The Project Manager “Interfaces” in a Crisis Scenario

A crisis induces Project Managers to use, increasingly, a specific “language” that is born from the union of two dimensions, technical-operative modalities and the mindset. The goal is to properly react to the crisis, like a pandemic scenario will. This approach directly involves the usage of “triad” (Reaction-Execution-Results) and micro-goals concepts in order to maximize the effectiveness and efficiency of the Project Manager actions within time windows. Project management is one of most important discipline in a company, especially where the project is the soul of the business and the center of the employees’ dynamic. This paper focuses on the “interfaces” between project management and other company functions. It analyzes how the “language” could induce reaction behavior based on the time-constraints and micro-goal modus operandi and how the company dynamic could change its behavioral habits towards the same common company purpose: the success of projects

The Project Manager “Language” in a Crisis Scenario

A pandemic scenario may add time and space limits to the relationships that exist between people and businesses. It is reasonable to assume that multiple projects are conditioned by those limitations. As a result, they should follow the same constraints. Two fundamental views that project managers should focus on during the management of projects are the technical-operative modalities they use to advance the activities and their mindset to manage their dynamics. The union of these two dimensions can be regarded as the “language” of project managers. This paper focuses on analyzing the impacts of pandemics on these dimensions and the ways through which these conditions could change the “language” to properly react to this kind of crisis. As argued here, the variables of “triad” (Reaction-ExecutionResults) combined with an appropriate mindset and the usage of a micro-goal approach could be an effective reply to a pandemic

A Hybrid High-Order method for multiple-network poroelasticity

We develop Hybrid High-Order methods for multiple-network poroelasticity, modelling seepage through deformable fissured porous media. The proposed methods are designed to support general polygonal and polyhedral elements. This is a crucial feature in geological modelling, where the need for general elements arises, e.g., due to the presence of fracture and faults, to the onset of degenerate elements to account for compaction or erosion, or when nonconforming mesh adaptation is performed. We use as a starting point a mixed weak formulation where an additional total pressure variable is added, that ensures the fulfilment of a discrete inf-sup condition. A complete theoretical analysis is performed, and the theoretical results are demonstrated on a complete panel of numerical tests

Mobile Phones and Outdoor Advertising: Measurable Advertising

Television and newspapers sit at the top of many agency marketing plans, while outdoor advertising stays at the bottom. The reason for this is that it’s difficult to account for who views a billboard, so there is no way of consistently determining the effectiveness of outdoor advertising. As a result, agencies do not consider the medium and allocate their money elsewhere. To change this situation, one needs to create new credible audience measurements for the outdoor marketing industry. Here we propose a new way of performing audience measurements that combines mobile phone location estimations with information freely available on the Internet. We show that it is possible to estimate the number of people who drive or walk by a given area in Greater Boston from location estimations of a large fraction of mobile phone users in the region. We also infer the preferences for social events of the users by combing their location estimations with Internet listings of social events. This makes it possible to profile areas based on their residents’ interests and dynamically change displayed advertising based on those assessments.Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (Horizon project

Port-metriplectic neural networks: thermodynamics-informed machine learning of complex physical systems

We develop inductive biases for the machine learning of complex physical systems based on the port-Hamiltonian formalism. To satisfy by construction the principles of thermodynamics in the learned physics (conservation of energy, non-negative entropy production), we modify accordingly the port-Hamiltonian formalism so as to achieve a port-metriplectic one. We show that the constructed networks are able to learn the physics of complex systems by parts, thus alleviating the burden associated to the experimental characterization and posterior learning process of this kind of systems. Predictions can be done, however, at the scale of the complete system. Examples are shown on the performance of the proposed technique.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure

Effect of treatment with the antioxidant alpha-lipoic (thioctic) acid on heart and kidney microvasculature in spontaneously hypertensive rats

Endothelial cells represent an important vascular site of signaling and development of damage during ischemia, inflammation and other pathological conditions. Excessive reactive oxygen species production causes pathological activation of endothelium including exposure of cell to adhesion molecules. Intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1), vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) and platelet-endothelial cell adhesion molecule-1 (PECAM-1) are members of the immunoglobulin super-family which are present on the surface of endothelial cells. These molecules represent important markers of endothelial inflammation. The present study was designed to investigate, with immunochemical and immunohistochemical techniques, the effect of treatment with (+/-)-alpha lipoic (thioctic) acid and its enantiomers on heart and kidney endothelium in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR). Arterial hypertension is accompanied by an increased oxidative stress status in the heart characterized by thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) and nucleic acid oxidation increase. The higher oxidative stress also modifies adhesion molecules expression. In the heart VCAM-1, which was higher than ICAM-1 and PECAM-1, was increased in SHR. ICAM-1, VCAM-1 and PECAM-1 expression was significantly greater in the renal endothelium of SHR. (+/-)-Alpha lipoic acid and (+)-alpha lipoic acid treatment significantly decreased TBARS levels, the nucleic acid oxidation and prevented adhesion molecules expression in cardiac and renal vascular endothelium. These data suggest that endothelial molecules may be used for studying the mechanisms of vascular injury on target organs of hypertension. The effects observed after treatment with (+)-alpha lipoic acid could open new perspectives for countering heart and kidney microvascular injury which represent a common feature in hypertensive end-organs damage

Comparison between Mid-Infrared (ATR-FTIR) Spectroscopy and Official Analysis Methods for Determination of the Concentrations of Alcohol, SO2, and Total Acids in Wine

The determination of alcohol, SO2, and total acids in wine through conventional laboratory techniques have some limitations related to the amount of the samples, analytical preparation of laboratory staff, and time to carry out the analysis. In recent years, spectroscopic and chromato- graphic methods have been proposed to determinate simultaneously multiple analytical parame- ters. The new methods claim the speed of analysis and easy execution. However, they need a vali- dation process that guarantees the reliability of the results to be used in official determinations. This study aimed to evaluate the usefulness of FT-infrared reflectance (FT-IR) to quantify total acid, al- cohol, and SO2 concentration in the wines. For this purpose, 156 DOC Italian wines were tested with IR technology, and results were compared to those obtained by official analysis methods. The com- parison was performed using two non-parametric statistical methods: the Bland & Altman test and Passing & Bablok regression. Our results showed that the spectrophotometric methods make errors due to interfering contaminants in the sample that can be corrected by blank determination. There- fore, the spectrophotometric methods that use the infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum can be used by the wine industry and regulators for the wine routine as an alternative to official methodologies

Brown Tumour in a Patient with Secondary Hyperparathyroidism Resistant to Medical Therapy: Case Report on Successful Treatment after Subtotal Parathyroidectomy

Brown tumour represents a serious complication of hyperparathyroidism. Differential diagnosis, based on histological examination, is only presumptive and clinical, radiological and laboratory data are necessary for definitive diagnosis. Here we describe a case of a brown tumour localised in the maxilla due to secondary hyperparathyroidism in a young women with chronic renal failure. Hemodialysis and pharmacological treatment were unsuccessful in controlling secondary hyperparathyroidism making it necessary to proceed with a subtotal parathyroidectomy. The proper timing of the parathyroidectomy and its favourable effect on regression of the brown tumor made it possible to avoid a potentially disfiguring surgical removal of the brown tumor

Dye Solar Cells: Basic and Photon Management Strategies

Since the introduction and development of the dye-sensitized solar cell (DSC) several efforts have been made to optimize the materials involved in the photo-electrochemical process and to improve the light conversion efficiency of the device , by exploiting a low cost production process based on simple fabrication methods, similar to those used in printing processes