Project Director Research Articles

Use Curriculum Updates to Sharpen Your Skillset

The 2018 CFA Program curriculum updates include 10 important readings across four main areas of expertise: alternative investments, asset allocation, economics, and fixed income. We strive for continuous improvement of the value and relevance of the CFA Program curriculum, says Jerry Pinto, CFA, director of curriculum projects at CFA Institute. These four areas have seen exciting major updates.

Review: RIdIM: Répertoire International d'Iconographie Musicale

RIdIM: Repertoire International d'Iconographie Musicale . Antonio Baldassarre, President; Dorothea Baumann, Chair of the Database Working Group; Alan Green, Editorial Centre Project Director. URL: https://ridim.org and http://db.ridim.org The Repertoire International d'Iconographie Musicale (RIdIM) was founded in 1971 as a musicological network dedicated to researching and cataloging visual sources with musical subject matter. Incorporated as a not-for-profit association in 2011, RIdIM now formally identifies as “Association RIdIM.”1 The mission of Association RIdIM includes the management of a database of images accessible without subscription. In addition to the flagship RIdIM database of images, various RIdIM working groups around the world have databases of local image collections, including RIdIM Arbeitsstelle Deutschland in Germany and Iconografia of the Asociacion Espanola de Documentacion Musical (AEDOM) in Spain.2 Alongside a growing interest in the relationship between music and visual culture within both musicology and art history, RIdIM has recently expanded its mandate from music iconography to the area of music and visual culture more broadly, also including theater and dance.3 The content of the RIdIM database reflects this changing mission, including items relating to performance art and performing spaces, as well as video, painting, printmaking, ceramics, and sculpture. The various images in the database span the period from ancient Greece to the present day (the majority dating from between 1600 and 2000) and are drawn from collections worldwide. They depict composers, performers, patrons, instruments, and notation, and include biblical and mythological scenes, colonial encounters, urban streetscapes, and domestic interiors. Although a wide-ranging collection, the RIdIM database holds surprisingly few records—approximately 2,800 at a recent count with …

Inverting the Formula: Devising through Adaptation

Adaptation in contemporary performance takes on different forms and engages various strategies. In this article, Frank Camilleri explores the subject in terms of compositional devising via his practice as research in the area. He considers adaptation as a process of adjustment and modification that occurs at the level of format or organization, and which results from a change in context. He proposes terminological and structural frameworks, namely types, movements, modes, and phases of adaption. These taxonomies are then subsequently exemplified through three case studies from the author's performance and pedagogical work. Frank Camilleri is Associate Professor in Theatre Studies at the University of Malta, where he is Director of the School of Performing Arts and leads P21 (Performance 21), the research centre for Twenty-first Century Studies in Performance. He is Artistic Director of Icarus Performance Project and co-edits the Routledge/Icarus ‘Theatre as a Laboratory’ series.

Changing the paradigm of transportation: Lightweight composites used in solar car in intercollegiate competition

Reinforced Plastics spoke to Dylan Neal, the Project Director of Team PrISUm Solar Car from Iowa State University, and Dakota Kieffer, Director of Sales and Marketing, Plastics Unlimited, about the PrISUm solar car project.

‘We’re not hard-to-reach, they are!’ Integrating local priorities in urban research in Northern England: An experimental method

In this article the author identifies the dichotomous nature of a government approach which insists on autonomy. Exhortations to communities to be independent while fostering dependent relations lead to a kind of paralysis that inhibits people’s abilities to progress. These insights were gained in Salford, UK in a former working class community fatigued by government intervention. As part of an academic project focused on supporting local people’s ideas, new ways of engaging were explored. However the researchers’ role as project directors and the status of the university also had impacts on fostering self-determination. The author proposes that a reflexive strategy identifying and ameliorating the multiple points of government interventions in low-income communities would go far in nurturing people’s productivity. This includes working with local intermediaries who have an intimate knowledge of the communities they serve.

