Best Practices in Diversity Management

[Excerpt] The International Personnel Management Association (IPMA) has undertaken a human resource benchmarking project with the National Association of State Personnel Executives (NASPE). IPMA is an organization representing over 1,700 organizations and 2,500 individuals involved in public sector human resource management. The Association’s mission is to optimize organizational and individual performance in the public service by providing human resource leadership, professional development, information and services. IPMA has established an International Human Resource Advisory Board to facilitate the exchange of information on international human resource developments. The International Human Resource Advisory Board has 37 members from 35 countries and international organizations. Additional information about IPMA can be obtained at http://www.ipma-hr.org

Performance of assays for testing antibodies against porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus in sera collected from swine farms in a region with an extreme virus heterogeneity

Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome is the most economically important viral disease in the swine industry worldwide. Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) strains are classified into two distinct genotypes, the European genotype and the North American genotype. The European PRRSV genotype has been divided into three subtypes: a pan-European subtype 1 and East European subtypes 2 and 3. The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of commercial and homemade serological assays to test field sera from a geographical region with an extreme PRRSV heterogeneity. Belarus became the country of choice for sample collection because heterologous PRRSV strains of all known European subtypes circulate in this country. Sera from Belarusian swine farms were tested in immunoperoxidase monolayer assays based on pan-European subtype 1, East European subtype 3 and North American strains as antigens and commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (IDEXX and INGEZIM). The obtained results suggest that none of the serological tools for PRRSV diagnosis can guarantee a flawless detection of antibodies at the individual animal level. Considering heterogeneity of recently isolated European PRRSV strains the problem can be relevant in many countries

The use of computers for graduate education in Project Management. Improving the integration to the industry.

This paper presents an initiative for monitoring the competence acquisition by a team of students with different backgrounds facing the experience of being working by projects and in a project. These students are graduated bachelor engineering are inexperienced in the project management field and they play this course on a time-shared manner along with other activities. The goal of this experience is to increase the competence levels acquired by using an structured web based portfolio tool helping to reinforce how relevant different project management approaches can result for final products and how important it becomes to maintain the integration along the project. Monitoring is carried out by means of have a look on how the work is being done and measuring different technical parameters per participant. The use of this information could make possible to bring additional information to the students involved in terms of their individual competencies and the identification of new opportunities of personal improvement. These capabilities are strongly requested by companies in their daily work as well as they can be very convenient too for students when they try to organize their PhD work

Risk management standards for project management

The purpose of this paper is to present and compare the main standards for project risk management that are currently available today. Four international standards recognized world- wide were selected for comparison: PMI, PRINCE2, IPMA, ISO 31000 and IEC 62198. Project management has evolved over recent years into a mature professional discipline characterized by a formalized body of knowledge and the definition of systematic processes for the execution of a project. All these and possibly other factors as well, have resulted in growing numbers of books, articles and conferences being devoted to project risk management. This level of activity has also led to the development of a number of standards that prescribe for and advise organizations on the best way to manage their risks. Every meaningful standard for project management contains project risk management as its important part.Web of Science4613

A Complexity Science Based Approach to Programme Risk Management

Programme management has rapidly gained acceptance as a vehicle for achieving organisational strategic objectives and as a means of aligning projects with the overall strategy of the organisation. Managing programme risk poses challenges which are different from those in project management. Attempts to modify and apply project risk management techniques to programme risk management have experienced difficulties. The implications of the challenges of programme risk management extend beyond the tools and techniques. Recent research shows that that programme management is neither an extension, nor a scaled up version of project management. Philosophically, a paradigm shift from the predominantly mechanistic and reductionist mindset to a more appropriate paradigm based on complexity science and the theory of complex adaptive systems is required. This leads to the conclusion that the classic event based view of risk is inappropriate in modelling and analysing programme risk which need to be treated as holistic and dynamic

Effect of high and low levels of maternally derived antibodies on porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) infection dynamics and production parameters in PCV2 vaccinated pigs under field conditions

