GREEN SUPPLY CHAIN: PROTAGONISTA OU COADJUVANTE NO BRASIL?

Questões ambientais passaram a ser introduzidas com maior frequência nos negócios empresariais. Quanto à cadeia de suprimentos, Green Supply Chain Management (GSCM) surge como novo enfoque à responsabilidade das empresas com o meio ambiente. Este artigo objetiva analisar a difusão do conceito e das práticas de GSCM no cenário brasileiro. Para tanto, foram realizadas entrevistas com especialistas do tema cadeia de suprimentos na área de Administração no Brasil. Os resultados indicam que as razões para o lento desenvolvimento do conceito podem relacionar-se com características do mercado nacional, foco empresarial em aspectos internos, falta de legislação rígida e baixa pressão dos consumidores. Especialistas percebem, entretanto, boas perspectivas para o futuro das discussões da temática no País, em virtude da Política Nacional dos Resíduos Sólidos, de pressões do mercado internacional e da busca por certificação ambiental. Este estudo procurou fomentar novas discussões sobre GSCM no Brasil.

SUPPLY CHAIN RESILIENCE ANALYSIS: A BRAZILIAN AUTOMOTIVE CASE

Supply chain (SC) resilience and flexibility are important research topics receiving growing attention. However, the academic literature needs empirical studies on SC resilience capable of investigating the inter-organizational components of flexibility along different tiers. Therefore, this paper analyzes the main lack of flexibilities in three Brazilian automotive SCs that limit their resilience and therefore their capacity to better support and meet the demand changes in the marketplace. A multi-tier case study approach is adopted. Research findings identify lack of flexibilities in different tiers that inhibit the SC resilience as well as manufacturing and SC flexibilities that build SC resilience. The findings also highlight that the same SC may have the flexibility to be resilient for one of its products but not for another product, what sheds new lights on the academic literature. Finally, flexible SCs should be designed to increase SC resilience to cope with mishaps as significant demand changes.

EVALUATING THE EFFICIENCY PROGRESS WITH TECHNOLOGY IN A SPANISH HOTEL CHAIN

ABSTRACTThis paper analyzes the changes in the total factor productivity index of a Spanish hotel chain in the period from 2007 to 2010 with the purpose of identifying efficiency patterns for the chain in a period of financial crisis. The data envelopment analysis (DEA) Malmquist productivity index was used to estimate productivity change in 38 hotels of the AC chain. Results reveal AC hotels' efficiency trends and, therefore, their competitiveness in the recession period; they also show the changes experienced in these hotels' total productivity and its components: technological and efficiency changes. Positive efficiency changes were due to positive technical efficiency rather than technological efficiency. The recession period certainly influenced the performance of AC Hotels, which focused on organizational changes rather than investing in technology.

Mixed-integer nonlinear approach for the optimal scheduling of a head-dependent hydro chain

This paper is on the problem of short-term hydro scheduling (STHS), particularly concerning a head-dependent hydro chain We propose a novel mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) approach, considering hydroelectric power generation as a nonlinear function of water discharge and of the head. As a new contribution to eat her studies, we model the on-off behavior of the hydro plants using integer variables, in order to avoid water discharges at forbidden areas Thus, an enhanced STHS is provided due to the more realistic modeling presented in this paper Our approach has been applied successfully to solve a test case based on one of the Portuguese cascaded hydro systems with a negligible computational time requirement.

The role of European "ro-ro" port terminals in the automotive supply chain management

The aim of this paper is concerned with the design and development of a functional framework for maritime mode integration in European automotive supply chain management when considering outbound distribution. Furthermore, it provides a readjustment of traditional concepts and terminology with findings that the role of ro-ro port terminals should be considered as decoupling points, poles and postponement platforms. Case studies examine relevant Western European ro-ro port terminals for cars and respective links to assembly/factories of vehicles localized in the hinterland and concludes that ro-ro port terminals reduce logistical friction and impedance, as well as promote space/time compression.

