The intentionality of implementing artificial intelligence and the respective impact on the environmental sustainability of companies

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been playing an essential role in transforming the business environment, showing its potential to enhance businesses’ productivity, adaptation, and competitiveness. In a period where environmental matters become a concern on top of worldwide agendas, AI is pointed to have the potential to be deployed and implemented to enhance green performances for companies and help mitigating their environmental impacts. This investigation aims to assess the factors influencing managers’ intentionality of implementing AI based systems in their companies to boost environmental sustainability. This study also intends to analyze to what extent these drivers are different between managers based in Portugal and managers based in other European countries. For this purpose, both topics were thoroughly considered through literature review and then, further developed through a qualitative approach where interviews were conducted. The interviews conducted showed that the main drivers of success for the implementation relate with the perception of AI as a key tool to help companies moving towards environmental targets and potential the tool can bring to businesses performances. The main drivers of unsuccess for the implementation related with the complexity and time it takes to develop and implement a system that is capable to run properly, and the initial investment and costs required. Overall, both Portugal based managers and managers based abroad believe in AI as a reliable tool to potentialize environmentally friendly businesses but highlight different aspects as the biggest constraints.A Inteligência Artificial (IA) tem vindo a desempenhar um papel essencial na transformação do setor empresarial, mostrando o seu potencial para aumentar a produtividade, adaptação e competitividade das empresas. Num período em que as questões ambientais se tornam uma preocupação nas agendas mundiais, a IA é apontada como tendo o potencial para ser implementada e explorada para melhorar desempenhos ecológicos e ajudar a mitigar impactos ambientais. Esta investigação visa avaliar os fatores que influenciam a intencionalidade dos gestores na implementação de sistemas baseados em IA nas suas empresas para impulsionar a sustentabilidade ambiental. Este estudo pretende também analisar até que ponto estes fatores são diferentes entre gestores sediados em Portugal e gestores sediados noutros países europeus. Para este efeito, ambos os tópicos foram cuidadosamente considerados através de uma revisão bibliográfica e, posteriormente, desenvolvidos através de uma abordagem qualitativa onde foram realizadas entrevistas. As entrevistas realizadas mostraram que os principais fatores de sucesso para a implementação estão relacionados com a percepção da IA como uma ferramenta chave para ajudar as empresas nos seus objetivos ambientais e o potencial que a ferramenta apresenta no desempenho das empresas. Os principais fatores de insucesso relacionam-se com a complexidade do processo e o tempo necessário para desenvolver e implementar um sistema capaz de funcionar corretamente, bem como o investimento e os custos necessários. Em geral, tanto gestores sediados em Portugal como gestores sediados no estrangeiro acreditam na IA como uma ferramenta fiável para potencializar negócios mais verdes, mas destacam diferentes aspectos como os maiores constrangimentos

Épidémiologie de l’Asthme dans les Pays Lusophones

Asthma in schoolchildren became a priority both for developing and developed countries. Two large multi-centre epidemiological studies(Portuguese Study of Allergic Diseases in Childhood and the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood) were implemented in the last decade. One of the main objectives was to compare prevalence of asthma and evaluate cultural, ethnic and environmental variables in schoolchildren of different continents. These studies can contribute to a global strategy (with national specificity’s) including self management programs in the control of asthma to reduce the morbidity and mortality, and promote better quality of life with better allocation of resources

Prevalence of Asthma in a Portuguese Countryside Town:Repercussions on Absenteeism and Self-Concept

Background: Childhood asthma represents an increasing health problem and is the leading cause of hospital admission and absenteeism in children with chronic disease. It also compromises quality of life, eventually contributing to disturbances in self-concept. Self-concept is a recent and global perspective of “the self” and relates to skills, self-image and self-esteem. Little information is available on this topic and there are no data from Portuguese countryside towns. Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of asthma among all school children in the 5th and 6th grades in a Portuguese countryside town and to establish its possible correlation with absenteeism and self-concept. Methods: In April 2002, two questionnaires were administered in the presence of the researcher to a group of 950 children attending different schools. The children completed the internationally renowned questionnaires: ISAAC and the Self-Concept Scale by Susan Harter. Results: Our sample (n = 818) had a mean age of 11 years (10-15 years) and a male-to-female ratio of 1/1. The cumulative prevalence of asthma was11.9% and that of active asthma was 8.8 %; 63.9% of asthmatics were male and 36.1 % were female. The mean age of asthmatics was 11.34 years and 74 % had active symptoms. Comparison of this group of 97 asthmatic children with the remaining children revealed a statistically significant correlation between the presence of asthma and school absenteeism (global: p = 0.04; gymnastics: 0.05). Regarding the Self-Concept Scale a statistically significant association was found between the presence of asthma and school achievement (p = 0.027), physical appearance (p = 0.015), behavior (p < 0.000) and self-esteem (p < 0.000). No statistically significant correlations were found in social acceptance (p = 0.289) or athletic competence (p = 0.085). Asthmatic boys had higher self-concept scores than girls, except in the domain of behavior. Conclusions: Twelve percent of the population studied was asthmatic. In asthmatic children, absenteeism was higher and self-concept was lower for almost all domains, except social acceptance and athletic achievement, probably due to overprotection

