The inclusion of ergonomic tools in the informational, conceptual and preliminary phases of the product design methodology

The process of product development has received special attention as it is being recognized as a source of competitive gain. Through its systematic use companies reduce costs, increase quality and decrease development time. However, one can find products being launched on the market that cause dissatisfaction to its users, and in consequence if the customer feels harmed or injured he will no longer purchase a product from the same brand. This in regard only to the commercial aspect; usually the danger of an accident or injury is not even thought about. This paper is the basis of the dissertation master's degree and used a literature research to build the repertoire, analyzing the methodologies applied by product design engineers, designers and ergonomists. The analysis results demonstrate the inefficiency of the design methodologies ergonomic issues. The contribution of this work lies in the suggestion to include ergonomic tools in all phases of product development and the presentation of a table with the tools that points out its most suitable time of application and results.     

Accounting for the formation of scientific fields in organization studies

There are few qualitative organizational accounts that explore the constitution of scientific fields in management. We developed a methodology for understanding the academic modes of scientific knowledge production in management research from the perspective of the sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK) and actor-network theory (ANT). SSK and ANT offer a way to account for how scientific fields in organization studies are enacted. Key to this process are splitting and inversion of statements; credibility and network formation; and the concepts of credit, trajectory, and position. Specific statements making key knowledge claims (e.g., handbooks, special editions) are situated in academic practices that obscure those rhetorical strategies that enable the production of a network of knowledge that can act, organizationally, as a more or less unified sub-field. We take as a starting point a collection of texts, dated 2011, which sought to systematize the main currents of a disciplinary sub-field during the last decade, focusing on how statements are transformed into scientific certainty and how the question of credibility is established. The sub-field is that of organizational learning (OL). The particular language of OL relies on approaches that make its epistemic assumptions intelligible within a network. It is a language that tends to reify and naturalize specific practices that become accredited as organization learning. The material/textual artifacts that sustain these practices, instead of being reified, can be reframed as enacting a scientific field whose resignification acts upon the network that enabled its existence.     

Towards sustainability by aligning operational programmes and sustainable performance measures

Abstract

In the last decades, sustainable concerns have increasingly gained importance to organizational survival, and Lean/Six Sigma approaches are becoming more and more outstanding in order to improve sustainability performance. This article aims to evaluate the degree of importance of sustainable performance measures of Brazilian organizations and to propose guidelines to achieve sustainability by aligning these measures with operational improvement programmes. Multiple data collection methods were applied as theoretical literature review, questionnaire survey and semi-structured interviews with industry professionals and academic researchers. The findings show that it is the corporate responsibility to focus their efforts on both operational improvement programmes and sustainable initiatives in order to achieve better environmental protection, corporate reputation, quality management, cost performance and suppliers relations, as they are considered to be more important on organizational sustainability.     

Correlation between pelvic floor strength and physical activity level in healthy men

The male pelvic floor muscles comprise a pair of compound muscle layers referred to as the levator ani. Studies have shown that pelvic floor muscle strength is affected by physical activity. This study aimed to assess male pelvic floor muscle strength through manometry of the external anal sphincter and evaluation of its association with physical activity level, BMI, and rectal pressure in healthy men. To assess physical activity level over the previous week, we used the International Physical Activity Questionnaire 8 (IPAQ). Pelvic floor muscle strength was assessed via anorectal manometry. The results shows a negative correlation between resting pressure and MET, a positive correlation between rectal pressure and resting and maximum pressure. The novel finding of this study is a negative correlation between walking and pelvic floor strength. This study raises new questions about the understanding of the interaction among physical activity, intraabdominal pressure, and pelvic floor strength in the physiology of continence in men.     

Economic growth and social capital: A critical reflection

Theory and Society -     

Cost-Effectiveness of Risk-Reduction Measures from a National Viewpoint: A Case Study of the Angra Nuclear Plant in Brazil

In this paper a systemic or national approach to cost-effectiveness analysis of risk-reduction measures is reviewed, and its advantages and limitations are discussed. The method is applied to the problem of the cost-effectiveness of increasing the Angra 3 NPP containment wall thickness from the present 60 cm to 180 cm thick in order to prevent damage to the reactor core in case of a direct commercial aircraft crash on it. It is concluded that this measure is not cost-effective if the referred approach is considered.     

Resources of origin,investments and expectations of rewards in the militancy of the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST)

The problem studied consists of the relations between the interests and militancy and the differences in expectations of rewards in an agrarian reform settlement linked to the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST). In this settlement, many ‘leaders’ gathered the ‘socialisation of production’. The situation arising from these circumstances produced the different reasons for engagement and different relations with the militancy. In the transition from the encampment to the settlement, it becomes important for the leaders to reinforce their positions both of ‘leadership’ and as mediators of policies and public resources, while it becomes difficult for those settled to maintain their previous investments in strong engagement. Consequently, these new conditions tend to increase the differences between the expectations of rewards from the militancy. These expectations can be pragmatic, such as viability as a farmer, or have a more symbolic character, which is associated with the struggle to create social organisation models.     

Fitting Distributions with the Polyhazard Model with Dependence

The polyhazard model with dependent causes, first introduced to fit lifetime data, generalized the traditional polyhazard model by allowing the latent causes of failure to be dependent by using copula functions. When modeling lifetime data, marginal distributions are supported on the positive reals. Dropping this restriction, the method generates a rich family of univariate distributions with asymmetries and multiple modes. We show that this new family of distributions is able to approximate other distributions proposed in the literature, such as the generalized beta-generated distributions. These distributions are fitted to three real data sets.