Integrated Product Development in Truck Industry - A Case Study on Product Development Processes

This paper presents the result from a case study at Scania on product development processes. The objective with the case study was to gather information on Scania’s product development process (PDP) including the use of CAD and simulation tools, and project work. The objective was also to find any deviations or different interpretations among the employees on the PDP. To gather the information, semi-structured tape-recorded interviews have been used to ensure that individual interpretations from the interviewees could be gathered. Scania uses a defined and structured PDP which facilitates concurrent and cross-functional work. The PDP is implemented and followed to various degrees. The newly employed personnel may have difficulties with communication, both to find and to give information. Although, newly graduated personnel may find it easier to adapt to changes, and also to use a structured process which they have studied at universities. It was also known during the case study that the PDP is a major support for the newly employed personnel, which in turn decreases the time to get into the same working process as the more experienced personnel. Employees with decades of experience know the right sources from which to both give and gather information. Also, the terminology and definitions in the product development process may not be used as intended. This makes it difficult for other project members or teams who need to interpret the information received. At the same time, the routines among the more experienced personnel, which have been set-up throughout the years, make them more inflexible in adapting changes. The findings in the case study as well as challenges with implementing the PDP are known to Scania and are a part of the continuing work with improvement.

The impact of big-boxes on local retail : What happens when IKEA comes to town?

