Remote experimentation network - yielding an inter-university peer-to-peer e-service

The goal of this paper is to discuss the benefits and challenges of yielding an inter-continental network of remote laboratories supported and used by both European and Latin American Institutions of Higher Education. Since remote experimentation, understood as the ability to carry out real-world experiments through a simple Web browser, is already a proven solution for the educational community as a supplement to on-site practical lab work (and in some cases, namely for distance learning courses, a replacement to that work), the purpose is not to discuss its technical, pedagogical, or economical strengths, but rather to raise and try to answer some questions about the underlying benefits and challenges of establishing a peer-to-peer network of remote labs. Ultimately, we regard such a network as a constructive mechanism to help students gain the working and social skills often valued by multinational/global companies, while also providing awareness of local cultural aspects.

C3G - A portuguese collaboration for geology, geodesy and geophysics

Portugal joined the effort to create the EPOS infrastructure in 2008, and it became immediately apparent that a national network of Earth Sciences infrastructures was required to participate in the initiative. At that time, FCT was promoting the creation of a national infrastructure called RNG - Rede Nacional de Geofísica (National Geophysics Network). A memorandum of understanding had been agreed upon, and it seemed therefore straightforward to use RNG (enlarged to include relevant participants that were not RNG members) as the Portuguese partner to EPOS-PP. However, at the time of signature of the EPOS-PP contract with the European Commission (November 2010), RNG had not gained formal identity yet, and IST (one of the participants) signed the grant agreement on behalf of the Portuguese consortium. During 2011 no progress was made towards the formal creation of RNG, and the composition of the network – based on proposals submitted to a call issued in 2002 – had by then become obsolete. On February 2012, the EPOS national contact point was mandated by the representatives of the participating national infrastructures to request from FCT the recognition of a new consortium - C3G, Collaboratory for Geology, Geodesy and Geophysics - as the Portuguese partner to EPOS-PP. This request was supported by formal letters from the following institutions: ‐ LNEG. Laboratório Nacional de Energia e Geologia (National Geological Survey); ‐ IGP ‐ Instituto Geográfico Português (National Geographic Institute); ‐ IDL, Instituto Dom Luiz – Laboratório Associado ‐ CGE, Centro de Geofísica de Évora; ‐ FCTUC, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade de Coimbra; ‐ Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Lisboa; ‐ Instituto Superior Técnico; ‐ Universidade da Beira Interior. While Instituto de Meteorologia (Meteorological Institute, in charge of the national seismographic network) actively supports the national participation in EPOS, a letter of support was not feasible in view of the organic changes underway at the time. C3G aims at the integration and coordination, at national level, of existing Earth Sciences infrastructures, namely: ‐ seismic and geodetic networks (IM, IST, IDL, CGE); ‐ rock physics laboratories (ISEL); ‐ geophysical laboratories dedicated to natural resources and environmental studies; ‐ geological and geophysical data repositories; ‐ facilities for data storage and computing resources. The C3G - Collaboratory for Geology, Geodesy and Geophysics will be coordinated by Universidade da Beira Interior, whose Department of Informatics will host the C3G infrastructure.

Assessing organizations collaboration readiness: a behavioral approach

Dissertation presented at the Faculty of Sciences and Technology of the New University of Lisbon to obtain the degree of Doctor in Electrical Engineering, specialty of Robotics and Integrated Manufacturing

Knowledge management in higher education institutions: a framework to improve collaboration

The purpose of this paper is to present a framework that increases knowledge sharing and collaboration in Higher Education Institutions. The paper discusses the concept of knowledge management in higher education institutions, presenting a systematization of knowledge practices and tools to linking people (students, teachers, researchers, secretariat staff, external entities)and promoting the knowledge sharing across several key processes and services in a higher education institution, such as: the research processes, learning processes, student and alumni services, administrative services and processes, and strategic planning and management. The framework purposed in this paper aims to improve knowledge practices and processes which facilitate an environment and a culture of knowledge collaboration,sharing and discovery that should characterize an institution of higher education.

A lightweight distributed super peer election algorithm for unstructured dynamic P2P systems

Dissertação apresentada na Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Electrotécnica e de Computadores

Intelligent decision support systems for collaboration in industrial plants

Dissertação apresentada para obtenção do Grau de Doutor em Sistemas de Informação Industriais, Engenharia Electrotécnica, pela Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia

Massive Open Online Course management: learning science and engineering through peer-reviewed projects

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) are gaining prominence in transversal teaching-learning strategies. However, there are many issues still debated, namely assessment, recognized largely as a cornerstone in Education. The large number of students involved requires a redefinition of strategies that often use approaches based on tasks or challenging projects. In these conditions and due to this approach, assessment is made through peer-reviewed assignments and quizzes online. The peer-reviewed assignments are often based upon sample answers or topics, which guide the student in the task of evaluating peers. This chapter analyzes the grading and evaluation in MOOCs, especially in science and engineering courses, within the context of education and grading methodologies and discusses possible perspectives to pursue grading quality in massive e-learning courses.

