iMap : um mecanismo de inferência para mapas conceituais

Mapas Conceituais são representações gráficas do conhecimento de uma pessoa num dado momento e área de conhecimento. Por sua natureza investigativa, são utilizados como ferramentas de apoio em abordagens pedagógicas que objetivam promover a aprendizagem significativa. No entanto, o processo de avaliação de um mapa tende a ser custoso pois acarreta uma pesada carga de processamento cognitivo por parte do avaliador, já que este precisa mapear os conceitos e relações em busca de nuances de conhecimento alí presentes. Essa pesquisa tem por objetivo aumentar o nível de abstração nas interações entre o avaliador e os mapas conceituais fornecendo uma camada intermediária de inteligência computacional que favoreça a comunicação por meio de perguntas e respostas em linguagem natural, fornecendo ao avaliador ferramentas que lhe permita examinar o conteúdo do mapa conceitual sem exigir deste o mapeamento visual dos conceitos e relações presentes nos mapas avaliados. Uma ferramenta é prototipada e uma prova de conceito apresentada. A análise da arquitetura proposta permitiu definir uma arquitetura final com características que permitem potencializar o uso de mapas conceituais e facilitar diversas operações pedagógicas com estes. Essa pesquisa situa-se na área de investigação de sistemas de perguntas e resposta, aplicando técnicas de processamento de linguagem natural para análise da pergunta e interpretação do mapa conceitual e aplica técnica de inteligência artificial para inferir respostas às perguntas.

Criteria for ERP selection using an AHP approach

Information systems are a foundation key element of modern organizations. Quite often, chief executive officers and managers have to decide about the acquisition of new software solution based in an appropriated set of criteria. Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is one technique used to support that kind of decisions. This paper proposes the application of AHP method to the selection of ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems, identifying the set of criteria to be used. A set of criteria was retrieved from the scientific literature and validated through a survey-based approach.

A Abstracção na Modernidade: Da origem aos efeitos objectivos

No presente artigo propomos a discussão da abstracção enquanto objecto nos diferentes discursos da Modernidade. Partimos da ideia da origem abstracta do computador, segundo a abordagem histórica de Jon Agar — o computador como reflexo da sociedade capitalista. Esta ideia poderá ser indício da natureza abstracta das instituições com maior sucesso na sociedade ocidental das últimas décadas, focandonos no conceito de MacDonaldização, proposto por George Ritzer. Destas hipóteses encetamos um inquérito sobre o conceito marxista de real abstraction, reflectindo sobre as diferentes naturezas da abstracção, e das possibilidades de ser portadora de um sentido próprio. Esclarecemos esta relação, analisando as possibilidades relativas à questão da origem da abstracção, assim como das leituras sociais da mesma, quando considerada como objecto. Problematizamos as acções pedagógicas, em temáticas como “a luta da memória contra a razão”, considerando a abstracção como um fenómeno. Finalizamos com a possibilidade da abstracção não ter origem, ou seja, não ter causa, problematizando a relação entre doxa e razão, na sociedade contemporânea, dando enfoque especial na Sociedade em Rede.

Utilização do método Multicritério AHP, na aquisição de um sistema ERP

The selection of an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system is one of the most sensitive and highest impact processes in the area of information systems and technologies, because it supports and integrates the whole business of an organization. Hence the importance of deciding the best solution in order to contribute to the organization's competitiveness in a global and increasingly demanding market. Therefore, it is essential to provide tools to support decision making, turning complex and often intangible decisions into simple and quantifiable scenarios. This study addressed the adoption of the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) multicriteria decision method to support the selection of an ERP system. The literature review was the source used to obtain the set of the most relevant criteria to be considered in this decision, which were subsequently validated through systematic application of various surveys of experts and people related to the field of ERP systems. To support the application of AHP, according to the model obtained in the study, it was developed a web application that will be available to the general public. The responsible for the acquisition of ERP systems can use it to easily apply the AHP method based on validated decision model. On the other hand, the web application can be used as a validation tool, allowing collecting data for future developments of the decision model.

