Traditional Management Techniques Research Articles

The treatment of diffuse sclerosing osteomyelitis with oral bisphosphonates

AbstractDiffuse sclerosing osteomyelitis (DSO) is a rare inflammatory disease of bone. The underlying cause is poorly understood and traditional management techniques have struggled to provide patients with adequate relief. A number of reports in the literature have described the use of bisphosphonates to manage DSO; however, these have predominantly been associated with the intravenous formulation. Understandably, there is an element of angst due to its underlying and well‐recognised risk of osteonecrosis of the jaw. In this article, we review the literature for the management of DSO including the novel approach of using bisphosphonates. As an example, we present a case of a 56‐year‐old female with DSO where conventional therapies failed to manage her symptoms; however, treatment with oral alendronic acid led to complete and sustained resolution. This case in conjunction with additional reported cases provides further evidence of the value of bisphosphonates in DSO and highlights that the use of oral bisphosphonates can be successful and could be a viable consideration prior to the use of intravenous versions.

Development of the Aircraft Structural Health Monitoring Equipment integrating Optical Sensor and Analog Sensor

The structure of the aircraft has made lots of effort to secure the safety, and the safety is remarkably secured through the lifetime management and the non-destructive inspection. However, periodic inspection requires much time and expense, and various monitoring techniques for aircraft structures are required, especially when the SHM technique is studied for composite structures that cannot use traditional lifetime management techniques. For performing this monitoring, the predeveloped analog sensor has a limit in durability and cable weight. Therefore, the demand for the monitoring equipment of the new technique has been increasing, and FBG and PZT sensor are used representatively. In this paper, we have developed a device that can acquire analog sensor (Accelerometer and Strain gage) and FBG sensor, and support interworking with the Air Data Bus (MIL-STD-1553B, Ethernet) for real-time analysis. Also, it satisfies various military environmental requirements for use in military aircraft. The equipment which is introduced in this paper is expected to be used for SHM and lifetime management.

Discovering User Behavioral Features to Enhance Information Search on Big Data

Due to the emerging Big Data paradigm, driven by the increasing availability of intelligent services easily accessible by a large number of users (e.g., social networks), traditional data management techniques are inadequate in many real-life scenarios. In particular, the availability of huge amounts of data pertaining to user social interactions, user preferences, and opinions calls for advanced analysis strategies to understand potentially interesting social dynamics. Furthermore, heterogeneity and high speed of user-generated data require suitable data storage and management tools to be designed from scratch. This article presents a framework tailored for analyzing user interactions with intelligent systems while seeking some domain-specific information (e.g., choosing a good restaurant in a visited area). The framework enhances a user's quest for information by exploiting previous knowledge about their social environment, the extent of influence the users are potentially subject to, and the influence they may exert on other users. User influence spread across the network is dynamically computed as well to improve user search strategy by providing specific suggestions, represented as tailored faceted features. Such features are the result of data exchange activity (called data posting) that enriches information sources with additional background information and knowledge derived from experiences and behavioral properties of domain experts and users. The approach is tested in an important application scenario such as tourist recommendation, but it can be profitably exploited in several other contexts, for example, viral marketing and food education.

Development of a framework for resilience measurement: Suggestion of fuzzy Resilience Grade (RG) and fuzzy Resilience Early Warning Grade (REWG).

Resilience engineering (RE) can be an alternative technique to the traditional risk assessment and management techniques, to predict and manage safety conditions of modern socio-technical organizations. While traditional risk management approaches are retrospective and highlight error calculation and computation of malfunction possibilities, resilience engineering seeks ways to improve capacity at all levels of organizations in order to build strong yet flexible processes. Considering the resilience potential measurement as a concern in complex working systems, the aim of this study was to quantify the resilience by the help of fuzzy sets and Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) techniques. In this paper, we adopted the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) method to measure resilience in a gas refinery plant. A resilience assessment framework containing six indicators, each with its own sub-indicators, was constructed. Then, the fuzzy weights of the indicators and the sub-indicators were derived from pair-wise comparisons conducted by experts. The fuzzy evaluating vectors of the indicators and the sub-indicators computed according to the initial assessment data. Finally, the Comprehensive Resilience Index (CoRI), Resilience Grade (RG), and Resilience Early Warning Grade (REWG) were established. To demonstrate the applicability of the proposed method, an illustrative example in a gas refinery complex (an instance of socio-technical systems) was provided. CoRI of the refinery ranked as "III". In addition, for the six main indicators, RG and REWG ranked as "III" and "NEWZ", respectively, except for C3, in which RG ranked as "II", and REWG ranked as "OEWZ". The results revealed the engineering practicability and usefulness of the proposed method in resilience evaluation of socio-technical systems.

