Argument and explanation in classroom discourse

This work proposes to investigate the features of the discursive interactions among teachers during a teaching sequence about ecology. The results show a predominance of explanatory interactions and only one argumentative interaction. Although some turns present the structure of an argument according to Toulmin's model, most interactions lack contextual indicators of argumentative process such as dispute of ideas and engagement in persuasion. Thus, the focus on discursive interactions rather than argumentative products may help to clarify the distinction among practices of the classroom discourse

Climate in architecture: revision of early origins

This dissertation expands the comprehension of the history of climate in architecture by examining the evolution of the architectural meanings, uses, representations, and simulations of climate between 1800 and the present by means of a historical critical analysis of two scientific artifacts that attempted to model climate for the first time in the fields of geography and architecture. The Naturgemälde (1799 – Alexander von Humboldt) was a type of infographic image that simulated conceptually climate as a global system. The Climatron (1954 – Victor Olgyay) was a laboratory machine that physically simulated climate to test building scaled-models. Primary data was collected in the places where both artifacts were created, and where related archival materials are currently held. The method of analysis compared the models against each other, against contemporary computer simulations of climate for architects, and against their early theoretical foundations. The dissertation reflected on the universality of science in architecture and the role of the places and the technology involved to produce knowledge about climate, while challenged the concept of climate in architecture. It endeavored to find more holistic scientific approaches to design-with-climate that consider hard data alongside art. The tangible outcomes are four articles advised by one of the committee members according to their expertise: MODELS OF CLIMATE AND WEATHER explains the attempts to simulate conceptually and materially climate and weather in order to reduce their complexity to a human scale; ARCHITECTURAL INSIGHTS FROM EARLY DRAWINGS OF CLIMATE AND WEATHER: NATURGEMÄLDE, ISOTHERMS, CLIMATE PORTRAITS, AND THE BIOCLIMATIC CHART, reflects about the paradox of drawing climate and weather; PACKAGING NATURE FOR ARCHITECTS: EARLY ORIGINS OF DESIGNING WITH NATURAL MORPHOLOGY AND CLIMATE, focuses on how ideas travel from environmental sciences into architecture; and UNDERSTANDING THE CHARACTER OF PLACE: HUMBOLDT’S PHYSIOGNOMY OF NATURE, VICTOR OLGYAY’S BIOCLIMATIC REGIONALISM AND THE OUTLINE OF A PHYSIOGNOMY OF CLIMATE examines, from an architectural standpoint, the role of the beauty of climate in the understanding of the character of a place

Do accelerated ventures learn what really matters? : an exploratory study of the Portuguese Ecosystem

Entrepreneurs are drivers for economic prosperity and innovation. They take risks that are normally avoided by established companies, pushing industry boundaries to the next level. Several incubation mechanisms emerged in order to support new ventures in coping with initial challenges. Accelerators were born in 2005 and completely revolutionized how business incubation is done. By offering knowledge intensive and specialized support, acceleration programs aim to speed up new ventures´ development in approximately three months. Scholars have studied this new incubation mechanism over the last years but still little is known about the impact that accelerators have on startups. In order to address this research gap, we interviewed ten accelerated startups to understand the entrepreneurs´ perspective about the program. Based on acknowledged research, we investigated the impact of accelerators on the drivers of startup success. Literature divides the drivers in four main categories – Team, Product, Marketing and Financials. We found accelerators to be remarkable Team Builders for accelerated startups. Due to the cohort effect and the knowledge-sharing environment promoted by accelerators, ventures develop their Team Personality and Credibility throughout the program. Additionally, we found that accelerators are great Market Development Champions for high-tech startups. Our results suggest that the accelerators´ market-oriented mindset positively impact all the drivers of startup success of the Marketing category.Os empreendedores são motores para o desenvolvimento económico e inovação. Eles correm riscos que são normalmente evitados pelas grandes empresas, desafiando os limites pré-estabelecidos pela indústria. Vários mecanismos de incubação surgiram para ajudar as novas empresas a enfrentar os seus primeiros desafios. Os aceleradores emergiram em 2005 e revolucionaram a forma como a incubação de novas empresas é feita. Através de um suporte especializado e baseado no conhecimento, os aceleradores têm como objetivo acelerar o desenvolvimento de novos negócios em aproximadamente três meses. Os académicos têm estudado este novo mecanismo de incubação durante os últimos anos, mas pouco se descobriu acerca do impacto que os aceleradores têm nas startups. De forma a preencher esta lacuna, foram entrevistadas dez startups previamente aceleradas para perceber a perspetiva dos empreendedores sobre o programa. Baseados em investigação reconhecida, indagamos o impacto dos aceleradores nos drivers de sucesso das startups. A literatura divide os drivers em quarto categorias principais – Equipa, Produto, Marketing e Financeiro. Concluímos que os aceleradores são um fantástico suporte ao Desenvolvimento de Equipa das startups aceleradas. Devido ao efeito cohort e ao ambiente de partilha do conhecimento promovido pelo acelerador, as empresas desenvolvem a sua Personalidade e Credibilidade enquanto equipa. Adicionalmente, descobrimos que os aceleradores prestam um grande apoio no Desenvolvimento de Mercado para as high-tech startups. Os nossos resultados sugerem que o pensamento orientado para o mercado dos aceleradores é responsável por um impacto positivo em todos os drivers de sucesso das startup, relativamente à categoria Marketing