An analysis of BIM jobs and competencies based on the use of terms in the industry

Abstract The emergence of building information modeling (BIM) has generated several BIM jobs. However, despite opinions by BIM experts, questions regarding BIM jobs and their competencies still have no clear solution. This paper addresses this question by the collection and analysis of 242 online job postings, written in English, from the US, the UK, and China. These 242 job postings comprised a total of 32,495 words, from which 35 types of job titles and 5,998 terms related to job competency were extracted. Sequentially, the 35 job types were classified into eight BIM job types by analyzing the relations between the job titles using the role and position analysis of social network analysis. The eight BIM job types were BIM project manager, director, BIM manager, BIM coordinator, BIM designer, senior architect, BIM mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) coordinator, and BIM technician. The 5,998 competency-related terms were categorized into 43 competency elements using the O*NET classification as a framework for analysis. The 43 competencies were then subcategorized into essential, common, and job-specific competencies for the eight BIM job types. The findings of this paper could contribute to the research, industry, and academia by a) providing researchers with a scientific foundation for conducting studies related to BIM jobs and competence in the future; b) setting up guidelines for recruiting and training BIM experts in the industry; and c) allowing universities to develop BIM-related courses depending on their educational goals.

A Study on Morbidity Management among Lymphatic Filariasis Patients in Udupi district, Karnataka, India

International Journal of Medicine and Public Health,2017,7,2,92-96.DOI:10.5530/ijmedph.2017.2.18Published:May 2017Type:Original ArticleA Study on Morbidity Management among Lymphatic Filariasis Patients in Udupi district, Karnataka, IndiaKataraki Basavaraj, Shetty K Bharatesh, Dhar Murali, Kamath Ramachandra, and Malamardi Sowmya Kataraki Basavaraj,1a Shetty K Bharatesh,2b Dhar Murali,3c Kamath Ramachandra,4a Malamardi Sowmya5a 1Current Affiliation: Regional Coordinator – Karnataka, DNRT, National AIDS Control Organisation, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Govt. of India. aAffiliation where the work was primarily carried out: Dept. of Public Health, Manipal University, Manipal, Karnataka, India. 2Current Affiliation: Additional Project Director, Karnataka Health Promotion Trust, Bengaluru, India. bAffiliation where the work was primarily carried out: Lecturer, Melaka Manipal Medical College, Manipal University, Manipal, Karnataka, India. 3Current Affiliation: Associate Professor, Department of Population Policies & Programmes, International Institute for Population Sciences, Govandi Station Road, Deonar, Mumbai - 400088, India cAffiliation where the work was primarily carried out: Associate Professor, Department of Statistics, Manipal University, Manipal, Karnataka, India. 4Current Affiliation: Associate Professor, Dept. of Community Medicine, Melaka Manipal Medical College, Manipal University, Manipal, Karnataka, India. aAffiliation where the work was primarily carried out: Head of Dept, Dept. of Public Health, Manipal University, Manipal, Karnataka, India. 5Current Affiliation: Senior Project Consultant, Ernst & Young, Gurgaon, India. aAffiliation where the work was primarily carried out: Dept. of Public Health, Manipal University, Manipal, Karnataka, India. 1Current Affiliation: Regional Coordinator – Karnataka, DNRT, National AIDS Control Organisation, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Govt. of India. Abstract:Context: Morbidity management is one of the key aspects in the life of Lymphatic Filariasis (LF) patients. National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP) is giving more emphasis by conducting morbidity management training camps every year since 2004 to help LF patients to manage and cope-up with the existing morbidity. Aim: To study the morbidity management among LF patients in Udupi district, Karnataka. Study Setting and Design: The study was conducted in Udupi district, Karnataka, India in 2013. The design was stratified random sampling with proportional allocation method. Materials and Methods: Community based cross sectional study, 178 subjects suffering from LF were selected using stratified random sampling with proportional allocation method. An interview based method was used to collect the data. Lympoedema Morbidity Management Questionnaire were designed based on the guidelines provided by National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP). Results: Among 178 LF patients only about 34% had knowledge about the disease causation. About 98.3% had good hygiene practice towards affected area but only 30% of them regularly practiced one or the other exercise as recommended. Conclusion: The study clearly indicates the outreach focus on LF patients needs to be enhanced by grass root level health workers. The program has to ensure that all the LF patients will undergo morbidity management training and know how to take care of lymphoedema. Keywords:Lymphatic filariasis, mass drug administration, Morbidity ManagementView:PDF (165.44 KB) Full Text

