At any price: Russia is embarking on the construction of South Stream. OSW Commentary No. 98, 2012-12-07

Gazprom is determined to continue its efforts to build the South Stream gas pipeline regardless of the slump on the European gas market and the fact that there is sufficient capacity already in the existing transport infrastructure. The official inauguration of the maritime section of South Stream was held on 7 December this year, but the construction itself will commence in 2014. The agreements concluded so far, both intergovernmental and between corporations, are necessary for the launch of the construction of the new pipeline, but still do not guarantee that the project will be completed on time. First of all, some legal problems have yet to be resolved, such as the evaluation of the compliance of the planned actions with the ‘third energy package’ or the fact that ecological surveys required under European law need to be carried out. Secondly, given the present situation on the European gas market and medium-term forecasts, the high cost of implementation of this project and the maintenance expenses of existing pipelines – which are not being used to full capacity – the new project seems to be unfeasible. However, Gazprom’s determination in its efforts to build the pipeline proves that Russia is ready to take a high economic risk to maintain its dominant position on the European gas supply market; it will restrict the possibilities of alternative infrastructural projects being implemented (above all, the EU’s Southern Corridor) and use the construction of new pipelines as an instrument of political pressure on the present transit countries (especially Ukraine).

The Southern Gas Corridor. The Azerbaijani-Turkish project becomes part of the game between Russia and the EU. OSW POINT OF VIEW 53, 2015-08-20

The Southern Gas Corridor is a system of three complementary gas pipeline projects controlled by Azerbaijan and Turkey, each at a different stage of implementation. The crisis in EU-Russia relations over Ukraine has made the two players interested in the Southern Gas Corridor once again. Brussels views it as an opportunity for a genuine diversification of gas supplies and a way to reinforce its position against Russia. In turn, Moscow’s proposal for Turkey and Greece to join the Turkish Stream gas pipeline project changes the energy map of the regional projects, which indirectly affects the Southern Gas Corridor. This has raised concern in Azerbaijan, which has been making efforts to manoeuvre between the interests of Moscow and Brussels.

The Portuguese National Programme for the Promotion of Healthy Eating: 2012–2015

This paper describes the first 4-year period (2012–2015) of implementation of the Portuguese National Programme for the Promotion of Healthy Eating (PNPAS). PNPAS was approved in 2012 and emerged as a preventive programme for noncommunicable diseases, aiming to improve the nutritional status of the population; it represents the first national strategy in Portugal for the promotion of healthy eating. To accomplish its mission, and taking into account its overall principles, PNPAS has five main goals: (i) to increase knowledge about the food intake of the Portuguese population and about its determinants and consequences; (ii) to modify the availability of certain foods (high in sugar, salt and fat), in schools, workplaces and public spaces; (iii) to inform and empower the population for the purchase, preparation and storage of healthy food, especially the most vulnerable groups; (iv) to identify and promote crosssectoral actions that encourage the consumption of foods of good nutritional quality in an articulate and integrated way with other sectors, namely agriculture, sport, environment, education, social security and local authorities; and (v) to improve the qualifications and conduct of the different professionals who, owing to their roles, may influence nutritional knowledge, attitudes and behaviours. The design of PNPAS followed the latest strategic lines suggested by WHO and the European Commission, proposing a crosssectoral mix of interventions to ensure physical and economic access to healthy eating by creating healthy environments and empowering individuals and communities. Several actions were implemented at different levels during the first 4-year period of implementation of PNPAS; two were especially relevant. The first concerned the empowerment of citizens regarding healthy eating, where the most important aspect was introduction of a digital strategy through development of a website and a blog dedicated to healthy eating. The second concerned the development of documents for health care and other professionals, including several guidelines in new areas, such as anthropometric measures and intervention in preobesity. Process and output indicators were defined to monitor and evaluate the programme. Among those considered as output indicators were the evaluation of childhood obesity, salt consumption and intake of breakfast by school-aged children.

Selection of cost-effective countermeasures for utility pole accidents - user's manual.

Federal Highway Administration, Office of Implementation, McLean, Va.

Methods of increasing pedestrian safety at right-turn-on-red intersections - users manual.

Federal Highway Administration, Office of Implementation, Washington, D.C.

Safety resource allocation programs - implementation technique. Final report.

