The use of renewable resources is one of the most efficient means that several countries have adopted in order to mitigate climate change and environmental degradation due to the use of fossil fuels for electricity production. Wind energy, in particular, has grown significantly in the global electricity sector. However, the companies responsible for producing electricity face several challenges in the phase in which wind farms are in operation, since they are seeking greater productivity, quality and reliability in their operations in order to achieve high performance. The aim of this dissertation is to investigate the factors that influence the performance of onshore wind farms in the operation phase. The research is characterized as descriptive, of an applied nature and with a qualitative approach. The methodological procedure involved four stages: i) an exploratory literature review, ii) a systematic literature review (SBR) analyzing 70 documents on the topics of factors that influence the performance of wind farm operations and performance evaluation in the wind sector, iii) grouping the factors identified into dimensions, iv) drawing up a conceptual model based on the information collected in the theoretical research. As a result, 50 factors identified as conditioning performance in wind farm operations were systematized. The factors investigated were grouped by similarity into seven dimensions: Learning and growth (7); Techniques, tools and technologies (7); Meteorological and wind resource monitoring (8); Supply chain coordination (3); Organizational and operational efficiency (9); Financial management (8); Operation and maintenance performance (8). Finally, it can be concluded that the conceptual model proposed can be used to support strategic decision-making by managers in the wind sector, with a view to improving operational efficiency. Since identifying the causes that contribute to the good or bad functioning of wind farms is essential for mitigating possible problems that could hinder the performance of these enterprises.

Adverse events (AEs) are increasingly at the center of public health policy concerns around the world, as this type of occurrence is not rare and has affected many patients. In Brazil, from 2006 to 2022, 1,783 AEs related to surgical interventions were reported, with over 92% of these events classified as higher risk to the patient (classes III and IV), according to ANVISA. In Rio Grande do Norte, from 2013 to 2022, AEs due to surgical interventions accounted for 1.92% of the total notifications. Faced with the rise of the surgeries AEs, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched the second Global Challenge at the Patient Safety (PS) in 2008, with the theme “Safe Surgeries Save Lives”, aimed at the safety of surgical care. The overall objective of this study is to analyze the relationship between constraints and incidental variabilities and the occurrence of adverse events in patients during surgical processes at a public trauma hospital, the strategies adopted and the regulations carried out by nursing technicians to prevent adverse events or mitigate their impacts. Methodologically, bibliographic research, document analysis and field research were conducted. For field research, the situated and participatory method of Ergonomic Work Analysis (EWA) was used, through which interactional and observational techniques were applied, assisted by photographic and filming records, focusing on the nursing technician's activity during the surgical assistance process. This approach allowed to identify the following evidence related to the nursing technician's activity (surgical scrub nurse and operating room circulating nurse) in providing surgical assistance, among others: a ) activity determinants: lack of training in PS, lack of maintenance and replacement of equipment/ instruments, shortage of professionals, ineffective or absent communication; b) physical constraints: difficulty in transporting stretchers and hospital beds due to the existence of some floors with cracks, in addition to the risk of accidents involving the patient and the professional; stretchers and hospital beds with damaged castors and protective bars, requiring greater use of force by professionals and posing a risk of patients falls, as well as torn mattresses with damaged foam, causing discomfort to the patient; c) temporal constraint: difficulty for professionals to take breaks from work due to the high demand of patients in the surgical center (SC); d) incidental variabilities: breakage of the anesthesia cart, surgical table and other equipment during surgeries, causing surgical delays or the need for rescue ventilation with an Ambu; old, worn and damaged surgical instruments, hindering surgical instrumentation, which causes surgical delays and potentially prolonging anesthesia time. To ensure the efficiency of the activity and prevent AEs and mitigate their harm, technicians constantly make adjustments to the activity, employing strategies and actions, among others: fixing the protective bars of hospital stretchers with bandages to avoid patient fall; placing cardboard support below the stretcher mattress to make it more comfortable and avoid pressure injuries; opening other surgical boxes to find better surgical instruments to the surgeries. Based on the findings, the following measures were recommended to prevent and/or mitigate the risks of AEs in surgical patients, among others: use of the checklist or safe surgery verification list; establish effective intersectoral and interprofessional communication; acquire new or better-maintained stretchers and hospital beds to facilitate patient transportation and transfer; expand the nursing staff, reducing the physical and mental burden on professionals with turnover in surgeries. Therefore, it is concluded that there is a need to implement improvements regarding PS in the perioperative period of the evaluated hospital, considering the obstacles and challenges encountered during the nursing technician's activity that, in some way, threaten the quality of the service provided and PS in the surgical environment. As contributions, this research adds to existing knowledge about the nursing technician's activity in the surgical process, its importance and its relation to PS; demonstrates the applicability of the AET method for this type of research; establishes a theoretical, methodological and practical relationship between Ergonomics and PS; and proposes measures to reduce the occurrence of AEs in patients during surgical processes. For future work on this topic, it is suggested to replicate the methodology of this research in similar activities in other SC of public and/or private hospitals at national and international levels, and that comparative analyzes be carried out, aiming to reduce AEs during care surgery.

The digitalization of processes in accounting offices is a slow but evolving reality in the northeastern region of Brazil. The fear that the digital age might render the accounting profession obsolete is gradually being replaced by confidence in the transformation of the accountant's role. A new profile of the accountant is emerging: the advisory accountant, a professional with technical expertise capable of assisting top management in strategic decisions by providing vital insights into a company's financial health. In this context, the rapid proliferation of numerous software options for a range of accounting services leaves professionals ill-prepared to make urgent and complex decisions. This situation jeopardizes the continuity of accounting businesses. This study proposes a multi-criteria model to assist accounting offices in selecting software for mandatory tax and accounting reporting. This aids in a secure transition to full digitalization of accounting offices, offering managers a tool to overcome the mentioned challenges and more. By employing the Value-Focused Thinking (VFT) methodology in conjunction with the FITradeoff decision support method, this study presents a methodological approach to the selection problem, guiding toward the best solution for each business profile.

The slowdown in global warming depends on technological, economic, social, political, financial and environmental issues. The current energy source is mainly based on fossil fuels, which is one of the main causes of the increase in the planet's temperature. As an alternative to fossil sources, there are renewable energies such as wind, solar, among others. However, both wind and solar are considered intermittent sources of electrical energy generation. Due to this, hydrogen and green ammonia emerge as the main options to complement this intermittency and enable an energy supply system with greater participation from wind and solar sources. However, all economic activities generate environmental impacts and these must be analyzed so that the negatives are mitigated and compensated, as well as the positives enhanced in the process. The study aims to develop a model for assessing environmental impacts in the production, storage and transport of green hydrogen and green ammonia. In the first stage, exploratory theoretical research was carried out and followed by a Systematic Bibliographic Review (RBS). In the second stage, a case study was carried out on the environmental licensing process and the environmental impacts on oil and gas projects in Brazil. The third stage included validation through a Focus Group group and the final structuring of the environmental impact assessment model in the production, storage and transport of hydrogen and green ammonia. The proposed model will assist future investors in these activities both in Brazil and around the world, as well as environmental licensing bodies in making decisions regarding the environmental impacts of the hydrogen and green ammonia industry.

The decarbonization of the energy sector and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions represent the main objectives of the energy transformation roadmaps. Considering that, renewable energies play a key role in world’s energy transition. However, the availability of these alternative energies varies over time and additional measures are needed to integrate fluctuating sources of renewable energy. The production of Green Hydrogen from the Offshore Wind source represents a complementary alternative for energy security supply, especially considering Brazilian’s wind energy capacity factors of up to 50.0%. Because it is an alternative and recent technology, research on its implementation is still lacking. Thus, this research aims to propose a techno-economic and environmental conceptual framework for green hydrogen production from offshore wind energy. The methodological procedure of the research consists of four phases: first, a theoretical foundation, Systematic Literature Review and case studies were conducted. Second, formulation of the conceptual model. Third, validation of the conceptual model. And the fourth, framework modeling. At SLR, 72 articles were analyzed, in addition to theses, dissertations and technical reports. As a result, 38 variables were identified and the conceptual model were systematized, grouped by similarity, considering the life cycle of a unit producing green hydrogen from offshore wind energy. The conceptual framework is divided into technical variables (wind farm, electrolyser and hydrogen), economic variables (costs, indicators, parameters and revenues) and environmental variables. In conclusion, the conceptual framework model for economic analysis of green hydrogen projects from offshore wind energy considers technical, economic, and environmental aspects as input data, as well as serving as a basis for more technical-economic and socioenvironmental feasibility studies for Green Hydrogen projects from different renewable sources.

The complexity of rare diseases, exemplified by Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), requires a specific approach from public policies and health services. The typical public health structure, designed for common diseases, may not be suitable for meeting the needs of patients with ALS due to its complex nature. The effective delivery of health services to these patients necessitates multidisciplinary care with collaboration, coordination, and transition among various health professionals and services. To promote quality care, it is crucial to structure health services through Care Pathways, which play a key role in the organizational care within health networks. This encompasses different care processes, health units, and levels of attention through care flows. Given the need to ensure comprehensive, coordinated care along the care pathway, it is necessary to map and organize care flows, from the patient's first contact with the health system to the conclusion of treatment or follow-up. Therefore, this research aims to propose a framework for standardizing care pathways for ALS patients in the public health network of the state of Rio Grande do Norte. The research procedure was divided into three phases: (i) theoretical foundation, conducting a Systematic Literature Review based on the PRISMA method; (ii) identification and characterization of care processes and flows for ALS patients, based on literature data, public health database of RN, and interviews with professionals directly involved in the care of ALS patients; and (iii) construction and validation of the care flow framework for public health network patients with ALS, based on the RarERN Path methodology and the Delphi Method. The expected results include the development of a framework with consolidated and validated care flows by a team of specialists. These flows should be patient-centered and focused on their care journey. Additionally, this structure is expected to standardize the patient's pathway through the health care network and improve the coordination among different professionals involved in care. Finally, the proposed framework could be used as a concrete subsidy in implementing a specific Care Pathway for ALS and serve as a model to address challenges related to other rare conditions.

