THE USE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AS A CONTROL MECHANISM: ANALYSIS OF MULTIPLE CASES IN THE BANKING SECTOR

A Tecnologia da Informação (TI) tem sido uma das ferramentas mais utilizadas e que evoluem mais rapidamente no cenário de negócios atual. Nessa mesma linha, seguem as formas de controle utilizadas pelas empresas com os seus funcionários. Assim, é importante distingui-las temporalmente: antigamente, utilizavam-se formas mais rústicas e explícitas para manter o controle dos empregados; já nos dias atuais, as organizações buscam tornar o controle invisível, de maneira que os mesmos o percebam o mínimo possível, com a finalidade de maximizar os lucros empresariais. Percebendo a ligação direta entre o desenvolvimento de TI e de modernas formas de controle, sentiu-se a necessidade de estudar mais profundamente essa questão e entender melhor esse processo. O elemento utilizado para investigação foram os bancos de Pelotas, públicos e privados, nos quais o controle é, ao mesmo tempo, visível e invisível aos olhos dos funcionários. Portanto, foram feitas sete entrevistas com pessoas que trabalham em bancos, utilizando o método de pesquisa snowball, no qual um indicou o outro e, ao final deste trabalho, são apresentados os resultados e a real relação existente entre o desenvolvimento da Tecnologia da Informação e as novas formas de controle nas empresas. The Technology of Information has been one of the most useful and developed tools on the business world. In the same way, there are the control modes, in which companies use with their employees. In fact, it is important to distinguish them far apart in time: in the past, rustic and explicit ways were used to keep workers controlled; currently, it is important to make the control implicit, so that the employees do not realize that they have been manipulated by their superiors, with the aim to increase the corporate profits. Understanding that there is a big connection between Technology of Information development and modern ways of control, came the need to deeply study this question and to find out how this process really works. For this analysis, public and private banks from Pelotas were used, in which the control is both visible and invisible to employees’ eyes. Therefore, seven interviews were conducted with people who work in banks, using the ‘snowball’ research system, in which each person indicated another. In the end of this article, the results from those interviews are revealed and also, the real relation between the development of Technology of Information and modern ways of control inside companies

High resolution benthic Mg/Ca temperature record of the intermediate water in the Denmark Strait across D-O stadial-interstadial cycles

Dansgaard‐Oeschger (D‐O) climate instabilities that took place during Marine Isotope Stage 3 are connected to changes in ocean circulation patterns and sea ice cover. Here we explore in detail the configuration of the water column of the Denmark Strait during D‐O events 8–5. How the ocean currents and water masses within the Denmark Strait region responded and were connected to the North Atlantic are discussed. We investigate sediment core GS15‐198‐36CC, from the northern side of the Greenland‐Iceland Ridge, at 30‐year temporal resolution. Stable carbon and oxygen isotope reconstructions based on benthic foraminifera, together with a high‐resolution benthic foraminiferal record of Mg/Ca paleothermometry, is presented. The site was bathed by warm intermediate waters during stadials and cool but gradually warming intermediate water during interstadials. We suggest that stadial conditions in the Denmark Strait are characterized by a well‐stratified water column with a warm intermediate water mass that lies beneath a cold fresh body of water where sea ice and brine rejection work in consort to uphold the halocline conditions. Interstadial periods are not a pure replicate of modern times, but rather have two modes of operation, one similar to today, and the other incorporating a brief period of warm intermediate water and increased ventilation.publishedVersio

Trace Elements in Sediment and Urban Water Samples: an Assessment of Metal Pollution

In this study, trace elements (Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb and Zn) concentrations were  determined by flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS) in environmental compartments (water and superficial sediments) near places of vehicle use and maintenance, aiming to investigate if in these places the trace elements had high concentrations. The content of trace elements found on the samples was compared to the maximum values recommended by resolutions of CONAMA (Conselho Nacional do Meio Ambiente) n. 357 from 2005 for water and n. 454 from 2012 for sediments. Points 11 and 13 were the most critical, with concentrations higher than the recommended for the elements Cu and Pb, either for water or sediment samples. Geoaccumulation index (Igeo) for Cd and Cr in the sediment samples indicated high to extreme contamination in points 5 and 13, while the other elements indicated moderated contamination.

