The monitoring of water distribution systems (WDSs) has been a very popular subject of study since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the subsequent passing of laws motivating the study of WDS monitoring to provide system protection in the event of a terrorist attack. Inhibiting many WDS monitoring studies to date is the large amount of computational expense required to conduct meaningful studies, especially for larger WDSs that are of most interest. In this study, methods were developed to determine the "importance" of WDS nodes in being considered as locations for sensors used to monitor a WDS in order to make sensor placement optimization more efficient. Single-objective protection goals considered individually in optimization were maximizing detection likelihood, minimizing expected detection time, and minimizing expected contaminated demand volume. A multiobjective protection goal accounting for all three single-objective goals concurrently was also considered; the formulation of the multiobjective optimization problem was intended to minimize tradeoffs among individual protection goals. Sensor placement optimization was carried out with the Iterative Subset Search Method (ISSM) employing genetic algorithms developed in this work; ISSM used nodal importance rankings to search a small subset of nodes for the optimal solution initially then broadened the search incrementally until convergence to a best solution occurred. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the methods developed, sensor placement was performed according to each of the protection goals for three study systems--one small and two large--and a variety of attack conditions. Desirable sensor node solutions that provided for significant protection were found in all cases, and in many cases sensor placement results were comparable to or better than those of other works. Nodal importance narrowed the search for optimal sensor nodes to a relatively small proportion of WDS nodes in most cases.

The thesis is focused on the theme of mushrooms and their importance in nutrition. The theoretical part deals with the chemical composition of higher mushrooms in general and describes their significance for human health. It focuses mainly on the positive effects of mushrooms on the human body. The practical part consists of questionnaires on the subject and their evaluation. The aim of my work was to find out what knowledge about mushrooms people have and how often they consume them.

Os vazamentos de petróleo podem causar sérios impactos econômicos e ambientais, sendo que a preservação do meio ambiente torna-se cada vez mais uma prioridade para a sociedade. A partir da repercussão de grandes vazamentos, governos e indústrias de petróleo se prepararam para atuar na resposta a estes eventos, mantendo recursos em centros de atendimento a emergências, estrategicamente instalados e especialmente preparados para uma atuação rápida e eficaz, evidenciando uma maior qualidade nos serviços prestados. Garantir que um centro tenha sucesso frente a um vazamento de petróleo é um desafio, uma vez que tais ocorrências são raras, mas por demais indesejadas, diminuindo as possibilidades de um conhecimento maior de seu desempenho. O objetivo geral deste trabalho é determinar o desempenho dos centros de atendimento a emergências ambientais com vazamento de petróleo, considerando atributos relevantes para uma atuação rápida e eficaz no que diz respeito à minimização dos impactos. Além disso, os objetivos específicos do trabalho dizem respeito à identificação dos atributos de desempenho mais importantes para os clientes e especialistas, definição de sua importância relativa, definição dos principais requisitos técnicos, bem como a priorização de ações de melhoria. Para tal, foram identificados os atributos relevantes e as lacunas de desempenho na literatura, bem como a capacidade de resposta à emergência. Posteriormente, foi realizada uma pesquisa survey com clientes, especialistas e principais prestadores deste serviço no Brasil. Os resultados permitiram gerar requisitos técnicos e os respectivos níveis de desempenho, evidenciando oportunidades de melhoria. A avaliação permitiu, através de uma matriz de importância e desempenho, evidenciar a capacidade de resposta dos centros, tratando de forma objetiva aspectos antes considerados subjetivos e intangíveis. / Oil spills may cause serious economic and environmental impacts, and protect the environment becomes increasingly a Company’s priority. After the impact of large spills, governments and oil industries become better prepared for the oil spill response, keeping resources in emergency response centers, strategically installed and specially prepared for quick and effective action, improving the quality of services. Ensure that a center will be successful against an oil spill is a challenge, since such occurrences are rare and unwanted, which reduces the chances to evaluate their performance. The aim of this study is to determine the oil spills response centers performance, considering relevant attributes for quick and effective action for impacts mitigation. In addition, the specific objectives of the study includes the identification of the most important performance factors for customers and experts, defining their relative importance and the main technical requirements, as well as the improvement actions prioritization. For that, a literature search was performed to identify the relevant attributes and performance gaps in emergency response capability. Subsequently, a customer survey was conducted through experts and the main service providers in Brazil. The results have produced technical requirements and their performance levels, showing improvement opportunities. The evaluation through a matrix of importance and performance demonstrates the centers response capability, treating objectively aspects previously considered subjective and intangible.