Clinical research invests large resources throughout its testing and approval phases. A very expensive step for pharmaceutical companies is the recruitment and selection of research individuals, which takes place through clinical trial centers. These, based on the protocols, are responsible for ensuring that recruitment and selection procedures, care, exams, monitoring and others, are carried out efficiently and effectively, both in the use of resources made available by the sponsor, and in the generation of data. real, quality and within the deadlines determined by this stakeholder. Among the activities carried out by research centers in clinical trials, recruitment is considered one of the most relevant parts, since without volunteers there is no study. Having quantity combined with quality is a crucial factor, as well as reaching the goal agreed with the sponsor in a timely manner, ensuring that the study does not become dispersed and take much longer than planned for its development, resulting in increasingly higher costs. In this context, adapting the center's operations to the requirements of the specific protocol is essential for the adequate progress of activities. The general objective is to propose a framework based on Lean Healthcare for the adequate preparation of research centers, aiming to guarantee recruitment and conduct of clinical trials with efficiency and quality. In this sense, the study deals with the results of a research center, which promoted the remodeling of clinical trials, based on a systematized sequence of steps to be followed before starting the protocol. To define these steps, the Lean Healthcare methodology was used as a basis, from its concept to its tools, in the search for added value from the patient's perspective, acting through the identification, development and analysis of their value streams, with aimed at quality, productivity and effectiveness in meeting the proposed goals. To validate the new established process, an action research was carried out, which resulted in the real scope of recruitment carried out in record time by the research center, in the participation of a study for a vaccine against COVID-19 together with other centers spread around the world. around the world, with this company being responsible for including (randomizing) 3100 volunteers during 18 days of recruitment, with an average service lead time of 3 hours in visit 1 of the trial. Finally, a process framework is proposed, containing the main steps identified as key to achieving the expected results.

The project management has several approaches, techniques and methods, but these have not been sufficient in the face of increasing complexity of projects where it is necessary a significant amount of decisions to be made. Therefore, the academy and the organizations have invested in supplying the difficulties of project management through advanced analytical techniques, one of these techniques is the Artificial Intelligence. This study aims to propose a framework of applications, solutions and benefits present in the application of principles and tools of artificial intelligence in project management. To achieve this goal it was used the research procedure with four stages: (i) theoretical research through a systematic literature review, with analysis of 158 articles published in peer-reviewed journals, (ii) conceptual modeling of the framework, (iii) survey research applied to experts with scientific publication on the researched theme, for validation of the conceptual framework, and (iv) final structuring of the framework. As a result, the framework presents three dimensions: Benefits, Solutions and Applications. In the Benefits dimension, the application of the IA has as its main benefit the achievement of greater efficiency in the use of project resources. In the dimension Solutions, the most used AI tools in project management are genetic algorithms and artificial neural networks. In the applications dimension, the use of AI in project management are in schedule planning and resource planning. It is concluded that most of the research on the subject is in the search for improvement in the efficiency of resources, time and costs, through the use of genetic algorithms to plan projects in the civil construction sector.

In an increasingly changing society, in which technological and social development take on a frenetic pace, knowledge and information become inputs of great value. For organizations to be efficient in environments with these characteristics, they need to look for ways that systematize knowledge, information so that they are consolidated and become a usable input in their processes. It is in this scenario that the Benchlearning tool appears, which aims to guide organizations and people to focus on organizational learning and continuous improvement from the knowledge acquired by observing other organizations considering their own characteristics and limitations. In public administration it is no different, in view of the obligation provided by law to be efficient, bodies and actors working in this sector need to have this constant concern in their actions. In the field of health, this concern assumes a much greater level of responsibility, given the vital need for the population to develop actions to promote health and prevent and combat epidemics, as is the case of the Syphilis epidemic in our country. In this sense, this study aims to identify the benefits of applying Benchlearning principles in an intraorganizational view in health communication campaign projects. The research procedure was structured in 4 stages: 1) State of the art of the benchlearning theme 2) Documentary analysis of research on the communication process in health projects; 3) Field research (case study directed to the first 3 campaigns carried out by the Rapid Response to Syphilis project); and 4) Identification of the benefits of the Benchlearning tool in health communication from an intraorganizational perspective. The initial analysis of the information obtained in the case study demonstrates the importance that experience and learning assume for the efficiency of the campaigns, at the same time that it points to a deficit of the project in not systematizing its lessons learned.

Offshore wind energy is proving to be an increasingly viable option, driven by the energy transition, technological advances and the maturity of the supply chain. This growth highlights the need to develop ports, onshore infrastructure and the connection between maritime and land-based activities to effectively support Offshore Wind Farms (OWFs). The complex development cycle of the port comprises the following phases: feasibility studies; engineering design; construction; andoperationalization. These phases involve a series of performance measures that can be structured to track project progress, monitor and evaluate operations, ensure environmental compliance, conduct risk analysis related to the port's performance, among other purposes. The objective of this study is to establish a conceptual framework for measuring performance throughout the various stages of port development. The research method involved: theoretical foundation and Systematic Literature Review; document analysis; case study; and, modeling, validation and proposition of the framework. As a result, it was observed that there is a lack of research on the performance of offshore wind ports. However, 26 drivers for their development were identified, along with 32 general drivers for port development. Finally, a conceptual framework was constructed, consisting of 7 dimensions, 25 pillars and 136 indicators.

Higher education institutions (HEIs) are designated as important actors in the process of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the 2030 Agenda. As agents of knowledge, HEIs maintain a critical role in collaboration for a socially just, economically viable and environmentally sustainable world. As a general objective, this dissertation aims to understand how the SDGs and the 2030 Agenda are being incorporated into higher education institutions, analyzing in publications and research the initiatives, barriers and experiences of universities that are aligning with the SDGs and the 2030 Agenda. In the light of this context, the specific objectives of this work include a compilation of published articles on the theme that sought: i)  to understand the role of HEIs in the implementation of the SDGs, through a systematic review of the literature, identifying case studies of universities that are aligning with the theme;  ii) identify, through a bibliometric study, how the SDGs are being addressed in the publications of Brazilian theses and dissertations; and finally iii) how Brazilian federal universities are incorporating and disseminating the SDGs, highlighting successful initiatives that reflect alignment with the 2030 Agenda. From the adoption of a systematic review of the literature, a bibliometric study and empirical research with federal public universities, it was possible to gather a large balance of results. These analyses consisted of a first effort to survey and share the situation of the knowledge about the existence of the 2030 Agenda, this being research that contributes to foster dialogue and improve experiences that should be a guide to modify this reality. All studies and analyses indicate that there is still a trajectory to be traced, mainly because higher education institutions act on their own, without effective coordination of actions. It was also possible to identify the temporal evolution of research, the areas and institutions that stand out the most, as well as the SDGs that have been more addressed in theses and dissertations, pointing out that this process needs to be more driven by institutions, encouraging master's and doctoral students to reflect how their research impact and influence the SDGs. All elements and results have been structured in different dimensions, providing fundamental information on how HEIs can implement the SDGs and how the SDGs contribute to the development of these institutions, highlighting the priority role that the university acquires in achieving these global objectives.

Renewable energy sources have become competitive as a consequence of technological development, incentive policies and other factors. Although there are several benefits associated with the use of this energy modality, electricity generation by these sources depends on meteorological and climatic factors, which limits it to meet the hourly demand of electricity in the market.  Green hydrogen (H2V) emerges as the main alternative of energy storage from renewable sources to fill this gap and as the central pillar of decarbonisation of the economy, given that it also enables energy transport over intercontinental distances, in addition to its versatility of industrial applications. The study aims at proposing guidelines for the development of green hydrogen in a country that has a high potential of renewable energy sources. The research was developed in three stages: i) theoretical research on the themes, characteristics of H2V, prospective studies on the market, value chain and standards; ii) case study on roadmaps for green hydrogen in pioneer countries and; iii) modeling of guidelines for the development of the green hydrogen market in a country with high potential of renewable energy sources. As a result, 11 guidelines that contribute to the development of green hydrogen were identified, grouped in the following dimensions: Market, Regulation, Infrastructure, and RD&I.

The world quickly experienced a change in the way of working due to a worldwide need caused by the coronavirus pandemic and the perception of advantages that telework (home office) presented itself to companies that work with processes and customer service. However, not all employees have the same adaptation and performance when performing their activities outside the company's premises and not adapting to work remotely can have negative consequences on the health of employees and, consequently, on the achievement of the organization's goals. With this scenario, the decision support multicriteria analysis presents itself as an application tool to the decision process in the selection of employees with the best profile for telework activities. This research aims to develop a multi-criteria decision model for selecting employees to work remotely in a telephone service company located in the state of Rio Grande do Norte / Brazil, based on the flexible elicitation concepts of the FITradeoff (Flexible and Interactive) method Tradeoff). FITradeoff is a method for eliciting scale constants that was created according to the scope of the Theory of Multi-Attribute Value (MAVT). Thus, it is expected that the model to be developed will be able to provide information to support the choice of employees to carry out work in a telework regime, based on consistent prioritization criteria, supporting decision-makers in defense of the choice made.

The decline in production of mature oil and gas fields has led companies to further optimize their inventory and acquisition costs. This work aims to compare the accuracy of different methods of base and temporal hierarchy forecasting of demand for coating tubes for onshore oil wells in Brazilian states of Rio Grande do Norte and Ceará (RN & CE). The research method was exploratory used in the forecasting methods: naive, seasonal naive, ETS (ExponenTial Smooth), ARIMA (AutoRegressive Integrated Moving Average) and THETA, with accuracy metrics: MAPE (absolute mean error), sMAPE (synmetric mean absolute percentage error), RMSE (root mean squared error) and MASE (percentage error absolute mean of scale), using a training approach in the period from 2010 to 2016 and testing in the years 2017 and 2018. For the base forecasts, the ETS and ARIMA methods match the best of the results, the benchmark itself (naive). Considering the temporal reconciliation, there were several improvements in different methods and metrics applied, however, not being unanimous in all cases. It is highlighted the THETA method when using this approach, which occurred because the base accuracy is low, therefore being more efficient in this scenario of low accuracy. The different results between the frequencies can be explained by the difficulties of the reconciled models of capturing, with relative accuracy, as components of trend and seasonality of the models.

