Risk management in enterprise resource planning implementation:a new risk assessment framework

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) projects are risky. But if they are implemented appropriately, they can provide competitive advantage to organisations. Therefore, ERP implementation has become one of the most critical aspects of today's information management research. The main purpose of this article is to describe a new ERP risk assessment framework (RAF) that can be used to increase the success of ERP implementation. In this article, through a case study based in a leading UK-based energy service provider, we demonstrate the new RAF, which has been shown to help identify and mitigate risks in ERP implementation. In contrast to other research, this RAF identifies risks hierarchically in external engagement, programme management, work stream and work package levels across technical, schedule, operational, business and organisational categories. This not only helped to develop responses to mitigate risks but also facilitates on-going risk control.

A pilot study of orthopaedic resident self-assessment using a milestones' survey just prior to milestones implementation.

OBJECTIVE: To pilot test if Orthopaedic Surgery residents could self-assess their performance using newly created milestones, as defined by the Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education. METHODS: In June 2012, an email was sent to Program Directors and administrative coordinators of the 154 accredited Orthopaedic Surgery Programs, asking them to send their residents a link to an online survey. The survey was adapted from the Orthopaedic Surgery Milestone Project. Completed surveys were aggregated in an anonymous, confidential database. SAS 9.3 was used to perform the analyses. RESULTS: Responses from 71 residents were analyzed. First and second year residents indicated through self-assessment that they had substantially achieved Level 1 and Level 2 milestones. Third year residents reported they had substantially achieved 30/41, and fourth year residents, all Level 3 milestones. Fifth year, graduating residents, reported they had substantially achieved 17 Level 4 milestones, and were extremely close on another 15. No milestone was rated at Level 5, the maximum possible. Earlier in training, Patient Care and Medical Knowledge milestones were rated lower than the milestones reflecting the other four competencies of Practice Based Learning and Improvement, Systems Based Practice, Professionalism, and Interpersonal Communication. The gap was closed by the fourth year. CONCLUSIONS: Residents were able to successfully self-assess using the 41 Orthopaedic Surgery milestones. Respondents' rate improved proficiency over time. Graduating residents report they have substantially, or close to substantially, achieved all Level 4 milestones. Milestone self-assessment may be a useful tool as one component of a program's overall performance assessment strategy.

Implementation of a computerized assessment system by using backpropagation neural networks with R and shiny

Las dificultades a las que los estudiantes se enfrentan y su lucha por dominar los temas, podría aumentar como consecuencia de la inadecuada utilización de materiales de evaluación. Generalmente se encuentran en el aula alumnos que hacen buen uso del material de los cursos y de una manera rápida, mientras que otros presentan dificultades con el aprendizaje del material. Esta situación es fácilmente visto en los resultados de los exámenes, un grupo de estudiantes podrían obtener buenas calificaciones animándoles, mientras que otros obtendrían la mala percepción de que los temas son difíciles, y en algunos casos, obligándolos a abandonar el curso o en otros casos a cambiar de carrera. Creemos que mediante el uso de técnicas de aprendizaje automático, y en nuestro caso la utilización de redes neuronales, sería factible crear un entorno de evaluación que podrían ajustarse a las necesidades de cada estudiante. Esto último disminuiría la sensación de insatisfacción de los alumnos y el abandono de los cursos.

Legal consideration on Convention for the Prevention of Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter (at sea) and assessment of its implementation in Iran (The London [dumping] Convention)

