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Sample records for process create planning

  1. Creating a nursing strategic planning framework based on evidence.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shoemaker, Lorie K; Fischer, Brenda

    2011-03-01

    This article describes an evidence-informed strategic planning process and framework used by a Magnet-recognized public health system in California. This article includes (1) an overview of the organization and its strategic planning process, (2) the structure created within nursing for collaborative strategic planning and decision making, (3) the strategic planning framework developed based on the organization's balanced scorecard domains and the new Magnet model, and (4) the process undertaken to develop the nursing strategic priorities. Outcomes associated with the structure, process, and key initiatives are discussed throughout the article. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  2. An In-Depth Look at RACE: Creating a Public Relations Plan

    Science.gov (United States)

    Luttrell, Regina

    2013-01-01

    This article describes an activity in which students will understand, analyze, and apply the principles learned in the RACE process (research, action, communication, and evaluation). Students should have the ability to identify the four-step public relations planning process and ultimately create a public relations plan. This two-week activity is…

  3. The effectiveness of CCDSR learning model to improve skills of creating lesson plan and worksheet science process skill (SPS) for pre-service physics teacher

    Science.gov (United States)

    Limatahu, I.; Suyatno; Wasis; Prahani, B. K.

    2018-03-01

    In the previous research, CCDSR (Condition, Construction, Development, Simulation, and Reflection) learning model has been developed to improve science process skills for pre-service physics teacher. This research is aimed to analyze the effectiveness of CCDSR learning model towards the improvement skills of creating lesson plan and worksheet of Science Process Skill (SPS) for pre-service physics teacher in academic year 2016/2017. This research used one group pre-test and post-test design on 12 pre-service physics teacher at Physics Education, University of Khairun. Data collection was conducted through test and observation. Creating lesson plan and worksheet SPS skills of pre-service physics teacher measurement were conducted through Science Process Skill Evaluation Sheet (SPSES). The data analysis technique was done by Wilcoxon t-test and n-gain. The CCDSR learning model consists of 5 phases, including (1) Condition, (2) Construction, (3) Development, (4) Simulation, and (5) Reflection. The results showed that there was a significant increase in creating lesson plan and worksheet SPS skills of pre-service physics teacher at α = 5% and n-gain average of moderate category. Thus, the CCDSR learning model is effective for improving skills of creating lesson plan and worksheet SPS for pre-service physics teacher.

  4. Process Management Plans

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tomasz Miksa

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available In the era of research infrastructures and big data, sophisticated data management practices are becoming essential building blocks of successful science. Most practices follow a data-centric approach, which does not take into account the processes that created, analysed and presented the data. This fact limits the possibilities for reliable verification of results. Furthermore, it does not guarantee the reuse of research, which is one of the key aspects of credible data-driven science. For that reason, we propose the introduction of the new concept of Process Management Plans, which focus on the identification, description, sharing and preservation of the entire scientific processes. They enable verification and later reuse of result data and processes of scientific experiments. In this paper we describe the structure and explain the novelty of Process Management Plans by showing in what way they complement existing Data Management Plans. We also highlight key differences, major advantages, as well as references to tools and solutions that can facilitate the introduction of Process Management Plans.

  5. ECONOMIC STRATEGY CREATED THROUGH THEORY FOCUSED PLANNING

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dumitru-Alexandru Bodislav

    2011-06-01

    Full Text Available The research done for this article is following the elaboration of a moldable model on the actual economic context, in which there are considered continuous learning elements on facts and commercial niches, evaluating a business starting from causality diagram and structuring its processes. Analyzing the evolution of a business and on the market in which they are deploying their activity through quantitative and qualitative measurement methods focused on trends. Testing hypotheses and business suppositions that are the main engine of theory focused on planning, a model of creating a strategic management process that will be developed in this article.

  6. Creating a Business Plan for a Start-up Business Consultancy in Namibia

    OpenAIRE

    von Wietersheim, Julia

    2011-01-01

    The objective of this Thesis is to investigate the process of creating an extensive Business Plan and thereby to practically apply the theory studied during the Degree Programme of International Business. To achieve this objective, a practical business plan for a start-up Business Consultancy in Namibia (called VW-Business Consulting) is created, which at the same time provides a deeper understanding of the current demand for, and awareness of, business consulting companies in Namibia. An...

  7. Automation of radiation treatment planning. Evaluation of head and neck cancer patient plans created by the Pinnacle"3 scripting and Auto-Planning functions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Speer, Stefan; Weiss, Alexander; Bert, Christoph; Klein, Andreas; Kober, Lukas; Yohannes, Indra

    2017-01-01

    Intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) techniques are now standard practice. IMRT or volumetric-modulated arc therapy (VMAT) allow treatment of the tumor while simultaneously sparing organs at risk. Nevertheless, treatment plan quality still depends on the physicist's individual skills, experiences, and personal preferences. It would therefore be advantageous to automate the planning process. This possibility is offered by the Pinnacle"3 treatment planning system (Philips Healthcare, Hamburg, Germany) via its scripting language or Auto-Planning (AP) module. AP module results were compared to in-house scripts and manually optimized treatment plans for standard head and neck cancer plans. Multiple treatment parameters were scored to judge plan quality (100 points = optimum plan). Patients were initially planned manually by different physicists and re-planned using scripts or AP. Script-based head and neck plans achieved a mean of 67.0 points and were, on average, superior to manually created (59.1 points) and AP plans (62.3 points). Moreover, they are characterized by reproducibility and lower standard deviation of treatment parameters. Even less experienced staff are able to create at least a good starting point for further optimization in a short time. However, for particular plans, experienced planners perform even better than scripts or AP. Experienced-user input is needed when setting up scripts or AP templates for the first time. Moreover, some minor drawbacks exist, such as the increase of monitor units (+35.5% for scripted plans). On average, automatically created plans are superior to manually created treatment plans. For particular plans, experienced physicists were able to perform better than scripts or AP; thus, the benefit is greatest when time is short or staff inexperienced. (orig.) [de

  8. Automation of radiation treatment planning : Evaluation of head and neck cancer patient plans created by the Pinnacle3 scripting and Auto-Planning functions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Speer, Stefan; Klein, Andreas; Kober, Lukas; Weiss, Alexander; Yohannes, Indra; Bert, Christoph

    2017-08-01

    Intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) techniques are now standard practice. IMRT or volumetric-modulated arc therapy (VMAT) allow treatment of the tumor while simultaneously sparing organs at risk. Nevertheless, treatment plan quality still depends on the physicist's individual skills, experiences, and personal preferences. It would therefore be advantageous to automate the planning process. This possibility is offered by the Pinnacle 3 treatment planning system (Philips Healthcare, Hamburg, Germany) via its scripting language or Auto-Planning (AP) module. AP module results were compared to in-house scripts and manually optimized treatment plans for standard head and neck cancer plans. Multiple treatment parameters were scored to judge plan quality (100 points = optimum plan). Patients were initially planned manually by different physicists and re-planned using scripts or AP. Script-based head and neck plans achieved a mean of 67.0 points and were, on average, superior to manually created (59.1 points) and AP plans (62.3 points). Moreover, they are characterized by reproducibility and lower standard deviation of treatment parameters. Even less experienced staff are able to create at least a good starting point for further optimization in a short time. However, for particular plans, experienced planners perform even better than scripts or AP. Experienced-user input is needed when setting up scripts or AP templates for the first time. Moreover, some minor drawbacks exist, such as the increase of monitor units (+35.5% for scripted plans). On average, automatically created plans are superior to manually created treatment plans. For particular plans, experienced physicists were able to perform better than scripts or AP; thus, the benefit is greatest when time is short or staff inexperienced.

  9. OSUL2013: Fostering Organizational Change through a Grassroots Planning Process

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schlosser, Melanie

    2011-01-01

    This paper provides background on planning and organizational culture change in libraries and describes a grassroots planning process taking place at the Ohio State University Libraries. Now in its third phase, the process aims to create a long-term plan for the organization while fostering a more collaborative, innovative culture.

  10. Library Spaces for 21st-Century Learners: A Planning Guide for Creating New School Library Concepts

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sullivan, Margaret

    2013-01-01

    "Library Spaces for 21st-Century Learners: A Planning Guide for Creating New School Library Concepts" focuses on planning contemporary school library spaces with user-based design strategies. The book walks school librarians and administrators through the process of gathering information from students and other stakeholders involved in…

  11. Practice It: Create a Weekly Activity Plan

    Science.gov (United States)

    At the beginning of the week, create an activity plan to help you reach your goals. Start by identifying your goals for the week. Based on your goals, write down when you are going to exercise and what you are going to do.

  12. Creating Space Force Structure Through Strategic Planning: The Air Force Reserve Visioning Process

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Shaw, Robert

    1999-01-01

    This research paper will assess the challenges and potential inadequacies of today's military leaders in understanding the importance of coupling strategic visioning and strategic planning processes...

  13. Linking the Teacher Appraisal Process to the School Improvement Plan

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reddekopp, Therese

    2007-01-01

    If a school improvement plan includes input from all stakeholders and focuses on data-driven processes that are linked to teacher appraisal, it can be powerful in leading the school toward the common mission of achieving student success. Linking the school improvement plan to the teacher appraisal process creates a system whereby all individuals…

  14. Building a team through a strategic planning process.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Albert, Debra; Priganc, Dave

    2014-01-01

    Strategic planning is a process often left to senior hospital leadership, with limited input from unit-level, bedside patient care providers. This frequent approach to strategic planning misses the opportunity to engage a wide range of employees, build a shared sense of commitment, produce a collaborative team environment, and to generate greater acceptance of the plan. The Patient Care Services division at the University of Chicago Medicine used a strategic planning process that incorporated 360-degree input from both within the Patient Care Services division and outside of the division. The result is a strategic vision and plan that, shaped by broad-based input from both internal and external constituencies, is strengthened by the team that emerged from the process. Through the process of identifying a common understanding of the group's future direction, a shared purpose was created that transcended traditional professional boundaries and shaped a cohesive team focused on effective and efficient patient care. Now, with a focused strategic plan and a team centered on a shared purpose, the team is beginning to effectively deliver on the plan.

  15. Application of ConceptDraw Office for planning, documenting, monitoring of operating processes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bocharnikov, O.P.; Savenko, S.V.; Nikiforov, N.S.

    2011-01-01

    ConceptDraw Office allows effectively deciding the following tasks: to carry out planning, designing, control of implementation of production processes; to prepare working documents (engineering diagrams, process flor diagrams, evacuation and emergency plans; to create dashboards with information for organization management; to distribute the organization resources with the purpose of increase of efficiency and safety of operating processes.

  16. Automation of radiation treatment planning. Evaluation of head and neck cancer patient plans created by the Pinnacle{sup 3} scripting and Auto-Planning functions

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Speer, Stefan; Weiss, Alexander; Bert, Christoph [Universitaetsklinikum Erlangen, Friedrich-Alexander-Universitaet Erlangen-Nuernberg, Department of Radiation Oncology, Erlangen (Germany); Klein, Andreas [EKS Engineering GmbH, Fuerth (Germany); Kober, Lukas [Strahlentherapie Tauber-Franken, Bad Mergentheim (Germany); Yohannes, Indra [Rinecker Proton Therapy Center, Munich (Germany)

    2017-08-15

    Intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) techniques are now standard practice. IMRT or volumetric-modulated arc therapy (VMAT) allow treatment of the tumor while simultaneously sparing organs at risk. Nevertheless, treatment plan quality still depends on the physicist's individual skills, experiences, and personal preferences. It would therefore be advantageous to automate the planning process. This possibility is offered by the Pinnacle{sup 3} treatment planning system (Philips Healthcare, Hamburg, Germany) via its scripting language or Auto-Planning (AP) module. AP module results were compared to in-house scripts and manually optimized treatment plans for standard head and neck cancer plans. Multiple treatment parameters were scored to judge plan quality (100 points = optimum plan). Patients were initially planned manually by different physicists and re-planned using scripts or AP. Script-based head and neck plans achieved a mean of 67.0 points and were, on average, superior to manually created (59.1 points) and AP plans (62.3 points). Moreover, they are characterized by reproducibility and lower standard deviation of treatment parameters. Even less experienced staff are able to create at least a good starting point for further optimization in a short time. However, for particular plans, experienced planners perform even better than scripts or AP. Experienced-user input is needed when setting up scripts or AP templates for the first time. Moreover, some minor drawbacks exist, such as the increase of monitor units (+35.5% for scripted plans). On average, automatically created plans are superior to manually created treatment plans. For particular plans, experienced physicists were able to perform better than scripts or AP; thus, the benefit is greatest when time is short or staff inexperienced. (orig.) [German] Intensitaetsmodulierte Strahlentherapie (IMRT) hat sich als Standard durchgesetzt. Mit IMRT oder volumenmodulierter Arc-Therapie (VMAT) lassen sich

  17. Participative Facility Planning for Obstetrical and Neonatal Care Processes: Beginning of Life Process

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jori Reijula

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Introduction. Old hospitals may promote inefficient patient care processes and safety. A new, functionally planned hospital presents a chance to create an environment that supports streamlined, patient-centered healthcare processes and adapts to users’ needs. This study depicts the phases of a facility planning project for pregnant women and newborn care processes (beginning of life process at Turku University Hospital. Materials and Methods. Project design reports and meeting documents were utilized to assess the beginning of life process as well as the work processes of the Women’s and Children’s Hospital. Results. The main elements of the facility design (FD project included rigorous preparation for the FD phase, functional planning throughout the FD process, and setting key values: (1 family-centered care, (2 Lean thinking and Lean tools as the framework for the FD process, (3 safety, and (4 cooperation. Conclusions. A well-prepared FD project with sufficient insight into functional planning, Lean thinking, and user-centricity seemed to facilitate the actual FD process. Although challenges occurred, the key values were not forgone and were successfully incorporated into the new hospital building.

  18. Constellation Mission Operation Working Group: ESMO Maneuver Planning Process Review

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moyer, Eric

    2015-01-01

    The Earth Science Mission Operation (ESMO) Project created an Independent Review Board to review our Conjunction Risk evaluation process and Maneuver Planning Process to identify improvements that safely manages mission conjunction risks, maintains ground track science requirements, and minimizes overall hours expended on High Interest Events (HIE). The Review Board is evaluating the current maneuver process which requires support by multiple groups. In the past year, there have been several changes to the processes although many prior and new concerns exist. This presentation will discuss maneuver process reviews and Board comments, ESMO assessment and path foward, ESMO future plans, recent changes and concerns.

  19. The impact of curricula and lesson planning in the teaching process

    OpenAIRE

    Majlinda Lika

    2017-01-01

    Lesson planning is at the core of teaching. It allows teachers to create an orientation path in the process of teaching, taking into consideration, many elements such as, students’ styles of learning, previous knowledge, types of intelligences, interests etc. Effective curricula plans are characterized by principles of coherence, flexibility, integration of knowledge etc. Effective lesson plans strongly rely on previous information gathered through different forms of assessment, and provide i...

  20. Creating virtual humans for simulation-based training and planning

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Stansfield, S.; Sobel, A.

    1998-05-12

    Sandia National Laboratories has developed a distributed, high fidelity simulation system for training and planning small team Operations. The system provides an immersive environment populated by virtual objects and humans capable of displaying complex behaviors. The work has focused on developing the behaviors required to carry out complex tasks and decision making under stress. Central to this work are techniques for creating behaviors for virtual humans and for dynamically assigning behaviors to CGF to allow scenarios without fixed outcomes. Two prototype systems have been developed that illustrate these capabilities: MediSim, a trainer for battlefield medics and VRaptor, a system for planning, rehearsing and training assault operations.

  1. Cabinet decision creating a family planning section in the Ministry of Manpower.

    Science.gov (United States)

    1989-01-01

    As of April 1, 1989 the Indonesian Ministry of Manpower will contain a family planning section within its regular structure. It will be part of a newly created Sub-directorate for Workers Welfare, which also contains sections for health facilities/services and for nutrition and other welfare services. The family planning section is to be staffed by 8 full-time officials who are responsible for population, family welfare, and family planning programs in the Ministry of Manpower.

  2. Forward planning

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fontenla, D.P.

    2008-01-01

    By definition, forward planning is a process where input consists of conditions on beam configurations and parameters and output consists of dose distributions on target and critical structures, in contrast to inverse planning, where the opposite is true. For forward planning IMRT, criteria are as follows: (i) Plans created as an extension of standard 3D conformational planning; (ii) No significant increase in the complexity of the treatment planning or treatment delivery process; (3) Treatment verification using standard QA procedures; and process consists of the following steps: (i) Create a standard 3D conformational treatment plan; (ii) Copy one of the existing beams; (iii) Create control points: design new beam segments, blocking high dose areas; (iv) Repeat for all beams; (v) Re-compute dose; and (vi) Adjust control points weights to achieve desired dose distribution. A detailed exposition, with many clinical examples, is given for the breast, lung, and brain (P.A.)

  3. Popes in the Pizza: Analyzing Activity Reports to Create and Sustain a Strategic Plan

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sweet, Charlie; Blythe, Hal; Keeley, E. J.; Forsyth, Ben

    2008-01-01

    This article presents a practical methodology for creating and sustaining strategic planning, the task analysis. Utilizing our Teaching & Learning Center Strategic Plan as a model, we demonstrate how working with a weekly status report provides a comprehensive listing of detail necessary to analyze and revise the plan. The new methodology is…

  4. Create Your Plate

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... Diabetes Meal Plans Create Your Plate Gluten Free Diets Meal Planning for Vegetarian Diets Cook with Heart-Healthy Foods Holiday Meal Planning ... Planning Meals Diabetes Meal Plans and a Healthy Diet Create Your Plate Meal Planning for Vegetarian Diets ...

  5. Research Planning Process

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lofton, Rodney

    2010-01-01

    This presentation describes the process used to collect, review, integrate, and assess research requirements desired to be a part of research and payload activities conducted on the ISS. The presentation provides a description of: where the requirements originate, to whom they are submitted, how they are integrated into a requirements plan, and how that integrated plan is formulated and approved. It is hoped that from completing the review of this presentation, one will get an understanding of the planning process that formulates payload requirements into an integrated plan used for specifying research activities to take place on the ISS.

  6. Create Your Plate

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... Planning Meals Diabetes Meal Plans Create Your Plate Gluten Free Diets Meal Planning for Vegetarian Diets Cook with Heart- ... Create Your Plate Meal Planning for Vegetarian Diets Gluten Free Diets Holiday Meal Planning Cook with Heart-Healthy Foods ...

  7. Strategic planning: the first step in the planning process.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gelinas, Marc A

    2003-01-01

    Strategic planning is a systematic process through which an organization builds commitment among key stakeholders to goals and priorities which are essential to its mission and vision, and responsive to the operating environment. Strategic planning is the first step in a comprehensive planning process that also includes business planning and implementation planning. If all three steps are carried out in sequence, strategic planning can be a very effective means of educating the stakeholders about where the cancer program is and where it is going, gaining support and commitment for the direction that the cancer program will take, and assuring that everyone's expectations can be managed effectively. Unfortunately, some organizations and cancer program leaders misunderstand the process. Too often, strategic planning is used as a stand-alone activity. This article will describe what strategic planning is, how it should smoothly lead into business planning and implementation planning, and how to avoid the pitfalls that sometimes arise during the strategic planning effort.

  8. International Management: Creating a More Realistic Global Planning Environment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Waldron, Darryl G.

    2000-01-01

    Discusses the need for realistic global planning environments in international business education, introducing a strategic planning model that has teams interacting with teams to strategically analyze a selected multinational company. This dynamic process must result in a single integrated written analysis that specifies an optimal strategy for…

  9. Creating more effective health plan quality reports for consumers: lessons from a synthesis of qualitative testing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Harris-Kojetin, L D; McCormack, L A; Jaël, E F; Sangl, J A; Garfinkel, S A

    2001-07-01

    Social marketing techniques such as consumer testing have only recently been applied to develop effective consumer health insurance information. This article discusses lessons learned from consumer testing to create consumer plan choice materials. Data were collected from 268 publicly and privately insured consumers in three studies between 1994 and 1999. Iterative testing and revisions were conducted to design seven booklets to help Medicaid, Medicare, and employed consumers choose a health plan. Standardized protocols were used in 11 focus groups and 182 interviews to examine the content, comprehension, navigation, and utility of the booklets. A method is suggested to help consumers narrow their plan choices by breaking down the process into smaller decisions using a set of guided worksheets. Implementing these lessons is challenging and not often done well. This article gives examples of evidence-based approaches to address cognitive barriers that designers of consumer health insurance information can adapt to their needs.

  10. The impact of curricula and lesson planning in the teaching process

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Majlinda Lika

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available Lesson planning is at the core of teaching. It allows teachers to create an orientation path in the process of teaching, taking into consideration, many elements such as, students’ styles of learning, previous knowledge, types of intelligences, interests etc. Effective curricula plans are characterized by principles of coherence, flexibility, integration of knowledge etc. Effective lesson plans strongly rely on previous information gathered through different forms of assessment, and provide inclusive opportunities for every student. This paper will show how planning affects teaching and the quality of learning. First, a review of the literature will represent the importance of flexible planning and incorporation of differentiated elements of planning that ensure inclusive opportunities of learning for all students. Second, there will be a detailed analysis of findings taken by 25 full school inspections practices on the field of “lesson planning”. This part of the study will specify the planning difficulties the teachers face and how this affects the process of teaching and learning. Third, benefits of lesson plans that rely on good assessment practices and integrate differentiated instruction according to students' needs will be discussed as ways of helping teachers adjust lesson plans to overcome their planning difficulties. Findings indicate that teachers design lesson plans that do not rely on good assessment practices. Lesson plans are not flexible enough to respond and satisfy the needs of all categories of students, impacting that way the quality of instruction and learning. The paper will serve teachers to review their planning approaches and integrate elements of differentiated instruction as an organic part of the process, responding to traits and uniqueness students represent.

  11. Strategic plan creates a blueprint for budgeting.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cook, D

    1990-05-01

    Effective healthcare organizations develop budgets that reflect and support a strategic plan. Senior managers set a framework that expresses the hospital's future strategic objectives. The budget enables executives to determine which specific service lines are profitable or unprofitable. Administrators and clinicians at all levels are involved in the budgeting process.

  12. Creating a Marketing Plan.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sevier, Robert A.

    1989-01-01

    A guide to developing a college marketing plan defines key marketing terms, outlines the development of a plan (including institutional analysis, market research, strategy formation and execution, and program evaluation), and provides a list of important principles with which to operate a program. (MSE)

  13. IT's is alive: Merak and Microsoft create living business plan

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tiefisher, C.

    1999-01-01

    A best practices approach to the growing complexities of the petroleum industry has been developed by Merak Projects Ltd and Microsoft Corporation. Developers of this business planning system claim that the system may revolutionize the way oil and gas companies manage their assets. The approach is based on Merak's Value Management Suite and Microsoft's NT and SQL Server; it presents not only a current corporate picture but also provides the power to make educated decisions about future developments and events. What is referred to as the Living Business Plan provides the company with the means to react quickly to changes in the market, i.e. it is a dynamic planning tool based on real-time data. The key is the ability to handle massive amounts of data about the value of reserves and operational spending and tying it 'live' to the company's overall corporate picture. A case history of the application of the Living Business Plan by Ocean Energy Inc. is used to show the kind of data fed into the system which is run on Microsoft's SQL Server 's open language environment and how this environment allows the company to import its data directly into Merak's planning tools. In effect, the system puts economics and reserves management on the engineer's desk and enables planners to work with live data instead of data created for planning purposes. The objective is to know where the company is headed and to be able to see at any given moment whether it is still heading in the right direction

  14. Use of focus groups in a library's strategic planning process.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Higa-Moore, Mori Lou; Bunnett, Brian; Mayo, Helen G; Olney, Cynthia A

    2002-01-01

    The use of focus groups to determine patron satisfaction with library resources and services is extensive and well established. This article demonstrates how focus groups can also be used to help shape the future direction of a library as part of the strategic planning process. By responding to questions about their long-term library and information needs, focus group participants at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas Library contributed an abundance of qualitative patron data that was previously lacking from this process. The selection and recruitment of these patrons is discussed along with the line of questioning used in the various focus group sessions. Of special interest is the way the authors utilized these sessions to mobilize and involve the staff in creating the library's strategic plan. This was accomplished not only by having staff members participate in one of the sessions but also by sharing the project's major findings with them and instructing them in how these findings related to the library's future. The authors' experience demonstrates that focus groups are an effective strategic planning tool for libraries and emphasizes the need to share information broadly, if active involvement of the staff is desired in both the development and implementation of the library's strategic plan.

  15. Using 3D Printing to Create Personalized Brain Models for Neurosurgical Training and Preoperative Planning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ploch, Caitlin C; Mansi, Chris S S A; Jayamohan, Jayaratnam; Kuhl, Ellen

    2016-06-01

    Three-dimensional (3D) printing holds promise for a wide variety of biomedical applications, from surgical planning, practicing, and teaching to creating implantable devices. The growth of this cheap and easy additive manufacturing technology in orthopedic, plastic, and vascular surgery has been explosive; however, its potential in the field of neurosurgery remains underexplored. A major limitation is that current technologies are unable to directly print ultrasoft materials like human brain tissue. In this technical note, the authors present a new technology to create deformable, personalized models of the human brain. The method combines 3D printing, molding, and casting to create a physiologically, anatomically, and tactilely realistic model based on magnetic resonance images. Created from soft gelatin, the model is easy to produce, cost-efficient, durable, and orders of magnitude softer than conventionally printed 3D models. The personalized brain model cost $50, and its fabrication took 24 hours. In mechanical tests, the model stiffness (E = 25.29 ± 2.68 kPa) was 5 orders of magnitude softer than common 3D printed materials, and less than an order of magnitude stiffer than mammalian brain tissue (E = 2.64 ± 0.40 kPa). In a multicenter surgical survey, model size (100.00%), visual appearance (83.33%), and surgical anatomy (81.25%) were perceived as very realistic. The model was perceived as very useful for patient illustration (85.00%), teaching (94.44%), learning (100.00%), surgical training (95.00%), and preoperative planning (95.00%). With minor refinements, personalized, deformable brain models created via 3D printing will improve surgical training and preoperative planning with the ultimate goal to provide accurate, customized, high-precision treatment. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  16. The text plan concept: contributions to the writing planning process

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ana Lúcia Tinoco Cabral

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available Students - at different levels, ranging from early grades up to PhD - face problems both on comprehension and text production. This paper focuses on the text plan concept according to the DTA (Discourse Text Analysis approach, i.e., a principle of organization that allows students to put into practice the production intention as well as to arrange text information while producing; being responsible for the text compositional structure (Adam, 2008. The study analyzes the relation between text plan and the writing planning process, in which the first one provides the second with theoretical support. In order to develop such research, the study covers some issues related to the reading skill, analyzes an argumentative text as per its textual plan, and presents some reflections on the writing process, focusing on the relation between textual plan and the writing planning process.

  17. Test Plan: Sludge Treatment Project Corrosion Process Chemistry Follow-on Testing

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Delegard, Calvin H.; Schmidt, Andrew J.; Poloski, Adam P.

    2007-08-17

    This test plan was prepared by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) under contract with Fluor Hanford (FH). The test plan describes the scope and conditions to be used to perform laboratory-scale testing of the Sludge Treatment Project (STP) hydrothermal treatment of K Basin sludge. The STP, managed for the U. S. Department of Energy (DOE) by FH, was created to design and operate a process to eliminate uranium metal from the sludge prior to packaging for Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) by using high temperature liquid water to accelerate the reaction, produce uranium dioxide from the uranium metal, and safely discharge the hydrogen. The proposed testing builds on the approach and laboratory test findings for both K Basin sludge and simulated sludge garnered during prior testing from September 2006 to March 2007. The outlined testing in this plan is designed to yield further understanding of the nature of the chemical reactions, the effects of compositional and process variations and the effectiveness of various strategies to mitigate the observed high shear strength phenomenon observed during the prior testing. These tests are designed to provide process validation and refinement vs. process development and design input. The expected outcome is to establish a level of understanding of the chemistry such that successful operating strategies and parameters can be implemented within the confines of the existing STP corrosion vessel design. In July 2007, the DOE provided direction to FH regarding significant changes to the scope of the overall STP. As a result of the changes, FH directed PNNL to stop work on most of the planned activities covered in this test plan. Therefore, it is unlikely the testing described here will be performed. However, to preserve the test strategy and details developed to date, the test plan has been published.

  18. 40 CFR 130.5 - Continuing planning process.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... QUALITY PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT § 130.5 Continuing planning process. (a) General. Each State shall establish and maintain a continuing planning process (CPP) as described under section 303(e)(3)(A)-(H) of... 40 Protection of Environment 21 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Continuing planning process. 130.5...

  19. Creating Societal Benefits and Corporate Profits

    OpenAIRE

    Raisch, Sebastian; Probst, Gilbert; Gomez, Peter; Zimmermann, Alexander

    2014-01-01

    The odds of launching a new business that creates value for both the company and the public can be improved with good planning. An in-depth analysis of how four companies created for-profit initiatives that also have high societal value suggests that each followed a similar step-by-step process to achieve what the researchers call synergistic value creation. Those steps include establishing cross-business incubators and installing multi-perspective monitoring systems.

  20. OCRWM's evolving strategic planning process and the 1990 plan

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Sprecher, W.M.; Munro, J.F.; Champagne, D.L.

    1991-01-01

    In 1990, the Secretary of Energy (Secretary Watkins) ordered that all 23 of the Department's major organizations adopt systems of strategic planning. This paper explains the strategic planning process being adopted by one of those organizations, the Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM). Secretary Watkins also ordered a much-abbreviated planning cycle for 1990 to produce the first set of plans in September. That first plan for OCRWM is also discussed here

  1. Create Your Plate

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... Meals Diabetes Meal Plans Create Your Plate Gluten Free Diets Meal Planning for Vegetarian Diets Cook with ... Your Plate Meal Planning for Vegetarian Diets Gluten Free Diets Holiday Meal Planning Cook with Heart-Healthy ...

  2. Create Your Plate

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... Recipes Association Cookbook Recipes Planning Meals Diabetes Meal Plans Create Your Plate Gluten Free Diets Meal Planning ... serving of dairy or both as your meal plan allows. Choose healthy fats in small amounts. For ...

  3. [Local health promotion plans: intersetoralities created in the territory].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moysés, Simone Tetu; Franco de Sá, Ronice

    2014-11-01

    The article highlights the importance of considering the specificities of spaces/territories/ locations of individual and collective life in creating health promotion actions. It explores how this approach has conceptually consolidated respect for territoriality and territorial actions as a principle and an operational health promotion strategy. Based on the literature, the article also points to the need to envision the territory occupied as a locus to put intersetorialities into practice, giving a voice to people who live there, seek to and solve their complex problems, to existing and emerging social networks. It also presents a nationally and internationally validated strategy/method (Bamboo Method) for the development of local health promotion plans, which enables the prioritization of actions by listening to the people and to the managers.

  4. Create Your Plate

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... Food Planning Meals Diabetes Meal Plans and a Healthy Diet Create Your Plate Meal Planning for Vegetarian Diets Gluten Free Diets Holiday Meal Planning Cook with Heart-Healthy Foods donate en -- A Future Without Diabetes - a- ...

  5. 45 CFR 98.14 - Plan process.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... 45 Public Welfare 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Plan process. 98.14 Section 98.14 Public Welfare DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES GENERAL ADMINISTRATION CHILD CARE AND DEVELOPMENT FUND General Application Procedures § 98.14 Plan process. In the development of each Plan, as required pursuant to § 98.17...

  6. Evaluation of participatory planning: Lessons from Hungarian Natura 2000 management planning processes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kovács, Eszter; Kelemen, Eszter; Kiss, Gabriella; Kalóczkai, Ágnes; Fabók, Veronika; Mihók, Barbara; Megyesi, Boldizsár; Pataki, György; Bodorkós, Barbara; Balázs, Bálint; Bela, Györgyi; Margóczi, Katalin; Roboz, Ágnes; Molnár, Dániel

    2017-12-15

    Stakeholder participation in nature conservation policies and especially in the management of protected areas has gained importance in the last decades. These changes are underlined by democratic principles and the perceived contribution of stakeholder involvement to the effectiveness of conservation management. Evaluating participatory processes is essential to learn about the past and thus increase the quality of future processes. The evaluation can be useful for the organisations responsible for planning and management, stakeholders and policy makers as well. The present paper shows the results of a systematic evaluation of 25 participatory processes related to the development of management plans for Natura 2000 sites in Hungary between 2007 and 2015. A conceptual framework was developed to evaluate the process and outcome of participatory management planning processes. Criteria were based on the scientific literature on public participation and tailored to conservation-related management planning and stakeholder involvement. Evaluated processes were grouped in three cases based on their time range and financial sources. Overall, the analysed processes scored at a medium level, showing better performance in the process criteria than in the outcome criteria. The best case scored significantly higher in four criteria compared to the other cases: representativeness, resource availability for facilitation, new, creative ideas and impact on the plan. The main factors behind the success were (1) embeddedness of the planning process in a larger project, where the plan was a tool for conservation, (2) carrying out only one process at a time, (3) previous experience of facilitators and planners with participatory planning and (4) the opportunity and capacity to propose a payment scheme as an incentive. But even this case received low scores in some criteria: conflict resolution, early involvement and well defined goals. Based on the results we suggest that more data is

  7. A Process for Planning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gurowitz, William D.; And Others

    1988-01-01

    Describes how Division of Campus Life at Cornell University conducted long-range planning and the results of its 2-year effort. Explains 2 (strategic and organizational) by 3 (diagnosis, formulation, and execution) matrix providing systems view from describing and evaluating long-range planning. Presents 10-step process implemented at Cornell. (NB)

  8. SU-F-T-241: Reduction in Planning Errors Via a Process Control Developed Using the Eclipse Scripting API

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Barbee, D; McCarthy, A; Galavis, P; Xu, A [NYU Langone Medical Center, New York, NY (United States)

    2016-06-15

    Purpose: Errors found during initial physics plan checks frequently require replanning and reprinting, resulting decreased departmental efficiency. Additionally, errors may be missed during physics checks, resulting in potential treatment errors or interruption. This work presents a process control created using the Eclipse Scripting API (ESAPI) enabling dosimetrists and physicists to detect potential errors in the Eclipse treatment planning system prior to performing any plan approvals or printing. Methods: Potential failure modes for five categories were generated based on available ESAPI (v11) patient object properties: Images, Contours, Plans, Beams, and Dose. An Eclipse script plugin (PlanCheck) was written in C# to check errors most frequently observed clinically in each of the categories. The PlanCheck algorithms were devised to check technical aspects of plans, such as deliverability (e.g. minimum EDW MUs), in addition to ensuring that policy and procedures relating to planning were being followed. The effect on clinical workflow efficiency was measured by tracking the plan document error rate and plan revision/retirement rates in the Aria database over monthly intervals. Results: The number of potential failure modes the PlanCheck script is currently capable of checking for in the following categories: Images (6), Contours (7), Plans (8), Beams (17), and Dose (4). Prior to implementation of the PlanCheck plugin, the observed error rates in errored plan documents and revised/retired plans in the Aria database was 20% and 22%, respectively. Error rates were seen to decrease gradually over time as adoption of the script improved. Conclusion: A process control created using the Eclipse scripting API enabled plan checks to occur within the planning system, resulting in reduction in error rates and improved efficiency. Future work includes: initiating full FMEA for planning workflow, extending categories to include additional checks outside of ESAPI via Aria

  9. Create Your Plate

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... Food MyFoodAdvisor Recipes Association Cookbook Recipes Planning Meals Diabetes Meal Plans Create Your Plate Gluten Free Diets Meal Planning for Vegetarian Diets Cook with Heart-Healthy Foods Holiday Meal ...

  10. Create Your Plate

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... meal-planning, . In this section Food Planning Meals Diabetes Meal Plans and a Healthy Diet Create Your Plate Meal Planning for Vegetarian Diets Gluten Free Diets Holiday Meal Planning Cook with Heart-Healthy Foods donate en -- A Future Without Diabetes - a-future-without-diabetes-2.html A Future ...

  11. Hospital culture--why create one?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sovie, M D

    1993-01-01

    Hospitals, to survive, must be transformed into responsive, participative organizations capable of new practices that produce improved results in both quality of care and service at reduced costs. Creating, managing, and changing the culture are critical leadership functions that will enable the hospital to succeed. Strategic planning and effective implementation of planned change will produce the desired culture. Work restructuring, a focus on quality management along with changes in clinical practices, as well as the care and support processes, are all a part of the necessary hospital cultural revolution.

  12. 15 CFR 923.13 - Energy facility planning process.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... facility planning process. The management program must contain a planning process for energy facilities... 15 Commerce and Foreign Trade 3 2010-01-01 2010-01-01 false Energy facility planning process. 923... affected public and private parties will be involved in the planning process. [61 FR 33806, June 28, 1996...

  13. Early environmental planning: A process for power line corridor selection

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Haagenstad, T.; Bare, C.M.

    1998-01-01

    Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) conducted an environmental planning study in the fall of 1997 to help determine the best alternative for upgrading the Laboratory's electrical power system. Alternatives considered included an on-site power generation facility and two corridors for a 10-mile-long 115-kV power line. This planning process was conducted prior to the formal National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review. The goals were to help select the best proposed action, to recommend modifications and mitigation measures for each alternative for a more environmentally sound project, and to avoid potential delays once the formal Department of Energy review process began. Significant constraints existed from a planning perspective, including operational issues such as existing outdoor high explosives testing areas, as well as environmental issues including threatened and endangered species habitats, multiple archeological sites, contaminated areas, and aesthetics. The study had to be completed within 45 days to meet project schedule needs. The process resulted in a number of important recommendations. While the construction and operation of the on-site power generation facility could have minimal environmental impacts, the need for a new air quality permit would create severe cost and schedule constraints for the project. From an environmental perspective, construction and operation of a power line within either corridor was concluded to be a viable alternative. However, impacts with either corridor would have to be reduced through specific recommended alignment modifications and mitigation measures

  14. SNF Project Engineering Process Improvement Plan

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    DESAI, S.P.

    2000-01-01

    This plan documents the SNF Project activities and plans to support its engineering process. It describes five SNF Project Engineering initiatives: new engineering procedures, qualification cards process; configuration management, engineering self assessments, and integrated schedule for engineering activities

  15. Create Your Plate

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    Full Text Available ... Risk Test Lower Your Risk Healthy Eating Overweight Smoking High Blood Pressure Physical Activity High Blood Glucose ... Planning Meals Diabetes Meal Plans and a Healthy Diet Create Your Plate Meal Planning for Vegetarian Diets ...

  16. Create Your Plate

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    Full Text Available ... Your Plate Gluten Free Diets Meal Planning for Vegetarian Diets Cook with Heart-Healthy Foods Holiday Meal ... Healthy Diet Create Your Plate Meal Planning for Vegetarian Diets Gluten Free Diets Holiday Meal Planning Cook ...

  17. Lessons from disaster: Creating a business continuity plan that really works.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hatton, Tracy; Grimshaw, Eleanor; Vargo, John; Seville, Erica

    Business Continuity Planning (BCP) is well established as a key plank in an organisation's risk management process. But how effective is BCP when disaster strikes? This paper examines the experiences of organisations following the 2010-11 Canterbury, New Zealand earthquakes. The study finds that BCP was helpful for all organisations interviewed but more attention is needed on the management of societal and personal impacts; development of employee resilience, identification of effective crisis leaders; right-sizing plans and planning to seize opportunities post-disaster.

  18. Soft Systems Methodology Embedded in Organizational Knowledge-Creating Process

    OpenAIRE

    Yoshida, Taketoshi

    2005-01-01

    We clarify the role of tacit knowing in the soft systems methodology. For the purpose we investigate the basic structure of its seven-stage model, while embedding the soft systems methodology in organizational knowledge-creating process. This leads to the introduction of concept creation to the methodology. This changes the basic shape of the soft systems methodology from learning cycle to organizational knowledge-creating spiral where concept creation is the key point.

  19. Metals and Alloys Material Stabilization Process Plan

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    RISENMAY, H.R.; BURK, R.A.

    2000-05-18

    This Plan outlines the process for brushing metal and alloys in accordance with the path forward discussed in the Integrated Project Management Plan for the Plutonium Finishing Plant Stabilization and Deactivation Project, HNF-3617, and requirements set forth in the Project Management Plan for Materials Stabilization, HNF-3605. This plan provides the basis for selection of the location to process, the processes involved, equipment to be used, and the characterization of the contents of the can. The scope of the process is from retrieval of metals and alloys from storage to transfer back to storage in a repackaged configuration.

  20. Metals and Alloys Material Stabilization Process Plan

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    RISENMAY, H.R.; BURK, R.A.

    2000-01-01

    This Plan outlines the process for brushing metal and alloys in accordance with the path forward discussed in the Integrated Project Management Plan for the Plutonium Finishing Plant Stabilization and Deactivation Project, HNF-3617, and requirements set forth in the Project Management Plan for Materials Stabilization, HNF-3605. This plan provides the basis for selection of the location to process, the processes involved, equipment to be used, and the characterization of the contents of the can. The scope of the process is from retrieval of metals and alloys from storage to transfer back to storage in a repackaged configuration

  1. Natural processes as means to create local connection

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Sjøstedt, Victoria

    2010-01-01

    and practical knowledge about how to apply natural processes to planning. This paper investigates how natural process thinking caters for a connection to the local and the site-specific in a Chinese context of transformation. Natural process thinking as a site-based urban design approach is understood...... and utilized conceptually within the Wuhan project by mapping-techniques and environmental simulation software. The result gives implications concerning method development for architects as how to develop design concepts based on natural process thinking. Furthermore, the result shows that natural processes...

  2. Create Your Plate

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... 1 Type 2 About Us Online Community Meal Planning Sign In Search: Search More Sites Search ≡ Are ... Fitness Home Food MyFoodAdvisor Recipes Association Cookbook Recipes Planning Meals Diabetes Meal Plans Create Your Plate Gluten ...

  3. Miscroservices usage in creating enterprise resource planning systems

    OpenAIRE

    Ubartas, Vytautas

    2017-01-01

    Microservices helps to ease system development process and them are gaining popularity every day. They are suaitable for such big systems like Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). The notions of microservices and ERP are clarified in this work. Microservices architecural style advantages and main principles are stated also. Work objective is to assess the benefits of microservices and to develop a demo ERP system based on microservices. After microservices principles and ERP systems main parts...

  4. Retail Tactical Planning: An Aligned Process?

    OpenAIRE

    Dreyer , Heidi; Dukovska-Popovska , Iskra; Kiil , Kasper; Kaipia , Riikka

    2016-01-01

    Part 9: Quality in Production Management; International audience; This paper addresses tactical planning in retailing through a case study approach in one grocery retailing company. The issues are how tactical planning is conducted and how the different plans are connected. The study complements earlier retail planning studies by showing the sequence of planning phases and by studying the fragmented plans as a process. The master category planning is important and sets borders for the other p...

  5. 23 CFR 450.208 - Coordination of planning process activities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... process. (h) The statewide transportation planning process should be consistent with the Strategic Highway... 23 Highways 1 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false Coordination of planning process activities. 450.208... Coordination of planning process activities. (a) In carrying out the statewide transportation planning process...

  6. MO-B-BRB-00: Optimizing the Treatment Planning Process

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2015-01-01

    The radiotherapy treatment planning process has evolved over the years with innovations in treatment planning, treatment delivery and imaging systems. Treatment modality and simulation technologies are also rapidly improving and affecting the planning process. For example, Image-guided-radiation-therapy has been widely adopted for patient setup, leading to margin reduction and isocenter repositioning after simulation. Stereotactic Body radiation therapy (SBRT) and Radiosurgery (SRS) have gradually become the standard of care for many treatment sites, which demand a higher throughput for the treatment plans even if the number of treatments per day remains the same. Finally, simulation, planning and treatment are traditionally sequential events. However, with emerging adaptive radiotherapy, they are becoming more tightly intertwined, leading to iterative processes. Enhanced efficiency of planning is therefore becoming more critical and poses serious challenge to the treatment planning process; Lean Six Sigma approaches are being utilized increasingly to balance the competing needs for speed and quality. In this symposium we will discuss the treatment planning process and illustrate effective techniques for managing workflow. Topics will include: Planning techniques: (a) beam placement, (b) dose optimization, (c) plan evaluation (d) export to RVS. Planning workflow: (a) import images, (b) Image fusion, (c) contouring, (d) plan approval (e) plan check (f) chart check, (g) sequential and iterative process Influence of upstream and downstream operations: (a) simulation, (b) immobilization, (c) motion management, (d) QA, (e) IGRT, (f) Treatment delivery, (g) SBRT/SRS (h) adaptive planning Reduction of delay between planning steps with Lean systems due to (a) communication, (b) limited resource, (b) contour, (c) plan approval, (d) treatment. Optimizing planning processes: (a) contour validation (b) consistent planning protocol, (c) protocol/template sharing, (d) semi

  7. MO-B-BRB-00: Optimizing the Treatment Planning Process

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    2015-06-15

    The radiotherapy treatment planning process has evolved over the years with innovations in treatment planning, treatment delivery and imaging systems. Treatment modality and simulation technologies are also rapidly improving and affecting the planning process. For example, Image-guided-radiation-therapy has been widely adopted for patient setup, leading to margin reduction and isocenter repositioning after simulation. Stereotactic Body radiation therapy (SBRT) and Radiosurgery (SRS) have gradually become the standard of care for many treatment sites, which demand a higher throughput for the treatment plans even if the number of treatments per day remains the same. Finally, simulation, planning and treatment are traditionally sequential events. However, with emerging adaptive radiotherapy, they are becoming more tightly intertwined, leading to iterative processes. Enhanced efficiency of planning is therefore becoming more critical and poses serious challenge to the treatment planning process; Lean Six Sigma approaches are being utilized increasingly to balance the competing needs for speed and quality. In this symposium we will discuss the treatment planning process and illustrate effective techniques for managing workflow. Topics will include: Planning techniques: (a) beam placement, (b) dose optimization, (c) plan evaluation (d) export to RVS. Planning workflow: (a) import images, (b) Image fusion, (c) contouring, (d) plan approval (e) plan check (f) chart check, (g) sequential and iterative process Influence of upstream and downstream operations: (a) simulation, (b) immobilization, (c) motion management, (d) QA, (e) IGRT, (f) Treatment delivery, (g) SBRT/SRS (h) adaptive planning Reduction of delay between planning steps with Lean systems due to (a) communication, (b) limited resource, (b) contour, (c) plan approval, (d) treatment. Optimizing planning processes: (a) contour validation (b) consistent planning protocol, (c) protocol/template sharing, (d) semi

  8. New model of enterprises resource planning implementation planning process in manufacturing enterprises

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mirjana Misita

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available This article presents new model of enterprises resource planning implementation planning process in manufacturing enterprises based on assessment of risk sources. This assessment was performed by applying analytic hierarchy process. Analytic hierarchy process method allows variation of relative importance of specific risk sources dependent on the section from which the risk source originates (organizational environment, technical issues, people issues, adoption process management, and external support. Survey was conducted on 85 manufacturing enterprises involved with an enterprises resource planning solution. Ranking of risk sources assessments returns most frequent risks of enterprises resource planning implementation success in manufacturing enterprises, and representative factors were isolated through factor analysis by risk source origin. Finally, results indicate that there are hidden causes of failed implementation, for example, risk source “top management training and education,” from risk origin “adoption process management.”

  9. Climate Action Planning Process | Climate Neutral Research Campuses | NREL

    Science.gov (United States)

    Action Planning Process Climate Action Planning Process For research campuses, NREL has developed a five-step process to develop and implement climate action plans: Determine baseline energy consumption Analyze technology options Prepare a plan and set priorities Implement the climate action plan Measure and

  10. SNF project engineering process improvement plan

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    DESAI, S.P.

    1999-01-01

    This Engineering Process Improvement Plan documents the activities and plans to be taken by the SNF Project to support its engineering process and to produce a consolidated set of engineering procedures that are fully compliant with the requirements of HNF-PRO-1819. All new procedures will be issued and implemented by September 30, 1999

  11. SNF project engineering process improvement plan

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    KELMENSON, R.L.

    1999-01-01

    This Engineering Process Improvement Plan documents the activities and plans to be taken by the SNF Project (the Project) to support its engineering process and to produce a consolidated set of engineering procedures that are fully compliant with the requirements of HNF-PRO-1819 (1819). These requirements are imposed on all engineering activities performed for the Project and apply to all life-cycle stages of the Project's systems, structures and components (SSCs). This Plan describes the steps that will be taken by the Project during the transition period to ensure that new procedures are effectively integrated into the Project's work process as these procedures are issued. The consolidated procedures will be issued and implemented by September 30, 1999

  12. Create Your Plate

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... Planning Meals > Create Your Plate Share: Print Page Text Size: A A A Listen En Español Create ... Type 2 Education Series Hear audio clips and full recordings of past Q&A events at your ...

  13. Create Your Plate

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    Full Text Available ... for Association Events Messaging Tools Recruiting Advocates Local Market Planning Training Webinars News & Events Advocacy News Call ... Meals > Create Your Plate Share: Print Page Text Size: A A A Listen En Español Create Your ...

  14. Create Your Plate

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    Full Text Available ... Risk Test Lower Your Risk Healthy Eating Overweight Smoking High Blood Pressure Physical Activity High Blood Glucose ... Diabetes Meal Plans Create Your Plate Gluten Free Diets Meal Planning for Vegetarian Diets Cook with Heart- ...

  15. Information management in process planning

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Lutters, Diederick; Wijnker, T.C.; Kals, H.J.J.

    1999-01-01

    A recently proposed reference model indicates the use of structured information as the basis for the control of design and manufacturing processes. The model is used as a basis to describe the integration of design and process planning. A differentiation is made between macro- and micro process

  16. Using IT to improve quality at NewYork-Presybterian Hospital: a requirements-driven strategic planning process.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kuperman, Gilad J; Boyer, Aurelia; Cole, Curt; Forman, Bruce; Stetson, Peter D; Cooper, Mary

    2006-01-01

    At NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, we are committed to the delivery of high quality care. We have implemented a strategic planning process to determine the information technology initiatives that will best help us improve quality. The process began with the creation of a Clinical Quality and IT Committee. The Committee identified 2 high priority goals that would enable demonstrably high quality care: 1) excellence at data warehousing, and 2) optimal use of automated clinical documentation to capture encounter-related quality and safety data. For each high priority goal, a working group was created to develop specific recommendations. The Data Warehousing subgroup has recommended the implementation of an architecture management process and an improved ability for users to get access to aggregate data. The Structured Documentation subgroup is establishing recommendations for a documentation template creation process. The strategic planning process at times is slow, but assures that the organization is focusing on the information technology activities most likely to lead to improved quality.

  17. Strategy in Generative Planning of Turning Processes

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van Houten, Frederikus J.A.M.; Kals, H.J.J.

    1986-01-01

    This paper reports on the process and operations planning system ROUND and the strategies which underlie the decision making processes in the planning of turning operations. At first, an outline is given about the environment for which generative systems like ROUND are being developed. The

  18. Strategic planning processes and hospital financial performance.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kaissi, Amer A; Begun, James W

    2008-01-01

    Many common management practices in healthcare organizations, including the practice of strategic planning, have not been subject to widespread assessment through empirical research. If management practice is to be evidence-based, evaluations of such common practices need to be undertaken. The purpose of this research is to provide evidence on the extent of strategic planning practices and the association between hospital strategic planning processes and financial performance. In 2006, we surveyed a sample of 138 chief executive officers (CEOs) of hospitals in the state of Texas about strategic planning in their organizations and collected financial information on the hospitals for 2003. Among the sample hospitals, 87 percent reported having a strategic plan, and most reported that they followed a variety of common practices recommended for strategic planning-having a comprehensive plan, involving physicians, involving the board, and implementing the plan. About one-half of the hospitals assigned responsibility for the plan to the CEO. We tested the association between these planning characteristics in 2006 and two measures of financial performance for 2003. Three dimensions of the strategic planning process--having a strategic plan, assigning the CEO responsibility for the plan, and involving the board--are positively associated with earlier financial performance. Further longitudinal studies are needed to evaluate the cause-and-effect relationship between planning and performance.

