Scope Definition Research Articles

The Moderating Influence of Project Scope on Leadership Skills, Stakeholder Management, and Execution of Fibre Optic Infrastructure

Telecommunication and Internet service enterprise has drastically evolved in the last 10 years across the globe. With demand for huge amounts of data and increased voice traffic, optical fibre is globally preferred technology to transmit high‐speed broadband. Nonetheless, fibre optic infrastructure involves construction challenges and continues to fail for several reasons including ineffective leadership, poor stakeholder management, and unclear scope definition. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the moderating influence of project scope on leadership skills, stakeholder management, and execution of fibre optic infrastructure. The study adopted the pragmatism paradigm approach, with a cross‐sectional survey design. Questionnaire, interview guide, and document review guide were data collection instruments. Census was used to select 187 respondents from a target population of 187 functional members of staff in fibre optic infrastructure departments of two mobile telecommunication, four Internet service companies, and two policy‐making and regularity authorities in Nairobi County in Kenya. Quantitative data was analyzed by descriptive and inferential statistics while qualitative data was analyzed by content analysis. It was demonstrated that project scope has a positive and significant moderating influence on the combined influence of leadership skills and stakeholder management on execution of fibre optic infrastructure. This study contributes to the literature in project management by not only providing empirical evidence on project scope, leadership skills, stakeholder management, and execution of fibre optic infrastructure but also by expanding research on project scope. The results may also help professionals in mobile telecommunication and construction industries by providing strategic guideline in effective, efficient, and sustainable execution of fibre optic infrastructure.

Life cycle assessment analysis of kenaf cultivation in bonorowo land, laren, lamongan

The largest kenaf culture in Indonesia is in Laren, Lamongan. Kenaf plants are suitable to be planted in the Bonorowo field. The less potential land conditions make the cultivation of kenaf plants must use chemicals. The use of chemicals has the potential to harm the environment. The approach to identifying and analyzing environmental impacts is the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). LCA is one method to find out the life cycle of agriculture. LCA stages are Goal and Scope Definition, Life Cycle Inventory, Life Cycle Impact Assessment, and Interpretation. Environmental impact measurement is based on fifteen categories grouped into four categories. LCA processing results show the use of urea fertilizer has the most significant negative impact on the environment. The biggest impact category due to the use of urea fertilizer is aquatic ecotoxicity. The use of urea fertilizer affects the types of resources, climate change, ecosystem quality, and human health. Of the four groups, which have the highest value, are the resource group. The use of urea fertilizer has the most significant role in the success of kenaf cultivation because kenaf cultivation requires more N elements to improve the quality of kenaf stems. The use of organic fertilizer can be an option to reduce the use of urea fertilizer.

Application of Graph Coloring in the Course Scheduling Case of Mathematics Education Department in Unai

Courses scheduling is a very important activity in the teaching and learning process in theMathematics Education Department. The teaching and learning process is carried out by allstudents and lecturers, so that the schedule of courses arranged must benefit the lecturers andstudents. If some of the provisions in scheduling are not properly calculated, it will causedifficulty during the scheduling process. These provisions include courses held, number ofclasses available, amount of time available, number of students taking and availability oflecturers who teach. This study aims to create an automation on the course scheduling usingsix stages FAST Methodology which includes Scope Definition, Problem Analysis,Requirement Analysis, Logical Design, Decision Analysis, Physical Design and Integration.The Welsh-Powell algorithm has used which is one of the algorithms in the graph coloringmethod and implemented using C ++ programming. The results of the study show that theprogramme is able to provide a quick and accurate solution for setting up course schedules.The results of this study can provide convenience in managing the right courses scheduling sothat it helps the courses scheduling process to be even better.

A Quantitative Systems Pharmacology Model for the Key Interleukins Involved in Crohn's Disease.

