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This article provides the first assessment of the training program of African gendarmes from the so-called Sahel countries in the Special Training Center of the Spanish Civil Guard in Spain. This action is part of the European Union GAR-SI Sahel project, embedded in the framework of the international cooperation of the European Union with Africa and aims to create effective counter-terrorism police tactical units in the area.

The study exploits instructors' assessment on the evolution of the 167 participants over the program from 2017 to 2019 and the satisfaction of attendants with the training action, using 22 Likert-type items and an open question. It employs both quantitative tools (descriptive and inferential statistical methods and multivariate techniques) and qualitative methods (content analysis of participants' comments).

The research finds evidence of a high participants' performance according to trainers and large levels of satisfaction among participants. The authors also discuss the differences found by country of origin and rank of the gendarmes who participated in the trainings.

This study is the first to provide an evaluation of the police training actions embedded GAR-SI Sahel project, part of much larger initiative of cooperation of the European Union with Africa.

This study aims to investigate the moderating effects of brick-and-mortar (BM) store characteristics and customer satisfaction on the relationship between ship-to-store (STS) retailing and BM store performance in an emerging economy. The purpose is to explore how BM store characteristics and customer satisfaction influence online buying behaviour when customers visit the stores to pick up their products.

This study collected secondary longitudinal data from 615 BM stores from one of Brazil's largest retailers and performed a panel-data regression analysis using the following moderating variables: customer satisfaction with BM stores, BM store's size, convenience and inventory transparency.

Customer satisfaction with BM stores moderates the effect of STS transactions on the revenue per store. Results also show that BM store's convenience, size and inventory transparency moderate STS online customers' impact on BM store cross-sales.

The STS strategy can increase online and BM store performance. Some BM store characteristics and customer satisfaction influence online customers to buy more products when they visit BM stores to pick up their products, providing a more complex model for the relationship between STS strategy and BM store performance.

Companies in emerging economies can use the BM store more strategically in combination with the STS strategy to increase overall retailer performance. By managing some BM store characteristics, managers can improve retail sales.

This study demonstrates how new moderating factors expand the understanding of the relationship between online and physical retailing in emerging economies. Also, the panel data regression results control for extraneous variables and provide more robust evidence of the relationships observed.

The purpose of this paper is to explore last mile delivery (LMD) to the bottom of the pyramid in Brazilian slums, its challenges and how practitioners overcome them. Urban logistics in precarious circumstances is central to the conceptualization.

A qualitative, grounded theory methodology is developed, gathering data from companies delivering to slums in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Field notes, documents and interviews led to conceptual categories for LMD to slums.

The study indicates that while some standard urban logistics practices can be effective for LMD to slums, such unusual contexts often call for unusual solutions. A model is developed using grounded theory categorization, resulting in five dimensions for LMD to slums: employing locally, giving back, acknowledging criminals, vehicle and location.

The model is a qualitative proposition representing LMD to slums in two major Brazilian cities. Even though slums in different cities/countries may face similar conditions, additional studies are needed to confirm and replicate the model.

Companies that successfully engage in LMD to slums must adapt and develop idiosyncratic practices.

LMD to slums enables a larger portion of bottom of the pyramid consumers to access a wider range of products and work opportunities, contributing to their social inclusion.

The study provides an understanding of LMD in a new context. The model encourages companies to question their current practices, learning from effective LMD experiences implemented by successful practitioners.

Different from most academic publications about tourism in Brazil, this paper provides an overarching and comprehensive perspective. Analysing key developments, and focusing on the period 2000–2019, this paper also considers long-standing structural issues that hinder tourism development. Although this viewpoint paper deals with Brazil, very similar issues can be identified for many countries worldwide.

This viewpoint paper is a combination of reflections by leading Brazilian tourism academics; most are members of ABRATUR, the International Academy for the Development of Tourism Research in Brazil. This paper uses secondary data from the grey (e.g. government reports) and academic literature to support this opinion paper. The tourism-related topics covered in this paper include economics, policy and planning, marketing, transport, nature-based tourism, gastronomy, hospitality and education, amongst others.

