Resumo: Este trabalho aborda o problema de identificação dos efeitos causados por eventuais falhas no abastecimento de certos materiais ou equipamentos na linha de montagem de aeronaves. Tal problema consiste em avaliar se o atraso na disponibilidade de um determinado material pode ser absorvido pela flexibilidade existente na rede de atividades da produção. Dessa forma, foi desenvolvido um sistema de apoio à decisão para o planejamento e controle da produção, utilizando simulação de eventos discretos para avaliar se o sincronismo entre os elos da cadeia produtiva está se comportando a contento e, em caso negativo, disponibilizar informações para as correções necessárias. A grande dificuldade na modelagem do sistema está na necessidade de integração de uma complexa cadeia de suprimentos a uma grande rede de atividades necessárias à manufatura das aeronaves. Apesar da complexidade, o sistema criado é capaz de identificar antecipadamente o impacto causado na montagem pelos insumos atrasados, além de prover uma visão de quais materiais, e respectivos fornecedores, apresentam um atraso que não pode ser absorvido pelo sistema, o que facilitaria o trabalho dos gestores da cadeia de suprimentos para aumentar a robustez do sistema. / Abstract: This work approaches the effects identification of problems caused by eventual fails in the provisioning of material or equipments in one assembly line of aircrafts. Such problem consists in evaluating if a delay in the availability of a material can be absorbed by the flexibility in the activities network of the production. This way, a decision support system was developed to support the planning and control of the production, using systems simulation, to evaluate if the synchronism among the links of the productive chain is behaving as necessary; in negative case, the system must to provide information for manager's action. The great difficulty to produce a model of this system is about the necessary integration of a complex supply chain to a big activities network associate to aircrafts manufacture. In spite of that complexity, the system developed is able to identify the impact caused in the assembly line by each late input, providing a vision of which materials, and respective suppliers, have a delay that cannot be absorbed by the production line. So, this research looks for facilitate the manager works in to increase the system robustness. / Orientador: Edgard Dias Batista Junior / Coorientador: Fernando Augusto da Silva Marins / Banca: José Antonio Perrella Balestieri / Banca: José Arnaldo Barra Montevechi / Mestre

Introduction The development of an appropriate animal model of ALF is paramount for the understanding of the disease pathogenesis and evaluation of potential therapeutic approaches. Acute liver failure (ALF) is a severe, usually rapidly progressive disease characterized by high mortality (60 - 90 %). Besides acute liver transplantation which faces a shortage of donors, the only possible therapeutic alternative is applying biological or non-biological liver support systems. To confirm the effectiveness of these methods, clinically relevant model of ALF on a large laboratory animal is essential. Surgically induced ALF models seem to be more reliable than models based on chemical intoxication. Ideal model of ALF has not yet been published. Surgical models are usually performed with devascularisation, large liver resection or hepatectomy. The aim of this work was to introduce three surgical models of ALF and evaluate their usefulness for testing biological and non-biological liver support systems. Materials and Methods Female laboratory pig weighing 35 - 45 kg was used for the experimental study. After induction of general anesthesia the thermodilution catheter was introduced via jugular vein. Femoral artery and vein were cannulated for invasive blood pressure monitoring and for infusions and...

abstract: This thesis examines the integration of somatic principles into Irish Step Dancing. The researcher conducted a twelve week case study that explored how utilizing the Centre-line Support System in training competitive Irish Step Dancers, through integrating Alexander Technique and Bartenieff Fundamentals of Total Body Connectivity can generate increased height and efficiency in jumping and an improvement in upper-body carriage, while longitudinally reducing the occurrence of over-use injuries. Research occurred between January and March 2012 in Tucson, Arizona and Dublin, Ireland. Additional research and reflection occurred in Belfast, Glasgow, and London, United Kingdom; Limerick, Cork, and Galway, Ireland; Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Chicago, Illinois; Phoenix, Arizona; and Los Angeles, California. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.F.A. Dance 2012

