From mega merger to mega failure: Bayer-Monsanto merger

In May 2016, Baumann landed in St. Louis with plans for the at-the-time largesteverall-cash deal. The transaction would combine Monsanto’s expertise in seeds and traits, and Bayer’s crop protection products creating the world’s biggest player in the agriculture-science market. After two years dealing with antitrust regulations, the German blue ship is now drowning in plaintiffs suing Monsanto’s best-selling product. Bayer share price has fallen nearly 30% since the closure of the $63billion mega deal and the company now worth barely what it paid for the U.S. giant seed compan

O equilíbrio dos ambientes aquáticos abordado com recurso à resolução de problemas na educação pré-escolar

O trabalho descrito neste relatório intitula-se O equilíbrio dos ambientes aquáticos abordado com recurso à resolução de problemas na Educação Pré-Escolar, tendo sido desenvolvido numa instituição de Educação Pré-Escolar do concelho de Albufeira, no âmbito da unidade curricular de Prática de Ensino Supervisionada II, do Mestrado em Educação Pré-Escolar da Escola Superior de Educação e Comunicação da Universidade do Algarve. O presente estudo teve como principal objetivo conhecer as perspetivas das crianças em educação pré-escolar relativamente ao equilíbrio dos ambientes aquáticos, com enfâse para os fatores que interferem com as dinâmicas de sustentabilidade dos mares e oceanos. As crianças foram sensibilizadas para a temática através de atividades de leitura de histórias e da realização de uma dramatização, para, em seguida, serem convidadas a demonstrar os conhecimentos que tinham e a capacidade que demonstravam na resolução de problemas relacionados com a mesma temática. Participaram 19 crianças no estudo, com idades compreendidas entre os 3 e os 5 anos, tendo-se adotado uma metodologia de investigação qualitativa com intervenção educativa. O problema apresentado enquadrava o reconhecimento dos habitats naturais dos seres vivos marinhos e a sua sustentabilidade, tendo sido explorado com recurso a um instrumento didático original, concebido especificamente para este trabalho. O instrumento didático foi eficaz para o conhecimento das ideias prévias das crianças em relação a ecossistemas marinhos tendo-se evidenciado que o ambiente familiar e o contexto social e regional têm uma forte influência no nível de conhecimento que as crianças demonstram. O conhecimento informal adquirido por estas crianças no contacto com a população da região, uma região costeira, com pesca, marinas e muitos barcos de recreio ligados ao turismo ficou registado nos materiais que selecionaram para colocar no ambiente aquático. Estes dados foram registados em tabelas e correspondem às soluções que as crianças propuseram para a resolução do problema e as respetivas justificações. As soluções apresentadas pelas crianças foram reveladoras da existência de consciência, sensibilidade e responsabilidade. Também se pôde inferir que as atividades complementares realizadas no âmbito do mesmo tema, intituladas o Teatro do Tubarão e a leitura da história Uma lição vinda do Mar foram úteis nesse sentido. Neste projeto, as crianças foram as protagonistas das opções a tomar na relação dos seres humanos com o meio natural com vista à sustentabilidade dos ecossistemas marinhos.The work described in this report is entitled The balance of aquatic environments using problem solving in Pre-School Education, having been carried out in a Pre-School Education institution in the municipality of Albufeira, within the scope of the Teaching Practice curricular unit Supervised II, of the Master in Pre-School Education of the Superior School of Education and Communication of the University of Algarve. The present study had as main objective to know the perspectives of children in preschool education regarding the balance of aquatic environments, with emphasis on the factors that interfere with the dynamics of sustainability of mares and oceans. The children were sensitized to the theme through activities such as reading stories and performing a dramatization, and then they were invited to demonstrate the knowledge they had and the ability they demonstrated in solving problems related to the same theme. Nineteen children aged between 3 and 5 years old participated in the study, adopting an educational research methodology with educational intervention. The presented problem framed the recognition of the natural habitats of marine living beings and their sustainability, having been explored using an original didactic instrument, designed specifically for this work. The didactic tool was effective in understanding the children's previous ideas in relation to marine ecosystems, showing that the family environment and the social and regional context have a strong influence on the level of knowledge that the children demonstrated. The informal knowledge acquired by these children in contact with the population of the region, a coastal region, with fishing, marinas and many pleasure boats linked to tourism, were recorded in the materials they selected to place in the aquatic environment. These data were recorded in tables and correspond to the solutions that the children proposed to solve the problem and the respective justifications. The solutions developed by the children revealed the existence of conscience, sensitivity and responsibility. It was also possible to infer that the complementary activities carried out under the same theme, entitled Teatro do Tubarão and the reading of the story A lesson coming from the Sea, were useful in this regard. In this project, children were protagonists of the options to be taken in the relationship between human beings and the natural environment, with a view to the sustainability of marine ecosystems

