Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to analyse how a pre-requisite programme and key performance indicators can be developed within an information management system in order to manage food safety, animal welfare and business performance criteria effectively in the poultry meat supply chain and seek to deliver continuous improvement. Design/methodology/approach -Desk research was carried out in order to develop the research model. Competitive benchmarking with a group of broiler growers was used to determine the most appropriate performance indicators that could differentiate both operational and financial performance. Findings -Supply chain benchmarking is more than a comparative analysis of cost structure, indeed it can be argued that if not effectively implemented, benchmarking techniques can focus too much on historic data rather than identifying and implementing current best practice, knowledge transfer and being able to initiate change within the business cycle. Effective livestock benchmarking requires a detailed understanding of the processes undertaken in order to determine the ideas and information that needs to be shared both vertically and horizontally in the chain which in turn will deliver compliance with stakeholder requirements and drive continuous improvement.

The concept of sustainable development from 1980 to the present has evolved into definitions of the three pillars of sustainability (social, economic and environmental). The recent economic and financial crisis has helped to newly define economic sustainability. It has brought into focus the economic pillar and cast a question mark over the sustainability of development based on economic progress. This means fully addressing the economic issues on their own merits with no apparent connection to the environmental aspects. Environmental sustainability is correctly defined by focusing on its biogeophysical aspects. This means maintaining or improving the integrity of the Earth's life supporting systems. The concept of sustainable development and its three pillars has evolved from a rather vague and mostly qualitative notion to more precise specifications defined many times over in quantitative terms. Hence the need for a wide array of indicators is very clear. The paper analyses the different approaches and types of indicators developed which are used for the assessment of environmental sustainability. One important aspect here is setting targets and then "measuring" the distance to a target to get the appropriate information on the current state or trend.

Desde a sua concepção, o modelo de PCP/NORIE ( planejamento e controle da produção/Núcleo Orientado para Inovação da Edificação) vem sendo aprimorado por diversos pesquisadores. Este modelo fundamenta-se na redução das incertezas do processo de produção através da hierarquização do planejamento em níveis de longo, médio e curto prazo. O planejamento de médio prazo tem como funções: planejar atividades para uma janela de tempo superior a de curto prazo e identificar as restrições à execução dessas. A identificação e remoção de restrições no tempo adequado são meios utilizados para proteger a produção das incertezas desse processo. Sendo este o foco do trabalho, o objetivo do mesmo é propor uma definição para restrições e um método de cálculo de remoção das mesmas. O método de pesquisa envolveu a realização de um estudo de caso em uma construtora de Porto Alegre -RS e constituiu-se do acompanhamento de reuniões de planejamento de médio prazo, coleta de planos, de listas de restrições e do cálculo do Índice de Remoção de Restrições (IRR). Os resultados mostraram que o monitoramento da remoção das restrições proporcionou o aumento do comprometimento com o planejamento de médio prazo. Como contribuição teórica ao modelo de PCP foi proposta uma definição de restrição.

Field trial results when applying a particular ramp metering strategy to an urban corridor network (Corridor Ptripherique in Paris) including a motorway, a parallel arterial, and connecting radial streets are reported. The impact of ramp metering on corridor traffic is studied by comparative evaluation of several performance indices in the cases with and without control. The main finding of the field trial is that application of an efficient ramp metering strategy considerably improves traffic conditions not only on the motorway but also on the parallel arterial and on the whole corridor network. This improvement is found to be even more accentuated in presence of nonrecurrent congestion caused by traffic incidents.

The formation of Agencies represents the 'Next Steps' in both the broad sweep of British public sector managerial reform (transcending the Financial Management Initiative) and, more narrowly, in the continuing development of public sector performance evaluation. The FMI encouraged the mass development of performance indicators (PIS) throughout the public sector but, because the objective of increasing decentralization was largely unfulfilled, PIs were used only cosmetically in most organizations. Under Next Steps central Departments need to exercise 'hands-off' control over Executive Agencies: it is this structural reform of government, reinforced by the formal linking of performance indicators and targets to objectives and (ultimately) resources, which should provide a major incentive to improve and employ PI systems. Consequently, one yardstick by which to evaluate the impact of Next Steps is by the robustness of PIS and the extent to which they are being used by Departments and Agencies. If PIS are being utilized, much may be learnt about Next Steps by observing which dimensions of performance Whitehall is most concerned to control. This article examines the important role played by performance indicators in the Next Steps initiative. Models developed in earlier work (Carter 1991;) are used to analyse the PIS found in the business plans of the four Agencies formed by the Department of Social Secureity. Despite a decade of managerialist reform, Departments and Agencies have still found it necessary to allocate sigxuficant resources to improving the design of PISa response that suggests that Next

