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

The burning of fossil fuels majorly contributes to the increase in global warming, and it represents 93% of greenhouse gases emissions in the chemical industry. Most of the energy demand in this sector is associated with steam systems, where 1/3 of the energy efficiency opportunities are located in its distribution system. However, most of the literature focuses on the design of new systems. Those that deal with existing systems, not always use simple and available methods. Furthermore, they address energy losses of steam systems only due to thermal insulation, ignoring those due to leakages of traps. Given this context, the purpose of this paper is to determine the economic feasibility of an energy efficiency project for a steam distribution system in a chemical industry, located in the metropolitan region of Salvador, Brazil. First, the energy lost in the steam distribution system through heat insulation and steam traps was estimated by applying thermodynamic principles, and technic consulting, respectively. Then, investments were estimated using commercial prices for new thermal insulation and steam traps. Finally, an economic evaluation of the improvement project was made, through the construction of a cash flow, and calculation of economic indicators: payback time, net present value (NPV), and internal rate of return (IRR). Economic indicators showed that the project is economically viable. The NPV and IRR reached approximately 5 million reais, and 66% per year, respectively. Additionally, this project also had social and environmental benefits, such as a reduction in greenhouse gases emissions, and increased local water availability.

The Nigerian economy started experiencing economic recession from 1981 which was characterized by low capacity utilization, incomes, and consumption patterns. Public enterprises were operating at the lowest ebb. Government discovered that, without any exception, such enterprises were infested with problems of confused and conflicting missions; political interference in operating decisions; abuse of monopoly powers; defective capital structures; bureaucratic redtapism in their relations with supervisory agencies; mismanagement; nepotism and corruption. Consequently, reform failures and entrenched bureaucratic corruption have created systemic poverty amidst robust economic growth in Nigeria; a situation that supports the phenomenon of poor people in a rich country. Nigeria at present is ranked among the poorest nations in the world and also has one of the highest unemployment rates. It is estimated that more than one in every five adults in Nigeria is either unemployed or underemployed with about 67 million youths unemployed which is not unrelated to the effects of mismanagement and reform failures. The exploratory research design was used in the study. Qualitative data provided empirical evidence that most past reform programmes in Nigeria did not achieve the objectives for which they were established. With a Negative – Positive Ratio of 7:2 based on the study, it was found that government reform policies have not made the desired positive impact on socio-economic development in Nigeria.

The processes of Strategic Planning (SP), Performance Evaluation (PE) and Process Management (PM) for Higher Education Institutions (HEI) are considered more than ever, urgent and necessary, acting as the factors of motivation, awareness and exploratory data collection. The objective of this paper is to identify positive and negative aspects involved in realization of SP, PE and PM in HEI, through a literature review. The study was exploratory and descriptive, accomplished through a bibliographic review in online data bases. It was possible to identify that HEI are considered complex systems which results in implications on execution of the SP, PE and PM. Apart from that, it was identified barriers in the literature, being the main ones: decentralization, autonomy of departments, heterogeneity in the operation of departments, data stored in places that cannot be accessed by everybody, bureaucracy, resistance to change, dissociation between planning and management, lack of participation of university community in the process of planning. It was also found ways to overcome these barriers being the main ones: commitment of high management, clear strategy, wide communication and participation of all people involved.

In this work, are developed an experimental computer program in Matlab language version 7.1 from the univariate method for time series forecasting called Theta, and implementation of resampling technique known as computer intensive "bootstrap" to estimate the prediction for the point forecast obtained by this method by confidence interval. To solve this problem built up an algorithm that uses Monte Carlo simulation to obtain the interval estimation for forecasts. The Theta model presented in this work was very efficient in M3 Makridakis competition, where tested 3003 series. It is based on the concept of modifying the local curvature of the time series obtained by a coefficient theta (Θ). In it's simplest approach the time series is decomposed into two lines theta representing terms of long term and short term. The prediction is made by combining the forecast obtained by fitting lines obtained with the theta decomposition. The results of Mape's error obtained for the estimates confirm the favorable results to the method of M3 competition being a good alternative for time series forecast.