Game O\u27Clock: A Gamification Solution to Improve Time Reporting

Reporting the time spent working on different tasks is valuable both for companies and employees. Yet often employees fail to properly and timely report their time, hampering the implementation of the time reporting process. We propose a gamification solution to address this problem. A prototype was implemented based on Google Suite technologies and evaluated in the setting of a post-graduation course, whose students used the solution in the last eight weeks of the course. Results suggest that the number of timesheets submitted slightly improved, with a statistically significant increase of 8.9% when compared against the baseline. However, players think their motivation did not change after using the app, which is too simple to be engaging in the long term. They enjoyed the teams and leaderboards but think more rewards, individual achievements, and reminders should be available

A SURVEY OF FAILURES IN THE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

Software development is one of the most important worldwide industries and continues to grow. To deal with this challenge, organizations are adopting ever more tools and methodologies. However, software development projects are still failing in meeting time, budget and functional requirements. This study provides insights on the failures faced by software development organizations regarding their processes, the reasons leading to these failures, and initiatives taken to cope with them. A research methodology was used to gather and compare results from a literature review and semi-structured interviews. We learnt that there are more failures in Management activities, although they were not often reported, while failures in Requirements Engineering and Software Testing are less in number but more frequently reported. Lack of communication, lack of time for improvements and appropriate testing, and poor requirements and functionalities specification were the mostly reported failures. Furthermore, we learnt that organizations are not implementing any initiative to address these failures, although they suggested solutions

Asking simultaneously about truth and familiarity may disrupt truth effects

Tell me something that sounds familiar and I will believe it to be true. This is a statement that we should believe because it summarizes a well-documented and empirically supported effect: the illusion of truth effect (see Dechêne, Stahl, Hansen, & Wänke, 2010 for a review). The fact is we are more likely to believe a statement if we have been previously exposed to it (e.g., Bacon, 1979; Hasher, Goldstein, & Toppino, 1977). Repetition increases truth-value generating the illusion that repeated statements are more valid than information we never heard or read before. A general assumption of the explanations of the truth effect is that the subjective experience of processing a familiar statement is interpreted as informing about the validity of the statement (see Dechêne et al, 2010). This implies that a process of misattribution underlies repetition’s effect on judgments of truth (e.g., Bornstein & D’Agostino, 1994; Mandler, Nakamura, & Van Zandt, 1987; Schwarz, & Clore, 1983). In this paper we present an experiment that tests such misattribution process by making more or less explicit the real source of the feeling of familiarity with statements. In this way we test whether illusions of truth decrease when it is clear (vs. unclear) that familiarity is due to previous exposure

Biomechanical study of the Spider Crab as inspiration for the development of a biomimetic robot

A problem faced by oil companies is the maintenance of the location register of pipelines that cross the surf zone, the regular survey of their location, and also their inspection. A survey of the state of art did not allow identifying operating systems capable of executing such tasks. Commercial technologies available on the market also do not address this problem and/or do not satisfy the presented requirements. A possible solution is to use robotic systems which have the ability to walk on the shore and in the surf zone, subject to existing currents and ripples, and being able to withstand these ambient conditions. In this sense, the authors propose the development of a spider crab biologically inspired robot to achieve those tasks. Based on these ideas, this work presents a biomechanical study of the spider crab, its modeling and simulation using the SimMechanics toolbox of Matlab/Simulink, which is the first phase of this more vast project. Results show a robot model that is moving in an “animal like” manner, the locomotion, the algorithm presented in this paper allows the crab to walk sideways, in the desired direction.N/

