915 resultados para Future Project
Resumo:
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to summarize the accumulated body of knowledge on the performance of new product projects and provide directions for further research. Design/methodology/approach – Using a refined classification of antecedents of new product project performance the research results are meta-analyzed in the literature in order to identify the strength and stability of predictor-performance relationships. Findings – The results reveal that 22 variables have a significant relationship with new product project performance, of which only 12 variables have a sizable relationship. In order of importance these factors are the degree of organizational interaction, R&D and marketing interface, general product development proficiency, product advantage, financial/business analysis, technical proficiency, management skill, marketing proficiency, market orientation, technology synergy, project manager competency and launch activities. Of the 34 variables 16 predictors show potential for moderator effects. Research limitations/implications – The validity of the results is constrained by publication bias and heterogeneity of performance measures, and directions for the presentation of data in future empirical publications are provided. Practical implications – This study helps new product project managers in understanding and managing the performance of new product development projects. Originality/value – This paper provides unique insights into the importance of predictors of new product performance at the project level. Furthermore, it identifies which predictor-performance relations are contingent on other factors.
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UVES interstellar observations from the Paranal Observatory Project are presented for early-type stars located in the line of sight to the nearby open clusters IC 2391 (Omni Vel) and NGC 6475 (M7), with spectroscopic resolution R similar to 80 000 and signal-to-noise ratios in the Ti II (3383 angstrom), Ca II K, CH+ (4232 angstrom), Na I D and K I (7698 angstrom) lines of several hundred. The sightlines are a mixture of cluster and non-cluster objects. A total of 22 early-type stars (A and B type) are present in our sample towards IC 2391, with 21 towards NGC 6475/M7, and enable us to probe for differences in column density on scales from similar to 0.07 to 7.3 and similar to 0.05 to 4.9 pc in the respective clusters. Additionally, towards Praesepe the Na I D interstellar variation only is probed towards 13 sightlines and transverse scales of similar to 0.16-10.7 pc at R = 70 000. Towards IC 2391 variations are found in Ti II, Ca II K and Na I D column density in different sightlines of up to 0.7, 1.0 and 1.8 dex (excluding one star), respectively. This kind of variability correlates well with the Hipparcos parallax of the objects, and probes structure within the Local Bubble. For cluster-only objects the variations are 0.3, 0.3 and 0.5 dex, respectively. For the field of view towards NGC6475 the corresponding maximum variations are somewhat smaller, being 0.5, 0.3, 0.8 and 1.0 dex for Ti II, Ca II K, Na I and K I, respectively, for all objects and 0.4, 0.2, 0.6 and 0.7 dex for the cluster-only objects. These are uncorrelated with parallax, and again demonstrate that Ca II K tends to be more smoothly distributed than Na I D. A few likely cluster sightlines show evidence for CH+ and variations in this molecular species of a factor of 10 in equivalent width over sub-pc scales. Towards Praesepe variation in interstellar Na I D is small, being a maximum of only similar to 0.4 dex (including measurement errors), but with fewer sightlines studied. Overall, the scatter in the data is similar for the singly ionized species Ti II and Ca II, lending more support to the hypothesis that these two species sample similar parts of the interstellar medium (ISM). This also appears to be the case for the neutral species Na I D and K I in the one cluster studied. Finally, multiple-epoch observations from a variety of archive sources are used to search for astronomical unit (au) scale structure in the ISM towards 46 sightlines. There are tentative indications of structure on scales of tens to thousands of au for three sightlines. Future observations will confirm the veracity or otherwise of the time-variable components and others presented.
Resumo:
This paper describes the result of a project to develop climate adaptation design strategies funded by the UK’s Technology Strategy Board. The aim of the project was to look at the effects of climate change in the distant future (2080) on a vulnerable group such as older people with special needs and see how architectural design strategies and technologies may be used today to help mitigate problems ahead caused by climate change.
Older people are the most vulnerable sector of society and are particularly at risk in extreme weather, either excess cold in winter or continual high temperatures in summer. In the UK it is predicted that average temperatures may rise by as much as 8 degrees in Summer by 2080 and there will be a 20% greater chance of extreme weather events. This will place extreme stress on the building stock which is designed for today’s mild maritime climate.
The project took a current proposal for an extra-care home for the elderly designed to 2010 regulations and developed a road map to 2080 using climate models developed by the UK Meteorological Office. This allowed the current design to be assessed using future climatic data, proposals for improvement of the scheme to be made within existing constraints and also a new scheme to be developed from first principals using this data, and projections of new technologies that will be available. By comparing these schemes, the approach allowed a reassessment of the initial scheme, and allowed a new design to be developed that offered a more flexible solution incorporating future retrofit which allows new renewable technologies for heating, cooling and water storage to be added at a later date.
