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This article aims to analyse the influence of socio-economic aspects on the maturity of electronic government (e-government) in the local context through a comparative case study. From the results found by Batista et al. (2022) when evaluating the maturity of e-governments in 26 capitals of the Brazilian states, the influence of socio-economic aspects was analysed. Socio-economic factors were identified by a selection of indicators grouped into four categories: 'income and living conditions', 'internet users and connectivity', 'literacy' and 'municipality size'. The results showed a positive correlation between medium and strong of the maturity of e-government with some indicators selected for referred categories, namely: GDP per capita, per capita income, internet connection by fixed broadband, internet usage in households and degree of urbanisation of the municipality. From the analysis, it was concluded that these indicators represent a minimum set of socio-economic conditions necessary to reach the maturity of e-government.

Drones have received significant attention recently, as they are versatile equipment used in various fields. In some sectors where they are applied, these devices require great stability due to sensitive sensors or cameras installed in their frame. However, because they are lightweight and have rotary motors, their structure is inevitably subjected to vibrations, which can compromise the integrity of their electronic components and impair their performance in fulfilling their function. A viable way to solve this problem is using a metastructure in its frame. This approach involves designing structures to simulate the effect of metamaterials, with characteristics not found in nature that are convenient for solving the problem at hand. A simple and effective method to be applied is the use of periodic resonators, which in this case are mass-spring systems attached to the object whose vibration is to be controlled. These resonators differ from a standard dynamic absorber because they are distributed periodically over the host structure, resembling a periodic system. These periodic resonators vibrate in a way that removes part of the energy from the host structure, thus making it more stable within a range of frequencies known as the attenuation band, which resembles the band gap seen in an infinite periodic system. Most of the recent literature focuses on demonstrating and validating a myriad of metamaterials concepts in rather simple (academic) host systems rather than integrating them into a working prototype, which has its own challenges. Therefore, this research aims to improve the stability of a drone’s camera within the range of frequencies of interest by means of resonant metamaterials. In this study, a change in the drone’s dynamic behavior was observed upon the addition of the accessories. The formation of a bandgap resulted in an attenuation band of 24 Hz in the low-frequency range, achieving up to 28 dB of vibration reduction in the drone’s camera, which significantly improved the quality of the captured images.

Sliding mode control (SMC) is a widely used control law for quadrotor regulation and tracking control problems. The purpose of this article is to solve the tracking problem of quadrotors using a relatively novel nonlinear control law based on SMC that makes use of a conditional integrator. It is demonstrated by a motivation example that the proposed control law can improve the transient response and chattering shortcomings of the previous approaches of similar SMC based controllers. The adopted Newton–Euler model of quadrotor dynamics and controller design is treated separately in two subsystems: attitude and position control loops. The stability of the control technique is demonstrated by Lyapunov’s analysis and the effectiveness and performance of the proposed method are compared with a similar integral law, also based on SMC, and validated by tracking control problems using numerical simulations. Simulations were developed in the presence of external disturbances in order to evaluate the controller robustness. The effectiveness of the proposed controller was verified by performance indexes, demonstrating less accumulated tracking errors and control activity and improvement in the transient response and disturbance rejection when compared to a conventional integrator sliding mode controller.

This paper proposes an evaluative index for local government portals, called the electronic government maturity index (e-GMI), as a measure of the electronic government maturity. In a congruence of the maturity models by Lee and Kwak (2012), United Nations (2014) and Lechakoski (2015), the e-GMI is composed of five maturity stages, structured in nine analysis dimensions. Each dimension has checkpoints in the portal, called analysis attributes, which measures the development stage of the portal through fuzzy logic. For empirical validation, the e-GMI was applied to the portals of the Brazilian capitals' city halls and resulted in classifications of Stages 2 and 3 of maturity. The validation in these case studies confirms that the model composed by e-GMI is a robust, deep and objective electronic government maturity model, and an important instrument to evaluate local governments' portals.