International Cooperation is an important means for strengthening institutional capacities and developing countries in the most diverse areas, including health. However, there is a knowledge gap in the literature regarding the development of specific performance measurement systems for international cooperation agreements and activities that go beyond the financial perspective or factors intrinsic to the object of cooperation. The objective of this study is propose a model to measure the performance of international cooperation activities aimed to public health projects, using as a case study the experience of the "Sífilis Não!" Project. The research is applied in nature, takes a qualitative-quantitative approach with the research case as a methodological procedure. The research is comprised of three stages: i) theoretical research, through the Systematic Literature Review (RBS) technique; ii) field research, conducted through a research case, which had as sources of information project documents, online information and interviews with key project participants and experts in international cooperation; iii) structuring of the performance measurement system. The proposed model has 23 indicators distributed in 6 dimensions: Sustainability (3), Result (9), Stakeholders (2), Processes (5), Learning (2) and Resources (2). The proposed performance indicators showed that the international cooperation activities of the “Sífilis Não!” Project were diversified, including the entire typology presented by the Brazilian Cooperation Agency of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Thus, it contributed to disseminating the syphilis agenda in the fields of health, education and science and technology, in addition to problematizing the syphilis epidemic in countries that did not have it on their public health agenda.

This research aimed to propose a methodology to evaluate the efficiency of the Sounding Rocket Launch Operation (SRLO) through Network Data Envelopment Analysis (NDEA) and game theory, for suborbital rockets, launched at from a launcher with an inclined ramp, with the adjustment parameter, the calculation of ballistic wind for the launch region, in order to allow SRLO managers to make their decisions based on benchmarking analyzes, since there is a lack of efficiency analyzes on rockets and SRLO. Investments in the Brazilian aerospace sector become more contingent due to the country's current economic scenario. This requires the Brazilian aerospace sector to optimize its financial resources, therefore Ghana for the better use of these resources, and consequently, an increase in the efficiency of the internal processes of its executing agencies, become indispensable to achieve the economic and financial results desired by the country. In this context, the measurement and improvement of the SRLO efficiency of the Brazilian Launch Fields made it possible, in addition to providing better services to the Center's customers, a better allocation of resources and increased productivity, in an increasingly competitive and super-specialized sector. The research on SRLO will have a time frame from 2009 to 2019 in the launches of space vehicles of the training rockets project launched from the Barreira do Inferno Launch Center (CLBI- Centro de Lançamento da Barreira do Inferno) observing 24 launches. From this analysis, the results show that there was high efficiency of launches in the Launcher Adjustment Stage (LAS) with an average of 75.40% due to the OLFS control actions performed by the Launch Center team at this stage and a very low Efficiency in launches in the Atmospheric Flight Stage (AFS) with an average of 13.50%, due to the interference of exogenous factors in the OLFS process at this stage, mainly from the launch field atmosphere, so the average Global Efficiency of launches was of 9.80%, a value close to the efficiency of the EVA stage. This new approach sought to answer how a mathematical technique can help suborbital launch field managers' decision making.

The diversity and availability of natural resources give Brazil excellent opportunities to develop in a sustainable way, combining economic growth, social inclusion, and environmental conservation. In this context, electricity plays a fundamental role in this development. The government's strategy to meet the increase in energy demand is the transition from the predominantly fossil matrix to an energy matrix of clean and renewable sources. Due to the accelerated technological development of the turbine, offshore wind energy appears as a viable option already explored in several countries. Offshore wind farms allow the use of turbines with greater power than on land, use of an unexplored maritime area, in addition to other advantages. The objective of the research is to propose programs for managing the environmental impacts of the environmental impacts of offshore wind projects in Brazil. The research method is characterized as descriptive, of an applied nature, with inductive logical argumentation, with a qualitative approach and carrying out case studies. The research procedure included three stages: theoretical research, conducting case studies and systematizing the proposal. As a result, environmental impact management programs are presented with the aim of reducing negative impacts and enhancing the positive impacts of offshore wind farms. The programs were systematized according to the macro-phases of the life cycle of an offshore wind project: installation, operation and maintenance and decommissioning. The proposal contributes so that the management of environmental impacts is better understood and managed by offshore wind farms entrepreneurs and by technicians from regulatory institutions.

The excess demand profile in relation to the available care capacity is a reality in public health services. In the context of Intensive Care Units (ICU) in Brazil the scenario is one of inequality: out of the 45,848 ICU beds distributed among 532 of the 5,570 Brazilian cities, only 49% are available to the Unified Health System (SUS), while the amount corresponding to 51% is reserved for the benefit of only 23% of the population. Given this scenario, the multicriteria decision support analysis (MCDA) acts as a potential tool to application in the decision-making process of resource allocation due to the robustness and capacity of the multicriteria methods to consider conflicting criteria. This research aimed to develop a multi-criteria model to support the decision for allocation of Adult ICU beds in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, which are under the management of the Complexo Estadual de Regulação (CER/RN). A twelve-step framework was used to apply the PROMETHEE I and II methods. The prioritization problem was approached from the perspective of the P.γ ranking problem in which six clinical vignettes based on real patients were ranked in order of preference, defined by the observed value judgments of the decision maker. Two pre-orders were recommended: a partial one, in which four pairs of actions were incomparable to each other, and a complete one, in which relationships between each pair of alternatives were described. The sensitivity analysis performed identified considerable robustness of the model since changes in positions in the rankings could be justified by the proximities of the values of each patient's positive and negative over-ranking fluxes. Thus, the proposed model formalized the decision-making process of prioritizing access to adult ICU beds and granted it a transparent and rational character by structuring the considered elements.

 

 

In order to achieve a good level of functioning, each and every organization needs to define inventory levels appropriate to its supply. In order to corroborate with inventory planning and control, there is a usual classification method known as ABC classification, which categorizes items in stock according to a criterion, which is usually the demand or the monetary value of the item. It can be said that currently classifying items in stock according to a single criterion does not actually represent the stock, and there are other criteria to consider, such as obsolescence and criticality. Thus, the research aims to propose and develop an ABC classification model with the multicriteria analysis method FITradeoff in the stock of materials and medicines of a university hospital in Natal-RN. With this, the aim is to contribute effectively to the organization of the stock of medicines in a university hospital, reaching benefits such as reducing the disparity between the physical and accounting stock, reducing waste with expired medicines, reducing ruptures due to lack of material, reducing the carrying amount of the inventory.

Logistics influences production and distribution costs and time in several sectors. In the offshore wind energy sector, installation logistics costs can reach 20% of CAPEX. Two relevant factors in the sector are: the accelerated technological development, with an increase in the rated power and in the dimensions of the turbines; and the increased distance from the offshore wind farms to the coast, these influence the costs of installing offshore wind farms. The study aims to propose a framework for logistical decisions for the installation of offshore wind farms. The research method is characterized as descriptive, with a qualitative-quantitative approach. The research procedure included theoretical research on offshore wind energy, installation of offshore wind farms and logistics, using systematic literature review. The field research consisted of a survey with 29 experts from 14 different countries to validate the conceptual framework. As a result, the framework contemplates 8 logistical decisions required in the installation of an offshore wind farm that impact “time” and “cost” performance objectives. Logistics decisions are influenced by factors: environmental and meteorological conditions, project characteristics, turbine characteristics, characteristics of available vessels, availability of infrastructure for installation logistics and stakeholders. Finally, it is concluded that the proposed framework presents the importance of decision making with a global view, highlighting that taking only one decision not combined with the others can harm and increase the costs of the next decision.

 

 

Urology is a surgical specialty of medicine that acts on the urinary tract of men and women and on the male reproductive system. The urologist is responsible for treating organs such as kidneys, bladder, urethra, ureter, testicles, penis, prostate and others. There are several types of surgeries involving this specialty, from the simplest such as vasectomy to the most complicated, such as tumor removal and organ transplants. For urological surgeries, within the scope of the Sistema Único de Saúde - SUS, there are queues to perform the procedures, generating patient apprehension and even the evolution of the disease due to the delay in the surgery. In this context, hospital managers must seek the efficient use of resources and patient satisfaction at the lowest cost. Among these concerns, the topic of surgical interventions is particularly important due to its representativeness in hospital operating costs. In addition, queues at public hospitals in Brazil are common, with a large concentration of patients and prohibitive waiting times in various sectors, including surgical centers. In elective surgeries, when an urgency and emergency procedure is not necessary, queuing also occurs. In these lines, a patient with a less severe condition can wait for the procedure for several years, and may have complications in their health condition. At the Hospital Universitário Onofre Lopes - HUOL, there are more than 2,000 people queuing for elective surgery at the urology clinic, and the wait can last for up to two years for the simplest cases. This situation worsened with the suspension of elective surgeries during the pandemic period of COVID-19. Thus, the present study aims to develop a multicriteria decision analysis model for the management of urological surgery queues at a university hospital. As a method of study, an applied, descriptive study of documentary research and case study will be carried out. The study will start by analyzing cases in the literature for applying multicriteria decision analysis techniques in surgical environments for patient selection, followed by a survey of the criteria currently used in the hospital and identification of the process actors for structuring the problem. After structuring the problem, the main objectives will be identified and measured according to criteria that will guide the development of the proposed model. The selection of the most appropriate method will be carried out after structuring the problem and identifying the decision maker. At the end of the study, the development of a model is expected to support decision makers to optimize the queue of urology surgeries, aiming at transparency and agility in all procedures.

The general objective of this work was to develop and apply a model for process performance qualification of industrial processes with statistical tools. As part of this objective, design of experiment, as well as analyzes of process stability and capacity and the evaluation of these results by two types of sampling plans, single and double from ANSI / ASQ Z1. 4 for attributes. This paper tries to answer the following question: How to make the performance qualification of industrial processes with statistical base? Thus, we studied the process and product specification variables of an industrial process, the rolling process of a packaging industry through the use of statistical tools for control and performance in a case study. The main tools used are: design of the experiment, ACF (autocorrelation function) and ACFP (partial autocorrelation function) plots, individual control plots with Western Electric rules application and adjustment of an ARIMA model for autocorrelated data. From the results obtained in the case study, the model for the process performance qualification of industrial processes with statistical tools was developed, which has three main steps: definition of the data to be used in the qualification, order of execution of the analyzes and order of execution of the evaluation of the results.

