Major eGovernment Projects in Health, Education and Transport in Victoria

This paper suggests that an understanding of eGovernment systems can be gained by examining them from the viewpoint of project management principles. The method adopted was to conduct a thematic analysis of documents describing six systems in the Australian state of Victoria. These projects were in Health, Education and Transport. Three were seen to be successful while three were not. The framework for the analysis was generated from a comparison of the general literature of project failure and the principles of two commonly used project management standards: PMBoK and PRINCE2. The comparison of successful and failed eGovernment projects within the same governmental departments enables conclusions to be drawn about the importance of stakeholder involvement and other project management principles

How Irish design consultancies align with Ireland’s Innovation 2020 priorities: a preliminary study

peer-reviewedThe Government of Ireland has positioned design as integral to the innovation landscape. In particular, it encourages innovations from designers that align with six thematic areas identified in the Innovation 2020 report. Those areas are health & medical, information & technology communications (ITC), food, energy, manufacturing & materials and service & business processes. However, research is yet to show the current contribution of design consultancies and their project outcomes categorised within these six priority thematic areas. This paper presents empirical findings on a review of 571 projects advertised on the websites of 26 design consultancies in Ireland. It shows that just under half of the reviewed design projects fall within the thematic project areas. Furthermore, this paper shows the differences between three design disciplines (product design, user-experience design and branding design) and their contribution of projects to each thematic area. The results of this empirical study are relevant and of use to design practitioners, clients and policy makers. For designers, this research identifies opportunities for new business and innovation within the Government of Ireland key thematic areas. For design clients, this research offers opportunities to seek input from relevant design disciplines according to the thematic alignment of their project. For policy makers, this research offers context of the six key thematic areas within the design disciplines in Ireland. Lastly, the results of this research suggest that across the disciplines of product, user-experience and branding design, preferred priority themes are evident

Leaf and whole tree adaptations to mild salinity in field grown Populus euphratica

Populus euphratica Oliv. is a highly salt tolerant tree species, and this study represents the first comprehensive investigation of salt tolerance mechanisms of mature trees of P. euphratica in the field. We measured NaCl concentration in xylem sap, NaCl accumulation in leaves, the effect of NaCl on leaf physiological parameters and osmotic adjustment and the allocation and distribution of NaCl between different plant organs on a whole plant level in trees exposed to mild saline groundwater (around 30 mM) in China. Populus euphratica showed three key mechanisms of salt tolerance. The primary mechanism had a strong control over Na+ and Cl- uptake with effective exclusion mechanisms for Cl- with up to 99% of the external NaCl being excluded from the xylem. Secondly, the trees allocated large proportions of NaCl into the leaves, which served as a salt elimination mechanism as the leaves are ultimately shed at the end of the growing season. Thirdly, the trees tolerated high foliar Na+ concentrations through a combination of osmotic adjustment using sucrose and probable sequestering of Na+ in the apoplast. Our results indicate that the control of Na+ and Cl- uptake and the regulation of Na+ and Cl- delivery to the shoot are key to salt tolerance of P. euphratica in the field with tolerance of high Na+ concentrations in leaves being a critical component