O objetivo deste trabalho foi de avaliar economicamente uma unidade de produção de alevinos de espécies reofílicas do estado de Rondônia e desta forma estruturar a análise de custos, econômica e gerencial do empreendimento. O empreendimento avaliado possui 54 ha de área total e 6,5 ha de lâmina d’água disponíveis para a alevinagem. Na safra 2010/2011 o empreendimento produziu os seguintes produtos: alevinos de tambaqui (Colossoma macropomum) nos tamanhos de 3g, 5g, 10g, 15g, 20g e 30g; alevinos de piavuçu (Leporinus macrocephalus); e alevinos de curimba (Prochilodus lineatus). O empreendimento ainda comprou e revendeu alevinos de pirarucu (Arapaima gigas) e alevinos de Jundiara (♀ Pseudoplathystoma fasciatum X ♂ Leiarius marmoratus). A fim de avaliar como a produção de alevinos consumiu os recursos disponíveis do empreendimento, realizou-se o mapeamento do fluxo de produção do empreendimento e de sua estrutura que custos . Foram calculados os seguintes indicadores de custo e rentabilidade: custo operacional efetivo e total, custo total de produção, receita liquida e lucro, além dos indicadores de fluxo de caixa usuais e seus alternativos integrados, ponto de nivelamento e margem de contribuição total. Através do mapeamento do fluxo de produção verificou-se que o plantel de reprodutores apresenta resultados reprodutivos satisfatórios, porém o empreendimento apresenta falhas no manejo de arraçoamento de reprodutores e alevinos e não realiza o controle dos estoques de alevinos e dos parâmetros de qualidade de água nos viveiros. Entre os produtos efetivamente produzidos no empreendimento, os que apresentaram os menores custos médios e as melhores rentabilidades estão os alevinos de tambaqui de 3g, 5g e os alevinos de piavuçu. A análise custos e econômica mostrou que empreendimento apresenta uma baixa lucratividade a médio prazo em relação ao capital investido e economicamente inviável a longo prazo, devido a sua onerosa estrutura de produção. Diante destes resultados fica evidente que as tomadas de decisão para determinação de valores de investimento e preço de venda dos produtos são realizadas sem todas as informações necessárias para o adequado planejamento do empreendimento, o que mostra a importância do contínuo controle dos processos e avaliação econômica deste tipo de empreendimento. / The objective of this study was to evaluate a unit cost of production of fingerlings of reophilic species in the state of Rondônia, Brazil, and thereby structure the cost analysis, and the economic management of the enterprise. The enterprise has 54 ha and 6.5 ha of water is available for the nursery. In the season 2010/2011 the enterprise produced the following products: fingerlings of tambaqui (Colossoma macropomum) in 3g, 5g, 10g, 15g, 20g and 30g weights; piavuçu fingerlings (Leporinus macrocephalus) and curimba fingerlings (Prochilodus lineatus). The venture has bought and resold pirarucu fingerlings (Arapaima gigas) and jundiara fingerlings (♀ Pseudoplathystoma fasciatum X ♂ Leiarius marmoratus). In order to evaluate how the production of fingerlings consumed the resources of the enterprise, was conducted the flow map of production of the enterprise and its cost structure. Was calculated the following indicators of cost and profitability, and total operational cost, total cost of production, net income and earnings, and indicators of cash flow and its usual alternative integrated point of leveling and total contribution margin. By mapping the production flow it was found that the bloodstock breeding presents satisfactory results, but the venture fails in the management and feeding of fingerlings and does not perform the control of fingerlings stocks and the parameters of water quality. Among the products actually produced in the enterprise, who had the lowest average costs and better returns are 3 g and 5 g tambaqui fingerlings, and piavuçu fingerlings. The analysis showed that costs and economic analysis has low profitability in the medium term in relation to capital invested and economically unviable in the long term, due to its costly production structure. Given these results it is evident that the decision making process for determining values of investment and the selling price of the products are made without all the information necessary for proper planning of the enterprise, which shows the importance of continuous control process and economic evaluation of this type of business venture.