The Status of the IUPAC InChI Chemical Structure Standard

Abstract For almost 100 years, IUPAC has been well known around the world for its efforts in standardizing nomenclature in chemistry. At the start of the present century, it became clear to all involved in chemical structure representation work that, with the extensive use of computers and electronic information in all aspects of chemistry and related sciences, an IUPAC standard was necessary. From this critical need, the IUPAC International Chemical Identifier—InChI—project was launched in cooperation with the US standards agency NIST. The result of this effort has been the development, maintenance, and expansion of capabilities of the open source nonproprietary International Chemical Identifier (InChI), first by NIST and now by the InChI Trust, a not-for-profit UK charity. Over 100 chemical information specialists and computational chemists volunteer to test the software before a public release; this optimal quality control by a world-wide user community has led to improvements to and releases of the software with very few problems. The reliance on input from many volunteers enables the project staff to be restricted to two part-time contractors, a project director and a programmer, thus minimizing the running costs of the Trust.

The publication process of the article on the chemical structure of artemisinin on <italic>Chinese Science Bulletin</italic>: A tribute to the 40th anniversary publication of “Artemisinin: A new type of sesquiterpene lactone”

On March 1977, an article named “Artemisinin: a new type of sesquiterpene lactone” was published on the Vol.22, No.3 of Chinese Science Bulletin . The author of the article is “Coordinating Research Group for the Structure of Artemisinin”, and the date of reception is February 20th, 1976. Based on original documents, the author of this paper studies the background and progress of the publication of this important article, in which he reveals the influence on Youyou Tu’s winning 2015 Noble Prize in Physiology or Medicine. The author of this paper points out: (ⅰ) the decision of publishing the research on the structure of Artemisinin through Chinese Science Bulletin was made by Institute of Chinese Materia Medica, Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine; Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences after negotiation, and granted by Office 523, the agency managed the Artemisia Anti-Malaria Project. (ⅱ) The purpose of publication is to “win an honor for mother country and take the advantage to publish the results prior to the overseas counterpart”, because “Yugoslavia is conducting a research on Artemisia and has reported the chemical structure of one crystal”. (ⅲ) Two measures were taken then due to confidentiality requirement. The first one was the publication was in the name of Coordinating Research Group for the Structure of Artemisinin, instead of independent agencies. The second one was the article should only deal with the chemical structure of Artemisinin, and no description of its anti-malaria effect would appear in the article. But because of objections, no catering to “the need of pharmacy speculators from capitalist countries” or “the utilitarianism of unevolved intellectuals” is allowed, of the former Minister of Health, Xiangpin Liu, the article could not be published right on time. After the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, Institute of Chinese Materia Medica applied to issue the article again, and the Ministry of Health granted publishing the article on February 25th, 1977. Since Institute of Chinese Materia Medica is not only the leading agency in the publication of the article, but also the initiator of the structural confirmation of Artemisinin and the earliest provider of Artemisinin crystals, Youyou Tu, the former director of Artemisia Anti-Malaria Project in the institute, is considered as the major contributor to the article without controversy when the institute held her as the biggest hero of the project, unless there are direct evidences indicating the institute is wrong. In all, the author of this paper concludes that the article, which is as thin as only one page and was issued on Chinese Science Bulletin , is the first article on the Artemisinin research in China, and it holds a magnificent significance to Youyou Tu’s winning Noble Prize.

