Decentralization of public policies for the promotion of firms’ internationalization. A proposal.

Despite the extensive investigation regarding decentralization, the role of local governments in promoting firms’ internationalization doesn’t seem to have received adequate attention from literature, neither from the area of regional science nor from studies of international business. The present work intends to overpass this gap, establishing a bridge on the review of the literature about firms’ internationalization, decentralization and internationalization promotion policies. The study focuses on Portugal, a not very explored country from the scientific point of view, where small and medium firms represent the most part of the entrepreneurial reality and their internationalization is presented as a solution to fight the economic crisis and where decentralization is a process that still requires more deepening. Analyzing, based on direct enquiries, the involvement of Portuguese municipalities in activities promoting economic development and/or internationalization of local firms and the firms’ evaluation of these activities, the aim of this research is to rethink internationalization promotion policies on a territorial/local basis. This study will gather evidence that will allow assessing whether municipalities can also play an active role on the promotion of local enterprises on the global market.Decentralization, Local policy, Exportation, Firms

Psychiatric discourse and Hygienism-Normalization and Liberalism in Latin America from Michel Foucault

The purpose of this text is to reflect on the production of abnormalities from a historical-hermeneutical point of view. Starting from the theoretical framework proposed by Michel Foucault, how the normality-abnormality binomial has been seen, whether in a disciplinary or biopolitical way, it serves to produce individuals through knowledge-power relations. In these terms, it has been demonstrated how the production of abnormalities occurs in Foucault's work. In the second topic, it has been shown how the discussion about biopower can be used in order to problematize situations and cases that have occurred in our continent. It is about connecting the production of abnormalities to the hygienism development in Latin America, giving notice to some strategies used in normalization and production of hygienic bodies.The purpose of this text is to reflect on the production of abnormalities from a historical-hermeneutical point of view. Starting from the theoretical framework proposed by Michel Foucault, how the normality-abnormality binomial has been seen, whether in a disciplinary or biopolitical way, it serves to produce individuals through knowledge-power relations. In these terms, it has been demonstrated how the production of abnormalities occurs in Foucault's work. In the second topic, it has been shown how the discussion about biopower can be used in order to problematize situations and cases that have occurred in our continent. It is about connecting the production of abnormalities to the hygienism development in Latin America, giving notice to some strategies used in normalization and production of hygienic bodies

Exploring USB connection vulnerabilities on Android devices breaches using the Android debug bridge

The complexity of avoiding vulnerabilities in the modern mobile operating systems makes them vulnerable to many types of attacks. This paper presents preliminary work in the creation of scenarios to surreptitiously extract private data from smartphones running different versions of the Android Operating System. Three scenarios were already identified and a proof of concept script was developed, all based on the use of the Android Debug Bridge tool. When running in a computer, the script is able to extract private data from a USB connected smartphone. In two scenarios it was possible to extract the information in a totally surreptitious way, without the user knowledge. In the third scenario, using a newer version of the Android operating system, a user action is needed which makes the attack less likely to succeed, but still possible

Students' perceptions of paper-based vs. computer-based testing in an introductory programming course

This paper examines the preferences of students regarding computer-based versus paper-based assessment, in an introductory computer programming course. Two groups of students were surveyed about their preference between paper-based and computer-based tests and respective rationale. All students had already been assessed: one group using two paper-based tests and the other group using two computer-based tests. Both groups expressed an overwhelming preference for computer-based tests independently of their previous pro- gramming experience. We conclude that, from the students’ point of view, computer-based tests should be the used over paper-based ones for introductory programming courses. This adds to existing literature about computer-based testing of programming skills

A Short Guide for the Undecided Teacher

Publisher Copyright: Copyright © 2022 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved.As the large number of articles on teaching introductory programming seem to attest, teaching and learning computer programming is difficult. However, perhaps surprisingly, the assessment design for those courses does not seem to be the most studied aspect. This short position paper provides a structured set of options and alternatives to consider when choosing the assessment elements for a programming course. The objective is to promote additional reflection on several alternatives for each assignment, exam, or other assessment elements. Along with this presentation, we point to eventually valuable references. We believe the resulting information should be helpful and applicable to many other disciplines, but the focus is on computer programming courses.publishersversionpublishe

On the Description of Individual Course Units for Programme Assessment and Better Syllabuses

Presently, higher education programmes are being assessed at several different levels, locally, or even countrywide. In this paper, we propose a template for the description of each curricular unit in higher education programmes that seeks to promote reflective teaching, widely acknowledged as fundamental to improve practices leading to improved student learning, while being advantageous and convenient for programme assessment by external entities. To this end, we take as a starting point the template that all Portuguese higher education institutions have to fill for each curricular unit, for programme assessment purposes. Based on the literature, we argue this new template format fosters teacher reflection and provides additional and easier to compare data for accreditation boards, and the whole education community, most notably, students. Finally, we argue that it can and should be used to improve syllabuses

