tópicos apresentados, estudando a influência do planeamento estratégico e da contabilidade organizada no desempenho das PME, quais as vantagens de ambos e a forma como a evolução tecnológica afetou o seu desenvolvimento. Sendo o estudo realizado no âmbito na Greenvolt Next, uma empresa especializada na área das energias renováveis, é estudado o caso específico da Greenvolt Next, com o objetivo de perceber a importância das variáveis apresentadas no seu desenvolvimento e operação. Este estudo assenta numa metodologia qualitativa, conduzida através de entrevistas feitas a profissionais com cargos relevantes na Greenvolt Next Portugal, que foram desafiados a responder a um conjunto de perguntas sobre a empresa e as variáveis referidas. Os resultados obtidos, permitem interpretar que há uma clara influencia da contabilidade organizada e do planeamento estratégico no desenvolvimento da PME Greenvolt Next, sendo notório o crescimento sustentável, o aumento do controlo, a antecipação de problemas e a minimização do risco. A evolução tecnológica desempenha um papel fundamental no desenvolvimento do planeamento e da contabilidade, segundo as observações dos entrevistados. A nível académico, o presente estudo permitiu desenvolver o conhecimento sobre a influência do planeamento e contabilidade no desenvolvimento, explorando relações que ainda não tinham sido estabelecidas o. A nível empresarial, permite que as PME valorizem a importância e investimento associado ao planeamento estratégico e contabilidade organizada, de modo a aumentarem a eficiência, e promoverem o crescimento sustentável, a antecipação de problemas e minimização do risco.Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) have taken on an increasingly important role in economic structures, especially in terms of economic growth, job creation, innovation and market diversity. There are several critical factors associated with the performance of SMEs, including planning, organized accounting, and technological evolution. This study aims to deep investigate the relationships between the topics presented, studying the influence of strategic planning and organized accounting on the performance of SMEs, the advantages of both and how technological evolution has affected their development. Since the study was carried out at Greenvolt Next, a company focused on renewable energy, the specific case of Greenvolt Next is studied, to understand the importance of the topics presented in its development and operation. This study is based on a qualitative methodology, conducted through interviews with professionals in relevant positions at Greenvolt Next Portugal, who were challenged to answer a set of questions about the company and the subjects mentioned. The results obtained allow us to interpret that there is a clear influence of organized accounting and strategic planning on the performance of the SME Greenvolt Next, with sustainable growth, increased control, anticipation of problems and minimization of risk. Technological evolution plays a fundamental role in the development of planning and accounting, according to the interviewees' observations. At an academic level, this study has made it possible to develop knowledge about the influence of planning and accounting on development, exploring relationships that had not yet been established. Regarding the business level, it allows SMEs to appreciate the importance and investment associated with strategic planning and organized accounting, to increase efficiency, and promote sustainable growth, the anticipation of problems and the minimization of risk.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Realidade aumentada em manuais escolares de educação visual no 2º Ciclo do Ensino Básico