Crohn's disease (CD) is a complex inflammatory bowel disease whose pathogenesis appears to involve several immunologic defects causing functional impairment of the gut. Its complexity and the reported loss of effectiveness over time of standard of care together with the increase in its worldwide incidence require the application of techniques aiming to find new therapeutic strategies. Currently, systems pharmacology modeling has been gaining importance as it integrates the available knowledge of the system into a single computational model. In this work, the following workflow for robust application of systems pharmacology modeling was followed: 1) scope definition; 2) species selection and circulating plasma levels based on a search in the literature; 3) representation of model topology and parametrization of the interactions, after literature data extraction and curation, and the implementation of ordinary differential equations in SimBiology (MATLAB version R2018b); and 4) model curation and evaluation by visual comparison of simulated interleukin (IL) concentrations with the reported levels in plasma, and sensitivity analysis performed to confirm model robustness and identify the most influential parameters. Finally, 5) exposure to two dose levels of recombinant human IL10 was evaluated by simulation and comparison with reported clinical study results. In summary, we present a quantitative systems pharmacology model for the main ILs involved in CD developed using a standardized methodology and supported by a comprehensive repository summarizing the most relevant literature in the field. However, it has to be taken into account that external validation is still pending as available clinical data were primarily used for model training. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: Crohn's disease (CD) is a complex heterogeneous inflammatory bowel disorder. Systems pharmacology modeling offers a great opportunity for integration of the available knowledge on the disease using a computational framework. As a result of this work, a comprehensive repository along with a quantitative systems pharmacology model for the main interleukins involved in CD is provided. This model is useful for the in silico evaluation of biomarkers and potential therapeutic targets and can be adapted to address research gaps regarding CD.

A novel high-order Voronoi algorithm and its application in affected coverage of health city assessment

The work of China’s urban health impact assessment (HIA) is still in the exploratory stage. From the spatial perspective of urban planning, using the natural topological characteristics of Delaunay Triangle, the high Order Voronoi Diagram algorithm of the order Delaunay Triangle data structure is applied in practice. This algorithm can deal with the k nearest neighbors and the mutual distance relationship, which can be effectively applied to the definition of the impact scope of healthy city evaluation, thus providing a new auxiliary method for health city evaluation research.

Evaluation of Therapeutics for Severely Debilitating or Life-Threatening Diseases or Conditions: Defining Scope to Enable Global Guidance Development.

A significant regulatory gap exists to facilitate global development of therapeutics for nononcology severely debilitating or life-threatening diseases or conditions (SDLTs). In a 2017 publication, a streamlined approach to the development of treatments for SDLTs was proposed to facilitate earlier and continued patient access to new, potentially beneficial therapeutics.1 However, a major hindrance to broad adoption of this streamlined approach has been the lack of universally accepted, objective criteria to define SDLTs. This article serves to extend the 2017 publication by further addressing the challenge of defining SDLT scope in order to stimulate broader discussion and facilitate development of regional and ultimately international guidelines on the development of therapeutics for SDLTs. Using case examples, we describe key attributes of SDLTs and provide criteria for consideration of an SDLT scope definition.

Product life cycle assessment (LCA) in the environmental engineering and management aspects

Environmental pollution is an ever found crux with the industrialized world although able to prevent or minimize the environmental pollution through some proper environmental management system. Product life cycle assessment (LCA) is a method of environmental assessment especially for the future plans, products and projects although it is able to assess only the environmental impacts through the product life cycle assessment (LCA). According to the methodology of the implementation of the product life cycle assessment (LCA), it is possible to continue at different stages of the relevant activities as necessary. The implementation of the assessment is done based on four key steps namely as goal and scope definition, inventory analysis, impact assessment and the interpretation. Under this assessment, basically it is expected to prevent the environmental impacts, mitigate the environmental impacts or find a solution for a future problem that relevant with the activity this is proposed.

A Systematic Review of the Discrepancies in Life Cycle Assessments of Green Concrete

It is challenging to measure the environmental impact of concrete with the absence of a consensus on a standardized methodology for life cycle assessment (LCA). Consequently, the values communicated in the literature for “green” concrete alternatives vary widely between 84 and 612 kg eq CO2/m3. This does not provide enough evidence regarding the acclaimed environmental benefits compared to ordinary Portland cement concrete knowing that the average for the latter was concluded in this study to be around 370 kg eq CO2/m3. Thus, the purpose of this study was to survey the literature on concrete LCAs in an attempt to identify the potential sources of discrepancies and propose a potential solution. This was done through examining 146 papers systematically and attributing the sources of error to the four stages of an LCA: scope definition, inventory data, impact assessment and results interpretations. The main findings showed that there are 13 main sources of discrepancies in a concrete LCA that contribute to the incompatibility between the results. These sources varied between (i) user-based choices such as depending on a cradle-to-gate scope, selecting a basic volume-based functional unit and ignoring the impact allocation and (ii) intrinsic uncertainty in some of the elements, such as the means of transportation, the expected service life and fluctuations in market prices. The former affects the reliability of a study, and hence, a concrete LCA methodology should not allow for any of the uncertainties. On the other hand, the latter affects the degree of uncertainty of the final outcome, and hence, we recommended conducting scenario analyses and communicating the aggregated uncertainty through the selected indicators.

