MAPPING THE EMERGENCE OF LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA SINCE THE DAWN OF DEMOCRACY

This paper is an explorative discourse on strategies used for local economic development since the dawn of a new democracy in South Africa. In doing so, the study reflected on international experience and current local economic development practices while at the same time focusing on variables that could be characterized as enablers or barriers to successful implementation in poor areas. It is a theoretical paper, hinged upon secondary analysis of publications in relation to local economic development between the period of 1994 and 2004 with a specific intent to understand the strength and weakness of the foundations upon which the current policies are based. The synthesis focused on concepts such as poverty alleviation initiatives linked to land-based local economic development in South Africa. The study concluded that while there are similarities in the emergence of LED across the global spectrum, less developed countries such as South Africa continue to face a myriad of challenges related to policy development, execution, monitoring and evaluation. It was further recommended that strategic intents for LED should be aligned to community aspirations to have a sustainable impact. It was further recommended that while donor agencies remain crucial, proper allocation and reporting mechanisms may help sustain relationships between LED practitioners and funders. Lastly, it was recommended that a strong and legitimized political will and leadership are vital in encouraging popular participation and sustained community based response.

Project Managers’ Competencies in International Development Projects: A Delphi Study

Project Managers’ (PMs) competencies are critical issues for international development projects (IDPs), and the success of IDPs is largely dependent on how prudently and effectively a PM manages the IDPs operations. So far, the topic of PMs Competencies is mainly explored in the private sector context using a survey-based research approach, and very few attempts have been made to examine the competencies of PMs in the IDPs sector. Accordingly, this study examines the PMs’ competencies at each phase of the project life cycle (Initiation, Planning, Execution, Monitoring and Controlling, and Closing) by drawing on the sample of 15 PMs from the IDPs’ sector by employing a Delphi method, which enables aggregation of experts’ opinions in a more structured and systematic manner. Findings of this study proposed five of the most critical competencies within each phase of the project life cycle and ranked based on their relative importance, for example, leadership, communication, planning, innovation, motivation, etc. The findings contribute to emerging literature and bring new insights on project managers’ competencies in the IDPs sector.

Blockchain support for execution, monitoring and discovery of inter-organizational business processes

In an Inter-Organizational Business Process (IOBP), independent organizations (collaborators) exchange messages to perform business transactions. With process mining, the collaborators could know what they are actually doing from process execution data and take actions for improving the underlying business process. However, process mining assumes that the knowledge of the entire process is available, something that is difficult to achieve in IOBPs since process execution data generally is not shared among the collaborating entities due to regulations and confidentiality policies (exposure of customers’ data or business secrets). Additionally, there is an inherently lack-of-trust problem in IOBP as the collaborators are mutually untrusted and executed IOBP can be subject to dispute on counterfeiting actions. Recently, Blockchain has been suggested for IOBP execution management to mitigate the lack-of-trust problem. Independently, some works have suggested the use of Blockchain to support process mining tasks. In this paper, we study and address the problem of IOBP mining whose management and execution is supported by Blockchain. As contribution, we present an approach that takes advantage of Blockchain capabilities to tackle, at the same time, the lack-of-trust problem (management and execution) and confident execution data collection for process mining (discovery and conformance) of IOBPs. We present a method that (i) ensures the business rules for the correct execution and monitoring of the IOBP by collaborators, (ii) creates the event log, with data cleaning integrated, at the time the IOBP executes, and (iii) produces useful event log in XES and CSV format for the discovery and conformance checking tasks in process mining. By a set of experiments on real IOBPs, we validate our method and evaluate its impact in the resulting discovered models (fitness and precision metrics). Results revealed the effectiveness of our method to cope with both the lack-of-trust problem in IOBPs at the time that contributes to collect the data for process mining. Our method was implemented as a software tool available to the community as open-source code.

European Green Deal – the way to Circular Public Procurement

The aim of this paper is to link the concept of green public procurement (GPP) to the nowadays popular circular economy (CE) concept by exploring the possibilities of circular public procurement. The legal framework will be specified at all stages of the suggested procurement cycle (preparation, tendering, execution, monitoring) and the connected instruments that support GPP will be summarized. In the research, ecolabelling and life-cycle costing will be highlighted as tools leading to Circular Public Procurement (CPP), drawing attention to the importance of ensuring competition and cooperation with market actors using these tools.

