Analysis of the most suitable project management approach for projects with parallel planning and execution phases

Planning projects is a key for success. In the case of projects with major investments like in aircraft maintenance related projects, it is even more indispensable. It is imperative to have total control of all variables and requirements due the enormous complexity and investment associated, which can lead to huge losses if a reliable plan is not established. This work was developed in a multinational military aviation company on the Airborne Warning and Control System Depot Level Maintenance (DLM) project. This project is characterized by parallel planning and execution phases which shows to be difficult tasks for a traditional project management approach as currently in use. The team faces issues on performing both phases at the same time, which can compromise compliance with project requirements and may decrease customer satisfaction. In order to overcome this problem, after assessing different approaches from the literature, a new approach has been developed to solve the issue that the DLM project was facing. As conclusion, the new approach turned the planning phase much more effective, which allowed to use less resources than before to perform it without interfering on the execution phase. This increased the planning performance, which will provide updated plans to the execution phase, ensuring by that way the compliance with project requirements

Amazonian Maize: Diversity, Spatial Distribution and Historical-Cultural Diffusion

Subsistence is one of the factors that determined the presence or migration of prehistoric human populations. At the same time, humans were largely responsible for the dissemination of important crop plants such as maize (Zea mays). Maize is the major domesticated species in the New World, with thousands of landraces that were shaped by environment and human culture. Genetic analyses of archaeological and indigenous maize samples were used to verify the occurrence in South America of at least two major introductory waves of distinct races of maize from its center of origin in Mexico. The first occurred around 5000 years ago and spread primarily through the Andean region. The second one, 2000 years ago, spread through the lowlands of South America. These two distributions may reflect cultural isolation between the regions. In terms of subsistence, the present study found that the maize used by indigenous Brazilian populations, including those in Amazonia, is genetically closer to samples from Mexico than to samples from the Andes. This applies to both the contemporary and the archaeological samples indicating that the inhabitants of Brazil, including those from Amazonia, had a stronger relationship with populations from Central America and northern South America than from the Andean region. An exception can be seen in the region of northern Chile through Paraguay to southern Brazil, where the mixture of the three genetic groups indicates possible cultural contact between highland and lowland peoples. Additionally, the greatest diversity in maize was observed in samples from Roraima state, in northern Amazonia, and this may reflect the fact that human populations of the region had intense contact with different cultural groups, including the Andean groups

Domestication and Dispersal of Native Crops in Amazonia

Recent decades have witnessed the rapid expansion of interest in and research on the domestication of crop plants worldwide. These species are the basis of the rise to dominance of Homo sapiens over the last 10,000 years. New techniques in archaeology and the expansion of molecular genetics are uncovering abundant evidence to support or refute old hypotheses about human domestication of crops and creation of food production systems that fueled population expansions and linguistic diasporas, and to raise new hypotheses. In Amazonia and elsewhere in lowland South America, archaeologists are starting to examine these hypotheses in earnest, and geneticists are starting to generate data to identify crop origins and dispersals. Archaeologists now generally agree that Amazonia was inhabited by numerous advanced societies before European conquest, especially along the major white water rivers and in other favorable locations for food production, and that these societies had domesticated significant areas of numerous landscapes. This special section of Tipití summarizes a set of presentations given during the recent 2nd International Meeting on Amazonian Archaeology, held in Manaus, Amazonas, in September 2010. An overview of plant domestication opens the sequence, followed by new archaeobotanical evidence from the southeastern Colombian and central Brazilian Amazonia and from the southern savannas of Brazil, and new molecular genetic evidence about the origins of peach palm (Bactris gasipaes) and the dispersal of manioc (Manihot esculenta), maize (Zea mays), and peach palm in lowland South America

Pequenas notas sobre a noção de estilo na física

Ao longo do século XX, a noção de estilo se estabeleceu como uma categoria quase necessária dentro do campo da estética. Tal fato, aliado à completa flexibilidade de significado do termo, fez com que seu uso se expandisse para diversos campos. Dada essa versatilidade, parece apenas natural que logo essa noção seria usada para estudar as ciências. O que nos propomos é pensar um pouco sobre a sua aplicabilidade dentro do campo das ciências, mais especificamente da física.  O caminho a ser traçado será apresentar alguns casos nos quais estilo aparece dentro desse contexto, seja da física, seja do conhecimento como um todo. Por fim, discutiremos alguns aspectos gerais que parecem ser necessários no desenvolvimento de uma estilística da física e da prática científica.&nbsp

