Os desafios da qualificação profissional pós-secundária não-superior (nível 4) para a inovação empresarial no contexto da União Europeia e dos países da OCDE

A maioria das nações mais desenvolvidas deve, em larga medida, a sua prosperidade à produtividade da sua força de trabalho. Esta produtividade relaciona-se, fundamentalmente, com dois aspectos essenciais. Por um lado, com o nível e adequação das qualificações e competências da população activa, as quais permitem desenvolver o empreendedorismo e criar riqueza e, por outro, com a qualidade e grau de sofisticação dos equipamentos, tecnologias, modelos de organização e sistemas de gestão de que as empresas dispõem. Nesta comunicação, elaborada por convite para apresentação na sessão comemorativa do 20º aniversário da AFTEM, no Porto, após a contextualização das exigências do mercado de trabalho em resultado da inovação empresarial e da emergência das economias baseadas no conhecimento, apresentam-se alguns estudos recentemente concluídos em diversos países e regiões da OCDE, nomeadamente, Austrália, Irlanda, Reino Unido e Escócia – nos quais se foca a necessidade de incrementar o nível de qualificações para responder às necessidades do tecido produtivo por forma a manter a competitividade da indústria e serviços desses países e regiões à escala global; em particular realça-se a importância de se aumentar a percentagem de população activa com nível 4 de qualificação profissional. Aborda-se, ainda, a situação da formação pós secundária não superior em Portugal (nível 4). Conclui-se, formulando algumas recomendações em termos de estratégias e de trabalho futuro com vista a dinamizar as oportunidades de qualificação de nível 4, em estreita articulação com as empresas, como forma de o tecido produtivo nacional dispor de níveis de qualificação de recursos humanos que permitam a mobilidade para novas actividades com maior valor acrescentado e, por esta via, atingir níveis de rentabilidade semelhante à dos restantes estados membros da UE e de outros países da OCDE.

The role of Lifelong Learning in the creation of a knowledge-based society for Europe: european policies

Link do editor: http://www.igi-global.com/chapter/role-lifelong-learning-creation-european/13314

All the world in a boat: portuguese folklore, common sense and ideology

This essay sees “through” an object produced by Portuguese folklore: the moliceiro boat of Ria de Aveiro, whose most original characteristic is the group of four different panels painted on each boat. These unique panels have echoed national mythologies and have undergone influence from institutional channels of instruction and propaganda for much of the twentieth century. We will analyse how this boat expresses the inventory of a community’s identity, imagination, and practices.

The Role of lifelong learning in creation of a european knowledge-based society

The dominant discourse in education and training policies, at the turn of the millennium, was on lifelong learning (LLL) in the context of a knowledge-based society. As Green points (2002, pp. 611-612) several factors contribute to this global trend: The demographic change: In most advanced countries, the average age of the population is increasing, as people live longer; The effects of globalisation: Including both economic restructuring and cultural change which have impacts on the world of education; Global economic restructuring: Which causes, for example, a more intense demand for a higher order of skills; the intensified economic competition, forcing a wave of restructuring and creating enormous pressure to train and retrain the workforce In parallel, the “significance of the international division of labour cannot be underestimated for higher education”, as pointed out by Jarvis (1999, p. 250). This author goes on to argue that globalisation has exacerbated differentiation in the labour market, with the First World converting faster to a knowledge economy and a service society, while a great deal of the actual manufacturing is done elsewhere.

Custo histórico versus justo valor

Oriêntador: Mestre Carlos Pedro

Virtual power producers integration into MASCEM

All over the world Distributed Generation is seen as a valuable help to get cleaner and more efficient electricity. Under this context distributed generators, owned by different decentralized players can provide a significant amount of the electricity generation. To get negotiation power and advantages of scale economy, these players can be aggregated giving place to a new concept: the Virtual Power Producer. Virtual Power Producers are multi-technology and multi-site heterogeneous entities. Virtual Power Producers should adopt organization and management methodologies so that they can make Distributed Generation a really profitable activity, able to participate in the market. In this paper we address the integration of Virtual Power Producers into an electricity market simulator –MASCEM – as a coalition of distributed producers.

A multi-agent system for the support of producer coalition formation in electricity markets

All over the world Distributed Generation is seen as a valuable help to get cleaner and more efficient electricity. To get negotiation power and advantages of scale economy, distributed producers can be aggregated giving place to a new concept: the Virtual Power Producer. Virtual Power Producers are multitechnology and multi-site heterogeneous entities. Virtual Power Producers should adopt organization and management methodologies so that they can make Distributed Generation a really profitable activity, able to participate in the market. In this paper we address the development of a multi-agent market simulator – MASCEM – able to study alternative coalitions of distributed producers in order to identify promising Virtual Power Producers in an electricity market.

