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Pilot‐scale surface‐flow, subsurface‐flow and floating aquatic plant constructed wetland system designs were installed and evaluated to determine the effectiveness of constructed wetlands to immobilize and remove metals such as cadmium, zinc, copper, chromium, lead and nickel in tertiary effluent wastewater in a Midwestern US climate (central Illinois). Following wetland treatment, average concentrations of copper decreased from 56.6μg/l in influent to 7.9μg/l (86.0 per cent reduction) in the FAP system, 9.2μg/l (83.7 per cent reduction) in the SSF system and 11.0μg/l (80.6 per cent reduction) in the SF system, respectively. Results of ANOVA indicated that differences in concentration reduction of copper among the three wetlands were not statistically significant. The average concentration of chromium decreased from 1.31μg/l in influent to 0.4μg/l (69.5 per cent reduction) in all system designs. Copper concentrations were reduced consistently with increasing wetland retention time, with most of concentration reduction having occurred in the first wetland cell for all system designs.

The purpose of this paper is to study the level of importance existing among the indicators that were previously defined for a Performance Measurement Systems (PMS) and are relative to franchises in Brazil, using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) methodology, together with a series of tests, which are responsible by verifying the degree of reliability, robustness and stability of the parameters used and the results obtained. As a result, the author suggests that the diagnosing of the five delimited indicators have different relevance assigned to them.

This paper reviews extant literatures in Franchise, PMS, Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM), in specific the theory about AHP.

The authors found that it was possible justified, for both the relative and the evaluative method, that the I3 was the main point of the system and, as a consequence, be considered as priority when talking about sectorial development of franchises in Brazil. As for the other indicators, even being located in a level lower than I3, they must be taken into contemplation in these measurements, however, with a relatively inferior importance degree.

It was possible to better comprehend which economics and non-economic factors selected have a more predominance in the Brazilian franchise context, according to characteristics of the companies present.

The absence of scientific papers that describe the relevance level of the main factors that influence in the Brazilian franchise system.

Milton Nascimento is one of the most prolific Brazilian singers and songwriters of all time, an artist who has formed friendships and made songs with a host of Brazilian artists, with international stars from Latin America, and with artists abroad. Milton’s repertoire has made its way into the fabric of musical compilations of Brazilian music for international listeners. Perhaps unbeknownst to these international listeners, Milton, as an Afro-Brazilian artist, reflects a complex and paradoxical relationship to “race” in his music – at times openly touching upon racial themes, even during an area when the government forbade open discussion of racial tension in Brazil – but at times signifying race more subtly, either through subtle references to diversity in Brazil or through the very elements of his music.

This research aims to highlight the values, principles and recommendations for conservation in order to establish valid strategies for the conservation of earthen built heritage. This is done following a methodology which uses indirect (bibliography) and direct (case study) sources systematically analysed from different perspectives: the values of Earth as a material and of architectural and vernacular heritage; the heritage conservation principles found in international documents; and the analysis of over 3,000 case studies from which good practices in earthen architecture conservation are extracted.

Earthen built architectural heritage is found widely in all parts of the world, in archaeological sites and monumental and vernacular architecture, which research centres and researchers are increasingly studying and cataloguing. However, despite its richness and historic and cultural values, as well as its many merits in environmental sustainability, sociocultural and socio-economic terms, the value of this heritage has not been fully recognized in fields with major repercussions in conservation.

Finally, these data are cross-referenced to establish the broadest possible strategies to guarantee all aspects to be taken into account in the conservation of earthen built architectural heritage.

The text provides an overview of the different methodologies in order to extract specific strategies applicable to the conservation of this heritage, both locally and globally.

Through the case of Blanca Sinchi, the following analysis presents valuation criteria that have resulted in the invisibility of social actors and cultural patrimony (cultural heritage) elements, and some contradictions in their acknowledgment process. In addition, the paper explains how architecture, among other historic assets, has made women and their contributions invisible.

Bibliographic analysis and semi-structured interviews were carried out to theorize about the thermodynamic system of lime to propose a matri-lineal system category and expand the understanding of the participation of women in the receipt, management and transmission of what is called patrimony.

