Risk management in software projects through Knowledge Management techniques: Cases in Brazilian Incubated Technology-Based Firms

In businesses such as the software industry, which uses knowledge as a resource, activities are knowledge intensive, requiring constant adoption of new technologies and practices. Another feature of this environment is that the industry is particularly susceptible to failure; with this in mind, the objective of this research is to analyze the integration of Knowledge Management techniques into the activity of risk management as it applies to software development projects of micro and small Brazilian incubated technology-based firms. Research methods chosen were the Multiple Case Study. The main risk factor for managers and developers is that scope or goals are often unclear or misinterpreted. For risk management, firms have found that Knowledge Management techniques of conversion combination would be the most applicable for use; however, those most commonly used refer to the conversion mode as internalization.. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. APM and IPMA.

Knowledge-based risk management: Survey on Brazilian software development enterprises

A risks management, carried on in an effective way, leads the software development to success and may influence on the organization. The knowledge takes part of such a process as a way to help taking decisions. This research aimed to analyze the use of Knowledge Management techniques to the Risk Management in software projects development and the possible influence on the enterprise revenue. It had, as its main studying subject, Brazilian incubated and graduated software developing enterprises. The chosen research method was the Survey type. Multivariate statistical methods were used for the treatment and analysis of the obtained results, this way identifying the most significant factors, that is, enterprise's achievement constraining factors and those outcome achievement ones. Among the latter we highlight the knowledge methodology, the time of existence of the enterprise, the amount of employees and the knowledge externalization. The results encourage contributing actions to the increasing of financial revenue. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.

Product-portfolio management: A framework based on Methods, Organization, and Strategy

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Bamboo as sustainable material used in design and civil construction: species, management, characterization and applications

The use of bamboo as construction and raw material for producing products can be considered a feasible alternative to the abusive use of steel, concrete and oil byproducts. Its use can also reduce the pressure on the use of wood from native and planted forests. Although there are thousands of bamboo species spread about the world and Brazil itself has hundreds of native species, the use and basic knowledge of its characteristics and applications are still little known and little disseminated. This paper's main objective is to introduce the species, the management phases, the physical and mechanical characteristics and the experiences in using bamboo in design and civil construction as per the Bamboo Project implemented at UNESP, Bauru campus since 1994. The results are divided into: a) Field activities - description of the technological species of interest, production chain flows, types of preservative treatments and clump management practices for the development, adaptation and production of different species of culms; b) Lab experiments - physical and mechanical characterization of culms processed as laminated strips and as composite material (glue laminated bamboo – glubam); c) Uses in projects - experiences with natural bamboo and glubam in design, architecture and civil construction projects. In the final remarks, the study aims to demonstrate, through practical and laboratory results, the material's multi-functionality and the feasibility in using bamboo as a sustainable material.

Line-pack management for producing electric power on peak periods

The distribution of natural gas is carried out by means of long ducts and intermediate compression stations to compensate the pressure drops due to friction. The natural gas compressors are usually driven by an electric motor or a gas turbine system, offering possibilities for energy management, one of these consisting in generating energy for use in-plant or to commercialize as independent power producer. It can be done by matching the natural gas demand, at the minimum pressure allowed in the reception point, and the storage capacity of the feed duct with the maximum compressor capacity, for storing the natural gas at the maximum permitted pressure. This allows the gas turbine to drive an electric generator during the time in which the decreasing pressure in duct is above the minimum acceptable by the sink unit. In this paper, a line-pack management analysis is done for an existing compression station considering its actual demand curve for determining the economic feasibility of maintaining the gas turbine system driver generating electricity in a peak and off-peak tariff structure. The potential of cost reduction from the point of view of energy resources (natural gas and electric costs) is also analyzed. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automatic dimming multi-lamp fluorescent management system with active input power factor corrector stage

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Chemical attributes of a savannah Typic Hapludox soil under management systems