Estimation of environmental impacts of roads through life cycle assessment: A critical review and future directions

Motivated by the lack of a systematic analysis of the use of life cycle assessment (LCA) to estimate the environmental impacts of roads, this study conducts a critical review to examine the methods, common practices, limitations, and underlying reasons, so that future directions can be recommended. In this work, 94 papers that adopt LCA methods to assess the environmental impacts over the whole life cycle of roads were analyzed. The results demonstrate that the process-based LCA remains the most commonly adopted LCA method; however, the hybrid LCA has been gradually recognized. After examining the goal and scope definition, life cycle inventory, life cycle impact assessment, and life cycle interpretation of these studies, it was found that the current LCA applications in roads face limitations owing to the inconsistent and inappropriate selection of the functional unit, limited consideration of the maintenance and repair, use, and end-of-life phases, limited reporting of data sources, lack of standardized impact assessment procedures, and lack of sensitivity and uncertainty analyses. These limitations can be attributed to the lack of a standardized LCA procedure for roads. There is also a lack of LCA studies focusing on network-level analysis, which may restrict the use of LCA to assist policy making in road planning and management. In addition, the time effect is rarely considered to reflect the dynamic changes of environmental impacts over the project life cycle. Therefore, future directions are recommended accordingly. Improvements in these areas are expected to generate more reliable LCA results for informed decision making.

COMPARISON OF GLOBAL WARMING POTENTIAL-IMPACT ON THE HANDLING OF THE HAZARDOUS-SLUDGE FROM THE CENTRALIZED INDUSTRIAL-WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT

Aim: This study aimed to compare the secured landfill method and thermally sludge treatment through gasification, in order to determine their environmental impacts. Methodology and Results: The gate-to-gate LCA method was the implementation approach used to determine the, limits and assumptions to the actual condition. The experimental, theoretical mass balance calculation and secondary data of previous researches were used to carry out this study, with open-source openLCA software. In addition, the LCA was made up of four phases which include goal and scope definition, inventory analysis, impact assessment, and data interpretation. The simulation showed that the implementation of the thermal gasification process reduced the emission released to the atmosphere by lowering the hazardous sludge volume which is directly transported to the secured landfill. Conclusion, significance and impact study: Several assumptions and adjustments were made to the simulation results using the openLCA software, in the determined scope of study. Therefore, in conclusion, the thermal (gasification) treatment of hazardous sludge is further studied in connection with its implementation at the treatment plant. This was indicated by the acquisition of global warming potential impact category of 673 kg CO2 eq for direct disposal to secured landfill, which reduced to 424 kg CO2 eq during the implementation of thermal treatment. Conversely, there is a reduction in magnitude of impact by 37%.

Consolidated, systemic conceptualization, and definition of the “sharing economy”

AbstractThe “sharing economy” has recently emerged as a major global phenomenon in practice and is consequently an important research topic. What, precisely, is meant by this term, “sharing economy”? The literature to date offers many, often incomplete and conflicting definitions. This makes it difficult for researchers to lead a coherent discourse, to compare findings and to select appropriate cases. Alternative terms (e.g., “collaborative consumption,” “gig economy,” and “access economy”) are a further complication. To resolve this issue, our article develops a consolidated (based on all prior work) and systemic (relating to the phenomenon in its entire scope) definition of the sharing economy. The definition is based on the detailed analysis of definitions and explanations in 152 sources identified in a systematic literature review. We identify 36 original understandings of the term “sharing economy.” Using semantic integration strategies, we consolidate 84 semantic facets in these definitions into 18 characteristics of the sharing economy. Resolving conflicts in the meaning and scope of these characteristics, we arrive at a consolidated, systemic definition. We evaluate the definition's appropriateness and applicability by applying it to cases claimed by the media to be examples of the sharing economy. This article's definition is useful for future research and discourse on the sharing economy.

