1,633 research outputs found
Health care quality indicators on the management of rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis: a literature review
No full textTo make an inventory of quality and content of currently available and published sets of health care quality indicators (HCQIs) for RA and OA.Objective. To make an inventory of quality and content of currently available and published sets of health care quality indicators (HCQIs) for RA and OA.Methods. A systematic review was performed for documents on the development and/or a description of HCQIs for the management of patients with RA and/or OA, using the PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, Cochrane and CINAHL databases up to 1 December 2010 and official websites of arthritis organizations. The following data were extracted: general characteristics, contents and quality of developmental process (six aspects related to the definition of target, target group and stakeholders, patient involvement, description of development and test of validity).Results. The search yielded 498 potentially eligible references and two websites, with ultimately six original HCQI sets for RA and/or OA being identified (one for RA and OA, two for OA and three for RA). The number of HCQI ranged from 7 to 27, with the majority being process indicators. No conflicting indicators between the HCQI sets for one condition were seen. Concerning the quality of the developmental process, all six sets lacked patient involvement.Conclusion. Only a limited number of HCQI sets for the management of OA and RA are available, mainly including process indicators. The developmental process was methodologically suboptimal in all cases. As improvement of health care quality is an ongoing process, there is a need for development of HCQIs covering different aspects of health care quality (structure, process and outcome) and using appropriate methodology. © The Author 2012. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Society for Rheumatology. All rights reserved
I\u27m Not Rockefeller: Implications for Major Foundations Seeking to Engage Ultra- High-Net-Worth Donors
No full text· This article describes how a group of 33 ultrahigh- net-worth philanthropists (UHNWPs) approach their giving.
· A few key areas dominated their giving priorities: education; health; poverty and social welfare; and children/youth initiatives each were a priority for more than a quarter of participants – with education expressed as an interest of 55 percent.
· A third of the 24 who responded to the question spent less than 10 percent of their full working time devoted to philanthropy, and 13 dedicated less than 20 percent of their working time.
· UHNWPs view their peers as their most trusted information resource. After peers, the most commonly cited source of information was the popular press.
· UHNWPs typically are ambivalent or uncertain about the value of evaluation.
· Partnerships between organized philanthropy and UHNWPs has potential benefits for both, if barriers of job responsibilities, training, communication styles and vocabulary can be overcome
Financial safety nets and incentive structures in Latin America
No full textThe literature on safety nets has become technically more precise by drawing on advances in contract theory and optimal governance structure. This paper begins with a treatment of some aspects of the theory. The author's approach draws more on institutional economics, and more precisely on the approach taken by Kindleberger (1978), in the sense that he believes the design of good financial safety nets for Latin America depends upon an understanding of the way that formal ex-ante safety nets have broken down during times of crisis over the past one hundred years. In this paper then author explores issues surrounding safety nets for financial systems in small open economies like those in Latin America. The starting point in Section 2 is the idea that asymmetric information will generally restrict the scope for lending to potential borrowers. Section 3 shows that government regulation of financial intermediaries can frequently lower the cost of lending. Section 4 discusses the creation of central banks in Latin America in the 1920s as an innovation to promote financial deepening. Section 5 shows that the extension of the safety net to depositors is a relatively new and untested development. Section 6 concludes with a discussion of the design of safety nets that takes into account the principles developed in the paper.Financial Crisis Management&Restructuring,Payment Systems&Infrastructure,Financial Intermediation,Banks&Banking Reform,Labor Policies,Financial Intermediation,Financial Crisis Management&Restructuring,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Banks&Banking Reform
Innovate and prosper: ensuring Australia's future competitiveness through university-industry collaboration
No full textExecutive summary
The continuation of Australia’s economic growth is under threat. In order to sustain the levels of prosperity we have previously experienced, we have to build on our competitive edge in key industries to remain globally competitive. Alongside these developments, Australia’s higher education system is under increased pressure to become more productive and develop courses that address employability. Innovation represents the most reliable and sustainable solution to transition into a high value, high wage economy. Yet Australia ranks 29th out of 30 in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in terms of the proportion of large businesses and small to medium enterprises (SMEs) collaborating with higher education and public research institutions on innovation.
This report acts as the next level of detail to publications such as the Department of Industry’s Boosting the Commercial Returns from Research report and the Business Council of Australia’s Building Australia’s Comparative Advantages, which have highlighted Australia’s poor performance in collaborative innovation.
