Digital Innovation and Transformation: a Quasi-Systematic Literature Review

Nowadays there are several examples of successful companies that run innovative digital business models. Studies indicate that companies that do not follow the technological tendencies will possibly cease to exist in the next years. Besides, Digital Transformation has a direct impact on relations and forms of consumption. However, although much have been said about this topic, the literature has not established yet a common ground about the meaning of Digital Innovation and Digital Transformation. The purpose of this paper is to identify, analyze and synthesize the various aspects of the main concepts related to Digital Innovation and Transformation (DI&T). We have done a quasi-systematic review of the literature, generating as a primary outcome a list of the main constructs related to DI&T, as well as their definitions. Our main contribution is a map that conceptualizes and relates DI and DT that could be used as a base for future researchers

Hybridization between biomedicine and alternative medicine in COVID-19 care in a neo-rural population of Córdoba, Argentine

We propose to investigate if the use and knowledge of medicinal plants and alternative medicine influence the adoption of biomedical strategies in dealing with COVID-19 - such as the use of masks, social isolation, and vaccination - in a context of a neo-rural population. We collected data through online questionnaires, using the Google Forms platform in the “Paravachasca Valley”, Córdoba, Argentine. The questionnaires, anonymous, contained multiple choice questions about attitudes and opinions concerning prophylactic strategies against COVID-19. To test whether the use or knowledge of medicinal plants is associated with trust in the efficiency and adoption of biomedical strategies, we used a chi-square test of independence. We saw that this neo-rural population does not differ from urban populations in terms of the proportion of people who deny biomedical strategies to prevent COVID-19. Furthermore, we verified that the knowledge about medicinal plants is related to distrust and reluctance to the adoption of the use of masks, social isolation, and vaccination. Also, our results suggest that alternative medicine users are afraid of the vaccine effects. In this plural medical context of a neo-rural population, belief in alternative medicines for the treatment of COVID-19 can be an obstacle to immunization programs.Fil: Rosa Santoro, Flávia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal; ArgentinaFil: da Silva Chaves, Leonardo. Universidade Federal Rural Pernambuco. Departamento de Biología. Laboratorio de Etnobotanica Aplicada; BrasilFil: Arias Toledo, Barbara. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Instituto Multidisciplinario de Biología Vegetal; Argentin

CEPE: a cooperative editor for processes elicitation

Companies nonnally hire extemal consultants to carry out their Business Process Re-engineering. While this can be straightforward in the short tenn, it does not produce the desired result on the mid and long tenns. A low leveI of workers' involvement with a consequent resistance to changes, and a continuous dependency on extemal consultancy are the main drawbacks. We propose an altemative approach to BPR, specifically to Workflow Design, where company workers play an active and important role in re-designing the organization's processes in a cooperative style. The paper describes the essence of a BPR method based on participatory design and stepwise refinement, which we believe, will generate better results than the traditional approach. We also present CEPE -Cooperative Editor for Processes Elicitation -, which is a cooperative graphic editor that supports the processes knowledge building. That is the second phase of the proposed method

Cooperation model for learning: a system of patterns

Learning is frequently assumed as a natural result of projects performed by groups, and cooperative work tools disposal within a computational environment is enough to motivate or to induce cooperation among participants. However, many times cooperation simply does not happen within the environments, or it has to be externally articulated by a tutor. We claim that CSCL environments should be built under na explicit cooperation model to be efficient. The goal of this work is to present a Cooperation Model for Learning which is described through patterns, and to contextua1ize it within a software engineering approach to facilitate the development of environments aimed at generating an effective cooperation learning process

Adherence to malaria prophylaxis among travelers from a middle-income country

INTRODUCTION: Malaria is the main cause of death by infection among travelers and is preventable through a combination of chemoprophylaxis and personal protective measures. METHODS: Travelers were interviewed by phone 28-90 days after returning, to assess adherence to pre-travel advice for malaria prevention. RESULTS: A total 57 travelers were included. Adherence to chemoprophylaxis was significantly higher among participants prescribed mefloquine (n=18; 75%) than doxycycline (n=14; 45%). Adherence to mosquito repellent and bed net use was 65% and 67%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Adherence to malaria prophylaxis was lower than expected. Further studies testing innovative approaches to motivate travelers’ compliance are required

Design de personagem para Dom Casmurro em HQ

O seguinte trabalho busca dar conta de desenvolver personagens para uma adaptação do romance Dom Casmurro, de Machado de Assis, para HQ. Aqui serão apresentadas referências que justifiquem a construção de ambas as narrativas, visual e textual, com foco no figurino dos quatro personagens principais que conduzem a história: Bentinho, Capitu, Escobar e Ezequiel. Ao final, será apresentado uma espécie de “guarda-roupa ilustrado” das peças que serão utilizadas ao longo das cenas. Além disso, irei ilustrar três cenas de momentos distintos da história para demonstrar as ideias do projeto na prática

Visualization of Digital Transformation Initiatives Elements through ArchiMate Viewpoints

