Project Manager's Communicative Competence in Customer Interface. A Case Study in a Global Manufacturing Company.

The aim of this research is to increase understanding of communication as a success factor in project management, particularly in the customer interface of projects. This research has two objectives: First, to examine project manager’s communicative environment and communicative tasks to identify central issues that affect project success in the customer interface, and second, to investigate how a project manager can acknowledge those issues in his/her daily communication and therefore, enhance project success. The research was conducted as a qualitative case study. Empirical data was collected in the electrical machines business of a global manufacturing company, focusing on communication between the production unit project managers and local sales units project managers. The data collection was done in triangulation combining interviews, observations, and documentary data. Ten interviews, of which six were conducted with the production unit and four with the local sales units’ project management from Africa, America, Asia, and Europe, served as the main source of information. They were supported by observations in the production unit and by email conversations between the production unit and the sales unit project management. The theoretical framework consists of project management literature and business communication literature. The project management literature has been examined to get an understanding of the project environment and how success and communication are seen in the field. The business communication has been reviewed for two reasons: First, to get an understanding of the effects of the virtual global business environment to project communication, and second, to understand how a project manager can enhance project success by communication. This research offers a multifaceted image of project managers’ complex working environment and the constitutive role of communication in it. The literature and the empirical data suggest, that project managers are not only seeking task-oriented communication, which is connected to clear and precise information, but also relational communication, which allows them to control uncertainty: The success factors identified in the specific context of the case company’s customer interface of technical projects are clarity, technical knowledge, timely and sufficient information, and relationships. The success factors are analyzed through four communicative competences, technical, discourse, socio-linguistic, and strategic competence. Based on the analysis, it can be concluded, that a project manager can enhance project success and improve as a communicator by consciously using the communicative competences to acknowledge the success factors

Don Francisco Requena y Herrera: una figura clave en la Demarcación de los Límites Hispano-Lusos en la cuenca del Amazonas (s. XVIII)

Se resalta la figura del ingeniero y militar español Don Francisco Requena y Herrera, destacando su labor en la América Meridional, en donde construyó fortalezas y edificios oficiales, reformó urbanísticamente la ciudad de Guayaquil y tomó parte, como protagonista principal del lado español, en la 4.ª Partida de la Demarcación de Límites de la frontera hispano-lusa, en la cuenca del Amazonas. En su honor y con su nombre, fue fundado en el siglo XX, el pueblo de Requena del Tapiche, hoy capital de la provincia de Requena, en el departamento de Loreto, del Perú.The person of Francisco Requena y Herrera is projected as an engineer and as a warlike, emphasizing his labour in Southern America where he built several fortresses and official buildings; he improved the town-planning of Guayaquil village and he took part as a main character of the Spanish side in the 4th Demarcation’s Party of Hispano-Lusitan Border’s Limits in the Amazon Basin.In the name of Requena and in his honour, Requena del Tapiche was established, today the capital of the province of Requena in the Department of Loreto, Perú

Un curso lleno de buenas experiencias ESTALMAT – Cantabria

Desde el curso 2008 - 2009 se desarrolla en Cantabria el Proyecto ESTALMAT, EStimulo del TALento MATemático. En anteriores números del Boletín (9 a 11) se informó de los pasos dados para su puestaen marcha y de su primer año de andadura. Desde entonces, 90 estudiantes de Educación Secundaria han pasado ya por las aulas de la Facultad de Ciencias para participar en el Proyecto. En este número del Boletín presentamos las actividades realizadas en el curso 2013 - 2014. En estos seis años se ha ido consolidando el Proyecto y hemos sido partícipes del entusiasmo de los alumnos en el aprendizaje y disfrute de las matemáticas

Sequential use of a continuous-flow electrocoagulation reactor and a (photo)electro-Fenton recirculation system for the treatment of Acid Brown 14 diazo dye

