Learning in higher education: the ISEGI case

Comunicação apresentada na IRMA Information Resources Management Association International Conference, San Diego, CA, 15 19 May

Knowledge sharing and learning processes: case study of portuguese technological schools and higher education institutions

Paper to be presented at the ESREA Conference Learning to Change? The Role of Identity and Learning Careers in Adult Education, 7-8 December, 2006, Université Catholique Louvain, Louvain–la-Neuve, Belgium

Lifelong learning: case study of adult students in portuguese technological schools and higher education institutions

Paper to be presented in ESREA 2007 ADC Network Seminar - Changing Relationships between the State, Civil Society and the Citizen: Implications for adult education and adult learning, 14 -16 June 2007 - University of Minho - Campus de Gualtar, Braga (Portugal).

Air contaminants in animal production: the poultry case

A descriptive study was developed in order to assess air contamination caused by fungi and particles in seven poultry units. Twenty seven air samples of 25 litters were collected through impaction method. Air sampling and particle concentration measurement were performed in the pavilions’ interior and also outside premises, since this was the place regarded as reference. Simultaneously, temperature and relative humidity were also registered. Regarding fungal load in the air from the seven poultry farms, the highest value obtained was 24040 CFU/m3 and the lowest was 320 CFU/m3. Twenty eight species/genera of fungi were identified, being Scopulariopsis brevicaulis (39.0%) the most commonly isolated species and Rhizopus sp. (30.0%) the most commonly isolated genus. From the Aspergillus genus, Aspergillus flavus (74.5%) was the most frequently detected species. There was a significant correlation (r=0.487; p=0.014) between temperature and the level of fungal contamination (CFU/m3). Considering contamination caused by particles, in this study, particles with larger dimensions (PM5.0 and PM10) have higher concentrations. There was also a significant correlation between relative humidity and concentration of smaller particles namely, PM0.5 (r=0.438; p=0.025) and PM1.0 (r=0.537; p=0.005). Characterizing typical exposure levels to these contaminants in this specific occupational setting is required to allow a more detailed risk assessment analysis and to set exposure limits to protect workers’ health.

Improving the learning experience and learning environment of adults in Higher Education – Project LIHE: the Portuguese case

Project LIHE: the Portuguese Case. ESREA Fourth Access Network Conference – “Equity, Access and Participation: Research, Policy and Practice”. Edinburgh (Scotland), 11 – 13 December, 2003.

How can we help students to improve their creativity? – lessons learned from a case study

One of the main concerns of today’s organizations is to cope with the rapid pace of change while maintaining their competitive advantage. This means that firms must be innovative, create new knowledge and have new ideas constantly. Similarly, one of the main concerns of lecturers is to help students to develop creativity. According to some authors, new ideas, new thoughts, innovation can arise in an appropriate environment and with the development and train of adequate competences and skills. This means that although some persons were born more creative than others, it is possible to help those less creative to improve their innovative capacities and competences. The question that remains now is “how”. How can we, as lecturers and educators help our students to become more creative? In this paper we describe a Portuguese case study that took place at ISCAP (School of Accountancy and Administration of Porto – Portugal), in the course of Business Communication, in the unit “Marketing Communication” (3rd year (1st Bologna cycle), 1st semester). We will describe and characterize the situation at the beginning of the semester (situation A), explain the tasks and activities proposed to students and the final result (situation A2). We will discuss differences between situation A and A2, formulate some hypotheses concerning differences and draw some recommendations.

Web survey system to discover the actual role of experience in learning in higher education: a case study

March 19 - 22, 2006, São Paulo, BRAZIL World Congress on Computer Science, Engineering and Technology Education

Hospital visitors as controls in case-control studies

OBJECTIVE: Selecting controls is one of the most difficult tasks in the design of case-control studies. Hospital controls may be inadequate and random controls drawn from the base population may be unavailable. The aim was to assess the use of hospital visitors as controls in a case-control study on the association of organochlorinated compounds and other risk factors for breast cancer conducted in the main hospital of the "Instituto Nacional de Câncer" -- INCA (National Cancer Institute) in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). METHODS: The study included 177 incident cases and 377 controls recruited among female visitors. Three different models of control group composition were compared: Model 1, with all selected visitors; Model 2, excluding women visiting relatives with breast cancer; and Model 3, excluding all women visiting relatives with any type of cancer. Odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals were calculated to test the associations. RESULTS: Age-adjusted OR for breast cancer associated with risk factors other than family history of cancer, except smoking and breast size, were similar in the three models. Regarding family history of all cancers, except for breast cancer, there was a decreased risk in Models 1 and 2, while in Model 3 there was an increased risk, but not statistically significant. Family history of breast cancer was a risk factor in Models 2 and 3, but no association was found in Model 1. In multivariate analysis a significant risk of breast cancer was found when there was a family history of breast cancer in Models 2 and 3 but not in Model 1. CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that while investigating risk factors unrelated to family history of cancer, the use of hospital visitors as controls may be a valid and feasible alternative.

Supporting leadership development by exposure to role models: two case studies

The idiomatic expression “In Rome be a Roman” can be applied to leadership training and development as well. Leaders who can act as role models inspire other future leaders in their behaviour, attitudes and ways of thinking. Based on two examples of current leaders in the fields of Politics and Public Administration, I support the idea that exposure to role models during their training was decisive for their career paths and current activities as prominent characters in their profession. Issues such as how students should be prepared for community or national leadership as well as cross-cultural engagement are raised here. The hypothesis of transculturalism and cross-cultural commitment as a factor of leadership is presented. Based on current literature on Leadership as well as the presented case studies, I expect to raise a debate focusing on strategies for improving leaders’ training in their cross-cultural awareness.

