Managing performance in quality management: A two level study of employee-perceptions and workplace-performance

Purpose: This paper addresses potential effects of the control element in Quality Management. First, behavioural theories on how elements of performance management can affect organisational performance are examined. Secondly, theoretical models on how perceptions of work conditions may impact wellbeing and performance are considered. Direct and indirect pathways from performance management to productivity/quality are inferred. Methodology: Matched employee-workplace data from an economy-wide survey in Britain and two-level structural equation models are used to test the hypothesised associations. Findings: The use of practices in workplaces is inconsistent with a unified performance management approach. Distinct outcomes are expected from separate components in performance management and some may be contingent on workplace size. For example, within Quality-planning, strategy dissemination is positively associated with workplace-productivity; targets are negatively associated with perceptions of job demands and positively correlated with job satisfaction, which in turn can increase workplace-productivity. With respect to Information & Analysis: keeping and analysing records, or monitoring employee-performance via appraisals that assess training needs, are positively associated with workplace-productivity and quality. Originality: This paper illustrates how control in Quality Management can be effective. Although the merits of performance management are subject to ongoing debate, arguments in the literature have tended to focus on performance appraisal. Analyses of economy-wide data linking performance management practices, within Quality Management, to employee perceptions of work conditions, wellbeing and aggregate performance are rare

Impact of limited solvent capacity on metabolic rate, enzyme activities, and metabolite concentrations of S. cerevisiae glycolysis

The cell's cytoplasm is crowded by its various molecular components, resulting in a limited solvent capacity for the allocation of new proteins, thus constraining various cellular processes such as metabolism. Here we study the impact of the limited solvent capacity constraint on the metabolic rate, enzyme activities, and metabolite concentrations using a computational model of Saccharomyces cerevisiae glycolysis as a case study. We show that given the limited solvent capacity constraint, the optimal enzyme activities and the metabolite concentrations necessary to achieve a maximum rate of glycolysis are in agreement with their experimentally measured values. Furthermore, the predicted maximum glycolytic rate determined by the solvent capacity constraint is close to that measured in vivo. These results indicate that the limited solvent capacity is a relevant constraint acting on S. cerevisiae at physiological growth conditions, and that a full kinetic model together with the limited solvent capacity constraint can be used to predict both metabolite concentrations and enzyme activities in vivo. © 2008 Vazquez et al

O histórico do sistema extrativo e a extração de óleo de andiroba cultivado no município de Tomé-Açu, estado do Pará.

O óleo de andiroba na Amazônia até a primeira metade do século passado, foi utilizado para iluminação das casas interioranas e mesmo das casas de Belém. Antes da II Guerra Mundial, havia grandes indústrias na cidade de Belém que se dedicavam à extração de óleo de andiroba, o qual era utilizado para fabricação de sabonetes, para movelaria e para indústria farmacêutica, que desde os primórdios era utilizado na medicina popular da Amazônia. Na última década, reacendeu a importância do óleo de andiroba para a indústria de cosméticos, farmacêutica e como repelente de insetos, atraindo a cobiça de grandes indústrias farmacêuticas, o que levou ao patenteamento de seus princípios ativos. Isso chama a atenção quanto à necessidade de aprimorar o desenvolvimento científico e tecnológico sobre os produtos da biodiversidade e formação de um parque produtivo local como a maneira mais segura de desestimular a biopirataria

Controlled photon transfer between two individual nanoemitters via shared high-Q modes of a microsphere resonator

We realize controlled cavity-mediated photon transfer between two single nanoparticles over a distance of several tens of micrometers. First, we show how a single nanoscopic emitter attached to a near-field probe can be coupled to high-Q whispering-gallery modes of a silica microsphere at will. Then we demonstrate transfer of energy between this and a second nanoparticle deposited on the sphere surface. We estimate the photon transfer efficiency to be about six orders of magnitude higher than that via free space propagation at comparable separations.Comment: accepted for publication in Nano Letter

PCA Tomography and its application to nearby galactic nuclei

With the development of modern technologies such as IFUs, it is possible to obtain data cubes in which one produces images with spectral resolution. To extract information from them can be quite complex, and hence the development of new methods of data analysis is desirable. We briefly describe a method of analysis of data cubes (data from single field observations, containing two spatial and one spectral dimension) that uses Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to express the data in the form of reduced dimensionality, facilitating efficient information extraction from very large data sets. We applied the method, for illustration purpose, to the central region of the low ionization nuclear emission region (LINER) galaxy NGC 4736, and demonstrate that it has a type 1 active nucleus, not known before. Furthermore, we show that it is displaced from the centre of its stellar bulge.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, 1 table, to be published in the Proceedings of the IAU Symposium no. 26

Biodisponibilidade de ferro em amostra de músculo bovino in natura e processada termicamente.

A carne bovina é de grande importância na alimentação, sendo consumida por quase 50% da população brasileira. Encontrado na carne vermelha e em certas frutas e legumes, o ferro é um mineral essencial. O ferro participa do processo de produção da hemoglobina, que transporta o oxigênio pelo corpo através do sangue. Níveis baixos de ferro no organismo podem causar anemia ferropriva nos seres humanos. Os processos de conservação de carne, tais como a refrigeração e os processamentos térmicos, podem alterar a composição química da mesma. Este trabalho teve por objetivo analisar a biodisponibilidade de Fe em amostras de carnes bovinas in natura e processadas termicamente, utilizando o método gastrointestinal in vitro