1,720,954 research outputs found
An integrated management strategy to reduce time and cost overruns on large projects
Get PDFThesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2017.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The completion of projects beyond their budgets and scheduled times is one of the biggest problems faced by many infrastructure projects today. Large infrastructure projects are the most affected by these overruns. Some projects have cost overruns of the order of 200 – 400% more than their planned estimates or contract values. Previous research has focused on identifying the most significant causes of time and cost overruns on projects in general and addressed solutions to the individual problems. Few scholars have carried out research in the management of large projects and how the implementation of a project management strategy could be used to reduce time and cost overruns and improve the delivery of these projects. In this research, the aim was to study how the actions of a project team in a large construction project affect the delivery of projects and to develop a project management strategy for the project owner to use on these types of projects.
The research focused on understanding the management of large infrastructure projects and how its dynamics affect performance of a project team. It then investigated how the performance of a project team is related to competence and preparation for the project. The research finally provided a project management strategy that could be used in the delivery of large construction projects in South Africa. The work was researched from the buyer’s or client’s point of view.
The methodology consisted of a thorough literature study, case studies and a questionnaire survey. Together, these components served to validate the findings and to support the proposal.
The solution consists of the management of the external, organization and project environments. This is to improve the collective project competence of the team for formulation and execution of large projects. The proposal includes the need for a high-level project organisation, a risk review board, early collaboration of stakeholders, and an increase in labour-based activities.
The research adds knowledge to the area of management of large projects and at the same time, integrates various concepts that were previously studied separately to provide a fresh look at the subject of management of projects. The research was focused in the Sub-Saharan region and South Africa in particular. It is hoped that the lessons and strategy formulated will be used in other developing countries.AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die afhandeling van projekte waarvan die begrotings oorskry word en die voltooiingsdatums nie nagekom word nie, is vandag van die grootste probleme waarmee infrastruktuurprojekte te kampe het. Dit is veral groot infrastruktuurprojekte wat die meeste deur hierdie oorskrydings geraak word. In sekere gevalle is projekoorskrydings tussen 200 en 400% meer as die beplande ramings of kontrakwaardes. Vorige navorsing beklemtoon die belangrikste oorsake vir tyd- en koste-oorskrydings ten opsigte van projekte in die algemeen en bied oplossings vir individuele probleme aan. Min navorsers het tot dusver die fokus op die bestuur van groot projekte laat val en gekyk hoe die implementering van ’n projekbestuurstrategie gebruik kan word om tyd- en koste-oorskrydings te verminder en groot projekte se afleweringstye te verbeter. Die oogmerk met hierdie navorsing is om die bestuur van groot infrastruktuurprojekte te ondersoek en ’n projekbestuurstrategie te ontwikkel wat gebruik kan word om verkryging vir groot konstruksieprojekte te vergemaklik.
Die navorsing fokus daarop om insig in die bestuur van groot infrastruktuurprojekte te bekom en te bepaal hoe ’n projekspan se dinamiek sy prestasie beïnvloed. Daar word vervolgens ondersoek ingestel na die mate wat ’n projekspan se prestasie met bekwaamheid en voorbereiding vir die projek verband hou. Ten slotte verskaf die navorsing ’n geldige besluitnemingsraamwerk waarvolgens ’n projekbestuurstrategie vir die lewering van groot konstruksieprojektegeformuleer kan word. Die werk word vanuit ’n aankoper en ’n kliënt se oogpunt nagevors.
Die metodologie behels ’n deeglike literatuurstudie, gevallestudies en ’n vraelysopname. Saam valideer en ondersteun hierdie komponente die studiebevindings en die aanbevelings.
Die oplossing bestaan uit die bestuur van die eksterne, die organisasie en die projek omgewings. Die doel daarvan is om die gesamentlike vaardighede van die projekspan te verbeter vir die formulering en uitvoering van groot projekte. Die spesifieke voorstel sluit in die nodigheid van ‘n hoë vlak projekorganisasie, ‘n raad om die risiko’s te beoordeel, vroeë samewerking van alle belanghebbendes, en ‘n toename in arbeids gebasseerde aktiwiteite.
Die navorsing verbreed nie alleen die kennisveldoor die bestuur van grootkontrakte nie, maar integreer ook verskeie konsepte wat voorheen afsonderlik bestudeer is,terwyl dit terselfdertyd ’n vars perspektief op die onderwerp projekbestuur bied. Die klem val spesifiek op die sub-Sahara-streek en Suid-Afrika. Die lesse en die strategie wat aangedui word, word as moontlike voorbeeld vir ander ontwikkelende lande voorgehou.Doctora
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
Author Under Sail The Imagination of Jack London, 1893-1902
No full textIn Author Under Sail, Jay Williams offers the first complete literary biography of Jack London as a professional writer engaged in the labor of writing. It examines the authorial imagination in London's work, the use of imagination in both his fiction and nonfiction, and the ways he defined imagination in the creative process in his business dealings with his publishers, editors, and agents. In this first volume of a two-volume biography, Williams traverses the years 1893 to 1902, from London's "Story of a Typhoon" to The People of the Abyss. The Jack London who emerges in the pages of Author Under Sail is a writer whose partnership with publishers, most notably his productive alliance with George Brett of Macmillan, was one of the most formative in American literary history. London pioneered many author models during the heyday of realism and naturalism, blurring the boundaries of these popular genres by focusing on absorption and theatricality and the representation of the seen and unseen. London created an impassioned, sincere, and extremely personal realism unlike that of other American writers of the time. Author Under Sail is a literary tour de force that reveals the full range of London as writer, creative citizen, and entrepreneur at the same time it sheds light on the maverick side of machine-age literature.Intro -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Spirit Truth -- 2. From Absorption to Theatricality and Back Again -- 3. "I Will Build a New Present" -- 4. Sons as Authors -- 5. Fathers as Publishers -- 6. The Daughter as Author -- 7. Lovers as Authors -- 8. At Sea with the Family -- 9. Yellow News, Yellow Stories -- 10. The Return Home -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index -- About Jay WilliamsIn Author Under Sail, Jay Williams offers the first complete literary biography of Jack London as a professional writer engaged in the labor of writing. It examines the authorial imagination in London's work, the use of imagination in both his fiction and nonfiction, and the ways he defined imagination in the creative process in his business dealings with his publishers, editors, and agents. In this first volume of a two-volume biography, Williams traverses the years 1893 to 1902, from London's "Story of a Typhoon" to The People of the Abyss. The Jack London who emerges in the pages of Author Under Sail is a writer whose partnership with publishers, most notably his productive alliance with George Brett of Macmillan, was one of the most formative in American literary history. London pioneered many author models during the heyday of realism and naturalism, blurring the boundaries of these popular genres by focusing on absorption and theatricality and the representation of the seen and unseen. London created an impassioned, sincere, and extremely personal realism unlike that of other American writers of the time. Author Under Sail is a literary tour de force that reveals the full range of London as writer, creative citizen, and entrepreneur at the same time it sheds light on the maverick side of machine-age literature.Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, YYYY. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries
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