Project Effort Research Articles

Multi-Partners Digital Project Twin: A Tool for Project Monitoring

Monitoring a complex project with multiple partners is a challenging but essential task to maintain project performance despite changes. The tools usually used in project management are static tools that do not allow to see all the project dynamics. This paper proposes a digital twin for multi-partner projects whose simulation model mimics the dynamic execution of the project. It allows the project manager to manage the start and end of tasks, deliverables, and milestones and predict the consumption of the project efforts during the project horizon.

Good News! Indigenous HPV Vaccine on Shelf by this Year End what India Must do to Hasten Cervical Cancer Elimination by 2030?

In May 2018, the WHO announced a global call for action to make elimination a reality and calling for all stakeholders to unite behind this common goal. Vaccination against HPV and screening and treatment of pre-cancer lesions are cost-effective ways to prevent cervical cancer. Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines, introduced in many countries in the past decade, have shown promising results in decreasing HPV infection and related diseases, such as warts and precancerous lesions. However currently, vaccine’s coverage, in low- and middle-income countries including India is very low to show any impact in the next 2-3 decades. Govt. of India had launched a National Cancer Control Programme in 1975, revised its strategies in 1984-85 and again under National Health Policy 2017. While it stresses on primary prevention for Tobacco related cancers, addresses only secondary prevention of cancer of the uterine cervix, mouth, breast etc. and tertiary prevention of therapeutic services including pain relief. Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer among women globally, with an estimated 604 000 new cases and 342 000 deaths in 2020. About 90% of the new cases and deaths worldwide in 2020 occurred in low- and middle-income countries. India accounts for about a fifth of the global burden of cervical cancer with about 1.25 Lakh cases and 67,000 deaths every year. Cervical cancer in India ranks as the second most frequent cancer among women between 15 and 44 years of age. Most cervical cancers are associated with human papillomaviruses, a sexually transmitted disease. HPV vaccination has been attempted in the sates of Delhi, Punjab, Odisha on a pilot project mode. So far, the cost of the vaccines (US 60-80 $) has been prohibitive for an average Indian. Coupled with Poor awareness even among educated and affordable population and the cultural hurdles of vaccinating young girls for a condition that manifests after 40 years is a communication challenge. The first hurdle in India of production of affordable indigenous HPV vaccine has been achieved (5 September 2022) recently opening a big opportunity. Governments (both federal and provincial) must make all-out efforts vaccinate all eligible females of the country; we owe it Indian women! In my opinion India must introduce pan-gender vaccination programs and start tracking all HPV-related (head and neck and anal) cancers and evaluate impact of HPV every decade for the next 50 years. A Mission mode is required to cover all the eligible in the next 2-5 years paid by the government (for at least below poverty line -BPL) families and provision of education through education system and social mobilization on a large scale are the key strategies to achieve this goal. This manuscript is a review the status of Cervical cancer, screening and diagnostic efforts, HPV vaccination status and recommends the way ahead to achieve national commitment for elimination of HPV related cervical and other cancers by 2030. Materials & Methods: GOI annual reports, HPV vaccination project efforts and outputs and Program implementation plans and Campaign approaches of vaccination under NHM, Indigenous vaccine producers’ statement and DCGs clearance.

Public Service Engagement: Resting Ground for Specialized Ability or Garden for Multidisciplinary Talent?

This paper aims to answer the question of whether public service rests on single discipline, specialized ability or multidisciplinary talent. The method used is exploratory by illustration with case examples, some governmentally related, others nongovernmental yet service related. Case series are hypothesis generating, in this instance, identifying the nature of abilities that sustain public service. I support the inferential process with Horvath’s tripartite approach [space (e.g., service locale), time (taking into account project evolution), and person (as the center of multiple service projects) models], which raises a number of sub-driving questions. The sequence followed is to first consider whether public service can be either paid or voluntary, then examine whether public service projects are static and delimited or dynamic and evolving, in what way the comprehensiveness of the service demanded varies with one’s position with respect to leadership, and whether compounding levels of responsibility entail the evolution of public service involvement for the individual. The examples used, including the author’s experience with public health genetic policymaking in the public domain, suggest a flexible notion of public service that is connected with government but need not be or can be indirectly associated. Public service projects and involvement in public service are dynamic when granted the opportunity and at a high level of undertaking show convergence of project efforts. While public service may start out depending on individuals exhibiting single, specialized abilities, multidisciplinary talent is required as projects progress and link together.

