Perspectives on the Formal Authority Between Project Managers and Change Managers

Project management and change management both contribute to the management and delivery of changes to organizations; however, they are based on distinct bodies of knowledge, and practitioners of these disciplines have disparate views on how change should be managed. There is a lack of consensus about how these disciplines should work together to deliver organizational change projects, which may result in conflict. This research delves into practitioners' perspectives on formal authority, the reporting relationship between these disciplines, and also reveals the fundamental differences in how practitioners of these disciplines view the practice of organizational change. </jats:p

Project managers’ and change managers’ contribution to success

© 2016, © Emerald Group Publishing Limited. Purpose – Many projects involve an organisational change component. Project management (PM) and change management (CM) have the potential to jointly contribute to the delivery of organisational changes. However, there is a lack of clarity in the literature about the boundary and relationship between these disciplines. The purpose of this paper is to explore the contribution these disciplines make to a set of project critical success factors, to understand the ways that these disciplines can most effectively work together. Design/methodology/approach – This paper analyses data collected through an online survey, examining project managers’ and change managers’ perception of each disciplines’ contribution to critical success factors. The survey received 455 responses. Findings – This paper identifies the success factors that are most clearly influenced by PM and CM, and areas where practitioners of these disciplines hold significantly different perceptions of their contributions. The results have been used to rank and categorise success factors based on the influence of each discipline. This has been used to develop a risk-based questionnaire to guide the contribution of PM and CM to the mitigation of specific project risks. Originality/value – These findings will be of use to practitioners managing organisational change projects, or projects with a significant change component. The findings will be of assistance in determining the ways in which these disciplines should work together to mitigate risks associated with specific critical success factors

Modeling raccoon (Procyon lotor) habitat connectivity to identify potential corridors for rabies spread

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), Wildlife Services National Rabies Management Program has conducted cooperative oral rabies vaccination (ORV) programs since 1997. Understanding the eco-epidemiology of raccoon (Procyon lotor) variant rabies (raccoon rabies) is critical to successful management. Pine (Pinus spp.)-dominated landscapes generally support low relative raccoon densities that may inhibit rabies spread. However, confounding landscape features, such as wetlands and human development, represent potentially elevated risk corridors for rabies spread, possibly imperiling enhanced rabies surveillance and ORV planning. Raccoon habitat suitability in pine-dominated landscapes in Massachusetts, Florida, and Alabama was modeled by the maximum entropy (Maxent) procedure using raccoon presence, and landscape and environmental data. Replicated (n = 100/state) bootstrapped Maxent models based on raccoon sampling locations from 2012–2014 indicated that soil type was the most influential variable in Alabama (permutation importance PI = 38.3), which, based on its relation to landcover type and resource distribution and abundance, was unsurprising. Precipitation (PI = 46.9) and temperature (PI = 52.1) were the most important variables in Massachusetts and Florida, but these possibly spurious results require further investigation. The Alabama Maxent probability surface map was ingested into Circuitscape for conductance visualizations of potential areas of habitat connectivity. Incorporating these and future results into raccoon rabies containment and elimination strategies could result in significant cost-savings for rabies management here and elsewhere

On the Sensitivity of the Devonian Climate to Continental Configuration, Vegetation Cover, Orbital Configuration, CO 2 Concentration, and Insolation

During the Devonian (419 to 359 million years ago), life on Earth witnessed decisive evolutionary breakthroughs, most prominently the colonization of land by vascular plants and vertebrates. However, it was also a period of major marine extinctions coinciding with marked changes in climate. The cause of these changes remains unknown, and it is therefore instructive to explore systematically how the Devonian climate responds to changes in boundary conditions. Here we use coupled climate model simulations to investigate separately the influence of changes in continental configuration, vegetation cover, carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations, the solar constant, and orbital parameters on the Devonian climate. The biogeophysical effect of changes in vegetation cover is small, and the cooling due to continental drift is offset by the increasing solar constant. Variations of orbital parameters affect the Devonian climate, with the warmest climate states at high obliquity and high eccentricity. The prevailing mode of decadal to centennial climate variability relates to temperature fluctuations in high northern latitudes which are mediated by coupled oscillations involving sea ice cover, ocean convection, and a regional overturning circulation. The temperature evolution during the Devonian is dominated by the strong decrease in atmospheric CO2. Albedo changes due to increasing vegetation cover cannot explain the temperature rise found in Late Devonian proxy data. Finally, simulated temperatures are significantly lower than estimates based on oxygen isotope ratios, suggesting a lower d18O ratio of Devonian seawater. ©2019. The Authors

GENESIS OF DONGPING GOLD-TELLURIDE DEPOSIT BASED ON GEOCHEMICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF FLUIDS, 40Ar/39Ar DATING, STABLE AND RADIOGENIC ISOTOPES (NORTH CHINA)

