Esta tesis aborda la actividad biológica de la fibronectina (FN) como proteína de interfase en la interacción célula-material. La tesis investiga la respuesta de la proteína, en términos de cantidad adsorbida y conformación, ante diferentes propiedades físico-químicas del material. Además, se correlaciona la respuesta celular temprana y la funcionalidad celular con el estado de la proteína adsorbida sobre el material. Para ello se prepararon diferentes series de materiales con propiedades físico-químicas controladas. La distribución de FN sobre las diferentes superficies se caracterizó mediante el uso de la microscopía de fuerza atómica (AFM) y la densidad superficial adsorbida fue cuantificada mediante técnicas de marcado radioactivo y western blot. La respuesta celular se evaluó en términos de la adhesión inicial a las superficies, así como los procesos posteriores de diferenciación, proliferación, reorganización y producción de matriz extracelular. Se investigó el efecto de la nanotopografía en la adsorción de la FN y el comportamiento celular sobre una serie de topografías controladas en la escala nanométrica, obtenidas mediante el spin casting de soluciones de ácido poli(L-láctico)/poliestireno (PLLA/PS) de distintas concentraciones. La migración del PLLA hacia la superficie del film durante el proceso de spin coating proporciona superficies de PLLA con nanopicos de diferentes tamaños (14, 29 y 45 nm). El tamaño de la nanoestrutura afecta a la densidad de FN adsorbida, siendo mayor en la superficie de menor nanotopografía. En cuanto a la respuesta celular inicial, se observan adhesiones focales más desarrolladas y mejor reorganización celular de la capa de FN adsorbida en las superficies de mayor topografía (29 and 45 nm), lo que resulta en una mayor producción y organización de nueva matriz. Por otra parte se empleó una familia de materiales con sutiles variaciones en la composición química: polímeros acrílicos (polimetil, etil y butil acrilato -PMA, PEA y P / González García, C. (2012). BIOLOGICAL ACTIVITY OF FIBRONECTIN AT THE CELL-MATERIAL INTERFACE [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/17701 / Palancia

Organizations have become the backbone of the society. Humans live around all kinds of organizations, such as neighborhood communities, businesses, schools, unions, political, sports, and religious organizations, etc. These organizations have a set of members, each playing a specific role, which determines their duties and functionalities within the organization. One of these functionalities is to offer a range of services to members of the organization and external people. These members must follow a set of norms to ensure the proper functioning of the organization and should pursue the global goals of the organization. A feature that is repeated in organizations is that they are not static but dynamic, resulting in changes in both its structure and the way in which they behave. In an organization, any of its elements is prone to change due to situations that occur in the organization itself or its environment. Researchers in the field of social sciences and organizations have studied such situations, the reasons why they appear and solutions and actions to be taken to ensure that this situation does not damage the organization or to take advantage of the situation. These situations are known as ‘Forces that drive organizational change’. Human organizations are the main source of inspiration for the Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) based on organizations. These systems are computational abstractions that are populated by agents instead of people, but take into account organizational elements such as roles, services, goals, norms, etc. However, the proposals that have been presented up to now to define this type of MAS are focused mostly on static systems, without changes in its structure. Moreover, in the few proposals that take into account organizational changes, they just state that changes occur, but without specifying the reason for change. Thus, the concept of ‘forces that drive organizational change’ (and their features) is not considered. Therefore, the objective of this PhD thesis is to translate the knowledge of the forces that drive organizational change available in human organizations to MASbased organizations. These forces will be formally expressed with the factors that help to detect them. The solutions to be taken when a force is detected will also be presented. To correctly perform this task, a formalization for virtual organizations is designed, named Virtual Organization Formalization (VOF). Moreover, the Artifacts for Organizational Mechanisms are proposed, which are a tool to help in the representation of organizational knowledge and in the modeling of the environment of the organization. This tool is based on the Agents & Artifacts (A&A) framework. / Esparcia García, S. (2015). Integrating driving forces into the development of Adaptive Virtual Organizations [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/48538 / TESIS