Making use of sea, as a place for dumping of wastes and other materials from human activities wasn’t forbidden before creation of the convention on the prevention of marine pollution by dumping of wastes and other matters (London Convention). Therefore, industrial countries, without any specific consideration, were dumping their wastes into the world’s seas. Many years and before the beginning of rapid development of industry, the great self- purification of seas were preventing some of discharging problems. But gradually, the increase of industrial development activities, exceeded the production of wastes and other matters, and this led to the misuse of world’s seas and oceans as a dump site. One of the most important consequences of 1972 Stockholm World Conference was to focusing world attention on threats have jeopardized marine environment balance. World countries` leaders committed in Stockholm to begin protecting the environment. Finally, this movement at marine environment section led to the creation of London Convention in the same year. London Convention was concluded for cooperating between countries at December 29, 1972 to promote effective control of all marine environment polluting resources and to prevent marine pollution by dumping wastes and other matters. Then it was opened for signature to other countries. At last, after 15 states signature, this convention was entered in to force at August 30.1975. Ratification and execution of London Convention resulted in coordinated performance of countries in marine waste management. Common actions with supports and cooperation of different international, regional, governmental and non-governmental organizations and agencies prevent marine pollution by dumping of wastes and other matters. Due to the importance of wastes in our marine and coastal areas, investigation of the performance of London Convention can identify the lack of regulations and lack of regulation supports about marine pollution prevention by dumping of wastes and other matters in Iran. Considering this issue, proper protection of seas will be achieved. London Convention has been studied here to achieve intended purposes. In first chapter, generalities about marine environment, including the importance and necessity of marine environment protection, with the focus on some internal and international resources of environmental law accompanying with marine pollution and its recourses, and finally, due to the study theme, dumping of wastes and other matters at seas with its impacts have been investigated .In the section of international measures, a brief history of marine pollution and marine environment international law with international law framework, exclusively for controlling of wastes and other material discharge at seas and oceans has been reviewed. In second chapter, obligations, amendments, and annexes of London Convention have been investigated and classified. The obligations have been categorized in to legal obligations and technical and organizational obligations. In former section, subject ,purpose, territory, exceptions, rights and duties of parties, convention amendments,… and in latter, special requirements for wastes assessment, determination of pollutants` permissible limit, site selection and type of discharge selection, design principles for marine environment quality monitoring program, and discharge license issuance mechanism have been studied. In third chapter, due to the examination of convention performance in Iran, the internal law system for marine environment conservation and its pollution has been mentioned in detail. Considering this, two issues have been compared .firstly, convention obligations with regional treaties that Iran as a party to them and secondly, Iranian internal law there of .Finally, common and different aspects of these issues have been determined. At last, recommendations and strategies for convention enforcement and conformity of its obligations with internal regulations have been presented. Furthermore, translation of convention English text has been reviewed and its protocol has been translated.

IMPLEMENTATION OF PHOTOGRAMMETRY TO IMPROVE PROACTIVE ASSESSMENT OF RETAINING WALLS ALONG TRANSPORTATION CORRIDORS

Retaining walls are important assets in the transportation infrastructure and assessing their condition is important to prolong their performance and ultimately their design life. Retaining walls are often overlooked and only a few transportation asset management programs consider them in their inventory. Because these programs are few, the techniques used to assess their condition focus on a qualitative assessment as opposed to a quantitative approach. The work presented in this thesis focuses on using photogrammetry to quantitatively assess the condition of retaining walls. Multitemporal photogrammetry is used to develop 3D models of the retaining walls, from which offset displacements are measured to assess their condition. This study presents a case study from a site along M-10 highway in Detroit, MI were several sections of retaining walls have experienced horizontal displacement towards the highway. The results are validated by comparing with field observations and measurements. The limitations of photogrammetry were also studied by using a small scale model in the laboratory. The analysis found that the accuracy of the offset displacement measurements is dependent on the distance between the retaining wall and the sensor, location of the reference points in 3D space, and the focal length of the lenses used by the camera. These parameters were not ideal for the case study at the M-10 highway site, but the results provided consistent trends in the movement of the retaining wall that couldn’t be validated from offset measurements. The findings of this study confirm that photogrammetry shows promise in generating 3D models to provide a quantitative condition assessment for retaining walls within its limitations.

Phylogenetic position of the acariform mites: sensitivity to homology assessment under total evidence

Background: Mites (Acari) have traditionally been treated as monophyletic, albeit composed of two major lineages: Acariformes and Parasitiformes. Yet recent studies based on morphology, molecular data, or combinations thereof, have increasingly drawn their monophyly into question. Furthermore, the usually basal (molecular) position of one or both mite lineages among the chelicerates is in conflict to their morphology, and to the widely accepted view that mites are close relatives of Ricinulei. Results: The phylogenetic position of the acariform mites is examined through employing SSU, partial LSU sequences, and morphology from 91 chelicerate extant terminals (forty Acariformes). In a static homology framework, molecular sequences were aligned using their secondary structure as guide, whereby regions of ambiguous alignment were discarded, and pre-aligned sequences analyzed under parsimony and different mixed models in a Bayesian inference. Parsimony and Bayesian analyses led to trees largely congruent concerning infraordinal, well-supported branches, but with low support for inter-ordinal relationships. An exception is Solifugae + Acariformes (P. P = 100%, J. = 0.91). In a dynamic homology framework, two analyses were run: a standard POY analysis and an analysis constrained by secondary structure. Both analyses led to largely congruent trees; supporting a (Palpigradi (Solifugae Acariformes)) clade and Ricinulei as sister group of Tetrapulmonata with the topology (Ricinulei (Amblypygi (Uropygi Araneae))). Combined analysis with two different morphological data matrices were run in order to evaluate the impact of constraining the analysis on the recovered topology when employing secondary structure as a guide for homology establishment. The constrained combined analysis yielded two topologies similar to the exclusively molecular analysis for both morphological matrices, except for the recovery of Pedipalpi instead of the (Uropygi Araneae) clade. The standard (direct optimization) POY analysis, however, led to the recovery of trees differing in the absence of the otherwise well-supported group Solifugae + Acariformes. Conclusions: Previous studies combining ribosomal sequences and morphology often recovered topologies similar to purely morphological analyses of Chelicerata. The apparent stability of certain clades not recovered here, like Haplocnemata and Acari, is regarded as a byproduct of the way the molecular homology was previously established using the instrumentalist approach implemented in POY. Constraining the analysis by a priori homology assessment is defended here as a way of maintaining the severity of the test when adding new data to the analysis. Although the strength of the method advocated here is keeping phylogenetic information from regions usually discarded in an exclusively static homology framework; it still has the inconvenience of being uninformative on the effect of alignment ambiguity on resampling methods of clade support estimation. Finally, putative morphological apomorphies of Solifugae + Acariformes are the reduction of the proximal cheliceral podomere, medial abutting of the leg coxae, loss of sperm nuclear membrane, and presence of differentiated germinative and secretory regions in the testis delivering their products into a common lumen.