Modelos quantitativos de apoio as decisões: II

O sucesso da aplicação de técnicas de Análise das Decisões como apoio em problemas com um único objetivo predominante abriu caminho para estudos de problemas mais ambiciosos como os de decisões com multicritérios e decisões e de grupo (estes dois tipos utilizam metodologias muito semelhantes). Como evolução natural da Análise das Decisões, resultou a metodologia MAUT (Multi-Attribute Utility Theory). Seu rigorismo teórico torna as aplicações difíceis para um analista menos preparado. Como conseqüência, surgiu a metodologia AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) de utilização extremamente simples. A crítica ao AHP veio da escola européia que criou uma série de métodos conhecidos pela abreviação comum: MCDA (Multicriteria Decision Aid).

A blockmodel study of managerial hierarchies, verbal networks, and organizational culture in four hospitals

This study demonstrates and applies a social network methodology for studying the dynamics of hierarchies in organizations. Social network (blockmodel) analysis of verbal networks in four hospitals contrasted hierarchical and structurally equivalent partitions of the sociomatrices of frequent ties and perceptions of organizational culture. It was found that the verbal networks in these organizations follow a center periphery pattern rather than a hierarchical logic and that perceptions of culture vary more by verbal network than by formal hierarchy. The perceptions of culture of central groups in one organization are much like those of peripheral groups in another. In all four hospitals, structurally equivalent social networks are more important in predicting subcultures than are hierarchical groupings and hierarchy has a limited impact on the development of verbal networks. These findings suggest the value of an amoeba rather than a pyramid metaphor in interpreting the cultures and relational structures of organizations.

O conceito de valor para o consumidor : uma análise sob a óptica da metodologia Laddering

RESUMO: O constructo de customer value é aquele que melhor explica o comportamento do consumidor, uma vez que o seu objectivo é o de entender como os consumidores traduzem os atributos e consequências do uso de um produto em valores pessoais relevantes. A metodologia laddering, que tem como base a teoria das cadeias meios-fim, é um elemento teórico que se considera consistente para estabelecer a relação entre os atributos e os valores do consumidor. Esta dissertação pretende demonstrar a exequibilidade da metodologia laddering em estudos sobre o valor para o consumidor, percebendo quais são as vantagens e limitações do seu uso. É conclusivo que este método, através da construção de cadeias A-C-V, proporciona elementos de estudo que permitem a visualização de hierarquia de valores produzida pelos consumidores, função dos critérios de escolha destes durante e após um processo de compra. A aplicabilidade desta metodologia na perspectiva do valor para o cliente, permite a utilização dos seus resultados num conjunto de áreas específicas do marketing, das quais destacamos a segmentação e análise de mercado, a avaliação do posicionamento de produtos e marcas, a avaliação da publicidade e o desenvolvimento de estratégias de comunicação. ABSTRACT: The customer value construct is the one that best explains the consumer behavior, since its purpose is to understand how consumers translate the attributes and consequences of the use of a product in relevant personal values. The laddering methodology, which is based on the theory of means-end chains, is a theoretical element that is considered consistent for establish the relationship between attributes and consumer values. This thesis attempts to demonstrate the feasibility of the laddering methodology in studies about the value for the consumer, knowing what are the advantages and limitations of its use. It is conclusive that this method, by building chains A-C-V, provides elements of study that allows the visualization of the values hierarchy produced by consumers, according to the criteria of their choice during and after a purchase process. The applicability of this methodology from the perspective of customer value, allows the use of their results in a number of specific areas of marketing, which we emphasize the segmentation and market analysis, evaluation of product and branding positioning, evaluation of advertising and development of communication strategies.