Cloud Function Performance: a component modeling approach

Cloud Functions are a trend in cloud computing in which developers are allowed to install code in a Function-as-a-Service (FaaS) platform able to manage provisioning, execution, monitoring and automatic scaling. The underlying infrastructure in FaaS platforms is hidden from the developers and designers and, since the inuence of the infrastructure is unknown, this makes it di_cult to apply software performance engineering approaches on cloud functions, which could lead to wrong or inaccurate performance estimations. In this study, we explore the use of component-based modeling and simulation in order to generate performance estimations of an exemplar cloud function which was exercised using a variety of workloads. A cloud function was both implemented and instrumented to record performance datain a log _le, associated with its invocations; using the log _le as an input, we extracted a performance model in a Palladio Component Model format suitable for running simulations to validate whether the generated model could explain the runtime behavior of the function. Using this approach and further tunings in the model, we were able to validate that the simulations could explain more than 95% of the function's behavior and that component-based modeling and simulation can be considered a serious option when trying to explain the behavior of a cloud function.

DIAMetrics

This paper introduces DIAMetrics: a novel framework for end-to-end benchmarking and performance monitoring of query engines. DIAMetrics consists of a number of components supporting tasks such as automated workload summarization, data anonymization, benchmark execution, monitoring, regression identification, and alerting. The architecture of DIAMetrics is highly modular and supports multiple systems by abstracting their implementation details and relying on common canonical formats and pluggable software drivers. The end result is a powerful unified framework that is capable of supporting every aspect of benchmarking production systems and workloads. DIAMetrics has been developed in Google and is being used to benchmark various internal query engines. In this paper, we give an overview of DIAMetrics and discuss its design and implementation. Furthermore, we provide details about its deployment and example use cases. Given the variety of supported systems and use cases within Google, we argue that its core concepts can be used more widely to enable comparative end-to-end benchmarking in other industrial environments.

Potencialidades e desafios da educação em saúde na pandemia da Covid-19

Objetivo: Informar el potencial y los desafíos de los Programas de Residencia Multiprofesional en educación para la salud a los profesionales de primera línea en la pandemia del Covid-19.Método: Se trata de un estudio descriptivo a partir de un relato de experiencia de profesores del programa de residencia de la Universidad Estatal de Piauí, resultado de un proceso de experiencias y reflexiones críticas sobre las prácticas, educación para la salud ofrecidas a los profesionales de la industria de la salud. frente a hospitales y unidades básicas de salud, en la pandemia de Covid-19, en el municipio de Teresina, Piauí. Las actividades se dividieron en cuatro etapas: planificación; ejecución, seguimiento y evaluación. Y cubrieron rondas de conversaciones y demostraciones del proceso de ponerse y quitarse. Además de la retroalimentación práctica de cada participante al final. También se utilizaron dinámicas de bienvenida y / o finalización.Resultados: Durante los meses de marzo y abril de 2020 se capacitaron 1.343 (mil trescientos cuarenta y tres) profesionales de la salud.Conclusión: Las titulaciones realizadas permitieron un intercambio de experiencias, reflexiones sobre una cultura de seguridad y un aprendizaje bidireccional entre residentes y profesionales de la salud. Además, lidiar con lo nuevo, la indecisión y lo desconocido fue un gran desafío. Objective: To report the potential and challenges of the Multi-professional Residency Programs in health education to frontline professionals in the Covid-19 pandemic.Method: This is a descriptive study from an experience report of professors from the residency program at the State University of Piauí. It shows the result of a process of experiences and critical reflections on the practices, health education offered to professionals in the healthcare industry in front of hospitals and basic health units, during the Covid-19 pandemic, in the municipality of Teresina, Piauí. The activities were divided into four stages: planning; execution, monitoring, and evaluation. There were conversation circles and demonstration of the process of dressing and undressing the equipment and also practical feedback by each participant at the end. Welcoming and/or completion dynamics were also used.Results: During March and April 2020, 1,343 (one thousand, three hundred and forty-three) health professionals were qualified.Conclusion: The qualifications enabled an exchange of experiences, reflections on safety culture, and two-way learning between residents and health professionals. Dealing with the new, indecision and the unknown was a great challenge. Objetivo: Relatar as potencialidades e desafios de Programas de Residências Multiprofissionais na educação em saúde aos profissionais da linha de frente na pandemia da Covid-19. Método: Trata-se de um estudo descritivo proveniente de um relato de experiência de docentes do programa de residências da Universidade Estadual do Piauí, fruto de um processo de vivências e reflexões críticas acerca das práticas de educação em saúde ofertadas aos profissionais da linha de frente dos hospitais e unidades básicas de saúde, na pandemia da Covid-19, no município de Teresina, Piauí. As atividades foram divididas em quatro etapas: planejamento; execução, monitoramento; e avaliação. Estas abrangeram rodas de conversas e demonstração do processo de paramentação e desparamentação, além de devolutiva prática por cada participante ao final. Utilizaram-se também dinâmicas de acolhimento e/ou finalização.Resultados: No decorrer dos meses de março e abril de 2020 foram qualificados 1.343 (mil trezentos e quarenta e três) profissionais de saúde.Conclusão: As qualificações realizadas possibilitaram uma troca de experiências, reflexões sobre uma cultura de segurança e uma aprendizagem de via dupla entre residentes e profissionais de saúde. Como também, lidar com o novo, indecisões e o desconhecido foi um grande desafio.

