Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-27T14:20:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 CRISTINA MARIA BRILHANTE DA SILVA.PDF: 1529940 bytes, checksum: 7aba7f50418f9237ead026c762846fbe (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-10-07 / Resilience can beunderstood as a dynamic process involving a positive adjustment despite of the circumstances of significant adversity. Though, when it comes to families that have children with cerebral palsy, the resilience process is a reality for the mothers interviewed in this research. However, the family s resilience phenomenon is a context that requires investigation from a conceptual and methodological point of view. This paper presents and discusses the coping, possibilities and adversities within the family circle. A notion of applied resilience in Psychology was taken as a basis. Thus, the goal of this study is to spot the resilience strategies of six mothers of kids with cerebral palsy among the numberless risk factors. For this, a qualitative research was employed, so that an action-research was used as an intervention, and the data collection was done by a focus group technique, being performed at APAE in Anápolis-GO. The development was guided by theoretical of the family resilience phenomena grounded in family beliefs of Walsh (2005). During the investigation a systematic chart of resilience process in mothers was obtained, which provides arrow indicators for coping strategies to other mothers in similar situations. From these charts, illustrative charts were elaborate which allowed presenting a general perspective of the attendant s speeches brought up in the focus group. They also made it possible to visualize the mother s common trajectory efficiently and positively. In general, the obtained data emphasizes the coping strategies, the beliefs expressed, in which the most presented were: sense of coherence and meaning, self faith and faith in God; active initiative and shared responsibility. Also, the undertaken actions that happened through the search of specialized treatment to people with cerebral palsy; the pursuit of rights and benefits were also found; furthermore, protection factors such as: APAE; PSF; friend and neighborhood were detected. Although, the results presented, there are others, such as: interaction nature that focused the backing: emotional, material, of information and evaluation. And finally, the other results presented were BPC admission, child s enrollment at APAE; neighbors start to help and specialized care acquisition. In conclusion, family resilience is real and has a lot to contribute and teach not only the families with disabled members, but also any family that faces this conflict regardless its nature. Therefore, the results awake the notion focus groups play a role as an indicator of protection in the family resilience demonstration.(Appendix I). / Resiliência pode ser compreendida como um processo dinâmico envolvendo uma adaptação positiva frente às circunstâncias de adversidade significativa. Entretanto, quando se trata de famílias que têm filhos com paralisia cerebral, o seu processo de resiliência é uma realidade presente nas mães entrevistadas nessa pesquisa. No entanto, o fenômeno da resiliência familiar é um contexto que requer investigações do ponto de vista conceitual e metodológico. Este trabalho apresenta e discute os enfrentamentos, possibilidades e adversidades presentes no círculo familiar. Tomou-se como base a noção de resiliência aplicada na Psicologia. Portanto, o objetivo deste estudo foi identificar as estratégias de resiliência em seis mães de filhos com paralisia cerebral em meio há inúmeros fatores de risco. Para isso, empregou-se pesquisa qualitativa, de modo que se utilizou a pesquisa-ação como intervenção, e a coleta de dados teve como instrumento a técnica de grupo focal, sendo realizado na APAE de Anápolis- GO. O desenvolvimento foi pautado nos pressupostos teóricos do fenômeno da resiliência familiar fundamentado nos estudos das crenças familiares de Walsh (2005). No percurso da investigação obteve-se uma tabela sistemática do processo de resiliência em mães, que fornecem setas indicadoras para estratégia de superação para outras mães em condições similares. Dessas tabelas, se elaborou gráficos ilustrativos que permitiram apresentar um panorama geral dos discursos das participantes levantados no grupo focal. Também possibilitaram visualizar a trajetória comum das mães de modo eficaz e positivo. Em termos gerais, os dados obtidos enfatizaram as estratégias de enfrentamento, as crenças expressadas, das quais as mais apresentadas foram: senso de coerência e significado; fé em si e em Deus; iniciativa ativa e responsabilidade compartilhada. Como também, as ações empreendidas que se deram por meio da busca de tratamentos especializados para pessoa com paralisia cerebral; ainda verificou-se a procura de direitos e benefícios; o ingresso do filho na instituição da APAE e o solicitar ajuda à vizinhança. Além disso, foram detectados os fatores de proteção apontados como: APAE; PSF; amigos e vizinhança. Embora os resultados apresentados, ainda temos outros, tais como: natureza de interação que enfocou os suportes: emocional, material, de informação e de avaliação. E por fim, os demais resultados apresentados foram: admissão do BPC, ingresso do filho na APAE, a vizinhança passa ajudar e aquisição de atendimentos especializados. Conclui-se que a resiliência familiar é real e tem muito a contribuir e ensinar não apenas às famílias com pessoa com deficiência, mas qualquer família que passa por conflito seja qual for sua natureza. Portanto, os resultados despertaram a noção de que os grupos focais cumprem um papel de indicador de proteção na manifestação de resiliência familiar (APÊNDICE I).

