The dimensions of trust in interorganizational relationships: how buyer and supplier perspectives differ?

Apesar da pesquisa em confiança interorganizacional e sua relação com performance ter sido conduzida sob as perspectivas da Teoria de Custos de Transação, Teoria das Trocas Sociais e Canais de Marketing, três importantes lacunas na literatura requerem investigação. Primeiro, está em andamento um debate conceitual sobre a multi-dimensionalidade da confiança, e como ela deve ser operacionalizada e medida, e que se divide em três correntes de pensamento - um construto multidimensional definido por dimensões não dominantes, um construto baseado em duas dimensões dominantes (afetiva e calculativa), ou um construto unidimensional. Segundo, existe ambiguidade em como as dimensões da confiança são definidas, levando a artefatos de equivalência nas escalas e resultados contraditórios. Terceiro, as diferentes percepções que compradores e fornecedores podem ter em cada dimensão da confiança e seu impacto na performance logística ainda não estão claros. Esta pesquisa empírica examina a confiança nas relações entre compradores e fornecedores no setor de logística no Brasil, através de duas amostras e estudos independentes: um examina a percepção dos compradores e o outro examina a dos fornecedores. Em seguida, os dois estudos são comparados para determinar as diferentes perspectivas da confiança e as implicações na performance logística. A análise multivariada mostrou que a confiança parece estar presente nas relações interorganizacionais, e é a percepção do comprador que possui maior relação com a performance logística. Ao mesmo tempo, compradores percebem fornecedores de forma mais negativa nas dimensões mensuráveis (competência e performance), enquanto não foram encontradas diferenças nos aspectos sociais (honestidade e benevolência), o que pode ser resultado do ambiente e cultura pesquisados. As análises mostraram que, apesar da confiança poder ser definida como um construto multidimensional, ela deve ser operacionalizada como um construto unidimensional direcionado pela competência e credibilidade. Este estudo contribui para a prática sugerindo formas de aumentar a confiança interorganizacional para aumento da performance.

Determination of the highest no-effect dose (HNED) and of the elimination pattern for cocaine in horses

Cocaine is one of the most widespread illegal stimulants utilized by the human population throughout the world. The aim of this study was to establish the highest no-effect dose (HNED) of cocaine on the spontaneous locomotor activity (SLA) of horses in a behavior chamber, and thereby to determine the maximal acceptable threshold of the urinary drug concentration in horses. Twelve English thoroughbred mares received 0.02, 0.03, 0.04, 0.08 or 0.12 mg kg(-1) cocaine i.v. or saline solution (control). It was noted that doses above 0.04 mg kg(-1) induced a significant increase in SLA (P < 0.05, Tukey's test). No significant increase in SLA was seen in the mares that received 0.03 mg kg(-1), but the animals showed important behavioral changes that did not occur after the 0.02 mg kg(-1) dose. It was concluded that the HNED of cocaine for horses in a behavior chamber is 0.02 mg kg(-1). After injection of this dose in five horses, urine samples were collected at predetermined intervals through vesical catheterization. The concentrations of cocaine, norcocaine, benzoylecgonine and ecgonine methyl ester were quantified by liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry. Cocaine and norcocaine concentrations remained consistently below the level of detection. Benzoylecgonine reached a mean (+/- SEM) maximum concentration of 531.9 +/- 168.7 ng ml(-1) after 4 h, whereas ecgonine methyl ester peaked 2 h after injection at a concentration of 97.2 +/- 26.5 ng ml(-1). The maximum admissible concentration for cocaine and/or metabolites in the urine of horses is difficult to establish unequivocally because of the substantial individual variation in the drug elimination pattern observed in horses, which can be inferred by the large standard error of the means obtained. Copyright (C) 2002 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.

