A Customer complaint from a telecommunication company: a Bayesian data analysis

This study considers a customer complaint dataset due to the technical services provided by a telecommunications company collected for 134 consecutive weeks from the first week of January 2018 up to the year 2019. The total count of weekly complaints is the sum of different causes, which characterizes compositional data. The data was analyzed assuming a Poisson regression model for the weekly total complaint count data in presence of a random factor and compositional models both under a Bayesian approach using existing MCMC (Monte Carlo Markov Chain) to get the posterior summaries of interest. The obtained results are of great importance to improve the service quality of the company

Suprema Corte Americana: Estado da Arte

Parte do projeto de pesquisa “O Supremo por seus Ministros: a História Oral do STF nos 25 anos de Constituição (1988-2013)”, este trabalho é um esforço de se produzir um “estado da arte” das investigações, no campo das ciências sociais, a respeito da Suprema Corte Americana, procurando identificar que tipo de trabalho vem sendo desenvolvido e quem são os autores que se debruçam sobre este objeto de pesquisa Ademais, enquanto passo preliminar, é importante construir um levantamento bibliográfico sobre os estudos comparativos entre a Suprema Corte Americana e o Supremo Tribunal Federal. DOI:10.5585/rdb.v4i3.2

FATORES QUE PREJUDICAM A GESTÃO DE CAPITAL DE GIRO DE MPE INDUSTRIAIS

ResumoA importância das micro e pequenas empresas (MPE) pode ser notada pela relevante geração de riquezas e de empregos no Brasil. Contudo, os índices de insucesso e mortalidade para esse gênero de empresas são muito elevados e têm como um dos principais causadores a dificuldade no gerenciamento do capital de giro. A realização deste estudo teve como objetivo identificar e discutir os principais fatores, no âmbito da gestão de capital de giro, que prejudicam a continuidade das atividades das MPE industriais. A pesquisa envolveu uma coleta de dados com gestores de 55 MPE industriais.  Os resultados da pesquisa apontaram sete fatores mais importantes que interferem negativamente na gestão de capital de giro: formação inadequada dos gestores, acúmulo de atividade dos gestores, falta de planejamento financeiro, ausência de acompanhamento de indicadores de gestão, deficiência na gestão de estoque e produção, falta de condições de negociação com os fornecedores e restrições financeiras. Os resultados alcançados podem contribuir com a comunidade acadêmica e empresarial para ampliar a compreensão do que prejudica e dificulta a gestão de MPE, especialmente as que possuem atividade fabril. Palavras-chave: Capital de Giro; Micro e Pequenas Empresas; Mortalidade Empresarial.  AbstractThe importance of micro and small enterprises (SME) can be noticed by the relevant generation of wealth and jobs in Brazil. However, the rates of failure and mortality for this type of company are very high and have as one of the main causes the difficulty in the management of working capital. The objective of this study was to identify and discuss the main factors in the scope of working capital management, which hinder the continuity of the activities of industrial SME. The research involved a data collection with 55 industrial MPE managers. The research results pointed to seven major factors that negatively affect working capital management: inadequate training of managers, accumulation of managerial activity, lack of financial planning, lack of monitoring of management indicators, deficiencies in stock management and production, lack of negotiation conditions with suppliers and financial restrictions. The results achieved can contribute to the academic and business community to broaden the understanding of what harms and hinders the management of MSE, especially those that have factory activity. Keywords: Working Capital; Micro and Small Enterprises; Corporate Mortality

Improving lead time in product development process of an agricultural machinery company through value-stream mapping (VSM)

The constant search for process improvement requires a comprehensive knowledge of a company's resources, especially with regard to strategic processes for the organization, such as product development, which is directly related to technological changes and the needs of customers, which are becoming increasingly customized and difficult to meet. The value stream mapping method can help managers identify activities that cause losses in the process and may be effective in reducing the lead time in the product development process. Based on these assumptions, this work presents a case study on the application of value stream mapping in the product development process of an agricultural machinery company. The major sources of waste were identified and the process analyzed using value-stream mapping; proposals for changes were then made in consultation with the personnel involved in the projects. The application of the value-stream mapping method allowed the identification of waste in waiting time and in processing. We observed that if the improvement proposals are implemented, there may be a 41% reduction in the total lead time, which is a significant improvement for the process. Value-stream mapping allowed a simplified view of the process and facilitated the identification of waste and the understanding of process constraints, making value analysis more agile

A CULTURA ORGANIZACIONAL DEMARCA A DECISÃO DAS MICRO E PEQUENAS EMPRESAS DE INVESTIREM COM RECURSOS DE TERCEIROS?

Este estudo foi desenvolvido com o objetivo de identificar os fatores que influenciam as decisões de contratação de empréstimos para realizar investimentos em micro e pequenas empresas (MPE), e se este tipo de decisão tem uma relação com um tipo de cultura organizacional empreendedora característico dessa modalidade de empresas. A pesquisa foi feita com 45 MPE constantes no cadastro de clientes de uma instituição financeira de grande porte. Os dados foram coletados com a aplicação de um formulário estruturado, em entrevistas presenciais com os proprietários das empresas. Os resultados mostraram que o principal fator limitante do uso de crédito pelas MPE, para investimentos, são as elevadas taxas de juros praticadas no Brasil. Também mostraram que não há um tipo de cultura organizacional empreendedora que caracterize as MPE e tampouco que caracterize o grupo de MPE que se endividam para investir e as que não o fazem

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear un derstanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5–7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8–11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world’s most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepre sented in biodiversity databases.13–15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may elim inate pieces of the Amazon’s biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological com munities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple or ganism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region’s vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most ne glected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lostinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear understanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5,6,7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8,9,10,11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world's most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepresented in biodiversity databases.13,14,15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may eliminate pieces of the Amazon's biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological communities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple organism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region's vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most neglected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lost

Hansen Solubility Parameters Applied to the Extraction of Phytochemicals

In many analytical chemical procedures, organic solvents are required to favour a better global yield upon the separation, extraction, or isolation of the target phytochemical analyte. The selection of extraction solvents is generally based on the solubility difference between target analytes and the undesired matrix components, as well as the overall extraction procedure cost and safety. Hansen Solubility Parameters are typically used for this purpose. They are based on the product of three coordinated forces (hydrogen bonds, dispersion, and dipolar forces) calculated for any substance to predict the miscibility of a compound in a pure solvent, in a mixture of solvents, or in non-solvent compounds, saving time and costs on method development based on a scientific understanding of chemical composition and intermolecular interactions. This review summarises how Hansen Solubility Parameters have been incorporated into the classical and emerging (or greener) extraction techniques of phytochemicals as an alternative to trial-and-error approaches, avoiding impractical experimental conditions and resulting in, for example, saving resources and avoiding unnecessary solvent wasting