Governance of water resources in the phase of change: a case study of the implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive in Sweden.

PubMed

Hammer, Monica; Balfors, Berit; Mörtberg, Ulla; Petersson, Mona; Quin, Andrew

2011-03-01

In this article, focusing on the ongoing implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive, we analyze some of the opportunities and challenges for a sustainable governance of water resources from an ecosystem management perspective. In the face of uncertainty and change, the ecosystem approach as a holistic and integrated management framework is increasingly recognized. The ongoing implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) could be viewed as a reorganization phase in the process of change in institutional arrangements and ecosystems. In this case study from the Northern Baltic Sea River Basin District, Sweden, we focus in particular on data and information management from a multi-level governance perspective from the local stakeholder to the River Basin level. We apply a document analysis, hydrological mapping, and GIS models to analyze some of the institutional framework created for the implementation of the WFD. The study underlines the importance of institutional arrangements that can handle variability of local situations and trade-offs between solutions and priorities on different hierarchical levels.

Blueprint for Bologna: University of Prishtina and the European Union

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Epp, Juanita Ross; Epp, Walter

2010-01-01

Countries hoping to demonstrate an adequate educational infrastructure need a national framework that meets Bologna requirements, a national accreditation agency which sets out the approved framework, and national accreditation processes by which individual institutions can be measured against the standards set by the national accreditation…

Higher Education Institutions: A Strategy towards Sustainability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Casarejos, Fabricio; Frota, Mauricio Nogueira; Gustavson, Laura Morten

2017-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to guide higher education institutions (HEIs) in accomplishing sustainability goals while strengthening their associated systems and processes. Pursuing this goal, this study proposes a conceptual framework for modeling the HEI organizational environment; a set of strategic sustainability actions to drive…

A Conceptual Framework for Evaluating Higher Education Institutions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chinta, Ravi; Kebritchi, Mansureh; Ellias, Janelle

2016-01-01

Purpose: Performance evaluation is a topic that has been researched and practiced extensively in business organizations but has received scant attention in higher education institutions. A review of literature revealed that context, input, process, product (CIPP) model is an appropriate performance evaluation model for higher education…

Defense Resource Management Studies: Introduction to Capability and Acquisition Planning Processes

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-08-01

interchangeable and useful in a common contextual framework . Currently, both simulations use a common scenario, the same fictitious country, and...culture, legal framework , and institutions. • Incorporate Principles of Good Governance and Respect for Human Rights: Stress accountability and...Preparing for the assessments requires defining the missions to be analyzed; subdividing the mission definitions to provide a framework for analytic work

A Methodological Framework to Analyze Stakeholder Preferences and Propose Strategic Pathways for a Sustainable University

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Turan, Fikret Korhan; Cetinkaya, Saadet; Ustun, Ceyda

2016-01-01

Building sustainable universities calls for participative management and collaboration among stakeholders. Combining analytic hierarchy and network processes (AHP/ANP) with statistical analysis, this research proposes a framework that can be used in higher education institutions for integrating stakeholder preferences into strategic decisions. The…

Identity processes and the positive youth development of African Americans: an explanatory framework.

PubMed

Swanson, Dena Phillips; Spencer, Margaret Beale; Dell'Angelo, Tabitha; Harpalani, Vinay; Spencer, Tirzah R

2002-01-01

This chapter presents Spencer's phenomenological variant of ecological systems theory, or PVEST (1995), as a conceptual framework for examining positive youth development. Contextual factors affecting racial and gender identity of African American youth are discussed, with the focus on the influence of schools and religious institutions.

Assessing for Learning: Building a Sustainable Commitment Across the Institution

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maki, Peggy L.

2004-01-01

This book offers colleges and universities a framework and tools to design an effective and collaborative assessment process appropriate for their culture and institution. It encapsulates the approach that Peggy Maki has developed and refined through the hundreds of successful workshops she has presented nationally and internationally. Maki starts…

Integrating consumer engagement in health and medical research - an Australian framework.

PubMed

Miller, Caroline L; Mott, Kathy; Cousins, Michael; Miller, Stephanie; Johnson, Anne; Lawson, Tony; Wesselingh, Steve

2017-02-10

Quality practice of consumer engagement is still in its infancy in many sectors of medical research. The South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI) identified, early in its development, the opportunity to integrate evidence-driven consumer and community engagement into its operations. SAHMRI partnered with Health Consumers Alliance and consumers in evidence generation. A Partnership Steering Committee of researchers and consumers was formed for the project. An iterative mixed-method qualitative process was used to generate a framework for consumer engagement. This process included a literature review followed by semi-structured interviews with experts in consumer engagement and lead medical researchers, group discussions and a consensus workshop with the Partnership Steering Committee, facilitated by Health Consumer Alliance. The literature revealed a dearth of evidence about effective consumer engagement methodologies. Four organisational dimensions are reported to contribute to success, namely governance, infrastructure, capacity and advocacy. Key themes identified through the stakeholder interviews included sustained leadership, tangible benefits, engagement strategies should be varied, resourcing, a moral dimension, and challenges. The consensus workshop produced a framework and tangible strategies. Comprehensive examples of consumer participation in health and medical research are limited. There are few documented studies of what techniques are effective. This evidence-driven framework, developed in collaboration with consumers, is being integrated in a health and medical research institute with diverse programs of research. This framework is offered as a contribution to the evidence base around meaningful consumer engagement and as a template for other research institutions to utilise.

Distributive Justice and Higher Education Resource Allocation: Perceptions of Fairness

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hnat, Hope Bradley; Mahony, Daniel; Fitzgerald, Shawn; Crawford, Fashaad

2015-01-01

Although the organizational justice theoretical framework has been used frequently across a wide variety of settings, its use in examining higher education institutions has been limited. The purpose of the study reported here was to begin the process of applying this framework to higher education by identifying the distributive justice…

Implementing a National Qualifications Framework in Lithuania

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tutlys, Vidmantas; Spudyte, Irma

2011-01-01

The design of the national qualifications framework (NQF) in Lithuania started in 2006. The NQF was officially approved by the government decree in May 2010. This article explores the influence of the processes of institutional change on the reform of the national system of qualifications in Lithuania through the implementation of the NQF, looking…

Developing a Theoretical Framework of Responsiveness in Educational Institutions and Non-Profit Organizations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bheda, Divya Narendra

2013-01-01

A number of education institutions and non-profit organizations seek to be responsive toward the stakeholders they serve. They engage in numerous organizational and evaluative processes to be perceived as responsive. They consider evaluating and improving responsiveness, important to their practice. Unfortunately, such efforts are often impeded…

Overseas Students' Intercultural Adaptation as Intercultural Learning: A Transformative Framework

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gill, Scherto

2007-01-01

In the context of increasing recruitment of overseas students by British higher education (HE) institutions, there has been a growing need to understand the process of students' intercultural adaptation and the approaches that can be adopted by British academic institutions in order to facilitate and support these students' learning experience in…

Smoke-Free Policies in New Zealand Public Tertiary Education Institutions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Robertson, Lindsay A.; Marsh, L.

2015-01-01

The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control mandates the creation of smoke-free environments to protect non-smokers from second-hand smoke and reduce demand for tobacco. We aimed to examine the extent and nature of smoke-free campus policies at tertiary education institutions throughout New Zealand, and examine the policy development process.…

Pricing Policy and the College Choice Process. AIR Forum Paper 1978.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chapman, Randall G.

A presentation of a conceptual framework for viewing the admissions management process in higher education institutions and a discussion of the pricing policy process, particularly of private colleges and universities, precedes an examination of the stochastic utility model, a statistical model of the college choice process. Using student choice…

Assessment of a Hospital Palliative Care Unit (HPCU) for Cancer Patients; A Conceptual Framework.

PubMed

Rouhollahi, Mohammad Reza; Saghafinia, Masoud; Zandehdel, Kazem; Motlagh, Ali Ghanbari; Kazemian, Ali; Mohagheghi, Mohammad Ali; Tahmasebi, Mamak

2015-01-01

The first hospital palliative care unit (HPCU) in Iran (FARS-HPCU) has been established in 2008 in the Cancer Institute, which is the largest referral cancer center in the country. We attempted to assess the performance of the HPCU based on a comprehensive conceptual framework. The main aim of this study was to develop a conceptual framework for assessment of the HPCU performances through designing a value chain in line with the goals and the main processes (core and support). We collected data from a variety of sources, including international guidelines, international best practices, and expert opinions in the country and compared them with national policies and priorities. We also took into consideration the trend of the HPCU development in the Cancer Institute of Iran. Through benchmarking the gap area with the performance standards, some recommendations for better outcome are proposed. The framework for performance assessment consisted of 154 process indicators (PIs), based on which the main stakeholders of the HPCU (including staff, patients, and families) offered their scoring. The outcome revealed the state of the processes as well as the gaps. Despite a significant improvement in many processes and indicators, more development in the comprehensive and integrative aspects of FARS-HPCU performance is required. Consideration of all supportive and palliative requirements of the patients through interdisciplinary and collaborative approaches is recommended.

A methodological framework to support the initiation, design and institutionalization of participatory modeling processes in water resources management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Halbe, Johannes; Pahl-Wostl, Claudia; Adamowski, Jan

2018-01-01

Multiple barriers constrain the widespread application of participatory methods in water management, including the more technical focus of most water agencies, additional cost and time requirements for stakeholder involvement, as well as institutional structures that impede collaborative management. This paper presents a stepwise methodological framework that addresses the challenges of context-sensitive initiation, design and institutionalization of participatory modeling processes. The methodological framework consists of five successive stages: (1) problem framing and stakeholder analysis, (2) process design, (3) individual modeling, (4) group model building, and (5) institutionalized participatory modeling. The Management and Transition Framework is used for problem diagnosis (Stage One), context-sensitive process design (Stage Two) and analysis of requirements for the institutionalization of participatory water management (Stage Five). Conceptual modeling is used to initiate participatory modeling processes (Stage Three) and ensure a high compatibility with quantitative modeling approaches (Stage Four). This paper describes the proposed participatory model building (PMB) framework and provides a case study of its application in Québec, Canada. The results of the Québec study demonstrate the applicability of the PMB framework for initiating and designing participatory model building processes and analyzing barriers towards institutionalization.

Analyzing the influence of institutions on health policy development in Uganda: a case study of the decision to abolish user fees.

PubMed

Moat, K A; Abelson, J

2011-12-01

During the 2001 election campaign, President Yoweri Museveni announced he was abolishing user fees for health services in Uganda. No analysis has been carried out to explain how he was able to initiate such an important policy decision without encountering any immediate barriers. To explain this outcome through in-depth policy analysis driven by the application of key analytical frameworks. An explanatory case study informed by analytical frameworks from the institutionalism literature was undertaken. Multiple data sources were used including: academic literature, key government documents, grey literature, and a variety of print media. According to the analytical frameworks employed, several formal institutional constraints existed that would have reduced the prospects for the abolition of user fees. However, prevalent informal institutions such as "Big Man" presidentialism and clientelism that were both 'competing' and 'complementary' can be used to explain the policy outcome. The analysis suggests that these factors trumped the impact of more formal institutional structures in the Ugandan context. Consideration should be given to the interactions between formal and informal institutions in the analysis of health policy processes in Uganda, as they provide a more nuanced understanding of how each set of factors influence policy outcomes.

Developing Policy Instruments for Education in the EU: The European Qualifications Framework for Lifelong Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Elken, Mari

2015-01-01

The European Qualifications Framework (EQF) for lifelong learning has been characterized as a policy instrument with a number of contested ideas, raising questions about the process through which such instruments are developed at European level. The introduction of the EQF is in this article examined through variations of neo-institutional theory:…

Implementing the Framework Agreement in a Small HEI: From Principles to Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barber, David; Clews, Joy; Meeson, Graham; Rose, Ann; Taylor, Claire

2008-01-01

At the time of writing, UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have either completed, or are part way through, implementation of the Framework Agreement (JNCHES 2003). This process was born out of the recommendations of the National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education (1997) developed by Bett in his report two years later (Bett 1999). …

Clinical Knowledge Governance Framework for Nationwide Data Infrastructure Projects.

PubMed

Wulff, Antje; Haarbrandt, Birger; Marschollek, Michael

2018-01-01

The availability of semantically-enriched and interoperable clinical information models is crucial for reusing once collected data across institutions like aspired in the German HiGHmed project. Funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, this nationwide data infrastructure project adopts the openEHR approach for semantic modelling. Here, strong governance is required to define high-quality and reusable models. Design of a clinical knowledge governance framework for openEHR modelling in cross-institutional settings like HiGHmed. Analysis of successful practices from international projects, published ideas on archetype governance and own modelling experiences as well as modelling of BPMN processes. We designed a framework by presenting archetype variations, roles and responsibilities, IT support and modelling workflows. Our framework has great potential to make the openEHR modelling efforts manageable. Because practical experiences are rare, prospectively our work will be predestinated to evaluate the benefits of such structured governance approaches.

Organizational "Failure" and Institutional Pluralism: A Case Study of an Urban School Closure

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Deeds, Vontrese; Pattillo, Mary

2015-01-01

We use the framework of institutional pluralism to provide new insights into a controversial process of market-based reform-school closures. School closure is a shock that highlights the dynamics and definitions of failure and surfaces values and meanings that might otherwise be hidden from consideration. Using qualitative data from a closing…

Examining How Faculty Reflect on Instructional Data: A Call for Critical Awareness and Institutional Support. WCER Working Paper No. 2016-4

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smolarek, Bailey B.; Hora, Matthew T.

2016-01-01

Drawing on insights from culturally responsive K-12 education frameworks and dual process theory, this qualitative study explores the situated nature of reflective practice among postsecondary faculty and calls for increased critical awareness and institutional support. Through interviews with 21 California research university faculty, this study…

Establishing an Institutional Framework for an E-learning Implementation--Experiences from the University of Rijeka, Croatia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zuvic-Butorac, Marta; Nebic, Zoran; Nemcanin, Damir; Mikac, Tonci; Lucin, Pero

2011-01-01

Faced with the need of transforming the university structure, processes, and programs according to the Bologna reform, and in order to become more flexible and more responsive to the environment, the University of Rijeka management decided to enable e-learning implementation as an institutional, strategically planned operation. The manuscript…

Building Futurism into the Institution's Strategic Planning and Human Resource Development Model.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Groff, Warren H.

A process for building futurism into the institution's strategic planning and human resource development model is described. It is an attempt to assist faculty and staff to understand the future and the formulation and revision of professional goals in relation to an image of the future. A conceptual framework about the changing nature of human…

The health impacts of globalisation: a conceptual framework

PubMed Central

Huynen, Maud MTE; Martens, Pim; Hilderink, Henk BM

2005-01-01

This paper describes a conceptual framework for the health implications of globalisation. The framework is developed by first identifying the main determinants of population health and the main features of the globalisation process. The resulting conceptual model explicitly visualises that globalisation affects the institutional, economic, social-cultural and ecological determinants of population health, and that the globalisation process mainly operates at the contextual level, while influencing health through its more distal and proximal determinants. The developed framework provides valuable insights in how to organise the complexity involved in studying the health effects resulting from globalisation. It could, therefore, give a meaningful contribution to further empirical research by serving as a 'think-model' and provides a basis for the development of future scenarios on health. PMID:16078989

The Bologna Process between Structural Convergence and Institutional Diversity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dunkel, Torsten

2009-01-01

The merging of the Bologna and the Copenhagen processes into a single European education area appears appropriate, especially as general, vocational, adult and academic education are to be integrated in a future European Qualification Framework (EQF). This is the backdrop to the following description of the Bologna process, which was originally…

How Are New Vaccines Prioritized in Low-Income Countries? A Case Study of Human Papilloma Virus Vaccine and Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine in Uganda

PubMed Central

Wallace, Lauren; Kapirir, Lydia

2017-01-01

Background: To date, research on priority-setting for new vaccines has not adequately explored the influence of the global, national and sub-national levels of decision-making or contextual issues such as political pressure and stakeholder influence and power. Using Kapiriri and Martin’s conceptual framework, this paper evaluates priority setting for new vaccines in Uganda at national and sub-national levels, and considers how global priorities can influence country priorities. This study focuses on 2 specific vaccines, the human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine and the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV). Methods: This was a qualitative study that involved reviewing relevant Ugandan policy documents and media reports, as well as 54 key informant interviews at the global level and national and sub-national levels in Uganda. Kapiriri and Martin’s conceptual framework was used to evaluate the prioritization process. Results: Priority setting for PCV and HPV was conducted by the Ministry of Health (MoH), which is considered to be a legitimate institution. While respondents described the priority setting process for PCV process as transparent, participatory, and guided by explicit relevant criteria and evidence, the prioritization of HPV was thought to have been less transparent and less participatory. Respondents reported that neither process was based on an explicit priority setting framework nor did it involve adequate representation from the districts (program implementers) or publicity. The priority setting process for both PCV and HPV was negatively affected by the larger political and economic context, which contributed to weak institutional capacity as well as power imbalances between development assistance partners and the MoH. Conclusion: Priority setting in Uganda would be improved by strengthening institutional capacity and leadership and ensuring a transparent and participatory processes in which key stakeholders such as program implementers (the districts) and beneficiaries (the public) are involved. Kapiriri and Martin’s framework has the potential to guide priority setting evaluation efforts, however, evaluation should be built into the priority setting process a priori such that information on priority setting is gathered throughout the implementation cycle. PMID:29172378

Isomorphic pressures, institutional strategies, and knowledge creation in the health care sector.

PubMed

Yang, Chen-Wei; Fang, Shih-Chieh; Huang, Wei-Min

2007-01-01

Health care organizations are facing surprisingly complex challenges, including new treatment and diagnostic technologies, ongoing pressures for health care institutional reform, the emergence of new organizational governance structures, and knowledge creation for the health care system. To maintain legitimacy in demanding environments, organizations tend to copy practices of similar organizations, which lead to isomorphism, and to use internal strategies to accommodate changes. A concern is that a poor fit between isomorphic pressures and internal strategies can interfere with developmental processes, such as knowledge creation. The purposes of this article are to, first, develop a set of propositions, based on institutional theory, as a theoretical framework that might explain the influence of isomorphic pressures on institutional processes through which knowledge is created within the health care sector and, second, propose that a good fit between isomorphic pressures factors and health care organizations' institutional strategic choices will enhance the health care organizations' ability to create knowledge. To develop a theoretical framework, we developed a set of propositions based on literature pertaining to the institutional theory perspective of isomorphic pressures and the response of health care organizations to isomorphic pressures. Institutional theory perspectives of isomorphic pressures and institutional strategies may provide a new understanding for health care organizations seeking effective knowledge creation strategies within institutional environment of health care sector. First, the ability to identify three forces for isomorphic change is critical for managers. Second, the importance of a contingency approach by health care managers can lead to strategies tailoring to cope with uncertainties facing their organizations.

How do we interest students in science?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Murray, L.

2016-02-01

In today's world science literacy is now, more than ever, critical to society. However, today's technically savvy student tends to be bored by "cook-book" laboratory exercises and dated lecture style, which typifies the way that most science courses are taught. To enhance student interest in and understanding of the sciences, we developed two unique programs, in which teachers were provided with the tools and hands-on experience that enabled them to implement research- and inquiry-based projects with their students. The approach was based a framework that is student driven and enables active participation and innovation in the study of the environment. The framework involved selection of a theme and an activity that captured the interest of the participants, participant development of research or investigative questions based on the theme, experimentation to address the research questions, formulation of conclusions, and communication of these results. The projects consisted of two parts: a professional development institute for teachers and the classroom implementation of student research projects, both of which incorporated the framework process. The institutes focused on modeling the framework process, with teachers actively developing questions, researching the question, formulating results and conclusions. This method empowered teachers to be confident in the implementation of the process with their students. With support from project staff, teachers followed up by incorporating the method of teaching with their students. Evaluation results from the programs concluded that projects such as these can increase student interest in and understanding of the scientific process.

Higher Education and Employability: A Case Study of Debt and Justice in the Process to Becoming A Work College

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bolger, Andrew T.

2017-01-01

This study presents the findings that emerged in a qualitative policy-oriented case study of an institution's transition to a work college. Using Resource Dependence Theory as the theoretical framework, 32 individual interviews were collected, along with other observational data and institutional archives to understand the appeal of federal policy…

A Framework for Six Sigma Project Selection in Higher Educational Institutions, Using a Weighted Scorecard Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Holmes, Monica C.; Jenicke, Lawrence O.; Hempel, Jessica L.

2015-01-01

Purpose: This paper discusses the importance of the Six Sigma selection process, describes a Six Sigma project in a higher educational institution and presents a weighted scorecard approach for project selection. Design/Methodology/Approach: A case study of the Six Sigma approach being used to improve student support at a university computer help…

Model-based software process improvement

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Zettervall, Brenda T.

1994-01-01

The activities of a field test site for the Software Engineering Institute's software process definition project are discussed. Products tested included the improvement model itself, descriptive modeling techniques, the CMM level 2 framework document, and the use of process definition guidelines and templates. The software process improvement model represents a five stage cyclic approach for organizational process improvement. The cycles consist of the initiating, diagnosing, establishing, acting, and leveraging phases.

Using a Theoretical Framework of Institutional Culture to Analyse an Institutional Strategy Document

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jacobs, Anthea Hydi Maxine

2016-01-01

This paper builds on a conceptual analysis of institutional culture in higher education. A theoretical framework was proposed to analyse institutional documents of two higher education institutions in the Western Cape, for the period 2002 to 2012 (Jacobs 2012). The elements of this theoretical framework are "shared values and beliefs",…

Written institutional ethics policies on euthanasia: an empirical-based organizational-ethical framework.

PubMed

Lemiengre, Joke; Dierckx de Casterlé, Bernadette; Schotsmans, Paul; Gastmans, Chris

2014-05-01

As euthanasia has become a widely debated issue in many Western countries, hospitals and nursing homes especially are increasingly being confronted with this ethically sensitive societal issue. The focus of this paper is how healthcare institutions can deal with euthanasia requests on an organizational level by means of a written institutional ethics policy. The general aim is to make a critical analysis whether these policies can be considered as organizational-ethical instruments that support healthcare institutions to take their institutional responsibility for dealing with euthanasia requests. By means of an interpretative analysis, we conducted a process of reinterpretation of results of former Belgian empirical studies on written institutional ethics policies on euthanasia in dialogue with the existing international literature. The study findings revealed that legal regulations, ethical and care-oriented aspects strongly affected the development, the content, and the impact of written institutional ethics policies on euthanasia. Hence, these three cornerstones-law, care and ethics-constituted the basis for the empirical-based organizational-ethical framework for written institutional ethics policies on euthanasia that is presented in this paper. However, having a euthanasia policy does not automatically lead to more legal transparency, or to a more professional and ethical care practice. The study findings suggest that the development and implementation of an ethics policy on euthanasia as an organizational-ethical instrument should be considered as a dynamic process. Administrators and ethics committees must take responsibility to actively create an ethical climate supporting care providers who have to deal with ethical dilemmas in their practice.

Cultural context and a critical approach to eliminating health disparities.

PubMed

Griffith, Derek M; Johnson, Jonetta; Ellis, Katrina R; Schulz, Amy Jo

2010-01-01

The science of eliminating racial health disparities requires a clear understanding of the underlying social processes that drive persistent differences in health outcomes by self-identified race. Understanding these social processes requires analysis of cultural notions of race as these are instantiated in institutional policies and practices that ultimately contribute to health disparities. Racism provides a useful framework for understanding how social, political and economic factors directly and indirectly influence health outcomes. While it is important to capture how individuals are influenced by their psychological experience of prejudice and discrimination, racism is more than an intrapersonal or interpersonal variable. Considerable attention has focused on race-based residential segregation and other forms of institutional racism but less focus has been placed on how cultural values, frameworks and meanings shape institutional policies and practices. In this article, we highlight the intersection of cultural and institutional racism as a critical mechanism through which racial inequities in social determinants of health not only develop but persist. This distinction highlights and helps to explain processes and structures that contribute to racial disparities persisting across time and outcomes. Using two historical examples, the National Negro Health Movement and hospital desegregation during the Civil Rights Era, we identify key questions that an analysis of cultural racism might add to the more common focus on overt policy decisions and practices.

Bringing electricity reform to the Philippines

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Fe Villamejor-Mendoza, Maria

2008-12-15

Electricity reforms will not translate to competition overnight. But reforms are inching their way forward in institutions and stakeholders of the Philippine electricity industry, through regulatory and competition frameworks, processes, and systems promulgated and implemented. (author)

A comparison of systemwide and hospital-specific performance measurement tools.

PubMed

Yap, Clarence; Siu, Emily; Baker, G Ross; Brown, Adalsteinn D

2005-01-01

Balanced scorecards are being implemented at the system and organizational levels to help managers link their organizational strategies with performance data to better manage their healthcare systems. Prior to this study, hospitals in Ontario, Canada, received two editions of the system-level scorecard (SLS)--a framework, based on the original balanced scorecard, that includes four quadrants: system integration and management innovation (learning and growth), clinical utilization and outcomes (internal processes), patient satisfaction (customer), and financial performance and condition (financial). This study examines the uptake of the SLS framework and indicators into institution-specific scorecards for 22 acute care institutions and 2 non-acute-care institutions. This study found that larger (teaching and community) hospitals were significantly more likely to use the SLS framework to report performance data than did small hospitals (p < 0.0049 and 0.0507) and that teaching hospitals used the framework significantly more than community hospitals did (p < 0.0529). The majority of hospitals in this study used at least one indicator from the SLS in their own scorecards. However, all hospitals in the study incorporated indicators that required data collection and analysis beyond the SLS framework. The study findings suggest that SLS may assist hospitals in developing institution-specific scorecards for hospital management and that the balanced scorecard model can be modified to meet the needs of a variety of hospitals. Based on the insight from this study and other activities that explore top priorities for hospital management, the issues related to efficiency and human resources should be further examined using SLSs.

SenSyF Experience on Integration of EO Services in a Generic, Cloud-Based EO Exploitation Platform

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Almeida, Nuno; Catarino, Nuno; Gutierrez, Antonio; Grosso, Nuno; Andrade, Joao; Caumont, Herve; Goncalves, Pedro; Villa, Guillermo; Mangin, Antoine; Serra, Romain; Johnsen, Harald; Grydeland, Tom; Emsley, Stephen; Jauch, Eduardo; Moreno, Jose; Ruiz, Antonio

2016-08-01

SenSyF is a cloud-based data processing framework for EO- based services. It has been pioneer in addressing Big Data issues from the Earth Observation point of view, and is a precursor of several of the technologies and methodologies that will be deployed in ESA's Thematic Exploitation Platforms and other related systems.The SenSyF system focuses on developing fully automated data management, together with access to a processing and exploitation framework, including Earth Observation specific tools. SenSyF is both a development and validation platform for data intensive applications using Earth Observation data. With SenSyF, scientific, institutional or commercial institutions developing EO- based applications and services can take advantage of distributed computational and storage resources, tailored for applications dependent on big Earth Observation data, and without resorting to deep infrastructure and technological investments.This paper describes the integration process and the experience gathered from different EO Service providers during the project.

Client and family engagement in rehabilitation research: a framework for health care organizations.

PubMed

Anderson, James; Williams, Laura; Karmali, Amir; Beesley, Lori; Tanel, Nadia; Doyle-Thomas, Krissy; Sheps, Gideon; Chau, Tom

2018-04-01

To describe the development and implementation of an organizational framework for client and family-centered research. Case report. While patient-centered care is now well established, patient-centered research remains underdeveloped. This is particularly true at the organizational level (e.g., hospital based research institutes). In this paper we describe the development of an organizational framework for client and family centered research at Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital in Toronto, Canada. It is our hope that, by sharing our framework other research institutions can learn from our experience and develop their own research patient/client/family engagement programs. Implications for rehabilitation Family engagement in rehabilitation research •Rehabilitation research is crucial to the development and improvement of rehabilitative care. •The relevance, appropriateness, and accountability of research to patients, clients and families could be improved. •Engaging clients and families as partners in all aspects of the research process is one way to address this problem. •In this paper, we describe a framework for engaging clients and families in research at the organizational level.

Conference Proceedings: Forest Criteria and Indicators Analytical Framework and Report Workshop May 19-21, 2008 Joensuu, Finland

Treesearch

US Department of Agriculture Forest Service

2009-01-01

In May 2008, the Finnish Forest Research Institute; the Montréal Process; the International Institute of Tropical Forestry; the Forestry Department of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; the Finnish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry; and the Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, sponsored a workshop to address the current status of...

Life-cycle and cost of goods assessment of fed-batch and perfusion-based manufacturing processes for mAbs.

PubMed

Bunnak, Phumthep; Allmendinger, Richard; Ramasamy, Sri V; Lettieri, Paola; Titchener-Hooker, Nigel J

2016-09-01

Life-cycle assessment (LCA) is an environmental assessment tool that quantifies the environmental impact associated with a product or a process (e.g., water consumption, energy requirements, and solid waste generation). While LCA is a standard approach in many commercial industries, its application has not been exploited widely in the bioprocessing sector. To contribute toward the design of more cost-efficient, robust and environmentally-friendly manufacturing process for monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), a framework consisting of an LCA and economic analysis combined with a sensitivity analysis of manufacturing process parameters and a production scale-up study is presented. The efficiency of the framework is demonstrated using a comparative study of the two most commonly used upstream configurations for mAb manufacture, namely fed-batch (FB) and perfusion-based processes. Results obtained by the framework are presented using a range of visualization tools, and indicate that a standard perfusion process (with a pooling duration of 4 days) has similar cost of goods than a FB process but a larger environmental footprint because it consumed 35% more water, demanded 17% more energy, and emitted 17% more CO 2 than the FB process. Water consumption was the most important impact category, especially when scaling-up the processes, as energy was required to produce process water and water-for-injection, while CO 2 was emitted from energy generation. The sensitivity analysis revealed that the perfusion process can be made more environmentally-friendly than the FB process if the pooling duration is extended to 8 days. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 32:1324-1335, 2016. © 2016 The Authors Biotechnology Progress published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of American Institute of Chemical Engineers.

Innovation implementation in the public sector: an integration of institutional and collective dynamics.

PubMed

Choi, Jin Nam; Chang, Jae Yoon

2009-01-01

The present study integrates institutional factors and employee-based collective processes as predictors of 2 key implementation outcomes: implementation effectiveness and innovation effectiveness (Klein, Conn, & Sorra, 2001). Specifically, the authors proposed that institutional factors shape employees' collective implementation efficacy and innovation acceptance. The authors further hypothesized that these employee-based collective processes mediate the effects of institutional factors on implementation outcomes. This integrative framework was examined in the context of 47 agencies and ministries of the Korean Government that were implementing a process innovation called E-Government. Three-wave longitudinal data were collected from 60 external experts and 1,732 government employees. The results reveal the importance of management support for collective implementation efficacy, which affected employees' collective acceptance of the innovation. As hypothesized, these collective employee dynamics mediated the effects of institutional enablers on successful implementation as well as the amount of long-term benefit that accrued to the agencies and ministries. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved).

Measuring research impact in medical research institutes: a qualitative study of the attitudes and opinions of Australian medical research institutes towards research impact assessment frameworks.

PubMed

Deeming, Simon; Reeves, Penny; Ramanathan, Shanthi; Attia, John; Nilsson, Michael; Searles, Andrew

2018-03-16

The question of how to measure, assess and optimise the returns from investment in health and medical research (HMR) is a highly policy-relevant issue. Research Impact Assessment Frameworks (RIAFs) provide a conceptual measurement framework to assess the impact from HMR. The aims of this study were (1) to elicit the views of Medical Research Institutes (MRIs) regarding objectives, definitions, methods, barriers, potential scope and attitudes towards RIAFs, and (2) to investigate whether an assessment framework should represent a retrospective reflection of research impact or a prospective approach integrated into the research process. The wider objective was to inform the development of a draft RIAF for Australia's MRIs. Purposive sampling to derive a heterogeneous sample of Australian MRIs was used alongside semi-structured interviews with senior executives responsible for research translation or senior researchers affected by research impact initiatives. Thematic analysis of the interview transcriptions using the framework approach was then performed. Interviews were conducted with senior representatives from 15 MRIs. Participants understood the need for greater research translation/impact, but varied in their comprehension and implementation of RIAFs. Common concerns included the time lag to the generation of societal impacts from basic or discovery science, and whether impact reflected a narrow commercialisation agenda. Broad support emerged for the use of metrics, case study and economic methods. Support was also provided for the rationale of both standardised and customised metrics. Engendering cultural change in the approach to research translation was acknowledged as both a barrier to greater impact and a critical objective for the assessment process. Participants perceived that the existing research environment incentivised the generation of academic publications and track records, and often conflicted with the generation of wider impacts. The potential to improve the speed of translation through prospective implementation of impact assessment was supported, albeit that the mechanism required development. The study found that the issues raised regarding research impact assessment are less about methods and metrics, and more about the research activities that the measurement of research translation and impact may or may not incentivise. Consequently, if impact assessment is to contribute to optimisation of the health gains from the public, corporate and philanthropic investment entrusted to the institutes, then further inquiry into how the assessment process may re-align research behaviour must be prioritised.

Languages and Institutions in the European Union. Mercator Working Papers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alcaraz, Manuel

This paper situates languages in the framework of European construction, analyzing problems resulting from the definition of languages' official status in the European Union (EU) juridical system. It explains that the process of European construction is historically defined by means of two distinct features (it is an open process, and at the same…

76 FR 34007 - Draft Regulatory Basis for a Potential Rulemaking on Spent Nuclear Fuel Reprocessing Facilities

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-06-10

... processes are more akin to fuel cycle processes. This framework was established in the 1970's to license the... nuclear power globally and close the nuclear fuel cycle through reprocessing spent fuel and deploying fast... Accounting;'' and a Nuclear Energy Institute white [[Page 34009

Same Challenges, Different Processes: Perceptions on Governance Changes in Portuguese and Finnish Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Diogo, Sara

2015-01-01

This article compares recent governance reforms in Finnish and Portuguese higher education (HE) systems and institutions (HEIs). Although Portugal and Finland differ significantly, both the countries have recently undertaken similar HE legislative reforms. This article analyses the contexts and implementation processes of these legal frameworks:…

Institutional development and policy frameworks for pastoralism: from local to regional perspectives.

PubMed

Bonfoh, B; Fokou, G; Crump, L; Zinsstag, J; Schelling, E

2016-11-01

Pastoralists are among the most politically and economically marginalised communities in the world. They have less and less access to the natural resources on which their livelihoods depend and very limited access to basic socio-economic services and infrastructure. This paper builds on a number of studies carried out in the Sahel, the Horn of Africa, Central Asia and the Swiss Alps to address the institutional dynamics required for sustainable pastoralism. Specifically, the authors question the way in which institutions and policies are currently shaped and suggest that reforming these could contribute to new avenues for pastoralism. Among the main drivers of pastoralist marginalisation are poor public and private institutional arrangements. The consequences are violent conflict and increased mobility and relocation. Responses to the current weaknesses of pastoralism must encompass inclusive, comprehensive institutions which allow access to resources, economic viability and integration in the new socio-ecological space. The authors argue that those involved in pastoral development in national as well as international arenas, including pastoralist groups, states and agencies, are creatively engaged in a process of innovation for pastoralism, and this will contribute towards new forms of governance and improved institutional and policy frameworks.

Institutional and structural barriers to HIV testing: elements for a theoretical framework.

PubMed

Meyerson, Beth; Barnes, Priscilla; Emetu, Roberta; Bailey, Marlon; Ohmit, Anita; Gillespie, Anthony

2014-01-01

Stigma is a barrier to HIV health seeking, but little is known about institutional and structural expressions of stigma in HIV testing. This study examines evidence of institutional and structural stigma in the HIV testing process. A qualitative, grounded theory study was conducted using secondary data from a 2011 HIV test site evaluation data in a Midwestern, moderate HIV incidence state. Expressions of structural and institutional stigma were found with over half of the testing sites and at three stages of the HIV testing visit. Examples of structural stigma included social geography, organization, and staff behavior at first encounter and reception, and staff behavior when experiencing the actual HIV test. Institutional stigma was socially expressed through staff behavior at entry/reception and when experiencing the HIV test. The emerging elements demonstrate the potential compounding of stigma experiences with deleterious effect. Study findings may inform future development of a theoretical framework. In practice, findings can guide organizations seeking to reduce HIV testing barriers, as they provide a window into how test seekers experience HIV test sites at first encounter, entry/reception, and at testing stages; and can identify how stigma might be intensified by structural and institutional expressions.

How Are New Vaccines Prioritized in Low-Income Countries? A Case Study of Human Papilloma Virus Vaccine and Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine in Uganda.

PubMed

Wallace, Lauren; Kapirir, Lydia

2017-04-08

To date, research on priority-setting for new vaccines has not adequately explored the influence of the global, national and sub-national levels of decision-making or contextual issues such as political pressure and stakeholder influence and power. Using Kapiriri and Martin's conceptual framework, this paper evaluates priority setting for new vaccines in Uganda at national and sub-national levels, and considers how global priorities can influence country priorities. This study focuses on 2 specific vaccines, the human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccine and the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV). This was a qualitative study that involved reviewing relevant Ugandan policy documents and media reports, as well as 54 key informant interviews at the global level and national and sub-national levels in Uganda. Kapiriri and Martin's conceptual framework was used to evaluate the prioritization process. Priority setting for PCV and HPV was conducted by the Ministry of Health (MoH), which is considered to be a legitimate institution. While respondents described the priority setting process for PCV process as transparent, participatory, and guided by explicit relevant criteria and evidence, the prioritization of HPV was thought to have been less transparent and less participatory. Respondents reported that neither process was based on an explicit priority setting framework nor did it involve adequate representation from the districts (program implementers) or publicity. The priority setting process for both PCV and HPV was negatively affected by the larger political and economic context, which contributed to weak institutional capacity as well as power imbalances between development assistance partners and the MoH. Priority setting in Uganda would be improved by strengthening institutional capacity and leadership and ensuring a transparent and participatory processes in which key stakeholders such as program implementers (the districts) and beneficiaries (the public) are involved. Kapiriri and Martin's framework has the potential to guide priority setting evaluation efforts, however, evaluation should be built into the priority setting process a priori such that information on priority setting is gathered throughout the implementation cycle. © 2017 The Author(s); Published by Kerman University of Medical Sciences. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Knowledge representation into Ada parallel processing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Masotto, Tom; Babikyan, Carol; Harper, Richard

1990-01-01

The Knowledge Representation into Ada Parallel Processing project is a joint NASA and Air Force funded project to demonstrate the execution of intelligent systems in Ada on the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory fault-tolerant parallel processor (FTPP). Two applications were demonstrated - a portion of the adaptive tactical navigator and a real time controller. Both systems are implemented as Activation Framework Objects on the Activation Framework intelligent scheduling mechanism developed by Worcester Polytechnic Institute. The implementations, results of performance analyses showing speedup due to parallelism and initial efficiency improvements are detailed and further areas for performance improvements are suggested.

Are We Doing Ok? Developing a Generic Process to Benchmark Career Services in Educational Institutions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McCowan, Col; McKenzie, Malcolm

2011-01-01

In 2007 the Career Industry Council of Australia developed the Guiding Principles for Career Development Services and Career Information Products as one part of its strategy to produce a national quality framework for career development activities in Australia. An Australian university career service undertook an assessment process against these…

[Higher education in nursing: the faculty work process in different institutional contexts].

PubMed

Leonello, Valéria Marli; Oliveira, Maria Amélia de Campos

2014-12-01

To analyze the characteristics of faculty work in nursing higher education. An exploratory qualitative study with a theoretical-methodological framework of dialectical and historical materialism. The faculty work process was adopted as the analytical category, grounded on conceptions of work and professionalism. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 24 faculty members from three higher education institutions in the city of São Paulo, classified according to the typology of institutional contexts. The faculty members at these higher education institutions are a heterogeneous group, under different working conditions. Intensification and precarious conditions of the faculty work is common to all three contexts, although there are important distinctions in the practices related to teaching, research and extension. Faculty professionalization can be the starting point for analyzing and coping with such a distinct reality of faculty work and practice.


Narrative Approaches to Organizational Development: A Case Study of Implementation of Collaborative Helping.

PubMed

Madsen, William C

2016-06-01

Across North America, community agencies and state/provincial jurisdictions are embracing family-centered approaches to service delivery that are grounded in strength-based, culturally responsive, accountable partnerships with families. This article details a collaborative consultation process to initiate and sustain organizational change toward this effort. It draws on innovative ideas from narrative theory, organizational development, and implementation science to highlight a three component approach. This approach includes the use of appreciative inquiry focus groups to elicit existing best practices, the provision of clinical training, and ongoing coaching with practice leaders to build on those better moments and develop concrete practice frameworks, and leadership coaching and organizational consultation to develop organizational structures that institutionalize family-centered practice. While the article uses a principle-based practice framework, Collaborative Helping, to illustrate this process, the approach is applicable with a variety of clinical frameworks grounded in family-centered values and principles. © 2016 Family Process Institute.

Institutional Frameworks and Structural Factors Relating to Educational Access across Europe

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Biggart, Andy; Järvinen, Tero; Parreira do Amaral, Marcelo

2015-01-01

In this article institutional and structural factors relating to access to education are assessed. First, the macro frameworks of institutional regulation that exert influence on the educational trajectories of young Europeans are demonstrated. Based on different aspects of these frameworks and drawing from extant research, the article presents a…

The Faculty Learning Outcome Assessment Framework

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hurney, Carol A.; Brantmeier, Edward J.; Good, Megan R.; Harrison, Douglas; Meixner, Cara

2016-01-01

Assessment is a cyclical process within which educators construct outcomes, implement programs, assess constructs such as learning, evaluate results, and utilize results to craft stronger programs and services. Within educational and faculty development, assessment measures program impact on faculty, students, and/or institutional culture.…

An Investigation of How Black STEM Faculty at Historically Black Colleges and Universities Approach the National Science Foundation Merit Review Process

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rankins, Falcon

This qualitative inquiry explored the ways in which US-born, Black faculty member participants in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) interact with the National Science Foundation (NSF). Eight Black HBCU STEM faculty members with a range of involvement in NSF-related activities were individually interviewed. Topics of discussion with participants included their prior experiences with NSF, their understanding of the merit review process, and their understanding of their personal and institutional relationships with NSF and the STEM community. Two broad findings emerged from the conversations. The first was that issues of communities and social identity were important to the participants' work as research scientists. Participants prioritized advancing people and communities over advancing the knowledge of ambiguous, disembodied scientific disciplines, and some participants were motivated by interests in social justice. However, participants maintained strong identities as scientists and the discussions provided no evidence that other social factors influenced their application of the scientific method. The second major finding dealt with the role participants perceived their institutions playing in their involvement with NSF. All participants described challenges associated with pursuing research in HBCU environments and, in some cases, the institutional challenges served as the motivation for participants' projects, with varying consequences. The participants' discussions about their institutions also raised important questions about how well-aligned participants' visions are with the visions of their institutional leadership, regarding how research should be incorporated into the HBCU mission. Finally, this study developed and refined a theoretical framework for explaining the underrepresentation of HBCUs in NSF funding streams. In developing this framework, a brief history of the origination of HBCUs, NSF, and the NSF merit review process is presented.

Alternative Assessment in Engineering Language Education: The Case of the Technical University of Madrid

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pierce, Joana; Duran, Pilar; Ubeda, Paloma

2011-01-01

Engineering institutions across Europe are currently involved in a major process of reform and restructuring as a part of the Bologna Process, which stresses the role of competencies and outcomes in curriculum design. In the field of languages, the Council of Europe has developed the CEFR (Common European Framework of References) for languages,…

Institutional Constraints on the Development of Curricular Policy Alternatives. ASHE Annual Meeting Paper.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arnold, Gordon B.

A study of the college curriculum decision-making process examined the generation of options or alternatives considered as part of a general education curriculum revision in the late 1980s at a major church-affiliated university. This process was examined in the framework of the rational-choice model of human behavior. Data were gathered from a…

OpenDrift - an open source framework for ocean trajectory modeling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dagestad, Knut-Frode; Breivik, Øyvind; Ådlandsvik, Bjørn

2016-04-01

We will present a new, open source tool for modeling the trajectories and fate of particles or substances (Lagrangian Elements) drifting in the ocean, or even in the atmosphere. The software is named OpenDrift, and has been developed at Norwegian Meteorological Institute in cooperation with Institute of Marine Research. OpenDrift is a generic framework written in Python, and is openly available at https://github.com/knutfrode/opendrift/. The framework is modular with respect to three aspects: (1) obtaining input data, (2) the transport/morphological processes, and (3) exporting of results to file. Modularity is achieved through well defined interfaces between components, and use of a consistent vocabulary (CF conventions) for naming of variables. Modular input implies that it is not necessary to preprocess input data (e.g. currents, wind and waves from Eulerian models) to a particular file format. Instead "reader modules" can be written/used to obtain data directly from any original source, including files or through web based protocols (e.g. OPeNDAP/Thredds). Modularity of processes implies that a model developer may focus on the geophysical processes relevant for the application of interest, without needing to consider technical tasks such as reading, reprojecting, and colocating input data, rotation and scaling of vectors and model output. We will show a few example applications of using OpenDrift for predicting drifters, oil spills, and search and rescue objects.

A Proactive and Top-Down Approach to Managing Risk at NASA

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dezfuli, Homayoon

2010-01-01

Our ultimate goal is to manage risk in a holistic and coherent fashion across the Agency: a) The RIDM process is intended to risk-inform direction-setting decisions. c) The CRM process is intended to manage risk associated with the implementation of baseline performance requirements. Currently we are working on: a) Enhancements to the CRM process. b) Better integration of the RIDM and CRM processes. c) Better integration of institutional risk considerations into RM framework.

Explaining the Origins and Expansion of Mass Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boli, John; And Others

1985-01-01

Theories of mass education that emphasize processes of differentiation or the reproduction of inequalities ignore the universal and institutional character of mass education. A theoretical framework emphasizing individualism and the rationalization of individual and collective authority better explains the relationship of mass education to…

Using the CER Hub to ensure data quality in a multi-institution smoking cessation study.

PubMed

Walker, Kari L; Kirillova, Olga; Gillespie, Suzanne E; Hsiao, David; Pishchalenko, Valentyna; Pai, Akshatha Kalsanka; Puro, Jon E; Plumley, Robert; Kudyakov, Rustam; Hu, Weiming; Allisany, Art; McBurnie, MaryAnn; Kurtz, Stephen E; Hazlehurst, Brian L

2014-01-01

Comparative effectiveness research (CER) studies involving multiple institutions with diverse electronic health records (EHRs) depend on high quality data. To ensure uniformity of data derived from different EHR systems and implementations, the CER Hub informatics platform developed a quality assurance (QA) process using tools and data formats available through the CER Hub. The QA process, implemented here in a study of smoking cessation services in primary care, used the 'emrAdapter' tool programmed with a set of quality checks to query large samples of primary care encounter records extracted in accord with the CER Hub common data framework. The tool, deployed to each study site, generated error reports indicating data problems to be fixed locally and aggregate data sharable with the central site for quality review. Across the CER Hub network of six health systems, data completeness and correctness issues were prevalent in the first iteration and were considerably improved after three iterations of the QA process. A common issue encountered was incomplete mapping of local EHR data values to those defined by the common data framework. A highly automated and distributed QA process helped to ensure the correctness and completeness of patient care data extracted from EHRs for a multi-institution CER study in smoking cessation. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

Review of Recent US Value Frameworks-A Health Economics Approach: An ISPOR Special Task Force Report [6].

PubMed

Willke, Richard J; Neumann, Peter J; Garrison, Louis P; Ramsey, Scott D

2018-02-01

The sixth section of our Special Task Force (STF) report reviews and comments on recent US-oriented value assessment frameworks, specifically those published by the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association, the Institute for Clinical and Economic Research, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, and the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. We review published commentaries that address the validity, reliability, and conceptual underpinnings of these frameworks. We find common themes of critique regarding the strengths and limitations across frameworks. Particular shortcomings of some frameworks pose greater threats to their face validity and utility compared with others. The most significant limitations include lack of clear perspective (e.g., patient vs. health plan) and poor transparency in accounting for costs and benefits. We then review how each framework adheres to core STF recommendations, with particular emphasis on whether the framework can be used to support coverage decisions by health insurers, and whether it adheres to core principles of cost-effectiveness analysis. The Institute for Clinical and Economic Research framework most closely adheres to core STF recommendations. Others have significant limitations that vary widely from framework to framework. We also review how the frameworks follow STF recommendations for addressing potentially relevant issues beyond cost-effectiveness analysis - for example, equity in resource allocation and patient heterogeneity. Finally, we review whether and how each framework uses value thresholds and addresses affordability concerns. We conclude with suggestions for further research, particularly in the areas of testing the measurement and use of novel elements of value and deliberative processes. Copyright © 2018 International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Brazilian Audit Tribunal's role in improving the federal environmental licensing process

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lima, Luiz Henrique, E-mail: luizhlima@terra.com.b; Magrini, Alessandra, E-mail: ale@ppe.ufrj.b; Centro de Tecnologia - Bloco C Sala 211, Ilha do Fundao, 21949-900 - Rio de Janeiro, Caixa-Postal: 68565, RJ

This article describes the role played by the Brazilian Audit Tribunal (Tribunal de Contas da Uniao - TCU) in the external auditing of environmental management in Brazil, highlighting the findings of an operational audit conducted in 2007 of the federal environmental licensing process. Initially, it records the constitutional and legal framework of Brazilian environmental licensing, describing the powers and duties granted to federal, state and municipal institutions. In addition, it presents the responsibilities of the TCU in the environmental area, comparing these with those of other Supreme Audit Institutions (SAI) that are members of the International Organization of Supreme Auditmore » Institutions (INTOSAI). It also describes the work carried out in the operational audit of the Brazilian environmental licensing process and its main conclusions and recommendations. Finally, it draws a parallel between the findings and recommendations made in Brazil with those of academic studies and audits conducted in other countries.« less

STARS Conceptual Framework for Reuse Processes (CFRP). Volume 2: application Version 1.0

DTIC Science & Technology

1993-09-30

Analysis and Design DISA/CIM process x OProcess [DIS93] Feature-Oriented Domain SEI process x Analysis ( FODA ) [KCH+90] JIAWG Object-Oriented Domain JIAWG...Domain Analysis ( FODA ) Feasibility Study. Technical Report CMU/S[1 ,N. I R 21. Soft- ware Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh...Electronic Systems Center Air Force Materiel Command, USAF Hanscom AFB, MA 01731-5000 Prepared by: The Boeing Company , IBM, Unisys Corporation, Defense

International Best Practices for Pre-Processing and Co-Processing Municipal Solid Waste and Sewage Sludge in the Cement Industry

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hasanbeigi, Ali; Lu, Hongyou; Williams, Christopher

The purpose of this report is to describe international best practices for pre-processing and coprocessing of MSW and sewage sludge in cement plants, for the benefit of countries that wish to develop co-processing capacity. The report is divided into three main sections. Section 2 describes the fundamentals of co-processing, Section 3 describes exemplary international regulatory and institutional frameworks for co-processing, and Section 4 describes international best practices related to the technological aspects of co-processing.

The Bologna Process and Integration Theory: Convergence and Autonomy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barkholt, Kasper

2005-01-01

This paper focuses on two theoretical frameworks of integration (neo-functionalism and liberal inter-governmentalism), exploring their implications for current trends of integration in European higher education: the marketization of and trade in educational services, the involvement of supranational institutions, and the focus on quality…

Quality assurance in transnational higher education: a case study of the tropEd network

PubMed Central

2013-01-01

Introduction Transnational or cross-border higher education has rapidly expanded since the 1980s. Together with that expansion issues on quality assurance came to the forefront. This article aims to identify key issues regarding quality assurance of transnational higher education and discusses the quality assurance of the tropEd Network for International Health in Higher Education in relation to these key issues. Methods Literature review and review of documents. Results From the literature the following key issues regarding transnational quality assurance were identified and explored: comparability of quality assurance frameworks, true collaboration versus erosion of national education sovereignty, accreditation agencies and transparency. The tropEd network developed a transnational quality assurance framework for the network. The network accredits modules through a rigorous process which has been accepted by major stakeholders. This process was a participatory learning process and at the same time the process worked positive for the relations between the institutions. Discussion The development of the quality assurance framework and the process provides a potential example for others. PMID:23537108

Development of a framework to improve the utilisation of malaria research for policy development in Malawi.

PubMed

Mwendera, Chikondi; de Jager, Christiaan; Longwe, Herbert; Hongoro, Charles; Phiri, Kamija; Mutero, Clifford M

2017-11-21

The existing gap between research evidence and public health practice has attributed to the unmet Millennium Development Goals in Africa and consequently, has stimulated the development of frameworks to enhance knowledge translation. These efforts aim at maximising health research utilisation in policy and practice to address the world's disease burdens, including malaria. This study aimed at developing a contextual framework to improve the utilisation of malaria research for policy development in Malawi. The study used two approaches including: two case studies of policy analysis exploring the policy-making process in Malawi, utilisation of local malaria research, and the role of key stakeholders in policy formulation process; and the assessment of facilitating factors and barriers to malaria research utilisation for policy-making in Malawi. From the case studies' lessons and elements identified during the assessment of facilitating factors and barriers, a framework is developed to promote an integrated approach to knowledge translation. In this framework the Ministry of Health is considered as the main user of knowledge from research through the demand created by the research directorate and the National Malaria Control Programme. Key documents identified as being particularly relevant to the Ministry of Health for purposes of knowledge translation include the National Health Research Agenda, Guidelines for Policy Development and Analysis, and Guidelines for Evidence Use in Policy-making. Institutions conducting academic and policy-relevant malaria research in Malawi are identified and a consolidation of their linkages with the users of research is established through the Knowledge Translation Unit, the Evidence Informed decision-making Centre, and the African Institute for Development Policy. Equally, key players in this framework are the funding partners for both research and programmes that need to see accountability and impact of their support. Independent advisors, partners, and consultants also have their vital role in the process. The framework offers a practical basis for the factors identified and their linkages to promote a co-ordinated approach to malaria research utilisation in policy-making. Its applicability and success hinges on its wider dissemination and ownership by the government through the National Malaria Control Programme.

Implications of the Institute of Medicine Report: Evaluation of Biomarkers and Surrogate Endpoints in Chronic Disease.

