Uma metodologia para a análise do desempenho sustentável dos postos de revenda de combustível na cidade de Natal/RN, com o uso de data envelopment analysis-DEA

The increasing use of fossil fuels in line with cities demographic explosion carries out to huge environmental impact in society. For mitigate these social impacts, regulatory requirements have positively influenced the environmental consciousness of society, as well as, the strategic behavior of businesses. Along with this environmental awareness, the regulatory organs have conquered and formulated new laws to control potentially polluting activities, mostly in the gas stations sector. Seeking for increasing market competitiveness, this sector needs to quickly respond to internal and external pressures, adapting to the new standards required in a strategic way to get the Green Badge . Gas stations have incorporated new strategies to attract and retain new customers whom present increasingly social demand. In the social dimension, these projects help the local economy by generating jobs and income distribution. In this survey, the present research aims to align the social, economic and environmental dimensions to set the sustainable performance indicators at Gas Stations sector in the city of Natal/RN. The Sustainable Balanced Scorecard (SBSC) framework was create with a set of indicators for mapping the production process of gas stations. This mapping aimed at identifying operational inefficiencies through multidimensional indicators. To carry out this research, was developed a system for evaluating the sustainability performance with application of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) through a quantitative method approach to detect system s efficiency level. In order to understand the systemic complexity, sub organizational processes were analyzed by the technique Network Data Envelopment Analysis (NDEA) figuring their micro activities to identify and diagnose the real causes of overall inefficiency. The sample size comprised 33 Gas stations and the conceptual model included 15 indicators distributed in the three dimensions of sustainability: social, environmental and economic. These three dimensions were measured by means of classical models DEA-CCR input oriented. To unify performance score of individual dimensions, was designed a unique grouping index based upon two means: arithmetic and weighted. After this, another analysis was performed to measure the four perspectives of SBSC: learning and growth, internal processes, customers, and financial, unifying, by averaging the performance scores. NDEA results showed that no company was assessed with excellence in sustainability performance. Some NDEA higher efficiency Gas Stations proved to be inefficient under certain perspectives of SBSC. In the sequence, a comparative sustainable performance and assessment analyzes among the gas station was done, enabling entrepreneurs evaluate their performance in the market competitors. Diagnoses were also obtained to support the decision making of entrepreneurs in improving the management of organizational resources and promote guidelines the regulators. Finally, the average index of sustainable performance was 69.42%, representing the efforts of the environmental suitability of the Gas station. This results point out a significant awareness of this segment, but it still needs further action to enhance sustainability in the long term

Prevalência de oclusopatias e caracteríticas cefalométricas e dentais de escolares cearense da cidade de Fortaleza

The people of Ceará state are descended from miscegenation between the Portuguese colonizers and the native population, resulting in a different facial pattern from other populations. It is important that this pattern be thoroughly understood, along with its minimum and maximum values so that they can be assessed and respected, allowing professionals who deal with the craniofacial complex to work more efficiently and scientifically. Aim: To characterize the morphological pattern of individuals from Ceará state, whose father and grandfather are also native from Ceará, in the 10-12 year age group, not submitted to previous orthodontic treatment, in order to determine: 1) the prevalence of occlusal pattern; 2) the prevalence of dental anomalies (DA) and, 3) the skeletal and dental cephalometric characteristics of individuals that present with normal occlusion and harmonious facial pattern. Methodology: A list of 10-12 year-olds was obtained from 515 schools containing 162,713 students (Education Secretariat of Ceará State), from which 234 individuals were examined (107 boys and 157 girls). The assessment criteria adopted were: 1) Angle s Classification System to determine occlusal pattern. The occlusal characteristics were measured through overbite, overjet, crowding and interincisal diastema. 2) DA are anomalies of number, shape, size, eruption and structure and, 3) in the group that presented with normal occlusion, we used cephalometric analysis measures proposed by Downs, Steiner, Tweed, Holdaway, Jacobson and McNamara. Results: 1) 25.8% of the schoolchildren had normal occlusion, 47.5% class I malocclusion, 22.3% class II malocclusion and 4.2% class III malocclusion. No statistically significant difference was found between the age group studied and sex. Thirty percent of the individuals had normal overbite, while 36.7% and 19.7% had increased and reduced overbite, respectively. Normal overjet was found in 33.7% of the individuals, increased overjet in 50% and reduced in 16.3%. Dental crowding was observed in 62.5% of the individuals and the presence of interincisal diastema in 14.8%. 2) The prevalence of DA was 56.1%, 6.8% in the number, 10.8% in shape, 4.1% in size, 34.5% in eruption, 26.4% in structure and 17.4% had more than one DA. No association was found between DA and sex, but DA was significantly associated to malocclusion (p<0.05); 3) there was no association between sex or facial type between the measures of nasal-labial angle, position and effective maxillary length, effective mandibular length and the sagittal relationship between the molars, overjet and overbite, position of upper incisors, lower incisors and between the incisors themselves. There was a difference between sex, on the VERT index and in lower anterior facial height, upper incisor inclination and line-H, between facial types for the occlusal plane angles, mandibular plane, facial axis, lower incisor inclination, mandibular position, upper incisor position, lower anterior facial height, ANB and line-H. It was concluded that: 1) the most prevalent occlusal type was class I malocclusion, with no distinction for sex or age group, and the assessment of occlusal characteristics showed that excessive overbite and overjet were the most predominant findings, along with a high occurrence of tooth crowding; 2) a high prevalence of DA was found, particularly eruption anomalies, not influenced by sex but significantly associated to malocclusion and 3) individuals from Ceará are predominantly brachyfacial, exhibiting a number of similarities inherent to their facial pattern, such as a convex profile, retracted jaw, reduced lower third and protruded lower incisors. This study was multidisciplinary, involving researchers from the areas of epidemiology, radiology and dentistry, thereby meeting the multidisciplinarity requirements of the Postgraduate Program in Health Sciences