The development of large discount retailers, or big-boxes as they are sometimes referred to, are often subject to heated debate and their entry on a market is greeted with either great enthusiasm or dread. For instance, the world’s largest retailer Wal-Mart (Forbes 2014) has a number of anti- and pro-groups dedicated to its being and the event of a Wal-Mart entry tends to be met with protests and campaigns (Decamme 2013) but also welcomed by, for instance, consumers (Davis & DeBonis 2013). Also in Sweden, the entry of a big box is a hot topic and before IKEA’s opening i Borlänge 2013, the first in Sweden in more than five years, great expectations were mixed with worry (Västerbottens-Kuriren 2011).The presence of large scale discount retailers is not, however, a novel phenomenon but a part of a long-term change in retailing that has taken place globally over the past couple of decades (Taylor & Smalling, 2005). As noted by Dawson (2006), the trend in Europe has over the past few decades gone towards an increasing concentration of large firms along with a decrease of smaller firms.This trend is also detectable in the Swedish retail industry. Over the past decade, the retailing industry in Sweden has increased by around 190 Billion SEK, and its share of GDP has risen from 2,7% to 2,9%, while the number of employees have increased from 200 000 to 250 000 (HUI 2013). This growth, however, has not been distributed evenly but rather it has been oriented mainly towards out-of-town retail clusters. Parallel to this development, the number of large retailers has risen at the expense of market shares of smaller independent firms (Rämme et al 2010). Thereby, the presence of large scale retailers is simply part of a changing retail landscape.The effects of this development, where large scale retailing agents relocate shopping to out-of-town shopping areas, have been heavily debated. On the one hand, the big-boxes are accused of displacing independent small retail businesses in the city-centers and the residential areas, resulting in, to some extent, reduced employment opportunities and less availability for the consumers - especially the elderly (Ljungberg et al 2006). In addition, as access to shopping now tends to require some sort of a motorized vehicle, environmental aspects to the discussion have emerged. Ultimately these types of concerns have resulted in calls for regulations against this development (Olsson 2010). On the other hand, the proponents of the new shopping landscape argue that this evolution implies productivity gains, the benefits of lower prices and an increased variety of products (Maican & Orth 2012). Moreover it is argued that it leads to, for instance, better services (such as longer opening hours) and a creative destruction transformation pressure on retailers, which brings about a renewal of city-centerIIretail and services, increasing their attractivity (Bergström 2010). The belief in benefits of a big box entry can be exemplified by the attractivity of IKEA, and the fact that municipalities are prepared to commit to expenses amounting up to hundreds of millions in order to attract the entry of this big-box. Borlänge municipality, for instance, agreed to expenses of about 350 million SEK in order to secure the entry of IKEA, which opened in 2013 (Blomgren 2009).Against this backdrop, the overall effects of large discount retailers become important: Are the economic benefits enough to warrant subsidies or are there, on the contrary, some very compelling grounds for regulations against these types of establishments? In other words; how is overall retail in a region where a store like IKEA enters affected? And how are local retail firms affected?In order to answer these questions, the purpose of this thesis is to study how entry of a big-box retailer affects the entry region. The object of this study is IKEA - one of the world’s largest retailers, with 345 stores, active in over 40 countries and with profits of about 3.3 billion (IKEA 2013; IKEA 2014). By studying the effects of IKEA-entry, both on an aggregated level and on firm level, this thesis intends to find indications of how large discount retail establishments in general can be expected to affect the economic development both in a region overall, but also on the local firm level, something which is of interest to both policymakers as well as the retailing industry in general.The first paper examines the effects of IKEA on retail revenues and employment in the municipalities that IKEA chose to enter between 2000 and 2011; Gothenburg, Haparanda, Kalmar and Karlstad. By means of a matching method we first identify non-entry municipalities that have a similar probability of IKEA entry as the true entry municipalities. Then, using these non-entry municipalities as a control group, the causal effects of IKEA entry can be estimated using a treatment-control approach. We also extend the analysis to examine the spatial impact of IKEA by estimating the effects on retail in neighboring municipalities. It is found that a new IKEA store increases revenues in durable goods trade with 20% in the entry municipality and the number of employees with 17%. Only small, and in most cases statistically insignificant, negative effects were found in neighboring municipalities.It appears that there is a positive net effect on durables retail sales and employment in the entry municipality. However, the analysis is based on data on an aggregated municipality level and thereby it remains unclear if and how the effects vary within the entry municipalities. In addition, the data used in the first study includes the sales and employment of IKEA itself, which could account for the majority of the increases in employment and retail. Thereby the potential spillover effects on incumbent retailers in the entry municipalities cannot be discerned in the first study.IIITo examine effects of IKEA entry on incumbent retail firms, the second paper in this thesis analyses how IKEA entry affects the revenues and employment of local retail firms in three municipalities; Haparanda, Kalmar and Karlstad, which experienced entry by IKEA between 2000 and 2010. In this second study, we exclude Gothenburg due to the fact that big-box entry appears to have weaker effects in metropolitan areas (as indicated by Artz & Stone 2006). By excluding Gothenburg we aim to reduce the geographical heterogeneity in our study. We obtain control municipalities that are as similar as possible to the three entry municipalities using the same method as in the previous study, but including a slightly different set of variables in the selection equation. Using similar retail firms in the control municipalities as our comparison group, we estimate the impact of IKEA entry on revenues and employment for retail firms located at varying distances from the IKEA entry site.The results generated in this study imply that entry by IKEA increases revenues in incumbent retail firms by, on average, 11% in the entry municipalities. In addition, we do not find any significant impact on retail revenues in the city centers of the entry municipalities. However, we do find that retail firms within 1 km of the IKEA experience increases in revenues of about 26%, which indicates large spillover effects in the area nearby the entry site. As expected, this impact decreases as we expand the buffer zone: firms located between 0-2 km experiences a 14% increase and firms in 2-5 km experiences an increase of 10%. We do not find any significant impacts on retail employment.

Coachande ledarskap : En utvärdering av genomförd ledarutveckling inom Borlängekommun

This is a thesis in Personal- och Arbetslivsprogrammet at Dalarna University with thepurpose of evaluating an education initiative in Borlänge kommun. The educationCoaching Leadership is an initiative for the managers in the organization to exercisegood leadership and the education also serves as an incentive for managers. Eightbusiness managers and one from the HR staff have completed the training. Out of thetotal 9 participants in the training, six of them took part in this evaluation. Based on thethesis aim and questions we wanted to explore participants' attitudes to the education,and what skills and abilities they have acquired on the basis of educational goals andcontent. To obtain results, a semi-structured interview methodology was used, this inorder to get answers to predefined questions while the participants would have theopportunity to give an as broad picture as possible.The result of this evaluation demonstrates that the participants are in favor of trainingand they've got the tools, knowledge and ability to apply coaching in their job role,which was included in the educational goals. For the CL-education to promote theorganization's development potential, the participants mentions that it takes time totrain and that employees must have the knowledge of the organization's educationaldirection.

