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To present an entirely new technology to be used in the in‐service inspection of storage tanks for hazardous products in several different industries.

Current interior storage oil tank plate inspection is a very expensive and time‐consuming task. The related tasks involve high cost, several hazards to environment and the operators involved in the cleaning jobs. Several research areas were investigated during the development of this tool, fundamentally robotics and non‐destructive test tools. Initial trials in laboratory were complemented with a field test program in near‐real conditions.

A new design of tool for in‐service inspection of such equipments proved to be feasible to be constructed and operated and in accordance with current safety regulations.

New robotics application in non‐destructive testing methodologies for application in in‐service storage equipments. The internal conditions possible to find in the interior of a storage tank, like fixtures, properties of the stored products (inflammable and aggressive), sludge and sand on the bottom, no ambient light, etc., are significant challenges to the development of such a tool.

Developed a robotized tool for inspection of the floor and walls of in‐service tanks, in order to allow an evaluation of the condition of the plates of these tanks, avoiding the long period, hazards and high costs necessary for creating the conditions for reality out of service inspection.

The novelty of the RobTank Inspec project could be evaluated from the two or three existing competitors in the world, and the results of the surveys undertaken.

Automatic robots can improve the efficiency of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) tank inspection and maintenance, but it is difficult to achieve high-precision spatial positioning and navigation on tank surfaces. The purpose of this paper is to develop a spatial positioning robotic system for tank inspection. The robot can accurately identify and track weld paths. The positioning system can complete robot’s spatial positioning on tank surfaces.

A tank inspection robot with curvature-adaptive transmission mechanisms is designed in this study. A weld path recognition method based on deep learning is proposed to accurately identify and extract weld paths. Integrated multiple sensors, the positioning system is developed to improve the robot’s spatial positioning accuracy. Experiments are conducted on a cylindrical tank to test weld seam tracking accuracy and spatial positioning performance of the robotic system. The practicality of the robotic system is then verified in field tests.

The robot can accurately identify and track weld seams with a maximum drift angle of 4° and a maximum offset distance of ±30 mm. The positioning system has excellent positioning accuracy and stability. The maximum angle and height errors are 3° and 0.08 m, respectively.

The positioning system can improve the autonomous performance of inspection robots and solve the problems of weld path recognition and spatial positioning. Application of the robotic system can promote the automatic inspection and maintenance of LPG tanks.

Thistle flower (Cynara cardunculus) aqueous extracts, as rich source of milk-clotting peptidases, have been widely used for cheeses marketed under the Registry of the Protected Designation of Origin, as it is the case of Serra da Estrela cheese, manufactured from raw ewes’ milk and without addition of any commercial starter culture. This paper aims at studying the influence of six different ecotypes of thistle flowers in cheese properties during the ripening and of final products.

Cheeses were produced with different thistle flower extracts and then the clotting time, weight and colour of cheeses, as well as texture properties and sensorial characteristics, were evaluated.

The clotting time varied from 47 to 66 min, and the weight loss along ripening varied between 32 and 40 per cent. There was some influence of thistle flower ecotype on the colour during ripening and in the final product. The results of texture analysis revealed significant differences between the thistle ecotypes: crust firmness varying from 2.4 to 5.6 N; inner firmness from 0.82 to 1.82 N; stickiness from −0.5 to −1.60 N; adhesiveness from −3.0 to −11.3 N.s; and Ecotype C was particularly distinguishable. Sensorial evaluation revealed differences among the cheeses, with Ecotype C receiving the highest score for global appreciation.

The usage of different extracts of thistle flower to produce Serra da Estrela cheese with different properties is a novelty, and it allows the possibility of manipulating this parameter in the future so as to produce cheeses with specific characteristics, addressed to different consumer targets.

We present a critical literature review debating Brazilian research on social and environmental accounting (SEA). The aim of this study is to understand the role of politics in the construction of hegemonies in SEA research in Brazil. In particular, we examine the role of hegemony in relation to the co-option of SEA literature and sustainability in the Brazilian context by the logic of development for economic growth in emerging economies. The methodological approach adopts a post-structural perspective that reflects Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory. The study employs a hermeneutical, rhetorical approach to understand and classify 352 Brazilian research articles on SEA. We employ Brown and Fraser’s (2006) categorizations of SEA literature to help in our analysis: the business case, the stakeholder–accountability approach, and the critical case. We argue that the business case is prominent in Brazilian studies. Second-stage analysis suggests that the major themes under discussion include measurement, consulting, and descriptive approach. We argue that these themes illustrate the degree of influence of the hegemonic politics relevant to emerging economics, as these themes predominantly concern economic growth and a capitalist context. This paper discusses trends and practices in the Brazilian literature on SEA and argues that the focus means that SEA avoids critical debates of the role of capitalist logics in an emerging economy concerning sustainability. We urge the Brazilian academy to understand the implications of its reifying agenda and engage, counter-hegemonically, in a social and political agenda beyond the hegemonic support of a particular set of capitalist interests.

The objective of this paper is to present the Interdisciplinary Higher Education Program (ProFIS) of the University of Campinas – UNICAMP – and discuss the main challenges related to the implementation of the program and the impact on the educational and professional trajectory of students. ProFIS was set up with a distinctive approach towards social inclusion and curricular innovation, seeking to attract the best students from public high schools to offer them a general education program as a first step in higher education. Another novelty is the inclusion of an ongoing evaluation of the program from its implementation. It merges monitoring and impact evaluation instruments to monitor and improve the quality, efficiency and effectiveness of the interventions. Preliminary results will be discussed in relation to retention and social inclusion.