Assessing self- and peer-assessment: The students' views

Self- and peer-assessment are being used increasingly in higher education, to help assign grades to students' work and to help students to learn more effectively. However, in spite of this trend there is little in the published literature on how students view these methods. In this paper we present an analysis of the views of a large number of students (N = 233) who had just experienced self- and peer-feedback as part of one of their subjects. It is a rarely questioned commonplace in the literature that in order to gain benefit from peer and self-assessment schemes students first need training in the specific scheme being used; ideally they will play a role in devising the scheme. The intervention reported here, which involved a large (N = 233) group of students, included no such measures. The results show that students felt, nonetheless, that they benefited from the intervention. The results also present prima facie evidence that training or other measures to further involve the students in the peer and self-assessment scheme might be beneficial. Our analysis of students' views revealed eight general dimensions under which are grouped twenty higher order themes. The results both support and extend previous research and give a more detailed picture than previously available. The general dimensions found were: Difficult; Gained Better Understanding of Marking; Discomfort; Productive (including learning benefits and improved work); Problems with Implementation; Read Others' Work; Develop Empathy (with assessing staff); and, Motivation (especially motivation to impress peers). The practical implications of these findings are discussed.

An assessment of maturity from anthropometric measurements

Purpose: The range of variability between individuals of the same chronological age (CA) in somatic and biological maturity is large and especially accentuated around the adolescent growth spurt. Maturity assessment is an important consideration when dealing with adolescents, from both a research perspective and youth sports stratification. A noninvasive, practical method predicting years from peak height velocity (a maturity offset value) by using anthropometric variables is developed in one sample and cross-validated in two different samples. Methods: Gender specific multiple regression equations were calculated on a sample of 152 Canadian children aged 8-16 yr (79 boys; 73 girls) who were followed through adolescence from 1991 to 1997, The equations included three somatic dimensions (height, sitting height, and leg length), CA, and their interactions. The equations were cross-validated on a Combined sample of Canadian (71 boys, 40 girls measured from 1964 through 1973) and Flemish children (50 boys, 48 girls measured from 1985 through 1999). Results: The coefficient of determination (R2) for the boys' model was 0.92 and for the girls' model 0.91 the SEEs were 0.49 and 0.50, respectively, Mean difference between actual and predicted maturity offset for the verification samples was 0.24 (SD 0.65) yr in boys and 0,001 (SD 0.68) yr in girls. Conclusion: Although the cross-validation meets statistical standards or acceptance, caution 1, warranted with regard to implementation. It is recommended that maturity offset be considered as a categorical rather than a continuous assessment. Nevertheless, the equations presented are a reliable, noninvasive and a practical solution for the measure of biological maturity for matching adolescent athletes.

Psychiatric assessment in transplantation

The implementation of the presumptive donor law in Brazil is expected to increase the availability of organs for transplantation. As medical management of end-stage organ dysfunction continues to improve, increasing numbers of potential transplant recipients will be available to meet this supply. There is mounting evidence that supports the involvement of skilled psychiatric practitioners in the selection of transplant candidates. Data supporting the influence of psychosocial factors on compliance and therefore medical outcomes continues to grow. The literature review allows delineating the components and rationale for comprehensive psychosocial evaluations as a component of preoperative transplantation evaluation.

Literary translation and quality assessment analysis – its significance in translation training

This paper aims to highlight the role of translation quality assessment in translation training so as to develop students’ translation competence and skills to face translation problems. An analysis to assess literary translation quality is proposed before proceeding to discuss its pedagogical implementation.

