One of the fastest growing areas of law enforcement in the state of Texas today is school district policing, with many of the Independent School District (ISD) departments having been formed within the past 10-12 years. Without a formal structured plan of its own, training programs for the school district police officer have often followed the template of other local and state policing organizations to determine their own in-service training curriculum. Unfortunately, following the guidelines and programs set up by these outside policing organizations has led to training that is not indicative of the school district police officers bona fide training needs. This research first focused on identifying the internal and external constraints that are operating from within the school district, along with influences from outside the organization that are hindering ISD police officer training. The results found budgetary issues, time issues, perceived lack of training support from the school district administration, a lack of a training needs analysis to identify training needs, and other outside constraints (such as legislative training mandates), were hindering ISD police in-service training. Recommendations were made to seek outside assistance (grants), combined regional training efforts, organizing to seek changes in required state training mandates, educating administration in ISD policing needs, and performing a training needs analysis to identify training needs. The second focus identified the unique tasks of the school district police officer in order to provide the school district policing organizations with specific task information regarding the daily tasks of the school district police officer. Twenty eight unique police officer tasks were then identified through group sessions held with several ISD policing organizations. The tasks were then listed in order of criticality and frequency, and two lists were made from the returns. One related to overall task importance and the second list was ordered by agency size, as it was believed that the agencies may differ in focus and responsibilities by departmental size. This combination of an organizational analysis and a task analysis is expected to provide the ISD policing organizations with the information from which a sound training program may be designed.

One of the fastest growing areas of law enforcement in the state of Texas today is school district policing, with many of the Independent School District (ISD) departments having been formed within the past 10-12 years. Without a formal structured plan of its own, training programs for the school district police officer have often followed the template of other local and state policing organizations to determine their own in-service training curriculum. Unfortunately, following the guidelines and programs set up by these outside policing organizations has led to training that is not indicative of the school district police officers bona fide training needs. This research first focused on identifying the internal and external constraints that are operating from within the school district, along with influences from outside the organization that are hindering ISD police officer training. The results found budgetary issues, time issues, perceived lack of training support from the school district administration, a lack of a training needs analysis to identify training needs, and other outside constraints (such as legislative training mandates), were hindering ISD police in-service training. Recommendations were made to seek outside assistance (grants), combined regional training efforts, organizing to seek changes in required state training mandates, educating administration in ISD policing needs, and performing a training needs analysis to identify training needs. The second focus identified the unique tasks of the school district police officer in order to provide the school district policing organizations with specific task information regarding the daily tasks of the school district police officer. Twenty eight unique police officer tasks were then identified through group sessions held with several ISD policing organizations. The tasks were then listed in order of criticality and frequency, and two lists were made from the returns. One related to overall task importance and the second list was ordered by agency size, as it was believed that the agencies may differ in focus and responsibilities by departmental size. This combination of an organizational analysis and a task analysis is expected to provide the ISD policing organizations with the information from which a sound training program may be designed.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health’s (NIOSH) “Prevention through Design” (PtD) initiative encourages the exploration of different methods to foster dialogue between engineers and healthcare workers. Although engineers are encouraged to follow a user-centered design (UCD) process to identify user needs (ANSI/AAMI, 2009; IEC, 2007), NORA (2009) warns that engineers may “fail to get the full range of healthcare worker input on the usability of a device”. The primary goal of this research was to present storytelling as an elicitation method that addressed the PtD call for methods that improve usability within healthcare. This work provides three contributions to the PtD initiative. First, a conceptual model for the role of storytelling in design, which represents a synthesis of narrative and design research, is presented. The conceptual model explicitly states how the elicitation and analysis of stories results in the identification of a design opportunity that addresses user needs. Second, the Design + Storytelling framework, which guides designers’ use of storytelling, is presented. An instantiation of the framework specific to the identification of a design opportunity within an emergency room (ER) is investigated to determine the framework’s impact on design. Findings resulted in the study’s third contribution: design guidance comprised of storytelling guidelines, decision support tools for storytelling method selection, and traceability support for design evaluation. The investigation of the framework focused on two primary stages: (1) story elicitation and (2) story analysis. Storytelling sessions, which varied in context, collected 573 stories (i.e., 441 habitual, 132 hypothetical) from 28 ER nurses. Qualitative analysts used the framework’s instructions to identify and specify 383 user needs within the narratives. Empirical comparisons of the compiled needs across groups informed decision rules for elicitation method selection. The impact of the framework’s analysis instructions during design practice was investigated. Student design teams analyzed nurses’ safety stories to create a conceptual design for an identified design opportunity. Findings indicated a trend for stakeholder experts to rank conceptual designs created by teams with the instructions as more usable than teams without the framework’s instructions. The theoretical and practical exploration indicated a positive impact on design. / Ph. D.

