Bits, Atoms, and Information Sharing: new opportunities for participation

The particular characteristics and affordances of technologies play a significant role in human experience by defining the realm of possibilities available to individuals and societies. Some technological configurations, such as the Internet, facilitate peer-to-peer communication and participatory behaviors. Others, like television broadcasting, tend to encourage centralization of creative processes and unidirectional communication. In other instances still, the affordances of technologies can be further constrained by social practices. That is the case, for example, of radio which, although technically allowing peer-to-peer communication, has effectively been converted into a broadcast medium through the legislation of the airwaves. How technologies acquire particular properties, meanings and uses, and who is involved in those decisions are the broader questions explored here. Although a long line of thought maintains that technologies evolve according to the logic of scientific rationality, recent studies demonstrated that technologies are, in fact, primarily shaped by social forces in specific historical contexts. In this view, adopted here, there is no one best way to design a technological artifact or system; the selection between alternative designs—which determine the affordances of each technology—is made by social actors according to their particular values, assumptions and goals. Thus, the arrangement of technical elements in any technological artifact is configured to conform to the views and interests of those involved in its development. Understanding how technologies assume particular shapes, who is involved in these decisions and how, in turn, they propitiate particular behaviors and modes of organization but not others, requires understanding the contexts in which they are developed. It is argued here that, throughout the last century, two distinct approaches to the development and dissemination of technologies have coexisted. In each of these models, based on fundamentally different ethoi, technologies are developed through different processes and by different participants—and therefore tend to assume different shapes and offer different possibilities. In the first of these approaches, the dominant model in Western societies, technologies are typically developed by firms, manufactured in large factories, and subsequently disseminated to the rest of the population for consumption. In this centralized model, the role of users is limited to selecting from the alternatives presented by professional producers. Thus, according to this approach, the technologies that are now so deeply woven into human experience, are primarily shaped by a relatively small number of producers. In recent years, however, a group of three interconnected interest groups—the makers, hackerspaces, and open source hardware communities—have increasingly challenged this dominant model by enacting an alternative approach in which technologies are both individually transformed and collectively shaped. Through a in-depth analysis of these phenomena, their practices and ethos, it is argued here that the distributed approach practiced by these communities offers a practical path towards a democratization of the technosphere by: 1) demystifying technologies, 2) providing the public with the tools and knowledge necessary to understand and shape technologies, and 3) encouraging citizen participation in the development of technologies.

The globalisation in the clothing sector and its implications for work organisation: a view from the Portuguese case

The clothing sector in Portugal is still seen, in many aspects as a traditional sector with some average characteristics, such as: low level of qualifications, less flexible labour legislation and stronger unionisation, very low salaries and low capability of investment in innovation and new technology. Is, nevertheless, a very important sector in terms of labour market, with increased weight in the exporting structure. Globalisation and delocalisation are having a strong impact in the organisation of work and in occupational careers in the sector. With the pressure of global competitiveness in what concerns time and prices, very few companies are able to keep a position in the market without changes in organisation of work and workers. And those that can perform good responses to such challenges are achieving a better economical stability. The companies have found different ways to face this reality according to size, capital and position. We could find two main paths: one where companies outsource a part or the entire production to another territory (for example, several manufacturing tasks), close and/or dismissal the workers. Other path, where companies up skilled their capacities investing, for example, in design, workers training, conception and introduction of new or original products. This paper will present some results from the European project WORKS – Work organisation and restructuring in the knowledge society (6th Framework Programme), focusing the Portuguese case studies in several clothing companies in what concern implications of global context for the companies in general and for the workers in particular, in a comparative analysis with some other European countries.

