Does absorptive capacity affect project performance? A study based on project management practices, organization learning, and knowledge

The literature has emphasized that absorptive capacity (AC) leads to performance, but in projects its influences still unclear. Additionally, the project success is not well understood by the literature, and AC can be an important mechanism to explain it. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of absorptive capacity on project performance in the construction industry of São Paulo State. We study this influence through potential and realized absorptive capacity proposed by Zahra and George (2002). For achieving this goal, we use a combination of qualitative and quantitative research. The qualitative research is based on 15 interviews with project managers in different sectors to understand the main constructs and support the next quantitative phase. The content analysis was the technique used to analyze those interviews. In quantitative phase through a survey questionnaire, we collected 157 responses in the construction sector with project managers. The confirmatory factor analysis and hierarchical linear regression were the techniques used to assess the data. Our findings suggest that the realized absorptive capacity has a positive influence on performance, but potential absorptive capacity and the interactions effect have no influence on performance. Moreover, the planning and monitoring have a positive impact on budget and schedule, and customer satisfaction while risk coping capacity has a positive impact on business success. In academics terms, this research enables a better understanding of the importance of absorptive capacity in the construction industry and it confirms that knowledge application in processes and routines enhances performance. For management, the absorptive capacity enables the improvements of internal capabilities reflected in the increased project management efficiency. Indeed, when a company manages project practices efficiently it enhances business and project performance; however, it needs initially to improve its internal abilities to enrich processes and routines through relevant knowledge.

Effects of isoflavone on the learning and memory of women in menopause: a double-blind placebo-controlled study

Hormone decline is common to all women during aging and, associated with other factors, leads to cognitive impairment. Its replacement enhances cognitive performance, but not all women present a clinical and family or personal history that justifies its use, mainly women with a history of cancer. The aim of this study was to determine whether a daily oral dose of 80 mg of isoflavone extract for 4 months can produce benefits in women with low hormone levels, contributing to improvement in cognitive aspects. The sample comprised 50- to 65-year-old women whose menstruation had ceased at least 1 year before and who had not undergone hormone replacement. The volunteers were allocated to two groups of 19 individuals each, i.e., isoflavone and placebo. There was a weak correlation between menopause duration and low performance in the capacity to manipulate information (central executive). We observed an increase in the capacity to integrate information in the group treated with isoflavone, but no improvement in the capacity to form new memories. We did not observe differences between groups in terms of signs and symptoms suggestive of depression according to the Geriatric Depression Scale. Our results point to a possible beneficial effect of isoflavone on some abilities of the central executive. These effects could also contribute to minimizing the impact of memory impairment. Further research based on controlled clinical trials is necessary to reach consistent conclusions.

Power-law distribution in a learning process: competition, learning and natural selection

In the present work, we propose a model for the statistical distribution of people versus number of steps acquired by them in a learning process, based on competition, learning and natural selection. We consider that learning ability is normally distributed. We found that the number of people versus step acquired by them in a learning process is given through a power law. As competition, learning and selection is also at the core of all economical and social systems, we consider that power-law scaling is a quantitative description of this process in social systems. This gives an alternative thinking in holistic properties of complex systems. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Propolis Standardized Extract (EPP-AF (R)), an Innovative Chemically and Biologically Reproducible Pharmaceutical Compound for Treating Wounds

The aim of this study was to develop a formulation, containing the propolis standardized extract (EPP-AF (R)), which can assist in the healing of skin lesions. To achieve this objective the antimicrobial activity and chemical composition of the propolis extract was determined. The final product was subjected to in vitro and in vivo pre-clinical evaluation. The broth macrodi-lution method was used to determine the antimicrobial activity of the extracts and formulations against the microorganisms most commonly found in burns, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis. Wistar rats with puncture wounded skin were used to evaluate the wound healing properties of propolis. The results of chemical and biological characterization demonstrated the batch-to-batch reproducibility of the standardized extract which is an unprecedented result. The antimicrobial and wound healing activity of the pharmaceutical studied showed the best results when samples contain 3.6% propolis, suggesting that this is the most promising composition.

Methods and tools for encoding the WordNet.Br sentences, concept glosses, and conceptual-semantic relations

This paper presents the overall methodology that has been used to encode both the Brazilian Portuguese WordNet (WordNet.Br) standard language-independent conceptual-semantic relations (hyponymy, co-hyponymy, meronymy, cause, and entailment) and the so-called cross-lingual conceptual-semantic relations between different wordnets. Accordingly, after contextualizing the project and outlining the current lexical database structure and statistics, it describes the WordNet.Br editing GUI that was designed to aid the linguist in carrying out the tasks of building synsets, selecting sample sentences from corpora, writing synset concept glosses, and encoding both language-independent conceptual-semantic relations and cross-lingual conceptual-semantic relations between WordNet.Br and Princeton WordNet © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006.

