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Value constitutes a key principle of asset management (AM) and decision-making processes should be oriented toward optimizing it. Value models refer to models that can measure the effects of any decision over value, supporting decision-making concerning the assets through their whole lifecycle. In this context, the objective of this work is to develop a methodology for establishing value models to support decision-making in strategic capital investments for multi-category portfolios.

An approach that integrates multi-criteria decision-making, AM principles and participatory processes is proposed.

The analytic hierarchy process and multi-attribute utility methods are used as analytical tools enabling the assignment of absolute merits to the evaluated alternatives. The application of the AM principles allows one to frame the decision problem within the context of AM. Furthermore, participatory processes enhance transparency and trust in the developed value model and empower employees.

Through the application of a case study, it has been demonstrated that the approach not only facilitates the ranking of alternatives and a better understanding of their strengths and weaknesses but also establishes a shared concept of objectives (and attributes for their assessment) within the company for the capital investment decision-making.

The AM literature often lacks systematic approaches for identifying value and making value-based decisions. While some approaches have been proposed for guiding strategic capital investments, they typically rely solely on financial and risk criteria. This work aims to bridge this gap by integrating various dimensions of value into the development of a comprehensive value model.

This paper aims to explore the impact of the origin of hops on the sensory and hedonic evaluation of highly involved craft beer consumers.

Data was collected through a between-subject tasting experiment, where the origin of hop was manipulated (imported vs locally grown). The craft beer samples used in the experiment were produced using hops of similar age but grown in two distinct places: USA (imported hop) and in the city of Ribeirão Preto, Brazil, where the experiment was conducted (locally grown hop). The sensory and hedonic evaluations of highly involved craft beer consumers (n = 100) were collected after tasting the samples.

The origin of hop proved to be significant in affecting participants’ sensory and hedonic evaluations. It was observed that women were more sensitive than men to the origin information: when information was given, differences were found only on men’s scores of dryness/astringency; while in women, significant differences were found not only in dryness/astringency, but also in bitterness and refreshing, which are important attributes in the sensory profile of craft beer. It was also confirmed the effect of localness in hop cultivation, once men’ and women’s scores on liking were higher for the sample brewed with locally grown hop.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first work using craft beer brewed with hops cultivated in Brazil and a sample of Brazilian craft beer consumers, therefore, providing a significant contribution to the field of consumer behavior. Furthermore, it adds to the discussion on sex-/gender-related differences regarding sensory expectation and perception of foods.

Building information modeling (BIM) is most often used for the construction of new buildings. By using BIM in such projects, collaboration among stakeholders in an architecture, engineering and construction project is improved. To even further improve collaboration, there is a move toward the production and usage of BIM standards in various countries. These are typically national documents, including guides, protocols, and mandatory regulations, that introduce guidelines about what information should be exchanged at what time between which partners and in what formats. If a nation or a construction team agrees on these guidelines, improved collaboration can come about on top of the collaboration benefits induced by the mere usage of BIM. This scenario might also be targeted for interventions in existing buildings. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

In this paper, the authors investigate the general content and usage of existing BIM standards for new constructions, describing specifications about BIM deliverable documents, modeling, and collaboration procedures. The authors suggest to what extent the content in the BIM standards can also be used for interventions in existing buildings. These suggestions rely heavily on literature study, supported by on-site use case experiences.

From this research, the authors can conclude that the existing standards give a solid basis for BIM collaboration in existing building interventions, but that they need to be extended in order to be of better use in any intervention project in an existing building. This extension should happen at: data modeling level: other kinds of data formats need to be considered, coming from terrestrial laser scanning and automatic digital photogrammetry tools; at data exchange level: exchange requirements should take explicit statements about modeling tolerances and levels of (un)certainty; and at process modeling level: business process models should include information exchange processes from the very start of the building survey (BIM→facility management→BIM or regular audit).

BIM environments are not often used to document existing buildings or interventions in existing buildings. The authors propose to improve the situation by using BIM standards and/or guidelines, and the authors give an initial overview of components that should be included in such a standard and/or guideline.