Abstract:After World War I, cinema emerged as a powerful instrument of (counter) information for the colonial cause in the service of the European colonial powers, and Portugal was no exception. In fact, the use of cinema by the Portuguese authorities for colonial propaganda is the subject of this article. The aim of this study is to show how the post-war "winds of change" shifted the paradigm of the Portuguese colonial cinema by comparing the representation of Luanda in two colonial films about Angola produced in the 1950s and 1970s: Luanda, Cidade Feiticeira, (1950) and Luanda e a sua Gente (1973), respectively.Résumé:Après la Première Guerre mondiale, le cinéma est devenu un puissant instrument de (contre-) information pour la cause coloniale au service des puissances coloniales européennes, y compris au Portugal. Le présent article porte sur l'utilisation du cinéma par les autorités portugaises comme outil de la propagande coloniale. Il vise à montrer comment les « vents du changement » de l'après-guerre ont modifié le paradigme du cinéma colonial portugais en comparant la représentation de Luanda dans deux films coloniaux sur l'Angola produits dans les années 1950 et 1970 : Luanda Cidade Feiticeira (1950) et Luanda e a sua Gente (1973), respectivement.

Atmospheric rivers (ARs) are now widely known for their association with high‐impact weather events and long‐term water supply in many regions. Researchers within the scientific community have developed numerous methods to identify and track of ARs—a necessary step for analyses on gridded data sets, and objective attribution of impacts to ARs. These different methods have been developed to answer specific research questions and hence use different criteria (e.g., geometry, threshold values of key variables, and time dependence). Furthermore, these methods are often employed using different reanalysis data sets, time periods, and regions of interest. The goal of the Atmospheric River Tracking Method Intercomparison Project (ARTMIP) is to understand and quantify uncertainties in AR science that arise due to differences in these methods. This paper presents results for key AR‐related metrics based on 20+ different AR identification and tracking methods applied to Modern‐Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications Version 2 reanalysis data from January 1980 through June 2017. We show that AR frequency, duration, and seasonality exhibit a wide range of results, while the meridional distribution of these metrics along selected coastal (but not interior) transects are quite similar across methods. Furthermore, methods are grouped into criteria‐based clusters, within which the range of results is reduced. AR case studies and an evaluation of individual method deviation from an all‐method mean highlight advantages/disadvantages of certain approaches. For example, methods with less (more) restrictive criteria identify more (less) ARs and AR‐related impacts. Finally, this paper concludes with a discussion and recommendations for those conducting AR‐related research to consider. The large number of atmospheric river identification/tracking methods produces large uncertainty related to AR climatology and impactsUncertainty is quantified using the same data (MERRA v2), time period (1980–2017), region (global where possible), and common metricsThis study presents recommendations regarding the advantages/disadvantages of certain approaches based on science application

Atmospheric rivers (ARs) are long, narrow synoptic scale weather features important for Earth’s hydrological cycle typically transporting water vapor poleward, delivering precipitation important for local climates. Understanding ARs in a warming climate is problematic because the AR response to climate change is tied to how the feature is defined. The Atmospheric River Tracking Method Intercomparison Project (ARTMIP) provides insights into this problem by comparing 16 atmospheric river detection tools (ARDTs) to a common data set consisting of high resolution climate change simulations from a global atmospheric general circulation model. ARDTs mostly show increases in frequency and intensity, but the scale of the response is largely dependent on algorithmic criteria. Across ARDTs, bulk characteristics suggest intensity and spatial footprint are inversely correlated, and most focus regions experience increases in precipitation volume coming from extreme ARs. The spread of the AR precipitation response under climate change is large and dependent on ARDT selection. Atmospheric rivers (ARs) are long and narrow weather features often referred to as “rivers in the sky.” They often transport water from lower latitudes to higher latitudes typically across climate zones and produce precipitation necessary for local climates. Understanding ARs in a warming climate is challenging because of the variety of ways an AR can be defined on gridded data sets. Unlike weather features such as tropical cyclones where identification methodologies are similar, algorithms that determine the characteristics of ARs vary depending on the science question posed. Because there is no real consensus on AR identification methodology, we aim to quantify the algorithmic uncertainty in AR metrics and precipitation. We compare 16 different ways of defining an AR on gridded data sets and present the range of possibilities in which an AR could change under global warming. Generally, ARs are projected to increase but the amount of that increase is a function of the algorithm. Across all algorithms and focus regions, AR precipitation is projected to become more extreme. High‐resolution historical and future simulations are used to evaluate atmospheric river detection tools (ARDT) uncertaintyARDTs mostly show increases in frequency and intensity of future atmospheric rivers (ARs) but the scale of response is dependent on algorithmic restrictivenessMost regions experience an increase in precipitation volume coming from extreme ARs High‐resolution historical and future simulations are used to evaluate atmospheric river detection tools (ARDT) uncertainty ARDTs mostly show increases in frequency and intensity of future atmospheric rivers (ARs) but the scale of response is dependent on algorithmic restrictiveness Most regions experience an increase in precipitation volume coming from extreme ARs