Resumo:
Aims
Our aim was to test the prediction and clinical applicability of high-sensitivity assayed troponin I for incident cardiovascular events in a general middle-aged European population.
Methods and results
High-sensitivity assayed troponin I was measured in the Scottish Heart Health Extended Cohort (n = 15 340) with 2171 cardiovascular events (including acute coronary heart disease and probable ischaemic strokes), 714 coronary deaths (25% of all deaths), 1980 myocardial infarctions, and 797 strokes of all kinds during an average of 20 years follow-up. Detection rate above the limit of detection (LoD) was 74.8% in the overall population and 82.6% in men and 67.0% in women. Troponin I assayed by the high-sensitivity method was associated with future cardiovascular risk after full adjustment such as that individuals in the fourth category had 2.5 times the risk compared with those without detectable troponin I (P < 0.0001). These associations remained significant even for those individuals in whom levels of contemporary-sensitivity troponin I measures were not detectable. Addition of troponin I levels to clinical variables led to significant increases in risk prediction with significant improvement of the c-statistic (P < 0.0001) and net reclassification (P < 0.0001). A threshold of 4.7 pg/mL in women and 7.0 pg/mL in men is suggested to detect individuals at high risk for future cardiovascular events.
Conclusion
Troponin I, measured with a high-sensitivity assay, is an independent predictor of cardiovascular events and might support selection of at risk individuals.
Resumo:
IDEAhaus:
A Comfortable Home for the UK’s Future Climate
This paper describes the result of a project to develop climate adaptation design strategies funded by the UK’s Technology Strategy Board. The aim of the project was to look at the threats and opportunities presented by industrialised and lightweight housebuilding techniques in the light of predicted increases in flooding and overheating. This case study presents detailed concept designs for a future systemised housing product which can be Industrialised, Delightful, Efficient and Adaptable; an IDEAhaus.
Keywords: climate change adaptation, thermal comfort, passive cooling, flood residence, industrialised housing, mass customisation
Resumo:
1) Executive Summary
Legislation (Autism Act NI, 2011), a cross-departmental strategy (Autism Strategy 2013-2020) and a first action plan (2013-2016) have been developed in Northern Ireland in order to support individuals and families affected by Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) without a prior thorough baseline assessment of need. At the same time, there are large existing data sets about the population in NI that had never been subjected to a secondary data analysis with regards to data on ASD. This report covers the first comprehensive secondary data analysis and thereby aims to inform future policy and practice.
Following a search of all existing, large-scale, regional or national data sets that were relevant to the lives of individuals and families affected by Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in Northern Ireland, extensive secondary data analyses were carried out. The focus of these secondary data analyses was to distill any ASD related data from larger generic data sets. The findings are reported for each data set and follow a lifespan perspective, i.e., data related to children is reported first before data related to adults.
Key findings:
Autism Prevalence:
Of children born in 2000 in the UK,
• 0.9% (1:109) were reported to have ASD, when they were 5-year old in 2005;
• 1.8% (1:55) were reported to have ASD, when they were 7-years old in 2007;
• 3.5% (1:29) were reported to have ASD, when they were 11-year old in 2011.
In mainstream schools in Northern Ireland
• 1.2% of the children were reported to have ASD in 2006/07;
• 1.8% of the children were reported to have ASD in 2012/13.
Economic Deprivation:
• Families of children with autism (CWA) were 9%-18% worse off per week than families of children not on the autism spectrum (COA).
• Between 2006-2013 deprivation of CWA compared to COA nearly doubled as measured by eligibility for free school meals (from near 20 % to 37%)
• In 2006, CWA and COA experienced similar levels of deprivation (approx. 20%), by 2013, a considerable deprivation gap had developed, with CWA experienced 6% more deprivation than COA.
• Nearly 1/3 of primary school CWA lived in the most deprived areas in Northern Ireland.
• Nearly ½ of children with Asperger’s Syndrome who attended special school lived in the most deprived areas.
Unemployment:
• Mothers of CWA were 6% less likely to be employed than mothers of COA.
• Mothers of CWA earned 35%-56% less than mothers of COA.
• CWA were 9% less likely to live in two income families than COA.
Health:
• Pre-diagnosis, CWA were more likely than COA to have physical health problems, including walking on level ground, speech and language, hearing, eyesight, and asthma.
• Aged 3 years of age CWA experienced poorer emotional and social health than COA, this difference increased significantly by the time they were 7 years of age.
• Mothers of young CWA had lower levels of life satisfaction and poorer mental health than mothers of young COA.
Education:
• In mainstream education, children with ASD aged 11-16 years reported less satisfaction with their social relationships than COA.
