Based on a holistic perspective of education that articulates school pedagogy and social pedagogy, the main goal of this paper is to identify effective ways to ensure the right to education to vulnerable and marginalised young people who have dropped out of school. The research leading to this paper was part of a European research project which investigated how young people’s responses to conflict can provide opportunities for positive social engagement. This specific study explored early school leaving and school re-engagement from the point of view of a group of 20 Portuguese young early school leavers who later returned to school through Second Chance Education. Through a qualitative approach using individual in-depth interviews, participant observation and focus group, the study sought to offer a comprehensive reading of early school leaving and school re-engagement by addressing the diversity of motivations, experiences, factors and consequences associated with them, as well as the role that educational policies and school factors can play in it. The study’s findings revealed that, for many socially and economically vulnerable youngsters, mainstream schools are places of individual failure and interpersonal conflict where they don’t feel welcomed and from which they stop expecting positive outcomes. This favours a progressive disengagement from education that reinforces social marginalisation. However, the findings also showed that by engaging in second chance education projects, youngsters develop greater commitment to education and identify relevant positive changes in terms of personal and skills’ development, behavioural adjustment and establishment of life goals. According to the participants’ experiences, the holistic and individualised socio-pedagogical approach of such projects is particularly apt to respond to their needs. Community-based educational approaches, practical and participatory learning environments, and the emotional investment and support from teachers and staff are shown to be the most effective socio-educational features when trying to re-engage vulnerable young people in education.

Water management is critical in small islands such as the Azores (Portugal), and the present paper address changes that have occurred in the last decades through national constitutional arrangements and the adoption of the Water Framework Directive (WFD). The WFD provided an opportunity to implement integrated river basin planning, whose main results are also discussed, surpassing early approaches mainly focused on complying with European Union sanitation goals and eutrophication control. Therefore, new policies emerged, and take into account exemptions that all water bodies will comply with WFD environmental objectives by 2027 (83.7% in 2015). The main constraints are the result of (1) insufficient funding, (2) lack of empowerment by water authority, and (3) no consideration of the economic dimension.

Esta obra está licenciada sob uma Licença Creative Commons. OS JOVENS E O PARADOXO DAS OPORTUNIDADES EM CABO VERDE RESUMO:Partindo de dados etnográficos recolhidos na cidade do Mindelo, Cabo Verde, este tex análise que coloca a categoria de "jovens" como eixo de compreensão das estruturas sociais contemporâneas e das suas transformações e continuidades. São confrontados os discursos dominantes sobre os jovens com os discursos dos próprios jovens das oportunidades disponíveis, que parecem crescer e ao mesmo tempo permanecem escassas. Propõe-se uma interpretação deste paradoxo à luz de uma etnografia que revela os jovens como actores sociais e que dá conta dos seus suas opções de vida. Esta análise permite apontar uma explicação geracional e histórica para o aparente paradoxo das oportunidades e realçar a ambiguidade e incerteza associadas à condição juvenil em Cabo Verde.Palavras-chave: Juventude; Cabo Verde YOUNG PEOPLE AND THE PARADOX OF OPPORTUNITIES IN CAPE VERDE ABSTRACT:Based on ethnographic data collected in the city of Mindelo, Cape Verde, this paper proposes an analysis that focuses the category of "young" as the axis for understanding the contemporary social structures, their changes and continuities. The dominant dis confronted with the discourse of young people themselves, highlighting a paradoxical vision of the opportunities available, which seem to grow and at the same time remain scarce. In the context of the recent changes in Cape Verdean society, it is proposed an interpretation of this paradox in light of an ethnography that shows young people as social actors and that takes into account their constraints, their expectations towards the future and their life choices. This analysis generational and historical explanation for the apparent paradox of opportunities and highlights the growing ambiguity and uncertainty associated with the condition of youth in contemporary Cape Verde. Keywords OS JOVENS E O PARADOXO DAS OPORTUNIDADES EM CABO VERDEPartindo de dados etnográficos recolhidos na cidade do Mindelo, Cabo Verde, este tex análise que coloca a categoria de "jovens" como eixo de compreensão das estruturas sociais contemporâneas e das suas transformações e continuidades. São confrontados os discursos dominantes sobre os jovens com os discursos dos próprios jovens, sobressaindo uma visão paradoxal das oportunidades disponíveis, que parecem crescer e ao mesmo tempo permanecem escassas.se uma interpretação deste paradoxo à luz de uma etnografia que revela os jovens como actores sociais e que dá conta dos seus constrangimentos, das suas expectativas face ao futuro e das suas opções de vida. Esta análise permite apontar uma explicação geracional e histórica para o aparente paradoxo das oportunidades e realçar a ambiguidade e incerteza associadas à condição Cabo Verde; oportunidades; gerações; incerteza. YOUNG PEOPLE AND THE PARADOX OF OPPORTUNITIES IN CAPE VERDEBased on ethnographic data collected in the city of Mindelo, Cape Verde, this paper proposes an analysis that focuses the category of "young...

Our work in this area started as a research project but when L 2 F joined TecnoVoz, a Portuguese national consortium including Academia and Industry partners, our focus shifted to real-time professional solutions. The integration of our domain-independent Spoken Dialogue System (SDS) framework into commercial products led to a major reengineering process. This paper describes the changes that the framework went through and that deeply affected its entire architecture. The communication core was enhanced, the modules interfaces were redefined for an easier integration, the SDS deployment process was optimized and the framework robustness was improved. The work was done according to software engineering guidelines and making use of design patterns.

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This paper presents a system that helps you cook a recipe through a spoken dialogue tutoring session. We report our experience while creating the first version of a tutoring dialogue system that helps the user cook a selected dish. Having a working framework to support us with the creation of the cooking assistant, the main challenge we faced was the change of paradigm: instead of the system being driven by the user, the user is instructed by the system. The result is a system capable of dictating generic contents to the user. On top of it, the system can be used in several domains where the goal is not the replacement of the user but providing some assistance while (s)he performs some procedural task.

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