Multilayer optimization in radio resource allocation for the packet transmission in wireless networks

In the last decade mobile wireless communications have witnessed an explosive growth in the user’s penetration rate and their widespread deployment around the globe. It is expected that this tendency will continue to increase with the convergence of fixed Internet wired networks with mobile ones and with the evolution to the full IP architecture paradigm. Therefore mobile wireless communications will be of paramount importance on the development of the information society of the near future. In particular a research topic of particular relevance in telecommunications nowadays is related to the design and implementation of mobile communication systems of 4th generation. 4G networks will be characterized by the support of multiple radio access technologies in a core network fully compliant with the Internet Protocol (all IP paradigm). Such networks will sustain the stringent quality of service (QoS) requirements and the expected high data rates from the type of multimedia applications to be available in the near future. The approach followed in the design and implementation of the mobile wireless networks of current generation (2G and 3G) has been the stratification of the architecture into a communication protocol model composed by a set of layers, in which each one encompasses some set of functionalities. In such protocol layered model, communications is only allowed between adjacent layers and through specific interface service points. This modular concept eases the implementation of new functionalities as the behaviour of each layer in the protocol stack is not affected by the others. However, the fact that lower layers in the protocol stack model do not utilize information available from upper layers, and vice versa, downgrades the performance achieved. This is particularly relevant if multiple antenna systems, in a MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) configuration, are implemented. MIMO schemes introduce another degree of freedom for radio resource allocation: the space domain. Contrary to the time and frequency domains, radio resources mapped into the spatial domain cannot be assumed as completely orthogonal, due to the amount of interference resulting from users transmitting in the same frequency sub-channel and/or time slots but in different spatial beams. Therefore, the availability of information regarding the state of radio resources, from lower to upper layers, is of fundamental importance in the prosecution of the levels of QoS expected from those multimedia applications. In order to match applications requirements and the constraints of the mobile radio channel, in the last few years researches have proposed a new paradigm for the layered architecture for communications: the cross-layer design framework. In a general way, the cross-layer design paradigm refers to a protocol design in which the dependence between protocol layers is actively exploited, by breaking out the stringent rules which restrict the communication only between adjacent layers in the original reference model, and allowing direct interaction among different layers of the stack. An efficient management of the set of available radio resources demand for the implementation of efficient and low complexity packet schedulers which prioritize user’s transmissions according to inputs provided from lower as well as upper layers in the protocol stack, fully compliant with the cross-layer design paradigm. Specifically, efficiently designed packet schedulers for 4G networks should result in the maximization of the capacity available, through the consideration of the limitations imposed by the mobile radio channel and comply with the set of QoS requirements from the application layer. IEEE 802.16e standard, also named as Mobile WiMAX, seems to comply with the specifications of 4G mobile networks. The scalable architecture, low cost implementation and high data throughput, enable efficient data multiplexing and low data latency, which are attributes essential to enable broadband data services. Also, the connection oriented approach of Its medium access layer is fully compliant with the quality of service demands from such applications. Therefore, Mobile WiMAX seems to be a promising 4G mobile wireless networks candidate. In this thesis it is proposed the investigation, design and implementation of packet scheduling algorithms for the efficient management of the set of available radio resources, in time, frequency and spatial domains of the Mobile WiMAX networks. The proposed algorithms combine input metrics from physical layer and QoS requirements from upper layers, according to the crosslayer design paradigm. Proposed schedulers are evaluated by means of system level simulations, conducted in a system level simulation platform implementing the physical and medium access control layers of the IEEE802.16e standard.

BURNOUT: analisando a síndrome do ramo das indústrias alimentícias do Rio Grande do Norte

This paper aims to verify the Burnout´s possibilities of incidence, finding the creating dimensions and comparing with the socio-demographics characteristics of the researched professionals. This quantitative-descriptive search has a population of 197 workers of 23 nourishing companies in Rio Grande do Norte. This population is predominantly male, younger than 28 years old, single, relatively instructed (57,07% with complete high school) and having just started their current job since 79% of the interviewees are in the company less than six years. The AUDITORIA DO SISTEMA HUMANO (ASH) model, utilized for investigation and developed for the Spaniards Quijano and Navarro in 1999, has several dimensions about human resources management and the organizational effectiveness, but only makes part of the research in 19 questions Burnout referring. It was used factorial analyses with extraction method, varimax rotation and Kaiser normalization with the intuition to define the creating dimensions of the syndrome, they were evaluated with Cronbach Alpha coefficient after extraction. The dimensions found through the factorial analyses were: emotional exhaustion, physical exhaustion and vitality. The accumulated explanation value reached 65,30% of total variation. The data socio-demographics don t justify the syndrome appearance, because the T test and ANOVA showed irrelevant values. It has been also observed that the founded dimensions were different of the Maslach sociopsychological perspective (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and low professional realization) allowing comparison with others researches and the possibility to develop new ones with workers from different assistance areas. These new researches are important, since the syndrome refers to chronic labor stress consequences and any professional is favorable to Burnout, harmful to the company as to the collaborators