• Younger children with ASD (aged 5 and 7 years) were less likely to enjoy school, were bullied more, and were more reluctant to attend school than COA.
• CWA attended school 2-3 weeks less than COA .
• Children with Asperger’s Syndrome in special schools missed the equivalent of 8-13 school days more than children with Asperger’s Syndrome in mainstream schools.
• Children with ASD attending mainstream schooling were less likely to gain 5+ GCSEs A*-C or subsequently attend university.
Further and Higher Education:
• Enrolment rates for students with ASD have risen in Further Education (FE), from 0% to 0.7%.
• Enrolment rates for students with ASD have risen in Higher Education (HE), from 0.28% to 0.45%.
• Students with ASD chose to study different subjects than students without ASD, although other factors, e.g., gender, age etc. may have played a part in subject selection.
• Students with ASD from NI were more likely than students without ASD to choose Northern Irish HE Institutions rather than study outside NI.
Participation in adult life and employment:
• A small number of adults with ASD (n=99) have benefitted from DES employment provision over the past 12 years.
• It is unknown how many adults with ASD have received employment support elsewhere (e.g. Steps to Work).
•
Awareness and Attitudes in the General Population:
• In both the 2003 and 2012 NI Life and Times Survey (NILTS), NI public reported positive attitudes towards the inclusion of children with ASD in mainstream education (see also BASE Project Vol. 2).
Gap Analysis Recommendations:
This was the first comprehensive secondary analysis with regards to ASD of existing large-scale data sets in Northern Ireland. Data gaps were identified and further replications would benefit from the following data inclusion:
• ASD should be recorded routinely in the following datasets:
o Census;
o Northern Ireland Survey of Activity Limitation (NISALD);
o Training for Success/Steps to work; Steps to Success;
o Travel survey;
o Hate crime; and
o Labour Force Survey.
• Data should be collected on the destinations/qualifications of special school leavers.
• NILT Survey autism module should be repeated in 5 years time (2017) (see full report of 1st NILT Survey autism module 2012 in BASE Project Report Volume 2).
• General public attitudes and awareness should be assessed for children and young people, using the Young Life and Times Survey (YLT) and the Kids Life and Times Survey (KLT); (this work is underway, Dillenburger, McKerr, Schubolz, & Lloyd, 2014-2015).
Resumo:
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Executive Summary
The Pathways Project field studies were targeted at improving the understanding of contaminant transport along different hydrological pathways in Irish catchments, including their associated impacts on water quality and river ecology. The contaminants of interest were phosphorus, nitrogen and sediment. The working Pathways conceptual model included overland flow, interflow, shallow groundwater flow, and deep groundwater flow. This research informed the development of a set of Catchment Management Support Tools (CMSTs) comprising an Exploratory Tool, Catchment Characterization Tool (CCT) and Catchment Modelling Tool (CMT) as outlined in Pathways Project Final Reports Volumes 3 and 4.
In order to inform the CMST, four suitable study catchments were selected following an extensive selection process, namely the Mattock catchment, Co. Louth/Meath; Gortinlieve catchment, Co. Donegal; Nuenna catchment, Co. Kilkenny and the Glen Burn catchment, Co. Down. The Nuenna catchment is well drained as it is underlain by a regionally important karstified limestone aquifer with permeable limestone tills and gravels, while the other three catchments are underlain by poorly productive aquifers and low permeability clayey tills, and are poorly drained.
All catchments were instrumented, and groundwater, surface and near-surface water and aquatic ecology were monitored for a period of two years. Intensive water quality sampling during rainfall events was used to investigate the pathways delivering nutrients. The proportion of flow along each pathway was determined using chemical and physical hydrograph separation techniques, supported by numerical modelling.
The outcome of the field studies broadly supported the use of the initial four-pathway conceptual model used in the Pathways CMT (time-variant model). The artificial drainage network was found to be a significant contributing pathway in the poorly drained catchments, at low flows and during peak flows in wet antecedent conditions. The transition zone (TZ), i.e. the broken up weathered zone at the top of the bedrock, was also found to be an important pathway. It was observed to operate in two contrasting hydrogeological scenarios: in groundwater discharge zones the TZ can be regarded as being part of the shallow groundwater pathway, whereas in groundwater recharge zones it behaves more like interflow.
In the catchments overlying poorly productive aquifers, only a few fractures or fracture zones were found to be hydraulically active and the TZ, where present, was the main groundwater pathway. In the karstified Nuenna catchment, the springs, which are linked to conduits as well as to a diffuse fracture network, delivered the majority of the flow. These findings confirm the two-component groundwater contribution from bedrock but suggest that the size and nature of the hydraulically active fractures and the nature of the TZ are the dominant factors at the scale of a stream flow event.
