BACKGROUND: Telework has been widely studied by public and private organizations; however, in ergonomics, studies that focused on this topic are still sporadic. OBJECTIVE: Thus, this article endeavours to systematize the qualified scientific research related to ergonomics and teleworking to determine the main benefits and disadvantages and to identify the main issues addressed by authors. METHODS: A thorough research was conducted in the Scopus/Embase and Web of Science databases for this review. The following descriptors were used for the cataloguing of articles: “teleworking”, “telecommuting”, “telecommuters”, “home office”, “ergonomics” and “human factors”. 36 studies were selected. RESULTS: The study highlights four relevant questions in the scientific literature: a) where is the discussion of these themes consolidated; b) what are the main descriptors related to the discussion; c) which journals and conferences establish a scientific debate on the topic; and d) what are its main advantages and disadvantages. CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest that telecommuting can be a valuable tool for balancing professional and family life, which helps to improve the well-being of workers; however, several factors can influence the overall remote working experience which leads to the need for companies to adopt unique strategies reflecting their unique situation.

The growth of the urban population raises concern about municipal public managers in the sense of providing emergency medical services (EMS) that are aligned with the needs of prehospital emergency medical care demanded by the population. The literature review aims at presenting the response time of emergency medical services in several parts of the world and discussing some factors that interfere in the result of this indicator such as GDP (Gross Domestic Product) percentage spent on health and life expectancy of countries. The study will also show that in some of the consulted articles, authors suggest to EMS recommendations for decreasing the response time using simulations, heuristics and metaheuristics. Response time is a basic indicator of emergency medical services, in such a way that researchers use the descriptive statistics to evaluate this parameter. Europe and the USA outstand in the publication of studies that present this information. Some articles use stochastic and mathematical methods to suggest models that simulate scenarios of response time reduction and suggest such proposals to the local EMS. Countries in which the response time was identified have a high index of human development and life expectancy between 74.7 and 83.7 years.

Background: Multiobjective decision-making processes present a high degree of complexity in their solution, and tools such as multicriteria decision analysis appear as a way to facilitate the decision-makers' solution and ensure that the decision is made cohesively and efficiently. In the public health sector, decisions are even more delicate because they work not only with the direct influence of human needs, but also with limited financial resources. An important point for the emergency care units is the triage system, which consists of a pre-evaluation of the patients, classifying them according to the degree of life risk. Through triage, the patient can be attended more quickly and efficiently, streamlining the whole process. Thus, the present research endeavored to determine the most appropriate triage protocol for emergency healthcare units in Natal-RN city in Brazil and may help others less advanced countries to determine the most appropriate triage protocol for emergency healthcare. Methods: In this study, we used the multicriteria analysis method known as FITradeoff. In addition, interviews and structured questionnaires applied with nurses, specialists and directors. Results: Based on the questionnaires and preferences presented by the decision-makers, the Spanish Triage System was the most suitable protocol for the emergency care units, which presented with high ease of use and implementation. Conclusions: This study reached its main objective, which was to determine the most appropriate triage protocol. In addition, it was observed the possibility of new research, such as the development of a specific protocol for this emergency care units and the creation of an application software for this new protocol.

The present article seeks to describe how Big Data impacts on SMEs strategy, focusing both on planning and the use of strategy tools. It is a result of a participatory and practical action research in a small British Company ($2.5 Million annual turnover) specialized in business intelligence, conferences and tradeshows during 2014 to 2017. Throughout the research period, Big Data had a profound and multifaceted impact on the strategy and operations of the company, resulting in the changing of its products, adoption of new and more dynamic CRM systems, rethinking of the strategic tools utilized by the senior management and definition of new long term strategic goals. As a conclusion, it was noted that cultural predisposition to adopt Big Data technologies had a defining influence over the course of the strategic planning and operations; as the strategy for Big Data has to go beyond simply implementing technological changes – it actually has to exist before the adoption of new technologies is even considered – demanding commitment from the senior management team as well as the operational side of the business.

