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This chapter provides a historical overview of European colonialism, detailing how nations like Portugal, Spain, and the Netherlands began their colonial endeavors in the 15th and 16th centuries, driven by exploration and trade motivations. These nations established vast empires through maritime exploration, setting up trading posts and colonies in Africa, Asia, and the Americas. The chapter outlines these early powers’ distinct colonial practices and legacies, highlighting Portugal’s focus on Brazil, Spain’s exploitation in the Americas, and the Netherlands’ trading empire. The chapter also examines the later colonial efforts of France and Britain, which became prominent in the 17th and 18th centuries. These countries utilized different methods, including the encomienda system and casta hierarchy in Spanish colonies, and the civilizing mission and divide-and-rule tactics in British colonies. The chapter discusses how these practices were justified through ideologies of racial superiority and the civilizing mission, deeply embedding racism and social hierarchies into colonial rule. Additionally, the chapter addresses the colonial ventures of Denmark, Sweden, Italy, Belgium, and Germany. It covers Denmark’s settlements in the Caribbean and Greenland, Sweden’s short-lived colonies and involvement in the slave trade, Italy’s brutal regime in Africa, Belgium’s horrific exploitation of the Congo under King Leopold II, and Germany’s late but impactful colonial period marked by the Herero and Nama genocide.

The rapid advancement of new technologies necessitates the adaptation of existing resources to address the evolving demands of contemporary conflicts among nations. As exemplified by the emergence of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), these technologies have become indispensable components of military drone operations. This study investigates the role of innovation models in driving Portuguese Innovation and Development, focusing specifically on military drones.

Through an examination of existing scientific and doctrinal literature, this research establishes a connection between theoretical concepts and the practical deployment of drones within the Portuguese ground forces. Employing a qualitative approach, this study follows a case study, with data collection following the principle of triangulation.

The findings of this research reveal several attributes crucial to drone utilization, such as optronic capability and drone range. These attributes are vital for ensuring high-quality, real-time imagery transmission and operational effectiveness in military activities.

This study contributes to the understanding of the implications of drone attributes for the Command, Control, Communications and Information Systems (C3IS) capabilities of the Portuguese ground forces. It highlights the importance of continued emphasis on drone development and innovation as a key priority for the Portuguese Army.

This paper aims to present a systematic review of the latest scientific literature, in the context of pediatric orthopedics, on the development by additive manufacturing of anatomical models, orthoses, surgical guides and prostheses and their clinical applications.

Following the current guidelines for systematic reviews, three databases (Elsevier Scopus^®, Clarivate Web of Science^TM and USA National Library of Medicine PubMed^®) were screened using a representative query to find pertinent documents within the timeframe 2016–2023. Among the information, collected across the reviewed documents, the work focused on the 3D printing workflow involving acquisition, elaboration and fabrication stages.

Following the inclusion and exclusion criteria, the authors found 20 studies that fitted the defined criteria. The reviewed studies mostly highlighted the positive impact of additive manufacturing in pediatric orthopedic surgery, particularly in orthotic applications where lightweight, ventilated and cost-effective 3D-printed devices demonstrate efficacy comparable to traditional methods, but also underlined the limitations such as printing errors and high printing times. Among the reviewed studies, material extrusion was the most chosen 3D printing technology to manufacture the typical device, particularly with acrylonitrile butadiene styrene.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first systematic review which annotates, from a more engineering point of view, the latest literature on the admittance of the clinical application of additive manufacturing (and its effects) within typical pediatric orthopedic treatments workflows.