Mestrado em Promoção da Leitura e Bibliotecas EscolaresNa atualidade as Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação (TIC) têm um papel determinante na sociedade e também na educação. Tecnologias emergentes e agora largamente acessíveis, como a Realidade Aumentada (RA), apresentam inúmeros desafios mas também um campo de oportunidades únicas para os processos de ensino-aprendizagem. Esta dissertação incide sobre uma investigação realizada no campo educacional e pretende contribuir para uma melhor perceção dos contributos da tecnologia de RA na área disciplinar de Educação Visual (EV) no segundo Ciclo do Ensino Básico em Portugal. Para esse efeito, desenvolvemos e adicionamos conteúdos digitais multimédia ao manual escolar (ME) Imaginarte da Porto Editora. Estes conteúdos foram desenvolvidos em colaboração com um dos autores do ME e outros especialistas na área de EV. A investigação foi baseada no paradigma do Design Centrado no Utilizador (DCU), seguindo uma metodologia de Development Research (DR). Os dados foram obtidos a partir de uma investigação preliminar, de um estudo de usabilidade e de um estudo experimental comparativo. A partir dos resultados da investigação foi possível constatar que os professores de EV estão recetivos à utilização do ME aumentado com RA, que os alunos utilizam e valorizam os dispositivos de computação móvel (DCM), que os protótipos desenvolvidos cumprem requisitos de usabilidade e, finalmente, que o ME aumentado contribui para uma melhor aprendizagem relativamente ao ME tradicional.Presently, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) play a decisive role in society and in education. Emerging and now widely available technologies such as Augmented Reality (AR), present different challenges but also unique opportunities for the teaching-learning processes. This dissertation focuses on an investigation in the educational field and aims to contribute to a better perception on the contributions of AR technology in the subject area of Visual Education (VE) in the second Cycle of Basic Education in Portugal. To this end, we have developed and added multimedia digital content to the textbook (TB) Imaginarte published by Porto Editora. These contents were developed in collaboration with one of the authors of the TB and other experts in the VE area. The research was based on the paradigm of User-centered Design (UCD), following a methodology of Development Research (DR). Data were obtained from a preliminary investigation, a usability study and a comparative experimental study. From the research results it was found that the VE teachers are receptive to the use of TB augmented by RA technology, that students use and value the mobile computing devices (MCD), that the developed prototypes meet usability requirements, and finally, that an augmented TB effectively contributes to better learning than traditional TB

Impactos da agregação de freguesias em Portugal na perspectiva dos cidadãos: um estudo comparativo na região de Aveiro

Mestrado em Ciência PolíticaO poder local em Portugal tem constituído uma sólida base de apoio a uma jovem democracia que resultou da revolução de abril de 1974. A grave crise económico-financeira que Portugal atravessa foi a pedra de toque e a oportunidade para levar a efeito uma reforma do poder local em 2013, que permanecia inalterado há já 150 anos. Um dos aspetos mais relevantes dessa reforma foi a agregação de freguesias, que implicou uma redução drástica do número destas unidades submunicipais. Os principais objetivos desta reforma apontavam para benefícios ao nível da redução de custos, da criação de economias de escala e do aumento da qualidade dos serviços prestados aos cidadãos pelas freguesias. Esta reforma segue, portanto, os objetivos subjacentes a agregações de entidades locais em outros países, embora estas tenham ocorrido ao nível municipal. Os ainda poucos estudos realizados sobre esta reforma em Portugal têm estado focados no seu enquadramento jurídico, bem como nos processos políticos e técnicos subjacentes, o que mostra a pertinência do nosso estudo, que se foca nos impactos da reforma. O trabalho de investigação além de recorrer a uma vasta bibliografia que analisa o estado da arte a nível nacional e internacional, tem o seu enfoque nos resultados de um questionário, que procura compreender não somente o conhecimento que os cidadãos têm sobre o processo de reorganização territorial levado a efeito em Portugal, mas sobretudo as suas perceções quanto aos impactos que essa reforma gerou nas suas vidas. Este estudo permitiu-nos concluir, em primeiro lugar, que os cidadãos detêm um conhecimento muito débil sobre os processos de tomada de decisão sobre a agregação de freguesias. Uma outra conclusão aponta para o facto de haver um equilíbrio entre o número de inquiridos que deseja a reversão ou a manutenção da agregação. De igual modo, foi possível concluir que a maioria dos inquiridos considera não ter havido grandes alterações ao nível da qualidade da governação local e da prestação de serviços à comunidade por parte dos órgãos das freguesias, em comparação com o período anterior à agregação. Por fim, foi possível concluir que existem algumas diferenças de resultados quanto à aceitação do resultado da agregação e quanto à satisfação com o nível da qualidade da governação local e da prestação de serviços à comunidade por parte dos órgãos das freguesias entre os inquiridos que são provenientes de municípios que emitiram parecer favorável à agregação e aqueles que são provenientes de municípios que não o fizeram.The local government in Portugal has provided a solid foundation to support the young democracy that resulted from April 1974 Revolution. The severe economic and financial crisis that Portugal is going through was the touchstone and the opportunity to carry out, in 2013, a reform on local government, which had remained unchanged for over 150 years. The main goals of this reform mentioned benefits regarding a reduction of costs, the creation of economies of scale and an increase on the quality of services provided to citizens by Parishes. The goals of this reform are, therefore, in line with the ones from amalgamation processes that have been implemented in other countries, although at the municipal level. The few studies that analyse this reform in Portugal have been focused on the legal framework, as well as on the political and technical reform processes, which reveals the relevance of our study, focused on the reform impacts. This research work uses a wide bibliography that analyses the state of the art at national and international level, as well as the results of a survey that aims to understand, not only the knowledge citizens have about the territorial reorganization, but mainly their perceptions on the impacts the reform had in their lives. This study enabled us to conclude, first of all, that citizens have a very low level of knowledge about the decision-making processes that led to the reform of parishes. Another conclusion points to an equilibrium on the number of citizens that wish the amalgamation process to be reversed or continued. Likewise, it was possible to conclude that the majority of the respondents consider there has not been significant changes on the quality of local governance or the quality of services provided by the Parish authorities, when compared with the situation prior to the amalgamation. Finally, it was possible to conclude that there are some differences on the results regarding the acceptance of amalgamation and regarding the level of satisfaction with the quality of local governance and of services provided by Parish authorities between respondents from municipalities that issued a formal statement in favour of the amalgamation and from municipalities which did not