A recommendation system for an extended process of information retrieval in distributed information systems is proposed. This system is both a model of dynamic cognitive categorization processes and powerful real application useful for knowledge management. It utilizes an extension of fuzzy sets named evidence sets as the mathematical mechanisms to implement the categorization processes. It is a development of some aspects of Pask’s conversation theory. It is also an instance of the notion of linguistic‐based selected self‐organization here described, and as such it instantiates an open‐ended semiosis between distributed information systems and the communities of users they interact with. This means that the knowledge stored in distributed information resources adapts to the evolving semantic expectations of their users as these select the information they desire in conversation with the information resources. This way, this recommendation system establishes a mechanism for user‐driven knowledge self‐organization.

A region can be registered as a geographical indication (GI) when its human or natural characteristics influence product attributes. However, GI registration is a complex process that can lead applicants to conflicts and resource waste. Since metabolomics can support product typicality, it can be an effective tool to evidence the place-product link, essential for GI registration. With the aim of increasing GI registration efficiency, this research aimed to map the Brazilian GI registration process from end to end, using business process model and notation (BPMN), and evaluate the application of metabolomics techniques as facilitator.

A qualitative exploratory study was proposed, with the Brazilian GI registration process as unit of analysis. Primary data was obtained through twelve in-depth interviews with GI producers, members of supporting institutions and metabolomics experts. Based on the collected data, the complete GI registration map was designed with bpmn.io software.

Results provided a clear view of the GI registration process. Interviewees considered the selection of the appropriate GI category, the establishment of GI common rules, product specification and the confirmation of the place-product link as the most demanding requirements. Since the last two involve specifying the influence of the origin on products, the use of metabolomics was suggested as a powerful tool to complete these stages.

The theoretical contribution is provided by the interweave of the three scientific fields mentioned (GI, business process management (BPM) and metabolomics) to contribute to the still small body of literature on GI-related processes. Additionally, other theoretical contributions are the presentation of a GI registration map associated to the use of “omics” techniques as process facilitator.

The practical contribution of this work is the establishment of an end-to-end view of the entire GI registration process, which makes easier for applicants to engage, plan resources and achieve the GI label. Furthermore, metabolomics acts as a facilitator since its data can be used for different purposes on the way to GI registration.

Results can be used to facilitate GI registration, reducing resources demanded from applicants. GI labels provide product protection, better selling prices and competitive advantages for producers, which are positive outcomes in countries with a commodity-based economy like Brazil.

The originality of the study lies in the approach used to map the GI registration process, as well as the suggestion of metabolomics as facilitator in some of its stages.

This research presents the development of a Building Passport for Sustainable Conservation (BPSC) as a questionnaire with a set of 23 core indicators, for a baseline assessment of heritage buildings. The aim of this tool is to identify priorities for future interventions, by recognising the contributions of heritage buildings to sustainability that should be preserved and the fragilities that need to be improved.

The BPSC uses a selection of core indicators for sustainability observable on heritage buildings. It was applied to four different case studies of modern heritage in the Netherlands, to verify its applicability and limitations.

The results suggest that this tool has the potential to contribute to an expedite assessment, reaching consensual evaluations of priorities for sustainable conservation, while reducing the time and cost of the process, contributing to support informed redesign decisions.

Recently, existing building sustainability assessment (BSA) tools have been adapted and new BSA tools developed for heritage buildings. Some tools target existing buildings, but seldom cover cultural significance and heritage values. Others target the after-redesign situations – aiming at assessing how sustainable the redesign is. Often BSA tools are complex and time-consuming, with extensive indicators and data requirements. The BPSC developed in this research covers the main aspects of sustainability and related heritage values, in a simpler tool for a baseline assessment.

Brazil has been increasing its participation in the international trade market, mainly due to agricultural and forestry products, as in the case of soybeans and cellulose. This growth led to the expansion of the logistics infrastructure and its use. An important example of this trend is the port of São Luís, MA, in northern Brazil, which saw an increase in exports via rail (more than 200% growth in 6 years) and, consequently, an increase in the circulation of trains within its port complex.

This work proposes a mixed-integer linear programming model for the daily train scheduling problem at this port. All trains operated by VLI, a logistics company, are scheduled to minimize the departure times in order to improve the dwell time of freight train cars.

