Search

Assistive technologies have allowed people with disabilities to perform daily tasks with greater independence and autonomy, especially for visually impaired people. Using smart home solutions allows these users to control their homes with less cognitive and physical demand. However, making such applications accessible to meet the needs of visually impaired users, especially in developing countries, remains a challenge. This paper investigates the perceptions of these users about home automation technologies through semi-structured interviews. A total of 20 visually impaired people participated in the interviews. A thematic analysis revealed results concerning the following themes: (1) how people go about their lives at home and around, how people interact with current appliances, objects and environments, (3) how people perceive their attitude to technologies, (4) the Brazilian context of smart homes, (5) what people think smart homes should do and (6) envisaging ways of interacting with smart home systems. The results obtained provide significant insight into the needs of visually-impaired people in Brazil, with analysis of issues that are common with previous studies in more developed countries and specific issues that have important particularities and implications in Brazil and other developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Latin American Business Review is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In the 1970s, Brazil sought to establish State policies aimed at technological autonomy in the field of Informatics, resulting in the origin of a national industry of computers. This paper will explore another measure that has been little explored by historiography: the control over imports of data processing equipment. Our research intends to show the control exerted by the Commission for Coordination of Electronic Processing Activities (CAPRE) and to discuss how its technicians performed the analysis of user requests, resulting in decisions that either allowed or not the installation of the requested systems. When analysing computer purchase contracts and evaluating the intended uses for the imported systems, they defined the 'merit' of each order and sought to raise users' awareness on the problem of technological dependence. They reveal different discourses on the technological modernization ('efficient/lowercost' imported technologies versus 'self–determination/autonomy' views influencing society's perceptions on Informatics in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organisational learning is an area that aids organisations in improving their processes by reusing experience so that knowledge is accessible to the entire organisation. However, it is not a trivial task to bring about such learning in software development companies, especially as this is an area where processes and knowledge are often internalised in the minds of employees. Some approaches presented in the literature to facilitate organisational learning aim at transforming content generated within companies with Web 2.0 collaborative tools in courses. These courses are based on learning schema that describes their structure and content. However, the creation of these schemes requires a specialist who knows the company's needs as well as the pedagogical organisation's learning requirements. In order to facilitate learning and minimise dependence on specialists, this paper presents an approach that aims to aid companies in identifying developers' learning needs while creating learning schema in a semiautomatic way. Based on the approach proposed, an environment was implemented and an experimental study was conducted to evaluate the identification of relevant issues to the organisation and development of courses. Results suggest that this approach is feasible for discovering themes and creating in-company courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the importance of low-tech manufacturing sectors for national economies, previous studies on UIC benefits for the firms were conducted mostly in high-tech sectors, making the knowledge on the impact of UIC on innovation in low-tech sectors unexplored. The present research aims to identify combinations of UIC s that may lead the low-tech firms to high innovation performance. By using the csQCA technique applied to secondary data from the BR Survey, which is the largest UIC databank in Brazil, the researchers identified that the most intense collaborations in terms of knowledge and resource exchange, such as development-oriented and research-oriented, are among the most beneficial for firms' innovativeness. Diffusion-oriented UIC does not contribute to innovation, unless it is combined with both research-oriented and development-oriented UIC s. Finally, the csQCA suggests that in most cases the firms should focus on engaging in one specific UIC type rather than split its effort and resources among a mix of UIC. The findings amplify comprehension of the range of impacts that entrepreneurial universities promote in low-tech sector, creating both theory and policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current empirical literature concerning the activities of foreign banks exhibits some degree of consensus around the thesis that foreign banks are less efficient than domestic banks in the case of industrial countries, but that they are more efficient than domestic institutions in emerging economies. The reasons for such phenomena include the exposure to tougher competition in industrial countries, adoption of better management methods, the tendency to develop new products and technologies, and the influence of better-equipped regulators. The paper examines these claims in light of recent Brazilian experience. It is shown that, at least in the case of Brazil, the expansion of foreign bank activities in the domestic markets has not resulted in any major improvement. Operational characteristics are similar for domestic and foreign banks, as are efficiency measures. Technical progress has been introduced by domestic banks, particularly in the fields of automation and online banking, much more intensively than by foreign banks. Balance sheet structures are very similar for both groups, dominated by interfinancial operations and by investment in securities. Thus, there is no evidence that the generally accepted thesis mentioned above applies to Brazil. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

