EmergencyGrid:Planning in Convergence Environments

Government agencies are often responsible for event handling, planning, coordination, and status reporting during emergency response in natural disaster events such as floods, tsunamis and earthquakes. Across such a range of emergency response scenarios, there is a common set of requirements that distributed intelligent computer systems generally address. To support the implementation of these requirements, some researchers are proposing the creation of grids, where final interface and processing nodes perform joint work supported by a network infrastructure. The aim of this project is to extend the concepts of emergency response grids, using a convergence scenario between web and other computational platforms. Our initial work focuses on the Interactive Digital TV platform, where we intend to transform individual TV devices into active final nodes, using a hierarchical planning structure. We describe the architecture of this approach and an initial prototype specification that is being developed to validate some concepts and illustrate the advantages of this convergence planning environment

Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Challenges in Latin America for the Next Decade

A decade after a 1999 World Bank-sponsored meeting of Latin American water and sanitation experts, there has been progress in rural sanitation in that region. Nonetheless, the Millennium Development Goals for improved sanitation services may be out of reach. Looking toward the next ten years, important challenges for rural water and sanitation will include: ensuring long-term sustainability of sanitation services and monitoring systems, improving the contribution of municipal government, and establishing appropriate legal and financial policies

Geomechanical study of the Tarfaya basin, West African coast, using 3D/2D static models and 2D evolutionary models

[eng] This thesis uses different variants of geomechanical modelling approaches to investigate stress, strain and geometry distribution and evolution through time of the Tarfaya salt basin, located on the West African coast. This work has been conducted by geomechanically simulating a sector of the Tarfaya basin containing key features such as diapirs, faults and encasing sediments using 3D and 2D static models and 2D evolutionary models. The 3D and 2D static geomechanical models of the Tarfaya basin system allowed to predict the stresses and strains at present day. Both models are based on present-day basin geometries extracted from seismic data and use a poro-elastic description for the sediments based on calibrated log data and a visco-plastic description for the salt based on values from Avery Island. The models predict a significant horizontal stress reduction in the sediments located at the top of the principal salt structure, the Sandia diapir, consistent with wellbore data. However, the 2D static geomechanical model shows broader areas affected by the stress reduction compared to the 3D model and overestimates its magnitude by less than 1.5 MPa. These results highlight the possibility of using 2D static modelling as a valid approximation to the more complex and time-consuming 3D static models. A more in-depth study of the 2D static model using sensitivity analysis yielded a series of interesting observations: (1) the salt bodies and their geometry have the strongest impact on the final model results; (2) the elastic properties of the sediments do not impact the model results. In other words, the correct definition of the sediments with the highest material contrasts such as salt should be a priority when building static models. Such definition should be ranked ahead of the precise determination of the rheologic parameters for the sediments present in the basin. In this thesis, we also present the results of introducing an evolutionary geomechanical modelling approach to the Tarfaya basin. This study incorporates information of burial history, sea floor geometry and tectonic loads from a sequential kinematic restoration model to geologically constrain the 2D evolutionary geomechanical model. The sediments in the model follow a poro-elastoplastic description and the salt follows a visco-plastic description. The 2D evolutionary model predicts a similar Sandia diapir evolution when compared to the kinematic restoration. This proves this approach can offer a significant advance in the study of the basin, by not only providing the stress and strain distribution and salt geometry at present day, but also reproducing their evolution during the Tarfaya basin history. Sensitivity analysis on the evolutionary model indicates that temporal and spatial variation in sedimentation rate is a key control on the kinematic structural evolution of the salt system. The variation of sedimentation rates in the model controls whether the modelled salt body gets buried by Tertiary sediments (after a continuous growth during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods) or is able to remain active until the present day. Also, the imposed shortening affects the final stress distribution of the sediments at the present day. To conclude, the results obtained during this study allowed us to understand the formation and evolution of the diapirs in the Tarfaya basin using carefully built geomechanical models. The study demonstrates that carefully built 2D static models can provide information comparable to the 3D models, but without the time and computational power requirements of the 3D models. That makes the 2D approach very appropriate for the exploration stages of a particular prospect. If carefully built, such 2D models can approximate and yield useful information, even from complex 3D structures such as the Tarfaya basin salt structures. This thesis also concludes that incorporating kinematic restoration data into 2D evolutionary models provides insights into the key parameters controlling the evolution of the studied system. Furthermore, it enables more realistic geomechanical models, which, in turn, provide more insights into sediment stress and porosity

