Framework for the Integration of Mobile Device Features in PLM

Currently, companies have covered their business processes with stationary workstations while mobile business applications have limited relevance. Companies can cover their overall business processes more time-efficiently and cost-effectively when they integrate mobile users in workflows using mobile device features. The objective is a framework that can be used to model and control business applications for PLM processes using mobile device features to allow a totally new user experience

Sanitation Is a Business: Approaches for Demand-Oriented Policies

This brochure summarizes case studies that have been taken from all over the world, showing that sanitation can be a viable business. It seeks to motivate policy makers and donors to embrace a new paradigm that advocates for a strong state, managing the potential of the private sector to provide sustainable and demand driven solutions to sanitation needs. The brochure adopts a strong poverty focus, but the recommendations are also meant to be useful in transition countries. The majority of businesses that generate income from sanitation are small enterprises, some coming from the informal sector. And it is the poor who stand to benefit most, if products are affordable and adjusted to their demands

Fragile X Related Protein 1 Clusters with Ribosomes and Messenger RNAs at a Subset of Dendritic Spines in the Mouse Hippocampus

The formation and storage of memories in neuronal networks relies on new protein synthesis, which can occur locally at synapses using translational machinery present in dendrites and at spines. These new proteins support long-lasting changes in synapse strength and size in response to high levels of synaptic activity. To ensure that proteins are made at the appropriate time and location to enable these synaptic changes, messenger RNA (mRNA) translation is tightly controlled by dendritic RNA-binding proteins. Fragile X Related Protein 1 (FXR1P) is an RNA-binding protein with high homology to Fragile X Mental Retardation Protein (FMRP) and is known to repress and activate mRNA translation in non-neuronal cells. However, unlike FMRP, very little is known about the role of FXR1P in the central nervous system. To understand if FXR1P is positioned to regulate local mRNA translation in dendrites and at synapses, we investigated the expression and targeting of FXR1P in developing hippocampal neurons in vivo and in vitro. We found that FXR1P was highly expressed during hippocampal development and co-localized with ribosomes and mRNAs in the dendrite and at a subset of spines in mouse hippocampal neurons. Our data indicate that FXR1P is properly positioned to control local protein synthesis in the dendrite and at synapses in the central nervous system

An analysis of leadership practices and leadership development in Pakistan universities

The general aim of the dissertation was to gain the insight about the leadership and decision-making practices in Pakistan universities and to implement a leadership development program for university leaders to raise awareness about their leadership practices. To pursue the aim of the dissertation, five different studies were conducted. This concluding chapter gives an overview of the main findings of the various studies, considering the three research objectives. Findings in relation to each research objectives are presented, followed by a comprehensive discussion of the results focusing on four different themes. These themes link aspects of leadership and decision-making to our key findings. Further, limitations of the dissertation research program and possible directions for future research are presented. A new move towards leadership development in higher education Pakistan is discussed in view of one of the key directions for future research. The chapter concludes with implications for theory, practice, and policy

Teacher Leaders' Perceptions of Distributed Leadership Practice in Middle Schools

ABSTRACT Title of Document: TEACHER LEADERS' PERCEPTIONS OF DISTRIBUTED LEADERSHIP PRACTICES IN MIDDLE SCHOOLS Arthur Williams, Doctor of Education, 2013 Directed By: Dr. Carol Sheffey Parham, Department of Counseling, Higher Education, and Special Education The primary purpose of this case study was to examine teacher leaders' perception of distributed leadership practices in two exemplary middle schools. Eight teacher leaders were selected to participate in this study. Qualitative data were gathered via one-on-one interviews and a review of artifacts from four teacher leaders at each school. The data were coded, categorized and clustered to produce themes. The research questions were addressed and descriptions were developed for each case. Findings indicate that there are several dimensions of distributed leadership that shape teacher leaders' practice. This study concluded with recommendations that center on the reconceptualization of teacher leadership practice, district and school based supports. Implication for practice and areas for future research was explored

Growing the evidence for nutrition programming: perceptions, implementation, and uptake of a package of lipid-based supplementation and behavior change communication interventions in Malawi

