Orientador: Roger Darros Barbosa / Banca: Pedro Fernando Romanelli / Banca: Marcos Franke Pinto / Resumo: O objetivo desta pesquisa foi determinar o Perfil de Textura (TPA) em formulações comerciais de "carne bovina em conserva" (corned beef) enlatada processada termicamente e avaliar sua relação com os valores de esterilização (F0), com a Concentração da Proteína do Tecido Conjuntivo Colagenoso (CCTP) e com a Concentração da Proteína do Tecido Muscular (MTP). Foram selecionados 14 lotes de produção de corned beef em latas tronco trapezoidais de 340 g correspondentes ao padrão continental Campden A e destes foram retiradas 24 latas do produto dos sub lotes submetidos ao processamento térmico. Destas latas foram retiradas seis amostras aleatórias para determinação do TPA e para análise da composição visando determinação da Proteína do Tecido Conjuntivo Colagenoso (CCTP), da Proteína do Tecido Muscular (MTP) e do Conteúdo Carne Magra (LMC). As latas de corned beef analisadas foram submetidas a tratamentos térmicos de 75,0 a 76,7 minutos, com a temperatura da autoclave a 121o C e resfriamento a 35o C durante 60 minutos, obtendo-se valores de F0 no centro de massa do produto variando de 14,8 a 20 minutos. Os parâmetros de TPA dureza, fraturabilidade, coesividade, elasticidade, adesividade, mastigabilidade, gomosidade e resiliência foram determinados no bloco integral do produto bloco resfriado a 4ºC em oito pontos na superfície. Os mesmos blocos do produto utilizados para determinação do TPA foram analisados quanto à composição média, apresentando concentração de 0,4 a 2,5% para CCTP, de 21,7 a 25,3% para MTP e de 102,79 a 107,95% para LMC. Os tratamentos de corned beef avaliados apresentaram diferenças significativas pelo teste de Tukey nas médias dos parâmetros dureza, gomosidade, mastigabilidade, adesividade e elasticidade. Os três primeiros parâmetros apresentaram correlações significativas fortemente negativas com o valor... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The objectives of this research were the determination of the texture profile of canned corned beef thermally processed and to evaluate its relationship with the sterilization value (F0) and the composition. Fourteen production batches of Campden A grade 340-g corned beef cans were selected, from which twenty-four cans of the thermal process sub-batches were retrieved. From the sub-batches, six random sample cans were taken and its content submitted to the Texture Profile Analysis (TPA) and to the composition analysis to determine the concentration of the Collagenous Connective Tissue Protein (CCTP), the Muscular Tissue Protein (MTP) concentration and the Lean Meat Content (LMC). The corned beef samples analyzed were submitted to thermal treatments at 121o C (retort steam temperature) for varying heating times, from 75 to 76 minutes and cooled at 35o C (retort water temperature) during 35 minutes, to obtain F0 values at the product center point varying from 14.8 to 20 minutes. The TPA parameters were determined in 8 points of the whole corned beef loaf of each sample, previously chilled and stabilized at 4o C temperature, to obtain hardness, fracturability, cohesiveness, elasticity, adhesiveness, springiness, gumminess, chewiness and resilience. The same sample material were then analyzed in terms of average composition of the product, resulting in concentrations in the range of 0.4 to 2.5% for CCTP, 21.7 to 25.3% for MTP and content from 102.8% to 108.0% for LMC. The treated corned beef samples analyzed showed significant differences in the means for hardness, adhesiveness, chewiness and elasticity. These parameters showed dependence with the sterilization value (F0), revealing negative strong significant correlation for F0 with hardness, gumminess and chewiness. The MTP and LMC values showed a high positive significant correlation with cohesiveness. It was observed a high... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