The role of water freight as a sustainable mode of transportation often receives special attention in logistics and transportation. Due to rising environmental concerns UK national policy supports an increase in the amount of freight movements on commercial waterways. Within this context this research investigates the potential for water freight in the South West (SW) UK especially in Cornwall and Devon (CAD). This study is exploratory and following literature searches Delphi methods were selected with which to gather primary data. The research required three rounds of Delphi surveys. Following this, a focus group with the members of the 'Maritime and Waterborne Innovation Group' in the SW UK was conducted to measure the trustworthiness of the Delphi findings. The Delphi study achieved consensus on eight statements. Results indicated that the presence of an extensive coast line with accessibility to several coastal ports is conducive to the effective management of water freight movements in the region. The focus group discussion provided fuller explanations, suggestions and statements of issues which require further exploration for the development of water freight. This study reveals the latest information and possibilities and helped to articulate the importance of using water freight in SW UK. The results of this research also have many implications for the rest of the world where water freight is either in its infancy or aiming to increase its usage. The suggestions, observations and information collected during the Delphi study and from the focus group participants will assist in formulating strategies to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of water transportation within a region or a country.

Para o lançamento de novos produtos na área do Design de Moda, os designers utilizam conceitos de ergonomia durante as etapas de formatação do produto. A pesquisa tem como objetivo introduzir na metodologia projetual a preocupação ergonômica, visando à adequação do design no que diz respeito à usabilidade e ao conforto. O estudo trata das relações entre Moda, Design e Metodologia para compreensão da importância da Ergonomia no auxílio dos projetos de Design de Moda. A proposta é sistematizar por meio da metodologia de Grupo Focal as questões ergonômicas na fase projetual de produtos por meio de uma revisão bibliográfica e de reflexões extraídas, constatando-se sua aplicabilidade ao permitir que o designer a partir de uma análise qualitativa dos dados captados nas discussões com o público-alvo proporcione um produto mais satisfatório ao usuário. / For the launch of new products in the area of Fashion Design, designers use concepts of ergonomics through the steps of formatting the product. The research aims at introducing a methodology projetual ergonomic concern, aiming at adapting the design with regard to usability and comfort. The study deals with the relationship between Fashion, Design and Methodology for understanding the importance of ergonomics in aid of Fashion Design projects. The proposal is to systematize through focus group methodology ergonomic issues in projetual phase products through a literature review and reflections drawn, though there is its applicability by allowing the designer from a qualitative analysis of the data captured in discussions with the audience provides the user a more satisfactory product.

O objetivo desta pesquisa foi comparar o desempenho - em termos de capacidade e segurança de interseções semaforizadas dotadas de grupos focais convencionais, com as dotadas de grupos focais com informação do tempo de verde/vermelho restante na via principal. Foram analisados três modelos distintos, em relação à maneira que é disposta a informação do tempo de verde/vermelho restante. Os resultados obtidos mostram que praticamente não há alteração no valor da capacidade da passagem de veículos pela interseção semaforizada quando se substitui o grupo focal convencional por grupo focal com informador de tempo. Quanto à segurança, a substituição de grupo focal convencional por grupo focal com informador de tempo na via principal trouxe significativa redução do número de acidentes. No entanto, a questão que se coloca é se o ganho de segurança e estética, dos grupos focais com indicação de tempo, não poderia ser obtido com custos menores com o emprego de focos maiores dotados de LED, com anteparos grandes dotados de orla refletiva e com grupos focais posicionados sobre a via (quando for o caso). / The objective of this research was to compare performance - in terms of capacity and safety of - signalized intersections equipped with conventional focus groups, endowed with the focus groups with remaining green/red time information on the main road. Three different models were analyzes, in the manner in which information on remaining green/red time is displayed. The results show that there is practically no change in the value of the capacity of vehicles crossing the signalized intersection when replacing the conventional focus group for a focus group with time informer. Regarding the safety, the replacement of conventional focus group for focus group with time informer on the main road has brought significant reduction in accidents. However, the question that arises is whether the gain in traffic safety, as well as aesthetics, of the focus groups with indication of time could not be obtained at much lower cost with the use of larger foci (when appropriate), with foci endowed with LED, with large screens equipped with reflective edge and with focus groups positioned on the road (when appropriate).