Electrochemical characterization of a novel salen type modified electrode

The nickel(II) complex with H2saltMe, a N2O2 Schiff base ligand derived from salicylaldehyde, was oxidatively electropolymerized on Pt electrodes in CH3CN/0.1 mol dm-3 tetraethylammonium perchlorate (TEAP) to generate polymer films that exhibit reversible oxidative electrochemical behavior in a wide potential range (0.0-1.3 V), high conductivity, and stability/durability

ALINHAMENTO ESTRATÉGICO ENTRE PLANEJAMENTO INSTITUCIONAL E PLANEJAMENTO DE TECNOLOGIA DA INFORMAÇÃO: UMA ANÁLISE DO NÚCLEO ESTRATÉGICO DE DESENVOLVIMENTO DE APLICATIVOS INSTITUCIONAIS DA UFRRJ

A vida nas sociedades modernas tornou-se refém da Tecnologia de Informação (TI). Pouco ou nada é possível fazer sem ela. A TI está presente nos ciclos da vida humana e das organizações. Daí a necessidade de alinhar a TI a estratégia corporativa. O objetivo principal deste trabalho é identificar pontos de convergência ou não entre as estratégias do Núcleo Estratégico de Desenvolvimento de Aplicativos Institucionais (NEDAI) em relação ao Plano de Desenvolvimento Institucional (PDI) da Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro (UFRRJ), com vigência entre 2013 e 2017, sob a ótica da Governança em TI e da VBR (Visão Baseada em Recursos). A pesquisa é de natureza qualitativa e exploratória. A análise dos dados apresentou resultados suficientes para realizar um diagnóstico inicial, na busca por soluções que aproximem a TI das estratégias institucionais. Acredita-se que, com os dados analisados, o estudo foi responsável por apresentar um ponto de partida para maiores aprofundamentos a respeito do tema, principalmente focados na capacitação das equipes e reformulação de processos de trabalho

From bench scale to pilot plant operation: Business models and challenges in the biopharmaceutical industry in Brazil

Brazil has several challenges to strengthen the biopharmaceutical industry, one of them particularly regarding the ability to translate scientific research into products. Many scholars have been working on this issue and the causalities involved on it in order to contribute to a better understanding of interrelationship between micro and macroeconomic dynamics. Most of the studies are directed to private organizations based in developed countries and aimed to understand the factors of success. Despite the wealth of these approaches, there are few studies about the challenges involved in the transitions from preclinical to clinical stage in the process of Research and Development in developing countries. There are gaps in the understanding of these steps, especially with respect to the requirement to move from the bench to the pilot scale. The main objective of a pilot plant in the biopharmaceutical industry is to demonstrate, with scientific and technological data, the feasibility of a candidate product being transformed into a pilot batch in a GMP certified area. For that, it is necessary to obtain data on yield, reproducibility, repeatability of the established processes, physicochemical stability and thermal stability of the candidate antigen or molecule, formulation parameters and process scheduling. In view of this fact, the present work addresses the issue of industrial pilot plants areas in developing countries from the application of business models approach. The literature about business models provide a practical reference able to assist other organizations to outline the value proposition and to analyze the critical factors for success implementation of pilot plants. This work aims to contribute to the discussion of this topic in Brazil due to the ongoing initiatives for the implementation of pilot plants and to serve as subsidies for public policy. Considering the scenario of the biopharmaceutical industries, where the dynamics of biotechnological and economic transformations has been shown to be complex for the evolution of the product development cycle, Brazil needs not only to improve its infrastructure for Research and Development but also to design and implement appropriate business models for the components of this infrastructure

Enhanced performance of polymer-polymer aqueous two-phase systems using ionic liquids as adjuvants towards the purification of recombinant proteins