Planning and implementing a new assessment strategy using an e-learning platform

One of the most difficult issues of e-Learning is the students’ assessment. Being this an outstanding task regarding theoretical topics, it becomes even more challenging when the topics under evaluation are practical. ISCAP’s Information Systems Department is composed of about twenty teachers who have been for several years using an e-learning environment (at the moment Moodle 2.3) combined with traditional assessment. They are now planning and implementing a new e-learning assessment strategy. This effort was undertaken in order to evaluate a practical topic (the use of spreadsheets to solve management problems) common to shared courses of several undergraduate degree programs. The same team group is already experienced in the assessment of theoretical information systems topics using the b-learning platform. Therefore, this project works as an extension to previous experiences being the team aware of the additional difficulties due to the practical nature of the topics. This paper describes this project and presents two cycles of the action research methodology, used to conduct the research. The first cycle goal was to produce a database of questions. When it was implemented in order to be used with a pilot group of students, several problems were identified. Subsequently, the second cycle consisted in solving the identified problems preparing the database and all the players to a broader scope implementation. For each cycle, all the phases, its drawbacks and achievements are described. This paper suits all those who are or are planning to be in the process of shifting their assessment strategy from a traditional to one supported by an e-learning platform.

Does diaphragmatic breathing technique really improve its range of motion? An objective assessment

Purpose - To verify the results of a diaphragmatic breathing technique (DBT) on diaphragmatic range of motion in healthy subjects. Methods - A total of 51 healthy subjects (10 male; 41 female), mean age 20 years old and a body mass index (BMI) ranging from 15.6 to 34.9 kg/m2, were enrolled in this study. Diaphragmatic range of motion was assessed by M-mode ultrasound imaging. Measurements were made before and after the DBT implementation in a standard protocol, based on 3 seconds of inspiration starting from a maximum expiration. Differences between assessments were analyzed by descriptive statistics and t-test (p < 0.05). Results - Mean value range of motion before DBT was 55.3 ± 13.4 mm and after DBT was 63.8 ± 13.2 mm showing a significant improvement of 8.5 ± 14.7 mm (p < 0.001). A strong correlation between the slope and the range of motion was found (r = 0.71, p < 0.001). Conclusions - Based on ultrasound measurements, it has been proved that DBT really contributes to a higher diaphragmatic range of motion. Future studies are needed in order to understand the influence of protocol parameters (e.g. inspiration time). Clinical implications - In the contest of evidence-based practice in physiotherapy, it has been showed by objective measurements that DBT improves the diaphragm range of motion, translating into a more efficient ventilatory function and thus can be used in clinical setting. To our knowledge this is the first study to assess the effects of DBT on range of motion of diaphragm muscle with ultrasound imaging.

A qualitative assessment of modularity in CaesarJ components based on implementations of design patterns

Tese de Mestrado em Engenharia Informática

Implementation of a new reference values database for semiquantification in123I-FP-CIT brain single emission tomography

Brain dopamine transporters imaging by Single Emission Tomography (SPECT) with 123I-FP-CIT (DaTScanTM) has become an important tool in the diagnosis and evaluation of Parkinson syndromes.This diagnostic method allows the visualization of a portion of the striatum – where healthy pattern resemble two symmetric commas - allowing the evaluation of dopamine presynaptic system, in which dopamine transporters are responsible for dopamine release into the synaptic cleft, and their reabsorption into the nigrostriatal nerve terminals, in order to be stored or degraded. In daily practice for assessment of DaTScan TM, it is common to rely only on visual assessment for diagnosis. However, this process is complex and subjective as it depends on the observer’s experience and it is associated with high variability intra and inter observer. Studies have shown that semiquantification can improve the diagnosis of Parkinson syndromes. For semiquantification, analysis methods of image segmentation using regions of interest (ROI) are necessary. ROIs are drawn, in specific - striatum - and in nonspecific – background – uptake areas. Subsequently, specific binding ratios are calculated. Low adherence of semiquantification for diagnosis of Parkinson syndromes is related, not only with the associated time spent, but also with the need of an adapted database of reference values for the population concerned, as well as, the examination of each service protocol. Studies have concluded, that this process increases the reproducibility of semiquantification. The aim of this investigation was to create and validate a database of healthy controls for Dopamine transporters with DaTScanTM named DBRV. The created database has been adapted to the Nuclear Medicine Department’s protocol, and the population of Infanta Cristina’s Hospital located in Badajoz, Spain.

Assessment of eutrophication status of two Northern Irish Loughs

Dissertação apresentada na Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia do Ambiente, perfil Engenharia Sanitária