Towards a methodology to help predict and reduce impact of projects on long-term costs, corporate strategy and existing IT infrastructure

University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Design, Architecture and BuildingThis thesis contributes to the body of project management and systems development knowledge, by investigating the success of a project beyond the standard criteria of project budget, objectives and timelines used to judge project performance. This research has been conducted as part of the UTS “Doctor of Project Management” course, which encourages extension of the theoretical study of project management to a commercial environment - by investigating problems related to practical applications of project management. This research attempts to highlight the unforeseen and unplanned impacts created by projects which are often neglected and excluded from project evaluation and strategic alignment. The goal of this study is to find ways to increase the overall benefits to organisations achieved through projects, while minimising unplanned and unforeseen negative impacts caused by projects. To identify long-term impacts caused by projects, a case study is conducted with a real example, focusing on a large, deemed to be successfully completed project within an Australian financial organisation. The case study explores the environment, processes and events throughout project cycle and identifies various factors that influence project flow and create unforeseen impacts outside the planned project actions and outcomes. The case study analysis showed that some crucial decisions made about the project would have been different if some of those unplanned impacts were discovered earlier, for example during the discovery stage of the project. The unplanned impacts resulting from this project were manifested through extended timeline, additional costs and numerous post-project systems interdependencies. Since the original decisions about the way in which the project was implemented were largely based on financial factors, these impacts would have been highly relevant to project planning and could have changed some important decisions crucial to the conduct of the project by the organisation. The case study is representative of how projects are managed in the case study organisation. The findings from the case study are further extended trough a mini-survey of 123 professionals, who confirmed that unplanned impacts created by projects are worth considering and managing. The survey respondents indicated that projects in their organisations were mainly concentrated on short-term, often isolated business needs and had little alignment with the overall strategy and coordination with other projects and initiatives. While organisations are aware of the problem and keen to improve management of unforeseen impacts and associated post-project costs, their efforts so far are largely informal. Both the case study and survey indicated the need for a formal way of managing the post-project impacts and alignment between projects and strategy within organisations. Based on the literature review, case study and survey results, the research arrived at a set of findings and suggestions. The suggestions are articulated through an organisational strategy alignment framework, covering four management areas: strategy and senior management, business management, systems development and project management. The main focus of the recommended actions is around effective management of vendor relationship, strategic alignment and unforeseen project impacts. The recommended actions are grouped around the management areas as follows: • Strategy and Senior Management Suggestions • Vendor management strategy directions • Strategy alignment directions • Roles and responsibilities • Business Management Suggestions • Business impact analysis approach • Project success evaluation • Effective communication • Systems Development Suggestions • Technical impact analysis approach • Solutions evaluation • Business and vendor communication • Project Management Suggestions • Project planning and impact analysis • Solution evaluation • Strategy alignment • Project success evaluation • Utilisation of past experiences • Effective communication The findings and resulting suggestions of this research contribute to: • Project management theory • Project management and systems development practice • Project management, strategic and IT management practice The main focus of this research is the identification of factors that cause unforeseen impact caused by projects on the IT environment and organisations. While the study provides a number of suggestions to improve the effective management of these factors, the detailed analysis of the recommended actions is not within the scope of this study and is suggested as an area for further research

Design and standalone characterisation of a capacitively coupled HV-CMOS sensor chip for the CLIC vertex detector

The concept of capacitive coupling between sensors and readout chips is under study for the vertex detector at the proposed high-energy CLIC electron positron collider. The CLICpix Capacitively Coupled Pixel Detector (C3PD) is an active High-Voltage CMOS sensor, designed to be capacitively coupled to the CLICpix2 readout chip. The chip is implemented in a commercial $180$ nm HV-CMOS process and contains a matrix of $128\times128$ square pixels with $25$ $\mu$m pitch. First prototypes have been produced with a standard resistivity of $\sim20$ $\Omega$cm for the substrate and tested in standalone mode. The results show a rise time of $\sim20$ ns, charge gain of $190$ mV/ke$^{-}$ and $\sim40$ e$^{-}$ RMS noise for a power consumption of $4.8$ $\mu$W/pixel. The main design aspects, as well as standalone measurement results, are presented.Comment: 13 pages, 13 figures, 2 tables. Work carried out in the framework of the CLICdp collaboratio

