172 research outputs found
On the relevance of self-service business intelligence to university management
No full textPurpose: Nearly 40 years since they first appeared, there is renewed interest in dashboards, engendered by the diffusion of business intelligence (BI) desktop software, such as Power BI, QlikView and Tableau, denoted collectively as “self-service” BI. Using these commodity software tools, the work to construct dashboards apparently becomes easier and more manageable and no longer requires the intervention of specialists. This paper aims to analyse the implementation of this kind of commodity dashboard in a university, exploring its role in performance management processes and investigating whether the dashboard affects the organisation (or not). Design/methodology/approach: This paper focusses on an action research project developed by the authors, where the objective was to design and implement a dynamic performance measurement tool fitting the needs of department directors. The three authors were all involved in the project, respectively, as project manager, dashboard implementation manager and accounting manager of the studied organisation. Findings: The results reveal a specific but complex change to the procedures and outcomes in the organisation studied, where the dashboard becomes a boundary infrastructure, thereby reviving technical and organisational problems that had been latent for years. Originality/value: In this paper, the authors contribute to the debate on the digital age and the role of accounting with their exploration into the “revolution” of self-service BI tools. The democratisation and flexibility of these instruments put into discussion two core and somewhat controversial functions of accounting: data integration and personalised reporting
Fast Desensitized Optimal Control for Rocket Powered Descent and Landing
No full textThis research revisits the Desensitized Optimal Control Theory for its application to a computationally challenging numerical benchmark, specifically a descent and landing scenario involving a rocket propulsion system. The primary objective is to assess the efficacy of the proposed method in mitigating the impact of perturbations on the final state, thereby establishing a framework capable of simultaneously optimizing Guidance and Control for the specified case. Additionally, our focus is on formulating a rapid and computationally efficient approach to enhance speed without compromising precision. The investigation begins with a comprehensive analysis of the fundamental components of the method, particularly the sensitivity terms and the computation of feedback gains, with a comparison of alternative formulations to evaluate competitiveness. Subsequently, the application of this methodology to the target problem is thoroughly examined and characterized to reach the most efficient formulation, through the definition of dominant sensitivities. Case-dependent modifications are implemented to improve its performances, resulting in the to the introduction of the Marginal DOC Coefficient, and the results are critically compared against those obtained using conventional methods through an extensive Monte-Carlo analysis campaign
Effect of fertilization and mycorrhizal inoculation in the nursery on post-transplant growth and physiology in three ornamental woody species
No full textTwo-year-old Tilia cordata, Acer campestre and Quercus robur were inoculated, or not, with species specific mycorrhizal fungi and fertilized yearly with either 3 or 1 kg m-3 of a controlled release fertilizer. Plants were grown for 2 years in 3-L containers, and then were planted in a loam soil without any additional fertilization and irrigation. Mycorrhizal colonization was increased by inoculation, and little affected by fertilization. Plants growing in the nursery at the lower fertilization dose were smaller than those receiving the higher dose, and inoculation did not compensate for reduced nutrient availability. However, inoculation increased leaf gas exchange. After planting in the landscape, all inoculated plants showed lower mortality than their non-inoculated counterparts, whereas the effect of fertilization regime had a species-specific effect on survival and post-transplant growth. The higher survival of inoculated plants may be related to better leaf gas exchange performance after transplant
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