Right Point In Time Research Articles

Understanding users of online energy efficiency counseling: comparison to representative samples in Norway.

To achieve substantial energy efficiency improvements in the privately owned building stock, it is important to communicate with potential renovators at the right point in time and provide them with targeted information to strengthen their renovation ambitions. The European Union recommends using one-stop-shops (OSSs), which provide information and support throughout the whole process, from planning to acquisition of funding, implementation, and evaluation as a measure to remove unnecessary barriers. For this paper, we invited visitors of two Norwegian websites with OSS characteristics to answer an online survey about their renovation plans and energy efficiency ambitions. The participants visited the websites out of their own interest; no recruitment for the websites was conducted as part of the study (N = 437). They also rated a range of psychological drivers, facilitators, and barriers to including energy upgrades in a renovation project. Their answers were then compared to existing data from representative samples of Norwegian households regarding home renovation in 2014, 2018, and 2023, as well as data from a sample of people who were engaged in renovation projects in 2014, which was collected by the research team with a similar online survey. Furthermore, 78 visitors completed a brief follow-up online survey one year later to report the implemented measures. We found that visitors of the websites are involved in more comprehensive renovation projects and have substantially higher ambitions for the upgrade of energy efficiency compared to the representative samples. They also perceive stronger personal and social norms, as well as have a different profile of facilitators and barriers. The findings suggest to policymakers that OSSs should be marketed especially to people motivated to upgrade energy efficiency but lack information and are unable to implement their plans alone. Also, the construction industry might refer interested people to such low-threshold online solutions to assist informed and more ambitious decisions.

Digitalization of the Process Landscape for Proprietary Bond Trading

On the surface, the process landscape for fixed income securities trading within most banks has changed only slightly in the past four decades. The value chain remains divided amongst front-, middle-, and back office, with IT in support. Front office negotiates deals with customers and other banks, middle office manages risks and reporting, and back office ensures that payments are made in exchange for a transfer of the bonds that have been traded. Though these processes have gradually migrated to electronic mediums, much of the work in all functional areas remains manual. But the advent of digital technologies, primarily process automation software and data integration in an open software architecture, allows banks to dramatically change how the processes along the value chain are carried out. Repetitive and predictable tasks can be performed by automated software, allowing humans to concentrate on complex activities that require flexibility and discretion. Those tasks that remain in the hands of humans can also be made more efficient by extracting data from software applications along the entire process chain and providing them to the human user at the right point in time in the right system.

ROLE OF INSURANCE TOWARDS EFFECTIVE RETIREMENT PLANNING – PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS

A well-planned retirement is a result of an efficient and sound financial counseling taken at the right point of time and educating oneself on this aspect can be a tedious task. Financial Counseling play a crucial role in an effective retirement planning, further securing the future of retired individuals. This paper aims to review the nature of financial counseling and its relevance in retirement planning. This paper reviews the relation between financial counseling and retirement planning. This paper is a part of an ongoing research, hence a working paper. The paper aims to develop a model which is proposed for determining the client markets as well as the relevant factors for financial counseling. Distinctions in professional services provided and knowledge needed to develop the proposed model are also discussed in this paper. The paper concludes that some Co-relation exists between financial counselling and retirement planning, if taken at the right time. The paper also recommends that some overlap in the curriculum and certification requirements of financial counsellors be maintained. The study has been attempted to understand the relevance of insurance and pension plans towards achieving a secured retirement for individuals.