The Dongping goldfield is located within the Shuiquangou alkaline complex of the western Yanshan Mountains of Hebei Province, on the northern margin of the North China Craton. It is one of the largest gold deposits in China, with a planned gold production of 2.57 tons annually over a lifespan of 12 years. The Dongping gold deposit is enriched in the elements Au, Te, Ag, Pb, Bi, Sb and As. Most of the gold is present in the telluride minerals calaverite (43% Au, 38% Ag) and petzite (23% Au, 46% Ag). Gold mineralization is hosted mainly by K-feldspar-quartz stockworks, veins and disseminated sulfides. The deposit contains three ore types that are distinguished by their mineral associations: vein quartz gold, telluride gold, and disseminated gold. The paragenesis of the ores exhibits three distinct hydrothermal stages, of which the second one was the main ore-enrichment stage. The ore-related 40Ar/39Ar ages determined on K-feldspar samples indicate two episodes of gold mineralization, at 154.89 ± 0.70 Ma and 176.93 ± 4.66 Ma. The gold mineralization ages thus postdate the Devonian-age granite intrusion but overlap possible JurassicCretaceous magmatic activity. The homogenization temperatures of the majority of inclusions range from 120 to 240°C and from 240 to 400°C. The inclusions in quartz veins are CO2-rich and characterized by low salinity (average 6.0–8.8 wt% NaCl eq.). The laser Raman spectrum of the inclusions shows that the fluid compositions are dominantly waterrich but also contain CO2. The hydrogen isotope compositions (δ2H) of the fluid inclusions range from ‒100.3 to ‒66.5 ‰, and the calculated oxygen isotope compositions (δ18O) for source fluids range from ‒0.3 to +6.9 ‰ "Standard Mean Ocean Water" (SMOW). These values indicate that the ore-forming fluid came from a deep magmatic hydrothermal system, with involvement of meteoric water and possibly water affected by organic matter. The sulphur isotope compositions (δ34S) of pyrite are mainly from ‒0.3 to ‒13.6 ‰ Vienna Cañon Diablo Troilite (VCDT), suggesting homogeneity of sulphur in the magmatic source with subsequent fractionation under relatively oxidizing conditions in ore-bearing quartz veins. The relationship of δ2HH2O to 87Sr/86Sr indicates that the fluid inclusions and host granitoid rocks were influenced by mixing of magmatic and meteoric waters. Key words: Chongli county; Dongping deposit; 40Ar/39Ar dating; stable and radiogenic isotopes; ore-forming fluids; gold deposit; North Chin

Icehouse–Greenhouse Variations in Marine Denitrification

Long-term secular variation in the isotopic composition of seawater fixed nitrogen (N) is poorly known. Here, we document variation in the N-isotopic composition of marine sediments (δ15Nsed) since 660 Ma (million years ago) in order to understand major changes in the marine N cycle through time and their relationship to first-order climate variation. During the Phanerozoic, greenhouse climate modes were characterized by low δ15Nsed (∼−2 to +2‰) and icehouse climate modes by high δ15Nsed (∼+4 to +8‰). Shifts toward higher δ15Nsed occurred rapidly during the early stages of icehouse modes, prior to the development of major continental glaciation, suggesting a potentially important role for the marine N cycle in long-term climate change. Reservoir box modeling of the marine N cycle demonstrates that secular variation in δ15Nsed was likely due to changes in the dominant locus of denitrification, with a shift in favor of sedimentary denitrification during greenhouse modes owing to higher eustatic (global sea-level) elevations and greater on-shelf burial of organic matter, and a shift in favor of water-column denitrification during icehouse modes owing to lower eustatic elevations, enhanced organic carbon sinking fluxes, and expanded oceanic oxygen-minimum zones. The results of this study provide new insights into operation of the marine N cycle, its relationship to the global carbon cycle, and its potential role in modulating climate change at multimillion-year timescales

Nitrogen fixation sustained productivity in the wake of the Palaeoproterozoic Great Oxygenation Event

The marine nitrogen cycle is dominated by redox-controlled biogeochemical processes and, therefore, is likely to have been revolutionised in response to Earth-surface oxygenation. The details, timing, and trajectory of nitrogen cycle evolution, however, remain elusive. Here we couple nitrogen and carbon isotope records from multiple drillcores through the Rooihoogte-Timeball Hill Formations from across the Carletonville area of the Kaapvaal Craton where the Great Oxygenation Event (GOE) and its aftermath are recorded. Our data reveal that aerobic nitrogen cycling, featuring metabolisms involving nitrogen oxyanions, was well established prior to the GOE and that ammonium may have dominated the dissolved nitrogen inventory. Pronounced signals of diazotrophy imply a stepwise evolution, with a temporary intermediate stage where both ammonium and nitrate may have been scarce. We suggest that the emergence of the modern nitrogen cycle, with metabolic processes that approximate their contemporary balance, was retarded by low environmental oxygen availability.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant EAR-1338810)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant EAR-1455258

