[pt] A graduação a distância cresceu no Brasil 2.200 por cento entre 2003 e 2013. Neste mesmo período, mudanças tecnológicas quebraram paradigmas e exigiram a formação de equipes multidisciplinares para a produção de material didático. Talvez, este quadro ajude a explicar porque os desafios organizacionais são um problema apontado por instituições de ensino que passam a oferecer Educação a Distância (EAD). Esta dissertação se baseia na predição de que o uso de metodologias do Design e da Ergonomia na gestão de ambientes de trabalho na EAD, juntamente com a participação efetiva dos profissionais envolvidos, podem trazer resultados diferenciados na resolução de problemas organizacionais. Ao pesquisar esta questão, este trabalho contextualizou o cenário atual da EAD brasileira e suas dificuldades frente à legislação, aos aspectos culturais e à adequação às novas ferramentas tecnológicas. Na sequência, abordou os diferentes sistemas de trabalho e as questões que envolvem a relação entre as organizações e seus funcionários. Destacou, ainda, as particularidades que devem ser observadas ao se montar equipes multidisciplinares no âmbito da EAD. Em seguida, detalhou as metodologias que enxergam o Design e a Ergonomia como ferramentas de mudança, gestão e criação de cultura de trabalho e a importância da participação e envolvimento dos profissionais na busca por melhorias no seu ambiente produtivo. Por fim, para aferir a aplicabilidade dos conceitos levantados, realizou um estudo de caso na equipe do Departamento de Material Didático da Fundação Cecierj. Através de entrevistas estruturadas e de um questionário online, o estudo chegou a uma série de sugestões de melhoria e mudanças para o objeto abordado, baseadas na participação dos envolvidos e nos conceitos organizacionais do Ergodesign. / [en] The brazilian distance graduation grew 2,200 percent between 2003 and 2013, exactly when technological changes broke paradigms and required the assembly of multidisciplinary teams for the production of didactic material. Perhaps, this helps to explain why organizational challenges are a problem pointed out by educational institutions that started to offer Distance Education. This dissertation is based on the prediction that the use of Design and Ergonomics methodologies in the management of work environments in ODL, together with the effective participation of the stakeholders, can bring different results in the resolution of organizational problems. For this, this dissertation contextualized the current scenario of the Brazilian ODL and its difficulties regarding legislation, cultural aspects and adaptation to the new technological tools. In the sequence, it discussed the different work systems and the issues that involve the relationship between organizations and their employees. It was also highlighted the particularities that should be observed when setting up multidisciplinary teams within ODL. Next, was detailed the methodologies that see Design and Ergonomics as tools of change, management and work culture creation, besides the importance of the professionals participation and involvement when searching for improvements in their work environment. Finally, to verify the applicability of the concepts raised, a case study was conducted in the didactic material department of the Cecierj Foundation. Through structured interviews and an online questionnaire, the study reached a series of suggestions for improvement and changes to the object addressed, based on the stakeholders participation and the organizational concepts of Ergodesign.