Determinants and effects of central bank independence reforms

This thesis consists of four empirically oriented papers on central bank independence (CBI) reforms.    Paper [1] is an investigation of why politicians around the world have chosen to give up power to independent central banks, thereby reducing their ability to control the economy. A new data-set, including the possible occurrence of CBI-reforms in 132 countries during 1980-2005, was collected. Politicians in non-OECD countries were more likely to delegate power to independent central banks if their country had been characterized by high variability in inflation and if they faced a high probability of being replaced. No such effects were found for OECD countries.    Paper [2], using a difference-in-difference approach, studies whether CBI reform matters for inflation performance. The analysis is based on a dataset including the possible occurrence of CBI-reforms in 132 countries during the period of 1980-2005. CBI reform is found to have contributed to bringing down inflation in high-inflation countries, but it seems unrelated to inflation performance in low-inflation countries.    Paper [3] investigates whether CBI-reforms are important in reducing inflation and maintaining price stability, using a random-effects random-coefficients model to account for heterogeneity in the effects of CBI-reforms on inflation. CBI-reforms are found to have reduced inflation on average by 3.31 percent, but the effect is only present when countries with historically high inflation rates are included in the sample. Countries with more modest inflation rates have achieved low inflation without institutional reforms that grant central banks more independence, thus undermining the time-inconsistency theory case for CBI. There is furthermore no evidence that CBI-reforms have contributed to lower inflation variability    Paper [4] studies the relationship between CBI and a suggested trade-off between price variability and output variability using data on CBI-levels, and data the on implementation dates of CBI-reforms. The results question the existence of such a trade-off, but indicate that there may still be potential gains in stabilization policy from CBI-reforms.

En översikt av vilka faktorer som har samband med patientens upplevelse av kontinuitet i vården : En litteraturstudie

Forskning visar på att patienter önskar kontinuitet, då de upplever att det bidrar till känslan av trygghet och närhet. Det ger sjuksköterskan möjlighet att lära känna personen och en möjlighet att bättre följa upp gjorda åtgärder. Syfte Syftet med denna studie var att beskriva vilka faktorer som har samband med patientens upplevelse av kontinuitet i vården. Metod Studien har genomförts som en litteraturstudie. Resultat Resultatet visade att det var viktigt för kontinuiteten att de fick träffa en sjuksköterska som de kände sedan tidigare och att det var samma sjuksköterska vid alla vårdtillfällen. Det var även viktigt att sjuksköterskan de träffade var uppdaterad på deras medicinska historia. En viktig faktor som höjde kontinuiteten var om patienten hade en kronisk sjukdom, då de patienterna oftare kräver regelbunden uppföljning med fler besök hos vården. Patienterna upplevde större kontinuitet om vården utfördes av sjuksköterska istället för av andra vårdgivare Sjuksköterskorna var mer anpassningsbara, flexibla och tog sig mer tid med patienten. Slutsats Studien visar att kontinuitet är något som patienter upplever som viktigt när de möter vården men det saknas forskning om hur vården ska organiseras, för att kontinuiteten ska upplevas bättre ur ett patientperspektiv, balanserat mot organisationens behov av att spara tid och pengar.

Fred: An approach to generating real, correct, reusable programs from proofs

In this paper we describe our system for automatically extracting "correct" programs from proofs using a development of the Curry-Howard process. Although program extraction has been developed by many authors, our system has a number of novel features designed to make it very easy to use and as close as possible to ordinary mathematical terminology and practice. These features include 1. the use of Henkin's technique to reduce higher-order logic to many-sorted (first-order) logic; 2. the free use of new rules for induction subject to certain conditions; 3. the extensive use of previously programmed (total, recursive) functions; 4. the use of templates to make the reasoning much closer to normal mathematical proofs and 5. a conceptual distinction between the computational type theory (for representing programs)and the logical type theory (for reasoning about programs). As an example of our system we give a constructive proof of the well known theorem that every graph of even parity, which is non-trivial in the sense that it does not consist of isolated vertices, has a cycle. Given such a graph as input, the extracted program produces a cycle as promised.