On international cost-sharing of pharmaceutical R&D

Ramsey pricing has been proposed in the pharmaceutical industry as a principle to price discriminate among markets while allowing to recover the (fixed) R&D cost. However, such analyses neglect the presence of insurance or the fund raising costs for most of drug reimbursement. By incorporating these new elements, we aim at providing some building blocks towards an economic theory incorporating Ramsey pricing and insurance coverage. We show how coinsurance affects the optimal prices to pay for the R&D investment. We also show that under certain conditions, there is no strategic incentive by governments to set coinsurance rates in order to shift the financial burden of R&D. This will have important implications to the application of Ramsey pricing principles to pharmaceutical products across countries.

The simple economics of risk-sharing agreements between the NHS and the pharmaceutical industry

The Janssen-Cilag proposal for a risk-sharing agreement regarding bortezomib received a welcome signal from NICE. The Office of Fair Trading report included risk-sharing agreements as an available tool for the National Health Service. Nonetheless, recent discussions have somewhat neglected the economic fundamentals underlying risk-sharing agreements. We argue here that risk-sharing agreements, although attractive due to the principle of paying by results, also entail risks. Too many patients may be put under treatment even with a low success probability. Prices are likely to be adjusted upward, in anticipation of future risk-sharing agreements between the pharmaceutical company and the third-party payer. An available instrument is a verification cost per patient treated, which allows obtaining the first-best allocation of patients to the new treatment, under the risk sharing agreement. Overall, the welfare effects of risk-sharing agreements are ambiguous, and care must be taken with their use.

A fractional linear system view of the fractional brownian motion

Nonlinear Dynamics, Vol. 38

A signal processing view of differintegration

Proceedings of the European Control Conference, ECC’01, Porto, Portugal, September 2001

Innovation through virtual communities of practice: motivations and constraints in the knowledge-creation process

This paper appears in International Journal of Projectics. Vol 4(1), pp. 39-49

Interactive whiteboards in Portuguese primary schools: the teachers' view

Focusing on the use of Interactive Whiteboards (IWBs) in primary schools in Oeiras municipality, this article presents primary teachers’ views, from their experience, on the implementation of this innovation as a resource for the teaching and learning processes. IWBs have been recently launched in the framework of a major program aiming the technological modernization of Portuguese schools, in order to promote the use of ICT in teaching and learning, as well as in school management. Findings show that teachers are enthusiastic about Interactive White Boards because they really believe their pupils learn better and in a more joyful way. However, they draw attention to the need of training in order to fully exploit the potential of this resourc

A view of Teresa Ambrósio's work and life (1936-2007)

Proceedings of the 4th international conference Hands - on Science - Development, Diversity and Inclusion in Science Education, 109-115

Staphylococcus aureus: towards a comprehensive view on epidemiology and clonal spread

Dissertation presented to obtain a PhD degree in Biology/ Molecular Biology by the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica

Positive Epistasis Drives the Acquisition of Multidrug Resistance

The evolution of multiple antibiotic resistance is an increasing global problem. Resistance mutations are known to impair fitness, and the evolution of resistance to multiple drugs depends both on their costs individually and on how they interact-epistasis. Information on the level of epistasis between antibiotic resistance mutations is of key importance to understanding epistasis amongst deleterious alleles, a key theoretical question, and to improving public health measures. Here we show that in an antibiotic-free environment the cost of multiple resistance is smaller than expected, a signature of pervasive positive epistasis among alleles that confer resistance to antibiotics. Competition assays reveal that the cost of resistance to a given antibiotic is dependent on the presence of resistance alleles for other antibiotics. Surprisingly we find that a significant fraction of resistant mutations can be beneficial in certain resistant genetic backgrounds, that some double resistances entail no measurable cost, and that some allelic combinations are hotspots for rapid compensation. These results provide additional insight as to why multi-resistant bacteria are so prevalent and reveal an extra layer of complexity on epistatic patterns previously unrecognized, since it is hidden in genome-wide studies of genetic interactions using gene knockouts.

