Socially Competent Leadership - predictors, impacts and skilling in engineering

Earlier management studies have found a relationship between managerial qualities and subordinate impacts, but the effect of managers‘ social competence on leader perceptions has not been solidly established. To fill the related research gap, the present work embarks on a quantitative empirical effort to identify predictors of successful leadership. In particular, this study investigates relationships between perceived leader behavior and three selfreport instruments used to measure managerial capability: 1) the WOPI Work Personality Inventory, 2) Raven‘s general intelligence scale, and 3) the Emotive Communication Scale (ECS). This work complements previous research by resorting to both self-reports and other-reports: the results acquired from the managerial sample are compared to subordinate perceptions as measured through the ECS other-report and the WOPI360 multi-source appraisal. The quantitative research is comprised of a sample of 8o superiors and 354 subordinates operating in eight Finnish organizations. The strongest predictive value emerged from the ECS self- and other-reports and certain personality dimensions. In contrast, supervisors‘ logical intelligence did not correlate with leadership perceived as socially competent by subordinates. 16 of the superiors rated as most socially competent by their subordinates were selected for case analysis. Their qualitative narratives evidence the role of life history and post-traumatic growth in developing managerial skills. The results contribute to leadership theory in four ways. First, the ECS self-report devised for this research offers a reliable scale for predicting socially competent leader ability. Second, the work identifies dimensions of personality and emotive skills that can be considered predictors of managerial ability and benefited from in leader recruitment and career planning. Third, the Emotive Communication Model delineated on the basis of the empirical data allows for a systematic design and planning of communication and leadership education. Fourth, this workfurthers understanding of personal growth strategies and the role of life history in leader development and training. Finally, this research advances educational leadership by conceptualizing and operationalizing effective managerial communications. The Emotive Communication Model devised directs the pedagogic attention in engineering to assertion, emotional availability and inspiration skills. The proposed methodology addresses classroom management strategies drawing from problem-based learning, student empowerment, collaborative learning, and so-called socially competent teachership founded on teacher immediacy and perceived caring, all constituting strategies moving away from student compliance and teacher modelling. The ultimate educational objective embraces the development of individual engineers and organizational leaders that not only possess traditional analytical and technical expertise and substantive knowledge but are intelligent also creatively, practically, and socially.

Agricultural engineering at UNICAMP: undergraduate student dropout analysis

Nowadays, dropping out in B.Sc. courses practically occurs in all Universities of the contemporary world. Undergraduate student withdraw could means several losses as, to the student, not to graduate, to the teacher, for not accomplishing his goal as educator, to the university, for not attending its mission, to the society, economic and social losses and also to the family for unfulfilling the dreams. The objective of this research is to present a quantitative study on the dropping out rate in the Agricultural Engineering B.Sc. program (BSAGENG) at State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), seeking to contribute to the understanding of this issue. It has been determined the dropping out rate from 1995 to 2006 based on the university official data, by employing four different methods of calculation. Three of the methods revealed that dropping out rate is very close to the graduation index, i.e., close to 50%. Regardless of the adopted method for the dropping rate estimation and the statistics demonstrating that the agricultural engineering undergraduate course at UNICAMP figures falls within similar courses normality in Brazil, it should be recognized that a public institution of education should be concerned in presenting such figures. A detailed and deep analysis must be outlined in further studies seeking for specific actions aiming to reduce dropping out process.

Benefits of automated acclimatization during the pre-milking phase of lactating girolando cows

The aim of this paper was to evaluate the automated acclimatization effects during pre-milking of cows on thermal conditioning, physiology, milk production and cost-benefit of the automated adiabatic evaporative cooling system (AECS). The treatments 20; 30; 40 min and control consisted of exposure time of pre-milking cows to the automated AECS. Sixteen cows were used with an average daily milk yield of 19 kg, distributed in a 4 x 4 Latin square design. The Tukey's test (P<0.05) was used to compare the means. The environmental variables, dry bulb temperature (DBT, ºC) and relative humidity (RH, %), were recorded every minute, which allowed the determination of the system efficiency through the Temperature and Humidity Index (THI). The respiratory rate (RR), rectal temperature (RT) and temperature of the coat (TC) were measured before and after the acclimatization. The 40 min treatment kept the environmental variables and the comfort indexes within recommended limits. The physiological variables (RR, RT and TC) were lower in the 40 min treatment and reflected positively on milk production, which increased 3.66% compared to the control treatment. The system was profitable, having a 43 days return on investment and a monthly revenue increase of R$ 1,992.67.

