A survey on e-learning content standardization

eLearning has been evolved in a gradual and consistent way. Along with this evolution several specialized and disparate systems appeared to fulfill the needs of teachers and students such as repositories of learning objects, intelligent tutors, or automatic evaluators. This heterogeneity poses issues that are necessary to address in order to promote interoperability among systems. Based on this fact, the standardization of content takes a leading role in the eLearning realm. This article presents a survey on current eLearning content standards. It gathers information on the most emergent standards and categorizes them according three distinct facets: metadata, content packaging and educational design.

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

The European challenge of KM and innovation: a skills and competence portfolio for the knowledge worker in SME's

This chapter appears in Innovations of Knowledge Management edited by Montano, D. Copyright 2004, IGI Global, www.igi-global.com. Posted by permission of the publisher.

Hybrid thermoset polymeric composites – an Innovation towards sustainability

In this study, a new waste management solution for thermoset glass fibre reinforced polymer (GFRP) based products was assessed. Mechanical recycling approach, with reduction of GFRP waste to powdered and fibrous materials was applied, and the prospective added-value of obtained recyclates was experimentally investigated as raw material for polyester based mortars. Different GFRP waste admixed mortar formulations were analyzed varying the content, between 4% up to 12% in weight, of GFRP powder and fibre mix waste. The effect of incorporation of a silane coupling agent was also assessed. Design of experiments and data treatment was accomplished through implementation of full factorial design and analysis of variance ANOVA. Added value of potential recycling solution was assessed by means of flexural and compressive loading capacity of GFRP waste admixed mortars with regard to unmodified polymer mortars. The key findings of this study showed a viable technological option for improving the quality of polyester based mortars and highlight a potential cost-effective waste management solution for thermoset composite materials in the production of sustainable concrete-polymer based products.

Visceral larva migrans: a seroepidemiological survey in five municipalities of São Paulo State, Brazil

An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), employing antigens from Toxocara canis larvae and the absortion of suspected sera with Ascaris lumbricoides extracts was used in a seroepidemiological study performed in five municipalities of São Paulo State, Brazil (São Paulo, Campinas, Santos, Marília and Presidente Prudente) in order to determine the frequency of antibodies to Toxocara. In 2,025 blood samples collected, 806 proceeded from male subjects and 1,219 from females; 483 samples were collected from subjects under 15 years of age and the remaining 1,542 from subjects aged 15 years or over. Among the 2,025 sera investigated, 3.60% had antibodies to Toxocara at significant levels. A moderate predominance of infection with Toxocara among male subjects (3.72%) was observed, although the difference was not statistically significant when this rate was compared with that for female (3.28%). Related to age, a higher frequency of positive results was detected among subjects under 15 years (6.41%) against the older group (2.53%). A trend of more elevated rates of infection was observed in municipalities with high demographic densities (São Paulo, Campinas and Santos). Nevertheless, such findings only appeared to be statistically significant in subjects younger than 15 years.

Internet Geography: Spaces of Innovation

Information Society plays an important role in all kinds of human activity, inducing new forms of economic and social organization and creating knowledge. Over the last twenty years of the 20th century, large investments in telecommunication networks were made to approach economies and put an end to the asymmetries. The most isolated regions were the beneficiaries of this new technological investment’s wave disseminating trough the territories. The new economic scenarios created by globalisation make high capacity backbones and coherent information society polity, two instruments that could change regions fate and launch them in to an economic development context. Technology could bring international projection to services, products and could be the differentiating element between a national and an international economic strategy. So, the networks and its fluxes are becoming two of the most important variables to the economies. Measuring and representing this new informational accessibility, mapping new communities, finding new patterns and localisation models, could be today’s challenge. In the physical/real space, location is defined by two or three geographical co-ordinates. In the network/virtual space or in cyberspace, geography seems incapable to define location, because it doesn’t have a good model. Trying to solve the problem and based on geographical theories and concepts, new fields of study came to light. Internet Geography is one example. In this paper and using Internet Geography and informational cartography, it was possible to observe and analyse the spacialisation of the Internet phenomenon trough the distribution of the IP addresses in the Portuguese territory. This work shows the great potential and applicability of this indicator to regional development studies, and at the same time. The IP address distribution of Country Code Top Level Domains (.pt for Portugal) could show the same economic patterns, reflecting territorial inflexibility or, by opposition, new regional hierarchies. The spatial concentration or dispersion of top level domains seems to be a good instrument to analyse the info-structural dynamic and economic development of a territory, especially at regional level. At the same time it shows that information technologies are essential to innovation and competitive advantage.