In heritage places, such as Cuenca (Ecuador), cultural richness extends from the Historic Center to the rest of the territory and its actors. However, there are intrinsic elements, such as unknown, but fundamental, oral or family traditions associated with the role of women. The case of Blanca Sinchi and lime is evidence of this, as it shows the typical scenario affected by gender and by disparate power dynamics that do not consider desirable attributes (authenticity, integrity, identity, bequest, option, existence, among others) in the conservation of architectural patrimony. A deep redefinition process, or even a change in the valuation system, is needed. Also, the history behind built heritage items must be explored to find the contributions made by women.

Proposing a matri-lineal system category to expand the understanding of the participation of women in the receipt, management and transmission of what is called patrimony, allows redefining and rewriting local and global history, acknowledging the role of women. In this way, the proposal questions not only the hegemony of the term “cultural patrimony” pigeonholed in paternal legacy but also the term “cultural heritage” as a synonym and framework that, while expanding material values, it does not effectively include, at least for Ibero-Romance language territories, the broad set of tangible and intangible values, as well as the know-how and skills of artisans.

The purpose of this paper is to draw a picture on the reality of furniture industries in relation to management practices for project design of new products.

In order to do so it was developed a multiple case study in three companies of the sector located in Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul. This study was based on verification criteria focussing on project’s lifecycle.

As a result, it was possible to detect major faults from the organizations examined, it was found that processes are analyzed in a non-formalized and non-standardized way and, thus, restricting the integration of the projective stages, which reduced the quality of the final product.

From the results obtained in the multiple case study, it was possible to propose actions managerial characteristics that demonstrate the process of design of new products as a result of an operational standard, integrated with the management practices of the organization.

This paper aims to monitor the urban landscape through the perceptions of residents and visitors, identifying features that cause visual impacts and providing insights for landscape management decision-makers. Captured impressions about the city whilst moving around are important to assess the satisfaction of city residents and city visitors through key elements, such as directional signage, outdoor advertising, restaurants’ outdoor terrace furniture, urban furniture, green spaces, traffic, cleaning, pedestrian areas, visitor flow and conservation of monuments, museums and buildings.

A survey was applied in the historical Porto city centre (Portugal) to understand residents’ and visitors’ perceptions of the city landscape and assess the differences between these two groups. Cronbach’s alpha was used to assess the reliability of the constructs (dimensions) of urban landscape. Non-parametric Mann-Whitney test was used to find significant differences in the perceptions of residents and visitors.

The results suggest significant differences in the perceptions. Residents value more two constructs of the landscape (heritage conservation and transport mobility) whilst visitors value more other two (pedestrian mobility and aesthetic quality). It is showed that residents have a strong sense of place and are concerned with the conservation of historical heritage. Visitors are more concerned with dimensions intrinsically related to tourism.

This research allowed to fill a gap found in the literature, namely, the importance of considering the perceptions of different actors in the urban landscape monitoring. These results are an important contribution for local authorities to understand the value of urban landscape elements from the perspective of residents and visitors. This study opened the possibility of comparing the results from different historical cities centres.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a competitiveness measurement system for start-ups considering multiple critical success factors.

The methodological approach uses concepts from key performance indicators (KPIs) and multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) based on the fuzzy AHP (FAHP) methodology to weight the criteria related to fundamental points of view (FPVs) and critical success factors (CSFs).

Data collection was performed with 21 specialists and 28 start-ups, which returned the weights and performance of CSFs and FPVs related to the start-ups’ competitiveness. The results show only one start-up had a highly competitive global performance. In addition, all start-ups showed low competitiveness related to industry 4.0 technologies.

The article collaborates with existing research as a starting point for discussions on the subject, considering that previous research did not address the measurement of the start-ups’ competitiveness level through multiple factors, as developed in this article. In addition, we provide decision-makers and other stakeholders in the start-up ecosystem with a robust measurement system to assess business competitiveness and diagnose the company’s situation.