Digital transformation stems from a mix of personal and corporate IT environments and involves integrating digital technologies and business processes in a digital economy. As such, organizations expect that digital transformation improves performance, increases their reach, and ensures better business results. However, there is still a lack of (i) conceptual models to provide an accurate representation of the digital transformation elements; and (ii) standard visualizations of such elements to specific stakeholders. In a previous work, a reference model to support digital transformation initiatives using ArchiMate was proposed. In this paper, we address the second part of this problem regarding the need for specific visualizations. We followed the Design Science Research approach to learn how to identify the needs of the stakeholders, extending and improving the reference model through the design of a set of architectural viewpoints. We used the well-known ArchiSurance case to demonstrate the application of the viewpoints and semi-structured interviews to evaluate the proposal, providing insights to the discussion of the results obtained.</p

On the Necessary Memory to Compute the Plurality in Multi-Agent Systems

We consider the Relative-Majority Problem (also known as Plurality), in which, given a multi-agent system where each agent is initially provided an input value out of a set of $k$ possible ones, each agent is required to eventually compute the input value with the highest frequency in the initial configuration. We consider the problem in the general Population Protocols model in which, given an underlying undirected connected graph whose nodes represent the agents, edges are selected by a globally fair scheduler. The state complexity that is required for solving the Plurality Problem (i.e., the minimum number of memory states that each agent needs to have in order to solve the problem), has been a long-standing open problem. The best protocol so far for the general multi-valued case requires polynomial memory: Salehkaleybar et al. (2015) devised a protocol that solves the problem by employing $O(k 2^k)$ states per agent, and they conjectured their upper bound to be optimal. On the other hand, under the strong assumption that agents initially agree on a total ordering of the initial input values, Gasieniec et al. (2017), provided an elegant logarithmic-memory plurality protocol. In this work, we refute Salehkaleybar et al.'s conjecture, by providing a plurality protocol which employs $O(k^{11})$ states per agent. Central to our result is an ordering protocol which allows to leverage on the plurality protocol by Gasieniec et al., of independent interest. We also provide a $\Omega(k^2)$-state lower bound on the necessary memory to solve the problem, proving that the Plurality Problem cannot be solved within the mere memory necessary to encode the output.Comment: 14 pages, accepted at CIAC 201

Postharvest quality of 'Emerald' blueberry cultivated in a subtropical region

O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar os aspectos qualitativos, na colheita e na pós-colheita, de mirtilos 'Emerald' cultivados em região de clima subtropical, sem frio hibernal, no Brasil. Os frutos foram colhidos no município de Piracicaba, no estado de São Paulo, em dois picos de colheita, em agosto e outubro, e avaliados quanto aos seus atributos qualitativos na colheita e aos seus atributos físicos, químicos e bioquímicos na pós-colheita. Os frutos foram mantidos em condições de temperatura ambiente, a 22°C e 70% de umidade relativa, e analisados no dia da colheita e a cada três dias até o décimo-segundo dia de armazenamento. Os mirtilos colhidos em agosto foram maiores e mais arredondados, e os colhidos em outubro apresentaram coloração azul mais intensa e maiores concentrações de compostos fenólicos, pH e sólidos solúveis, além de maior relação sólidos solúveis totais e acidez titulável. Durante o armazenamento, observou-se aumento no conteúdo de antocianinas, quercetinas e compostos fenólicos totais, bem como na atividade antioxidante, além de redução na acidez e na firmeza dos frutos. Independentemente do mês de colheita, os mirtilos cultivados em região subtropical no Brasil apresentam boa durabilidade pós-colheita por até 12 dias em temperatura ambiente, com níveis satisfatórios de qualidade dos frutos.The objective of this work was to evaluate the qualitative attributes, at harvest and postharvest, of 'Emerald' blueberries grown in a subtropical climate region, without winter chilling, in Brazil. Fruit were harvested in the municipality of Piracicaba, in the state of São Paulo, in two harvest peaks, in August and October, and evaluated for their qualitative attributes at harvest and for their physical, chemical, and biochemical attributes at postharvest. The fruit were maintained at ambient conditions, at 22°C and 70% relative humidity, and evaluated on the day of harvest and every three days until the twelfth day of storage. The blueberries harvested in August were larger and rounder, and those harvested in October had a more intense blue coloration and higher concentrations of phenolic compounds, pH, and soluble solids, in addition to a higher total soluble solids and titratable acidity ratio. During storage, an increase was observed in the contents of anthocyanins, quercetins, and total phenolic compounds, as well as in antioxidant activity, besides a decrease in fruit acidity and firmness. Regardless of the harvest month, blueberries grown in a subtropical region of Brazil have a good postharvest shelf life up to 12 days at ambient temperature, with satisfactory fruit quality levels

Implementation of Aspect-oriented Business Process Models with Web Services

In software development, crosscutting concerns, such as security, audit, access control, authentication, logging, persistence, transaction, error handling etc. can be modularized using the aspect-oriented paradigm. In busi- ness process modeling, aspects have been used to reduce visualization complexity, increase reuse and improve model maintainability. There are techniques which address aspects in modeling and implementation phases of business process; however, these techniques adopt different semantic representations, hindering the integration of these phases into the BPM lifecycle. This work proposes an architecture for service discovery capable of selecting web services that implement crosscutting concerns and meet the goals established in the aspect modeling phase, executing them accordingly with a prioritization. A proof of concept to analyze the proposed architecture and generated artifacts was performed. Afterwards, the proposal was evaluated by means of an experiment. The results suggest that the def- inition of an operational goal enables the business spe- cialists to concentrate on the modeling of the aspect without necessarily concerning its implementation, since a proper option for implementation is discovered during the execution of the process