Marketing in the pre-development process of agricultural machines: a reference model

The theme of the research is the development of the domain of marketing knowledge in the design of agricultural machinery. It is developed throughout the design of agricultural machinery in order to identify the corporate and customers needs and to develop strategies to satisfy these needs. The central problem of the research questions which marketing tools to apply on pre-development process of farm machinery, in order to increase the market value of the products and of the company and, consequently, generate competitive advantage to the manufacturers of agricultural machinery. As methodology, it was developed bibliographical research and multicase study of the development process of agricultural machinery developed by small, medium and large companies and the academy. As a result, a marketing reference model was elaborated for the pre-development stage of agricultural machinery, which outlines the activities, tasks, mechanisms and controls that can be used in strategic planning and in products planning of agricultural machinery manufacturers, contributing to explain the explicit knowledge in the marketing field.

Low cost driver device for microclimate maintenance in the pre-milking of dairy cattle

Due to the importance of the environment on animal production and thus environmental control, the study aims to build a system for monitoring and control the meteorological variables, temperature and relative humidity, low cost, which can be associated with an evaporative cooling system (ECS). The system development included all the stages of assembly, test and laboratory calibration, and later the validation of the equipment carried in the field. The validation step showed results which allowed concluding that the system can be safely used in the monitoring of these variables. The controller was efficient in management of the microclimate in the waiting corral and allowed the maintenance of the air temperature within the comfort range for dairy cattle in pre-milking with averaged 25.09 ºC during the afternoon. The equipment showed the lower cost (R$ 325.76) when compared to other middle market (R$ 450.00).

Nutrient loss in composting of agroindustrial residues

The management of composting may influence the characteristics of the produced compounds. The experiment used three frequencies of plowing, combined with the conditions: with and without coverage of the composting patio, with and without the use of commercial inoculant, resulting in 12 furrows, installed on the Experimental Center of Agricultural Engineering (NEEA), of the STATE UNIVERSITY OF WEST PARANÁ (UNIOESTE), Campus of Cascavel city - state of Paraná (PR), in Brazil. The waste and quantities used in kg were: corn cob (7.5); hatchery residue (5); floater sludge (31); ash (1); wheat cleaning residue (120); wheat pre-cleaning residue (120); corn peel (7.5); solid fraction of wash trucks used to transport chickens (2); solid fraction of pig manure (1) and coal (5), totaling 300kg of natural matter. The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of plowings, patio coverage and inoculation in losses of N, P, K, Ca, Mg, Na, Cu, Zn, Mn, Fe. The furrows plowed three times a week in the first month showed significant higher losses of N (p<0.05). The coverage of the composting patio influenced significantly the losses of N, K, Mg and Na (p<0.05). The produced compounds had a high agronomic value in relation to macro and micronutrients. It is recommended the use of patio coverage and plowing twice a week in the first month and once a week in the subsequent months for a compound with higher concentrations of nutrients.

Integrated multivariate analysis to evaluate effects of pre-slaughter handling on pork quality

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of pre-slaughter handling on the occurrence of PSE (Pale, Soft, and Exudative) meat in swine slaughtered at a commercial slaughterhouse located in the metropolitan region of Dourados, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil. Based on the database (n=1,832 carcasses), it was possible to apply the integrated multivariate analysis for the purpose of identifying, among the selected variables, those of greatest relevance to this study. Results of the Principal Component Analysis showed that the first five components explained 89.28% of total variance. In the Factor Analysis, the first factor represented the thermal stress and fatiguing conditions for swine during pre-slaughter handling. In general, this study indicated the importance of the pre-slaughter handling stages, evidencing those of greatest stress and threat to animal welfare and pork quality, which are transport time, resting period, lairage time before unloading, unloading time, and ambience.

Solar energy use for water pre-heating in boilers of agro-industries

Energy consumption in the world has been growing every year. The industrial sector represents 27.32% of the world energy demand. Heating systems that use solar energy may contribute with a percentage of the total energy required by industries. This work aimed to study the use of vacuum solar collectors for water pre-heating in boilers. We used four collectors installed according to NBR 15,569; water flow through the tubes was 0.058 L/s, and temperature in the inlet and outlet pipes was measured. Results showed that instantaneous radiation, and inlet fluid and room temperatures are variables that influence the process, reaching water maximum temperature in the solar collector outlet of 97.9 °C, and efficiency of approximately 65% for most experiments. For the financial viability evaluation, the payback study was applied, which resulted in 4; 7 and 5 years, for the respective sources: firewood, LPG (liquefied petroleum gas), and electricity. Regarding the calculation of the annual contribution to the reduction of greenhouse gases, it was, respectively, 2.162 and 356 kg of CO2 per m² of collector tubes, in comparison with firewood and LPG.