Sequencing of a 9.9 kb segment on the right arm of yeast chromosome VII reveals four open reading frames, including PFK1, the gene coding for succinyl-CoA synthetase (beta-chain) and two ORFs sharing homology with ORFs of the yeast chromosome VIII

A 9.9 kb DNA fragment from the right arm of chromosome VII of Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been sequenced and analysed. The sequence contains four open reading frames (ORFs) longer than 100 amino acids. One gene, PFK1, has already been cloned and sequenced and the other one is the probable yeast gene coding for the beta-subunit of the succinyl-CoA synthetase. The two remaining ORFs share homology with the deduced amino acid sequence (and their physical arrangement is similar to that) of the YHR161c and YHR162w ORFs from chromosome VIII.

Sequencing of a 17.6 kb segment on the right arm of yeast chromosome VII reveals 12 ORFs, including CCT, ADE3 and TR-I genes, homologues of the yeast PMT and EF1G genes, of the human and bacterial electron-transferring flavoproteins (beta-chain) and of the Escherichia coli phosphoserine phosphohydrolase, and five new ORFs.

A 17.6 kb DNA fragment from the right arm of chromosome VII of Saccharomyces cerevisiae has been sequenced and analysed. The sequence contains twelve open reading frames (ORFs) longer than 100 amino acids. Three genes had already been cloned and sequenced: CCT, ADE3 and TR-I. Two ORFs are similar to other yeast genes: G7722 with the YAL023 (PMT2) and PMT1 genes, encoding two integral membrane proteins, and G7727 with the first half of the genes encoding elongation factors 1gamma, TEF3 and TEF4. Two other ORFs, G7742 and G7744, are most probably yeast orthologues of the human and Paracoccus denitrificans electron-transferring flavoproteins (beta chain) and of the Escherichia coli phosphoserine phosphohydrolase. The five remaining identified ORFs do not show detectable homology with other protein sequences deposited in data banks. The sequence has been deposited in the EMBL data library under Accession Number Z49133.

Avaliação dos modelos de Supply Chain : Lean, Agile e Leagile : uma abordagem empírica

Dissertação de Mestrado em Ciências Económicas e Empresariais.

The effect of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids intake during pregnancy on adiposity of healthy full-term offspring at birth

Objective - The adjusted effect of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid (LCPUFA) intake during pregnancy on adiposity at birth of healthy full-term appropriate-for-gestational age neonates was evaluated. Study Design - In a cross-sectional convenience sample of 100 mother and infant dyads, LCPUFA intake during pregnancy was assessed by food frequency questionnaire with nutrient intake calculated using Food Processor Plus. Linear regression models for neonatal body composition measurements, assessed by air displacement plethysmography and anthropometry, were adjusted for maternal LCPUFA intakes, energy and macronutrient intakes, prepregnancy body mass index and gestational weight gain. Result - Positive associations between maternal docosahexaenoic acid intake and ponderal index in male offspring (β=0.165; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.031–0.299; P=0.017), and between n-6:n-3 LCPUFA ratio intake and fat mass (β=0.021; 95% CI: 0.002–0.041; P=0.034) and percentage of fat mass (β=0.636; 95% CI: 0.125–1.147; P=0.016) in female offspring were found. Conclusion - Using a reliable validated method to assess body composition, adjusted positive associations between maternal docosahexaenoic acid intake and birth size in male offspring and between n-6:n-3 LCPUFA ratio intake and adiposity in female offspring were found, suggesting that maternal LCPUFA intake strongly influences fetal body composition.

Dynamics of a backlash chain

This paper studies the dynamical properties of a system with distributed backlash and impact phenomena. This means that it is considered a chain of masses that interact with each other solely by means of backlash and impact phenomena. It is observed the emergence of non-linear phenomena resembling those encountered in the Fermi-Pasta-Ulam problem.

Improving quality-of-service in wireless sensor networks by mitigating “Hidden-Node Collisions”

