The James Webb Space Telescope Mission

Twenty-six years ago a small committee report, building on earlier studies, expounded a compelling and poetic vision for the future of astronomy, calling for an infrared-optimized space telescope with an aperture of at least $4m$. With the support of their governments in the US, Europe, and Canada, 20,000 people realized that vision as the $6.5m$ James Webb Space Telescope. A generation of astronomers will celebrate their accomplishments for the life of the mission, potentially as long as 20 years, and beyond. This report and the scientific discoveries that follow are extended thank-you notes to the 20,000 team members. The telescope is working perfectly, with much better image quality than expected. In this and accompanying papers, we give a brief history, describe the observatory, outline its objectives and current observing program, and discuss the inventions and people who made it possible. We cite detailed reports on the design and the measured performance on orbit.Comment: Accepted by PASP for the special issue on The James Webb Space Telescope Overview, 29 pages, 4 figure

An examination of the linkages between organisational performance measures and strategic objectives

To be successful, in the competitive, global business environment, firms must have a sound understanding of all their operations and the factors which impact upon them, combined with a performance management system which allows them to assess their progress towards achieving the organisation's objective. The thesis examines 3 propositions : that managers are unaware of the need to link performance measures to strategic goals and that, as a consequence, performance measures do not change to reflect a change in strategic direction; that the link between the performance measurement system and organizational goals is weak because the organization's structure inhibits a coordinated approach towards achieving strategic objectives through the use of performance measures; and, that the dynamic environment in which firms operate serves to disassociate strategic objectives from the performance management system, and the lack of managerial attention to the link between the two will result, over time, in a set of performance measures which provide insufficient, late or wrong information. The research indicated that awareness of the need to link performance measures with strategy rose with managerial responsibility; that the wider the scope of the performance measurement system, the better it would be at accommodating and monitoring changes in strategic direction; that, where the performance management system covered a broad range of activities it could be better used by managers to coordinate and integrate those activities; that managers' perceptions of the reliability, validity and timeliness of the information provided by their performance management system were positively related to the level of ownership of the system; and, in a dynamic business environment, the more comprehensive the information provided by the performance management system, the less likely the organisation would respond inappropriately to external factors. Additional research needs to be done on ways to make performance management systems more reactive to management's need

Evaluating new product development performance in small to medium sized manufacturing firms

The purpose of the research undertaken for this thesis was to examine management practices relating to new product development processes in small to medium-sized manufacturing firms (SMEs). The thesis topic has its origins in a European Community funded research project carried out during 1997-9 and designated CIMA (Continuous Improvement in Global Innovation Management) ESPRIT project 26056. The CIMA project had as its objective the development, testing and dissemination of a methodology to support knowledge transfer in the product innovation process. The CIMA model suggested a relationship between management behaviours and performance outcomes that used literature from a variety of research areas including continuous improvement, product innovation, performance measurement, and inter-project learning. This literature was centred largely on research undertaken in large organisations, with little information available on the new product development (NPD) practices in SMEs. This thesis sought to examine the management of NPD activities in SMEs across a range of important variables as identified in larger organisations in an effort to evaluate whether they were as relevant in smaller organisations. The literature review reduced the research to four broad questions: 1.what is the relationship between a business unit’s competitive strategy and its new product development strategy, 2.how management involvement in improving NPD performance, 3.does a more systematic approach to management of NPD projects would lead to better outcomes, and finally 4.how new product development performance is measured in SMEs. A two-stage, field based research methodology was used to gather data for this thesis. Firstly, a quantitative survey instrument was used to collect data across a broad range of variables. The data thus gathered were supported by a subsequent set of interviews in three SMEs that. In each of these firms, employees from the broad functional areas of sales, operations, and design, were interviewed to gain a greater understanding of the issues that might emerge in the quantitative survey. Thematic analysis was used to examine the qualitative data. Descriptive statistics, in the main were used to evaluate the quantitative data. Findings relevant to each of the research questions provide valuable insights into NPD practices in SMEs. For instance, strategies tend to be hazy, and have a short term emphasis. The qualitative interviews in particular showed a lack of certainty and direction when it came to strategy. With regard to management involvement, there was more emphasis on individual effort rather than team-based activities. Managers tended not to look for external sources to improve their NPD performance. The approach taken in managing NPD activities, whether it was systematic or informal, did not appear to affect innovativeness, though it did appear to impact other variables such as time-to-market. Finally, performance measurement in SMEs tended to emphasise cost outcomes as opposed to variables critical to customers such as conformance quality or time-to-market. Further, outcomes in those performance dimensions did not appear to influence future strategy or actions within the organisations. A detailed review of the data is provided in chapters five, six and seven

Continuous Product Innovation: A Comparison of Key Elements Across Different Contingency Sets

This paper discusses results from an international study of continuous improvement in product innovation. The empirical research is based upon a theoretical model of continuous product innovation (CPI) that identifies contingencies, behaviours, levers and performances relevant to improving product innovation processes. As successful knowledge management is widely recognised as a key capability for firms to successfully develop CPI, companies have been classified according to identified contingencies and the impact of these contingencies on key knowledge management criteria. Comparative analysis of the identified groups of companies has demonstrated important differences between the learning behaviours found present in the two groups thus identified, and in the levers used to develop and support these behaviours. The selection of performance measures by the two groups has highlighted further significant differences in the way the two groups understand and measure their CPI processes. Finally, the paper includes a discussion of appropriate mechanisms for firms with similar contingency sets to improve their approaches to organisational learning and product innovation

Identification of seven new prostate cancer susceptibility loci through a genome-wide association study

Prostate cancer (PrCa) is the most frequently diagnosed male cancer in developed countries. To identify common PrCa susceptibility alleles, we have previously conducted a genome-wide association study in which 541, 129 SNPs were genotyped in 1,854 PrCa cases with clinically detected disease and 1,894 controls. We have now evaluated promising associations in a second stage, in which we genotyped 43,671 SNPs in 3,650 PrCa cases and 3,940 controls, and a third stage, involving an additional 16,229 cases and 14,821 controls from 21 studies. In addition to previously identified loci, we identified a further seven new prostate cancer susceptibility loci on chromosomes 2, 4, 8, 11, and 22 (P=1.6×10−8 to P=2.7×10−33)

Regional Practice Variation and Outcomes in the Standard Versus Accelerated Initiation of Renal Replacement Therapy in Acute Kidney Injury (STARRT-AKI) Trial: A Post Hoc Secondary Analysis.

ObjectivesAmong patients with severe acute kidney injury (AKI) admitted to the ICU in high-income countries, regional practice variations for fluid balance (FB) management, timing, and choice of renal replacement therapy (RRT) modality may be significant.DesignSecondary post hoc analysis of the STandard vs. Accelerated initiation of Renal Replacement Therapy in Acute Kidney Injury (STARRT-AKI) trial (ClinicalTrials.gov number NCT02568722).SettingOne hundred-fifty-three ICUs in 13 countries.PatientsAltogether 2693 critically ill patients with AKI, of whom 994 were North American, 1143 European, and 556 from Australia and New Zealand (ANZ).InterventionsNone.Measurements and main resultsTotal mean FB to a maximum of 14 days was +7199 mL in North America, +5641 mL in Europe, and +2211 mL in ANZ (p p p p p p p p = 0.007).ConclusionsAmong STARRT-AKI trial centers, significant regional practice variation exists regarding FB, timing of initiation of RRT, and initial use of continuous RRT. After adjustment, such practice variation was associated with lower ICU and hospital stay and 90-day mortality among ANZ patients compared with other regions