Comment: Interactive Problem-Solving Interventions as Instrument of Conflict Transformation: Prospects and Challenges

Even though wars between states were historically the major forms of conflict, civil strife based on questions of identity, ethnicity, religion and other similar grounds has become the order of the day after the end of the Second World War. The complexity of mostly overlapping, social, economic, cultural, political and religious factors in these conflicts makes them difficult to deal with. This structural and conceptual metamorphosis in the international conflict paradigm has required the international community to rethink the traditional and formal conflict management and third party intervention techniques and instruments such as negotiation and mediation. In the course of achieving these goals, conflict scholars have focused on multiple but concurrent multi-track diplomacy instruments. Track II of this multi-track diplomacy and its conflict transformation instruments are based on the concerted efforts of unofficial actors to establish unofficial communication channels and facilitate the relations between the conflicting parties. One of the most commonly used instruments of Track II diplomacy is interactive problem-solving. The primary (but not the only) instrument of interactive problem-solving is a problem-solving workshop. This interdisciplinary comment deals with pertinent issues of relevance with regard to the nature and effectiveness of this conflict transformation instrument. In doing so, it makes a practical effectiveness assessment test against one of such methods, i.e., the Kumi method. Key termsConflict, conflict transformation, multi-track diplomacy, Track II diplomacy, interactive problem-solving, problem-solving workshop, Kumi Method

An Active Teaching Approach for Fetal and Maternal Assessment in Delivery Room: A Randomized Clinical Trial

ABSTRACTBackground: A modern teaching method has been used for educating the midwifery students. Regarding the importance of accuracy and speed among the midwifery students, especially in the stressful condition of childbirth, this study aimed to investigate the effect of time management and precaution techniques on the midwifery student's clinical performance in the labour ward.Methods: This study was conducted on 40 midwifery students during November 2015-March 2016. The participants were randomly assigned into the control and experimental groups that were trained using the traditional method and time management techniques, respectively. The subjects’ clinical performance regarding the fetal heart rate monitoring, contraction check, and physical examination was assessed using a checklist during the intervention and four months after the intervention. The data analysis was performed using the independent and paired t-tests through the SPSS version 14. P-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.Results: According to the results of the present study, there was no significant difference between the two groups regarding the speed of performing the examined clinical care before the intervention. However, following the intervention, there was a significant difference between the two groups in this regard (P=0.010). Additionally, the paired t-test revealed a statistically significant difference in the speed of performing the clinical care between the two groups after the intervention (P=0.018).Conclusion: As the findings of the present study indicated, the time management technique could improve the speed in the midwifery students. Therefore, this technique as a modern method is recommended to be employed in the emergency wards such as the labour and delivery wards.

An integrated flood management system based on linking environmental models and disaster-related data

The flood disaster management system (FDMS) is a platform developed to provide ongoing disaster reduction capabilities that cover the entire process of flood management. The ontology-based approach links environmental models with disaster-related data to support FDMS-constructed workflows with suitable models and recommend appropriate datasets as model input automatically. This automated activity for model selection and data binding reduces the time-consuming and unreliable operations involved in traditional management techniques, which rely on manual retrieval through simple metadata indices—typically when flood management personnel are overwhelmed with large quantities of observed data. The OpenMI-based modular design used in the system unifies interfaces and data exchange to provide flexible and extensible architecture. Subsequent 3D visualization improves the interpretability of disaster data and the effectiveness of decision-making processes. This paper presents an overview of the design and capabilities of FDMS that provides one-stop management for flood disasters.

Leveraging Cloud Based Big Data Analytics in Knowledge Management for Enhanced Decision Making in Organizations

In recent past, big data opportunities have gained much momentum to enhance knowledge management in organizations. However, big data due to its various properties like high volume, variety, and velocity can no longer be effectively stored and analyzed with traditional data management techniques to generate values for knowledge development. Hence, new technologies and architectures are required to store and analyze this big data through advanced data analytics and in turn generate vital real-time knowledge for effective decision making by organizations. More specifically, it is necessary to have a single infrastructure which provides common functionality of knowledge management, and flexible enough to handle different types of big data and big data analysis tasks. Cloud computing infrastructures capable of storing and processing large volume of data can be used for efficient big data processing because it minimizes the initial cost for the large-scale computing infrastructure demanded by big data analytics. This paper aims to explore the impact of big data analytics on knowledge management and proposes a cloud-based conceptual framework that can analyze big data in real time to facilitate enhanced decision making intended for competitive advantage. Thus, this framework will pave the way for organizations to explore the relationship between big data analytics and knowledge management which are mostly deemed as two distinct entities.