Dans le cadre du projet collaboratif FUI "HyPlate", cette étude apporte une contribution originale dans la compréhension des mécanismes impliqués lors de l'assemblage d'une pile à combustible de type PEMFC, à l'aide de la mesure ou de la prédiction des déformations et des contraintes mécaniques dans le cœur de pile ou MEA. Basée sur une analyse multi-échelle, une approche duale expérimentale et prédictive a été menée, comprenant le développement non seulement de nouvelles méthodes de mesures expérimentales mais également un modèle numérique 3D, basé sur la méthode des éléments finis. Le couplage des différents résultats expérimentaux et simulés a permis de déterminer, dans un premier temps, le niveau de contraintes (ou de déformations) dans les différents composants du stack en fonction des conditions d'assemblage, et d'analyser, dans un second temps, l'influence de différents paramètres, tels que les propriétés des matériaux des plaques bipolaires, le nombre de cellules et leur position. Il a notamment été montré que la distribution des déformations dans le cœur de pile diminuait avec le nombre de cellules et au centre du stack. Des modifications sur le système de serrage de la pile ont alors été proposées afin d'améliorer l'homogénéité de l'état mécanique global. Des mesures de force in-situ ont alors permis de valider certaines propositions et d'analyser l'influence de deux modes de serrage, en contrainte ou déformation imposée, sur la performance électrochimique de la pile. / Within the context of the FUI project "HyPlate", this thesis bring an original contribution in the understanding of the mechanisms implied during the assembly of a Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC), through the measurements and the predictions of the mechanical stresses and strains in the fuel cell core, also known as the MEA. Based on a multi-scale analysis, a double approach experimental and predictive was followed, including not only the development of new experimental measurement methods but also a 3D numerical model, based on the finite element method. The results gathered from these two studies allowed us to determine, in a first step, the stress (or strain) level within the different stack components according to the assembly conditions, and to analyze, in a second step, the influence of different parameters such as the bipolar plate mechanical properties, the number of cells and their position. It was notably shown that the MEA strain distribution decreased with the number of cells and at the center of the stack. Some modifications of the clamping system were proposed in order to enhance the global mechanical state homogeneity. In situ measurements of the clamping force allowed us to validate some propositions made and to analyze the influence of two clamping modes, implying a constant stress or strain, on the electrochemical performance of the fuel cell.

This study documents how organizational strategies underlying college counseling departments modify counselors’ ability to perform their academic and college advising duties. To examine this, fifteen semi-structured, in-depth interviews with public high school counselors in Southern California were conducted. A district’s commitment to college access and opportunity, as well as parents’ expectations for maintaining a college-going culture, shaped the nature of college counseling and organizational habitus in a school. Counselors reported that access to different forms of institutional support and resources diminish or exacerbate the structural constraints known to surface in public schools. This influenced when and how counselors advised students, which offered different views of the educational opportunity structure. Additionally, findings indicate that both college preparation programs and culturally sensitive counselors work to remedy educational disparities and increase the college enrollment rates of working-class minority students.

The aim of this study is to develop novel forecasting methodologies. The applications of our proposed models lie in two different areas: macroeconomics and energy. Though we consider two very different applications, the common underlying theme of this thesis is to develop novel methodologies that are not only accurate, but are also parsimonious. For macroeconomic time series, we focus on generating forecasts for the US Gross National Product (GNP). The contribution of our study on macroeconomic forecasting lies in proposing a novel nonlinear and nonparametric method, called weighted random analogue prediction (WRAP) method. The out-of-sample forecasting ability of WRAP is evaluated by employing a range of different performance scores, which measure its accuracy in generating both point and density forecasts. We show that WRAP outperforms some of the most commonly used models for forecasting the GNP time series. For energy, we focus on two different applications: (1) Generating accurate short-term forecasts for the total electricity demand (load) for Great Britain. (2) Modelling Irish electricity smart meter data (consumption) for both residential consumers and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), using methods based on kernel density (KD) and conditional kernel density (CKD) estimation. To model load, we propose methods based on a commonly used statistical dimension reduction technique, called singular value decomposition (SVD). Specifically, we propose two novel methods, namely, discount weighted (DW) intraday and DW intraweek SVD-based exponential smoothing methods. We show that the proposed methods are competitive with some of the most commonly used models for load forecasting, and also lead to a substantial reduction in the dimension of the model. The load time series exhibits a prominent intraday, intraweek and intrayear seasonality. However, most existing studies accommodate the ‘double seasonality’ while modelling short-term load, focussing only on the intraday and intraweek seasonal effects. The methods considered in this study accommodate the ‘triple seasonality’ in load, by capturing not only intraday and intraweek seasonal cycles, but also intrayear seasonality. For modelling load, we also propose a novel rule-based approach, with emphasis on special days. The load observed on special days, e.g. public holidays, is substantially lower compared to load observed on normal working days. Special day effects have often been ignored during the modelling process, which leads to large forecast errors on special days, and also on normal working days that lie in the vicinity of special days. The contribution of this study lies in adapting some of the most commonly used seasonal methods to model load for both normal and special days in a coherent and unified framework, using a rule-based approach. We show that the post-sample error across special days for the rule-based methods are less than half, compared to their original counterparts that ignore special day effects. For modelling electricity smart meter data, we investigate a range of different methods based on KD and CKD estimation. Over the coming decade, electricity smart meters are scheduled to replace the conventional electronic meters, in both US and Europe. Future estimates of consumption can help the consumer identify and reduce excess consumption, while such estimates can help the supplier devise innovative tariff strategies. To the best of our knowledge, there are no existing studies which focus on generating density forecasts of electricity consumption from smart meter data. In this study, we evaluate the density, quantile and point forecast accuracy of different methods across one thousand consumption time series, recorded from both residential consumers and SMEs. We show that the KD and CKD methods accommodate the seasonality in consumption, and correctly distinguish weekdays from weekends. For each application, our comprehensive empirical comparison of the existing and proposed methods was undertaken using multiple performance scores. The results show strong potential for the models proposed in this thesis.

