Project portfolio management in practice and in context

Companies struggle with the sub-optimization and changes among their projects, even if various normative instructions and good practices have been introduced for project portfolio management. At the center of this paper is the need to understand project portfolio management in practice and in context. The purpose is to report a review on recent empirical research literature regarding project portfolio management, to draw attention to the limitations with viewing portfolio management as a rational decision process, and to develop new avenues for research regarding project portfolio management in practice and in context. As a result, this paper shows that, to respond to uncertainties and complexities in business environments, project portfolio management can be viewed as negotiation and bargaining and as structural reconfiguration, besides rational decision processes. These alternative perspectives offer new insight into the dilemmas identified in day-to-day project portfolio management and open up avenues for resolving them, thereby promoting success in project portfolio management.     

Change program management: Toward a capability for managing value-oriented,integrated multi-project change in its context

Program management has taken its position in project management research and in public and private organizations as a successful method for managing complex, uncertain, and large-scale changes. During the past 25 years, research has evolved from programs as the conceptual extension of projects to a rich field of empirical studies reflecting the special natures and contexts of change programs and their management, with unique theoretical foundations. To take stock of this recent history, in this article we analyze the patterns of previous empirical studies on change program management and their theoretical foundations. The goal is to identify and summarize proposals to guide forthcoming program management research. The results reveal three main themes of ongoing research: managing over the change program lifecycle, managing programs in their context, and program managers' capabilities. The roots of change program management in organization theories are apparent; structural contingency theory and information processing theories have dominated in previous empirical research, but are clearly being extended to agency, stakeholder, and actor-network theories. New research ideas are proposed for the use of programs in various types of changes, value creation and delivery through change programs, the profiles and capabilities of different actors in program management, the coexistence and interplay of multiple programs, and the complex stakeholder networks involved with change programs. When change becomes more prevalent in the organizations' dynamic contexts, there is an increasing need to develop program management toward an organizational capability for managing value-oriented, integrated, and multi-project change in complex stakeholder contexts.     

Going downstream in a project-based firm: Integration of distributors in the delivery of complex systems

Research on the integration of different actors in project business has centered on the upstream value chain and a project-based firm's relationship with suppliers. The downstream delivery chain also includes an integration challenge as some project-based firms use distributors to sell and deliver systems. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the importance of integrating with distributors in the delivery of complex systems. A qualitative case study was conducted in one project-based firm. Different distributor capabilities were identified and grouped into business, relational, marketing, and delivery capabilities. Different integration mechanisms were mapped at business and project levels, and divided into control-, cooperation-, and development-oriented mechanisms. The findings show that distributor capabilities related to complex system delivery develop through repetitive collaboration across projects. The stable position of distributors in the downstream value chain facilitate the use of integration mechanisms at the business level and development-oriented integration approach at the project level.     

Sensitivity enhancement of a MEMS sensor in nonlinear regime

The aim of this study is to enhance the sensitivity of a micro electro mechanical Gyroscope in nonlinear regime. Sensitivity enhancement is achieved by applying appropriate Hoping voltages which pushes the micro-beam to the basin of attraction of a desired periodic attractor. The studied model is a silicon clamped–clamped micro beam actuated by an electrostatic voltage which is a combination of a constant DC and a harmonic AC voltage in the drive mode direction and a pure DC voltage in the direction of sense mode. The external angular velocity about the horizontal axis is used to create the Coriolis force along the sense mode. The governing differential equation of the motion is derived using Hamiltonian principle and discretized to two nonlinear Duffing type ODE’s using Galerkin method. Shooting method is utilized to obtain the frequency response curve, and to capture the periodic solutions of the motion. The stabilities of the periodic orbits are investigated by the Floquet theory. The results depict that the response of the system is highly affected by the applied DC and AC voltage; corresponding to a constant DC voltage, the more is the AC voltage, the more is the sensitivity. Based on the DC voltage the system exhibits both hardening and softening effects. The capacity of the capacitors is determined and the effects of the various applying Hoping voltages on capacity of them are investigated. The frequency response curve of the micro-beam for various quality factors are obtained and compared with the literature.     