Considering the high levels of competitiveness faced by organizations, the area of planning and analysis of experiments gain notable prominence, as it consists of a fundamental statistical technique with several contributions, such as, for example, in the process of developing new products, in increasing process efficiency, in reducing the variability and costs involved, in addition to considerable gains in data analysis time. This work aims to develop a procedure to guide the planning and analysis of an experiment. For this, the main concepts about this area of study were used, as well as the understanding of the basic principles of experimentation (randomization, replication and blocking). This study seeks to contribute to the literature in three ways. First, with the development of a guide for studies in the area of experimental planning to help researchers who have or do not have experience with experimentation. Second, this study seeks to disseminate the importance of planned experiments for different areas of study, considering that experimental planning helps in reducing costs, optimizing time and resources. And third, with a systematic review of the literature in order to verify the studies that used experimental planning and that sought, even initially, to develop guidelines and recommendations for researchers who will make use of this tool.

Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) has been a center of debate in a global context by governments, companies and institutions wishing to improve their governance and reap the benefits of this practice. In the national context, especially in Federal Higher Education Institutions, the subject is very recent and was stimulated by the Joint Normative Instruction MP / CGU nº 01/2016. This norm has as objectives the strengthening of the management, improvement of processes and achievement of organizational objectives of organs and entities of the federal executive power. Taking into consideration this norm, the present study aims to evaluate the level of maturity of risk management in Brazilian Federal Universities. To do this, the research will use a questionnaire, allied to a neural network (map of kohonen) in order to diagnose the degree of maturity in the Institutions, identify barriers to implementation and good practices, and characterize and identify similarities of their programs in risk management. As results of this work, the expectation is to obtain a ranking of risk management based on the degree of maturity, as well as a characterization of risk management at the national level, particularly in the scenario of Federal Universities. The research also aims to provide practical information for managers of higher education institutions, in order to assist them in the adoption / review of ERM programs.

Decision making is a process present in the routine of people and organizations around the world. Whether due to the number of agents involved or the conflicting character of the choice criteria, in many situations this process can be complex and there may not be a trivial solution. In this context, the so-called Multicriteria Decision Support (AMD) stands out, a decision support methodology, composed of several methods in different conceptions. Among the main concepts, there is the so-called Ideal Solution concept, with classic methods such as TOPSIS, VIKOR, and more recent ones such as the Reference Ideal Method (RIM). Unlike the classic methods, the use of the concept of Ideal of Reference, the RIM method allows to solve problems where the ideal in each criterion is not necessarily extreme values to the interval of each criterion. The RIM method, as well as the classic methods, was proposed to be applied in situations described in clear (real) values. However, in many decision problems, information is inaccurate, vague, incomplete and inconsistent. In order to solve these situations, these methods are extended to other types of sets, which allow representing this information, such as the Fuzzy Set, Intuitionist Fuzzy Set and the Neutrosophical Set. Considered a generalization of the others, the Neutrosophical Set can adequately represent incomplete, vague and inconsistent information, that is, it represents the decision-making process more completely than the others. With a Systematic Literature Review, it was found that there is no MCDM method in the literature using the concept of Ideal of Reference to solve decision problems in the neutral environment. In this sense, this work aimed to propose an extension of the RIM method to the neutral environment, allowing to properly represent multicriteria decision making problems with inaccurate, incomplete, vague and inconsistent data. The new method was proposed with two different normalization functions. The first considering distance to the average of the extremes of the Ideal of Reference and the second considering the distance to the extremes of the Ideal of Reference. In order to demonstrate the applicability of the method, an illustrative example in the global supplier selection literature was used. After applying the method, it was found that for both normalization functions, the ordering of the alternatives was the same.

The world lives in an era of knowledge and, due to a changing scenario, countries see in universities the possibility of being included in the world circuit of knowledge and skills. University evaluation has been the focus of several rankings worldwide and is an example of influence in the paradigm shift in universities, as the positive results from the evaluation process provide these institutions with a reputation, social and academic prestige, in addition to a benchmark among institutions about the services and practices provided in addition to the strengths and weaknesses of each course / university. In general, information on teaching, research and internationalization activities are combined to generate a grade used in a ranking order. This method is widely criticized for not showing unanimity in the formulation of its indicators and for relating the performance of an institution to just a number. In view of the above, this dissertation proposed an alternative means to academic ranking, the use of clustering techniques with neural networks. Self-organizing maps (SOM) are models of competitive neural networks. Through unsupervised learning, they perform a mapping between multidimensional data, generally two-dimensional, which approximates the original density of the information, being a technique widely used in areas such as data analysis and pattern recognition. This work presents a cross-sectional analysis of data from Brazilian universities through the training of maps with data from the 2014 and 2019 Ranking Universitário da Folha. From the profiles of the clusters, after the segmentation of the trained maps, it is possible to identify the positive points and of each group. With the identification of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in these different years, an analysis of the transitions between the clusters in the years 2014 and 2019 was carried out. Comparisons of the profiles of the clusters are shown in order to characterize their behavior in the analyzed period and showing a new one. As an alternative to the analysis of HEI performance data, the study also allows for the verification of disparities between the regions of Brazil.

Global warming has alerted the international community to the need to of renewable and clean energy sources in the generation of electricity. In this scenario, wind energy is expanding. As this source depends on a central equipment, the wind turbine, its operation and maintenance are fundamental for the viability of the business and, therefore, the application of technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence, can improve the competitiveness of the sector. The objective of this study is to present a framework for the application of Artificial Intelligence in the operation and maintenance of wind farms. For this, theoretical and field research were carried out. The theoretical research complemented a traditional literature review and a systematic literature review. State-of-the-art was identified through the analysis of 51 articles obtained from the Periodicos Capes Platform. The research identified the equipment studied, data, methods and metrics adopted in the application of AI. The field research was carried out by applying the framework to a wind farm, simulating an application of condition monitoring for bearings through the modelling of its temperature using SCADA data. Three neural networks models were tested: Feedforward Neural Network, Autoregressive Neural Network and Long Short- Term Memory (LSTM). The LSTM model presented the best performance among the tested algorithms, even when compared to other studies, which shows that it can be used for this type of application. The proposed framework is composed by four macro-steps: Selecting application, data preparation, model development and evaluation of results.

This paper aims to propose a fair efficiency evaluation model for electric power transmission in Brazil. The attention to this segment is mainly due to its participation in the greater part of the costs involved to define the value of the electric energy tariff and to the great territorial extension that, together with the regional and climatic divergences, make the process delicate. The power transmission system in Brazil, under the responsibility of the National Electric Energy Agency (ANEEL), adopts the revenue-cap (RC) model for incentive-based regulation. For this, among other factors, an efficiency analysis is performed through Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The systematic search and analysis of previous studies revealed that DEA applications, and adjacent models, in the transmission segment is still low, and the network modelling is the most used in addressing the problem. Thus, the evaluation model that this research adopts is the two-stage DEA network, in which the set of variables is responsible for explaining operational efficiency (stage 1) and financial (stage 2). The calculation is based on the centralized multiplicative method, allied to the Nash bargain game. The game theory approach aims at eliminating possible flexibilities and uncertainties inherent in network models, guaranteeing the uniqueness of optimum efficiency per stage. A two-dimensional representation of the results is also performed, in order to graphically observe the behaviour of the DMUs in front of the efficiency frontiers. It was found that the main problem of the companies under analysis is in the financial field. The graphical analysis, together with the performance indexes obtained, allows the transmitters to establish tactical guidelines that benefit them, as well as the regulatory agency and, consequently, the consumer society in general.

The shrimp farming business holds a significant amount of machines assist all stages of shrimp production, therefore their proper operation is essential to the final product’s quality. These assets need to be maintained periodically due to natural wear or human interference problems. With the purpose to structure the necessary plans to manage the maintenance processes, the need to create a department such as Maintenance Planning and Control (MPC) surfaces. It represents a door to solve problems regarding operational and managerial difficulties encountered. Consequently, the research aims to analyze the implementation of the MPC in a company in the shrimp farming business in the Brazilian State of Rio Grande do Norte, where, with the implementation, it is intended to supply input for the company to develop and improve its management culture in the area. The study is categorized as an action research as it involves direct actions from the researcher, it is an applied research, and its objectives are descriptive and exploratory. The application methodology supplies directions to a good MPC implementation, where the direct relationship between researcher and company provides better familiarity and mutual help. The utilization of existent practices in the maintenance macro process and management and quality tools provides the needed direction to comply with previously established goals. Results can be perceived, such as a better standardization management, team structuring and reshaping, equipment identification and tracking, routines management, yearly planning, visible management and creation and implementation of indicators. From the implementation of the MPC sector, the studied company could prove how the maintenance department was unsatisfactory and needed structural and management improvement, hence, the performance monitoring through the answers obtained by the indicators and by the daily perception of corrective measures can be highlighted

Statistical quality control is one of the most important knowledge fronts of quality engineering. Its main objective is the systematic reduction of the variability in the characteristics of the product or process. One of the ways to analyze these characteristics is through the control charts, which allows the monitoring of the process. However, some assumptions are necessary for its use, as is the independence between observations. However, in practice, many processes do not fulfill this assumption and end up generating an auto-correlated process. This autocorrelation, if not noticed, can generate an increase in alarm numbers, thus stopping the process several times and leading to an increase in operating costs. Standard control charts, in general, do not involve the calculation of autocorrelation. An ideal graph to monitor small process shifts and even some autocorrelation processes is the exponentially weighted moving average, or simply EWMA. It is also desirable to use a template that allows monitoring, data series, or process, regardless of whether such data is presented linearly or non-linearly. A model that presents itself as an alternative to this situation is Transition Distribution and Gaussian Mixture, GMTD. The objective of this work is to combine the advantages of the EWMA control chart with the GMTD model and compare it with the adjustments found in the academic literature to deal with autocorrelation. Such a comparison will be made by the performance of such graphs, the most usual measure for the comparison of control chart performance is through the mean sequence length, ARL. The data used in the comparison of performance are derived from computational simulation, generated in the R software. At the end of this step, conclusions were drawn which showed the best of the graphs to deal with some autocorrelation scenarios. An alternative to using real databases is also suggested at the end of the paper.

