Senior Project Research Articles

Measuring Building Height Using Point Cloud Data Derived from Unmanned Aerial System Imagery in an Undergraduate Geospatial Science Course

The use of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), also known as drones is increasing in geospatial science curricula within the United States. Within the Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture (ATCOFA) at Stephen F. Austin State University, Texas, seniors in the geospatial science program complete capstone projects to evaluate current geospatial technology to investigate complex ecological, social and environmental issues. Under the umbrella of a student initiated and designed senior project, students designed a study to estimate height of buildings with UAS data incorporating UAS data, LP360 and ArcScene programs, and Pictometry web-based interface. Results from a statistical analysis of the data confirm that geospatial science height estimation techniques can provide accurate estimates of height remotely. The independence of the students completing the project with UAS data for LP360 and ArcScene estimations, and utilizing Pictometry as an on-onscreen measuring tool, point to the need to integrate remote sensing, statistical analysis and synthesis of data into undergraduate geospatial science curricula. This reinforces the hands-on learning approach within ATCOFA and provides guidance to integrate the use of UAS in natural resource education.

Refitting Stakeholder Integration Strategies: Case ICT Projects in Kenya

The ICT sector in Kenya is projected to be a leading contributor of the country’s developmental blueprint yet despite this, ICT projects that have been initiated in the country continue to face several challenges. In a review of the sustainability of these projects initiated in the country suggest that the biggest challenge in the ICT project implementation is relatable to the issues of stakeholder management. Particularly, the integration of various stakeholder clusters within the project schema still remains a challenge for the implementation of these projects. The research study examined existing stakeholder management models within the context of stakeholder integration from the ICT projects in Kenya. A Delphi (Qualitative) research model was employed to obtain data. Forty senior project practitioners were interviewed through the Delphi technique. The responses were analyzed through content analysis. The study has proposed a strategic stakeholder management model that could be used to enhance existing stakeholder integration practices in Kenya.

Involvement in State and Federal Aging Policy

The fourth speaker is Dr. Erica Solway. Dr. Solway will discuss her experience working in policy at the federal level as a Health and Aging Policy Fellow and a policy advisor with the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee on Primary Health and Aging and in her current involvement in policy-relevant research at the state and national level at the University of Michigan Institute for Healthcare Policy & Innovation. Dr. Solway is a senior project manager forthe evaluation of the Healthy Michigan Plan, Michigan’s Medicaid expansion program, and is also an associate director of the University of Michigan National Poll on Healthy Aging.

The Research Protocol of SENIOR Project-Psychiatric Services and Support System for Serious Mental Illness in Old Age, Kerala, India.

Background:India has the second-largest population of elderly in the world. Serious mental illness (SMI) is a subset of the mental disorders that result in significant functional impairment and is usually long term. Persons with SMI face several challenges in their old age that are different from the issues faced by younger people with SMI. Understanding the problems faced by elderly individuals suffering from SMI is fundamental for planning programs to address them. The SENIOR (Support Systems Evaluation of Neuropsychiatric Illness in Old age) project is a study aimed at evaluating the problems faced in obtaining mental health care by elderly persons having SMI in the Kerala state of India.Aim:To describe the scientific methodology of the SENIOR project.Methods:This study employs mixed-methods cross-sectional design among a minimum sample of 768 SMI patients identified through cluster sampling from three districts, and Focus Group Discussion among mental health program officials.Discussion:This paper presents a methodological model to assist researchers in future field epidemiological studies on mental illness. Assessing service needs and barriers to access for the most vulnerable among the mentally ill will help the policymakers make evidence-based decisions to improve their quality of life.

Impact Assessment and Prioritization of Critical Delay Factors for a Road Project

Indian road sector has witnessed significant changes from the year 2014. The new government administrators and the ministry of road transport and highways have brought in various policy reforms, foreign investments and special drive to push the road construction activities. The ministry had initially planned to build roads at a pace of 40 km/day but only achieved construction of 32 km/day. In addition, a number of projects are pending which have been collectively taken up under the newly launched Bhartmala pariyojana scheme. There exist some constraints/factors within various stages of planning and execution, which is responsible for delays. The main focus of this study was to carry out an assessment of the impact of delay factors and prioritize them for a road project. A questionnaire survey followed by informal interviews was carried out to identify and assess the impact of various delays occurring in road projects in India. Data were collected amongst senior project stakeholders from government departments, consultants, contractors, and academicians. The response data were statistically analyzed and the results were used on a sample road project. A 4D virtual model of the entire stretch was made. A list of delays apt for the project was identified and their impacts on planned schedule and cost were found. The data were run on a monte carlo simulation platform for various outcomes on project planned time and cost. The simulation results revealed critical delay factors responsible for major delays in the road project. The critical delay factors are to be properly targeted, handled, and managed to ensure success in project completion. The findings of this study will greatly benefit stakeholders in road construction to identify and control the critical delay factors.