Este estudo tem como objetivo analisar as potencialidades e operacionalidades das redes sociais para as práticas escolares da Geografia. Para isso, se utilizou dos materiais coletados nas práticas desenvolvidas entre os espaços escolares das aulas de Geografia e da rede social Facebook, realizadas com uma turma do segundo ano do ensino médio da Escola Estadual Arthur da Costa e Silva em Capivari do Sul/RS. Tal temática se justiça pela significativa presença das tecnologias da comunicação e informação em suas bases digitais na sociedade contemporânea, sendo um dos mecanismos que vem colaborando para o enfraquecimento de valores e instituições tradicionais forjadas durante a modernidade. Deste modo, a escola, um dos pilares da sociedade moderna, também vem sofrendo as implicações de tais tecnologias. Considerando os desafios desse espaço/tempo que caracteriza a sociedade contemporânea, esta dissertação foi desenvolvida procurando pensar as práticas escolares da Geografia na interface entre rotinas escolares solidificadas e modos mais fluidos de ser/estar/aprender, vivenciados pelos alunos. O percurso teórico-metodológico utilizado se ampara nas pesquisas pós-criticas em educação e as análises, bem como a coleta de dados foram efetivadas através das ferramentas da etnografia educacional e da netnografia. Dentre os resultados destaca-se as potencialidades propiciadas pelas práticas escolares da Geografia com/através das redes, como autonomia, autoria individual e coletiva, interatividade em diferentes níveis, hipertextualidade, visibilidade e reusabilidade dos materiais construídos, que podem ser (re)utilizados para diversos fins didáticos, além de possuírem acesso e layout de fácil uso. Observa-se também que as redes dispõem de operacionalidades, ou seja, ferramentas que efetivam as referidas potencialidades, e que podem ser apropriadas de diferentes maneiras por professores e alunos, dentre elas se destacam: as contas de usuários, o curtir, o comentar, o compartilhar e as páginas, cada uma com funções e usos construídos ao longo dos caminhos e rotas das práticas. Os potenciais das redes sociais para a Geografia, analisados neste estudo, não são apenas um instrumento a tecnificar as aulas, mas uma possibilidade de mudar a prática comunicativa entre professores e alunos. Neste sentido, estas redes demonstraram que suas potencialidades e operacionalidades podem contribuir para a mudança de status das aulas de Geografia: de offline para online, ou seja, conectar as práticas escolares da Geografia aos modos e linguagens contemporâneas. / This study aims to analyze the potentiality and operationality of online social networking for school practices of Geography. For this, we used the materials collected in the practices developed between the spaces of school Geography lessons and social network Facebook, conducted with a group of second year high school Arthur da Costa e Silva School in Capivari do Sul/RS. This theme is justice for the significant presence of communication technologies and digital information in their databases in contemporary society, and a mechanism that has been working for the weakening of traditional values and institutions forged during modernity. Thus, the school, one of the pillars of modern society, also has been suffering the implications of such technologies. Considering the challenges of this time / space that characterizes contemporary society, this thesis has been developed trying to think school practices of Geography at the interface between school routines solidified and more fluid ways of being / living / learning, experienced by students. The course is theoretical and methodological supports research in post-critical in education and the analyzes such data collection were effected through the tools of ethnography and educational netnography. Among the results are highlight the opportunities afforded by the school practices of Geography with / through networks, such as autonomy, individual and collective authorship, interactivity at different levels, hypertextuality, visibility and reusability of materials constructed, which can be (re) used for several teaching purposes, in addition to having access and easy to use layout. It is also observed that the networks have operationality, in other words, tools that actualize these potentialities, and that may be appropriate in different ways by teachers and students, among them are: the accounts of users, like the review, the share and the pages, each with functions and uses built along the paths and routes of pages. The potential of social networks for Geography, analyzed in this study, are not just an instrument to leave practical classes, but a possibility to change the communicative practice between teachers and students. In this sense, these networks have demonstrated their potential and operationality can contribute to the change of status of Geography lessons: from offline to online, or connect school practices of Geography and the ways contemporary languages.