On the Bridge Over the Translational Valley of Death: Interview with Per I Arvidsson

Per I Arvidsson speaks to Francesca Lake, Managing Editor: Per received his PhD in organic chemistry from Gothenburg University (Sweden) in 1999, where he continued as a lecturer for a short time. Following 2 years at the ETH Zurich (Switzerland) as a postdoctoral fellow, he went on to establish an independent research group at the Department of Biochemistry and Organic Chemistry at Uppsala University (Sweden). In 2006, he joined AstraZeneca R&D Södertälje (Sweden). After 1-year in-house training for future leaders in drug discovery and development, he became team leader in Medicinal Chemistry in 2007. In 2008, he was appointed Candidate Drug Delivery team leader with responsibility for preclinical drug discoveries in several CNS and pain projects. In 2010, he became Project Director at the innovative medicine unit for CNS & Pain research in Södertälje with responsibility from lead optimization to end of Phase II for projects in the neurodegeneration area. After joining AstraZeneca, he continued to pursue academic research as Adjunct Professor in bioorganic chemistry at the Department of Biochemistry and Organic Chemistry, Uppsala University (2007–2010), and the Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Organic Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Uppsala University (2010–2013). In 2010, he was appointed honorary professor in Pharmacy and Pharmacology at the University of KwaZulu Natal (South Africa). In 2013, he was recruited to the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm as Director of Drug Discovery & Development, to build up the National Swedish infrastructure for Drug Discovery & Development at the Science for Life Laboratory (SciLifeLab). Since 2013, he has been a part-time research professor at the College of Health Science at the University of KwaZulu Natal. He is named inventor on over 15 patent applications, and coauthor to over 100 publications, two of which have won ‘most cited papers’ awards.

Evolution in Nursing Home Research: Forming Collaborative Groups

Evolution in Nursing Home Research: Forming Collaborative Groups

Local multivariate outliers as geochemical anomaly halos indicators, a case study: Hamich area, Southern Khorasan, Iran

Anomaly recognition has always been a prominent subject in preliminary geochemical explorations. Among the regional geochemical data processing, there are a range of statistical and data mining techniques as well as different mapping methods, which serve as presentations of the outputs. The outlier’s values are of interest in the investigations where data are gathered under controlled conditions. These values in exploration geochemistry indicate the mineralization occurrences, and therefore, their identification is vital. Both the robust parametric (based on Mahalanobis distance) and non-parametric (based on depth functions) techniques have been developed for a multivariate outlier identification in geochemistry data. In this research work, we applied the local multivariate outlier identification approach to delineate the geochemical anomaly halos in the Hamich region, which is located in the SE of Birjand, South Khorasn province, East of Iran. For this purpose, 396 litho-geochemical samples that had been analyzed for 44 elements were used. The obtained results show a good agreement with the geological and mineral indices of Pb, Zn, and Cu in the southern part of the area. Such studies can be used by a project director to optimize the core drilling places in detailed exploration steps.

The PHI/GHFP-II Employers' Study: The Hidden Barriers Between Domestic and Global Health Careers and Crucial Competencies for Success

BackgroundAn ongoing discussion in global health in the United States centers on the future of the US-trained global health workforce and how best to prepare professionals for this career path. The Public Health Institute, through its Global Health Fellows Program (I and II), has been in a unique position to identify the shifting employment dynamic in global health. ObjectivesThe purpose of the survey was to gather information on global health employers' hiring practices and insights into the importance of nonclinical skills in contributing to successful professional work; preparedness of graduates with needed nonclinical skills; and the value of domestic work experience for global health careers. The focus was on individuals primarily raised in the United States who studied global health in either graduate or undergraduate settings. MethodsA web-based survey and telephone interviews were conducted in early 2015. Overall, 49 project directors from 32 organizations participated. FindingsKey findings included: •Eighty-five percent of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that academia could better prepare students in nonclinical skills.•The most commonly valued nonclinical skills were program management, monitoring and evaluation, communication with client, counterpart and community, strategy and project design, and collaboration and teamwork.•Sixty-four percent of respondents had hired domestic health professionals for global health positions. However, only 4% indicated that they had hired 5 or more.•The top skills that candidates with domestic experience only were found to lack included understanding public health in an international development context and characteristics like flexibility, creativity, and cultural sensitivity. ConclusionsThe process of preparing professionals for global health work has fallen behind emerging realities, including globalization, ever-evolving technologies, and advances in health care. Universities must provide an increased curricular emphasis on nonclinical skills, both interpersonal and business related, as well as the international experience that is valued in the global health workplace.

