321 research outputs found
Achievements to date and existing research gaps in project management in the light of literature studies
No full textPurpose: The purpose of this article was to identify current development directions and potential research gaps in project management. Design/methodology/approach: The method of systematic review of articles published in the Elsevier - Science Direct database in the years 2000-2019 was used, where the search phrase was “project management” and the type of articles was “research articles”. In order to answer the research questions posed, an additional method of analysis and criticism of the literature was used. Findings: The following conclusions were drawn from the analysis of the articles: a) almost a third of them concerned the practical application of PM issues in one clearly defined sector of the economy, with the most common reference being to the building sector and IS/IT, b) most articles were created in English-speaking countries (47%), c) the largest number of articles concerned the area of human resource (HR) management, including many subjects of qualifications and leadership, d) of the ten areas of knowledge specified in PMBoK, “HR” and “scheduling/time” were the most popular, followed by risk-related issues. Practical implications: The findings of this article would contribute to building a strong and coherent theory and identify best practices in project management. Originality/value: The most important achievement is the recognition of two areas of knowledge - lean management and game theory - where little research has been done so far, and whose solutions and methods could be successfully implemented inside PM
Wiarygodne elektroniczne łańcuchy dostaw typu lean - studium przypadku
No full textBackground: Existing business model supply chains organisation results in inefficient use of transport resources, high transport costs, increasing congestions and CO2 emission. This effect has been demonstrated by research conducted by the author as well as by the European Environmental Agency. To change this situation companies are in need of affordable, realisable and trusted data-interchange solutions to take part in international trade and commerce flows. The aim of this paper is to present practical implementation of the developed by the authors concept of global freight management ecosystem and its practical implementation using T-Traco platform.
Methods: Survey, desk research and real case study results were used in the paper.
Reults and conclusions: Real time and global data exchange within the whole supply (including modes of transport and transport units) chain is a backbone of the lean and reliable digital supply chain.Wstęp: Istniejące modele współpracy w łańcuchach dostaw charakteryzują się mało wydajnym wykorzystaniem dostępnych zasobów transportowych, wysokimi kosztami transportu, rosnącym natężeniem ruchu na drogach oraz emisją CO2. Potwierdzają to badania przeprowadzone przez Europejską Agencję Ochrony Środowiska jak i samych autorów. Aby zmienić istniejącą sytuację przedsiębiorstwa potrzebują skutecznie, bezpiecznie i efektywnie kosztowo wymieniać informacje pomiędzy uczestnikami łańcucha dostaw. Celem artykułu jest zaprezentowanie praktycznego przykładu globalnego zarządzania łańcuchem dostaw przy wykorzystaniu platformy komunikacyjnej T-Traco.
Metody: W pracy wykorzystano badania ankietowe, przegląd literatury jak i rezultaty z praktycznego wdrożenia platformy T-Traco.
Wyniki i wnioski: Wymiana informacji w czasie rzeczywistym w ramach globalnych łańcuchów dostaw (włączając w to komunikację ze środkami transportu oraz jednostkami ładunkowymi) jest podstawą realizacji wiarygodnych i wydajnych procesów w ramach cyfrowych łańcuchów dostaw
Chronic Probing of Deep Brain Neuronal Activity Using Nanofibrous Smart Conducting Hydrogel-Based Brain–Machine Interface Probes
No full textThe mechanical mismatch between microelectrode of brain–machine interfaces (BMIs) and soft brain tissue during electrophysiological investigations leads to inflammation, glial scarring, and compromising performance. Herein, a nanostructured, stimuli-responsive, conductive, and semi-interpenetrating polymer network hydrogel-based coated BMIs probe is introduced. The system interface is composed of a cross-linkable poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)-based copolymer and regioregular poly[3-(6-methoxyhexyl)thiophene] fabricated via electrospinning and integrated into a neural probe. The coating's nanofibrous architecture offers a rapid swelling response and faster shape recovery compared to bulk hydrogels. Moreover, the smart coating becomes more conductive at physiological temperatures, which improves signal transmission efficiency and enhances its stability during chronic use. Indeed, detecting acute neuronal deep brain signals in a mouse model demonstrates that the developed probe can record high-quality signals and action potentials, favorably modulating impedance and capacitance. Evaluation of in vivo neuronal activity and biocompatibility in chronic configuration shows the successful recording of deep brain signals and a lack of substantial inflammatory response in the long-term. The development of conducting fibrous hydrogel bio-interface demonstrates its potential to overcome the limitations of current neural probes, highlighting its promising properties as a candidate for long-term, high-quality detection of neuronal activities for deep brain applications such as BMIs
Performance of a Micro Strip Gas Chamber for event wise, high rate thermal neutron detection with accurate 2D position determination
No full textDesign and performance of a system for two - dimensional readout of gas electron multiplier detectors for proton range radiography