BIOLOGICAL AGE AS A METHOD FOR ESTIMATING HEALTH LEVEL UNDER ENVIRONMENTAL RISKS (LITERATURE REVIEW)

The widespread formation of unfavorable environmental, the swiftness of modern life with large information and psycho-emotional loads and extremely natural and climatic cataclysms, as well as harmful addictions and wrong way of life of modern human, lead to the development of stress and disruption of the mechanisms of adaptation of the human body and its accelerated wear. This stimulates the development of research on the creation of new methods of integrated assessment of health and quantitative assessment of the aging processes of the body systems and the whole body, as well as the possibilities of new methods of risk assessment of climatic and environmentally related pathological and age-related diseases. The aim of the work was to consider the methodology of quantitative assessment of individual health and the rate of aging of the human body on the basis of the system index of Biological age (BA); description of its essence and structure, requirements for tests - biomarkers of aging used as the index of BA, definition of possibilities and scope of application of the BA method in modern practice of Biomedicine. The use of modern methods of scientific analysis - a systematic approach to the analysis of the processes of human aging and determine its quantitative side - the value of BA, allows a reasonable approach to the choice of the number of BM, to take into account their information content and precision, and the cost of diagnostics and availability for different users, to take into account the specific objectives of the researcher. The use of the index-partial BA allows individual approaching the choice of biomarkers and create personalized panels for the definition of BA programs for the prevention of aging in personalized preventive medicine. The complexity of the content and calculation of indices of BA requires automation and the use of methods of modern computer science and computer calculations and programs. For this purpose, we have created special computer software for diagnosing aging by calculating the BA indices with the possibility of choosing BM and automatic calculation of indicators and conclusions.

Development of risk-based standardized work breakdown structure for quality planning of airport construction project

Airport project construction can be successful if the definition of project scope in accordance with the requirements. Although each airport project is unique, it can be standardized in their activities to enable the provision of a stronger forecast for project management. In fact, Airport project construction in Indonesia are still many that are not in accordance with the planning in terms of quality so that can affect the quality of the project. In consequence, the development of risk-based WBS (Work breakdown Structure) is proposed. The objective of the study was to develop risk-based WBS standard for airport project that can be a reference in airport construction projects to achieve project quality. The research consisted of several stages with qualitative risk analysis method. The methodology used is expert validation, respondent survey and interview and analyzed using risk analysis. The results of this study are WBS standards, implementation methods, activities, risks, and quality planning using risk-based WBS standards.

¿Es algo la novela? Pasos preliminares hacia una nueva definición

En la primera sección de este artículo se defienden dos nociones básicas: (1) que es inútil buscar una definición general que pueda aplicarse a todos los textos que denominamos con la palabra novela, pues el término no designa un único género de cosas, y (2) que sí tiene sentido, sin embargo, formular definiciones de menor alcance que sirvan para distinguir diferentes clases de novelas, pero que trasciendan las categorías convencionales, formales y temáticas que constituyen la base de las clasificaciones al uso. Después, en la segunda sección, se proponen algunos puntos de referencia para elaborar una definición de este segundo tipo siguiendo un enfoque experiencialista.

Access to Marine Genetic Resources (MGR): Raising Awareness of Best-Practice Through a New Agreement for Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ)

Better knowledge of the little known deep sea and areas beyond national jurisdiction (ABNJ) is key to conservation, an urgent need in light of increasing environmental change. Access to marine genetic resources (MGR) for the biodiversity research community to allow these environments to be better characterised is therefore essential. Negotiations have commenced under the auspices of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) to develop a new treaty to further the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity in ABNJ. It is timely to consider the relevant issues with the development of the treaty underway. Currently uncertainties surround the legal definition of MGR and scope of related benefit-sharing, against a background of regional and global governance gaps in ABNJ. These complications are mirrored in science, with recent major advances in the field of genomics, but variability in handling of the resulting increasing volumes of data. Here we attempt to define the concept of MGR from a scientific perspective, review current practices for the generation of and access to MGR from ABNJ in the context of relevant regulations, and illustrate the utility of best-practice with reference to recent examples. We contribute recommendations with a view to strengthen best-practice in accessibility of MGR, including: funder recognition of the central importance of taxonomy; support of museums/collections for long-term sample curation; open access to data; usage and further development of globally recognised data standards and existing platforms; publishing of datasets via open-access, quality controlled and standardised data systems and open access journals; commitment to best-practice workflows; a global registry of cruises; and lastly development of a clearing house to further centralised access to the above. We argue that commitment to best-practice would allow greater sharing of MGR for research and extensive secondary use including conservation and environmental monitoring, and provide an exemplar for access and benefit-sharing (ABS) to inform the biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ) process.