Introduction to the special issue on real world applications of intelligent tutoring systems

The idea behind creating this special issue on real world applications of intelligent tutoring systems was to bring together in a single publication some of the most important examples of success in the use of ITS technology. This will serve as a reference to all researchers working in the area. It will also be an important resource for the industry, showing the maturity of ITS technology and creating an atmosphere for funding new ITS projects. Simultaneously, it will be valuable to academic groups, motivating students for new ideas of ITS and promoting new academic research work in the area.

Contraste e alteridade na viagem contemporânea

No mundo contemporâneo globalizado, definido pela sua qualidade essencialmente fluida e instável, o carácter distintivo da viagem parece dissolver-se face à contracção do planeta, à economia das ―trocas simbólicas‖ e a um alegado processo de diluição das diferenças e de homogeneização cultural. Com efeito, a mediatização da sociedade e a proliferação icónica contemporâneas produzem um aparente estado de saturação da geografia real e de multiplicação de lugares enquanto representações e imagens, permitindo pôr em causa a própria necessidade e urgência de deslocação, bem como admitir a abolição do ―estatuto de privilégio‖ de certos lugares e a derradeira quebra no conceito aurático das férias e das viagens, tradicionalmente assente em antinomias cruciais entre o quotidiano/familiar e o diferente/extraordinário. O presente artigo propõe-se abordar o paradigma da mobilidade contemporânea, nomeadamente no que diz respeito à traumática aniquilação do espaço e do tempo e ao seu impacto fortemente disruptivo sobre a dimensão ontológica de uma prática cultural cujo poder aurático se encontra tradicionalmente relacionado com a conquista de distâncias, a percepção de diferenças e a experiência de alteridade. O artigo pretende, por outro lado, refutar a declaração pós-moderna de que a familiarização com o outro conduz a uma diminuição do potencial de choque cultural no turismo contemporâneo, discutindo a relevância e a prevalência da busca de contraste e formas de vivência de alteridade no complexo novelo de motivações da viagem turística contemporânea.

O impacto da implementação do Basel III no capital dos bancos portugueses

Este trabalho é uma análise dos efeitos da implementação das últimas recomendações do Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS) também conhecidas como o Basel III de 2010 que deverão ser faseadamente implementadas desde 1 de Janeiro de 2013 até 1 de Janeiro de 2019, no capital próprio dos bancos Portugueses. Neste trabalho assume-se que os ativos pesados pelo risco de 2012 mantêm-se constantes e o capital terá de ser aumentado segundo as recomendações ano após ano até ao fim de 2018. Com esta análise, pretende-se entender o nível de robustez do capital próprio dos bancos Portugueses e se os mesmos têm capital e reservas suficientes para satisfazer as recomendações de capital mínimo sugeridas pelo BCBS ou caso contrário, se necessitarão de novas injeções de capital ou terão de reduzir a sua atividade económica. O Basel III ainda não foi implementado em Portugal, pois a União Europeia está no processo de desenvolvimento e implementação do Credit Requirement Directive IV (CRD IV) que é uma recomendação que todos os bancos centrais dos países da zona Euro deverão impor aos respetivos bancos. Esta diretiva da União Europeia é baseada totalmente nas recomendações do Basel III e deverá ser implementada em 2014 ou nos anos seguintes. Até agora, os bancos Portugueses seguem um sistema com base no aviso 6/2010 do Banco de Portugal que recomenda o cálculo dos rácios core tier 1, tier 1 e tier 2 usando o método notações internas (IRB) de avaliação da exposição do banco aos riscos de crédito, operacional, etc. e onde os ativos ponderados pelo risco são calculados como 12,5 vezes o valor dos requisitos totais de fundos calculados pelo banco. Este método é baseado nas recomendações do Basel II que serão substituídas pelo Basel III. Dado que um dos principais motivos para a crise económica e financeira que assolou o mundo em 2007 foi a acumulação de alavancagem excessiva e gradual erosão da qualidade da base do capital próprio dos bancos, é importante analisar a posição dos bancos Portugueses, que embora não sejam muito grandes a nível global, controlam a economia do país. Espera-se que com a implementação das recomendações do Basel III não haja no futuro uma repetição dos choques sistémicos de 2007. Os resultados deste estudo usando o método padrão recomendado pelo BCBS mostram que de catorze bancos Portugueses incluídos neste estudo, apenas seis (BES, Montepio, Finantia, BIG, Invest e BIC) conseguem enquadrar nas recomendações mínimas do Basel III até 1-1- 2019 e alguns outros estão marginalmente abaixo dos rácios mínimos (CGD, Itaú e Crédito Agrícola).

