Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

Urbanization and expansion of cities requires new tools to improve the quality of life of city inhabitants for all areas from mobility to leisure activities. Thus, technological development and digitalisation have been introduced into infrastructures such as rails, roads, airports, bridges, tunnels and communications. Policy of smart cities concept focuses on economy, people, mobility, governance, environment, and living. Even more, implemented framework of smart cities stimulates sustainable economic development. Smart economy is a trigger for innovations and entrepreneurship. Installed measures of smart mobility reduce traffic jams and optimise transportation systems.This research attempts to assess and compare largest different cities of Lithuania and Sweden in the context of smart cities’ concept. Due to the shortage and mismatching statistical information, the paper is limited with only four following indicators: smart economy, smart mobility, smart environment, and smart governance. The analysis of indicators shows that Lithuanian major cities in all groups of criterion are below average while values of indicators in the case of Swedish major cities are much higher than average.

Sustainable production is a recurrent theme in industrial engineering. Commercial production of canned palm hearts generates an amount of waste from the leaf sheaths that envelop the heart of palm, which can be used to produce cellulose pulp then reducing environmental impacts. This study aims to examine the feasibility of cellulose pulping from King Palm leaf sheaths to obtain a fiber with absorbent capacity and low residual lignin content, as well as demonstrate the influence of the controllable process factors on the response variables analyzed through the formulation of n-dimensional equations and surfaces which permitted the optimization of the variables of interest. The response variables were selected in order to characterize the fiber obtained according to degree of delignification, absorption capability and speed and apparent density. The results indicated that the pulps obtained from the processes proposed although didn’t meet the quality standards required for absorbent pulps, since values are lower than those established in the research hypotheses, is very promising. This attempt raises the discussion around the role that industrial engineering professionals and researchers may play in the agribusiness waste recovery and recycling. Moreover it provides useful information for re-planning of experiments in search for extraction optimization of this or similar agribusiness wastes.

The present paper sought compare the environmental impacts throughout the life cycle of biodiesel production obtained from the two raw materials most used in Brazil (soybean oil and beef tallow) through the process ethyl transesterification in an alkaline medium. The reference flow adopted for the work was the generation of power supplied 1GJ from the produced biodiesel. The data used in the inventory life cycle were calculated based on similar scientific papers. The method of assessment of environmental impacts chosen was the CML 2001 modified. Altogether, it were analyzed nine categories of environmental impacts for both processes (abiotic depletion (kg Sb eq), land use (m2a), global warming (kg CO2 eq), ozone layer depletion (kg CFC-11 eq), human toxicity (kg 1,4-DB eq), freshwater ecotoxicity (kg 1,4-DB eq), terrestrial ecotoxicity (kg 1,4-DB eq), acidification (kg SO2 eq) and eutrophication (kg PO43- eq)). The results of evaluation of environmental impacts show that the biodiesel production process from soybean oil presents major environmental damage in seven categories of analyzed impacts (destruction of abiotic resources, destruction of the ozone layer, human toxicity, freshwater ecotoxicity, terrestrial ecotoxicity, acidification and eutrophication). The production process of biodiesel from tallow presents major environmental damage in two categories of impacts analyzed (land use and global warming). However, the results show that the absolute values of environmental damage caused by impacts of the production process using beef tallow are much more aggressive.

This paper demonstrates the empirical application of Six Sigma and Define-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control (DMAIC) methodology to reduce product defects within a garments manufacturing organization in Bangladesh which follows the DMAIC methodology to investigate defects, root causes and provide a solution to eliminate these defects. The analysis from employing Six Sigma and DMAIC indicated that the broken stitch and open seam influenced the number of defective products. Design of experiments (DOE) and the analysis of variance (ANOVA) techniques were combined to statistically determine the correlation of the broken stitch and open seam with defects as well as to define their optimum values needed to eliminate the defects. Thus, a reduction of about 35% in the garments defect was achieved, which helped the organization studied to reduce its defects and thus improve its Sigma level from 1.7 to 3.4.

This study involves an assessment of various artificial intelligence-related techniques which aim to produce a more robust system for sediment transport modeling. The intelligent systems developed in this research are directly applicable to academic knowledge and use data from a report on "water circulation assessment in the “Linguado” Channel and Babitonga Bay ,”Santa Catarina”, Brazil, developed by  Military Engineering Institute (IME). The solution employed for sediment transport was built using an intelligent system from the conception of two hybrid models. The first was a Neuro-Fuzzy (ANFIS) hybrid model for the study of hydrodynamic behavior, aiming to determine flow rate in the channel. The second was a fuzzy genetic model, able to assess sediment transport in the “Linguado” Channel. The study's conclusion compares the different effects involved in the dredging equilibrium in the “Linguado” Channel according to this hybrid model with the results obtained using a finite element model in the MIKE21® software.

The present work consists of analysis of the Work Routine Management development and implementation, in a process (register) of Operational Units in an Agro-industrial Cooperative, in order to use management tools that facilitate the identification of possible problems that hamper the results and their respective causes, and the execution of routine activities. The analysis consists of process mapping, creation and review of process indicators, as well as the definition of goals for monitoring and activating Routine Management. It also includes the survey of opportunities for improvement and the definition of an action plan in order to optimize the process for those involved, making it possible to act by monitoring the results obtained, tracing future actions and not only for correcting mistakes occurred during work routines.

Creativity is essential for the emergence of innovation within organizations, both necessary for organizational survival. Several models have been proposed for organizational creativity, each containing different constructs. This research aims to verify the standardization of constructs in the literature and to verify the possible existence of two dimensions not previously explored: hierarchy between constructs (global importance) and weight of constructs (relative importance) of organizational creativity that lead to innovation. We employed Multicriteria Decision Analysis with the PAPRIKA method, which combines the advantages of numerical and verbal decision making. The creativity constructs were elicited from a detailed review of the literature from Scopus and Web of Science databases. The results contribute to the expansion of the current theory of creativity, with the application of a new method to the object and management practices.  

In this paper, a fuzzy economic order quantity (E.O.Q) model with shortages under fully backlogging and constant demand is formulated and solved. Here the model is solved by fuzzy signomial geometric programming (FSGP) technique. Fuzzy signomial geometric programming (FSGP) technique provides a powerful technique for solving many non-linear problems. Here we have proposed a new idea that is fuzzy modified signomial geometric programming (FMSGP) and some necessary theorems have been derived. Finally, these are illustrated by some numerical examples and applications.

The value of luxury is a multidimensional construct that assesses how consumers consider the various dimensions of luxury in their consumption relations. The consumption of luxury is not a trivial activity for most people, but brings a certain fascination and is part of the imaginary of the lower classes in emerging markets. The social identity of these consumers is changing because they aspire a new social position. But luxury consumption hurts the standards of this consumer profile. At the same time the self esteem is observed as an important element of people self-confirmation. For consumers, specifically, self-esteem is an important antecedent of consumption decisions. A sample of low income students was analyzed in this study to describe their relationship with luxury, and its influence on self-esteem when moderated by brand expressiveness. Through structural equation modeling this study found that the expression of the brand moderates the relationship of the value of luxury with self-esteem, allowing consumers of lower classes to observe a significant role of luxury in their lives.

The management of marketing has as presupposition the understanding of the relations between market and consumption, as well as, the concepts related to the maximization of the results of the company. In this way, an article was elaborated in search of the understanding of the existing relations between brand identity, positioning, brand image and brand equity. In this context, qualitative-quantitative research was sought to describe the existing relationships between concepts, as well as the conceptual and managerial gaps arising from their management. As a result of this work we have the analysis of the conceptual and operational gaps of these concepts.