Abstract
This research evaluates the performance of water supply utilities operating at the retail level in Portugal concerning asset management practices. The study's main innovative feature is identifying peers and targets to guide improvements in the sector. Reliable data collected by the regulatory authority for water and waste services in Portugal (ERSAR) are employed to design two composite indicators reflecting different dimensions of asset management: operational conditions and management systems. Based on the Data Envelopment Analysis technique, the Benefit-of-the-Doubt model is employed in robust and conditional formulations. The role of the context on utilities' performance is also investigated. The results show that the direct management model is unfavourable concerning developing structured management systems, whilst urban environments favour managerial advancement. Rural and semi-urban environments favour goodoperational results in infrastructures. The pool of peers obtained for each utility and the quantification of targets based on the observed achievements by those peers facilitates the search for industry best practices and promotes continuous improvement. Given the high heterogeneity in asset management performance within the sector, the utility-specific target-setting approach illustrated in this paper can support a regulatory policy review for determining more realistic goals.

Abstract
Assessing the evolution of the performance of water supply and sanitation services is essential to monitor progress towards the universalization of water services, as specified by the Sustainable Development Goal 6 of Agenda 2030, adopted by United Nations member countries. Brazil, a developing country with a continental size and geographical diversity, will face significant challenges to achieve this goal. The main objective of this paper is to evaluate the evolution of productivity of water supply and sanitation services in Brazilian municipalities in the period 2012-2019. The analysis also explores whether water services' performance is balanced across the country, with a specific analysis of performance at the macroregion level. From a methodological perspective, this research evaluates productivity change over time using a Malmquist Productivity Index estimated with a metafrontier, satisfying the circularity property. It also develops a pseudo Malmquist index that compares productivity levels across macro-regions. The results revealed a productivity loss of approximately 4% at the national level, with an unequal profile across the macro-regions. The Southeast municipalities stand out for exhibiting, on average, higher productivity levels than the South and Northeast municipalities.

Abstract
This study explores asset management performance of Portuguese water supply companies operating in the bulk market. The focus of the analysis are the managerial practices and the condition of infrastructures. This assessment is based on the information conveyed by the indicators collected by the Portuguese water and waste services' regulator authority (ERSAR) between 2016 and 2020. The main contribution of this research is to propose innovative methods to enhance the knowledge on asset management practices in the water sector. Two Benefit-of-the-Doubt (BoD) Composite Indicators are developed to highlight different aspects of asset management approaches. The first reflects organisations' performance in maintaining their infrastructures at acceptable operational levels, and the other reveals their maturity in asset management practices. Robust and conditional approaches for estimating the BoD indicators are applied, allowing to obtain results that account for the effect of contextual variables on companies' performance. Additionally, the performance of the companies is analysed over a 5-year period. The results show that there is significant room for improvement given the indicators' values estimated in the benchmarking analysis. The type of management systems and areas of intervention (urban, semi-urban or rural) are factors that present significant impact in asset management performance. The analysis of trends in the evolution of performance over time revealed improvements both in the companies' managerial practices and operational results.

Abstract
The Strategic Framework for European Cooperation in Education and Training (ET 2020) aimed to pro-mote the exchange of best practices among the Member States. This paper assesses the performance evo-lution of European countries in terms of the common objectives for the education sector. The framework used to evaluate European education systems is based on constructing a composite indicator adopting a benefit-of-the-doubt approach. The evaluation of performance change over time is done using a Global Malmquist Index. Sigma and beta convergence of EU countries are also explored using non-parametric frontier techniques. The results are analysed for the period 2009-2018 and discussed in light of the goals envisaged and the national policies adopted. The results revealed a trend of improvement in the perfor-mance of education systems in most European countries in the period analysed. Although most European countries moved closer to the European best practice frontier over time, as confirmed by the values of sigma-convergence, a few countries are still lagging considerably below their peers, as revealed by the existence of divergence in beta.(c) 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ )

Abstract
A área de conhecimento associada à gestão de ativos potencia a extração de valor de ativos físicos, incorporando uma abordagem integrada que envolve riscos, custos e desempenho. Este trabalho propõe uma nova abordagem para selecionar projetos de investimento em infraestruturas no âmbito da gestão de ativos. A métrica padrão utilizada para a seleção de projetos em ativos múltiplos é o Índice de Valor de Infraestruturas (IVI), que tem sido utilizado para caracterizar ativos do setor de águas em diversos países. Este trabalho desenvolveu dois modelos de programação linear inteira mista. O primeiro modelo de otimização trata de um problema de alocação de orçamento de capital selecionando projetos de investimento com vista à maximização da condição dos ativos. O segundo modelo de otimização trata de um problema de planeamento de orçamento, visando minimizar o capital necessário para manter os ativos nas condições desejadas. A aplicação dos modelos é ilustrada por um estudo de caso de uma empresa que opera no setor da água em Portugal. Os resultados obtidos nos diferentes cenários analisados são discutidos com vista a apoiar o desenho de políticas de gestão de ativos mais eficientes.

Abstract
Artificial intelligence (AI) has altered our world in numerous ways. Although its application has benefits, the underlying issues surrounding privacy and security in AI need to be understood, not only by the organizations that use it but also by the users that are susceptible to its vulnerabilities. To better understand the impact of privacy and security in AI, this chapter reviews the current literature on artificial intelligence, trustworthiness, and privacy and security concepts and uses bibliometric techniques to understand and identify current trends in the field. Finally, the authors highlight the challenges facing AI and machine learning and discuss the results obtained from the bibliometric analysis, which provides insight into the several implications for managers and contributions to future research and policy. © 2023, IGI Global. All rights reserved.