Estrutura e desempenho organizacional: uma análise na Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte

This research analyses the components of the organizational structure of the UFRN (Rio Grande do Norte Federal University) and to what extent they affect organizational performance. The study, classified as exploratory and descriptive, was conducted in two phases. The first phase consists of a pilot test to refine the research instrument and to identify the latent components of the organizational structure, and the second to characterize these components and thereby establish relationships with organizational performance. In the first phase, the research was conducted in 20 UFRN organizational units with the participation of 84 employees between technical-administrative and teachers, after considering missing values and outliers, while the second phase occurred in two stages: one conducted with 279 valid cases, consisting of technical-administrative and teachers of 37 UFRN units, and another with 112 managers of the institution in the 49 units identified in this research. The instrument adopted in the first phase was composed of 36 indicators of organizational structure, with six extracted and adapted from the instrument developed by Medeiros (2003) and 30 prepared based on the literature review, from Mintzberg (2012), Hall (1984), Vasconcellos and Hemsley (1997) and Seiffert and Costa (2007) and 7 performance indicators adapted from Fleury and Mills (2006), Vieira and Vieira (2003) and Kaplan and Norton (1997) from the self-assessment instrument in use by the university. In this stage the data were analyzed using the techniques of factor analysis and reliability analysis by means of Cronbach’s alpha, aiming to extract the factors representing the components of the organizational structure. In step 1 of the second phase, the instrument, refined and reduced in the previous phase, with 24 variables of organizational structure and 6 for performance was used, while in step 2, a semi-structured interview guide with questions, organized into nine organizational structure elements, was adopted aiming to gather information to understand the relationship of structure to performance of the UFRN. The techniques used in the second phase, as a whole, were factor analysis and reliability analysis to characterize the components extracted in the previous phase and to validate the performance variables and correlation analysis, regression and content analysis to establish and understand the relationship between structure and performance. The results showed, in the two stages, six latent components of organizational structure in the context under study: training and internalization, communication, hierarchy, decentralization, formalization and departmentalization - with high levels of Cronbach's alpha indexes - which can thereby be characterized as components of UFRN structure. Six performance indicators were validated in this study, showing them as efficient and highly reliable. Finally, it was found that the formalization, communication, decentralization, training and internalization components positively affect UFRN performance, while departmentalization has an adverse affect and hierarchy did not show a significant relationship. The results achieved in this work are important in future studies to support the development of a model structure that represents the specifics of the university

Reforma a vapor catalítica do metano: Otimização da produção e seletividade em hidrogênio por absorção in situ do CO2 produzido

Topics of research related to energy and environment have significantly grown in recent years, with the need of its own energy as hydrogen. More particularly, numerous researches have been focused on hydrogen as energy vector. The main portion of hydrogen is presently obtained by reforming of methane or light hydrocarbons (steam, oxy, dry or auto reforming). During the methane steam reforming process the formation of CO2 undesirable (the main contributor to the greenhouse effect) is observed. Thus, an oxide material (sorbent) can be used to capture the CO2 generated during the process and simultaneously shifting the equilibrium of water gas shift towards thermodynamically more favorable production of pure hydrogen. The aim of this study is to develop a material with dual function (catalyst/sorbent) in the reaction of steam reforming of methane. CaO is well known as CO2 sorbent due to its high efficiency in reactions of carbonation and easy regeneration through calcination. However the kinetic of carbonation decreases quickly with time and carbonation/calcination cycles. A calcium aluminate (Ca12Al14O33) should be used to avoid sintering and increase the stability of CaO sorbents for several cycles. Nickel, the industrial catalyst choice for steam reforming has been added to the support from different manners. These bi-functional materials (sorbent/catalyst) in different molar ratios CaO.Ca12Al14O33 (48:52, 65:35, 75:25, 90:10) were prepared by different synthesis methodologies, among them, especially the method of microwave assisted self-combustion. Synthesis, structure and catalytic performances of Ni- CaO.Ca12Al14O33 synthesized by the novel method (microwave assisted selfcombustion) proposed in this work has not being reported yet in literature. The results indicate that CO2 capture time depends both on the CaO excess and on operating conditions (eg., temperature and H2O/CH4 ratio). To be efficient for CO2 sorption, temperature of steam reforming needs to be lower than 700 °C. An optimized percentage corresponding to 75% of CaO and a ratio H2O/CH4 = 1 provides the most promising results since a smaller amount of water avoids competition between water and CO2 to form carbonate and hydroxide. If this competition is most effective (H2O/CH4 = 3) and would have a smaller amount of CaO available for absorption possibly due to the formation of Ca(OH)2. Therefore, the capture time was higher (16h) for the ratio H2O/CH4 = 1 than H2O/CH4 = 3 (7h) using as catalyst one prepared by impregnating the support obtained by microwave assisted self-combustion. Therefore, it was demonstrated that, with these catalysts, the CO2 sorption on CaO modifies the balance of the water gas-shift reaction. Consequently, steam reforming of CH4 is optimized, producing pure H2, complete conversion of methane and negligible concentration of CO2 and CO during the time of capture even at low temperature (650 °C). This validates the concept of the sorption of CO2 together with methane steam reforming