Increasing availability through maintainability growth using partial Multi Criteria Decision Making (pMCDM)

In the last decades considerations about equipments' availability became an important issue, as well as its dependence on components characteristics such as reliability and maintainability. This is particularly of outstanding importance if one is dealing with high risk industrial equipments, where these factors play an important and fundamental role in risk management when safety or huge economic values are in discussion. As availability is a function of reliability, maintainability, and maintenance support activities, the main goal is to improve one or more of these factors. This paper intends to show how maintainability can influence availability and present a methodology to select the most important attributes for maintainability using a partial Multi Criteria Decision Making (pMCDM). Improvements in maintainability can be analyzed assuming it as a probability related with a restore probability density function [g(t)].

Mobi-system: assistente pessoal de viagem

Este trabalho sugere uma solução de integração de dados em tempo real no contexto dos transportes públicos. Com o aumento das alternativas oferecidas aos utilizadores dos transportes públicos é importante que estes conheçam todas as alternativas com base em informação em tempo real para que realizem a escolha que melhor se enquadre às suas necessidades. Por outro lado, os operadores de transportes públicos deverão ser capazes de disponibilizar toda a informação pretendida com o mínimo de esforço ou de alterações ao sistema que têm implementado. Neste trabalho serão utilizadas ferramentas que permitem fornecer uma visão homogénea das várias fontes de dados heterogéneas, sendo essa homogeneidade o ponto de integração de todas as fontes de dados com as aplicações cliente.

Eastwards / westwards: which direction for gender studies in the 21st century?