Mapping Attribution Metadata to the Open Provenance Model

A description of a data item's provenance can be provided in dierent forms, and which form is best depends on the intended use of that description. Because of this, dierent communities have made quite distinct underlying assumptions in their models for electronically representing provenance. Approaches deriving from the library and archiving communities emphasise agreed vocabulary by which resources can be described and, in particular, assert their attribution (who created the resource, who modied it, where it was stored etc.) The primary purpose here is to provide intuitive metadata by which users can search for and index resources. In comparison, models for representing the results of scientific workflows have been developed with the assumption that each event or piece of intermediary data in a process' execution can and should be documented, to give a full account of the experiment undertaken. These occurrences are connected together by stating where one derived from, triggered, or otherwise caused another, and so form a causal graph. Mapping between the two approaches would be benecial in integrating systems and exploiting the strengths of each. In this paper, we specify such a mapping between Dublin Core and the Open Provenance Model. We further explain the technical issues to overcome and the rationale behind the approach, to allow the same method to apply in mapping similar schemes.

Medical treatment and the good death: an ethical analysis of euthanasia, physician assisted suicide, and the right to die

Frequent advances in medical technologies have brought fonh many innovative treatments that allow medical teams to treal many patients with grave illness and serious trauma who would have died only a few years earlier. These changes have given some patients a second chance at life, but for others. these new treatments have merely prolonged their dying. Instead of dying relatively painlessly, these unfortunate patients often suffer from painful tenninal illnesses or exist in a comatose state that robs them of their dignity, since they cannot survive without advanced and often dehumanizing forms of treatment. Due to many of these concerns, euthanasia has become a central issue in medical ethics. Additionally, the debate is impacted by those who believe that patients have the right make choices about the method and timing of their deaths. Euthanasia is defined as a deliberate act by a physician to hasten the death of a patient, whether through active methods such as an injection of morphine, or through the withdrawal of advanced forms of medical care, for reasons of mercy because of a medical condition that they have. This study explores the question of whether euthanasia is an ethical practice and, as determined by ethical theories and professional codes of ethics, whether the physician is allowed to provide the means to give the patient a path to a "good death," rather than one filled with physical and mental suffering. The paper also asks if there is a relevant moral difference between the active and passive forms of euthanasia and seeks to define requirements to ensure fully voluntary decision making through an evaluation of the factors necessary to produce fully informed consent. Additionally, the proper treatments for patients who suffer from painful terminal illnesses, those who exist in persistent vegetative states and infants born with many diverse medical problems are examined. The ultimate conclusions that are reached in the paper are that euthanasia is an ethical practice in certain specific circumstances for patients who have a very low quality of life due to pain, illness or serious mental deficits as a result of irreversible coma, persistent vegetative state or end-stage clinical dementia. This is defended by the fact that the rights of the patient to determine his or her own fate and to autonomously decide the way that he or she dies are paramount to all other factors in decisions of life and death. There are also circumstances where decisions can be made by health care teams in conjunction with the family to hasten the deaths of incompetent patients when continued existence is clearly not in their best interest, as is the case of infants who are born with serious physical anomalies, who are either 'born dying' or have no prospect for a life that is of a reasonable quality. I have rejected the distinction between active and passive methods of euthanasia and have instead chosen to focus on the intentions of the treating physician and the voluntary nature of the patient's request. When applied in equivalent circumstances, active and passive methods of euthanasia produce the same effects, and if the choice to hasten the death of the patient is ethical, then the use of either method can be accepted. The use of active methods of euthanasia and active forms of withdrawal of life support, such as the removal of a respirator are both conscious decisions to end the life of the patient and both bring death within a short period of time. It is false to maintain a distinction that believes that one is active killing. whereas the other form only allows nature to take it's course. Both are conscious choices to hasten the patient's death and should be evaluated as such. Additionally, through an examination of the Hippocratic Oath, and statements made by the American Medical Association and the American College of physicians, it can be shown that the ideals that the medical profession maintains and the respect for the interests of the patient that it holds allows the physician to give aid to patients who wish to choose death as an alternative to continued suffering. The physician is also allowed to and in some circumstances, is morally required, to help dying patients whether through active or passive forms of euthanasia or through assisted suicide. Euthanasia is a difficult topic to think about, but in the end, we should support the choice that respects the patient's autonomous choice or clear best interest and the respect that we have for their dignity and personal worth.