  19. A key to success: optimizing the planning process

    Science.gov (United States)

    Turk, Huseyin; Karakaya, Kamil

    2014-05-01

    By adopting The NATO Strategic Concept Document in 2010, some important changes in the perception of threat and management of crisis were introduced. This new concept, named ''Comprehensive Approach'', includes the precautions of pre-crisis management, applications of crisis-duration management and reconstruction phase of post-intervention management. NATO will be interested in not only the political and military options , but also social, economical and informational aspects of crisis. NATO will take place in all phases of conflict. The conflicts which occur outside the borders of NATO's nations and terrorism are perceived as threat sources for peace and stability. In addition to conventional threats, cyber attacks which threaten network-supported communication systems, preventing applications from accessing to space that will be used in different fields of life. On the other hand, electronic warfare capabilities which can effect us negatively are added to threat list as new threats. In the process in which military is thought as option, a harder planning phase is waiting for NATO's decision makers who struggle for keeping peace and security. Operation planning process which depends on comprehensive approach, contains these steps: Situational awareness of battlefield, evaluation of the military intervention options, orientation, developing an operation plan, reviewing the plan and transition phases.1 To be successful in theater which is always changing with the technological advances, there has to be an accurate and timely planning on the table. So, spending time for planning can be shown as one of the biggest problem. In addition, sustaining situational awareness which is important for the whole operation planning process, technical command and control hitches, human factor, inability to determine the center of gravity of opponent in asymmetrical threat situations can be described as some of the difficulties in operation planning. In this study, a possible air

  20. Strategic Planning Approaches for Creating Resilient Cities: A Case Study on Hangzhou City

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    Liu; Dan; Hua; Chen

    2015-01-01

    In the twenty-first century, the population in China will be increasingly urbanized – focusing the sustainability challenge on cities and raising new challenges to address the urban resilience capacity. During the past two decades, China’s urban policies are state institution-directed, growth-oriented, and land-based, imposing unprecedented challenges on sustainability. Strengthening the capacity of cities to manage resilience appears to be a key factor for cities to effectively pursue sustainable development. The aim of this paper is to explore strategic planning approaches for creating resilient cities in China through a study on Hangzhou City in an integrated framework. Firstly, the paper gives a systematic insight into the structure of Hangzhou City. Secondly, the development trajectory of the urban system is analyzed to understand how the past has shaped the present and to get a broader perspective on its evolution. Thirdly, scenario planning is conducted to explore the adaptive capacity of Hangzhou City under different future conditions. At last, having analyzed the past, present, and future of the urban system, the paper discusses the strategies for resilient planning, which helps to identify factors and trends that might enhance or inhabit the adaptability.

  1. Generative design visualize, program, and create with processing

    CERN Document Server

    Bohnacker, Hartmut; Laub, Julia; Lazzeroni, Claudius

    2012-01-01

    Generative design is a revolutionary new method of creating artwork, models, and animations from sets of rules, or algorithms. By using accessible programming languages such as Processing, artists and designers are producing extravagant, crystalline structures that can form the basis of anything from patterned textiles and typography to lighting, scientific diagrams, sculptures, films, and even fantastical buildings. Opening with a gallery of thirty-five illustrated case studies, Generative Design takes users through specific, practical instructions on how to create their own visual experiments by combining simple-to-use programming codes with basic design principles. A detailed handbook of advanced strategies provides visual artists with all the tools to achieve proficiency. Both a how-to manual and a showcase for recent work in this exciting new field, Generative Design is the definitive study and reference book that designers have been waiting for.

  2. 300 Area Process Trenches Closure Plan

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Luke, S.N.

    1994-01-01

    Since 1987, Westinghouse Hanford Company has been a major contractor to the US Department of Energy, Richland Operations Office and has served as co-operator of the 300 Area Process Trenches, the waste management unit addressed in this closure plan. For the purposes of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, Westinghouse Hanford Company is identified as ''co-operator.'' The 300 Area Process Trenches Closure Plan (Revision 0) consists of a Resource Conservation and Recovery Act Part A Dangerous Waste Permit Application, Form 3 and a Resource Conservation and Recovery Act Closure Plan. An explanation of the Part A Permit Application, Form 3 submitted with this document is provided at the beginning of the Part A Section. The closure plan consists of nine chapters and six appendices. The 300 Area Process Trenches received dangerous waste discharges from research and development laboratories in the 300 Area and from fuels fabrication processes. This waste consisted of state-only toxic (WT02), corrosive (D002), chromium (D007), spent halogenated solvents (F001, F002, and F003), and spent nonhalogented solvent (F005). Accurate records are unavailable concerning the amount of dangerous waste discharged to the trenches. The estimated annual quantity of waste (item IV.B) reflects the total quantity of both regulated and nonregulated waste water that was discharged to the unit

  3. Scenario Based Network Infrastructure Planning

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Knudsen, Thomas Phillip; Pedersen, Jens Myrup; Madsen, Ole Brun

    2005-01-01

    The paper presents a method for IT infrastructure planning that take into account very long term developments in usages. The method creates a scenario for a final, time independent stage in the planning process. The method abstracts relevant modelling factors from available information...

  4. Creating a web site the missing manual

    CERN Document Server

    MacDonald, Matthew

    2008-01-01

    Think you have to be a technical wizard to build a great web site? Think again. If you want to create an engaging web site, this thoroughly revised, completely updated edition of Creating a Web Site: The Missing Manual demystifies the process and provides tools, techniques, and expert guidance for developing a professional and reliable web presence. Whether you want to build a personal web site, an e-commerce site, a blog, or a web site for a specific occasion or promotion, this book gives you detailed instructions and clear-headed advice for: Everything from planning to launching. From pi

  5. Integration of air quality-related planning processes : report

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2004-05-01

    Several communities in British Columbia have conducted air quality, greenhouse gas, or community energy management plans. This report explored the possibility of integrating 3 community-based air quality-related planning processes into a single process and evaluated the use of these 3 processes by local governments and First Nations in identifying and addressing air quality-related objectives, and determined to what extent they could be integrated to achieve planning objectives for air quality, greenhouse gas emissions, and energy supply and conservation. The lessons learned from 9 case studies in British Columbia were presented. The purpose of the case studies was to examine how communities handled emissions and energy related inventory and planning work, as well as their experiences with, or considerations for, an integrated process. The lessons were grouped under several key themes including organization and stakeholder involvement; messaging and focus; leadership/champions; and resources and capacity. The report also outlined a framework for an integrated planning process and provided recommendations regarding how an integrated or complementary process could be performed. A number of next steps were also offered for the provincial government to move the concept of an integrated process forward with the assistance of other partners. These included identifying the resources required to support communities engaging in an integrated process as well as discussing the series of options for provincial support with key stakeholders. refs., tabs., figs

  6. Organizational factors, planning capacity, and integration challenges constrain provincial planning processes for nutrition in decentralizing Vietnam.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lapping, Karin; Frongillo, Edward A; Nguyen, Phuong H; Coates, Jennifer; Webb, Patrick; Menon, Purnima

    2014-09-01

    Translating national policies and guidelines into effective action at the subnational level (e.g., province or region) is a prerequisite for ensuring an impact on nutrition. In several countries, including Vietnam, the focus of this paper, this process is affected by the quality of the decentralized process of planning and action. This study examined how provincial planning processes for nutrition occurred in Vietnam during 2009 and 2010. Key goals were to understand variability in processes across provinces, identify factors that influenced the process, and assess the usefulness of the process for individuals involved in planning and action. A qualitative case-study methodology was used. Data were drawn from interviews with 51 government officials in eight provinces. The study found little variability in the planning process among these eight provinces, probably due to a planning process that was predominantly a fiscal exercise within the confines of a largely centralized structure. Respondents were almost unanimous about the main barriers: a top-down approach to planning, limited human capacity for effective planning at subnational levels, and difficulty in integrating actions from multiple sectors. Provincial-level actors were deeply dissatisfied with the nature of their role in the process. Despite the rhetoric to the contrary, too much power is probably still retained at the central level. A strategic multiyear approach is needed to strengthen the provincial planning process and address many of the key barriers identified in this study.

  7. Implementation of a Web-Based Collaborative Process Planning System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Huifen; Liu, Tingting; Qiao, Li; Huang, Shuangxi

    Under the networked manufacturing environment, all phases of product manufacturing involving design, process planning, machining and assembling may be accomplished collaboratively by different enterprises, even different manufacturing stages of the same part may be finished collaboratively by different enterprises. Based on the self-developed networked manufacturing platform eCWS(e-Cooperative Work System), a multi-agent-based system framework for collaborative process planning is proposed. In accordance with requirements of collaborative process planning, share resources provided by cooperative enterprises in the course of collaboration are classified into seven classes. Then a reconfigurable and extendable resource object model is built. Decision-making strategy is also studied in this paper. Finally a collaborative process planning system e-CAPP is developed and applied. It provides strong support for distributed designers to collaboratively plan and optimize product process though network.

  8. MO-B-BRB-01: Optimize Treatment Planning Process in Clinical Environment

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Feng, W.

    2015-01-01

    The radiotherapy treatment planning process has evolved over the years with innovations in treatment planning, treatment delivery and imaging systems. Treatment modality and simulation technologies are also rapidly improving and affecting the planning process. For example, Image-guided-radiation-therapy has been widely adopted for patient setup, leading to margin reduction and isocenter repositioning after simulation. Stereotactic Body radiation therapy (SBRT) and Radiosurgery (SRS) have gradually become the standard of care for many treatment sites, which demand a higher throughput for the treatment plans even if the number of treatments per day remains the same. Finally, simulation, planning and treatment are traditionally sequential events. However, with emerging adaptive radiotherapy, they are becoming more tightly intertwined, leading to iterative processes. Enhanced efficiency of planning is therefore becoming more critical and poses serious challenge to the treatment planning process; Lean Six Sigma approaches are being utilized increasingly to balance the competing needs for speed and quality. In this symposium we will discuss the treatment planning process and illustrate effective techniques for managing workflow. Topics will include: Planning techniques: (a) beam placement, (b) dose optimization, (c) plan evaluation (d) export to RVS. Planning workflow: (a) import images, (b) Image fusion, (c) contouring, (d) plan approval (e) plan check (f) chart check, (g) sequential and iterative process Influence of upstream and downstream operations: (a) simulation, (b) immobilization, (c) motion management, (d) QA, (e) IGRT, (f) Treatment delivery, (g) SBRT/SRS (h) adaptive planning Reduction of delay between planning steps with Lean systems due to (a) communication, (b) limited resource, (b) contour, (c) plan approval, (d) treatment. Optimizing planning processes: (a) contour validation (b) consistent planning protocol, (c) protocol/template sharing, (d) semi

  9. MO-B-BRB-01: Optimize Treatment Planning Process in Clinical Environment

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Feng, W. [New York Presbyterian Hospital (United States)

    2015-06-15

    The radiotherapy treatment planning process has evolved over the years with innovations in treatment planning, treatment delivery and imaging systems. Treatment modality and simulation technologies are also rapidly improving and affecting the planning process. For example, Image-guided-radiation-therapy has been widely adopted for patient setup, leading to margin reduction and isocenter repositioning after simulation. Stereotactic Body radiation therapy (SBRT) and Radiosurgery (SRS) have gradually become the standard of care for many treatment sites, which demand a higher throughput for the treatment plans even if the number of treatments per day remains the same. Finally, simulation, planning and treatment are traditionally sequential events. However, with emerging adaptive radiotherapy, they are becoming more tightly intertwined, leading to iterative processes. Enhanced efficiency of planning is therefore becoming more critical and poses serious challenge to the treatment planning process; Lean Six Sigma approaches are being utilized increasingly to balance the competing needs for speed and quality. In this symposium we will discuss the treatment planning process and illustrate effective techniques for managing workflow. Topics will include: Planning techniques: (a) beam placement, (b) dose optimization, (c) plan evaluation (d) export to RVS. Planning workflow: (a) import images, (b) Image fusion, (c) contouring, (d) plan approval (e) plan check (f) chart check, (g) sequential and iterative process Influence of upstream and downstream operations: (a) simulation, (b) immobilization, (c) motion management, (d) QA, (e) IGRT, (f) Treatment delivery, (g) SBRT/SRS (h) adaptive planning Reduction of delay between planning steps with Lean systems due to (a) communication, (b) limited resource, (b) contour, (c) plan approval, (d) treatment. Optimizing planning processes: (a) contour validation (b) consistent planning protocol, (c) protocol/template sharing, (d) semi

  10. Computer Aided Process Planning for Non-Axisymmetric Deep Drawing Products

    Science.gov (United States)

    Park, Dong Hwan; Yarlagadda, Prasad K. D. V.

    2004-06-01

    In general, deep drawing products have various cross-section shapes such as cylindrical, rectangular and non-axisymmetric shapes. The application of the surface area calculation to non-axisymmetric deep drawing process has not been published yet. In this research, a surface area calculation for non-axisymmetric deep drawing products with elliptical shape was constructed for a design of blank shape of deep drawing products by using an AutoLISP function of AutoCAD software. A computer-aided process planning (CAPP) system for rotationally symmetric deep drawing products has been developed. However, the application of the system to non-axisymmetric components has not been reported yet. Thus, the CAPP system for non-axisymmetric deep drawing products with elliptical shape was constructed by using process sequence design. The system developed in this work consists of four modules. The first is recognition of shape module to recognize non-axisymmetric products. The second is a three-dimensional (3-D) modeling module to calculate the surface area for non-axisymmetric products. The third is a blank design module to create an oval-shaped blank with the identical surface area. The forth is a process planning module based on the production rules that play the best important role in an expert system for manufacturing. The production rules are generated and upgraded by interviewing field engineers. Especially, the drawing coefficient, the punch and die radii for elliptical shape products are considered as main design parameters. The suitability of this system was verified by applying to a real deep drawing product. This CAPP system constructed would be very useful to reduce lead-time for manufacturing and improve an accuracy of products.

  11. A model for effective intergovernmental planning

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Moore, R.C.

    1991-01-01

    Effective intergovernmental planning processes are essential to the resolution of potential affects created by federal projects. Intergovernmental planning for the proposed Yucca Mountain High-level Nuclear Waste Repository has not been effective to date. In this paper, two successful planning efforts are described. The common elements of these processes are analyzed to provide a model that can be used for the resolution of impacts from other projects. Management authorities of the entities involved should establish a working group to conduct the intergovernmental planning. The parties must identify issues that can be resolved through intergovernmental planning. Clear management authority and direction to the staff participating the planning process is essential. Issues which cannot be resolved should not be included in the goals of the working group. Funding to support the planning process is essential

  12. Creating a market-oriented product innovation process : A contingency approach

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kok, R.A.W.; Biemans, W.G.

    This study analyzes how and why a firm's change program to create a market-oriented innovation process depends on its environmental, innovational and organizational context. Based on an organizational-learning capabilities framework, the results from a multiple case study indicate how a firm's

  13. On Intelligent Design and Planning Method of Process Route Based on Gun Breech Machining Process

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hongzhi, Zhao; Jian, Zhang

    2018-03-01

    The paper states an approach of intelligent design and planning of process route based on gun breech machining process, against several problems, such as complex machining process of gun breech, tedious route design and long period of its traditional unmanageable process route. Based on gun breech machining process, intelligent design and planning system of process route are developed by virtue of DEST and VC++. The system includes two functional modules--process route intelligent design and its planning. The process route intelligent design module, through the analysis of gun breech machining process, summarizes breech process knowledge so as to complete the design of knowledge base and inference engine. And then gun breech process route intelligently output. On the basis of intelligent route design module, the final process route is made, edited and managed in the process route planning module.

  14. The planning of training process in triathlon

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Volodymyr Vodlozerov

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available Purpose: is the working out of base variant of training process as the base for planning of individual training of triathlete. Material & Methods: studying and generalization of special literature of basis training process for endurance in cyclic kinds of sports, the analysis of training of famous triathletes to competitions. Results: mane stages of training process formation in triathlon and features of distribution of sportsman’s training load in depending on period of training were considered. Conclusions: comprehensive planning of training process in different kinds of triathlon is lying down in basis of improving of competition form of triathlete.

  15. Resource Planning for Massive Number of Process Instances

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xu, Jiajie; Liu, Chengfei; Zhao, Xiaohui

    Resource allocation has been recognised as an important topic for business process execution. In this paper, we focus on planning resources for a massive number of process instances to meet the process requirements and cater for rational utilisation of resources before execution. After a motivating example, we present a model for planning resources for process instances. Then we design a set of heuristic rules that take both optimised planning at build time and instance dependencies at run time into account. Based on these rules we propose two strategies, one is called holistic and the other is called batched, for resource planning. Both strategies target a lower cost, however, the holistic strategy can achieve an earlier deadline while the batched strategy aims at rational use of resources. We discuss how to find balance between them in the paper with a comprehensive experimental study on these two approaches.

  16. NATO Defence Planning Process. Implications for defence posture

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Paweł Fleischer

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available The NATO Defence Planning Process (NDPP is the most important element affecting the Alliance's defence posture. Under the process states commit themselves to provide capabilities and forces required to fulfil NATO missions, defined in the NATO Strategic Concept. The NDPP directly affects national defence plans by harmonizing them with identified security and defence objectives as well by influencing development of the novel national defence capabilities. The emergence of new threats in the NATO environment, demands modifications in the defense planning process and establishing new goals for the Alliance. Enhancement of the NDPP should be priority during the time of unrest.

  17. A ten-step process to develop case management plans.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tahan, Hussein A

    2002-01-01

    The use of case management plans has contained cost and improved quality of care successfully. However, the process of developing these plans remains a great challenge for healthcare executives, in this article, the author presents the answer to this challenge by discussing a 10-step formal process that administrators of patient care services and case managers can adapt to their institutions. It also can be used by interdisciplinary team members as a practical guide to develop a specific case management plan. This process is applicable to any care setting (acute, ambulatory, long term, and home care), diagnosis, or procedure. It is particularly important for those organizations that currently do not have a deliberate and systematic process to develop case management plans and are struggling with how to improve the efficiency and productivity of interdisciplinary teams charged with developing case management plans.

  18. Model Development and Process Analysis for Lean Cellular Design Planning in Aerospace Assembly and Manufacturing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hilburn, Monty D.

    Successful lean manufacturing and cellular manufacturing execution relies upon a foundation of leadership commitment and strategic planning built upon solid data and robust analysis. The problem for this study was to create and employ a simple lean transformation planning model and review process that could be used to identify functional support staff resources required to plan and execute lean manufacturing cells within aerospace assembly and manufacturing sites. The lean planning model was developed using available literature for lean manufacturing kaizen best practices and validated through a Delphi panel of lean experts. The resulting model and a standardized review process were used to assess the state of lean transformation planning at five sites of an international aerospace manufacturing and assembly company. The results of the three day, on-site review were compared with baseline plans collected from each of the five sites to determine if there analyzed, with focus on three critical areas of lean planning: the number and type of manufacturing cells identified, the number, type, and duration of planned lean and continuous kaizen events, and the quantity and type of functional staffing resources planned to support the kaizen schedule. Summarized data of the baseline and on-site reviews was analyzed with descriptive statistics. ANOVAs and paired-t tests at 95% significance level were conducted on the means of data sets to determine if null hypotheses related to cell, kaizen event, and support resources could be rejected. The results of the research found significant differences between lean transformation plans developed by site leadership and plans developed utilizing the structured, on-site review process and lean transformation planning model. The null hypothesis that there was no difference between the means of pre-review and on-site cell counts was rejected, as was the null hypothesis that there was no significant difference in kaizen event plans. These

  19. Planning Tool for Strategic Evaluation of Facility Plans - 13570

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Magoulas, Virginia; Cercy, Michael [Savannah River National Laboratory, Savannah River Site, Aiken, SC 29808 (United States); Hall, Irin [Newport News Shipbuilding, 4101 Washington Ave., Newport News, VA 23607 (United States)

    2013-07-01

    Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) has developed a strategic planning tool for the evaluation of the utilization of its unique resources for processing and research and development of nuclear materials. The Planning Tool is a strategic level tool for assessing multiple missions that could be conducted utilizing the SRNL facilities and showcasing the plan. Traditional approaches using standard scheduling tools and laying out a strategy on paper tended to be labor intensive and offered either a limited or cluttered view for visualizing and communicating results. A tool that can assess the process throughput, duration, and utilization of the facility was needed. SRNL teamed with Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS), a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries, to create the next generation Planning Tool. The goal of this collaboration was to create a simulation based tool that allows for quick evaluation of strategies with respect to new or changing missions, and clearly communicates results to the decision makers. This tool has been built upon a mature modeling and simulation software previously developed by NNS. The Planning Tool provides a forum for capturing dependencies, constraints, activity flows, and variable factors. It is also a platform for quickly evaluating multiple mission scenarios, dynamically adding/updating scenarios, generating multiple views for evaluating/communicating results, and understanding where there are areas of risks and opportunities with respect to capacity. The Planning Tool that has been developed is useful in that it presents a clear visual plan for the missions at the Savannah River Site (SRS). It not only assists in communicating the plans to SRS corporate management, but also allows the area stakeholders a visual look at the future plans for SRS. The design of this tool makes it easily deployable to other facility and mission planning endeavors. (authors)

  20. Planning Tool for Strategic Evaluation of Facility Plans - 13570

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Magoulas, Virginia; Cercy, Michael; Hall, Irin

    2013-01-01

    Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) has developed a strategic planning tool for the evaluation of the utilization of its unique resources for processing and research and development of nuclear materials. The Planning Tool is a strategic level tool for assessing multiple missions that could be conducted utilizing the SRNL facilities and showcasing the plan. Traditional approaches using standard scheduling tools and laying out a strategy on paper tended to be labor intensive and offered either a limited or cluttered view for visualizing and communicating results. A tool that can assess the process throughput, duration, and utilization of the facility was needed. SRNL teamed with Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS), a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries, to create the next generation Planning Tool. The goal of this collaboration was to create a simulation based tool that allows for quick evaluation of strategies with respect to new or changing missions, and clearly communicates results to the decision makers. This tool has been built upon a mature modeling and simulation software previously developed by NNS. The Planning Tool provides a forum for capturing dependencies, constraints, activity flows, and variable factors. It is also a platform for quickly evaluating multiple mission scenarios, dynamically adding/updating scenarios, generating multiple views for evaluating/communicating results, and understanding where there are areas of risks and opportunities with respect to capacity. The Planning Tool that has been developed is useful in that it presents a clear visual plan for the missions at the Savannah River Site (SRS). It not only assists in communicating the plans to SRS corporate management, but also allows the area stakeholders a visual look at the future plans for SRS. The design of this tool makes it easily deployable to other facility and mission planning endeavors. (authors)

  1. STRATEGIC ALLIANCE AND STRATEGIC PLANNING EFFECT TO COMPANY PERFORMANCE IN CREATING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE (STUDY CASE AT INDOFOOD CBP SUKSES MAKMUR COMPANY - FOOD SEASONING DIVISION )

    OpenAIRE

    Ardiyanto, Yan

    2016-01-01

    This research head for analyze the effect of inter variable to answered set problems how is strategic alliance and strategic planning to improve company performance for create competitive advantage. This research gives theoritic and managerial implication concern pace which have to take by PT. Indofood CBP Sukses Makmur Food Seasoning Division to improve their company performance for create competitive advantage which got from product strategic alliance and strategic planning. Population in t...

  2. Process quality planning of quality function deployment for carrot syrup

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ekawati, Yurida; Noya, Sunday; Widjaja, Filemon

    2017-06-01

    Carrot products are rarely available in the market. Based on previous research that had been done using QFD to generate product design of carrots products, the research to produce the process quality planning had been carried out. The carrot product studied was carrot syrup. The research resulted in a process planning matrix for carrot syrup. The matrix gives information about critical process plan and the priority of the critical process plan. The critical process plan on the production process of carrot syrup consists of carrots sorting, carrots peeling, carrots washing, blanching process, carrots cutting, the making of pureed carrots, filtering carrot juice, the addition of sugar in carrot juice, the addition of food additives in carrot juice, syrup boiling, syrup filtering, syrup filling into the bottle, the bottle closure and cooling. The information will help the design of the production process of carrot syrup.

  3. Business Plan for a Guest House in Southern Estonia

    OpenAIRE

    Vasiljev, Girli

    2015-01-01

    The thesis in question was composed to help the author of the thesis realize the importance of a business plan and also to understand how to craft one. Therefore the thesis in hand is a learning process that handles the key parts of a business plan according to various sources. It´s purpose was to create an overview of what is essential in a proper business plan and consequently to create own model of a business plan. Hence the outcome of the thesis is an example business plan that has been d...

  4. Animation of planning algorithms

    OpenAIRE

    Sun, Fan

    2014-01-01

    Planning is the process of creating a sequence of steps/actions that will satisfy a goal of a problem. The partial order planning (POP) algorithm is one of Artificial Intelligence approach for problem planning. By learning G52PAS module, I find that it is difficult for students to understand this planning algorithm by just reading its pseudo code and doing some exercise in writing. Students cannot know how each actual step works clearly and might miss some steps because of their confusion. ...

  5. University Community Engagement and the Strategic Planning Process

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Laura Newton Miller

    2018-03-01

    Full Text Available Abstract  Objectives – To understand how university libraries are engaging with the university community (students, faculty, campus partners, and administration when working through the strategic planning process.  Methods – Literature review and exploratory open-ended survey to members of CAUL (Council of Australian University Librarians, CARL (Canadian Association of Research Libraries, CONZUL (Council of New Zealand University Librarians, and RLUK (Research Libraries UK who are most directly involved in the strategic planning process at their library.  Results – Out of a potential 113 participants from 4 countries, 31 people (27% replied to the survey. Libraries most often mentioned the use of regularly-scheduled surveys to inform their strategic planning, which helps to truncate the process for some respondents, as opposed to conducting user feedback specifically for the strategic planning process. Other quantitative methods include customer intelligence and library-produced data. Qualitative methods include the use of focus groups, interviews, and user experience/design techniques to help inform the strategic plan. The focus of questions to users tended to fall towards user-focused (with or without library lens, library-focused, trends and vision, and feedback on plan.  Conclusions – Combining both quantitative and qualitative methods can help give a fuller picture for librarians working on a strategic plan. Having the university community join the conversation on how the library moves forward is an important but difficult endeavour.  Regardless, the university library needs to be adaptive to the rapidly changing environment around it. Having a sense of how other libraries engage with the university community benefits others who are tasked with strategic planning.

  6. Application of a B ampersand W developed computer aided pictorial process planning system to CQMS for manufacturing process control

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Johanson, D.C.; VandeBogart, J.E.

    1992-01-01

    Babcock ampersand Wilcox (B ampersand W) will utilize its internally developed Computer Aided Pictorial Process Planning or CAPPP (pronounced open-quotes cap cubedclose quotes) system to create a paperless manufacturing environment for the Collider Quadruple Magnets (CQM). The CAPPP system consists of networked personal computer hardware and software used to: (1) generate and maintain the documents necessary for product fabrication, (2) communicate the information contained in these documents to the production floor, and (3) obtain quality assurance and manufacturing feedback information from the production floor. The purpose of this paper is to describe the various components of the CAPPP system and explain their applicability to product fabrication, specifically quality assurance functions

  7. 44 CFR 78.9 - Planning grant approval process.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ..., DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY INSURANCE AND HAZARD MITIGATION National Flood Insurance Program FLOOD MITIGATION ASSISTANCE § 78.9 Planning grant approval process. The State POC will evaluate and approve applications for Planning Grants. Funds will be provided only for the flood portion of any mitigation plan, and...

  8. Are pedestrians invisible in the planning process?

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Gemzøe, Lars

    2001-01-01

    The vehicular traffic is very visible in the planning process. One of the reasons is that there is always plenty of data on the problems of car traffic - but what about data on the pedestrians and their needs? Three major studies on people in public spaces in the Inner City of Copenhagen have...... supplied data that show the quantity, character and changes through 30 years of public life. People in Copenhagen have become visible in the planning process. cd-rom....

  9. Business rules for creating process flexibility : Mapping RIF rules and BDI rules

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Gong, Y.; Overbeek, S.J.; Janssen, M.

    2011-01-01

    Business rules and software agents can be used for creating flexible business processes. The Rule Interchange Format (RIF) is a new W3C recommendation standard for exchanging rules among disparate systems. Yet, the impact that the introduction of RIF has on the design of flexible business processes

  10. Tracking the Short Term Planning (STP) Development Process

    Science.gov (United States)

    Price, Melanie; Moore, Alexander

    2010-01-01

    Part of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration?s mission is to pioneer the future in space exploration, scientific discovery and aeronautics research is enhanced by discovering new scientific tools to improve life on earth. Sequentially, to successfully explore the unknown, there has to be a planning process that organizes certain events in the right priority. Therefore, the planning support team has to continually improve their processes so the ISS Mission Operations can operate smoothly and effectively. The planning support team consists of people in the Long Range Planning area that develop timelines that includes International Partner?s Preliminary STP inputs all the way through to publishing of the Final STP. Planning is a crucial part of the NASA community when it comes to planning the astronaut?s daily schedule in great detail. The STP Process is in need of improvement, because of the various tasks that are required to be broken down in order to get the overall objective of developing a Final STP done correctly. Then a new project came along in order to store various data in a more efficient database. "The SharePoint site is a Web site that provides a central storage and collaboration space for documents, information, and ideas."

  11. Characterization of Particles Created By Laser-Driven Hydrothermal Processing

    Science.gov (United States)

    2016-06-01

    study for two reasons: (i) Both materials are compositionally high in SiO2 and (ii) form similarly to glass formed by a nuclear explosion, which...creates massive pressures and temperatures. As an example, trinitite is a glass formed by a post-nuclear event with SiO2 making up 50%-75% of its...processing, characterization, obsidian, tektite, natural glass 15. NUMBER OF PAGES 89 16. PRICE CODE 17. SECURITY CLASSIFICATION OF REPORT

  12. Collaborative Strategic Planning in Higher Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sanaghan, Patrick

    2009-01-01

    This book outlines a simple, five-phase collaborative approach to strategic planning that has worked effectively on many campuses. Specifically, Collaborative Strategic Planning (CSP) refers to the disciplined and thoughtful process of meaningfully engaging relevant stakeholders in creating a shared future vision and goals for their institution.…

  13. 'Race', disadvantage, and policy processes in British planning

    OpenAIRE

    H Thomas; V Krishnarayan

    1994-01-01

    In this paper some of the mechanisms by which black and ethnic minorities can be put at a particular disadvantage within the planning system in Britain (and how these processes can be challenged) are examined. A number of types of policy processes operating in British planning are identified, and, drawing on a range of secondary and primary data, the influence of black and ethnic minorities within these processes are analysed. The paper is concluded with a review of the possibilities for the ...

  14. Overview of planning process at FFTF [Fast Flux Test Facility

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gadeken, A.D.

    1986-03-01

    The planning process at the Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF) is controlled through a hierarchy of documents ranging from a ten-year strategic plan to a weekly schedule. Within the hierarchy are a Near-Term (three-year) Operating Plan, a Cycle (six-month) Plan, and an Outage/Operating Phase Schedule. Coordination of the planning process is accomplished by a dedicated preparation team that also provides an overview of the formal planning timetable which identifies key action items required to be completed before an outage/operating phase can begin

  15. IMRT plan verification in radiotherapy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Vlk, P.

    2006-01-01

    This article describes the procedure for verification of IMRT (Intensity modulated radiation therapy) plan, which is used in the Oncological Institute of St. Elisabeth in Bratislava. It contains basic description of IMRT technology and developing a deployment plan for IMRT planning system CORVUS 6.0, the device Mimic (Multilammelar intensity modulated collimator) and the overall process of verifying the schedule created. The aim of verification is particularly good control of the functions of MIMIC and evaluate the overall reliability of IMRT planning. (author)

  16. A Collaborative, Ongoing University Strategic Planning Framework: Process, Landmines, and Lessons

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hill, Susan E. Kogler; Thomas, Edward G.; Keller, Lawrence F.

    2009-01-01

    This article examines the strategic planning process at Cleveland State University, a large metropolitan state university in Ohio. A faculty-administrative team used a communicative planning approach to develop a collaborative, ongoing, bottom-up, transparent strategic planning process. This team then spearheaded the process through plan…

  17. Evaluating the quality of medical multiple-choice items created with automated processes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gierl, Mark J; Lai, Hollis

    2013-07-01

    Computerised assessment raises formidable challenges because it requires large numbers of test items. Automatic item generation (AIG) can help address this test development problem because it yields large numbers of new items both quickly and efficiently. To date, however, the quality of the items produced using a generative approach has not been evaluated. The purpose of this study was to determine whether automatic processes yield items that meet standards of quality that are appropriate for medical testing. Quality was evaluated firstly by subjecting items created using both AIG and traditional processes to rating by a four-member expert medical panel using indicators of multiple-choice item quality, and secondly by asking the panellists to identify which items were developed using AIG in a blind review. Fifteen items from the domain of therapeutics were created in three different experimental test development conditions. The first 15 items were created by content specialists using traditional test development methods (Group 1 Traditional). The second 15 items were created by the same content specialists using AIG methods (Group 1 AIG). The third 15 items were created by a new group of content specialists using traditional methods (Group 2 Traditional). These 45 items were then evaluated for quality by a four-member panel of medical experts and were subsequently categorised as either Traditional or AIG items. Three outcomes were reported: (i) the items produced using traditional and AIG processes were comparable on seven of eight indicators of multiple-choice item quality; (ii) AIG items can be differentiated from Traditional items by the quality of their distractors, and (iii) the overall predictive accuracy of the four expert medical panellists was 42%. Items generated by AIG methods are, for the most part, equivalent to traditionally developed items from the perspective of expert medical reviewers. While the AIG method produced comparatively fewer plausible

  18. Classification of risks in the process of financial planning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    A.V. Overchuk

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available The essence of the concept «risk» in the process of financial planning is studied. The classification of risks was conducted. The article provides the full enough and detailed system of classification of risks in the process of financial planning. The author researches and provides the factors, which directly influence upon the size of risks, which accompany the process of financial planning. A complete set of isolated independent features was determined for each risk type. It was found out that a part of features depends only on the risk type and the other part is determined by the character of a risky situation. The article substantiates the presence of indeterminacy typical for dynamic and non-stationary environment and the risks of different nature and strength of influence on the efficiency of financial planning, which cause the necessity to develop and implement the effective system of financial planning at an enterprise.

  19. 2015 Plan. Project 1: methodology and planning process of the Brazilian electric sector expansion

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1993-10-01

    The Planning Process of Brazilian Electric Sector Expansion, their normative aspects, instruments, main agents and the planning cycles are described. The methodology of expansion planning is shown, with the interactions of several study areas, electric power market and the used computer models. The forecasts of methodology evolution is also presented. (C.G.C.)

  20. Create Your Plate

    Medline Plus

    Full Text Available ... Us in the Fight for a Cure Your tax-deductible gift today can fund critical diabetes research ... Close www.diabetes.org > Food and Fitness > Food > Planning Meals > Create Your Plate Share: Print Page Text ...

  1. Hygienic-sanitary working practices and implementation of a Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP plan in lobster processing industries

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cristina Farias da Fonseca

    2013-03-01

    Full Text Available This study aimed to verify the hygienic-sanitary working practices and to create and implement a Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP in two lobster processing industries in Pernambuco State, Brazil. The industries studied process frozen whole lobsters, frozen whole cooked lobsters, and frozen lobster tails for exportation. The application of the hygienic-sanitary checklist in the industries analyzed achieved conformity rates over 96% to the aspects evaluated. The use of the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP plan resulted in the detection of two critical control points (CCPs including the receiving and classification steps in the processing of frozen lobster and frozen lobster tails, and an additional critical control point (CCP was detected during the cooking step of processing of the whole frozen cooked lobster. The proper implementation of the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP plan in the lobster processing industries studied proved to be the safest and most cost-effective method to monitor each critical control point (CCP hazards.

  2. SU-E-P-27: Efficient Process for AccuBoost Planning and Treatment Delivery to Minimize Patient Compression Time

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Iftimia, I; Talmadge, M; Halvorsen, P [Lahey Clinic, Burlington, MA (United States)

    2015-06-15

    Purpose: To implement an efficient and robust process for AccuBoost planning and treatment delivery that can be safely performed by a single Physicist while minimizing patient’s total session time. Methods: Following a thorough commissioning and validation process, templates were created in the brachytherapy planning system for each AccuBoost applicator. Tables of individual and total nominal dwell times for each applicator as a function of separation were generated to streamline planning while an Excel-based nomogram provided by the vendor functions as a secondary verification of the treatment parameters. Tables of surface dose as a function of separation and applicator, along with concise guidance documents for applicator selection, are readily available during the planning process. The entire process is described in a set of detailed Standard Operating Procedures which, in addition to the items described above, include a verbal time-out between the primary planner and the individual performing the secondary verification as well as direct visual confirmation of applicator placement using an articulated mirror. Prior to treatment initiation, a final time-out is conducted with the Radiation Oncologist. Chart documentation is finalized after the patient is released from compression following completion of the treatment. Results: With the aforementioned procedures, it has been possible to consistently limit the time required to prepare each treatment such that the patient is typically under compression for less than 10 minutes per orientation prior to the initiation of the treatment, which is particularly important for APBI cases. This process can be overseen by a single physicist assisted by a dosimetrist and has been optimized during the past 16 months, with 180 treatment sessions safely completed to date. Conclusion: This work demonstrates the implementation of an efficient and robust process for real-time-planned AccuBoost treatments that effectively minimizes

  3. Creating Future Memories: A Dialogue on Process

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rehder, Mads Middelboe

    2016-01-01

    This contribution documents the generative method we used to create a two-day public workshop on archiving digital memory, which occurred in April 2016 at the Counterplay Festival in Aarhus. Our group members, collectively known as the Futuremaking group created two distinct experiences. The “Help...... Desk of the Future” was created as a means of acting out how unhelpful many helpdesks actually are and to imagine how algorithms may be positioning our futures for us. The Museum of Random Memory functioned as a pop-up curatorial event where participants could offer up memories, experiences...

  4. Strategic planning and the budgeting process

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Craig, J.F.; Probasco, D.R.

    1993-01-01

    As the utility industry continues its transformation to a more competitive environment, companies are coming under ever-increasing pressure to avoid or minimize rate increases, implement new customer and environmental programs, and maintain profitability for shareholders. Two keys to having an effective organization in such an environment are the use of strategic planning and budgetary controls. The authors recently developed and implemented a strategic planning and budgeting process for a client in the Southwest. This paper reviews the highlights of that effort

  5. Evaluating the role of collaborative planning in BC's Parks and Protected Areas Management Planning process

    OpenAIRE

    Ronmark, Tracy

    2005-01-01

    BC's protected areas system has recently doubled in size as a result of land use planning across the province. Managing protected areas to meet many goals requires thoughtful planning that involves stakeholder participation and dispute resolution through the plan development and implementation stages. This research identifies the best practices for planning and evaluates protected areas management planning processes based on those criteria. Evaluative criteria were developed from a literature...

  6. Process evaluation of discharge planning implementation in healthcare using normalization process theory.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nordmark, Sofi; Zingmark, Karin; Lindberg, Inger

    2016-04-27

    Discharge planning is a care process that aims to secure the transfer of care for the patient at transition from home to the hospital and back home. Information exchange and collaboration between care providers are essential, but deficits are common. A wide range of initiatives to improve the discharge planning process have been developed and implemented for the past three decades. However, there are still high rates of reported medical errors and adverse events related to failures in the discharge planning. Using theoretical frameworks such as Normalization Process Theory (NPT) can support evaluations of complex interventions and processes in healthcare. The aim of this study was to explore the embedding and integration of the DPP from the perspective of registered nurses, district nurses and homecare organizers. The study design was explorative, using the NPT as a framework to explore the embedding and integration of the DPP. Data consisted of written documentation from; workshops with staff, registered adverse events and system failures, web based survey and individual interviews with staff. Using the NPT as a framework to explore the embedding and integration of discharge planning after 10 years in use showed that the staff had reached a consensus of opinion of what the process was (coherence) and how they evaluated the process (reflexive monitoring). However, they had not reached a consensus of opinion of who performed the process (cognitive participation) and how it was performed (collective action). This could be interpreted as the process had not become normalized in daily practice. The result shows necessity to observe the implementation of old practices to better understand the needs of new ones before developing and implementing new practices or supportive tools within healthcare to reach the aim of development and to accomplish sustainable implementation. The NPT offers a generalizable framework for analysis, which can explain and shape the

  7. Defining the role of University of Kentucky HealthCare in its medical market--how strategic planning creates the intersection of good public policy and good business practices.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Karpf, Michael; Lofgren, Richard; Bricker, Timothy; Claypool, Joseph O; Zembrodt, Jim; Perman, Jay; Higdon, Courtney M

    2009-02-01

    In response both to national pressures to reduce costs and improve health care access and outcomes and to local pressures to become a top-20 public research university, the University of Kentucky moved toward an integrated clinical enterprise, UK HealthCare, to create a common vision, shared goals, and an effective decision-making process. The leadership formed the vision and then embarked on a comprehensive and coordinated planning process that addressed financial, clinical, academic, and operational issues. The authors describe in depth the strategic planning process and specifically the definition of UK HealthCare's role in its medical marketplace. They began a rigorous process to assess and develop goals for the clinical programs and followed the progress of these programs through meetings driven by data and attended by the organization's senior leadership. They describe their approach to working with rural and community hospitals throughout central, eastern, and southern Kentucky to support the health care infrastructure of the state. They review the early successes of their strategic approach and describe the lessons they learned. The clinical successes have led to academic gains. The experience of UK HealthCare suggests that good business practices and good public policy are synergistic.

  8. A new DoD initiative: the Computational Research and Engineering Acquisition Tools and Environments (CREATE) program

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Arevalo, S; Atwood, C; Bell, P; Blacker, T D; Dey, S; Fisher, D; Fisher, D A; Genalis, P; Gorski, J; Harris, A; Hill, K; Hurwitz, M; Kendall, R P; Meakin, R L; Morton, S; Moyer, E T; Post, D E; Strawn, R; Veldhuizen, D v; Votta, L G

    2008-01-01

    In FY2008, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) initiated the Computational Research and Engineering Acquisition Tools and Environments (CREATE) program, a $360M program with a two-year planning phase and a ten-year execution phase. CREATE will develop and deploy three computational engineering tool sets for DoD acquisition programs to use to design aircraft, ships and radio-frequency antennas. The planning and execution of CREATE are based on the 'lessons learned' from case studies of large-scale computational science and engineering projects. The case studies stress the importance of a stable, close-knit development team; a focus on customer needs and requirements; verification and validation; flexible and agile planning, management, and development processes; risk management; realistic schedules and resource levels; balanced short- and long-term goals and deliverables; and stable, long-term support by the program sponsor. Since it began in FY2008, the CREATE program has built a team and project structure, developed requirements and begun validating them, identified candidate products, established initial connections with the acquisition programs, begun detailed project planning and development, and generated the initial collaboration infrastructure necessary for success by its multi-institutional, multidisciplinary teams

  9. Strategic planning processes and financial performance among hospitals in Lebanon.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saleh, Shadi; Kaissi, Amer; Semaan, Adele; Natafgi, Nabil Maher

    2013-01-01

    Strategic planning has been presented as a valuable management tool. However, evidence of its deployment in healthcare and its effect on organizational performance is limited in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). The study aimed to explore the use of strategic planning processes in Lebanese hospitals and to investigate its association with financial performance. The study comprised 79 hospitals and assessed occupancy rate (OR) and revenue-per-bed (RPB) as performance measures. The strategic planning process included six domains: having a plan, plan development, plan implementation, responsibility of planning activities, governing board involvement, and physicians' involvement. Approximately 90% of hospitals have strategic plans that are moderately developed (mean score of 4.9 on a 1-7 scale) and implemented (score of 4.8). In 46% of the hospitals, the CEO has the responsibility for the plan. The level of governing board involvement in the process is moderate to high (score of 5.1), whereas physician involvement is lower (score of 4.1). The OR and RPB amounted to respectively 70% and 59 304 among hospitals with a strategic plan as compared with 62% and 33 564 for those lacking such a plan. No statistical association between having a strategic plan and either of the two measures was detected. However, the findings revealed that among hospitals that had a strategic plan, higher implementation levels were associated with lower OR (p plans allow organizations to better cope with environmental turbulence. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  10. Ensuring the Process of Realisation of Financial Planning of Banking Activity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kirkach Svitlana M.

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available The article studies theoretical aspects of the process of realisation of financial planning of the bank’s activity and identifies and justifies its six main stages: 1 goal formation stage; 2 preparation stage; 3 assessment; 4 financial plan approval; 5 financial plan execution, and 6 stage of the financial plan monitoring, control and adjustment. The above sequence of stages of the process of realisation of financial planning of the bank’s activity allows a trustworthy assessment of the bank’s activity environment, formation of specific goals and tasks of the bank’s activity, and also to determine the ways of their achievement, and so on. The result of the process of realisation of financial planning of the bank’s activity is the bank’s financial plan, which is proposed to divide into four sub-sections: plan of the bank’s assets and liabilities; plan of the bank’s receipts and expenditures; plan of the bank’s cash flows; and plan of forecast values of basic financial indicators of the bank’s activity.

  11. Connecting the Dots--From Planning to Implementation: Translating Commitments into Action in a Strategic Planning Process

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mieso, Rob Roba

    2010-01-01

    This study examines the implementation of the Commitments to Action (CTAs) that were developed for the Outreach Institutional Initiative (OII) as part of the 2006 strategic planning process at De Anza College. Although the strategic planning process identified four Institutional Initiatives (IIs) [Outreach, Individualized Attention to Student…

  12. Renewable Energy Zone (REZ) Transmission Planning Process: A Guidebook for Practitioners

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lee, Nathan [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Flores-Espino, Francisco [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Hurlbut, David J. [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

    2017-09-05

    Achieving clean energy goals may require new investments in transmission, especially if planners anticipate economic growth and increased demand for electricity. The renewable energy zone (REZ) transmission planning process can help policymakers ensure their infrastructure investments achieve national goals in the most economical manner. Policymakers, planners, and system operators around the world have used variations of the REZ process to chart the expansion of their transmission networks and overcome the barriers of traditional transmission planning. This guidebook seeks to help power system planners, key decision makers, and stakeholders understand and use the REZ transmission planning process to integrate transmission expansion planning and renewable energy generation planning.

  13. Creating a strategic plan for configuration management using computer aided software engineering (CASE) tools

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Smith, P.R.; Sarfaty, R.

    1993-01-01

    This paper provides guidance in the definition, documentation, measurement, enhancement of processes, and validation of a strategic plan for configuration management (CM). The approach and methodology used in establishing a strategic plan is the same for any enterprise, including the Department of Energy (DOE), commercial nuclear plants, the Department of Defense (DOD), or large industrial complexes. The principles and techniques presented are used world wide by some of the largest corporations. The authors used industry knowledge and the areas of their current employment to illustrate and provide examples. Developing a strategic configuration and information management plan for DOE Idaho Field Office (DOE-ID) facilities is discussed in this paper. A good knowledge of CM principles is the key to successful strategic planning. This paper will describe and define CM elements, and discuss how CM integrates the facility's physical configuration, design basis, and documentation. The strategic plan does not need the support of a computer aided software engineering (CASE) tool. However, the use of the CASE tool provides a methodology for consistency in approach, graphics, and database capability combined to form an encyclopedia and a method of presentation that is easily understood and aids the process of reengineering. CASE tools have much more capability than those stated above. Some examples are supporting a joint application development group (JAD) to prepare a software functional specification document and, if necessary, provide the capability to automatically generate software application code. This paper briefly discusses characteristics and capabilities of two CASE tools that use different methodologies to generate similar deliverables

  14. 36 CFR 1237.26 - What materials and processes must agencies use to create audiovisual records?

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-07-01

    ... must agencies use to create audiovisual records? 1237.26 Section 1237.26 Parks, Forests, and Public Property NATIONAL ARCHIVES AND RECORDS ADMINISTRATION RECORDS MANAGEMENT AUDIOVISUAL, CARTOGRAPHIC, AND RELATED RECORDS MANAGEMENT § 1237.26 What materials and processes must agencies use to create audiovisual...

  15. Public Relations for Brazilian Libraries: Process, Principles, Program Planning, Planning Techniques and Suggestions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kies, Cosette N.

    A brief overview of the functions of public relations in libraries introduces this manual, which provides an explanation of the public relations (PR) process, including fact-finding, planning, communicating, evaluating, and marketing; some PR principles; a 10-step program that could serve as a model for planning a PR program; a discussion of PR…

  16. The effectiveness of Concept Mapping Content Representation Lesson Study (ComCoReLS) model to improve skills of Creating Physics Lesson Plan (CPLP) for pre-service physics teacher

    Science.gov (United States)

    Purwaningsih, E.; Suyatno; Wasis; Prahani, B. K.

    2018-03-01

    This research is aimed to analyse the effectiveness of ComCoReLS (Concept Mapping Content Representation Lesson Study) model towards the improvement skills of Creating Physics Lesson Plan (CPLP) for pre-service physics teacher. This research used one group pre-test and post-test design on 12 pre-service physics teacher at University of Malang State (Indonesia) in academic year 2016/2017. Data collection was conducted through test and interview. Skills of creating physics lesson plan for pre-service physics teacher measurement were conducted through Physics Lesson Plan Evaluation Sheet (PLPES). The data analysis technique was done by using paired t-test and n-gain. The CoMCoReLS model consists of 5 phases, including (1) Preparation, (2) Coaching, (3) Guided Practice, (4) Independent Practice, and (5) Evaluation. In the first, second, third and fifth phases are done at University of Malang State, while the fourth phase (Independent Practice) is done in SMAN 1 Singosari, SMAN 2 Malang, SMA Lab UM, MAN 3 Malang. The results showed that there was a significant increase in skills of creating physics lesson plan for pre-service physics teacher at α = 5% and n-gain average of high category. Thus, the ComCoReLS model is effective for improving skills of creating physics lesson plan for pre-service physics teacher.

  17. City and Energy Infrastructures between Economic Processes and Urban Planning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Giuseppe Mazzeo

    2013-11-01

    Full Text Available The paper deals with the issues related to the relationship between city, energy, economic factors and city planning. These issues are analyzed from a theoretical point of view and are placed in a logical path based on three assumptions. The first considers the city as an intelligent system constantly evolving. The second considers the city as a system where economic processes come out at their highest level affecting other aspects of social and urban structure. The third considers the planning as the weak link in the process of urban development, one of the most exposed to economic and social pressures.Energy production has experienced a great progress since steam and electricity were discovered. Each stage of this evolution has affected city and territory introducing significant physical signs, changing the ways of carrying out functions and creating new needs and new activities. The energy revolution, based on sustainable sources and on skillful management of the networks, will strongly affect the city and the way of organizing the activities, their location, dimension, and the shape of the spaces.The paper explores some of the issues related to the relationship between urban system and energy.The first section analyzes the meaning of the intelligent city as an entity that is constantly changing and constantly adapting. The second section analyzes the role of the energy systems in the evolution of the activities and of the city’s image. The last section investigates the role of the economic factors in the evolution of the shape and meaning of city, pointing out that the way towards smart and green urban systems will largely depend on their economic advantage. 