The decolorization and TOC removal of solutions of Acid Brown 14 (AB14) diazo dye containing 50 mg L-1 of total organic carbon (TOC) have been first studied in a continuous-flow electrocoagulation (EC) reactor of 3 L capacity with Fe electrodes of ~110 cm2 area each. Total loss of color with poor TOC removal was found in chloride, sulfate, and/or hydrogen carbonate matrices after 18 min of this treatment. The best performance was found using 5 anodes and 4 cathodes of Fe at 13.70 A and low liquid flow rate of 10 L h-1, in aerated 39.6 mM NaCl medium within a pH range of 4.0–10.0. The effluent obtained from EC was further treated by electro-Fenton (EF) using a 2.5 L pre-pilot flow plant, which was equipped with a filter-press cell comprising a Pt anode and an air-diffusion cathode for H2O2 electrogeneration. Operating with 0.10–1.0 mM Fe2+ as catalyst at pH 3.0 and 50 mA cm-2, a similar TOC removal of 68 % was found as maximal in chloride and sulfate media using the sequential EC-EF process. The EC-treated solutions were also treated by photoelectro-Fenton (PEF) employing a photoreactor with a 125 W UVA lamp. The sequential EC-PEF process yielded a much higher TOC reduction, close to 90 % and 97 % in chloride and sulfate media, respectively, due to the rapid photolysis of the final Fe(III)-carboxylate complexes. The formation of recalcitrant chloroderivatives from generated active chlorine limited the mineralization in the chloride matrix. For practical applications of this two-step technology, the high energy consumption of the UVA lamp in PEF could be reduced by using free sunlight

Solar photoelectro-Fenton treatment of a mixture of parabens spiked into secondary treated wastewater effluent at low input current

Aqueous mixtures of methyl, ethyl and propyl paraben (MeP, EtP and PrP) prepared in real urban wastewater with low conductivity were treated by solar photoelectro-Fenton (SPEF) process at low input current (j = 10 mA cm-2) using a pre-pilot plant with an electrochemical reactor equipped with an air-diffusion cathode to electrogenerate H2O2 and a boron-doped diamond (BDD) or RuO2-based anode. Comparative trials in simulated water matrices with or without Cl− in the absence of natural organic matter (NOM) always led to a slower decay of parabens concentration and total organic carbon (TOC). This was mainly due to the superior regeneration of Fe2+ from photoreduction of Fe(III) complexes formed with NOM in real wastewater compared to that from Fe(OH)2+. In all matrices, a catalyst concentration as low as 0.20 mM Fe2+ was enough to ensure the production of ¿OH in the bulk from Fenton's reaction. SPEF with BDD yielded a complete removal of parabens in 180 min and 66% mineralization at 240 min. This gave rise to the greatest mineralization current efficiencies reported so far, up to 1000%, with a low energy consumption of 84 kWh (kg TOC)-1. The synergy between homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis, which allowed the efficient dosage of ¿OH and M(¿OH) at low j, with simultaneous action of high UV power from sunlight justified such a good performance. Analogous apparent rate constants were determined for MeP, EtP and PrP. Slower decays were found with RuO2-based anode due to its lower oxidation power. As a result, the MCE was 425% as maximum, but a lower energy consumption of 52 kWh (kg TOC)-1 was needed. Since the role of active chlorine was of minor importance, the formation of toxic, refractory chloroderivatives was minimized. All by-products were transformed into malic, formic and oxalic acids prior to total mineralization

Treatment of cheese whey wastewater by combined electrochemical processes

This study shows the good performance of a sequential electrochemical methodology, consisting in electrocoagulation (EC) followed by an electrochemical advanced oxidation process (EAOP), to treat raw cheese whey wastewater at laboratory and pre-pilot scales. In EC, different electrode materials like Fe, Al and stainless steel (AISI 304 and ASI 316L) were tested. Among EAOPs, photoelectro-Fenton (PEF) and electrochemical oxidation (EO) with active anodes like Pt or DSA and non-active ones like boron-doped diamond (BDD) were studied. At both scales, the optimum anode/cathode combination in EC was Fe/AISI 304, which yielded the highest total organic carbon (TOC) removal of 22.0%-27.0%. This is due to various effects on organic compounds: (i) coagulation promoted by Fe(OH)3 flocs, (ii) cathodic reduction, and (iii) oxidation with generated active chlorine. At small scale, the resulting wastewater was further treated by PEF at pH 3.0. The highest TOC removal was achieved using the BDD, owing to the great oxidation power of hydroxyl radicals. In contrast, total nitrogen was abated much more rapidly with active anodes because of the attack of active chlorine on N-compounds. At pre-pilot scale, the post-treatment of conditioned wastewater made by EO with a BDD/Pt flow cell combined with UVA irradiation yielded the highest TOC removal, i.e., 49.1%. The high energy consumed by the UVA lamp would be a drawback at industrial scale, which could be overcome by using sunlight