Within a context of continuous population and economic growth, the future projections for agricultural products\' demand is impressive. At the same time, agriculture already exercises significant pressure on natural resources. As a consequence, the world needs to produce higher agricultural volumes while limiting agriculture\'s impacts on the environment. This thesis evaluates whether empirical indications exist that demonstrate how Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure development and usage could impact the sustainable development of agriculture. Drawing from the empirical literature on infrastructure\'s impacts on development, two statistical models are created. The first analyses impacts of Internet and mobile usage on cereal yields at a country level using Fixed Effects Panel Regression for 212 countries in five 5-year periods, from 1990 to 2014. The second uses a Propensity Score Matching Model to evaluate how the installation of 3G technology during the period between 2005 and 2009 in Brazilian municipalities located in the Amazon region affected deforestation. Based on the methodology and datasets used, results indicate that the growth of Internet users could have a positive impact on cereal productivity in a country. Results for mobile device users are inconclusive. Finally the second models indicate that municipalities in which 3G technology was installed had lower deforestation rates than similar municipalities lacking 3G technology. / Em um contexto de crescimento populacional e econômico, as projeções de demanda para produtos agrícolas no futuro são expressivas. Ao mesmo tempo, a agricultura já exerce pressão significativa nos recursos naturais do planeta. Como consequência, é preciso obter maior oferta de produtos e, ao mesmo tempo, limitar o impacto ambiental da atividade agrícola. Essa tese avalia o papel da infraestrutura e uso de Tecnologia da Informação e Comunicação (TIC) no desenvolvimento sustentável da agricultura. Baseando-se na literatura empírica sobre impacto de infraestrutura no desenvolvimento, dois modelos estatísticos foram criados. O primeiro analisa os impactos do uso de internet e telefones celulares na produtividade de cereais utilizando uma regressão em painel de efeitos fixos para 212 países no período entre 1990 e 2014. O segundo utiliza um modelo Propensity Score Matching para avaliar o impacto da instalação de tecnologia 3G no desmatamento de municipios localizados na região da Amazônia Legal brasileira. De acordo com a metodologia e dados utilizados, os resultados indicam que um crescimento no uso da internet pode positivamente impactar a produtividade de cereais em um país. Para o caso do uso de telefones celulares os resultados são inconclusivos. Finalmente, de acordo com o modelo, há indicações de que municipios que receberam a tecnologia 3G no período estudado tiveram taxas de desmatamento reduzidas quando comparadas a municipios similares que não receberam a tecnologia.

Este trabalho aborda o tema do museu por meio de suas transformações no contexto da Sociedade da Informação. Do ponto de vista teórico-metodológico, estabelece análises sobre os aspectos que envolvem museu, arte e tecnologia, proporcionados pela interação entre arte e espectador. Discute as possibilidades oferecidas pelas TIC\'s (Tecnologias da Informação e Comunicação) e sua relevância no âmbito social, cultural e artístico como instrumento agregador e transformador das funções da arte e da arquitetura nos museus. Busca também compreender os processos de criação e desenvolvimento da arte e sua integração com a arquitetura dos museus no desenho de obras e espaços interativos. O trabalho busca identificar a incorporação destas tecnologias e discutir suas principais possibilidades, riscos e desafios. Enfatiza a importância do aspecto multidisciplinar na concepção dos novos museus e nas estratégias de organização do espaço museográfico. / This work addresses the theme of the museum space transformations in the context of the Information Society. From the standpoint of theoretical and methodological framework, seeks to establish benchmarks and qualitative aspects that involve cognitive and spatial relationships between the Museum, Art and Technology, provided mainly by the creation of interactive and integrated digital systems. It discusses the possibilities offered by new technologies and their relevance in the social, cultural and art as an aggregator tool and processor functions of Arts and Architecture. It\'s scope understand the processes of creation and development of art and its integration with architecture in the conception of museums that use interactive systems. The study points to a tendency to incorporate these technologies in order to make the public more involved and communicative with art and architecture. Emphasizes the importance of the multidisciplinary aspect designing new museums, it\'s social and cultural aspects, and the strategies of museological space.