I denna studie har upplevelser av Polismyndighetens omorganisation undersökts. Studien utgår utifrån en kvalitativ metod där semistrukturerade intervjuer har genomförts med åtta verksamma poliser som arbetat vid omorganisationens implementering. Syftet med examensarbetet var att skapa djupare förståelse för polisers upplevelser av Polismyndighetens omorganisering. För att uppfylla syftet hade tre frågeställningar formulerats: ”hur beskriver poliserna omorganiseringen av Polismyndigheten?”, ”om och på vilket sätt upplever poliserna att omorganiseringen har påverkat deras känsla av organisatorisk tillhörighet?” samt ”om och på vilket sätt upplever poliserna att omorganiseringen har påverkat deras yrkesutövning?”. Den insamlade empirin har analyserats utifrån det teoretiska ramverket som bestod av teori om organisationskultur, organisationsidentitet och krav-, kontroll- och stödmodellen. Resultatet pekade på att samtliga informanter upplevde att omorganisationen förändrat yrkesutövandet i sig, men även den organisatoriska tillhörigheten i stort. Implementeringen av omorganisationen upplevdes som rörig och informationsutbytet otillräckligt för att förändringsarbetet skulle kunna utföras på ett tillfredsställande sätt. Det finns inte heller resurser för att realisera förändringsarbetet som planerat, de har istället placerats ut på Regionalledningscentraler runt om i landet. Det lämnar den lokala verksamheten utan resurser och det för poliserna högt värderade lokala arbetet åsidosätts. Det blev dock tydligt hur bärande det sociala stödet bland informanterna var för att hantera den krävande arbetssituationen. Ett välfungerande samspel med kollegor och överordnade blev en förutsättning för att klara av det fysiskt och psykiskt påfrestande arbetet som omorganisationen genererat i. Det framkom även att hur poliserna upplevde omorganisationen berodde till stor del på vilket kulturellt sammanhang de tillhörde, något som tydde på vikten av att ha organisationskulturen i beaktande vid omorganiseringar. / In this study, experiences of the Police Agency reorganization were investigated. The study is based on a qualitative method where semi-structured interviews have been conducted with eight active police officers which were working while the implementation of the reorganization occurred. The purpose of the degree project was to create a deeper understanding of the police officer's experiences of the Police Authority's reorganization. In order to fulfill the purpose, three questions had been formulated: "how do the police describe the reorganization of the Police Authority?", "if and in what way do the police feel that the reorganization has affected their sense of organizational belonging?" and "if and in what way do police officers feel that the reorganization has affected their professional practice?". The collected empirical data was analyzed on the basis of the theoretical framework, which consisted of theory of organizational culture, organizational identity and the demand, control and support model. The result indicated that all of the informants felt that the reorganization changed their professional practice, but also the organizational belonging. The implementation of the reorganization was perceived as confusing and the information exchange inadequate for the work of change to be carried out satisfactorily. There are also no resources to implement the change work as planned, instead they have been placed at Regional Management Centers around the country. It leaves the local business without resources and the local presence highly valued among the police officers is overridden. However, it became clear how supportive the social support among the informants was in dealing with the demanding work situation. A well-functioning interaction with colleagues and superiors became a prerequisite for coping with the physically and mentally stressful work that the reorganization generated, something that indicated the importance of having the organizational culture in mind when reorganizing.

This study contributes to the understanding of how humanitarian and development non-governmental organizations function and how they improve their work efficiency in order to be able to fulfil their goals. The thesis focus lays on the reorganization of the Swedish Red Cross and especially their new management project Framtid2020. The project’s purpose is to change the structure of the organization and hopefully make the organization more united. The thesis is using a qualitative method with 7 semi-structured interviews and two different theoretical perspectives to be able to analyze the finding as broad as possible. The interviewees are 7 different people, with different perspectives, experience and thoughts of the project. The findings from the interviews are best to summarize as hope for the Framtid2020 but also a fair for feeling overthrown and not represented. Framtid2020 is the greatest change done to the Swedish Red Cross since the creation of the organization. The core action of the project is the merging of groups. The merge is a change from decentralization to centralization, all of the Red Cross groups in the same municipality becomes one large centered controlled group. For the case of Växjö, 12 groups will become one group with one board. The two theoretical perspective that the thesis is using is David Lewis theoretical tools of development NGO´s management and Stephen Cummings perspective of centralization and decentralization. The theoretical perspectives analyze what caused the need for a reorganization this large and the material from the interviews provides what the workers see as the cause. The research questions the thesis will answer is, how has the Red Cross functioned in Växjö before the new strategy was designed, why did the Red Cross decide to undergo major structural changes, what does the new strategy look like and how have the Red Cross workers responded to the new strategy.