Esporte na escola : contradicoes e alternativas

Investigamos a prática do esporte nas escolas de 1º e 2º graus, públicas e particulares de Porto Alegre, na Visão dos professores de Educação Física. Os objetivos que norteam nosso estudo foram: identificar os aspectos fundamentais da prática do esporte na escola; estabelecer se o professor de Educação Física de 1º e 2º graus relaciona criticamente a prática do esporte na escola com o contexto social que a envolve; elaborar um conjunto de sugestões que vise aprimorar a prática esportiva na escola, tendo presente a ênfase no desenvolvimento intelectual do ser humano para uma educação e uma sociedade mais justas. O estudo é de natureza descritivo-explicativa, a população alvo é constituída de todos os professores de Educação Física das escolas públicas e particulares de Porto Alegre, num total de 1.838 lotados nas 403 escolas existentes no município. A todos eles, foi enviado o questionário. Retornaram 218, constituindo-se assim a amostra. Observamos 17 escolas e realizamos 12 entrevistas. Descrevemos os professores de Educação Física quanto à idade, sexo, tipo de escola em que trabalham, nível de formação profissional, tempo de serviço, grau de ensino em que atuam, carga horária semanal e modalidades esportivas preferidas. Segundo os professores de Educação Física de Porto Alegre, a importância do esporte na escola para o aluno está distribuída nas seguintes categorias: Movimento; Socialização; Desenvolvimento Moral e Intelectual; Saúde; Afetivo; Superação. A importância do esporte escolar para a escola, segundo os professores de Educação Física, agrupa-se nas seguintes categorias: Promoção e desenvolvimento da escola; Formação e desenvolvimento do aluno; Socialização. Quanto à importância do esporte na escola para a sociedade, os professores manifestaram-se nas seguintes categorias: Saúde; Socialização; Moral; Estrutural-crítica; Estrutural-alienada; Cultural. Observamos neste estudo que os professores de Educação Física têm dificuldade em relacionar sua prática com o contexto social. O ensino é desprovido de reflexão. A visão do esporte na escola é funcionalista e sua prática é conservadora. Prevenção da saúde e do uso de drogas são as funções do esporte, sobre as quais os professores têm maior clareza. A maior dificuldade dos professores é trabalhar com a liberdade de movimentos, daí o caráter disciplinar das práticas esportivas Há duas posições diferenciadas com relação à importância do esporte na escola para a sociedade: uma que faz a crítica ao caráter reprodutor do esporte na escola e outra que não se dá conta desta manipulação. O professor escolhe o esporte a ser praticado na escola segundo quatro referenciais: aluno; recursos físicos e materiais; instituição; professor. Estes referenciais variam em ordem de prioridade da escola pública para a escola particular. Por fim, é necessário, para a mudança deste quadro, que as discussões acadêmicas cheguem o mais rápido possível ao professor que está diuturnamente envolvido na escola, através de programas de atualização. os sistemas de ensino deverão priorizar a escola pública com recursos físicos e materiais, além de levar em consideração, prioritariamente, o interesse do aluno na efetivação de políticas específicas para o setor. Devemos estimular o hábito da leitura de obras de cunho social, político, e cultural entre os professores, através da liberação de carga horária de trabalho e fazendo com que esta bibliografia chegue até a escola. Urge que os professores críticos desenvolvam, com seus alunos, estratégias que visem à transformação da instituição escolar, com vista a uma sociedade mais justa e igualitária.

