Shedding light on TQM: some research findings

Over the last decad , the paradigm of Total Quality Management (TQM) has been successfully forged in our business world. TQM may be defined as something that is both complex and ambiguous; nevertheless, some key elements or principles can be mentioned which are common to all of them: customer satisfaction, continuous improvement, commitment and leadership on the part of top management, involvement and support on the part of employees, teamwork, measurement via indicators and feedback. There are, in short, two main reasons for it having spread so widely: on the one hand, the successful diffusion of ISO 9000 standards for the implementation and certification of quality management systems, standards that have been associated to the TQM paradigm, and, on the other, the also successful diffusion of self evaluation models such as the EFQM promoted by the European Foundation for Quality Management and the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in the USA, promoted by the Foundation for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. However, the quality movement is not without its problems as far as its mid and long term development is concerned. In this book some research findings related to these issues are presented.

World meeting on stock assessment of bluefin tunas: strengths and weaknesses

The Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) hosted a meeting, sponsored jointly by the IATTC and the Australian Fisheries Service, to discuss and report on the strengths and weaknesses of stock assessment techniques used on bluefin tuna stocks in the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic Oceans and the Mediterranean Sea. The meeting was held in La Jolla, California, on Mat 25-31, 1990.

Proceedings of the first world meeting on bigeye tuna

The annual catches of big eye are exceeded by those of only two other species of tuna, skipjack, Katsuwonus pelamis, and yellowfin, Thunnus albacares. However, because most of the bigeye caught are consumed fresh, whereas most of the skipjack and yellowfin caught are canned, the economic value of big eye exceeds that of any other species of tuna. Despite its importance, less is known of the biology of bigeye than of the biology of any of the other principal market species of tunas. Historically, bigeye have been harvested mostly by longlines, which take only medium to large fish. During recent years, however, greater amounts of small bigeye have been caught by purse seines and other surface gear. This is a matter of concern for several reasons. First, long line fishermen are concerned that the harvesting of small bigeye will decrease the amounts of medium to large bigeye available to them. Second, since small bigeye are canned, rather than eaten fresh, consumers are concerned about the possible decrease in the supply of high-quality fresh fish. Third, economists are concerned about the possible economic loss associated with harvesting fish at less than their maximum economic value. Fourth, biologists are concerned about the possibility that harvesting of small bigeye could decrease the overall catches of that species. These concerns cannot be properly addressed until more knowledge of the biology of big eye is available. The purposes of the meeting were to review and discuss the information available and to make recommendations for further research.

The Darwin Foundation is organized

From a special issue: A Brief History of the Charles Darwin Foundation for the Galapagos Islands 1959-1988

Darwin Scientific Foundation, Inc. and Galapagos Darwin Trust, Europe

From a special issue: A Brief History of the Charles Darwin Foundation for the Galapagos Islands 1959-1988

The Executive Council of the Charles Darwin Foundation 1964-1988

From a special issue: A Brief History of the Charles Darwin Foundation for the Galapagos Islands 1959-1988

The body social: an enactive approach to the self

This paper takes a new look at an old question: what is the human self? It offers a proposal for theorizing the self from an enactive perspective as an autonomous system that is constituted through interpersonal relations. It addresses a prevalent issue in the philosophy of cognitive science: the body-social problem. Embodied and social approaches to cognitive identity are in mutual tension. On the one hand, embodied cognitive science risks a new form of methodological individualism, implying a dichotomy not between the outside world of objects and the brain-bound individual but rather between body-bound individuals and the outside social world. On the other hand, approaches that emphasize the constitutive relevance of social interaction processes for cognitive identity run the risk of losing the individual in the interaction dynamics and of downplaying the role of embodiment. This paper adopts a middle way and outlines an enactive approach to individuation that is neither individualistic nor disembodied but integrates both approaches. Elaborating on Jonas' notion of needful freedom it outlines an enactive proposal to understanding the self as co-generated in interactions and relations with others. I argue that the human self is a social existence that is organized in terms of a back and forth between social distinction and participation processes. On this view, the body, rather than being identical with the social self, becomes its mediator

Cérebros e Corações: a ficção de Maria Amália Vaz de Carvalho no Jornal do Commercio, do Rio de Janeiro