RODRIGUES, Maria Reijane de Morais Santos. Um estudo comparativo dos níveis de satisfação e o grau de importância da qualidade de vida no trabalho em uma Instituição Pública. 2015. 82f. – Dissertação (Mestrado) – Universidade Federal do Ceará, Programa de Pós-graduação em Políticas Públicas e Gestão da Educação Superior, Fortaleza (CE), 2015. / Submitted by Márcia Araújo (marcia_m_bezerra@yahoo.com.br) on 2015-04-27T13:05:39Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2015_dis_mrmsrodrigues.pdf: 597003 bytes, checksum: 0006aab260652d841ac15787f020bcac (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Márcia Araújo(marcia_m_bezerra@yahoo.com.br) on 2015-04-27T13:10:55Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2015_dis_mrmsrodrigues.pdf: 597003 bytes, checksum: 0006aab260652d841ac15787f020bcac (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-27T13:10:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2015_dis_mrmsrodrigues.pdf: 597003 bytes, checksum: 0006aab260652d841ac15787f020bcac (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015 / Nowadays the world stage is characterized by constant changes that impose organizations continuous changes in their management methods, which require professionals even more able to meet the market demand. However, at the same time they become more productive and competitive, more physical and psychological illnesses are found among their professionals. In this context, there appears the need of investment on Quality of Work Life (QWL) to minimize and eradicate such negative effects. Several concepts are assigned to QWL, but because it is a complex issue there is no consensus about its definition. Evaluation models of QWL arise mainly from the 70’s and stand out as reference even today. This study, of quantitative character, aims to conduct a comparative analysis between the degrees of satisfaction and the degrees of importance attributed to Quality of Work Life (QWL) from the perspective of servers, contractors and managers in a federal public institution. As data tool collection, it is used a questionnaire based on the Walton Model, that identifies eight factors related to QWL. For the interpretations and analysis of the results, the classic statistic methods are applied: exploratory data analysis and statistical inference, in particular the nonparametric hypothesis tests, the Wilcoxon test and the Mann-Whitney test. The results reveal that, for every factor, the servers’ degree of satisfaction is in negative discordance in relation to the degree of importance. It is concluded, therefore, that these factors show a deficiency in relation to QWL, and that this deficit results from an imbalance between the real servers’ necessities given the importance they attribute to QWL and the inability of the researched institution to meet them. / Nos dias atuais, o cenário mundial se caracteriza por constantes transformações que impõem às organizações mudanças contínuas em seus modos de gestão, as quais exigem profissionais cada vez mais capacitados para atenderem à demanda do mercado. Entretanto, ao tempo em que se tornam mais produtivas e competitivas, constatam mais adoecimento físico e psicológico de seus profissionais. Neste contexto, surge a necessidade de investimento na Qualidade de Vida no Trabalho (QVT) para minimizar e erradicar tais efeitos negativos. Diversos conceitos são atribuídos à QVT, mas por ser um tema complexo não há um consenso acerca de sua definição. Modelos avaliativos de QVT surgem, principalmente, a partir da década de 70 e se destacam como referência ainda nos dias atuais. Este estudo, de caráter quantitativo, tem como objetivo realizar uma análise comparativa entre os graus de satisfação e os graus de importância atribuídos à QVT sob a ótica dos servidores, terceirizados e gestores de uma instituição pú blica federal. Como ferramenta de coleta de dados, utiliza-se um questionário baseado no Modelo de Walton, que identifica oito fatores relacionados à QVT. Para as interpretações e análises dos resultados aplicam-se os métodos estatísticos clássicos: análise exploratória de dados e inferência estatística, em particular, os testes de hipóteses não-paramétricos, teste de Wilcoxon e teste de Mann-Whitney. Os resultados obtidos revelam que, para todos os fatores, o grau de satisfação dos servidores está em discordância negativa em relação ao grau de importância. Conclui-se, portanto, que esses fatores apresentam uma deficiência em relação à QVT, e que este déficit resulta de um desequilíbrio entre as reais necessidades dos servidores, dada a importância que atribuem à QVT e o não atendimento das mesmas pela instituição pesquisada.

