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.

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.

Estudo da implementação do Warehouse Management System em uma empresa produtora de embreagens

In the supply chain management there are several risk factors that must be mitigated to increase the flow of production and as a possible solution the literature cites the implementation of a warehouse management system, but this subject is few explored. This thesis has as main objective the study of the implementation of a warehouse management system in a company from the automotive sector that produces clutches. As results, are shown data of the characterization of items; as well as data and comparisons between disruptions in production reports due to lack of material before and after the implementation of WMS and is presented the result of a questionnaire applied to the involved on the implementation of the system, the results were associated with the risk factors on the implementation of the system studied on the literature review, and enumeration of the results that are not associated with any factors previously studied. And finally, the study is concluded and are recommended future studies related to the theme

Desenvolvimento de um sistema de gerenciamento de energia (EMS - Energy Management System) para a rede elétrica inteligente (Smart Grid)

Pós-graduação em Engenharia Elétrica - FEIS

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.

Effects of soil management systems on soil microbial activity, bulk density and chemical properties

Este trabalho teve por objetivo estudar os efeitos de diferentes sistemas de uso e manejo na densidade do solo nas suas propriedades químicas e na atividade microbiana em um Latossolo Vermelho distrófico (Oxisol). As amostras de solo foram retiradas de parcelas dos seguintes tratamentos: cerrado denso preservado, pastagem de Brachiaria decumbens degradada (20 anos), plantio direto com rotação de culturas (8 anos) e sistema convencional com rotação de culturas anuais (10 anos). O delineamento experimental utilizado foi o inteiramente casualizado, com dez repetições. O uso contínuo de plantio direto resultou em mais alta taxa de C-biomassa microbiana e menor perda relativa de carbono pela respiração basal, podendo determinar, desta forma, maior acúmulo de C no solo a longo prazo. Proporcionou, ainda, melhoria na densidade aparente e nas propriedades químicas do solo. Assim, o sistema plantio direto, com manejo de culturas, mostrou ser uma alternativa para a conservação e manutenção das condições físicas e do potencial produtivo de solos de cerrado.

Development of an open case-based decision-support system for diagnosis in oral pathology

Making diagnoses in oral pathology are often difficult and confusing in dental practice, especially for the lessexperienced dental student. One of the most promising areas in bioinformatics is computer-aided diagnosis, where a computer system is capable of imitating human reasoning ability and provides diagnoses with an accuracy approaching that of expert professionals. This type of system could be an alternative tool for assisting dental students to overcome the difficulties of the oral pathology learning process. This could allow students to define variables and information, important to improving the decision-making performance. However, no current open data management system has been integrated with an artificial intelligence system in a user-friendly environment. Such a system could also be used as an education tool to help students perform diagnoses. The aim of the present study was to develop and test an open case-based decisionsupport system.Methods: An open decision-support system based on Bayes' theorem connected to a relational database was developed using the C++ programming language. The software was tested in the computerisation of a surgical pathology service and in simulating the diagnosis of 43 known cases of oral bone disease. The simulation was performed after the system was initially filled with data from 401 cases of oral bone disease.Results: the system allowed the authors to construct and to manage a pathology database, and to simulate diagnoses using the variables from the database.Conclusion: Combining a relational database and an open decision-support system in the same user-friendly environment proved effective in simulating diagnoses based on information from an updated database.

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.

The Owner Share scheduler for a distributed system

In large distributed systems, where shared resources are owned by distinct entities, there is a need to reflect resource ownership in resource allocation. An appropriate resource management system should guarantee that resource's owners have access to a share of resources proportional to the share they provide. In order to achieve that some policies can be used for revoking access to resources currently used by other users. In this paper, a scheduling policy based in the concept of distributed ownership is introduced called Owner Share Enforcement Policy (OSEP). OSEP goal is to guarantee that owner do not have their jobs postponed for longer periods of time. We evaluate the results achieved with the application of this policy using metrics that describe policy violation, loss of capacity, policy cost and user satisfaction in environments with and without job checkpointing. We also evaluate and compare the OSEP policy with the Fair-Share policy, and from these results it is possible to capture the trade-offs from different ways to achieve fairness based on the user satisfaction. © 2009 IEEE.

The Brazilian Seismographic Integrated Systems (BRASIS): Infrastructure and data management

In geophysics and seismology, raw data need to be processed to generate useful information that can be turned into knowledge by researchers. The number of sensors that are acquiring raw data is increasing rapidly. Without good data management systems, more time can be spent in querying and preparing datasets for analyses than in acquiring raw data. Also, a lot of good quality data acquired at great effort can be lost forever if they are not correctly stored. Local and international cooperation will probably be reduced, and a lot of data will never become scientific knowledge. For this reason, the Seismological Laboratory of the Institute of Astronomy, Geophysics and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of São Paulo (IAG-USP) has concentrated fully on its data management system. This report describes the efforts of the IAG-USP to set up a seismology data management system to facilitate local and international cooperation. © 2011 by the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia. All rights reserved.

Phosphorus and potassium budget in the soil-plant system in crop rotations under no-till

Soil management and crop rotations can affect P and K budget in soil, decreasing losses, and increasing fertilizer use efficiency. The P and K budget in the soil-plant system at depths up to 60. cm was studied for different soil managements and crop rotations under no-till for three years in Botucatu, São Paulo, Brazil. The investigated crop rotations were: triticale (X Triticosecale) and sunflower (Helianthus annuus) cropped in autumn-winter; pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum), forage sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), and Sunn hemp (Crotalaria juncea) were grown in the spring, as well as an additional treatment with chiseling followed by a fallow period; and soybean (Glycini max, L., Merril) was cropped in the summer. Each year triticale and sunflower were grown in plots and pearl millet, forage sorghum, Sunn hemp and of chisel/fallow in sub-plots. The triticale/millet rotation led to the largest decrease in available P within the 0-0.60. m layer of the soil profile and the largest K increase within the 0-0.05. m layer. Potassium mobility in the soil profile and the increases in the available K content in the 0.40-0.60. m layer were independent of the management system. Crop rotations with or without chiseling are not effective in preventing soil P losses. There is considerable K leaching below 0.60. m, but chiseling and the use of high K accumulating plants as triticale results in lower K losses. © 2012 Elsevier B.V.

Influence of Agroforestry and Traditional Management of Maize (Zea mays L.) on Soil Fertility

The aim of the work was to evaluate soil nutrient concentration at 0-5, 5-10, and 10-20 cm in maize (Zea mays L.) grown in sequence with black oats (Avena strigosa Schreb.) under Leucaena diversifolia alley cropping agroforestry system (AFS) and traditional management system/sole crop (without trees-TS), following a randomized block design. The experiment was carried out at the Brazilian Association of Biodynamic Agriculture, in Botucatu, São Paulo, Brazil. The treatments were: control (C), chemical fertilizer (F), biomass of L. diversifolia alley cropping (B), and biomass of L. diversifolia alley cropping + chemical fertilizer (B+F). After 2 yr, it was observed that pH, organic matter, and nutrient content had a tendency to show higher values in the treatments biomass+fertilizer, biomass, and fertilizer application, in both systems. Higher values in pH, organic matter, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, sum of bases, cation exchange capacity, percentage base saturation, boron, copper, and manganese tended to occur in the agroforestry system. © 2013 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.