Eduardo Castro e Costa, José Pinto Duarte and Paulo Bártolo
In this paper, the authors aim to address the potential of mass personalization for ceramic tableware objects. They argue that additive manufacturing (AM) is the most adequate…
Abstract
Purpose
In this paper, the authors aim to address the potential of mass personalization for ceramic tableware objects. They argue that additive manufacturing (AM) is the most adequate approach to the production of such objects.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors review the manufacturing of ceramic tableware objects, both traditional techniques and AM processes, and assess which available AM technologies are suitable for the research purpose.
Findings
The authors consider binder jetting and material extrusion as the most suitable processes for the production of ceramic objects to be integrated into a mass personalization system of ceramic tableware.
Originality/value
This paper provides an original overview of traditional and innovative techniques in ceramic manufacturing, exposing not only its differences but also its commonalities. Such overview supports the conceptual design of original equipment.
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Andrea Aparecida da Costa Mineiro, Rita de Cássia Arantes, Kelly Carvalho Vieira, Cleber Carvalho Castro, Eduardo Gomes Carvalho and Marcelo Gonçalves do Amaral
This study aims to analyze the practices and relationships of companies established in Science and Technology Parks (STPs) as drivers of the quadruple and quintuple helix (QQH…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to analyze the practices and relationships of companies established in Science and Technology Parks (STPs) as drivers of the quadruple and quintuple helix (QQH) and the determinants for aligning with the future vision of STPs.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted a survey of companies associated with consolidated STPs and used the Structural Equation Model technique to predict such relationships.
Findings
The results showed a positive relationship between the QQH and the Future Vision of STPs, in addition to the relevance of collectives as representatives of the quadruple helix (QH).
Research limitations/implications
Collectives are a recent phenomenon and require longitudinal studies on their performance in innovation environments.
Practical implications
Companies that are part of collectives are the actors of the QH.
Social implications
The role of collectives in aligning with the future vision of STPs should be considered. Collectives reflect people’s vision and can help STPs from being a closed environment and expand their performance, with a key role in connecting innovation environments. The authors found that collectives are promising in practices related to sustainability, thus contributing to STPs with their ability to mobilize the ecosystem.
Originality/value
The research emphasizes the role of companies as agents of QQH in innovation environments, strengthening the increasing and distinct role of collectives in their relationships with STPs.
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Julián Salas and Patricia Lucas
PREVI, Spanish initials for “experimental housing project”, was conceived in Lima in 1967. Among other initiatives, it launched an international architectural competition that led…
Abstract
PREVI, Spanish initials for “experimental housing project”, was conceived in Lima in 1967. Among other initiatives, it launched an international architectural competition that led to the construction of a 500-unit compound based on proposals put forward by teams such as Atelier 5, Aldo van Eyck, and Íñiguez de Ozoño and Vázquez de Castro. The forty years that have lapsed in the interim and the ongoing transformation of the homes by their dwellers afford an opportunity to reflect on the suitability of the construction technologies proposed in the competition.
Ongoing growth and the rationalisation of construction methods were two of the basic premises underlying the competition. The remodelling that has taken place in the interim stands as proof of the success of the first premise, but the use of traditional techniques to build the additions calls some of the most sophisticated proposals for industrialisation into question.
At the time, the tendency was to rely on large-scale industrialisation, as can be seen in the German and Polish architects' proposals. Nonetheless, many of the PREVI proposals opted for rationalising construction and precasting short series of small elements, rather than huge three-dimensional members. In the situation presently prevailing in Latin America, the viability of some of the technological proposals deployed in the PREVI might be profitably revisited.
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Lucas Manoel Marques Clemente, Alexandre Pereira Salgado Junior, Eduardo Falsarella Júnior, Marco Antonio Alves de Souza Junior, Juliana Chiaretti Novi and Alexandre de Castro Moura Duarte
The purpose of this study was to identify a set of management practices towards financial sustainability for Brazilian private health insurance and plans companies.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to identify a set of management practices towards financial sustainability for Brazilian private health insurance and plans companies.
Design/methodology/approach
The present paper uses a bimodal two-step approach. The first step was quantitative, with the data envelopment analysis (DEA) technique in 521 Brazilian private health companies (PHCs). At this stage, the objective was to obtain scores to rank the PHCs regarding their financial performance and services in 2013. From the quantitative analysis, two PHCs displaying contrasting performances were selected and interviewed to identify differentiating management practices.
Findings
The Group Medicine PHCs displayed a higher performance in the financial approach. Following the qualitative comparative analysis, the financially sustainable PHC presented the following differentials: a high level of financial management professionalization, a deliberate policy for the control and prevention of claims and a larger share of revenues from health plans over service revenues.