Federal Highway Administration, Office of Implementation, McLean, Va.

Using Geophysical Tools to Resolve Areas of Seismic Ambiguity

The flanks of an oil-bearing structure were investigated to determine the most likely reservoir geometry in an area where the seismic path forks in preparation for a field equity redetermination. Two alternate hypotheses were evaluated: a “high fork model” where the reservoir top follows the higher of the two paths and a “low fork model” in which the reservoir follows the lower path. I took four approaches to evaluate the hypotheses: 1) Depth conversion by multiple velocity models to evaluate the fidelity of the picked horizon on models that did not contain a fork; 2) hand interpretation around the areas of high uncertainty to eliminate their influence; 3) path choice effects on the plausibility of the environment of deposition; and subsurface geometry modeling with synthetics to compare calculated 1D seismic responses with current data. Investigation established that both fork interpretations cannot follow a continuous seismic reflector but are otherwise equally plausible. Interval modeling revealed several structure scenarios, supporting both high and low fork, which fit the seismic data. To augment the lower fork argument, a scenario with an additional sand interval off-structure is recommended, for simplicity and reasonability.

Partnering with Parents to Promote High School Graduation: An Evidence-based Program Evaluation

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2016-06

Evaluation of a Quality Improvement Intervention for Anesthetic Management of Acute Ischemic Stroke Patients Undergoing Endovascular Therapy

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2016-06

Deterministic generation of tailored-optical-coherent-state superpositions

Pulsed coherent excitation of a two-level atom strongly coupled to a resonant cavity mode will create a superposition of two coherent states of opposite amplitudes in the field. By choosing proper parameters of interaction time and pulse shape the field after the pulse will be almost disentangled from the atom and can be efficiently outcoupled through cavity decay. The fidelity of the generation approaches unity if the atom-field coupling strength is much larger than the atomic and cavity decay rates. This implies a strong difference between even and odd output photon number counts. Alternatively, the coherence of the two generated field components can be proven by phase-dependent annihilation of the generated nonclassical superposition state by a second pulse.

Adoption of a sedation scoring system and sedation guideline in an intensive care unit

Aim. The paper presents a study assessing the rate of adoption of a sedation scoring system and sedation guideline. Background. Clinical practice guidelines including sedation guidelines have been shown to improve patient outcomes by standardizing care. In particular sedation guidelines have been shown to be beneficial for intensive care patients by reducing the duration of ventilation. Despite the acceptance that clinical practice guidelines are beneficial, adoption rates are rarely measured. Adoption data may reveal other factors which contribute to improved outcomes. Therefore, the usefulness of the guideline may be more appropriately assessed by collecting adoption data. Method. A quasi-experimental pre-intervention and postintervention quality improvement design was used. Adoption was operationalized as documentation of sedation score every 4 hours and use of the sedation and analgesic medications suggested in the guideline. Adoption data were collected from patients' charts on a random day of the month; all patients in the intensive care unit on that day were assigned an adoption category. Sedation scoring system adoption data were collected before implementation of a sedation guideline, which was implemented using an intensive information-giving strategy, and guideline adoption data were fed back to bedside nurses. After implementation of the guideline, adoption data were collected for both the sedation scoring system and the guideline. The data were collected in the years 2002-2004. Findings. The sedation scoring system was not used extensively in the pre-intervention phase of the study; however, this improved in the postintervention phase. The findings suggest that the sedation guideline was gradually adopted following implementation in the postintervention phase of the study. Field notes taken during the implementation of the sedation scoring system and the guideline reveal widespread acceptance of both. Conclusion. Measurement of adoption is a complex process. Appropriate operationalization contributes to greater accuracy. Further investigation is warranted to establish the intensity and extent of implementation required to positively affect patient outcomes.

