Francisco Soares Másculo

Analysis of mental workload of electrical power plant operators of control and operation centers.

Electrical systems can be categorized as critical systems where failure can result in significant financial loss, injury or threats to human life. The operators of the electric power control centers perform an activity in a specialized environment and have to carry it out by mobilizing knowledge and reasoning to which they have adequate training under the terms of the existing rules. To reach this there is a common mental request of personnel involved in these centers due the need to maintain attention, memory and reasoning request. In this sense, this study aims to evaluate the Mental Workload of technical workers of the Control Centers of Electrical Energy. It was undertaken a research on operators control centers of the electricity sector in Northeast Brazil. It was used for systematic observations, followed by interview and application of the instrument National Aeronautics and Space Administration Task Load Index known as NASA-TLX. As a result there will be subsidies for an assessment of mental workload of operators, and a contribution to improving the processes of managing the operation of electric utilities and the quality of workers.

Características de uma ferramenta CAD voltada a uma abordagem integrada do processo de projeto em arquitetura

Uma das tendencias mais recentes no mercado de programas CAD, Computer Aided Design, e a crescente importância dos programas direcionados para apoiar um conjunto de tarefas de uma determinada profissao ou atividade, chamados de programas CAD dedicados, profissionais ou especificos. Este tipo de programa abandona definitivamente a metafora de “prancheta eletronica” utilizada nao so para caracterizar os programas CAD como tambem para determinar a logica de suas interfaces. Os programas que eram orientados ao desenho passam a ser orientados ao objeto, voltados para a construcao nao-ambigua de um modelo do que esta sendo concebido. Este artigo levanta preliminarmente quais as caracteristicas e/ou recursos desejaveis em um programa CAD voltado para o projeto de arquitetura e quais os obstaculos para a sua implementacao operacional.