Maria Amália Vaz de Carvalho (18471921), escritora portuguesa dos fins do século XIX e início do XX, atravessou o oceano para falar às suas leitoras de aquém do Atlântico. Suas ideias chegaram à imprensa carioca e alcançaram as páginas de um dos jornais de maior influência na corte brasileira que, em 1878, data em que a autora iniciou sua colaboração, já havia comemorado seu 50 aniversário de fundação: o Jornal do Commercio (do Rio de Janeiro). Este periódico, que possuía predominância masculina em seu corpo de articulistas, passou a contar com a colaboração da escritora, para que pudesse tratar de assuntos relacionados ao mundo feminino. Ao longo dessa contribuição, Maria Amália Vaz de Carvalho não se restringiu aos assuntos relacionados ao universo considerado das mulheres, também expressou suas opiniões sobre política, sociedade e literatura, em artigos e narrativas curtas. O propósito deste trabalho é analisar a obra ficcional da autora presente no referido periódico, desvelando opiniões que somente através da ficção podemos observar. Também apontamos, para o objetivo de esclarecer as possíveis controvérsias que envolvem sua obra, posição e opiniões acerca da emancipação intelectual feminina no século XIX

A linguagem no Twitter: um enfoque sistêmico-funcional

O objetivo deste trabalho é investigar as características da linguagem no Twitter, focalizando (i) seu propósito comunicativo, (ii) seus participantes discursivos e (iii) suas relações interpessoais. Por acreditar que a linguagem é um recurso sistemático e que somente através dela expressamos significados em determinados contextos, encontramos na Linguística Sistêmico-Funcional (LSF) uma base teórica que se encaixa à pesquisa. Para Halliday(1994), a linguística é o estudo de como as pessoas negociam sentido através do uso da linguagem. Assim, encontramos no Twitter, um corpus diversificado que reforça ainda mais a teoria da LSF, quando afirma sermos nós, falantes da língua, os únicos responsáveis por nossas escolhas lexicais, tendo consciência de como e onde, contextualmente falando, podemos aplicar em uma atividade linguística em que estivermos engajados. O material de pesquisa foi constituído mediante a coleta inicial de 671 comentários postados no Twitter em 2010. Dados obtidos a partir da análise desta coleta confirmam o argumento de Crystal (2011), de que a expressão de opinião é o principal propósito comunicativo das mensagens postadas no microblogging. Assim, após recortes no corpus para coleta exclusivamente de opiniões, 201 tuítes resultantes de duas coletas realizadas em datas e situações diferentes foram analisados: uma, após notícia de agressão a uma professora; a segunda, momentos antes e durante a Copa Mundial de 2010. Os resultados apontam diferenças entre as amostras, principalmente em função de aspectos do contexto de situação: pois embora o tom seja de indignação nas amostras com tuítes opinativos, apenas na amostra futebol há tentativa de se orientar a ação do outro. Quanto às relações interpessoais, foram identificadas marcas de interação face a face nas duas amostras, mas apenas na amostra futebol identificou-se uso de linguagem de baixo calão. Finalmente, em relação às características gerais do Twitter, observa-se o uso de linguagem reduzida na forma de caracteres emotivos ou de abreviações, o uso de interjeições e pontos de exclamação. Observou-se ainda o uso recorrente de léxico valorativo, de ironia e de perguntas retóricas para expressão de indignação, mas estes traços parecem ser afetados por aspectos do contexto de situação, mais do que por características do Twitter

Symposium on World tuna fisheries: commemorating the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission

The Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (lA TTC) came into existence in 1950, after its convention, signed by representatives ofCosta Rica and the United States in 1949, was ratified. It was the first international tuna organization, and only the third international fisheries organization, whose staff has had the responsibility for performing scientific research, the others being the International Pacific Halibut Commission, established in 1923, and the International Pacific Salmon Fisheries Commission, established in 1937. The current members of the IATTC are Costa Rica, Ecuador, EI Salvador, France, Guatemala, Japan, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, the United States, Vanuatu, and Venezuela. The first Director ofthe IATTC was Dr. Milner B. Schaefer, who was in that position from 1950 to 1963. He was followed by Dr. John L. Kask (1963-1969), Dr. James Joseph (1969-1999), and Dr. Robin L. Allen (1999-present). The success ofthe IATIC showed that it was possible to carry out research and management on an international, high-seas fishery successfully. Since then other international organizations for tuna management, including the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (1969), the Forum Fisheries Agency (1979), the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna (1994), and the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (1996), were established. Appropriately, the 50th anniversary celebration was held in Costa Rica, one of the two charter members of the IATTC. Persons who have held important positions in international fishery management in various parts ofthe world spoke at the celebration. Their presentations, except for that describing the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission, are reproduced in this volume.

