Territorial Dispersion Research Articles

As estratégias territoriais das empresas de Contact Center: especialização dos serviços prestados e a busca por novas localizações

RESUMO Este artigo tem como objetivo analisar as estratégias territoriais das empresas de Contact Center. A especialização dos serviços prestados e a dispersão territorial para áreas mais vantajosas definiu a escolha das três empresas analisadas: Contax, Atento e a “Empresa A”. As estratégias territoriais das duas primeiras expressam bem o que tem sido uma prática comum entre as grandes empresas do ramo: a dispersão das unidades produtivas para novas localidades, especialmente para a região Nordeste; articulada com a centralização do controle nas sedes corporativas, instaladas nas principais metrópoles brasileiras. Por outro lado, a “Empresa A” mantem a maior parte de suas unidades nas principais regiões metropolitanas do Sul e Sudeste, e, em oposição às demais firmas, concentra seus serviços em atividades mais especializadas, de tecnologia da informação e de infraestrutura de rede. Essas diferentes estratégias analisadas no artigo, decorrem, entretanto, de um objetivo comum: a busca por novas formas de acumulação, seja pela localização estratégica, seja pelo uso constante de novos sistemas informacionais.

The wealth of regions: quality of government and SMEs in 172 European regions

With this paper we put forward a novel theoretical argument that the individual’s subjective evaluations of the quality of government (QoG) in terms of its impartiality influences his or her complex assessments of the opportunity and feasibility of a business venture, and calculations on expected long-term utility from business venturing. This in turn affects his or her decision to engage in legal business venturing or not. We hypothesize that high QoG is linked with higher rates of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in a polity and a more even pattern of their territorial dispersion. Using original survey data on QoG from 172 regions in eighteen European Union countries, we find that regions where governments are perceived by their citizens as impartial and free from corruption have on average significantly more SMEs. We also find that in less corrupt countries the spatial distribution of SMEs is more even than in more corrupt countries.

TRACKING VIOLATIONS IN VISUAL RESOURCES IN THE LANDSCAPE OF ASVEJA REGIONAL PARK

Research on landscape stability of regional parks, the status and conditions of the objects and attributes of natural and cultural heritage serve a significant contribution to the survey of the properties of the national heritage possessed in the preserved areas of the Republic of Lithuania. The objective of this article is the analysis of visual landscape resources of Asveja Regional Park in terms of the current state and conditions, changes and modifications within territorial sites as well as with regard to the accumulation and concentration of the objects, their scope and extent. It is possible to assess the efficiency and expediency of an environmental impact taking into consideration research observations. The area of Asveja Regional Park significant for an intense anthropogenic environmental impact and defined in monitoring data sheets and records of Asveja Regional Park referring to 2005–2010 has been selected. Monitoring has been carried out by the Authority of Asveja Regional Park according to the Lithuanian State Environmental Monitoring Program. In order to solve the conflict between society and the environment, the project preconditioned by the use of natural resources and the preservation of valuable objects has been developed. Study on landscape monitoring has been carried out at the local level. It has been fixed within the selected territories, namely, standardised reference sites chosen on the basis of the geosystem and targeted on geophysical–geochemical sensitivity and technogenization with preference for the analysis of the most vulnerable geopotencial territories, i.e. nature reservations, protected areas, shores and the coastlines of lakes providing a wide range of recreational potential. Natural and cultural heritage objects violating regulations on requirements for landscape preservation have been observed in the determined standardized areas as visual resources of the regional park landscape. In order to determine the territorial dispersion of the infringements of requirements for landscape protection, the authors have performed a spatial distribution analysis of visual observation targets calculating nuclear or kernel density. Weight points of requirements for the items violating landscape protection have been attributed thus considering the monetary value of the prescribed fines (following regulations on the specific type of the caused damage). The analysis of the study on specified spatial distribution has been accomplished involving some groups of objects violating requirements for landscape protection. Within the conducted research, the authors investigated the targets that violated requirements for landscape protection and made use of the recorded data. The available findings derive a conclusion that a major part of infringements are considered as recreation violations (40%); violations in usage, trespassing, visiting forests and woodlands (5%) comprise a minor part. In general, the greatest accumulation of infringements are determined to be located in the western and south-eastern part of Asveja Regional Park where their intensity exceeds more than 6 times the concentration of infringements in other investigated areas and territories.