Brazil has missed several unique opportunities to place it as a destination of international renown. Since the 1990s, efforts to support regional tourism development have achieved only moderate success as political instability, violence and corruption have impacted tourism. A lack of a coordinated approach between the various levels of government, a shortage of tourism data and a long-term supra-government marketing campaign, among other factors, have meant Brazil has missed several critical opportunities in the 2010s to establish itself as a leading tourism destination in the global market.

From leading tourism academic experts in Brazil, a unique opinion paper offers an overview of the critical development issues in 2000–2019. The paper presents matters that have hindered potential tourism contributions to the largest nation in South America. While these matters may be specific to Brazil, many of these challenges are not dissimilar to those in other emerging (democratic) nations. The authors offer several public policies and technical recommendations to scaffold tourism development towards the 2030 agenda.

本篇观点论文是巴西前沿旅游学者们思考的集合, 其中大多数的学者是巴西旅游发展国际研究院ABRATUR的成员。这篇论文使用了诸如政府工作报告的二手数据和学术文献来支撑文章观点。其中涉及的与旅游相关的主题包括经济学, 政策和规划, 市场营销, 交通, 自然旅游, 烹饪学, 酒店, 教育等等。

与巴西大多数旅游研究的出版物不同, 本文提供了一个重要且全面的视角。文章重点分析了从2000-2009年的旅游业主要发展状况, 同时考虑了阻碍旅游业发展的长期结构性问题。尽管此观点论文涉及巴西, 但在世界许多国家都可以发现非常相似的问题。

巴西已经错失了作为国际知名旅游目的地的几个独特机会。二十世纪九十年代以来, 因为政治动荡, 暴力和腐败对旅游业的影响, 支持区域旅游业发展的努力仅仅取得了有限的成功。各级政府之间缺乏协调方式, 旅游数据短缺和长期的跨政府营销活动等因素, 已经意味着巴西在二十一世纪前十年已经错失了将自己在全球市场中确立为领先旅游目的地的几个重要机会。

这篇来源于一些巴西学术旅游届的领头羊的独特观点论文概述了从2000年到2019年巴西旅游业发展的关键问题。本文介绍了那些已经阻碍南美洲最大旅游国家潜在旅游业贡献的重要事项。尽管这些事项可能是巴西独有的, 但是其中许多问题与其他新兴的（民主的）国家也没有什么不同。我们提供了一些公共政策和技术建议, 以支持旅游业向2030年议程迈进。

Este artículo de opinión es una combinación de reflexiones de destacados académicos brasileños del turismo, la mayoría miembros de ABRATUR, la Academia Internacional para el Desarrollo de la Investigación en Turismo en Brasil. Se utilizan fuentes secundarias (por ejemplo, informes gubernamentales) y literatura académica para respaldar este artículo. Los temas relacionados con el turismo que se tratan en este documento incluyen economía, política y planificación, marketing, transporte, turismo basado en la naturaleza, gastronomía, hotelería, y educación, entre otros.

A diferencia de la mayoría de las publicaciones académicas sobre el turismo en Brasil, este artículo ofrece una perspectiva global e integral. Al analizar los desarrollos clave y centrarse en 2000–2019, este documento también considera problemas estructurales de larga data que obstaculizan el desarrollo del turismo. Aunque este documento trata de Brasil, se pueden identificar problemas muy similares en muchos otros países del mundo.

Brasil ha perdido varias oportunidades únicas para colocarse como un destino de renombre internacional. Los esfuerzos realizados desde la década de 1990 para apoyar el desarrollo del turismo regional solo han logrado un éxito moderado debido a que la inestabilidad política, la violencia y la corrupción han impactado al turismo. La falta de un enfoque coordinado entre los distintos niveles de gobierno, la escasez de datos turísticos, una campaña de marketing supra gubernamental a largo plazo, entre otros factores, han significado que Brasil haya perdido varias oportunidades críticas en la década de 2010 para establecerse como un destino turístico líder en el mercado global.

Un artículo de opinión único de destacados expertos académicos en turismo en Brasil, que ofrece por primera vez una visión general de los problemas críticos del desarrollo desde la década del 2000. El documento presenta asuntos que han obstaculizado las posibles contribuciones del turismo a la nación más grande de América del Sur. Si bien estos asuntos pueden ser específicos de Brasil, muchos de estos desafíos no son diferentes a los de otras naciones (democráticas) emergentes. Ofrecemos diversas recomendaciones técnicas y de políticas públicas para impulsar el desarrollo turístico hacia la agenda 2030.

