Management Support Technology (United States)

As you know, failure is understood as an event consisting in complete or partial loss of system performance. Failures can be structural, which are due to miscalculations and mistakes made at the design stage of the machine; technological, resulting from a violation of the manufacturing technology of the machine; operational, caused by violation of the rules for the operation of the machine.

We study operational security in computer network security, including infrastructure, internal processes, resources, information, and physical environment. Current works on developing a security framework focus on a security ontology that contributes to applying common vocabulary, but such an approach does not assist in constructing a foundation for a holistic security methodology. We focus on defining the bounds and creating a representation of a security system by developing a diagrammatic representation (i.e. a model) as a means to describe computer network processes. The model, referred to a thinging machine, is a first step toward developing a security strategy and plan. The general aim is to demonstrate that the representation of the security system plays a key role in making thinking visible through conceptual description of the operational environment, a region in which active security operations are undertaken. We apply the proposed model for email security by conceptually describing a real email system.

China and China's prompt retaliation, the US is now in its biggest trade war with China and other countries since the 1930s. President Trump's policies focusing on threats, trade deficits and bilateral trade, as well as the movement away from the postwar international system, have been historical aberrations since 1945. The US trade diplomacy ought to concentrate on building coalitions and viable proposals for addressing trade issues, including those concerning the World Trade Organization rule-making and dispute resolution. This would help to ensure a rules-based trading system.

Resolving access and functionality issues for online resources often can strain even the calmest of nerves by combining impatient patrons with very precise technical details and communication lines extending from those patrons through the library to external technical support personnel outside of the institution. Clear, concise workplace communications are an ideal that is almost impossible to accomplish 100% of the time. While not always achievable, the resolution of technical issues certainly provides instances where the importance of communicating efficiently and effectively is greatly amplified. We will explore how both library personnel and vendors can work together to improve communications with each other and reduce tension when technical issues arise. Topics will include steps for improving communication results, methods of constructing statements specifically addressed to different stakeholders, and approaches to turn conversations from combative to collaborative. Vendor and librarian viewpoints will be shared.

Dense metal membranes have been identified as a promising technology for post-gasifier forward water-gas shift (WGS) membrane reactors or post-shift membrane separation processes. It is known that both major and minor gasification effluent constituents can have adverse effects on the mechanical and chemical stability of potential metal membranes. With this in mind, the scope of this chapter is to provide introductions to the gasification process and dense metal membranes, and the possible degradation mechanisms that dense metal hydrogen membranes may encounter in gasification environments. Degradation mechanisms of interest include catalytic poisoning, oxidation, sulfidation and hydrogen embrittlement. Additionally, the influence of in-situ and post-WGS gas compositions and CO conversions on the aforementioned degradation mechanisms will be addressed.

