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Critical Analysis Of The Confounding Of Clinical Trials, Eleanor L. Jordan

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

To provide a comprehensive overview of issues confounding clinical trials, Chapter 2 will discuss the parties involved in the research and development of medications and detail the individual responsibilities of each. However, the ambition of these individual entities often produces a conflict of interest especially when profits are involved [9]. Organizations and individuals such as insurance corporations, pharmaceutical companies (sponsors), pharmacy benefit managers, investigators (doctors/medical professionals) and most importantly patients, are all involved in carrying out clinical research and have definitive responsibilities they are required to follow for unbiased results. However, many rules are overlooked and biases go unrecorded causing …

Customer Complaint Management Systems (Ccms) In A Food Processing Industry, Maggie A. Macleish

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Abstract

The food processing industry must meet customers’ highest quality expectations at the lowest cost. I partnered with Nestlé’s pizza facility in Little Chute, WI, to improve the current customer complaint approach of the quality department, which aimed to improve product quality. To improve the total quality of the system, this project established a defensive method of addressing customer complaints. Some strategies used to improve the current Customer Complaint Management System (CCMS) include Quality Functional Deployment (QFD), fuzzy logic, Kano’s methods, Voice of the customer (VOC) and Go-See-Think-Do (GSTD). These strategies are all related, but have not previously been used …

The Effects Of Quantitative Easing In The United States: Implications For Future Central Bank Policy Makers, Matthew Q. Rubino

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the effects of the Federal Reserve’s recent bond buying programs, specifically Quantitative Easing 1, Quantitative Easing 2, Operation Twist (or the Fed’s Maturity Extension Program), and Quantitative Easing 3. In this study, I provide a picture of the economic landscape leading up to the deployment of the programs, an overview of quantitative easing including each program’s respective objectives, and how and why the Fed decided to implement the programs. Using empirical analysis, I measure each program’s effectiveness by applying four models including a yield curve model, an inflation model, a money supply …

Jmu Dining To Go, Austin R. Ford

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

JMU Dining to Go is a business plan that led to the development of two applications, both of which allow JMU students to order food from on-campus dining halls and have it delivered at their specified time and to their specified location.

The Congruence Of The Social And Conventional Entrepreneur: An Examination Of Goal Split Distribution, Emergence By Age, And Antecedent Model Congruence, Eric M. Korn

Dissertations, 2014-2019

Defined social and conventional entrepreneurs enjoy very different levels of support and educational offerings in the United States and abroad. With the launch of more and more nonprofit organizations being spurred on by the entrepreneur, the extent to which those that seek a distributed bottom line for their intended organization differ from those with economic goals becomes an important line of inquiry.

The study of the entrepreneur began, in many ways, with Schumpeter in that late 1930’s, and the echoes of his economic background remain implicit in the definition of the breed to this day. This work seeks to determine …

Nonprofit Leadership: A Study Of Governance Changes Over Time, Daisha M. Merritt

Dissertations, 2014-2019

This is a leadership study understood through board governance in nonprofit organizations. The study sought to discover if there were indicators of coercive institutional isomorphism occurring in human service nonprofit organizations in the United States. IRS 990 tax forms were compiled from 2008- 2012 to determine if there were increasing levels of reported governance practices. Methodology included factor analysis, comparison of means, trend analysis, and regression models. Results indicated that there is an overall trend of increasing reported practices of governance in human service nonprofit organizations. Board size is the most significant indicator associated with changes in reported governance practices. …

Analysis Of International Epc Projects Using Scor Model, Monetecarlito Simulation, And Relationship Management, Xiaopeng Liang

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

The EPC contracting mode (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) has been broadly applied in construction projects, particularly, at the international level. However, the procurement process has been scarcely in literature. The purpose of this thesis is to research the procurement processes of different types of products—ETO (Engineer to order), MTO (Make to order), and MTS (make to stock)—in supply chain for a real international EPC cement project in Ethiopia. The procurement processes of steel bar (MTS), precast steel structure (MTO), and vertical mill (ETO) for the “Raw Meal Grinding and Exhaust Gas Treat,” one of the cement plant workshops, have been …

No More Design By Committee: Strategies For Building Lean Mean Web Project Teams, Jennifer A. Keach, Jody C. Fagan

Libraries

Whether you are implementing a virtual reference service or redesigning the library website, today’s web projects require organizational buy-in and web skill. Even when working well, standing committees don’t always have the skills needed to create a successful website, clear authority, and resources to complete the job. This program and paper presents research study findings about web committees and teams, and proposes an alternate strategy for developing project-focused, skill-driven teams to manage your library’s next web project.

