Business Processes Management in the Netherlands and Portugal: The Effect of BPM Maturity on BPM Performance

In the last decade, business process management (BPM) has become essential for corporations to maintain their control over business processes. Therefore it is highly important for companies to know which factors influence business process performance. Consequently, this study focuses on the relationship between BPM maturity and BPM performance. The paper aims to determine (1) whether BPM maturity has a significant effect on BPM performance and (2) whether there is a significant difference between a country that is in a relatively more mature stadium with regard to BPM practices and one that is still going through an adapting phase. In this case we compared the Netherlands and Portugal, in which Portugal reflects the country that is going through an adoption phase. A total of 138 Dutch and 58 Portuguese companies responded to an online survey about BPM practices. For this research, 29 Dutch and 12 Portuguese commercial companies with at least 1,000 employees were taken into account. Statistical empirical research shows that BPM maturity has a significant positive effect on BPM performance. It also shows that although the effect is positive in both countries there is a significant difference between the Netherlands and Portugal. The effect of BPM maturity on BPM performance is higher in Portugal than in the Netherlands. The research concludes that large commercial companies in both countries can attain a better BPM performance by raising their BPM maturity

Swine Marketing in South Dakota: Results of a Producer Survey

South Dakota is one of the top 10 hog production states with about 3 m111ion hogs and pigs marketed and 3.2 million hogs slaughtered in the state each year. This totals 3-4 percent of the nation\u27s hog supply. With ample supplies of available land, labor, and feed grain there is considerable potential for further growth of the South Dakota pork industry if the expansion can be based on profitable production and marketing prospects for producers. In 1980, a pork marketing study was initiated by SDSU to obtain current infonnation on: 1) Organization of hog production and marketing in South Dakota, · 2) The relative importance of specific marketing methods and market channels used by South Dakota pork producers, 3) Market movements and transportation of hogs and pigs in South Dakota. 4} South Dakota pork producers, use of cash markets, forward contracts and futures markets and reasons for using or not using each method. 5} South Dakota pork producers assessments of major factors limiting expansion of hog production on their own farm and in their local area. The major source of data is a marketing survey completed by 587 South Dakota hog and pig producers. This study was aided by the South Dakota Pork Producers Council which printed and included the survey in a March, 1980 newsletter to hog and pig producers

The environmental benefits and challenges of a composite car with structural battery materials

One way to reduce the environmental impact of an electric vehicle is to reduce the vehicle’s mass. This can be done by substitution of conventional materials such as steel, aluminium, and plastics with carbon fibre composites, or possibly even with structural battery composite materials. In the latter case, another consequence is that the size of the vehicle battery is reduced as the structural battery composite not only provides structural integrity, but also stores energy. This study assesses the change in life cycle environmental impacts related to transitioning from a conventional battery electric vehicle to a vehicle with components made from either carbon fibre composites or structural battery composites, with the aim of identifying environmental challenges and opportunities for cars with a high share of composite materials. Results show that a transition to carbon fibre composites and structural battery composite materials today would (in most cases) increase the total environmental impact due to the energy intensive materials production processes. The two major contributors to the environmental impacts for the structural battery composite materials are energy intensive structural battery material manufacturing process and carbon fibre production process, both of which can be expected to decrease their energy consumption as the technology maturity level increases and other production and manufacturing processes are developed. For future assessments, more effort needs to be put on collecting primary data for large-scale structural battery composites production and on assessing different technology development routes

Chronic exposure to simulated space conditions predominantly affects cytoskeleton remodeling and oxidative stress response in mouse fetal fibroblasts

Microgravity and cosmic rays as found in space are difficult to recreate on earth. However, ground-based models exist to simulate space flight experiments. In the present study, an experimental model was utilized to monitor gene expression changes in fetal skin fibroblasts of murine origin. Cells were continuously subjected for 65 h to a low dose. (55 mSv) of ionizing radiation (IR), comprising a mixture of high-linear energy transfer (LET) neutrons and low-LET gamma-rays, and/or simulated microgravity using the random positioning machine (RPM), after which microarrays were performed. The data were analyzed both by gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) and single gene analysis (SGA). Simulated microgravity affected fetal murine fibroblasts by inducing oxidative stress responsive genes. Three of these genes are targets of the nuclear factor-erythroid 2 p45-related factor 2 (Nrf2), which may play a role in the cell response to simulated microgravity. In addition, simulated gravity decreased the expression of genes involved in cytoskeleton remodeling, which may have been caused by the downregulation of the serum response factor (SRF), possibly through the Rho signaling pathway. Similarly, chronic exposure to low-dose IR caused the downregulation of genes involved in cytoskeleton remodeling, as well as in cell cycle regulation and DNA damage response pathways. Many of the genes or gene sets that were altered in the individual treatments (RPM or IR) were not altered in the combined treatment (RPM and IR), indicating a complex interaction between RPM and IR

Systematic review of the relationship between 20m shuttle run performance and health indicators among children and youth