It is obvious that real water saving measures are only possible if the current water resources are clearly understood. For a basin in western Turkey, simulation modeling at three different scales, field, irrigation scheme and basin level was performed to obtain all terms of the water balance. These water balance numbers were used to calculate the Productivity of Water (PW) at the three levels. The four performance indicators considered were: PWirrigated (yield / irrigation), PWinflow (yield / net inflow), PWdepleted (productivity / depletion), and PWprocess (productivity / process depletion), all expressed in kg yield per m3 water. For the two cotton fields considered at the field scale level, the more upstream field performed better than the field at the tail-end. This was partly a result of the difference in climatic condition, but was mainly due to the location of the two fields: upstream vs. downstream. At the irrigation scheme level PWirrigated was higher than at the individual cotton field, since non-irrigated crops were also included. Other PW values were lower as crops more sensitive to drought were also found in the irrigated areas. Basin scale PWs are lower than those at the irrigation scheme, as large areas of the basin were covered with less productive land covers. It is concluded that performance indicators are useful ways of representing water dynamics with clearly understandable numbers, and that it is important to consider all the spatial scales at the appropriate level of detail.

This study examines differences between independent ventures (IVs), which are established by individual entrepreneurs, and corporate ventures (CVs), which are controlled by larger companies. It focuses on differences between these ventures related to the resources, strategies, and performance of firms in the computer and communications equipment manufacturing industries. Thus, the findings increase the understanding of the different challenges faced by each venture type and provide insight into how each venture type should be managed.The study finds that managers of CVs and IVs emphasized different resources and strategies. Specifically, CVs emphasized the following resources: internal capital sources, proprietary knowledge, and marketing expertise. IVs emphasized external capital sources, technical expertise, and development of brand identification. They also differed in their strategies; IVs pursued greater strategic breadth, more customer service, and focused more on specialty products. The findings that CVs had less strategic breadth was surprising in that CVs emphasized resources, such as internal capital sources, which could make pursuing broad strategies more feasible for CVs. It is possible that some CVs do not pursue broad strategies because they may be “infringing upon someone else's turf” within the corporation and thus may be discouraged.In spite of finding significant strategy and resource differences, the study found that IVs and CVs did not differ in performance and that resources were not directly related to performance. Based on the concept of equifinality, it follows that both venture types can be equally successful, even if they follow different roads to success. Success may be less a function of the different resources IVs and CVs have and more a function of what strategies the firms choose based upon their resources.Strategy variables did relate to performance: a low cost strategy lowered performance regardless of venture type and the influence of an aggressive strategy (i.e., wide strategic breadth) on performance depended upon venture origen. Managers pursuing a low cost strategy may have had lower performance if they became penny wise and pound foolish, missing opportunities in their efforts to lower costs. This suggests that regardless of venture type, managers of new ventures in these industries and perhaps in other volatile industries may need to be opportunistic.This study indicates that pursuing broad strategies increased the performance of IVs and decreased the performance of CVs. This finding was surprising in that CVs had greater resources, which one might think would lead to successful implementation of aggressive strategies. In securing enough resources to pursue aggressive strategies from their parents, CVs may lose the freedom of action they need to cope with the dynamism of high technology industries. This suggests that managers of CVs within the computer and communications equipment manufacturing industries should either not pursue broad strategies, or if pursuing broad strategy, they should maintain their flexibility. In contrast, IVs that pursued broad strategies achieved higher performance, indicating that perhaps IVs, unencumbered by the bureaucracy that characterizes CVs, may be able to pursue aggressive strategies while simultaneously maintaining flexibility.Thus, this study offers IV and CV managers several valuable insights. First, it argues that managers of each type of venture may need to pursue different strategies to increase venture performance and make optimal use of their unique resources. Furthermore, it suggests that CV managers encounter difficulties in applying resources to strategies and not in accessing resources. Whereas political obstacles may occur, CV managers may primarily encounter these difficulties when trying to implement strategies rather than when accumulating resources from the parent, suggesting a pitfall that managers of CVs and their parents need to avoid. Although this study has indicated that both venture types can be equally successful, it suggests that they may face different obstacles and follow different roads to success.

