CASE STUDY -- LEAN 94-01: Integrators, not Generalists Needed: A Case Study of IPD Teams at Textron Defense Systems

The following case study examines an organization that essentially eliminated traditional functional groups and assigned all employees to cross-functional product or process teams. Although the organizational and cultural change occurred throughout the enterprise, this case will focus primarily on the structure of teams and the management of skills and capabilities within the integrated product development (IPD) core process. In the IPD area, multi-disciplinary teams were established with the expectation that individuals would both retain their own area of expertise and broaden their understanding of the functional expertise of their fellow team members. In essence, team members were expected to become “integrators,” as opposed to “generalists.” Although a major cultural change has occurred over a two-year time period, the change to date is considered as only the first step in an evolutionary process. The transition of this organization from a traditional matrix with strong functional hierarchies to a team-based structure highlights a number of human resource implications, including team selection, performance evaluation and rewards, and career paths. The study will conclude with a summary of lessons learned and the applicability of such an organization to the defense aircraft industry

Feedback to Support Learning in the Leadership Institute for Teachers

Feedback is a type of formative assessment used to inform instruction and advance learning. Feedback serves as a mechanism to connect teaching and learning at the student level. Learners receive feedback, formally or informally, as they engage in learning experiences. Within the Leadership Institute for Teachers, a National Science Foundation funded research project, we are exploring feedback as a research‐informed process to support learning and improvement for individuals, teams, and university courses. There is an explicit focus on creating a culture of critical thinking and reasoning, taking ownership for learning both individually and collectively, and understanding how to improve teaching and scholarship through an iterative feedback process

Sediment source fingerprinting as an aid to large-scale landscape conservation and restoration: A review for the Mississippi River Basin

Reliable quantitative information on sediment sources to rivers is critical to mitigate contamination and target conservation and restoration actions. However, for large-scale river basins, determination of the relative importance of sediment sources is complicated by spatiotemporal variability in erosional processes and sediment sources, heterogeneity in sediment transport and deposition, and a paucity of sediment monitoring data. Sediment source fingerprinting is an increasingly adopted field-based technique that identifies the nature and relative source contribution of sediment transported in waterways. Notably, sediment source fingerprinting provides information that is independent of other field, modeling, or remotely sensed techniques. However, the diversity in sampling, analytical, and interpretive methods for sediment fingerprinting has been recognized as a problem in terms of developing standardized procedures for its application at the scale of large river basins. Accordingly, this review focuses on sediment source fingerprinting studies conducted within the Mississippi River Basin (MRB), summarizes unique information provided by sediment source fingerprinting that is distinct from traditional monitoring techniques, evaluates consistency and reliability of methodological approaches among MRB studies, and provides prospects for the use of sediment source fingerprinting as an aid to large-scale landscape conservation and restoration under current management frameworks. Most MRB studies reported credible fingerprinting results and found near-channel sources to be the dominant sediment sources in most cases, and yet a lack of standardization in procedural steps makes results difficult to compare. Findings from MRB studies demonstrated that sediment source fingerprinting is a highly valuable and reliable sediment source assessment approach to assist land and water resource management under current management frameworks, but efforts are needed to make this technique applicable in large-scale landscape conservation and restoration efforts. We summarize research needs and discuss sediment fingerprinting use for basin-scale management efforts with the aim of encouraging that this technique is robust and reliable as it moves forward

Projecting Family Support Needed to Assist Older Canadian Living in the Community, 2006-2031

Canadian policy makers are increasingly interested in planning for the inevitable increase in home care services that will be fuelled by population aging and community care policy. Our goal is to advance understanding of the patterns and predictors of disability and support among the population aged 65+ and use this information to project future health human resources. Using the 2002 General Social Survey, logistic regressions estimated the probability of an individual with specific characteristics of having a specific level of disability and those with a long term health problems using one of three types of support networks (formal, informal, or mixed). These parameters were applied at five-year intervals in Statistics Canada LifePaths microsimulation model to project future demand. When looking at the population needing assistance, results from the micro-simulations show an increase from 630,000 to over 1.3 millions between 2006-2031. Results also show an increase in the proportion of elderly having to rely exclusively on the formal network (40% in 2006 to 44% in 2031. By applying the median amount of assistance per week by age and sex (GSS 2002) to the projected population who will receive assistance, the number of hours per week received is projected to double from 2006 to 2031. This trend is most pronounced among the 85+ in that the amount of assistance is projected to almost triple from 2006-2031. Despite recognition of the steady increase in demand for home care, Canada has made little headway in developing consensus on policy directions. A discussion of the policy implications of these findings will highlight the need for greater recognition, better working conditions and career paths for front-line home support workers who provide the majority of care among paid home care providers. Yann Décarie is a Ph.D student in Demography at L’Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS) under the supervision of Alain Bélanger. Yann received a degree in Statistics from the Université de Sherbrooke and an undergraduate degree in Actuarial Science from the Université de Montréal. Since 2006, Yann has been working with Professor Jacques Légaré and Professor Janice Keefe as a research assistant on a project related to the projection of disabled people and home care needs. Yann’s research interests are on ageing, projection methods, microsimulation and population health

