Comunidades virtuales y producción de inteligencia económica y competitiva

CARVALHO, Andréa Vasconcelos . Comunidades virtuales y producción de inteligencia económica y competitiva. Inteligencia y Seguridad: revista de análisis y prospectiva, v. 3, p. 13-45, 2007

Utilização de um ambiente virtual de aprendizagem: um estudo na perspectiva da prática docente

Advances related to information technology are visible and inherent to the management of contemporary organizations, regardless of industrial action. Synchronized with this dynamic, educational institutions are incorporating technological tools that assist its management and academic support to teachers in teaching and interaction with the students. Given that technological innovations are not always taken homogeneously and with the same degree of coverage, remain current and relevant studies on how these technologies are being used in academia. The objective of this research is to identify the usage profile of the functionality of a virtual learning environment related to teaching (undergraduate or postgraduate), demographic variables (age and gender) and institutional (time of admission and academic center of origin.) The methodology applied to the study is descriptive and quantitative. The research is characterized as census, covering all 2152 teachers of undergraduate and graduate students of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil, who accessed the virtual classes of the Integrated Management of Academic Activities. The study findings revealed that there is a statistically significant difference regarding the use of these tools to teachers who work with undergraduate (49.3%) compared to graduate (6.6%). Regarding gender, women (40.1%) use the system more than men (38.5%). It was also observed that the younger teachers, aged 37 years, are the most active users (42.5%) of the Virtual Class with respect to their elders. For teachers with up to three years time of admission to the UFRN, the pattern of use is more advanced than those with more seniority, as well as the faculty of the Center for Science and Technology are the least likely to use the tools available in relation to other academic centers. It is hoped that with this study managers can direct actions to improve and expand the use of this environment by teachers

A perda de grupos funcionais em comunidades virtuais: efeito das interações entre espécies e grupos funcionais

High levels of local, regional, and global extinctions has progressively simplified communities in terms of both species and ecosystem functioning. Theoretical models demonstrated that the degree of functional redundancy determines the rates of functional group loss in response to species extinctions. Here, we improve the theoretical predictions by incorporating in the model interactions between species and between functional groups. In this study, we tested the effect of different scenarios of interspecific interactions and effects between functional groups on the resistance to loss of community functional groups. Virtual communities have been built with different distribution patterns of species in functional groups, both with high and low evenness. A matrix A was created to represent the net effect of interspecific interactions among all species, representing nesting patterns, modularity, sensitive species, and dominant species. Moreover, a second matrix B was created to represent the interactions between functional groups, also exhibiting different patterns. The extinction probability of each species was calculated based on community species richness and by the intensity of the interspecific interactions that act upon it and group to which it belongs. In the model, successive extinctions decrease the community species richness, the degree of functional redundancy and, consequently, the number of functional groups that remain in the system. For each scenario of functional redundancy, A, and B, we ran 1000 simulations to generate an average functional extinction curve. Different model assumptions were able to generate remarkable variation on functional extinction curves. More extreme variations occurred when the matrix A and B caused a higher heterogeneity in the species extinction probability. Scenarios with sensitive species, positive or negative, showed a greater variation than the scenarios with dominant species. Nested interactions showed greater variation than scenarios where the interactions were in modules. Communities with maximal functional evenness can only be destabilized by the interactions between species and functional groups. In contrast, communities with low functional evenness can have its resistance either increased or decreased by the interactions. The concentration of positive interactions in low redundancy groups or negative interactions in high redundancy groups was able to decrease the functional extinction rates. In contrast, the concentration of negative interactions in low redundancy groups or positive interactions in high redundancy groups was able to increase the functional extinction rates. This model shows results that are relevant for species priorization in ecosystem conservation and restoration