Atualmente, diversos fatores impulsionam a internacionalização das empresas, porém, esses mesmos fatores são permeados de riscos potenciais como barreiras físicas e culturais, além da severa competição que existe no mercado mundial. Neste contexto, o presente trabalho analisa e descreve como se deu o processo de inserção internacional de uma empresa Potiguar no segmento de castanhas, frutas secas e produtos oleaginosos com dez anos no mercado externo (países do MERCOSUL). O trabalho possui uma abordagem descritiva, de natureza essencialmente qualitativa, seguindo o modelo metodológico de estudo de caso. A coleta de dados se deu através de análise documental e de entrevistas estruturadas e semiestruturadas com o CEO da empresa. Na análise documental, buscou-se levantar as principais teorias sobre internacionalização e comércio exterior, assim como dados relevantes da empresa e seu mercado alvo. Nas entrevistas estruturadas, utilizou-se um questionário com uma escala tipo Likert de modo a quantificar aspectos subjetivos da vivência do empresário, baseando-se nos principais construtos relativos à internacionalização de empresas presentes na literatura especializada. Através da análise dos dados foi possível observar que a empresa é bem estruturada nos elementos estratégicos, táticos e operacionais relativos à exportação apresentando poucas lacunas estruturais ou estratégicas. A empresa possui uma estratégia de internacionalização ativa e gradual, voltada para aproximação com mercados culturalmente próximos e pode servir de modelo para outras empresas do ramo devido à sua maturidade exportadora. Também foi possível apontar elementos pontuais para a melhoria das estratégias de comercialização dos produtos empresa e sua estratégia de transição digital.

Inclusive education in Brazil is part of an educational policy from the Law of Directives and Bases of National Education (LDBN 9394/96), which determines that people with special needs must be included in regular education classrooms. Overall, educational institutions lack professionals and content that favours inclusive education. The current work focused on students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), aiming to create and validate didactic sequences with the use of augmented reality (AR) to increase class engagement whilst providing to teachers and their assistants tools for the creation of other didactic sequences regardless of the curricular component. The research was exploratory, using the procedures applied in case studies. Once the bibliographic study was carried out and the AR tools pre-selected, the authors collected data with teachers and later suggested and validated the didactic sequences carried out by the students. The research showed the potential of AR as a tool to engage and make it possible to incorporate adapted school activities in order to have a greater participation of students with ASD. It was observed that training teachers and assistants to use other digital technological resources is essential for other practices to be developed and for the inclusion process to become increasingly natural.

Background In Brazil, many public hospitals face constant problems related to high demand vis-à-vis an overall scarcity of resources, which hinders the operations of different sectors such as the surgical centre, as it is considered one of the most relevant pillars for the proper hospital functioning, due to its complexity, criticality as well as economic and social importance. Proper asset management based on well-founded decisions is, therefore, a sine-qua-non condition for addressing such demands. However, subjectivity and other difficulties present in decisions make the management of hospital resources a constant challenge. Methods Thus, the present work proposes the application of a hybrid approach, formed by the QFD tools, fuzzy logic and SERVQUAL as a decision support tool for the quality planning of the surgical centre of the Onofre Lopes Teaching Hospital (Hospital Universitário Onofre Lopes—HUOL). To accomplish such objective, it was necessary to discover and analyse the main needs of the medical team working in the operating room, through the application of the SERVQUAL questionnaire, associated with fuzzy logic. Results Then, the most relevant deficiencies were transformed into entries for the QFD-fuzzy, where they were translated into project requirements. Soon after, the analysis of the existing relationships between the inputs and these requirements was carried out, generating the ranking of actions with the greatest impact on the improvement of the surgical centre overall quality. Conclusions As a result, it was found that the proposed methodology can optimize the decision process to which hospital managers are submitted, improving the surgical centre operation efficiency.

O presente trabalho objetiva propor uma releitura da análise SWOT, apresentando um modelo adequado às demandas e transformações das organizações modernas, focando em uma definição mais robusta e específica das categorias da matriz SWOT – forças fraquezas, oportunidades e ameaças. A pesquisa foi dividida em duas etapas: i) pesquisa bibliográfica e documental; e ii) pesquisa-ação com observação participante. Durante o período de 2014 a 2016 em uma empresa Britânica no ramo de Business Intelligence, pôde-se avaliar o progresso do uso e da adaptação da análise SWOT às demandas de competitividade. Baseados nas evidências documentais e empíricas, os autores propuseram uma releitura da MATRIZ SWOT em que cada uma das dimensões originais é subdividida em cinco subcategorias, oferecendo assim, uma ferramenta para dar suporte a análises mais detalhadas e robustas. As forças e fraquezas são divididas nas seguintes categorias: i) sintomáticas; ii) adormecidas; iii) constantes; iv) circunstanciais; e iv) tangíveis. As oportunidades são divididas nas seguintes categorias: i) exploradas; ii) passageiras; iii) desperdiçadas; iv) inacessíveis; e v) disfarçadas. Por fim, as ameaças apresentam as seguintes subcategorias: i) constantes; ii) passageiras; iii) adormecidas; iv) provocadas; e v) disfarçadas. Este trabalho contribui com a literatura e a prática da gestão estratégica ao oferecer uma alternativa para endereçar as dificuldades de precisão na definição das categorias da Matriz SWOT, criando subcategorias até então não levantadas na literatura para que se possa mais precisamente abarcar forças e fraquezas e melhor avaliar oportunidades e ameaças, validando assim, a continuidade do uso desta ferramenta.