A competição global resultou na formação de cadeias complexas com relações múltiplas entre empresas que apresentam muitas vezes interesses individuais conflitantes. A indústria de semicondutores é fortemente impactada por isto. Neste contexto, em que os fluxos de materiais e informações são interorganizacionais desde a obtenção da matéria-prima até a entrega de bens de consumo aos clientes, o estudo da cadeia produtiva tem o intuito de compreender a estrutura e o desenvolvimento desta indústria. Apesar deste tópico ser largamente discutido na literatura, a cadeia produtiva da indústria de semicondutores apresenta-se limitada às etapas de fabricação do semicondutor como matéria-prima. Desta forma, o trabalho busca estudar de forma exploratória a cadeia produtiva da indústria de semicondutores, visando compreender a sua estrutura estendida até os clientes finais, as suas estruturas de governança e as percepções de importância dos agentes quanto aos membros da cadeia através da aplicação do AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process). A pesquisa propôs um mapeamento desta cadeia composto por oito agentes: desing house, foundry, encapsuladora de chips, integrador da memória, integrador do computador, distribuidor, revendedor e cliente final. Os resultados da pesquisa demonstram que as estruturas de governança estão condicionadas às características do ambiente e das relações e que elas vêm promovendo o estreitamento dos agentes intermediários da cadeia devido à força e importância assumida pelos membros que compõem seus extremos. / Networks based on multi-relations between companies, which often present different individual interests, result from global competition. The semiconductor industry is strongly affected by that. In this context, while material and information flow inter-organizationally involving all activities from raw material procurement to final products delivery to customers, the study of production chain intents to understand this market structure and development. Despite this subject has been extensively discussed by literature, the production chain of semiconductor industry has been limited to semiconductor manufacturing (raw material) steps. Hence, the aim of this paper is to study, in an exploratory way, the production chain of semiconductor industry, with the purpose of understanding its expanded structure up to final customers, its governance structures and its enterprises perception of members’ importance through AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) method application. This research has proposed a production chain mapping with eight members: design house, foundry, packaging company, memory integrator, computer integrator, distributor, retailer and final customer. The results suggest that governance structures depend on environment and relationships characteristics and that they have been narrowing the center of this production chain due to the strength and importance expressed by its outermost members.

A presente dissertação propõe métodos para seleção de variáveis preditivas com base em índices de importância das variáveis e regressão PLS (Partial Least Squares). Partindo-se de uma revisão da bibliografia sobre PLS e índices de importância das variáveis, sugere-se um método, denominado Eliminação Backward (EB), para seleção de variáveis a partir da eliminação sistemática de variáveis de acordo com a ordem definida por índices de importância das variáveis. Um novo índice de importância de variáveis, proposto com base nos parâmetros da regressão PLS, tem seu desempenho avaliado frente a outros índices reportados pela literatura. Duas variações do método EB são propostas e testadas através de simulação: (i) o método EBM (Eliminação backward por mínimos), que identifica o conjunto que maximiza o indicador de acurácia preditiva sem considerar o percentual de variáveis retidas, e (ii) o método EBDE (Eliminação backward por distância euclidiana), que seleciona o conjunto de variáveis responsável pela mínima distância euclidiana entre os pontos do perfil gerado pela eliminação das variáveis e um ponto ideal hipotético definido pelo usuário. A aplicação dos três métodos em quatro bancos de dados reais aponta o EBDE como recomendável, visto que retém, em média, apenas 13% das variáveis originais e eleva a acurácia de predição em 32% em relação à utilização de todas as variáveis. / This dissertation presents new methods for predictive variable selection based on variable importance indices and PLS regression. The novel method, namely Backward Elimination (BE), selects the most important variables by eliminating process variables according to their importance described by the variable importance indices. A new variable importance index is proposed, and compared to previous indices for that purpose. We then offer two modifications on the BE method: (i) the EBM method, which selects the subset of variables yielding the maximum predictive accuracy (i.e., the minimum residual index), and (ii) the EBDE, which selects the subset leading to the minimum Euclidian distance between the points generated by variable removal and a hypothetical ideal point defined by the user. When applied to four manufacturing data sets, the recommended method, EBDE, retains average 13% of the original variables and increases the prediction accuracy in average 32% compared to using all the variables.