Risk management of Islamic banks: A search for empirical evidences

The objectives of this study are to determine 1) the effect of global economic and financial crisis on risk management, 2) the severity of different types of risk facing Islamic banks, 3) the risk levels of Islamic financial modes, 4) risk assessment techniques, and 5) risk management techniques. The structure of the balance sheet, the nature of Islamic finance instruments and funding sources have a great impact on the level of risk exposure of banks and the instruments. Credit risk is found to be the most serious risk, followed by liquidity risk, market risk and operational risk, in descending order of importance. As for the riskiness of Islamic financing modes, mudarabah is perceived to be the riskiest, followed by musharakah, while murabahah ranked as the least risky mode. Moreover, Islamic banks are found to use traditional risk management techniques more than sophisticated measurements. They also adopt risk mitigation techniques that are used by conventional banks in preference to techniques that are considered to be unique to Islamic banks. This paper is the first to study the risk management practices of Islamic banks operating in Bahrain. It also provides evidence about these practices after the global financial crisis that affected all countries, including Bahrain.

Adaptive Management as an Effective Strategy: Interdisciplinary Perceptions for Natural Resources Management.

Adaptive management is a well-established approach to managing natural resources, but there is little evidence demonstrating effectiveness of adaptive management over traditional management techniques. Peer-reviewed literature attempts to draw conclusions about adaptive management effectiveness using social perceptions, but those studies are largely restricted to employees of US federal organizations. To gain a more comprehensive insight into perceived adaptive management effectiveness, this study aimed to broaden the suite of disciplines, professional affiliations, and geographic backgrounds represented by both practitioners and scholars. A questionnaire contained a series of questions concerning factors that lead to or inhibit effective management, followed by another set of questions focused on adaptive management. Using a continuum representing strategies of both adaptive management and traditional management, respondents selected those strategies that they perceived as being effective. Overall, characteristics (i.e., strategies, stakeholders, and barriers) identified by respondents as contributing to effective management closely aligned with adaptive management. Responses were correlated to the type of adaptive management experience rather than an individual's discipline, occupational, or regional affiliation. In particular, perceptions of characteristics contributing to adaptive management effectiveness varied between respondents who identified as adaptive management scholars (i.e., no implementation experience) and adaptive management practitioners. Together, these results supported two concepts that make adaptive management effective: practitioners emphasized adaptive management's value as a long-term approach and scholars noted the importance of stakeholder involvement. Even so, more communication between practitioners and scholars regarding adaptive management effectiveness could promote interdisciplinary learning and problem solving for improved resources management.

Respectable femininity: a significant panel of glass ceiling for career women

Purpose This study aims to explicate the role of “respectable femininity” norms in the work lives of professional women and investigate the extent to which they impact female career advancement (or lack thereof) by way of creating a clash with the traditional career management techniques of accumulating social capital and managing desirable impression. Design/methodology/approach The qualitative research design was deemed appropriate for the study to gain an insight of the incumbents’ work experiences. The opinions, thoughts, experiences and expressions of the participants were gauged through in-depth, semi-structured interviews to ensure the coverage of all the relevant aspects while retaining the flexibility to obtain rich and detailed data beyond the preconceived questions. Findings It was found that working women in Pakistan feeling guilty of violating the norm of “confinement to private spheres” appeared obliged to abide by the respectable femininity principles of “domesticity”, “restrained networking” and “toning down their femininity” to maintain an “honourable” reputation/image in the society; however, these norms, in turn, created a significant hurdle in their career advancement by way of constraining their capacity to exploit the career management techniques of accumulating “social capital” and employing “impression management” tactics. Originality/value This research will add credence to the scant literature pertaining to the role of “respectable femininity” in the professional lives of working women. The study showcases the female’s enigmatic struggle of becoming a “good woman” and a “successful careerist” at the same time which culminates in to a series of subtle barriers in their professional careers mounting ultimately to become a significant panel of “glass ceiling” in their progression.