A sociedade atual é também conhecida como Sociedade da Informação, pois o acesso às informações e ao conhecimento está disponível de maneira rápida através das Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação (TIC), como computador, Internet e telefone celular. Assim, tem sido necessário elaborar novas maneiras de pensar e conviver com essas tecnologias. Para o desenvolvimento socioeconômico das nações é importante formar uma sociedade crítica, reflexo do processo educacional adotado; dessa maneira, é preciso se apropriar das TIC para obter práticas de ensino mais criativas e flexíveis. Para que essa integração gere resultados satisfatórios é preciso a união de diversos fatores como a infraestrutura disponível na escola, o domínio dos professores sobre a utilização nas atividades de ensino-aprendizagem, a integração no projeto político-pedagógico, a implementação de políticas públicas na área educacional pelo governo etc. Dessa forma, o levantamento de dados estatísticos sobre a adoção das TIC nos processos educacionais se faz necessário. Pesquisas amostrais são muito utilizadas com o intuito de conhecer determinada característica sobre uma população. O tamanho das amostras costuma ser planejado para a obtenção de dados para grandes áreas, no entanto, vem crescendo o desejo de se obter informações em níveis mais desagregados, onde o tamanho da amostra é pequeno para a produção de estimativas com precisão aceitável, sem aumentar o tamanho amostral. Em vista disso, a metodologia de estimação em pequenas áreas tem sido desenvolvida de forma a produzir estimativas com precisão adequada para as características de interesse, considerando a distribuição de probabilidade trazida no desenho amostral ou a utilização de modelos que emprestam informações para áreas semelhantes. O objetivo desta dissertação é a obtenção dessas estimativas para a proporção de escolas em que os professores usam a Internet em atividades de ensino-aprendizagem com os alunos para cada Unidade Federativa do Brasil, utilizando dados reais provenientes da pesquisa TIC Educação, produzida pelo CGI.br, e do Censo Escolar, produzido pelo INEP. Obtemos as estimativas por diferentes abordagens, tanto direto da amostra quanto através da construção de modelos de regressão logística, e as comparamos através da estimativa do erro quadrático médio e da proporção de acertos, através da matriz de confusão por validação leave-one-out. Para a consolidação dos resultados obtidos nos dados reais, fazemos um estudo de simulação de dados. O modelo de efeitos aleatórios é considerado como o que apresentou os melhores resultados. / The current society is also known as the Information Society because access to information and knowledge is available through Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) such as computer, Internet and mobile phone. Thus, new ways of thinking and living with these technologies have become necessary. For the socio-economic development of nations it is important to create a critical society, reection of adopted educational process; In that way, appropriating ICT should be necessary to obtain more creative and exible teaching practices. To obtain satisfactory performance it needs the union of several factors such as the infrastructure available in schools, the teacher\'s knowledge about how to adopt ICT on practical activities, the ICT integration on the political pedagogical project, the implementation of public policies on the educational sector etc. In this manner, collect statistical data about ICT adoption on teaching practices is necessary. Sample surveys are widely used in order to understand certain characteristics of a population. The sample sizes is often designed to obtain results for large areas, nevertheless, the desire to obtain these results for more disaggregated areas, where the sample size is small to produce reliable estimates, are increasing without increasing the sample size. Small area estimation methodology has been developed to produce reliable estimates about some desired characteristics considering the probability distribution introduced on the sample design or considering models to lend information to resembling domains. Our purpose is to obtain estimates to the proportion of schools wherein teachers use the Internet to teaching-learning activities with their students for each Federative Unit of Brazil using real data from ICT in Education Survey, conducted by CGI.br, and Scholar Census, conducted by INEP. We obtain these estimates from dierent aproaches both by direct estimator and by logistic regression models and we compare them under the mean squared error and the proportion of success using confusion matrix by leave-one-out cross-validation. To consolidate these results we do a simulation study. The logistic random eects model is considered the best approach.