Avaliação de robustez, desempenho e aplicação do controlador adaptativo por posicionamento de pólos e estrutura variável

In this work, the variable structure adaptive pole placement controller (VS-APPC) robustness and performance are evaluated and this algorithm is applied in a motor control system. The controller robustness evaluation will be done through simulations, where will be introduced in the system the following adversities: time delay, actuator response boundeds, disturbances, parametric variation and unmodeled dynamics. The VS-APPC will be compared with PI control, pole placement control (PPC) and adaptive pole placement controller (APPC). The VS-APPC will be simulated to track a step and a sine reference. It will be applied in a three-phase induction motor control system to track a sine signal in the stator reference frame. Simulation and experimental results will prove the efficiency and robustness of this control strategy

Recursos intangíveis de um destino turístico: um estudo de desempenho da cidade de Natal tendo como base a teoria das capacidades dinâmicas

O objetivo desta tese foi analisar os recursos intangíveis de um destino turístico. Foi feito um estudo de desempenho da cidade de Natal tendo como base a teoria das capacidades dinâmicas. Inicialmente, foi desenvolvido um instrumento de pesquisa para oportunizar a construção de um modelo de medida com vistas à captação de variáveis latentes para os recursos intangíveis existentes no setor do turismo em Natal-RN. Em seguida, foi realizada uma análise dos recursos intangíveis que são evidenciados pelos turistas acerca da cidade. Finalmente, foi feita a investigação de um modelo de estrutura que estabeleceu as relações entre as variáveis latentes dos recursos intangíveis e a percepção de desempenho do turismo na cidade de Natal. Procedeu-se uma revisão de literatura para construção de um modelo inicial acerca dos ativos intangíveis dentro da teoria das capacidades e foram relacionados dez recursos, quais sejam: recursos humanos prestadores de serviços; recursos humanos como gestores; cultura local; conservação do meio ambiente; know-how empresarial; inovação empresarial; tecnologia; marca; preço; e promoção. Estes dez recursos, em conjunto, seriam responsáveis pelo desempenho do destino turístico. Após ser realizada uma análise de equações estruturais, apenas quatro recursos manifestaram relações com o desempenho: marca; cultura; conservação do meio ambiente; e preço. Análisando dos dados, verificou-se que a variável desempenho positivo da cidade na ótica do turista se manifestou fortemente e foi influenciada de forma forte pela cultura local, marca e conservação do meio ambiente em conjunto. O preço foi influenciado pelo desempenho positivo mostrando que o turista sente que o preço pago foi satisfatório diante dos atributos do destino Provavelmente, isso seja um ponto positivo muito forte para o destino turístico de Natal, pois, em termos de recursos intangíveis e de juntos formarem capacidades, eles são inimitáveis, raros e são capazes de se ajustarem às mudanças organizacionais e ambientais, para reconfigurar os ativos e as estruturas de um destino, corroborando, assim, com a teoria das capacidades dinâmicas. Esses recursos da cidade de Natal, como destino turístico, são únicos e provavelmente têm um peso muito maior para o desempenho da cidade do que problemas existentes na localidade. Logo, esses atributos devem ser estimulados a continuar crescendo e se modificando de acordo com as exigências atuais e futuras de consumo

Influência do uso de combustíveis alternativos na síntese por combustão via microondas para a produção de materiais cerâmicos com estrutura espinélio