Assessing the Duration of the Lead Appointed Party Coordination Tasks and Evaluating the Appropriate Team Composition on BIM Projects

This paper addresses critical success factors for the delivery of BIM projects. The lack of experience with BIM projects on both the demand and supply side often leads to insufficient project teams, unsatisfied clients, schedule, and cost overruns. In order to better structure and control the information delivery in BIM projects requirements, planning and delivery must be standardized. The latter was achieved by EIR (Exchange Information Requirements), new BIM roles, BEP (BIM Execution Plan), and specified digital handover, which must be supported by a common data environment (CDE). This paper provides an analysis of the characteristics of BIM project delivery and duration in Architectural and Engineering companies in Slovakia. The analysis is based on the web survey of BIM managers and coordinators, which reveals that a significant amount of BIM project efforts must be executed by BIM specialists. The results also graphically depict the scope of critical BIM activities across project phases. The presented study is relevant for various project stakeholders and allows for a deeper understanding of the resources needed for the successful delivery of BIM projects in terms of adequate project team capacity, capability, organization, and planning.

Mapping land cover using a developed U-Net model with weighted cross entropy

High-quality and high-productivity land cover data as a critical proxy are urgently needed for various communities. Although efforts in mapping projects had been made, various architectures to answer the challenges of Big Data of remote sensing are still needed. Therefore, this paper developed an improved U-Net model with weighted cross entropy (WCE) to map land covers. The accuracy was assessed by confusion matrix, and compared with the other two alternative cross-entropy loss functions. The comparisons highlighted an issue that unbalanced sample space of training dataset is a major cause of lower mapping accuracy. Also, the higher accuracy of U-Net with WCE implied its ability to handle the issue. This paper suggests an alternative solution for mapping land cover to address the challenges.

Young and emerging African evaluators’ need for gender responsive evaluation training

Background: The Global Evaluation Agenda 2020 calls for evaluation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) within an equity-focused and gender-responsive lens. Most of the methodologies and materials come from the Global North. However, gender issues and evaluation capacity in the Global North do not necessarily match with those in the Global South. The Global South has rich experiences related to equity and gender. An important group to target to build capacity is young and emerging evaluators (YEEs).Objectives: This study investigated the gender responsive evaluation training experiences and needs of YEEs in Africa.Method: A total of 72 respondents completed an online survey that was administered over a 7-day period. The quantitative survey was self-administered in French and English, and was distributed through existing Voluntary Organisation for Professional Evaluation (VOPEs) and youth evaluators forums.Results: Respondents were from 23 African countries. Most of the respondents were YEEs, although many of the respondents did not self-identify as an YEE. One-third of respondents have participated in training programmes on gender responsive evaluation or a gender focus on evaluation. Virtual trainings have not been used. Topics included evaluating gender focussed interventions and gender responsive aspects of evaluation studies in general (including applying gender perspective to all types of policies, and participatory approaches to ensure gender equity).Conclusion: This study has practical value for training and mentoring of YEEs in gender focused evaluations in Africa. It will contribute to efforts of the South-to-South project and global efforts that ensure that ‘no one is left behind’ from a gender lens.

