Nuno Ferreira da Cruz

Viability of municipal companies in the provision of urban infrastructure services

Abstract This article discusses the organisational and institutional model of municipal company in the provision of urban infrastructure services in Portugal. The law recently enacted which defined the legal regime for the local business sector, as well as the growing awareness that the new public management models represent great advantages in comparison with the bureaucratic ones that characterise the traditional public administration, make this a current and relevant issue. For the purpose of investigating the viability of this provision model, this research encompasses three complementary analyses. First, the results obtained from a nationwide questionnaire on the features of municipal companies are analysed. Second, a SWOT matrix is constructed to examine the model of municipal company and, third, the total factor productivity (TFP) of these organisations is determined using the index number theory, in order to evaluate their performance and compare it with that of the traditional bureaucratic models. Although the concept of municipal company is based on noble principles and, in theory, it shows advantages compared to other means of service provision, this research points to very negative results regarding the model and leads to the conclusion that the aimed benefits are not achieved in Portugal. There are many causes contributing to this effect, but the political patronage of these companies and the lack of technical competence are presumably two of the most significant ones.

The hurdles of local governments with PPP contracts in the waste sector

With this paper we identify a number of the theoretical principles that apply to public—private partnership (PPP) contracts, introducing new case studies and policy discussions relevant for Europe and elsewhere. We discuss to what extent these contracts can and should be applied in the waste sector and perform a comparison between the purely contractual and the institutionalised models of PPP arrangements. We analyse four case studies in the ‘wholesale’ waste market in Portugal and examine the implementation and degree of success of these partnerships in the field. It seems that public authorities are failing to secure an adequate level of protection of the public interest. Drawing on the empirical evidence, we present some guidelines that could lead to better regulatory contracts for waste services.

The control and data acquisition system of a laser in-vessel viewing system

This paper presents the dedicated control and data acquisition system (CADAS) of a new laser in-vessel viewing system that has been developed for inspection purposes in fusion experiments. CADAS is based on a MC68060 microprocessor and on-site developed VME instrumentation. Its main aims are to simultaneously control the laser alignment system as well as the laser beam deflection for in-vessel scanning, acquire a high-resolution image and support real-time data flow rates up to 2 Mbyte/s from the acquisition modules to the hard disk and network. The hardware (modules for control and alignment acquisition, scanning acquisition and monitoring) as well as the three levels of software are described.

Reinventing Mobile Community Computing and Communication

In less than a decade, smartphones and mobile applications spread like wildfire and dramatically improved aspects of our professional and private lives, from efficiency to safety. However, these applications are still in their infancy and mostly provide mobile versions of online Internet services or arcade games. With the exception of simple location-based query applications, context-awareness is largely ignored. However, it is not hard to imagine advanced mobile social networking applications -- SNAPPs for short -- that could proactively assist users in everyday tasks, improving their quality of life. Such services would require massive data collection, processing and communication between mobile devices. Unfortunately, the current centralised communication paradigm represents a major barrier to such intense networking. In this paper, we claim that a fundamental paradigm shift in communication is required to allow such application to see the light of day. The paper claims that such a shift is possible and that it resides in moving towards decentralised communication by taking advantage of the largely untapped network, storage and processing power capabilities offered by idle mobile devices. The paper presents and discusses a number of research questions that must be addressed in order to achieve this paradigm shift.

A high-data-transfer-rate VME system for TCP-IP remote real-time control of the ITER in-vessel vision system

This paper describes the control and data acquisition system (CADAS) for the in-vessel vision system (IVVS) for ITER, which imposes special design requirements due to its reactor characteristics. CADAS provides remote real-time control of the motors (by TCP-IP), fast data acquisition (20 bytes/pixel at 100 kpixels/s), error management and sustainable network data transfer rates (by TCP-IP). It is composed of a supervisory workstation connected by a 100 Mbit/s Ethernet channel to a remote VME crate, housing a board based on a PowerPC604R CPU running LynxOS, and two on-site developed intelligent modules. The architecture of these VME modules as well as the operation software and the application protocol are described. The test results are presented as well as an image obtained during the test procedures performed at the ENEA-Frascati Laboratory.

A Hybrid Trust and Trade Service for Mobile Collaborative Computing

Allowing a mobile device to provide a service to the neighbouring peers carries non-negligible risks, of which confidentiality, privacy and selfishness are good examples. To discourage selfishness, two approaches are typically taken: i) in trade based systems, devices agree on a retribution for the execution of a task, ii) in trust based systems rogue devices are detected and announced by their peers. We show that in some scenarios found in wireless mobile networks both present sub-optimal results. The paper describes and evaluates a hybrid service, combining trade and trust-based characteristics. The service suits well privacy requirements as it assumes and encourages users to frequently change their pseudonyms. The paper shows that the service detects several misbehaving approaches, even without requiring interacting devices to be connected to the Internet.

A large memory, high transfer rate VME data acquisition system for the JET correlation reflectometer

The current paper presents a large memory giving special emphasis to the architecture and suitability of the Linux OS for this type of applications. The system will be used on the joint european torus new correlation reflectometers composed by four microwave channels with four analogue signals each. All sixteen signals will be acquired by 12-bit VME fast acquisition channels at 2 Msamples/s achieving a total data rate of 60MB/s. Slower VME acquisition channels, with 16-bit resolution and sampling rates up to 250 ksamples/s, can also acquire these 16 signals. Two dedicated digital signal processors run an algorithm over this acquired data to avoid the use of the old KG8B root mean square analogue circuits as well as to control and to generate all the timing and acquisition clocks needed by the system.