In this work, the concentration dependent response of amperometric biosensor array for the biomarkers glucose, cholesterol and urease was explored, using artificial neural nets (ANN). The aim was to explore an array of amperometric biosensors for the discrimination of the biomarkers glucose, cholesterol and urea in blood. Seven out of eight platinum electrodes on the array were modified with four different enzymes; glucose oxidase, cholesterol, urease and peroxidase. The dynamic biosensor response curves from the eight sensors were used for ANN analysis. The ANN were applied to an analysis of the biosensor response to multi-biomarkers mixtures the ANN was able to detect the conditions with an accuracy up to 90%. The results obtained by using ANN to interpret the electrical signal of the developed biosensor arrays leads to the conclusion that: i) after training the ANN, the evaluation of recorded data are on-line, ii) microelectrode sites which are highly correlated to the information about the concentrations within the recorded signals was identified, iii) the recognition of blood biomarkers is improved by using the ANN.

This study assessed the outcomes of nonsurgical embryo recovery (NSER) after superovulation (SOV) in five locally adapted Brazilian breeds of sheep and goats. The objective was to evaluate the feasibility and efficiency of using SOV combined with a less-invasive embryo collection technique for supplying the Brazilian animal gene bank with germplasm from specific genotypes of interest. Morada Nova (n= 20), Santa Inês (n= 20), and Somalis (n= 20) ewes received an intravaginal progesterone (330 mg) device for 9 days, while Canindé (n= 15) and Moxotó (n= 15) goats received an intravaginal medroxyprogesterone acetate (60 mg) device for 6 days. All females received 133 mg of porcine follicle-stimulating hormone (pFSH) administrated in six decreasing doses 12 hours apart, starting 60 hours before device removal, plus 37.5 μg of d-cloprostenol at the fifth and sixth pFSH dose. Donors in estrus were mated with fertile males. The corpora lutea (CL) number was assessed by ultrasonography 1 day before NSER. On day 6.5 or 7 after estrus, NSER was performed following hormonally induced cervical relaxation. A total of 97% of sheep and 90% of goats responded with estrus, and among those, 91% of sheep and 85% of goats presented a CL. In ewes, the numbers of CL were greater (p< 0.05) in the Santa Inês breed, while similar (p> 0.05) CL numbers were found among the goat breeds. All viable embryos were freezable (excellent and good quality) and the number per donor was 7.8 for sheep and 4.9 for goats. All parameters of NSER efficiency, embryo yield, and fertility post-NSER did not differ (p> 0.05) between breeds among each species. The SOV-NSER procedures applied for an embryo biobank supply of locally adapted Brazilian breeds of small ruminants were efficient regarding production of cryopreservable embryos, and preservation of donor fertility. Therefore, SOV followed by NSER is recommended for embryo biobank assembly in sheep and goats.

The effects of randomness, an unavoidable feature of intracellular environments, are observed at higher hierarchical levels of living matter organization, such as cells, tissues, and organisms. Additionally, the many compounds interacting as a well-orchestrated network of reactions increase the difficulties of assessing these systems using only experiments. This limitation indicates that elucidation of the dynamics of biological systems is a complex task that will benefit from the establishment of principles to help describe, categorize, and predict the behavior of these systems. The theoretical machinery already available, or ones to be discovered to help solve biological problems, might play an important role in these processes. Here, we demonstrate the application of theoretical tools by discussing some biological problems that we have approached mathematically: fluctuations in gene expression and cell proliferation in the context of loss of contact inhibition. We discuss the methods that have been employed to provide the reader with a biologically motivated phenomenological perspective of the use of theoretical methods. Finally, we end this review with a discussion of new research perspectives motivated by our results.