The development and study of detectors sensitive to flammable combustible and toxic gases at low cost is a crucial technology challenge to enable marketable versions to the market in general. Solid state sensors are attractive for commercial purposes by the strength and lifetime, because it isn t consumed in the reaction with the gas. In parallel, the use of synthesis techniques more viable for the applicability on an industrial scale are more attractive to produce commercial products. In this context ceramics with spinel structure were obtained by microwave-assisted combustion for application to flammable fuel gas detectors. Additionally, alternatives organic-reducers were employed to study the influence of those in the synthesis process and the differences in performance and properties of the powders obtained. The organic- reducers were characterized by Thermogravimetry (TG) and Derivative Thermogravimetry (DTG). After synthesis, the samples were heat treated and characterized by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), analysis by specific area by BET Method and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Quantification of phases and structural parameters were carried through Rietveld method. The methodology was effective to obtain Ni-Mn mixed oxides. The fuels influenced in obtaining spinel phase and morphology of the samples, however samples calcined at 950 °C there is just the spinel phase in the material regardless of the organic-reducer. Therefore, differences in performance are expected in technological applications when sample equal in phase but with different morphologies are tested

Sistemas de medição de desempenho para projetos de PD&I no Setor de Petróleo e Gás Natural

Organizations are seeking new ideas, tools and methods aiming to improve management process and performance. On the other hand, system performance measurement needs to portray organizational changes and provide managers with a set of true and more appropriate information for the decision-making process. This work aims to propose a performance measurement system in the academic field regarding Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) in the oil and gas industry. The research performed a bibliographic review in a descriptive exploratory manner. A field research was conducted with an expert focus group in order to gather new indicators. As for the validation of these indicators, a survey with experienced professional was also realized. The research surveyed four segments in and outside of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte-Brazil such as oil and gas project coordinators, staff at Academic Planning Offices, FUNPEC employees as well as coordinators from Petrobrás. The performance measuring system created from this study features three interrelated performance indicators pointed out as: process indicators, outcome indicators and global indicators. The proposal includes performance indicators that seek to establish more appropriate strategies for effective institution management. It might help policy making of university-industry interaction policies

Desempenho dos serviços de atenção primária do município de Natal/RN para o diagnóstico e controle da tuberculose

Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the most important health problems being faced worldwide. In Brazil, the responsibility for the actions of to diagnosis and control of this disease was transferred to the municipalities within the Primary Health Care (PHC), aiming at improvement in epidemiological indicators, requiring reorientation of the practice of family health teams and requiring methodologies to analyze the extent to which components of the PHC are being achieved. Thus, this study aims to analyze the performance of primary care services in the city of Natal-RN for the diagnosis and control of TB, from the perspective of health professionals (doctors and nurses). The study is descriptive, cross-sectional and quantitative. Data collection was conducted from March to July 2011 and involved 121 health professionals working in 52 health units (family health unit, basic health unit and mixed units). The instrument is structured based on the Primary Care Assessment Tool (PCAT), validated and adapted to assess attention to TB in Brazil, and includes questions regarding the Structure and Process components of health services. For quantitative analysis, it was constructed indicators, whose response patterns are followed according to the Likert scale between one and five, which meant the degree of preference relation (or agreement) of the claims. Values between 1 and 3 were considered unsatisfactory for the indicator, between 3 and less than 4, regular, and between 4 and 5, satisfactory. With regard to inputs and equipment, the units had satisfactory condition for form (  = 4.26), consultation (  = 4.02) and basic basket (  = 4.24); regular condition to pot (  = 3.56) and unsatisfactory conditions for transportation tickets (  = 1.50) and sputum smear microscopy (  = 2.42) and X-rays (  = 1.07). In relation to actions, there was satisfactory development for those focused on the individual patient. Actions aimed at the collective level, as the search for respiratory symptoms (RS), monitoring of contacts and guidelines for the community ranged from regular to unsatisfactory (  = 3.16 -  = 1.34). With regard to training, 94,2% received training to identify RS. As regards the time for diagnosis, the median time elapsed between the identification of RS and the beginning of treatment it was 22 days. In relation to the difficulties faced by professionals in the diagnosis of TB, 56,2% reported that they are related only to health services, especially for the failure in the rearguard laboratory and in the specialized services reference, the lack of human and material resources and low performing an active search. The professionals perceive the performance of diagnosis and control of TB, permeated with limitations and barriers to organizational and operational character of various sizes, emerging the need for effective coordination of various sectors and key stakeholders of TB care, to adoption of a new intersectoral strategies that aim to increase the responsiveness of the PHC, providing the best performance in service delivery to the user, family and community, and ensuring effective action and resolving the needs of this population group.