Submitted by Irene Nascimento (irene.kessia@ufpe.br) on 2017-05-09T18:18:48Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) DISSERTAÇÃO Giliane Cordeiro Gomes.pdf: 1989631 bytes, checksum: be40578dc069afdbe3210ec1d1ee8d41 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-05-09T18:18:48Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) DISSERTAÇÃO Giliane Cordeiro Gomes.pdf: 1989631 bytes, checksum: be40578dc069afdbe3210ec1d1ee8d41 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-02-29 / FACEPE / Este estudo tem como objetivo compreender as narrativas que os(as) idosos(as) residentes na área rural do município de Arcoverde, estado de Pernambuco, constroem sobre a morte. Através de leituras a respeito da forma que o contexto sócio histórico e cultural afeta o modo de significar a morte, como também, conhecendo a maneira como as narrativas reproduzem e visibilizam a experiência com a morte. Para tal, fundamenta-se em uma abordagem teórica e metodológica de Pesquisa Narrativa, tendo em vista o caráter social da produção de narrativas como algo onipresente e central na vida em sociedade. O argumento central é de que as narrativas sobre a morte revelam modos singulares de compreender e lidar com a morte, expressando modos de enfrentamento da vida. Esta pesquisa alinha-se às investigações em Psicologia Social com ênfase no debate sobre a produção da morte em áreas rurais. A trajetória seguida para a realização da pesquisa foi entrevista narrativa com análise temática e dialógica. De modo geral compreendo que as narrativas expressam modos particulares de atribuir sentido ao evento de morte, de forma que é possível observar a associação que os idosos(as) produzem da morte como viagem, destino, colheita, desaparecimento e ida para a vida eterna. As narrativas também deflagram a manutenção, baseada em uma ética camponesa, de práticas fúnebres voltadas para a solidariedade. A fala dos(das) idosos(as) fazem conhecer modos de envelhecer em que eles(as) permanecem ativos e envolvidos(as) socialmente em suas localidades. Por fim, as narrativas também contribuem para conhecimento de precários contextos de vida em áreas rurais, revelando a dificuldade vivida pelas pessoas desta região no acesso à saúde, assistência social e previdência. / The research aims comprehend the narratives that elderlies, inhabitants in rural area of Arcoverde, Pernambuco state, frame about the death. Through reading about the form that the socio-cultural-historical context affect the way of signify the death. As well, knowing the way as the narratives reproduce and make visible the experience with the death. For such, is based in a theoretical and methodological approach of Narrative Research, considering the social character narrative productions like as something central and omnipresent in social life. The main argument is that the narratives about death reveals unique ways to understand and to deal with the death, expressing ways to face the life. This research aligns the investigations in Social Psychology with emphasis in the debate about the death in rural zones. The path followed to realize the study was narrative interview with thematic and dialogical analysis. In general, I comprehend that the narratives express particulars ways to assign meaning to event of death. It is possible to notice the association that the elderlies make of the death like as travel, destiny, harvest, disappearing, and departure to the eternal life. The narratives trigger the maintenance, based in a peasant ethic, of mortuary practice focused on solidarity. The speech of the elderlies show ways to getting old that they remain active and involved socially in their localities. Finally, the narratives also contribute to knowledge of contexts of poor life in rural areas, revealing the difficulty experienced by the people of the region in access to health, social assistance and welfare

Orientador: Sylvia Bueno Terzi / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-16T23:56:36Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Batista_LuanaCristinadeMoraes_M.pdf: 9683824 bytes, checksum: a17dc88c2a4d0b2111b660ef0bbe8dd3 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010 / Resumo: Esta pesquisa teve como objetivo identificar, a partir da análise de suas práticas de leitura e escrita, o modelo de letramento sancionado por uma escola pública municipal brasileira, localizada na zona rural da cidade de Matão (SP), cujo IDEB na Prova Brasil de 2005 foi de 7,3 - quando a média brasileira é de 3,8 (em uma escala de 0 a 10) -, além de verificar se o resultado positivo alcançado pela escola estaria relacionado a esse modelo e/ou a outros elementos contextuais existentes na comunidade. Para tal, foram realizadas entrevistas com os profissionais envolvidos no desenvolvimento dessas práticas, bem como com os alunos da escola, observações e gravações de aulas e análise de documentos que estão relacionados às práticas de letramento dos alunos da 4ª série do Ensino Fundamental, uma vez que é a esses alunos que a Prova Brasil é direcionada. Todos os dados gerados foram analisados com base nos princípios sancionados pelos Novos Estudos do Letramento, que nos permitiram verificar que as práticas de leitura e escrita desenvolvidas pelos/com os alunos tanto no micro contexto (escola/sala de aula) quanto no macro (comunidade) são predominantemente baseadas nas concepções