Made available in DSpace on 2009-11-18T19:01:17Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Paulo-C-Zanellato.pdf: 7369 bytes, checksum: 4b940eafc925be14812a14c4f0c6a81c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2001 / This work intends to analyze the influence of the power in the process of quality improvement in managerial organizations, being taken based on a case study regarding to a company of medium load placed in the southeast area of Brazil which in the intention of solving difficulties in inserting its products in the market, it opted to implement quality programs. The data were collected through observations and bibliographical researches about the company, where the author participated as employee for a close period of 6 years. The results indicate that the imported methodologies of administration ¿ as it is the case of the quality models ¿ cannot produce the expected results, when these methodologies are implemented by ignoring cultural factors, mainly related to form as the power is shared and practiced in the organizations. / Este trabalho se propõe a analisar a influência do poder no processo de melhoria da qualidade em organizações empresariais, tomando-se por base um estudo de caso referente a uma empresa de médio porte situada na região sudeste do Brasil que, na intenção de resolver dificuldades de inserção de seus produtos no mercado, optou por implementar programas da qualidade. Os dados foram coletados por observações e pesquisas bibliográficas sobre a empresa, onde o autor participou como funcionário por um período próximo de 6 anos. Os resultados indicam que metodologias importadas de gestão, como é o caso dos modelos da qualidade, podem não produzir os resultados esperados, quando são implementadas ignorando-se fatores culturais, sobretudo relativos à forma como o poder é partilhado e exercido nas organizações.

Midst contextual themes of new technologies and globalisation, South African organisations are challenged to attract, develop and retain suitable skills in a labour market that will continue to suffer shortages. The HR function of today is required to partner with organisations at a strategic level in response to this challenge. Successful organisations understand that transforming the HR function require regular in-depth analyses of its effectiveness. The study aimed to assess the effectiveness of an HR function operating in a public utility, against current trends in HR transition. Different evaluation methodologies are explored to develop a theoretical evaluation model for the effectiveness of a HR function. The results confirmed that the HR function is not effective in its role as strategic partner, and highlights significant differences in perception between the stakeholders and the HR function regarding its effectiveness. Recommendations were made on future transformation actions for the specific HR function. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M.A. (Industrial Psychology)

Human Computer Interaction (HCI) interventions such as User Experience, Usability and Accessibility are widely accepted as great milestones in the developmental process of computer-based system applications – be it web-based, PC-based or ubiquitous. However, there is still a need for an understanding of the critical benefits – both tangible and intangible – that HCI interventions may bring within business. It is still necessary to investigate and clearly understand how the issues that emanate from the usability and accessibility problems affect business as well as what value HCI techniques contribute to the profitability of implementing and using computer-based systems. A case study approach was undertaken within a Travel Management Company (TMC) on a computer-based system used for both back-end and front-end activities, such as invoicing as well as Management Information System (MIS) reports. The aim was to ascertain how the incorporation of HCI interventions (Usability and Accessibility) in evaluating the design and the development process of software applications can impact on the usefulness of such computer application systems. The investigation in areas such as the redefining business processes in order to generate a competitive advantage, enhancing user skills, improving user productivity, user satisfaction and retention, reducing training costs, and quality service provision were of particular interest. The end results of the study affirm an important and significant role that specific and focussed HCI interventions make in the successful implementation of contemporary computer-based systems. However, for businesses to gain most of the potential benefits from HCI interventions, both the software development houses and business practitioners should make use of the HCI techniques and place greater priority and emphasis on the awareness and use of HCI (Usability) standards in the development process / Computing / M. Sc. (Information Systems)