Eastwards / Westwards: Which Direction for Gender Studies in the XXIst Century? is a collection of essays which focus on themes and methods that characterize current research into gender in Asian countries in general. In this collection, ideas derived from Gender Studies elsewhere in the world have been subjected to scrutiny for their utility in helping to describe and understand regional phenomena. But the concepts of Local and Global – with their discoursive productions – have not functioned as a binary opposition: localism and globalism are mutually constitutive and researchers have interrogated those spaces of interaction between the ‘self’ and the ‘other’, bearing in mind their own embeddedness in social and cultural structures and their own historical memory. Contributors to this collection provided a critical transnational perspective on some of the complex effects of the dynamics of cultural globalization, by exploring the relation between gender and development, language, historiography, education and culture. We have also given attention to the ideological and rhetorical processes through which gender identity is constructed, by comparing textual grids and patterns of expectation. Likewise, we have discussed the role of ethnography, anthropology, historiography, sociology, fiction, popular culture and colonial and post-colonial sources in (re)inventing old/new male/female identities, their conversion into concepts and circulation through time and space. This multicultural and trans-disciplinary selection of essays is totally written in English, fully edited and revised, therefore, it has a good potential for an immediate international circulation. This project may trace new paths and issues for discussion on what concerns the life, practices and narratives by and about women in Asia, as well as elsewhere in the present day global experience. Academic readership: Researchers, scholars, educators, graduate and post-graduate students, doctoral students and general non-fiction readers, with a special interest in Gender Studies, Asia, Colonial and Post-Colonial Literature, Anthropology, Cultural Studies, History, Historiography, Politics, Race, Feminism, Language, Linguistics, Power, Political and Feminist Agendas, Popular Culture, Education, Women’s Writing, Religion, Multiculturalism, Globalisation, Migration. Chapter summary: 1. “Social Gender Stereotypes and their Implication in Hindi”, Anjali Pande, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. This essay looks at the subtle ways in which gender identities are constructed and reinforced in India through social norms of language use. Language itself becomes a medium for perpetuating gender stereotypes, forcing its speakers to confirm to socially defined gender roles. Using examples from a classroom discussion about a film, this essay will highlight the underlying rigid male-female stereotypes in Indian society with their more obvious expressions in language. For the urban woman in India globalisation meant increased economic equality and exposure to changed lifestyles. On an individual level it also meant redefining gender relations and changing the hierarchy in man-­woman relationships. With the economic independence there is a heightened sense of liberation in all spheres of social life, a confidence to fuzz the rigid boundaries of gender roles. With the new films and media celebrating this liberated woman, who is ready to assert her sexual needs, who is ready to explode those long held notions of morality, one would expect that the changes are not just superficial. But as it soon became obvious in the course of a classroom discussion about relationships and stereotypes related to age, the surface changes can not become part of the common vocabulary, for the obvious reason that there is still a vast gap between the screen image of this new woman and the ground reality. Social considerations define the limits of this assertiveness of women, whereas men are happy to be liberal within the larger frame of social sanctions. The educated urban woman in India speaks in favour of change and the educated urban male supports her, but one just needs to scratch the surface to see the time tested formulae of gender roles firmly in place. The way the urban woman happily balances this emerging promise of independence with her gendered social identity, makes it necessary to rethink some aspects of looking at gender in a gradually changing, traditional society like India. 2. “The Linguistic Dimension of Gender Equality”, Alissa Tolstokorova, Kiev Centre for Gender Information and Education, Ukraine. The subject-matter of this essay is gender justice in language which, as I argue, may be achieved through the development of a gender-related approach to linguistic human rights. The last decades of the 20th century, globally marked by a “gender shift” in attitudes to language policy, gave impetus to the social movement for promoting linguistic gender equality. It was initiated in Western Europe and nowadays is moving eastwards, as ideas of gender democracy progress into developing countries. But, while in western societies gender discrimination through language, or linguistic sexism, was an issue of concern for over three decades, in developing countries efforts to promote gender justice in language are only in their infancy. My argument is that to promote gender justice in language internationally it is necessary to acknowledge the rights of women and men to equal representation of their gender in language and speech and, therefore, raise a question of linguistic rights of the sexes. My understanding is that the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights in 1996 provided this opportunity to address the problem of gender justice in language as a human rights issue, specifically as a gender dimension of linguistic human rights. 3. “The Rebirth of an Old Language: Issues of Gender Equality in Kazakhstan”, Maria Helena Guimarães, Polytechnic Institute of Porto, Portugal. The existing language situation in Kazakhstan, while peaceful, is not without some tension. We propose to analyze here some questions we consider relevant in the frame of cultural globalization and gender equality, such as: free from Russian imperialism, could Kazakhstan become an easy prey of Turkey’s “imperialist dream”? Could these traditionally Muslim people be soon facing the end of religious tolerance and gender equality, becoming this new old language an easy instrument for the infiltration in the country of fundamentalism (it has already crossed the boarders of Uzbekistan), leading to a gradual deterioration of its rich multicultural relations? The present structure of the language is still very fragile: there are three main dialects and many academics defend the re-introduction of the Latin alphabet, thus enlarging the possibility of cultural “contamination” by making the transmission of fundamentalist ideas still easier through neighbour countries like Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan (their languages belong to the same sub-group of Common Turkic), where the Latin alphabet is already in use, and where the ground for such ideas shown itself very fruitful. 4. “Construction of Womanhood in the Bengali Language of Bangladesh”, Raasheed Mahmood; University of New South Wales, Sydney. The present essay attempts to explore the role of gender-based language differences and of certain markers that reveal the status accorded to women in Bangladesh. Discrimination against women, in its various forms, is endemic in communities and countries around the world, cutting across class, race, age, and religious and national boundaries. One cannot understand the problems of gender discrimination solely by referring to the relationship of power or authority between men and women. Rather one needs to consider the problem by relating it to the specific social formation in which the image of masculinity and femininity is constructed and reconstructed. Following such line of reasoning this essay will examine the nature of gender bias in the Bengali language of Bangladesh, holding the conviction that as a product of social reality language reflects the socio-cultural behaviour of the community who speaks it. This essay will also attempt to shed some light on the processes through which gender based language differences produce actual consequences for women, who become exposed to low self-esteem, depression and systematic exclusion from public discourse. 5. “Marriage in China as an expression of a changing society”, Elisabetta Rosado David, University of Porto, Portugal, and Università Ca’Foscari, Venezia, Italy. In 29 April 2001, the new Marriage Law was promulgated in China. The first law on marriage was proclaimed in 1950 with the objective of freeing women from the feudal matrimonial system. With the second law, in 1981, values and conditions that had been distorted by the Cultural Revolution were recovered. Twenty years later, a new reform was started, intending to update marriage in the view of the social and cultural changes that occurred with Deng Xiaoping’s “open policy”. But the legal reform is only the starting point for this case-study. The rituals that are followed in the wedding ceremony are often hard to understand and very difficult to standardize, especially because China is a vast country, densely populated and characterized by several ethnic minorities. Two key words emerge from this issue: syncretism and continuity. On this basis, we can understand tradition in a better way, and analyse whether or not marriage, as every social manifestation, has evolved in harmony with Chinese culture. 6. “The Other Woman in the Portuguese Colonial Empire: The Case of Portuguese India”, Maria de Deus Manso, University of Évora, Portugal. This essay researches the social, cultural and symbolic history of local women in the Portuguese Indian colonial enclaves. The normative Portuguese overseas history has not paid any attention to the “indigenous” female populations in colonial Portuguese territories, albeit the large social importance of these social segments largely used in matrimonial and even catholic missionary strategies. The first attempt to open fresh windows in the history of this new field was the publication of Charles Boxer’s referential study about Women in lberian Overseas Expansion, edited in Portugal only after the Revolution of 1975. After this research we can only quote some other fragmentary efforts. In fact, research about the social, cultural, religious, political and symbolic situation of women in the Portuguese colonial territories, from the XVI to the XX century, is still a minor historiographic field. In this essay we discuss this problem and we study colonial representations of women in the Portuguese Indian enclaves, mainly in the territory of Goa, using case studies methodologies. 7. “Heading East this Time: Critical Readings on Gender in Southeast Asia”, Clara Sarmento, Polytechnic Institute of Porto, Portugal. This essay intends to discuss some critical readings of fictional and theoretical texts on gender condition in Southeast Asian countries. Nowadays, many texts about women in Southeast Asia apply concepts of power in unusual areas. Traditional forms of gender hegemony have been replaced by other powerful, if somewhat more covert, forms. We will discuss some universal values concerning conventional female roles as well as the strategies used to recognize women in political fields traditionally characterized by male dominance. Female empowerment will mean different things at different times in history, as a result of culture, local geography and individual circumstances. Empowerment needs to be perceived as an individual attitude, but it also has to be facilitated at the macro­level by society and the State. Gender is very much at the heart of all these dynamics, strongly related to specificities of historical, cultural, ethnic and class situatedness, requiring an interdisciplinary transnational approach.