Simulação da combustão de biomassa em leito fluidizado: balanço de massa

Mestrado em Engenharia do AmbienteO presente trabalho tem como propósito compreender a localização da libertação dos voláteis na combustão de biomassa em leito fluidizado. Como tal, foi desenvolvido um modelo de balanço mássico que consiga prever o comportamento de certas espécies gasosas (alcatrões, CH4, C2H6, CO, CO2, H2, H2O e O2) ao longo do reactor em leito fluidizado. Foi simulada a combustão de biomassa em leito fluidizado para uma temperatura de 800ºC e foram analisadas três condições de excesso de ar no reactor (40, 60 e 100%). Para a temperatura considerada e para cada condição de excesso de ar foi analisado o efeito da percentagem de voláteis libertados no freeboard (25, 50 e 75%m). Dos voláteis libertados no freeboard, considera-se que parte destes são libertados na parte superior do leito e assim sendo, considera-se que uma percentagem destes se liberta no último compartimento do leito (0, 25 and 50%m). Posteriormente, é feita uma comparação entre as simulações e os valores experimentais observando-se que a simulação que melhor descreve os valores experimentais é quando se considera que são libertados 56%m de voláteis no freeboard para as três condições de excesso de ar (40, 60 e 100%) para as diferentes espécies analisadas (O2, CO2 e CO) (ensaios com refª x-75-25). ABSTRACT: The present work has the proposition to understand the location of the release of volatiles in the combustion of biomass in fluidized bed. We developed a mass balance model that can predict the behavior of certain gaseous species (tar, CH4, C2H6, CO, CO2, H2, H2O and O2) over the fluid bed reactor. It was simulated the combustion of biomass in fluidized bed to a temperature of 800 ° C and were examined three conditions of excess air in the reactor (40, 60 and 100%). For the temperature considered and for each condition of excess air, we investigated the effect of the amount of volatiles released in the freeboard (25, 50 and 75%m). Of the compounds released in the freeboard, it is considered that some of these are released at the top of the bed and therefore, it is considered that a percentage of the releases in the last compartment of the bed (0, 25 and 50%m). Subsequently, a comparison between simulations and experimental values was observed that the simulation that best describes the experimental values is when one considers that 56%m are released m compounds in the freeboard to three conditions of excess air (40, 60 and 100%) for the different species analyzed (O2, CO2 e CO) (tests ref x-75-25)

