The purpose of this project was to develop and recommend a strategic planning model that can be used by music executives in their management of music programs in institutions of higher education. Specifically, the study sought to (1) determine the aspects which influence the planning process, that are unique to the administration of a music program in institutions of higher education, and (2) develop a model that incorporates the major concepts of strategic planning and that can be applied to the planning process in music programs in institutions of higher education.

Water resource management is a multifaceted issue that becomes more complex when considering multiple nations’ interdependence upon a single shared transboundary river basin. With over 200 transboundary river basins worldwide shared by two or more countries, it is important to develop tools to allow riparian countries to cooperatively manage these shared and often limited water resources. Cooperative game theory provides tools for determining if cooperation can exist across jurisdictional boundaries through a suite of mathematical tools that measure the benefits of cooperation among basin stakeholders. Cooperative game theory is also useful for transboundary negotiation because it provides a range of solutions which will satisfy all players in the game and provides methods to fairly and equitably allocate the gains of that cooperation to all participating stakeholders, if that cooperation is shown to be possible. This dissertation applies cooperative game theory concepts to the Rio Grande/Bravo basin in North America as a case study. The Rio Grande/Bravo forms the 1,200 km border between the United States and Mexico. A comprehensive water resources planning model was developed for the basin including the major water users, water related infrastructure including reservoirs, and water policy logic related to the bi-national water sharing agreements. The water planning model is used to calculate the characteristic functions for the cooperative game analysis. For the Water Demand Reduction Game, the largest agricultural users, District 005, District 025 and the Texas Watermaster Section below Falcon were defined individual players. The cooperative analysis was between the individual players rather than the countries. In addition to the cooperative analysis, performance measures for water deliveries were calculated to determine if water delivery was improved to each player under the cooperative game. The results show that the amount of additional water to the downstream players may not be large enough to induce cooperation. The small amount of increase in water deliveries is related to the large system losses as the water travels downstream over a long distance and a division of water under the 1944 Treaty between the United States and Mexico. / text

Already in its Education Strategy, adopted by the Executive Board in 2007, UNICEF fully obligates to the international commitment to universal education and defines its contribution to national efforts to fulfil children’s right to education. In September 2010, UNICEF further published a special report on a study showing that an equity-focused approach to child survival and development is the most practical and cost-effective way of meeting the health MDGs for children. For the modelling process of the research a simulation was run employing the Marginal Budgeting for Bottlenecks (MBB) model, jointly developed by the World Bank and UNICEF. This model has been widely used in international public health research to design and test development strategies. In its consistency with the human-right based approach, the MBB model addresses bottlenecks in the capacity of duty-bearers to fulfil human-rights as well as barriers of the capacity of right-holders to claim their rights. Using the MBB model, policymakers and researchers can simulate varying configurations of service delivery modes to expand access of coverage and measures to encourage usage. For each strategy, the model generates the predicted impact on intervention coverage and outcomes, overall cost and cost-effectiveness. UNICEF’s global refocus on equity and the most disadvantaged children makes it necessary to introduce improved planning and monitoring instruments. In this context, the MBB model is used as a budgeting and simulation tool for UNICEF interventions in health and nutrition. UNICEF aims to use harmonized tools across different sectors to reduce transaction costs and to improve comparison and sharing of lessons learned between the different sectors. However, it is also important to adapt and develop instruments based on the diverse needs of different sectors to ensure best results. Therefore, the main purpose of this research is to find an answer to following question: Can, and if so, how can the Marginal Budgeting for Bottlenecks model, developed for the health sector, be adapted for planning, costing and budgeting allocations in the education sector? An adapted Marginal Budgeting for Bottleneck model for education could be applied for a comprehensive sector analysis, comparing intervention alternatives and setting policy goals and strategies. It could further be used to monitor the implementation of major sector reforms with regard to the comparison of potential versus actual impact of interventions on learning achievements. Applying two production functions, the MBB model applies the basic principle of Cost-Effectiveness Analysis, comparing the costs of education interventions with the corresponding expected impact on increased service coverage. However, detailed inputs, outputs, outcomes and impacts and the corresponding correlations would need to be defined for an Service Production Function (inputoutput) and an Education Production Function (output-outcome/impact). Further, a selection of globally proved remedial actions to overcome sector bottlenecks need to be specified. Education interventions largely depend on the country context and different countries and regions apply different remedial actions. Since the relationship of input and impact is not as linear as the illness-treatment relationship in health, international research and comparison of effective interventions would need to be conducted. The MBB model is applying service coverage determinants of both, supply and demand side. Therefore the approach could be a helpful instrument in the context of the Human Rights-based Approach as used within programming of the United Nations and UNICEF. However, applying further analysis on humanitarian aspects of programming always depends on the availability of disaggregated information. Based on the outline of the Service Coverage Concept and the Marginal Budgeting for Bottlenecks model and the conceptual adaptation of the MBB model for its use in education, following suggestions can be made for the Service Delivery Modes and Service Coverage Determinants: Overall, an MBB model in education could have added value for education planning, budgeting and impact simulation. However, it has to be considered that applying the model requires extensive data input for all six Service Coverage Determinants for each of the five Service Deliver Modes. Although, the MBB model could be adjusted to only cover a certain sub-sector within Quality Education for All. Five Service Delivery Modes Ten Sub-Packages 1. Pre-School Education 1.1 Public Early Childhood Education 1.2 Private Early Childhood Education 2. Formal Basic Education 2.1 Public Formal Basic Education 2.2 Private Basic Education 3. Non-Formal Basic Education 3.1 Public Non-Formal Basic Education 3.2 Private Non-Formal Basic Education 4. (Lower) Secondary Education 4.1 Public Secondary Education 4.2 Private Secondary Education 5. Adult Literacy, Continuing Education 5.1 Youth and Adult Literacy Interventions 5.2 Continuing Education Six Service Coverage Determinants Indicator Supply side 1. Availability of essential commodities Pupil-Classroom Ratio by grade Pupil-Textbook Ratio 2. Availability of human resources Pupil-Teacher Ratio (or Pupilqualified Teacher Ratio) by grade 3. Geographic and financial accessibility School-Distance School-Costs by grade Demand side 4. Initial Utilization Net-Enrolment Ratio (or Gross- Enrolment Ratio) by grade 5. Continuous Utilization Survival Rate by grade 6. Effective Utilization Graduation Ratio Graduation Test Scores Overall, an MBB model in education could have added value for education planning, budgeting and impact simulation. However, it has to be considered that applying the model requires extensive data input for all six Service Coverage Determinants for each of the five Service Deliver Modes. Although, the MBB model could be adjusted to only cover a certain sub-sector within Quality Education for All.

