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Project Design (project + design)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Medical Sciences	30%

Selected Abstracts

Variation across the agricultural season in organophosphorus pesticide urinary metabolite levels for Latino farmworkers in eastern North Carolina: Project design and descriptive results

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL MEDICINE, Issue 7 2009
Thomas A. Arcury PhD
Abstract Background Community Participatory Approach to Measuring Farmworker Pesticide Exposure, PACE3, used a longitudinal design to document pesticide biomarkers among farmworkers. This article presents an overview of PACE3 and provides a descriptive analysis of participant characteristics and one set of pesticide biomarkers, the dialkylphosphate (DAP) urinary metabolites of organophosphorus (OP) pesticides. Methods Two hundred eighty seven farmworkers were recruited during 2007 from 44 farmworker camps in 11 eastern North Carolina counties. Participants provided interviews, urine samples, blood samples, and saliva samples up to four times at monthly intervals beginning in May. A total of 939 data points were collected. Results Farmworkers were largely men (91.3%) from Mexico (94.8%) with a mean age of 33.7 years (SE 0.82); 23.3% spoke an indigenous language. Across all data points, frequencies of detection and median urinary concentrations were 41.3% and 0.96,µg/L for dimethylphosphate (DMP), 78.3% and 3.61,µg/L for dimethylthiophosphate (DMTP), 33.3% and 0.04,µg/L for dimethyldithiophosphate (DMDTP), 40.5% and 0.87,µg/L for diethylphosphate (DEP), 32.3% and 0.17,µg/L for diethylthiophosphate (DETP), and 8.09% and 0.00,µg/L for diethyldithiophosphate (DEDTP). The frequencies of detection and urinary concentrations of the DAP metabolites increased during the season. Conclusions More PACE3 participants were from Mexico, male, migrant workers, and spoke an indigenous language compared to national data. PACE3 participants had comparable frequencies of detection and urinary metabolite concentrations with participants in other studies. Variability in the frequencies of detection and urinary concentrations of the DAP metabolites indicates the importance of longitudinal studies of biomarkers of currently used pesticides in farmworker populations. Am. J. Ind. Med. 52:539,550, 2009. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]

Estimation of erosion and deposition volumes in a large, gravel-bed, braided river using synoptic remote sensing

EARTH SURFACE PROCESSES AND LANDFORMS, Issue 3 2003
Stuart N. Lane
Abstract System-scale detection of erosion and deposition is crucial in order to assess the transferability of findings from scaled laboratory and small field studies to larger spatial scales. Increasingly, synoptic remote sensing has the potential to provide the necessary data. In this paper, we develop a methodology for channel change detection, coupled to the use of synoptic remote sensing, for erosion and deposition estimation, and apply it to a wide, braided, gravel-bed river. This is based upon construction of digital elevation models (DEMs) using digital photogrammetry, laser altimetry and image processing. DEMs of difference were constructed by subtracting DEM pairs, and a method for propagating error into the DEMs of difference was used under the assumption that each elevation in each surface contains error that is random, independent and Gaussian. Data were acquired for the braided Waimakariri River, South Island, New Zealand. The DEMs had a 1·0 m pixel resolution and covered an area of riverbed that is more than 1 km wide and 3·3 km long. Application of the method showed the need to use survey-specific estimates of point precision, as project design and manufacturer estimates of precision overestimate a priori point quality. This finding aside, the analysis showed that even after propagation of error it was possible to obtain high quality DEMs of difference for process estimation, over a spatial scale that has not previously been achieved. In particular, there was no difference in the ability to detect erosion and deposition. The estimates of volumes of change, despite being downgraded as compared with traditional cross-section survey in terms of point precision, produced more reliable erosion and deposition estimates as a result of the large improvement in spatial density that synoptic methods provide. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Is improved high speed performance following frusemide administration due to diuresis-induced weight loss or reduced severity of exercise-induced pulmonary haemorrhage?

EQUINE VETERINARY JOURNAL, Issue S36 2006
X. A. ZAWADZKAS
Summary Reasons for performing study: Prerace administration of frusemide to horses has been linked with a significant improvement in racing performance, but the basis for this improvement is unclear. Objective: To test whether improved performance with prerace administration of frusemide is due to the drug's diuresis-induced weight loss rather than its apparent alleviation of exercise-induced pulmonary haemorrhage (EIPH). Methods: Eight thoroughbred horses underwent 3 trials in a random order, 2 or 3 weeks apart: control (C), frusemide/unburdened (FU), and frusemide/burdened (FB). None of the horses were known to have exhibited post-exercise epistaxis or endoscopic evidence of EIPH. Endoscope-guided bronchoalveolar lavages (BALs) were performed before and after each horse completed a standardised exercise test (SET) on an inclined treadmill to assess semi-quantitatively the volume of EIPH. For C, horses received an i.v. saline placebo injection (5 ml) and were unburdened while performing the SET. With FU, horses received frusemide (0.5 mg/kg) and were also unburdened. For FB, horses received frusemide and were burdened with weight equal to that lost during the 4 h post frusemide injection period. Erythrocyte number in BAL fluid, mass specific VO2max, time and distance for the entire SET as well as at maximum speed were recorded. A one-way repeated measures analysis of variance was conducted on all results. Results: Mass specific VO2max was significantly higher for the FU than for FB or C. Mass specific VO2max for FB and C were not different. More RBCs were found in BAL samples after C runs than after both FU and FB trial runs. Horses with the frusemide treatment (either burdened or unburdened) produced less EIPH than in the C trial, but their mass specific VO2max values were higher on the FU trial alone. For FU, horses ran longer at 115% VO2max than under C or FB conditions. Conclusion and potential relevance: Improvement of performance in the furosemide trials was due more to the weight-loss related effects of the drug than its apparent alleviation of EIPH. Further research is warranted with the same or similar project design, but with a larger sample size and with horses known to have more severe EIPH. [source]