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-22T22:10:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Lucia Maria Barbosa Lira.pdf: 1245649 bytes, checksum: e85e2c5280f568c33f034642e334e3e4 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-12-15 / This is a proposal of a Strategic Planning Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to be applied on Data Processing Center (CPD) of the Federal University of Amazonas (UFAM). So far, CPD has not any informatics polity. Based on modernization program established by the Institutional Development Plan, as well as, a demand from Superior Accounting Court, that suggests a lack of control over information on Government Organization. This document was produced with support of the PETIC Methodology. Action plans for the next three years (2011-2014) were developed based on maturity analysis of each ICT process identified in the CPD. Another product from this work was devising of Cost x Importance chart to support decision making. Gantt Maps also were defined including main areas of ICT (data, software, hardware, communication and people) to support action monitoring. The planning artifact is aimed to improve quality, efficiency, proper investment, satisfaction and cost reduction. / Este trabalho é uma proposta de Planejamento Estratégico voltado para as áreas de Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação (TIC) para o Centro de Processamento de Dados da Universidade Federal do Amazonas (CPD/UFAM). Até então, o CPD não tinha nenhum planejamento documentado para a área informacional. A elaboração deste documento foi motivada pelo programa de modernização estabelecido pelo Plano de Desenvolvimento Institucional (PDI) da UFAM para a área de informática, e pelas cobranças de fiscalização do Tribunal de Contas da União (TCU), que vem analisando a infraestrutura dos Sistemas de Informação (SI) sob várias perspectivas, como a falta de políticas próprias de TIC pelos altos escalões do Governo Federal. Assim, a principal contribuição da dissertação é o próprio artefato de Planejamento Estratégico de TIC do CPD/UFAM, elaborado com o apoio da Metodologia PETIC. Por meio da PETIC, foi possível fazer o levantamento de todos os processos de TIC existentes no CPD, analisar os níveis de maturidade de cada um desses processos, pesquisar por novas tecnologias e pelo estado da arte destas tendências de mercado, bem como identificar os processos de TIC críticos existentes no CPD e propor ações de melhorias para cada processo crítico. Essas ações foram sugeridas e definidas pelo diretor do CPD e por seus gerentes e, neste trabalho, foram planejadas para serem executadas nos próximos três anos (2011-2014). Outra contribuição importante deste trabalho foi a concepção do Gráfico de Importância versus Custo, que auxilia o gestor na tomada da melhor decisão para a escolha das ações a serem executadas. Também foram definidos os Mapas de Gantt para cada grande área dos SI, a saber: dados, software, hardware, telecomunicações e pessoas. Com esses mapas, os gestores do CPD poderão monitorar a realização das ações de melhoria e acompanhar o cronograma previsto. Com o uso do artefato de planejamento criado, espera-se que a eficácia da qualidade dos serviços prestados pelo CPD seja permeada pela eficiência, provisão de investimentos, redução de custos e a satisfação dos usuários e da sociedade em geral.

Submitted by Silvana Teresinha Dornelles Studzinski (sstudzinski) on 2017-02-14T14:34:05Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Raimunda Maria Rodrigues Santos_.pdf: 4066945 bytes, checksum: 4d3f3c6c01a72597157f83afefbe523d (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-02-14T14:34:05Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Raimunda Maria Rodrigues Santos_.pdf: 4066945 bytes, checksum: 4d3f3c6c01a72597157f83afefbe523d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-11-03 / Nenhuma / Esta tese tem como tema o uso de tecnologias de informação e comunicação por lideranças das etnias Macuxi e Wapichana para a mediação de suas relações sociais. Essa temática suscitou o debate acerca de questões relacionadas à diversidade cultural, mudanças no padrão de consumo, dentre outros aspectos ligados à sustentabilidade local, que contribuíram para o entendimento sobre a presença da modernidade nas comunidades em que vivem os sujeitos da pesquisa. Dessa forma, teve-se como objetivo analisar a percepção dos líderes indígenas sobre as implicações do uso de tecnologias de informação e comunicação nas práticas sociais cotidianas de suas comunidades e no agenciamento de suas relações em diferentes contextos sócio-político-culturais. Para coleta de dados, utilizou-se o caderno de campo e gravações em áudio em que foram registradas as narrativas de lideranças indígenas, com destaque para três sujeitos de cada etnia. As entrevistas foram realizadas durante encontros esporádicos, no período de agosto de 2014 a junho de 2016, e os textos formaram o corpus da pesquisa. A análise dos registros deu-se a partir dos princípios recomendados pelo método fenomenológico, com abordagem interpretativa, buscando-se estabelecer um diálogo entre as reflexões dos entrevistados sobre suas experiências como