O impacto do processo educacional da eletrobrás sobre as dimensões do desempenho organizacional

O presente trabalho é produto de uma pesquisa bibliográfica e de campo sobre o sentido da evolução da Teoria das Organizações e o seu impacto nas atividades de treinamento e educação na Eletrobrás. A avaliação dos resultados dos programas de desenvolvimento de Recursos Humanos carece de maior precisão, pela sua própria natureza qualitativa. Paradoxalmente, as ações administrativas, que geram resultados de difícil mensuração, são colocadas em segundo plano, em detrimento das que provocam resultados quantificáveis e de curto prazo. Tal miopia revela o caráter pragmático adotado em muitos modelos de gestão, não promovendo a qualidade. A avaliação do desempenho organizacional é assunto central a ser discutido nessa dissertação, e torna-se mais complexa quando verificamos a existência de suas diferentes dimensões: a eficiência, eficácia e efetividade e a relevância do humano. A evolução dos estudos em administração demonstrou um sentido que vai desde os modelos de maior grau de burocratização e instrumentalização do homem na organização, até a mais satisfatória humanização, emancipação e autonomia no trabalho. Assim, os programas de treinamento e desenvolvimento podem dar uma grande contribuição neste sentido, deslocando o desempenho organizacional, de uma ênfase na eficiência, para as dimensões mais abrangentes da efetividade e relevância do humano. Quando tal desenvolvimento ocorrer, não haverá mais ¿recurso¿ humano , pois o mesmo se apresentará em aberto, diferente de outros recursos organizacionais.

The evolution of international output differences (1960-2000): From factors to productivity

This article presents a group of exercises of level and growth decomposition of output per worker using cross-country data from 1960 to 2000. It is shown that at least until 1975 factors of production (capital and education) were the main source of output dispersion across economies and that productivity variance was considerably smaller than in late years. Only after this date the prominence of productivity started to show up in the data, as the majority of the literature has found. The growth decomposition exercises showed that the reversal of relative importance of productivity vis-a-vis factors is explained by the very good (bad) performance of productivity of fast (slow) growing economies. Although growth in the period, on average, is mostly due to factors accumulation, its variance is explained by productivity.

Alienação e transcendência: a realidade e o devir humano: um estudo da práxis educativa à luz da teoria da alienação de Marx

Trata-se aqui de um estudo da teoria da alienação em Marx, e de uma reflexão sobre a prática educativa à luz dessa teoria. A investigação da teoria da alienação em Marx inclue um estudo dos interlocutores que o precedem na construção desse conceito. Na sistematização desta teoria em Marx, três obras são privilegiadas: Manuscritos econômicos e filosóficos de 1844, A ideologia alemã, Elementos fundamentais para a critica da economia politica (Grundrisse). Rompendo com a visão metafísica que pretende dar à alienação um significado ontológico e mistificador, Marx toma-a como uma forma histórica de relação humana e a analisa em suas múltiplas dimensões. A luz da teoria da alienação, empreende-se, na 2ª parte deste trabalho uma crítica à visão metafísica da educação, que reduz a alienação a uma questão cognitiva que se resolve no campo da consciência, sendo superável, portanto, no âmbito educativo. Opõe-se a essa perspectiva a noção de que a consciência não alienada só pode ser pensada como consciência de uma sociedade plenamente humana. Situada no contexto da sociedade alienada a educação tem como possibilidade contribuir como uma mediação prático-teórica para superação da alienação, desde que se articule com o conjunto das práticas sociais e políticas transformadoras.