PubMed

Wagner, J A; Ball, J R

2015-07-01

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) released a groundbreaking 2010 report, Evaluation of Biomarkers and Surrogate Endpoints in Chronic Disease. Key recommendations included a harmonized scientific process and a general framework for biomarker evaluation with three interrelated steps: (1) Analytical validation -- is the biomarker measurement accurate? (2) Qualification -- is the biomarker associated with the clinical endpoint of concern? (3) Utilization -- what is the specific context of the proposed use? © 2015 American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics.

Inhibition halos in the remediation of Amazon soils contaminated with petroleum.

PubMed

Cuvi, Nicolás; Bejarano, Monserrathe

2015-12-01

We analyze the history of bioremediation of soils contaminated with petroleum in the Ecuadorian Amazon from 1994 to 2014. Although there were some technoscientific "successes," we argue that the opportunity to develop a process of scientific excellence was thwarted by lack of an institutional framework and the political will to oversee research and innovation. Dependence on foreign technology, insufficient internal coordination among research programs and institutions, corruption, lack of a national tradition of biotechnological innovation, the predominance of "biopeons," and a dichotomy between oil and the environment all influenced this process. We discuss these issues in relation to science and technology on the periphery and examine what is needed to consolidate technoscientific processes of excellence in those territories.

Analysis of Management Practices in Lagos State Tertiary Institutions through Total Quality Management Structural Framework

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

AbdulAzeez, Abbas Tunde

2016-01-01

This research investigated total quality management practices and quality teacher education in public tertiary institutions in Lagos State. The study was therefore designed to analyse management practices in Lagos state tertiary institutions through total quality management structural framework. The selected public tertiary institutions in Lagos…

The Vulnerability Framework Integrates Various Models of Generating Surplus Revenue

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maniaci, Vincent

2004-01-01

Budgets operationalize the strategic planning process, and institutions must have surplus revenue to be able to cope with future operations. There are three approaches to generate surplus revenue: increased revenue, decreased cost, and reallocation of resources. Extending their earlier work, where they established strategic benchmarks for annual…

The Relevance of Decision Process Models in Structuring Persuasive Messages

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wright, Peter; Barbour, Fredric

1975-01-01

Suggests a method of analyzing mass media advertising strategies within an integrated behavioral science research framework. Available from: Communication Research, Sage Publications, 275 South Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills, California 90212. Subscription Rates: institutional, $20.00 per year; professionals and teachers, $12.00 per year; full-time…

The Educational Facilities Professional's Practical Guide to Reducing the Campus Carbon Footprint

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hignite, Karla

2009-01-01

As more institutions respond to the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment, or are otherwise responsible for campus environmental stewardship, this implementation guide gives educational facilities professionals a practical framework for moving forward in their unique role within this process. The intent is to help facilities…

Cash on Demand: A Framework for Managing a Cash Liquidity Position.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Augustine, John H.

1995-01-01

A well-run college or university will seek to accumulate and maintain an appropriate cash reserve or liquidity position. A rigorous analytic process for estimating the size and cost of a liquidity position, based on judgments about the institution's operating risks and opportunities, is outlined. (MSE)

Education Technology Standards Self-Efficacy (ETSSE) Scale: A Validity and Reliability Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Simsek, Omer; Yazar, Taha

2016-01-01

Problem Statement: The educational technology standards for teachers set by the International Society for Technology in Education (the ISTE Standards-T) represent an important framework for using technology effectively in teaching and learning processes. These standards are widely used by universities, educational institutions, and schools. The…

Translating Learning into Numbers: A Generic Framework for Learning Analytics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Greller, Wolfgang; Drachsler, Hendrik

2012-01-01

With the increase in available educational data, it is expected that Learning Analytics will become a powerful means to inform and support learners, teachers and their institutions in better understanding and predicting personal learning needs and performance. However, the processes and requirements behind the beneficial application of Learning…

The Engineering Design Process as a Model for STEM Curriculum Design

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Corbett, Krystal Sno

2012-01-01

Engaging pedagogics have been proven to be effective in the promotion of deep learning for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) students. In many cases, academic institutions have shown a desire to improve education by implementing more engaging techniques in the classroom. The research framework established in this…

A framework for managing core facilities within the research enterprise.

PubMed

Haley, Rand

2009-09-01

Core facilities represent increasingly important operational and strategic components of institutions' research enterprises, especially in biomolecular science and engineering disciplines. With this realization, many research institutions are placing more attention on effectively managing core facilities within the research enterprise. A framework is presented for organizing the questions, challenges, and opportunities facing core facilities and the academic units and institutions in which they operate. This framework is intended to assist in guiding core facility management discussions in the context of a portfolio of facilities and within the overall institutional research enterprise.

Resource allocation processes at multilateral organizations working in global health

PubMed Central

Chi, Y-Ling; Bump, Jesse B

2018-01-01

Abstract International institutions provide well over US$10 billion in development assistance for health (DAH) annually and between 1990 and 2014, DAH disbursements totaled $458 billion but how do they decide who gets what, and for what purpose? In this article, we explore how allocation decisions were made by the nine convening agencies of the Equitable Access Initiative. We provide clear, plain language descriptions of the complete process from resource mobilization to allocation for the nine multilateral agencies with prominent agendas in global health. Then, through a comparative analysis we illuminate the choices and strategies employed in the nine international institutions. We find that resource allocation in all reviewed institutions follow a similar pattern, which we categorized in a framework of five steps: strategy definition, resource mobilization, eligibility of countries, support type and funds allocation. All the reviewed institutions generate resource allocation decisions through well-structured and fairly complex processes. Variations in those processes seem to reflect differences in institutional principles and goals. However, these processes have serious shortcomings. Technical problems include inadequate flexibility to account for or meet country needs. Although aid effectiveness and value for money are commonly referenced, we find that neither performance nor impact is a major criterion for allocating resources. We found very little formal consideration of the incentives generated by allocation choices. Political issues include non-transparent influence on allocation processes by donors and bureaucrats, and the common practice of earmarking funds to bypass the normal allocation process entirely. Ethical deficiencies include low accountability and transparency at international institutions, and limited participation by affected citizens or their representatives. We find that recipient countries have low influence on allocation processes themselves, although within these processes they have some influence in relatively narrow areas. PMID:29415239

NIA-AA Research Framework: Toward a biological definition of Alzheimer's disease.

PubMed

Jack, Clifford R; Bennett, David A; Blennow, Kaj; Carrillo, Maria C; Dunn, Billy; Haeberlein, Samantha Budd; Holtzman, David M; Jagust, William; Jessen, Frank; Karlawish, Jason; Liu, Enchi; Molinuevo, Jose Luis; Montine, Thomas; Phelps, Creighton; Rankin, Katherine P; Rowe, Christopher C; Scheltens, Philip; Siemers, Eric; Snyder, Heather M; Sperling, Reisa

2018-04-01

In 2011, the National Institute on Aging and Alzheimer's Association created separate diagnostic recommendations for the preclinical, mild cognitive impairment, and dementia stages of Alzheimer's disease. Scientific progress in the interim led to an initiative by the National Institute on Aging and Alzheimer's Association to update and unify the 2011 guidelines. This unifying update is labeled a "research framework" because its intended use is for observational and interventional research, not routine clinical care. In the National Institute on Aging and Alzheimer's Association Research Framework, Alzheimer's disease (AD) is defined by its underlying pathologic processes that can be documented by postmortem examination or in vivo by biomarkers. The diagnosis is not based on the clinical consequences of the disease (i.e., symptoms/signs) in this research framework, which shifts the definition of AD in living people from a syndromal to a biological construct. The research framework focuses on the diagnosis of AD with biomarkers in living persons. Biomarkers are grouped into those of β amyloid deposition, pathologic tau, and neurodegeneration [AT(N)]. This ATN classification system groups different biomarkers (imaging and biofluids) by the pathologic process each measures. The AT(N) system is flexible in that new biomarkers can be added to the three existing AT(N) groups, and new biomarker groups beyond AT(N) can be added when they become available. We focus on AD as a continuum, and cognitive staging may be accomplished using continuous measures. However, we also outline two different categorical cognitive schemes for staging the severity of cognitive impairment: a scheme using three traditional syndromal categories and a six-stage numeric scheme. It is important to stress that this framework seeks to create a common language with which investigators can generate and test hypotheses about the interactions among different pathologic processes (denoted by biomarkers) and cognitive symptoms. We appreciate the concern that this biomarker-based research framework has the potential to be misused. Therefore, we emphasize, first, it is premature and inappropriate to use this research framework in general medical practice. Second, this research framework should not be used to restrict alternative approaches to hypothesis testing that do not use biomarkers. There will be situations where biomarkers are not available or requiring them would be counterproductive to the specific research goals (discussed in more detail later in the document). Thus, biomarker-based research should not be considered a template for all research into age-related cognitive impairment and dementia; rather, it should be applied when it is fit for the purpose of the specific research goals of a study. Importantly, this framework should be examined in diverse populations. Although it is possible that β-amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tau deposits are not causal in AD pathogenesis, it is these abnormal protein deposits that define AD as a unique neurodegenerative disease among different disorders that can lead to dementia. We envision that defining AD as a biological construct will enable a more accurate characterization and understanding of the sequence of events that lead to cognitive impairment that is associated with AD, as well as the multifactorial etiology of dementia. This approach also will enable a more precise approach to interventional trials where specific pathways can be targeted in the disease process and in the appropriate people. Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A Model Designed to Enhance Informed Consent: Experiences From the HIV Prevention Trials Network

PubMed Central

Woodsong, Cynthia; Karim, Quarraisha Abdool

2005-01-01

HIV prevention research in developing countries has resulted in increased attention to and discussion of ethical issues, particularly the issue of the quality of informed consent. We present a conceptual framework for an enhanced informed consent process, drawing on experiences garnered from domestic and international studies conducted by the HIV Prevention Trials Network, funded by the National Institutes of Health. This framework guides the development of an informed consent process designed to help ensure initial and continued comprehension of research participation, with an emphasis on HIV prevention research. Attention is focused at the individual and community levels and on 3 study phases: preenrollment, enrollment, and postenrollment. PMID:15727968

Decolonizing Hispanic-Serving Institutions: A Framework for Organizing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Garcia, Gina Ann

2018-01-01

Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs) should realign their organizational approach in order to liberate themselves and their students. As colonized institutions enrolling colonized people, HSIs must recognize their history of colonialism before moving toward an organizational model grounded in decolonization. "The Organizational Framework for…

The participatory design of a performance oriented monitoring and evaluation system in an international development environment.

PubMed

Guerra-López, Ingrid; Hicks, Karen

2015-02-01

This article illustrates the application of the impact monitoring and evaluation process for the design and development of a performance monitoring and evaluation framework in the context of human and institutional capacity development. This participative process facilitated stakeholder ownership in several areas including the design, development, and use of a new monitoring and evaluation system, as well their targeted results and accomplishments through the use of timely performance data gathered through ongoing monitoring and evaluation. The process produced a performance indicator map, a comprehensive monitoring and evaluation framework, and data collection templates to promote the development, implementation, and sustainability of the monitoring and evaluation system of a farmer's trade union in an African country. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

English Language Proficiency and Employability Framework for Australian Higher Education Institutions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arkoudis, Sophie; Baik, Chi; Bexley, Emmaline; Doughney, Lachlan

2014-01-01

This report presents the "English Language Proficiency" (ELP) and Employability Framework", which has been designed to inform and support higher education institutions' (HEIs) policies and practices on ELP and graduate employability. The "Framework" was developed through a review of the national and international…

Panaceas and diversification of environmental policy

PubMed Central

Brock, William A.; Carpenter, Stephen R.

2007-01-01

We consider panacea formation in the framework of adaptive learning and decision for social–ecological systems (SESs). Institutions for managing such systems must address multiple timescales of ecological change, as well as features of the social community in which the ecosystem policy problem is embedded. Response of the SES to each candidate institution must be modeled and treated as a stochastic process with unknown parameters to be estimated. A fundamental challenge is to design institutions that are not vulnerable to capture by subsets of the community that self-organize to direct the institution against the overall social interest. In a world of episodic structural change, such as SESs, adaptive learning can lock in to a single institution, model, or parameter estimate. Policy diversification, leading to escape from panacea traps, can come from monitoring indicators of episodic change on slow timescales, minimax regret decision making, active experimentation to accelerate model identification, mechanisms for broadening the set of models or institutions under consideration, and processes for discovery of new institutions and technologies for ecosystem management. It is difficult to take all of these factors into account, but the discipline that comes with the attempt to model the coupled social–ecological dynamics forces policy makers to confront all conceivable responses. This process helps induce the modesty needed to avoid panacea traps while supporting systematic effort to improve resource management in the public interest. PMID:17881581

Developing an Analytical Framework: Incorporating Ecosystem Services into Decision Making - Proceedings of a Workshop

USGS Publications Warehouse

Hogan, Dianna; Arthaud, Greg; Pattison, Malka; Sayre, Roger G.; Shapiro, Carl

2010-01-01

The analytical framework for understanding ecosystem services in conservation, resource management, and development decisions is multidisciplinary, encompassing a combination of the natural and social sciences. This report summarizes a workshop on 'Developing an Analytical Framework: Incorporating Ecosystem Services into Decision Making,' which focused on the analytical process and on identifying research priorities for assessing ecosystem services, their production and use, their spatial and temporal characteristics, their relationship with natural systems, and their interdependencies. Attendees discussed research directions and solutions to key challenges in developing the analytical framework. The discussion was divided into two sessions: (1) the measurement framework: quantities and values, and (2) the spatial framework: mapping and spatial relationships. This workshop was the second of three preconference workshops associated with ACES 2008 (A Conference on Ecosystem Services): Using Science for Decision Making in Dynamic Systems. These three workshops were designed to explore the ACES 2008 theme on decision making and how the concept of ecosystem services can be more effectively incorporated into conservation, restoration, resource management, and development decisions. Preconference workshop 1, 'Developing a Vision: Incorporating Ecosystem Services into Decision Making,' was held on April 15, 2008, in Cambridge, MA. In preconference workshop 1, participants addressed what would have to happen to make ecosystem services be used more routinely and effectively in conservation, restoration, resource management, and development decisions, and they identified some key challenges in developing the analytical framework. Preconference workshop 3, 'Developing an Institutional Framework: Incorporating Ecosystem Services into Decision Making,' was held on October 30, 2008, in Albuquerque, NM; participants examined the relationship between the institutional framework and the use of ecosystem services in decision making.

A Conceptual Framework for Achieving Good Governance at Open and Distance Learning Institutions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Khanna, Pankaj

2017-01-01

This paper describes a good governance architecture framework that would bring significant improvements in the overall working of open and distance learning institutions in a well-structured and systematic way. The good governance framework is articulated with seven basic principles which are performance, transparency, accountability,…

Assessing Impact Submissions for REF 2014: An Evaluation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Manville, Catriona; Guthrie, Susan; Henham, Marie-Louise; Garrod, Bryn; Sousa, Sonia; Kirtley, Anne; Castle-Clarke, Sophie; Ling, Tom

2015-01-01

The Research Excellence Framework (REF) is a new system for assessing the quality of research in UK higher education institutions (HEIs). For the first time, part of the assessment included the wider impact of research. RAND Europe was commissioned to evaluate the assessment process of the impact element of REF submissions, and to explore the…

A Phenomenological Study of an Emergent National Digital Library, Part I: Theory and Methodological Framework

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dalbello, Marija

2005-01-01

The activities surrounding the National Digital Library Program (NDLP) at the Library of Congress (1995-2000) are used to study institutional processes associated with technological innovation in the library context. The study identified modalities of successful innovation and the characteristics of creative decision making. Theories of social…

Re-Culturing Educator Preparation Programs: A Collaborative Case Study of Continuous Improvement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Snow, Jennifer; Dismuke, Sherry; Zenkert, A. J.; Loffer, Carolyn

2017-01-01

Teacher educators at one institution of higher education collaborated to reculture systems for a focus on continuous improvement even within mounting accountability pressures. A framework of social network theory allowed for themes to develop around layered interactions of faculty, processes, and professional capital. Findings focused on people,…

Work-Integrated Learning Process in Tourism Training Programs in Vietnam: Voices of Education and Industry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Khuong, Cam Thi Hong

2016-01-01

This paper addresses the work-integrated learning (WIL) initiative embedded in selected tourism training programs in Vietnam. The research was grounded on the framework of stakeholder ethos. Drawing on tourism training curriculum analysis and interviews with lecturers, institutional leaders, industry managers and internship supervisors, this study…

The Enough Abuse Campaign: Building the Movement to Prevent Child Sexual Abuse in Massachusetts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schober, Daniel J.; Fawcett, Stephen B.; Bernier, Jetta

2012-01-01

This case study describes the Enough Abuse Campaign, a multidisciplinary, statewide effort to prevent child sexual abuse in Massachusetts. The study uses the Institute of Medicine's Framework for Collaborative Community Action on Health to provide a systematic description of the campaign's process of implementation, which includes: (a) developing…

E-Learning and Technologies for Open Distance Learning in Management Accounting

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kashora, Trust; van der Poll, Huibrecht M.; van der Poll, John A.

2016-01-01

This research develops a knowledge acquisition and construction framework for e-learning for Management Accounting students at the University of South Africa, an Open Distance Learning institution which utilises e-learning. E-learning refers to the use of electronic applications and processes for learning, including the transfer of skills and…

Scholarship in Occupational Therapy Faculty: The Interaction of Cultural Forces in Academic Departments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dow-Royer, Cathy A.

2010-01-01

Over the last two decades there has been heightened interest in redefining faculty scholarship in higher education (Boyer, 1990). Trends have included the development of cultural frameworks for understanding how disciplines and institutions influence faculty work and how socialization processes impact academic career development. Despite the fact…

Language Dispute and Social Change in New Multilingual Institutions in Chaco, Argentina

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Unamuno, Virginia

2014-01-01

Intercultural bilingual education (IBE) programmes in Latin America pose interesting questions for sociolinguistics, since their implementation interrogates the link between language and the nation resulting from the emergence of nation-states, but also from processes of decolonization. In the case of Argentina, a new legal framework and the…

More of the same? Comment on "An integrated framework for the optimisation of sport and athlete development: a practitioner approach".

PubMed

MacNamara, Aine; Collins, Dave

2014-01-01

Gulbin and colleagues (Gulbin, J. P., Croser, M. J., Morley, E. J., & Weissensteiner, J. R. (2013). An integrated framework for the optimisation of sport and athlete development: A practitioner approach. Journal of Sports Sciences) present a new sport and athlete development framework that evolved from empirical observations from working with the Australian Institute of Sport. The FTEM (Foundations, Talent, Elite, Mastery) framework is proposed to integrate general and specialised phases of development for participants within the active lifestyle, sport participation and sport excellence pathways. A number of issues concerning the FTEM framework are presented. We also propose the need to move beyond prescriptive models of talent identification and development towards a consideration of features of best practice and process markers of development together with robust guidelines about the implementation of these in applied practice.

Establishing a Commercial Buildings Energy Data Framework for India: A Comprehensive Look at Data Collection Approaches, Use Cases and Institutions

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Iyer, Maithili; Kumar, Satish; Mathew, Sangeeta

Enhancing energy efficiency of the commercial building stock is an important aspect of any national energy policy. Understanding how buildings use energy is critical to formulating any new policy that may impact energy use, underscoring the importance of credible data. Data enables informed decision making and good quality data is essential for policy makers to prioritize energy saving strategies and track implementation. Given the uniqueness of the buildings sector and challenges to collecting relevant energy data, this study characterizes various elements involved in pertinent data collection and management, with the specific focus on well-defined data requirements, appropriate methodologies and processes,more » feasible data collection mechanisms, and approaches to institutionalizing the collection process. This report starts with a comprehensive review of available examples of energy data collection frameworks for buildings across different countries. The review covers the U.S. experience in the commercial buildings sector, the European experience in the buildings sector and other data collection initiatives in Singapore and China to capture the more systematic efforts in Asia in the commercial sector. To provide context, the review includes a summary and status of disparate efforts in India to collect and use commercial building energy data. Using this review as a key input, the study developed a data collection framework for India with specific consideration to relevant use cases. Continuing with the framework for data collection, this study outlines the key performance indicators applicable to the use cases and their collection feasibility, as well as immediate priorities of the participating stakeholders. It also discusses potential considerations for data collection and the possible approaches for survey design. With the specific purpose of laying out the possible ways to structure and organize data collection institutionally, the study collates existing mechanisms to analyze building energy performance in India and opportunities for standardizing data collection. This report describes the existing capacities and resources for establishing an institutional framework for data collection, the legislation and mandates that support such activity, and identifies roles and responsibilities of the relevant ministries and organizations. Finally, the study presents conclusions and identifies two major data collection strategies within the existing legal framework.« less

New Model of Information Technology Governance in the Government of Gorontalo City using Framework COBIT 4.1

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bouty, A. A.; Koniyo, M. H.; Novian, D.

2018-02-01

This study aims to determine the level of maturity of information technology governance in Gorontalo city government by applying the COBIT framework 4.1. The research method is the case study method, by conducting surveys and data collection at 25 institution in Gorontalo City. The results of this study is the analysis of information technology needs based on the measurement of maturity level. The results of the measurement of the maturity level of information technology governance shows that there are still many business processes running at lower level, from 9 existing business processes there are 4 processes at level 2 (repetitive but intuitive) and 3 processes at level 1 (Initial/Ad hoc). With these results, is expected that the government of Gorontalo city immediately make improvements to the governance of information technology so that it can run more effectively and efficiently.

NIA-AA Research Framework: Toward a biological definition of Alzheimer’s disease

PubMed Central

Jack, Clifford R.; Bennett, David A.; Blennow, Kaj; Carrillo, Maria C.; Dunn, Billy; Haeberlein, Samantha Budd; Holtzman, David M.; Jagust, William; Jessen, Frank; Karlawish, Jason; Liu, Enchi; Molinuevo, Jose Luis; Montine, Thomas; Phelps, Creighton; Rankin, Katherine P.; Rowe, Christopher C.; Scheltens, Philip; Siemers, Eric; Snyder, Heather M.; Sperling, Reisa

2018-01-01

In 2011, the National Institute on Aging and Alzheimer’s Association created separate diagnostic recommendations for the preclinical, mild cognitive impairment, and dementia stages of Alzheimer’s disease. Scientific progress in the interim led to an initiative by the National Institute on Aging and Alzheimer’s Association to update and unify the 2011 guidelines. This unifying update is labeled a “research framework” because its intended use is for observational and interventional research, not routine clinical care. In the National Institute on Aging and Alzheimer’s Association Research Framework, Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is defined by its underlying pathologic processes that can be documented by postmortem examination or in vivo by biomarkers. The diagnosis is not based on the clinical consequences of the disease (i.e., symptoms/signs) in this research framework, which shifts the definition of AD in living people from a syndromal to a biological construct. The research framework focuses on the diagnosis of AD with biomarkers in living persons. Biomarkers are grouped into those of β amyloid deposition, pathologic tau, and neurodegeneration [AT(N)]. This ATN classification system groups different biomarkers (imaging and biofluids) by the pathologic process each measures. The AT(N) system is flexible in that new biomarkers can be added to the three existing AT(N) groups, and new biomarker groups beyond AT(N) can be added when they become available. We focus on AD as a continuum, and cognitive staging may be accomplished using continuous measures. However, we also outline two different categorical cognitive schemes for staging the severity of cognitive impairment: a scheme using three traditional syndromal categories and a six-stage numeric scheme. It is important to stress that this framework seeks to create a common language with which investigators can generate and test hypotheses about the interactions among different pathologic processes (denoted by biomarkers) and cognitive symptoms. We appreciate the concern that this biomarker-based research framework has the potential to be misused. Therefore, we emphasize, first, it is premature and inappropriate to use this research framework in general medical practice. Second, this research framework should not be used to restrict alternative approaches to hypothesis testing that do not use biomarkers. There will be situations where biomarkers are not available or requiring them would be counterproductive to the specific research goals (discussed in more detail later in the document). Thus, biomarker-based research should not be considered a template for all research into age-related cognitive impairment and dementia; rather, it should be applied when it is fit for the purpose of the specific research goals of a study. Importantly, this framework should be examined in diverse populations. Although it is possible that β-amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tau deposits are not causal in AD pathogenesis, it is these abnormal protein deposits that define AD as a unique neurodegenerative disease among different disorders that can lead to dementia. We envision that defining AD as a biological construct will enable a more accurate characterization and understanding of the sequence of events that lead to cognitive impairment that is associated with AD, as well as the multifactorial etiology of dementia. This approach also will enable a more precise approach to interventional trials where specific pathways can be targeted in the disease process and in the appropriate people. PMID:29653606

Strategic Directions Within Health Care Institutions: The Role of the Physician

PubMed Central

McDaniel, Reuben R.; Ashmos, Donde P.

1986-01-01

The nature of the strategic problem faced by health care institutions is identified. Physicians are urged to be involved in the strategic decision-making process and are offered several alternative roles that they might play in strategy development. A set of conceptual frameworks from the generic management decision-making literature is used to organize the analysis in addition to the literature of health care management. This combination affords a different perspective into the nature of the problems and new insights into these critical issues. PMID:3746932

Livelihoods, power, and food insecurity: adaptation of social capital portfolios in protracted crises--case study Burundi.

PubMed

Vervisch, Thomas G A; Vlassenroot, Koen; Braeckman, Johan

2013-04-01

The failure of food security and livelihood interventions to adapt to conflict settings remains a key challenge in humanitarian responses to protracted crises. This paper proposes a social capital analysis to address this policy gap, adding a political economy dimension on food security and conflict to the actor-based livelihood framework. A case study of three hillsides in north Burundi provides an ethnographic basis for this hypothesis. While relying on a theoretical framework in which different combinations of social capital (bonding, bridging, and linking) account for a diverse range of outcomes, the findings offer empirical insights into how social capital portfolios adapt to a protracted crisis. It is argued that these social capital adaptations have the effect of changing livelihood policies, institutions, and processes (PIPs), and clarify the impact of the distribution of power and powerlessness on food security issues. In addition, they represent a solid way of integrating political economy concerns into the livelihood framework. © 2013 The Author(s). Journal compilation © Overseas Development Institute, 2013.

Introduction of blended learning in a master program: Developing an integrative mixed method evaluation framework.

PubMed

Chmiel, Aviva S; Shaha, Maya; Schneider, Daniel K

2017-01-01

The aim of this research is to develop a comprehensive evaluation framework involving all actors in a higher education blended learning (BL) program. BL evaluation usually either focuses on students, faculty, technological or institutional aspects. Currently, no validated comprehensive monitoring tool exists that can support introduction and further implementation of BL in a higher education context. Starting from established evaluation principles and standards, concepts that were to be evaluated were firstly identified and grouped. In a second step, related BL evaluation tools referring to students, faculty and institutional level were selected. This allowed setting up and implementing an evaluation framework to monitor the introduction of BL during two succeeding recurrences of the program. The results of the evaluation allowed documenting strengths and weaknesses of the BL format in a comprehensive way, involving all actors. It has led to improvements at program, faculty and course level. The evaluation process and the reporting of the results proved to be demanding in time and personal resources. The evaluation framework allows measuring the most significant dimensions influencing the success of a BL implementation at program level. However, this comprehensive evaluation is resource intensive. Further steps will be to refine the framework towards a sustainable and transferable BL monitoring tool that finds a balance between comprehensiveness and efficiency. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Upward Transfer in STEM Fields of Study: A New Conceptual Framework and Survey Instrument for Institutional Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Xueli

2016-01-01

This chapter describes a new conceptual framework that informs research on factors influencing transfer in STEM fields of study from 2-year to 4-year institutions, presents a new survey instrument based on the framework, and offers directions for future research in this area.

Care and consumption: A Latin American social medicine's conceptual framework to comprehend oral health inequalities.

PubMed

Abadía-Barrero, César Ernesto; Martínez-Parra, Adriana Gisela

2017-10-01

This article offers a conceptual framework that arises out of the Latin American Social Medicine/Collective Health (LASM/CH) tradition to comprehend inequalities in oral health. We conducted a dialogue between the LASM/CH proposal called social determination of health (in particular one of its nuclear categories 'ways of living together') and studies that address social inequalities and oral health. This dialogue allowed us to redefine oral health-disease-treatment as a process that either promotes or harms well-being and is modulated by different ways of living together where not only patients and professionals, but also governments, supranational bodies, and national and international markets represented by food, pharmaceutical, insurance, personal care, and cosmetic companies interact. The article proposes the cycle particular-consumption care/institutional-consumption care as the construct that allows investigators to think about how ways of living together relate to oral health inequalities. 'Particular-consumption care' includes ways and possibilities to access healthy foods and practice protective hygienic measures. 'Institutional-consumption care' refers to institutional responses related to supply, access to services, capabilities for resolution, and pedagogical practices.

How Are Links between a National Qualifications Framework, Job Roles and Pay Mediated by Industrial Relations Institutions in Manufacturing?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oliver, Damian; Walpole, Kurt

2017-01-01

National Qualifications Frameworks (NQFs) are intended to promote stronger linkages between education institutions and the labour market. This paper examines how industrial relations institutions mediate the relationship between formal qualifications, job classifications and pay outcomes in Australian manufacturing. In Australia a tribunal sets…

MIS Development in Higher Education: A Framework for Systems Planning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

St. John, Edward P.

An institutional management systems development study examined the Management Information Systems (MIS) needs of 23 public institutions of higher education in Missouri. The result was a model framework for other institutions to develop MIS appropriate to their needs. One of five distinct structural development phases could be related to all…

The Role of the IR Office: Collaborating across the Institution

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kroc, Rick

2015-01-01

This chapter describes a framework to guide collaboration between institutional research and other campus offices. Three examples are then provided to illustrate how the framework was applied successfully to actual projects.

Development of indicators for measuring outcomes of water safety plans

PubMed Central

Lockhart, Gabriella; Oswald, William E.; Hubbard, Brian; Medlin, Elizabeth; Gelting, Richard J.

2015-01-01

Water safety plans (WSPs) are endorsed by the World Health Organization as the most effective method of protecting a water supply. With the increase in WSPs worldwide, several valuable resources have been developed to assist practitioners in the implementation of WSPs, yet there is still a need for a practical and standardized method of evaluating WSP effectiveness. In 2012, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published a conceptual framework for the evaluation of WSPs, presenting four key outcomes of the WSP process: institutional, operational, financial and policy change. In this paper, we seek to operationalize this conceptual framework by providing a set of simple and practical indicators for assessing WSP outcomes. Using CDC’s WSP framework as a foundation and incorporating various existing performance monitoring indicators for water utilities, we developed a set of approximately 25 indicators of institutional, operational, financial and policy change within the WSP context. These outcome indicators hold great potential for the continued implementation and expansion of WSPs worldwide. Having a defined framework for evaluating a WSP’s effectiveness, along with a set of measurable indicators by which to carry out that evaluation, will help implementers assess key WSP outcomes internally, as well as benchmark their progress against other WSPs in their region and globally. PMID:26361540

Climate services for society: origins, institutional arrangements, and design elements for an evaluation framework

PubMed Central

Vaughan, Catherine; Dessai, Suraje

2014-01-01

Climate services involve the generation, provision, and contextualization of information and knowledge derived from climate research for decision making at all levels of society. These services are mainly targeted at informing adaptation to climate variability and change, widely recognized as an important challenge for sustainable development. This paper reviews the development of climate services, beginning with a historical overview, a short summary of improvements in climate information, and a description of the recent surge of interest in climate service development including, for example, the Global Framework for Climate Services, implemented by the World Meteorological Organization in October 2012. It also reviews institutional arrangements of selected emerging climate services across local, national, regional, and international scales. By synthesizing existing literature, the paper proposes four design elements of a climate services evaluation framework. These design elements include: problem identification and the decision-making context; the characteristics, tailoring, and dissemination of the climate information; the governance and structure of the service, including the process by which it is developed; and the socioeconomic value of the service. The design elements are intended to serve as a guide to organize future work regarding the evaluation of when and whether climate services are more or less successful. The paper concludes by identifying future research questions regarding the institutional arrangements that support climate services and nascent efforts to evaluate them. PMID:25798197

Climate services for society: origins, institutional arrangements, and design elements for an evaluation framework.

PubMed

Vaughan, Catherine; Dessai, Suraje

2014-09-01

Climate services involve the generation, provision, and contextualization of information and knowledge derived from climate research for decision making at all levels of society. These services are mainly targeted at informing adaptation to climate variability and change, widely recognized as an important challenge for sustainable development. This paper reviews the development of climate services, beginning with a historical overview, a short summary of improvements in climate information, and a description of the recent surge of interest in climate service development including, for example, the Global Framework for Climate Services, implemented by the World Meteorological Organization in October 2012. It also reviews institutional arrangements of selected emerging climate services across local, national, regional, and international scales. By synthesizing existing literature, the paper proposes four design elements of a climate services evaluation framework. These design elements include: problem identification and the decision-making context; the characteristics, tailoring, and dissemination of the climate information; the governance and structure of the service, including the process by which it is developed; and the socioeconomic value of the service. The design elements are intended to serve as a guide to organize future work regarding the evaluation of when and whether climate services are more or less successful. The paper concludes by identifying future research questions regarding the institutional arrangements that support climate services and nascent efforts to evaluate them.

Invisible Intermediaries: A Systematic Review into the Role of Research Management in University and Institutional Research Processes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Derrick, Gemma; Nickson, Alicen

2014-01-01

The introduction of competitive rankings and research assessment frameworks have necessitated that research organisations continually monitor their research strengths and weaknesses. Such monitoring is essential to be able to strategically respond in a competitive environment. There is little research on the role of research management in research…

Releasing biocontrol agents: Risk assessment and overdue reform

Treesearch

Bob Peterson; Sharlene Sing

2007-01-01

Although the need for universally instituting formal risk assessment (RA) in the screening and approval process for non-native biological control (BC) agent releases has been widely acknowledged for the past several years, little seems to have been accomplished in terms of codifying this practice within a regulatory framework. Given the low success rate of classical BC...

"Quality Circles": A Strategy for Personal and Curriculum Development. Coombe Lodge Working Paper. Information Bank Number 1803.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Field, M. J.; Harrison, A. B.

Quality circles attempt to satisfy both task and personal needs through staff involvement in solving work-related problems. This paper summarizes quality circle theory, applies it to school settings, and suggests a framework for introducing the process to educational institutions. After briefly defining quality circles, the article presents two…

The M-Factor, a Bilingual Asset for Plurilinguals? Learners' Representations, Discourse Strategies and Third Language Acquisition in Institutional Contexts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bono, Mariana; Stratilaki, Sofia

2009-01-01

Within the framework of our research on learners' language practices and representations, this contribution explores how their representations about language uses and language learning shape the processes of learning and communication in school settings. More precisely, we will study learners' representations regarding the existence of a…

Get That Job! A Project on the German Job Application Process

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Magedera-Hofhansl, Hanna

2016-01-01

With decreasing numbers of students studying German at Higher Education Institutions in the United Kingdom, there is an increasing demand for graduate Germanists. This project, designed for C1/C2 level students according to the Common European Framework of Reference for languages, prepares finalist students for a job market in which UK and German…

Developing Knowledgeable Teachers: A Framework for Standards-Based Teacher Education Supported by Institutional Collaboration. The STEP Reports.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Garvin, Patty, Ed.

This collection of papers describes the process of creating a standards-based teacher education program through strong collaboration among arts and science, education, and P-12 faculty members and administrators. The Standards-based Teacher Education Project (STEP) was designed to help teacher education programs ensure that their graduates know…

Research Ethics Review and Aboriginal Community Values: Can the Two be Reconciled?

PubMed

Glass, Kathleen Cranley; Kaufert, Joseph

2007-06-01

CONTEMPORARY RESEARCH ETHICS REVIEW COMMITTEES (RECs) are heavily influenced by the established academic or health care institutional frameworks in which they operate, sharing a cultural, methodological and ethical perspective on the conduct of research involving humans. The principle of autonomous choice carries great weight in what is a highly individualistic decision-making process in medical practice and research. This assumes that the best protection lies in the ability of patients or research participants to make competent, voluntary, informed choices, evaluating the risks and benefits from a personal perspective. Over the past two decades, North American and international indigenous researchers, policy makers and communities have identified key issues of relevance to them, but ignored by most institutional or university-based RECs. They critique the current research review structure, and propose changes on a variety of levels in an attempt to develop more community sensitive research ethics review processes. In doing so, they have emphasized recognition of collective rights including community consent. Critics see alternative policy guidelines and community-based review bodies as challenging the current system of ethics review. Some view them as reflecting a fundamental difference in values. In this paper, we explore these developments in the context of the political, legal and ethical frameworks that have informed REC review. We examine the process and content of these frameworks and ask how this contrasts with emerging Aboriginal proposals for community-based research ethics review. We follow this with recommendations on how current REC review models might accommodate the requirements of both communities and RECs.

`Dhara': An Open Framework for Critical Zone Modeling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Le, P. V.; Kumar, P.

2016-12-01

Processes in the Critical Zone, which sustain terrestrial life, are tightly coupled across hydrological, physical, biological, chemical, pedological, geomorphological and ecological domains over both short and long timescales. Observations and quantification of the Earth's surface across these domains using emerging high resolution measurement technologies such as light detection and ranging (lidar) and hyperspectral remote sensing are enabling us to characterize fine scale landscape attributes over large spatial areas. This presents a unique opportunity to develop novel approaches to model the Critical Zone that can capture fine scale intricate dependencies across the different processes in 3D. The development of interdisciplinary tools that transcend individual disciplines and capture new levels of complexity and emergent properties is at the core of Critical Zone science. Here we introduce an open framework for high-performance computing model (`Dhara') for modeling complex processes in the Critical Zone. The framework is designed to be modular in structure with the aim to create uniform and efficient tools to facilitate and leverage process modeling. It also provides flexibility to maintain, collaborate, and co-develop additional components by the scientific community. We show the essential framework that simulates ecohydrologic dynamics, and surface - sub-surface coupling in 3D using hybrid parallel CPU-GPU. We demonstrate that the open framework in Dhara is feasible for detailed, multi-processes, and large-scale modeling of the Critical Zone, which opens up exciting possibilities. We will also present outcomes from a Modeling Summer Institute led by Intensively Managed Critical Zone Observatory (IMLCZO) with representation from several CZOs and international representatives.

Globalized Research and “National Science”: The Case of Peru

PubMed Central

Mendoza, Walter

2009-01-01

Issues in the area of international health research are insufficiently discussed in Latin America. We examine the practices of stakeholders such as the state and the academic community regarding research policy processes and funding sources in Peru. Our findings showed that research policy development and evaluation processes are poor in Peru, most of the country's academic research is published in English only, and researchers' access to funding is limited. Given that the relationship between local academic institutions and foreign research centers is key in developing a “national science,” there is a clear need to reinforce the state's capacities for management and research oversight and implementation and to encourage the academic community to improve their institutional policies and research frameworks. PMID:19696375

TF4SM: A Framework for Developing Traceability Solutions in Small Manufacturing Companies

PubMed Central

Bordel Sánchez, Borja; Alcarria, Ramón; Martín, Diego; Robles, Tomás

2015-01-01

Nowadays, manufacturing processes have become highly complex. Besides, more and more, governmental institutions require companies to implement systems to trace a product’s life (especially for foods, clinical materials or similar items). In this paper, we propose a new framework, based on cyber-physical systems, for developing traceability systems in small manufacturing companies (which because of their size cannot implement other commercial products). We propose a general theoretical framework, study the requirements of these companies in relation to traceability systems, propose a reference architecture based on both previous elements and build the first minimum functional prototype, to compare our solution to a traditional tag-based traceability system. Results show that our system reduces the number of inefficiencies and reaction time. PMID:26610509

TF4SM: A Framework for Developing Traceability Solutions in Small Manufacturing Companies.

PubMed

Bordel Sánchez, Borja; Alcarria, Ramón; Martín, Diego; Robles, Tomás

2015-11-20

Nowadays, manufacturing processes have become highly complex. Besides, more and more, governmental institutions require companies to implement systems to trace a product's life (especially for foods, clinical materials or similar items). In this paper, we propose a new framework, based on cyber-physical systems, for developing traceability systems in small manufacturing companies (which because of their size cannot implement other commercial products). We propose a general theoretical framework, study the requirements of these companies in relation to traceability systems, propose a reference architecture based on both previous elements and build the first minimum functional prototype, to compare our solution to a traditional tag-based traceability system. Results show that our system reduces the number of inefficiencies and reaction time.

Managing the Dynamics of the Bologna Reforms: How Institutional Actors Re-Construct the Policy Framework

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Veiga, Amélia; Neave, Guy

2015-01-01

How do the constituencies in higher education re-interpret Bologna's function with regard to the European Higher Education Area? This research examines how institutional actors re-construct the policy framework in the light of their own institutional agendas. Drawing on empirical data from a survey of academics, students and administrative and…

Navigating Family Roles within an Institutional Framework: An Exploratory Study in One Private Chinese Orphanage

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Neimetz, Catherine

2011-01-01

Current research in child development has espoused the benefit of family-like routines in institutional orphanage care. However, the institutional framework evident in large-group orphanage care often hampers the creation of nurturing, family-like environments. This qualitative study is part of a larger case study exploring how one private Chinese…

The SGML Standardization Framework and the Introduction of XML

PubMed Central

Grütter, Rolf

2000-01-01

Extensible Markup Language (XML) is on its way to becoming a global standard for the representation, exchange, and presentation of information on the World Wide Web (WWW). More than that, XML is creating a standardization framework, in terms of an open network of meta-standards and mediators that allows for the definition of further conventions and agreements in specific business domains. Such an approach is particularly needed in the healthcare domain; XML promises to especially suit the particularities of patient records and their lifelong storage, retrieval, and exchange. At a time when change rather than steadiness is becoming the faithful feature of our society, standardization frameworks which support a diversified growth of specifications that are appropriate to the actual needs of the users are becoming more and more important; and efforts should be made to encourage this new attempt at standardization to grow in a fruitful direction. Thus, the introduction of XML reflects a standardization process which is neither exclusively based on an acknowledged standardization authority, nor a pure market standard. Instead, a consortium of companies, academic institutions, and public bodies has agreed on a common recommendation based on an existing standardization framework. The consortium's process of agreeing to a standardization framework will doubtlessly be successful in the case of XML, and it is suggested that it should be considered as a generic model for standardization processes in the future. PMID:11720931

The SGML standardization framework and the introduction of XML.

PubMed

Fierz, W; Grütter, R

2000-01-01

Extensible Markup Language (XML) is on its way to becoming a global standard for the representation, exchange, and presentation of information on the World Wide Web (WWW). More than that, XML is creating a standardization framework, in terms of an open network of meta-standards and mediators that allows for the definition of further conventions and agreements in specific business domains. Such an approach is particularly needed in the healthcare domain; XML promises to especially suit the particularities of patient records and their lifelong storage, retrieval, and exchange. At a time when change rather than steadiness is becoming the faithful feature of our society, standardization frameworks which support a diversified growth of specifications that are appropriate to the actual needs of the users are becoming more and more important; and efforts should be made to encourage this new attempt at standardization to grow in a fruitful direction. Thus, the introduction of XML reflects a standardization process which is neither exclusively based on an acknowledged standardization authority, nor a pure market standard. Instead, a consortium of companies, academic institutions, and public bodies has agreed on a common recommendation based on an existing standardization framework. The consortium's process of agreeing to a standardization framework will doubtlessly be successful in the case of XML, and it is suggested that it should be considered as a generic model for standardization processes in the future.

Guidelines for inclusion: Ensuring Indigenous peoples' involvement in water planning processes across South Eastern Australia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Saenz Quitian, Alejandra; Rodríguez, Gloria Amparo

2016-11-01

Indigenous peoples within the Murray-Darling Basin have traditionally struggled for the recognition of their cultural, social, environmental, spiritual, commercial and economic connection to the waters that they have traditionally used, as well as their right to engage in all stages of water planning processes. Despite Australian national and federal frameworks providing for the inclusion of Indigenous Australians' objectives in planning frameworks, water plans have rarely addressed these objectives in water, or the strategies to achieve them. Indeed, insufficient resources, a lack of institutional capacity in both Indigenous communities and agencies and an inadequate understanding of Indigenous people's objectives in water management have limited the extent to which Indigenous objectives are addressed in water plans within the Murray-Darling Basin. In this context, the adoption of specific guidelines to meet Indigenous requirements in relation to basin water resources is crucial to support Indigenous engagement in water planning processes. Using insights from participatory planning methods and human rights frameworks, this article outlines a set of alternative and collaborative guidelines to improve Indigenous involvement in water planning and to promote sustainable and just water allocations.

Engineers and Active Responsibility.

PubMed

Pesch, Udo

2015-08-01

Knowing that technologies are inherently value-laden and systemically interwoven with society, the question is how individual engineers can take up the challenge of accepting the responsibility for their work? This paper will argue that engineers have no institutional structure at the level of society that allows them to recognize, reflect upon, and actively integrate the value-laden character of their designs. Instead, engineers have to tap on the different institutional realms of market, science, and state, making their work a 'hybrid' activity combining elements from the different institutional realms. To deal with this institutional hybridity, engineers develop routines and heuristics in their professional network, which do not allow societal values to be expressed in a satisfactory manner. To allow forms of 'active' responsibility, there have to be so-called 'accountability forums' that guide moral reflections of individual actors. The paper will subsequently look at the methodologies of value-sensitive design (VSD) and constructive technology assessment (CTA) and explore whether and how these methodologies allow engineers to integrate societal values into the design technological artifacts and systems. As VSD and CTA are methodologies that look at the process of technological design, whereas the focus of this paper is on the designer, they can only be used indirectly, namely as frameworks which help to identify the contours of a framework for active responsibility of engineers.

Resource allocation processes at multilateral organizations working in global health.

PubMed

Chi, Y-Ling; Bump, Jesse B

2018-02-01

International institutions provide well over US$10 billion in development assistance for health (DAH) annually and between 1990 and 2014, DAH disbursements totaled $458 billion but how do they decide who gets what, and for what purpose? In this article, we explore how allocation decisions were made by the nine convening agencies of the Equitable Access Initiative. We provide clear, plain language descriptions of the complete process from resource mobilization to allocation for the nine multilateral agencies with prominent agendas in global health. Then, through a comparative analysis we illuminate the choices and strategies employed in the nine international institutions. We find that resource allocation in all reviewed institutions follow a similar pattern, which we categorized in a framework of five steps: strategy definition, resource mobilization, eligibility of countries, support type and funds allocation. All the reviewed institutions generate resource allocation decisions through well-structured and fairly complex processes. Variations in those processes seem to reflect differences in institutional principles and goals. However, these processes have serious shortcomings. Technical problems include inadequate flexibility to account for or meet country needs. Although aid effectiveness and value for money are commonly referenced, we find that neither performance nor impact is a major criterion for allocating resources. We found very little formal consideration of the incentives generated by allocation choices. Political issues include non-transparent influence on allocation processes by donors and bureaucrats, and the common practice of earmarking funds to bypass the normal allocation process entirely. Ethical deficiencies include low accountability and transparency at international institutions, and limited participation by affected citizens or their representatives. We find that recipient countries have low influence on allocation processes themselves, although within these processes they have some influence in relatively narrow areas. © The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press in association with The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Measuring and improving quality of care in an academic medical center.

PubMed

Blayney, Douglas W

2013-05-01

The Donabedian definition of quality—structure, process, and outcome—provides a useful framework. A relentless focus on measuring process adherence and outcome is critical. Systemic improvements usually require teams to plan and to implement them. The lean or Toyota production system for process improvement is one useful method of organizing work, although different approaches are often necessary at the physician, practice unit, and statewide level. Challenges include scalability of the change (ie, rolling them out across the institution or system), tailoring the information technology tools, and building systems for sustainability.

MIRADA A LA MENTORÍA EN INVESTIGACIÓN DESDE LA PERSPECTIVA SOCIOCULTURAL DE VYGOTSKY.

PubMed

Santiago, Nilda G Medina; Rivera, Tania M Cruz; Ortiz, Natalia Jordán

In this article the authors illustrate the mentoring process through the framework of Vygotsky's sociocultural perspective regarding education and human development. To achieve this goal, they describe their experience as mentor and mentees in a research training mentoring program for undergraduate students. The authors argue that this theoretical and philosophical perspective offers a solid background to mentoring as a real option that contributes to the learning process. They recommend these programs to be encouraged by academic institutions in order for more students and professors to benefit from this process.

Criterion V: Legal, institutional, and economic framework for rangeland conservation and sustainable management [Chapter 6

Treesearch

Jonn E. Mitchell; Stan Hamiliton; Thomas Lustig; Kenneth Nelson; Tom Roberts; Brian Czech

2010-01-01

Laws, institutions, and economic policies play a large role in determining the sustainability of rangelands. They provide the basic framework from which many lasting decisions about rangeland management are made. The SRR has identified 10 primary indicators to assess how this framework influences the long-term health and productivity of rangeland in this country. The...

Proposed Model for Translational Research at a Teaching-Intensive College of Pharmacy.

PubMed

Ulrich, Erin; Grady, Sarah; Vonderhaar, Jacqueline; Ruplin, Andrew

2017-08-08

Many American colleges of pharmacy are small, private, teaching institutions. Faculty are required to maintain a research agenda, although the publication quota is less compared with their publicly funded college of pharmacy peers. Faculty at these smaller schools conduct research with very little internal or external funding. This tends to lead to smaller, less impactful research findings. Translational research is becoming popular for research faculty as it bridges theory to practice. The Knowledge-to-Action (KTA) framework presents the steps to conduct translational research. To apply and determine if the KTA framework would be able to produce practice-impactful research at an institution that does not depend on grant funding as part of faculty research agendas. An interdisciplinary team was formed with providers at the clinical faculty's practice site. As the team moved through the KTA steps, authors documented the roles of each team member. It was clear that many different types of teams were formed throughout the KTA process. These teams were then categorized according to the Interdisciplinary Teamwork System. The final result is a proposed model of types of teams and required member roles that are necessary within each KTA step for faculty to conduct practice-impactful research at a small, private, teaching institution without substantial grant funding awards. Applying the KTA framework, two impactful original research manuscripts were developed over two academic years. Furthermore, the practitioners at the clinical faculty member's site were very pleased with the ease of conducting research, as they were never required to take a lead role. In addition, both faculty members alternated lead and support role allowing for a decreased burden of workload while producing theory-driven research. The KTA framework can create a model for translational research and may be particularly beneficial to small teaching institutions to conduct impactful research. Copyright © 2017. Published by Elsevier Inc.

The path dependency theory: analytical framework to study institutional integration. The case of France.

PubMed

Trouvé, Hélène; Couturier, Yves; Etheridge, Francis; Saint-Jean, Olivier; Somme, Dominique

2010-06-30

The literature on integration indicates the need for an enhanced theorization of institutional integration. This article proposes path dependence as an analytical framework to study the systems in which integration takes place. PRISMA proposes a model for integrating health and social care services for older adults. This model was initially tested in Quebec. The PRISMA France study gave us an opportunity to analyze institutional integration in France. A qualitative approach was used. Analyses were based on semi-structured interviews with actors of all levels of decision-making, observations of advisory board meetings, and administrative documents. Our analyses revealed the complexity and fragmentation of institutional integration. The path dependency theory, which analyzes the change capacity of institutions by taking into account their historic structures, allows analysis of this situation. The path dependency to the Bismarckian system and the incomplete reforms of gerontological policies generate the coexistence and juxtaposition of institutional systems. In such a context, no institution has sufficient ability to determine gerontology policy and build institutional integration by itself. Using path dependence as an analytical framework helps to understand the reasons why institutional integration is critical to organizational and clinical integration, and the complex construction of institutional integration in France.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Slunge, Daniel, E-mail: daniel.slunge@economics.gu.se; Tran, Trang Thi Huyen, E-mail: trang2k@yahoo.com

Building on new institutional theory, this paper develops an analytical framework for analyzing constraints to the institutionalization of strategic environmental assessment (SEA) at four different institutional levels. The framework is tested in an empirical analysis of the environmental assessment system in Vietnam, which is a frontrunner among developing countries regarding the introduction and use of SEA. Building on interviews with Vietnamese and international experts, as well as an extensive literature review, we identify institutional constraints which challenge the effective use of SEA in Vietnam. We conclude that commonly identified constraints, such as inadequate training, technical guidelines, baseline data and financialmore » resources, are strongly linked to constraints at higher institutional levels, such as incentives to not share information between ministries and severe restrictions on access to information and public participation. Without a thorough understanding of these institutional constraints, there is a risk that attempts to improve the use of SEA are misdirected. Thus, a careful institutional analysis should guide efforts to introduce and improve the use of SEA in Vietnam and other developing countries. The analytical framework for analyzing constraints to institutionalization of SEA presented in this paper represents a systematic effort in this direction. - Highlights: • A framework for analyzing constraints to institutionalizing SEA is developed • Empirical analysis of the strategic environmental assessment system in Vietnam • Constraints in the action arena linked to deeper institutional constraints • Institutional analysis needed prior to introducing SEA in developing countries.« less

A Quality Framework for Continuous Improvement of e-Learning: The e-Learning Maturity Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marshall, Stephen

2010-01-01

The E-Learning Maturity Model (eMM) is a quality improvement framework designed to help institutional leaders assess their institution's e-learning maturity. This paper reviews the eMM, drawing on examples of assessments conducted in New Zealand, Australia, the UK and the USA to show how it helps institutional leaders assess and compare their…

Utilising Enterprise Risk Management Strategies to Develop a Governance and Operations Framework for a New Research Complex: A Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Clyde-Smith, Jodi

2014-01-01

Enterprise risk management strategies were used to develop a regulatory and operational framework for a new multi-partner Research Institute that will house up to 900 staff from four different institutions in Queensland, Australia. The Institute will operate in a business environment while functioning as a research resource for the higher…

A Multiagent System for Dynamic Data Aggregation in Medical Research

PubMed Central

Urovi, Visara; Barba, Imanol; Aberer, Karl; Schumacher, Michael Ignaz

2016-01-01

The collection of medical data for research purposes is a challenging and long-lasting process. In an effort to accelerate and facilitate this process we propose a new framework for dynamic aggregation of medical data from distributed sources. We use agent-based coordination between medical and research institutions. Our system employs principles of peer-to-peer network organization and coordination models to search over already constructed distributed databases and to identify the potential contributors when a new database has to be built. Our framework takes into account both the requirements of a research study and current data availability. This leads to better definition of database characteristics such as schema, content, and privacy parameters. We show that this approach enables a more efficient way to collect data for medical research. PMID:27975063

Teacher Teams and School Processes in Scaling-Up a Content Literacy Innovation in High Schools. Final Report: The Evaluation of the Scale-Up of Reading Apprenticeship through the Reading Apprenticeship Improving Secondary Education (RAISE) Project. Research Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Newman, Denis; Zacamy, Jenna; Lazarev, Valeriy; Lin, Li; Jaciw, Andrew P.; Hegseth, Whitney

2015-01-01

We report on the scaling up of a high school content literacy framework, Reading Apprenticeship, over a period of four years as part of the independent evaluation of an Investing in Innovation grant from the U.S. Department of Education to WestEd's Strategic Literacy Institute (SLI). Our goal was to understand the school processes that support…

Differences between the Relationship of L1 Learners' Performance in Integrated Writing with Both Independent Listening and Independent Reading Cognitive Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cheong, Choo Mui; Zhu, Xinhua; Liao, Xian

2018-01-01

In recent decades, integrated language competence has been highlighted in the language curricula taught in schools and institutions, and the relationship between test-takers' performance on integrated tasks and comprehension sources has been much studied. The current study employed the frameworks of reading and listening comprehension processes to…

Engineering Graphics Courses in the Light of the National Qualifications Framework

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gorska, R. A.