I detta examensarbete har upplevelser av den psykosociala arbetsmiljön under en rådande omorganisation undersökts. Studien har en kvalitativ forskningsansats som baseras på åtta semistrukturerade intervjuer med arbetstagare som innehar olika yrkesbefattningar men som arbetar inom en och samma organisation. Syftet med studien var att skapa djupare förståelse för arbetstagares upplevelser av den psykosociala arbetsmiljön under en rådande omorganisation. För att uppfylla syftet har följande tre frågeställningar formulerats: Hur beskriver arbetstagarna omorganisationen? Om och på vilket sätt upplever arbetstagarna att omorganisationen kommer påverka deras arbetsuppgifter? Om och på vilket sätt upplever arbetstagarna att omorganisationen påverkar deras välbefinnande på arbetsplatsen? För att analysera den insamlade empirin och skapa en djupare förståelse för det sociala fenomenet har teorierna krav-kontroll-stödmodellen av Karasek och Theorell (1990) samt KASAM – känsla av sammanhang av Antonovsky (2005) använts. Resultatet visade på enhetligt positiva känslor och reaktioner på den pågående omorganisationen. Samtliga intervjupersoner ansåg förändringarna som meningsfulla för företaget såväl som för dem själva som anställda. Omorganisationen syftar till expansion och tillväxt, vilket visade sig förändra majoriteten av intervjupersonernas arbetsuppgifter. Implementationsprocessen upplevdes till en början som rörig och informationsutbytet ansågs vara otillräckligt för att processen skulle kunna genomföras på ett tillfredställande sätt. Detta ledde till spekulationer och ryktesspridning, vilket påverkade sammanhållningen på arbetsplatsen. Det blev dock tydligt att socialt stöd från kollegor och chefer var en viktig faktor för att hantera det dagliga arbetet. Ett effektivt samarbete med både kollegor och chefer blev en nödvändighet för att hantera de krav som uppstod som en följd av omorganisationen.

This study is an examination, in terms of critical areas identified by correlation, of the 1967-68 lesson manuals prepared for high school age LDS youth by the teaching organizations of the Church responsible for implementing a correlated religious education program for this age group.Major findings center around the answers to the questions formulated to limit and analyze the problem of this study, and were obtained by examining the lesson manuals and identifying the major themes or concepts contained in them. These findings indicate: (1) that duplication or repetition of gospel concepts does exist in the lesson materials, (2) that gaps, omissions, and inequalities in the emphasis of gospel concepts within these materials do exist, and (3) that the most emphasized gospel concepts are Book of Mormon leaders, priesthood, socials, service, family unity, Old Testament leaders, activities, Book of Mormon history, New Testament leaders, and Jesus Christ, respectively.

Human Resources arbetet har präglats av ständiga förändringar och ställt krav på organisationers anpassning till utvecklingen vilket främst skett genom framtagna modeller. Konceptet HR-transformation och modellen shared service har fått stort genomslag i Sverige där fokuset varit på att centralisera och effektivisera HR-arbetet. Genom att ändra fokus från det administrativa arbetet och frigöra tid för att arbeta mer strategisk och värdeskapande. Intresset av att studera en genomförd HR-transformation väcktes i och med våra anställningar i en offentlig organisation som vi visste med oss nyligen genomgått en omorganisering av HR-funktionen likt en HR-transformation. Denna studie syftar till att undersöka HR-medarbetares och chefers upplevelser av de förändringar som en omorganisation likt en HR-transformation har medfört. Studien utgår från en kvalitativ forskningsmetod med en empirisk ansats där fokuset är på respondenternas egna upplevelser av det undersökta fenomenet. Det empiriska materialet är insamlat från 10 semistrukturerade intervjuer med både HR-medarbetare och chefer. I resultatet från den offentliga organisationen vi studerat identifierades två framträdande konsekvenser som deras genomförda HRT medfört, det verksamhetsnära stödet och relationer. Det verksamhetsnära stödet som chefer efterfrågade var främst en verksamhetsförståelse från HR-medarbetare. Cheferna önskade att HR-medarbetare hadeförståelse för den specifika kontext chefen befinner sig i, då det inom en offentlig organisationfinns olika typer av verksamheter som kräver anpassningar i HR-medarbetares stöd samt förhållningssätt. Vidare visade studiens resultat att både HR-medarbetare och chefer ansåg att relationerna påverkats av HR-transformationen. Det centraliserade och digitaliserade mötet har försvårat dialogen och samarbetet vilket utmanat relationen mellan HR-medarbetare och chefer. Sammanfattningsvis visar denna studie likt tidigare forskning att organisationer bör involvera både HR-medarbetare och chefer vid implementeringen av en HR-transformation samt att modellen anpassas efter den organisatoriska kontexten för att lyckas med samsynen kring HR-arbetet i en organisation. / Human Resources ' work has been characterized by constant changes and placed demands on organizations' adaptation to development, which has mainly been done through developed models. The concept of HR-transformation and the shared service model have had a major impact in Sweden, where the focus has been on centralizing and streamlining HR work. By changing the focus from the administrative work and freeing up time to work more strategic and value-creating. The interest in studying a completed HR-transformation was aroused by our employment in a public organization that we knew had recently undergone are organization of the HR function like an HR-transformation. This study aims to investigate HR employees' and managers' experiences of the changes that a reorganization like an HR-transformation has brought. The study is based on a qualitative research method with an empirical approach where the focus is on the respondents' own experiences of the investigated phenomenon. The empirical material is collected from 10 semi-structured interviews with both HR employees and managers. In the results from the public organization we studied, two prominent consequence of their implemented HR-transformation were identified, the operational support and relationships.The business-related support that managers requested was primarily a business understanding from HR employees. The managers wanted HR employees to understand the specific context the manager is in, as within a public organization there are different types of business that require adjustments in HR employees' support and approach. Furthermore, the results of the study showed that both HR employees and managers felt that relationships were affected by the HR-transformation. The centralized and digitized meeting has made dialogue and collaboration more difficult, which has challenged the relationship between HR employees and managers. In summary, this study shows similar too previous research that organizations should involve both HR employees and managers in the implementation of an HR-transformation and that the model is adapted to the organizational context to succeed with the consensus on HR work in an organization.