The present study aimed to compare the efficacy of a porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) commercial vaccine in terms of average daily weight gain (ADWG) as well as infection dynamics in pigs with different maternally derived antibody (MDA) levels. A total of 337 animals from a PCV2 subclinically infected farm were distributed into two groups based on weight and PCV2 antibody levels (high [H] or low [L]) at 2 weeks of age. One week later, these animals were subdivided in four groups according to the treatment received. Vaccinated pigs (H-V and L-V) received 1 mL of a commercial vaccine and NV (H-NV and L-NV) received 1 mL of PBS. All piglets were subsequently bled at 7, 12, 18, 22 and 25 weeks of age and weighted at 12 and 25 weeks of age. V animals showed significantly lower PCV2 infection rates and viral load as well as higher ELISA S/P ratios and ADWG than NV ones. Compared with H-V piglets, L-V pigs showed numerically lower PCV2 infection rates, lower area under the curve of viral load, an earlier seroconversion and a numerically, but not significantly, higher ADWG. In this study, MDA did not seem to interfere with the effect of PCV2 vaccination on ADWG. However, only when a small subpopulation of pigs with the highest ELISA S/P ratios at vaccination was considered, an apparent interference of vaccine efficacy on ADWG was noticed. Therefore, the impact of the putative interference under field conditions is probably negligible for most farms.This study was funded by the European PCV2-Award 2012 sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim. The authors wish to thank to the farmer (Álvaro Abadías) and the veterinarians (Lluís Cons and Paula Alcubierre) for their collaboration in conducting the field study and Eva Huerta, Rosa López, and Diego Pérez (CReSA) for their excellent technical assistance. Hua Feng was grant awarded by the Chinese Scholarship Council (No. 2011704032)

Water vapor pressure deficit in Portugal and implications for the development of the invasive African citrus psyllid trioza erytreae

African citrus psyllid (Trioza erytreae (Del Guercio)) is a vector insect of the bacterium Candidatus Liberibacter africanus, the putative causal agent of Huanglongbing, the most devastating citrus disease in the world. The insect was found on the island of Madeira in 1994 and in mainland Portugal in 2015. Present in the north and center of the country, it is a threat to Algarve, the main citrus-producing region. Trioza erytreae eggs and first instar nymphs are sensitive to the combination of high temperatures and low relative humidity. Daily maximum air temperature and minimum relative humidity data from 18 weather stations were used to calculate the water vapor pressure deficit (vpd) from 2004 to 2018 at various locations. Based on the mean vpd and the number of unfavorable days (vpd < 34.5 and vpd < 56 mbar) of two time periods (February to May and June to September), less favorable zones for T. erytreae were identified. The zones with thermal and water conditions like those observed in the Castelo Branco and Portalegre (Center), Beja (Alentejo), Alte, and Norinha (Algarve) stations showed climatic restrictions to the development of eggs and first instar nymphs of African citrus psyllid. Effective control measures, such as the introduction and mass release of Tamarixia dryi (Waterson), a specific parasitoid, and chemical control are necessary in favorable periods for T. erytreae development, such as in spring and in areas with limited or no climate restrictions.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Viable porcine arteriviruses with deletions proximal to the 3 ' end of the genome

In order to obtain attenuated live vaccine candidates of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV), a series of deletions was introduced at the 3′ end of the viral genome using an infectious cDNA clone of the Lelystad virus isolate. RNA transcripts from the full-length cDNA clones were transfected into BHK-21 cells. The culture supernatant of these cells was subsequently used to infect porcine alveolar macrophages to detect the production of progeny virus. It is shown that C-terminal truncation of the nucleocapsid (N) protein, encoded by ORF7, was tolerated for up to six amino acids without blocking the production of infectious virus. Mutants containing larger deletions produced neither virus nor virus-like particles containing viral RNA. Deletion analysis of the 3′ UTR immediately downstream of ORF7 showed that infectious virus was still produced after removal of seven nucleotides behind the stop codon of ORF7. Deletion of 32 nucleotides in this region abolished RNA replication and, consequently, no infectious virus was formed. Serial passage on porcine alveolar macrophages demonstrated that the viable deletion mutants were genetically stable at the site of mutation. In addition, the deletions did not affect the growth properties of the recombinant viruses in vitro, while their antigenic profiles were similar to that of wild-type virus. Immunoprecipitation experiments with the six-residue N protein-deletion mutant confirmed that the truncated protein was indeed smaller than the wild-type N protein. The deletion mutants produced in this study are interesting candidate vaccines to prevent PRRS disease in pigs