lideranças e os fundamentos teóricos sobre liderança, reflexividade e tecnologias de informação e comunicação. As narrativas mobilizaram diferentes tipos de reflexividades em que a história de luta em defesa da terra, identidade e autonomia, dentre outros direitos originários, é constantemente evocada não só como lema de um momento histórico, mas como fundamento condutor da vida comunitária entre os povos Macuxi e Wapichana. Evidenciou-se que as lideranças temem que o uso das tecnologias de informação e comunicação por jovens indígenas contribua para acelerar o desencaixe nas relações comunitárias; por isso, defendem que as comunidades criem estratégias para o monitoramento reflexivo desse uso. Por outra perspectiva, reconhecem que o empoderamento das tecnologias de informação e comunicação irá fortalecer as ações em prol da autonomia, além de se constituírem em mecanismo a favor da resistência indígena, por conectar os povos Macuxi e Wapichana na rede social étnica, confirmando-se, dessa forma, a tese de que esses recursos tecnológicos servem de apoio ao fortalecimento da identidade étnica/diversidade cultural desses povos indígenas. / This thesis has as its theme the use of information and communication technologies by leaders of Macushi and Wapishana ethnic groups to assist in their social relationships. This theme has raised the debate on issues related to cultural diversity, changes in consumption patterns, among other aspects of local sustainability, which contributed to the understanding of the presence of modernity in the communities where the subjects of this research live. Thus, the objective was to analyze the perception of the indigenous leaders on the implications of the use of information and communication technologies in everyday social practices of their communities and in the monitoring of their relations in different socio-political and cultural contexts. To collect data, we used a field book and audio recordings in which the narratives of indigenous leaders were recorded, highlighting three leaders of each ethnic group. The interviews were conducted during random meetings conducted during August 2014 to June 2016, and the texts formed the body of research. The analysis of the records followed the principles recommended by the phenomenological method, with interpretive approach, seeking to establish a dialogue between the reflections of respondents on their experiences as leaders and the theoretical foundations of leadership, reflexivity and in technology of information and communication. The narratives mobilized different reflexivities where history of struggle in defense of the land, identity and autonomy, among other original rights, is constantly evoked not only the motto of a historical moment, but as a driving foundation of communitarian life among the Macushi and Wapishana people. It was evident that the leaders fear that the use of information and communication technologies by the young indigenous people may help to widen the chasm in community relations; as a result, they advocate that communities must develop strategies for the reflexive monitoring of such use. On the other hand, they also recognize that the empowerment through information and communication technologies will strengthen actions in favor of the autonomy of their communities, working in favor of the indigenous resistance by connecting Macushi and Wapishana people in an ethnic social network, confirming in this way, the thesis that these technological resources serve to support the strengthening of ethnic identity/cultural diversity of these indigenous peoples.

Employers' reliance on asynchronous electronic communications, connective technology devices, and remote work arrangements has led employees to feel preoccupied with staying connected after-hours to be responsive to work-related demands. The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to describe the lived experiences of professional workers who coped with constant pressure to monitor and immediately respond to work-related electronic communications during nonwork hours. The conceptual framework was supported by boundary and border theory and the constructs of work-life balance, flexible work arrangements, information and communication technology. Data were collected using semistructured interviews with 16 professional workers near Washington, DC. Moustakas's modified van Kaam method was used to analyze, code, and organize data. Six themes emerged: mobilize or immobilize, manage expectations, safeguard personal time, work-life fusion, work engagement, and psychological outcomes. Findings revealed that professional workers felt a sense of urgency to reply to work-related e-mails and text messages outside of their regularly scheduled work hours and felt a sense of professional obligation to be available after-hours. Results may be used to shape and support positive social change through effective organizational change programs for technology-related work-life imbalances, thereby benefiting employers and employees.