Improving wellbeing of community-dwelling people with mild cognitive impairment: the SENIOR (SystEm of Nudge theory based ICT applications for OldeR citizens) project

Population aging with longer life expectancy represents one of the most relevant challenges of the next future, also because of a significant proportion of older adult people may present with dementia. Motivating senior citizens with mild cognitive impairment to maintain their independence and functional abilities, improve health status and quality of life as well as social interactions, constitutes the main target of preventive medicine. According to a nudge theoretical approach, the SENIOR (SystEm of Nudge theory based ICT applications for OldeR citizens) project– developed thanks to the collaboration among Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Bicocca University and IRCCS Auxiologico Institute in Milan (Italy) – has been designed to adopt an advanced information and communication technology coaching system able to collect and integrate physiological, psychological and behavioral data, with the final aim of interacting with community-dwelling elderly people suffering from mild cognitive impairment and of providing them personalized feedback on lifestyle management. The SENIOR project proposes to use a smart-watch app for alerting family doctors, sharing information with family members in specific cases and monitoring patients at higher risk in hospital Units, in order to ameliorate health of senior citizens with mild cognitive impairment.

Развитие связной речи детей старшего дошкольного возраста средствами проектной деятельности

The resent research featured psychological and pedagogical approaches to determining the essential characteristics of coherent speech as a higher mental function. The article focuses on coherent speech development in senior preschoolers and project activities that improve it. The research objective was to study related scientific sources and experimentally justify the efficiency of project activities that improve various parameters of coherent speech in children of senior preschool age. The paper introduces qualitative characteristics of coherent speech development in senior preschoolers. Its specific features include variability in the formation levels of skills to generate simple and complex sentences, as well as to retell and compose texts. The article describes various technologies of coherent speech development, including project activities in the process of interaction between an adult and a child. The experiment confirmed a positive impact of project activities on the coherent speech of senior preschoolers.

The first disease centred network in Spain: a bottom-up cardiovascular hospital and primary care network focused on reducing variability, improving population health and efficiency

Abstract Introduction In an autonomous region in Spain, the heads of cardiovascular disease from four hospitals, forty-three primary care centres and the ambulance provider, have come together to collectively reduce variability, improve outcomes and patient experience, increase efficiency and focus on population health through prevention. As a result, a cardiovascular network was founded to address the needs of the population through eight projects, each with a group of professionals dedicated to its completion. This region has Beveridge-type universal healthcare and the clinical network must operate under a choice model in which patients can choose where they wish to be treated. This approach has never been carried forward in Spain previously nor, as far as we are aware, in Europe from the bottom-up with clinical leaders achieving buy-in from the political level. Purpose With the well-known demographic challenge putting the system under strain, our hypothesis is that this innovative collaborative approach where by hospitals pool resources and implement collective improvements from the bottom-up will results in better health for its population of over one million people. Methods The Institute for Healthcare Improvement's Assessment Scale for Collaboratives is used to track project progress through the valuation of project leads assigned to each project and the senior project manager. This scale divides progress from: forming team, activity but no changes, modest improvement, significant improvement, and outstanding sustainable results; some are further subdivided as shown in the image. Projects each have their set of indicators to ensure project objectives are achieved. Results The network has 8 working projects which include different specialists, professional groups and organizations including primary care and the main ambulance provider. The four hospitals have pulled together their resources to recruit two project managers. Progress measured with the Assessment Scale for Collaboratives indicates that projects have moved forward 18% in a three month period, reaching an average progress of 35%. Conclusion The closer collaboration across four hospital sites has put this network at the forefront of Spanish health policy by focusing work on diseases rather than by geographical areas. This allows clinical leaders to decide and focus on objectives that most suit the needs of its population whilst building a culture of continuous improvement across multiple care sites and professional groups. Funding Acknowledgement Type of funding source: Foundation. Main funding source(s): Fundaciόn Interhospitalaria para la Investigaciόn Cardiovascular - Fundaciόn FIC

“Peace Had Its Defeats”: Researching Civil War Veterans, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Insanity