defendidas pelo Modelo Ideológico de Letramento. A análise dos dados revelou ainda que essas concepções são compartilhadas também por outras agências de letramento da comunidade - como a família e os órgãos governamentais do município -, explicitando a convergência entre as classes dominante e dominada no que diz respeito às práticas de letramento desenvolvidas na comunidade. A conclusão a que chegamos foi que a abordagem ideológica adotada pela escola e o compartilhamento de valores entre as instâncias sociais da comunidade estão diretamente relacionados ao resultado positivo obtido pelos alunos da 4ª série na Prova Brasil de 2005 / Abstract: The aim of this research is to identify, based on the analysis of the practices of reading and writing, the model of literacy sanctioned by a public school in Brazil, situated in a rural area in the city of Matão (SP), the IDEB of which in the Prova Brasil (key instrument for measuring education quality) of 2005 was 7.3 - when the Brazilian average is 3.8 (on a scale from 0 to 10) -, besides verifying if the positive result achieved by the school was related to this model and/or to other contextual elements present in the community. For such, interviews with the professionals involved in the development of these practices were held, as well as with students from the school. Also observations were made, lessons were recorded and an analysis of documents related to the literacy practices of students in grade 4 of Elementary School was made, since Prova Brasil o is aimed at these students' performance. All of the data collected was analyzed based on the principles sanctioned by the New Studies on Literacy, which allow us to verify if the practices of reading and writing developed by/with the students both in the micro-context (school/classroom) and in the macro-context (community) are predominantly based on the conceptions defended by the Ideological Model of Literacy. The analysis of the data also revealed that these conceptions are also shared by other literacy agents in the community - like the family and government agencies in the municipal district -, showing the convergence between the dominant and dominated classes concerning the literacy practices developed in the community. The conclusions showed that the ideological approach adopted by the school and the values shared between the social instances of the community are directly related to the positive results obtained by the students in grade 4 in the Prova Brasil of 2005 / Mestrado / Lingua Materna / Mestre em Linguística Aplicada

O ECA prevê a proteção integral a todas as crianças e adolescentes sempre que seus direitos estiverem ameaçados, e está embasado numa concepção de infância em que a criança é considerada como sujeito de direitos, como pessoa em condição peculiar de desenvolvimento, e do interesse superior. Vários movimentos e ações vêm sendo vem sendo realizados para efetivá-lo em prática cotidiana, e uma vertente importante dessas ações diz respeito à qualificação dos recursos humanos dos diversos equipamentos de assistência à criança, entre os quais estão os educadores de Casas Abrigo. A literatura aponta para as diversas dificuldades que marcam o abrigo ainda como um espaço de ausências, da re-edição do abandono e da violência, e as iniciativas no sentido de torná-lo lugar de novas possibilidades para as crianças tornam necessários investimentos de toda ordem. Buscando uma melhor compreensão dessa realidade, esse trabalho voltou-se para as Educadoras de uma Casa Abrigo de uma cidade interiorana do Estado de São Paulo, com o objetivo de conhecer o que elas pensavam sobre infância, as crianças sob seus cuidados, e as práticas educativas destinadas a elas. Foram realizadas entrevistas com todas as educadoras da casa abrigo (10) na modalidade história de vida temática, que inclui dois momentos. Primeiramente, a participante fica livre para contar a sua história, a partir de aspectos que consideravam relevantes. Já num segundo momento, a pesquisadora coloca questões de interesse do trabalho e que porventura não tivessem sido abordadas na parte inicial da entrevista. As entrevistas, gravadas e transcritas literalmente, juntamente com o diário de campo, foram analisados a partir da perspectiva qualitativa. Os resultados apontaram para uma equipe de educadoras bastante diferenciadas (60% com nível superior em Assistência Social, Pedagogia, e Psicologia), com grande envolvimento no trabalho; sua história de vida sustenta uma visão de infância e de cuidado à ela bastante afinada à que embasa o ECA, focada na condição de desenvolvimento da criança. Por outro lado, a criança abrigada parece ser vista fora dessa óptica. Além disso, as educadoras sentem que no dia-a-dia da instituição não tem espaço para a autonomia, criatividade, espontaneidade, estímulo e o brincar, sentindo-se restritas aos cuidados básicos de alimentação e higiene. Assim, embora tenham uma percepção da infância bastante afinada à do ECA, não conseguem colocá-la em prática no interior do abrigo. Esbarram numa estrutura rígida e autoritária haja vista suas exigências, estruturação de rotina, horários e prioridades. Identificaram-se ainda descontinuidades (conflitos entre diferentes crenças) vivenciadas no contexto de trabalho, tanto entre o ideário delas próprias em relação à criança e sua educação e a prática atual, como entre o seu ideário e o do abrigo, muito