Candeias, Marta, and António B. Moniz. "
Artificial Intelligence and Democracy: Portugal."
Artificial Intelligence and Democracy. Oslo: EPTA, 2024. 111-117.
AbstractAs mentioned in the introduction to this volume, artificial intelligence (AI) functionalities are swiftly becoming integral to knowledge work and digital services. They are, however, also applied in all areas of human work. That is making the public services in Portugal more accessible and efficient. Since mid-90s, with the national strategy towards the Information Society (Missão para a Sociedade da Informação), a wide program for the promotion and development of public digital services have started. In the last decades, and with the definition of this national strategy, successive governments and the national parliament have contributed to stimulate democratic participation, and support decision-making and policy development.
Moniz, António B., and Bettina-Johanna Krings. "
Assessing technologies in industrial production: from old to recent controversies."
Handbook of Technology Assessment. Ed. Armin Grunwald. London: Edward Elgar, 2024. 151-161.
AbstractThis chapter deals with the role of technology in industrial production. Hereby, the enabling character of technology will be strengthened from the perspective of Technology Assessment (TA) in various countries and epochs. Besides the remarkable evolution of technological progress in this sector, the interrelationship of technology with human labor, the creation of specific institutional settings as well as the innovation circles by capital investments must be considered when assessing industrial production. The argumentation line of the article is based on the hypothesis, that the increase of TA studies in the last three decades on industrial production indicates the societal problem orientation of these technological innovations and its impact on employment and job qualification. TA expertise raised awareness of the positive and negative impact of technologies in industry which brings together a variety of options for the decision makers. Furthermore, discourses on ethical values on the future of (industrial) work are highlighted by TA.
Jacobs, Louis L., Stefan Schröder, Nair de Sousa, Richard Dixon, Edoardo Fiordalisi, Arthur Marechal, Octávio Mateus, Pedro Claude Nsungani, Michael J. Polcyn, Gustavo Couto Ramos do Pereira, Nathan Rochelle-Bates, Anne S. Schulp, Christopher R. Scotese, Ian Sharp, Carlos Gaudari Silvano, Roger Swart, and Diana P. Vineyard. "
The Atlantic jigsaw puzzle and the geoheritage of Angola."
Geological Society, London, Special Publications. 543 (2024): SP543-2022-301.
AbstractThe jigsaw-puzzle fit of South America and Africa is an icon of plate tectonics and continental drift. Fieldwork in Angola since 2002 allows the correlation of onshore outcrops and offshore geophysical and well-core data in the context of rift, sag, salt, and post-salt drift phases of the opening of the central South Atlantic. These outcrops, ranging in age from >130 Ma to <71 Ma, record Early Cretaceous outpouring of the Etendeka-Paraná Large Igneous Province (Bero Volcanic Complex) and rifting, followed by continental carbonate and siliciclastic deposition (Tumbalunda Formation) during the sagging of the nascent central South Atlantic basin. By the Aptian, evaporation of sea water resulted in thick salt deposits (Bambata Formation), terminated by sea floor spreading. The Equatorial Atlantic Gateway began opening by the early Late Cretaceous (100 Ma) and allowed flow of currents between the North and South Atlantic, creating environmental conditions that heralded the introduction of marine reptiles. These dramatic outcrops are a unique element of geoheritage because they arguably comprise the most complete terrestrially exposed geological record of the puzzle-like icon of continental drift.