Learning to perceive in the sensor motor approach: Piaget's theory of equilibration interpreted dynamically

Learning to perceive is faced with a classical paradox: if understanding is required for perception, how can we learn to perceive something new, something we do not yet understand? According to the sensorimotor approach, perception involves mastery of regular sensorimotor co-variations that depend on the agent and the environment, also known as the "laws" of sensorimotor contingencies (SMCs). In this sense, perception involves enacting relevant sensorimotor skills in each situation. It is important for this proposal that such skills can be learned and refined with experience and yet up to this date, the sensorimotor approach has had no explicit theory of perceptual learning. The situation is made more complex if we acknowledge the open-ended nature of human learning. In this paper we propose Piaget's theory of equilibration as a potential candidate to fulfill this role. This theory highlights the importance of intrinsic sensorimotor norms, in terms of the closure of sensorimotor schemes. It also explains how the equilibration of a sensorimotor organization faced with novelty or breakdowns proceeds by re-shaping pre-existing structures in coupling with dynamical regularities of the world. This way learning to perceive is guided by the equilibration of emerging forms of skillful coping with the world. We demonstrate the compatibility between Piaget's theory and the sensorimotor approach by providing a dynamical formalization of equilibration to give an explicit micro-genetic account of sensorimotor learning and, by extension, of how we learn to perceive. This allows us to draw important lessons in the form of general principles for open-ended sensorimotor learning, including the need for an intrinsic normative evaluation by the agent itself. We also explore implications of our micro-genetic account at the personal level.

O viva Rio e a construção de uma cultura da paz: cidadania, violência e paz na campanha do desarmamento de 2004

Na campanha do desarmamento organizada pela Organização Não Governamental Viva Rio - e realizada entre meados de 2004 e outubro de 2005, com o Referendo Sobre a Proibição do Comércio de Armas de Fogo no Brasil , os atores, discursos e práticas envolvidos na causa do desarmamento se voltavam, majoritariamente, a uma estratégia de apelo aos corações aos cidadãos de bem como forma de persuasão, atrelavam, de modo amplo, a defesa ao desarmamento à defesa à paz e ao combate à violência, e se concentravam, principalmente, na divulgação e promoção da campanha de entrega das armas. Para o debate em torno do Estatuto do Desarmamento e do Referendo, entretanto, novos atores entraram na disputa e começaram a ganhar visibilidade na esfera pública. Os atores engajados pelo "não" no Referendo acionaram aliados e seus discursos em prol de sua causa, recorrendo a elementos da moral e da religião na defesa da posse de armas como um direito inalienável dos cidadãos.Este trabalho reflete sobre as ações engendradas pelo Viva Rio em torno da questão do desarmamento desde sua fundação - com destaque para a Campanha do Desarmamento de 2004 -, discutindo a presença da religiosidade em suas iniciativas e a contribuição desta na constituição de noções de paz, violência e cidadania no espaço público brasileiro. Examina, ainda, de que modo estas noções fundamentaram a atuação pública do Viva Rio na construção de uma cultura da paz e ajudaram a compor um campo de parcerias e disputas no cenário nacional.

Incidental Memory of Younger and Older Adults for Objects Encountered in a Real World Context

Effects of context on the perception of, and incidental memory for, real-world objects have predominantly been investigated in younger individuals, under conditions involving a single static viewpoint. We examined the effects of prior object context and object familiarity on both older and younger adults' incidental memory for real objects encountered while they traversed a conference room. Recognition memory for context-typical and context-atypical objects was compared with a third group of unfamiliar objects that were not readily named and that had no strongly associated context. Both older and younger adults demonstrated a typicality effect, showing significantly lower 2-alternative-forced-choice recognition of context-typical than context-atypical objects; for these objects, the recognition of older adults either significantly exceeded, or numerically surpassed, that of younger adults. Testing-awareness elevated recognition but did not interact with age or with object type. Older adults showed significantly higher recognition for context-atypical objects than for unfamiliar objects that had no prior strongly associated context. The observation of a typicality effect in both age groups is consistent with preserved semantic schemata processing in aging. The incidental recognition advantage of older over younger adults for the context-typical and context-atypical objects may reflect aging-related differences in goal-related processing, with older adults under comparatively more novel circumstances being more likely to direct their attention to the external environment, or age-related differences in top-down effortful distraction regulation, with older individuals' attention more readily captured by salient objects in the environment. Older adults' reduced recognition of unfamiliar objects compared to context-atypical objects may reflect possible age differences in contextually driven expectancy violations. The latter finding underscores the theoretical and methodological value of including a third type of objects-that are comparatively neutral with respect to their contextual associations-to help differentiate between contextual integration effects (for schema-consistent objects) and expectancy violations (for schema-inconsistent objects).