Man-vehicle systems research facility: Design and operating characteristics

The Man-Vehicle Systems Research Facility (MVSRF) provides the capability of simulating aircraft (two with full crews), en route and terminal air traffic control and aircrew interactions, and advanced cockpit (1995) display representative of future generations of aircraft, all within the full mission context. The characteristics of this facility derive from research, addressing critical human factors issues that pertain to: (1) information requirements for the utilization and integration of advanced electronic display systems, (2) the interaction and distribution of responsibilities between aircrews and ground controllers, and (3) the automation of aircrew functions. This research has emphasized the need for high fidelity in simulations and for the capability to conduct full mission simulations of relevant aircraft operations. This report briefly describes the MVSRF design and operating characteristics

The e-revolution and post-compulsory education: using e-business models to deliver quality education

The best practices of e-business are revolutionising not just technology itself but the whole process through which services are provided; and from which important lessons can be learnt by post-compulsory educational institutions. This book aims to move debates about ICT and higher education beyond a simple focus on e-learning by considering the provision of post-compulsory education as a whole. It considers what we mean by e-business, why e-business approaches are relevant to universities and colleges and the key issues this raises for post-secondary education

Process Based Management and the Central Role of Dialogical Collective Activity in Organizational Learning. The Case of Work Safety in the Building Industry

The notion of “process”, which describes the cooperation of heterogeneous practices and competences for a given output, has gained a major position in managerial practices for the last twenty years. This paper presents three ideas about organizational dynamics and processes and tests their applicability in the case of work safety improvement in a building company. The first idea is that the success of the process notion shows the central role of “conjoint” (as opposed to “common”) collective activity in organizational learning. Conjoint collective activity is dialogical (“acts speak”) and mediated by the utilization of semiotic systems (languages and technical and managerial tools). The second idea is that organizational learning is neither based on the actors’ individual subjectivity nor on the technological and objective artefacts engaged in the processes, but rather on the reflexive understanding and ongoing redesign of processes by the process actors themselves, in the frame of a reflexive inquiry, a “collective activity about collective activity” which is triggered and kept in motion by axiological judgments (process evaluation). The third idea is that the possibilities to configure processes in a given organization are multiple. The reflexive inquiry enacts a specific social, spatial and time configuration of the process, its “chronotope” in Bakhtin’s vocabulary, which plays a major role in the way actors can make sense of their collective activity and transform it. A longitudinal case study about work safety on the building yards shows that it is difficult to “control out” risk at work once designs have been established, in the frame of the “project execution” process, but it is easier to “design out” risk, when the actors of the process collectively design and redesign their collective activity, from the very first phases of a building project to the end. Therefore a major way to improve safety consists in extending the chronotope of the collective activity under consideration, overcoming the traditional separation between “design / planning” and “execution”. The conclusion summarizes the main theoretical, epistemological and practical issues involved in this research about conjoint collective activity.Business Process; Chronotope; Collective Activity; Collective Sense Making; Dialogism; Inquiry; Process-based Management; Safety Management

Sales & operations planning in complex business-to-business planning environments