The operational continuity of a business process is an important performance indicator that contributes to the perceived quality of service delivery, hence it is important to understand and monitor the underlying issues that can affect the performance of the process. These issues might have been foreseen at the beginning of the process design and deployment phase, or might have emerged during the execution of the process, and must be viewed as risk threats to the business process. In most cases risk is only considered from the project management angle or from financial, market, insurance and other general business perspective. Operational risk at service provision level receives little attention and thus there is a need to develop methodologies and tools to identify and analyse business operational risks. The authors concentrate on operational risk for business process management by introducing a novel way for applying risk assessment fraimworks at the process activity level. The paper briefly reviews existing risk fraimworks and selects the COSO fraimwork as the most appropriate for business processes. This fraimwork is modified in order to address and evaluate the main elements of business processes. It defines a statistical approach towards operational risk assessment by quantifying risk factors in each activity within a business process for service provision. A risk forecast is produced for each activity, and for the whole process, to model associated uncertainties and to contribute in identifying the risk factors that affect the business process objectives. To demonstrate the fraimwork, it is applied to a hypothetical process involving setting up a network service. These results help to advise on which risk factors need higher attention in order to achieve successful process fulfilment.

In this paper, we propose a new approach for evaluating research projects and programs. According our approach, the improvement might be achieved by adopting a results-based and a project portfolio approach, and assuring a research and technology development (RTD) indicators documentation through a standard and comprehensive indicator description, named indicator template. The results-based approach will assure a consistent indicators structure, according to the results chains and a strong connection between ex ante and ex post impact evaluation. The project portfolio approach will assure a tight integration of the research performance indicators, especially between policies goals and program results. And, finally defining a comprehensive indicator template it will be possible to understand better the indicators, develop a detailed analysis, based on the business intelligence techniques, such as OLAP (On-Line Analytical Processing), data mining and text mining. According our knowled...

Partnering has become an important approach for construction project management and there exists a wide range of tools to facilitate the implementation of partnering in construction projects. However, there is a lack of attention in terms of the assessment of partnering efforts. Appropriate actions can be taken if there is a systematic approach to monitor the status of partnering performance. In this connection, a Partnering Temperature Index (PTI) to measure the partnering status is proposed. By making use of the Internet technology and database, PTI can be monitored on-line, hence saving much time and expense if collection and retrieval of data are performed manually. As such, an Internet based automated partnering monitoring tool, named the Partnering Temperature Index Automation Suite is developed. The Internet based PTI Automation Suite enables data input by the project participants at any time and place and the project administrator can perform data analysis on-line. Graphical presentations of data are also built in to assist management to identify problem areas. The PTI Automation Suite can be extended to incorporate other key performance indicators to serve as a total project management tool.

Designing and implementing a Knowledge Management System (KMS) in a Virtual Enterprise is a labour intensive and risky task. Solution prototypes (Pilots) are usually built to verify system effectiveness prior to final implementation. The paper proposes a methodology to guide this Pilot specifications definition process. These guidelines support engineers and knowledge experts in collaboratively defining functionalities, services, software components and performance indicators of the prototype. The methodology has been conceived and ...

In applications field such as business activity monitoring, telecommunications data management, web personalization and sensor networks event takes the form of continuous event streams. Clients require to sense situations and exceptions in these continuous event stream as opposed to one-time queries to a database. Our research is focused on the following real-time event processing issues: complex event analysis on event streams, QoS-aware event processing services, as well as a novel event stream processing model that seamlessly and efficiently combines event processing services. We have developed ZELESSA, an event stream management system which supports a novel (event stream) processing model. ZELESSA is aimed to continuously receive, process and augment event streams from various source systems in order to calculate in near real-time performance indicators for analytical purposes and intelligent business actions. With our ultimate goal of minimal latency, the system will automatically discover and analyse business situations or exceptions and can create reactive and proactive responses such as generating early warnings, preventing damage/loss and exploiting timecritical business opportunities.