All companies have strategic assets comprising financial capital, physical capital, human capital and organisational capital which, when effectively utilised, contribute to the competitive advantage necessary to survive in a globalised economy. The manifestation of adverse factors in a company will impact detrimentally on the performance of these strategic assets. Since the 1980s, one factor has become prominent in the management of a company’s human capital, namely sexual harassment. Sexual harassment constitutes behaviour of a sexual nature that leads to, and perpetuates, a working environment in which it becomes unpleasant to work, and if allowed to go unchecked, will lead to the underperformance of the company’s human capital. Besides the cost of litigation associated with sexual harassment, companies are confronted with the more troubling and subtle costs arising out of the psychological and physiological harm to both victims and co-workers. The psychological and physiological effects manifest themselves in symptoms such as depression, frustration, decreased self-esteem and fatigue which, in turn, lead to decreased productivity and increased absenteeism. Accordingly, in an effort to gain the competitive advantage to survive in a globalised economy, companies must manage the phenomenon of sexual harassment in the workplace. The existing theoretical principles relating to the management of sexual harassment in the workplace have been analysed in depth and a model developed to satisfy this need. This model was subsequently used to determine to what extent sexual harassment management is taking place within companies affiliated to the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of South Africa (SEIFSA). Various informative findings resulted from the investigation, amongst which were the lack of a proper sexual harassment policy within companies, the lack of proper training of employees regarding the occurrence of this phenomenon in the workplace, and the absence of proper formal/informal complaints procedures. It thus became evident that the management of sexual harassment in these companies – despite the Government’s Code of Good Practice on the Handling of Sexual Harassment Cases – had not been fully established and that there is a need for guidelines in this regard. / Business Management / D. Comm. (Business Management)

La spectroscopie électronique basée sur l'effet tunnel donne accès à la densité d'états des électrons (DoS) dans les matériaux conducteurs, et renseigne ainsi en détail sur leurs propriétés électroniques. <br />Au cours de cette thèse, nous avons développé un microscope permettant d'effectuer la spectroscopie tunnel résolue spatialement (10 nm) de nanocircuits individuels, avec une résolution en énergie inégalée (10 µeV). Cet appareil combine les fonctions de Microscopie par Force Atomique (mode AFM) et de spectroscopie Tunnel locale (mode STM), et fonctionne à 30 mK. Dans le mode AFM, la topographie de l'échantillon est imagée grâce à un diapason en quartz piézoélectrique, ce qui permet de repérer les circuits. La spectroscopie tunnel peut ensuite être faite sur les zones conductrices. <br />Avec ce microscope, nous avons mesuré la DoS locale dans une structure hybride Supraconducteur-métal Normal-Supraconducteur (S-N-S). Dans un tel circuit, les propriétés électroniques de N et de S sont modifiées par l'effet de proximité supraconducteur. Notamment, pour des fils N courts, nous avons pu observer -comme prédit- la présence d'un gap dans sa DoS, indépendant de la position dans la structure : le “minigap”. De plus, en modulant la phase supraconductrice entre les deux S, nous avons mesuré la modification de ce gap, et sa disparition lorsque la différence de phase vaut π. <br />Nos résultats expérimentaux pour la DoS, ainsi que ses dépendances en phase, en position, et en longueur de N sont en accord quantitatif avec les prédictions de la théorie quasiclassique de la supraconductivité. Certaines de ces prédictions sont observées pour la première fois.