This thesis seeks to provide an insight into three phenomena: the condition of racism in Sweden, the complexity of identity, and the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in classroom settings. It also offers an analysis of how such phenomena combined in the development of a specific educational resource, the Swedkid project (2001-3) which aimed to develop an anti-racist website (www.swedkid.nu) for students and teachers in Swedish schools. A case study approach was used for the analysis in the thesis, in which the Swedkid project was viewed as an instance of web-based, anti-racist educational resource development. This instance (or case) provided a prism of opportunity for learning about ‘race’, ethnicity and the role of ICT in the classroom. The case study embraces a number of sub-studies (Papers I-V and Appendix 1) which explore independently and in combination, how the website was developed and received, the Swedish national context, intercultural and anti-racist work in education, racist experiences of young people, and ICT as part of anti-racist work in the classroom. Three sets of findings (or themes) emerged from the study: namely, the existence of racism in Sweden, that young people’s conception of identity is complex and that the Swedkid website constitutes a significant anti-racist intervention. The overall aims of the research were to: - utilise the Swedkid project as a learning opportunity - explore the Swedish context for the project - investigate and develop an understanding of racism and ethnicity in Sweden generally and in education in particular - investigate experiences of racism among young people, and - explore how ICT can support anti-racist work in classroom settings Three research questions were also posed in the research: - How can ‘race’, ethnicity and experiences of racism be understood in Sweden generally, in education and among young people? - How can ICT support anti-racist work in classroom settings? - How useful were the approaches taken and the methods used in the project? A variety of methods of data gathering were used which include systematic literature searches, interviews, questionnaires, classroom observations plus a project logbook. Three theoretical clusters were particularly helpful in the analysis; relating to globalisation, racism and new technology (e.g. Castells, Jansson, Pred, Essed, Ladson-Billings, Delgado & Stefancic, Aviram & Tami). The research suggests an uneven picture in Sweden generally, and among Swedish young people in particular. While there have been some conscious and planned strategies to eliminate racism and discrimination, and high ambitions and good intentions from policy-makers and teachers in terms of recognising inequalities of schooling and counteracting racism, there is also a continuing picture of hostility, difficulty, denial and insecurity within education and more generally. The study also illuminates the complexity of identity and knowledge transfer, between locally-situated individuals and the different levels of global, European, national and local. It is suggested that the formation of identity is a process which involves viewing someone as ‘the other’ and can be transferred into a racist discourse and as such, used as a basis for legitimizing exclusion. However, responses to the Swedkid website suggest that engagement with other, wider identities (in this case, the characters on the website) can provide the possibility of intervention in stereotypical perceptions and expansion of notions of identity. It is also suggested that the Swedkid website can be used successfully in supporting anti-racist work in classroom settings, although dependent on the skills and commitment of the teacher. The advantages of using ICT for Swedkid lie in the possibility of visualisation and simulation, hence, it provides virtual experience of complex phenomena. The website can thus work as a springboard into informed rather than common-sense or everyday discourses of racism/anti-racism, with virtuality enhancing the classroom work of the teacher. Overall, studies presented in this thesis illustrate how a combination of ICT and anti-racism can offer opportunities for challenging commonsense views of racism and ethnicity, provide counter-stories as evidence that racism exists, and thus offer alternative perceptions and viewpoints on this topic in education and elsewhere. / Errata på titeln på boken där delarb. II utgör ett kapitel enligt ovanstående.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the attitude to and experience of information and communication technology (ICT) in teachers teaching and what motivates them.   The study is qualitative and its research material is based on interviews. There are eight interviews and they where carried out at one school with a stated IT profile and at another school without a stated IT profile. The two schools are located in different municipalities, but both are secondary schools.   The result shows that there are differences in attitude between the two schools. The school with a stated IT profile seems to have a more open mind of using ICT when teaching, but both schools sees the lack of availability as one of the main hindrance for using it. None of the participating teachers saw themselves as controlled to use ICT in their teaching. Neither did the guiding principles from The National Agency for Education about using ICT affect their teaching. / Studiens syfte är att undersöka lärares förhållningssätt till och erfarenhet av användningen av informations- och kommunikationsteknik (IKT) i sin egen undervisning och att förstå vad det är som styr dem. Studien är kvalitativ, med intervjuer som forskningsmaterial. Intervjuerna är åtta till antalet och har genomförts på en kommunal skola med uttalad IT-profil samt på en kommunal skola utan uttalad profil i två skilda kommuner. Båda skolorna är skolor för grundskolans senare åldrar. Resultatet visar hur attityden till IKT skiljer sig mellan de båda skolorna. Den skolan med uttalad IT-profil verkar ha ett öppnare förhållningssätt till IKT som pedagogiskt verktyg, men båda skolorna ser bristande tillgänglighet till att använda det som ett av de stora hindren. Det var heller ingen av informanterna som såg sig styrda att använda IKT i den egna undervisningen. Inte heller någon av dem sa sig tolka in styrdokumenten när det gäller att få med IKT i undervisningen.