Abstract. Sales & operations planning (S&OP) is a tactical planning process to balance company’s demand and supply. Increasing demand volatility has made S&OP very topical. Business-to-business (B2B) manufacturing with high product variation sets high requirements for S&OP processes and tools. Digitalization has created lots of hype around integrated business planning, which might have raised unjustified benefit expectations for S&OP deployment. In order to deploy S&OP process, it is important to recognize its core purpose and its plausible benefits, to avoid deployment failures caused by the lack of knowledge. This thesis aims to provide S&OP knowledge for complex business to business manufacturing. The qualitative research conducts literature review, and investigates tactical planning processes of three case companies, and current S&OP tool offering of five vendors through semi-structured interviews. From the aim of this thesis, three research questions were conducted: RQ1: What are the desired outcomes of S&OP? RQ2: What aspects of business are expected to be improved by S&OP process and tool deployment according to case companies? RQ3: How do the identified S&OP process models and tools compare with the case companies’ expectations? Following answers to research questions were found: RQ1:S&OP can be defined as a systematic tactical planning process to enhance collaborative target setting, vertical and horizontal integration, visibility creation, and performance management. By combining the different outcomes in different situations, the ultimate desired outcome seems to be the ability to consider all necessary factors in tactical planning. Answer to this research question is derived from the literature review, and it reflects to other research questions. RQ2: Visibility creation, demand forecasting, supply planning, financial planning, scenario planning, internal collaboration, external collaboration, product portfolio management and after sales services were high level requirements derived from the case companies’ specific expectations in the empirical study. RQ3: Identified S&OP process and tools support the major parts of case company expectations, although when having a closer look of some of the case companies’ specific external collaboration, and supply planning aspects, case companies have some unplausible expectations for S&OP tools. Managerial implications: In the early phases of S&OP deployment, companies should mainly focus on designing the process, rather than tool consideration. Only after the suitable process is established, companies should utilize advanced planning tools. The tactical planning tool vendors might emphasize high customizability or high optimization capabilities. These aspects might be trade-offs which companies should be aware. Platform flexibility allows non-standard process designs, and industry specific S&OP practices enables optimization to maximize results by S&OP specific tools. Scientific implications: This study investigates companies operating in B2B business that are utilizing make-to-order production strategy’s variants. Study provides insights of companies planning environments requirements and their desired outcomes of S&OP deployments. Study pointed out the conflicts between S&OP methods and quick response make-to-order strategies in high product variety environments, which indicates that besides evaluating S&OP’s design for planning environments at deployment, evaluation of S&OP methods’ suitability to company specific strategies should be highly considered.Sales & operations planning vaativissa yritykseltä-yritykselle-markkinan valmistusympäristöissä. Tiivistelmä. Sales & operations planning (S&OP) on taktisen suunnittelun prosessi yrityksen kysynnän ja tarjonnan tasapainottamiseksi. Kasvanut kysynnän vaihtelu on tehnyt S&OP:sta erittäin ajankohtaisen. Vaatimukset S&OP prosesseille ja työkaluille ovat korkeat, kun yritys valmistaa useita erilaisia tuotteita yritysmyyntiin. Digitalisaatio on kasvattanut kiinnostusta integroitua liiketoimintasuunnittelua kohtaan, minkä vuoksi S&OP:ta kohtaan on voinut syntyä katteettomia hyötyodotuksia. S&OP-prosessin käyttöönotossa on tärkeää tunnistaa sen päätarkoitus ja mahdolliset hyödyt, jottei implementointi epäonnistuisi tiedonpuutteen vuoksi. Tämän työn tarkoitus on tuoda tietoa S&OP:sta vaativissa yritykseltä-yritykselle-markkinan valmistusympäristöissä. Tässä kvalitatiivisessa tutkimuksessa