Magister Artium (Development Studies) - MA (DVS) / Formal microfinance institutions have been an important tool in the fight against poverty in developing countries, but their reach for rural people and urban slum poor are limited. Following this, Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs) are established as an alternative, informal mechanism for saving and borrowing that do not require external capital or ongoing financial or administrative support from a founding organization or government bodies. Thus, this study aimed to assess the effects of women participation in VSLA on poverty reduction with a case study in Hawassa city, Ethiopia. Using a mixed qualitative and quantitative research methodology, the study tried to focus on examining the effects of VSLAs contribution to economic and social wellbeing of households, and decision makings, and women participation in community activities. The study used 254 samples (127 VSLA participants, and 127 non-participants) and collected data using questionnaire and focus group discussion. The study used propensity score matching (PSM) to estimate the impact of women participation in VSLA on average monthly household income, and the result indicated the average effect of women participation in VSLA on average monthly household income of participant women is positive and significant at 5% significant level, ranging from 169.63 Birr/month (nearest neighbor matching) to 141.55 Birr/month (Kernel matching), on average. Besides, comparison between participants and non-participants using hypothesis testing shows that women participation in VSLA has a significant positive association with improvements in household diet, health, children's education, and women’s involvement in household decisions. However, although hypothesized, no significant association is found in relation to women participation in community activities. Findings from the focus group discussions are also consistent with the results from the PSM and hypothesis testing. Following the findings, the study recommends government and nongovernmental organizations to provide regular, timely and need based capacity building trainings for VSLA participants; Link VSLA participants with formal microfinance institutions; conduct regular monitoring and follow ups by either the city or sub-cities Women Children Affairs Department/offices or concerned government body; different concerned stakeholders in the city including government, nongovernmental organizations, microfinance institutions and others need to work in coordinated manner to solve the recurrent challenges of VSLA participants in Hawassa city; and finally government and/or nongovernmental organizations need to take best practices and lessons from existing VSLAs and expand the VSLA initiative to address more impoverished women in the city.

