Refine
Year of publication
Document Type
- Article (206)
- Conference Proceeding (96)
- Part of a Book (23)
- Book (22)
- Other (9)
- Working Paper (8)
- Master's Thesis (2)
- Doctoral Thesis (1)
Language
- English (367) (remove)
Keywords
- physiotherapy (6)
- manual therapy (4)
- performing artists (4)
- Sustainability (3)
- Aesthetics (2)
- COVID-19 (2)
- Catchment order (2)
- Conservation planning (2)
- Danube (2)
- Entrepreneurship (2)
Institute
- Fakultät WiSo (367) (remove)
Data warehouse systems have become a basic technological infrastructure in management decision making. Nevertheless, the overall utility of data warehouses remains unmeasured in most practical cases. As a consequence of this, IT-managers do not possess appropriate means to evaluate warehouse benefits in order to decide about investments in warehousing technology. This paper develops a controlling instrument for data warehouse systems based on the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) approach. On the basis of the technological aspects of data warehouse systems, the BSC perspectives are developed and populated with relevant objectives and measures for datawarehouse success. These perspectives are integrated into a consistent data warehouse scorecard. Finally, this instrument provides a holistic approach to drive the performance of data warehouse systems.
Building on Hofstede's finding that individualism and social hierarchy are incompatible at the societal level, the authors examined the relationship between individualism-collectivism and orientations toward authority at the individual level. In Study 1, authoritarianism was related to three measures of collectivism but unrelated to three measures of individualism in a U.S. sample (N = 382). Study 2 used Triandis's horizontal-vertical individualism-collectivism framework in samples from Bulgaria, Japan, New Zealand, Germany, Poland, Canada, and the United States (total N = 1,018). Both at the individual level and the societal level of analysis, authoritarianism was correlated with vertical individualism and vertical collectivism but unrelated to horizontal collectivism. Horizontal individualism was unrelated to authoritarianism except in post-Communist societies whose recent history presumably made salient the incompatibility between state authority and self-determination.
Every modern institution involved in higher education needs a Learning Management System (LMS) to handle learning and teaching processes. It is necessary to offer e.g. electronic lecture materials to the students for download via the internet. In some educational contexts, it is also necessary to offer internet tutorials to be able to give the students more personal support and accompany them through the whole lecture period. Many organisations have introduced commercial LMS and gained the experience that monolithic solutions do not fulfil the dynamic requirements of complex educational institutions and are very cost-intensive. Therefore, many universities face the decision to stick to their commercial LMS or to switch to a potentially more cost-effective and flexible solution, for instance by adopting available Open Source LMS. Since we have made profound experience in developing and operating an Open Source LMS, this contribution enlightens the main characteristics of this alternative. This paper describes a use case dealing with a full product lifecycle (development, deployment, use and evaluation) of an Open Source LMS at the University of Muenster (Germany). It identifies relevant instruments and aspects of system design which software architects in practical application domains should pay attention to.
Model Driven Architecture (MDA): Integration and Model Reuse for Open Source eLearning Platforms
(2005)
Business-driven development favors the construction of process models
at different abstraction levels and by different people. As a consequence, there is a demand for consolidating different versions of process models by merging them. In this paper, we study a basic scenario, derive requirements and present a prototype for detecting and resolving changes between process models.
The purpose of this study was to evaluate which mode of birth first-time mothers in Germany and in the USA prefer and how this desire is related to maternal well-being and sense of coherence. The paper describes emotional well-being postpartum in relationship to mode of birth. For data collection a prospective cohort study was conducted in both countries. A self-administered questionnaire including validated instruments (WHO-5 Well-Being Index, Sense of Coherence Scale and Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale) was used. Results showed that only a few of the pregnant women in Germany and the USA preferred to deliver by caesarean section. There was a relationship between women's well-being, women's sense of coherence and the preferred mode of birth. The majority of women who wanted a caesarean section delivered in this way. No relationship was found between women's well-being and the type of birth experienced. Well-being in both samples generally decreased after giving birth, but there was a difference between German and American first-time mothers on the postpartum well-being and depression scores. German mothers had a higher postnatal quality of life and lower postnatal depression scores. To give families the opportunity for a healthy start, midwives and obstetricians should try to enhance women's well-being and they should give some thought to health professionals' decision-making processes. Expanded postpartum care might have an impact on women's depression scores..
When speaking about eBusiness as applied to the healthcare market two questions arise immediately. Firstly, what is eBusiness? Secondly, why is eBusiness in healthcare different from eBusiness in other sectors?