semelhante ao modelo assistencial, correcional já ultrapassado, mas que tem raízes em um longo período na história da institucionalização de crianças. Assim, estamos diante de uma equipe que, embora com grande potencial, parece subutilizado, pois percebemos que tais educadoras sentem ter uma prática cotidiana muito diferente daquela que teriam condições de oferecer para a criança e em consonância à pretendida pelo ECA. / The ECA establishes the integral protection for all children and adolescents whenever their rights are threatened, and it is based on a conception of childhood in which the child is considered as subject of rights, as a person in peculiar condition of development, and of high interest. Several movements and actions have been taken in order to turn it into daily practice, and an important strand of these actions refers to the qualification of the human resources of the various equipments of child assistance, among which are the educators of Shelter Houses. The literature points out various difficulties that still mark the shelter as a space of absences, of re-edition of abandonment and of violence, and the initiatives aiming to turn it into a place of new possibilities for the children raise the necessity of investments of all sorts. Searching for a better comprehension of this reality, this study focused on the Educators of a Shelter House in a countryside town of São Paulo State, with the target of knowing what they thought about childhood, the children they took care of, and the educative practices aimed at them. Interviews with all the educators of the shelter house (10) were made in the modality of thematic life story, which includes two moments, firstly the participant is free to tell her story, from aspects considered relevant. In a second moment, the researcher asks questions of interest of the work and that had not been approached in the initial part of the interview. The interviews, recorded and literally transcribed, along with the field journal, were analyzed according to the qualitative perspective. The results pointed at a team of educators quite qualified (60% graduated in Social Assistance, Pedagogy or Psychology), with great involvement in the work; their life story sustain a view of childhood and of caring aimed at them very similar to the one that roots ECA, focused on the development condition of children. On the other hand, they feel that in the institutions daily routine there is no space for autonomy, creativity, spontaneity, stimulus and playing, feeling restricted to basic cares of feeding and hygiene. Therefore, although they have a perception of childhood very similar to that of ECA, they cannot put it into practice inside the shelter. They are blocked by a rigid and authoritarian structure, seen its demands, routine structuring, timetables and priorities. Discontinuities were also identified (conflicts between different beliefs), lived in the work context, both between their own ideology concerning children and their education and current practice, and between their ideology and the shelters ideology, very alike the assisting model, correctional already old-fashioned, but rooted in a long period of the history of children institutionalization. Therefore, we face a team that, even though highly qualified, seems not to be used in its potential, for we notice that such educators feel that they have a daily practice very different from the one they would be able to offer to the child and allied to the one intended by the ECA.

LL.M / The provisions of South Africa’s law on dismissal based on operational requirements are frequently relied on by employers who dismiss employees to further various objectives. Against this background, this dissertation critically analyses the law providing for employers to rely on their operational requirements as a basis for fair dismissal, and the legal principles on selecting employees for dismissal based on operational requirements. As part of this analysis, the approach in South Africa is compared with the approach in Germany, the United Kingdom and Australia. The analysis is based on a critical literature study that includes a consideration of the relevant legislation, treaties, conventions, directives, case law, recommendations, textbooks, journal articles and statistical sources. This dissertation draws broad conclusions regarding the contents, effects and shortcomings of the aspects of South African law on dismissal based on operational requirements that fall within its scope. In broad terms, this dissertation finds that the conceptual model underpinning the South African regime on dismissal based on operational requirements, is intrinsically sound, but that certain aspects require reform. It finds further that South Africa’s law on dismissal based on operational requirements generally provides employees with a relatively high degree of employment security, and severely limits managerial prerogative. This dissertation concludes that the primary areas requiring reform relate to the test for substantive fairness that does not include a proportionality analysis to weigh up the competing interests of the employer and the employee(s), and the requirements regarding selection criteria that fail to include consideration of the impact of dismissal on individual employees and their dependents. This dissertation makes proposals for reform in these areas.