The energy-planning involves finding a set of sources and conversion devices so as to meet the energy requirements/demands of all the activities in an optimal manner. This could occur at centralized or decentralized level. The current pattern of commercial energy oriented development, particularly focused on fossil fuels and centralized electricity, has resulted in inequities, external debt and environmental degradation. The current status is largely a result of adoption of centralized energy planning (CEP), which ignores the energy needs of rural areas and the poor and has further contributed to environmental degradation due to fossil fuel consumption and forest degradation. CEP does not pay attention to the variations in socio-economic and ecological factors of a region, which influence success of any intervention. Decentralized energy planning (DEP) provides an opportunity to address the energy needs of poor as well as promote efficient utilization of resources. The DEP mechanism takes into account various available resources and demands in a region. DEP, in the Indian context, could be at several scales namely district, block, panchayats (cluster of villages) and village level. Energy planning at the village level is the lowest level of the application of decentralized planning principle. A village constitutes a cluster of households with distinct geographic boundary consisting of settlement, agricultural land, water bodies and any other land category, in most parts of India. Further, the village level plans must be prepared within the limits set by a panchayat, a block or a district level plans, for the sum total of various village plans must correspond to a panchayat (local council), block (or taluka), or district level plan. A panchayat is the lowest administrative unit consisting of a cluster of villages and an elected body to administer developmental activities. A block (or taluka) consists of a cluster of panchayats and a district consists of a cluster of blocks. The main hypothesis for this study is that centralized energy planning has lead to excessive dependence on fossil fuels and import of petroleum, leading to concerns on environment and energy security and finally neglect of the energy needs of the rural communities and poor in particular. DEP could meet the local energy needs particularly in rural areas, protect environment and promote a self reliant and sustainable energy path. In this study, methodology for adopting energy planning from grassroot or village to district level is explored. The study adopts and compares the DEP approach of moving from village (Ungra), to panchayat (Yedavani), to block (Kunigal) and finally to district (Tumkur) level. Aims and objectives of research . • To review energy planning approaches adopted in India . • To evaluate models and methods for DEP at different scales; Village, Panchayat, District and State levels . • To develop a sustainable and decentralized energy planning approach . • To analyze the sustainable decentralized planning approach using multiple objective goal programming model and develop sustainable energy mix for meeting energy needs at village, panchayat, block and district level . • To assess the implications of sustainable and decentralized energy planning from the context of socio-economic and environmental concerns. The central theme of the research work is to prepare an optimized area-based decentralized energy plan to meet the energy needs, incorporating all potential alternate energy sources and end-use devices at least-cost to the economy and environment. One of the environmental goals addressed is to minimize or avoid CO2 emissions to address climate change. Study area selected for DEP is Tumkur district of Karnataka state, India and the DEP is carried out for the year 2005 and 2020. Advanced operation research technique, goal programming, is used to solve the large and complicated energy system problem having multiple conflicting goals.