Epidemiological survey of Trypanosoma cruzi infection in North-Eastern Brazil using different diagnostic methods

A survey of the prevalence of Trypanosoma cruzi infection was carried out in Oitis, a small community in the State of Piaui, Brazil. Two hundred and sixty five individuals were screened by microscopic examination, hémoculture, indirect immunofluorescence (IFA), enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (C-ELISA) using the monoclonal antibody TCF87 against to a 25kd T. cruzi antigen. Seropositivity was 14.3% by the IFA test, 14.7% by ELISA, and 13.2% by C-ELISA. The C-ELISA using the TCF87 monoclonal antibody seems to be applicable in serodiagnosis of Chagas' disease.

Associantion between leprosy and hepatitis B infecion: a survey in Goiânia, Central Brazil

This investigation presents the results of Hepatitis B virus screening among leprosy patients conducted in Central Brazil as a preliminary information for a HBV vaccination programme. The main objectives were to assess the seroprevalence of HBV serum markers among lepromatous patients and to analyse institutionalization as risk factor for HBV infection in this population. Two groups of lepromatous patients were studied, 83 outpatients and 171 institutionalized ones. Screening for HBV serum markers included the detection of HBsAg, anti-HBc by radioimmune assay (RIA). The prevalence of carrier state (HBsAg) was 4.8% and 8.8% among outpatients and institutionalized, respectively, (p>0.05). Seroprevalence of exposure (all markers) was statistically significant different between outpatients (16.9%) and institutionalized ones (50.3%). Institutionalized patients had an almost four fold risk of HBV infection when compared to the outpatients, and the highest risks were among patients with more than 21 years of residence in the colony, after adjusting for age and sex.

A avaliação das barreiras na actividade profissional da pessoa com deficiência visual em Portugal: validação e adaptação do WES (work experience survey)

Resumo: Este estudo tem como finalidade validar e adaptar o WES (Work Experience Survey), de forma a avaliar e caracterizar a percepção que as pessoas DV portuguesas possuem sobre as barreiras ao emprego e as suas formas de resolução e/ou minimização. Da revisão da literatura, constatou-se a inexistência, a nível nacional, de estudos que versassem sobre as barreiras no acesso e manutenção de emprego e estratégias de superação. Este motivo foi o ponto a partir do qual se elaborou a adaptação e validação do questionário WES e a partir do qual alcançamos resultados e conclusões que nos remetem para evidências que a seguir se descrevem. Os dados recolhidos demonstram que esta faixa da população: tem baixos níveis de escolaridade; necessita de aperfeiçoar as suas competências para se tornar mais competitiva no mercado de trabalho; tem dificuldades na acessibilidade ao meio físico, devido às condições de acessibilidade oferecidas; enfrenta problemas no desempenho laboral, devido à falta de tecnologias de apoio e de meios de superação das barreiras no local de trabalho; e sente-se discriminada no acesso e manutenção do emprego, e progressão na carreira. A exploração das razões do insucesso escolar e do perfil de competências adequado, exigíveis para o emprego; o desenvolvimento de planos de promoção da carreira; a divulgação das competências e capacidades dos trabalhadores DV e a averiguação na aplicação da legislação referente à acessibilidade são algumas sugestões apresentadas.

A survey of e-learning content aggregation standards

As e-learning gradually evolved many specialized and disparate systems appeared to fulfil the needs of teachers and students, such as repositories of learning objects, authoring tools, intelligent tutors and automatic evaluators. This heterogeneity raises interoperability issues giving the standardization of content an important role in e-learning. This article presents a survey on current e-learning content aggregation standards focusing on their internal organization and packaging. This study is part of an effort to choose the most suitable specifications and standards for an e-learning framework called Ensemble defined as a conceptual tool to organize a network of e-learning systems and services for domains with complex evaluation.