La gestion des risques projet est une activité cruciale dans le management de projet. Aujourd'hui, les projets sont confrontés à une complexité croissante et sont ainsi exposés à de nombreux risques interdépendants. Cependant, les méthodes classiques ont des limites pour la modélisation de la complexité réelle des risques du projet. Par exemple, certains phénomènes comme les réactions en chaîne et des boucles ne sont pas correctement pris en compte. Cette thèse de doctorat vise à analyser le comportement du réseau de risques projet grâce à la modélisation des risques et des interactions entre risques. Un système d'aide à la décision est introduit avec une série de méthodes associées. La construction du réseau de risques projet nécessite l'implication du manager de projet et l'équipe d'experts en utilisant la méthode Design Structure Matrix (DSM). Des techniques basées sur la simulation et la théorie des réseaux sont développées pour analyser et hiérarchiser les risques du projet, en regard de leur rôle et leur importance dans le réseau des risques. L'approche proposée constitue un puissant complément à l'analyse classique des risques projet. Ces nouvelles analyses fournissent aux managers de projet une meilleure vision sur les risques et sur leurs interactions complexes et les aident à élaborer des réponses plus efficaces. Prenant en compte les contraintes de ressources, un algorithme glouton et un algorithme génétique sont développés pour optimiser le plan de réponse aux risques et l'allocation des réserves budgétaires. Deux exemples d'application, 1) à un projet réel de mise en scène musicale dans l'industrie du divertissement et 2) à un projet réel de construction d’un système de transport urbain, sont présentés pour illustrer l'utilité du système d'aide à la décision proposé. / Project risk management is a crucial activity in project management. Nowadays, projects are facing a growing complexity and are thus exposed to numerous and interdependent risks. However, existing classical methods have limitations for modeling the real complexity of project risks. For example, some phenomena like chain reactions and loops are not properly taken into account. This Ph.D. thesis aims at analyzing propagation behavior in the project risk network through modelling risks and risk interactions. An integrated framework of decision support system is presented with a series of proposed methods. The construction of the project risk network requires the involvement of the project manager and the team of experts using the Design Structure Matrix (DSM) method. Simulation techniques are used and several network theory-based methods are developed for analyzing and prioritizing project risks, with respect to their role and importance in the risk network in terms of various indicators. The proposed approach serves as a powerful complement to classical project risk analysis. These novel analyses provide project managers with improved insights on risks and risk interactions under complexity and help them to design more effective response actions. Considering resource constraints, a greedy algorithm and a genetic algorithm are developed to optimize the risk response plan and the allocation of budget reserves dedicated to the risk management. Two examples of application, 1) to a real musical staging project in the entertainment industry and 2) to a real urban transportation system implementation project, are presented to illustrate the utility of the proposed decision support system.

O trabalho apresenta o sistema de apoio à decisão - SAD, projetado especificamente para pequenas indústrias. A pesquisa concentrou-se em parte no estudo das disciplinas envolvidas no tema análise econômico-financeira de empresas, de forma a recuperar as teorias e conceitos mais pertinentes, para, numa segunda etapa, aplicá-las ao projeto e implementação de um sistema de apoio às decisões de pequenas indústrias. O sistema de apoio à decisão - SAD foi concebido em parceria com 107 empresas de São Paulo, com o objetivo de realizar, de forma acurada e rápida, várias análises de apoio à tomada de decisões, entre as quais destacam-se as seguintes: análise das relações custo - volume - lucro (CVL); análise por taxa-alvo de retorno; cálculo de preços (orçamentos); análise econômica de seleção de produtos e de terceirizações de produtos, subconjuntos e operações. Além de específicas análises de administração financeira, outras relativas ao planejamento da produção são também colocadas à disposição pelo SAD, como é o caso do planejamento de materiais e de subconjuntos - MRP-I, do planejamento de capacidade para operações e máquinas - CRP, e do diagrama De-Para para apoiar arranjo físico, entre outras. O sistema tem oferecido apoio a uma série de tomadas de decisões em pequenas indústrias do Estado de São Paulo, com efetiva melhoria dos seus resultados econômico-financeiros. / This study presents a decision support system - simplified in portuguese as SAD, specifically designed to small manufacturing companies. The research concentrated partly on the study of the disciplines involved in economic-financial analysis of companies, in way to recover the theories and more pertinent concepts, for, in a second stage, to apply them to the project of a decision support system of industries of small load. The SAD was conceived and validated in partnership with 107 small manufacturing companies of São Paulo. It uses Managerial Accounting and Microeconomic models as long as Industrial Engineering methods. The research priorizes practical relevant managerial issues. The SAD was designed to realize accurately and rapidly several analysis to support decision making. The following analysis were highlighted: profit-cost-volume, target rate of return, pricing, products\' selection mix and make-or-buy decisions. Besides specifically financial management analysis, others relative to production planning were made available by the SAD, as materials requirements planning (MRP), capacity requirements planning (CRP), and the \"Chart of weighted values\" that supports lay out. The decision support system - SAD offered decision support to several small manufacturing companies, with effective improvement in their economical, financial and operational results.