Os programas de incentivo à cultura e o processo de fomento às organizações culturais no rio grande do norte: o caso da Casa da Ribeira em Natal

Since the emergence of the first demands for actions that were intended to give greater attention to culture in Brazil, came the first discussions which concerned the way the Brazilian government could have a positive influence in encouraging the culture, as is its interaction with the actors interested and involved with the cause. During the military dictatorship, there were programs which relied on the direct participation of the State to ensure that right, from the viewpoint of its support and implementation of public resources in developing the "cultural product" to be brought to society in its various forms of expression - all this, funded by the government. It is an example of "EMBRAFILMES" and "Projeto Seis e Meia", continued until the present day in some regions of the country, though maintained by entities not directly connected with the administration or the government. However, it was from the period of democratization and the end of the dictatorship that the Brazilian government began to look at the different culture, under its guarantee to the society. Came the first incentive laws, led by "Lei Sarney" Nº 7.505/86, which was culture as a segment which could receive foreign assistance in order to assist the government in fulfilling its public duty. After Collor era and the end of the embargo through the encouragement of culture incentive laws, consolidated the incentive model proposed in advance of Culture "Lei Sarney" and the federal laws, state and local regimentares as close to this action. This applies to the Rouanet Law (Lei Rouanet), Câmara Cascudo Law (Lei Câmara Cascudo) and Djalma Maranhão Cultural Incentive Law (Lei de Incentivo à Cultura Djalma Maranhão), existing in Natal and Rio Grande do Norte. Since then, business entities could help groups and cultural organizations to keep their work from the political sponsorship under control and regiment through the Brazilian state in the form of their Cultural Incentive Law. This framework has contributed to the strengthening of NGOs and with the consolidation of these institutions as the linchpin of Republican guaranteeing the right to access to culture, but corporate social responsibility was the one who took off in the segment treated here, through the actions of Responsibility Cultural enterprises arising from the Cultural Organizations. Therefore, in the face of this discourse, this study ascertains the process of encouraging the Culture in Rio Grande do Norte from the Deviant Case Analysis at the Casa da Ribeira, the main Cultural Organization that operates, focused action in Natal in order to assess the relationships established between the same entity and the institutions which are entitled to maintain the process of encouraging treated in this study - Enterprise, from the viewpoint of corporate sponsorship and Cultural Responsibility and State in the form of the Laws Incentive Funds and Public Culture Incentive

A saúde psíquica de quem faz saúde: uma análise crítica sobre a humanização direcionada ao profissional de saúde