Modular Bioprocess Facilities Expanding Capacity in China

Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology NewsVol. 37, No. 5 Bioprocessing PerspectivesModular Bioprocess Facilities Expanding Capacity in ChinaChanging Industry and Regulators’ ExpectationsVicky Qing Xia and Leo Cai YangVicky Qing XiaVicky Qing Xia (E-mail Address: vxia@bioplanassociates.com) is project director and Leo Cai Yang is project manager at BioPlan Associates. Website: www.bioplanassociates.com.Search for more papers by this author and Leo Cai YangVicky Qing Xia (E-mail Address: vxia@bioplanassociates.com) is project director and Leo Cai Yang is project manager at BioPlan Associates. Website: www.bioplanassociates.com.Search for more papers by this authorPublished Online:24 Feb 2017https://doi.org/10.1089/gen.37.05.09AboutSectionsView articleView Full TextPDF/EPUB Permissions & CitationsPermissionsDownload CitationsTrack CitationsAdd to favorites Back To Publication ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail View articleFiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Volume 37Issue 5Mar 2017 InformationCopyright © GEN PublishingTo cite this article:Vicky Qing Xia and Leo Cai Yang.Modular Bioprocess Facilities Expanding Capacity in China.Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News.Mar 2017.18-19.http://doi.org/10.1089/gen.37.05.09Published in Volume: 37 Issue 5: February 24, 2017PDF download

Tackling the impact of FOG in drainage systems

Drainage systems in food processing facilities can experience a build-up of fats, oil, grease (FOG) and waste. Here, a European projects manager for an international water, energy and maintenance solutions provider, considers the impact of FOG and organic waste build-up and how facilities can tackle blockages.

Social Networking in an Agricultural Research Center: Using Data to Enhance Outcomes

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this article is to present a case study of one midwestern Agricultural Center (Ag Center) that used social network analysis (SNA) to (1) evaluate its collaborations with extramural stakeholders and (2) strategically plan for extending outreach for goal achievement. An evaluation team developed a data collection instrument based on SNA principles. It was administered to the Ag Center’s intramural stakeholders (N = 9), who were asked to identify the key extramural stakeholders with whom they had collaborated within the previous 12 months. Additional questions about each extramural stakeholder helped to categorize them according to SNA network measures for degree of centrality, betweenness centrality, and closeness centrality. Findings showed the Ag Center had N = 305 extramural stakeholders. Most of these were other researchers and did not represent the diverse group of stakeholders that the Ag Center had targeted for engagement. Only a few of the intramural stakeholders had national or international connections. Findings were used to improve and diversify connections in order to leverage the Ag Center’s expertise and ability to translate research into new best practices and policies. The SNA case study has implications for other evaluators and project directors looking for methodologies that can monitor networks in large science consortia and help leaders plan for translating research into practice and policies by networking with those who can influence such change.