Children are among the segments of the population most affected by disasters. Many of the elementary schools in the city of Natal-RN, Brazil, are located in risk areas that concentrate a large number of children under fifteen. However, these schools can play a decisive role in developing and sharpening children's perceptions of risk and promoting the development of safe and resilient attitudes and skills in the face of possible risks and disasters, through educational and training activities. This research was held in schools of the municipal and state public network of the elementary school of the city of Natal/RN, in which the perception of disaster risks of the students (children) was analyzed in three main stages. The first consisted of holding workshops with Focal Groups (FGs) formed by students of the 5th year of elementary school  of a state public school located in the neighborhood of Mãe Luíza, Natal/RN, in order to develop and validate the survey (second stage of the investigation). In the School of Mãe Luíza - SML (fictitious name given to the researched school) four workshops were held, with an approximate duration of an hour and a half each, in which they participated 23 students from the 5th grade “A” and “B” of the school. Each workshop was composed of a FG, constituted of three to eight students, with a range of age between 9 and 14. In the workshops, oriented by motivating themes, the students were invited to talk about their perceptions of disaster risks and preparedness for the confrontation of risks and disasters, the workshops were recorded and, later, the words of the students were analyzed. The second stage of the research consisted of conducting a survey, which was prepared based on the results of the previous stage. Stratified sampling was used for the selection of the surveyed schools, based on the degree of socio-environmental vulnerability of the areas that compose the municipality, which varies from very high to very low. The present investigation was applied only in the areas of very high and high socio-environmental vulnerability, which add 26 of the 60 public municipal schools of Natal city, where there is the 5th year of the elementary school. For the calculation of the sample size, as well Like the random selection of the schools, statistical software R was used, generating a sample of size n = 11 schools (five schools being located in areas of very high vulnerability and six located in areas of high vulnerability). The questionnaires were applied to all the students present in the classroom in the days previously combined for the realization of the research, n = 400 students (being n = 191 of the female sex in = 209 of the male sex, with age range included between 9 and 15). The third stage of the investigation refers to the realization of a case study, which consisted in the realization of a simulated evacuation exercise of the SML, aimed at the entire academic community of the afternoon shift of the school. Prior to the simulation, there was a first aid workshop and three evacuation preparation practices (P1, P2 and P3) for the simulated exercise, constituted by a fire scenario. At the beginning of the P1, P2, and P3 practices, surveys were applied for all the students present, but only the ones applied to the students of the 5th grade were analyzed. In the exercise simulated 47 students (23 students of the 5th grade, 13 students of the 4th year and 11 students from the More Education program), 5 teachers and 7 employees, totaling a total of 59 participants. The first aid workshop, the preparation practices and the simulated evacuation exercise itself were duly recorded. After the performance of the simulation, a debriefing was carried out with the participants to evaluate it and self-evaluate. The same questionnaires applied before the practice of evacuation were again applied to the students of the 5th year of the SML. The results of the survey show that the notion of the term disaster, understood by the students surveyed, is varied and wide. However, analyzing the answers, the two most perceived situations as disasters by the students are flood (n = 151) and fire (n = 69), whose main causes attributed by them are, respectively, rain (n = 301) and playing with fire (n = 227). Flood (n = 180), fire (n = 177) and violence (n = 105) are perceived as the most likely situations to occur in the schools in which they study or in their surroundings. 83% recognize the importance of learning about when a disaster may occur. For the questions that refer to the behaviors/attitudes that should be adopted in emergent situations such as fire, flood and collapse, the answer referring to "going out as quickly as possible" was quite significant and presented, respectively, the following percentages: 31%, 30% and 36%. "Help young children out" corresponded to 21%, 33% and 33% of responses, respectively. In the debriefing performed immediately after the simulation, the students reported that the smoke produced in the simulated exercise had frightened them, due to realism. Encouraged by the simulation coordinator to reflect on it, the students negatively recognized the lack of attitude of all of them to help the students who had fallen during the evacuation and, positively, the behavior of the students who walked down when going through the smoke and the reduced time taken to evacuate the school during the simulated exercise, confronting with the time consumed in the previous practices. Also pointed as positive, for the behavior adopted during the evacuation of the simulated exercise, the received instruction and the practices previously experienced. Before the simulation, 61% of the students (n = 14) stated that, in a fire, they would leave the school, running to the street, and 39% of the students (n = 9) answered that they did not know how to evacuate the school. After the simulation, 100% (n = 23) of the students responded that they felt prepared to evacuate the school. It can be observed that the development of educational and informative actions and practices in schools, related to the preparation, prevention and mitigation of disasters, contribute to sharpen the perception of risks and disasters, and, consequently, develop safe and resilient attitudes and abilities of children. It is hoped that this research can sensitize authorities and agents of the Ministry of Education, the Civil Protection and Defense body and members of the school communities of Fundamental Education I - mainly those located in risk areas - about the importance of continuous preparation of children for the confrontation of risks and disasters in said schools.

The general objective of this dissertation is to propose guidelines for the implementation of an integrated solid waste management and civil protection and defense management model. It is observed  that the occurrence, more and more frequent, of events of the nature (storms, floods, landslides, floods, floods, etc.) in urban centers has been aggravated by global climate change, causing disruption, material loss and human damage to vulnerable populations. The problem of human occupations in areas of risk associated with fragile urban governance in solving them has made populations more vulnerable to risks and disasters. One aspect of great importance, little discussed in science and in the context of global disaster risk reduction policies and actions, concerns the management of waste or solid waste. At the national level, national policies on solid waste and protection and civil defense, although having points of convergence, were conceived separately, and this dissociation is reflected in practice, increasing the population's vulnerability to risks and disasters. This dissertation was developed adopting the Participatory Ergonomics method and a case study carried out in the district of Mãe Luiza, Natal / RN, covering the following aspects: the way of discarding the garbage by the population, the mapping of garbage disposal points by the population, the mapping of garbage accumulation points due to the action of rain, wind, etc., the analysis of the process of garbage collection by the official municipal system, the identification of the associated constraints with the collection process, the analysis of the cleaning of the drainage system and the analysis of the integration of the actions of the municipal systems of disaster risk management and solid waste management. For that, systematic observations were made in said neighborhood, analysis of videos related to the disaster that occurred in the neighborhood in 2014, interviews with the residents displaced by the same disaster and with the agents and managers of the municipal bodies of protection and civil defense and urban cleaning. The diagnosis showed that: some of the population discards garbage in places and in an inappropriate way; the official collection system does not serve equally all areas of the neighborhood, because some are not accessible to the compactor truck, truck with stationary bucket and wheelbarrow; garbage disposed of improperly or that is delayed collecting is dragged to regions (points) of lower slope of relief and storm drain, where they accumulate, causing obstruction of storm drains and flooding, and for slopes downstream from the point where it was originally discarded, generating mechanical pressure in the soil and contributing to the mass movement, due to the rains; due to the volume of garbage produced by the neighborhood, the characteristics of rugged relief and narrow access roads, the collection occurs in three different ways in the neighborhood (compactor truck, truck with stationary bucket and wheelbarrow) and with daily frequency. The reports showed that the interviewees are aware of the relationship between bad waste disposal and the occurrence of disasters, but some of them believe that there was no contribution of garbage to the occurrence of such disaster. It was also identified that communication and cooperation between municipal civil protection and defense and urban cleaning agencies only occurs in situations of imminent disasters or during the response phase. Only recently, with the ongoing process of elaboration of the Municipal Contingency Plan to deal with disasters, that the urban cleaning agent was called by the civil protection and defense agency to contribute to the elaboration and assumption of the responsibilities set forth in the Plan, in the event of disasters. It was verified, at the time, that the municipal company only has tractors and trucks bucket, without prior notice, until the 15 hours of the day. In addition, there was no joint and coordinated planning and action between the two agencies. It was also verified the overlap of competencies of the agencies, regarding the removal of the trash, weeding of gutters and cleaning storm drains and drainage pipes. It is recommended that, in order to reduce the risk of disasters caused by the discards of urban waste in the public places, it is recommended that integrated actions be promoted between municipal protection and civil defense and urban cleaning agencies throughout the rich disaster management cycle. (prevention, mitigation, preparation, response and recovery), giving rise to actions to promote education and permanent socio-environmental culture of environmental preservation and prevention of risks and disasters, the involvement of the population in decision-making and actions, the use of information and communication technologies to aid in the management of disaster risks, and the review of the competencies of municipal agencies, so as to concentrate the cleaning of drainage devices.

This dissertation aimed to analyze the Outdoor´s Gym (OG) in public spaces, which were implanted in Brazil, with the purpose of providing the population with the practice of physical activity, in order to minimize morbidity and mortality rates, as part of a public health policy. This study aims to classify the users and the physical activities performed by them in the OG`s, analyze the existing physical activity programs, analyze the physical practices performed by the users and the risks of associated with musculoskeletal injuries and evaluate the determinants of the adopted management system in the OG, that can interfere with the quality of the practices of the physical activities and, consequently, in the generation of risks of injury in the users. In order to do so, a mapping of the OGs existing in the town of Parnamirim/RN, Brazil, was carried out, followed by a case study, in which the Ergonomic Work Analysis (AET) method was adopted and the observational and interactive relevant techniques. The case study was carried out in the OG of Monsenhor Walfredo Gurgel park located in the same town. The subject population of the study is composed by 41 practitioners of AAL physical activity, which 70.7% are women. The occurrence of musculoskeletal injuries was reported by 9.8% of ALL users. It was also observed that the physical activities performed by the individuals in the most used equipment, arriving at the following data: presence of pain in 85.3% of the users; physical activity with a frequency of 4 to 7 times per week, by 73.1% of users; 48.8% of the subject remained in the park for up to 60 min per day; 82.9% attended the ALL for more than 2 years; and 87.7% of users walk up to 3 km to reach the park and 82.9% of the user reaches the park walking. It was observed, in different contexts of use in the ALL physical activity equipment, the existence of different modes of use adopted by users when performing the physical activity, such as the biomechanics used in the execution of the exercise, in certain cases, was wrong and not recommended, forcing musculoskeletal injuries. This scenario is even more favored, among other factors, when it is verified that the presence of multidisciplinary team of professionals to assist and guide users is not available , 100% of the AAL users used the equipment without specialized professional supervision, 100% carried out the physical activities without a specific program and the possibility of adjusting the equipment to the user anthropometry is not existing, since 100% of the AAL equipment does not have adjusting settings. In general, the AAL equipment and physical space do not meet the requirements of comfort, safety and accessibility. In order to minimize the risk of musculoskeletal injury among users of AAL, it is recommended to: create and consolidate a public physical activity program for AAL users that takes into account the singularities of each one, the user’s physical activity program, and which were elaborated by their respective professionals, and orient them when performing the physical activity; the creation of multidisciplinary teams of professionals to assist and guide users; the procurement steps to buy the equipment, which prioritize the needs of the population, based on epidemiological studies, safety, comfort, ergonomic, accessibility, durability and equipment regulation criteria; the creation of a preventive and corrective maintenance plan for the equipment; the elaboration and execution of AAL projects associated with the park those project should provide safety, comfort, well-being and beauty to the population, in order to favor physical activity in AALs; the implementation of a program of health and quality of life for the town`s population, that contemplates the program of physical activity in AALs.