The aim of this study is to estimate the technical efficiency of the massive and economically important crop of rice in Ecuador, and then conduct a comparison between groups of farmers with and without insurance.

The authors use an input-oriented data envelopment analysis approach (DEA) to estimate technical efficiency scores. The DEA is combined with the double bootstrap approach in Simar and Wilson (2007) to study factors that may affect technical efficiency. This method overcomes the traditional two-stage DEA approach frequently used in the efficiency literature. The authors thus research the role of insurance on rice efficiency production using this technique and sizeable field-level survey data from 376 rice farmers distributed in five provinces during the 2019 winter cycle in Ecuador.

Most uninsured rice farmers operate with increasing returns to scale, which means that farms improve their resource use efficiency by increasing their size. However, since scale efficiencies are relatively high, it appears that inefficiencies are explained by inadequate input use. Also, the authors find evidence that insured farmers have a negative relationship with technical efficiency in rice production. In other results, when exploring the influence of additional variables on efficiency, the authors find that parameters related to transplanting, high education, farm size and some locations are positive and statistically significant.

The results of this work are relevant for policymakers interested in evaluating technology performance, risk management instruments and farm efficiency in an industry in a developing country such as rice production in Ecuador.

This paper is the first attempt to estimate farm-level technical efficiency employing the double bootstrap approach to assess the efficiency and its determinants of Ecuadorian rice producers.

This paper aims to propose a translation library capable of generating robots proprietary code after their offline programming has been performed in a software application, named AdaptPack Studio, running over a robot simulation and offline programming software package.

The translation library, named AdaptPack Studio Translator, is capable to generate proprietary code for the Asea Brown Boveri, FANUC, Keller und Knappich Augsburg and Yaskawa Motoman robot brands, after their offline programming has been performed in the AdaptPack Studio application.

Simulation and real tests were performed showing an improvement in the creation, operation, modularity and flexibility of new robotic palletizing systems. In particular, it was verified that the time needed to perform these tasks significantly decreased.

The design and setup of robotics palletizing systems are facilitated by an intuitive offline programming system and by a simple export command to the real robot, independent of its brand. In this way, industrial solutions can be developed faster, in this way, making companies more competitive.

The effort to build a robotic palletizing system is reduced by an intuitive offline programming system (AdaptPack Studio) and the capability to export command to the real robot using the AdaptPack Studio Translator. As a result, companies have an increase in competitiveness with a fast design framework. Furthermore, and to the best of the author’s knowledge, there is also no scientific publication formalizing and describing how to build the translators for industrial robot simulation and offline programming software packages, being this a pioneer publication in this area.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the compensation between research groups and companies that contribute the most for the innovative performance of Brazilian public higher educational institutions (PHEI), using as database the 2010’s tabular plan from CNPq’s Directory of Research Groups.

Descriptive and multivariate statistical techniques such as spearman correlation, cluster analysis, ANOVA and discriminant analysis were used.

Compensations that contribute the most for the updating of the PHEI are identified as transfer of financial resources from the partner to the group; providing grants for the group; transfer of material supplies to partner’s activities; temporary physical transfer of human resources from the group to the activities conducted by the partner; other forms of compensation that do not fit in the previous categories; and partnering with transfers of resources of any kind going in any direction.

As a limitation, it is pointed out the discontinuity of the tabular plan, which presents 2010 as the last available data.

The results can contribute to programs and policies to encourage innovation within universities.

It may be inferred that the stimulus to specific compensations may expand the quantitative idea of interaction points between the university and companies, linking qualitative aspects, which leads to an understanding that such interactions may, in fact, contribute directly to the activity of generating and spreading knowledge and innovation.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of fuel flow processes in a network of eight gas stations, located in the mesoregion of Alto Paranaíba and Triângulo Mineiro.

Two multi-criteria decision support methods were applied, respectively, of a statistical and mathematical nature, namely, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The research method used was quantitative, with a brief complement of qualitative research, and descriptive in purpose, supported by the inductive method. The data collection stage took place with the support of interviews, with the application of a structured questionnaire, and non-probabilistic sampling, for convenience.