This study is an investigation of the development and one hundred year history of high school girls' sport in the city and suburbs of Philadelphia. Its focus is on how and why, over time, the experiences of schoolgirl athletes in the city of Philadelphia were different from the experiences of schoolgirl athletes in the surrounding suburbs. Using place, gender and race critical perspectives, high school yearbooks, augmented by oral histories, were used as primary resources to determine the origins of sport programs in public high schools throughout the region, the uneven impact of national professional standards on city and suburban schoolgirl sport programs, the creation of a unique city sport culture, the changes in school sport as a result of the suburbanization in the region and finally, the impact of suburban school district reorganizations on black schoolgirl athletes. Along with an examination of newspapers and other secondary sources this study suggests that suburban schoolgirl experiences emerged as the normative expression of schoolgirl sport. / Urban Education

Thesis (MPA)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Transformation is an inevitable consequence of human resource practices and includes the political imperatives, behavioural transformation and the turnaround change. Gender equality is a critical component of the United Nations Resolution on Human Rights (Resolution 1325). Women are subjected to a variety of barriers that determine their organisational experiences, and therefore the achievement of gender equity requires the elimination of patriarchal practices, stereotypes and attitudes that perpetuate their marginalisation. Striving for gender equity within the armed forces should not reduce women to being passive victims of the transformation agenda as they operate both during conflict and peace-time. The representation and empowerment of women into decision-making structures and the protection of their rights can be spearheaded through the gender mainstreaming strategies. In the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) transformation placed greater emphasis on racial representivity to the neglect of gender equity. This situation has effectively contributed to the gender dialogue which aimed to assess the implementation of gender equity objectives. Furthermore, it is the guiding principle on the participation of women in the military to enhance gender representation and the attainment of self-actualisation and excelling in their areas of responsibilities. The purpose of the study was to explore the extent to which the SANDF supports gender transformation imperatives to ensure gender equity and it further investigated gender integration within the SANDF as a supportive theoretical analysis. The conceptual framework of gender transformation and gender mainstreaming in the military, and in particular within the SANDF, in the context of Employment Equity was conducted. To make an objective and informed assessment, the attitudes and perceptions of middle management and lower management of both the SANDF were measured. Data were collected from respondents through three sessions of facilitated focus group interviews and a semi-structured self-administered questionnaire. The sample was drawn from the Pretoria region. The findings of the study indicated that the DOD top leadership is supportive of gender transformation by the effective promulgation of transformation policies and the improvement in the representation of women in decision-making structures. The military environment is trying to create a conducive environment for women by providing resources, the essential training for women to maximise their potential, and furthermore by allowing their inclusion in all areas including deployment areas. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Transformasie is ‘n onvermydelike gevolg van personeelbestuurspraktyk en sluit in die politieke imperatiewe, gedragstransformasie en omkeerverandering. Geslagsgelykgeregtigheid is ‘n kritieke komponent van die Verenigde Volke se Resolusie aangaande Menseregte (Resolusie 1325). Vroue word onderwerp aan ‘n verskeidenheid hindernisse wat hul organisasie ervarings bepaal en daarom vereis die bereiking van geslagsgelykgeregtigheid die uitwissing van patriargale praktyke, stereotipes en houdings wat marginalisering bevorder. Die strewe na geslagsgelykgeregtigheid binne Weermagte behoort vroue nie te degradeer tot passiewe slagoffers van die transformasie agenda nie aangesien hulle aangewend word tydens beide konflik- en vredestye. Die verteenwoordiging en bemagtiging van vroue in besluitmakende strukture en die beskerming van hulle regte kan gerig word deur geslagshoofstroming strategieë. In die Suid-Afrikaanse Nasionale Weermag (SANW) plaas transformasie groter klem op rasse verteenwoordiging as op die nalating van geslagsgelykgeregtigheid. Die situasie het effektief bygedra tot die geslagsdialoog wat beoog om die implementering van geslagsgelykgeregtigheid doelwitte te evalueer. Dit is ook verder die leidinggewende beginsel rakende die deelname van vroue in die militêr om geslagsverteenwoordiging te bevorder, die bereiking van selfaktualisering en uitblinking in hulle verantwoordelikeidsomgewings. Die doel van hierdie studie was om te bepaal tot welke mate die SANW geslagstransformasie imperatiewe ondersteun ten einde geslagsgelykgeregtigheid te verseker en het ook ondersoek ingestel na geslagsintegrasie binne die SANW as ‘n ondersteunende teoretiese anal ise. Die konseptuele raamwerk is geskep rakende geslagstransformasie en geslagshoofstroming in die militêr, en in besonder aangaande die SANW binne die konteks van Werkverskaffingsgelykheid. Ten einde ‘n objektiewe en ingeligte evaluering uit te voer, is die houdings en persepsies van Departement van Verdediging (DvV) militêre en siviele middelbestuurders en lae vlak bestuurders gemeet. Data is versamel van respondente tydens drie geleenthede van gefasiliteerde fokusgroep onderhoude en ‘n semi -geadministreerde vraelys. Die steekproef is geneem vanuit die Pretoria omgewing. Die bevindinge van die studie dui daarop dat die (DvV) se top-leierskap ondersteunend is aangaande geslagstransformasie deur die effektiewe uitvaardiging van transformasie beleide en die verbetering van verteenwordiging van vroue in besluitmakende strukture. Die militêre omgewing poog om ‘n omgewing te skep wat toeganklik is vir vroue deur die voorsiening van middele wat noodsaaklik is vir opleiding van vroue ten einde hul potensiaal te optimaliseer en hulle verder toegang te verleen tot alle gebiede insluitend gevegsgebiede.

本研究旨在探討葉爾欽政府為達成其農業經濟與政治目的，針對蘇聯國營與集體農場，所進行的「去集體化」改革。「去集體化」的主要內涵，即是透過土地改革的執行，來推動農場重組，促使國營與集體農場解散，冀望以私人農場取代之。 本論文首先說明國營與集體農場的經濟與政治問題，並解釋葉爾欽進行「去集體化」之目的。其次，具體描述土地改革、農場重組，以及推展私人農場之改革內容。隨後，分析私人農場發展的經濟、政治與社會文化問題。最後，評估「去集體化」的經濟與政治成效；並探討往後普欽政府對此結果的後續政策。 研究發現「去集體化」的推行，由於設計缺陷與執行不力，加上無法克服改革阻礙，其結果並未改變原有農場結構。私人農場發展不佳，延續蘇聯制度的農場企業仍主導了農業，經濟與政治問題愈趨嚴重。普欽接任總統後，加以調整過去的農業經濟政策，並透過有效之政治手段，改善了葉爾欽所遺留的農業問題。 / This study aims at exploring the de-collectivization reform of Yeltsin government. The pattern of de-collectivization includes the land reform, farm reorganization and development of private farms. Yeltsin attempted to implement the de-collectivization to break up the state and collective farms, and to replace by the private farms for achieving his agricultural economic and political purposes. The thesis analyzes the economic and political problems of the state and collective farms, firstly. After that, the thesis describes the pattern of reform: land reform, farm reorganization, as well as the development of private farms. And following discussion is about the economic, political and socio-cultural problems when developing the private farms. Eventually, the thesis assesses the agricultural economic and political effects of de-collectivization, and that continues exploring the Putin government’s subsequent policies. The conclusion argues that the implementation of de-collectivization didn’t change the structure of Russian farms. The development of private farms was insufficient, and the farm enterprises, which have maintained the Soviet institution, still dominated the Russian agriculture. The economic and political problems became more and more serious. However, the Putin government has adjusted the Yeltsin’s economic and political policies to improve these agricultural issues.