Estrutura de organizações sociais: adaptação aos projetos sociais ou às pressões institucionais?

This is a study concerning in the structure of non governmental organizations, based on the institutional theory. It aims to understand the relation among structure, social projects and environmental influences, analyzing if there is coherence with project social or expresses adaptation to the institutional pressures of the environment. It introduces as theoretical support for the themes, studies about institutional theory and social structure. The research is descriptive and exploratory; it also applies to a study of case, based on the technical procedures. From the research universe, that was compound by non governmental organizations from Natal, RN, Brasil, it was chosen the Casa Renascer, a non governmental organization that works with the combat to the violence and sexual exploration of children and teenagers. The data collection process employed includes documental research, observations and semi structured research devices, guided by the organizational process proposed by Serva (1996) and by the institutional theory. The collected data were qualitatively treated. The analysis was divided into three parts, following the research matters. The social project characterization demonstrated that the organization went by three main phases. The first one, characterized by focus in women and girls education and health; the second shows the emphasis on girls in social risk situation, with preventive approach; and the last one, characterized by victims assistance of violence and sexual exploration. From the analysis using the institutional theory mechanisms, the results showed that exists coherence between structure and environmental influences, but a weak coherence between structure and social projects. It indicates as main determinant of the structure, an aspect forgotten by the institutional theory, the power. It was observed the presence from normative, coercive and mimetic mechanisms, highlighting normative influences

Analysing Similarity in Exam Timetabling

In this paper we carry out an investigation of some of the major features of exam timetabling problems with a view to developing a similarity measure. This similarity measure will be used within a case-based reasoning (CBR) system to match a new problem with one from a case-based of previously solved problems. The case base will also store the heuristic for meta-heuristic techniques applied most successfully to each problem stored. The technique(s) stored with the matched case will be retrieved and applied to the new case. The CBR assumption in our system is that similar problems can be solved equally well by the same technique.

Similarity Measures for Exam Timetabling Problems

A large number of heuristic algorithms have been developed over the years which have been aimed at solving examination timetabling problems. However, many of these algorithms have been developed specifically to solve one particular problem instance or a small subset of instances related to a given real-life problem. Our aim is to develop a more general system which, when given any exam timetabling problem, will produce results which are comparative to those of a specially designed heuristic for that problem. We are investigating a Case based reasoning (CBR) technique to select from a set of algorithms which have been applied successfully to similar problem instances in the past. The assumption in CBR is that similar problems have similar solutions. For our system, the assumption is that an algorithm used to find a good solution to one problem will also produce a good result for a similar problem. The key to the success of the system will be our definition of similarity between two exam timetabling problems. The study will be carried out by running a series of tests using a simple Simulated Annealing Algorithm on a range of problems with differing levels of similarity and examining the data sets in detail. In this paper an initial investigation of the key factors which will be involved in this measure is presented with a discussion of how the definition of good impacts on this.

Analysing Similarity in Exam Timetabling

In this paper we carry out an investigation of some of the major features of exam timetabling problems with a view to developing a similarity measure. This similarity measure will be used within a case-based reasoning (CBR) system to match a new problem with one from a case-based of previously solved problems. The case base will also store the heuristic for meta-heuristic techniques applied most successfully to each problem stored. The technique(s) stored with the matched case will be retrieved and applied to the new case. The CBR assumption in our system is that similar problems can be solved equally well by the same technique.

Similarity Measures for Exam Timetabling Problems

A large number of heuristic algorithms have been developed over the years which have been aimed at solving examination timetabling problems. However, many of these algorithms have been developed specifically to solve one particular problem instance or a small subset of instances related to a given real-life problem. Our aim is to develop a more general system which, when given any exam timetabling problem, will produce results which are comparative to those of a specially designed heuristic for that problem. We are investigating a Case based reasoning (CBR) technique to select from a set of algorithms which have been applied successfully to similar problem instances in the past. The assumption in CBR is that similar problems have similar solutions. For our system, the assumption is that an algorithm used to find a good solution to one problem will also produce a good result for a similar problem. The key to the success of the system will be our definition of similarity between two exam timetabling problems. The study will be carried out by running a series of tests using a simple Simulated Annealing Algorithm on a range of problems with differing levels of similarity and examining the data sets in detail. In this paper an initial investigation of the key factors which will be involved in this measure is presented with a discussion of how the definition of good impacts on this.

