Leading change in information management

Introducing and leading change in any field is a difficult and complex task with no mapped path or certain route that guarantees success. Working in a public and administrative institution rarely offers opportunities for introducing and leading creative and innovative changes. However, my work on various information management tasks gave me a chance to lead change in a number of international organizations for which I worked, discovering new or improved information solutions, products and services. In retrospect, leading change in information management was a sine qua non of my long career and is a major focus of this Context Statement. This Context Statement offers a review of my own public works and achievements during my long professional career in information management. It concentrates on four public works, describing them in chronological order. It defines main influencers, theories, concepts and people that made the greatest impact on my career; evaluates the work performed, the technology used, the results achieved, and the lessons learned. The Context Statement also offers a thematic review of my public works, putting them in the perspective of the dramatically changed world of information management, the global impact of information, the democratisation of scientific and technical information, and the information ethics. The Context Statement concludes that, if we - the information managers - do not lead change and instigate constant innovation and modernization of our field, we will become museum custodians, instead of a leading avant-garde in today’s knowledge economy and the information world in which we live

Somatic cell counts in bulk milk and their importance for milk processing

Bulk tank milk somatic cell counts are the indicator of the mammary gland health in the dairy herds and may be regarded as an indirect measure of milk quality. Elevated somatic cell counts are correlated with changes in milk composition The aim of this study was to assess the somatic cell counts that significantly affect the quality of milk and dairy products. We examined the somatic cell counts in bulk tank milk samples from 38 farms during the period of 6 months, from December to the May of the next year. The flow cytometry, Fossomatic was used for determination of somatic cell counts. In the same samples content of total proteins and lactose was determined by Milcoscan. Our results showed that average values for bulk tank milk samples were 273,605/ml from morning milking and 292,895/ml from evening milking. The average values for total proteins content from morning and evening milking are 3,31 and 3,34%, respectively. The average values for lactose content from morning and evening milking are 4,56 and 4,63%, respectively. The highest somatic cell count (516,000/ml) was detected in bulk tank milk sample from evening milk in the Winter and the lowest content of lactose was 4,46%. Our results showed that obtained values for bulk tank milk somatic cell counts did not significantly affected the content of total proteins and lactose

Design and Performance of District Metering Areas in Water Distribution Systems

AbstractIn large urban areas, a number of different District Metered Areas (DMAs) layouts are possible and the comparison of possible solutions is an essential part of the decision process. Therefore, when designing DMAs in a water distribution network, practitioners have firstly to evaluate the effects caused by the introduction of the districts in the system, and secondly to compare the different alternatives to determine which one is the best to adopt. In this paper a real water distribution network is considered as a case study, various possible DMAs layouts that differ in the number and the size of the districts are developed applying an automated method and an analysis of their performances is shown

Predicting phase transition pressure in solids: a semiclassical possibility

This is a short review of the physical ideas,algorithm for calculations and some results of a semiclassical theory of the behaviour of materials under high pressure,proposed by P.Savic and R.Kasanin.The theory has found applications from DAC experiments to studies of planetary interior structure.Comment: PDF file,no figure

A multicriteria approach for a phased design of water distribution networks

Published13th Computer Control for Water Industry Conference, CCWI 2015Water distribution networks are key infrastructure that provide essential water supply to communities. Planning water distribution networks involves many actors, including water companies, governments, environmentalists, consumers and financing institutions, and they tend to have conflicting perspectives. This work proposes a multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) as a useful tool for providing decision support in such circumstances. A phased planning horizon scheme is proposed that identifies the design for the first time interval while considering possible future conditions that the network might have to cope with. The results identify the best ranked phased design solutions.This paper is based on research conducted under the DESAFIO project (www.desafioglobal.org). DESAFIO is funded by the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Union for research, technological development and demonstration under grant agreement no. 320303. The information contained in this work reflects only the opinion of the authors and the European Union is not responsible for the use which may be made of the information contained therein

Detecting anomalies in water distribution networks using EPR modelling paradigm

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from IWA Publishing via the DOI in this record.Sustainable management of water distribution networks (WDNs) requires effective exploitation of available data from pressure/flow devices. Water companies collect a large amount of such data, which need to be managed correctly and analysed effectively using appropriate techniques. Furthermore, water companies need to balance the data gathering and handling costs with the benefits of extracting useful information. Recent approaches implementing data mining techniques for analysing pressure/flow data appear very promising, because they can automate mundane tasks involved in data analysis process and efficiently deal with sensor data collected. Furthermore, they rely on empirical observations of a WDN behaviour over time, allowing reproducing/predicting possible future behaviour of the network. This paper investigates the effectiveness of the evolutionary polynomial regression (EPR) paradigm to reproduce the behaviour of a WDN using online data recorded by low-cost pressure/flow devices. Using data from a real district metered area, the case study presented shows that by using the EPR paradigm a model can be built which enables the accurate reproduction and prediction of the WDN behaviour over time and detection of flow anomalies due to possible unreported bursts or unknown increase of water withdrawal. Such an EPR model might be integrated into an early warning system to raise alarms when anomalies are detected.The research reported in this paper was founded by two projects of the Italian Scientific Research Program of National Interest PRIN-2012: ‘Analysis tools for management of water losses in urban aqueducts’ and ‘Tools and procedures for advanced and sustainable management of water distribution networks’

Water-Food-Energy Nexus in the Nile River Basin

This is the final version of the poster. Available from the Dresden Nexus Conference via the link in this recordThe Nile - a transboundary river • 11 riparian countries and home for about 250 million people • Rapid population, economic and urbanization growth are projected • Basin-wide planned development can result in regional cooperation or trigger conflicts • The nexus approach is relevant for addressing broader interdependency and managing interlinked resources in a holistic manne

Water network design using a multiobjective real options framework

This is the final version of the article. Available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.Water distribution networks (WDNs) are an essential element of urban infrastructure. To achieve a good level of performance, the traditional design of WDNs based on expected future conditions should be replaced by a flexible design, using real options (ROs), that accounts for uncertainty by taking a broader view of possible future options. This work proposes a multiobjective ROs framework that sets out to reduce costs, minimize hydraulic pressure deficiency, and a third objective for minimizing carbon emissions. A multiobjective simulated annealing algorithm is used to identify the Pareto-optimal solutions, thus enabling a tradeoff analysis between solutions. These trade-offs show that a low pressure deficit solution is achieved by increasing investment at a much faster rate after a certain pressure deficit threshold (60 m). Also, the pressure deficits can only be reduced by increasing carbon emissions. Finally, this work also emphasizes the importance of including carbon emissions as a specific objective by comparing the results of the proposed model and another one that did not cover the environmental objective. The results show that it is possible to reduce CO2 for the same level of capital expenditure or the same level of network pressure deficits if carbon emissions are minimized in the optimization process.This study had the support of Fundac¸ao para a Ci ˜ encia e ˆ Tecnologia (FCT), through the Strategic Project UID/MAR/ 04292/2013 granted to MARE