  18. Newly Developed Software Application for Multiple Access Process Planning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Katarina Monkova

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available The purchase of a complex system for computer aided process planning (CAPP can be expensive for little and some middle sized plants, sometimes an inaccessible investment, with a long recoupment period. According to this fact and the author's experience with Eastern European plants, they decided to design a new database application which is suitable for production, stock, and economic data holding as well as processing and exploitation within the manufacturing process. The application can also be used to process a plan according to the selected criteria, for technological documentation and NC program creation. It was based on the theory of a multivariant approach to computer aided plan generation. Its fundamental features, the internal mathematical structure and new code system of processed objects, were prepared by the authors. The verification of the designed information system in real practice has shown that it enables about 30% cost and production time reduction and decreases input material assortment variability.

  19. Ensuring the Process of Realisation of Financial Planning of Banking Activity

    OpenAIRE

    Kirkach Svitlana M.

    2014-01-01

    The article studies theoretical aspects of the process of realisation of financial planning of the bank's activity and identifies and justifies its six main stages: 1) goal formation stage; 2) preparation stage; 3) assessment; 4) financial plan approval; 5) financial plan execution, and 6) stage of the financial plan monitoring, control and adjustment. The above sequence of stages of the process of realisation of financial planning of the bank's activity allows a trustworthy assessment of the...

  20. Conservation Action Planning: Lessons learned from the St. Marys River watershed biodiversity conservation planning process

    Science.gov (United States)

    Patterson, Tamatha A.; Grundel, Ralph

    2014-01-01

    Conservation Action Planning (CAP) is an adaptive management planning process refined by The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and embraced worldwide as the Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation. The CAP process facilitates open, multi-institutional collaboration on a common conservation agenda through organized actions and quantified results. While specifically designed for conservation efforts, the framework is adaptable and flexible to multiple scales and can be used for any collaborative planning effort. The CAP framework addresses inception; design and development of goals, measures, and strategies; and plan implementation and evaluation. The specific components of the CAP include defining the project scope and conservation targets; assessing the ecological viability; ascertaining threats and surrounding situation; identifying opportunities and designing strategies for action; and implementing actions and monitoring results. In 2007, TNC and a multidisciplinary graduate student team from the University of Michigan's School of Natural Resources and Environment initiated a CAP for the St. Marys River, the connecting channel between Lake Superior and Lake Huron, and its local watershed. The students not only gained experience in conservation planning, but also learned lessons that notably benefited the CAP process and were valuable for any successful collaborative effort—a dedicated core team improved product quality, accelerated the timeline, and provided necessary support for ongoing efforts; an academic approach in preparation for engagement in the planning process brought applicable scientific research to the forefront, enhanced workshop facilitation, and improved stakeholder participation; and early and continuous interactions with regional stakeholders improved cooperation and built a supportive network for collaboration.

  1. On the Basic Principles of Creating a Regulatory Framework for Strategic Planning of Innovative Development of the Russian Economy

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yu. V. Mishin

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Purpose: the aim of the work is to substantiate methodological approaches to create the most important component of strategic planning – its regulatory framework. The relevance of the chosen topic of this article is due to the fact that in modern conditions, strategic planning is an important tool for ensuring sustainable development and increasing the competitiveness of the domestic economy. It allows you to identify the most important and priority areas of activity, distribute and ensure the effective use of available limited labor, material and, most importantly, financial resources. Today, domestic strategic planning has a number of significant shortcomings, the main one of which, in our opinion, is the lack of reliable initial information for forecasting and analytical calculations. Methods: the methodological basis is the dialectical method of scientific cognition, the systemic and institutional approach to building an effective information base of strategic planning. In the course of research of the current state and level of industrial rationing, methods of analysis and synthesis, comparisons and analogies were used. As a methodological basis of this article, regulatory legal documents were used in the field of strategic planning in Russia, as well as methodological documents that previously operated in the USSR on the regulation of resource consumption. Results: the result of the work are the goals, tasks and requirements for the strategic planning base proposed by the author. The relationship of production rationing with the basic principles of strategic planning is shown - balance and consistency in priorities, goals, objectives, activities, resources and timing; The effectiveness of methods and methods for achieving goals with the least expenditure of resources used. The possibility of the existence of a standardization of labor costs, the consumption of material and production resources, regardless of the form of ownership of the

  2. Planning for implementation in a volunteer process

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Tweed, Cherry

    2014-01-01

    The framework for implementing geological disposal of the UK's higher activity radioactive wastes is laid out in the Managing Radioactive Waste Safely (MRWS) White Paper published by the UK Government in June 2008. The process to site a facility is to be staged and based on voluntarism and partnership with local communities. This process is in its early stages and this paper outlines the work being undertaken by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority's Radioactive Waste Management Directorate (NDA-RWMD), the implementing body for geological disposal in the UK, to plan, along with others, how to deal with the waste and get it safely underground. It describes how the work programme has been developed, how the safety is demonstrated, how to provide packaging advice and develop the organisation. The processes used to build confidence in these plans are also presented

  3. Linking Planning and Budgeting through Business Process Redesign.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Inman, Marianne E.

    In the wake of an extensive strategic planning process that refocused institutional values at Northland College, Wisconsin, the administration undertook linking the budget with the newly articulated plan. Incremental budgeting was no longer feasible, and the new budget would have to reflect streamlining and new ways of functioning. Consequently…

  4. Language Planning and Planned Languages: How Can Planned Languages Inform Language Planning?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Humphrey Tonkin

    2015-04-01

    Full Text Available The field of language planning (LP has largely ignored planned languages. Of classic descriptions of LP processes, only Tauli (preceded by Wüster suggests that planned languages (what Wüster calls Plansprache might bear on LP theory and practice. If LP aims "to modify the linguistic behaviour of some community for some reason," as Kaplan and Baldauf put it, creating a language de novo is little different. Language policy and planning are increasingly seen as more local and less official, and occasionally more international and cosmopolitan. Zamenhof's work on Esperanto provides extensive material, little studied, documenting the formation of the language and linking it particularly to issues of supranational LP. Defining LP decision-making, Kaplan & Baldauf begin with context and target population. Zamenhof's Esperanto came shortly before Ben-Yehuda's revived Hebrew. His target community was (mostly the world's educated elite; Ben-Yehuda's was worldwide Jewry. Both planners were driven not by linguistic interest but by sociopolitical ideology rooted in reaction to anti-Semitism and imbued with the idea of progress. Their territories had no boundaries, but were not imaginary. Function mattered as much as form (Haugen's terms, status as much as corpus. For Zamenhof, status planning involved emphasis on Esperanto's ownership by its community - a collective planning process embracing all speakers (cf. Hebrew. Corpus planning included a standardized European semantics, lexical selectivity based not simply on standardization but on representation, and the development of written, and literary, style. Esperanto was successful as linguistic system and community language, less as generally accepted lingua franca. Its terminology development and language cultivation offers a model for language revival, but Zamenhof's somewhat limited analysis of language economy left him unprepared to deal with language as power.

  5. Data management and processing plan, Department of Applied Geodesy

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1992-08-01

    This plan outlines Data Management and Data Processing requirements of the Department of Applied Geodesy (DAG) and presents the plan to meet these requirements (These requirements are derived from the functional needs of the Department to meet the SSCL alignment tolerances and schedules). In addition, this document presents a schedule for the implementation of this plan. This document is an integral part of the Alignment Plan of the SSCL

  6. Processes of arbitrary order in quantum electrodynamics with a pair-creating external field

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gitman, D.M.

    1977-01-01

    Dyson's perturbation theory analogue for quantum electrodynamical processes with arbitrary initial and final states in an external field creating pairs is discussed. The interaction with the field is taken into account exactly. The possibility of using Feynman diagrams, together with modified correspondence rules, for the representation of the above mentioned processes is demonstrated. (author)

  7. Application of analytical hierarchy process to analyze stakeholders preferences for municipal solid waste management plans, Boston, USA

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Contreras, Francisco; Hanaki, Keisuke; Aramaki, Toshiya [Department of Urban Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, the University of Tokyo, Bunkyo-ku, Hongo 7-3-1, Tokyo 113-8656 (Japan); Connors, Stephen [Laboratory for Energy and the Environment, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, One Amherst Street E40, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307 (United States)

    2008-05-15

    This paper presents analytical hierarchical process (AHP) in combination with life cycle assessment (LCA) as a decision support tool for municipal solid waste (MSW) management. A proposed set of treatment plans and an array of impacts create a complex decision environment for MSW management in the city of Boston. AHP is utilized to incorporate the relative importance of the different impact categories and treatment plans into the decision scheme regarding stakeholder group's preferences. The use of biogasification and refuse derived fuel (RDF) technologies into different management plans is presented as an alternative to the actual management of household solid waste. The results of the AHP application show that between the impact categories presented, green house gas emissions and landfill capacity constrains are ranked higher rather than the cost associated to the operation of the plan and health damage associated to the treatment plans presented among the stakeholder groups. In a broader context, the use of a hierarchical approach on AHP to structure the decision problem allows the development of four different scenarios according to the contribution of each stakeholder group to the decision scheme. In this analysis, the use of biogasification was considered as the most suitable plan to follow. (author)

  8. A Strategic Planning Process Model for Distance Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pisel, Kenneth P.

    2008-01-01

    As more institutions seek to implement or expand distance learning programs, it becomes critical to integrate distance learning programs into broader strategic visions and plans. Using the informed opinion from a panel of peer-nominated experts via iterative Delphi questionnaires, a 10-phased strategic planning process model for distance education…

  9. Innovation Process Planning Model in the Bpmn Standard

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jurczyk-Bunkowska Magdalena

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available The aim of the article is to show the relations in the innovation process planning model. The relations argued here guarantee the stable and reliable way to achieve the result in the form of an increased competitiveness by a professionally directed development of the company. The manager needs to specify the effect while initiating the realisation of the process, has to be achieved this by the system of indirect goals. The original model proposed here shows the standard of dependence between the plans of the fragments of the innovation process which make up for achieving its final goal. The relation in the present article was shown by using the standard Business Process Model and Notation. This enabled the specification of interrelations between the decision levels at which subsequent fragments of the innovation process are planned. This gives the possibility of a better coordination of the process, reducing the time needed for the achievement of its effect. The model has been compiled on the basis of the practises followed in Polish companies. It is not, however, the reflection of these practises, but rather an idealised standard of proceedings which aims at improving the effectiveness of the management of innovations on the operational level. The model shown could be the basis of the creation of systems supporting the decision making, supporting the knowledge management or those supporting the communication in the innovation processes.

  10. Business plan basics for engineers

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Tanev, Stoyan; Rasmussen, Erik Stavnsager; Riber Hansen, Katrine

    2016-01-01

    This chapter focuses on the nature of business planning activities from an engineering entre-/intra-preneurial perspective. It is therefore not limited to technology start-ups or newly created engineering firms but equally relevant for established firms investing in projects that assemble......-driven business environments which are typical the business playground for engineering professionals, the chapter focuses on describing the two key components of the business planning process: the articulation and the development of a viable business model, and managing the scaling up and the growth...... of the business. The de-scription does not pretend to exhaust the topic and continuously refers to several excellent recent publications that could complement the learning process of young and advanced engi-neering professionals interested in knowing more about the business planning process....

  11. Achieving performance breakthroughs in an HMO business process through quality planning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hanan, K B

    1993-01-01

    Kaiser Permanente's Georgia Region commissioned a quality planning team to design a new process to improve payments to its suppliers and vendors. The result of the team's effort was a 73 percent reduction in cycle time. This team's experiences point to the advantages of process redesign as a quality planning model, as well as some general guidelines for its most effective use in teams. If quality planning project teams are carefully configured, sufficiently expert in the existing process, and properly supported by management, organizations can achieve potentially dramatic improvements in process performance using this approach.

  12. Entrepreneurial Spirit in Strategic Planning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Riggs, Donald E.

    1987-01-01

    Presents a model which merges the concepts of entrepreneurship with those of strategic planning to create a library management system. Each step of the process, including needs assessment and policy formation, strategy choice and implementation, and evaluation, is described in detail. (CLB)

  13. The Mission Operations Planning Assistant

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schuetzle, James G.

    1987-01-01

    The Mission Operations Planning Assistant (MOPA) is a knowledge-based system developed to support the planning and scheduling of instrument activities on the Upper Atmospheric Research Satellite (UARS). The MOPA system represents and maintains instrument plans at two levels of abstraction in order to keep plans comprehensible to both UARS Principal Investigators and Command Management personnel. The hierarchical representation of plans also allows MOPA to automatically create detailed instrument activity plans from which spacecraft command loads may be generated. The MOPA system was developed on a Symbolics 3640 computer using the ZetaLisp and ART languages. MOPA's features include a textual and graphical interface for plan inspection and modification, recognition of instrument operational constraint violations during the planning process, and consistency maintenance between the different planning levels. This paper describes the current MOPA system.

  14. Marketing planning by learning: "Plearning" approach

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ilić Milovan M.

    2006-01-01

    Full Text Available This work emphasizes that the final outcome of planning is not only the benefit of having the ready plan but showing that the very process of planning through which a business goes through, is important. Here we consider the process of learning in order to get a complete picture of current and future business processes. Three stages of learning are included. The first stage describes the current position of the business; the second stage describes the position of the business in the future and the last stage shows how the business will achieve these objectives. The focus of planning should be deciding on internal communication which form the basis for gaining the competitive advantage. One of the ways for carrying out this analysis is creating the matrix based on gaining competitive advantage through using resources.

  15. Diabetes Diet: Create Your Healthy-Eating Plan

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... methods works for you: The plate method. The American Diabetes Association offers a simple seven-step method of meal ... complications. Diabetes meal plans and a healthy diet. American Diabetes Association. http://www.diabetes.org/food-and-fitness/food/ ...

  16. Learners’ processes during pre-task planning and Working Memory Capacity

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maria da Gloria Tavares

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available http://dx.doi.org/10.5007/2175-8026.2016v69n1p79 The present study is part of a larger scale research (Guará-Tavares, 2011, 2013 that investigates the relationship among working memory capacity, pre-task planning, and L2 speech performance. The aim of the study was to analyze 1 what processes learners engage during pre-task planning, and 2 whether higher and lower working memory spans engage in different processes during pre-task planning. Learners’ processes were accessed by means of think aloud protocols and a retrospective interview. Working memory capacity was measured by the Speaking Span Test. Results show that learners engage mainly in organization of ideas, rehearsal, lexical searches, and monitoring.. Moreover, higher spans employ significantly more metacognitive strategies during planning when compared to lower spans.

  17. Towards an integration of process planning and production planning and control for flexible manufacturing systems

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Gaalman, GJC; Slomp, J; Suresh, NC

    This introduction article attempts to present some major issues relating to the integration of process planning and production planning and control (PPC) for flexible manufacturing systems (FMSs). It shows that the performance of an FMS can be significantly improved and FMS capabilities more

  18. 49 CFR 1106.4 - The Safety Integration Plan process.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... 49 Transportation 8 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false The Safety Integration Plan process. 1106.4 Section 1106.4 Transportation Other Regulations Relating to Transportation (Continued) SURFACE... CONSIDERATION OF SAFETY INTEGRATION PLANS IN CASES INVOLVING RAILROAD CONSOLIDATIONS, MERGERS, AND ACQUISITIONS...

  19. Integration of Environmental Planning Into the Army Master Planning Process

    Science.gov (United States)

    1992-10-01

    the issues specific to the later assessment (ETL 1110-3-407, pp 1-9 to 1-10). Under the : estructured master planning process discussed in this report...Lisa~m 0111utHars M143 AMW PRO*b LAMM~e 0)3. AMW uaides, Uso ~ow (M Port RJ." 21719 7%s pubhicaton was repfodaaced on moycled V&Mp. /| / 121 DATEI:

  20. Analysing contemporary metropolitan spatial plans in Europe through their institutional context, instrumental content and planning process

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Elinbaum, Pablo; Galland, Daniel

    2016-01-01

    This article sets out to propose and apply a qualitative framework for thinking about how to analyze and compare metropolitan spatial plans in a milieu of divergent spatial planning traditions and discretionary planning practices. In doing so, the article reviews and develops an understanding...... concerning the institutional context, instrumental content and planning processes associated with four contemporary metropolitan spatial plans in Europe, namely London, Copenhagen, Paris and Barcelona. Through the results of a multiple case study and a subsequent cross comparative analysis, the article...... stresses that contemporary metropolitan spatial plans tend to merge characteristics associated with project-based and strategy-based spatial plans, thus contrasting with the typical land-use character of municipal plans and the often strategic, growth-oriented pursuit of regional plans in Europe...

  1. The design of system for operative planning of blast furnace production process

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Malindžák Dušan

    1996-12-01

    Full Text Available A system for operative planning of blast furnace production process is described in the paper. The suggested system is based on the use of a new hierarchy of operative plans, consisting of one-month plan, (7+3 days plan, and 24-hour plan. The system allows smoothing of production process at the blast furnace plant, and at the same time satisfies all requirements of the steel plant regarding to the amount of pig iron.

  2. Maximising the Effectiveness of a Scenario Planning Process: Tips for Scenario Planners in Higher Education

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sayers, Nicola

    2011-01-01

    Scenario planning is a tool which can help organisations and people to think about, and plan for, the long-term future. In basic terms, it involves creating a number of in-depth scenarios (stories), each of which tells of a different possible future for an organisation or issue, and considering how each different future might influence…

  3. Renewable Energy Zone (REZ) Transmission Planning Process

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lee, Nathan [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

    2018-03-08

    A REZ is a geographical area that enables the development of profitable, cost-effective, grid-connected renewable energy (RE). The REZ Transmission Planning Process is a proactive approach to plan, approve, and build transmission infrastructure connecting REZs to the power system which helps to increase the share of solar, wind and other RE resources in the power system while maintaining reliability and economics, and focuses on large-scale wind and solar resources that can be developed in sufficient quantities to warrant transmission system expansion and upgrades.

  4. Marketing communication plan for Barbershop Nina Jussinoja

    OpenAIRE

    Peltonen, Pauliina

    2015-01-01

    The topic of the thesis was to study marketing communication planning and online marketing. The study was conducted for Barbershop Nina Jussinoja. Barbershop Nina Jussinoja is a barbershop in the center of Rauma. The business idea of the shop is to offer haircuts and beard trimming without taking appointments. The barbershop didn’t have any marketing communication activities or planning before the process of this thesis began. In order to create a marketing communication plan, theory of ...

  5. Critical utopian action research and the power of future creating workshops

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Husted, Mia; Tofteng, Ditte Maria Børglum

    in a participatory process of democratic development of everyday life. Critical utopian action research is characterized by a methodological preference to the future creating workshop as a method that captures the scientific theoretical approach: The future creating workshop outline a specific method originally...... in upturned-participation. Within traditional participatory planning we talk about a participatory ladder. The steps on the ladder reflects how one can participate in different scales an ways, from being merely an informant to being self-determining and performing. The ladder tells us notion about who...... of exploring, developing and analyzing is a common project between the participant and the researchers. Conclusions: When stressing critique and utopian ideas within upturned participatory processes as the starting point, the CUAR tradition brings new input to the wider society of action research, insisting...

  6. Benefits to blood banks of a sales and operations planning process.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Keal, Donald A; Hebert, Phil

    2010-12-01

    A formal sales and operations planning (S&OP) process is a decision making and communication process that balances supply and demand while integrating all business operational components with customer-focused business plans that links high level strategic plans to day-to-day operations. Furthermore, S&OP can assist in managing change across the organization as it provides the opportunity to be proactive in the face of problems and opportunities while establishing a plan for everyone to follow. Some of the key outcomes from a robust S&OP process in blood banking would include: higher customer satisfaction (donors and health care providers), balanced inventory across product lines and customers, more stable production rates and higher productivity, more cooperation across the entire operation, and timely updates to the business plan resulting in better forecasting and fewer surprises that negatively impact the bottom line. © 2010 American Association of Blood Banks.

  7. Goal planning: a retrospective audit of rehabilitation process and outcome.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Duff, Jane; Evans, Matthew J; Kennedy, Paul

    2004-05-01

    To consider the effectiveness of a goal planning programme for people with spinal cord injury (SCI) and address some of the current evidence gaps in goal setting. Retrospective audit. Consecutive series of 65 newly injured SCI patients. The Needs Assessment Checklist (NAC) has been specifically developed for the SCI population, and is used to assess patient attainment in core rehabilitation areas. A 'Goal Planning Progress' form was also used to specifically detail the goal planning process. Across the 65 patients, 396 goal planning meetings were held with 6176 goals set in total. Seventy-two per cent of the goals set at the first goal planning meeting were achieved by the second meeting. The rate of achievement at subsequent meetings was 68%. Significant differences in the number of planned rehabilitation days, number of goal planning meetings, and goals set were identified between injury categories. Significant positive correlations were found between the number of goals set and achievement, as measured by the NAC, in certain rehabilitation domains. The findings of this study demonstrate that the Needs Assessment and Goal Planning framework is effective in planning SCI rehabilitation. The capacity of this goal planning system to reflect individual need has also been established. Further systematic analyses of this process could potentially lead to more efficient rehabilitation and the identification of care pathways within clinical areas.

  8. Radiation Planning Assistant - A Streamlined, Fully Automated Radiotherapy Treatment Planning System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Court, Laurence E.; Kisling, Kelly; McCarroll, Rachel; Zhang, Lifei; Yang, Jinzhong; Simonds, Hannah; du Toit, Monique; Trauernicht, Chris; Burger, Hester; Parkes, Jeannette; Mejia, Mike; Bojador, Maureen; Balter, Peter; Branco, Daniela; Steinmann, Angela; Baltz, Garrett; Gay, Skylar; Anderson, Brian; Cardenas, Carlos; Jhingran, Anuja; Shaitelman, Simona; Bogler, Oliver; Schmeller, Kathleen; Followill, David; Howell, Rebecca; Nelson, Christopher; Peterson, Christine; Beadle, Beth

    2018-01-01

    The Radiation Planning Assistant (RPA) is a system developed for the fully automated creation of radiotherapy treatment plans, including volume-modulated arc therapy (VMAT) plans for patients with head/neck cancer and 4-field box plans for patients with cervical cancer. It is a combination of specially developed in-house software that uses an application programming interface to communicate with a commercial radiotherapy treatment planning system. It also interfaces with a commercial secondary dose verification software. The necessary inputs to the system are a Treatment Plan Order, approved by the radiation oncologist, and a simulation computed tomography (CT) image, approved by the radiographer. The RPA then generates a complete radiotherapy treatment plan. For the cervical cancer treatment plans, no additional user intervention is necessary until the plan is complete. For head/neck treatment plans, after the normal tissue and some of the target structures are automatically delineated on the CT image, the radiation oncologist must review the contours, making edits if necessary. They also delineate the gross tumor volume. The RPA then completes the treatment planning process, creating a VMAT plan. Finally, the completed plan must be reviewed by qualified clinical staff. PMID:29708544

  9. 44 CFR 78.6 - Flood Mitigation Plan approval process.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-10-01

    ... 44 Emergency Management and Assistance 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Flood Mitigation Plan..., DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY INSURANCE AND HAZARD MITIGATION National Flood Insurance Program FLOOD MITIGATION ASSISTANCE § 78.6 Flood Mitigation Plan approval process. The State POC will forward all Flood...

  10. MO-B-BRB-03: Systems Engineering Tools for Treatment Planning Process Optimization in Radiation Medicine

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kapur, A.

    2015-01-01

    The radiotherapy treatment planning process has evolved over the years with innovations in treatment planning, treatment delivery and imaging systems. Treatment modality and simulation technologies are also rapidly improving and affecting the planning process. For example, Image-guided-radiation-therapy has been widely adopted for patient setup, leading to margin reduction and isocenter repositioning after simulation. Stereotactic Body radiation therapy (SBRT) and Radiosurgery (SRS) have gradually become the standard of care for many treatment sites, which demand a higher throughput for the treatment plans even if the number of treatments per day remains the same. Finally, simulation, planning and treatment are traditionally sequential events. However, with emerging adaptive radiotherapy, they are becoming more tightly intertwined, leading to iterative processes. Enhanced efficiency of planning is therefore becoming more critical and poses serious challenge to the treatment planning process; Lean Six Sigma approaches are being utilized increasingly to balance the competing needs for speed and quality. In this symposium we will discuss the treatment planning process and illustrate effective techniques for managing workflow. Topics will include: Planning techniques: (a) beam placement, (b) dose optimization, (c) plan evaluation (d) export to RVS. Planning workflow: (a) import images, (b) Image fusion, (c) contouring, (d) plan approval (e) plan check (f) chart check, (g) sequential and iterative process Influence of upstream and downstream operations: (a) simulation, (b) immobilization, (c) motion management, (d) QA, (e) IGRT, (f) Treatment delivery, (g) SBRT/SRS (h) adaptive planning Reduction of delay between planning steps with Lean systems due to (a) communication, (b) limited resource, (b) contour, (c) plan approval, (d) treatment. Optimizing planning processes: (a) contour validation (b) consistent planning protocol, (c) protocol/template sharing, (d) semi

  11. MO-B-BRB-03: Systems Engineering Tools for Treatment Planning Process Optimization in Radiation Medicine

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kapur, A. [Long Island Jewish Medical Center (United States)

    2015-06-15

    The radiotherapy treatment planning process has evolved over the years with innovations in treatment planning, treatment delivery and imaging systems. Treatment modality and simulation technologies are also rapidly improving and affecting the planning process. For example, Image-guided-radiation-therapy has been widely adopted for patient setup, leading to margin reduction and isocenter repositioning after simulation. Stereotactic Body radiation therapy (SBRT) and Radiosurgery (SRS) have gradually become the standard of care for many treatment sites, which demand a higher throughput for the treatment plans even if the number of treatments per day remains the same. Finally, simulation, planning and treatment are traditionally sequential events. However, with emerging adaptive radiotherapy, they are becoming more tightly intertwined, leading to iterative processes. Enhanced efficiency of planning is therefore becoming more critical and poses serious challenge to the treatment planning process; Lean Six Sigma approaches are being utilized increasingly to balance the competing needs for speed and quality. In this symposium we will discuss the treatment planning process and illustrate effective techniques for managing workflow. Topics will include: Planning techniques: (a) beam placement, (b) dose optimization, (c) plan evaluation (d) export to RVS. Planning workflow: (a) import images, (b) Image fusion, (c) contouring, (d) plan approval (e) plan check (f) chart check, (g) sequential and iterative process Influence of upstream and downstream operations: (a) simulation, (b) immobilization, (c) motion management, (d) QA, (e) IGRT, (f) Treatment delivery, (g) SBRT/SRS (h) adaptive planning Reduction of delay between planning steps with Lean systems due to (a) communication, (b) limited resource, (b) contour, (c) plan approval, (d) treatment. Optimizing planning processes: (a) contour validation (b) consistent planning protocol, (c) protocol/template sharing, (d) semi

  12. A Novel CAPP System Based on SML for Variant Design of Process Planning

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    ZHAO Haibin; WANG Junying; ZHANG Min

    2006-01-01

    The production model of "multi-specification and low-quantity" is becoming the main trend of manufacturing industry. As a key activity in the manufacturing chain, traditional computer aided process planning (CAPP) system fails to adapt to the production model of customization. Therefore, a novel method for variant design of process planning was proposed to develop CAPP system based on Tabular Layouts of Article Characteristics (Sach-Merk Leisten in German and SML for short). With the support of standard database of master process planning documents which are developed by parameterization technique, and instance process planning for special product (instance product) can be generated automatically by the sub-system of variant design of process planning. Finally, a CAPP system was developed for process design of rotor of steam turbine to validate the feasibility and applicability of the method.

  13. Distinguishing between taskwork and teamwork planning in teams: relations with coordination and interpersonal processes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fisher, David M

    2014-05-01

    Planning in teams represents a critical process that lays the groundwork for effective team functioning. The current investigation examined whether emergent team planning can be meaningfully characterized in terms of a distinction between planning that focuses on taskwork and planning that focuses on teamwork. In Study 1, items written to reflect commonly identified indicators of team planning were subjected to an exploratory factor analysis. In Study 2, slightly modified items were provided to a separate sample, and a confirmatory factor analysis was conducted. In Study 3, the relationships between the different forms of planning and other team processes (i.e., coordination, interpersonal processes) were examined in order to determine whether there are unique relationships for task-focused and team-focused planning. Results from the first 2 studies provided support for a 2-factor structure of team planning, whereas Study 3 found independent relationships for taskwork and teamwork planning with subsequent team processes. Both forms of planning also exhibited indirect relationships with team performance via the mediating role of subsequent team processes. (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

  14. Personality Traits and Training Initiation Process: Intention, Planning, and Action Initiation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Laguna, Mariola; Purc, Ewelina

    2016-01-01

    The article aims at investigating the role of personality traits in relation to training initiation. Training initiation is conceptualized as a goal realization process, and explained using goal theories. There are three stages of the process analyzed: intention to undertake training, plan formulation, and actual training undertaking. Two studies tested the relationships between five personality traits, defined according to the five factor model, and the stages of the goal realization process. In Study 1, which explains training intention and training plans' formulation, 155 employees participated. In Study 2, which was time-lagged with two measurement points, and which explains intention, plans, and training actions undertaken, the data from 176 employees was collected at 3 month intervals. The results of these studies show that personality traits, mainly openness to experience, predict the training initiation process to some degree: intention, plans, and actual action initiation. The findings allow us to provide recommendations for practitioners responsible for human resource development. The assessment of openness to experience in employees helps predict their motivation to participate in training activities. To increase training motivation it is vital to strengthen intentions to undertake training, and to encourage training action planning.

  15. Analysis of the Contingency Contracting Support Plan within the Joint Planning Process Framework

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Anderson, Michael

    2003-01-01

    ...) flexibility and responsiveness. Current OPLANS at the Joint-level generally discuss how forces will be contractually supported in-theater, but are not specific enough within the framework of the Joint Planning Process (JPP...

  16. Defense Resource Management Studies: Introduction to Capability and Acquisition Planning Processes

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-08-01

    Evaluation Plans ( BEPs ) Establishes how the MoD approved, procurement action will proceed – Dates for requesting and receiving bids – Evaluation period...Proposed Bid and Evaluation Plan ( BEP ) Next chart highlights the intended process and products Flag Button BLOCK 6 8 Intended Process and Products...Funding Level and Source  Circular of Requirements (COR) with Key Performance Parameters (KPPs)  Bid and Evaluation Plan ( BEP ) A B C D E D1 D2 D3

  17. Uncertainty in spatial planning proceedings

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Aleš Mlakar

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available Uncertainty is distinctive of spatial planning as it arises from the necessity to co-ordinate the various interests within the area, from the urgency of adopting spatial planning decisions, the complexity of the environment, physical space and society, addressing the uncertainty of the future and from the uncertainty of actually making the right decision. Response to uncertainty is a series of measures that mitigate the effects of uncertainty itself. These measures are based on two fundamental principles – standardization and optimization. The measures are related to knowledge enhancement and spatial planning comprehension, in the legal regulation of changes, in the existence of spatial planning as a means of different interests co-ordination, in the active planning and the constructive resolution of current spatial problems, in the integration of spatial planning and the environmental protection process, in the implementation of the analysis as the foundation of spatial planners activities, in the methods of thinking outside the parameters, in forming clear spatial concepts and in creating a transparent management spatial system and also in the enforcement the participatory processes.

  18. Local Authorities Participation in the Tourism Planning Process

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ali SELCUK CAN

    2014-02-01

    Full Text Available The aim of this article is to explore the weaknesses and strengths of local authorities in terms of their participation in the tourism planning process in Turkey. A two-page questionnaire was applied, along with structured interviews with 71 administrators of metropolitan, provincial, and district authorities, between January 1 and September 31, 2011. The findings of the survey suggest that tourism planning responsibilities should be devolved to local authorities. Local authorities do not extensively participate in tourism planning at present because of inadequate budgeting and tourism allocation facilities, insufficient cooperation among stakeholders, and a domination of central administration traditions. Causes of insufficient participation in tourism planning statistically differ among local authorities, in terms of insufficient realizations of the importance of tourism planning by stakeholders, and public land allocation for the purpose of tourism. On the other hand, there is a statistically significant difference between local authorities that have a tourism master plan and those who do not, in terms of a lack of educational opportunities for planners.

  19. Multicriteria Optimization in Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy Treatment Planning for Locally Advanced Cancer of the Pancreatic Head

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hong, Theodore S.; Craft, David L.; Carlsson, Fredrik; Bortfeld, Thomas R.

    2008-01-01

    Purpose: Intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) affords the potential to decrease radiation therapy-associated toxicity by creating highly conformal dose distributions. However, the inverse planning process can create a suboptimal plan despite meeting all constraints. Multicriteria optimization (MCO) may reduce the time-consuming iteration loop necessary to develop a satisfactory plan while providing information regarding trade-offs between different treatment planning goals. In this exploratory study, we examine the feasibility and utility of MCO in physician plan selection in patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer (LAPC). Methods and Materials: The first 10 consecutive patients with LAPC treated with IMRT were evaluated. A database of plans (Pareto surface) was created that met the inverse planning goals. The physician then navigated to an 'optimal' plan from the point on the Pareto surface at which kidney dose was minimized. Results: Pareto surfaces were created for all 10 patients. A physician was able to select a plan from the Pareto surface within 10 minutes for all cases. Compared with the original (treated) IMRT plans, the plan selected from the Pareto surface had a lower stomach mean dose in 9 of 10 patients, although often at the expense of higher kidney dose than with the treated plan. Conclusion: The MCO is feasible in patients with LAPC and allows the physician to choose a satisfactory plan quickly. Generally, when given the opportunity, the physician will choose a plan with a lower stomach dose. The MCO enables a physician to provide greater active clinical input into the IMRT planning process

  20. Considerations on the Use of Visual Tools in Planning Processes: A Brazilian Experience

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Camila Zyngier

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available This paper assumes that citizen participation does not really happen in relation to current urban planning practice for a number of reasons. First of all, many planning processes do not involve citizens as ideally they should. Secondly, although if they involve citizens, many planning processes are not able to communicate them the actual questions to deal with. Thirdly, many citizens have not a sufficient knowledge or ability to understand the planning issues. Therefore, the paper supposes that the use of visual interfaces can collaborate to organize data and improve the involvement of citizens within planning processes. Focusing on the Brazilian reality, the case study present two selected areas with great relevance for the Metropolitan Region of Belo Horizonte’s (MRBH: Santa Lúcia, within the municipality of Belo Horizonte, and the neighborhood Vale do Sereno, in the Nova Lima municipality. The areas result under a great pressure and intensification of anthropic interventions, containing consolidated occupancy. The example on the two areas shows how urban planning still lacks a systematization of data. This also implies that the two municipalities not consider the communication of information as a priority for developing cities. Although current information technology can offer advantages for implementing the planning processes though visual languages, harder efforts are required to build the communication process between people, including communication as part of the planning process.

  1. A systematic process for developing and assessing accident management plans

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hanson, D.J.; Blackman, H.S.; Meyer, O.R.; Ward, L.W.

    1991-04-01

    This document describes a four-phase approach for developing criteria recommended for use in assessing the adequacy of nuclear power plant accident management plans. Two phases of the approach have been completed and provide a prototype process that could be used to develop an accident management plan. Based on this process, a preliminary set of assessment criteria are derived. These preliminary criteria will be refined and improved when the remaining steps of the approach are completed, that is, after the prototype process is validated through application. 9 refs., 10 figs., 7 tabs

  2. LERF Basin 44 Process Test Plan

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    LUECK, K.J.

    1999-01-01

    This document presents a plan to process a portion of the Liquid Effluent Retention Facility (LERF) Basin 44 wastewater through the 200 Area Effluent Treatment Facility (ETF). The objective of this process test is to determine the most effective/efficient method to treat the wastewater currently stored in LERF Basin 44. The process test will determine the operational parameters necessary to comply with facility effluent discharge permit limits (Ecology 1995) and the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility (ERDF) acceptance criteria (BHI-00139), while achieving ALARA goals and maintaining the integrity of facility equipment. A major focus of the test plan centers on control of contamination due to leaks and/or facility maintenance. As a pre-startup item, all known leaks will be fixed before the start of the test. During the course of the test, a variety of contamination control measures will be evaluated for implementation during the treatment of the remaining Basin 44 inventory. Of special interest will be techniques and tools used to prevent contamination spread during sampling and when opening contaminated facility equipment/piping. At the conclusion of the test, a post ALARA review will be performed to identify lessons learned from the test run which can be applied to the treatment of the remaining Basin 44 inventory. The volume of wastewater to be treated during this test run is 500,000 gallons. This volume limit is necessary to maintain the ETF radiological inventory limits per the approved authorization basis. The duration of the process test is approximately 30 days

  3. An expert system for process planning of sheet metal parts produced

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Process planning of sheet metal part is an important activity in the design of compound die. Traditional methods of carrying out this task are manual, tedious, time-consuming, error-prone and experiencebased. This paper describes the research work involved in the development of an expert system for process planning of ...

  4. 15 CFR 713.4 - Advance declaration requirements for additionally planned production, processing, or consumption...

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-01-01

    ... additionally planned production, processing, or consumption of Schedule 2 chemicals. 713.4 Section 713.4..., processing, or consumption of Schedule 2 chemicals. (a) Declaration requirements for additionally planned activities. (1) You must declare additionally planned production, processing, or consumption of Schedule 2...

  5. Business planning for digital libraries international approaches

    CERN Document Server

    Collier, Mel

    2010-01-01

    This book brings together international experience of business planning for digital libraries: the business case, the planning processes involved, the costs and benefi ts, practice and standards, and comparison with the traditional library where appropriate. Although there is a vast literature already on other aspects of digital libraries, business planning is a subject that until now has not been systematically integrated in a book.Digital libraries are being created not only by traditional libraries, but by museums, archives, media organizations, and indeed any organization concerned with ma

  6. Global Production Planning Process considering the Supply Risk of Overseas Manufacturing Sites

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hosang Jung

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available Although global manufacturers can produce most of their final products in local plants, they need to source components or parts from desirable overseas manufacturing partners at low cost in order to fulfill customer orders. In this global manufacturing environment, capacity information for planning is usually imprecise owing to the various risks of overseas plants (e.g., foreign governments’ policies and labor stability. It is therefore not easy for decision-makers to generate a global production plan showing the production amounts at local plants and overseas manufacturing facilities operated by manufacturing partners. In this paper, we present a new global production planning process considering the supply risk of overseas manufacturing sites. First, local experts estimate the supply capacity of an overseas plant using their judgment to determine when the risk could occur and how large the risk impact would be. Next, we run a global production planning model with the estimated supply capacities. The proposed process systematically adopts the qualitative judgments of local experts in the global production planning process and thus can provide companies with a realistic global production plan. We demonstrate the applicability of the proposed process with a real world case.

  7. Business plan of a food truck in Saint Petersburg

    OpenAIRE

    Zavyalova, Ekaterina

    2017-01-01

    The purpose of the thesis was to investigate how to write a proper business plan and then implement gained knowledge in creating a business plan of a food truck in Saint Petersburg. A business plan serves as a guide for an entrepreneur in the process of company establishment and enables to gain funding from potential investors. The primary objective was to study essential components of a business plan. The theoretical framework comprises of core issues on company establishment and desc...

  8. Kennedy Space Center Orion Processing Team Planning for Ground Operations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Letchworth, Gary; Schlierf, Roland

    2011-01-01

    Topics in this presentation are: Constellation Ares I/Orion/Ground Ops Elements Orion Ground Operations Flow Orion Operations Planning Process and Toolset Overview, including: 1 Orion Concept of Operations by Phase 2 Ops Analysis Capabilities Overview 3 Operations Planning Evolution 4 Functional Flow Block Diagrams 5 Operations Timeline Development 6 Discrete Event Simulation (DES) Modeling 7 Ground Operations Planning Document Database (GOPDb) Using Operations Planning Tools for Operability Improvements includes: 1 Kaizen/Lean Events 2 Mockups 3 Human Factors Analysis

  9. Process development work plan for waste feed delivery system

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Papp, I.G.

    1998-01-01

    This work plan defines the process used to develop project definition for Waste Feed Delivery (WFD). Project definition provides the direction for development of definitive design media required for the ultimate implementation of operational processing hardware and software. Outlines for the major deliverables are attached as appendices. The implementation of hardware and software will accommodate requirements for safe retrieval and delivery of waste currently stored in Hanford's underground storage tanks. Operations and maintenance ensure the availability of systems, structures, and components for current and future planned operations within the boundary of the Tank Waste Remediation System (TWRS) authorization basis

  10. 324 Facility B-Cell quality process plan

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Carlson, J.L.

    1998-01-01

    This report documents the quality process plan for the restart of a hot cell in the B Plant, originally a bismuth phosphate processing facility, but later converted to a waste fractionation plant. B-Cell is currently being cleaned out and deactivated. TPA Milestone M-89-02 dictates that all mixed waste and equipment be removed from B-Cell by 5/31/1999. This report describes the major activities that remain for completion of the TPA milestone

  11. Employing mobile media technologies as a participatory planning tool in the suburban housing estate

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Andersson, Lasse; Knudsen, Anne-Marie Sanvig

    2013-01-01

    an on-going process, informed by mobile citizen generated information loops (open-source), the aim was to move beyond the master plan as a detached expert-driven product and towards an instant master planning process. In order to explore this iterative take on the planning process the research team...... and consulting firm employed mobile media technologies as a tool for creating new forms of citizen engagement. Based on the lessons learned from the research and development project we conclude by looking at what mobile media technologies afforded this planning process and what these experiences might add...

  12. [Design of a HACCP Plan for the Gouda-type cheesemaking process in a milk processing plant].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dávila, Jacqueline; Reyes, Genara; Corzo, Otoniel

    2006-03-01

    The Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) is a preventive and systematic method used to identify, assess and control of the hazards related with raw material, ingredients, processing, marketing and intended consumer in order to assure the safety of the food. The aim of this study was to design a HACCP plan for implementing in a Gouda-type cheese-making process in a dairy processing plant. The used methodology was based in the application of the seven principles of the HACCP, the information from the plant about the compliment of the pre-requisite programs (70-80%), the experience of the HACCP team and the sequence of stages settles down by the COVENIN standard 3802 for implementing the HACCP system. A HACCP plan was proposed with the scope, the selection of HACCP team, the description of the product and the intended use, the flow diagram of the process, the hazard analysis and the control table of the plan with the critical control points (CCP). The following CCP were identified in the process: pasteurization, coagulation and ripening.

  13. Technology disaster response and recovery planning a LITA guide

    CERN Document Server

    Mallery, Mary

    2015-01-01

    Featuring contributions from librarians who offer hard-won advice gained from personal experience, this compendium leads readers through a step-by-step process of creating a library technology disaster response and recovery plan.

  14. Pharmacy Benefit Management Companies: Do They Create Value in the US Healthcare System?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lyles, Alan

    2017-05-01

    Pharmacy benefit management companies (PBMs) perform functions in the US market-based healthcare system that may be performed by public agencies or quasi-public institutions in other nations. By aggregating lives covered under their many individual contracts with payers, PBMs have formidable negotiating power. They influence pharmaceutical insurance coverage, design the terms of coverage in a plan's drug benefit, and create competition among providers for inclusion in a plan's network. PBMs have, through intermediation, the potential to secure lower drug prices and to improve rational prescribing. Whether these potential outcomes are realized within the relevant budget is a function of the healthcare system and the interaction of benefit design and clinical processes-not just individually vetted components. Efficiencies and values achieved in price discounts and cost sharing can be nullified if there is irrational prescribing (over-utilization, under-utilization and mis-utilization), variable patient adherence to medication regimens, ineffective formulary processes, or fraud, waste and abuse. Rising prescription drug costs and the increasing prevalence of 'high deductible health plans', which require much greater patient out-of-pocket costs, is creating a crisis for PBM efforts towards an affordable pharmacy benefit. Since PBM rebate and incentive contracts are opaque to the public, whether they add value by restraining higher drug prices or benefit from them is debatable.

  15. MO-F-CAMPUS-T-02: An Electronic Whiteboard Platform to Manage Treatment Planning Process

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    DiCostanzo, D; Woollard, J; Gupta, N; Ayan, A [Ohio State University, Columbus, OH (United States); Thompson, S [Santa Cruz Radiation Oncology, Santa Cruz, CA (United States)

    2015-06-15

    Purpose: In an effort to improve patient safety and streamline the radiotherapy treatment planning (TP) process, a software based whiteboard had been developed and put in use in our facility Methods: The electronic whiteboard developed using SQL database (DB) and PHP/JavaScript based web interface, is published via department intranet and login credentials. The DB stores data for each TP process such as patient information, plan type, simulation/start dates, physician, dosimetrist, QA and the current status in planning process. Users interact with the DB per plan and perform status updates in real time as the planning process progresses. All user interactions with the DB are recorded with timestamps so as to calculate statistical information for TP process management such as contouring times, planning and review times, dosimetry, physics and therapist QA times. External beam and brachytherapy plans are categorized according to complexity (ex: IMRT, 3D, HDR, LDR etc) and treatment types and applicators. Each plan category is assigned specific timelines for each planning process. When a plan approaches or passes the predetermined timeline, users are alerted via color coded graphical cues. When certain process items are not completed in time, pre-determined actions are triggered such as a delay in treatment start date. Results: Our institution has been using the electronic whiteboard for two years. Implementation of pre-determined actions based on the statistical information collected by the whiteboard improved our TP process. For example, the average time for normal tissue contouring decreased from 0.73±1.37 to 0.24±0.33 days. The average time for target volume contouring decreased from 3.2±2.84 to 2.37±2.54 days. This increase in efficiency allows more time for quality assurance processes, improving patient safety. Conclusion: The electronic whiteboard has been an invaluable tool for streamlining our TP processes. It facilitates timely and accurate communication

  16. MO-F-CAMPUS-T-02: An Electronic Whiteboard Platform to Manage Treatment Planning Process

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    DiCostanzo, D; Woollard, J; Gupta, N; Ayan, A; Thompson, S

    2015-01-01

    Purpose: In an effort to improve patient safety and streamline the radiotherapy treatment planning (TP) process, a software based whiteboard had been developed and put in use in our facility Methods: The electronic whiteboard developed using SQL database (DB) and PHP/JavaScript based web interface, is published via department intranet and login credentials. The DB stores data for each TP process such as patient information, plan type, simulation/start dates, physician, dosimetrist, QA and the current status in planning process. Users interact with the DB per plan and perform status updates in real time as the planning process progresses. All user interactions with the DB are recorded with timestamps so as to calculate statistical information for TP process management such as contouring times, planning and review times, dosimetry, physics and therapist QA times. External beam and brachytherapy plans are categorized according to complexity (ex: IMRT, 3D, HDR, LDR etc) and treatment types and applicators. Each plan category is assigned specific timelines for each planning process. When a plan approaches or passes the predetermined timeline, users are alerted via color coded graphical cues. When certain process items are not completed in time, pre-determined actions are triggered such as a delay in treatment start date. Results: Our institution has been using the electronic whiteboard for two years. Implementation of pre-determined actions based on the statistical information collected by the whiteboard improved our TP process. For example, the average time for normal tissue contouring decreased from 0.73±1.37 to 0.24±0.33 days. The average time for target volume contouring decreased from 3.2±2.84 to 2.37±2.54 days. This increase in efficiency allows more time for quality assurance processes, improving patient safety. Conclusion: The electronic whiteboard has been an invaluable tool for streamlining our TP processes. It facilitates timely and accurate communication

  17. Strategic planning as used by chief executive officers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Boissoneau, R; Belton, P; Schwahn, B

    1992-01-01

    In summary, the interviews obtained from this study suggest that CEO's in a variety of industries are attempting to "fit" their strategic planning process to their perceived environmental conditions. Indeed, management thinkers believe the biggest challenge in strategic planning will be turning CEO's into true strategic thinkers. The most successful companies, ultimately, will make strategic planning a high priority and involve all levels of management in the process. Planning becomes the unifying force that directs company actions. Hospital CEO's are obviously becoming more aware of this point as they strive to include all relevant parties (boards, physicians, etc.) in the process. Further, they seem to view planning in the classical sense, that is, as a dynamic, ever-evolving cyclical process more so than their general industry and academic contemporaries. Those hospitals that do develop strategic planning and strategic management have a definite advantage over competitors. Priorities are set and objectives are validated. This, in turn, improves productivity and creates the necessary framework for controlled growth. In addition, planning promotes teamwork and heightens motivation, bringing managers and employees together not only to meet but to exceed company goals.

  18. Library Assessment and Quality Assurance - Creating a Staff-Driven and User-Focused Development Process

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Håkan Carlsson

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available Objective – Gothenburg University Library has implemented a process with the goal to combine quality assurance and strategic planning activities. The process has bottom-up and top-down features designed to generate strong staff-involvement and long-term strategic stability. Methods – In 2008 the library started implementing a system in which each library team should state a number of improvement activities for the upcoming year. In order to focus the efforts, the system has gradually been improved by closely coupling a number of assessment activities, such as surveys and statistics, and connecting the activities to the long-term strategic plan of the library. Results – The activities of the library are now more systematically guided by both library staff and users. The system has resulted in increased understanding within different staff groups of changing external and internal demands, as well as the need for continuous change to library activities. Conclusion – Library assessment and external intelligence are important for tracking and improving library activities. Quality assurance and strategic planning are intricate parts in sustainable development of better and more effective services. The process becomes more effective when staff-driven and built upon systematic knowledge of present activities and users.

  19. Contingency planning at the flotilla level in the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary: flotilla 81-a case study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schooley, Shawn Erik

    2013-01-01

    This article presents a case study of United States Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla 81. Flotilla 81 created its first formal, single agency contingency plan. The research question addressed is "How can a flotilla successfully develop a contingency plan?" Five emergent themes are identified. They are offered as suggested promising practices for other flotillas in need of creating a contingency plan. Findings suggest successful contingency planning is a result of effective collaboration with community partners. Network management theory is a key to an effective contingency planning process.

  20. The use of discrete-event simulation modelling to improve radiation therapy planning processes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Werker, Greg; Sauré, Antoine; French, John; Shechter, Steven

    2009-07-01

    The planning portion of the radiation therapy treatment process at the British Columbia Cancer Agency is efficient but nevertheless contains room for improvement. The purpose of this study is to show how a discrete-event simulation (DES) model can be used to represent this complex process and to suggest improvements that may reduce the planning time and ultimately reduce overall waiting times. A simulation model of the radiation therapy (RT) planning process was constructed using the Arena simulation software, representing the complexities of the system. Several types of inputs feed into the model; these inputs come from historical data, a staff survey, and interviews with planners. The simulation model was validated against historical data and then used to test various scenarios to identify and quantify potential improvements to the RT planning process. Simulation modelling is an attractive tool for describing complex systems, and can be used to identify improvements to the processes involved. It is possible to use this technique in the area of radiation therapy planning with the intent of reducing process times and subsequent delays for patient treatment. In this particular system, reducing the variability and length of oncologist-related delays contributes most to improving the planning time.

  1. Integrating Family Planning and HIV Services at the Community ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    USER

    Little is known on integrating HIV and family planning (FP) services in community settings. Using a cluster randomized ..... process evaluation data from several studies on facility-based ... PEPFAR blueprint: Creating an AIDS-free generation.

  2. Energy efficient process planning based on numerical simulations

    OpenAIRE

    Neugebauer, Reimund; Hochmuth, C.; Schmidt, G.; Dix, M.

    2011-01-01

    The main goal of energy-efficient manufacturing is to generate products with maximum value-added at minimum energy consumption. To this end, in metal cutting processes, it is necessary to reduce the specific cutting energy while, at the same time, precision requirements have to be ensured. Precision is critical in metal cutting processes because they often constitute the final stages of metalworking chains. This paper presents a method for the planning of energy-efficient machining processes ...

  3. Business plans--tips from the toolkit 6.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Steer, Neville

    2010-07-01

    General practice is a business. Most practices can stay afloat by having appointments, billing patients, managing the administration processes and working long hours. What distinguishes the high performance organisation from the average organisation is a business plan. This article examines how to create a simple business plan that can be applied to the general practice setting and is drawn from material contained in The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners' 'General practice management toolkit'.

