The main benefits associated with health and safety management systems certification in Portuguese small and medium enterprises post quality management system certification

The purpose of this study is to characterize how Portuguese Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) view the Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems (OHSMSs) certification process, after receiving the Quality Management System (QMS) certification. References were based on the ISO 9001 standard for a QMS and OHSAS 18001 for OHSMS. The method used to evaluate the implemented systems, was by form of questionnaire. Those questioned had to have a certified quality management system, an implemented OHSMS and be a SME. The questionnaire was sent to 300 SMEs; 46 responses were received and validated. Of them, only 12 SMEs had the OHSMS certificate according to OHSAS 18001. Within those 12 companies that participated: 7 SMEs are from the industrial sector; 3 belong to the electricity/telecommunications sector and 2 SMEs are from the trade/services activity sector. The size of the sample was small, but corresponds to Portuguese reality. Moreover, 34 SMEs did not have the OHSMS certificate. The questionnaire requested the main reasons for SMEs to opt for non-certification and it was related with high costs, while the main reasons to certificate were, among others, needed to eliminate or minimize risks to workers. The main benefits that Portuguese SMEs have gained from the referred certifications have been, improved working conditions, ensuring compliance with legislation and better internal communication about risks and hazards. Also presented are the main difficulties in achieving an OHSMS certification including high certification costs, difficulties motivating personnel, difficulties in changing the company’s culture and increased bureaucracy.

Divergência genética em genótipos de feijão comum cultivados em Mato Grosso do Sul

O melhoramento do feijoeiro (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) baseia-se, principalmente, na hibridação de cultivares e linhagens, sendo importante o conhecimento da dissimilaridade entre os genitores para a obtenção de genótipos superiores. Este trabalho teve por objetivo promover o agrupamento de genótipos de feijoeiro comum, entre cultivares e linhagens, em função da dissimilaridade genética apresentada, indicar a contribuição relativa dos caracteres avaliados para a dissimilaridade genética e apontar as combinações híbridas mais promissoras para produzir recombinações superiores, utilizando-se de procedimentos multivariados. Desta forma, 13 genótipos de feijão comum, entre cultivares e linhagens avançadas, foram avaliados no ano agrícola 2005/2006, no período da "seca", na área experimental da Universidade Estadual do Mato Grosso do Sul, em Aquidauana. O experimento foi conduzido no delineamento de blocos casualizados, com três repetições, avaliando-se os caracteres: número de vagens por planta (NVP), número de grãos por vagem (NGV), massa de 100 grãos (MCG) e produtividade de grãos (PROD). Os genótipos foram reunidos em três grupos pelo método hierárquico do vizinho mais próximo e em cinco grupos pelas variáveis canônicas. O cultivar IAC Carioca Eté mostrou-se o mais dissimilar, podendo ser estrategicamente utilizado em hibridações artificiais dirigidas. O caráter "MCG" apresentou a maior contribuição relativa para a dissimilaridade genética total e as associações mais divergentes foram: "CNFv 8025 x IAC Carioca-Eté", "Rudá x IAC Carioca-Eté" e "CNF 7135 Bambuí x IAC Carioca-Eté".

Diversidade genética entre cultivares de mangueiras, baseada em caracteres de qualidade dos frutos

A mangueira é uma das fruteiras mais importantes do Brasil. Apesar de existirem muitos cultivares, o cultivo tem sido realizado basicamente com o cultivar 'Tommy Atkins' e existem poucos trabalhos sobre caracterização e análise da diversidade genética dos genótipos disponíveis. Por isso, o objetivo deste trabalho foi estudar a diversidade genética de 15 cultivares de mangueiras, produzidos na Zona da Mata Mineira, sendo oito brasileiros e sete oriundos da Flórida (EUA). Para isto, frutos maduros dos 15 cultivares foram colhidos e analisados química e fisicamente. Os cultivares que se apresentaram mais similares foram 'Kent' e 'Palmer'. O cultivar 'Extrema' não se agrupou com os outros pelo método de agrupamento UPGMA, e, por esta análise houve a separação dos cultivares brasileiros e norte-americanos. Quanto às características químicas, a técnica de componentes principais não agrupou os cultivares 'Extrema' e 'Tommy Atkins' com os demais; já quanto às características físicas, observou-se a mesma separação obtida pelo agrupamento UPGMA, com exceção do cultivar 'Extrema' que, neste caso, agrupou-se com os demais cultivares. Observou-se correlação entre a coloração da polpa, o ângulo hue e o teor de açúcares solúveis totais e entre a coloração da casca, o índice b* e a percentagem de casca e polpa.

