Science (Universidade Europeia)
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7 P’s of gamification: A strategic design tool for ideation of gamified solutions
No full textThe creation of a strategic design tool to develop multidisciplinary teams’ gamification capability can contribute to a better understanding of this concept, stimulate collaborative work, and contribute to the ideation of creative gamified solutions. In this context, the paper proposes a structured method - ‘7 P’s of gamification - which offers a broad and comprehensive perspective of gamification based on a step-by-step process. It allows team members with limited knowledge of gamification to understand it and start to use it in a real case scenario. This method was tested in a fully online workshop that challenged four teams (nineteen students in total) to ideate gamified solutions for a Lisbon municipality, which established the conditions and desired goals. The collaborative effort between team members and facilitators during the entire process was supported by digital collaborative tools (digital workspace and communication platform). Before the workshop, a training session was conducted with all participants, followed by a survey and semi-structured interviews, conducted immediately after the workshop. Based on the findings, it was possible to conclude that participants positively assessed the ‘7 P’s of gamification’ method. This type of approach engages participants in the ideation process and facilitates the ideation of gamified solutions. The presence of facilitators was also positively highlighted, which reinforces the importance of having this type of ‘actors’ when conducting gamification practices. Further research is needed to assess this method in other work contexts as well as the influence on adoption, implementation, and outcomes of gamification
Knowledge spillovers and strategic entrepreneurship revisited: A review
No full textThe new concepts of knowledge spillovers and strategic entrepreneurship have received attention from both academia and professionals alike. The association between the two and the impacts of one on another is of great interest to both segments due to the significant potentials of the knowledge spillovers on the economic growth of its surrounding regions. Thus, this chapter aims to uncover the theoretical and empirical research on knowledge spillovers and strategic entrepreneurship in the management context. The chapter follows a review approach to discover and extract the most relevant concepts in this conversation. This chapter is set forth to introduce a brief look at the background of the knowledge spillover theory of entrepreneurship and the relationship between knowledge spillovers and strategic entrepreneurship. It is finalized by the avenues of the research and conclusion
The role of car aesthetics on consumers’ decisions: An example from Romania
No full textVisual impact is essential when consumers are assessing car preferences. The purpose of this paper is to present a holistic model focusing on car aesthetic dimensions and its impact on consumers’ purchase decisions. Our findings are based on a questionnaire completed by 388 participants and analyzed with SPSS and AMOS. The results show not only that the aesthetic dimensions such as color, shape and sound influence the processing stimuli, but also the significant and positive relationships established between the stimuli and the purchase decision. Also, this study can guide marketers when developing an effective marketing strategy. As our research focuses on the Romanian market, testing our framework in different cultures is strongly encouraged
Digital transformation and the impact in knowledge management
No full textNowadays, digital transformation is forcing companies to reach a new level of productivity and digital evolution. Small and autonomous is winning over large and centralized. Digital transformation requires the adoption of more agile business processes and the development of new customer-facing digital services. It means creating scale through reusable services and enabling self-service consumption of those services. Business processes and transactions can be automated with the composition of microservices. We will see that the principle of composability allows microservices to deliver value to the business in different contexts. The paper also explains how a BizDevOps philosophy with references to microservices allows rapid adaptations of requirements to fast-changing needs in businesses, outlining the importance of business process automation for companies to acquire the know-how to implement a just-in-time diachronic dialogue. It presents the alignment of the proposed framework with a digital strategy. Assembling a multidisciplinary team is foreseen as a key factor in developing innovative capabilities to react to new customer demands, enabling the company to stay competitive and continuously address customer expectations, differentiating tacit from explicit knowledge
International Atomic Energy Agency inter-comparison of particle induced gamma-ray emission codes for bulk samples
No full textPIGE has been widely used in the analysis of bulk samples, with quantification of data made usually through the use of reference samples. With a growing database of experimental cross sections becoming available, the use of first-principles data analysis methods is gaining ground. Only few codes capable of first principles analysis of PIGE data were available, but new codes have been recently developed. However, their accuracy has not been verified so far. In this work, the results of an inter-comparison of PIGE data analysis codes organised by the IAEA are presented. The inter-comparison was made through simulations for well-defined conditions, for bulk samples. Five analytical codes participated in the exercise: ERYA-Bulk, ERYA-Profiling, NDF, PiGreCo and SIMNRA. It is concluded that, although some differences are observed for some calculations, particularly in the presence of sharp resonances in the cross section, all four codes are appropriate for analysis of PIGE experimental data