Material arqueológico para o estudo de evolução de plantas cultivadas

This research studies archaeological samples of maize (Zea mays mays) and cassava (Manihot esculenta), from Januaria, MG, Brazil, for samples between 1010 (for the oldest sample) and 570 years (for the most recent) as estimated through radiocarbon dating. Maize cobs were morphologically analysed by using length, basal and apical diameters, largest diameter, number of rows, number of grains per row, and number of grains per row per length parameters. The maize cob length presented increases through time, allowing an increase on the number of seed per cob, but the size of seeds did not vary significantly. Starch present in the reserve organs of the maize and cassava were analysed morphologically through Scanning Electron Microscopy, and compared to indigenous and modern samples, aiming to estimate the diversity of the material and, for the cassava, to assure that samples were truely Manihot sp. The starch of the maize and cassava reserve organs was in excellent state of conservation and the morphology of the starch grains allowed the separation of maize varieties. More than one variety of maize was found on a same period of time, suggesting that the old indigenous people of the area planted different varieties of maize simultaneously and these varieties changed through the studied period of time. Finally archaeological starch grains of maize presented more diverse standards than modern grains.Amostras arqueológicas de milho (Zea mays mays) e mandioca (Manihot esculenta), oriundas da região de Januária, Minas Gerais, Brasil, com idades estimadas entre 1010 anos para a amostra mais antiga, até 570 anos para as mais novas, foram estudadas morfologicamente. No caso do milho, tomaram-se medidas de comprimento da espiga, diâmetro basal, diâmetro apical, diâmetro maior, número de fileiras, número de grãos por fileiras e número de grãos por fileiras por comprimento. O tamanho da espiga aumentou com o tempo, permitindo aumento da quantidade de sementes, mas sem que estas sementes sofressem uma variação significativa em seu tamanho. Amostras de grãos de amido das sementes de milho e do tubérculo de mandioca foram estudados por meio de microscopia eletrônica de varredura e comparadas com amostras de raças indígenas e etnovariedades, para estimar a diversidade deste material e, no caso do tubérculo, para certificação que se tratava realmente de mandioca e não uma outra espécie. O amido dos órgãos de reserva do milho e mandioca encontram-se em excelente estado de conservação e, através da morfologia dos grãos de amido foram separadas raças ou variedades de milho. Constatou-se a presença de mais de uma raça de milho em um mesmo período de tempo e estas raças foram variando ao longo do período analisado (de 1010 a 570 anos atrás). A variabilidade dos grãos de amido das amostras arqueológicas de milho se apresentou maior do que as amostras atuais utilizadas

The notion of language deviations in St. Augustine’s Ars pro fratrum mediocritate breuiata

The notion of linguistic correction (Latinitas) with which Augustine of Hippo introduced his Ars pro fratrum mediocritate breuiata seems central to the philosopher's grammatical discussion, not only because of the various examples that Augustine offers about the definitions of barbarism and soloecism at the end of this treatise, but also because the subject of correction (Latinitas) and, consequently, of the deviations of language (barbarismus and soloecismus), are also presented in other non-grammatical works: The confessions, De ordine and De doctrina Christiana. In this article, we propose to evaluate the conceptual outlines of the notions of barbarism and solecism in the work of Augustine, considering, on the one hand, the definitions present in the Ars breuiata, and, on the other, the way in which Augustine also presents them in his philosophical work. We propose that the normative orientation contained in the text of ars must be relativised by ethical questions that arise from the comments present in the Confessions, the De ordine and the De doctrina Christiana

Analysis of relationship between retraction and muscular strength in individuals of specific populations

The aim of this study was to verify the relationship between the degree of retraction and the muscular force in individuals of specific populations. Volunteers of the masculine gender, with age between 17 and 46 years old, were divided in four groups: GI (Sedentary, n=11); GII (Musculation, n=11); GIII (Worker, n=9); GIV (Worker + Musculation - n=10). Tests of retraction in the muscular groups of the shoulder had been evaluated, in knee and posterior chain. The palms grip strength was measured by dynamometry, was held to test the arm bending, strength of quadriceps, hamstrings and chest. In the results to degrees of flexibility for adduction of the shoulder, the group GIV (143.79º ± 8.71) had to be significantly higher than the group GIII (122.87º ± 11.87) to the right side (R). GIII (117.26º ± 9.05), in turn, showed lower compared to GII (131.06º ± 17.47) group for the left (L) (p\u3c0.05). To rotators of shoulder muscles, there was significant difference, with lower values for the group GIII (81.22º ± 8.63), compared to GII (98.65º ± 13.40), to the R side, and GIII (75.00º ± 7.05) compared the GI (98.15º ± 7.68) and GII (93.82º ± 19.00), side L (p\u3c0.01). The chain later muscle points higher ranges in centimeters for the GIV (5.32 ± 4.71) compared to the group GI (1.00 ± 5.02) (p\u3c0.01). For bending the arm and holds palm forests, the gains went to musculation athletes of individuals in relation to groups without weight training. Therefore, the practice of exercises of weight training does not seem important to the development of permanent muscle shortening to individuals, enabling greater power generation in individuals that practice