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Função Respiratória na Criança em Idade Pré-Escolar

A avaliação funcional respiratória é fundamental para a avaliação do doente com diversas patologias, nomeadamente respiratória, sendo corrente o seu uso em adultos e em crianças em idade escolar. Embora para o lactente tenham sido investigados vários métodos nas últimas décadas, a criança em idade pré-escolar tem permanecido como inacessível, pela necessidade de colaboração e pela impraticabilidade de sedação. Os autores descrevem os avanços em avaliação funcional respiratória nos últimos anos, nesta faixa etária, nas técnicas de espirometria e pletismografia, explicitando a sua fundamentação teórica, metodologia e aplicabilidade

Idiopathic Anaphylaxis

A anafilaxia idiopática, descrita pela primeira vez em 1978, é um diagnóstico de exclusão, sendo definida como uma forma de anafilaxia na qual, após investigação exaustiva, não é possível encontrar uma causa específica. Após o seu reconhecimento, foram descritos novos casos, publicadas várias séries de doentes, sendo actualmente uma entidade bem caracterizada, com um sistema de classificação e com um esquema de tratamento bem definido e eficaz. Apesar de ser potencialmente fatal, está associada a um bom prognóstico na maioria dos doentes. Um diagnóstico atempado, bem como a aplicação dos protocolos terapêuticos recomendados, resulta numa diminuição do número de episódios, do número de hospitalizações e dos custos associados

Learning from conflict in higher education

Due to its structural complexity, and its openness to diversity, universities are proneto conflict, and invest an enormous amount of time and energy to reconcile divergent interests. Thus, conflict is an integral part of academic life, including the classroom, although in this latter case, it is seen as an uncomfortable issue. In fact, as teachers rarely assume that do not have control of their classes, as actually happens often, conflict in the classroom is a matter whose discussion tends to be avoided to not harm the personal and organizational image. As a result, teachers have little or no training to deal with these problems. Although students and teachers may differ on the extent and significance of inappropriate behaviors in the classroom, the extant literature on this issue indicates that there is some consensus on the fact that interpersonal conflicts often result from the interaction between students' "uncivilized" acts and teachers' negative approaches. This presentation focus on the crucial skills to deal constructively with these problematic situations, through two complementary directions. Firstly, we present the foundations of an intervention model for dealing with conflicts among students and between them and the teachers, in order to minimize the negative impact on relationships, and simultaneously take advantage of the learning potential of well managed conflicts, guiding its resolution for a solution-finding process. Secondly, we discuss the concept of "problem" as a central tool of a pedagogical strategy to stimulate learning from the resolution of didactically relevant cases, which are based on real situations taken from and similar to those that students will encounter in a professional context. These problems are always presented under the format of cognitive conflicts, and embedded in a specific context. Through a sequential approach, cognitive conflicts contribute to a meaningful learning that facilitates the acquisition of knowledge and the discovery of its applicability. A case in the field of management education to illustrate the method is presented and discussed in the framework of Problem-Based Learning (PBL) strategies.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Épidémiologie de l’Asthme et des Allergies dans les Pays de Langue Portugaise

The application of the same epidemiological methods in different countries allows important comparisons between different races and cultures. During the last decade, two large multi-centres epidemiological studies, the Portuguese Study of Allergic Diseases in Childhood (PAC study) and the International Study of Asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC study), were implemented in Portuguese speaking regions. The main objectives were to assess and compare allergic diseases prevalence. The authors stress out the significant differences observed in schoolchildren from the three continents, with different genetic and environmental background. It was found an increase trend in the prevalence of all allergic diseases, mainly rhinitis, in last decade. Rhinitis has been identified as an independent risk factor for asthma in Caucasian population