Integration of risk management in occupational health and safety systems

Risk management can be considered as part of the Occupational Health and Safety System (OHS) of an organization and can be used to develop and implement the OHS policy and manage the associated risks. The success of the integration of risk management in OHS depends on both technical and human aspects. Thus, this paper presents and discusses the case of a company working in the area of solid waste treatment. This company was certified in 2009 with an Integrated Management Systems for Quality, Environment, Occupational Health and Safety. The evolution of accidents before and after the implementation of the integrated system was analysed and a questionnaire was used to capture the perceptions of the technicians on the risk management system. The analysis of the findings showed that the frequency of accidents increased since 2009 but the severity has been reduced. Several interrelated causes and consequences were analysed and discussed. Furthermore, the analysis of the opinions of the company’s technicians permitted to highlight some important aspects on the integration of risk management in the OHS system of the company. In line with this discussion some hypothesis have been formulated.

Management information systems: The balanced scorecard in Spanish public universities

Organisations are becoming increasingly aware of the need for management information systems, due largely to the changing environment and a continuous process of globalisation. All of this means that managers need to adapt the structures of their organisations to the changes and, therefore, to plan, control and manage better. The Spanish public university cannot avoid this changing (demographic, economic and social changes) and globalising (among them the convergence of European qualifications) environment, to which we must add the complex organisation structure, characterised by a high dispersion of authority for decision making in different collegiate and unipersonal organs. It seems obvious that these changes must have repercussions on the direction, organisation and management structures of those public higher education institutions, and it seems natural that, given this environment, the universities must adapt their present management systems to the demand by society for the quality and suitability of the services they provide.

Soil microbial biomass under different management and tillage systems of permanent intercropped cover species in an orange orchard

To mitigate soil erosion and enhance soil fertility in orange plantations, the permanent protection of the inter-rows by cover species has been suggested. The objective of this study was to evaluate alterations in the microbial biomass, due to different soil tillage systems and intercropped cover species between rows of orange trees. The soil of the experimental area previously used as pasture (Brachiaria humidicola) was an Ultisol (Typic Paleudult) originating from Caiuá sandstone in the northwestern part of the State of Paraná, Brazil. Two soil tillage systems were evaluated: conventional tillage (CT) in the entire area and strip tillage (ST) (strip width 2 m), in combination with different ground cover management systems. The citrus cultivar 'Pera' orange (Citrus sinensis) grafted onto 'Rangpur' lime rootstock was used. Soil samples were collected after five years of treatment from a depth of 0-15 cm, under the tree canopy and in the inter-row, in the following treatments: (1) CT and an annual cover crop with the leguminous species Calopogonium mucunoides; (2) CT and a perennial cover crop with the leguminous peanut Arachis pintoi; (3) CT and an evergreen cover crop with Bahiagrass Paspalum notatum; (4) CT and a cover crop with spontaneous Brachiaria humidicola grass vegetation; and (5) ST and maintenance of the remaining grass (pasture) of Brachiaria humidicola. Soil tillage and the different cover species influenced the microbial biomass, both under the tree canopy and in the inter-row. The cultivation of brachiaria increased C and N in the microbial biomass, while bahiagrass increased P in the microbial biomass. The soil microbial biomass was enriched in N and P by the presence of ground cover species and according to the soil P content. The grass species increased C, N and P in the soil microbial biomass from the inter-row more than leguminous species.

Use Of Systems Approach with Total Quality Management in Industrial Organizations

The objective of the work has been to study why systems thinking should be used in combination with TQM, what are the main benefits of the integration and how it could best be done. The work analyzes the development of systems thinking and TQM with time and the main differences between them. The work defines prerequisites for adopting a systems approach and the organizational factors which embody the development of an efficient learning organization. The work proposes a model based on combination of an interactive management model and redesign to be used for application of systems approach with TQM in practice. The results of the work indicate that there are clear differences between systems thinking and TQM which justify their combination. Systems approach provides an additional complementary perspective to quality management. TQM is focused on optimizing operations at the operational level while interactive management and redesign of organization are focused on optimization operations at the conceptual level providing a holistic system for value generation. The empirical study demonstrates the applicability of the proposed model in one case study company but its application is tenable and possible also beyond this particular company. System dynamic modeling and other systems based techniques like cognitive mapping are useful methods for increasing understanding and learning about the behavior of systems. The empirical study emphasizes the importance of using a proper early warning system.