The influence of relationship quality and culture in the relations between exporter and distributor : the case of portuguese exports to Angola

The objective of this research is to investigate the role of the relationship quality, cooperation and culture between Portuguese companies and their export market intermediaries in Angola. In particular, we aim to understand the importance that the quality of the relationship has in cooperation and the role of cultures in export activities. An important aspect of this study is precisely the fact that it includes an African country, where, in terms of the literature, there is a strong lack of studies. In terms of methodology we opted for qualitative analysis; we present the results of two case studies of Portuguese exporting companies and one case study of Angolan intermediate. In general, the results are that the business relationships are characterized by trust, commitment, cooperation, culture, similar values, as in the past, Angola belonged to Portugal there is easy communication because both countries share the same. Such factors will influence the trade relations between Portuguese exporters and their Angolan distributors.

Identification of tsunami-induced deposits using numerical modeling and rock magnetism techniques: Astudy case of the 1755 Lisbon tsunami in Algarve, Portugal (vol 182, pg 187, 2010)

Storm- and tsunami-deposits are generated by similar depositional mechanisms making their discrimination hard to establish using classic sedimentologic methods. Here we propose an original approach to identify tsunami-induced deposits by combining numerical simulation and rock magnetism. To test our method, we investigate the tsunami deposit of the Boca do Rio estuary generated by the 1755 earthquake in Lisbon which is well described in the literature. We first test the 1755 tsunami scenario using a numerical inundation model to provide physical parameters for the tsunami wave. Then we use concentration (MS. SIRM) and grain size (chi(ARM), ARM, B1/2, ARM/SIRM) sensitive magnetic proxies coupled with SEM microscopy to unravel the magnetic mineralogy of the tsunami-induced deposit and its associated depositional mechanisms. In order to study the connection between the tsunami deposit and the different sedimentologic units present in the estuary, magnetic data were processed by multivariate statistical analyses. Our numerical simulation show a large inundation of the estuary with flow depths varying from 0.5 to 6 m and run up of similar to 7 m. Magnetic data show a dominance of paramagnetic minerals (quartz) mixed with lesser amount of ferromagnetic minerals, namely titanomagnetite and titanohematite both of a detrital origin and reworked from the underlying units. Multivariate statistical analyses indicate a better connection between the tsunami-induced deposit and a mixture of Units C and D. All these results point to a scenario where the energy released by the tsunami wave was strong enough to overtop and erode important amount of sand from the littoral dune and mixed it with reworked materials from underlying layers at least 1 m in depth. The method tested here represents an original and promising tool to identify tsunami-induced deposits in similar embayed beach environments.

Residential energy resources management by a SCADA system in case of excess wind generation

The end consumers in a smart grid context are seen as active players. The distributed generation resources applied in smart home system as a micro and small-scale systems can be wind generation, photovoltaic and combine heat and power facility. The paper addresses the management of domestic consumer resources, i.e. wind generation, solar photovoltaic, combined heat and power, electric vehicle with gridable capability and loads, in a SCADA system with intelligent methodology to support the user decision in real time. The main goal is to obtain the better management of excess wind generation that may arise in consumer’s distributed generation resources. The optimization methodology is performed in a SCADA House Intelligent Management context and the results are analyzed to validate the SCADA system.

Self-optimization module for scheduling using case-based reasoning

Metaheuristics performance is highly dependent of the respective parameters which need to be tuned. Parameter tuning may allow a larger flexibility and robustness but requires a careful initialization. The process of defining which parameters setting should be used is not obvious. The values for parameters depend mainly on the problem, the instance to be solved, the search time available to spend in solving the problem, and the required quality of solution. This paper presents a learning module proposal for an autonomous parameterization of Metaheuristics, integrated on a Multi-Agent System for the resolution of Dynamic Scheduling problems. The proposed learning module is inspired on Autonomic Computing Self-Optimization concept, defining that systems must continuously and proactively improve their performance. For the learning implementation it is used Case-based Reasoning, which uses previous similar data to solve new cases. In the use of Case-based Reasoning it is assumed that similar cases have similar solutions. After a literature review on topics used, both AutoDynAgents system and Self-Optimization module are described. Finally, a computational study is presented where the proposed module is evaluated, obtained results are compared with previous ones, some conclusions are reached, and some future work is referred. It is expected that this proposal can be a great contribution for the self-parameterization of Metaheuristics and for the resolution of scheduling problems on dynamic environments.

The verification of temporal KBS: SPARSE - a case study in power systems

In this paper we present VERITAS, a tool that focus time maintenance, that is one of the most important processes in the engineering of the time during the development of KBS. The verification and validation (V&V) process is part of a wider process denominated knowledge maintenance, in which an enterprise systematically gathers, organizes, shares, and analyzes knowledge to accomplish its goals and mission. The V&V process states if the software requirements specifications have been correctly and completely fulfilled. The methodologies proposed in software engineering have showed to be inadequate for Knowledge Based Systems (KBS) validation and verification, since KBS present some particular characteristics. VERITAS is an automatic tool developed for KBS verification which is able to detect a large number of knowledge anomalies. It addresses many relevant aspects considered in real applications, like the usage of rule triggering selection mechanisms and temporal reasoning.

Data mining applications in power systems - case-studies and future trends

Presently power system operation produces huge volumes of data that is still treated in a very limited way. Knowledge discovery and machine learning can make use of these data resulting in relevant knowledge with very positive impact. In the context of competitive electricity markets these data is of even higher value making clear the trend to make data mining techniques application in power systems more relevant. This paper presents two cases based on real data, showing the importance of the use of data mining for supporting demand response and for supporting player strategic behavior.