Background: Childhood undernutrition continues to be a problem of public health significance in low and middle-income countries (LMIC), holding consequences for children’s physical and cognitive development that contributes to lower economic earnings and increased morbidity in adulthood. Efficacious interventions to improve child growth during the critical window of opportunity, from conception to 2 years of age, include nutrition education to promote optimal infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices, and supplementation with fortified foods, such as lipid-based nutrient supplements, among others. The delivery of these interventions in a programmatic context so that they yield improvements in child nutritional status, however, proves to be difficult given the logistical and sociocultural challenges associated with the delivery and uptake of interventions. Understanding how programs work to improve child nutrition and feeding behaviors is critical for scaling up nutrition interventions globally. Objective: To study how a nutrition program in rural Malawi was perceived, accepted, implemented, and taken up, and whether high adherence to program interventions resulted in improved child growth and feeding behaviors after 1 year of implementation. Methods: The nutrition program in Malawi includes: (1) the monthly distribution of a daily, small-quantity (20g) lipid-based nutrient supplement, Nutributter (Nutriset, Malaunay, France) to all children 6-23 months; and (2) a social behavior change communication (SBCC) campaign to promote optimal IYCF and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) practices. The program is monitored by monthly attendance tracking of target beneficiaries, and quarterly post-distribution monitoring (PDM) surveys to assess product utilization and IYCF and WASH knowledge. An independent impact evaluation was led by the Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Human Nutrition (JHU CHN) to measure IYCF and WASH practices, and child nutrition outcomes after 1 and 3 years of implementation in the program (Ntchisi) and a comparison (Dowa) district. A qualitative study employed in-depth interviews (IDI) with mothers (n=34) and household members (fathers, n=11; and grandmothers, n=4), focus group discussions (FGD) with village leaders (1 with n=11) and program staff (3 FGD with n=12, n=10, and n=11), and direct observations of mothers and their children (n=12), to elicit beneficiary and community perceptions of the program’s intervention components. Recorded interviews and FGDs were simultaneously transcribed and translated verbatim, and inductive line-by-line coding was conducted. Results were presented using a hybrid of the Socio Ecological Model and Transactional Theory. A process evaluation study measured the program’s conformity to its original design using various data sources to measure: program recruitment (n=21,456 children tracked through attendance records from the first year of implementation), program fidelity (n=28 direct observations of program activities; n=84 knowledge questionnaires with program staff; 8 PDM surveys with pooled n=2,901 and 2 annual performance review documents); and program reach (n=41,617 children’s attendance records for years 0-3 of implementation). Process indicators were categorized as “working well” (>75%), “needing improvement” (25%-75%), and “not working” (<25%). Impact evaluation data collected at 1 year post-program implementation (midline) (n=2,047) was linked with individual-level program attendance data (n=846) to generate high and low participation for Nutributter distributions (>71.4% and ≤71.4%, respectively) and SBCC messaging (SBCC score≥2 and SBCC score=1, respectively); those who were not exposed served as the referent category for each program component n=1,208 and n=204, respectively). Household, individual, and maternal characteristics were analyzed to examine their association with program exposure, using multinomial logistic regression. Varying levels of program participation were analyzed to examine the association with anthropometric (length-for-age (LAZ), weight-for-age (WAZ), weight-for-length z-scores (WLZ) and stunting, underweight, and wasting, defined as LAZ, WAZ, and WLZ <-2, respectively), IYCF, and WASH outcomes, using multivariable linear and logistic regression for continuous and binary outcomes, respectively. All linear and logistic models adjusted for household, maternal, and individual characteristics. Results: Results from the qualitative study demonstrated that Nutributter was viewed positively by all members of the household and community. Mothers and community members reported perceiving changes in child health and growth, ascribing them to Nutributter. Barriers to the monthly collection of Nutributter were competing household tasks and obligations, such as caring for ill family members or attending funerals. When asked to discuss program messages, a majority of mothers demonstrated limited and superficial knowledge of the IYCF and WASH messages. This, in combination with the described lack of financial and physical access to nutritious foods promoted by those messages were perceived as significant barriers to enacting desired behavioral changes among mothers. The process evaluation indicated that only 20.7% of children were registered into the program at or by 6 months of age. Direct observations of Nutributter distributions demonstrated that most procedures were functioning at 85% or higher, with some areas needing improvement, such as the conduct of multiple counseling sessions throughout distributions to account for latecomers. Despite the relatively high implementation of training activities as planned (73.3%) for frontline staff, the completion of training modules for breastfeeding (22.9%) and complementary feeding (18.6%) was low. Nevertheless, knowledge of key IYCF, WASH, and Nutributter messages among those who were trained on those messages was high, with the exception of being able to list the 6 food groups (22.9%). Over 3 years of implementation, the program reached a mean (SD, range) of 81.0% (8.5, 65.6%-93.5%) of eligible beneficiaries during monthly Nutributter distributions and 92.1% of mothers with group counseling activities, but only 32.9% (8.0, 18.8%-42.0%) of mothers with individual-level SBCC. Using multivariable models, socioeconomic characteristics (land and livestock ownership) and child morbidity (7-day diarrhea and malaria) were positively associated with high vs. no participation in Nutributter distributions (all p<0.05). Maternal age, working in agriculture as a primary occupation, and childhood acute respiratory infection were positively associated with exposure to SBCC (all p<0.05), while food insecurity was associated with lower risk of high exposure to SBCC. The dose-response analysis showed that high and low participation in Nutributter distributions was associated with higher WLZ of 0.21 (95% CI 0.01, 0.31) and 0.17 (95% CI 0.06, 0.36), respectively among children, (both p<0.05) relative to the control children. However, the confidence intervals for each were overlapping, suggesting the lack of a true dose response relationship. Program exposure was not associated with any of the other measures of nutritional status, including LAZ and WAZ, or stunting, wasting and underweight. Low and high exposure to SBCC were associated with increases (p<0.05) in dietary diversity score of 0.22 (95% CI 0.03,0.41) and 0.21 (95% CI 0.01, 0.42), respectively, and higher likelihood of achieving minimum meal frequency (OR=1.62, 95% CI) compared to no exposure. Conclusions: This study demonstrated that the large-scale nutrition program in Ntchisi was well implemented and accepted, and that higher doses of exposure yielded improvements in some anthropometric and IYCF outcomes. The detailed documentation of the perceptions, facilitators and barriers to, implementation, characteristics associated with exposure to program components, and intermediate impact of the large-scale nutrition program generates important lessons for current and future policy, programming, and scale-up of nutrition interventions in this, and other similar contexts in sub-Saharan Africa