There are growing concerns that automation technology may have far-reaching implications for development, by restructuring global value chains and substituting workers. This paper investigates how domestic and foreign automation impact a resource-rich emerging economy. The empirical analysis builds on a Ricardian model of trade and a shift-share approach. Differences in regional industrial compositions are used to translate domestic industry-level robot adoption to local labor markets in Brazil. Differential trade and inter-sectoral input–output linkages between a foreign industry and regions in Brazil are leveraged to construct a measure of exposure to foreign automation. Instrumental variables account for endogeneity in robot adoption. Larger exposure to foreign automation is found to decrease the share of manufacturing employment and increase the share of employment in the mining sector. These shifts are driven by changes in the demand for export goods from local labor markets. Domestic automation benefits higher skilled and female workers. The findings suggest that foreign automation may contribute to "premature deindustrialization" in emerging economies. • This study examines the effects of automation technology adoption by domestic and trade-partner industries on employment in 557 regions of Brazil. • The empirical analysis is grounded on a Ricardian model of trade, and instrumental variables account for endogeneity in robot adoption. • Automation in trade-partner countries reduces the employment share in manufacturing, while increasing employment shares in the mining sector. • The same pattern is found for sectoral and regional exports, suggesting that shifts in the demand for export goods are causing employment changes. • Automation within Brazil increases the ratio of female and higher-skilled workers, indicating skill complementary with the robot technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the development of a control and monitoring platform for arc welding processes, which provides versatility and efficiency in the scientific study and teaching of welding technology. The implemented system is capable of executing different welding modalities as well as effecting substantial changes in their function logic in a simple and didactic manner. One of the innovations promoted by the development of this system is the possibility of drawing waveforms of the welding current for the arc welding processes (MIG/MAG, TIG, Plasma) thus allowing a more visual and interactive method for demonstrating the characteristics of each variant. This also allows deepening of the studies related to the metal transfer (MIG/MAG) and, as a consequence, presenting technological innovations for this process. The control and monitoring platform developed was structured in such a way as to be able to incorporate new technologies, allowing its updating together with the evolution of welding processes. The generated files can also be exported and transferred online, so that several institutions are able to interact in synergic projects. In this context, this system is presented as an alternative with significant potential for welding studies in teaching and research institutions both in Brazil and abroad. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Comput Appl Eng Educ 20: 239-246, 2012 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes a 10 V Josephson Voltage Standard (JVS) direct comparison between the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Instituto Nacional de Metrologia, Normalização e Qualidade Industrial (INMETRO) using automatic data acquisition. The results were in agreement to within 1.1 nV and the mean difference between the two JVSs at 10 V is 0.54 nV with a pooled combined standard uncertainty of 1.48 nV. Considering a recent JVS comparison between NIST and the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM), the difference between INMETRO and the BIPM thus was found to be -0.26 nV with a standard uncertainty of 1.76 nV. INMETRO JVS improvements since the 2006 INMETRO-BIPM comparison are also described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PROFINT is a program of the Brazilian National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) which sends technological information contained in patent documents to companies registered in the program. This paper presents the results of a survey of users of PROFINT, identifying: a) the profile of these users; 2) their use of the patent system; and c) the results obtained from using technological information from patent documents. The work was based on documentary research and the application of questionnaires. The research showed that patent documents are being used as instruments of competitive intelligence, providing strategic information to assist managers of technology and innovation to generate and improve products and processes. Although the users of PROFINT also make use of other sources of information, the importance attributed to technological information obtained from patent documents was considered high. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Software process improvement implementation based on software process reference models and standards is a complex and long-term endeavor that requires investment of large sums of money. These obstacles usually hinder organizations from implementing software process improvement successfully, especially for small and medium-size enterprises that operate under strict financial resources. This paper describes the MPS.BR, a nationwide program for software process improvement in Brazilian organizations. The main goal of this initiative is to develop and disseminate a Brazilian software process model (named MPS Model) aiming to establish a feasible pathway for organizations to achieve benefits from implementing software process improvement at reasonable costs, especially small and medium-size enterprises. This paper presents the main components of the MPS Model and discusses the strategy executed to establish and maintain a community of MPS Model practitioners. The results of MPS Model adoption and dissemination in Brazilian software industry are also presented in this paper. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The application of the Internet to traditional business and administrative activities has introduced considerable digitisation and process automation. One key area of development from a research perspective is the use of electronic (e-)surveys, based on Internet technology. E-surveys can bring many benefits from a research perspective, including extremely low marginal costs, automation of processes, and the ability to coiled and manage very large samples. However, experience in the use of e-surveys has found considerable challenges in achieving a quality sample frame and response rates. This paper explores the development of an e-survey tool for assessing information needs of growth enterprises in Brazil. A key learning from the use of the survey is the use of control methods for both improving the response rate, and, as a consequence, the sample frame. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The interpretation of lung auscultation is highly subjective and relies on non-specific nomenclature. Computer-aided analysis has the potential to better standardize and automate evaluation. We used 35.9 hours of auscultation audio from 572 pediatric outpatients to develop DeepBreath : a deep learning model identifying the audible signatures of acute respiratory illness in children. It comprises a convolutional neural network followed by a logistic regression classifier, aggregating estimates on recordings from eight thoracic sites into a single prediction at the patient-level. Patients were either healthy controls (29%) or had one of three acute respiratory illnesses (71%) including pneumonia, wheezing disorders (bronchitis/asthma), and bronchiolitis). To ensure objective estimates on model generalisability, DeepBreath is trained on patients from two countries (Switzerland, Brazil), and results are reported on an internal 5-fold cross-validation as well as externally validated (extval) on three other countries (Senegal, Cameroon, Morocco). DeepBreath differentiated healthy and pathological breathing with an Area Under the Receiver-Operator Characteristic (AUROC) of 0.93 (standard deviation [SD] ± 0.01 on internal validation). Similarly promising results were obtained for pneumonia (AUROC 0.75 ± 0.10), wheezing disorders (AUROC 0.91 ± 0.03), and bronchiolitis (AUROC 0.94 ± 0.02). Extval AUROCs were 0.89, 0.74, 0.74 and 0.87 respectively. All either matched or were significant improvements on a clinical baseline model using age and respiratory rate. Temporal attention showed clear alignment between model prediction and independently annotated respiratory cycles, providing evidence that DeepBreath extracts physiologically meaningful representations. DeepBreath provides a framework for interpretable deep learning to identify the objective audio signatures of respiratory pathology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Brazilian Journal of Occupational Therapy / Cadernos Brasileiros de Terapia Ocupacional is the property of Cadernos de Terapia Ocupacional da UFSCar and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista Gaucha de Enfermagem is the property of Revista Gaucha de Enfermagem and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista Gaucha de Enfermagem is the property of Revista Gaucha de Enfermagem and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The high spatial resolution of the LA-ICP-MS systems allows rapid extraction of vital isotopic information from individual growth zones of minerals. This paper describes in detail the optimization of a relatively inexpensive LA-ICP-MS system consisting of a UV 213 Laser Ablation and a Quadrupole ICP-MS. The results of optimization take into account laser energy, beam diameter, frequency and ICP-MS gas conditions. The optimized conditions were tested for precision and accuracy on a number of well-characterized zircons, commonly used as primary and secondary quality control standards. The acquisition of the U–Pb data is carried out in automated mode (pre-set points) for up to 12 h/day with only minimal operator presence. Individual U–Pb zircon analysis lasts 80 s. The 2 σ uncertainties of the standards ranged between 1.4 and 8.2%, and overall their relative deviations ranged from 0.02 to 0.87%. The results are comparable to techniques that use more complex and time-consuming approaches such as LA-MC-ICP-MS and ion-microprobe. We have applied this method to obtain ages of numerous granitoid rocks from the Southern São Francisco Craton and a well-known Archean granitoid of the Kaapvaal Craton, South Africa. We furthermore provide the first results of U–Pb age dating of U–Zr–Mo mineralization in the Poços de Caldas Alkaline Complex, SE Brazil, with a U–Pb age of 85 ± 3 Ma for zircon-bearing hydrothermal veins. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista do Serviço Público (Civil Service Review) is the property of Revista do Servico Publico and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista Gaucha de Enfermagem is the property of Revista Gaucha de Enfermagem and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Purpose: Brazil is struggling as the unemployment rate is 12.4% and nearly 13m people are unemployed. The fourth Industrial Revolution is advancing, and the country needs to consider how it will impact the labor market. This work explores the impact of automation on the Brazilian workforce to supply decision-makers with information about the subject. Design/methodology/approach: The authors converted the probability of computerization from the seminal work of Frey and Osborne to each of the more than 2,500 occupations in Brazil. They then crossed the automation probability with socioeconomic information about workers and companies available in the Brazilian Ministry of Labor Database. Findings: In total, 60% of employment in Brazil is expected to be highly impacted by automation in the coming decades, with eight out of the ten occupations with the biggest workforce being highly automatable. Automation probability decreases as workers' education level increases, with the most significant difference between workers with higher education and those without it. The results show other inequalities in the impact of automation: the higher the wage, the lower the automation probability of occupations; the bigger the company, the lower the automation index; and workers from 16 to 24 years old have considerably higher chances of being automated. Originality/value: This work is the first to study, in the context of the fourth Industrial Revolution, the impact of automation in Brazil with a socioeconomic analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to discuss professional education and training programs offered to teams of operators by the main company in the area of Bacia de Campos (Petrobras), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It also discusses the necessary skills to the new functions derived from the implementation of an organizational innovation, the polyvalence, and how such innovation has impacted operators' activity. By using elements of WEA and the device 'Meetings on the Work' it was possible to gain a better understanding of both the distance between the dimensions of prescribed work and real work, and the articulation between outsourcing and the proposition of polyvalence, which have stimulated the creation of new functions, namely, the polyvalent operator and the operator-maintainer, this latter being in fact an evolvement of the first. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Covering an area of 8.5 million km2 and with a population of around 200 million people, Brazil emerged in the international scene as a country with a solid economy and stable currency, being able to cope with the disastrous effects of the current global economic crisis. It recently received the investment grade from prominent risk-assessment agencies, which means the country is more likely to meet payment obligations, attracting more investments. In addition, Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa formed a group known as Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS) to discuss and implement ways to improve the global economic scenario. Brazil is also a full member of the Mercosur and actively participated in numerous United Nations missions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]