Sound of Music

Program for the Broadway Tour production of Sound of Music at the Bicknell Family Center for the Artshttps://digitalcommons.pittstate.edu/broadway/1003/thumbnail.jp

Fiddler on the Roof

Program for the Broadway Tour production of Fiddle on the Roof at the Bicknell Family Center for the Artshttps://digitalcommons.pittstate.edu/broadway/1002/thumbnail.jp

DSO Innovation - Mapping to Identify Distribution System Operation Gaps

All of the UK electricity network operators are working collaboratively to incorporate the learnings from previous and underway innovation activities and understand future innovation needs. The objective of this project was to identify Distribution System Operation (DSO) innovation opportunities that need to be developed further to meet the requirements for the future energy sector’s smart grid plans. The findings from this project will inform industry stakeholders on key areas that need to be targeted in future innovation activities. This project was commissioned by the Energy Networks Association (ENA) as part of the Open Networks project, Product 5 Workstream 3, and ran from June 2019 to November 2019

Partnering for the Future: A Case Study in Building Long Term Academic Industry Relationships

A proactive approach to engagement with industry is increasingly forming an integral part of Higher Education Institute (HEI) strategy. At the heart of this engagement focus is the recognition of the need to transition from shorter term transactional relationships to longer term interactive relationships (Jeffrey, 2009) Recognising this need, Technological University Dublin (DIT), one of the largest Higher Education Institutes in Ireland and a pioneer in technological education, sought to create a framework which could foster ongoing dialogue between industry and Institute thereby creating an informed, trusting and supportive environment within which mutually beneficial interaction could be progressed. Accordingly, in 2010, DIT established a Corporate Partnership Network to provide a structure to support the development of academic industry relationships through a better understanding of each other’s environments. By creating an informal yet structured approach, the Network is designed to facilitate the establishment and fostering of long term industry partnerships and to assist industry achieve their organisational objectives in collaboration with DIT. This practitioner case study will document the growth of a relationship between DIT and Bord Gais Networks, a state owned utility company which develops, operates and maintains the natural gas transmission and distribution networks in Ireland. It will highlight the development and role of the DIT’s Corporate Partnership Network in supporting the relationship and its role as a catalyst in generating a variety of interactions including third party accreditation of the company’s training centre, guest presentations, memoranda of understanding, research scholarship sponsorship, and joint programme development. It will also describe organisational approaches at divisional level which support the relationship development

Special report: silent disasters.

Disasters occur not only in war and conflict or after natural events, such as earthquakes or floods. In fact, the death of hundreds of thousands of children in Niger every year, often for treatable conditions, could just as well qualify as a disaster situation. A lack of funding for health care and health-care staff and user fee policies for health care in very poor or unstable settings challenge international agreements that make statements about the right to health and access to health care for all people. This paper argues that although sustainable development is important, today many are without essential health care and die in the silent disasters of hunger and poverty. In other words, the development of health care appears to be stalled for the sake of sustainability

Using Public Health PBRN Research to Inform Policy & Practice

The Public Health Practice-Based Research Networks Program is a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that supports research networks dedicated to producing new scientific knowledge on how best to organize, finance, and deliver public health strategies in realworld practice settings. This body of scientific inquiry, known as Public Health Services and Systems Research (PHSSR), is a rapidly developing area of scholarship within the larger fields of public health research and health services research. A public health practice-based research network (PBRN) brings multiple public health organizations into collaboration with an academic research center for the purposes of designing and implementing PHSSR studies in real-world practice settings. Participating public health professionals and researchers collaborate to identify pressing research questions of interest, design rigorous and relevant studies, execute research effectively and efficiently, and translate findings rapidly into practice

Constrained dynamic control of traffic junctions

Excessive traffic in our urban environments has detrimental effects on our health, economy and standard of living. To mitigate this problem, an adaptive traffic lights signalling scheme is developed and tested in this paper. This scheme is based on a state space representation of traffic dynamics, controlled via a dynamic programme. To minimise implementation costs, only one loop detector is assumed at each link. The comparative advantages of the proposed system over optimal fixed time control are highlighted through an example. Results will demonstrate the flexibility of the system when applied to different junctions. Monte Carlo runs of the developed scheme highlight the consistency and repeatability of these results.peer-reviewe

National Longitudinal Survey of Public Health Systems: 2011-2012 Wave

Since 1998, researchers have followed a nationally representative cohort of U.S. communities to examine the types of public health activities performed within the community, the range of organizations contributing to each activity, and the perceived effectiveness of each activity in addressing community needs. This information, obtained through a validated survey of local public health officials, provides an in-depth view of the structure and function of local public health delivery systems and how these systems evolve over time. Originally conducted with support from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Longitudinal Survey of Public Health Systems (NLSPHS) was fielded for the first time in 1998, with a follow-up survey conducted in 2006 as part of a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded project to develop an evidence-based typology of local public health delivery systems. Each wave of the survey has been linked with data on local health departments collected from the prior year’s National Profile of Local Health Departments survey conducted by the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), allowing for an in-depth view of how local health departments relate to the multi-organizational delivery systems in which they operate. These data, linked with still other data sources on community demographic, health, and economic characteristics, have supported a wide array of studies regarding the organization, financing, and delivery of public health services and provided considerable insight into policy and administrative mechanisms for improving the practice of public health

Building a Sustainable Public Health PBRN: Tips for Securing Ongoing Research Funding

Diversify your network’s research funding base. The Public Health PBRN Program funding made available by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation provides start-up resources and initial research support for networks, but networks will require larger and more sustainable sources of funding for public health research as they progress. The most ample sources can be found in federal funding agencies that operate competitive extramural research programs, include CDC, NIH, AHRQ, HRSA, USDA, and NSF. Public health research funding is also available from state and foundation sources, and even corporate sources (e.g. Pfizer’s Public Health Research Fellowship Program). For sustainability, networks should look to diversify their sources of funding for research projects and avoid reliance on a single source for very long. The research and demonstration opportunities created by the federal Affordable Care Act, and the growing emphasis on translational and community-based research at NIH, provide particularly compelling funding opportunities for public health PBRNs