Due to the limited studies related to healthcare services future expanding demand, required resources and utilities, and related environmental and economic challenges; this research is carried out to complement other researchers in other economic sectors to identify the gaps, highlight good potentials of sustainability achievements and recommend necessary actions. This research investigates the future expanding demand of healthcare services; the environmental and economic challenges related to this expand and its environmental and economic impacts and the opportunities to overcome these impacts in order to improve healthcare services sustainability and performance. The research follows a SLR to discover earlier works related to environmental sustainability in buildings and healthcare facilities. The environmental challenges related to expanding in healthcare facilities found in the literature are increase in energy consumption and waste generation. The environmental impacts related to these challenges are excessive CO2 and GHG emissions. The economic impacts are escalations of project expenditures, operating expenditures and utilities expenditures. The research uses SD Analysis, as a methodological approach, to framework and understands different healthcare system elements and to develop models that are representing the dynamic relations between these elements. Bahrain healthcare system is selected as a research context due to the availability of good quality healthcare secondary data, the small size of the country that makes it a good model to implement and test new concepts, the limited country resources, and the country keenness to implement sustainability plans to meet sustainability objectives. This research numerically tests and subsequently, supports the implication of stated environmental and economic challenges. It also develops a number of important technical parameters and indicators such as energy and water benchmarks for different healthcare facilities. The research also determines another two sources of environmental challenges related to expanding in healthcare facilities. The first challenge is excessive water consumption. Availability of enough treated water for healthcare applications, especially in countries with limited fresh water resources and depending on 90% of its water need on desalination like Bahrain, a tangible environmental challenge needs to be addressed. The second one is a group of environmental challenges related to the practicing of healthcare services that can expose personnel and environment to high risks. These challenges need to be efficiently managed to improve the environmental sustainability and the social sustainability of healthcare facilities. The research also investigates the effectiveness of a number of mitigation measures used to overcome the environmental and economic negative impacts, such as using energy efficiency technologies, renewable-based energy resources and waste energy recovery. In this regard, the research numerically tests and subsequently supports the implication of stated environmental and economic impacts and the effectiveness of tested measures in mitigating the undesirable results on healthcare facilities. The developed SD Model, as one of the main contributions of this research, is considered as a strategic planning and decision-making administrative tools to forecast future healthcare facilities demand and required resources. It is also considered as a risk assessment tool to assess environmental challenges related to utilities and its environmental and economic impacts in order to improve healthcare facilities sustainability and performance. The potential of utilities saving and utilities expenditures saving in healthcare buildings are high and it is recommended to work toward energy efficiency and renewable energy deployment to achieve sustainable healthcare buildings. Recovery of energy from Medical Waste incineration to be kept under consideration as it is offsetting double the quantity of CO2e emissions resulting from the incineration process. Safe recycling of wastewater of some healthcare processes is highly recommended as it can reduce water consumption and contributes to the reduction of healthcare facilities CO2e emissions. Sources of gray water and gray water applications must be carefully selected to avoid any contradiction with Infection Control regulations or other healthcare regulations. It is recommended to conduct utilities assessment studies on wide sample of healthcare facilities to avoid low peaks and odd operation periods.

There are different criteria that affect active leadership styles that enhance the role of a principal as an Instructional Leadership. However, many principals lack such criteria where a strong principal considered as an Instructional Leadership. To become Instructional Leaders, principals must transform their practices from managerial to instructional. They need to exercise their leadership by exhibiting the leadership styles in their role and character, or their role will merely perform administrative duties that are akin to an administrative position. Furthermore, a school principal as a leader should play an important role in enhancing teachers' satisfaction. This study investigated the moderating effect of four leadership styles Directive, Supportive, Participative, and Achievement-oriented (D, S, P, A) on Instructional Leadership and teachers' outcomes (job satisfaction, job expectancies and acceptance of leader). The study used mixed methods, qualitative survey and quantitative focus group to develop a model based upon empirical data. The findings are based on a survey of 536 participants including teachers, principals and senior chiefs at various levels of primary, elementary and secondary schools across the Kingdom of Bahrain. The statistical and thematic analysis of the data shows that there is a direct and positive relationship between Instructional Leaderships and teacher's outcomes when moderated by the four leadership styles. The contribution of this study is the empirically tested relationships between Path Goal Theory and Instructional Leadership which shows that there are statistically significant relationships between D, S, P, A and the relationship between Instructional Leadership and the teacher's job satisfaction, job expectancy and acceptance of leader. Focus group finding shows that Leadership styles D, S, P, A transforms Instructional Leadership into a form that enhances the leadership role in Kingdom of Bahrain that Transactional Leadership influences Job expectancy, whilst Referent Power influences acceptance of leaders.