The smart factory as a key construct of industry 4.0: A systematic literature review

Industry 4.0 is a ubiquitous term throughout general newspapers, on company websites or in scientific journals. One of its key constructs is the smart factory, envisioned as a future state of a fully connected manufacturing system, mainly operating without human force by generating, transferring, receiving and processing necessary data to conduct all required tasks for producing all kinds of goods. Although the understanding of smart factory concepts has been sharpened in the last years, it is still difficult for industrial companies to establish a concrete strategy roadmap within the jungle of different terminologies, ideas and concepts. To generate further clarity and to consolidate the previous findings around smart factory for researchers as well as for practitioner, we conducted a systematic literature review. For this purpose, we chose a five steps approach: Scope definition, topic conceptualisation, literature search, literature analysis and synthesis, and synthesis of future research questions. During our review, we found that research within each perspective is fragmented and unequally advanced. Most publications treat single use cases with low generalizability, often rely upon machine data, typically have a technical nature and seldom incorporate impact estimations. In this paper, our key academic and practical contribution lies in the categorisation of the selected publications into eight thematic distinct perspectives within the sphere of smart factory: Decision making, cyber-physical systems, data handling, IT infrastructure, digital transformation, human machine interaction, IoT, and cloud manufacturing and services. These are further developed into the smart factory research model, stating a foundation for future research endeavors.

The Application of Shariah Principle in E-commerce Transaction: A Model Development

Issues concerning purchasing on-line, the medium of transaction via on-line or Internet, e-payment mode are among new challenges that require Islamic scholars and researchers to broaden the scope of definition of Shariah compliance e-commerce transaction. As Malaysia is heading towards e-commerce and purchasing on-line has no longer a new trend; the challenges arise for solution in accordance with Shariah principles. This paper will propose a model that comprises several components namely, the core Shariah component itself, sound technological means and regulatory body that supports e-commerce transactions.

Impediments affecting a comprehensive emission assessment at the construction stage of a building

Emissions at the construction stage of a building have been overlooked due to several impediments and complications. Identification and categorization of these complications could be the initial step towards carrying out a systematic assessment of construction stage emissions. This study aims to investigate major impediments affecting an emission study in building construction. Triangulation approach was adopted to collect the required data for the study in the form of literature review study, interviews and questionnaire survey distribution. Eighteen factors were identified through literature reviews and interviews with professionals in the construction industry and further investigated through a questionnaire survey. Ranking analysis was used to identify 11 critical factors out of which ‘difficulties in collection of construction site specific data’, ‘commercial sensitivity of the data’ and ‘lack of data inventories and standards to estimate emissions’ were identified as the most important factors. Using factor analysis, the identified factors were grouped into three categories, namely data related issues, scope definition issues and cost and technology related issues. Findings and the future research directions from the study provide valuable reference to researchers and industry practitioners who seek to pursue a comprehensive emission study at the construction stage of a building.

Nutrition and public health economic evaluations under the lenses of post normal science

The emerging scientific field of public health economics, considering health-related behaviours such as physical activity and smoking, is establishing itself as an important component in assessing the impact of policy interventions on preventing disease. Epidemiological evidence points to links between diet, lifestyle and non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Policy decisions aimed at preventing or reducing the burden of NCDs need credible, reliable and evidence-based scientific information. In this context, facts are uncertain and values are contested, while decisions are often urgent and the stakes are high, a typical setting for post-normal science (PNS). Therefore, this work applies quality tools developed in the context of PNS to models used in nutrition and public health economics, using as a guide the seven-point checklist of sensitivity auditing. This analysis has identified scope for improvement in a number of areas, such as the definition of the modelling exercise scope, the justification of the choice of family of models adopted, comprehensively framing the issue by including the perspective of relevant stakeholders and the exertion of more care in justifying assumptions. Addressing these dimensions may even result in refraining from producing a quantitative assessment when the circumstances do not hold. This would conflict with the common imperative to quantify in regulatory policies - often requested by policy guidelines - and with the dynamics of the policy cycle. For this reason, we discuss the implied trade-offs, contradictions and way forward with an eye to achieving progress in the practice.

Queensferry Crossing, UK: scheme, specimen and definition designs

This paper describes the development of the new Queensferry Crossing over the Firth of Forth in Scotland, UK, from feasibility study through concept development to specimen and definition designs that crystallised the form and function of the bridge. It describes the creation of the project-specific design criteria for aspects beyond the standards, such as dynamic wind loading and ship impact risk evaluation. It also describes the evaluation of options and definition of scope within the specimen and definition designs that determined the contract for the bridge and ensured that the constructed bridge satisfied the functional, durability, reliability, aesthetic and maintainability needs that such a vital element of infrastructure required in a prominent location. The three-tower cable-stayed bridge with 650 m main spans and overlapping stay cables sets a new precedent for spans and stay-cable layout for this form of bridge.