The advent of agile methodologies has brought about an illuminating debate in Software Engineering, particularly with regard to software quality. Some studies have reported that agile methodologies do improve software quality when compared to traditional methodologies; other studies have been inconclusive or contradictory, while others have argued that empirical evidence is limited. This study sought to investigate the correlation between agile methodologies when compared to traditional methodologies for selected software quality parameters. The research design was causal comparative, as well as correlational. The approach was quantitative, using a survey as the data collection method. SPSS was used to conduct descriptive and correlational analysis for 106 responses received. The main findings were that there was a statistically significant relation between traditional methodology use and ease of system testing (p=0.014); a statistically significant relation between traditional methodology use and timeliness (p=0.02); a statistically significant relation between software quality standards used and ease of system testing (p=0.017); a statistically significant relation between active stakeholder participation on projects and ease of system interactivity (p=0.047); and a statistically significant relation between mandatory workshop interactivity (p=0.047); and a statistically significant relation between mandatory workshop attendance or training and ease of system navigation (p=0.031).Claims that agile methodology use leads to improved software quality for selected quality parameters could not be empirically validated. The association between most of the selected software quality criteria in relation to methodology use in general was not apparent. Agile methodologies are suitable in small environments. Scrum was the most widely used agile methodology by far. The popularity and adoption state of XP showed a significantly decreasing trend. Traditional and agile methodologies combined are being used (47%) more than any other methodology. Agile methodology use (28%) surpassed traditional methodology use (19%). A suitable consensus definition for agile methodologies did not emerge from the data collected. The most suitable project life cycle model was evolutionary, incremental and iterative. ‘Other’ methodologies, meaning customised agile or SDLC, are suitable, as the environment becomes increasingly large and complex. Only 13% of organisations surveyed have an agile experience of six years and beyond. Based on these findings and gaps in the literature, implications and recommendations for further research areas are proposed, where the findings and contributions of this study are found to be relevant to practice for application and to academia for further research / College of Engineering, Science and Technology / M. Sc. (Computing)

