Evolution of a Project Based Organization, a Case study

Little research has been conducted on how project-based organizations navigate internal and external pressures to develop and improve project competences over time. Using a cases study approach, this paper examines the development and implementation of project based organization over a period of 30 years. Overall, the evolution of project management competencies in the organization broadly followed the prevailing approaches in improving organizational management practices uncovered in review of literature. The organization’s capability to adopt and implement project management frameworks improved over time as senior managers became more masterful at matching improvement actions into the organizational context. This research also presents how a systematic approach of project management maturity models for identifying and implementing project management practices and processes can increase the effectiveness and comprehensiveness of overall management practices. The study concludes with a series of recommendations in further improving project management practices and processes in project-based organizations

Effects of various additives to enhance growth performance, blood profiles, and reduce malodour emissions in growing pigs

Experiment 1 was a feeding trial in which 75 (Landrace ⅹ Yorkshire) ⅹ Duroc pigs with average initial bodyweight (BW) of 26 ± 1 kg were used. It was assigned to three pigs/pen and five pens/treatment. Experiment 2 was a metabolic trial in which 25 (LandraceⅹYorkshire)ⅹDuroc pigs with average initial bodyweight (BW) of 36 ± 1 kg were used. The basal diet consisted of maize (57.71 %), soybean meal (32.45 %), and wheat bran (5 %). Treatments consisted of i) CON (control diet); ii) OE (organic acid + essential oils) (Aviplus-S®), that is, CON + 0.05 % OE; iii) OC (organic charcoal) (Olga Black®), that is, CON + 0.1 % OC; iv) AE (anise extracts) (RESQ®), that is, CON + 0.015 % AE; and v) PB (probiotics) (Bonvital®), that is, CON + 0.1 % PB. Average daily gain (ADG) and gain/feed ratio (G : F) were significantly higher in the OE and AE groups than in the others. Average daily feed intake (ADFI) for OE, OC, and AE treatments was significantly higher than that for CON and PB treatments. Dry matter (DM) digestibility was significantly higher in AE than CON. Crude protein (CP) was significantly higher in OE, AE, and PB than CON. CON and other treatments did not cause significant differences in blood l-density lipoprotein (LDL), and glucose. NH3 emissions were significantly lower in all treated groups than in CON. Among the treatments, NH3 emissions were lowest in OE and AE. H2S emissions were significantly lower in OE, AE, and PB than in CON. Among the treatments, OE and AE were most effective at reducing H2S emissions. The emissions of volatile fatty acids (VFAs) showed no significant difference between treatments and CON. In conclusion, this experiment was shown to be more effective on growth performance, malodour emission, blood profiles, and nutrient digestibility in OE and AE than other additives.Keywords: Digestibility, feed, influence, odour, supplementation, swin

Plasma Components Affect Accuracy of Circulating Cancer-Related MicroRNA Quantitation

Circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) have emerged as candidate biomarkers of various diseases and conditions including malignancy and pregnancy. This approach requires sensitive and accurate quantitation of miRNA concentrations in body fluids. Herein we report that enzyme-based miRNA quantitation, which is currently the mainstream approach for identifying differences in miRNA abundance among samples, is skewed by endogenous serum factors that co-purify with miRNAs and anticoagulant agents used during collection. Of importance, different miRNAs were affected to varying extent among patient samples. By developing measures to overcome these interfering activities, we increased the accuracy, and improved the sensitivity of miRNA detection up to 30-fold. Overall, the present study outlines key factors that prevent accurate miRNA quantitation in body fluids and provides approaches that enable faithful quantitation of miRNA abundance in body fluids

SIR performance evaluation of MB-OFDM UWB system with residual timing offset

Signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) performance of a multiband orthogonal frequency division multiplexing ultra-wideband system with residual timing offset is investigated. To do so, an exact mathematical derivation of the SIR of this system is derived. It becomes obvious that, unlike a cyclic prefixing based system, a zero padding based system is sensitive to residual timing offset.This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant, funded by the Korean government (MSIP) no. 2010-0018116.Islam, SMR.; Ullah, S.; Lloret, J.; Ullah, N.; Kwak, KS. (2015). SIR performance evaluation of MB-OFDM UWB system with residual timing offset. Electronics Letters. 51(5):427-429. https://doi.org/10.1049/el.2014.3967S42742951

Risk profiles and one-year outcomes of patients with newly diagnosed atrial fibrillation in India: Insights from the GARFIELD-AF Registry.

BACKGROUND: The Global Anticoagulant Registry in the FIELD-Atrial Fibrillation (GARFIELD-AF) is an ongoing prospective noninterventional registry, which is providing important information on the baseline characteristics, treatment patterns, and 1-year outcomes in patients with newly diagnosed non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF). This report describes data from Indian patients recruited in this registry. METHODS AND RESULTS: A total of 52,014 patients with newly diagnosed AF were enrolled globally; of these, 1388 patients were recruited from 26 sites within India (2012-2016). In India, the mean age was 65.8 years at diagnosis of NVAF. Hypertension was the most prevalent risk factor for AF, present in 68.5% of patients from India and in 76.3% of patients globally (P < 0.001). Diabetes and coronary artery disease (CAD) were prevalent in 36.2% and 28.1% of patients as compared with global prevalence of 22.2% and 21.6%, respectively (P < 0.001 for both). Antiplatelet therapy was the most common antithrombotic treatment in India. With increasing stroke risk, however, patients were more likely to receive oral anticoagulant therapy [mainly vitamin K antagonist (VKA)], but average international normalized ratio (INR) was lower among Indian patients [median INR value 1.6 (interquartile range {IQR}: 1.3-2.3) versus 2.3 (IQR 1.8-2.8) (P < 0.001)]. Compared with other countries, patients from India had markedly higher rates of all-cause mortality [7.68 per 100 person-years (95% confidence interval 6.32-9.35) vs 4.34 (4.16-4.53), P < 0.0001], while rates of stroke/systemic embolism and major bleeding were lower after 1 year of follow-up. CONCLUSION: Compared to previously published registries from India, the GARFIELD-AF registry describes clinical profiles and outcomes in Indian patients with AF of a different etiology. The registry data show that compared to the rest of the world, Indian AF patients are younger in age and have more diabetes and CAD. Patients with a higher stroke risk are more likely to receive anticoagulation therapy with VKA but are underdosed compared with the global average in the GARFIELD-AF. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION-URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT01090362

Developing a city-level multi-project management information system for Chinese urbanization

10.1016/j.ijproman.2014.06.011International Journal of Project Management333510-52