  4. Preparatory planning framework for Created Out of Mind: Shaping perceptions of dementia through art and science [version 1; referees: 2 approved

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Emilie Brotherhood

    2017-11-01

    Full Text Available Created Out of Mind is an interdisciplinary project, comprised of individuals from arts, social sciences, music, biomedical sciences, humanities and operational disciplines. Collaboratively we are working to shape perceptions of dementias through the arts and sciences, from a position within the Wellcome Collection. The Collection is a public building, above objects and archives, with a porous relationship between research, museum artefacts, and the public.  This pre-planning framework will act as an introduction to Created Out of Mind. The framework explains the rationale and aims of the project, outlines our focus for the project, and explores a number of challenges we have encountered by virtue of working in this way.

  5. Gaining efficiency by centralising the corporate business resiliency process.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Martinez, Robert

    2017-06-01

    Organisations have compiled many business continuity plans over the years in response to uncontrollable events and natural disasters. As the types of threats increase, even more plans are being created. Unfortunately, many corporations do not communicate the existence of these various plans outside of their centre of excellence. Creating a centralised oversight of your business resiliency process brings many benefits, including greater awareness, a bigger pool of expertise, common terminology and reducing the chances of redundant efforts. Having an overarching corporate response plan in place makes it possible to have high-level leadership trained and ready in case an extreme event occurs.

  6. Maximizing value for planned maintenance and turnarounds

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Crager, John [Asset Performance Canada, ULC (Canada)

    2011-07-01

    In this presentation, Asset Performance Canada elaborates on turnaround management, and provides insight into managing strategies and risks associated with turnaround processes. Value is created fast as turnarounds progress from the strategy and scope definition phases towards the planning and execution phases. Turnarounds employ best practice solutions through common processes proven effective by data, research, and experience, ensuring consistent value creation, performance tracking, and shared lesson-learning. Adherence to the turnaround work process by carefully selected planning team members with clearly defined responsibilities and expectations, as well as an effective process for scope collection and management, are crucial to turnaround success. Further to this, a formal risk management process, employing automated risk tracking software and a safety management plan for assessing risks and their severity is also invaluable in avoiding any additional costs and schedule delays. Finally, assessment of team readiness and alignment through use of the turnaround readiness index, and rapid management of discovery work, can aid in contingency management.

  7. Business plan for a technology innovation

    OpenAIRE

    Leikas, Anniina

    2015-01-01

    The aim of this thesis was to create a business plan to understand the potential of the business idea and offer guidance when establishing a new business. The basis was to study the business environment in Finland and what factors need to considered in business planning process. Entrepreneurship is one pos-sibility for the author in the future. Large generations are retiring and the market has place for new entrepreneurs and ideas. The Technology industry is constantly evolving and new i...

  8. Emergency preparedness planning: A process to insure effectiveness and efficiency

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Schroeder, A.J. Jr.

    1994-01-01

    Prevention is undoubtedly the preferred policy regarding emergency response. Unfortunately, despite best intentions, emergencies do occur. It is the prudent operator that has well written and exercised plans in place to respond to the full suite of possible situations. This paper presents a planning process to help personnel develop and/or maintain emergency management capability. It is equally applicable at the field location, the district/regional office, or the corporate headquarters. It is not limited in scope and can be useful for planners addressing incidents ranging from fires, explosions, spills/releases, computer system failure, terrorist threats and natural disasters. By following the steps in the process diagram, the planner will document emergency management capability in a logical and efficient manner which should result in effective emergency response and recovery plans. The astute planner will immediately see that the process presented is a continuing one, fully compatible with the principles of continuous improvement

  9. Cities & counties - back to the basics: Creating a local energy program

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    1995-12-01

    Outlined in this brochure are steps that local governments, or communities at large, can follow to devise an energy efficiency program. In general, an energy efficiency policy is first legislated by the local governing body. Then, an energy program is created to support the policy by developing and executing an action plan. The steps are: Determine how much you spend on energy; Designate or create a lead office; Link energy programs with community goals; Build grassroots community support; Don`t reinvent the wheel; Prioritize actions and develop a draft plan; Implement the plan; Evaluate success and update the plan; and, Publicize the benefits.

  10. On the Automatic Generation of Plans for Life Cycle Assembly Processes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    CALTON,TERRI L.

    2000-01-01

    Designing products for easy assembly and disassembly during their entire life cycles for purposes including product assembly, product upgrade, product servicing and repair, and product disposal is a process that involves many disciplines. In addition, finding the best solution often involves considering the design as a whole and by considering its intended life cycle. Different goals and manufacturing plan selection criteria, as compared to initial assembly, require re-visiting significant fundamental assumptions and methods that underlie current assembly planning techniques. Previous work in this area has been limited to either academic studies of issues in assembly planning or to applied studies of life cycle assembly processes that give no attention to automatic planning. It is believed that merging these two areas will result in a much greater ability to design for, optimize, and analyze the cycle assembly processes. The study of assembly planning is at the very heart of manufacturing research facilities and academic engineering institutions; and, in recent years a number of significant advances in the field of assembly planning have been made. These advances have ranged from the development of automated assembly planning systems, such as Sandia's Automated Assembly Analysis System Archimedes 3.0{copyright}, to the startling revolution in microprocessors and computer-controlled production tools such as computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), flexible manufacturing systems (EMS), and computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM). These results have kindled considerable interest in the study of algorithms for life cycle related assembly processes and have blossomed into a field of intense interest. The intent of this manuscript is to bring together the fundamental results in this area, so that the unifying principles and underlying concepts of algorithm design may more easily be implemented in practice.

  11. SIMULATION OF CARS ACCUMULATION PROCESSES FOR SOLVING TASKS OF OPERATIONAL PLANNING IN CONDITIONS OF INITIAL INFORMATION UNCERTAINTY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    О. A. Tereshchenko

    2017-06-01

    simulation the cars accumulation was proposed to optimize the transportation process, depending on the chosen criterion. Findings. The developed methodology of simulation of cars accumulation process was reflected in the dynamic models created with the participation of the author and implemented on the Belarusian Railroad on the basis of IAS SMD CT. They are designed to provide operational planning of the transportation process on the basis of methods that allow assessing technological risks. Originality. The innovative component of the work is due to the expansion of existing models of the accumulation of cars for cases of uncertainty of the initial information. Thus, the earlier deterministic models are particular cases of the proposed model. Also, unlike existing ones, the technique allows to take into account the influence of random processes in a complex manner. Due to this, technological risks can be further assessed and the necessary regulatory measures can be implemented promptly. In general, the results obtained by modeling the proposed method allow to improve the quality of output solutions in the system of shift and daily operational planning, increasing the reliability of operational plans. Practical value. To date, there is a favorable opportunity to use the proposed methodology of modeling in existing in the railway transport systems of automated operational planning for operational work, including the optimization of local railways and the solution of a number of urgent tasks of train formation.

  12. Work-in-process clearing in supply chain operations planning

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Selcuk, B.; Fransoo, J.C.; Kok, de A.G.

    2008-01-01

    In this study we provide insights into the effectiveness of the clearing function concept in a hierarchical planning context. The clearing function is a mathematical representation of the relation between the Work-In-Process (WIP) and the throughput of a production process. We use it in a

  13. Planning-related motor processes underlie mental practice and imitation learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bach, Patric; Allami, Bassem Khalaf; Tucker, Mike; Ellis, Rob

    2014-06-01

    It is still controversial whether mental practice-the internal rehearsal of movements to improve later performance-relies on processes engaged during physical motor performance and, if so, which processes these are. We report data from 5 experiments, in which participants mentally practiced complex rhythms with either feet or hands while using the same or different body parts to respond to unrelated sounds. We found that responses were impaired for those body parts that were concurrently used in mental practice, suggesting a binding of body-part-specific motor processes to action plans. This result was found when participants mentally trained to memorize the rhythms, to merely improve their performance, when mental practice and execution directly followed one another and when separated by a different task. Finally, it was found irrespective of whether participants practiced on the basis of a symbolic rhythm description and when they practiced by watching somebody perform the rhythms (imitation learning). The effect was eliminated only when the requirement for mental practice was eliminated from the task while keeping visual stimulation identical. These data link mental practice not to execution but planning related motor processes and reveal that these planning processes underlie both mental practice and imitation learning. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

  14. Scenario planning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Enzmann, Dieter R; Beauchamp, Norman J; Norbash, Alexander

    2011-03-01

    In facing future developments in health care, scenario planning offers a complementary approach to traditional strategic planning. Whereas traditional strategic planning typically consists of predicting the future at a single point on a chosen time horizon and mapping the preferred plans to address such a future, scenario planning creates stories about multiple likely potential futures on a given time horizon and maps the preferred plans to address the multiple described potential futures. Each scenario is purposefully different and specifically not a consensus worst-case, average, or best-case forecast; nor is scenario planning a process in probabilistic prediction. Scenario planning focuses on high-impact, uncertain driving forces that in the authors' example affect the field of radiology. Uncertainty is the key concept as these forces are mapped onto axes of uncertainty, the poles of which have opposed effects on radiology. One chosen axis was "market focus," with poles of centralized health care (government control) vs a decentralized private market. Another axis was "radiology's business model," with one pole being a unified, single specialty vs a splintered, disaggregated subspecialty. The third axis was "technology and science," with one pole representing technology enabling to radiology vs technology threatening to radiology. Selected poles of these axes were then combined to create 3 scenarios. One scenario, termed "entrepreneurialism," consisted of a decentralized private market, a disaggregated business model, and threatening technology and science. A second scenario, termed "socialized medicine," had a centralized market focus, a unified specialty business model, and enabling technology and science. A third scenario, termed "freefall," had a centralized market focus, a disaggregated business model, and threatening technology and science. These scenarios provide a range of futures that ultimately allow the identification of defined "signposts" that can

  15. Understanding the process by which female entrepreneurs create INVs

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rosenbaum, Gitte Ohrt; Hannibal, Martin

    around the world and their increasing contribution to economic growth and employment (Baughn et al., 2006). As it is generally acknowledged that female entrepreneurs exhibit many differences from their male counterparts (Anna et al., 2000; Buttner & Moore, 1997), this omission in the INV literature...... and behave in such crucial entrepreneurial processes as new venture creation. In this regard, and only recently, female entrepreneurship scholars have begun to recognize that there may be differences between male and female nascent entrepreneurs in terms of, for example, psychological attributes, education...... opportunities on (foreign) markets. As such, the specific focus of this paper will be on how answers to the series of “Who am I?, What do I know? Whom do I know?” questions in the founding stage helped the focal female entrepreneurs to recognize and create opportunities in foreign markets. In doing...

  16. An evaluation of Mexican transportation planning, finance, implementation, and construction processes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2009-10-01

    This research examined the legal, financial, institutional and policy processes that Mexico uses to plan, finance, : construct, and implement its transportation network. It documents through twelve case studies the state of the : practice in planning...

  17. Liquidity management through financial planning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kameníková Katarína

    2001-12-01

    Full Text Available One of the basic goals of financial management is to provide financial property and capital for running of the firm, as well as for its development, that means provide optimal firm´s liquidity.To improve liquidity is possible provide through various ways. In present time there is increasing importance of financial planning., where planning of liquidity presents one of its integral part. Therefore I deal in presented paper with possible liquidity improvement through calculation of financial planning in chosen slovac magnesite firm, exploitating and elaborating magnesite raw material.For creating of financial plann of liquidity I chosed to use one of the practical methods - method of financial indexes. Such method presents process of planning optimal liquidity with providing of required rentability. Such plann must provide balance between income and outcome, as well as secure achievment of expected profit.I used tools of financial planning for calculation of possible liquidity improvement in mentioned firm, where present financial situation is characterised by law liquidity, but high rentability. Such position presents transitive crisis situation, therefore firm must create new financial property or decrease liabilities, in order to overcome negative state of liquidity.Performed calculation showed, that change in balance sheet due to the growth of financial property will improve liquidity, rentability will be maintained, therefore firm will be able to transit from crisis situation.Providing of liquidity will present one of possible way how to care for financial health of firm. But such process is not simple, it must be done with connection to the changes of internal and external conditions of the firm.

  18. 25 CFR 1200.15 - What is the approval process for management plans?

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-04-01

    ... 25 Indians 2 2010-04-01 2010-04-01 false What is the approval process for management plans? 1200... INTERIOR AMERICAN INDIAN TRUST FUND MANAGEMENT REFORM ACT Withdrawing Tribal Funds From Trust § 1200.15 What is the approval process for management plans? The Secretary will approve or disapprove each...

  19. Calfornia General Plans

    Data.gov (United States)

    California Natural Resource Agency — We undertook creating the first ever seamless statewide General Plan map for California. All county general plans and many city general plans were integrated into 1...

  20. Rolling Stock Planning at DSB S-tog - Processes, Cost Structures and Requirements

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Thorlacius, Per

    A central issue for operators of suburban passenger train transport systems is providing sufficient number of seats for the passengers while at the same time minimising operating costs. The process of providing this is called rolling stock planning. This technical report documents the terminology......, the processes, the cost structures and the requirements for rolling stock planning at DSB S-tog, the suburban passenger train operator of the City of Copenhagen. The focus of the technical report is directed at practical train operator oriented issues. The technical report is thought to serve as a basis...... for investigating better methods to perform the rolling stock planning (to be the topic of later papers). This technical report is produced as a part of the current industrial Ph. D. project to improve the rolling stock planning process of DSB S-tog....

  1. Strategic Planning Process and Organizational Structure: Impacts, Confluence and Similarities

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dyogo Felype Neis

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available This article aims to analyze the relationship between the strategic planning process and organizational structure in the reality of a complex organization: the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Santa Catarina (MPSC. The research is set by the single case study research strategy and data were collected through the following instruments: bibliographical research, documentary research, semi-structured interviews and systematic observation. The conclusion indicates that the phases of the strategic planning process influence and are influenced by the elements of the organizational structure and highlights the confluences, the impacts and similarities between the stages of formulation and implementation of the strategic process with the various constituent elements of the organizational structure.

  2. 242-A Campaign 99-1 process control plan; FINAL

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    LE, E.Q.

    1999-01-01

    242-A Evaporator 99-1 will process approximately one million gallons of waste from tank 102-AW in June 1999. The process control Plan provides a general description of activities, which will occur during 242-A Evaporator Campaign 99-1 and to document analyses conducted to demonstrate that 102-AW waste is acceptable for processing. Predict is a registered trademark of Risk Decisions England Corporation, United Kingdom

  3. Streamlining the Bankability Process using International Standards

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Kurtz, Sarah [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Repins, Ingrid L [National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Kelly, George [Sunset Technology, Mount Airy, MD; Ramu, Govind [SunPower, San Jose, California; Heinz, Matthias [TUV Rheinland, Cologne, Germany; Chen, Yingnan [CGC (China General Certification Center), Beijing; Wohlgemuth, John [PowerMark, Union Hall, VA; Lokanath, Sumanth [First Solar, Tempe, Arizona; Daniels, Eric [Suncycle USA, Frederick MD; Hsi, Edward [Swiss RE, Zurich, Switzerland; Yamamichi, Masaaki [RTS, Trumbull, CT

    2017-09-27

    NREL has supported the international efforts to create a streamlined process for documenting bankability and/or completion of each step of a PV project plan. IECRE was created for this purpose in 2014. This poster describes the goals, current status of this effort, and how individuals and companies can become involved.

  4. BUSINESS PLANS INFORMED BY DESIGN

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Petersen, Sørren Ingomar; Heebøll, John

    2011-01-01

    Today the value created by applying design at a business model and innovation level as opposed to a design and process level is marginal. Interviews with product developers from academia and industry suggest this is due to a lack of design perspective when formulating and evaluating business plans...... types. These were the design of products based on sustainable and on disruptive technologies. In conclusion, we recommend a procedure to align and translate business plan content into inspirational design briefs for enhancing design concept synthesis performance........ To remedy this, we propose including Design Quality Criteria drivers in the formulation of business plans. While auditing entrepreneurial business plans and design briefs content gaps were revealed between them. Strategy and context differences as well as a negative correlation between investors’ business...

  5. Planning, housing and participation in Britain, 1968-1976.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shapely, Peter

    2011-01-01

    The history of planning and social housing in post-war Britain has been dominated by the role of the state, local government, professionals (planners, architects, civil servants) and developers. This is hardly surprising, given that the partnerships created around these groups dominated the slum clearance and building process. The tenants have been absent from the 'history' because they were missing from the process. However, in the 1960s and 1970s the concept of participation began to emerge. It grew from broader social and cultural changes brought about through the emergence of welfare, consumerism and an ever greater awareness of 'rights'. The idea of participation was to increase participatory democracy by involving people in the planning process, by recognizing their rights to be involved in decisions which impacted on their lives. The state promoted the idea through legislation, but in practice the concept proved difficult to implement. Local authorities saw participation, at best, as a means of smoothing the planning process through the dissemination of ideas, thus limiting any scope for meaningful participation schemes. This article will look at the tension between the ideal and practice. It will also consider the reaction of many tenants who, frustrated at the attitude and policies forced on them by local government, became galvanized into action, creating tenant groups that would give their communities a voice.

  6. Influence of the demand information quality on planning process accuracy in supply chain. Case studies

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Natalia Szozda

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available Background: Identification and analysis of factors that affect the accuracy of demand planning process across the supply chain is one of the most important problems which influence the effectiveness of its material and information flows. Material and methods: On the basis of demand planning process investigation authors define the main elements affecting the right supply chain performance level and investigate the possible connections between demand information quality and demand planning process accuracy. Later, an overview of some recent developments in the analyzed research area is provided. Results: Based on the literature review, there is described the defined factors impact on the accuracy of demand plan in each echelon for case companies. There are considered three cases. The examples illustrate supply chains of different manufacturing companies. The focus is placed on demand planning across the supply chains. The issue of determining the accuracy of future sales plans in each echelon of supply chains and factors affecting it are raised. Taking into account the case companies demand planning process analyses, there are defined possible quality measures, that are possible to be used when forecasting the customer demand. Conclusions: One of the most important and difficult planning area in the companies is becoming planning demand. Errors in planning are reflected not just in the business resource planning but also in the entire supply chain. Presented cases show that many factors affect the proper demand planning process in the supply chain, like e.g.  information technologies, lead-time, or number of supplied materials. As it can be seen from the case studies, the model of collecting information from the market plays an important role in the demand planning process.

  7. A production model and maintenance planning model for the process industry

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Ashayeri, J.; Teelen, A.; Selen, W.J.

    1995-01-01

    In this paper a model is developed to simultaneously plan preventive maintenance and production in a process industry environment, where maintenance planning is extremely important. The model schedules production jobs and preventive maintenance jobs, while minimizing costs associated with

  8. Evidence development and publication planning: strategic process.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wittek, Michael R; Jo Williams, Mary; Carlson, Angeline M

    2009-11-01

    A number of decisions in the health care field rely heavily on published clinical evidence. A systematic approach to evidence development and publication planning is required to develop a portfolio of evidence that includes at minimum information on efficacy, safety, durability of effect, quality of life, and economic outcomes. The approach requires a critical assessment of available literature, identification of gaps in the literature, and a strategic plan to fill the gaps to ensure the availability of evidence demanded for clinical decisions, coverage/payment decisions and health technology assessments. The purpose of this manuscript is to offer a six-step strategic process leading to a portfolio of evidence that meets the informational needs of providers, payers, and governmental agencies concerning patient access to a therapy.

  9. Collaboration process for integrated social and health care strategy implementation

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jukka Korpela

    2012-05-01

    Full Text Available Objective:  To present collaboration process for creating a roadmap for the implementation of a strategy for integrated health and social care. The developed collaboration process includes multiple phases and uses electronic group decision support system technology (GDSS.Method: A case study done in the South Karelia District of Social and Health Services in Finland during 2010 - 2011. An expert panel of 13 participants was used in the planning process of the strategy implementation. The participants were interviewed and observed during the case study.Results: As a practical result, a roadmap for integrated health and social care strategy implementation has been developed. The strategic roadmap includes detailed plans of several projects which are needed for successful integration strategy implementation. As an academic result, a collaboration process to create such a roadmap has been developed.Conclusions: The collaboration process and technology seem to suit the planning process well. The participants of the meetings were satisfied with the collaboration process and the GDSS technology. The strategic roadmap was accepted by the participants, which indicates satisfaction with the developed process.

  10. Collaboration process for integrated social and health care strategy implementation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Korpela, Jukka; Elfvengren, Kalle; Kaarna, Tanja; Tepponen, Merja; Tuominen, Markku

    2012-01-01

    To present a collaboration process for creating a roadmap for the implementation of a strategy for integrated health and social care. The developed collaboration process includes multiple phases and uses electronic group decision support system technology (GDSS). A case study done in the South Karelia District of Social and Health Services in Finland during 2010-2011. An expert panel of 13 participants was used in the planning process of the strategy implementation. The participants were interviewed and observed during the case study. As a practical result, a roadmap for integrated health and social care strategy implementation has been developed. The strategic roadmap includes detailed plans of several projects which are needed for successful integration strategy implementation. As an academic result, a collaboration process to create such a roadmap has been developed. The collaboration process and technology seem to suit the planning process well. The participants of the meetings were satisfied with the collaboration process and the GDSS technology. The strategic roadmap was accepted by the participants, which indicates satisfaction with the developed process.

  11. Systemic Operational Design: Enhancing the Joint Operation Planning Process

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Delacruz, Victor J

    2007-01-01

    Operational level commanders and their staffs require relevant and current joint doctrine that articulates the critical function of operational design and its role in the Joint Operation Planning Process (JOPP...

  12. Metodología para elaborar el Plan Maestro de Validación de los procesos de producción del Centro Nacional de Sanidad Agropecuaria Methodology to design the Master Plan of Validation of production processes of National Center of Agricultural Health

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nivian Montes de Oca

    2010-06-01

    Full Text Available La metodología para la elaboración del Plan Maestro de Validación de los procesos de producción del Centro Nacional de Sanidad Agropecuaria, se diseñó a partir de los requisitos contenidos en la Regulación 16 del 2006 de Buenas Prácticas de Fabricación de medicamentos. Abarcó la política de la organización para la actividad de validación su estructura organizativa, las instalaciones, sistemas, equipos y procesos que se deben validar; el formato de la documentación a utilizar; la planificación y calendario de cada actividad; los resultados de cada protocolo ejecutado, el control de los cambios que se generan; un resumen de las validaciones anteriores; cumplimiento del plan propuesto; las conclusiones donde se precisan de forma resumida si los procesos validados están bajo control, los resultados más relevantes, así como las acciones correctivas y preventivas a tomar; por último se define la distribución de toda la información generada, conformando así el Plan Maestro de Validación. Este sistema de validación se muestra a través de procedimientos, protocolos y registros aplicados en el proceso de fabricación de Surfacen®, medicamento para uso humano que se fabrica en el Centro Nacional de Sanidad Agropecuaria.The methodology to design the Validation Master Plan the production processes of National Center of Agricultural Health was created from the requirements present in the Regulation 16, 2006 of Good Practices of drugs manufacture including the organization policy for validation activity of its organizing structure, installations, systems, equipments and processes to be validated, documentation format used, planning and calendar of each activity; the results from each protocol performed, the generating changes control, abstract of prior validations, fulfillment of proposed plan, conclusions where are determined in a summarized way if the validated processes are under control, the more relevant results, as well as how

  13. PROJECT SCOPE MANAGEMENT PROCESS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yana Derenskaya

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available The purpose of the article is to define the essence of project scope management process, its components, as well as to develop an algorithm of project scope management in terms of pharmaceutical production. Methodology. To carry out the study, available information sources on standards of project management in whole and elements of project scope management in particular are analysed. Methods of system and structural analysis, logical generalization are used to study the totality of subprocesses of project scope management, input and output documents, and to provide each of them. Methods of network planning are used to construct a precedence diagram of project scope management process. Results of the research showed that components of the project scope management are managing the scope of the project product and managing the content of project work. It is the second component is investigated in the presented work as a subject of research. Accordingly, it is defined that project scope management process is to substantiate and bring to the realization the necessary amount of work that ensures the successful implementation of the project (achievement of its goal and objectives of individual project participants. It is also determined that the process of managing the project scope takes into account the planning, definition of the project scope, creation of the structure of project work, confirmation of the scope and management of the project scope. Participants of these subprocesses are: customer, investor, and other project participants – external organizations (contractors of the project; project review committee; project manager and project team. It is revealed that the key element of planning the project scope is the formation of the structure of design work, the justification of the number of works, and the sequence of their implementation. It is recommended to use the following sequence of stages for creating the structure of project work

  14. Social Media Marketing Plan for Lakeside Cafe

    OpenAIRE

    Saari, Mona

    2017-01-01

    The principles of marketing have always been about connecting with consumers at the right place at the right time. Nowadays that means meeting them where they are spending a lot of their time already: online. Engaging with brands has become a part of the buyer decision process. Social media effects consumers’ decisions to purchase more than ever before. This thesis aimed to create a social media marketing plan for a Finnish tourism company called Lakeside Cafe. The plan was based on the SOSTA...

  15. Comprehensive integrated planning: A process for the Oak Ridge Reservation, Oak Ridge, Tennessee

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1998-05-01

    The Oak Ridge Comprehensive Integrated Plan is intended to assist the US Department of Energy (DOE) and contractor personnel in implementing a comprehensive integrated planning process consistent with DOE Order 430.1, Life Cycle Asset Management and Oak Ridge Operations Order 430. DOE contractors are charged with developing and producing the Comprehensive Integrated Plan, which serves as a summary document, providing information from other planning efforts regarding vision statements, missions, contextual conditions, resources and facilities, decision processes, and stakeholder involvement. The Comprehensive Integrated Plan is a planning reference that identifies primary issues regarding major changes in land and facility use and serves all programs and functions on-site as well as the Oak Ridge Operations Office and DOE Headquarters. The Oak Ridge Reservation is a valuable national resource and is managed on the basis of the principles of ecosystem management and sustainable development and how mission, economic, ecological, social, and cultural factors are used to guide land- and facility-use decisions. The long-term goals of the comprehensive integrated planning process, in priority order, are to support DOE critical missions and to stimulate the economy while maintaining a quality environment

  16. Comprehensive integrated planning: A process for the Oak Ridge Reservation, Oak Ridge, Tennessee

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    NONE

    1998-05-01

    The Oak Ridge Comprehensive Integrated Plan is intended to assist the US Department of Energy (DOE) and contractor personnel in implementing a comprehensive integrated planning process consistent with DOE Order 430.1, Life Cycle Asset Management and Oak Ridge Operations Order 430. DOE contractors are charged with developing and producing the Comprehensive Integrated Plan, which serves as a summary document, providing information from other planning efforts regarding vision statements, missions, contextual conditions, resources and facilities, decision processes, and stakeholder involvement. The Comprehensive Integrated Plan is a planning reference that identifies primary issues regarding major changes in land and facility use and serves all programs and functions on-site as well as the Oak Ridge Operations Office and DOE Headquarters. The Oak Ridge Reservation is a valuable national resource and is managed on the basis of the principles of ecosystem management and sustainable development and how mission, economic, ecological, social, and cultural factors are used to guide land- and facility-use decisions. The long-term goals of the comprehensive integrated planning process, in priority order, are to support DOE critical missions and to stimulate the economy while maintaining a quality environment.

  17. Create a new vision for indigenous development

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Chavez Alba, Rafael; Sanchez Arancibia, Oscar Armando [TRANSIERRA S.A., Santa Cruz (Bolivia)

    2009-07-01

    Transierra is a Bolivian company created in the year 2000 with the goal of transporting natural gas from the fields of San Alberto and San Antonio, in Tarija, to the Rio Grande Gas Compression Plant in Santa Cruz, for export to Brazil. Transierra has implemented a Social Action Plan, which allowed it to execute more than 800 community projects for the benefit of over 40 thousand families living in it's area of influence, with the presence of 146 indigenous communities, generally lagging behind in economic and productive life in the region and country. The Support Program to Guarani Development Plans (PA-PDG) is part of the Social Plan and is part of a long-term agreement signed between Transierra and indigenous organizations. The program has implemented more than one hundred projects for productive development, health, education, cultural revaluation, and strengthening organizational infrastructure, generating huge benefits in improving the living conditions of thousands of families of the Guarani people. This year a unique initiative was created with 4 Indigenous Captains and with the support of the International Finance Corporation (World Bank Group), including Business Plans to promote sustainable economic growth, created productive economic cycles involving improvements to the production and productivity to enter the commercial distribution of local and national markets. These four initiatives have meant a shift in the implementation and is helping to generate new dynamics in production, in addition to capturing significant resources from public and private investment, laying the groundwork for the improvement of the incomes and quality of life of its beneficiaries. (author)

  18. Evaluation of plan quality assurance models for prostate cancer patients based on fully automatically generated Pareto-optimal treatment plans.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Yibing; Breedveld, Sebastiaan; Heijmen, Ben; Petit, Steven F

    2016-06-07

    IMRT planning with commercial Treatment Planning Systems (TPSs) is a trial-and-error process. Consequently, the quality of treatment plans may not be consistent among patients, planners and institutions. Recently, different plan quality assurance (QA) models have been proposed, that could flag and guide improvement of suboptimal treatment plans. However, the performance of these models was validated using plans that were created using the conventional trail-and-error treatment planning process. Consequently, it is challenging to assess and compare quantitatively the accuracy of different treatment planning QA models. Therefore, we created a golden standard dataset of consistently planned Pareto-optimal IMRT plans for 115 prostate patients. Next, the dataset was used to assess the performance of a treatment planning QA model that uses the overlap volume histogram (OVH). 115 prostate IMRT plans were fully automatically planned using our in-house developed TPS Erasmus-iCycle. An existing OVH model was trained on the plans of 58 of the patients. Next it was applied to predict DVHs of the rectum, bladder and anus of the remaining 57 patients. The predictions were compared with the achieved values of the golden standard plans for the rectum D mean, V 65, and V 75, and D mean of the anus and the bladder. For the rectum, the prediction errors (predicted-achieved) were only  -0.2  ±  0.9 Gy (mean  ±  1 SD) for D mean,-1.0  ±  1.6% for V 65, and  -0.4  ±  1.1% for V 75. For D mean of the anus and the bladder, the prediction error was 0.1  ±  1.6 Gy and 4.8  ±  4.1 Gy, respectively. Increasing the training cohort to 114 patients only led to minor improvements. A dataset of consistently planned Pareto-optimal prostate IMRT plans was generated. This dataset can be used to train new, and validate and compare existing treatment planning QA models, and has been made publicly available. The OVH model was highly accurate

  19. How Innovation Theory Can Contribute to the Military Operations Planning Process

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Heltberg, Anna Therese; Dahl, Kåre

    The research study considers how the application of innovation theory might contribute to military staff work planning processes and bring new perspectives to operational models of analysis such as NATO’s Comprehensive Operations Planning Directive (COPD) and the Danish Field Manual III....

  20. The role of knowledge in the processes of creating and implementing innovations

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Baruk Jerzy

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available The dynamics of changes taking place in the environment of organizations encourages them to design and implement internal changes allowing to sustain the balance between the organizations and their environment. These changes concern the formulation of the main goal of an organization, process and structural solutions, management concept, relations with clients, a different look at resources, using knowledge as a source of innovation etc. One of the conditions for the functioning and development of contemporary organizations is systemic utilization of knowledge for solving the emerging problems, including the creation of innovations. Satisfying this condition requires using knowledge in management. The purpose of this work is to show that knowledge plays a fundamental role in the processes of generating and implementing innovation, that’s why the process of creating innovation has to be manager in a rational way, according to the proposed models.

  1. Optimization process planning using hybrid genetic algorithm and intelligent search for job shop machining.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Salehi, Mojtaba; Bahreininejad, Ardeshir

    2011-08-01

    Optimization of process planning is considered as the key technology for computer-aided process planning which is a rather complex and difficult procedure. A good process plan of a part is built up based on two elements: (1) the optimized sequence of the operations of the part; and (2) the optimized selection of the machine, cutting tool and Tool Access Direction (TAD) for each operation. In the present work, the process planning is divided into preliminary planning, and secondary/detailed planning. In the preliminary stage, based on the analysis of order and clustering constraints as a compulsive constraint aggregation in operation sequencing and using an intelligent searching strategy, the feasible sequences are generated. Then, in the detailed planning stage, using the genetic algorithm which prunes the initial feasible sequences, the optimized operation sequence and the optimized selection of the machine, cutting tool and TAD for each operation based on optimization constraints as an additive constraint aggregation are obtained. The main contribution of this work is the optimization of sequence of the operations of the part, and optimization of machine selection, cutting tool and TAD for each operation using the intelligent search and genetic algorithm simultaneously.

  2. An Exploration of Strategic Planning Perspectives and Processes within Community Colleges Identified as Being Distinctive in Their Strategic Planning Practices

    Science.gov (United States)

    Augustyniak, Lisa J.

    2015-01-01

    Community college leaders face unprecedented change, and some have begun reexamining their institutional strategic planning processes. Yet, studies in higher education strategic planning spend little time examining how community colleges formulate their strategic plans. This mixed-method qualitative study used an expert sampling method to identify…

  3. Development of the computer-aided process planning (CAPP system for polymer injection molds manufacturing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J. Tepić

    2011-10-01

    Full Text Available Beginning of production and selling of polymer products largely depends on mold manufacturing. The costs of mold manufacturing have significant share in the final price of a product. The best way to improve and rationalize polymer injection molds production process is by doing mold design automation and manufacturing process planning automation. This paper reviews development of a dedicated process planning system for manufacturing of the mold for injection molding, which integrates computer-aided design (CAD, computer-aided process planning (CAPP and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM technologies.

  4. Optimization-based decision support systems for planning problems in processing industries

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Claassen, G.D.H.

    2014-01-01

    Summary

    Optimization-based decision support systems for planning problems in processing industries

    Nowadays, efficient planning of material flows within and between supply chains is of vital importance and has become one of the most challenging problems for decision support in

  5. The comprehensive intermodal planning system in distributed environment

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Olgierd Dziamski

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available Background: Goods distribution by containers has opened new opportunities for them in the global supply chain network. Standardization of transportation units allow to simplify transport logistics operations and enable the integration of different types of transport. Currently, container transport is the most popular means of transport by sea, but recent studies show an increase in its popularity in land transport. In the paper presented the concept of a comprehensive intermodal planning system in a distributed environment which enables more efficient use containers in the global transport. The aim of this paper was to formulate and develop new concept of Internet Intermodal Planning System in distribution environment, supporting the common interests of the consignors and the logistic service providers by integrating the transportation modes, routing, logistics operations and scheduling in order to create intermodal transport plans. Methods: In the paper presented and discussed the new approach to the management of logistics resources used in international intermodal transport. Detailed analysis of proposed classification of variety transportation means has been carried out along with their specific properties, which may affect the time and cost of transportation. Have been presented the modular web-based distribution planning system supporting container transportation planning. Conducted the analysis of the main planning process and curried out the discussion on the effectiveness of the new web-based container transport planning system. Result and conclusions: This paper presents a new concept of the distributed container transport planning system integrating the available on the market logistics service providers with freight exchange. Specific to container planning new transport categories has been identified which simplify and facilitate the management of intermodal planning process. The paper presents a modular structure of Integrated

  6. Action plan for the communication process in a nursing team

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Priscilla Valladares Broca

    2016-06-01

    Full Text Available The objective of this study is to propose an action plan for the communication process in the nursing team. The theoretical references were: the model of a communication process proposed by Berlo and essential concepts of King´s Theory. It is a qualitative, convergent-care research. The data production technique was the semi-structured interview with 25 nurses of a public hospital. Data used the thematic content analysis technique. The elements of the communication team are: perception, self, space, time, stress, role, authority, power, status, audience, empathy and nonverbal communication. The plan proposes a dynamic, flexible, interactive and relational communication process, in order to contribute to the professional qualification and make new practices of care viable. It was concluded that its elements do not have a fixed and stable position, but throughout the process they are used according to the needs of each party.

  7. On Planning and Managing the Preservation of Historical Buildings

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Č. Jarský

    2003-01-01

    Full Text Available The process of preserving and reconstructing historical buildings poses several specific questions and raises problems which must be solved in the planning and management stage of the building process - from questions of architectural and art-historical significance, via the future purpose of use of the building, links to the surrounding buildings, environmental questions, questions of cost, time analysis, and quality assurance problems. Many of these problems can be solved with the help of a computer model of the course of the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the building created by a construction technology network diagram. The CONTEC integrated project planning, management and quality control system based on these diagrams has been used for bidding, planning and managing the reconstruction process of several significant historical buildings in Prague and other cities.

  8. Incorporating organ movements in IMRT treatment planning for prostate cancer: Minimizing uncertainties in the inverse planning process

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Unkelbach, Jan; Oelfke, Uwe

    2005-01-01

    We investigate an off-line strategy to incorporate inter fraction organ movements in IMRT treatment planning. Nowadays, imaging modalities located in the treatment room allow for several CT scans of a patient during the course of treatment. These multiple CT scans can be used to estimate a probability distribution of possible patient geometries. This probability distribution can subsequently be used to calculate the expectation value of the delivered dose distribution. In order to incorporate organ movements into the treatment planning process, it was suggested that inverse planning could be based on that probability distribution of patient geometries instead of a single snapshot. However, it was shown that a straightforward optimization of the expectation value of the dose may be insufficient since the expected dose distribution is related to several uncertainties: first, this probability distribution has to be estimated from only a few images. And second, the distribution is only sparsely sampled over the treatment course due to a finite number of fractions. In order to obtain a robust treatment plan these uncertainties should be considered and minimized in the inverse planning process. In the current paper, we calculate a 3D variance distribution in addition to the expectation value of the dose distribution which are simultaniously optimized. The variance is used as a surrogate to quantify the associated risks of a treatment plan. The feasibility of this approach is demonstrated for clinical data of prostate patients. Different scenarios of dose expectation values and corresponding variances are discussed

  9. SU-F-T-99: Data Visualization From a Treatment Planning Tracking System for Radiation Oncology

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Cline, K; Kabat, C; Li, Y; Ha, C; Kirby, N; Stathakis, S [University of Texas HSC SA, San Antonio, TX (United States)

    2016-06-15

    Purpose: A treatment planning process tracker database with input forms and a TV-viewable display webpage was developed and implemented in our clinic to collect time data points throughout the process. Tracking plan times is important because it directly affects the patient quality of care. Simply, the longer a patient waits after their initial simulation CT for treatment to begin, the more time the cancer has to progress. The tracker helps to drive workflow through the clinic, while the data collected can be used to understand and manage the process to find and eliminate inefficiencies. Methods: The overall process steps tracked are CT-simulation, mark patient, draw normal contours, draw target volumes, create plan, and review/approve plan. Time stamps for task completion were extracted and used to generate a set of clinic metrics, among which include average time for each step in the process split apart by type of treatment, average time to completion for plans started in a given week, and individual overall completion time per plan. Results: Trends have been tracked for fourteen weeks of clinical data (196 plans). On average, drawing normal contours and target volumes is taking 2–5 times as long as creating the plan itself. This is potentially an issue because it could mean the process is taking too long initially, and it could be forcing the planning step to be done in a short amount of time. We also saw from our graphs that there appears to be no clear trend on the average amount of time per plan week-to-week. Conclusion: A tracker of this type has the potential to provide insight into how time is utilized in our clinic. By equipping our dosimetrists, radiation oncologists, and physicists with individualized metric sets, the tracker can help provide visibility and drive workflow. Funded in part by CPRIT (RP140105).

  10. Environmental impact assessment in urban transport planning: Exploring process-related barriers in Spanish practice

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Soria-Lara, Julio A., E-mail: j.a.sorialara@uva.nl; Bertolini, Luca, E-mail: l.bertolini@uva.nl; Brömmelstroet, Marco te, E-mail: M.C.G.teBrommelstroet@uva.nl

    2015-01-15

    The effectiveness of EIA for evaluating transport planning projects is increasingly being questioned by practitioners, institutions and scholars. The academic literature has traditionally focused more on solving content-related problems with EIA (i.e. the measurement of environmental effects) than on process-related issues (i.e. the role of EIA in the planning process and the interaction between key actors). Focusing only on technical improvements is not sufficient for rectifying the effectiveness problems of EIA. In order to address this knowledge gap, the paper explores how EIA is experienced in the Spanish planning context and offers in-depth insight into EIA process-related issues in the field of urban transport planning. From the multitude of involved actors, the research focuses on exploring the perceptions of the two main professional groups: EIA developers and transport planners. Through a web-based survey we assess the importance of process-related barriers to the effective use of EIA in urban transport planning. The analyses revealed process issues based fundamentally on unstructured stakeholders involvement and an inefficient public participation - Highlights: • Qualitative research on perceptions of EIA participants on EIA processes. • Web-based survey with different participants (EIA-developers; transport planners). • It was seen an inefficient participation of stakeholders during the EIA processes.

  11. Environmental impact assessment in urban transport planning: Exploring process-related barriers in Spanish practice

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Soria-Lara, Julio A.; Bertolini, Luca; Brömmelstroet, Marco te

    2015-01-01

    The effectiveness of EIA for evaluating transport planning projects is increasingly being questioned by practitioners, institutions and scholars. The academic literature has traditionally focused more on solving content-related problems with EIA (i.e. the measurement of environmental effects) than on process-related issues (i.e. the role of EIA in the planning process and the interaction between key actors). Focusing only on technical improvements is not sufficient for rectifying the effectiveness problems of EIA. In order to address this knowledge gap, the paper explores how EIA is experienced in the Spanish planning context and offers in-depth insight into EIA process-related issues in the field of urban transport planning. From the multitude of involved actors, the research focuses on exploring the perceptions of the two main professional groups: EIA developers and transport planners. Through a web-based survey we assess the importance of process-related barriers to the effective use of EIA in urban transport planning. The analyses revealed process issues based fundamentally on unstructured stakeholders involvement and an inefficient public participation - Highlights: • Qualitative research on perceptions of EIA participants on EIA processes. • Web-based survey with different participants (EIA-developers; transport planners). • It was seen an inefficient participation of stakeholders during the EIA processes

  12. Creating a Winning Game Plan. The Secondary Teacher's Playbook.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gose, Michael D.

    This book offers strategies for high school teachers that provide tools for creating, repairing, and tweaking all the discernible components of teaching. The book is organized to move from context to teaching to discipline to thriving in teaching. The book includes tips on how to minimize discipline problems with effective curriculum and sound…

  13. Use FOMO to Create Urgency in the Booking Process

    OpenAIRE

    2017-01-01

    Create a sense of urgency and “fear of missing out” (FOMO) to nudge people to book faster. People feel more compelled to buy if they believe they are about to miss out on a limited-time offer or a good deal. This type of urgency is about creating “scarcity value,” a concept that OTAs have mastered and implemented systematically on their OTA websites to stimulate purchase behavior.

  14. Creating

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Andersen, Kristina Vaarst; Lorenzen, Mark; Laursen, Stine

    2012-01-01

    This unique book reveals the procedural aspects of knowledge-based urban planning, development and assessment. Concentrating on major knowledge city building processes, and providing state-of-the-art experiences and perspectives, this important compendium explores innovative models, approaches an...

  15. Advance care planning in CKD/ESRD: an evolving process.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Holley, Jean L

    2012-06-01

    Advance care planning was historically considered to be simply the completion of a proxy (health care surrogate designation) or instruction (living will) directive that resulted from a conversation between a patient and his or her physician. We now know that advance care planning is a much more comprehensive and dynamic patient-centered process used by patients and families to strengthen relationships, achieve control over medical care, prepare for death, and clarify goals of care. Some advance directives, notably designated health care proxy documents, remain appropriate expressions of advance care planning. Moreover, although physician orders, such as do-not-resuscitate orders and Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment, may not be strictly defined as advance directives, their completion, when appropriate, is an integral component of advance care planning. The changing health circumstances and illness trajectory characteristic of ESRD mandate that advance care planning discussions adapt to a patient's situation and therefore must be readdressed at appropriate times and intervals. The options of withholding and withdrawing dialysis add ESRD-specific issues to advance care planning in this population and are events each nephrologist will at some time confront. Advance care planning is important throughout the spectrum of ESRD and is a part of nephrology practice that can be rewarding to nephrologists and beneficial to patients and their families.

  16. Verification and Planning for Stochastic Processes with Asynchronous Events

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Younes, Hakan L

    2005-01-01

    .... The most common assumption is that of history-independence: the Markov assumption. In this thesis, the author considers the problems of verification and planning for stochastic processes with asynchronous events, without relying on the Markov assumption...

  17. Analytical framework for River Basin Management Planning

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Nielsen, Helle Ørsted; Pedersen, Anders Branth; Frederiksen, Pia

    This paper proposes a framework for the analysis of the planning approach, and the processes and procedures, which have been followed in the preparation of the River Basin District Management Plans (RBMPs). Different countries have different policy and planning traditions and -styles. Developed...... over a range of years, institutional set-up and procedures have been adapted to these. The Water Framework Directive imposes a specific ecosystem oriented management approach, which directs planning to the fulfilment of objectives linked to specific water bodies, and an emphasis on the involvement...... of stakeholders and citizens. Institutional scholars point out that such an eco-system based approach superimposed on an existing institutional set-up for spatial planning and environmental management may create implementation problems due to institutional misfit (Moss 2004). A need for adaptation of procedures...

  18. 300 Area Process Trenches Postclosure Plan

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Badden, J.W.

    1998-05-01

    The 300 Area Process Trenches (300 APT) certified closure under a modified closure option and in compliance with Condition II.K.3 oft he Hartford Facility Dangerous Waste Permit (Penit) (Ecology 1994). Modified closure has been determined to be the appropriate closure option for this unit due to groundwater that remains contaminated from past operations at the 300 APT. Corrective actions required for dangerous waste constituents remaining in groundwater will occur pursuant to the 300 APT Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Final Status Facility Ground Water Monitoring Plan, the Hanford Site Wide Dangerous Waste Permit, and in conjunction with the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) remedial actions at the 300-FF-5 Groundwater Operable Unit (OU) pursuant to the Record of Decision (ROD) (EPA 1996). This postclosure plan identifies the modified closure actions required at the unit under postclosure care. It contains a description of the unit, past closure actions, and postclosure care requirements subject to compliance under the Permit (condition II.K.3)

  19. Computer aided process planning at the Oak Ridge Y-12 plant: a pilot project

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hewgley, R.E. Jr.; Prewett, H.P. Jr.

    1979-01-01

    In 1976, a formal needs analysis was conducted in one of the Fabrication Division Shops of all activities from the receipt of an order through final machining. The results indicated deficiencies in process planning activities involving special production work. A pilot program was organized to investigate the benefits of emerging CAM technology and application of GT concepts for machining operations at the Y-12 Plant. The objective of the CAPP Project was to provide computer-assisted process planning for special production machining in th shop. The CAPP team was charged with the specific goal of demonstrating computer-aided process planning within a four-year term. The CAPP charter included a plan with intermediate measurable milestones for achieving its mission. In three years, the CAPP project demonstrated benefits to process planning. A capability to retrieve historical records for similar parts, to review accurately the status of all staff assignments, and to generate detailed machining procedures definitely can impact the way in which a machine shop prepared for new orders. The real payoff is in the hardcopy output (N/C programs, studies, sequence plans, and procedures). 4 figures,

  20. Connected vehicle impacts on transportation planning technical memorandum #2 : connected vehicle planning processes and products and stakeholder roles and responsibilities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2015-01-01

    The objective of this project, Connected Vehicle Impacts on Transportation Planning, is to comprehensively assess how connected vehicles should : be considered across the range of transportation planning processes and products developed by Stat...

  1. Analysis of Participatory Processes in the Formulation of Spatial Plan for Nature Park Medvednica

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nataša Lovrić

    2011-12-01

    Full Text Available Background and Purpose: This research aims to assess the stakeholders influence on spatial planning of Nature Park Medvednica, a mountainous protected area adjacent to Zagreb, the capital city of Croatia, which tries to hold on to the pressure of the urbanization. Because of the inexistence of spatial plan which is required with the Croatian laws, its area was significantly decreased in 2009. This kind of research has not been done yet for NP Medvednica, and it will provide a contribution to the process of developing a spatial Plan for NP Medvednica. Material and Methods: The study was conducted in the framework of stakeholder analysis, for which a series of in-depth interviews with - stakeholders were performed, and documents concerning the spatial plan were analysed. The data gained was processed in MAXQDA software for qualitative analysis. Results and Conclusion: The gathered data explains which are the disadvantages of the tree processes of the formulation of the spatial plan and is giving a possible theoretical explanation or a model which can be implied in any decision making process involving stakeholders in natural resources management in within a given political and cultural context. Description of the past and current spatial planning situation of the NP Medvednica was specified and issues and stakeholders concerning the creation of the spatial plan where identified. The key conflict areas that affect the formulation of spatial plan were detected and examined. The level of participation of stakeholders in the context of fulfilment of their own interests was assessed as well as the influence on participation processes of different stakeholder groups on the formulation of the spatial plan. In order to have proper citizens and stakeholders participation some changes in the legislation should take place.

  2. Creating an integrated public sector? Labour's plans for the modernisation of the English health care system

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nick Goodwin

    2002-03-01

    Full Text Available The current Labour Government has embarked on radical public sector reform in England. A so-called ‘Modernisation Agenda’ has been developed that is encapsulated in the NHS Plan—a document that details a long-term vision for health care. This plan involves a five-fold strategy: investment through greater public funding; quality assurance; improving access; service integration and inter-professional working; and providing a public health focus. The principles of Labour's vision have been broadly supported. However, achieving its aims appears reliant on two key factors. First, appropriate resources are required to create capacity, particularly management capacity, to enable new functions to develop. Second, promoting access and service integration requires the development of significant co-ordination, collaboration and networking between agencies and individuals. This is particularly important for health and social care professionals. Their historically separate professions suggest that a significant period of change management is required to allow new roles and partnerships to evolve. In an attempt to secure delivery of its goals, however, the Government has placed the emphasis on further organisational restructuring. In doing so, the Government may have missed the key challenges faced in delivering its NHS Plan. As this paper argues, cultural and behavioural change is probably a far more appropriate and important requirement for success than a centrally directed approach that emphasises the rearrangement of structural furniture.

  3. How to create a serious game?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    O. Heidmann

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available Serious games are video games designed to achieve an educational effect and achieve some degree of training in a certain area. They are nowadays used in industries such as defense, education, scientific exploration, health care, emergency management, city planning, engineering, and many others. As it still a nascent subject who doesn’t follow exactly the same rules and practices than the commercial video games industry, questions remain about how to create and use serious games. This article presents some know-how on the subject of creating serious games.

  4. Urban Plan and Water Infrastructures Planning: A Methodology Based on Spatial ANP

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Michele Grimaldi

    2017-05-01

    Full Text Available Cities are exploding, occupying rural territory in dispersed and fragmented ways. A consequence of this phenomenon is that the demand for utilities includes more and more extensive territories. Among them, fulfilling the demand for services related to integrated water service presents many difficulties. The economic costs needed to meet service demand and the environmental costs associated with its non-fulfilment are inversely proportional to the population needing service in rural areas, since that population is distributed across a low-density gradient. Infrastructure planning, within the area of competence, generally follows a policy of economic sustainability, fixing a service coverage threshold in terms of a “sufficient” concentration of population and economic activity (91/271/CEE. This threshold, homogenous within the territorial limits of a water infrastructure plan, creates uncertainty in the planning of investments, which are not sized on the actual, appropriately spatialized, demand for service. Careful prediction of the location of infrastructure investments would guarantee not only economic savings but also reduce the environmental costs generated by the lack of utilities. Therefore, is necessary to create a link between water infrastructure planning and urban planning, which is responsible for the future spatial distribution of service demand. In this study, the relationships between the instruments of regulation and planning are compared by a multi-criteria spatial analysis network (analytic network process (ANP. This method, tested on a sample of a city in southern Italy, allows us to optimize the design and location of the investment needed to meet the service criteria, looking at the actual efficiency of the networks. The result of this application is a suitability map that allows us to validate the criteria for defining urban transformations.