Diferenciar-se no competitivo mercado global exige que as empresas sejam cada vez mais inovadoras. Considerando que as inovações são desenvolvidas por pessoas interagindo em certo espaço, buscou-se por pesquisas sobre esses ambientes de inovação. Como os trabalhos detectados apenas diagnosticavam os ambientes e não faziam proposições de como aperfeiçoá-los, o presente estudo visa preencher essa lacuna, propondo uma sistemática para aprimorar os ambientes de inovação. Como forma de atingir esse objetivo, foram identificadas, por meio da busca teórica, nove dimensões que contemplam esses complexos ambientes. Para cada dimensão foi criada uma série de perguntas, culminando em um questionário com 40 indagações. Ele foi respondido quali-quantitativamente por 30 desenvolvedores de inovações de cinco grandes empresas. De posse do conjunto de dados daí oriundos, foram realizadas análises estatísticas como suporte para as demais análises. Para uma das análises foi adotada a técnica de Grupo Focal (GF), o qual foi composto por pessoas da alta gestão das empresas pesquisadas e por professores estrangeiros. Visando auxiliar a condução do GF, foi desenvolvido um jogo especificamente para esse fim. Como forma de verificar se ao menos duas dimensões apresentavam resultados significativamente diferentes para a soma de rankings foi utilizado o teste de Kruskall Wallis. O resultado do teste evidenciou que as dimensões Liderança e Autonomia apresentaram notas significativamente mais altas que as dimensões Processos e Recursos. Como parte final importante, a sistemática propõe um Guia de Diretrizes, embasado nas ideias expostas pelos autores estudados, pelos respondentes do questionário e pelos participantes do GF. Compreende-se que toda e qualquer empresa pode adequar a sistemática e aprimorar seus ambientes organizacionais direcionados a inovações. / Differentiate themselves in the competitive global market requires companies to be more innovative. Considering that innovations are developed by people interacting in a certain space, it searched for researches about these innovation environments. As the works detected only diagnosed environments and made no proposals for how to improve them, this study aims to fill this gap by proposing a system to improve the innovation environments. In order to achieve this goal, nine dimensions that address these complex environments have been identified through the theoretical search. For each dimension a series of questions was created, culminating in a questionnaire with 40 questions. The questionnaire was answered in a qualitative and quantitative way by 30 innovation developers within five large companies. Based on derived data set, statistical analysis were performed as support for other analysis. In order to perform the analysis it was adopted the Focus Group technique (FG), which was composed of people from the top management of those companies surveyed and foreign teachers. Aiming to assist the conduct of the FG, a game was developed specifically for this purpose. In order to check whether at least two dimensions had significantly different results for the sum of rankings was used the Kruskal-Wallis test. The test result showed that the dimensions Leadership and Autonomy had significantly higher scores than the dimensions Processes and Resources. As an important final part, the method proposes a Guide of Directives, based on the ideas exposed by the studied authors, by the respondents of the questionnaire and the participants of the FG. It is understood that any company can tailor the method and improve organizational environments driven to innovations.

O objetivo desta pesquisa foi comparar o desempenho - em termos de capacidade e segurança de interseções semaforizadas dotadas de grupos focais convencionais, com as dotadas de grupos focais com informação do tempo de verde/vermelho restante na via principal. Foram analisados três modelos distintos, em relação à maneira que é disposta a informação do tempo de verde/vermelho restante. Os resultados obtidos mostram que praticamente não há alteração no valor da capacidade da passagem de veículos pela interseção semaforizada quando se substitui o grupo focal convencional por grupo focal com informador de tempo. Quanto à segurança, a substituição de grupo focal convencional por grupo focal com informador de tempo na via principal trouxe significativa redução do número de acidentes. No entanto, a questão que se coloca é se o ganho de segurança e estética, dos grupos focais com indicação de tempo, não poderia ser obtido com custos menores com o emprego de focos maiores dotados de LED, com anteparos grandes dotados de orla refletiva e com grupos focais posicionados sobre a via (quando for o caso). / The objective of this research was to compare performance - in terms of capacity and safety of - signalized intersections equipped with conventional focus groups, endowed with the focus groups with remaining green/red time information on the main road. Three different models were analyzes, in the manner in which information on remaining green/red time is displayed. The results show that there is practically no change in the value of the capacity of vehicles crossing the signalized intersection when replacing the conventional focus group for a focus group with time informer. Regarding the safety, the replacement of conventional focus group for focus group with time informer on the main road has brought significant reduction in accidents. However, the question that arises is whether the gain in traffic safety, as well as aesthetics, of the focus groups with indication of time could not be obtained at much lower cost with the use of larger foci (when appropriate), with foci endowed with LED, with large screens equipped with reflective edge and with focus groups positioned on the road (when appropriate).

The Usability Center training course is an instructional resource for BYU faculty, employees, and students to prepare them to effectively use the BYU Usability Center. This document describes the process and results of analyzing, designing, developing, implementing, and evaluating the Usability Center training course. By taking this course, participants learn the basics of planning, piloting, executing, and reporting their usability activities and the skills prerequisite to using BYU's Usability Center.