Oleico+ project : olive mill wastes and the sustainability of the olive oil industry in Europe

Every year more than 15 millions tones of olive mill wastes (OMW) are generated in the EU. Those wastes consist in vegetation waters, effluents from olive oil, washing, leaves and other solids coming from wet pomaces from two phase extraction systems. Each of these residues presents different challenges, and is sometimes covered by different legal frameworks at European and National level. The Oleico+ project (LIFE07INF/IT/438), brought together four European Institutions from olive oil producing Countries, Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal, to seek and select a set of environmental friendly technologies for the remediation or valorization of OMW, and to raise the awareness of olive oil stakeholders for an environmental sustainable olive mill waste management. The OMW management is becoming a critical issue for the sustainability of olive oil industry, because of the increasing quantities generated, the public environmental awareness and stricter environmental laws. Challenges posed by the OMW management are as diverse as the context of olive production itself. In all cases olive mill owners are in the top of an economic sector of major social and environmental importance in some of the more vulnerable Mediterranean regions of Europe, in an environment of depressed olive oil prices and a several of legal constrains and regulations. In this paper we examine the different contexts of OMW generation and management, their respective waste-streams and legislative frameworks. The work will also compare the situation across the four Member States, and presents the different technologies selected for the “Awareness Raising Campaign for the Treatment and Valorization of Olive Mill Wastes” now occurring in all Member Sta

Oleico+ sustainability in the olive mill waste management

Olive oil production generates olive mill wastes estimated at 2.5 million tonnes. More than 80% of olive mill wastes consist in water. Olive mill wastewater (OMW) has environmental impacts due to its high organic load and contents in phenols, lipids and organic acids. The project Oleico +, supported by the European Program LIFE, brought together 4 Institutions from 4 European Member States to seek and select a set of environmental friendly technologies for the remediation or valorization of olive mill wastes, and to raise the awareness of olive oil stakeholders for an environmental sustainable olive mill waste management. The OLEICO + project selected eight technologies to manage olive mill wastes that may be applied to different olive mill systems and amounts of waste generated. This selection was performed with a point to grid classification of technologies sustainability and status. To access eco-sustainability several parameters were accounted, including carbon dioxide emissions, landscape impacts and bead smells. Eleven technologies were selected out of 28 inventoried. Specifically five of these technologies deal with OMW and its detoxification, and four of them produce reusable water for irrigation. Other three technologies are focused in the energetic and or agronomic valorization of olive mill wastes. Some of these technologies present positive net income values, a many of them do not require specialized workforce, but the small dimension of olive mills make the management of olive mill wastes a challenge for the industr

Automatic Camera Calibration Using a Single Image to extract Intrinsic and Extrinsic Parameters