The railroad system in this Brazilian port consists of two classification yards, five terminals and a double-track railway for circulation. Different products such as grains, minerals, cellulose, and fuels are transported. The model also incorporates different operations at terminals and occupation restrictions due to maintenance and the physical flow of other third-party logistics companies. These features are modeled through a preprocessing step. In this phase, a series of auxiliary sets are defined to simplify constraints, circulation options are mapped, and the double-track is divided into segments based on the transit time with the objective to control track occupation.

This preprocess step also reduces the model complexity and, consequently, the computational time to solve it, as shown in the numerical tests using real-world operational data.

The main gains of the project were a reference train timetable for peak days, standardization of train crossing options, and a support tool for traffic adjustments with other rail operators.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the case of the Valorbio research project, in which students of different high-level programs were involved in the experimental work and in the dissemination of results in collaboration with the research team.

The inclusion in higher education curricula of content related to the sustainable development should be a preferred mechanism for the dissemination of good practices of sustainability. Another equally important way to achieve this is to involve students in research projects that seek solutions to the societal challenges related to sustainable growth. The Valorbio project aims to meet the needs for treating and reusing wastewater and solid waste. Its main goal was the development of modular systems for wastewater treatment based on constructed wetlands, exploring the possibility of the treatment systems being composed of solid waste and by-products from significant industrial sectors.

The students’ contribution to the research work was relevant and simultaneously allowed them to acquire skills on sustainable development. Additionally, the students contributed to the dissemination of the results. The Valorbio project can thus be considered a successful application of the concept of project-based learning (PBL), as a way to include sustainability issues content in the higher education curricula.

The applied experimental work had an original approach regarding the equipment design, the waste materials valuation, as well as the integration of waste treatment processes in the circular economy paradigm. This paper is the first reported PBL experience involving students of short-cycle technical–professional programs in partnership with first and second-level students and a research team.

This chapter aims to analyse how tourism has oscillated from a wicked problem and a geopolitical strategy tool in Brazilian federal tourism public tourism policies (PTP) over the past century (spanning from 1921 to 2022). Recently tourism has garnered significant relevance, emerging as an alternative avenue for development within the constraints and resource limitations faced by the National States. The empirical study collected secondary data from the government official press, encompassing records from the Senate, the House of Representatives, as well as the executive and judiciary branches. Considering this timeframe, a corpus comprising more than 31,000 documents TNAs (‘Tourism Normative Acts’) was meticulously gathered and systematically analysed. Our analytical framework integrates classical geopolitics, with a primary focus on State actors and the nation-building process, and the public policy approach, which is focussed on the degrees of wickedness. Our findings show that (a) the number of international tourists as well as the number of NAT have increased in a considerable way recently, but we cannot directly connect both; (b) three are the periods (1970–1980, 1990–2000, and 2002–2016) in which we can see a tourism geopolitical strategy has been more explicitly and effectively mobilized, and it is not necessarily reflected in the number of NAT, but in the actions generated in each period; and (c) the wicked degree of the tourism policies seem to be reduced according to the more explicit geopolitical strategy is. Despite, the importance tourism has reached, the support system underpinning this endeavour remains deficient, notably in terms of material and financial resources essential for its efficacious execution.

Facility management (FM) is regarded as an emerging issue in civil engineering and is responsible for ensuring the building's expected performance. The purpose of this study is to analyze buildings' current FM processes for educational and high residential segments and propose an FM-building information modeling (BIM) (BIM6D) to understand the information flow and leading players with and without FM-BIM integration.

The research strategy was a case study with data from the FM process of two buildings. This study was carried out in three stages: diagnosis of FM of the two buildings, FM-BIM integration and information flow and leading players analysis. Maintenance activities were categorized according to periodicity and status criteria for each project element for FM-BIM integration and were visualized in the Revit design using Dynamo software.

The results of this study show differences in how FM is conducted, especially in formalization and preventive character, and similarities regarding the difficulty of foreseen and lack of control because of scattered, disconnected and incomplete information on both. The visual appeal of the FM-BIM integration facilitates information access. It optimizes the use of the digital model through the most prolonged phase of the life cycle of a building (post-occupation phase). However, FM-BIM challenges buildings that do not have digital model expertise as residential segments. This study suggests a more significant role for construction companies in these cases.

This study investigates BIM-FM integration of buildings in two different contexts and reveals the importance of a construction company's role in buildings in the residential segment. This study contributes with real-life cases on BIM in existing buildings, discussing the value and challenges of BIM in FM applications.