Research Article| October 01 2020 “Peace Had Its Defeats”: Researching Civil War Veterans, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Insanity Brian S. Bradshaw Brian S. Bradshaw Brian S. Bradshaw graduated Summa Cum Laude from Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, Illinois, in May 2018. He was awarded a Bachelor of Science in History and Psychology. This article was his senior project, and Brian was awarded the Kimball, McAfee & Riddleberger Award in Historical Studies and the Timothy P. Fischer Award in Historical Studies for his effort. Additionally, this article was presented in October 2018 at the Conference on Illinois History hosted by the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society (1998-) (2020) 113 (3-4): 67–93. https://doi.org/10.5406/jillistathistsoc.113.3-4.0067 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation Brian S. Bradshaw; “Peace Had Its Defeats”: Researching Civil War Veterans, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Insanity. Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society (1998-) 1 January 2020; 113 (3-4): 67–93. doi: https://doi.org/10.5406/jillistathistsoc.113.3-4.0067 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All Scholarly Publishing CollectiveUniversity of Illinois PressJournal of the Illinois State Historical Society (1998-) Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. Copyright 2021 by the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois2021 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

Cover Story: Matters of Perspective: Appreciating Diversity and Promoting Inclusion in Health Technology Professions.

Cover Story: Matters of Perspective: Appreciating Diversity and Promoting Inclusion in Health Technology Professions.

Analysis of factors affecting project communications with a hybrid DEMATEL-ISM approach (A case study in Iran)

One of the main factors in the success of projects is communications management and proper and timely distribution of information among all internal and external project stakeholders. Despite of emphasizing on the importance of project communications in the literature, there are few studies identifying factors influencing project communications. This research aims to address this shortcoming by identifying and determining sequences and relationships factors affecting project communications and their clustering. The informed communication strategy allows managers to structure the information flow in a better and more controlled manner and to avoid the costs caused by lack of effective and timely communication. The present study is conducted to help clarify the views of the organization's managers and project managers on project communications, and to identify factors affecting it and how they effectively communicate to successfully accomplish the projects. First a number of factors influencing project communications are identified on the basis of previous studies and interviews with experts and project managers working in oil, gas and power plant construction megaprojects in Iran. Then, these factors are analyzed by using the combination of fuzzy DEMATEL and Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) techniques. The relationships and sequence between the indicators are determined so that it can be effective in project communications planning and project success through providing an insight for senior managers and project managers.

The chief project officer: a new executive role for turbulent times

PurposeWhile it is common for most C-suite executives to have substantial project responsibilities, many do not have a strong understanding of project management leading to significant failures. As projects are the main mechanisms for implementing changes, project performance has disproportional impact on the competitiveness and viability of organizations. This paper aims to attempt to raise awareness of the Chief Project Officer (CPO) role and lay out important skills and capabilities that are needed for managers to ascend to this role as well as key topics of concern when preparing the mindset to be a successful CPO.Design/methodology/approachThe authors have based this research on reviewing publications from the project management journals and publications, interviews of project management professionals and drawing from our industry experience in the field of project management.FindingsMost organizations have project managers, either formal or informal, to lead projects. As project environment intensifies across industries, larger organizations rely on a project executives and project management office to oversee projects and performance of C-suite tasks. However, these projects and project management office (PMO) managers often lacks the authority and legitimacy to fully carry out the expected function. This is a clear gap in organizational management, and the gap is growing as more resources are dedicated to projects. Many organizations are equipped with the human resource to develop a CPO, the authors identify five main skills and 20 key topics that are crucial to the success of this vital role.Originality/valueWhile the awareness of the CPO is still in its infancy, most organizations have equivalent or emerging senior project executive roles that may evolve and become CPOs. Today, organizations are increasingly pushed to pursue project-oriented structures to a rapidly changing environment, global market and fast-paced technological advances. It is likely that the CPO role will grow and become a crucial component in top management teams in the coming years to help organizations in moving forward to achieve their strategic goals and objectives.