Empowerment to participate: a case study of participation by indian sex workers in HIV prevention

JOURNAL OF COMMUNITY & APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 4 2006
Flora Cornish
Abstract The popularity of ,participation' and ,empowerment' in international development discourse is not matched by sophisticated conceptualisation of these terms. Critics have argued that their vagueness allows ,participation' and ,empowerment' to be used indiscriminately to describe interventions which vary from tokenism to genuine devolving of power to the community. This paper suggests that conceptualising empowerment and participation simply in terms of a scale of ,more or less' participation or ,more or less' empowerment does not capture the qualitatively different forms of empowerment that are necessary for different activities. Instead, the paper conceptualises participation in terms of concrete domains of action in which people may be empowered to take part. An ethnographic case study of a participatory HIV prevention project run by sex workers in Kolkata illustrates the argument. Four domains of activity in which sex workers may participate are distinguished: (1) participating in accessing project services; (2) participating in providing project services; (3) participating in shaping project workers' activity; (4) participating in defining project goals. To be empowered to participate in each domain depends upon a different set of resources. Asking the question ,empowerment to do what?' of health promotion projects is proposed as a way of facilitating appropriate project design. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Economic Evaluation of Scale Dependent Technology Investments

PRODUCTION AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2005
Phillip J. Lederer
We study the effect of financial risk on the economic evaluation of a project with capacity decisions. Capacity decisions have an important effect on the project,s value through the up-front investment, the associated operating cost, and constraints on output. However, increased scale also affects the financial risk of the project through its effect on the operating leverage of the investment. Although it has long been recognized in the finance literature that operating leverage affects project risk, this result has not been incorporated in the operations management literature when evaluating projects. We study the decision problem of a firm that must choose project scale. Future cash flow uncertainty is introduced by uncertain future market prices. The firm's capacity decision affects the firm's potential sales, its expected price for output, and its costs. We study the firm's profit maximizing scale decision using the CAPM model for risk adjustment. Our results include that project risk, as measured by the required rate of return, is related to the inverse of the expected profit per unit sold. We also show that project risk is related to the scale choice. In contrast, in traditional discounted cash flow analysis (DCF), a fixed prescribed rate is used to evaluate the project and choose its scale. When a fixed rate is used with DCF, a manager will ignore the effect of scale on risk and choose suboptimal capacity that reduces project value. S/he will also misestimate project value. Use of DCF for choosing scale is studied for two special cases. It is shown that if the manager is directed to use a prescribed discount rate that induces the optimal scale decision, then the manager will greatly undervalue the project. In contrast, if the discount rate is set to the risk of the optimally-scaled project, the manager will undersize the project by a small amount, and slightly undervalue the project with the economic impact of the error being small. These results underline the importance of understanding the source of financial risk in projects where risk is endogenous to the project design. [source]

Practical assessment of project performance: the ,potential impact' approach,

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION & DEVELOPMENT, Issue 5 2000
Michael Hubbard
This article sets out an approach to assessing project performance, using ,potential impact' of the project. Its purpose is to assist project design and evaluation. In project design, potential impacts of alternative activities on the project objective are compared, in order to select activities with the greatest impact. In project evaluation, potential and actual impacts of a project are compared. Additional benefits of the approach are that it indicates ,value for money' of development assistance invested in projects, and easier tracing of reasons for underachievement in projects to weaknesses in their design or management. Limitations are that it relies on informed judgement of the planners or evaluators and the categories for rating performance may unavoidably be broad. It complements the logical framework approach by providing a practical design and evaluation tool. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Systematic Postproject Appraisals to Maximize Lessons Learned from River Restoration Projects: Case Study of Compound Channel Restoration Projects in Northern California