Within the arena of eBusiness in healthcare, the focus is on purchasing and selling online as the most advanced application. In this book, the Authors consider both the perspective of the healthcare providers and that of the suppliers, showing the interdependencies between the two and developing concepts for a new synergistic cooperation.
eBusiness in Healthcare raises awareness of and interest in electronically mediated business processes in healthcare to a large audience including healthcare informaticians, medical business managers, clinicians, pharmacists and scientists. By taking an international approach to the topic the authors demonstrate the many similarities of eBusiness problems and their solutions among different countries which permits analysis of the differences that are often defined by the national healthcare systems and their rules. Case studies from healthcare institutions and from suppliers in the US, the UK and Germany will illustrate the achievements, barriers and future plans, thus enabling newcomers to learn from previous experience.
Clinicians will gain significant insight by this book which demonstrates the interconnection between patient care processes and management issues at the level of medical supplies. The book also makes a plea for a multidisciplinary effort, to enable the right product to be procured for the right patient. As a rather new discipline, eBusiness in healthcare needs further scientific backing. Against this background, this book will not only provide answers but will also raise questions for future research. Managing change and innovation and establishing the critical mass for eBusiness in healthcare is a major undertaking. The aim of this book is to support this process.
Hedonism
(2009)
Continuity of care is a concept that is defined as the uninterrupted and coordinated care provided to a patient and that includes an informational dimension which describes the information exchange between the parties involved. In nursing, the nursing summary is the main instrument to ensure informational continuity of care. The aim of this paper is to present an HL7 Clinical Document Architecture based document standard for the eNursing Summary and to discuss the need for harmonizing these results at international level. The eNursing Summary proposed in this paper was developed on the basis of several internationally accepted concepts, primarily the nursing process, the ISO 18104 Reference Terminology Model for Nursing and various data sets. The standardisation process embraced several phases of involving nursing experts for validating its structure and content. It was finally evaluated by a network of 100 healthcare organizations. We argue that the eNursing Summary is a good starting point for standardising nursing discharge and transfer documents on a global level. However, further work is needed to bring together the different national and international strands in standardisation.
Employee cooperation is fundamental for accomplishing successful organizational change processes. Therefore, it is important to understand how employees' cooperation can be supported in the context of organizational change. Based on the group engagement model, we hypothesized how procedural justice affects organizational identification which in turn should have an affect on employees' cooperation (commitment to change, values-congruence fit, and change-supporting behavior) in the context of organizational change. To test the fit of the proposed model, structural equation models were calculated using both cross-sectional (N = 315) and longitudinal (N = 110) data of academic staff at a German university. Results indicated adequate data fit to our proposed model and revealed that organizational identification mediated the positive effects of procedural justice on affective commitment to change and values-congruence fit. The assumed mediating effect of organizational identification on the positive relationship between procedural justice and change-supporting behavior could only be supported using cross-sectional data.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide a deeper understanding of how transformational leadership relates to followers' innovation implementation behavior, the psychological mechanisms of this relationship, and the role of individual perceptions of climate for initiative.
Design/methodology/approach
Perceptual data were collected from 198 employees in lower and middle management positions of a multinational automotive corporation. Relationships were tested using hierarchical regression analysis.
Findings
Results demonstrate that transformational leadership was strongly related to followers' innovation implementation behavior and that the nature of this relationship was moderated by followers' levels of perceived climate for initiative. Additionally, commitment to change fully mediated the relationship between transformational leadership and followers' innovation implementation behavior.
Research limitations/implications
The paper is based on a cross‐sectional design. A causal interpretation requires studies with experimental or longitudinal designs.
Practical implications
Companies should invest in transformational leadership training and in the selection of supervisors with this leadership style before initiating the implementation of innovations. Enhancing contextual factors, such as a perceived climate for initiative, should be promoted by integrating them into organizations' reward systems.
Originality/value
The paper is one of the first to investigate the relationship between transformational leadership and followers' innovation implementation behavior. It specifies the organizational contexts under which transformational leadership is most likely related to innovation implementation behavior, and those in which such a relationship is unlikely to occur.
Background: IT adoption is a process that is influenced by different external and internal factors. This study aimed
1. to identify similarities and differences in the prevalence of medical and nursing IT systems in Austrian and German hospitals, and
2. to match these findings with characteristics of the two countries, in particular their healthcare system, and with features of the hospitals.
Methods: In 2007, all acute care hospitals in both countries received questionnaires with identical questions. 12.4% in Germany and 34.6% in Austria responded.