Helping women intrapreneurial leaders flourish: appreciating emotional labor

PurposeFaced with dynamic and challenging environments, organizations today expect all their leaders, including their women leaders, to be highly intrapreneurial. However, intrapreneurship is traditionally perceived to be a masculine activity. In order to appear intrapreneurial, women leaders consciously behave like men and suppress their feminine characteristics. This results in “emotional labor” that causes undue stress, emotional exhaustion, and burnout. Organizations can help intrapreneurial women leaders succeed by a combination of gender-related sensitization, focused training, setting up sharing and communication platforms, encouraging self-support groups and providing formal and informal mentorship to their women employees.Design/methodology/approachWe carried out qualitative research which involved 31 in depth semi-structured in-person interviews (including 11 repeat interviews) with 20 women leaders from seven large organizations from the Indian IT industry. The interviewees had 15 years of average work experience, were in the 35-50 years age group, and held senior management functional or project management responsibilities. The interviews were typically 60 minutes each. The researcher took detailed notes, and subsequently, manually carried out multiple levels and multiple rounds of coding (initially open-coding followed by focused coding) to identify and abstract the themes and categories.FindingsOur study identified that women leaders who are expected to behave as intrapreneurs, face “emotional labor” which results in stress, emotional exhaustion and burnout. To help women leaders succeed, a well-defined set of organizational interventions including gender sensitization, training, sharing & communication platforms, self-support groups, and formal and informal mentoring are useful.Research limitations/implicationsTo increase the generalizability of our study beyond the Indian cultural context and beyond the IT industry, future researchers may carry out both qualitative and larger sample quantitative studies in other countries, and draw upon data from multiple industries. The issues arising out of emotional labor of women intrapreneurial leaders are likely to be present in a wide range of industries and cultural contexts. However, there may be nuanced contextual differences that need further exploration. Future research can build on our findings and explore moderators, contingencies, and boundary conditions that affect the suitability of organizational interventions that we have suggested.Practical implicationsEmotional well-being of women intrapreneurial leaders would help them take innovative organizational initiatives, and make the organization strategically agile. To help women leaders be intrapreneurial, organizations need many interventions and need to provide the required supporting infrastructure.Social implicationsWays to resolve gender-related issues in workplaces are suggested.Originality/valueOur study is valuable as it simultaneously considers two strategic organizational objectives of intrapreneurship and gender diversity of leadership teams. The paper provides useful prescriptions for organizations to help women intrapreneurial leaders succeed. This will help organizations that are facing dynamic external environments become innovative and strategically agile.

Development of an impact-on-performance index (IPI) for construction projects in Malaysia: a Delphi study

Over the past decade, studies on measurements, factors, and indicators of construction companies’ performance have been spread in the construction management literature. There is adequate evidence that an increasing number of construction professionals have adopted, during the last decade, the impact-on-performance (IP) as a tool to support their decisions. Due to numerous benefits of evaluating the IP in construction, it becomes essential to conduct research in the area of key performance indicators (KPIs). Nevertheless, no comprehensive and systematic research studies in this area have been conducted, as indicated by this systematic research review. This paper reports an empirical study to formulate a model to assess the IP for construction companies in Malaysia. Real-time Delphi survey questionnaires were distributed to 15 respondents from Malaysian construction experts. The survey identified eight KPIs to evaluate the IP. These KPIs included: (1) cost, (2) time, (3) quality, (4) productivity, (5) safety, (6) environment, (7) satisfaction, and (8) communication indicators, respectively, ranked by their importance. A formula for calculating the IP index (IPI) for construction companies in Malaysia has been derived. Construction senior executives and project managers can use the index to measure, monitor, and improve the performance of their companies.

Chemical Approach to Separate Amino Alcohol Diastereomer Mixture

Identification of chiral compound has become the single most important research drug discovery since 1980. The advantage and disadvantage of having two isomers such as S or R rotation have been well documented in the literature. For example, Naproxen® commonly known as a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID). In its chemical structure, it has one chiral center which can provide a rotation of either R or S Naproxen®. The enantiomeric mixtures of Naproxen®, S-Naproxen® is one that used in pain relieve whereas the R- Naproxen® may give undesired side effect such as liver toxicity. Knowing how important separation of single isomer from the diastereomer mixture, my senior project is development of separating the diastereomer mixture using the chemical approach such as hydride mediated intramolecular cyclization. This project is a part of our on-going NP synthesis which has the significant relevant in anti-cancer research. In this poster, I am going to present three chemical steps leading into chemical separation of amino alcohol and provide with analytical data to confirm their chemical make-up.1st two chemical steps, CDI and NaBH4 reaction, are completed with their final yield calculation with the analytical data such as H1 NMR and C13 NMR are included in this poster. Addition to above two chemical steps, last stop of this project will be discussed and future direction of my research.

Selective Hydride Addition Reaction in Ester vs. Amide Chemical Functional Group

Cancer is among the leading causes of death in the United States. In fact, according to the Center for Disease Control, there was 599,108 cancer-related deaths in the year 2017. In addition to having a high mortality rate, the cost of cancer care has also continued to climb over the years and is estimated to reach 173 billion in 2020, according to the National Institute of Health. With that being said, more research and studies are needed to be conducted to find a more effective and inexpensive alternative, to contribute to the treatment of cancer. Natural products (NPs) have proven to be promising in drug discovery, particularly in the development of anti-cancer therapy. Therefore, in our research lab, we are interested in contributing to the development of a tripeptide natural product that could be used in oncology therapy. In fact, the main objective of this study is to evaluate the selective hydride addition reaction on those two functional groups which is a part of on-going synthetic NP synthesis of bio-active tripeptide. My senior project is involved with two chemical steps which is 1) Coupling reaction and 2) Hydride additional reaction. Thus far, we have successfully synthesized dipeptide and analytical data such as MS and NMR are presented in this poster with the most current update on this project on the hydride addition reaction. The outcome of this project provides us with the feasibility of possible NP peptide synthesis and a possible anti-cancer relevant analog development.