Termination of a continent-margin upwelling system at the Permian-Triassic boundary (Opal Creek, Alberta, Canada)

Models of mass extinctions caused by greenhouse warming depend on the ability of warming to affect the oxygenation of the ocean, either through slowing circulation or changes in biological productivity and the organic carbon budget. Opal Creek, Alberta, Canada is a biostratigraphically continuous Permian–Triassic Boundary (PTB) section deposited in deep water on an outer shelf setting in the vast and understudied Panthalassic Ocean, along the western margin of Pangaea. The latest-Permian extinction is here represented as the disappearance of the previously dominant benthic fauna (siliceous sponges). On the basis of nitrogen and reduced sulfur isotopes as well as productivity-sensitive trace elements, the Middle Permian at Opal Creek is interpreted as a highly productive coastal upwelling zone where vigorous denitrification and sulfate reduction occurred in a mid-water oxygen minimum. Similar conditions appear to have continued into the latest Permian until the onset of a euxinic episode represented by a discrete pyrite bed and several trace element indicators of high productivity. This euxinic pulse is followed by the extinction of benthic fauna and a shift in nitrogen and sulfur isotopes to more normal marine values, suggesting the cessation of coastal upwelling and the consequent weakening of the mid-water oxygen minimum. The Lower Triassic appears to be a dysoxic, relatively unproductive environment with a bottom water oxygen minimum. Rhenium–osmium isotope systematics show a minimum of radiogenic Os near the main extinction event, which may be due to volcanic input, and increasingly radiogenic values approaching the PTB, possibly due to increased continental erosion. The Opal Creek system demonstrates that, while the biogeochemical crisis in the latest Permian was capable of impacting the coastal upwelling modality of ocean circulation, a transient increase in productivity likely drove the system toward euxinia and, ultimately, extinction

Non-Lethal Management to Reduce Conflicts with Winter Urban Crow Roosts in New York: 2002 - 2007

American crow populations have increased steadily since 1966 in many parts of the U.S. Large winter congregations of crows in urban environments have resulted in an increased number of requests for assistance in managing nocturnal roosts in New York. In 2002, the USDA APHIS Wildlife Services program initiated a large-scale non-lethal winter roost dispersal program in Troy, New York. Since that time, similar programs have been implemented in 4 other cities in New York to manage crow roosts ranging in size from 8,000 - 63,000 individuals. The goals of the programs were to minimize noise, accumulations of crow feces around residences, strong odors associated with droppings, property damage, clean-up costs, and potential threats to human health and safety. The primary management strategy relied on dispersing concentrated crow populations from high-impact high-conflict areas, to low-impact low-conflict areas. An integrated management program using pyrotechnics, amplified recorded crow distress calls, and hand-held lasers was implemented to successfully disperse local crow roosts, reducing populations at the majority of core roost sites each year by more than 98%. In some instances, significant reductions in crow numbers and associated damage persisted \u3e8 weeks after management without additional interventions, although most sites required multiple additional “spot treatments.” High-profile urban wildlife management projects of this type require multiple meetings with key stakeholders and the public and often attract intense media interest, adding complexity to these programs. We provide summary information from 5 cities in New York documenting crow management techniques, intensity of effort, number of interventions required to relocate crow populations, and key lessons learned regarding science-based project documentation, project transparency, communication, and the need for long-term adaptive management strategies to meet project goals

Evidence for high-frequency oxygenation of Ediacaran shelf seafloor during early evolution of complex life

Increasing oxygenation of the early Ediacaran Ocean is thought to have been responsible for the emergence of early animals. Although geochemical studies have suggested periods of oceanic oxygenation in the Ediacaran, direct evidence for seafloor oxygenation has been lacking. Here, we report frequent occurrences of distinctive, sub-millimetric, and early diagenetic pyrite-marcasite rosettes in phosphorites from the lower Ediacaran Doushantuo Formation (Weng’an, South China). They typically consist of a nucleus of framboidal pyrite, a cortex of radiating marcasite blades intergrown with quartz, and a rim of second-generation pyrite, recording partial oxidative dissolution of pyrite and co-precipitation of marcasite and quartz. This inference is further supported by near-zero carbon isotope values of the host dolostone, similarly low sulfur isotope values for pyrite and marcasite, and evident Fe-isotope fractionation between marcasite and pyrite. Collectively, our findings reveal intermittent bottom-water and porewater oxygenation events, providing direct evidence of high-frequency oxygenation of Ediacaran continental shelves