Results: The surveys revealed a consistent higher usage of nearly all clinical IT systems, especially nursing systems, but also PACS and electronic archiving systems, in Austrian than in German hospitals. These findings correspond with a significantly wider use of standardised nursing terminologies and a higher number of PC workstations on the wards (average 2.1 PCs in Germany, 3.2 PCs in Austria). Despite these differences, Austrian and German hospitals both reported a similar IT budget of 2.6% in Austria and 2.0% in Germany (median).
Conclusions: Despite the many similarities of the Austrian and German healthcare system there are distinct differences which may have led to a wider use of IT systems in Austrian hospitals. In nursing, the specific legal requirement to document nursing diagnoses in Austria may have stimulated the use of standardised terminologies for nursing diagnoses and the implementation of electronic nursing documentation systems. Other factors which correspond with the wider use of clinical IT systems in Austria are: good infrastructure of medical-technical devices, rigorous organisational changes which had led to leaner processes and to a lower length of stay, and finally a more IT friendly climate. As country size is the most pronounced difference between Germany and Austria it could be that smaller countries, such as Austria, are more ready to translate innovation into practice.
The last two decades have been characterized by a fundamental change in the approaches, tools and instruments in the quality management at Higher Education Institutions. Comparison of two Higher Education Institutions in the Slovak Republic and Germany highlights similarities and trends in quality assurance. Both case studies show how multifaceted the quality management is, and the needs to be approached if a meaningful progress is to be made. Complexity has to be explicitly recognized and built into the approach chosen. Higher Education Institutions have to develop internal quality assurance processes. Quality culture is key for addressing the challenges.
Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in parents of children suffering from renal disease is often diminished by the illness burden experienced in daily life and by unfavorable ways of coping. Our aim was to examine the relationship between psychosocial strains perceived by parents, their ways of coping, and HRQOL. In an anonymous cross-sectional study, parents completed a questionnaire concerning psychosocial strains, coping strategies, and HRQOL, as well as sociodemographic and illness parameters. Study participants were recruited in two outpatient dialysis centers. Participating in the study were 195 parents (105 mothers, 90 fathers; age 43 ± 8 years; representing 108 families) of children suffering from renal disease (age 12 ± 5 years). Parents of children with chronic renal failure reported moderate HRQOL with parents of children undergoing dialysis experiencing more limitations in quality of life than parents of children living with a kidney graft and parents of children undergoing conservative treatment. Mothers experienced lower HRQOL and higher psychosocial strains than fathers. HRQOL was predicted by the coping strategies “focusing on child” (β = –0.25), “improving marital relationship” (β = 0.24), “seeking social support” (β = –0.22) and “self-acceptation and growth” (β =0 .19) as well as parents′ perceived limitation by illness in daily life (β = –0.15; explained variance 57%). In the comprehensive care for families with a child suffering from a renal disease, screening for psychosocial strains and ways of coping, along with applying interventions to strengthen adaptive coping strategies, may be a preventative means of improving parents′ quality of life.
To ensure the quality of long-term care services has been one of the key elements of German long-term care insurance since its implementation in 1995. A joint agreement between insurers and service providers served as the baseline for quality assurance. Monitoring and control of quality in institutional and home based long-term care was performed by the insurers’ Medical Board. As a result of problems in some long-term care facilities reported in the media the Long-term Care System Reform Act of 2008 contained several provisions to ensure and improve the quality of services. The obligatory use of expert standards for the performance of particular nursing interventions and the establishment of a system of public reporting were the first measures implemented. The development of quality indicators has also been initiated. These routes to quality, their anticipated effects and remaining challenges will be addressed in this article.
The paper presents and analyses the structure and consequences of limits to growth for the global economy. Apart from the famous report for the Club of Rome, a wide range of related literature, which all caution against the idea of unrestricted growth, is also covered. In presenting side tracks in economics, major differences towards standard economic reasoning are highlighted; these are particularly centred on the concepts of technology, sustainability, and resources. One of the central conclusions is that technological progress alone cannot be the knight in shining armour to save the day amid increasing stress on the sides of sources and sinks of the global system. Further, oil production, consumption, and reserve patterns are discussed, emphasising that a continuous underestimation of the challenges ahead would be distressing. Finally, the development of non-advanced countries is hindered, as the diminishing availability of oil reserves could prove as a significant constraint.
Adaptivity is prevalent in today’s software. Mobile devices
self-adapt to available network connections, washing machines
adapt to the amount of laundry, etc. Current approaches for engineering such systems facilitate the specification of adaptivity in the analysis and the technical design. However, the modeling of platform independent models for adaptivity in the logical design phase remains rather neglected causing a gap between the analysis and the technical design phase.