This thesis is a contribution to design-led research and addresses a readership in the fields of architecture as well as in media and communications. In juxtaposing the tools of the designer (e.g. drafting, prototyping, visual/textual/spatial forms of montage) with those of architectural theory, this thesis seeks to extend the disciplinary boundaries of architecture by observing its assimilation of other media practices. Its primary contribution is to architectural design and theory, and its aims are twofold: Firstly, this thesis applies the concepts of virtual and mediated space to architecture, proposing an extended architectural practice that assimilates the concept of remote presence. Through realized design examples as well as through the history and theory of related concepts, the thesis explores what designing mediated spaces and designing for presence entails for the practicing architect. As a fusion of architecture and media technology, video-mediated spaces facilitate collaborative practices across spatial extensions while simultaneously fostering novel and environmentally sustainable modes of communication. The impact of presence design on workplace design is examined. As an extended practice also calls for an extended discourse, a preliminary conceptual toolbox is proposed. Concepts are adapted from related visual practices and tested on design prototypes, which arise from the author’s extensive experience in designing work and learning spaces. Secondly, this thesis outlines presence design as a transdisciplinary aesthetic practice and discusses the potential contribution of architects to a currently heterogeneous research field, which spans media space research, cognitive science, (tele)presence research, interaction design, ubiquitous computing, second-order cybernetics, and computer-supported collaborative work. In spite of such diversity, design and artistic practices are insufficiently represented in the field. This thesis argues that presence research and its discourse is characterised by sharp disciplinary boundaries and thereby identifies a conceptual gap: presence research typically fails to integrate aesthetic concepts that can be drawn from architecture and related visual practices. It is an important purpose of this thesis to synthesize such concepts into a coherent discourse. Finally, the thesis argues that remote presence through the proposed synthesis of architectural and technical design creates a significantly expanded potential for knowledge sharing across time and space, with potential to expand the practice and theory of architecture itself. The author’s design-led research shows that mediated spaces can provide sufficient audiovisual information about the remote space(s) and other person(s), allowing the subtleties of nonverbal communication to inform the interaction. Further, in designing for presence, certain spatial features have an effect on the user’s ability to experience a mediated spatial extension, which in turn, facilitates mediated presence. These spatial features play an important role in the process through which trust is negotiated, and hence has an impact on knowledge sharing. Mediated presence cannot be ensured by design, but by acknowledging the role of spatial design in mediated spaces, the presence designer can monitor and, in effect, seek to reduce the ‘friction’ that otherwise may inhibit the experience of mediated presence. The notion of ‘friction’ is borrowed from a context of knowledge sharing in collaborative work practices. My expanded use of the term ‘design friction’ is used to identify spatial design features which, unaddressed, may be said to impose friction and thus inhibit and impact negatively on the experience of presence. A conceptual tool-box for presence design is proposed, consisting of the following design concepts: mediated gaze, spatial montage, active spectatorship, mutual gaze, shared mediated space, offscreen space, lateral and peripheral awareness, framing and transparency. With their origins in related visual practices these emerge from the evolution of the concept of presence across a range of visual cultures, illuminating the centrality of presence design in design practice, be it in the construction of virtual pictorial space in Renaissance art or the generative design experiments of prototypical presence designers, such as Cedric Price, Gordon Pask and numerous researchers at MIT Media Lab, Stanford Institute and Xerox PARC. / QC 20100909

All companies have strategic assets comprising financial capital, physical capital, human capital and organisational capital which, when effectively utilised, contribute to the competitive advantage necessary to survive in a globalised economy. The manifestation of adverse factors in a company will impact detrimentally on the performance of these strategic assets. Since the 1980s, one factor has become prominent in the management of a company’s human capital, namely sexual harassment. Sexual harassment constitutes behaviour of a sexual nature that leads to, and perpetuates, a working environment in which it becomes unpleasant to work, and if allowed to go unchecked, will lead to the underperformance of the company’s human capital. Besides the cost of litigation associated with sexual harassment, companies are confronted with the more troubling and subtle costs arising out of the psychological and physiological harm to both victims and co-workers. The psychological and physiological effects manifest themselves in symptoms such as depression, frustration, decreased self-esteem and fatigue which, in turn, lead to decreased productivity and increased absenteeism. Accordingly, in an effort to gain the competitive advantage to survive in a globalised economy, companies must manage the phenomenon of sexual harassment in the workplace. The existing theoretical principles relating to the management of sexual harassment in the workplace have been analysed in depth and a model developed to satisfy this need. This model was subsequently used to determine to what extent sexual harassment management is taking place within companies affiliated to the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of South Africa (SEIFSA). Various informative findings resulted from the investigation, amongst which were the lack of a proper sexual harassment policy within companies, the lack of proper training of employees regarding the occurrence of this phenomenon in the workplace, and the absence of proper formal/informal complaints procedures. It thus became evident that the management of sexual harassment in these companies – despite the Government’s Code of Good Practice on the Handling of Sexual Harassment Cases – had not been fully established and that there is a need for guidelines in this regard. / Business Management / D. Comm. (Business Management)