Vida útil pós-colheita do repolho roxo minimamente processado, armazenado em diferentes embalagens

A demanda por alimentos minimamente processados deve-se necessidade de economia de tempo e de maior facilidade de preparo dos alimentos. O objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar o comportamento do repolho roxo 'Red Dynasty', minimamente processado, submetido a quatro tipos de embalagens e a armazenamento refrigerado. Após minimamente processados, 200g de repolho foram acondicionados em quatro tipos de embalagens: tereftalato de polietileno, com tampa; bandejas de poliestireno expandido, revestidas com filme flexível de policloreto de vinila de 12 µm; filme de polietileno de baixa densidade de 70 µm e polipropileno perfurado. A temperatura durante o período de armazenagem em câmara fria foi de 5 ± 2 °C. As avaliações foram feitas a cada quatro dias, totalizando doze dias de armazenamento. Os parâmetros avaliados foram: perda de matéria fresca, teor de sólidos solúveis, pH, acidez titulável, vitamina C e antocianina. A embalagem PP não é recomendada por causa da grande perda de matéria fresca do repolho. As embalagens PET e PEBD foram as melhores para o armazenamento de repolho minimamente processado; proporcionaram menor perda de massa por doze dias, porém, aos quatro dias já apresentavam aparência escurecida, por causa da oxidação.

Uso de fitorreguladores no desenvolvimento de frutos na atemoieira (Annona cherimola x A. squamosa cv. Gefner)

Este trabalho foi realizado com atemoieiras 'Gefner', com o objetivo de avaliar o efeito de fitorreguladores no pegamento de frutos. Foram realizados três experimentos, no município de Matias Cardoso, Minas Gerais. No primeiro, avaliaram-se quatro tipos de auxinas: os ácidos indol butírico (AIB), indol acético (AIA), naftaleno acético (ANA) e diclorofenoxiacético (2,4-D), combinados com três concentrações (150, 300 e 450 mg L-1). O ácido giberélico (GA3) também foi aplicado, na dosagem de 1 g L-1, aos 14 e 21 dias após a primeira aplicação das auxinas. No segundo experimento, testaram-se o AIA, AIB e ANA, combinados em duas concentrações (450 e 600 mg L-1). No terceiro experimento, avaliou-se a aplicação do ANA na dose de 450 mg L-1 associado com número de aplicações: semanal até 35 dias; semanal até 70 dias; semanal até 105 dias e a cada duas semanas. O GA3 foi utilizado na dosagem de 1 g L-1, em quatro aplicações, aos 13, 27, 41 e 54 dias após a primeira aplicação do ANA. Em todos os experimentos, a testemunha foram flores polinizadas artificialmente. ANA foi a auxina sintética que propiciou as maiores médias de pegamento dos frutos, com 8% até aos 148 dias após a primeira aplicação. A utilização de 2,4-D acarretou as menores percentagens de pegamento dos frutos; no 14° dia da aplicação, mais nenhum fruto foi observado. Independentemente do tipo de fitorregulador, os tratamentos não permitiram o desenvolvimento de frutos comerciais de atemoia.

Architectural prototyping: from CCS to .Net

Over the last decade, software architecture emerged as a critical issue in Software Engineering. This encompassed a shift from traditional programming towards software development based on the deployment and assembly of independent components. The specification of both the overall systems structure and the interaction patterns between their components became a major concern for the working developer. Although a number of formalisms to express behaviour and to supply the indispensable calculational power to reason about designs, are available, the task of deriving architectural designs on top of popular component platforms has remained largely informal. This paper introduces a systematic approach to derive, from CCS behavioural specifications the corresponding architectural skeletons in the Microsoft .Net framework, in the form of executable C and Cω code. The prototyping process is fully supported by a specific tool developed in Haskell

Program slicing by calculation

Program slicing is a well known family of techniques used to identify code fragments which depend on or are depended upon specific program entities. They are particularly useful in the areas of reverse engineering, program understanding, testing and software maintenance. Most slicing methods, usually oriented towards the imperative or object paradigms, are based on some sort of graph structure representing program dependencies. Slicing techniques amount, therefore, to (sophisticated) graph transversal algorithms. This paper proposes a completely different approach to the slicing problem for functional programs. Instead of extracting program information to build an underlying dependencies’ structure, we resort to standard program calculation strategies, based on the so-called Bird-Meertens formalism. The slicing criterion is specified either as a projection or a hiding function which, once composed with the original program, leads to the identification of the intended slice. Going through a number of examples, the paper suggests this approach may be an interesting, even if not completely general, alternative to slicing functional programs

Component identification through program slicing

This paper reports on the development of specific slicing techniques for functional programs and their use for the identification of possible coherent components from monolithic code. An associated tool is also introduced. This piece of research is part of a broader project on program understanding and re-engineering of legacy code supported by formal methods

Higher-order lazy functional slicing

Program slicing is a well known family of techniques intended to identify and isolate code fragments which depend on, or are depended upon, specific program entities. This is particularly useful in the areas of reverse engineering, program understanding, testing and software maintenance. Most slicing methods, and corresponding tools, target either the imperative or the object oriented paradigms, where program slices are computed with respect to a variable or a program statement. Taking a complementary point of view, this paper focuses on the slicing of higher-order functional programs under a lazy evaluation strategy. A prototype of a Haskell slicer, built as proof-of-concept for these ideas, is also introduced