Soil CO2 emission of sugarcane fields as affected by topography

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

Improving the GNSS positioning stochastic model in the presence of ionospheric scintillation

Ionospheric scintillations are caused by time-varying electron density irregularities in the ionosphere, occurring more often at equatorial and high latitudes. This paper focuses exclusively on experiments undertaken in Europe, at geographic latitudes between similar to 50 degrees N and similar to 80 degrees N, where a network of GPS receivers capable of monitoring Total Electron Content and ionospheric scintillation parameters was deployed. The widely used ionospheric scintillation indices S4 and sigma(phi) represent a practical measure of the intensity of amplitude and phase scintillation affecting GNSS receivers. However, they do not provide sufficient information regarding the actual tracking errors that degrade GNSS receiver performance. Suitable receiver tracking models, sensitive to ionospheric scintillation, allow the computation of the variance of the output error of the receiver PLL (Phase Locked Loop) and DLL (Delay Locked Loop), which expresses the quality of the range measurements used by the receiver to calculate user position. The ability of such models of incorporating phase and amplitude scintillation effects into the variance of these tracking errors underpins our proposed method of applying relative weights to measurements from different satellites. That gives the least squares stochastic model used for position computation a more realistic representation, vis-a-vis the otherwise 'equal weights' model. For pseudorange processing, relative weights were computed, so that a 'scintillation-mitigated' solution could be performed and compared to the (non-mitigated) 'equal weights' solution. An improvement between 17 and 38% in height accuracy was achieved when an epoch by epoch differential solution was computed over baselines ranging from 1 to 750 km. The method was then compared with alternative approaches that can be used to improve the least squares stochastic model such as weighting according to satellite elevation angle and by the inverse of the square of the standard deviation of the code/carrier divergence (sigma CCDiv). The influence of multipath effects on the proposed mitigation approach is also discussed. With the use of high rate scintillation data in addition to the scintillation indices a carrier phase based mitigated solution was also implemented and compared with the conventional solution. During a period of occurrence of high phase scintillation it was observed that problems related to ambiguity resolution can be reduced by the use of the proposed mitigated solution.

GPS Satellite Kinematic Relative Positioning: Analyzing and Improving the Functional Mathematical Model Using Wavelets

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

Influence of different light sources and photo-activation methods on degree of conversion and polymerization shrinkage of a nanocomposite resin

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Adaptation of the reservoir fish assemblage index (RFAI) for assessing the Barra Bonita Reservoir (São Paulo, Brazil)

In order to evaluate the environmental condition of the Barra Bonita Reservoir, we adapted the Index of Biotic Integrity (IBI). We chose 24 sampling sites in which three types of habitats were sampled: the mouths of tributaries, the central reservoir and the lateral reservoir. Fish were caught in two seasons (dry and rainy) using 10 gillnet gangs, with meshes ranging from 3 to 12 cm between opposite knots, and funnel traps. Abiotic and biotic variables were measured. Due to the artificial nature of the reservoir, the term biotic integrity was considered inappropriate and the term RFAI (Reservoir Fish Assemblage Index) was adopted. Twelve metrics from sixteen possibles were selected using the Pearson correlation coefficient. The reference conditions were set up based on the criteria of the best condition observed. For each metric, a score of 1, 3 or 5 was assigned as it strongly departs (1), slightly departs (3) or approaches (5) the reference condition. The index value is the sum of the metrics partial scores and ranges from 12 to 60. To evaluate the importance of the unit of measurement of the metric, the index was calculated in fish number (RFAI(N)) and in weight (RFAI(w)). The correlation between RFAIN and RFAIw was very high (r = 0.90, n = 46) indicating that the unit of measurement does not influence the final result of the index. Most of the sampling sites were classified in the 'reasonable' RFAI category. Only the central sites were classified as 'poor'. To validate the RFAI, another index, the Habitat Quality Index (HQI), was built starting from the physiochemical and habitat variables collected. The correlation of the RFAI with the HQI was highly significant (RFAIN, r = 0.37; RFAI(w), r = 0.47; n = 46), indicating that they respond in the same way to environmental degradation. The HQI metrics which most affect RFAI were depth, surrounding landscape and macrophyte presence/absence. Copyright C) 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Utilização do intercepto-y na avaliação da aptidão anaeróbia e predição da performance de nadadores treinados

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

Universal behavior of a trapped Fermi superfluid in the BCS-unitarity crossover

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

Carbon Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopic Profiles coupled to Partial Least-Squares Multivariate Regression for Prediction of Several Physicochemical Parameters of Brazilian Commercial Gasoline

