A capabilities-based approach to obtaining a deeper understanding of information technology governance effectiveness : evidence from IT steering committees

Given the substantial investment in information technology (IT), and the significant impact IT has on organizational success, organizations consume considerable resources to manage acquisition and use of their IT resources. While various arguments proposed suggest which IT governance arrangements may work best, our understanding of the effectiveness of such initiatives is limited. We examine the relationship between the effectiveness of IT steering committee driven IT governance initiatives and firm's IT management and IT infrastructure related capabilities. We further propose that firm's ITrelated capabilities generated through IT governance initiatives should improve its business processes and firm-level performance. We test these relationships empirically by a field survey. Results suggest that firms' effectiveness of IT steering committee driven IT governance initiatives positively relates to the level of their IT-related capabilities. We also found positive relationships between IT-related capabilities and internal process-level performance. Our results also support that improvement in internal process-level performance positively relates to improvement in customer service and firm-level performance.

Investigating higher education and secondary school web-based learning environments using the WEBLEI

Classroom learning environments are rapidly changing as new digital technologies become more education-friendly. What are students’ perceptions of their technology-rich learning environments? This question is critical as it may have an impact on the effectiveness of the new technologies in classrooms. There are numerous reliable and valid learning environment instruments which have been used to ascertain students’ perceptions of their learning environments. This chapter focuses on one of these instruments, the Web-based Learning Environment Instrument (WEBLEI) (Chang & Fisher, 2003). Since its initial development, this instrument has been used to study a range of learning environments and this chapter presents the findings of two example case-studies that involve such environments.

Effectiveness of powered hospital bed movers for reducing physiological strain and back muscle activation

Battery powered bed movers are becoming increasingly common within the hospital setting. The use of powered bed movers is believed to result in reduced physical efforts required by health care workers, which may be associated with a decreased risk of occupation related injuries. However, little work has been conducted assessing how powered bed movers impact on levels of physiological strain and muscle activation for the user. The muscular efforts associated with moving hospital beds using three different methods; manual pushing, StaminaLift Bed Mover (SBM) and Gzunda Bed Mover (GBM)were measured on six male subjects. Fourteen muscles were assessed moving a weighted hospital bed along a standardized route in an Australian hospital environment. Trunk inclination and upper spine acceleration were also quantified. Powered bed movers exhibited significantly lower muscle activation levels than manual pushing for the majority of muscles. When using the SBM, users adopted a more upright posture which was maintained while performing different tasks (e.g. turning a corner, entering a lift), while trunk inclination varied considerably for manual pushing and the GBM. The reduction in lower back muscular activation levels and the load reducing effect of a more upright posture may result in lower incidence of lower back injury.

Sunscreen application thickness amongst primary school children : the children and sunscreen study

Childhood sun exposure has been associated with increased risk of developing melanoma later in life. Sunscreen, children.s preferred method of sun protection, has been shown to reduce skin cancer risk. However, the effectiveness of sunscreen is largely dependent on user compliance, such as the thickness of application. To reach the sun protection factor (SPF) sunscreen must be applied at a thickness of 2mg/cm2. It has been demonstrated that adults tend to apply less than half of the recommended 2mg/cm2. This was the first study to measure the thickness at which children apply sunscreen. We recruited 87 primary school aged children (n=87, median age 8.7, 5-12 years) from seven state schools within one Brisbane education district (32% consent rate). The children were supplied with sunscreen in three dispenser types (pump, squeeze and roll-on) and were asked to use these for one week each. We measured the weight of the sunscreen before and after use, and calculated the children.s body surface area (based on height and weight) and area to which sunscreen was applied (based on children.s self-reported body coverage of application). Combined these measurements resulted in an average thickness of sunscreen application, which was our main outcome measure. We asked parents to complete a self-administered questionnaire which captured information about potential explanatory variables. Children applied sunscreen at a median thickness of 0.48mg/cm2, significantly less than the recommended 2mg/cm2 (p<0.001). When using the roll-on dispenser (median 0.22mg/cm2), children applied significantly less sunscreen thickness, compared to the pump (median 0.75mg.cm2, p<0.001), and squeeze (median 0.57mg/cm2, p<0.001) dispensers. School grade (1-7) was significantly associated with thickness of application (p=0.032), with children in the youngest grades applying the most. Other variables that were significantly associated with the outcome variable included: number of siblings (p=0.001), household annual income (p<0.001), and the number of lifetime sunburns the child had experienced (p=0.007). This work is the first to measure children.s sunscreen application thickness and demonstrates that regardless of their age or the type of dispenser that they use, children do not apply enough sunscreen to reach the advertised SPF. It is envisaged that this study will assist in the formulation of recommendations for future research, practice and policy aimed at improving childhood sun protection to reduce skin cancer incidence in the future.