Modelling of decision-making process using scenario methods in maintenance management of selected technical systems

This paper presents the results of research on possibility of using the modelling methods of the exploitation future, including scenario techniques, for the needs of decision-making process within the maintenance works in the selected network technical system. Previous research have shown the organisational and technical specificity of network technical systems (territorial dispersion, specific location of system components, high structural complexity, continuous operations for most of the installations), which requires different approach to maintenance work than in typical industrial enterprises focused on the production line exploitation. Contribution of the paper is attempts to apply methods of modelling of the exploitation future - particularly scenario methods, as a way of maintenance management of network technical system - on the example of water supply system. The article ends with the concept of building set of scenarios for the maintenance decision-making process on the example of one of Polish water supply companies.

Back to Serbia: Life stories of the remigrants from the united states since the beginning of the 21st century to the present

This research focuses on spontaneous remigrations from the United States to Serbia, since the beginning of the 21st century to the present. One of the problems in studying remigrants is a large territorial dispersion of the repatriates. Analysis of the narratives - life stories of the remigrants allows us to perceive the key factors that influenced leaving for the United States and then the causes and motivation for returning to Serbia. In addition, the paper discusses issues related to the reintegration of migrants, the ability to apply acquired knowledge and cultural problems faced by remigrants. Remigrants face a number of problems, and major difficulty is the lack of government institutions to assist their reintegration.

DISPERSION MODELING OF NITROUS OXIDE EMISSIONS FROM A NITRIC ACID PLANT IN DEVNYA REGION, BULGARIA

Within the present research a mathematical modeling is done in order to study the dispersion of nitrous oxide emissions from a single organized source – a nitric acid plant with 363000 tons per year production capacity in the industrial region of Devnya, Bulgaria. Separate simulations are done for the dispersion of N2O emissions without any emission reduction measures being implemented in the plant and for N2O emission dispersion with a secondary N2O decomposing catalyst being installed under different meteorological conditions. Results indicate that a significant decrease of N2O concentration in the ground atmospheric layer is achieved after the implementation of the secondary decomposing catalyst – over 81 % reduction of the hourly average N2O concentration and up to 80 % reduction of the annual average N2O concentration is calculated. Dispersion models also indicate that the territorial dispersion of N2O emissions is reduced as well – the area with N2O concentration below 200 µg/m 3 is 15 times smaller with a secondary N2O decomposing catalyst being installed. Research results provide a tool to assess the decomposing catalyst reduction potential and to predict the impact of N2O emissions upon the ambient air quality in the source region. Research results prove that high temperature catalytic reduction of N2O emissions from nitric acid production by installing secondary decomposing catalyst is an effective method for N2O emission reduction and a tool to combat global warming effect.

El clero de Nueva España y las congregaciones de indios: de la evangelización inicial al III Concilio Provincial mexicano de 1585

In this paper we study the discussions among the friars and clergy of New Spain and their proposals regarding the problem of the territorial dispersion of the indigenous population. These responded to two competing projects of evangelization: the friars’ and the bishops’. Each sector had its own ecclesiastical concept of what the congregations and the goals to be achieved with them should be. In the only decree destined by the bishops to the congregations, in the third Mexican Provincial Council of 1585, any recognition of the work of the friars in previous decades was omitted; on the contrary, the diocesan Church officials protested to the viceroys about the lack of compliance with the royal patents of reductions. In the end, however, the model practiced by the friars of the congregations in the mid sixteenth century prevailed.