To overcome this situation, we propose an approach called Adapt Cases. Adapt Cases allow the explicit modeling of adaptivity with domain-specific means, enabling adaptivity to gather attention early in the software engineering process.
Since our approach is based on the concept of use cases it
is easy adoptable in new and even running projects that
use the UML as a specification language, and additionally,
can be easily incorporated into model-based development
environments.
Despite decades of empirical happiness research, there is still little evidence for the positive effect of economic growth on life satisfaction. This poses a major challenge to welfare economic theory and to normative conceptions of socio-economic development. This book endeavours to explain these findings and to make sense of their ethical implications.
While most of the existing literature on empirical happiness research is ultimately interested in understanding how to improve human lives and societal development, the ethical backdrop against which these findings are evaluated is rarely made explicit. In contrast to this, Professor Hirata focuses on the role happiness should play in an ethically founded conception of good development. Taking a development ethics perspective, this book proposes a nuanced conception of happiness that includes both its affective and its normative dimensions and embeds this in a comprehensive conception of good development.
The argument is that happiness should not be regarded as the only thing that determines a good life and that good development cannot sensibly be thought of as a matter of maximizing happiness. Happiness should rather be seen as an important indicator for the presence or absence of those concerns that really matter to people: the reasons that give rise to happiness. This book should be of interest to students and researchers of economics, psychology and development studies.
Health Telematics Europe
(2011)
The adoption and use of information technology (IT) in health care is influenced by many factors and depends on legal and cultural constraints prevailing in a country. While Europe is constantly coalescing on a political basis, health care is a sector still dominated by national legislation. Consequently, different types of national health care systems have existed throughout Europe for decades which now build the framework for the use of information and communication technology (ICT) by health care provider organizations. The following paragraphs will, therefore, provide a concise overview of the different types of national health care systems in Europe and will characterize the countries with regard to key indicators.
This study examined the relation between employees' perceived extent of change and adaptive performance, focusing on the roles of expressive suppression (i.e. the habit of suppressing overt expressions of emotion) at work and perceived strain. Analysing survey data of 153 employees in Germany with different occupational backgrounds via bootstrapping, the conceptual moderated indirect effect scheme was supported. As hypothesized, greater changes were associated with higher strain. Strain, in turn, was negatively related to adaptive performance. Although extent of change did not directly affect adaptive performance, the data supported the expected indirect relationship via strain. Finally, expressive suppression at work acted as a buffer of this indirect effect: extent of change was only negatively related to strain for employees low in suppression. In line with newer evidence, our results indicate that the suppression of overt emotional expressions at work can have positive effects under certain circumstances.
Objective
The aim of this study was to assess the influence of cranio-cervical posture on the maximal mouth opening (MMO) and pressure pain threshold (PPT) in patients with myofascial temporomandibular pain disorders.
Materials and Methods
A total of 29 patients (19 females and 10 males) with myofascial temporomandibular pain disorders, aged 19 to 59 years participated in the study (mean years±SD; 34.69±10.83 y). MMO and the PPT (on the right side) of patients in neutral, retracted, and forward head postures were measured. A 1-way repeated measures analysis of variance followed by 3 pair-wise comparisons were used to determine differences.
Results
Comparisons indicated significant differences in PPT at 3 points within the trigeminal innervated musculature [masseter (M1 and M2) and anterior temporalis (T1)] among the 3 head postures [M1 (F=117.78; P<0.001), M2 (F=129.04; P<0.001), and T1 (F=195.44; P<0.001)]. There were also significant differences in MMO among the 3 head postures (F=208.06; P<0.001). The intrarater reliability on a given day-to-day basis was good with the interclass correlation coefficient ranging from 0.89 to 0.94 and 0.92 to 0.94 for PPT and MMO, respectively, among the different head postures.
Conclusions
The results of this study shows that the experimental induction of different cranio-cervical postures influences the MMO and PPT values of the temporomandibular joint and muscles of mastication that receive motor and sensory innervation by the trigeminal nerve. Our results provide data that supports the biomechanical relationship between the cranio-cervical region and the dynamics of the temporomandibular joint, as well as trigeminal nociceptive processing in different cranio-cervical postures.
The well-documented social gradient in health in the developed world will not just disappear on its own. Tackling health inequalities by introducing a universal coverage healthcare system recently became an important notion in the U.S. Using cross-sectional data from Germany which has maintained its compulsory egalitarian healthcare system for more than 50 years now, we apply logistic and negative binomial regression to uncover utilisation behaviour patterns under universal coverage. We find that lower education and unemployment raise the risks for all diseases under consideration. Unemployment increases the chance of contacting a physician, while income and education do not apparently affect the healthcare utilisation behaviour. Those diseases concentrated among unemployed and less educated, however, are associated with intensified healthcare utilisation. We conclude that universal coverage may make access to health care easier for those facing the worst health; the unemployed and lower educated.
