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Several types of seeds have been initially used in the food industry due to the great potential that vegetable proteins have. Baru is a fruit commonly found in the Cerrado biome, having a high nutritional value. This paper aimed to determine and analyze the drying kinetics of whole and defatted baru almond flours at different temperatures. The flour resulting from almond milling was defatted using petroleum ether. The drying processes were performed at temperatures of 40, 50 and 60 ºC. The mathematical models of Page, Henderson and Pabis, Midilli & Kucuk, Thompson and Approximation of Diffusion were fitted to the experimental data. The results showed a noticeable effect of air temperature on the drying kinetics of whole and defatted baru almond flours. According to the statistical parameters of analysis, the models Midilli & Kucuk and Page were the ones with the best fits to the experimental data. The effective diffusivity values found ranged from 8.02 × 10–10 to 19.90 × 10–10 m2 s-1 and for the activation energy were 22.39 and 39.37 KJ mol-1 for whole and defatted almonds, respectively.

RESUMO Este artigo investiga o perfil de uso inadequado em serviços de saúde pública no Brasil, através da análise das características do usuário e das circunstâncias de atendimento de usuários de call centers. São utilizadas informações de centrais de aconselhamento médico por telefone. Um modelo de regressão logística binária é proposto para estimar as relações entre o perfil do usuário, as circunstâncias de atendimento e a demanda inadequada. Impactaram significativamente para a probabilidade de demanda inadequada a maior complexidade da intenção inicial do usuário e o uso do sistema de serviço de saúde nas horas finais do dia. ABSTRACT This article investigates the profile of inappropriate use in public health services in Brazil, through the analysis of user's characteristics and customer service circumstances of call centers. Information from telephone medical advice centers is used. A binary logistic regression model is proposed to estimate the relationships between the user profile, the service circumstances and the inadequate demand. The greater complexity of the user's initial intention and the use of the health service system in the final hours of the day were significantly impacted by the probability of inadequate demand.

The public and private health systems around the world face an expansion of services in parallel with the demand for improved quality and cost savings. Quality and efficiency of such systems are affected by the underestimation of the needs for patient care, compromising the clinical condition of the patient and system costs. The objective of this study is to identify the factors that determine the underestimation of the need for health services in Brazil. The survey used data collected from medical advice call center reports, totaling 19.690 observations; 2.166 of these have involved underestimation of needs, wherein the complexity of the intention of the patient is smaller than the recommendation proposed by the physician, which is divided into very or less critical. Through a logistic regression model, it was possible to estimate the critical factors in determining the underestimation in very and less critical needs for health services in Brazil. The closeness to the weekend increases the probability of a very critical underestimation. Daytime hours feature a very critical underestimation tendency. In terms of age groups, we can see a probability of very critical underestimation in younger individuals. This study showed that the user profile that was most likely to have very critical underestimation of the demand for health care was that of the underage individual who calls on weekends and in the early hours of the day.

This study aims to explore the relationship between the quality perceived in the logistics service of internet purchases in Brazil and the dimensions of quality proposed in the SERVPERF model. The quality dimensions contained in the SERVPERF model were the input for the validation of the relationship analysed through structural equation modelling (SEM). The sample of this study consisted of 249 consumers of products purchased through the internet. The results of the application of the SEM evidenced that aspects related to reliability and assurance are significant for the perceived quality formation in e-commerce logistics services. The main contribution of this work focuses on the indicative for e-commerce companies on aspects of the services that can be oriented, in order to improve the perception of the quality of the service provided, as well as, contribute to the expansion of the improvement of this service and economic efficiency of corporate activities.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to set out a method for evaluating environmental impacts in the area of gas stations.Design/methodology/approachThe design and implementation of this study followed steps that enabled a survey to be conducted by combining a wide variety of sources and bibliographical material, such as manuals, regulations, standards, laws and articles necessary for drawing up the model and the indicators of environmental impacts; and next the authors used two case studies to test the proposed model and exemplify the application.FindingsThis research identified the sources that cause adverse environmental impacts and the main preventive actions, as well as those for eliminating environmental impacts caused by the activities of the gas stations, so was possible developing a model which evaluated the real environmental situation of gas stations, using indicators to identify opportunities for improvements in the enterprises with ISO 14001 certification and non‐certificated enterprises.Research limitations/implicationsThis study used some international standards and some specific laws from Brazil, but it can be adapted to the current standards for gas stations in other countries.Practical implicationsBased on findings, it is believed that by using the model proposed in this research study, it is possible to diagnose the real environmental situation of the gas stations, thereby contributing to the preservation of the environment, sustainable development and above all to improving people's quality of life.Originality/valueThe originality of this study is the development of a viable model that can be used by enterprise, researchers and governmental environmental agencies for evaluating the environmental impacts of gas stations, integrating four different variables.

Background The current economic and social context has required health systems to provide top quality services and to be efficient in controlling costs. An obstacle to achieve these goals is the inappropriate health services demand. This study aims to present these inappropriate health service demand determinants from data on telephone calls made to a medical advice call centre. Methods This study used a Brazilian medical advice call centre data sample in the period of November and December 2012 (n = 19690), which supplied data on the user’s initial request, the physician’s recommendation, information on the patient and circumstances (the day and time of the day of the telephone call). The convergence between user intent and medical recommendation consists in adequate demand; otherwise the divergence consists in an inadequate one. In this way, using a logistic regression model, the critical factors that determine inappropriate health services request could be estimated. Results In general, the user’s initial intent is the most critical for the inappropriate health system demand occurrence: the greater the complexity of the patient’s initial intent, the greater the chance the intent is wrong: (OR: 1.160; 95% CI: 1.113-1.210). With regard to the social characteristics, men are more likely to make inappropriate requests (OR: 1.102; 95% CI: 1038-1169); as well as youngsters are more likely to use the system incorrectly (OR = .993; 95% CI: .992 - .994). Regarding the circumstances (day and time of the call), requests in the final hours of the day and on days close to the weekend are more likely to be the inappropriate ones (OR: 1.082 for each six hour increase; 95% CI: 1.049-1.116) and weekday (OR: 1.017 for each day increase; 95% CI: 1.002-1.032). Conclusions The critical profile for the inappropriate use occurrence consists of males and youngsters, who use the health service in the final hours of the day and at weekends, and mainly want to use more complex services. A practical implication of this research is to provide health systems managers, supporting information to the most critical users in order to assist them in making a decision when asking for health care.