Family farming is the type of agricultural production with the largest number of rural establishments in Brazil and accounts for 70% of the food that comes to the table of the Brazilian family. The growing concern with the conservation of natural resources, food sovereignty, the health of farmers and consumers and the quality of life of the population promotes a search for agroecological and / or organic production. Among the problems faced by family farmers are difficulties in the management of production and their business, and partly because of the lack of accurate information on inputs, process losses, sales and real profit obtained. Furthermore, the generation of farmers has low levels of education, does not have management training or training in the use of information technology. In this sense, the objective of this work is to apply a set of performance indicators for family agriculture that is useful and easy to use, in order to assist farmers in controlling production, productivity, sustainability, sales and profit, so that they can accomplish the necessary decisions, aiming at the continuous improvement of this activity. For this, a bibliographical research was performed on performance indicators in the technical and scientific literature for family agriculture. Next, the participatory method of the Ergonomic Work Analysis - AET was used to apply the performance indicators in family farms of the "Zé Maria do Tomé Camp" in Limoeiro do Norte - CE, through the following steps : a) an exploratory study of the place chosen to carry out the study, with the purpose of knowing the sociodemographic and economic characteristics, the overall production operation, the commercialization of the products and the requirements of the activity in focus that the farmers b) presentation to family farmers of a set of indicators obtained from the bibliographical research to select the indicators of interest that could be used in their family farms, c) request to the family farmers, so that other possible indicators of interest that, by chance , were not included in the list; d) adaptation of AGROINDEX - system of performance indicators for family agriculture -, considering the indicators pointed out by the actors consulted; e) application, in 3 family farming properties of said Camp, of the system of performance indicators of family farming resulting from the previous stages. The following results were obtained regarding the Zé Maria do Tomé Camp: the characterization of the vegetal and animal production; the way in which the products are marketed; the strategies of water management, soil, seeds and agroecological techniques; characterization of the workforce; indicators on planted area, vegetal and animal production, vegetal and animal commercialization, pluviometry, fertilization and irrigation. Therefore that the system of performance indicators that has been applied is easy to use and useful and constitutes a tool that produces an important source of information, which assists in monitoring production, decision-making and production management family farming.

This dissertation is about the joint application of Lean Thinking and Six Sigma: Lean Six Sigma. Many services have high prices because they are slow, requests several resources, and often require rework to be delivered as the desired quality. The research aims to propose a framework for Lean Six Sigma application in outsourced services with labor residing inside Brazilian Federal Judiciary. To do this, we sought to identify the most appropriate tools for each stage of DMAIC cycle, applied to the service in focus type. This action research is exploratory and characterized by a quantitative and qualitative approach, based on an exploratory application in Federal Justice in Rio Grande do Norte Management Nucleus. For this purpose, we counted on topped-up roadmap, informal interviews, lean six sigma tools and in order to achieve the goal, belt system qualified supporters were incorporated. As results, this dissertation brought water reduction, temporal average and variability main cleaning process reduction, besides eliminating paper towels using and indicating powerful financial savings with Lean Six Sigma application inside Brazilian Federal Judiciary, as well as methodology benefits for Federal Justice in Rio Grande do Norte Management Nucleus.

The aspirations for sustainability progressively guide companies to the construction of strategies that help to increase a continuously clean production, that is, the creation of products, processes and services with reduced use of resources and, as a consequence, less environmental impact. It also adds up to market demand, increasingly demanding and concerned with environmental issues. In the mining sector, practices aimed at the efficient use of resources are of paramount importance to sustained development, mainly due to the issues related to the extraction of natural goods, inherent to the activity. The same importance for environmentally appropriate measures concerns kaolin enterprises, because the exploitation produces a high percentage of waste, whose inadequate disposal causes several negative impacts on the mining and neighboring areas. Therefore, this research aims to analyze the practices of Cleaner Production (CP) in the companies of extraction and processing of kaolin in Rio Grande do Norte. To do so, a descriptive and inductive study of the mineral activity was carried out in three companies operating in the State through on-site visits, with annotation subsidies, photographic records, interviews and structured questionnaires, based on a literature review. The results showed that, despite the limitations imposed by the companies participating in the research regarding the provision of detailed data on the measures and plans adopted for waste management, mainly because they are information that compromise the environmental image of the enterprises studied, the measures aimed at the sustainable production proposed by the P + L is a challenge for the segment in the State, considering characteristics intrinsic to the process of obtaining kaolin benefited. As consequence, finally, suggestions for future work are presented.

In the early 2000s, due to the lack of rainfall in hydroelectric power generation sites in Brazil, the need for the search for new sources of energy arose. The Incentive Program for Alternative Energy Sources (PROINFA) was created in mid-2002, bringing significant investments in alternative sources of energy - especially renewables - with a view to diversifying the Brazilian energy matrix and, at the same time, contribute to reducing the effects of global warming. In the face of its abundant natural resources, the use of the Brazilian wind potential is accelerated. It was observed that a large part of the wind turbine manufacturers and other components of the wind farms installed in Brazil come from countries with different climatic conditions and culture of wind farms (from component manufacturing / power generation to operation and maintenance) already mature By the end of 2018, Brazil had 601 installed wind farms, much of it in operation since 2010. Exploratory studies indicate that failures in these wind farms have increased, reducing the availability of electricity generation. This dissertation aims to propose guidelines and good practices for the management of the operation and maintenance of wind farms in Brazil. The research method can be characterized as a predominantly exploratory research, of applied nature and inductive character, with a predominantly qualitative approach. Field research included the study of cases in ten wind farms. The research procedure included three steps. In the first stage, a traditional bibliographic review was performed on the structure of a wind farm, as well as its operation and about maintenance management, involving types of maintenance, characteristics and applications, as well as maintenance management strategies and tools to aid analysis of failures and decision making; and a systematic bibliographic review regarding the operation and maintenance of wind power plants. The second stage covered the case study. The third step consisted of the analysis of data already treated using tools to aid in the analysis of failures. As a result of the dissertation, we present the proposal of guidelines and good practices for the operation and maintenance of wind farms, grouped in the following components: i) wind turbine, ii) medium voltage circuit, iii) elevating substation, and iv) others.

The present work endeavours to analyse the management of solid waste of health services at the hospitals in Natal/RN, from the collection throughout the final disposal. SWHS are waste from all health service providers, such as hospitals, laboratories, diagnostic and treatment services, veterinary clinics, legal medicine institutes, etc. Correct management of SWHS means not only controlling and reducing the risks, but also reducing the amount of waste from the point of origin, which would also increase the quality and efficiency of the health services as a whole. The general objective of this research is to analyse the management of solid waste of health services at hospitals in Natal/RN. The method employed to reach its goal is a quantitative survey with all the members of the research universe, running a census survey at the public and private hospitals in Natal/RN.

Among the 24 existing hospitals in the city of Natal, 22 were surveyed, and even thought most were very well evaluated, some need to improve in awareness. In addition, the higher education responsible for solid waste management in health services, hospital parners for waste disposal and companies responsible for final disposal were evaluated.

A considerable number of wind farms with low implementation feasibility can show a low maturity of the sector, represented by the lack of previous knowledge about the risks inherent to wind projects, as well as the inability to eliminate or even mitigate such risks. Compared to other stages of a wind farm project, implementation is critical to the viability of the project, because: this is where the most diverse activities occur, the variety of uncertainties is maximum, the number of stakeholders involved is maximum, the period for start is short (2-3 years) and imposes severe penalties if not met and the investment in the project at this stage is maximum. Therefore, the lack of knowledge about risks and / or the inability to manage them correctly, especially in the implementation stage, can directly affect the technical and economic viability of these projects. The objective of the study is to propose a Risk Analytical Structure in the wind farm implementation stage by identifying the existing risks in the projects. The research method can be characterized as descriptive research, applied, inductive, with a qualitative approach. The theoretical research contemplated the systematization of the literature about risk identification tools and risk categorization. The field research included case studies with information on unsuccessful projects and, with the organizations: i) construction company; ii) electric construction company; iii) company that owns the wind farms and; iv) environmental consulting firm specializing in the wind sector. As a result, is present a specific risk analytical framework for the implementation of wind farm projects.

Organizations, communities and cities deal with everyday situations, not routine, unpredictable and with varying degrees of complexity, but often these socio-technical systems do not know their necessary skills and / or have not sufficiently developed them to deal with such situations in a resilient way. To know their resilience, these systems are now better handle these situations. So how can a sociotechnical system assess its resilience? It is important that sociotechnical systems, especially those dealing with uncertainties and unforeseen circumstances, such as those dealing with disaster risks, can continually assess their resilience, to be able to know their deficiencies and real capabilities, and thus make good decisions and act. The main objective of this work was to develop and make available a system of indicators to evaluate the resilience in relation to disaster risk management of protection and civil defense agencies in Brazil. For this, a methodology was developed that has three phases, which were called modeling. The modeling I corresponded to the stages of exploratory research and systematization through literature review, selection and classification of the indicators found, construction of the data collection instrument, evaluation of indicators by researchers in the area and revision of the data collection instrument. Modeling II was named multi professional validation.  This phase involved the evaluation of the indicators by managers and people in key positions in protection and civil defense and had as objective to select the indicators with the highest degree of use and importance according to the perception of the respondents and to define the final indicators for the system. The modeling III corresponded to the situated validation of the system of indicators resulting from the modeling II through case studies with protection and civil defense agencies in Brazil. The diagnosis of resilience made possible for the protection and civil defense agencies evaluated, to know their weaknesses and strengths of resilience. The continuous use of the system of indicators by these agencies will allow the monitoring of their resilience and that these institutions will reformulate and reorient policies, strategies of action, decisions and actions, in order to make the city where they act most resilient. 