  5. IMPORTANCE OF STRATEGIC INFORMATIONS FOR PLANNING IN BASKETBALL

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pavle Rubin

    2009-11-01

    Full Text Available Planning in basketball (like in other sports is one aspect of the job of a sport coach. Every coach while writting (creating, composing the plan and programme of a trainning (trainning proces should have the informations important for achievingsuccess. That kontigent of informations should be hierarchy arranged. Driving the pro- gramme the coach should always barring in mind what is the most important aim which in particular moment he wants to realise. Problem of this work is in fact that difference between coaches is that thay dont give certain importance to the particular informati- ons. Beside the necessity to know wich informations are the most important for solving a problem, it is important to prove their corelations. The aim of the research is to present the importance of identification and using of strategic infomations in planning (and pro- gramming in basketball. According to all infomations colected by coach he creates his strategic koncept. Using the strategic koncept he can create tactical koncept, particular koncept for the particular opponent (tactical plan and to (more or less use intime cer- tain tactical variance on the game (operative tactics. The coach (as the most important in the trainning process should be familiar with the science aspects of sport activities. That way he can overtake expected integral functions and be a lieder who gain the aim.

  6. Healthcare Strategic Planning as Part of National and Regional Development in the Israeli Galilee: A Case Study of the Planning Process.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Peled, Ronit; Schenirer, Jerry

    2009-10-01

    This article describes a systematic process of geographic and strategic planning for healthcare services as a part of a regional development plan in the Israeli Galilee. The planning process consisted of three stages: (a) assessment of needs, demand and existing resources; (b) prioritisation of initiatives; and (c) scheduling of theoretical priorities. For many years the region has suffered from inequities and inequalities regarding the availability and accessibility of a regional healthcare system, resulting in high mortality and morbidity rates and low quality of life. The aim of the healthcare strategic plan was to suggest initiatives and actions to be taken in order to improve healthcare provision and the health and wellbeing of local residents.

  7. Creating Learning Environment Connecting Engineering Design and 3D Printing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pikkarainen, Ari; Salminen, Antti; Piili, Heidi

    Engineering education in modern days require continuous development in didactics, pedagogics and used practical methods. 3D printing provides excellent opportunity to connect different engineering areas into practice and produce learning by doing applications. The 3D-printing technology used in this study is FDM (Fused deposition modeling). FDM is the most used 3D-printing technology by commercial numbers at the moment and the qualities of the technology makes it popular especially in academic environments. For achieving the best result possible, students will incorporate the principles of DFAM (Design for additive manufacturing) into their engineering design studies together with 3D printing. This paper presents a plan for creating learning environment for mechanical engineering students combining the aspects of engineering design, 3D-CAD learning and AM (additive manufacturing). As a result, process charts for carrying out the 3D printing process from technological point of view and design process for AM from engineering design point of view were created. These charts are used in engineering design education. The learning environment is developed to work also as a platform for Bachelor theses, work-training environment for students, prototyping service centre for cooperation partners and source of information for mechanical engineering education in Lapland University of Applied Sciences.

  8. Plan before You Play: An Activity for Teaching the Managerial Process

    Science.gov (United States)

    Althouse, Norm R.; Hedges, Peggy L.

    2015-01-01

    This article describes a 60-minute classroom activity using LEGO® bricks that demonstrates and reinforces the importance of the managerial process. The activity, Plan Before You Play (PBP), is targeted to introductory business classes, and differs from others in that it requires little investment or up-front planning, is easily scalable, and, with…

  9. How to Analyze Routines in Teachers' Thinking Processes during Lesson Planning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bromme, Rainer

    A justification for the study of teachers' routines, as they affect the preparation of lesson plans, prefaces this paper on teachers' thought processes during lesson planning. In focusing on the importance of research into teachers' routines, it is pointed out that lesson preparation and classroom routines permit teachers to direct attention to…

  10. Factors affecting strategic plan implementation using interpretive structural modeling (ISM).

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bahadori, Mohammadkarim; Teymourzadeh, Ehsan; Tajik, Hamidreza; Ravangard, Ramin; Raadabadi, Mehdi; Hosseini, Seyed Mojtaba

    2018-06-11

    Purpose Strategic planning is the best tool for managers seeking an informed presence and participation in the market without surrendering to changes. Strategic planning enables managers to achieve their organizational goals and objectives. Hospital goals, such as improving service quality and increasing patient satisfaction cannot be achieved if agreed strategies are not implemented. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors affecting strategic plan implementation in one teaching hospital using interpretive structural modeling (ISM). Design/methodology/approach The authors used a descriptive study involving experts and senior managers; 16 were selected as the study sample using a purposive sampling method. Data were collected using a questionnaire designed and prepared based on previous studies. Data were analyzed using ISM. Findings Five main factors affected strategic plan implementation. Although all five variables and factors are top level, "senior manager awareness and participation in the strategic planning process" and "creating and maintaining team participation in the strategic planning process" had maximum drive power. "Organizational structure effects on the strategic planning process" and "Organizational culture effects on the strategic planning process" had maximum dependence power. Practical implications Identifying factors affecting strategic plan implementation is a basis for healthcare quality improvement by analyzing the relationship among factors and overcoming the barriers. Originality/value The authors used ISM to analyze the relationship between factors affecting strategic plan implementation.

  11. An Extended Genetic Algorithm for Distributed Integration of Fuzzy Process Planning and Scheduling

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Shuai Zhang

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The distributed integration of process planning and scheduling (DIPPS aims to simultaneously arrange the two most important manufacturing stages, process planning and scheduling, in a distributed manufacturing environment. Meanwhile, considering its advantage corresponding to actual situation, the triangle fuzzy number (TFN is adopted in DIPPS to represent the machine processing and transportation time. In order to solve this problem and obtain the optimal or near-optimal solution, an extended genetic algorithm (EGA with innovative three-class encoding method, improved crossover, and mutation strategies is proposed. Furthermore, a local enhancement strategy featuring machine replacement and order exchange is also added to strengthen the local search capability on the basic process of genetic algorithm. Through the verification of experiment, EGA achieves satisfactory results all in a very short period of time and demonstrates its powerful performance in dealing with the distributed integration of fuzzy process planning and scheduling (DIFPPS.

  12. Improved ant Colony Optimization for Virtual Teams Building in Collaborative Process Planning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yingying Su

    2014-02-01

    Full Text Available Virtual teams have been adopted by organizations to gain competitive advantages in this global economy. Virtual teams are a ubiquitous part of getting work done in almost every organization. For the purpose of building virtual teams in collaborative process planning, the method based on improved ant colony algorithm (IMACO was proposed. The concept of virtual team was illustrated and the necessity of building virtual teams in collaborative process planning was analyzed. The sub tasks with certain timing relationship were described and the model of building virtual teams in collaborative process planning was established, which was solved by improved ant colony algorithm. In this paper applications of the IMACO and ACO are compared and demonstrate that the use of the IMACO algorithm performs better. An example was studied to illustrate the effectiveness of the strategy.

  13. Creating and implementing a model for sustainable development in tourism enterprises

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kernel, Pernille Kern

    2005-01-01

    The quest for sustainable tourism presents a challenge to integrate economic, social and environmental issues in tourism planning and—in order to implement this—to change attitudes and traditions among the different stakeholders within tourism. This calls for involvement of the different stakehol......-step model for sustainable development in tourism enterprises. The question addressed is how to create a change process in the enterprises that is at the same time realistic and innovative....... stakeholders in the change processes towards sustainable tourism and, accordingly, the creation of new patterns of interaction and collaboration between the stakeholders. This paper analyses how a project on sustainable tourism development in Mid- and North Jutland, Denmark, has engaged 26 small and medium...

  14. Business Plan: Elpis Restaurant

    OpenAIRE

    Tran, Luu Quoc Phong

    2016-01-01

    The purpose of this Bachelor’s thesis is to create a business plan for starting up a restaurant in European – Asian style in Helsinki. While the restaurants are in European or Asian style separately, this restaurant will be unique with dishes which are based on local traditional dishes, traditional Asian dishes and mixture between them as well as creation of new dishes. This business plan is created to minimize the risk when starting up a restaurant. The plan will not only help the restaur...

  15. nestor Guideline for Preservation Planning – a Process Model

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sabine Schrimpf

    2014-02-01

    Full Text Available The nestor guideline for preservation planning is the latest in a series of nestor publications. nestor is the German competence network for digital preservation and it offers all interested parties from the private and public domains the possibility to participate in working groups. The guideline for preservation planning is the result of such a working group, which discussed the conceptual and practical issues of implementing the OAIS Functional Entity “Preservation Planning”.The guideline describes a process model and offers some guidance on potential implementations. It integrates and builds on recognized community concepts like Significant Properties, the OAIS Designated Community, the National Archives of Australia’s Performance Model, the PREMIS concept of Intellectual Entities and Representations, and the PLANET’s approach to preservation planning. Furthermore, it introduces the concepts “intended use” (Nutzungsziele, “information type” (Informationstyp and “preservation group” (Erhaltungsgruppe. The purpose of these new categories is that information objects shall be grouped by information type (e.g., audio, video, text… and intended use (e.g., reading for pleasure, search for specific information… to preservation groups for automatic processing. Significant properties can then be derived for whole preservation groups. The file format alone is considered as not completely sufficient for such categorisation. Some exemplary implementation solutions of the new concepts are presented in an annex.The guideline takes into account that resources for preservation planning and preservation actions are limited and has therefore adopted 4 premises: adequacy, financial viability, automation, and authenticity of archived objects. Its pragmatic approach becomes apparent in the definition and explanation of these dimensions. The guideline is written from the point of view of representatives of memory institutions, i

  16. 200 Area effluent treatment facility process control plan 98-02

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Le, E.Q.

    1998-01-01

    This Process Control Plan (PCP) provides a description of the background information, key objectives, and operating criteria defining Effluent Treatment Facility (ETF) Campaign 98-02 as required per HNF-IP-0931 Section 37, Process Control Plans. Campaign 98-62 is expected to process approximately 18 millions gallons of groundwater with an assumption that the UP-1 groundwater pump will be shut down on June 30, 1998. This campaign will resume the UP-1 groundwater treatment operation from Campaign 97-01. The Campaign 97-01 was suspended in November 1997 to allow RCRA waste in LERF Basin 42 to be treated to meet the Land Disposal Restriction Clean Out requirements. The decision to utilize ETF as part of the selected interim remedial action of the 200-UP-1 Operable Unit is documented by the Declaration of the Record of Decision, (Ecology, EPA and DOE 1997). The treatment method was chosen in accordance with the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA) as amended by the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986 (SARA), the Hanford Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order (known as the Tri-Party Agreement or TPA), and to the extent practicable, the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan (NCP)

  17. Health workforce planning in Europe: creating learning country clusters.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Batenburg, R.

    2015-01-01

    In this article, the different dimensions and determinants of health workforce planning (HWF) are investigated to improve context-sensitivity and mutual learning among groups of countries with similar HWF characteristics. A novel approach to scoring countries according to their HFW characteristics

  18. Design Process for Online Websites Created for Teaching Turkish as a Foreign Language in Web Based Environments

    Science.gov (United States)

    Türker, Fatih Mehmet

    2016-01-01

    In today's world, where online learning environments have increased their efficiency in education and training, the design of the websites prepared for education and training purposes has become an important process. This study is about the teaching process of the online learning environments created to teach Turkish in web based environments, and…

  19. Integrating fuel treatment into ecosystem management: A proposed project planning process

    Science.gov (United States)

    Keith D. Stockmann; Kevin D. Hyde; J. Greg Jones; Dan R. Loeffler; Robin P. Silverstein

    2010-01-01

    Concern over increased wildland fire threats on public lands throughout the western United States makes fuel reduction activities the primary driver of many management projects. This single-issue focus recalls a management planning process practiced frequently in recent decades - a least-harm approach where the primary objective is first addressed and then plans are...

  20. A methodology integrating Petri nets and knowledge-based systems to support process family planning

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Zhang, Linda L.; Xu, Qianli; Helo, Petri

    2012-01-01

    Planning production processes for product families have been well recognised as an effective means of achieving successful product family development. However, most existing approaches do not lend themselves to planning production processes with focus on the optimality of the cohort of a product

  1. City Labs as Vehicles for Innovation in Urban Planning Processes

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Christian Scholl

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available This paper assesses the role of urban experiments for local planning processes through a case-based analysis of the city lab of Maastricht. In conjunction with this, the article offers three contributions, as additional elements. Firstly, the paper develops a set of defining characteristics of city labs as an analytical concept which is relevant for discussions about (collaborative planning. Secondly, it refines the literature on collaborative planning by drawing attention to experimentation and innovation. Thirdly, the paper assesses the potential of city labs to contribute to the innovation of urban governance. The work draws from the literature on experimentation and learning as well as the literature on collaborative urban planning. In the conclusions, we discuss the potential of city labs as vehicles for learning about new urban planning approaches and their limitations as spaces for small-scale experimentation. The paper is based on research for the URB@Exp research project funded by JPI Urban Europe.

  2. [Mechanized system for planning technological processes].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pashchenko, V S; Shapiro, A M

    1977-01-01

    A mechanized system for the production processes planning involving the use of an electronic code device for data preparation on a punched tape of the "EPECT-IT" type, at the base of which there are classifiers of standard operations and transitions to individual design members, is considered. A fragment of the classifier and a skeleton diagram of the system are presented. It is pointed out that the use of the system helps improve the quality of the design work, as well as to yield considerable economic advantages. The system is in operation at some enterprises of the medical engineering industry.

  3. Psychological research in the process of creating artistic works

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Milićević Nebojša

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available This text is the review of previous attempt to research creative process in art. Neumann's and Weisberg's classification has been supplemented by the original research by the author of this text. On the example of Picasso's drawing of Guernica it was fulfilled the genesis of this monumental art piece in the light of the theory of aesthetic decision making (Ognjenović, 1980, 1991 and the theory of aesthetic evolution (Martindale, 1990. Based on the evaluation of the students of psychology (N = 32 on the scales of semantic differential, the trends of aesthetic modus in various phases in creating details of the picture (bull head, female had, horse head were analyzed. On the example of bull head details the hypothesis is mainly confirmed. The dimension of harmony (H during the phase of creation shows a soft fall of this detail (F = 3,02, p < 0.05. Decorative, redundant and richness in details (R during phases rapidly grows, while in finishing line falls (F = 13,88, p < 0.01. It is the same with the dimension of distance (D that rises during the period of creation of preliminary sketch bull head (F = 6,74, p < 0.05. Trend arousal potential is beside some oscillations, according with earlier Martindale's findings, shows a slow linear rise (F = 11,12, p < 0.05. Primordial content (PS changes from faze showing alternating oscillatory movement that can be hardly described by more simple regression equation. That is the main point of Picasso's sudden transformation in style of drawing. The results confirm the theoretical hypotheses. Finally, it can be concluded that beside the complexity of creative process, contemporary psychological research explain some of the aspects of creative process.

  4. Process for integrating surface drainage constraints on mine planning

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Sawatsky, L.F; Ade, F.L.; McDonald, D.M.; Pullman, B.J. [Golder Associates Ltd., Calgary, AB (Canada)

    2009-07-01

    Surface drainage for mine closures must be considered during all phases of mine planning and design in order to minimize environmental impacts and reduce costs. This paper discussed methods of integrating mine drainage criteria and associated mine planning constraints into the mine planning process. Drainage constraints included stream diversions; fish compensation channels; collection receptacles for the re-use of process water; separation of closed circuit water from fresh water; and the provision of storage ponds. The geomorphic approach replicated the ability of natural channels to respond to local and regional changes in hydrology as well as channel disturbances from extreme flood events, sedimentation, debris, ice jams, and beaver activity. The approach was designed to enable a sustainable system and provide conveyance capacity for extreme floods without spillage to adjacent watersheds. Channel dimensions, bank and bed materials, sediment loads, bed material supplies and the hydrologic conditions of the analogue stream were considered. Hydrologic analyses were conducted to determine design flood flow. Channel routes, valley slopes, sinuosity, width, and depth were established. It was concluded that by incorporating the geomorphic technique, mine operators and designers can construct self-sustaining drainage systems that require little or no maintenance in the long-term. 7 refs.

  5. Decontamination and decommissioning plan for processing contaminated NaK at the INEL

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    LaRue, D.M.; Dolenc, M.R.

    1986-09-01

    This decontamination and decommissioning (D&D) plan describes the work elements and project management plan for processing four containers of contaminated sodium/potassium (NaK) and returning the Army Reentry Vehicle Facility Site (ARVFS) to a reusable condition. The document reflects the management plan for this project before finalizing the conceptual design and preliminary prototype tests of the reaction kinetics. As a result, the safety, environmental, and accident analyses are addressed as preliminary assessments before completion at a later date. ARVFS contains an earth-covered bunker, a cylindrical test pit and metal shed, and a cable trench connecting the two items. The bunker currently stores the four containers of NaK from the meltdown of the EBR-1 Mark II core. The D&D project addressed in this plan involves processing the contaminated NaK and returning the ARVFS to potential reuse after cleanup.

  6. Decontamination and decommissioning plan for processing contaminated NaK at the INEL

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    LaRue, D.M.; Dolenc, M.R.

    1986-09-01

    This decontamination and decommissioning (D D) plan describes the work elements and project management plan for processing four containers of contaminated sodium/potassium (NaK) and returning the Army Reentry Vehicle Facility Site (ARVFS) to a reusable condition. The document reflects the management plan for this project before finalizing the conceptual design and preliminary prototype tests of the reaction kinetics. As a result, the safety, environmental, and accident analyses are addressed as preliminary assessments before completion at a later date. ARVFS contains an earth-covered bunker, a cylindrical test pit and metal shed, and a cable trench connecting the two items. The bunker currently stores the four containers of NaK from the meltdown of the EBR-1 Mark II core. The D D project addressed in this plan involves processing the contaminated NaK and returning the ARVFS to potential reuse after cleanup.

  7. CREATE-IP and CREATE-V: Data and Services Update

    Science.gov (United States)

    Carriere, L.; Potter, G. L.; Hertz, J.; Peters, J.; Maxwell, T. P.; Strong, S.; Shute, J.; Shen, Y.; Duffy, D.

    2017-12-01

    The NASA Center for Climate Simulation (NCCS) at the Goddard Space Flight Center and the Earth System Grid Federation (ESGF) are working together to build a uniform environment for the comparative study and use of a group of reanalysis datasets of particular importance to the research community. This effort is called the Collaborative REAnalysis Technical Environment (CREATE) and it contains two components: the CREATE-Intercomparison Project (CREATE-IP) and CREATE-V. This year's efforts included generating and publishing an atmospheric reanalysis ensemble mean and spread and improving the analytics available through CREATE-V. Related activities included adding access to subsets of the reanalysis data through ArcGIS and expanding the visualization tool to GMAO forecast data. This poster will present the access mechanisms to this data and use cases including example Jupyter Notebook code. The reanalysis ensemble was generated using two methods, first using standard Python tools for regridding, extracting levels and creating the ensemble mean and spread on a virtual server in the NCCS environment. The second was using a new analytics software suite, the Earth Data Analytics Services (EDAS), coupled with a high-performance Data Analytics and Storage System (DASS) developed at the NCCS. Results were compared to validate the EDAS methodologies, and the results, including time to process, will be presented. The ensemble includes selected 6 hourly and monthly variables, regridded to 1.25 degrees, with 24 common levels used for the 3D variables. Use cases for the new data and services will be presented, including the use of EDAS for the backend analytics on CREATE-V, the use of the GMAO forecast aerosol and cloud data in CREATE-V, and the ability to connect CREATE-V data to NCCS ArcGIS services.

  8. Tourism and Strategic Planning

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pasgaard, Jens Christian

    2012-01-01

    the potential of ‘the extraordinary’ tourism-dominated space. As highlighted in the introduction, this report does not present any systematic analysis of strategic planning processes; neither does it provide any unequivocal conclusions. Rather, the report presents a collection of so-called ‘detours......The main purpose of this report is to explore and unfold the complexity of the tourism phenomenon in order to qualify the general discussion of tourism-related planning challenges. Throughout the report I aim to demonstrate the strategic potential of tourism in a wider sense and more specifically......’ – a collection of theoretical discussions and case studies with the aim to inspire future strategic planning. Due to the complexity and heterogeneity of the phenomenon I use a non-linear and non-chronological report format with the ambition to create a new type of overview. In this regard the report is intended...

  9. Oncentra brachytherapy planning system.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Jack

    2018-03-27

    In modern cancer management, treatment planning has progressed as a contemporary tool with all the advances in computing power in recent years. One of the advanced planning tools uses 3-dimensional (3D) data sets for accurate dose distributions in patient prescription. Among these planning processes, brachytherapy has been a very important part of a successful cancer management program, offering clinical benefits with specific or combined treatments with external beam therapy. In this chapter, we mainly discussed the Elekta Oncentra planning system, which is the main treatment planning tool for high-dose rate (HDR) modality in our facility and in many other facilities in the United States. HDR is a technically advanced form of brachytherapy; a high-intensity radiation source (3.6 mm in length) is delivered with step motor in submillimeter precision under computer guidance directly into the tumor areas while minimizing injury to surrounding normal healthy tissue. Oncentra planning is the key component to generate a deliverable brachytherapy procedure, which is executed on the microSelectron V3 remote afterloader treatment system. Creating a highly conformal plan can be a time-consuming task. The development of Oncentra software (version 4.5.3) offers a variety of useful tools that facilitate many of the clinical challenging tasks for planning, such as contouring and image reconstruction, as well as rapid planning calculations with dose and dose volume histogram analysis. Oncentra Brachy module creates workflow and optimizes the planning accuracy for wide varieties of clinical HDR treatments, such as skin, gynecologic (GYN), breast, prostate, and many other applications. The treatment file can also be transferred to the afterloader control station for speedy delivery. The design concept, calculation algorithms, and optimization modules presented some key characteristics to plan and treat the patients effectively and accurately. The dose distribution and accuracy of

  10. DOE-EM privatization and the 2006 Plan: Principles for procurement policies and risk management

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Bjornstad, D.J.; Jones, D.W.; Duemmer, C.L.

    1997-01-01

    The Department of Energy's Office of Environmental Remediation and Waste Management (EM) has recently set in place programs to restructure the strategic planning mechanism that will drive its clean-up schedule, The 2006 Plan, and to create a new set of business relationships with private contractors that will reduce costs--privatization. Taken together, the 2006 Plan and privatization will challenge EM to create new business practices to recast its risk management policies to support these initiatives while ensuring that its responsibilities toward the environment, human health, and worker safety (ES and H) are maintained. This paper argues that the 2006 Plan has transformed EM's traditional, bottoms-up approach based on technical dictates to a top-down approach based on management goals--a transformation from an engineering problem to an economic problem. The 2006 Plan evolved from EM's Ten-Year Plan, and seeks to convert the largely open-ended planning approach previously undertaken by EM to a plan bounded by time and dollars. The plan emphasizes making tradeoffs and choosing activities that deliver the most clean-up for the dollar. It also recognizes that each major player--stakeholders, DOE, OMB and Congress--has distinct interests that must be resolved if the process is to succeed. This, in turn, has created the need for a corresponding transformation in risk management practices from compliance-driven to benefit/cost-driven

  11. The SDO Social Media Planning Process: Walking the cat back into the bag

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wawro, M.; Young, C.; Van Norden, W. M.; Durscher, R.

    2012-12-01

    As social media continues to grow as a way to communicate with the public about science missions, data and other STEM related topics, there has become a need for more organized and regimented Social Media programs and plans. In the Heliophysics science division at Goddard Space Flight Center we have been working on creating a template for social media programs which incorporates not just the goals for the program, as well as identifying an audience, but also deals with concerns about messaging, collaboration with other organizations, controversial topics, and evaluation. We hope that through creating a more unified approach we can develop a social media program that not only meets the needs of the audience but incorporates the needs of all of the different entities including the scientists, EPO Professionals and Office of Communications.

  12. Computationally based methodology for reengineering the high-level waste planning process at SRS

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Paul, P.K.; Gregory, M.V.; Wells, M.N.

    1997-01-01

    The Savannah River Site (SRS) has started processing its legacy of 34 million gallons of high-level radioactive waste into its final disposable form. The SRS high-level waste (HLW) complex consists of 51 waste storage tanks, 3 evaporators, 6 waste treatment operations, and 2 waste disposal facilities. It is estimated that processing wastes to clean up all tanks will take 30+ yr of operation. Integrating all the highly interactive facility operations through the entire life cycle in an optimal fashion-while meeting all the budgetary, regulatory, and operational constraints and priorities-is a complex and challenging planning task. The waste complex operating plan for the entire time span is periodically published as an SRS report. A computationally based integrated methodology has been developed that has streamlined the planning process while showing how to run the operations at economically and operationally optimal conditions. The integrated computational model replaced a host of disconnected spreadsheet calculations and the analysts' trial-and-error solutions using various scenario choices. This paper presents the important features of the integrated computational methodology and highlights the parameters that are core components of the planning process

  13. Creating a Website The Missing Manual

    CERN Document Server

    MacDonald, Matthew

    2011-01-01

    Think you need an army of skilled programmers to build a website? Think again. With nothing more than an ordinary PC, some raw ambition, and this book, you'll learn how to create and maintain a professional-looking, visitor-friendly site. This Missing Manual gives you all the tools, techniques, and expert advice you need. Plan your site. Create web pages by learning the basics of HTML and HTML5.Control page design with CSS. Format text, images, links, tables, and other elements.Attract visitors. Ensure that people can find your site through popular search engines.Build a community. Add forums

  14. Leading quality through the development of a multi-year corporate quality plan: sharing The Ottawa Hospital experience.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hunter, Linda; Myles, Joanne; Worthington, James R; Lebrun, Monique

    2011-01-01

    This article discusses the background and process for developing a multi-year corporate quality plan. The Ottawa Hospital's goal is to be a top 10% performer in quality and patient safety in North America. In order to create long-term measurable and sustainable changes in the quality of patient care, The Ottawa Hospital embarked on the development of a three-year strategic corporate quality plan. This was accomplished by engaging the organization at all levels and defining quality frameworks, aligning with internal and external expectations, prioritizing strategic goals, articulating performance measurements and reporting to stakeholders while maintaining a transparent communication process. The plan was developed through an iterative process that engaged a broad base of health professionals, physicians, support staff, administration and senior management. A literature review of quality frameworks was undertaken, a Quality Plan Working Group was established, 25 key stakeholder interviews were conducted and 48 clinical and support staff consultations were held. The intent was to gather information on current quality initiatives and challenges encountered and to prioritize corporate goals and then create the quality plan. Goals were created and then prioritized through an affinity exercise. Action plans were developed for each goal and included objectives, tasks and activities, performance measures (structure, process and outcome), accountabilities and timelines. This collaborative methodology resulted in the development of a three-year quality plan. Six corporate goals were outlined by the tenets of the quality framework for The Ottawa Hospital: access to care, appropriate care (effective and efficient), safe care and satisfaction with care. Each of the six corporate goals identified objectives and supporting action plans with accountabilities outlining what would be accomplished in years one, two and three. The three-year quality plan was approved by senior

  15. 78 FR 5165 - First Phase of the Forest Planning Process for the Bio-Region

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-01-24

    ... DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Forest Service First Phase of the Forest Planning Process for the Bio... initiating the first phase of the forest planning process for the Bio-Region. SUMMARY: Come gather 'round... phase of the Bio-Regional Assessment has begun. DATES: The Bio-Regional Assessment Report will be...

  16. Statewide and Metropolitan Transportation Planning Processes : a TPCB Peer Exchange

    Science.gov (United States)

    2016-04-20

    This report highlights key recommendations and noteworthy practices identified at Statewide and Metropolitan Transportation Planning Processes Peer Exchange held on September 9-10, 2015 in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. This event was sponsored ...

  17. Dynamic Disturbance Processes Create Dynamic Lek Site Selection in a Prairie Grouse.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Torre J Hovick

    Full Text Available It is well understood that landscape processes can affect habitat selection patterns, movements, and species persistence. These selection patterns may be altered or even eliminated as a result of changes in disturbance regimes and a concomitant management focus on uniform, moderate disturbance across landscapes. To assess how restored landscape heterogeneity influences habitat selection patterns, we examined 21 years (1991, 1993-2012 of Greater Prairie-Chicken (Tympanuchus cupido lek location data in tallgrass prairie with restored fire and grazing processes. Our study took place at The Nature Conservancy's Tallgrass Prairie Preserve located at the southern extent of Flint Hills in northeastern Oklahoma. We specifically addressed stability of lek locations in the context of the fire-grazing interaction, and the environmental factors influencing lek locations. We found that lek locations were dynamic in a landscape with interacting fire and grazing. While previous conservation efforts have treated leks as stable with high site fidelity in static landscapes, a majority of lek locations in our study (i.e., 65% moved by nearly one kilometer on an annual basis in this dynamic setting. Lek sites were in elevated areas with low tree cover and low road density. Additionally, lek site selection was influenced by an interaction of fire and patch edge, indicating that in recently burned patches, leks were located near patch edges. These results suggest that dynamic and interactive processes such as fire and grazing that restore heterogeneity to grasslands do influence habitat selection patterns in prairie grouse, a phenomenon that is likely to apply throughout the Greater Prairie-Chicken's distribution when dynamic processes are restored. As conservation moves toward restoring dynamic historic disturbance patterns, it will be important that siting and planning of anthropogenic structures (e.g., wind energy, oil and gas and management plans not view lek

  18. Making a Quit Plan

    Science.gov (United States)

    ... BACK CLOSE SMOKEFREE.GOV HOME Create My Quit Plan Quitting starts now. Make a plan . Step 1 of 7 mark Step 2 of ... boosts your chances of success. Build a quit plan to get ready and find out what to ...

  19. Decision making and planning of children in the reproductive process of males

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alejandra Salguero

    2009-10-01

    Full Text Available Reproduction is not restricted to the biological; it is also a complex and dynamic social process. The objective of this paper is to analyze the decision and planning of children as part of the reproductive process in men. Methodologically, a qualitative research was made. The analysis includes in-depth interviews with 30 parents between 20 and 45 years, of medium socio-economic level in México. The results show that the reproductive process incorporates family formation negotiated with their couple the marriage until they had economic potential. In some cases, their decision hastened because the couple was pregnant. The planning was not contemplated but when getting the news, they accept it and get involved in the process, while others see it as a conflict.

  20. WE-AB-201-03: TPS Commissioning and QA: Incorporating the Entire Planning Process

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Mutic, S.

    2015-01-01

    . The recommendations of MPPG #5 and practical implementation strategies (Jennifer Smilowitz) The recently published recommendations from Task Group No. 244, Medical Physics Practice Guideline on Commissioning and QA of Treatment Planning Dose Calculations: Megavoltage Photon and Electron Beams will be presented. The recommendations focus on the validation of commissioning data and dose calculations. Tolerance values for non-IMRT beam configurations are summarized based on established criteria and data collected by the IROC. More stringent evaluation criteria for IMRT dose calculations are suggested to test the limitations of the TPS dose algorithms for advanced delivery conditions. The MPPG encourages users to create a suite of validation tests for dose calculation for various conditions for static photon beams, heterogeneities, IMRT/VMAT and electron beams. This test suite is intended to be used for subsequent testing, including TPS software upgrades. In the past, the recommendations of some reports have not been widely implemented due to practical limitations. Implementation strategies, tools and processes developed by multiple centers for efficient and “do-able” MPPG #5 testing will be presented, as well as a discussion on the overall validation experience. Learning Objectives: Identify some of the key documents relevant for TPS commissioning and QA Understand strategies for testing TPS software Gain a practical knowledge of the Gamma test criteria Increase familiarity with the process of commissioning a TPS Learn about the use of Control Charts for TPS QA Review the role of the TPS in the overall planning process Increase awareness of the link between TPS QA and chart checking Gain an increased appreciation for the importance of interdisciplinary communication Understand the new recommendations from MPPG #5 on TPS Dose Algorithm Commissioning and QC/QA Learn practical implementation processes and tools for MPPG #5 validation recommendations

  1. WE-AB-201-03: TPS Commissioning and QA: Incorporating the Entire Planning Process

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Mutic, S. [Washington University School of Medicine (United States)

    2015-06-15

    . The recommendations of MPPG #5 and practical implementation strategies (Jennifer Smilowitz) The recently published recommendations from Task Group No. 244, Medical Physics Practice Guideline on Commissioning and QA of Treatment Planning Dose Calculations: Megavoltage Photon and Electron Beams will be presented. The recommendations focus on the validation of commissioning data and dose calculations. Tolerance values for non-IMRT beam configurations are summarized based on established criteria and data collected by the IROC. More stringent evaluation criteria for IMRT dose calculations are suggested to test the limitations of the TPS dose algorithms for advanced delivery conditions. The MPPG encourages users to create a suite of validation tests for dose calculation for various conditions for static photon beams, heterogeneities, IMRT/VMAT and electron beams. This test suite is intended to be used for subsequent testing, including TPS software upgrades. In the past, the recommendations of some reports have not been widely implemented due to practical limitations. Implementation strategies, tools and processes developed by multiple centers for efficient and “do-able” MPPG #5 testing will be presented, as well as a discussion on the overall validation experience. Learning Objectives: Identify some of the key documents relevant for TPS commissioning and QA Understand strategies for testing TPS software Gain a practical knowledge of the Gamma test criteria Increase familiarity with the process of commissioning a TPS Learn about the use of Control Charts for TPS QA Review the role of the TPS in the overall planning process Increase awareness of the link between TPS QA and chart checking Gain an increased appreciation for the importance of interdisciplinary communication Understand the new recommendations from MPPG #5 on TPS Dose Algorithm Commissioning and QC/QA Learn practical implementation processes and tools for MPPG #5 validation recommendations.

  2. STRATEGIC PLANNING IN INFORMATION RESOURCES MANAGEMENT

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cezar VASILESCU

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available The field of strategic management has offered a variety of frameworks and concepts for the past years, many with the declared aim of “taking business and its management seriously”. Strategic planning can help an organization to build its sustained competitive advantage in the face of an uncertain marketplace, but it requires new ways of thinking in order to create feasible alternatives. This article examines how the Chief Information Officer (CIO can use strategy and planning as an enabler to meet the mission of an organization. The analysis focuses on some common problems that occur in strategic planning. Managers need to identify these potential issues, so that they can recognize and deal with them if they arise in their own strategic planning. A systems approach is taken which presents planning as an open inclusive process that seeks to produce flexible systems capable of growth and adaptation to meet changing needs and missions.

  3. EVALUATING OF FOREST HARVESTING AND ROAD PLANS ON PROCESS OF DECISION IN FORESTRY

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    H. Hulusi Acar

    2001-04-01

    Full Text Available The plans of the forest harvesting and road are main subject of well arranged forest practices. This plans can answer the questions; When?, How?, Why?, Where are to be made the forest operations. Forest practices are three phase as a strategic, tactical and operational plans. Forest harvesting and road plans should be decided to carry out main purpose by evaluate according to technical changing on every steps of decisions process.

  4. Minimal-effort planning of active alignment processes for beam-shaping optics

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haag, Sebastian; Schranner, Matthias; Müller, Tobias; Zontar, Daniel; Schlette, Christian; Losch, Daniel; Brecher, Christian; Roßmann, Jürgen

    2015-03-01

    In science and industry, the alignment of beam-shaping optics is usually a manual procedure. Many industrial applications utilizing beam-shaping optical systems require more scalable production solutions and therefore effort has been invested in research regarding the automation of optics assembly. In previous works, the authors and other researchers have proven the feasibility of automated alignment of beam-shaping optics such as collimation lenses or homogenization optics. Nevertheless, the planning efforts as well as additional knowledge from the fields of automation and control required for such alignment processes are immense. This paper presents a novel approach of planning active alignment processes of beam-shaping optics with the focus of minimizing the planning efforts for active alignment. The approach utilizes optical simulation and the genetic programming paradigm from computer science for automatically extracting features from a simulated data basis with a high correlation coefficient regarding the individual degrees of freedom of alignment. The strategy is capable of finding active alignment strategies that can be executed by an automated assembly system. The paper presents a tool making the algorithm available to end-users and it discusses the results of planning the active alignment of the well-known assembly of a fast-axis collimator. The paper concludes with an outlook on the transferability to other use cases such as application specific intensity distributions which will benefit from reduced planning efforts.

  5. University Strategic Planning: A Process for Change in a Principal Preparation Program

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guerra, Federico R.; Zamora, Roberto; Hernandez, Rosalinda; Menchaca, Velma

    2017-01-01

    This study describes a strategic planning process used for developing an educational leadership program that prepares principals for leading 21st century schools. The plan is based on recommendations received from the External reviewers representing Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, the Texas Education Agency, survey responses received…

  6. The nursing human resource planning best practice toolkit: creating a best practice resource for nursing managers.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vincent, Leslie; Beduz, Mary Agnes

    2010-05-01

    Evidence of acute nursing shortages in urban hospitals has been surfacing since 2000. Further, new graduate nurses account for more than 50% of total nurse turnover in some hospitals and between 35% and 60% of new graduates change workplace during the first year. Critical to organizational success, first line nurse managers must have the knowledge and skills to ensure the accurate projection of nursing resource requirements and to develop proactive recruitment and retention programs that are effective, promote positive nursing socialization, and provide early exposure to the clinical setting. The Nursing Human Resource Planning Best Practice Toolkit project supported the creation of a network of teaching and community hospitals to develop a best practice toolkit in nursing human resource planning targeted at first line nursing managers. The toolkit includes the development of a framework including the conceptual building blocks of planning tools, manager interventions, retention and recruitment and professional practice models. The development of the toolkit involved conducting a review of the literature for best practices in nursing human resource planning, using a mixed method approach to data collection including a survey and extensive interviews of managers and completing a comprehensive scan of human resource practices in the participating organizations. This paper will provide an overview of the process used to develop the toolkit, a description of the toolkit contents and a reflection on the outcomes of the project.

  7. [The process of creating guidebooks for orienting self-care in the Diabetes educational program].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Torres, Heloisa Carvalho; Candido, Naiara Abrantes; Alexandre, Luciana Rodrigues; Pereira, Flávia Lobato

    2009-01-01

    This study aimed at describing the experience of creating guidebooks on self-care, performed with individuals with diabetes of the Teaching Hospital, by professors and undergraduate students of the Nursing School at Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. Problems and issues related to self-care and diabetes were raised in the healthcare workshops held with professors and students. Based on Freire's methodology, meetings were held with individuals with diabetes according to directives for the construction of the guidebooks that included the selection of content, style and format of the material. The creativity present in the images during the topic discussions made the meetings into a rich moment of exchange, where the participants could express ideas, values, beliefs and life histories. The messages were well-planned, comprehensible and attractive, and the individuals considered them effective in helping them in the educational activities and diabetes self-care.

  8. CREATING COMPETITIVE ORGANIZATIONAL STRATEGY USING THE FUNNEL METHOD

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lidija Stefanovska

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available In the highly competitive environment of the 21st century, organizations must be able to effectively change through the application of effective strategies, quickly and in a way that the competitors will be unable to imitate. Therefore, the essential question in any organization is how to achieve and maintain competitive advantage. In this regard, strategic leaders should first logically consider what will bring a substantial advantage to the organization in a long-term, and then start with the process of creating the strategy. To achieve this, researchers in the field of managerial issues offer a concept of continuous process that begins by looking at the customers pattern, through defining the competitive environment and the place of business in it and finally categorizing several strategic business conditions, as a precondition for election and creation of a competitive strategy. This process can be presented as the “funnel for selection of competitive strategy”, in whose widest part we can put the customer matrix, in the middle part we can place definitions of the business outlook of the business and the position of the organization in those perspectives. In order to implement the "Funnel method" of strategic planning teams we need accurate, timely and relevant information based on which we can bring appropriate organizational strategy. The subject of this paper is displaying the Funnel method for selection of the competitive strategy, and presentation of the situation in some of the organizations in the Pelagonija region, related to the way and the information used to create organizational strategies through the Funnel method.

  9. Demonstration tools for the facility/land use planning process at Rocky Flats

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ryan, K.B.

    1994-01-01

    The new mission for the Rocky Flats Site states, open-quotes Manage waste and materials, clean up and convert the Rocky Flats Site to beneficial use in a manner that is safe, environmentally and socially responsible, physical secure, and cost-effective.close quotes. In addition, community recognition and support is encouraged and expected. To accomplish this ambitious mission of converting to another use and incorporating stakeholder input, many tools must be developed. These tools must be clearly understandable and readily available, with the hope and plan that similar outcomes will be much more apparent if the same or similar tools are applied by all decision markers, both internal and external. Since the task is monumental and extremely complex, establishing and understanding these available tools early in the planning process is important. All decision makers must be identified and the availability of the tools should be shared to eliminate redundancy and expedite the planning process. Most documents utilized for decision making are very technical in nature. Since numerous and varied stakeholders will be involved, these documents must be socialized or open-quotes detechnicalized.close quotes This paper discusses developing internal and universally acceptable demonstration tools for explaining how facilities and land will be analyzed for constraints and opportunities during the planning process

  10. National conference on integrated resource planning: Proceedings

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    1991-12-31

    Until recently, state regulators have focused most of their attention on the development of least-cost or integrated resource planning (IRP) processes for electric utilities. A number of commissions are beginning to scrutinize the planning processes of local gas distribution companies (LDCs) because of the increased control that LDCs have over their purchased gas costs (as well as the associated risks) and because of questions surrounding the role and potential of gas end-use efficiency options. Traditionally, resource planning (LDCs) has concentrated on options for purchasing and storing gas. Integrated resource planning involves the creation of a process in which supply-side and demand-side options are integrated to create a resource mix that reliably satisfies customers` short-term and long-term energy service needs at the lowest cost. As applied to gas utilities, an integrated resource plan seeks to balance cost and reliability, and should not be interpreted simply as the search for lowest commodity costs. The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners` (NARUC) Energy Conservation committee asked Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (LBL) to survey state PUCs to determine the extent to which they have undertaken least cost planning for gas utilities. The survey included the following topics: status of state PUC least-cost planning regulations and practices for gas utilities; type and scope of natural gas DSM programs in effect, including fuel substitution; economic tests and analysis methods used to evaluate DSM programs; relationship between prudency reviews of gas utility purchasing practices and integrated resource planning; key regulatory issued facing gas utilities during the next five years.

  11. National conference on integrated resource planning: Proceedings

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    1991-01-01

    Until recently, state regulators have focused most of their attention on the development of least-cost or integrated resource planning (IRP) processes for electric utilities. A number of commissions are beginning to scrutinize the planning processes of local gas distribution companies (LDCs) because of the increased control that LDCs have over their purchased gas costs (as well as the associated risks) and because of questions surrounding the role and potential of gas end-use efficiency options. Traditionally, resource planning (LDCs) has concentrated on options for purchasing and storing gas. Integrated resource planning involves the creation of a process in which supply-side and demand-side options are integrated to create a resource mix that reliably satisfies customers' short-term and long-term energy service needs at the lowest cost. As applied to gas utilities, an integrated resource plan seeks to balance cost and reliability, and should not be interpreted simply as the search for lowest commodity costs. The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners' (NARUC) Energy Conservation committee asked Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (LBL) to survey state PUCs to determine the extent to which they have undertaken least cost planning for gas utilities. The survey included the following topics: status of state PUC least-cost planning regulations and practices for gas utilities; type and scope of natural gas DSM programs in effect, including fuel substitution; economic tests and analysis methods used to evaluate DSM programs; relationship between prudency reviews of gas utility purchasing practices and integrated resource planning; key regulatory issued facing gas utilities during the next five years.

  12. Critical path method as the criterion for optimization of business planning process

    OpenAIRE

    Butsenko Elena V.

    2016-01-01

    In today's economy the task of improving business planning is considered a necessary component of any enterprise management process and is precisely the solution drawn from that task which determines the financial policy and economic structure. The development of technologies based on the optimization of business planning is a very urgent scientific challenge. In this paper we propose to use the methods of network planning and management as a tool for economic and mathematical modeling to...

  13. Louisiana's 2017 Master Plan for a Sustainable Coast

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haase, B.

    2017-12-01

    The Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority is charged with coordinating restoration and protection investments through the development and implementation of Louisiana's Comprehensive Master Plan for a Sustainable Coast. The first master plan was submitted to the Louisiana Legislature in 2007 and is mandated to be updated every five years. The plan's objectives are to reduce economic losses from flooding, promote sustainability by harnessing natural processes, provide habitats for commercial and recreational activities, sustain cultural heritage and promote a viable working coast. Two goals drive decision making about the appropriate suite of restoration and protection projects to include in the Plan: restore and maintain Louisiana's wetlands and provide flood protection for coastal Louisiana's citizens. As part of the decision making process, a wide range of additional metrics are used to evaluate the complex, competing needs of communities, industries, navigation and fisheries. The master plan decision making process includes the identification of individual protection and restoration projects that are evaluated with landscape, storm surge, and risk assessment models and then ranked by how well they perform over time across the set of decision drivers and metrics. High performing projects are assembled into alternatives constrained by available funding and river resources. The planning process is grounded not only on extensive scientific analysis but also on interdisciplinary collaboration between scientists, engineers, planners, community advocates, and coastal stakeholders which creates the long-term dialogue needed for complex environmental planning decisions. It is through this collaboration that recommended alternatives are reviewed and modified to develop the final Plan. Keywords:alternative formulation, comprehensive planning, ecosystem restoration, flood risk reduction and stakeholder engagement

  14. Automated synthesis of image processing procedures using AI planning techniques

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chien, Steve; Mortensen, Helen

    1994-01-01

    This paper describes the Multimission VICAR (Video Image Communication and Retrieval) Planner (MVP) (Chien 1994) system, which uses artificial intelligence planning techniques (Iwasaki & Friedland, 1985, Pemberthy & Weld, 1992, Stefik, 1981) to automatically construct executable complex image processing procedures (using models of the smaller constituent image processing subprograms) in response to image processing requests made to the JPL Multimission Image Processing Laboratory (MIPL). The MVP system allows the user to specify the image processing requirements in terms of the various types of correction required. Given this information, MVP derives unspecified required processing steps and determines appropriate image processing programs and parameters to achieve the specified image processing goals. This information is output as an executable image processing program which can then be executed to fill the processing request.

  15. Tanks Focus Area Alternative Salt Processing Research and Development Program Plan

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Harmon, Harry D.

    2000-05-15

    In March 2000, DOE-Headquarters (HQ) requested the Tanks Focus Area (TFA)to assume management responsibility for the Salt Processing Project technology development program at Savannah River Site. The TFA was requested to conduct several activities, including review and revision of the technology development roadmaps, development of down-selection criteria, and preparation of a comprehensive Research and Development (R&D) Program Plan for three candidate cesium removal technologies, as well as the Alpha and strontium removal processes that must also be carried out. The three cesium removal candidate technologies are Crystalline Silicotitanate (CST) Non-Elutable Ion Exchange, Caustic Side Solvent Extraction (CSSX), and Small Tank Tetraphenylborate Precipitation (STTP). This plan describes the technology development needs for each process that must be satisfied in order to reach a down-selection decision, as well as continuing technology development required to support conceptual design activities.

  16. Tanks Focus Area Alternative Salt Processing Research and Development Program Plan

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Harmon, Harry D.

    2000-11-30

    In March 2000, DOE-Headquarters (HQ) requested the Tanks Focus Area (TFA) to assume management responsibility for the Salt Processing Project technology development program at Savannah River Site. The TFA was requested to conduct several activities, including review and revision of the technology development roadmaps, development of down-selection criteria, and preparation of a comprehensive Research and Development (R&D) Program Plan for three candidate cesium removal technologies, as well as the Alpha and strontium removal processes that must also be carried out. The three cesium removal candidate technologies are Crystalline Silicotitanate (CST) Non-Elutable Ion Exchange, Caustic Side Solvent Extraction (CSSX), and Small Tank Tetraphenylborate Precipitation (STTP). This plan describes the technology development needs for each process that must be satisfied in order to reach a down-selection decision, as well as continuing technology development required to support conceptual design activities.

  17. Fire Process Research Natural Areas: Managing research and restoration of dynamic ecosystem processes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Timothy Ingalsbee

    2001-01-01

    Since 1992 a collaborative group of fire scientists, forest conservationists, and Federal resource specialists have been developing proposals for a Research Natural Area (RNA) in the Warner Creek Fire area on the Willamette National Forest in Oregon. Inspired by these proposals, the Oregon Natural Heritage Plan created the new category of "Fire Process RNAs"...

  18. Strategic Planning Process Exercise: A Semester-Long Experiential Approach to Engage Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Singh, Jitendra

    2018-01-01

    Strategic planning provides a sense of direction and can have a significant impact on the future of an organization. Students wanting to serve in leadership positions need to demonstrate a firm understanding of the concepts necessary to work on this complex process. Careful planning also ensures students' survival in a competitive business…

  19. Health impact assessment in planning: Development of the design for health HIA tools

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Forsyth, Ann; Slotterback, Carissa Schively; Krizek, Kevin J.

    2010-01-01

    How can planners more systematically incorporate health concerns into practical planning processes? This paper describes a suite of health impact assessment tools (HIAs) developed specifically for planning practice. Taking an evidence-based approach the tools are designed to fit into existing planning activities. The tools include: a short audit tool, the Preliminary Checklist; a structured participatory workshop, the Rapid HIA; an intermediate health impact assessment, the Threshold Analysis; and a set of Plan Review Checklists. This description provides a basis for future work including assessing tool validity, refining specific tools, and creating alternatives.

  20. Manufacturing Squares: An Integrative Statistical Process Control Exercise

    Science.gov (United States)

    Coy, Steven P.

    2016-01-01

    In the exercise, students in a junior-level operations management class are asked to manufacture a simple product. Given product specifications, they must design a production process, create roles and design jobs for each team member, and develop a statistical process control plan that efficiently and effectively controls quality during…

  1. Collaborative environments for capability-based planning

    Science.gov (United States)

    McQuay, William K.

    2005-05-01

    Distributed collaboration is an emerging technology for the 21st century that will significantly change how business is conducted in the defense and commercial sectors. Collaboration involves two or more geographically dispersed entities working together to create a "product" by sharing and exchanging data, information, and knowledge. A product is defined broadly to include, for example, writing a report, creating software, designing hardware, or implementing robust systems engineering and capability planning processes in an organization. Collaborative environments provide the framework and integrate models, simulations, domain specific tools, and virtual test beds to facilitate collaboration between the multiple disciplines needed in the enterprise. The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is conducting a leading edge program in developing distributed collaborative technologies targeted to the Air Force's implementation of systems engineering for a simulation-aided acquisition and capability-based planning. The research is focusing on the open systems agent-based framework, product and process modeling, structural architecture, and the integration technologies - the glue to integrate the software components. In past four years, two live assessment events have been conducted to demonstrate the technology in support of research for the Air Force Agile Acquisition initiatives. The AFRL Collaborative Environment concept will foster a major cultural change in how the acquisition, training, and operational communities conduct business.

  2. A tool for aligning event logs and prescriptive process models through automated planning

    OpenAIRE

    De Leoni, M.; Lanciano, G.; Marrella, A.

    2017-01-01

    In Conformance Checking, alignment is the problem of detecting and repairing nonconformity between the actual execution of a business process, as recorded in an event log, and the model of the same process. Literature proposes solutions for the alignment problem that are implementations of planning algorithms built ad-hoc for the specific problem. Unfortunately, in the era of big data, these ad-hoc implementations do not scale sufficiently compared with wellestablished planning systems. In th...

  3. Creating library tutorials for nursing students.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schroeder, Heidi

    2010-04-01

    This article describes one librarian's experiences with creating, promoting, and assessing online library tutorials. Tutorials were designed to provide on-demand and accessible library instruction to nursing students at Michigan State University. Topics for tutorials were chosen based on the librarian's liaison experiences and suggestions from nursing faculty. The tutorials were created using Camtasia and required the application of several tools and techniques. Tutorials were promoted through Web pages, the ANGEL course management system, blog posts, librarian interactions, e-mails, and more. In order to assess the tutorials' perceived effectiveness, feedback was gathered using a short survey. Future plans for the nursing tutorials project are also discussed.

  4. Development of methods of key performance indicators formation for corporate planning

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chebotarev, A.N.

    2011-01-01

    A theoretical proposition, a model of enterprise performance management and a concept of balanced key performance indicators as a method to control the enterprise strategy have been systematized and presented. An algorithm that increases the efficiency of action plans' formation has been developed and implemented. In particular, a set of criteria for the selection of events and parameters necessary for the formation of an action plan has been created. A method of control of the business processes, allowing the experts to establish the relationship between the business processes performance indicators and the enterprise's key indicators has been developed [ru

  5. Procedural issues in the development of a production plan in the petroleum transport computerized system of plan projects

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    German, V T; Karlikov, Y P; Papeev, V M; Samorodkin, V D; Vasil' ev, Y I

    1980-01-01

    The process of planning petroleum transportation must be described by a model that may be used to vary the distribution of the volumes of oil transported and to organize the oil flows so as to satisfy users requiring a particular volume of unprocessed petroleum. By means of the studies performed here, a number of conclusions may be drawn: 1. Available algorithms make it possible to compute the detailed network-wide indicators for petroleum transportation in the annual planning model; determine the capacities needed for individual members of the network; and create the necessary list of output documents for compliation of the tenative plan of production for oil transport; 2. An implementation of the oil transport plan using the specified route method should be based on an heuristic approach (a route is specified by a specialist or the routes of the current year are used), thereby allowing us to obtain the necessary production plans.

  6. Improving energy audit process and report outcomes through planning initiatives

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sprau Coulter, Tabitha L.

    Energy audits and energy models are an important aspect of the retrofit design process, as they provide project teams with an opportunity to evaluate a facilities current building systems' and energy performance. The information collected during an energy audit is typically used to develop an energy model and an energy audit report that are both used to assist in making decisions about the design and implementation of energy conservation measures in a facility. The current lack of energy auditing standards results in a high degree of variability in energy audit outcomes depending on the individual performing the audit. The research presented is based on the conviction that performing an energy audit and producing a value adding energy model for retrofit buildings can benefit from a revised approach. The research was divided into four phases, with the initial three phases consisting of: 1.) process mapping activity - aimed at reducing variability in the energy auditing and energy modeling process. 2.) survey analysis -- To examine the misalignment between how industry members use the top energy modeling tools compared to their intended use as defined by software representatives. 3.) sensitivity analysis -- analysis of the affect key energy modeling inputs are having on energy modeling analysis results. The initial three phases helped define the need for an improved energy audit approach that better aligns data collection with facility owners' needs and priorities. The initial three phases also assisted in the development of a multi-criteria decision support tool that incorporates a House of Quality approach to guide a pre-audit planning activity. For the fourth and final research phase explored the impacts and evaluation methods of a pre-audit planning activity using two comparative energy audits as case studies. In each case, an energy audit professionals was asked to complete an audit using their traditional methods along with an audit which involved them first

  7. Superintendents' Perceptions of the School Improvement Planning Process in the Southeastern USA

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dunaway, David M.; Bird, James J.; Wang, Chuang; Hancock, Dawson

    2014-01-01

    The purpose of this study of school improvement planning in the southeastern USA was to establish the current view of the process through the eyes of the district superintendents. The answers to the questions were consistently mixed. Generally, the presence of school improvement planning is prevalent in the large majority of districts. However,…

  8. Perceptions of the Purpose and Value of the School Improvement Plan Process

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dunaway, David M.; Kim, Do-Hong; Szad, Elizabeth R.

    2012-01-01

    The purpose of this research was to determine how teachers and administrators in a successful North Carolina district perceived the purpose and value of a school improvement plan (SIP) and the planning process. The SIP is the accepted best practice for school-wide improvement, and the perceptions of the purpose and value of the process…

  9. 78 FR 8104 - First Phase of the Forest Planning Process for the Bio-Region; Correction

    Science.gov (United States)

    2013-02-05

    ... DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE Forest Service First Phase of the Forest Planning Process for the Bio-Region; Correction AGENCY: USDA, Forest Service. ACTION: Notice; correction. SUMMARY: The Department of... rule entitled First Phase of the Forest Planning Process for the Bio-Region. The document contained...

  10. The Planning Process in Managing Organisations of Continuing Education: The Case of Greek Vocational Training Institutions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Petridou, Eugenia; Chatzipanagiotou, Paraskevi

    2004-01-01

    The aim of this article is to offer a framework model of the planning of the activities of organisations of continuing education and training, which gives the opportunity to determine their mission, to seek specific aims, to develop the available resources and to create a cooperative operating climate. Adopting this recommended model would help…

  11. Tactical resource allocation and elective patient admission planning in care processes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hulshof, Peter J H; Boucherie, Richard J; Hans, Erwin W; Hurink, Johann L

    2013-06-01

    Tactical planning of resources in hospitals concerns elective patient admission planning and the intermediate term allocation of resource capacities. Its main objectives are to achieve equitable access for patients, to meet production targets/to serve the strategically agreed number of patients, and to use resources efficiently. This paper proposes a method to develop a tactical resource allocation and elective patient admission plan. These tactical plans allocate available resources to various care processes and determine the selection of patients to be served that are at a particular stage of their care process. Our method is developed in a Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) framework and copes with multiple resources, multiple time periods and multiple patient groups with various uncertain treatment paths through the hospital, thereby integrating decision making for a chain of hospital resources. Computational results indicate that our method leads to a more equitable distribution of resources and provides control of patient access times, the number of patients served and the fraction of allocated resource capacity. Our approach is generic, as the base MILP and the solution approach allow for including various extensions to both the objective criteria and the constraints. Consequently, the proposed method is applicable in various settings of tactical hospital management.

  12. Process planning optimization on turning machine tool using a hybrid genetic algorithm with local search approach

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yuliang Su

    2015-04-01

    Full Text Available A turning machine tool is a kind of new type of machine tool that is equipped with more than one spindle and turret. The distinctive simultaneous and parallel processing abilities of turning machine tool increase the complexity of process planning. The operations would not only be sequenced and satisfy precedence constraints, but also should be scheduled with multiple objectives such as minimizing machining cost, maximizing utilization of turning machine tool, and so on. To solve this problem, a hybrid genetic algorithm was proposed to generate optimal process plans based on a mixed 0-1 integer programming model. An operation precedence graph is used to represent precedence constraints and help generate a feasible initial population of hybrid genetic algorithm. Encoding strategy based on data structure was developed to represent process plans digitally in order to form the solution space. In addition, a local search approach for optimizing the assignments of available turrets would be added to incorporate scheduling with process planning. A real-world case is used to prove that the proposed approach could avoid infeasible solutions and effectively generate a global optimal process plan.

  13. Target costing as an element of the hard coal extraction cost planning process

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Katarzyna Segeth-Boniecka

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Target costing as an element of the hard coal extraction cost planning process Striving for the efficiency of activities is of great significance in the management of hard coal extractive enterprises, which are constantly subjected to the process of restructuring. Effective cost management is an important condition of the increase in the efficiency of the researched business entities’ activity. One of the tools whose basic objective is conscious influencing cost levels is target costing. The aim of this article is to analyse the conditions of implementing target costing in the planning of hard coal extraction costs in hard coal mines in Poland. The subject area raises a topical and important problem of the scope of solutions concerning cost analysis in hard coal mines in Poland, which has not been thoroughly researched yet. To achieve the abovementioned aim, the theoretical works of the subject area have been referenced. The mine management process is difficult and requires the application of best suited and most modern tools, including those used in the planning process of hard coal extraction costs in order to support the economic efficiency of mining operations. The use of the target costing concept in the planning of hard coal mine operations aims to support the decision-making process, so as to achieve a specified level of economic efficiency of the operations carried out in a territorially designated site of hard coal extraction.

  14. Auditory N1 reveals planning and monitoring processes during music performance.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mathias, Brian; Gehring, William J; Palmer, Caroline

    2017-02-01

    The current study investigated the relationship between planning processes and feedback monitoring during music performance, a complex task in which performers prepare upcoming events while monitoring their sensory outcomes. Theories of action planning in auditory-motor production tasks propose that the planning of future events co-occurs with the perception of auditory feedback. This study investigated the neural correlates of planning and feedback monitoring by manipulating the contents of auditory feedback during music performance. Pianists memorized and performed melodies at a cued tempo in a synchronization-continuation task while the EEG was recorded. During performance, auditory feedback associated with single melody tones was occasionally substituted with tones corresponding to future (next), present (current), or past (previous) melody tones. Only future-oriented altered feedback disrupted behavior: Future-oriented feedback caused pianists to slow down on the subsequent tone more than past-oriented feedback, and amplitudes of the auditory N1 potential elicited by the tone immediately following the altered feedback were larger for future-oriented than for past-oriented or noncontextual (unrelated) altered feedback; larger N1 amplitudes were associated with greater slowing following altered feedback in the future condition only. Feedback-related negativities were elicited in all altered feedback conditions. In sum, behavioral and neural evidence suggests that future-oriented feedback disrupts performance more than past-oriented feedback, consistent with planning theories that posit similarity-based interference between feedback and planning contents. Neural sensory processing of auditory feedback, reflected in the N1 ERP, may serve as a marker for temporal disruption caused by altered auditory feedback in auditory-motor production tasks. © 2016 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

  15. Creating visual explanations improves learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bobek, Eliza; Tversky, Barbara

    2016-01-01

    Many topics in science are notoriously difficult for students to learn. Mechanisms and processes outside student experience present particular challenges. While instruction typically involves visualizations, students usually explain in words. Because visual explanations can show parts and processes of complex systems directly, creating them should have benefits beyond creating verbal explanations. We compared learning from creating visual or verbal explanations for two STEM domains, a mechanical system (bicycle pump) and a chemical system (bonding). Both kinds of explanations were analyzed for content and learning assess by a post-test. For the mechanical system, creating a visual explanation increased understanding particularly for participants of low spatial ability. For the chemical system, creating both visual and verbal explanations improved learning without new teaching. Creating a visual explanation was superior and benefitted participants of both high and low spatial ability. Visual explanations often included crucial yet invisible features. The greater effectiveness of visual explanations appears attributable to the checks they provide for completeness and coherence as well as to their roles as platforms for inference. The benefits should generalize to other domains like the social sciences, history, and archeology where important information can be visualized. Together, the findings provide support for the use of learner-generated visual explanations as a powerful learning tool.

  16. Analytic network process (ANP approach for product mix planning in railway industry

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hadi Pazoki Toroudi

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available Given the competitive environment in the global market in recent years, organizations need to plan for increased profitability and optimize their performance. Planning for an appropriate product mix plays essential role for the success of most production units. This paper applies analytical network process (ANP approach for product mix planning for a part supplier in Iran. The proposed method uses four criteria including cost of production, sales figures, supply of raw materials and quality of products. In addition, the study proposes different set of products as alternatives for production planning. The preliminary results have indicated that that the proposed study of this paper could increase productivity, significantly.

  17. Creating organizational cultures

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Mouton, Nicolaas T.O.; Just, Sine Nørholm; Gabrielsen, Jonas

    2012-01-01

    Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to re-conceptualize the relations between rhetorical strategies and material practices in the processes whereby leaders create or change organizational cultures. Design/methodology/approach – The authors compare and contrast two broad perspectives on cultural...... insights. The authors propose an integrated perspective in which material practices and rhetorical strategies are seen as two analytical sides of the same ontological coin. This enables a fuller and more detailed explanation of how organizational cultures are created or changed. A brief illustration...

  18. The implementation of the integrated design process in the hole-plan system

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Won-Sun Ruy

    2012-12-01

    Full Text Available All current shipyards are using the customized CAD/CAM programs in order to improve the design quality and increase the design efficiency. Even though the data structures for ship design and construction are almost completed, the implementation related to the ship design processes are still in progress so that it has been the main causes of the bottleneck and delay during the middle of design process. In this study, we thought that the hole-plan system would be a good example which is remained to be improved. The people of outfitting division who don't have direct authority to edit the structural panels, should request the hull design division to install the holes for the outfitting equipment. For acceptance, they should calculate the hole position, determine the hole type, and find the intersected contour of panel. After consideration of the hull people, the requested holes are manually installed on the hull structure. As the above, many processes are needed such as communication and discussion between the divisions, drawings for hole-plan, and the consideration for the structural or production compatibility. However this iterative process takes a lot of working time and requires mental pressure to the related people and cross-division conflict. This paper will handle the hole-plan system in detail to automate the series of process and minimize the human efforts and time-consumption.

  19. Final Report for the Soboba Strategic Tribal Energy Planning Project

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Miller, Kim [EPA Specialist

    2013-09-17

    In 2011 the Tribe was awarded funds from the Department of Energy to formulate the Soboba Strategic Tribal Energy Plan. This will be a guiding document used throughout the planning of projects focused on energy reduction on the Reservation. The Soboba Strategic Tribal Energy Plan's goal is to create a Five Year Energy Plan for the Soboba Band of Luiseno Indians in San Jacinto, California. This plan will guide the decision making process towards consistent progress leading to the Tribal goal of a 25% reduction in energy consumption in the next five years. It will additionally outline energy usage/patterns and will edentify areas the Tribe can decrease energy use and increase efficiency. The report documents activities undertaken under the grant, as well as incldues the Tribe's strategif energy plan.

  20. Optimization-based decision support systems for planning problems in processing industries

    OpenAIRE

    Claassen, G.D.H.

    2014-01-01

    Summary Optimization-based decision support systems for planning problems in processing industries Nowadays, efficient planning of material flows within and between supply chains is of vital importance and has become one of the most challenging problems for decision support in practice. The tremendous progress in hard- and software of the past decades was an important gateway for developing computerized systems that are able to support decision making on different levels within enterprises. T...

  1. Modified allocation capacitated planning model in blood supply chain management

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mansur, A.; Vanany, I.; Arvitrida, N. I.

    2018-04-01

    Blood supply chain management (BSCM) is a complex process management that involves many cooperating stakeholders. BSCM involves four echelon processes, which are blood collection or procurement, production, inventory, and distribution. This research develops an optimization model of blood distribution planning. The efficiency of decentralization and centralization policies in a blood distribution chain are compared, by optimizing the amount of blood delivered from a blood center to a blood bank. This model is developed based on allocation problem of capacitated planning model. At the first stage, the capacity and the cost of transportation are considered to create an initial capacitated planning model. Then, the inventory holding and shortage costs are added to the model. These additional parameters of inventory costs lead the model to be more realistic and accurate.

  2. Co-creating Polyphony or Cacophony? A case study of an organization’s current brand co-creation process and the challenge of integrating multiple voices

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Schmeltz, Line; Kjeldsen, Anna Karina

    The latest wave within branding theory suggests a move toward enterprise branding or co-created branding (cf. Hatch and Schultz, 2010; Johansen and Andersen, 2012; Karmark, 2013). This entails that organizations to a large extent involve both external and internal stakeholders in an ongoing......, dynamic process of creating and developing the corporate brand. In theory, this approach holds great promise in terms of increasing organizational transparency, creating stakeholder engagement, as well as true stakeholder dialogue. But, a brand co-creation process also exposes the organization to danger......, e.g. loss of control, dilution of identity, and potential disharmony between the multiple voices co-creating the brand. Therefore, this paper empirically explores how an organization endeavoring into a brand co-creation process struggles to orchestrate the many voices in practice. Implications focus...

  3. A methodology for creating greenways through multidisciplinary sustainable landscape planning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pena, Selma Beatriz; Abreu, Maria Manuela; Teles, Rui; Espírito-Santo, Maria Dalila

    2010-01-01

    This research proposes a methodology for defining greenways via sustainable planning. This approach includes the analysis and discussion of culture and natural processes that occur in the landscape. The proposed methodology is structured in three phases: eco-cultural analysis; synthesis and diagnosis; and proposal. An interdisciplinary approach provides an assessment of the relationships between landscape structure and landscape dynamics, which are essential to any landscape management or land use. The landscape eco-cultural analysis provides a biophysical, dynamic (geomorphologic rate), vegetation (habitats from directive 92/43/EEC) and cultural characterisation. The knowledge obtained by this analysis then supports the definition of priority actions to stabilise the landscape and the management measures for the habitats. After the analysis and diagnosis phases, a proposal for the development of sustainable greenways can be achieved. This methodology was applied to a study area of the Azambuja Municipality in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area (Portugal). The application of the proposed methodology to the study area shows that landscape stability is crucial for greenway users in order to appreciate the landscape and its natural and cultural elements in a sustainable and healthy way, both by cycling or by foot. A balanced landscape will increase the value of greenways and in return, they can develop socio-economic activities with benefits for rural communities. Copyright 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  4. RE-PLAN: An Extensible Software Architecture to Facilitate Disaster Response Planning

    Science.gov (United States)

    O’Neill, Martin; Mikler, Armin R.; Indrakanti, Saratchandra; Tiwari, Chetan; Jimenez, Tamara

    2014-01-01

    Computational tools are needed to make data-driven disaster mitigation planning accessible to planners and policymakers without the need for programming or GIS expertise. To address this problem, we have created modules to facilitate quantitative analyses pertinent to a variety of different disaster scenarios. These modules, which comprise the REsponse PLan ANalyzer (RE-PLAN) framework, may be used to create tools for specific disaster scenarios that allow planners to harness large amounts of disparate data and execute computational models through a point-and-click interface. Bio-E, a user-friendly tool built using this framework, was designed to develop and analyze the feasibility of ad hoc clinics for treating populations following a biological emergency event. In this article, the design and implementation of the RE-PLAN framework are described, and the functionality of the modules used in the Bio-E biological emergency mitigation tool are demonstrated. PMID:25419503

  5. Strategic Decision-making,Action Planning,Flexible Creation:A Philosophic Thinking on Chinese City Development

    Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

    2010-01-01

    Based on the rich experience in urban construction in China for decades,the author argues that urban planning is a process of flexible creation under the guidance of strategic decision-making and action planning and in accordance with local conditions in hope of creating better human settlements and a harmonious society at the same time.Efforts should be made to strengthen the general knowledge and universal truth on urban planning and transform them into public consensus.

  6. Wilmington Area Planning Council, New Castle County, Delaware and Cecil County, Maryland : a performance-based approach to integrating congestion management into the metropolitan planning process

    Science.gov (United States)

    2009-04-01

    The Wilmington Area Planning Council takes an objectives-driven, performance-based approach to its metropolitan transportation planning, including paying special attention to integrating its Congestion Management Process into its planning efforts. Th...

  7. Implementation plan for HANDI 2000 TWRS master equipment list

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    BENNION, S.I.

    1999-01-01

    This document presents the implementation plan for an additional deliverable of the HANDI 2000 Project. The PassPort Equipment Data module processes include those portions of the COTS PassPort system required to support tracking and management of the Master Equipment List for Lockheed Martin Hanford Company (LMHC) and custom software created to work with the COTS products

  8. The DOE Office of Environmental Restoration and Waste Management comprehensive integrated planning process

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Aiken, R.J.; Draffin, C.W. Jr.; Pflock, K.T.

    1992-01-01

    This paper reports that comprehensive integrated planning is critical to the ultimate success of the DOE Office of Environmental Restoration and Waste Management's (EM) program because of the significant technical and institutional complexities, the tens of billions of dollars required, the regulatory and fiscal uncertainty, and the multitude of federal, state, and private sector organizations involved. Using the philosophy that sound and forward looking planning should guide budgetary and management decisionmaking, and that clear priorities are essential to program success, EM's comprehensive approach includes strategic planning, the annually updated EM Five-Year Plan, the EM Management Plan, and Site Specific Plans. Roadmaps (which facilitate issue identification and resolution), Activity Data Sheets, prioritization methodologies, and installation-specific Progress Charts are among the tools employed in support of the EM integrated planning process

  9. Industrial Technologies Program Research Plan for Energy-Intensive Process Industries

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Chapas, Richard B. [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Colwell, Jeffery A. [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

    2007-10-01

    In this plan, the Industrial Technologies Program (ITP) identifies the objectives of its cross-cutting strategy for conducting research in collaboration with industry and U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories to develop technologies that improve the efficiencies of energy-intensive process industries.

  10. KPI-based activity planning for people working in flexible processes

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Eck, van M.L.; Sidorova, N.; Aalst, van der W.M.P.; Grabis, J.; Sandkuhl, K.

    2015-01-01

    Planning human activities within business processes often happens based on the same methods and algorithms as are used in the area of manufacturing systems. However, human resources are more complex than machines. Their performance depends on a number of factors, including stress, personal

  11. Computerized property prediction and process planning in heat treatment of steels

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Gergely, M. (Steel Advisory Centre for Industrial Technologies (SACIT), Budapest (Hungary)); Somogyi, S. (Steel Advisory Centre for Industrial Technologies (SACIT), Budapest (Hungary)); Kohlheb, R. (Steel Advisory Centre for Industrial Technologies (SACIT), Budapest (Hungary))

    1994-01-01

    Recent years have seen widespread interest in the establishment of prediction methods, based on phenomenological description and computer simulation of transformation processes during heat treatment, and in the introduction of software for technological planning. The steady development of this approach is aimed at meeting the requirement of metallurgists, design engineers dealing with material selection and dimensioning, and technologists planning heat treatment processes. Research in this field of computer simulation has been concentrated so far on two main areas of interest: . Modelling of transformation processes and the prediction of microstructures and/or properties, . Developing program packages to help solve concrete tasks such as material selection, on-line process control and monitoring, and the design of heat-treating operations. During the last two decades in the field of heat treatment, various mathematical models with different accuracy and complexity have been developed. In this paper, an attempt is made to outline some important results in computer simulation and computerized property prediction without aiming at completeness. The topic is restricted to quenched and tempered, and case-hardened steels. (orig.)

  12. Implementation of BNCT treatment planning procedures

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Capala, J.; Ma, R.; Diaz, A.Z.; Chanana, A.D.; Coderre, J.A.

    2001-01-01

    Estimation of radiation doses delivered during boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT) requires combining data on spatial distribution of both the thermal neutron fluence and the 10 B concentration, as well as the relative biological effectiveness of various radiation dose components in the tumor and normal tissues. Using the treatment planning system created at Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory and the procedures we had developed for clinical trials, we were able to optimize the treatment position, safely deliver the prescribed BNCT doses, and carry out retrospective analyses and reviews. In this paper we describe the BNCT treatment planning process and its implementation in the ongoing dose escalation trials at Brookhaven National Laboratory. (author)

  13. Energy efficient buildings : a plan for BC : creating a legacy of energy efficient buildings in British Columbia

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2005-10-01

    A plan to conserve energy and improve energy efficiency in homes and buildings in British Columbia was presented. Benefits of the plan included savings for consumers throughout BC; an increase in the value of homes and buildings; a return on investment after an average of 5 years; improved comfort and indoor air quality in buildings; creation of equipment manufacturing, building design, development and trades jobs across the province; and reduced environmental impacts, including greenhouse gas (GHG) and smog-creating air emissions. An outline of cost-effective energy efficiency targets was presented to complement ongoing local, provincial and federal programs. A number of market challenges were reviewed, such as the lack of information available to consumers on energy efficiency, the increased initial cost of energy efficient buildings, and the fact that opportunities to reduce energy consumption after construction are limited and expensive. It was suggested that energy consumers are not often aware of the environmental and social costs of over-consumption of energy. Details of existing programs that support energy efficiency were presented, as well as information concerning sales tax exemptions for high efficiency heating equipment and other materials used to conserve energy. Various provincial policies and incentives supporting energy conservation were outlined. Cost-effective targets for energy efficiency for new and existing buildings were presented, as well as details of rebates for homeowners. Capital costs for new construction standards were presented, as well as details of incentives and provincial sales tax exemptions

  14. Collaborative planning for city development. A perspective from a city planner

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kamalia Purbani

    2017-04-01

    Full Text Available A number of definitions related to collaborative governance have been developed since early 2000. The common characteristics of collaborative governance are, among others, policy consensus, community visioning, consensus rule-making, and collaborative network structures. Collaborative planning is a new paradigm of planning for a complex contemporary society through which it encourages people to be engaged in a dialogue in a situation of equal empowerment and shared information to learn new ideas through mutual understanding, to create innovative outcomes and to build institutional capacity. This indicates that collaborative planning can provide policy makers with more effective community participation. Collaborative process is the key of collaborative planning which also emphasizes the significant role of collaborative leadership. The process includes a participatory activity of dialogue oriented to the joint decision and summarized in a collaborative process. The collaborative leadership is crucial for setting and maintaining clear ground rules, building trust, facilitating dialogue, and exploring mutual gains. Along with the shift of planning paradigm, the role of city planner will also change since the city planning deals with the political process. In the political process, city planners must be able to perform as technocrats, bureaucrats, lawyers and politicians who always uphold their ethics because they are responsible to the society, the assignor for their integrity and professionalism.

  15. Strategic investment of embodied energy during the architectural planning process

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Hildebrand, L.

    2014-01-01

    It is an interesting time in the building industry; for more than one decade sustainability is a planning parameter that essentially impacts construction related processes. Reduction of operational energy was initiated after the oil crisis and changed the type of construction by including heat

  16. Challenges of Measuring Performance of the Sales and Operations Planning Process

    OpenAIRE

    Hulthén, Hana; Näslund, Dag; Norrman, Andreas

    2017-01-01

    The purpose of this study is to identify and structure challenges of measuring performance of the Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) process. A multiple case study methodology was applied. Qualitative data was collected via 22 structured interviews with managers from six case companies in various industries. A process oriented framework was proposed by structuring the challenges based on two key areas of process performance (effectiveness and efficiency) and different maturity levels of the...

  17. Science Planning and Orbit Classification for Solar Probe Plus

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kusterer, M. B.; Fox, N. J.; Rodgers, D. J.; Turner, F. S.

    2016-12-01

    There are a number of challenges for the Science Planning Team (SPT) of the Solar Probe Plus (SPP) Mission. Since SPP is using a decoupled payload operations approach, tight coordination between the mission operations and payload teams will be required. The payload teams must manage the volume of data that they write to the spacecraft solid-state recorders (SSR) for their individual instruments for downlink to the ground. Making this process more difficult, the geometry of the celestial bodies and the spacecraft during some of the SPP mission orbits cause limited uplink and downlink opportunities. The payload teams will also be required to coordinate power on opportunities, command uplink opportunities, and data transfers from instrument memory to the spacecraft SSR with the operation team. The SPT also intend to coordinate observations with other spacecraft and ground based systems. To solve these challenges, detailed orbit activity planning is required in advance for each orbit. An orbit planning process is being created to facilitate the coordination of spacecraft and payload activities for each orbit. An interactive Science Planning Tool is being designed to integrate the payload data volume and priority allocations, spacecraft ephemeris, attitude, downlink and uplink schedules, spacecraft and payload activities, and other spacecraft ephemeris. It will be used during science planning to select the instrument data priorities and data volumes that satisfy the orbit data volume constraints and power on, command uplink and data transfer time periods. To aid in the initial stages of science planning we have created an orbit classification scheme based on downlink availability and significant science events. Different types of challenges arise in the management of science data driven by orbital geometry and operational constraints, and this scheme attempts to identify the patterns that emerge.

  18. The WIPP decision plan: Charting the course for openness in the decision making process

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hagers, J.

    1992-01-01

    In June of 1989, the Secretary of Energy requested that a plan be developed that would clearly outline the prerequisites to opening the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). It was to provide the basis for a decision making process that was not only visible to the public, but one which included public participation. It must also be dynamic enough to effectively deal with the changing legislative, regulatory, and technical environments. Based on a recognized need for openness, the Secretary's Draft Decision Plan was developed. The plan charted the course for ultimately making the decision to declare WIPP ready to receive waste for the start of test phase operations. It outlined to critics and supporters alike the rigorous and thorough process by which the internal decisions were made. The plan identified all internal prerequisites to the decision; charted the review cycles, and targeted the completion dates. It also outlined the processes outside the control of the Department, institutional issues, such as legislative land withdrawal, issuance of permits, and designation of transportation routes

  19. A prioritization methodology to strategic planning process

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Rondinelli Junior, Francisco; Cherif, Hadj Slimane

    2009-01-01

    In the process of formulation of a Strategic Plan, there is always a step that deals with choices among different options and strategies. To do that a prioritization methodology has to be applied in order to achieve the higher needs identified along the analysis and evaluation of problems. To assign priorities within a set of needs/problems of a strategic nature and identified within various areas of activity or different sectors, it is proposed a methodology that envisage the use of specific attributes for which a graded scale of values is established for each need/problem, which, at the end of the process, allows a quantitative comparison among them. The methodology presented in this paper was developed following an approach that has been used in many areas over the last 20 years by various public and private institutions, and also by international organizations involved in promotion and development work. (author)

  20. MENUMBUHKAN MINAT KEWIRAUSAHAAN MELALUI PEMBUATAN BUSINESS PLAN

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Suhermini Suhermini

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available The purposes of this research are to generate the interest in entrepreneurship, to improve the motivation to learn entrepreneurship, and to familiarize the students in creating a business plan as a student creativity in developing the character of entrepreneur. The research methods were descriptive analysis with the percentage was 74% and correlation analysis which was used to find out whether any relationship between students’ interest in entrepreneurship and creating business plan for Management Department Students of Semarang State University. The result showed  that there was a significant relationship between interest in entrepreneurship and creating a business plan with significant value was 0032.

  1. MENUMBUHKAN MINAT KEWIRAUSAHAAN MELALUI PEMBUATAN BUSINESS PLAN

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Suhermini Suhermini

    2010-12-01

    Full Text Available The purposes of this research are to generate the interest in entrepreneurship, to improve the motivation to learn entrepreneurship, and to familiarize the students in creating a business plan as a student creativity in developing the character of entrepreneur. The research methods were descriptive analysis with the percentage was 74% and correlation analysis which was used to find out whether any relationship between students’ interest in entrepreneurship and creating business plan for Management Department Students of Semarang State University. The result showed  that there was a significant relationship between interest in entrepreneurship and creating a business plan with significant value was 0032.

  2. A simple planning technique of craniospinal irradiation in the eclipse treatment planning system

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hemalatha Athiyaman

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available A new planning method for Craniospinal Irradiation by Eclipse treatment planning system using Field alignment, Field-in-Field technique was developed. Advantage of this planning method was also studied retrospectively for previously treated five patients of medulloblastoma with variable spine length. Plan consists of half beam blocked parallel opposed cranium, and a single posterior cervicospine field was created by sharing the same isocenter, which obviates divergence matching. Further, a single symmetrical field was created to treat remaining Lumbosacral spine. Matching between a inferior diverging edge of cervicospine field and superior diverging edge of a Lumbosacral field was done using the field alignment option. ′Field alignment′ is specific option in the Eclipse Treatment Planning System, which automatically matches the field edge divergence as per field alignment rule. Multiple segments were applied in both the spine field to manage with hot and cold spots created by varying depth of spinal cord. Plan becomes fully computerized using this field alignment option and multiple segments. Plan evaluation and calculated mean modified Homogeneity Index (1.04 and 0.1 ensured that dose to target volume is homogeneous and critical organ doses were within tolerance. Dose variation at the spinal field junction was verified using ionization chamber array (I′MatriXX for matched, overlapped and gap junction spine fields; the delivered dose distribution confirmed the ideal clinical match, over exposure and under exposure at the junction, respectively. This method is simple to plan, executable in Record and Verify mode and can be adopted for various length of spinal cord with only two isocenter in shorter treatment time.

  3. Representation in the Care Planning Process for Nursing Home Residents With Dementia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McCreedy, Ellen; Loomer, Lacey; Palmer, Jennifer A; Mitchell, Susan L; Volandes, Angelo; Mor, Vincent

    2018-05-01

    Federally mandated assessments of nursing home (NH) residents drive individualized care planning. Residents with cognitive impairment may not be able to meaningfully communicate their care needs and preferences during this process-a gap that may be partially addressed by involving surrogates. We describe the prevalence of family participation in the care planning process for long-stay NH residents with varying degrees of cognitive impairment. Retrospective study using administrative data made available as part of an ongoing pragmatic cluster randomized controlled trial. A total of 292 NHs from 1 large for-profit NH system. Long-stay NH residents in 2016. We identified all care planning assessments conducted in 2016 for long-stay NH residents. Cognitive functioning was defined using the Cognitive Function Scale. The Minimum Data Set was used to determine whether a resident, family member, and/or legal guardian participated in the assessment process. Certification and Survey Provider Enhance Reporting system data was used to identify facility-level correlates of family participation. Bivariate and multivariable hierarchical regression results are presented. The analytic sample included 18,552 long-stay NH residents. Family member/representative participation varied by degree of resident cognitive impairment; 8% of residents with no cognitive impairment had family or representative participation in care planning during 2016, compared with 26% of residents with severe impairment. NHs with more social workers had greater family participation in care planning. Available NH characteristics do not explain most of the variation in family participation between NHs (residual intraclass correlation = .57). Only a minority of family members and surrogates participate in NH care planning, even for residents with severe cognitive impairment. The association between social work staffing and participation suggests family involvement may be a measure of quality improvement

  4. Incorporating healthcare informatics into the strategic planning process in nursing education.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sackett, Kay; Jones, Janice; Erdley, W Scott

    2005-01-01

    The purpose of this article is to describe the incorporation of healthcare informatics into the strategic planning process in nursing education. An exemplar from the University at Buffalo, the State University of New York School of Nursing, is interwoven throughout the article. The challenges and successes inherent in a paradigm shift embracing the multifaceted adoption of technology in higher education are illustrated. The paradigm shift that necessitated this change, the need for informatics standards and competencies identified by regulatory agencies and the relationship of the triad mission of the Academy which includes research, teaching and service are then elucidated. Information pertinent to the strategic planning process is described including the use of a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis to facilitate the integration of a healthcare informatics model into a nursing curriculum.

  5. Creating a space for creative learning: the importance of engaging management and teachers in the design process

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bøjer, Bodil

    2018-01-01

    parties are engaged in the design process in order to ensure a common goal: creating the best frame for creative learning. In reality, this rarely happens and the users are left with a physical learning environment where the intentions do not match the expectations and established practises. To remedy...

  6. Human-scientific Planning Theory

    OpenAIRE

    Hagen, Aksel

    1998-01-01

    This working report is a paper written to XII AESOP Congress 22 – 25 July 1998, Aveiro, Portugal. It is a presentation of human-scientific action theory and its linkage to planning, both planning theory and planning practice. Human-scientific action theory is created by professor Gunnar Olsson and professor José Luis Ramírez, Nordic School of Planning, Stockholm. Planning is primarily a practical and reflective activity. The notion ”Planning” may, therefore, describe the activi...

  7. Guidelines for inclusion: Ensuring Indigenous peoples' involvement in water planning processes across South Eastern Australia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saenz Quitian, Alejandra; Rodríguez, Gloria Amparo

    2016-11-01

    Indigenous peoples within the Murray-Darling Basin have traditionally struggled for the recognition of their cultural, social, environmental, spiritual, commercial and economic connection to the waters that they have traditionally used, as well as their right to engage in all stages of water planning processes. Despite Australian national and federal frameworks providing for the inclusion of Indigenous Australians' objectives in planning frameworks, water plans have rarely addressed these objectives in water, or the strategies to achieve them. Indeed, insufficient resources, a lack of institutional capacity in both Indigenous communities and agencies and an inadequate understanding of Indigenous people's objectives in water management have limited the extent to which Indigenous objectives are addressed in water plans within the Murray-Darling Basin. In this context, the adoption of specific guidelines to meet Indigenous requirements in relation to basin water resources is crucial to support Indigenous engagement in water planning processes. Using insights from participatory planning methods and human rights frameworks, this article outlines a set of alternative and collaborative guidelines to improve Indigenous involvement in water planning and to promote sustainable and just water allocations.

  8. Planning to Improvise? The Role of Reasoning in the Strategy Process: Evidence from Malaysia

    OpenAIRE

    Hughes, Paul; Hodgkinson, Ian R.; Arshad, Darwina; Hughes, Mathew; Leone, Vitor

    2017-01-01

    The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link. Planning and improvisation are depicted as alternate decision-making orientations in the strategy process literature, executed by two parallel cognitive contexts: rational or intuitive, but can rationality and intuition be harmonised in the strategy process? Strategic managers may not have to choose to either plan or improvise, rather there is ...

  9. Facility Effluent Monitoring Plan for the 325 Radiochemical Processing Laboratory

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Shields, K.D.; Ballinger, M.Y.

    1999-03-01

    This Facility Effluent Monitoring Plan (FEMP) has been prepared for the 325 Building Radiochemical Processing Laboratory (RPL) at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) to meet the requirements in DOE Order 5400.1, ''General Environmental Protection Programs.'' This FEMP has been prepared for the RPL primarily because it has a ''major'' (potential to emit >0.1 mrem/yr) emission point for radionuclide air emissions according to the annual National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) assessment performed. This section summarizes the airborne and liquid effluents and the inventory based NESHAP assessment for the facility. The complete monitoring plan includes characterization of effluent streams, monitoring/sampling design criteria, a description of the monitoring systems and sample analysis, and quality assurance requirements. The RPL at PNNL houses radiochemistry research, radioanalytical service, radiochemical process development, and hazardous and radioactive mixed waste treatment activities. The laboratories and specialized facilities enable work ranging from that with nonradioactive materials to work with picogram to kilogram quantities of fissionable materials and up to megacurie quantities of other radionuclides. The special facilities within the building include two shielded hot-cell areas that provide for process development or analytical chemistry work with highly radioactive materials and a waste treatment facility for processing hazardous, mixed radioactive, low-level radioactive, and transuranic wastes generated by PNNL activities

  10. Facility Effluent Monitoring Plan for the 325 Radiochemical Processing Laboratory

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Shields, K.D.; Ballinger, M.Y.

    1999-04-02

    This Facility Effluent Monitoring Plan (FEMP) has been prepared for the 325 Building Radiochemical Processing Laboratory (RPL) at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) to meet the requirements in DOE Order 5400.1, ''General Environmental Protection Programs.'' This FEMP has been prepared for the RPL primarily because it has a ''major'' (potential to emit >0.1 mrem/yr) emission point for radionuclide air emissions according to the annual National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) assessment performed. This section summarizes the airborne and liquid effluents and the inventory based NESHAP assessment for the facility. The complete monitoring plan includes characterization of effluent streams, monitoring/sampling design criteria, a description of the monitoring systems and sample analysis, and quality assurance requirements. The RPL at PNNL houses radiochemistry research, radioanalytical service, radiochemical process development, and hazardous and radioactive mixed waste treatment activities. The laboratories and specialized facilities enable work ranging from that with nonradioactive materials to work with picogram to kilogram quantities of fissionable materials and up to megacurie quantities of other radionuclides. The special facilities within the building include two shielded hot-cell areas that provide for process development or analytical chemistry work with highly radioactive materials and a waste treatment facility for processing hazardous, mixed radioactive, low-level radioactive, and transuranic wastes generated by PNNL activities.

  11. An expert system for process planning of sheet metal parts produced ...

    Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

    Sachin Salunkhe

    set of production rules and frames for process planning of axisymmetric deep ... parameters for design of stamping die for manufacturing of circular cup with ..... proper sequence of operations to manufacture sheet metal part correctly and ...

  12. The Ties that Bind: Creating Great Customer Service.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lisker, Peter

    2000-01-01

    Offers suggestions for libraries on how to develop a customer service plan to provide excellent service, create a positive environment for staff members, foster new and continued positive relationships with patrons, and evaluate customer service goals and objectives. Also discusses policies and building appearance. (Author/LRW)

  13. 300 Area Process Trenches Modified Closure/Postclosure Plan

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1997-09-01

    This chapter provides a brief summary of the contents of each chapter of this plan for the closure of the 300 Area Process Trenches (300 APT) treatment, storage, and/or disposal unit. It also provides background information for this unit and discusses how its closure will be integrated with the remedial action for the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 300- FF-1 Operable Unit. The 300 APT is located within the 300 Area of the Hanford Site. This area contained reactor fuel fabrication facilities and research and development laboratories. The 300 APT was constructed and began operations in 1975 as the 316-5 Process Trenches. Effluent was discharged to the trenches by way of the 300 Area process sewer system, which has been the sole source of effluent for the 300 APT. The 316-5 Process Trenches gained Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 (RCRA) interim status as the 300 APT TSD unit on November 11, 1985. The unit has been administratively closed to discharges of dangerous waste since 1985

  14. Promoting cross-sector partnerships in child welfare: qualitative results from a five-state strategic planning process.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Collins-Camargo, Crystal; Armstrong, Mary I; McBeath, Bowen; Chuang, Emmeline

    2013-01-01

    Little is known about effective strategic planning for public and private child welfare agencies working together to serve families. During a professionally facilitated, strategic planning event, public and private child welfare administrators from five states explored partnership challenges and strengths with a goal of improving collaborative interactions in order to improve outcomes for children and families. Summarizing thematic results of session notes from the planning event, this article describes effective strategies for facilitation of such processes as well as factors that challenge or promote group processes. Implications for conducting strategic planning in jurisdictions seeking to improve public/private partnerships are discussed.

  15. Creating sustainable learning environments in schools by means of ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Creating sustainable learning environments in schools by means of strategic ... be addressed by means of proper strategic planning of the education system as such ... The authors who are academics at a university and who are specializing in ...

  16. The Hemophilia Games: An Experiment in Health Education Planning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    National Heart and Lung Inst. (DHEW/PHS), Bethesda, MD.

    The Hemophilia Health Education Planning Project was designed to (1) create a set of tools useful in hemophilia planning and education, and (2) create a planning model for other diseases with similar factors. The project used the game-simulations technique which was felt to be particularly applicable to hemophilia health problems, since as a…

  17. Building an Undergraduate Book Approval Plan for a Large Academic Library

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Denise Koufogiannakis

    2007-05-01

    Full Text Available The University of Alberta Libraries (UAL, working with two book vendors, created large-scale undergraduate book approval plans to deliver new publications. Detailed selections profiles were created for many subject areas, designed to deliver books that would have been obvious choices by subject selectors. More than 5800 monographs were received through the book approval plans during the pilot period. These volumes proved to be highly relevant to users, showing twice as much circulation as other monographs acquired during the same time period. Goals achieved through this project include: release of selectors’ time from routine work, systematic acquisition of a broadly based high-demand undergraduate collection and faster delivery of undergraduate materials. This successful program will be expanded and incorporated into UAL’s normal acquisitions processes for undergraduate materials.

  18. [Methodology for an appreciative, dynamic and collaborative process: 3rd Canary Islands (Spain) Health Plan].

    Science.gov (United States)

    O'Shanahan Juan, José Joaquín; Hernández Rodríguez, Miguel Ángel; Del Otero Sanz, Laura; Henríquez Suárez, José Andrés; Mahtani Chugani, Vinita

    The need for new approaches to strategic planning by incorporating the perspectives of professionals and inhabitants has led to a new model for the 3rd Canary Islands (Spain) Health Plan (IIIPSC). A dual-phase participatory process using qualitative techniques is proposed: 1) local phase: a quantitative and qualitative study based on training and a research-action-participation initiative; and 2) insular phase: health conferences with face-to-face discussion of results in each health area (island) and proposals for action. The process prioritises problems and establishes a specific action plan for each island through initiatives that are considered to be viable, grouped by themes and weighted according to the potential impact on priority problems. This process of interaction may help to guide planning model changes and health policy decision-making, and was included in the IIIPSC Project for its parliamentary procedure. Copyright © 2016 SESPAS. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

  19. Revised ground-water monitoring compliance plan for the 300 area process trenches

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Schalla, R.; Aaberg, R.L.; Bates, D.J.; Carlile, J.V.M.; Freshley, M.D.; Liikala, T.L.; Mitchell, P.J.; Olsen, K.B.; Rieger, J.T.

    1988-09-01

    This document contains ground-water monitoring plans for process-water disposal trenches located on the Hanford Site. These trenches, designated the 300 Area Process Trenches, have been used since 1973 for disposal of water that contains small quantities of both chemicals and radionuclides. The ground-water monitoring plans contained herein represent revision and expansion of an effort initiated in June 1985. At that time, a facility-specific monitoring program was implemented at the 300 Area Process Trenches as part of a regulatory compliance effort for hazardous chemicals being conducted on the Hanford Site. This monitoring program was based on the ground-water monitoring requirements for interim-status facilities, which are those facilities that do not yet have final permits, but are authorized to continue interim operations while engaged in the permitting process. The applicable monitoring requirements are described in the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), 40 CFR 265.90 of the federal regulations, and in WAC 173-303-400 of Washington State's regulations (Washington State Department of Ecology 1986). The program implemented for the process trenches was designed to be an alternate program, which is required instead of the standard detection program when a facility is known or suspected to have contaminated the ground water in the uppermost aquifer. The plans for the program, contained in a document prepared by the US Department of Energy (USDOE) in 1985, called for monthly sampling of 14 of the 37 existing monitoring wells at the 300 Area plus the installation and sampling of 2 new wells. 27 refs., 25 figs., 15 tabs.

  20. The Process of Participatory Ergonomics Simulation in Hospital Work System Design

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Andersen, Simone Nyholm

    2016-01-01

    Participatory ergonomics simulation (PES) is a method to involve workers in simulation and design of their own future work system. Understanding of the process of PES is crucial in order to plan and facilitate the process towards creating an ergonomics work system design supporting both human well...

  1. Process for planning and control of software projects using XedroGESPRO

    OpenAIRE

    Jacqueline Marín-Sánchez; José Alejandro Lugo-García; Pedro Yobanis Piñero-Pérez; Alena María Santiesteban-García; Félix Noel Abelardo-Santana; Javier Menéndez-Rizo

    2014-01-01

    The software project management in Cuba has become a key area for improving production processes and decisionmaking in organizations. Several models and standards for process improvement, related with project management, proposed best practices on issues of planning and control of projects. However, they are generic guidelines that describe only those activities to execute, leaving the responsibility for implementing to organizations, using sometimes , expensive proprietary infor...

  2. Complete coverage path planning of a random polygon - A FroboMind component

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Aslund, Sebastian; Jensen, Kjeld; Jørgensen, Rasmus Nyholm

    solution where all the steps in the process is included: Segmentation of a data set, creation of a configuration space, decomposition of a polygon, global and local path planning. To achieve this, a series of known algorithms are used including some tweaks and improvements to create a solid foundation...

  3. The process of co-creating the interface for VENSTER, an interactive artwork for nursing home residents with dementia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jamin, Gaston; Luyten, Tom; Delsing, Rob; Braun, Susy

    2017-10-17

    Interactive art installations might engage nursing home residents with dementia. The main aim of this article was to describe the challenging design process of an interactive artwork for nursing home residents, in co-creation with all stakeholders and to share the used methods and lessons learned. This process is illustrated by the design of the interface of VENSTER as a case. Nursing home residents from the psychogeriatric ward, informal caregivers, client representatives, health care professionals and members of the management team were involved in the design process, which consisted of three phases: (1) identify requirements, (2) develop a prototype and (3) conduct usability tests. Several methods were used (e.g. guided co-creation sessions, "Wizard of Oz"). Each phase generated "lessons learned", which were used as the departure point of the next phase. Participants hardly paid attention to the installation and interface. There, however, seemed to be an untapped potential for creating an immersive experience by focussing more on the content itself as an interface (e.g. creating specific scenes with cues for interaction, scenes based on existing knowledge or prior experiences). "Fifteen lessons learned" which can potentially assist the design of an interactive artwork for nursing home residents suffering from dementia were derived from the design process. This description provides tools and best practices for stakeholders to make (better) informed choices during the creation of interactive artworks. It also illustrates how co-design can make the difference between designing a pleasurable experience and a meaningful one. Implications for rehabilitation Co-design with all stakeholders can make the difference between designing a pleasurable experience and a meaningful one. There seems to be an untapped potential for creating an immersive experience by focussing more on the content itself as an interface (e.g. creating specific scenes with cues for interaction

  4. Using virtual reality technology for decommissioning and outage planning

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lirvall, Peter

    1998-01-01

    The VR Decom. Tool is a decommissioning, planning, and training tool. It is not yet in use, but appropriate technology has been identified to develop such a tool The tool is intended to be used as an interactive virtual mock-up of a process plant to plan and practice decommissioning activities. The tool will be able to create or import existing CAD drawing to be visualised in an interactive Virtual Reality (VR) environment, with links to data bases containing useful information about all the process components for planning the decommissioning. The most use of the tool is foreseen to be in areas that have limited access, such as, radioactive or hazardous. The main advantages are summarised below: (1) virtual mock-up for visualisation of non-accessible areas to plan and provide training for decommissioning procedures, (2) visualisation of three dimensional radiation maps for As Low As Reasonably Achievable (A.L.A.R.A.) staff dose management, (3) raining of special tele-operations procedures, (4) special tools prototyping and testing, (5) information access and team vision sharing. (author)

  5. Implementation Plan for a Common Nordic Retail Market

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    2010-09-15

    For several years NordREG has been working to promote and facilitate a common Nordic end user market. Given the political support that was expressed at the meeting of the Nordic energy ministers in the autumn of 2009, the work has become even more concrete. With this implementation plan, NordREG outlines what should be done, by whom and when in order to create a common Nordic end user market over the coming years. As the plan shows the need for contributed efforts from all stakeholders will be vital in the coming years in order to make a reality of the plans of creating a common Nordic end user market. The transition from national retail markets to a single Nordic market will take a great deal of work from regulators, DSOs, suppliers and TSOs. The benefits that a single Nordic end user market will bring will however make it worthwhile. In the long run, the integrated Nordic end user market will be a more efficient solution than keeping the four national markets. This is also a step towards the integration of European markets. The process of creating a single Nordic market also brings a unique opportunity to find new efficient solutions on different issues. Hence, the goal is not only to integrate the Nordic end user markets, but rather to develop a more customer oriented market with a high degree of competition between the suppliers

  6. Strategic planning by the palliative care steering committee of the Middle East Cancer Consortium.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moore, Shannon Y; Pirrello, Rosene D; Christianson, Sonya K; Ferris, Frank D

    2011-04-01

    High quality comprehensive palliative care is a critical need for millions of patients and families, but remains only a dream in many parts of the world. The failure to do a strategic planning process is one obstacle to advancing education and pain prevention and relief. The Middle Eastern Cancer Consortium Steering Committee attendees completed an initial strategic planning process and identified "developmental steps" to advance palliative care. Underscoring the multi-disciplinary nature of comprehensive palliative care, discipline-specific planning was done (adult and pediatric cancer and medicine, pharmacy, nursing) in a separate process from country-specific planning. Delineating the layers of intersection and differences between disciplines and countries was very powerful. Finding the common strengths and weaknesses in the status quo creates the potential for a more powerful regional response to the palliative care needs. Implementing and refining these preliminary strategic plans will augment and align the efforts to advance palliative care education and pain management in the Middle East. The dream to prevent and relieve suffering for millions of patients with advanced disease will become reality with a powerful strategic planning process well implemented.

  7. Development of short Indonesian lesson plan to improve teacher performance

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yulianto, B.; Kamidjan; Ahmadi, A.; Asteria, P. V.

    2018-01-01

    The developmental research was motivated by the results of preliminary study through interviews, which revealed almost all of the teachers did not create lesson plan themselves. As a result of this load, the performance of the real learning in the classroom becomes inadequate. Moreover, when lesson plan was not made by teachers themselves, the learning process becomes ineffective. Therefore, this study designed to develop a prototype of the short lesson plan, in particular, Indonesian language teaching, and to investigate its effectiveness. The participants in the study were teachers who were trained through lesson study group to design short model’s lesson plan. Questionnaires and open-ended questions were used, and the quantitative and qualitative data obtained were analyzed accordingly. The analysis of the quantitative data, aided with SPSS, were frequency, percentage, and means, whereas the qualitative data were analyzed descriptively. The results showed that the teachers liked the model, and they were willing to design their own lesson plan. The observation data revealed that the classroom learning process became more interactive, and classroom atmosphere was more engaging and natural because the teachers did not stick to the lesson plan made by other teachers.

  8. Potential biological hazard of importance for HACCP plans in fresh fish processing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Baltić Milan Ž.

    2009-01-01

    Full Text Available The Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP system is scientifically based and focused on problem prevention in order to assure the produced food products are safe to consume. Prerequisite programs such as GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices, GHP (Good Hygienic Practices are an essential foundation for the development and implementation of successful HACCP plans. One of the preliminary tasks in the development of HACCP plan is to conduct a hazard analysis. The process of conducting a hazard analysis involves two stages. The first is hazard identification and the second stage is the HACCP team decision which potential hazards must be addressed in the HACCP plan. By definition, the HACCP concept covers all types of potential food safety hazards: biological, chemical and physical, whether they are naturally occurring in the food, contributed by the environment or generated by a mistake in the manufacturing process. In raw fish processing, potential significant biological hazards which are reasonably likely to cause illness of humans are parasites (Trematodae, Nematodae, Cestodae, bacteria (Salmonella, E. coli, Vibrio parahemolyticus, Vibrio vulnificus, Listeria monocytogenes, Clostridium botulinum, Staphyloccocus aureus, viruses (Norwalk virus, Entero virusesi, Hepatitis A, Rotovirus and bio-toxins. Upon completion of hazard analysis, any measure(s that are used to control the hazard(s should be described.

  9. Creating a Lunar EVA Work Envelope

    Science.gov (United States)

    Griffin, Brand N.; Howard, Robert; Rajulu, Sudhakar; Smitherman, David

    2009-01-01

    A work envelope has been defined for weightless Extravehicular Activity (EVA) based on the Space Shuttle Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU), but there is no equivalent for planetary operations. The weightless work envelope is essential for planning all EVA tasks because it determines the location of removable parts, making sure they are within reach and visibility of the suited crew member. In addition, using the envelope positions the structural hard points for foot restraints that allow placing both hands on the job and provides a load path for reacting forces. EVA operations are always constrained by time. Tasks are carefully planned to ensure the crew has enough breathing oxygen, cooling water, and battery power. Planning first involves computers using a virtual work envelope to model tasks, next suited crew members in a simulated environment refine the tasks. For weightless operations, this process is well developed, but planetary EVA is different and no work envelope has been defined. The primary difference between weightless and planetary work envelopes is gravity. It influences anthropometry, horizontal and vertical mobility, and reaction load paths and introduces effort into doing "overhead" work. Additionally, the use of spacesuits other than the EMU, and their impacts on range of motion, must be taken into account. This paper presents the analysis leading to a concept for a planetary EVA work envelope with emphasis on lunar operations. There is some urgency in creating this concept because NASA has begun building and testing development hardware for the lunar surface, including rovers, habitats and cargo off-loading equipment. Just as with microgravity operations, a lunar EVA work envelope is needed to guide designers in the formative stages of the program with the objective of avoiding difficult and costly rework.

  10. Planning of modern process control systems in processing engineering and power plant engineering. Planung von modernen Prozessleitsystemen in der Verfahrens- und Kraftwerkstechnik

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Gilson, W

    1985-01-01

    Correct planning of up-to-date process control systems results in considerable process automation and rationalization. These systems are used in process engineering, in production plants of the chemical industries and in power stations to a growing extent and rapidly reveal their advantages in terms of increased efficiency, improved product quality and reduced maintenance. However, this necessitates to make full and consistent use of the systems' qualities. Lack of experience often result in flows and errors in planning. The VDE und VDI district associations, Frankfurt, selected this subject for this year's discussion in the working group in February/March 1985 in order to provide a comprehensive coverage and demonstration of the field concerned. Experts and interested persons are given information on what facts will have to be observed during all stages in the planning of up-to-date process control systems. The book deals with the following subjects: From the process involved to the structure of the control system; - system specification and system selection; - configuration and project-accompagnying documentation; - trends and prospects exemplified by recent developments.

  11. The Operational Planning Model of Transhipment Processes in the Port

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mia Jurjević

    2016-04-01

    Full Text Available Modelling of a traffic system refers to the efficiency of operations for establishing successful business performance by examining the possibilities for its improvement. The main purpose of each container terminal is to ensure continuity and dynamics of the flow of containers. The objective of this paper is to present a method for determining the amount of certain types of containers that can be transhipped at each berth, with the proper cargo handling, taking into account minimum total costs of transhipment. The mathematical model of planning the transhipment and transportation of containers at the terminal is presented. The optimal solution, obtained with the method of linear programming, represents a plan for container deployment that will ensure effective ongoing process of transhipment, providing the lowest transhipment costs. The proposed model, tested in the port of Rijeka, should be the basis for makingadequate business decisions in the operational planning of the container terminal.

  12. Mathematical Modeling and a Hybrid NSGA-II Algorithm for Process Planning Problem Considering Machining Cost and Carbon Emission

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jin Huang

    2017-09-01

    Full Text Available Process planning is an important function in a manufacturing system; it specifies the manufacturing requirements and details for the shop floor to convert a part from raw material to the finished form. However, considering only economical criterion with technological constraints is not enough in sustainable manufacturing practice; formerly, criteria about low carbon emission awareness have seldom been taken into account in process planning optimization. In this paper, a mathematical model that considers both machining costs reduction as well as carbon emission reduction is established for the process planning problem. However, due to various flexibilities together with complex precedence constraints between operations, the process planning problem is a non-deterministic polynomial-time (NP hard problem. Aiming at the distinctive feature of the multi-objectives process planning optimization, we then developed a hybrid non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II to tackle this problem. A local search method that considers both the total cost criterion and the carbon emission criterion are introduced into the proposed algorithm to avoid being trapped into local optima. Moreover, the technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS method is also adopted to determine the best solution from the Pareto front. Experiments have been conducted using Kim’s benchmark. Computational results show that process plan schemes with low carbon emission can be captured, and, more importantly, the proposed hybrid NSGA-II algorithm can obtain more promising optimal Pareto front than the plain NSGA-II algorithm. Meanwhile, according to the computational results of Kim’s benchmark, we find that both of the total machining cost and carbon emission are roughly proportional to the number of operations, and a process plan with less operation may be more satisfactory. This study will draw references for the further research on green

  13. Development of automated welding process for field fabrication of thick walled pressure vessels: management plan

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    1979-01-01

    A Westinghouse Electric Corp. management plan is presented that consists of the following: management structure; management processes; contract work breakdown structure; schedules; cost plan; contract change control procedures; and government owned property

  14. Exploring the relationship between planning and procurement in Western U.S. electric utilities

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Carvallo Bodelon, Juan Pablo [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Energy Analysis and Environmental Impacts Division; Sanstad, Alan H. [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Energy Analysis and Environmental Impacts Division; Larsen, Peter H. [Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). Energy Analysis and Environmental Impacts Division

    2017-06-01

    Integrated resource planning (IRP) is an important regulatory process used in many U.S. states to formulate and evaluate least-cost and risk-assessed portfolios to meet future load requirements for electric utilities. In principle, effective implementation of IRP seeks to assure regulators and the public that utility investment decisions, given uncertainty, are as cost-effective as possible. However, to date, there is no empirical assessment on the effectiveness of IRP implementation. In this analysis, we compare planning, procurement processes and actual decisions for a sample of twelve load serving entities (LSEs) across the Western U. S. from 2003-2014. The 2008/2009 recession provides a unique “stress test” to the planning process and offers an excellent opportunity to trace how procurement decisions responded to this largely unforeseen event. In aggregate, there is a general alignment between planned and procured supply-side capacity. However, there are significant differences in the choice of supply-side resources and type of ownership for individual LSEs. We develop case studies for three LSEs and find that subsequent plans differ significantly due to changes in the planning environment and that procurement decisions in some cases are impacted by factors that are not accounted for in the planning process. Our results reveal that a limited amount of information produced during the long-term planning process (e.g., forecasts, methods, and least cost/risk portfolios) are ultimately used during the procurement process, and that the latter process relies extensively on the most recent information available for decision making. These findings suggest that states' IRP rules and regulations mandating long-term planning horizons with the same analytical complexity throughout the planning period may not create useful information for the procurement process. The social value of a long-term planning process that departs from procurement and the balance between

  15. Best management practices for creating a community wildfire protection plan

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pamela J. Jakes; Christine Esposito; Sam Burns; Antony S. Cheng; Kristen C. Nelson; Victoria E. Sturtevant; Daniel R. Williams

    2012-01-01

    A community wildfire protection plan (CWPP) is a means of bringing local solutions to wildland fire management. In developing and implementing CWPPs, communities assume a leadership role in reducing wildfi re risk on federal and nonfederal land. In this publication, we identify best management practices for CWPP development and implementation based on the experiences...

  16. Proceedings - Limits of Acceptable Change and related planning processes: Progress and future directions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stephen F. McCool; David N. Cole

    1997-01-01

    Experience with Limits of Acceptable Change (LAC) and related planning processes has accumulated since the mid-1980's. These processes were developoed as a means of dealing with recreation carrying capacity issues in wilderness and National Parks. These processes clearly also have application outside of protected areas and to issues other than recreation...

  17. THE FRAGMENTATION PROCESSES OF THE CITY AND THE TERRITORIALITY OF RESIDENTS IN GATED COMMUNITIES. RELATIONSHIP WITH THE STRATEGIC PLANNING OF PLACES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Luiz Rodolfo Simões Alves

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available The recent transformations occurred in the cities have translated in the space enlargement constructed by a process not always orderly and planned. In a complex game of multiple factors, this urban territories have been subject a very processes diversified of fragmentation, a lot of times conducting cases, voluntary or involuntary, of spatial confinement of populations. This fragmentation is not new. Have like example the Portuguese case, already in the past, in the city it was creating along 20th century, were detected microterritorial of isolation and fragmentation, especially of the most poor populations. In this aspect, the cities are a good laboratory to analyse this processes of lifting the old and new borders. In this article, they will discuss some of Portuguese cases and give it up special emphasis to the closed condos and how these, examples of spacial and social enlargement on a non-city, constitute an obstacle to the broad approach and discussed of destiny of each places. Indeed, the public rejection can constitute a way on the walk for the non participation of collective strategic destinations.

  18. Creating an outpatient center of excellence in CT.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Itri, Jason N; Bakow, Eric; Woods, Jordan

    2014-12-01

    CT examinations represent a substantial portion of the workload for many radiology departments, and optimizing service delivery is a critical function to ensure customer satisfaction. This article describes how the Six Sigma methodology was used in the radiology department at a large academic hospital to improve the patient experience and increase CT capacity while reducing waste and improving staff satisfaction. The 5 distinct phases of Six Sigma are reviewed as they apply to our CT Center of Excellence project: define, measure, analyze, improve, and control. Process metrics used in this project include the percentage of outpatient CT exams started within 5 minutes of the scheduled appointment time, and the number of studies with protocols selected >48 hours before the CT exam is performed. Outcome metrics include monthly department expense per scan and CT Press Ganey "standard test and treatment" mean scores. An approach to developing interventions is described based on identifying critical sources of variation, ranking these by creating risk prioritization numbers, performing root cause analysis, and utilizing the failure mode and effects analysis tool to prioritize possible solutions. Finally, the key features of action plans and a control plan are reviewed. Copyright © 2014 American College of Radiology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  19. Creating a process for incorporating epidemiological modelling into outbreak management decisions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Akselrod, Hana; Mercon, Monica; Kirkeby Risoe, Petter; Schlegelmilch, Jeffrey; McGovern, Joanne; Bogucki, Sandy

    2012-01-01

    Modern computational models of infectious diseases greatly enhance our ability to understand new infectious threats and assess the effects of different interventions. The recently-released CDC Framework for Preventing Infectious Diseases calls for increased use of predictive modelling of epidemic emergence for public health preparedness. Currently, the utility of these technologies in preparedness and response to outbreaks is limited by gaps between modelling output and information requirements for incident management. The authors propose an operational structure that will facilitate integration of modelling capabilities into action planning for outbreak management, using the Incident Command System (ICS) and Synchronization Matrix framework. It is designed to be adaptable and scalable for use by state and local planners under the National Response Framework (NRF) and Emergency Support Function #8 (ESF-8). Specific epidemiological modelling requirements are described, and integrated with the core processes for public health emergency decision support. These methods can be used in checklist format to align prospective or real-time modelling output with anticipated decision points, and guide strategic situational assessments at the community level. It is anticipated that formalising these processes will facilitate translation of the CDC's policy guidance from theory to practice during public health emergencies involving infectious outbreaks.

  20. Pemodelan Aplikasi Enterprise Resource Planning Untuk Pondok Pesantren (Pemodelan Aplikasi Proses Akademik

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    M. Ainul Yaqin

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available Abstract— Pesantren is an institution or organization that is engaged in Islamic religious education-based community education diniyah or integrated with other types of education. As a boarding school organization requires good management information systems by implementing an integrated boarding school. The information system is an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP system that covers all business processes in a boarding school and focused on planning and documentation of transactions. ERP is the application used by the manufacturing company in operation. There is therefore a fundamental conceptual differences between the manufacturing process with the process of education at boarding school, so as to generate the appropriate ERP and can be used by the boarding school, the system needs to be modeled. Modelling done by creating a process diagram and diagram data.

  1. Vega library for processing DICOM data required in Monte Carlo verification of radiotherapy treatment plans

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Locke, C.; Zavgorodni, S.; British Columbia Cancer Agency, Vancouver Island Center, Victoria BC

    2008-01-01

    Monte Carlo (MC) methods provide the most accurate to-date dose calculations in heterogeneous media and complex geometries, and this spawns increasing interest in incorporating MC calculations into treatment planning quality assurance process. This involves MC dose calculations for clinically produced treatment plans. To perform these calculations, a number of treatment plan parameters specifying radiation beam

  2. Strategic planning as a focus for continuous improvement. A case study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oneill, John W.; Gordon-Winkler, Lyn

    1992-01-01

    What do most of the successful people and organizations in our world have in common? Instead of worrying about the future, they work to create it. They have a plan, or a vision of what they want to accomplish and they focus their efforts on success. Strategic planning has been described as a disciplined, ongoing process to produce fundamental decisions and actions that shape what an organization is, what it does, and how it will respond to a changing environment. This case study discussion will evaluate the relationship between strategic planning and Total Quality Management (TQM), or continuous improvement, through the experience of the NASA Johnson Space Center in developing a strategy for the future. That experience clearly illustrates the value of strategic planning in setting the framework and establishing the overall thrust of continuous improvement initiatives. Equally significant, the fundamentals of a quality culture such as strong customer and supplier partnerships, participative involvement, open communications, and ownership were essential in overcoming the challenges inherent in the planning process. A reinforced management commitment to the quality culture was a clear, long-term benefit.

  3. Strategic planning as a focus for continuous improvement. A case study

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oneill, John W.; Gordon-Winkler, Lyn

    What do most of the successful people and organizations in our world have in common? Instead of worrying about the future, they work to create it. They have a plan, or a vision of what they want to accomplish and they focus their efforts on success. Strategic planning has been described as a disciplined, ongoing process to produce fundamental decisions and actions that shape what an organization is, what it does, and how it will respond to a changing environment. This case study discussion will evaluate the relationship between strategic planning and Total Quality Management (TQM), or continuous improvement, through the experience of the NASA Johnson Space Center in developing a strategy for the future. That experience clearly illustrates the value of strategic planning in setting the framework and establishing the overall thrust of continuous improvement initiatives. Equally significant, the fundamentals of a quality culture such as strong customer and supplier partnerships, participative involvement, open communications, and ownership were essential in overcoming the challenges inherent in the planning process. A reinforced management commitment to the quality culture was a clear, long-term benefit.

  4. STRUCTURE FROM MOTION (SfM) PROCESSING FOR UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE (UAV)

    KAUST Repository

    Smith, Neil G.; Shalaby, Mohamed; Passone, Luca

    2016-01-01

    A method of imaging an area using an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) collects a plurality of images from a sensor mounted to the UAV. The plurality of images are processed to detect regions that require additional imaging and an updated flight plan and sensor gimbal position plan is created to capture portions of the area identified as requiring additional imaging.

  5. STRUCTURE FROM MOTION (SfM) PROCESSING FOR UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE (UAV)

    KAUST Repository

    Smith, Neil G.

    2016-04-07

    A method of imaging an area using an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) collects a plurality of images from a sensor mounted to the UAV. The plurality of images are processed to detect regions that require additional imaging and an updated flight plan and sensor gimbal position plan is created to capture portions of the area identified as requiring additional imaging.

  6. Creating a common Danish list of railway timetable evaluation criteria and revising the timetabling process accordingly

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Schittenhelm, Bernd; Landex, Alex

    2012-01-01

    criteria: capacity consumption on line sections and systematic timetable. Rank 2 criteria: robustness of the timetable and societal acceptance of the timetable and rank 3 criteria: travel time of trains and attractive transfer options. With this new tool a revised timetabling process at Rail Net Denmark...... is proposed. The very basic structure of the process cannot be changed due to EU legislation and Rail Net Europe guidelines. Key performance indicators derived from the identified timetabling criteria are introduced. As is a more iterative approach to the timetabling process due to the assumption of major...... improvements within timetable planning systems. This new iterative timetabling process using key performance indicators will result in improved future timetables and in lower levels of disagreement between timetable stakeholders....

  7. Internet plan and planning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kahriman Emina

    2008-01-01

    Full Text Available Paper discuss specific features of internet plan as well as planning as management process in general in the contemporary environment. No need to stress out that marketing plan and marketing planning is core activity in approaching to market. At the same time, there are a lot specific c request in preparing marketing plan comparing to business planning due to marketing plan is an essential part. The importance of internet plan and planning rely on specific features of the internet network but as a part of general corporate as well as marketing strategy.

  8. Using Organizational Philosophy to Create a Self-Sustaining Compensation Plan Without Harming Academic Missions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leverence, Robert; Nuttall, Richard; Palmer, Rachel; Segal, Mark; Wood, Alicia; Yancey, Fay; Shuster, Jonathon; Brantly, Mark; Hromas, Robert

    2017-08-01

    Academic physician reimbursement has moved to productivity-based compensation plans. To be sustainable, such plans must be self-funding. Additionally, unless research and education are appropriately valued, faculty involved in these efforts will become disillusioned, yet revenue generation in these activities is less robust than for clinical care activities. Faculty at the Department of Medicine, University of Florida Health, elected a committee of junior and senior faculty and division chiefs to restructure the compensation plan in fiscal year (FY) 2011. This committee was charged with designing a new compensation plan based on seven principles of organizational philosophy: equity, compensation coupled to productivity, authority aligned with responsibility, respect for all academic missions, transparency, professionalism, and self-funding in each academic mission. The new compensation plan was implemented in FY2013. A survey administered at the end of FY2015 showed that 61% (76/125) of faculty were more satisfied with this plan than the previous plan. Since the year before implementation, clinical relative value units per faculty increased 7% (from 3,458 in FY2012 to 3,704 in FY2015, P < .002), incentives paid per faculty increased 250% (from $3,191 in FY2012 to $11,153 in FY2015, P ≤ .001), and publications per faculty increased 15% (from 2.6 in FY2012 to 3.0 in FY2015, P < .001). Grant submissions, external funding, and teaching hours also increased per faculty but did not reach statistical significance. An important next step will be to incorporate quality metrics into the compensation plan, without affecting costs or throughput.

  9. Participatory process in tourism planning at Alfredo Wagner/ SC rural spaces

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Carlos Loch

    2009-06-01

    Full Text Available This paper is the outcome of a Master Theses focusing participatory processes as a tool for tourism planning in Alfredo Wagner (Santa Catarina State. The study was conducted to identify modifications in rural spaces in that place, where farmers are facing economic difficulties and have tried to enter tourism business to overcome them. The article analyzes participatory processes as starters to make rural producers and local agents get interested in tourism business, being participation the key factor for tourism planning. An exploratory research was conducted to describe the Municipality and also a bibliographic research. As e result it was observed that the main public agents do not dialog with each other and that partnership with private agents is needed. In spite of this lack of integration, involvement was achieved and it was possible to identify which are the necessary steps for tourism development.

  10. Influence of the demand information quality on planning process accuracy in supply chain. Case studies

    OpenAIRE

    Natalia Szozda; Sylwia Werbińska-Wojciechowska

    2013-01-01

    Background: Identification and analysis of factors that affect the accuracy of demand planning process across the supply chain is one of the most important problems which influence the effectiveness of its material and information flows. Material and methods: On the basis of demand planning process investigation authors define the main elements affecting the right supply chain performance level and investigate the possible connections between demand information quality and demand plannin...

  11. Nuclear fuel reprocessing deactivation plan for the Idaho Chemical Processing Plant, Revision 1

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Patterson, M.W.

    1994-10-01

    The decision was announced on April 28, 1992 to cease all United States Department of Energy (DOE) reprocessing of nuclear fuels. This decision leads to the deactivation of all fuels dissolution, solvent extraction, krypton gas recovery operations, and product denitration at the Idaho Chemical Processing Plant (ICPP). The reprocessing facilities will be converted to a safe and stable shutdown condition awaiting future alternate uses or decontamination and decommissioning (D ampersand D). This ICPP Deactivation Plan includes the scope of work, schedule, costs, and associated staffing levels necessary to achieve a safe and orderly deactivation of reprocessing activities and the Waste Calcining Facility (WCF). Deactivation activities primarily involve shutdown of operating systems and buildings, fissile and hazardous material removal, and related activities. A minimum required level of continued surveillance and maintenance is planned for each facility/process system to ensure necessary environmental, health, and safety margins are maintained and to support ongoing operations for ICPP facilities that are not being deactivated. Management of the ICPP was transferred from Westinghouse Idaho Nuclear Company, Inc. (WINCO) to Lockheed Idaho Technologies Company (LITCO) on October 1, 1994 as part of the INEL consolidated contract. This revision of the deactivation plan (formerly the Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing Phaseout Plan for the ICPP) is being published during the consolidation of the INEL site-wide contract and the information presented here is current as of October 31, 1994. LITCO has adopted the existing plans for the deactivation of ICPP reprocessing facilities and the plans developed under WINCO are still being actively pursued, although the change in management may result in changes which have not yet been identified. Accordingly, the contents of this plan are subject to revision

  12. Safe teleoperation based on flexible intraoperative planning for robot-assisted laser microsurgery.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mattos, Leonardo S; Caldwell, Darwin G

    2012-01-01

    This paper describes a new intraoperative planning system created to improve precision and safety in teleoperated laser microsurgeries. It addresses major safety issues related to real-time control of a surgical laser during teleoperated procedures, which are related to the reliability and robustness of the telecommunication channels. Here, a safe solution is presented, consisting in a new planning system architecture that maintains the flexibility and benefits of real-time teleoperation and keeps the surgeon in control of all surgical actions. The developed system is based on our virtual scalpel system for robot-assisted laser microsurgery, and allows the intuitive use of stylus to create surgical plans directly over live video of the surgical field. In this case, surgical plans are defined as graphic objects overlaid on the live video, which can be easily modified or replaced as needed, and which are transmitted to the main surgical system controller for subsequent safe execution. In the process of improving safety, this new planning system also resulted in improved laser aiming precision and improved capability for higher quality laser procedures, both due to the new surgical plan execution module, which allows very fast and precise laser aiming control. Experimental results presented herein show that, in addition to the safety improvements, the new planning system resulted in a 48% improvement in laser aiming precision when compared to the previous virtual scalpel system.

  13. Climate for Learning: A Symposium. Creating a Climate for Learning, and the Humanizing Process. The Principal and School Discipline. Curriculum Bulletin Vol. XXXII, No. 341.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Johnson, Simon O.; Chaky, June

    This publication contains two articles focusing on creating a climate for learning. In "Creating a Climate for Learning, and the Humanizing Process," Simon O. Johnson offers practical suggestions for creating a humanistic learning environment. The author begins by defining the basic concepts--humanism, affective education, affective situation,…

  14. NEW APPROACH TO TERRITORIAL PLANNING IN UKRAINE TAKING INTO ACCOUNT PROCESSE OF DECENTRALIZATIONAND AUSTRIAS EXPERIENCE

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dorosh A.M

    2016-08-01

    and goals of development without a clear spatial reference (so-called vision of future is developed. Based on this concept a plan for targeted purposes is developed.It clearly defines the boundaries of land parcelswith appropriate purpose. The next step is to make a plan of development for areas that are designated for residential, public or industrial building.This plan put restrictions and requirements for newbuildings,namely for their superficiality, compactness, density and possible use. Like the planning hierarchy, there is also a hierarchy of planning and cartographic materials of all planning levels. During the process of comparing the approaches to spatial planning in Austria and spatial planning in Ukraine was found that the spatial planning system of Ukraine requires conceptual changes. Therefore, it is proposed to upgrade the system of spatial planning to a hierarchical system, to refuse from separation of urbanplanning and spatial planning and land management and to update the tolls of this process at the local level (at the level of local communities. It is proposed instead of the Master Plan of settlement, which in the present conditions of land relations reforming is not able to ensure the effective planning processes to implement a plan for target purposes and restrictions for the entire community and to develop on this basis detailed plans for areas designated for built up. This approach will provide a unified system of spatial planning for the successful development of both urban and rural communities.

  15. Dreaming and offline memory processing.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wamsley, Erin J; Stickgold, Robert

    2010-12-07

    The activities of the mind and brain never cease. Although many of our waking hours are spent processing sensory input and executing behavioral responses, moments of unoccupied rest free us to wander through thoughts of the past and future, create daydreams, and imagine fictitious scenarios. During sleep, when attention to sensory input is at a minimum, the mind continues to process information, using memory fragments to create the images, thoughts, and narratives that we commonly call 'dreaming'. Far from being a random or meaningless distraction, spontaneous cognition during states of sleep and resting wakefulness appears to serve important functions related to processing past memories and planning for the future. From single-cell recordings in rodents to behavioral studies in humans, recent studies in the neurosciences suggest a new conception of dreaming as part of a continuum of adaptive cognitive processing occurring across the full range of mind/brain states. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  16. 300-FF-1 remedial action sampling and analysis plan DQO process summary report

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Carlson, R.A.

    1997-01-01

    The scope of the 300-FF-1 Operable Unit (OU) data quality objective (DQO) process includes the soil and debris from the waste sites identified in the Proposed Plan for the 300-FF-1 and 300-FF-5 Operable units and, as the DQO process evolved, refined by the 300-FF-1 Record of Decision (ROD). Exclusions are identified in Section 1.3. The 300-FF-1 waste sites are addressed throughout the DQO process as they were subdivided in the proposed plan. The waste sites are divided into areas or zones known to be above the cleanup standards, zones below the cleanup standards, and zones where the contamination level is currently unknown. The project objectives are (1) to identify the criteria by which 300-FF-1 contaminated soil and debris may be shipped to the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility (ERDF), (2) to identify the criteria by which the 300-FF-1 waste sites can be demonstrated as meeting the cleanup criteria, and (3) to develop a sampling and analysis plan (SAP) that adequately allows the evaluation of soil and debris analysis against the criteria

  17. Bringing Vision to Practice: Planning and Provisioning the New Library Resource Center

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilson, Lisa

    2004-01-01

    The most critical factor in creating a successful school library is the development of a clear vision of the mission and functionality of this integral learning space. However, the process of bringing a vision to realization involves harsh realities and sensible planning. The budget will determine many purchasing decisions and therefore it is…

  18. Improving the Simplified Acquisition of Base Engineering Requirements (SABER) Delivery Order Award Process: Results of a Process Improvement Plan

    Science.gov (United States)

    1991-09-01

    putting all tasks directed towsrds achieving an outcome in aequence. The tasks can be viewed as steps in the process (39:2.3). Using this...improvement opportunity is investigated. A plan is developed, root causes are identified, and solutions are tested and implemented. The process is... solutions , check for actual improvement, and integrate the successful improvements into the process. ?UP 7. Check Improvement Performance. Finally, the

  19. The participation of public institutions and private sector stakeholders to Devrekani Watershed management planning process

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sevgi Öztürk

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available Watershed management is creating the ecological balance between human beings and habitats and natural resources especially water resources. In this study the nature and human beings and all of the components involving on human activities in nature were tried to be tackled and the strengths and weaknesses, threats and opportunities (SWOT analysis of the area were evaluated by prioritizing R’WOT (Ranking + SWOT analysis for ensuring the participation and evaluating the ideas and attitudes of public institutions and private sector which are interest groups of Devrekani Watershed. According to the analysis result, both of the participant groups stated that the planned Hydroelectric Power Plant (HPP in the basin will negatively affect the natural resource value. The economical deficiency- for the local administration- and the lack of qualified labour force –for private sector- issues are determined as the most important issues. Having an environmental plan (EP, supporting the traditional animal husbandry were determined as the highest priority factors by the local administration group and the presence of forests and grasslands and the eco-tourism potential were determined as the highest priority factors for the private sector. Creating awareness to local administration group, who are one of the most important decision making mechanisms in the area and did not prefer threats in a high priority way, is foreseen according to the context of the study.

  20. A strategic planning methodology for aircraft redesign

    Science.gov (United States)

    Romli, Fairuz Izzuddin

    Due to a progressive market shift to a customer-driven environment, the influence of engineering changes on the product's market success is becoming more prominent. This situation affects many long lead-time product industries including aircraft manufacturing. Derivative development has been the key strategy for many aircraft manufacturers to survive the competitive market and this trend is expected to continue in the future. Within this environment of design adaptation and variation, the main market advantages are often gained by the fastest aircraft manufacturers to develop and produce their range of market offerings without any costly mistakes. This realization creates an emphasis on the efficiency of the redesign process, particularly on the handling of engineering changes. However, most activities involved in the redesign process are supported either inefficiently or not at all by the current design methods and tools, primarily because they have been mostly developed to improve original product development. In view of this, the main goal of this research is to propose an aircraft redesign methodology that will act as a decision-making aid for aircraft designers in the change implementation planning of derivative developments. The proposed method, known as Strategic Planning of Engineering Changes (SPEC), combines the key elements of the product redesign planning and change management processes. Its application is aimed at reducing the redesign risks of derivative aircraft development, improving the detection of possible change effects propagation, increasing the efficiency of the change implementation planning and also reducing the costs and the time delays due to the redesign process. To address these challenges, four research areas have been identified: baseline assessment, change propagation prediction, change impact analysis and change implementation planning. Based on the established requirements for the redesign planning process, several methods and

  1. The impact of point-of-sale data in demand planning in the South African clothing retail industry

    OpenAIRE

    Douglas N. Raza; Peter J. Kilbourn

    2017-01-01

    Background: In modern days’ dynamic consumer markets, supply chains need to be value driven and consumer oriented. Demand planning allows supply chain members to focus on the consumer and create optimal value. In demand planning, Point-of-Sale (POS) data are an essential input to the process thereof; however, literature suggests that POS-based demand planning is often overlooked by demand planners in practice. Objective: The main purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which ...

  2. Measurement plans for process flow improvement in services and health care

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kemper, B.; de Mast, J.

    2013-01-01

    The discussion of performance measurement is often on a conceptual, not operational, level; advice on the operational and practical matters of obtaining data for process flow improvement is scarce. We define a measurement plan and study four measurement study designs and corresponding methods and

  3. Region based route planning - Multi-abstraction route planning based on intermediate level vision processing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Doshi, Rajkumar S.; Lam, Raymond; White, James E.

    1989-01-01

    Intermediate and high level processing operations are performed on vision data for the organization of images into more meaningful, higher-level topological representations by means of a region-based route planner (RBRP). The RBRP operates in terrain scenarios where some or most of the terrain is occluded, proceeding without a priori maps on the basis of two-dimensional representations and gradient-and-roughness information. Route planning is accomplished by three successive abstractions and yields a detailed point-by-point path by searching only within the boundaries of relatively small regions.

  4. Computer-aided process planning in prismatic shape die components based on Standard for the Exchange of Product model data

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Awais Ahmad Khan

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available Insufficient technologies made good integration between the die components in design, process planning, and manufacturing impossible in the past few years. Nowadays, the advanced technologies based on Standard for the Exchange of Product model data are making it possible. This article discusses the three main steps for achieving the complete process planning for prismatic parts of the die components. These three steps are data extraction, feature recognition, and process planning. The proposed computer-aided process planning system works as part of an integrated system to cover the process planning of any prismatic part die component. The system is built using Visual Basic with EWDraw system for visualizing the Standard for the Exchange of Product model data file. The system works successfully and can cover any type of sheet metal die components. The case study discussed in this article is taken from a large design of progressive die.

  5. Creating Innovative Opportunities

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Ljungberg, Daniel; McKelvey, Maureen; Lassen, Astrid Heidemann

    2012-01-01

    This paper develops lessons about how and why the founders and ventures involved in knowledge intensive entrepreneurship (KIE) manage the process of venture creation. The meta-analysis of the 86 case studies is based upon as conceptual model (from a systemic literature review), linked to illustra...... of knowledge networks to create innovative opportunities....

  6. CQI project improves discharge process.

    Science.gov (United States)

    1998-08-01

    At Gibson Rehab Center in Williamsport, PA, a continuous quality improvement project to bolster the institution's discharge planning process has resulted in increased satisfaction and an award for quality. The 15-month project was spearheaded by a multidisciplinary team charged with identifying areas that had a significant impact on customer service and suggesting better ways of delivering that service. Among the changes the group suggested were establishing a weekly discharge planning group for new neuro patients, assigning a discharge coordinator for each treatment team, and creating an interdisciplinary communication sheet for the home health therapy staff.

  7. Risk-maps informing land-use planning processes

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Basta, Claudia; Neuvel, Jeroen M.M.; Zlatanova, Sisi; Ale, Ben

    2007-01-01

    The definition of safety distances as required by Art 12 of the Seveso II Directive on dangerous substances (96/82/EC) is necessary to minimize the consequences of potential major accidents. As they affect the land-use destinations of involved areas, safety distances can be considered as risk tolerability criteria with a territorial reflection. Recent studies explored the suitability of using Geographical Information System technologies to support their elaboration and visual rendering. In particular, the elaboration of GIS 'risk-maps' has been recognized as functional to two objectives: connecting spatial planners and safety experts during decision making processes and communicating risk to non-experts audiences. In order to elaborate on these findings and to verify their reflection on European practices, the article presents the result of a comparative study between the United Kingdom and the Netherlands recent developments. Their land-use planning practices for areas falling under Seveso II requirements are explored. The role of GIS risk-maps within decisional processes is analyzed and the reflection on the transparency and accessibility of risk-information is commented. Recommendations for further developments are given

  8. Groundwater monitoring plan for the 300 Area process trenches

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Lindberg, J.W.; Chou, C.J.; Johnson, V.G.

    1995-05-23

    This document describes the groundwater monitoring program for the Hanford Site 300 Area Process Trenches (300 APT). The 300 APT are a Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 (RCRA) regulated unit. The 300 APT are included in the Dangerous Waste Portion of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act Permit for the Treatment, Storage, and Disposal of Dangerous Waste, Permit No. WA890008967, and are subject to final-status requirements for groundwater monitoring. This document describes a compliance monitoring program for groundwater in the uppermost aquifer system at the 300 APT. This plan describes the 300 APT monitoring network, constituent list, sampling schedule, statistical methods, and sampling and analysis protocols that will be employed for the 300 APT. This plan will be used to meet groundwater monitoring requirements from the time the 300 APT becomes part of the Permit and through the postclosure care period until certification of final closure.

  9. Putting ecology in environmental remediation: The strategic planning process

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kapustka, L.A.; Williams, B.A.

    1991-01-01

    Traditional ecological studies have been conducted on many sites impacted by hazardous wastes. Yet in many cases, the information obtained has had limited value in the selection of remediation options. This paper discusses the importance of developing an ecological risk-based strategic plan to fulfill the scientific and social needs demanded in the remediation and restoration of hazardous waste sites. Ecological issues need to be considered seriously at the earliest phases of the scoping process. The decisions regarding selection of assessment endpoints and data quality objectives must be incorporated from the start to insure that cost-efficient and useful measurements are used. It is too late to develop effective ecological studies after the engineering decisions have been made. Strategic planning that integrates ecological concerns will minimize the frustration and the cost associated with clean up of hazardous waste sites and maximize the likelihood of successful site restoration

  10. Consensus Building Through Systems Thinking: the case of policy and planning in healthcare

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kambiz E. Maani

    2002-05-01

    Full Text Available This paper discusses a methodology and a case study using qualitative system dynamics to create consensus, team learning and shared vision in a public organisation. The case involves determining planning priorities for a Division of the Ministry of Health in New Zealand, leading to the creation of a business plan. The methodology involves Systems Thinking using Group Model Building (GMB - A three-step process starting with structured brainstorming using the partial KJ (Jiro Kawakita technique to identify priority areas and then clustering them into 'affinity' groups. Next, the priority clusters are used by the participants to construct causal loop diagrams representing 'systems of priorities'(in contrast with list of priorities. Finally, through a group process, leverage points or key priorities are identified as the basis for a business plan. While the above process was well agreed upon by the participants at the outset, strong group resistance was encountered when managers attempted to reduce the number of priority areas. Systems thinking approach was used to create consensus and the commitment to the outcome. The GMB approach offers significant promise in using qualitative system dynamics with non-systems experts. The methodology can be applied to change management initiative and complex decisions such as restructuring, reengineering, and supply chain design. The expected outcomes are greater commitment and shared vision.

  11. A modularized framework for sales and operations planning with focus on process industries

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sayeh Noroozi

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper suggests a modularized sales and operations planning (S&OP framework, consisting of content and process. The framework’s content is based on a typology of decoupling points in which the effect of decoupling points on the decision variables in S&OP is studied. The framework’s process takes a step back and addresses the need for a more elaborate design to precede the operational use of S&OP content for different production contexts. The framework supports both process industries (PIs and discrete manufacturing industries (DIs, and recognizes their specific requirements and reflects them in their S&OP. The differentiating characteristics of PIs and DIs are emphasized through three different decoupling points, namely: discretization decoupling point, control mode decoupling point, and customer order decoupling point. The suggested framework aims to fill the gap in the literature regarding the lack of aggregate planning processes that match the PIs’ specific requirements by reflecting the differentiating characteristics of PIs in S&OP.

  12. Pre-movement planning processes in people with congenital mirror movements.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Franz, E A; Fu, Y

    2017-10-01

    Pre-movement processes were investigated in people with Congenital mirrormovement (CMM), a rare disorder in which bilateral movement (mirroring) occurs in the upper distal extremities (primarily the hands and fingers) during intended unilateral movements. Abnormal density of ipsilateral corticospinal projections is an established hallmark of CMM. This study tested whether the Lateralised Readiness Potential (LRP), which reflects movement planning and readiness, is also abnormal in people with CMM. Twenty-eight neurologically-normal controls and 8 people with CMM were tested on a unimanual Go/No-go task while electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded to assess the LRP. No significant group differences were found in reaction time (RT). However, significantly smaller LRP amplitudes were found, on average, in the CMM group compared to Controls at central-motor (C3,C4) sites in stimulus-locked and response-locked epochs; similar group differences were also found at further frontal sites (F3,F4) during response-locked epochs. Abnormal brain activity in pre-movement processes associated with response planning and preparation is present in people with CMM. Aberrant bilateral activity during pre-movement processes is clearly implicated; whether part of the etiology of CMM, or as a mechanism of neuro-compensation, is not yet known. Copyright © 2017 International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  13. Planning and control of rework in the process industries: a review

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Flapper, S.D.P.; Fransoo, J.C.; Broekmeulen, R.A.C.M.; Inderfurth, K.

    2002-01-01

    For all kinds of reasons, rework, i.e. the transformation of products not fulfilling preset specifications into products that do, is an important issue in process industries. Despite a considerable amount of published research on planning and control of rework, and in addition many papers referring

  14. Creating field management information systems using microsoft{reg_sign} software

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Handsel-Johnson, P.L.; Schroeder, C.Y.

    1995-12-31

    A Field management information system (FMIS) was created for the Trinidad Resource Development teams in Amoco`s Intemational Operations Group. This application uses Microsoft Access {reg_sign}2.0 and the other Microsoft Office 4.2 software products. The purpose of this information system is to assist these teams in the management of their producing oil and gas fields. This is accomplished by providing: (1) centralized data storage for a variety of data, such as well, production, engineering and geologic in various forms, including raw, interpreted and derived, (2) customized analysis, planning and reporting tools, such as reservoir performance summaries and dynamic field management plans, and (3) the capability to easily exchange data with a variety of engineering and geoscience analytical software. Additional benefits provided to the Resource Development teams by this approach are: (1) improved data accuracy and accessibility from a centralized, relational database, (2) enhanced efficiency as a result of the application being tailored to the teams` operating environment and work processes, and (3) access to an expanded knowledge base by consolidating information from several fields into one database. In short, this product was developed in response to the Trinidad Resource Development teams` need to improve their data integrity, efficiency and analysis and planning capability. The resultant application is not just a database, but rather, a field management information system.

  15. How to Manage and Plan Terminology: Creating Management TDBs

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Gordana Jakić

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available Scientific and technical terminology represents a very topical issue in economically and technologically dependent countries with small languages such as Serbian. The current terminological problems in the Serbian language, especially in specialized areas that are experiencing dynamic development, are: Anglicization of the language for special purposes, underdeveloped and unstable terminology, and lack of adequate and modern terminological and lexical resources. On the one hand, the terminological problems listed above are of concern to subject-field specialists, since inadequate and non-existent terminology significantly affects the representation, transfer and management of specialized knowledge and information. On the other hand, terminology and language planners point to the growing need for immediate and systematic intervention aimed at terminology harmonization, consolidation and standardization. In spite of the awareness, there is no systematic approach to the solving of terminological problems in Serbian. In addition, practical activities regarding the collection and organization of terminology are few and reduced to individual initiatives. Under the paradigm of language planning (LP-oriented terminology management (2, this paper is going to address a practical activity of terminology management: the creation of a Serbian management terminology database (TDB with equivalent terms in English. The paper will discuss the methodology of terminology work, potential obstacles in termbase creation, as well as potential benefits that such a resource would have on all its potential users: management specialists and practitioners, professional translators, and language and terminology planners. A particular focus will be placed on the potential significance that this kind of a database would have for terminology policy and planning in the Serbian language, on the one hand, and knowledge transfer and management, on the other hand.

  16. eHealth and IMIA's Strategic Planning Process - IMIA conference introductory address.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Murray, Peter; Haux, Reinhold; Lorenzi, Nancy

    2008-01-01

    The International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) is the only organization in health and biomedical informatics which is fully international in scope, bridging the academic, health practice, education, and health industry worlds through conferences, working groups, special interest groups and publications. Authored by the IMIA Interim Vice President for Strategic Planning Implementation and co-authored by the current IMIA President and the IMIA Past-President, the intention of this paper is to introduce IMIA's current strategic planning process and to set this process in relation to 'eHealth: Combining Health Telematics, Telemedicine, Biomedical Engineering and Bioinformatics to the Edge', the theme of this conference. From the viewpoint of an international organization such as IMIA, an eHealth strategy needs to be considered in a comprehensive way, including broadly stimulating high-quality health and biomedical informatics research and education, as well as providing support to bridging outcomes towards a new practice of health care in a changing world.

  17. Storytelling, behavior planning, and language evolution in context.

    Science.gov (United States)

    McBride, Glen

    2014-01-01

    An attempt is made to specify the structure of the hominin bands that began steps to language. Storytelling could evolve without need for language yet be strongly subject to natural selection and could provide a major feedback process in evolving language. A storytelling model is examined, including its effects on the evolution of consciousness and the possible timing of language evolution. Behavior planning is presented as a model of language evolution from storytelling. The behavior programming mechanism in both directions provide a model of creating and understanding behavior and language. Culture began with societies, then family evolution, family life in troops, but storytelling created a culture of experiences, a final step in the long process of achieving experienced adults by natural selection. Most language evolution occurred in conversations where evolving non-verbal feedback ensured mutual agreements on understanding. Natural language evolved in conversations with feedback providing understanding of changes.

  18. 3D game environments create professional 3D game worlds

    CERN Document Server

    Ahearn, Luke

    2008-01-01

    The ultimate resource to help you create triple-A quality art for a variety of game worlds; 3D Game Environments offers detailed tutorials on creating 3D models, applying 2D art to 3D models, and clear concise advice on issues of efficiency and optimization for a 3D game engine. Using Photoshop and 3ds Max as his primary tools, Luke Ahearn explains how to create realistic textures from photo source and uses a variety of techniques to portray dynamic and believable game worlds.From a modern city to a steamy jungle, learn about the planning and technological considerations for 3D modelin

  19. Optimization and planning of operating theatre activities: an original definition of pathways and process modeling.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Barbagallo, Simone; Corradi, Luca; de Ville de Goyet, Jean; Iannucci, Marina; Porro, Ivan; Rosso, Nicola; Tanfani, Elena; Testi, Angela

    2015-05-17

    The Operating Room (OR) is a key resource of all major hospitals, but it also accounts for up 40% of resource costs. Improving cost effectiveness, while maintaining a quality of care, is a universal objective. These goals imply an optimization of planning and a scheduling of the activities involved. This is highly challenging due to the inherent variable and unpredictable nature of surgery. A Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN 2.0) was used for the representation of the "OR Process" (being defined as the sequence of all of the elementary steps between "patient ready for surgery" to "patient operated upon") as a general pathway ("path"). The path was then both further standardized as much as possible and, at the same time, keeping all of the key-elements that would allow one to address or define the other steps of planning, and the inherent and wide variability in terms of patient specificity. The path was used to schedule OR activity, room-by-room, and day-by-day, feeding the process from a "waiting list database" and using a mathematical optimization model with the objective of ending up in an optimized planning. The OR process was defined with special attention paid to flows, timing and resource involvement. Standardization involved a dynamics operation and defined an expected operating time for each operation. The optimization model has been implemented and tested on real clinical data. The comparison of the results reported with the real data, shows that by using the optimization model, allows for the scheduling of about 30% more patients than in actual practice, as well as to better exploit the OR efficiency, increasing the average operating room utilization rate up to 20%. The optimization of OR activity planning is essential in order to manage the hospital's waiting list. Optimal planning is facilitated by defining the operation as a standard pathway where all variables are taken into account. By allowing a precise scheduling, it feeds the process of

  20. Realistic Goals and Processes for Future Space Astronomy Portfolio Planning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Morse, Jon

    2015-08-01

    It is generally recognized that international participation and coordination is highly valuable for maximizing the scientific impact of modern space science facilities, as well as for cost-sharing reasons. Indeed, all large space science missions, and most medium and small missions, are international, even if one country or space agency has a clear leadership role and bears most of the development costs. International coordination is a necessary aspect of future mission planning, but how that coordination is done remains debatable. I propose that the community's scientific vision is generally homogeneous enough to permit international coordination of decadal-scale strategic science goals. However, the timing and budget allocation/funding mechanisms of individual countries and/or space agencies are too disparate for effective long-term strategic portfolio planning via a single international process. Rather, I argue that coordinated space mission portfolio planning is a natural consequence of international collaboration on individual strategic missions. I review the process and outcomes of the U.S. 2010 decadal survey in astronomy & astrophysics from the perspective of a government official who helped craft the survey charter and transmitted guidance to the scientific community on behalf of a sponsoring agency (NASA), while continuing to manage the current portfolio that involved ongoing negotiations with other space agencies. I analyze the difficulties associated with projecting long-term budgets, obtaining realistic mission costs (including the additional cost burdens of international partnerships), and developing new (possibly transformational) technologies. Finally, I remark on the future role that privately funded space science missions can have in accomplishing international science community goals.

  1. [Investigating phonological planning processes in speech production through a speech-error induction technique].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nakayama, Masataka; Saito, Satoru

    2015-08-01

    The present study investigated principles of phonological planning, a common serial ordering mechanism for speech production and phonological short-term memory. Nakayama and Saito (2014) have investigated the principles by using a speech-error induction technique, in which participants were exposed to an auditory distracIor word immediately before an utterance of a target word. They demonstrated within-word adjacent mora exchanges and serial position effects on error rates. These findings support, respectively, the temporal distance and the edge principles at a within-word level. As this previous study induced errors using word distractors created by exchanging adjacent morae in the target words, it is possible that the speech errors are expressions of lexical intrusions reflecting interactive activation of phonological and lexical/semantic representations. To eliminate this possibility, the present study used nonword distractors that had no lexical or semantic representations. This approach successfully replicated the error patterns identified in the abovementioned study, further confirming that the temporal distance and edge principles are organizing precepts in phonological planning.

  2. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s Climate Resiliency Planning Process and Lessons Learned

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Fowler, Kimberly M. [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Judd, Kathleen S. [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Brandenberger, Jill M. [Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

    2016-02-22

    In 2015, the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) developed its first Climate Resilience Plan for its Richland Campus. PNNL has performed Climate Resilience Planning for the Department of Defense, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and Department of Energy (DOE) over the past 5 years. The assessment team included climate scientists, social scientists, engineers, and operations managers. A multi-disciplinary team was needed to understand the potential exposures to future changes at the site, the state of the science on future impacts, and the best process for “mainstreaming” new actions into existing activities. The team uncovered that the site’s greatest vulnerabilities, and therefore priorities for climate resilience planning, are high temperature due to degraded infrastructure, increased wildfire frequency, and intense precipitation impacts on stormwater conveyance systems.

  3. Facility Effluent Monitoring Plan for the Waste Receiving and Processing (WRAP) Facility

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    DAVIS, W.E.

    2000-03-08

    A facility effluent monitoring plan is required by the U.S. Department of Energy in Order 5400.1 for any operations that involve hazardous materials and radioactive substances that could impact employee public safety, or the environment. This facility effluent monitoring plan assesses effluent monitoring systems and evaluates whether these systems are adequate to ensure the public health and safety as specified in applicable federal, state, and local requirements. This facility effluent monitoring plan ensures long-range integrity of the effluent monitoring systems by requiring an update whenever a new process or operation introduces new hazardous materials or significant radioactive materials. This document must be reviewed annually even if there are no operational changes, and must be updated, as a minimum, every 3 years.

  4. Facility Effluent Monitoring Plan for the Waste Receiving and Processing (WRAP) Facility

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    DAVIS, W.E.