Assignment of project team members to projects

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate how project managers, influence the assignment of project team members by directly assigning or specifying who they want or by indirectly using lateral influence strategies to secure the appropriate resources. This study is part of a wider study investigating the balance between vertical and horizontal leadership in projects in which nomination (or assignment) was identified as a key event contributing to balancing the leadership. It focuses specifically on the nomination or assignment event at the start of a project.Design/methodology/approachBased on the philosophy of critical realism, case studies were used to collect data through 70 semi-structured interviews in Australia, Scandinavia and South Africa. Interviews were conducted with senior managers, project managers and project team members. Two project team members who worked with the same project manager were interviewed to gather diverse views. The data were analyzed individually by researchers from each location using a coding method proposed by Miles et al. (2014). The researchers then jointly analyzed the findings to arrive at five common themes from that explained how team members were assigned in practice.FindingsDespite the recognized need for project managers to form their own teams, this study found that project team members were often assigned by others. This was because project managers lacked authority to secure their resources. Therefore, they used lateral influence strategies to help with assigning project team members. The study identified five lateral influencing strategies adopted by project managers to assign team members: creating an image of competence; creating coalitions; taking a gamble; waiting for the right moment; and reasoning with facts. Two of these lateral influencing strategies were not identified in the previous literature on influencing strategies used in organizations.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings should not be viewed as representative of the respective continents where the cases were studied. However, this study contributes to the literature on project management, illuminating how project teams are assigned and by whom and, specifically, the role that influence plays during this event of the balanced leadership theory. It also identifies the types of lateral influence strategies used by project managers when assigning team members to their projects. It provides a pathway to explore the use of lateral influencing strategies by project managers beyond the assignment process.Practical implicationsThis study will help project managers to become aware of influencing strategies that they can use in practice while assigning team members to their projects. It will also highlight the importance of assigning the right resources to projects with a view to achieving balanced leadership.Originality/valueThis research is of value to organizations using projects to successfully deliver their strategies by assigning suitable resources to their projects.

Dialog międzypokoleniowy jako wartość na przykładzie autorskiego projektu „Aby Senior brzmiało dumnie!”

Upbringing is a lifelong process, one to which a person is subjected from birth to death. This process is based on an established system of values, which is first passed on to the child by the family, the immediate social environment. The ongoing socio-cultural, economic, political and demographic changes in Poland and the rest of the world indicate that the hierarchy of values of young people has changed over the years. It is essential that the generational transmission of traditional existential values is conducted through constructive intergenerational dialogue. This task should be implemented by both the family and social environment in which a young person exists. The institution of school is particularly important in this regard. In the article, the author presents her own way of implementing a multi-stage and multi-faceted senior project, integrating young people with different educational needs and the elderly from the local community in the spirit of Christian values.

Senior Project Leadership Skills and Career Stallers: Analysis of Perception Differences and Implications for Careers

We know little about which leadership skills matter most and according to whom in the career progression of project leaders. This research suggests that high-performing senior project leader talent have few skill or career staller blind spots that may endanger their careers. However, this may not be the case for all senior project leaders. It is therefore recommended that, as part of proactive career management, they seek feedback from managers who impact their careers the most. The research further suggests treating feedback from peers or direct reports with some caution as their ratings are significantly more generous than self ratings.

Taking cancer reporting into the 2020s

Since 2007, the RCPA’s Structured Pathology Reporting of Cancer (SPRC) project has developed evidence-based guidelines and structured reporting protocols for consistent reporting of cancers. Multidisciplinary SPRC expert committees continue to develop and update protocols for different tumour types. In 2011, an alliance of the RCPA, RCPath, CAP and CAP-ACP formed the International Collaboration on Cancer Reporting (ICCR), and membership has since expanded to include many other countries across the globe. The SPRC has streamlined protocol development in parallel with the ICCR, building upon ICCR datasets to tailor protocols for Australasian pathology practice to promote efficient, accurate and complete pathology reporting to an internationally harmonised standard. Tina Selinger (Senior Project Officer, SPRC) and Chris Hemmings (Chair and Clinical Lead, SPRC) will provide a brief overview of the SPRC project to date, and outline future directions for the project, particularly in light of these recent changes.