Musicians often suffer from disorders of the musculoskeletal system that are related to their instrument playing. Among the most frequent symptoms are complaints in the shoulder-neck area. Radial shock wave therapy is increasingly used in trigger point treatment, but only few high-level studies have examined of shock wave therapy used together with physical therapy in the treatment of musicians. METHODS: This randomized blinded study in musicians (n = 26) with nonspecific shoulder-neck problems was done to examine the effect of shock wave therapy in addition to current physical therapy on the symptoms and quality of life of the musicians as well as their habits of playing musical instruments (intervention group shock wave vs reference group placebo). The effects were documented by a pain VAS and other instruments. A questionnaire designed specifically for musicians (with initial and final questions) recorded intensity and manifestation of pain and handicaps in daily life, especially when practicing and playing. The Shoulder Pain and Disability Index (SPADI) and the Neck Pain Disability Index Questionnaire (NPDIQ) were also used. RESULTS: Both groups reported subjective improvement in pain, but significance was found only for the intervention group for the SPADI and NPDIQ. CONCLUSIONS: Trigger point treatment with radial shock wave used in combination with physical therapy makes the subjects feel temporarily relieved of neck and shoulder pains. The effects of radial shock wave without physical therapy will need to be examined in further studies.
Objectives: This paper addresses recent steps for reforming the eligibility criteria of the German long-term care insurance that have been initiated to overcome shortcomings in the current system.
Methods: Based on findings of a survey of international long-term care systems, assessment tools and the relevant literature on care needs a new tool for determining eligibility in the German long-term care insurance was developed.
Results: The new tool for determining long-term care eligibility broadens the understanding of what ‚dependency on nursing care' implies for the person affected. The assessment results in a degree of dependency from personal help provided by formal or informal caregivers. This degree of dependency can be used for determining eligibility for and the amount of long-term care benefits.
Discussion: The broader understanding of "dependency on nursing care' and the new tool are important steps to adapt the German long-term care insurance to the challenges of the demographic and societal changes in the future
Background: Informal caregiving by family members is the most common way of caring for sick people at home. However, the number of care arrangements, in which both formal (nurses) and informal (family members) caregivers are involved, is considerable and increasing. Despite implicit assumptions in research that the involvement of nurses in home care arrangements is inherently beneficial, there is evidence that their involvement may have a destabilising effect.
Aims: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between nurses and family caregivers and its impact on the actual care that is provided.
Method: Eighty-eight interviews with family caregivers (n = 57) and nurses (n = 31) were conducted in Germany and analysed according to the Grounded Theory methodology.
Findings: The relationship between formal and informal care is an encounter of two quite different perspectives that is focused on a negotiation process about caregiving work and the helpfulness of the actions taken and the interventions used. For family caregivers, it is determined by the goal of facilitating work and care for their sick family member. The nurses’ work is characterised by a process of shaping different realities in different homes. The results reveal the processes that lead to the involvement of nurses into home care arrangements and offer a deeper understanding of the negotiation processes between formal and informal caregivers.
Conclusions: To provide sufficient support in home care, nurses need the ability to engage in negotiation processes that take the whole home care arrangement into account. Developmental work is needed to design services that are helpful for family caregivers.
Characteristics of German Hospitals Adopting Health IT Systems : Results from an Empirical Study
(2011)
Hospital characteristics that facilitate IT adoption have been described by the literature extensively, however with controversial results. The aim of this study therefore is to draw a set of the most important variables from previous studies and include them in a combined analysis for testing their contribution as single factors and their interactions. Total number of IT systems installed and number of clinical IT systems in the hospital were used as criterion variables. Data from a national survey of German hospitals served as basis. Based on a stepwise multiple regression analysis four variables were identified to significantly explain the degree of IT adoption (60% explained variance): 1) hospital size, 2) IT department, 3) reference customer and 4) ownership (private vs. public). Our results replicate previous findings with regard to hospital size and ownership. In addition our study emphasizes the importance of a reliable internal structure for IT projects (existence of an IT department) and the culture of testing and installing most recent IT products (being a reference customer). None of the interactions between factors was significant.
