This study fills demand for data on access and use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in the Brazilian legal Amazon, a region of localities with identical economic, political, and social problems. We use the 2010 Brazilian Demographic Census to compile data on urban and rural households (i) with computers and Internet access, (ii) with mobile phones, and (iii) with fixed phones. To compare the concentration of access to ICT in the municipalities of the Brazilian Amazon with other regions of Brazil, we use a concentration index to quantify the concentration of households in the following classes: with computers and Internet access, with mobile phones, with fixed phones, and no access. These data are analyzed along with municipal indicators on income, education, electricity, and population size. The results show that for urban households, the average concentration in the municipalities of the Amazon for computers and Internet access and for fixed phones is lower than in other regions of the country; meanwhile, that for no access and mobile phones is higher than in any other region. For rural households, the average concentration in the municipalities of the Amazon for computers and Internet access, mobile phones, and fixed phones is lower than in any other region of the country; meanwhile, that for no access is higher than in any other region. In addition, the study shows that education and income are determinants of inequality in accessing ICT in Brazilian municipalities and that the existence of electricity in rural households is directly associated with the ownership of ICT resources.

The first case of the novel coronavirus in Brazil was notified on February 26, 2020. After 21 days, the first case was reported in the second largest State of the Brazilian Amazon. The State of Pará presented difficulties in combating the pandemic, ranging from underreporting and a low number of tests to a large territorial distance between cities with installed hospital capacity. Due to these factors, mathematical data-driven short-term forecasting models can be a promising initiative to assist government officials in more agile and reliable actions. This study presents an approach based on artificial neural networks for the daily and cumulative forecasts of cases and deaths caused by COVID-19, and the forecast of demand for hospital beds. Six scenarios with different periods were used to identify the quality of the generated forecasting and the period in which they start to deteriorate. Results indicated that the computational model adapted capably to the training period and was able to make consistent short-term forecasts, especially for the cumulative variables and for demand hospital beds.

No abstract

ResumoObjetivo: Analisar a associação entre o acesso à informação, através da posse de computador com Internet nos domicílios e a gravidez na adolescência, tomando por referência os municípios da Amazônia legal brasileira em relação ao Brasil. Métodos: Estudo ecológico, baseado em dados obtidos do Censo Demográfico de pessoas e domicílios, realizado no Brasil no ano de 2010, pelo Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística. Resultados: Para os municípios da Amazônia legal brasileira com os menores percentuais de domicílios com posse de computador com Internet (< 4,49%), a probabilidade de apresentar os maiores percentuais de gravidez na adolescência (≥ 9,39%) é de 0,723 enquanto para os demais municípios do Brasil é de 0,23. O fenômeno da gravidez na adolescência apresentou associação com espaço de referência (Brasil, Amazônia) e com a posse de computador com Internet nos domicílios. Conclusões: Os municípios da Amazônia legal brasileira apresentam elevados índices de ocorrência da gravidez na adolescência em relação aos demais municípios do Brasil. A ocorrência desse fenômeno, associada com a baixa infraestrutura de acesso à Internet, revela as desiguais condições que gestores e profissionais de saúde podem encontrar para executar projetos que utilizem as Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação.Palavras-chave: saúde pública; gravidez na adolescência; tecnologia da informação; teorema de Bayes Teenage pregnancy and access to Information and Communications Technologies in the Amazon AbstractObjectives: To analyze the association between access to information, measured by the possession of a computer with Internet connection in households, and teenage pregnancy, taking as reference the municipalities of the Brazilian Legal Amazon compared to the rest of Brazil.

A idéia por trás da atividade experimental é permitir aos estudantes atingirem uma maior autonomia intelectual. Para isso, o estudante deve perceber a importância do refletir após o fazer. Esse artigo discute o problema e propõe um sistema, que pode ser incorporado a Ambientes Virtuais de Aprendizagem para gerenciar as atividades apoiadas por esses ambientes. O sistema proposto permite definir processos do tipo “padrão” om atividades que são “instanciadas” para os cursos e conta também conta com uma ferramenta de avaliação automática de textos, que fornece, para o professor, indicadores que podem ser usados para agilizar o feedback para os estudantes.

Abstract:Objectives: To analyse the association between the information access through a computer with Internet connexion in households and the teenage pregnancy, taking as reference the municipalities of Brazilian Legal Amazon compared to the rest of Brazil. Methods: Ecological study based on data collected from the Demographic Census of peoples and households performed in Brazil, in the year 2010, by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics. The integration of the databases was performed, from which variables were selected for the municipalities. These variables represent the dimensions of fecundity, income, education, ownership of computer with Internet access in the households, and space of reference (Brazil, Amazon). The visualisation of the spatial distribution of teenage pregnancy in Brazilian

The published literature reveals several arguments concerning the strategic importance of information and communication technology (ICT) interventions for developing countries where the digital divide is a challenge. Large-scale ICT interventions can be an option for countries whose regions, both urban and rural, present a high number of digitally excluded people. Our goal was to monitor and identify problems in interventions aimed at certification for a large number of participants in different geographical regions. Our case study is the training at the Telecentros.BR, a program created in Brazil to install telecenters and certify individuals to use ICT resources. We propose an approach that applies social network analysis and mining techniques to data collected from Telecentros.BR dataset and from the socioeconomics and telecommunications infrastructure indicators of the participants’ municipalities. We found that (i) the analysis of interactions in different time periods reflects the objectives of each phase of training, highlighting the increased density in the phase in which participants develop and disseminate their projects; (ii) analysis according to the roles of participants (i.e., tutors or community members) reveals that the interactions were influenced by the center (or region) to which the participant belongs (that is, a community contained mainly members of the same region and always with the presence of tutors, contradicting expectations of the training project, which aimed for intense collaboration of the participants, regardless of the geographic region); (iii) the social network of participants influences the success of the training: that is, given evidence that the degree of the community member is in the highest range, the probability of this individual concluding the training is 0.689; (iv) the North region presented the lowest probability of participant certification, whereas the Northeast, which served municipalities with similar characteristics, presented high probability of certification, associated with the highest degree in social networking platform.

No abstract