This paper aims to assess service quality in professional football and to examine the effects of service quality and ticket pricing on satisfaction and behavioural intention. Data were collected among football fans and the results of a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) supported the psychometric properties of the service quality model. A structural equation model (SEM) revealed that the service quality construct impacts both satisfaction and behavioural intention. Also, behavioural intention is influenced by ticket pricing and satisfaction. Managerial implications of these results are discussed and guidelines for future research are suggested.

This research aims to examine football fans' awareness of their team sponsors and to compare sponsorship awareness between season ticket holders and casual spectators. Data was collected from among fans of a professional football team and results revealed that spectators recall 'top of mind' those sponsors with their logo displayed on the team shirts. Thus, being visible from the stadium stands is important to ensure recall rates. Fans are typically able to properly recognise sponsors and non-sponsors of their team. However, some competitor brands engaged in football sponsorship are incorrectly recognised as sponsors of a team. Finally, the number of brands recalled and recognised correctly by season ticket holders is significantly higher than for casual spectators. The research findings, managerial implications, limitations and future research directions are discussed.

This study aims to further develop the CLC stage/path’s identification model that distinguishes between path’s emergence (emergence stage), path’s development (growth stage), path’s sustainment (maturity stage), path’s decline (decline stage) and path’s transformation (renewal stage), and by applying it, define the current stage/path of the Demarcated Douro Region (DDR) cluster. The Port wine industry, which is the dominant industry of the DDR cluster, is at the maturity/decline stage – is the same for the cluster itself?

It is a case study with a longitudinal perspective based on the analysis of the dynamics of the parameters of cluster evolution using available secondary sources (cluster identity/brand; number of firms; number of employees; network; innovation; policies and regulations; and external markets – exports), especially addressing the past decade, that represent the stage of maturity/decline of the cluster’s dominant Port wine industry.

The conclusion is that since the 1990s the Demarcated Douro Region has gone through a “path transformation” where during the following 20 years new “anchors” for the cluster were gradually introduced, such as Doc Douro Wines, new forms of consumption of Port wine, tourism and olive oil. Since 2010 the cluster has entered a growth stage/(new) path’s development, where these “anchors” are in steady growth. The Douro brand is becoming more internationally recognized and established, the number of firms and employees is increasing, the network is restructuring with the creation of cluster-specific official institutions, innovation is especially reflected with increasing heterogeneity through diversification of the clusters into new activities and regulations and policies are supportive for expansion – all these parameters are indicating the rise of the new cycle for the cluster. Thus, the DDR cluster represents an attractive business environment and requires attention from regional policymakers to support the cluster’s development. Especially institutions have been highlighted as internal factors driving clusters growth, European integration as an external factor and firms’ strategies of diversification and internationalization as an appropriate de-locking mechanism for new path’s development.

This research contributes to the CLC theory by further developing and applying a CLC stage/path identification model. It provides a better understanding of the dynamics of the DDR cluster that diverge from its dominant industry life cycle, which is relevant for regional policies and firms’ strategies. This study has its limitations. It provides an exploratory application of the theoretical framework proposed, and consequently, no general conclusions are possible yet. More empirical studies with different clusters in different stages are necessary to test the framework.

These findings are useful to policymakers when designing their policies for cluster development but also for clusters’ entities and actors when making their strategic decisions as it allows based on the verification of the established parameter of CLC to identify its current stage/path of development.

The paper presents a theoretically grounded model for CLC identification and for the first time to the best of the authors’ knowledge applies it to a cluster case – the DDR cluster. This case applies the proposed model and illustrates its usefulness. The model provides the tools for a better understanding of cluster dynamics.

This empirical and exploratory study analyzed the role of interaction with the innovation environment and of the organizational learning capacity (OLC) development stage in startups in Northeast Brazil based on the perception of managers of these companies.

This was a quantitative study. Questionnaires were sent electronically to the managers of startups in the nine states of Northeast Brazil. A total of 54 managers participated, composing a non-probabilistic sample. The data collected were analyzed by multiple linear regressions.

The results obtained seek to evidence whether the interaction of startups in Northeast Brazil with the startup ecosystem and the development stage in which these companies are found are associated with OLC. The results confirmed the hypothesis that higher startup development stages are positively associated with higher levels of OLC in the sample. A negative association was identified between the manufacturing startup type and the OLC level, and the level of interaction with the innovation environment was still infrequent.

This study contributes to the literature on the determinants of organizational learning and to startup managers who wish to more effectively promote this learning. Implications of the findings are discussed.

This study contributes to the literature on the determinants of organizational learning and to startup managers who wish to more effectively promote this learning. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Studies on Brazilian startups are still relatively scarce, especially studies that focus on learning capacity. No other studies addressing the hypotheses tested here were found.

This study empirically examines the impact of quality effort orientation on the financial performance of certified Portuguese firms. The results of factor analysis revealed four quality efforts orientation factors. The results of cluster analysis revealed the existence of three distinct groups of firms with regard to quality efforts orientation and performance. The analysis of variance results revealed that firms with a quality efforts orientation focusing on the customer tends to outperform firms utilising other quality efforts orientation with regard to net profit after taxes.