Abstract BackgroundUndergraduate program accreditation for undergraduate engineering programs is challenging to faculty. Departments are required to accumulate data and then apply measures to both their outcomes and objectives in their program. The Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, ABET, is an accreditation organization for college and university programs in applied science, computing, engineering, and technology. The quality of engineering programs has become a fundamental issue in the educational system in the United States. Accreditation confirms that the institution or the program meets minimum quality criteria. ABET has become more important when licensure is required in many states for engineers to practice. According to information provided in ABET website, “Many state board of professional licensure in engineering and surveying require applicants to have graduated from an ABET‐accredited program. In states where non‐ABET graduates are permitted to be licensed, an additional four to eight years of work experience may be required.” (www.abet.org)ABET provides a sets of goals and objectives for accreditation and evaluates and certifies the engineering related education. In order to prepare for an evaluation of their program, the faculty develops a methodology of assessing the performance with respect to outcomes and objectives that are defined in ABET criteria. Each engineering program develops its objectives and performs internal evaluation to meet ABET criteria.Sources in literature describe different approaches and present various tools to design effective processes for evaluating engineering education and to satisfy ABET criteria. Miller and Olds introduce an evaluation matrix which provides performance criteria, implementation strategies, and evaluation methods. (Olds 1998) Owen, Scales, and Leonard explain the importance of creating a database of outcome indicators for engineering programs. There are many other sources in the literature describing different techniques to create surveys for measuring success and providing strategies to integrate assessment and evaluation into engineering education [Owen 1999].Besides the sources in literature, experiences of institutions when they were accredited provide various approaches. The United States Military Academy (USMA) prepared multiple programs for a joint ABET accreditation. They first established the committees for each department and developed cross‐program reviews. The cross‐program review helped them to identify problem areas and make to correction early. By assigning individual faculty members to be responsible for documenting, the outcome monitoring was established [Huggins 2002].The ECE Department at Cal Poly Pomona developed overall objectives to get accredited: Reviewing department goals and objectives, justifying the program if it meets the goals and objectives, justifying the students if they meet the goals and objectives, assessment and improvement of the program, reviewing course outline, and putting the notebooks together. (http://www.csupomona.edu/~ece/eceweb/abet.html)The College of Engineering at The University of Wisconsin Madison outlined four primary activities: Developing department level outcomes, developing course objectives for undergraduate courses, hosting a working conference on ABET preparation, and developing a web‐site for accreditation and assessment (Pfatteicher 2000).At the University of Arizona, the department of Engineering established two teams: ABET implementation team and ABET assessment team. The implementation team consisted of one person from each department to coordinate the activities and assessment team had individuals with specific skills. They created educational objectives and expected outcomes. Expected outcomes later were expressed in terms of measurable activities such as the outcome of working in a multi‐disciplinary team was expressed in terms of completing team lab exercises and completing Engineering 102 projects. They used primary assessment tools such as student, alumni, and faculty surveys and portfolios (Johnson 1999).As can be seen by the various references above, each engineering department may use different processes to achieve the same results, accreditation.The purpose of this paper is to present the process used by the Systems Engineering and Operations Research Department at George Mason University to accredit our Systems Engineering undergraduate program with special emphasis on measurement of outcomes and objectives.

Basal cell carcinoma is exceedingly common, but tumors >5 cm in size or giant basal cell carcinomas (GBCCs) are rare. We retrospectively review 10 GBCCs in 8 patients treated by aggressive surgical excision and reconstruction in a single operative procedure. With the exception of 1 chest lesion, all GBCCs involved the face or scalp. The 10 large defects were reconstructed with 5 free-tissue transfers, 2 pedicled musculocutaneous flaps, and 3 rotational skin flaps. There has been no evidence of local recurrence or metastasis in a mean follow-up of 29 months. Neglect has a well-established role in the presence of GBCCs, with undiagnosed preexisting medical problems also common. Surgical excision and reconstruction is the treatment of choice and can be readily accomplished in a single procedure with few complications, good oncologic control, and acceptable cosmetic results.

Event management is a focal point in building and maintaining high quality information infrastructures. We have witnessed the shift of the paradigm of event management in practice from root cause analysis (RCA) to action-oriented analysis (AOA). IBM has developed a pioneer event management methodology (EMD) based on the AOA paradigm and applied it to more than two hundred production sites with success. Foreseeably, more and more event management professionals will apply AOA in different incarnations in building proactive management facilities. By that, building correct and effective Event Relationship Networks (ERNs) becomes the dominating activity in AOA service design process. Currently, the quality of ERNs and the cost of building them largely depend on the knowledge of domain experts. We believe that we can utilize historical event logs in shortening the ERNs design process and perfecting the quality of ERNs. In this paper, we describe in detail how to apply this data-driven approach in ERN validation, completion and construction.

We conducted a descriptive evaluation of an Internet-based system designed to support home management of childhood leukemia (Pediatric Cancer CareLink). Twenty-five parents of children with ALL and thirty-four clinicians were interviewed to identify functional requirements and to demonstrate the system's potential to improve the experience and outcomes of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Parental interviews focused on: medication and side effect management in the home; communication with the health care team; and the use of a computer for ALL home management. Results from these interviews provide strong evidence that parents of children with ALL are struggling to manage the complexity of their children's care in the home. Parents revealed an urgent need for tools that would help them to safely organize the medicines that their children receive while on ALL protocols. Forty percent of parents needed to know more about what to expect during their child's therapy and how to be prepared for it. Clinician interviews focused on the clinical impact and workflow issues associated with such a system. Decision support, prescription refill management, and educational and emotional support functions were considered key components. Clinicians were concerned that such a system would increase their already overburdened workload. Conversely, parents believed that access to such a system would eliminate unnecessary phone calls to the care team. Our findings show that parents would embrace collaborative Internet-based tools that would help with the home management of their child's leukemia.