Diagnóstico do Funcionamento do Conselho de Classe no IFMT-Campus Cuiabá Cel. Octayde Jorge da Silva

ResumoEste trabalho foi motivado pela expectativa de diagnosticar, a partir dos documentos vigentes, a atual forma de organização e de funcionamento do Conselho de Classe no IFMT- campus Cuiabá Cel. Octayde Jorge da Silva. Foi usada uma abordagem qualitativa com característica exploratória, por meio da Técnica da Documentação Indireta: pesquisa bibliográfica e pesquisa documental. Para tanto, buscou-se um embasamento teórico por meio de bibliografias referentes ao Conselho de Classe e em documentos legais como: a LDB/96; o Projeto Pedagógico Institucional do IFMT/2019 e a Organização Didática do IFMT/2014. Com base nos documentos legais se concluiu que o Conselho de Classe deve ser instituído nas escolas de forma participativa e colegiada, e que essa instância possui uma função importante no tocante ao acompanhamento do processo de ensino e aprendizagem. Todavia, não foram encontrados, no âmbito da Instituição, documentos com orientações para a prática da organização e do funcionamento do Conselho de Classe. Assim, identificou-se a necessidade de se construírem tais instrumentos, com vistas a ações mais efetivas para a execução, o acompanhamento e a avaliação do processo pedagógico nos cursos Técnicos Integrados ao Ensino Médio. Palavras-chave: Projeto Pedagógico Institucional. Organização Didática. Ensino-Aprendizagem. Avaliação Escolar. Ensino Médio Integrado. AbstractThis work was motivated by the expectation of diagnosing, based on the current documents, the current form of organization and functioning of the Class Council at the IFMT-campus Cuiabá Cel. Octayde Jorge da Silva. A qualitative approach with an exploratory characteristic was used, through the Indirect Documentation Technique: bibliographic research and documentary research. To this end, a theoretical basis was sought through bibliographies regarding the Class Council and in legal documents such as: LDB / 96; the Institutional Pedagogical Project of IFMT / 2019 and the Didactic Organization of IFMT / 2014. Based on the legal documents, it was concluded that the Class Council should be instituted in schools in a participatory and collegial way, and that this instance has an important role regarding the teaching-learning process monitoring. However, no documents were found, within the institution, with guidelines for the organization practice and the Class Council functioning. Thus, the need to build such instruments was identified, with a view to more effective actions for the execution, monitoring and evaluation of the pedagogical process in the Technical courses integrated to High School. Keywords: Institutional Pedagogical Project. Didactic Organization. Teaching-Learning. School Evaluation. Integrated High School.