Examining the advocacy coalition framework for insight into shale gas development in US and UK political systems

Master's Project (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2014The project considers the Advocacy Coalition Framework from the discipline of policymaking which is used to examine contentious and politically complex policy issues, particularly in energy and environmental development and planning. Shale gas development in the United States has been noted for its dramatic economic and political effects, leading some countries to pursue development of their own shale resources. The United Kingdom's tentative steps into the industry have engendered efforts to understand American experiences and conceptualize how their own country may or may not accommodate such development. The project attempts to highlight the current or potential issues or benefits entering the discourse and extrapolate insights from the Advocacy Coalition Framework to enhance and inform shale gas development as a social issue in addition to existing as an economic or technological disruption. Thoughts on attitudes between disciplines tangent to shale gas development are also expressed

Factors affecting a performance management system at South African Airways

Many organisations are continuously searching for methods which can be used to improve performance. The balanced scorecard is a management system that enables organisations to clarify their vision and strategy and translate them into action. When fully deployed, the balanced scorecard transforms strategic planning from an academic exercise into the nerve centre of an enterprise. A prerequisite for implementing a balanced scorecard is a clear understanding of the organisations vision and strategy. The basis for the vision and the strategy should be the holistic view and the information management receives during systematic strategy work. The research study addresses the integration of South African Airways (SAA) strategy with the performance management system. A comprehensive literature study was performed on performance management and the balanced scorecard. Questionnaires, developed from the literature study, were distributed amongst randomly selected respondents, in order to establish the extent to which South African Airways manages performance. The opinions of the various respondents were compared with the guidelines provided by the literature study in order to identify the best approach of performance measurement to be implemented at South African Airways. The final step of this study entailed the formulation of recommendations. These recommendations are regarded as critical to ensure the successful implementation of a performance management system at South African Airways. The following main recommendations were made: Although the empirical study revealed that South African Airways shares its strategic objectives with its management, it is highly recommended that a balanced scorecard should be used as a measuring approach for performance at South African Airways; Before any organisation can start implementing a balanced scorecard it needs a clear understanding of its vision and strategy. It is the management’s responsibility to define a vision, formulate a strategy and set strategic goals regardless of a balanced scorecard being implemented; The implementation of a balanced scorecard should always be organised as a separate project. Several different procedures describing the building process of a balanced scorecard have been presented. The research shows that, to increase the chance of a successful scorecard implementation, regular feedback must be provided to all employees and managers must hold people accountable for using the system

Special Libraries, February 1956

Volume 47, Issue 2https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/sla_sl_1956/1001/thumbnail.jp

On Provably Correct Decision-Making for Automated Driving

The introduction of driving automation in road vehicles can potentially reduce road traffic crashes and significantly improve road safety. Automation in road vehicles also brings several other benefits such as the possibility to provide independent mobility for people who cannot and/or should not drive. Many different hardware and software components (e.g. sensing, decision-making, actuation, and control) interact to solve the autonomous driving task. Correctness of such automated driving systems is crucial as incorrect behaviour may have catastrophic consequences. Autonomous vehicles operate in complex and dynamic environments, which requires decision-making and planning at different levels. The aim of such decision-making components in these systems is to make safe decisions at all times. The challenge of safety verification of these systems is crucial for the commercial deployment of full autonomy in vehicles. Testing for safety is expensive, impractical, and can never guarantee the absence of errors. In contrast, formal methods, which are techniques that use rigorous mathematical models to build hardware and software systems can provide a mathematical proof of the correctness of the system. The focus of this thesis is to address some of the challenges in the safety verification of decision-making in automated driving systems. A central question here is how to establish formal verification as an efficient tool for automated driving software development.A key finding is the need for an integrated formal approach to prove correctness and to provide a complete safety argument. This thesis provides insights into how three different formal verification approaches, namely supervisory control theory, model checking, and deductive verification differ in their application to automated driving and identifies the challenges associated with each method. It identifies the need for the introduction of more rigour in the requirement refinement process and presents one possible solution by using a formal model-based safety analysis approach. To address challenges in the manual modelling process, a possible solution by automatically learning formal models directly from code is proposed

Appraisal of caregiving burden, expressed emotion, and psychological distress in families of people with dementia: a systematic review

Unpaid family caregivers of people with dementia are faced with a variety of physical, emotional and social stressors. A systematic review of the literature was compiled to summarize existing evidence regarding subjective burden, expressed emotion and psychological distress related to this category of caregiving and to build a multinational representation of these individuals that will facilitate in identifying areas of supportive intervention. A synthesis of 44 data sets that included 5,249 participants from 20 countries indicated that the majority of caregivers are experiencing depression and high levels of distress related to their caregiving role, and that a small number of caregivers are relying on coping strategies that may add to their distress. Results suggest an ongoing need for medical and psychology practitioners to be aware of appropriate supportive and mental health interventions to improve the quality of life for people with dementia and their family caregivers

Applications of aerospace technology to petroleum extraction and reservoir engineering

Through contacts with the petroleum industry, the petroleum service industry, universities and government agencies, important petroleum extraction problems were identified. For each problem, areas of aerospace technology that might aid in its solution were also identified, where possible. Some of the problems were selected for further consideration. Work on these problems led to the formulation of specific concepts as candidate for development. Each concept is addressed to the solution of specific extraction problems and makes use of specific areas of aerospace technology