Avaliação do desempenho de uma cortina de estacas espaçadas, atirantada, em areia

It is presented the analysis of a retaining wall designed for the basement of a residential building, located in Natal/RN, which consists in a spaced pile wall, anchored by tiebacks, in sand. This structure was instrumented in order to measure the wall s horizontal movements and the load distribution throughout the anchor fixed length. The horizontal movements were measured with an inclinometer, and the loads in the anchors were measured with strain gages, installed in three places throughout the anchor fixed length. Measurements for displacement were done right after the implementation of each stage of the building and right after the conclusion of the building, and the measurements for loads in the anchors were done during the performance test, at the moment of the locking off and, also, right after the conclusion of the building. From the data of displacement were obtained velocity and acceleration data of wall. It was found that the time elapsed on braced installation was decisive in the magnitude of the displacements. The maximum horizontal displacement of wall ranged between 0,18 and 0,66% of the final depth of excavation. The loads in the anchors strongly reduced to approximately half the anchor fixed length, followed an exponential distribution. Furthermore, it was found that there was a loss of load in the anchors over time, reaching 50% loss in one of them

Estabilidade e robustez de um controlador adaptativo indireto por um modelo de referência e estrutura variável

In this thesis, it is developed the robustness and stability analysis of a variable structure model reference adaptive controller considering the presence of disturbances and unmodeled dynamics. The controller is applied to uncertain, monovariable, linear time-invariant plants with relative degree one, and its development is based on the indirect adaptive control. In the direct approach, well known in the literature, the switching laws are designed for the controller parameters. In the indirect one, they are designed for the plant parameters and, thus, the selection of the relays upper bounds becomes more intuitive, whereas they are related to physical parameters, which present uncertainties that can be known easier, such as resistances, capacitances, inertia moments and friction coefficients. Two versions for the controller algorithm with the stability analysis are presented. The global asymptotic stability with respect to a compact set is guaranteed for both cases. Simulation results under adverse operation conditions in order to verify the theoretical results and to show the performance and robustness of the proposed controller are showed. Moreover, for practical purposes, some simplifications on the original algorithm are developed

Reconhecimento de voz através de unidades menores do que a palavra, utilizando Wavelet Packet e SVM, em uma nova estrutura hierárquica de decisão

The automatic speech recognition by machine has been the target of researchers in the past five decades. In this period have been numerous advances, such as in the field of recognition of isolated words (commands), which has very high rates of recognition, currently. However, we are still far from developing a system that could have a performance similar to the human being (automatic continuous speech recognition). One of the great challenges of searches for continuous speech recognition is the large amount of pattern. The modern languages such as English, French, Spanish and Portuguese have approximately 500,000 words or patterns to be identified. The purpose of this study is to use smaller units than the word such as phonemes, syllables and difones units as the basis for the speech recognition, aiming to recognize any words without necessarily using them. The main goal is to reduce the restriction imposed by the excessive amount of patterns. In order to validate this proposal, the system was tested in the isolated word recognition in dependent-case. The phonemes characteristics of the Brazil s Portuguese language were used to developed the hierarchy decision system. These decisions are made through the use of neural networks SVM (Support Vector Machines). The main speech features used were obtained from the Wavelet Packet Transform. The descriptors MFCC (Mel-Frequency Cepstral Coefficient) are also used in this work. It was concluded that the method proposed in this work, showed good results in the steps of recognition of vowels, consonants (syllables) and words when compared with other existing methods in literature

Estrutura ANFIS modificada para identificação e controle de plantas com ampla faixa de operação e não linearidade acentuada

In this work a modification on ANFIS (Adaptive Network Based Fuzzy Inference System) structure is proposed to find a systematic method for nonlinear plants, with large operational range, identification and control, using linear local systems: models and controllers. This method is based on multiple model approach. This way, linear local models are obtained and then those models are combined by the proposed neurofuzzy structure. A metric that allows a satisfactory combination of those models is obtained after the structure training. It results on plant s global identification. A controller is projected for each local model. The global control is obtained by mixing local controllers signals. This is done by the modified ANFIS. The modification on ANFIS architecture allows the two neurofuzzy structures knowledge sharing. So the same metric obtained to combine models can be used to combine controllers. Two cases study are used to validate the new ANFIS structure. The knowledge sharing is evaluated in the second case study. It shows that just one modified ANFIS structure is necessary to combine linear models to identify, a nonlinear plant, and combine linear controllers to control this plant. The proposed method allows the usage of any identification and control techniques for local models and local controllers obtaining. It also reduces the complexity of ANFIS usage for identification and control. This work has prioritized simpler techniques for the identification and control systems to simplify the use of the method

