Logistic Strategy and Organizational Structure in Brazilian Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (Smes)

This study evaluates the logistic strategies developed in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) as a response to their organizational structures and planning processes. A multiple case study was carried out in the second largest furniture cluster in Brazil. Based on theoretical models, it was found that the characteristics of a company’s organizational structure had an impact on planning. In the case of companies with a low level of family participation, this impact was intentional, whereas in the case of companies with strongly centralized owner control over decision-making, the impact was unplanned. However, the formal nature of planning does not guarantee that logistics will have strategic aims and, in all cases, it has a strictly reactive nature

Corredor centro-leste: sistemas de transporte de Minas Gerais na perspectivas dos eixos de desenvolvimento e integração

The general purpose of this paper was to investigate the particular situation of the state of Minas Gerais, in the contexto of the new national logistic perspective, relatives to selected investments in the systems of transportation in areas of the Brazilian cerrado. The nonlinear model allocated flows of soybean among producing regions and ports, considering minimized cost of transport routes, considering some modals. In the case, the Port of Vitória (Center-East Corridor) was not sensible to the implantation of the transport systems, therefore it only reacted to the additions in the exported volumes. This implies the urgency of attention to the effective competition with the São Paulo (Port of Santos), that had expanded its area of influence for regions that could be being taken care of for the Center-East Corridor and the necessity to approach the strategical character of the investments in the transport systems (improvements in the highways, expansion of the railroad), as well as one better knowledge of the requeriments of the shippers, that can have significant regional impacts in the intraregional integration with the Triângulo Mineiro and areas under influence of the São Francisco Waterway.

Brentano e Nishida: sobre o psicologismo da escola de Kyoto

Kitaro Nishida (1870-1945) é o grande nome da Escola de Kyoto. Nascida no Japão, no início do século XX, a filosofia da Escola de Kyoto é comumente conhecida pela sua relação com o pensamento ocidental, especialmente com a proximidade em torno dos temas fenomenológicos e também heideggerianos, como “mundo”, “diferença ontológica”, técnica etc. Já outros nomes desta mesma Escola, como o de Keiji Nishitani (1900-1990), estavam mais próximos do pensamento de Schopenhauer, de Nietzsche e da questão da religiosidade oriental e do niilismo. Entretanto, neste texto traçarei um paralelo entre Nishida e uma outra filosofia europeia: aquela desenvolvida por Franz Brentano (1838-1917), a partir do seu Psicologia do ponto de vista empírico (1874). Especificamente, minha proposta aqui é procurar saber se há alguma relação entre a primeira fase do percurso intelectual de Nishida e o pensamento de Brentano e, se há, como ela pode ser estabelecida.

Assessment of mixtures of mycotoxins in cereal based foods available in Portuguese market

Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites of fungi that cause toxic and carcinogenic outcomes in humans exposed to them1. Mycotoxins affect several commodities including cereal grains and their finished products, infant formula and baby foods2. This study aimed to determine the incidence and levels of 20 mycotoxins and metabolites (AFB1, AFB2, AFG1, AFG2, AFM1, OTA, NIV, NEO, DAS, FUS-X, DON, 15-AC-DON, 3-AC-DON, HT-2, T-2, VER, T-2 TETROL, T-2 TRIOL), in breakfast cereals and cereal based baby foods available in the Portuguese market, and compare the results with the maximum limits established by the EU. Breakfast cereal samples (n=26), including corn, wheat, oat, rice and multigrain, and twenty cereal based baby foods (n=20) were collected from supermarkets in Lisbon region and analyzed by HPLC-FLD, LC-MS/MS and GC-MS. Results showed that 88 % breakfast cereals samples and 50 % of cereal based baby foods were contaminated with mycotoxins (with values above the detection limit), although all samples presented levels below the maximum limits established by the Commission Regulation 1881/20063. Regarding breakfast cereals samples, OTA and DON were the most commonly detected mycotoxins, with 88% and 73% of samples revealing values above the LOD, respectively. The co-occurrence of different mycotoxins in the same sample was observed in 92% of the analyzed samples. From these, 46% include mixtures of 3 or 4 mycotoxins. Regarding cereal based baby foods, OTA and AFM1 were the most commonly detected mycotoxins with 50% and 40% of samples revealing values above the LOD. The co-occurrence of mycotoxins was observed in 35% of the analyzed samples. These results are accordingly to those reported by Juan et al (2014)4 and Iqbal et al (2014)5. These results contribute to the increased knowledge on mycotoxin contents in cereal based foods marketed in Portugal, and they highlight the deep need of further studies to overcome the absence of legislated limits for mycotoxins in breakfast cereals other than DON and FB1 and the absence of legislated limits for mycotoxin mixtures in food. The last issue is particularly important considering the potential synergistic effects that could occur between mycotoxins and its potential impact on human and, mainly, children health.This research was performed under the MycoMix project (PTDC/DTP-FTO/0417/2012), funded by the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT), Portuga

Impactos da carência de investimentos na logística pública de transportes para o agronegócio: discussão teórica e evidências para o caso brasileiro

This article aimed to elaborate a reflection concerning the impacts of the insufficiences of investments in the Brazilian public logistic of transports and to search evidences of the impacts in the markets of transports logistic services, in the scope of the agribusiness. One understands that the Brazilian agribusiness forms an intensive set of activities in logistic, being, therefore, seriously wronged for the lack of public logistic, especially in that with respect to the transportation systems, that can be disclosed on provision lack, congestions of transport nets. The article emphasizes aspects of the formation of the freight rates in the markets, among sectors without an understandable linking and regions, enhancing aspects of localization, income, consumption and sistemic competitiveness. One conclusion of the article is that the enterprise solutions for the bottlenecks may have the effect to changed themselves into force for the concentration in the commercialization sector. In general, logistic public of transports consists in a strategical characteristic for the growth of the activities of the agribusiness with possibilities of expansion in the Center-West, North and Northeast areas.Transportation Systems, Logistic, Agribusiness

