Renato Garcia

Estruturas de governança em arranjos ou sistemas locais de produção

The aim of this paper is to discuss the issue of governance in local production systems. First, a set of factors that condition the existence and the structure of governance are developed, and then the main analytical approaches are summarized. On the basis of these analytical approaches, and taking into account the factors that influence governance, the paper presents two illustrative cases as examples of success and failure in the establishment of governance structures in local production systems. It concludes that governance structures in local production systems are effectively conditioned, in each case, by specific characteristics such as: production structure, kind of product and its technological base, form of production organization, form of market insertion, existence of lead firms and active local institutions, and the social, cultural and political context. The overall conclusion is that local private and public governance structures are superior and that public policies can play a relevant role in the development of local production systems.

Evaluation of machine learning classifiers in keratoconus detection from orbscan II examinations

PURPOSE: To evaluate the performance of support vector machine, multi‐layer perceptron and radial basis function neural network as auxiliary tools to identify keratoconus from Orbscan II maps. METHODS: A total of 318 maps were selected and classified into four categories: normal (n = 172), astigmatism (n = 89), keratoconus (n = 46) and photorefractive keratectomy (n = 11). For each map, 11 attributes were obtained or calculated from data provided by the Orbscan II. Ten‐fold cross‐validation was used to train and test the classifiers. Besides accuracy, sensitivity and specificity, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves for each classifier were generated, and the areas under the curves were calculated. RESULTS: The three selected classifiers provided a good performance, and there were no differences between their performances. The area under the ROC curve of the support vector machine, multi‐layer perceptron and radial basis function neural network were significantly larger than those for all individual Orbscan II attributes evaluated (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: Overall, the results suggest that using a support vector machine, multi‐layer perceptron classifiers and radial basis function neural network, these classifiers, trained on Orbscan II data, could represent useful techniques for keratoconus detection.

Uma avaliação da Lei de Informática e de seus resultados como instrumento indutor de desenvolvimento tecnológico e industrial

Este trabalho apresenta um conjunto de consideracoes a respeito de alguns dos resultados da Lei de Informatica sobre o complexo eletronico brasileiro, a partir da analise dos seus efeitos sobre o desempenho de um conjunto de empresas que se beneficiam dos estimulos fiscais da lei. Apresentam-se aqui algumas reflexoes criticas a respeito da eficacia e adequacaodeste instrumento para o desenvolvimento tecnologico do complexo eletronico brasileiro.

Uma analise das caracteristicas da estrutura de governança em sistemas locais de producao e suas relacoes com a cadeia global

Este trabalho tem o objetivo de analisar, de forma integrada, a problematica da governanca global e local em sistemas locais de producao, com o intuito de verificar os condicionantes para a competitividade dos produtores e o desenvolvimento local. Para isso, sao investigadas e comparadas duas experiencias de sistemas locais de producao no Brasil: a industria de calcados de Franca (SP) e a de moveis em Bento Goncalves (RS). As principais evidencias apontam que o desenvolvimento de capacitacoes entre os produtores localizados e condicionado pelas formas de governanca, global e local, sobre a cadeia produtiva.

A INDÚSTRIA DE CALÇADOS DE NOVA SERRANA (MG)

On the basis of previous statistical work with data and information from RAIS - Relacao Anual de Informacoes Sociais, characterizing the Nova Serrana shoe industry as a local production system, and the results of a field research work with visits and interviews in local firms and institutions, this paper studies the Nova Serrana local production system as a whole as well as its firms and supporting institutions. The objective is to bring empirical evidence to guide public policy and private actions with a view to upgrade the local system in two spheres: (1) productive and technological, and (2) institutional and organizational. With this purpose in mind, this paper first characterizes and describes the local system in terms of location, adjoining influenced areas, logistics, population and number of jobs, history and evolution, production structure, supporting institutions, and social, cultural and political contexts. Next, the paper characterizes local firms in terms of size, product development, trading system, cooperation between rival firms, interactions with suppliers, sources of information for product development and on market trends and production technologies, practices and policies with regard to quality, financing, and other aspects. Finally, the paper summarizes the most relevant issues for policy measures and private actions by local firms and institutions.