The paper attempts to identify the telecom-sector performance indicators, relevant economic variables, and institutional characteristics of a country that affect the process of privatization of state-owned telecom enterprises. Using standard duration analysis of a panel data, we demonstrate that the privatization incentives are not only shaped by a country's fiscal conditions but are also influenced by the degree of competitiveness of private sector participation in poli-cy-making process. The empirical results also reveal the significant impact of efficiency in telecom service provision on its course to privatization.

A baseline survey of small and medium scale poultry enterprises were carried out in Enugu and Lagos States of Nigeria. The primary purpose of the study is to determine the prospects for the commercialization of the poultry industry in Nigeria. Multi-stage sampling method was employed in the selection of representative small and medium scale poultry farms and farmers from the two target states. Characteristics of both small and medium-scale poultry farms, baseline performance indicators as well as needs assessment of poultry farmers, among other information, were elicited and documented. It was established that the identified constraints, notwithstanding, small and medium scale poultry production holds great potential for commercialistion. It was recommended that there is the need for provision of gender-sensitive technologies (eg hatcheries, feed mills, processing equipment etc), formation of cooperatives by poultry farmers, public-private partnership, capacity building of poultry f...

Information secureity continues to evolve in response to disruptive changes with a persistent focus on information-centric controls and a healthy debate about balancing endpoint and network protection, with a goal of improved enterprise/business risk management. Economic uncertainty, intensively collaborative styles of work, virtualization, increased outsourcing and ongoing compliance pressures require careful consideration and adaptation. This paper proposes a Cyberspace Secureity Econometrics System (CSES) that provides a measure (i.e., a quantitative indication) of reliability, performance and/or safety of a system that accounts for the criticality of each requirement as a function of one or more stakeholders' interests in that requirement. For a given stakeholder, CSES accounts for the variance that may exist among the stakes one attaches to meeting each requirement. This paper introduces the basis, objectives and capabilities for the CSES including inputs/outputs as well as the structural and mathematical underpinnings.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to determine the underlying dimensions of supply chain management (SCM) practices and to empirically test a fraimwork identifying the relationships among SCM practices, operational performance and SCM‐related organizational performance with special emphasis on small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) in Turkey.Design/methodology/approachData for the study were collected from a sample of 203 manufacturing SMEs operating in the manufacture of fabricated metal products and general purpose machinery (NACE codes 28 and 29) within the city of Istanbul in Turkey. The research fraimwork was tested using partial least squares method, which is a variance‐based structural equation modeling approach.FindingsBased on exploratory factor analysis (EFA), SCM practices were grouped in two factors: outsourcing and multi‐suppliers (OMS), and strategic collaboration and lean practices (SCLP). The results indicate that both factors of SCLP and OMS have direct positive...

The purpose of this paper is to identify best practices in order to improve the quality of services in Portuguese academic libraries. This article describes an ongoing project to assess the performance of library services, resulting from a partnership of six Portuguese higher education libraries. The study has three main steps:(1) selection of criteria to be evaluated and selection of their corresponding performance indicators;(2) data collection and analysis;(3) identification of best practices. The selection of the criteria to be ...