O trabalho teve por objetivo estudar as modificações de atributos químicos de um Latossolo Vermelho após dois anos de manejo com adubação orgânica e/ou mineral com diferentes sistemas de cultivo. O experimento foi realizado na área experimental da Universidade Estadual Paulista - UNESP, localizada no município de Selvíria, Estado do Mato Grosso do Sul, no ano agrícola 2004/2005 e 2005/2006. Os tratamentos foram: cultivo convencional; cultivo mínimo e semeadura direta. As adubações foram: testemunha (sem adubação); adubação mineral (300 kg ha-1 da fórmula 20-00-20); adubação orgânica (esterco bovino - 20 Mg ha-1); adubação orgânica (esterco bovino) + ½ adubação mineral recomendada para a cultura utilizada; 20 e 30 Mg ha-1 de lodo de esgoto. em um ano foi utilizada a soja como cultura e no seguinte o sorgo. Avaliaram-se os atributos químicos do solo em quatro camadas. Os atributos químicos do Latossolo Vermelho foram modificados no primeiro ano após as adubações; a adubação com esterco, lodo de esgoto e a combinação do esterco+adubação mineral foram eficazes em modificar os atributos químicos do solo estudado; o lodo de esgoto foi mais eficaz na recuperação do P do solo e, a semeadura direta contribuiu para o aumento de K no solo

Revegetation and Soil Management Effects on Chemical Properties of a Saprolite Resulting from Deep Soil Removal

During the building of a hydroelectrical power plant at Ilha Solteira in the Parana River (Brazil), materials of a highly weathered soil Oxisol were extracted from a depth between 5 and 8 m for engineering works. This resulted in an abandoned depression area. The topsoil was not salvaged and the open pit was not backfilled, and as result vegetation hardly or not at all recovered. on the residual saprolite materials, an experimental field was established to assess different soil rehabilitation treatments. Field experiments were initiated in 1992. After soil tillage, two different crops and three different liming strategies were compared, giving six combinations. In addition, two uncropped control treatments, tilled and no-tilled, were established so that a total of eight treatments were assessed. The experimental design consisted of four randomized experimental blocks, which included a total of 32 plots with a plot area of 100 m(2). This experiment was used to study the effectiveness of the soil-reclamation treatments after a 9-year period. Soil samples were taken at three different depths (0-10, 10-20, and 20-40 cm), and they were analyzed routinely for pH, organic-matter content, and cation exchange capacity (CEC). Revegetation of the abandoned saprolite material increased soil organic-matter content and cation exchange capacity (CEC), and to some extent small differences between treatments were evidenced. Exchangeable calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg) recovered faster than organic-matter content. A significant linear relationship was found between organic-matter content and CEC, suggesting continued addition of organic material will further approach the value of these parameters to those levels corresponding to natural soils under "Cerrado" vegetation.

Some particularities of dam rehabilitation projects

The number of dams, which need rehabilitation, is growing, not only in countries that have a long tradition in dam building and operation but,also in those regions where the infrastructure is still in full development. Though rehabilitation projects generally deal with problems that are common in dam engineering practice there are some peculiarities which are a characteristic of such projects and which must be duly taken into account to avoid unsuccess and/or unnecessary costs. Regular safety inspection is essential to forestall the development of structural, hydrological and operational unsafety. if need of major repair or overall rehabilitation of a dam becomes apparent design oft he rehabilitation project must be preceded by a comprehensive checkup of the structure and appurtenant works, as well as by an evaluation of its hydrological safety inclusive of all relevant environmental aspects. The availability of complete records on the clam's structural behaviour and on meteorological and hydrological data, as well as the knowledge of the materials properties of the existing structure are important for the successful design of a rehabilitation project. To this end the installation of monitoring devices in the existing structure may be necessary to generate representative data. While the criteria to be used in structural design should correspond to current standards, the definition of hydrological design criteria depends on considerations that vary widely from region to region or even from one country to another. Some basic hydrological safety requirements, however, are recommended for general acceptance. Dam rehabilitation projects demand very careful and detailed construction planning because of their dependence on river flow conditions, operational restrictions and, often, on procedures or limitations imposed to avoid harm to the environment. of utmost importance is the timely availability of the financial funds required to complete the project, in order to avoid delays which could result in structural or operational unsafety. Since every dam sooner or later will have to undergo major repair or updating of safety, rehabilitation may evolve to a speciality of dam engineering.

