The aim of this thesis is to analyse the risks of information technologies in the company Metalik Ltd. which balances on the boundary of small and medium enterprises. One part of this analysis is a preparation of the scale for estimation of the impacts, threats and vulnerabilities. Finally is drafted a register of actions which responds to IT risks which were identified in the frame of the thesis. The register is in compliance with the business plan of the company and its recent market position. The contribution of this thesis is in showing how the firm, which can represent the typical small or medium enterprises, works with IT risks. The principles of some correctional actions can be also generally related to this group of enterprises. The benefit specifically for the firm Metalik Ltd. is documentation for future work with the risks connected with the information technologies.

This dissertation defends the so-called 'agency-approach' to causation, which attempts to ground the causal relation in the cause's role of being a means to bring about its effect. The defence is confined to a conceptual interpretation of this theory, pertaining to the concept of causation as it appears in a causal judgement. However, causal judgements are not seen as limited to specific domains, and they are not exclusively attributed to human agents alone. As a methodological framework to describe the different perspectives of causal judgments, a method taken from the philosophy of information is made use of - the so-called 'method of abstraction'. According to this method, levels of abstraction are devised for the subjective perspective of the acting agent, for the agent as observer during the observation of other agents' actions, and for the agent that judges efficient causation. As a further piece of propaedeutic work, a class of similar (yet not agency-centred) approaches to causation is considered, and their modelling paradigms - Bayesian networks and interventions objectively construed - will be criticised. The dissertation then proceeds to the defence of the agency-approach, the first part of which is a defence against the objection of conceptual circularity, which holds that agency analyses causation in causal terms. While the circularity-objection is rebutted, I rely at that stage on a set of subjective concepts, i.e. concepts that are eligible to the description of the agent's own experience while performing actions. In order to give a further, positive corroboration of the agency-approach, an investigation into the natural origins and constraints of the concept of agency is made in the central chapter six of the dissertation. The thermodynamic account developed in that part affords a third-person perspective on actions, which has as its core element a cybernetic feedback cycle. At that point, the stage is set to analyse the relation between the first- and the third-person perspectives on actions previously assumed. A dual-aspect interpretation of the cybernetic-thermodynamic picture developed in chapter six will be directly applied to the levels of abstraction proposed earlier. The level of abstraction that underpins judgments of efficient causation, the kind of causation seemingly devoid of agency, will appear as a derived scheme produced by and dependent on the concept of agency. This account of efficient causation, the 'objectification of agency', affords the rebuttal of a second objection against the agency-approach, which claims that the approach is inappropriately anthropomorphic. The dissertation concludes with an account of single-case, or token level, causation, and with an examination of the impact of the causal concept on the validity of causal models.

Submitted by Priscilla Araujo (priscilla@ibict.br) on 2016-09-26T17:44:07Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Ana Cristina -DISSERTAÇÂO-cd.pdf: 1311490 bytes, checksum: 44ac918311821e2b55db2a234cb20347 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-09-26T17:44:08Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Ana Cristina -DISSERTAÇÂO-cd.pdf: 1311490 bytes, checksum: 44ac918311821e2b55db2a234cb20347 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-03-31 / Reflete sobre a necessidade e demanda de informação de grupos de pessoas do Assentamento Abril Vermelho localizado no Município de Santa Bárbara no Estado do Pará, e a relação que se estabelece no âmbito de um programa de extensão universitária da Universidade Federal Rural da Amazônia (UFRA) realizado nesse ambiente. Apresenta histórico de mudança epistemológica, política e informacional que passou o Ensino de Ciências Agrárias na Amazônia e a Instituição até sua transformação em Universidade. O estudo exploratório vem pautado no referencial teórico sociopolítico de Regime de Informação, em ações e práticas que demandam no contexto informacional de interações das ações realizadas na extensão. As considerações dessa interação são reportadas sob o ponto de vista do olhar dos assentados participantes e das práticas que se estabelecem nesse elo, no contexto do agricultor e os órgãos responsáveis pelo Assentamento e das ações da Universidade. O estudo apontou os desafios interdisciplinares de acesso, uso e produção de informação, o fluxo informacional e organizativo do Assentamento e também indicativos de ações futuras para inserção no Programa de Extensão da UFRA. / Reflects on the need and demand for information from groups of people land settlement Abril Vermelho located in Santa Barbara County in the state of Pará, and the relationship that is established within a university extension program of the Federal Rural University of Amazonia (UFRA) performed in this environment. Presents historical epistemological change, political and informational now the Teaching of Agricultural Sciences in the Amazon and the Institution until its transformation in University. The exploratory study has guided the theoretical framework of sociopolitical scheme info in actions and practices that demand the informational context of interactions of actions performed in the extension. The considerations of this interaction are reported from the point of view of the gaze of the participants seated and practices that establish this link, in the context of the farmer and the organs responsible for the actions of the land settlement and the University. The study pointed to the interdisciplinary challenges of access, use and production of information, the informational and organizational flow of the land settlement and also indicative of future actions for inclusion in the Extension Program UFRA.