Algoritmo SOM com estrutura hierárquica e dinâmica aplicado a compressão de imagens

ln this work the implementation of the SOM (Self Organizing Maps) algorithm or Kohonen neural network is presented in the form of hierarchical structures, applied to the compression of images. The main objective of this approach is to develop an Hierarchical SOM algorithm with static structure and another one with dynamic structure to generate codebooks (books of codes) in the process of the image Vector Quantization (VQ), reducing the time of processing and obtaining a good rate of compression of images with a minimum degradation of the quality in relation to the original image. Both self-organizing neural networks developed here, were denominated HSOM, for static case, and DHSOM, for the dynamic case. ln the first form, the hierarchical structure is previously defined and in the later this structure grows in an automatic way in agreement with heuristic rules that explore the data of the training group without use of external parameters. For the network, the heuristic mIes determine the dynamics of growth, the pruning of ramifications criteria, the flexibility and the size of children maps. The LBO (Linde-Buzo-Oray) algorithm or K-means, one ofthe more used algorithms to develop codebook for Vector Quantization, was used together with the algorithm of Kohonen in its basic form, that is, not hierarchical, as a reference to compare the performance of the algorithms here proposed. A performance analysis between the two hierarchical structures is also accomplished in this work. The efficiency of the proposed processing is verified by the reduction in the complexity computational compared to the traditional algorithms, as well as, through the quantitative analysis of the images reconstructed in function of the parameters: (PSNR) peak signal-to-noise ratio and (MSE) medium squared error

Análise de desempenho da rede neural artificial do tipo multilayer perceptron na era multicore

Artificial neural networks are usually applied to solve complex problems. In problems with more complexity, by increasing the number of layers and neurons, it is possible to achieve greater functional efficiency. Nevertheless, this leads to a greater computational effort. The response time is an important factor in the decision to use neural networks in some systems. Many argue that the computational cost is higher in the training period. However, this phase is held only once. Once the network trained, it is necessary to use the existing computational resources efficiently. In the multicore era, the problem boils down to efficient use of all available processing cores. However, it is necessary to consider the overhead of parallel computing. In this sense, this paper proposes a modular structure that proved to be more suitable for parallel implementations. It is proposed to parallelize the feedforward process of an RNA-type MLP, implemented with OpenMP on a shared memory computer architecture. The research consistes on testing and analizing execution times. Speedup, efficiency and parallel scalability are analyzed. In the proposed approach, by reducing the number of connections between remote neurons, the response time of the network decreases and, consequently, so does the total execution time. The time required for communication and synchronization is directly linked to the number of remote neurons in the network, and so it is necessary to investigate which one is the best distribution of remote connections

Controlador adaptativo por posicionamento de pólos e estrutura variável aplicado ao controle de geradores eólicos baseados em máquina de indução duplamente alimentada

In the last decade, the renewable energy sources have present a major propulsion in the world due to several factors: political, environmental, financial and others. Within this context, we have in particular the energy obtained through wind, wind energy - that has highlighted with rapid growth in recent years, including in Brazil, mostly in the Northeast, due to it s benefit-cost between the clean energies. In this context, we propose to compare the variable structure adaptive pole placement control (VS-APPC) with a traditional control technique proportional integral controller (PI), applied to set the control of machine side in a conversion system using a wind generator based on Double-Fed Induction Generator (DFIG). Robustness and performance tests were carried out to the uncertainties of the internal parameters of the machine and variations of speed reference.

Construção e análise de desempenho de um fogão solar à concentração utilizando dois focos para cozimento direto

A model of a solar oven with a reflective surface composed of two mirror segments is presented, constituting a two semi-parabolic surfaces made of fiberglass, applied on a ceramic mold, intended to be used in residential and commercial cooking. The reflective surface of the semi-parable is obtained with the use of multiple plain segments of 2 mm wide mirrors. The semi-parabolic structure has visible movements that are comparable to that of the sun. The technical details of the manufacturing and assembling processes will be presented with an analysis of the viability of thermal, economic, and materials of such prototype. This prototype has important social implications and primordial aspects, which combats the ecological damages caused by the wide-scale use of firewood during cooking. It has been demonstrated that the solar oven has the capacity to cook simultaneous two meals distinct for a family of four