Design and management optimization of trickle irrigation systems using non-linear programming

A non-linear model is presented which optimizes the lay-out, as well as the design and management of trickle irrigation systems, to achieve maximum net benefit. The model consists of an objective function that maximizes profit at the farm level, subject to appropriate geometric and hydraulic constraints. It can be applied to rectangular shaped fields, with uniform or zero slope. The software used is the Gams-Minos package. The basic inputs are the crop-water-production function, the cost function and cost of system components, and design variables. The main outputs are the annual net benefit and pipe diameters and lengths. To illustrate the capability of the model, a sensitivity analysis of the annual net benefit for a citrus field is evaluated with respect to irrigated area, ground slope, micro-sprinkler discharge and shape of the field. The sensitivity analysis suggests that the greatest benefit is obtained with the smallest microsprinkler discharge, the greatest area, a square field and zero ground slope. The costs of the investment and energy are the components of the objective function that had the greatest effect in the 120 situations evaluated. (C) 1996 Academic Press Limited

An intelligent system for pavement management

This paper describes a method for the evaluation of pavement condition through artificial neural networks using the MLP backpropagation technique. Two of the most used procedures for detecting the pavement conditions were applied: the overall severity index and the irregularity index. Tests with the model demonstrated that the simulation with the neural network gives better results than the procedures recommended by the highway officials. This network may also be applied for the construction of a graphic computer environment.

Decision-Making Tool for Knowledge-Based Projects in Offshore Production Systems

The development of an offshore field demands knowledge of many experts to choose the different components of an offshore production system. All the specialized parts of this knowledge are intrinsically related. The aim of this paper is to use Fuzzy Sets and knowledge-based systems to describe and formalize the phases of development of an offshore production system project, in order to share and to manage the required knowledge for carrying out a project, while at the same time proposing alternatives for the oil field configuration.

Wetland projects developed in Brazil

The first studies with constructed wetlands undertaken in Brazil were the result of observations made from the Amazon flood plains. The first attempt to use this capacity to change the quality of the water, in the sense of purification performed in Brazil using constructed wetland systems, was made by Salati et al. After that, new technologies were developed in a focused attempt to increase the efficiency of the system and reduce investments. Over these 18 years, persuading the Brazilian scientific community as well as the environmental control agencies to give due attention to this kind of research has required endless efforts. Only in recent years have major institutions responsible for sewage treatment and potable water supply been concerned with this type of technology for solving real problems. These institutions are as follows: SABESP (Basic Sanitation Company of Sao Paulo State), SANEPAR (Sanitation Company of Parana State) and CESP (Electric Company of Sao Paulo State). One of the private institutions that has systematically worked in the design and projects of constructed wetlands is the Institute of Applied Ecology. This institution has enhanced and developed a water depuration system based on the purifying capacity of the soil. The wetlands with filtering soils are systems formed by overlapping layers of crushed stone, gravel and soil planted with rice. This technology has been used in sewage treatment and also in water supply systems.

Digital image analysis of root distribution towards improved irrigation water and soil management: Grapevine and date palm study cases

It is presented two study cases about the approach in root analysis at field and laboratory conditions based on digital image analysis. Grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) and date palm (Phoenix dactylifera L.) root systems were analyzed by both the monolith and trench wall method aided by digital image analysis. Correlation between root parameters and their fractional distribution over the soil profile were obtained, as well as the root diameter estimation. Results have shown the feasibility of digital image analysis for evaluation of root distribution.

The wood for the civil engineering: A proposal of distance education

The majority of the Brazilian schools of Civil Engineering have taught the subject works with wood in the traditional only by disciplines of Metallic Structures and Wood at a topic in the content of the program on disciplines at the Materials of Civil Construction. To extend of the wood studies is being made possible that all the pupils have a wider understanding of this material and its adapted use is the goal of the proposal, that by the means of the education modality e-learning, disclosing the first one: Module I - Introduction to the Study of the Wood. This methodology tries to use the theoretical beddings in projects that are related to the pupil daily tasks and its practical professional. The article presents the theoretical bases of the conception proposal and its structure, and at the conclusions, the problems found during its application are displayed. Basically, the methodology considers that the professor and the pupil must share the learning, and adopt it as main in the interdisciplinary.