Financial losses in pork supply chain: a study of the pre-slaughter handling impacts

Brazil is amongst the world’s largest swine producers. However, its competitiveness has been vulnerable due to a lack of cooperation between the supply chain players. This condition makes the financial losses to be evaluated taking into account only an individual node, and most of the time, these damages are imputed by swine breeders. Living weight losses occur between the farm to slaughterhouses, and the main cause of these losses is the pre-slaughter handling, especially during animal transportation. In this research, we analyzed the pre-slaughter handling in a swine farm in Brasilândia, MS, Brazil. Analyzed data were provided by five slaughterhouses (farm clients) from the studied region, in which it was considered living weight losses, carcass bruising, animal injury, and death rate. The results indicated that total financial losses represent 160 thousand dollars per year, when taking into account the supply chain management.

Cognitive Development of Very Low Birth Weight Children from Infancy to Pre-school Age

The survival of preterm born infants has increased but the prevalence of long-term morbidities has still remained high. Preterm born children are at an increased risk for various developmental impairments including both severe neurological deficits as well as deficits in cognitive development. According to the literature the developmental outcome perspective differs between countries, centers, and eras. Definitions of preterm infant vary between studies, and the follow-up has been carried out with diverse methods making the comparison less reliable. It is essential to offer parents upto-date information about the outcome of preterm infants born in the same area. A centralized follow-up of children at risk makes it possible to monitor the consequences of changes in the treatment practices of hospitals on developmental outcome. This thesis is part of a larger regional, prospective multidisciplinary follow-up project entitled “Development and Functioning of Very Low Birth Weight Infants from Infancy to School Age” (PIeniPAinoisten RIskilasten käyttäytyminen ja toimintakyky imeväisiästä kouluikään, PIPARI). The thesis consists of four original studies that present data of very low birth weight (VLBW) infants born between 2001 and 2006, who are followed up from the neonatal period until the age of five years. The main outcome measure was cognitive development and secondary outcomes were significant neurological deficits (cerebral palsy, CP, deafness, and blindness). In Study I, the early crying and fussing behavior of preterm infants was studied using parental diaries, and the relation of crying behavior and cognitive and motor development at the age of two years was assessed. In Study II, the developmental outcome (cognitive, CP, deafness, and blindness) at the age of two years was studied in relation to demographic, antenatal, neonatal, and brain imaging data. Development was studied in relationship to a full-term born control group born in the same hospital. In Study III, the stability of cognitive development was studied in VLBW and full-term groups by comparing the outcomes at the ages of two and five years. Finally, in Study IV the precursors of reading skills (phonological processing, rapid automatized naming, and letter knowledge) were assessed for VLBW and full-term children at the age of five years. Pre-reading skills were studied in relation to demographic, antenatal, neonatal, and brain imaging data. The main findings of the thesis were that VLBW infants who fussed or cried more in the infancy were not at greater risk for problems in their cognitive development. However, crying was associated with poorer motor development. The developmental outcome of the present population was better that has been reported earlier and this improvement covered also cognitive development. However, the difference to fullterm born peers was still significant. Major brain pathology and intestinal perforation were independent significant risk factors for adverse outcome, also when several individual risk factors were controlled for. Cognitive development at the age of two years was strongly related with development at the age of five years, stressing the importance of the early assessment, and the possibility for early interventions. Finally, VLBW children had poorer pre-reading skills compared with their full-term born peers, but the IQ was an important mediator even when children with mental retardation were excluded from the analysis. The findings suggest that counseling parents about the developmental perspectives of their preterm infant should be based on data covering the same birth hospital. Neonatal brain imaging data and neonatal morbidity are important predictors for developmental outcome. The findings of the present study stress the importance of both short-term (two years) and long-term (five years) follow-ups for the individual, and for improving the quality of care.

A Case Study of Agile Software Engineering Methods and Practices in the MeeGo Harmattan Open Source and Product Context

The aim of this master’s thesis is to study how Agile method (Scrum) and open source software are utilized to produce software for a flagship product in a complex production environment. The empirical case and the used artefacts are taken from the Nokia MeeGo N9 product program, and from the related software program, called as the Harmattan. The single research case is analysed by using a qualitative method. The Grounded Theory principles are utilized, first, to find out all the related concepts from artefacts. Second, these concepts are analysed, and finally categorized to a core category and six supported categories. The result is formulated as the operation of software practices conceivable in circumstances, where the accountable software development teams and related context accepts a open source software nature as a part of business vision and the whole organization supports the Agile methods.

Self assessment report for international accreditation - Bachelor's and Master's degree programmes in Mechanical Engineering

Itsearviointiraportissa kuvataan Lappeenrannan teknillisen yliopiston konetekniikan kandidaatin ja diplomi-insinöörin tutkinto-ohjelmat opetussuunnitelman 2011-2012 mukaisesti. Itsearviointiraportti on tuotettu saksalaisen ASIIN-akkreditointiorganisaation raportointimallin mukaisesti.