The footwear factory's assembly sector: opposing organizational structure and quality from the ergonomic work analysis

Data from 2006 indicated that Brazilian footwear leather industry was composed of approximately 9,488 formally registered establishments, considering the leather industry, footwear and leather goods. It was responsible for 211,582 people employed. However, in spite of having many employees, this kind of organization found several problems when analyzed from the ergonomics view. With this premise, then, in order to identify bottlenecks and other engineering problems that could cause discomfort and motivation lack among workers, leading directly to the loss of the product quality, the assembly sector of women's shoes factory was characterized.     

Teaching ergonomics to undergraduate physical therapy students: new methodologies and impressions of a Brazilian experience

Being ergonomics a scientific discipline based on knowledge of several areas, it is important to use education methodologies that promote critical thinking and reflective during the educational process. The article discusses the importance of interdisciplinarity in undergraduate courses in health care in particular in disciplines that address the ergonomics issue. The aspects of the introduction of new education methodologies, as well as case studies in undergraduate courses in Brazil, are discussed in this study. Based on the literature review conducted, some proposals for action in the interdisciplinary teaching of ergonomics in Physiotherapy courses are presented.     

Declining employment success of immigrant males in Sweden: Observed or unobserved characteristics?

Focusing on Nordic and Yugoslavian immigrant males, we study the determinants of employment success of natives and immigrants in Sweden. Furthermore, we investigate the reasons behind the arising gap in employment success between Swedes and immigrants from 1970 to 1990. In a decomposition analysis, we find that the main part of the decline in the employment probability of immigrants relative to Swedes over time is explained by a change in coefficients (unobserved characteristics) rather than a change in determinants (observed characteristics). Received: 22 June 1998/Accepted: 23 March 2000     

A comparison of stepwise common singular spectrum analysis and horizontal multi-channel singular spectrum analysis

The problem of forecasting a time series by using information provided by a second time series is considered. Two multivariate extensions of Singular Spectrum Analysis (SSA) are compared in terms of forecast error: Horizontal Multi-channel SSA and Stepwise Common SSA. Different signal structures, defined in terms of trend, period, amplitude and phase, are investigated. In broad terms we find that neither Horizontal Multichannel SSA nor Stepwise Common SSA is best in all cases. Horizontal MSSA is outperformed particularly in cases where different trends are considered.     

Abhängigkeitserkrankung am Arbeitsplatz — eine Coachingaufgabe

Addiction on the job — a task of coaching The article describes the typical appearances and developments of addiction on the job, intending to show which multiple demands a manager has to fulfil, if he wants to handle the situation competent. It also describes possible solutions as well as the approach and routines of coaching in such a case.     

Expertization of Everyone and the Revolt of the Client*†

American society is witnessing a dramatic explosion and dissemination of knowledge, accompanied by the increasing refusal of patients, customers, students, and other types of clients to passively receive the services of the expert in any body of knowledge or skill. There has been an expansive growth of occupational experts and a demand on the part of clients for a change in the relation. Knowledge monopolization is decreasingly possible due to the activities of mass communication and of the literate public, and clients are becoming varied in the amount of knowledge with which they turn to the expert. Thus, while the political and economic groups are increasingly depending on the expert elite for plans and programs, the members at all levels of society are demanding rights of decision making.     

Prosperity-Enhancing Institutions: Towards a Comprehensive Composite Index

Institutions that potentially have a positive impact on economic performance rarely exist outside of a system of institutions; rather they are embedded in the institutional order of a country. It is thus imperative to investigate the composition of such prosperity-enhancing institutional orders. This paper proposes a measurement of bundles of institutions that channel the positive effect of democratic institutions on economic prosperity. We construct composite sub-indices measuring the political, economic and societal institutional quality as well as an overall index combining these bundles of institutions. Index data is available for 148 countries between 1995 and 2010. We obtain scores summarizing the level of prosperity-enhancing institutions that the respective countries exhibit with regard to their overall institutional setting and to the three bundles of institutions, and we grade the countries accordingly. Since the indices allow for inter-temporal comparisons, we can highlight a country’s achievements in institutional development, amongst other aspects of country comparisons, and we show their value as a tool in the analysis of determinants of economic prosperity. The proposed indices are a step towards a more systematic international comparison of democratic institutional settings.     

“Did I just do that?”—Six-month-olds learn the contingency between their vocalizations and a visual reward in 5 minutes

It has been shown that infants can increase or modify a motorically available behavior such as sucking, kicking, arm waving, etc., in response to a positive visual reinforcement (e.g., DeCasper & Fifer, 1980; Millar, 1990; Rochat & Striano, 1999; Rovee-Collier, 1997; Watson & Ramey, 1972). We tested infants to determine if they would also change their vocal behavior in response to contingent feedback, which lacks the social, emotional, and auditory modeling typical of parent-child interaction. Here, we show that in a single five-minute session infants increase the rate of their vocalizations in order to control the appearance of colorful shapes on an iPad screen. This is the first experimental study to demonstrate that infants can rapidly learn to increase their vocalizations, when given positive reinforcement with no social element. This work sets the foundations for future studies into the causal relationship between the number of early vocalizations and the onset of words. In addition, there are potential clinical applications for reinforcing vocal practice in infant populations who are at risk for poor language skills.