Characterizing landscape changes in central Rondonia using Landsat TM imagery

An analysis of landscape changes in a region of pioneer settlements in central Rondonia, western Brazilian Amazon, was derived from Landsat TM data. Total deforested area increased from 206 x 103 ha in 1977, to 565 x 103 ha in 1985 and to 1210 x 103 ha, or 35.5% of the region, in 1995. Eighty-one per cent of the total 1995 deforestation had occurred in regions within 12.5km from areas of pioneer colonization deforested by 1977. Deforested area exceeded 79% in regions within 12.5km from the region's first road.     

Runtime verification of autopilot systems using a fragment of MTL- $${\int }$$

International Journal on Software Tools for Technology Transfer - Current real-time embedded systems development frameworks lack support for the verification of properties using explicit time where...     

Quality of information and communication technology introduction

Software Quality Journal -     

Do Intelligent Leaders Make a Difference? The Effect of a Leader's Emotional Intelligence on Followers' Creativity

This research investigates the connection between emotional intelligence (EI) and creativity. This was studied by exploring: (i) an association between leaders' EI and their followers' creative output; (ii) an association between six sub‐dimensions of EI and creativity; and (iii) a mediating role of climate in the link between EI and creativity. Two questionnaires (one for leaders and one for employees) were used to collect data in a hospital. Sixty‐six usable leader‐employee dyads were collected. The findings confirmed a positive relationship between leaders' EI and employees' creativity. At an EI's sub‐dimensions level, the current research showed an association between creativity, on one hand, and self‐encouragement and understanding of own emotions, on the other. Finally, no mediating effect of climate was observed. The absence of a mediating effect is interesting, since it suggests a direct link between leaders' EI and employees' creativity, regardless of the climate. This is important, since it calls attention to the paramount role of leaders in shaping individual and organizational behaviours as far as creativity is concerned. The paper also discusses implications for management and practice.     

Brazil’s new national policy on solid waste: challenges and opportunities

Brazil, one of the world’s largest developing countries, has recently introduced a new solid waste management regulatory policy. This new regulatory policy will have implications for a wide variety of stakeholders and sets the stage for opportunities and lessons to be learned. These issues are discussed in this article.     

Gauging food and nutritional care quality in hospitals

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Food and nutritional care quality must be assessed and scored, so as to improve health institution efficacy. This study aimed to detect and compare actions related to food and nutritional care quality in public and private hospitals. METHODS: Investigation of the Hospital Food and Nutrition Service (HFNS) of 37 hospitals by means of structured interviews assessing two quality control corpora, namely nutritional care quality (NCQ) and hospital food service quality (FSQ). HFNS was also evaluated with respect to human resources per hospital bed and per produced meal. RESULTS: Comparison between public and private institutions revealed that there was a statistically significant difference between the number of hospital beds per HFNS staff member (p = 0.02) and per dietitian (p < 0.01). The mean compliance with NCQ criteria in public and private institutions was 51.8% and 41.6%, respectively. The percentage of public and private health institutions in conformity with FSQ criteria was 42.4% and 49.1%, respectively. Most of the actions comprising each corpus, NCQ and FSQ, varied considerably between the two types of institution. NCQ was positively influenced by hospital type (general) and presence of a clinical dietitian. FSQ was affected by institution size: large and medium-sized hospitals were significantly better than small ones. CONCLUSIONS: Food and nutritional care in hospital is still incipient, and actions concerning both nutritional care and food service take place on an irregular basis. It is clear that the design of food and nutritional care in hospital indicators is mandatory, and that guidelines for the development of actions as well as qualification and assessment of nutritional care are urgent.