The balance between economic growth and a low carbon economy has become a target to develop a sustainable society, especially in emerging countries. The objective of this work is to identify the main factors that contribute to the increase of CO2 emissions in OECD and BRICS member countries and, how the emerging countries are in this context, since they have the greatest challenge of maintaining economic growth and the industrialization of its economy in line with the reduction of environmental impacts. The study was applied in a universe of 40 countries, among developed and emerging, with a longitudinal cut between 2000 and 2014. In the data analysis, the multiple linear regression analysis technique was used. The dependent variable was the emission of CO2 and as independent variables: PIB, IDH, population, forest area, territory, consumption of electricity, production of energy from renewable energy, and energy use. The analysis was divided into three groups of countries whose results showed that, in group one, the countries Canada, Australia and the United States were the outliers in the CO2 emission per hab/km², with energy use being the main contribution factor in the emissions. In group two, no variables were considered significant. In group three, the significant factors in the carbon emission contribution equation were energy use and electric energy consumption. In this group, Russia was considered the outlier, being the country with the highest CO2 emission per hab/km² and whose main contribution factors were PIB, energy use, forest area and IDH. Finally, the results presented a panorama of the three groups of countries correlated with the covariates of the research, which made it possible to identify China as the largest emitter of CO2 per hab/km². As for the relationship between developed countries that grew economically during the period analyzed, it was observed that there was not necessarily an increase in carbon emissions. The covariables use of energy and use of electric energy, when coupled with the economic growth of emerging countries, were the most significant in the research. The results obtained varied from one group of countries to the other, with their outliers analyzed in this work.

The present study aimed at analyzing the relationship between determining factors for masters and doctoral production engineering student satisfaction in Brazil. A national and international bibliographic survey was conducted to enable construction of a theoretical framework based on a discussion of satisfaction, loyalty, satisfaction levels, and graduate teaching. The structural model selected was the European Customer Satisfaction Index – ECSI, which analyzed the following dimensions: Image, Expectations, Perceived Value, Perceived Quality, Overall Satisfaction and Loyalty. To analyze the primary research objective, 11 study hypotheses were established, each representing the relationship of one of the student satisfaction factors. With respect to the methodological aspects, this is a descriptive cross-sectional study with a quantitative approach. Data were collected nationwide using a 34-item ECSI questionnaire applied in 35 production engineering graduate programs. A total of 588 responses were obtained and subjected to exploratory factorial analysis and structural equation modeling, applying IBM® SPSS® statistics 21.0 and IBM® SPSS® Amos 18.0 software. The study met all statistical criteria for its validation, in addition to exhibiting a moderate and satisfactory adjustment index. After a number of adaptations, the ECSI was suitable for measuring the satisfaction of graduate students, maintaining all the constructs contained in the original model. The hypothesis test confirmed seven of the 11 hypotheses proposed; H3 and H4, which dealt with the relationship between the concept of image and satisfaction and between image and loyalty, respectively, were rejected for being non-significant. Likewise, the results showed the non-confirmation of hypothesis H7, the influence of perceived quality on perceived value and H9, the influence of perceived quality on loyalty. Moreover, when the CAPES quality variables were integrated to the model, it demonstrated statistical stability; however, negative correlations indicate dissociation between CAPES assessment and student satisfaction. Finally, the results suggest a strong relationship between student expectations and satisfaction. This paper was divided into four parts: introduction, literature revision, methodological procedures, concluding with analyses and discussion of results, final considerations and references

The objective of this study is to evaluate the factors affecting the loyalty of Brazilian online hotel reservation users. A total of 227 suitable answers for the study were collected from a previous contact database, in all the 5 macro-regions of Brazil. Subsequently, the structural equation modeling (SEM - PLS) was used to analyze the data found. The results show that the tested model presented a good statistical adequacy, besides evidencing the propensity of the Brazilians to prioritize satisfaction in the decision to reuse an online booking platform, and navigation functionality was presented as the main catalyst for this feeling. These results show the need for the hotel industry to develop virtual platforms that foster the satisfaction of its users and to develop a loyal relationship. The originality of this study focuses on the use of SEM-PLS to understand how to catalyze loyalty among Brazilian online booking tools users.

The Distance learning model displayed significant growth in the last years and, consequently, the current circumstances are favorable for the dissemination of courses and platforms. As such, this moment demands refinement of the mechanisms of course quality evaluation, and intuitive platforms of E-learning. In this scenario, AVASUS – Ambiente Virtual de Aprendizagem do Sistema Único de Saúde [Virtual Learning Environment of the Brazilian Unified Health System] - aims to improve the qualification of professionals and students, management and assistance in the Unified Health System (SUS), promoting integrated and accessible knowledge in healthcare education. The objective of this research is to develop a model for the evaluation and monitoring of processes in the Virtual Environments of Learning (AVA), and to implement it in AVASUS. Thus, the following steps were taken: mapping of the process from content creation to the insertion of AVASUS courses, definition of the indicators for each step of the process, preparation and implementation of a action plan, verification of the impacts of the action plan and development of the model for evaluation and monitoring of processes. The execution of this research generated positive impacts, such as: optimization of processes of VLE, improvements in the quality control of VLE, improvements in student learning, as well as a reduction of the academic gap about Operations Management in the Distance Learning in the literature.

The Lean philosophy born in the automotive industry in the 1940s has been gaining ground in other areas such as goods and services. Its initial application in the health care can be seen from 2002, but still little is said about its specific implantation for the surgical center. Facing this gap, this study aims to present a model for implanting lean philosophy in the surgical center of a private hospital in   . This study aims to propose a model for implantation of the Lean Philosophy in the Surgical Center of a private hospital in Rio Grande do Norte. The study is characterized as descriptive with qualitative and quantitative methods, as far as the planning of the research, we opted for bibliographical research and case study. The research, to be developed, aims to analyze the organizational environment of a surgical center of a private hospital in Rio Grande do Norte. In order to do so, the current scenario of the processes of the sector will be evaluated, mapped in order to generate value for the client as well as eliminate the waste. As a result, the study employs Lean and Service Design methodologies and tools for a better understanding, systematization and improvement of the Surgical Center activities, from the point of view of the consumer, minimizing throughput time. This is achieved by reconfiguring processes so that patients' flow in the system improves, removing activities that do not add value to the process. Lean can help solve these problems. This study shows that, even as it takes its first steps, the Lean can be very powerful in the health services sector

The aim of the present dissertation is to elaborate guidelines for the joint optimization in the practice of parathetism, that is, to contribute to the formulation of strategies to prevent musculoskeletal injuries and to improve the performance of paratlete paratricians in the paratlete of dart and disc launches. Paralympic sport has great potential, but it has been marked by high prevalence and incidence of injuries, which can compromise athletes' health and performance. A long and complex chain of factors interact in this phenomenon, and may promote imbalance in the relationship between the athlete's ability to dissipate, generate and transfer mechanical energy and the amount of stress imposed on the musculoskeletal system during the performance of sports activities. This study aims to understand these factors and their relation to the athletics modality of launches, for individuals with spinal cord injury, of the functional class F55. The research had as methodological approach the Ergonomic Analysis of the Work. Interaction and observation techniques, conversational action scripts, verbalizations, photographic records and videos were used. The study of the practice of dart and disc launches has evidenced the adoption of different operative modes by the paratlete in the contexts of training and competition, some of which are pathogenic, in terms of RSI / DORT, and inhibitors of better yields. The operative modes are related to aspects of work organization (planning, monitoring, cadence, goals, etc.) of training, with the technology (launching chair, implement) used in the training and with the characteristics of the paratlete (functional class etc). There was a lack of systematized breaks during the training sessions and the minimum requirement by the technical team to improve the movement of the implements executed by the paratroopers during the training, the execution of training outside the prescribed periodization of the group, lack of individual monitoring of the athletes, by the technical team, from the beginning of the practice to the completion of training cycles and the absence of use of RSI / DORT prevention monitoring instruments, as well as of income. Other items were also evidenced, such as the use of craft chairs, without adequately taking into account the anthropometric data of paratlete, their characteristics, their functional class, their practice and actual use - activity itself - nor the comfort, safety, portability and modularity criteria. All these associated factors contribute to the development and / or aggravation of RSI / DTS in the dart and disc throwing players, as well as in their performance, in their entirety. At the end of this research it was possible to understand the modality studied, within its peculiarities and contexts, thus enabling the elaboration of recommendations for improvement to sports practice, in the perspective of the joint optimization between RSI / DORT prevention and sport performance improvement. It is recommended, therefore, to carry out an anthropometric study of the paratlete, for the development of launching chairs, the production of launching chairs for the training and competition contexts, considering safety, comfort, performance, functional class and modality criteria the launch of a formal break at each launch during the performance of the training, a systematic correction of the movements of the athletes, by the technical team, among others.

