Semiotics Consultants (Pvt.) Limited: Framing the Collaborative Education Project
ASIAN JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT CASES
Authors: ul Haque, Ehsan; Mansoor, Suwaibah
Abstract
Ajmal Baig, CEO of Semiotics Consultants, a development consulting firm based in Islamabad, Pakistan is in the midst of heated debates with his team members on the evolution and performance of their currently ongoing project on education in the province of Punjab. The project, 'Collaborative Education Project (CEP)', is an GDA funded project for which a grant of Euro 10 million was allocated. The project was launched in 2003 and is now in its mid-term stages. During the life of the project, its Logical Framework Analysis (LFA) has been revised four times in the light of feedback from stakeholders and experience on the ground. The project team at Semiotics is reviewing and debating this journey. A robust and well thought out LFA is the starting point for any good program design and it also serves as its monitoring and evaluation tool. However, learning organisations expect that changes will be made based on ground realities and changing circumstances leading to revisions in the LFA. The key question is how much deviation from the original design is kosher. Too little and too much flexibility both have the potential to adversely impact the project outcomes.
A study on the spatial and temporal variability in airborne Betula pollen concentration in five cities in Poland using multivariate analyses
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
Authors: Kubik-Komar, Agnieszka; Piotrowska-Weryszko, Krystyna; Weryszko-Chmielewska, Elzbieta; Kuna-Broniowska, Izabela; Chlopek, Kazimiera; Myszkowska, Dorota; Puc, Malgorzata; Rapiejko, Piotr; Ziemianin, Monika; Dabrowska-Zapart, Katarzyna; Lipiec, Agnieszka
Abstract
During the spring period, Betula pollen is the main cause of inhalant allergies in Poland and therefore it is important to monitor and forecast airborne pollen concentrations of this taxon. This study conducted a comparative analysis of the basic characteristics of Betula pollen seasons at the regional scale. The study was carried out from 2001 to 2016 in five cities in Poland: Lublin, Warsaw, Cracow, Sosnowiec, and Szczecin. To find the attributes of birch pollen seasons that mostly differentiated the individual cities, a general discriminant analysis (GDA) was performed, while a principal component analysis (PCA) allowed us to reduce the data space and present a scatterplot of PCA scores in order to compare pollen seasons in the individual cities. The contingency table was also analyzed to check whether there was a significant relationship between pollen counts in the studied years and cities. At most of the sites, biennial cycles of low and high pollen concentrations can be observed. Due to the high variation in seasons in each of these cities, two data groups were distinguished: Group 1 was composed of seasons with high pollen deposition (2001, 2003, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016), and Group 2 comprising the other seasons. Multivariate analyses were performed on both these groups as well as in the entire dataset. End98, Peak Value, and Annual Total had the highest discriminant power. In Group 1, Warsaw and Sosnowiec differed the most in the investigated parameters, while Cracow and Szczecin differed the least. In both groups, most seasons with the highest pollen birch concentration were observed in Lublin, followed by Warsaw, while in Cracow, the number of such seasons was the smallest. (C) 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.