This dissertation presents the algorithm, methodology, modeling, and system development of a GIS-enabled multi-year pavement rehabilitation needs analysis system which can perform multi-year network-level pavement rehabilitation needs analysis subject to funding availability, minimum performance requirements, and balancing constraints. The system links network-level analysis results directly with project-level maintenance plans and, therefore, can generate not only network-level results but also detailed project-level rehabilitation plans, such as when to treat, where to treat and what treatment method to use. The system first utilizes the current and historical project level pavement condition evaluation information stored in the central Oracle database to forecast future project performance ratings and distresses, to determine appropriate treatment methods and costs, and to calculate life-cycle cost effectiveness ratios for all the projects in the pavement network. Based on this information, a methodology was developed to perform various network-level analyses to determine multi-year funding requirements to meet various prescribed pavement performance requirements and to determine optimum pavement rehabilitation plans subject to funding availability and other requirements, such as balancing funding distribution or future pavement performance among Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) Engineering Districts or State Congressional Districts. The system integrates graphical information on GIS maps with information in the central Oracle database and the needs analysis results seamlessly so that engineers can perform interactive map-based multi-year what-if needs analysis directly on the maps using the framework and methodology presented in this dissertation. Several case studies using the actual historical pavement condition evaluation data from the GDOT are presented to illustrate the capabilities of the system. The dissertation concludes with a summary of major conclusions and recommendations for future research. Besides linking network-level analysis results directly with project-level maintenance plans, the following major advantages of the system are also recognized: GIS technology is fully utilized in the system. The system is one of the first pavement needs analysis systems that allows an engineer to perform interactive map-based what-if scenario analyses on multi-year pavement needs analysis. The system allows the rehabilitation plans to balance pavement rehabilitation costs and performances among different political jurisdictions. The system can perform various types of analyses to develop multi-year rehabilitation plans subject to various budget and performance constraints together with the balancing constraints. Although the system was developed for GDOT, with slight modifications, the system can be used by engineers in other transportation agencies to perform the same analyses.

Governments and municipalities need to understand their citizens’ psychological needs in critical times and dangerous situations. COVID-19 brings lots of challenges to deal with. We propose NeedFull, an interactive and scalable tweet analysis platform, to help governments and municipalities to understand residents’ real psychological needs during those periods. The platform mainly consists of four parts: data collection module, data storage module, data analysis module and data visualization module. The whole process of how data flows in the system is illustrated as follows: Our crawlers in the data collection module gather raw data from a popular social network website Twitter. Then the data is fed into our human need detection model in the data analysis module before stored into the database. When a user enters a query through the user interface, they will get all the related items in the database by the index system of the data storage module and a comprehensive human needs analysis of these items is then presented and depicted in the data visualization module. We employed the proposed platform to investigate the reaction of people in four big regions including New York, Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal to the ongoing worldwide COVID-19 pandemic by collecting tweets posted during this period. The results show that the most pronounced human need in these tweets is relatedness with 51.32%, followed by autonomy with 22.56% and competence with 18.82%. And the percentages of tweets expressing frustration are larger than those of tweets expressing satisfaction for each psychological need in general.

It is imperative for strength and conditioning coaches to conduct a detailed analysis of the demands of a sport, identifying normative data where possible to permit an evidence-based evaluation of an athlete’s current performance status and to inform the development of specific goals for the athletes’ development. Part one of this article reviews the demands of female soccer and provides normative data from published research identifying specific areas that require development in female soccer players. Part two recommends evidence-based approaches integrated to athlete development and injury prevention strategies, as a result of the needs analysis.

The mining engineering world is continuously experiencing new challenges whether it is economically, technologically or socially, there will always be something new in sight. Training and Development fulfils the role of the “breeder” of competence workforce and therefore it is essential to assure constant growth and progress within the skills and development environment. Personal attribute and dedication are the drivers of our success and achievements in our careers. The capacity of our trade and occupation does not set the limits and pace of our intensification to strive for the bigger and better in future. The career background and training and development opportunities are essential aspects to be renowned with before engaging with the learning intervention. Assure you start your career in the artisan trade that you desire to be a successful example in and discover the engineering world where the spectrum is never-ending. Development opportunities exist for all, irrespective of the trade and occupation. This study illustrates that even the smaller trade‟s artisans as focused on in this study, namely the Rigger Ropesman, can achieve higher laurels if the energy and efforts are exploited in the applicable avenues. The starting blocks, must be the blocks that fit yourself as individual learner, if not, even the first steps in the career will be started in stumbling mode. This qualitative research design study discovered numerous persons who started a career without knowing what it entails. The Rigger Ropesman artisans, Engineering Foremen and Learners who were interviewed as the target group contributed to achieving the aim of the study. The aim of the study was the possible training and development opportunities for the Rigger Ropesman in the Mining and Minerals Sector. Future studies can be conducted on career guidance and training and development opportunities in other engineering trades as this study only focused on the Rigger Ropesman trade in the Mining and Minerals Sector. / MEd (Training and Development), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