Research limitations/implications
However, a limitation of the study lies in the fact that by not using any cash flow or financial result variables, the financial efficiency model used in the study does not evaluate the generation capacity of long-term results. It is noteworthy that, because it is a multiple case study, the results found cannot be generalized and should be understood only as characteristics of the studied PHCs in here.
Practical implications
The present paper can contribute to managers of Brazilian PCHs towards the implementation of management tools aimed at the sustainability of those organizations.
Originality/value
Despite the importance of the Supplemental Health Insurance System for public health in Brazil, PHCs have received a high volume of complaints and struggled with constant financial problems.
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Leopoldo Ruiz-Huerta, Yara Cecilia Almanza-Arjona, Alberto Caballero-Ruiz, Homero Alberto Castro-Espinosa, Celia Minerva Díaz-Aguirre and Enrique Echevarría y Pérez
The purpose of this study is to suggest the joint use of computer-aided design (CAD) and additive manufacturing (AM) technology for the fabrication of custom-made moulds, designed…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to suggest the joint use of computer-aided design (CAD) and additive manufacturing (AM) technology for the fabrication of custom-made moulds, designed for the manufacture of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) implants for cranio-maxillofacial reconstruction to reduce their fabrication time. Even though tailor-made skull prostheses with a high technological level and state-of-the-art materials are available in the market, they are not always accessible to the general population in developing countries.
Design/methodology/approach
Computed tomography data were handled to create a three-dimensional (3D) model of the injury of the patient, by reconstructing Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM) images into an Standard Tessellation Language (STL) file that was further used to design the corresponding implant using CAD software. Accordingly, a two-piece core and cavity moulds that replicated the implant geometry was also CAD designed. The 3D-CAD data were sent to an AM machine (fused deposition modelling) and the moulds were fabricated using polycarbonate as thermoplastic material. A reacting mixture to produce PMMA was poured directly into the fabricated moulds, and left to polymerise until cure. Finally, a clear bubble-free case of study PMMA implant was obtained.
Findings
The fabrication of CAD-designed moulds with AM, replacing the production of the injury model, resulted in the reduction of the lead-time in the manufacturing of PMMA around 45 per cent. Additionally, the implant showed better fit than the one produced by conventional process. The use of AM moulds for the fabrication of PMMA implants has demonstrated the reduction in lead-time, which potentially can reduce the waiting time for patients.
Social implications
Currently, the demand of cranio-maxillofacial implants at only the Hospital General de México “Dr Eduardo Liceaga” (HGM) is 4,000 implants per year, and the average waiting time for each patient is between 5 and 10 weeks, including third-party services’ delays and the time needed to obtain the economical resources by the patient. Public hospitals in Mexico lack manufacturing facilities, so patients have to make use of laboratories abroad and most of the population have no access to them. The implementation of this suggested procedure in public hospitals may improve the accuracy of the implant, increase the number of patients attended per year (up to 83 per cent) and the reduction in waiting time can also reduce mortality and infection rates.
Originality/value
The authors of this paper suggest the joint use of CAD and AM technologies to significantly reduce the production time of PMMA implants by producing moulds rather than the injury model, maintaining the general terms and known steps of the process already established for PMMA implants.
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Alexandre F. S. Andrada and Mauro Boianovsky
This chapter investigates the political and economic contexts of the controversy about the causes of the increase of income concentration in Brazil during the 1960s. That was the…
Abstract
This chapter investigates the political and economic contexts of the controversy about the causes of the increase of income concentration in Brazil during the 1960s. That was the most important economic debate that took place under the military dictatorship that ran the country from 1964 to 1985. The perceived sharp increase in income inequality posed a challenge to the economic legitimation of the military regime, which had by the early 1970s achieved high rates of economic growth. This chapter discusses the apparent paradox of relatively open economic debate during a period of political repression, as well as its international dimension as reflected in the role played by institutions such as the World Bank.
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Until recently, most North Americans thought of Central America as the land of bananas and exotic vacations. Today, government, media, and public concern are focused on the…
Abstract
Until recently, most North Americans thought of Central America as the land of bananas and exotic vacations. Today, government, media, and public concern are focused on the region's instability and the United States' role in it. This “crisis” in Central America has generated a barrage of publications. Perhaps an appropriate title for this article would have been “Central America: Crisis in the Library.” The growing number of publications on Central America is matched by growing demand for them in both public and academic libraries. This bibliography will help librarians build an adequate and balanced collection on Central America without having to locate and examine each book.