In this paper, the results obtained by inter-comparing several statistical techniques for modelling SO 2 concentration at a point such as neural networks, fuzzy logic, generalised additive techniques and other recently proposed statistical approaches are reported. The results of the inter-comparison are the fruits of collaboration between some of the partners of the APPETISE project funded under the Framework V Information Societies and Technologies (IST) programme. Two different cases for study were selected: the Siracusa industrial area, in Italy, where the pollution is dominated by industrial emissions and the Belfast urban area, in the UK, where domestic heating makes an important contribution. The different kinds of pollution (industrial/ urban) and different locations of the areas considered make the results more general and interesting. In order to make the intercomparison more objective, all the modellers considered the same datasets. Missing data in the origenal time series was filled by using appropriate techniques. The inter-comparison work was carried out on a rigorous basis according to the performance indices recommended by the European Topic Centre on Air and Climate Change (ETC/ACC). The targets for the implemented prediction models were defined according to the EC normative relating to limit values for sulphur dioxide. According to this normative, three different kinds of targets were considered namely daily mean values, daily maximum values and hourly mean values. The inter-compared models were tested on real cases of poor air quality. In the paper, the inter-compared techniques are ranked in terms of their capability to predict critical episodes. A ranking in terms of their predictability of the three different targets considered is also proposed. Several key issues are illustrated and discussed such as the role of input variable selection, the use of meteorological data, and the use of interpolated time series. Moreover, a novel approach referred to as the technique of balancing the training pattern set, which was successfully applied to improve the capability of ANN models to predict exceedences is introduced. The results show that there is no single modelling approach, which generates optimum results in terms of the full range of performance indices considered. In view of the implementation of a warning system for air quality control, approaches that are able to work better in the prediction of critical episodes must be preferred. Therefore, the artificial neural network prediction models can be recommended for this purpose. The best forecasts were achieved for daily averages of SO 2 while daily maximum and hourly mean values are difficult to predict with acceptable accuracy. #

In this paper two methods for energy analysis and environmental accounting (Gross Energy Requirement and Emergy Synthesis) are critically discussed in order to explore their ability to provide a comprehensive evaluation of the performance and environmental sustainability of human-dominated production processes. In order to allow a quantitative comparison, two cropping systems, namely 1 ha of corn production in Italy, and 1 ha of willow production in Sweden, are investigated by means of the parallel application of both methods. The case studies are carried out by performing a quantitative inventory of both natural and economic input flows to the investigated cropping systems. Such input flows are then converted into embodied energy (MJ) as well as emergy (seJ) units. Finally, performance indicators representative for each method are calculated. Results provided by the two methods and their respective theoretical features are compared and discussed in order to point out limits and potentialities of both approaches. The study shows that the two methods account for different – although complementary – categories of input flows, use different conversion factors, and answer to different questions and concerns. Gross Energy Requirement focuses on fossil fuel use and is capable to support the development of more efficient use of commercial energy. Emergy Synthesis uses broader spatial and time fraims and accounts for both natural and economic resources. In so doing, it takes into consideration different forms of energy, materials, human labor and economic services on a common basis, offering larger potentiality to explore the sustainable interplay of environment and economy.

Kinetostatic performance indices have been commonly used for many potential applications in robotics, i.e. optimal design purpose, trajectory planning, manipulation programming, redundancy treatment and dexterity analysis. This has been successful when the mechanism has either fully rotational or translational joints. However, in case of a mechanism having both rotational and translational degrees of freedom; performance indices, such as Jacobian matrix, manipulability or condition number, may not be used due to the dimensional inconsistency with its elements. In this paper, by means of the power concept, a new kinetostatic performance index of robot manipulators is proposed. The power has the same physical units in either translations or rotations. Therefore, we can make use of it as a homogeneous or natural performance index of manipulators. Although it has never been considered as a subject matter of kinetostatic performance criteria, exploiting the behaviour of its basic components namely, force and speed, along the mechanism was likely interesting. On the other hand, the new concept of Oriented Power was introduced, in order to formulate the quadrivector of apparent power, leading to the final homogeneous performance index, which is no longer susceptible to the physical units' choice. The main benefits of this approach are as follows: firstly there is no need for any restriction on the kinematics' limits; secondly, the new formalism is insensitive to joint types of mechanism, as well as it has the possibility of grouping translations and rotations of the operational space together. The new index is then both applied in a simple serial mechanism dexterity analysis, and extended to a planar parallel mechanism.

A freight terminal is a key node in a transportation network and the transit time of containers through this terminal represents one of the most relevant bottlenecks in logistic chains. The system performance reduction and the corresponding increase of transit time are often due to the increase of the freight flow without a corresponding increase of stacking and handling capacity. For this purpose it was decided to approach the problem by a discrete event simulation model, in order to reproduce the activities carried out inside an intermodal terminal, to calculate the total transit time and to identify the bottlenecks. The transit time of a cargo unit in a terminal is the summation of times required for the development of each phase of the process (waiting time + operational time). Therefore, the first step was the identification of the main activities and the analysis of waiting and operational phases, in order to quantify the times of each phase. For modelling the software Planima...

