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In addition to the traditional market price risks, origin shippers of grains and oilseeds face risks related to the costs associated with the handling, storage, and transport of crops to their destination markets. To more closely examine the nature of these risks, a Monte Carlo optimization model was constructed using the Material Requirement Planning (MRP) methodology. The goal of the model was to minimize the mean and 5% value-at-risk (VaR) of the sum of these associated costs. The primary decision variable was the number of unit trains to purchase in the primary rail market. The model was also subjected to additional sensitivity and stress analysis to analyze the properties of the optimal results. A primary observation derived from this analysis is the importance of the primary and secondary railcar markets to the management of these risks, both from an informational and risk management perspective. Another key driver was the ability to manage the seasonality of farmer deliveries via forward contracting to capture returns to storage. Finally, another key contribution of this study is to demonstrate the utility of using subject matter expert (SME) time series modeling in Monte Carlo simulation.

Dissertação de mestrado em Gestão de Projetos de Engenharia, O presente projeto de dissertação, intitulado como Melhoria de Práticas de Gestão de Projetos numa Empresa de Gestão Ambiental, foi desenvolvido no âmbito do curso de Mestrado de Gestão de Projetos de Engenharia, da Universidade do Minho. Perante as necessidades das organizações se destacarem e crescerem num mercado cada vez mais competitivo, onde a capacidade de resposta no tempo certo e com qualidade é cada vez mais importante, as vantagens da utilização das boas praticas de gestão de projetos torna-se cada vez mais evidente. A implementação de melhorias das práticas de gestão de projetos tem sido um fator preponderante para o sucesso das organizações. Este trabalho de dissertação foi desenvolvido na empresa Ecofirma. É uma empresa ligada ao ramo ambiental, tendo sido abordado o caso particular de um projeto de abastecimento de água. O objetivo principal desta dissertação de mestrado foi propor boas praticas de gestão de projetos com enfoque no departamento de produção e apresentar propostas que visam melhorar os processos internos e a gestão de projetos. Para tal, foram consideradas estratégias para simplificar os processos, melhorar a gestão da informação, comunicação, organização e gestão dos projetos. Estas propostas basearam-se nas diferentes áreas de conhecimento do PMBOK® Guide. Partindo do diagnóstico inicial, foram apresentadas propostas de alteração ao nível da aprendizagem operacional e dos processos e técnicas da gestão de projetos. Destaca-se a necessidade de maior envolvimento de colaboradores, melhor organização de atividades de manutenção e definição de competências e responsabilidades. Foram ainda apresentadas propostas diversas para a criação de ferramentas de apoio à gestão de projetos com apresentação de templates específicos exemplificados para o caso do projeto de abastecimento de água, sendo ainda referida a importância da criação da figura do gestor de projeto., This dissertation project titled “Improvement of Project Management Practices in an Environmental Management Company” was developed within the scope of the master’s course in engineering project management, from the University of Minho. The need for organizations to stand out and grow in an increasingly competitive market along with the ability to respond in time and with quality are increasingly important. Given this, the advantages of using good project management practices become more and more evident. The improvements in project management practices have been a major factor in the success of organizations. This dissertation work was developed at Ecofirma. This is a company linked to the environmental branch. The work dealt with the case of a water supply project. The main objective of this master's thesis was to carry out a survey of the current situation of the company and present proposals that aim to improve internal processes and project management for the production department. To this end, strategies were considered to simplify the processes to improve information management, communication, organization, and project management. These proposals were based on the different areas of knowledge of PMBOK® Guide. Starting from the initial diagnosis, proposals for changes were made in terms of operational learning and project management processes and techniques. We highlight the need for greater employee involvement, better organization of maintenance activities and definition of competencies and responsibilities. Several proposals were also presented for the creation of tools to support project management with the presentation of specific templates exemplified for the case of the water supply project. The importance of creating the figure of the project manager was also mentioned.

The purpose of the study is to quantify the level of uptake of administered radionuclide in primary bone tumors for patients undergoing bone scintigraphy. Retrospective study on 48 patient's scintigrams to quantify the uptake levels of administered radiopharmaceuticals was performed in a nuclear medicine unit in Ghana. Patients were administered with activity ranging between 0.555 and 1.110 MBq (15–30 mCi), and scanned on Siemens e.cam SPECT system. Analyses on scintigrams were performed with Image J software by drawing regions of interest (ROIs) over identified hot spots (pathologic sites). Nine skeletal parts namely cranium, neck, shoulder, sacrum, sternum, vertebra, femur, ribcage, and knee were considered in the study, which involved 96 identified primary tumors. Radionuclide uptakes were quantified in terms of the estimated counts of activity per patient for identified tumor sites. Average normalized counts of activity (nGMC) per patient ranged from 5.2759 ± 0.6590 cts/mm2/MBq in the case of cranium tumors to 72.7569 ± 17.8786 cts/mm2/MBq in the case of ribcage tumors. The differences in uptake levels could be attributed to different mechanisms of Tc-99m MDP uptake in different types of bones, which is directly related to blood flow and degree of osteoblastic activity. The overall normalized count of activity for the 96 identified tumors was estimated to be 23.0350 ± 19.5424 cts/mm2/MBq. The study revealed highest uptake of activity in ribcage and least uptake in cranium. Quantification of radionuclide uptakes in tumors is important and recommended in assessing patient's response to therapy, doses to critical organs and in diagnosing tumors.

Study on 95 patients to compare radionuclide uptake levels in patients undergoing bone scintigraphy at a Nuclear Medicine Unit has been performed quantitatively using Image J software. Patients were administered with activity ranging from 0.555 to 1.110 MBq depending on their body weight, and their whole-body bone scans obtained with an installed e.cam single-photon emission computed tomography system. Matrix size of 256 × 1024 was used in acquiring the scintigrams. Quantitative analyses performed with installed Image J software revealed higher radionuclide uptake levels in metastatic tumors compared with primary tumors for all selected skeletal parts. Average normalized count of activity in metastatic tumors was 37.117 ± 27.740 cts/mm 2 /MBq and its corresponding uptake in primary tumors was 23.035 ± 19.542 cts/mm 2 /MBq. The relative higher uptake in metastatic tumors over primary tumors could be attributed to higher osteoblastic activity and blood flow in metastatic tumors.