Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic is producing not only epidemiological consequences on a global scale, but also political, economic, and social repercussions. The health care professionals that have been on the front lines fighting the pandemic need the support and assistance of other organizations to meet the many daily challenges. Volunteer firefighters stand out for their outreach approach and implementation of the Human2Human paradigm that has enabled them to meet the needs of the most vulnerable population that have been hit the hardest by the pandemic. This study adopts an ethnographic-action method considering Portuguese volunteer firefighters to explore the characteristics and relevance of these initiatives in areas such as combating isolation, medical assistance, containing the spread of COVID-19, and promoting public-private partnerships. The findings reveal that factors associated with altruism are central elements in the emergence of these initiatives, although some locally or nationally coordinated initiatives have been replicated in other contexts. It is also noteworthy that volunteer firefighters also present initiatives that can be fit into more than one category.

Abstract
Research data on the activities of student teams in online learning environments are relevant for evaluating instructional methods, strategies, tools, and materials. For research data sharing and publication purposes, these personal data must be anonymized or pseudonymized as recommended by data protection and privacy policies. This paper addresses issues related to anonymizing and pseudonymizing student data on the Slack teamwork platform, one often employed in educational and business settings. Issues are discussed from two perspectives: data extraction and data transformation. Difficulties and challenges concerning data extraction and transformation are described. The complexities of these two processes are considered, and a starting point for developing more efficient methods is put forward.

Abstract
The topic of digital transformation has become increasingly prevalent in recent decades. Its importance is justified by the fact that not only can it change the way companies operate, but also bring to light new business strategies. Indeed, companies have ramped up operational data collection opportunities and adopted digital practices to facilitate new flows of design information, allow teams to interoperate in different ways, or improve system performance. Given that a digital transformation occurs under certain sociotechnical contexts and with specific purposes, their success can critically depend on the ability to unambiguously describe this context and the intended transformation in the form of new operational scenarios. One of the challenges faced when attempting a digital transformation is that these efforts can be ad-hoc and poorly structured, which does not tie the transformation to strategic objectives and operational strengths and limitations. This paper aims at addressing this issue by leveraging an existing systems engineering analysis method called Concept of Operations to provide structure to the digital transformation process. Our work shows that this method has the potential to accelerate the sociotechnical system redesign cycle and generate actionable decisions aligned with strategic goals and operational strengths and limitations. © 2022 The authors and IOS Press.

Abstract
In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, public spaces had to be quickly adapted to the new circumstances especially under the uncertainty of the pandemic development. Door handles are some of the most touched surfaces and so, this point of contagion was chosen to be tackled and two solutions were developed that would prevent direct touch with the handle: a portable and a fixed device. The portable device (HYHOOK + HYTIP) is a hook-like device holding a finger cover, which permits to open doors and push buttons safely. The fixed device (HANDGENIC) is meant to be assembled in door handles to equip buildings, such as universities or schools. With the fixed device, the user can open the door using their forearm which makes them less likely to transfer any particles to eyes, nose or mouth. The 3D printing Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) process was selected as manufacturing technique, which allows the fast production of prototypes. This work portrays the development process and design iterations taking into consideration the concerns about the functioning of the devices and possible failures or alternative uses. To assure structural integrity of the parts, finite element (FE) analysis was used to verify its mechanical response. As conclusion, it was found that FE analysis indicate that the devices are structurally sound to be used in public spaces and that 3D printing is a useful way to rapidly develop devices while testing several design possibilities.

Abstract
The reconstruction of the economic history of Brazil since independence from Portugal (1822) may lead to a new understanding of its economic growth. The deep-rooted idea that Brazil could have done better means there is a need to delve into each phase of its development. In this paper, we provide a very long-run perspective (1822-2019) of Brazil’s economic growth and process of real convergence. On the one hand, this review indicates that structural changes observed in the middle of the 20th century were crucial in promoting the country’s growth and real convergence with technologically advanced countries. On the other hand, poor institutional conditions and deficient human capital formation have emerged since colonial times as critical factors underlying Brazil’s inability to establish robust and sustainable economic growth.

Abstract
Virtual reality (VR) is still a field that is in constant development, and people are trying to use it to have a close representation of reality by creating immersive environments. However, despite the existence of some tools that have been adapted to work with VR, they require some experience to work with, and there is a considerable amount of resources that need to be spent to create and maintain the VR experiences, which prevents the adoption and use of all the benefits that VR can bring. This work proposes an architecture for an authoring tool that allows users to create their own virtual experiences without the need for an extensive understanding of it and use them to create a virtual training exercise. This paper uses a case study built upon a real training context scenario applied to the agroforestry field. To validate this proposal, a prototype was built and subject to usability and satisfaction tests that demonstrated the ease of understanding and learning of the interfaces and all the functionalities implemented.