Use of fluent for the development of a di-si engine

The recent surge of electric vehicles has put pressure on the development and manufacture of batteries. However, batteries are still expensive, bulky and heavy, creating the need for inboard electricity generation using an internal combustion engine, usually referred as “range extender”. This paper presents the initial development of a DI-SI engine to work as range extender, focusing on the interaction between fuel spray and airflow inside the combustion chamber. To enable efficient combustion of lean and extra lean mixtures, a technique called stratified charge, is used. With direct injection spark ignition (DI-SI) engines it is important, under part load, to direct the fuel spray to the vicinities of the spark plug, enabling a fast and stable combustion of a lean mixture. A rich mixture region is created near the spark plug allowing an easy kernel formation and development. There are three types of systems for “directing” the fuel spray towards the spark plug: wall guided, air guided and spray guided. The developed design is a mixture of wall and air guided systems and the idea is to inject the spray towards the piston crown and to divert it to the spark plug location by the barrel swirl existent within the combustion chamber at this time. The system development was carried out using CFD FLUENT code. The study comprises three parts, the design of the components and its location (combustion chamber, piston crown, intake passage and injector location and aim), the air flow modeling and finally, the two phase modelling. A simple engine geometry and mesh were created in the Ansys CFD software. The air flow was considered to be transient, incompressible, Newtonian and viscous turbulent. The turbulence model used was the standard k-ε model, since it is the most common, simple and well-known model of turbulence. The spray has been simulated using the Discrete Phase Model. The Lagrangian discrete phase model in Fluent™ follows the Euler-Lagrange approach, where the fluid phase is treated as a continuum by solving the time-averaged Navier-Stokes equations, while the dispersed phase is solved by tracking a large number of particles through the calculated flow field. Preliminary results are now being obtained.MIT Portugal, Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT

Measuring evidence-based practice in physical therapy: a mix-methods study

Evidence-based practice (EBP) is considered the “holy grail” to manage patients by health practitioners (such as physical therapists). However, sometimes, patients are not treated with the best interventions for their condition. Although studies already explored the facilitators and barriers for this issue, they increase in the level of importance if the information gathered are context appropriated. As the profession is relatively new in Portugal, currently little is known about the implementation of EBP in Portuguese physical therapists context. So, the aim of this study is to know if the Portuguese physical therapists use an EBP, and collect and deeper understand the factors, barriers and facilitators associated with EBP. Methods: This study incorporated a mixed-methods design (quantitative and qualitative). In an attempt to ensure the correct population sample, a national professional association e-mail database and the e-mails of past students from national schools were requested. For the quantitative data it was choose an e-survey, adapted from the EBP: Beliefs, Attitudes, Knowledge, and Behaviors of Physical Therapists Portuguese version questionnaire, consisted of 55 close-ended questions. It was analyzed response frequencies and associations between variables with logistic regression analyses. For the qualitative data, it was choose to perform semi-structured interviews in purposefully selected physical therapists to include different sociodemographic factors (especially those found to be statistically significant in the logistic regression) and survey responses regarding the physical therapists’ beliefs, attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors. The interviews were performed in an online software, where only audio contact was performed. The audios were anonymized and verbatim transcribed, and the texts explored by the thematic approach. Results: From the 277 physical therapists that shown interest in participating in the study, 193 fully completed the questionnaire and, from those, 10 participated in the interviews. The Portuguese physical therapists reported positive beliefs, attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors regarding EBP. Among the physical therapists characteristics it seems that age (younger therapists), education (participating in continuing education courses; belonging to practice-orientated organizations; having a doctorate degree; pursuing a higher academic degree; and being a clinical instructor), and workplace (working for someone else account; and academic sector) are the main factors in the Portuguese EBP implementation. The Portuguese physical therapists, beyond the physical therapists individual characteristics and workplace, also stated that evidence, patients, clinical experience, schools, country and physical therapy characteristics, may behave as facilitators or barriers when performing an EBP.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Physical therapists’ choices, views and agreements regarding non-pharmacological and non-surgical interventions for knee osteoarthritis patients: a mixed-methods study

The aims of this study are to collect the most common non-pharmacological and non-surgical interventions used by the Portuguese physical therapists in their knee osteoarthritis patients, and to deeper understand the factors associated to their intervention choices. Methods: This study incorporated a mixed-methods design. For the quantitative data it was choose an e-survey (with 25 close-end questions, plus general information of the study and a clinical vignette), retrieving sociodemographic and self-reported practice on knee osteoarthritis information. It was analysed response frequencies and associations between variables with logistic regression analyses. For the qualitative data, it was chosen to perform semi-structured interviews in purposefully selected physical therapists to include different sociodemographic factors and survey responses regarding the physical therapists’ interventions chosen. After the interviews, the audios were collected, anonymised, transcribed verbatim, and the texts explored by the thematic approach. Results: From the 277 PTs that shown interest in participating in the study, 120 fully completed the questionnaire and, from those, 10 participated in the interviews. The most chosen interventions included Resistance Exercise, Manual Therapy, Nutrition/Weight Loss, Self-care/Education, Stretching and Aquatic Exercise. Furthermore, it seems that PTs’ individual characteristics (age, experience, and clinical reasoning), patient’s characteristics (clinical findings and preferences), and work-related factors (facility type, work environment and available resources) are the main actors responsible for an intervention chosen. Conclusions: In the Portuguese PTs context the most important interventions are Exercise, Manual Therapy, Nutrition/Weight Loss, and Self-care/Education; these interventions chosen may be influenced by PT, patient and work-related factors.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio