Cooperação interfuncional no desenvolvimento de novos produtos : a interface marketing-engenharia

A cooperação interfuncional é o calcanhar-de-aquiles do processo de desenvolvimento de novos produtos. Todas as tentativas de diminuir-se o tempo de desenvolvimento impulsionaram cada vez mais o trabalho conjunto das diversas áreas. Somadas à importância de uma atuação integrada, especialmente das áreas de Marketing e Engenharia, para o sucesso dos novos produtos no mercado, essas tentativas formam um cenário de interfuncionalidade que se torna o eixo do processo de desenvolvimento. Porém a cooperação entre as funções nesse cenário não se dá de forma natural e, muitas vezes, torna-se um empecilho que prejudica o processo. Assim, este trabalho foi desenvolvido no sentido de trazer algumas luzes à compreensão da dinâmica da cooperação entre as áreas de Marketing e Engenharia no desenvolvimento de novos produtos. Isso foi feito através da análise dos mecanismos de integração existentes na literatura e daqueles utilizados pelas empresas. A metodologia utilizada contou com duas etapas: uma de revisão bibliográfica, que permitiu identificar os mecanismos de integração elaborados e apresentados pela literatura das áreas de Engenharia da Produção e de Marketing e os elementos que influenciam a cooperação interfuncional; e uma de estudo de casos, que analisou os mecanismos de integração utilizados por duas empresas localizadas no Estado do Rio Grande do Sul. Associando-se a revisão bibliográfica à análise dos casos, chegou-se a um conjunto de 11 fatores intervenientes na cooperação interfuncional e à relação desses fatores entre si e com os mecanismos de integração utilizados. A realização deste trabalho permitiu, de um lado, a identificação e análise de aspectos essenciais da cooperação interfuncional e, de outro, demonstrou a complexidade envolvida nesse tema e a necessidade de futuros trabalhos para uma compreensão mais completa do mesmo.

A abertura da economia brasileira e os aspectos práticos e operacionais da exportação

Este trabalho tem como objetivo analisar a dinâmica da abertura da economia brasileira na década de 1990, culminando com a edição do Plano Real, cujos efeitos preocupantes sobre a Balança Comercial são inquestionáveis. Com o incremento do comércio exterior brasileiro, através da crescente internacionalização das economias, apresentam-se, também de forma clara e objetiva, os aspectos práticos e operacionais da exportação, com comparativos entre a teoria e a prática. A principal motivação do trabalho é o fato de que as constantes oscilações econômicas e políticas provocam mudanças rápidas nas regras de comércio exterior, as quais devem ser rigorosamente acompanhas pelos profissionais que atuam nesta área. O desenvolvimento do presente trabalho buscou como fundamentação teórica as principais publicações do Comércio Exterior, com destaque para as regras estabelecidas pela Câmara de Comércio Internacional e a legislação emanada pelo Banco Central do Brasil. Por fim, por tratar-se de um assunto relevante, no sentido de dinamizar as exportações brasileiras, o trabalho propõe-se a sinalizar às autoridades competentes a necessidade de se adotar uma política de comércio exterior voltada às pequenas e médias empresas, com a utilização da garantia internacional de crédito.

Um método de modelagem de um sistema de indicadores de sustentabilidade para gestão dos recursos hídricos-MISGERH : o caso da bacia dos Sinos