No full textThe proton range radiography (PRR) technique being developed is expected to provide significant improvements in precision delivery of the therapeutic dose in the hadron therapy. The technique requires measuring residual energies and trajectories of mono-energetic protons passing through an object to be imaged. Such an imaging system can be operated in-situ before and after the treatment allowing real time monitoring of the irradiated tissue position. A detector system suitable for such applications must be capable of measuring proton tracks with submillimeter spatial resolution over area of 30 x 30 cm2. In order to limit the exposure time and obtain real-time images the detector and data acquisition must provide capability of measuring high proton rates up to 106 s-1. In this paper we present novel concept of two-dimensional (2-D) readout of the gas electron multiplier (GEM) detectors used as the position sensitive detectors. The key component of the system is an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) named GEMROC. The GEMROC comprises 32 independent channels, each one capable of measuring the amplitude and the time of incoming signals. The positions are then reconstructed by coincidences of signals from the X- and Y-readout strips. The design and performance of the GEMROC ASIC are discussed and the results obtained for a test bench based on a smaller 10 x 10 cm2 GEM chamber are presented. The test results demonstrate clearly that with respect to the two critical parameters, i.e. the noise and the count rate capability, the developed readout system meets the requirements for clinical applications of the PRR technique
Development of very high rate and resolution neutron detectors with novel readout and DAQ hard- and software in DETNI
No full textn the Joint Research Activity DETNI (DETectors for Neutron Instrumentation) of the FP6 EU Integrated Infrastructure Initiative for Neutron Scattering and Muon Spectroscopy (NMI3) prototypes of three novel modular thermal neutron area detector types, based on thin solid neutron converters, were built and tested, which were developed for time- and wavelength resolved neutron detection with 2-D spatial and time resolutions of 50–1000 μm (FWHM) and of up to 2 ns, respectively, and for counting rates in the 107 – 108 cps range, i.e. for coping with the highest resolution and rate requirements at pulsed spallation neutron sources with MW average proton beam power like ESS. The detector types are (i) four-fold segmented modules of Silicon microstrip detectors (Si-MSD) with 157Gd converter layer between two double-sided Si sensors with 80 1⁄4m strip pitch, (ii) hybrid low-pressure microstrip gas chamber (MSGC) detectors with three-stage gas amplification and 2-D position-sensitive MSGC plates either side of a composite 157Gd/CsI converter, (iii) CASCADE detectors with cascaded 10B-coated GEM (Gas Electron Multiplier) foils either side of a 2-D position-sensitive readout electrode. For readout in DETNI prototypes of two novel, channel-wise self-triggered high-rate ASICs, of ADC-FPGA boards with Gigabit glass fiber readout and of the necessary data acquisition firmware and software have been developed. The ASICs, i.e. the 128-channel n-XYTER ASIC, optimized for the Si-MSD and strip hit rates of 200 khits/s, and the 32-channel MSGCROC ASIC for the MSGC with variable amplification and strip rates of 900 khits/s, deliver for each strip spatial and 4 (2) ns time stamp resolution, respectively, the latter e.g. for correlating x and y strips unambiguously, as well as analog amplitude resolution for center-of-gravity interpolation and gating. In this paper the current status of prototyping will be reported
Study of B c + → J / ψ D s + and B c + → J / ψ D s ∗ + decays in pp collisions at √s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector
No full textA study of B+
c → J/ψD+
s and B+
c → J/ψD∗+
s decays using 139 fb−1 of integrated luminosity collected with the ATLAS detector from √
s = 13 TeV pp collisions
at the LHC is presented. The ratios of the branching fractions of the two decays to the
branching fraction of the B+
c → J/ψπ+ decay are measured: B(B+
c → J/ψD+
s
)/B(B+
c →
J/ψπ+) = 2.76 ± 0.47 and B(B+
c → J/ψD∗+
s
)/B(B+
c → J/ψπ+) = 5.33 ± 0.96. The ratio
of the branching fractions of the two decays is found to be B(B+
c → J/ψD∗+
s
)/B(B+
c →
J/ψD+
s
) = 1.93 ± 0.26. For the B+
c → J/ψD∗+
s decay, the transverse polarization fraction,
Γ±±/Γ, is measured to be 0.70 ± 0.11. The reported uncertainties include both the statistical and systematic components added in quadrature. The precision of the measurements
exceeds that in all previous studies of these decays. These results supersede those obtained
in the earlier ATLAS study of the same decays with √s = 7 and 8 TeV pp collision data. A
comparison with available theoretical predictions for the measured quantities is presented
Effect of anti-VLA-4 mAb treatment on CNS cellular infiltration, demyelination and axonal loss.
No full text<p>(A) Mice were sacrificed 40-46 days after immunization and cell infiltration, demyelination, and axonal loss were examined by immunohistology. Four spinal cord sections (cervical, thoracic, lumber, and sacral regions) were prepared from early therapeutic anti-VLA-4 mAb- and IgG-treated EAE mice. Demyelination and axonal loss were examined by staining with anti-myelin basic protein (MBP) and anti-neurofilament (NF) Abs, respectively. Cell nuclei were counterstained with DAPI and accumulation of cell infiltrates was detected by clusters of DAPI-positive cells. (a) An area showing both demyelination and axonal loss induced by infiltrated cells is shown by arrows. (b) Swelling axons (arrow head) and demyelinated axons (arrow) are shown. (c) Myelinated and (d) demyelination axons are shown. Staining of the lumber spinal cord section is shown. Scale: 100 µm. (B) Anti-VLA-4 mAb treatment suppresses demyelination and axonal loss in the CNS (brain and spinal cord). Demyelination and axonal loss were examined by measuring the area stained by MBP Ab and NF Ab, respectively, and the percentage of each area was calculated as described in the <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0099068#s2" target="_blank">Materials and Methods</a>. Anti-VLA-4 mAb-treated mice; n = 5 and IgG-treated mice; n = 4. Data represent mean +/− SEM. *; p-value <0.05</p
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