2012-01-01

In recent years major changes have been introduced into the system of higher education in the common European Higher Educational Area (EHEA). On account of the Bologna Process the EHEA is leading to greater compatibility and comparability of the systems of higher education and is making it easier for learners to be mobile and for institutions to…

The Context and Process for Performance Evaluations: Necessary Preconditions for the Use of Performance Evaluations as a Measure of Performance--A Critique of Perry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McCarthy, Mary L.

2006-01-01

This article challenges Perry's research using performance evaluations to determine whether the educational background of child welfare workers is predictive of performance. Institutional theory, an understanding of street-level bureaucracies, and evaluations of field education performance measures are offered as necessary frameworks for Perry's…

2008 Mississippi Curriculum Framework: Postsecondary Food Production and Management Technology. (Program CIP: 12.0508 - Institutional Food Workers)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carver, Matthew; Hoff, Jody; Little, Lisa; Samuel, Carolyn

2008-01-01

As the world economy continues to evolve, businesses and industries must adopt new practices and processes in order to survive. Quality and cost control, work teams and participatory management, and an infusion of technology are transforming the way people work and do business. Employees are now expected to read, write, and communicate…

Institutional Denial about the Dark Side of Law School, and Fresh Empirical Guidance for Constructively Breaking the Silence.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Krieger, Lawrence S.

2002-01-01

Noting evidence of the "dark side" of legal education and the process of denial among faculty, describes recent psychological research on the components of happiness and life satisfaction. Asserts that this research provides an objective framework for understanding the pervasive problems in legal education settings and thus can lead to…

Teaching and Learning for the Future. Committee on Multimedia in Teacher Training, Final Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Plomp, Tjeerd, Ed.; And Others

This is the final report of the Committee on MultiMedia in Teacher Training (COMMITT), which offers a strategic framework to support efforts of teacher training institutes in the Netherlands to develop their own plans for enhancing the teaching and learning process as well as its outcomes through the application of Information and Communication…

A Framework for Comprehensive Health Terminology Systems in the United States

PubMed Central

Chute, Christopher G.; Cohn, Simon P.; Campbell, James R.

1998-01-01

Health care in the United States has become an information-intensive industry, yet electronic health records represent patient data inconsistently for lack of clinical data standards. Classifications that have achieved common acceptance, such as the ICD-9-CM or ICD, aggregate heterogeneous patients into broad categories, which preclude their practical use in decision support, development of refined guidelines, or detailed comparison of patient outcomes or benchmarks. This document proposes a framework for the integration and maturation of clinical terminologies that would have practical applications in patient care, process management, outcome analysis, and decision support. Arising from the two working groups within the standards community—the ANSI (American National Standards Institute) Healthcare Informatics Standards Board Working Group and the Computer-based Patient Records Institute Working Group on Codes and Structures—it outlines policies regarding 1) functional characteristics of practical terminologies, 2) terminology models that can broaden their applications and contribute to their sustainability, 3) maintenance attributes that will enable terminologies to keep pace with rapidly changing health care knowledge and process, and 4) administrative issues that would facilitate their accessibility, adoption, and application to improve the quality and efficiency of American health care. PMID:9824798

Institutional Theory and Educational Change.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hanson, Mark

2001-01-01

Integrates three key segments of research literature (organizational memory, organizational learning, and institutional theory) into an overall conceptual framework. Argues that the framework lends insight into three progressively comprehensive types of educational change: homogenization, evolution, and reform. (Contains 1 figure and 32…

Health sector operational planning and budgeting processes in Kenya—“never the twain shall meet”

PubMed Central

Molyneux, Sassy; Goodman, Catherine

2015-01-01

Summary Operational planning is considered an important tool for translating government policies and strategic objectives into day‐to‐day management activities. However, developing countries suffer from persistent misalignment between policy, planning and budgeting. The Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) was introduced to address this misalignment. Kenya adopted the MTEF in the early 2000s, and in 2005, the Ministry of Health adopted the Annual Operational Plan process to adapt the MTEF to the health sector. This study assessed the degree to which the health sector Annual Operational Plan process in Kenya has achieved alignment between planning and budgeting at the national level, using document reviews, participant observation and key informant interviews. We found that the Kenyan health sector was far from achieving planning and budgeting alignment. Several factors contributed to this problem including weak Ministry of Health stewardship and institutionalized separation between planning and budgeting processes; a rapidly changing planning and budgeting environment; lack of reliable data to inform target setting and poor participation by key stakeholders in the process including a top‐down approach to target setting. We conclude that alignment is unlikely to be achieved without consideration of the specific institutional contexts and the power relationships between stakeholders. In particular, there is a need for institutional integration of the planning and budgeting processes into a common cycle and framework with common reporting lines and for improved data and local‐level input to inform appropriate and realistic target setting. © 2015 The Authors. International Journal of Health Planning and Management published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. PMID:25783862

The SOS-framework (Systems of Sedentary behaviours): an international transdisciplinary consensus framework for the study of determinants, research priorities and policy on sedentary behaviour across the life course: a DEDIPAC-study.

PubMed

Chastin, Sebastien F M; De Craemer, Marieke; Lien, Nanna; Bernaards, Claire; Buck, Christoph; Oppert, Jean-Michel; Nazare, Julie-Anne; Lakerveld, Jeroen; O'Donoghue, Grainne; Holdsworth, Michelle; Owen, Neville; Brug, Johannes; Cardon, Greet

2016-07-15

Ecological models are currently the most used approaches to classify and conceptualise determinants of sedentary behaviour, but these approaches are limited in their ability to capture the complexity of and interplay between determinants. The aim of the project described here was to develop a transdisciplinary dynamic framework, grounded in a system-based approach, for research on determinants of sedentary behaviour across the life span and intervention and policy planning and evaluation. A comprehensive concept mapping approach was used to develop the Systems Of Sedentary behaviours (SOS) framework, involving four main phases: (1) preparation, (2) generation of statements, (3) structuring (sorting and ranking), and (4) analysis and interpretation. The first two phases were undertaken between December 2013 and February 2015 by the DEDIPAC KH team (DEterminants of DIet and Physical Activity Knowledge Hub). The last two phases were completed during a two-day consensus meeting in June 2015. During the first phase, 550 factors regarding sedentary behaviour were listed across three age groups (i.e., youths, adults and older adults), which were reduced to a final list of 190 life course factors in phase 2 used during the consensus meeting. In total, 69 international delegates, seven invited experts and one concept mapping consultant attended the consensus meeting. The final framework obtained during that meeting consisted of six clusters of determinants: Physical Health and Wellbeing (71% consensus), Social and Cultural Context (59% consensus), Built and Natural Environment (65% consensus), Psychology and Behaviour (80% consensus), Politics and Economics (78% consensus), and Institutional and Home Settings (78% consensus). Conducting studies on Institutional Settings was ranked as the first research priority. The view that this framework captures a system-based map of determinants of sedentary behaviour was expressed by 89% of the participants. Through an international transdisciplinary consensus process, the SOS framework was developed for the determinants of sedentary behaviour through the life course. Investigating the influence of Institutional and Home Settings was deemed to be the most important area of research to focus on at present and potentially the most modifiable. The SOS framework can be used as an important tool to prioritise future research and to develop policies to reduce sedentary time.

Measuring research impact in Australia's medical research institutes: a scoping literature review of the objectives for and an assessment of the capabilities of research impact assessment frameworks.

PubMed

Deeming, Simon; Searles, Andrew; Reeves, Penny; Nilsson, Michael

2017-03-21

Realising the economic potential of research institutions, including medical research institutes, represents a policy imperative for many Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development nations. The assessment of research impact has consequently drawn increasing attention. Research impact assessment frameworks (RIAFs) provide a structure to assess research translation, but minimal research has examined whether alternative RIAFs realise the intended policy outcomes. This paper examines the objectives presented for RIAFs in light of economic imperatives to justify ongoing support for health and medical research investment, leverage productivity via commercialisation and outcome-efficiency gains in health systems, and ensure that translation and impact considerations are embedded into the research process. This paper sought to list the stated objectives for RIAFs, to identify existing frameworks and to evaluate whether the identified frameworks possessed the capabilities necessary to address the specified objectives. A scoping review of the literature to identify objectives specified for RIAFs, inform upon descriptive criteria for each objective and identify existing RIAFs. Criteria were derived for each objective. The capability for the existing RIAFs to realise the alternative objectives was evaluated based upon these criteria. The collated objectives for RIAFs included accountability (top-down), transparency/accountability (bottom-up), advocacy, steering, value for money, management/learning and feedback/allocation, prospective orientation, and speed of translation. Of the 25 RIAFs identified, most satisfied objectives such as accountability and advocacy, which are largely sufficient for the first economic imperative to justify research investment. The frameworks primarily designed to optimise the speed of translation or enable the prospective orientation of research possessed qualities most likely to optimise the productive outcomes from research. However, the results show that few frameworks met the criteria for these objectives. It is imperative that the objective(s) for an assessment framework are explicit and that RIAFs are designed to realise these objectives. If the objectives include the capability to pro-actively drive productive research impacts, the potential for prospective orientation and a focus upon the speed of translation merits prioritisation. Frameworks designed to optimise research translation and impact, rather than simply assess impact, offer greater promise to contribute to the economic imperatives compelling their implementation.

Vanderbilt University Institute of Imaging Science Center for Computational Imaging XNAT: A multimodal data archive and processing environment.

PubMed

Harrigan, Robert L; Yvernault, Benjamin C; Boyd, Brian D; Damon, Stephen M; Gibney, Kyla David; Conrad, Benjamin N; Phillips, Nicholas S; Rogers, Baxter P; Gao, Yurui; Landman, Bennett A

2016-01-01

The Vanderbilt University Institute for Imaging Science (VUIIS) Center for Computational Imaging (CCI) has developed a database built on XNAT housing over a quarter of a million scans. The database provides framework for (1) rapid prototyping, (2) large scale batch processing of images and (3) scalable project management. The system uses the web-based interfaces of XNAT and REDCap to allow for graphical interaction. A python middleware layer, the Distributed Automation for XNAT (DAX) package, distributes computation across the Vanderbilt Advanced Computing Center for Research and Education high performance computing center. All software are made available in open source for use in combining portable batch scripting (PBS) grids and XNAT servers. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Enhancing the role of science in the decision-making of the European Union.

PubMed

Allio, Lorenzo; Ballantine, Bruce; Meads, Richard

2006-02-01

Used well, science provides effective ways of identifying potential risks, protecting citizens, and using resources wisely. It enables government decisions to be based on evidence and provides a foundation for a rule-based framework that supports global trade. To ensure that the best available science becomes a key input in the decisions made by EU institutions, this abridged version of a working paper produced for the European Policy Centre, a leading, independent think tank, considers how science is currently used in the policy and decision-making processes of the EU, what the limitations of scientific evidence are, and how a risk assessment process based on scientific 'good practices' can be advantageous. Finally, the paper makes recommendations on how to improve the use of science by EU institutions.

A tale of five cities: Using recycling frameworks to analyse inclusive recycling performance.

PubMed

Scheinberg, Anne; Simpson, Michael

2015-11-01

'Recycling' is a source of much confusion, particularly when comparing solid waste systems in high-income countries with those in low- and middle-income countries. Few analysts can explain why the performance and structure of recycling appears to be so different in rich countries from poor ones, nor why well-meaning efforts to implement recycling so often fail. The analysis of policy drivers, and the Integrated Sustainable Waste Management (ISWM) framework, come close to an explanation.This article builds on these earlier works, focusing in on five cities profiled in the 2010 UN-Habitat publication (Scheinberg A, Wilson DC and Rodic L (2010) Solid Waste Management in the World's Cities. UN-Habitat's Third Global Report on the State of Water and Sanitation in the World's Cities. Newcastle-on-Tyne, UK: Earthscan Publications). Data from these cities and others provides the basis for developing a new tool to analyse inclusive recycling performance. The points of departure are the institutional and economic relationships between the service chain, the public obligation to remove waste, pollution, and other forms of disvalue, and the value chain, a system of private enterprises trading valuable materials and providing markets for recyclables. The methodological innovation is to use flows of materials and money as indicators of institutional relationships, and is an extension of process flow diagramming.The authors are using the term 'recycling framework analysis' to describe this new form of institutional analysis. The diagrams increase our understanding of the factors that contribute to high-performance inclusive recycling. By focusing on institutional relationships, the article seeks to improve analysis, planning, and ultimately, outcomes, of recycling interventions. © The Author(s) 2015.

Parallelizing Compiler Framework and API for Power Reduction and Software Productivity of Real-Time Heterogeneous Multicores

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hayashi, Akihiro; Wada, Yasutaka; Watanabe, Takeshi; Sekiguchi, Takeshi; Mase, Masayoshi; Shirako, Jun; Kimura, Keiji; Kasahara, Hironori

Heterogeneous multicores have been attracting much attention to attain high performance keeping power consumption low in wide spread of areas. However, heterogeneous multicores force programmers very difficult programming. The long application program development period lowers product competitiveness. In order to overcome such a situation, this paper proposes a compilation framework which bridges a gap between programmers and heterogeneous multicores. In particular, this paper describes the compilation framework based on OSCAR compiler. It realizes coarse grain task parallel processing, data transfer using a DMA controller, power reduction control from user programs with DVFS and clock gating on various heterogeneous multicores from different vendors. This paper also evaluates processing performance and the power reduction by the proposed framework on a newly developed 15 core heterogeneous multicore chip named RP-X integrating 8 general purpose processor cores and 3 types of accelerator cores which was developed by Renesas Electronics, Hitachi, Tokyo Institute of Technology and Waseda University. The framework attains speedups up to 32x for an optical flow program with eight general purpose processor cores and four DRP(Dynamically Reconfigurable Processor) accelerator cores against sequential execution by a single processor core and 80% of power reduction for the real-time AAC encoding.

The Ontario Psychosocial Oncology Framework: a quality improvement tool.

PubMed

Li, Madeline; Green, Esther

2013-05-01

To overview the newly developed Psychosocial Health Care for Cancer Patients and Their Families: A Framework to Guide Practice in Ontario and Guideline Recommendations in the context of Canadian psychosocial oncology care and propose strategies for guideline uptake and implementation. Recommendations from the 2008 Institute of Medicine standard Cancer Care for the Whole Patient: Meeting Psychosocial Health Needs were adapted into the Ontario Psychosocial Oncology (PSO) Framework. Existing practice guidelines developed by the Canadian Partnership against Cancer and Cancer Care Ontario and standards developed by the Canadian Association of Psychosocial Oncology are supporting resources for adopting a quality improvement (QI) approach to the implementation of the framework in Ontario. The developed PSO Framework, including 31 specific actionable recommendations, is intended to improve the quality of comprehensive cancer care at both the provider and system levels. Important QI change management processes are described as Educate - raising awareness among medical teams of the significance of psychosocial needs of patients, Evidence - developing a research evidence base for patient care benefits from psychosocial interventions, and Electronics - using technology to collect patient reported outcomes of both physical and emotional symptoms. The Ontario PSO Framework is unique and valuable in providing actionable recommendations that can be implemented through QI processes. Overall, the result will be improved psychosocial health care for the cancer population. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Beyond Academia - Interrogating Research Impact in the Research Excellence Framework.

PubMed

Terama, Emma; Smallman, Melanie; Lock, Simon J; Johnson, Charlotte; Austwick, Martin Zaltz

2016-01-01

Big changes to the way in which research funding is allocated to UK universities were brought about in the Research Excellence Framework (REF), overseen by the Higher Education Funding Council, England. Replacing the earlier Research Assessment Exercise, the purpose of the REF was to assess the quality and reach of research in UK universities-and allocate funding accordingly. For the first time, this included an assessment of research 'impact', accounting for 20% of the funding allocation. In this article we use a text mining technique to investigate the interpretations of impact put forward via impact case studies in the REF process. We find that institutions have developed a diverse interpretation of impact, ranging from commercial applications to public and cultural engagement activities. These interpretations of impact vary from discipline to discipline and between institutions, with more broad-based institutions depicting a greater variety of impacts. Comparing the interpretations with the score given by REF, we found no evidence of one particular interpretation being more highly rewarded than another. Importantly, we also found a positive correlation between impact score and [overall research] quality score, suggesting that impact is not being achieved at the expense of research excellence.

Beyond Academia – Interrogating Research Impact in the Research Excellence Framework

PubMed Central

Smallman, Melanie; Lock, Simon J.; Johnson, Charlotte; Austwick, Martin Zaltz

2016-01-01

Big changes to the way in which research funding is allocated to UK universities were brought about in the Research Excellence Framework (REF), overseen by the Higher Education Funding Council, England. Replacing the earlier Research Assessment Exercise, the purpose of the REF was to assess the quality and reach of research in UK universities–and allocate funding accordingly. For the first time, this included an assessment of research ‘impact’, accounting for 20% of the funding allocation. In this article we use a text mining technique to investigate the interpretations of impact put forward via impact case studies in the REF process. We find that institutions have developed a diverse interpretation of impact, ranging from commercial applications to public and cultural engagement activities. These interpretations of impact vary from discipline to discipline and between institutions, with more broad-based institutions depicting a greater variety of impacts. Comparing the interpretations with the score given by REF, we found no evidence of one particular interpretation being more highly rewarded than another. Importantly, we also found a positive correlation between impact score and [overall research] quality score, suggesting that impact is not being achieved at the expense of research excellence. PMID:27997599

The ICER Value Framework: Integrating Cost Effectiveness and Affordability in the Assessment of Health Care Value.

PubMed

Pearson, Steven D

2018-03-01

What should be the relationship between the concepts of cost effectiveness and affordability in value assessments for health care interventions? This question has received greater attention in recent years given increasing financial pressures on health systems, leading to different views on how assessment reports and decision-making processes can provide the best structure for considering both elements. In the United States, the advent of explicit value frameworks to guide drug assessments has also focused attention on this issue, driven in part by the prominent inclusion of affordability within the value framework used to guide reports from the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review. After providing a formal definition of affordability for health care systems, this article argues that, even after using empirical estimates of true health system opportunity cost, cost-effectiveness thresholds cannot by themselves be set in a way that subsumes questions about short-term affordability. The article then presents an analysis of different approaches to integrating cost effectiveness and budget impact assessments within information to guide decision making. The evolution and experience with the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review value framework are highlighted, providing lessons learned and guiding principles for future efforts to bring measures of affordability within the scope of value assessment. Copyright © 2018 International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The path dependency theory: analytical framework to study institutional integration. The case of France

PubMed Central

Trouvé, Hélène; Couturier, Yves; Etheridge, Francis; Saint-Jean, Olivier; Somme, Dominique

2010-01-01

Background The literature on integration indicates the need for an enhanced theorization of institutional integration. This article proposes path dependence as an analytical framework to study the systems in which integration takes place. Purpose PRISMA proposes a model for integrating health and social care services for older adults. This model was initially tested in Quebec. The PRISMA France study gave us an opportunity to analyze institutional integration in France. Methods A qualitative approach was used. Analyses were based on semi-structured interviews with actors of all levels of decision-making, observations of advisory board meetings, and administrative documents. Results Our analyses revealed the complexity and fragmentation of institutional integration. The path dependency theory, which analyzes the change capacity of institutions by taking into account their historic structures, allows analysis of this situation. The path dependency to the Bismarckian system and the incomplete reforms of gerontological policies generate the coexistence and juxtaposition of institutional systems. In such a context, no institution has sufficient ability to determine gerontology policy and build institutional integration by itself. Conclusion Using path dependence as an analytical framework helps to understand the reasons why institutional integration is critical to organizational and clinical integration, and the complex construction of institutional integration in France. PMID:20689740

Social media and disasters: a functional framework for social media use in disaster planning, response, and research.

PubMed

Houston, J Brian; Hawthorne, Joshua; Perreault, Mildred F; Park, Eun Hae; Goldstein Hode, Marlo; Halliwell, Michael R; Turner McGowen, Sarah E; Davis, Rachel; Vaid, Shivani; McElderry, Jonathan A; Griffith, Stanford A

2015-01-01

A comprehensive review of online, official, and scientific literature was carried out in 2012-13 to develop a framework of disaster social media. This framework can be used to facilitate the creation of disaster social media tools, the formulation of disaster social media implementation processes, and the scientific study of disaster social media effects. Disaster social media users in the framework include communities, government, individuals, organisations, and media outlets. Fifteen distinct disaster social media uses were identified, ranging from preparing and receiving disaster preparedness information and warnings and signalling and detecting disasters prior to an event to (re)connecting community members following a disaster. The framework illustrates that a variety of entities may utilise and produce disaster social media content. Consequently, disaster social media use can be conceptualised as occurring at a number of levels, even within the same disaster. Suggestions are provided on how the proposed framework can inform future disaster social media development and research. © 2014 2014 The Author(s). Disasters © Overseas Development Institute, 2014.

The National Institute on Aging and the Alzheimer's Association Research Framework for Alzheimer's disease: Perspectives from the Research Roundtable.

PubMed

Knopman, David S; Haeberlein, Samantha Budd; Carrillo, Maria C; Hendrix, James A; Kerchner, Geoff; Margolin, Richard; Maruff, Paul; Miller, David S; Tong, Gary; Tome, Maria B; Murray, Melissa E; Nelson, Peter T; Sano, Mary; Mattsson, Niklas; Sultzer, David L; Montine, Thomas J; Jack, Clifford R; Kolb, Hartmuth; Petersen, Ronald C; Vemuri, Prashanthi; Canniere, Megan Zoschg; Schneider, Julie A; Resnick, Susan M; Romano, Gary; van Harten, Argonde Corien; Wolk, David A; Bain, Lisa J; Siemers, Eric

2018-04-01

The Alzheimer's Association's Research Roundtable met in November 2017 to explore the new National Institute on Aging and the Alzheimer's Association Research Framework for Alzheimer's disease. The meeting allowed experts in the field from academia, industry, and government to provide perspectives on the new National Institute on Aging and the Alzheimer's Association Research Framework. This review will summarize the "A, T, N System" (Amyloid, Tau, and Neurodegeneration) using biomarkers and how this may be applied to clinical research and drug development. In addition, challenges and barriers to the potential adoption of this new framework will be discussed. Finally, future directions for research will be proposed. Copyright © 2018 the Alzheimer's Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

SOS: A Time Management Framework.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rees, Ruth

1986-01-01

Proposes a time management framework for those working within social service institutions such as schools. Explains three sequential and interdependent groups of recommendations: (1) self-awareness and self-discipline; (2) organizational awareness and a synchronization of both the institution and the individual; and (3) planning, timetabling,…

Review of Canadian mobile satellite systems institutional arrangements policy

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gilvary, David

1990-01-01

Development of institutional arrangements policy for maritime, land, and aeronautical mobile satellite systems (MSS) is an integral part of the Canadian telecommunications policy process. An ongoing activity in that process is fitting of MSS institutional arrangements policy within the confines of the 1987 Canadian Telecom Policy Framework. Making sure the fit is correct is a major task at present because technology seems to be driving service demand at rapid growth rates, particularly in the case of land MSS. This growth is stimulating policy and regulatory development efforts to keep pace. In Canada, this is happening in four planned MSS applications areas: Canada-US transborder (immediate), aeronautical MSS (1990/94), Telesat Mobile Inc. EMDS via INMARSAT (1990), and MSAT (1993/94). The need for an up-to-date MSS policy in these areas is emphasized by related developments in the US and elsewhere. It arises because of the growing number of market initiatives proposing North American rather than Canada-only or US-only coverage, such as INMARSAT, Geostar, OmniTRACS, and Starlink.

People don't talk in institutional statements: A methodological case study of the Institutional Analysis and Development Framework

Treesearch

Cristy Watkins; Lynne M. Westphal

2015-01-01

In this paper, we describe our application of Ostrom et al.'s ADICO syntax, a grammatical tool based in the Institutional Analysis and Development framework, to a study of ecological restoration decision making in the Chicago Wilderness region. As this method has only been used to look at written policy and/or extractive natural resource management systems, our...

A framework for planning of sustainable water and sanitation systems in peri-urban areas.

PubMed

Törnqvist, R; Norström, A; Kärrman, E; Malmqvist, P-A

2008-01-01

There are billions of people around the world that lack access to safe water supply and basic sanitation, a situation which puts the affected in severe health conditions as well as economical and social despair. Many of those lacking adequate water supply and sanitation systems can be found at the fringe of the cities in so called peri-urban areas, especially in the developing world. Planning in these areas is highly complex due to challenging environmental and physical conditions, high population density and unclear institutional boundaries. This article presents a framework aiming to support the planning process for sustainable water and sanitation systems in peri-urban areas. The suggested framework is based on different available planning approaches from a review of literature and websites of organisations and companies. It consists of a recommendation of important steps in the planning process as well as supporting tools. Further, it incorporates a set of sustainability criteria important for the peri-urban context and allows for the development of site specific systems. The framework has the aim to be flexible for different planning situations, and for suiting planners with different perspectives and amount of resources. (c) IWA Publishing 2008.

From institutional segmentation to market fragmentation: Institutional transformation and the shifting stratification order in urban China.

PubMed

Zhao, Wei; Zhou, Xueguang

2017-03-01

Focusing on the changing roles of organizations, this study develops an institutional framework to examine the shifting stratification order since the mid-1990s in urban China. We argue that, after the mid-1990s, the Chinese state led a dual process of institutional transformation. On the one hand, the state dismantled the socialist redistributive system and broke down institutional segmentation based on organizational ownership and bureaucratic rank. On the other hand, the state developed different markets with various paces and strategies, resulting in fragmented market environments. In this context, reformed organizations interacted with heterogeneous market conditions to exert different impacts on multiple dimensions of social inequality. We draw empirical evidence from two national survey data collected in 1994 and 2003 during a critical period. Our findings show that the foundation of the stratification order has shifted from institutional segmentation to market fragmentation in urban China. This study calls for substantive institutional analysis to better understand the intricate landscape of social inequality in transitional economies. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The new institutionalist approaches to health care reform: lessons from reform experiences in Central Europe.

PubMed

Sitek, Michał

2010-08-01

This article discusses the applicability of the new institutionalism to the politics of health care reform in postcommunist Central Europe. The transition to a market economy and democracy after the fall of communism has apparently strengthened the institutional approaches. The differences in performance of transition economies have been critical to the growing understanding of the importance of institutions that foster democracy, provide security of property rights, help enforce contracts, and stimulate entrepreneurship. From a theoretical perspective, however, applying the new institutionalist approaches has been problematic. The transitional health care reform exposes very well some inherent weaknesses of existing analytic frameworks for explaining the nature and mechanisms of institutional change. The postcommunist era in Central Europe has been marked by spectacular and unprecedented radical changes, in which the capitalist system was rebuilt in a short span of time and the institutions of democracy became consolidated. Broad changes to welfare state programs were instituted as well. However, the actual results of the reform processes represent a mix of change and continuity, which is a challenge for the theories of institutional change.

Institutional Ethical Review and Ethnographic Research Involving Injection Drug Users: A Case Study

PubMed Central

Small, Will; Maher, Lisa; Kerr, Thomas

2014-01-01

Ethnographic research among people who inject drugs (PWID) involves complex ethical issues. While ethical review frameworks have been critiqued by social scientists, there is a lack of social science research examining institutional ethical review processes, particularly in relation to ethnographic work. This case study describes the institutional ethical review of an ethnographic research project using observational fieldwork and in-depth interviews to examine injection drug use. The review process and the salient concerns of the review committee are recounted, and the investigators’ responses to the committee’s concerns and requests are described to illustrate how key issues were resolved. The review committee expressed concerns regarding researcher safety when conducting fieldwork and the investigators were asked to liaise with the police regarding the proposed research. An ongoing dialogue with the institutional review committee regarding researcher safety and autonomy from police involvement, as well as formal consultation with a local drug user group and solicitation of opinions from external experts, helped to resolve these issues. This case study suggests that ethical review processes can be particularly challenging for ethnographic projects focused on illegal behaviours, and that while some challenges could be mediated by modifying existing ethical review procedures, there is a need for legislation that provides legal protection of research data and participant confidentiality. PMID:24581074

MIRADA A LA MENTORÍA EN INVESTIGACIÓN DESDE LA PERSPECTIVA SOCIOCULTURAL DE VYGOTSKY

PubMed Central

SANTIAGO, NILDA G. MEDINA; RIVERA, TANIA M. CRUZ; ORTIZ, NATALIA JORDÁN

2015-01-01

In this article the authors illustrate the mentoring process through the framework of Vygotsky's sociocultural perspective regarding education and human development. To achieve this goal, they describe their experience as mentor and mentees in a research training mentoring program for undergraduate students. The authors argue that this theoretical and philosophical perspective offers a solid background to mentoring as a real option that contributes to the learning process. They recommend these programs to be encouraged by academic institutions in order for more students and professors to benefit from this process. PMID:27042255

The Interlibrary Loan Transaction

PubMed Central

Pings, Vern M.

1965-01-01

Although the number of items borrowed through interlibrary loan may not increase as dramatically as it has in the past ten years, the trend can be expected to continue because of the growing interdisciplinary nature of biomedical research and because of the anticipated improved bibliographic control of biomedical literature. To provide a framework for collecting data on volume of flow between institutions, on time requirements for processing operations, on cost of interlibrary transactions, on the efficiency of communication channels, and on alternative procedures for performing the transaction, block diagrams were prepared to show the flow of information and materials between individuals and institutions. These diagrams show the interinstitutional dependence; any alterations in procedures in one institution affect other institutions. Even though it can be clearly shown where alterations in the flow pattern can be effected, there are little quantitative data available to serve as a justification for maintaining or modifying existing procedures. PMID:14271114

Diagnosing Student Learning Outcomes Using the Organizational Learning Contract Framework

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sutton, Kyra Leigh; Ezell, Jeremy; Sankar, Chetan S.

2013-01-01

Using the Goodman and Beenen (2008) organizational learning contract framework as a diagnostic tool, this study investigates the effectiveness of an academic institution's learning environments by examining students' perception of their mastery of the institution's established curriculum learning goals. Students at a major Southeastern university…

Examiner perceptions of a portfolio assessment process.

PubMed

Davis, Margery H; Ponnamperuma, Gominda G

2010-01-01

The portfolio assessment process is important for assessing learner achievement. To study examiner perceptions of Dundee Medical School's portfolio assessment process, in years 4 and 5 of the 5-year curriculum, in relation to: outcomes as a framework for the portfolio assessment process; portfolio content; portfolio assessment process; end points of the portfolio assessment process; appropriateness of the two part final exam format and examiner training. A questionnaire containing statements and open questions was used to obtain examiner feedback. Responses to each statement were compared over 3 years: 1999, 2000 and 2003. Response rates were 100%, 88% and 61% in 1999, 2002 and 2003, respectively. Examiners were positive about the ability of institutionally set learning outcomes (Dundee 12 exit learning outcomes) to provide a framework for the portfolio assessment process. They found difficulties, however, with the volume of portfolio content and the time allocated to assess it. Agreeing a grade for each learning outcome for the candidate with their co-examiner did not present difficulties. The comprehensive, holistic picture of the candidate provided by the portfolio assessment process was perceived to be one of its strengths. Examiners were supportive of the final examination format, and were satisfied with their briefing about the process. The 12 exit learning outcomes of Dundee curriculum provide an appropriate framework for the portfolio assessment process, but the content of the portfolio requires fine-tuning particularly with regard to quantity. Time allocated to examiners for the portfolio assessment process needs to be balanced against practicability. The holistic picture of the candidate provided by the process was one of its strengths.

A Framework for the Development of Strategies Administrative of Higher Education Institutions for the Three Southern Border Provinces in Thailand: An Emphasis for Sustainable Development and the Asian Community

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Suwanvong, Danuvat; Chaijaroenwattana, Bussabong

2012-01-01

The purposes of this paper were to review and to synthesize related literature under the concepts of new paradigms for administration of higher education institutions. The results of the study revealed that a framework for the development of appropriate strategies and administrative model of higher education institutions for the three southern…

Developing an institutional framework to incorporate ecosystem services into decision making-Proceedings of a workshop

USGS Publications Warehouse

Hogan, Dianna; Arthaud, Greg; Brookshire, David; Gunther, Tom; Pincetl, Stephanie; Shapiro, Carl; Van Horne, Bea

2011-01-01

The appropriate use of institutional structures, including markets, to integrate ecosystem services into decision making depends on the players and characteristics of the specific situation (such as stakeholders, the ecosystem, resources, and the political environment). Incorporating ecosystem service values into decisions requires consideration of place-based social, cultural, economic, and landscape characteristics and institutions. Thus, a single, prescribed solution will not work-various institutional strategies must be used in different situations. Market-based approaches require appropriate regulations, monitoring, and enforcement, depending on the situation and place. Further, market approaches will need to be coupled with nonmarket approaches into an integrated institutional framework.

End-to-end observatory software modeling using domain specific languages

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Filgueira, José M.; Bec, Matthieu; Liu, Ning; Peng, Chien; Soto, José

2014-07-01

The Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) is a 25-meter extremely large telescope that is being built by an international consortium of universities and research institutions. Its software and control system is being developed using a set of Domain Specific Languages (DSL) that supports a model driven development methodology integrated with an Agile management process. This approach promotes the use of standardized models that capture the component architecture of the system, that facilitate the construction of technical specifications in a uniform way, that facilitate communication between developers and domain experts and that provide a framework to ensure the successful integration of the software subsystems developed by the GMT partner institutions.

Chronic institutional failure and enhanced vulnerability to flash-floods in the Cuenca Altadel Río Lerma, Mexico.

PubMed

Güiza, Frida; Simmons, Peter; Burgess, Jacquie; McCall, Michael K

2016-01-01

The dominant paradigm in disaster risk reduction (DRR) policies has been seriously contested because of its reliance on interventions based on technocratic expertise. In the Mexican context, the influence of informal practices such as clientelism and cartelisation of the political system produces environmental degradation and vulnerability to disasters within the communities in the study site. This paper contributes to understanding of failed institutional processes and parallel practices that intensify vulnerability to disasters by contrasting the discourses of agents within a peri-urban community in central Mexico. Employing the Situational Analysis Approach as a methodological framework, the study identifies divergent views and practices within the community, leading to different responses to disasters and to different perceptions regarding institutional performance. In addition, it finds that institutional decision-making, based only on scientific and technical expertise, has resulted in unintended consequences that influence ongoing vulnerability to floods in the site under review. © 2016 The Author(s). Disasters © Overseas Development Institute, 2016.

Framing Retention for Institutional Improvement: A 4 Ps Framework

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kalsbeek, David H.

2013-01-01

A 4 Ps framework for student retention strategy is a construct for reframing the retention discussion in a way that enables institutional improvement by challenging some conventional wisdom and prevailing perspectives that have characterized retention strategy for years. It opens new possibilities for action and improvement by suggesting that…

Understanding and Advancing Campus Sustainability Using a Systems Framework

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Posner, Stephen M.; Stuart, Ralph

2013-01-01

Purpose: University campuses behave as complex systems, and sustainability in higher education is best seen as an emergent quality that arises from interactions both within an institution and between the institution and the environmental and social contexts in which it operates. A framework for strategically prioritizing campus sustainability work…

The VCU Pressure Ulcer Summit-Developing Centers of Pressure Ulcer Prevention Excellence: A Framework for Sustainability.

PubMed

Creehan, Sue; Cuddigan, Janet; Gonzales, Dana; Nix, Denise; Padula, William; Pittman, Joyce; Pontieri-Lewis, Vicky; Walden, Christine; Wells, Belinda; Wheeler, Robinetta

2016-01-01

Hospital-acquired pressure ulcer occurrences have declined over the past decade as reimbursement policies have changed, evidence-based practice guidelines have been implemented, and quality improvement initiatives have been launched. However, the 2006-2008 Institute for Healthcare Improvement goal of zero pressure ulcers remains difficult to achieve and even more challenging to sustain. Magnet hospitals tend to have lower hospital-acquired pressure ulcer rates than non-Magnet hospitals, yet many non-Magnet hospitals also have robust pressure ulcer prevention programs. Successful programs share commonalities in structure, processes, and outcomes. A national summit of 55 pressure ulcer experts was convened at the Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center in March 2014. The group was divided into 3 focus groups; each was assigned a task to develop a framework describing components of a proposed Magnet-designated Center of Pressure Ulcer Prevention Excellence. Systematic literature reviews, analysis of exemplars, and nominal group process techniques were used to create the framework. This article presents a framework describing the proposed Magnet-designated Centers of Pressure Ulcer Prevention Excellence. Critical attributes of Centers of Excellence are identified and organized according to the 4 domains of the ANCC model for the Magnet Recognition Program: transformational leadership; structural empowerment; exemplary professional practice; and new knowledge innovation and improvements. The structures, processes, and outcome measures necessary to become a proposed Center of Pressure Ulcer Prevention Excellence are discussed.

CER Hub: An informatics platform for conducting comparative effectiveness research using multi-institutional, heterogeneous, electronic clinical data.

PubMed

Hazlehurst, Brian L; Kurtz, Stephen E; Masica, Andrew; Stevens, Victor J; McBurnie, Mary Ann; Puro, Jon E; Vijayadeva, Vinutha; Au, David H; Brannon, Elissa D; Sittig, Dean F

2015-10-01

Comparative effectiveness research (CER) requires the capture and analysis of data from disparate sources, often from a variety of institutions with diverse electronic health record (EHR) implementations. In this paper we describe the CER Hub, a web-based informatics platform for developing and conducting research studies that combine comprehensive electronic clinical data from multiple health care organizations. The CER Hub platform implements a data processing pipeline that employs informatics standards for data representation and web-based tools for developing study-specific data processing applications, providing standardized access to the patient-centric electronic health record (EHR) across organizations. The CER Hub is being used to conduct two CER studies utilizing data from six geographically distributed and demographically diverse health systems. These foundational studies address the effectiveness of medications for controlling asthma and the effectiveness of smoking cessation services delivered in primary care. The CER Hub includes four key capabilities: the ability to process and analyze both free-text and coded clinical data in the EHR; a data processing environment supported by distributed data and study governance processes; a clinical data-interchange format for facilitating standardized extraction of clinical data from EHRs; and a library of shareable clinical data processing applications. CER requires coordinated and scalable methods for extracting, aggregating, and analyzing complex, multi-institutional clinical data. By offering a range of informatics tools integrated into a framework for conducting studies using EHR data, the CER Hub provides a solution to the challenges of multi-institutional research using electronic medical record data. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.

Comparative SWOT analysis of strategic environmental assessment systems in the Middle East and North Africa region.

PubMed

Rachid, G; El Fadel, M

2013-08-15

This paper presents a SWOT analysis of SEA systems in the Middle East North Africa region through a comparative examination of the status, application and structure of existing systems based on country-specific legal, institutional and procedural frameworks. The analysis is coupled with the multi-attribute decision making method (MADM) within an analytical framework that involves both performance analysis based on predefined evaluation criteria and countries' self-assessment of their SEA system through open-ended surveys. The results show heterogenous status with a general delayed progress characterized by varied levels of weaknesses embedded in the legal and administrative frameworks and poor integration with the decision making process. Capitalizing on available opportunities, the paper highlights measures to enhance the development and enactment of SEA in the region. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

V&V framework

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hills, Richard G.; Maniaci, David Charles; Naughton, Jonathan W.

2015-09-01

A Verification and Validation (V&V) framework is presented for the development and execution of coordinated modeling and experimental program s to assess the predictive capability of computational models of complex systems through focused, well structured, and formal processes.The elements of the framework are based on established V&V methodology developed by various organizations including the Department of Energy, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Four main topics are addressed: 1) Program planning based on expert elicitation of the modeling physics requirements, 2) experimental design for model assessment, 3)more » uncertainty quantification for experimental observations and computational model simulations, and 4) assessment of the model predictive capability. The audience for this document includes program planners, modelers, experimentalist, V &V specialist, and customers of the modeling results.« less

Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership: Using a Theoretical Model at the Intersection of Youth Leadership Education and Service-Learning.

PubMed

Ray, Vicki Ferrence

2016-06-01

This chapter presents the Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership (HOBY) program as a case study, examining their gradual process of shifting all programs to integrate leadership development and service. As an organization with over 4,000 volunteers and a nationwide scope, the change process was a challenge but resulted in benefits that fit the organizations' values. The social change model for leadership development (Higher Education Research Institute, ) was used as a guiding framework. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company.

Health sector operational planning and budgeting processes in Kenya-"never the twain shall meet".

PubMed

Tsofa, Benjamin; Molyneux, Sassy; Goodman, Catherine

2016-07-01

Operational planning is considered an important tool for translating government policies and strategic objectives into day-to-day management activities. However, developing countries suffer from persistent misalignment between policy, planning and budgeting. The Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) was introduced to address this misalignment. Kenya adopted the MTEF in the early 2000s, and in 2005, the Ministry of Health adopted the Annual Operational Plan process to adapt the MTEF to the health sector. This study assessed the degree to which the health sector Annual Operational Plan process in Kenya has achieved alignment between planning and budgeting at the national level, using document reviews, participant observation and key informant interviews. We found that the Kenyan health sector was far from achieving planning and budgeting alignment. Several factors contributed to this problem including weak Ministry of Health stewardship and institutionalized separation between planning and budgeting processes; a rapidly changing planning and budgeting environment; lack of reliable data to inform target setting and poor participation by key stakeholders in the process including a top-down approach to target setting. We conclude that alignment is unlikely to be achieved without consideration of the specific institutional contexts and the power relationships between stakeholders. In particular, there is a need for institutional integration of the planning and budgeting processes into a common cycle and framework with common reporting lines and for improved data and local-level input to inform appropriate and realistic target setting. © 2015 The Authors. International Journal of Health Planning and Management published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. © 2015 The Authors. International Journal of Health Planning and Management published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Creating Robust STEM Research Ecosystems in Schools: Joining the Dots for Young Researchers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pritchard, M.; Ibarra, D. L.

2017-12-01

Developing an intelligent curiosity about the world in school-aged learners is one of the key purposes of education. Nurturing this intelligent curiosity in a systematic and integrated manner is essential for rigorous, scientific literacy, which in turn inspires advanced research and innovation in post-school life. STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education has been widely adopted as the conceptual framework to achieve this goal. For young learners, their experienced world is largely confined to the spaces within the boundaries of educational institutions. This type of environment might be perceived as sterile or even hostile to genuine research, as institutional endeavor is largely shaped by examination syllabi. This can be changed by viewing the school as a living laboratory of processes and products, all of which offer enormous potential for meaningful and valuable student-led STEM research. Creating research-focused ecosystems within schools, however, requires considerable effort to create a learning culture that defragments knowledge systems and connects isolated pools of inquiry. The existing parameters and processes of school ecosystems, such as energy generation, consumption, waste creation and disposal offer opportunities for school students to utilize STEM-related skills observe and measure their own ecological footprint, undertake research into these living processes in an integrated manner, and develop solutions to create closed loops of optimally managed and measured consumption with the institution. For example, connecting a deep understanding of the principles of renewable energy generation with close, real-time monitoring of classroom energy usage creates the opportunity to develop a higher level of user awareness and more optimized consumption habits. Food waste, when composted and recycled on-site, similarly offers the potential to connect the sociological issue of excess consumption with a scientific understanding of aerobic and anaerobic decomposition and the subsequent purposes to which the product of the process might be put. In adopting a STEM framework to examine and shape school ecosystems, young researchers develop the capacity to observe, measure, analyze, troubleshoot, and optimize their own environment.

The silent buzz of geosciences: the challenge of geosciences communication in the Italian framework

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rapisardi, Elena; Di Franco, Sabina; Giardino, Marco

2015-04-01

Whenever an emergency happens the sophisticated mechanism of risk communication get jammed. The pervasiveness and speed of information, which runs on web and falls on traditional media, has the effect of a flood, bringing to light fractures and fragilities of the communication. A process that seems difficult to innovate and to reframe, so to respond to changing demand of information. "Hyogo Framework for Action" (UNISDR, 2007), underlines that information and communication are key to build Disaster Resilience: disasters knowledge enhances coping capacity of individuals, communities and local governments to better address the risks, calling to action academia, institutions, media and citizens. In the Italian framework, although the communication and information on disasters and risk, are often evoked and invoked in several speeches, conferences and programmes, as a matter of it seems that the initiatives and the communication practices of institutional actors and of the communities lack in coordination and collaboration. The actors of the communication process, institutions, media and academia, have acted mostly either as a "soloist", rarely taking into account the needs of the public, or as competitors of other actors [Peters 2013]. The evolution of web 2.0, is changing the pattern of the relation between disaster cycle and information demand: social media users become both producers and consumers of information, where the institutional information not always succeeded in bridging communication gap (demand/supply). Is there a responsibility related to the open access to scientific knowledge? Is there a responsibility of the "silos" effect of the academia or of the other institutions? We envisage a lack of a socio-historical memory of risk, as the effect of imperfect and poorly coordinated communication. Moreover, disaster communication has been probably too often focused on information when an emergency occurs, rather than on explicit scientific knowledge on environmental dynamics and their interaction with human activity (preparedness). We suspect, that in the Italian framework, this raises from a sort of original sin: a "resistance" to science, that, for people with little or poor scientific knowledge, swings between pseudoscientific simplifications (which, unfortunately, web is variously "dotted" [Quattrociocchi et al. 2014]) and, as the sociologist Franco Ferrarotti would say, pre-scientific traditions [Peppoloni, 2011]. The "logos" of geology and the geological "narrative" are of fundamental importance in the Anthropocene, allowing to shift the focus back on the human/environment interaction. Geologists are often ignored, as bearers of uncomfortable messages, especially in a country where there is no longer a National Geological Survey, but it is unquestionable the importance of Earth Sciences and the social role of the geologist (geoethics) for Disaster Resilience. This is the next challenge of Geosciences, and of the whole community of geoscientists. Develop a coordinated communication approach for geosciences as an ethical imperative, and also as a pre-requisite to risk and emergency communication: geologists and geology are the authoritative interpreters of natural processes and risk, holders of scientific knowledge that if explained and shared allow people and decision makers to better cope with risks, and to enable Disaster Resilience.

German MedicalTeachingNetwork (MDN) implementing national standards for teacher training.

PubMed

Lammerding-Koeppel, M; Ebert, T; Goerlitz, A; Karsten, G; Nounla, C; Schmidt, S; Stosch, C; Dieter, P

2016-01-01

An increasing demand for proof of professionalism in higher education strives for quality assurance (QA) and improvement in medical education. A wide range of teacher trainings is available to medical staff in Germany. Cross-institutional approval of individual certificates is usually a difficult and time consuming task for institutions. In case of non-acceptance it may hinder medical teachers in their professional mobility. The faculties of medicine aimed to develop a comprehensive national framework, to promote standards for formal faculty development programmes across institutions and to foster professionalization of medical teaching. Addressing the above challenges in a joint approach, the faculties set up the national MedicalTeacherNetwork (MDN). Great importance is attributed to work out nationally concerted standards for faculty development and an agreed-upon quality control process across Germany. Medical teachers benefit from these advantages due to portability of faculty development credentials from one faculty of medicine to another within the MDN system. The report outlines the process of setting up the MDN and the national faculty development programme in Germany. Success factors, strengths and limitations are discussed from an institutional, individual and general perspective. Faculties engaged in similar developments might be encouraged to transfer the MDN concept to their countries.

Advanced model-based control strategies for the intensification of upstream and downstream processing in mAb production.

PubMed

Papathanasiou, Maria M; Quiroga-Campano, Ana L; Steinebach, Fabian; Elviro, Montaña; Mantalaris, Athanasios; Pistikopoulos, Efstratios N

2017-07-01

Current industrial trends encourage the development of sustainable, environmentally friendly processes with minimal energy and material consumption. In particular, the increasing market demand in biopharmaceutical industry and the tight regulations in product quality necessitate efficient operating procedures that guarantee products of high purity. In this direction, process intensification via continuous operation paves the way for the development of novel, eco-friendly processes, characterized by higher productivity and lower production costs. This work focuses on the development of advanced control strategies for (i) a cell culture system in a bioreactor and (ii) a semicontinuous purification process. More specifically, we consider a fed-batch culture of GS-NS0 cells and the semicontinuous Multicolumn Countercurrent Solvent Gradient Purification (MCSGP) for the purification process. The controllers are designed following the PAROC framework/software platform and their capabilities are assessed in silico, against the process models. It is demonstrated that the proposed controllers efficiently manage to increase the system productivity, returning strategies that can lead to continuous, stable process operation. © 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 33:966-988, 2017. © 2017 American Institute of Chemical Engineers.

Status of Civil Rights in Texas. Volume I: A Report on the Participation of Mexican-Americans, Blacks and Females in the Political Institutions and Processes in Texas, 1968-1978.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cotrell, Charles

During the 1970s, Texas' longstanding political, legal, and cultural framework continued the systematic exclusion or discouragement of minority groups from political participation and representation. The Texas Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights studied the representation of the state's 12.5% black, 18% Spanish surnamed, and…

An Agent-based Model for Groundwater Allocation and Management at the Bakken Shale in Western North Dakota

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lin, T.; Lin, Z.; Lim, S.

2017-12-01

We present an integrated modeling framework to simulate groundwater level change under the dramatic increase of hydraulic fracturing water use in the Bakken Shale oil production area. The framework combines the agent-based model (ABM) with the Fox Hills-Hell Creek (FH-HC) groundwater model. In development of the ABM, institution theory is used to model the regulation policies from the North Dakota State Water Commission, while evolutionary programming and cognitive maps are used to model the social structure that emerges from the behavior of competing individual water businesses. Evolutionary programming allows individuals to select an appropriate strategy when annually applying for potential water use permits; whereas cognitive maps endow agent's ability and willingness to compete for more water sales. All agents have their own influence boundaries that inhibit their competitive behavior toward their neighbors but not to non-neighbors. The decision-making process is constructed and parameterized with both quantitative and qualitative information, i.e., empirical water use data and knowledge gained from surveys with stakeholders. By linking institution theory, evolutionary programming, and cognitive maps, our approach addresses a higher complexity of the real decision making process. Furthermore, this approach is a new exploration for modeling the dynamics of Coupled Human and Natural System. After integrating ABM with the FH-HC model, drought and limited water accessibility scenarios are simulated to predict FH-HC ground water level changes in the future. The integrated modeling framework of ABM and FH-HC model can be used to support making scientifically sound policies in water allocation and management.

[Analysis of the mainstreaming of the perspective of the Human Right to Adequate Food in the institutional design of the National School Nutrition Program].

PubMed

de Siqueira, Renata Lopes; Cotta, Rosângela Minardi Mitre; Ribeiro, Rita de Cássia Lanes; Sperandio, Naiara; Priore, Sílvia Eloíza

2014-01-01

Being a signatory to international agreements that recognize the Human Right to Adequate Food (HRAF) and having enshrined this right into its Constitution, the Brazilian state imposes a duty to provide, protect and promote the HRAF. For this it is necessary to incorporate the principles of the HRAF into the process of planning and executing the actions of Food and Nutrition Security (FNS). The objective was to analyze the process of mainstreaming of the HRAF in the new institutional design of the National School Nutrition Program (NSNP). This is in line with the principles laid down in General Comment No 12 of the Guide for Policy Analysis and Public Programs and nutritional Food Security under the Perspective of Human Rights and the Organic Law on Food and Nutrition Security (OLFNS). The results show that the new regulatory framework of the NSNP indicates a paradigm shift that is characterized by a gradual decline in the perception of NSNP as policy of a welfare nature. Concomitantly, there is an increase in the concept of the benefit of school food as a right, with the caveat that the construction of a new regulatory framework, although essential, is not sufficient for full implementation of the HRAF.

Polish Post-Secondary Vocational Institutions and Canadian Community Colleges: A Comparison Using an Information Technology Conceptual Framework

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Butler, Norman L.; Pachocinski, Ryszard; Davidson, Barry S.

2006-01-01

The aim of this study was to compare Polish post-secondary vocational institutions with Canadian community colleges using an information technology theoretical framework consisting of three parts: participation, feedback and partnership. The research concentrated upon programs in nursing, tourism and information technology delivered by the three…

A Practical Definition of Ethics for Truly Strategic Planning in Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kaufman, Roger

2008-01-01

In this article, the author discusses his researched framework that has been used in government organizations, the military (including international militaries), large corporations around the globe, and educational institutions such as the Sonora Institute for Technology in Sonora, Mexico. This framework is termed an "Ideal Vision" that expresses…

Research Data Storage: A Framework for Success. ECAR Working Group Paper

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blair, Douglas; Dawson, Barbara E.; Fary, Michael; Hillegas, Curtis W.; Hopkins, Brian W.; Lyons, Yolanda; McCullough, Heather; McMullen, Donald F.; Owen, Kim; Ratliff, Mark; Williams, Harry

2014-01-01

The EDUCAUSE Center for Analysis and Research Data Management Working Group (ECAR-DM) has created a framework for research data storage as an aid for higher education institutions establishing and evaluating their institution's research data storage efforts. This paper describes areas for consideration and suggests graduated criteria to assist in…

Applying the Community of Inquiry Framework to Inform the Instructional Design of Online Graduate Courses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sutton, Jann Marie

2017-01-01

As institutions continue to expand their online learning programs, it becomes increasingly important to identify research-based strategies to support their design. Numerous professional organizations provide guidance to institutions to direct the mechanics of online delivery. The Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework (Garrison, Anderson, Archer,…

Evaluating the impact of virtualization characteristics on SaaS adoption

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tomás, Sara; Thomas, Manoj; Oliveira, Tiago

2018-03-01

Software as a service (SaaS) is a service model in which the applications are accessible from various client devices through internet. Several studies report possible factors driving the adoption of SaaS but none have considered the perception of the SaaS features and the organization's context. We propose an integrated research model that combines the process virtualization theory (PVT), the technology-organization-environment (TOE) framework and the institutional theory (INT). PVT seeks to explain whether processes are suitable for migration into virtual environments via an information technology-based mechanism as SaaS. The TOE framework seeks to explain the effects of the intra-organizational factors, while INT seeks to explain the effects of the inter-organizational factors on the technology adoption. This research addresses a gap in the SaaS adoption literature by studying the internal perception of the technical features of SaaS and technology, organization, and environment perspectives. Additionally, the integration of PVT, the TOE framework, and INT contributes to the information system (IS) discipline, deepening the applicability and strengths of these theories.