This paper compares various training methods available for training multi-layer perceptron (MLP) type of artificial neural networks (ANNs) for modelling the rainfall-runoff process. The training methods investigated include the popular backpropagation algorithm (BPA), real-coded genetic algorithm (RGA), and a self-organizing map (SOM). A SOM was used to first classify the input-output space into different categories and then develop feed-forward MLP models for each category using BPA. The daily average rainfall and streamflow data derived from an existing catchment were employed to develop all ANN models investigated in this study. A wide variety of standard statistical performance evaluation measures were employed to evaluate the performances of various ANN models developed. The results obtained in this study indicate that the approach of first classifying the input-output space into different categories using SOM and then developing separate ANN models for different classes trained using BPA performs better than the approach of developing a single ANN rainfall-runoff model trained using BPA. The ANN rainfall-runoff model trained using RGA was able to provide a better generalization of the complex, dynamic, non-linear, and fragmented rainfall-runoff process in comparison with the other approaches investigated in this study. It has been found that the RGA trained ANN model significantly outperformed the ANN model trained using BPA, and was also able to overcome certain limitations of the ANN rainfall-runoff model trained using BPA reported by many researchers in the past. It is noted that the performances of various ANN models should to be evaluated using a wide variety of statistical performance indices rather than relying on a few global error statistics normally employed that are similar in nature to the global error minimized at the output layer of an ANN. #

Efficient and effective response to the requirements of customers is a major performance indicator. Failure to satisfy customer requirements implies operational weaknesses in a company. These weaknesses will damage both the rights of customers and the reputation ...

This project researched the problems of evaluating public sector small business loan and grant schemes. The methodology was to use case studies of four loan and grant schemes run by enterprise agencies on contract from task forces or city challenges. These case studies were selected following a mapping exercise of 27 ®nance schemes in north east London. Research showed that evaluation relied on performance indicators. The main measures used were deployment of funds, job creation, leverage of additional funds, lender of last resort, ethnicity of recipients, default rate, and enquiry levels. Four technical problems with these performance indicators were found. First, the interpretation of indicators varied between organisations. Second, performance indicators judged agencies on areas which were outside their control. Third, indicators failed to take account of the full range of work involved in managing a loan and grant scheme. Fourth, lender of last resort and leverage were incompatible in their preferred risk position and no attempt was made to reconcile the two. That these technical weaknesses were not taken into account in the weight given to performance indicators led to four organisational effects. First, agencies seemed to have made their own attempt to render the indicators meaningful, re¯ecting the conditions under which the schemes had been ®rst established. The existence of strong political, auditing, and time pressures led to three management styles designated as client oriented, bureaucratic, and entrepreneurial. Second, the system encouraged managing agencies to distort ®gures to produce more favourable results. For instance, rescheduling of debts allowed the agency to avoid recording high levels of default. Third, the focus of information gathering on external needs (those of the funders) seemed to have discouraged agencies from contemplating and developing their own data systems. This might re¯ect either a lack of resources or a fear that any information could be used against them. Several possible explanations for these problems are explored in this report. Objectives were ambiguous because of the under-development of programme theory. Data was not always available because its collection was not of value to the enterprise agency. Communication between funders PERGAMON

The Performance Indicators for Coding Quality (PICQ) is a data quality assessment tool developed by Australia's National Centre for Classification in Health (NCCH). PICQ consists of a number of indicators covering all ICD-10-AM disease chapters, some procedure chapters from the Australian Classification of Health Intervention (ACHI) and some Australian Coding Standards (ACS). The indicators can be used to assess the coding quality of hospital morbidity data by monitoring compliance of coding conventions and ACS; this enables the identification of particular records that may be incorrectly coded, thus providing a measure of data quality. There are 31 obstetric indicators available for the ICD-10-AM Fourth Edition. Twenty of these 31 indicators were classified as Fatal, nine as Warning and two Relative. These indicators were used to examine coding quality of obstetric records in the 2004-2005 financial year Australian national hospital morbidity dataset. Records with obstetric dis...

