Aportes da gestão da informação para a criação de conhecimento em equipes de inovação

Information and knowledge have been cited for two decades as competitive advantage tools. Recently, the use of them is discussed in promotion of the innovation. The premise indicates that human interaction, information sharing and knowledge creation are vital for the success of organizations that need to learn and innovate all the time. This paper has the intention to point contributions from a dynamic environment of acquisition, dissemination and the use of information to the subsequent knowledge creation and the formation of innovation teams.

Elderly online: Effects of a digital inclusion program in cognitive performance

There is little empirical data about the impact of digital inclusion on cognition among older adults. This paper aimed at investigating the effects of a digital inclusion program in the cognitive performance of older individuals who participated in a computer learning workshop named ""Idosos On-Line`` (Elderly Online). Forty-two aged individuals participated in the research study: 22 completed the computer training workshop and 20 constituted the control group. All subjects answered a sociodemographic questionnaire and completed the Addenbrooke`s cognitive examination, revised (ACE-R), which examines five cognitive domains: orientation and attention, memory, verbal fluency, language, and visuo-spatial skills. It was noted that the experimental group`s cognitive performance significantly improved after the program, particularly in the language and memory domains, when compared to the control group. These findings suggest that the acquisition of new knowledge and the use of a new tool, that makes it possible to access the Internet, may bring gains to cognition. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Pressure Ulcer Knowledge Among Nurses in a Brazilian University Hospital

To facilitate the implementation of evidence-based skin and pressure ulcer (PU) care practices and related staff education programs in a university hospital in Brazil, a cross-sectional study was conducted to evaluate nurses` knowledge about PU prevention, wound assessment, and staging. Of the 141 baccalaureate nurses (BSN) employed by the hospital at the time of the study, 106 consented to participate. Using a Portuguese version of Pieper`s Pressure Ulcer Knowledge Test (PUKT), participants were asked to indicate whether 33 statements about PU prevention and eight about PU assessment and staging were true or false. For the 33 prevention statements, the average number answered correctly was 26.07 (SD 4.93) and for the eight assessment statements the average was 4.59 (SD 1.62). Nurses working on inpatient clinical nursing units had significantly better scores (P = 0.000). Years of nursing experience had a weak and negative correlation with correct PUKT scores (r = -0.21, P = 0.033) as did years of experience working in the university hospital (r = -.179, P <071). Incorrect responses were most common for statements related to patient positioning, massage, PU assessment, and staging definitions. The results of this study confirm that nurses have an overall understanding of PU prevention and assessment principles but important knowledge deficits exist. Focused continuing education efforts are needed to facilitate the implementation of evidence-based care.

Effects of goal difficulty and temporality in motor skill acquisition using the Bachman ladder

The effects of different types of goal setting on motor skill learning were investigated. 100 individuals (64 men, 36 women) without experience in the performance of the Bachman ladder task participated. Participants were randomly assigned to one of five goal groups: (a) generic, (b) long-term, difficult, (c) long-term, easy; (d) short- and long-term, difficult, and (e) short- and long-term, easy. In the acquisition phase, participants performed 200 trials, and in the transfer and retention phases, each performed 50 trials. The dependent variable was the number of steps achieved in blocks of 10 trials. The results showed that the groups had similar performances in both the transfer and retention phases. Setting of generic, difficult, easy, long- and short-term, and self-setting goals all enabled similar effects on motor learning.

High accuracy and fast acquisition time of polarisation nulling-based OSNR monitor

A technique for improving the performance of an OSNR monitor based on a polarisation nulling method with the downhill simplex algorithm is demonstrated. Establishing a compromise between accuracy and acquisition time, the monitor has been calibrated to 0.72 dB/390 ms and 0.98 dB/320 ms, over a range of nearly 21 dB. As far as is known, these are the best values achieved with such an OSNR monitoring method.