Every culture has its paradise vision: desirable and external conditions which, inside the concerned culture, are infrequently observed or difficult to realize and are linked to one another. This cross-cultural study compares well-being inChina,Bulgaria,FranceandGermany. The cultural patterns of the culture are differently, but well-being is easier to achieve if people adapt to their cultural patterns. The adjustment (positive subjective culture) is formed by culture-specific content and needs different in regards to different cultures.
Objective. To examine the association between region of origin and severe illness bringing a mother close to death (near‐miss). Design. Retrospective cohort study. Setting. Maternity units in Lower Saxony, Germany. Population. 441 199 mothers of singleton newborns in 2001–2007. Methods. Using chi‐squared tests, bivariate and multivariable logistic regression we examined the association between maternal region of origin and near‐miss outcomes with prospectively collected perinatal data up to seven days postpartum. Main outcome measures. Hysterectomy, hemorrhage, eclampsia and sepsis rates. Results. Eclampsia was not associated with region of origin. Compared to women from Germany, women from the Middle East (OR 2.24; 95%CI 1.60–3.12) and Africa/Latin America/other countries (OR 2.17; 95%CI 1.15–4.07) had higher risks of sepsis. Women from Asia (OR 3.37; 95%CI 1.66–6.83) and from Africa/Latin America/other countries had higher risks of hysterectomy (OR 2.65; 95%CI 1.36–5.17). Compared to German women, the risk of hemorrhage was higher among women from Asia (OR 1.55; 95%CI 1.19–2.01) and lower among women from the Middle East (OR 0.66, 95%CI 0.55–0.78). Adjusting for maternal age, parity, occupation, partner status, smoking, obesity, prenatal care, chronic conditions and infertility showed no association between country of origin and risk of sepsis. Conclusion. Region of origin was a strong predictor for near‐miss among women from the Middle East, Asia and Africa/Latin America/other countries. Confounders mostly did not explain the higher risks for maternal near‐miss in these groups of origin. Clinical studies and audits are required to examine the underlying causes for these risks.
Despite the wealth of literature on requirements engineering, little is known about engineering very generic, innovative and emerging requirements, such as those for cross-sectional information chains. The IKM health project aims at building information chain reference models for the care of patients with chronic wounds, cancer-related pain and back pain. Our question therefore was how to appropriately capture information and process requirements that are both generally applicable and practically useful. To this end, we started with recommendations from clinical guidelines and put them up for discussion in Delphi surveys and expert interviews. Despite the heterogeneity we encountered in all three methods, it was possible to obtain requirements suitable for building reference models. We evaluated three modelling languages and then chose to write the models in UML (class and activity diagrams). On the basis of the current project results, the pros and cons of our approach are discussed.
Background: This paper describes an international nursing and health research immersion program. Minority students from the USA work with an international faculty mentor in teams conducting collaborative research. The Minority Health International Research Training (MHIRT) program students become catalysts in the conduct of cross-cultural research.
Aim: To narrow the healthcare gap for disadvantaged families in the USA and partner countries.
Methods: Faculty from the USA, Germany, Italy, Colombia, England, Austria and Thailand formed an international research and education team to explore and compare family health issues, disparities in chronic illness care, social inequities and healthcare solutions. USA students in the MHIRT program complete two introductory courses followed by a 3-month research practicum in a partner country guided by faculty mentors abroad. The overall program development, student study abroad preparation, research project activities, cultural learning, and student and faculty team outcomes are explored.
Results: Cross-fertilization of research, cultural awareness and ideas about improving family health occur through education, international exchange and research immersion. Faculty research and international team collaboration provide opportunities for learning about research, health disparities, cultural influences and healthcare systems. The students are catalysts in the research effort, the dissemination of research findings and other educational endeavours. Five steps of the collaborative activities lead to programmatic success.
Conclusions: MHIRT scholars bring creativity, enthusiasm, and gain a genuine desire to conduct health research about families with chronic illness. Their cultural learning stimulates career plans that include international research and attention to vulnerable populations.
Background: The painDETECT questionnaire (PD-Q) has been used as a tool to characterize sensory abnormalities in patients with persistent pain. This study investigated whether the self-reported sensory descriptors of patients with painful cervical radiculopathy (CxRAD) and patients with fibromyalgia (FM), as characterized by responses to verbal sensory descriptors from PD-Q (sensitivity to light touch, cold, heat, slight pressure, feeling of numbness in the main area of pain), were associated with the corresponding sensory parameters as demonstrated by quantitative sensory testing (QST).
Methods: Twenty-three patients with CxRAD (eight women, 46.3 ± 9.6 years) and 22 patients with FM (20 women, 46.1 ± 11.5 years) completed the PD-Q. Standardized QST of dynamic mechanical allodynia, cold and heat pain thresholds, pressure pain thresholds, mechanical and vibration detection thresholds, was recorded from the maximal pain area. Comparative QST data from 31 age-matched healthy controls (HCs; 15 women) were obtained.
