Detailed and GlobalAnalysis of a Remedial Course's Impact on Incoming Students' Marks

Engineering incoming students are facing great difficulties to overcome first course subjects. To tackle that situation and increase the students’ success a Remedial course in Mathematics was offered to Informatics Engineering freshmen. This study presents a statistical analysis of their results comparing the marks obtained by those joining the course (studio group) versus those who did not participate (control group). ANOVA tests are performed over the students’ marks averages as well as over each subject students marks. These tests show statistically significant differences between both groups, with the studio group consistently outperforming the control group at 99% confidence level in most cases and at more than 92% confidence level in every case

Exploring the role of E-maintenance for value creation in service provision

Technological innovations has always played an important role in economic growth and industrial productivity, but they have also potential to influence service industry. In particular, they can offer support to the process of servitization in manufacturing companies. This article presents a study regarding the prospective value that different technological innovations can offer to maintenance service provision. A review of different baseline technologies and a categorization of several types of E-maintenance tools and applications has been carried out in order to understand the new functionalities that can potentially bring to the provision of smart maintenance services. Moreover, a value analysis method for representing the contribution of tool categories to several value dimensions is presented here. This method can be used for identifying the best technological solution, matching both customer value and provider value, i.e. conforming a win-win situation for the parties involved in the service provision. Some preliminary results based on a survey are eventually given as a first test of its applicability

Carving out new business models in a small company through contextual ambidexterity: the case of a sustainable company

Business model innovation (BMI) and organizational ambidexterity have been pointed out as mechanisms for companies achieving sustainability. However, especially considering small and medium enterprises (SMEs), there is a lack of studies demonstrating how to combine these mechanisms. Tackling such a gap, this study seeks to understand how SMEs can ambidextrously manage BMI. Our aim is to provide a practical artifact, accessible to SMEs, to operationalize BMI through organizational ambidexterity. To this end, we conducted our study under the design science research to, first, build an artifact for operationalizing contextual ambidexterity for business model innovation. Then, we used an in-depth case study with a vegan fashion small e-commerce to evaluate the practical outcomes of the artifact. Our findings show that the company improves its business model while, at the same time, designs a new business model and monetizes it. Thus, our approach was able to take the first steps in the direction of operationalizing contextual ambidexterity for business model innovation in small and medium enterprises, democratizing the concept. We contribute to theory by connecting different literature strands and to practice by creating an artifact to assist managemen

Business model innovation in state-owned and private-owned enterprises in China

The aim of the paper is to identify the complexity of policy execution, investment and financial support between state-owned and private-owned enterprises in China. Based on the literature review of business model innovation, and current situation of private-owned and state-owned enterprises in China, there is a lack of evidence and case analysis in the power of policy execution and the version of future development between two kinds of industries. The authors conducted qualitative research in four typical industries. Two of them are private-owned and the others are state-owned. The research aims to make a specific comparison between two kinds of industries in China

Maintenance business model: a concept for driving performance improvement

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The Efficacy of Therapeutic Respiratory Muscle Training Interventions in People with Bronchiectasis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background: Respiratory muscle dysfunction is an important health problem with high morbidity and mortality and associated costs in patients with bronchiectasis (BC). The aim of this study was to analyse the effects of therapeutic respiratory muscle training (RMT) interventions on improving sputum clearance, ventilator function, muscle strength and functional capacity in BC. Methods: Systematic review and meta-analysis were conducted following PRISMA guidelines. Two independent investigators searched using several electronic databases. The methodological quality of nine studies was assessed using the PEDro scale. Study selection/eligibility criteria: The following were included: randomised controlled trials, randomised crossover trials and pilot studies of patients with BC that used the intervention as RMT (inspiratory/expiratory) and evaluations of respiratory muscle strength (maximal expiratory pressure/maximal inspiratory pressure). This systematic review was registered in PROSPERO (CRD42017075101). Nine studies were included, five of which obtained an A recommendation grade, three with B, and one with C. Study quality was poor to good (mean PEDro Score of 6.375 out of 10). Studies had small sample sizes (8-98). Results show improvements on PImax in favour of therapeutic respiratory muscle training intervention (MD = 6.08; 95% CI = 1.38, 10.77; p < 0.01; I-2 = 92%). However, high heterogeneity was identified on meta-analysis