A hierarchical model combining distance sampling and time removal to estimate detection probability during avian point counts

Imperfect detection during animal surveys biases estimates of abundance and can lead to improper conclusions regarding distribution and population trends. Farnsworth et al. (2005) developed a combined distance-sampling and time-removal model for point-transect surveys that addresses both availability (the probability that an animal is available for detection; e.g., that a bird sings) and perceptibility (the probability that an observer detects an animal, given that it is available for detection). We developed a hierarchical extension of the combined model that provides an integrated analysis framework for a collection of survey points at which both distance from the observer and time of initial detection are recorded. Implemented in a Bayesian framework, this extension facilitates evaluating covariates on abundance and detection probability, incorporating excess zero counts (i.e. zero-inflation), accounting for spatial autocorrelation, and estimating population density. Species-specific characteristics, such as behavioral displays and territorial dispersion, may lead to different patterns of availability and perceptibility, which may, in turn, influence the performance of such hierarchical models. Therefore, we first test our proposed model using simulated data under different scenarios of availability and perceptibility. We then illustrate its performance with empirical point-transect data for a songbird that consistently produces loud, frequent, primarily auditory signals, the Golden-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia atricapilla); and for 2 ptarmigan species (Lagopus spp.) that produce more intermittent, subtle, and primarily visual cues. Data were collected by multiple observers along point transects across a broad landscape in southwest Alaska, so we evaluated point-level covariates on perceptibility (observer and habitat), availability (date within season and time of day), and abundance (habitat, elevation, and slope), and included a nested point-within-transect and park-level effect. Our results suggest that this model can provide insight into the detection process during avian surveys and reduce bias in estimates of relative abundance but is best applied to surveys of species with greater availability (e.g., breeding songbirds).

Urban Issues and Sustainability

This paper's focus is to reflect on the global growth of urban areas, according to number and size of inhabitants and also according to the environmental, social, cultural and economic impact of this phenomenon. If city growth is an issue which addresses mainly developing countries such as China, India or the states in South America, the features acquired by urbanisation in the OCSE countries, currently undergoing economic and demographic contraction, lead towards a territorial dispersion of the built up areas with serious consequences especially in terms of soil use, pollution and loss of site identity. Thus, the solutions proposed by the various national and supranational programmes intended to guide global urbanisation to a greater sustainability must be differentiated between countries with fully developed economies from those whose economy is currently on the rise, and must also actively involve the local communities. 1 Foreword

A dual bounding scheme for a territory design problem

In this work, we present a dual bounding scheme for a commercial territory design problem. This problem consists of finding a p-partition of a set of geographic units that minimizes a measure of territory dispersion, subject to multiple balance constraints. Dual bounds are obtained using binary search over a range of coverage distances. For each coverage distance a Lagrangian relaxation of a maximal covering model is used effectively. Empirical evidence shows that the bounding scheme provides tighter lower bounds than those obtained by the linear programming relaxation. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study about dual bounds ever derived for a commercial territory design problem.

Biopolítica y desmemoria en el Santiago posmetropolitano

The postmetropolitan condition of Santiago allows the creation of different ways of identity reconstitution, resisting aesthetically the urban fragmentation. This would occur through certain daily practices of domestic design, generating the liberal illusion of entepreneurship, and –at the same time- collaborating on the consolidation of an urban imaginary, whose ultimate effect is a symbolic forgetting of the political violence sustained by the current scenario of territorial dispersion.

Antropossolos em sítios arqueológicos de ambiente cárstico no norte de Minas Gerais

A ocupação e a dispersão territorial dos primeiros colonizadores da América do Sul, sobretudo do Brasil, são ainda pouco conhecidas e exigem esforço interdisciplinar contínuo, envolvendo a antropologia, arqueologia e pedologia. Sob abrigos naturais de rochas calcárias, populações pré-colombianas viveram por milhares de anos, aportando e removendo matérias de naturezas e procedências distintas, desenvolvendo solos antropogênicos muito peculiares, sobre os quais ainda não se têm estudos pedológicos. Para melhor conhecer os solos, procedeu-se à caracterização física, química e mineralógica de solos de dois abrigos calcários, Lapas do Boquete e do Malhador, situados no Parque Nacional Cavernas do Peruaçu, norte de Minas Gerais, tido como uma das mais importantes regiões arqueológicas do país. As amostras foram submetidas à caracterização física, química e mineralógica, ao ataque total, à determinação do carbono orgânico total, além de fracionamento das formas inorgânicas de fósforo. As características químicas dos solos estudados estão condizentes com a natureza calcária da rocha local, apresentando valores de pH elevados (> 7,7). O complexo de troca catiônica é praticamente todo preenchido pelas bases trocáveis, principalmente Ca e Mg, alcançando valores de V de 100 %. Os teores de P-extraível (Mehlich-1) encontrados foram elevados, de 131 a 749 mg dm-3. Nos solos analisados, predominou a fração areia, sendo todas as camadas enquadradas na classe textural franco. É marcante a presença de óxidos com atração magnética em todas as frações, especialmente na fração areia, associada principalmente a camadas carbonizadas. Os solos apresentaram predomínio, em sua matriz, de minerais silicatados do tipo 1:1 (caulinita), associados a minerais do tipo 2:1, basicamente illita. De acordo com os resultados encontrados, os solos estudados apresentaram gênese policíclica, marcada por pronunciada alternância climática associada a distintos períodos de ocupação antrópica, que resultaram na formação de camadas aparentemente sem relação pedogenética entre si.