Looking at both sides: how specific characteristics of academic research groups and firms affect the geographical distance of university–industry linkages

This paper examines factors that affect the geographical distance of university–industry linkages by analysing specific characteristics of both sides of the collaboration – firms and universities. Previous studies have provided important evidence related to this issue; however, they have used data from either firms or universities. Therefore, this paper contributes to existing research on this issue by using information on both collaboration partners. For this purpose, data from the Directory of Research Groups in Brazil are used to estimate an empirical model. The main results indicate that firms with higher absorptive capacity and larger firms tend to collaborate with research groups that are more geographically distant. Further, on the university side, high-performance and larger research groups tend to attract firms that are more geographically distant as collaboration partners. Long-distance collaborations therefore usually occur when firms require high absorptive capacity and when they cannot find high-quality local universities.

Esforços inovativos de empresas no Brasil: uma análise das indústrias têxtil-vestuário, calçados, móveis e cerâmica

This paper analyses the main innovative efforts of firms in the textile, clothing, footwear, furniture and ceramic tiles industries, even though the main source of technological development is provide from the supplier industries, such as chemical and machinery, they develop applications in product and process that can bring some important benefits for the firms.

Inovação e conhecimento: indicadores regionalizados e aplicação a São Paulo

This paper develops multiple indicators to map the geographical distribution of knowledge and scientific and technological capabilities as proxies of the geographical distribution of S,T&I activities, and applies such indicators to data and information from the state of Sao Paulo. The overall view of the geographical distribution of S,T&I activities in the state is complemented by the analysis of the same activities in the perspective of a local production and innovation system: the case of information and communication technologies in the microrregion of Campinas. The results show a pattern for the regional distributions of S,T&I activities along the main highways of the state, around metropolitan areas such as Sao Paulo and Campinas, and in regions where educational, science and technology and R&D institutions are strongly concentrated. Firms tend to agglomerate in these areas and regions, forming local production and innovation systems. The paper produces evidence on the adherence of the geographical distribution of those systems to the geographical distribution of S,T&I activities as shown by the indicators. This confirms the empirical findings of the literature about the relationship between geography and innovation.

Advances in femtosecond laser technology

Femtosecond laser technology has become widely adopted by ophthalmic surgeons. The purpose of this study is to discuss applications and advantages of femtosecond lasers over traditional manual techniques, and related unique complications in cataract surgery and corneal refractive surgical procedures, including: LASIK flap creation, intracorneal ring segment implantation, presbyopic treatments, keratoplasty, astigmatic keratotomy, and intrastromal lenticule procedures.

Improved Evaluation of Postoperative Pain After Photorefractive Keratectomy

Purpose: Postoperative pain remains an important limiting factor to the selection of photorefractive keratectomy (PRK). There is a consensus in neurology pain research that pain should be evaluated as a multidimensional concept, which differs from current practice in ophthalmology. The purpose of this paper was to validate the use of multidimensional questionnaires, such as the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI) and the McGill Pain Questionnaire (MPQ), to provide an improved analysis of pain after PRK and to better describe its temporal profile. Methods: This prospective study included 43 eyes of 43 myopic patients who underwent unilateral PRK. After surgery, usual pain treatment was administered. All of the participants responded to the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), the BPI and the MPQ 1, 24, 48, 72, and 96 hours after surgery. The internal consistency was evaluated, different postoperative periods were compared, and convergent validity was assessed using correlation testing. Results: The Cronbach alpha test showed high internal consistency for each of the questionnaire subscales. Patients reported higher postoperative pain values at the first measurement of the VAS (4.93 ± 2.38), MPQ-pain rating index (26.95 ± 10.58), BPI-pain severity index (14.53 ± 7.36), and BPI-pain interference index (22.30 ± 15.13). Almost all of the scales and subscales showed a statistically significant direct correlation with the VAS at all of the evaluation periods. Conclusions: This study validated the utility of multidimensional questionnaires to expand the assessment of the PRK postoperative pain profile, including intensity and other qualitative aspects.