According to psychologists, stress means the pressure and the force and it is the accumulation of life events that disrupts the individual's adaptation to the existing situation. Stress is originated from two places: Inside our bodies and outside our bodies. Internal stresses are associated with biology and personality. External stress factors have three categories: Personal, Organizational and environmental. On the other hand, today, software projects have delays for various reasons and they are not completed on time. Knowledge-based companies require identifying factors causing delays. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between organizational factors of stress and delays of software projects. This is a descriptive correlational research. The population consisted of knowledge workers of a large knowledge-based company (n = 200), a sample of 127 knowledge workers were selected randomly. The data collected through questionnaire. The effect of organizational factors of stress on delay of software projects were assessed using Pearson correlation coefficients. The results show that there is a significant positive relationship between organizational factors of stress and delay of software projects in a large knowledge-based company.

In this work, the automated formation process of lead-acid battery and its industrial positive impact on the battery efficiency are evaluated toward the manual process. The problems in the lead-acid batteries formation are related to the α-PbO2 and β-PbO2 production during the first electric charge. The lead-acid battery formation problems frequently occur when electrical current sources with manual control are used. The main drawback of the manual method is addressed to the electric current interruptions between the plates during the battery charging. Thus, the lead oxides phases in the plates were used as parameter to correlate the chemical composition to the failure on the batteries formation process. X-ray powder diffraction technique was used to identify the lead phases. The results showed that the use of automated electric power supply has higher efficiency than the manual one. The benefits of automation include the increased productivity, reduction on the production costs, and lower consumption of natural resources.

Public administration is not alien to knowledge society or to the "new economy". Thus, it is transforming itself to these new requirements, improving its processes to meet the needs of citizens. In this context intangible assets play an important role and become a source of competitive advantage, but only if they are properly managed. Therefore, it is necessary to previously identify intangible assets. This paper revisited the literature in order to comprehend intellectual capital model reflecting different capitals which make up institutions. This study aims to propose an intellectual capital model that enables measurement and management of intangible assets in public administration, including specific issues of public entities.

In a scenario of uncertainty and imprecision, before taking the replacement analysis, a manager needs to consider the uncertain reality of a problem. In this scenario, the fuzzy logic makes an excellent option. Therefore, it is necessary to make a decision based on the fuzzy model. This study is based on the comparison of two methodologies used in the problem of asset replacement. The study, thus, was based on a comparison between two extruders for polypropylene yarn bibliopegy, comparing mainly the costs involved in maintaining the equipment.

As far as new communication channels are concerned, there have been extensive developments in communications and marketing in digital era. Today, therefore, companies try to take advantage of digital marketing channels to provide suitable services to customers to improve their satisfaction level. However, this study aimed to identify and assess factors affecting skill gap in digital marketing. This was descriptive correlation study. The population consisted of experts in communications industry to identify most important skill gaps in digital marketing and factors affecting them; also, managers and specialists of these companies were investigated to determine the role of identified factors in reducing skills gaps. Using localized questionnaire and interviewing with ten experts who were selected by Delphi snowball method, the skill gaps in marketing and factors affecting them were identified. Also, a researcher made questionnaire with 32 questions was distributed among 226 employees to investigate the identified factors role in reducing skills gap in digital marketing. The results showed that from four identified factors, the components including operational strategic factors and environmental factors had direct and positive impact on creating skill gap in digital marketing of studied companies. The environmental factors such as social and cultural conditions, religion, technology, and economy had more proactive impact on skills gap in digital marketing. Also, the results showed that among skills gaps in digital marketing of studied companies, the skills (Principles of Communication) and (Predicting Future) had the highest and lowest gaps, respectively.

Psychologists stated that parents’ functions and behaviors influence the formation of children’s thoughts, behaviors and emotions This study aimed to identify the relationship of parenting styles and parents’ perfectionism with normal students’ perfectionism and gifted students’ perfectionism. The study is a descriptive correlation study. The population consisted of all normal and gifted female high school students of Karaj. A sample of 200 students was selected using random sampling method. Data was collected using Hill’s perfectionism questionnaire and BAUMRIND’s parenting styles questionnaire. Researcher used simultaneous multivariate regression and independent sample t-test methods for data analysis. The results showed that there is a statistically significant difference between perfectionism of normal student’s parents and perfectionism of gifted student’s parents but there is no statistically significant difference between their parenting styles. There is a statistically significant difference between perfectionism of normal students and perfectionism of gifted students. Results also showed that adaptive and maladaptive perfectionism of students are not predictable based on the perfectionism and parenting styles of parents.