Developing Tools to Streamline the Process of Contract Administration

Contract is the basic legal arrangement between the parties to spell out mechanism of discharge of obligations related to any transaction. In case of construction, parties entered into a contract whereby contractor offers to execute a job on certain terms and conditions. These terms and conditions after being negotiated form the basic structure of exchange of promises. It is this contract administration which guides the actions of the parties and decide the obligations and hence the liabilities. Construction industry being the second largest sector of the economic pie of our country needs to be given attention both ways: technically as well as legally. With the growing advancement in technology, projects of larger size can be undertaken for the progress in development of a country at a faster rate. But projects of large scale bring larger complications which result in non completion of the project within its stipulated time and cost. To simplify these complications in a project, there is a need of developing proper correspondences at the right point of time. This study deals with managing the hindrances causing disputes and deciding the liability of the concerned parties by developing proper correspondences, documentation and having proper record keeping. To gain information of the industry as to what are the major reasons of disputes and percentage of projects where litigation occurred, a questionnaire survey was prepared which was circulated among the industry which included Owners, Contractors and Consultants viz. parties to a contract. In addition, it is thought useful to study some cases of success and failures of projects, so that we can supplement our process of analyzing and finalizing our conclusions about contract administration. The questionnaire and case studies helped in evaluating the hindrances that occur in pre-construction, construction and post construction phases. An attempt shall be made to prepare guidelines as well as include a checklist of activities wherein correspondence is required to act as evidence which will help in administering the contract during the various stages of a project. An attempt has been made on emphasizing the need of proper documentation and record keeping. It is through discussion, questionnaires and case study that we can have adequate information material to conclude and devise some checklist for guidance of contract administration. It is also observed that though the correspondences are done by the parties, the contents of the correspondences are misleading and mis-conceptual, also leading for disputes and hence it is an intent to prepare templates of various letters for important events like extra item, change order, extension of time, levy of L.D, etc. In short, the paper aims at streamlining the process of contract administration with a view to help both the parties to understand their liabilities and consequences arising out of.

Editor's Choice – Current Options and Recommendations for the Treatment of Thoracic Aortic Pathologies Involving the Aortic Arch: An Expert Consensus Document of the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (EACTS) & the European Society for Vascular Surgery (ESVS)

Editor's Choice – Current Options and Recommendations for the Treatment of Thoracic Aortic Pathologies Involving the Aortic Arch: An Expert Consensus Document of the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (EACTS) & the European Society for Vascular Surgery (ESVS)

Stimulating academic patenting in a university ecosystem: an agent-based simulation approach

Technology transfer to society is—in addition to research and teaching—widely acknowledged as a third mission of modern universities. Academic entrepreneurship and academic patenting are two closely related means to do so and, more often than not, patenting activity and entrepreneurship are part of a linear sequence in the commercialization process. This paper is mainly concerned with the first step. To further academic patenting, university administrations have installed or expanded existing technology transfer offices (TTOs) as active stakeholders in the university ecosystem. These offices must find the right measures (e.g., monetary or non-monetary incentives or providing information at internal events) and offer them to the right group of scientists (e.g., departments) at the right point in time. This is challenging because scientists’ decision whether to publish or patent depends on several factors, including individual preferences, perceived normative social pressure from peers, level of information received through word-of-mouth communication or informational events, and previous first-hand experience. An agent-based simulation approach may serve as a decision aid for this purpose. Such an approach models stakeholders as ‘agents’ who interact with each other, and through these interactions, the system’s behavior evolves and can be observed. In this paper, we introduce an agent-based simulation for evaluating measures that can be employed by a TTO in order to stimulate academic patenting and, subsequently, the foundation of spin-off companies relying on such patents. The applicability of the approach is illustrated through an example.

Good Governance in the Hands of the Judiciary: Lessons from the European Example

It is certainly well observed that the subject matter of good governance, by its mere terminology, constitutes a fairly recent evolution which has been, notably in the 1990’s, closely linked to the idea of giving a new impetus to development policy, in particular in Sub-Saharan Africa. The new terminology has received widespread interest which has made the political call for good governance a central feature of development policy[1] ever since it has been put on the international agenda by a World Bank study in 1989.[2] Despite a rising number of critics claiming this concept to be without any substance and asking whether it would be new after all,[3] the idea of good governance has flourished ever since and has certainly evolved into a transnational concept of political leadership, a real leitmotiv for a common approach to the way how our global village should be governed.[4] The incredible success story of the striving for good governance is, in my view, due to three cumulative aspects which certainly contributed a great deal to the general agreement that good governance is a concept without proper alternative: Firstly, the concept of good governance is self-evident. It needs nothing else but common sense[5] to be understood: Entrepreneurs will not invest in unstable countries and people, whether entrepreneurs or not, will not wish to live there, if they can afford to go elsewhere.[6] Secondly, the concept of good governance is sufficiently vague to absorb a great variety of political preferences as well as substantive differences. Its flexibility is most certainly the reason why it has met so little resistance and found so much support. And thirdly, it was issued at the right point in time when public opinion was profoundly marked by the experience of the revolutionary force of glasnost and the general inability of corrupt regimes around the world to meet today's challenges.[7]