Autonomes Performance-Management in dienstorientierten Architekturen

Die Bedeutung des Dienstgüte-Managements (SLM) im Bereich von Unternehmensanwendungen steigt mit der zunehmenden Kritikalität von IT-gestützten Prozessen für den Erfolg einzelner Unternehmen. Traditionell werden zur Implementierung eines wirksamen SLMs Monitoringprozesse in hierarchischen Managementumgebungen etabliert, die einen Administrator bei der notwendigen Rekonfiguration von Systemen unterstützen. Auf aktuelle, hochdynamische Softwarearchitekturen sind diese hierarchischen Ansätze jedoch nur sehr eingeschränkt anwendbar. Ein Beispiel dafür sind dienstorientierte Architekturen (SOA), bei denen die Geschäftsfunktionalität durch das Zusammenspiel einzelner, voneinander unabhängiger Dienste auf Basis deskriptiver Workflow-Beschreibungen modelliert wird. Dadurch ergibt sich eine hohe Laufzeitdynamik der gesamten Architektur. Für das SLM ist insbesondere die dezentrale Struktur einer SOA mit unterschiedlichen administrativen Zuständigkeiten für einzelne Teilsysteme problematisch, da regelnde Eingriffe zum einen durch die Kapselung der Implementierung einzelner Dienste und zum anderen durch das Fehlen einer zentralen Kontrollinstanz nur sehr eingeschränkt möglich sind. Die vorliegende Arbeit definiert die Architektur eines SLM-Systems für SOA-Umgebungen, in dem autonome Management-Komponenten kooperieren, um übergeordnete Dienstgüteziele zu erfüllen: Mithilfe von Selbst-Management-Technologien wird zunächst eine Automatisierung des Dienstgüte-Managements auf Ebene einzelner Dienste erreicht. Die autonomen Management-Komponenten dieser Dienste können dann mithilfe von Selbstorganisationsmechanismen übergreifende Ziele zur Optimierung von Dienstgüteverhalten und Ressourcennutzung verfolgen. Für das SLM auf Ebene von SOA Workflows müssen temporär dienstübergreifende Kooperationen zur Erfüllung von Dienstgüteanforderungen etabliert werden, die sich damit auch über mehrere administrative Domänen erstrecken können. Eine solche zeitlich begrenzte Kooperation autonomer Teilsysteme kann sinnvoll nur dezentral erfolgen, da die jeweiligen Kooperationspartner im Vorfeld nicht bekannt sind und – je nach Lebensdauer einzelner Workflows – zur Laufzeit beteiligte Komponenten ausgetauscht werden können. In der Arbeit wird ein Verfahren zur Koordination autonomer Management-Komponenten mit dem Ziel der Optimierung von Antwortzeiten auf Workflow-Ebene entwickelt: Management-Komponenten können durch Übertragung von Antwortzeitanteilen untereinander ihre individuellen Ziele straffen oder lockern, ohne dass das Gesamtantwortzeitziel dadurch verändert wird. Die Übertragung von Antwortzeitanteilen wird mithilfe eines Auktionsverfahrens realisiert. Technische Grundlage der Kooperation bildet ein Gruppenkommunikationsmechanismus. Weiterhin werden in Bezug auf die Nutzung geteilter, virtualisierter Ressourcen konkurrierende Dienste entsprechend geschäftlicher Ziele priorisiert. Im Rahmen der praktischen Umsetzung wird die Realisierung zentraler Architekturelemente und der entwickelten Verfahren zur Selbstorganisation beispielhaft für das SLM konkreter Komponenten vorgestellt. Zur Untersuchung der Management-Kooperation in größeren Szenarien wird ein hybrider Simulationsansatz verwendet. Im Rahmen der Evaluation werden Untersuchungen zur Skalierbarkeit des Ansatzes durchgeführt. Schwerpunkt ist hierbei die Betrachtung eines Systems aus kooperierenden Management-Komponenten, insbesondere im Hinblick auf den Kommunikationsaufwand. Die Evaluation zeigt, dass ein dienstübergreifendes, autonomes Performance-Management in SOA-Umgebungen möglich ist. Die Ergebnisse legen nahe, dass der entwickelte Ansatz auch in großen Umgebungen erfolgreich angewendet werden kann.

