Search results

This paper aims to present experimental results related to the performance of cactus mucilage (CM) and brown seaweed extracts (SEs) to inhibit reinforcing steel bar (rebar) corrosion in saturated calcium hydroxide alkaline solutions (pH = 12.5).

Electrochemical cells were prepared using CM solutions at 0.5, 1 and 1.38 per cent concentration (w/v), SE solutions at 0.5, 1, 1.38, 2 and 3 per cent concentration (w/v), sodium alginate at 1 per cent concentration (w/v) and calcium nitrite at 11.3 per cent (v/v). Each cell contained six deformed reinforcing steel bars of 9.5 mm nominal diameter. The experiments were performed at 23 ± 2°C in two stages. The first stage was aimed at stabilizing the rebar until passivation was reached. The second stage included adding NaCl in six steps from 0.5 to 16 g/L. Half-cell potential, linear polarization resistance and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurements were monitored during both stages.

The electrochemical test results indicated that both additions reduce the corrosion rate of rebars and pitting in an alkaline media with chloride ions (16 g/L NaCl). Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy results for rebars in natural-added solutions showed higher charge transfer resistance and double layer capacitance values, indicative of the formation of a second interface between the rebar and the electrolyte.

The information obtained was for alkaline solutions only. Further investigation is performed using concrete as the alkaline electrolyte.

CM and SE may be suitable low-cost corrosion inhibitors for steel in concrete.

The use of botanical or algae products for this application will encourage people to consider its production for this particular application. Also, the possible harvest in an environmental friendly way will diminish in the future the use of biohazards and toxic inhibitors.

This investigation is a continuation of a one presented in 2007, which uses only nopal mucilage. This new investigation corroborates what was concluded in the early investigation and incorporates a new natural by product, algae, as a possible corrosion inhibitor product.

In industry, fused filament fabrication (FFF) offers flexibility and agility by promoting a reduction in costs and in the lead-time (i.e. time-to-market). Nevertheless, FFF parts exhibit some limitations such as lack of accuracy and/or lower mechanical performance. As a result, some alternatives have been developed to overcome some of these restrictions, namely, the formulation of high performance polymers, the creation of fibre-reinforced materials by FFF process and/or the design of new FFF-based technologies for printing composite materials. This work aims to analyze these technologies.

This work aims to study and understand the advances in the behaviour of 3D printed parts with enhanced performance by its reinforcement with several shapes and types of fibres from nanoparticles to continuous fibre roving. Thus, a comprehensive survey of significant research studies carried out regarding FFF of fibre-reinforced thermoplastics is provided, giving emphasis to the most relevant and innovative developments or adaptations undergone at hardware level and/or on the production process of the feedstock.

It is shown that the different types of reinforcement present different challenges for the printing process with different outcomes in the part performance.

This review is focused on joining the most important researches dedicated to the process of FFF-printed parts with different types reinforcing materials. By dividing the reinforcements in categories by shape/geometry and method of processing, it is possible to better quantify performance improvements.

The purpose of this paper is to develop and describe the symbolic value of quality awards as a key indicator of recognition that public organizations have reached in the scope of quality management and continuous improvement.

The paper provides a description of the evolution of the three series of healthcare quality awards that have been held to‐date in one of the biggest regions of Europe: Andalusia.

Theoretical analysis of an instrument conceived as an institutionalised way of recognizing quality assurance initiatives in the Andalusian Public Health System. At the same time, the article focuses on the importance of using a reference model to ensure that the process of assessing the projects is systematic and rigorous and therefore stands as a guarantee of transparency within a public administration.

The ultimate outcome is dependent of the geographical context and the behaviours and perceptions of people that have participated as assessment panels.

The conceptual framework provides guidance on what methodology is used to assess the quality projects (process to allocate projects to assessment panels and assessment criteria required) in a complex healthcare system. It serves as a managerial framework to enhance the continuous improvement in all health‐related services.

The paper contributes to create a structured debate between researchers and healthcare leaders regarding the assessment criteria to evaluate healthcare quality projects.

This paper aims to describe the participation of health professionals as key agents for the successful definition of skills manuals supporting professional accreditation in Andalusia (Spain).

The increasing extent to which different stakeholders are recognized reflects the importance they hold in all decision‐making processes. The Andalusian Agency for Healthcare Quality's commitment to this process has facilitated the healthcare professionals' participation when professional skills manuals are designed for their respective specialities.

The process involved over 400 healthcare professionals from 58 disciplines between March 2005 and January 2008. Results were conditioned by several factors, some acting as drivers while others represented a barrier.

The experience relates to a specific geographical context. Healthcare professionals eligible to participate had to be in active employment and working for the Andalusian Public Health Service. There was an overrepresentation of members from scientific associations.

Co‐operation based on mutual trust is the essential ingredient accounting for the success of participative involvement.

The paper incorporates all categories of personnel and specialities in a regional healthcare system that covers eight million inhabitants and employs over 90,000 professionals, includes 33 public hospitals, more than 1,500 primary care centres and other healthcare units.

The governing principle of quality management is commitment to the customer and adaptation to meet customer needs. This can only be done if it is clear who the customers are and to understand and work with their needs. Suggests ways of ensuring that development in urban areas utilizes the resources available, including the people of those areas. Examines the tensions involved. Highlights the key management issues in pursuing “partnership” as a means of regenerating cities. Looks at the role of the private sector. Concludes that all sectors need each other.

The Video Quality Metric (VQM) is one of the most used objective methods to assess video quality, because of its high correlation with the human visual system (HVS). VQM is, however, not viable in real-time deployments such as mobile streaming, not only due to its high computational demands but also because, as a Full Reference (FR) metric, it requires both the original video and its impaired counterpart. In contrast, No Reference (NR) objective algorithms operate directly on the impaired video and are considerably faster but loose out in accuracy. The purpose of this paper is to study how differently NR metrics perform in the presence of network impairments.

