Background: The Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial (SELECT) was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, prostate cancer prevention study funded by the National Cancer Institute and conducted by SWOG (Southwest Oncology Group). A total of 35,533 men were assigned randomly to one of four treatment groups (vitamin E + placebo, selenium + placebo, vitamin E + selenium, placebo + placebo). At the time of the trial's development, NIH had invested substantial resources in evaluating the potential benefits of these antioxidants. To capitalize on the knowledge gained from following a large cohort of healthy, aging males on the effects of selenium and/or vitamin E, ancillary studies with other disease endpoints were solicited. Methods: Four ancillary studies were added. Each drew from the same population but had independent objectives and an endpoint other than prostate cancer. These studies fell into two categories: those prospectively enrolling and following participants (studies of Alzheimer's disease and respiratory function) and those requiring a retrospective medical record review after a reported event (cataracts/age-related macular degeneration and colorectal screening). An examination of the challenges and opportunities of adding ancillary studies is provided. The impact of the ancillary studies on adherence to SELECT was evaluated using a Cox proportional hazards model. Results: While the addition of ancillary studies appears to have improved participant adherence to the primary trial, this did not come without added complexity. Activation of the ancillary studies happened after the SELECT randomizations had begun resulting in accrual problems to some of the studies. Study site participation in the ancillary trials varied greatly and depended on the interest of the study site principal investigator. Procedures for each were integrated into the primary trial and all monitoring was done by the SELECT Data and Safety Monitoring Committee. The impact of the early closure of the primary trial was different for each of the ancillary trials. Conclusions: The ancillary studies allowed study sites to broaden the research opportunities for their participants. Their implementation was efficient because of the established infrastructure of the primary trial. Implementation of these ancillary trials took substantial planning and coordination but enriched the overall primary trial.

Clinical supervision as a discipline supporting the quality of work in the field of helping professions has lately been introduced in healthcare services. In this context its implementation is being met with specific obstacles coming from both management and the workers tending to the clients or patients. This thesis is focused on the view of nurses working in residential facility tending primarily to children under the age of three. It contains a case study which first assesses the situation prior to starting the supervision process, mainly some aspects of organizational culture and the risks of burnout syndrome, which may reveal both possible obstacles and favourable circumstances during the implementation process. Following is a course description of the supervision meetings lasting throughout one year and the thesis is capped off by another partial research of the situation in this organization after said year focused primarily on the changes and reception of clinical supervision by its participants. Although certain foreseen obstacles such as shift work and hierarchical management have been confirmed, supervision was acknowledged for it's beneficial effect by the nurses. It brought them the opportunity to discuss, reflect on their work, relay information and ameliorate communication between both...

KM is the process of creating value from the intangible assets of an enterprise. It deals with how best to leverage knowledge internally in the enterprise (in its individual employees, and the knowledge that gets built into its structures and systems) and externally to the customers and stakeholders. As KM initiatives, projects and systems are just beginning to appear in organisations, there is little research and empirical field data to guide the successful development and implementation of such systems or to guide the expectations of the potential benefits of such systems. In addition, about 84 per cent of KM programmes failed or exerted no significant impact on the adopting organisations worldwide due to inability to consider many critical factors that contribute to the success of KM project implementation. Hence, this study is an exploratory investigation into the KM implementation based on an integrated approach. This includes: (1) a comprehensive review of the relevant literature; (2) a comprehensive analysis of secondary case studies of KM implementations in 90 organisations presented in the literature, in order to arrive at the most critical factors of KM implementation and their degree of criticality; (3) exploratory global survey of 92 organisations in 23 countries that have already implemented or are in the process of implementing KM; (4) in-depth case studies of four leading organisations to understand how KM implementation processes and the critical factors identified are being addressed. Based on the empirical findings of the study, 28 critical factors were identified that must be carefully considered in the KM implementation to achieve a successful project. Moreover, the study proposes an integrated model for effective KM implementation which contains essential elements that contribute to project success.