Crowdsourcing User-Contributed Solutions to Aerospace Product Development Issues through Micro-Blogging

Revenue and production output of the United Kingdom’s Aerospace Industry (AI) is growing year on year and the need to develop new products and innovative enhancements to existing ranges is creating a critical need for the increased utilisation and sharing of employee knowledge. The capture of employee knowledge within the UK’s AI is vital if it is to retain its pre-eminent position in the global marketplace. Crowdsourcing, as a collaborative problem solving activity, allows employees to capture explicit knowledge from colleagues and teams and also offers the potential to extract previously unknown tacit knowledge in a less formal virtual environment. By using micro-blogging as a mechanism, a conceptual framework is proposed to illustrate how companies operating in the AI may improve the capture of employee knowledge to address production-related problems through the use of crowdsourcing. Subsequently, the framework has been set against the background of the product development process proposed by Maylor in 1996 and illustrates how micro-blogging may be used to crowdsource ideas and solutions during product development. Initial validation of the proposed framework is reported, using a focus group of 10 key actors from the collaborating organisation, identifying the perceived advantages, disadvantages and concerns of the framework; results indicate that the activity of micro-blogging for crowdsourcing knowledge relating to product development issues would be most beneficial during product conceptualisation due to the requirement for successful innovation

Political transitions in EU-Russia shared neighbourhood: geopolitics and values as opportunities or challenges for the Quality of Democracy

1Dottorato di Ricerca in Politics: History, Theory, Science (XXXII ciclo), Luiss Guido Carli, Roma, 2020. Relatori: Prof. Leonardo Morlino (Luiss) e Prof. Jean Michel De Waele (Université libre de Bruxelles). European Joint Doctorate in "Globalisation, Europe & Multilateralism - Sophistication of the Transnational Order, Networks, and European Strategies - GEM STONES. PhD Program in partnership: Luiss Guido Carli and l'Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB).openTheory and methodology. Rule of law. Interconstitutional accountability. Electoral accountability.openDottorato di ricerca in Politics: History, Theory, ScienceMatrakova, MartaMatrakova, Mart

Generic Methods for Adaptive Management of Service Level Agreements in Cloud Computing

The adoption of cloud computing to build and deliver application services has been nothing less than phenomenal. Service oriented systems are being built using disparate sources composed of web services, replicable datastores, messaging, monitoring and analytics functions and more. Clouds augment these systems with advanced features such as high availability, customer affinity and autoscaling on a fair pay-per-use cost model. The challenge lies in using the utility paradigm of cloud beyond its current exploit. Major trends show that multi-domain synergies are creating added-value service propositions. This raises two questions on autonomic behaviors, which are specifically ad- dressed by this thesis. The first question deals with mechanism design that brings the customer and provider(s) together in the procurement process. The purpose is that considering customer requirements for quality of service and other non functional properties, service dependencies need to be efficiently resolved and legally stipulated. The second question deals with effective management of cloud infrastructures such that commitments to customers are fulfilled and the infrastructure is optimally operated in accordance with provider policies. This thesis finds motivation in Service Level Agreements (SLAs) to answer these questions. The role of SLAs is explored as instruments to build and maintain trust in an economy where services are increasingly interdependent. The thesis takes a wholesome approach and develops generic methods to automate SLA lifecycle management, by identifying and solving relevant research problems. The methods afford adaptiveness in changing business landscape and can be localized through policy based controls. A thematic vision that emerges from this work is that business models, services and the delivery technology are in- dependent concepts that can be finely knitted together by SLAs. Experimental evaluations support the message of this thesis, that exploiting SLAs as foundations for market innovation and infrastructure governance indeed holds win-win opportunities for both cloud customers and cloud providers

Framework for the Integration of Mobile Device Features in PLM

Currently, companies have covered their business processes with stationary workstations while mobile business applications have limited relevance. Companies can cover their overall business processes more time-efficiently and cost-effectively when they integrate mobile users in workflows using mobile device features. The objective is a framework that can be used to model and control business applications for PLM processes using mobile device features to allow a totally new user experience