This article presents a methodology for accurately locating vanishing points in undistorted images, enabling the determination of a camera's intrinsic and extrinsic parameters as well as facilitating measurements within the image. Additionally, the development of a vanishing point filtering algorithm is introduced. The algorithm's effectiveness is validated by extracting real-world coordinates using only three points and their corresponding distances. Finally, the obtained vanishing points are compared with extrinsic parameters derived from multiple objects and with intrinsic parameters obtained from various shapes and images sourced from different test sites. Results show that through a single image, the intrinsic parameters are extracted accurately. Moreover, Using 3 points to determine the extrinsic parameters is an excellent alternative to the checkerboard, making the method more practical since it does not imply the manual positioning of the checkerboard to perform the camera calibration.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Olive Mill wastewater bioremediation by Bjerkandera paranensis: a sustainability and technological evaluation

Remediation of olive mill wastewater (OMW) is an important issue associated with olive-oil manufacturing, a widespread activity in the Mediterranean area. This high organic loading effluent contains water, organic acids, high-molecular-weight polyphenols such as tannins, antocyanins and catechins, which are considered to be responsible for its brownish black colour and toxic properties. The composition of OMWs is highly variable with respect to each individual component, depending on the process conditions and on the agricultural specificities. In this work, the ability of a “white-rot” fungus, Bjerkandera paranensis, to use undiluted OMW from a two phase process mill (COD = 11.1 gl-1; Phenol Content = 3.9 gl-1; ColourAbs395nm = 7.8) as a substrate was studied. The biodegradation potential of B. paranensis was assessed monitoring several physico-chemical parameters. A chronic ecotoxicity test (Vibrio fisheri growth inhibition test) was carried out to follow the detoxification ability of this fungus. In work, the results demonstrate that OMW was a suitable medium for cultivation of B. paranensis, with corresponding changes in the physico-chemical properties of the OMW. The results showed that B. paranensis removed 93% phenols and 54% COD from the culture medium within 21 days of treatment. In addition, the IC50s values obtained for the different treated samples showed a significant decrease in the effluent chronic toxicity to V. fischeri when the OMW pH was adjusted to 6.0 prior to the treatment (71.8 %), highlighting the OMW detoxification capacity of B. paranensi

New approaches to olive mill wastes bioremediation

Remediation of olive mill wastewater (OMW) is an important issue associated with olive-oil manufacturing, a widespread activity in the Mediterranean area. This high organic loading effluent contains water, organic acids, high-molecular-weight polyphenols such as tannins, antocyanins and catechins, which are considered to be responsible for its brownish black colour and ecotoxic properties. The composition of OMWs is highly variable with respect to each individual component, depending on the process conditions and on the agricultural specificities. Thus, different approaches are applicable concerning to OMW treatment and valorisation , considering the specificities of its production and in particular the oil extraction process. Besides there are several physical, physico-chemical, biological and combined processes to OMW detoxification, each may represent an opportunity for a specific condition. It is important to explore new possibilities that are both environmentally sustainable and economically viable. Under the biological processes the use of fungi and in particular white-rot fungi present a potential interesting alternative for depollution and biological chemicals production or for protein production for feeding. In this aspect we have been testing the ability of a “white-rot” fungus, Bjerkandera paranensis, to use undiluted OMW from a two phase process mill. A chronic ecotoxicity test (Vibrio fisheri growth inhibition test) demonstrated that the growth of this fungus contributed for a significant decrease of the OMW ecotoxicity and demonstrating the potential for further studies with this strain for an alternative biological route to OMW treatment and valorization

Lignin transformation by a versatile peroxidase from a novel bjerkandera sp. strain

A versatile peroxidase, purified from a novel strain of Bjerkandera sp. (B33/3), was tested for its reactivity on a lignin fraction obtained from straw pulping. The effects of such processing parameters as reaction time, pH, and lignin:enzyme ratio were evaluated. Gel filtration chromatography was employed to characterise the molecular mass distribution of the lignin fragments produced by the enzyme-mediated reaction. Our results have shown that such a versatile peroxidase can directly bring about transformations of lignin, even in the absence of external mediators