We present five recommendations that are a call to action to universities, industry and Government to take the necessary steps to build an innovation economy. They are not a call for additional funding from Government, rather a more effective way of using our existing resources. PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) have engaged with leading figures from industry, including the Australian Industry Group (Ai Group), and partnered with the ATN to develop this five point action plan for Government, the university sector and industry 5 that will provide incentives and impetus for collaboration.
Our recommendations include:
Rebalance the national research agenda to underpin Australia\u27s economy and future prosperity
Create incentives for university-industry collaboration
Train researchers for diverse careers
Enhance career mobility between industry, academia and government
Provide incentives for co-investment in research infrastructure between universities, industry and state and federal government
Each recommendation contains a number of practical strategies for consideration by Government, universities and industry. The hope is that the report will encourage dialogue between the three groups and prompt bold policy changes in the coming 12 months and beyond.
 
Cooperate to Validate: OBSERVAL-NET experts’ report on Validation of Non-formal and Informal learning (VNIL): OBSERVAL-NET experts’ report on Validation of Non-formal and Informal learning (VNIL) 2013
No full textThe present publication is one of the outcomes of the OBSERVAL-NET project (follow-up of the OBSERVAL project). The main aim of OBSERVAL-NET was to set up a stakeholder-centric network of organisations supporting the validation of non-formal and informal learning in Europe based on the formation of national working groups in the 8 participating countries of the project. Each national working group worked towards bringing together key stakeholders in VNIL and political decision-makers at national level in order to coordinate policy implementation in the field. These national networks were supplemented by a cross-national level of networking, which focused on the following three thematic areas outlined in this publication: The bottom-up process: completely fixed yet. This is even more noticeable in the field of recognition and validation of non-formal and informal learning. Over many years, different terms have been used such as “Recognition of prior learning” (RPL), “Accreditation of prior learning” (APL) and “Validation of prior learning” (VPL). Sometimes, one might also see “Recognition of prior learning outcomes” (RPLO). Recognition, Accreditation and Validation cover distinct stages in the field. For example, recognition does not mean certification, while validation usually does. “Prior learning” has now been replaced by “Informal / non-formal learning” and the term used within the OBSERVAL-NET project is “Validation”. Thus, the term used for this report is “Validation of Non-formal and Informal Learning”, hereafter VNIL. (Author
Cooperate to Validate: OBSERVAL-NET experts’ report on Validation of Non-formal and Informal learning (VNIL): OBSERVAL-NET experts’ report on Validation of Non-formal and Informal learning (VNIL) 2013
No full textThe present publication is one of the outcomes of the OBSERVAL-NET project (follow-up of the OBSERVAL project). The main aim of OBSERVAL-NET was to set up a stakeholder-centric network of organisations supporting the validation of non-formal and informal learning in Europe based on the formation of national working groups in the 8 participating countries of the project. Each national working group worked towards bringing together key stakeholders in VNIL and political decision-makers at national level in order to coordinate policy implementation in the field. These national networks were supplemented by a cross-national level of networking, which focused on the following three thematic areas outlined in this publication: The bottom-up process: completely fixed yet. This is even more noticeable in the field of recognition and validation of non-formal and informal learning. Over many years, different terms have been used such as “Recognition of prior learning” (RPL), “Accreditation of prior learning” (APL) and “Validation of prior learning” (VPL). Sometimes, one might also see “Recognition of prior learning outcomes” (RPLO). Recognition, Accreditation and Validation cover distinct stages in the field. For example, recognition does not mean certification, while validation usually does. “Prior learning” has now been replaced by “Informal / non-formal learning” and the term used within the OBSERVAL-NET project is “Validation”. Thus, the term used for this report is “Validation of Non-formal and Informal Learning”, hereafter VNIL. (Author
Adaptive group-regularized logistic elastic net regression
No full textIn high-dimensional data settings, additional information on the features is often available. Examples of such external information in omics research are: (a) p-values from a previous study, (b) a summary of prior information, and (c) omics annotation. The inclusion of this information in the analysis may enhance classification performance and feature selection, but is not straightforward in the standard regression setting. As a solution to this problem, we propose a group-regularized (logistic) elastic net regression method, where each penalty parameter corresponds to a group of features based on the external information. The method, termed gren, makes use of the Bayesian formulation of logistic elastic net regression to estimate both the model and penalty parameters in an approximate empirical-variational Bayes framework. Simulations and an application to a colon cancer microRNA study show that, if the partitioning of the features is informative, classification performance and feature selection are indeed enhanced.19 pages, 5 figures, supplementary material available from first author\u27s personal websit
Estimating excess hazard ratios and net survival when covariate data are missing: strategies for multiple imputation.
