International Transfer of Policies and Practices of Gender Equality in Employment to and among Muslim Majority Countries

This article investigates the premise that it is possible to transpose organizational approaches to equal employment opportunity (EEO) from western countries to Muslim majority countries (MMCs). Drawing on policy interviews and documentary evidence from public sector organizations and international development agencies engaged in the promotion of gender equality in Turkey and Pakistan, we question the effectiveness of diffusion of gender equality policies and practices to and among these two MMCs. Our investigation reveals the primacy of context over essence in developing effective ways to construct EEO policies and practices which can be adopted in MMCs.     

Ports modernization and its influence on trade unions

The restructuring of production resulting from the Port Modernization Law (Law 8.630/90) caused significant changes in work organization of Brazilian Ports. In the case of Mucuripe (Fortaleza, Ceará), in particular, the changes were very intense as Mucuripe is an old port that, before the Law, had labor regulation being governed by Trade Unions. This paper aims to present the perceptions of Union Representatives on the changes brought about by the Law on work organization in the port of Fortaleza, its influence in the organization and in the way the Unions deal with this new reality. Open and exploratory interviews were conducted with representatives of occasional labor workers registered in the Port of Fortaleza OGMO (Org?o Gestor de M?o de Obra, Labor Regulation Management). The analysis of the collected material in the interviews was based on the technique of content analysis proposed by Bardin (1979). Trade Unions have undergone a great loss of power and it has reflected in a relative inability to perform its function and to fight for the rights of the workers. The obvious Trade Unions weakness - a reduction of strikes and less unionized workers - reflects the dominating ideology of capital.     

Ergonomic work analysis of airbus pilots job in Brazil

This article is the result of a case study of ergonomic work analysis carried out in a Brazilian airline company, focused on the safety of the activity of Airbus pilots from the company's national lines. The study was divided in three parts, each one with different approach. First step is how critical situations such as accidents and incidents are dealt with during flight. Then it comes to discuss about adversities found in the working place, the airbus cockpit, and the development of risk map. Last but not least, the study focused in how the irregular working journey compromises the biological clock of the pilots end may cause social issues.     

Analysis on the relationship between the school furniture and the work surface lighting and the body posture of public Middle School students from João Pessoa, Paraíba, Brazil

The main objective of this study is to evaluate the impact of school furniture and work surface lighting on the body posture of two public Middle School students from Paraíba (Brazil). The target population included 8th grade groups involving 31 students. Brazilian standards for lighting levels, the CEBRACE standards for furniture measurements and the Postural Assessment Software (SAPO) for the postural misalignment assay were adopted for the measurements comparison. The statistic analysis includes analyses of parametric and non-parametric correlations. The results show that the students' most affected parts of the body were the spine, the regions of the knees and head and neck and about 90% of the students presented postural misalignment. The lighting levels were usually found below 300 lux, below recommended levels. Such results indicate the need of investments in more suitable school furniture and structural reforms aimed at improving the lighting in the classrooms, which could fulfill the students' profile and reduce their complaints.     

Invisible computer for collaborative design: evaluation of a multimodal sketch-based environment

In the areas of design, especially in architectural design, collaboration has become an important challenge. The specialization of skills increase, work teams are more and more extensive and the geographic distance between them increases too. The economic and ecological stakes related to remote collaboration are an evidence. This context involves the need to support most efficiently possible remote working meetings. We present the Distributed Collaborative Digital Studio (DSDC), a tool designed to recreate, in distant situations, the context of copresence meetings. This shared environment is created in the "invisible computer" approach [11]. The idea is that the tool should disappear from user's consciousness. Indeed, creative design activities require some fluidity in their process. Therefore, any involuntary interruption created by the system can potentially brake creativity. In this perspective, we investigate specifically the "invisibility" of our environment. To do this, we propose a framework for the operationalization of the concept and a methodology to test the system invisibility. This methodology was applied through a case study consisting of a corpus of 12 hours of remote collaborative design sessions with the DSDC. We highlight the learning effects while using our system, conclude on its effectiveness and discuss our methodology.     

Operative strategies of HLB's scouts of a citrus property within the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil

This research aimed to study the activity of the HLB's scouts, workers whose function is to identify symptomatic plants, in order to understand the physical constraints, cognitive and organizational involved in accomplishing the task, characterizing the operative approach used to identify diseased plants, and to elucidate what aspects hinder the identification of symptoms. The method adopted for the research was the Ergonomic Analysis of Work--EAW [6]. The results, after validation with the operators and management, allowed understanding the complex relationships between the physical, cognitive and organizational aspects present on activity. Major difficulties were observed mainly in relation to the disposal of the scouts on the platforms and in relation to working hours, at the beginning and end of the journey. Important findings have highlighted strategies, unknown by the organization, used by scouts to locate candidates' trees to the fine analysis of investigation of symptoms. In conclusion, the analysis enable to understand the constraints and find technical and organizational solutions to the survey work on citrus groves as well as it showed signs and symptoms not investigated yet or rarely considered by researchers involved on searches aimed at increasing the ability to diagnose the disease in the field.