Association of physical performance and sarcopenia with use of health services in elderly people living in rural riverside areas in the Amazon: a cross-sectional study

Introduction: Access is considered one of the necessary conditions for achieving effectiveness and quality in health services. However, it represents a complex construct, with several interpretations, and can be understood as the ease or degree of difficulty with which people obtain effective and timely care. Barriers to access can be related to individual characteristics and those of health systems and services. Regarding elderly people living in rural riverine localities, these limitations are exacerbated due to the territorial dispersion of households and the difficulty of obtaining the necessary care near their homes. The aim of this study was to describe and test the association of sarcopenia and physical performance with primary healthcare attributes and the use of health services by elderly people living in rural riverside areas in the Amazon, Brazil. Methods: This cross-sectional observational study was carried out in households with individuals aged 60 years or older living in nine communities located on the left bank of the Negro River, in the rural riverside area of the municipality of Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil. The study evaluated socioeconomic and demographic conditions, health services utilization and the primary care attributes related to the use of and access to services, assessed by components of the Primary Care Assessment Tool instrument (PCATool-Brazil), a reduced version validated for Brazilian adult users. Physical performance was assessed using the Short Physical Performance Battery scale, and handgrip strength was also assessed, according to a dynamometer. The Sarcopenia Formulary (SARC-F) and calf circumference (CC) were used to assess sarcopenia (SARC-CalF). The association of sarcopenia and physical performance with the study outcomes was evaluated using hierarchical logistic regression for health services utilization (having had a medical consultation in the last year), and hierarchical linear regression for the continuous outcomes of the PCATool-Brazil (total score and each of the domains). The sociodemographic variables were inserted in model 1 and the clinical variables in model 2. Variables with p<0.20 were kept in the models. Results: A total of 98 elderly people (55.1% men; mean age 70±7.4 years) were included in the study. Low physical performance and suggestive signs of sarcopenia were observed in 52.5% and 28.9% of the study participants, respectively. Elderly with better physical performance reported more health services utilization (odds ratio (OR)=1.37; 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.03-1.81) and higher scores in the affiliation (β=1.67; 95%CI=0.37-2.98), utilization (β=1.19; 95%CI=0.06-2.33) and longitudinality (β=0.99; 95%CI=0.09-1.90) domains of the PCATool-Brazil. Conclusion: The study findings showed high prevalence of impairment in physical performance and suggestive signs of sarcopenia in elderly people living in the studied rural riverside localities. Better physical performance was associated with use of health services in the previous year and with better evaluation of some primary care attributes

Blended Learning From Design to Evaluation: International Case Studies of Evidence-Based Practice

This study compares and contrasts four international faculty development programs for blended learning in order to understand the benefits, challenges, lessons learned, and recommendations from such initiatives. The benefits identified for faculty members, who participated in these programs, were that they became more reflective of their teaching practice and began to make a role adjustment from being a content provider to a designer and facilitator of learning for students. The biggest challenge appeared to be a lack of common institutional definition and understanding of blended learning as well as a lack of time and resources to support faculty in the redesign of their courses. With regards to lessons learned, each program emphasized the need for all institutional stakeholders to be involved in supporting the initiative and that blended learning does not simply imply adding digital technologies to an existing face-to-face course. The key recommendation from this study is that a faculty development program for blended learning needs to be clearly aligned with the institution’s vision and mission

Relacionamento Entre Performance, Estratégia, Ambiente Empresarial e Finanças Corporativas: um estudo empírico no mercado brasileiro

O relacionamento entre as dimensões de estratégia, ambiente e finanças empresariais com a rentabilidade das companhias é um tema pouco explorado no Brasil. Este artigo buscou entender esta relação a partir de um estudo empírico feitas com as maiores empresas privadas brasileiras. Com este intuito, a dimensão de estratégia foi representada pelo percentual de participação no mercado, a de ambiente dada pela turbulência das margens operacionais e pelo crescimento da receita, e a de finanças pela estrutura de endividamento da organização. Os resultados mostraram evidências significativas de que as variáveis de ambiente e de finanças estão fortemente ligadas à rentabilidade das empresas. De forma adicional, realizou-se um estudo semelhante para as empresas dentro dos setores de telecomunicações, comércio varejista e automotivo que levou a compreender a necessidade de tratar diferenciadamente cada setor

Glyoxal’s impact on dry ammonium salts: fast and reversible surface aerosol browning

Alpha-dicarbonyl compounds are believed to form brown carbon in the atmosphere via reactions with ammonium sulfate (AS) in cloud droplets and aqueous aerosol particles. In this work, brown carbon formation in AS and other aerosol particles was quantified as a function of relative humidity (RH) during exposure to gas-phase glyoxal (GX) in chamber experiments. Under dry conditions (RH \u3c 5%), solid AS, AS/glycine, and methylammonium sulfate aerosol particles brown within minutes upon exposure to GX, while sodium sulfate particles do not. When GX concentrations decline, browning goes away, demonstrating that this dry browning process is reversible. Declines in aerosol albedo are found to be a function of [GX]2, and are consistent between AS and AS/glycine aerosol. Dry methylammonium sulfate aerosol browns 4´ more than dry AS aerosol, but deliquesced AS aerosol browns much less than dry AS aerosol. Optical measurements at 405, 450, and 530 nm provide an estimated Ångstrom absorbance coefficient of -16 ±4. This coefficient and the empirical relationship between GX and albedo are used to estimate an upper limit to global radiative forcing by brown carbon formed by 70 ppt GX reacting with AS (+7.6 ´10-5 W/m2). This quantity is \u3c 1% of the total radiative forcing by secondary brown carbon, but occurs almost entirely in the ultraviolet range

Higher Polygenetic Predisposition for Asthma in Cow's Milk Allergic Children

Cow's milk allergy (CMA) is an early-onset allergy of which the underlying genetic factors remain largely undiscovered. CMA has been found to co-occur with other allergies and immunological hypersensitivity disorders, suggesting a shared genetic etiology. We aimed to (1) investigate and (2) validate whether CMA children carry a higher genetic susceptibility for other immunological hypersensitivity disorders using polygenic risk score analysis (PRS) and prospective phenotypic data. Twenty-two CMA patients of the Dutch EuroPrevall birth cohort study and 307 reference subjects were genotyped using single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array. Differentially genetic susceptibility was estimated using PRS, based on multiple P-value thresholds for SNP inclusion of previously reported genome-wide association studies (GWAS) on asthma, autism spectrum disorder, atopic dermatitis, inflammatory bowel disease and rheumatoid arthritis. These associations were validated with prospective data outcomes during a six-year follow-up in 19 patients. We observed robust and significantly higher PRSs of asthma in CMA children compared to the reference set. Association analyses using the prospective data indicated significant higher PRSs in former CMA patients suffering from asthma and related traits. Our results suggest a shared genetic etiology between CMA and asthma and a considerable predictive sensitivity potential for subsequent onset of asthma which indicates a potential use for early clinical asthma intervention programs

Glyoxal's impact on dry ammonium salts: fast and reversible surface aerosol browning

Alpha-dicarbonyl compounds are believed to form brown carbon in the atmosphere via reactions with ammonium sulfate (AS) in cloud droplets and aqueous aerosol particles. In this work, brown carbon formation in AS and other aerosol particles was quantified as a function of relative humidity (RH) during exposure to gas-phase glyoxal (GX) in chamber experiments. Under dry conditions (RH&thinsp;&lt;&thinsp;5&thinsp;%), solid AS, AS&ndash;glycine, and methylammonium sulfate (MeAS) aerosol particles brown within minutes upon exposure to GX, while sodium sulfate particles do not. When GX concentrations decline, browning goes away, demonstrating that this dry browning process is reversible. Declines in aerosol albedo are found to be a function of [GX]2 and are consistent between AS and AS&ndash;glycine aerosol. Dry methylammonium sulfate aerosol browns 4 times more than dry AS aerosol, but deliquesced AS aerosol browns much less than dry AS aerosol. Optical measurements at 405, 450, and 530&thinsp;nm provide an estimated &Aring;ngstrom absorbance coefficient of &minus;16&plusmn;4. This coefficient and the empirical relationship between GX and albedo are used to estimate an upper limit to global radiative forcing by brown carbon formed by 70&thinsp;ppt GX reacting with AS (+7.6&times;10&minus;5&thinsp;W&thinsp;m&minus;2). This quantity is &lt;&thinsp;1&thinsp;% of the total radiative forcing by secondary brown carbon but occurs almost entirely in the ultraviolet range.</p