O mercado de erva-mate vem crescendo e ganhando importância nos países e Estados produtores, não apenas com o uso da erva-mate para chimarrão, mas com os diversos usos alternativos que vem surgindo devido às suas importantes propriedades. Devido ao aumento da demanda em mercados diferenciados julga-se necessário a realização de pesquisas que determinam e avaliam os fatores condicionantes de desempenho visando a gerar informações para subsidiar ações prioritárias de melhoramento para o setor e aumento da sua eficiência. Neste sentido, a presente pesquisa teve como objetivo identificar os fatores que condicionam o desempenho das indústrias ervateiras do Alto Taquari/RS. Como aporte teórico para subsidiar a análise dos dados utilizou-se a teoria da Economia Industrial, a Economia dos Custos de Transação e a teoria associada ao uso da Matriz Importância - Desempenho. Os dados primários foram coletados através de questionários estruturados, de forma quantitativa, com o uso da escala Likert de 1-7 pontos. Os questionários foram aplicados via Google Docs e posteriormente de forma presencial com os agentes das indústrias no polo ervateiro do Alto Taquari/RS. O questionário foi estruturado em sete seções, a primeira e a segunda foi referente as informações sobre os entrevistados e as indústrias ervateiras, na qual teve como objetivo descrever e caracterizar o objeto de estudo. As próximas quatro seções referiram-se as dimensões condicionantes de desempenho, são elas: Fatores de Produção/ Mercados/ Logística/ Ambiente Institucional/ e a sétima e última seção sobre a visão da cadeia produtiva da erva-mate pela perspectiva das indústrias ervateiras. O método de análise dos dados constituiu-se na aplicação da matriz importância - desempenho proposta por Slack, Chambers e Johnston (2002), na qual fornecem informações sobre o nível de importância e de desempenho atribuído aos fatores que compõem cada uma destas dimensões. Os dados foram organizados em planilhas do Excel e submetidos à análise da estatística descritiva, com os valores da média referente ao grau de importância e a média referente ao nível de desempenho de cada fator para a construção de uma matriz importância – desempenho para cada dimensão analisada. Com os resultados da pesquisa conclui-se que na dimensão “fatores de produção” os itens que necessitam de ações melhoramento são a disponibilidade de matéria-prima, o custo de aquisição de maquinários, a disponibilidade de mão de obra e o porte e capacidade dos maquinários. Na dimensão “mercados” os itens que necessitam de ações de melhoramento são os 9 fatores sobre produtos substitutos, a colocação do produto no mercado externo, o grau de concentração dos fornecedores de matéria-prima e a qualidade do produto final. Na dimensão “logística” alguns fatores ficaram alocados na zona de ação urgente, como o custo do transporte até a indústria, capacidade de armazenamento até a indústria, condições de transporte até a indústria e as condições de armazenamento até a indústria. Nesta mesma dimensão, alguns fatores como os fluxos de informações tecnológicas, contrato entre o produtor e a indústria, contrato entre a indústria e o varejo e os custos de armazenamento para a indústria necessitam de ações de melhoramento. Na dimensão “ambiente institucional”, os fatores referentes aos indicadores macroeconômicos, legislação ambiental e o processamento agroindustrial, a legislação ambiental e a produção rural, inspeção sanitária e o processamento agroindustrial e o acesso às condições de crédito para a indústria também necessitam de ações de melhoramento para aumentar o seu desempenho. Estas conclusões devem fornecer subsídios e informações que contribuirão na tomada de decisão e no estabelecimento de estratégias empresariais a fim de aumentar o desempenho das atividades dentro da indústria ervateira, tornando-a mais competitiva no mercado que estão inseridas. / The yerba mate Market has been growing and getting featured in the most important countries and states which produces it, using the yerba mate not only for it’s traditional drink, “the chimarrão”, but with other alternative uses that has been appearing because of it’s important properties. Due to the increasing of the demand in different kinds of markets, they request the need of researches which evaluate and confirms the conditioning facts of the performance aiming to generate informations to subsidize priority actions of the improvement for it’s increasing sector. In this case, the actual research had as objective to identify the factors which condition the “ervateiras” industries performance from Alto Taquari/RS. As the theoretical contribution for the subsidized review of the data had used the Economical Industry theory, the Costs Economy of transactions and the theory which had involved the use of Importance-Performance Matrix. The primary data were collected through structured questionnaires in a quantitative way, using the likert scale of 1-7 points. The questionnaires were applied via Google Docs and after that shown physically through the industry agents in the “ervateiro” pole from Alto Taquari/RS. The questionnaire was structured in seven sections, both first and second questions referred to the gathered information about the interviewed people and the “ervateiras” industries, which had as objective describe and characterize the studied objetct. The four other sections referred to the conditioning dimensions of the performance, which are they: Production Factors/ Markets/ Logistics/ Institutional Ambient/ and the seventh section was about the view of the productive chain of yerba mate seen by the “ervateiras” industries. The analytical method of the data was consisted in the application of the matrix importance-performance suggested by Slack, Chambers and Johnston (2002), in which provide