A Nose for Death: Integrating Trophic and Informational Networks for Conservation and Management

Non-lethal management of wildlife, both ‘problem wildlife’ and pest species, to protect crops and threatened species is becoming increasingly important as non-human animals and humans come into closer proximity. A particularly promising approach is to apply predator scents to manipulate the cost/benefit ratio that influences the behavioral decisions made by prey and other predators about where to forage or rest. However, such olfactory manipulations are not always successful. Using insights from size-structured food webs, we develop a novel integrative model of the information that animals acquire from eavesdropping on predator and conspecific scents. We show how animals can use the information content in predator scents to derive knowledge of other predators and competitors and thus influence their decision to stay in or leave an area. This model framework clarifies how predator scents can influence all trophic levels, from interference competition directed at smaller predators, to predation and herbivory, and exploits direct and indirect pathways to promote landscapes of fear that influence spatial and temporal patch use in target animals. We illustrate how the application of this conceptual model can focus future research to enhance the use of predator scent-based deterrents in conservation and management. This integrated model shows great promise for addressing wildlife management concerns and for eventually improving the success and efficacy of traditional management techniques.

Research Insights About Risk Governance

In recent years, expectations for increased risk governance have been placed explicitly on boards of directors. In response, boards are being held responsible for not only understanding and approving management’s risk management processes, but they are also being held responsible for assessing the risks identified by those processes as part of overseeing management’s pursuit of value. These increasing responsibilities have led a number of organizations to adopt enterprise risk management (ERM) as a holistic approach to risk management that extends beyond traditional silo-based risk management techniques. As boards, often through their audit committee, consider management’s implementation of ERM as part of the board’s risk oversight, a number of questions emerge that can be informed by academic research related to ERM. This article summarizes findings from ERM research to provide insights related to the board’s risk governance responsibilities. We also identify a number of research questions that warrant further analysis by governance scholars. It is our hope that this article will spawn varying types of research about ERM and corporate governance.

Project Management Tool based on the Current Trends: Techtool

Background/Objectives: Modern day projects involves people from different geographical location working together so managing the workflow, handling the deadlines have become very important feature of a project management tool. TechTool provides the user interface to manage such projects. Methods/Statistical Analysis: The method of building this application is use of server side scripting as Hypertext Processor (PHP), query language as SQL and client side scripting using Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), JQuery and JavaScript. The method of analysis is done by user reviews and studies based on similar past projects. Findings: Software project management is a very important part for building a quality software, Software project management should be up to date with latest technologies and needs of current organizations. Now-a-days it is very common for an organization to be based on different geographical locations so such a system is desired. If companies apply the traditional project management techniques, the schedule will slip away during testing. To be able to avoid these problems, software project management tools focused on matching user requirements to deliver products with utmost coronation among all the drains that are working in the organization 1 . Many new techniques are available in TechTool based on current trends which will make the work easier and on time with better quality. Interaction between people based in different location is physically impossible but TechTool will provide a platform for them to interact with the manager as well as among themselves. Improvements/Applications: There are many improvements from the existing systems that results to better quality of the project and its on-time completion.

A deterministic Key Predistribution Method for Wireless Sensor Networks Based on Hypercube Multivariate Scheme

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are often deployed in antagonistic environments and thus nodes can be potentially captured by an adversary. Therefore, the security is a fundamental issue in sensor networks and key management is a basic security service in these networks. Due to the limitations on sensor nodes, the traditional key management techniques are not suitable. Recently, a number of key predistribution techniques are proposed for establishing the pairwise key in sensor networks by some researchers. In this paper, we propose a key predistribution scheme based on multivariate polynomials. The basic idea of our approach is to apply the combinatorial design theory in the multivariate key predistribution scheme. In this scheme, using the IDs of sensors as an d tuple of positive integers and the combinatorial design, the shares of multivariate polynomials store in sensor nodes before the network deployment. Our results in this paper show that the our proposed approach has better security than the previous schemes in terms of resilience against node capture without the additional communication overhead.

Toward Project Complexity Evaluation: A Structural Perspective

Complexity is often quoted as an independent variable that challenges the utility of traditional project management tools and techniques. A large body of work has been devoted in exposing its numerous aspects, yet means for quantitatively assessing it have been scarce. Part of the challenge lies in the absence of hard evidence supporting the hypothesis that projects can be considered as complex systems, where techniques for measuring such complexity are better established. In response, this study uses empirical activity networks to account for the technological aspect of five projects. By doing so, the contribution of this study is twofold. First, a procedure for the quantitative assessment of an aspect of project complexity is presented; namely, structural complexity. Second, results of the analysis are used to highlight qualitatively similar behavior with a well-known complex system, the Internet. As such, it suggests a transition from the current, metaphorical view of projects being complex systems to a literal one.From a practical point of view, this study uses readily captured and widely used data, enabling practitioners to evaluate the structural complexity of their projects to explore system pathologies and, hence, improve the decision-making process around project bidding, resource allocation, and risk management.