It was possible to verify that the gas station that stood out the most was station 2 (GS2), which achieved maximum efficiency, a fact that can be justified by the analysis resulting from the application of PCA, as for the product purchase variable (PP), the GS2 is the one that buys the most fuel, and is also the one with the largest storage capacity (C), and the highest volume of product sales (PS), which suggests signs of balance between supply and demand for this station, justifying its prominence.

The limitations of the study were related to the DEA technique, which requires a number of variables/indicators three times smaller than the number of DMUs considered, and the difficulty in obtaining financial data on the DMUs analyzed. Considering the security and anonymity of the gas station network, it was not possible to use this data.

The performance assessment of fuel flow processes carried out in this study promotes the efficient use of available resources as well as identifying efficient DMUs that represent benchmarks for improving management processes and performance of inefficient DMUs.

From a social perspective, this study promotes the improvement of the quality of flow processes and effective management of the fuel supply chain, ensuring the safe storage and transportation of fuels to customer supply. Performance management in this sector moves other sectors of the economy, since an efficient unit represents a balance between supply and demand, and consequently, boosts the regional economy, promoting economic growth of the population. Hiring qualified labor for this purpose also represents one of the implications of the study. From an environmental perspective, optimizing flow processes generates a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and encourages the formulation of public policies aimed at consolidating sustainable practices.

Performance management applied to the context of the fuel supply chain is a relevant topic that has been little explored in scientific research, with a low level of information detail. This study using the inductive method allows the generalization and replication of this management pattern in other organizations in the sector in order to increase the efficiency of the fuel distribution system, with the perspective of maximizing outputs and reducing input consumption. In this aspect, the study introduces possibilities for advancement in social and environmental perspectives based on the effective management of fuel logistics.

This chapter deals with different perspectives and structural transformations between capitalist society and indigenous ways of life. I approach the A’uwẽ-Xavante myth of the theft of the jaguar’s fire, one of many versions of the story of the bird-nester, which Lévi-Strauss interprets as the acquisition of culture through cooking technique. I compare it with Proudhon’s study on property as the theft of collective force which he treats as the groundwork of the manufacturing process in capitalist society. This highlights the difference between Proudhon’s ideal mutualism, based on free access to means of production and polytechnic education, and the A’uwẽ-Xavante’s acquisition of power and its technical reproduction. Proudhon’s mutualism envisages auto-organization of collective force in cooperative work favoring its collective appropriation by the workers; while in the A’uwẽ-Xavante way of life, there is an off-centered collective force from which technical acquisition is redistributed. In common with Proudhon’s ideal labor mutualism, A’uwẽ-Xavante’s ways welcome outsiders to their means of production of people; but unlike Proudhon’s, this welcome is not for free: they have to prove their generosity and personal commitment to the game.

This paper aims to propose an automated framework for agile development and simulation of robotic palletizing cells. An automatic offline programming tool, for a variety of robot brands, is also introduced.

This framework, named AdaptPack Studio, offers a custom-built library to assemble virtual models of palletizing cells, quick connect these models by drag and drop, and perform offline programming of robots and factory equipment in short steps.

Simulation and real tests performed showed an improvement in the design, development and operation of robotic palletizing systems. The AdaptPack Studio software was tested and evaluated in a pure simulation case and in a real-world scenario. Results have shown to be concise and accurate, with minor model displacement inaccuracies because of differences between the virtual and real models.

An intuitive drag and drop layout modeling accelerates the design and setup of robotic palletizing cells and automatic offline generation of robot programs. Furthermore, A* based algorithms generate collision-free trajectories, discretized both in the robot joints space and in the Cartesian space. As a consequence, industrial solutions are available for production in record time, increasing the competitiveness of companies using this tool.

The AdaptPack Studio framework includes, on a single package, the possibility to program, simulate and generate the robot code for four different brands of robots. Furthermore, the application is tailored for palletizing applications and specifically includes the components (Building Blocks) of a particular company, which allows a very fast development of new solutions. Furthermore, with the inclusion of the Trajectory Planner, it is possible to automatically develop robot trajectories without collisions.