Organizational Culture and Knowledge Management Success at Project and Organizational Levels in Contracting Firms

This research focuses on contracting firms within the construction sector. It characterizes and evaluates the composition of organizational culture using four culture types (clan, adhocracy, market, and hierarchy), the strategic approach for knowledge flow, and the success of knowledge management (KM) systems at different hierarchical levels of contracting organizations (project and parent organization level). Responses from managers of local or overseas contracting firms operating in Hong Kong were collected using a carefully constructed questionnaire survey that was distributed through electronic mail. The organizational value is analyzed in terms of the four cultural models. Clan culture is found to be the most popular at both project and organization levels, which means that the culture of contracting firms very much depends on honest communication, respect for people, trust, and cohesive relationships. On the other hand, hierarchy culture, which focuses on stability and continuity, and analysis and control, seems to be the least favored at both levels. Another significant finding was that the two main KM strategies for knowledge flow, codification and personalization, were employed at both project and organization levels in equal proportion. This indicates that successful KM efforts at both enterprise levels utilize a hybrid and balanced approach for their knowledge flow, and that they complement each other. The findings also revealed that knowledge management system success factors emphasize the support of the management level. The results show that KM is critical and beneficial as indicated by 64% at the project and 74% at the organization level. The expectation is higher for organizations as they are the organizational memories in which experiences of past projects are archived and connected. Understanding these factors and the relationships among them has been demonstrated to be critical in order to increase the chances of success or to help with making decisions when applying KM.     

Perceptual style and behavioral pattern of individuals with functional gastrointestinal disorders.

The present research examined the perceptual style and coping pattern characterizing individuals with functional gastrointestinal disorders. A matched case–control design was adopted to compare differences among the target group of individuals with functional gastrointestinal disorders (n?=?40), a pain control group of individuals with rheumatism (n?=?40), and the community control group of healthy individuals (n?=?40). Perceptual style was measured by both monitoring and blunting responses to hypothetical stressful situations, and coping pattern was measured by the use of coping strategies in real-life stressful events. Results revealed that participants with functional gastrointestinal disorders differed from their healthy and rheumatic counterparts in having higher monitoring and lower blunting scores and using action-oriented coping strategies regardless of the controllability of stressful situations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Liposome nano‐formulation with cationic polar lipid DOTAP and cholesterol as a suitable pH‐responsive carrier for molecular therapeutic drug (all‐trans retinoic acid) delivery to lung cancer cells

The molecular targeted drug ATRA demands a suitable carrier that delivers to the cancer site due to its poor bioavailability and drug resistance. ATRA, being a lipid with carboxylic acid, has been nano‐formulated as a cationic lipo‐ATRA with DOTAP:cholesterol:ATRA (5:4:1) and its pH‐responsive release, intracellular drug accumulation, and anticancer effect on human lung cancer (A549) cell line analysed. The analysis of the physicochemical characteristics of the developed lipo‐ATRA (0.8 µmol) revealed that the size of 231 ± 2.35 d.nm had a zeta potential of 6.4 ± 1.19 and an encapsulation efficiency of 93.7 ± 3.6%. The ATRA release from lipo‐ATRA in vitro was significantly (p ≤ 0.05) higher at acidic pH 6 compared to pH 7.5. The intracellular uptake of ATRA into lipo‐ATRA‐treated A549 cells was seven‐fold higher (0.007 ± 0.001 mg/ml) while only three‐fold uptake was observed in free ATRA treatment (0.003 ± 0.002 mg/ml). The lipo‐ATRA treatment caused a highly significant (p ≤ 0.001) decrease in percent cell viability at 48 h when compared with the free ATRA treatment. Overall, the results proved that the developed lipo‐ATRA has suitable physicochemical properties with enhanced ATRA release at acidic pH, while maintaining stability at physiologic pH and temperature. This resulted in an increased ATRA uptake by lung cancer cells with enhanced treatment efficiency. Hence, it is concluded that DOTAP lipo‐ATRA is a suitable carrier for ATRA delivery to solid cancer cells.     

Evaluation of paediatric X-ray doses in Moroccan university hospitals

This work evaluates the entrance skin dose (ESD), the body organ dose (BOD) and the effective dose (E) for chest X-ray exposures of paediatric patients. Two Moroccan university hospitals in Rabat, composed of two departments, and one in Casablanca with one paediatric compartment has been considered. For reasons of confidentiality, the departments are named A, B and C. Patients were divided into four age groups: 0-1, 1-5, 5-10 and 10-15 y, so that the results could be compared with previous published data found in the literature. The results have been calculated with the use of the Dose Cal software. Results of mean ESD for the age interval 1-5 y and antero-posterior (AP) projection are: 162 μGy for hospital A, 91 μGy for hospital B and 105 μGy for hospital C. The diagnostic reference levels (DRLs) of 100 μGy for this age range is exceeded in hospital A, while in the other two hospitals results were within the DRL and comparable with the results found in Brazil, Soudan, Nigeria and other radiological centres inpean Countries. The results of BOD and E showed that for the three departments, the BOD varies in the same proportion as the ESD. The highest values are those of hospital A. For the PA examination, the dose is reduced compared with the AP projection, especially for sensitive organs.     

Influence of Al3(Sc,Zr) Precipitates on Deformability and Friction Stir Welding Behavior of Al-Mg-Sc-Zr Alloys

We investigate the influence of Al₃(Sc,Zr) precipitates on the cold deformability and friction stir welding behavior of a novel AlMg4Sc0.4Zr0.12 alloy. To analyze the influence of the precipitate state on the flow stress, samples were pre-aged at various temperatures for up to 120 min prior to plane strain compression. It was found that the flow stress increased considerably with increasing pre-ageing temperature and duration. The formation of Al₃(Sc,Zr) precipitates during friction stir welding was investigated on welds with high and low heat input by measuring the respective hardening response with and without post-weld heat treatment.     

VOLUME-BASED THERMODYNAMICS GLOBAL PHASE STABILITY ANALYSIS

In this study we propose a method for phase stability analysis at pressure and temperature specifications, in the frame of a “volume-based” thermodynamics. The formulation of the tangent plane distance (TPD) criterion in terms of the Helmholtz free energy is used in this work for testing phase thermodynamic stability at p-T conditions, using component molar densities as primary variables. The phase stability problem is non-convex; the TPD function may exhibit multiple local minima and saddle points, the use of global optimization methods for its minimization being appropriate. For the unconstrained minimization of the TPD function we use the tunneling global optimization method, which has shown its ability in efficiently solving difficult non-convex, highly nonlinear problems. The method is tested for a variety of mixtures ranging from binaries to mixtures with many components, with emphasis on difficult conditions. The proposed method proved to be an efficient and reliable tool for phase stability analysis.