Sediment Dynamics in the Bear River-Mud Lake-Bear Lake System

The overarching goal of this project was to compile and analyze a variety of existing datasets, and generate several new datasets, to advance our understanding of how the Bear River Mud Lake-Bear Lake system functions, how it has, or is expected to change, identify which components are degraded or vulnerable to degradation, and determine if/where critical data and/or knowledge gaps exist. We conducted a series of analyses to evaluate changes in hydrology and suspended sediment, collected sediment cores from nine locations in Mud Lake to evaluate how sedimentation rates, sediment sources and water quality have changed over time, and utilized historical air photos and satellite imagery to document changes in Bear Lake’s shoreline. Hydrologic analyses indicate that low, median and high flows have not changed systematically at the Inlet Canal in terms of their long-term averages, since the 1940s. However, all three flow metrics have increased in terms of variability and have experienced longer duration wet and dry periods over the past three decades. We note a paucity of long-term hydrologic datasets for the Bear River-Dingle Marsh-Bear Lake system and additional monitoring would greatly help ensure that we are able to monitor trends throughout the system more carefully. We compiled suspended sediment data from all available sources and concluded, similar to previous studies, that Mud Lake appears to serve as a sediment sink for sediment, but the sediment trapping efficiency appears to vary considerably within and among years. Similar to the flow data, we note an unfortunate paucity of suspended sediment data and strongly recommend more rigorous and continuous monitoring of sediment in all parts of the Bear River-Mud Lake-Bear Lake system. Existing data and monitoring programs are insufficient to identify trends over time. The nine sediment cores extracted from Mud Lake provide a longer-term perspective on sediment dynamics. Results demonstrate that Mud Lake has historically and continues to serve as a net sediment sink. Two of the six dated cores document continuous deposition over the past 120 years, while the other four cores show truncated profiles in the 1950s. Visual inspection of the cores, as well as analysis of organic, calcium carbonate and mineral fractions occurring in the cores demonstrate highly variable history of sediment sources and water quality conditions in Mud Lake. Analysis of diatom algae species provides more detailed information regarding water quality conditions, indicating that Mud Lake has changed from a planktonic glacial lake, to a cold water, low nutrient environment and has existed as a mesotrophic environment with moderate water quality over the past century. Given the detailed information that diatoms can provide regarding historical water quality, we suggest that a similar diatom study examining the past 150 years in Bear Lake’s history could be worthwhile. Elemental analysis of Mud Lake sediments indicate two significant shifts in sediment sources, one coincident with diversion of Bear River into Mud Lake approximately 100 years ago, and a recent shift, within the past 10 years as silver, mercury and rare earth elements have increased considerably. Analysis of Bear Lake’s shoreline from historical imagery shows considerable amount of deposition has occurred in most areas around the lake in the past several decades. The shoreline at low water levels has moved lakeward by 30 to 50 meters (100 to 160 feet) in several locations and as much as 500 m (1600 feet) in the northwest corner of the lake, near St. Charles Creek. Notably, the only location where we document shoreline erosion (i.e., the shoreline moving landward for a given water elevation) is along the eastern edge of the lake, near Porcupine Hollow, Peterson Hollow and Bear Lake State Park. Further, we document that approximately 10% of the beach area in the northwest corner of the lake near St. Charles Creek has transitioned to vegetation cover between 2003 and 2016

Eskasoni Cultural Journeys: A community-led approach to sustainable tourism development

Abstract Eskasoni First Nation is the largest Mi’kmaq-speaking community in the world. With a population of more than 4300, Eskasoni is one of the five Mi’kmaq communities located on Unama’ki (Cape Breton Island), Canada. The community has been engaged in tourism development for decades, with varying degrees of success, until a new approach was considered – that being the community-led product of Eskasoni Cultural Journeys (ECJ). Eskasoni Cultural Journeys started at a grassroots level with Elder buy-in and initial Elder training in tourism. Today Eskasoni Cultural Journeys offers boat tours on the Bras d’Or Lake and authentic interpretive programming along the trails of Goat Island. This research examined the development of Eskasoni Cultural Journeys, now a successful and award-winning program, which developed through a gradual community-led process and highlights an example of a community-led Aboriginal tourism project that has been successful in its development stages. Successes and challenges of the project related to four aspects of sustainability (social, cultural, economic and environmental) are outlined and recommendations offered for future development as well as considerations to ensure the project continues well in to the future