A etnopoética de Iracema: diálogo, ciência e literatura

Literary works are thought provokers that make it possible to access several forms to view the world and reality. They provide diversified points of view and infinite connections. In a particular way, among all the other forms of art expression literature is considered to be the closest to life, once it is able to reconnect all human dimensions emotional, rational, mystic, personal, universal, corporal, historic, mythical. This thesis aims at offering some reflections about the frontiers and bridges between science and literature aiming at understanding the complexity that guides them. It presents a new reading of Iracema novel: Ceará tale of José de Alencar from a meticulous incursion through new ways and natural spaces interwoven by Alencar. It tries to hear the echoes of this indianist novel in the university students today. In a broader context, it creates arguments that question the multiple threadsthat join science and literature so that a science of complexity arises distinguishing but not separating the innumerous narratives about the world. For this purpose, this thesis has as interlocutors: Antonio Candido, Charles P. Snow, Edgar Morin, Emilio Ciurana, Fritjof Capra, George Steiner, Ilya Prigogine, Isabelle Stengers, Roger Chartier, Roland Barthes. The plot presented here does not limit the novel to science, but makes it a rereading of the word, of life, once this is the raw material of books. As a methodological strategy, we rebuilt Iracema´s character trips in a way to update the novel, resulting in the video documentary Iracema ways: the arid and remote interior, the plateau, the sea. Iracema novel and character enhancing dialogs that allow the dichotomy rupture between two cultures (Charles P. Snow), recognizing they are not incommunicable and revealing the core argument of the thesis: Iracema belongs to a complex category. It is a hybrid novel that is far, far away from that bluish plateau in the horizon

Um estudo algorítmico de problemas logísticos na indústria de petróleo e gás natural

This work consists on the study of two important problems arising from the operations of petroleum and natural gas industries. The first problem the pipe dimensioning problem on constrained gas distribution networks consists in finding the least cost combination of diameters from a discrete set of commercially available ones for the pipes of a given gas network, such that it respects minimum pressure requirements at each demand node and upstream pipe conditions. On its turn, the second problem the piston pump unit routing problem comes from the need of defining the piston pump unit routes for visiting a number of non-emergent wells in on-shore fields, i.e., wells which don t have enough pressure to make the oil emerge to surface. The periodic version of this problem takes into account the wells re-filling equation to provide a more accurate planning in the long term. Besides the mathematical formulation of both problems, an exact algorithm and a taboo search were developed for the solution of the first problem and a theoretical limit and a ProtoGene transgenetic algorithm were developed for the solution of the second problem. The main concepts of the metaheuristics are presented along with the details of their application to the cited problems. The obtained results for both applications are promising when compared to theoretical limits and alternate solutions, either relative to the quality of the solutions or to associated running time

Uma abordagem através de algoritmos transgenéticos para o problema da configuração do traçado de uma rede de distribuição de gás natural

Este trabalho apresenta um algoritmo transgenético híbrido para a solução de um Problema de Configuração de uma Rede de Distribuição de Gás Natural. O problema da configuração dessas redes requer a definição de um traçado por onde os dutos devem ser colocados para atender aos clientes. É estudada neste trabalho uma maneira de conectar os clientes em uma rede com arquitetura em forma de árvore. O objetivo é minimizar o custo de construção da rede, mesmo que para isso alguns clientes que não proporcionam lucros deixem de ser atendidos. Esse problema pode ser formulado computacionalmente através do Problema de Steiner com Prêmios. Este é um problema de otimização combinatória da classe dos NPÁrduos. Este trabalho apresenta um algoritmo heurístico para a solução do problema. A abordagem utilizada é chamada de Algoritmos Transgenéticos, que se enquadram na categoria dos algoritmos evolucionários. Para a geração de soluções inicias é utilizado um algoritmo primaldual, e pathrelinking é usado como intensificador