Strategy and its successful implementation is the responsibility of all stakeholders in an organisation; however, thus far, most empirical research in the field of strategy has mainly focused on Boards of Directors or senior management. The dearth of research, as evidenced from the review of the literature concerning the roles of middle managers in strategy implementation, coupled with the disagreement of senior management on their importance, leaves room for discovery. Acknowledging the importance of middle managers’ roles and agreeing what is expected from them in strategy implementation prompts organisations to create the conditions to enable them for strategy implementation. These ideas led to this investigation by exploring what enables the roles and practices of middle managers in strategy implementation. This research adopts the interpretive research approach in an effort to investigate middle managers’ involvement in strategy implementation across three industrial manufacturing organisations in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Through the development of a conceptual framework incorporating aspects of roles, role expectations, practices and context, the thesis highlights the difference between the perception of roles and expectations and roles in practice. The chosen respondents were senior and middle managers. The main findings of the research showed that there exists a gap between the perception of senior managers and middle managers on the roles of middle managers and on aspects enabling their strategic agency; this resulted in an ‘implementation gap’, which can hinder the successful execution of organisation strategy. This thesis discovers that the issues of management are the same regardless of the geographic situation or cultures within which the organisations operate, and that there are lessons to be learned from each other. A conceptual framework emerged from the exploratory qualitative research which confirms and opens up new avenues in understanding the roles of middle managers in practice in the area of strategy implementation. The implications are a need to understand it more empirically and a need to bridge the gap in practice. Key words: Strategy implementation, Middle manager, Roles, Role expectations, Practices.

Context. Agile methods address the challenges of an unpredictable world by relying on “people and their creativity rather than on processes”, accelerate delivery of software and considered as a reaction to plan-based or traditional methods. Distributed software development helps to access a pool of skilled personnel, completion of tasks around the clock and more. Incorporating of agile methods in distributed software development could help to solve some problems of distributed software development such as lack of communication and its dependencies, close collaboration and so on. Objectives. In this study we investigate the proposed benefits of pair programming, an XP development technique used by agile, and its effects on performance and social practices in distributed software development. Methods. Systematic literature review and an experiment are utilized to fulfill the objectives of this study. In the systematic review a sub-set of the research articles are selected relevant to the subject of this study from the electronic sources including, ACM Digital Library, IEEE, Xplore, EiVillage (Compendx, Inspec), Science Direct and ISI Web of Science. Experiment is conducted to investigate the pair programming effects on performance and social practices. Results. Many proposed benefits of pair programming in existing literature are identified and reported in both collocated and distributed settings. Pair programming is reported as an effective software development technique as well as a pedagogical tool. Experimental results showed that pair programming also effects performance in distributed software development, and positively impacts the social practices (human or social factors). Conclusions. There are many benefits of pair programming reported in collocated settings and less in distributed software development. Pair programming impacts the performance and social practices positively. However, we also conclude that the effective use of pair programming in distributed software development will yield the concrete results as well as the programmers’ pairs should be trained, experienced and well motivated for an effective use of pair programming and to overcome the challenges of distributed software development.

