Suchergebnisse

O "e-government" pelo uso que faz das tecnologias da informação e da comunicação (TIC) tem um importante papel a desempenhar na modernização dos municípios portugueses. As câmaras municipais portuguesas, quer pela sua natureza quer pela quantidade e diversidade de serviços que prestam ao cidadão, às empresas e a outros organismos públicos, muito têm a ganhar com a utilização racional das TIC para suporte aos seus modelos de negócio. A utilização das TIC, especialmente da Internet, pode contribuir para a prestação de melhores serviços ao cidadão e para o aprofundamento da democracia. O aumento da participação do cidadão nas decisões locais pode ser conseguido através do suporte à sua participação interactiva ou através de grupos comunitários e de decisores. Todos estes mecanismos assentes na participação e suportados por novas formas de comunicação de massas podem contribuir para melhorar a tomada de decisão. Saber como é que os municípios têm utilizado as TIC, principalmente a Internet, para que fins, e qual tem sido a sua evolução, são alguns dos objectivos de um conjunto de trabalhos que têm vindo a ser realizados nos últimos anos no âmbito do Gávea - Observatório de Tecnologias e Sistemas de Informação e cujos resultados estão publicados em [Santos e Amaral 2002] e [Santos e Amaral 2000], sendo aqui apresentada uma síntese da sua ...

Governments and organizations are creating Current Research Information Systems (CRIS) to follow the growth of the amount of research data, providing tools to collect, preserve and disseminate that data. At the same time, we are facing the appearance of standards designed to regulate CRIS development. Common European Research Information Format (CERIF) is a standard for managing and exchanging research data. There are several types of CRIS – institutional, regional, national and international. In this work we have just considered the national and international types of CRIS worldwide. Only seven of them were CERIF compliant. The aim of this study is to conclude if the use of CERIF is increasing the number of features in CRIS and how deep CERIF-compliant CRIS are adopting CERIF. Applying all the criteria considered in our methodology, only ten CRIS were analyzed, four of which are CERIF-compliant. CERIF tends to increase similarities between CRIS, in terms of its features and its data models. However, the need for customization of such systems leads to various implementations of the standard, creating an opposite effect of the one referred before. CRIS non CERIF compliant have as central focus the researchers. The CERIF takes CRIS to focus also on projects and institutions of the research domain. With this exception, the CERIF doesn't show an increase of the number of features. We also consider the use of Dublin Core to increase interoperability between ...

Purpose
– The paper aims to deliver a general review of the methods used to pursue the concept of a "sustainable university".


Design/methodology/approach
– The research was Internet based, and it included research papers, books, conference proceedings, technical reports and Internet Web sites. The review was divided in two main parts: sustainability implementation methods and assessment and report tools. In turn, the practices used on universities to implement included more "traditional" environmental sustainability initiatives and a more updated sustainable management systems.


Findings
– Because "traditional" sustainability environmental sustainability initiatives have flaws, more recent tools were developed to help manage sustainability. Two sustainability management systems specifically oriented to universities are outlined on this paper. They both highlight the advantage of disposing a systematized management system; the need of address environmental issues and putting special attention on the use of resources, especially energy, on campus buildings; the social responsibility of the institution; and educational and research sustainability activities that must be taken on universities. Managing sustainability in a university would be facilitated if the procedure used to implement sustainability is aligned with the tool used that assesses its performance.


Originality/value
– The paper presents an updated review of the efforts that universities have made in contributing to a sustainable development. It includes methods and tools used to manage sustainability within a university, including the ones used to implement, assess and report it. The paper also intends to highlight the need of consistency and coherence between the implementation method and the assessment and report tools.

[Excerto] Em 1970 morre o primeiro-ministro Oliveira Salazar, após mais de 40 anos de poder absoluto na política portuguesa. Deixou atrás de si um regime político estagnado, uma economia sub-desenvolvida, a ausência total de liberdades cívicas e políticas e uma guerra em África. O sistema científico e tecnológico português, reflectindo a situação económica global do país, era então muito incipiente. Após a morte de Salazar, o regime ainda tentou implementar algumas mudanças cosméticas como táctica de sobrevivência, mas a situação não melhorou significativamente até que, em 1974, uma revolução o derrubou e implantou a democracia. Apesar da estagnação geral, no final dos anos sessenta tinham ocorrido algumas mudanças que tiveram, mais tarde, um impacto profundo no sistema científico e tecnológico (C&T) português. Por essa altura, o então Ministro da Educação, Veiga Simão, enviou para o estrangeiro um número significativo de jovens, para fazerem investigação e obterem o doutoramento. A maioria foi para o Reino Unido que, nesse tempo, era uma excepção no contexto europeu, porque tinha um sistema de formação pós-graduada que permitia obter o Ph.D. em cerca de 3 anos. Outros foram para vários países europeus e para os Estados Unidos. Quando, alguns anos mais tarde, os jovens doutorados regressaram a Portugal, tiveram imensa dificuldade em continuar o seu trabalho, principalmente por falta de meios infraestruturais e de equipamentos, mas também devido à dimensão sub-crítíca dos grupos de investigação. É justo dizer que as coisas não melhoraram significativamente depois da revolução de 1974. Durante cerca de 10 anos o país atravessou grandes dificuldades para estabilizar a democracia e encontrar o seu próprio caminho em direcção a uma economia competitiva orientada para o mercado. Tudo isto inibiu o desenvolvimento do sistema C&T português, que, no começo dos anos oitenta, era ainda muito pequeno, concentrado sobretudo em Lisboa, com alguns grupos no Porto ou em Coimbra, trabalhando em centros anexos às ...