RESTORATION ECOLOGY, Issue 3 2007
Mark R. Tompkins
Abstract We conducted systematic postproject appraisals (PPAs) of seven compound channel restoration projects, supplementing available data with new field data and analyses to produce comparable datasets for all seven projects. We describe how systematic PPAs can be developed and illustrate a systematic PPA for compound channel projects organized around performance with respect to geomorphic, habitat, and conveyance objectives. We found that preexisting monitoring programs for a group of similar restoration projects can be supplemented with relatively low-effort data collection and analyses to produce lessons on a "class" of restoration projects. Using this approach to assess a set of seven compound channel projects, we found that two fully achieved geomorphic objectives, three appear likely to achieve geomorphic objectives with additional time and/or minor interventions, and two did not achieve geomorphic objectives. Further, four projects achieved habitat objectives and three projects appeared likely to achieve objectives if given more time to develop and/or a minor intervention to mitigate limitations on critical ecological processes. Finally, four of the projects satisfied conveyance objectives, and the remaining three appeared likely to satisfy objectives with minor interventions to maintain design roughness and geometry conditions. Based on observations from our new systematic PPA approach applied to compound channels in Mediterranean climates, we suggest application of systematic PPAs for other classes of river restoration projects to evaluate scale and geomorphic setting issues in project design, to refine postproject monitoring guidelines, and to predict vegetation recruitment, growth, and succession patterns to avoid potential vegetation problems. [source]

Balancing the Need to Develop Coastal Areas with the Desire for an Ecologically Functioning Coastal Environment: Is Net Ecosystem Improvement Possible?

RESTORATION ECOLOGY, Issue 1 2005
R.M. Thom
Abstract The global human population is growing exponentially, close to a majority lives and works near the coast, and coastal commerce and development are critical to the economies of many nations. Hence, coastal areas will continue to be a major focus of development and economic activity. People desire the economic advantages provided by coastal development along with the fisheries and social commodities supported by estuarine and coastal ecosystems. Because of these facts, we view the challenge of balancing coastal development with enhancing nearshore marine and estuarine ecosystems (i.e., net ecosystem improvement) as the top priority for coastal researchers in this century. Our restoration research in Pacific Northwest estuaries and participation in nearshore project design and impact mitigation has largely dealt with these competing goals. To this end, we have applied conceptual models, comprehensive assessment methods, and principles of restoration ecology, conservation biology, and adaptive management to incorporate science into decisions about uses of estuarine systems. Case studies of Bainbridge Island and the Columbia River demonstrate the use of objective, defensible methods to prioritize tidally influenced shorelines and habitats (i.e., riparian forests, marshes, unvegetated flats, rocky shores, seagrass meadows, kelp forests) for preservation, conservation, and restoration. Case studies of Clinton, Washington, and Port Townsend, Washington, demonstrate the incorporation of an ecological perspective and technological solutions into design of overwater structures to minimize impacts on nearshore ecosystems. Adaptive management has allowed coastal development and restoration uncertainties to be better evaluated, with the information used to improve management decisions. Although unproven on a large scale, we think these kinds of methods can contribute to the net improvement of already degraded ecosystems. The ingredients include applied science to understand the issues, education, incentives, empirical data, cumulative impact analysis, and an effective adaptive management program. Because the option of net ecosystem improvement is often more costly than alternatives such as no net loss, commitment by the local or regional community to this approach is essential. [source]

COMPETITION AND COST OVERRUNS IN PROCUREMENT,

THE JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL ECONOMICS, Issue 4 2007
JUAN-JOSÉ GANUZA
Most cases of cost overruns in public procurement are related to important changes in the initial project design. This paper provides a rationale for the observed pattern in public procurement of underinvestment in design specification. We propose a two-stage model in which the sponsor first decides how much to invest in design specification and auctions the project to horizontally differentiated contractors. After the contract has been awarded and implemented, the sponsor and contractor receive new information about the optimal project design and renegotiate the contract to accommodate changes in the initial project's design. We show that the sponsor's optimal strategy is to underinvest in design specification, which makes significant cost overruns likely. Since no such underinvestment occurs when contractors are not horizontally differentiated, cost overruns are seen to arise as a consequence of lack of competition in the procurement market. [source]

Challenges to achieving sustainable community health development within a donor aid business model

AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH, Issue 3 2010
Helen Ashwell
Abstract Objective: This paper explores the paradox of donor aid being delivered through a business model through a case study in Papua New Guinea. Methods: A retrospective review of project implementation and an outcome evaluation provided an opportunity to examine the long-term results and sustainability of a large project. Analysis was informed by data collected from 175 interviews (national, provincial, district and village), 93 community discussions and observations across 10 provinces. Results: Problems with the business model of delivering aid were evident from implementation data and in an evaluation conducted two years after project completion (2006). Compounding the business model effect were challenges of over-ambitious project goals with limited flexibility to adapt to changing circumstances, a donor payment system requiring short-term productivity and excessive reporting requirements. Conclusion: An overly ambitious project design, donor dominance within the business model and limited local counterpart capacity created problems in the community initiatives component of the project. Contractual pressures can negatively influence long-term outcomes that require development of local leadership and capacity. Future planning for donor project designs needs to be flexible, smaller in scope and have a longer timeframe of seven to 10 years. Implications: Donor-funded projects need to be sufficiently flexible to apply proven principles of community development, build local ownership and allow adequate time to build counterpart knowledge and skills. [source]

Assembling the Project Team

NEW DIRECTIONS FOR STUDENT SERVICES, Issue 101 2003
Donald B. Mills
Although the approval of a project's design and budget typically rests with the campus governing board, a project team determines the configuration, the cost, and the utility of the completed project. Because of the importance of these decisions, colleges and universities must select project team members carefully. [source]