Context: Electronic Government (sometimes referred to as digital government, online government) is the use of information and communication technologies to: a) enable optimization and innovation of all government internal processes in the back-office and external processes by providing government services to customers through Internet and other electronic means; and b) facilitate achieving goals of all government policies and strategies. Objectives: In this study we are explaining e-Government practices, perceptions and performances of state institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and analyzing obstacles and challenges of current approach to e-Government management, in order to propose immediate and middle-term e-Government actions for BiH state institutions to start delivering integrated and useful e-Government services. Methods: In this, three sources of information are used: a) comprehensive survey of state employees, b) interviews with some of the e-Government practitioners and c) systematic review of a number of relevant article sources. All questions/reviews have been done in order to find out what measures could be taken and what guidelines should be followed by the BiH state institutions so they become more IT savvy in taking advantage of e-Government implementations. Results: Measures for improvements have been proposed in several distinct areas: building human capacities for e-Government development, changing management and leadership practices, building regulatory and organizational framework for e-Government and resolving interpersonal issues in e-Government systems design. Additionally, a Phase plan for e-Government project implementation is proposed to those having a vision and idea on some e-Government project, but maybe lacking the skills and knowledge on how to actually initiate, design and implement it. Conclusions: We conclude that BiH state government should realize that e-Government is not just about implementing some IT projects; it is an overall public administration reform process which has to be adequately supported by regulative and organizational measures. This thesis provided arguments for such strategic e-Government decision-making and necessity for government-wide management and development capacity. We conclude that there is a need for BiH state government to understand the current situation and arguments presented, and take steps in building its capacities in this field.

Background: Individuals with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (IDD) are experiencing longer life expectancies with the majority requiring the ongoing support of family caregivers into adulthood. Medicaid is the primary funding source for supports and services for adults with IDD. Growing Medicaid expenditures and goals to improve quality of care are driving more states to move their Medicaid fee-for-service programs into a managed care model. The stated goals of Medicaid managed long-term services and supports (MLTSS) are to improve care coordination and access to care while controlling costs, but the evidence regarding these outcomes is limited and mixed. Given the level of uncertainty about MLTSS for adults with IDD and their family caregivers, best practices recommendations have been produced by the federal government and advocacy agencies to help guide future MLTSS implementation efforts. These best practice recommendations combined with the continued expansion of MLTSS in the states, provided an opportunity to further explore implementation of MLTSS to inform both policy and practice. One state which recently reformed their Medicaid program to MLTSS and which has been referred to as a bellwether state is Kansas. The MLTSS program in Kansas, titled “KanCare”, is the first for adults with IDD to integrate across health, behavioral health, and LTSS while also contracting through three private-for-profit managed care organizations (MCOs). Aims: The objective of this study was to describe the current implementation of MLTSS for adults with IDD and their family caregivers in one state, Kansas. Study aims were as follows: 1) To understand the rationale behind and what actually happened with MLTSS implementation for adults with IDD in Kansas; 2) To understand how service coordination providers and family caregivers perceived care coordination and access to services for adults with IDD in MLTSS; 3) To understand how family caregivers and their roles were recognized in MLTSS for adults with IDD. Methods: A single case embedded design case study approach was used with in-depth semi-structured interviews completed with state/regional level representatives (N=13), MLTSS service coordination providers (N=7), and family caregivers of adults with IDD (N=11). Data collection and analysis were guided by the unified theory of family quality of life (FQOL) and Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model. The framework method was used to structure the data analysis process. Member checking was completed to ensure accuracy of results. Findings: Regarding aim one, respondents identified reducing costs and improving care quality as the rationale behind MLTSS, but these were outcomes not yet realized given the early stages of implementation. At the time of this study, the Managed Care Organizations (MCOs) were continuing to work on expanding provider networks and to provide additional services to address health disparities amongst individuals with IDD. Study participants identified the importance of adequate planning and stakeholder engagement to reduce confusion and fear when transitioning into MLTSS. Addressing aim two, timely and accessible consumer education, clear care coordination processes, and provider network adequacy were identified as important to influence the challenges experienced to date in care coordination and access to services. Regarding aim three, participants acknowledged the important role of family caregivers. At the current stage of the KanCare implementation, participants reported lack of formal processes for family caregiver assessment and a need for more proactive family support services planning. Conclusion: Lessons learned from this implementation experience include the importance of having long planning timelines and including stakeholder feedback into the design of MLTSS programs. Care coordination holds promise to better integrate care, but more research is needed to understand best practices for the provision of care coordination in MLTSS. In order to address access to services, MLTSS programs will need to work and build provider capacity and provider networks. MLTSS programs will also need to formally recognize the role of family caregivers by incorporating the use of family caregiver assessments to proactively plan for support needs.