Rafael Garcia Barbastefano

Determinants of efficiency at major Brazilian port terminals

This paper reports on the use of different approaches for measuring the efficiency of major Brazilian port terminals. Two of the most important approaches, DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) and SFA (Stochastic Frontier Analysis), were performed on data collected from 25 terminals. The findings indicate that the majority of Brazilian terminals are running short on capacity due to the export boom that has occurred over the past few years and due to the lack of investment in capacity expansion. Furthermore, efficiency measurements derived from a reduced model with only one input and one output were explained based on variables such as type of cargo handled (container or bulk), connectivity of the terminal to railroads, and control (state or private) of the terminal. Implications and directions for future research are explored.

Life cycle assessment research in Brazil: characteristics, interdiciplinarity, and applications

PurposeThis paper aims to present an overview of the research groups on life cycle assessment (LCA) in Brazil to (i) characterize these groups, including their constitution, geographical distribution, and the nature of the institutions to which they are connected; (ii) classify the groups according to the knowledge areas and identify the existing interdisciplinarity between research lines; (iii) identify collaborative relationships between the groups; and (iv) determine the main focus of interest and applicability of the studies and activities developed.MethodsThe identification of and information about the groups that developed studies related to LCA were obtained from a survey of the Brazilian Directory of Research Groups (DRG). Interdisciplinarity was based on the classification of each group’s lines of research. Collaborative relationships were identified from co-authored publications indexed in the Web of Science. The research groups’ focus was defined based on their descriptions and sectors of activity, as reported in the DRG.Results and discussionThe study covered a total of 82 groups and 510 research lines. Among the findings, the following can be cited: there is great regional asymmetry in the distribution of groups; most of them are linked to universities and are located in Engineering, specifically Industrial, Mechanical, Sanitary, and Civil; there is an interdisciplinary approach that covers 49 areas of knowledge; and the main focus of the groups is related to sectors of activity such as energy (emphasis on biofuels), agriculture and livestock, and construction. Some groups developed studies with practical applications, whereas others focused on conceptual aspects related to environmental management and sustainable development.ConclusionsThe number of research groups related to LCA has grown in Brazil. This growth is important, especially for a country such as Brazil, which has continental dimensions and a number of regional specificities. However, a vast field of study remains to be explored, and this assessment method needs to be disseminated more widely in some regions of the country.

NANOTECNOLOGIA E NANOBIOTECNOLOGIA: ESTADO DA ARTE, PERSPECTIVAS DE INOVAÇÃO E INVESTIMENTOS

Nanotecnologia consiste na habilidade de manipular a materia em nanometros para criar estruturas com uma organizacao molecular diferenciada. O termo nanobiotecnologia refere-se a interface entre a nanotecnologia com a biologia tendo por objetivo a criacao de novos materiais e o desenvolvimento de novos produtos e processos baseados na crescente capacidade da tecnologia moderna de ver e manipular atomos e moleculas. Trata-se de uma area do conhecimento com grande potencial de geracao de inovacoes e que vem despertando interesses economicos e comerciais ao mesmo tempo em que despontam debates em torno de questoes eticas e ambientais. O objetivo do artigo e, a partir do levantamento do estado da arte, procurar tracar um panorama atual e identificar futuras possibilidades de utilizacao dessa tecnologia. Para a elaboracao do trabalho foram realizados estudos na base Web of Science e junto a United States Patent and Trademark Office alem do levantamento de investimentos de capital de risco que vem sendo feitos em nanobiotecnologia e em outras nanotecnologias.

A Mixed Graph Framework to evaluate the complementarity of communication Tools.

18 Due to the constant innovations in communications tools, several organizations are constantly evaluating the adoption of new communication tools (NCT) with respect to current ones. Especially, many organizations are interested in checking if NCT is really bringing benefits in their production process. We can state an important problem that tackles this interest as for how to identify when NCT is providing a significantly different complementary communication flow with respect to the current communication tools (CCT). This paper presents the Mixed Graph Framework (MGF) to address the problem of measuring the complementarity of a NCT in the scenario where some CCT is already established. We evaluated MGF using synthetic data that represents an enterprise social network (ESN) in the context of well-established e-mail communication tool. Our experiments observed that the MGF was able to identify whether a NCT produces significant changes in the overall communications according to some centrality measures. 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28

Stochastic Product-Mix: A Grid Computing Industrial Application

Grid computing supports a host of research areas, but it still lacks successful case studies concerning real-world industrial problems. This lack of work relates to difficulties faced by scientists and engineers, mostly due to two Achilles’ heels of Grid computing: incompleteness of resource information and high execution failure rates. This paper shows an application (Industry@Grid) developed to profit from grid computing resources to support the product-mix decision making in a plastic company and presents an analysis of grid related issues that drove the current design of Industry@Grid.

Stochastic Product-Mix Selection with Grid Computing

Grid computing supports a host of research areas, but it still lacks successful case studies concerning industrial problems. This paper shows an application developed to profit from grid computing resources to support the product-mix decision making in a plastic company.