Estudo de caso : avaliação do impacto no desempenho e satisfação da força de trabalho com a reestruturação organizacional do departamento de gestão integrada (DGI) - UFRGS

A administração pública no Brasil é um tema bastante estudado e criticado por diversos autores, pois ainda está imersa em dúvidas acerca das melhores governanças, práticas de gestão e estruturas organizacionais que impactem positivamente o desempenho e, consequentemente, promova o crescimento e vigor dessas instituições. O setor da administração pública em nosso país é constantemente criticado pela disfunção da burocracia pertinente ao sistema, bem como a dificuldade de acompanhar as mudanças que são vivenciadas pelo setor privado, por exemplo. No presente trabalho, é realizado um estudo de caso no Departamento de Gestão Integrada (DGI) da PROPLAN – UFRGS (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul), que passou por mudanças na sua atuação e função como departamento perante a instituição. As modificações que foram propostas ao departamento podem ser divididas em dois campos. O primeiro em relação à orientação e função do departamento como um todo, que também influenciou uma mudança de mesmo teor em suas divisões internas. O segundo campo, pelo qual as modificações passaram, é o da força de trabalho, ou seja, pessoas. Em outras palavras, uma realocação de funções que promovesse um melhor aproveitamento das competências dos membros foi promovida. O presente estudo traça um paralelo entre o período anterior as modificações em contraste com o período após as modificações, verificando, junto ao departamento, questões ligadas ao desempenho e satisfação das pessoas que trabalham nesse espaço. Com os resultados, foi possível concluir que houve um aumento na satisfação geral dos membros, bem como aspectos relativos ao desempenho foram impactados positivamente pelas mudanças promovidas no DGI.Public administration in Brazil is a theme widely studied and criticized by authors in this area, because it stills immerged in doubts concerning the best managing practices, governance and organizational structures that impact positively the performance and, as a result, generate growth in this kind of institutions. The public administration sector in Brazil is constantly criticized by its burocracy disfunction related to the system it is involved, as well as a strong effort to be up to date with the changes that happen in the private sector of the economy. In this study, its presented a case study in the “Departamento de Gestão Integrada - (DGI)” which can be understood as the department responsible for the strategy deployment in the institution, that has been under several changes in its function an operation towards the university (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul – UFRGS). The changes on the department can be split in two, in order to be easily understood. The first is related to the orientation and function of the entire department, that influenced changes in its intern divisions. The second point in which the changes went through is people functions in the department. In other words, shifts in personal roles in the department aiming a better exploitation of each ones capacities and competences was implemented. This case study draws a parallel between the period before the changes and after them, verifying issues linked to the department’s overall performance and personal satisfaction with the role each person has in the organization. Analyzing the results, it was possible to conclude an increase in people satisfaction and aspects related to the department’s performance

The appended curve technique for deconvolutional analysis —method and validation

Deconvolutional analysis (DCA) is useful in correction of organ time activity curves (response function) for variations in blood activity (input function). Despite enthusiastic reports of applications of DCA in renal and cardiac scintigraphy, routine use has awaited an easily implemented algorithm which is insensitive to statistical noise. The matrix method suffers from the propagation of errors in early data points through the entire curve. Curve fitting or constraint methods require prior knowledge of the expected form of the results. DCA by Fourier transforms (FT) is less influenced by single data points but often suffers from high frequency artifacts which result from the abrupt termination of data acquisition at a nonzero value.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/46829/1/259_2004_Article_BF00254393.pd

Evaluation of saponin loaded gellan gum hydrogel scaffold for cartilage regeneration

Several concentrations of saponin (Sa), which is water-soluble, were fabricated well with gellan gum (GG) solution. Sa, found in many plants like clematis and ginseng, has long been used in traditional chinese medicine to treat joint diseases including osteoarthritis. Also it has its ability of anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and anti-cancer. GG hydrogel is suitable as a cell encapsulating agent in the field of cartilage regeneration because of its easy processing and biocompatibility. In this study, GG hydrogel scaffolds with different concentration of Sa were conducted for analysis by SEM, FT-IR, compressive strength, water uptake, degradation rate, MTT assay, mRNA expression. It was observed that 0.025 wt% Sa/GG hydrogel scaffold shows good morphology, cell proliferation and mRNA expression results. The composite material supports cell growth covered with extracellular matrix (ECM) with maintaining its function. As a result, incorporation of Sa loaded with GG hydrogel scaffolds had positive result up to 0.025 wt% in cartilage regeneration.This research was supported by a grant of the Korea Health Technology R&D Project through the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI), funded by the Ministry of Health & Welfare, Republic of Korea (grant number: HI15C2996).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Aberration-corrected electron microscopy processing and imaging of novel organic and inorganic nanostructures

One dimensional nanostructures such as organic and inorganic nanotubes, nanowires and graphene have generated much excitement among materials scientists in recent years. However difficulties associated with their lack of processability have seriously hampered the number of possible applications. Poor dispensability in most common solvents and tendency to bundle forming larger aggregates has been a hurdle in the way of real exploitation. The recent development of techniques able to disperse and exfoliate these 1D objects have captured much attention, strongly re-launching these materials towards the applicative scene. It is mandatory to understand at what extent these techniques are efficient and whether the atomic structures of these nanomaterials are damaged or remain pristine after dispersion and exfoliation in liquid media. Aberration-corrected electron microscopy becomes in this context a very attractive and unique tool to investigate these structures at atomic scale