Results: Patients with CxRAD demonstrated a match between their self-reported descriptors and QST parameters for all sensory parameters except for sensitivity to light touch, and these matches were statistically significant compared with HC data (p ≤ 0.006). The FM group demonstrated discrepancies between the PD-Q and QST sensory phenotypes for all sensory descriptors, indicating that the self-reported sensory descriptors did not consistently match the QST parameters (p = ≤0.017).
Conclusion: Clinicians and researchers should be cautious about relying on PD-Q as a stand-alone screening tool to determine sensory abnormalities in patients with FM.
Identification of differences in clinical presentation and underlying pain mechanisms may assist the classification of patients with neck–arm pain which is important for the provision of targeted best evidence based management. The aim of this study was to: (i) assess the inter-examiner agreement in using specific systems to classify patients with cervical radiculopathy and patients with non-specific neck–arm pain associated with heightened nerve mechanosensitivity (NSNAP); (ii) assess the agreement between two clinical examiners and two clinical experts in classifying these patients, and (iii) assess the diagnostic accuracy of the two clinical examiners. Forty patients with unilateral neck–arm pain were examined by two clinicians and classified into (i) cervical radiculopathy, (ii) NSNAP, (iii) other. The classifications were compared to those made independently by two experts, based on a review of patients' clinical assessment notes. The experts' opinion was used as the reference criterion to assess the diagnostic accuracy of the clinical examiners in classifying each patient group. There was an 80% agreement between clinical examiners, and between experts and 70%–80% between clinical examiners and experts in classifying patients with cervical radiculopathy (kappa between 0.41 and 0.61). Agreement was 72.5%–80% in classifying patients with NSNAP (kappa between 0.43 and 0.52). Clinical examiners' diagnostic accuracy was high (radiculopathy: sensitivity 79%–84%; specificity 76%–81%; NSNAP: sensitivity 78%–100%; specificity 71%–81%). Compared to expert opinion, clinicians were able to identify patients with cervical radiculopathy and patients with NSNAP in 80% of cases, our data supporting the reliability of these classification systems.
Objective: To understand the significance of healthy living for users, professionals and managers of the Family Health Strategy (FHS) team.
Methods: Research of a qualitative nature, based on grounded theory. For data collection, interviews were conducted with 25 participants, including users, professionals and managers of a FHS team, during the period between March and December, 2009. Results: The collection and analysis of data was conducted in a systematic and comparative manner, demonstrating that healthy living can be characterized as a selforganizing process, mediated by the action of the FHS team professionals, especially by the community health agent, through creation of bonds of trust and stimulation of interactions and community associations. Conclusion: We concluded that healthy living is a singular phenomenon, complex, interactive, associative, political and social, coupled with the active involvement and participation of the users and by the engagement of effective and socially responsible professionals, managers and established political authorities.
Since teachers spend several hours a day in interactions with other people, it seems plausible to assume that their social competencies are a vital foundation for their professional success. Thus, it makes sense to put special emphasis on such competencies in the context of career counseling/occupational orientation, teachers’ training and education as well as personnel selection procedures at schools. Hence instruments are required to measure job-relevant social competencies. Subsequently, we will describe the development and validation of a self-perception questionnaire to measure social competencies of teachers. It was designed as a self-assessment procedure and it informs on 10 job-relevant competencies. The main application areas lie in occupational orientation as well as in self-refl ection during university studies. Further application areas will be discussed.
Wir berichten von einer Studie, in der das englischsprachige Original einer Skala zur Messung des organisationsbezogenen Selbstwertes in fünf weitere Sprachen (deutsch, polnisch, ungarisch, spanisch, malaiisch) übersetzt und validiert wurde. Befragt wurden die Mitarbeiter eines internationalen Konzerns in sieben Ländern (USA, Kanada, Deutschland, Polen, Spanien, Ungarn und Malaysia). Zur Validierung werden die Arbeitszufriedenheit, die selbst eingeschätzte Arbeitsleistung sowie die Unterstützung der Mitarbeiter bei der Umsetzung der Unternehmenswerte (Commitment) herangezogen. Die Ergebnisse belegen, dass die Übersetzungen erfolgreich verlaufen sind. In allen Fällen ergibt sich eine reliable Skala, die positiv mit den Validititätskriterien korreliert.
