Aplicación del método Electre III en la clasificación de clústeres de artesanías

En el presente artículo se muestran los resultados del estudio que busca aplicar el método Electre III para clasificar cuatro aglomerados productivos de micro y pequeñas empresas, localizados en el Estado de Minas Gerais (Brasil), en relación con la capacidad de desarrollar estrategias de supervivencia, por medio de relaciones con proveedores, clientes y distribuidores, competidores y con instituciones públicas y privadas de apoyo. El efecto conjunto de esas variables es lo que define la capacidad que ellas poseen de desarrollar estrategias competitivas. Los resultados permitirán concluir que el agrupamiento de productores de artefactos de desechos de madera es lo que está más articulado en relación con el conjunto de factores de éxito de un aglomerado, seguido por los aglomerados de productos en telares y hierros, que se presentan indiferentes entre sí

Aplicación del método Electre III en la clasificación de clústeres de artesanías

En el presente artículo se muestran los resultados del estudio que busca aplicar el método Electre III para clasificar cuatro aglomerados productivos de micro y pequeñas empresas, localizados en el Estado de Minas Gerais (Brasil), en relación con la capacidad de desarrollar estrategias de supervivencia, por medio de relaciones con proveedores, clientes y distribuidores, competidores y con instituciones públicas y privadas de apoyo. El efecto conjunto de esas variables es lo que define la capacidad que ellas poseen de desarrollar estrategias competitivas. Los resultados permitirán concluir que el agrupamiento de productores de artefactos de desechos de madera es lo que está más articulado en relación con el conjunto de factores de éxito de un aglomerado, seguido por los aglomerados de productos en telares y hierros, que se presentan indiferentes entre sí.This article shows the results from the study that tries to find out the appli-cation of the method Electre III to classify four production clusters of micro and small enterprise, located in Minas Gerais (Brazil), in relation to the ability to develop a survival strategy, through the relationship with the supplier and the customer or distributor, with competitors and public and private support. The combined effect of these variables defines the ability they have to develop competitive strategies. The results showed that the group-ing of producers of wood demolition is what is most articulate in relation to a set of success factors of a cluster, followed by clusters of products and iron looms, which are apparently indifferent to each other

How much is a child worth? Providers’ and patients’ views and responses concerning ethical and policy challenges in paying for ART

Infertility treatments remain expensive and in many countries are covered by little, if any, insurance, raising critical questions concerning how patients and providers view and make decisions regarding these challenges. In-depth semi-structured interviews of approximately 1 hour were conducted with 37 IVF providers and 10 patients (17 physicians, 10 other providers and 10 patients), and were systematically analyzed. These data suggest current insurance policies and legislation pose critical ethical and logistical challenges for both patients and providers. These individuals face multiple uncertainties about costs and insurance, related to unclear causes of fertility, treatment length, costs and outcomes, and odds that insurers will cover expenses. Insurers frequently decline to agree to reimbursement beforehand, and decide only afterwards, case-by-case, generating stress. Patients and providers thus may not be able to predict how best to allocate limited resources. Providers may advocate for patients, but are usually unsuccessful. Patients may adopt several strategies: e.g., moving/seeking treatment elsewhere, switching or feeling “stuck” in jobs because of insurance, seeking “free” medications, going into debt, or using funds intended for other purposes. Patients do not perceive and respond to resource limitations as fixed phenomena—i.e., patients do not see treatment simply as “affordable” or not. Rather, patients face quandaries of how much to keep spending—how much a child is worth—and are forced to make complex risk/benefit calculations. Couples can disagree, straining relationships. In sum, these data, the first to explore how providers and patients struggle, view, and make decisions regarding limited insurance and resources for infertility, raise several critical ethical and policy issues. These data suggest that individuals have difficulty translating profoundly life-altering, deeply personal quests for meaning and fulfillment into purely economic terms. These findings thus have important implications for future policy, practice, research, and patient and provider education

Safe and sustainable by design chemicals and materials. Framework for the definition of criteria and evaluation procedure for chemicals and materials

The EU CSS action plan foresees the development of a framework to define safe and sustainable by design (SSbD) criteria for chemicals and materials. The SSbD is an approach to support the design, development, production and use of chemicals and materials that focuses on providing a desirable function (or service), while avoiding or minimising harmful impacts to human health and the environment. The SSbD concept integrates aspects for the domain of safety, circularity and functionality of chemicals and materials, with sustainability consideration throughout their lifecycle, minimising their environmental footprint. SSbD aims at facilitating the industrial transition towards a safe, zero pollution, climate-neutral and resource-efficient economy, addressing adverse effects on humans, ecosystems and biodiversity from a lifecycle perspective. To fulfil these ambitions, there is the need to develop a new framework for the definition of safe and sustainable by design criteria for chemicals and materials. To do so, several frameworks were reviewed including initiatives from research, industry, governmental agencies and NGOs. Capitalising on this information, a framework was developed and is presented in this report including a methodology for the definition of possible SSbD criteria and implementation mechanisms

Numerical and Evolutionary Optimization 2020

This book was established after the 8th International Workshop on Numerical and Evolutionary Optimization (NEO), representing a collection of papers on the intersection of the two research areas covered at this workshop: numerical optimization and evolutionary search techniques. While focusing on the design of fast and reliable methods lying across these two paradigms, the resulting techniques are strongly applicable to a broad class of real-world problems, such as pattern recognition, routing, energy, lines of production, prediction, and modeling, among others. This volume is intended to serve as a useful reference for mathematicians, engineers, and computer scientists to explore current issues and solutions emerging from these mathematical and computational methods and their applications

Análise quantitativa e qualitativa do descomissionamento do sistema submarino de um campo petrolífero

An oil field after its productive life has ended, reaches a phase called abandonment or decommissioning. With regard to subsea production equipment, this occurs when the activity is disadvantageous and / or its life cycle reaches the limit, and then production is finalized to accomplish with cleaning, equipment removal and environmental recovery of the explored region. This activity comprises operations of high cost and high potential of occurrence of environmental impacts. Decommissioning is a multidisciplinary activity, since environmental, social, technical, economic and safety criteria should be considered in its planning, making it important to approach methods that seek a balance between these aspects. Therefore, multicriteria analysis tools should be used as an aid to decision making. In this work, such tools were used to evaluate the best forms of decommissioning of subsea equipment in an ultra deepwater oil field. The work explicited different approaches and made a comparison between them, in order to evaluate which method would more effectively meet the needs of the decision maker.Um campo de petróleo após sua vida produtiva atinge uma fase denominada abandono ou descomissionamento. No que diz respeito a equipamentos submarinos de produção, isto ocorre quando a atividade se apresenta desvantajosa e/ou seu tempo de vida útil chega ao limite, sendo efetuado o encerramento das atividades, limpeza e remoção dos mesmos e recuperação ambiental da região explorada. Esta atividade compreende operações de alto custo e elevado potencial de ocorrência de impactos ambientais. O descomissionamento é uma atividade multidisciplinar, pois devem ser considerados critérios ambientais, sociais, técnicos, econômicos e de segurança em seu planejamento, tornando importante a abordagem de métodos que busquem uma relação de equilíbrio entre esses aspectos. Portanto, como auxílio nas tomadas de decisões devem ser utilizadas ferramentas de análise multicritério. Neste trabalho, foram utilizadas tais ferramentas para avaliar as melhores formas de descomissionamento de equipamentos submarinos de um campo de petróleo em lâmina de água ultra profunda. O trabalho explicitou diferentes abordagens e fez uma comparação entre elas, no intuito de avaliar qual método atenderia com mais eficiência às necessidades do tomador de decisão