Motivação: um enfoque neurofisiológico

Não esquecendo toda uma conotação SOCial que está implicante ligada à motivação, o presente trabalho visa estudar em bases neurofisiológicas. Sabemos que a motivação ainda não possui seu constructo solidificado. Possui uma variabilidade de entretenimento da escola psicológica para escolas psicológicas, de pesquisador para pesquisador, de cultura para cultura, de tempo para tempo.... Este trabalho não tem um fim reducionista em apenas ver a motivação com bases neurofisiológicas. Seu objetivo é clarificar, se possível, um campo discutível. Podemos ver apesar dos vários modos de encarar a motivação como processo social, seu modo de se dar, fisiologicamente, poderá ser mais delimitado. Qualquer que seja a conceituação dada a motivação, ela possui um mecanismo fisiológico interno, inegável. Será neste campo que dedicar-me-ei. O que se dá no sistema nervoso quando um ser vivo é motivado? Será que o mecanismo fisiológico da motivação difere de ser para ser? Ou será diferente apenas de espécie para espécie? Iniciaremos nosso trabalho vendo as diferentes visões de motivação e como os cientistas a encaram. Verificamos que a preocupação dada desde muito em estabelecer um ponto de partida mais operacional para p desenvolvimento da fisiologia em cases científicas. Para isto, muito contribuíram FUNVESTEIN, CANNON, SHERRINGTON, MAGNUN e MORUZZI, SECHENOV, LASHLEY e outros. Entretanto, inicialmente esta preocupação era maior pelas manifestações viscerais e somáticas do comportamento. Só com o desenvolvimento das pesquisas sobre Hipotálamo e o Sistema Límbico foi que se conseguiu, realmente, em campo melhor para as pesquisas sobre motivação. Não podemos esquecer as contribuições de SKINNER e PAVLON sobre recompensa, as de BANDURA com a variável – Modelação do Comportamento, de BUTTLER e NISSEN com a descrição do comportamento da curiosidade exploratória, as de HEBB sobre os efeitos da estimulação sensorial restrita, as de JAMES OLDS sobre a estimulação elétrica. Estudaremos as interpretações teóricas recentes com CANON, LASHLEY, BEACH, MORGAN, LORENS, DEUTSCH, LINDSLEY, GROSSMAN. Teceremos considerações anatômicas, histológicas, fisiológicas, conexões e funções no estudo do Sistema Límbico e seus componentes. Nossa maior preocupação serpa em tentar explicar os mecanismos motivacionais na sua relação com o Sistema Nervoso. Estudaremos motivações sexual, de forma, de sede, de dor, maternal e paternal, de defesa, de ataque ou dominação e como elas estão relacionadas no sistema nervoso. Para tal apresentamos experiências realizadas sobre estimulação sensorial, motivação e emoção, e as experiências de OLDS sobre fatores motivacionais obtidos através de estimulações ou ablações de determinadas áreas do Sistema Límbico. Espero que, através desta dissertação, tenha podido contribuir um pouco para o estudo de tão vasto campo.

Repensando o atendimento inicial nos Juizados Especiais Cíveis do Estado de Rondônia

Esta dissertação tem como objeto de análise o atendimento inicial prestado ao jurisdicionado, seja ele autor ou réu, no âmbito dos Juizados Especiais Cíveis do Estado de Rondônia. Destaca-se o tema em três partes: duas de cunho teórico e outra de predominância prática. Na primeira parte, estuda-se o acesso à justiça e a efetividade processual como premissas que permeiam os juizados. Na seqüência, numa abordagem prática, faz-se um retrato comparativo dos Juizados Especiais Cíveis carioca e rondoniense, explorando as singularidades e identificando as situações-problemas. Neste capítulo, situa-se o objeto principal do trabalho, que consiste na criação do Setor de Atendimento Inicial como fórmula destinada a atender o cidadão nos termos do artigo 9.º da Lei n.º 9.099/95 nas causas de até 20 (vinte) salários mínimos. Na terceira parte, volta-se a um estudo teórico, caracterizando o SAI como política pública obrigatória por parte do Poder Judiciário do Estado de Rondônia e apontando a ação civil pública e o termo de ajustamento de conduta como instrumentos hábeis a impô-lo. O trabalho seguiu um cunho interdisciplinar, analisando questões jurídicas e da Teoria Geral da Administração.

The evolution of international output differences (1960-2000) : from factor to productivity

This article presents a group of exercises of leveI and growth decomposition of output per worker using cross-collntry data from 1960 to :2000. It is shown that at least llntil 197.5 factors of production (capital anel education) ",ere the main source of output dispersion across ecoIlomies and that productivity variance was considerably srnaller than in late years. Qnly after this date the prominence of productivity started to sho\\' up in the data. as the majority of the litcrature has found. The gro\\'th decomposition exercises showecl that t he reversal of relative irnportance of proeluctivity vis-a-\'is factors is explainecl by the very good (bad) performance of procluctivity of fast (slow) growing cconomies. Although growth in the pcriod, on avcragc. is mostly clue to factors accumulation. its variance is explained by productivity.