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The purpose of this paper is to advocate that qualitative research tools can replace and merge with quantitative ones, in order to simplify the task of gathering and processing information.

The study demonstrates how a qualitative technique (card sort) was successfully used to replace a quantitative tool (exploratory factor analysis) for the task of construct development, saving time, funds and sample units. All the steps in the card sort technique are described and exemplified by its application to develop two constructs in a research about newspapers internal communication management.

The constructs were tested through confirmatory factor analysis across a sample of 184 Brazilian newspapers, satisfying all fit indexes and other statistical requirements.

Although the card sort technique successfully substituted exploratory factor analysis in this research, such a procedure must be used carefully. Whenever exploratory factor analysis is feasible, it must be done. Moreover, the study reports only one case in which the substitution was successful. Therefore, the technique must be repeated to get its validation.

As the processes of gathering data are simplified, the easier it is for managers to base their decisions on research and information.

The study proves empirically the feasibility of merging qualitative and quantitative approach – a procedure that has been advocated but hardly demonstrated. Card sort can be recommended as an interesting tool for corporate communications research, at both managerial and academic levels.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the chemical and microbiological quality of biscuits and bread through the partial substitution of the wheat flour.

Completely randomized experiment with four treatments and nine replications was used in this study. The quality of biscuits and bread formulations was monitored by chemical parameters (moisture, ashes, protein, lipids, pH, water activity, acidity and carbohydrates) and microbiological parameters (coliforms at 35 and 45ºC, coagulase positive Staphylococcus and Salmonella sp.).

The formulation of biscuits containing 25, 50 and 75% of cassava flour and formulation of bread containing 10, 20 and 30% of cassava flour had higher carbohydrate content compared to the control formulation (p = 0.014). This was associated with the incorporation of cassava flour, which is an excellent producer of carbohydrates compared to other cereals. All formulations showed values <3 for coliforms at 35 and 45ºC and coagulase positive Staphylococci, as well as an absence for Salmonella sp.

The present attempt was made to formulate biscuits and bread with a reduction in wheat flour and the addition of manioc flour, with the objective of reaching products with higher carbohydrate content and low gluten content, to improve the nutritional level and commercial value of these products.

Governments faced formidable challenges in coordinating public health responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to enhance the understanding of effective organizational leadership during crises by investigating the factors influencing the turnover of health leaders during the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil.

Using primary data encompassing all appointments and dismissals of federal and state health secretaries, this paper conducted a quantitative analysis of the relational and reputational factors that contributed to leader turnover during the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper also examined whether leaders’ management and public health experience increase the duration of tenure.

States encountered significant challenges in retaining experienced and effective leadership during the health emergency, primarily due to political conflicts in policymaking and, to a lesser extent, allegations of corruption. Furthermore, leaders with expertise in public health were found to be less likely to be removed from office. However, managerial experience did not prolong the tenure of state health secretaries during the emergency.

Since most health leaders have public health and management experience, the contributions of each factor to the duration of a secretary’s tenure are difficult to separate and analyze separately.

This study provides empirical insights into what factors drive health leader turnover during major health emergencies.

During major health emergencies, health leaders often strongly disagree with elected officials on the response. This paper test how crisis leadership theories help explain state health leaders’ duration in one of the world’s largest public health systems during the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper find that policy disagreements contributed to significant turnover.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first that are aware of that uses novel primary data on public health executive leader characteristics and turnover causes in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. It provides empirical evidence contributing to the crisis leadership literature by examining health leader turnover in one of the world’s largest public health systems.

In recent decades, the field of robotic mapping has witnessed widespread research and development in light detection and ranging (LiDAR)-based simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) techniques. This paper aims to provide a significant reference for researchers and engineers in robotic mapping.

This paper focused on the research state of LiDAR-based SLAM for robotic mapping as well as a literature survey from the perspective of various LiDAR types and configurations.

This paper conducted a comprehensive literature review of the LiDAR-based SLAM system based on three distinct LiDAR forms and configurations. The authors concluded that multi-robot collaborative mapping and multi-source fusion SLAM systems based on 3D LiDAR with deep learning will be new trends in the future.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first thorough survey of robotic mapping from the perspective of various LiDAR types and configurations. It can serve as a theoretical and practical guide for the advancement of academic and industrial robot mapping.