The authors assess eight NR metrics, alongside a lightweight FR metric, using VQM as benchmark in a self-developed network-impaired video data set. This paper covers a range of methods, a diverse set of video types and encoding conditions and a variety of network impairment test-cases.

The authors show the extent by which packet loss affects different video types, correlating the accuracy of NR metrics to the FR benchmark. This paper helps identifying the conditions under which simple metrics may be used effectively and indicates an avenue to control the quality of streaming systems.

Most studies in literature have focused on assessing streams that are either unaffected by the network (e.g. looking at the effects of video compression algorithms) or are affected by synthetic network impairments (i.e. via simulated network conditions). The authors show that when streams are affected by real network conditions, assessing Quality of Experience becomes even harder, as the existing metrics perform poorly.

No matter how much human beings strive to make strictly rational choices, they are incapable of doing so because human knowledge is limited and suffers the influence of psychological aspects. This paper aims to demonstrate how the use of foresight methods has contributed to minimize problems inherent to human rationality through a qualitative descriptive study of the case of the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation – Embrapa.

This paper collected primary and secondary data through document analysis and interviews with managers of the Embrapa’s strategic intelligence system (SIS), Agropensa (a recognized success case of strategic intelligence (SI)/futures studies in Brazilian public administration).

The results show that it was possible to strengthen corporate behavior in the long term, minimize biases inherent to the decision-making process and bring relevant information into the management of the organization. Foresight methods and tools have made it possible to mitigate problems arising from bounded rationality (BR) in the Embrapa’s decision-making processes. The change in company’s culture potentiated long-term views and access to future-bearing information. Embrapa’s SIS contributes to mitigate difficulties inherent to human nature by bringing uncertainty into managerial discussions.

Taking in consideration all the advances in the future studies/SI approach, this paper realizes that this particular practical case can contribute to scientific community deepening the understanding of how a structure dedicated to run future studies/SI can diminish BR impacts on the company’s decision-making process.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the existing relations between three fundamental constructs (motivation and satisfaction) and the type of travellers in a World Heritage Site (WHS) tourist destination, the city of Cuenca (Ecuador).

The methodology used consisted of a fieldwork to determine the motivations and satisfaction of the visitor in the city of Cuenca, and then their segmentation.

The relationship between the study of motivation and satisfaction is a fundamental element in the development of WHSs. Similarly, it presents four different types of tourists obtained from their motivational variables. The results show the existence of three motivational dimensions for visiting Cuenca: cultural, circumstantial and convenience. Similarly, and using the motivation scenarios, four types of visitor have been identified: a cultural tourist, a cultural convenience tourist, a cultural circumstantial tourist and an alternative tourist.

The principal practical application of this research is to contribute to understanding the motivations of the visitors in relation to the city of Cuenca as a WHS for the purpose of designing tourist and cultural products that better satisfy the needs of the tourists and that, at the same time, are compatible with the sustainable management of the destination.

This paper seeks to contribute to promoting the relationship between tourism, sustainability and heritage in Latin America.

As Big Data is creating new underpinnings for organisations’ intellectual capital (IC) and knowledge management, this paper aims to analyse the implications of Big Data for IC accounting to provide new conceptual and practical insights about the future of IC accounting.

Based on a conceptual framework informed by decision science theory, the authors explain the factors supporting Big Data’s value and review the academic literature and practical evidence to analyse the implications of Big Data for IC accounting.

In reflecting on Big Data’s ability to supply a new value for IC and its implications for IC accounting, the authors conclude that Big Data represents a new IC asset, and this represents a rationale for a renewed wave of interest in IC accounting. IC accounting can contribute to understand the determinants of Big Data’s value, such as data quality, security and privacy issues, data visualisation and users’ interaction. In doing so, IC measurement, reporting and auditing need to keep focusing on how human capital and organisational and technical processes (structural capital) can unlock or even obstruct Big Data’s value for IC.

The topic of Big Data in IC and accounting research is in its infancy; therefore, this paper acts at a normative level. While this represents a research limitation of the study, it is also a call for future empirical studies.

Once again, practitioners and researchers need to face the challenge of avoiding the trap of IC accountingisation to make IC accounting relevant for the Big Data revolution. Within the euphoric and utopian views of the Big Data revolution, this paper contributes to enriching awareness about the practical factors underpinning Big Data’s value for IC and foster the cognitive and behavioural dynamic between data, IC information and user interaction.

The paper is relevant to prepares, users and auditors of financial statements.

This paper aims to instill a novel debate on Big Data into IC accounting research by providing new avenues for future research.

Dynamic capabilities yield positive effects to firm-specific advantage formation. Paradoxically, the body of literature on capability diffusion is scarce. The purpose of this study is to focus, thus, on this dearth of literature with an emphasis on exploring the transferability function.

An integrative review of literature on the dynamic capabilities view covers the organizational context determining capability sharing, supported by strategic communication and business networking theories for the fashioning of global capabilities’ administration model (GCAM).

Individual motivations and formal modelling of capabilities’ transference have been overlooked in previous research. Largely with a top-down orientation, the current paradigm of their diffusion is profoundly shaped by the organizational structure and its global governance practices.

The GCAM’s architecture, based on transnational administration and hybrid transferability, opens horizons for multinational companies to develop their own capability management systems and is at the same time a new scholarly avenue in the field.

This study explores an untapped research gap and the formal modelling of a GCAM, while reconciling some of the weaknesses of academic research and industry practices.