[The 2010 curriculum of the faculty of medicine at the National University of Mexico].

PubMed

Sánchez-Mendiola, Melchor; Durante-Montiel, Irene; Morales-López, Sara; Lozano-Sánchez, Rogelio; Martínez-González, Adrián; Graue Wiechers, Enrique

2011-01-01

The 2010 undergraduate medical degree curriculum at the faculty of medicine of the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM) constitutes an important curricular reform of medical education in our country. It is the result of an institutional reflective process and academic dialog, which culminated in its approval by UNAM’s Academic Council for the Biology, Chemistry, and Health Sciences areas on February 2nd, 2010. Some distinguishing characteristics of the new academic curriculum are: organization by courses with a focus on outcome competencies; three curricular axes that link three knowledge areas; four educational phases with achievement profiles; new courses (biomedical informatics, basic-clinical and clinical-basic integration, among others); and core curriculum. The aforementioned curriculum was decided within a framework of effective teaching strategies, competency oriented learning assessment methods, restructuring of the training of teaching staff, and establishment of a curriculum committee follow-up and evaluation of the program. Curricular change in medical education is a complex process through which the institution can achieve its mission and vision. This change process faces challenges and opportunities, and requires strategic planning with long-term foresight to guarantee a successful dynamic transition for students, teachers, and for the institution itself.

"It's been a long journey": Exploring educationally mobile students' transition into STEM majors at a university

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arreygue, Aimee

Today, one third of all college students are considered educationally "mobile," which means they will change institutions during their undergraduate careers. The concept of educational mobility challenges the traditional idea of students moving through an educational pipeline in a linear fashion, and recognizes that many of today's students, including those in STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics), will have multiple transition points. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the transitional experiences of educationally mobile students moving into and through the STEM disciplines at a public university. Students who move from one educational environment to another undergo a significant transition process, and understanding this process for individual students and the institution's role in supporting transition has implications for educational policy. Grounded in the conceptual framework guided by Schlossberg's Transition Theory, and Swail, Redd, and Perna's Geometric Model for Student Persistence and Achievement, this study explores the following research question: How do students who are educationally mobile experience academic, social, and institutional support while transitioning into and through STEM disciplines at a four-year public university? Eighteen science and mathematics majors participated in this study, all of whom attended at least one institution of higher education prior to their current attendance at Mountain View University, a four-year comprehensive Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) in Southern California. Participants were interviewed utilizing a semi-structured interview protocol and completed a demographic questionnaire as well. Trustworthiness measures included member checking and peer debriefing. The findings of this study show that educationally mobile students are savvy agents of their education, and make personal and professional sacrifices in their pursuit of a STEM degree. They want to connect to like-minded individuals on campus, and make efforts to seek help. Findings also show that institutional agents play an important role in helping educationally mobile students navigate institutional obstacles in the transition process. Recommendations include increased dialogue about articulation and the transfer processes among institutions, engaging in more consistent advising practices (both at the community college and the university), enabling purposeful social interactions during the transition process, and researching disaggregated populations of educationally mobile students.

Ecoregions of the conterminous United States: evolution of a hierarchical spatial framework

USGS Publications Warehouse

Omernik, James M.; Griffith, Glenn E.

2014-01-01

A map of ecological regions of the conterminous United States, first published in 1987, has been greatly refined and expanded into a hierarchical spatial framework in response to user needs, particularly by state resource management agencies. In collaboration with scientists and resource managers from numerous agencies and institutions in the United States, Mexico, and Canada, the framework has been expanded to cover North America, and the original ecoregions (now termed Level III) have been refined, subdivided, and aggregated to identify coarser as well as more detailed spatial units. The most generalized units (Level I) define 10 ecoregions in the conterminous U.S., while the finest-scale units (Level IV) identify 967 ecoregions. In this paper, we explain the logic underpinning the approach, discuss the evolution of the regional mapping process, and provide examples of how the ecoregions were distinguished at each hierarchical level. The variety of applications of the ecoregion framework illustrates its utility in resource assessment and management.

Ecoregions of the Conterminous United States: Evolution of a Hierarchical Spatial Framework

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Omernik, James M.; Griffith, Glenn E.

2014-12-01

A map of ecological regions of the conterminous United States, first published in 1987, has been greatly refined and expanded into a hierarchical spatial framework in response to user needs, particularly by state resource management agencies. In collaboration with scientists and resource managers from numerous agencies and institutions in the United States, Mexico, and Canada, the framework has been expanded to cover North America, and the original ecoregions (now termed Level III) have been refined, subdivided, and aggregated to identify coarser as well as more detailed spatial units. The most generalized units (Level I) define 10 ecoregions in the conterminous U.S., while the finest-scale units (Level IV) identify 967 ecoregions. In this paper, we explain the logic underpinning the approach, discuss the evolution of the regional mapping process, and provide examples of how the ecoregions were distinguished at each hierarchical level. The variety of applications of the ecoregion framework illustrates its utility in resource assessment and management.

Policy recommendations and cost implications for a more sustainable framework for European human biomonitoring surveys.

PubMed

Joas, Anke; Knudsen, Lisbeth E; Kolossa-Gehring, Marike; Sepai, Ovnair; Casteleyn, Ludwine; Schoeters, Greet; Angerer, Jürgen; Castaño, Argelia; Aerts, Dominique; Biot, Pierre; Horvat, Milena; Bloemen, Louis; Reis, M Fátima; Lupsa, Ioana-Rodica; Katsonouri, Andromachi; Cerna, Milena; Berglund, Marika; Crettaz, Pierre; Rudnai, Peter; Halzlova, Katarina; Mulcahy, Maurice; Gutleb, Arno C; Fischer, Marc E; Becher, Georg; Fréry, Nadine; Jensen, Genon; Van Vliet, Lisette; Koch, Holger M; Den Hond, Elly; Fiddicke, Ulrike; Esteban, Marta; Exley, Karen; Schwedler, Gerda; Seiwert, Margarete; Ligocka, Danuta; Hohenblum, Philipp; Kyrtopoulos, Soterios; Botsivali, Maria; DeFelip, Elena; Guillou, Claude; Reniero, Fabiano; Grazuleviciene, Regina; Veidebaum, Toomas; Mørck, Thit A; Nielsen, Jeanette K S; Jensen, Janne F; Rivas, Teresa C; Sanchez, Jinny; Koppen, Gudrun; Smolders, Roel; Kozepesy, Szilvia; Hadjipanayis, Adamos; Krskova, Andrea; Mannion, Rory; Jakubowski, Marek; Fucic, J Aleksandra; Pereira-Miguel, Jose; Gurzau, Anca E; Jajcaj, Michal; Mazej, Darja; Tratnik, Janja Snoj; Lehmann, Andrea; Larsson, Kristin; Dumez, Birgit; Joas, Reinhard

2015-08-01

The potential of Human Biomonitoring (HBM) in exposure characterisation and risk assessment is well established in the scientific HBM community and regulatory arena by many publications. The European Environment and Health Strategy as well as the Environment and Health Action Plan 2004-2010 of the European Commission recognised the value of HBM and the relevance and importance of coordination of HBM programmes in Europe. Based on existing and planned HBM projects and programmes of work and capabilities in Europe the Seventh Framework Programme (FP 7) funded COPHES (COnsortium to Perform Human Biomonitoring on a European Scale) to advance and improve comparability of HBM data across Europe. The pilot study protocol was tested in 17 European countries in the DEMOCOPHES feasibility study (DEMOnstration of a study to COordinate and Perform Human biomonitoring on a European Scale) cofunded (50%) under the LIFE+ programme of the European Commission. The potential of HBM in supporting and evaluating policy making (including e.g. REACH) and in awareness raising on environmental health, should significantly advance the process towards a fully operational, continuous, sustainable and scientifically based EU HBM programme. From a number of stakeholder activities during the past 10 years and the national engagement, a framework for sustainable HBM structure in Europe is recommended involving national institutions within environment, health and food as well as European institutions such as ECHA, EEA, and EFSA. An economic frame with shared cost implications for national and European institutions is suggested benefitting from the capacity building set up by COPHES/DEMOCOPHES. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

River Water Pollution Status and Water Policy Scenario in Ethiopia: Raising Awareness for Better Implementation in Developing Countries.

PubMed

Awoke, Aymere; Beyene, Abebe; Kloos, Helmut; Goethals, Peter L M; Triest, Ludwig

2016-10-01

Despite the increasing levels of pollution in many tropical African countries, not much is known about the strength and weaknesses of policy and institutional frameworks to tackle pollution and ecological status of rivers and their impacts on the biota. We investigated the ecological status of four large river basins using physicochemical water quality parameters and bioindicators by collecting samples from forest, agriculture, and urban landscapes of the Nile, Omo-Gibe, Tekeze, and Awash River basins in Ethiopia. We also assessed the water policy scenario to evaluate its appropriateness to prevent and control pollution. To investigate the level of understanding and implementation of regulatory frameworks and policies related to water resources, we reviewed the policy documents and conducted in-depth interviews of the stakeholders. Physicochemical and biological data revealed that there is significant water quality deterioration at the impacted sites (agriculture, coffee processing, and urban landscapes) compared to reference sites (forested landscapes) in all four basins. The analysis of legal, policy, and institutional framework showed a lack of cooperation between stakeholders, lack of knowledge of the policy documents, absence of enforcement strategies, unavailability of appropriate working guidelines, and disconnected institutional setup at the grass root level to implement the set strategies as the major problems. In conclusion, river water pollution is a growing challenge and needs urgent action to implement intersectoral collaboration for water resource management that will eventually lead toward integrated watershed management. Revision of policy and increasing the awareness and participation of implementers are vital to improve ecological quality of rivers.

Institutional framework for integrated Pharmaceutical Benefits Management: results from a systematic review

PubMed Central

Hermanowski, Tomasz Roman; Drozdowska, Aleksandra Krystyna; Kowalczyk, Marta

2015-01-01

Objectives In this paper, we emphasised that effective management of health plans beneficiaries access to reimbursed medicines requires proper institutional set-up. The main objective was to identify and recommend an institutional framework of integrated pharmaceutical care providing effective, safe and equitable access to medicines. Method The institutional framework of drug policy was derived on the basis of publications obtained by systematic reviews. A comparative analysis concerning adaptation of coordinated pharmaceutical care services in the USA, the UK, Poland, Italy, Denmark and Germany was performed. Results While most European Union Member States promote the implementation of selected e-Health tools, like e-Prescribing, these efforts do not necessarily implement an integrated package. There is no single agent who would manage an insured patients’ access to medicines and health care in a coordinated manner, thereby increasing the efficiency and safety of drug policy. More attention should be paid by European Union Member States as to how to integrate various e-Health tools to enhance benefits to both individuals and societies. One solution could be to implement an integrated “pharmacy benefit management” model, which is well established in the USA and Canada and provides an integrated package of cost-containment methods, implemented within a transparent institutional framework and powered by strong motivation of the agent. PMID:26528099

Life‐cycle and cost of goods assessment of fed‐batch and perfusion‐based manufacturing processes for mAbs

PubMed Central

Bunnak, Phumthep; Allmendinger, Richard; Ramasamy, Sri V.; Lettieri, Paola

2016-01-01

Life‐cycle assessment (LCA) is an environmental assessment tool that quantifies the environmental impact associated with a product or a process (e.g., water consumption, energy requirements, and solid waste generation). While LCA is a standard approach in many commercial industries, its application has not been exploited widely in the bioprocessing sector. To contribute toward the design of more cost‐efficient, robust and environmentally‐friendly manufacturing process for monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), a framework consisting of an LCA and economic analysis combined with a sensitivity analysis of manufacturing process parameters and a production scale‐up study is presented. The efficiency of the framework is demonstrated using a comparative study of the two most commonly used upstream configurations for mAb manufacture, namely fed‐batch (FB) and perfusion‐based processes. Results obtained by the framework are presented using a range of visualization tools, and indicate that a standard perfusion process (with a pooling duration of 4 days) has similar cost of goods than a FB process but a larger environmental footprint because it consumed 35% more water, demanded 17% more energy, and emitted 17% more CO2 than the FB process. Water consumption was the most important impact category, especially when scaling‐up the processes, as energy was required to produce process water and water‐for‐injection, while CO2 was emitted from energy generation. The sensitivity analysis revealed that the perfusion process can be made more environmentally‐friendly than the FB process if the pooling duration is extended to 8 days. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 32:1324–1335, 2016 PMID:27390260

Kaizen: a process improvement model for the business of health care and perioperative nursing professionals.

PubMed

Tetteh, Hassan A

2012-01-01

Kaizen is a proven management technique that has a practical application for health care in the context of health care reform and the 2010 Institute of Medicine landmark report on the future of nursing. Compounded productivity is the unique benefit of kaizen, and its principles are change, efficiency, performance of key essential steps, and the elimination of waste through small and continuous process improvements. The kaizen model offers specific instruction for perioperative nurses to achieve process improvement in a five-step framework that includes teamwork, personal discipline, improved morale, quality circles, and suggestions for improvement. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Applying a Family Resilience Framework in Training, Practice, and Research: Mastering the Art of the Possible.

PubMed

Walsh, Froma

2016-12-01

With growing interest in systemic views of human resilience, this article updates and clarifies our understanding of the concept of resilience as involving multilevel dynamic processes over time. Family resilience refers to the functioning of the family system in dealing with adversity: Assessment and intervention focus on the family impact of stressful life challenges and the family processes that foster positive adaptation for the family unit and all members. The application of a family resilience framework is discussed and illustrated in clinical and community-based training and practice. Use of the author's research-informed map of core processes in family resilience is briefly noted, highlighting the recursive and synergistic influences of transactional processes within families and with their social environment. Given the inherently contextual nature of the construct of resilience, varied process elements may be more or less useful, depending on different adverse situations over time, with a major crisis; disruptive transitions; or chronic multistress conditions. This perspective is attuned to the diversity of family cultures and structures, their resources and constraints, socio-cultural and developmental influences, and the viability of varied pathways in resilience. © 2016 Family Process Institute.

Development and pilot test of a process to identify research needs from a systematic review.

PubMed

Saldanha, Ian J; Wilson, Lisa M; Bennett, Wendy L; Nicholson, Wanda K; Robinson, Karen A

2013-05-01

To ensure appropriate allocation of research funds, we need methods for identifying high-priority research needs. We developed and pilot tested a process to identify needs for primary clinical research using a systematic review in gestational diabetes mellitus. We conducted eight steps: abstract research gaps from a systematic review using the Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcomes, and Settings (PICOS) framework; solicit feedback from the review authors; translate gaps into researchable questions using the PICOS framework; solicit feedback from multidisciplinary stakeholders at our institution; establish consensus among multidisciplinary external stakeholders on the importance of the research questions using the Delphi method; prioritize outcomes; develop conceptual models to highlight research needs; and evaluate the process. We identified 19 research questions. During the Delphi method, external stakeholders established consensus for 16 of these 19 questions (15 with "high" and 1 with "medium" clinical benefit/importance). We pilot tested an eight-step process to identify clinically important research needs. Before wider application of this process, it should be tested using systematic reviews of other diseases. Further evaluation should include assessment of the usefulness of the research needs generated using this process for primary researchers and funders. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

[Legal aspects and the treatment procedure of gender dysphoria in Hungary].

PubMed

Kórász, Krisztián

2015-07-26

The legal process of gender transition in Hungary had previously been more developed as in most European countries, as the law enabled transsexual people to change their name and gender before or without a medical treatment, which was unique at the time. Over the years, however, lots of European countries developed legal frameworks and accepted international standards of care for the treatment of gender dysphoria that Hungary did not follow. Currently in Hungary there is no consistent legal framework of gender transition, there is no official regulation or guidelines regarding gender transition process, no institution with the obligation to accommodate the process, and there is no nominated specialist in the state health care system whose remit included dealing with transsexual patients. The information on gender transition options both to the professionals and to the patients is limited and incoherent. This paper reviews the legal aspects and clinical management process of gender dysphoria in Hungary. Some issues regarding the Hungarian practice and possible solutions based on examples from the United Kingdom are addressed within the paper.

Institutional ethical review and ethnographic research involving injection drug users: a case study.

PubMed

Small, Will; Maher, Lisa; Kerr, Thomas

2014-03-01

Ethnographic research among people who inject drugs (PWID) involves complex ethical issues. While ethical review frameworks have been critiqued by social scientists, there is a lack of social science research examining institutional ethical review processes, particularly in relation to ethnographic work. This case study describes the institutional ethical review of an ethnographic research project using observational fieldwork and in-depth interviews to examine injection drug use. The review process and the salient concerns of the review committee are recounted, and the investigators' responses to the committee's concerns and requests are described to illustrate how key issues were resolved. The review committee expressed concerns regarding researcher safety when conducting fieldwork, and the investigators were asked to liaise with the police regarding the proposed research. An ongoing dialogue with the institutional review committee regarding researcher safety and autonomy from police involvement, as well as formal consultation with a local drug user group and solicitation of opinions from external experts, helped to resolve these issues. This case study suggests that ethical review processes can be particularly challenging for ethnographic projects focused on illegal behaviours, and that while some challenges could be mediated by modifying existing ethical review procedures, there is a need for legislation that provides legal protection of research data and participant confidentiality. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF): Re-Examining Its Logic and Considering Possible Systemic and Institutional Outcomes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rudd, Tim

2017-01-01

This paper offers conceptual and theoretical insights relating to the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), highlighting a range of potential systemic and institutional outcomes and issues. The paper is organised around three key areas of discussion that are often under-explored in debates. Firstly, after considering the TEF in the wider context of…

Formulation of Higher Education Institutional Strategy Using Operational Research Approaches

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Labib, Ashraf; Read, Martin; Gladstone-Millar, Charlotte; Tonge, Richard; Smith, David

2014-01-01

In this paper a framework is proposed for the formulation of a higher education institutional (HEI) strategy. This work provides a practical example, through a case study, to demonstrate how the proposed framework can be applied to the issue of formulation of HEI strategy. The proposed hybrid model is based on two operational research…

A Conceptual Framework to Help Evaluate the Quality of Institutional Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kettunen, Juha

2008-01-01

Purpose: This study aims to present a general conceptual framework which can be used to evaluate quality and institutional performance in higher education. Design/methodology/approach: The quality of higher education is at the heart of the setting up of the European Higher Education Area. Strategic management is widely used in higher education…

An HBCU-Based Educational Approach for Black College Student Success: Toward a Framework with Implications for All Institutions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arroyo, Andrew T.; Gasman, Marybeth

2014-01-01

This conceptual study builds an institution-focused, non-Eurocentric, theoretical framework of black college student success. Specifically, the study synthesizes the relevant empirical research on the contributions historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have made for black student success, leading to an original model that all…

An Integrated Framework for Gender Equity in Academic Medicine.

PubMed

Westring, Alyssa; McDonald, Jennifer M; Carr, Phyllis; Grisso, Jeane Ann

2016-08-01

In 2008, the National Institutes of Health funded 14 R01 grants to study causal factors that promote and support women's biomedical careers. The Research Partnership on Women in Biomedical Careers, a multi-institutional collaboration of the investigators, is one product of this initiative.A comprehensive framework is needed to address change at many levels-department, institution, academic community, and beyond-and enable gender equity in the development of successful biomedical careers. The authors suggest four distinct but interrelated aspects of culture conducive to gender equity: equal access to resources and opportunities, minimizing unconscious gender bias, enhancing work-life balance, and leadership engagement. They review the collection of eight articles in this issue, which each address one or more of the four dimensions of culture. The articles suggest that improving mentor-mentee fit, coaching grant reviewers on unconscious bias, and providing equal compensation and adequate resources for career development will contribute positively to gender equity in academic medicine.Academic medicine must adopt an integrated perspective on culture for women and acknowledge the multiple facets essential to gender equity. To effect change, culture must be addressed both within and beyond academic health centers (AHCs). Leaders within AHCs must examine their institutions' processes, resources, and assessment for fairness and transparency; mobilize personnel and financial resources to implement evidence-based initiatives; and assign accountability for providing transparent progress assessments. Beyond AHCs, organizations must examine their operations and implement change to ensure parity of funding, research, and leadership opportunities as well as transparency of assessment and accreditation.

The Harvard Catalyst Common Reciprocal IRB Reliance Agreement: An Innovative Approach to Multisite IRB Review and Oversight

PubMed Central

Winkler, Sabune J.; Witte, Elizabeth

2014-01-01

Abstract Reduction of duplicative Institutional Review Board (IRB) review for multiinstitutional studies is a desirable goal to improve IRB efficiency while enhancing human subject protections. Here we describe the Harvard Catalyst Master Reciprocal Common IRB Reliance Agreement (MRA), a system that provides a legal framework for IRB reliance, with the potential to streamline IRB review processes and reduce administrative burden and barriers to collaborative, multiinstitutional research. The MRA respects the legal autonomy of the signatory institutions while offering a pathway to eliminate duplicative IRB review when appropriate. The Harvard Catalyst MRA provides a robust and flexible model for reciprocal reliance that is both adaptable and scalable. PMID:25196592

The Harvard Catalyst Common Reciprocal IRB Reliance Agreement: an innovative approach to multisite IRB review and oversight.

PubMed

Winkler, Sabune J; Witte, Elizabeth; Bierer, Barbara E

2015-02-01

Reduction of duplicative Institutional Review Board (IRB) review for multiinstitutional studies is a desirable goal to improve IRB efficiency while enhancing human subject protections. Here we describe the Harvard Catalyst Master Reciprocal Common IRB Reliance Agreement (MRA), a system that provides a legal framework for IRB reliance, with the potential to streamline IRB review processes and reduce administrative burden and barriers to collaborative, multiinstitutional research. The MRA respects the legal autonomy of the signatory institutions while offering a pathway to eliminate duplicative IRB review when appropriate. The Harvard Catalyst MRA provides a robust and flexible model for reciprocal reliance that is both adaptable and scalable. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

An innovative strategy in evaluation: using a student engagement framework to evaluate a role-based simulation.

PubMed

Smith, Morgan; Warland, Jane; Smith, Colleen

2012-03-01

Online role-play has the potential to actively engage students in authentic learning experiences and help develop their clinical reasoning skills. However, evaluation of student learning for this kind of simulation focuses mainly on the content and outcome of learning, rather than on the process of learning through student engagement. This article reports on the use of a student engagement framework to evaluate an online role-play offered as part of a course in Bachelor of Nursing and Bachelor of Midwifery programs. Instruments that measure student engagement to date have targeted large numbers of students at program and institutional levels, rather than at the level of a specific learning activity. Although the framework produced some useful findings for evaluation purposes, further refinement of the questions is required to be certain that deep learning results from the engagement that occurs with course-level learning initiatives. Copyright 2012, SLACK Incorporated.

A framework for human microbiome research.

PubMed

2012-06-13

A variety of microbial communities and their genes (the microbiome) exist throughout the human body, with fundamental roles in human health and disease. The National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded Human Microbiome Project Consortium has established a population-scale framework to develop metagenomic protocols, resulting in a broad range of quality-controlled resources and data including standardized methods for creating, processing and interpreting distinct types of high-throughput metagenomic data available to the scientific community. Here we present resources from a population of 242 healthy adults sampled at 15 or 18 body sites up to three times, which have generated 5,177 microbial taxonomic profiles from 16S ribosomal RNA genes and over 3.5 terabases of metagenomic sequence so far. In parallel, approximately 800 reference strains isolated from the human body have been sequenced. Collectively, these data represent the largest resource describing the abundance and variety of the human microbiome, while providing a framework for current and future studies.

Integrating high school and college students into the astronomy research community of practice through participation in a hybrid research seminar.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Freed, R.

2016-12-01

The Institute for Student Astronomical Research over the past two years has provided dozens of high school and college students the opportunity to conduct original research in astronomy and to publish their work in peer-reviewed journals. Students are engaged in the entire scientific process from coming up with a research question to collecting and analyzing the data and writing up their results for publication. During the process students work with amateur and/or professional astronomers to learn how to conduct their research and communicate their findings effectively. Working within a community of practice has been shown to improve student learning and the Institute for Student Astronomical Research provides a framework in which to bring students and astronomers together while allowing for the work to be done in a student-centered fashion.

Enhancing multiple disciplinary teamwork.

PubMed

Weaver, Terri E

2008-01-01

Multiple disciplinary research provides an opportunity to bring together investigators across disciplines to provide new views and develop innovative approaches to important questions. Through this shared experience, novel paradigms are formed, original frameworks are developed, and new language is generated. Integral to the successful construction of effective cross-disciplinary teams is the recognition of antecedent factors that affect the development of the team such as intrapersonal, social, physical environmental, organizational, and institutional influences. Team functioning is enhanced with well-developed behavioral, affective, interpersonal, and intellectual processes. Outcomes of effective multiple disciplinary research teams include novel ideas, integrative models, new training programs, institutional change, and innovative policies that can also influence the degree to which antecedents and processes contribute to team performance. Ongoing evaluation of team functioning and achievement of designated outcomes ensures the continued development of the multiple disciplinary team and confirmation of this approach as important to the advancement of science.

Evolutionary concepts in biobanking - the BC BioLibrary

PubMed Central

2009-01-01

Background Medical research to improve health care faces a major problem in the relatively limited availability of adequately annotated and collected biospecimens. This limitation is creating a growing gap between the pace of scientific advances and successful exploitation of this knowledge. Biobanks are an important conduit for transfer of biospecimens (tissues, blood, body fluids) and related health data to research. They have evolved outside of the historical source of tissue biospecimens, clinical pathology archives. Research biobanks have developed advanced standards, protocols, databases, and mechanisms to interface with researchers seeking biospecimens. However, biobanks are often limited in their capacity and ability to ensure quality in the face of increasing demand. Our strategy to enhance both capacity and quality in research biobanking is to create a new framework that repatriates the activity of biospecimen accrual for biobanks to clinical pathology. Methods The British Columbia (BC) BioLibrary is a framework to maximize the accrual of high-quality, annotated biospecimens into biobanks. The BC BioLibrary design primarily encompasses: 1) specialized biospecimen collection units embedded within clinical pathology and linked to a biospecimen distribution system that serves biobanks; 2) a systematic process to connect potential donors with biobanks, and to connect biobanks with consented biospecimens; and 3) interdisciplinary governance and oversight informed by public opinion. Results The BC BioLibrary has been embraced by biobanking leaders and translational researchers throughout BC, across multiple health authorities, institutions, and disciplines. An initial pilot network of three Biospecimen Collection Units has been successfully established. In addition, two public deliberation events have been held to obtain input from the public on the BioLibrary and on issues including consent, collection of biospecimens and governance. Conclusion The BC BioLibrary framework addresses common issues for clinical pathology, biobanking, and translational research across multiple institutions and clinical and research domains. We anticipate that our framework will lead to enhanced biospecimen accrual capacity and quality, reduced competition between biobanks, and a transparent process for donors that enhances public trust in biobanking. PMID:19909513

Pathways of Understanding: the Interactions of Humanity and Global Environmental Change

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jacobson, Harold K.; Katzenberger, John; Lousma, Jack; Mooney, Harold A.; Moss, Richard H.; Kuhn, William; Luterbacher, Urs; Wiegandt, Ellen

1992-01-01

How humans, interacting within social systems, affect and are affected by global change is explored. Recognizing the impact human activities have on the environment and responding to the need to document the interactions among human activities, the Consortium for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) commissioned a group of 12 scientists to develop a framework illustrating the key human systems that contribute to global change. This framework, called the Social Process Diagram, will help natural and social scientists, educators, resource managers and policy makers envision and analyze how human systems interact among themselves and with the natural system. The Social Process Diagram consists of the following blocks that constitute the Diagram's structural framework: (1) fund of knowledge and experience; (2) preferences and expectations; (3) factors of production and technology; (4) population and social structure; (5) economic systems; (6) political systems and institutions; and (7) global scale environmental processes. To demonstrate potential ways the Diagram can be used, this document includes 3 hypothetical scenarios of global change issues: global warming and sea level rise; the environmental impact of human population migration; and energy and the environment. These scenarios demonstrate the Diagram's usefulness for visualizing specific processes that might be studied to evaluate a particular global change issues. The scenario also shows that interesting and unanticipated questions may emerge as links are explored between categories on the Diagram.

Institutional Agents at a Hispanic Serving Institution: Using Social Capital to Empower Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Garcia, Gina A.; Ramirez, Jenesis J.

2018-01-01

As enrollment-driven postsecondary institutions, Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) must actively find ways to better "serve" their students. Guided by Stanton-Salazar's social capital framework, this study sought to understand how institutional agents use various forms of capital to develop structures that support and empower…

A Proposed Framework of Institutional Research Development Phases

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bosch, Anita; Taylor, John

2011-01-01

Globally, research has become a key driver for the achievement of status and the procurement of funding for higher education institutions. Although there is mounting pressure on institutions to become research active, many institutions are rooted in a strong tradition of teaching. These institutions find it challenging to develop research capacity…

Effective secondary fracture prevention: implementation of a global benchmarking of clinical quality using the IOF Capture the Fracture® Best Practice Framework tool.

PubMed

Javaid, M K; Kyer, C; Mitchell, P J; Chana, J; Moss, C; Edwards, M H; McLellan, A R; Stenmark, J; Pierroz, D D; Schneider, M C; Kanis, J A; Akesson, K; Cooper, C

2015-11-01

Fracture Liaison Services are the best model to prevent secondary fractures. The International Osteoporosis Foundation developed a Best Practice Framework to provide a quality benchmark. After a year of implementation, we confirmed that a single framework with set criteria is able to benchmark services across healthcare systems worldwide. Despite evidence for the clinical effectiveness of secondary fracture prevention, translation in the real-world setting remains disappointing. Where implemented, a wide variety of service models are used to deliver effective secondary fracture prevention. To support use of effective models of care across the globe, the International Osteoporosis Foundation's Capture the Fracture® programme developed a Best Practice Framework (BPF) tool of criteria and standards to provide a quality benchmark. We now report findings after the first 12 months of implementation. A questionnaire for the BPF was created and made available to institutions on the Capture the Fracture website. Responses from institutions were used to assign gold, silver, bronze or black (insufficient) level of achievements mapped across five domains. Through an interactive process with the institution, a final score was determined and published on the Capture the Fracture website Fracture Liaison Service (FLS) map. Sixty hospitals across six continents submitted their questionnaires. The hospitals served populations from 20,000 to 15 million and were a mix of private and publicly funded. Each FLS managed 146 to 6200 fragility fracture patients per year with a total of 55,160 patients across all sites. Overall, 27 hospitals scored gold, 23 silver and 10 bronze. The pathway for the hip fracture patients had the highest proportion of gold grading while vertebral fracture the lowest. In the first 12 months, we have successfully tested the BPF tool in a range of health settings across the globe. Initial findings confirm a significant heterogeneity in service provision and highlight the importance of a global approach to ensure high quality secondary fracture prevention services.

DECISION-COMPONENTS OF NICE'S TECHNOLOGY APPRAISALS ASSESSMENT FRAMEWORK.

PubMed

de Folter, Joost; Trusheim, Mark; Jonsson, Pall; Garner, Sarah

2018-01-01

Value assessment frameworks have gained prominence recently in the context of U.S. healthcare. Such frameworks set out a series of factors that are considered in funding decisions. The UK's National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is an established health technology assessment (HTA) agency. We present a novel application of text analysis that characterizes NICE's Technology Appraisals in the context of the newer assessment frameworks and present the results in a visual way. A total of 243 documents of NICE's medicines guidance from 2007 to 2016 were analyzed. Text analysis was used to identify a hierarchical set of decision factors considered in the assessments. The frequency of decision factors stated in the documents was determined and their association with terms related to uncertainty. The results were incorporated into visual representations of hierarchical factors. We identified 125 decision factors, and hierarchically grouped these into eight domains: Clinical Effectiveness, Cost Effectiveness, Condition, Current Practice, Clinical Need, New Treatment, Studies, and Other Factors. Textual analysis showed all domains appeared consistently in the guidance documents. Many factors were commonly associated with terms relating to uncertainty. A series of visual representations was created. This study reveals the complexity and consistency of NICE's decision-making processes and demonstrates that cost effectiveness is not the only decision-criteria. The study highlights the importance of processes and methodology that can take both quantitative and qualitative information into account. Visualizations can help effectively communicate this complex information during the decision-making process and subsequently to stakeholders.

[Capacity of the legal framework of public health institutions in Mexico to support their functional integration].

PubMed

Ibarra, Ignacio; Martínez, Gabriel; Aguilera, Nelly; Orozco, Emanuel; Fajardo-Dolci, Germán E; González-Block, Miguel A

2013-01-01

Evaluate the capacity of the federal legal framework to govern financing of health institutions in the public sector through innovative schemes--otherwise known as functional integration--, enabling them to purchase and sell health services to and from other public providers as a strategy to improve their performance. Based on indicators of normative alignment with respect to functional integration across public health provider and governance institutions, content analysis was undertaken of national health programs and relevant laws and guidelines for financial coordination. Significant progress was identified in the implementation of agreements for the coordination of public institutions. While the legal framework provides for a National Health System and a health sector, gaps and contradictions limit their scope. The General Register of Health is also moving forward, yet it lacks the necessary legal foundation to become a comprehensive tool for integration. The medical service exchange agreements are also moving forward based on tariffs and shared guidelines. However, there is a lack of incentives to promote the expansion of these agreements. It is recommended to update the legal framework for the coordination of the National Health System, ensuring a more harmonious and general focus to provide functional integration with the needed impulse.

Systems identification and the adaptive management of waterfowl in the United States

USGS Publications Warehouse

Williams, B.K.; Nichols, J.D.

2001-01-01

Waterfowl management in the United States is one of the more visible conservation success stories in the United States. It is authorized and supported by appropriate legislative authorities, based on large-scale monitoring programs, and widely accepted by the public. The process is one of only a limited number of large-scale examples of effective collaboration between research and management, integrating scientific information with management in a coherent framework for regulatory decision-making. However, harvest management continues to face some serious technical problems, many of which focus on sequential identification of the resource system in a context of optimal decision-making. The objective of this paper is to provide a theoretical foundation of adaptive harvest management, the approach currently in use in the United States for regulatory decision-making. We lay out the legal and institutional framework for adaptive harvest management and provide a formal description of regulatory decision-making in terms of adaptive optimization. We discuss some technical and institutional challenges in applying adaptive harvest management and focus specifically on methods of estimating resource states for linear resource systems.

Outing the costs of civil deference to the military.

PubMed

Hillman, Elizabeth L

2013-01-01

Placing the costs and process of repeal into the framework of U.S. civil governance and military power reveals the faltering state of civilian control over, and understanding of, contemporary military institutions. The excessive delays, repetitive studies, and lack of judicial oversight that characterized the process of repeal expose a military unmoored from the constitutional and democratic constraints of civilian control. The end of Don't Ask, Don't Tell is more than a civil rights triumph. It is also a lesson in the steep costs and troubling consequences of excessive civilian deference to the armed forces.

Adaptive governance and institutional strategies for climate-induced community relocations in Alaska.

PubMed

Bronen, Robin; Chapin, F Stuart

2013-06-04

This article presents governance and institutional strategies for climate-induced community relocations. In Alaska, repeated extreme weather events coupled with climate change-induced coastal erosion impact the habitability of entire communities. Community residents and government agencies concur that relocation is the only adaptation strategy that can protect lives and infrastructure. Community relocation stretches the financial and institutional capacity of existing governance institutions. Based on a comparative analysis of three Alaskan communities, Kivalina, Newtok, and Shishmaref, which have chosen to relocate, we examine the institutional constraints to relocation in the United States. We identify policy changes and components of a toolkit that can facilitate community-based adaptation when environmental events threaten people's lives and protection in place is not possible. Policy changes include amendment of the Stafford Act to include gradual geophysical processes, such as erosion, in the statutory definition of disaster and the creation of an adaptive governance framework to allow communities a continuum of responses from protection in place to community relocation. Key components of the toolkit are local leadership and integration of social and ecological well-being into adaptation planning.

Smoke-free policies in New Zealand public tertiary education institutions.

PubMed

Robertson, Lindsay A; Marsh, L

2015-04-01

The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control mandates the creation of smoke-free environments to protect non-smokers from second-hand smoke and reduce demand for tobacco. We aimed to examine the extent and nature of smoke-free campus policies at tertiary education institutions throughout New Zealand, and examine the policy development process. Stage one comprised an audit and content analysis of smoke-free policies. In stage two, semi-structured telephone interviews were conducted to investigate the process of developing and implementing policies. Qualitative content analysis was undertaken on interview notes. Policies were identified for most institutions (n = 26/29), though varied widely in nature. Only nine mandated 100% smoke-free campuses without exceptions and few prohibited the sale of tobacco on campus, or connections with the tobacco industry. During interviews (n = 22/29), cited barriers to developing a 100% smoke-free policy included enforcement challenges and anticipated opposition from staff and students. However, participants from institutions with 100% smoke-free policies reported having encountered few challenges. Varying levels of compliance with 100% smoke-free policies were reported yet, overall, these policies were viewed as being effective. Smoke-free campus policies could be strengthened to better reflect a completely tobacco-free organization. Other institutions and workplaces could use these findings to develop 100% smoke-free policies. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Adoption of high technology medical imaging and hospital quality and efficiency: Towards a conceptual framework.

PubMed

Sandoval, Guillermo A; Brown, Adalsteinn D; Wodchis, Walter P; Anderson, Geoffrey M

2018-05-17

Measuring the value of medical imaging is challenging, in part, due to the lack of conceptual frameworks underlying potential mechanisms where value may be assessed. To address this gap, this article proposes a framework that builds on the large body of literature on quality of hospital care and the classic structure-process-outcome paradigm. The framework was also informed by the literature on adoption of technological innovations and introduces 2 distinct though related aspects of imaging technology not previously addressed specifically in the literature on quality of hospital care: adoption (a structural hospital characteristic) and use (an attribute of the process of care). The framework hypothesizes a 2-part causality where adoption is proposed to be a central, linking factor between hospital structural characteristics, market factors, and hospital outcomes (ie, quality and efficiency). The first part indicates that hospital structural characteristics and market factors influence or facilitate the adoption of high technology medical imaging within an institution. The presence of this technology, in turn, is hypothesized to improve the ability of the hospital to deliver high quality and efficient care. The second part describes this ability throughout 3 main mechanisms pointing to the importance of imaging use on patients, to the presence of staff and qualified care providers, and to some elements of organizational capacity capturing an enhanced clinical environment. The framework has the potential to assist empirical investigations of the value of adoption and use of medical imaging, and to advance understanding of the mechanisms that produce quality and efficiency in hospitals. Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A Decision Support Framework for Science-Based, Multi-Stakeholder Deliberation: A Coral Reef Example

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rehr, Amanda P.; Small, Mitchell J.; Bradley, Patricia; Fisher, William S.; Vega, Ann; Black, Kelly; Stockton, Tom

2012-12-01

We present a decision support framework for science-based assessment and multi-stakeholder deliberation. The framework consists of two parts: a DPSIR (Drivers-Pressures-States-Impacts-Responses) analysis to identify the important causal relationships among anthropogenic environmental stressors, processes, and outcomes; and a Decision Landscape analysis to depict the legal, social, and institutional dimensions of environmental decisions. The Decision Landscape incorporates interactions among government agencies, regulated businesses, non-government organizations, and other stakeholders. It also identifies where scientific information regarding environmental processes is collected and transmitted to improve knowledge about elements of the DPSIR and to improve the scientific basis for decisions. Our application of the decision support framework to coral reef protection and restoration in the Florida Keys focusing on anthropogenic stressors, such as wastewater, proved to be successful and offered several insights. Using information from a management plan, it was possible to capture the current state of the science with a DPSIR analysis as well as important decision options, decision makers and applicable laws with a the Decision Landscape analysis. A structured elicitation of values and beliefs conducted at a coral reef management workshop held in Key West, Florida provided a diversity of opinion and also indicated a prioritization of several environmental stressors affecting coral reef health. The integrated DPSIR/Decision landscape framework for the Florida Keys developed based on the elicited opinion and the DPSIR analysis can be used to inform management decisions, to reveal the role that further scientific information and research might play to populate the framework, and to facilitate better-informed agreement among participants.

Hospital acquisitions, parenting styles and management accounting change: An institutional perspective.

PubMed

Dossi, Andrea; Lecci, Francesca; Longo, Francesco; Morelli, Marco

2017-02-01

Many healthcare scholars have applied institutional theories to the study of management accounting systems (MAS) change. However, little attention has been devoted to MAS change within groups. Kostova et al. highlight the limitations of traditional institutional frameworks in studying groups since they are characterised not only by the existence of external institutional environments but also by intra-organisational (meso-level) ones. Given this background, the research question is: how does the meso-level institutional environment affect MAS change in healthcare groups? We use a longitudinal multiple-case study design to understand the role of headquarters in shaping local MAS change. We would expect companies to adopt similar MAS. However, we argue that the relationship between external institutions and MAS change cannot be wholly understood without taking into consideration the role of headquarters. Our analysis shows how hospitals facing the same external institutional environment implement different MAS as a consequence of different parenting styles. From a scientific perspective, our article contributes to broaden traditional institutional theoretical frameworks.

A Reinterpretation of Institutional Transformations in European Higher Education: Strategising Pluralistic Organisations in Multiplex Environments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Frolich, Nicoline; Huisman, Jeroen; Slipersaeter, Stig; Stensaker, Bjorn; Botas, Paulo Charles Pimentel

2013-01-01

The paper draws on institutional theory with special attention to recent contributions that aim at developing its micro-foundations. We address the question of how individual higher education institutions deal with institutional pluralism. We develop an analytical framework inspired by institutional theory, the sensemaking perspective in…

Undocumented Students at the Community College: Creating Institutional Capacity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Valenzuela, Jéssica I.; Perez, William; Perez, Iliana; Montiel, Gloria Itzel; Chaparro, Gabriel

2015-01-01

This chapter introduces Institutional Undocu-Competence (IUC), an institutional capacity framework emerging from a critical analysis of cultural competence, aimed to inform community colleges' efforts to better support the growing undocumented student population.

A stochastic model for the normal tissue complication probability (NTCP) and applicationss.

PubMed

Stocks, Theresa; Hillen, Thomas; Gong, Jiafen; Burger, Martin

2017-12-11

The normal tissue complication probability (NTCP) is a measure for the estimated side effects of a given radiation treatment schedule. Here we use a stochastic logistic birth-death process to define an organ-specific and patient-specific NTCP. We emphasize an asymptotic simplification which relates the NTCP to the solution of a logistic differential equation. This framework is based on simple modelling assumptions and it prepares a framework for the use of the NTCP model in clinical practice. As example, we consider side effects of prostate cancer brachytherapy such as increase in urinal frequency, urinal retention and acute rectal dysfunction. © The authors 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications. All rights reserved.

NIST biometric evaluations and developments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Garris, Michael D.; Wilson, Charles L.

2005-05-01

This paper presents an R&D framework used by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for biometric technology testing and evaluation. The focus of this paper is on fingerprint-based verification and identification. Since 9-11 the NIST Image Group has been mandated by Congress to run a program for biometric technology assessment and biometric systems certification. Four essential areas of activity are discussed: 1) developing test datasets, 2) conducting performance assessment; 3) technology development; and 4) standards participation. A description of activities and accomplishments are provided for each of these areas. In the process, methods of performance testing are described and results from specific biometric technology evaluations are presented. This framework is anticipated to have broad applicability to other technology and application domains.

Mentalizing Family Violence Part 1: Conceptual Framework.

PubMed

Asen, Eia; Fonagy, Peter

2017-03-01

This is the first of two companion papers describing concepts and techniques of a mentalization-based approach to understanding and managing family violence. We review evidence that attachment difficulties, sudden high levels of arousal, and poor affect control contribute to a loss of mentalizing capacity, which, in turn, undermines social learning and can favor the transgenerational transmission of violent interaction patterns. It is suggested that physically violent acts are only possible if mentalizing is temporarily inhibited or decoupled. However, being mentalized in the context of attachment relationships in the family generates epistemic trust within the family unit and reduces the likelihood of family violence. The implications of this framework for therapeutic work with families are discussed. © 2016 Family Process Institute.

Towards Archetypes-Based Software Development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Piho, Gunnar; Roost, Mart; Perkins, David; Tepandi, Jaak

We present a framework for the archetypes based engineering of domains, requirements and software (Archetypes-Based Software Development, ABD). An archetype is defined as a primordial object that occurs consistently and universally in business domains and in business software systems. An archetype pattern is a collaboration of archetypes. Archetypes and archetype patterns are used to capture conceptual information into domain specific models that are utilized by ABD. The focus of ABD is on software factories - family-based development artefacts (domain specific languages, patterns, frameworks, tools, micro processes, and others) that can be used to build the family members. We demonstrate the usage of ABD for developing laboratory information management system (LIMS) software for the Clinical and Biomedical Proteomics Group, at the Leeds Institute of Molecular Medicine, University of Leeds.

Strengthening Clean Energy Technology Cooperation under the UNFCCC: Steps toward Implementation

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Benioff, R.; de Coninck, H.; Dhar, S.

2010-08-01

Development of a comprehensive and effective global clean technology cooperation framework will require years of experimenting and evaluation with new instruments and institutional arrangements before it is clear what works on which scale and in which region or country. In presenting concrete examples, this paper aims to set the first step in that process by highlighting successful models and innovative approaches that can inform efforts to ramp up clean energy technology cooperation. This paper reviews current mechanisms and international frameworks for global cooperation on clean energy technologies, both within and outside of the UNFCCC, and provides selected concrete options formore » scaling up global cooperation on clean energy technology RD&D, enabling environment, and financing.« less

Informing clinical policy decision-making practices in ambulance services.

PubMed

Muecke, Sandy; Curac, Nada; Binks, Darryn

2013-12-01

This study aims to identify the processes and frameworks that support an evidence-based approach to clinical policy decision-making practices in ambulance services. This literature review focused on: (i) the setting (pre-hospital); and (ii) the process of evidence translation, for studies published after the year 2000. Searches of Medline, CINAHL and Google were undertaken. Reference lists of eligible publications were searched for relevant articles. A total of 954 articles were identified. Of these, 20 full text articles were assessed for eligibility and seven full text articles met the inclusion criteria. Three provided detailed descriptions of the evidence-based practice processes used to inform ambulance service protocol or guideline development or review. There is little published literature that describes the processes involved, and frameworks required, to inform clinical policy decision making within ambulance services. This review found that processes were iterative and involved collaborations across many internal and external stakeholders. In several jurisdictions, these were coordinated by a dedicated team. Success appears dependent on committed leadership and purposive human and structural resources. Although time consuming, structured processes have been developed in some jurisdictions to assist decision-making processes. Further insight is likely to be obtained from literature published by those from other disciplines. © 2013 The Authors. International Journal of Evidence-Based Healthcare © 2013 The Joanna Briggs Institute.

eXframe: reusable framework for storage, analysis and visualization of genomics experiments

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Background Genome-wide experiments are routinely conducted to measure gene expression, DNA-protein interactions and epigenetic status. Structured metadata for these experiments is imperative for a complete understanding of experimental conditions, to enable consistent data processing and to allow retrieval, comparison, and integration of experimental results. Even though several repositories have been developed for genomics data, only a few provide annotation of samples and assays using controlled vocabularies. Moreover, many of them are tailored for a single type of technology or measurement and do not support the integration of multiple data types. Results We have developed eXframe - a reusable web-based framework for genomics experiments that provides 1) the ability to publish structured data compliant with accepted standards 2) support for multiple data types including microarrays and next generation sequencing 3) query, analysis and visualization integration tools (enabled by consistent processing of the raw data and annotation of samples) and is available as open-source software. We present two case studies where this software is currently being used to build repositories of genomics experiments - one contains data from hematopoietic stem cells and another from Parkinson's disease patients. Conclusion The web-based framework eXframe offers structured annotation of experiments as well as uniform processing and storage of molecular data from microarray and next generation sequencing platforms. The framework allows users to query and integrate information across species, technologies, measurement types and experimental conditions. Our framework is reusable and freely modifiable - other groups or institutions can deploy their own custom web-based repositories based on this software. It is interoperable with the most important data formats in this domain. We hope that other groups will not only use eXframe, but also contribute their own useful modifications. PMID:22103807

Identification of Patients with Family History of Pancreatic Cancer--Investigation of an NLP System Portability.

PubMed

Mehrabi, Saeed; Krishnan, Anand; Roch, Alexandra M; Schmidt, Heidi; Li, DingCheng; Kesterson, Joe; Beesley, Chris; Dexter, Paul; Schmidt, Max; Palakal, Mathew; Liu, Hongfang

2015-01-01

In this study we have developed a rule-based natural language processing (NLP) system to identify patients with family history of pancreatic cancer. The algorithm was developed in a Unstructured Information Management Architecture (UIMA) framework and consisted of section segmentation, relation discovery, and negation detection. The system was evaluated on data from two institutions. The family history identification precision was consistent across the institutions shifting from 88.9% on Indiana University (IU) dataset to 87.8% on Mayo Clinic dataset. Customizing the algorithm on the the Mayo Clinic data, increased its precision to 88.1%. The family member relation discovery achieved precision, recall, and F-measure of 75.3%, 91.6% and 82.6% respectively. Negation detection resulted in precision of 99.1%. The results show that rule-based NLP approaches for specific information extraction tasks are portable across institutions; however customization of the algorithm on the new dataset improves its performance.

Case-based retrieval framework for gene expression data.

PubMed

Anaissi, Ali; Goyal, Madhu; Catchpoole, Daniel R; Braytee, Ali; Kennedy, Paul J

2015-01-01

The process of retrieving similar cases in a case-based reasoning system is considered a big challenge for gene expression data sets. The huge number of gene expression values generated by microarray technology leads to complex data sets and similarity measures for high-dimensional data are problematic. Hence, gene expression similarity measurements require numerous machine-learning and data-mining techniques, such as feature selection and dimensionality reduction, to be incorporated into the retrieval process. This article proposes a case-based retrieval framework that uses a k-nearest-neighbor classifier with a weighted-feature-based similarity to retrieve previously treated patients based on their gene expression profiles. The herein-proposed methodology is validated on several data sets: a childhood leukemia data set collected from The Children's Hospital at Westmead, as well as the Colon cancer, the National Cancer Institute (NCI), and the Prostate cancer data sets. Results obtained by the proposed framework in retrieving patients of the data sets who are similar to new patients are as follows: 96% accuracy on the childhood leukemia data set, 95% on the NCI data set, 93% on the Colon cancer data set, and 98% on the Prostate cancer data set. The designed case-based retrieval framework is an appropriate choice for retrieving previous patients who are similar to a new patient, on the basis of their gene expression data, for better diagnosis and treatment of childhood leukemia. Moreover, this framework can be applied to other gene expression data sets using some or all of its steps.

Institutional racism and the medical/health complex: a conceptual analysis.

PubMed

King, G

1996-01-01

Presented in this paper is a theoretical framework for understanding and applying the concept of institutional racism to the medical/health care system. Medicine and health are viewed as vital social institutions that reflect the norms, values and social stratification systems of the larger society. Institutional or systemic patterns of racism are legitimated and promulgated through accepted standards, criteria, and organizational processes within the medical health complex that have the effect of discriminating against the minority group. It is maintained that racism is manifested (overtly or covertly) through history, ideology, community relations, research, education and the professions, and differential treatment. Focusing on investigators who have conducted studies of "racial bias" in the diagnosis and treatment of coronary artery disease, the author discusses some of the shortcomings of this research, from an institution racism perspective. Differential treatment researchers are encouraged to include social theory as part of their analysis and to explain the practical significance of their findings for the equitable delivery of health care. It is suggested that, because of wider structural changes occurring in American society, issues related to racism within medical and health institutions will become increasingly more important.

The stigma of childhood mental disorders: a conceptual framework.

PubMed

Mukolo, Abraham; Heflinger, Craig Anne; Wallston, Kenneth A

2010-02-01

To describe the state of the literature on stigma associated with children's mental disorders and highlight gaps in empirical work. We reviewed child mental illness stigma articles in (English only) peer-reviewed journals available through Medline and PsychInfo. We augmented these with adult-oriented stigma articles that focus on theory and measurement. A total of 145 articles in PsychInfo and 77 articles in MEDLINE met search criteria. The review process involved identifying and appraising literature convergence on the definition of critical dimensions of stigma, antecedents, and outcomes reported in empirical studies. We found concurrence on three dimensions of stigma (negative stereotypes, devaluation, and discrimination), two contexts of stigma (self, general public), and two targets of stigma (self/individual, family). Theory and empirics on institutional and self-stigma in child populations were sparse. Literature reports few theoretic frameworks and conceptualizations of child mental illness stigma. One model of help seeking (the FINIS) explicitly acknowledges the role of stigma in children's access and use of mental health services. Compared with adults, children are subject to unique stigmatizing contexts that have not been adequately studied. The field needs conceptual frameworks that get closer to stigma experiences that are causally linked to how parents/caregivers cope with children's emotional and behavioral problems, such as seeking professional help. To further research in child mental illness, we suggest an approach to adapting current theoretical frameworks and operationalizing stigma, highlighting three dimensions of stigma, three contexts of stigma (including institutions), and three targets of stigma (self/child, family, and services).

A model for mentoring newly-appointed nurse educators in nursing education institutions in South Africa.