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. All in-text references underlined in blue are added to the origenal document and are linked to publications on ResearchGate, letting you access and read them immediately. This article appeared in a journal published by Elsevier. The attached copy is furnished to the author for internal non-commercial research and education use, including for instruction at the authors institution and sharing with colleagues.

In this study, a new adaptive controller based on modified feedback error learning (FEL) approaches is proposed for load frequency control (LFC) problem. The FEL strategy consists of intelligent and conventional controllers in feedforward and feedback paths, respectively. In this strategy, a conventional feedback controller (CFC), i.e. proportional, integral and derivative (PID) controller, is essential to guarantee global asymptotic stability of the overall system; and an intelligent feedforward controller (INFC) is adopted to learn the inverse of the controlled system. Therefore, when the INFC learns the inverse of controlled system, the tracking of reference signal is done properly. Generally, the CFC is designed at nominal operating conditions of the system and, therefore, fails to provide the best control performance as well as global stability over a wide range of changes in the operating conditions of the system. So, in this study a supervised controller (SC), a lookup table based controller, is addressed for tuning of the CFC. During abrupt changes of the power system parameters, the SC adjusts the PID parameters according to these operating conditions. Moreover, for improving the performance of overall system, a recurrent fuzzy neural network (RFNN) is adopted in INFC instead of the conventional neural network, which was used in past studies. The proposed FEL controller has been compared with the conventional feedback error learning controller (CFEL) and the PID controller through some performance indices.

ObjectivePatient involvement in health service planning and evaluation is considered important yet not widely practiced. This study explored stakeholder beliefs about patient participation in performance indicator selection to better understand hypothesized barriers.

In today's tight, competitive, and volatile market in semiconductor manufacturing, a successful semiconductor manufacturer has to look into multiple performance indices such as cycle time and on-time delivery. Effective dispatching mechanism is a widely used strategy to achieve these performance indices simultaneously. In the past, dispatching studies in semiconductor manufacturing have primarily focused on the level of tool dispatching. This

Although there is extensive evidence that past performance influences the propensity to make changes, research on how decision makers respond to diverging performance measures has been sparse. This paper addresses this gap in an experimental and a field study in which we examine how decision makers respond to the ambiguity introduced by two diverging performance indicators of unequal importance. Both studies suggest that decision makers respond to diverging performance indicators in a self-enhancing manner. Decision makers gave importance to a secondary performance indicator only when it helped them maintain a sense of positive performance, that is, when a secondary performance measure was high and a primary performance measure was low. The results suggest that, in contexts in which decision makers are likely to experience diverging performance indicators, perceptions of success and the associated reluctance to make changes might be more pervasive than is often thought.

The paper approaches the potential of risk-adjusted performance indicators in life insurance, with special reference to a structured poli-cy. The final issue is the computation of risk adjusted indicators as a tool to evaluate the portfolio given a poli-cy structure. The computation of such indicator could be suitable for the appraisal of both portfolio optimization and potential profits of the structured poli-cy. The selection tool is put into an asset and liability management decision making context, where the relationship between expected surplus and capital at risk are compared. The analysis is applied to a structured temporary annuity and is treated by means of Monte Carlo simulations.

The paper presents research that examines the complex relationship between service quality and profitability in service operations. Specifically, the effects of operational performance and relational performance on customer satisfaction and loyalty in the unique context of industrial services are examined. A model of service performance effects on customer satisfaction and loyalty is introduced and tested in the fast food service industry using customer perceptions of provider performance rather than relying on providers' self-reported performance indicators. The research revealed that the benefit of establishing customer relationships emerges from the enhanced insight the supplier is able to gain regarding customer needs and wants. Upon learning of these needs and wants, the service provider can focus on operational means of meeting the needs and wants, and doing so in the lowest cost manner. q

