No description available.

The purpose of this study is to examine Jackson's public and private attitude toward federally-financed internal improvements and to determine exactly what his policy was and how it related to his conception of the presidential office.

No description available.

No description available.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität Marburg.

Yes

In the competitive world of manufacturing, the companies would like to produce their products at reduced price and superior quality. In the production system, the company faces many problems during the production of their products. Over the past years the manufacturing industry follows suitable techniques in their production system for the improvements in production. Still, companies are in search for new technology or techniques to improve their production in radical ways during a short period of time. Many researchers have discussed the development of production system through continuous improvements. Techniques like lean, kaizen etc are implemented in the production system but the effect of these techniques is realized in production unit only after many years. Kaikaku is another technique in lean production which occurs in a radical way to eliminate waste to provide a greater value. It is a radical process improvement which takes place in short period of time. Kaikaku is normally used when Kaizen techniques are not providing enough positive results to keep an organization effective. Still, radical improvements often need capital investment. It is often focused on introducing new technology, new strategies, or completely new production system. This main objective of this thesis is to understand and analyze the production system development process in manufacturing industries and suggest how it is effective to keep an organization competitive. The basic conception and research aid of various authors are explained in the theoretical framework, and is done for the enhanced understanding of the reader and also a new conceptual theory structure framework is done to introduce the new concept of process innovation for radical improvements in the company. The proposed structure framework can help companies to practice the process innovation in the production system for development in short period of time.  Based on the conceptual structure and relevant theoretical understandings, the interview questions are framed and case companies are analyzed for the process improvements and process innovation performance in the production system. The empirical data is collected from case companies through interviews. With the help of empirical results and the related theoretical results, an analysis and discussion is made which clearly explains about the problems faced in the production system and how they can be solved through in a radical way.

In the fall of 2014 a literature review and a scientific study of the topic; "... in the extent to which companies in the industry applies the evaluation of continuous improvement” was conducted at Mälardalen University. These studies are the foundation of this thesis. A strategic improvement is often divided into smaller steps of improvements at each hierarchical level from the top down through the organization. But if there is no response system that can confirm the results of these improvements back through the organization it is very hard to see if the improvements really are improvements or just changes and a waste of resources. To make it possible for a companies to know if they have achieved their desired future state of such improvements it is required that an evaluation of the operational improvement outcomes is carried out, which can be reflected back through the hierarchy. Through an interview study, involving five companies, the thesis aims to examine to what extent well-established companies in Sweden apply evaluation within their operational improvement processes. The thesis also aims to examine what value-added effect that these evaluations have in such companies. The conclusions of the thesis are tied to the analysis of the research literature in the field of improvement evaluation, together with the analysis of the interview study. The interview study was decided to be carried out in an overt way but also confidential. A department manager and an operator from each company participated in the interview study which was formed on the basis of the literature review but also on the basis of pre-determined methods of analysis. The interview study was semi-structured in order to allow flexibility in the interview dialogues and to get a better overall understanding of the respondent’s viewpoints. Both a quantitative and a qualitative approach were used in the analysis in order to enable multiple angles. To answer the question, to what extent well-established companies in Sweden apply the evaluation within their operational improvement processes, a conclusion is made that the companies did not apply evaluation in any regular or standardized manner. Since the companies apply evaluation in their operational improvement processes in such limited manner there was according to all the respondents no value-added effect of evaluation for the investigated companies. Even though there were no value-added effect the importance of evaluation within the operational improvement processes were clearly expressed by all respondents and the scientific literature analyzed in the thesis. / Under hösten 2014 genomfördes en litteraturstudie och en vetenskaplig studie på Mälardalens högskola inom ämnet; ”… i vilken utsträckning företagen inom industrin tillämpar utvärdering av ständiga förbättringar”. Dessa studier ligger som grund för denna uppsats. En strategisk förbättring är ofta uppdelad i mindre förbättringssteg på varje hierarkisk nivå inom organisationen och implementeras sedan uppifrån och ner. Men om det inte finns något responssystem som kan bekräfta resultatet av dessa förbättringssteg tillbaka genom organisationen, är det mycket svårt att se om förbättringarna verkligen är förbättringar eller bara förändringar och ett slöseri med resurser. För att det ska vara möjligt för ett företag att veta om företaget uppnått sitt framtida önskade läge på berörda organisationsnivåer krävs det att en utvärdering genomförs av det operativa förbättringsresultatet som kan speglas tillbaka igenom hierarkin. Genom en intervjustudie, omfattande fem företag, syftar uppsatsen till att undersöka hur väletablerade företag i Sverige tillämpar utvärdering i sina operativa förbättringsprocesser, samt vilken värdeskapande effekt dessa utvärderingar har inom dessa typer av företag. Genom undersökning av forskningslitteratur kring förbättringsarbete och utvärdering, tillsammans med analys av intervjustudien, har uppsatsens slutsatser dragits. Intervjustudien valdes att göras öppen, men konfidentiell. En avdelningschef och en operatör från varje företag deltog i intervjustudien som formades utifrån en litteraturstudie men också utifrån förutbestämda analysmetoder. Intervjustudien var semi-strukturerad för att möjliggöra en flexibilitet i intervjudialogerna samt för att få en bättre helhetsförståelse för respondenternas synvinklar och situationer. Intervjustudien tolkades sedan utifrån ett kvantitativt och ett kvalitativt synsätt för att få flera infallsvinklar i analyseringen. För att svara på frågan hur väletablerade företag i Sverige arbetar med utvärdering av operativa förbättringar, kan en slutsats dras utifrån intervjustudien, att de undersökta företagen inte tillämpade utvärdering i någon regelbunden eller standardiserad form inom sitt operativa förbättringsarbete. I och med att företagens tillämpning av utvärdering i förbättringsarbetet skedde i sådan liten utsträckning fanns det enligt samtliga respondenter ingen värdeskapande effekt av den för de företag som undersökts i denna uppsats. Men även om det inte var värdeskapande för företagen så fanns det enligt både respondenterna och vetenskapen ett värde i att utvärdera i förbättringsarbete.

Rural communities play a significant role in the State of Texas economy. The economic success of these communities depends heavily on maintaining adequate public infrastructure systems. This report examines the infrastructure needs of 11 rural Texas cities to identify gaps in funding resources available through state and federal grant and loan programs for infrastructure improvements. Primary findings conclude that inadequate funding support for rural infrastructure improvements through state and federal grant and loan programs exists primarily for water and wastewater infrastructure improvements and street and sidewalk improvements. In addition, the report outlines limitations specific to rural communities in obtaining various forms of capital financing that include a limited tax base, limited access to borrowing and lack of economies of scale as well as various demographic characteristics that contribute to these limitations. / text

Malaria, a preventable disease caused by a mosquito-transmitted parasitic infection, continues to be a prominent public health problem today. Progress has been made in the last decade demonstrated by malaria mortality reductions primarily attributed to current vector control strategies. However, the continuing threat of resistance, both resistance of mosquitoes to insecticides and parasites to antimalarial medicines, requires the development of new and improved strategies to supplement those already in place. Housing improvements such as screening doors and windows, closing eaves, patching cracks in walls, and installing ceilings are one such intervention that help stop contact between malaria vectors and humans, and therefore, help stop malaria transmission. Historically considered successful in helping fight malaria, housing improvements are being looked to again today.