Characteristics of the urban settlements network in The Republic of Macedonia

The objective of this paper is to analyze of the network of urban settlements in the Republic of Macedonia, their territorial dispersion and operability. The current situation and future perspectives of the urban development of the settlements (development of the current settlements and promising growth of some of the settlements into those with the status of a City) have been analyzed. This issue has been analyzed in order to point out the directions of the spreading of the population on the territory of the Republic of Macedonia, which at the moment has an unfavorable characteristic. The following economic-functional characteristics of the settlements have been analyzed: transportation availability, daily migrations and other criteria.

Commercial territory design planning with realignment and disjoint assignment requirements

A territory design problem motivated by a bottled beverage distribution company is addressed. The problem consists of finding a partition of the entire set of city blocks into a given number of territories subject to several planning criteria. Each unit has three measurable activities associated to it, namely, number of customers, product demand, and workload. The plan must satisfy planning criteria such as territory compactness, territory balancing with respect to each of the block activity measures, and territory connectivity, meaning that there must exist a path between any pair of units in a territory totally contained in it. In addition, there are some disjoint assignment requirements establishing that some specified units must be assigned to different territories, and a similarity with existing plan requirement. An optimal design is one that minimizes a measure of territory dispersion and similarity with existing design. A mixed-integer linear programming model is presented. This model is unique in the commercial territory design literature as it incorporates the disjoint assignment requirements and similarity with existing plan. Previous methods developed for related commercial districting problems are not applicable. A solution procedure based on an iterative cut generation strategy within a branch-and-bound framework is proposed. The procedure aims at solving large-scale instances by incorporating several algorithmic strategies that helped reduce the problem size. These strategies are evaluated and tested on some real-world instances of 5000 and 10,000 basic units. The empirical results show the effectiveness of the proposed method and strategies in finding near optimal solutions to these very large instances at a reasonably small computational effort.

Education, scientific-research and consulting work in agriculture of Serbia

Serbia has small number of producers2 which have encircled production system (from primaryproduction to processing), which do business successful, introduce marketing strategy and production standards, registered their products' mark of origin, succeed to export on EU market, use internet or has its own internet domain, etc. For creation of such, competitive and modern agricultural producer, there is necessity for production specialization, any kind of cooperation and better organization. In same time, there is more space for bigger financial support of state, as expert and consultative support „created“ through strong partnership between public and private sector, i.e. tough and constructive cooperation of state and farmers sector, like as institutions of education, science, research and consultative work. In the paper was given review of number and territorial dispersion of educational institutions, current scientific-research work and consultative functions in agriculture in Serbia, than was pointed out main problems in their functioning and previous work and also proposed concrete suggestions for overcoming of existing limitations, as for modernization /reorganization of those institutions, in a way to be more useful for agricultural producers.

Risk assessment applied to air emissions from a medium-sized Italian MSW incinerator

Risk assessment is a well established procedure for the analysis of the adverse impacts of pollutant substances emitted by waste treatment plants. The aim of the present study was the determination of the impact on human health associated with the activities of an incinerator in the Emilia-Romagna region (Northern Italy). The dispersion of heavy metals and organic pollutants monitored at plant stacks was predicted by the Gaussian model ISC3 (US-EPA). This analysis led to the estimation of risk, connected with various pollutants showing toxic and carcinogenic activities, for different receptors. The values obtained were first compared with the acceptability limits set by US-EPA, and then graphically represented as a territorial dispersion. A cautious approach was followed to calculate risk, by considering the worst, albeit realistic and reliable, estimate for the different parameters. The calculated exposure pathways resulted in different contributions depending on the receptor category (children and adults), even if direct exposure (via inhalation) is generally predominant. However, the resulting risk for both single pollutants studied and their combination all together proved to be within the acceptable limits (all lifetime individual risks being below 10(-6)), according to the procedure followed. The obtained results highlight the importance of using reliable monitoring data on the studied contamination source and, in particular, suggest the advisability of a more in-depth study on the pollution from incineration stacks.