Novel Silicon n-in-p Pixel Sensors for the future ATLAS Upgrades

In view of the LHC upgrade phases towards HL-LHC the ATLAS experiment plans to upgrade the Inner Detector with an all silicon system. The n-in-p silicon technology is a promising candidate for the pixel upgrade thanks to its radiation hardness and cost effectiveness, that allow for enlarging the area instrumented with pixel detectors. We present the characterization and performance of novel n-in-p planar pixel sensors produced by CiS (Germany) connected by bump bonding to the ATLAS readout chip FE-I3. These results are obtained before and after irradiation up to a fluence of 10^16 1-MeV n_eq/cm^2, and prove the operability of this kind of sensors in the harsh radiation environment foreseen for the pixel system at HL-LHC. We also present an overview of the new pixel production, which is on-going at CiS for sensors compatible with the new ATLAS readout chip FE-I4.Comment: Preprint submitted to NIM-A Proceedings (Elba 2012

Side effects assessment in glicolyc acid peelings in patients with acne type I

Chemical peeling implies the application of a chemical agent to the skin, which causes controlled destruction of a part or the entire epidermis, with or without the dermis, leading to exfoliation and removal of superficial lesions, followed by regeneration of new epidermal and dermal tissues. The present study was directed toward safety concerns associated with superficial chemical peeling with glycolic acid (GA) in different concentrations at patients with acne tip I. A sample of 90 patients of either sex, aged between 17 to 21 years, were included in the study and submitted to superficial chemical peeling for acne vulgaris. The study lasted eight weeks and peeling sessions were carried out in each patient. Tolerance to the procedure and any undesirable effects noted during these sessions were recorded. For data statistical analysis and interpretation of results, software program SPSS version 13 was used. Results were expressed through the descriptive statistics, as simple frequencies and percentages, while for establishing of statistically significant differences, in use was Friedman's test of significance. Almost all the patients tolerated the procedure well. Of totally 90 patients, only six, at the end of therapy experienced hard erythema, only ten, at the end of therapy experienced hard desquamation and only eleven, at the end of therapy experienced hard sensation of pulling of facial skin. Chemical peeling with glycolic acid is a well tolerated and safe treatment modality in acne type I. © 2011 Association of Basic Medical Sciences of FBIH

Comparison of AlphaLISA and RIA assays for measurement of wool cortisol concentrations

Radioimmunoassay (RIA) methods have always represented a technique of choice for the determination of steroids in biological samples. The Amplified Luminescent Proximity Homogenous Assay-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (AlphaLISA) is now emerging as the new-generation immunoassay technology that does not require washing/separation steps. The aim of this study was to adapt the Perkin-Elmer's AlphaLISA kit for wool cortisol and compare it with a RIA wool cortisol assay. Wool from lambs, 35 at birth (A0) and 54 at two months old (A2), was collected and each extract was evaluated for wool cortisol concentrations (HCC) both by RIA and AlphaLISA immunoassay. The two methods showed good precision, sensitivity and specificity for determining HCC. Both methods were able to detect significant differences between the high and the low HCC assessed in lambs at A0 and A2 (P < 0.01). The HCC assessed with RIA were significantly higher than those assessed with AlphaLISA (P < 0.01). Moreover, the correlation between HCC measured using the AlphaLISA and RIA methods was strong (r = 0.878). The regression analyses show a constant and not proportional error. This could be due to the diversity in the dosage steps and to the diversity of the molecules used in the two methods. Results support the validity of using AlphaLISA as an alternative method to RIA for the quantification of cortisol in sheep wool and considering the performances showed it has a great potential to be further applied as an excellent tool to evaluate HCC in samples derived from animal species

Optical coherence tomography - a tool for high resolution non-invasive 3D-imaging of the subsurface structure of paintings

Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) is an imaging technique originally developed for high-resolution 3D imaging of the human eye. In 2004, Targowski et al. and Liang et al. first reported its application to paintings, demonstrating that it was possible to produce cross-section images noninvasively with this technique. In 2005 Liang et al. explored further applications such as imaging of underdrawing at a resolution and contrast greater than that achievable with infrared reflectography Since then the authors have been conducting a project to investigate systematically the potential of O C T as a new tool in the non-invasive examination of paintings and to design an O C T optimised for use in museums. This paper discusses recent developments in this work and presents examples of the use of O CT on paintings undergoing conservation treatment in the National Gallery, London

Intersubband electronic Raman scattering in narrow GaAs single quantum wells dominated by single-particle excitations