Artificial pumping errors in the Kool-Parker scaling model of soil moisture hysteresis

Hysteresis models that eliminate the artificial pumping errors associated with the Kool-Parker (KP) soil moisture hysteresis model, such as the Parker-Lenhard (PL) method, can be computationally demanding in unsaturated transport models since they need to retain the wetting-drying history of the system. The pumping errors in these models need to be eliminated for correct simulation of cyclical systems (e.g. transport above a tidally forced watertable, infiltration and redistribution under periodic irrigation) if the soils exhibit significant hysteresis. A modification is made here to the PL method that allows it to be more readily applied to numerical models by eliminating the need to store a large number of soil moisture reversal points. The modified-PL method largely eliminates any artificial pumping error and so essentially retains the accuracy of the original PL approach. The modified-PL method is implemented in HYDRUS-1D (version 2.0), which is then used to simulate cyclic capillary fringe dynamics to show the influence of removing artificial pumping errors and to demonstrate the ease of implementation. Artificial pumping errors are shown to be significant for the soils and system characteristics used here in numerical experiments of transport above a fluctuating watertable. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The co-evolutionary dynamics of IS engagement

In this paper we consider the co-evolutionary dynamics of IS engagement where episodic change of implementation increasingly occurs within the context of linkages and interdependencies between systems and processes within and across organisations. Although there are many theories that interpret the various motors of change be it lifecycle, teleological, dialectic or evolutionary, our paper attempts to move towards a unifying view of change by studying co-evolutionary dynamics from a complex systems perspective. To understand how systems and organisations co-evolve in practice and how order emerges, or fails to emerge, we adopt complex adaptive systems theory to incorporate evolutionary and teleological motors, and actor-network theory to incorporate dialectic motors. We illustrate this through the analysis of the implementation of a novel academic scheduling system at a large research-intensive Australian university.

Enhancing performance through the introduction of customer orientation into the building components industry

Purpose: This paper aims to describe an investigation into how company performance can be improved by integrating internal and external customers and technology. The approach was developed, implemented and evaluated in the operations of the building components industry. The research was carried out in the precast concrete division of a Singapore company. Design/methodology/ approach: For the purpose of undertaking the investigation an exploratory case study approach was used. This was divided into conceptual and action research stages. The action research was also used to implement the changes in the company. Questionnaire surveys were carried out among company employees and external customers to assess the effect of these changes. Results of the investigation were derived using content and statistical analysis. Triangulation between three sources was used for validating the data. Findings: The exploratory case study strategy resulted in rich research data, which provided evidence of the changes taking place and integration happening, leading to improved performance. The action research approach proved a powerful tool where the uncertainty of outcomes makes it near impossible to make accurate forecasts. Another output of the research was the development of an "integrated customer orientation" (ICO) model. Research limitations/implications: The research in this paper used a single site action research investigation so should be interpreted within the specific company and industry context. There are implications for theory and practice in a number of areas of production and marketing as well as contributions to understanding about productivity improvement and organisational development. The investigation also fulfils the dual objectives of action research by contributing to both knowledge and practice. Originality/value: The paper describes a unique approach towards improving productivity, quality and service through the use of action research to implement changes, as well as providing the research evidence to evaluate both the process of implementation and results achieved. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

The application of physiological observation methods to emotion research

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine consumer emotions and the social science and observation measures that can be utilised to capture the emotional experiences of consumers. The paper is not setting out to solve the theoretical debate surrounding emotion research, rather to provide an assessment of methodological options available to researchers to aid their investigation into both the structure and content of the consumer emotional experience, acknowledging both the conscious and subconscious elements of that experience. Design/methodology/approach - A review of a wide range of prior research from the fields of marketing, consumer behaviour, psychology and neuroscience are examined to identify the different observation methods available to marketing researchers in the study of consumer emotion. This review also considers the self report measures available to researchers and identifies the main theoretical debates concerning emotion to provide a comprehensive overview of the issues surrounding the capture of emotional responses in a marketing context and to highlight the benefits that observation methods offer this area of research. Findings - This paper evaluates three observation methods and four widely used self report measures of emotion used in a marketing context. Whilst it is recognised that marketers have shown preference for the use of self report measures in prior research, mainly due to ease of implementation, it is posited that the benefits of observation methodology and the wealth of data that can be obtained using such methods can compliment prior research. In addition, the use of observation methods cannot only enhance our understanding of the consumer emotion experience but also enable us to collaborate with researchers from other fields in order to make progress in understanding emotion. Originality/value - This paper brings perspectives and methods together to provide an up to date consideration of emotion research for marketers. In order to generate valuable research in this area there is an identified need for discussion and implementation of the observation techniques available to marketing researchers working in this field. An evaluation of a variety of methods is undertaken as a point to start discussion or consideration of different observation techniques and how they can be utilised.