Learning and technical change in the steelplant of Acindar, SA in Rosario, Argentina

Includes bibliography

Gestational protein restriction induces CA3 dendritic atrophy in dorsal hippocampal neurons but does not alter learning and memory performance in adult offspring

Studies have demonstrated that nutrient deficiency during pregnancy or in early postnatal life results in structural abnormalities in the offspring hippocampus and in cognitive impairment. In an attempt to analyze whether gestational protein restriction might induce learning and memory impairments associated with structural changes in the hippocampus, we carried out a detailed morphometric analysis of the hippocampus of male adult rats together with the behavioral characterization of these animals in the Morris water maze (MWM). Our results demonstrate that gestational protein restriction leads to a decrease in total basal dendritic length and in the number of intersections of CA3 pyramidal neurons whereas the cytoarchitecture of CA1 and dentate gyrus remained unchanged. Despite presenting significant structural rearrangements, we did not observe impairments in the MWM test. Considering the clear dissociation between the behavioral profile and the hippocampus neuronal changes, the functional significance of dendritic remodeling in fetal processing remains undisclosed. © 2012 ISDN.

Mensuração de estratégias de estudo e aprendizagem de alunos universitários: learning and study strategies inventory (lassi) adaptação e validação para o Brasil

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Image segmentation through combined methods: watershed transform, unsupervised distance learning and normalized cut

Research on image processing has shown that combining segmentation methods may lead to a solid approach to extract semantic information from different sort of images. Within this context, the Normalized Cut (NCut) is usually used as a final partitioning tool for graphs modeled in some chosen method. This work explores the Watershed Transform as a modeling tool, using different criteria of the hierarchical Watershed to convert an image into an adjacency graph. The Watershed is combined with an unsupervised distance learning step that redistributes the graph weights and redefines the Similarity matrix, before the final segmentation step using NCut. Adopting the Berkeley Segmentation Data Set and Benchmark as a background, our goal is to compare the results obtained for this method with previous work to validate its performance.

Development of an innovative, ecological and stability-indicating analytical method for semiquantitative analysis of ampicillin sodium for injection by thin layer chromatography (TLC)

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

The Impact of Teaching Presence in Intensive Online Courses on Perceived Learning and Sense of Community: A Mixed Methods Study

This mixed methods concurrent triangulation design study was predicated upon two models that advocated a connection between teaching presence and perceived learning: the Community of Inquiry Model of Online Learning developed by Garrison, Anderson, and Archer (2000); and the Online Interaction Learning Model by Benbunan-Fich, Hiltz, and Harasim (2005). The objective was to learn how teaching presence impacted students’ perceptions of learning and sense of community in intensive online distance education courses developed and taught by instructors at a regional comprehensive university. In the quantitative phase online surveys collected relevant data from participating students (N = 397) and selected instructional faculty (N = 32) during the second week of a three-week Winter Term. Student information included: demographics such as age, gender, employment status, and distance from campus; perceptions of teaching presence; sense of community; perceived learning; course length; and course type. The students claimed having positive relationships between teaching presence, perceived learning, and sense of community. The instructors showed similar positive relationships with no significant differences when the student and instructor data were compared. The qualitative phase consisted of interviews with 12 instructors who had completed the online survey and replied to all of the open-response questions. The two phases were integrated using a matrix generation, and the analysis allowed for conclusions regarding teaching presence, perceived learning, and sense of community. The findings were equivocal with regard to satisfaction with course length and the relative importance of the teaching presence components. A model was provided depicting relationships between and among teaching presence components, perceived learning, and sense of community in intensive online courses.

Chicana, Indian and Sudanese Perspectives of Teaching in the Academy: Three Levels of Experience in the Teaching-Learning and Social Environment

“Women of color from any culture or country face additional barriers in predominantly white institutions. This panel presents perspectives and experiences of three women from three cultures and three different levels of academia—a Chicana Latino visiting professor, a graduate teaching assistant from India, and a Sudanese graduate research assistant.”

Cocaine effects on mouse incentive-learning and human addiction are linked to alpha 2 subunit-containing GABA(A) receptors

Because GABA(A) receptors containing alpha 2 subunits are highly represented in areas of the brain, such as nucleus accumbens (NAcc), frontal cortex, and amygdala, regions intimately involved in signaling motivation and reward, we hypothesized that manipulations of this receptor subtype would influence processing of rewards. Voltage-clamp recordings from NAcc medium spiny neurons of mice with alpha 2 gene deletion showed reduced synaptic GABA(A) receptor-mediated responses. Behaviorally, the deletion abolished cocaine`s ability to potentiate behaviors conditioned to rewards (conditioned reinforcement), and to support behavioral sensitization. In mice with a point mutation in the benzodiazepine binding pocket of alpha 2-GABA(A) receptors (alpha 2H101R), GABAergic neurotransmission in medium spiny neurons was identical to that of WT (i.e., the mutation was silent), but importantly, receptor function was now facilitated by the atypical benzodiazepine Ro 15-4513 (ethyl 8-amido-5,6-dihydro-5-methyl-6-oxo-4H-imidazo [1,5-a] [1,4] benzodiazepine-3-carboxylate). In alpha 2H101R, but not WT mice, Ro 15-4513 administered directly into the NAcc-stimulated locomotor activity, and when given systemically and repeatedly, induced behavioral sensitization. These data indicate that activation of alpha 2-GABA(A) receptors (most likely in NAcc) is both necessary and sufficient for behavioral sensitization. Consistent with a role of these receptors in addiction, we found specific markers and haplotypes of the GABRA2 gene to be associated with human cocaine addiction.