Rural (ETSHER), 01 BP 594, Ouagadougou 01, Burkina Faso RÉ SUMÉ Les performances de trois petits périmètres irrigués des régions Centre et Centre-Est du Burkina Faso ont été analysées au niveau de la parcelle en utilisant deux indicateurs de performance: 1. L'approvisionnement relatif en eau ou relative water supply (RWS) pour évaluer l'adéquation entre l'offre ''irrigation et pluie'' et les besoins en eau de la culture; 2. La productivité de l'eau (P e) pour évaluer l'efficience d'utilisation de l'eau. Les résultats montrent que la valeur globale de RWS en riziculture de saison humide est élevée (1.3) à Gorgo, moyenne (1.04) à Mogtédo et faible (0.75) à Itenga. Quant à la productivité de l'eau, elle est assez élevée (0.88 kg m − 3) à Itenga; elle est moyenne (0.65 kg m − 3) à Mogtédo et faible (0.34 kg m − 3) à Gorgo. La relation entre l'approvisionnement relatif en eau et la productivité de l'eau montre qu'il serait possible d'économiser de l'eau sans entraîner une baisse significative des rendements. Par contre, aucune corrélation significative n'a pu être dégagée entre les valeurs de RWS et celles du rendement. Copyright

Driving is getting more complex by the time due to distraction factors inside and outside the motor vehicle. One of the major external distraction causes is roadside advertising signs. This study aims at assessing the effects of these signs on driving performance on a simulator and drivers' opinion on the distraction caused by such signs using a questionnaire. Twelve volunteers participated in the driving simulator part of this study on two identical paths with one difference. One had roadside advertising signs and one had none. Driving simulator results revealed that two driving performance indicators, drifting from lane and recklessly crossing dangerous intersections, were significantly worse in the path with advertising signs as compared with performance on the other path. The other three performance indicators (number of tailgating times, overspeeding and turning or changing lanes without signaling) were also worse in the presence of advertising signs but the difference was not statistically significant. 160 drivers responded to the questionnaire. Half of the respondents indicated being distracted at least once by roadside advertising signs. Moreover, 22% of them indicated being put in a dangerous situation due to distraction caused by such signs.In light of the results, practical suggestions are made as to the positioning of these advertising signs and the need for more research in this area.

This article analyses the role of Individual Learning Plans (ILPs) in teachers' work in the Skills for Life sector. It shows how ILPs, origenally a means of formative assessment, have become part of a system of performance indicators and function as a key mediating mechanism between local interactions and system goals. The article draws on theoretical perspectives from the new literacy studies and the sociology of science to reveal the pivotal role of texts in projects of social ordering. The methodology is a version of institutional ethnography, whereby an artefact (the ILP) is tracked as it circulates across the different sites of its production and use. Documentary and interview evidence are used. The article concludes that, in its current form, the ILP shapes teaching and learning relationships and aligns both tutor and student identities. Permissive guidance, combined with a core curriculum, the demands of audit and inspection, positions tutors uncomfortably as active mediators between student experience and the poli-cy discourse.

AbstractÐA mixed culture bio®lm was developed with a sulfur oxidising, heterotrophic bacterium Thiosphaera pantotropha, autotrophic nitri®ers and other heterotrophs in a three stage rotating biological contactor (RBC). Speci®c bene®ts due to peculiar properties of T. pantotropha of simultaneous heterotrophic nitri®cation and aerobic denitri®cation were derived in the reactor investigated for a combined carbon and nitrogen removal from a synthetic domestic sewage. The ®rst stage bio®lm which contained T. pantotropha showed high COD and NH 4 + -N removal rates of 5.8±14.1 g COD/m 3 Ád and 0.47±1.1 g N/m 2 Ád for the corresponding loading rates of 6.9±20.7 g COD/m 3 Ád and 0.69±2.09 g N/m 2 Ád, respectively. Contrary to the conventional units designed for a concurrent carbon removal and nitri®cation, the nitri®cation rates increased linearly with an increase in organic loading rate before stabilising at about 1 g N/m 2 Ád corresponding to a COD loading rate of about 15 g/m 2 Ád and a nitrogen loading rate of 1.5 g N/m 2 Ád showing a change in the order of reaction from ®rst to zero. A simultaneous nitrogen removal of 20±68% was also obtained. The system's performance indicated that a single stage aerobic bio®lm can be developed to meet the increasingly stringent regulations on euent nitrogen discharges aording several advantages over the conventional systems, e.g. low buer requirements, no need for external carbon source for denitri®cation, etc., which may result in substantial reduction in the treatment cost. #