Should the U.S. adapt to the world? The first debate on american exceptionalism and its impact on the founding of the United States

This paper aims at putting into perspective the recent, post 9/11 debate on the United States‘ alleged exceptionalism and its impact on the definition of American foreign policy. It reminds the readers that the United States was born as a result of a similar debate, at a time when a crucial choice for its future was to be made. Indeed, the Founding Fathers discarded the revolutionary idea that America was altogether different from other (European) nations and, as such, could succeed in saving republicanism and concentrate on domestic affairs. As Gordon Wood and Harvey Mansfield have shown, the 1787 version of republicanism stood as a departure from its earlier version, and such a change was necessary to the creation of a full-fledged federation, therefore paving the way to the current powerful Federal Republic. The early failure of the exceptionalist creed did not cause its disappearance, as the contemporary form of exceptionalism demonstrates, but created conditions that made an enduring and powerful influence very difficult.

Welcome to the new world disorder: conflict and transformation in Ian McEwan’s saturday

Ian McEwan‘s novel Saturday deals with the complex issues of conflict and transformation in the age of terrorism. The plot presents one internal dilemma and several interpersonal altercations that occur within a mere twenty-four hours: a) Perowne (the protagonist) vs. himself, in face of his ambivalent thoughts regarding British military participation in the war in the Middle East; b) The protagonist vs. Baxter, a ruffian from East End, in the context of a car accident; c) Perowne vs. a fellow anaesthetist, Jay Strauss, during a squash game; d) Perowne‘s daughter, Daisy vs. her grandfather, John Grammaticus, both poets and rivals; e) Perowne‘s family vs. Baxter, who intrudes the protagonist‘s house. In this paper, I exemplify, analyse and discuss how: a) Understanding the causes of what we call evil constitutes an important step towards mutual understanding; b) Both science and arts (which Perowne considers, at first, irrelevant) are important elements in the process of transformation; c) Both personal and interpersonal conflicts are intrinsic to human nature — but they also propitiate healthy changes in behaviour and opinion, through reflection. In order to do so, I resort to Saturday, and to the work of several specialists in the field of conflict management.

The Portuguese law on social economy

This study is a reflection on the Portuguese Framework Law on Social Economy, highlighting, from a critical point-of-view, its contribution to the explicit institutional and legal recognition of the social economy sector. It does so by defining the concept of social economy and listing the entities engaged in this sector, by defining its guiding principles and the mechanisms for its promotion and encouragement, and also by describing the creation of a tax and competition regime which will take into account its specificities. The setting up of this foundations of the social economy was based on the constitutional principle of protection of the social and cooperative sector, which substantiates the adoption of differentiating solutions in view of the positive discrimination of this sector.

CoS: a new perspective of operating systems design for the cyber-physical world

Our day-to-day life is dependent on several embedded devices, and in the near future, many more objects will have computation and communication capabilities enabling an Internet of Things. Correspondingly, with an increase in the interaction of these devices around us, developing novel applications is set to become challenging with current software infrastructures. In this paper, we argue that a new paradigm for operating systems needs to be conceptualized to provide aconducive base for application development on Cyber-physical systems. We demonstrate its need and importance using a few use-case scenarios and provide the design principles behind, and an architecture of a co-operating system or CoS that can serve as an example of this new paradigm.

Direct-search penalty/barrier methods

In Nonlinear Optimization Penalty and Barrier Methods are normally used to solve Constrained Problems. There are several Penalty/Barrier Methods and they are used in several areas from Engineering to Economy, through Biology, Chemistry, Physics among others. In these areas it often appears Optimization Problems in which the involved functions (objective and constraints) are non-smooth and/or their derivatives are not know. In this work some Penalty/Barrier functions are tested and compared, using in the internal process, Derivative-free, namely Direct Search, methods. This work is a part of a bigger project involving the development of an Application Programming Interface, that implements several Optimization Methods, to be used in applications that need to solve constrained and/or unconstrained Nonlinear Optimization Problems. Besides the use of it in applied mathematics research it is also to be used in engineering software packages.