It is noticeable that pressure, tension and overwork are frequent in health professionals routine. The work related to the ward area demands deep attention and surveillance. Because of that, it is essential to have a specific look at the humanization directed at health professionals, considering that taking care of other human beings is the essence of their job. This study has analyzed the psychic health levels, as well as the stress health professionals are submitted to, providing a debate about the humanization in 06 public hospitals (03 of them awarded by actions of humanization, and 03 not awarded) in Rio Grande do Norte state, Brazil. A study with 126 active health professionals (doctors, nurses, psychologists, nutritionists and social workers) in ward areas in their respective institutions was carried out. The thesis presented, with multi-disciplinary characteristic, counted on the support of statisticians (to calculate samples and data analysis), psychologists, social workers and administrators (linked to the human resources sector in each hospital). A cross-sectional study was performed, taking into consideration both quantitative and qualitative factors. The tools used for that were a semistructured questionnaire with socio-demographic characteristics, work and humanization; Lipp's Stress Symptoms Inventory for Adults (ISSL), and the Goldberg s General Health Questionnaire (QSG). The workers are predominantly women (84,9%), married (54,8%), between 46 and 55 years old (40,5%), working in the same institution for more than 20 years (22,2%), and between 16 and 20 years (20,6%), respectively. They work 40 hours a week (71,4%) and have multiple jobs (61,9%). Although most of these individuals global psychic health is in a good level, there are a significant number of people that is gradually getting worse concerning psychic stress (F1) showed by QSG (54,7%), and stress showed by ISSL(42,1%). Observing the categories, nurses (41,5%). Nutritionists (20,8%), doctors and social workers (18,9%), were among the most affected. About general health (F6), 63% of the awarded hospitals and 70% of the not awarded ones, presented good health levels (ranging from 5 to 50%). It was also noticed that, in the groups mentioned above, 25 and 20% respectively, were inserted in scores between 55 to 90%, what means that they are in worsening phase. The fact that the hospital is awarded or well recognized doesn t interfere in health professionals stress level and in their psychic health. Through what was heard from these individuals, it was possible to verify that they know little about humanization, once few of them identify or know that the service they offer is in an adoption process by Ministerial Policies. It was also detected the necessity of developing actions aimed at worker s health. Such results showed the importance of have more investments in programs that are directed to workers well-being, because they deal with other people s health and it is known that it is difficult for them to offer high-quality assistance if there are not suitable physical, psychological and material conditions to help them develop their jobs. As a warning, it is fair to say that investments in actions that provide humanized care to health professionals, mainly concerning preventive care for their health and life quality in their work

Otimização do Uso das Águas da Barragem Santa Cruz-RN

The semiarid potiguar presents a quite discrepant. It is a region with one of the highest rates of artificial lake the world, but the policy of building dams to mitigate the problem of water scarcity does not solve, given that they have not demonstrated the ability to ensure supply human priority during periods of great drought and fail to solve the widespread demand existent in the semiarid. This work aims to present the optimal allocation of water, according to multiple uses and limited availability of water resources in the reservoir, from the simulation of the operation of the same, with the application of techniques to support decision making and performance evaluation alternatives for water use. The reservoir of Santa Cruz, the second largest reservoir of RN with storage capacity of approximately 600 million cubic meters, located about 20 km from the town of Apodi in RN, was conceived as a way to promote economic development in the region as well as the water supply of nearby towns. The techniques used are the simulation model of network flow ACQUANET and also the set of performance indicators. The results showed that the container has the capacity to serve up to 3,83m3/s flow required by existing uses, without any compromising the same. However, it was also observed that all anticipated future demands are implemented it will generate failures in meeting some uses

A Proposal for System Performance Evaluation for an ERP Knowledge Extraction Model

Much has been researched and discussed in the importance played by knowledge in organizations. We are witnessing the establishment of the knowledge economy, but this "new economy" brings in itself a whole complex system of metrics and evaluations, and cannot be dissociated from it. Due to its importance, the initiatives of knowledge management must be continually assessed on their progress in order to verify whether they are moving towards achieving the goals of success. Thus, good measurement practices should include not only how the organization quantifies its knowledge capital, but also how resources are allocated to supply their growth. Thinking about the aspects listed above, this paper presents an approach to a model for Knowledge extraction using an ERP system, suggesting the establishment of a set of indicators for assessing organizational performance. The objective is to evaluate the implementation of projects of knowledge management and thus observe the general development of the organization.

PET containers in Brazil: Opportunities and challenges of a logistics model for post-consumer waste recycling

The use of post-consumer materials is directly related to reducing the cost of production and extraction of natural resources. Non-recyclable materials are randomly disposed in the environment. Brazil is one of the largest consumers of PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles. The purpose of this paper is to describe the opportunities and challenges of the logistics model for post-consumer PET bottle recycling in Brazil, while providing knowledge of its practices along the recycling chain. The results describe the need to educate those directly and indirectly involved in the process: to reduce consumption in order to reduce the amount of waste generated: to structure the post-consumer reverse chain and engage industrial sectors and government, through public policies, to support cleaner technologies along the PET bottle production chain. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Open and Standardized Resources for Smart Transducer Networking

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Gestão por Competências em Organizações Públicas: O Processo de Transformação Organizacional e seus Impactos Junto aos Servidores na Secretaria Estadual de Administração e Recursos Humanos (SEARH/RN)