Ethical aspects of palliative medicine

The aim of palliative medicine is to adequately care for and attend to patients suffering from life-threatening and incurable medical conditions according to their needs. This implies that for these patients it is not a matter of dealing with diseases that can be treated separately but with their existence in the face of their approaching death. This article investigates which ethical questions are currently prioritized for discussion in palliative medicine. Review of the current medical and ethical literature and own reflections with arelational ethics approach that puts patient wishes at the centre of attention. Palliative medicine is not a"luxury medicine" but has to be considered as primary care to which every person is entitled. If there is aneed for improvement of care, promoting it is an ethical obligation. In this respect the question of a"good death" is extremely complex. The term is connected to the ethics of agood life and includes the dimensions of happiness-suffering as well as meaning-futility; therefore, the best possible treatment of symptoms, most of all pain is just as important as recognizing subjective questions of meaning. Dealing with the wishes of patients, including possible wishes to die, are the starting point for elaborating palliative care measures. It is concerned with finding the right point in time for each patient individually, in their best interests and according to their wishes, at which dying should no longer be held back but for their own benefit the patient should be accompanied and supported during dying. In the current construction of palliative medicine, including its normative configuration within the law and medical ethics, the criteria which are essential for the quality of life up to death are being discussed.

Specific Barriers and Drivers in Different Stages of Decision-Making about Energy Efficiency Upgrades in Private Homes.

Energy efficiency upgrades of privately owned homes like adding to the insulation layers in the walls, roof or floor, or replacing windows with more efficiently insulated versions can contribute significantly to reducing the energy impact of the building sector and thus also the CO2 footprint of a household. However, even in countries like Norway that have a rather high rate of renovation, energy upgrades are not always integrated into such a refurbishment project. This study tests which structural and internal psychological barriers hinder and which drivers foster decision-making to implement such measures, once a renovation project is planned. With a theoretical background in stage-based models of decision-making 24 barriers and drivers were tested for their specific effect in the stages of decision-making. The four stages of decision-making assumed in this study were (1) “not being in a decision mode,” (2) “deciding what to do,” (3) “deciding how to do it,” and (4) “planning implementation.” Based on an online survey of 3787 Norwegian households, it was found that the most important barriers toward deciding to implement energy efficiency upgrades were not owning the dwelling and feeling the right time had not come yet. The most important drivers of starting to decide were higher expected comfort levels, better expected living conditions, and an expected reduction of energy costs. For the transition from deciding what to do to how to do it, not managing to make a decision and feeling the right point in time has not come yet were the strongest barriers, easily accessible information and an expected reduction of energy costs were the most important drivers. The final transition from deciding how to do the upgrades to planning implementation was driven by expecting a payoff within a reasonable time frame and higher expected comfort levels; the most important barriers were time demands for supervising contractors and—again—a feeling that the right point in time has not come yet. Implications for policy-making and marketing are discussed.

Collaboration for success: the value of strategic col-laborations for precision medicine and biomarker discovery

Precision medicine aims to provide the precise treatment for the patient with the right dose at the right point of time. Biomarkers (BM) are vital for the identification of patients who would benefit the most from individualized treatment. In addition, they help to enable the prediction of prognosis, the detection of early therapeutic and adverse effects, and may serve as surrogate endpoints in clinical trials. BM are becoming essential tools to increase productivity in drug discovery and impressively enhance the way medicine is practiced. However, the identification, sufficient validation and implementation of such BM are challenging. This process requires expertise from different areas and high resource investments. Collaborations of different partners may be helpful to overcome these challenges. In the past decade, collaborations between diagnostics and pharmaceutical companies as well as industrial–academic collaborations have been increasingly pursued. Moreover, public funding may offer support and open new opportunities to form such consortia. Herein we give an overview of the different types of collaborations, their opportunities and challenges, and describe experiences in forming strategic partnerships with other companies.

Evolving Techniques in Pancreatic Surgery.

Evolving Techniques in Pancreatic Surgery.

A Review on Medication Errors

Role of clinical pharmacist is to provide optimal pharmaceutical care for individual patients and optimal pharmaceutical care is attained when the right drug in the correct dosage and quality reaches the right patients at the right point in time with the right information. Any preventable event that may cause or lead to inappropriate medication use or patient harm during medication to user is called medicational error and is in the control of the health care professional, patient and consumer. In this review on medication errors, prescr-ibing errors (67 %), administration errors (25%), dispensing errors (08%) were found on the basis of review of literature.Prescribing errors are the prime cause of MEs that further leads to subsequent dispensing and administration errors. Medication errors are common cause of adverse drug events or subtherapeutic outcomes of pharmaceutical care.