We measured resonant Raman scattering by intersubband electronic excitations in GaAs/AlAs single quantum wells (QWs) with well widths ranging from 8.5 to 18 nm. In narrow (less than 10 nm) QWs with sufficiently high electron concentrations, only single-particle excitations (SPEs) were observed in intersubband Raman scattering, which was confirmed by the well-width dependence of Raman spectra. We found characteristic variations in Raman shift and line shape for SPEs with incident photon energy in the narrow QWs.Comment: 5 pages including 4 figure

Postnatal and postweaning endocrine setting in dairy calves through hair cortisol, dehydroepiandrosterone and dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate

Importance of the work: The care of calves on dairy farms between birth and weaning can improve their long-term development and growth. In fact, a poor newborn health status and a high allostatic load may adversely affect development in dairy cows. To determine cortisol, dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate (DHEA-S) individually is useful for an understanding of the individual state, being biomarkers of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity. Objectives: As a preliminary study, to investigate the hair concentrations of cortisol, DHEA, DHEA-S and their ratios in dairy calves in two key periods of their growth characterized by considerable environmental changes. Materials & Methods: Hair sampling was conducted on clinically healthy dairy calves during the postnatal period at age 64.8±0.65 d (POP; mean±standard error; n = 73) and during the postweaning period at age 155.3±0.85 d (PWP, n = 62). The hair hormone concentrations were measured using a radioimmunoassay. Results: Hair cortisol concentrations were higher in the POP than in the PWP. Furthermore, the cortisol:DHEA and cortisol:DHEA-S ratios were higher in the first period of evaluation, showing a higher animal allostatic load at birth. Main finding: Identification was achieved non-invasively of calves with a high allostatic load through biomarkers of HPA axis activity. The evaluation of this activity is very important given its influence on many biological processes, such as energy balance, development of the reproductive system and immune response

Optical coherence tomography for art conservation and archaeology

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a fast scanning Michelson interferometer originally designed for in vivo imaging of the eye. In 2004, our group along with two other groups first reported the application of OCT to art conservation and archaeology. Since that time we have been conducting a project to investigate systematically the potential of OCT as a new tool for non-invasive examinations of a wide range of museum objects and to design an OCT optimised for in situ use in museums. Here we present the latest results from this ongoing project, which include the determination of the optimum spectral windows for OCT imaging of paintings and painted objects executed using traditional techniques, and non-invasive imaging of the subsurface stratigraphy of painted layers at multiple wavelengths. OCT imaging in assisting spectral pigment identification and in measuring refractive indices of paint will also be presented to illustrate the potential of the technique

Hair Cortisol and DHEA-S in Foals and Mares as a Retrospective Picture of Feto-Maternal Relationship under Physiological and Pathological Conditions

Equine fetal hair starts to grow at around 270 days of pregnancy, and hair collected at birth reflects hormones of the last third of pregnancy. The study aimed to evaluate cortisol (CORT) and dehydroepiandrosterone-sulfate (DHEA-S) concentrations and their ratio in the trichological matrix of foals and mares in relation to their clinical parameters; the clinical condition of the neonate (study 1); the housing place at parturition (study 2). In study 1, 107 mare-foal pairs were divided into healthy (group H; n = 56) and sick (group S; n = 51) foals, whereas in study 2, group H was divided into hospital (n = 30) and breeding farm (n = 26) parturition. Steroids from hair were measured using a solid-phase microtiter radioimmunoassay. In study 1, hair CORT concentrations measured in foals did not differ between groups and did not appear to be influenced by clinical parameters. A correlation between foal and mare hair CORT concentrations (p = 0.019; r = 0.312, group H; p = 0.006; r = 0.349, group S) and between CORT and DHEA-S concentrations in foals (p = 0.018; r = 0.282, group H; p &lt; 0.001; r = 0.44, group S) and mares (p = 0.006; r = 0.361, group H; p = 0.027; r = 0.271, group S) exists in both groups. Increased hair DHEA-S concentrations (p = 0.033) and decreased CORT/DHEA-S ratio (p &lt; 0.001) appear to be potential biomarkers of chronic stress in the final third of pregnancy, as well as a potential sign of resilience and allostatic load in sick foals, and deserve further attention in the evaluation of prenatal hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity in the equine species. In study 2, hormone concentrations in the hair of mares hospitalized for attended parturition did not differ from those that were foaled at the breeding farm. This result could be related to a too brief period of hospitalization to cause significant changes in steroid deposition in the mare’s hair