PubMed

Seekoe, Eunice

2014-04-24

South Africa transformed higher education through the enactment of the Higher Education Act (No. 101 of 1997). The researcher identified the need to develop a model for the mentoring of newly-appointed nurse educators in nursing education institutions in South Africa.  To develop and describe the model for mentoring newly-appointed nurse educators in nursing education institutions in South Africa.  A qualitative and theory-generating design was used (following empirical findings regarding needs analysis) in order to develop the model. The conceptualisation of the framework focused on the context, content, process and the theoretical domains that influenced the model. Ideas from different theories were borrowed from and integrated with the literature and deductive and inductive strategies were applied.  The structure of the model is multidimensional and complex in nature (macro, mesoand micro) based on the philosophy of reflective practice, competency-based practice andcritical learning theories. The assumptions are in relation to stakeholders, context, mentoring, outcome, process and dynamic. The stakeholders are the mentor and mentee within an interactive participatory relationship. The mentoring takes place within the process with a sequence of activities such as relationship building, development, engagement, reflective process and assessment. Capacity building and empowerment are outcomes of mentoring driven by motivation.  The implication for nurse managers is that the model can be used to develop mentoring programmes for newly-appointed nurse educators.

Potential Applications of the National Institute of Mental Health's Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) to Clinical Psychiatric Practice: How RDoC Might Be Used in Assessment, Diagnostic Processes, Case Formulation, Treatment Planning, and Clinical Notes.

PubMed

Yager, Joel; Feinstein, Robert E

2017-04-01

Offering a new framework for understanding and studying basic dimensions of normal and abnormal human functioning and mental disorders, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) has initiated the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) project in which a series of higher order domains, representing major systems of emotion, cognition, motivation, and social behavior, and their constituent operationally defined constructs serve as organizing templates for further research and inquiry, eg, to discover validated biomarkers and endophenotypes. Cutting across traditional DSM diagnoses, the domains are defined as Negative Valence Systems, Positive Valence Systems, Cognitive Systems, Systems for Social Processes, and Arousal/Regulatory Systems. To inform educators, trainees, and practitioners about RDoC, alert them to potential practical applications, and encourage their broad exploration in clinical settings, this article reviews the RDoC domains and their subsystem constructs with regard to potential current clinical considerations and applications. We describe ways in which the RDoC domains and constructs offer transdiagnostic frameworks for complementing traditional practice; suggest clinical questions to help elucidate salient information; and, translating RDoC domains and constructs headings into clinically friendly language, offer a template for the psychiatric review of systems that can serve in clinical notes. © Copyright 2017 Physicians Postgraduate Press, Inc.

Continuous patient engagement in cardiovascular disease clinical comparative effectiveness research.

PubMed

Vandigo, Joseph; Oloyede, Ebenezer; Aly, Abdalla; Laird, Aurelia L; Cooke, Catherine E; Mullins, C Daniel

2016-01-01

Researchers have produced evidence that identifies interventions that reduce cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk; however, despite a significant investment in research CVD remains the leading cause of death. Engaging patients in the research process has the potential to ensure that evidence-based treatments are adopted in real-world practice to improve patient outcomes. The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute has created an Engagement Rubric to guide meaningful engagement in the research process. A 10-step systematic framework to enhance patient engagement throughout the comparative effectiveness research process also has been proposed. This special report identifies the relationship between these two approaches to patient engagement and describes examples of how patients could be engaged in a hypothetical CVD study.

Philosophy and conceptual framework: collectively structuring nursing care systematization.

PubMed

Schmitz, Eudinéia Luz; Gelbcke, Francine Lima; Bruggmann, Mario Sérgio; Luz, Susian Cássia Liz

2017-03-30

To build the Nursing Philosophy and Conceptual Framework that will support the Nursing Care Systematization in a hospital in southern Brazil with the active participation of the institution's nurses. Convergent Care Research Data collection took place from July to October 2014, through two workshops and four meetings, with 42 nurses. As a result, the nursing philosophy and conceptual framework were created and the theory was chosen. Data analysis was performed based on Morse and Field. The philosophy involves the following beliefs: team nursing; team work; holistic care; service excellence; leadership/coordination; interdisciplinary team commitment. The conceptual framework brings concepts such as: human being; nursing; nursing care, safe care. The nursing theory defined was that of Wanda de Aguiar Horta. As a contribution, it brought the construction of the institutions' nursing philosophy and conceptual framework, and the definition of a nursing theory.

Pilot Institute on Global Change on Trace Gases and the Biosphere, 1988

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Eddy, J. A.; Moore, B.

1998-01-01

Table of Contents: Summary; Background; General Framework for a Series of Institutes on Global Change; The 1988 Pilot Institute on Global Changes: Trace Gases and the Biosphere; Budget; List of Acronyms; and Attachments.

Developing a holistic policy and intervention framework for global mental health.

PubMed

Khenti, Akwatu; Fréel, Stéfanie; Trainor, Ruth; Mohamoud, Sirad; Diaz, Pablo; Suh, Erica; Bobbili, Sireesha J; Sapag, Jaime C

2016-02-01

There are significant gaps in the accessibility and quality of mental health services around the globe. A wide range of institutions are addressing the challenges, but there is limited reflection and evaluation on the various approaches, how they compare with each other, and conclusions regarding the most effective approach for particular settings. This article presents a framework for global mental health capacity building that could potentially serve as a promising or best practice in the field. The framework is the outcome of a decade of collaborative global health work at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) (Ontario, Canada). The framework is grounded in scientific evidence, relevant learning and behavioural theories and the underlying principles of health equity and human rights. Grounded in CAMH's research, programme evaluation and practical experience in developing and implementing mental health capacity building interventions, this article presents the iterative learning process and impetus that formed the basis of the framework. A developmental evaluation (Patton M.2010. Developmental Evaluation: Applying Complexity Concepts to Enhance Innovation and Use. New York: Guilford Press.) approach was used to build the framework, as global mental health collaboration occurs in complex or uncertain environments and evolving learning systems. A multilevel framework consists of five central components: (1) holistic health, (2) cultural and socioeconomic relevance, (3) partnerships, (4) collaborative action-based education and learning and (5) sustainability. The framework's practical application is illustrated through the presentation of three international case studies and four policy implications. Lessons learned, limitations and future opportunities are also discussed. The holistic policy and intervention framework for global mental health reflects an iterative learning process that can be applied and scaled up across different settings through appropriate modifications. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press in association with The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

The Effects of Quality of Care on Costs: A Conceptual Framework

PubMed Central

Nuckols, Teryl K; Escarce, José J; Asch, Steven M

2013-01-01

Context The quality of health care and the financial costs affected by receiving care represent two fundamental dimensions for judging health care performance. No existing conceptual framework appears to have described how quality influences costs. Methods We developed the Quality-Cost Framework, drawing from the work of Donabedian, the RAND/UCLA Appropriateness Method, reports by the Institute of Medicine, and other sources. Findings The Quality-Cost Framework describes how health-related quality of care (aspects of quality that influence health status) affects health care and other costs. Structure influences process, which, in turn, affects proximate and ultimate outcomes. Within structure, subdomains include general structural characteristics, circumstance-specific (e.g., disease-specific) structural characteristics, and quality-improvement systems. Process subdomains include appropriateness of care and medical errors. Proximate outcomes consist of disease progression, disease complications, and care complications. Each of the preceding subdomains influences health care costs. For example, quality improvement systems often create costs associated with monitoring and feedback. Providing appropriate care frequently requires additional physician visits and medications. Care complications may result in costly hospitalizations or procedures. Ultimate outcomes include functional status as well as length and quality of life; the economic value of these outcomes can be measured in terms of health utility or health-status-related costs. We illustrate our framework using examples related to glycemic control for type 2 diabetes mellitus or the appropriateness of care for low back pain. Conclusions The Quality-Cost Framework describes the mechanisms by which health-related quality of care affects health care and health status–related costs. Additional work will need to validate the framework by applying it to multiple clinical conditions. Applicability could be assessed by using the framework to classify the measures of quality and cost reported in published studies. Usefulness could be demonstrated by employing the framework to identify design flaws in published cost analyses, such as omitting the costs attributable to a relevant subdomain of quality. PMID:23758513

PRECISE:PRivacy-prEserving Cloud-assisted quality Improvement Service in hEalthcare

PubMed Central

Chen, Feng; Wang, Shuang; Mohammed, Noman; Cheng, Samuel; Jiang, Xiaoqian

2015-01-01

Quality improvement (QI) requires systematic and continuous efforts to enhance healthcare services. A healthcare provider might wish to compare local statistics with those from other institutions in order to identify problems and develop intervention to improve the quality of care. However, the sharing of institution information may be deterred by institutional privacy as publicizing such statistics could lead to embarrassment and even financial damage. In this article, we propose a PRivacy-prEserving Cloud-assisted quality Improvement Service in hEalthcare (PRECISE), which aims at enabling cross-institution comparison of healthcare statistics while protecting privacy. The proposed framework relies on a set of state-of-the-art cryptographic protocols including homomorphic encryption and Yao’s garbled circuit schemes. By securely pooling data from different institutions, PRECISE can rank the encrypted statistics to facilitate QI among participating institutes. We conducted experiments using MIMIC II database and demonstrated the feasibility of the proposed PRECISE framework. PMID:26146645

PRECISE:PRivacy-prEserving Cloud-assisted quality Improvement Service in hEalthcare.

PubMed

Chen, Feng; Wang, Shuang; Mohammed, Noman; Cheng, Samuel; Jiang, Xiaoqian

2014-10-01

Quality improvement (QI) requires systematic and continuous efforts to enhance healthcare services. A healthcare provider might wish to compare local statistics with those from other institutions in order to identify problems and develop intervention to improve the quality of care. However, the sharing of institution information may be deterred by institutional privacy as publicizing such statistics could lead to embarrassment and even financial damage. In this article, we propose a PRivacy-prEserving Cloud-assisted quality Improvement Service in hEalthcare (PRECISE), which aims at enabling cross-institution comparison of healthcare statistics while protecting privacy. The proposed framework relies on a set of state-of-the-art cryptographic protocols including homomorphic encryption and Yao's garbled circuit schemes. By securely pooling data from different institutions, PRECISE can rank the encrypted statistics to facilitate QI among participating institutes. We conducted experiments using MIMIC II database and demonstrated the feasibility of the proposed PRECISE framework.

A Conceptual Model and Clinical Framework for Integrating Mindfulness into Family Therapy with Adolescents.

PubMed

Brody, Janet L; Scherer, David G; Turner, Charles W; Annett, Robert D; Dalen, Jeanne

2017-06-07

Individual and group-based psychotherapeutic interventions increasingly incorporate mindfulness-based principles and practices. These practices include a versatile set of skills such as labeling and attending to present-moment experiences, acting with awareness, and avoiding automatic reactivity. A primary motivation for integrating mindfulness into these therapies is compelling evidence that it enhances emotion regulation. Research also demonstrates that family relationships have a profound influence on emotion regulation capacities, which are central to family functioning and prosocial behavior more broadly. Despite this evidence, no framework exists to describe how mindfulness might integrate into family therapy. This paper describes the benefits of mindfulness-based interventions, highlighting how and why informal mindfulness practices might enhance emotion regulation when integrated with family therapy. We provide a clinical framework for integrating mindfulness into family therapy, particularly as it applies to families with adolescents. A brief case example details sample methods showing how incorporating mindfulness practices into family therapy may enhance treatment outcomes. A range of assessment modalities from biological to behavioral demonstrates the breadth with which the benefits of a family-based mindfulness intervention might be evaluated. © 2017 The Authors. Family Process published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Family Process Institute.

The Politics of Universal Health Coverage in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Framework for Evaluation and Action.

PubMed

Fox, Ashley M; Reich, Michael R

2015-10-01

Universal health coverage has recently become a top item on the global health agenda pressed by multilateral and donor organizations, as disenchantment grows with vertical, disease-specific health programs. This increasing focus on universal health coverage has brought renewed attention to the role of domestic politics and the interaction between domestic and international relations in the health reform process. This article proposes a theory-based framework for analyzing the politics of health reform for universal health coverage, according to four stages in the policy cycle (agenda setting, design, adoption, and implementation) and four variables that affect reform (interests, institutions, ideas, and ideology). This framework can assist global health policy researchers, multilateral organization officials, and national policy makers in navigating the complex political waters of health reforms aimed at achieving universal health coverage. To derive the framework, we critically review the theoretical and applied literature on health policy reform in developing countries and illustrate the framework with examples of health reforms moving toward universal coverage in low- and middle-income countries. We offer a series of lessons stemming from these experiences to date. Copyright © 2015 by Duke University Press.

Building a Protocol Expressway: The Case of Mayo Clinic Cancer Center

PubMed Central

McJoynt, Terre A.; Hirzallah, Muhanad A.; Satele, Daniel V.; Pitzen, Jason H.; Alberts, Steven R.; Rajkumar, S. Vincent

2009-01-01

Purpose Inconsistencies and errors resulting from nonstandard processes, together with redundancies, rework, and excess workload, lead to extended time frames for clinical trial protocol development. This results in dissatisfaction among sponsors, investigators, and staff and restricts the availability of novel treatment options for patients. Methods A team of experts from Mayo Clinic formed, including Protocol Development Unit staff and management from the three Mayo Clinic campuses (Florida, Minnesota, and Arizona), a systems and procedures analyst, a quality office analyst, and two physician members to address the identified deficiencies. The current-state process was intensively reviewed, and improvement steps were taken to accelerate the development and approval of cancer-related clinical trials. The primary goal was to decrease the time from receipt of a new protocol through submission to an approving authority, such as the National Cancer Institute or institutional review board. Results Using the Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control (DMAIC) framework infused with Lean waste-reduction methodologies, areas were identified for improvement, including enhancing first-time quality and processing new studies on a first-in/first-out basis. The project was successful in improving the mean turnaround time for internally authored protocols (P < .001) from 25.00 weeks (n = 41; range, 3.43 to 94.14 weeks) to 10.15 weeks (n = 14; range, 4.00 to 22.14 weeks). The mean turnaround time for externally authored protocols was improved (P < .001) from 20.61 weeks (n = 85; range, 3.29 to 108.57 weeks) to 7.79 weeks (n = 50; range, 2.00 to 20.86 weeks). Conclusion DMAIC framework combined with Lean methodologies is an effective tool to structure the definition, planning, analysis, and implementation of significant process changes. PMID:19564529

Building a protocol expressway: the case of Mayo Clinic Cancer Center.

PubMed

McJoynt, Terre A; Hirzallah, Muhanad A; Satele, Daniel V; Pitzen, Jason H; Alberts, Steven R; Rajkumar, S Vincent

2009-08-10

Inconsistencies and errors resulting from nonstandard processes, together with redundancies, rework, and excess workload, lead to extended time frames for clinical trial protocol development. This results in dissatisfaction among sponsors, investigators, and staff and restricts the availability of novel treatment options for patients. A team of experts from Mayo Clinic formed, including Protocol Development Unit staff and management from the three Mayo Clinic campuses (Florida, Minnesota, and Arizona), a systems and procedures analyst, a quality office analyst, and two physician members to address the identified deficiencies. The current-state process was intensively reviewed, and improvement steps were taken to accelerate the development and approval of cancer-related clinical trials. The primary goal was to decrease the time from receipt of a new protocol through submission to an approving authority, such as the National Cancer Institute or institutional review board. Using the Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control (DMAIC) framework infused with Lean waste-reduction methodologies, areas were identified for improvement, including enhancing first-time quality and processing new studies on a first-in/first-out basis. The project was successful in improving the mean turnaround time for internally authored protocols (P < .001) from 25.00 weeks (n = 41; range, 3.43 to 94.14 weeks) to 10.15 weeks (n = 14; range, 4.00 to 22.14 weeks). The mean turnaround time for externally authored protocols was improved (P < .001) from 20.61 weeks (n = 85; range, 3.29 to 108.57 weeks) to 7.79 weeks (n = 50; range, 2.00 to 20.86 weeks). DMAIC framework combined with Lean methodologies is an effective tool to structure the definition, planning, analysis, and implementation of significant process changes.

Validating a conceptual framework for the core concept of "cell-cell communication".

PubMed

Michael, Joel; Martinkova, Patricia; McFarland, Jenny; Wright, Ann; Cliff, William; Modell, Harold; Wenderoth, Mary Pat

2017-06-01

We have created and validated a conceptual framework for the core physiology concept of "cell-cell communication." The conceptual framework is composed of 51 items arranged in a hierarchy that is, in some instances, four levels deep. We have validated it with input from faculty who teach at a wide variety of institutional types. All items making up the framework were deemed essential to moderately important. However, some of the main ideas were clearly judged to be more important than others. Furthermore, the lower in the hierarchy an item is, the less important it is thought to be. Finally, there was no significant difference in the ratings given by faculty at different types of institutions. Copyright © 2017 the American Physiological Society.

Student Success and Institutional Accountability through the Components of Voluntary Framework Accountability

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mentzer, Stacy

2015-01-01

Demands on higher education institutions are growing. Stakeholders are demanding proof of quality to ensure students are receiving the education they are paying for. Institutional accountability is a growing concern for higher education institutions, more specifically community colleges. The diverse characteristics of community colleges have made…

Institutional Drivers and Barriers to Faculty Adoption of Blended Learning in Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Porter, Wendy W.; Graham, Charles R.

2016-01-01

Relatively little research on blended learning (BL) addresses institutional adoption, although such research would benefit institutions of higher education in strategically adopting and implementing BL. In a prior study, the authors proposed a framework for institutional BL adoption, identifying three stages: (1) awareness/exploration, (2)…

Managing Resources and Relations in Higher Education Institutions: A Framework for Understanding Performance Improvement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ho, Sophia Shi-Huei; Peng, Michael Yao-Ping

2016-01-01

Changes in social systems demonstrate that various structural disadvantages have jointly led to increasing competition among higher education institutions (HEIs) in many countries, especially Taiwan. Institutional administrators must recognize the need to understand how to improve performance and consistently outperform other institutions.…

Analysing arrangements for cross-border mobility of patients in the European Union: a proposal for a framework.

PubMed

Legido-Quigley, Helena; Glinos, Irene A; Baeten, Rita; McKee, Martin; Busse, Reinhard

2012-11-01

This paper proposes a framework for analyzing arrangements set up to facilitate cross-border mobility of patients in the European Union. Exploiting both conceptual analysis and data from a range of case studies carried out in a number of European projects, and building on Walt and Gilson's model of policy analysis, the framework consists of five major components, each with a subset of categories or issues: (1) The actors directly and indirectly involved in setting up and promoting arrangements, (2) the content of the arrangements, classified into four categories (e.g. purchaser-provider and provider-provider or joint cross-border providers), (3) the institutional framework of the arrangements (including the underlying European and national legal frameworks, health systems' characteristics and payment mechanisms), (4) the processes that have led to the initiation and continuation, or cessation, of arrangements, (5) contextual factors (e.g. political or cultural) that impact on cross-border patient mobility and thus arrangements to facilitate them. The framework responds to what is a clearly identifiable demand for a means to analyse these interrelated concepts and dimensions. We believe that it will be useful to researchers studying cross-border collaborations and policy makers engaging in them. Crown Copyright © 2012. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Malone, Elizabeth L.; Sanquist, Tom; Wolfe, Amy K.

This document is part of a larger, programmatic effort to assist federal agencies in taking action and changing their institutions to achieve and maintain federal sustainability goals, while meeting their mission goals. FEMP is developing guidance for federal agency efforts to enable institutional behavior change for sustainability, and for making sustainability “business as usual.” The driving requirement for this change is Executive Order (EO) 13514, Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy, and Economic Performance. FEMP emphasizes strategies for increasing energy efficiency and renewable energy utilization as critical components of attaining sustainability, and promotes additional non-energy action pathways contained in EO 13514.more » This report contributes to the larger goal by laying out the conceptual and evidentiary underpinnings of guidance to federal agencies. Conceptual frameworks focus and organize the development of guidance. We outline a series of progressively refined conceptual frameworks, including a multi-layer approach, key steps in sustainability implementation, a process view of specific approaches to institutional change, the agency Strategic Sustainability Performance Plans (SSPPs), and concepts related to context-specific rules, roles and tools for sustainability. Additionally, we tap pertinent bodies of literature in drawing eight evidence-based principles for behavior change. These principles are important foundations upon which to build in selecting strategies to effect change in organizations. Taken together, this report presents a suite of components that inform the training materials, presentations, web site, and other products that provide guidance to federal agencies.« less

Factors promoting sustainability of education innovations: a comparison of faculty perceptions and existing frameworks.

PubMed

Loh, Lawrence C; Friedman, Stacey R; Burdick, William P

2013-01-01

Health professions education uses innovative projects to promote faculty development and institution change. Faculty perceptions of the factors that promote project sustainability affect how faculty conceptualize and implement their innovations, which influences whether and how they plan for sustainability. This paper compares educators' perceptions of factors that influence sustainability in innovative projects with factors identified in project sustainability literature, to identify areas of convergence and divergence. Using questionnaires, faculty development fellowship participants from Brazil and India shared their perceptions on factors influencing their project's sustainability. An analysis framework was developed from existing project sustainability literature; faculty responses were then coded through an iterative process. Key sustainability themes identified by faculty included project-level factors related to project design, stakeholder support, monitoring and evaluation, and project outcomes. Identified context level factors were related to institutional and governmental support as well as self-motivation and peer support. Availability of resources and funding were identified as relevant at both the project and context levels. Project-level factors were more often cited than context-level factors as key to ensuring sustainability. Faculty development efforts in health professions education should employ strategies to target these themes in promoting innovation sustainability. These include preengagement with institutional leaders, alignment with public sector goals, strategic diffusion of information, project expansion and transferability, capacity building in monitoring and evaluation, and creation of a community of educators for information exchange and support.

Climate change adaptation among Tibetan pastoralists: challenges in enhancing local adaptation through policy support.

PubMed

Fu, Yao; Grumbine, R Edward; Wilkes, Andreas; Wang, Yun; Xu, Jian-Chu; Yang, Yong-Ping

2012-10-01

While researchers are aware that a mix of Local Ecological Knowledge (LEK), community-based resource management institutions, and higher-level institutions and policies can facilitate pastoralists' adaptation to climate change, policy makers have been slow to understand these linkages. Two critical issues are to what extent these factors play a role, and how to enhance local adaptation through government support. We investigated these issues through a case study of two pastoral communities on the Tibetan Plateau in China employing an analytical framework to understand local climate adaptation processes. We concluded that LEK and community-based institutions improve adaptation outcomes for Tibetan pastoralists through shaping and mobilizing resource availability to reduce risks. Higher-level institutions and policies contribute by providing resources from outside communities. There are dynamic interrelationships among these factors that can lead to support, conflict, and fragmentation. Government policy could enhance local adaptation through improvement of supportive relationships among these factors. While central government policies allow only limited room for overt integration of local knowledge/institutions, local governments often have some flexibility to buffer conflicts. In addition, government policies to support market-based economic development have greatly benefited adaptation outcomes for pastoralists. Overall, in China, there are still questions over how to create innovative institutions that blend LEK and community-based institutions with government policy making.

Procedures and methods of benefit assessments for medicines in Germany.

PubMed

Bekkering, Geertruida E; Kleijnen, Jos

2008-11-01

The Federal Joint Committee (FJC; Gemeinsamer Bundesausschuss, G-BA) defines the health-care elements that are to be reimbursed by sickness funds. To define a directive, the FJC can commission benefit assessments, which provide an overview of the scientific evidence regarding the efficacy and benefits of an intervention. This paper describes the operational implementation of the legal requirements with regard to the benefit assessments of medicines. Such benefit assessments are sometimes referred to as "isolated benefit assessments," to distinguish them from benefit assessments as part of a full economic evaluation.The FJC has the freedom to commission these assessments from any agency; however, to date the majority have commissioned the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG). Nevertheless, the content of this paper applies integrally to any institute commissioned for such assessments. In this report, 'the institute' is used when the text refers to any of these institutes.The legal framework for benefit assessments is laid out in the German Social Code Book version V ( http://www.sozialgesetzbuch.de ), Sects. 35b ( section 1), 139a ( section 4-6) and Sect. 139b ( section 3). It is specified that: The institute must guarantee high transparency. The institute must provide appropriate participation of relevant parties for the commission-related development of assessments, and opportunity for comment on all important segments of the assessment procedure. The institute has to report on the progress and results of the work at regular intervals. The institute is held to giving the commission to external experts. Based on the legal framework, the institute must guarantee a high procedural transparency. Transparency of the whole process should be achieved, which is evidenced by clear reporting of procedures and criteria in all phases undertaken in the benefit assessment. The most important means of enhancing transparency are: 1. To implement a scoping process to support the development of the research question. 2. To separate the work of the external experts performing the evidence assessment from that of the institute formulating recommendations. Therefore, the preliminary report as produced by external experts needs to be public, and published separately from any subsequent amendments or (draft-)reports made by the institute, which includes the institute's recommendations. 3. To implement open peer review by publishing both the comments of the reviewers and their names. Based on the legal framework, the institute must provide for adequate participation of relevant parties. These include organisations representing the interests of patients; experts of medical, pharmaceutical and health economic science and practice; the professional organisations of pharmacists and pharmaceutical companies; and experts on alternative therapies. Patients and health care professionals bring in new insights with respect to research priorities, treatment and outcomes.The relevant parties should be identified and contacted whenever the global scope of the assessment has been drafted. Subsequently, the relevant parties should be involved in defining the research question, developing the protocol and commenting on the preliminary report. To implement the involvement of relevant parties in defining the research question a scoping process is suggested. For the other phases, written comments followed by an oral discussion should be used. Finally, the relevant parties should have the right to appeal the final decision on judicial grounds. None of these steps mean that the institute would lose any part of its scientific independence.From the relevant sections of the legal framework with respect to the assessment methods, it can be concluded that: 1. The institute must ensure that the assessment is made in accordance with internationally recognised standards of evidence-based medicine (EBM). 2. The assessment is conducted in comparison with other medicines and treatment forms under consideration of the additional therapeutic benefit for the patients. 3. The minimum criteria for assessing patient benefit are improvements in the state of health, shortening the duration of illness, extension of the duration of life, reduction of side effects and improvements in quality of life. EBM refers to the application of the best available evidence to answer a research question, which can inform questions about the care of patients. The optimal design, even for effectiveness questions, is not always the randomised, controlled trial (RCT) but depends on the research question and the outcomes of interest. To increase transparency for each question, the levels of evidence examined should be made explicit. There is no empirical evidence to support the use of cutoff points with respect to the number of studies before making recommendations. To get the best available evidence for the research question(s), all relevant evidence should be considered for each question, and the best available evidence should be used to answer the question. Separate levels of evidence may have to be used for each outcome.There are many ways in which bias can be introduced in systematic reviews. Some types of bias can be prevented, other types can only be reported and, for some, the influence of the bias can be investigated. Reviews must show that potential sources of bias have been dealt with adequately.Methods used by other agencies that perform benefit assessments are useful to interpret the term 'international standards' to which the institute must comply. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is a good example in this respect. NICE shows that it is possible to have transparent procedures for benefit assessments but that this requires detailed documentation. NICE has implemented an open procedure with respect to the comments of reviewers, which makes the procedure transparent. Although the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) in Germany invites comments on their protocol and preliminary report by posting them on their website, and comments are made public, the individual comments are not evaluated openly, and therefore it remains uncertain whether or not they lead to changes in the reports. The participation of relevant parties in the assessment process as implemented by NICE guarantees a process that is transparent to all relevant parties.Transparency of the whole process is assured by clear reporting of procedures and criteria in all phases undertaken in the benefit assessment. In a scoping process, a draft scope is commented on first in writing and subsequently in the form of a scoping workshop. In this way, all relevant aspects can be heard and included in the final scope. The protocol is then developed, followed by evidence assessment. The methods used should be completely reported to show readers that the assessment has been performed with scientific rigour and that bias has been prevented where possible. All relevant parties should have the opportunity to comment on the draft protocol and the draft preliminary report. Each comment should be evaluated as to whether or not it will lead to changes, and both the comments and the evaluation should be made public to ensure transparency of this process. The same procedure should be used for the peer-review phase. Based on the final report of the evidence assessment, the institute forms recommendations and the FJC appraises the evidence.During the writing of the final report, a separation between the evidence assessment and the evidence-appraisal phase should be implemented. Ideally, this separation should be legally enforced to prevent any confusion about conflict of interests.Such a process guarantees a feasible combination of the legal requirements for transparency and involvement of relevant parties with international standards of EBM to ensure that the benefit assessments of medicines in Germany are performed according to the highest standards.

[Procedures and methods of benefit assessments for medicines in Germany].

PubMed

Bekkering, G E; Kleijnen, J

2008-12-01

The Federal Joint Committee (FJC; Gemeinsamer Bundesausschuss, G-BA) defines the health-care elements that are to be reimbursed by sickness funds. To define a directive, the FJC can commission benefit assessments, which provide an overview of the scientific evidence regarding the efficacy and benefits of an intervention. This paper describes the operational implementation of the legal requirements with regard to the benefit assessments of medicines. Such benefit assessments are sometimes referred to as "isolated benefit assessments," to distinguish them from benefit assessments as part of a full economic evaluation. The FJC has the freedom to commission these assessments from any agency; however, to date the majority have commissioned the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG). Nevertheless, the content of this paper applies integrally to any institute commissioned for such assessments. In this report, "the institute"' is used when the text refers to any of these institutes. The legal framework for benefit assessments is laid out in the German Social Code Book version V (http://www. sozialgesetzbuch.de), Sects. 35b ( section sign 1), 139a ( section sign 4-6) and Sect. 139b ( section sign 3). It is specified that: The institute must guarantee high transparency. The institute must provide appropriate participation of relevant parties for the commission-related development of assessments, and opportunity for comment on all important segments of the assessment procedure. The institute has to report on the progress and results of the work at regular intervals. The institute is held to giving the commission to external experts. Based on the legal framework, the institute must guarantee a high procedural transparency. Transparency of the whole process should be achieved, which is evidenced by clear reporting of procedures and criteria in all phases undertaken in the benefit assessment. The most important means of enhancing transparency are: 1. To implement a scoping process to support the development of the research question. 2. To separate the work of the external experts performing the evidence assessment from that of the institute formulating recommendations. Therefore, the preliminary report as produced by external experts needs to be public, and published separately from any subsequent amendments or (draft-)reports made by the institute, which includes the institute's recommendations. 3. To implement open peer review by publishing both the comments of the reviewers and their names. Based on the legal framework, the institute must provide for adequate participation of relevant parties. These include organisations representing the interests of patients; experts of medical, pharmaceutical and health economic science and practice; the professional organisations of pharmacists and pharmaceutical companies; and experts on alternative therapies. Patients and health care professionals bring in new insights with respect to research priorities, treatment and outcomes. The relevant parties should be identified and contacted whenever the global scope of the assessment has been drafted. Subsequently, the relevant parties should be involved in defining the research question, developing the protocol and commenting on the preliminary report. To implement the involvement of relevant parties in defining the research question a scoping process is suggested. For the other phases, written comments followed by an oral discussion should be used. Finally, the relevant parties should have the right to appeal the final decision on judicial grounds. None of these steps mean that the institute would lose any part of its scientific independence. From the relevant sections of the legal framework with respect to the assessment methods, it can be concluded that: 1. The institute must ensure that the assessment is made in accordance with internationally recognised standards of evidence-based medicine (EBM). 2. The assessment is conducted in comparison with other medicines and treatment forms under consideration of the additional therapeutic benefit for the patients. 3. The minimum criteria for assessing patient benefit are improvements in the state of health, shortening the duration of illness, extension of the duration of life, reduction of side effects and improvements in quality of life. EBM refers to the application of the best available evidence to answer a research question, which can inform questions about the care of patients. The optimal design, even for effectiveness questions, is not always the randomised, controlled trial (RCT) but depends on the research question and the outcomes of interest. To increase transparency for each question, the levels of evidence examined should be made explicit. There is no empirical evidence to support the use of cutoff points with respect to the number of studies before making recommendations. To get the best available evidence for the research question(s), all relevant evidence should be considered for each question, and the best available evidence should be used to answer the question. Separate levels of evidence may have to be used for each outcome. There are many ways in which bias can be introduced in systematic reviews. Some types of bias can be prevented, other types can only be reported and, for some, the influence of the bias can be investigated. Reviews must show that potential sources of bias have been dealt with adequately. Methods used by other agencies that perform benefit assessments are useful to interpret the term 'international standards' to which the institute must comply. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is a good example in this respect. NICE shows that it is possible to have transparent procedures for benefit assessments but that this requires detailed documentation. NICE has implemented an open procedure with respect to the comments of reviewers, which makes the procedure transparent. Although the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) in Germany invites comments on their protocol and preliminary report by posting them on their website, and comments are made public, the individual comments are not evaluated openly, and therefore it remains uncertain whether or not they lead to changes in the reports. The participation of relevant parties in the assessment process as implemented by NICE guarantees a process that is transparent to all relevant parties. Transparency of the whole process is assured by clear reporting of procedures and criteria in all phases undertaken in the benefit assessment. In a scoping process, a draft scope is commented on first in writing and subsequently in the form of a scoping workshop. In this way, all relevant aspects can be heard and included in the final scope. The protocol is then developed, followed by evidence assessment. The methods used should be completely reported to show readers that the assessment has been performed with scientific rigour and that bias has been prevented where possible. All relevant parties should have the opportunity to comment on the draft protocol and the draft preliminary report. Each comment should be evaluated as to whether or not it will lead to changes, and both the comments and the evaluation should be made public to ensure transparency of this process. The same procedure should be used for the peer-review phase. Based on the final report of the evidence assessment, the institute forms recommendations and the FJC appraises the evidence. During the writing of the final report, a separation between the evidence assessment and the evidence appraisal phase should be implemented. Ideally, this separation should be legally enforced to prevent any confusion about conflict of interests. Such a process guarantees a feasible combination of the legal requirements for transparency and involvement of relevant parties with international standards of EBM to ensure that the benefit assessments of medicines in Germany are performed according to the highest standards.

The Chinese health care regulatory institutions in an era of transition.

PubMed

Fang, Jing

2008-02-01

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to a better understanding of Chinese health care regulation in an era of transition. It describes the major health care regulatory institutions operating currently in China and analyzes the underlying factors. The paper argues that in the transition from a planned to a market economy, the Chinese government has been employing a hybrid approach where both old and new institutions have a role in the management of emerging markets, including the health care market. This approach is consistent with the incremental reform strategy adopted by the Party-state. Although a health care regulatory framework has gradually taken shape, the framework is incomplete, with a particular lack of emphasis on professional self-regulation. In addition, its effectiveness is limited despite the existence of many regulatory institutions. In poor rural areas, the effectiveness of the regulatory framework is further undermined or distorted by the extremely difficult financial position that local governments find themselves in. The interpretations of the principle of 'rule of law' by policy makers and officials at different levels and the widespread informal network of relations between known individuals (Guanxi) play an important role in the operation of the regulatory framework. The findings of this paper reveal the complex nature of regulating health care in transitional China.

e-Science Partnerships: Towards a Sustainable Framework for School-Scientist Engagement

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Falloon, Garry

2013-08-01

In late 2006, the New Zealand Government embarked on a series of initiatives to explore how the resources and expertise of eight, small, state-owned science research institutes could be combined efficiently to support science teaching in schools. Programmes were developed to enable students and teachers to access and become involved in local science research and innovation, with the aim being to broaden their awareness of New Zealand science research contexts, adding authenticity and relevance to their school studies. One of these initiatives, known as Science-for-Life, partnered scientists with teachers and students in primary and secondary schools (K-12). A key output from the trial phase of Science-for-Life was the generation of a framework for guiding and coordinating the activities of the eight institutes within the education sector, to improve efficiency, effectiveness and promote sustainability. The framework, based on data gathered from a series of interviews with each institute's Chief Executive Officer (CEO), an online questionnaire, and informed by findings from trial partnership case studies published as institute technical reports and published articles, is presented in this paper. While the framework is developed from New Zealand data, it is suggested that it may be useful for coordinating interactions between multiple small science organisations and the school sector in other small-nation or state contexts.

Engineering Digestion: Multiscale Processes of Food Digestion.

PubMed

Bornhorst, Gail M; Gouseti, Ourania; Wickham, Martin S J; Bakalis, Serafim

2016-03-01

Food digestion is a complex, multiscale process that has recently become of interest to the food industry due to the developing links between food and health or disease. Food digestion can be studied by using either in vitro or in vivo models, each having certain advantages or disadvantages. The recent interest in food digestion has resulted in a large number of studies in this area, yet few have provided an in-depth, quantitative description of digestion processes. To provide a framework to develop these quantitative comparisons, a summary is given here between digestion processes and parallel unit operations in the food and chemical industry. Characterization parameters and phenomena are suggested for each step of digestion. In addition to the quantitative characterization of digestion processes, the multiscale aspect of digestion must also be considered. In both food systems and the gastrointestinal tract, multiple length scales are involved in food breakdown, mixing, absorption. These different length scales influence digestion processes independently as well as through interrelated mechanisms. To facilitate optimized development of functional food products, a multiscale, engineering approach may be taken to describe food digestion processes. A framework for this approach is described in this review, as well as examples that demonstrate the importance of process characterization as well as the multiple, interrelated length scales in the digestion process. © 2016 Institute of Food Technologists®

Hierarchy Software Development Framework (h-dp-fwk) project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zaytsev, A.

2010-04-01

Hierarchy Software Development Framework provides a lightweight tool for building portable modular applications for performing automated data analysis tasks in a batch mode. The history of design and development activities devoted to the project has begun in March 2005 and from the very beginning it was targeting the case of building experimental data processing applications for the CMD-3 experiment which is being commissioned at Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics (BINP, Novosibirsk, Russia). Its design addresses the generic case of modular data processing application operating within the well defined distributed computing environment. The main features of the framework are modularity, built-in message and data exchange mechanisms, XInclude and XML schema enabled XML configuration management tools, dedicated log management tools, internal debugging tools, both dynamic and static module chains support, internal DSO version and consistency checking, well defined API for developing specialized frameworks. It is supported on Scientific Linux 4 and 5 and planned to be ported to other platforms as well. The project is provided with the comprehensive set of technical documentation and users' guides. The licensing schema for the source code, binaries and documentation implies that the product is free for non-commercial use. Although the development phase is not over and many features are to be implemented yet the project is considered ready for public use and creating applications in various fields including development of events reconstruction software for small and moderate scale HEP experiments.

MiTEP's Collaborative Field Course Design Process Based on Earth Science Literacy Principles

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Engelmann, C. A.; Rose, W. I.; Huntoon, J. E.; Klawiter, M. F.; Hungwe, K.

2010-12-01

Michigan Technological University has developed a collaborative process for designing summer field courses for teachers as part of their National Science Foundation funded Math Science Partnership program, called the Michigan Teacher Excellence Program (MiTEP). This design process was implemented and then piloted during two two-week courses: Earth Science Institute I (ESI I) and Earth Science Institute II (ESI II). Participants consisted of a small group of Michigan urban science teachers who are members of the MiTEP program. The Earth Science Literacy Principles (ESLP) served as the framework for course design in conjunction with input from participating MiTEP teachers as well as research done on common teacher and student misconceptions in Earth Science. Research on the Earth Science misconception component, aligned to the ESLP, is more fully addressed in GSA Abstracts with Programs Vol. 42, No. 5. “Recognizing Earth Science Misconceptions and Reconstructing Knowledge through Conceptual-Change-Teaching”. The ESLP were released to the public in January 2009 by the Earth Science Literacy Organizing Committee and can be found at http://www.earthscienceliteracy.org/index.html. Each day of the first nine days of both Institutes was focused on one of the nine ESLP Big Ideas; the tenth day emphasized integration of concepts across all of the ESLP Big Ideas. Throughout each day, Michigan Tech graduate student facilitators and professors from Michigan Tech and Grand Valley State University consistantly focused teaching and learning on the day's Big Idea. Many Earth Science experts from Michigan Tech and Grand Valley State University joined the MiTEP teachers in the field or on campus, giving presentations on the latest research in their area that was related to that Big Idea. Field sites were chosen for their unique geological features as well as for the “sense of place” each site provided. Preliminary research findings indicate that this collaborative design process piloted as ESI I and ESI II was successful in improving MiTEP teacher understanding of Earth Science content and that it was helpful to use the ESLP framework. Ultimately, a small sample of student scores will look at the impact on student learning in the MiTEP teacher classrooms.

Institutional and socioeconomic aspects of water supply

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rauchenschwandtner, H.; Pachel, M.

2012-04-01

Institutional and socioeconomic aspects of water supply Within the project CC-WaterS the participating researchers of the Vienna University of Economics and B.A. have been responsible for the analysis of the socioeconomic aspects related to water supply and climate change, the assessment of future water demands in the City of Vienna, as well as an estimation of economic consequences of possible water shortages and possible scope for the introduction of new legal guidelines. The institutional and socioeconomic dimensions of drinking water and sanitation systems are being examined by utilisation of different prognostic scenarios in order to assess future costs of water provisioning and future demands of main water users, thus providing an information basis and recommendations for policy and decision makers in the water sector. These dimensions, for example, include EU legislation - especially the Water Framework Directive -, national legislations and strategies targeted at achieving sustainability in water usage, best practices and different forms of regulating water markets, and an analysis of the implications of demographic change. As a basis this task encompasses research of given institutional, social, and legal-political structures in the area of water supply. In this course we provide an analysis of the structural characteristics of water markets, the role of water prices, the increasing perception of water as an economic good as well as implications thereof, the public awareness in regard to climate change and water resources, as well as related legal aspects and involved actors from regional to international level; and show how water resources and the different systems of water provisioning are affected by (ideological) conflicts on various levels. Furthermore, and in order to provide a solid basis for management recommendations related to climate change and water supply, an analytical risk-assessment framework based on the concepts of new institutional economics is being developed, which provides a different analytical perspective for examining the linkages between institutions, economic processes, and societal factors.

Ecological economics and institutional change.

PubMed

Krall, Lisi; Klitgaard, Kent

2011-02-01

Ecological economics remains unfinished in its effort to provide a framework for transforming the economy so that it is compatible with biophysical limits. Great strides have been made in valuing natural capital and ecosystem services and recognizing the need to limit the scale of economic activity, but the question of how to effectively transform the economy to limit the scale of economic activity remains unclear. To gain clarity about the institutional changes necessary to limit the scale of economic activity, it is essential that ecological economics understands the limitations of its neoclassical roots and expands its theoretical framework to include how markets are embedded in social and institutional structures. This has long been the domain of institutional economics and heterodox political economy. © 2011 New York Academy of Sciences.

Why the South African NQF Failed: Lessons for Countries Wanting to Introduce National Qualifications Frameworks

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Allais, Stephanie Matseleng

2007-01-01

This article examines the South African National Qualifications Framework as a case study of a particular approach to the design of qualifications frameworks, which revolves around the specification of learning outcomes separate from educational institutions or programmes. It shows how an outcomes-led qualifications framework was seen as a…

Challenges in the Ethical Review of Peer Support Interventions

PubMed Central

Simmons, David; Bunn, Christopher; Nakwagala, Fred; Safford, Monika M.; Ayala, Guadalupe X.; Riddell, Michaela; Graffy, Jonathan; Fisher, Edwin B.

2015-01-01

PURPOSE Ethical review processes have become increasingly complex. We have examined how 8 collaborating diabetes peer-support clinical trials were assessed by ethics committees. METHODS The ethical reviews from the 8 peer-support studies were collated and subjected to a thematic analysis. We mapped the recommendations of local Institutional Review Boards and ethics committees onto the “4+1 ethical framework” (autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice, along with concern for their scope of application). RESULTS Ethics committees did not consistently focus on tasks within the 4+1 framework: many conducted reviews of scientific, organizational, and administrative activities. Of the 20 themes identified across the ethical reviews, only 4 fell within the scope of the 4+1 framework. Variation in processes and requirements for ethics committees were particularly evident between study countries. Some of the consent processes mandated by ethical review boards were disproportionate for peer support, increased participant burden, and reduced the practicality of testing an ethical intervention. Across the 8 studies, ethics committees’ reviews included the required elements to ensure participant safety; however, they created a range of hurdles that in some cases delayed the research and required consent processes that could hinder the spontaneity and/or empathy of peer support. CONCLUSION Ethics committees should avoid repeating the work of other trusted agencies and consider the ethical validity of “light touch” consent procedures for peer-support interventions. The investigators propose an ethical framework for research on peer support. PMID:26304976

An OER Architecture Framework: Needs and Design

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Khanna, Pankaj; Basak, P. C.

2013-01-01

This paper describes an open educational resources (OER) architecture framework that would bring significant improvements in a well-structured and systematic way to the educational practices of distance education institutions of India. The OER architecture framework is articulated with six dimensions: pedagogical, technological, managerial,…

International validation of quality indicators for evaluating priority setting in low income countries: process and key lessons.

PubMed

Kapiriri, Lydia

2017-06-19

While there have been efforts to develop frameworks to guide healthcare priority setting; there has been limited focus on evaluation frameworks. Moreover, while the few frameworks identify quality indicators for successful priority setting, they do not provide the users with strategies to verify these indicators. Kapiriri and Martin (Health Care Anal 18:129-147, 2010) developed a framework for evaluating priority setting in low and middle income countries. This framework provides BOTH parameters for successful priority setting and proposes means of their verification. Before its use in real life contexts, this paper presents results from a validation process of the framework. The framework validation involved 53 policy makers and priority setting researchers at the global, national and sub-national levels (in Uganda). They were requested to indicate the relative importance of the proposed parameters as well as the feasibility of obtaining the related information. We also pilot tested the proposed means of verification. Almost all the respondents evaluated all the parameters, including the contextual factors, as 'very important'. However, some respondents at the global level thought 'presence of incentives to comply', 'reduced disagreements', 'increased public understanding,' 'improved institutional accountability' and 'meeting the ministry of health objectives', which could be a reflection of their levels of decision making. All the proposed means of verification were assessed as feasible with the exception of meeting observations which would require an insider. These findings results were consistent with those obtained from the pilot testing. These findings are relevant to policy makers and researchers involved in priority setting in low and middle income countries. To the best of our knowledge, this is one of the few initiatives that has involved potential users of a framework (at the global and in a Low Income Country) in its validation. The favorable validation of all the parameters at the national and sub-national levels implies that the framework has potential usefulness at those levels, as is. The parameters that were disputed at the global level necessitate further discussion when using the framework at that level. The next step is to use the validated framework in evaluating actual priority setting at the different levels.

A Framework for Identifying and Analyzing Major Issues in Implementing Big Data and Data Analytics in E-Learning: Introduction to Special Issue on Big Data and Data Analytics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Corbeil, Maria Elena; Corbeil, Joseph Rene; Khan, Badrul H.

2017-01-01

Due to rapid advancements in our ability to collect, process, and analyze massive amounts of data, it is now possible for educational institutions to gain new insights into how people learn (Kumar, 2013). E-learning has become an important part of education, and this form of learning is especially suited to the use of big data and data analysis,…

Institutional arrangements. [utilization of information derived from satellites

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1975-01-01

The practical application of space systems is considered in terms of institutional arrangements. The evolution of space systems is examined along with examples of institutional arrangements for space systems uses or applications. An institutional framework developed to assure the widest practicable application of space system is proposed and described. Recommendations are included.

Limited Reach: The Role of Mission and Institutional Aid in Supporting Minority Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Finger, Mary Catherine

2013-01-01

This study uses a mixed methods research design to explore the relationship between institutional financial aid practice and graduation rates at a subset of private, non-profit four-year colleges and universities and explores how institutions prioritize allocations to financial aid within the framework of institutional mission, culture, and…

Educational Policy and Practice from the Perspective of Institutional Theory: Crafting a Wider Lens

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burch, Patricia

2007-01-01

Institutional analyses of public education have increased in number in recent years. However, studies in education drawing on institutional analyses have not fully incorporated recent contributions from institutional theory, particularly relative to other domains such as law and health policy. The author sketches a framework that integrates recent…

The Intentional and the Grassroots Hispanic-Serving Institutions: A Critical History of Two Universities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Doran, Erin; Medina, Øscar

2017-01-01

This study examines the institutional histories of Loma Verde University and Azul City University and their development over time into Hispanic-Serving Institutions. Utilizing a theoretical framework of transformational change, we focus on various aspects of these institutions, including curriculum, the allocation of physical spaces, and the…

A Framework and Strategies for Advancing Change and Innovation in Two-Year Colleges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Matheny, Christopher J.; Conrad, Clifton

2012-01-01

Notwithstanding variation in institutional missions, two-year colleges are the gateway to postsecondary education for the majority of college and university students in this country. As institutions of choice for many and institutions of necessity for others, two-year institutions are constantly challenged to meet the rapidly changing needs of…

A Framework for Institutional Adoption and Implementation of Blended Learning in Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Graham, Charles R.; Woodfield, Wendy; Harrison, J. Buckley

2013-01-01

There has been rapid growth in blended learning implementation and research focused on course-level issues such as improved learning outcomes, but very limited research focused on institutional policy and adoption issues. More institutional-level blended learning research is needed to guide institutions of higher education in strategically…

[Deregulation and equity: the Obras Sociales reconversion process in Argentina].

PubMed

Findling, Liliana; Arrunada, María; Klimovsky, Ezequiel

2002-01-01

The health care services managed by trade unions and known as "Obras Sociales" form the groundwork for Argentina's Social Security and Health system. However, far from taking an equitable approach, these institutions highlight the country's prevailing income disparities, which in turn lead to major differences in access to care. The main focus of this study was the reformulation of social security health policies within the framework of deregulation from 1998 to 2000, analyzing the effects on availability of health care services from an equity perspective. The methodology used two related analytical levels: (1) a macro level viewing the process from the various players' strategies and (2) a micro level featuring the changes within a well-known trade union social security organization during its reconversion process, emphasizing its institutional scope and the opinions of its membership. The results thus pointed to the slow implementation of reforms initiated by the public sector, hindered by constant negotiations among the main corporate actors seeking to serve their particular interests, along with increased inequity and fragmentation due to the limited opening of free choice by members.

Clearing up the hazy road from bench to bedside: a framework for integrating the fourth hurdle into translational medicine.

PubMed

Rogowski, Wolf H; Hartz, Susanne C; John, Jürgen H

2008-09-24

New products evolving from research and development can only be translated to medical practice on a large scale if they are reimbursed by third-party payers. Yet the decision processes regarding reimbursement are highly complex and internationally heterogeneous. This study develops a process-oriented framework for monitoring these so-called fourth hurdle procedures in the context of product development from bench to bedside. The framework is suitable both for new drugs and other medical technologies. The study is based on expert interviews and literature searches, as well as an analysis of 47 websites of coverage decision-makers in England, Germany and the USA. Eight key steps for monitoring fourth hurdle procedures from a company perspective were determined: entering the scope of a healthcare payer; trigger of decision process; assessment; appraisal; setting level of reimbursement; establishing rules for service provision; formal and informal participation; and publication of the decision and supplementary information. Details are given for the English National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, the German Federal Joint Committee, Medicare's National and Local Coverage Determinations, and for Blue Cross Blue Shield companies. Coverage determination decisions for new procedures tend to be less formalized than for novel drugs. The analysis of coverage procedures and requirements shows that the proof of patient benefit is essential. Cost-effectiveness is likely to gain importance in future.

Total quality management and shared governance: synergistic processes.

PubMed

Gardner, D B; Cummings, C

1994-01-01

"Synergism" accurately describes the gains that can be made when total quality management (TQM) and shared governance are employed for reciprocal development. This article explores the relationship between TQM and shared governance from a systems perspective. Systems thinking is the fundamental framework that must be learned by nursing managers. An example of this synergistic process is described from the National Institutes of Health nursing department's experience in implementing TQM and shared governance. The idea that structure is fundamental to problems and solutions when implementing change and focusing upon interdependency issues are the systemic competencies nursing managers need to develop in order to become strong nursing leaders.

A New Framework and Prototype Solution for Clinical Decision Support and Research in Genomics and Other Data-intensive Fields of Medicine

PubMed Central

Evans, James P.; Wilhelmsen, Kirk C.; Berg, Jonathan; Schmitt, Charles P.; Krishnamurthy, Ashok; Fecho, Karamarie; Ahalt, Stanley C.

2016-01-01

Introduction: In genomics and other fields, it is now possible to capture and store large amounts of data in electronic medical records (EMRs). However, it is not clear if the routine accumulation of massive amounts of (largely uninterpretable) data will yield any health benefits to patients. Nevertheless, the use of large-scale medical data is likely to grow. To meet emerging challenges and facilitate optimal use of genomic data, our institution initiated a comprehensive planning process that addresses the needs of all stakeholders (e.g., patients, families, healthcare providers, researchers, technical staff, administrators). Our experience with this process and a key genomics research project contributed to the proposed framework. Framework: We propose a two-pronged Genomic Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) that encompasses the concept of the “Clinical Mendeliome” as a patient-centric list of genomic variants that are clinically actionable and introduces the concept of the “Archival Value Criterion” as a decision-making formalism that approximates the cost-effectiveness of capturing, storing, and curating genome-scale sequencing data. We describe a prototype Genomic CDSS that we developed as a first step toward implementation of the framework. Conclusion: The proposed framework and prototype solution are designed to address the perspectives of stakeholders, stimulate effective clinical use of genomic data, drive genomic research, and meet current and future needs. The framework also can be broadly applied to additional fields, including other ‘-omics’ fields. We advocate for the creation of a Task Force on the Clinical Mendeliome, charged with defining Clinical Mendeliomes and drafting clinical guidelines for their use. PMID:27195307

Citizen Science, Crowdsourcing and Big Data: A Scientific and Social Framework for Natural Resources and Environments

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Glynn, P. D.; Jones, J. W.; Liu, S. B.; Shapiro, C. D.; Jenter, H. L.; Hogan, D. M.; Govoni, D. L.; Poore, B. S.