Simulating Business Team Assembly With Network Models, Kevin Zdancewicz

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Many business organizations utilize team structures as a way to organize their personnel and integrate the diverse backgrounds and competencies of their employees. As a result, team assembly strategies are important to an organization’s productivity and should be evaluated by managers. This thesis utilizes network modeling and simulation to explore and assess various team assembly strategies that incorporate the concept that some people energize their teammates, whereas others de-energize them. Research in this area of energy networks studies the impact that energizing and de-energizing employees have on the performance of their co-workers and, as a result, the success of business …

Project Dynamics: An Analysis Of The Purpose And Value Of System Dynamics Applied To Information Technology Project Management, Timothy Charles Delobe

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Project failure in the Information Technology (IT) sector is well documented in the literature; project managers miss their target budgets and schedules more than twice as often as they meet them. Traditional project management methodologies initially developed for the large-scale engineering projects of the 1950’s, while still relevant and useful, are reductionist in nature and are therefore missing a systems approach that concentrates on knowledge creation before, during and after a project. The research presented herein will demonstrate the role of system dynamics in augmenting a project’s control processes, as well as the skill set used by the project manager. …

Reforming The Approach To E-Banking In The Middle East, Omer M. Al-Khanchi

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Over the past three decades, electronic banking (e-banking) has witnessed rapid growth and development in some countries like the U.S. and the U.K. This growth has resulted in an increase in banks’ revenues and customers’ savings and convenience. However this is not the case in the Middle East. Although banks do offer electronic services in this region, the technology has not reached the same growth rates as in developed countries. This problem is due to the quality of services banks offer and, more importantly, the level of protection they provide to their customers. It is also related to the people’s …

Predictive Modeling For Non-Profit Fundraising, Qin Chen

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

The objective of this thesis is to compare the predictive performance of multiple regression, logistic regression, neural networks, and support vector machines (SVM) in identifying donors and non-donors, and predicting the amount of donations for a specific solicitation campaign using a data set from the Direct Marketing Education Foundation (DMEF). Non-Profit fundraising has benefited from the use of data-mining models to identify new donors, to re-solicit existing donors, and to increase the amount of donations from a solicitation campaign. Multiple regression, logistic regression, and neural networks have been widely used for non-profit fundraising. In this thesis the support vector machines …

Moving Beyond Integrating Ubiquitous Undergraduate Research Skills, Harry L. Reif, Kathy E. Clarke, Young B. Choi

Libraries

Information systems professionals must be able to recognize and adapt to changing technologies to support evolving business needs. While it is impossible to accurately envision tomorrow’s technologies and business needs, it is possible to develop students’ ability to constantly survey the changing business and technology landscapes and apply critical thinking skills to draw appropriate conclusions regarding which potential trends are worth following and which are less viable. This paper makes the case for preparing undergraduate students with problem-solving and research skills and describes a successful methodology for developing these skills in an undergraduate information systems course.

Integrating Traditional Research-Journal Based Sources With Trade And Web-Based Sources In Coursework, Kathy E. Clarke, Harry L. Reif Dr.

Libraries

Due to the rapidly changing nature of telecommunications, it is challenging to be able to introduce timely topics into this curriculum. At the same time, educators are challenged with preparing students to function in the workplace where change is a given, as on average workers spend an average of 9.25 hours per week looking for or analyzing data [4]. Initiatives to keep instruction relevant and prepare students to be information literate mandate that students be able to discover, digest, and put into context new information about technologies. This skill is developed and enhanced through the use of research projects. This …

Proposal For A Dod Combined Battlefield Electromagnetic Environmental Effects (E3) Initiative, George H. Baker Iii

Department of Integrated Science and Technology - Faculty Scholarship

The presentation emphasizes the growing importance of electromagnetic survivability and compatibility. Operation Desert Storm demonstrated the clear military advantage provided by sophisticated electronic weapon and communication systems. In addition, the offensive tactic of taking out the enemy's eyes and ears during the air war paid off, giving our military decisive air superiority. The lessons for the future are clear. High-tech electronics now so dominates the battlefield that the outcome of future conflicts could well be decided by electronics attrition rather than human casualties. Our Desert Storm experience thus accentuates the importance of guaranteeing that our electronic systems will not be …