Um dos debates dentro a temática ambiental concentra-se sobre o desenvolvimento de indicadores de sustentabilidade para monitorar, mensurar e avaliar a sustentabilidade do desenvolvimento. Neste contexto, o presente trabalho objetivou desenvolver um método de modelagem de um sistema de indicadores para avaliar a sustentabilidade do sistema dos recursos hídricos, propiciando a participação dos atores sociais e visando ter maior conhecimento do problema e legitimidade do processo da gestão dos recursos hídricos numa bacia hidrográfica. Para tal, adotou-se o paradigma construtivista e foram abordados três temas: gestão ambiental, sistemas de apoio à decisão e indicadores de sustentabilidade. Esta metodologia foi aplicada, através de um estudo de caso, na bacia hidrográfica do Rio dos Sinos. A proposta do sistema de indicadores congrega duas áreas de interesse: a primeira, na perspectiva dos objetivos privados - a sustentabilidade como fluxo de bens e serviços, que contempla 8 Clusters: abastecimento público, abastecimento industrial, irrigação, criação de animais, geração de energia elétrica, navegação, aquicultura, turismo e recreação; a segunda, na perspectiva dos interesses públicos - a sustentabilidade como estoque dos recursos hídricos, que contempla 4 Clusters: regime hidrológico, qualidade da água, estrutura "habitat", resíduos sólidos. Em suma, foram definidos um total de 238 indicadores básicos, alguns deles (88 indicadores) são partilhados entre os Clusters, mostrando a interação dos indicadores e dependência entre os Clusters setoriais do sistema de recursos hídricos. Em termos gerais, recomenda-se empregar esse método se o interesse for, além do resultado, sendo a proposta de um sistema de indicadores de sustentabilidade, também do processo de participação dos atores envolvidos para compreender a problemática dos recursos hídricos. Assim, a modelagem de um sistema de indicadores será feita sob as inter-relações da ciência, política e os valores e objetivos dos atores sociais.

Produção descentralizada de medicamentos essenciais no Instituto de Tecnologia em Farmacos do Estado do Rio de Janeiro: um diagnostico estrategico de sua implementação

Nesta dissertação procura-se discutir a política de descentralização da assistência fanna-.;êutica no que diz respeito à produção e a distribuição de medicamentos. Para tanto, efetuou-se um estudo de caso em Far-Manguinhos / FIOCRUZ analisando sua estrutura organizacional e administrativa, assim como as estratégias utilizadas para implementar o processo de descentralização preconizado pelo SUS. Usou-se como referencial teórico artigos clásicos que contextualizam a realidade do setor farmacêutico nacional e mundial. O estudo se desdobra através da evolução política do setor da saúde no Brasil, com ênfase na política de medicamentos adotada a partir da criação da Central de Medicamentos - CEME, até a atualidade. Ao final são feitas algumas sugestões que poderão nortear outras discussões sobre assistência farmacêutica no Brasil.

Estimating Relative Risk Aversion, Risk-Neutral and Real-World Densities using Brazilian Real Currency Options

Building Risk-Neutral Densities (RND) from options data can provide market-implied expectations about the future behavior of a financial variable. And market expectations on financial variables may influence macroeconomic policy decisions. It can be useful also for corporate and financial institutions decision making. This paper uses the Liu et all (2007) approach to estimate the option-implied Risk-neutral densities from the Brazilian Real/US Dollar exchange rate distribution. We then compare the RND with actual exchange rates, on a monthly basis, in order to estimate the relative risk-aversion of investors and also obtain a Real-world density for the exchange rate. We are the first to calculate relative risk-aversion and the option-implied Real World Density for an emerging market currency. Our empirical application uses a sample of Brazilian Real/US Dollar options traded at BM&F-Bovespa from 1999 to 2011. The RND is estimated using a Mixture of Two Log-Normals distribution and then the real-world density is obtained by means of the Liu et al. (2007) parametric risktransformations. The relative risk aversion is calculated for the full sample. Our estimated value of the relative risk aversion parameter is around 2.7, which is in line with other articles that have estimated this parameter for the Brazilian Economy, such as Araújo (2005) and Issler and Piqueira (2000). Our out-of-sample evaluation results showed that the RND has some ability to forecast the Brazilian Real exchange rate. Abe et all (2007) found also mixed results in the out-of-sample analysis of the RND forecast ability for exchange rate options. However, when we incorporate the risk aversion into RND in order to obtain a Real-world density, the out-of-sample performance improves substantially, with satisfactory results in both Kolmogorov and Berkowitz tests. Therefore, we would suggest not using the “pure” RND, but rather taking into account risk aversion in order to forecast the Brazilian Real exchange rate.