2014-12-01

We describe a conceptual framework for Citizen Science that can be applied to improve the understanding and management of natural resources and environments. For us, Citizen Science represents an engagement from members of the public, usually volunteers, in collaboration with paid professionals and technical experts to observe and understand natural resources and environments for the benefit of science and society. Our conceptual framework for Citizen Science includes crowdsourcing of observations (or sampling). It considers a wide range of activities, including volunteer and professional monitoring (e.g. weather and climate variables, water availability and quality, phenology, biota, image capture and remote sensing), as well as joint fact finding and analyses, and participatory mapping and modeling. Spatial distribution and temporal dynamics of the biophysical processes that control natural resources and environments are taken into account within this conceptual framework, as are the availability, scaling and diversity of tools and efforts that are needed to properly describe these biophysical processes. Opportunities are sought within the framework to properly describe, QA/QC, archive, and make readily accessible, the large amounts of information and traceable knowledge required to better understand and manage natural resources and environments. The framework also considers human motivational needs, primarily through a modern version of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. We examine several USGS-based Citizen Science efforts within the context of our framework, including the project called "iCoast - Did the Coast Change?", to understand the utility of the framework, its costs and benefits, and to offer concrete examples of how to expand and sustain specific projects. We make some recommendations that could aid its implementation on a national or larger scale. For example, implementation might be facilitated (1) through greater engagement of paid professionals, and (2) through the involvement of integrating entities, including institutions of learning and agencies with broad science responsibilities.

Why do policies change? Institutions, interests, ideas and networks in three cases of policy reform

PubMed Central

Shearer, Jessica C; Abelson, Julia; Kouyaté, Bocar; Lavis, John N; Walt, Gill

2016-01-01

Abstract Policy researchers have used various categories of variables to explain why policies change, including those related to institutions, interests and ideas. Recent research has paid growing attention to the role of policy networks—the actors involved in policy-making, their relationships with each other, and the structure formed by those relationships—in policy reform across settings and issues; however, this literature has largely ignored the theoretical integration of networks with other policy theories, including the ‘3Is’ of institutions, interests and ideas. This article proposes a conceptual framework integrating these variables and tests it on three cases of policy change in Burkina Faso, addressing the need for theoretical integration with networks as well as the broader aim of theory-driven health policy analysis research in low- and middle-income countries. We use historical process tracing, a type of comparative case study, to interpret and compare documents and in-depth interview data within and between cases. We found that while network changes were indeed associated with policy reform, this relationship was mediated by one or more of institutions, interests and ideas. In a context of high donor dependency, new donor rules affected the composition and structure of actors in the networks, which enabled the entry and dissemination of new ideas and shifts in the overall balance of interest power ultimately leading to policy change. The case of strategic networking occurred in only one case, by civil society actors, suggesting that network change is rarely the spark that initiates the process towards policy change. This analysis highlights the important role of changes in institutions and ideas to drive policymaking, but hints that network change is a necessary intermediate step in these processes. PMID:27233927

Bodies Matter: Professional Bodies and Embodiment in Institutional Sport Contexts

PubMed Central

van Amsterdam, Noortje; Claringbould, Inge; Knoppers, Annelies

2017-01-01

Bodies are always present in organizations, yet they frequently remain unacknowledged or invisible including in sport organizations and sport management research. We therefore argue for an embodied turn in sport management research. The purpose of this article is to present possible reasons why scholars have rarely paid attention to bodies in sport organizations; to offer arguments why they should do so; and to give suggestions for what scholarship on bodies and embodiment might look like using various theoretical frameworks. Using the topic of diversity as an example, we explore what insights into embodiment and bodily practices the theoretical frameworks of Foucault, Bourdieu, Merleau-Ponty and Butler have to offer researchers and how these insights may lead to better understandings of organizational processes in sport. PMID:28781402

Delimiting family in syntheses of research on childhood chronic conditions and family life.

PubMed

Knafl, Kathleen; Leeman, Jennifer; Havill, Nancy; Crandell, Jamie; Sandelowski, Margarete

2015-03-01

Synthesis of family research presents unique challenges to investigators who must delimit what will be included as a family study in the proposed review. In this paper, the authors discuss the conceptual and pragmatic challenges of conducting systematic reviews of the literature on the intersection between family life and childhood chronic conditions. A proposed framework for delimiting the family domain of interest is presented. The framework addresses both topical salience and level of relevance and provides direction to future researchers, with the goal of supporting the overall quality of family research synthesis efforts. For users of synthesis studies, knowledge of how investigators conceptualize the boundaries of family research is important contextual information for understanding the limits and applicability of the results. © 2014 Family Process Institute.

Operationalizing the social-ecological systems framework to assess sustainability.

PubMed

Leslie, Heather M; Basurto, Xavier; Nenadovic, Mateja; Sievanen, Leila; Cavanaugh, Kyle C; Cota-Nieto, Juan José; Erisman, Brad E; Finkbeiner, Elena; Hinojosa-Arango, Gustavo; Moreno-Báez, Marcia; Nagavarapu, Sriniketh; Reddy, Sheila M W; Sánchez-Rodríguez, Alexandra; Siegel, Katherine; Ulibarria-Valenzuela, José Juan; Weaver, Amy Hudson; Aburto-Oropeza, Octavio

2015-05-12

Environmental governance is more effective when the scales of ecological processes are well matched with the human institutions charged with managing human-environment interactions. The social-ecological systems (SESs) framework provides guidance on how to assess the social and ecological dimensions that contribute to sustainable resource use and management, but rarely if ever has been operationalized for multiple localities in a spatially explicit, quantitative manner. Here, we use the case of small-scale fisheries in Baja California Sur, Mexico, to identify distinct SES regions and test key aspects of coupled SESs theory. Regions that exhibit greater potential for social-ecological sustainability in one dimension do not necessarily exhibit it in others, highlighting the importance of integrative, coupled system analyses when implementing spatial planning and other ecosystem-based strategies.

Standardized Competencies for Parenteral Nutrition Prescribing: The American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition Model.

PubMed

Guenter, Peggi; Boullata, Joseph I; Ayers, Phil; Gervasio, Jane; Malone, Ainsley; Raymond, Erica; Holcombe, Beverly; Kraft, Michael; Sacks, Gordon; Seres, David

2015-08-01

Parenteral nutrition (PN) provision is complex, as it is a high-alert medication and prone to a variety of potential errors. With changes in clinical practice models and recent federal rulings, the number of PN prescribers may be increasing. Safe prescribing of this therapy requires that competency for prescribers from all disciplines be demonstrated using a standardized process. A standardized model for PN prescribing competency is proposed based on a competency framework, the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (A.S.P.E.N.)-published interdisciplinary core competencies, safe practice recommendations, and clinical guidelines. This framework will guide institutions and agencies in developing and maintaining competency for safe PN prescription by their staff. © 2015 American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition.

Beyond the Rhetoric: A Framework for Evaluating Improvements to the Student Experience

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baird, Jeanette; Gordon, George

2009-01-01

A framework is described to assist institutions in evaluating the extent to which activities described as "quality improvements" or "quality enhancements" are likely to directly improve the student experience. The framework classifies ways of improving the student experience into "coaching improvements",…

Insiders and outsiders: local government and NGO engagement in disaster response in Guimaras, Philippines.

PubMed

Espia, Juhn Chris P; Fernandez, Pepito

2015-01-01

This paper examines local government and non-governmental organisation (NGO) engagement in disaster response in the wake of the M/T Solar 1 oil spill in Guimaras, Western Visayas, Philippines, on 11 August 2006. It assesses the response activities of these two entities as well as the institutional factors that affected their interaction on the ground. Local government and NGO engagement was shaped by multi-layered, overlapping, and oftentimes contending government-designed response frameworks. Within these frameworks, government actors played the role of primary implementer and provider of relief, allowing them to determine who could be involved and the extent of their involvement. The absence of formal roles for NGOs in these frameworks not only undermines their ability to work in a setting where such institutional set-ups are operational but also it reaffirms their 'outsider' status. This study of the Guimaras oil spill illustrates the complexity and the institutional difficulties inherent in disaster response and coordination in the Philippines. © 2014 The Author(s). Disasters © Overseas Development Institute, 2014.

Realizing Universal Health Coverage in East Africa: the relevance of human rights.

PubMed

Yamin, Alicia Ely; Maleche, Allan

2017-08-03

Applying a robust human rights framework would change thinking and decision-making in efforts to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC), and advance efforts to promote women's, children's, and adolescents' health in East Africa, which is a priority under the Sustainable Development Agenda. Nevertheless, there is a gap between global rhetoric of human rights and ongoing health reform efforts. This debate article seeks to fill part of that gap by setting out principles of human rights-based approaches (HRBAs), and then applying those principles to questions that countries undertaking efforts toward UHC and promoting women's, children's and adolescents' health, will need to face, focusing in particular on ensuring enabling legal and policy frameworks, establishing fair financing; priority-setting processes, and meaningful oversight and accountability mechanisms. In a region where democratic institutions are notoriously weak, we argue that the explicit application of a meaningful human rights framework could enhance equity, participation and accountability, and in turn the democratic legitimacy of health reform initiatives being undertaken in the region.

Exploring Frameworks to Integrate Globalization, Mission, and Higher Education: Case Study Inquiry at Two Higher Education Institutions in the Pacific Northwest

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gustafson, Jacqueline N.

2011-01-01

The purpose of this study was to explore the merits of three conceptual frameworks that emerged from a synthesis of literature related to globalization, mission, and higher education. The first framework, higher education and mission, included three frames: important, not important, and emergent. The second framework, globalization and higher…

Managing East-West Conflict: A Framework for Sustained Engagement. Statement of the Aspen Institute International Group.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aspen Inst. for Humanistic Studies, New York, NY.

A framework containing general principles to help industrial democracies deal with the Soviet Union and its allies over the years and decades to come is presented. The direction advocated by the framework is one involving active, sustained, and positive engagement with the East. There are five major parts to the framework. Part I discusses the…

A New Framework and Prototype Solution for Clinical Decision Support and Research in Genomics and Other Data-intensive Fields of Medicine.

PubMed

Evans, James P; Wilhelmsen, Kirk C; Berg, Jonathan; Schmitt, Charles P; Krishnamurthy, Ashok; Fecho, Karamarie; Ahalt, Stanley C

2016-01-01

In genomics and other fields, it is now possible to capture and store large amounts of data in electronic medical records (EMRs). However, it is not clear if the routine accumulation of massive amounts of (largely uninterpretable) data will yield any health benefits to patients. Nevertheless, the use of large-scale medical data is likely to grow. To meet emerging challenges and facilitate optimal use of genomic data, our institution initiated a comprehensive planning process that addresses the needs of all stakeholders (e.g., patients, families, healthcare providers, researchers, technical staff, administrators). Our experience with this process and a key genomics research project contributed to the proposed framework. We propose a two-pronged Genomic Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) that encompasses the concept of the "Clinical Mendeliome" as a patient-centric list of genomic variants that are clinically actionable and introduces the concept of the "Archival Value Criterion" as a decision-making formalism that approximates the cost-effectiveness of capturing, storing, and curating genome-scale sequencing data. We describe a prototype Genomic CDSS that we developed as a first step toward implementation of the framework. The proposed framework and prototype solution are designed to address the perspectives of stakeholders, stimulate effective clinical use of genomic data, drive genomic research, and meet current and future needs. The framework also can be broadly applied to additional fields, including other '-omics' fields. We advocate for the creation of a Task Force on the Clinical Mendeliome, charged with defining Clinical Mendeliomes and drafting clinical guidelines for their use.

A database de-identification framework to enable direct queries on medical data for secondary use.

PubMed

Erdal, B S; Liu, J; Ding, J; Chen, J; Marsh, C B; Kamal, J; Clymer, B D

2012-01-01

To qualify the use of patient clinical records as non-human-subject for research purpose, electronic medical record data must be de-identified so there is minimum risk to protected health information exposure. This study demonstrated a robust framework for structured data de-identification that can be applied to any relational data source that needs to be de-identified. Using a real world clinical data warehouse, a pilot implementation of limited subject areas were used to demonstrate and evaluate this new de-identification process. Query results and performances are compared between source and target system to validate data accuracy and usability. The combination of hashing, pseudonyms, and session dependent randomizer provides a rigorous de-identification framework to guard against 1) source identifier exposure; 2) internal data analyst manually linking to source identifiers; and 3) identifier cross-link among different researchers or multiple query sessions by the same researcher. In addition, a query rejection option is provided to refuse queries resulting in less than preset numbers of subjects and total records to prevent users from accidental subject identification due to low volume of data. This framework does not prevent subject re-identification based on prior knowledge and sequence of events. Also, it does not deal with medical free text de-identification, although text de-identification using natural language processing can be included due its modular design. We demonstrated a framework resulting in HIPAA Compliant databases that can be directly queried by researchers. This technique can be augmented to facilitate inter-institutional research data sharing through existing middleware such as caGrid.

Applying the knowledge to action framework to plan a strategy for implementing breast cancer screening guidelines: an interprofessional perspective.

PubMed

Munce, Sarah; Kastner, Monika; Cramm, Heidi; Lal, Shalini; Deschêne, Sarah-Maude; Auais, Mohammad; Stacey, Dawn; Brouwers, Melissa

2013-09-01

Integrated knowledge translation (IKT) interventions may be one solution to improving the uptake of clinical guidelines. IKT research initiatives are particularly relevant for breast cancer research and initiatives targeting the implementation of clinical guidelines and guideline implementation initiatives, where collaboration with an interdisciplinary team of practitioners, patients, caregivers, and policy makers is needed for producing optimum patient outcomes. The objective of this paper was to describe the process of developing an IKT strategy that could be used by guideline developers to improve the uptake of their new clinical practice guidelines on breast cancer screening. An interprofessional group of students as well as two faculty members met six times over three days at the KT Canada Summer Institute in 2011. The team used all of the phases of the action cycle in the Knowledge to Action Framework as an organizing framework. While the entire framework was used, the step involving assessing barriers to knowledge use was judged to be particularly relevant in anticipating implementation problems and being able to inform the specific KT interventions that would be appropriate to mitigate these challenges and to accomplish goals and outcomes. This activity also underscored the importance of group process and teamwork in IKT. We propose that an a priori assessment of barriers to knowledge use (i.e., level and corresponding barriers), along with the other phases of the Knowledge to Action Framework, is a strategic approach for KT strategy development, implementation, and evaluation planning and could be used in the future planning of KT strategies.

Ideologies of self, suffering, and gender nonconformity at work in a US gender identity clinic.

PubMed

van Eijk, Marieke

2014-01-01

Health care institutions are often severely criticized for regulating the lives of individuals who deviate from socially sanctioned norms. In teaching people where they fit in the conventional scheme of things, institutions often reproduce socially dominant ideologies of normality, health, and self. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted at a university-based gender identity clinic in the United States, I demonstrate that while some institutions adopt dominant cultural frameworks, others critically assess these. To understand the intricacies of the clinic's psychotherapeutic practices, I analyze the clinicians' constructions of health and suffering. Instead of viewing transgenderism as a psychiatric condition, these clinicians approach it as a normal human condition that is marginalized by society's heteronormative values. The analysis, attentive to the interaction among social context, institutional work, and psychotherapeutic ideologies, shows that while some institutions reproduce hegemonic cultural frameworks, others, in their attempts to alleviate people's suffering, do challenge dominant social norms.

Patent citation network in nanotechnology (1976-2004)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Xin; Chen, Hsinchun; Huang, Zan; Roco, Mihail C.

2007-06-01

The patent citation networks are described using critical node, core network, and network topological analysis. The main objective is understanding of the knowledge transfer processes between technical fields, institutions and countries. This includes identifying key influential players and subfields, the knowledge transfer patterns among them, and the overall knowledge transfer efficiency. The proposed framework is applied to the field of nanoscale science and engineering (NSE), including the citation networks of patent documents, submitting institutions, technology fields, and countries. The NSE patents were identified by keywords "full-text" searching of patents at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). The analysis shows that the United States is the most important citation center in NSE research. The institution citation network illustrates a more efficient knowledge transfer between institutions than a random network. The country citation network displays a knowledge transfer capability as efficient as a random network. The technology field citation network and the patent document citation network exhibit a␣less efficient knowledge diffusion capability than a random network. All four citation networks show a tendency to form local citation clusters.

A Framework for an Institutional High Level Security Policy for the Processing of Medical Data and their Transmission through the Internet

PubMed Central

Pangalos, George

2001-01-01

Background The Internet provides many advantages when used for interaction and data sharing among health care providers, patients, and researchers. However, the advantages provided by the Internet come with a significantly greater element of risk to the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information. It is therefore essential that Health Care Establishments processing and exchanging medical data use an appropriate security policy. Objective To develop a High Level Security Policy for the processing of medical data and their transmission through the Internet, which is a set of high-level statements intended to guide Health Care Establishment personnel who process and manage sensitive health care information. Methods We developed the policy based on a detailed study of the existing framework in the EU countries, USA, and Canada, and on consultations with users in the context of the Intranet Health Clinic project. More specifically, this paper has taken into account the major directives, technical reports, law, and recommendations that are related to the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data, and the protection of privacy and medical data on the Internet. Results We present a High Level Security Policy for Health Care Establishments, which includes a set of 7 principles and 45 guidelines detailed in this paper. The proposed principles and guidelines have been made as generic and open to specific implementations as possible, to provide for maximum flexibility and adaptability to local environments. The High Level Security Policy establishes the basic security requirements that must be addressed to use the Internet to safely transmit patient and other sensitive health care information. Conclusions The High Level Security Policy is primarily intended for large Health Care Establishments in Europe, USA, and Canada. It is clear however that the general framework presented here can only serve as reference material for developing an appropriate High Level Security Policy in a specific implementation environment. When implemented in specific environments, these principles and guidelines must also be complemented by measures, which are more specific. Even when a High Level Security Policy already exists in an institution, it is advisable that the management of the Health Care Establishment periodically revisits it to see whether it should be modified or augmented. PMID:11720956

A framework for an institutional high level security policy for the processing of medical data and their transmission through the Internet.

PubMed

Ilioudis, C; Pangalos, G

2001-01-01

The Internet provides many advantages when used for interaction and data sharing among health care providers, patients, and researchers. However, the advantages provided by the Internet come with a significantly greater element of risk to the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of information. It is therefore essential that Health Care Establishments processing and exchanging medical data use an appropriate security policy. To develop a High Level Security Policy for the processing of medical data and their transmission through the Internet, which is a set of high-level statements intended to guide Health Care Establishment personnel who process and manage sensitive health care information. We developed the policy based on a detailed study of the existing framework in the EU countries, USA, and Canada, and on consultations with users in the context of the Intranet Health Clinic project. More specifically, this paper has taken into account the major directives, technical reports, law, and recommendations that are related to the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data, and the protection of privacy and medical data on the Internet. We present a High Level Security Policy for Health Care Establishments, which includes a set of 7 principles and 45 guidelines detailed in this paper. The proposed principles and guidelines have been made as generic and open to specific implementations as possible, to provide for maximum flexibility and adaptability to local environments. The High Level Security Policy establishes the basic security requirements that must be addressed to use the Internet to safely transmit patient and other sensitive health care information. The High Level Security Policy is primarily intended for large Health Care Establishments in Europe, USA, and Canada. It is clear however that the general framework presented here can only serve as reference material for developing an appropriate High Level Security Policy in a specific implementation environment. When implemented in specific environments, these principles and guidelines must also be complemented by measures, which are more specific. Even when a High Level Security Policy already exists in an institution, it is advisable that the management of the Health Care Establishment periodically revisits it to see whether it should be modified or augmented.

Policy without politics: the limits of social engineering.

PubMed

Navarro, Vicente

2003-01-01

The extent of coverage provided by a country's health services is directly related to the level of development of that country's democratic process (and its power relations). The United States is the only developed country whose government does not guarantee access to health care for its citizens. It is also the developed country with the least representative and most insufficient democratic institutions, owing to the constitutional framework of the political system, the privatization of the electoral process, and the enormous power of corporate interests in both the media and the political process. As international experience shows, without a strong labor-based movement willing to be radical in its protests, a universal health care program will never be accepted by the US establishment.

Policy Without Politics: The Limits of Social Engineering

PubMed Central

Navarro, Vicente

2003-01-01

The extent of coverage provided by a country’s health services is directly related to the level of development of that country’s democratic process (and its power relations). The United States is the only developed country whose government does not guarantee access to health care for its citizens. It is also the developed country with the least representative and most insufficient democratic institutions, owing to the constitutional framework of the political system, the privatization of the electoral process, and the enormous power of corporate interests in both the media and the political process. As international experience shows, without a strong labor-based movement willing to be radical in its protests, a universal health care program will never be accepted by the US establishment. PMID:12511388

Conceptualizing a Genomics Software Institute (GSI)

PubMed Central

Gilbert, Jack A.; Catlett, Charlie; Desai, Narayan; Knight, Rob; White, Owen; Robbins, Robert; Sankaran, Rajesh; Sansone, Susanna-Assunta; Field, Dawn; Meyer, Folker

2012-01-01

Microbial ecology has been enhanced greatly by the ongoing ‘omics revolution, bringing half the world's biomass and most of its biodiversity into analytical view for the first time; indeed, it feels almost like the invention of the microscope and the discovery of the new world at the same time. With major microbial ecology research efforts accumulating prodigious quantities of sequence, protein, and metabolite data, we are now poised to address environmental microbial research at macro scales, and to begin to characterize and understand the dimensions of microbial biodiversity on the planet. What is currently impeding progress is the need for a framework within which the research community can develop, exchange and discuss predictive ecosystem models that describe the biodiversity and functional interactions. Such a framework must encompass data and metadata transparency and interoperation; data and results validation, curation, and search; application programming interfaces for modeling and analysis tools; and human and technical processes and services necessary to ensure broad adoption. Here we discuss the need for focused community interaction to augment and deepen established community efforts, beginning with the Genomic Standards Consortium (GSC), to create a science-driven strategic plan for a Genomic Software Institute (GSI). PMID:22675605

SOS: A Time Management Framework.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rees, Ruth

This paper proposes a framework for the management of time, under the rubric of "SOS" (Self-Organization-Scheduling), designed specifically for school officials. Underlying this framework is a belief that, in order to manage time, one must manage oneself within the bounds of the institution. Accordingly, three interdependent sets of practical…

Graduate Employability: A Conceptual Framework for Understanding Employers' Perceptions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cai, Yuzhuo

2013-01-01

This study provides a conceptual framework for understanding what employers think about the value of graduates with similar educational credentials in the workplace (their employability), using insights from the new institutionalism. In this framework, the development of employers' beliefs about graduates' employability is broken into a number of…

A Framework for Mobile Learning for Enhancing Learning in Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barreh, Kadar Abdillahi; Abas, Zoraini Wati

2015-01-01

As mobile learning becomes increasingly pervasive, many higher education institutions have initiated a number of mobile learning initiatives to support their traditional learning modes. This study proposes a framework for mobile learning for enhancing learning in higher education. This framework for mobile learning is based on research conducted…

Frameworks to assess health systems governance: a systematic review.

PubMed

Pyone, Thidar; Smith, Helen; van den Broek, Nynke

2017-06-01

Governance of the health system is a relatively new concept and there are gaps in understanding what health system governance is and how it could be assessed. We conducted a systematic review of the literature to describe the concept of governance and the theories underpinning as applied to health systems; and to identify which frameworks are available and have been applied to assess health systems governance. Frameworks were reviewed to understand how the principles of governance might be operationalized at different levels of a health system. Electronic databases and web portals of international institutions concerned with governance were searched for publications in English for the period January 1994 to February 2016. Sixteen frameworks developed to assess governance in the health system were identified and are described. Of these, six frameworks were developed based on theories from new institutional economics; three are primarily informed by political science and public management disciplines; three arise from the development literature and four use multidisciplinary approaches. Only five of the identified frameworks have been applied. These used the principal-agent theory, theory of common pool resources, North's institutional analysis and the cybernetics theory. Governance is a practice, dependent on arrangements set at political or national level, but which needs to be operationalized by individuals at lower levels in the health system; multi-level frameworks acknowledge this. Three frameworks were used to assess governance at all levels of the health system. Health system governance is complex and difficult to assess; the concept of governance originates from different disciplines and is multidimensional. There is a need to validate and apply existing frameworks and share lessons learnt regarding which frameworks work well in which settings. A comprehensive assessment of governance could enable policy makers to prioritize solutions for problems identified as well as replicate and scale-up examples of good practice. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press in association with The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Frameworks to assess health systems governance: a systematic review

PubMed Central

Smith, Helen; van den Broek, Nynke

2017-01-01

Abstract Governance of the health system is a relatively new concept and there are gaps in understanding what health system governance is and how it could be assessed. We conducted a systematic review of the literature to describe the concept of governance and the theories underpinning as applied to health systems; and to identify which frameworks are available and have been applied to assess health systems governance. Frameworks were reviewed to understand how the principles of governance might be operationalized at different levels of a health system. Electronic databases and web portals of international institutions concerned with governance were searched for publications in English for the period January 1994 to February 2016. Sixteen frameworks developed to assess governance in the health system were identified and are described. Of these, six frameworks were developed based on theories from new institutional economics; three are primarily informed by political science and public management disciplines; three arise from the development literature and four use multidisciplinary approaches. Only five of the identified frameworks have been applied. These used the principal–agent theory, theory of common pool resources, North’s institutional analysis and the cybernetics theory. Governance is a practice, dependent on arrangements set at political or national level, but which needs to be operationalized by individuals at lower levels in the health system; multi-level frameworks acknowledge this. Three frameworks were used to assess governance at all levels of the health system. Health system governance is complex and difficult to assess; the concept of governance originates from different disciplines and is multidimensional. There is a need to validate and apply existing frameworks and share lessons learnt regarding which frameworks work well in which settings. A comprehensive assessment of governance could enable policy makers to prioritize solutions for problems identified as well as replicate and scale-up examples of good practice. PMID:28334991

Towards defining interprofessional competencies for global health education: drawing on educational frameworks and the experience of the UW-Madison Global Health Institute.

PubMed

Brown, Lori DiPrete

2014-12-01

The experience and lessons to date from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Global Health Institute's global health programs, considered together with more recently published competency frameworks related to global health practice, can provide important insights into the development of a core set of interprofessional competencies for global health that can be used across disciplines and professions. © 2014 American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics, Inc.

Pigs on the plains: Institutional analysis of a Colorado water quality initiative

USGS Publications Warehouse

King, D.; Burkardt, N.; Lee, Lamb B.

2006-01-01

We used the Legal-Institutional Analysis Model (LIAM) and Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) to analyze the campaign over passage of the Colorado Hogs Rule, an initiative passed by the voters in 1998 to require regulation of swine production facilities in Colorado. Used in tandem, LIAM and ACF provided an opportunity to develop a robust understanding of the obstacles and opportunities that face water quality managers in a state-centered multi-organizational decision process. We found that combining the LIAM with the ACF enhanced the understanding that could be achieved by using either model in isolation. The predictive capacity of the LIAM would have been reduced without information from the ACF, and the ACF by itself would have missed the importance of a single-case study.

Mobilising Open Access to Research Data: Recommendations from the RECODE project

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Finn, Rachel; Sveinsdottir, Thordis

2015-04-01

This paper will introduce the findings and policy recommendations from the FP7 project RECODE (Policy RECommendations for Open Access to Research Data in Europe) which aims to leverage existing networks, communities and projects to address challenges within the open access and data dissemination and preservation sector. We will introduce the key recommendations, which provide solutions relevant to opening access to PSI. The project is built on case study research of five scientific disciplines with the aim of recognizing and working with disciplinary fragmentation associated with open access to research data. The RECODE findings revealed that the mobilisation of open access to research data requires a partnership approach for developing a coherent and flexible ecosystem that is easy and transparent to embed in research practice and process. As such, the development of open access to research data needs to be: • Informed by research practices and processes in different fields • Supported by an integrated institutional and technological data infrastructure and guided by ethical and regulatory frameworks • Underpinned by infrastructure and guiding frameworks that allow for differences in disciplinary research and data management practices • Characterised by a partnership approach involving the key stakeholders, researchers, and institutions The proposed presentation will examine each of these aspects in detail and use information and good practices from the RECODE project to consider how stakeholders within the PSI movement might action each of these points. It will also highlight areas where RECODE findings and good practice recommendations have clear relevance for the PSI sector.

Improving benchmarking by using an explicit framework for the development of composite indicators: an example using pediatric quality of care

PubMed Central

2010-01-01

Background The measurement of healthcare provider performance is becoming more widespread. Physicians have been guarded about performance measurement, in part because the methodology for comparative measurement of care quality is underdeveloped. Comprehensive quality improvement will require comprehensive measurement, implying the aggregation of multiple quality metrics into composite indicators. Objective To present a conceptual framework to develop comprehensive, robust, and transparent composite indicators of pediatric care quality, and to highlight aspects specific to quality measurement in children. Methods We reviewed the scientific literature on composite indicator development, health systems, and quality measurement in the pediatric healthcare setting. Frameworks were selected for explicitness and applicability to a hospital-based measurement system. Results We synthesized various frameworks into a comprehensive model for the development of composite indicators of quality of care. Among its key premises, the model proposes identifying structural, process, and outcome metrics for each of the Institute of Medicine's six domains of quality (safety, effectiveness, efficiency, patient-centeredness, timeliness, and equity) and presents a step-by-step framework for embedding the quality of care measurement model into composite indicator development. Conclusions The framework presented offers researchers an explicit path to composite indicator development. Without a scientifically robust and comprehensive approach to measurement of the quality of healthcare, performance measurement will ultimately fail to achieve its quality improvement goals. PMID:20181129

Information and organization in public health institutes: an ontology-based modeling of the entities in the reception-analysis-report phases.

PubMed

Pozza, Giandomenico; Borgo, Stefano; Oltramari, Alessandro; Contalbrigo, Laura; Marangon, Stefano

2016-09-08

Ontologies are widely used both in the life sciences and in the management of public and private companies. Typically, the different offices in an organization develop their own models and related ontologies to capture specific tasks and goals. Although there might be an overall coordination, the use of distinct ontologies can jeopardize the integration of data across the organization since data sharing and reusability are sensitive to modeling choices. The paper provides a study of the entities that are typically found at the reception, analysis and report phases in public institutes in the life science domain. Ontological considerations and techniques are introduced and their implementation exemplified by studying the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale delle Venezie (IZSVe), a public veterinarian institute with different geographical locations and several laboratories. Different modeling issues are discussed like the identification and characterization of the main entities in these phases; the classification of the (types of) data; the clarification of the contexts and the roles of the involved entities. The study is based on a foundational ontology and shows how it can be extended to a comprehensive and coherent framework comprising the different institute's roles, processes and data. In particular, it shows how to use notions lying at the borderline between ontology and applications, like that of knowledge object. The paper aims to help the modeler to understand the core viewpoint of the organization and to improve data transparency. The study shows that the entities at play can be analyzed within a single ontological perspective allowing us to isolate a single ontological framework for the whole organization. This facilitates the development of coherent representations of the entities and related data, and fosters the use of integrated software for data management and reasoning across the company.

[Challenges in the implementation of clinical practice guidelines in major public health institutions in Mexico: A multiple case study].

PubMed

Gutiérrez-Alba, Gaudencio; González-Block, Miguel Ángel; Reyes-Morales, Hortensia

2015-01-01

To identify, prioritize and relate barriers and facilitators in the implementation of Clinical Practice Guidelines (GPC, in Spanish). We used qualitative methods to study and compare the introduction of GPC across the domains of the consolidated research implementation framework in hospitals of the three main public institutions in a state of Mexico. Authorities and hospital staff were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire. The main barriers to implementation are the absence of standards, training, resources and incentives. The most important implementation facilitators are the characteristics of the GPC, which are perceived as properly designed and with simple language as well as with capacity to improve the work environment. The barriers to implementation must be solved to achieve the goal of standardizing the healthcare process across the sector; the positive perception of the GPC should promote the continuous actualization of the evidence and a sectoral view from their development stage to ensure adoption in the heterogeneous environments that characterize health institutions.

Developing a national health research system: participatory approaches to legislative, institutional and networking dimensions in Zambia.

PubMed

Chanda-Kapata, Pascalina; Campbell, Sandy; Zarowsky, Christina

2012-06-06

For many sub-Saharan African countries, a National Health Research System (NHRS) exists more in theory than in reality, with the health system itself receiving the majority of investments. However, this lack of attention to NHRS development can, in fact, frustrate health systems in achieving their desired goals. In this case study, we discuss the ongoing development of Zambia's NHRS. We reflect on our experience in the ongoing consultative development of Zambia's NHRS and offer this reflection and process documentation to those engaged in similar initiatives in other settings. We argue that three streams of concurrent activity are critical in developing an NHRS in a resource-constrained setting: developing a legislative framework to determine and define the system's boundaries and the roles all actors will play within it; creating or strengthening an institution capable of providing coordination, management and guidance to the system; and focusing on networking among institutions and individuals to harmonize, unify and strengthen the overall capacities of the research community.

Identification of Patients with Family History of Pancreatic Cancer - Investigation of an NLP System Portability

PubMed Central

Mehrabi, Saeed; Krishnan, Anand; Roch, Alexandra M; Schmidt, Heidi; Li, DingCheng; Kesterson, Joe; Beesley, Chris; Dexter, Paul; Schmidt, Max; Palakal, Mathew; Liu, Hongfang

2018-01-01

In this study we have developed a rule-based natural language processing (NLP) system to identify patients with family history of pancreatic cancer. The algorithm was developed in a Unstructured Information Management Architecture (UIMA) framework and consisted of section segmentation, relation discovery, and negation detection. The system was evaluated on data from two institutions. The family history identification precision was consistent across the institutions shifting from 88.9% on Indiana University (IU) dataset to 87.8% on Mayo Clinic dataset. Customizing the algorithm on the the Mayo Clinic data, increased its precision to 88.1%. The family member relation discovery achieved precision, recall, and F-measure of 75.3%, 91.6% and 82.6% respectively. Negation detection resulted in precision of 99.1%. The results show that rule-based NLP approaches for specific information extraction tasks are portable across institutions; however customization of the algorithm on the new dataset improves its performance. PMID:26262122

"EU-on-Demand": Developing National Qualifications Frameworks in a Multi-Level Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Elken, Mari

2016-01-01

The development of comprehensive national qualifications frameworks (NQFs) across Europe has been sparked by the introduction of the European Qualifications Framework (EQF) in 2008. Taking an institutional perspective, this article examines the development of NQFs in three countries, in light of developments that have taken place at the European…

A College Administrator's Framework to Assess Compliance with Accreditation Mandates

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davis†, Jerry M.; Rivera, John-Juan

2014-01-01

A framework to assess the impact of complying with college accreditation mandates is developed based on North's (1996) concepts of transaction costs, property rights, and institutions; Clayton's (1999) Systems Alignment Model; and the educational production function described by Hanushek (2007). The framework demonstrates how sought…

Formalization, implementation, and modeling of institutional controllers for distributed robotic systems.

PubMed

Pereira, José N; Silva, Porfírio; Lima, Pedro U; Martinoli, Alcherio

2014-01-01

The work described is part of a long term program of introducing institutional robotics, a novel framework for the coordination of robot teams that stems from institutional economics concepts. Under the framework, institutions are cumulative sets of persistent artificial modifications made to the environment or to the internal mechanisms of a subset of agents, thought to be functional for the collective order. In this article we introduce a formal model of institutional controllers based on Petri nets. We define executable Petri nets-an extension of Petri nets that takes into account robot actions and sensing-to design, program, and execute institutional controllers. We use a generalized stochastic Petri net view of the robot team controlled by the institutional controllers to model and analyze the stochastic performance of the resulting distributed robotic system. The ability of our formalism to replicate results obtained using other approaches is assessed through realistic simulations of up to 40 e-puck robots. In particular, we model a robot swarm and its institutional controller with the goal of maintaining wireless connectivity, and successfully compare our model predictions and simulation results with previously reported results, obtained by using finite state automaton models and controllers.

The Emerging Chinese Institutional Architecture in Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lo, William Yat Wai

2014-01-01

The article reviews the global landscape of higher education with the anticipation of an emerging Chinese institutional architecture in Asia-Pacific higher education. It starts with a theoretical framework for analyzing the functionalities of values and institutions in international higher education by adopting Joseph Nye's concept of soft power.…

Web-Based Engine for Program Curriculum Designers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hamam, H.; Loucif, S.

2009-01-01

Educational institutions pay careful attention to the design of program curricula, which represent a framework to meet institutional goals and missions. Of course, the success of any institution depends highly on the quality of its program curriculum. The development of such a curriculum and, more importantly, the evaluation of its quality are…

Using Institutional Theory To Reframe Research on Academic Drift.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Morphew, Christopher C.; Huisman, Jeroen

2002-01-01

Examines patterns of academic drift (a drift toward the structure and norms typical of more prestigious universities) in multiple higher education systems and tests the concept of "isomorphism in organizational fields" as discussed in institutional theory. Argues that the theoretical framework provided by institutional theory presents a useful…

NSSE, Organizational Intelligence, and the Institutional Researcher

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gonyea, Robert M.; Kuh, George D.

2009-01-01

In this article, the authors detail the major themes set out in the previous articles in this volume, tying them together using the framework of organizational intelligence. In his article about the nature of institutional research, Terenzini (1993) invoked the concept of organizational intelligence, arguing that institutional researchers must be…

A Framework for Managing Inter-Site Storage Area Networks using Grid Technologies

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kobler, Ben; McCall, Fritz; Smorul, Mike

2006-01-01

The NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies are studying mechanisms for installing and managing Storage Area Networks (SANs) that span multiple independent collaborating institutions using Storage Area Network Routers (SAN Routers). We present a framework for managing inter-site distributed SANs that uses Grid Technologies to balance the competing needs to control local resources, share information, delegate administrative access, and manage the complex trust relationships between the participating sites.

A framework for cumulative risk assessment in the 21st century.

PubMed

Moretto, Angelo; Bachman, Ammie; Boobis, Alan; Solomon, Keith R; Pastoor, Timothy P; Wilks, Martin F; Embry, Michelle R

2017-02-01

The ILSI Health and Environmental Sciences Institute (HESI) has developed a framework to support a transition in the way in which information for chemical risk assessment is obtained and used (RISK21). The approach is based on detailed problem formulation, where exposure drives the data acquisition process in order to enable informed decision-making on human health safety as soon as sufficient evidence is available. Information is evaluated in a transparent and consistent way with the aim of optimizing available resources. In the context of risk assessment, cumulative risk assessment (CRA) poses additional problems and questions that can be addressed using the RISK21 approach. The focus in CRA to date has generally been on chemicals that have common mechanisms of action. Recently, concern has also been expressed about chemicals acting on multiple pathways that lead to a common health outcome, and non-chemical other conditions (non-chemical stressors) that can lead to or modify a common outcome. Acknowledging that CRAs, as described above, are more conceptually, methodologically and computationally complex than traditional single-stressor risk assessments, RISK21 further developed the framework for implementation of workable processes and procedures for conducting assessments of combined effects from exposure to multiple chemicals and non-chemical stressors. As part of the problem formulation process, this evidence-based framework allows the identification of the circumstances in which it is appropriate to conduct a CRA for a group of compounds. A tiered approach is then proposed, where additional chemical stressors and/or non-chemical modulating factors (ModFs) are considered sequentially. Criteria are provided to facilitate the decision on whether or not to include ModFs in the formal quantitative assessment, with the intention to help focus the use of available resources to have the greatest potential to protect public health.

A qualitative study of medical educators' perspectives on remediation: Adopting a holistic approach to struggling residents.

PubMed

Krzyzaniak, Sara M; Wolf, Stephen J; Byyny, Richard; Barker, Lisa; Kaplan, Bonnie; Wall, Stephen; Guerrasio, Jeannette

2017-09-01

During residency, some trainees require the identification and remediation of deficiencies to achieve the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary for independent practice. Given the limited published frameworks for remediation, we characterize remediation from the perspective of educators and propose a holistic framework to guide the approach to remediation. We conducted semistructured focus groups to: explore methods for identifying struggling residents; categorize common domains of struggle; describe personal factors that contribute to difficulties; define remediation interventions and understand what constitutes successful completion. Data were analyzed through conventional content analysis. Nineteen physicians across multiple specialties and institutions participated in seven focus groups. Thirteen categories emerged around remediation. Some themes addressed practical components of remediation, while others reflected barriers to the process and the impact of remediation on the resident and program. The themes were used to inform development of a novel holistic framework for remediation. The approach to remediation requires comprehensive identification of individual factors impacting performance. The intervention should not only include a tailored learning plan but also address confounders that impact likelihood of remediation success. Our holistic framework intends to guide educators creating remediation plans to ensure all domains are addressed.

Achieving Agility and Stability in Large-Scale Software Development

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-01-16

temporary team is assigned to prepare layers and frameworks for future feature teams. Presentation Layer Domain Layer Data Access Layer Framework...http://www.sei.cmu.edu/training/ elearning ~ Software Engineering Institute CarnegieMellon

Pathogen transfer through environment-host contact: an agent-based queueing theoretic framework.

PubMed

Chen, Shi; Lenhart, Suzanne; Day, Judy D; Lee, Chihoon; Dulin, Michael; Lanzas, Cristina

2017-11-02

Queueing theory studies the properties of waiting queues and has been applied to investigate direct host-to-host transmitted disease dynamics, but its potential in modelling environmentally transmitted pathogens has not been fully explored. In this study, we provide a flexible and customizable queueing theory modelling framework with three major subroutines to study the in-hospital contact processes between environments and hosts and potential nosocomial pathogen transfer, where environments are servers and hosts are customers. Two types of servers with different parameters but the same utilization are investigated. We consider various forms of transfer functions that map contact duration to the amount of pathogen transfer based on existing literature. We propose a case study of simulated in-hospital contact processes and apply stochastic queues to analyse the amount of pathogen transfer under different transfer functions, and assume that pathogen amount decreases during the inter-arrival time. Different host behaviour (feedback and non-feedback) as well as initial pathogen distribution (whether in environment and/or in hosts) are also considered and simulated. We assess pathogen transfer and circulation under these various conditions and highlight the importance of the nonlinear interactions among contact processes, transfer functions and pathogen demography during the contact process. Our modelling framework can be readily extended to more complicated queueing networks to simulate more realistic situations by adjusting parameters such as the number and type of servers and customers, and adding extra subroutines. © The authors 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications. All rights reserved.

Hydropower and sustainability: resilience and vulnerability in China's powersheds.

PubMed

McNally, Amy; Magee, Darrin; Wolf, Aaron T

2009-07-01

Large dams represent a whole complex of social, economic and ecological processes, perhaps more than any other large infrastructure project. Today, countries with rapidly developing economies are constructing new dams to provide energy and flood control to growing populations in riparian and distant urban communities. If the system is lacking institutional capacity to absorb these physical and institutional changes there is potential for conflict, thereby threatening human security. In this paper, we propose analyzing sustainability (political, socioeconomic, and ecological) in terms of resilience versus vulnerability, framed within the spatial abstraction of a powershed. The powershed framework facilitates multi-scalar and transboundary analysis while remaining focused on the questions of resilience and vulnerability relating to hydropower dams. Focusing on examples from China, this paper describes the complex nature of dams using the sustainability and powershed frameworks. We then analyze the roles of institutions in China to understand the relationships between power, human security and the socio-ecological system. To inform the study of conflicts over dams China is a particularly useful case study because we can examine what happens at the international, national and local scales. The powershed perspective allows us to examine resilience and vulnerability across political boundaries from a dynamic, process-defined analytical scale while remaining focused on a host of questions relating to hydro-development that invoke drivers and impacts on national and sub-national scales. The ability to disaggregate the affects of hydropower dam construction from political boundaries allows for a deeper analysis of resilience and vulnerability. From our analysis we find that reforms in China's hydropower sector since 1996 have been motivated by the need to create stability at the national scale rather than resilient solutions to China's growing demand for energy and water resource control at the local and international scales. Some measures that improved economic development through the market economy and a combination of dam construction and institutional reform may indeed improve hydro-political resilience at a single scale. However, if China does address large-scale hydropower construction's potential to create multi-scale geopolitical tensions, they may be vulnerable to conflict - though not necessarily violent - in domestic and international political arenas. We conclude with a look toward a resilient basin institution for the Nu/Salween River, the site of a proposed large-scale hydropower development effort in China and Myanmar.

Essays on regulation, institutions, and industrial organization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bergara, Mario Esteban

Essay I develops a comparative institutional analysis of network access price regulation and "light-handed" regulation. While the former is a specific-agency-based arrangement with higher political influence, the latter is a court-based system. Consequently, the main trade-off between both frameworks reflects the merits of having efficient political and judicial institutions. Price regulation is superior when distributional concerns are irrelevant and information asymmetries are lower. Poorly functioning political systems and high welfare costs of raising funds make price regulation less attractive. Light regulation is more attractive when potential rents are smaller, the monopolist is more risk averse, the judicial system is more efficient, and the threat of government intervention is more credible. The possibility of private transfers makes price regulation more advantageous. Higher information asymmetries among firms makes light-handed regulation more attractive. The main results are consistent with a plausible interpretation of the drastic deregulatory process in New Zealand. Essay II studies the preliminary effects of the deregulation of direct access in the New Zealand's electricity market. A slight improvement in quality standards and an overall efficiency increase took place after two years of deregulation. Retailers were able to successfully enter in large demand, dense areas, with a large proportion of industrial and commercial users, where incumbents were not distributing electricity efficiently. Pricing policies appears to be influenced by market forces (associated to economic and demographic characteristics) as expected in a light regulatory framework. Essay III focuses on the possibility of endogenous sunk costs and the introduction of new products. Firms that exert some monopoly power in one market and introduce a new good whose demand is determined by a broader set of consumers might be forced to change their competing strategies. If the new product is a "quality" good, the resulting competitive process may include advertising outlays, affecting the degree of competition in the old market. In the Uruguayan private banking sector, larger institutions pursued more aggressive advertising strategies to maintain or improve their market positions than smaller firms. Market power in the financial intermediation market has considerably declined after the introduction of new products in the early nineties.

Mentoring Early-Career Faculty Researchers Is Important-But First "Train the Trainer".

PubMed

Sood, Akshay; Tigges, Beth; Helitzer, Deborah

2016-12-01

It has long been known that mentoring is critical to the success of junior faculty researchers. The controlled intervention study by Libby et al published in this issue of Academic Medicine demonstrates that institutional investment in a mentored research career development program for early-career faculty investigators provided significant long-term gains in grant productivity. Academic institutions hoping to replicate this program's success by launching similar mentoring programs for their junior faculty investigators will, however, find that the Achilles' heel lies in the scarcity of skilled research mentors and the relative lack of attention to and recognition of the importance of a supportive institutional climate for mentoring. It is essential, therefore, to begin by developing programs to "train the trainer" as well as programs and policies to support mentors. As a recent trial at 16 Clinical and Translational Science Award institutions demonstrated, competency-based, structured research mentor training can improve mentors' skills.In this Commentary, the authors offer a comprehensive two-pronged framework for mentor development with elements that address both individual mentoring competencies and the institutional climate for mentoring. The framework depicts the gaps, activities, and outcomes that a mentor development program can address. Activities directed at changing the institutional climate related to mentor development should complement training activities for individual mentors. The authors propose that employing this framework's approach to mentor development will lead to the desired impact: to increase the competence, productivity, and retention of a diverse clinical and translational research workforce.

Social challenges when implementing information systems in everyday work in a nursing context.

PubMed

Nilsson, Lina; Eriksén, Sara; Borg, Christel

2014-09-01

Implementation of information systems in healthcare has become a lengthy process where healthcare staff (eg, nurses) are expected to put information into systems without getting the overall picture of the potential usefulness for their own work. The aim of this study was to explore social challenges when implementing information systems in everyday work in a nursing context. Moreover, this study aimed at putting perceived social challenges in a theoretical framework to address them more constructively when implementing information systems in healthcare. Influenced by institutional ethnography, the findings are based on interviews, observations, and written reflections. Power (changing the existing hierarchy, alienation), professional identity (calling on hold, expert becomes novice, changed routines), and encounter (ignorant introductions, preconceived notions) were categories (subcategories) presented in the findings. Social Cognitive Theory, Diffusion of Innovations, organizational culture, and dramaturgical analysis are proposed to set up a theoretical framework. If social challenges are not considered and addressed in the implementation process, it will be affected by nurses' solidarity to existing power structures and their own professional identity. Thus, implementation of information systems affects more aspects in the organization than might have been intended. These aspects need to be taken in to account in the implementation process.

Taking the right action in the right way: a comparison of frameworks for assessing the health and quality of life of a postsecondary student campus community.

PubMed

Racher, Frances E; Hyndman, Kathyrn; Anonson, June; Arries, Ebin; Foster, Cathy

2014-01-01

The focus of campus health research, historically, has been on population health at the individual or aggregate level with little effort to examine the health of the students at a community level with a focus on the broader determinants of health and community-level intervention. The purpose of this article is to critique three models or frameworks of campus health, articulate the World Health Organization (WHO) vision of a health-promoting university, and demonstrate the efficacy of adapting the Community Health Action model for use in university and college settings. Foundational within this proposed model is taking the right action using the right process, an inclusive participatory process. Adaptation of the model requires careful attention to student engagement in community, a healthy campus infrastructure and processes, and relationships beyond the campus. Effective student community assessment and improvement of student community health, ultimately, will serve to generate knowledge and build skills at various levels to benefit the health and quality of life of the students, their student community, the educational institution, and the broader community.

AMISS - Active and passive MIcrowaves for Security and Subsurface imaging

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Soldovieri, Francesco; Slob, Evert; Turk, Ahmet Serdar; Crocco, Lorenzo; Catapano, Ilaria; Di Matteo, Francesca

2013-04-01

The FP7-IRSES project AMISS - Active and passive MIcrowaves for Security and Subsurface imaging is based on a well-combined network among research institutions of EU, Associate and Third Countries (National Research Council of Italy - Italy, Technische Universiteit Delft - The Netherlands, Yildiz Technical University - Turkey, Bauman Moscow State Technical University - Russia, Usikov Institute for Radio-physics and Electronics and State Research Centre of Superconductive Radioelectronics "Iceberg" - Ukraine and University of Sao Paulo - Brazil) with the aims of achieving scientific advances in the framework of microwave and millimeter imaging systems and techniques for security and safety social issues. In particular, the involved partners are leaders in the scientific areas of passive and active imaging and are sharing their complementary knowledge to address two main research lines. The first one regards the design, characterization and performance evaluation of new passive and active microwave devices, sensors and measurement set-ups able to mitigate clutter and increase information content. The second line faces the requirements to make State-of-the-Art processing tools compliant with the instrumentations developed in the first line, suitable to work in electromagnetically complex scenarios and able to exploit the unexplored possibilities offered by new instrumentations. The main goals of the project are: 1) Development/improvement and characterization of new sensors and systems for active and passive microwave imaging; 2) Set up, analysis and validation of state of art/novel data processing approach for GPR in critical infrastructure and subsurface imaging; 3) Integration of state of art and novel imaging hardware and characterization approaches to tackle realistic situations in security, safety and subsurface prospecting applications; 4) Development and feasibility study of bio-radar technology (system and data processing) for vital signs detection and detection/characterization of human beings in complex scenarios. These goals are planned to be reached following a plan of research activities and researchers secondments which cover a period of three years. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This research has been performed in the framework of the "Active and Passive Microwaves for Security and Subsurface imaging (AMISS)" EU 7th Framework Marie Curie Actions IRSES project (PIRSES-GA-2010-269157).

The NIH analytical methods and reference materials program for dietary supplements.

PubMed

Betz, Joseph M; Fisher, Kenneth D; Saldanha, Leila G; Coates, Paul M

2007-09-01

Quality of botanical products is a great uncertainty that consumers, clinicians, regulators, and researchers face. Definitions of quality abound, and include specifications for sanitation, adventitious agents (pesticides, metals, weeds), and content of natural chemicals. Because dietary supplements (DS) are often complex mixtures, they pose analytical challenges and method validation may be difficult. In response to product quality concerns and the need for validated and publicly available methods for DS analysis, the US Congress directed the Office of Dietary Supplements (ODS) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to accelerate an ongoing methods validation process, and the Dietary Supplements Methods and Reference Materials Program was created. The program was constructed from stakeholder input and incorporates several federal procurement and granting mechanisms in a coordinated and interlocking framework. The framework facilitates validation of analytical methods, analytical standards, and reference materials.

Public Health Systems Research: Setting a National Agenda

PubMed Central

Lenaway, Dennis; Halverson, Paul; Sotnikov, Sergey; Tilson, Hugh; Corso, Liza; Millington, Wayne

2006-01-01

The Institute of Medicine has recommended that policy decisions about improvement of national public health systems be guided by sound scientific evidence. However, to date there is no national research agenda to help guide public health systems. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was called upon to lead a collaborative consensus-based process to define key research questions and establish a framework to create opportunities to better coordinate, leverage, and identify public health resources, which are increasingly scarce. The public health systems research agenda that emerged from this process has 14 overarching priority research themes. This national agenda should stimulate and guide research to meet the urgent need to improve the nation’s public health systems. PMID:16449601

National poverty reduction strategies and HIV/AIDS governance in Malawi: a preliminary study of shared health governance.

PubMed

Wachira, Catherine; Ruger, Jennifer Prah

2011-06-01

The public health and development communities understand clearly the need to integrate anti-poverty efforts with HIV/AIDS programs. This article reports findings about the impact of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) process on Malawi's National HIV/AIDS Strategic Framework (NSF). In this article we ask, how does the PRSP process support NSF accountability, participation, access to information, funding, resource planning and allocation, monitoring, and evaluation? In 2007, we developed and conducted a survey of Malawian government ministries, United Nations agencies, members of the Country Coordination Mechanism, the Malawi National AIDS Commission (NAC), and NAC grantees (N = 125, 90% response rate), seeking survey respondents' retrospective perceptions of NSF resource levels, participation, inclusion, and governance before, during, and after Malawi's PRSP process (2000-2004). We also assessed principle health sector and economic indicators and budget allocations for HIV/AIDS. These indicators are part of a new conceptual framework called shared health governance (SHG), which seeks congruence among the values and goals of different groups and actors to reflect a common purpose. Under this framework, global health policy should encompass: (i) consensus among global, national, and sub-national actors on goals and measurable outcomes; (ii) mutual collective accountability; and (iii) enhancement of individual and group health agency. Indicators to assess these elements included: (i) goal alignment; (ii) adequate resource levels; (iii) agreement on key outcomes and indicators for evaluating those outcomes; (iv) meaningful inclusion and participation of groups and institutions; (v) special efforts to ensure participation of vulnerable groups; and (vi) effectiveness and efficiency measures. Results suggest that the PRSP process supported accountability for NSF resources. However, the process may have marginalized key stakeholders, potentially undercutting the implementation of HIV/AIDS Action Plans. Copyright © 2010. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Privacy-preserving GWAS analysis on federated genomic datasets.