Disasters have occurred more frequently and caused material losses of great magnitude and damage to populations from various locations around the world. This fact makes recurrent the discussion about the need to adopt measures and resources that help in the dissemination of information of occurrence of risks and disasters, in order to prevent or reduce the severity of losses and damages caused. Organizations such as the UN promote the discussion on the subject and establish guidelines and policies that can guide the development of Early Warning Systems around the world. The main Brazilian legislation on Civil Defense and Protection has some aspects of the Disaster Risk Reduction policy, however, it presents little approach on warning systems. This research has as aim main to analyze the Municipal Warning System of the Natal city and to propose improvements and / or solutions by means of survey of the information of the formal system and guiding directives and policies. To understand the dynamics of the functioning of the municipal disaster warning system, conversation scripts were applied to the individuals from institutions and bodies, direct and indirect, of the chain of emission of the disaster alert: the municipal and state organs of Protection and Defense Civil, Fire Department, Integrated Center for Public Security Operations (CIOSP) and Situation Room. Also were analyzed videos produced by the students of the Extension and Research Group in Ergonomics-GREPE, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, which contained records of a series of meetings attended by members of the district of Mãe Luíza, Natal-RN, Brazil , affected by the disaster that occurred in this community in June 2014, when it was hit by heavy rains that caused landslides, knocked down and damaged several homes and disarmed and displaced several families. These videos were recorded after the disaster in 2014, and their analyzes were intended to verify the functioning of the warning system at the time of the disaster and the participation and performance of the community and the municipal Civil Protection and Defense Agency. The city of Natal has several areas at risk of disasters and the community of Mãe Luiza is one of the areas of risk of disasters disquieting due to its socio-environmental vulnerability. Today, the community is susceptible to other events of this nature, as well as other communities in the city of Natal. The neighborhood of Mãe Luíza reports’ showed that the warning system in 2014 reached few people and that ignorance of the severity of the risks they were exposed was decisive for not to evacuate when alerted. It was also verified that the municipal agents of Protection and Civil Defense did not have, at the time, resources for the mass alert issuance. The alert was spread "face to face", the agents went from house to house alerting the people the day before the crater rupture in Guanabara street, one of the main neighborhood. The alarm was also issued in the same way, when the disaster was triggered. The warning system has a decentralized and poorly collaborative working dynamics, since the entire chain is composed of institutions and bodies with little proximity. The Protection and Civil Defense municipal agents reports' showed that the alert is still made "face to face" and that the population is not fully aware of the risks of disasters to which it is exposed. It should be noted that the current disaster warning system does not meet international recommendations, standards and guidelines. It is recommended, for a more efficient warning system, the approximation of the organs that integrate the chain of the warning system, investments in technology for the issuance of the alert, education projects in disaster risk reduction with communities, training of the agents Protection and Civil Defense and especially the preparation of the Municipal Contingency Plan Natal city.

Measuring energy resources has a great strategic importance for any country. Factors include the social and economic growth, impacts of new technologies, environmental factors, strategic decisions on imports and exports of energy resources, among others. It is very difficult to plan cities and industrial development, in the long term, without carrying studies on energy resources and current and future demands. About 30 years ago Brazil begun to produce the National Energy Balance (BEN), a document that maps information such as primary and secondary sources, consumption by major sectors, losses, transformation centers, etc. However, due to the difficulty of obtaining data and its processing, much of the presented information are estimated. Currently the responsibility of BEN is with the EPE - Empresa de Pesquisas Energéticas, under the Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME). Some states like São Paulo and Rio Grande do Sul produce annually energy balances. Others, such as Ceará and Rio Grande do Norte, have done it in the past. However, due to various factors, such as funding, its publication had been discontinued. This dissertation advocates the importance of each Brazilian states to maintain and update energy data and integrate them into the EPE in a hierarchical structure, in a bottom-up strategy, which could allow results closer to reality. However, many factors had limited the achievement of such studies, including: Sensitization of Decision Areas; Elements of Regional Articulation; Channels of Incentive and Cooperation between States; Resource Sources (such as lack of trained personnel and budgets); Methodological, Conceptual and Criteria Unification; And Systematization of Data Collection. For this, a questionnaire was prepared and distributed to those responsible for the production of BEEs. The analysis will make it possible to characterize the positive points and experiences of the states that produce balance sheets regularly and to point out the deficiencies and needs of attention to the states that, due to some factors, no longer generates the regional energy data reports. The second part of the research involves a structural and content analysis of BEEs in relation to BEN. Due to the discontinuity of balance sheet generation, in some states, we use information from the last available BEE. The objective is to analyze possible future integration (bottom-up, i.e. bottom-up, from specific to general), from state balance sheets to the national balance sheet.

The objective of this work is to propose a model to evaluate the water supply system of the Potiguar municipalities, which are served by the Companhia de Águas e Esgotos do Rio Grande do Norte (CAERN), in the operational management of water resources in drought years (2010-2015) by means of a dynamic modeling. The scenario of unsustainability observed in water reserves is a result of the lack of awareness and unrestrained use of water resources. Population growth and climate change further aggravate this scenario. The negative effects of the lack of water are present throughout the national territory, especially in the semi-arid region, where the impacts are observed more sharply. Thus, the Dynamic Data Envelopment Analysis model will be used to evaluate the context presented during a 5 year time window. The sample includes 155 municipalities from all mesoregions of the state. The modeling adopted considers 1 input variable, 2 output variables and 1 carry-over to represent reality. The data needed to conduct this work were obtained through consultations with the National Information System on Sanitation. At the end of the work, it was possible to observe that the supply systems studied operate, for the most part, inefficiently. Only 6% of the municipalities obtained maximum scores in the overall analysis. Although the performance of the mesoregions is also not satisfactory, the municipalities of the central meso-region have obtained better results, especially in 2013. Finally, it was possible to verify the negative potential of water losses and how this variable compromises the sustainability of the current system of supply of the cities of the State.

Within an economic industrial context, the productive process has always been linked to consumerism to the present day. In the fish industry this is no different, the raw material is not used in its entirety, being a good part wasted, causing environmental and economic damage. It is known from data from other studies that approximately 20% of the raw material is edible meat, and what remains are residues such as viscera, heads, bones, skin and scales, are not used, and can be discarded incorrectly, and can cause serious environmental problems such as pollution of water resources, soil and air. Thus, it is necessary for fishing industries to adopt preventive techniques, such as Cleaner Production in the industrial sector, in production processes, in products and services, acting in the fish food industry as a way to increase the efficiency in the use of raw materials and not generation, minimization or recycling of waste. In this way, the main objective of this study was to identify, within the 3 levels of the Cleaner Production, the best use of the raw material in the industries of fish processing of the state of Rio Grande do Norte. Based on achieving this objective of the study, quantitative and qualitative surveys of multiple cases were carried out in three different fish industries of the state, using the CNTL implementation manual and the Cleaner Production guide as a guide: "Do It Yourself" of CEBDS, aiming to calculate mass and energy balances, to evaluate processes and products in the fish industries, object of the study. In addition, proposals for utilization for industrial waste generated for each industry were offered, addressing levels 1, 2 and 3 of Cleaner Production. As a result, in industry 1, there are three types of processing, with shrimp heading and shelling the most wasteful. On the other hand, industry 2 presented differentiation in the quantity of residues, being the fillet of fish, for all the processes executed in the industry, that in the percentage of loss of raw material is the greater; and industry 3 generates little residue when compared to the other two industries studied, but it is the one that least values the potential of the captured raw material. Conclusion that the present work, besides having increased scientific research, with the study and use of fish waste, which is still little studied, still proposed within the three levels of PML the minimization and the use of these residues, avoiding environmental degradation and fostered other forms of economy. The objective of the work was not to actually implement PML in the fishing industries, but to propose future work.

The growing concern of today’s society with environmental issues, in the face of disorderly growth and the increasing depletion of nature, has led to search for alternatives that may change established paradigms, where nature is still treated as an inexhaustible source and mere provider of resources. This concern has also a great significance for the important construction industry, which plays a prominent role in the economic life of any country, which is not different in Brazil, but which is also characterized for causing great environmental impacts. The present work aims to study this theme, which deals with the relationship between civil construction works, more specifically the public ones, and environmental preservation, based on the possibility of changes in its traditional mode of production, as it aims to propose guidelines for directing such works to sustainability. To achieve this work, a bibliographical, documentary and field research was carried out. For the development of the field research,  case study method was adopted, having as field of study the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN) and as subjects of research public agents (architects, engineers and legal adviser) and also representatives of construction companies, all responsible for the construction of civil works in UFRN, using semi-structured interviews conducted individually and in focus group meetings, followed by reflective dialogue. The results of the research indicated that, despite the great acceptance by the subjects of research in regarding the idea proposed in this work, the works carried out at UFRN cannot be considered as directed towards sustainability yet, due to the indication by the subjects about needs of institutionalization of this idea, greater capacity building of responsible teams and better adaptation to current regulations. Thus, as a result of this work, the guidelines for application of environmental requirements in public construction projects are presented, in order to direct them to sustainability, considering their planning and execution stages, as well as, for administrative measures applicable.

Brazil needs to improve its economic and innovative potential in the face of competitiveness in the world market. The advent of startups improves this performance, due to the ability of these companies to shape market changes, and generate innovations in the face of technological disruptions. Knowledge is the essence of the innovation process, but although these companies present innovation as a basis, they face barriers related to the knowledge management process, and this factor contributes to the high mortality rates diagnosed in the country. In view of this scenario, the objective of this research is to develop and validate a structural model that demonstrates the interrelationship of the key factors of knowledge management as determinants of the innovation capacity of Brazilian startups. In this way, we search for results that allow us to help the decision-making of these companies and their respective stakeholders. The theoretical basis is based on the discussion between the themes: Innovation, Knowledge Management, Startups and Modeling of Structural Equations. In developing the theoretical framework, we sought to analyze the currents of thought among the main authors of these themes in the Scopus and Web of Science databases. Regarding the methodological aspects, this study is characterized as a qualitative-quantitative research, of formalized objective with interrogation method and scope of case study. The collection of data will be national, and will be carried out through a survey applied with the startups registered in the ABStartups database. The analysis of the data will be developed using Structural Equation Modeling, this method was chosen because it is appropriate for the global analysis of a model, because a confirmatory analysis is generated that allows the representation of non observable concepts, verifying possible errors of During the process. As expected results, we seek to achieve a structural model that can serve as a basis for a plan of action to be developed by startups, so that they improve their knowledge management processes and improve their innovation capabilities. The increase in the development of innovations will be a positive result for the entire society, promoting quality of life for the population and economic development for the country.

Renewable energy sources have gained relevance because of its wide social acceptance and ability to provide sustainable energy to meet the world's electricity demand. Therefore, it is necessary to develop the sector for new materials and forms applications to be searched in order to provide greater efficiency of the materials used, as well as explaining the range of application options for this feature. It is in this perspective that the open innovation emerges as a factor that helps in the process of generating ideas that provide the development of the sector. Thus, for its implementation, it is important to identify the essential elements. The objective of this study is to identify the key elements of open innovation to practice in the solar and wind energy sector. For this work, the research procedure follows the following steps: To perform this work, the research procedure follows the following steps: (i) Theoretical Research; (ii) Field Survey, (iii) Tabulation, Statistical Treatment and Data Analysis (iv) Results. The results pointed out the main elements present in the open innovation approach directed to the study sector.