Conceito de filosofia da educação

A filosofia da educação, para nós, será trabalhada dentro de uma visão histórica, ou seja, todos os conceitos relacionados à filosofia da educação trabalhados durante o curso são conceitos históricos, assim todos possuem uma dimensão histórica que remete ao entendimento do conceito a compreensão das condições históricas que foram responsáveis pela construção desses conceitos. É nesse sentido, que quando falamos do processo formativo não podemos deixar de nos remeter a grandes escritos que marcaram a civilização ocidental como, por exemplo, os textos de Homero, principalmente a Ilíada e a Odisséia. Devemos notar como as aventuras desses guerreiros míticos, seja Aquiles ou Ulisses, influenciaram na formação do cidadão grego, ou seja, é importante entender o modo que essas figuras foram representadas e serviram de modelo para a constituição da educação grega.

Murmúrios [im]possíveis: o desafio dialogante entre poesia e artes plásticas em Vasco Graça Moura

Nesta dissertação tento comprovar que a escrita poética de Vasco Graça Moura está repleta de “murmúrios [im]possíveis” com as artes plásticas; ou seja, que a sua poesia estabelece um diálogo fluido e permanente com a pintura, a fotografia e o desenho, do qual resulta a transfiguração do real e, por conseguinte, a reinterpretação do mundo. Com este intuito, analiso os suportes da escrita (Babo, 2006) assim como os conceitos de ecfrase (Ceia, 2005), rizoma (Deleuze e Guatarri, 2006) e desconstrução (Ceia, 2005), que fundamentam esta “arte combinatória” (Moura, 1983) e solidificam “os múltiplos casamentos do Vasco Graça Moura com as artes de encantamento e sedução” (Veiga, 2000). Esta investigação empreende, portanto, num diálogo com a escrita poética de Vasco Graça Moura, a pintura referida, as fotografias de Gérard Castello-Lopes (Em demanda de Moura – Giraldomachias, 1999) e de Ana Gaiaz (Variações metálicas, 2004), e os desenhos de Jorge Pinheiro (sombras com aquiles e pentesileia, 1999), tentando corroborar a presença da relação cúmplice entre poesia e artes plásticas e acompanhar as suas sucessivas “operações de desmontagem” (Moura, 2007).

A Acessibilidade como veículo de inclusão social: proposta de dispositivo computacional para os deficientes visuais da cidade de Natal/RN

This study aims to propose a computing device mechanism which is capable to permit a tactile communication between individuals with visual impairment (blindness or low vision) through the Internet or through a local area network (LAN - Local Network Address). The work was developed under the research projects that currently are realized in the LAI (Laboratory of Integrated Accessibility) of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte. This way, the research was done in order to involve a prototype capable to recognize geometries by students considered blind from the Institute of Education and Rehabilitation of Blind of Rio Grande do Norte (IERC-RN), located in Alecrim neighborhood, Natal/RN. Besides this research, another prototype was developed to test the communication via a local network and Internet. To analyze the data, a qualitative and quantitative approach was used through simple statistical techniques, such as percentages and averages, to support subjective interpretations. The results offer an analysis of the extent to which the implementation can contribute to the socialization and learning of the visually impaired. Finally, some recommendations are suggested for the development of future researches in order to facilitate the proposed mechanism.

H-N2N : uma arquitetura hierárquica escalável para ambientes de realidade mista de grande porte

In this work, we propose a solution to solve the scalability problem found in collaborative, virtual and mixed reality environments of large scale, that use the hierarchical client-server model. Basically, we use a hierarchy of servers. When the capacity of a server is reached, a new server is created as a sun of the first one, and the system load is distributed between them (father and sun). We propose efficient tools and techniques for solving problems inherent to client-server model, as the definition of clusters of users, distribution and redistribution of users through the servers, and some mixing and filtering operations, that are necessary to reduce flow between servers. The new model was tested, in simulation, emulation and in interactive applications that were implemented. The results of these experimentations show enhancements in the traditional, previous models indicating the usability of the proposed in problems of all-to-all communications. This is the case of interactive games and other applications devoted to Internet (including multi-user environments) and interactive applications of the Brazilian Digital Television System, to be developed by the research group. Keywords: large scale virtual environments, interactive digital tv, distributed