koostetaan kirjallisuuskatsaus, tutkitaan kolmen case-yrityksen taktista suunnittelutoimintaa, sekä tutkitaan nykyistä S&OP-työkalutarjoamaa viiden järjestelmätoimittajan avulla. Case-yritykset ja järjestelmätoimittajat haastatellaan puolistrukturoiduilla haastatteluilla. Tutkimuksen tueksi on koostettu kolme tutkimuskysymystä: TK1: Mitä ovat S&OP-prosessin odotetut hyödyt? TK2: Mitä osa-alueita case-yritykset odottavat S&OP-prosessin ja työkalujen parantavan? TK3: Kuinka tunnistetut S&OP-mallit ja työkalut tukevat case-yritysten parannusodotuksia? Tutkimuskysymyksiin löydettiin seuraavat vastaukset: TK1: S&OP voidaan määritellä systemaattiseksi taktisen suunnittelun prosessiksi, joka vahvistaa yhteistä tavoitteiden asettamista, vertikaalista ja horisontaalista integraatiota, näkyvyyden luomista ja suorituskyvynjohtamista. Yhdistämällä erilaisia mahdollisia hyötyjä erilaisissa tilanteissa, suurin tavoiteltava hyöty olisi kyky ottaa huomioon kaikki tärkeimmät lopputulokseen vaikuttavat osatekijät taktisessa suunnittelussa. TK2: Näkyvyyden luominen, kysynnän ennustaminen, tuotannon- ja hankinnansuunnittelu, finanssisuunnittelu, skenaariosuunnittelu, sisäinen yhteistyö, ulkoinen yhteistyö, tuoteportfolion hallinta ja jälkimarkkinointi — palvelut ovat tunnistettuja ylätason osa-alueita, joita yritykset odottavat S&OP-prosessin ja työkalujen parantavan. TK3: S&OP prosessit ja työkalut tukevat pääosin yritysten odotuksia, mutta yrityksillä on eräitä spesifisiä ulkoisen yhteistyön ja toimitusketjun suunnittelutoiminnan odotuksia, joita ne eivät tue. Käytännön implikaatiot: S&OP-prosessien käyttöönottovaiheessa yritysten kannattaa ennemmin keskittyä prosessin suunnittelun, kuin työkalujen hankkimiseen. Vasta kun yrityksellä on vakiintunut S&OP-prosessi, yrityksen kannattaa pohtia kehittyneempien suunnittelujärjestelmien hankkimista. Suunnittelutyökalujen järjestelmäntoimittajat saattavat korostaa tuotteidensa räätälöityvyyttä tai optimointikyvykkyyttä. Välttämättä näiden molempien ominaisuuksien tuomia hyötyjä ei voida saavuttaa samassa järjestelmässä. Järjestelmän joustavuus sallii joustavamman rakenteen taktiseen suunnitteluprosessiin, kun taas optimointikyvykkäät järjestelmät nojautuvat toimialan suositeltuihin S&OP-prosessimalleihin. Tieteelliset implikaatiot: Tutkimus esittelee kompleksisissa ympäristöissä toimivien yritysten tarpeita S&OP-prosessille. Tutkimuksessa todettiin ristiriita nopean asiakasvasteen strategian, ja S&OP-metodien välillä, kun yrityksen tuotetarjoama on erittäin suuri, ja kaikki valmistettavat tuotteet ovat asiakasspesifisiä. Tämä viittaisi siihen, että toimivaan S&OP-prosessin rakenteeseen ei vaikuta voimakkaasti vain suunnitteluympäristö, vaan myös yrityksen strategia

Development of E-learning in higher education and future directions

The present paper is based on the work of the ‘Future of E-Learning Group’, a constituent of the EUNIS E-Learning task Force. The group has set up a number of tasks to fulfill its role, one of which, is seeking and disseminating information on the development of e-learning with a view to ensuring the right guide is provided for progress into the future. In our work to date, in this era of globalization, we question the ability of present university systems to respond adequately and appropriately to complex demands of an Information Economy. There’s increasing involvement of private sector in higher education. The effects on future learning on the use of varying tools as well as the design of competency-based performance in e-learning have been reported (Wolrery et al, 2000; Sluijsmans et al, 2006). Several multimedia learning systems are being developed for use as future interactive educational tools (Low et al, 2003). New thinking is required for the new relationships that are being developed between creative subjects and technology when we consider the nature of universities in their present state of existence as public sector institutions. The university of the future can be perceived as a setup, based on international trade in educational services, with universities fulfilling the functions of licensing, quality assurance and cultural custodianship. The pressent paper discusses some of these issues and reports on the future directions of e-learning as they relate to higher education

Special Libraries, May-June 1971

Volume 62, Issue 5-6https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/sla_sl_1971/1004/thumbnail.jp