Beneath a learning management system: understanding the human information interaction in information systems

Studies on learning management systems have largely been technical in nature with an emphasis on the evaluation of the human computer interaction (HCI) processes in using the LMS. This paper reports a study that evaluates the information interaction processes on an eLearning course used in teaching an applied Statistics course. The eLearning course is used as a synonym for information systems. The study explores issues of missing context in stored information in information systems. Using the semiotic framework as a guide, the researchers evaluated an existing eLearning course with the view to proposing a model for designing improved eLearning courses for future eLearning programmes. In this exploratory study, a survey questionnaire is used to collect data from 160 participants on an eLearning course in Statistics in Applied Climatology. The views of the participants are analysed with a focus on only the human information interaction issues. Using the semiotic framework as a guide, syntactic, semantic, pragmatic and social context gaps or problems were identified. The information interactions problems identified include ambiguous instructions, inadequate information, lack of sound, interface design problems among others. These problems affected the quality of new knowledge created by the participants. The researchers thus highlighted the challenges of missing information context when data is stored in an information system. The study concludes by proposing a human information interaction model for improving the information interaction quality issues in the design of eLearning course on learning management platforms and those other information systems.

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.

Authoring tools and management information systems: study of a generalizable architecture

The need to effectively manage the documentation covering the entire production process, from the concept phase right through to market realise, constitutes a key issue in the creation of a successful and highly competitive product. For almost forty years the most commonly used strategies to achieve this have followed Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) guidelines. Translated into information management systems at the end of the '90s, this methodology is now widely used by companies operating all over the world in many different sectors. PLM systems and editor programs are the two principal types of software applications used by companies for their process aotomation. Editor programs allow to store in documents the information related to the production chain, while the PLM system stores and shares this information so that it can be used within the company and made it available to partners. Different software tools, which capture and store documents and information automatically in the PLM system, have been developed in recent years. One of them is the ''DirectPLM'' application, which has been developed by the Italian company ''Focus PLM''. It is designed to ensure interoperability between many editors and the Aras Innovator PLM system. In this dissertation we present ''DirectPLM2'', a new version of the previous software application DirectPLM. It has been designed and developed as prototype during the internship by Focus PLM. Its new implementation separates the abstract logic of business from the real commands implementation, previously strongly dependent on Aras Innovator. Thanks to its new design, Focus PLM can easily develop different versions of DirectPLM2, each one devised for a specific PLM system. In fact, the company can focus the development effort only on a specific set of software components which provides specialized functions interacting with that particular PLM system. This allows shorter Time-To-Market and gives the company a significant competitive advantage.

Managing change and time in dynamic workflow processes

Business environments have become exceedingly dynamic and competitive in recent times. This dynamism is manifested in the form of changing process requirements and time constraints. Workflow technology is currently one of the most promising fields of research in business process automation. However, workflow systems to date do not provide the flexibility necessary to support the dynamic nature of business processes. In this paper we primarily discuss the issues and challenges related to managing change and time in workflows representing dynamic business processes. We also present an analysis of workflow modifications and provide feasibility considerations for the automation of this process.

Knowledge assisted data management and retrieval in multimedia database systems

With the proliferation of multimedia data and ever-growing requests for multimedia applications, there is an increasing need for efficient and effective indexing, storage and retrieval of multimedia data, such as graphics, images, animation, video, audio and text. Due to the special characteristics of the multimedia data, the Multimedia Database management Systems (MMDBMSs) have emerged and attracted great research attention in recent years. Though much research effort has been devoted to this area, it is still far from maturity and there exist many open issues. In this dissertation, with the focus of addressing three of the essential challenges in developing the MMDBMS, namely, semantic gap, perception subjectivity and data organization, a systematic and integrated framework is proposed with video database and image database serving as the testbed. In particular, the framework addresses these challenges separately yet coherently from three main aspects of a MMDBMS: multimedia data representation, indexing and retrieval. In terms of multimedia data representation, the key to address the semantic gap issue is to intelligently and automatically model the mid-level representation and/or semi-semantic descriptors besides the extraction of the low-level media features. The data organization challenge is mainly addressed by the aspect of media indexing where various levels of indexing are required to support the diverse query requirements. In particular, the focus of this study is to facilitate the high-level video indexing by proposing a multimodal event mining framework associated with temporal knowledge discovery approaches. With respect to the perception subjectivity issue, advanced techniques are proposed to support users' interaction and to effectively model users' perception from the feedback at both the image-level and object-level.