I dagens informationssamhälle ses kunskap om IKT som en viktig kompetens för att människor ska fungera i samhälle och näringsliv. Källor visar på flera motiv till varför barn i tidig ålder ska introduceras för datoranvändning (då datorn som verktyg kan generera ny kunskap och möjliggöra nya arbetssätt). Utifrån en kvalitativ metod har vi undersökt retoriken bakom barnens datoranvändning på förskolan. Semistrukturerade intervjuer har genomförts med två rektorer för att ta reda på deras pedagogiska idéer om och satsningar på IKT. Med utgångspunkt ur detta har även två fokusgruppintervjuer genomförts med pedagogerna i deras arbetslag med syfte att studera vad dessa uttrycker för tankar om att använda IKT i den pedagogiska verksamheten. Utifrån ett sociokulturellt perspektiv blir termer som samspel, meningsskapande och artefakter centrala. Resultatet visar bland annat på ambitioner hos både rektorer och pedagoger gällande utveckling av IKT-arbetet på förskolan, samtidigt som det praktiska arbetet förekommer i väldigt liten skala. Vidare påvisas att inga egentliga utvärderingar sker kring de satsningar som genomförs gällande IKT på förskolan. I diskussionen ställer vi oss kritiska till den bristande kommunikation som ses mellan rektorer och arbetslag gällande IKT-satsningarnas implementering i verksamheten. Studien behandlar även behovet av kompetensutveckling samt bakomliggande orsaker till hur arbetet med IKT organiseras. Avslutningsvis formuleras råd till rektorer och pedagoger för utveckling av IKT-arbetet inom förskolan. / In today's society ICT-knowledge is viewed as an important skill for humans to function in society and business. Sources indicate motives which underline the importance of the fact that children at an early age are introduced to computing, as the computer becomes a tool to generate new knowledge and enable new ways of working. Based on a qualitative approach, we have studied the reasoning behind children's computer use in preschool. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with two principals to determine their opinions on educational benefits of and investments in ICT. On this basis we have also, through focus groups, studied what kind of thoughts teachers express on ICT in educational practice. From a sociocultural perspective terms like interaction, meaning and artifacts became central. The results show that the principals and teachers both have ambitions regarding the development of ICT work at the preschool, while the practical work occurs on a very small scale. The study further demonstrated that no real evaluation takes place regarding the ICT-investments in preschool. In the discussion we are critical to the lack of communication that is seen between principals and their teacher-teams regarding the implementation of ICT-investments in the practice. We also discuss the teachers’ need for further education regarding ICT-development and the underlying causes of the use of ICT today. In the conclusion we present guidelines for the development of ICT work in preschool.

This paper examines the impact of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) on health using the data of 61 countries between 2000 and 2009 from the World Bank. The ICT variables considered in this paper include internet, fixed phones, and mobile phones. Based on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of the United Nations, we select several health variables and examine the impact of ICT on these variables. These variables include life expectancy at birth, infant mortality rate, under-five mortality rate, maternal mortality ratio, and prevalence of HIV. The estimation strategies are the pooling OLS model, the fixed effect model, and the random effect model. The empirical results suggest that ICT indeed plays a significant role in improving the health level of a country. ICT effectively decreases infant mortality rates and children mortality rates, and also increases life expectancy. This finding supports the viewpoints of United Nations (UN), World Health Organization (WHO), World Bank, and International Telecommunication Union (ITU) that ICT has great potential in improving a country¡¦s health. The finding also confirms the arguments of several literatures, including McNamara (2007) and Lucas (2008), that ICT can lead to a more effective health system. In addition, we also find that fixed phones and mobile phones, which have more powerful functions in communicating and have greater flexibility, help decrease deaths due to acute diseases or emergencies; while internet displays more profound impact on improving health with the accumulation of time. Our results suggest that adopting and promoting ICT is an effective way for developing countries and less-developed countries to enhance the level of health of people. We also expect that ICT can help these countries to meet at least part of the Millennium Development Goals.