Alta-Costura e as Aproximações da Moda com a Arte

O reconhecimento relativamente recente da moda como um campo de estudo por parte de instituições de ensino, universidades e pelo próprio mercado de consumo, criou a necessidade de estudos mais aprofundados sobre esta área. Desta forma, a moda ganhou um papel de destaque como objeto de pesquisa, estando assim aberta a novas experiências, carecendo, no entanto, de estudos académicos. É sobre este contexto que nasceu a temática retratada nesta dissertação, onde são procuradas, analisadas e discutidas as aproximações e interdisciplinaridades entre duas áreas distintas: a moda e a arte. Durante várias décadas, o debate da questão de a moda poder ser considerada uma forma de arte foi explorada por diversos autores e estudiosos de várias áreas, apontando sempre para a existência de uma dissolução entre as duas disciplinas, pontuado através de um momento bem definido na história: a revolução industrial. Este episódio histórico trouxe consigo a possibilidade da reprodução técnica, onde o único e o original se dissiparam, dando origem à produção em massa e ao consequente nascimento do design. Assim, se o design se distancia da arte através das suas regras e metodologias, é bastante lógico, seguindo essa mesma linha de pensamento, concluir-se que o design de moda também se distancia do universo das artes pelos mesmos motivos. No entanto, não se pode cair no erro de englobar nesta área, todas as ramificações pertencentes ao universo da moda, como é o caso da Alta-costura que reúne em si regras e processos muito próprios. Desta forma, o objetivo de estudo desta dissertação é analisar se de facto existe uma interdisciplinaridade entre a moda e a arte, procurando de que formas estas se aproximam e distanciam, usando a Alta-costura como a principal ferramenta de comparação entre as duas áreas. Devido à grande problemática da reprodução técnica como um dos principais fatores para a dissolução de proximidade entre as duas áreas, tornou-se necessário a aproximação entre a arte e a moda, através da aplicação formal e teórica do conceito de aura, postulado pelo filósofo Walter Benjamin para a obra de arte, uma característica que se perde através da reprodutividade técnica. Ao circunscrever o conceito de aura na moda, através da Alta-costura, irão ser revelados traços semelhantes à luz deste conceito, entre o objeto de arte e o objeto criado no âmbito da moda. No entanto, se Benjamin aponta para a fotografia como a forma rudimentar de reprodutividade técnica e para a consequente perda de aura, torna-se necessário verificar de que forma a mesma abalou o carácter aurático presente na Alta-costura. Ao invés do esperado, esta revelou como uma das maiores aliadas da Alta-costura, uma vez que o valor de exposição conferido através da produção de imagem não só lhe garantiu mais poder como difusora de tendências, mas também manteve inalterado o seu carácter aurático, que lhe é conferido através da tradição, raridade, unicidade e autenticidade.The relatively recent recognition of fashion as a field of study by educational institutions, universities and by the consumer market itself has created the need for more in-depth studies on this area. In this way, fashion has gained a prominent role as an object of research, being thus open to new experiences, lacking, however, academic studies. It is on this context that the theme portrayed in this dissertation was born, where the approaches and interdisciplinarities between two distinct areas are sought, analysed and discussed: fashion and art. For several decades, the debate about the question of fashion as an art form was explored by several authors and scholars from various areas, always pointing to the existence of a dissolution between the two disciplines, punctuated through a well-defined moment in the history: the industrial revolution. This historical episode brought with it the possibility of technical reproduction, where the unique and the original dissipated, giving rise to mass production and the consequent birth of the design. Thus, if design departs from art through its rules and methodologies, it is quite logical, following this same line of thought, to conclude that fashion design also goes away itself from the universe of the arts for the same reasons. However, one cannot fall into the mistake of including in this area all the branches belonging to the universe of fashion, as is the case of Haute Couture, which brings together very own rules and processes. In this way, the objective of this dissertation is to analyse if there is in fact an interdisciplinarity between fashion and art, looking for ways that these get close and get apart, using Haute Couture as the main tool of comparison between the two areas. Due to the great challenging of technical reproduction as one of the main factors for the dissolution of proximity between the two areas, it became necessary to approach art and fashion through the formal and theoretical application of the concept of aura, postulated by the philosopher Walter Benjamin for the work of art, a feature that is lost through technical reproducibility. By circumscribing the concept of aura in fashion, through Haute Couture, similar traits will be revealed in the light of this concept, between the object of art and the object created within the scope of fashion. However, if Benjamin points to photography as the rudimentary form of technical reproducibility and for the consequent loss of aura, it becomes necessary to verify how it has almost vanished the aesthetic character present in Haute Couture. Instead of what was expected, it turned out to be one of Haute Couture's greatest allies, since the value of exposure conferred through image production not only gave it more power as a trendsetter but also kept its auratic character unchanged, which is conferred on it through tradition, rarity, oneness and authenticity

Requalificação de parques infantis - Município do Entroncamento

A concepção de parques infantis encontra-se diretamente limitada pelo Decreto-Lei 119/2009 e indiretamente pelo Decreto-Lei 163/2006. O primeiro tem como objetivo o aumento da segurança nos espaços de jogo e recreio, o segundo estabelece normas de acessibilidade para pessoas de mobilidade condicionada. A articulação entre os diplomas legais, e destes com outros artigos ou variáveis pode ser limitativa, mas permite inúmeras soluções que aqui se exploram por si e na aplicação aos casos concretos em questão. Com base nesta experiência, pretende-se criar uma diretriz que facilite a concepção e execução de parques infantis e definir um ponto de partida para um estudo mais amplo e abrangente das questões relativas aos espaços de jogo e recreio; ### Abstract: The design of children parks is directly governed by Decree-Law 119/2009 and indirectly by Decree-Law 163/2006. The first aims at improving safety in playgrounds and recreation parks, the second establishes accessibility standards for persons with mobility impaired. Reconciling this legal instruments, and these with other articles or variables can be restrictive, but allows many solutions that are explored here by themselves and in application to specific cases in question. Based on this experience, the goal is to create a guideline to facilitate the design and build of children parks, as well as define a starting point for a broader and more comprehensive study of issues related to playground and recreation parks