Abstract
With the introduction of Industry 4.0 technological concepts, suppliers and manufacturers envision new or improved products and services, cost reductions, and productivity gains. In this context, data exchanges between companies in the same or different activity sectors are necessary, while assuring data security and sovereignty. Thus, it is crucial to select and implement adequate standards which enable the interconnection requirements between companies and also feature security by design. The International Data Spaces (IDS) is a current standard that provides data sharing through data spaces mainly composed of homogeneous rules, certified data providers/consumers, and reliability between partners. Implementing IDS in sectors such as textile and clothing is expected to open new opportunities and challenges. This paper proposes a prototype for the IDS Security Components in the Textile and Clothing Industry context. This prototype assures data sovereignty and enables the interactions required by all participants in this supply chain industry using secure communications. The adoption of IDS as a base model in this activity sector fosters productive collaboration, lowers entry barriers for business partnerships, and enables an innovation environment. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Abstract
The digital transformation of manufacturing activities is expected to bring large societal benefits in terms of productivity and sustainability. However, uptake of digital technologies is slower than desirable. As a result, governments are taking action to try to overcome some of the barriers to adoption. However, the mechanisms through which government may act are quite diverse. In this paper, we compare the national strategies across the 27 countries members of the European Union. We map each country's initiative to 14 barriers to the adoption of digital technologies in manufacturing observed in the literature. We observe that most institutional efforts focus on providing funding, developing new regulatory frameworks related to data privacy and security, and creating human capital. Some known barriers to adoption observed at the firm level, such as the lack of off-the-shelf solutions, or the need for retrofitting old equipment, are largely overlooked. We do not find any relationship between the number of initiatives proposed by each country, and the country's existing level of digitalization. We conclude by proposing several policy recommendations, as well as directions for future research.

Abstract
Decent Work Agenda consists of a comprehensive initiative for promoting safety at work and social protection. Over 20 years since its conceptual release, measuring the progress of its elements is still challenging even after the publication of the decent work indicators guideline by the International Labour Organization in 2012. To close this gap, we use a Directional Distance Function (DDF) to measure the efficiency of safe work environment, and propose a combined measure taking into consideration also the efficacy. To illustrate the application of DDF in a reality-based case, we conducted a longitudinal study in a multinational organization. Data were collected from 21 branches of the company over 4 years (2018-2021). In the period of analysis, 60% of the branches were efficient in average, composing an overall efficiency score of 0.91. Our results also indicated low dispersion between the efficiency scores year on year due to a small-scale interquartile range. Finally, the use of efficiency combined with efficacy resulted in a promising approach for managerial applications. This research presents some contributions. One is the novelty approach of measuring the efficiency of safe work environment using a DDF model in a real-world application. Another is the managerial benefits of identifying benchmarks, as well as revealing potential improvements as a mechanism to reduce decent work deficits. From a modeling perspective, our conclusions suggest caution in considering only efficiency to measure safe work environment due to its relative nature. Thus, further studies are recommended to explore the use of combined measures in the analysis of decent work.

Abstract
A benchmarking evaluation instrument was designed with a European Union country regulatory authority for water supply and wastewater treatment services to determine the efficient operating cost of its service providers that operated in the wholesale market segment in the 2017-2021 period. To this end, the non-parametric Data Envelopment Analysis technique was adapted to a robust and conditional approach. The results point to similar mean efficiency scores between water supply and wastewater services in the five-year period, despite the greater heterogeneity in the latter. Furthermore, the estimated potential cost savings for both services ranged from about 2% to 3%.

Abstract
A área de conhecimento associada à gestão de ativos potencia a extração de valor de ativos físicos, incorporando uma abordagem integrada que envolve riscos, custos e desempenho. Este trabalho propõe uma nova abordagem para selecionar projetos de investimento em infraestruturas no âmbito da gestão de ativos. A métrica padrão utilizada para a seleção de projetos em ativos múltiplos é o Índice de Valor de Infraestruturas (IVI), que tem sido utilizado para caracterizar ativos do setor de águas em diversos países. Este trabalho desenvolveu dois modelos de programação linear inteira mista. O primeiro modelo de otimização trata de um problema de alocação de orçamento de capital selecionando projetos de investimento com vista à maximização da condição dos ativos. O segundo modelo de otimização trata de um problema de planeamento de orçamento, visando minimizar o capital necessário para manter os ativos nas condições desejadas. A aplicação dos modelos é ilustrada por um estudo de caso de uma empresa que opera no setor da água em Portugal. Os resultados obtidos nos diferentes cenários analisados são discutidos com vista a apoiar o desenho de políticas de gestão de ativos mais eficientes.

Abstract
Sectorization consists of grouping the basic units of a large territory to deal with a complex problem involving different criteria. Resectorization rearranges a current sectorization avoiding substantial changes, given a set of conditions. The paper considers the case of the distribution of geographic areas of fire brigades in the north of Portugal so that they can protect and rescue the population surrounding the fire stations. Starting from a current sectorization, assuming the geographic and population characteristics of the areas and the fire brigades’ response capacity, we provide an optimized resectorization considering two objectives: to reduce the rescue time by maximizing the compactness criterion, and to avoid overload situations by maximizing the equilibrium criterion. The solution method is based on the Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm (NSGA-II). Finally, computational results are presented and discussed. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.