Crisis, change, and institutions in forest management: the Wet Tropics of northeastern Australia

This paper tests the four-phase heuristic model of change in resource management regimes developed by Gunderson et al. (1995. In: Barriers and Bridges to the Renewal of Ecosystems and Institutions. Columbia University Press, New York, pp. 489-533) by applying it to a case analysis of rainforest management in northeastern Australia. The model suggests that resource management regimes change in four phases: (i) crisis caused by external factors, (ii) a search for alternative management solutions, (iii) creation of a new management regime, and (iv) bureaucratic implementation of the new arrangements. The history of human use arid management of the tropical forests of this region is described and applied to this model. The ensuing analysis demonstrates that: (i) resource management tends to be characterized by a series of distinct eras; (ii) changes to management regimes are precipitated by crisis; and (iii) change is externally generated. The paper concludes by arguing that this theoretical perspective oil institutional change in resource management systems has wider utility. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Field hydraulic properties of an Alfisol under various fallow systems in southwestern Nigeria

The effects of various fallow management systems and cropping intensities on water infiltration were measured on an Alfisol at Ibadan in southwestern Nigeria. The objective was to determine the influence of the land use systems (a combination of crop-fallow sequences and intercropping types) on soil hydraulic properties obtained by disc permeameter and double-ring infiltration measurements. The experiment was established in 1989 as a split-plot design with four replications. The main plots were natural fallow, planted Pueraria phaseoloides and planted Leucaena leucocephala. The subplots were 1 year of maize/cassava intercrop followed by 3-year fallow (25% cropping intensity), or 2-year fallow (33% cropping intensity), or 1-year fallow (50% cropping intensity), or no fallow period (100% cropping intensity). Water infiltration rates and sorptivities were measured under saturated and unsaturated flow. Irrespective of land use, infiltration rates at the soil surface (121-324 cm h(-1)) were greater than those measured at 30 cm depth (55-144 cm h(-1)). This indicated that fewer large pores were present below 30 cm depth compared with 0-30 cm, depth. Despite some temporal variation, sorptivities with the highest mean value of 93.5 cm h(-1/2) increased as the cropping intensity decreased, suggesting a more continuous macropore system under less intensive land use systems. This was most likely due to continuous biopores created by perennial vegetation under long fallow systems. Intercropped maize and cassava yields also increased as cropping intensity decreased. The weak relationship between crop yields and hydraulic conductivity/infiltration rates suggests that the rates were not limiting.

Maize nitrogen fertilization in two crop rotation systems under no-till

The objective of this study was to evaluate split nitrogen (N) fertilization of maize applied in band at sowing and top dressing with and without crop rotation, under no-till. The experiment was conducted with six N rates at sowing (0, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 kg ha-1) combined with three rates in top dressing (40, 70, 100 kg ha-1) and two management systems: after five cropping sequences of maize and crop rotation (maize + soybean + oat + soybean + corn) in a randomized block design with four replications. The crop rotation system increased yield in approximately 7% in relation to the area without rotation. The split of nitrogen fertilization, in rates above 39 and 54 kg ha-1 at sowing and 70 and 40 kg ha-1 in top dressing, resulted in yield higher than that obtained with the application of 100 kg ha-1 in top dressing. Grain yield was higher with the rates 50 and 70 kg ha-1 of N compared with that obtained with 20 and 100 kg ha-1 at sowing and top dressing, respectively. The rate 70 kg ha-1 of N resulted in the highest yield at the lowest cost compared with the revenues and costs incurred with the rates 40 and 100 kg ha-1.