RoboEduc: uma metodologia de aprendizado com robótica educacional

In this work, we propose a methodology for teaching robotics in elementary schools, based on the socio-historical Vygotsky theory. This methodology in conjunction with the Lego Mindstoms kit (R) and an educational software (an interface for control and programming of prototypes) are part of an educational robotics system named RoboEduc. For the practical development of this work, we have used the action-research strategy, being realized robotics activities with participation of children with age between 8 and 10 years, students of the elementary school level of Municipal School Ascendino de Almeida. This school is located at the city zone of Pitimbu, at the periphery of Natal, in Rio Grande do Norte state. The activities have focused on understanding the construction of robotic prototypes, their programming and control. At constructing prototypes, children develop zone of proximal development (ZPDs) that are learning spaces that, when well used, allow the construction not only of scientific concepts by the individuals but also of abilities and capabilities that are important for the social and cultural interactiond of each one and of the group. With the development of these practical workshops, it was possible to analyse the use of the Robot as the mediator element of the teaching-learning process and the contributions that the use of robotics may bring to teaching since elementary levels

Um protocolo de comunicação multicast na camada de aplicação com Consciência de Localização

Internet applications such as media streaming, collaborative computing and massive multiplayer are on the rise,. This leads to the need for multicast communication, but unfortunately group communications support based on IP multicast has not been widely adopted due to a combination of technical and non-technical problems. Therefore, a number of different application-layer multicast schemes have been proposed in recent literature to overcome the drawbacks. In addition, these applications often behave as both providers and clients of services, being called peer-topeer applications, and where participants come and go very dynamically. Thus, servercentric architectures for membership management have well-known problems related to scalability and fault-tolerance, and even peer-to-peer traditional solutions need to have some mechanism that takes into account member's volatility. The idea of location awareness distributes the participants in the overlay network according to their proximity in the underlying network allowing a better performance. Given this context, this thesis proposes an application layer multicast protocol, called LAALM, which takes into account the actual network topology in the assembly process of the overlay network. The membership algorithm uses a new metric, IPXY, to provide location awareness through the processing of local information, and it was implemented using a distributed shared and bi-directional tree. The algorithm also has a sub-optimal heuristic to minimize the cost of membership process. The protocol has been evaluated in two ways. First, through an own simulator developed in this work, where we evaluated the quality of distribution tree by metrics such as outdegree and path length. Second, reallife scenarios were built in the ns-3 network simulator where we evaluated the network protocol performance by metrics such as stress, stretch, time to first packet and reconfiguration group time

GATE - Uma abordagem baseada em middleware para aplicações interperceptivas envolvendo múltiplos dispositivos

In this work, we present the GATE, an approach based on middleware for interperceptive applications. Through the services offered by the GATE, we extension we extend the concept of Interperception for integration with several devices, including set-top box, mobile devices (cell phones), among others. Through this extension ensures the implementation of virtual environments in these devices. Thus, users who access the version of the computer environment may interact with those who access the same environment by other devices. This extension is just a part of the services provided by the GATE, that remerges as a new proposal for multi-user virtual environments creation.

Agentes Inteligentes com Foco de Atenção Afetivo em Simulações Baseadas em Agentes