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) emerge as underlying infrastructures for new classes of large-scale networked embedded systems. However, WSNs system designers must fulfill the quality-of-service (QoS) requirements imposed by the applications (and users). Very harsh and dynamic physical environments and extremely limited energy/computing/memory/communication node resources are major obstacles for satisfying QoS metrics such as reliability, timeliness, and system lifetime. The limited communication range of WSN nodes, link asymmetry, and the characteristics of the physical environment lead to a major source of QoS degradation in WSNs-the ldquohidden node problem.rdquo In wireless contention-based medium access control (MAC) protocols, when two nodes that are not visible to each other transmit to a third node that is visible to the former, there will be a collision-called hidden-node or blind collision. This problem greatly impacts network throughput, energy-efficiency and message transfer delays, and the problem dramatically increases with the number of nodes. This paper proposes H-NAMe, a very simple yet extremely efficient hidden-node avoidance mechanism for WSNs. H-NAMe relies on a grouping strategy that splits each cluster of a WSN into disjoint groups of non-hidden nodes that scales to multiple clusters via a cluster grouping strategy that guarantees no interference between overlapping clusters. Importantly, H-NAMe is instantiated in IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee, which currently are the most widespread communication technologies for WSNs, with only minor add-ons and ensuring backward compatibility with their protocols standards. H-NAMe was implemented and exhaustively tested using an experimental test-bed based on ldquooff-the-shelfrdquo technology, showing that it increases network throughput and transmission success probability up to twice the values obtained without H-NAMe. H-NAMe effectiveness was also demonstrated in a target tracking application with mobile robots - over a WSN deployment.

H-NAMe: specifying, implementing and testing a hidden-node avoidance mechanism for wireless sensor networks

The hidden-node problem has been shown to be a major source of Quality-of-Service (QoS) degradation in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) due to factors such as the limited communication range of sensor nodes, link asymmetry and the characteristics of the physical environment. In wireless contention-based Medium Access Control protocols, if two nodes that are not visible to each other transmit to a third node that is visible to the formers, there will be a collision – usually called hidden-node or blind collision. This problem greatly affects network throughput, energy-efficiency and message transfer delays, which might be particularly dramatic in large-scale WSNs. This technical report tackles the hidden-node problem in WSNs and proposes HNAMe, a simple yet efficient distributed mechanism to overcome it. H-NAMe relies on a grouping strategy that splits each cluster of a WSN into disjoint groups of non-hidden nodes and then scales to multiple clusters via a cluster grouping strategy that guarantees no transmission interference between overlapping clusters. We also show that the H-NAMe mechanism can be easily applied to the IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee protocols with only minor add-ons and ensuring backward compatibility with the standard specifications. We demonstrate the feasibility of H-NAMe via an experimental test-bed, showing that it increases network throughput and transmission success probability up to twice the values obtained without H-NAMe. We believe that the results in this technical report will be quite useful in efficiently enabling IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee as a WSN protocol.

Diversity in Teams: Source of Conflict or Source of Creativity? Investigating Hidden Mental Models

The workforce in organizations today is becoming increasingly diverse. Consequently the role of diversity management is heavily discussed with respect to the question how diversity influences the productivity of a group. Empirical studies show that on one hand there is a potential for increasing productivity but on the other hand it might be as well that conflicts arise due to the heterogeneity of the group. Usually according empirical studies are based on interviews, questionnaires and/or observations. These methods imply that answers are highly selective and filtered. In order to make the invisible visible, to have access to mental models of team members the paper will present an empirical study on the self-understanding of groups based on an innovative research method, called “mind-scripting”.

H-NAMe: a hidden-node avoidance mechanism for wireless sensor networks

The hidden-node problem has been shown to be a major source of Quality-of-Service (QoS) degradation in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) due to factors such as the limited communication range of sensor nodes, link asymmetry and the characteristics of the physical environment. In wireless contention-based Medium Access Control protocols, if two nodes that are not visible to each other transmit to a third node that is visible to the formers, there will be a collision – usually called hidden-node or blind collision. This problem greatly affects network throughput, energy-efficiency and message transfer delays, which might be particularly dramatic in large-scale WSNs. This paper tackles the hiddennode problem in WSNs and proposes H-NAMe, a simple yet efficient distributed mechanism to overcome it. H-NAMe relies on a grouping strategy that splits each cluster of a WSN into disjoint groups of non-hidden nodes and then scales to multiple clusters via a cluster grouping strategy that guarantees no transmission interference between overlapping clusters. We also show that the H-NAMe mechanism can be easily applied to the IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee protocols with only minor add-ons and ensuring backward compatibility with the standard specifications. We demonstrate the feasibility of H-NAMe via an experimental test-bed, showing that it increases network throughput and transmission success probability up to twice the values obtained without H-NAMe. We believe that the results in this paper will be quite useful in efficiently enabling IEEE 802.15.4/ZigBee as a WSN protocol