No description available.

A l'estat de la qüestió s'inicia l'aproximació conceptual i terminològica mitjançant l'anàlisi de la evolució històrica de la planificació estratègica des del punt de vista miliar, de la Teoria dels Jocs, de la Teoria Organitzacional i del Management per tal de, a continuació, exposar com es concebeix la funció directiva comunicativa en tant que àmbit d'estudi, tot establint les distincions establertes des de l'Escola Organitzacional, l'Escola de les Relacions Públiques i l'Escola de la Comunicació Integral (Comunicació Total i Comunicació Corporativa).Un cop exposats els conceptes fonamentals de les Relacions Públiques (Imatge i Reputació; Percepcions, Actituts i Conducta; Identitat; Cultura Organitzacional; Visió, Misió, Valors i Credo Corporatiu; Entorn i Resposabilitat Social Corporativa -RSC-; Conflicte i Issues Management -Gestió de Conflictes Potencials-; i Públics i Stakeholders), s'aborda la descripció de diversos models de Planificació Estratègica en la Teoria de les Relacions Públiques i de la Comunicació Integral, a partir del Model RACE establert per Marston, com a pas previ a la formulació d'una aportació d'un Model Global de Planificació Estratègica, d'aplicació tant en Relacions Públiques com en Comunicació Integral.A continuació es presenta el treball de camp empíric dut a terme amb la finalitat de verificar l'adequat ús de la Planificació Estratègica per part d'algunes agències de Relacions Públiques i Comunicació de l'estat espanyol i, en últim lloc, es detallen les conclusions de la tesi doctoral. / En el estado de la cuestión se inicia la cuestión conceptual y terminológica a través del análisis de la evolución histórica de la planificación estratégica desde el punto de vista militar, de la Teoría de los Juegos, de la Teoría Organizacional y del Management para, a continuación, exponer cómo se concibe la función directiva en tanto que ámbito de estudio, estableciendo las distinciones establecidas desde la Escuela Organizacional, la Escuela de las Relaciones Públicas y la Escuela de la Comunicación Integral (Comunicación Total y Comunicación Corporativa). Tras exponer los conceptos fundamentales de las Relaciones Públicas y de la Comunicación Integral (Imagen y Reputación; Percepciones, Actitudes y Conducta; Identidad; Cultura Organizacional; Visión, Misión, Valores y Credo Corporativo; Entorno y Responsabilidad Social Corporativa -RSC-; Conflicto e Issues Management -Gestión de Conflictos Potenciales-; y Públicos y Stakeholders), se aborda la descripción de diversos modelos de Planificación Estratégica en la Teoría de las Relaciones Públicas y de la Comunicación Integral a partir del Modelo RACE establecido por Marston, como paso previo a la formulación de una aportación de un Modelo Global de Planificación Estratégica, de aplicación tanto en Relaciones Públicas como en Comunicación Integral.A continuación se presenta el trabajo de campo empírico llevado a cabo con el fin de verificar el adecuado uso de la Planificación Estratégica por parte de algunas agencias y consultoras de Relaciones Públicas y Comunicación del estado español y, por último, se detallan las conclusiones finales de la tesis doctoral. / The goal of this study is to propose a model of strategic planning in Public Relations and Corporate Communication. The literature review initiates the conceptual and terminological approach to the model. This is done by means of an analysis of the historical evolution of strategic planning from a number of points of view: the military one, game theory, and organizational and management theory. This is followed by a description and comparison of the communicative managing function as an area of study as conceived by the Organizational school, the Public Relations school, and the Corporate Communication school. Following the presentation of the main Public Relations concepts (i.e. image and reputation; perception, attitude, and conduct; identity; organizational culture; vision, mission, values, and corporate credo; environment and corporate social responsibility; conflict and issues management; audiences and stakeholders) the RACE model by Marston is used as a reference to describe a number of strategic planning models within the theory of Public Relations and Corporate Communication. On the grounds of such a description, a contribution to a model of strategic planning is made, which is applicable to both Public Relations and Corporate Communication. An empirical study follows which verifies the appropriate use of strategic planning by a number of Public Relations and Corporate Communication agencies in Spain. Finally, the conclusions to the doctoral dissertation are presented.