An Efficient Framework for Cost and Effort Estimation of Scrum Projects

Abstract: Software Process Models from its inception instill standardization and creates a generic culture of developing software for various IT industries. A great paradigm shift has been observed in terms of embracing Agile Development methodology as a viable development methodology in cross key business units. There is a buffet of agile methodologies comes under the umbrella of ASD, out of which Scrum got the highest popularity and acceptability index. Agile based software development is the need of immediate environment. There is an increasing demand for significant changes to software systems to meet ever-changing user requirements and specifications. As Agile is volatile, so effort estimation is challenging and still striving for perfection to decide size, effort, cost, duration and schedule of projects with minimum error. This cause sensitizes potential researchers all across the globe to start working on addressing the issue of inaccurate predication of efforts. The gap between estimated and actual effort is because of limited or no inclusion of various estimation factors like people and project related factors, inappropriate use of size metric and cost drivers, ignorance of testing effort, team member’s inability to understand user story size and complexity etc. This paper attempts to bridge the gap of estimated and actual effort by the use of soft computing techniques thus taking the research to advance frontier area in terms ofestimation. Keywords: Cost Estimation, Effort Estimation, Scrum, Machine Learning, Agile Software Development

Control of project data and team satisfaction as results of PMO effort in new product development projects

PurposeThis paper aims to explore how new product development (NPD)-based project management offices (PMOs) work, their drivers to deliver performance and their project success impact.Design/methodology/approachThe study used a survey of 35 Brazilian and multi-national companies that identified the effort to perform a list of PMO functions, some PMO drivers in the company and five project performance perception indicators. The authors apply a specific set of statistics to uncover the relations between these dimensions of interest.FindingsThe factorial analysis allows us to find the main functions influencing each other. The project teams’ perception of project management (PM) performance is suggested as a success factor that drives PMOs when working on portfolio management issues, managing project files and promoting PM over the company.Practical implicationsThis paper contributes to a contingency approach for designing a project machine involving PMOs to support NPD projects. Managers can set the most suitable PMO functions avoiding mimicry when structuring their NPD efforts.Originality/valuePMOs have impacted team satisfaction and control of project data but not indicators related to triple constraints.

The Influence of Passengers’ Perceived Social Responsibility Efforts on Their Satisfaction in Public-Private-Partnership Urban Rail Transit Projects

With the rapid development of public-private-partnership (PPP) urban rail transit (URT) projects in China, their social responsibility (SR) is considered to provide a useful way of guaranteeing passengers’ rights and to help urban sustainable development. However, what remains largely unknown is how passengers’ perceptions of the SR effort of such projects’ influences their satisfaction. To bridge this knowledge gap, the current study first proposes a conceptual model based on social responsibility and satisfaction theories. Hypotheses are then tested through bootstrapping analysis based on data drawn from a questionnaire survey of 436 residents from three typical PPP URT projects. The results show that the relationship between the passengers’ perceived SR effort and their satisfaction with PPP URT projects is sequentially and doubly mediated by perceived quality and perceived value. The findings contribute to the current body of knowledge in social responsibility and user satisfaction by introducing passenger-perceived SR effort as an antecedent factor, and offer valuable practical and managerial implications for the projects’ operation management to help promote urban sustainability.

Persistent Uncertainties in Ocean Net Primary Production Climate Change Projections at Regional Scales Raise Challenges for Assessing Impacts on Ecosystem Services

Ocean net primary production (NPP) results from CO2 fixation by marine phytoplankton, catalysing the transfer of organic matter and energy to marine ecosystems, supporting most marine food webs, and fisheries production as well as stimulating ocean carbon sequestration. Thus, alterations to ocean NPP in response to climate change, as quantified by Earth system model experiments conducted as part of the 5th and 6th Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5 and CMIP6) efforts, are expected to alter key ecosystem services. Despite reductions in inter-model variability since CMIP5, the ocean components of CMIP6 models disagree roughly 2-fold in the magnitude and spatial distribution of NPP in the contemporary era, due to incomplete understanding and insufficient observational constraints. Projections of NPP change in absolute terms show large uncertainty in CMIP6, most notably in the North Atlantic and the Indo-Pacific regions, with the latter explaining over two-thirds of the total inter-model uncertainty. While the Indo-Pacific has previously been identified as a hotspot for climate impacts on biodiversity and fisheries, the increased inter-model variability of NPP projections further exacerbates the uncertainties of climate risks on ocean-dependent human communities. Drivers of uncertainty in NPP changes at regional scales integrate different physical and biogeochemical factors that require more targeted mechanistic assessment in future studies. Globally, inter-model uncertainty in the projected changes in NPP has increased since CMIP5, which amplifies the challenges associated with the management of associated ecosystem services. Notably, this increased regional uncertainty in the projected NPP change in CMIP6 has occurred despite reduced uncertainty in the regional rates of NPP for historical period. Improved constraints on the magnitude of ocean NPP and the mechanistic drivers of its spatial variability would improve confidence in future changes. It is unlikely that the CMIP6 model ensemble samples the complete uncertainty in NPP, with the inclusion of additional mechanistic realism likely to widen projections further in the future, especially at regional scales. This has important consequences for assessing ecosystem impacts. Ultimately, we need an integrated mechanistic framework that considers how NPP and marine ecosystems respond to impacts of not only climate change, but also the additional non-climate drivers.