Stakeholder relations and sustainability practices of US small and medium-sized manufacturers
(2012)
Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the adoption of sustainability practices by small and medium-sized manufacturing (SMM) firms, the ways these firms work with their stakeholders for social and environmental purposes, and the relationships between the adoption of sustainability practices, stakeholder interaction, and product and process innovation.
Design/methodology/approach: This paper uses data from telephone interviews with 296 companies, a sustainability typology, and descriptive and statistical regression analysis.
Findings: The majority of the firms are adopting sustainability practices at least to some degree,stakeholders such as community advocacy groups, employees, suppliers, customers, and the localmedia are influencing the adoption of sustainability practices, and firms with high adoption rates of environmental practices are more successful in product and process innovation.Practical implications– The results of this research can help firms and stakeholder groups with their joint efforts to develop sustainability strategies. Community advocacy groups, employees,suppliers, customers, and the local media are capable of motivating firms to give something back tothe communities in which they conduct their business.
Originality/value: This paper contributes new understanding of the adoption of sustainabilitypractices by SMM firms, the ways these firms work with their stakeholders for social and environmental purposes, and the relationships between the adoption of sustainability practices,stakeholder interaction, and product and process innovation.
Fairness and Team Efficiency
(2013)
This study applies to the perception of fairness during teamwork. Students were assigned to work groups by lot and were instructed to prepare a course presentation. Groups were given no guidelines relating to allocation of tasks, but each group was graded as a whole. Since a real grade was given in a non-simulated experiment, it was possible to determine team efficiency, work satisfaction, and perception of fairness via a subsequent study. Results show a strong influence of fairness on team efficiency.
Co-financing arrangements in which investors from outside the motion picture industry become co-owners of the completed films are a common phenomenon in Hollywood. Kay H. Hofmann analyzes the conflicts of interest and the organizational problems that may arise between the experienced major studios and investors with comparably low industry expertise. Guided by principal agent theory, the empirical analysis provides evidence for adverse selection and moral hazard. Based on his findings, the author develops solutions that are not only relevant for investors but also for film producers who rely on the long-term availability of external funds.
Detection and resolution of conflicting change operations in version management of process models
(2013)
Version management of process models requires that different versions of process models are integrated by applying change operations. Conflict detection between individually applied change operations and conflict resolution support are integral parts of version management. For conflict detection it is utterly important to compute a precise set of conflicts, since the minimization of the number of detected conflicts also reduces the overhead for merging different process model versions. As not every syntactic conflict leads to a conflict when taking into account model semantics, a computation of conflicts solely on the syntax leads to an unnecessary high number of conflicts. Moreover, even the set of precisely computed conflicts can be extensive and their resolution means a significant workload for a user. As a consequence, adequate support is required that guides a user through the resolution process and suggests possible resolution strategies for individual conflicts. In this paper, we introduce the notion of syntactic and semantic conflicts for change operations of process models. We provide a method how to efficiently compute conflicts precisely, using a term formalization of process models and consider the subsequent resolution of the detected conflicts based on different strategies. Using this approach, we can significantly reduce the number of overall conflicts and reduce the amount of work for the user when resolving conflicts.
Background: Continuous improvements of IT-performance in healthcare organisations require actionable performance indicators, regularly conducted, independent measurements and meaningful and scalable reference groups. Existing IT-benchmarking initiatives have focussed on the development of reliable and valid indicators, but less on the questions about how to implement an environment for conducting easily repeatable and scalable IT-benchmarks.
Objectives: This study aims at developing and trialling a procedure that meets the afore-mentioned requirements.
Methods: We chose a well established, regularly conducted (inter-) national IT-survey of healthcare organisations (IT-Report Healthcare) as the environment and offered the participants of the 2011 survey (CIOs of hospitals) to enter a benchmark. The 61 structural and functional performance indicators covered among others the implementation status and integration of IT-systems and functions, global user satisfaction and the resources of the IT-department. Healthcare organisations were grouped by size and ownership. The benchmark results were made available electronically and feedback on the use of these results was requested after several months.
Results: Fifty-ninehospitals participated in the benchmarking. Reference groups consisted of up to 141 members depending on the number of beds (size) and the ownership (public vs. private). A total of 122 charts showing single indicator frequency views were sent to each participant. The evaluation showed that 94.1% of the CIOs who participated in the evaluation considered this benchmarking beneficial and reported that they would enter again. Based on the feedback of the participants we developed two additional views that provide a more consolidated picture.
Conclusion: The results demonstrate that establishing an independent, easily repeatable and scalable IT-benchmarking procedure is possible and was deemed desirable. Based on these encouraging results a new benchmarking round which includes process indicators is currently conducted.