Diffuse sources of nitrate were found to be typically delivered via the subsurface pathways, especially in the TZ and land drains in the poorly productive aquifer catchments, and via the bedrock groundwater in the Nuenna. Phosphorus was primarily transported via overland flow in both particulate and soluble forms. Where preferential flow paths existed in the soil and subsoil, soluble P, and to a lesser extent particulate P, were also transported via the TZ and in drains and ditches. Arable land was found to be the most important land use for
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the delivery of sediment, although channel bank and in-stream sources were the most significant in the Glen Burn catchment. Overland flow was found to be the predominant transport sediment pathway in the poorly productive catchments. These findings informed the development of the transport and attenuation equations used in the CCT and CMT. From an assessment of the relationship between physico-chemical and biological conditions, it is suggested that in the Nuenna, Glen Burn and Gortinlieve catchments, a relationship may exist between biological water quality and nitrogen concentrations, as well as with P. In the Nuenna, there was also a relationship between macroinvertebrate status and alkalinity.
Further research is recommended on the transport and delivery of phosphorus in groundwater, the transport and attenuation dynamics in the TZ in different hydrogeological settings and the relationship between macroinvertebrates and co-limiting factors. High resolution temporal and spatial sampling was found to be important for constraining the conceptual understanding of nutrient and sediment dynamics which should also be considered in future studies.
Resumo:
During the past two decades the UK has played a leading position in the development and application of Public Private Partnership (PPP) based infrastructure procurement through its Private Finance Initiative model. This model had been developed during the last years of the Major Government and expanded during the early years of the Blair Government. The banking and economic crisis of 2007-09 has created major challenges to the use of PPP in the UK, making the sustainability of past levels of PPP investment and the future direction of PPP based infrastructure procurement in that country uncertain. This chapter summarises key developments in UK PPP up to the crisis; reviews the economic issues that have led up to the crisis; discusses the immediate impact of the crisis on the UK PFI and PPP market together with the transition arrangements that were put into to place by the Brown government; and, lastly, looks at recent initiatives taken by Cameron’s Conservative-Liberal Coalition Government under the designation of Private Finance 2 (PF2).
Resumo:
From March 1999 to August 2000, the authors were involved in simultaneous internal and external evaluations of the social civic and political education (SCaPE) project in Northern Ireland. This project was a major initiative established by the Citizenship Foundation, the Northern Ireland Council for the Curriculum, Examination and Assessment (CCEA), and the School of Education at the University of Ulster at Coleraine. It was a 2-year project in 25 secondary schools established to design, develop, pilot and evaluate a new programme of social, civic and political education for Northern Ireland. It also aimed to serve as a model for future Citizenship curriculum developments throughout Northern Ireland and elsewhere. This paper describes the background to the project, the design and conduct of the two evaluations, and the links between them. It outlines the main conclusions of each evaluation and describes the way SCaPE has since evolved into a mainstream curriculum development project. The final part of the paper analyses the key opportunities, tensions and challenges involved in running such evaluations at a critical time in the history of Northern Ireland – a time when innovation is both necessary and controversial. It argues that, especially in such circumstances, evaluation cannot be conducted from a neutral, objective standpoint, and that it is incumbent on evaluators to recognise the emotional, personal and political commitment they make to the projects in which they are engaged.
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This research concentrates on the critical success factors driving construction quality and the barriers that must be overcome to achieve quality in Brunei. It hopes to identify methods of quality improvement and clearly justify investment in this area of local industry. Over the past number of years, Brunei has attempted to diversify its industry from the dominant oil and gas sector into secondary sectors,
including construction. To date, very little research has been carried out in many areas of construction management that take into account the specific industry context in Brunei. A comprehensive literature review has been employed to enable a questionnaire to be constructed and distributed among Brunei construction
professionals. The results have been analyzed through mean testing. This analysis reveals that the key barriers to construction quality in Brunei relate to lack of skills, lack of clarity in responsibility and communication and poor commitment among the design team. The critical success factors include issues relating to competency, capability, commitment and effectiveness, primarily among managers and decision-makers. The results of this study will hopefully contribute to fill the knowledge gap related to construction management in the context of Brunei and facilitate movement towards improved techniques and strategies that will foster higher quality in construction. The findings can be generalised across similar
developing economies and it is suggested that in general, the management concepts governing construction quality remain similar across the borders of East and West.
Resumo:
Dissertação de Mestrado, Gestão da Água e da Costa, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade do Algarve, 2010
Resumo:
A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Management from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics
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A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Economics from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics
Resumo:
A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Management from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics
