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A big part of creating effective BCM involves coordinating continuity strategies within both your information security and operational plans. It’s crucial to establish proper relationships among the three core BCM plans and procedures that are invoked in different scenarios to keep business functions and the enabling IT operational. These are:
- The Incident Response Plan (IRP). This IT-centric plan includes the procedures and continuity strategies to assess, investigate, recover from, mitigate and manage the impacts and potential impacts of a cyber-security incident, such as a data breach or ransomware attack.
- The Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP). This continuity strategy encompasses the recovery of your entire datacenter and associated IT infrastructure, from servers to networks to data storage to voice communications and the business functions within the IT department such as the Help Desk.
- The Business Continuity Plan (BCP). This plan covers the functional recovery of an organization’s business processes (including IT) and thus includes the IRP and DRP. ISO 22301 is a popular management systems standard often used by organizations of all sizes for business continuity planning.
Because these plans and corresponding procedures are interdependent, invoking one often creates a “domino effect” that may result in activating one or both of the others. For example, as Figure 1 illustrates, invoking your DRP means there’s a pretty good chance you’ll need to invoke the BCP so the business functions that IT supports can also recover.
If you invoke your BCP for functional recovery, you may or may not need to invoke your DRP—it depends on what caused the outage. Likewise, if you invoke your IRP, that could lead back into your entire datacenter, in which case you would need to invoke your DRP.
If you invoke your DRP, then there’s a very good chance you’ll wind up invoking your BCP to support the recovery of your business operations, given that you failed over your datacenter as a result of an incident that caused your IR plan to activate.
Not only does business continuity planning need to be integrated across IR and DR, but also in many cases it should be somewhat consolidated organizationally. Ideally for many companies the BC coordinator should be the DR coordinator as well. At a minimum, the DR coordinator should report to the BC coordinator for recovery guidance. Similarly, the IR coordinator should have a dotted line reporting requirement to the BC coordinator for all things related to cyber-response and recovery.
Because BCP aligns organizationally with Operations, whereas DR and IR align with IT, the corporate BCP coordinator is the person best suited to ensure integration and coordination across all procedures and plans. That way, the people who pick up a plan when something bad happens (and confusion sets in) know exactly what to do; the plans they’re referencing point to the correct individuals and roles to assist in the overall recovery of the organization both functionally and technically. Appropriate organizational alignment also helps ensure response and recovery planning reflects the organization’s overall priorities and isn’t negatively impacted by “turf wars.”
What a Good Business Continuity Scenario Looks Like
With the above in mind, let’s take a look at a possible scenario that illustrates these dynamic interdependencies and the complexities involved:
The help desk notices anomalies in a system. They triage the issues and, as they dig deeper, they realize the system was infected with a virus. They escalate and the Incident Response Team (IRT) is activated. Through the incident analysis and containment phases, the team determines the system will not be fully functional again for eight hours. That information should be conveyed to the Business Continuity Coordinator (BCC), who would verify the Recovery Time Objective (RTO) of the system.
Let’s say the RTO of that system is four hours. The BCC should then start activating elements of the DRP because an infected system is experiencing an outage that exceeds its RTO. The next step is asking: What are the data flows into and from the infected system? Do additional systems need to be taken offline? Is the entire data center affected? If the answer to that last question is “yes,” then the DRP is activated in its entirety. Do we need to activate the BCP because business processes are impacted?
Many organizations will benefit from the experience of third-party experts in coordinating continuity strategies and developing their IR, DR and BC plans. An independent third-party can further serve as that “extra set of eyes” to ensure your company has optimized its existing BCM planning and procedures.
When IR, DR and BC are fully integrated, a synergy develops that adds value beyond the sum of the individual plans. This supports a much more robust recovery capability across the organization that can help you approach or achieve organizational resilience—the “Holy Grail” of BCM.
To discuss your current BCM or disaster preparedness posture and goals, contact Pivot Point Security.
For more information on coordinating continuity strategies:
- ISMS Interdependence: Risk Assessment, Incident Response, and Business Continuity Plans
- Gartner’s 5 principles of organizational resilience
- Forbes’ 5 ways to build a resilient organization
How well do you know your disaster recovery plan?
Chances are, you won't know how effective your plan is until you test it.
Download our Operational Testing of your Business Continuity Plan Whitepaper now! | https://www.pivotpointsecurity.com/blog/coordinating-continuity-strategies-information-security/ |
The Insurance Authority of Hong Kong has issued cybersecurity guidelines with a compliance deadline of January 2020.
See Also: Webinar | The Future of Adaptive Authentication in Financial Services
Under the new requirements, insurers must report breaches no later than 72 hours after detection.
The guidelines also require that insurers develop effective risk assessment strategies, build an incidence response and recovery plan and create a standardized approach to information sharing.
"The guidelines require authorized insurers to put in place resilient cybersecurity frameworks to protect their business data and the personal data of their existing or potential policyholders, and to ensure continuity of their business operations," the insurance authority notes in a statement.
Insurers' Risk
Cyber risks are among the most significant operational risks that insurers face, the authority notes. Cybersecurity incidents can result in financial losses, business disruptions and damage to reputation, it points out.
The regulator says that except for captive insurers and marine mutual insurers, the guidelines apply to all authorized insurers that do business in Hong Kong. There are close to 200 registered insurers authorized to operate in the country that offer general, life, medical, motor and other coverage, the authority notes.
The regulator stressed that noncompliance with the provisions in this guideline would render an authorized insurer liable to judicial or other proceedings. The authority, however, has not specified the potential penalties.
This is the first time that the Insurance Authority of Hong Kong has come out with a comprehensive cybersecurity structure for insurers, says Hong Kong-based Parag Deodhar, former CISO of AXA Group, a general insurance company.
"The insurance industry is quite mature in the region, given there are many multinational organizations operating in the domain who are regulated by stringent compliance structure," Deodhar says.
Risk Assessment
The new guidelines require insurers to identify cyber risks and conduct assessments on the effectiveness of mitigation efforts.
The key elements of the cyber risk management program, according to the guidelines, include:
- Identifying business functions, activities, products and services and maintaining a current inventory or mapping of its information assets and system configurations;
- Evaluating inherent cyber risks presented by users, processes and technologies and underlying data that support each identified function, activity, product and service;
- Conducting a business impact analysis for cyber risk - a determination of risks and prioritization of risk responses through identification of threats, vulnerabilities, likelihood and impact.
Lars Neilsen , Hong Kong insurance leader at the consultancy PWC, says, the guidelines set the minimum standard of cybersecurity that is expected of an authorized insurer.
Incident Response Plan
The guidelines require insurers to develop a cybersecurity incident response plan, which covers scenarios of cybersecurity incidents and corresponding contingency strategies to maintain and restore critical functions and essential activities.
"The plan should also include criteria for the escalation of the response and recovery activities to the board or its designated management team," the authority notes.
Some key components of the incident response plan, the guidelines note, are:
- Assessing the nature, scope and impact of the incident and take all immediate practicable steps to contain the incident and mitigate its impact;
- Notifying internal stakeholders, and, where applicable, external stakeholders and considering joint incident response actions, if necessary;
- Identifying and mitigating all vulnerabilities that were exploited in a breach to prevent similar incidents.
Insurance companies are experienced in handling various types of risks, Deodhar says. "They have three lines of defense. The operations team looks into varied forms of risk. The risk management team takes up the next level of defense in ensuring the policy holders' information is protected. And the auditing team, which is an independent body, ensures that the other teams have complied with risk management and compliance regulations to keep the data safe."
Information Sharing
The insurance authority says it's imperative for CISOs to implement prudent and pragmatic threat monitoring mechanisms, establish a process for gathering and analyzing relevant cyber risk information, and participate in information sharing groups.
It stressed that insurers should provide cybersecurity awareness training to all system users, taking into account the type and level of cyber risk the insurer faces and the latest cyber threats.
"The insurance companies in the region take the regulatory requirements quite seriously and constantly have information sharing programs to share best practices," Deodhar says.
Earlier, Hong Kong and Singapore signed a cybersecurity memorandum of understanding that establishes a data protection information sharing mechanism and calls for joint research projects and this can also be extended to the insurance domain.
Other Requirements
The new guidelines require that insurers establish and clearly define their cybersecurity objectives, as well as the requirements for competency of relevant personnel or system users.
Insurers must develop well-defined processes and implement the necessary technology for managing cyber risks.
The guidelines also state:
- The board of directors should be responsible for cybersecurity controls and ensure accountability by articulating clear responsibilities and lines of reporting and escalation for cybersecurity controls.
- Insurers should establish continuous monitoring processes for early detection of cybersecurity incidents, regularly evaluate the effectiveness of internal control procedures and update the risk appetite and tolerance limit as appropriate;
- They also should manage the identities and credentials for physical and remote access to information assets. | https://www.bankinfosecurity.asia/hong-kong-unveils-cybersecurity-guidelines-for-insurers-a-12778 |
What is an incident response plan?
Cyber incidents are on the rise. This has been true and will continue to be true for the foreseeable future. It is important to have a solid incident response plan, regardless of the size of your organization.
An incident response plan includes six key components:
- Preparation
- Identification
- Containment
- Eradication/Remediation
- Recovery
- Lessons Learned – Review & Improve
An incident, in the context of Information Technology (IT) & data security, is any event that threatens the security and preservation of systems, data, people, and ultimately businesses. An incident is most often thought of as event perpetrated by a threat actor (criminal) in an attempt to disrupt a system, gain unauthorized access to systems and data, to change systems, to alter or destroy data, or to disrupt the legitimate intended use of systems and data.
Preparation for an incident requires that a business accept that an incident may occur and plan for how to deal with this eventuality. The result of preparation is the incident response plan. Preparation amounts to considering the various types of incidents that might occur and contemplating what resources, information, and planning might be necessary to deal with an incident, and then staging resources and planning so that you can call up the resources and refer to the plan in the event of a real incident. Preparation saves valuable time and may mitigate the actual damage or cost incurred to recover from an incident.
Identification is becoming aware of the fact that your business has experienced an incident. Most cyberattacks start long before a business is aware of the incident. Identification typically starts with an indication of breach (IoC) which can come from MANY sources. An IoC might be:
- An alert from a monitoring or detection platform (antivirus, EDR, device health…)
- A user encountering an encrypted file in your systems (ransomware)
- Receipt of a ransom demand letter
- A suspicious transaction on a bank statement
- Receipt of an odd email
- Notification from an email recipient that they received a strange email from your company
- A user being locked out of a system
An indication of compromise may lead to identification of an incident that will kick the incident response plan into action. Businesses should seek to move from identification to containment as quickly as possible.
Containment is the effort and actions taken to keep the incident from getting worse. This stage often requires the help of an IT expert to quickly gather details, determine the best course of action and taking action to neutralize the threat while preserving data and evidence. Containment also requires a good communication plan that includes keeping key personnel informed while limiting dissemination of information to those who DO NOT have a need to know. For example, an IT expert might determine that certain systems need to be disconnected from networks or that certain accounts or services should be disabled to contain a threat. At the same time, leadership personnel may need to quickly establish who needs to know what is happening and perhaps as importantly, who should not be informed so that proper consideration may be given to the nature of the communication that should occur between the business, vendors, customers, and even the public or media. Communication during the containment stage is typically limited to only those individuals who play a role in containment or in managing communications. Disclosure of the incident to affected parties typically comes during the remediation or recovery phase.
The Eradication and remediation stage is when a business endeavors to eliminate the threat. This stage often includes validating data integrity, validating access controls, restoring systems and data to a known good state, and preparing for the resumption of business operations. The duration of eradication and remediation will vary based on the nature of and impact of the incident. When the duration is prolonged, this stage may also require significant a communication component to keep stakeholders informed. This is also the stage where insurance carriers are notified if the business has cyber insurance. Cyber insurance carriers often bring significant resources to the table during this stage to include forensic investigations, remediation recommendations, legal support, and incident response resources. This stage often includes frequent status meetings with stakeholders and IT professionals.
It is important to consider preservation of evidence prior to eradication if the incident has the potential for data privacy, contractual, or other legal implications. Forensic evidence most often requires full backups of effected systems and preservation of any log files.
Recovery is the process of resuming business operations. Resumption of operations should not occur until eradication and remediation is complete. Recovery duration will vary based on the nature and extent of the incident and additional monitoring and support is typically employed to prevent recurrence of the incident and/or early detection of unintended consequences that results from the original incident or the containment and eradication stages.
Recovery will also include notification and/or disclosure of the incident to affected parties. Legal counsel is often involved if disclosure is required and insurance carriers play a key role in the recovery stage if cyber insurance coverage was in place at the time of the incident.
Lessons learned is the process of reviewing the incident with an eye to prevent reoccurrence and to improve the response process. Eliminating 100% of the risk associated with cyber incidents is not possible. The objective should be to continually mitigate risk when and where feasible. Looking back at cyber incidents almost always reveals a control or action that may have prevented or at least mitigated the likelihood of the incident in the first place. It is important to leverage the valuable and often expensive knowledge a business gains as a result of responding to an incident. | https://www.gowestit.com/2020/10/29/every-business-should-develop-an-incident-response-plan/ |
A Business Continuity Management (BCM) System is a comprehensive process for managing an organization’s resilience and recovery from any disruptive event. It is designed to help organizations minimize the business processes’ impact of disruptions, such as natural disasters, supply chain issues, or cyberattacks, on their operations and customers.
An organized approach ensures that all areas of an organization are prepared for potential disruptions. This includes identifying critical processes, assessing risks, developing plans to respond to crises, and testing those plans on a regular basis.
The goal of implementing a BCMS is to ensure that your organization has the resources and procedures necessary to remain operational in the event of an emergency or disruption.
BCM systems are becoming increasingly important in today’s digital world as companies strive to maintain their competitive edge by protecting their data and operations from any kind of disruption. Let’s explore the components of a BCM system so you can determine if it’s right for your organization.
What is a business continuity management system?
Business continuity refers to the capability of organizations to maintain critical functions in the event of a disaster. Business continuity planning establishes risk management procedures and processes designed to prevent interruption to mission-critical services and restore optimum functions to the company.
Business continuity requires the most fundamental requirement for disaster recovery – in the least amount of time possible. A business continuity plan includes various unpredictable situations, including disasters, fire, diseases, outbreaks, and cyberattacks. Financial industry regulatory authority bodies require businesses to have BCPs.
Pandemics and other threats to your business can affect everyone. The Corona crisis demonstrated that a resilient, flexible response could be critical to an event. A BCM system allows your company to restore normal operation as soon as possible in the case of an interruption in service.
Continual business functions and operations are important. It guarantees that your firm can continue its regular business operations after an earthquake with minimal disruption. BCM is based on the belief that good response methods minimize damage caused by theoretical events.
What are the 3 main areas of business continuity management?
There are three main areas of focus regarding business continuity management: Disaster Recovery, Business Impact Analysis, and Risk Assessment & Management. Disaster Recovery plans cover contingencies, including natural disasters, cyber-attacks, utility outages, and other systemic risks.
Business Impact Analysis looks at how these disasters could potentially affect various aspects of a business, such as its customers or finances, allowing organizations to plan ahead for such disruptions.
Lastly, Risk Assessment & Management helps determine the strengths and weaknesses of an organization’s existing processes so appropriate changes can be made if necessary.
What is the primary purpose of business continuity management?
Its primary purpose is to ensure that an organization has the preparedness and capability to respond and recover from disruptive events, whether they are natural disasters or man-made challenges.
This involves physical assets and important intangible components such as data, technology systems and other organizational resources.
Why Is a BCMS Important?
A BCMS provides organizations with greater flexibility and resilience when facing unexpected events or disasters. By having specific procedures in place for responding to different types of crises, your organization will be better equipped to handle whatever comes it’s way.
Additionally, having a plan in place can help you save time and money by reducing downtime during emergencies or unexpected events. Finally, a BCMS can also help protect your reputation by demonstrating that you take your company’s security seriously and existing management systems.
The Components That Make up a BCM System
A BCM system has three main components: prevention, planning, and response. Prevention involves identifying potential risks and taking steps to mitigate them before they occur; planning involves creating strategies to handle disruptive events that cannot be prevented; and response involves executing plans when necessary.
These components work together to form a comprehensive approach to managing organizational resilience in the face of any type of disruption. The federal emergency management agency on its website provides details on BCMS.
Prevention Strategies
Prevention strategies involve identifying potential risks before they happen and minimizing those risks through preventative measures such as implementing firewalls or installing backup servers.
The goal of these preventive measures is twofold: first, they reduce the likelihood that an organization will experience a disruptive event; second, they minimize the damage caused by those events should they occur.
In addition to implementing preventive measures, organizations should also have procedures to monitor risk levels over time so that these threats can be identified early on.
Planning Strategies
Planning strategies involve creating detailed plans for how an organization will respond during a disruptive event. These plans should include details about who is responsible for particular tasks during an incident, what resources will be needed when each task needs to be completed;
How communication should be handled internally and externally throughout the entire process. Planning also involves regularly testing these plans so everyone knows exactly what needs to be done to respond quickly in an emergency.
Response Strategies
When responding to a disruptive event, an organization must execute its plan precisely to minimize any negative impacts on its operations or customers. This requires people trained to react appropriately during different types of incidents and have access to resources needed to implement the plan quickly and efficiently.
Response strategies also involve communicating regularly with stakeholders throughout the entire process so that everyone involved understands what is happening and why it is happening at all times during the incident resolution period.
Policies and strategies
It involves much more than simply responding to disasters or cyberattacks on a problem. In this regard, policies and procedures are designed, tested and used for incidents based on these policies and procedures.
A new policy defines scopes and key stakeholders, and management structures. The company must explain the need for Business Continuity and Governance at this stage. The process of creating a business continuity checklist is one of the components. Two others identify teams responsible for implementation. Governance helps to clarify an often chaotic situation that involves all involved.
Disaster recovery
How do businesses survive a disaster? Both of these plans are a set of objectives guiding operations and establishing rules for the restructuring. Disaster recovery involves a situation where an accident happened.
Disaster Recovery is an action or a team that comes about from a disaster. The results of work performed for the identification and remediation of the risks are described in detail below. Disaster recovery involves specific incidents rather than a larger plan. In response to a situation, it’s advisable to review and analyze the response to the situation and revise plans accordingly.
Business Impact Assessment
Impact Assessment is an inventorying process that can determine your company’s data, where that data is gathered, and how that information is retrieved. This process determines which data are critical and what the minimum amount of downtime will take.
While companies want 100% uptime, this rate isn’t always possible despite redundant system capabilities. This is also when your recovery objectives must be calculated – they are the maximum time required to restore an application to function in cases where services are temporarily lost.
Role of Communication & Management Business Continuity
Communication is crucial in maintaining business continuity. Communication is critical in ensuring transparent communication between clients, consumer groups and senior management.
Consistent communications are necessary for a successful incident. Messages always come from a single voice. Crisis management involves several types of communication and includes the production of tools that indicate progress, critical needs and problems. Communications may vary among different audiences.
Risk assessment
Risks can occur in many different ways. A business impact assessment will be carried out. Threats may involve bad actors, internal players and competitors in the marketplaces, and political and natural events.
Risk assessments assess various risks to businesses. It is important to identify potential threats as they may be extensive.
Incident Identification
In business continuity, the concept of the incident must always be understood. In policy documentation, the events must also clearly define the triggers and how the incident happened. The trigger actions needed to initiate the plan’s deployment and get the teams in motion.
Validation and testing
It requires continuous monitoring and measurement of risks. Once the mitigation plan is in place, it must be evaluated for proper functioning.
How Do I Implement A BCMS?
Implementing a Business Continuity Management System (BCMS) requires significant thought, planning, and organizational commitment. To ensure the success of your BCMS, you must consider all aspects, such as governance, policies, strategies, and active management of areas such as risk assessment
To begin the process, an executive champion or steering committee must be identified who has ownership and are accountable for ensuring the system is established across the wider business.
Then it will be important to carry out a business impact analysis with stakeholders to understand exactly what assets need protecting and the timeframes within which they need to be recovered.
Additionally, critical tasks should be outlined and assigned to ensure they can be performed promptly when required. Once these tasks have been carried out, there needs to be regular testing and review of processes, procedures, and plans so risks can always be managed adequately.
Implementing a BCMS requires careful planning and consideration of your organization’s unique needs. You should start by assessing the risks associated with different types of emergencies or disruptions and then develop plans to address those risks accordingly.
You should also consider which areas within your organization are most vulnerable and focus on developing robust response plans for these areas first.
Finally, once you have developed your plans, it’s important to test them regularly and update them as needed based on new information or emerging threats.
Importance of Business continuity management systems
A management system, or BCMS for short, is a management system that combines interrelated methods, procedures, and rules to ensure critical operations continue working in a disaster scenario and continuously develop and improve them.
Business continuity management consists of establishing a strategy for ensuring business operations remain operational or resume immediately following disasters. The plan also includes identifying potential threats like flooding, fires, and cyber attacks.
Business leaders should have a strategy for identifying a crisis before it occurs. Then test these methods for effectiveness, then periodically evaluate this process for its current status.
Protect your productivity with business continuity management and IT emergency management
Business continuity management helps prepare for possible problems and minimizes disruption. Using an effective emergency plan ensures everyone within an organization follows the plan if a crisis happens.
The emergency concepts and recovery plans allow you to return to productive operation in an emergency without interruption. The system will provide an integrated risk management system that gives you the legal confidence of your business and an edge in the marketplace.
React quickly in times of crisis with a business continuity management system
A business continuity Management System – BCM based on ISO22301 and ISO 27031 allows quick and correct responses for technical emergencies, IT emergency concepts and recovery plans.
Integrated into an existing Management system, BCMS integrates interrelated methods, procedures, and policies to ensure continuity.
Active crisis management with business continuity management
During the development phase, BCMS solutions are implemented for your business. The team will guide and develop with the assistance of a BCM officer and develop tests and training concepts. Furthermore, we can combine different analyses of threats for your BCMS to ensure optimum alignment with identified threats in your business plan.
BCMS: back to normal fast
During times of crisis, your goal is a quick recovery of business operations. Business continuity systems are useful for the task of ensuring business continuity. This technology which targets critical IT systems, allows for rapid and appropriate emergency response.
Conclusion
A business continuity management system (BCM) helps organizations stay resilient during times of disruption by providing preventive strategies for reducing risk levels, planning strategies for responding quickly if an incident does occur, and responding strategies for minimizing the harm caused by those incidents when they do happen.
Implementing such a system can help ensure that no matter what type of disruption occurs, your business can weather it successfully without too much impact on operations or customers. If your organization could benefit from more robust protection against unexpected disruptions, then investing in a BCM system may be worth considering!
Chris Ekai is a Risk Management expert with over 10 years of experience in the field. He has a Master’s(MSc) degree in Risk Management from University of Portsmouth and is a CPA and Finance professional. He currently works as a Content Manager at Risk Publishing, writing about Enterprise Risk Management, Business Continuity Management and Project Management. | https://riskpublishing.com/what-is-a-business-continuity-management-system/ |
In today’s highly complex cybersecurity landscape, you must have a true plan to implement when the time comes, and an incident occurs. An incident response plan is a written and tested set of policies and procedures that you can use to report, identify, contain, and eliminate cyberattacks. The purpose of the incident response plan is to enable an organization to quickly detect and halt attacks, minimize damages, expedite recovery, and prevent future attacks of the same type from happening again.
Do you have one that you share—and review regularly—with your customers? If not, I suggest you create one as soon as possible. You don’t want to get caught without one, jeopardizing your business relationship and maybe even your reputation. And even if you do have one, here’s a sample incident response plan outline to get you started or to compare with your current plan.
Identify, Assess and Contain
This first step is critical to gaining the trust of your customer and minimizing potential damage caused by the breach.
- Identify the internal and external team to work the response (CEO, CFO, insurance, lawyers, etc.)
- Identify what happened and where it came from
- Contain and protect other systems and critical components
- Assess the impact in terms of loss (confidential information, financial impact, reputation loss, etc.)
- Try to limit incident impact on the organization and their customers
Recovery and Mitigation
Next, the steps you take to recover and mitigate damage will depend upon the severity of the attack—how far-reaching its effects are and how many users, systems and locations are impacted.
- Recover from the incident: Restore the systems and or the environment back to a state of normalcy
- Mitigate damage caused by the incident: i.e., how did you reduce the loss or impact due to the incident to help ensure it does not happen again
- Determine how the incident occurred
- Determine who initiated the incident
Notification (as required):
In some cases, authorities, regulatory agencies, or other organizations may need to be notified, particularly if any sensitive data may be at risk or if the scope of the attack cannot be fully known immediately.
- Notify any required regulatory agencies
- Notify law enforcement agencies (as appropriate)
- Notify affected customers, vendors, and partners
Documentation (Post-Mortem):
It’s important to document every step and every action taken during your response. Investigators, lawyers, or regulators may need this information later and it also serves to protect you from potential liability. You want to be able to prove what you did and didn’t do.
- Document all events surrounding the incident including potential threats and organization’s response actions
- Document all steps taken with the incident response report
- Update your incident response plan with any new lessons learned
Once you complete your plan, test it. Perform tabletop exercises or even “stage” an incident to better prepare you and your team in case of an emergency. You can never be 100% ready, but it is better than being caught off guard in a real scenario with no one knowing what to do or how to react.
Finally, instill in your customers and your own team that you should never assume that nothing is going to happen, or that you will have time to do it later. The last thing you want as a trusted IT and business partner is to be caught unprepared for one of your clients.
To quote Benjamin Franklin: “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!”
Corey Kirkendoll is president and CEO of 5K Technical Solutions and chair of CompTIA’s Managed Services Community.
Want more ideas on how to plan for a cybersecurity incident?
Check out CompTIA's Data Breach Response Plan! | https://connect.comptia.org/blog/your-customer-will-be-cyber-attacked-now-what |
It’s Friday evening and you’re just about to leave the office to head home for a long three-day weekend. Just as you are about to walk out the front door, you receive a notification on your phone: your email has been hacked and sensitive data has been stolen from your business. What do you do?
Any business can hardly afford to do nothing immediately, but as a small business, you’re even more vulnerable, and not addressing the issue immediately will only hurt your company, whether in terms of your bottom line, your reputation, or both.
That’s why it’s important to not only have cyber insurance and cybersecurity measures in place, but also to have a cyber incident response plan to fall back on when such an incident should arise.
According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), a cyber incident response has five functions:
- Identify
In order to address a problem, you’ve got to know not just that you’ve got a problem, but just what that problem is: it’s more than admitting you have a problem; it’s a matter of specifying as well as identifying just what it is the issue is.
So, for instance, when you’ve got a cyber incident on hand–and it’s closing time after a long week of work and all the employees want to go home and your spouse is calling you about the kids and the dog just kicked the bucket–you’ve got to have a quick and ready way in which to identify what and where the specific point of breach is. This will not only help you to quickly respond appropriately, but will also direct and guide your efforts to combat the bad actors who have infiltrated your system.
To be sure, there are numerous security risks to be aware of, such as threats to your technology systems, threats to your data, threats to your operations. Knowing and understanding where the weakest link is not only empowers you to build up support around it, but such knowledge affords you the opportunity to look directly into that weak link when a cyber incident occurs.
To identify risks, you can look at system logs, you can examine vulnerable files, or you can track suspicious employee activity.
- Protect
It is the business of your company not only to provide the products and services that you offer, it is also your business to protect both those products and services as well as all the client and customer data that comes along with them: no longer can you simply plop and drop aid or services or products; you are interconnected with your clients and their data in a way that has never before been. And, as Peter Parker learned from Uncle Ben, with great power comes great responsibility.
Not only must you protect your clients’ data, you must also protect your company’s data and, with that, its reputation.
Some ways in which to protect your company and your clients’ data are to utilize backups, implement firewalls as security controls, and train employees on best cybersecurity practices.
While safeguards are key in protecting your company and your clients, when they are breached, you must act quickly to remediate the problem.
- Detect
You can respond to a breach by quickly detecting irregularities, such as unusual network activity or someone trying to access sensitive data. You can do this by deploying intrusion detection systems (ISDs). ISDs can effectively assist you in locating and routing out irregularities in your system or data. Detection of irregularities is essential to limiting the damage of a cyber incident and getting your systems back up and running smoothly and quickly.
- Respond
In order to best respond to a cyber incident, you will need to do something that is proactive: you will need to plan. With a plan in place beforehand, you will be prepared and ready, knowing what to do and how to do it, as well as reduce the high levels of anxiety and stress that can accompany a data breach. Your plan should include strategies for breach containment, investigation of the breach, and resolving the breach, as well as how and when you will inform those impacted by the breach, such as employees or clients. A couple of important strategies for responding to a breach are to isolate the affected systems and to cut off access to every impacted system.
- Recover
In addition to your plan to respond, you will need a plan in place to recover, not only the data lost or stolen, but also the resuming of normal business operations as soon as possible to minimize disruption in workflow. Your recovery plan will need to include at least the following: restoring affected systems, implementing security controls to prevent future incidents, investigating the root cause(s) of the incident, and taking legal action against perpetrators as well as disclosing the nature of the incident to help others avoid it.
With a well-crafted incident response plan in place, you will be able to better resolve a breach, minimize the damage caused, and restore normal business operations as quickly and effectively as possible. Additionally, it is critical that employees are aware of the incident response plan and know their roles and responsibilities in the event of a breach. Such a plan should also be regularly reviewed and updated to ensure its relevance and effectiveness, since cyber incidents can occur any time.
Collaborate with an IT Service Provider to improve your defenses
An IT Service Provider like Total Secure Technology might be exactly what your business needs to develop an incident response plan. With our expertise and experience, we can help you protect your business, develop a comprehensive incident response plan, and abide by NIST’s five functions of incident response best practices.
These are just a few of the ways we can help you with your incident response journey. If you’re looking for help protecting your business against cyber incidents, be sure to contact us to schedule a no-obligation consultation. | https://totalsecuretech.com/how-to-respond-to-a-cyber-incident-in-five-steps/ |
A Policy and Framework will assist an organisation to clearly define the implementation and management approach for their Resilience Program, aligned with best practice standards or guidelines. This includes considerations for Emergency and Incident Management, Crisis Management and Business Continuity.
A threat assessment identifies threats that may result in major business disruptions to an organisation. Threats are identified, rated against likelihood and consequence scales, and then assessed against control measures. Findings are applied to the Business Impact Analysis process and used in the identification of disruption scenarios and development of recovery strategies.
A Business Impact Analysis (BIA) is the foundation for any effective business continuity program. It is conducted to accurately map the vulnerabilities of the organisation, identify critical functions, align recovery time frame, plan key resources, quantify potential costs of a disruption and manage organisational dependencies.
Response & Recovery Plans are action documents that set out the processes and procedures to be followed during an incident or business disruption. Plans should be simple and easy to use with consideration for immediate response requirements, operational recovery and resumption, through to top level strategic management of the event.
Focused on the immediate response to an incident or emergency event to ensure the safety of people and property, whilst remaining compliant.
Focused on the immediate and short-term response to an incident for complex environments and places of mass gatherings.
Focused on the operational recovery from a disruption to ensure continuity of services and products to an acceptable predefined level.
Focused on the strategic and operational level cyber security response actions to be used when faced with a major IT security incident, including IT preparedness, identification, containment, eradication, recovery and follow-up.
Focused on the management and leadership required during a significant event to protect the organisation’s reputation and strategic viability during a crisis. Includes communication strategies, crisis response and recovery strategies.
Focused on the management and leadership required during a significant event to protect the organisation’s reputation and strategic viability during a crisis. Includes communication strategies, media training and post-incident reviews.
This area focuses on building program engagement and team capability to prepare your people to confidently lead your organisation during a crisis. | https://www.risklogic.com.au/services/build-your-plans/ |
No organization is exempt from data breaches or cyber-attacks. In order to protect your company and its customers, you must have a plan in place for when (not if) an incident occurs. This plan should include the steps you will take to investigate the issue, contain the damage, and restore service. A well-run Incident Response Team (IRT) is key to minimizing the impact of any data breach or cyber-attack.
The job of an IRT is not easy – it requires coordination and communication among people with different skillsets, as well as cooperation with other departments within the company. But with careful planning and execution, an IRT can be a valuable asset in times of crisis.
This guide will walk you through everything you need to know about responding to an incident, from initial steps to long-term recovery. We hope this information will help you create or improve your organization’s Incident Response Plan.
What is an Incident Response Team (IRT)?
The incident response team is the group that engages and supports the entire incident response lifecycle. Simply put, these team members are the ones you will call when it hits the fan, and they’ll fix it.
There are many names for the incident response team, some of the most common being:
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ISIRT (Information Security Incident Response Team),
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Centralized Incident Response Team,
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Computer Emergency Response Team,
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Incident Response Team CSIRT (Computer Security Incident Response Team), and
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When referred to in this specific way normally represents a more specialized division on the incident team (we’ll talk about that just a bit later)
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Response Team.
Regardless of their name, these incident responders do the same thing. They handle your incidents.
What are the Incident Response Team Roles?
While each incident response team has variations, they typically have these general members identified and assigned to appropriately competent and available entities.
Incident Response Manager (Team Leader)
The incident manager is responsible for all incident management functions (*drop mic*). This “team lead” oversees the entire incident response effort and ensures all other team members are performing their duties.
While they should have the technical expertise to understand all of the aspects of the incident response effort, the incident manager does not need to be a specialist in everything. The incident manager also is not necessarily the team member who will communicate with other internal stakeholders or external parties (i.e., customers, vendors, etc.).
Excellent project management, leadership, and communication skills are a must for the incident manager. It’s also important that the incident manager is highly available so that when there is an incident, they can immediately jump on it and assemble the appropriate team members.
Technical Lead
This is another incident manager that focuses on the technical aspects of an incident and its management. As their name suggest, they should have substantial technical expertise.
In many organizations, the technical lead is supported by the CIO (Chief Information Officer), CTO (Chief Technical Officer), or CISO (Chief Information Security Officer), and their supporting technical players are typically sourced from the organization’s IT (Information Technology), and/or SOC (Security Operations Center) departments.
ISMS (Information Security Management System) Director
The organization’s ISMS is its security and compliance management program. It encompasses all of the efforts that the organization puts into managing its security and compliance. The ISMS can go my many names, one of the most common being an ISP (Information Security Program).
This director (of whatever your organization calls your security and compliance program) is typically the custodian (i.e., the one doing the work) of all security and compliance matters within the organization. They are usually your organization’s risk management specialists and typically manage your incident response planning. If this role is separate from any of the above roles, it should be included within your incident response team.
Regulatory & Compliance Advisor(s)
These incident response team members ensure that all regulatory requirements are being met before (done during the incident planning phase – more on that later), during, and after an incident.
Security breaches involving client or patient information introduces a host of regulatory requirements and it is imperative you have appropriate representation on your team to manage these legal requirements.
HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability & Availability Act) Officer
If you work with PHI (Protected Health Information), then HIPAA applies to you. Your HIPAA Officer must be an internal resource (this can’t be outsourced) and there are very specific (time and deadline sensitive) actions they must perform when there is a data breach that impacts (or is suspected to impact) PHI or ePHI (Electronic Protected Health Information).
This role must understand the complexities of the HIPAA Privacy Rules, and the HITECT Subpart D Data Breach Notification requirements. Even if ePHI/PHI has not been affected, HIPAA still has very specific requirements anytime a covered entity or business associate experiences a security breach.
Privacy Officer
Just like HIPAA has very specific requirements around ePHI/PHI management, if you process, store, or transmit PII (Personally Identifiable Information) there are very specific state, federal, and international laws your organization must abide by.
Just like with HIPAA, whether there was a data breach or not, certain actions must be performed with all security breaches to ensure your organization is not breaking the law.
At the very least, your Privacy Officer must understand that there are tremendous complexities in privacy laws and how to get the support you need to ensure your organization is following them.
It’s also important to note, that for practically every privacy regulation, where your customers reside (not your organization) determines what privacy laws your organization must follow. With the internet making it so easy to do business with customers in multiple states and countries, it’s imperative your organization has an effective Privacy Officer.
Forensic Analysis
These highly technical cyber security teams perform an analysis of cyber attacks to determine, what happened, how it happened, and what as affected. Like a detective looking for fingerprints, these cyber security detectives provide the information your organization needs identify the root cause of an attack, and prevent future attacks.
Their analysis after security incidents is critical not just to identify what was accessed, but what wasn’t accessed. HIPAA and multiple privacy laws require “proof” that ePHI/PHI/PII was not impacted in any of your organization’s security incidents, and the forensic team can provide that. This keeps your organization from having to perform costly (and embarrassing) client notifications. Though not all IRT’s include a forensic analysis expert or team, these security analysts can protect your organization from expensive notification campaigns, remediation costs, regulatory fines, and lost business.
Legal Representation
These individuals or teams provide crucial legal guidance for your organization. Many times, your legal representation will also act as your HIPAA Officer (if they are internal to your organization) and/or Privacy Officer.
It’s very important however to source legal guidance from firms that understand your industry and needs. A patent attorney is not the best resource to engage for a possible privacy event.
Local Law Enforcement & FBI Contacts
While not direct incident response team members, it’s important to have the contact information for all law enforcement agencies and FBI field offices local to your location(s).
Insurance Carriers
Again, while not direct incident response team members, your ISIRT member contact list should have the relevant insurance information listed (i.e., claim contact numbers, policy numbers, etc.) so it is easily available during an incident.
Public Relations & Media Support
It’s best to not represent yourself in court, and the same goes for public engagement. If available, be sure to list the contact information for these resources (and any other relevant information) so they can be quickly engaged if needed.
Client Notifications
If client (or patient) information is impacted during a security incident, they must be notified, and there are specifics regarding how that is done. Your Client Notifications team member(s) ensure(s) that the right message goes to the right parties, at the right times. Many times, this is managed by your legal team, HIPAA Officer, or privacy compliance officers. These are more compliance driven communications, rather than the PR/Marketing messages managed by the Public Relations & Media Support team(s).
Other Team Members
Your incident response team should consist of every resource that could support you through an incident. Not every member will be involved in every incident response. What’s important, is that they are ready, and their contact information easily available, when they are needed.
Do the Incident Response Team Members Just Address Security Incidents?
While many people think of an incident response team as only handling security incidents (which in specialized teams is typically the role of the Incident Response Team CSIRT), the incident response team is (should be) responsible for handing the incident response for any type of incident that negatively affects the organization.
Be sure to source your incident response team will all the resources that can support the type of incidents your organization may experience.
What Seven Incident Response Activities Must the Incident Response Team Address?
While they may be named differently all incident plans should ensure they address:
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Incident Response Management Preparation,
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Incident Detection and Notification of Weaknesses, Events & Incidents,
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Incident Containment, Investigation, Assessment, & Decision
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Incident Response & Recovery,
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Incident Reporting
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Learning from Incidents (Post Mortem Analysis), and
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Collection of Evidence
1 – Incident Response Planning
Just like you don’t want to start developing your evacuation plan when the building is already on fire, you don’t want to start developing your incident response plan when you experience an incident.
Incident response planning must happen before experiencing a security incident. Creating an effective incident plan of action should include:
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Performing risk assessments to identify all relevant security threats and system vulnerabilities to your organization and identify the gaps in your security posture,
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A review of relevant trending data and previous incidents (if any exist),
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Identification of all relevant incident response team roles and responsibilities,
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Development of your security incident process flow (your general approach to handling a security incident),
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The identification of all communication requirements during and after an incident,
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Documentation of your plan (write it all down), and
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Ensure your plan is both protected, and available (it’s no use to anyone if they can’t access it when they need it).
To create the most effective incident response strategy possible, work with all relevant stakeholders (interested parties) and other security analysts to ensure you address all relevant issues to organization. You should also utilize each of the remaining elements listed below and ensure you have adequate descriptions and instructions for each of them.
2 – Incident Detection & Notification
In order to mount an effective incident response, a security incident must be detected, and the appropriate resources notified.
Detection
A successful incident response can’t occur without it being detected. Unfortunately, according to the 2021 IBM Data Breach Cost Report, this takes 287 days on average. Ouch!
What constitutes good detection capabilities is subjective to each organization and its particular needs, there is no one size fits all solution. Good detection capabilities come from a layered approach (multiple and varying security tools), which typically include:
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Network traffic monitors,
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Multiple security devices like firewalls and managed switches,
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IDS – Intrusion Detection Systems,
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Robust logging of systems and networks,
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Review of threat intelligence briefs,
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Well developed internal audit programs, and
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Performing routine vulnerability assessments and penetration testing.
These are just a few examples and what would be best for your response development will depend on your specific needs. It’s important that the review and development of your detection capabilities are part of your normal team activities and most importantly reviewed by more than one person.
Notification
Once a security incident has been detected, the ISIRT needs to be told about it. That’s notification.
Notifications can come from many places, some examples include:
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Security alerts,
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Auditing activities,
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Vulnerability assessments,
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Penetration tests,
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Internal or external notifications.
It’s important that direct communication channels to your ISIRT are established and that all those interacting with your organization understand how to use them effectively.
3 – Incident Containment, Investigation, Assessment, & Decision
This stage is where your incident team first takes action (not counting all of the work they did in the planning phase).
Incident Containment
Stop the bleeding. Here your first responder (first team member to engage) performs a quick triage of the situation and takes immediate action to prevent further impacts from the detected incident or at least slow them as much as possible.
The actions performed in this stage won’t necessarily be your final solution, and they rarely are as what is done to initially respond to an incident typically has a significant impact to business productivity and operations.
Thorough planning and “pre-authorizations” (i.e., what systems a responder can take offline) supports rapid system containment, and helps minimize the impact(s) to your organization during the initial states of an incident.
Incident Investigation
Once the bleeding has been stopped, you’re in a safe place, your ISIRT can begin the investigation to understand what exactly is happening and what organizational assets (equipment, informations, locations, people, etc.) are being affected.
The goal of this stage is not necessarily to identify the root cause of the incident (though that does happen many times during this stage) but rather, to understand the extent of the damage and affected assets to support the team’s ability to fully assess the situation, and make an appropriate decision regarding how to move forward.
Incident Assessment
To understand how to appropriately respond, your incident response team needs to fully understand what they are dealing with. The assessment phase will use all available information available on the incident to classify the incident which will dictate an appropriate response effort.
The incident response team can classify an incident in one of three ways:
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Weakness
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A process or flaw in a system or process that could lead to an impact but there is (as of yet) no evidence or belief that an actual impact has occurred or has attempted to be exploited.
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Examples include:
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An organizational asset without anti-malware installed,
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Unused open ports on a system or firewall, and/or
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A door to a secure area without a lock
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Security Event
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An action or occurrence that may have (but did not or hasn’t yet) impacted any organizational assets and can be evidenced to that affect.
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Examples include:
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A breach of the network, but no data was accessed within the affected network,
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An asset containing organizational information was sent to the wrong location, but no data was accessed (because the system was encrypted), and/or
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An unauthorized party entered an organizational location (not a secured location) but did not access any information/assets and caused no damage or disruption.
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Security Incidents
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An action or occurrence that has impacted the organization (i.e., data breach) or cannot be verified with evidence that such an impact did not occur.
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Examples Include:
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A breach of the network, and data was stolen or accessed,
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An asset containing organizational information was sent to the wrong location but was not encrypted and accessed by an outside party, and/or
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An unauthorized party entered an organizational secured area or a non-secured area and accessed information or assets or caused damage or a disruption.
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It’s important that when a security issues is being classified as an event rather than an incident that there is supporting evidence to verify that no PHI/ePHI/PII was accessed by unauthorized parties. Without this evidence, your organization could be in violation of certain privacy regulations and laws.
It’s also worth noting, that some incident response plans also have a classification for “high severity incidents.” The structure provided here assumes that the assessment performed by your incident response team will include a severity assigned to each level. Either way, how your incident team responds to the identify security issues will depend on the assessment performed in this phase, so be sure to utilize a structure that works best for your organization and team.
Incident Decision
After the security issue (weakness, event, or incident) has been classified (which can be updated later after more information is collected), the incident response team will determine a course of action that:
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Most securely and quickly addresses the issue,
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Eliminates or minimizes further impact to the organization,
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Introduces the least amount of disruption to services, and
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Prevents further similar issues.
In some cases certain internal occurrences may result in a conflict of interest. In these situations the applicable parties should be removed from the ISIRT and all decision-making roles during the investigation to ensure transparent and un-biased incident decision making and reporting.
4 – Incident Response Process & Recovery
During this phase of incident management, your incident response team will fully manage the impact of the incident and recover (return to normal operational capabilities) from it.
Generally, security issues are responded to and recovered from:
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As directed by the relevant (to the security issue at hand) ISIRT members and supporting SME’s (Subject Matter Experts),
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According to the organization’s business continuity plans and disaster recovery plans (which are ultimately incident response plans), and
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As required by all organizational obligations (statutory, regulatory, and contractual).
If they are not already involved, this is where the more specialized incident response team members will be engaged and offer the most support, such as:
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The computer security incident response team,
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Specialized security teams,
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Threat researchers,
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Forensic experts,
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An on call engineer or other consultants, just to name a few.
Response
How your incident response team responds to an incident is based on its assessment of the incident (performed in the previous phase) and should be structured to ensure the issue is:
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Fully contained as quickly as possible and appropriate,
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Correctly assessed (the initial assessment should be validated or updated,
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Remediated / mitigated,
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Prudently repaired and recovered from,
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Tracked, and
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Formally reported as appropriate and in line with all organizational obligations (statutory, regulatory, and contractual).
Your incident response team should have general guidelines for how to respond to each (general) type of incident. This should be developed during the incident planning phase. These plans are typically your organization’s Business Continuity Plans (BCP’s) which should be structured to support business operations, productivity, and incident management.
Recovery
The incident recovery phase is where normal business operations are restored and it’s confirmed that the security issue (weakness, event, or incident) is no longer (or could no longer) impact the organization. Pre-planning for this phase of your incident response plan is typically found within your organization’s Disaster Recovery Plans (DRP’s).
5 – Incident Reporting Procedures
Communication is critical during each phase of the incident response process. There needs to be communication between all the team members, those internal to the organization, and even to affected (and interested) external parties.
This is absolutely critical (and unfortunately either overlooked, or ignored by many incident response teams) to avoid any regulatory, statutory, or contractual obligations. Not handing this correctly can introduce your organization, and its senior management, to very serious (and steep) civil and legal penalties. Not overstating here, it is possible for senior management and others involved, to go to jail for mishandling their incident reporting requirements. Be sure you have competent and professional help here.
Incident Communication – Who, What, When, and How
Different stakeholders want and require different levels of communicated information. To support effective communication, your incident response team should develop a communication matrix that identifies:
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All possible stakeholders (i.e., senior management, employees, clients, regulatory bodies, etc.),
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What information each stakeholder must be provided,
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When communication with each party should take place (i.e., at incident detection, during the management, after resolution, etc.), and
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Generally how the information will be communicated to each party (i.e., email, phone, mail, etc.).
While at the ultimate discretion the ISIRT and other appropriate stakeholders, notification responses should generally be performed as follows:
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Notification should be done via email whenever possible,
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If email is not possible (or appropriate), then direct mail should be provided,
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In cases where email or direct mail is not a feasible notification method, a notice can be put up on the organization’s website assuming it’s publicly available.
All communications should include:
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A concise account of what happened (or what is believed to have happened),
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How the notified party is or may have been impacted,
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What is being done to address the issue,
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Next steps (if any), and
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Contact information for additional questions relating to the matter.
Who is the Primary Communicator
As stated, improperly handing your incident communications can create some serious issues, so no notification should be provided without involving the following:
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Regulatory, Compliance and/or Privacy Officer(s),
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Legal Counsel,
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Public Relations & Media Support,
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Client Notifications, and
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Executive management
Your communication matrix should also identify who will communicate with other stakeholders like employees.
6 – Learning From Incidents
Often overlooked (especially in the planning phase and documentation), and one of the most important incident response activities, are the post incident measures. These are critical to further develop your organization’s internal intelligence and identify appropriate security controls to prevent (or lessen the impact) of future security incidents.
Once the issue has been fully resolved and the organization has resumed normal operations, the ISIRT team leader should work with the ISMS Board and all other appropriate stakeholders to review:
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The issue and its immediate and future impact(s) to the organization,
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How the issue was identified,
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How effective the notification process was at supporting the incident process,
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How the issue was contained,
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The scope of the impact,
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Who was notified and how effective the reporting process was,
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Legal considerations,
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Regulatory considerations,
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Lessons learned,
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Any changes that were implemented because of the issue,
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Recommended changes, and
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Any other pertinent information
Changes made from lessons learned will also support the improvement of applicable Business Continuity Plans and Disaster Recovery Plans to better support the organization’s ability to operate during security issues and quickly recover from them. This is a very important phase that makes incident response programs truly effective and is not to be skipped.
7 – Collection of Evidence
Not so much a phase but an extremely important element of the process, is the appropriate collection and preservation of evidence. This can come in many forms such as:
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Log files,
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Reports,
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Communication records,
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Physical hardware (i.e., hard drives, USB drives, etc.), and
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Provided notifications.
Evidence should be collected and preserved to support incident’s:
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Analysis,
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Decision making capabilities,
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Response,
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Recovery (back to operational efficiency),
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Reporting,
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Post analysis learning and improvement to prevent data breaches and other exposures in the future, and
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Compliance with notification regulations (and other applicable requirements).
It’s important to have competent team members support the collection and preservation of evidence especially if this is an issue that may go to court.
Incident Response Teams – Brining it all Together
The proper planning and management of an incident response team is critical to the success of any organization when it comes to data breaches or other security incidents. By following the seven phases we’ve outlined, along with the associated tasks, you can help ensure that your organization is prepared for any potential incident. While no one wants to go through a data breach or other security issue, being prepared will at least give you a fighting chance to minimize the damage and get back to business as usual as quickly as possible. Let us know how we can help you strengthen, support, or even get started with your own Incident Response Plan today. | https://www.inputoutput.com/seven-incident-response-activities-all-incident-response-teams-must-address/ |
Short-term systemic corticosteroid therapy may be useful in atopic dermatitis
Optimal delivery or duration of systemic corticosteroids in atopic dermatitis (AD) cannot be established as there is not enough strong evidence in existing literature, suggests a recent study.
Findings from previous reports generally agreed that use of systemic steroids should be limited to short courses as a bridge to steroid-sparing therapies.
Systemic side effects were as follows: osteoporosis, osteonecrosis, Cushing syndrome, adrenal insufficiency, diabetes, glucose intolerance, gastro-oesophageal reflux, gastritis, peptic ulcer disease, weight gain, emotional lability and behavioural changes.
Other side effects included growth suppression in children, glaucoma, cataracts, myopathy, hypertension, dysaesthesia, myalgia, pseudotumour cerebri, hyperlipidaemia, malignancy, thrombosis, skin atrophy, rebound flaring and sleep disturbance.
The investigators searched PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science and Cochrane Library to systematically review published studies on efficacy and safety of systemic corticosteroid use (oral, intramuscular and intravenous) in AD. Included were systematic reviews, guidelines and treatment reviews of systemic corticosteroid use among patients of all ages with AD (52 reviews and 12 studies).
The study was limited by the incomplete and heterogeneous reporting of baseline clinical severity, corticosteroid delivery and dose, and treatment response across studies, according to the investigators.
In a previous systematic review of published trials of topical corticosteroids (TCS) or topical calcineurin inhibitors (TCIs) treatments in patients <12 years with AD, Siegfried and colleagues found robust data supporting long-term use of TCIs, while data supporting long-term TCS use were limited to low- to mid-potency products. [BMC Pediatr 2016;16:75]
“Our review identifies a lack of information on the safety of commonly prescribed, long-term monotherapy with mid- to high-potency TCS in paediatric AD, and supports standard-of-care maintenance therapy with TCIs and intermittent use of low- to mid-potency TCS for flares,” said Siegfried. | https://specialty.mims.com/topic/short-term-systemic-corticosteroid-therapy-may-be-useful-in-atopic-dermatitis |
China is the world's largest consumer and producer of tobacco, with 53% of men smoking. Increasing evidence implicates prenatal exposure to smoking as a risk factor for child externalizing behavior problems (aggression, ADHD, rule breaking and delinquency), which is in turn an important risk factor for smoking initiation later in life. In contrast to this active smoking, there is far less research on the effects of second-hand smoking exposure (SHS), a form of passive smoking defined as the inhalation of tobacco by persons other than the intended ‘active’ smoker. While prenatal active smoking exposure is associated with cognitive and emotional risk factors for externalizing behavior, much less in known on the effects of SHS on cognitive and emotional functioning. The main aims of this study are: (1) to investigate whether prenatal SHS exposure is associated with the development of externalizing behavior in adolescence, controlling for parental externalizing behavior and (2) test whether cognitive and emotional abnormalities mediate the SHS - externalizing behavior relationship. This proposal builds on the PI’s large prospective cohort study previously funded by an NIH R01 award, which focused on lead exposure. This project focuses on secondhand smoking exposure and adolescents' behavior. Our pilot work from this cohort indicated that prenatal SHS exposure has effects on externalizing behavior in children at age 6, but we do not know if there are long-term effects, and we do not know the mechanism of action. The proposed study will help address these unresolved questions. The original epidemiological sample consisted of over 1,000 3-5 year-old Chinese children who are now in high school. We propose to make use of data that we already collected on prenatal and postnatal SHS exposure, pyschophysiology, neurocognitive and emotion, and will collect data on adolescents' IQ, school performance, and externalizing behavior. The interdisciplinary research team, consisting of researchers across three Penn schools and collaborators in China, has decades of experience in studying child behavior problems, psychophysiology, and smoking. We believe this would be the first study to assess the effect of prenatal SHS exposure on adolescent externalizing behavior in conjunction with neurobiological mediating factors. Findings may help build public awareness and support for further prevention efforts for reducing SHS and consequent behavior problems. It will also provide basis for a future NIH grant to investigate whether long-term SHS has an impact on adolescent’s smoking initiation. | https://global.upenn.edu/global-initiatives/prenatal-and-postnatal-secondhand-smoking-exposure-adolescents-externalizing |
In 1992, two neuroscientists, Richard Davidson and Clifford Saron, trekked into the hills around Dharamsala in north India to measure the brain waves of Tibetan Buddhist monks. Although the journey did not yield empirical data, it was a turning point in the careers of both men, and they went on to become leaders in the science of meditation.
On Feb. 9, they will be guest speakers at the Second Annual Symposium for Mindfulness and Society at the University of Oregon. Davidson, a professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Saron, a research scientist at University of California-Davis, will share the latest results from their respective research projects.
Davidson, author of the best selling book The Emotional Life of Your Brain, uses the methods of neuroscience in his research to distinguish different emotional styles and to illustrate a path towards a healthier, more meaningful life.
“The core focus [of the talk] will be that well-being is a skill and it can be cultivated,” Davidson tells EW. “I’ll illustrate how we can transform these emotional styles into well-being.”
Saron helps lead the Shamatha Project, a large-scale, long-term study of the effects of meditation on the brain. “People are experiencing a lot of psychological stress without relief,” Saron says. “It’s not that meditation is so special; it’s like it’s permission to do something natural.” Saron has pinpointed some of the empirical effects of meditation on the brain and, though he says the results are probabilistic like any study, the data shows clear trends.
Cris Niell, co-organizer of the event and professor of biology at the UO, says that the university is not known for meditation research, though that is beginning to change. “A lot of it is driven by students instead of faculty,” he says. As the scientific evidence gathers for the benefits of meditation, Niell says, more people are beginning to take meditation seriously as a way to combat the stress of modern life. “There’s a lot more need for it now,” he says. “It’s not something you have to do for mystical reasons.”
For a long time, the tradition of science was considered to be separate from ancient contemplative practices, but Davidson says that the latest research is beginning to change that. “We are now living in a unique time where these traditions are complementing each other,” Davidson says.
Saron’s lecture, “Minding Mindfulness: Findings and Issues in the Scientific Investigation of Contemplative Practice,” starts at 1 pm Monday, Feb. 9, in the Lee Barlow Guistina Ballroom at the Ford Alumni Center. Davidson’s lecture, “Change Your Brain by Transforming Your Mind: Neuroscientific Studies of Meditation,” follows at 7 pm in the EMU Ballroom.
In addition to the lectures, the symposium will feature a series of workshops as part of the Mindfulness Showcase on Feb. 10, including yoga, a sitting group and cognitive therapy in the EMU from 10 am to 5 pm. All events are free and open to the public. | https://www.eugeneweekly.com/2015/02/05/neuroscientists-talk-benefits-of-meditation-mindfulness-at-symposium/ |
Interventions that focus on the reduction of problem behaviors and support of emotional well-being and social relationships have become increasingly popular around the globe over the past two decades. One such program, School Wide Positive Behavior Supports (SWPBS) has a solid base of evidence for improving social, emotional, and academic outcomes in the short-term. However, there is still little evidence regarding the long-term effects of this popular intervention.
Borgen and colleagues examined the long-term effects of SWPBS on students’ academic failure and marginalization. Specifically, they examined short-term test scores and long-term academic grades, high school dropout, school behavior, and youth crime using population-wide Norwegian register data (N = 964,924). All Norwegian primary schools (grades 1–7) were included in the study (N = 2,366), where 216 of the schools in our sample (9%) had implemented SWPBS. The authors compared these individual-level variables between students who had attended SWPBS schools with those who had not, using a difference-in-difference (DiD) design. They also examined whether program effects were more substantial for students at risk of academic failure and behavioral problems.
- The study found no evidence of long-term effects for at-risk students or all students.
- However, even the most effective interventions tend to see diminishing returns over time.
The lack of positive long-term effects of SWPBS here does not negate past evidence of positive short-term outcomes, but points to a need for further research clarifying this finding. | https://cuspbeb.com/en/effects-of-swpbs-undetectable-in-the-long-term/ |
Summary: A new study of football players who were diagnosed with CTE reveals those who started playing tackle football before the age of 12 had earlier onset of emotional and cognitive problems.
Source: Boston University School of Medicine.
Starting to play tackle football before age 12 could lead to earlier onset of cognitive and emotional symptoms among athletes who were diagnosed with CTE and other brain diseases postmortem, according to a new study.
The findings, from researchers at VA Boston Healthcare System (VABHS) and Boston University (BU) School of Medicine, found that among 211 football players who were diagnosed with the neurodegenerative disease CTE after death, those who began tackle football before age 12 had an earlier onset of cognitive, behavior, and mood symptoms by an average of 13 years.
Every one year younger that the individuals began to play tackle football predicted earlier onset of cognitive problems by 2.4 years and behavioral and mood problems by 2.5 years. This study included 246 deceased football players who were part of the UNITE (Understanding Neurologic Injury and Traumatic Encephalopathy) study and who had donated their brains for neuropathological examination to the VA-BU-CLF (Concussion Legacy Foundation) Brain Bank. Of those 246, 211 were diagnosed with CTE (with several having evidence of additional brain diseases, such as Alzheimer’s) and 35 had no evidence of CTE, though several had evidence of other neuropathology. Of the 211 with CTE, 76 were amateur football players and 135 played at the professional level.
“Youth exposure to repetitive head impacts in tackle football may reduce one’s resiliency to brain diseases later in life, including, but not limited to CTE,” said corresponding author Ann McKee, MD, chief of Neuropathology at Boston VA Healthcare System, and Director of BU’s CTE Center. “It makes common sense that children, whose brains are rapidly developing, should not be hitting their heads hundreds of times per season.”
It is noteworthy that, although age of first exposure to tackle football was associated with early onset of cognitive and emotional problems, it was not associated with worse overall severity of CTE pathology, Alzheimer’s disease pathology or other pathology. In addition, earlier symptom onset was not restricted to those diagnosed with CTE. The relationship was similar for the former football players without CTE who had cognitive or behavioral and mood changes that may have been related to other diseases.
“Younger age of first exposure to tackle football appears to increase vulnerability to the effects of CTE and other brain diseases or conditions. That is, it influences when cognitive, behavioral, and mood symptoms begin. It is comparable to research showing that children exposed to neurotoxins (e.g., lead) during critical periods of neurodevelopment can have earlier onset and more severe long-term neurological effects. While participation in sports has important health and social benefits, it is important to consider contact and collision sports separately and balance those benefits against potential later life neurological risks,” said Michael Alosco, PhD, an assistant professor of Neurology at BU School of Medicine and an investigator at the BU Alzheimer’s Disease Center and the BU CTE Center.
The study extends research from the BU CTE Center that previously linked youth tackle football with worse later-life cognitive, emotional, and behavioral disturbances in living former amateur and professional tackle football players, as well as changes in brain structures (determined by MRI scans) in former NFL players.
Data were collected by conducting telephone interviews with family members and/or friends to determine the absence or presence, and age of onset, of cognitive, behavior and mood symptoms. The interviewers did not know the neuropathological findings and the neuropathologists did not know the individuals’ histories.
Although this study supports the idea that there may be long-term consequences associated with experiencing repeated hits to the head during childhood, the researchers stress that it is unclear if their findings generalize to the broader tackle football population and that much more research, particularly prospective longitudinal studies, is needed to understand the association between youth football and long-term consequences. The findings appear online in the journal Annals of Neurology.
Funding: Funding for this study was provided by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (1U01NS086659-01, U01NS093334, R01NS078337, R56NS078337), Department of Defense (W81XWH-13-2-0064), Department of Veterans Affairs, the Veterans Affairs Biorepository (CSP 501), the National Institute of Aging Boston University Alzheimer’s Disease Center (P30AG13846; supplement 0572063345-5), Department of Defense Peer Reviewed Alzheimer’s Research Program (DoD- PRARP #13267017), the National Institute of Aging Boston University Framingham Heart Study (R01AG1649), the National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment and the Concussion Legacy Foundation. This work was also supported by unrestricted gifts from the Andlinger Foundation, the WWE and the NFL. Michael L. Alosco is supported by the National Institutes of Health under grant number F32NS096803 and a Pilot Grant from the Boston University Alzheimer’s Disease Center (AG013846).
Source: Gina DiGravio – Boston University School of Medicine
Publisher: Organized by NeuroscienceNews.com.
Image Source: NeuroscienceNews.com image is in the public domain.
Original Research: The study will appear in Annals of Neurology. We will provide an update when the abstract is made available.
[cbtabs][cbtab title=”MLA”]Boston University School of Medicine “Youth Tackle Football Participation Linked to Early Onsite of Cognitive and Emotional Problems.” NeuroscienceNews. NeuroscienceNews, 30 April 2018. | https://neurosciencenews.com/cognition-emotion-youth-football-8920/ |
Even though researchers have learned a lot about COVID-19 over the past year, they are just beginning to look at the long-term impact of the virus. New research out of the University of Manchester and NIHR Manchester Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) used data gathered throughout the pandemic to further link COVID-19 with hearing and auditory issues.
The Study
Lead researchers Professor Kevin Munro and Ibrahim Almufarrij reviewed data from 24 studies of patients diagnosed with COVID-19 in order to determine that there was a:
- 7.6% occurrence of hearing loss.
- 14.8% occurrence of tinnitus.
- 7.2% occurrence of vertigo.
They published their findings in the International Journal of Audiology.
How Data was Gathered
So far, most of the research connecting COVID-19 and auditory issues has utilized self-reported questionnaires or medical records to gather information about COVID-19 related symptoms, rather than conducting their own hearing tests. Munro explains, “Though this review provides further evidence for an association, the studies we looked at were of varying quality so more work needs to be done.”
Why Additional Research Is Needed
According to Munro, “There is an urgent need for a carefully conducted clinical and diagnostic study to understand the long-term effects of COVID-19 on the auditory system. It is also well-known that viruses such as measles, mumps and meningitis can cause hearing loss; little is understood about the auditory effects of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.”
Munro and his team are currently working on a year-long study to further investigate the long-term impact COVID-19 has on hearing by following participants who were admitted to a hospital for treatment. They hope to be able to gather more information and accurately estimate the number of hearing disorders and other issues affecting the auditory system as a result of a COVID-19 diagnosis.
They hope that their research will further illustrate the need to follow COVID-19 safety guidelines, including wearing a mask and socially distancing. This includes when outside at Friendship Park. To learn more about the impact COVID-19 has on hearing loss or to schedule an appointment with a hearing expert, contact Chelmsford Hearing Group today. | https://chelmsfordhearinggroup.com/new-study-further-links-covid-19-with-hearing-loss-tinnitus/ |
Young, K.W. (2006). Social Support and Life Satisfaction.
International Journal of Psychosocial Rehabilitation. 10 (2), 155-164 .
This study aims at exploring the relationship between social support and life satisfaction for people with long-term mental illness. Research sample included 146 subjects, coming from two large residential homes in Hong Kong. Results show that different sources of social support have different effects on individual’s life satisfaction. Supports from staff and friends, but not from family, predict individual’s life satisfaction well. Emotional and instrumental supports from staff and friend have different predictive power and importance on individual’s life satisfaction. These findings suggest that strengthening staff and friends’ support could improve life satisfaction for people with long-term mental illness.
Although many researchers concern with the significant effect of social support on individual’s mental heath (e.g. Brown et al. ), few research studies have been done in exploring the relationships between social support and life satisfaction for people with long-term mental illness. Baker et al.’s study is one the few studies giving a detailed analysis in this area. In his study of 844 people with chronic psychiatric illness receiving community support services, case management service, as one type of social support, was shown to improve respondents’ subjective overall life satisfaction over the nine months period. Moreover, the increase of social support was related to the increase of subjective overall life satisfaction.
While acknowledging the existing relationship between social support and life satisfaction for people with long-term mental illness, little is known on how social support system affects life satisfaction. There are several important issues in the investigation of this area which are discussed below.
Firstly, in social support research, there is a distinction between received support and perceived support. Received support is a measurement of the actual support received from supportive members, while perceived support is typically measured by asking people to what extent they believe in their network are available to help them. For example, Earls et al. found that frequency of social support (actual received support) was related to individual’s life satisfaction for people with psychiatric illness. On the other hand, Turner et al. reported that perceived social support was correlated with psychological well-being for people with psychotic mental illness. Research evidences tend to suggest that perceived social support, but not received support, is more strongly related to life satisfaction .
Secondly, some researchers further examine the different modes and functions of perceived social support on individual’s life satisfaction. Although there are different categories regard to the functions of social support, social support could simply be categorized in two aspects: emotional or instrumental support . Different modes of social support seem to meet the needs of people with different types of psychiatric illness. For example, while people with depression need emotional support , people with schizophrenia need a combination of problem solving and low level emotional support . Thus it seems that different modes and functions of social support, i.e. emotional or instrumental support, may have different effects on individual’s life satisfaction.
Thirdly, research studies consistently found that the sources of supportive network of people with mental illness are different from that of the general population [8, 9]. While, their supportive networks are smaller in size , they are more likely to emphasize non-family support, such as: social service providers [11, 12]. For example, when facing with stressful life events, people with psychotic mental illness were found to seek support from mental health professionals, rather than from family . It seems that different sources of support (i.e., family and non-family) may have different effects on individual’s life satisfaction.
Finally, some researchers have tried to investigate about the complex process how social support interacts with psychological well-being. Several theoretical models have been developed in this area. The first model is called stress buffering model. This model assumes that social supports have an effect upon the individual’s psychological well-being only in the presence of certain social conditions, such as stressful life events . The second model is the direct or main effect model. The model suggests that social support has independent effects on individual’s psychological well-being . The third model is the indirect model. It assumes that social support exerts an indirect effect on individual’s psychological well being by directly reducing perceived stress, which in turn, promote individual’s well-being . Although many empirical research studies have been carried out to test these models, research evidences for these models was inconsistency [13, 14, 15, 16]. More research needs to be done before reaching any firm conclusion in this issue.
The aim of this research study is to explore the effects of different sources of social support (i.e. family, friends and staff) and functions (i.e. emotional support and instrumental support) on individual’s life satisfaction for people with long-term mental illness.
This study has adopted a cross-sectional research strategy. The studied group of people with long-term mental illness came from two large residential homes in Hong Kong. In each residential home, four to five residents lived in the same bedroom. Various kinds of professional and non-professional staff had been employed to provide 24-hour personal care services for its residents. Staff to resident ratio is about 1:4. Those residents, who were being assessed by registered psychiatric nurse as mentally stable, had suitable comprehensive and communicative skills, and discharged from mental hospitals and then lived at the residential home for one year or more, were eligible for being selected into the studied sample. Finally 146 residents had given their written consent and were interviewed by the author successfully. The data of subjective life satisfaction and social support of the studied group were collected and completed in 1998.
In this study, Lehman’s Quality of Life Interview is adopted to measure the subjective life satisfaction of the studied group. The reliability and validity of the scale are well established [17, 18] and the scale has been widely used [19, 20]. In this study, there is no modification in this scale, and the reliabilities of sub-scales of` overall life satisfaction as well as subjective satisfaction in various life domains have been tested to be satisfactory (Cronbach’s a= .73 for overall life satisfaction sub-scale; and Cronbach’s a range from .75 to .91 for subjective satisfaction indicators in various life domains).
With regard to the measurement of different sources and functional aspects of social support, the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) is modified and adopted in this study. The validity and reliability of the scale has been reported to be satisfactory [5, 21]. However, this scale is originally designed for people without mental illness. So this scale is modified so as to be more relevant and applicable for people with long-term mental illness living in residential home. Two modifications have been made. Firstly the scale has been shortened, and respondent is asked whether supportive persons would provide assistance in seven occasions instead of twelve. These seven occasions included: financial support; using public transport and community facilities; giving advice; going out for tea; sharing pleasant and unpleasant feelings; comforting; and giving concern. Assistances to the first four occasions refer to instrumental support, while assistances to last three occasions refer to emotional support. Secondly, “significant others” of the original scale is replaced by staff of residential home. So, in this scale, respondents would rate and compare their perceived social support from family members, friends and staff. A typical question is: “Would your family member / friend / staff provide financial support to you?” Each item is rated in a 4-point scale: “1” Not at all; “2” Sometimes; “3” Often; “4” Certainly.
In this study, the reliabilities of MSPSS and its subscales have been tested to be satisfactory (Cronbach’s a was .90 for whole scale, and ranked from .98, .86 and .85 for the subscales of perceived support from family, friends and staff respectively). In addition, factor analysis has been carried out for this scale by using principal component analysis through Window SPSS program. Results shows that each items of this scale are satisfactory explained by three factors (please refer to Table 1 & 2). So this scale can be grouped into three factors as if the original scale [5, 21] and these three factors are: family support (item S1 to S7), friend’s support (item S8-S14) and staff support (item S15-S21).
Below describes the characteristics of the studied sample which came from two large residential homes, i.e. home A group (n=77) and home B group (n=69). Results showed that these two studied groups did not differ in almost all demographic factors, except in age and financial situation. Taking together, the whole studied group had slightly more male than female. Most of them were aged under 60 (mean 53 years), schizophrenic, single and had reached primary school level. They had a mean continuous hospital stay of 7.5 years just before admitting into residential home. Most were single or divorced, and had few contacts with their families. They did not have any friends outside the hospitals and residential home. Almost all of them had to rely on governmental social security schemes to support their lives.
Most residential home residents (82%) were satisfied with their overall life. So the studied group viewed their overall lives as positive at their current places after their discharge from mental hospitals. The reported level of life satisfaction of the studied group is found to be similar to that reported in other studies [20, 22].
The social supports of the studied group are found to be weak. About 80% of respondents were single, divorced or widowed. The majority of the studied group had few or nor contacts with their family members, and less than one fifth of respondents had weekly contacts with their families. Comparatively, the studied group had more contacts with other residents living at the same residential home. Over one third of respondents talked with other residents at least weekly. Most of the respondents (80%) rated their perceived total social support as fair and weak, while more than seventy percentage (76%, 88% and 72% respectively) rated their perceived support from family, friends and staff as fair and weak (score <3).
Overall life satisfaction is significantly related to and predicted by individual’s perceived support from friends (Pearson correlation coefficient (r) =.260, p=.002) and staff ( r=.280, p=.001), but not from family. (Data of regression analysis please refer to Table 4 for reference).
Overall life satisfaction is significantly related to and predicted by individual’s instrumental support from friends (r=.215, p=.009) and emotional support from friends (r=.266, p=.001), instrumental support from staff (r=.262, p=.001) and emotional support from staff (r=.291, p=.000).
In particular, individual’s overall life satisfaction is found to be significantly correlates with support from friends in their company for going for tea (r=.239, p=.004) and comforting (r=.224, p=.007) concern (r=.332, p=.000). In addition, it is found correlated with almost all items of support from staff including: financial support (r=.206, p=.013), assistance in using community facilities (r=.216, p=.009), advice (r=.207, p=.012), sharing of feeling (r=.196 p=.018), comforting (r=.242, p=.003) and concern (r=.296, p=.000).
For support from friends, emotional support from friends could explain 6.4% variance of individual’ life satisfaction, while instrumental support could explain 4%. (Please refer to Table 4 for reference). So for support from friends, emotional support seems to have higher predictive power than perceived instrumental support for individual’s life satisfaction. For support from staff, emotional support from friends could explain 7.8% variance of individual’ life satisfaction, while instrumental support could explain 6.2%. (Please refer to Table 4 for reference). So for support from staff, instrumental support and emotional support seems to have similar predictive power for individual’s life satisfaction.
As discussed above, overall life satisfaction is significantly related to individual’s support from friend. Interestingly, after controlling subjective satisfaction with friend, this correlation becomes non-significant (Please refer to Table 5 for reference). This result shows that subjective satisfaction in friend has mediating effects on the relationships between overall life satisfaction and support from friend.
In this study, several interesting findings are found. Firstly, it is found that different sources of social support have different effects on individual’s subjective life satisfaction. Perceived support from friend and staff are found to predict individual’s overall life satisfaction. However, perceived family support is found not related to individual’s overall life satisfaction. These findings are supported by Lehman’s study which has found that intimate social relationships, rather than family relationships, predict individual’s overall life satisfaction. People with long-term mental illness are so impaired and disabled that they emphasize and rely more on non-family support rather than family support in their daily lives [11, 12]. Moreover, the majority of them have few or even no contacts with their family members, and so non-family support play a more significant role in their daily lives. Thus it is not surprising to find that perceived support from friends and staff, rather than family support, play a more important role in enhancing individual’s overall life satisfaction for people with long-term mental illness.
Secondly, both emotional support and instrumental support are found to predict individual’s overall life satisfaction. Thus although emotional support is repeatedly cited in literature as an important correlate of psychological well being, people with long-term mental illness may need a combination of both instrumental and emotional support in enhancing their life satisfaction.
Furthermore, support from staff and friends are found to affect individual’s life satisfaction through different ways. For support from friends, emotional support seems to have higher predictive power than instrumental support for individual’s life satisfaction. So, emotional support from friends is more important in enhancing individual’s life satisfaction. For support from staff, both instrumental support and emotional support seems to have similar predictive power as well as importance in enhancing individual’s life satisfaction.
Finally, it is found that subjective satisfaction with friends has mediating effect on the relationship between overall life satisfaction and perceived support from friend. This interesting and preliminary finding indicate that perceived support from friends lead to a better overall life satisfaction indirectly, i.e. by improving the subjective satisfaction in friend. That is to say: perceived support from friend leads to a better subjective satisfaction in the domain of friend which in turn leads to a better overall life satisfaction. This preliminary finding suggests that social support interact with life satisfaction in an indirect way and so it is in favor of the indirect model. However, as the underlying interaction between perceived staff support and life satisfaction needs further exploration, more research is needed in this area.
The above findings have important service implications. According to the above findings, in order to enhance individual’s overall life satisfaction, it is important for mental health professionals to strengthen the social support system of our service users. It could be done in several ways. Firstly, it is important to strengthen the support of staff in all aspects of the daily life of our service users, including both instrumental as well as emotional support. As staff becomes the main source of social support and has daily contact with individual service user, so it is important to strengthen staff support first. According to the above research results, in order to enhance individual’s life satisfaction, staff support could be strengthen in the following ways: financial support; use of public transport; use of community facilities; giving advice; sharing pleasant and unpleasant feelings; comforting; and giving concern, etc. On the other hand, in order to strengthen support from friends, it is important to encourage service users to have more social gathering with other residents, especially in going out for tea; and to encourage service users to have emotional sharing and support towards each others.
This study aims at exploring the relationship between individual’s social support and life satisfaction for people with long-term illness. In this study, several interesting findings have been found. Different sources of social support have different effects on individual’s life satisfaction. Supports from staff and friends, but not family support, are found to lead to a better overall life satisfaction. For friends’ support, emotional support seems to have a higher predictive power than instrumental support for individual’s life satisfaction. For staff support, instrumental and emotional supports have similar predictive power for individual’s overall life satisfaction. Finally, perceived support in friend leads to a better subjective satisfaction in friend which in turn leads to a better overall life satisfaction. The above findings suggest that strengthening individual’s social support, especially staff and friends’ support, could improve life satisfaction for people with long-term mental illness. In addition, based on the research results, effective ways of strengthening social support have also been discussed. | http://www.psychosocial.com/IJPR_10/Social_Support_and_QOL7_Young.html |
Last week I was truly inspired.
I was at our Gathering PACE: A passion for permanence event in Edinburgh and heard so many stories of real improvements in reducing drift and delay when making permanence decisions for children. Meaning they get to a long-term settled, secure and permanent place to live quicker.
The nine local authorities that are currently involved in the Permanence and Care Excellence programme (PACE) were all represented there. And, as PACE is built around a whole-system improvement approach, social workers, Children’s Hearing members, colleagues from education, health, legal and data services, Children’s Reporters, adoption agencies and Scottish Government also told their stories.
There was so much sharing of change ideas and ‘light bulb’ moments, and a real determination and belief in the room that real improvement to these young lives comes from everyone around the child working together to make a difference and cut delays.
So I was inspired - and heartened, but we still have so much more to do…
Why permanence? Why passion?
Children who experience the care system, whether looked after at home or accommodated, tell us clearly that they want to get on with their childhoods and teenage years with as little disruption as possible. When I worked with children in temporary and long-term foster care, over and over again I would hear them say that they didn’t want the uncertainty that at any time they might have to move from their (latest) family, school, friends and local area. The impact of multiple moves left them feeling different, confused and insecure. Their emotional and physical roots became increasingly fragile each time they moved, and their ability to believe and trust adults increasingly diminished.
As usual, the children are right!
When a child’s wellbeing is compromised within their birth family, for whatever reason, we need to act early with thorough and robust assessments, sensitive parent and child support and effective decision making. The clock on that child’s childhood never stops ticking and it’s all of our jobs to ensure alarm bells keep clanging all the way to early physical, emotional and legal permanence.
I recently wrote in the Scottish Journal of Residential Child Care about Keiran, whose permanent placement was long-term foster care. The team around Keiran worked hard with him, his family, his foster carer and his teachers to make the move as smooth as possible, and was managed in such a way as to minimise distress or trauma for him. There was fantastic whole-system working, but it had taken Keiran several years to be settled in his family of permanence.
What we need to do is make early permanence happen for all children – this should be the rule, not the exception!
Read Keiran’s full story in the SJRCC.
The policy behind permanence
The Scottish Government’s strategy document Getting It Right for Looked After Children and Young People spells out the blueprint for what is needed to achieve early permanence and also why. There’s further hard data evidence of the extent of current drift and delay in achieving permanence for Scottish children and young people in the December 2015 research produced by the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration.
These documents communicate the compelling reasons and a road map for early permanence.
What children tell us is backed up by plentiful research on just what is needed to achieve wellbeing through permanence. The evidence base for our PACE programme is clear on this and signposts our priorities in our local improvement partnership work. These include:
- Early assessment and intervention
- Clear understanding of decision making around family contact
- Confident and timely decisions and local processes and systems which support this to happen
- Local multi-agency leadership and culture which enable and drives early permanence
- The need to track children’s permanence progress using data – how do we know how long it’s taking and that the changes we are making are an improvement if we don’t measure them?
We need to talk, to share, to listen and to act
We need to keep talking, connecting, and acting to improve processes, procedures and whole-system decision-making at the core of best permanence practice.
Priority topics we’re grappling with focus on aiding a deeper understanding of permanence legislation, agency roles and responsibilities, and how each impacts on decision making for permanence. The role of multi-agency assessment leading to thorough and robust permanence decisions is paramount.
We’re working on understanding what makes for the most helpful content in reports and presentation of information to Children’s Hearings and how to maximise these meetings to make sure child-centred decisions are made. It’s all about enabling multi-agency understanding of permanence and the impact of trauma on children and young people that results from drift and delay.
It was clear from the Gathering PACE event that there's strong motivation and commitment to improving permanence for children. There are exciting, creative and energetic initiatives happening, and working, in local practice throughout Scotland through the PACE programme and other local permanence work.
But there’s still a long, long way to go to ensure we are getting this right for every looked after child and young person.
It’s all of our jobs to ensure early permanence for children, so please join me and be passionate about permanence!
The views expressed in this blog post are those of the author/s and may not represent the views or opinions of CELCIS or our funders.
Commenting on the blog posts
Sharing comments and perspectives prompted by the posts on this blog are welcome. CELCIS operates a moderation process so your comment will not go live straight away. | https://www.celcis.org/knowledge-bank/search-bank/blog/2016/11/passion-permanence |
THE EFFECTS OF CHILD CARE 1 A variety of changes in the world have demanded an increase in the need for child care. Some of theses changes include migration, poverty, and urbanization. These economic and societal changes are forcing more and more woman into the workforce. Among these are young women and mothers. From the 1970’s to the 1990’s there was a major increase in the need for child care. In March of 1970, 26% of mothers with children under the age of 2 were working outside the home. By the same month in 1984 that number had reached 46. %( U. S. Dept of Labor 1984. ) Now a days that number is even higher and according to the 2006 census, the number of preschoolers under the age of 5 living with employed mothers reached 11,207. The Children’s Defense Fund estimates that about six million infants and toddlers are in child care. For many families, day care is an integral part of their family operating smoothly. Recently there has been an outpour of viewpoints regarding whether day care has a direct impact on a child’s development.
There is a strong amount of support behind the fact that the stability between the child’s experiences at home and at day care proved development and that any major differences among the two environments were likely to pose developmental obstacles. There is also research supporting the idea that children fro a lower education or economical background can in fact benefit from a difference in environments if this setting provides more than the family home can and/or does.
Despite the amount of varying opinions, there is truth in the research studies showing that if given high quality care, child care is definitely not detrimental to a child’s development and can actually prove to be beneficial. Quality child care can be best describes as, “small group sizes, low child-adult ratios, caregiver’s non controlling beliefs, and a safe, clean THE EFFECTS OF CHILD CARE 3 stimulating physical environments. (NICHD Early Childhood Care Research Network, 1996. ) A child’s development can be broken down into 2 major areas: emotional/psychological and social/cognitive development.
The emotional/psychological aspects of a child’s development are the critical issues most parents express; especially I he child has attended long-term day care earlier than the age of 5. Emotional development is defined as, “Learning to perceive, appraises, and expresses emotions accurately and appropriately, to use emotion accurately and appropriately, to use emotion to facilitate thinking, to understand and analyze emotions, to use emotional knowledge effectively, and to regulate one’s emotions to promote both emotional and intellectual growth. (Gerrig and Zimbardo, 2002) Concerns influenced by Bowlby’s Maternal Deprivation Hypothesis increased the fears that separating infants fro their mothers may cause emotional harm to the child or disrupt the mother infant bond have given researchers a topic to study. Bowlby’s maternal deprivation Hypothesis states that “deprivation of attachment during a critical period of development would result in permanent damage. ” Researchers have shown that emotional development is weakened by a lack of attachment an bonding from a primary environment that consists of parents and families.
The attachment between a mother and an infant is tested by the Ainsworth Strange Situation. The Strange Situation is an observational experiment where the mother and infant are placed in a room with a THE EFFECTS OF CHILD CARE 4 stranger. While they are in this room a series of uncomfortable and slightly distressing episodes are done including the mother leaving the room for a brief moment. After this situation is completed, the dindins will tell the researchers whether the infant has a secure or insecure bond with the mother.
Controversy was raised over the validity of this study because it is a short-term environment where as day care is a consistent day to day routine atmosphere. Researchers then did a similar situation to test the bond between the child and the day care provider. Farren and Raey’s study on infant attachment behaviors (1977), assessed whether a bond is forced between the child and provider that would replace the mother’s bond. Between these two studies researchers found that children with secure attachments had negative impacts where as insecurely attached infants seemed to benefit from it.
This proved that day care may provide a consistent stable environment where the children are able to experience missing their parents and look forward to them returning. Generally speaking there have been no true facts or data proving that day care attendance has a negative impact on the emotional development of children or the bond with their mother. While there are studies with findings that contradicts this statement, Belsky and Steinburg(1978) state, “many of the results cannot be generalized and have several limitations. While this research has found links between child care and security issues, it also found that the links decrease over time and are usually completely gone by kindergarten or first grade. (Egeland and Heister1995. ) Parents are not solely concerned about the emotional impacts, but the cognitive and social impacts as well. Social development can be described as, “the ways in which THE EFFECTS OF CHILD CARE 5 Individuals’ social interactions and expectations change across the lifespan” while cognitive development “involves the processes of learning problem solving, reasoning, imagining, and perceiving. (Gerrig and Zimbardo 2002. ) Psychologists were concerned that because child care providers are more likely to reward quiet behavior, children were going to become more passive and outspoken. Studies have shown that the amount of time a child spends in high quality care has a direct correlation with how many friends the child has and how many extracurricular activities they are involved in. Cognitively speaking the amount of stimulation that a child receives is an important factor in how a child’s development is impacted.
A securely attached child will have been introduced to a higher level of interaction/stimulating play not only among themselves but with other children as well. The quality of care seems to have an impact on skill assessments that the children may have to do. The children who have been in a high quality child care environment tended to have higher scores on theses assessments. The positive research findings that prove the positive effects of day care on a child’s social and cognitive development suggest that child care encourages more social interaction among the provider and child and child-child then the home-reared child.
The most positive day cares are the ones that are school oriented because they facilitate cognitive skills from an early beginning consistently every day. Research that has been done on the effects of day care has not only told us the findings on the impact emotionally, cognitively, and socially but has also shown that certain types of children benefit more than others from out of home care. The results from THE EFFECTS OF CHILD CARE 6 These studies show that children who come from underprivileged homes get the change to enhance their development through attending daycare as opposed to being in the home constantly.
Lamb (1996; 339) states that “High quality child care from infancy clearly has a positive effect on children’s intellectual, verbal, and cognitive development especially when the children would otherwise experience unstimulating home environments. ” The stress levels in these homes are usually quite high which is a negative environment for the child to emotionally develop. Most child cares, like school environments, provide children with proper examples of behavior and skills while encouraging them to develop.
Over all after reviewing the research concerning the impacts of child care attendance at an early age on the emotional, social, and cognitive development, a wide assortment of responses were found. There is no solid evidence saying that there are disruptive effects of child care and some research supports the idea that child care is a predictor for positive outcomes on children. In the big picture that is neither negative nor positive effects of child care on a child’s long-term development, but do depend on the quality of the child care and the child’s environment at home.
This research was first done as a result of fears that the separation of a child from their mother for extended periods of time would cause developmental obstacles for the emotional development of the child. Theorists were not concerned about the bond between the child and the father in any of this research that has been done, possibly because men have always had the role of being the provider for the family. The evidence has shown that the mother usually has a closer bond with the child however there is also evidence proving that men can be just as affectionate with the children. THE EFFECTS OF CHILD CARE 7
With the given research findings it is reasonable to assume that when compared to a disadvantaged home, a high quality child care has more positive effects than negative. Also most children do not suffer from any long-term impacts of being separated from their mother, even when for extended periods of time. It is important for the parents to remember that there can be negative effects on a child’s development if they are placed in lower quality care. Standards have been set for child care facilities by human services and health departments so not many low quality child cares are around.
Parents should always make their own assessments of the care before deciding to place their child in that care ensuring their safety and healthy developments. As far as further research goes for the effects of child care on a child’s development, there are some other aspects that should be considered. Researchers should take the opportunity to interview the children and find out how they feel about child care. Based on the evidence found, no concrete arguments can be made about the direct effects of child care but it is proven that the quality of care is an important factor of the outcome of the child’s development. | https://hstreasures.com/the-effects-of-child-care-on-development-48803/ |
It’s not every day that one gets to realize a childhood dream and at the same time contribute to science and represent one’s profession in a high profile role.
As a young boy growing up in the 1960s, I followed the space race and idolized the astronauts the way most boys worship major sports figures. I always dreamed of being an astronaut or being part of a space mission – and recently that opportunity materialized.
In 2012, the University of Hawaii announced that it had received a sizable grant from NASA to study various aspects of what it would take to establish a small outpost habitat on Mars. The study would involve a simulation in a very Mars-like environ here on Earth.
Scientists living in this outpost would conduct various scientific studies and live every aspect of their lives as though they were on the surface of Mars. They would not be allowed to leave the protective habitat without donning space suits. Communication with the outside world would be delayed in accordance with the laws of physics that define how long it would take a radio signal to travel between the Earth to Mars – there will be about a 10 minute lapse between when a message is sent from one planet and when it reaches the other.
This project, known as HI-SEAS for Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation, was accepting applications from scientists worldwide to serve on one of four planned “missions.” I applied for the first mission in the fall of 2012. I made the cuts down to the final 130 but was not selected. That mission focused primarily on nutrition and food preparation appropriate to long-term space voyages and planetary missions.
In the fall of 2013, I received a notice from the principal investigators that a second mission was planned and that I was listed among the most highly qualified candidates. They asked if I would like to reapply. Within 30 minutes I had an individual research proposal written and the application completed.
The focus of the second mission was psychology!
Maybe I had an edge. Granted, I was 59 years old but maybe I could interest them in the value of studying the age diversity in the project as well. The focus was to investigate the cognitive, personality, leadership characteristics, emotional adjustment and group dynamics in a confined, isolated environment.
The field of international applicants had been narrowed down from 800 to 130 and then eventually to 30 when we were all interviewed by Skype. After that, a final nine were chosen out of which there would be a prime crew of six and three alternates. That group of nine interviewed one another and reported to the principal investigators. Two weeks later the prime crew of six was chosen – and I had made it!
Those of us on this mission will be conducting individual experiments within our professional specialties and conducting a host of studies designed by the principal investigators and their research team. We will be confined in a 36-foot diameter dome on a barren high altitude lava field on the Big Island for four months except for occasional outings in space suits.
The “ground crew” of psychologists outside the dome will study group dynamics and leadership characteristics as well as communication styles and mission success or goal completion. They seek to standardize cognitive and personality tests specifically designed for astronauts aboard spaceships or planetary outposts. There will also be a focus on emotional adjustment and how this affects sleep, work efficiency and mission success.
I will also be available to provide psychological support for my fellow crewmembers. (Will they be able to provide psychological support to me?)
I will keep daily logs of our activities, especially from a psychological perspective, and I will share my experience in bimonthly columns in The National Psychologist during the mission. Daily blogs, Skype messages and links with public school classrooms also are planned.
Our mission to Mars begins March 21 and among experiences I expect to report on in my next article are a week of intensive pre-mission training and a nighttime “landing” on Mars.
The mission is to be completed toward the end of July and it is hoped we will “leave Mars” with many interesting scientific findings, particularly on the psychological aspects of long-term space travel. Stay tuned here to follow the adventures of a psychologist on Mars. | https://nationalpsychologist.com/2014/03/indiana-psychologist-on-mission-to-mars/102445.html |
I am a fully qualified Chartered Clinical Psychologist with over 10 years experience of working both in the NHS and Private sector. Prior to undergoing my training as a Clinical Psychologist in 2004, I had known for many years that I wanted to work professionally with people to support, encourage, develop and help them to overcome the wide range of mental pain and suffering that can result from adversity and the challenges of life. I approached this from the position that we are all human and susceptible to the emotional impact of life's challenges and difficulties. As such I developed a passion for reducing the stigma attached to mental health problems and in offering good quality evidence based interventions for people suffering with these difficulties so that suffering need not be in vain. I believe that Mental health difficulties needn’t be the thing that stops you living your life, but with the right encouragement, understanding and support can be a hugely important developmental step that can lead to great personal growth.
I offer a non judgmental approach based on the core principal of acceptance and respect. I strongly believe each person has their own individual set of characteristics, personality and life experiences that make us uniquely and wonderfully who we are. I endeavor to encourage people to see their inner wisdom and qualities in the midst of what can sometimes seem like hopeless circumstances. I aim to build on your strengths whilst sitting along side you through your difficulties. I believe that there is always hope and that change is possible.
I am a fully qualified Clinical Psychologist Registered with the Health and Care Professions Council. I have a D.Clin.Psy. Prior to obtaining this I completed a BA in Psychology.
As a Clinical Psychologist I have had experience of undergoing training and working with a range of evidence based therapeutic approaches. These include, Psycho-dynamically informed therapy, CBT, Compassionate Focused Therapy, Mentalisation Based Therapy, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy and Acceptance and Mindfulness Therapy. For the majority of my career (past 8 years) I have worked with adults suffering with severe and complex emotional difficulties, specialising in trauma, emotional, physical and sexual abuse and personality disorders. I have worked within an attachment theory to help understand the difficult relationship dynamics that can result from early childhood trauma.
Prior to this I worked in a range of settings including a child and adolescent inpatient ward in London, and a supported housing service to support adults maintain good quality housing when suffering with metal health difficulties. I have spent 2 years working as a Clinical Psychologist in a CAMHS service, supporting children and families cope with a range of difficult experiences and overcome early onset mental health problems.
Member organisations
I ask people to contact me via the telephone number or email address provided. l offer a brief (15-20 minute) telephone consultation (no charge) to help determine whether your difficulties are best addressed through psychological intervention.
Further sessions will be charged at a cost agreed during the initial consultation. My fees vary according to factors including type of intervention, length of therapy and affordability.
I offer both short and long-term therapies that can range from symptom specific treatment and intervention to more in depth interpersonal therapies to explore more deeper underlying causes for distress. Although I am informed by the evidence based treatments as advocated in the NICE guidelines for treating mental health difficulties I conduct a thorough assessment in collaboration with you to consider your individual needs, opinion and views on what you want from the experience of therapy. I aim to develop a formulation of your difficulties that includes a combination of evidence and theory, my experience as a Clinical Psychologist as well your unique experiences and ideas about what you want.
|Online counselling:||Yes|
|Telephone counselling:||No|
|Face to face counselling:||Yes|
|Sign language:||No|
|Other languages:||None|
Monday evenings and Tuesday evenings. Wednesday 9.30am-2.30pm. | https://www.counselling-directory.org.uk/counsellors/hayley-saunders |
What does research say?
This section provides summaries of key findings from reviews of research and major studies in Outdoor Learning. Each review asks different questions about a different kinds of Outdoor Learning. The overall impact of these collections of research studies is impressive. They demonstrate what can be achieved through Outdoor Learning. The outdoors provides a wide array of opportunities for achieving a whole range of outcomes. Some outcomes require careful design and facilitation, whereas other outcomes simply arise from being outdoors.
Natural Connections Demonstration Project, 2012-2016: Final Report (NECR215)
This report presents the key findings from the Natural Connections Demonstration Project, which identified that the fundamental challenges to learning outside the classroom in the natural environment (LINE) in schools were local and revolved around a lack of teacher confidence in teaching outside and fragmentation of LINE service provision. These underpinned the more traditionally cited challenges of curriculum pressures, concern about risks and cost.
This and other evidence was used by Natural England and a wide range of partner organisations to shape the design of the demonstration project. The project was funded by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), Natural England and Historic England, commissioned by Natural England, and delivered in South West England by Plymouth University.
Natural Connections was intended to:
- Stimulate the demand from schools and teachers for learning outside the classroom in the local natural environment.
- Support schools and teachers to build learning outside the classroom in the local natural environment into their planning and practices.
- Stimulate the supply of high quality learning outside the classroom in the natural environment services for schools and teachers.
Further detail will be available in Natural England Commissioned Report NECR215 Annex 1.
Link to full review:Natural Connections Demonstration Project
Natural Connections Outdoor Learning Blog
This site was launched in March 2015, for anyone interested in outdoor learning, coordinated by the Natural Connections Demonstration Project.
It brings together bloggers who are researchers or practitioners in learning in natural environments, to share with a wide audience their best practice, evidence findings and enthusiasm for outdoor learning in schools. The aim of the blog is not to promote one project, organisation or school, but to build on the collaborative model that has been developed through Natural Connections and raise awareness of good quality examples of both evidence and delivery in the field of outdoor learning.
Link to blog: Natural Connections Outdoor Learning Blog
Learning Away – Impact of Residential experiences on young people
In June 2015 York Consulting published its final independent evaluation of Learning Away residentials, identifying their impacts as well as what it is about the overnight stay that brings about such positive powerful outcomes for young people long after their return to school.
On this page we provide a short summary of the evaluation aims and the evaluation methods used. For more in-depth versions of evaluation methods and findings, you can also download Learning Away’s published summary, and York Consulting’s executive summary and full report.
The evaluation aims
During the first two years of Learning Away we developed, using early findings from the schools involved, several hypotheses about the impacts we thought Learning Away might have on those involved. In 2012, Paul Hamlyn Foundation commissioned York Consulting to evaluate the effectiveness of Learning Away. The evaluation had two overarching aims:
- To test and evidence four key Learning Away propositions focused on the belief that high-quality residential learning: has a strong, positive impact on academic achievement and provides a wide range of student-level outcomes; can transform the learning experience of students; can help to transform schools; and does not need to be expensive.
- To generate new insights and understanding about how and why residential learning can and does achieve these outcomes.
Evaluation methods
The evaluation carried out by York Consulting took a mixed methods approach, which included:
1. Student, staff and parent surveys:
· Students completed pre- and post-residential surveys, along with long-term follow-up surveys to capture their views on the impact of Learning Away.
· Staff involved in delivering Learning Away completed pre- and post-residential surveys along with a final staff survey to capture their views on the impact of the programme. Other staff were also asked to complete surveys for individual students where Learning Away was felt to have had a significant impact.
· Parents were asked to complete a survey after their child attended a Learning Away residential.
2. Focus groups: undertaken by PHF Learning Away advisors with students and staff post-residential.
3. Quantitative data collection: attainment, behaviour and attendance data was collected in partnerships where delivery of the programme was focused on improving outcomes in these areas.
4. Case studies: in-depth case studies were undertaken to evidence the impact of the programme.
Wild Adventure Space (UK)
Literature Review by Penny Travlou, OPENspace Research Centre (2006)
“Experience of the outdoors and wilderness has the potential to confer a multitude of benefits on young people’s physical development, emotional and mental health and well being and societal development. Mental health and wellbeing benefits from play in natural settings appear to be long-term, realised in the form of emotional stability in young adulthood.”
Link to full review: Wild Adventure Space
The OPENspace Wild Adventure Space Project Review (2006) draws on evaluations of projects of many types and sizes. It illustrates the range of likely benefits to young people, as well as illustrating some of the many forms that Outdoor Learning can take.
Here is a summary of the benefits identified in the various case studies:
- Personal development in terms of raised self-confidence, independence, self-esteem, sense of achievement (cited in most of the projects reviewed but particularly in those for disadvantaged young people)
- Skill development including development of:
• social skills: getting along with others, team working (Night Owls)
• presentation skills, via reporting back, making of videos (John Muir Award and Duke of Edinburgh Award)
• physical skills via learning element of many activities (Perdiswell young people’s Club)
- Widening of horizons, developing aspirations, improving employment prospects (YHA VALVE)
- Breathing space, having ‘fun’ away from everyday pressures of family, peer groups, school (Do it 4 Real)
- Environmental awareness (RSPB Sandwell Valley Wildspace)
- Social benefits:
• social inclusion for disadvantaged individuals (Barnsley Peak District Award)
• sense of belonging via setting up of clubs (Delamere Bike Club)
• opportunities to develop away from peer pressure (Do it 4 Real)
- Improved physical and mental well-being (Green Ground Zero)
- Effecting changes in behaviour including:
• reduction in truancy (Forest Schools)
• reduction in probation periods (Venture Trust)
• through ‘club’ management of activities providing a new focus and interest for many young people (Riverside Centre)
Source: Wild Adventure Space Project Review (June 2006) Section 4.3.3.1, prepared for the Countryside Agency, English Nature and Rural Development Service by Jenny Roe, OPENspace.
Changing Minds: The Lasting Impact of School Trips (UK)
A study of the long-term impact of sustained relationships between schools and the National Trust via the Guardianship scheme.
by Alan Peacock, Honorary Research Fellow, The Innovation Centre, University of Exeter, February 2006.
‘We looked at whether school children’s learning about their local environment would influence the way they treat it. We found that not only was this the case, but high quality, out-of-classroom learning also influenced how children behave and the lifestyle choices they make. It shows the potential for schools trips not just to change individual lives, but the lives of whole communities.’
Key findings
- School trips are vital for children to connect with nature.
- School trips influence lives.
- Community spirit is developed from school trips.
- School trips help bond families.
- School trips improve children’s learning.
Link to full report: Changing Minds: The Lasting Impact of School Trips
A Review of Research on Outdoor Learning
by Mark Rickinson et al. Field Studies Council, 2004.
This review brought together the findings from 150 studies in the period 1993-2003 and included most kinds of Outdoor Learning.
Key findings
The impact of fieldwork and visits
- Substantial evidence exists to indicate that fieldwork, properly conceived, adequately planned, well taught and effectively followed up, offers learners opportunities to develop their knowledge and skills in ways that add value to their everyday experiences in the classroom.
- Specifically, fieldwork can have a positive impact on long-term memory due to the memorable nature of the fieldwork setting. Effective fieldwork, and residential experience in particular, can lead to individual growth and improvements in social skills. More importantly, there can be reinforcement between the affective and the cognitive, with each influencing the other and providing a bridge to higher order learning.
- See original document for more points and more detail.
The impact of outdoor adventure activities
- Strong evidence of the benefits of outdoor adventure education is provided by two meta-analyses of previous research. Looking across a wide range of outcome measures, these studies identify not only positive effects in the short term, but also continued gains in the long term. However, within these broad trends, there can be considerable variation between different kinds of programmes, and different types of outcomes.
- There is substantial research evidence to suggest that outdoor adventure programmes can impact positively on young people’s:
- attitudes, beliefs and self-perceptions – examples of outcomes include independence, confidence, self-esteem, locus of control, self-efficacy, personal effectiveness and coping strategies
- interpersonal and social skills – such as social effectiveness, communication skills, group cohesion and teamwork
- See original document for more points and more detail.
The impact of school grounds/community projects
- School grounds/community projects have the capacity to link with most curriculum areas. Two specific examples of benefits stemming from this are positive gains in science process skills and improved understanding of design and technology-related issues.
- In the affective domain, the most important impacts of learning in school grounds/community settings include greater confidence, renewed pride in community, stronger motivation toward learning, and greater sense of belonging and responsibility
- See original document for more points and more detail.
The full summary also includes:
- Factors influencing outdoor learning and its provision
- Key messages for practice
- Key messages for policy
- Key messages for research
Link to full report: A Review of Research on Outdoor Learning
Link to: James Neill’s critical overview of this review
Youth Development Outcomes of the Camp Experience
a study by Philliber Research Associates and the American Camping Association, 2005.
Between 2001 and 2004 the American Camp Association conducted research with over 5000 families from 80 ACA-Accredited camps to determine the outcomes of the camp experience as expressed by parents and children.
Main Findings
Parents, camp staff, and children reported significant growth in:
Self-esteem, Peer relationships, Independence, Adventure and exploration, Leadership, Environmental awareness, Friendship skills, Values and decisions, Social comfort, Spirituality.
Link to full study: Youth Development Outcomes of the Camp Experience
Why Adventure? The Role and Value of Outdoor Adventure in young people’s personal and social development (UK)
A Review of Research focusing on the more adventurous kinds of outdoor learning,.by Jon Barrett and Roger Greenaway commissioned by the Foundation for Outdoor Adventure, 1995.
Main Findings
OUTCOMES
Most empirical studies of outdoor adventure have concentrated on examining behavioural and psychological outcomes. Some of the most thorough outcome research is found in the youth social work field.
Personal Development
- Some kinds of outdoor adventure can cause short-term enhancement of aspects of self-concept (including gains in self-esteem and self-efficacy), and can cause short-term improvements in internalisation of locus of control. These gains appear to be more significant on longer adventure programmes.
- Various developmental benefits are associated with regular physical exercise (such as regular outdoor adventure experiences can provide), e.g.. humour, patience, energy, optimism, self-confidence, self-esteem, self-assurance, emotional stability, improved body-image, etc.
- Direct experience of the natural environment, such as outdoor adventure may offer, can have significant mental and physical health benefits, can enhance self-esteem and self-confidence, and can provide opportunities for spiritual development.
Social Development
- Strong anecdotal evidence indicates that outdoor adventure experiences can enhance interpersonal relationships and improve socialisation, and can facilitate group bonding and co-operation.
- Outdoor adventure can help to reduce formality in relationships and develop more human relationships and awareness between young people, and between young people and staff.
PROCESS FACTORS
Whilst outdoor adventure can cause the above positive developmental outcomes, it is important to note that these do notautomatically arise from outdoor adventure. Studies investigating causal links between processes and outcomes have rarely been conducted. Nevertheless, some process factors have emerged as being of central importance.
- Research about effective leadership styles in adventure generally favours a facilitative style in which personal and social development are emphasised. Research indicates that staff require training in interpersonal skills especially if they intend to enhance those of others.
- Research about the effects of group experiences on personal and social development emphasises the value of small groups in which group support, co-operation and reciprocity may be facilitated.
- Appropriate selection, group mix and composition are important, particularly with young people experiencing difficulties in their lives.
- Research emphasises the importance of a supportive learning environment where young people are able to (for example) express their emotions, learn collaboratively and take responsibility for their own development.
- The beneficial outcomes of outdoor adventure appear to be most lasting when outdoor adventure experiences are regular and long-term and are linked to community-based follow-up. Research has demonstrated the value of outdoor adventure as an adjunct to community-based developmental and educational provision.
Outdoor adventure programmes working with young people with behavioural and psychological difficulties generally appear to require higher levels of staff facilitation, close attention to appropriate selection and targeting, and reinforcement by long-term community based interventions appropriate to young people’s interests and needs.
Link to further information about: Why Adventure? The Role and Value of Outdoor Adventure in young people’s personal and social development
Summary of the Effects of Outdoor Education Programs or “Does Outdoor Education Work?” (Australia)
James Neill, International Education Vol.3, No. 4, 1999 and revised for Wilderdom, 2006.
A meta-analysis of 97 outcome studies from around the world.Does outdoor education work? The research evidence indicates that the effectiveness of outdoor education programming on average is positive and roughly equivalent to other innovative psychosocial interventions. The overall message from the research is that outdoor education has clear potential, if well designed, to foster enhancements of personal and social aspects of learning and development. In addition, at least 11 factors appear to influence what happens to participants during a program and the overall effects of the program.
Outdoor education programs have been found to be moderately effective in influencing typically measured outcomes, such as self-esteem and teamwork. The most commonly researched outcomes have been self constructs such as self-esteem, self-confidence, self-concept and self-efficacy; social constructs such as teamwork and leadership; and other more applied outcomes such as academic achievement and recidivism.
Link to full summary: Summary of the Effects of Outdoor Education Programs or “Does Outdoor Education Work?” which will lead you to a meta-analysis of 97 research studies by John A. Hattie, Herbert W. Marsh, James T. Neill, Garry E. Richards. Review of Educational Research, 67, 43-87, 1997.
Learning outside the classroom: How far should you go?
This is a report that evaluates the impact of learning outside the classroom in 27 schools and colleges across England. Key points from the evaluation are:
- When planned and implemented well, learning outside the classroom contributed significantly to raising standards and improving pupils’ personal, social and emotional development.
- Learning outside the classroom was most successful when it was an integral element of long-term curriculum planning and closely linked to classroom activities.
Link to the full report: Learning outside the classroom: How far should you go? | https://www.englishoutdoorcouncil.org/outdoor-learning/what-does-the-research-say-about-outdoor-learning |
“I was told that cancer was a temporary condition ‒ just get through treatment and things will go back to normal. I quickly realised that this is not true.”
Gregory Aune was treated for Hodgkin’s disease when he was 17. That treatment ‒ eight chemotherapy agents and a heavy dose of radiation ‒ saved his life and allowed him to pursue a successful career in medicine.
But the price he pays in long-term effects is quite sobering: hyperthyroidism; pulmonary fibrosis; infertility; aortic stenosis; 3-vessel coronary artery disease, all blocked by >95%; secondary skin cancers; stroke/transient ischaemic attack; diabetes; congestive heart failure; pulmonary hypertension/mitral valve disease.
Now in his mid-40s, and a professor of paediatric medicine at San Antonio, Aune says he is not looking for sympathy. He is looking for recognition. Recognition of the scale of problems that many cancer survivors live with as a consequence of their disease and treatment. Recognition of the gap in planned and coordinated care for this large and growing population, and of the gap in reliable information about their needs. Recognition of the gap in research dedicated to understanding long-term and late effects, what causes them, and how they can be predicted, prevented or managed. And ‒ a particular focus ‒ recognition of the ethical imperative to change the way new cancer therapies are developed, so that potential late-effects are investigated at a preclinical stage, rather than letting them enter clinical practice and just waiting to see what might happen to patients like him, 10, 20, 30 years down the line.
“We must incorporate off-target organ effects into early development of new cancer therapies,” he says.
Aune was speaking at a session on the Science of Survivorship, organised at the end of June by the American Association for Cancer Research, under the auspices of its Scientist↔Survivor Program.
The headline statistics underpinning the session were ones that are familiar to many in the cancer community: In 1971, when President Nixon signed the US National Cancer Act, there were around three million cancer survivors. Today there are 18 million ‒ that’s more than the entire population of the Netherlands. Almost 50% of people diagnosed with cancer in the US now live for at least 10 years.
These statistics tend to be cited as evidence of the progress made in treating cancer, and to galvanise efforts to extend survival times still further.
But in this session, the focus was on the 18 million survivors, and on the gaping hole in knowledge about how their lives ‒ their health and psychological, social and economic wellbeing ‒ have been impacted over the longer term by their cancer diagnosis and treatment. It was on the urgent need to fund a coherent research programme to understand the scale and nature of long-term problems, in order to better prevent, monitor and manage them. Crucially, it was also about the role for survivors themselves, in generating ‘real world evidence’, by reporting the issues they face, and defining their unmet needs for support and care, and their priorities for research.
What it was not about was pitting the needs of people with better prognoses against those for whom survival remains the overriding issue, as Adam Hayden, an advocate with the AACR Scientist↔Survivor Program, made clear. Hayden was diagnosed almost seven years ago with an aggressive brain tumour that carries an average life expectancy of no more than two to three years. The need to develop durable therapies is hugely important, he says, “But sometimes there is so much focus on the newly diagnosed or newly recurred, that people like me, who have lived with this for seven years, are forgotten about.”
‘See you next scan’
A researcher at the department of philosophy at Purdue University, Indianapolis, Hayden has found his analytical skills helpful in making sense of what he is going through. His description was a great illustration of the ‘real world’ insights that will be so important to improving care and support for survivors.
First up, the emotional/psychological whack that goes with a brain tumour diagnosis makes the offer of psychosocial support essential right at the start. It’s not just about the prognosis, it’s about what happens to your confidence and your identity when the body you took for granted starts behaving in unpredictable ways. Then just as you have greatest need for friends and family, those relationships get disrupted, which can bring an added burden. “After illness, all experience becomes cast in the shadow of illness. People behave differently. The emotional distress is an existential weight on the shoulders of survivors. You are no longer the person family and friends thought. You are that plus cancer.”
“I had to go and find a mental health professional,” said Hayden. “That should be automatic because all of our relationships have changed. Many cancer centres offer access to mental health counselling, but we don’t access it early enough. It should be right at the start.” (Hayden also points out that a more constructive alternative to the question, “You do know you are going to die with this?” might have been used, at the point of diagnosis, if greater priority had been given to the quality of his survivorship, and to helping him find the best way navigate the years ahead.)
Another pressing need for people in his position, says Hayden, is information and guidance about what is happening with his disease and what he can do to help his own health and wellbeing. “See you next scan,” is how he refers to this set of issues. At a general level, he’d like better coordination between the actors involved in different aspects of his care, and to feel that there is joined-up oversight across all the health and wellbeing aspects that matter to him.
He would like evidence-based advice, for instance, on how to supplement his health, that goes beyond the standard “eat a healthy balanced diet”. He’d like more evidence on the long-term toxic effects of the gadolinium injected into him as a contrast enhancer for his regular MRI scans. Having survived seven years now, he’s had more than 30 doses – is it still the best option for someone in his position?
Above all, anything that can throw light on how his disease is likely to progress, about timelines, is a priority, and he finds it frustrating to get so little feedback after his scans. “Am I in remission? How do I plan? I would have planned differently if I knew I had six more years. What do I plan for now? We need an ongoing prognosis conversation to help with life planning.”
Turning experiences into evidence
For Patty Spears, a fellow patient advocate with the AACR Scientist↔Survivor Program, the testimony Hayden gave about the challenges he faces as a glioblastoma survivor, and of his priorities and unmet needs, provides essential building blocks in developing the science of survivorship.
Assembling those building blocks from across the full spectrum of patients and cancers, she believes, will require the integration of patient reported outcomes (PROMs) into routine clinical care. Not just during the treatment and follow-up period, but along the patient’s entire lifespan. And not restricted to a set of pre-selected symptoms, but capturing data on all health, psychological and socioeconomic issues. “We need to capture all long-term effects.”
More tailored and sophisticated apps are lightening the burden of such reporting, says Spears, who is herself a breast cancer survivor, and works as a Research Manager at the Patient Advocates for Research Council, at the University of North Carolina’s Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. Conducted effectively, she argues, many patients see the benefits, quite independent of their research value. “Patients question everything that happens after treatment. They fear what will happen once treatment ends,” she says. “PROMs are really useful to tell doctors about experiences, and PROMs conversations can help better manage side-effects.”
Questions of how it might be possible to mine such data to get a full picture ‒ harmonisation, storage, security, access ‒ are of course currently the focus of intense discussion across the medical research world. But you can’t mine what you don’t gather.
Her hopes are that the evidence gathered in this way could be quickly put to use to improve the care of survivors. If you can predict the sorts of issues any given patient is likely to face, that enables clinicians and patients to monitor the progress of side effects that persist beyond treatment, to watch out for late effects that might arise, sometimes long after treatment ends, and to plan for coordinated delivery of the right support and care.
Spears finds it frustrating that even the evidence currently available is not reaching the people who need it most. This year, 23 years after being diagnosed and treated for locally advanced breast cancer, Spears found out she had a primary liver cancer.
Despite her long involvement as a patient advocate with a number of cancer research councils and networks, this new diagnosis took her completely by surprise. For many weeks she assumed the pain she was feeling was probably a gallstone complaint ‒ something that runs in the family. Only after an MRI scan revealed the liver cancer did she learn that liver primaries 20 years after breast cancer treatment are not so unusual.
“Why did no one talk to me about long-term effects before, or even after treatment?”
“Why did no one talk to me about long-term effects before, or even after treatment?” she asks. “The focus was all on acute effects. You are not really told what [long-term effects] to look for. This information is not given to patients. We need to say that is important to talk about. Even the basics are not being done.”
She would also like to see much greater efforts to understand the causes, as a step towards preventing ‒ or at least predicting ‒ this late effect. “We should make an effort to ask the question: Where did this liver cancer come from? Is it my genes? If you can learn from patients like me, you can predict at an early stage and you know what to look for.”
Doing the science
Finding answers to questions like that one, regarding the biological mechanisms behind clinically observed potentially life-threatening late effects, is a priority for Gregory Aune. He can’t see it happening on the scale that is needed, without a strategic policy decision to direct more support into survivorship research.
Having himself undergone replacement of his aortic valve and triple bypass surgery at the age of 35 ‒ “like going through cancer all over again” ‒ he now focuses his own research work on exploring the mechanisms of cardiac toxicity associated with anthracycline treatment ‒ the drug class that he says causes the most problems. “Over half of paediatric patients treated with anthracycline get cardiotoxicity, often with a 20-year latent period. There is not much research into the mechanism. We need to go back and reinvestigate how these old drugs do this damage,” he says. “Chemotherapy will be needed for a long time to come.”
The damage from “old drugs” he accepts is a legacy from the days when “regimens were decided by trial and error with no understanding about how they affected other organs.” But as he points out, new tools are now available that make it possible to explore those effects during the early, preclinical stage of developing new therapies. He regards it as “almost unethical” not to use them.
“We need to go back and reinvestigate how these old drugs do this damage”
New classes of drugs such as immune checkpoint blockade and antibody-drug conjugates are known to impact ‘off-target organs, and yet they are being introduced, even in an adjuvant setting, without trying to understand the mechanisms involved.
He agrees with Spears on the vital importance of gathering long-term data, and has himself established a cohort of long-term survivors of paediatric cancer, for this very purpose.
The Scientist↔Survivors’ ask
The essence of AACR’s Scientist↔Survivor program is that, when survivors and scientists work together, they can help ensure a better life for millions of people living with and after cancer. But ‒ and this is the headline ask ‒ it will require those who shape the cancer research priorities, shape the infrastructure and allocate funding to put survivorship much higher up the agenda.
It will require a national effort to establish cohorts for all cancer types to gather long-term clinical and PROMs data along the lines of the one that Aune has set up for paediatric cancers ‒ and the political will to overcome all the legal, ethical and funding issues and barriers from vested interests that continue to hamper data sharing.
And it will require recognising how the challenge of cancer has changed since the National Cancer Act was signed more than 50 years ago. Finding ways to prevent and predict, and to monitor and manage, lasting and late effects of treatment must now become a research focus in its own right. A journal and an annual meeting dedicated to preclinical survivorship research, together with its own funding streams, and ideally its own institute ‒ the 38th US National Institute of Health ‒ is something Aune has been advocating for the past decade.
Then there are questions about what, if anything, can be asked of pharmaceutical companies. They won’t want anything that involves following up patients in the long term, was the feeling, but what about the preclinical work? Should regulators require data that might predict lasting or long-term impacts on off-target organs that might not become apparent during the course of the clinical trials? Should companies be obliged to share data that could be of concern for lasting or long-term effects?
And finally, the question of the bottom line – how do you convince the funders? Just do the sums, was the unanimous view of the panel. Preventing lasting and late effects in this huge and growing population, predicting them better, detecting them earlier, managing them more effectively makes economic sense. It saves healthcare costs, it enables survivors to stay economically active, and avoids carers having to leave work to care for dependents.
Factor in some of the more common lasting effects ‒ pain, fatigue, impaired immune function, anxiety and other mental health issues ‒ and the scale of the problem becomes clear. Then remember the size of the population ‒ larger than that of the Netherlands and rapidly growing, and that two in five are younger than 60, and that the risk of bankruptcy is 2.5 times higher among survivors than the general population.
Add that all together and the funding ask from the Scientist↔Survivors’ panel might begin to look quite reasonable. As might the demand that cancer research should integrate a long-term perspective into its investigations of new therapies. | https://cancerworld.net/long-term-health-update-priorities-cancer-research/ |
Researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology’s (NTNU) Department of Neuroscience analyzed a massive survey of 130,000 randomly chosen people from the US to see whether there is any association between psychedelic drug use and mental health problems – a claim that has had large circulation and is often cited, despite little research in this respect. Their findings suggest there’s no obvious link between psychedelics such as psilocybin mushrooms, LSD or peyote and mental health diseases or related disorders. Moreover, the Norwegian scientists’ findings suggest the opposite.
The data was gathered from a US national health survey (2001-2004 National Survey on Drug Use and Health), which involved 130,000 randomly chosen people, 22,000 of whom admitted they had used psychedelics at least once. The participants were asked to answer about mental health treatment and symptoms (psychological distress, anxiety disorders, mood disorders, and psychosis. ) of a variety of mental health conditions over the past year.
Researcher Teri Krebs and clinical psychologist Pål-Ørjan Johansen used this data to scan for a direct link between psychedelic use and mental health issues.
“After adjusting for other risk factors, lifetime use of LSD, psilocybin, mescaline or peyote, or past year use of LSD was not associated with a higher rate of mental health problems or receiving mental health treatment,” says Johansen.
The researchers found that lifetime use of psilocybin or mescaline and past year use of LSD were associated with lower rates of serious psychological distress. Lifetime use of LSD was also significantly associated with a lower rate of outpatient mental health treatment and psychiatric medicine prescription.
No link between psychedelics use and mental disorders
Does this mean that psychedelics can not cause mental disorders? Technically, no. People whom are predisposed to mental illnesses or whom are extremely emotionally vulnerable might have their potential disorder set-off by the trauma inflicted by what’s generally referred to as a “bad trip.” Like most psychoactive substances, abuse could lead to grave psychological, as well as physiological problems, this is why more research into the matter should be paramount, especially considering the sheer volume of users. However, like in the case of marijuana and other illegal substances, useful research into their properties and possible harmful effects is hampered by their status.
The researchers write they “cannot exclude the possibility that use of psychedelics might have a negative effect on mental health for some individuals or groups, perhaps counterbalanced at a population level by a positive effect on mental health in others”
“Other studies have found no evidence of health or social problems among people who had used psychedelics hundreds of times in legally-protected religious ceremonies,” adds Johansen, also referring to the fact that other studies as well had failed to find any evidence of any lasting harmful effects of psychedelics.
The researchers note that when evaluating psychedelics, as with any activity, it is important to take an objective view of all the evidence and avoid being biased by anecdotal stories either of harm or benefit.
“Everything has some potential for negative effects, but psychedelic use is overall considered to pose a very low risk to the individual and to society,” Johansen says, “Psychedelics can elicit temporary feelings of anxiety and confusion, but accidents leading to serious injury are extremely rare.”
“Early speculation that psychedelics might lead to mental health problems was based on a small number of case reports and did not take into account either the widespread use of psychedelics or the not infrequent rate of mental health problems in the general population,” Krebs explains.
“Over the past 50 years tens of millions of people have used psychedelics and there just is not much evidence of long-term problems,” she concludes.
The findings were reported in a paper published in the journal PLoS One. | https://www.zmescience.com/research/studies/lsd-and-other-psychedelics-mental-health-40235/ |
Two of the possible problems that may arise from gathering data by mail questionnaire are: survey recipients fail to respond, or they respond but provide unreliable data. Extant research has examined the effects of pressure to respond on increasing response rates; however, efforts to achieve a high response rate may produce unreliable data. The analysis presented in this paper examines the effects of increased pressure to respond to mail surveys on the reliability of survey responses. Our findings suggest that increased pressure to respond, decreased the reliability of information obtained. In addition, we show that personalization of the survey increases the reliability of responses. However, the conclusions concerning information suppression are not clear. The type of auditor change was a significant determinate of response reliability, but companies with greater financial distress were no more likely to give unreliable responses concerning the independent auditor changes. | https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/emerald-publishing/mail-survey-reliability-through-follow-up-mailings-the-case-of-auditor-sAaFCk2E0S?key=emerald |
Mission Australia is a national Christian charity that provides a range of community and housing services throughout Australia. Mission Australia’s Strengthening Communities (SC) team works across all Mission Australia Housing (MAH) tenancies around Australia.
The SC program works with MAH tenants, their neighbours, local services and the broader community to create social change through improved trust and engagement, building aspirations, increasing participation and community cohesion, and improving wellbeing.
Mission Australia currently manages 500 social housing in Clarendon Vale and Rokeby in Tasmania. Operating as housing manager since 2013, Mission Australia has also sought to strengthen the community through not only the provision of high quality tenancy support but also community development activities.
Mission Australia has been running programs and activities in the area for a number of years and have identified that their activities are having a wide-ranging effect, not only on their tenants but in the communities as a whole.
Mission Australia wish to undertake a program evaluation that seeks to understand these effects, for Mission Australian Housing tenants as well as the wider community
Research to be Conducted
Mission Australia are looking for a PhD student with knowledge of evaluation methods to undertake an evaluation of their Housing Strengthening Communities program in Clarendon Vale and Rokeby area. They are keen to understand the short, medium and long-term impact of the teams’ activities in the following areas:
- Employment and education
- Sports and recreation
- Housing
- Amenity and arts
- Safety
- Community
- Connectivity
Mission Australia will negotiate the specific scope of the project with the successful PhD student and their academic mentor. However, the successful candidate will be required to develop an Evaluation Methodology document that encompass quantitative and qualitative approaches, a clear understanding of the program logic, clear project milestones and details of the tools and methods that will be used. This document should also include the activities to be included in the approach, such as survey, interviews and focus groups.
With their commitment to community engagement and inclusion, Mission Australia would like the tenants to be involved in the evaluation as co-investigators or peer interviewers. Therefore, knowledge of participatory research methods would be a strong advantage.
The successful candidate will be responsible for undertaking data collection, gathering information from various sources, conducting the analysis and developing the final report.
Skills Required
If you’re a PhD student and meet some or all the below we want to hear from you. We strongly encourage women, indigenous and disadvantaged candidates to apply:
- Preferably a Masters qualification in the social sciences (e.g. anthropology, sociology, criminology, political science, geography and public health)
- Knowledge of community housing and the role of Community Housing Providers in Australia
- Evidence of experience undertaking projects with a similar research design/methodology i.e. developing and using quantitative/qualitative methods to undertake community development and analysis
- Excellent writing and presentation skills, using plain English;
- Understanding and experience of working with disadvantaged young people, their unique situations and knowledge of the sector;
- Experience of/demonstrated interest in community development
- Knowledge/Experience of utilising participatory methods
- Previous experience of conducting program evaluations.
Expected Outcomes
A final report no more than 25 pages in length (including annexes) detailing Executive Summary setting out key messages; detailed findings of the outcomes; analysis and conclusions; and recommendations for service delivery, advocacy and policy.
Additional Details
The intern will receive $3,000 per month of the internship, usually in the form of stipend payments.
It is expected that the intern will primarily undertake this research project during regular business hours, spending at least 80% of their time on-site with the industry partner. The intern will be expected to maintain contact with their academic mentor throughout the internship either through face-to-face or phone meetings as appropriate.
The intern and their academic mentor will have the opportunity to negotiate the project’s scope, milestones and timeline during the project planning stage. | https://aprintern.org.au/2019/11/18/apr-1303/ |
Fostering and Measuring Skills: Improving Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Skills to Promote Lifetime Success
This paper reviews the current literature on measuring and fostering non-cognitive skills. Non-cognitive skills in this paper refer to personal attributes not thought to be measured by IQ or achievement tests (p.13). The term can be used interchangeably with social and emotional learning. The paper is organized by the following topics related to non-cognitive skills: definitions and measures; evidence on the predictive power of non-cognitive skills; analysis of the skills needed in the workforce; and a review of evidence about the efficacy of education, parental investment, and interventions in improving non-cognitive skills from preschool, elementary school, and adolescence. The paper concludes that non-cognitive skills have strong effects on educational attainment and important life outcomes beyond schooling.
This paper presents detailed descriptions, reviews, and analysis of the work in non-cognitive skills. The detailed discussion of studies and programs that promote or intervene in non-cognitive skills can be slightly unwieldy to read at times, but overall, the paper is thorough in presenting evidence to support its conclusion that non-cognitive skills play the same, or greater, role in life outcomes than cognitive skills. The paper also includes some tables that nicely summarize findings from multiple studies and interventions. One finding that is repeated in this paper is that early intervention is the key to helping students, and later adults, develop non-cognitive skills. This is a good read for educators and stakeholders interested in a thorough review of the literature on effects of non-cognitive skills for students. | https://www.csai-online.org/resources/fostering-and-measuring-skills-improving-cognitive-and-non-cognitive-skills-promote |
Location:
Corwin Family Sanctuary
Date:
Fri, May 10
Time:
7:30 pm - 8:30 pm
Honor female empowerment and womanhood as we celebrate the second year of our women's social group, Sisterhood of Emanuel. Bring the superwomen in your life to our service paying tribute to their accomplishments. Join us for a peaceful hour of music and prayer. With both nostalgic and contemporary melodies, this service features a d'var Torah that reassures, challenges, and moves us.
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This iframe contains the logic required to handle Ajax powered Gravity Forms. | https://tebh.org/event/sisterhood-simply-shabbat-service/ |
Beth Israel - The West Temple is a warm and loving community of individuals of all ages who come together to celebrate Judaism and life. We consist of over 150 households throughout Northeast Ohio.
On the West Side of Cleveland, we have provided a vital center of tolerance, tradition and communal life for our members for over sixty-five years.
Community forms both our purpose and our strength. The wealth of activities provided by the West Temple is made possible through the volunteer efforts of our members.
Together, we administer and teach our Religious School, staff our superb Library, lead our extraordinary Youth Group, and fill our Calendar with community activities to ensure that there is something for everyone at Beth Israel. By our example, we hope to inspire our children to follow in our footsteps and thereby assure Judaism's survival for future generations to come.
- Mission Statement:
- Our mission is: • to provide a center of worship, education and community for Jews in Cleveland’s western communities; • to help our children learn about Jewish traditions and values; • to give our members a tolerant and accepting environment in which to develop their own Jewish identities; • and to assure the continuity of our people’s traditions, values and life.
- Contact Info:
Luis Fernandez
President of the Board of Trustees
216.941.8882
- Address:
- 14308 Triskett Road
Cleveland, OH 44111
View in Google Maps
- Website:
- http://www.thewesttemple.com
- Email Address:
- [email protected]
- Facebook:
- http://www.facebook.com/pages/Beth-Israel-The-West-Temple/135270418105
- Categories:
- Other Information:
Enid C. Lader, Rabbi
Alan Lettofsky, Rabbi Emeritus
Luis Fernandez, President Board of Trustees
Location(s)
Location(s)
- Location Name:
- Beth-Israel - The West Temple
- Address:
- 14308 Triskett Road
- Cleveland
- OH
- 44111
- View in Google Maps
- Contact:
- Pat Outlaw
- Office Manager
- Phone Number
- 216.941.8882
Program(s)
Program(s)
- Program Name:
- Adult Education
- Summary:
At Beth Israel - The West Temple there are many opportunities for adults to learn and grow with a full educational program.
- Keywords:
- Program Name:
- Library
- Summary:
The West Temple Library is a reference library that consists of thousands of items for use by the congregation, school, and community-at-large.
- Keywords:
- Program Name:
- Religious School
- Summary:
The West Temple's educational program for ages 3-18 offers a full and diverse curriculum for Judaic Studies and Hebrew.
- Keywords: | http://www.accessjewishcleveland.org/organizations/b/beth-israel-the-west-temple.aspx |
Friday Evening Shabbat Services - 6:30 pm
We are pleased to announce that Temple will be re-opening for services on Friday evenings beginning October 16, 2020. Pre-registration for each week’s service will be available at noon on the Sunday prior to the date of the service. A maximum of 25 people will be allowed to register for each service at this time (subject to change).
As part of our re-opening strategy, we have established several protocols to allow us to welcome members back to Temple safely.
Please read through the instructions and information below carefully.
Prior to arrival:
- Complete the online registration waiver form and questionnaire by Thursday, prior to the service you wish to attend (Note: Pre-registration will open at noon on the Sunday prior to each week’s service.)
- Bring a mask with you to Temple
- Should you wish to wear a tallit and/or kippah, please bring them with you, as these will not be available at the Temple
Upon arrival for services:
- Enter the Temple from the main doors (follow signs for entry/exit)
- If several people are arriving at the same time, please line up 2 metres apart
- You must wear a mask, at all times, when inside the Temple
- Security will confirm that your name is on their pre-registration list (if your name does not appear on the list, you will not be allowed to enter the Temple)
- Security will conduct bag checks and take your temperature before you enter
Once inside the Temple:
- Directional signs will guide you inside the building
- All doors inside the building, including the sanctuary, will remain open, except for washrooms
- Separate doors will be used for Entry to and Exit from the sanctuary
- Prayer books will be on the seats
- Seating in the sanctuary will ensure proper physical distancing
- After the service, please bring your prayer book to the back of the sanctuary as you exit
Please contact the Temple with any questions via email at [email protected] or by calling 905-889-2252 x103.
Thank you for your cooperation and understanding. We look forward to welcoming you back to Temple for services. | https://www.harzion.ca/shabbatservices |
Tsalgain khuralRead in Mongolian
Name(s) of Temple :
Tsalgain khural,
Rinchen Number :
797
Rinchen Name :
Bulgany khural
Type of Temple :
Monastry
Aimag Temple located in :
Omnigovi
Sum Temple located in :
Nomgon sym
Old Aimag Name :
Sain Noyon
Old Sum Name :
Baldan zasgiin khoshuu
Description of location :
The site is in 72Km to the west of Rashaantyn khiid in a valley of Bulgan mountain. The Tsankhi mountain range lies to the north and the north-east side of the site.
GPS readings :
North 42° 10’ East 104° 45’
Estimated site dimensions (metres) :
Side1: 200 Side2: 200 Side3: 200 Side4: 200 Side5: Side6:
Revived temple on site :
No
Status of site at time of survey :
There are remains of 10 buildings at the site, some of which may be of temples. Also there is one stupa and 3 or 4 mud-fenced storage buildings on the site.
Old monastery/temple revived:
No
Үүсгэн байгуулагч хүний нэр болон цол хэргэм (мэдэгдэж байвал):
Date of Reviving:
Monks in Old Temple :
not clear
not clear
Form Number :
ӨГНМ 026
Survey Team : | http://mongoliantemples.org/en/component/domm/1964?view=oldtempleen |
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The title of this article is conjecture. Although the subject of this article is canon, no official name for it has been given.
The Port-au-Prince Temple was a Seismic Temple located in a cave near Port-au-Prince.
On 21 November 1751, the Assassin Vendredi entered the temple on orders of his Mentor, François Mackandal, after the latter had discovered the temple's location using the Precursor box and manuscript. Upon touching the Piece of Eden housed inside the temple, Vendredi activated the temple's defense mechanism, which created an earthquake that struck Port-au-Prince and the surrounding areas.
References
Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted. | https://assassinscreed.fandom.com/wiki/Port-au-Prince_Temple |
Ashadevi temple is a Shakta temple. This is located on a plateau 1 km north east of the Ashapuri village. There is a pond too near this temple. This temple is completely ruined. The entrance of the Sanctum Sanctorum is not at all visible. This east-facing temple is dedicated to the Mahishasurmardani. This temple is comparatively small. There might have been an ardhamandapa in this temple. There was a provision of staircase to reach the sanctum sanctorum. There are remnants of two big rectangular (10.7 x 69.23 c.m.) halls in the backdrop of the temple. Certainly, they were the meditation or worship centres of a Matha. The ruins indicate that this was built in Bhumij-style having a shikhar. It might have been a shaktipeeth (tantric centre) dedicated to the goddess Durga or Mahishasurmardani. This is proved by the Bhairava images engraved on two long rock-plates. Probably, this was associated with the Shaivas or the Kapalikas. The description of different form of Bhairava prayers and rituals for Shakti-worship are found here. Today, this is known as the temple of Ashadevi. The village derives its name from this temple. In fact, Ashadevi is a form of Mahishasurmardini. She is worshipped as the protector of crops, cattle and children. From the alliance of tantric rites in the shakti-worship the possibility of being this temple as a centre of tantric cult becomes very strong.
This Paramara temple was totally a new piece of Bhumij Style of architecture. This was the largest and one of the great temples of Ashadevi group of temples, which is today in ruins, 100 km west from the Ashadevi temple on the bank of a dry pond. The Bhootnath temple was dedicated to the lord Vishnu. The images recovered from this temple and its ruins confirm that it was as large as its contemporary Bhojpur temple.
This was an east facing temple constructed on a high platform. The directive principles of Bhumij style of architecture are discussed in the magnum-opus of Bhoj Paramara– "Samrangansutradhar". Developed by the Paramaras, this style became very popular even in the south India. The Bhootnath temple was built in this style. Images, pillars decorated with fruits and creepers, dwar toran, parts of shikhar such as amalsanak, shringa etc. have been recovered for the ruins of this temple which confirm that the pillar & shikhar of the sanctum sanctorum & mandapa of the temple were sufficiently decorated. Comparing it to the temple of Udayeshwar, Bhojpur, Un etc. it become clear that this temple, in its structural plan was akin to the temple of Udayeshwar.
Copyright © 2018. Directorate of Archaeology, Archives and Museums , Government of Madhya Pradesh, India. All Rights Reserved. | http://archaeology.mp.gov.in/en-us/Monuments/Bhopal-Zone/Raisen |
The structures within the Temple of Amenhotep IV at Karnak in Luxor, Egypt, were used during the first four years of the reign of the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten, when he still referred to himself as Amenhotep IV, although they may have been constructed at the end of the reign of Amenhotep III, and completed by his son, the future Akhenaten.
The Great Hypostyle Hall of Karnak, located within the Karnak temple complex, in the Precinct of Amon-Re, is one of the most visited monuments of Ancient Egypt. It was built around the 19th Egyptian Dynasty . The design was initially instituted by Hatshepsut, at the North-west chapel to Amun in the upper terrace of Deir el-Bahri. The name refers to hypostyle architectural pattern. The hall covers an area of 50,000 sq ft . The roof, now fallen, was supported by 134 columns in 16 rows; the 2 middle rows are higher than the others in circumference and 80 feet high). The hall was not begun by Horemheb, or Amenhotep III as earlier scholars had thought but was built entirely by Seti I who inscribed the northern wing of the hall with inscriptions. Decoration of the southern wing was completed by Ramesses II. A series of later pharaohs added inscriptions to the walls and the columns in places their predecessors had left blank, including Ramesses III, Ramesses IV and Ramesses VI. The north side of the hall is decorated in raised relief, and was mainly Seti Is work. The southern side of the hall was completed by Ramesses II, in sunk relief although he used raised relief at the very beginning of his reign before changing to the sunk relief style and re-editing his own raised reliefs there. Ramesses II also usurped decoration of his father along the main north-south and east-west processional ways of the hall, giving the casual observer the idea that he was responsible for the building. Most of Seti Is reliefs in the northern part of the hall were respected however. The outer walls depict scenes of battle, Seti I on the north and Ramesses II on the south. Although these reliefs had religious and ideological functions, they are important records of the wars of these kings. On another wall adjoining the south wall of the Hall is a record of Ramesses IIs peace treaty with the Hittites that he signed in Year 21 of his reign. In 1899, 11 of the massive columns of the Great Hypostyle Hall had collapsed in a chain reaction, because their foundations were undermined by ground water. Georges Legrain, who was then the chief archaeologist in the area, supervised the rebuilding that was completed in May 1902. Later, similar work had to continue in order to strengthen the rest of the columns of the Temple.
The Festival Hall of Thutmose III . It is normally translated as "the most glorious of monuments", but "monument to living spirit" is an alternative translation since akh can mean either glory or blessed/living spirit . It is located at the heart of the Precinct of Amun-Re, in the Karnak Temple Complex, in modern Luxor, Egypt. Located at the end of the Middle Kingdom court, with its axis at right-angles to the main east-west axis of the temple, it was originally built to celebrate the jubilee of Thutmose III, and later became used as part of the annual Opet Festival. It is seemingly decorated to echo a huge tent shrine, complete with awnings and tent poles. In this temple, the Karnak king list, shows Thutmose III with some of the earlier kings that built parts of the temple complex.
Karnak Open Air Museum, located in the northwest corner of the Precinct of Amon-Re, in the Karnak complex, in the city of Luxor, Egypt, the Open Air Museum contains reconstructions of structures that have been dismantled and buried or hidden inside the massive pylons in the complex. Notable amongst them the Chapelle Rouge of Hatshepsut, the White Chapel of Senusret I and the calcite shrine of Amenhotep II. Preventive archaeological excavations before the rebuilding of Amenhotep IIs calcite shrine: Urban unit with mudbricks walls of Saito-Persian time were observed in this area .
The Precinct of Amun-Re, located near Luxor, Egypt, is one of the four main temple enclosures that make up the immense Karnak Temple Complex. The precinct is by far the largest of these and the only one that is open to the general public. The temple complex is dedicated to the principal god of the Theban Triad, Amun, in the form of Amun-Re. The site occupies roughly 250 000 m², containing many structures and monuments. The main temple itself, Temple of Amon, covers roughly 61 acres and would have been able to hold 10 average European cathedrals. Some parts of the complex are closed or semi-closed, partially large parts of the North/South Axis, as they are under active excavation or restoration. The whole southeast corner is semi-closed. The northwest corner is a museum that requires an additional ticket to visit. Most of the southwest is an open-air-assembling area with millions of stone fragments, from small to huge, laid out in long rows, awaiting reassembly into their respective monuments. The area is not closed, as the temples of Khons and Opet both lie in this corner and are open to the public, though both are rarely visited considering the immense number of tourists coming to Karnak. Also in this area can be found the housing of the Akhenaten Temple Project, a sealed-up long building, which contains all the remains found of the dismantled Temple of Amenhotep IV .
The White Chapel of Senusret I, also referred to as the Jubilee Chapel of Senusret I, was built during the Middle Kingdom of Egypt. During the New Kingdom it was demolished and used as filler for the Third Pylon of the temple of Karnak, Precinct of Amun-Re. In 1927, the dismantled pieces were found inside the Third Pylon of the main temple, constructed in the time of Amenhotep III, at Karnak, and between 1927 and 1930 all of the pieces were carefully removed. These pieces were then assembled into the building that is seen today in the Karnak Open Air Museum. The White Chapel is made of a hard white rock called alabaster. Its columns hold reliefs of a very high quality, which are hardly seen elsewhere at Karnak, and depicts Pharaoh Senusret being crowned and embraced by Amun, Horus, Min and Ptah. All along the base of the outer walls runs a series of reliefs depicting the emblems and deities of the nomes, or provinces, of Egypt. On the western side are the nomes of Upper Egypt, and on the eastern side are the nomes of Lower Egypt
This Bubastite Portal gate is located in Karnak, within the Precinct of Amun-Re temple complex, between the temple of Ramesses III and the second pylon. It records the conquests and military campaigns in c.925 BCE of Shoshenq I, of the Twenty-second Dynasty. Shoshenq has been identified with the biblical Shishaq, such that the relief is also known as the Shishak Inscription or Shishaq Relief.
Located with the large Precinct of Amun-Re at Karnak, in Luxor, Egypt, the Temple of Khonsu is an example of an almost complete New Kingdom temple, and was originally constructed by Ramesses III, on the site of an earlier temple. The gateway of this temple is at the end of the avenue of sphinxes that ran to the Luxor Temple. In Ptolemaic times, Ptolemy III Euergetes constructed a great gateway and enclosure wall for the temple; only the gateway now remains . Inscriptions inside the forecourt of the temple were made in the time of Herihor. The hypostyle hall was erected by Nectanebo I, and is not of a great size; inside were found two baboons that appear to have been carved in the time of Seti I, and therefore probably belong to the earlier building on the site. Frequently blocks with unmatching and inverted decorations can be seen, showing the amount of reconstruction and reuse of material from the surrounding temple complexes, especially in Ptolemaic times.
Located with the large Precinct of Amun-Re at Karnak, in Luxor, Egypt, the small Temple of Ptah lies to the north of the main Amun temple, just within the boundary wall. The building was erected by Thutmose III, on the site of an earlier Middle Kingdom temple. The building was later enlarged by the Ptolemies. The building consists of 6 small gateways, built close together. The first was erected by the Ptolemies. The subsequent gates date from the Eighteenth Dynasty, the first by Hatshepsut, the rest by Thutmose III.
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Tours are great to attract people to your town. Even places with no significant points of interest can be lots of fun when part of a tour
Create a series of clues to show people around a city, neighborhood or whatever place you like...
Create a series of questions that people have to answer. The answers can all be discovered by walking aroung the area, looking for clues. | https://www.guroute.com/Tours/Index/81772 |
Bayandelgeriin khuralRead in Mongolian
Name(s) of Temple :
Bayandelgeriin khural,
Rinchen Number :
446
Rinchen Name :
Bayandelgeriin khural
Type of Temple :
Temporary Assembly
Aimag Temple located in :
Töv
Sum Temple located in :
Bayndelger soum
Old Aimag Name :
Tusheet Khan
Old Sum Name :
Darkhan Chin Van Puntsagtserengiin khoshuu
Precis History(In Mongolian only):
Төв аймаг Баяндэлгэр сум. Баяндэлгэрийн хурал. Хуучин Түшээт хан аймгийн Дархан Чин вангийн хошууны нутаг одоогийн Баяндэлгэр сумын төвд төвхнөж байжээ. Тус сумын анхны сургуулийн хичээлийн байр , дотуур байр байсан тэр орчинд энэ хурлын хоёр дуган байсан байна. 40-50 лам хурж цугладаг түр цагийн энэ хурал нь Хэрлэнгийн зүүн хүрээний салбар жасаа хурал байсан бололтой. Хурлын лам нар Тахилт гозгор уулыг зуны эхэн сард, Шовх хангай уулыг амрын дунд саруудад тахидаг байв. Дээрх лам нар дүйцэн өдрүүдэд Хэрлэнгийн зүүн хүрээнээс гарч ирж хурал хурдаг байсан ба тус хурал нь Гомбо сахиустай байжээ. 19-р зууны дунд үед байгуулагдсан гэх энэ хурал нь 1934,35 оны үед хаагдсан байна. Харин хоёр дуган нь 1940-өөд оны сүүлч үеэр нураагджээ.
Description of location :
The temple, Bayandelgeriin Khural, is found in an area which once served as the centre of Bayandelger sum. The current Bayandelger sum is southeast of the temple site in an open plain zone. To the northwest of the temple is Bayandelger mountain, north is Shovkh Khairkhan, on its southeast side is Rashaant Tal spring and to the west is a sacred mountain Gozgoruud. Most mountains Shovkh of Bayandelger sum are sacred and worshiped.
GPS readings :
North 47° 43’ East 108° 06’
Revived temple on site :
No
Status of site at time of survey :
The area was occupied by a primary school which was attended by kids from the previous sum centre. To the east of Buyandelger sum are the Municipality’s administration centre, a kindergarden and, to its northwest, a ger district. There is a stone fence located north of the ger district and nearby, a wooden building with a steel roof built on the temple base.
Old monastery/temple revived:
No
Үүсгэн байгуулагч хүний нэр болон цол хэргэм (мэдэгдэж байвал):
Нэр, цол хэргэм : Unknown - Ярилцлагын дугаар:
Date of Reviving:
Monks in Old Temple :
about 20 monks
about 20 monks
Form Number :
ТӨБД 053
Survey Team :
Team F
Очирпагма
Oral History : | https://mongoliantemples.org/en/component/domm/1660?view=oldtempleen |
The largest number of Hindu temples under the ASI’s protection is in Karnataka, followed by Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, and Andhra Pradesh.
Which city has more temples in India?
Varanasi
Varanasi, the city of temples in India, is aptly named since it is home to over 2,000 temples. Varanasi, the home of thousands and hundreds of pilgrimage in and around India, is the oldest city in India as well. The exemplary works in this city of the temples will surely shock you in astonishment.
Which state in India is famous for its temples?
List of Most Popular Temples in India
|Temple Name||City/State Name|
|Meenakshi Temple||Madurai, Tamil Nadu|
|Amarnath Cave Temple||Jammu and Kashmir|
|Lingaraja Temple||Bhubaneswar, Odisha|
|Tirupati Balaji Temple||Tirumala, Andhra Pradesh|
Which is the No 1 temple in India?
With around 40 million annual visitors, Tirupati Balaji deems as the most visited temple in India. It is also the second richest temple of the country.
Which country has no Hindu population?
Only two countries in the world, in 2010, had a majority of its population as Hindus – Nepal and India. In Mauritius, Hindus comprise 48.5% i.e. a plurality of its population in 2011 census.
Which city is called City of God in India?
List of Nicknames of Indian Cities
|Name of the City||Nicknames||State|
|Agra||City of Taj Petha Nagari||Uttar Pradesh|
|Ahmedabad||Boston of India Manchester of India||Gujarat|
|Allahabad or Prayagraj||Abode of the God City of Prime Ministers Sangam City||Uttar Pradesh|
|Amritsar||Golden City of India||Punjab|
Who is the richest God in India?
Padmanabhaswamy is the tutelary deity of the royal family of Travancore.
…
This article is written like a manual or guidebook.
|Padmanabhaswamy Temple|
|Deity||Maha Vishnu|
|Governing body||Travancore royal family|
|Location|
|Location||Thiruvananthapuram|
Does Pakistan have Hindu temples?
One of the most important places of worship for Hindus in Pakistan is the shrine of Shri Hinglaj Mata temple in Balochistan. The annual Hinglaj Yatra is the largest Hindu pilgrimage in Pakistan. There are 30 operational temples scattered around the country according to recent estimates.
Which city is famous for its temple?
Bhubaneswar, the capital of Odisha, is an Indian city commonly known as the “Temple City of India“. The word Bhubaneswar means the ‘God’s World’ and the city exhibits temple architecture down the centuries.
Which God has maximum temples India?
There is no doubt, Almighty Shiva has the most number of temples not only in India but also in the world.
How many temples India have?
How many temples are there in India? There are around two million temples in India, and each year the number gets increased substantially.
Which state is famous for its temple? | https://liet.org/for-travelers/which-indian-state-has-many-temples.html |
Divine Tour of “Amarkantak” The King of Pilgrimages
Amarkantak is the unique heritage located in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India. Amarkantak is known as teerthraj, the king of pilgrimages, where famous poet sant kabir meditated. It is also the meeting point of the Vindhya and Satpura ranges and the origin of holy river Narmada, Son & Johila. Amarkantak is also known for it’s medicinal plants.
How to Reach Amarkantak
By Air- Bilaspur Airport is the nearest airport (within 130 kms) to reach Amarkantak.
By Train- Pendara Road is the nearest railhead (within 32 kms) to reach Amarkantak.
By Road- Well connected with all nearby cities by road transport buses and taxi’s.
Best Time to Visit AmarkantakMonsoon & Winter’s are the best season’s for visiting
Things to Do, Places to Visit, Shopping & Where to Stay in Amarkantak
- Dugdh Dhara Waterfalls- Milky Water Falls
Dugdh or Doodh Dhara Waterfalls is the second waterfall of Narmada. It is one of the most visited places of Amarkantak as you will mesmerize by the beauty of this falls because it resembles to a milky white water. This waterfall is the best place for the picnic and it is not accessible through road as one have to walk for few hundreds meters to reach here.
Click Below for Location on MapMadhya Pradesh 481884
- Kapil Dhara Falls- First Waterfall of Narmada
Kapil Dhara Falls is a 100 ft. waterfalls that is surrounded by the beautiful green forest and having many caves where several Sages (sants) meditated, according to the Indian Mythology. The name of waterfall is on the famous Sage Kapil, who meditated here for years.
Click Below for Location on MapMadhya Pradesh 484886
- Sonmuda- Tranquil & Pleasant Place
Sonmuda is known for the origin of River Sone. It is the most peaceful place of amarkantak and also one of the beautiful place. The sonmuda is having the view point from where one can enjoy the panoramic view of the hills and forest. According to Megasthanes and other Aryan writers the river Sone gets its name from gold as the gold dust is found in the water of Sone.
Click Below for Location on MapAmarkantak, Madhya Pradesh 484886
- Sonakshi Shaktipeeth Temple & Narmada Kund
Amarkantak is also having the shaktipeeth temple dedicated to Goddess Durga. The temple is among the 51 shaktipeeths of India. It is visited by thousands of devotees every year and take a holy bath in the divine kund, also it is the best place for seeing the Sone river and the beauty of the hills from the nearby hillside point.
Click Below for Location on MapAmarkantak, Madhya Pradesh 484886
- Ancient Temple of Kalachuri- Pataleshwar Mahadev Temple
The ancient temple of Kalachuri was bulit in the supervision of Kalachuri Maharaja Karnadeva during 1042 – 1072 AD. The Pataleshwar Mahadev temple shows the brilliant architecture of Kalachuri, The Pateleshwar Temple is crowned with a pancharath sikhara and has a pyramidal mandap. It is also having other temples such as Johila Temple, Shiv Temple, trimukhi temple & Pancha Math Temple.
Click Below for Location on MapAmarkantak, Madhya Pradesh 484886
- Shri Yantra Mandir- Depicts the 3-D Projection of Shri Yantra
Shri Yantra Mandir is the historical hindu temple that sculptures Hindu god and goddesses & a circular enclosure. The temple architects the 3-D view of Shri yantra having four heads which represent the faces of Goddess Laxmi, Saraswati, Kali & Bhuvaneshwari.
Click Below for Location on MapAmarkantak, Madhya Pradesh 484886
- Narmade Anandam- Dinner in a Tree House Restaurant
While your visit to Amarkantak, having dinner in the tree house restaurant is the best idea that makes your trip a memorable moment of your life. Dine in the classy tree house restaurant and enjoy the delicious meal with the touch of nature.
Click Below for Location on MapIn front of Saraswati Shishu Mandir, Dhuni Pani Road, Amarkantak, Madhya Pradesh 484886
- Where to Stay in Amarkantak
Amarkantak is having various resorts and hotels for the tourist depending on the cost and location one can choose their own. But we recommend the holiday homes of Amarkantak for better exploring and enjoying the life and beauty of the city.
- S for Shopping
Apart from the beautiful hills, tranquility and divine places, Amarkantak is also famous for their medicinal plants. So, next time at your visit shop for the exceptional medicinal plants and hand made medicinal products from the Amarkantak. | https://fromtraveling2fooding.com/2020/11/08/divine-tour-of-amarkantak-the-king-of-pilgrimages/ |
Dan Cruickshank’s Adventures in Architecture episode 3 – Paradise: Dan looks at buildings that evoke the image of heaven across religions and cultures, travelling to Egypt’s Sinai desert, China’s Hanging Temple, and Turkey’s Suleymaniye Mosque, a building that evokes the gates of paradise. Finally Dan loses himself in the boisterous holy town of Sri Ranganthaswamy, a place sacred to the Hindu religion.
In this series Cruickshank’s Adventures in Architecture: historian and writer Dan Cruickshank celebrates the creative force of architecture as he explores the world’s greatest cities, buildings and monuments.
Dan Cruickshank’s Adventures in Architecture episode 3 – Paradise
Hanging Temple
The Hanging Temple, also Hengshan Hanging Temple, Hanging Monastery or Xuankong Temple is a temple built into a cliff (75 m or 246 ft above the ground) near Mount Heng in Hunyuan County, Datong City, Shanxi Province, China. The closest city is Datong, 64 kilometres (40 mi) to the northwest. Along with the Yungang Grottoes, the Hanging Temple is one of the main tourist attractions and historical sites in the Datong area. Built more than 1,500 years ago, this temple is notable not only for its location on a sheer precipice but also because it is the only existing temple with the combination of three Chinese traditional religions: Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism.
The structure is kept in place with oak crossbeams fitted into holes chiseled into the cliffs. The main supportive structure is hidden inside the bedrock. The monastery is located in the small canyon basin, and the body of the building hangs from the middle of the cliff under the prominent summit, protecting the temple from rain erosion and sunlight. Coupled with the repair of the dynasties, the color tattoo in the temple is relatively well preserved.
Süleymaniye Mosque – Cruickshank’s Adventures in Architecture
The Süleymaniye Mosque is an Ottoman imperial mosque located on the Third Hill of Istanbul, Turkey. The mosque was commissioned by Suleiman the Magnificent and designed by the imperial architect Mimar Sinan. An inscription specifies the foundation date as 1550 and the inauguration date as 1557.
Behind the qibla wall of the mosque is an enclosure containing the separate octagonal mausoleums of Suleiman the Magnificent and that of his wife Hurrem Sultan (Roxelana). For 462 years, the Süleymaniye Mosque was the largest mosque in the city, until it was surpassed by the Çamlıca Mosque in 2019. The Süleymaniye Mosque is one of the best-known sights of Istanbul, and from its location on the Third Hill, it commands a spectacular view of the city around the Golden Horn.
Ranganathaswamy Temple – Cruickshank’s Adventures in Architecture
The Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple is a Hindu temple dedicated to Ranganatha, a form of the Supreme God, Maha Vishnu, located in Srirangam, Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu, India. Constructed in the Dravidian architectural style, the temple is glorified by Alvars in their Divya Prabhanda and has the unique distinction of being not only the foremost among the 108 Divya Desams dedicated to Vishnu, but also the largest functioning Hindu temple in the world.
The Place Srirangpatna had the name of the Srirangapuri in the early ages later it got the name of the Srirangapatna. The town is an island being surrounded by the river Cauvery. In this town, there is the temple of Sri Ranganatha. Sri Lakshmi Narasimha, Sri Gangadereshwara, Sri Jyothirmaheshwara and other small temples. Among them, the main temple is that of Sri Ranganatha. The inner apartment of SriRanganatha temple was built in 817 CE by a lady by name Hambi, of the class of dancers in the year 894 CE.
It is one of the most illustrious Vaishnava temples in South India rich in legend and history. The temple has played an important role in Vaishnavism history starting with the 11th-century career of Ramanuja and his predecessors Nathamuni and Yamunacharya in Srirangam. Its location, on an island between the Kollidam and Kaveri rivers, has rendered it vulnerable to flooding as well as the rampaging of invading armies which repeatedly commandeered the site for military encampment. The temple was looted and destroyed by the Delhi Sultanate armies in a broad plunder raid on various cities of the Pandyan kingdom in early 14th century. The temple was rebuilt in late 14th century, the site fortified and expanded with many more gopurams in the 16th and 17th centuries. It was one of the hubs of early Bhakti movement with a devotional singing and dance tradition, but this tradition stopped during the 14th century and was revived in a limited way much later. | https://clumphd.com/dan-cruickshanks-adventures-in-architecture-episode-3/ |
In 1905, the congregation started construction of an even larger synagogue building at 1839 Geary Street between Fillmore and Steiner Streets. It was nearing completion when it was destroyed by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. At the time, the congregation had 200 member families, and an annual income of $15,800. Services were held on Shabbat and the Jewish holidays. The congregational school had 250 students and five teachers. The members re-built at the 1839 Geary Street location, and dedicated the building in 1908.
Over time, Beth Israel gravitated toward Conservative Judaism.
Temple Judea and merger with Congregation Beth Israel
Beth Israel merged with Temple Judea in 1969, and the combined congregation is known as Temple Beth Israel Judea and is located at the Brotherhood Way site.
These summaries of information about the history of the two (now combined) congregations are taken from Wikipedia, accessed 9 Aug 2019 at this URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congregation_Beth_Israel-Judea#Congregation_Beth_Israel
Cemetery Record Book for Congregation Beth Israel
During housecleaning in 2018, a single cemetery ledger book was found in the files of Temple Beth Israel Judea. The book, of about 200 pages, contains records of the burials of 4910 members of Congregation Beth Israel between 15 September 1891 and 2 December 1929. Almost all of the burials took place at Salem Memorial Park, 1171 El Camino Real, Colma, CA 94014. Salem Memorial Park is owned by Sinai Memorial Chapel, and Sinai Memorial Chapel has other records of these burials, and many other burials at Salem. Sinai Memorial Chapel is located at 1501 Divisadero St., San Francisco, CA 94115, telephone 415 921-3636.
The data is recorded chronologically within each letter of the alphabet, and includes the following items:
NOTES: Age data is primarily in year, month, day sequence. We have not changed the data from the way it was originally entered, despite the appearance of months in excess of 12 in some entries. This fact makes it appear that some original entries are in year, day, month sequence. We cannot confirm the correct dates for the original entries.
The book was given to the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society (SFBAJGS) as Beth Israel Judea deemed it was no longer appropriate to keep the original book in its records.
The pages of the book were digitally photographed by SFBAJGS and the entries in the book were transcribed by the SFBAJGS and entered in an Excel spreadsheet. To see the original handwritten page of the ledger for each entry in the database, click on the red image name in the far left column of the database.
To preserve this artifact of San Francisco’s Jewish history, SFBAJGS donated the book and the accompanying digital photographs and electronic spreadsheet to the History Center at the San Francisco Public Library.
Copies of the photographs and Excel spreadsheet were given to Beth Israel Judea, and the History Center at the San Francisco Public Library. A copy of the photographs and spreadsheet is maintained in the SFBAJGS inventory of local records, and the data has been uploaded to the Jewish Online Worldwide Burial Registry (JOWBR) Database on JewishGen, the primary website for Jewish genealogical research online. JOWBR Database Link. | https://www.sfbajgs.org/Transcriptions%20Project/Beth_Israel/Beth_Israel_Background.html |
Gajendra Varadha Perumal Temple in Thirukkavithalam, a village in the outskirts of Papanasam in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu, is dedicated to the Hindu god Maha Vishnu.
It is Constructed in the Dravidian style of architecture, the temple is glorified in the Divya Prabandha, the early medieval Tamil canon of the Azhwar saints from the 6th–9th centuries AD. It is one of the 108 Divyadesam dedicated to Vishnu, who is worshipped as Gajendra Varadha and his consort Lakshmi as Ramamanivalli. The temple is one of the five Pancha-Kannan temples, where Krishna, an avatar of Vishnu is given prominence over the presiding deity.
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ThiruKabisthalam - Sri Gajendra Varadha Perumal Temple
கபிஸ்தலம் - ஸ்ரீ கஜேந்திர வரதப் பெருமாள் திருக்கோவில்
| |
Main Deity
| |
Lord Vishnu
| |
Moolavar Name
| |
Gajendra Varadhar, Adhimoola Perumal, Kannan
| |
Goddess Name
| |
Ramamani Valli, Pon Thamarayal / Shenbagavalli
| |
Location
| |
Kabisthalam
| |
Ancient Name
| |
Thirukavithalam
| |
Significance
| |
One of the 108 divya desams.
One of the Paandya naatu thiruthalangal
One of the Pancha Krishnaranya Kshetrams / Pancha Kannan Temples
| |
Travel Base
| |
Kumbakonam
Lord Perumal is in a reclining (Bhujanga Sayanam) posture facing east. The Vimana above the sanctum sanctorum is called Gaganakrutha Vimana. Devout Gajendra the elephant also called Indrajumnan, the crocodile called Koohoo, Sage Parasara and Sri Anjaneya had worshipped the Lord in this temple and had his darshan.
Saint Tirumazhisai Azhwar had praised Perumal of this temple as “Attrangarai kidakkum Kannan – Kannan reclining on the river bed”. Since then He is endearingly called Kannan by the devotees and the name had come to stay. Among the celebrated five Perumal temples as Pancha (five) Krishna Kshetras, Kabisthalam is one. Other four are Tirukannamangai, Tirukannapuram, Tirukovilur and Tirukannangudi. It is also noteworthy that of the 108 Divya Desas, only in this temple, Perumal had granted the darshan two non-humans, an elephant and a crocodile.
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Krishnaranyam Kshetrams / Pancha Kannan Temples
| |
Location
| |
Temple Name
| |
Thirukannangudi
ThiruKabisthalam
Thirukannapuram
Thirukannamangai
Thirukkovilur
| |
Loganatha Perumal Temple
Gajendra Varadha Temple
Neelamegha Perumal Temple
Bhaktavatsala Perumal Temple
Ulagalantha Perumal Temple
The temple is believed to have been built by the Medieval Cholas of the late 8th century AD, with later contributions from Vijayanagar kings and Madurai Nayaks.
How to Reach : The temple is located in Kabisthalam, a village situated 3 km away from Papanasam and around 20 km away from Kumbakonam and Thanjavur, towns in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The village is located in between the two rivers Kaveri and Kollidam. | https://www.marvelmurugan.com/2017/04/kabisthalam-perumal-temple.html |
Maanityn khiidRead in Mongolian
Name(s) of Temple :
Maanityn khiid,
Rinchen Number :
467
Rinchen Name :
Maanityn khural
Type of Temple :
Temporary Assembly
Aimag Temple located in :
Khentii
Sum Temple located in :
Delgerkhaan soum
Old Aimag Name :
Setsen Khan
Old Sum Name :
Zorigt beisiin khoshuu
Precis History(In Mongolian only):
Хэнтий аймгийн Дэлгэрхаан сумын Мааньтын хийд Хуучнаар Сэцэн хан аймгийн Зоригт бэйсийн хошуу, одоогийн Хэнтий аймгийн Дэлгэрхаан сумын нутагт, хангайн бүсэд,Боржигон гэлэн уулын ам өгсөөд Мааньтын эх өвөлжөө хэмээх газарт, Эхэн булгийн баруун хойт дэнжид, сумын төвөөс баруун хойд зүгт 60 км-т энэхүү хийд оршиж байжээ. Аман эх сурвалж: Мааньтын хийд нь нэг отгийн хурал байсан бөгөөд Өндөр гэгээний аравнайлсан Очирт уулыг тахидгаараа бусад хурлаас ялгарах онцлогтой хурал байжээ. Өндөр гэгээн Занабазар Далгай Шард, Өндөр гэгээний хорионд бясалгал хийж ном уншиж байхдаа Жанлав Цогзол номоо туурвисан гэдэг. Холбогдох эх сурвалж: Гомбо-Ичингийн ярилцлага (Хэнтий аймгийн Дэлгэрхаан сумын өндөр настан)
Description of location :
The site occupies mountain rangeland located in an area called Maanitiin Ekh Uvuljuu near the Gelen Mountain foothills. It is 6 km. northeast from the sum centre, on the northwestern shoreline of Ekhen Bulag river.
GPS readings :
North 47° 22’ East 108° 30’
Revived temple on site :
No
Status of site at time of survey :
There are about 21 – 22 square-shaped 4x5m bases and these buildings are located in a way that they create the impression of a fence. Newly built stupa is on the former site base.
Old monastery/temple revived:
No
Үүсгэн байгуулагч хүний нэр болон цол хэргэм (мэдэгдэж байвал):
Date of Reviving:
Monks in Old Temple :
not clear
not clear
Notes :
The locals worship the mountain Ochirt Uul, that is consecrated by Zanabazar, also known as Undur Gegeen Zanabazar. When he resided at the top of the mountain Dalgain Shard (The Top of Undur Gegeen) for meditation, he is said to have written a book called Janlav Book. Currently, a brass portrait of Undur Gegeen Zanabazar is found on top of the mountain.
Form Number :
ХЭДХ 020
Survey Team : | http://mongoliantemples.org/en/component/domm/1829?view=oldtempleen |
The location of Borobudur temple
Borobudur Temple is located at Borobudur, Magelang, Central Java. This location is approximately 100 km to the southwest of Semarang. If from Surakarta approximately 86 km westward, while if the Yogyakarta about 40 km towards the northwest.
History of Borobudur temple
The early construction of the temple of Borobudur began roughly during the reign of the Sailendra dynasty. Which is around the 9th century and at the time it was under the rule of King Samaratungga. The name of the architect of the Borobudur temple region is named Gunadharma who have succeeded in designing remarkable buildings, though not familiar with computer systems and other advanced technologies. The temple's regional development could be completed approximately 50 to 70 years later. Borobudur name is taken from the Sanskrit 'Vihara Buddha Uhr "meaning Buddhist Monastery on the Mount.
Borobudur temple at the time was used as the biggest center of religious activity. Until when the influence of Islam in the 15th century. People are starting to leave this temple because turning to Islam. When the eruption of Mount Merapi, Borobudur temple buried by volcanic ash up to the more memorable.
In 1814, Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles finally reveal the existence Borobudur temple after obtaining information about the existence of a large building were buried by volcanic ash. Not only buried by volcanic ash, the condition of the temple when it was discovered too much covered with shrubs.
Since the rediscovery, restoration and reconstruction efforts of the temple started from the British colonial period, the Dutch until Indonesia became independent. Indonesia continues to improve the condition of the Borobudur temple, which also received support from UNESCO and experts of cultural history from various parts of the world. After more than 10 centuries improvement and not well-maintained, the area of this temple is still standing strong today.
Description of the form of Borobudur temple
Borobudur Temple is generally shaped like a staircase punden community-owned prehistoric times. Borobudur temple is composed of six terraces with the square shape and on top there are three circular courtyard. In the temple walls are decorated by 2672 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues. At the center of the building there is a main stupa with the largest size among other stupas. Stupa at Borobudur temple amounted to 72 pieces in which there are statues of Buddha sitting cross-legged in the lotus position perfectly with mudra Dharmachakra mudra. | https://www.gemza.my.id/2015/09/borobudur-temple-historic-tour-wonders.html |
Highlights / General details
When the coastal area ends, Amarante appears divided by the Tâmega River, but connected by the bridge, which bears the same name as the temple located next to it, on one of the riverbanks, «St. Gonçalo». Protected from the humid winds of the Atlantic by the Marão and Montemuro Mountains we arrive to the Douro Valley and tribute is paid to the combined work of men and nature, depicting the universal value of the active role of a landscape of excellence. The «Alto Douro Vinhateiro» (Douro Wine Region) is classified as World Heritage by UNESCO since 2001. It is a place where the magic of the landscape highlights the terraces that grow the famous and cherished Port Wine, in the most ancient and beautiful demarcated wine region of the world. A place waiting for you visit.
Points of interest: Amarante, Church of São Gonçalo & historical center; Régua, Port Wine Estate; Pinhão (Railway Station); Vila Real.
Inclusion
Hotel pick-up & drop-off in Porto; Guided visit and wine tasting in Port Wine Estate; Lunch; Languages available: Portuguese, English, Spanish.
Exclusion
Meals & Drinks not mentioned above; Gratuities; Personal Expenses; Entrances in monuments not included.
Hours of operation
Available daily; Tour Departs at 9:00am. No Tour departures on January 1 and December 25.
Duration
Approximately 9 hours.
Location
Pick up and Drop off at any hotel in Porto.
Participant restrictions
Children 4 years and under free of charge. Children ages 5 - 10 years pay child rate. All guests 11 years and up pay adult rate.
Policies
Please contact Greenbus Transporte to confirm your tour 24 hours prior to departure.
Complete information, including local telephone numbers at your destination, will be included on your Confirmation Voucher. | https://fly.eastmidlandsairport.com/holiday/douro-valley-tour-e41f309a4e4446ec220a78cc3208e771/overview |
The Sri Varthamaneeswarar temple is situated in the village of Thirupugalur, in the Tiruvarur district, in the Tamil Nadu state of South India. Varthamaneeswarar (Lord Shiva) and his consorts Adi Kamakshi are the principal deities of this temple.
- Moolavar : Varthamaneeswarar
- Amman / Thayar : Manonmani Ambal
- Poojai/Prayer: Kameeyam
- Old year : 1000-2000 years old
- Location : Thirupugalur,Tiruvarur,Tamil Nadu.
This temple ‘s holy tree is none inside the shrine site. The temple ‘s holy water is no.
This temple’s agamam, or pooja is known as Kameeyam.
This temple in that area is about 1000-2000 years old. This place ‘s previous name is Zero. | https://shirditemple.com/sri-varthamaneeswarar-temple-thirupugalur-tiruvarur-tamil-nadu-276-shiva-sthalangal/ |
The temple was originally established in a small wood framed house in San Francisco, California, way back in 1957, by an American born Hindu guru, Sivaya SubramuniyaSwami. It may have been the first Hindu Temple to be opened in America that was beyond the scope of the various Vedanta centers that existed at that time.
Offering Pujas to murtis of Ganesha, Muruga and Shiva, it was founded on the traditions of Saiva Siddhanta and known as the Palaniswami Sivan Temple. It quickly became a popular site for the ever growing populace of newly arriving Hindus, some of whom personally knew of the Sage from Sri Lanka, YogaSwami, who initiated the American Guru. grow over the years, and on traditional festival days, the small temple could hardly accomodate the crowd of devotees. In 1988, to better facilitate the Hindu community, the temple was moved to a larger site in Concord, CA. The site was chosen due to availability and the fact that it had always been a place of worship.
First owned by the Lutherans and later by the Greek Orthodox, structures on the site include the temple proper with a social hall in the basement, a separate building that’s used as an office and classrooms, and a private residence for the Priests.
Due to his efforts to build an orthodox temple on the island of Kauai, Hawaii, SubramuniyaSwami decided to sell the temple in Concord to the local Hindu Community in 1995. The Saiva Siddhanta Ashram was incorporated as a non-profit organization, purchased the temple in May, and changed the name to Shiva Murugan Temple.
The Temple Management has, till date, brought three Priests from India to oversee the daily rituals. The first few years have been most generally spent in maintaining the buildings and a dependable schedule of religious events. The Board of Directors continues to look for ways to enhance the temple’s services to the Hindu community by considering the expansion of Temple structure, religious and cultural services.
This small mandir houses the personal and energized padukas of Paramahamsa Nithyananda. Everyone is welcome to attend. Please call first to confirm attendance. Gratitude! | http://allhindutemples.com/temples/america/california/the-shiva-murugan-temple-concord/ |
Luhur Batukaru Temple is located in Wongaya Gede Village, Penebel District, Tabanan Regency, Bali. Approximately 46 Kilometers from the city of Denpasar, the location of Pura Luhur Batukaru is located in the western part of the island of Bali on the southern slope of Mount Batukaru.
Most likely the name Pura Batukaru is taken from the name of Mount Batukaru itself. Pura Luhur Batukaru is a Hindu temple as well as a tourist attraction that is very popular with tourists who want to enjoy the freshness and peace found in the Luhur Batukaru Temple area, usually tourists will visit the Luhur Batukaru temple after / before they visit the terraced rice field tourist attractions Jatiluwih because the location of these two attractions is not too far away.
In this Pura Batukaru area we will not find souvenir shops, stalls or art shops like other tourist attractions so that in the Pura Batukaru area this is indeed a place far from the noise and sanctity that is always guarded by Balinese people. Travelers who want to visit Luhur Batukaru Temple must use polite clothing so that the sanctity of the temple is maintained.
Here are the popular attractions that are closest to Luhur Batukaru Temple. Where you can choose to see nearby objects or activities that you might know and like.
If you have interest to Luhur Batukaru Temple, you can freely add it as reference to your Bali Tours future plan. | https://www.tannolbalitours.com/bali-tourism/bali-cultural-tourism/bali-cultural-temple-tourism/bali-tourism-object/luhur-batukaru-temple-cultural-bali-tourism |
Five Steps of the Risk Management Process
The risk management process is a systematic way of identifying, assessing, responding to, and monitoring risk factors. It provides an organized framework for managing potential losses that can affect your company’s business operations and financial position. Doing so ensures the protection of assets and helps you stay competitive in today’s market. The five steps of the risk management process are identification, assessment, response planning, implementation, and monitoring/controls (internal). These steps serve as a roadmap to help you manage risks successfully while protecting your bottom line.
The risk management process is a five-step process that helps individuals and organizations reduce the risks of failure. Risk management is essentially about identifying and reducing or eliminating potential threats to your enterprise. Holistic view to have a positive experience for a project manager to manage risk is having a risk management solution to document the basic steps of the subject and create examples that answer the sign of slowly drop and rise sharply movement of events.
The first step in the risk management process is to identify possible hazards and vulnerabilities. The second step is an assessment which involves determining how likely it will be for an event to happen, as well as how much damage it could cause if it does happen. The third step in the risk management process is mitigation which means taking steps to lessen the risks of a hazard happening by implementing certain safeguards such as safety equipment, training programs, etc. The fourth step in this five-step process deals with control which entails deciding what should be done if a threat becomes reality.
The role of the Risk Manager in an organization is to ensure that risk management procedures are followed correctly and that they are not violated. A project implementation team member will be able to comprehend and manage project risks, thus helping manage the enterprise’s risk. As seen from the perspective of a risk manager reporting risks for a business, a comprehensive view of an organization’s risks can be achieved by using risk management metrics, which provide real-time data.
Legal requirements might as well require compliance to firms in order to provision managing risk in a firm.
Risk Management
It’s all about taking risks. How you handle them is more important than what kind of risk, and whether or not they’re calculated, unanticipated, or both. A company that avoids risks may become obsolete; a firm that is irresponsible may quickly experience calamity. Any business depends on risk management to some degree. Competition, new markets, and technological change are constant sources of risk.
Risk Management is an ongoing process of identifying risk events and mitigating the consequences of those events. Risk management is the process of identifying and managing risks in projects and project portfolios.
Typically project managers or project team members identify risks in their project environment, assess the impact and probability of each risk event, prioritize the events for action using a qualitative or quantitative approach (probability/impact matrix), plan how to implement response strategies (mitigation), determine the residual level of project risk, and monitor project status. This ensures the project proceeds without issues.
The Initial Step in the Risk Management Process
The initial step in the risk management process is establishing the context of the company internally and externally. Internal foundations may include;- policies, procedures, structure, vision, and strategic objective of the firm. The external environment consists of;- environmental and technological forces, the nature and scope of competition.
The next step for this is risk assessment which involves three activities: risk identification, risk analysis, and risk evaluation. Identification of risk events takes many approaches i.e brainstorming, interviews, and questionnaires. Risk Analysis is to assess the possible impact of each new risks, the likelihood of it happening, and how to deal with it or reduce its potential negative effect on business or company’s assets. This step may involve allocating probabilities, rankings, and prioritizing risks. Lastly, Risk Evaluation is reviewing an individual risk in terms of severity and probability and choosing the mitigation plans that will reduce both the likelihood and impact of the high risk.
Characteristics of an Effective Risk Management Process
- Effective risk management is having the right people in the right roles in your organization, with the appropriate competencies and skillsets.
- Building good teams is critical to the successful execution of processes across functions where mistakes can do significant financial damage.
- Ensures that appropriate personnel is fully informed about current technology standards for hazard assessments, safety protocols, and security standards.
- Engage outside stakeholders early on—managers with unique perspectives should participate in disaster-planning exercises so that different potentialities may be explored without delay.
- Developing an organization’s vulnerability profile which provides guidance for developing mitigation strategies based
Risk Identification Process
As the first activity in risk assessment, risk identification is the process of identifying the potential risks in a project, organization, business unit, department, and process. Identifying risks can be difficult given limited information about processes inherent in a project, operations, or strategies.
In identifying risks take into account risk events occurring in the organization/firm. In project management risks are identified in the various phases of the project from initiation to execution. The risk identification process in project management life cycle uses a project risk register to document the various risks and mitigation plans for the same. Potential risks are outlined their causes, effects, and consequences are documented.
Risk Analysis
Risk analysis is assessing the potential effect of risk, along with an assessment of the probability that will come into being. The more likely the event, the higher its associated probability and consequently, its assessed severity. More unlikely events are weighed less because they’re not considered as likely.
Probability, frequency, and severity are the three variables that form the basis to analyze risk. First, identify how much of an effect you’re looking to achieve. This includes both positive effects (e.g., looking for additional market) or negative effects (business disruptions)
Next, determine the possible problems the potential each variable has to work out in favor of your initial assessment. Frequency is proportional to how often it occurs; probabilistic intensity is based on “expected” frequency, and magnitude is how many people or things will be impacted by your decision (effect).After assessing these factors answer if there’s a range within which the target result could fall given this arrangement–knowing.
Risk Evaluation
Risk evaluation is the act of assessing risk. The end goal of risk evaluation is to set up plans for mitigating any potential risks that could come into play. Most attention needs to be devoted to high risks analyzed during the risk assessment process.
Evaluation is necessary when dealing with analyzed risks. Evaluate risks will assist in allocating resources in the best possible way so that you have more control over what will happen regardless of the situation. Focus on contingency plans are also important to have in place if an unforeseen event were to occur, so it’s best to prepare for everything–especially anything that tends not to go according to plan.
Risk control activities are evaluated and the effectiveness of controls is established in residual risk rating. Different types of controls will affect risk events, causes in many ways. Preventive controls will reduce the likelihood of an event whereas reactive controls will reduce the impact of the risk event.
Risk management evaluations are important for any business that wants to get the most out of its risk management program. Risk management solutions can streamline appraisal and evaluation processes. Before making any adjustments, it is best to conduct a regular risk reduction assessment.
The Cost Impact of a Risk Event Occurring
The cost impact of a risk event occurring depends on how likely it is that the risk event will occur. If a risk event has a low probability, it can be difficult to predict its consequences and hard to measure the loss if it does happen. In some cases, slowly rise losses from unknown risks are managed by spreading them across several items or different categories of assets. If this isn’t possible, those who decide how those consequences are managed need to decide which consequences would be harmful given their knowledge and resources available. One option is to avoid negative impacts as much as possible with these limited resources. Another option might be spreading the potential losses over even more items belonging to an entity where negative impacts would then have less huge an impact on any item.
What is the first step in the risk management process Quizlet?
The first step in the risk management process is to identify and assess risks.
The first step should be looking for possible risks and determining which you will allow taking place before moving on to other steps. Risk assessment can be defined as a process that starts with identifying hazards (either internal or external) then analyzing how those dangers may happen, the chances they could happen, their potential effects if they do occur, and finally evaluating what defenses exist to avoid them.
What are the steps in the risk management process?
The risk management process will typically consist of six steps. These steps are to identify which activities pose the greatest risks, determine what level of risk they represent, assess the organization’s ability to withstand potential losses or temporary interruptions in business operations, control the activity that poses the greatest risk by creating an action plan with specific collective targets and due dates with supportive decisions, assign people who are accountable for these tasks and hold them accountable through a timely update system—these individuals should also be informed about overall progress made.
The other two important tools in this process are conducting a gap analysis study that looks at different parts of your organization from data centers to production facilities. It creates a gap map that details weaknesses in your systems and procedures across departments
What is the first step in the risk management assessment?
One of the first steps in risk management is to identify where your risks are coming from. For example, many people think that their house is more likely to have a fire than their car, so they purchase home insurance but not vehicle insurance. But according to some statistics out there, the total number of fatalities for fires or other accidents on average per capita is higher in homes than crashes occurring on the roadways.
What are the steps in the 6 step risk management process?
- Identifying risks
- Documenting them
- Analyzing the risks
- Initiating avoidance and mitigation strategies
- Monitoring and controlling these efforts to avoid unwanted consequences and maintain necessary residual risk.
- Review and consultations
Conclusion
In order to stay competitive in today’s market, it is important for companies to have a systematic way of identifying and managing risks. The five steps of the risk management process can help you do this by providing an organized framework for keeping track of potential losses that might affect your company’s business operations or financial position. | https://riskpublishing.com/five-steps-of-the-risk-management-process/ |
This toolkit from the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) is designed to provide guidance on the use of SWOT analysis to find the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of a project or plan.
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Joint Evaluation: Danish-Bhutanese Country Programme 2000-09ResourceExample2010
This report from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark presents the findings of the evaluation conducted into the collaboration between Denmark's Evaluation Department and the Research and Evaluation Division (RED) of the Gross National Happiness Commission Secretariat of Bhutan
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The Theory Underlying Concept Maps and How to Construct and Use ThemResourceGuide2008
Concept maps are graphical tools for organizing and representing knowledge. They include concepts, usually enclosed in circles or boxes of some type, and relationships between concepts indicated by a connecting line linking two concepts. (Novak. & Cañas 2008)
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The Art of Assessing the Impact of Advocacy WorkResourceOverview2002
This paper explores the complex and changing nature of advocacy work, arguing that in many cases standardized forms of Monitoring & Evaluation/ Impact Analysis (M&E/IA) are likely to be inappropriate, as they will probably provide misleading information, and may create incentives that undermine joint action.
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Tools for Policy Impact: A Handbook for ResearchersResourceGuide
The Overseas Development Institute (ODI), as part of its Research and Policy in Development (RAPID) programme, has been looking at the links between research and policy for several years. It is now beginning a process of identifying, developing, distributing and delivering tools, resources and training support that can help research providers access the policy process. This handbook presents work in progress on tools for policy impact, specifically geared towards the needs of researchers. Overall, the RAPID programme aims to improve the use of research and evidence in development policy and practice through research, advice and debate.
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Focus Groups: Consultation in NottinghamshireResourceGuide2007
This guide from the Nottinghamshire County Council outlines a detailed step-by-step process for running focus groups in a consultative process.
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The Center for Evaluation InnovationResourceWebsite
The Center for Evaluation Innovation focuses on expanding evaluation practice in new directions and into new arenas. They specialize in fields that are hard to measure, like advocacy, communications, and systems change. In the area of advocacy evaluation, the Center is helping to advance this emerging field through working with many pioneering and creative advocates, evaluators, and funders committed to growing it through collaboration.
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Issues in assessing the policy influence of researchResourceOverview
This paper presents a methodology for assessing the influence of research on public policy. The article reviews the origins of the methodology, outlines it in depth, and explores the outcomes after implementation. It concludes with issues in the revision of the methodology.
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Handbook on monitoring, evaluating and managing knowledge for policy influenceResourceGuide2011
This handbook from the Center for the Implementation of Public Policies Promoting Equity and Growth (CIPPEC) is designed to support research institutions develop monitoring and evaluation and knowledge management systems in order to improve their performance.
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Assessing the impact of research on policyResourceOverview2008
The authors of this review analyse various evaluation options (including ethnographic and quantitative approaches, focus groups, process tracing, and network mapping and analysis) in order to find out which ones are the most suitable to evaluate the impact of research on policy change. | https://www.betterevaluation.org/ar/search/site?page=8&f%5B0%5D=bundle%3Aresources |
Identifying Market Opportunities for Rural Smallholder ProducersThis guide is the third in a series designed to support agencies implementing a Participatory approach to rural agroenterprise development. These guides are designed for use by...
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Participatory Market Chain Analysis for Smallholder ProducersThe Participatory Market Chain Analysis Guide was developed as a key step in the ‘area-based approach to rural agroenterprise development’. The guide is based on the principles...
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CIAT's Method for Value Chain AssessmentThis tool describes a strategy developed by CIAT’s Rural Agroenterprise Development (RAeD) project, to address the entrepreneurial development needs of institutions that support...
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Area-based Approach for Rural Agroenterprise DevelopmentThis guide provides the starting point for applying the strategy developed by CIAT’s Rural Agroenterprise Development Project (RAeD), to address the entrepreneurial development...
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Tool for Monitoring and Evaluation of Innovation PlatformsThe conceptual framework for monitoring and evaluation of innovation platforms is based on elements from new institutional economics and marketing relationship management to...
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EXTRAPOLATE (EX-ante Tool for RAnking POLicy AlTErnatives)EXTRAPOLATE (EX-ante Tool for RAnking POLicy AlTErnatives) arose out of the need for a decision support tool to assess the impact of different policy measures. By disaggregating...
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DAPA’s Linking Farmers to Markets Research Group (formerly CIAT's Tool for Ag...How can market linkages be achieved through comprehensive processes that promote rural agribusiness development? Finding answers to this question is part of our work as a...
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Happy StrategiesThe Happy Strategies game is a participatory communication tool to engage discussion and learning around integrated rainwater management. It can be adjusted to be played with...
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Rapid Integrated Assessment of Food Safety and Nutrition Research Opportuniti...Rapid integrated assessment (RIA) of food safety, zoonoses and nutrition in informal animal source food (ASF) value chain
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Humidtropics Situational Analysis ChecklistThere are 3 primary objectives for the Humidtropics situational analysis (SA): 1. To characterize broadly all important system aspects that are relevant to the CRP within the...
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Value-chain Assessment Tools - Version 1This tool is a producer level for Value Chain Assessment as part of the diagnostic phase of the Value Chain Development theme of the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and...
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Livestock and Fish Site Selection GuidelinesThe Livestock and Fish site selection guideline provide a framework to select the site within the selection value chains in a consistent way across all countries we work in. The...
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Reflexive Monitoring in ActionReflexive Monitoring in Action (RMA) is an interactive methodology to encourage reflection and learning within groups of diverse actors that seek to contribute to system change...
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Participatory 3D ModelingParticipatory 3D Maps are scaled landscapes generated by communities to illustrate their perception of what is on the ground around them. The maps are generated by multiple...
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PIPA (Participatory Impact Pathways Analysis)Participatory Impact Pathways Analysis (PIPA) is a practical planning, and monitoring and evaluation approach developed for use with complex projects in the water and food...
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TAGMI (Targeting AGwater Management Interventions)The Targeting AGwater Management Interventions (TAGMI) is a decision support tool that facilitates targeting and scaling-out of three different Agricultural Water Management...
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River Basin Game (aka The Water Marbles Game)The River Basin Game is an effective simple-to-operate common-pool game using glass marbles and a sloping table or board. It promotes mutual understanding of different people’s...
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ICRAF Local Knowledge Toolkit (AKT5)Over recent years, there has been increasing awareness that local knowledge and practices should be recognised in developing initiatives aimed at sustaining and improving the... | http://data.ilri.org/tools/dataset?q=Accounts+for+interactions+between+agents&vocab_ILRI_vocsubjects=Institutional+or+Governance&_vocab_ILRI_vocformats_limit=0 |
Evaluating the impact of what we do is of great importance to Innovate UK. It is vital to demonstrate and understand our impact, and to ensure we are achieving the greatest impact possible with the funds we are entrusted with. Evaluation isn’t just about measuring the impact of a programme.
It is just as important as a tool to understand why and how programmes are having an impact, the pathways to that impact, and to understand which aspects of a programme are more or less effective.
Evaluating our impact
Evaluation of innovation support is, however, a difficult task, with challenges in identifying, measuring, and attributing impact for any specific programme.
As part of our journey in improving our evaluation programme, and overcoming some of those difficulties, I am proud to introduce Innovate UK’s first ever published evaluation framework , which sets out our approach to overcoming the evaluation challenges we, and many other parts of the public sector, face in evaluating our impact.
What are the challenges?
All of Innovate UK’s activities have one overarching goal in mind: to increase UK economic growth through connecting and funding business-led innovation. The impact of our activities are, as a result, difficult to capture. The returns to innovation occur over several years, and not always in the companies we directly support.
The main output of our programmes is new knowledge. Knowledge is intangible, and whilst it can be protected with a patent, or kept a trade secret, knowledge does flow with the people involved in innovating, or to customers buying a new product, or suppliers involved in the production of it. Through these channels, impacts spill over to the wider economy in ways we’re not able to predict or capture.
Innovation programmes only directly support a relatively small number of companies – around 10,000 in Innovate UK’s history. Compare this with the millions supported in other areas of government policy, such as education and welfare, and we are faced with a small sample in any one programme with which to conduct statistical analysis of impact. This can cause significant problems for many of the traditional evaluation methods we would seek to employ.
Overcoming challenges
To help us overcome the problems we face in understanding and demonstrating our impact, we have implemented a number of approaches to mitigate the challenges in hand, and continuously improve the rigour and reliability of our evaluations. These approaches include;
- Introducing an improved monitoring process, to capture more consistent and comprehensive data on the projects we fund
- Conducting evaluations over longer time-periods, with larger cohorts and a logic model approach to demonstrate outputs and outcomes before full impacts are realised
- Utilising third-party data to improve our understanding of impact, drawing on verified sources to build a more complete picture of the companies we work with
Through these measures, we have been able to successfully implement some of the most robust evaluation methods available, including randomised control trials and regression discontinuity design.
Where challenges remain which limit the use of these data-heavy methods, we have introduced more theory-based approaches, combining a wide range of methods to build the most complete picture of impact possible.
Lessons learned
The approach we have taken to improving our evaluation framework provides many lessons that are applicable across the public sector. Through implementing some of these lessons, a consistent and transparent approach to evaluation can enable improved robustness of evidence, greater understanding of what works and why, and, therefore, improved programme design and delivery.
- Design evaluation into the programme: it’s never too soon to start evaluating!
- Data is key: It is vital to ensure you’re collecting the right data at the right time.
- Evaluation is often very difficult: But this doesn’t mean it should not be attempted – instead, ensure the most robust methods practical are applied
- Sample size is fundamental: Try to design an evaluation which covers at least 200-300 beneficiaries
- Do not get too preoccupied with a single number: The headline return-on-investment figure is important, but the narrative and lessons around it will inform decision-making just as much, if not more.
- Be innovative when evaluating: Ensure a robust core method is in place, but then look to push the boundaries a little – learn something new about how to evaluate each time you do.
There’s much more on these lessons in the framework – have a read and hopefully it will help others improve their own approaches. We’re always looking for ways to improve our own evaluation, and we’re keen to lead a wider debate about the best way to do this – so please do get in touch with any ideas!
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Follow Dan Hodges on Twitter @EconDanH
You can follow Innovate UK on: | https://innovateuk.blog.gov.uk/2018/02/15/introducing-our-evaluation-framework-how-we-evaluate-impact/ |
This course will provides you with the essential knowledge and skills to effectively appraise and analyse projects. It provides you with the latest tools and techniques to manage project risks and uncertainties to ensure profit margins and sustainability in uncertain times. It will in more advanced level cover econometric impact evaluation theory and empirical methods for measuring the impact of development programs (including randomization, difference-in-differences, regression discontinuity, and propensity score matching). It will combine theory and practice. The primary objectives of the course is to provide participants with the skills to understand the value and practice of impact evaluation within development economics, design and implement impact evaluations and act as critical consumers of impact evaluations.
Duration
10 Days
Course Objective:
· Undertake, Technical, Economic, Financial & Risk Analysis to select Projects to meet National and Organisational Objectives
· Undertake Financial Analysis using Payback, NPV & IRR
· Identifying & Measuring Risk & Uncertainties
· Evaluate and Manage Risks using the latest tools & techniques
· Manage Uncertainties using Decisions Trees, Programming Techniques – Gannt Charts, Network & Critical Path Analysis, Manpower Planning, Contingency Planning & Earned
· Identifying if project is working or not, impact evaluation will assist accountability function. This course is aligned with results based management and monitoring.
Who should attend?
This course targets Project Management Officials from NGO’s, National Statistics Offices, Education Researchers, Government ministries, National Institutes and Planning Ministries, Central banks, and University Researchers among others.
The Course Content
Module One: Project Appraisal & Analysis
· The Investment Criteria & The Investment Planning Process
· Identifying Technical, Logistical & Environmental Risks
· Economic Risk Analysis
· Market Risk Analysis
· Selecting Projects to meet Organisational Objectives
Module Two: Financial Analysis
· Estimating Income, Cashflows & Durations
· Identifying Risks from the Projected Cashflow
· Calculating the Cost of Finance – WACC, CAPM & Arbitrage Pricing
· Capital Investment Appraisal Techniques - Payback; ARR, NPV, IRR etc.
· Financial Appraisal using Spreadsheet Skills
Module Three: Project Risk & Uncertainties
· Measuring Risk & Uncertainties
· Project Constraints
· Balancing Scope, Time, Quality & Cost
· Evaluating the Risks & Uncertainties – Their Likelihood & Impact
· Risk Response Planning & Reporting
Module Four: Risk Management
· The Risk Management Process at various levels of an organization and throughout the Project Life Cycle
· The Project Manager’s Roles and Responsibilities
· Qualitative & Quantitative Risk Analysis
· Financial Risk Management & Derivatives
· Sensitivity Analysis & Monte Carlo Simulation Analysis
Module Five: Managing Uncertainties
· Decisions Trees to Manage Uncertainties and make Strategic Decisions
· Programming Techniques – Gannt Charts, Network & Critical Path Analysis
· Manpower Planning and Resource Smoothing & Levelling
· Project Contingency Planning
· Earned Value Analysis – Controlling Cost & Schedule Variances
Module six:Cost benefit analysis
· The effect on decision-making of more intangible benefits
· Cost benefit analysis
· Ensuring costs are genuine
· Measuring intangible benefits
· Environmental issues
· Consideration of intangible benefits in the appraisal decision-making process
Module seven:Developing appropriate models
· Developing models – examples of spreadsheet models and measures for many different situations
· Modelling investment opportunities – summarising outcomes
· Sensitivity analysis – identifying, quantifying and taking out risk
Module eight:Developing an appraisal process
· The process – managing risk from the outset
· Using the process in risk management, negotiating and project management
· Take out risk by thoroughly knowing your project – developing your own process
Module Nine: Introduction to impact evaluation
· Introduction
· Counterfactual
· Purpose of impact evaluation
· When to undertake impact evaluation
Module Ten: Evaluation Design
· Establishing the program theory
· Selecting the evaluation approach
· Designing the baseline survey
· Options when there is no baseline
· Impact evaluation using secondary data
· The role of qualitative information
· Triangulation
· Generalizations from specific impact evaluations
Module Eleven: Managing and Implimenting Impact Evaluation
· Terms of reference
· Data sources
· Time and cost
General Notes
· All our courses can be Tailor-made to participants needs
· The participant must be conversant with English
· Presentations are well guided, practical exercise, web based tutorials and group work. Our facilitators are expert with more than 10years of experience.
· Upon completion of training the participant will be issued with Foscore development center certificate (FDC-K)
· Training will be done at Foscore development center (FDC-K) center in Nairobi Kenya. We also offer more than five participants training at requested location within Kenya, more than ten participant within east Africa and more than twenty participant all over the world.
· Course duration is flexible and the contents can be modified to fit any number of days.
· The course fee includes facilitation training materials, 2 coffee breaks, buffet lunch and a Certificate of successful completion of Training. Participants will be responsible for their own travel expenses and arrangements, airport transfers, visa application dinners, health/accident insurance and other personal expenses.
· Accommodation, pickup, freight booking and Visa processing arrangement, are done on request, at discounted prices.
· One year free Consultation and Coaching provided after the course.
· Register as a group of more than two and enjoy discount of (10% to 50%) plus free five hour adventure drive to the National game park.
· Payment should be done two week before commence of the training, to FOSCORE DEVELOPMENT CENTER account, so as to enable us prepare better for you. | https://fdc-k.org/trainings/1517/Project-Appraisals-and-Impact-Evaluations-course/9604 |
Impact Assessment of Western Films on Teenagers and the Question of Cultural Promotion in African Society (Published)
This study examines the impact of western films on teenagers as it affects the promotion of cultural heritage in African society. Much after the independence across African continent, one of the major preoccupations African leaders had to contend with is the restoration of African cultures in their pristine forms which were arguably polluted or collapsed by the colonial masters during their reign. No doubt, teenagers and youth generally, are vital segment of the society who could be instrumental promoting African cultures. But unfortunately, the mentality and lifestyle of the teenagers in African societies have been grossly affected by exposure to western films to such an extent that rather than promoting African cultures, they have become hardened acolytes and promoters of western cultures. The study therefore examines this situation with particular reference to Nigeria adopting both qualitative and quantitative research methods and at the end find out that western films exert great impact on the teenagers in Nigerian society thereby creating cultural gap to the native cultures. The study then concludes by prescribing way forward towards the restoration and promotion of African cultures as it affects teenagers with particular reference to Nigerian society.
Keywords: African Society, Impact Assessment, Teenagers, cultural promotion, western films
Environmental and Social Impact Assessment for a Modular Power Plants Project in Menengai, Nakuru County, Kenya: Impact Identification, Evaluation and Risk Analysis (Published)
This paper is an extract from the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment report for the Menengai modular geothermal power plants projects for Geothermal Development Company Limited. Geothermal Development entails exploration drilling, steam collection, construction of power generation units and power transmission lines. Preliminary phase of land acquisition, vegetation clearing, construction and power generation is likely to cause environmental disturbance. Integrated resource utilization and environmental conservation needs an effective and efficient environmental and social management plan in order to facilitate sustainable implementation of the proposed project. Impact identification and risk analysis for any proposed project, are key for they provide useful information to decision- makers. This paper aims to provide a valuation’s perspective on how to best design and execute the impact identification and risk analysis to achieve results that align mitigation with identified potential impacts of the proposed project activities. The process involved identifying where the interactions were likely to occur between the proposed project activities and the receiving environments. A modified Leopold Matrix (LM) integrated with Lohani & Thanh methods were used to identify and estimate the magnitudes and importance of the potential impacts. Cumulative impacts were estimated using consequence and probability ranking model adapted from the South African Department of Environmental Affairs’ guideline document on EIA regulations of 1998. The model predicts the significance of impacts by considering magnitude, duration, spatial scale and factoring in probability of the impact to occur. Based on results of analysis, the cumulative impacts ranged from minor to moderate and can be mitigated. | https://www.eajournals.org/keywords/impact-assessment/ |
Catholic University of Bukavu is seeking s research associate for The Rapid Response to Movements of Population (RRMP) programme, a large humanitarian assistance programme in eastern Congo. The position requires excellent logistical and management skills, in addition to a strong understanding of household survey implementation and quantitative social science research methods. This is a two-year assignment and the selected candidate is expected to join immediately. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis.
Evaluation Systems Specialist, 3ie, New Delhi
3ie’s Evaluation Office seeks an Evaluation Systems Specialist to support 3ie’s National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM) project. The position will involve being the nodal person on behalf of 3ie for executing the project on the ground. The key responsibilities of this position will include engaging with stakeholders, contributing to the creation of a synthesis report on NRLM, evaluate current MIS systems to make recommendations on M&E systems, support formative evaluations and lead, conduct and support capacity building workshops of the national and state missions of NRLM. This is a re-posting. Candidates who have applied previously need not re-apply. The deadline for applications is 17 February 2017.
Head of Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning, IPE Triple Line, UK
IPE Triple Line has a new opening for a motivated and inspiring individual to head our monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) practice, working across all of IPE Triple Line’s sectors: Governance, Environment and Climate Change, Forest Governance, Social and Economic Empowerment and Private Sector Development. The successful candidate will be responsible for strengthening IPE Triple Line’s strong track record in this area. They will bring your existing knowledge and network to develop and strengthen expertise and work in MEL together with sector and practice heads.
Applications will be accepted until the position is filled.
Technical Manager/Senior Technical Manager, IDinsight, India and Zambia
IDinsight is looking for a technical expert who possesses exceptional quantitative analytical skills, has impressive experience in field research, evaluation design, and applied econometrics, thrives in a developing country setting, and is passionate about making a difference, to join IDinsight’s Technical Team. Please apply online using the IDinsight Technical Manager Application. Applications will be considered on a rolling basis.
Senior Fellow: Impact and Learning, The International Budget Partnership
The International Budget Partnership (IBP) seeks to appoint a Senior Fellow: Impact and Learning in its Strategy and Learning Team (SALT) based in Cape Town, South Africa to provide technical guidance on the design, implementation, methodology, and content of learning and impact research. The Senior Fellow will support IBP’s internal strategic decision-making and application by IBP’s CSO partners in the field of public finance advocacy. Applications will be accepted until the position is filled.
Senior Technical Advisor, Education Research, International Rescue Committee, New York
The International Rescue Committee is looking for a Senior Technical Advisor to work with the Research, Evaluation and Learning Unit, and the Education Unit to advance research on education. Their main responsibilities will include setting a research agenda, identifying research projects that have potential for high impact, mapping and engaging with relevant partners, and implementing and publishing high-quality research.
Intern, research and program assistance, 3ie, Washington DC
3ie is seeking an intern to provide research and program assistance to our Impact Evaluation Services (IES) and HIV teams at the 3ie Washington office (WO). The WO intern will serve as a research and program assistant to the WO HIV and IES staff. He/she will also occasionally assist other WO staff. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until the position is filled.Read the terms of reference (119.5 KB)
Senior Education Evaluation Specialist, RTI International, Washington DC
RTI International seeks an experienced and energetic Senior Education Evaluation Specialist to support their work in education sector monitoring and evaluation, surveys, assessments, analysis and policy dialogue and dissemination. The successful candidate will be responsible for a range of technical, M&E, mentoring, business development and management activities.
Chief Measurement & Impact Evaluation Officer, Global Fund to end Slavery, Washington, DC
The Global Fund to End Slavery (the Fund) is hiring a Chief Measurement & Impact Evaluation Officer (CMIEO) in Washington, DC. The CMIEO will be a crucial member of the founding executive team and will bring extraordinary talent, passion, and commitment to establish a system of measurement that will be accepted globally as a tool in the fight to end slavery. Working closely with the CEO and fellow members of the Fund’s executive team, the CMIEO will lead the Fund’s evaluation and measurement agenda with a focus on quantifying and analyzing impact.
Reviewers, Global Innovation Fund, London
The Global Innovation Fund (GIF) is building a diverse roster of reviewers with expert technical knowledge to provide brief reviews of shortlisted funding proposals. The innovations GIF supports can be located in any developing country and may focus on any sector relevant to international development. Candidates with a diversity of skills, experiences and expertise are encouraged to apply especially candidates with in-depth knowledge of one or more sectors relevant to global development, such as agriculture, energy, finance, health or education. | http://3ieimpact.org/en/announcements/category/jobs/ |
Analysis of e-Inclusion impact resulting from advanced R&D based on economic modellingJan 21
The purpose of this study (Analysis of e-Inclusion impact resulting from advanced R&D based on economic modelling in relation to innovation capacity, capital formation, productivity, and empowerment) is to assess how investments in inclusive information society technologies and services have the potential to deliver sustainable and cohesive growth.
In order to achieve this objective, the study will look at, and improve on, existing macro-economic models and datasets to capture the impact of inclusive ICT on employability, productivity growth and human capital as factors of economic growth.
The study will also assess –within current e-Inclusion policies- which implementation measures have the potential to best deliver economic growth and social cohesion. It will also examine the associated costs for pursuing investments for e-Inclusion at EU and national level and assess their macro-economic outcomes.
The study will be completed in the first half of 2010.
The first report presents a brief summary of the first part of the research (completed by December 2009) which was dedicated to provide a quantitative evaluation of the e-Inclusion in Europe. In order to define and measure e-Inclusion, the study moves beyond the traditional distinction between “haves” and “have-nots” in terms of access only and proposes a multi-focal approach to this complex concept in continual evolution. More specifically, it adopts a multi-perspective (households/individual and enterprises) and multi-dimensional approach (access, usage, impact of quality of life). Throughout this approach, the research is expected to provide a quantitative evaluation, indicators and a dataset to monitor e-Inclusion for all 27 EU Member States.
Download the first report. | https://www.accessforall.eu/tag/inclusive-ict/ |
Throughout this week we’ll be posting a number of blogs that explain how we’re working with our partners across the region to support the NHS Reset campaign. In today’s post Oliver Barnes, our Programme Lead for Evaluation and Reset, talks about the approach we’ve taken to collaborating with all our health and care systems to understand how innovations have been used and implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic and what we can learn from this work.
The impact of COVID-19 has demonstrated the need to accelerate the rapid adoption of innovation in the way we work and deliver care. We have seen an unprecedented, accelerated pace of innovation and change in response to the pandemic from individual trusts to the system as a whole.
International and UK health systems ‘as we knew them’ are unlikely to be the same again, and as we start to emerge and recover from the pandemic we will be faced with a ‘new normal.’ The pandemic has forced the adoption of new ways of delivering health and care through innovative solutions that could continue to deliver value in the future even after the end of the crisis.
It has been a privilege to work collaboratively with North East and Yorkshire Integrated Care Systems (ICSs), NHS England and NHS Improvement and colleagues at North East and North Cumbria AHSN (NENC) to evaluate the impact of such changes in order to identify valuable learning that could inform short, medium and long-term plans. Yorkshire & Humber AHSN has been in a prime position to support our partners in the challenging task of identifying and understanding the impact of current changes for the future of the health and care systems at local, regional, national and international level with the objective of informing long-term reset planning.
Key to this process has been the development and delivery of a North East and Yorkshire (NEY) regional evaluation and reset methodology and framework. Under such extreme and challenging circumstances, nurturing positive relationships and acting as a supportive partner and honest broker to our integrated care systems, NENC AHSN and the NHS England and Improvement regional and national recovery and learning workstreams has been vital to progress at pace and feed in significant learning for the NHS planning phased responses.
We have achieved this by developing and agreeing with NEY partners individual system, regional and national governance channels to ensure a constant flow of communication and as a mechanism for agreeing a regional methodology and framework for cross pollination of learning. The engagement, enthusiasm, commitment and willingness to work collaboratively and conduct a rapid regional evaluation to inform reset has been inspirational and a testament to everyone involved who has come together with a common vision to achieve uncommon results in a crisis.
The overall approach and process has involved combining thought leadership at a national level as well as learning from our NEY system partners to align with national and regional NHS England and Improvement policy and directives. Throughout the process we’ve used an agreed, consistent, qualitative and quantitative approach. The guiding principles underpinning this work are based on trust, openness and honesty with a focus as much on identifying behavioural and culture change as on identifying specific innovations.
Our Evaluation and Reset programme has three specific stages which included the gathering of patient and public feedback:
- Short-term – Rapid Insights reports
- Medium-term – Deeper Evaluation and Shortlisting process using a Quality Improvement and Sustainability model to explore in more depth the impact of identified innovations and themes
- Long-term – Reset Recommendations through collating all the phases and learning across NEY into the development of an Innovation Adoption Framework and Guide including national thought leadership, a literature review to help provide context and additional innovation insights from across the UK and globally. Additional support will be provided to embed the guidance and framework through a specific Learning and Delivery programme in collaboration with partners delivered by clinical leaders and Yorkshire & Humber AHSN.
The outputs will aid systems with their response to the NHS phase 3 (and beyond) planning activity. So far, we have conducted the Rapid Insights work across the region and developed a report written for each ICS. We are also producing an overarching regional report for shared learning across our partnerships. We are now entering into the deeper Quality Improvement and Sustainability evaluation phase and we’re looking forward to continuing the fantastic partnership work regionally and nationally working closely with our NHS England and Improvement Recovery Cell, Learning Network and the National Beneficial Changes Network. The strong partnerships developed have made our collective regional evaluation and reset vision turn into a reality that will nurture the innovation landscape to improve the delivery of health and care.
In our next blog ‘Communication, collaboration, and changing behaviours: three factors to successfully establishing change’, you will read more about some of the findings of our Rapid Insights work.
If you’d like to find out more about our regional Evaluation and Reset work then you can read Richard Stubbs and Rob Webster’s blog which was published today on the NHS voices website. | https://www.yhahsn.org.uk/blog/nhs-reset-in-the-north-east-and-yorkshire-region-the-approach/ |
Increasing the number of crowdfunding technological investment opportunities in your local area
At the State Science & Technology Institute’s September conference in Portland, Thomas Vass, of the Private Capital Market, Inc., is going to address the conference on how the new Regulation D 506(c) rules can promote regional economic growth. His presentation is titled “How Economic Developers Can Fill The Crowdfunding Capital Market Gaps In Regional Innovation Ecosystems: Economic Developers Can Manage The Regional Deal Flow Pipeline.” The third part of his presentation presents a mental map for economic developers on where to look for crowdfunding investment opportunities in their home communities. You can view the full paper here.
The State Science & Technology Institute September conference in Portland is called “Dynamic Innovation Ecosystems: Bringing It All Together,” and is focused on how research, capital, workforce, and manufacturing fit together into a coherent economic development strategy.
In order to fit all the pieces of innovation into a strategy, economic developers need a mental road map of how technology innovation works in the small business economy. The mental image of small business innovation will be completely different than the one that they use to understand the university tech transfer model.
The big picture of small business innovation involves a theory of technology commercialization, and one possible way of thinking about technology is to make believe that technology is like genetic evolution. In other words, the theory of technology would apply the metaphor of genetic evolution in order to explain technological change, as if technology evolves. 1
The metaphor between genetic evolution and technological evolution can be described with the help of a diagram taken from my bookPredicting Technology:
One benefit of viewing technological innovation as genetic evolution is that it is easier to understand the idea that from the moment a new product or idea is commercialized, it is on its pathway to technological obsolescence, or to apply the genetic metaphor, to extinction.
This is one reason why exits matter. The first generation product of technological innovation only has a commercial market life of about five years. The profits from the first product need to be re-invested in the next generation of products, sometime in the third to fifth year of the product’s life-cycle, to avoid market decline and product death.
As is the case with product obsolescence, a regional economy that does not continually experience technological innovation is going to die. This is one lesson to be learned from observing the spectacular rapid decline of Detroit’s regional economy. In order to fit the pieces together, the economic development road map for developers would want to help them avoid the sinkholes of regional economic death caused by inadequate rates of small business technological evolution.
The regional economy experiences technological economic development as a result of small firms commercializing new products. When Detroit’s regional economy was “hollowed out” by global trade, its small firm technological base of innovation was destroyed, and the region soon died, economically.
Most new goods enter the market at a higher price, and then as a result of price competition and technological competition, the price declines. As predicted by neoclassical economic theory, the marginal rate of profit for a new product is headed to zero from the moment the product enters the competitive market.
Consumers, when they first see a new product, want to know if the product works better than the current product, so they are looking at functionality. Then, after trying out a new product, they look for reliability and then convenience. All along this five-year path, the product is facing increasing price and technological competition, which is driving profits to zero.
Almost all of technological evolution can be explained in terms of how technical knowledge is created and diffused among firms within a regional economy. This is a big difference between the crowdfunding model and the university tech transfer model because the crowdfunding innovation model involves face-to-face tacit knowledge creation and diffusion. 2
The small business innovation model is based upon open, diverse networks of knowledge, so seeking maximum genetic knowledge diversity is a big priority for economic developers.
The university tech transfer model is the creation and spread of codified knowledge within a more closed, and cloistered environment, accessible to a limited number of species.
The diagram below, taken from Predicting Technology, is useful for describing how knowledge from two distinct industrial sectors create the conditions of technological evolution, or dynamic ecosystems.
Economic developers will be relieved to see that the idea of industrial clusters is relevant to understanding how technology evolves and creates regional economic growth. In other words, economic developers do not need to get a Ph.D. in genetics to understand the idea that whenever two distinct industrial clusters in a metro region happen to be within 50 miles of each other, the foundation for a dynamic ecosystem exists.
The job of economic developers in fitting all the innovation pieces together is to create the small business forums for knowledge creation and diffusion within the regional economy by managing the deal creation pipeline. The greatest possible technological diversity and open knowledge flows in these forums will lead to the greatest rate of technological innovation investment opportunities in the local small business economy.
Economic developers can get a big boost in understanding where to look for the most promising technological crossovers in their regional technology clusters by administering the Feser model.
By its application of statistical factor analysis to the conventional input-output coefficients in the A matrix, the Feser method has the great benefit of uncovering potential economic interdependencies between regional technological clusters that are not obvious using conventional economic analysis.
The non-obvious interdependencies between coefficients are the ones that have the greatest potential for radical innovation in products and services because they are the result of two-parent technological crossover of markets and technology between two distinct technological clusters.
Interestingly, Feser and Sweeney used a variant of biological evolutionary evidence from trees clustering in a forest to derive their method of factor analysis to nine high technology clusters. 3
Feser and Sweeney applied the method from Diggle and Chetwynd. 4 The most interesting observation from the work of Diggle and Chetwynd is that the most unusual crossovers in tree biology occur at the very edge of the forest, where two-parent genetic crossover between different species of trees is most likely to occur.
Just as it would be the place to look for technological investment opportunities in the case of technological crossover in a regional economy. Two industrial clusters within a regional economy have the potential to cross breed new, non-obvious, products. But, it is not the entire cluster of firms in a technological cluster that crossbreed, it is only a very few firms in each cluster, who exist, as it were, on the very edge of the small business forest.
Both new and existing small manufacturing firms need one essential ingredient in common in order to cross breed new innovative products. They need new product ideas. The companies who innovate are existing companies and entrepreneurs with new ideas, and new-to-the-world product innovation creates the greatest economic impact in the future because new products create new future markets.
The role of economic developers is to promote maximum idea creation in their home communities, with the expectation that the new products will create future jobs in new future markets.
Then, after the new idea cross breeding occurs, the small business firms need funding to commercialize their new product ideas. And, thanks to the new SEC rules on crowdfunding, the most likely source of capital will probably be crowdfunding.
But, job creation and economic growth resulting from innovation happens about 10 years down the road. It would happen naturally, in a biological evolutionary kind of way, because of human interaction and tacit knowledge diffusion. But, the entire process of technology based economic development could get a big boost from economic developers who had a clear mental image of how technological innovation occurs in the natural, competitive market environment.
Small business technological innovation occurs in distinct geographical market habitats that have multiple diverse networks of actors who share cognitive maps about innovation. These shared cognitive maps are geographically bounded. In most cases, the shared maps occur within 50 miles of the metro regional boundaries, just about the same distance that regional private capital markets function when financing small business innovation projects.
The overlap between regional innovation markets and regional capital markets is not happenstance. Regionally dynamic small business markets create the environment for radical innovation, which is the best perspective to begin an analysis of why some regions have higher rates of technological innovation than others, especially the most valuable form of innovation: radical innovation in new-to-the-world products.
1. Predicting Technology, Thomas Vass, Wingspan Press, Raleigh, N.C. 2007
2. Who Innovates? The Regional Economic Impact of Private Corporate Innovation Investments, The Private Capital Market, October 19, 2008
3. Edward Feser and Stuart Sweeney, A Test for the Coincident Economic and Spatial Clustering of Business Enterprises, Journal of Geographical Systems, (2000, 2:349 – 373)
4. Second-Order Analysis of Spatial Clustering For Inhomogenous Populations, Biometrics, 47:1155-1163
Thomas Vass is a regional economist with a research interest in the relationship between regional technological innovation, regional capital markets and regional economic growth. He is the author or Predicting Technology: Identifying Future Market Opportunities and Disruptive Technologies (Wingspan Press, 2007). He is a registered investment advisor, and his investment management work involves a commercial application of the Feser Technology Cluster methodology to selecting technology stocks for investment portfolios and identifying private capital investments in regional economies. He is the holder of a patent on technology stock selection, and the manager of a subscription based equity crowdfunding website, The Private Capital Market. He graduated with a BA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and has a Masters of Regional Planning, also from UNC-CH. He is located in Calabash, North Carolina. | https://www.ukcfa.org.uk/2013/08/14/increasing-the-number-of-crowdfunding-technological-investment-opportunities-in-your-local-area/ |
The Republic of Serbia has been awarded for financing in the amount of EUR 8.4 million equivalent a Grant from the European Union Instrument for Pre-Accession (IPA), administered by the World Bank (WB) for the Innovation Serbia Project (Project), and intends to apply part of the proceeds of this grant to payments under the contract for Monitoring and Evaluation.
This request for expression of interest is for the Monitoring and Evaluation services, Contract ref. No. RoS-ISP-TF011257-CS-CQ-011.
The Innovation Fund (IF) was established with the objective of providing financing to encourage entrepreneurship and innovation in Serbia. The IF participates in co-financing of programs, projects and other activities organized by international organizations, financial institutions and the private sector to foster innovation.
The primary objective of this assignment is to conduct monitoring and evaluation (M&E) analysis for:
- IF existing financing programs (Mini and Matching Grants Programs) based on indicators defined by the IF and best international practices implemented through the Project,
- Project itself.
The consulting company will be responsible for performing all monitoring and evaluation activities for the project, including:
- Developing and managing the Project M&E system;
- Managing the data collection process to include schedules, logistics and methodologies in coordination with the IF staff;
- Analyzing and interpreting qualitative and quantitative data to gauge project impact; and
- Reporting on activities, accomplishments, and results.
The specific functions and responsibilities of the consulting company will be to:
- Monitor and evaluate the progress of the Project on the basis of indicators set out in the Project Agreement between the WB and the IF,
- Monitor and evaluate the progress of the individual programs of financing (Mini and Matching Grants Programs) on the basis of indicators defined by the IF,
- Develop a monitoring system and documentation required for evaluation of Mini and Matching Grants Programs in line with best international practices, including data collection (questionnaires, interviews as applicable), analysis, and interpretation of findings,
- Establish procedures and data collection system and analyses tools for long term impact evaluation of the existing financing instruments (Mini and Matching Grants),
- Prepare detailed monitoring and evaluation manual,
- Conduct training of the selected IF staff in M&E to ensure that long-term capacity is established in the IF to monitor existing and future financial instruments,
- Produce interim and final M&E reports (which describe established monitoring mechanisms and results of evaluation process).
This consultancy assignment implementation period is approximately 100 man days over a period of 2 years. The assignment is envisaged to start in February 2013.
The Firm should have proven experience in conducting monitoring and evaluation of programs, including experience in the field of evaluating R&D programs. Experience in evaluating direct and indirect public support for private sector R&D and innovation is desirable. General experience of minimum five years is required. The Firm should have capacity to assign a qualified and experienced team that will work on this assignment. The qualifications and experience of presented staff should be related to the assignments of developing and implementing monitoring and evaluation for R&D and innovation programs and will also include acknowledged experts in financial and economic analysis. The Firm should at minimum include a combination of international experts and local professionals specializing in M&E. Specifically, qualifications of the team include but are not limited to: minimum of 5 years practical international experience working in design and implementation of M&E activities of similar programs and organizations; minimum 5 years of experience in monitoring and evaluation of science, technology and innovation policy, programs and SME support programs; experience in program impact evaluation, specifically evaluation of financing instruments; experience with quantitative and qualitative research methods, tools, and techniques, such as design and analysis of baseline and evaluation surveys, interviews; excellent knowledge of advanced statistics and research methodology, including sampling techniques and methodologies, professional use of computer software for statistical analysis, and other relevant applications such as SPSS, STATA and spreadsheets; experience in working with senior level managers of private sector enterprises; extensive experience in sampling methodology and statistical analysis; advanced working knowledge of MS Word, Excel, ACCESS and/or other database programs; fluency in written and spoken English and Serbian is required; previous experience with WB-funded programs is preferred.
The IF now invites eligible consulting firms to indicate their interest in providing the above mentioned services. Interested consulting firms must provide information indicating that they are qualified to perform the services:
- experience in similar assignments
- description of similar assignments
- availability of skilled staff
The attention of interested Consultants is drawn to paragraph 1.9 of the World Bank’s Guidelines: Selection and Employment of Consultants [under IBRD Loans and IDA Credits & Grants] by World Bank Borrowers, January 2011 (“Consultant Guidelines”), setting forth the World Bank’s policy on conflict of interest.
Since the threshold amount for this assignment is small, the consulting firm will be selected based on the Consultants’ Qualifications (CQS) as set out in the Consultant’s Guidelines. Interested consulting firms may obtain further information at the address below, during working days, from 09:00 to 16:00 hours.
Expressions of interest must be sent by e-mail or mail to the address below by January 28, 2013. at 12:00 noon local time. When submitting Expressions of interest please indicate on the envelope the Contract ref. No.: RoS-ISP-TF011257-CS-CQ-011 of the assignment for which you are applying.
Innovation Fund
Makenzijeva 24, VI floor
11000 Belgrade
Republic of Serbia
Attention: Dragana Kosanovic, | http://www.innovationfund.rs/request-for-expressions-of-interest-consulting-services-for-monitoring-and-evaluation/ |
In case you have accomplished all necessities for admission to the Enterprise Administration program, you might be ready to use for Business Status. The following part in the evolution of enterprise software is being led by the emergance of Robotic Process Automation (RPA), which involves identifying and automating extremely repetitive tasks and processes, with an purpose to drive operational efficiency, cut back costs and restrict human error.
Software analysis and implementation roadmap – Determine and evaluate options for utility modernization primarily based on a detailed analysis and discovery of the applying software and think about recommendations for a goal structure and modernization roadmap based on enterprise worth and ROI.
Our group is a excessive-influence workforce of people that may come in and assist prioritize know-how choices, provide deep evaluation of enterprise process, and make recommendations about methods to greatest apply expertise to resolve business problems.
Dynatrace’s Software Monitoring resolution supports utility well being monitoring for functions that leverage NoSQL large information storage tiers—corresponding to Cassandra, HBase, or MongoDB monitoring —in addition to monitoring of Hadoop large data analytics environments.
With undertaking management greatest practices, we consistently attempt for enhancements to processes, communication models and flexible, but structured processes to make sure that client types, workers, systems and preferences are at all times taken into consideration. | http://instanttwitterservices.com/michigan-ross.html |
EXTRAPOLATE (EX-ante Tool for RAnking POLicy AlTErnatives)EXTRAPOLATE (EX-ante Tool for RAnking POLicy AlTErnatives) arose out of the need for a decision support tool to assess the impact of different policy measures. By disaggregating...
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Diversity Field Fora and Seed FairsDiversity field fora and seed fairs are a way of valuing farmers’ contributions to conservation and development of crop genetic diversity. A fora or fair is an exchange of...
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Women's Empowerment in Agriculture IndexThe Women Empowerment Index in Agriculture (WEAI) is used to measure women's empowerment, agency and inclusion in agriculture in five domains: - decisions about agricultural...
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Codes/Dramas for Farmer LearningDrama and role plays by community members are used to enable people to communicate to different partners their perceptions of current situations versus desired changes. May...
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Plug-in PrincipleBasic principles: Scientific knowledge cannot replace existing knowledge or situation, it only “betters” it. Thus we are ‘bettering’ agents not change agents. The plug-in...
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Participatory Variety AnalysisParticipatory variety analysis is an approach to provide choices of varieties to farmers for increasing production within the constraints of their socioeconomic and...
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Dietary Diversity and Quality ScoresThe dietary diversity questionnaire consists of 2 parts: 1) the part in which the respondent is asked about all the foods (and ingredients) (s)he consumed the previous day and...
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Gender and Value ChainWe have developed and used a quasi-experimental design and index to measure women's intra-household bargaining position. We hope this tool can capture women's perceived...
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IMPACT LiteImpactLite is a household survey tool, implemented in OpenDataKit which captures critical data from farming households in regard to generating farm household typologies,...
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Tools for Individual Animal CollectionNgombe Planner (NP) is a mobile phone based data collection tool used to collect cattle productivity information (milk records), disease incidence and general practices in the...
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Site Selection Guidance for HumidtropicsIt is extremely challenging to formulate and evaluate agricultural development strategies for regions as large and diverse as proposed in the Action Areas, and it will require...
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Participatory VideoParticipatory video is a form of participatory media in which a group or community creates their own film. The rationale is that making a video is easy and accessible, and is a...
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Tool for Monitoring and Evaluation of Innovation PlatformsThe conceptual framework for monitoring and evaluation of innovation platforms is based on elements from new institutional economics and marketing relationship management to...
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Participatory Extension ApproachParticipatory extension is a learning approach for strengthening individual and organizational capacities of rural people and their livelihoods to enable them to better cope...
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Participatory Companion ModelingComMod is a variation of mutli-agent systems modelling. The main principle of the companion modeling (ComMod) approach is to develop simulation models integrating various...
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Reflexive Monitoring in ActionReflexive Monitoring in Action (RMA) is an interactive methodology to encourage reflection and learning within groups of diverse actors that seek to contribute to system change...
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CCAFS Climate Analogues toolScientific evidence gathered in the last couple of decades suggests that climate conditions are changing rapidly and that this trend will likely continue and even accelerate....
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Agricultural Biodiversity 4-Cell Focus Group MethodologyUsing a 4-Cell participatory tool - we can identify and rank species regarding their availability and use i) on-farm ii) in the wild iii) in the markets and iv) in the diet. The...
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PIPA (Participatory Impact Pathways Analysis)Participatory Impact Pathways Analysis (PIPA) is a practical planning, and monitoring and evaluation approach developed for use with complex projects in the water and food...
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LINK MethodologyThe LINK Methodology aims to promote the engagement of small holder producers with modern markets by guiding a multi-stakeholder process of shaping or upgrading inclusive... | http://data.ilri.org/tools/dataset?q=Ex-post |
The continual success of an organisation will be determined by the ability to service internal and external customers to a sustainable, achievable level. To meet these requirements the greatest organisational assets, in the people, must be provided with respect, motivation and job satisfaction. In order to meet these challenges, the strategies of the organisation need to harness all available resources. Facilitation of these changes will result in innovation in services and processes, increased level of response to internal and external customers and continuous improvement in all areas of performance.
Training
Whether introducing new systems or new staff, training in the effective use of technology and applications is paramount in increased performance of an organisation. Our training services encompass preliminary evaluation, post program evaluation, planning, conduct, and follow up. In conjunction with the organisation we provide reinforcement and support for the newly acquired skills and knowledge obtained by the participant in the programs.
Business Analysis
Embarking on improvements to systems requires an understanding of how and why things are undertaken the way they are. Through interviews and workshops we can help examine your current processes and determine what works, and what can be improved. Whether this is in existing systems or for the process of a replacement, assistance is provided to analyse the requirements of the business systems at the same time enabling staff to build a higher level of capability for the future.
Strategic Planning
IT and Business managers are often so preoccupied with immediate issues that they lose sight of their ultimate objectives. That's why a business review or preparation of a strategic plan is a virtual necessity. This may not be a recipe for success, but without it a business is much more likely to fail. The outcome of our involvement is a satisfactory strategic plan that is realistic and attainable so as to allow managers to think strategically and act operationally.
Change Management
When innovation occurs there must be individual and organisational change. Organisations are a collection of systems and as such organisational change is viewed as a process that is inclusive of all the interactive parts of a system. Our approach to change management encompasses the organisational and human environment as well as the physical environment in the workplace. This enables greater acceptance of the change and provides increased organisational performance.
Business Improvement/Process Analysis
Business processes are built up over time that whilst providing outcomes may not be the most beneficial for business. Through analysis, interviews and workshops we are able to map and document the processes within the business and identify possible areas of process improvement that will increase business performance.
Business Process Mapping
In conjunction with the process analysis comprehensive business process maps are produced to outline and document current processes. These form one of the basis for the process improvements that could be implemented. With people and processes aligned with technology the business can answer the question “How do we do this differently and more efficiently?
Implementation Assistance
Studies have shown that the introduction of technology alone does not improve efficiency. The impact of the technology on the organisation and the staff needs to be considered for implementations to be successful. Implementations can be successful through a model of awareness, structures, persuasion, decision and commitment, roll out, and review. Our professionals use this model enabling successful implementations.
Systems Audit and Review
Over time business systems are used to provide the necessary business functions. A stocktake of the functionality available in current systems can prove beneficial in improving business performance with the benefits far outweighing the investment in the audit and review. Our professionals review systems, electronic and supporting, to facilitate improvements in business processes. | http://ingle.com.au/services.html |
The Sustainability SWOT Analysis - A tool for Strategic Sustainability Management & Innovation
The Sustainability SWOT Analysis is a tool for strategic sustainability analysis and decision-making that can be used in combination with the Sustainable Business Model Canvas. Whilst the Sustainable Business Model Canvas is based on the classic Business Model Canvas, the Sustainability SWOT analysis is based on the widely used SWOT analysis, and will therefore be easy to learn and use for most professionals. The Sustainability SWOT retains the original classification into two main categories:
Internal factors (the Strengths and Weaknesses internal to the organisation)
External factors (the Opportunities and Threats external to the organisation)
Whilst the original SWOT analysis could indeed be used in a way that includes ecological and sociocultural aspects, thereby following a triple-bottom-line approach, this is not what is usually happening in practice.
The Sustainability SWOT addresses this problem by “wrapping” the classical SWOT into a triple-bottom-line context: it forces users to first identify environmental and social trends and challenges, and then conduct a triple-bottom-line SWOT analysis to prioritize concluded actions. This way, a classical tool with high recognition value but low apparent sustainability relevance has been “upgraded” to incentivise professionals to consider environmental and sociocultural issues and force them to include these issues when considering relevant actions to take.
How to use the Sustainability SWOT analysis
The Sustainability SWOT analysis “canvas” is structured into three main sections, this way incentivising a sequential completion by the user.
Step 1: Environmental and Social Challenges and Big Trends
As a first step, the user starts with a broad assessment of “big” environmental and sociocultural challenges and trends. As part of this first step, the user should ask the questions: what do I and others see changing in the world, and which related challenges do arise? This consideration could e.g. include challenges such as increasing water scarcity, climate change induced temperature extremes, an increase in mental illness related to stress and job insecurity or plastic pollution of the oceans. Part of this consideration are also “big trends”, such as demographic shifts (e.g. an aging population, particularly in Germany or Japan) or shifts related to globalisation (e.g. increasing unemployment due to loss of manufacturing jobs in western nations).
This first step makes sure that external environmental and sociocultural challenges and trends are at least considered when making decisions, and increases the likelihood that they actually affect those decisions. This is important, because the often lamented lack of consideration for externalities by businesses is in part a consequence of a lack of awareness of employees. Awareness-raising therefore can have a significant impact on corporate decision-making, in addition to its educational impact, as it may make any misalignment between a companies proclaimed values and its actions obvious. This awareness of values misalignment can indeed have a profound positive impact, as a recent study showed.
Step 2: SWOT Analysis with a triple-bottom-line focus
Following step one, the classical part of the SWOT analysis can be performed. However, the user is prompted to not only consider the challenges and trends defined in the first section, but also to evaluate Strengths, Opportunities, Weaknesses and Threats with particular regard to environmental and sociocultural aspects, and innovative ways to address them (e.g. via cooperations with value chain partners on supply chain transparency). This way, the Sustainability SWOT analysis can also initiate innovation and business transformation.
Step 3: Prioritisation and Action
In the final part, the user of the Sustainability SWOT Analysis should prioritise gained insights and, in case the exercise is intended to influence senior management in a cooperation, identify strong messages and their links to the company values. Finally, a sensible strategy for taking short-, mid- and long-term action can be derived.
Conclusion
Due to the fact that the Sustainability SWOT Analysis is based on the familiar classical SWOT, it’s implementation into the processes of a traditional company is straightforward. The Sustainability SWOT enables both strategic analysis and decision-making and may initiate innovation, due to its emphasis on identifying potentially disruptive “big trends”. The Sustainability SWOT is useful to work across internal departments as well as with suppliers, customers and other stakeholders to create long-term sustainable business value. In combination with the Sustainable Business Model Canvas and the Impact Canvas, the Sustainability SWOT represents a core-tool for sustainable innovation and management. | https://www.threebility.com/post/the-sustainability-swot-analysis |
Study Design. Economic evaluation provides a framework to explicitly measure and compare the value of alternative medical interventions in terms of their clinical, health-related quality-of-life, and economic outcomes. Computerized economic models can help inform the design of future prospective studies by identifying the cost-drivers, the most uncertain parameter estimates, and the parameters with the greatest impact on the results and inferences. Objective. An economic analysis of bone morphogenetic protein versus autogenous iliac crest bone graft for single-level anterior lumbar fusion poses several methodologic challenges. This article describes how such an economic evaluation may be framed and designed, while enumerating challenges, offering some solutions, and suggesting an agenda for future research. Summary of Background Data. An evidence-based modeling approach can incorporate epidemiologic, clinical, and economic data from several sources including randomized clinical trials, peer-reviewed literature, and expert opinion. Sensitivity analyses can be conducted by varying key parameter estimates within a reasonable range to assess the impact on the results and inferences. Results. Preliminary results suggest that from a payer perspective, the upfront price of bone morphogenetic protein is likely to be entirely offset by reductions in the use of other medical resources. That is, bone morphogenetic protein appears to be cost neutral. The cost offsets were attributable largely to prevention of pain and complications associated with autogenous iliac crest bone graft, as well as reduction of the costs associated with fusion failures. Conclusions. Future research should focus on quantifying the health-related quality-of-life impact of bone morphogenetic protein relative to autogenous iliac crest bone graft, as well as the impact on lost productivity. | https://minnesota-staging.pure.elsevier.com/en/publications/economic-evaluation-of-bone-morphogenetic-protein-versus-autogeno/ |
Interview with Elodie Valette, URBAL project coordinator with Alison Blay Palmer. The aim of this project is to design a qualitative impact assessment methodology for food innovations in an urban context.
What are the main strengths/results of your project?
URBAL is a methodology under construction (2017-2020) that aims to assess the impacts of innovations on different dimensions of sustainability. This project has two strong points.
Firstly, it is a project at the service of field stakeholders who want to make their projects and actions evolve towards greater sustainability.
The URBAL methodology is designed to respond to the demands of field stakeholders, whether public or private, to accompany and guide them in their actions and decision-making with regard to sustainability objectives. Often lacking tools and with limited means (time, money, skills, etc.) to evaluate their actions with regard to sustainability issues, URBAL responds to these constraints by providing them with a simple, open-source, resource-efficient tool that is easily appropriated and adaptable to different contexts. This tool offers a qualitative and participatory evaluation that provides a reflective and informed view of the impacts or changes - expected, unexpected, proven or potential - brought about by the innovation, whether positive or negative in terms of sustainability.
This methodology thus makes it possible to accompany the strategic reflection of innovators on their activities. URBAL helps them to lead, manage, develop, improve and promote innovation. This methodology also helps donors and public actors in the decision-making process concerning the support (or not) of innovations.
Secondly, it is a project that aims to strengthen the capacity of these stakeholders to disseminate their innovations on other scales to contribute to the transition towards more sustainable food systems.
Innovations for more sustainable food systems are flourishing in cities and multiplying around the world. These initiatives have the potential to drive the transition to more sustainable urban food systems, provided that they do not remain isolated cases and that the changes made are far-reaching and sustainable. In other words, the capacity of single initiatives to contribute to the transformation of food systems is weak if they are not likely to be replicated, imitated, amplified, supported and disseminated at multiple scales (scaling capacity). As an illustration, in the literature we speak of "scaling out" in reference to the duplication and diffusion of innovation in other contexts, "scaling up" when institutional and organizational changes are produced by innovation, and "scaling deep" to refer to the transformations of socio-cultural norms and values produced by innovation.
The URBAL methodology, with its reflective and critical approach, accompanies these innovations so that they operate these changes of scale. In addition to identifying the changes (or impacts) brought about by the innovation in terms of sustainability, URBAL also identifies the facilitating elements or barriers to change. This information is valuable in the perspective of changing scale, for project leaders applying the method, but also for other project leaders likely to benefit from the results produced, in a process of building communities of practice. URBAL thus helps stakeholders to reflect on the conditions and methods for disseminating their innovations in order to contribute to the transition towards more sustainable food systems.
How is your project innovative?
The project provides public or private project leaders with a methodology for evaluating the impact of their actions and strategies in terms of sustainability in open access.
It is a qualitative evaluation of the impacts of these innovations. In recent years, quantitative methods of impact assessment have multiplied, but they often prove ineffective in the case of relatively recent, small-scale innovations which, for the most part, have few resources to devote to evaluation (time, money, skills, etc.). The aim is therefore not to measure but to inventory, represent and understand the impacts induced or expected by the activities implemented in these innovations. Once the operating modes of the impacts have been identified, URBAL proposes to prioritise their relevance according to the ambitions of the innovations. In doing so, and if the stakeholders so wish, the method makes it possible to prioritise and select the most important indicators in order to prepare a quantitative sustainability assessment.
This qualitative assessment approach is based on multi-stakeholder participation, involving innovation stakeholders (innovation carriers and actors, users, beneficiaries, similar innovation carriers) and sustainability experts. This methodology is mainly based on a collective intelligence workshop where the changes produced by the actions carried out by the innovation are identified in the short, medium and long term. This methodology is based on the theory of change and impact pathway assessment approaches. URBAL’s objective is to characterize the processes that lead an innovation to produce lasting changes (i.e. impacts), rather than to measure them.
This qualitative assessment provides a reflexive look at the changes - expected, unexpected, positive or negative, proven or potential - brought about by the innovation, the organizational and institutional locks to change, the synergies, the trade-offs.
URBAL enables stakeholders to assess the impacts of their innovations on six different dimensions of sustainability simultaneously: environmental, economic, socio-cultural, health and nutrition, food security and governance. This method makes it possible to highlight the tensions and synergies that may exist between different dimensions of sustainability and that emerge from the activities implemented within the innovation under study.
Finally, URBAL is a tool that can be easily appropriated by different stakeholders and adapted to different contexts. The methodology is based on a very wide variety of case studies. 14 innovations in 10 cities around the world (Baltimore, Mexico City, Berlin, Brasilia, Hanoi, Cape Town, Milan, Paris, Montpellier, Rabat; two other case studies in Mexico City and Paris have recently joined the project) help to co-construct and test this methodology. Beyond being spread all over the world, these innovations are very different from each other in order to guarantee the relevance and "flexibility" of the tool: 1) these innovations are carried by different stakeholders (private sector, public authorities or civil society), 2) touch on very varied themes and stakeholders (consumers, sectors, governance) and 3) are at very different stages of development (more or less advanced).
Elodie Valette, a geographer at CIRAD, is coordinating the URBAL project with Alison Blay Palmer, Professor of Geography and Environmental Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University. | https://www.agropolis-fondation.fr/Thought-for-food-monthly-meetings-URBAL |
Detroit’s Early Childhood Partnership initiative was designed to reduce vulnerabilities caused by economic and social inequity through community engagement, stakeholder collaboration, and research. Mathematica conducted a review of the informal child care landscape in Detroit.
Jaime Thomas
- Evaluations of Early Childhood, K–12, and Postsecondary Education Interventions
- Quantitative Data Analysis
- Research Design
- Mixed-Methods Research
- K–12 Education
- Early Childhood
- Education
- College and Career Readiness
- Strengthening and Disseminating Research
- Systematic Evidence Reviews
Jaime Thomas studies the effects of early childhood, K–12, and postsecondary education interventions on children and students, their families, and their communities. She has an extensive background in econometrics, with expertise in experimental and nonexperimental study designs, methods for addressing missing data, and mixed-methods research.
Thomas has directed several early childhood, K–12, and postsecondary education projects, including studies of informal child care in California and Detroit, an Investing in Innovation (i3) evaluation of an early math intervention, and an evaluation of expanded Pell grant eligibility. In addition, Thomas serves as principal investigator for the Clearinghouse for Labor Evaluation and Research, an initiative of the U.S. Department of Labor to develop a central and trusted resource on the effectiveness of employment programs. She has played a key role in many other projects, including the National Descriptive Study of Early Head Start-Child Care Partnerships, the Impact Evaluation of Race to the Top and School Improvement Grants, the Early Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey, and systematic reviews for the U.S. Department of Education and other agencies.
Before joining Mathematica in 2010, Thomas held teaching positions at the University of California, San Diego; taught and created English language learning curriculum for the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program; and worked as a clinician at Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes. She is a reviewer for several academic journals, including Evaluation Review, and has served as a member of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management, the American Economic Association, the Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness, the Association for Education Finance and Policy, and the Society for Research in Child Development. She holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, San Diego.
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Informal Child Care in Detroit
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Learning About Infant and Toddler Early Education Services (LITES): Identifying What Works
This project sought to identify effective models of early care and education services for infants and toddlers by reviewing the evidence on current and emerging programs.
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Evaluating Race to the Top and School Improvement Grants
In this study of more than 500 schools, 60 districts, and all 50 states and the District of Columbia, Mathematica is conducting an implementation and impact analysis of Race To the Top and School Improvement Grants, two programs that aim to foster systematic school reform.
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Early Learning Strategy: Informal Caregivers Research Project
Mathematica's study for the Packard Foundation is identifying caregivers who provide informal child care in California, learning about their needs for support, and evaluating promising approaches to enhance the quality of children’s experiences in these settings.
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Clearinghouse for Labor Evaluation and Research (CLEAR)
CLEAR’s mission is to make research on labor topics more accessible to practitioners, policymakers, researchers, and the general public so that it can inform their decisions about labor policies and programs. | https://cire.mathematica-mpr.com/our-people/staff/jaime-thomas |
Humidtropics Situational Analysis ChecklistThere are 3 primary objectives for the Humidtropics situational analysis (SA): 1. To characterize broadly all important system aspects that are relevant to the CRP within the...
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CCAFS Climate Analogues toolScientific evidence gathered in the last couple of decades suggests that climate conditions are changing rapidly and that this trend will likely continue and even accelerate....
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EXTRAPOLATE (EX-ante Tool for RAnking POLicy AlTErnatives)EXTRAPOLATE (EX-ante Tool for RAnking POLicy AlTErnatives) arose out of the need for a decision support tool to assess the impact of different policy measures. By disaggregating...
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Tool for Monitoring and Evaluation of Innovation PlatformsThe conceptual framework for monitoring and evaluation of innovation platforms is based on elements from new institutional economics and marketing relationship management to...
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Women's Empowerment in Agriculture IndexThe Women Empowerment Index in Agriculture (WEAI) is used to measure women's empowerment, agency and inclusion in agriculture in five domains: - decisions about agricultural...
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Site Selection Guidance for HumidtropicsIt is extremely challenging to formulate and evaluate agricultural development strategies for regions as large and diverse as proposed in the Action Areas, and it will require...
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TAGMI (Targeting AGwater Management Interventions)The Targeting AGwater Management Interventions (TAGMI) is a decision support tool that facilitates targeting and scaling-out of three different Agricultural Water Management... | http://data.ilri.org/tools/dataset?amp=&groups=humidtropics2&_tags_limit=0&tags=agriculture&vocab_ILRI_vocsubjects=Social |
Search-based software testing is the application of metaheuristic search techniques to generate software tests. The test adequacy criterion is transformed into a fitness function and a set of solutions in the search space are evaluated with respect to the fitness function using a metaheuristic search technique. The application of metaheuristic search techniques for testing is promising due to the fact that exhaustive testing is infeasible considering the size and complexity of software under test. Search-based software testing has been applied across the spectrum of test case design methods; this includes white-box (structural), black-box (functional) and grey-box (combination of structural and functional) testing. In addition, metaheuristic search techniques have also been applied to test non-functional properties. The overall objective of undertaking this systematic review is to examine existing work into non-functional search-based software testing (NFSBST). We are interested in types of non-functional testing targeted using metaheuristic search techniques, different fitness functions used in different types of search-based non-functional testing and challenges in the application of these techniques. The systematic review is based on a comprehensive set of 35 articles obtained after a multi-stage selection process and have been published in the time span 1996-2007. The results of the review show that metaheuristic search techniques have been applied for non-functional testing of execution time, quality of service, security, usability and safety. A variety of metaheuristic search techniques are found to be applicable for non-functional testing including simulated annealing, tabu search, genetic algorithms, ant colony methods, grammatical evolution, genetic programming (and its variants including linear genetic programming) and swarm intelligence methods. The review reports on different fitness functions used to guide the search for each of the categories of execution time, safety, usability, quality of service and security; along with a discussion of possible challenges in the application of metaheuristic search techniques.
Context: The principal focus of lean is the identification and elimination of waste from the process with respect to maximizing customer value. Similarly, the purpose of agile is to maximize customer value and minimize unnecessary work and time delays. In both cases the concept of waste is important. Through an empirical study, we explore how waste is approached in agile software development organizations. Objective: This paper explores the concept of waste in agile/lean software development organizations and how it is defined, used, prioritized, reduced, or eliminated in practice Method: The data were collected using semi-structured open-interviews. 23 practitioners from 14 embedded software development organizations were interviewed representing two core roles in each organization. Results: Various wastes, categorized in 10 different categories, were identified by the respondents. From the mentioned wastes, not all were necessarily waste per se but could be symptoms caused by wastes. From the seven wastes of lean, Task-switching was ranked as the most important, and Extra-features, as the least important wastes according to the respondents’ opinion. However, most companies do not have their own or use an established definition of waste, more importantly, very few actively identify or try to eliminate waste in their organizations beyond local initiatives on project level. Conclusion: In order to identify, recognize and eliminate waste, a common understanding, and a joint and holistic view of the concept is needed. It is also important to optimize the whole organization and the whole product, as waste on one level can be important on another, thus sub-optimization should be avoided. Furthermore, to achieve a sustainable and effective waste handling, both the short-term and the long-term perspectives need to be considered. © 2018 Elsevier B.V.
Context: Verification and validation (V&V) activities make up 20-50% of the total development costs of a software system in practice. Test automation is proposed to lower these V&V costs but available research only provides limited empirical data from industrial practice about the maintenance costs of automated tests and what factors affect these costs. In particular, these costs and factors are unknown for automated GUI-based testing. Objective: This paper addresses this lack of knowledge through analysis of the costs and factors associated with the maintenance of automated GUI-based tests in industrial practice. Method: An empirical study at two companies, Siemens and Saab, is reported where interviews about, and empirical work with, Visual GUI Testing is performed to acquire data about the technique's maintenance costs and feasibility. Results: 13 factors are observed that affect maintenance, e.g. tester knowledge/experience and test case complexity. Further, statistical analysis shows that developing new test scripts is costlier than maintenance but also that frequent maintenance is less costly than infrequent, big bang maintenance. In addition a cost model, based on previous work, is presented that estimates the time to positive return on investment (ROI) of test automation compared to manual testing. Conclusions: It is concluded that test automation can lower overall software development costs of a project while also having positive effects on software quality. However, maintenance costs can still be considerable and the less time a company currently spends on manual testing, the more time is required before positive, economic, ROI is reached after automation. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Context: The trust in systematic literature reviews (SLRs) to provide credible recommendations is critical for establishing evidence-based software engineering (EBSE) practice. The reliability of SLR as a method is not a given and largely depends on the rigor of the attempt to identify, appraise and aggregate evidence. Previous research, by comparing SLRs on the same topic, has identified search as one of the reasons for discrepancies in the included primary studies. This affects the reliability of an SLR, as the papers identified and included in it are likely to influence its conclusions. Objective: We aim to propose a comprehensive evaluation checklist to assess the reliability of an automated-search strategy used in an SLR. Method: Using a literature review, we identified guidelines for designing and reporting automated-search as a primary search strategy. Using the aggregated design, reporting and evaluation guidelines, we formulated a comprehensive evaluation checklist. The value of this checklist was demonstrated by assessing the reliability of search in 27 recent SLRs. Results: Using the proposed evaluation checklist, several additional issues (not captured by the current evaluation checklist) related to the reliability of search in recent SLRs were identified. These issues severely limit the coverage of literature by the search and also the possibility to replicate it. Conclusion: Instead of solely relying on expensive replications to assess the reliability of SLRs, this work provides means to objectively assess the likely reliability of a search-strategy used in an SLR. It highlights the often-assumed aspect of repeatability of search when using automated-search. Furthermore, by explicitly considering repeatability and consistency as sub-characteristics of a reliable search, it provides a more comprehensive evaluation checklist than the ones currently used in EBSE. © 2018 Elsevier B.V.
The requirements engineering (RE) process is a decision-rich complex problem solving activity. This paper examines the elements of organization-oriented macro decisions as well as process-oriented micro decisions in the RE process and illustrates how to integrate classical decision-making models with RE process models. This integration helps in formulating a common vocabulary and model to improve the manageability of the RE process, and contributes towards the learning process by validating and verifying the consistency of decision-making in RE activities.
Software quality issues are commonly reported when offshoring software development. Value-based software engineering addresses this by ensuring key stakeholders have a common understanding of quality. Objective: This work seeks to understand the levels of alignment between key stakeholder groups within a company on the priority given to aspects of software quality developed as part of an offshoring relationship. Furthermore, the study aims to identify factors impacting the levels of alignment identified. Method: Three case studies were conducted, with representatives of key stakeholder groups ranking aspects of software quality in a hierarchical cumulative exercise. The results are analysed using Spearman rank correlation coefficients and inertia. The results were discussed with the groups to gain a deeper understanding of the issues impacting alignment. Results: Various levels of alignment were found between the various groups. The reasons for misalignment were found to include cultural factors, control of quality in the development process, short-term versus long-term orientations, understanding of cost-benefits of quality improvements, communication and coordination. Conclusions: The factors that negatively affect alignment can vary greatly between different cases. The work emphasises the need for greater support to align company internal success-critical stakeholder groups in their understanding of quality when offshoring software development.
Background: Software quality is complex with over investment, under investment and the interplay between aspects often being overlooked as many researchers aim to advance individual aspects of software quality. Aim: This paper aims to provide a consolidated overview the literature that addresses trade-offs between aspects of software product quality. Method: A systematic literature map is employed to provide an overview of software quality trade-off literature in general. Specific analysis is also done of empirical literature addressing the topic. Results: The results show a wide range of solution proposals being considered. However, there is insufficient empirical evidence to adequately evaluate and compare these proposals. Further a very large vocabulary has been found to describe software quality. Conclusion: Greater empirical research is required to sufficiently evaluate and compare the wide range of solution proposals. This will allow researchers to focus on the proposals showing greater signs of success and better support industrial practitioners.
Context: Value stream mapping (VSM) as a tool for lean development has led to significant improvements in different industries. In a few studies, it has been successfully applied in a software engineering context. However, some shortcomings have been observed in particular failing to capture the dynamic nature of the software process to evaluate improvements i.e. such improvements and target values are based on idealistic situations. Objective: To overcome the shortcomings of VSM by combining it with software process simulation modeling, and to provide reflections on the process of conducting VSM with simulation. Method: Using case study research, VSM was used for two products at Ericsson AB, Sweden. Ten workshops were conducted in this regard. Simulation in this study was used as a tool to support discussions instead of as a prediction tool. The results have been evaluated from the perspective of the participating practitioners, an external observer, and reflections of the researchers conducting the simulation that was elicited by the external observer. Results: Significant constraints hindering the product development from reaching the stated improvement goals for shorter lead time were identified. The use of simulation was particularly helpful in having more insightful discussions and to challenge assumptions about the likely impact of improvements. However, simulation results alone were found insufficient to emphasize the importance of reducing waiting times and variations in the process. Conclusion: The framework to assist VSM with simulation presented in this study was successfully applied in two cases. The involvement of various stakeholders, consensus building steps, emphasis on flow (through waiting time and variance analysis) and the use of simulation proposed in the framework led to realistic improvements with a high likelihood of implementation. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
[Context] It is an enigma that agile projects can succeed ‘without requirements’ when weak requirementsengineering is a known cause for project failures. While agile development projects often manage well withoutextensive requirements test cases are commonly viewed as requirements and detailed requirements are documented astest cases.[Objective] We have investigated this agile practice of using test cases as requirements to understand how test casescan support the main requirements activities, and how this practice varies.[Method] We performed an iterative case study at three companies and collected data through 14 interviews and 2focus groups.[Results] The use of test cases as requirements poses both benefits and challenges when eliciting, validating,verifying, and managing requirements, and when used as a documented agreement. We have identified five variants ofthe test-cases-as-requirements practice, namely de facto, behaviour-driven, story-test driven, stand-alone strict andstand-alone manual for which the application of the practice varies concerning the time frame of requirementsdocumentation, the requirements format, the extent to which the test cases are a machine executable specification andthe use of tools which provide specific support for the practice of using test cases as requirements.[Conclusions] The findings provide empirical insight into how agile development projects manage andcommunicate requirements. The identified variants of the practice of using test cases as requirements can be used toperform in-depth investigations into agile requirements engineering. Practitioners can use the providedrecommendations as a guide in designing and improving their agile requirements practices based on projectcharacteristics such as number of stakeholders and rate of change.
Context: Large-scale distributed software projects with long life cycles often involve a considerable amount ofcomplex legacy code. The combination of scale and distribution challenges, and the diculty to acquire knowledgeabout large amounts of complex legacy code may make the onboarding of new developers/teams problematic. Thismay lead to extended periods of low performance.Objective: The main objective of this paper is to analyze the learning processes and performance evolutions (teamproductivity and team autonomy) of remote software development teams added late to a large-scale legacy softwareproduct development, and to propose recommendations to support the learning of remote teams.Method: We conducted a case study in Ericsson, collecting data through archival research, semi-structured interviews,and workshops. We analyzed the collected data using descriptive, inferential and graphical statistics and softqualitative analysis.Results: The results show that the productivity and autonomy of immature remote teams are on average 3.67 and2.27 times lower than the ones of mature teams, respectively. Furthermore, their performance had a steady increaseduring almost the entire first year and dropped (productivity) or got stagnated (autonomy) for a great part of the secondyear. In addition to these results, we also identified four challenges that aected the learning process and performanceevolution of immature remote teams: complexity of the product and technology stack, distance to the main source ofproduct knowledge, lack of team stability, and training expectation misalignment.Conclusion: The results indicate that scale, distribution and complex legacy code may make learning more dicultand demand a long period to achieve high performance. To support the learning of remote teams, we put forward fiverecommendations. We believe that our quantitative analysis, as well as the identified factors and recommendationscan help other companies to onboard new remote teams in large-scale legacy product development projects.
Usability is still a problem for software development. As the introduced software changes the use context, use qualities cannot be fully anticipated. Close co-operation between users and developers during development has been proposed as a remedy. Others fear such involvement of users as it might jeopardize planning and control. Based on the observation of an industrial project, we show how user participation and control can be achieved at the same time. The present article discusses the specific measures that allowed for co-operation between users and developers in an industrial context. It indicates measures to improve software development by focusing on use-orientation, i.e. allowing for user-developer co-operation.
Context Embedded systems have overwhelming penetration around the world. Innovations are increasingly triggered by software embedded in automotive, transportation, medical-equipment, communication, energy, and many other types of systems. To test embedded software in an effective and efficient manner, a large number of test techniques, approaches, tools and frameworks have been proposed by both practitioners and researchers in the last several decades. Objective: However, reviewing and getting an overview of the entire state-of-the-art and the practice in this area is challenging for a practitioner or a (new) researcher. Also unfortunately, as a result, we often see that many companies reinvent the wheel (by designing a test approach new to them, but existing in the domain) due to not having an adequate overview of what already exists in this area. Method: To address the above need, we conducted and report in this paper a systematic literature review (SLR) in the form of a systematic literature mapping (SLM) in this area. After compiling an initial pool of 588 papers, a systematic voting about inclusion/exclusion of the papers was conducted among the authors, and our final pool included 312 technical papers. Results: Among the various aspects that we aim at covering, our review covers the types of testing topics studied, types of testing activity, types of test artifacts generated (e.g., test inputs or test code), and the types of industries in which studies have focused on, e.g., automotive and home appliances. Furthermore, we assess the benefits of this review by asking several active test engineers in the Turkish embedded software industry to review its findings and provide feedbacks as to how this review has benefitted them. Conclusion: The results of this review paper have already benefitted several of our industry partners in choosing the right test techniques / approaches for their embedded software testing challenges. We believe that it will also be useful for the large world-wide community of software engineers and testers in the embedded software industry, by serving as an "index" to the vast body of knowledge in this important area. Our results will also benefit researchers in observing the latest trends in this area and for identifying the topics which need further investigations.
Context: A Multivocal Literature Review (MLR) is a form of a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) which includes the grey literature (e.g., blog posts, videos and white papers) in addition to the published (formal) literature (e.g., journal and conference papers). MLRs are useful for both researchers and practitioners since they provide summaries both the state-of-the art and –practice in a given area. MLRs are popular in other fields and have recently started to appear in software engineering (SE). As more MLR studies are conducted and reported, it is important to have a set of guidelines to ensure high quality of MLR processes and their results. Objective: There are several guidelines to conduct SLR studies in SE. However, several phases of MLRs differ from those of traditional SLRs, for instance with respect to the search process and source quality assessment. Therefore, SLR guidelines are only partially useful for conducting MLR studies. Our goal in this paper is to present guidelines on how to conduct MLR studies in SE. Method: To develop the MLR guidelines, we benefit from several inputs: (1) existing SLR guidelines in SE, (2), a literature survey of MLR guidelines and experience papers in other fields, and (3) our own experiences in conducting several MLRs in SE. We took the popular SLR guidelines of Kitchenham and Charters as the baseline and extended/adopted them to conduct MLR studies in SE. All derived guidelines are discussed in the context of an already-published MLR in SE as the running example. Results: The resulting guidelines cover all phases of conducting and reporting MLRs in SE from the planning phase, over conducting the review to the final reporting of the review. In particular, we believe that incorporating and adopting a vast set of experience-based recommendations from MLR guidelines and experience papers in other fields have enabled us to propose a set of guidelines with solid foundations. Conclusion: Having been developed on the basis of several types of experience and evidence, the provided MLR guidelines will support researchers to effectively and efficiently conduct new MLRs in any area of SE. The authors recommend the researchers to utilize these guidelines in their MLR studies and then share their lessons learned and experiences. © 2018
Context: Software testability is the degree to which a software system or a unit under test supports its own testing. To predict and improve software testability, a large number of techniques and metrics have been proposed by both practitioners and researchers in the last several decades. Reviewing and getting an overview of the entire state-of-the-art and state-of-the-practice in this area is often challenging for a practitioner or a new researcher. Objective: Our objective is to summarize the body of knowledge in this area and to benefit the readers (both practitioners and researchers) in preparing, measuring and improving software testability. Method: To address the above need, the authors conducted a survey in the form of a systematic literature mapping (classification) to find out what we as a community know about this topic. After compiling an initial pool of 303 papers, and applying a set of inclusion/exclusion criteria, our final pool included 208 papers (published between 1982 and 2017). Results: The area of software testability has been comprehensively studied by researchers and practitioners. Approaches for measurement of testability and improvement of testability are the most-frequently addressed in the papers. The two most often mentioned factors affecting testability are observability and controllability. Common ways to improve testability are testability transformation, improving observability, adding assertions, and improving controllability.Conclusion: This paper serves for both researchers and practitioners as an "index" to the vast body of knowledge in the area of testability. The results could help practitioners measure and improve software testability in their projects. To assess potential benefits of this review paper, we shared its draft version with two of our industrial collaborators. They stated that they found the review useful and beneficial in their testing activities. Our results can also benefit researchers in observing the trends in this area and identify the topics that require further investigation.
Context: The global software industry and the software engineering (SE) academia are two large communities. However, unfortunately, the level of joint industry-academia collaborations in SE is still relatively very low, compared to the amount of activity in each of the two communities. It seems that the two âcampsâ show only limited interest/motivation to collaborate with one other. Many researchers and practitioners have written about the challenges, success patterns (what to do, i.e., how to collaborate) and anti-patterns (what not do do) for industry-academia collaborations. Objective: To identify (a) the challenges to avoid risks to the collaboration by being aware of the challenges, (b) the best practices to provide an inventory of practices (patterns) allowing for an informed choice of practices to use when planning and conducting collaborative projects. Method: A systematic review has been conducted. Synthesis has been done using grounded-theory based coding procedures. Results: Through thematic analysis we identified 10 challenge themes and 17 best practice themes. A key outcome was the inventory of best practices, the most common ones recommended in different contexts were to hold regular workshops and seminars with industry, assure continuous learning from industry and academic sides, ensure management engagement, the need for a champion, basing research on real-world problems, showing explicit benefits to the industry partner, be agile during the collaboration, and the co-location of the researcher on the industry side. Conclusion: Given the importance of industry-academia collaboration to conduct research of high practical relevance we provide a synthesis of challenges and best practices, which can be used by researchers and practitioners to make informed decisions on how to structure their collaborations.
When software development teams modify their requirements engineering process as an independent variable, they often examine the implications of these process changes by assessing the quality of the products of the requirements engineering process, e.g., a software requirements specification (SRS). Using the quality of the SRS as the dependent variable is flawed. As an alternative, this paper presents a framework of dependent variables that serves as a full range for requirements engineering quality assessment. In this framework, the quality of the SRS itself is just the first level. Other higher, and more significant levels, include whether the project was successful and whether the resulting product was successful. And still higher levels include whether or not the company was successful and whether there was a positive or negative impact on society as a whole. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Context Test models describe the expected behavior of the software under test and provide the basis for test case and oracle generation. When test models are expressed as UML state machines, this is typically referred to as state-based testing (SBT). Despite the importance of being systematic while testing, all testing activities are limited by resource constraints. Thus, reducing the cost of testing while ensuring sufficient fault detection is a common goal in software development. No rigorous industrial case studies of SBT have yet been published. Objective In this paper, we evaluate the cost-effectiveness of SBT on actual control software by studying the combined influence of four testing aspects: coverage criterion, test oracle, test model and unspecified behavior (sneak paths). Method An industrial case study was used to investigate the cost-effectiveness of SBT. To enable the evaluation of SBT techniques, a model-based testing tool was configured and used to automatically generate test suites. The test suites were evaluated using 26 real faults collected in a field study. Results Results show that the more detailed and rigorous the test model and oracle, the higher the fault-detection ability of SBT. A less precise oracle achieved 67% fault detection, but the overall cost reduction of 13% was not enough to make the loss an acceptable trade-off. Removing details from the test model significantly reduced the cost by 85%. Interestingly, only a 24–37% reduction in fault detection was observed. Testing for sneak paths killed the remaining eleven mutants that could not be killed by the conformance test strategies. Conclusions Each of the studied testing aspects influences cost-effectiveness and must be carefully considered in context when selecting strategies. Regardless of these choices, sneak-path testing is a necessary step in SBT since sneak paths are common while also undetectable by conformance testing.
Context: Early software reuse is considered as the most beneficial form of software reuse. Hence, previous research has focused on supporting the reuse of software requirements. Objective: This study aims to identify and investigate the current state of the art with respect to (a) what requirement reuse approaches have been proposed, (b) the methods used to evaluate the approaches, (c) the characteristics of the approaches, and (d) the quality of empirical studies on requirements reuse with respect to rigor and relevance. Method: We conducted a systematic review and a combination of snowball sampling and database search have been used to identify the studies. The rigor and relevance scoring rubric has been used to assess the quality of the empirical studies. Multiple researchers have been involved in each step to increase the reliability of the study. Results: Sixty-nine studies were identified that describe requirements reuse approaches. The majority of the approaches used structuring and matching of requirements as a method to support requirements reuse and text-based artefacts were commonly used as an input to these approaches. Further evaluation of the studies revealed that the majority of the approaches are not validated in the industry. The subset of empirical studies (22 in total) was analyzed for rigor and relevance and two studies achieved the maximum score for rigor and relevance based on the rubric. It was found that mostly text-based requirements reuse approaches were validated in the industry. Conclusion: From the review, it was found that a number of approaches already exist in literature, but many approaches are not validated in industry. The evaluation of rigor and relevance of empirical studies show that these do not contain details of context, validity threats, and the industrial settings, thus highlighting the need for the industrial evaluation of the approaches. © 2017 Elsevier B.V.
Context: Offshore outsourcing collaborations can result in distributed development, which has been linked to quality-related concerns. However, there are few studies that focus on the implication of distributed development on quality, and they report inconsistent findings using different proxies for quality. Thus, there is a need for more studies, as well as to identify useful proxies for certain distributed contexts. The presented empirical study was performed in a context that involved offshore outsourcing vendors in a multisite distributed development setting.
Objective: The aim of the study is to investigate how quality changes during evolution in a distributed development environment that incurs organizational changes in terms of number of companies involved.
Method: A case study approach is followed in the investigation. Only post-release defects are used as a proxy for external quality due to unreliable defect data found pre-release such as those reported during integration. Focus group meetings were also held with practitioners.
Results: The results suggest that practices that can be grouped into product, people, and process categories can help ensure post-release quality. However, post-release defects are insufficient for showing a conclusive impact on quality of the development setting. This is because the development teams worked independently as isolated distributed teams, and integration defects would help to better reflect on the impact on quality of the development setting.
Conclusions: The mitigation practices identified can be useful information to practitioners that are planning to engage in similar globally distributed development projects. Finally, it is important to take into consideration the arrangement of distributed development teams in global projects, and to use the context to identify appropriate proxies for quality in order to draw correct conclusions about the implications of the context. This would help with providing practitioners with well-founded findings about the impact on quality of globally distributed development settings.
Evidence-based software engineering (EBSE) provides a process for solving practical problems based on a rigorous research approach. The primary focus so far was on mapping and aggregating evidence through systematic reviews. Objectives: We extend existing work on evidence-based software engineering by using the EBSE process in an industrial case to help an organization to improve its automotive testing process. With this we contribute in (1) providing experiences on using evidence based processes to analyze a real world automotive test process and (2) provide evidence of challenges and related solutions for automotive software testing processes. Methods: In this study we perform an in-depth investigation of an automotive test process using an extended EBSE process including case study research (gain an understanding of practical questions to define a research scope), systematic literature review (identify solutions through systematic literature), and value stream mapping (map out an improved automotive test process based on the current situation and improvement suggestions identified). These are followed by reflections on the EBSE process used. Results: In the first step of the EBSE process we identified 10 challenge areas with a total of 26 individual challenges. For 15 out of those 26 challenges our domain specific systematic literature review identified solutions. Based on the input from the challenges and the solutions, we created a value stream map of the current and future process. Conclusions: Overall, we found that the evidence-based process as presented in this study helps in technology transfer of research results to industry, but at the same time some challenges lie ahead (e.g. scoping systematic reviews to focus more on concrete industry problems, and understanding strategies of conducting EBSE with respect to effort and quality of the evidence).
Context: New products create significant opportunities for differentiation and competitive advantage. To increase the chances of new product success, a universal set of critical activities and determinants have been recommended. Some researchers believe, however, that these factors are not universal, but are contextual. Objective: This paper reports innovation processes followed to develop three software intensive products for understanding how and why innovation practice is dependent on innovation context. Method: This paper reports innovation processes and practices with an in-depth multi-case study of three software product innovations from Ericsson, IBM, and Rorotika. It describes the actual innovation processes followed in the three cases and discusses the observed innovation practice and relates it to state-of-the-art. Results: The cases point to a set of contextual factors that influence the choice of innovation activities and determinants for developing successful product innovations. The cases provide evidence that innovation practice cannot be standardized, but is contextual in nature. Conclusion: The rich description of the interaction between context and innovation practice enables future investigations into contextual elements that influence innovation practice, and calls for the creation of frameworks enabling activity and determinant selection for a given context – since one size does not fit all.
Context: There is an increasing awareness among Software Engineering (SE) researchers and practitioners that more focus is needed on understanding the engineers developing software. Previous studies show significant associations between the personalities of software engineers and their work preferences. Objective: Various studies on personality in SE have found large, small or no effects and there is no consensus on the importance of psychometric measurements in SE. There is also a lack of studies employing other psychometric instruments or using larger datasets. We aim to evaluate our results in a larger sample, with software engineers in an earlier state of their career, using advanced statistics. Method: An operational replication study where extensive psychometric data from 279 master level students have been collected in a SE program at a Swedish University. Personality data based on the Five-Factor Model, Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire and Self-compassion have been collected. Statistical analysis investigated associations between psychometrics and work preferences and the results were compared to our previous findings from 47 SE professionals. Results: Analysis confirms existence of two main clusters of software engineers; one with more "intense" personalities than the other. This corroborates our earlier results on SE professionals. The student data also show similar associations between personalities and work preferences. However, for other associations there are differences due to the different population of subjects. We also found connections between the emotional intelligence and work preferences, while no associations were found for self-compassion. Conclusion: The associations can help managers to predict and adapt projects and tasks to available staff. The results also show that the Emotional Intelligence instrument can be predictive. The research methods and analytical tools we employ can detect subtle associations and reflect differences between different groups and populations and thus can be important tools for future research as well as industrial practice.
Context: Consistency constitutes an important aspect in practical realization of modeling ideas in the process of software development and in the related research which is diverse. A classification framework has been developed, in order to aid the model based software construction by categorizing research problems related to consistency. However, the framework does not include information on the importance of classification elements. Objective: The aim was to extend the classification framework with information about the relative importance of the elements constituting the classification. The research question was how to express and obtain this information. Method: A survey was conducted on a sample of 24 stakeholders from academia and industry, with different roles, who answered a quantitative questionnaire. Specifically, the respondents prioritized perspectives and issues using an extended hierarchical voting scheme based on the hundred dollar test. The numerical data obtained were first weighted and normalized and then they were analyzed by descriptive statistics and bar charts. Results: The detailed analysis of the data revealed the relative importance of consistency perspectives and issues under different views, allowing for the desired extension of the classification framework with empirical information. The most highly valued issues come from the pragmatics perspective. These issues are the most important for tool builders and practitioners from industry, while for the responders from academia theory group some issues from the concepts perspective are equally important. Conclusion: The method of using empirical data from a hierarchical cumulative voting scheme for extending existing research classification framework is useful for including information regarding the importance of the classification elements.
Context: Most research in software effort estimation has not considered chronology when selecting projects for training and testing sets. A chronological split represents the use of a projects starting and completion dates, such that any model that estimates effort for a new project p only uses as training data projects that were completed prior to p's start. Four recent studies investigated the use of chronological splits, using moving windows wherein only the most recent projects completed prior to a projects starting date were used as training data. The first three studies (S1-S3) found some evidence in favor of using windows; they all defined window sizes as being fixed numbers of recent projects. In practice, we suggest that estimators think in terms of elapsed time rather than the size of the data set, when deciding which projects to include in a training set. In the fourth study (S4) we showed that the use of windows based on duration can also improve estimation accuracy. Objective: This papers contribution is to extend S4 using an additional dataset, and to also investigate the effect on accuracy when using moving windows of various durations. Method: Stepwise multivariate regression was used to build prediction models, using all available training data, and also using windows of various durations to select training data. Accuracy was compared based on absolute residuals and MREs; the Wilcoxon test was used to check statistical significances between results. Accuracy was also compared against estimates derived from windows containing fixed numbers of projects. Results: Neither fixed size nor fixed duration windows provided superior estimation accuracy in the new data set. Conclusions: Contrary to intuition, our results suggest that it is not always beneficial to exclude old data when estimating effort for new projects. When windows are helpful, windows based on duration are effective.
Context: Search-based software testing promises to provide users with the ability to generate high quality test cases, and hence increase product quality, with a minimal increase in the time and effort required. The development of the Interactive Search-Based Software Testing (ISBST) system was motivated by a previous study to investigate the application of search-based software testing (SBST) in an industrial setting. ISBST allows users to interact with the underlying SBST system, guiding the search and assessing the results. An industrial evaluation indicated that the ISBST system could find test cases that are not created by testers employing manual techniques. The validity of the evaluation was threatened, however, by the low number of participants. Objective: This paper presents a follow-up study, to provide a more rigorous evaluation of the ISBST system. Method: To assess the ISBST system a two-way crossover controlled experiment was conducted with 58 students taking a Verification and Validation course. The NASA Task Load Index (NASA-TLX) is used to assess the workload experienced by the participants in the experiment. Results:The experimental results validated the hypothesis that the ISBST system generates test cases that are not found by the same participants employing manual testing techniques. A follow-up laboratory experiment also investigates the importance of interaction in obtaining the results. In addition to this main result, the subjective workload was assessed for each participant by means of the NASA-TLX tool. The evaluation showed that, while the ISBST system required more effort from the participants, they achieved the same performance. Conclusions: The paper provides evidence that the ISBST system develops test cases that are not found by manual techniques, and that interaction plays an important role in achieving that result. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Context: Safety-Critical Systems (SCS) are becoming increasingly present in our society. A considerable amount of research effort has been invested into improving the SCS requirements engineering process as it is critical to the successful development of SCS and, in particular, the engineering of safety aspects. Objective: This article aims to investigate which approaches have been proposed to elicit, model, specify and validate safety requirements in the context of SCS, as well as to what extent such approaches have been validated in industrial settings. The paper will also investigate how the usability and usefulness of the reported approaches have been explored, and to what extent they enable requirements communication among the development project/team actors in the development of SCS. Method: We conducted a systematic literature review by selecting 151 papers published between 1983 and 2014. The research methodology to conduct the SLR was based on the guidelines proposed by Kitchenham and Biolchini. Results: The results of this systematic review should encourage further research into the design of studies to improve the requirements engineering for SCS, particularly to enable the communication of the safety requirements among the project team actors, and the adoption of other models for hazard and accident models. The presented results point to the need for more industry-oriented studies, particularly with more participation of practitioners in the validation of new approaches. Conclusion: The most relevant findings from this review and their implications for further research are as follows: integration between requirements engineering and safety engineering areas; dominance of the traditional approaches; early mortality of new approaches; need for industry validation; lack of evidence for the usefulness and usability of most approaches; and the lack of studies that investigate how to improve the communication process throughout the lifecycle. Based on the findings, we suggest a research agenda to the community of researchers and advices to SCS practitioners. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Context: Over the past decade Software Engineering research has seen a steady increase in survey-based studies, and there are several guidelines providing support for those willing to carry out surveys. The need for auditing survey research has been raised in the literature. Checklists have been used to assess different types of empirical studies, such as experiments and case studies.
Objective: This paper proposes a checklist to support the design and assessment of survey-based research in software engineering grounded in existing guidelines for survey research. We further evaluated the checklist in the research practice context.
Method: To construct the checklist, we systematically aggregated knowledge from 12 methodological studies supporting survey-based research in software engineering. We identified the key stages of the survey process and its recommended practices through thematic analysis and vote counting. To improve our initially designed checklist we evaluated it using a mixed evaluation approach involving experienced researchers.
Results: The evaluation provided insights regarding the limitations of the checklist in relation to its understanding and objectivity. In particular, 19 of the 38 checklist items were improved according to the feedback received from its evaluation. Finally, a discussion on how to use the checklist and what its implications are for research practice is also provided.
Conclusion: The proposed checklist is an instrument suitable for auditing survey reports as well as a support tool to guide ongoing research with regard to the survey design process.
Context Empirical research in software engineering contributes towards developing scientific knowledge in this field, which in turn is relevant to inform decision-making in industry. A number of empirical studies have been carried out to date in software engineering, and the need for guidelines for conducting and evaluating such research has been stressed. Objective: The main goal of this mapping study is to identify and summarize the body of knowledge on research guidelines, assessment instruments and knowledge organization systems on how to conduct and evaluate empirical research in software engineering. Method: A systematic mapping study employing manual search and snowballing techniques was carried out to identify the suitable papers. To build up the catalog, we extracted and categorized information provided by the identified papers. Results: The mapping study comprises a list of 341 methodological papers, classified according to research methods, research phases covered, and type of instrument provided. Later, we derived a brief explanatory review of the instruments provided for each of the research methods. Conclusion: We provide: an aggregated body of knowledge on the state of the art relating to guidelines, assessment instruments and knowledge organization systems for carrying out empirical software engineering research; an exemplary usage scenario that can be used to guide those carrying out such studies is also provided. Finally, we discuss the catalog's implications for research practice and the needs for further research. © 2018 Elsevier B.V.
Context: The increased use of Open Source Software (OSS) affects how software-intensive product development organizations (SIPDO) innovate and compete, moving them towards Open Innovation (OI). Specifically, software engineering tools have the potential for OI, but require better understanding regarding what to develop internally and what to acquire from outside the organization, and how to cooperate with potential competitors. Aim: This paper aims at synthesizing a theory of openness for software engineering tools in SIPDOs, that can be utilized by managers in defining more efficient strategies towards OSS communities. Method: We synthesize empirical evidence from a systematic mapping study, a case study, and a survey, using a narrative method. The synthesis method entails four steps: (1) Developing a preliminary synthesis, (2) Exploring the relationship between studies, (3) Assessing the validity of the synthesis, and (4) Theory formation. Result: We present a theory of openness for OSS tools in software engineering in relation to four constructs: (1) Strategy, (2) Triggers, (3) Outcomes, and (4) Level of openness. Conclusion: The theory reasons that openness provides opportunities to reduce the development cost and development time. Furthermore, OI positively impacts on the process and product innovation, but it requires investment by organizations in OSS communities. By betting on openness, organizations may be able to significantly increase their competitiveness. © 2017 Elsevier B.V.
Context Test driven development (TDD) has been extensively researched and compared to traditional approaches (test last development, TLD). Existing literature reviews show varying results for TDD. Objective This study investigates how the conclusions of existing literature reviews change when taking two study quality dimension into account, namely rigor and relevance. Method In this study a systematic literature review has been conducted and the results of the identified primary studies have been analyzed with respect to rigor and relevance scores using the assessment rubric proposed by Ivarsson and Gorschek 2011. Rigor and relevance are rated on a scale, which is explained in this paper. Four categories of studies were defined based on high/low rigor and relevance. Results We found that studies in the four categories come to different conclusions. In particular, studies with a high rigor and relevance scores show clear results for improvement in external quality, which seem to come with a loss of productivity. At the same time high rigor and relevance studies only investigate a small set of variables. Other categories contain many studies showing no difference, hence biasing the results negatively for the overall set of primary studies. Given the classification differences to previous literature reviews could be highlighted. Conclusion Strong indications are obtained that external quality is positively influenced, which has to be further substantiated by industry experiments and longitudinal case studies. Future studies in the high rigor and relevance category would contribute largely by focusing on a wider set of outcome variables (e.g. internal code quality). We also conclude that considering rigor and relevance in TDD evaluation is important given the differences in results between categories and in comparison to previous reviews.
Context: The development of software-intensive systems includes many decisions involving various stakeholders with often conflicting interests and viewpoints. Objective: Decisions are rarely systematically documented and sporadically explored. This limits the opportunity for learning and improving on important decisions made in the development of software-intensive systems. Method: In this work, we enable support for the systematic documentation of decisions, improve their traceability and contribute to potentially improved decision-making in strategic, tactical and operational contexts. Results: We constructed a taxonomy for documentation supporting decision-making, called GRADE. GRADE was developed in a research project that required composition of a common dedicated language to make feasible the identification of new opportunities for better decision support and evaluation of multiple decision alternatives. The use of the taxonomy has been validated through thirty three decision cases from industry. Conclusion: This paper occupies this important yet greatly unexplored research gap by developing the GRADE taxonomy that serves as a common vocabulary to describe and classify decision-making with respect to architectural assets. © 2018 Elsevier B.V.
Context: Software startups are newly created companies with no operating history and fast in producing cutting-edge technologies. These companies develop software under highly uncertain conditions, tackling fast-growing markets under severe lack of resources. Therefore, software startups present an unique combination of characteristics which pose several challenges to software development activities. Objective: This study aims to structure and analyze the literature on software development in startup companies, determining thereby the potential for technology transfer and identifying software development work practices reported by practitioners and researchers. Method: We conducted a systematic mapping study, developing a classification schema, ranking the selected primary studies according their rigor and relevance, and analyzing reported software development work practices in startups. Results: A total of 43 primary studies were identified and mapped, synthesizing the available evidence on software development in startups. Only 16 studies are entirely dedicated to software development in startups, of which 10 result in a weak contribution (advice and implications (6); lesson learned (3); tool (1)). Nineteen studies focus on managerial and organizational factors. Moreover, only 9 studies exhibit high scientific rigor and relevance. From the reviewed primary studies, 213 software engineering work practices were extracted, categorized and analyzed. Conclusion: This mapping study provides the first systematic exploration of the state-of-art on software startup research. The existing body of knowledge is limited to a few high quality studies. Furthermore, the results indicate that software engineering work practices are chosen opportunistically, adapted and configured to provide value under the constrains imposed by the startup context.
Context: Several industries developing products on a large-scale are facing major challenges as their products are becoming more and more software-intensive. Whereas software was once considered a detail to be bundled, it has since become an intricate and interdependent part of most products. The advancement of software increases the uncertainty and the interdependencies between development tasks and artifacts. A key success factor is good requirements engineering (RE), and in particular, the challenges of effectively and efficiently coordinating and communicating requirements. Objective: In this work we present a lightweight RE framework and demonstrate and evaluate its industrial applicability in response to the needs of a Swedish automotive company for improving specific problems in inter-departmental requirements coordination and communication in large-scale development of software-intensive systems. Method: A case study approach and a dynamic validation were used to develop and evaluate the framework in close collaboration with our industrial partner, involving three real-life cases in an ongoing car project. Experience and feedback were collected through observations when applying the framework and from 10 senior industry professionals in a questionnaire and in-depth follow-up interviews. Results: The experience and feedback about using the framework revealed that it is relevant and applicable for the industry as well as a useful and efficient way to resolve real problems in coordinating and communicating requirements identified at the case company. However, other concerns, such as accessibility to necessary resources and competences in the early development phases, were identified when using the method, which allowed for earlier pre-emptive action to be taken. Conclusion: Overall, the experience from using the framework and the positive feedback from industry professionals indicated a feasible framework that is applicable in the industry for improving problems related to coordination and communication of requirements. Based on the promising results, our industrial partner has decided upon further validations of the framework in a large-scale pilot program. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Context: Software productivity measurement is essential in order to control and improve the performance of software development. For example, by identifying role models (e.g. projects, individuals, tasks) when comparing productivity data. The prediction is of relevance to determine whether corrective actions are needed, and to discover which alternative improvement action would yield the best results. Objectives: In this study we identify studies for software productivity prediction and measurement. Based on the identified studies we first create a classification scheme and map the studies into the scheme (systematic map). Thereafter, a detailed analysis and synthesis of the studies is conducted. Method: As a research method for systematically identifying and aggregating the evidence of productivity measurement and prediction approaches systematic mapping and systematic review have been used. Results: In total 38 studies have been identified, resulting in a classification scheme for empirical research on software productivity. The mapping allowed to identify the rigor of the evidence with respect to the different productivity approaches. In the detailed analysis the results were tabulated and synthesized to provide recommendations to practitioners. Conclusions: Risks with simple ratio-based measurement approaches were shown. In response to the problems data envelopment analysis seems to be a strong approach to capture multivariate productivity measures, and allows to identify reference projects to which inefficient projects should be compared. Regarding simulation no general prediction model can be identified. Simulation and statistical process control are promising methods for software productivity prediction. Overall, further evidence is needed to make stronger claims and recommendations. In particular, the discussion of validity threats should become standard, and models need to be compared with each other.
Context: System of systems (SOS) is a set or arrangement of systems that results when independent and useful systems are to be incorporated into a larger system that delivers unique capabilities. Our investigation showed that the development life cycle (i.e. the activities transforming requirements into design, code, test cases, and releases) in SoS is more prone to bottlenecks in comparison to single systems. Objective: The objective of the research is to identify reasons for bottlenecks in SoS, prioritize their significance according to their effect on bottlenecks, and compare them with respect to different roles and different perspectives, i.e. SoS view (concerned with integration of systems), and systems view (concerned with system development and delivery). Method: The research method used is a case study at Ericsson AB. Results: Results show that the most significant reasons for bottlenecks are related to requirements engineering. All the different roles agree on the significance of requirements related factors. However, there are also disagreements between the roles, in particular with respect to quality related reasons. Quality related hinders are primarily observed and highly prioritized by quality assurance responsibles. Furthermore, SoS view and system view perceive different hinders, and prioritize them differently. Conclusion: We conclude that solutions for requirements engineering in SoS context are needed, quality awareness in the organization has to be achieved end to end, and views between SoS and system view need to be aligned to avoid sub optimization in improvements.
Context Systematic mapping studies are used to structure a research area, while systematic reviews are focused on gathering and synthesizing evidence. The most recent guidelines for systematic mapping are from 2008. Since that time, many suggestions have been made of how to improve systematic literature reviews (SLRs). There is a need to evaluate how researchers conduct the process of systematic mapping and identify how the guidelines should be updated based on the lessons learned from the existing systematic maps and SLR guidelines. Objective To identify how the systematic mapping process is conducted (including search, study selection, analysis and presentation of data, etc.); to identify improvement potentials in conducting the systematic mapping process and updating the guidelines accordingly. Method We conducted a systematic mapping study of systematic maps, considering some practices of systematic review guidelines as well (in particular in relation to defining the search and to conduct a quality assessment). Results In a large number of studies multiple guidelines are used and combined, which leads to different ways in conducting mapping studies. The reason for combining guidelines was that they differed in the recommendations given. Conclusion The most frequently followed guidelines are not sufficient alone. Hence, there was a need to provide an update of how to conduct systematic mapping studies. New guidelines have been proposed consolidating existing findings. © 2015 Elsevier B.V.
Software metrics may be used in fault prediction models to improve software quality by predicting fault location. Objective: This paper aims to identify software metrics and to assess their applicability in software fault prediction. We investigated the influence of context on metrics' selection and performance. Method: This systematic literature review includes 106 papers published between 1991 and 2011. The selected papers are classified according to metrics and context properties. Results: Object-oriented metrics (49%) were used nearly twice as often compared to traditional source code metrics (27%) or process metrics (24%). Chidamber and Kemerer's (CK) object-oriented metrics were most frequently used. According to the selected studies there are significant differences between the metrics used in fault prediction performance. Object-oriented and process metrics have been reported to be more successful in finding faults compared to traditional size and complexity metrics. Process metrics seem to be better at predicting post-release faults compared to any static code metrics. Conclusion: More studies should be performed on large industrial software systems to find metrics more relevant for the industry and to answer the question as to which metrics should be used in a given context.
Context: Prioritization is an essential part of requirements engineering, software release planning and many other software engineering disciplines. Cumulative Voting (CV) is known as a relatively simple method for prioritizing requirements on a ratio scale. Historically, CV has been applied in decision-making in government elections, corporate governance, and forestry. However, CV prioritization results are of a special type of data-compositional data. Objectives: The purpose of this study is to aid decision-making by collecting knowledge on the empirical use of CV and develop a method for detecting prioritization items with equal priority. Methods: We present a systematic literature review of CV and CV analysis methods. The review is based on searching electronic databases and snowball sampling of the found primary studies. Relevant studies are selected based on titles, abstracts, and full text inspection. Additionally, we propose Equality of Cumulative Votes (ECVs)-a CV result analysis method that identifies prioritization items with equal priority. Results: CV has been used in not only requirements prioritization and release planning but also in e.g. software process improvement, change impact analysis and model driven software development. The review presents a collection of state of the practice studies and CV result analysis methods. In the end, ECV was applied to 27 prioritization cases from 14 studies and identified nine groups of equal items in three studies. Conclusions: We believe that the analysis of the collected studies and the CV result analysis methods can help in the adoption of CV prioritization method. The evaluation of ECV indicates that it is able to detect prioritization items with equal priority and thus provide the practitioner with a more fine-grained analysis.
Context: This paper presents an approach for selecting regression test cases in the context of large-scale, database applications. We focus on a black-box (specification-based) approach, relying on classification tree models to model the input domain of the system under test (SUT), in order to obtain a more practical and scalable solution. We perform an industrial case study where the SUT is a large database application in Norway’s tax department. Objective: We investigate the use of similarity-based test case selection for supporting black box regression testing of database applications. We have developed a practical approach and tool (DART) for functional black-box regression testing of database applications. In order to make the regression test approach scalable for large database applications, we needed a test case selection strategy that reduces the test execution costs and analysis e ort. We used classification tree models to partition the input domain of the SUT in order to then select test cases. Rather than selecting test cases at random from each partition, we incorporated a similarity-based test case selection, hypothesizing that it would yield a higher fault detection rate. Method: An experiment was conducted to determine which similarity-based selection algorithm was the most suitable in selecting test cases in large regression test suites, and whether similarity-based selection was a worthwhile and practical alternative to simpler solutions. Results: The results show that combining similarity measurement with partition-based test case selection, by using similarity-based test case selection within each partition, can provide improved fault detection rates over simpler solutions when specific conditions are met regarding the partitions. Conclusions: Under the conditions present in the experiment the improvements were marginal. However, a detailed analysis concludes that the similarity-based selection strategy should be applied when a large number of test cases are contained in each partition and there is significant variability within partitions. If these conditions are not present, incorporating similarity measures is not worthwhile, since the gain is negligible over a random selection within each partition.
The incorporation of social issues in software engineering is limited. Still, during the last 20 years the social element inherent in software development has been addressed in a number of publications that identified a lack of common concepts, models, and theories for discussing software development from this point of view. It has been suggested that we need to take interpretative and constructive views more seriously if we are to incorporate the social element in software engineering. Up till now we have lacked papers presenting 'simple' models explaining why. This article presents a model that helps us better to understand interpretation, interaction and reality construction from a natural language perspective. The concepts and categories following with the model provide a new frame of reference useful in software engineering research, teaching, and methods development.
Context: Over the past 50 years numerous studies have investigated the possible effect that software engineers' personalities may have upon their individual tasks and teamwork. These have led to an improved understanding of that relationship; however, the analysis of personality traits and their impact on the software development process is still an area under investigation and debate. Further, other than personality traits, "team climate" is also another factor that has also been investigated given its relationship with software teams' performance. Objective: The aim of this paper is to investigate how software professionals' personality is associated with team climate and team performance. Method: In this paper we detail a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) of the effect of software engineers' personality traits and team climate on software team performance. Results: Our main findings include 35 primary studies that have addressed the relationship between personality and team performance without considering team climate. The findings showed that team climate comprises a wide range of factors that fall within the fields of management and behavioral sciences. Most of the studies used undergraduate students as subjects and as surrogates of software professionals. Conclusions: The findings from this SLR would be beneficial for understanding the personality assessment of software development team members by revealing the traits of personality taxonomy, along with the measurement of the software development team working environment. These measurements would be useful in examining the success and failure possibilities of software projects in development processes. General terms: Human factors, performance. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Context: The context of this research is software process improvement (SPI) success factors for small and medium Web companies. Objective: The primary objective of this paper is to propose a theoretical framework of SPI success factors for small and medium Web companies. Method: The theoretical framework presented in this study aggregated the results of three previous research phases by applying principles of theoretical integration and comparative analysis. Those three previous phases were all empirical in nature, and comprise: a systematic review of SPI in small and medium Web companies [1,2]; a replication study and a grounded theory-based initial exploratory framework of factors in small and medium Web companies . Results: The theoretical framework includes 18 categories of SPI success factors, 148 properties of these categories and 25 corresponding relationships, which bind these categories together. With the help of these relationships, the categories and properties of SPI success factors can be directly translated into a set of guidelines, which can then be used by the practitioners of small and medium Web companies to improve the current state of SPI in their companies and achieve overall company success. Conclusion: The comprehensive theoretical framework of SPI success factors presented herein provides evidence regarding key factors for predicting SPI success for small and medium Web companies. The framework can be used as a baseline for a successful implementation of SPI initiatives in the mentioned domain.
Strategic release planning (sometimes referred to as road-mapping) is an important phase of the requirements engineering process performed at product level. It is concerned with selection and assignment of requirements in sequences of releases such that important technical and resource constraints are fulfilled. Objectives: In this study we investigate which strategic release planning models have been proposed, their degree of empirical validation, their factors for requirements selection, and whether they are intended for a bespoke or market-driven requirements engineering context. Methods: In this systematic review a number of article sources are used, including Compendex, Inspec, IEEE Xplore, ACM Digital Library, and Springer Link. Studies are selected after reading titles and abstracts to decide whether the articles are peer reviewed, and relevant to the subject. Results: Twenty four strategic release planning models are found and mapped in relation to each other, and a taxonomy of requirements selection factors is constructed. Conclusions: We conclude that many models are related to each other and use similar techniques to address the release planning problem. We also conclude that several requirement selection factors are covered in the different models, but that many methods fail to address factors such as stakeholder value or internal value. Moreover, we conclude that there is a need for further empirical validation of the models in full scale industry trials. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
The high non-functional requirements on mobile telecommunication applications call for new solutions. An example of such a solution can be a software platform that provides high performance and availability. The introduction of such a platform may, however, affect the development productivity. In this study, we present experiences from research carried out at Ericsson. The purpose of the research was productivity improvement and assessment when using the new platform. In this study, we quantify and evaluate the current productivity level by comparing it with UNIX development. The comparison is based on two large, commercially, available systems. We reveal a factor of four differences in productivity. Later, we decompose the problem into two issues: code writing speed and average amount of code necessary to deliver a certain functionality. We assess the impact of both these issues. We describe the nature of the problem by identifying factors that affect productivity and estimating their importance. To the issues identified we suggest a number of remedies. The main methods used in the study are interviews and historical data research. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Context: Software Engineering (SE) is an evolving discipline with new subareas being continuously developed and added. To structure and better understand the SE body of knowledge, taxonomies have been proposed in all SE knowledge areas. Objective: The objective of this paper is to characterize the state-of-the-art research on SE taxonomies. Method: A systematic mapping study was conducted, based on 270 primary studies. Results: An increasing number of SE taxonomies have been published since 2000 in a broad range of venues, including the top SE journals and conferences. The majority of taxonomies can be grouped into the following SWEBOI(knowledge areas: construction (19.55%), design (19.55%), requirements (15.50%) and maintenance (11.81%). Illustration (45.76%) is the most frequently used approach for taxonomy validation. Hierarchy (53.14%) and faceted analysis (39.48%) are the most frequently used classification structures. Most taxonomies rely on qualitative procedures to classify subject matter instances, but in most cases (86.53%) these procedures are not described in sufficient detail. The majority of the taxonomies (97%) target unique subject matters and many taxonomy-papers are cited frequently. Most SE taxonomies are designed in an ad-hoc way. To address this issue, we have revised an existing method for developing taxonomies in a more systematic way. Conclusion: There is a strong interest in taxonomies in SE, but few taxonomies are extended or revised. Taxonomy design decisions regarding the used classification structures, procedures and descriptive bases are usually not well described and motivated. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
Context: Software projects frequently incur schedule and budget overruns. Planning and estimation are particularlychallenging in large and globally distributed projects. While software engineering researchers have beeninvestigating effort estimation for many years to help practitioners to improve their estimation processes, there is littleresearch about effort estimation in large-scale distributed agile projects.Objective: The main objective of this paper is three-fold: i) to identify how effort estimation is carried out in largescaledistributed agile projects; ii) to analyze the accuracy of the effort estimation processes in large-scale distributedagile projects; and iii) to identify the factors that impact the accuracy of effort estimates in large-scale distributed agileprojects.Method: We performed an exploratory longitudinal case study. The data collection was operationalized througharchival research and semi-structured interviews.Results: The main findings of this study are: 1) underestimation is the dominant trend in the studied case, 2) reestimationat the analysis stage improves the accuracy of the effort estimates, 3) requirements with large size/scopeincur larger effort overruns, 4) immature teams incur larger effort overruns, 5) requirements developed in multi-sitesettings incur larger effort overruns as compared to requirements developed in a collocated setting, and 6) requirementspriorities impact the accuracy of the effort estimates.Conclusion: Effort estimation is carried out at quotation and analysis stages in the studied case. It is a challengingtask involving coordination amongst many different stakeholders. Furthermore, lack of details and changes in requirements,immaturity of the newly on-boarded teams and the challenges associated with the large-scale add complexitiesin the effort estimation process.
Coping with rapid requirements change is crucial for staying competitive in the software business. Frequently changing customer needs and fierce competition are typical drivers of rapid requirements evolution resulting in requirements obsolescence even before project completion. Objective: Although the obsolete requirements phenomenon and the implications of not addressing them are known, there is a lack of empirical research dedicated to understanding the nature of obsolete software requirements and their role in requirements management. Method: In this paper, we report results from an empirical investigation with 219 respondents aimed at investigating the phenomenon of obsolete software requirements. Results: Our results contain, but are not limited to, defining the phenomenon of obsolete software requirements, investigating how they are handled in industry today and their potential impact. Conclusion: We conclude that obsolete software requirements constitute a significant challenge for companies developing software intensive products, in particular in large projects, and that companies rarely have processes for handling obsolete software requirements. Further, our results call for future research in creating automated methods for obsolete software requirements identification and management, methods that could enable efficient obsolete software requirements management in large projects. | http://bth.diva-portal.org/smash/resultList.jsf?af=%5B%5D&aq=%5B%5B%7B%22journalId%22%3A%22651%22%7D%5D%5D&aqe=%5B%5D&aq2=%5B%5B%5D%5D&language=en&query= |
Institut Curie Research Center
Institut Curie Research Center is committed to developing basic research excellence, designed to meet all scientific and technological challenges, and push the boundaries of knowledge, thus contributing to improving the fight against cancer. It fosters an environment of interdisciplinarity, mutual inspiration, and collaboration with clinicians to establish partnerships, both in France and worldwide.
Basic research, an essential source of progress
Institut Curie Research Center strives to develop scientific work that combines competence, robustness, audacity and scientific ethics. The intellectual richness of its employees means that the Research Center can go further, faster, constantly questioning and expanding knowledge in life sciences.
Achieving a better understanding of all aspects of living things means investigating on all levels, from the single cell to the entire organism. Accordingly, the Research Center has the most advanced technological tools, such as microfluidics, super-resolution imaging and high-throughput sequencing. This makes it possible to study cell mechanisms such as genetic dynamics, cell plasticity or the tumor environment, crucial fields for progressing knowledge, and the fight against cancer. To analyze increasingly accurate and massive data, whether it involves a single gene or gene populations, the Research Center is equipped with the necessary biotechnology and artificial intelligence resources.
Trademark culture of interdisciplinarity
To decrypt mechanisms, such as those of cancer, and clear the way for the development of new solutions to benefit patients, the research conducted by the scientific teams at Institut Curie connects all aspects of biology in addition to chemistry, physics, technology and mathematics. Already rich in daily experience through the researchers from various disciplines in their discussions and joint projects, the Research Center constantly strives for interdisciplinarity, through the creation of dedicated, mixed teams and units, and by funding collaborative programs.
A continuum from science to healthcare, via openness to the world
In light of developments in precision medicine in oncology and the emergence of innovative diagnostic and therapeutic approaches, the Research Center is also developing strong translational research, an essential link between the discoveries of researchers and their clinical research applications. It thus contributes to close links between the Research Center and the Hospital Group. This research-to-care continuum means Institut Curie was granted OECI “Comprehensive Cancer Center” status in 2018.
Along with the broadening expertise, the Research Center is growing and modernizing in the context of the MC21 investment project. Objective: giving researchers a framework promoting creativity, innovation and collaboration. Finally, the Research Center is increasing its academic and industrial partnerships, in France and worldwide, confirming its dynamism, international scientific influence and socioeconomic status.
Our basic research excellence, guided by the curiosity and freedom of all researchers, remains the cornerstone of the Research Center. In the continuum between science and the patient’s bedside, so desired by Marie Curie and more relevant than ever before, our interactions with the Hospital Group are the driving force of the originality and ambition underpinning our work
Prof. Alain Puisieux, Institut Curie Research Center Director.
Active knowledge sharing
Sharing knowledge with young generations of scientists and with society at large is a duty of research. Doctoral programs, international scientific classes, conferences, seminars and symposiums on innovative themes, training in the use of equipment or scientific integrity, interventions in schools: Institut Curie is committed to quality teaching and training, thus contributing to developing research, and maintaining creativity and excellence.
Key Research Center figures (source: Annual Report 2020):
- 13 mixed research units
- 86 research teams, including 19 junior teams
- 1 translational research department
- 18 technology platforms
- 1,243 employees
- 3 Labex, 1 SiRIC, 1 Equipex, | https://institut-curie.org/page/institut-curie-research-center |
Meriam Library is the main library for the campus of California State University, Chico, serving 16,000 full-time students, more than 970 instructional faculty, and over 1,000 staff, as well as the communities of Chico and Northeastern California. Meriam Library was named in honor of Ted Meriam and the Meriam Family and is the largest library in California north of Sacramento.
Mission Statement
Meriam Library is a trusted partner and strategic asset for the University in the advancement of knowledge, providing intellectual leadership, vital collections, and essential expertise.
The Library supports the University’s education, research, and public service missions by providing access to and preservation of physical and digital materials; spaces and tools that allow collaborative and individual learning; and expertise to help the communities we serve connect to, engage with, and contribute to the world of knowledge and new ideas.
Vision
Meriam Library will be the academic heart of Chico State, empowering and inspiring the campus community by providing access to information, knowledge, and culture for all, supporting development, learning, creativity, and innovation.
Meriam Library will provide a welcoming, aesthetically pleasing environment that includes dynamic learning environments and emerging technologies supporting independent learning, group collaboration, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Building relationships with campus community members, the Library will play a leadership role in integrating information literacy into teaching and learning and become the center of campus intellectual pursuits and the celebration of scholarly achievements.
Core Values
Learning, Research, and Scholarship
Meriam Library values individual inquiry, curiosity, and learning as an educational practice and a lifelong endeavor. We value the process of research as inquiry directed toward achieving a goal. We value the contribution of research to scholarship as the open sharing and communication of knowledge among the community of scholars and the world. We value adherence to the ethical and methodological standards of the academic community regarding the creation, use, and sharing of scholarship. We value the Library’s role in assuring access to information resources as the basis for learning, research, and scholarship.
Freedom of Inquiry
Meriam Library is committed to protecting the intellectual freedom of all patrons. We fully support the freedom of inquiry of every individual to research, explore, and express ideas, and to access and use materials and resources without restriction, censorship, or judgment.
Equitable Access to Resources
Meriam Library promotes intellectual freedom through the uncensored access to physical and digital materials, technology, and resources that support learning, discovery, and the creation of new knowledge.
Privacy
Meriam Library supports patron privacy by limiting the collection, retention, and distribution of patron information, including resources used and communications with librarians and library staff. By maintaining patron privacy, we create an environment in which freedom of inquiry and intellectual freedom are allowed to flourish.
Inclusion
Meriam Library practices the core value of inclusion by fostering a culturally inclusive environment that supports diversity of thought and expression. We are committed to establishing, prioritizing, and fulfilling goals that increase the diversity of our workforce and recognize the diversity of our service community.
Community
Meriam Library values outreach to all members of the Chico State community in order to encourage collaborative engagement with library resources, spaces, personnel, and services.
Professionalism
Meriam Library operates on a strong foundation of professional integrity and ethical principles. We promote professionalism through ongoing education, training, and development of our work force and adherence to national standards and best practices.
Library as Place
We affirm the value of Meriam Library as a welcoming, safe environment conducive to a variety of learning centered activities, study, and discovery. | https://library.csuchico.edu/about |
TU9 is the Alliance of leading Universities of Technology in Germany: RWTH Aachen University, Technische Universität Berlin, University of Braunschweig - Institute of Technology, Technical University of Darmstadt, Technische Universität Dresden, Leibniz University Hannover, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Technical University of Munich and University of Stuttgart.
TU9 Universities
- excel in pioneering creative research in engineering and the natural sciences.
- work from basic to applied research in numerous collaborations, including across disciplinary boundaries.
- drive groundbreaking innovation through collaboration with numerous global corporations, mid-sized enterprises, and start-ups.
- promote German Engineering worldwide and attract the brightest minds.
- pool expertise in diverse disciplines, creating ideal conditions with an international and inspirational work environment for researchers from all over the world.
- use innovative teaching and learning formats, training excellent young talent for key roles in science, business, and society.
- foster strategic alliances with top international institutions.
- serve as valued partners in research, business, and policymaking.
- are regional economic powerhouses and national innovation drivers.
International
A hallmark of TU9 Universities is their cosmopolitan outlook, providing an inspirational work environment, fostering strategic alliances with leading institutions worldwide and promoting the global reach of the label German Engineering.
TU9 internationalization activities range from expanding institutional networks to research collaborations and recruiting outstanding talents at all career levels. TU9 Alumni have the knowledge and skills sought after nationally and internationally to meet the social challenges faced today and shape tomorrow’s world.
Sources: (1) Destatis, Fachserie 11, Reihe 4.1, 1, WS 2018/19; (2) Hochschulmonitor Pro; Stand: 12/2019; (3) Destatis, Fachserie 11, Reihe 4.2, 2, 2018; (4) Destatis, Fachserie 11, Reihe 4.2, 2018; (5) Destatis, Fachserie 11, Reihe 4.1, 1, WS 2018/19; (6) HRK Hochschulkompass, 09/2020.
Mission Statement
TU9 - German Universities of Technology
Excellence in Engineering and Science Made in Germany
Tradition, excellence, and innovation are the hallmarks of TU9 Universities. Founded during the Industrial Age, they contributed decisively to technological progress back then and continue to do so today. They enjoy an outstanding reputation around the world as renowned research and teaching institutions that promote the transfer of knowledge and technology between universities and practice. As such, they train exceptional young academics for careers in science, business, and administration and assume social responsibility. TU9 Universities foster top-class international networks and diverse cooperation with industry, making them a key element of the German science and innovation landscape.
The excellent research and teaching at TU9 Universities are based on independence, plurality, and freedom of expression. TU9 Universities have always been places of intellectual and cultural diversity where internationalization and integration are a matter of course. | https://www.tu9.de/en/ |
In this Master's Degree, Electronic Systems Engineering takes a systematic and overall approach, as opposed to the traditional one which is more oriented to components or circuits, but this approach is also necessary and is present in some of the subjects taught. The main objective of electronic systems engineering is to apply an interdisciplinary approach to studying and understanding the needs that arise and, by adopting a systemic paradigm, to design, implement, validate, optimize and maintain complex electronic systems in multidisciplinary settings. In this process of structured creation and development, the quality metrics for the creation of the results, and very often the need to rely on the methodologies of systems' science and other disciplines of engineering to design and deliver tangible products that represent the implementation of these systems should be taken into account.
An Electronic Systems Engineer must currently face a very high complexity and considerable diversity of components that compound the systems with which he works: hardware, software, people, etc. to which the large number of necessary knowledge and of information available must be added. Moreover, all these components interact with each other and must respond to the growing requirements, posed by a variety of stakeholders: employers, customers, regulators, technology providers, market, economic and financing aspects, etc.
relevant information and documentation, and understanding of the market, developing their creative abilities and learning throughout term.
• Approach towards system engineering projects: project financing, development methodology, quality assurance and environment, management of intellectual and industrial property.
• Approach to information and documentation: documentation sources, services and documentation centers, search and document retrieval on the Internet, writing and publication of research and development and innovation projects, support techniques to the oral presentation for the defense of research projects.
• Approach to personal and professional skills: methods for accessing a job, methods of communication and negotiation, leadership, conflict management, time management.relevant information and documentation, and understanding of the market, developing their creative abilities and learning throughout term.
• Approach to personal and professional skills: methods for accessing a job, methods of communication and negotiation, leadership, conflict management, time management.
To who is it addressed?
• In the development is vital to follow an appropriate methodology to ensure that the product is obtained with the functionality specified in the time and cost agreed, that is, with quality, meeting environmental requirements, etc.
• The project must be carried out under reasonable cost parameters and must contribute to the viability of the company that puts it on the market (financial aspects).
• The project results should be protected as regards the intellectual property of the creator and at the same time may be published for dissemination to society.
• Similarly, and perhaps at an earlier stage, it is necessary to have all the documentary information necessary for the development of work.
• Engineers must be able to assess the importance of the documentary sources and select those that are most interesting in order to publish projects. In addition, engineers must have the ability to produce documents and prepare presentations that enable them to disseminate the results of his work.
• Finally, these activities are carried out by people, who form the fundamental value of any organization and, in many cases, turn out to be framed in a business environment. It iss key, therefore, to know aspects related to personal and professional skills.
The course is aimed, therefore, at any engineer, whose activity will typically be carried out in collaboration with others within an organization, be it a company, a university or an R&D center. Mainly, however, it is intended for engineers interested in keeping informed and trained to maintain their competence, strive to advance in the useful knowledge of their profession and provide professional development opportunities for themselves and their colleagues. In this sense, the system engineer to who takes this course must have a clear interest in promoting R&D tasks and participate in them within their professional environment, including, of course, those engineers who currently carry out scientific research in the development framework of their doctoral thesis.
The objective pursued is to provide a first contact with this large set of issues, key to the development of professional life and that are usually relegated in the engineers' training.
For the variety of topics to be covered, only an overview of each will be provided, placing a certain emphasis on some important point.
The bibliography and documentation provided should serve as a starting point for further individual work for training that should continue throughout professional life.
• Describe the phases of a development methodology and operation of a system, as well as project management.
• Select and apply appropriate methodology to any project.
• Remember the standards and quality assurance models and the tools available.
• Describe the environmental management system and its evolution.
• Describe tools for the investment analysis and strategies and funding mechanisms.
• Analyze investment alternatives for the development of a draft business.
• Describe the management tools of intellectual and industrial property, as well as the technological patent reports as important levers of innovation and competitiveness.
• Search and retrieve documental information for the development of any work of R&D&I.
• Assess the importance of documentary sources and select those that are most interesting in publishing the projects.
• Develop documents and prepare presentations to enable them to disseminate the results of their research projects.
Describe the aspects that deal with people and their professional development in business or organizations: competency development, knowledge management and talent management.
• Apply the basic tools in the negotiation and management of conflicts.
• Understand and apply the techniques that make effective a communication, at a personal and professional level.
• Implement a skills-based approach in curriculum design and prepare, submit and effectively manage a job application.
The overall objective of the course is to focus on the skills of the participant who must be able to incorporate not exclusively technological aspects, which are important in the field of engineering systems, both electronic and any other kind.
Also, indirectly, seek to aim for the subject of handling a range of topics not strictly technical and the sources of information related to them, so the engineers are in a position to continue their work of self-training or training with courses having identified the importance of these subjects and develop the ability of bibliographic research, individual work, report writing and team work.
Topic 0 – Introduction to the subject. Opening lecture: "Competitiveness and Career Success: Some challenges of the twenty-first Century".
Topic 1 - Methodology of project development: A brief description of the life cycle phases of a system and the methodologies and techniques that are usually applied to both the development and management of the project will be presented.
Topic 2 - Quality Assurance and Environment: There will be a description of the principles, tools and usual practices to implement a system of quality management and environment in an organization, oriented towards continuous improvement.
Topic 3 – Project funding: Beyond the technical, organizational, human or institutional aspects it is always necessary to take into account the importance of the financial aspects of project development. It seeks to highlight the basic tools for effective financial management, financial feasibility analysis of a business or project, and environmental conditions. On the other hand, it aims to explain the principle of financial intelligence and discuss techniques to develop and use it effectively.
Topic 4 - Management of Intellectual and Industrial Property (IIP): Obtaining new knowledge and its subsequent operation are among the goals of both research groups from universities and innovation activities of enterprises. This knowledge can be obtained in many different ways, however in any case or procedure, knowledge can be protected, managed and acquired. The management of intellectual and industrial property is a key aspect for which records, procedures and institutions are available at a state and world level that has to be known both by university's research group and the company's innovation department.
Topic 5: Methodology and scientific documentation: Whether in an industrial/business environment as an academic/university environment, where tasks and R&D&I projects are is raised and carried out, the search and retrieval of documentary information is essential for the development of any project. In a series of lessons, it is sought therefore to prepare students to assess the significance of the documentary sources, select those that are the most interesting in publishing their work and produce documents and prepare presentations that enable them to disseminate the results of their work.
Topic 6: Methodology to access a job: The first stages in the search for a job include the need to communicate to the company to which the candidate wishes to join, his personal and professional background, knowledge, preferences, talents, abilities, skills or attitudes.
The means by which a candidate typically transfers these issues to a company is usually a covering letter, a resume (or CV) and one or more personal interviews. Knowing how to use these means adequately, contributes decisively at the time of accessing a job.
Good writing and quality in content and structure of a covering letter or a resume, as well as the good development of an interview, at the time of trying to get a job, are vital since they are very common and initially the only way to give the company requesting the new professional profiles, a first impression of the candidates.
Knowing and applying these tools optimally constitutes the aim of this lesson, and allows benefits to students in finding employment to be provided.
Topic 7: Communication: Communication is a competition that integrates many skills and attitudes such as speaking, declaring, listening and many other capabilities that we have never associated with communication and whose mastery is essential both at a personal and professional level.
To value the importance of communication is worth a mere thought, from the professional point of view on how to intervene in practically in all areas of business management: negotiating, selling, writing reports, communicate the team, make presentations, etc.
This lesson aims to show, ponder and debate those elements that conform the concept of communication in a broad sense, both from a theoretical point of view and through carrying out practical experience.
It is important to understand the elements that affect communication, verbal and nonverbal, and know the basics that make it effective, trying to improve the current abilities of students in this means of communication.
Topic 8: Negotiation: We consider negotiating as the relationship between two or more people, leading to reaching an agreement on a topic that hold different positions, trying to get the maximum benefit for all. Also, as a result of negotiations, it aims to achieve the compliance and satisfaction of all parties involved.
Negotiation is part of everyday activities, both personal and professional. From this standpoint, there are many examples where bargaining is essential, as in the relationship with suppliers, customers, others in the company, Public Bodies, etc.
It is a class objective that students understand the negotiating process through the knowledge and mastery of the key elements involved in it.
In short, it seeks to highlight the different aspects that influence effective negotiation, trying to improve this competence of the student, through a theoretical and practical learning.
Topic 9: Leadership, conflict management, time management and planning: In this last issue a review will be made of personal skills and professional competencies a systems engineer who intends to lead projects and research work, development and innovation in their work environment should have. An oral presentation is made on a list of keys to success for a professional in the sector, such as competitiveness and leadership in the twenty-first century, the relationship of change and people, skills development, knowledge management, talent management, "I" management and leadership, conflict management, time management and the importance of proper planning.
Given the variety of topics, a single text is not proposed for monitoring the course. Specific documentation for each subject will be proposed, as well as access to the slides that are used to present and summarize each of the issues. | http://die.upm.es/en/docencia/methodology-quality-and-personal-abilities-mchp |
Corning is one of the world’s leading innovators in materials science. For more than 160 years, Corning has applied its unparalleled expertise in specialty glass, ceramics, and optical physics to develop products that have created new industries and transformed people’s lives.
At Corning, our growth is fueled by a commitment to innovation. We succeed through sustained investment in research & development, a unique combination of material and process innovation, and close collaboration with customers to solve tough technology challenges. We are a four-time National Medal of Technology winner thanks to our technology leadership and R&D environment, which attract and enable the best scientific minds in the world. This pipeline of talent has brought life-changing innovation to your fingertips for more than 160 years.
Scope of Position
Process Research is seeking an experienced engineer to support the Bottom of the Draw (BOD) area in Research Melter Operations’ 24/7 glass manufacturing processes. This position will work within research, development, and operations to develop and execute experiments, lead process improvement projects, and maintain stable operations.
Day to Day Responsibilities
• Apply engineering methods and best practices while using critical thinking, fundamental process understanding, analysis of data, and direct observation to improve bottom of draw process performance and meet product specifications
• Work in partnership with members of adjacent process teams to develop and execute daily activities and experiment plans
• Manage project workstreams, processes, or tasks, often with limited guidance
• Provide leadership and coaching to the operations workforce, sharing knowledge in order to enhance their abilities to optimize and troubleshoot the process without engineering support
• Provide daily and off-shift process engineering support, to occasionally include evenings, holidays, and weekends as needed
• Generate intellectual property by documenting experiment results, process learning, and new equipment knowledge in R-Reports, Invention Disclosures, and/or technical presentations
• Provide input to cross-functional teams developing and delivering new technology or planning future platform rebuilds and upgrades
• Identify challenges and implement solutions in the BOD area, pulling in other division or corporate resources as needed
• Collaborate with worldwide engineers and plants to understand current best practices and evaluate these practices for applicability to Research Melter
Travel Requirements / Work Schedule
• Minimal travel required (<10%)
• Standard schedule is M-F day shift, 40-45 hours/week. Additional hours on weekends and off-shifts may be required as necessary to support equipment repairs, quality issues, or process yield improvement
Required Education
• Bachelor of Science in Engineering (preference for Mechanical Engineering, but other disciplines considered)
• MS in technical area is preferred Required Years and Area of Experience
• 3+ years in process engineering in a manufacturing environment
Required Skills
• Contributes to an environment of respect and collaboration within and outside own work group
• Communicates effectively regarding assignments, openly shares ideas, values diversity of opinions, and demonstrates an ability to build trust across work group or project team
• Influences peers, team(s), and management, and is respected for ability to provide technical guidance
• Identifies risks and makes recommendations as appropriate to guide decisions or plans
• Possesses strong technical fundamentals in material or glass science and/or process engineering
• Is able to learn new technology and processes quickly, to manage multiple tasks, and to use skills to solve technical problems
• Is able to use decision-making tools such as DMAIC, MEE, KT, and PEx to troubleshoot problems and determine solutions
• Practices and promotes safe work habits daily; identifies safety concerns and helps address them
• Is able to analyze process data using tools such as Pi, Excel, Minitab, and JMP to draw conclusions
• Has good mechanical aptitude (hands-on) with experience installing/repairing equipment
• Has strong written and verbal communications skills
• Is able to collaborate effectively across organizational boundaries
• Is comfortable interfacing with all levels of the organization
Desired Skills
• Bottom of Draw experience in a Corning plant
• Glass melting and forming experience
• Familiarity with mechanical design principles and tools (such as SOLIDWORKS)
• Experience with robotics programming, teaching, troubleshooting, and maintenance
• Background in Controls, including PLC programming
• Experience with high-powered process lasers
• Six Sigma Black or Green Belt certification
This position does not support visa assistance
We prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, gender, age, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, veteran status or any other legally protected status.
We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Please contact us to request accommodation. | https://corningjobs.corning.com/job/Corning-Res-Engineer%2C-BOD-NY-14831/795918800/ |
At Northrop Grumman, our employees have incredible opportunities to work on revolutionary systems that impact people's lives around the world today, and for generations to come. Our pioneering and inventive spirit has enabled us to be at the forefront of many technological advancements in our nation's history - from the first flight across the Atlantic Ocean, to stealth bombers, to landing on the moon. We look for people who have bold new ideas, courage and a pioneering spirit to join forces to invent the future, and have fun along the way. Our culture thrives on intellectual curiosity, cognitive diversity and bringing your whole self to work — and we have an insatiable drive to do what others think is impossible. Our employees are not only part of history, they're making history.
The Payload and Ground Systems organization within the Northrop Grumman Space Systems pushes the boundaries of innovation, redefines engineering capabilities, and drives advances in various sciences. Our team is chartered with providing the skills, innovative technologies to develop, design, produce and sustain optimized product lines across the sector while providing a decisive advantage to the war-fighter. Come be a part of our mission!
Northrop Grumman is hiring a Systems Administrator in Boulder, CO. This individual will support the hardware design, development, and integration of ground processing stations of satellite data. These systems have a mix of Operating Systems (AIX, LINUX, and Windows) in both development lab environments and deployed operational environments.Overview:
Perform new server builds using a Chef and NIM based provisioning environment, and perform level 2 support for system configuration, setup, and requested baseline configuration changes. Duties may include scripting for optimizing IT environment, project management for defining and implementing upgrades to the IT environment, and serving as consultant for computer problems beyond the knowledge of engineering staff. Communications Systems Engineers must demonstrate a blend of engineering, advanced technical skills and excellent communication abilities.Responsibilities include but are not limited to:
Administration of classified network systems within strict security policies and procedures
Solid grasp of seven-layer OSI model
Authentication and Name Service design, best-practices, configuration & maintenance (LDAP, DNS)
Proficient in the administration of and working with RedHat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and other common distributions
Defining, understanding & implementing computer lab requirements
Knowledge of and experience with virtualization technologies, such as: VMWare, ESXi, and vSAN
Experience and working knowledge of DoD security standards and systems hardening, such as DISA STIG.
Perform technical research leading to solutions for system
Provide troubleshooting and first level customer support
Create accurate, detailed technical procedures & integration plans
Develop detailed documentation for Hardware Requirements Specification and High Level Design documents for deliverable systems
Bachelor's Degree in Engineering, Physical Science, Mathematics, or related field with 2+ years of experience, or 6+ years of experience in lieu of degree
Active DoD Secret clearance with the ability to obtain a Top Secret/SCI
Active TS/SCI clearance
Experience with communications systems engineering and development experience in tactical military communications or equivalent operational experience using Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) Hardware components and/or Design and Integration experience for DoD mobile shelters or fixed site Command and Control facilities
Bash/Ruby/Python script writing experience
ESXi and VMWare experience (VM creation, vCenter/vSphere management)
vSAN configuration experience
CHEF automation experience (recipe creation, node management)
Knowledge of DoD 8570.01-M requirements
Familiarity with sensor processing and control systems
CISSP certification, RedHat certification(s)
The health and safety of our employees and their families is a top priority. The company encourages employees to remain up-to-date on their COVID-19 vaccinations. U.S. Northrop Grumman employees may be required, in the future, to be vaccinated or have an approved disability/medical or religious accommodation, pursuant to future court decisions and/or government action on the currently stayed federal contractor vaccine mandate under Executive Order 14042 https://www.saferfederalworkforce.gov/contractors/.
Northrop Grumman is committed to hiring and retaining a diverse workforce. We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer, making decisions without regard to race, color, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, national origin, age, veteran status, disability, or any other protected class. For our complete EEO/AA and Pay Transparency statement, please visit http://www.northropgrumman.com/EEO. U.S. Citizenship is required for most positions.
Apply Now
What's great about
Northrop Grumman
- Be part of a culture that thrives on intellectual curiosity, cognitive diversity and bringing your whole self to work.
- Use your skills to build and deliver innovative tech solutions that protect the world and shape a better future.
- Enjoy benefits like work-life balance, education assistance and paid time off.
Did you know?
Northrop Grumman leads the industry team for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, the largest, most complex and powerful space telescope ever built. Launched in December 2021, the telescope incorporates innovative design, advanced technology, and groundbreaking engineering, and will fundamentally alter our understanding of the universe. | https://www.northropgrumman.com/jobs/Boulder-----Colorado/Information-Technology/R10040031/systems-administrator-5/ |
- The tremendous challenges that humanity has to face (from global warming to the need for “sustainable” technologies, from welfare in an ageing world, to democracy in a multi-lateral context) appear bigger than ever due to the increasing uncertainty and the fast pace of change that characterise our times. These issues require an effort of creativity and learning. Effective problem solving and fruitful decision making require a capability to understand and exploit “what we know”, “who we know”, “what we are able to do”, “how we can learn” not only as individuals, but also as communities.
- There is increasing awareness that individuals and collectives organisations, and societies need to develop a better understanding of how knowledge can help to boost innovation and produce value not only in economic but also social terms. No longer the exclusive domain of philosophical speculation, knowledge is referred to as a vital element of economic and social development. Terms such as knowledge society, knowledge workers, knowledge capital and intellectual capital are of common use in economics, management, sociology or political sciences.
- Each discipline has adapted its interpretative or normative models by explaining the importance of knowledge and knowledge-related activities. Psychology, neurosciences, education sciences have extensively investigated the cognitive capabilities of human beings. In computer sciences, the improvement in systems performance and the diffusion of networks have led to completely new modalities of human-machine interactions and new ways of connecting people and organisations. New applications and new businesses are reshaping our perception of work, study, entertainment, social life as a consequence of new modalities to produce, share and exchange knowledge. Such advancements are really important, but there is the need to integrate all these contributions into a consistent and effective approach to “managing knowledge”.
- From more or less two decades, grounding on the works of some pioneers, a growing number of scholars and professionals qualify their activity under the title “Knowledge Management” (KM). KM aims to become an independent field by collecting, integrating and shaping research and practice in a “standard” perspective. Perhaps, at the beginning of its history, KM was just a useful label. But today, we have an impressive amount of activities regarding KM in companies, academic departments, educational institutions, and public agencies. We see a growing number of scholars and practitioners, and an increasing number of books, journal articles, conferences, and courses.
- As a “new discipline”, KM still suffers from some problems. Having multidisciplinary roots, it requires an integration of different perspectives, and a robust clarification of its conceptual references. While it is accepted that we need new models and ways to describe or design the processes by which we can manage knowledge effectively, the research and practice often branch off in multiple directions. We need “unified” theories and common approaches that help us to see the problem of managing knowledge under a shared perspective.
- In light of this, our intention is to found an International Association that faces these problems and contributes to a unified view of KM. Our viewpoint is that KM, by helping us to manage our knowledge resources, can really provide methodological and practical tools for generating new value for individuals, organisations, and societies. This value can be seen as “financial value” and, for companies, is especially related to innovation: not only KM represents a potential method for enabling innovation and boosting transformation in companies, but is also innovation itself for organisations. More broadly, value is not only financial value but also “social value”: our notion of KM includes perspectives and approaches for helping people to fill knowledge divides, reducing inequalities, and pursuing social justice.
- The Association aims to become a reference point for all people who, with various roles, work professionally in the field of KM and are, thus, interested to follow or contribute to the development of KM as a discipline, both as regards research and practical approaches. With this purpose, the core Mission of our association includes aims such as:Producing and diffusing awareness and knowledge of KM. Defining KM and giving recognition to KM as a field of study Helping to clarify and establish the grounds of KM as a discipline Involving individuals, groups, organisations, companies, or even societies Providing reference and a point of attractionto young researchers or professionals; favouring education of people doing research in KM or working as professionals
- Promoting collaboration and effective networking among researchers and professionals
- The Association is mainly targeted to the “research” side, but is not only for academics. On the one hand, it is necessary to connect the results of research with its practical applications; on the other hand, KM research itself grounds on the current practice. Practitioners, especially those that also have an intellectual interest in the development of KM, produce innovations in this field, contribute to the advancements of the discipline, etc, will be an essential part of the Association.
- This Association is intended to be a democratic and open environment, where active contribution of any member is welcome, and rules governing participation and services are shared and built collectively. Members will be individuals, whatever organisation they belong to or work in, and although direct membership of companies or organisations is not considered, their collaboration will be welcome, by keeping the respective independence. The Association will be connected with other groups, networks and associations that deal with KM, directly or indirectly. Sharing ideas, materials, services in an open and collaborative environment can be fruitful for everybody. | http://iakm.weebly.com/manifesto.html |
Someone recently asked me how I went from being a satellite engineer to an intellectual property and patent professional. As I reflected upon my career path, a quote I’ve seen on the Internet popped into my head: “Nothing is more expensive than a missed opportunity.” From my perspective, innovation is too often a missed opportunity whose cost to innovators and society is very expensive. My own experience reveals that the missing link is intellectual property. Maximizing innovation’s benefits to society and its innovators requires proper IP strategies. Without them, innovators miss out on the rewards and society misses out on the benefits of innovation.
I was fortunate to begin my satellite engineering career with an opportunity most of my fellow students only dreamt about – working on a small scientific satellite from its original mission concept all the way through to early on-orbit phases. While this work was immensely satisfying, I soon discovered there was a whole other aspect for which I was unprepared: The many issues that arise in attempting to transfer the results of scientific space-tech research into commercial markets.
This wider application of space-tech is the Holy Grail for any researcher or scientist, and there are many examples of the enormous benefits to society when this process is successful. From solar panels to implantable heart monitors; from cancer therapy to light?weight materials; and from water?purification systems to improved computing systems. These are just a few instances of space technology applied to consumer markets and everyday life (see Benefits Stemming from Space Exploration, International Space Exploration Coordination Group, September 2013).
When I fully realized the vital role the protection of the technology with a patent portfolio plays in allowing the process of transferring the technology to commercial markets, making a career move into the realm of intellectual property felt both natural and necessary. The IP dimension is the key that unlocks doors by incentivizing the further investments required for promoting, industrializing and commercializing the technology while at the same time providing adequate protection as it is presented to potential buyers and backers. And yet there are skeptics.
As Jonathan M. Barnett so brilliantly put it in Why is Everyone Afraid of IP Licensing? (Harvard Journal of Law & Technology, Volume 30, January 2017):
The skeptical view approaches licensing as a threat to the social bargain that underlies IP rights. This is misguided — licensing implements that social bargain through the commercialization process without which an innovation could not reach market.
At the beginning of my transition into the IP industry, I worked for a leading global firm that fosters innovation by helping companies identify, evaluate, and maximize the value of their innovation through worldwide IP licensing programs. Although there are many benefits found in this work, there are also many detractors and attacks on patent systems. To counter these, one need only look to a sector like telecommunications, a very patent-dense industry, to see how patents can bolster and facilitate enormous technological progress, creating fertile ground for developing breakthrough products such as smart phones and tablets, both of which have deeply impacted lifestyles and economies everywhere.
Relying on patent protection and the possibility of fair rewards from IP licensing companies around the world have contributed technology to global mobile standards. They allow competitors to use one another’s work and, even more importantly, to build upon one another’s work in ways that contribute to improved standards and technological growth. Ultimately, standards and patents have unleashed an exponential technological growth that benefits everyone.
These beneficial processes are extended and accelerated even further with patent pools that provide one-stop shop solutions to acquire rights on bundles of IP owned by various parties, thereby lowering transaction costs and increasing overall efficiency.
IP licensing maximizes the results of R&D through the following processes: (1) the diffusion effect, which allows companies to use each other’s technology; (2) the exponential effect of growth when competitors can build off each other’s work; and (3) the spreading effect where technology is adopted in a sector for which it was not originally intended. These three processes enable growth, innovation and drive economies forward.
Working on fostering patent licensing and the formation of patent pools such as LTE pool formation, which included over 30 companies across the world, means working in the very core of technological progress with global innovators while promoting business models that incentivize rewarding inventors, researchers and engineers, or at least help keep them employed.
Given the complexity of many technologies, the rapidly changing nature of global markets, and the legal complexities in establishing worldwide licensing programs, it should come as no surprise that IP licensing offers benefits. When this work succeeds, everyone benefits – from innovators and IP owners to the general population as companies around the world gain greater access to new and improved technologies.
To avoid missing out on the tremendous rewards and benefits of innovation, we must take full advantage of R&D’s potential in the complex and fast-paced markets of today that offer up opportunities to aggregate and license technologies in new sectors, geographical areas and markets.
The next frontier of innovation protection and enhancement through proper IP strategies will no doubt be the Internet of Things (IoT). The complexity of the technologies involved and the need for vertical integration will yield many exciting opportunities for innovators and IP professionals. Let’s work together to make sure we don’t miss them. | https://www.ipwatchdog.com/2017/03/02/innovation-terrible-thing-to-waste/id=78816/ |
The University of Technology of Compiègne (UTC) in France installed antimicrobial copper door handles and push plates throughout its Industrial Design Engineering department to ‘encourage the curiosity of future engineers’ and raise awareness of hand hygiene whilst providing a cleaner environment for students and lecturers.
UTC—located in the Hauts-de-France region—ranks among the leading engineering schools in the world, with nine research laboratories. It is a public establishment with scientific, cultural and professional expertise. Favouring autonomy and interdisciplinary technological research focused on innovation, UTC trains around 4,000 students a year in Master’s degrees and PhDs, giving them the tools to manage the interactions of technology with mankind and society.
50 door handles and 50 push plates made from antimicrobial copper were fitted, manufactured and installed by local Cu+ approved company FAVI.
Professor Emmanuel Corbasson, Senior Research Professor of Industrial Design Engineering, said of the decision to install copper: ‘These products echo the UTC philosophy, which is one of innovation in terms of pedagogical and environmental approaches to stimulating the creativity of our students. Designed with a new copper alloy— AB+ ®—they take advantage of the antimicrobial properties of copper that have been known since antiquity.
"MRSA is usually spread through direct skin-to-skin contact, or by touching materials and surfaces contaminated from someone infected with it." | https://www.antimicrobialcopper.org/uk/case-studies/university-technology-compiegne-france |
Technical Director (Characters)
As a character TD at Ubi MTL, you will oversee the quality and technical content of your team. You will optimize team productivity through the technical process (pipeline) in order to maximize the player’s experience. This is achieved by identifying the project’s needs, implementing efficient work tools and methods to maximize data integration in the engine and providing technical support to the team.
What you'll do
- Determine your team’s technical needs to carry out the visions for the game design and level design and/or the artistic direction by validating game features and challenging its interpretation to assess their technical feasibility.
- Help choose the project engine to ensure that your trade’s needs are considered by evaluating existing engines, contributing to the design of a new engine (if applicable) and testing the final engine choice.
- Acquire the best tools in collaboration with the programming team and other Technical directors (TD) of the project to enhance and facilitate your trade’s work by prototyping technological elements, asking for adjustments to existing tools, requesting new tools and validating their efficiency before they are deployed on the project.
- Establish the best work methods and data structures (data and assets) to standardize work methods and ensure the validity and integrity of the data (meet standards and minimize debugging) by writing technical (pipeline) documents, establishing a naming method, training, coaching and supervising users of the process.
- Find improvements and resolve issues in order to provide technical support to your trade by working in close collaboration with programmers and training team members to become specialists resolving tasks and precise problems.
- Stay informed of new technical and technological developments in order to apply them to your project when relevant and share your project’s developments with your peers (TDs on other projects or other trades).
- Help plan the work by collaborating with the planning lead on the scope of each task and the impact on your team in order to find the right compromise between the desired quality and the delivery constraints (time, costs, resources, etc.).
- Follow up on the tasks of the assistant TDs to assess the progress of the deliverables.
What you bring
- Approximately 7 years of experience in character modeling and/or rigging, or programming (or other relevant experience) + 3 years of leadership experience
- A degree in 3D animation, computer science, or computer engineering (or related training)
- Knowledge of modeling, texturing, anatomy, shaders, and other character-related developments
- Strong communication, interpersonal, mentoring, time management, organizational and presentation skills
- Innovative, collaborative, caring and solution-oriented mindset
- Critical thinking, curiosity, resourcefulness and high flexibility
- Familiarity with bug tracking software (e.g. Jira) and release management systems (e.g. Perforce)
- A passion for sharing knowledge: you have an inclination to help others learn and grow
What to send our way
- Your CV, highlighting your education, experience, skills, and any games shipped
- Please feel free to send us samples of your work or any supporting documentation you find relevant.
About us
Ubisoft’s 20,000 team members, working across more than 30 countries around the world, are bound by a common mission to enrich players’ lives with original and memorable gaming experiences. Their commitment and talent have brought to life many acclaimed franchises such as Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry, Watch Dogs, Just Dance, Rainbow Six, and many more to come.
Ubisoft is an equal opportunity employer that believes diverse backgrounds and perspectives are key to creating worlds where both players and teams can thrive and express themselves.
When you join Ubi MTL, you’ll discover a workplace that sparks inspiration and connection. We offer a collaborative space that provides career advancement, a host of learning opportunities, and meaningful benefits centred on well-being.
If you are excited about solving game-changing challenges, cutting edge technologies and pushing the boundaries of entertainment, we invite you to join our journey and help us create the unknown.
At Ubisoft, you can come as you are. We embrace diversity in all its forms. We’re committed to fostering a work environment that is inclusive and respectful of all differences. | https://xpgamejobs.com/job/technical-director-characters-montreal/69025 |
- Promote the students by imparting the quality education to meet the needs of industry/higher education.
- Inculcate the culture of innovation and entrepreneurship skills among students.
- Achieve academic/research excellence by the services of the faculty.
- Continuously engage students in sustainable design thinking for societal development and benefit.
Dr. G. V. PRAVEEN
HOD, CIVIL Dept.
Programme Educational Objectives (PEOs):
The PEO's have been designed so as to provide the students with Strong Fundamentals, Equip them with Modern tools for Investigation, make them Understand the concept of Team work, Earn the Trust and Respect of others and in the process make them Life-long learners.
- Graduates will have a strong foundation in fundamentals of mathematics, natural and environmental sciences, and basic engineering skills with abilities of problem analysis, design and development of optimal solutions to engineering problems and make them to pursue higher studies in nationally / internationally reputed institutes or research and development activities thus making them life-long learners.
- Graduates can apply the knowledge of theory, tools of investigation, and use of modern tools to solve complex problems and ecome professionally competent and globally employable engineers to assess health, safety, legal, societal, and environmental and sustainable issues maintaining ethical principles.
- Graduates will be trained in Safety, regulatory and Intellectual Property related issues in broader social context and sustainable development, Professional ethics, communication skills, team work skills, leadership and multidisciplinary approach.
- Graduates will have ability to work effectively as an individual, a team member, a leader or an entrepreneur with awareness of gender sensitiveness apart from having good communication, project and finance management skills, earn the trust and respect of others as effective and ethical team member.
Programme Outcomes:
They have been framed such that at the Successful completion of the program the student will have gained the requisite Knowledge, Skills, or Behaviours and Transition’s Smoothly into His/her chosen profession.
The Programme Outcomes (POs) of the B.Tech (Civil Engineering) programme are listed below: Engineering Graduates will be able to:
- Engineering knowledge: Apply the knowledge of mathematics, science, engineering fundamentals, and specialization of CivilEngineering to the solution of complex engineering problems.
- Problem analysis: Identify, formulate, review research literature, and analyze complex engineering problems reaching substantiated conclusions using first principles of mathematics, natural sciences, and engineering sciences.
- Design/development of solutions: Design solutions for complex engineering problems and design system components or processes that meet the specified needs with appropriate consideration for the public health and safety, and the cultural, societal, and environmental considerations.
- Conduct investigations of complex problems: Use research-based knowledge and research methods in the area of Civil Engineering including design of experiments, analysis and interpretation of data, and synthesis of the information to provide valid conclusions.
- Modern tool usage: Create, select, and apply appropriate techniques, resources, and modern engineering and IT tools useful for Civil Engineering and related areas including prediction and modeling to complex engineering activities with an understanding of the limitations.
- The engineer and society: Apply reasoning informed by the contextual knowledge to assess societal, health, safety, legal and cultural issues and the consequent responsibilities relevant to the professional engineering practice.
- Environment and sustainability: Understand the impact of the professional engineering solutions in societal and environmental contexts, and demonstrate the knowledge of, and need for sustainable development.
- Ethics: Apply ethical principles and commit to professional ethics and responsibilities and norms of the engineering practice.
- Individual and team work: Function effectively as an individual, and as a member or leader in diverse teams, and in multidisciplinary settings.
- Communication: Communicate effectively on complex Civil Engineering activities with the engineering community and with society at large, such as, being able to comprehend and write effective reports and design documentation, make effective presentations, and give and receive clear instructions.
- Project management and finance: Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the engineering and management principles and apply these to one’s own work, as a member and leader in a team, to finalize technical and financial aspects of a project and to manage in multidisciplinary environments.
- Life-long learning: Recognize the need for, and have the preparation and ability to engage in independent and life-long learning in the broadest context of technological changes through individual/group assignments such as technical seminars, lab projects, group projects, mini and main projects in the area of Civil Engineering or in multi disciplinary areas.
PROGRAM SPECIFIC OUTCOMES (PSO’S)
The PSO's have been designed for helping the students solve Research / Practical Problems that span Analytical, Computational, Experimental Techniques and Straddle Multiple Approaches and in the process work towards finding Innovative Alternatives while Providing Tangible
Solutions.
PSO 1: Attain a strong foundation of basic sciences and its applications for Civil Engineering Problems, and apply the concepts of analysis and investigation using modern tools to design and solve practical Civil Engineering problems. [CORE]
PSO 2: Comprehend and adapt to technological advancements using modern instruments and modern analytical and software tools to analyze, plan, design, and implement solutions. [Tools]
PSO 3: Possess skills to communicate, be a team member, demonstrate professional ethics and exhibit concern for societal and environmental wellbeing for sustainable professional development. [ENV, Team, Society and Lifelong learning, professional]. | https://snist.edu.in/pagecontents.php?catid=4&scatid=349 |
At Northrop Grumman, our employees have incredible opportunities to work on revolutionary systems that impact people's lives around the world today, and for generations to come. Our pioneering and inventive spirit has enabled us to be at the forefront of many technological advancements in our nation's history - from the first flight across the Atlantic Ocean, to stealth bombers, to landing on the moon. We look for people who have bold new ideas, courage and a pioneering spirit to join forces to invent the future, and have fun along the way. Our culture thrives on intellectual curiosity, cognitive diversity and bringing your whole self to work — and we have an insatiable drive to do what others think is impossible. Our employees are not only part of history, they're making history.
The Payload and Ground Systems organization within the Northrop Grumman Space Systems pushes the boundaries of innovation, redefines engineering capabilities, and drives advances in various sciences. Our team is chartered with providing the skills, innovative technologies to develop, design, produce and sustain optimized product lines across the sector while providing a decisive advantage to the warfighter. Come be a part of our mission.
Northrop Grumman Space Systems Sector is looking for you to join our team as a Principal Software/Staff Software Engineer based out of Aurora, CO.
What You’ll get to Do: We are looking for a Software Engineer familiar with C++ and/or Java to lead an agile development team using modern development practices. Our programs require new development as well as sustainment, including design, development, test, and operational support. You will be working with transitioning the baseline to cloud based architectures and modernization efforts utilizing a micro-service event driven architecture using Docker Containers, Kubernetes, Helm charts and AWS services. You will also be required to perform maintenance and sustainment engineering for existing baselines which may require programming in C++/C.
Our small agile Scrum team is highly energized and has a significant software effort on a growing program with a large program impact. If this is your type of environment and you love fast-paced software development, please consider joining our team.
Basic Qualifications:
For Staff Software Engineer -
- Bachelor’s Degree in a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics) discipline preferred from an accredited university and 14 years of related experience, or a Master's Degree and 12 years of related experience, or 9 years of experience with a PhD.
- Experience developing software in object-oriented programming languages such as C++ or Java in a Red Hat Enterprise Linux environment
- Experience with version control software
- Candidate must have a current Top Secret security clearance and the ability to qualify for an SCI to be considered
- Candidate must be able to obtain a Counterintelligence Polygraph (CI-Poly)
Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience with supporting operational systems
- Knowledge of distributed systems design for scalability and high availability
- Experience with C/C++ software language, development tools, and integrated development environments (IDEs).
- Experience with working in Virtualized Environments (VMs, AWS Cloud Instances)
- Experience with Atlassian tools (JIRA, Confluence, Bitbucket)
- Experience working with AWS Services
- Experience with Dockerization and Container Management (Dockers and Kubernetes)
- Previous exposure to working with ground systems (scheduling, tasking, antennas, working with hardware interfaces)
The health and safety of our employees and their families is a top priority. The company encourages employees to remain up-to-date on their COVID-19 vaccinations. U.S. Northrop Grumman employees may be required, in the future, to be vaccinated or have an approved disability/medical or religious accommodation, pursuant to future court decisions and/or government action on the currently stayed federal contractor vaccine mandate under Executive Order 14042 https://www.saferfederalworkforce.gov/contractors/.
Northrop Grumman is committed to hiring and retaining a diverse workforce. We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer, making decisions without regard to race, color, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, national origin, age, veteran status, disability, or any other protected class. For our complete EEO/AA and Pay Transparency statement, please visit http://www.northropgrumman.com/EEO. U.S. Citizenship is required for most positions.
Apply Now
What's great about
Northrop Grumman
- Be part of a culture that thrives on intellectual curiosity, cognitive diversity and bringing your whole self to work.
- Use your skills to build and deliver innovative tech solutions that protect the world and shape a better future.
- Enjoy benefits like work-life balance, education assistance and paid time off.
Did you know?
Northrop Grumman leads the industry team for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, the largest, most complex and powerful space telescope ever built. Launched in December 2021, the telescope incorporates innovative design, advanced technology, and groundbreaking engineering, and will fundamentally alter our understanding of the universe. | https://www.northropgrumman.com/jobs/Aurora-----Colorado/Engineering/R10063923/staff-software-engineer-clearance-required-2/ |
The heads of Tokyo Tech's newly established organizations were inaugurated on April 1, 2016. The deans of the six new Schools in which undergraduate and graduate schools are joined, the dean of the Institute for Liberal Arts (ILA) which supplements specialized science and technology education with education in the liberal arts, and the director-general of the Institute of Innovative Research (IIR) shared brief greetings.
Science is the discipline of unlocking natural laws, built on free thinking and intellectual curiosity. Our predecessors such as Galileo, Newton, Marie Curie, and Einstein have tried to understand nature, building on their own curiosity. However, despite the knowledge that humans have amassed over time through intellectual endeavors, we know very little of the natural world that we are part of. History shows that uncovering the essence of the natural world not only satisfies our curiosity, but also contributes to the development of the world we live in. The discipline of science is about inheriting and advancing human wisdom for the common good.
Engineering contributes to civilization, a framework for the happiness of humankind, by creating new technologies that make people's lives richer and more comfortable. In the School of Engineering at Tokyo Tech, students broadly learn scientific principles and industrial applications, and then experience the latest research works and international collaborations so as to play an active part in the world as creative experts. The School of Engineering strongly hopes to develop a bright future together with young students equipped with rich sensitivity and vitality.
The School of Materials and Chemical Technology is dedicated to creating new functions based on a solid understanding of the structure and properties of matter. It also aims to nurture researchers and engineers capable of discovering principles and methods for controlling the dynamic chemical processes of substances. This is a place for top-level researchers to interact and cooperate, and for educating young people willing to solve issues related to the environment, energy, resources, safety, and health through work with various materials, and to create a civilization in which all living things can prosper.
Information technology is in the middle of a revolution. This is not solely due to the large number of information appliances that have come to surround our daily lives. We are beginning to understand the essence of information through advanced mathematical methods, and technology that makes use of this knowledge has made significant progress. However, potential for the information society continues to expand. The School of Computing is constantly pushing back the frontiers of information science and technology.
The School of Life Science and Technology provides students with fundamental knowledge in the fields of science and engineering, focusing on life sciences and technology. Students develop problem-solving abilities and an ethical outlook that contribute to the progress of the discipline. Cutting-edge research is performed not only in science and engineering but also in a wide range of fields such as medicine, pharmacology, and agriculture. The goal of the School of Life Science and Technology is the education of scientists and technical experts capable of becoming leaders in the global society through diverse, advanced education and research.
It is necessary for students to acquire a broad range of knowledge of the humanities and social sciences while studying science and engineering in order to contribute to the sustainable development of humanity and society. Furthermore, the School of Environment and Society wants its students to become individuals who can apply and expand on their knowledge to create new technologies and academic fields.
To make this happen, in addition to the Departments of Architecture and Building Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Transdisciplinary Science and Engineering, the School of Environment and Society has established the Department of Social and Human Sciences and the Department of Innovation Science, as well as the Technology and Innovation Management Professional Master's Degree Program for graduate level studies. By making a school that integrates the humanities into the sciences, the School of Environment and Society aims to cultivate leading scientists and engineers who can truly contribute to the global society.
Tokyo Tech is known for attaching a high value to liberal arts education. Its wedge-shaped education method has long provided undergraduate students with liberal arts courses running parallel to specialized courses throughout all four years of the bachelor's program. In keeping with this tradition, the ILA began offering unique, groundbreaking liberal arts courses in April 2016.
The liberal arts curriculum extends right through into the doctoral program. While gaining knowledge of the wider world, examining possibilities of the self, and inspiring each other through discussions and projects in small groups throughout their studies, students strengthen their ability to question, feel, think, speak, and act independently. Starting with the Tokyo Tech Visionary Project soon after admission to an undergraduate major, students move on to various more advanced courses but meet again in the latter stages of study to take on the Liberal Arts Final Report. The students are guided by master's students who have moved on from the Leadership Workshop to Peer Practicum and Advanced Leadership Workshop, acting as peer reviewers and generating cross-year exchanges in the classroom.
In the past, students tended to select liberal arts courses with the minimum requirements for credits. Is it really possible for those who acquire such an education to become real world leaders and create a better society? Tokyo Tech's liberal arts education is different. From the very beginning of their studies, each student starts on his or her individual learning path. This exciting journey eventually leads to students realizing their aspirations and creating a new world.
Tokyo Tech's liberal arts education provides an aura of learning that attracts people, ignites their curiosity, and vitalizes their spirit. Students are encouraged to discuss global issues and the depth of humanity in the classroom, cafeteria, or anywhere on campus, and create opportunities to recognize new possibilities for one's self and society. Through liberal arts education, individuals can open the door to their future and make significant contributions to society.
The ILA's ongoing mission is to develop true leaders who will lead 21st century society.
The Institute of Innovative Research (IIR) was established in 2016 with missions to create novel research fields, to find solutions to the problems of human society, and to foster future industrial infrastructures.
IIR consists of four research laboratories, two research centers, and ten research units located over the Suzukakedai and Ookayama Campuses with more than 150 researchers in total. IIR aims not only to tackle common research projects through organic collaboration among these research bodies but also to produce novel research outcomes which lead to new technological innovations. | https://www.titech.ac.jp/english/news/2016/034634 |
Innovation is the process by which an individual or group creates something new, and it is generally a new design or idea. Many innovators become millionaires because they are able to identify new opportunities in markets, supply chains, or even within organizations. It is vital to the future success of any company, and the ability of a business to stay competitive. Innovation is the process of finding something new, using innovative processes and skills to create it, and then maintaining or building upon the results of that innovation through its successful use in other areas. Innovation is vital to research and discovery. It has become so important that in the United States, the government is actively fostering and supporting the growth of small businesses through various programs.
Innovation management courses help students develop the skills and knowledge necessary to facilitate innovation and make it successful. These management courses help students to develop the ability to analyze, synthesize, and communicate information that is relevant to their industry. The course focuses on learning about innovation’s impact on business, society, and human nature. The main focus of these classes is learning how to handle innovations. This involves learning the basics of management, and learning how to apply those basics in everyday business practices.
Businesses have been applying innovation since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. Innovations have been changing the way companies do business. In fact, innovation is a part of business and human nature. This is why businesses need to continually innovate to remain relevant in the marketplace. Businesses that don’t innovate quickly find themselves becoming obsolete, and being replaced by more successful competitors.
The goal of business innovation is to find creative new ways to deliver value to consumers, customers, and suppliers while meeting the needs of an increasingly competitive marketplace. Businesses use innovation to respond to new technological changes, to overcome current problems, and to gain competitive advantage. Inventories and product development are two of the most important tools that businesses use to implement innovation. They allow businesses to increase their ability to provide for new market demands and to implement changes more efficiently. Moreover, innovation adds value to the businesses, contributing to the bottom line and helping them maintain profitability.
Innovation can be defined as an introduction of a new product or technology, and the subsequent adaptation of that product or technology to existing conditions. Inventors often seek patent protection for their inventions; however, the ultimate decision as to whether to file for a patent rests with the entity that grants the protection – the Patent Office – rather than with the inventor. The purpose of the patent office is to ensure that the public benefits from the inventions made by businesses. In order to obtain a patent, businesses must demonstrate to the patent office that they have created an invention that meets the definition of an invention. Once granted a patent, the inventor has a period of time during which he can bring suit against any person who will infringe upon the patent.
The ultimate success of any type of innovation-motivated strategy relies on a robust innovation management process that identifies risk factors and possible solutions, develops a business model to address those risks, develops a business strategy to achieve its goals, and implements the recommended solution. An effective innovation strategy should also provide for contingency plans and guidance regarding key personnel, financial, and marketing issues. If a business does not implement an efficient innovation strategy, it could face significant consequences, such as the inability to retain intellectual property rights to its inventions.
The overall cost of implementing an effective innovation management system is relatively low. However, it must be recognized that a patent does not ensure the success or the profitability of an invention. It is often necessary to seek additional protection through a license or other means. Additionally, although the patenting process itself is generally simple, inventors should be sure to choose an expert patent attorney and experience patent law firm when filing for a patent. | https://examcheckout.com/innovation-management/ |
Understanding of the strategy and innovation course and we are following the book “Strategic Management of Technological Innovation” Sixth Edition by Melissa A Schilling.
Organizational Leadership Strategy & Innovation
This is a paper about the overall understanding of the “strategy and innovation” course and we are following the book “Strategic Management of Technological Innovation” Sixth Edition by Melissa A Schilling.
Let me know what specific details you will need besides the below provides details
The goal of the paper is to develop an innovation strategy for the organization.
Choose a Company whose information is publicly available and provide the following
1. Background of the company
2. Why you chose the company
3. What are the critical issues they face in their market?
4. How could Innovation address the critical issues?
5. What are the risks/threats to the innovation?
6. Develop a proposed Innovation Strategy composed of the following a. Goals – Organizational Goals b. Metrics- How will you measure the progress to the goal?
c. Methods – What are the Tactics and Action Steps necessary to achieve the goals?
d. Resources – What are the resources (tangible and intangible) needed to implement the strategy successfully?
e. Implementation – What is your implementation plan?
f. Monitoring/Evaluation – How will you systemically monitor progress and feedback?
g. Refinement – How will you incorporate the aforementioned feedback to improve your strategy? At what intervals will you review and refine?
7. Conclusions – What have you learned so far and how do you plan to apply this new knowledge in your career? Paper should be 7-10 pages focused on the logic, coherence, and substance of your innovation strategy.
Please cite all external references.
Textbook: Strategic Management of Technological Innovation by Melissa Schilling 6th edition ISBN-13: 978-1260087956
ISBN-10: 1260087956
This book: Strategic Management of Technological Innovation, Sixth Edition is written for courses that may be called strategic management of technology and innovation, technology strategy, technology innovation, technology management, or for specialized new product development courses that focus on technology.
The subject is approached as a strategic process, and as such, is organized to mirror the strategic management process used in most strategy textbooks, progressing from assessing the competitive dynamics of a situation, to strategy formulation, to strategy implementation.
Highlights:
1. Complete Coverage for Both Business and Engineering Students
2. New Short Cases and New Indian Cases
3. Cases, Data, and Examples from around the World
4. More Comprehensive Coverage and Focus on Current Innovation Trends
Melissa A. Schilling, Ph.D.
Melissa Schilling is the John Herzog family professor of management and organizations at New York University’s Stern School of Business. Professor Schilling teaches courses in strategic management, corporate strategy and technology, and
innovation management. Before joining NYU, she was an Assistant Professor at Boston University (1997–2001), and has also served as a Visiting Professor at INSEAD and the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at the
University of California at Santa Barbara. She has also taught strategy and innovation courses at Siemens Corporation, IBM, the Kauffman Foundation Entrepreneurship Fellows program, Sogang University in Korea, and the Alta Scuola
Polytecnica, a joint institution of Politecnico di Milano and Politecnico di Torino.
Professor Schilling’s research focuses on technological innovation and knowledge creation. She has studied how technology shocks influence collaboration activity and innovation outcomes, how firms fight technology standards battles, and how firms utilize collaboration, protection, and timing of entry strategies.
She also studies how product designs and organizational structures migrate toward or away from modularity. Her most recent work focuses on knowledge creation, including how breadth of knowledge and search influences insight and learning, and how the structure of knowledge networks influences their overall capacity for knowledge creation.
Her research in innovation and strategy has appeared in the leading academic journals such as Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Management Science, Organization Science, Strategic Management Journal, and Journal of Economics and Management Strategy and Research Policy.
She also sits on the editorial review boards of Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Discoveries, Organization
Science, Strategy Science, and Strategic Organization. She is the author of Quirky: The Remarkable Story of the Traits, Foibles, and Genius of Breakthrough Innovators Who Changed the World, and she is coauthor of Strategic Management: An
Integrated Approach. Professor Schilling won an NSF CAREER award in 2003, and Boston University’s Broderick Prize for research in 2000.
Ravi Shankar, Ph.D.
Ravi Shankar is the Professor at Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi India. He is a Fellow of Indian National Academy of Engineers (FNAE). His research citations and H-index are commendably very high
among business school faculty of India and the subcontinent. He has contributed as visiting professor at business schools in the UK, the USA, Thailand and Vietnam.
He has coauthored book on Management of Technology, Supply Chain Management, Operations and Supply Chain Management, Industrial Engineering and Management, and many more.
Professor Shankar has supervised over 60 completed PhDs and coauthored over 400 research papers in journals and reputed conferences like Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Knowledge Management: An International Journal, Journal of Operations Management, International Journal of Production Economics, European Journal of Operational Research, Transportation Research Part E, Decision Support Systems, Omega: An International Journal of Management Science, IEEE Transaction in System Man and Cybernetics (Part-C), International Journal of Production Research, Computer and Industrial Engineering, Supply Chain Management: An International Journal etc. | https://assignmenthub.net/understanding-of-the-strategy-and-innovation-course/ |
Project Cybersecurity ManagerBucharest, Romania Job ID: R-13637-2022
HARMAN’s engineers and designers are creative, purposeful and agile. As part of this team, you’ll combine your technical expertise with innovative ideas to help drive cutting-edge solutions in the car, enterprise and connected ecosystem. Every day, you will push the boundaries of creative design, and HARMAN is committed to providing you with the opportunities, innovative technologies and resources to build a successful career.
Success Profile
What makes a successful Engineer at
HARMAN? Check out the top
traits we’re looking for and see if you have the right mix.
- Agile
- Collaborative
- Inventive
- Innovative
- Technical Capability
- Results-Driven
Responsibilities
A Career at HARMAN
As a technology leader that is rapidly on the move, HARMAN is filled with people who are focused on making life better. Innovation, inclusivity and teamwork are a part of our DNA. When you add that to the challenges we take on and solve together, you’ll discover that at HARMAN you can grow, make a difference and be proud of the work you do every day.
About the Role
The Project Cybersecurity Manager (PCSM) is accountable for automotive product Cybersecurity Risk Management in the global Automotive organization of HARMAN. It encompasses the planning and tracking of cybersecurity activities required in multiple projects for Automotive customers. This role oversees continual cybersecurity activities throughout Product Lifecycle, from development to production, then field and service including cybersecurity incident management and/or updates.
What You Will Do
- Overall responsible to manage cybersecurity risk along product life cycle in a project
- Plan and coordinate cybersecurity activities in the development and post-development phase of product life cycle
- Document and maintain cybersecurity plan in the project
- Monitor cybersecurity process activities together with the project leaders
- Review Cybersecurity Interface Agreement with the customer and the project suppliers
- Review and support Threat Analysis and Risk Assessment
- Analyze customer cybersecurity requirements and support definition of internal cybersecurity requirements for system, hardware, software, and post-development
- Support definition of cybersecurity concept in the project
- Maintain the cybersecurity case
- Plan, coordinate and contribute to cybersecurity compliance review at defined Maturity Gate, cybersecurity audits and assessments
- Interface with the customer and support the supplier interface on cybersecurity requirements and clarifications
- Support Program manager to monitor suppliers for distributed cybersecurity activities agreed in the Cybersecurity Interface Agreement
- Report the progress of cybersecurity activities to the program management team
- Ensure information cybersecurity in usage of software tools utilized by the project
- Support vulnerability management and incident response
What You Need
- 5+ years of proven experience in project management
- Sound understanding of Automotive Cybersecurity Engineering standard (ISO/SAE 21434:2021)
- Experience with Product Life Cycle activities from development to field and service
- Familiar with cybersecurity threat analysis and risk assessment methods
- Knowledge of requirements management rules and tools
- Knowledge of configuration management rules and tools
- Knowledge of change management rules and tools
- Knowledge of qualification of SW/HW components and tools
- Knowledge of risk management methodologies
- Knowledge of process reference models such as Automotive SPICE® and IATF 16949
- Self-driven, strong leadership abilities and collaboration skills
- B.Sc / M.Sc or equivalent experience in Computer Engineering, Computer Science or Electrical Engineering
What is Nice to Have
- Automotive cybersecurity experience (preferably from Tier-1 or OEM)
- Understanding of UNECE WP.29 R155 (CSMS) + R156 (SUMS)
- Project Management Professional (PMP) certified
- Experience in IoT / Embedded systems security engineering
- Knowledge of cybersecurity standards and organizations (CC, FIPS, NIST)
- Great team-player and strong interpersonal skills
What Makes You Eligible
- Be willing to travel up to 10% of the time, domestic and international travel
- Be willing to work in an office in Bucharest, Romania
What We Offer
- Access to employee discounts on world class HARMAN/Samsung products (JBL, Harman Kardon, AKG etc.)
- Inclusive and diverse work environment that fosters and encourages career development opportunities
- Flexible work schedule with a culture encouraging work life integration and collaboration in a global environment
- On-site opportunities to focus on personal well-being and development such as, onsite café, fitness center, weekly massage, fitness classes, and other onsite events promoted by our Employee resource groups
- Professional development opportunities through HARMAN University’s business and leadership academies
- Internal talent management leadership acceleration programs
- “Be Brilliant” employee recognition and rewards program
- Scholarship programs for employee family members
To protect our employees, customers, and communities, HARMAN requires all U.S. employees to disclose their vaccination status and share a copy of their vaccination card. This confidential data will be collected by a trusted third-party vendor via a secure portal upon your start at HARMAN.
HARMAN is an Equal Opportunity /Affirmative Action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or Protected Veterans status. HARMAN offers a great work environment, challenging career opportunities, professional training and competitive compensation. (www.harman.com)
Career Path
-
Engineer
An entry level role, the degreed Engineer knows and applies basic concepts and techniques of the profession under direct supervision and guidance. Minimum Qualifications: Bachelor’s Degree
-
Senior Engineer
A Senior Engineer provides a wider variety of technical support tasks using a combination of advanced engineering principles and techniques. They operate with little guidance/supervision as Subject Matter Experts (SME) in their defined area of specialization. Minimum Qualifications: Bachelor’s Degree + 5 years’ experience.
-
Principal Engineer
Principal Engineers are recognized as an emerging expert. They lead the conceptualization, design, implementation and testing of technologies, tools, or process while consistently demonstrating technical expertise and ingenuity. They demonstrate the ability to plan, define, and execute projects with no supervision. Minimum Qualifications: Bachelor’s degree + 12 years’ experience.
-
Senior Principal Engineer
Recognized as a technical expert, Senior Principal Engineers consistently demonstrate high levels of technical expertise, ingenuity and creativity. They develop and apply advanced technologies, engineering principles, theories and concepts, and have broad knowledge about the design and operation of systems outside of their specialty. Minimum Qualifications: Bachelor’s degree + 16 years’ experience.
-
Distinguished Engineer
A Distinguished Engineer has a strong record of creativity and innovation. They advance engineering principles, theories and concepts, and are recognized as a Company-wide authority in one or more technical areas. Minimum Qualifications: Bachelor’s degree + 20 years’ experience.
-
Fellow
A Fellow is an industry recognized expert with a significant body of peer reviewed research and journal publications and frequently speaks at conferences. Acts as a HARMAN ambassador. Minimum Qualifications: Bachelor’s degree + 25 years’ experience.
-
Senior Fellow
A Senior Fellow is the most accomplished of an elite group of engineers, widely recognized as a World renowned expert in their field of expertise. Minimum Qualifications: Bachelor’s degree + 30 years’ experience.
What
Employees Say
James
When faced with challenging projects, I ask the opinion of other engineers, make more mockups and try as many solutions as it takes to find the best one.
Ramya
I feel like our commitment to excellence drives me to make sure I collaborate with the right people and teams to deliver great results.
Zsolt
I work with some talented and experienced people at HARMAN. They drive me to find better solutions, and working with them helps me grow.
Benefits
-
On Demand Technical
Training Resources
Deepen your technology knowledge in Product Security, Android, Python, System, Software, and Hardware Architecture, and System testing.
-
Career Progression
Transparent career progression with tangible and specific goals to work towards in preparation to meet your ultimate career aspirations
-
Collaboration
Collaborate with a diverse group of end-to-end prototyping and research engineers, interaction and visual designers, software and hardware developers.
-
Global Impact
Work with engineers from across the Globe to create world class design and production solutions.
-
Diversity & Inclusion
Our engineers to take pride in their unique character, cultural and work identities and are encouraged to bring this valuable perspective to their work.
-
Health & Wellness
Local health and wellness initiatives, resources and activities are provided to help you achieve work/life integration and support maintaining a healthy and active lifestyle. | https://jobs.harman.com/job/bucharest/project-cybersecurity-manager/27625/28281090768 |
OUR VALUES:
As part of our values we will ensure all our children have the skills and knowledge to thrive in a modern world. We will achieve this through our "6 Rs for learning":
- Readiness
- Resourcefulness
- Resilience
- Responsibility
- Reflectiveness
- Risk Taking
At Whitegrove we will:
- Provide a safe, happy, stimulating environment
- Encourage curiosity and inspire a lifelong love of learning
- Identify and nurture the talents of every child, celebrating their individuality
- Promote high academic standards
- Develop caring, independent-thinking, confident and well-balanced young people
- Promote respect and collaboration with others
- Put learning into context within the real world.
OUR ETHOS:
Our aspirational outcomes are our ethos. In 2009, the Cambridge Primary Review published their report, having conducted the largest independent study of primary education. They published the following twelve qualities and we have adopted them as our Aspirational Outcomes, as they will be the result of our own Values, the 6Rs for Learning.
The Needs and Capacities of the Individual:
Wellbeing:
By attending to both their physical and emotional welfare, help children to embrace life with a strong sense of self and a positive outlook both now and into adulthood.
Empowerment:
Enable children to develop the necessary tools to be enterprising, successful and lead rewarding lives.
Engagement:
Secure the active, willing and enthusiastic engagement of children in their learning.
Autonomy:
Have critical independence of thought and be able to see beyond the surface, discriminating in their choice of activities and relationships.
The individual in relation to others and the wider world:
Encouraging respect and reciprocity:
Understand the importance of mutual respect and courtesy as the foundation of effective relationships.
Promoting interdependence and sustainability:
Recognise the need to work together to protect the natural world, knowing their actions today can make a difference.
Empowering local, national and global citizenship:
Encourage and enable pupils’ participation in decision making at a personal and collective level.
Celebrating culture and community:
Recognise the school is a place of culture that both reflects and returns community values and beliefs.
Learning, knowing and doing:
Exploring, knowing, understanding and making sense:
Provide an environment in which children experiment, discover and wonder at the world in which they live and learn.
Fostering skill:
Promote learning within a context that will equip children for life, with the ability to ally skills and knowledge, providing them with a greater sense of purpose.
Exciting the imagination:
Inspire pupils to extend the boundaries of their lives through looking beyond what is known, and even what they think may be possible.
Enacting dialogue:
Appreciate that learning is a process that requires participation and that collaboration and empathy are essential elements of this. | https://whitegroveprimary.co.uk/Our-Aims-Values-and-Ethos/index.asp |
Our polytechnic envisions to be an ideal polytechnic in the state, moulding the students to be potential professionals with all skills of a true diploma engineer in their respective branches, stimulating their inherent spirits of innovation and creativity with good ethical values to become competent contributors to the Nation’s wealth and advancements in engineering world.
Vision:
To be an ideal polytechnic in the state, by creating a highly encouraging environment for motivating the diploma students tobecome enthusiastic and skilled technicians with innovative mind adapting to the challenges of the industry and socially responsible citizens with good ethics and become good and exemplary technicians catering to the needs of midlevel requirements of the industry/organizations.
Mission
Our vision is materialized by following mission mode objectives like:
- Creating a teaching-learning environment promoting inquisitive, creative and motivating conditions with healthy competition with good inclusiveness without any scope to any kind of bias.
- Providing equal opportunities to all the students for enabling them to identify their core strengths in becoming highly motivated and skilled individuals with good wisdom.
- Making all the teachers to become good felicitators for creating a team spirit in all the curricular and extracurricular activities for developing good technical, communication and interpersonal skills to all the students.
- Arranging the required facilities and different programs within the available resources for the staff and students to make all, career and growth oriented individuals, fostering an overall personality development with good ethical values and interpersonal skills.
- Conducting different activities involving all the staff and students to realize the social responsibilities and involve in all the departmental and college activities with a positive approach for their own value addition. | http://govtpolyjangareddygudem.ac.in/vision-and-mission/ |
Systems Integration and Test Engineer
At Northrop Grumman we develop cutting-edge technology that preserves freedom and advances human discovery. Our pioneering and inventive spirit has enabled us to be at the forefront of many technological advancements in our nation's history - from the first flight across the Atlantic Ocean, to stealth bombers, to landing on the moon. We continue to innovate with developments from launching the first commercial flight to space, to discovering the early beginnings of the universe. Our employees are not only part of history, they're making history.
No matter the assignment, Northrop Grumman is committed to being a leader in Cyber, Logistics and Modernization, Autonomous Systems, C4ISR, and Strike. For us, it's about more than just performing. It means realizing the values that define us: responsibility, trust, integrity and protecting freedom worldwide. These values inspire and unite our people- who make everything we do possible.
The Engineering and Sciences organization (E&S) pushes the boundaries of innovation, redefines engineering capabilities, and drives advances in various sciences. Our team is chartered with providing the skills, innovative technologies to develop, design, produce and sustain optimized product lines across the sector while providing a decisive advantage to the warfighter. Come be a part of our mission!
Northrop Grumman Mission Systems is seeking junior to mid-level Systems Integration & Test (SI&T) engineers to support test and verification activities programs within the Ground Based Radars and Airborne ISR&T divisions in Baltimore, Maryland.
What You'll get to Do:
As the lead developer of radars, COMMS, and SIGINT for some of the most advanced systems in the U.S. arsenal, Northrop Grumman Mission Systems is a world leader in advanced sensor systems and design. These include radars for the F-22, Joint Strike Fighter, F-16, B-1B, AWACS, MESA, G/ATOR and UAV systems such as Global Hawk.
Qualified SITE engineers will perform hands-on integration and testing of sophisticated RF sensor systems, including both hardware and software components in development and production environments; Synthesizes internal and external customer needs and requirements into system tests that acknowledge technical and schedule constraints; Participates in the development and execution of comprehensive test plans, procedures, and schedules for verifying system requirements; participates in I&T readiness reviews, design reviews and conducts audits of I&T program facilities; Coordinates integrated testing activities that may include environmental, reliability and the occasional flight test; Reviews and evaluates test requirements to ensure completeness of test program; Performs analysis of test results and prepares comprehensive reports; Uses modeling and simulation tools to expedite testing of individual units before all system components are available and for troubleshooting and repair of failed units.
Roles & Responsibilities: SITE Engineers must have an understanding of:
- Testing/troubleshooting RF systems
- Technical ability in a lab based integration and test environment
- A working knowledge of RF based test equipment (Signal Generators, Spectrum Analyzers, Logic Analyzers, Oscilloscopes, etc.)
Additional Northrop Grumman Information:
Northrop Grumman has approximately 85,000 employees in all 50 states and in more than 25 countries, we strive to attract and retain the best employees by providing an inclusive work environment wherein employees are receptive to diverse ideas, perspectives and talents to help solve our toughest customer challenges: to develop and maintain some of the most technically sophisticated products, programs and services in the world.
Our Values.
The women and men of Northrop Grumman Corporation are guided by Our Values. They describe our company as we want it to be. We want our decisions and actions to demonstrate these Values. We believe that putting Our Values into practice creates long-term benefits for shareholders, customers, employees, suppliers, and the communities we serve.
Our Responsibility.
At Northrop Grumman, we are committed to maintaining the highest of ethical standards, embracing diversity and inclusion, protecting the environment, and striving to be an ideal corporate citizen in the community and in the world.
MSBALTECM
Qualifications:
Basic Qualifications:
- Bachelor's degree in a STEM discipline with 2 or more years of related systems engineering experience. 0 years with a Masters degree.
- Understanding of Modeling and Simulation
- Ability to communicate effectively to internal and external team members
- Ability to collaborative effectively in a team working environment
- Active DoD Secret Clearance or higher
Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience in the development of ground, air, or sea-based radar systems
- Familiarity with Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE)
- Component level design collaboration experience to meet assembly-level requirements
- AESA/ phased array, Radar, SIGINT or SATCOM experience
Northrop Grumman is committed to hiring and retaining a diverse workforce. We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer, making decisions without regard to race, color, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, national origin, age, veteran status, disability, or any other protected class. For our complete EEO/AA and Pay Transparency statement, please visit www.northropgrumman.com/EEO . U.S. Citizenship is required for most positions. | https://www.themuse.com/jobs/northropgrumman/systems-integration-and-test-engineer-00b3a3 |
When dividing with exponents, the exponent in the denominator is subtracted from the exponent in the numerator. For example: .
In our problem, each term can be treated in this manner. Remember that a negative exponent can be moved to the denominator.
Recall that when we are multiplying exponents with the same base, we keep the base the same and add the exponents.
Recall that when we are dividing exponents with the same base, we keep the base the same and subtract the exponents.
The only way this equation can be true is if the exponents are equal.
First, set up the equation: . Simplifying this result gives .
What is the largest positive integer, , such that is a factor of ?
. Thus, is equal to 16.
In order to solve this problem, each of the answer choices needs to be simplified.
Instead of simplifying completely, make all terms into a form such that they have 100 as the exponent. Then they can be easily compared.
Thus, ordering from least to greatest: . | https://www.varsitytutors.com/high_school_math-help/exponents/mathematical-relationships-and-basic-graphs/algebra-ii/simplifying-exponents |
NCERT Physics Class12 Exemplar Chapter-2 Electrostatic Potential and Capacitance Part-9 (For CBSE, ICSE, IAS, NET, NRA 2022)
Get unlimited access to the best preparation resource for CBSE/Class-12 : get questions, notes, tests, video lectures and more- for all subjects of CBSE/Class-12.
Q. 29 Two metal spheres, one of radius and the other of radius , both have same surface charge density . They are brought in contact and separated. What will be new surface charge densities on them?
Solution:
Before contact:
After contact:
,
They will be at equal potentials:
=
And
And .
Q. 30In the Circuit, shown in figure.
Initially is closed and is open. What are the charges on each capacitors?
Then was opened and was closed (order is important) , what will be the charge on each capacitor now?
Solution:
Initially: and
And
And
Later:
With
And
Q. 31 Calculate potential on the axis of a disc of radius due to a charge uniformly distributed on its surface.
Solution:
Q. 32 Two charges and are placed at and respectively. Find Iocus of points where the potential a zero.
Solution:
Thus, to have total potential zero, and must have opposite signs. Squaring and simplifying, we get.
This is the equation of a sphere with centre at
Note: if Then , which is a plane through mid-point.
Q. 33 Two charges each are separated by distance . A third charge is kept at mid-point . Find potential energy of as a function of small distance from due to charges. Sketch P. E. v/s and convince yourself that the charge at is in an unstable equilibrium.
Solution:
is an equilibrium point.
At
, which is .
Hence, unstable equilibrium. | https://www.flexiprep.com/NCERT-Exemplar-Solutions/Physics/Class-12/NCERT-Physics-Class-12-Exemplar-Ch-2-Electrostatic-Potential-and-Capacitance-Part-9.html |
Photovoltaic Cell Model
The photovoltaic (PV) cell converts solar energy into electrical energy (direct current). It is often useful to take a cell operating at a certain solar irradiance and temperature and calculate its electrical output characteristics (i.e. voltage-current (V-I) curve). It is also desirable to perform these calculations using commonly available manufacturer data, e.g. open circuit voltage, short circuit current, voltage and current at maximum power point.
In this article, we will look at several models to approximate the V-I characteristics of a photovoltaic cell.
Solar Irradiance and Temperature Corrections
The parameters of a PV cell found in manufacturer data sheets are typically quoted at Standard Test Conditions (STC): an irradiance of 1,000 , the standard reference spectral irradiance with Air Mass 1.5 (see the NREL site for more details) and a cell temperature of 25 deg C.
When a PV cell is operating at different values of irradiance and temperature, the manufacturer parameters must first be corrected as follows:
Where is the cell open circuit voltage (Vdc)
- is the cell short circuit current (A)
- is the cell voltage at maximum power point (Vdc)
- is the cell current at maximum power point (A)
- refers to the parameter X at standard test conditions, e.g. is the open circuit voltage at STC
- is the actual operating irradiance ()
- is the actual operating temperature (deg C)
- is the temperature coefficient for voltage (pu)
- is the temperature coefficient for current (pu)
Approximation of PV Cell V-I Characteristics
The single diode model (SDM) with the equivalent circuit as shown in the figure right is a simple model that is commonly used because of its practicality and the fact that it represents a reasonable compromise between accuracy and simplicity . For a given voltage (V), the current from the cell (I) is approximated by the following well-known equation:
- (1)
Where is the photon current
- is the reverse saturation current
- is the thermal voltage
- is the series resistance
- is the shunt resistance
Notice that this equation does not include the parameters commonly provided by a PV cell / module manufacturer (e.g. open circuit voltage, short circuit current, etc), which makes it limited in terms of practical value. A number of approaches have been proposed in the literature to convert this equation into a form such that a PV cell can be modelled (i.e. derive the V-I characteristics) using only the manufacturer data. The different approaches are typically approximations of the SDM with simplifying assumptions made to make the final equations somewhat tractable. In the subsections below, several of these approaches are presented.
ISDM Approximation
The ideal single diode model (ISDM) shown in the figure right is a simplification of the SDM, neglecting the influence of the series and shunt losses and . The ISDM is the simplest model and is not highly accurate, particularly because the series resistance is neglected.
Key Assumptions of the ISDM Approximation:
- Shunt resistance is infinite at operating points near MPP
- Series resistance is zero
- for all operating points
- The photon current is equal to the short circuit current, i.e.
If we apply these assumptions to Equation (1) above, we get the following reduced equation:
- (2)
At open circuit, the current is equal to zero. Therefore:
Re-arranging, we can solve for :
Plugging the above equation into Equation (2), we get:
- (3)
At maximum power point (MPP), the cell voltage and current is known from the manufacturer data sheet as and respectively. Putting these values into Equation (3):
Re-arranging, we can solve for :
- :
Finally, we get the V-I characteristic of the PV cell by plugging the above expression into Equation (3):
References
- M.A de Blas, J.L Torres, E Prieto, A Garcıa, "Selecting a suitable model for characterizing photovoltaic devices”, Renewable Energy, vol. 25, pp. 371-380, March 2002. | https://openelectrical.org/index.php?title=Photovoltaic_Cell_Model |
Linear LED light strip on a flexible circuit board. Installation using self-adhesive heat-conducting adhesive tape in conjunction with Plug-&-Play connection system. Dimmable using BILTON LED dimmer.
Suitable for ambient temperatures from -25...+40 °C at a service life of 36000 h / L70B50 .
The BILTON DIM TO WARM LED-strip has a luminous flux of 1050 lm/m at 9.6 W, resulting in an efficiency of 109 lm/W. At a nominal voltage of 24 V DC on the connection, a maximum module length of 3.0 m can be achieved. In terms of lighting, the module has a colour temperature of 1900-3000 K and a beam angle of 120°. All this with a colour rendering index of >80 Raand a Binning selection based on 3 SDCM (MacAdams). The light strip can be separated every 83.3 mm, resulting in a LED distance of 11.9 mm. Degree of protection IP20
Dimension (L x W x H): 5000.0 mm x 10.0 mm x 1.5 mm
|Mechanical data|
|Width||10.0 mm|
|Height||1.5 mm|
|Length||5000.0 mm|
|Degree of protection (IP)||IP20|
|LED pitch||11.9 mm|
|Length of particular segments||83.3 mm|
|Surface color||weiß / white|
|Electrical data|
|Efficiency||109 lm / W|
|Lamp power per meter||9.6 W|
|Lamp voltage||24 V|
|Light technical data|
|Luminous flux||1050 lm / m|
|Beam angle||120°|
|Binning tolerance||3 SDCM|
|CRI||>80 Ra|
|Colour temperature||1900-3000 K|
|Drop in luminous flux||L70B50|
|EEC||A+|
|Connection|
|Connection number||2|
|Cable cross-section||0,5 mm²|
|Max. module length||3.0 m|
|Temperature technical data|
|Lifetime||36000 h|
|Ambient temperature||-25...+40 °C|
|Storage temperature||0...+60 °C|
|Packaging information|
|EAN||4250716940367|
|Article no.||171122|
|Customs tariff number||94054099|
|Length||5000.0 mm|
|Gross weight||145 g|
|Gross height||18.0 mm|
|Gross width||200.0 mm|
|Gross length||200.0 mm|
|State of origin||China|
* Information about the electrical and lighting technology measurements: Performance data measured after 1 min. at 25 °C ambient temperature and a light colour of 4,000 K (or RGB). These values can have a tolerance value of -/+ 15%. Module length at 24 V input voltage at the module and luminous flux drop 10% over the specified length. | https://www.biltongroup.com/en/product/BLDTW1000024DC09620819830W05 |
where and are the number of units of labour and capital utilized respectively. Suppose that labour costs $108 per unit and capital costs $2 per unit and that the firm decides to produce 600 units of goods. Use Lagrange multipliers to determine the amounts of labour and capital that should be utilized in order to minimize cost. You need not show that your solution minimizes the cost.
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Make sure you understand the problem fully: What is the question asking you to do? Are there specific conditions or constraints that you should take note of? How will you know if your answer is correct from your work only? Can you rephrase the question in your own words in a way that makes sense to you?
|
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If you are stuck, check the hint below. Consider it for a while. Does it give you a new idea on how to approach the problem? If so, try it!
Hint
|
|
What are the objective function and the constraint function?
|
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Checking a solution serves two purposes: helping you if, after having used the hint, you still are stuck on the problem; or if you have solved the problem and would like to check your work.
Solution
Found a typo? Is this solution unclear? Let us know here.
Please rate my easiness! It's quick and helps everyone guide their studies.
We are given that labour costs $108 per unit and capital costs $2 per unit, and we want to minimize cost. Thus the objective function is
The firm wants to produce 600 units, so using the production function we want . Thus, after dividing both sides by 5, the constraint function is
and the constraint is g(x, y) = 0.
The Lagrange multiplier method says that the gradients of the objective function and the constraint function should be proportional, or
The gradient of the objective function is
and the gradient of the constraint function is
Then we have three equations that must be satisfied
Solving the second equation for gives
and substituting into the first equation to eliminate gives
Simplifying, we have
and then we solve for y to get
Now substituting into the third equation, the constraint equation, gives
Simplifying, we have
and thus
We then have that
Therefore the cost is minimized when using 40 units of labour and 1080 units of capital. | https://wiki.ubc.ca/Science:Math_Exam_Resources/Courses/MATH105/April_2010/Question_04 |
We will try to solve for a possible value of the variables. First notice that exchanging for in the original equation must also work. Therefore, works. Replacing for and expanding/simplifying in the original equation yields , or . Since and are positive, . Therefore, we have an equilateral triangle and the angle opposite is just .
Solution 2
This looks a lot like Law of Cosines, which is . is , so the angle opposite side is . | https://artofproblemsolving.com/wiki/index.php?title=1981_AHSME_Problems/Problem_21&direction=next&oldid=156336 |
8 8 6.No single phenomena exhibits both particle nature and wave nature simultaneously. 7. While position of a particle is confined to a particular location at any time, the matter wave associated with it has some spread as it is a wave. Thus the wave nature of matter introduces an uncertainty in the location of the position of the particle. Heisenbergs uncertainty principle is based on this concept.
9 9 Difference between matter wave and E.M.wave:: Matter waves E.M.wave 1.Matter wave is associated with moving particle. 2Wavelength depends on the mass of the particle and its velocity λ=h/m ט 3. Can travel with a velocity greater than the velocity of light. 4.Matter wave is not electromagnetic wave. 1.Oscillating charged particle give rise to e.m. wave. 2.Wave length depends on the energy of photon λ=hc/E 3. Travel with velocity of light c=3x10 8 m/s 4.Electric field and magnetic field oscillate perpendicular to each other.
10 10 Davisson and Germer provided experimental evidence on matter wave when they conducted electron diffraction experiments. G.P.Thomson independently conducted experiments on diffraction of electrons when they fall on thin metallic films. x Lecture-4
11 11 Heisenbergs uncertainty principle Lecture-5 It is impossible to specify precisely and simultaneously the values of both members of particular pair of physical variables that describe the behavior an atomic system. If x and p are the uncertainties in the measurements of position and momentum of a system, according to uncertainty principle. xp h/4 π
12 12 9.If E and t are the uncertainties in the measurements of energy and time of a system, according to uncertainty parinciple. Et h/4 π
13 13 Schrödinger wave equation Lecture-6 Schrodinger developed a differential equation whose solutions yield the possible wave functions that can be associated with a particle in a given situation. This equation is popularly known as schrodinger equation. The equation tells us how the wave function changes as a result of forces acting on the particle.
14 14 The one dimensional time independent schrodinger wave equation is given by d 2 Ψ/dx 2 + [2m(E-V)/ ћ 2 ] Ψ=0 (or) d 2 Ψ/dx 2 + [8π 2 m(E-V) / h 2 ] Ψ=0
15 15 Physical significance of Wave function Ψ Lecture-7 1. The wave functions Ψ n and the corresponding energies E n, which are often called eigen functions and eigen values respectively, describe the quantum state of the particle. 2.The wave function Ψ has no direct physical meaning. It is a complex quantity representing the variation of matter wave. It connects the particle nature and its associated wave nature.
16 16 3. ΨΨ* or |Ψ| 2 is the probability density function. ΨΨ*dxdydz gives the probability of finding the electron in the region of space between x and x+dx, y and y+dy and z and z+dz.If the particle is present ΨΨ*dxdydz=1 4.It can be considered as probability amplitude since it is used to find the location of the particle.
17 17 Particle in one dimensional potential box Lecture-8 Quantum mechanics has many applications in atomic physics. Consider one dimensional potential well of width L. Let the potential V=0inside the well and V= outside the well. Substituting these values in Schrödinger wave equation and simplifying we get the energy of the n th quantum level,
18 18 En=(n 2 π 2 ћ 2 )/2mL 2 = n 2 h 2 /8mL 2 When the particle is in a potential well of width L, Ψ n =(2/L)sin(nπ/L)x & En = n 2 h 2 /8mL 2,n=1,2,3,…. When the particle is in a potential box of sides L x, L y, L z Ψ n =(8/V)sin(n x π/L x ) x sin (n y π/L y ) ysin (n z π/L z )z. Where n x, n y or n z is an integer under the constraint n2= n x 2 +n y 2 + n z 2.
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Summary Students learn about four forms of equations: They graph and complete problem sets for each, converting from one form of equation to another, and learning the benefits and uses of each.
We will assign a number to a line, which we call slope, that will give us a measure of the "steepness" or "direction" of the line. It is often convenient to use a special notation to distinguish between the rectan- gular coordinates of two different points.
We can designate one pair of coordinates by x1, y1 read "x sub one, y sub one"associated with a point P1, and a second pair of coordinates by x2, y2associated with a second point P2, as shown in Figure 7. Note in Figure 7. The ratio of the vertical change to the horizontal change is called the slope of the line containing the points P1 and P2.
This ratio is usually designated by m. Thus, Example 1 Find the slope of the line containing the two points with coordinates -4, 2 and 3, 5 as shown in the figure at the right. Solution We designate 3, 5 as x2, y2 and -4, 2 as x1, y1. Substituting into Equation 1 yields Note that we get the same result if we subsitute -4 and 2 for x2 and y2 and 3 and 5 for x1 and y1 Lines with various slopes are shown in Figure 7.
Slopes of the lines that go up to the right are positive Figure 7. And note Figure 7. However, is undefined, so that a vertical line does not have a slope.
In this case, These lines will never intersect and are called parallel lines. Now consider the lines shown in Figure 7. In this case, These lines meet to form a right angle and are called perpendicular lines.
In general, if two lines have slopes and m2: If we denote any other point on the line as P x, y See Figure 7.
In general let us say we know a line passes through a point P1 x1, y1 and has slope m. If we denote any other point on the line as P x, y see Figure 7. In Equation 2m, x1 and y1 are known and x and y are variables that represent the coordinates of any point on the line.
Thus, whenever we know the slope of a line and a point on the line, we can find the equation of the line by using Equation 2. Example 1 A line has slope -2 and passes through point 2, 4. Find the equation of the line. The slope and y-intercept can be obtained directly from an equation in this form.
Example 2 If a line has the equation then the slope of the line must be -2 and the y-intercept must be 8. Solution We first solve for y in terms of x by adding -2x to each member. We say that the variable y varies directly as x.
Example 1 We know that the pressure P in a liquid varies directly as the depth d below the surface of the liquid. In this section we will graph inequalities in two variables. That is, a, b is a solution of the inequality if the inequality is a true statement after we substitute a for x and b for y.
Thus, every point on or below the line is in the graph.Find the slope given a graph, two points or an equation. Write a linear equation in slope/intercept form.
Determine if two lines are parallel, perpendicular, or neither.
The slope of the first equation is and the slope of the second equation is Since the two slopes are not equal and are not negative reciprocals of each other, then. Linear functions: Write equation - Slope-intercept form: write an equation from a graph Lines in the coordinate plane - Graph a linear equation Lines in the coordinate plane - Equations of lines.
Determining the Equation of a Line From a Graph. Determine the equation of each line in slope intercept form. Checking Your Answers. Simplifying Exponents of Polynomials Worksheet Substitution Worksheet Simplifying Exponents of Variables Worksheet Algebra Worksheets List.
math.
using Point-Slope Form - This is a practice worksheet for writing linear equations in slope-intercept form using the Converting Linear Equations between Standard Form and Slope-Intercept Form: (allows students to practice writing an equation for a line of fit given a scatter pot.
This worksheet gives students equations written in standard form that. S Point-slope form: write an equation from a graph S Slopes of parallel and perpendicular lines S Write an equation for a parallel or perpendicular line.
EQUATIONS OF LINES IN SLOPE-INTERCEPT AND STANDARD FORM In Section you learned that the graph of all solutions to a linear equation in two variables is a straight line. In this section we start with a line or a description of a line and write an equation for the line.
The equation of a line in any form is called a linear equation in two. | https://cuketisobikawej.r-bridal.com/write-an-equation-in-point-slope-form-from-a-graph-worksheet-for-first-grade-14373sq.html |
Finding Cartesian Equations for Curves Given in Polar Coordinates
Typically a curve is given in polar coordinateswithas a function ofIt is often quite simple to write this in cartesian coordinatesby making the substitutionsand simplifying the resulting expression.
Example:
On substituting these, the equation becomes
Subtract the terms on the right hand side to give
We can complete the square for both the's and's to giveThis is the equation of a circle with centreand radius 2. Note thatsatisfies the cartesian equation so lies on the curve. | https://astarmathsandphysics.com/a-level-maths-notes/fp3/3502-finding-cartesian-equations-for-curves-given-in-polar-coordinates.html |
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zerokevnz
Registered: 23.04.2002
From:
Posted: Thursday 28th of Dec 16:18
Hello Math experts ! I am a beginner at who invented the algebra. I seem to understand the lectures in the class properly , but when I start to solve the problems at home myself, I commit mistakes. Does anyone know of any resource where I can get my answers checked before submitting them for grading? Or any resource where I can get to see a step by step solution?
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ameich
Registered: 21.03.2005
From: Prague, Czech Republic
Posted: Friday 29th of Dec 19:18
Your story sounds familiar to me. Even though I was good in math for several years, when I began Pre Algebra there were a lot of math topics that seemed so complicated . I remember I got a very low grade when I took the test on who invented the algebra. Now I don't have this problem anymore, I can solve anything quite easily , even least common measure and solving a triangle. I was lucky that I didn't spend my money on a tutor, because I heard of Algebrator from a friend . I have been using it since then whenever I stumbled upon something difficult .
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Dxi_Sysdech
Registered: 05.07.2001
From: Right here, can't you see me?
Posted: Saturday 30th of Dec 15:21
Hey, Algebrator is one superb tool ! I started using it when I was in my high school. It’s been years since then, but I still use it frequently . Mark my word for it, it will really help you.
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v(h)=sinx
Registered: 30.01.2006
From: University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Posted: Sunday 31st of Dec 11:31
Interesting! I don’t have that much time to hire somebody to tutor me so I think this would be just fine. Is this something bought from a mall? Do they have a website so that I can see more details regarding the program?
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Outafnymintjo
Registered: 22.07.2002
From: Japan...SUSHI TIME!
Posted: Monday 01st of Jan 10:46
https://mathmusic.org/solving-equations-with-radicals-and-exponents.html
is the site which I think will give you details . I think they have unrestricted money back guarantee, so you do not have the chance of loosing anything. Good luck!
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Dnexiam
Registered: 25.01.2003
From: City 17
Posted: Tuesday 02nd of Jan 14:37
sum of cubes, point-slope and converting decimals were a nightmare for me until I found Algebrator, which is really the best algebra program that I have come across. I have used it through several math classes – College Algebra, Intermediate algebra and Algebra 2. Just typing in the math problem and clicking on Solve, Algebrator generates step-by-step solution to the problem, and my math homework would be ready. I highly recommend the program. | https://mathmusic.org/mathmatical-expressions/monomials/who-invented-the-algebra.html |
# Liquefied natural gas terminal
A liquefied natural gas terminal is a facility for managing the import and/or export of liquefied natural gas (LNG). It comprises equipment for loading and unloading of LNG cargo to/from ocean-going tankers, for transfer across the site, liquefaction, re-gasification, processing, storage, pumping, compression, and metering of LNG. LNG as a liquid is the most efficient way to transport natural gas over long distances, usually by sea.
## Types
Liquefied natural gas terminals can be classed as: liquefaction terminals for the export of LNG or regasification terminals for the import of LNG. LNG terminals may combine both functions.
### FSRU
A floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) is an LNG terminal whose main structure is a special ship moored near a port. As of January 2014 there are operating FSRUs in Brazil, Argentina, Kuwait, Israel, the UAE, Italy, Indonesia, China, Turkey and Lithuania.
## Terminal processes and equipment
### Unloading and loading of LNG
Terminal facilities include jetties and piers with articulated loading/unloading arms for transferring LNG between ship and shore. It also includes the piping used to transport LNG between the loading arms and the storage and processing facilities at the terminal. LNG is kept at about −162 °C (−260 °F) to maintain it in a liquid state. Conventional carbon steels are brittle at this temperature. Therefore, special metals are used for this low-temperature cryogenic service where metal is in contact with LNG. Appropriate materials include aluminium alloys with 3 to 5 percent magnesium and high nickel steels containing 9 per cent nickel. The loading/unloading arms and pipework are insulated to prevent heat gain from the air to minimise the vaporization of LNG. Tankers being loaded with LNG displace the vapour volume in their tanks, this gas is routed to boil-off or gas recovery storage tanks. Gas may then be compressed and fed into the local gas network, or it may be routed to the liquefaction plant and returned as liquid to the LNG storage tanks.
### Pier
A LNG pier is a specialized kind of working pier designed for the loading and offloading of liquefied natural gas to/from ships and shore based tanks.
A LNG pier could accommodate LNG carriers of a range of sizes. They may be capable of handling LNG tankers of 70,000 to 217,000 cubic metres (m3) cargo capacity (Q-Flex); or tankers of 125,000 to 266,000 m3 cargo capacity (Q-Max). The pier would have at least two insulated lines, one for loading and/or unloading LNG and one for vapor supply or recovery as the vapor space above the LNG changes as the cargo is transferred. Ship-based or shore-based cryogenic pumps are used to transfer the LNG to/from the LNG storage tanks on shore.
Some of these piers are very long, up to 4,000 feet (1,200 m), in order to reach to the depth of water required to accommodate LNG tanker traffic.
### Storage of LNG
The LNG flows through the pipelines that connect the loading arms on the jetty to storage tanks. Tanks are usually of double wall construction, with the inner tank constructed of low-temperature alloy. This is surrounded by insulation to reduce heat gain and an outer tank of conventional steel or pre-stressed reinforced concrete. In-ground LNG tanks are also used; these are lined or unlined tanks beneath ground level. The low temperature of the LNG freezes the soil and provides effective containment. The tank is sealed with an aluminium alloy roof at ground level. Historically there have been problems with some unlined tanks with the escape of LNG into fissures, the gradual expansion of extent of the frozen ground, and ice heave which have limited the operational capability of in-ground tanks. All piping connected to the LNG tanks, whether above ground or in-ground, are routed through the top of the vessel. This mitigates against loss of containment in the event of a piping breach. Tanks may be situated within a bund wall to contain the LNG in the event of a rupture of the tank. This is usually a steel or concrete wall surrounding the tank to half the tank height.
Heat transfer into the tanks causes vaporisation of the LNG. This boil-off gas is routed to a boil-off gas holder. Gas may be returned to an unloading ship to make up the vapor space volume. Alternatively it may be compressed and fed into the local gas network, or it may be routed to the liquefaction plant and returned as liquid to the LNG storage tanks
### Regasification
Regasification is the process of converting LNG from a liquid to a gaseous state. This requires significant quantities of heat energy to supply the enthalpy of vaporization of LNG and to heat it from -162 °C to about 0 to 10 °C (32 to 50 °F) for introduction into a pipeline. Gas may be sent to a main gas transmission system, which typically operates at 70–100 bar. NGL is first pumped as liquid to this pressure. A series of heat exchangers are used to regasify the LNG. These may include submerged combustion vaporisers, or an intermediate fluid exchanger (using propane or other fluids), or the use of waste heat from a nearby plant such as a power station. Final heating of the gas may use air or seawater heat exchangers.
To meet the quality specification of the gas transmission system, the outgoing gas may need to be analysed and enriched or diluted. Propane may be added to enrich the gas and nitrogen to ballast or dilute it. Prior to distribution into a high-pressure transmission system, the regasified natural gas is metered and dosed with a stenching or odorizing agent.
### Liquefaction
At times of low demand, gas may be withdrawn from a transmission system and liquefied and stored. There are several proprietary systems that are used to liquefy natural gas and turn it into LNG. For full details of processes, see liquefied natural gas. | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquefied_natural_gas_terminal |
Many of the fuel tanks at Craney Island were underground and leaking, with no way of capturing spills. As a result, the Naval Facilities Engineering Command - Atlantic Division (NAVFAC) decided to issue two separate contracts to update the underground storage tanks including a secondary containment system.
The Craney Island Fuel Terminal in Portsmouth, Va., first opened in 1918 primarily for storage of aviation fuel, diesel fuel and lube oil. Operated by the Defense Fuel Support Point (DFSP), Craney Island Fuel Terminal is now the U.S. Navy's largest fuel depot in the continental United States. Storage includes 60 tanks, which are a combination of underground storage tanks (UST), and aboveground storage tanks (AST) in addition to over 100 miles of pipeline.
The Fleet Industrial Supply Center (FISC) provides fuel, lubricants and fuel related service to approximately 256 fleet and industrial customers with an average throughput of 15 million barrels of fuel per year. The primary products on site are JP-5 jet fuel, JP-8 aviation turbine fuel, F-76 diesel fuel and lube oil.
Many of the fuel tanks on site were underground and leaking, with no way of capturing spills. As a result, the Naval Facilities Engineering Command - Atlantic Division (NAVFAC) decided to issue two separate contracts to update the underground storage tanks with new aboveground storage tanks including a secondary containment system.
The first NAVFAC engineering contract was awarded in 1995 to Austin Brockenbrough & Associates in Chester, Va. Four new aboveground storage tanks for jet fuel were designed and installed. At that time, the Navy was using their Military Handbook for Petroleum Fuel Facilities (DM-22) which was written in 1982. In this design manual, there were no adequate guidelines for secondary containment systems around existing or new fuel tanks.
Austin Brockenbrough specified a geosynthetic clay liner (GCL) as the dike liner for secondary containment with approximately 4 to 6 in. (15.2 cm) of soil cover. Unfortunately, with the limited amount of cover over the GCL, maintaining proper hydration within the clay was a major issue. In addition, maintenance crews have come in contact with the GCL with their grass-cutting equipment, thereby affecting the permeability and long-term performance of the clay.
The second engineering contract was also awarded to Austin Brockenbrough in 1997 for four additional aboveground tanks adjacent to the existing ones. Each new tank was built on a concrete slab, which required more than 432 piles (14 in. by 14 in. by 105 ft. (35.6 cm by 35.6 cm by 32 m)). Also, each tank required 17.5 tons of reinforced steel, 1000 yds.3 of concrete and 550 tons of welded steel. Measuring 150 ft. (45.7 m) in diameter and 52 ft. (15.9 m) tall, each tank can hold up to 150,000 barrels of jet fuel.
A reinforced 35-mil polyurethane geomembrane manufactured by Seaman Corporation was installed as part of the secondary containment system for the tank bottom. The polyurethane was reinforced with a 13-oz. nylon base fabric allowing for up to 1500 lbs. of puncture resistance (ASTM D-751 Ball Tip). The Corps of Engineers developed the guide specification for military tank bottoms from the collapsible fuel bladder or pillow tank market. The Corps wanted a geomembrane with broad petroleum resistance as well as high puncture and abrasion resistance. In addition, the maximum permeability required was 0.10 oz./ft.2/24 hours per ASTM E-96 using the Inverted Cup Method with ASTM Fuel B (gasoline).
Each 150-ft. (45.7-m) diameter tank liner was fabricated and installed in two pieces with only one field seam for each tank. An interstitial space was placed above the geomembrane and below the new steel floor. This sloped sand layer provided leak detection with drainage to monitoring wells located on the sides of the tanks (Figure 1). The tank bottom system was also designed to allow for tracer tests.
Since the diked area around the 4 tanks totaled over 20 acres, Austin Brockenbrough decided to use a fuel resistant geomembrane liner in lieu of concrete. In addition, the cost of installing concrete over such a large area would have been more than double the cost of a reinforced liner system. Using the updated MIL-HDBK-1022 as a guide, Austin Brockenbrough specified a 30-mil reinforced geomembrane with resistance to all grades of jet fuel including JP-4, JP-5 and JP-8.
The geomembrane installed for the dike liners was an ethylene interpolymer alloy (EIA), 8130 XR-5®, manufactured by Seaman Corporation. Other liner selection criteria included low thermal expansion/contraction properties and the ability to prefabricate large panels, minimizing the number of field seams.
The original dike liner design called for a 6-to-8 in. (15.2-to-20.3 cm) soil cover with grass over the geomembrane. With maintenance issues at the previous tanks, the engineer decided to eliminate the soil cover and leave the geomembrane exposed. This would eliminate the need for maintenance crews to cut the grass. Also, if there is a fuel spill, clean-up costs will be much less since there would not be any contaminated soil or clay to dispose of.
clay, spray-on polyamide, non-reinforced geomembranes and reinforced geomembranes. An exposed 30-mil reinforced fuel resistant liner had the largest life cycle savings in lieu of concrete ($1.7 million).
Access roadways made of concrete were constructed for vehicular traffic coming into the diked area as well as around the perimeter of each tank (Photo 3). The EIA geomembrane liner was placed underneath the concrete roadways and mechanically battened to the ringwall around the tanks. Drainage areas were placed in each dike with an oil / water separator.
The general contractor for the second set of tanks was Mid Eastern Builders, Chesapeake, Va. The project was completed on time and on budget ($18,000,000). The first two tanks became operational in March 2000 and the final two in September 2000 and were turned over for Fuel Terminal Operations. Each tank is capable of holding 6.3 million gallons of jet fuel, weighing more than 50 million pounds. As a result, 23 outdated 2.1 million-gallon underground storage tanks have been demolished.
NAVFACENGCOM-Pacific Division. 1991. Value Engineering Report - Oil Spill Prevention Facilities P-072. Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
Sadler, Bruce. May 2001. Austin Brockenbrough & Associates. Chester, Va. Telephone conversation.
Thompson, Alan. S. December 1999. F.I.S.C. Supply Chest. Volume 51, Number 23. URS Greiner. October 1996. Military Handbook - Petroleum Fuel Facilities.
William Shehane, P.E., is a geomembrane marketing specialist for Seaman Corporation's Engineered Products Group, Wooster, Ohio.
Reprinted from Geotechnical Fabrics Report, August 2001. | https://www.xrgeomembranes.com/project-profiles/updated-containment-on-craney-island |
CANADA - After the drowning deaths of 51 sea lions, trapped in the nets of a Tofino salmon farm, is a fish tank on dry land the way to go?
Catherine Stewart, campaign director with the Living Oceans Society, told The Province Friday that "closed containment systems" can make salmon farming more eco-friendly.
Stewart said seal and sea-lion drownings are a growing concern. Her group will release details this week of further sea-lion drowning deaths on the Broughton Archipelago near Port McNeill.
"We could have a problem of significant scale," said Stewart. "We need to take action to address the inevitability of marine-mammal deaths as long as we have open-net cages."
There are currently no salmon farms in B.C. using a land-based tank system.
A pilot project near Nanaimo plans to use large tanks to raise salmon in seawater for market -- which "keeps the marine-mammal predator problem solved," said Stewart.
Spencer Evans of Creative Salmon Co., the farm where the sea lions died, said the animals got caught up in the nets going after salmon and drowned because although they chewed through the nets, they couldn't find their way out.
Evans has found 110 dead sea lions in his nets since December, including the 51 last week. Last May, he reported a dozen sea lions died in similar circumstances, prompting a redesign of the net system at the southwest Clayoquot Sound farm, but that failed to solve the problem. He's now looking at getting stronger nets.
Mary Ellen Walling, who heads the B.C. Salmon Farming Association, said farm companies oppose keeping salmon in tanks.
"There's nowhere in the world that this technology is being used," she said. "What they've been pushing is a solution that's not really a solution." | https://thefishsite.com/articles/sealion-deaths-prompt-call-for-changes-to-salmon-farms |
NATURAL GAS TRAVELS A LONG WAY FROM THE GAS FIELD TO THE FINAL CONSUMERS.
The natural gas chain is a set of stages through which gas passes, from being found in the field until it reaches the final consumer.
The chain will consist of different stages depending on whether the natural gas is transported in gaseous or liquid form.
The following describes each of the links that constitute the natural gas value chain.
Gas field
A gas field is the underground accumulation of this hydrocarbon. Hydrocarbons saturate the pores and fissures of the rocks that house them. This can be defined as a porous and permeable geological formation which accumulates liquid hydrocarbons and / or natural gas in a structure or trap, sealed by an impermeable layer or formation, which prevents its migration to the surface and its loss into the atmosphere.
Once extracted from the field, the natural gas must be processed and treated for transportation and later marketing (safety and quality standards must be met at the facilities and delivery points).
In order to transport natural gas in its liquid state (LNG), components must be eliminated that may interfere with the gas cooling process, while for pipeline transport, corrosive compounds must be removed that could damage the pipeline. To achieve these goals the water content is reduced and the acid gases (hydrogen sulphide and carbon dioxide), as well as nitrogen and mercury, are removed.
Once the gas is treated it can be transported in the gaseous phase through pipelines, or in the liquid phase in LNG carriers.
In the gaseous phase, the gas chain is simplified as liquefaction, shipping and regasification are unnecessary.
Natural gas liquefaction
Once the natural gas has been treated, it is liquefied for transportation by sea, making use of the fact that the liquid phase occupies a volume about six hundred times smaller than the gaseous phase.
The liquefaction process involves huge investment and consumes a lot of energy, so that, in general, this method is chosen only when the distance to the point of consumption is too large for "economic" transportation by an overland pipeline. It is estimated that for distances greater than 2,500 kilometres it becomes economically profitable to do so in the form of LNG.
The LNG production process is based on cooling the natural gas to a temperature of approximately -160 ° C, at which point it becomes liquid at atmospheric pressure.
As described above, before liquefaction, the natural gas must undergo a series of processes, upon extraction at the gas field, to remove any heavy hydrocarbons and pollutants that remain after treatment.
The gas fed into the liquefaction plant typically arrives at ambient temperature, which is usually that of the pipeline at the point of entry into the plant, and at a pressure depending on the conditions of the gas network.
An additional advantage of LNG is that the points of consumption are not linked to particular sources of gas, which facilitates the diversification of provision, increasing the security of supply and competitiveness in the marketing phase.
Maritime transport
The transportation of LNG to the regasification plants in carrier ships is highly specialized, in their design, the materials and the fact that the liquefied gas must be kept under cryogenic conditions at all times during transport.
As no cargo containment system is 100 percent effective, there is a natural and inevitable evaporation of some of the transported LNG. This amount, technically termed "boil-off”, depends on the containment system of the carrier, the quantity transported and the outside temperature.
The storage tanks used on the vessels may be one of two types (membrane tanks or self-supporting, independent spherical tanks) and the propulsion of the vessels is achieved with Dual Fuel Diesel Electric (DFDE) engines that use the 'boil-off' as well as fuel oil.
The LNG carriers have load capacities that can vary between 25,000 m3 and 270,000 m3, with the most common volumes today being between 140,000 m3 and 170,000 m3.
Regasification plants
Once the carrier docks in the regasification terminal, LNG is unloaded, stored and regasified. The unloading is made with the carrier’s unloading arms, with the LNG pumped directly into cryogenic storage tanks.
For injection into the transport network, LNG is converted back to its gaseous state by the mere physical process of increasing its temperature (a vaporization process using heat exchange with sea water).
LNG can also be loaded directly into tanker lorries for road transport to satellite regasification plants. These plants feed the distribution networks that the transport network does not reach. The LNG can also be delivered directly to those industrial installations that have a sufficient volume of consumption to merit their own regasification facilities.
Distribution
From the high pressure pipelines, natural gas reaches the point of consumption through distribution networks (a set of gas pipes of smaller diameter and design pressure).
The regulation and metering stations (RMS), located in the nodes that connect the transport and distribution networks adapt the gas flow pressure to that required for use by the end users.
The pressure at which the gas is supplied depends on the type of customer, ranging from pressures of less than 0.05 bar for domestic consumers up to pressures above 40 bar in deliveries to electricity generating plants and large industrial consumers. | https://www.unionfenosagas.com/en/Clientes/CadenaGas |
The keel of a ship is a central longitudinal structural element that is located at the bottom of the ship and extends from the bow to the stern. The keel is laid as the first part of the structure and then the looms, frames and edges are added to it to construct the basic part of the hull. Frames represent the transverse or rarely the longitudinal part of the ship’s frame to which steel (or wooden) slab panels are attached. Modern ships have almost exclusively only transverse ribs or transverse ribs with a few longitudinal reinforcement ribs, while longitudinal ribs were often used during and after World War II (the most famous were the Liberty ships).
The ribs are numbered from the most outward stern frame (rib No 1) continuing all the way to the bow. The numbering is particularly important in the carriage of bulk loads, where the exact longitudinal position of the load is given by indicating between which two frames it is located. 9 Bulkheads are transverse or longitudinal structural elements in the hull of a ship that divide it into separate spaces. The most important are the watertight bulkheads, which are designed to limit the ingress of water in the event of a flooding incident. The number of watertight bulkheads is prescribed by the SOLAS Convention. Normally, cargo ships only have transverse bulkheads, while some other types of ships (e.g. tankers) also have longitudinal bulkheads. If passageways (e.g. corridors in passenger ships) pass through an airtight bulkhead, they must be constructed so that they can be closed in a way that is completely watertight. Watertight bulkheads are also usually used to separate the ship’s storage facilities and are also usually marked on the vast majority of ships.
This way, port workers can see where the boundaries between warehouses are and can put port machinery in place. Since the bulkheads are also reinforced, these markings are also useful for tugboats in order to use those reinforced spots to push the ship. FP 1 5 6 8 ER Holds are cargo spaces. Their structure, position, size, number and shape depend on the type of a ship. Passenger ships have cabin spaces and other spaces for passengers instead of holds. Hatches are deck openings through which the cargo is loaded into holds. Their structure, position, size, number and shape also depend on the type of a ship. The hatches must be covered to prevent water from entering the holds.
Covers are used to cover the hatchets, which can be classic, pontoon or folding (Mc Gregor). The size of the hatch and its protection is a decisive factor in determining the allowed freeboard. Cargo handling equipment depends on the expected cargo that the ship will carry in its lifetime. Since cargoes are very different in their characteristics (liquid, dry, bulk, bulky, heavy, volumetric, perishable, etc.), the cargo equipment on ships also varies. On tankers, for example, cargo equipment consists of pumps, pipelines, valves, etc., meanwhile cargo equipment on a ro-ro ship consists of ramps and lifts. The cargo equipment for each type of ship will be described in more detail below. It is very important that we know the characteristics of the cargo handling equipment. In case of miscellaneous lifts and ramps, the most important thing is to know the safety working load and safe operating angle.
The safe working load on lifts is marked as SWL, followed by the working load and in some cases, the minimum working angle. SWL 10t 15 ° 10 For elevators working in pairs (ala americana in the nautical jargon) the carrying capacity is reduced by half. For example, if the elevator has a load capacity of 10 t, it can only lift 5 t when working in pairs. Some specialized ships, especially of larger dimensions, such as container ships, bulk carriers, etc., are usually without their own cargo handling equipment (gearless) and depend on port throughput capacity. The cargo equipment on every ship must be regularly maintained and inspected. Baha maritime Sarl, can do this task for you in Guinean ports in Africa.
It should also be periodically reviewed by an expert and especially in an event of any kind of defect. Double bottom is the space at the bottom of the ship intended for tanks. Double bottom tanks usually serve as ballast tanks or tanks for fuel storage, and rarely for fresh water. At the same time they serve as additional protection for the ship and cargo in the event of a shipwreck. Ship tanks are spaces on a ship intended for the storage of liquids. We distinguish cargo tanks, ballast tanks, fuel tanks, fresh water tanks and waste fluid tanks. Cargo tanks are used for the transport of liquid cargo. Only tankers and a few general cargo ships have cargo tanks. Their position, structure and the material from which they are made depend on the characteristics and the amount of cargo the ship is carrying. Thus the whole structure of the ship is adapted to it. | http://warbuzz.com/ship-structure-and-its-areas/ |
Our 40 years of experience make us a leading company in this sector, allowing us to supply many different types of equipment and materials.
During all this time, Tadipol has carried out different projects in Spain and Southern Europe, working with the main engineering and specialized construction companies.
We have standardized equipment for water treatment in small and medium communities such as:
And custom-made equipment:
A reference company in the manufacture of storage tanks, chemical process equipment, covers and structures of Fiberglass Reinforced Polyester (FRP). | https://www.tadipol.com/en/sectors/water-treatment |
Installation of the dome part of the inner containment shell has begun at unit I of Russia’s Kursk-II NPP, ASE (Rosatom’s engineering division) said on 5 April. The inner containment is one of the most important elements of the safety system, preventing the release of radioactive substances into the environment. Specialists of KF LLC Trest RosSEM are constructing the inner containment dome part installing reinforced blocks on the fourth tier of the reactor building. “On the fourth tier, a narrowing of the shell is envisaged for further assembly of the dome. The special feature of the tier is that the armoured blocks have consoles on which the rail track is installed for the operation of the polar crane,” explained Aleksey Buldygin, head of the Kursk-II Capital Construction Department.
The polar crane will subsequently be used to transport and install the main technological equipment of the containment area (reactor vessel, steam generators, pressure compensator). Movement of the crane along a circular path will enable it to carry out all loading and unloading operations at any point in the reactor compartment. Some 10 reinforced blocks with a height of 6.45 metres and a mass of about 31 tons are planned to be assembled by the end of April. The erection of the tier will raise the structure of the unit to the level of 43.1 metres. The dome also includes installation of the fifth and sixth tiers. According to the schedule, work on the construction of the dome should be completed in 2022.
Kursk-II is a replacement station for the current Kursk nuclear plant. Commissioning of the first two units with the new design VVER-TOI reactors will be synchronised with the decommissioning of the RBMK reactors at Kursk 1&2 of the operating plant. | https://www.neimagazine.com/news/newsinstallation-of-inner-containment-begins-at-unit-1-of-kursk-ii-8649979 |
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