Study of the effectiveness of outrigger system for high-rise composite buildings for cyclonic region

The demands of taller structures are becoming imperative almost everywhere in the world in addition to the challenges of material and labor cost, project time line etc. This paper conducted a study keeping in view the challenging nature of high-rise construction with no generic rules for deflection minimizations and frequency control. The effects of cyclonic wind and provision of outriggers on 28-storey, 42-storey and 57-storey are examined in this paper and certain conclusions are made which would pave way for researchers to conduct further study in this particular area of civil engineering. The results show that plan dimensions have vital impacts on structural heights. Increase of height while keeping the plan dimensions same, leads to the reduction in the lateral rigidity. To achieve required stiffness increase of bracings sizes as well as introduction of additional lateral resisting system such as belt truss and outriggers is required.

The effectiveness of cross-lingual link discovery

This paper describes the evaluation in benchmarking the effectiveness of cross-lingual link discovery (CLLD). Cross lingual link discovery is a way of automatically finding prospective links between documents in different languages, which is particularly helpful for knowledge discovery of different language domains. A CLLD evaluation framework is proposed for system performance benchmarking. The framework includes standard document collections, evaluation metrics, and link assessment and evaluation tools. The evaluation methods described in this paper have been utilised to quantify the system performance at NTCIR-9 Crosslink task. It is shown that using the manual assessment for generating gold standard can deliver a more reliable evaluation result.

The effect of hexagonal boron nitride additive on the effectiveness of grease-based lubrication of a steel surface

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to study the sliding and the vibrating fretting tests mechanism of h-BN micro-particles when used as a lubricating grease-2 additive. Design/methodology/approach: The fretting tests were conducted on steel/steel contacts using both vibrating fretting apparatus and the shaftsleeve slide fitted tester. The wear scars were characterized with profilometry. The tribological properties of grease-2 compounded with h-BN additive were also compared to those obtained for the commercial product Militec-4. Findings: The experiment showed significant differences between the results obtained from the vibrating fretting and the shaft-sleeve sliding fitted tests. Adding h-BN to the lubricant leads to a better performance in the shaft-sleeve slide regime than in the steel/steel vibrating test condition. Originality/value: The results of the experimental studies demonstrate the potential of h-BN as an additive for preventing fretting sliding, and can very useful for further application of compound grease-2 with h-BN additive in industrial equipment.

Interlocked projects in safety competency and safety effectiveness indicators in the construction sector

Safety culture is a concept that has long been accepted in high risk industries such as aviation, nuclear industries and mining, however, considerable research is now also being undertaken within the construction sector. This paper discusses three recent interlocked projects undertaken in the Australian construction industry. The first project examined the development and implementation of a safety competency framework targeted at safety critical positions (SCP's) across first tier construction organisations. Combining qualitative and quantitative methods, the project: developed a matrix of SCP's (n=11) and safety management tasks (SMTs; n=39); mapped the process steps for their acquisition and development; detailed the knowledge, skills and behaviours required for all SMTs; and outlined potential organisational cultural outcomes from a successful implementation of the framework. The second project extended this research to develop behavioural guidelines for leaders to drive safety culture change down to second tier companies and to assist them to customise their own competency framework and implementation guidelines to match their aspirations and resources. The third interlocked project explored the use of safety effectiveness indicators (SEIs) as an industry-relevant assessment tool for reducing risk on construction sites. With direct linkages to safety competencies and SMT's, the SEIs are the next step towards an integrated safety cultural approach to safety and extend the concept of positive performance indicators (PPIs) by providing a valid, reliable, and user friendly measurement platform. Taken together, the results of the interlocked projects suggest that industry engaged collaborative safety culture research has many potential benefits for the construction industry.