Knowledge transfer in product development processes: A case study in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) of the metal-mechanic sector from Sao Paulo, Brazil

This paper reports a research that evaluated the product development methodologies used in Brazilian small and medium-sized metal-mechanic enterprises (SMEs), in a specific region of Sao Paulo. The tool used for collecting the data was a questionnaire, which was developed and applied through interviews conducted by the researchers in 32 companies. The main focus of this paper can be condensed in the synthesis-question ""Is only the company responsible for the development?"" which was analyzed thoroughly. The results obtained from this analysis were evaluated directly (through the respective percentages of answers) and statistically (through the search of an index which demonstrates if two questions are related). The results point to a degree of maturity in SMEs, which allows product development to be conducted in cooperation networks. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Learning about knowledge management for improving environmental impact assessment in a government agency: The Western Australian experience

How does knowledge management (KM) by a government agency responsible for environmental impact assessment (EIA) potentially contribute to better environmental assessment and management practice? Staff members at government agencies in charge of the EIA process are knowledge workers who perform judgement-oriented tasks highly reliant on individual expertise, but also grounded on the agency`s knowledge accumulated over the years. Part of an agency`s knowledge can be codified and stored in an organizational memory, but is subject to decay or loss if not properly managed. The EIA agency operating in Western Australia was used as a case study. Its KM initiatives were reviewed, knowledge repositories were identified and staff surveyed to gauge the utilisation and effectiveness of such repositories in enabling them to perform EIA tasks. Key elements of KM are the preparation of substantive guidance and spatial information management. It was found that treatment of cumulative impacts on the environment is very limited and information derived from project follow-up is not properly captured and stored, thus not used to create new knowledge and to improve practice and effectiveness. Other opportunities for improving organizational learning include the use of after-action reviews. The learning about knowledge management in EIA practice gained from Western Australian experience should be of value to agencies worldwide seeking to understand where best to direct their resources for their own knowledge repositories and environmental management practice. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Knowledge and information flows in supply chains: A study on pharmaceutical companies

A great deal of attention in the supply chain management literature is devoted to study material and demand information flows and their coordination. But in many situations, supply chains may convey information from different nature, they may be an important channel companies have to deliver knowledge, or specifically, technical information to the market. This paper studies the technical flow and highlights its particular requirements. Drawing upon a qualitative field research, it studies pharmaceutical companies, since those companies face a very specific challenge: consumers do not have discretion over their choices, ethical drugs must be prescribed by physicians to be bought and used by final consumers. Technical information flow is rich, and must be redundant and early delivered at multiple points. Thus, apart from the regular material channel where products and order information flow, those companies build a specialized information channel, developed to communicate to those who need it to create demand. Conclusions can be extended to supply chains where products and services are complex and decision makers must be clearly informed about technology-related information. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A Study of the Corporative Portals as a Tool of Explicit Knowledge Externalization in Universities

The corporative portals, enabled by Information Technology and Communication tools, provide the integration of heterogeneous data proceeding from internal information systems, which are available for access and sharing of the interested community. They can be considered an important instrument of explicit knowledge evaluation in the. organization, once they allow faster and,safer, information exchanges, enabling a healthful collaborative environment. In the specific case of major Brazilian universities, the corporate portals assume a basic aspect; therefore they offer an enormous variety and amount of information and knowledge, due to the multiplicity of their activities This. study aims to point out important aspects of the explicit knowledge expressed by the searched universities; by the analysis, of the content offered in their corporative portals` This is an exploratory study made through, direct observation of the existing contents in the corporative portals of two public universities as. Well as three private ones. A. comparative analysis of the existing contents in these portals was carried through;. it can be useful to evaluate its use as factor of optimization of the generated explicit knowledge in the university. As results, the existence of important differences, could be verified in the composition and in the content of the corporative portals of the public universities compared to the private institutions. The main differences are about the kind of services and the destination-of the,information that have as focus different public-target. It-could also be concluded that the searched private universities, focus, on the processes related to the attendance of the students, the support for the courses as well as the spreading of information to the public interested in joining the institution; whereas the anal public universities prioritize more specific information, directed to,the dissemination-of the research, developed internally or with institutional objectives.

