Engaging environments: Tacit knowledge sharing on the shop floor

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify factors that facilitate tacit knowledge sharing in unstructured work environments, such as those found in automated production lines. Design/methodology/approach: The study is based on a qualitative approach, and it draws data from a four-month field study at a blown-molded glass factory. Data collection techniques included interviews, informal conversations and on-site observations, and data were interpreted using content analysis. Findings: The results indicated that sharing of tacit knowledge is facilitated by an engaging environment. An engaging environment is supported by shared language and knowledge, which are developed through intense communication and a strong sense of collegiality and a social climate that is dominated by openness and trust. Other factors that contribute to the creation of an engaging environment include managerial efforts to provide appropriate work conditions and to communicate company goals, and HRM practices such as the provision of formal training, on-the-job training and incentives. Practical implications: This paper clarifies the scope of managerial actions that impact knowledge creation and sharing among blue-collar workers. Originality/value: Despite the acknowledgement of the importance of blue-collar workers' knowledge, both the knowledge management and operations management literatures have devoted limited attention to it. Studies related to knowledge management in unstructured working environments are also not abundant. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Ler e escrever: mediação entre crianças pequenas

Pós-graduação em Educação Escolar - FCLAR

Polybitoxins: A group of phospholipases A2 from the venom of the neotropical social wasp paulistinha (Polybia paulista)

The neotropical wasp Polybia paulista is very aggressive and endemic in south-east Brazil, where it frequently causes stinging accidents. By using gel filtration on Sephadex G-200, followed by ion-exchange chromatography on DEAE-Cellulose under a pH gradient, a group of four toxins (designated as polybitoxins-I, II, lII and IV) presenting phospholipase A2 (PLA2) activities was purified. These toxins are dimeric with mol. wts ranging from 115,000 to 132,000 and formed by different subunits. The four toxins contain very high sugar contents attached to their molecules (22-43% w/w) and presented different values of pH optimum from 7.8 to 9.0; when dissociated, only residual catalytic activities were maintained. The catalytic activities of polybitoxins (from 18 to 771 μmoles/mg per minute) are lower than that of PLA2 from Apis mellifera venom and hornetin from Vespa basalis. The polybitoxins presented a non-linear steady-state kinetic behavior for the hydrolysis of phosphatidylcholine at pH 7.9, compatible with the negative co- operativity phenomena. All of the polybitoxins were very potent direct hemolysins, especially the polybitoxins-III and IV, which are as potent as the lethal toxin from V. basalis and hornetin from Vespa flavitarsus, respectively; polybitoxin-IV presented hemolytic action 20 times higher than that of PLA2 from A. mellifera, 17 times higher than that of neutral PLA2 from Naja nigricolis and about 37 times higher than that of cardiotoxin from Naja naja atra venom.

Chuva, vulnerabilidade social e percepção do risco na cidade de São Paulo: impactos de eventos extremos nos bairros da Freguesia do Ó e do M’Boi Mirim

The city of São Paulo has, since the beginning of the expansion of its urban sprawl, represented relations of conflicts and contradictions between society and nature. Once the way society relates to nature is defined by how the social agents themselves correlate in certain social and historical contexts, the ways of interaction between the social and natural elements will be different according to the forms of production and appropriation of the urban space. Even more evident is the case of the great national metropolis, given its demographic dimensions and historical conditions, the process of urban expansion follows a logic where spaces of better quality for housing are occupied by those of better financial conditions. Thus, although there are exceptions, the poorest people live in places less desirable, in less resilient environments of lower environmental quality, relating to nature and its phenomena with greater risks. These risks are reflected here as recurring flooding, mudslides and landslides for which the rain is constantly blamed. So we have a situation where it is clear that a weather phenomenon differently interacts with different social groups. In this context, the study was conducted to compare extreme events occurred in two regions of São Paulo: the Freguesia do O, in the north side, and M'Boi Mirim, in the south side. Both are regions with large number of risk areas and are in the same urban climate unit. However, they present different conditions of social vulnerability. With the investigation of each extreme rain event occurred in the two regions, in the period of 2000-2010, supplemented by field research, we tried to observe how far the rain, with his intensity and volume, can, in fact, be related to the accidents.