From Hardware Processes to asynchronous circuits via petri nets: An Application to Arbiter Design

International audience

Política pública para o idoso : um estudo da cidadania no Grupo Cabelos de Neve do Programa Conviver em Campina Grande-PB

The main objective of the study about the citizenship development in elderly attended by the Conviver Program of the City Hall of Campina Grande in Paraiba, Brazil was to evaluate how the actions of the Program contribute for the citizenship practice according to the users. The Citizenship analyzed is the existence of political, civil and social rights according to Marshall. For that it was utilized a descriptive research and a study of case based on technical procedure. The research was settled by the people who are benefited by the Conviver Program of the Snow Hair Group and the sample was formed by the active participants that it is in the Group for over ten years, corresponding to a total of ten elderly. For the data collection was utilized basic questionnaire in function of the low schooling of the interviewed, according to Marshall (2002) theory about the citizenship construction from each person. It was utilized the methodological procedure proposed by Bardin (2006), categorical analysis, in the qualitative data analysis, that was divided in four parts. In relation to Political Rights, noted that the program has stimulated your Watched on the exercise of voting and being voted. On the Civil Rights was observed that the Program has given incentive to actions which provide the users the justice rights in and in occupational activities as a job. In relation to Social Rights it was observed that the Conviver Program has contributed in order that its users can lead their lives according to the standards imposed by the society, which have being failed in the education area. As for the type of citizenship it was verified that the Program has given incentive to the served users, becoming more evidence on the speech basis

Estrutura de organizações sociais: adaptação aos projetos sociais ou às pressões institucionais?

This is a study concerning in the structure of non governmental organizations, based on the institutional theory. It aims to understand the relation among structure, social projects and environmental influences, analyzing if there is coherence with project social or expresses adaptation to the institutional pressures of the environment. It introduces as theoretical support for the themes, studies about institutional theory and social structure. The research is descriptive and exploratory; it also applies to a study of case, based on the technical procedures. From the research universe, that was compound by non governmental organizations from Natal, RN, Brasil, it was chosen the Casa Renascer, a non governmental organization that works with the combat to the violence and sexual exploration of children and teenagers. The data collection process employed includes documental research, observations and semi structured research devices, guided by the organizational process proposed by Serva (1996) and by the institutional theory. The collected data were qualitatively treated. The analysis was divided into three parts, following the research matters. The social project characterization demonstrated that the organization went by three main phases. The first one, characterized by focus in women and girls education and health; the second shows the emphasis on girls in social risk situation, with preventive approach; and the last one, characterized by victims assistance of violence and sexual exploration. From the analysis using the institutional theory mechanisms, the results showed that exists coherence between structure and environmental influences, but a weak coherence between structure and social projects. It indicates as main determinant of the structure, an aspect forgotten by the institutional theory, the power. It was observed the presence from normative, coercive and mimetic mechanisms, highlighting normative influences