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Multivariate calibrations in gas chromatographic profiles for prediction of several physicochemical parameters of Brazilian commercial gasoline

Several Brazilian commercial gasoline physicochemical parameters, such as relative density, distillation curve (temperatures related to 10%, 50% and 90% of distilled volume, final boiling point and residue), octane numbers (motor and research octane number and anti-knock index), hydrocarbon compositions (olefins, aromatics and saturates) and anhydrous ethanol and benzene content was predicted from chromatographic profiles obtained by flame ionization detection (GC-FID) and using partial least square regression (PLS). GC-FID is a technique intensively used for fuel quality control due to its convenience, speed, accuracy and simplicity and its profiles are much easier to interpret and understand than results produced by other techniques. Another advantage is that it permits association with multivariate methods of analysis, such as PLS. The chromatogram profiles were recorded and used to deploy PLS models for each property. The standard error of prediction (SEP) has been the main parameter considered to select the "best model". Most of GC-FID-PLS results, when compared to those obtained by the Brazilian Government Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels Agency - ANP Regulation 309 specification methods, were very good. In general, all PLS models developed in these work provide unbiased predictions with lows standard error of prediction and percentage average relative error (below 11.5 and 5.0, respectively). (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The effect of bulk light absorption on running photorefractive holograms

The influence of bulk light absorption on running photorefractive holograms is investigated. By solving the coupled wave equations we prove that the beam intensities, but not the beam phases, can be calculated by averaging the coupling constant over the crystal thickness. We show the importance of the effect by calculating the dielectric relaxation time at the crystal front, and from that the quantum efficiency from a feedback-controlled experiment with a 2.05 mm thick BTO crystal.We propose to simulate the effect of bulk light absorption by a rude estimate of the average dielectric relaxation time which is related in a simple way to the dielectric relaxation time at the crystal front, in doing so an error of less than 10% is introduced.

Genetic evaluation of the probability of pregnancy at 14 months for Nellore heifers

To estimate the heritability for the probability that yearling heifers would become pregnant, we analyzed the records of 11,487 Nellore animals that participated in breeding seasons at three farms in the Brazilian states of São Paulo and Mato Grosso do Sul. All heifers were exposed to a bull at the age of about 14 mo. The probability of pregnancy was analyzed as a categorical trait, with a value of 1 (success) assigned to heifers that were diagnosed pregnant by rectal palpation about 60 d after the end of the breeding season of 90 d and a value of 0 (failure) assigned to those that were not pregnant at that time. The estimate of heritability, obtained by Method 9, was 0.57 with standard error of 0.01. The EPD was predicted using a maximum a posteriori threshold method and was expressed as deviations from 50% probability. The range in EPD was -24.50 to 24.55%, with a mean of 0.78% and a SD of 7.46%. We conclude that EPD for probability of pregnancy can be used to select heifers with a higher probability of being fertile. However, it is mainly recommended for the selection of bulls for the production of precocious daughters because the accuracy of prediction is higher for bulls, depending on their number of daughters.

Electrical transport properties of doped poly (p-phenylene)

An experimental study of the temperature dependent dc electrical conductivity of doped poly (p-phenylene) in the range of 50-300 K has been presented. The results have been analyzed in the framework of some hopping models. We have observed that hopping models are not consistent with the temperature dependence of the conductivity data over the entire temperature range of measurement. We find that the logarithmic conductivity is proportional to T-beta, wherethe exponent beta is independent of temperature. It is shown that the most probable transport process in this material for the entire range of temperature is due to multiphonon-assisted hopping of the charge carriers that interact weakly with phonons. The parameters obtained from the fits of the experimental data to this model appear reasonable.

ITERATIVE NUMERICAL-SOLUTION OF SCATTERING PROBLEMS

An iterative Neumann series method, employing a real auxiliary scattering integral equation, is used to calculate scattering lengths and phase shifts for the atomic Yukawa and exponential potentials. For these potentials the original Neumann series diverges. The present iterative method yields results that are far better, in convergence, stability and precision, than other momentum space methods. Accurate result is obtained in both cases with an estimated error of about 1 in 10(10) after some 8-10 iterations.