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.

Web system to aid project management

This work describes a new web system to aid project management that was created to correct the principal deficiencies identified in systems having a common purpose which are at present available, as well as to follow the guidelines that are proposed in the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBoK) and the quality characteristics described in the ISO/IEC 9126 norm. As from the adopted methodology, the system was structured to attend the real necessities of project managers and also to contribute towards obtaining quality results from the projects. The validation of the proposed solution was done with the collaboration of professionals that used the functions available in it for a period of 15 days. Results attested to the quality and adequacy of the developed system.

Cover crops and herbicide timing management on soybean yield under no-tillage system

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

A Management Tool for the Replication of Operating Systems in Wireless Communication Networks

To simplify computer management, various administration systems based on wired connections adopt advanced techniques to manage software configuration. Nevertheless, the strong relation between hardware and software makes for an individualism of that management, besides penalizing computational mobility and ubiquity. All these issues lead to degradation of scalability, flexibility and the facility to install and maintain distributed applications. This article presents an environment for centralized wireless communication network management, named WSE-OS (Wireless Sharing Environment - Operating Systems): a model based on Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) which associates virtualization techniques and safe remote access systems to create a distributed architecture as a base for a managing system. WSE-OS is capable of accomplishing the replication of operating system images using wireless communication network, besides offering abstraction of hardware to its clients, making the management more flexible and independent of wired connections. Results obtained from this work indicate that WSE-OS allows disseminating, through a single software configuration, the execution of data related to operating system images in client computers. WSE-OS can also be used as a management tool for operating systems in a wireless network.

Environmental management system and human resource practices: is there a link between them in four Brazilian companies?

The aim of this article is to analyze the theoretical model proposed by [Jabbour CJC, Santos FCA. Relationships between human resource dimensions and environmental management in companies: proposal of a model. Journal of Cleaner Production 2008;16(1):5 1-8.] based on the data collected in four Brazilian companies. This model investigates how the phases of the environmental management system can be linked to human resource practices in order to attain continuous improvement of a company's environmental performance. Our aim is to contribute to a field, which has little empirical evidence. Although the interaction between the phases of the environmental management system and human resource practices is recommended by the specialized literature [Daily BE Huang S. Achieving sustainability through attention to human resource factors in environmental management. International Journal of Operations and Production Management 2001:21(12):1539-52.], the results indicate that most of the theoretical assumptions could not be confirmed in these Brazilian companies. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR POSITIONING WITH GNSS TECHNOLOGY

This paper presents a proposal for a Quality Management System for a generic GNSS Surveying Company as an alternative for management and service quality improvements. As a result of the increased demand for GNSS measurements, a large number of new or restructured companies were established to operate in that market. Considering that GNSS surveying is a new process, some changes must be performed in order to accommodate the old surveying techniques and the old fashioned management to the new reality. This requires a new management model that must be based on a well-described procedure sequence aiming at the Total Management Quality for the company. The proposed Quality Management System was based on the requirements of the Quality System ISO 9000:2000, applied to the whole company, focusing on the productive process of GNSS surveying work.

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)

Integration of the dispersed generators in the distribution management system

Since the 80s huge efforts have been made to utilize renewable energy sources to generate electric power. An important issue about using renewable energy sources is a Distribution Management System (DMS) in presence of dispersed generators. This paper reports some aspects of integration of the dispersed generators in the DMS. Besides, an investigation of impact of the dispersed generators on the overall performances of the distribution systems in steady state is performed. In order to observe losses in the distribution networks with dispersed generators, several loss allocation methods are applied. Results obtained from case study using IEEE test network, are presented and discussed. © 2003 IEEE.

GIS_EM (Geographic information system for environmental monitoring) - A software implemented at Paulínia refinery (REPLAN) for management of environmental data

The computational program called GIS_EM (Geographic Information System for Environmental Monitoring), a software devised to manage geographic information for monitoring soil, surface, and ground water, developed for use in the Health, Safety, and Environment Division of Paulinia Refinery is presented. This program enables registering and management of alphanumeric information pertaining to specific themes such as drilling performed for sample collection and for installation of monitoring wells, geophysical and other tests, results of chemical analyses of soil, surface, and groundwater, as well as reference values providing orientation for soil and water quality, such as EPA, Dutch List, etc. Management of such themes is performed by means of alphanumeric search tools, with specific filters and, in the case of spatial search, through the selection of spatial elements (themes) in map view. Documents existing in digital form, such as reports, photos, maps, may be registered and managed in the network environment. As the system centralizes information generated upon environmental investigations, it expedites access to and search of documents produced and stored in the network environment, minimizing search time and the need to file printed documents. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the AIChE Annual Meeting and Fall Showcase (Cincinnati, OH 10/30/2005-11/4/2005).

A development process proposal for the ERP5 system

Modeling ERP software means capturing the information necessary for supporting enterprise management. This modeling process goes down through different abstraction layers, from enterprise modeling to code generation. Thus ERP is the kind of system where enterprise engineering undoubtedly has, or should have, a strong influence. For the case of Free/Open Source ERP, the lack of proper modeling methods and tools can jeopardize the advantage brought by source code availability. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to present a development process proposal for the Open Source ERP5 system. The proposed development process aims to cover different abstraction levels, taking into account well established standards and common practices, as well as platform issues. Its main goal is to provide an adaptable meta-process to ERP5 adopters. © 2006 IEEE.

Management of vomplex systems: Modeling the biological pest control

The aim of this paper is to study the cropping system as complex one, applying methods from theory of dynamic systems and from the control theory to the mathematical modeling of the biological pest control. The complex system can be described by different mathematical models. Based on three models of the pest control, the various scenarios have been simulated in order to obtain the pest control strategy only through natural enemies' introduction. © 2008 World Scientific Publishing Company.

Malware distributed collection and pre-classification system using honeypot technology

Malware has become a major threat in the last years due to the ease of spread through the Internet. Malware detection has become difficult with the use of compression, polymorphic methods and techniques to detect and disable security software. Those and other obfuscation techniques pose a problem for detection and classification schemes that analyze malware behavior. In this paper we propose a distributed architecture to improve malware collection using different honeypot technologies to increase the variety of malware collected. We also present a daemon tool developed to grab malware distributed through spam and a pre-classification technique that uses antivirus technology to separate malware in generic classes. © 2009 SPIE.

A tool to simplify the management of homogeneous and heterogeneous grids

To simplify computer management, several system administrators are adopting advanced techniques to manage software configuration on grids, but the tight coupling between hardware and software makes every PC an individual managed entity, lowering the scalability and increasing the costs to manage hundreds or thousands of PCs. This paper discusses the feasibility of a distributed virtual machine environment, named Flexlab: a new approach for computer management that combines virtualization and distributed system architectures as the basis of a management system. Flexlab is able to extend the coverage of a computer management solution beyond client operating system limitations and also offers a convenient hardware abstraction, decoupling software and hardware, simplifying computer management. The results obtained in this work indicate that FlexLab is able to overcome the limitations imposed by the coupling between software and hardware, simplifying the management of homogeneous and heterogeneous grids. © 2009 IEEE.

Software architecture for web-based project management system

This article presents software architecture for a web-based system to aid project managing, conceptually founded on guidelines of the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBoK) and on ISO/IEC 9126, as well as on the result of an empiric study done in Brazil. Based on these guidelines, this study focused on two different points of view about project management: the view of those who develop software systems to aid management and the view of those who use these systems. The designed software architecture is capable of guiding an incremental development of a quality system that will satisfy today's marketing necessities, principally those of small and medium size enterprises.