O aumento da competição e a aceleração dos avanços tecnológicos têm contribuído para o desenvolvimento de novos conceitos e estratégias de produção, direcionando as empresas à busca contínua de novas oportunidades de negócios e melhorias dos processos produtivos. A indústria de madeira serrada no Brasil, na sua grande maioria, apresenta estrutura produtiva precária, com baixa produtividade, e sua sobrevivência depende da busca por melhorias de eficiência técnica e econômica dos processos de transformação. Nesta busca de melhorias de processos, a simulação de sistemas pode ser utilizada como ferramenta de apoio à decisão no planejamento da produção de serrarias, contribuindo para a competitividade das empresas. Esta dissertação objetiva desenvolver um modelo de simulação da produção de madeira serrada para auxiliar no planejamento da produção de uma serraria. O trabalho verificou a real potencialidade do uso da simulação no processo produtivo da serraria, se mostrando uma alternativa para o planejamento da produção da mesma. Com o uso da ferramenta estudada, o sistema produtivo foi modelado e validado utilizando o pacote de simulação Arena. Dentre os resultados desta dissertação, podem ser destacados: o modelo de pesquisa, a identificação das variáveis do sistema, o desenvolvimento e a validação do modelo. / The growing competition and the acceleration of technological advances have been contributing for the development of new production concepts and strategies, guiding companies into the search for continuous new business opportunities and productive processes improvements. Most of sawn wood industry in Brazil presents poor productive structure with low productivity, and its survival depends on the search for improvements on technical and economic efficiency of transformation processes. On this search, system simulation can be used as a supporting tool when deciding about the saw production planning, which contributes in favor of company competition. This paper work aims the development of a sawn wood production simulation model in order to help in the planning of a sawmill production. This work verifies the real potentiality when using the simulation during the sawmill productive process, which demonstrates it can be an alternative for the planning of the sawmill production. After using the above studied tool, the productive system was modeled and validated based on Arena simulation package. Among all the results of this study, some deserve to be highlighted: the research model, the identification of the system variables, and the model development and validation.

A carência, absoluta ou relativa, de água direcionou diversas ações no sentido de amenizar esse problema. A política nacional de recursos hídricos (Lei 9.433/97), com seus cinco instrumentos de gestão e planejamento, pode ser considerada o principal marco. Entre esses instrumentos, encontra-se o sistema de informações, que tem por finalidade coletar, armazenar e disponibilizar dados para uma gestão racional. É nesse âmbito e no sentido de contribuir para a evolução desses sistemas, que se apresenta essa tese de doutoramento. O tema principal trata da implementação de um sistema de suporte a decisões – SSD com base nos conceitos da programação orientada a objetos – POO, forma esta de programação que procura representar os sistemas por meio de classes de maneira a buscar a semelhança à realidade. Esse SSD, denominado de ARENA (análise de recursos naturais), é composto de um sistema de informações geográficas – SIG, dois simuladores (simulação do fluxo de águas subterrâneas e do ciclo hidrológico superficial), uma base de dados georeferenciada e módulos de acesso aos dados. A forma como os simuladores foram implementados, baseado em conceitos da POO e suas integrações às entidades geométricas do SIG, é apresentada como contribuição. No ARENA, o SIG não é apenas utilizado nas fases de pré e pós-processamento de dados para modelos, e sim no processo de simulação. Aplicações do ARENA a uma bacia hidrográfica (escoamento superficial) e a dois sistemas hipotéticos (escoamento subterrâneo) são apresentados ao final do trabalho. A maneira como esse SSD foi implementado induz ao desenvolvimento de simuladores adicionais sem realizar modificações nos pacotes já implementados neste trabalho, sendo facilitada a utilização dos pacotes que compõem esse SSD / The relative or complete lack of water has been directing various actions in order to solve this problem. The national water resources politic (Law 9.433/97) with its five instruments for water resources planning and management can be considered the main action. Among these instruments, it is found the information system that has as purpose to collect, store and turn it into available data to the rational management. In this scope and in order to give some contributions to the improvement of these systems, this Ph.D. thesis is presented. The main topic deals with the decision support system (DSS) implementation based on oriented object – OO, a kind of programming which tries to represent systems through classes very closely to the reality. This DSS, called ARENA (análise de recursos naturais, in Portuguese), is made up of a geographic information system (GIS), two models (a groundwater model and a distributed rainfall-runoff model), a georeferenced database and graphic user interfaces (GUI). The way the models were built, based on OO concepts and its integration to GIS geographic data, is presented as contribution. In the ARENA, the GIS is not only used in the pre and post processing steps, but also in the simulation. The ARENA applications were carried out for two examples, a watershed (surface water simulation) and a hypothetic system (groundwater simulation), both presented in the end of this study. The way this DSS was built induces to the development of other models without modifications in the existing packages, so that the development of new applications becomes easy because the use of existing packages that made this DSS up