Scientific authorships and collaboration network analysis on Chagas disease: papers indexed in PubMed (1940-2009)

Chagas disease is a chronic, tropical, parasitic disease, endemic throughout Latin America. The large-scale migration of populations has increased the geographic distribution of the disease and cases have been observed in many other countries around the world. To strengthen the critical mass of knowledge generated in different countries, it is essential to promote cooperative and translational research initiatives. We analyzed authorship of scientific documents on Chagas disease indexed in the Medline database from 1940 to 2009. Bibliometrics was used to analyze the evolution of collaboration patterns. A Social Network Analysis was carried out to identify the main research groups in the area by applying clustering methods. We then analyzed 13,989 papers produced by 21,350 authors. Collaboration among authors dramatically increased over the study period, reaching an average of 6.2 authors per paper in the last five-year period. Applying a threshold of collaboration of five or more papers signed in co-authorship, we identified 148 consolidated research groups made up of 1,750 authors. The Chagas disease network identified constitutes a "small world," characterized by a high degree of clustering and a notably high number of Brazilian researchers.

Public private collaboration: Potentials for spatial data infrastructure development in developing countries - A caste study of Nigeria

Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Geospatial Technologies.

SOUTH AMERICAN COLLABORATION IN SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS ON LEISHMANIASIS: BIBLIOMETRIC ANALYSIS IN SCOPUS (2000-2011)

Objectives: Evaluate the production and the research collaborative network on Leishmaniasis in South America. Methods: A bibliometric research was carried out using SCOPUS database. The analysis unit was original research articles published from 2000 to 2011, that dealt with leishmaniasis and that included at least one South American author. The following items were obtained for each article: journal name, language, year of publication, number of authors, institutions, countries, and others variables. Results: 3,174 articles were published, 2,272 of them were original articles. 1,160 different institutional signatures, 58 different countries and 398 scientific journals were identified. Brazil was the country with more articles (60.7%) and Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (FIOCRUZ) had 18% of Brazilian production, which is the South American nucleus of the major scientific network in Leishmaniasis. Conclusions: South American scientific production on Leishmaniasis published in journals indexed in SCOPUS is focused on Brazilian research activity. It is necessary to strengthen the collaboration networks. The first step is to identify the institutions with higher production, in order to perform collaborative research according to the priorities of each country.

HUMAN T-LYMPHOTROPIC VIRUS 1 (HTLV-1) AND HUMAN T-LYMPHOTROPIC VIRUS 2 (HTLV-2): GEOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH TRENDS AND COLLABORATION NETWORKS (1989-2012)

Publications are often used as a measure of research work success. Human T-lymphotropic virus (HTLV) type 1 and 2 are human retroviruses, which were discovered in the early 1980s, and it is estimated that 15-20 million people are infected worldwide. This article describes a bibliometric review and a coauthorship network analysis of literature on HTLV indexed in PubMed in a 24-year period. A total of 7,564 documents were retrieved, showing a decrease in the number of documents from 1996 to 2007. HTLV manuscripts were published in 1,074 journals. Japan and USA were the countries with the highest contribution in this field (61%) followed by France (8%). Production ranking changed when the number of publications was normalized by population (Dominican Republic and Japan), by gross domestic product (Guinea-Bissau and Gambia), and by gross national income per capita (Brazil and Japan). The present study has shed light on some of the defining features of scientific collaboration performed by HTLV research community, such as the existence of core researchers responsible for articulating the development of research in the area, facilitating wider collaborative relationships and the integration of new authors in the research groups.

Voting and Peer Effects: Experimental Evidence from Mozambique*

Voter education campaigns often aim to increase voter particpation and political accountability. We follow randomized interventions implemented nationwide during the 2009 Mozambican elections using a free newspaper, leaflets, and text messaging. We investigate whether treatment effects were transmitted through social networks (kinship and chatting) and geographical proximity. For individuals personally targeted by the campaign, we estimate the reinforcement effect of proximity to other targeted individuals. For untargeted individuals, we estimate the diffusion of the campaign depending on a proximity to targeted individuals. We find evidence for both effects, similar across the different treatments and across the different connectedness measures. We observe that the treatments worked through the networks by raising the levels of information and interest about the election, in line with the average treatment effects of voter education on voter participation. We interpret this result as a free riding effect, likely to occur for costly actions