Der geeignete Zeitpunkt für eine Herzklappenintervention – Zusammenfassung der europäischen Richtlinien

Most common heart valve diseases in western industrialized nations are the aortic valve stenosis and the mitral valve regurgitation. More seldom are a regurgitation of the aortic valve and mitral valve stenosis. Even more seldom are heart valve diseases of the Tricuspid and the pulmonary valve. The only curative therapy in severe heart valve disease is a surgical intervention. The timing is crucial for the outcome. Especially in asymptomatic patients it's difficult to find the right point of time for intervention due to missing realization of the health status. In 2013, the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (EACTS) and the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) published guidelines according to the therapy in heart valve disease. Here we want to summarize the recommendations of these guidelines in regards of timing of the surgical intervention.

Preparation of Papers for IFAC Conferences & Symposia: Method for the identification of point in time for changes in production networks

By focusing on core competencies and the utilization of international location advantages such as access to low-wage labor and local sales markets, global production networks are becoming increasingly complex. Additionally, turbulent times with great uncertainty forces globally acting enterprises to adapt their production networks. Therefore, it is crucial to determine the right point in time for change and also to identify the beneficial production network alternatives. In other words, globally acting enterprises have to answer the two questions of what to change and when to change. The presented method describes an approach for the strategic planning of global changeable production networks, based on future scenarios and a multi-objective optimization to identify the most favorable network configuration during the planning horizon. The multi-objective optimization is modeled as a mixed-integer MODM problem (multiobjective decision making) including seven criteria i.e. costs, delivery time, quality, flexibility, customer proximity, coordination and plant qualification.

European and global approaches to survey ageing populations and perspectives for joint approaches to measure age-related health outcomes

European and global approaches to survey ageing populations and perspectives for joint approaches to measure age-related health outcomes

Integrating Data Mining and Expert Knowledge for an Artificial-Lift Advisory System

This article, written by Assistant Technology Editor Karen Bybee, contains highlights of paper SPE 128636, ’Integrat ing Data Mining and Expert Knowledge for an Artificial Lift Advisory System,’ by E. De la Vega, G. Sandoval, and M. Garcia, SPE, Pemex, and G. Nunez, SPE, A. Al-Kinani, SPE, R.W. Holy, SPE, H. Escalona, SPE, and M. Mota, Schlumberger, originally prepared for the 2010 SPE Intelligent Energy Conference and Exhibition, Utrecht, The Netherlands, 23-25 March. The paper has not been peer reviewed. The full-length paper describes a new workflow to accelerate and improve decisions regarding where and when to apply an artificial-lift system in fields with a considerable number of active wells. The workflow deploys a hybrid combination of a user-driven expert system and a data-driven knowledge-capturing system calibrated with historical data. The two systems interact to determine the right point in time to support a particular well with an artificial-lift system. Introduction Typically, asset expertise is stored in spreadsheets that define the limits for condition parameters within which a specific artificial-lift system needs to be installed. As a first step toward decision automation, these limits are implemented in a rule-based reasoning system deploying if-then-else logic to automate the knowledge. After successful validation of the rule-based approach, the information about the limits and the combination and interaction of the parameters is fed into a Bayesian belief network (BBN) capable of performing a more robust reasoning process under uncertainty or missing parameters. The setup process of the BBN requires frequent interaction with the asset team to ensure the validity and consistency of the system recommendations. While the iterative validation is necessary for the BBN setup, it also enables the asset team to review and visualize their complex decision-making process thoroughly and helps to define more-efficient decision logic. In parallel, a data-mining analysis on historical data is performed to find the decision logic as it was applied in the field. The data-mining study incorporates operational data (e.g., tubinghead pressures, line pressures, and calculated gas rates), well-test data, and information from well-intervention reports. The objectives of the data-mining analysis are: To identify patterns in operational and well-test data that lead to the decision of a new artificial-lift system. To identify potential correlations of well-intervention activity and incremental production after intervention to quantify the success of a specific artificial-lift installation under specific conditions. Case Study Activo Integral Burgos (AIB) is a typical example of a large gas field where production declined as a result of gas-loading backpressure and reduced permeability in the target formation. The fast decline of the gas wells during their first year of production drove a change from a reactive to a proactive management approach to monitor the field and select candidates for workovers and artificial-lift systems. However, the large number of wells in AIB (approximately 3,500 active wells) and the fact that 95% of the data is obtained by manual surveillance suggest the need for some level of automation to aid decision making.