Simulations based on cognitively rich agents can become a very intensive computing task, especially when the simulated environment represents a complex system. This situation becomes worse when time constraints are present. This kind of simulations would benefit from a mechanism that improves the way agents perceive and react to changes in these types of environments. In other worlds, an approach to improve the efficiency (performance and accuracy) in the decision process of autonomous agents in a simulation would be useful. In complex environments, and full of variables, it is possible that not every information available to the agent is necessary for its decision-making process, depending indeed, on the task being performed. Then, the agent would need to filter the coming perceptions in the same as we do with our attentions focus. By using a focus of attention, only the information that really matters to the agent running context are perceived (cognitively processed), which can improve the decision making process. The architecture proposed herein presents a structure for cognitive agents divided into two parts: 1) the main part contains the reasoning / planning process, knowledge and affective state of the agent, and 2) a set of behaviors that are triggered by planning in order to achieve the agent s goals. Each of these behaviors has a runtime dynamically adjustable focus of attention, adjusted according to the variation of the agent s affective state. The focus of each behavior is divided into a qualitative focus, which is responsible for the quality of the perceived data, and a quantitative focus, which is responsible for the quantity of the perceived data. Thus, the behavior will be able to filter the information sent by the agent sensors, and build a list of perceived elements containing only the information necessary to the agent, according to the context of the behavior that is currently running. Based on the human attention focus, the agent is also dotted of a affective state. The agent s affective state is based on theories of human emotion, mood and personality. This model serves as a basis for the mechanism of continuous adjustment of the agent s attention focus, both the qualitative and the quantative focus. With this mechanism, the agent can adjust its focus of attention during the execution of the behavior, in order to become more efficient in the face of environmental changes. The proposed architecture can be used in a very flexibly way. The focus of attention can work in a fixed way (neither the qualitative focus nor the quantitaive focus one changes), as well as using different combinations for the qualitative and quantitative foci variation. The architecture was built on a platform for BDI agents, but its design allows it to be used in any other type of agents, since the implementation is made only in the perception level layer of the agent. In order to evaluate the contribution proposed in this work, an extensive series of experiments were conducted on an agent-based simulation over a fire-growing scenario. In the simulations, the agents using the architecture proposed in this work are compared with similar agents (with the same reasoning model), but able to process all the information sent by the environment. Intuitively, it is expected that the omniscient agent would be more efficient, since they can handle all the possible option before taking a decision. However, the experiments showed that attention-focus based agents can be as efficient as the omniscient ones, with the advantage of being able to solve the same problems in a significantly reduced time. Thus, the experiments indicate the efficiency of the proposed architecture

Plataforma Robótica de Baixíssimo Custo para Robótica Educacional

Robots are present each time more on several areas of our society, however they are still considered expensive equipments that are restricted to few people. This work con- sists on the development of control techniques and architectures that make possible the construction and programming of low cost robots with low programming and building complexity. One key aspect of the proposed architecture is the use of audio interfaces to control actuators and read sensors, thus allowing the usage of any device that can produce sounds as a control unit of a robot. The work also includes the development of web ba- sed programming environments that allow the usage of computers or mobile phones as control units of the robot, which can be remotely programmed and controlled. The work also includes possible applications of such low cost robotic platform, including mainly its educational usage, which was experimentally validated by teachers and students of seve- ral graduation courses. We also present an analysis of data obtained from interviews done with the students before and after the use of our platform, which confirms its acceptance as a teaching support tool

Novas ferramentas para monitoramento ambiental usando SIG Web

The use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) has becoming very important in fields where detailed and precise study of earth surface features is required. Applications in environmental protection are such an example that requires the use of GIS tools for analysis and decision by managers and enrolled community of protected areas. In this specific field, a challenge that remains is to build a GIS that can be dynamically fed with data, allowing researchers and other agents to recover actual and up to date information. In some cases, data is acquired in several ways and come from different sources. To solve this problem, some tools were implemented that includes a model for spatial data treatment on the Web. The research issues involved start with the feeding and processing of environmental control data collected in-loco as biotic and geological variables and finishes with the presentation of all information on theWeb. For this dynamic processing, it was developed some tools that make MapServer more flexible and dynamic, allowing data uploading by the proper users. Furthermore, it was also developed a module that uses interpolation to aiming spatial data analysis. A complex application that has validated this research is to feed the system with data coming from coral reef regions located in northeast of Brazil. The system was implemented using the best interactivity concept provided by the AJAX model and resulted in a substantial contribution for efficiently accessing information, being an essential mechanism for controlling events in the environmental monitoring