The continuing trends of miniaturisation, mass customisation, globalisation and wide use of the Internet have great impacts upon manufacturing in the 21st century. Micro manufacturing will play an increasingly important role in bridging the gap between the traditional precision manufacturing and the emerging technologies like MEMS/NEMS. The key requirements for micro manufacturing in this context are hybrid manufacturing capability, modularity, reconfigurability, adaptability and energy/resource efficiency. The existing design approaches tend to have narrow scope and are largely limited to individual manufacturing processes and applications. The above requirements demand a fundamentally new approach to the future applications of micro manufacturing so as to obtain producibility, predictability and productivity covering the full process chains and value chains. A novel generic modular reconfigurable platform (GMRP) is proposed in such a context. The proposed GMRP is able to offer hybrid manufacturing capabilities, modularity, reconfigurablity and adaptivity as both an individual machine tool and a micro manufacturing system, and provides a cost effective solution to high value micro manufacturing in an agile, responsive and mass customisation manner. An integrated framework has been developed to assist the design of GMRPs due to their complexity. The framework incorporates theoretical GMRP model, design support system and extension interfaces. The GMRP model covers various relevant micro manufacturing processes and machine tool elements. The design support system includes a user-friendly interface, a design engine for design process and design evaluation, together with scalable design knowledge base and database. The functionalities of the framework can also be extended through the design support system interface, the GMRP interface and the application interface, i.e. linking to external hardware and/or software modules. The design support system provides a number of tools for the analysis and evaluation of the design solutions. The kinematic simulation of machine tools can be performed using the Virtual Reality toolbox in Matlab. A module has also been developed for the multiscale modelling, simulation and results analysis in Matlab. A number of different cutting parameters can be studied and the machining performance can be subsequently evaluated using this module. The mathematical models for a non-traditional micro manufacturing process, micro EDM, have been developed with the simulation performed using FEA. Various design theories and methodologies have been studied, and the axiomatic design theory has been selected because of its great power and simplicity. It has been applied in the conceptual design of GMRP and its design support system. The implementation of the design support system is carried out using Matlab, Java and XML technologies. The proposed GMRP and framework have been evaluated through case studies and experimental results.

Actuellement, les moyens et les méthodes de mesure et de contrôle des procédés de mise en forme, en particulier pour le forgeage, restent limités. Ils ne sont pas systématiques et sont très souvent développés pour des cas particuliers. La robustesse de ces procédés de mise en forme dépend de la capacité à mettre en œuvre des méthodes de maîtrise du processus et des contrôles efficaces. Des méthodologies existantes, comme la DMAIC, permettent de déterminer les paramètres à contrôler et leur influence sur les variables produit, cependant cette démarche possède des inconvénients rendant difficile son application, par exemple, la dépendance de cette méthode aux experts décidant des choix des paramètres. L'idée est de mettre en place une méthodologie générique permettant aux forgerons de maîtriser leur processus de fabrication de manière efficace et efficiente. La méthodologie consiste à mettre en place deux systèmes en amont et en aval du processus de forgeage. Le premier système, en amont, est un système d'aide à la décision reliant les spécifications sur le produit (géométrie, absence de défauts…) et sur les moyens de production aux paramètres processus. Ce premier système doit permettre de déterminer les paramètres clés à surveiller pour éviter des déviations au niveau des variables produit. Le deuxième système, en aval, est un système d'apprentissage dont le but est d'aider dans la compréhension du processus, renseigner le système d'aide à la décision et déterminer la pertinence de contrôle. / The mastering of the forging process is one of the principal objectives of the forging industry. To master a forging process, the key process parameters must be identified and controlled through a specified methodology. Some controlled parameters exist, like the stroke length or the lubrication, which are identified and controlled through a systematic approach. Their control depends on the part to produce or on customer's constraints, rather than a rational approach. A methodology is proposed to master the forging process and to avoid a process deviation. There are some methodologies that already exist such as the DMAIC, but it has certain drawbacks. The aim is to develop a generic methodology to improve the forging process monitoring. The methodology uses two systems in the upstream and the downstream of the forging process. The first system is a decision support system that connects product specifications (geometry, absence of defects…) or other forging process specifications (tool wear, energy…) to the process parameters, using the empirical rules and physical laws. The first system determinates the key parameters to control in order to avoid product variable deviations. The second system is a learning system, this latter helps in process understanding, supply the decision support system with laws and determinate the control pertinence.

Background: The business support system has become a necessary tool for managing activities in any organization. Usability is a key area in realizing effectiveness and ensuring users to properly interact with the systems. Still, today, many systems fail in key areas such as gaining the acceptance of the end users. To understand how the systems in use are perceived by its end users is suggested to be a needed key capability to be successful. Aim: To assess perceived usability in three generations business support systems. This knowledge is further to be compared and connected to length of employment and how that factor affects perceived usability and preference to a specific system. Methodology: The study assumes a positivistic position based on a deductive approach. A quantitative strategy was assumed in order to support evidence connected to the three case systems, which were further contrasted by a comparative design. Empirical findings were based on self-completion questionnaires responded by fifty-nine employees of the retail division in a Nordic bank. Completions and results: Even if this study could not show evidence that length of employment affected which business support system an individual preferred in the case firm, it still had a significant effect on perceived usability in general. In general it was shown that respondents who had been employed for a longer time assessed the usability factors of the systems higher than the category of short time employees.