Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Obtaining Public Procurement Contract Awards

The dominance of federal and state contracts by large enterprises reduces the share of contracts small and medium-sized enterprises\u27 (SMEs) business leaders obtain. As of the last census reading in 2016, SMEs received only 23% of contracts. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the strategies of 3 small business leaders, operating in south Florida, for obtaining state contracts through public procurement. The thematic findings were in the context of the principal-agent theory as the conceptual framework. The participants answered 10 questions in semistructured interviews and provided organizational procurement documents for review. The methodological triangulation of multiple data sources and data analysis led to the identification of 3 primary themes: business performance, overcoming barriers, and strategic initiatives. Enabling proper business performance protocols for revenue, company reputation, pricing, and compliance benefitted the 3 participants as a strategy for successfully winning state contracts. The participants first identified the barriers they experienced, which included access, bargaining power, funding, and labels. The barriers encountered by the participants became less overwhelming with the implementation of strategic initiatives based on knowledge, relationship building, skilled personnel, and taking action. Findings included the importance of SME business leaders and personnel educating themselves on the public procurement process and building relationships with individuals in the various agencies. Application of the findings may lead to a social change of higher small business employment rates, increased revenue, and improved innovation for business leaders

Basic Communication Course Annual Vol. 12

Full issue (232, 7.896 KB

Public Health Leadership to Advance Health Equity: A Scoping Review and Metasummary

Health inequities are health differences that are systematic across a population, result from the social conditions in which people live, and are considered unfair when by reasonable means they could be avoided. Health inequities are a pressing public health issue locally, nationally, and globally, and addressing these inequities is a matter of social justice. Public health leadership has been identified as critical for advancing health equity. Public health leadership has been defined as influence that moves individuals, communities, organizations, and systems toward achieving goals that will result in better health and well-being. But what type of leadership is required in public health to address the social determinants of health and advance health equity? How is it described? How is that leadership developed and supported? To begin to answer these questions and contribute to the knowledge and science of leadership in public health, an extensive scoping review of the literature was undertaken using Arksey and O’Malley’s (2005) six-phase framework. The scoping review explored the evidence base (close to 8,000 articles) and iteratively revealed the factors that contribute to public health leadership at the individual, organizational, community, and system levels. Further discussion is provided regarding innovative and emerging tools, strategies, and mechanisms for public health leadership. The study considered two further questions in an additional phase of the review using a metasummary method: How is leadership described in this literature set and what is the relationship between leadership and health equity in these studies? The responses to these questions are reflected through a series of data visualizations and thematic presentations. The dissertation concludes with a discussion of the findings and a set of considerations for practice, theory, policy, education, and research. These considerations are intended to provide a foundation for the development and support of public health leaders and leadership to address the determinants of health and advance health equity

The Journal of Undergraduate Research: Volume 12

This is the complete issue of the South Dakota State University Journal of Undergraduate Research, Volume 12

Strategies for Small Businesses Negotiating Contracts with Hospitals

Failure to successfully negotiate contracts can have negative impacts on business survivability. Contract negotiations are ways medical suppliers and hospitals establish mutually beneficial relationships to increase profitability and longevity while innovating to improve patient care. Grounded in the resource dependency theory and the grand theory of negotiation, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies used by Texas physician preference item (PPI) suppliers to successfully negotiate contracts with hospitals to improve profits and sustain their small business beyond 5 years. The participants comprised 11 small business leaders in Texas who successfully negotiated contracts with hospitals to improve profits and sustain their small business beyond 5 years. Data were collected using semistructured interviews along with the review of organizational documents. Through content analysis, five major themes emerged: building trustful and mutually beneficial relationships; research and experience; positive, confident, and patient attitudes and behaviors; communication skills; and flexible and compromising strategies. A key recommendation is for PPI suppliers to establish strong verbal and nonverbal communication skills for successful negotiation processes. The implications for positive social change is the potential for small business growth to supporting employment and fuel the economy and medical device innovation to improve healthcare outcomes for hospitals and patients

Golf ball picker robot: path generation in unstructured environments towards multiple targets