The mining engineering world is continuously experiencing new challenges whether it is economically, technologically or socially, there will always be something new in sight. Training and Development fulfils the role of the “breeder” of competence workforce and therefore it is essential to assure constant growth and progress within the skills and development environment. Personal attribute and dedication are the drivers of our success and achievements in our careers. The capacity of our trade and occupation does not set the limits and pace of our intensification to strive for the bigger and better in future. The career background and training and development opportunities are essential aspects to be renowned with before engaging with the learning intervention. Assure you start your career in the artisan trade that you desire to be a successful example in and discover the engineering world where the spectrum is never-ending. Development opportunities exist for all, irrespective of the trade and occupation. This study illustrates that even the smaller trade‟s artisans as focused on in this study, namely the Rigger Ropesman, can achieve higher laurels if the energy and efforts are exploited in the applicable avenues. The starting blocks, must be the blocks that fit yourself as individual learner, if not, even the first steps in the career will be started in stumbling mode. This qualitative research design study discovered numerous persons who started a career without knowing what it entails. The Rigger Ropesman artisans, Engineering Foremen and Learners who were interviewed as the target group contributed to achieving the aim of the study. The aim of the study was the possible training and development opportunities for the Rigger Ropesman in the Mining and Minerals Sector. Future studies can be conducted on career guidance and training and development opportunities in other engineering trades as this study only focused on the Rigger Ropesman trade in the Mining and Minerals Sector. / MEd (Training and Development), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

An issue of great concern for amputees continues to be lack of proper fit and comfort in their sockets. This lack can often be attributed to changes in the shape of the residual limb that cannot be compensated for by existing prosthetic socket technology. In regions where cost is a prohibitive factor in the replacement of ill-fitting prosthetic sockets, the need for a volume adjustable, and potentially longer lasting, socket design is abundant. This research focuses on designing a volume adjustable lower limb prosthetic socket that accommodates the needs of amputees in underdeveloped countries using collaborative design techniques. Though advocated as a means of accurately identifying and satisfying their needs, including end-users in the design process often adds an additional layer of complexity because of differences in culture, language, or geography among the participants. This research therefore includes a study in which product design techniques were applied to the same volume adjustable socket design problem with a variety of users – typical users, lead users, and new Empathic Lead Users - from different countries, one developed and one developing. To overcome differences among participants, this research includes an alternative strategy to create Empathic Lead Users (ELU) from non-user product design engineers through the use of simulated lead user experiences. As a result of this study, customer needs analysis with ELU helps to identify 95% of traditional and lead user customer needs and 100% more latent needs, and possibly more avenues for product innovations, than interviewing lead or traditional users alone. The concepts generated by all users were also compared. Based on the resulting concepts’ novelty, variety, quality, and quantity, all users were able to satisfactorily complete the concept generation exercises and produced competitive design solutions. Using the concepts generated during this co-design study, a volume adjustable socket was developed. The final socket design, based on the analogous rotational movement of a camera aperture, is pursued through mechanical and subject testing. Early users of the socket liked the design and it has been demonstrated to provide the necessary volume adjustments, but future design iterations to improve its comfort are necessary. / text

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (the KSA) has a rapidly growing and diversifying economy that has made significant progress in manufacturing, construction, and agriculture. However, the KSA remains a difficult place for the practice of human resources management (HRM) because of, among other factors, a large non-native workforce and a majority of family-owned firms. These complicating factors mean that, in Saudi firms, HRM practices are adopted in a gradual manner and specifically, training programs are conducted with a view to develop talents and improve worker performance. The study explored the current state of HRM practices in KSA, perception on the training programs conducted and training effectiveness captured as ‘Intent to participate’. The study primarily used qualitative as well as quantitative data collected from family-owned business firms. It helps to gain a deeper understanding of how perceptions on training programs vary across different organisations and demography of the trainees that include age, qualification and experience. A framework predicting intent to participate by the perception on training programs was developed based on the review of extant literature. In order to capture the differences in the perception on training programs across different organisations, age, qualification and experience, Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) was used. Results show that perception differed across organisations, age, qualification and experience. In order to predict intent to participate by perception on training programs, multiple regression analysis was used. Results show that perception on identification of training needs, clarity of objectives, training design, behavioural modification and performance improvement predict intent to participate. The researcher also explored perception on training programs in family-owned business firms by conducting an interview with 33 HR managers using a semi-structured interview schedule. The HR managers belong to those companies where the employees hail from. The schedule was developed and standardised using content validity and reliability. The study also gained insights into various areas of training required by the employees in order to achieve their business results. It further provides inputs in terms of HR concerns and suggested HR Interventions to make the management training function better aligned and integrated. The study concludes with a set of recommendations for firms on implementing management training effectively. Ultimately, the study proposes a model of training for family-owned businesses in the KSA.