Guidelines for collection of biological samples for giant otters (Pteronura brasiliensis Gmelin, 1788) and Neotropical otters (Lontra longicaudis Olfers, 1818)

To optimize the health evaluation of Giant and Neotropical otters in the wild and under human care and to guarantee the quality of the information collected and maximize efforts in research projects, Brazilian veterinarians developed two protocols: 1) Protocol for collection, processing and storage of biological samples from live Giant and Neotropical otters, 2) Protocol for collection of biological material during necropsy.

Developing a Long-Term R&D Strategy in an Increasingly Changing World

Overview The 2021 Holland Award article, “Long-Term R&D Strategy and Planning,” showed that companies struggle to determine where to invest their R&D efforts in longer-term technology platforms and projects. The work resulted in the development of a Long-term Visioning Scorecard with key elements that support confidence and R&D investments in opportunities. This case study illustrates the application of the scorecard and best practices for long-term R&D strategy. It highlights efforts DSM used to grow its Dyneema business, including the adoption of new practices that enriched the insights gathered and tools used to formulate a growth strategy. The intent is to provide R&D leaders with an example of new approaches that will help them advance their practice for longer-term R&D.

A simulation study of carbon storage with active reservoir management

AbstractAs part of the Integrated Midcontinent Stacked Carbon Storage Hub (IMSCS‐Hub) project led by Battelle Memorial Institute, a study was conducted to determine the feasibility of storing carbon dioxide (CO2) in the stacked saline rock formations of the Sleepy Hollow Field (SHF), located in Red Willow County, southern Nebraska.A series of CO2 injection simulation scenarios, with and without active reservoir management (ARM; brine extraction), were evaluated to investigate the feasibility of storing 50+ million tonnes (Mt) of CO2. The results indicated CO2 injection combined with ARM may enable permanent storage of 50+ Mt of CO2.The area of review (AOR), the area in which underground sources of drinking water (USDWs) might be endangered during CO2 injection, was assessed for the simulation scenarios. In comparison to a case without ARM, brine extraction resulted in a much smaller AOR, covering an area of 42 square miles (108.8 km2), roughly one‐fourth the size of an AOR resulting from CO2 injection without ARM.The findings presented in this paper indicate that CO2 injection with ARM can improve the CO2 storage capacity of a geologic storage complex up to 100% while also reduce the rate of pressure buildup in the subsurface, resulting in a 75% reduction in AOR. This may help in lowering carbon capture and storage project costs, risks, and effort needed to meet monitoring requirements for a storage project. © 2021 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Three decades of the Human Genome Organization.

The Human Genome Organization (HUGO) was initially established in 1988 to help integrate international scientific genomic activity and to accelerate the diffusion of knowledge from the efforts of the human genome project. Its founding President was Victor McKusick. During the late 1980s and 1990s, HUGO organized lively gene mapping meetings to accurately place genes on the genome as chromosomes were being sequenced. With the completion of the Human Genome Project, HUGO went through some transitions and self‐reflection. In 2020, HUGO (which hosts a large annual scientific meeting and comprises the renowned HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee [HGNC], responsible for naming genes, and an outstanding Ethics Committee) was merged with the Human Genome Variation Society (HGVS; which defines the correct nomenclature for variation description) and the Human Variome Project (HVP; championed by the late Richard Cotton) into a single organization that is committed to assembling human genomic variation from all over the world. This consolidated effort, under a new Executive Board and seven focused committees, will facilitate efficient and effective communication and action to bring the benefits of increasing knowledge of genome diversity and biology to people all over the world.