Analyses of Individual and Organizational Competences Associated with Knowledge Management Practice

The research analyzed critical aspects of the knowledge management process based on the analyses of knowledge, abilities and attitudes required to individual knowledge workers and to organizations responsible for the management process. In the present work a characterization of the knowledge management process was developed and information and knowledge wokers defined. Competence concept was discussed and specialists gave opinions about critical competences to knowledge management process. The opinions were organized and analyzed by the Delphi method. The results aggregate to the management context by discussing an extremely important resource to organizations - knowledge - and because they support its management process. The research identified wide critical aspects that are compatible with current organizational challenges, directing the process management to important themes as: the worker able to create, the organization able to convert individual knowledge into organizational knowledge, knowledge sharing while still tacit, the maximization organizational knowledge use, information and knowledge generation and preservation, among others important topics to be observed by knowledge workers and by administrators responsible for the knowledge management process.

Children`s oral production of narratives and constructive memory using prior reading of pictures

With the purpose of approximating two issues, oral narrative and constructive memory, we assume that children, as well as adults, have a constructive memory. Accordingly, researchers of the constructive memory share with piagetians the vision that memory is an applied cognition. Under this perspective, understanding and coding into memory constitute a process which is considered similar to the piagetian assimilation of building an internal conceptual representation of the information (hence the term constructive memory. The objective of this study is to examine and illustrate, through examples drawn from a research about oral narrative with 5, 8 and 10 years old children, the extent to which the constructive memory is stimulated by the acquisition of the structures of knowledge or ""mental models"" (schemes of stories and scenes, scripts), and if they automatically employ them to process constructively the information in storage and rebuild them in the recovery. A sequence of five pictures from a book without text was transformed into computerized program, and the pictures were thus presented to the children. The story focuses on a misunderstanding of two characters on a different assessment about a key event. In data collection, the demands of memory were preserved, since children narrate their stories when the images were no longer viewed on the computer screen. Each narrative was produced as a monologue. The results show that this story can be told either in a descriptive level or in a more elaborated level, where intentions and beliefs are attributed to the characters. Although this study allows an assessment of the development of children`s capabilities (both cognitive and linguistic) to narrate a story, there are for sure other issues that could be exploited.

Accentuated osteoclastic response to parathyroid hormone undermines bone mass acquisition in osteonectin-null mice

Matricellular proteins play a unique role in the skeleton as regulators of bone remodeling, and the matricellular protein osteonectin (SPARC, BM-40) is the most abundant non-collagenous protein in bone In. the absence of osteonectin, mice develop progressive low turnover osteopenia, particularly affecting trabecular bone. Polymorphisms in a regulatory region of the osteonectin gene are associated with bone mass in a subset of idiopathic osteoporosis patients, and these polymorphisms likely regulate osteonectin expression. Thus it is important to determine how osteonectin gene dosage affects skeletal function. Moreover, intermittent administration of parathyroid hormone (PTH) (1-34) is the only anabolic therapy approved for the treatment of osteoporosis, and it is critical to understand how modulators of bone remodeling, such as osteonectin, affect skeletal response to anabolic agents. In this study, 10 week old female wild type, osteonectin-haploinsufficient, and osteonectin-null mice (C57Bl/6 genetic background) were given 80 mu g/kg body weight/day PTH(1-34) for 4 weeks. Osteonectin gene dosage had a profound effect on bone microarchitecture. The connectivity density of trabecular bone in osteonectin-haploinsufficient mice was substantially decreased compared with that of wild type mice, suggesting compromised mechanical properties. Whereas mice of each genotype had a similar osteoblastic response to PTH treatment, the osteoclastic response was accentuated in osteonectin-haploinsufficient and osteonectin-null mice. Eroded surface and osteoclast number were significantly higher in PTH-treated osteonectin-null mice, as was endosteal area. In vitro studies confirmed that PTH induced the formation of more osteoclast-like cells in marrow from osteonectin-null mice compared with wild type. PTH treated osteonectin-null bone marrow cells expressed more RANKL mRNA compared with wild type. However, the ratio of RANKL:OPG mRNA was somewhat lower in PTH treated osteonectin-null cultures. Increased expression of RANKL in response to PTH could contribute to the accentuated osteoclastic response in osteonectin(-/-) mice, but other mechanisms are also likely to be involved. The molecular mechanisms by which PTH elicits bone anabolic vs. bone catabolic effects remain poorly understood. Our results imply that osteonectin levels may play a role in modulating the balance of bone formation and resorption in response to PTH. (c) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Knowledge, attitudes and motivations among blood donors in Sao Paulo, Brazil