Tese de doutoramento Engineering Design and Advanced Manufacturing Leaders for Technical IndustriesThe new TWIN-RRT* algorithm solves a motion planning problem in which an agent has multiple possible targets where none of them is compulsory, and retrieves feasible, ―low cost‖, asymptotically optimal and probabilistically complete paths. The TWIN-RRT* algorithm solves path planning problems for both holonomic and non-holonomic robots with or without kinodynamic constraints in a 2D environment, but it was designed to work as well with higher DOF agents and different applications. The new algorithm provides a practical implementation of feasible and fast planning especially where a closed loop is required. Initial and final configurations are allowed to be exactly the same. The TWIN-RRT* algorithm computes an efficient path for one sole agent towards multiple targets where none of them is mandatory. It inherits the low computational cost, probabilistic completeness and asymptotical optimality from RRT*. It uses efficiency as cost function, which can be adapted depending on the application. The TWIN-RRT* complies both with kinodynamic constraints and different cost functions. It was developed to solve a real problem where a robot has to collect golf balls in a driving range, where thousands of balls accumulate every day. This thesis is part of a bigger project, Golfminho, to develop an autonomous robot capable of efficiently collecting balls in a golf practice field.O novo algoritmo TWIN-RRT* resolve problemas de planeamento de trajetórias em que um agente tem múltiplos alvos, onde nenhum deles é obrigatório, e produz um plano exequível, de "baixo custo" computacional, assintoticamente ótimo e probabilisticamente completo. O TWINRRT* resolve problemas de planeamento de trajetórias tanto para robôs holonómicos como não holonómicos com ou sem restrições cinemáticas e/ou dinâmicas num ambiente 2D, mas foi projetado para funcionar também com agentes com maiores graus de liberdade e em diferentes aplicações. O novo algoritmo fornece uma implementação prática de um planeamento viável e rápido, especialmente quando é necessário produzir uma trajetória fechada. As configurações iniciais e finais podem ser exatamente iguais. O algoritmo TWIN-RRT* calcula um caminho eficiente para um agente único em direção a múltiplos alvos, onde nenhum deles é obrigatório. Herda o baixo custo computacional, integralidade probabilística e otimização assintótica do RRT*. Usa a eficiência como função de custo, que pode ser adaptada em função das diferentes aplicações. Para além de diferentes funções de custo, o TWIN-RRT* também mostra conformidade com restrições cinemáticas. Foi desenvolvido para resolver um problema real em que um robô tem que recolher bolas de golfe num Driving Range, onde se acumulam milhares de bolas de golfe por dia. Esta tese é parte integrante do projeto Golfminho, para o desenvolvimento de um robô autónomo capaz de recolher eficientemente bolas num campo de práticas de golfe.Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) for the PhD grant nº. SFRH/BD/43008/2008

Mobile Robots Navigation

Mobile robots navigation includes different interrelated activities: (i) perception, as obtaining and interpreting sensory information; (ii) exploration, as the strategy that guides the robot to select the next direction to go; (iii) mapping, involving the construction of a spatial representation by using the sensory information perceived; (iv) localization, as the strategy to estimate the robot position within the spatial map; (v) path planning, as the strategy to find a path towards a goal location being optimal or not; and (vi) path execution, where motor actions are determined and adapted to environmental changes. The book addresses those activities by integrating results from the research work of several authors all over the world. Research cases are documented in 32 chapters organized within 7 categories next described

Wireless mosaic eyes based robot path planning and control. Autonomous robot navigation using environment intelligence with distributed vision sensors.

As an attempt to steer away from developing an autonomous robot with complex centralised intelligence, this thesis proposes an intelligent environment infrastructure where intelligences are distributed in the environment through collaborative vision sensors mounted in a physical architecture, forming a wireless sensor network, to enable the navigation of unintelligent robots within that physical architecture. The aim is to avoid the bottleneck of centralised robot intelligence that hinders the application and exploitation of autonomous robot. A bio-mimetic snake algorithm is proposed to coordinate the distributed vision sensors for the generation of a collision free Reference-snake (R-snake) path during the path planning process. By following the R-snake path, a novel Accompanied snake (A-snake) method that complies with the robot's nonholonomic constraints for trajectory generation and motion control is introduced to generate real time robot motion commands to navigate the robot from its current position to the target position. A rolling window optimisation mechanism subject to control input saturation constraints is carried out for time-optimal control along the A-snake. A comprehensive simulation software and a practical distributed intelligent environment with vision sensors mounted on a building ceiling are developed. All the algorithms proposed in this thesis are first verified by the simulation and then implemented in the practical intelligent environment. A model car with less on-board intelligence is successfully controlled by the distributed vision sensors and demonstrated superior mobility