Protecção radiológica do doente em tomografia computorizada

RESUMO - A preocupação com os conhecimentos, atitudes, crenças e práticas, no que concerne à utilização de radiações ionizantes para fins de diagnóstico, e a sensibilização de todos os agentes envolvidos, médicos, técnicos, físicos, utentes e responsáveis pela Saúde Publica, relativamente aos níveis de radiação emitida nos exames de Tomografia Computorizada (TC), assume particular importância no domínio da Saúde Pública, na medida em que é necessário influenciar o desenvolvimento de práticas que promovam, auditem e garantam a prestação do controlo da qualidade radiológica e dosimétrica nos serviços de Radiologia a nível Nacional. Para tal, e no âmbito da publicação de estudos já realizados ao nível da União Europeia, ―Orientações Europeias dos Critérios de Qualidade para a Tomografia Computorizada (1999) ‖, é proposto estabelecer orientações na realização de estudos que permitam, numa primeira fase, estabelecer a comparação com os resultados obtidos pelos mecanismos de Controlo da Qualidade (CQ), analisar e proceder aos ajustes (se necessário) e, numa segunda fase, implementar uma moldura sistemática de avaliação periódica dos níveis de dose de radiação por exame TC e que permita a monitorização dos dados. Nesse sentido, propõe-se a realização de um Estudo Nacional que envolva a rede hospitalar pública, privada e universitária, partindo da metodologia utilizada em estudos prévios noutros países da Europa, como seja, selecção do equipamento de TC existente na Instituição Hospitalar, onde serão reunidas informações através do preenchimento de questionários relativos ao equipamento a utilizar. Serão recolhidos dados relativos ao utente, ao equipamento e parâmetros de aquisição de imagem, que permitam identificar os níveis de referência de diagnóstico (NRD) em TC, na realidade Portuguesa. Foi efectuado um estudo piloto numa instituição EPE e os valores obtidos não são significativos, nem podem assumir valor preditivo dado o reduzido tamanho da amostra. Apesar disso, sugerem a existência de parâmetros que podem ser alterados e com isso podem fazer variar a dose de radiação utilizada. ENSP/UNL Maria de Fátima Vaz de Carvalho 5 Espera-se obter com este estudo, como foi referido, a base do estabelecimento dos NRD em TC em Portugal. ----------------- ABSTRACT - The purpose of this study, in an empirical point of view, emerges from concern with the knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and practices regarding the use of ionizing radiation for diagnostic purposes and awareness of all actors involved, medical physical, technical, and responsible public health for the development of practices that promote, audited and ensure the provision of radiological quality control and dosing in radiology service at national level. In view of the complexity and characteristics involved in relation to ionizing radiation, all assume their part in protecting the physical integrity of each user and a global perspective, to ensure the safeguarding of public health, while global and globalizing factor. To this end, and in the context of the publication of studies already carried out at European Union level, "European guidelines for quality criteria for computed tomography", it is proposed to establish guidelines in conducting studies to initially establish the comparison with the results obtained by QC and make adjustments if necessary, and subsequently implement a systematic periodic assessment frame that allows monitoring of data. Accordingly, it is proposed to conduct a national study involving the public network, private and University hospitals, that extends from the methodology used in previous studies in other countries of Europe, as is, selection of equipment of existing CT in Hospital Institution, where information will be gathered by filling out questionnaires concerning the equipment to be used. Data will be collected for the wearer, equipment and parameters of image acquisition, identifying diagnostic reference levels (NRD) in CT in Portuguese fact. A pilot study was carried out in an institution EPE and the values obtained are not significant, nor can they take predictive value given the small sample size. Despite this, suggest the existence of parameters that can be changed and this can vary the dose of radiation used It is hoped to get with this study, as mentioned, the basis of the establishment of NRD in CT in Portugal.

User friendly knowledge acquisition system for medical devices actuation

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia Biomédica

A utilização de actos complementares de diagnóstico: uma análise económica

Dissertação submetida para obtenção do grau de Doutor em Saúde Pública Especialidade de Economia da Saúde

The effect of demand information sharing in a supply chain under demand uncertainty: a simulation study

Dissertação para obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Engenharia e Gestão Industrial