Improving prediction of trans-boundary biomass burning plume dispersion: from northern peninsular Southeast Asia to downwind western North Pacific Ocean

Abstract. Plumes from the boreal spring biomass burning (BB) in northern peninsular Southeast Asia (nPSEA) are lifted into the subtropical jet stream and transported and deposited across nPSEA, South China, Taiwan and even the western North Pacific Ocean. This paper as part of the Seven SouthEast Asian Studies (7-SEAS) project effort attempts to improve the chemical weather prediction capability of the Weather Research and Forecasting coupled with the Community Multiscale for Air Quality (WRF–CMAQ) model over a vast region, from the mountainous near-source burning sites at nPSEA to its downwind region. Several sensitivity analyses of plume rise are compared in the paper, and it is discovered that the initial vertical allocation profile of BB plumes and the plume rise module (PLMRIM) are the main reasons causing the inaccuracies of the WRF–CMAQ simulations. The smoldering emission from the Western Regional Air Partnership (WRAP) empirical algorithm included has improved the accuracies of PM10, O3 and CO at the source. The best performance at the downwind sites is achieved with the inline PLMRIM, which accounts for the atmospheric stratification at the mountainous source region with the FINN burning emission dataset. Such a setup greatly improves not only the BB aerosol concentration prediction over near-source and receptor ground-based measurement sites but also the aerosol vertical distribution and column aerosol optical depth of the BB aerosol along the transport route. The BB aerosols from nPSEA are carried by the subtropical westerlies in the free troposphere to the western North Pacific, while BB aerosol has been found to interact with the local pollutants in the Taiwan region through three conditions: (a) overpassing western Taiwan and entering the central mountain area, (b) mixing down to western Taiwan, (c) transport of local pollutants upwards and mixing with a BB plume on higher ground. The second condition, which involves the prevailing high-pressure system from Asian cold surge, is able to impact most of the population in Taiwan.

A synopsis of the Bee occurrence data of northern Tanzania.

BackgroundBees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea: Anthophila) are the most important group of pollinators with about 20,507 known species worldwide. Despite the critical role of bees in providing pollination services, studies aiming at understanding which species are present across disturbance gradients are scarce. Limited taxononomic information for the existing and unidentified bee species in Tanzania make their conservation haphazard. Here, we present a dataset of bee species records obtained from a survey in nothern Tanzania i.e. Kilimanjaro, Arusha and Manyara regions. Our findings serve as baseline data necessary for understanding the diversity and distribution of bees in the northern parts of the country, which is a critical step in devising robust conservation and monitoring strategies for their populations.New informationIn this paper, we present information on 45 bee species belonging to 20 genera and four families sampled using a combination of sweep-netting and pan trap methods. Most species (27, ~ 60%) belong to the family Halictidae followed by 16 species (35.5%) from the family Apidae. Megachilidae and Andrenidae were the least represented, each with only one species (2.2%). Additional species of Apidae and Megachilidae sampled during this survey are not yet published on Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), once they will be available on GBIF, they will be published in a subsequent paper. From a total of 953 occurrences, highest numbers were recorded in Kilimanjaro Region (n = 511), followed by Arusha (n = 410) and Manyara (n = 32), but this pattern reflects the sampling efforts of the research project rather than real bias in the distributions of bee species in northern Tanzania.

Do Externality Affect Your Project? An Empirical Study of Reward-based Crowdfunding

The connections among crowdfunding projects are considered important for entrepreneurial performance. This study focuses on the effect of externalities on the performance of reward-based crowdfunding projects. Based on the externality theory, we theorize and test the impacts of existing similar projects on the performance of new ones. We extend the source of externalities to projects that are similar to each other and consider three variables—the quantity, quality, and effort of these similar projects—which reflect the number, average performance, and average effort of similar projects, respectively. We also explore the time effects of these externalities. We examine a sample of 20,092 technology reward-based crowdfunding projects on Kickstarter from 2009 to 2018. We find that the quality of similar projects is positively related to project performance, whereas the quantity and effort are negatively related. Furthermore, the negative impacts of quantity and effort on project performance are weakened by the time interval, but the moderating effect of the time interval on the positive impact of quality is not supported. These findings have implications not only for policy and practice but also for research on entrepreneurial performance, externality theory, and crowdfunding strategy.