information about the importance level and assigned performance of the factors that made each one of these dimensions. The data was organized in spreadsheets of the excel and submitted to a describing statistic analysis, with average values referred to the degree of importance and the average referred to the level of performance for each dimension analyzed. With the result of research it is concluded that the dimension of “production factors” the necessary items of the improvement actions are the availability of the raw material , the acquisition cost of the machinery, the availability of labor and the possession and capacity of the machinery. In the “market” dimension, the items that have the need of 11 improvement actions are the factors about the swapped products, the placement of the product in outside market, the degree of concentrations of the raw material developers and the final product’s quality. In the logistic dimension some factors were placed in the urgent-action-zone, like the cost of means of transportation to the industry, the storage capacity to the industry, conditions of the transport to de industry and the conditions of the storage to the industry. In the same dimension, some factors like the flow of technological information, the contract between the industry and the producer, the contract between and the retail, the costs of the storage for the industries needs the improvement actions. In the “Institutional Ambient” dimension, the factors which refers to the macroeconomic indicators, environmental legislation and the agroindustrial process, the environmental legislation and the rural production, sanitary inspection and the agroindustrial process and the access to the credit condition for the industries still need the actions of improvement to increase it’s performance. This condition should provide subsidies and information that will contribute with the decision taken and in the establishment of business strategies with the desire of increasing the performance of the activities inside the “ervateiras” industries, turning into the most competitive one in the market which they are part of.

Surgical procedures of gastrointestinal diseases often lead to the creation of an ostomy. The number of clients with an ostomy is increasing as the Czech Republic ranks among the countries with the largest incidence of malignant colon disease. Health care professionals in any field can often encounter the client with a stoma. Therefore, it is essential for them to understand and manage this issue well. Nursing care of such individuals is very extensive and specialized. Nursing team usually focuses only on physical care but other problems associated with stomas are pushed aside. The only highly knowledgeable and qualified expert in this area is a stoma nurse specialist (an ostomy nurse). This thesis deals with the importance of the role of the stoma nurse specialist in the postoperative phase from the perspective of nurses from surgical departments as well as from the perspective of patients with a colostomy. The thesis is divided into theoretical and empirical part. The theoretical part is further divided into four chapters: colostomy, care about stoma patients, life with a colostomy, an ostomy nurse. Two objectives were determined for processing of the empirical part. We used a combination of quantitative and qualitative research to achieve our goals. The first objective was to determine whether general nurses have the knowledge to care for a client with colostomy in the postoperative phase. To obtain data for the quantitative part of the survey the method of anonymous interviews using a questionnaire, in which the research group was formed by general nurses, was selected. The survey results revealed that nurses have sufficient knowledge to treat and educate clients with a stoma. Although not all general nurses encounter colostomy patients, they widely believe the knowledge of this issue is important for the occupation of a nurse. For the quantitative part three hypotheses were selected and tested statistically. Hypothesis 1: General nurses have the knowledge to treat the client with a colostomy. It was confirmed. Hypothesis 2: General nurses have enough knowledge to educate the client with a colostomy. It was confirmed. Hypothesis 3: General nurses positively evaluate the benefits of an ostomy nurse in care for stoma patients in the postoperative phase in the surgical department. It was confirmed. The second objective was to determine the significance of the stoma nurse for clients with a colostomy. For the qualitative part of the survey the method of direct questioning by means of a semi-structured interview with open questions was chosen. The study group consisted of patients with a colostomy. For this part of the survey a research questions was specified: What is the importance of an ostomy nurse for the stoma patient in the postoperative period? We concluded that the ostomy nurse is viewed as an educator, counselor and psychological support. The ostomy nurse is the only one who can provide stoma clients with coherent and comprehensive information they need to live with a colostomy. Both groups of respondents agree that the stoma nurse is the irreplaceable specialist. Shift nurses fail to provide comprehensive care stoma patients need. An ostomy nurse needs to be a part of nursing care not only in the postoperative phase, but also in the preoperative period. There is need for closer cooperation between general nurses and the ostomy nurse. Nurses indicate their willingness to be educated in this area, while preferring seminars, lectures and conferences. The results also led us to create information material Care of the client with colostomy, as the nurses indicated that they would welcome a brief, clear, visual information material.