Implicaciones de la realizatividad pragmática en la construcción del liderazgo

El presente estudio relaciona los aspectos pragmáticos de los enunciados realizativos con las competencias requeridas por el líder para la gestión del liderazgo. Así, se analizan ambas dimensiones a partir de una muestra de interacción comunicativa oral en la que se determinan los usos realizativos desde la "visibilidad" o el "encubrimiento", tomando como referencia estructuras convencionalizadas que puedan alternan con enunciados de ilocución modalizada. Dicha comparación permite establecer tendencias en el comportamiento lingüístico de un líder. Los enunciados realizativos se relacionan con competencias de liderazgo interpersonales centrados en la acción, mientras los enunciados constatativos se vinculan con un estilo reflexivo-valorativo, en un nivel de interacción intrapersonal

Slowing resource loops in the Circular Economy: an experimentation approach in fashion retail

The Circular Economy is viewed as an important driver for resolving resource issues and tackling sustainability issues more broadly. The fashion industry operates in a largely linear way and suffers from various environmental, societal and economic challenges. In a Circular Economy, first and foremost, products need to be retained at the highest level, thus slowing resource loops. Slowing resource loops goes against current fast fashion trends and therefore appears the most difficult approach to pursue. This paper investigates how a large established retailer aims to slow resource loops as part of a broader project targeted to significantly reduce textile waste to landfill. The retailer collaborated with a university partner to pursue circular business model experiments. This paper reports on the approach for a slowing resource loops experiment around building sewing capabilities. Suggestions for future research and practice on circular business model experimentation are included

A proposal for energy servicesʼ classification including a product service systems perspective

Western manufacturing companies have lately started to rethink their approach to sustainability, mainly because of three different issues arising in the international context: the economic and financial crisis that has been slowing down the international marketsʼ growth, the necessity to increase competitiveness and the growing awareness of environmental and energy problems. This process has eventually led to the spread of servitization strategies causing the transformation of several equipment/components manufacturers into service providers, as well as to the creation of the concept of Product-Service Systems (PSS). Furthermore, a more focused attention to energy efficiency has arisen, with the dual objective of both containing costs and meeting international regulations. The intersection of these two development paths is the constant increase in the supply of energy services, which can be marketed together with devices, machines or energy vectors, creating a peculiar form of PSS. In the present work, a new classification is proposed to map different types of energy services, based on existing categorizations of PSS and enriching them with new parameters which are typical of energy services literature, such as the level of risks sharing. The main objective of this work is to highlight the tight connection between the provision of energy services and the concepts of PSS and sustainability, in order to provide a new general classification for energy services, discussed separately and fragmentary so far in literature

Puntos críticos de control en la producción de chocolates de exportación de la empresa Caral EXIM S.R.L para la elaboración del HACCP

La investigación presenta el diagnóstico del proceso de producción de la empresa Caral Exim S.R.L y la identificación de los Puntos Críticos de Control (PCC). Esta tesis, da a conocer cuáles son los aspectos teóricos más resaltantes que aportaron a la realización del trabajo en estudio. Se habla también de la metodología utilizada para diferenciar el enfoque de la tesis y conseguir información mediante técnicas e instrumentos como lo son las entrevistas y los cuestionarios que fueron tomados a las personas involucradas directamente con el estudio. Para respaldar la tesis, se da a conocer los distintos autores y organismos que informan del HACCP y sus principios para su aplicación, así también la información profunda de la empresa Caral Exim S.R.L con datos reales. Por otra parte se dará a conocer los resultados de la investigación, la discusión con otras investigaciones encontradas y para culminar las recomendaciones