Prospectus, September 2, 2004

https://spark.parkland.edu/prospectus_2004/1017/thumbnail.jp

Evaluations of Candidate Materials for Advanced Space-Rated Vacuum Seals to Explore Space Environment Exposure Limits

For many materials used in space hardware, the environment in which they need to operate is harsher than the environment on earth. Exposure to vacuum conditions, atomic oxygen, and ultraviolet radiation can be detrimental, so testing of space hardware in simulated space environments is required. This is especially true for elastomeric components such as seals. NASA is developing advanced space-rated vacuum seals in support of future space exploration missions. These seals must exhibit extremely low leak rates to ensure that astronauts have sufficient breathable air during extended-duration missions. In some applications the seals are not mated during portions of the mission and are left uncovered and exposed to the conditions in space for prolonged periods of time prior to mating. Space-rated vacuum seals are often made of silicone because of the material's wide operating temperature range and ability to be molded or extruded into various shapes and cross sections. One approach being considered to achieve improved performance is to add titanium dioxide to the silicone material to make it more resistant to damage from ultraviolet radiation. In this study, seals made of the baseline material with and without 1.5 percent titanium dioxide additive (by weight) were exposed to atomic oxygen and increasing levels of ultraviolet radiation and then leak tested. Test results revealed that seals made of the new material could withstand longer exposures while still satisfying the leak rate requirement even under worst-case conditions of partial compression at the extremes of the anticipated operating temperature range

The Role of Liver Fibrosis Assessment in the Management of Patients with Chronic Hepatitis B Infection: Lessons Learned from a Single Centre Experience

Background & Aims. Assess the clinical utility of the Prati criteria and normal ALT (<40 IU/L) in a cohort of patients with chronic hepatitis B infection (CHB). Methods. Serology, radiology, and histology were obtained in 140 patients with CHB. Results. HBeAg+ group: 7 patients (7/56−12% HBeAg+ group) misclassified as “immunotolerant”, with HBV DNA > 6 log copies/ml and normal ALT, who in fact had moderate/severe fibrosis on liver biopsy. HBeAg− group: 10 patients with normal ALT and moderate/severe fibrosis on liver biopsy; 4 of these patients had >3 log copies/ml HBV DNA levels and 6 patients misclassified as “inactive carriers” with negative HBV DNA levels normal ALT and moderate/severe fibrosis (6/84−7% HBeAg− group). Two male HBeAg+ and three male HBeAg− patients with ALT between 20 and 30 IU/L and moderate/severe fibrosis on liver biopsy would have been further mischaracterised using the Prati criteria for normal ALT. Age and ethnic group were more important predictors of moderate/severe fibrosis in multivariate analysis. Conclusion. HBeAg status, age, ethnic origin with longitudinal assessment of LFTs and viral load should be studied in patients with “normal ALT” at the upper end of normal range (ALT 20–40 IU/L) to appropriately classify patients and identify patients for liver fibrosis assessment to inform treatment decisions

Elastomeric Seal Performance after Terrestrial Ultraviolet Radiation Exposure

Ultraviolet radiation was evaluated to determine its negative effects on the performance of elastomeric gas pressure seals. The leak rates of the silicone elastomer S0383-70 O-ring test articles were used to quantify the degradation of the seals after exposure to vacuum-ultraviolet and/or middle-to-near-ultraviolet wavelength radiation. Three groups of seals were exposed in terrestrial facilities to 115-165 nm wavelength radiation, 230-500 nm wavelength radiation, or both spectrums, for an orbital spaceflight equivalent of 125 hours. The leak rates of the silicone elastomer S0383-70 seals were quantified and compared to samples that received no radiation. Each lot contained six samples and statistical t-tests were used to determine the separate and combined influences of exposure to the two wavelength ranges. A comparison of the mean leak rates of samples exposed to 115-165 nm wavelength radiation to the control specimens showed no difference, suggesting that spectrum was not damaging. The 230-500 nm wavelength appeared to be damaging, as the mean leak rates of the specimens exposed to that range of wavelengths, and those exposed to the combined 115-165 nm and 230-500 nm spectrums, were significantly different from the leak rates of the control specimens. Most importantly, the test articles exposed to both wavelength spectrums exhibited mean leak rates two orders of magnitude larger than any other exposed specimens, which suggested that both wavelength spectrums are important when simulating the orbital environment