PubMed

Constable, Scott D; Tang, Yuzhe; Wang, Shuang; Jiang, Xiaoqian; Chapin, Steve

2015-01-01

The biomedical community benefits from the increasing availability of genomic data to support meaningful scientific research, e.g., Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS). However, high quality GWAS usually requires a large amount of samples, which can grow beyond the capability of a single institution. Federated genomic data analysis holds the promise of enabling cross-institution collaboration for effective GWAS, but it raises concerns about patient privacy and medical information confidentiality (as data are being exchanged across institutional boundaries), which becomes an inhibiting factor for the practical use. We present a privacy-preserving GWAS framework on federated genomic datasets. Our method is to layer the GWAS computations on top of secure multi-party computation (MPC) systems. This approach allows two parties in a distributed system to mutually perform secure GWAS computations, but without exposing their private data outside. We demonstrate our technique by implementing a framework for minor allele frequency counting and χ2 statistics calculation, one of typical computations used in GWAS. For efficient prototyping, we use a state-of-the-art MPC framework, i.e., Portable Circuit Format (PCF) 1. Our experimental results show promise in realizing both efficient and secure cross-institution GWAS computations.

Single-cell Transcriptome Study as Big Data

PubMed Central

Yu, Pingjian; Lin, Wei

2016-01-01

The rapid growth of single-cell RNA-seq studies (scRNA-seq) demands efficient data storage, processing, and analysis. Big-data technology provides a framework that facilitates the comprehensive discovery of biological signals from inter-institutional scRNA-seq datasets. The strategies to solve the stochastic and heterogeneous single-cell transcriptome signal are discussed in this article. After extensively reviewing the available big-data applications of next-generation sequencing (NGS)-based studies, we propose a workflow that accounts for the unique characteristics of scRNA-seq data and primary objectives of single-cell studies. PMID:26876720

Building policy-making capacity in the Ministry of Health: the Kazakhstan experience.

PubMed

Chanturidze, Tata; Adams, Orvill; Tokezhanov, Bolat; Naylor, Mike; Richardson, Erica

2015-01-20

Recent economic growth in Kazakhstan has been accompanied by slower improvements in population health and this has renewed impetus for health system reform. Strengthening strategic planning and policy-making capacity in the Ministry of Health has been identified as an important priority, particularly as the Ministry of Health is leading the health system reform process. The intervention was informed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) framework for capacity building which views capacity building as an ongoing process embedded in local institutions and practices. In response to local needs extra elements were included in the framework to tailor the capacity building programme according to the existing policy and budget cycles and respective competence requirements, and link it with transparent career development structures of the Ministry of Health. This aspect of the programme was informed by the institutional capability assessment model used by the United Kingdom National Health Service (NHS) which was adapted to examine the specific organizational and individual competences of the Ministry of Health in Kazakhstan. There were clear successes in building capacity for policy making and strategic planning within the Ministry of Health in Kazakhstan, including better planned, more timely and in-depth responses to policy assignments. Embedding career development as a part of this process was more challenging. This case study highlights the importance of strong political will and high level support for capacity building in ensuring the sustainability of programmes. It also shows that capacity-building programmes need to ensure full engagement with all local stakeholders, or where this is not possible, programmes need to be targeted narrowly to those stakeholders who will benefit most, for the greatest impact to be achieved. In sum, high quality tailor-made capacity development programmes should be based on thorough needs assessment of individual and organizational competences in a specific institutional setting. The experience showed that complementary approaches to human resource development worked effectively in the context of organizations and systems, where an enabling environment was present, and country ownership and political will was complemented by strong technical assistance to design and deliver high quality tailor-made capacity building initiatives.

Application and Adaptation of an Institutional Learning Framework

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Foutz, Susan; Emmons, Claire Thoma

2017-01-01

The Children's Museum of Indianapolis has used a mission-aligned learning framework for more than a decade. Designed to foster and support adult-child interaction in exhibitions and programs, the central tool of the family learning framework is the Assessment of Learning Families in Exhibits (ALFIE) Inventory. ALFIE is used as a tool to plan for…

Validating a Conceptual Framework for the Core Concept of "Cell-Cell Communication"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Michael, Joel; Martinkova, Patricia; McFarland, Jenny; Wright, Ann; Cliff, William; Modell, Harold; Wenderoth, Mary Pat

2017-01-01

We have created and validated a conceptual framework for the core physiology concept of "cell-cell communication." The conceptual framework is composed of 51 items arranged in a hierarchy that is, in some instances, four levels deep. We have validated it with input from faculty who teach at a wide variety of institutional types. All…

75 FR 39391 - Funding and Fiscal Affairs, Loan Policies and Operations, and Funding Operations; Capital...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2010-07-08

... framework. System banks do not routinely retire their stock in the ordinary course of business or revolve... adopting a Tier 1/Tier 2 regulatory capital framework for the institutions it regulates. The NCUA has also... capital requirement and, therefore, it will remain part of the System's regulatory capital framework. The...

Prioritization of disasters and their management in Rwanda.

PubMed

Rugigana, E; Nyirazinyoye, L; Umubyeyi, A; Nsengiyumva, J B; Kanyandekwe, C; Ntahobakulira, I

2013-06-01

Rwanda has been experiencing quite a significant number of disastrous events of both natural and man-made origin in the last 2 decades. Many cases of disasters are particularly linked to the geographic, historical and socio-cultural aspects of the country. The overall objective of the present article is to perform a situation analysis of disasters in Rwanda and to highlight the institutional and legal framework of disaster management. An assessment questionnaire focused on the current capacity, institutional frameworks and on-going initiatives for disaster management at country level and operational level was administered. The assessment was descriptive and used mainly qualitative methods. These included review of records (country policies and policy briefs, programme documents), interviews with key informants from line ministries, and interviews with key informants from stakeholder agencies. The Rwandan hazard profile, its vulnerability and capacity assessment shows top seven disasters which are related to epidemics, hails storms/floods; roads accidents; environmental degradation and earthquakes/volcanic eruption. Currently, the Institutional framework for disaster management and response is coordinated by Ministry of Disaster Management and Refugee Affairs through the Rwanda National Disasters Operation Center. Although disaster risk reduction has been integrated into sustainable policies and plans, most districts do not have adequate capacity to plan for disasters and the majority of districts disaster committees have not yet been trained. Rwanda has established a legal and institutional framework for disasters management. There is a need to build capacity in disaster management at operational level (District).

Langley Wind Tunnel Data Quality Assurance-Check Standard Results

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hemsch, Michael J.; Grubb, John P.; Krieger, William B.; Cler, Daniel L.

2000-01-01

A framework for statistical evaluation, control and improvement of wind funnel measurement processes is presented The methodology is adapted from elements of the Measurement Assurance Plans developed by the National Bureau of Standards (now the National Institute of Standards and Technology) for standards and calibration laboratories. The present methodology is based on the notions of statistical quality control (SQC) together with check standard testing and a small number of customer repeat-run sets. The results of check standard and customer repeat-run -sets are analyzed using the statistical control chart-methods of Walter A. Shewhart long familiar to the SQC community. Control chart results are presented for. various measurement processes in five facilities at Langley Research Center. The processes include test section calibration, force and moment measurements with a balance, and instrument calibration.

The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. 2000 Edition. A Technical Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Menlo Park, CA.

The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education is the framework in which institutional diversity in United States higher education is commonly described. Developed in 1971, the Classification was designed to support research in higher education by identifying categories of colleges and universities that would be homogeneous with…

The Income Generation Handbook: A Practical Guide for Educational Institutions.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Warner, David; Leonard, Charles

This book sets out the British policy context and theoretical framework for income generation by institutions of higher education and provides practical guidance in this area. Income generation is defined as all income generated over and above the core funding provided by an institution's primary funding body. Chapter 1 offers an overview of…

Balanced Scorecard--A Strategic Management System of the Higher Education Institution

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hladchenko, Myroslava

2015-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to focus on the comparative analysis of the Balanced Scorecards of four higher education institutions and aims to define the general framework of the Balanced Scorecard for the higher education institution which concerns: the structure and elements of the Balanced Scorecard; development of the Balanced…

Quantitative Procedures for the Assessment of Quality in Higher Education Institutions.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moran, Tom; Rowse, Glenwood

The development of procedures designed to provide quantitative assessments of quality in higher education institutions are reviewed. These procedures employ a systems framework and utilize quantitative data to compare institutions or programs of similar types with one another. Three major elements essential in the development of models focusing on…

Predicting a Taxonomy of Organisational Effectiveness in U.K. Higher Educational Institutions.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lysons, Art; Hatherly, David

1996-01-01

The framework of a study of organizational effectiveness in Australian higher education institutions was applied to a similar study in the United Kingdom. The approach was found useful for classifying U.K. institutions as classical universities, former polytechnics and colleges of advanced technology, and greenfield universities. (Author/MSE)

Towards Sustainable Performance Measurement Frameworks for Applied Research in Canadian Community Colleges and Institutes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Williams, Keith

2014-01-01

Applied Research (AR) in Canadian community colleges is driven by a mandate, via the collective voice of Colleges and Institutes Canada--a national voluntary membership association of publicly supported colleges and related institutions--to address issues of interest to industry, government, and/or community. AR is supported through significant…

An Institutional Theory Analysis of Charter Schools: Addressing Institutional Challenges to Scale

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Huerta, Luis A.; Zuckerman, Andrew

2009-01-01

This article presents a conceptual framework derived from institutional theory in sociology that offers two competing policy contexts in which charter schools operate--a bureaucratic frame versus a decentralized frame. An analysis of evolving charter school types based on three underlying theories of action is considered. As charter school leaders…

A Narrow Path through the Broad Middle: Mapping Institutional Considerations for ESEA Reauthorization

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DeBray, Elizabeth; Houck, Eric A.

2011-01-01

This article uses an institutional framework to analyze the political context of the next reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The authors analyze three relevant factors in the institutional environment: the role of traditional party politics, including theories of divided versus unified party government; the entrance of…

Assessing the College Mission: An Excellent Starting Point for Institutional Effectiveness.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Quinley, John W.

A community college's mission statement is a beacon that provides strategic direction for the institution and the conceptual framework for the entire organization. The principal tasks in drafting a new mission statement include matching the current mission to actual institutional functioning, and judging whether the statement is adequate to lead…

The Limits of Institutional Reflexivity in Bulgarian Universities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Slantcheva, Snejana

2004-01-01

This article focuses on the notion of institutional reflexivity. Its theoretical framework is based on the views of a group of sociologists--Anthony Giddens, Ulrich Beck, Scott Lash--who developed the concept of reflexive modernization. The article applies the notion of institutional reflexivity to the field of higher education and reviews the…

Strategic Planning and Fiscal Benefits: Is There a Link? ASHE Annual Meeting Paper.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Swenk, Jean M.

This study attempted to determine whether strategic planning would enhance a higher education institution's fiscal condition. It also systematically evaluated the extent of institution-wide strategic planning among private four-year postsecondary institutions in the United States. A definition of strategic planning and a conceptual framework based…

Institutional Abuse: Understanding Domination from the Inside Looking Out.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jones, Jocelyn

1995-01-01

Applies a conceptual framework drawn from Max Weber's ideas of domination to examine the ways by which domination of child victims is created and maintained in cases of institutional abuse. Suggests that a solution is to regulate institutional abuse by written guidance on procedures, by frequent inspections, and through copious recommendations…

Building Comprehensive and Sustainable Health Informatics Institutions in Developing Countries: Moi University Experience.

PubMed

Were, Martin C; Siika, Abraham; Ayuo, Paul O; Atwoli, Lukoye; Esamai, Fabian

2015-01-01

Current approaches for capacity building in Health Informatics (HI) in developing countries mostly focus on training, and often rely on support from foreign entities. In this paper, we describe a comprehensive and multidimensional capacity-building framework by Lansang & Dennis, and its application for HI capacity building as implemented in a higher-education institution in Kenya. This framework incorporates training, learning-by-doing, partnerships, and centers of excellence. At Moi University (Kenya), the training dimensions include an accredited Masters in HI Program, PhD in HI, and HI short courses. Learning-by-doing occurs through work within MOH facilities at the AMPATH care and treatment program serving 3 million people. Moi University has formed strategic HI partnerships with Regenstrief Institute, Inc. (USA), University of Bergen (Norway), and Makerere University (Uganda), among others. The University has also created an Institute of Biomedical Informatics to serve as an HI Center of Excellence in the region. This Institute has divisions in Training, Research, Service and Administration. The HI capacity-building approach by Moi provides a model for adoption by other institutions in resource-limited settings.

The development of a conceptually based nursing curriculum: an international experiment.

PubMed

Meleis, A I

1979-11-01

Nursing programmes in the United States of America are based on a conceptual framework. Not only do faculty and students ascribe to the necessity of such programmes but the national accreditation agency also provides its accreditation approval for the institution only after all criteria are met, including the requirement of a well-defined, operationalized and implemented framework. Can a nursing programme be developed in other nations utilizing the esoteric, American-based idea of the necessity for a conceptually based curriculum? The author answers this question. The manuscript presents both the process utilized in selecting a conceptual framwork for a new junior college programme in Kuwait and discusses the selected framework. The idea of a conceptual framework to guide the curriculum was as foreign in Kuwait as it was to nursing curricula in the United States 15 years ago. Though initially rejected by the faculty in Kuwait, the idea of a conceptual framework was reintroduced after much faculty discussion and questions related to nursing knowledge vis-a-vis medical knowledge, and what should be included in and excluded from the programme. By the end of the second year, a definite framework had been operationalized into courses and content. The selection of the framework evolved from faculty participation in the operationalization of the framework. This point is quite significant particularly in an international assignment, as it is the faculty who are left with the monumental task of supporting and continuing the work which has been done. Strategies used to develop and implement a conceptual framework included confrontation of faculty of the existing situation, lectures, seminars, workshops, and the identification of a critical review board.

The Institutional Approach for Modeling the Evolution of Human Societies.

PubMed

Powers, Simon T

2018-01-01

Artificial life is concerned with understanding the dynamics of human societies. A defining feature of any society is its institutions. However, defining exactly what an institution is has proven difficult, with authors often talking past each other. This article presents a dynamic model of institutions, which views them as political game forms that generate the rules of a group's economic interactions. Unlike most prior work, the framework presented here allows for the construction of explicit models of the evolution of institutional rules. It takes account of the fact that group members are likely to try to create rules that benefit themselves. Following from this, it allows us to determine the conditions under which self-interested individuals will create institutional rules that support cooperation-for example, that prevent a tragedy of the commons. The article finishes with an example of how a model of the evolution of institutional rewards and punishments for promoting cooperation can be created. It is intended that this framework will allow artificial life researchers to examine how human groups can themselves create conditions for cooperation. This will help provide a better understanding of historical human social evolution, and facilitate the resolution of pressing societal social dilemmas.

Future of DAQ Frameworks and Approaches, and Their Evolution towards the Internet of Things

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Neufeld, Niko

2015-12-01

Nowadays, a DAQ system is a complex network of processors, sensors and many other active devices. Historically, providing a framework for DAQ has been a very important role of host institutes of experiments. Reviewing evolution of such DAQ frameworks is a very interesting subject of the conference. “Internet of Things” is a recent buzz word but a DAQ framework could be a good example of IoT.

Multi-actor involvement for integrating ecosystem services in strategic environmental assessment of spatial plans

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Rozas-Vásquez, Daniel, E-mail: danielrozas@gmail.com; Laboratorio de Planificación Territorial, Universidad Católica de Temuco, Rudecindo ortega, 02950 Temuco; Fürst, Christine

Integrating an ecosystem services (ES) approach into Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) of spatial plans potentially enhances the consideration of the value of nature in decision making and policy processes. However, there is increasing concern about the institutional context and a lack of a common understanding of SEA and ecosystem services for adopting them as an integrated framework. This paper addresses this concern by analysing the current understanding and network relations in a multi-actor arrangement as a first step towards a successful integration of ES in SEA and spatial planning. Our analysis focuses on a case study in Chile, where wemore » administered a questionnaire survey to some of the main actors involved in the spatial planning process. The questionnaire focused on issues such as network relations among actors and on conceptual understanding, perceptions and challenges for integrating ES in SEA and spatial planning, knowledge on methodological approaches, and the connections and gaps in the science-policy interface. Our findings suggest that a common understanding of SEA and especially of ES in a context of multiple actors is still at an initial stage in Chile. Additionally, the lack of institutional guidelines and methodological support is considered the main challenge for integration. We conclude that preconditions exist in Chile for integrating ES in SEA for spatial planning, but they strongly depend on appropriate governance schemes that promote a close science-policy interaction, as well as collaborative work and learning. - Highlights: • Linking ecosystem services in SEA is an effective framework for sustainability. • Multi-actor understanding and networks in ecosystem services and SEA were analyzed. • Understanding of SEA and especially of ES is still in an initial stage in Chile. • A lack of institutional guidelines is one of the key challenges for this link.« less

[Qualitative evaluation of the alcoholism integral approach with the GIA model (alcoholism institutional groups)].

PubMed

Villafañe, Claudia I

2009-01-01

This paper presents the evaluation, over a period of 6 years, on the effectiveness of the Alcoholism Institutional Group (GIA), in the Puerto San Julián Hospital, Santa Cruz, Argentina. The theoretical framework refers to three aspects: subject, social and institutional order. The qualitative logic and the process of analytic induction were used. information was gathered through semi-structured interviews to selected cases (intentional sampling). The constant comparative method for the analysis was used. the GIA method is effective from the aspects of the subject and the social order; the subject included in the treatment was able to: a) deconstruct the socially assumed role as an alcoholic, b) reconstruct their identity, c) restore the fabric of family, labour and social links, d) identify the healthy aspects of their personality to recover the capacities obstructed by the illness, e) learn to solve conflicts collectively thanks to group functioning, f) report to destigmatize the illness, and g) develop a healthy life project. The GIA method proved partially effective from the institutional angle; the task succeeded in uncovering, affirming and working on alcoholism as an illness within the hospital setting, but with less involvement than other local institutions, which motivated projects and strategies started from the results of this research.

Training Partnership Dyads for Community-Based Participatory Research: Strategies and Lessons Learned From the Community Engaged Scholars Program

PubMed Central

Andrews, Jeannette O.; Cox, Melissa J.; Newman, Susan D.; Gillenwater, Gwen; Warner, Gloria; Winkler, Joyce A.; White, Brandi; Wolf, Sharon; Leite, Renata; Ford, Marvella E.; Slaughter, Sabra

2014-01-01

This article describes the development, implementation, evaluation framework, and initial outcomes of a unique campus–community training initiative for community-based participatory research (CBPR). The South Carolina Clinical & Translational Research Center for Community Health Partnerships, which functions as the institution’s Clinical Translational and Science Award Community Engagement Program, leads the training initiative known as the Community Engaged Scholars Program (CES-P). The CES-P provides simultaneous training to CBPR teams, with each team consisting of at least one community partner and one academic partner. Program elements include 12 months of monthly interactive group sessions, mentorship with apprenticeship opportunities, and funding for a CBPR pilot project. A modified RE-AIM (Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, Maintenance) framework guides the process, impact, and outcome evaluation plan. Lessons learned include challenges of group instruction with varying levels of readiness among the CBPR partners, navigating the institutional review board process with community co-investigators, and finding appropriate academic investigators to match community research interests. Future directions are recommended for this promising and unique dyadic training of academic and community partners. PMID:23091303

Kinetic theory approach to modeling of cellular repair mechanisms under genome stress.

PubMed

Qi, Jinpeng; Ding, Yongsheng; Zhu, Ying; Wu, Yizhi

2011-01-01

Under acute perturbations from outer environment, a normal cell can trigger cellular self-defense mechanism in response to genome stress. To investigate the kinetics of cellular self-repair process at single cell level further, a model of DNA damage generating and repair is proposed under acute Ion Radiation (IR) by using mathematical framework of kinetic theory of active particles (KTAP). Firstly, we focus on illustrating the profile of Cellular Repair System (CRS) instituted by two sub-populations, each of which is made up of the active particles with different discrete states. Then, we implement the mathematical framework of cellular self-repair mechanism, and illustrate the dynamic processes of Double Strand Breaks (DSBs) and Repair Protein (RP) generating, DSB-protein complexes (DSBCs) synthesizing, and toxins accumulating. Finally, we roughly analyze the capability of cellular self-repair mechanism, cellular activity of transferring DNA damage, and genome stability, especially the different fates of a certain cell before and after the time thresholds of IR perturbations that a cell can tolerate maximally under different IR perturbation circumstances.

Addiction treatment outcomes, process and change: Texas Institute of Behavioral Research at Texas Christian University.

PubMed

Simpson, D Dwayne; Joe, George W; Dansereau, Donald F; Flynn, Patrick M

2011-10-01

For more than 40 years the Texas Institute of Behavioral Research (IBR) has given special attention to assessment and evaluation of drug user populations, addiction treatment services and various cognitive and behavioral interventions. Emphasis has been on studies in real-world settings and the use of multivariate methodologies to address evaluation issues within the context of longitudinal natural designs. Historically, its program of addiction treatment research may be divided into three sequential epochs-the first era dealt mainly with client assessment and its role in treatment outcome and evaluation (1969-89), the second focused upon modeling the treatment process and the importance of conceptual frameworks (1989-2009) in explaining the relationships among treatment environment, client attributes, treatment process and outcome, and the third (and current) era has expanded into studying tactical deployment of innovations and implementation. Recent projects focus upon adapting and implementing innovations for improving early engagement in adolescent residential treatment settings and drug-dependent criminal justice populations. Related issues include the spread of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome and other infectious diseases, organizational and systems functioning, treatment costs and process related to implementation of evidence-based practices. © 2010 The Authors, Addiction © 2010 Society for the Study of Addiction.

Complex multidisciplinary system composition for aerospace vehicle conceptual design

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gonzalez, Lex

Although, there exists a vast amount of work concerning the analysis, design, integration of aerospace vehicle systems, there is no standard for how this data and knowledge should be combined in order to create a synthesis system. Each institution creating a synthesis system has in house vehicle and hardware components they are attempting to model and proprietary methods with which to model them. This leads to the fact that synthesis systems begin as one-off creations meant to answer a specific problem. As the scope of the synthesis system grows to encompass more and more problems, so does its size and complexity; in order for a single synthesis system to answer multiple questions the number of methods and method interface must increase. As a means to curtail the requirement that the increase of an aircraft synthesis systems capability leads to an increase in its size and complexity, this research effort focuses on the idea that each problem in aerospace requires its own analysis framework. By focusing on the creation of a methodology which centers on the matching of an analysis framework towards the problem being solved, the complexity of the analysis framework is decoupled from the complexity of the system that creates it. The derived methodology allows for the composition of complex multi-disciplinary systems (CMDS) through the automatic creation and implementation of system and disciplinary method interfaces. The CMDS Composition process follows a four step methodology meant to take a problem definition and progress towards the creation of an analysis framework meant to answer said problem. The unique implementation of the CMDS Composition process take user selected disciplinary analysis methods and automatically integrates them, together in order to create a syntactically composable analysis framework. As a means of assessing the validity of the CMDS Composition process a prototype system (AVDDBMS) has been developed. AVD DBMS has been used to model the Generic Hypersonic Vehicle (GHV), an open source family of hypersonic vehicles originating from the Air Force Research Laboratory. AVDDBMS has been applied in three different ways in order to assess its validity: Verification using GHV disciplinary data, Validation using selected disciplinary analysis methods, and Application of the CMDS Composition Process to assess the design solution space for the GHV hardware. The research demonstrates the holistic effect that selection of individual disciplinary analysis methods has on the structure and integration of the analysis framework.

Assessment of quality and relevance of curricula development in health training institutions: a case study of Kenya.

PubMed

Mumbo, Hazel M; Kinaro, Joyce W

2015-08-13

The World Health Organization lists Kenya among African countries experiencing health workforce crisis catalysed through immigration, underproduction, inconsistent quality of production and unequal distribution. Strengthening health training institutions to increase production of high-quality health workers is acknowledged as a measure to mitigate the crisis.IntraHealth International's USAID-funded FUNZOKenya Project (2012-2017) undertook an assessment to identify the bottlenecks to increasing the number and quality of pre-service graduates in Kenya. The assessment, a cross-sectional descriptive study, collected data through structured respondent interviews among faculty, students in health training institutions, key informants and desk review. The assessment purposively selected 14 institutions from 18 institutions identified for initial collaboration with the project towards strengthening health workforce training. The statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) application helped analyse quantitative data and quotes used to illustrate perceptions on the quality of curricula.The findings revealed major gaps in quality and adequacy of curricula in the training institutions. A national standard framework to guide curricula review process is lacking. Further, curricula did not adequately prepare students for clinical placement, as most failed to directly respond to national health needs. The study recommended reviews of curricula to ensure their responsiveness to emerging issues in the health sector, the formation of curriculum committees to review curricula, development of official curricula review standards and an integrated mechanism to disseminate policies and guidelines.

Preparing culturally responsive teachers of science, technology, engineering, and math using the Geophysical Institute Framework for Professional Development in Alaska

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Berry Bertram, Kathryn

2011-12-01

The Geophysical Institute (GI) Framework for Professional Development was designed to prepare culturally responsive teachers of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Professional development programs based on the framework are created for rural Alaskan teachers who instruct diverse classrooms that include indigenous students. This dissertation was written in response to the question, "Under what circumstances is the GI Framework for Professional Development effective in preparing culturally responsive teachers of science, technology, engineering, and math?" Research was conducted on two professional development programs based on the GI Framework: the Arctic Climate Modeling Program (ACMP) and the Science Teacher Education Program (STEP). Both programs were created by backward design to student learning goals aligned with Alaska standards and rooted in principles of indigenous ideology. Both were created with input from Alaska Native cultural knowledge bearers, Arctic scientists, education researchers, school administrators, and master teachers with extensive instructional experience. Both provide integrated instruction reflective of authentic Arctic research practices, and training in diverse methods shown to increase indigenous student STEM engagement. While based on the same framework, these programs were chosen for research because they offer distinctly different training venues for K-12 teachers. STEP offered two-week summer institutes on the UAF campus for more than 175 teachers from 33 Alaska school districts. By contrast, ACMP served 165 teachers from one rural Alaska school district along the Bering Strait. Due to challenges in making professional development opportunities accessible to all teachers in this geographically isolated district, ACMP offered a year-round mix of in-person, long-distance, online, and local training. Discussion centers on a comparison of the strategies used by each program to address GI Framework cornerstones, on methodologies used to conduct program research, and on findings obtained. Research indicates that in both situations the GI Framework for Professional Development was effective in preparing culturally responsive STEM teachers. Implications of these findings and recommendations for future research are discussed in the conclusion.

Retooling Institutional Support Infrastructure for Clinical Research

PubMed Central

Snyder, Denise C.; Brouwer, Rebecca N.; Ennis, Cory L.; Spangler, Lindsey L.; Ainsworth, Terry L.; Budinger, Susan; Mullen, Catherine; Hawley, Jeffrey; Uhlenbrauck, Gina; Stacy, Mark

2016-01-01

Clinical research activities at academic medical centers are challenging to oversee. Without effective research administration, a continually evolving set of regulatory and institutional requirements can detract investigator and study team attention away from a focus on scientific gain, study conduct, and patient safety. However, even when the need for research administration is recognized, there can be struggles over what form it should take. Central research administration may be viewed negatively, with individual groups preferring to maintain autonomy over processes. Conversely, a proliferation of individualized approaches across an institution can create inefficiencies or invite risk. This article describes experiences establishing a unified research support office at the Duke University School of Medicine based on a framework of customer support. The Duke Office of Clinical Research was formed in 2012 with a vision that research administration at academic medical centers should help clinical investigators navigate the complex research environment and operationalize research ideas. The office provides an array of services that have received high satisfaction ratings. The authors describe the ongoing culture change necessary for success of the unified research support office. Lessons learned from implementation of the Duke Office of Clinical Research may serve as a model for other institutions undergoing a transition to unified research support. PMID:27125563

The Theory of "Belonging": Defining Concepts Used within Belonging, Being and Becoming--the Australian Early Years Learning Framework

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peers, Chris; Fleer, Marilyn

2014-01-01

The implementation in 2009-10 of the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) spearheaded the efforts of the Australian Commonwealth government to institute a national curriculum. The theme of the new early childhood framework follows three guiding concepts: Belonging, Being and Becoming. In this article, we discuss these three concepts in order to…

Integration of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy Into the Science Learning Progression Framework

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bernardo, Cyntra

This study integrated elements of culturally relevant pedagogy into a science learning progression framework, with the goal of enhancing teachers' cultural knowledge and thereby creating better teaching practices in an urban public high school science classroom. The study was conducted using teachers, an administrator, a science coach, and students involved in science courses in public high school. Through a qualitative intrinsic case study, data were collected and analyzed using traditional methods. Data from primary participants (educators) were analyzed through identification of big ideas, open coding, and themes. Through this process, patterns and emergent ideas were reported. Outcomes of this study demonstrated that educators lack knowledge about research-based academic frameworks and multicultural education strategies, but benefit through institutionally-based professional development. Students from diverse cultures responded positively to culturally-based instruction. Their progress was further manifested in better communication and discourse with their teacher and peers, and increased academic outcomes. This study has postulated and provided an exemplar for science teachers to expand and improve multicultural knowledge, ultimately transferring these skills to their pedagogical practice.

Regulatory Framework for Conducting Clinical Research in Canada.

PubMed

Alas, Josmar K; Godlovitch, Glenys; Mohan, Connie M; Jelinski, Shelly A; Khan, Aneal A

2017-09-01

Research in human subjects is at the core of achieving improvements in health outcomes. For clinical trials, in addition to the peer review of the results before publication, it is equally important to consider whether the trial will be conducted in a manner that generates data of the highest quality and provides a measure of safety for the participating subjects. In Canada, there is no definitive legislation that governs the conduct of research involving human subjects, but a network of regulations at different levels does provide a framework for both principal investigators and sponsors. In this paper, we provide an overview of the federal, provincial and institutional legislation, guidelines and policies that will inform readers about the requirements for clinical trial research. This includes a review of the role of the Food and Drug Regulations under the Food and Drugs Act and the Tri-Council Policy Statement (TCPS2), an overview of provincial legislation across the country, and a focus on selected policies from institutional research ethics boards and public health agencies. Many researchers may find navigation through regulations frustrating, and there is a paucity of information that explains the interrelationship between the different regulatory agencies in Canada. Better understanding the process, we feel, will facilitate investigators interested in clinical trials and also enhance the long-term health of Canadians.

[Regulatory Framework for Approval of PET Drug in Korea: A Survey Report].

PubMed

Kurihara, Chieko; Inoue, Tomio

2015-11-01

To identify regulatory framework for approval of PET drugs in Korea. Interview and literature survey. In Korea Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) regulation specific to radiopharmaceuticals, including PET (Positron Emission Tomography) drugs, under the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act was issued in August 2014, to be enforced on July 1, 2015, and its guidance was issued in December 2014. The new facilities to be established after July 1 of 2015 have to be compatible with this new regulation and already established facilities have two years grace period until June 30 of 2017. During this period, the regulatory authority will inspect all of the production sites which hold or submit approvals of radiopharmaceuticals. As of September 2015 in Korea, there are 7 commercial companies and 15 hospitals and institutes, which have approvals of PET drugs mainly FDG, and these companies and/or hospitals can supply PET drugs outside institutions. In this article we introduce the Korean regulations of development and approval of radiopharmaceuticals. The Korean regulatory authorization policy for radiopharmaceuticals are to some extent similar to the policy which the U.S. regulators set as the new regulations of PET drug. It is expected that the situations of production sites in Korea are to be improved through actual discussions among regulators and PET community through the process of actual inspection.

We're on a Mission Here: Institution Building, Education Reform, and the Rise of a Charter Management Organization

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zuckerman, Andrew Michael

2012-01-01

This study examined the institution-building efforts of a leading charter school management organization, Achievement First. The study used a conceptual framework derived from institutional theory in sociology that offers two competing policy contexts in which charter schools and charter management organizations operate--a bureaucratic versus…

Institutional Disparities in the Cost Effectiveness of GCE A-Level Provision: A Multi-Level Approach.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fielding, A.

1995-01-01

Reanalyzes H. Thomas's 1980s data, which used teaching group as the unit of analysis and illuminated some institutional disparities in provision of General Certificate of Education (GCE) A-levels. Uses multilevel analysis to focus on individual students in a hierarchical framework. Among the study institutions, school sixth forms appear less…

Investigating Conditions for Student Success at an American University in the Middle East

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hassan, Karma El

2014-01-01

It is of great significance to an institution of higher education to meet its goals and to establish its institutional effectiveness and that it has a framework for discussing its institutional performance results, accordingly this study aims to investigate a) the conditions for student success at the University with respect to the five benchmarks…

Technology Entrepreneurship: A Deliberation on Success and Failure in Technology Venturing toward a Grounded Theory of Dystechnia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stewart, McDonald R.

2011-01-01

In the realm of social sciences, the greater body of business and economic theory constructs frameworks of complex organizational systems: the firm, the industry, the institution. Underlying these interdependent and concentric layers are individuals whose behaviors exist first; behaviors must give rise to institutions before institutions can mold…

Using Institutional Resources and Agency to Support Graduate Students' Success at a Hispanic Serving Institution

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tran, Natalie A.; Jean-Marie, Gaetane; Powers, Katherine; Bell, Sean; Sanders, Kimberly

2016-01-01

There is a growing body of evidence that links increased social capital to minority student success in college. This paper seeks to expand specifically on the graduate experience of underrepresented minorities (URM) at a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) using the social capital framework. In a cross-sectional survey, 198 graduate students…

What Institutional Websites Reveal about Diversity-Related Partnerships between Academic and Student Affairs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

LePeau, Lucy A.; Hurtado, Sarah S.; Davis, Ryan J.

2018-01-01

Little is understood about how campus educators within Academic Affairs and Student Affairs use institutional websites to articulate what their institutional commitments to diversity, inclusion, and social justice are and how they are enacted. Through an exploratory content analysis using LePeau's (2015) framework on pathways to partnership (i.e.,…

Better Transitions for Troops: An Application of Schlossberg's Transition Framework to Analyses of Barriers and Institutional Support Structures for Student Veterans

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Griffin, Kimberly A.; Gilbert, Claire K.

2015-01-01

Scholssberg's transition theory is used to frame qualitative analysis of narratives from veterans, administrators, and student affairs professionals, examining whether and how institutions can influence veterans' transitions to higher education. Findings suggest how institutional structures assist students in developing navigational…

National Incorporation of Global Human Rights: Worldwide Expansion of National Human Rights Institutions, 1966-2004

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Koo, Jeong-Woo; Ramirez, Francisco O.

2009-01-01

Using an event history framework we analyze the adoption rate of national human rights institutions. Neo-realist perspective predicts adoption rates to be positively influenced by favorable national profiles that lower the costs and make it more reasonable to establish these institutions. From a world polity perspective adoption rates will be…

Higher Education Institutions and the Administration of International Student Rights: A Law and Policy Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ramia, Gaby

2017-01-01

The scholarly literature in higher education has not dealt extensively with the responsibilities of institutions for servicing the rights of international students. This paper is a comparative analysis of legal frameworks which guide institutions in their handling of international student rights. Two national approaches, those of Australia and New…

Increasing the Translation of Evidence Into Practice, Policy, and Public Health Improvements: A Framework for Training Health Professionals in Implementation and Dissemination Science

PubMed Central

Gonzales, Ralph; Handley, Margaret A.; Ackerman, Sara; O’Sullivan, Patricia S.

2012-01-01

The authors describe a conceptual framework for implementation and dissemination science (IDS) and propose competencies for IDS training. Their framework is designed to facilitate the application of theories and methods from the distinct domains of clinical disciplines (e.g., medicine, public health), population sciences (e.g., biostatistics, epidemiology) and translational disciplines (e.g., social and behavioral sciences, business administration education). They explore three principles that guided the development of their conceptual framework: Behavior change among organizations and/or individuals (providers, patients) is inherent in the translation process; engagement of stakeholder organizations, health care delivery systems, and individuals is imperative to achieve effective translation and sustained improvements; and IDS research is iterative, benefiting from cycles and collaborative, bidirectional relationships. The authors propose seven domains for IDS training--team science, context identification, literature identification and assessment, community engagement, intervention design and research implementation, evaluation of effect of translational activity, behavioral change communication strategies--and define twelve IDS training competencies within these domains. As a model, they describe specific courses introduced at the University of California, San Francisco, which they designed to develop these competencies. The authors encourage other training programs and institutions to use (or adapt) the design principles, conceptual framework, And proposed competencies to evaluate their current IDS training needs and to support new program development. PMID:22373617

A Conceptual Framework for Graduate Teaching Assistant Professional Development Evaluation and Research

PubMed Central

Reeves, Todd D.; Marbach-Ad, Gili; Miller, Kristen R.; Ridgway, Judith; Gardner, Grant E.; Schussler, Elisabeth E.; Wischusen, E. William

2016-01-01

Biology graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) are significant contributors to the educational mission of universities, particularly in introductory courses, yet there is a lack of empirical data on how to best prepare them for their teaching roles. This essay proposes a conceptual framework for biology GTA teaching professional development (TPD) program evaluation and research with three overarching variable categories for consideration: outcome variables, contextual variables, and moderating variables. The framework’s outcome variables go beyond GTA satisfaction and instead position GTA cognition, GTA teaching practice, and undergraduate learning outcomes as the foci of GTA TPD evaluation and research. For each GTA TPD outcome variable, key evaluation questions and example assessment instruments are introduced to demonstrate how the framework can be used to guide GTA TPD evaluation and research plans. A common conceptual framework is also essential to coordinating the collection and synthesis of empirical data on GTA TPD nationally. Thus, the proposed conceptual framework serves as both a guide for conducting GTA TPD evaluation at single institutions and as a means to coordinate research across institutions at a national level. PMID:27193291

Scientific and educational center "space systems and technology"

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kovalev, I. V.; Loginov, Y. Y.; Zelenkov, P. V.

2015-10-01

The issues of engineers training in the aerospace university on the base of Scientific and Educational Center "Space Systems and Technology" are discussed. In order to improve the quality of education in the Siberian State Aerospace University the research work of students, as well as the practice- oriented training of engineers are introduced in the educational process. It was made possible as a result of joint efforts of university with research institutes of the Russian Academy of Science and industrial enterprises. The university experience in this area promotes the development of a new methods and forms of educational activities, including the project-oriented learning technologies, identifying promising areas of specialization and training of highly skilled engineers for aerospace industry and other institutions. It also allows you to coordinate the work of departments and other units of the university to provide the educational process in workshops and departments of the industrial enterprises in accordance with the needs of the target training. Within the framework of scientific and education center the students perform researches, diploma works and master's theses; the postgraduates are trained in advanced scientific and technical areas of enterprise development.

Bridging the sanitation gap between disaster relief and development.

PubMed

Lai, Ka-Man; Ramirez, Claudia; Liu, Weilong; Kirilova, Darina; Vick, David; Mari, Joe; Smith, Rachel; Lam, Ho-Yin; Ostovari, Afshin; Shibakawa, Akifumi; Liu, Yang; Samant, Sidharth; Osaro, Lucky

2015-10-01

By interpreting disasters as opportunities to initiate the fulfilment of development needs, realise the vulnerability of the affected community and environment, and extend the legacy of relief funds and effort, this paper builds upon the concept linking relief, rehabilitation and development (LRRD) in the sanitation sector. It aims to use a composite of case studies to devise a framework for a semi-hypothetical scenario to identify critical components and generic processes for a LRRD action plan. The scenario is based on a latrine wetland sanitation system in a Muslim community. Several sub-frameworks are developed: (i) latrine design; (ii) assessment of human waste treatment; (iii) connective sanitation promotion strategy; and (iv) ecological systems and environmental services for sanitation and development. This scenario illustrates the complex issues involved in LRRD in sanitation work and provides technical notes and references for a legacy plan for disaster relief and development. © 2015 The Author(s). Disasters © Overseas Development Institute, 2015.

Validation of learning assessments: A primer.

PubMed

Peeters, Michael J; Martin, Beth A

2017-09-01

The Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education's Standards 2016 has placed greater emphasis on validating educational assessments. In this paper, we describe validity, reliability, and validation principles, drawing attention to the conceptual change that highlights one validity with multiple evidence sources; to this end, we recommend abandoning historical (confusing) terminology associated with the term validity. Further, we describe and apply Kane's framework (scoring, generalization, extrapolation, and implications) for the process of validation, with its inferences and conclusions from varied uses of assessment instruments by different colleges and schools of pharmacy. We then offer five practical recommendations that can improve reporting of validation evidence in pharmacy education literature. We describe application of these recommendations, including examples of validation evidence in the context of pharmacy education. After reading this article, the reader should be able to understand the current concept of validation, and use a framework as they validate and communicate their own institution's learning assessments. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Why do policies change? Institutions, interests, ideas and networks in three cases of policy reform.

PubMed

Shearer, Jessica C; Abelson, Julia; Kouyaté, Bocar; Lavis, John N; Walt, Gill

2016-11-01

Policy researchers have used various categories of variables to explain why policies change, including those related to institutions, interests and ideas. Recent research has paid growing attention to the role of policy networks-the actors involved in policy-making, their relationships with each other, and the structure formed by those relationships-in policy reform across settings and issues; however, this literature has largely ignored the theoretical integration of networks with other policy theories, including the '3Is' of institutions, interests and ideas. This article proposes a conceptual framework integrating these variables and tests it on three cases of policy change in Burkina Faso, addressing the need for theoretical integration with networks as well as the broader aim of theory-driven health policy analysis research in low- and middle-income countries. We use historical process tracing, a type of comparative case study, to interpret and compare documents and in-depth interview data within and between cases. We found that while network changes were indeed associated with policy reform, this relationship was mediated by one or more of institutions, interests and ideas. In a context of high donor dependency, new donor rules affected the composition and structure of actors in the networks, which enabled the entry and dissemination of new ideas and shifts in the overall balance of interest power ultimately leading to policy change. The case of strategic networking occurred in only one case, by civil society actors, suggesting that network change is rarely the spark that initiates the process towards policy change. This analysis highlights the important role of changes in institutions and ideas to drive policymaking, but hints that network change is a necessary intermediate step in these processes. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press in association with The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Too much information: visual research ethics in the age of wearable cameras.

PubMed

Mok, Tze Ming; Cornish, Flora; Tarr, Jen

2015-06-01

When everything you see is data, what ethical principles apply? This paper argues that first-person digital recording technologies challenge traditional institutional approaches to research ethics, but that this makes ethics governance more important, not less so. We review evolving ethical concerns across four fields: Visual ethics; ubiquitous computing; mobile health; and grey literature from applied or market research. Collectively, these bodies of literature identify new challenges to traditional notions of informed consent, anonymity, confidentiality, privacy, beneficence and maleficence. Challenges come from the ever-increasing power, breadth and multi-functional integration of recording technologies, and the ubiquity and normalization of their use by participants. Some authors argue that these evolving relationships mean that institutional ethics governance procedures are irrelevant or no longer apply. By contrast, we argue that the fundamental principles of research ethics frameworks have become even more important for the protection of research participants, and that institutional frameworks need to adapt to keep pace with the ever-increasing power of recording technologies and the consequent risks to privacy. We conclude with four recommendations for efforts to ensure that contemporary visual recording research is held appropriately accountable to ethical standards: (i) minimizing the detail, scope, integration and retention of captured data, and limiting its accessibility; (ii) formulating an approach to ethics that takes in both the 'common rule' approaches privileging anonymity and confidentiality together with principles of contextual judgement and consent as an ongoing process; (iii) developing stronger ethical regulation of research outside academia; (iv) engaging the public and research participants in the development of ethical guidelines.

Object and technologies in the working process of an itinerant team in mental health.

PubMed

Eslabão, Adriane Domingues; Pinho, Leandro Barbosa de; Coimbra, Valéria Cristina Christello; Lima, Maria Alice Dias da Silva; Camatta, Marcio Wagner; Santos, Elitiele Ortiz Dos

2017-01-01

Objective To analyze the work object and the technologies in the working process of a Mental Health Itinerant Team in the attention to drug users. Methods Qualitative case study, carried out in a municipality in the South of Brazil. The theoretical framework was the Healthcare Labor Process. The data was collected through participant observation and semi-structured interviews with the professionals of an itinerant team in the year of 2015. For data analysis we used the Thematic Content Analysis. Results In the first empirical category - work object - the user is considered as a focus, bringing new challenges in the team's relationship with the network. In the second category - technologies of the work process - potentialities and contradictions of the team work tools are highlighted. Conclusions As an innovation in the mental health context, the itinerant team brings real possibilities to reinvent the care for the drug user as well as new institutional challenges.

Security Risk Assessment Process for UAS in the NAS CNPC Architecture

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Iannicca, Dennis C.; Young, Dennis P.; Thadani, Suresh K.; Winter, Gilbert A.

2013-01-01

This informational paper discusses the risk assessment process conducted to analyze Control and Non-Payload Communications (CNPC) architectures for integrating civil Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) into the National Airspace System (NAS). The assessment employs the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Risk Management framework to identify threats, vulnerabilities, and risks to these architectures and recommends corresponding mitigating security controls. This process builds upon earlier work performed by RTCA Special Committee (SC) 203 and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to roadmap the risk assessment methodology and to identify categories of information security risks that pose a significant impact to aeronautical communications systems. A description of the deviations from the typical process is described in regards to this aeronautical communications system. Due to the sensitive nature of the information, data resulting from the risk assessment pertaining to threats, vulnerabilities, and risks is beyond the scope of this paper.

Security Risk Assessment Process for UAS in the NAS CNPC Architecture

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Iannicca, Dennis Christopher; Young, Daniel Paul; Suresh, Thadhani; Winter, Gilbert A.

2013-01-01

This informational paper discusses the risk assessment process conducted to analyze Control and Non-Payload Communications (CNPC) architectures for integrating civil Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) into the National Airspace System (NAS). The assessment employs the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Risk Management framework to identify threats, vulnerabilities, and risks to these architectures and recommends corresponding mitigating security controls. This process builds upon earlier work performed by RTCA Special Committee (SC) 203 and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to roadmap the risk assessment methodology and to identify categories of information security risks that pose a significant impact to aeronautical communications systems. A description of the deviations from the typical process is described in regards to this aeronautical communications system. Due to the sensitive nature of the information, data resulting from the risk assessment pertaining to threats, vulnerabilities, and risks is beyond the scope of this paper

Investigating the role of socially mediated metacognition during collaborative troubleshooting of electric circuits

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Van De Bogart, Kevin L.; Dounas-Frazer, Dimitri R.; Lewandowski, H. J.; Stetzer, MacKenzie R.

2017-12-01

Developing students' ability to troubleshoot is an important learning outcome for many undergraduate physics lab courses, especially electronics courses. In other work, metacognition has been identified as an important feature of troubleshooting. However, that work has focused primarily on individual students' metacognitive processes or troubleshooting abilities. In contrast, electronics courses often require students to work in pairs, and hence students' in-class experiences likely have significant social dimensions that are not well understood. In this work, we use an existing framework for socially mediated metacognition to analyze audiovisual data from think-aloud activities in which eight pairs of students from two institutions attempted to diagnose and repair a malfunctioning electric circuit. In doing so, we provide insight into some of the social metacognitive dynamics that arise during collaborative troubleshooting. We find that students engaged in socially mediated metacognition at multiple key transitions during the troubleshooting process. Reciprocated metacognitive dialogue arose when students were collectively strategizing about which measurements to perform, or reaching a shared understanding of the circuit's behavior. Our research demonstrates the value of the framework of socially mediated metacognition in providing insight into the nature of collaborative student troubleshooting in the context of electronics. As such, this framework may be a useful resource for future efforts to examine and support the development of student troubleshooting skills in other upper-division laboratory courses.

Methods and impact of engagement in research, from theory to practice and back again: early findings from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute.

PubMed

Forsythe, Laura; Heckert, Andrea; Margolis, Mary Kay; Schrandt, Suzanne; Frank, Lori

2018-01-01

Since 2012, PCORI has been funding patient-centered comparative effectiveness research with a requirement for engaging patients and other stakeholders in the research, a requirement that is unique among the US funders of clinical research. This paper presents PCORI's evaluation framework for assessing the short- and long-term impacts of engagement; describes engagement in PCORI projects (types of stakeholders engaged, when in the research process they are engaged and how they are engaged, contributions of their engagement); and identifies the effects of engagement on study design, processes, and outcomes selection, as reported by both PCORI-funded investigators and patient and other stakeholder research partners. Detailed quantitative and qualitative information collected annually from investigators and their partners was analyzed via descriptive statistics and cross-sectional qualitative content and thematic analysis, and compared against the outcomes expected from the evaluation framework and its underlying conceptual model. The data support the role of engaged research partners in refinements to the research questions, selection of interventions to compare, choice of study outcomes and how they are measured, contributions to strategies for recruitment, and ensuring studies are patient-centered. The evaluation framework and the underlying conceptual model are supported by results to date. PCORI will continue to assess the effects of engagement as the funded projects progress toward completion, dissemination, and uptake into clinical decision making.

Flexible Learning in an Information Society

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Khan, Badrul, Ed.

2007-01-01

Flexible Learning in an Information Society uses a flexible learning framework to explain the best ways of creating a meaningful learning environment. This framework consists of eight factors--institutional, management, technological, pedagogical, ethical, interface design, resource support, and evaluation--and a systematic understanding of these…

The rhetoric and realities of integrating air quality into the local transport planning process in English local authorities.

PubMed

Olowoporoku, Dotun; Hayes, Enda; Longhurst, James; Parkhurst, Graham

2012-06-30

Regardless of its intent and purposes, the first decade of the Local Air Quality Management (LAQM) framework had little or no effect in reducing traffic-related air pollution in the UK. Apart from the impact of increased traffic volumes, the major factor attributed to this failure is that of policy disconnect between the process of diagnosing air pollution and its management, thereby limiting the capability of local authorities to control traffic-related sources of air pollution. Integrating air quality management into the Local Transport Plan (LTP) process therefore presents opportunities for enabling political will, funding and joined-up policy approach to reduce this limitation. However, despite the increased access to resources for air quality measures within the LTP process, there are local institutional, political and funding constraints which reduce the impact of these policy interventions on air quality management. This paper illustrate the policy implementation gaps between central government policy intentions and the local government process by providing evidence of the deprioritisation of air quality management compared to the other shared priorities in the LTP process. We draw conclusions on the policy and practice of integrating air quality management into transport planning. The evidence thereby indicate the need for a policy shift from a solely localised hotspot management approach, in which the LAQM framework operates, to a more holistic management of vehicular emissions within wider spatial administrative areas. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Louisiana statewide intermodal plan : working paper on water, rail, and intermodal freight transportation

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

1995-07-01

This report presents material developed by the LSU National Ports and Waterways Institute : within the framework of the study and report for the Louisiana Statewide Model Intermodal Plan. : The Institutes participation has concentrated on the frei...

What Critical Ethical Values Guide Strategic Planning Processes in Health Care Organizations?

PubMed

Kucmanic, Matthew; Sheon, Amy R

2017-11-01

This case explores a fictitious hospital's use of co-creation to make a decision about redesign of inpatient units as a first step in incorporating stakeholder input into creation of governing policies. We apply a "procedural fairness" framework to reveal that conditions required for an ethical decision about space redesign were not met by using clinician and patient focus groups to obtain stakeholder input. In this article, we identify epistemic injustices resulting from this process that could undermine confidence in leadership decisions. Suggestions are offered for incorporating stakeholder input going forward that address prior shortcomings. The result should be conditions that are perceived as procedurally fair and decisions that engender confidence in institutional leadership. © 2017 American Medical Association. All Rights Reserved.

INTEGRATING HEALTH TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT PRINCIPLES IN FORMULARY MANAGEMENT.

PubMed

Teng, Monica; Khoo, Ai Leng; Zhao, Ying Jiao; Lin, Liang; Lim, Boon Peng

2016-01-01

Effective formulary management in healthcare institutions safeguards rational drug use and optimizes health outcomes. We implemented a formulary management program integrating the principles of health technology assessment (HTA) to improve the safe, appropriate, and cost-effective use of medicine in Singapore. A 3-year formulary management program was initiated in 2011 in five public healthcare institutions. This program was managed by a project team comprising HTA researchers. The project team worked with institutional pharmacy and therapeutics (P&T) committees to: (i) develop tools for formulary drug review and decision making; (ii) enhance the HTA knowledge and skills of formulary pharmacists and members of P&T committees; (iii) devise a prioritization framework to overcome resource constraints and time pressure; and (iv) conceptualize and implement a framework to review existing formulary. Tools that facilitate drug request submission, drug review, and decision making were developed for formulary drug inclusion. A systematic framework to review existing formulary was also developed and tested in selected institutions. A competency development plan was rolled out over 2 years to enhance formulary pharmacists' proficiency in systematic literature search and review, meta-analysis, and pharmacoeconomic evaluation. The plan comprised training workshops and on-the-job knowledge transfer between the project team and institutional formulary pharmacists through collaborating on selected drug reviews. A resource guide that consolidated the tools and templates was published to encourage the adoption of best practices in formulary management. Based on the concepts of HTA, we implemented an evidence-based approach to optimize formulary management.

An examination of how women and underrepresented racial/ethnic minorities experience barriers in biomedical research and medical programs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chakraverty, Devasmita

Women in medicine and biomedical research often face challenges to their retention, promotion, and advancement to leadership positions (McPhillips et al., 2007); they take longer to advance their careers, tend to serve at less research-intensive institutions and have shorter tenures compared to their male colleagues (White, McDade, Yamagata, & Morahan, 2012). Additionally, Blacks and Hispanics are the two largest minority groups that are vastly underrepresented in medicine and biomedical research in the United States (AAMC, 2012; NSF, 2011). The purpose of this study is to examine specific barriers reported by students and post-degree professionals in the field through the following questions: 1. How do women who are either currently enrolled or graduated from biomedical research or medical programs define and make meaning of gender-roles as academic barriers? 2. How do underrepresented groups in medical schools and biomedical research institutions define and make meaning of the academic barriers they face and the challenges these barriers pose to their success as individuals in the program? These questions were qualitatively analyzed using 146 interviews from Project TrEMUR applying grounded theory. Reported gender-role barriers were explained using the "Condition-Process-Outcome" theoretical framework. About one-third of the females (across all three programs; majority White or Black between 25-35 years of age) reported gender-role barriers, mostly due to poor mentoring, time constraints, set expectations and institutional barriers. Certain barriers act as conditions, causing gender-role issues, and gender-role issues influence certain barriers that act as outcomes. Strategies to overcome barriers included interventions mostly at the institutional level (mentor support, proper specialty selection, selecting academia over medicine). Barrier analysis for the two largest URM groups indicated that, while Blacks most frequently reported racism, gender barriers, mentoring, and personal barriers, Hispanics most frequently reported economic barriers, language barriers, institutional and workplace environment barriers, and gender-role barriers. Examining barriers using the "Individual-Institutional" theoretical framework indicated that barriers do not occur in isolation, but due to an interaction between the individual and its institution. Additionally, the barriers of the two groups are qualitatively different and the "one size fits all" approach may not be suitable for interventions. Implications and recommendations were stated.