Manufacturing support services, operating as call centres, are one of the fastest growing and preferred means of service delivery in today's ever-changing manufacturing environment. The call centre has a significant potential to provide support to manufacturing organizations with business intelligence captured during contacts with customers. Research has shown that affective commitment is of particular significance in the workplace since this has been found to have the greatest impact on individuals performance, on-work behaviour and ultimately organisational effectiveness (Porter, Steers & Boulian 1974, Sung 2007, Shum 2008, Herscovitch 2002, Gong 2009). Meyer and Allen (1991) define affective commitment as a measure of the employee's emotional attachment to the organisation, the strength of identification with the goals of the organisation and strength of commitment to its success and continuous improvement. However, call centres are mechanistic structure models represented by close monitoring of words, stressful working loads, emotional exhaustion and burnout, and minor empowerment of employees. As a result employees lack affective commitment which detrimentally influences the service quality and has consequences such as high employee turnover and low customer satisfaction. Mechanistic structures are inward oriented structures that must be shielded from the environment but call centres are outward-facing entities. This firmly implies that call centres must be given a certain form of organic structure that will stimulate affective commitment building among employees and improve work conditions. This study aims to identify that by the implementation of an organic structure, through a systems engineering approach, to the design of manufacturing support services, the affective commitment of front-line employees will significantly increase, and due to that significant, but often counter-intuitive, benefits can be created. Conducted on a multiple-case design, three organisations were selected in this research study to collect both qualitative and quantitative data. Results were analysed for each case individually before it was analysed on inter-case basis. This has been done to show differences and similarities in patterns of data across the case studies. Results from the research show that structuring call centres around the principles of systems thinking will produce an organically structured support services department that will improve employees working conditions, and will formally institute the integration of call centre with other business units in the manufacturing organisation. The cross-case comparison revealed significant improvement in employees affective commitment level using organic structure when contrasted with employees working under mechanistic structure designs. It was revealed that by leveraging employee s affective commitment that significant benefits can be created at different levels in the organisation; an employee s level, managerial level, customer level, and the overall business level. A novel methodology for organic structures implementation, as a value creating model, was formulated. The emerged methodology consists of six major tasks and a decision making criteria. Results from this research indicate that there is a need for manufacturing organisations to structure their support services departments following organic structures that could provide a rewarding working experience for their employees while achieving organisational goals. The study makes an explicit practical contribution for manufacturing organisations in the selection of proper support service design and contribute substantially to the theory about manufacturing support services structures and management.

<div>This dissertation presents a two-phase multiple case study conducted to investigate the faculty</div><div>beliefs regarding the integration of labs into engineering and engineering technology education</div><div>and the relationship between such beliefs and the teaching practices adopted in the labs. In the first</div><div>phase, an exploratory study grounded on a framework of beliefs was conducted to elicit the beliefs</div><div>espoused by the participants. Interviews were used to elicit the participants’ beliefs. The</div><div>transcribed interviews were analyzed through the constant comparative method. Thirteen faculty</div><div>members from the College of Engineering and Engineering Technology participated. In the second</div><div>phase, a triangulation approach was used to investigate the relationships between the participants’</div><div>beliefs and their corresponding teaching practices. The findings from phase one were triangulated</div><div>with the data from interviews, questionnaires, and documents to elicit the relationships between</div><div>beliefs and practices.</div>

The thesis contains selected parts of building technology project for the construction of residential house in Prague, section Palmovka. The goal is building a technology solution entered the building on the basis of technical documents supplied by the designer. This work includes technical report on construction technology project, time and financial object plan, schedule substructure using a computer program Contec, study the implementation of major technological stages of the main building, including diagrams of the construction process, the project site equipment, design of the main mechanisms, inspection and test plan with technological instruction for earthwork and foundation of the building, the maintenance plan.

This diploma thesis deals with construction and technological preparation of the construction of the central hospital building in the town Uherske Hradiste. The work is composed of selected parts of the building and technological project, which is annexed to the diploma thesis. On some selected parts of the building and technological project is also prepared relevant drawings. The aim of the thesis is to choose a suitable and effective implementation process object depending on the circumstances and determine the resources of time, funds, personnel and materials.