A survey of wireless technologies coexistence in WBAN: analysis and open research issues

Wireless Body Area Network (WBAN) is the most convenient, cost-effective, accurate, and non-invasive technology for e-health monitoring. The performance of WBAN may be disturbed when coexisting with other wireless networks. Accordingly, this paper provides a comprehensive study and in-depth analysis of coexistence issues and interference mitigation solutions in WBAN technologies. A thorough survey of state-of-the art research in WBAN coexistence issues is conducted. The survey classified, discussed, and compared the studies according to the parameters used to analyze the coexistence problem. Solutions suggested by the studies are then classified according to the followed techniques and concomitant shortcomings are identified. Moreover, the coexistence problem in WBAN technologies is mathematically analyzed and formulas are derived for the probability of successful channel access for different wireless technologies with the coexistence of an interfering network. Finally, extensive simulations are conducted using OPNET with several real-life scenarios to evaluate the impact of coexistence interference on different WBAN technologies. In particular, three main WBAN wireless technologies are considered: IEEE 802.15.6, IEEE 802.15.4, and low-power WiFi. The mathematical analysis and the simulation results are discussed and the impact of interfering network on the different wireless technologies is compared and analyzed. The results show that an interfering network (e.g., standard WiFi) has an impact on the performance of WBAN and may disrupt its operation. In addition, using low-power WiFi for WBANs is investigated and proved to be a feasible option compared to other wireless technologies.

Herpes simplex virus type 2 infection in pregnancy: asymptomatic viral excretion at delivery and seroepidemiologic survey of two socioeconomically distinct populations in São Paulo, Brazil

The objective of the present study was to estimate the prevalence of herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV 2) antibodies in child bearing women of 2 Brazilian populations with different socioeconomic status and to determine the risk of neonatal HSV exposure by means of maternal cultures at the onset of labor. The study was conducted at 2 hospitals: A, serving very low income patients and B, serving middle socioeconomic class. 173 participants from group A and 127 from B answered a questionnaire which showed that the patients had similar ages (27.7 and 26.8 years, respectively) but differed with regard to socioeconomic status, age at first intercourse (18.6 vs 20.6 years), number of sex partners (1.5 vs 1.2) and previous sexually transmitted diseases (15% vs. 1.5%). History of genital herpes was given by 11% of group A participants and by a similar number, 7%, of patients from group B. In addition, 200 serum samples from population A and 455 from B were tested by ELISA for and HSV antibodies and 92% and 86%, respectively, were found to be positive. Sixty seropositive samples from group A and 90 from B were further analyzed by Western blot, which showed the presence of type 2 specific antibodies in 46% and 36%, respectively, suggesting an overall HSV 2 prevalence of 42% in group A and 31% in B. Cervical specimens were obtained for culture from 299 asymptomatic patients of population A and 313 of B. HSV was isolated from one specimen in each group, indicating a 0.3% incidence of asymptomatic viral excretion in both populations. In conclusion, the prevalence of type 2 antibodies in childbearing women was very high, but it did not differ with the socioeconomic status. The risk of HSV perinatal transmission was also similar in the 2 study populations and it was comparable with the data from developed countries. Our findings do not indicate the need of special screening programs for asymptomatic HSV excretion in Brazilian pregnant women.

Innovation assessment of a Portuguese railway branch of a foreign multinational - a case study

Paper developed for the unit “Innovation Economics and Management” of the PhD programme in Technology Assessment at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa in 2009-10 under the supervision of Prof. Maria Luísa Ferreira

Risk assessment in open innovation networks

Innovation is considered crucial for enterprises survival and current economic environment demands the best ways of achieving it. However, the development of complex products and services require the utilization of diverse know-how and technology, which enterprises may not hold. An effective strategy for achieving them is to rely in open innovation. Still, open innovation projects may fail for many causes, e.g. due to the dynamics of collaboration between partners. To effectively benefit from open innovation, it is recommended the utilization of adequate risk models. For achieving such models, a preliminary conceptualization of open innovation and risk is necessary, which includes modeling experiments with existing risk models, such as the FMEA.

Innovation from Academia-Industry symbiosis

Anchored on a systemic perspective of innovation and particularly on the triple helix model, which highlights the state, university and companies as central players, this paper aims to discuss the factors that enable or constrain the processes of innovation, using the system thinking approach to understand the academia-industry symbiosis. The paper's empirical section is based on a case study on Portugal's major highway management concessionaire. In order to ensure a "healthy" co-innovation environment, the archetype studied emphasizes the need to implement coordination mechanisms such as communication routines and metrics to monitor collaborative behavior in addition to the need to develop global goals that align the efforts of the partners.