Viagens, tremores e conchas: aspectos da natureza da América em escritos de José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva, José Hipólito Unanúe e Dámaso Antonio Larrañaga

Este artigo apresenta aspectos da produção científica de três ilustrados que atuaram na América do Sul: José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva (1763-1838), José Hipólito Unanúe (1755-1833) e Dámaso Antonio Larrañaga (1771-1848). Os três naturalistas - de trajetórias, territórios e crenças diferenciadas - construíram suas versões sobre aspectos da natureza da América. Em comum, contribuíram com seus trabalhos científicos para a construção da geohistória americana. Foram escolhidos para análise por critérios de dispersão territorial e por suas diferentes abordagens sobre aspectos específicos das Ciências da Terra - temas que ainda hoje têm merecido menor atenção, mesmo entre os historiadores latino-americanos das ciências. Este artigo argumenta que estes personagens não só construíram seus próprios conhecimentos sobre temperamentos (climas) e territórios, como também utilizaram seu conhecimento científico no implemento de ações políticas para os seus respectivos países em conformação.

Biopolítica y desmemoria en el Santiago posmetropolitano

La condición posmetropolitana de la ciudad de Santiago, permite el establecimiento de formas de reconstitución identitaria que pretenden resistir estéticamente la fragmentación urbana. Esto ocurriría mediante ciertas prácticas cotidianas de diseño doméstico que, al mismo tiempo de generar la ilusión liberal del emprendimiento, colaboran en la consolidación de un imaginario urbano, cuyo efecto final es el olvido simbólico de la violencia política que sostiene el actual panorama de dispersión territorial.

Utilización de servicios de salud y flujos asistenciales

This article analyses the use of healthcare services in Catalonia with reference to their variability and cross-territory healthcare flows. The coefficients of variation show a lower degree of territorial dispersion in acute-care and primary-care hospitalisation, and a greater degree in social-healthcare. In the territorial analysis of the penetration indices, five large attraction poles are salient. There is no significant association among healthcare flows between the specialised healthcare given in acute healthcare hospitals, mental healthcare and social-healthcare, whereas a strong association was observed between the set of services associated to the acute-care hospital structure (hospitalisation, outpatient service and emergency care) and also among the social healthcare internment services (medium and long-term stays). This would seem to suggest that the association between flows refers to services that are habitually rendered from one single healthcare mechanism, and not so much to a pattern of cross-territory relations.

Cultural cross-border co-operation among Balkan's countries with the case of Serbia and Bulgaria

Cultural cross-border cooperation includes all fields of cross-border cooperation and gives base for main connections and interactions. Without strengthening cultural cross-border cooperation, it is impossible to build significant relations between neighbors. Culture, as a foundation, an activator and a purpose of development in cross-border regions, represents a cardinal and conditional factor of cross-border cooperation. Today's situation in the Balkans reveals ethnic diversity of this region and territorial dispersion of ethnic groups. This implies at the same time great cultural diversity as well as dispersal of various national cultures over the Balkan's states. During the 20th century Serbia and Bulgaria have very complex political and intrastate relations. But in the last 10 years there have been significant improvements in the cross-border cooperation between Serbia and Bulgaria. The results of these improvements are established Euro-regions and implemented cross-border projects between these two countries. Existing Euro-regions between Serbia and Bulgaria created links between various local authorities and made excellent basis for cross-border initiatives and joint projects to promote common interests across the border and cooperation for the common good of the border areas populations. The well managed cultural cross-border cooperation between these two countries will provide a clear view of common features and raise common identity for the region, contribute to tolerance and understanding between people in this area and enable them to overcome the peripheral status of the border region in their countries and improve the living conditions of the population.