Arquitectura de Comportamientos Reactivos para Agentes Robóticos basada en CBR

En los últimos tiempos se ha demostrado la importancia del aprendizaje en la Inteligencia humana, tanto en su vertiente de aprendizaje por observación como a través de la experiencia, como medio de identificar situaciones y predecir acciones o respuestas a partir de la información adquirida. Dado este esquema general de la Inteligencia Humana, parece razonable imitar su estructura y características en un intento por diseñar una arquitectura general de inteligencia aplicada a la Robótica. En este trabajo, inspirados por las teorías de Hawkins en su obra On Intelligence, hemos propuesto una arquitectura jerárquica de inteligencia en el que los diversos módulos se implementan a partir de Razonamiento basado en Casos ¿Case Based Reasoning (CBR)¿, una herramienta de IA especialmente apta para la adquisición de conocimiento a través del aprendizaje y para la predicción basada en similitud de información. Dentro de esta arquitectura la presente tesis se centra en las capas inferiores, las de tipo reactivo, expresadas en forma de comportamientos básicos, que implementan conductas sencillas pero indispensables para el funcionamiento de un robot. Estos comportamientos han sido tradicionalmente diseñados de forma algorítmica, con la dificultad que esto entraña en muchos casos por el desconocimiento de sus aspectos intrínsecos. Además, carecen de la capacidad de adaptarse ante nuevas situaciones no previstas y adquirir nuevos conocimientos a través del funcionamiento del robot, algo indispensable si se pretende que éste se desenvuelva en ambientes dinámicos y no estructurados. El trabajo de esta tesis considera la implementación de comportamientos reactivos con capacidad de aprendizaje, como forma de superar los inconvenientes anteriormente mencionados consiguiendo al mismo tiempo una mejor integración en la arquitectura general de Inteligencia considerada, en la cual el aprendizaje ocupa el papel principal. Así, se proponen y analizan diversas alternativas de diseño de comportamientos reactivos, construidos a través de sistemas CBR con capacidad de aprendizaje. En particular se estudia i) la problemática de selección, organización, y representación de la información como recipiente del conocimiento de los comportamientos;ii) los problemas asociados a la escalabilidad de esta información; iii) los aspectos que acompañan al proceso de predicción mediante la recuperación de la respuesta de experiencias previas similares a la presentada; iv) la identificación de la respuesta no solo con la acción a tomar por parte del comportamiento sino con un concepto que represente la situación presentada; y v) la adaptación y evaluación de la respuesta para incorporar nuevas situaciones como nuevo conocimiento del sistema. También se analiza la organización de comportamientos básicos que permite obtener, a través de sus interacciones, comportamientos emergentes de nivel superior aún dentro de un alcance reactivo. Todo ello se prueba con un robot real y con un simulador, en una variante de un escenario de aplicación clásico en Robótica, como es la competición Robocup. La elaboración de esta tesis ha supuesto, además de los aspectos puramente investigadores, un esfuerzo adicional en el desarrollo de las herramientas y metodología de pruebas necesarias para su realización. En este sentido, se ha programado un primer prototipo de marco de implementación de comportamientos reactivos con aprendizaje, basados en CBR, para la plataforma de desarrollo robótico Tekkotsu.

Staff and students co-creating curricula in UK higher education: exploring process and evidencing value

Student engagement in learning and teaching is receiving a growing level of interest from policy makers, researchers, and practitioners. This includes opportunities for staff and students to co-create curricula, yet there are few examples within current literature which describe and critique this form of staff-student collaboration (Bovill (2013a), Healey et al (2014), Cook-Sather et al (2014). The competing agendas of neoliberalism and critical, radical pedagogies influence the policy and practice of staff and students co-creating curricula and, consequently, attempt to appropriate the purpose of it in different ways. Using case-based research methodology, my study presents analysis of staff and students co-creating curricula within seven universities. This includes 17 examples of practice across 14 disciplines. Using an inductive approach, I have examined issues relating to definitions of practice, conceptualisations of curricula, perceptions of value, and the relationship between practice and institutional strategy. I draw upon an interdisciplinary body of literature to provide the conceptual foundations for my research. This has been necessary to address the complexity of practice and includes literature relating to student engagement in learning and teaching, conceptual models of curriculum in higher education, approaches to evidencing value and impact, and critical theory and radical pedagogies. The study makes specific contributions to the wider scholarly debate by highlighting the importance of dialogue and conversational scholarship as well as identifying with participants what matters as well as what works as a means to evidence the value of collaborations. It also presents evidence of a new model of co-creating curricula and additional approaches to conceptualising curricula to facilitate collaboration. Analysis of macro and micro level data shows enactment of dialogic pedagogies within contexts of technical-rational strategy formation and implementation.