Der Patient mit chronischer Herzinsuffizienz

An expansion of the indications for the implantation of defibrillators (ICD) has not occurred as such in recent years. Nevertheless, an increase in the number of implantation figures can be expected due to the aging population and an increasing recruitment of undersupplied regions in upcoming years. Although the first defibrillator was implanted over 20 years ago in Germany and that ICD therapy is considered as the medical standard in secondary and primary prophylaxis, there are still basic questions that can only be prospectively clarified: (1) when is the right point in time for ICD implantation? (2) Can predictors, especially those with a negative predictive value, be used to exclude patients from ICD therapy? (3) Should risk stratification, which documents the current risk for a single point in time during the illness like a snapshot, more strongly reflect the development over time of the risk? In this case, it is likely that a rethinking of risk stratification, in general, to risk stratification in the sense of observation would be necessary. An adjuvant therapy in the sense of ablation of ventricular tachycardia (VT) or antiarrhythmic therapy for primary prevention of frequently occurring episodes seems to be advised based on current data. However, the right point in time for a complementary intervention is still not clear.

Make the grade for Wegener's granulomatosis after kidney transplantation.

Antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies-associated vasculitis (AAV) is a well-described cause of multiple organ involvement including rapidly progressive pauci-immune crescentic glomerulonephritis. Kidney transplantation (KTx) is considered the treatment of choice in patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) due to AAV. Patient and graft survival in AAV after KTx is favourable and comparable with other non-diabetic causes of ESRD. While relapse of AAV is high in dialysis patients (up to 50%), it decreases after KTx (8.6–22.2%). Yet, relapse may occur at any time after KTx and transplant involvement has been documented in at least 25 cases. Therapeutic guidelines for the management of AAV after KTx do not exist and clinical management is a controversial discussion. We present two unusual cases of young males with smouldering AAV who recently underwent KTx at our hospital. Case 1 experienced repeated relapses after KTx and was finally successfully treated with rituximab. Case 2 received rituximab pre-emptively before living kidney donation and remained free of flairs. Prompted by theses two cases, we reviewed the literature focusing on the right point of time for transplantation, risk assessment, role of antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies, clinical presentation of flairs and immunosuppression in smouldering Wegener's granulomatosis (WG) and in relapse, including individualized treatment with rituximab.

Fallstricke bei Verletzungen des Kniegelenks

With injuries of the knee joint, a detailed investigation is essential to avoid a false diagnosis and to identify accompanying injuries of obvious trauma. This investigation should include native x-ray as well as other imaging procedures such as magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography. To treat knee joint injuries as successfully as possible, several factors are fundamental: the right point in time, the ideal surgical access path, and an appropriate implant and its correct placement.

Approach for personnel development planning based on the technology calendar concept

In the majority of manufacturing systems, human resources are the most expensive but also the most flexible factor. Therefore, the optimal utilization of human resources is an important success factor contributing to long-term competitiveness. In order to meet future requirements, which arise from continuous changes to products and technologies, production enterprises are forced to constantly adapt their human resources with respect to the number and abilities of employed persons. In order to accomplish this, it is necessary to define time frames, which allow for at least a rough planning of the needed number and abilities of a workforce. These time frames are determined by the dates when product or technology changes are expected. This already known technology calendar concept has now been enhanced by time frames for personnel development measures. Which worker is suitable for further education and how the respective abilities should be achieved is a subject matter related to the determination of qualitative personnel requirements, whereas the number of needed persons is a quantitative issue. If the required qualifications are to be available at the right point in time, it is indispensable that the necessary qualification measures are defined and scheduled appropriately. The concept, which has been developed here, describes the qualification measures, sorted into target groups, content, qualification costs and time. As a means to meet the personnel requirements arising from continuous changes to products and technologies, the enhanced technology calendar concept will be illustrated by using an application example.