Francisco de Sousa Ramos

Games are increasingly utilizing economic incentives to enhance key performance metrics associated with user Acquisition, Retention, and Monetization (the ARM funnel). Moreover, certain games take this approach further by establishing virtual economies, thereby fostering a heightened sense of ownership among players [1]. Unfortunately, dealing with virtual economies brings new challenges for game operators, such as the identification and management of the key factors affecting the economy, and consequently users' satisfaction. It is not simple to unveil relevant economic indicators for virtual economies since (a) there is a great amount and diversity of potentially relevant variables, and (b) current models for virtual economies do not address this issue. Departing from the (real) economics, we propose six novel economic indicators for virtual economies, since indicators are useful tools for managing the complexity of real economies. After a preliminary validation of these indicators with experts, we implemented them through a visual dashboard to assist operators in making economic decisions within a commercial Massively Multiplayer Online Game: With Your Destiny. We collected data over a one-year period, encompassing a sample of 416,000 unique players. The results indicate significant improvements in the ARM metrics, alongside enhancements in customer service and operational efficiency. Beyond the proposed indicators, a broader contribution of this work lies in reinforcing the profitable intersection between longstanding economic principles and modern game operations.

Objective: To evaluate how job satisfaction and motivation impact the perception of occupational stress among operating room nursing professionals.

Objetivo: Avaliar como a satisfação e a motivação para o trabalho impactam na percepção de estresse laboral de profissionais de enfermagem de bloco operatório.

Resumo Objetivo Avaliar o estresse laboral, a satisfação e a motivação para o trabalho de profissionais de enfermagem de bloco operatório no Brasil. Métodos Estudo do tipo open survey nacional, realizado entre os meses de agosto e dezembro de 2023. Utilizou-se Escala de Satisfação no Trabalho - EST, o questionário de Motivação para o trabalho e a Escala de Estresse no Trabalho – EET em um formulário online. Resultados Houve um total de 385 respostas, sendo 160 profissionais (41,6%) técnicos ou auxiliares de enfermagem e 225(58,4%) enfermeiros. Houve elevada parcela de profissionais com níveis de estresse entre moderado e elevado (72,98%), tendo sido significativo o resultado de maior estresse moderado a elevado nos profissionais do turno diurno (p=0,01) e sem diferença por gênero nem faixa etária. Não houve diferença estatisticamente significativa entre as variáveis para técnicos e enfermeiros, nem em função do tipo de vínculo. Ter dois ou mais empregos e trabalhar em horários diurnos está associado a maior percepção de estresse relacionado ao trabalho. Conclusão A elevada proporção de profissionais técnicos de enfermagem e enfermeiros com estresse moderado e elevado merece destaque entre os achados da pesquisa.

Objective Evaluating job stress, job satisfaction and job motivation among operating room nurses in Brazil. Methods This was a national open-ended survey carried out between August and December 2023. The Work Satisfaction Scale (WSS), the Motivation for Work questionnaire and the Work Stress Scale (WSS) were used in an online form. Results There were a total of 385 responses, of which 160 professionals (41.6%) were nursing technicians or assistants and 225 (58.4%) were nurses. There was a high proportion of professionals with moderate to high levels of stress (72.98%), with a significant result of greater moderate to high stress in day shift professionals (p=0.01) and no difference by gender or age group. There was no statistically significant difference between the variables for technicians and nurses, nor according to the type of employment. Having two or more jobs and working daytime hours is associated with a higher perception of work-related stress. Conclusion The high proportion of nursing technicians and nurses with moderate and high stress deserves to be highlighted among the research findings.

Higher education evaluation presents itself as a worldwide trend. It aims to improve performance due to its importance for economic and personal growth. Graduate activities are essential for Brazilian research and innovation systems. However, previous studies have disregarded the importance of this educational level and have evaluated efficiency by jointly considering teaching and research or only undergraduate courses. Therefore, this study contributes to Brazilian reality by proving a national graduate activities efficiency evaluation that considers them as a two-stage system (formative and scientific production stages). The study provides three main methodological contributions by presenting a new centralized two-stage dynamic network data envelopment analysis (DNDEA) model with shared resources. Besides measuring efficiency, an efficiency decomposition based on a leader–follower assumption shows managers how much efficiency can alter when one of the stages needs to be prioritized. Finally, a new framework based on modified virtual inputs and outputs provides a bi-dimensional representation of the efficiency frontier. Results indicate the usefulness of the approach for ranking universities, and the need to improve scientific production, highlighting the negative impacts of COVID-19 on the formative process efficiency and showing no significant regional discrepancies regarding performance.

Shared resources are common among supply chain partners and also occur in multiple linked stages of an internal network. The sharing of these resources impacts the organization’s profits. This study is focused on the potential benefits of resource sharing on a three-stage network system and on the profit improvement allocation. Previous treatments concentrate on defining optimal proportions to allocate resources and disregard the impacts of allocations to promote cooperation and are limited to static evaluations. Data Envelopment Analysis performs the decision-making units (DMUs) efficiency measurement. Methodological advances have resulted in models that analyze their internal structure and temporal impacts on efficiency. We propose an integrated cooperative game and dynamic network DEA that considers known quantities of resources used in each stage and the time effects to optimize the system’s profit. Each DMU stage is a player, and we investigate performance before and after resource sharing. Using Shapley value and Nucleolus, it is possible to allocate the benefits obtained based on the marginal contributions of each stage, providing incentives to motivate and maintain cooperation. A numerical example is used to illustrate the method. The results confirm the identification of inefficient DMUs and that sharing resources allows for profit increase for all of them.

Os gastos com internações por doenças do aparelho circulatório são elevados: em 2019, apenas para o Estado da Bahia, Brasil, excederam 153 milhões de reais para o Sistema Único de Saúde, superando os custos de internações por câncer. Esse fato tende a se acentuar com o aumento da expectativa de vida no Brasil (7,3 anos a mais até 2060). A introdução de novas tecnologias pode mitigar o problema. Este estudo analisa o impacto da utilização do telediagnóstico em eletrocardiograma nas internações por doenças cardiovasculares, em 326 municípios baianos durante o período de 2014 a 2020. O método de estimador diff-in-diff foi utilizado para a análise entre os períodos anterior e posterior à implantação do serviço no estado. Os resultados mostram que os municípios que introduziram a nova tecnologia reduziram em seis internações por doenças cardiovasculares a cada ano adicional. No caso das famílias beneficiadas pelo Bolsa Família, a redução foi de 3,26 internações, e de 3,08 entre os municípios com o serviço especializado. Verificou-se um aumento de 7,66 internações na faixa etária de 30 a 59 anos e um aumento de 5,34 entre homens, a cada ano adicional. Os resultados evidenciam uma redução de 1,15 internações por doenças cardíacas reumatológicas e de 1,39 entre as pessoas diabéticas. No quesito raça/cor, foi identificada subnotificação nas condições estudadas, resultando em prognósticos mais severos para a população preta. A tecnologia mostrou-se eficaz para reduzir essa desigualdade, ao expandir o acesso e reduzir as internações, tendo um papel crucial na saúde coletiva e impactando na redução da mortalidade. O tema, portanto, é merecedor de mais estudos, com amostras e períodos amostrais diferentes.