THINKING IN ACTION: AN INTERVIEW WITH RICHARD KEARNEY

In the second half of the traumatic and explosive twentieth century, thinkers began considering the possibility of viewing our time as a new Axial Age affecting all areas of existence and thinking. In philosophy the interpretation of and of the self in relation to continues to change in the direction of a growing awareness of God's otherness while celebrating this very otherness. An effervescent debate on the meaning of and of God's Other, and the future of a continental philosophy of religion after Nietzsche-Altizer's kerygma of the death of God has been enlivening ever wider circles in and outside American and European academe. Various debates have opened up in relation to this theme and inhabit presently the center of what has been identified as the theological turn in phenomenology and hermeneutics. The contemporary conversation has enlisted prominent thinkers - belonging to diverse generations, intellectual backgrounds, and academic spheres - such as Jean-Luc Marion, Alain Badiou, Giorgio Agamben, Gianni Vattimo, John Milbank, Julia Kristeva, John Caputo, Catherine Keller, and Slavoj Zizek, among others. Irish philosopher Richard Kearney is a major voice in this ongoing debate, rethinking according to an eschatological hermeneutics, establishing platforms for extensive philosophical conversations as well as for interreligious dialogue centered on a hermeneutics of the heart. Moreover, Richard Kearney has also been a creative agent of reimagining the sacred and enacting a praxis of actualizing the good.Richard Kearney holds the Charles B. Seelig Chair of Philosophy, Boston College (1999-present). He has served as a visiting professor at University of Paris, Sorbonne, University of Nice-Sophia Antipodis, University College Dublin, and The Catholic University of Australia. He is author of over twenty books on European philosophy and literature (including two novels and a volume of poetry), and has edited or coedited fourteen more. As a public intellectual in Ireland, he was involved in drafting proposals for a Northern Ireland peace agreement (1983, 1993, 1995). He has presented several series on culture and philosophy for Irish and British television and broadcast frequently on the European media. He is currently director of the international Guestbook Project: Hosting the Stranger - Between Hostility and Hospitality.This interview was conducted at the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy (SPEP) annual meeting in Salt Lake City on October 21, 2016.AF: Good morning, Richard. It is a great pleasure and honor to have the opportunity to interview you today. Thank you for having graciously agreed to it.In answer to the hermeneutic question of d'ou parlez-vous, what would you like to emphasize or add to your intellectual and spiritual genealogy introduced in Anatheism? In other words, what was the driving force or desire that spurred you onto this exceptionally complex and all-encompassing trajectory from Poetique du Possible (1984) and The May Be (2001) to Anatheism (2009) and Carnal Hermeneutics (2015), and most recently to international peace and recovery projects like Guestbook and Twinsome Minds (2016), both important experiments in applied therapeutic imagination?RK: One formative part of my intellectual journey was marked by growing up in Ireland where there was a war going on in the Seventies, waged in the name of religion. As a student of philosophy and interested from the beginning in philosophy of religion, I worked with Denys Turner and Patrick Masterson at University College Dublin discussing questions of belief and unbelief, at a time when sectarian battles were waging in Derry and Belfast. It was difficult not to address hard questions concerning the relationship between religion and politics, how people killed each other in the name of God, asking what idea of we're talking about if ideas can kill and ideas can heal?I was educated by the Benedictines at Glenstal Abbey, Ireland, informed by the monastic motto ora et labora, pray and work. …

Review: Linked Jazz

Linked Jazz. M. Cristina Pattuelli, Project Director. URL: https://linkedjazz.org A tremendous amount of jazz scholarship centers on the professional and social networks connecting musicians. This is, perhaps, appropriate for a music that focuses so intimately on real-time collaboration. Even as musicians strive to develop their own unique voices on their instruments, they do so by listening closely to their fellow artists, by sharing information, by emulating idols, by interacting with bandmates and audiences. Tracing these connections between artists has—for better and for worse—been a primary preoccupation of jazz history since its inception. How many of us have crossed paths with the type of “human encyclopedia” historians who seem to know the personnel of every recording session since the Original Dixieland Jazz Band? Who know every artist's high school and the name of their first teacher? Who know what records they bought and how worn down the grooves were? Indeed, how many of us spent early portions of our own careers striving to develop these very same skills (again, for better and for worse)? But what if there were a way to use digital tools to map these connections more efficiently? What if we could use online resources to trace more comprehensive networks and develop new ways to study them? Such are the questions posed by the architects of the Linked Jazz project, an initiative founded in 2011 by a group of digital information specialists based primarily at New York's Pratt Institute. …

Top Management Support and Project Performance: An Empirical Study of Public Sector Projects

The performance of public sector projects is comparatively low. Top management support is one of the critical success factors that adversely affect performance of projects in organizations. A large number of studies have been conducted on top management support as a single dimensional construct in the field of engineering management and project management. However, a very few studies have explored top management support as a multi-dimensional construct. The objective of this study is to investigate the relationship between multiple dimensions of top management support and project performance. This quantitative study employed random sampling techniques on cross sectional data collected through an online survey from public sector projects. The respondents were the project managers and project directors working on public sector projects in Pakistan. Explanatory and confirmatory factor analyses were employed to test the validity of the construct. For testing of research hypotheses, correlation and regression analyses were conducted. Findings indicate that all dimensions of top management support have significant positive influence on project performance in the public sector of Pakistan. The study provides implications for academicians and practitioners in policy formulation, to gain apt support from top management and improve project performance. The study provides directions for future research.

A painful fight

A painful fight