Automation of machine learning models benchmarking

Dissertação de mestrado em Engenharia InformáticaNa área de ciência de dados, o machine learning está-se a revelar uma ferramenta essencial para resolver problemas complexos. As empresas estão a investir em equipas de ciência de dados e Machine Learning para desenvolver modelos que apresentem valor para os clientes. No entanto, estes modelos são uma pequena percentagem de uma pipeline de projetos de Machine Learning (ML) e, para entregar um produto de ML completo, é necessário um número maior de componentes. DevOps é uma mentalidade de engenharia e um conjunto de práticas que visa unificar o processo de desenvolvimento e o processo de operações em um software, MLOps é um conceito similar a DevOps mas aplicado ao desenvolvimento e entrega de soluções de ML. O nível de automatização das etapas em uma pipeline de ML define a maturidade do processo de ML, que reflete a velocidade de treino de novos modelos com novos dados ou de treino de novos modelos com diferentes implementações. Um sistema de ML é um sistema de software, desenvolvimento e atualizações contínuas são necessárias para garantir um sistema que escale conforme as necessidades. O principal objetivo desta tese é apoiar a criação de um sistema integrado de ML com uma arquitetura que proporcione a capacidade de ser continuamente operada em um ambiente de produção. Um conceito para avaliação de desempenho de algoritmos deve ser elaborado e implementado. O principal obetivo e melhorar e ace'erar o cicio de desenvolvimento de modelos de ML na empresa. Para atingir este objetivo surge a necessidade de definir uma arquitetura com especificações e a implementação de processos automatizadas num pipeline de ML existente, este processo têm como objetivo alcançar uma ferramenta de benchmark de modelos, com capacidade de analisar o desempenho do modelo, um motor de inferência e um banco de dados para armazenar todas as métricas computadas. Um sistema baseado em IA em desenvolvimento fornece o caso de estudo para desenvolver e validar a arquitetura. Os avanços atuais na área da condução semiautomática introduz a necessidade de sistemas de monitoramento que podem localizar e detectar eventos especificas no veículo. Os conjuntos de sensores são instalados dentro da cabine para alimentar sistemas inteligentes que visam analisar e sinalizar certos comportamentos que podem impactar a segurança e o conforto dos passageiros..In the field of data science, ML is proving to be a core feature to solve complex real-world problems. Businesses are investing in data science and ML teams to develop AI based models that can deliver business value to their users. However, these models are only a small fraction of an ML project pipeline, and to deliver an end to end ML product, a greater number of components are needed. DevOps is an engineering mindset and a set of practices that aims to unify the development process and the operation process on software. MlOps is a similar concept to DevOps but applicable to the development and delivery of ML based solutions. The automation of the steps in a ML pipeline defines the maturity of the ML process, reflecting the velocity of training new models given new data or training new models given new implementations. An ML system is a software system that can support development, provide continuous integration and continuous delivery apply to help guarantee that one can reliably build and operate ML systems at scale. The main objective of this thesis are to support the creation of an integrated ML system with an archi tecture that provides the ability to be continuously operated in a production-like environment. Furthermore, a concept to evaluate the performance of algorithms shall be devised and implemented. The end goal is to improve and accelerate the ML development lifecycle. To achieve this goal surges the need to define an architecture alongside specifications and the implementation of several automated steps into an existing ML pipeline. To improve and accelerate model development an model engine benchmark tool is devised capable of several features, including the ability to have dashboards for model performance evaluation, an automatic inference engine, performance metrics for the model and a database to store all the computed metrics and metadata. An AI-based system under development provides the case study to develop and validate this architec ture. The current advances of semi-automated driving introduce the need for monitoring systems to scan and detect specific events in the vehicle. Sensor clusters are installed inside the vehicle cabin to feed data to intelligent systems that aim to analyze and red flag certain behaviours that can potentially impact passengers safety and comfort while using the vehicle

Internationalization modes : the case of portuguese firms in the United States of America

Numa ótica de expansão das suas operações para o mercado internacional, o modo de entrada escolhido é uma das decisões mais importantes que uma empresa pode tomar. Com este trabalho pretende-se, em primeiro lugar, fazer uma revisão de literatura em que se expõem os principais modos de entrada adotados pelas empresas assim como as principais teorias que os sustentam. São estas, a Teoria dos Custos de Transação, a da Aprendizagem da Organização, a da Economia da Informação, a Perspetiva da Organização baseada em Recursos, a teoria da Organização Industrial, a Teoria Institucional e a das Opções Reais. Seguidamente, e, tendo por base a localização do estágio nos Estados Unidos da América, são analisadas as relações comerciais e de investimento entre este país e Portugal, assim como a importância das agências de promoção do investimento e comércio tais como a AICEP. Finalmente, estas relações são ilustradas com a internacionalização da Mota-Engil, SA para os Estados Unidos da América. A alteração quase súbita das circunstâncias socioeconómicas provocadas pela crise financeira em 2007, tornou insustentável a presença da empresa no país, que se adivinhava positiva no ano da sua entrada.In terms of internationalization, one of the most important steps firms must take is their entry mode choice. Firstly, in the literature review, the main entry modes are described as well as the theories that may explain the choice of one over another. The theories are: Transaction Cost Theory, the Organizational Learning Perspective, Information Economics, the Resource-Based View of the Firm, the Industrial Organization Perspective, Institutional Theory and Real Options Theory. Next, and given the location of the internship in the United States of America (U.S.A.), the trade and investment relations between this country and Portugal are analyzed as well as the role of investment and trade promotion agencies such as AICEP. Finally, these relations are illustrated with the internationalization of Mota-Engil, SA to the U.S.A. The almost sudden change of the social and economic context because of the financial crisis in 2007 proved a once taught to be positive entry to become unsustainable in the country