Intersubjectivity and poetic translation

O artigo está disponível em livre acesso no link da versão do editor

Evaluation of intermolecular interactions in thioxanthone derivatives: substituent effect on crystal diversity

A family of 9H-thioxanthen-9-one derivatives and two precursors, 2-[(4-bromophenyl) sulfanyl]-5-nitrobenzoic acid and 2-[(4-aminophenyl) sulfanyl]-5-nitrobenzoic acid, were synthesized and studied in order to assess the role of the different substituent groups in determining the supramolecular motifs. From our results we can conclude that Etter's rules are obeyed: whenever present the -COOH head to head strong hydrogen bonding dimer, R-2(2)(8) synthon, prevails as the dominant interaction. As for -NH2, the best donor when present also follows the expected hierarchy, an NH center dot center dot center dot O(COOH) was formed in the acid precursor (2) and an NH center dot center dot center dot O(C=O) in the thioxanthone (4). The main role played by weaker hydrogen bonds such as CH center dot center dot center dot O, and other intermolecular interactions, pi-pi and Br center dot center dot center dot O, as well as the geometric restraints of packing patterns shows the energetic interplay governing crystal packing. A common feature is the relation between the p-p stacking and the unit cell dimensions. A new synthon notation, R`, introduced in this paper, refers to the possibility of accounting for intra- and intermolecular interactions into recognizable and recurring aggregate patterns.