The state has changed over time in order to meet a society with increasingly stringent demands. Techniques of private means begin to be employed in an attempt to overcome the dysfunctions entrenched bureaucracy, making the machine faster. By federal law by the People Management Skills was established as a reference for the administration of Human Resources of the public sector in an attempt to develop professionally servers, based mainly on the three pillars of the model: the knowledge, skills and attitudes. This thesis aims at understanding, in the view of employees, the perceived impacts on the organizational changes occurring in the Department of Administration and Human Resources of the State of Rio Grande do Norte in order to implement a People Management Skills-based. It is a simple case study, characterized by the research during a certain period of time, collecting data in a real environment of an organization, in this case SEARH/RN. The procedures used in collecting data were the literature review, documental research and field research. We used a qualitative approach with exploratory and descriptive approach. Every reform was implemented in the institution and reported from there analyzed the impacts observed by the servers. As a result we observed a considerable advance in institutional activities, mainly relating to physical structure / organizational and human resource policies, with minor advances on labor policies, in much the result of the guiding focus of the reform on SEARH/RN. The impacts in total were more positive than negative and direct paths to improvement in public organizations. Making a general analysis of the modernization program implemented in SEARH/RN, we can conclude that there was a distinct change in all dimensions studied, mostly pointing out positive aspects, and contrary to the opinion of some authors, who claim to be very difficult to implement reforms in public organizations, since they are highly institutionalized environments. What was found was a big organization, with gaps and weaknesses, but with a much larger number of hits and recognition from institutional actors

As implicações sociais da deficiência auditiva adquirida em adultos

O objetivo deste estudo foi analisar as implicações da surdez adquirida em adultos, na vida familiar, social e no trabalho, com uma abordagem qualitativa. Foram selecionadas 27 pessoas residentes em Bauru-SP, com diagnóstico de perda auditiva de manifestação súbita na faixa etária de 18 a 60 anos, matriculados no Hospital de Reabilitação de Anomalias Craniofaciais (HRAC/USP) entre janeiro de 2000 e fevereiro de 2005, sendo entrevistados 16. Utilizaram-se a entrevista e a análise de conteúdo. Constatou-se: a perda auditiva ocorreu entre os 40 e 44 anos, 37,5%; 62,5% dos que perderam a audição eram do sexo masculino, 62,5% não tinham o ensino fundamental; 62,5% eram da classe Baixa Superior; 75% apresentaram perda auditiva bilateral, 18,75% de grau moderado/profundo. Dos 13 que estavam trabalhando quando perderam a audição, 30,77% pararam de trabalhar e 15,38% mudaram de profissão. Foram relatadas situações como: afastamento do trabalho, demissão a pedido e demissão pelo empregador, dificuldade de aceitação, cobranças, falta de esclarecimentos e desconhecimento dos próprios profissionais de saúde. Os dados sugerem a necessidade dos recursos de reabilitação, de apoio terapêutico, respeito e alternativas de conhecimentos.

Larval competition for patchy resources in Chrysomya megacephala (Dipt., Calliphoridae): implications of the spatial distribution of immatures

In the present study, a single procedure was established to investigate the effect of the spatial distribution of immatures in patchy resources, on the outcome of larval competition for food. in experimental populations of Chrysomya megacephala. A theoretical model of intraspecific competition was extended and applied to experimental data on survival to adulthood for 20 larval densities, to obtain the theoretical mean number of individuals that will survive, considering a hypothetical previous random adult oviposition in a system of homogeneous patches. The survival curve obtained suggests that the larval competition for food in C. megacephala is of the scramble/exploitative type, which corroborates results from previous studies, although the latter did not consider the correlation between local and global abundances. The present model allows that experimental data could be perfectly applicable, and it incorporates fundamental assumptions about the spatial context of competition for patchy resources in blowflies, and may be applied to the optimization of mass rearing techniques and to the maintenance of insect colonies under experimental conditions.

The hierarchical model of branch planning with random coefficients

We consider the management branch model where the random resources of the subsystem are given by the exponential distributions. The determinate equivalent is a block structure problem of quadratic programming. It is solved effectively by means of the decomposition method, which is based on iterative aggregation. The aggregation problem of the upper level is resolved analytically. This overcomes all difficulties concerning the large dimension of the main problem.

Exploitation of floral resources on Sparattosperma leucanthum (Bignoniaceae): foraging activity of the pollinators and the nectar and pollen thieves

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Youth and social cohesion in Ibero-America: a model in the making. Summary

Includes bibliography

Regulation, worker protection and active labour-market policies in Latin America

Includes bibliography