Protein biopharmaceuticals, among which interferon alpha-2b (IFNα-2b) that can be used in the treatment of chronic hepatitis C and hairy cell leukemia, have become an indispensable product of current medicine. However, their current high costs derived from the lack of cost-effective downstream strategies still limits their widespread use. Polymer-based aqueous two-phase systems (ATPS) or aqueous biphasic systems (ABS) can be used in biopharmaceuticals purification. This work investigates the application of ionic liquids (ILs) as adjuvants (at 5 wt%) in ATPS constituted by polyethylene glycol with a molecular weight of 600 g mol−1 (PEG 600) and polypropylene glycol with a molecular weight of 400 g mol−1 (PPG 400) at constant pH (8) to purify the recombinant protein IFNα-2b from Escherichia coli lysates. IFNα-2b was produced from isopropyl β-d-1-thiogalactopyranoside (1 mM)-induced Escherichia coli BL21 (DE3) cultures and recovered from inclusion bodies after mechanical lysis, involving glass beads and a solubilization step with urea (8 M) in alkaline pH (12.5). PEG-PPG-based ATPS involving ILs as adjuvants were subsequently applied for IFNα-2b purification, in which the target protein tends to migrate to the PEG-rich phase (being the phase also enriched in IL) and the remaining proteins tend to precipitate at the interface (fitting within the three-phase partitioning approach). In comparison with the ATPS without adjuvant, most systems comprising ILs as adjuvants lead to enhancements in the purification factors of IFNα-2b, namely from 2.28 ± 0.06 up to 6.77 ± 0.49. The purity of IFNα-2b is maximized using ILs composed of aromatic cations and anions with high hydrogen-bond basicity. The secondary structure of IFNα-2b is preserved during the purification step, as appraised by circular dichroism and western-blot studies. Overall, the obtained results demonstrate the ILs ability to tune the characteristics of the ATPS coexisting phases towards improved purification processes, paving the way for their investigation in the purification of other high-value biological products.publishe

Accessibility of Brazilian state government websites: a quantitative analysis between 1996 and 2007

A utilização da web para a disponibilização de informações e serviços de órgãos governamentais para os cidadãos tem se tornado cada vez mais expressiva. Assim, a garantia de que esses conteúdos e serviços possam ser acessíveis a qualquer cidadão é imprescindível, independentemente de necessidades especiais ou de quaisquer outras barreiras. No Brasil, o Decreto-Lei nº5.296/2004 determinou que todos os órgãos governamentais deveriam adaptar seus sítios na web de acordo com critérios de acessibilidade até dezembro de 2005. Com o objetivo de verificar a evolução da acessibilidade ao longo dos anos e como foi o impacto dessa legislação, este artigo analisa a acessibilidade dos sítios dos governos estaduais brasileiros por meio de amostras coletadas entre 1996 e 2007. Foram efetuadas análises por meio de métricas, obtidas por avaliações com ferramentas automáticas. Os resultados indicam que a legislação teve pouco impacto para a melhoria real da acessibilidade dos sítios no período indicado, com uma melhora somente em 2007. Verifica-se que se faz necessário adotar políticas públicas mais efetivas para que as pessoas com necessidades especiais tenham os seus direitos para acesso a informações e aos serviços públicos na web assegurados mais amplamente.The use of the web to provide government information and services to citizens has become more and more significant. Ensuring that any citizen can access these contents and services is essential, regardless of disabilities or other barriers they may have. In Brazil, Executive Act no. 5.296/2004 ruled that all government agencies should adapt their websites according to accessibility guidelines until December 2005. In order to check the trend of accessibility over the years and the impact of such legislation, this article analyzes the accessibility of the Brazilian state government websites from 1996 to 2007. Analyses were carried out by means of metrics, obtained by evaluations with automatic tools. The results indicate that the legislation has had little impact on the accessibility of the sites, with an improvement in 2007. Thus, it indicates that it is necessary to adopt more effective public policies to guarantee that people with disabilities have insured their rights to access information and public services on the web.CNP

Gestión de la calidad total y gestión de recursos humanos: una simbiosis inevitable

En el sistema de Gestión de la Calidad Total (GCT), la calidad es el núcleo de todas las actividades de la organización e involucra a todas las personas que la integran. De aquí que las políticas y procesos de recursos humanos adquieran un carácter estratégico. Esto plantea al área responsable de la gestión del trabajo de las personas en las organizaciones, a la que llamaremos Departamento de Recursos Humanos (DRH), la necesidad de actuar en cada una de sus funciones como agente de mejora continua, tanto de los procedimientos de trabajo como de las personas que lo realizan. La mejora continua es la esencia de la GCT. A partir de estos principios, en este trabajo se analiza la relación entre los fundamentos de la Calidad Total y los de la Gestión de Recursos Humanos (GRH), considerando los precedentes y componentes del sistema de GCT así como las implicaciones que esto tiene para la GRH. Al mismo tiempo, se identifican los elementos de confluencia y de divergencia entre ambos enfoques y se determina el carácter de su vinculación. Una vez considerados los planteamientos teóricos de ambos enfoques, se analizan las prácticas y políticas de recursos humanos y el papel que desempeña el DRH en un grupo de organizaciones que han implantado sistemas de GCT. Finalmente, se plantean algunas pautas de actuación para el área de recursos humanos en el marco de la GCT