An application of recreation resource assessment techniques to inform management action in an urban-proximate natural area

Urban populations in North America are increasing, putting added pressure on urban-proximate natural areas which provide urban residents with a natural location for respite and recreation. The application of traditional recreation management techniques – generally utilized in federally owned, public lands – can provide an understanding of the biophysical and social conditions of a natural area. In order to better measure both current biophysical and social conditions, set a baseline for future monitoring, and inform future management actions, an interdisciplinary approach was taken at the Swaner Preserve and EcoCenter in Park City, Utah. Trail assessments, visitor use estimations and social science visitor surveys were conducted to provide an understanding of recreation use. Results from the study indicate that despite high levels of use, trails on the Swaner Preserve are in a condition that is acceptable to managers; with the exception of a few locations where high levels off-trail use occurs. Visitors to the natural area, although mostly local, were largely unaware of the other interpretative and educations activities provided by the Swaner Preserve and EcoCenter. Results from the study led to various management and stewardship suggestions which were presented to the Swaner Preserve and EcoCenter managers. Managers utilized these science-based suggestions to make various management changes on the Swaner Preserve. Overall, traditional recreation management techniques can provide the baseline information that natural area managers need to begin long-term monitoring efforts in a reasonable amount of time with a relatively small staff. Management implications●The study presents recommendations for the management of urban natural areas characterized by an increasing year-round use and encroaching development.●This comprehensive framework of a social-ecological approach that can be used by managers of smaller, local natural areas to balance dual missions of natural resource protection and managing for recreation use.●The best management results can be expected when applying this social-ecological approach in a comprehensive manner while working closely with natural area managers.●The approach presented in this study is (1) able to meet the specific needs and objectives of natural areas managers, (2) cost effective in terms of time and labor, and (3) can be easily replicated at other urban-proximate natural areas and/or be used for long-term monitoring.

Traditional irrigation techniques in MENA with a focus on Tunisia

ABSTRACTDue to their efficiency, revitalized traditional techniques for irrigation management of scarce water resources have been suggested as a way to at least partially cope with the present water crises in the Middle East. A better irrigation management includes re-using treated wastewater in agriculture. Treated wastewater should also be used in industrial processes, thus contributing to a more efficient overall water management. However, the most important change leading to better water management is improving water efficiency in agricultural irrigation. Traditional water management techniques have an important role in many Middle East and North African (MENA) countries. Besides bringing more water to a thirsty population, they can also contribute to the societal awareness, and recognition of the great diversity of cultural and social values water has to human civilization.EDITOR D. Koutsoyiannis; ASSOCIATE EDITOR P. Hubert

Utilization Aware Power Management in Reliable and Aggressive Chip Multi Processors

With increasing transistor density on a single chip, processor design in the nanoscale era is hitting power and frequency walls. Due to these challenges, processors not only need to run fast, but remain cool and consume less energy. At this juncture where no further improvement in clock frequency is possible, data dependent latching through timing speculation provides a silver lining. In this paper, (a) we present a novel power level switching mechanism using reliable and aggressive designs that support overclocking. Using the proposed framework, we achieve 40 percent speed-up and also observe 75 percent energy-delay squared product (ED $^2$ ) savings relative to the base architecture. (b) showcase the loss of efficiency in current chip multiprocessor systems due to excess power supplied. We propose a utilization-aware task scheduling (UTS)—a power management scheme that increases energy efficiency of chip multiprocessors. (c) demonstrate that UTS along with aggressive timing speculation extracts ample performance from the system without loss of efficiency, and also without breaching power and thermal constraints. We demonstrate that UTS improves performance by 12 percent due to aggressive power level switching and over 50 percent in ED $^2$ savings in comparing to traditional power management techniques.

From the Hard Paradigms towards Multimethodology in Project Management

Traditional project management techniques rely on detailed models of a component of a project with the main object of providing tactical and operational advice. However, the interrelationships between the project's components are more complex than that suggested by traditional methods. Project management is now being applied to non-traditional areas where change may be common, only broad goals may be scheduled and defined, and the negotiation of these goals may be as important to success as efficiency of project delivery. In this context, a major role for new approaches is suggested, particularly at the front-end of projects, where project managers need to use softer tools within a ‘hard’ framework of decision point milestones. Multimethodology can be seen as a possible means to facilitate this rapid problem structuring. In this paper, different methodological paradigms are distinguished and utilized as a framework to map a number of management science methodologies. It is the aim of this paper to help project managers to take a systemic view of the project, identifying a suitable combination of methodologies that provides a means to manage the project successfully