Prediction markets, in which contract prices are used to forecast future events, are increasingly applied to various domains ranging from political contests to scientific breakthroughs. However, the dynamics of such markets are not well understood. Here, we study the return dynamics of the oldest, most data-rich prediction markets, the Iowa Electronic Presidential Election "winner-takes-all" markets. As with other financial markets, we find uncorrelated returns, power-law decaying volatility correlations, and, usually, power-law decaying distributions of returns. However, unlike other financial markets, we find conditional diverging volatilities as the contract settlement date approaches. We propose a dynamic binary option model that captures all features of the empirical data and can potentially provide a tool with which one may extract true information events from a price time series.

Literature has highlighted the potential of information and communication technology (ICT) in building new models of public governance that promote fairness and accountability, which are key requirements in the fight against corruption. In this context, it is worth mentioning the sector of public procurement, since it is one of the most sensitive concerning any corruption risk. There have been a number of investments by governments towards the implementation of public e-procurement. Portugal is referenced by the European Commission as a good example in this regard. The question that arises is whether this would have an impact on the degree of trust between the citizens and governance, i.e. regarding perception of corruption. This paper explores the theme "ICT governance and transparency in the fight against corruption - the case of public e-procurement in Portugal." Thus, the aim is to discuss the abovementioned issue with a view in developing future investigations. ; This work is funded by FEDER funds through the Operational Program for Competitiveness Factors - COMPETE and National Funds through FCT - Foundation for Science and Technology under the Project: FCOMP-01-0124-FEDER-022674 and ...

Engineering plays an important role in this "brave new world" and it is in fact crucial for the development of science and technology. More importantly, it is responsible for the delivery of such technologies on the service of the betterment of humanity. Engineering must be aware of not only environmental but also social impacts of the outcomes of projects. Looking closer to the training of engineers, there is still a prevalence of good technical training without considering a broader knowledge achievement. This broader achievement is not a recent idea; the French School of Engineering implemented under Napoleon governance formed the "Mr. Engineer" that prepared leaders with high profile of technical knowledge. Even after the globalization phenomenon, with all the discussions about introducing humanistic courses in engineering programs, the results are humble. There is still a difficulty for engineers to address technology to solve social issues rather than to apply technology regardless social needs. The other point is that, currently, the design of a project for the "informed society" has to take the social as well as the environmental impacts into account. So the question is: how should the engineering school prepare the future engineer to perform in the new challenging social environment? If it is possible to suggest some actions, the key is to prepare the future engineers to learn how to work close to communities and governments, addressing the outcomes of the projects to solve sociotechnological problems. ...

Political environment is full of challenges and crises of deep consequences to society as well as to the environment and it has a strong incidence in terms of decision making in any field. It means that taking decisions is becoming more and more complex and difficult due to the fact that the implications are felt in a faster way and in a larger community. For engineers, the decision process is even more complex once the implications have serious impact not only to the target customers but also to the society as a whole and to the environment. This is an aspect that shows the necessity for engineers to search for the acquisition of an ability to respond to social necessities having in mind the cultural aspects when developing a project. The effects of this aspect in engineering education implies a different approach providing the future engineers with notions on policy, ethics and social sciences, which are so important to prepare them to the future work market that will require the respect and promotion of society and environment as assets [1]. Most of social groups have ambiguous understanding about science and technology; some understand it as responsible for the environmental deterioration and the voracious capitalism and others as the ones responsible for the better quality of life with the improvement of health systems, agricultural production and other accomplishments. Both perceptions are not far from the reality. In any case, the impacts can be seen along the history and more recently with the sophistication of the so called "information society". This particular "information society" shows how strong the impact of any technology introduced in society can be. Real time communication and brutal amount of information available have drastically changed how people relate, make business and study [2]. The proposal of COPEC - Science and Education Research Council for the next five years is the offering of an MBA by Distance Learning due to the new global education demand. The new programs will be delivered in ...

'Alī, son of Abī Ṭālib, Muhammad's son-in-law and cousin, is the only Companion of the Prophet who has remained to this day the object of fervent devotion of hundreds of millions of followers in the lands of Islam, especially in the East. Based on a detailed analysis of several categories of sources, this book demonstrates that Shi'ism is the religion of the Imam, of the Master of Wisdom, just like Christianity is that of Christ, and that 'Alī is the first Master and Imam par excellence. Shi'ism can therefore be defined, in its most specific religious aspects, as the absolute faith in 'Alī: the divine Man, the most perfect manifestation of God's attributes, simultaneously spiritual refuge, model and horizon. With contributions by Orkhan Mir-Kasimov & Mathieu Terrier Translated from French by Francisco José Luis & Anthony Gledhill