    2000-01-01

    A facility effluent monitoring plan is required by the U.S. Department of Energy in Order 5400.1 for any operations that involve hazardous materials and radioactive substances that could impact employee public safety, or the environment. This facility effluent monitoring plan assesses effluent monitoring systems and evaluates whether these systems are adequate to ensure the public health and safety as specified in applicable federal, state, and local requirements. This facility effluent monitoring plan ensures long-range integrity of the effluent monitoring systems by requiring an update whenever a new process or operation introduces new hazardous materials or significant radioactive materials. This document must be reviewed annually even if there are no operational changes, and must be updated, as a minimum, every 3 years

  5. Optimal partial-arcs in VMAT treatment planning

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Wala, Jeremiah; Salari, Ehsan; Chen Wei; Craft, David

    2012-01-01

    We present a method for improving the delivery efficiency of VMAT by extending the recently published VMAT treatment planning algorithm vmerge to automatically generate optimal partial-arc plans. A high-quality initial plan is created by solving a convex multicriteria optimization problem using 180 equi-spaced beams. This initial plan is used to form a set of dose constraints, and a set of partial-arc plans is created by searching the space of all possible partial-arc plans that satisfy these constraints. For each partial-arc, an iterative fluence map merging and sequencing algorithm (vmerge) is used to improve the delivery efficiency. Merging continues as long as the dose quality is maintained above a user-defined threshold. The final plan is selected as the partial-arc with the lowest treatment time. The complete algorithm is called pmerge. Partial-arc plans are created using pmerge for a lung, liver and prostate case, with final treatment times of 127, 245 and 147 s. Treatment times using full arcs with vmerge are 211, 357 and 178 s. The mean doses to the critical structures for the vmerge and pmerge plans are kept within 5% of those in the initial plan, and the target volume covered by the prescription isodose is maintained above 98% for the pmerge and vmerge plans. Additionally, we find that the angular distribution of fluence in the initial plans is predictive of the start and end angles of the optimal partial-arc. We conclude that VMAT delivery efficiency can be improved by employing partial-arcs without compromising dose quality, and that partial-arcs are most applicable to cases with non-centralized targets. (paper)

  6. Statistical control process to compare and rank treatment plans in radiation oncology: impact of heterogeneity correction on treatment planning in lung cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chaikh, Abdulhamid; Balosso, Jacques

    2016-12-01

    This study proposes a statistical process to compare different treatment plans issued from different irradiation techniques or different treatment phases. This approach aims to provide arguments for discussion about the impact on clinical results of any condition able to significantly alter dosimetric or ballistic related data. The principles of the statistical investigation are presented in the framework of a clinical example based on 40 fields of radiotherapy for lung cancers. Two treatment plans were generated for each patient making a change of dose distribution due to variation of lung density correction. The data from 2D gamma index (γ) including the pixels having γ≤1 were used to determine the capability index (Cp) and the acceptability index (Cpk) of the process. To measure the strength of the relationship between the γ passing rates and the Cp and Cpk indices, the Spearman's rank non-parametric test was used to calculate P values. The comparison between reference and tested plans showed that 95% of pixels have γ≤1 with criteria (6%, 6 mm). The values of the Cp and Cpk indices were lower than one showing a significant dose difference. The data showed a strong correlation between γ passing rates and the indices with P>0.8. The statistical analysis using Cp and Cpk, show the significance of dose differences resulting from two plans in radiotherapy. These indices can be used for adaptive radiotherapy to measure the difference between initial plan and daily delivered plan. The significant changes of dose distribution could raise the question about the continuity to treat the patient with the initial plan or the need for adjustments.

  7. CREATING AND PROCESSING A CORPUS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Prihantoro

    2015-05-01

    Full Text Available This paper seeks to describe some crucial importance of corpus and text processing. Corpus is a projection of how language is used by its speakers. Technology support has improved corpus for easier maintenance, made it space-saving, and it may electronically structure its data. The latest offers much freedom for corpus users to access and exploit it for language teaching, analysis or other specified tasks. This paper will demonstrate how to use open-access corpus on internet such as Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA and British National Corpus (BNC. Besides how to use a corpus, another crucial importance that this paper seeks to describe is how to build a corpus. In this paper, the writer will use UNITEX, a corpus (text-based processing software. This software will demonstrate steps of corpus building, ranging from text collection, annotation, electronic dictionary application to some natural language based operations ranging from pattern matching, concordance, to simple extraction. It will show how graph technology may outperform regular expression, a retrieval method exploited by other corpus processor, in terms of writing output.

  8. Strategic planning, implementation, and evaluation processes in hospital systems: a survey from Iran.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sadeghifar, Jamil; Jafari, Mehdi; Tofighi, Shahram; Ravaghi, Hamid; Maleki, Mohammad Reza

    2014-09-28

    Strategic planning has been presented as an important management practice. However, evidence of its deployment in healthcare systems in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) is limited. This study investigated the strategic management process in Iranian hospitals. The present study was accomplished in 24 teaching hospitals in Tehran, Iran from September 2012 to March 2013. The data collection instrument was a questionnaire including 130 items. This questionnaire measured the situation of formulation, implementation, and evaluation of strategic plan as well as the requirements, facilitators, and its benefits in the studied hospitals. All the investigated hospitals had a strategic plan. The obtained percentages for the items "the rate of the compliance to requirements" and "the quantity of planning facilitators" (68.75%), attention to the stakeholder participation in the planning (55.74%), attention to the planning components (62.22%), the status of evaluating strategic plan (59.94%) and the benefits of strategic planning for hospitals (65.15%) were in the medium limit. However, the status of implementation of the strategic plan (53.71%) was found to be weak. Significant statistical correlations were observed between the incentive for developing strategic plan and status of evaluating phase (P=0.04), and between status of implementation phase and having a documented strategic plan (P=0.03). According to the results, it seems that absence of appropriate internal incentive for formulating and implementing strategies led more hospitals to start formulation strategic planning in accordance with the legal requirements of Ministry of Health. Consequently, even though all the investigated hospital had the documented strategic plan, the plan has not been implemented efficiently and valid evaluation of results is yet to be achieved.

  9. Development of a Comprehensive and Interactive Tool to Inform State Violence and Injury Prevention Plans.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wilson, Lauren; Deokar, Angela J; Zaesim, Araya; Thomas, Karen; Kresnow-Sedacca, Marcie-Jo

    The Center of Disease Control and Prevention's Core State Violence and Injury Prevention Program (Core SVIPP) provides an opportunity for states to engage with their partners to implement, evaluate, and disseminate strategies that lead to the reduction and prevention of injury and violence. Core SVIPP requires awardees to develop or update their state injury and violence plans. Currently, literature informing state planning efforts is limited, especially regarding materials related to injury and violence. Presumably, plans that are higher quality result in having a greater impact on preventing injury and violence, and literature to improve quality would benefit prevention programming. (1) To create a comprehensive injury-specific index to aid in the development and revision of state injury and violence prevention plans, and (2) to assess the reliability and utility of this index. Through an iterative development process, a workgroup of subject matter experts created the Violence and Injury Prevention: Comprehensive Index Tool (VIP:CIT). The tool was pilot tested on 3 state injury and violence prevention plans and assessed for initial usability. Following revisions to the tool (ie, a rubric was developed to further delineate consistent criteria for rating; items were added and clarified), the same state plans were reassessed to test interrater reliability and tool utility. For the second assessment, reliability of the VIP:CIT improved, indicating that the rubric was a useful addition. Qualitative feedback from states suggested that the tool significantly helped guide plan development and communicate about planning processes. The final VIP:CIT is a tool that can help increase plan quality, decrease the research-to-practice gap, and increase connectivity to emerging public health paradigms. The tool provides an example of tailoring guidance materials to reflect academic literature, and it can be easily adapted to other topic areas to promote quality of strategic plans

  10. Quality initiatives: planning, setting up, and carrying out radiology process improvement projects.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tamm, Eric P; Szklaruk, Janio; Puthooran, Leejo; Stone, Danna; Stevens, Brian L; Modaro, Cathy

    2012-01-01

    In the coming decades, those who provide radiologic imaging services will be increasingly challenged by the economic, demographic, and political forces affecting healthcare to improve their efficiency, enhance the value of their services, and achieve greater customer satisfaction. It is essential that radiologists master and consistently apply basic process improvement skills that have allowed professionals in many other fields to thrive in a competitive environment. The authors provide a step-by-step overview of process improvement from the perspective of a radiologic imaging practice by describing their experience in conducting a process improvement project: to increase the daily volume of body magnetic resonance imaging examinations performed at their institution. The first step in any process improvement project is to identify and prioritize opportunities for improvement in the work process. Next, an effective project team must be formed that includes representatives of all participants in the process. An achievable aim must be formulated, appropriate measures selected, and baseline data collected to determine the effects of subsequent efforts to achieve the aim. Each aspect of the process in question is then analyzed by using appropriate tools (eg, flowcharts, fishbone diagrams, Pareto diagrams) to identify opportunities for beneficial change. Plans for change are then established and implemented with regular measurements and review followed by necessary adjustments in course. These so-called PDSA (planning, doing, studying, and acting) cycles are repeated until the aim is achieved or modified and the project closed.

  11. Preparing to Accept Research Data: Creating Guidelines for Librarians

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Laura B. Palumbo

    2015-11-01

    Full Text Available Rutgers University Libraries have recognized the need to expand their current research data services into a well-documented and well-supported service available to the Rutgers research community. In 2005, Rutgers University Libraries created RUcore, Rutgers University Community Repository, which has served as the University’s formal repository for institutional scholarship, special collections, and Electronic Theses & Dissertations. With the impetus of the 2010 NSF directive for research data sharing and preservation, RUcore development was extended to accept research data content. Ingest of pilot data projects began in 2010 via a librarian-mediated process. In order to provide a better defined workflow and mission for research data services, in July 2014, the Rutgers University Librarian organized a Task Force to investigate the evaluation process for technical, legal, and confidential issues involved in research data acceptance, and to establish an administrative and evaluation framework for the deposit of research data. After a review of 35 repositories using 34 criteria, the Task Force drafted a plan for research data acceptance which proposes wide-spread acceptance of mediated data projects, and prepares for future self-deposit in an online interface. This paper will discuss the issues addressed by the Task Force; acknowledging ownership of data through an institutional data policy, preventing exposure of confidential or sensitive data, establishing a reconfigured data team, requirements for storage capacity and funding, creating a workflow which includes collaboration with research offices, and offering guidance for both researchers and librarians working with research data.

  12. Use of the decision quality process for strategic planning in the Duri Field, Indonesia

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Neal, L. Jr.

    1994-01-01

    Strategic planning and rigorous decision analysis applications will be primary management tools for upstream companies in the 1990's. Merging the long term focus of a strategic planning process with the probabilistic output of decision analysis techniques can yield insightful views of the potential successes and failures of a business plan. Even with these insights, comparing and deciding among a group of alternatives will remain a difficult task. In addition to uncertainties, business partners do not always share common value measures. Marketers want more barrels to sell, field supervisors like low operating cost strategies, and stockholders like cashflow. This environment complicates the managers' ability to choose between available options. The Decision Quality Process, a combination of classical decision analysis techniques coupled with Quality Improvement (QI) principles, bridges this gap. The process allows managers to develop and decide between different long term strategic plans, explicitly accounting for uncertainties, unknowns, and differing value measures. Three teams consisting of engineers, geologists, front line managers, and the highest levels of management within Caltex Pacific Indonesia, Texaco, and Chevron, spent 18 months developing and evaluating a multitude of development scenarios for the Duri Field. More than 200,000 cases of economics were run to support the evaluation. The result was a significant increase in expected value for the field regardless of the value measure used

  13. Use of nuclear explosions to create gas condensate storage in the USSR. LLL Treaty Verification Program

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Borg, I.Y.

    1982-01-01

    The Soviet Union has described industrial use of nuclear explosions to produce underground hydrocarbon storage. To examples are in the giant Orenburg gas condensate field. There is good reason to believe that three additional cavities were created in bedded salt in the yet to be fully developed giant Astrakhan gas condensate field in the region of the lower Volga. Although contrary to usual western practice, the cavities are believed to be used to store H 2 S-rich, unstable gas condensate prior to processing in the main gas plants located tens of kilometers from the producing fields. Detonations at Orenburg and Astrakhan preceded plant construction. The use of nuclear explosions at several sites to create underground storage of highly corrosive liquid hydrocarbons suggests that the Soviets consider this time and cost effective. The possible benefits from such a plan include degasification and stabilization of the condensate before final processing, providing storage of condensate during periods of abnormally high natural gas production or during periods when condensate but not gas processing facilities are undergoing maintenance. Judging from information provided by Soviet specialists, the individual cavities have a maximum capacity on the order of 50,000 m 3

  14. Application of System Dynamics model as decision making tool in urban planning process toward stabilizing carbon dioxide emissions from cities

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Fong, Wee-Kean; Matsumoto, Hiroshi; Lun, Yu-Fat

    2009-01-01

    In spite of the fact that cities are the main sources of CO 2 emissions, presently there are still no specific measures directly addressing the global warming issue in the urban planning process in Malaysia. The present study thus aims to shed new light in the urban planning sector in Malaysia by adopting System Dynamics Model as one of the decision making tools in the urban planning process, with specific considerations on the future CO 2 emission trends. This paper presented projections of future CO 2 emission trends based on the case of Iskandar Development Region of Malaysia, under various options of urban policies, using the System Dynamics Model. The projections demonstrated the capability of the said model in serving as a decision making tool in the urban planning process, with specific reference to CO 2 emissions from cities. Recommendations have been made on the possible approach of adopting the model in the process of Structure Plan study. If the current model was successfully adopted in the urban planning process in Malaysia, it will mark the first step for Malaysia in taking specific considerations on the issues of CO 2 emissions and global warming in the urban planning process. (author)

  15. Managing the construction bidding process : a move to simpler construction plan sets

    Science.gov (United States)

    2001-01-31

    This project was conducted to determine whether construction plan sets could be significantly simplified to speed the process of moving projects to construction. The work steps included a literature review, a telephone survey of highway agencies in s...

  16. How do environmental policies fit within larger strategic planning processes

    OpenAIRE

    Crowe, Lynn

    2015-01-01

    This chapter explores how environmental policies fit within larger strategic processes relevant to sport management and development. It identifies key policy areas such as environmental impact assessment, sustainable land use planning, environmental protection and visitor impact management. Good practice and guidelines which will enable sport managers to integrate their work with these environmental policies are explored. Detailed guidance on design and longer term management and maintenance ...

  17. Robust path planning for flexible needle insertion using Markov decision processes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tan, Xiaoyu; Yu, Pengqian; Lim, Kah-Bin; Chui, Chee-Kong

    2018-05-11

    Flexible needle has the potential to accurately navigate to a treatment region in the least invasive manner. We propose a new planning method using Markov decision processes (MDPs) for flexible needle navigation that can perform robust path planning and steering under the circumstance of complex tissue-needle interactions. This method enhances the robustness of flexible needle steering from three different perspectives. First, the method considers the problem caused by soft tissue deformation. The method then resolves the common needle penetration failure caused by patterns of targets, while the last solution addresses the uncertainty issues in flexible needle motion due to complex and unpredictable tissue-needle interaction. Computer simulation and phantom experimental results show that the proposed method can perform robust planning and generate a secure control policy for flexible needle steering. Compared with a traditional method using MDPs, the proposed method achieves higher accuracy and probability of success in avoiding obstacles under complicated and uncertain tissue-needle interactions. Future work will involve experiment with biological tissue in vivo. The proposed robust path planning method can securely steer flexible needle within soft phantom tissues and achieve high adaptability in computer simulation.

  18. Community Vision and Interagency Alignment: A Community Planning Process to Promote Active Transportation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    DeGregory, Sarah Timmins; Chaudhury, Nupur; Kennedy, Patrick; Noyes, Philip; Maybank, Aletha

    2016-04-01

    In 2010, the Brooklyn Active Transportation Community Planning Initiative launched in 2 New York City neighborhoods. Over a 2-year planning period, residents participated in surveys, school and community forums, neighborhood street assessments, and activation events-activities that highlighted the need for safer streets locally. Consensus among residents and key multisectoral stakeholders, including city agencies and community-based organizations, was garnered in support of a planned expansion of bicycling infrastructure. The process of building on community assets and applying a collective impact approach yielded changes in the built environment, attracted new partners and resources, and helped to restore a sense of power among residents.

  19. A DICOM based radiotherapy plan database for research collaboration and reporting

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Westberg, J; Krogh, S; Brink, C; Vogelius, I R

    2014-01-01

    Purpose: To create a central radiotherapy (RT) plan database for dose analysis and reporting, capable of calculating and presenting statistics on user defined patient groups. The goal is to facilitate multi-center research studies with easy and secure access to RT plans and statistics on protocol compliance. Methods: RT institutions are able to send data to the central database using DICOM communications on a secure computer network. The central system is composed of a number of DICOM servers, an SQL database and in-house developed software services to process the incoming data. A web site within the secure network allows the user to manage their submitted data. Results: The RT plan database has been developed in Microsoft .NET and users are able to send DICOM data between RT centers in Denmark. Dose-volume histogram (DVH) calculations performed by the system are comparable to those of conventional RT software. A permission system was implemented to ensure access control and easy, yet secure, data sharing across centers. The reports contain DVH statistics for structures in user defined patient groups. The system currently contains over 2200 patients in 14 collaborations. Conclusions: A central RT plan repository for use in multi-center trials and quality assurance was created. The system provides an attractive alternative to dummy runs by enabling continuous monitoring of protocol conformity and plan metrics in a trial.

  20. A DICOM based radiotherapy plan database for research collaboration and reporting

    Science.gov (United States)

    Westberg, J.; Krogh, S.; Brink, C.; Vogelius, I. R.

    2014-03-01

    Purpose: To create a central radiotherapy (RT) plan database for dose analysis and reporting, capable of calculating and presenting statistics on user defined patient groups. The goal is to facilitate multi-center research studies with easy and secure access to RT plans and statistics on protocol compliance. Methods: RT institutions are able to send data to the central database using DICOM communications on a secure computer network. The central system is composed of a number of DICOM servers, an SQL database and in-house developed software services to process the incoming data. A web site within the secure network allows the user to manage their submitted data. Results: The RT plan database has been developed in Microsoft .NET and users are able to send DICOM data between RT centers in Denmark. Dose-volume histogram (DVH) calculations performed by the system are comparable to those of conventional RT software. A permission system was implemented to ensure access control and easy, yet secure, data sharing across centers. The reports contain DVH statistics for structures in user defined patient groups. The system currently contains over 2200 patients in 14 collaborations. Conclusions: A central RT plan repository for use in multi-center trials and quality assurance was created. The system provides an attractive alternative to dummy runs by enabling continuous monitoring of protocol conformity and plan metrics in a trial.

  1. Social media for physiotherapy clinics: considerations in creating a Facebook page

    OpenAIRE

    Ahmed, Osman; Claydon, L.S.; Ribeiro, D.C.; Arumugam, A.; Higgs, C.; Baxter, G.D.

    2013-01-01

    Social media websites play a prominent role in modern society, and the most popular of these websites is Facebook. Increasingly, physiotherapy clinics have begun to utilize Facebook in order to create pages to publicize their services. There are many factors to consider in the planning, implementing, and maintenance of Facebook pages for physiotherapy clinics, including ethical and privacy issues. The primary purpose of creating a page must be clearly defined, with dedicated clinicians given ...

  2. Planning ATES systems under uncertainty

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jaxa-Rozen, Marc; Kwakkel, Jan; Bloemendal, Martin

    2015-04-01

    Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage (ATES) can contribute to significant reductions in energy use within the built environment, by providing seasonal energy storage in aquifers for the heating and cooling of buildings. ATES systems have experienced a rapid uptake over the last two decades; however, despite successful experiments at the individual level, the overall performance of ATES systems remains below expectations - largely due to suboptimal practices for the planning and operation of systems in urban areas. The interaction between ATES systems and underground aquifers can be interpreted as a common-pool resource problem, in which thermal imbalances or interference could eventually degrade the storage potential of the subsurface. Current planning approaches for ATES systems thus typically follow the precautionary principle. For instance, the permitting process in the Netherlands is intended to minimize thermal interference between ATES systems. However, as shown in recent studies (Sommer et al., 2015; Bakr et al., 2013), a controlled amount of interference may benefit the collective performance of ATES systems. An overly restrictive approach to permitting is instead likely to create an artificial scarcity of available space, limiting the potential of the technology in urban areas. In response, master plans - which take into account the collective arrangement of multiple systems - have emerged as an increasingly popular alternative. However, permits and master plans both take a static, ex ante view of ATES governance, making it difficult to predict the effect of evolving ATES use or climactic conditions on overall performance. In particular, the adoption of new systems by building operators is likely to be driven by the available subsurface space and by the performance of existing systems; these outcomes are themselves a function of planning parameters. From this perspective, the interactions between planning authorities, ATES operators, and subsurface conditions

  3. APA guidelines: their importance and a plan to keep them current: 2013 annual report of the Policy and Planning Board.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2014-01-01

    When guidelines are approved by APA, they become association policy, and it is imperative that they remain current. The revision of guidelines poses several challenges to the association. These challenges range from the availability and allocation of resources to support the complicated processes involved in developing and updating these policies to the lack of a clearly defined process that includes identification of tasks, assignments of responsibilities, and so forth. For this reason, the APA Board of Directors asked the Policy and Planning Board (P&P) to work with the boards of the four directorates (i.e., the Education Directorate, the Practice Directorate, the Public Interest Directorate, and the Science Directorate) to create a proposal that would (a) make recommendations with regard to how the review and revision of guidelines documents might best be accomplished in accordance with the APA Strategic Plan and existing policies and procedures and (b) make suggestions regarding the association resources that might be required. The Board of Directors approved the proposed review process in December 2013. 2014 APA, all rights reserved

  4. The mine planning process for an open-pit diamond mining operation - a case study on Letseng diamond mine in Lesotho

    OpenAIRE

    Madowe, A.

    2013-01-01

    This paper discusses the mine planning process for Letseng diamond mine in the Kingdom of Lesotho, in conjunction with the various software packages used during the process. The major pillars of the long-term mine planning process at Letseng are pit optimization followed by pit design and scheduling. Letseng uses Gemcom Whittle and GEMS for pit optimization and design and Runge XPAC for scheduling. The output of the mine planning process results in the generation of published mineral reserves...

  5. TU-C-17A-09: Multi-Case Knowledge-Based IMRT Treatment Planning in Head and Neck Cancer: Are Six Heads Better Than One?

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Grzetic, S; Lutzky, C; Das, S; Lo, J

    2014-01-01

    Purpose: HNC IMRT treatment planning is a challenging process that relies heavily on the planner’s experience. Previously, we used the single, best match from a library of manually planned cases to semi-automatically generate IMRT plans for a new patient. The current multi-case Knowledge Based Radiation Therapy (MC-KBRT) study utilized different matching cases for each of six individual organs-at-risk (OARs), then combined those six cases to create the new treatment plan. Methods: From a database of 103 patient plans created by experienced planners, MC-KBRT plans were created for 40 (17 unilateral and 23 bilateral) HNC “query” patients. For each case, 2D beam’s-eye-view images were used to find similar geometric “match” patients separately for each of 6 OARs. Dose distributions for each OAR from the 6 matching cases were combined and then warped to suit the query case’s geometry. The dose-volume constraints were used to create the new query treatment plan without the need for human decision-making throughout the IMRT optimization. The optimized MC-KBRT plans were compared against the clinically approved plans and Version 1 (original KBRT) using the dose metrics: mean, median, and maximum (brainstem and cord+5mm) doses. Results: Compared to Version 1, MC-KBRT had no significant reduction of the dose to any of the OARs in either unilateral/bilateral cases. Compared to the manually-planned unilateral cases, there was significant reduction of the oral cavity mean/median dose (>2Gy) at the expense of the contralateral parotid. Compared to the manually-planned bilateral cases, reduction of dose was significant in the ipsilateral parotid, larynx, and oral cavity (>3Gy mean/median) while maintaining PTV coverage. Conclusion: MC-KBRT planning in head and neck cancer generates IMRT plans with equivalent dose sparing to manually created plans. MC-KBRT using multiple case matches does not show significant dose reduction compared to using a single match case with

  6. Investors' perspective and needs in the process of developing a business plan

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Stankov Biljana

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available A business plan is a very important written document about the current state and future intentions of the company and it meets the information and other needs of a wide range of users, regardless of the size of the company and its organizational structure, or belonging to particular economic activity; regardless of the stage of the life cycle in which the company is located and the like . A business plan is written by the existing, established companies for different needs as well as by startup companies that are eager to show the profitability of the business venture and the success of business ideas realization. The business plan often stands out as a means to establish initial communication between entrepreneurs and financing sources, as well as for their initial meeting. The research problem relates to highlighting the business plan as a very powerful means in the hands of entrepreneurs in applying for obtaining the necessary financial resources. The subject of the research includes the analysis of the differences between the many users of a business plan with an emphasis on commercial banks, investment funds and private investors, as financiers of the business venture and the most important users. The aim of the research relates to highlighting the needs of investors and appreciation of their perspectives in the process of developing a business plan, because without a quality business plan investor is at risk of unsafe moving through a very uncertain and changing environment.

  7. DOE's planning process for mixed low-level waste disposal

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Case, J.T.; Letourneau, M.J.; Chu, M.S.Y.

    1995-01-01

    A disposal planning process was established by the Department of Energy (DOE) Mixed Low-Level Waste (MLLW) Disposal Workgroup. The process, jointly developed with the States, includes three steps: site-screening, site-evaluation, and configuration study. As a result of the screening process, 28 sites have been eliminated from further consideration for MLLW disposal and 4 sites have been assigned a lower priority for evaluation. Currently 16 sites are being evaluated by the DOE for their potential strengths and weaknesses as MLLW disposal sites. The results of the evaluation will provide a general idea of the technical capability of the 16 disposal sites; the results can also be used to identify which treated MLLW streams can be disposed on-site and which should be disposed of off-site. The information will then serve as the basis for a disposal configuration study, which includes analysis of both technical as well as non-technical issues, that will lead to the ultimate decision on MLLW disposal site locations

  8. A new planetary structure fabrication process using phosphoric acid

    Science.gov (United States)

    Buchner, Christoph; Pawelke, Roland H.; Schlauf, Thomas; Reissner, Alexander; Makaya, Advenit

    2018-02-01

    Minimising the launch mass is an important aspect of exploration mission planning. In-situ resource utilisation (ISRU) can improve this by reducing the amount of terrestrial materials needed for planetary exploration activities. We report on a recently concluded investigation into the requirements and available technologies for creating hardware on extra-terrestrial bodies, using the limited resources available on site. A trade-off of ISRU technologies for hardware manufacturing was conducted. A new additive manufacturing process suitable for fabricating structures on the Moon or Mars was developed. The process uses planetary regolith as the base material and concentrated phosphoric acid as the liquid binder. Mixing the reagents creates a sticky construction paste that slowly solidifies into a hard, rock-like material. Prior to solidification, the paste is extruded in layers, creating the desired structures in a 3D printing process. We used Martian regolith simulant JSC-Mars-1A, but the process is not selective towards regolith composition. Samples were exposed to thermal cycles and were mechanically characterised. Reduced-scale demonstrator structures were printed to demonstrate structure fabrication using the developed process.

  9. Creating Collaborative Third-space Discourse to Address Contradictions in Coteaching

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ed Lehner

    2006-09-01

    Full Text Available This article examines how coteaching can be wrought with contradictions without employing its recursive counterpart, cogenerative dialogue. To help avoid dualistic tendencies while coteaching, participants can use cogenerative dialogue to help create collaborative third-space discourse where plans of cooperative action can be cogenerated. This work also shares how the extension of the cosmopolitan ethic can be used in tandem with one-on-one cogenerative dialogues to navigate ideological differences in coteachers and create fruitful working partnerships. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0604198

  10. Risk-maps informing land-use planning processes

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Basta, Claudia [DIRC Sustainable Urban Areas, Section of Material Science and Sustainable Construction, Delft University of Technology, Stevinweg 1, 2600 GA, Delft (Netherlands)]. E-mail: c.basta@citg.tudelft.nl; Neuvel, Jeroen M.M. [Land Use Planning, Wageningen University, Droevendaalsesteeg 3, Postbus 47, 6700 AA Wageningen (Netherlands)]. E-mail: jeroen.neuvel@wur.nl; Zlatanova, Sisi [Section GISt, OTB Research Institute for Housing, Urban and Mobility Studies, Delft University of Technology, Jaffalaan 9, P.O. Box 5030, 2600 GA, Delft (Netherlands)]. E-mail: s.zlatanova@otb.tudelft.nl; Ale, Ben [Safety Science Group, TBM Faculty, Delft University of Technology, Jaffalaan 5, 2600 GA, Delft (Netherlands)

    2007-06-25

    The definition of safety distances as required by Art 12 of the Seveso II Directive on dangerous substances (96/82/EC) is necessary to minimize the consequences of potential major accidents. As they affect the land-use destinations of involved areas, safety distances can be considered as risk tolerability criteria with a territorial reflection. Recent studies explored the suitability of using Geographical Information System technologies to support their elaboration and visual rendering. In particular, the elaboration of GIS 'risk-maps' has been recognized as functional to two objectives: connecting spatial planners and safety experts during decision making processes and communicating risk to non-experts audiences. In order to elaborate on these findings and to verify their reflection on European practices, the article presents the result of a comparative study between the United Kingdom and the Netherlands recent developments. Their land-use planning practices for areas falling under Seveso II requirements are explored. The role of GIS risk-maps within decisional processes is analyzed and the reflection on the transparency and accessibility of risk-information is commented. Recommendations for further developments are given.

  11. Diagnosing and Resolving Conflict Created by Strategic Plans: Where Outreach Strategies and Execution Meet at an Academic Health Center.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Edwards, Robert L; Wollner, Samuel B; Weddle, Jessica; Zembrodt, James W; Birdwhistell, Mark D

    2017-01-01

    The imperative for strategic change at academic health centers has never been stronger. Underpinning the success of strategic change is an effective process to implement a strategy. Healthcare organizations, however, often fail to execute on strategy because they do not activate the requisite capabilities and management processes. The University of Kentucky HealthCare recently defined its 2020 strategic plan to adapt to emerging market conditions. The authors outline the strategic importance of strengthening partnership networks and the initial challenges faced in executing their strategy. The findings are a case study in how one academic health center has approached strategy implementation.

  12. The Curriculum Planning Process for Undergraduate Game Degree Programs in the United Kingdom and United States

    Science.gov (United States)

    McGill, Monica M.

    2012-01-01

    Digital games are marketed, mass-produced, and consumed by an increasing number of people and the game industry is only expected to grow. In response, postsecondary institutions in the UK and the U.S. have started to create game degree programs. Though curriculum theorists provide insight into the process of creating a new program, no formal…

  13. Menumbuhkan Minat Kewirausahaan melalui Pembuatan Business Plan

    OpenAIRE

    Suhermini, Suhermini; Safitri, Teti Anggita

    2010-01-01

    The purposes of this research are to generate the interest in entrepreneurship, to improve the motivation to learn entrepreneurship, and to familiarize the students in creating a business plan as a student creativity in developing the character of entrepreneur. The research methods were descriptive analysis with the percentage was 74% and correlation analysis which was used to find out whether any relationship between students' interest in entrepreneurship and creating business plan for Manag...

  14. Validation of Fully Automated VMAT Plan Generation for Library-Based Plan-of-the-Day Cervical Cancer Radiotherapy

    OpenAIRE

    Sharfo, Abdul Wahab M.; Breedveld, Sebastiaan; Voet, Peter W. J.; Heijkoop, Sabrina T.; Mens, Jan-Willem M.; Hoogeman, Mischa S.; Heijmen, Ben J. M.

    2016-01-01

    textabstractPurpose: To develop and validate fully automated generation of VMAT plan-libraries for plan-of-the-day adaptive radiotherapy in locally-advanced cervical cancer. Material and Methods: Our framework for fully automated treatment plan generation (Erasmus-iCycle) was adapted to create dual-arc VMAT treatment plan libraries for cervical cancer patients. For each of 34 patients, automatically generated VMAT plans (autoVMAT) were compared to manually generated, clinically delivered 9-be...

  15. Storytelling, behavior planning and language evolution in context.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Glen eMcbride

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available An attempt is made to specify the structure of the hominin bands that began steps to language. 8 Storytelling could evolve without need for language yet be strongly subject to natural selection 9 and could provide a major feedback process in evolving language. A storytelling model is 10 examined, including its effects on the evolution of consciousness and the possible timing of 11 language evolution. Behavior planning is presented as a model of language evolution from 12 storytelling. The behavior programming mechanism in both directions provide a model of 13 creating and understanding behavior and language. Culture began with societies, then family 14 evolution, family life in troops, but storytelling created a culture of experiences, a final step in 15 the long process of achieving experienced adults by natural selection. Most language evolution 16 occurred in conversations where evolving non-verbal feedback ensured mutual agreements on 17 understanding. Natural language evolved in conversations with feedback providing 18 understanding of changes.

  16. Monte Carlo studies for irradiation process planning at the Portuguese gamma irradiation facility

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Oliveira, C.; Salgado, J.; Botelho, M.L.M. Luisa; Ferreira, L.M.

    2000-01-01

    The paper describes a Monte Carlo study for planning the irradiation of test samples for microbiological validation of distinct products in the Portuguese Gamma Irradiation Facility. Three different irradiation geometries have been used. Simulated and experimental results are compared and good agreement is observed. It is shown that Monte Carlo simulation improves process understanding, predicts absorbed dose distributions and calculates dose uniformity in different products. Based on these results, irradiation planning of the product can be performed

  17. Samish Indian Nation Long-Term Strategic Energy Plan

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Christine Woodward; B. Beckley; K. Hagen

    2005-06-30

    The Tribes strategic energy planning effort is divided into three phases: (1) Completing an Energy Resource Assessment; (2) Developing a Long-Term Strategic Energy Plan; and (3) Preparing a Strategic Energy Implementation Plan for the Samish Homelands. The Samish Indian Nation developed a comprehensive Strategic Energy plan to set policy for future development on tribal land that consists of a long-term, integrated, systems approach to providing a framework under which the Samish Community can use resources efficiently, create energy-efficient infrastructures, and protect and enhance quality of life. Development of the Strategic Energy plan will help the Samish Nation create a healthy community that will sustain current and future generations by addressing economic, environmental, and social issues while respecting the Samish Indian Nation culture and traditions.

  18. Hanford Waste Vitrification Plant Project Waste Form Qualification Program Plan

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Randklev, E.H.

    1993-06-01

    The US Department of Energy has created a waste acceptance process to help guide the overall program for the disposal of high-level nuclear waste in a federal repository. This Waste Form Qualification Program Plan describes the hierarchy of strategies used by the Hanford Waste Vitrification Plant Project to satisfy the waste form qualification obligations of that waste acceptance process. A description of the functional relationship of the participants contributing to completing this objective is provided. The major activities, products, providers, and associated scheduling for implementing the strategies also are presented

  19. Quality-assurance plan for water-quality activities in the U.S. Geological Survey Washington Water Science Center

    Science.gov (United States)

    Conn, Kathleen E.; Huffman, Raegan L.; Barton, Cynthia

    2017-05-08

    In accordance with guidelines set forth by the Office of Water Quality in the Water Mission Area of the U.S. Geological Survey, a quality-assurance plan has been created for use by the Washington Water Science Center (WAWSC) in conducting water-quality activities. This qualityassurance plan documents the standards, policies, and procedures used by the WAWSC for activities related to the collection, processing, storage, analysis, and publication of water-quality data. The policies and procedures documented in this quality-assurance plan for water-quality activities complement the quality-assurance plans for surface-water and groundwater activities at the WAWSC.

  20. Sustainable Development and Spatial Planning: Some considerations arising from the Greek case

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pavlos Marinos Delladetsima

    2012-03-01

    Full Text Available The paper aims to elaborate on the notion of sustainable development in relation to spatial planning and to question its applicability based on the experience arising from the distinct socio-economic situation in Greece. Experience accumulated in the country with the adoption of sustainable development as a spatial policy concept proves to be in contradiction with perceptions that consider it as a basis for improving the plan making process and the planning system as whole. In this respect, it is argued that sustainable development is not a feasible proposition for planning in Greece and offers little to alleviate urban development and sprawl problems. Further, the paper highlights how a globalised approach to sustainable development and planning in Greece has made a negligible contribution to reinvigorating a weak and disjointed system, while also creating significant adverse effects in spatial policymaking.

  1. Workflow efficiency for the treatment planning process in CT-guided high-dose-rate brachytherapy for cervical cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Michaud, Anthony L; Benedict, Stanley; Montemayor, Eliseo; Hunt, Jon Paul; Wright, Cari; Mathai, Mathew; Mayadev, Jyoti S

    2016-01-01

    To investigate process efficiency, we present a prospective investigation of the treatment planning phase of image-guided brachytherapy (BT) for cervical cancer using a specific checklist. From October 2012 to January 2014, 76 BT procedures were consecutively performed. Prospective data on the CT-based treatment planning process was collected using a specific checklist which details the following steps: (1) dosimetry planning, (2) physician review start, (3) physician review time, (4) dosimetry processing, (5) physics review start, (6) physics review, and (7) procedural pause. Variables examined included the use of a pre-BT MRI, clinic duty conflicts, resident teaching, and the use of specific BT planners. Analysis was performed using descriptive statistics, t-test, and analysis of variance. Seventy-five prospectively gathered checklists comprised this analysis. The mean time for treatment planning was 95 minutes (med 94, std 18). The mean intervals in the above steps were (1) = 42, (2) = 5, (3) = 19, (4) = 10, (5) = 6, (6) = 13, and (7) = 26 minutes. There was no statistical difference in patients who had a pre-BT MRI. Resident teaching did not influence time, p = 0.17. Treatment planning time was decreased with a specific planner, p = 0.0015. A skillful team approach is required for treatment planning efficiency in image-guided BT. We have found that the specific BT planners can have a significant effect on the overall planning efficiency. We continue to examine clinical and workflow-related factors that will enhance our safety and workflow process with BT. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  2. PRO-Elicere: A Study for Create a New Process of Dependability Analysis of Space Computer Systems

    Science.gov (United States)

    da Silva, Glauco; Netto Lahoz, Carlos Henrique

    2013-09-01

    This paper presents the new approach to the computer system dependability analysis, called PRO-ELICERE, which introduces data mining concepts and intelligent mechanisms to decision support to analyze the potential hazards and failures of a critical computer system. Also, are presented some techniques and tools that support the traditional dependability analysis and briefly discusses the concept of knowledge discovery and intelligent databases for critical computer systems. After that, introduces the PRO-ELICERE process, an intelligent approach to automate the ELICERE, a process created to extract non-functional requirements for critical computer systems. The PRO-ELICERE can be used in the V&V activities in the projects of Institute of Aeronautics and Space, such as the Brazilian Satellite Launcher (VLS-1).

  3. SU-D-BRD-04: The Impact of Automatic Radiation Therapy Plan Checks in Treatment Planning

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Gopan, O; Yang, F; Ford, E

    2015-01-01

    Purpose: The physics plan check verifies various aspects of a treatment plan after dosimetrists have finished creating the plan. Some errors in the plan which are caught by the physics check could be caught earlier in the departmental workflow. The purpose of this project was to evaluate a plan checking script that can be run within the treatment planning system (TPS) by the dosimetrists prior to plan approval and export to the record and verify system. Methods: A script was created in the Pinnacle TPS to automatically check 15 aspects of a plan for clinical practice conformity. The script outputs a list of checks which the plan has passed and a list of checks which the plan has failed so that appropriate adjustments can be made. For this study, the script was run on a total of 108 plans: IMRT (46/108), VMAT (35/108) and SBRT (27/108). Results: Of the plans checked by the script, 77/108 (71%) failed at least one of the fifteen checks. IMRT plans resulted in more failed checks (91%) than VMAT (51%) or SBRT (63%), due to the high failure rate of an IMRT-specific check, which checks that no IMRT segment < 5 MU. The dose grid size and couch removal checks caught errors in 10% and 14% of all plans – errors that ultimately may have resulted in harm to the patient. Conclusion: Approximately three-fourths of the plans being examined contain errors that could be caught by dosimetrists running an automated script embedded in the TPS. The results of this study will improve the departmental workflow by cutting down on the number of plans that, due to these types of errors, necessitate re-planning and re-approval of plans, increase dosimetrist and physician workload and, in urgent cases, inconvenience patients by causing treatment delays

  4. The utilization of cranial models created using rapid prototyping techniques in the development of models for navigation training.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Waran, V; Pancharatnam, Devaraj; Thambinayagam, Hari Chandran; Raman, Rajagopal; Rathinam, Alwin Kumar; Balakrishnan, Yuwaraj Kumar; Tung, Tan Su; Rahman, Z A

    2014-01-01

    Navigation in neurosurgery has expanded rapidly; however, suitable models to train end users to use the myriad software and hardware that come with these systems are lacking. Utilizing three-dimensional (3D) industrial rapid prototyping processes, we have been able to create models using actual computed tomography (CT) data from patients with pathology and use these models to simulate a variety of commonly performed neurosurgical procedures with navigation systems. To assess the possibility of utilizing models created from CT scan dataset obtained from patients with cranial pathology to simulate common neurosurgical procedures using navigation systems. Three patients with pathology were selected (hydrocephalus, right frontal cortical lesion, and midline clival meningioma). CT scan data following an image-guidance surgery protocol in DIACOM format and a Rapid Prototyping Machine were taken to create the necessary printed model with the corresponding pathology embedded. The ability in registration, planning, and navigation of two navigation systems using a variety of software and hardware provided by these platforms was assessed. We were able to register all models accurately using both navigation systems and perform the necessary simulations as planned. Models with pathology utilizing 3D rapid prototyping techniques accurately reflect data of actual patients and can be used in the simulation of neurosurgical operations using navigation systems. Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

  5. Multispecies genetic objectives in spatial conservation planning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nielsen, Erica S; Beger, Maria; Henriques, Romina; Selkoe, Kimberly A; von der Heyden, Sophie

    2017-08-01

    Growing threats to biodiversity and global alteration of habitats and species distributions make it increasingly necessary to consider evolutionary patterns in conservation decision making. Yet, there is no clear-cut guidance on how genetic features can be incorporated into conservation-planning processes, despite multiple molecular markers and several genetic metrics for each marker type to choose from. Genetic patterns differ between species, but the potential tradeoffs among genetic objectives for multiple species in conservation planning are currently understudied. We compared spatial conservation prioritizations derived from 2 metrics of genetic diversity (nucleotide and haplotype diversity) and 2 metrics of genetic isolation (private haplotypes and local genetic differentiation) in mitochondrial DNA of 5 marine species. We compared outcomes of conservation plans based only on habitat representation with plans based on genetic data and habitat representation. Fewer priority areas were selected for conservation plans based solely on habitat representation than on plans that included habitat and genetic data. All 4 genetic metrics selected approximately similar conservation-priority areas, which is likely a result of prioritizing genetic patterns across a genetically diverse array of species. Largely, our results suggest that multispecies genetic conservation objectives are vital to creating protected-area networks that appropriately preserve community-level evolutionary patterns. © 2016 Society for Conservation Biology.

  6. Higher Education Planning for a Strategic Goal with a Concept Mapping Process at a Small Private College

    Science.gov (United States)

    Driscoll, Deborah P.

    2010-01-01

    Faculty, staff, and administrators at a small independent college determined that planning with a Concept Mapping process efficiently produced strategic thinking and action plans for the accomplishment of a strategic goal to expand experiential learning within the curriculum. One year into a new strategic plan, the college enjoyed enrollment…

  7. CMS proposes prioritizing patient preferences, linking patients to follow-up care in discharge planning process.

    Science.gov (United States)

    2016-03-01

    Hospital providers voice concerns about a proposed rule by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) that would require providers to devote more resources to discharge planning. The rule would apply to inpatients as well as emergency patients requiring comprehensive discharge plans as opposed to discharge instructions. CMS states that the rule would ensure the prioritization of patient preferences and goals in the discharge planning process, and also would prevent avoidable complications and readmissions. However, hospital and emergency medicine leaders worry that community resources are not yet in place to facilitate the links and follow-up required in the proposed rule, and that the costs associated with implementation would be prohibitive. The proposed rule would apply to acute care hospitals, EDs, long-term care facilities, inpatient rehabilitation centers, and home health agencies. Regardless of the setting, though, CMS is driving home the message that patient preferences should be given more weight during the discharge planning process. Under the rule, hospitals or EDs would need to develop a patient-centered discharge plan within 24 hours of admission or registration, and complete the plan prior to discharge or transfer to another facility. Under the rule, emergency physicians would determine which patients require a comprehensive discharge plan. Both the American Hospital Association and the American College of Emergency Physicians worry that hospitals will have to take on more staff, invest in training, and make changes to their electronic medical record systems to implement the provisions in the proposed rule.

  8. Business continuity, emergency planning and special needs: How to protect the vulnerable.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reilly, Daniel

    2015-01-01

    Emergencies and disasters affect all segments of the population. Some segments are more at risk during the emergency response and recovery efforts owing to vulnerabilities that increase the risk of harm. These vulnerabilities are due to individuals' disabilities, which must be incorporated into emergency and business continuity planning. Some disabilities are obvious, such as impaired vision, hearing or mobility, while other are less evident, but equally disabling, such as cognitive disorders, geographical or language isolation, and numerous age-related factors. Taken together when creating emergency or business continuity plans, the issues identified as disabilities can be grouped by functionality and termed as special needs. This paper will detail the identification of special needs populations, explain how these persons are vulnerable during the emergency or disaster response and recovery process, and provide examples of how to partner with individuals within identified special needs populations to improve the planning process.

  9. Demystifying the Business Plan Process: An Introductory Guide.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kuratko, Donald F.

    This article is designed as the starting point for writing a business plan. It first describes what a business plan is. These benefits are discussed: financing, increasing knowledge, preventing poor investment, and planning. A brief description follows of the 10 components of a business plan: executive summary; business description; marketing;…

  10. Action plan for Nordic energy co-operation 2006-2009

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    2005-01-01

    The Action Plan for Nordic Energy Co-operation 2006-2009 is targeted at creating a visible and sustainable contribution to solving the most important and politically most relevant energy policy challenges faced by the Nordic region. The plan concentrates on three main areas: Energy markets; Sustainable energy system; and Nordic impact on the international agenda. The Action Plan is the energy sector's contribution to the implementation of the Nordic strategy 'Sustainable Development - New Bearing for the Nordic Countries' and to a number of the Nordic Council's recommendations for the development of the Nordic energy sector. An important element of the implementation of the action plan is on-going contact and information sharing between the Nordic Energy Policy co-operation and the Nordic Energy Research. The continues dialogue between the Nordic Council of Energy Ministers and The Nordic Council on future energy policy challenges will likewise be an important part of the political process. (BA)

  11. Measuring the effectiveness of enterprise resource planning education on business process comprehension

    OpenAIRE

    Monk, Ellen Fischer

    2013-01-01

    This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERP) are very large and complex software packages that run every aspect of an organization. Increasingly, ERP systems are used in higher education to teach business processes, essential knowledge for students competing in today’s business environment. Past research attempting to measure learning business processes with ERP has been inconclusive and lac...

  12. Creating identity with nature inspired lighting design – The Sensitive Organism

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hiort-Lorenzen Anna-Rosa

    2018-01-01

    Full Text Available People, as living organisms, exist in symbiosis with nature; therefore, contact with nature is a basic human need. City nature is an important aspect of the urban living environment because people need an escapist experience from the everyday city life that they should find within their close environment. The outdoor lighting of urban nightscapes has a major influence on people's perception of space. Cities with an increasing number of inhabitants and late-night economic activity transform into 24-hour operating cities. This means that more attention should be given to investigating the social needs of public spaces in terms of night-time urban lighting, creating experiences and identities with nature. This paper aims to emphasize the potential hidden in nature-inspired lighting as a topic for further development in the field of lighting design. Nature inspired lighting is based on a transdisciplinary approach, where terms like biomimicry, biophilia, and urban green space adopted from other subject fields than lighting influence the lighting design process in order to create a product addressing human inner connectedness to nature. The example used in this paper presents the concept of a lighting master plan called “The Sensitive Organism”.

  13. Utilizing Educational Corporate Culture To Create a Quality School.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Osborne, Bill

    Strategies for utilizing educational corporate culture to create a quality school are presented in this paper, which argues that the understanding of the shared belief system of organizational members is crucial to the process. Creating a quality school entails moving from a "teach the process" oriented model to one that internalizes the…

  14. Creating Web Sites The Missing Manual

    CERN Document Server

    MacDonald, Matthew

    2006-01-01

    Think you have to be a technical wizard to build a great web site? Think again. For anyone who wants to create an engaging web site--for either personal or business purposes--Creating Web Sites: The Missing Manual demystifies the process and provides tools, techniques, and expert guidance for developing a professional and reliable web presence. Like every Missing Manual, you can count on Creating Web Sites: The Missing Manual to be entertaining and insightful and complete with all the vital information, clear-headed advice, and detailed instructions you need to master the task at hand. Autho

  15. Data integration for urban transport planning

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Huang, Zhendong

    2003-01-01

    Urban transport planning aims at balancing conflicting challenges by promoting more efficient transport systems while reducing negative impacts. The availability of better and more reliable data has not only stimulated new planning methodologies, but also created challenges for efficient data

  16. 76 FR 7098 - Dealer Floor Plan Pilot Program

    Science.gov (United States)

    2011-02-09

    ... Plan Pilot Program AGENCY: U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). ACTION: Program implementation with request for comments. SUMMARY: SBA is introducing a new Dealer Floor Plan Pilot Program to make... Plan Pilot Program was created in the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010. Under the new Dealer Floor Plan...

  17. Inverse planning and class solutions for brachytherapy treatment planning

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Trnkova, P.

    2010-01-01

    Brachytherapy or interventional radiooncology is a method of radiation therapy. It is a method, where a small encapsulated radioactive source is placed near to / in the tumour and therefore delivers high doses directly to the target volume. Organs at risk (OARs) are spared due to the inverse square dose fall-off. In the past years there was a slight stagnation in the development of techniques for brachytherapy treatment. While external beam radiotherapy became more and more sophisticated, in brachytherapy traditional methods have been still used. Recently, 3D imaging was considered also as the modality for brachytherapy and more precise brachytherapy could expand. Nowadays, an image guided brachytherapy is state-of-art in many centres. Integration of imaging methods lead to the dose distribution individually tailored for each patient. Treatment plan optimization is mostly performed manually as an adaptation of a standard loading pattern. Recently, inverse planning approaches have been introduced into brachytherapy. The aim of this doctoral thesis was to analyze inverse planning and to develop concepts how to integrate inverse planning into cervical cancer brachytherapy. First part of the thesis analyzes the Hybrid Inverse treatment Planning and Optimization (HIPO) algorithm and proposes a workflow how to safely work with this algorithm. The problem of inverse planning generally is that only the dose and volume parameters are taken into account and spatial dose distribution is neglected. This fact can lead to unwanted high dose regions in a normal tissue. A unique implementation of HIPO into the treatment planning system using additional features enabled to create treatment plans similar to the plans resulting from manual optimization and to shape the high dose regions inside the CTV. In the second part the HIPO algorithm is compared to the Inverse Planning Simulated Annealing (IPSA) algorithm. IPSA is implemented into the commercial treatment planning system. It

  18. The Effect of Person Centered Planning Activities on the IEP/Transition Planning Process.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miner, Craig A.; Bates, Paul E.

    1997-01-01

    A study of 22 students with mental retardation and their families evaluated the impact of person-centered planning activities on several variables related to a student's individual education program/transition planning meeting. Person-centered planning had a significant effect on parent participation in meetings, but not on discussion of…

  19. Facility effluent monitoring plan for the Waste Receiving and Processing Facility Module 1

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lewis, C.J.

    1995-10-01

    A facility effluent monitoring plan is required by the US Department of Energy in Order 5400.1 for any operations that involve hazardous materials and radioactive substances that could impact employee or public safety or the environment. This document is prepared using the specific guidelines identified in A Guide for Preparing Hanford Site Facility Effluent Monitoring Plans, WHC-EP-0438. This facility effluent monitoring plan assesses effluent monitoring systems and evaluates whether they are adequate to ensure the public health and safety as specified in applicable federal state, and local requirements. This facility effluent monitoring plan shall ensure lonq-range integrity of the effluent monitoring systems by requiring an update whenever a new process or operation introduces new hazardous materials or significant radioactive materials. This document must be reviewed annually even if there are no operational changes, and it must be updated as a minimum every three years

  20. Waste Analysis Plan for the Waste Receiving and Processing (WRAP) Facility

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    TRINER, G.C.

    1999-01-01

    The purpose of this waste analysis plan (WAP) is to document the waste acceptance process, sampling methodologies, analytical techniques, and overall processes that are undertaken for dangerous, mixed, and radioactive waste accepted for confirmation, nondestructive examination (NDE) and nondestructive assay (NDA), repackaging, certification, and/or storage at the Waste Receiving and Processing Facility (WRAP). Mixed and/or radioactive waste is treated at WRAP. WRAP is located in the 200 West Area of the Hanford Facility, Richland, Washington. Because dangerous waste does not include source, special nuclear, and by-product material components of mixed waste, radionuclides are not within the scope of this documentation. The information on radionuclides is provided only for general knowledge