No atual sistema educacional os métodos de ensino normalmente privilegiam a transmissão autoritária de conhecimentos, valorizando a habilidade do aluno em memorizar e reproduzir o conteúdo curricular, sem evidenciar a apropriação do conhecimento de forma significativa. Priorizar a construção do conhecimento, dar significado ao que se ensina e apresentar a Física atraente ao aluno representam desafios da prática docente. Com o intuito de valorizar as trocas entre os pares discentes e di-docente no processo ensino-aprendizagem e de promover uma ação educativa em que a aprendizagem de Física ocorra de forma consistente e duradoura, desenvolvemos uma proposta que integra um conjunto de metodologias: atividades experimentais, metodologia de projetos, e uso de mapas conceituais, como ferramentas no processo de ensino e aprendizagem. A fim de instrumentalizar professores de Física e de outras áreas do conhecimento, estruturamos uma página na internet, denominada “Experimentando Física”, que apresenta as etapas de construção, as metodologias utilizadas e o material resultante. Através de mapas conceituais relacionamos experimentos físicos com os conceitos que os fundamentam. A página apresenta uma sugestão metodológica, bem como um vasto arsenal de projetos experimentais que podem ser utilizados em sala de aula a partir de vídeos criados pelos próprios alunos. Utilizamos como aportes principais dessa pesquisa a teoria da aprendizagem significativa de Ausubel e a teoria sociointeracionista de Vygotsky, enfatizando a importância da mediação no desenvolvimento do aluno e de seu aprendizado. Outros autores são citados a fim de reforçar a escolha desse referencial teórico. A proposta foi desenvolvida em seis turmas do ensino médio de uma escola privada no município de Carazinho/RS, no período de março a dezembro de 2011. / In the current educational system, teaching methods usually favor the transmission of authoritative knowledge, enhancing the student's ability to memorize and to reproduce the curriculum content, without exhibiting significant appropriation of knowledge. To give a priority to the construction of knowledge and to the meaning of what is taught, introducing Physics in an attractive manner to the student, those are some challenges of the teaching practice. In order to valorize exchanges among students themselves and the students with the teacher, in the teaching-learning process, and to promote an educational practice which results in a consistent and lasting Physics learning, we have developed a proposal that includes a set of methodologies: experimentation activities, projects methodology, and the use of concept maps as tools for the teaching-learning process. In order to equip the Physics teachers, and from other fields of knowledge, we designed a website called "Experiencing Physics", which introduces the construction stages, the methodologies used and the resulting material. Through concept maps we relate physical experiments with their underlying concepts. The page presents a methodological suggestion, as well as an extensive list of experimental projects that can be used in classroom, through videos created by the students themselves. We have adopted, as the main basis for this research, the theories of meaningful learning, by Ausubel, and of social interaction, by Vygotsky, emphasizing the importance of mediation in student's progress and learning. Other authors are cited to reinforce this theoretical choice. The proposal was developed in six high school classes at a private school in the city of Carazinho/RS, from March to December 2011.

A distribuição de recursos financeiros é um desafio para a gestão pública de saúde. Este estudo revisa sistematicamente os critérios de alocação de recursos financeiros públicos dentro de territórios políticos administrativos para serviços e ações de saúde com acesso universal de populações em áreas geográficas definidas em documentos publicados sem restrição de data inicial até 2015 em português, inglês, espanhol e italiano em sites acadêmicos, Organização Mundial da Saúde e Banco Mundial. Foram encontradas 37 publicações abrangendo 53 metodologias, a maioria referente a países europeus de alto desenvolvimento humano e língua inglesa. A Inglaterra foi o país pioneiro e desenvolveu 6 metodologias de alocação. A maioria das metodologias inclui critérios socioeconômicos, demográficos e epidemiológicos. Critérios espacial, oferta de serviços e/ou capacidade instalada, fonte própria de financiamento, custo de prestação de serviços e ações, utilização de serviços de saúde e fluxos inter-regionais ocorreram quase que exclusivamente em países de alto desenvolvimento econômico e social. Esses resultados sugerem que a minoria dos países utiliza metodologias padronizadas para alocar recursos financeiros entre regiões do seu território. A grande maioria das metodologias baseia-se na determinação social da saúde. Existe uma tendência de desenvolvimento de modelos mais complexos com a inclusão de variáveis que necessitam de um sistema de informação mais complexo, raramente disponíveis. / The distribution of financial resources is a challenge for public health management. This study systematically reviews the criteria for allocating public financial resources within political administrative territories for health services and actions with universal access of populations in defined geographical areas in published documents without restriction of initial date up to 2015 in Portuguese, English, Spanish and Italian On academic sites World Health Organization and the World Bank. We found 37 publications covering 53 methodologies, most of which refer to European countries with high human development and English language. England pioneered and developed 6 allocation methodologies. Most methodologies include socioeconomic, demographic and epidemiological criteria. Spatial criteria, supply of services and / or installed capacity, own source of financing, cost of services and actions, use of health services and interregional flows occurred almost exclusively in countries with high economic and social development. These results suggest that the minority of countries use standardized methodologies to allocate financial resources between regions of their territory. The vast majority of methodologies are based on the social determination of health. There is a tendency to develop more complex models with the inclusion of variables that require a more complex information system, rarely available.