Recruiting safe, volunteer blood donors requires understanding motivations for donating and knowledge and attitudes about HIV. We surveyed 1,600 persons presenting for blood donation at a large blood bank in Sao Paulo, Brazil using a self-administered, structured questionnaire, and classified motivations into three domains as well as categorizing persons by HIV test-seeking behavior. Motivations, in descending order, and their significant associations were: ""altruism``: female gender, volunteer donor and repeat donor status; ""direct appeal``: female gender, repeat donor status and age 21-50 years; ""selfinterest``: male gender, age under 20 years, first-time donor status and lower education. HIV test-seekers were more likely to give incorrect answers regarding HIV risk behavior and blood donation and the ability of antibody testing to detect recent HIV infections. Altruism is the main motivator for blood donation in Brazil; other motivators were associated with specific demographic subgroups. HIV test-seeking might be reduced by educational interventions.

Baseline hippocampal theta oscillation speeds correlate with rate of operant task acquisition

Many lines of evidence indicate that theta rhythm, a prominent neural oscillatory mode found in the mammalian hippocampus, plays a key role in the acquisition, processing, and retrieval of memories. However, a predictive neurophysiological feature of the baseline theta rhythm that correlates with the learning rate across different animals has yet to be identified. Here we show that the mean theta rhythm speed observed during baseline periods of immobility has a strong positive correlation with the rate at which rats learn an operant task. This relationship is observed across rats, during both quiet waking (r=0.82; p<0.01) and paradoxical sleep (r=0.83; p<0.01), suggesting that the basal theta frequency relates to basic neurological processes that are important in the acquisition of operant behavior. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Passive Acquisition of Protective Antibodies Reactive with Bordetella pertussis in Newborns via Placental Transfer and Breast-feeding

Although acquisition of anti-pertussis antibodies by the newborn via placental transfer has been demonstrated, a subsequent recrudescence of pertussis infection is often observed, particularly in infants. The present study investigated the passive transfer of anti-pertussis IgG and IgA antibodies to term newborns and their ability to neutralize bacterial pathogenicity in an in vivo experimental model using mice intracerebrally challenged with viable Bordetella pertussis. Forty paired samples of maternal/umbilical cord sera and colostrum were obtained. Anti-pertussis antibodies were analysed by immunoenzymatic assay and by Immunoblotting. Antibody neutralizing ability was assessed through intracerebral B. pertussis challenges in mice. Anti-pertussis IgG titres were equivalent in both maternal and newborn sera (medians = 1:225 and 1:265), with a transfer rate of 118%. The colostrum samples had variable specific IgA titres (median = 1:74). The immunoblotting assays demonstrated identical recognition profiles of paired maternal and newborn serum pools but different bacterial recognition intensities by colostrum pools. In the animal model, significant differences were always observed when the serum and colostrum samples and pools were compared with the positive control (P < 0.05). Unlike samples with lower anti-pertussis titres, samples with high titres showed protective capacities above 50%. Pertussis-absorbed serum and colostrum pools protected 30% of mice and purified IgG antibodies protected 65%. Both pooled and single-sample protective abilities were correlated with antibody titres (P < 0.01). Our data demonstrated the effectiveness of anti-pertussis antibodies in bacterial pathogenesis neutralization, emphasizing the importance of placental transfer and breast-feeding in protecting infants against respiratory infections caused by Bordetella pertussis.