Nursing has been perceived as an inseparable part of our lives since time out of mind. Its development and the difficulties that its supporters had to face are historically demonstrable facts, which influenced the overall perception of nursing through various periods of the human race development. The historical view of nursing is important from the point of view of the understanding to nursing, its concept and namely its mission. The thesis "The Changing Concept of Nursing" has a theoretical character and its aim is to analyse the concept of nursing across history and to highlight its importance. The thesis is conceived as an analytical study with consequent elaboration of an interpretative text.

As reflexões aqui mencionadas direcionam-se a uma análise sobre a importância do ensino da leitura prática entendida como uma construção do ato de linguagem do escritor, de seu sentido e de seu porquê, na qual leitor e escritor, supostamente, se encontram em um ato de cooperação; como também a capacidade de ler, compreender, refletir, interagir e agir sobre a realidade. A leitura fator essencial para a compreensão da realidade serve para reforçar valores éticos e morais, como também para desenvolver a criatividade em uma abordagem diferenciada e desafiadora. A leitura faz parte da vida. Com isso, sua prática deve ser envolvente e cativante a ponto de gerar necessidade e satisfação pessoal. Devemos proporcionar aos alunos um convívio com a leitura, oportunizar que ela cumpra seu papel: alargar, por meio da leitura dos signos, a leitura do mundo e privilegiar a leitura para a aquisição de conhecimento, entender como um processo histórico-social que promove e capacita o indivíduo, acreditar que o ensino de uma leitura crítica é um componente do processo de desenvolvimento e de conscientização, que permitirá ao indivíduo uma reflexão mais cuidadosa em relação aos atos sociais nos quais está inserido. O gosto pela leitura será despertado se a criança exercitar a leitura diariamente, de forma agradável, compreensiva e confortável; o gosto pela leitura não é despertado por motivos externos, ele é interno, já vem com a pessoa ou então o gosto pela leitura será despertado se a criança tiver exemplos em casa e acesso à leitura variada. / The reflections mentioned here direct it to an analysis about the importance of the reading education - understood practical as a construction of the language act of the writer, of its direction and of its reason, in which reader and writer, supposedly, meet in a cooperating act as well the capacity of reading, of understanding, of reflecting, of interacting and of acting over the reality. The reading - essential factor for the understanding of the reality - serves to strengthen Ethical and Moral values, as well to develop the creativity in a differentiated and challenging boarding. Reading is part of life. With this, its practical must be involving and captivating to the point of generating necessity and personal satisfaction. We must provide to the students a conviviality with the reading, allowing that it fulfills its role: to widen by means of the reading of signs, the reading of the World and to privilege the reading for the acquisition of knowledge, understand how a historical-social process that promotes and enables the individual to believe that the teaching of a critical reading is a component of the awareness and development process, that will allow to the individual a more careful reflection in relation to the social acts in which is inserted. The taste for the reading will be awaked if the child exercises the daily reading, in a pleasant, comprehensive and comfortable form; the taste for the reading isnt awaked for external reasons, it is internal; it already comes with the person or then the taste for the reading will be awaked if the child will have examples at home and will have access to the varied reading.