The two-component system CBO2306/CBO2307 is important for cold adaptation of Clostridium botulinum ATCC 3502

Clostridium botulinum is a notorious foodborne pathogen. Its ability to adapt to and grow at low temperatures is of interest for food safety. Two-component systems (TCSs) have been reported to be involved in cold-shock and growth at low temperatures. Here we show the importance of TCS CBO2306/CBO2307 in the cold-shock response of C. botulinum ATCC 3502. The relative expression levels of the cbo2306 and cbo2307 were up to 4.4-fold induced in the cold-shocked cultures but negatively regulated in the late-log and stationary growth phase in relation to early logarithmic growth phase in non-shocked cultures. Importance of the CBO2306/CBO2307 in the cold stress was further demonstrated by impaired growth of insertional cbo2306 or cbo2307 knockout mutants in relation to the wild-type strain ATCC 3502. The results suggest that the TCS CBO2306/CBO2307 is important for cold-shock response and adaptation of C. botulinum ATCC 3502 to low temperature.     

Addition of Titanium Oxide Inclusions into Liquid Steel to Control Nonmetallic Inclusions

Titanium oxide inclusions in steel are well known to inhibit grain growth and act as nucleation sites for acicular ferrite because of absorbing manganese from the surrounding steel resulting in a manganese depleted zone around the inclusion. In this article, the inclusions resulting from TiO₂ additions to low-alloyed C-Mn-Cr steel were studied. Different types of TiO₂ containing materials were added to liquid steel before or during casting to get small titanium-oxide–rich inclusions in steel. The main goals were to find out what happens to TiO₂ in liquid steel after addition and during cooling and to study further what type of inclusions are formed in the steel as a result of the TiO₂ addition. Based on the thermodynamic calculations and the results of scanning electron microscope (SEM)-energy dispersive spectroscope (EDS) and SEM-electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) analysis, TiO₂ is first reduced to Ti₃O₅ in liquid steel at high temperatures and then to Ti₂O₃ during cooling at around 1573 K (1300 °C). Both reactions liberate oxygen, which reacts with Ti, Mn, and Al forming complex Ti₂O₃-rich inclusions. The results also show that TiO₂ additions result in more TiO_x + MnO inclusions compared with experiments with Ti addition and that the absolute amount of manganese present in the inclusions is much higher in experiments with TiO₂ addition than in experiments with Ti additions.     

Novel insights into the epidemiology of Clostridium perfringens type A food poisoning

Clostridium perfringens food poisoning ranks among the most common gastrointestinal diseases in developed countries. The disease is caused by C. perfringens enterotoxin (CPE) encoded by cpe and produced by less than 5% of C. perfringens type A strains. Molecular epidemiological research in the past 15 years has focused on the reservoirs and routes of cpe-positive C. perfringens aiming to clarify the role and epidemiology of chromosomal and plasmid-borne cpe-carrying strains. This literature review highlights novel aspects in the epidemiology of CPE-mediated diseases. We suggest that (1) chromosomal and plasmid-borne cpe-carrying C. perfringens strains are genetically and epidemiologically distinct and have adapted to different environments; (2) not only chromosomal but also plasmid-borne cpe-carrying C. perfringens strains cause food poisonings; (3) other CPE-mediated diseases, such as antibiotic-associated and sporadic diarrhea, associated with plasmid-borne cpe-positive strains, may be food-related; (4) the role of animals as the main reservoir of cpe-positive C. perfringens needs to be reconsidered; (5) humans serve as an important reservoir of cpe-positive C. perfringens, introducing a contamination risk into foods through handling; and (6) the current standard procedures to diagnose C. perfringens food poisoning fail to detect and isolate many C. perfringens strains, distorting the epidemiological understanding of C. perfringens food poisoning.