Immersiveness of ubiquitous computing environments prototypes: A case study

The development of ubiquitous computing (ubicomp) environments raises several challenges in terms of their evaluation. Ubicomp virtual reality prototyping tools enable users to experience the system to be developed and are of great help to face those challenges, as they support developers in assessing the consequences of a design decision in the early phases of development. Given the situated nature of ubicomp environments, a particular issue to consider is the level of realism provided by the prototypes. This work presents a case study where two ubicomp prototypes, featuring different levels of immersion (desktop-based versus CAVE-based), were developed and compared. The goal was to determine the cost/benefits relation of both solutions, which provided better user experience results, and whether or not simpler solutions provide the same user experience results as more elaborate one.

Assessing functional relations in single-case designs: Quantitative proposals in the context of the evidence-based movement

In the context of the evidence-based practices movement, the emphasis on computing effect sizes and combining them via meta-analysis does not preclude the demonstration of functional relations. For the latter aim, we propose to augment the visual analysis to add consistency to the decisions made on the existence of a functional relation without losing sight of the need for a methodological evaluation of what stimuli and reinforcement or punishment are used to control the behavior. Four options for quantification are reviewed, illustrated, and tested with simulated data. These quantifications include comparing the projected baseline with the actual treatment measurements, on the basis of either parametric or nonparametric statistics. The simulated data used to test the quantifications include nine data patterns in terms of the presence and type of effect and comprising ABAB and multiple baseline designs. Although none of the techniques is completely flawless in terms of detecting a functional relation only when it is present but not when it is absent, an option based on projecting split-middle trend and considering data variability as in exploratory data analysis proves to be the best performer for most data patterns. We suggest that the information on whether a functional relation has been demonstrated should be included in meta-analyses. It is also possible to use as a weight the inverse of the data variability measure used in the quantification for assessing the functional relation. We offer an easy to use code for open-source software for implementing some of the quantifications.

Transductive neurofuzzy-based torque control of a milling process: results of a case study

This paper presents the design and implementation of an intelligent control system based on local neurofuzzy models of the milling process relayed through an Ehternet-based application. Its purpose is to control the spindle torque of a milling process by using an internal model control paradigm to modify the feed rate in real time. The stabilization of cutting cutting torque is especially necessary in milling processes such as high-spedd roughing of steel moulds and dies tha present minor geometric uncertainties. Thus, maintenance of the curring torque increaes the material removal rate and reduces the risk of damage due to excessive spindle vibration, a very sensitive and expensive component in all high-speed milling machines. Torque control is therefore an interesting challenge from an industrial point of view.

A Semantic-Based Approach to Attain Reproducibility of Computational Environments in Scientic Work ows: A Case Study

Reproducible research in scientic work ows is often addressed by tracking the provenance of the produced results. While this approach allows inspecting intermediate and nal results, improves understanding, and permits replaying a work ow execution, it does not ensure that the computational environment is available for subsequent executions to reproduce the experiment. In this work, we propose describing the resources involved in the execution of an experiment using a set of semantic vocabularies, so as to conserve the computational environment. We dene a process for documenting the work ow application, management system, and their dependencies based on 4 domain ontologies. We then conduct an experimental evaluation sing a real work ow application on an academic and a public Cloud platform. Results show that our approach can reproduce an equivalent execution environment of a predened virtual machine image on both computing platforms.

A semantic-based approach to attain reproducibility of computational environments in scientific workflows: a case study

Reproducible research in scientific workflows is often addressed by tracking the provenance of the produced results. While this approach allows inspecting intermediate and final results, improves understanding, and permits replaying a workflow execution, it does not ensure that the computational environment is available for subsequent executions to reproduce the experiment. In this work, we propose describing the resources involved in the execution of an experiment using a set of semantic vocabularies, so as to conserve the computational environment. We define a process for documenting the workflow application, management system, and their dependencies based on 4 domain ontologies. We then conduct an experimental evaluation using a real workflow application on an academic and a public Cloud platform. Results show that our approach can reproduce an equivalent execution environment of a predefined virtual machine image on both computing platforms.