COORDINSPECTOR: a tool for extracting coordination data from legacy code

More and more current software systems rely on non trivial coordination logic for combining autonomous services typically running on different platforms and often owned by different organizations. Often, however, coordination data is deeply entangled in the code and, therefore, difficult to isolate and analyse separately. COORDINSPECTOR is a software tool which combines slicing and program analysis techniques to isolate all coordination elements from the source code of an existing application. Such a reverse engineering process provides a clear view of the actually invoked services as well as of the orchestration patterns which bind them together. The tool analyses Common Intermediate Language (CIL) code, the native language of Microsoft .Net Framework. Therefore, the scope of application of COORDINSPECTOR is quite large: potentially any piece of code developed in any of the programming languages which compiles to the .Net Framework. The tool generates graphical representations of the coordination layer together and identifies the underlying business process orchestrations, rendering them as Orc specifications

Stress affects theta activity in limbic networks and impairs novelty-induced exploration and familiarization

Exposure to a novel environment triggers the response of several brain areas that regulate emotional behaviors. Here, we studied theta oscillations within the hippocampus (HPC)-amygdala (AMY)-medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) network in exploration of a novel environment and subsequent familiarization through repeated exposures to that same environment; in addition, we assessed how concomitant stress exposure could disrupt this activity and impair both behavioral processes. Local field potentials were simultaneously recorded from dorsal and ventral hippocampus (dHPC and vHPC respectively), basolateral amygdala (BLA) and mPFC in freely behaving rats while they were exposed to a novel environment, then repeatedly re-exposed over the course of 3 weeks to that same environment and, finally, on re-exposure to a novel unfamiliar environment. A longitudinal analysis of theta activity within this circuit revealed a reduction of vHPC and BLA theta power and vHPC-BLA theta coherence through familiarization which was correlated with a return to normal exploratory behavior in control rats. In contrast, a persistent over-activation of the same brain regions was observed in stressed rats that displayed impairments in novel exploration and familiarization processes. Importantly, we show that stress also affected intra-hippocampal synchrony and heightened the coherence between vHPC and BLA. In summary, we demonstrate that modulatory theta activity in the aforementioned circuit, namely in the vHPC and BLA, is correlated with the expression of anxiety in novelty-induced exploration and familiarization in both normal and pathological conditions.

On the discovery of business processes orchestration patterns

COORDINSPECTOR is a Software Tool aiming at extracting the coordination layer of a software system. Such a reverse engineering process provides a clear view of the actually invoked services as well as the logic behind such invocations. The analysis process is based on program slicing techniques and the generation of, System Dependence Graphs and Coordination Dependence Graphs. The tool analyzes Common Intermediate Language (CIL), the native language of the Microsoft .Net Framework, thus making suitable for processing systems developed in any .Net Framework compilable language. COORDINSPECTOR generates graphical representations of the coordination layer together with business process orchestrations specified in WSBPEL 2.0

Discovering coordination patterns

A large and growing amount of software systems rely on non-trivial coordination logic for making use of third party services or components. Therefore, it is of outmost importance to understand and capture rigorously this continuously growing layer of coordination as this will make easier not only the veri cation of such systems with respect to their original speci cations, but also maintenance, further development, testing, deployment and integration. This paper introduces a method based on several program analysis techniques (namely, dependence graphs, program slicing, and graph pattern analysis) to extract coordination logic from legacy systems source code. This process is driven by a series of pre-de ned coordination patterns and captured by a special purpose graph structure from which coordination speci cations can be generated in a number of di erent formalisms

Slicing for architectural analysis

Current software development often relies on non-trivial coordination logic for combining autonomous services, eventually running on different platforms. As a rule, however, such a coordination layer is strongly woven within the application at source code level. Therefore, its precise identification becomes a major methodological (and technical) problem and a challenge to any program understanding or refactoring process. The approach introduced in this paper resorts to slicing techniques to extract coordination data from source code. Such data are captured in a specific dependency graph structure from which a coordination model can be recovered either in the form of an Orc specification or as a collection of code fragments corresponding to the identification of typical coordination patterns in the system. Tool support is also discussed

Domain-Specific Language for Coordination patterns

The integration and composition of software systems requires a good architectural design phase to speed up communications between (remote) components. However, during implementation phase, the code to coordinate such components often ends up mixed in the main business code. This leads to maintenance problems, raising the need for, on the one hand, separating the coordination code from the business code, and on the other hand, providing mechanisms for analysis and comprehension of the architectural decisions once made. In this context our aim is at developing a domain-specific language, CoordL, to describe typical coordination patterns. From our point of view, coordination patterns are abstractions, in a graph form, over the composition of coordination statements from the system code. These patterns would allow us to identify, by means of pattern-based graph search strategies, the code responsible for the coordination of the several components in a system. The recovering and separation of the architectural decisions for a better comprehension of the software is the main purpose of this pattern language