A review of component and system reliability in tidal turbine deployments

Tidal stream energy has the potential to contribute to global renewable energy generation, but this remains largely untapped. Technical developments have helped create a nascent industry with several pre-commercial installations. However, planned projects experience a cautious investment climate due to perceived risk of failure, and maintenance and repair cost. This paper reviews 58 tidal stream energy deployments between 2003 and August 2020. The analysis reviews commonalities, success and engineering issues, to inform current and future projects. The work classifies each deployment by type, rated power, number of devices, grid connection and foundation. In each case, project status and (if appropriate) failure mode is identified. Failure modes are compared to deployment classification to identify potential relationships. Most deployments were of horizontal axis turbines. The majority (54%) of deployments performed well. 18% failed, 14% were withdrawn from service, and 14% generated less power than planned. The most common failure cause was blade failure, followed by generator and monitoring failures. Ducted devices and devices in high velocity locations were more likely to fail, suggesting that flow velocity is a key factor. Most blade failures were attributed to underestimation of loads during design. Floating deployments were less likely to fail than fixed deployments, but more likely to be curtailed. Off-grid and grid connected deployments showed similar failure rates, suggesting sector immaturity. Tidal stream energy has accumulated around 1.4 million operating hours. Analysis shows a falling empirical failure rate, and likelihood of failure similar to that experienced by the wind industry at a similar stage. This work will be useful for project planners, developers and technology companies and investors in de-risking future project efforts.

Oxygen evolution reaction catalysis

Tidal stream energy has the potential to contribute to global renewable energy generation, but this remains largely untapped. Technical developments have helped create a nascent industry with several pre-commercial installations. However, planned projects experience a cautious investment climate due to perceived risk of failure, and maintenance and repair cost. This paper reviews 58 tidal stream energy deployments between 2003 and August 2020. The analysis reviews commonalities, success and engineering issues, to inform current and future projects. The work classifies each deployment by type, rated power, number of devices, grid connection and foundation. In each case, project status and (if appropriate) failure mode is identified. Failure modes are compared to deployment classification to identify potential relationships. Most deployments were of horizontal axis turbines. The majority (54%) of deployments performed well. 18% failed, 14% were withdrawn from service, and 14% generated less power than planned. The most common failure cause was blade failure, followed by generator and monitoring failures. Ducted devices and devices in high velocity locations were more likely to fail, suggesting that flow velocity is a key factor. Most blade failures were attributed to underestimation of loads during design. Floating deployments were less likely to fail than fixed deployments, but more likely to be curtailed. Off-grid and grid connected deployments showed similar failure rates, suggesting sector immaturity. Tidal stream energy has accumulated around 1.4 million operating hours. Analysis shows a falling empirical failure rate, and likelihood of failure similar to that experienced by the wind industry at a similar stage. This work will be useful for project planners, developers and technology companies and investors in de-risking future project efforts.

Social Motivation at Work: The Organizational Psychology of Effort for, Against, and with Others.

Although a great deal of effort in tasks, projects, and jobs is fueled by our interactions and relationships, psychologists have often overlooked the social forces that shape work motivation. In this review, we examine new developments in research on the interpersonal dynamics that enable and constrain proactivity, persistence, performance, and productivity. The first section examines the impact of competition on work motivation, including the roles of rivalries, favorite versus underdog expectations, and status strivings. The second section focuses on when and how prosocial motivation can drive people to work harder, smarter, safer, and more collaboratively, as well as on the antecedents and collective consequences of this desire to benefit others. The third section centers on motivation in collaborations, emphasizing contagion, social proximity, friendship, and the motivation to lead. Together, these literatures suggest that although rivalries and friendships are double-edged swords, the twin goals to compete and contribute can be harnessed constructively.