Design, education, and the online tech-pandemic
No full textAmidst the COVID-19, the use of technology in the learning environment was no longer a matter of choice. Forced by circumstance, educators had to adapt in order to see the academic year through. While for some, already used to an online modality, it was business as always, for others was the start of a journey through unfamiliar territory. This study inserts itself in such context. It presents and discusses results gathered through an online questionnaire about the perceptions and personal experiences of design educators in Higher Education (HE) caught in this move from in-class face-to-face onto online teaching. Objectively, it portrays how this shift impacted their ability to teach, the compromises made or alternatives sought, and views towards a more technologically enabled future in HE. From a more extensive reliance on Learning Management Systems (LMS), changes in the learning environment, and perspectives of near-future uses of Virtual Reality (VR) in distance education, this study covers uses of technology but also the identification of pain points influencing the overall experience, as well as positive perceptions and significant changes made to the learning environment
Performance indicators for research and cultural creation activities in polytechnic higher education institutions: A consensus building approach
No full textThis article presents a set of performance indicators based on the Portuguese case for managing the performance of research and cultural creation activities and their impact on the regional context in polytechnic higher education institutions. Five theoretical
dimensions have been proposed and empirically validated to frame the diversity of these activities and, for each one of them, a set of performance indicators (which total 29) was defined. The Delphi technique was applied to reach consensus among specialists (polytechnic higher education institutions’ presidents) on the performance indicators; two rounds of the technique application have led to a final set of indicators (comprising 23 indicators). The final set of performance indicators emerged as valid to actually be used by polytechnic higher education institutions, not only as a selfinstrument to assess and improve their performance, but also as a management tool
allowing the institutions to establish goals, define their own profile and the strategies to achieve it
A multilevel hypernetworks approach to capture meso-level synchronisation processes in football
No full textUnderstanding team behaviours in sports performance requires understanding the interdependencies established between their levels of complexity (micro-meso-macro). Previously, most studies examined interactions emerging at micro- and macro-levels, thus neglecting those emerging at a meso-level (reveals connections between player and team levels, depicted by the emergence of coordination in specific sub-groups of players–simplices during performance). We addressed this issue using the multilevel hypernetworks approach, adopting a cluster-phase method, to record player-simplice synchronies in two performance conditions where the number, size and location of goals were manipulated (first-condition: 6 × 6 + 4 mini-goals; second-condition: Gk + 6 × 6 + Gk). We investigated meso-level coordination tendencies, as a function of ball-possession (attacking/defending), field-direction (longitudinal/lateral) and teams (Team A/Team B). Generally, large synergistic relations and more stable patterns were observed in the longitudinal direction of the field than the lateral direction for both teams, and for both game phases in the first condition. The second condition displayed higher synchronies and more stable patterns in the lateral direction than the longitudinal plane for both teams, and for both game phases. Results suggest: (i) usefulness of hypernetworks in assessing synchronisation of teams at a meso-level; (ii) coaches may consider manipulating these task constraints to develop levels of local synchronies within teams
Arachne’s Loom: A public art drawing for Porto Design Biennale 2019
No full textThe essay claims that a substantial part of contemporary drawing research has worked on the conceptual boundaries of what drawing is or when it takes place. It reports on a piece of public art on the limits of drawing that illustrates contemporary research issues based on drawings as elements or substantial parts of installations, public art, urban interventions, performances, unconventional media and materials. The piece - Arachne's Loom - was an installation of 1500 m of black fibre-optic cable displayed across an artificial lake connecting a public library building to five computer heads. It was paired with a wind turbine blade placed in a public square - The Children of Eos - and the two together were presented under the title Hard Design. Curating this intervention was an opportunity to explore in a practical way issues that interweave the materiality/immateriality of graphic elements and that have been an important part of the author's previous work. The wind turbine blade and cables installed in public spaces set up a number of polarities, two of which are relevant for drawing research: monuments vs. festivals and shapes vs. shapeless. Within the first polarity, a symbolic foundation for public art rooted in ancient myths is discussed. Particular attention is given to the power of Arachne's myth as a cautionary narrative connected to the origins of both figurative and abstract drawing. Within the second polarity, in opposition to the wind blade's distinct, 'pure' form, the rhizomatic structure of a web-like network of fibre-optic cables is explored in the context of drawing research. The text links philosophical rhizomes, real rhizomes, representations of rhizomes and visual allusions to rhizomes with public art, drawing, drawing as process, the World Wide Web and its extensions. The epilogue frames the piece within Nelson Goodman's aesthetics, suggesting that further research into the work of this philosopher may open interesting paths for drawing theory