Public Spending Efficiency: Institutional Indicators in Primary and Secondary Education. OECD Economics Department Working Papers, No. 543

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gonand, Frederic; Joumard, Isabelle; Price, Robert

2007-01-01

This paper presents composite indicators of the institutional and policy characteristics of educational systems, collated from the questionnaire responses of 26 Member countries. These indicators provide an overview of the institutional framework in the primary and secondary education sector and are constructed so as to be used for the analysis of…

Institutional Ethnography as Materialist Framework for Writing Program Research and the Faculty-Staff Work Standpoints Project

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

LaFrance, Michelle; Nicolas, Melissa

2012-01-01

Institutional ethnography seeks to uncover how things happen--how institutional discourse compels and shapes practice(s) and how norms of practice speak to, for, and over individuals. The Faculty and Staff Standpoints project is shaped by this methodology, as it explores writing center staff and faculty relationships to their work. (Contains 10…

Effective Civil-Military Relations: A Necessary Ingredient for Success in America’s Future Strategic Environment

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-06-17

Institutional Theory .......................................................... 4 Morris Janowitz – Convergence Theory...THEORISTS Samuel Huntington – Institutional Theory Published in 1957, Samuel Huntington‟s The Soldier and the State was the first notable attempt to...theoretical framework that has been widely accepted as the foundation for the discussion of U.S. civil-military relations. Huntington‟s “ Institutional

Selective Planning of the First Year Experience in Higher Education: A Sweden-Australia Comparative Study of Support

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Christie, Michael; Penn-Edwards, Sorrel; Donnison, Sharn; Greenaway, Ruth

2018-01-01

Literature on the support of the First Year Experience (FYE) in institutions of Higher Education provides a range of modelled approaches. However, we argue that institutions still need to selectively plan which approach/es and attendant strategies are best suited to their particular contexts and institutional policy and practice frameworks and how…

Exploration of Perceptions Held by African American Male Student Affairs Administrators at Predominantly White Institutions through the Conceptual Frameworks of Herzberg, Cose, and Kanter

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Surratt, David Alan

2014-01-01

With institutional importance placed on diversity in higher education, considerable research has been conducted regarding the experiences of African Americans at predominantly White institutions. However, the focus has been limited regarding African American administrators in higher education (Jackson, 2004; Allen, 2000; Weems, 2003). The purpose…

A proposed analytic framework for determining the impact of an antimicrobial resistance intervention.

PubMed

Grohn, Yrjo T; Carson, Carolee; Lanzas, Cristina; Pullum, Laura; Stanhope, Michael; Volkova, Victoriya

2017-06-01

Antimicrobial use (AMU) is increasingly threatened by antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The FDA is implementing risk mitigation measures promoting prudent AMU in food animals. Their evaluation is crucial: the AMU/AMR relationship is complex; a suitable framework to analyze interventions is unavailable. Systems science analysis, depicting variables and their associations, would help integrate mathematics/epidemiology to evaluate the relationship. This would identify informative data and models to evaluate interventions. This National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis AMR Working Group's report proposes a system framework to address the methodological gap linking livestock AMU and AMR in foodborne bacteria. It could evaluate how AMU (and interventions) impact AMR. We will evaluate pharmacokinetic/dynamic modeling techniques for projecting AMR selection pressure on enteric bacteria. We study two methods to model phenotypic AMR changes in bacteria in the food supply and evolutionary genotypic analyses determining molecular changes in phenotypic AMR. Systems science analysis integrates the methods, showing how resistance in the food supply is explained by AMU and concurrent factors influencing the whole system. This process is updated with data and techniques to improve prediction and inform improvements for AMU/AMR surveillance. Our proposed framework reflects both the AMR system's complexity, and desire for simple, reliable conclusions.

Regional forecasting system of marine state and variability of dynamical processes in the easternmost part of the Black Sea

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kordzadze, Avtandil; Demetrashvili, Demuri

2014-05-01

The regional forecasting system for the easternmost part of the Black Sea developed at M. Nodia Institute of Geophysics of I. Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University under the EU framework projects ARENA and ECOOP is a part of the Black Sea basin-scale Nowcasting/Forecasting System. A core of the regional forecasting system is a baroclinic regional model of Black Sea dynamics with 1 km spacing based on hydrostatic primitive equations of ocean hydrothermodynamics, which are written in z-coordinates for deviations of thermodynamic values from their standard vertical distributions. To solve the problem the two-cycle method of splitting the model equation system with respect to both physical processes and coordinate planes and lines is used. The regional model of M. Nodia Institute of Geophysics is nested in the basin-scale model of Black Sea dynamics of Marine Hydrophysical Institute (Sevastopol/Ukraine). The regional forecasting system provides 3 days' forecasts of current, temperature and salinity for the easternmost part of the Black Sea, which is limited to the Caucasian and Turkish coastal lines and the western liquid boundary coinciding with the meridian 39.080E. Data needed on liquid and upper boundaries, also the 3-D initial hydrophysical fields for the easternmost regional area are provided in near operative mode from Marine hydrophysical Institute via Internet. These data on the liquid boundary are values of velocity components, temperature and salinity predicted by the basin-scale model of Black Sea dynamics of Marine Hydrophysical Institute and on the sea surface 2-D meteorological boundary fields - wind stress, heat fluxes, evaporation and precipitation rates predicted by the regional atmospheric model ALADIN are used. The analysis of the results of modeling and forecast of dynamic processes developed for 2010-2014 showed that the easternmost water area of the Black Sea is a dynamically very active zone, where continuously there are processes of generation, deformation and disappearance of the cyclonic and anticyclonic vortex formations of different sizes. Acknowledgement. The significant part of the researches was supported by the Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation, Grant No. AR/373/9-120/12.

Socioecological revitalization of an urban watershed

Treesearch

Guy W Hager; Kenneth T. Belt; William Stack; Kimberly Burgess; J. Morgan Grove; Bess Caplan; Mary Hardcastle; Desiree Shelley; Steward T.A. Pickett; Peter M. Groffman

2013-01-01

Older, economically troubled urban neighborhoods present multiple challenges to environmental quality. Here, we present results from an initiative in Baltimore, Maryland, where water-quality improvements were rooted in a socioecological framework that highlighted the interactions between biogeophysical dynamics and social actors and institutions. This framework led to...

A Framework for Resilience-based Governance of Social-Ecological Systems

EPA Science Inventory

Panarchy provides a heuristic to characterize the cross-scale dynamics of social-ecological systems and a framework for how governance institutions should behave to be compatible with the ecosystems they manage. Managing for resilience will likely require reform of law to account...

Institutional Racist Melancholia: A Structural Understanding of Grief and Power in Schooling

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vaught, Sabina E.

2012-01-01

In this article, Sabina Vaught undertakes the theoretical and analytical project of conceptually integrating "Whiteness as property", a key structural framework of Critical Race Theory (CRT), and "melancholia", a framework originally emerging from psychoanalysis. Specifically, Vaught engages "Whiteness as property" as…

Building Capacity in Community-Based Participatory Research Partnerships Through a Focus on Process and Multiculturalism.

PubMed

Corbie-Smith, Giselle; Bryant, Angela R; Walker, Deborah J; Blumenthal, Connie; Council, Barbara; Courtney, Dana; Adimora, Ada

2015-01-01

In health research, investigators and funders are emphasizing the importance of collaboration between communities and academic institutions to achieve health equity. Although the principles underlying community-academic partnered research have been well-articulated, the processes by which partnerships integrate these principles when working across cultural differences are not as well described. We present how Project GRACE (Growing, Reaching, Advocating for Change and Empowerment) integrated participatory research principles with the process of building individual and partnership capacity. We worked with Vigorous Interventions In Ongoing Natural Settings (VISIONS) Inc., a process consultant and training organization, to develop a capacity building model. We present the conceptual framework and multicultural process of change (MPOC) that was used to build individual and partnership capacity to address health disparities. The process and capacity building model provides a common language, approach, and toolset to understand differences and the dynamics of inequity. These tools can be used by other partnerships in the conduct of research to achieve health equity.

[Research on tumor information grid framework].

PubMed

Zhang, Haowei; Qin, Zhu; Liu, Ying; Tan, Jianghao; Cao, Haitao; Chen, Youping; Zhang, Ke; Ding, Yuqing

2013-10-01

In order to realize tumor disease information sharing and unified management, we utilized grid technology to make the data and software resources which distributed in various medical institutions for effective integration so that we could make the heterogeneous resources consistent and interoperable in both semantics and syntax aspects. This article describes the tumor grid framework, the type of the service being packaged in Web Service Description Language (WSDL) and extensible markup language schemas definition (XSD), the client use the serialized document to operate the distributed resources. The service objects could be built by Unified Modeling Language (UML) as middle ware to create application programming interface. All of the grid resources are registered in the index and released in the form of Web Services based on Web Services Resource Framework (WSRF). Using the system we can build a multi-center, large sample and networking tumor disease resource sharing framework to improve the level of development in medical scientific research institutions and the patient's quality of life.

Exploring the feasibility of private micro flood insurance provision in Bangladesh.

PubMed

Akter, Sonia; Brouwer, Roy; van Beukering, Pieter J H; French, Laura; Silver, Efrath; Choudhury, Saria; Aziz, Syeda Salina

2011-04-01

This paper aims to contribute to the debate on the feasibility of the provision of micro flood insurance as an effective tool for spreading disaster risks in developing countries and examines the role of the institutional-organisational framework in assisting the design and implementation of such a micro flood insurance market. In Bangladesh, a private insurance market for property damage and livelihood risk due to natural disasters does not exist. Private insurance companies are reluctant to embark on an evidently unprofitable venture. Testing two different institutional-organisational models, this research reveals that the administration costs of micro-insurance play an important part in determining the long-term viability of micro flood insurance schemes. A government-facilitated process to overcome the differences observed in this study between the nonprofit micro-credit providers and profit-oriented private insurance companies is needed, building on the particular competence each party brings to the development of a viable micro flood insurance market through a public-private partnership. © 2011 The Author(s). Disasters © Overseas Development Institute, 2011.

[Visible minority nurses and vertical mobility in hospitals

PubMed

Bouabdillah, Naima; Holmes, Dave; Tourigny, Jocelyne

2016-12-01

Canada has experienced a significant change in its ethnic and cultural composition in recent decades. The sustained immigration from non-European countries has given rise to new generation of visible minorities. This new trend is clearly reflected in healthcare institutions. However, the number of visible minority nurses (VMN) is particularly low in management positions. This research adopting critical ethnography and postcolonial approach focuses on the career paths of VMN in Canadian healthcare institutions. Nurses (n = eight, MVN) and managers (n = four caucasian) participated in a series of semi-structured interviews to gather relevant information about the representativeness of the VMN in management positions. Theoretical framework « Othering » was used to guide this research as it makes the link with “la lutte de classement” of Bourdieu. Four main themes closely associated with barriers emerged from the analysis namely ; Hiring and Promotion ; instrumentalization of IMV ; interpersonal and suffering and defensive strategies. Results showed that the VMN faced obstacles, often invisible, that contribute to keeping them at a lower level of the institutional hierarchy, including the hiring and promotion process that they describe as unfair and discriminatory.

CONFINTEA VI follow-up and the role of university lifelong learning: Some issues for European higher education

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Németh, Balázs

2011-08-01

The Belém Framework for Action underlines, among many other issues, that quality in adult learning and education must be holistic and multidimensional both as a concept and in practice, using various tools such as partnerships with higher education institutions. Bridging adult and higher education is difficult, but the lifelong learning paradigm may help European universities to meet the challenge. This paper argues that European higher education institutions should, on the one hand, educate adults to qualify them for their complex roles in society and economy either through academic programmes or in other, non-formal ways. On the other hand, higher education institutions should promote quality research on adult learning and education and develop active citizenship too. Emphasis was clearly given to the former task in the Budapest Statement in December 2008 as part of the European preparatory process for CONFINTEA VI, and the latter has been articulated by UNESCO for more than a decade. This paper suggests that a balanced position may help universities in setting themselves up as better and more effective learning organisations.

The Changing Role of ENGOs in Water Governance: Institutional Entrepreneurs?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Davidson, Seanna L.; de Loë, Rob C.

2016-01-01

The changing role of the state in the last quarter century has been an important contemporary concern for policy makers, scholars, and the public. Equally, there is increasing recognition among governance scholars that nongovernment actors are exerting new kinds of influence over governance systems and contributing in novel ways to governance processes. The role of environmental nongovernmental organizations (ENGOs) is particularly pertinent given the continued involvement of ENGOs within collaborative, adaptive, and co-management governance, across several contexts and regions. This paper uses an analytical framework derived from recent studies on institutional entrepreneurs, to examine the skills ENGOs are applying in order to orchestrate change. An empirical case of governance for water in Canada's Lake Simcoe region provides the foundation for the research. Drawing on a mixed methods approach, the research finds that ENGOs in Lake Simcoe have taken on a role as an institutional entrepreneur, and thereby have altered the relationship between governance actors in this setting. A key outcome of their actions is a more dominant, engaged, and influential role for ENGOs in a critical, regional governance system.

Understanding the devaluation of vulnerable groups: A novel application of Institutional Anomie Theory.

PubMed

Hövermann, Andreas; Groß, Eva M; Zick, Andreas; Messner, Steven F

2015-07-01

Prejudices legitimize the discrimination against groups by declaring them to be of unequal, especially of less, worth. This legitimizing power is highly relevant in social conflicts of modern societies that are governed by market-oriented value systems. However, prejudice research has yet to be linked to sociological discourses on the marketization of society. We argue that Institutional Anomie Theory (IAT), a theory originally developed to explain crime rates, offers a fruitful macro-sociological framework for a better understanding of micro-social prejudices that emerge along with processes of marketization. Extending IAT to explain prejudices in a German study based on survey data offers a first attempt to underpin our theoretical hypotheses with empirical data. Although the results need to be interpreted with due caution, they suggest that the extended IAT model can be usefully applied to explain how a marketized mentality is related to different forms of institutional integration, and how it is conducive to specific prejudices that emerge in market-dominated societies against purported economically burdening social groups. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

UNDERSTANDING THE DEVALUATION OF VULNERABLE GROUPS: A NOVEL APPLICATION OF INSTITUTIONAL ANOMIE THEORY

PubMed Central

Groß, Eva M.; Zick, Andreas; Messner, Steven F.

2015-01-01

Prejudices legitimize the discrimination against groups by declaring them to be of unequal, especially of less, worth. This legitimizing power is highly relevant in social conflicts of modern societies that are governed by market-oriented value systems. However, prejudice research has yet to be linked to sociological discourses on the marketization of society. We argue that Institutional Anomie Theory (IAT), a theory originally developed to explain crime rates, offers a fruitful macro-sociological framework for a better understanding of micro-social prejudices that emerge along with processes of marketization. Extending IAT to explain prejudices in a German study based on survey data offers a first attempt to underpin our theoretical hypotheses with empirical data. Although the results need to be interpreted with due caution, they suggest that the extended IAT model can be usefully applied to explain how a marketized mentality is related to different forms of institutional integration, and how it is conducive to specific prejudices that emerge in market-dominated societies against purported economically burdening social groups. PMID:26004470

Analyzing the Financial State of Colleges and Universities.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Frances, Carol; Stenner, A. Jackson

1979-01-01

Ten pitfalls for financial analysts are described: information lags, misinterpreting trend data, data shortcomings, sample institutions' problems, misuse of panel ratings, using same indicators for private and public institutions, underdevelopment of conceptual framework, arbitrary financial health scales, shaky use of discriminant analysis, and…

Student-Institution Fit.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Williams, Terry E.

The concept of student-institution fit in higher education is clarified, and an approach that can be applied to different types of campuses is described. Also considered is the theoretical framework, including the concept of "person-environment interaction." Three sets of factors are important: student characteristics, institutional…

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) cybersecurity risk management framework applied to modern vehicles

DOT National Transportation Integrated Search

2014-10-01

The primary objective of the work described in this report is to review the National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) guidelines and foundational publications from an automotive : cybersecurity risk management stand-point. The NIST approach...

Research on Adolescence in the Twenty-First Century

PubMed Central

Crosnoe, Robert; Johnson, Monica Kirkpatrick

2017-01-01

Recent methodological advances have allowed empirical research on adolescence to do better justice to theoretical models. Organized by a life course framework, this review covers the state of contemporary research on adolescents' physical, psychological, interpersonal, and institutional pathways; how these pathways connect within primary ecological contexts; and how they relate to broader patterns of societal stratification and historical change. Looking forward, it also emphasizes three future challenges/opportunities, including efforts to illuminate biosocial processes, link adolescence to other life stages, and account for the influence of major social changes (e.g., the new media). PMID:29167597

Virtual reality, telemedicine, web and data processing innovations in medical and psychiatric education and clinical care.

PubMed

Hilty, Donald M; Alverson, Dale C; Alpert, Jonathan E; Tong, Lowell; Sagduyu, Kemal; Boland, Robert J; Mostaghimi, Arash; Leamon, Martin L; Fidler, Don; Yellowlees, Peter M

2006-01-01

This article highlights technology innovations in psychiatric and medical education, including applications from other fields. The authors review the literature and poll educators and informatics faculty for novel programs relevant to psychiatric education. The introduction of new technologies requires skill at implementation and evaluation to assess the pros and cons. There is a significant body of literature regarding virtual reality and simulation, including assessment of outcomes, but other innovations are not well studied. Innovations, like other uses of technology, require collaboration between parties and integration within the educational framework of an institution.

[Regulation of the use of animals in Brazil in the twentieth century and the process of forming the current regime applied to biomedical research].

PubMed

Machado, Carlos José Saldanha; Filipecki, Ana Tereza Pinto; Teixeira, Márcia de Oliveira; Klein, Helena Espellet

2010-03-01

The article analyzes Brazilian public policy and legislation concerning the use of animals in teaching and biomedical research. It examines the institutional and judicial framework and legal status of animal protection in Brazil, including the legislative debate that preceded enactment of Law 11.794/2008, which defined procedures to be employed in the scientific use of animals. It underscores certain features of current regulatory practice and also explores considerations of a theoretical and methodological nature, with a view to broadening our understanding of the question.

The tissue bank at the Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Nucleares: ISO 9001:2000 certification of its quality management system.

PubMed

Martínez-Pardo, María Esther; Mariano-Magaña, David

2007-01-01

Tissue banking is a complex operation concerned with the organisation and coordination of all the steps, that is, from donor selection up to storage and distribution of the final products for therapeutic, diagnostic, instruction and research purposes. An appropriate quality framework should be established in order to cover all the specific methodology as well as the general aspects of quality management, such as research and development, design, instruction and training, specific documentation, traceability, corrective action, client satisfaction, and the like. Such a framework can be obtained by developing a quality management system (QMS) in accordance with a suitable international standard: ISO 9001:2000. This paper presents the implementation process of the tissue bank QMS at the Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Nucleares in Mexico. The objective of the paper is to share the experience gained by the tissue bank personnel [radiosterilised tissue bank (BTR)] at the Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Nucleares (ININ, National Institute of Nuclear Research), during implementation of the ISO 9001:2000 certification process. At present, the quality management system (QMS) of ININ also complies with the Mexican standard NMX-CC-9001:2000. The scope of this QMS is Research, Development and Processing of Biological Tissues Sterilised by Gamma Radiation, among others.

Processing gender: lived experiences of reproducing and transforming gender norms over the life course of young people in Northern Uganda.

PubMed

Lundgren, Rebecka; Burgess, Sarah; Chantelois, Heather; Oregede, Susan; Kerner, Brad; Kågesten, Anna E

2018-06-08

The years between 10-19 represent a critical stage of human development during which boys and girls learn and embody socially constructed gender norms, with long-term implications for their sexual and reproductive health. This ethnographic cohort study sought to understand how gendered norms and practices develop during the transition from child to young adult in post-conflict northern Uganda. A total of 60 girls and boys aged 10-19 were selected using purposive sampling for in-depth interviews over a three-year period; 47 individuals completed all four interviews. Drawing on feminist theory and an ecological perspective, findings were used to create a conceptual framework displaying the experiences of young people navigating patriarchal and alternative norms, emphasising their lived processes of performing and negotiating norms within six key domains (work, puberty, family planning, intimate partner relations, child discipline and alcohol). The framework identifies: (1) personal factors (knowledge, agency and aspirations); (2) social factors (socialisation processes, capital, costs and consequences); and (3) structural factors (health/educational systems, religious institutions, government policies) which may encourage young people towards one norm or another as they age. These findings can inform policies and programmes to transform gender norms and promote equitable, healthy relationships.

SPIRIT: Systematic Planning of Intelligent Reuse of Integrated Clinical Routine Data. A Conceptual Best-practice Framework and Procedure Model.

PubMed

Hackl, W O; Ammenwerth, E

2016-01-01

Secondary use of clinical routine data is receiving an increasing amount of attention in biomedicine and healthcare. However, building and analysing integrated clinical routine data repositories are nontrivial, challenging tasks. As in most evolving fields, recognized standards, well-proven methodological frameworks, or accurately described best-practice approaches for the systematic planning of solutions for secondary use of routine medical record data are missing. We propose a conceptual best-practice framework and procedure model for the systematic planning of intelligent reuse of integrated clinical routine data (SPIRIT). SPIRIT was developed based on a broad literature overview and further refined in two case studies with different kinds of clinical routine data, including process-oriented nursing data from a large hospital group and high-volume multimodal clinical data from a neurologic intensive care unit. SPIRIT aims at tailoring secondary use solutions to specific needs of single departments without losing sight of the institution as a whole. It provides a general conceptual best-practice framework consisting of three parts: First, a secondary use strategy for the whole organization is determined. Second, comprehensive analyses are conducted from two different viewpoints to define the requirements regarding a clinical routine data reuse solution at the system level from the data perspective (BOTTOM UP) and at the strategic level from the future users perspective (TOP DOWN). An obligatory clinical context analysis (IN BETWEEN) facilitates refinement, combination, and integration of the different requirements. The third part of SPIRIT is dedicated to implementation, which comprises design and realization of clinical data integration and management as well as data analysis solutions. The SPIRIT framework is intended to be used to systematically plan the intelligent reuse of clinical routine data for multiple purposes, which often was not intended when the primary clinical documentation systems were implemented. SPIRIT helps to overcome this gap. It can be applied in healthcare institutions of any size or specialization and allows a stepwise setup and evolution of holistic clinical routine data reuse solutions.

Sustainability in Health care by Allocating Resources Effectively (SHARE) 10: operationalising disinvestment in a conceptual framework for resource allocation.

PubMed

Harris, Claire; Green, Sally; Elshaug, Adam G

2017-09-08

This is the tenth in a series of papers reporting a program of Sustainability in Health care by Allocating Resources Effectively (SHARE) in a local healthcare setting. After more than a decade of research, there is little published evidence of active and successful disinvestment. The paucity of frameworks, methods and tools is reported to be a factor in the lack of success. However there are clear and consistent messages in the literature that can be used to inform development of a framework for operationalising disinvestment. This paper, along with the conceptual review of disinvestment in Paper 9 of this series, aims to integrate the findings of the SHARE Program with the existing disinvestment literature to address the lack of information regarding systematic organisation-wide approaches to disinvestment at the local health service level. A framework for disinvestment in a local healthcare setting is proposed. Definitions for essential terms and key concepts underpinning the framework have been made explicit to address the lack of consistent terminology. Given the negative connotations of the word 'disinvestment' and the problems inherent in considering disinvestment in isolation, the basis for the proposed framework is 'resource allocation' to address the spectrum of decision-making from investment to disinvestment. The focus is positive: optimising healthcare, improving health outcomes, using resources effectively. The framework is based on three components: a program for decision-making, projects to implement decisions and evaluate outcomes, and research to understand and improve the program and project activities. The program consists of principles for decision-making and settings that provide opportunities to introduce systematic prompts and triggers to initiate disinvestment. The projects follow the steps in the disinvestment process. Potential methods and tools are presented, however the framework does not stipulate project design or conduct; allowing application of any theories, methods or tools at each step. Barriers are discussed and examples illustrating constituent elements are provided. The framework can be employed at network, institutional, departmental, ward or committee level. It is proposed as an organisation-wide application, embedded within existing systems and processes, which can be responsive to needs and priorities at the level of implementation. It can be used in policy, management or clinical contexts.

Development of a National Digital Geospatial Data Framework

USGS Publications Warehouse

,

1995-01-01

This proposal of a data framework to organize and enhance the activities of the geospatial data community to meet needs for basic themes of data was developed in response to a request in Executive Order 12906, Coordinating Geographic Data Acquisition and Access: The National Spatial Data Infrastructure (U.S. Executive Office of the President, 1994). The request stated: in consultation with State, local, and tribal governments and within 9 months of the date of this order, the FGDC shall submit a plan and schedule to OMB [U.S. Office of Management and Budget] for completing the initial implementation of a national digital geospatial data framework ("framework") by January 2000 and for establishing a process of ongoing data maintenance. The framework shall include geospatial data that are significant, in the determination of the FGDC, to a broad variety of users within any geographic area or nationwide. At a minimum, the plan shall address how the initial transportation, hydrology, and boundary elements of the framework might be completed by January 1998 in order to support the decennial census of 2000. The proposal was developed by representatives of local, regional, State, and Federal agencies under the auspices of the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC). The individuals are listed in the appendix of this report. This Framework Working Group identified the purpose and goals for the framework; identified incentives for participation; defined the information content; developed preliminary technical, operational, and business contexts; specified the institutional roles needed; and developed a strategy for a phased implementation of the framework.Members of the working group presented the concepts of the framework for discussion at several national and regional public meetings. The draft of the report also was provided for public, written review. These discussions and reviews were the source of many improvements to the report.The FGDC approved the report for submission to the Office of Management and Budget on March 31, 1995.

A Conceptual Framework for the Future of Successful Research Administration

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lintz, Elizabeth M.

2008-01-01

Research administration has experienced dramatic changes over the past decades. As scientific research has evolved, higher education institutions have tried to adapt, with varying degrees of success. This paper presents a conceptual framework based on six cornerstones of research administration: mission, information, communication, collaboration,…

Internalized Stigma among Sexual Minority Adults: Insights from a Social Psychological Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Herek, Gregory M.; Gillis, J. Roy; Cogan, Jeanine C.

2009-01-01

This article describes a social psychological framework for understanding sexual stigma, and it reports data on sexual minority individuals' stigma-related experiences. The framework distinguishes between stigma's manifestations in society's institutions ("heterosexism") and among individuals. The latter include "enacted sexual stigma" (overt…

Maryland and Your World.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Holiday-Crews, Margaret

The Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) launched the "Maryland and Your World" project in 1983. The purpose of this project is to assist local school systems in implementing guidelines established by MSDE's curricular framework for the social studies. Goal four of this framework focuses on the ideas, institutions, and processes…

Global Inventory of Regional and National Qualifications Frameworks. Volume I: Thematic Chapters

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Deij, Arjen; Graham, Michael; Bjornavold, Jens; Grm, Slava Pevec; Villalba, Ernesto; Christensen, Hanne; Chakroun, Borhene; Daelman, Katrien; Carlsen, Arne; Singh, Madhu

2015-01-01

The "Global Inventory of Regional and National Qualifications Frameworks," the result of collaborative work between the European Training Foundation (ETF), the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop), UNESCO [United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization] and UIL [UNESCO Institute for…

Transformation and Framework of Teacher Professional Development in Taiwan

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Huang, Bo-Ruey

2016-01-01

This article describes the situation of teacher professional development in Taiwan, including the history and the framework of teacher professional development. With diversification of teacher education systems and institutions, teacher professional development in Taiwan is undergoing a gradual governance shift from the model of centralised state…

Creating a Framework of Guidance for Building Good Digital Collections.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cole, Timothy W.

2002-01-01

Presents the Framework of Guidance for Building Good Digital Collections that was developed by the Institute of Museum and Library Services with other organizations to guide museums and libraries in digitization collection practices. Highlights digital collections, digital objects, and metadata, and discusses reusability, persistence,…

Cultural Diversity in Rural Communities.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Castania, Kathy

1992-01-01

As rural communities become more culturally diverse, the institutions and organizations that serve them must assist this cultural transition by providing a framework for change. Such a framework includes a vision of healthy diverse communities that are conscious of changing demographics and willing to reevaluate community self-image. Three…

Development of a Resource Manager Framework for Adaptive Beamformer Selection

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-12-27

DEVELOPMENT OF A RESOURCE MANAGER FRAMEWORK FOR ADAPTIVE BEAMFORMER SELECTION DISSERTATION Jeremy P. Stringer, Major, USAF AFIT-ENG-DS-13-D-01...Force, the United States Department of Defense or the United States Government. AFIT-ENG-DS-13-D-01 DEVELOPMENT OF A RESOURCE MANAGER FRAMEWORK FOR...ADAPTIVE BEAMFORMER SELECTION DISSERTATION Presented to the Faculty Graduate School of Engineering and Management Air Force Institute of Technology Air

Quality Management in Hungarian Higher Education: Organisational Responses to Governmental Policy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Csizmadia, Tibor; Enders, Jurgen; Westerheijden, Don F.

2008-01-01

This article focuses on responses of higher education institutions to governmental policy. We investigate the influence of organisational characteristics on the implementation of quality management in Hungarian higher education institutions. Our theoretical framework is based on organisational theories (resource dependency and…

Vocational Learning outside Institutions: Online Pedagogy and Deschooling.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Whittington, Dave; McLean, Alan

2001-01-01

Using Illich's "Deschooling Society" as a framework, argues that online learning's flexibility and capacity to support dialogue will profoundly change vocational learning and challenge established institutions' dominance in vocational education and training. Calls for an inclusive approach involving informal learning and access for those…

UK Institutional Responses to Undergraduates' Term-Time Working.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Little, Brenda

2002-01-01

Examines research findings on the impact of working on undergraduate students' experience and academic performance, and considers UK institutions' responses, specifically the establishment of university job-shops and curriculum frameworks that try to "capture" learning derived from work experience. Considers to what extent these…

Improving Student Performance Outcomes and Graduation Rates through Institutional Partnerships

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roggow, Michael J.

2014-01-01

This chapter explores a grant-sponsored program and examines the role of departmental and institutional collaborations in advancing student performance outcomes. It provides a theoretical framework and a description of best practices for ensuring the success of first-generation urban community college students.

Key factors of low carbon development strategy for sustainable transport

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thaveewatanaseth, K.; Limjirakan, S.

2018-02-01

Cities become more vulnerable to climate change impacts causing by urbanization, economic growth, increasing of energy consumption and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. People who live in the cities have already been affected from the impacts in terms of socioeconomic and environmental aspects. Sustainable transport plays the key role in CO2 mitigation and contributes positive impacts on sustainable development for the cities. Several studies in megacities both in developed and developing countries support that mass transit system is an important transportation mode in CO2 mitigation and sustainable transport development. This paper aims to study key factors of low carbon development strategy for sustainable transport. The Bangkok Mass Rapid Transit System (MRT) located in Bangkok was the study area. Data collection was using semi-structured in-depth interview protocol with thirty respondents consisting of six groups i.e. governmental agencies, the MRT operators, consulting companies, international organizations, non-profit organizations, and experts. The research findings highlighted the major factors and supplemental elements composing of institution and technical capacity, institutional framework, policy setting and process, and plan of implementation that would support more effective strategic process for low carbon development strategy (LCDS) for sustainable transport. The study would highly recommend on readiness of institution and technical capacities, stakeholder mapping, high-level decision- makers participation, and a clear direction of the governmental policies that are strongly needed in achieving the sustainable transport.

Internet-based profiler system as integrative framework to support translational research

PubMed Central

Kim, Robert; Demichelis, Francesca; Tang, Jeffery; Riva, Alberto; Shen, Ronglai; Gibbs, Doug F; Mahavishno, Vasudeva; Chinnaiyan, Arul M; Rubin, Mark A

2005-01-01

Background Translational research requires taking basic science observations and developing them into clinically useful tests and therapeutics. We have developed a process to develop molecular biomarkers for diagnosis and prognosis by integrating tissue microarray (TMA) technology and an internet-database tool, Profiler. TMA technology allows investigators to study hundreds of patient samples on a single glass slide resulting in the conservation of tissue and the reduction in inter-experimental variability. The Profiler system allows investigator to reliably track, store, and evaluate TMA experiments. Here within we describe the process that has evolved through an empirical basis over the past 5 years at two academic institutions. Results The generic design of this system makes it compatible with multiple organ system (e.g., prostate, breast, lung, renal, and hematopoietic system,). Studies and folders are restricted to authorized users as required. Over the past 5 years, investigators at 2 academic institutions have scanned 656 TMA experiments and collected 63,311 digital images of these tissue samples. 68 pathologists from 12 major user groups have accessed the system. Two groups directly link clinical data from over 500 patients for immediate access and the remaining groups choose to maintain clinical and pathology data on separate systems. Profiler currently has 170 K data points such as staining intensity, tumor grade, and nuclear size. Due to the relational database structure, analysis can be easily performed on single or multiple TMA experimental results. The TMA module of Profiler can maintain images acquired from multiple systems. Conclusion We have developed a robust process to develop molecular biomarkers using TMA technology and an internet-based database system to track all steps of this process. This system is extendable to other types of molecular data as separate modules and is freely available to academic institutions for licensing. PMID:16364175

Health policy evolution in Lao People’s Democratic Republic: context, processes and agency

PubMed Central

Jönsson, Kristina; Phoummalaysith, Bounfeng; Wahlström, Rolf; Tomson, Göran

2015-01-01

During the last 20 years Lao People’s Democratic Republic has successfully developed and adopted some 30 health policies, strategies, decrees and laws in the field of health. Still, the implementation process remains arduous. This article aims at discussing challenges of health policy development and effective implementation by contextualizing the policy evolution over time and by focusing particularly on the National Drug Policy and the Health Care Law. Special attention is given to the role of research in policymaking. The analysis was guided by the conceptual framework of policy context, process, content and actors, combined with an institutional perspective, and showed that effective implementation of a health policy is highly dependent on both structures and agency of those involved in the policy process. The National Drug Policy was formulated and adopted in a short period of time in a resource-scarce setting, but with dedicated policy entrepreneurs and support of concerned international collaborators. Timely introduction of operational health systems research played a crucial role to support the implementation, as well as the subsequent revision of the policy. The development of the Health Care Law took several years and once adopted, the implementation was delayed by institutional legacies and issues concerning the choice of institutional design and financing, despite strong support of the law among the policymakers. Among many factors, timing of the implementation appeared to be of crucial importance, in combination with strong leadership. These two examples show that more research, that problematizes the complex policy environment in combination with improved communication between researchers and policymakers, is necessary to inform about measures for effective implementation. A way forward can be to strengthen the domestic research capacity and the international research collaboration regionally as well as globally. PMID:24740710

Internet-based Profiler system as integrative framework to support translational research.

PubMed

Kim, Robert; Demichelis, Francesca; Tang, Jeffery; Riva, Alberto; Shen, Ronglai; Gibbs, Doug F; Mahavishno, Vasudeva; Chinnaiyan, Arul M; Rubin, Mark A

2005-12-19

Translational research requires taking basic science observations and developing them into clinically useful tests and therapeutics. We have developed a process to develop molecular biomarkers for diagnosis and prognosis by integrating tissue microarray (TMA) technology and an internet-database tool, Profiler. TMA technology allows investigators to study hundreds of patient samples on a single glass slide resulting in the conservation of tissue and the reduction in inter-experimental variability. The Profiler system allows investigator to reliably track, store, and evaluate TMA experiments. Here within we describe the process that has evolved through an empirical basis over the past 5 years at two academic institutions. The generic design of this system makes it compatible with multiple organ system (e.g., prostate, breast, lung, renal, and hematopoietic system,). Studies and folders are restricted to authorized users as required. Over the past 5 years, investigators at 2 academic institutions have scanned 656 TMA experiments and collected 63,311 digital images of these tissue samples. 68 pathologists from 12 major user groups have accessed the system. Two groups directly link clinical data from over 500 patients for immediate access and the remaining groups choose to maintain clinical and pathology data on separate systems. Profiler currently has 170 K data points such as staining intensity, tumor grade, and nuclear size. Due to the relational database structure, analysis can be easily performed on single or multiple TMA experimental results. The TMA module of Profiler can maintain images acquired from multiple systems. We have developed a robust process to develop molecular biomarkers using TMA technology and an internet-based database system to track all steps of this process. This system is extendable to other types of molecular data as separate modules and is freely available to academic institutions for licensing.

Institutional development: from legal pluralism to institutional bricolage in West African pastoralism.

PubMed

Fokou, G; Bonfoh, B

2016-11-01

Pastoralists in Africa are increasingly vulnerable to the effects of globalisation, climate change and changes in land use. They are confronted with problems related to access to scarce natural resources and their regulation, the management of mobility, and too little investment in health systems, livestock production and social service delivery. However, this paper focuses on positive trends and vital innovations in pastoral societies. These rely on robust institutions and policy frameworks that contribute to economically secure, politically stable, and environmentally sustainable livelihoods for African pastoral societies. The authors analyse ways in which internal and external efforts can improve the economic viability and social aspects of pastoralism. The institutions that manage natural resources and their effects on livelihoods and access to social services must be critically reviewed. The authors suggest that a new model for the economic and social development of African pastoralism should be positioned between donor- or governmentdriven development (in other words, 'seeing like a state') and the autonomous development goals of pastoralists ('seeing like a pastoralist'). Pastoralists are resourceful, entrepreneurial and innovative people, fully able to support new institutional systems and services which recognise their way of life and production systems. It seems evident that African pastoralism will maintain its vitality and creativity through a process of 'bricolage', with institutional and policy innovations based on a constant renegotiation of norms, the reinvention or transformation of tradition, the importance of legitimate authority and the role of the people themselves in shaping such arrangements.

Tackling the "so what" problem in scientific research: a systems-based approach to resource and publication tracking.

PubMed

Harris, Paul A; Kirby, Jacqueline; Swafford, Jonathan A; Edwards, Terri L; Zhang, Minhua; Yarbrough, Tonya R; Lane, Lynda D; Helmer, Tara; Bernard, Gordon R; Pulley, Jill M

2015-08-01

Peer-reviewed publications are one measure of scientific productivity. From a project, program, or institutional perspective, publication tracking provides the quantitative data necessary to guide the prudent stewardship of federal, foundation, and institutional investments by identifying the scientific return for the types of support provided. In this article, the authors describe the Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research's (VICTR's) development and implementation of a semiautomated process through which publications are automatically detected in PubMed and adjudicated using a "just-in-time" workflow by a known pool of researchers (from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and Meharry Medical College) who receive support from Vanderbilt's Clinical and Translational Science Award. Since implementation, the authors have (1) seen a marked increase in the number of publications citing VICTR support, (2) captured at a more granular level the relationship between specific resources/services and scientific output, (3) increased awareness of VICTR's scientific portfolio, and (4) increased efficiency in complying with annual National Institutes of Health progress reports. They present the methodological framework and workflow, measures of impact for the first 30 months, and a set of practical lessons learned to inform others considering a systems-based approach for resource and publication tracking. They learned that contacting multiple authors from a single publication can increase the accuracy of the resource attribution process in the case of multidisciplinary scientific projects. They also found that combining positive (e.g., congratulatory e-mails) and negative (e.g., not allowing future resource requests until adjudication is complete) triggers can increase compliance with publication attribution requests.

Application of agent-based system for bioprocess description and process improvement.

PubMed

Gao, Ying; Kipling, Katie; Glassey, Jarka; Willis, Mark; Montague, Gary; Zhou, Yuhong; Titchener-Hooker, Nigel J

2010-01-01

Modeling plays an important role in bioprocess development for design and scale-up. Predictive models can also be used in biopharmaceutical manufacturing to assist decision-making either to maintain process consistency or to identify optimal operating conditions. To predict the whole bioprocess performance, the strong interactions present in a processing sequence must be adequately modeled. Traditionally, bioprocess modeling considers process units separately, which makes it difficult to capture the interactions between units. In this work, a systematic framework is developed to analyze the bioprocesses based on a whole process understanding and considering the interactions between process operations. An agent-based approach is adopted to provide a flexible infrastructure for the necessary integration of process models. This enables the prediction of overall process behavior, which can then be applied during process development or once manufacturing has commenced, in both cases leading to the capacity for fast evaluation of process improvement options. The multi-agent system comprises a process knowledge base, process models, and a group of functional agents. In this system, agent components co-operate with each other in performing their tasks. These include the description of the whole process behavior, evaluating process operating conditions, monitoring of the operating processes, predicting critical process performance, and providing guidance to decision-making when coping with process deviations. During process development, the system can be used to evaluate the design space for process operation. During manufacture, the system can be applied to identify abnormal process operation events and then to provide suggestions as to how best to cope with the deviations. In all cases, the function of the system is to ensure an efficient manufacturing process. The implementation of the agent-based approach is illustrated via selected application scenarios, which demonstrate how such a framework may enable the better integration of process operations by providing a plant-wide process description to facilitate process improvement. Copyright 2009 American Institute of Chemical Engineers

Developing a pressure ulcer risk factor minimum data set and risk assessment framework.

PubMed

Coleman, Susanne; Nelson, E Andrea; Keen, Justin; Wilson, Lyn; McGinnis, Elizabeth; Dealey, Carol; Stubbs, Nikki; Muir, Delia; Farrin, Amanda; Dowding, Dawn; Schols, Jos M G A; Cuddigan, Janet; Berlowitz, Dan; Jude, Edward; Vowden, Peter; Bader, Dan L; Gefen, Amit; Oomens, Cees W J; Schoonhoven, Lisette; Nixon, Jane

2014-10-01

To agree a draft pressure ulcer risk factor Minimum Data Set to underpin the development of a new evidenced-based Risk Assessment Framework. A recent systematic review identified the need for a pressure ulcer risk factor Minimum Data Set and development and validation of an evidenced-based pressure ulcer Risk Assessment Framework. This was undertaken through the Pressure UlceR Programme Of reSEarch (RP-PG-0407-10056), funded by the National Institute for Health Research and incorporates five phases. This article reports phase two, a consensus study. Consensus study. A modified nominal group technique based on the Research and Development/University of California at Los Angeles appropriateness method. This incorporated an expert group, review of the evidence and the views of a Patient and Public Involvement service user group. Data were collected December 2010-December 2011. The risk factors and assessment items of the Minimum Data Set (including immobility, pressure ulcer and skin status, perfusion, diabetes, skin moisture, sensory perception and nutrition) were agreed. In addition, a draft Risk Assessment Framework incorporating all Minimum Data Set items was developed, comprising a two stage assessment process (screening and detailed full assessment) and decision pathways. The draft Risk Assessment Framework will undergo further design and pre-testing with clinical nurses to assess and improve its usability. It will then be evaluated in clinical practice to assess its validity and reliability. The Minimum Data Set could be used in future for large scale risk factor studies informing refinement of the Risk Assessment Framework. © 2014 The Authors. Journal of Advanced Nursing Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

The DQP in Practice: A Framework of Dilemmas Facing Institutional Researchers in Community Colleges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bath, Sandra Fulton

2015-01-01

Pulling together work on the DQP and Tuning, the author presents four possible frameworks to view engagement with the DQP using the case of transfer and faculty development as examples along with four potential dilemmas IR offices may face when undertaking work with the DQP.

From Conceptual Frameworks to Mental Models for Astronomy: Students' Perceptions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pundak, David; Liberman, Ido; Shacham, Miri

2017-01-01

Considerable debate exists among discipline-based astronomy education researchers about how students change their perceptions in science and astronomy. The study questioned the development of astronomical models among students in institutions of higher education by examining how college students change their initial conceptual frameworks and…

Managing Offshore Branch Campuses: An Analytical Framework for Institutional Strategies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shams, Farshid; Huisman, Jeroen

2012-01-01

The aim of this article is to develop a framework that encapsulates the key managerial complexities of running offshore branch campuses. In the transnational higher education (TNHE) literature, several managerial ramifications and impediments have been addressed by scholars and practitioners. However, the strands of the literature are highly…

The Adoption and Diffusion of an NHRD Standard: A Conceptual Framework

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murphy, Aileen; Garavan, Thomas N.

2009-01-01

This article proposes a conceptual framework to explain the adoption and diffusion of a national human resource development (NHRD) standard. NHRD standards are used by governments to promote training and development in organizations and increase the professionalization of practices used by organizations. Institutional theory suggests that adoption…

Universities as Transnational Political Actors: Interdependence and Autonomy. ASHE Annual Meeting 1980 Paper.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Spitzberg, Irving J., Jr.

A tentative conceptual framework for understanding the transnational political role of universities is presented. This framework categorizes university participation in a large international political system and an important international knowledge system that is part of the larger and interactive: the institutional, local/national, and…

Community Social Context and Individualistic Attitudes toward Marriage

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barber, Jennifer S.

2004-01-01

I develop a theoretical framework explaining how community social context affects attitude formation via nonfamily institutions and related behaviors. Empirical tests of the framework use data from a study of the Chitwan Valley in rural Nepal. The analyses focus on attitudes toward seven aspects of marriage: child marriage, arranged marriage,…

Graduate Entrepreneurship Incubation Environments: A Framework of Key Success Factors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Al-Dajani, Haya; Dedoussis, Evangelos; Watson, Erika; Tzokas, Nikalaos

2014-01-01

The benchmarking framework developed in this study is specifically designed for higher education institutions to consider when developing environments to encourage entrepreneurship among their students, graduates and staff. The objective of the study was to identify key success factors of Graduate Entrepreneurship Incubator Environments (GEIEs)…

Global National Qualifications Framework Inventory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bjornavold, Jens; Pevec-Grm, Slava; Graham, Michael; Deij, Arjen; Singh, Madhu; Charkoun, Borhène; Agrawal, Shivani

2013-01-01

This publication is a global, country-by-country, inventory of National Qualifications Frameworks (NQFs). It is a copublication, prepared by two EU agencies, the European Training Foundation (ETF) and the Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop); and UNESCO's Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) and the Section for TVET at…

Framework for Transforming Departmental Culture to Support Educational Innovation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Corbo, Joel C.; Reinholz, Daniel L.; Dancy, Melissa H.; Deetz, Stanley; Finkelstein, Noah

2016-01-01

This paper provides a research-based framework for promoting institutional change in higher education. To date, most educational change efforts have focused on relatively narrow subsets of the university system (e.g., faculty teaching practices or administrative policies) and have been largely driven by implicit change logics; both of these…

ICU Admission, Discharge, and Triage Guidelines: A Framework to Enhance Clinical Operations, Development of Institutional Policies, and Further Research.

PubMed

Nates, Joseph L; Nunnally, Mark; Kleinpell, Ruth; Blosser, Sandralee; Goldner, Jonathan; Birriel, Barbara; Fowler, Clara S; Byrum, Diane; Miles, William Scherer; Bailey, Heatherlee; Sprung, Charles L

2016-08-01

To update the Society of Critical Care Medicine's guidelines for ICU admission, discharge, and triage, providing a framework for clinical practice, the development of institutional policies, and further research. An appointed Task Force followed a standard, systematic, and evidence-based approach in reviewing the literature to develop these guidelines. The assessment of the evidence and recommendations was based on the principles of the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation system. The general subject was addressed in sections: admission criteria and benefits of different levels of care, triage, discharge timing and strategies, use of outreach programs to supplement ICU care, quality assurance/improvement and metrics, nonbeneficial treatment in the ICU, and rationing considerations. The literature searches yielded 2,404 articles published from January 1998 to October 2013 for review. Following the appraisal of the literature, discussion, and consensus, recommendations were written. Although these are administrative guidelines, the subjects addressed encompass complex ethical and medico-legal aspects of patient care that affect daily clinical practice. A limited amount of high-quality evidence made it difficult to answer all the questions asked related to ICU admission, discharge, and triage. Despite these limitations, the members of the Task Force believe that these recommendations provide a comprehensive framework to guide practitioners in making informed decisions during the admission, discharge, and triage process as well as in resolving issues of nonbeneficial treatment and rationing. We need to further develop preventive strategies to reduce the burden of critical illness, educate our noncritical care colleagues about these interventions, and improve our outreach, developing early identification and intervention systems.

Acronyms and effacement: traditional medical practitioners (TMP) in international health development.

PubMed

Pigg, S L

1995-07-01

International development draws on a globalized vision of 'traditional medicine' when constructing country-specific programs that use local practitioners to further health objectives. This paper looks at the tension between this mobile notion of 'the traditional' and the local social ground. Categories such as traditional birth attendant (TBA) and traditional medical practitioner (TMP) emerge from a process of translation that links local realities to development in specific ways. Examination of training programs for two kinds of 'indigenous practitioners' in Nepal--birth attendants and shamans--shows that various Nepalese specialists are constructed as TBAs and TMPs in a discursive process that emphasizes some differences while eliding others. The acronyms TBA and TMP encapsulate numerous acts of translation through which diverse local practices are subsumed into an overarching development framework. The many layers of this process include: how 'traditional healers' are understood in international health policy; how, in national planning, these conceptions are made to fit with existing Nepalese healers; and how research on 'local ideas and practices' becomes authoritative knowledge about 'traditions', which then, in turn, form a basis for the planning and implementation of training programs. The conceptual categories evident in development discourse on 'traditional healers' take concrete, practical form in the design and implementation of training programs. At the same time development attempts to create programs tailored to local conditions, it generates frameworks that efface or exclude much of what local people think, believe and do. Although training programs for TBAs and TMPs have been advocated as a way to 'bridge the gap' between the realities of local peoples lives and development institutions' visions, it is important to realize that, at another level, development discourse produces the very problems it aims to solve. The case study of training programs for TMPs and TBAs in Nepal shows how the universalizing principles inherent in development discourse systematically dismantle and decontextualize different socio-cultural realities in the course of taking them into account. Development institutions are thus positioned as authoritative mediators of all local worlds. Translation is a social act that, through the management of the circulation of discourses, reinforces the particular global-local power relations of international development. Relations of power, as well as states of health, are at stake in health development encounters. This paper questions whether health development can achieve its humanitarian goals within the existing conceptual framework.

The expositive discourse as pedagogical discourse: studying recontextualization in the production of a science museum exhibition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Marandino, Martha

2016-06-01

In this paper I report on the sociological and educational particulars of The Biodiscovery Space exhibition of the Life Museum of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, using Basil Bernstein's framework of pedagogic discourse and recontextualization. Data for analysis was obtained from interviews with the exhibition developers, field observations of museum visitors and analysis of exhibition documents. Using the ideas of power, classification and framework, among others, I analyzed the recontextualization process of the production of expositive discourse. Thus, working with Bernstein's idea of classification, I explain the relationship between the discourses of the science of biology, history of science, museology, education, and communication in order to produce an expositive discourse. I also make explicit how agents of the Official Recontextualization Field of the Museum and the Pedagogic Recontextualization Field "....of the Museum determine partly the final expositive discourse of an exhibition". Using the idea of a pedagogic discourse framework, I discuss how the constraints imposed by objects and texts in exhibitions help to create a specific manner of visitor interaction with these elements, "even if they have some autonomy". Considerations about the audience and the intended process of acquisition are presented, when I discuss the control strategies of the exhibition. I propose that the Biodiscovery Space exhibit has a visible pedagogy. Finally, using the collected data I discuss the power tensions created in the production of expositive discourse showing how distributive, recontextualization and evaluation rules work in the context of exhibitions. The study of the dynamics in forming the expositive discourse using Bernstein's framework reveals the individuals and institutions, the selection criteria, the negotiations and the power relations involved. It has the potential to assist both educators and researchers in the museum education field, as well as designers to understand the teaching and learning processes that occur during a visit and to establish relevant criteria to evaluate quality to best produce exhibitions in science museums.

Donor Behavior and Voluntary Support for Higher Education Institutions.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leslie, Larry L.; Ramey, Garey

Voluntary support of higher education in America is investigated through regression analysis of institutional characteristics at two points in time. The assumption of donor rationality together with explicit consideration of interorganizational relationships offers a coherent framework for the analysis of voluntary support by the major…

Options for Location in the Organizational Structure.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Taylor, Alton L.

1990-01-01

The location of the institutional research unit within the organizational structure influences the role it plays in supporting effective decision making. A theoretical framework of organizational structure based on division of labor can be applied to higher education institutions, with implications for staffing and expectations for performance.…

Institutional Support for Peer Contact in Distance Education: An Empirical Investigation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Amundsen, Cheryl Lynn; Bernard, Robert M.

1989-01-01

Discussion of interpersonal communication in distance education focuses on a study conducted at the Institute of Canadian Bankers based on Keegan's theoretical framework of re-integrating interpersonal components through learning materials. Hypotheses tested are explained, and achievement, self-perception of learning achievement, final academic…

Assessing Learning Quality: Reconciling Institutional, Staff and Educational Demands.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Biggs, John

1996-01-01

Two frameworks for educational assessment distinguished, which is quantitative, adequate for construing some kinds of learning, and qualitative, which is more appropriate for most objectives in higher education. The paper argues that institutions implicitly encourage quantitative assessment, thus encouraging a surface approach to learning although…

Financial Aid in Hispanic-Serving Institutions: Aligning Resources with HSI Commitments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Venegas, Kristan M.

2015-01-01

The purpose of this chapter is to review the literature related to Hispanic-serving institutions and financial aid. Based on this review, a framework for guiding HSIs that considers the role of financial aid in meeting the needs of Latino/a students is suggested.

Quality Assurance of Non-Local Accounting Programs Conducted in Hong Kong

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cheng, Mei-Ai; Leung, Noel W.

2014-01-01

This study examines the current government policy and institutional practice on quality assurance of non-local accounting programs conducted in Hong Kong. Both international guidelines, national regulations and institutional frameworks in higher education and transnational higher education, and professional practice in accounting education are…