Conceptual model for decomposing the value for the customer

Value has been defined in different theoretical contexts as need, desire, interest, standard /criteria, beliefs, attitudes, and preferences. The creation of value is key to any business, and any business activity is about exchanging some tangible and/or intangible good or service and having its value accepted and rewarded by customers or clients, either inside the enterprise or collaborative network or outside. “Perhaps surprising then is that firms often do not know how to define value, or how to measure it” (Anderson and Narus, 1998 cited by [1]). Woodruff echoed that we need “richer customer value theory” for providing an “important tool for locking onto the critical things that managers need to know”. In addition, he emphasized, “we need customer value theory that delves deeply into customer’s world of product use in their situations” [2]. In this sense, we proposed and validated a novel “Conceptual Model for Decomposing the Value for the Customer”. To this end, we were aware that time has a direct impact on customer perceived value, and the suppliers’ and customers’ perceptions change from the pre-purchase to the post-purchase phases, causing some uncertainty and doubts.We wanted to break down value into all its components, as well as every built and used assets (both endogenous and/or exogenous perspectives). This component analysis was then transposed into a mathematical formulation using the Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), so that the uncertainty and vagueness of value perceptions could be embedded in this model that relates used and built assets in the tangible and intangible deliverable exchange among the involved parties, with their actual value perceptions.

Research on evaluation system of emergency disposal plan for power plant incidents

This paper starts with the analysis of the unusual inherence mechanism, from two aspects: accumulating and human error. We put forward twelve factors affected the decision of the emergency treatment plan in practice and summarized the evaluation index system combining with literature data. Then we screened out eighteen representative indicators by used the FDM expert questionnaire in the first phase. Hereafter, we calculated the weight of evaluation index and sorted them by the FAHP expert questionnaire, and came up with the frame of the evaluation rule by combined with the experience. In the end, the evaluation principles are concluded.

Comparação entre diferentes sistemas de avaliação de desempenho

A avaliação do desempenho consiste num instrumento estratégico de extrema importância para a gestão de recursos humanos numa organização, tal como no Exército. Permite criar indicadores ao nível do desempenho dos avaliados ao mesmo tempo que contribui para o diagnóstico e sua melhoria contínua. Ao nível dos órgãos decisores proporciona uma análise das capacidades dos recursos humanos e a sua correta gestão. Foi neste contexto que este trabalho de investigação foi desenvolvido, tendo sido traçado como objetivo, estudar a perceção dos militares avaliadores do Exército Português (EP) quanto aos sistemas de avaliação de desempenho (SAD) em vigor no Exército (SAMME1 e SIADAP2). Usou-se uma metodologia quantitativa e qualitativa e para o efeito foi desenvolvido um questionário, que foi passado aos Coronéis, Tenentes-coronéis, Majores e Capitães, todos eles avaliadores. Esta escolha fundamenta-se pela posição que os mesmos ocupam na cadeia hierárquica, pela experiência e o nível de conhecimentos que possuem sobre os sistemas de avaliação, podendo contribuir com as suas opiniões e sugestões, para a melhoria dos sistemas de avaliação atualmente em vigor no EP. Participaram no presente estudo 259 Oficiais avaliadores que responderam a um questionário online lançado na internet. Os principais resultados obtidos permitem concluir que o SAMME assume maior relevância e menor subjetividade que o SIADAP. Foi ainda observada a necessidade de implementar algumas medidas corretivas nos dois sistemas de avaliação em estudo, tais como: implementar no SAMME a autoavaliação e criar objetivos; no SIADAP, acabar com as quotas de 5% para a atribuição da classificação de desempenho excelente aos avaliados; Observou-se ainda que o avaliador tem uma importância