No full textBACKGROUND: Net survival is the survival probability we would observe if the disease under study were the only cause of death. When estimated from routinely collected population-based cancer registry data, this indicator is a key metric for cancer control. Unfortunately, such data typically contain a non-negligible proportion of missing values on important prognostic factors (eg, tumor stage). METHODS: We carried out an empirical study to compare the performance of complete records analysis and several multiple imputation strategies when net survival is estimated via a flexible parametric proportional hazards model that includes stage, a partially observed categorical covariate. Starting from fully observed cancer registry data, we induced missingness on stage under three scenarios. For each of these scenarios, we simulated 100 incomplete datasets and evaluated the performance of the different strategies. RESULTS: Ordinal logistic models are not suitable for the imputation of tumor stage. Complete records analysis may lead to grossly misleading estimates of net survival, even when the missing data mechanism is conditionally independent of survival time given the covariates and the bias on the excess hazard ratios estimates is negligible. CONCLUSIONS: As key covariates are unlikely missing completely at random, studies estimating net survival should not use complete records. When the missingness can be inferred from available data, appropriate multiple imputation should be performed. In the context of flexible parametric proportional hazards models with a partially observed stage covariate, a multinomial logistic imputation model for stage should be used and should include the Nelson-Aalen cumulative hazard estimate and the event indicator
Review of: Jenny Brettschneider: Frauen in Führungspositionen: Anspruch und Wirklichkeit von Chancengleichheit. Hamburg: Verlag Dr. Kovač 2008
No full textDie Autorin geht der Frage nach, warum in der Wirtschaft Frauen nicht gefördert werden, obwohl ihre gesellschaftliche Benachteiligung und ihre Unterrepräsentation in Führungspositionen wahrgenommen wird. Mit Hilfe von Leitfadeninterviews mit Führungskräften aus elf Unternehmen kommt sie zu dem Ergebnis, dass sich die Unternehmen für die Herstellung von Chancengleichheit nicht verantwortlich sehen. Zum einen widersprechen Frauenförderprogramme dem meritokratischen Verständnis individueller Leistungszurechnung, zum anderen sehen sich Unternehmen außerstande, das Kernproblem der Benachteiligung – das „Risiko Mutterschaft“ – zu lösen. Die herausgearbeiteten Begründungsmuster für die Unterrepräsentation von Frauen in Führungspositionen werden als Hinweis auf männerbündische Strukturen in den Organisationen identifiziert, deren Ziel die Ausgrenzung von Frauen aus wichtigen Positionen ist.The author pursues the question as to why businesses do not support women, even though they readily admit to the discrimination of women in society and their underrepresentation in executive positions. On the basis of guided interviews with executives from eleven businesses she comes to the conclusion that businesses do not consider themselves responsible for the creation of equal opportunities. For one, the programs for the promotion of women contradict the meritocratic understanding of individual performance within businesses. Secondly, businesses see themselves as unable to solve the core problem of the discrimination: the “danger of motherhood.” The author extracts patterns for the rationalization of the underrepresentation of women in executive positions and identifies these as evidence of masculine group structures within businesses that intend to exclude women from important positions
Health care quality indicators on the management of rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis: a literature review
No full textObjective. To make an inventory of quality and content of currently available and published sets of health care quality indicators (HCQIs) for RA and OA. Methods. A systematic review was performed for documents on the development and/or a description of HCQIs for the management of patients with RA and/or OA, using the PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, Cochrane and CINAHL databases up to 1 December 2010 and official websites of arthritis organizations. The following data were extracted: general characteristics, contents and quality of developmental process (six aspects related to the definition of target, target group and stakeholders, patient involvement, description of development and test of validity). Results. The search yielded 498 potentially eligible references and two websites, with ultimately six original HCQI sets for RA and/or OA being identified (one for RA and OA, two for OA and three for RA). The number of HCQI ranged from 7 to 27, with the majority being process indicators. No conflicting indicators between the HCQI sets for one condition were seen. Concerning the quality of the developmental process, all six sets lacked patient involvement. Conclusion. Only a limited number of HCQI sets for the management of OA and RA are available, mainly including process indicators. The developmental process was methodologically suboptimal in all cases. As improvement of health care quality is an ongoing process, there is a need for development of HCQIs covering different aspects of health care quality (structure, process and outcome) and using appropriate methodology.Optimising joint reconstruction management in arthritis and bone tumour patient
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