Objective This systematic review aimed to summarize research that assessed the associations between 20 m shuttle run test (20mSRT) performance and indicators of physiological, psychosocial and cognitive health among school-aged children and youth. Design Systematic review. Methods Five online databases were used to identify peer-reviewed studies published from 1980 to 2016. Studies were included if they matched these criteria: population (children and youth with a mean age of 5–17 years and/or in Grades 1–12), intervention/exposure (performance on the 20mSRT), and outcomes (health indicators: adiposity, cardiometabolic biomarkers, cognition, mental health, psychosocial health, self-esteem and physical self-perception, quality of life and wellbeing, bone health, musculoskeletal fitness, motor skill development, and injuries and/or harm). Narrative syntheses were applied to describe the results. A lack of homogeneity precluded a meta-analysis approach. Results Overall, 142 studies that determined an association between 20mSRT performance and a health indicator were identified, representing 319,311 children and youth from 32 countries. 20mSRT performance was favourably associated with indicators of adiposity, and some indicators of cardiometabolic, cognitive, and psychosocial health in boys and girls. Fewer studies examined the relationship between 20mSRT performance and measures of quality of life/wellbeing, mental health and motor skill development, and associations were generally inconsistent. The quality of the evidence ranged from very low to moderate across health indicators. Conclusion and Implications These findings support the use of the 20mSRT as a holistic indicator of population health in children and youth

Modulation of gene expression in endothelial cells in response to high LET nickel ion irradiation

Ionizing radiation can elicit harmful effects on the cardiovascular system at high doses. Endothelial cells are critical targets in radiation-induced cardiovascular damage. Astronauts performing a long-term deep space mission are exposed to consistently higher fluences of ionizing radiation that may accumulate to reach high effective doses. In addition, cosmic radiation contains high linear energy transfer (LET) radiation that is known to produce high values of relative biological effectiveness (RBE). The aim of this study was to broaden the understanding of the molecular response to high LET radiation by investigating the changes in gene expression in endothelial cells. For this purpose, a human endothelial cell line (EA.hy926) was irradiated with accelerated nickel ions (Ni) (LET, 183 keV/mu m) at doses of 0.5, 2 and 5 Gy. DNA damage was measured 2 and 24 h following irradiation by gamma-H2AX foci detection by fluorescence microscopy and gene expression changes were measured by microarrays at 8 and 24 h following irradiation. We found that exposure to accelerated nickel particles induced a persistent DNA damage response up to 24 h after treatment. This was accompanied by a downregulation in the expression of a multitude of genes involved in the regulation of the cell cycle and an upregulation in the expression of genes involved in cell cycle checkpoints. In addition, genes involved in DNA damage response, oxidative stress, apoptosis and cell-cell signaling (cytokines) were found to be upregulated. An in silico analysis of the involved genes suggested that the transcription factors, E2F and nuclear factor (NF)-kappa B, may be involved in these cellular responses

The three species monomer-monomer model in the reaction-controlled limit

We study the one dimensional three species monomer-monomer reaction model in the reaction controlled limit using mean-field theory and dynamic Monte Carlo simulations. The phase diagram consists of a reactive steady state bordered by three equivalent adsorbing phases where the surface is saturated with one monomer species. The transitions from the reactive phase are all continuous, while the transitions between adsorbing phases are first-order. Bicritical points occur where the reactive phase simultaneously meets two adsorbing phases. The transitions from the reactive to an adsorbing phase show directed percolation critical behaviour, while the universal behaviour at the bicritical points is in the even branching annihilating random walk class. The results are contrasted and compared to previous results for the adsorption-controlled limit of the same model.Comment: 12 pages using RevTeX, plus 4 postscript figures. Uses psfig.sty. accepted to Journal of Physics

Regional Climate Trends and Scenarios for the U.S. National Climate Assessment Part 4. Climate of the U.S. Great Plains

This document is one of series of regional climate descriptions designed to provide input that can be used in the development of the National Climate Assessment (NCA). As part of a sustained assessment approach, it is intended that these documents will be updated as new and well-vetted model results are available and as new climate scenario needs become clear. It is also hoped that these documents (and associated data and resources) are of direct benefit to decision makers and communities seeking to use this information in developing adaptation plans. There are nine reports in this series, one each for eight regions defined by the NCA, and one for the contiguous U.S. The eight NCA regions are the Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, Great Plains, Northwest, Southwest, Alaska, and Hawai‘i/Pacific Islands. These documents include a description of the observed historical climate conditions for each region and a set of climate scenarios as plausible futures – these components are described in more detail below. While the datasets and simulations in these regional climate documents are not, by themselves, new, (they have been previously published in various sources), these documents represent a more complete and targeted synthesis of historical and plausible future climate conditions around the specific regions of the NCA. There are two components of these descriptions. One component is a description of the historical climate conditions in the region. The other component is a description of the climate conditions associated with two future pathways of greenhouse gas emissions