Inserção de fornecedores locais como fonte de desempenhos em custos de transação e legitimidade: estudo de caso na cadeia produtiva do petróleo e gás do Rio Grande do Norte

The inclusion of local suppliers in production chains has considerable impact on its performance, but most notably in its main actors. The results of this process may be of different kinds and can be analyzed from economic or institutional approaches. This study aimed to verify the existence of different performances of Petrobras due to the inclusion of local suppliers in the oil and gas production chain in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, from the viewpoints of transaction costs and the Institutional Theory. In order to this, were made the characterization of the PROMINP, the description of its actions and results, the mapping of its institutional context of reference, and identification of results obtained by Petrobras in terms of transaction costs and legitimacy. The theoretical framework is based on authors dealing with industrial concentration, as like Marshall, Krugman, Porter and Schmitz, from the sociological perspective of neoinstitucional theory, as like DiMaggio and Powell and Scott and Meyer, and transaction costs, as like Williamson. This is a qualitative research, with data collection done by consulting secondary fonts and semi-structured interviews with nineteen actors of three groups, namely: actors involved in actions of the program, representatives of enterprises and representative of Petrobras. To analyze the content was used the Suchman s model (1995) for categories associated with strategies of legitimation and fourteen variables associated with the three variables assets specificity, bounded rationality and opportunism (Williamson, 1995, 1989) in the case of transaction costs. The results indicate that PROMINP has achieved its objectives by encouraging the increased participation of local companies in the oil and gas production chain, reflecting in the economic development of the state. The Redepetro/RN, fostered and built upon the interaction of the participants, is presented as a solution of continuity to the participation of enterprises in the chain, after the closure of the actions of the program. PROMINP demands responses to coercive, legislative and regulatory pressures of the organizational field, whose institutional context of reference is wide. From the point of view of legitimacy, through strategies to gain cognitive legitimacy and maintaining pragmatic legitimacy, Petrobras can manipulate the environment, ensuring the compliance of the constituents to their technical and institutional demands. Enterprises, in turn, respond to the demands through compliance with technical demands, mainly through the certification of processes, and cultural changes. There aren t clear gains related to the transaction costs, however, gains in legitimacy can be seen as a cumulative capital that can serve as a competitive differential that generates economic gains. In terms of theoretical findings, it was found that, due to its explanatory power for actions that are difficult to explain only in economic terms, Institutional Theory may be used as theoretical support concurrent with other theories. TCE model has limitations in explaining the program actions. In the case, it s emphasized that Petrobras doesn t seek only economic efficiency, but has in its mission the commitment to social development.

Relações entre mecanismos de coordenação e controle com desempenho organizacional: um estudo nas instituições públicas de ensino médio de Natal

This research aimed at relating coordination and control forms to organizational performance. The multicase study was applied in two public high schools: Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica do Rio Grande do Norte and Floriano Cavalcanti. In order to accomplish these objectives, it was developed a qualitative analysis and considered coordination and control forms of several authors. Also was considered Sander´s (1984) model of organizational performance. The mentioned model considers two criteria to analyze organizational performance: one instrumental (efficiency and efficacy) and other substantive (effectiveness e relevance). The research attempts to show the importance of balancing these criteria in a way that effectiveness and relevance becomes more important at schools. It was proven that the use of bureaucratic coordination forms has the power to influence the evaluation on the instrumental technique. At the same time, it was observed that the use of mechanisms based on the autonomy of the school is related to efficiency and efficacy. The object of this research can be considered successful

Caminhos que estruturam cidades: redes técnicas de transporte sobre trilhos e a conformação intra-urbana de Natal

The railroad, from 1870 and on, becomes an usual complaining in the press s and politician elite s speeches, especially because of Natal s geographic isolation. The implantation of two railroads in the capital territory Estrada de Ferro de Natal a Nova Cruz, afterwards part of Great Western Railway Company network, and Estrada de Ferro Central do Rio Grande do Norte had serious implications in the urban environment. While railroad s structures were already consolidated, other transportation mechanisms were being implanted in the first decades of the 20th century, such as trams lines, which, by the way, was a transport modal that also used rails as a dislocation meaning. Considering these questions, we may ask: how come railroads and tramways demands, roads and buildings had influenced the internal organization of Natal? We work with the general hypothesis that the influence of technical networks, composed by tramways and railroads, over Natal s urban space happened in a diversified way, sometimes consolidating social aspects in certain areas, sometimes improving the occupation of others. The impact over the city s territory also happens in a diversified way between the buildings/railroad s complexes and the pathways. The different scale of the train in comparison to the trams velocity, size, noise level, flow, among others is also a cause to the different consequences in urban environment. The main objective of this work is to understand the role of circulation technical networks in the construction process of urban space in Natal, as a way to contribute to the urban historiography about the subject. The time frame adopted, between 1881 and 1937, marks the time path of railroads and tramways in Rio Grande do Norte: 1881 is the year of railroad s first section inauguration from Natal to São José do Mipibu as well of the railroad complex in the Republic Square in Natal; the year of 1937 marks the beginning of tramways declination process in the city. At this time railroads and tramways had to face more intensively the competition of motor vehicles. The theory reference adopted is based on concepts and analysis of authors, such as Flávio Villaça and Roberto Lobato Corrêa references to the concepts of urban structure , localization and accessibility and Gabriel Dupuy to explain the concept of urban technical networks . These references reveal the conflict of different realities in the urban universe interests and values which is an important factor about the construction of urban space. The information sources used were from two distinctive natures: primary, journals of the time studied and official government reports, and secondary, based on other works about the subject. It was also used by this study iconographic source, especially images from the data base of the research group História da Cidade, do Território e do Urbanismo .

Implementação Hardware/Software da estimação de movimento segundo o padrão H.264

Motion estimation is the main responsible for data reduction in digital video encoding. It is also the most computational damanding step. H.264 is the newest standard for video compression and was planned to double the compression ratio achievied by previous standards. It was developed by the ITU-T Video Coding Experts Group (VCEG) together with the ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) as the product of a partnership effort known as the Joint Video Team (JVT). H.264 presents novelties that improve the motion estimation efficiency, such as the adoption of variable block-size, quarter pixel precision and multiple reference frames. This work defines an architecture for motion estimation in hardware/software, using a full search algorithm, variable block-size and mode decision. This work consider the use of reconfigurable devices, soft-processors and development tools for embedded systems such as Quartus II, SOPC Builder, Nios II and ModelSim