Towards a Deeper Understanding of Information Technology Governance Effectiveness : A Capabilities-Based Approach

We examine the relationship between the effectiveness of IT steering committee-driven IT governance initiatives and firm’s IT management and IT infrastructure related capabilities. We test these relationships empirically by a field survey of 216 firms. Results of this study suggest that a firms’ effectiveness of IT steering committee-driven IT governance initiatives positively relate to the level of their IT-related capabilities. We also found positive relationships between IT-related capabilities and internal process-level performance, which positively relate to improvement in customer service and firm-level performance. For researchers, we demonstrate that the resourcebased theory provides a more robust explanation of the determinants of firms IT governance initiatives. This would be ideal in evaluating other IT governance initiatives effectiveness in relation to how they contribute to building performance-differentiating IT-related capabilities. For decision makers, we hope our study has reiterated the notion that IT governance is truly a coordinated effort, embracing all levels of human resources.

Practices of interactive courseware at Malaysia primary smart school : usage standing and causes attributing

Malaysian teachers are now using interactive courseware in their teaching practices as part of teaching activity in classroom, to teach some subjects such as languages, mathematics, and science. Towards this, there is some debate going on the effectiveness of interactive courseware used in classroom. This paper reports data from interviews conducted with school principals and teachers from six selected primary Smart Schools across Malaysia.The interview conducted is looked on their current school practices and challenges in the implementation of interactive courseware in the classroom. The interview covers several aspects of their school facilities, the causes attributed and their concerns. However, the findings revealed that these six schools generally need more supports in the physical and technical form, in order to utilize the interactive courseware. Initially, the current support from the Malaysian Ministry of Education in physical form has proved that not very helpful. Thus, the respondents suggested that supports should be both: physical and technical. Therefore, this preliminary findings could be used as a pointer to the Malaysian government and other stakeholders to the improvement of interface design for future interactive courseware.

Assessing the effectiveness of the child safety net : linkage of hospital and child protection services data on ‘maltreated’ and ‘unintentionally injured' children

-International recognition of need for public health response to child maltreatment -Need for early intervention at health system level -Important role of health professionals in identifying, reporting, documenting suspician of maltreatment -Up to 10% of all children presenting at ED’s are victims and without identification, 35% reinjured and 5% die -In Qld, mandatory reporting requirement for doctors and nurses for suspected abuse or neglect

The effectiveness of traffic policing in reducing traffic crashes

Many governments throughout the world rely heavily on traffic law enforcement programs to modify driver behaviour and enhance road safety. There are two related functions of traffic law enforcement, apprehension and deterrence, and these are achieved through three processes: the establishment of traffic laws, the policing of those laws, and the application of penalties and sanctions to offenders. Traffic policing programs can vary by visibility (overt or covert) and deployment methods (scheduled and non-scheduled), while sanctions can serve to constrain, deter or reform offending behaviour. This chapter will review the effectiveness of traffic law enforcement strategies from the perspective of a range of high-risk, illegal driving behaviours including drink/drug driving, speeding, seat belt use and red light running. Additionally, this chapter discusses how traffic police are increasingly using technology to enforce traffic laws and thus reduce crashes. The chapter concludes that effective traffic policing involves a range of both overt and covert operations and includes a mix of automatic and more traditional manual enforcement methods. It is important to increase both the perceived and actual risk of detection by ensuring that traffic law enforcement operations are sufficiently intensive, unpredictable in nature and conducted as widely as possible across the road network. A key means of maintaining the unpredictability of operations is through the random deployment of enforcement and/or the random checking of drivers. The impact of traffic enforcement is also heightened when it is supported by public education campaigns. In the future, technological improvements will allow the use of more innovative enforcement strategies. Finally, further research is needed to continue the development of traffic policing approaches and address emerging road safety issues.

Stop and revive? : the effectiveness of nap and active rest breaks for reducing driver sleepiness

The incidence of sleep-related crashes has been estimated to account for approximately 20% of all fatal and severe crashes. The use of sleepiness countermeasures by drivers is an important component to reduce the incidence rates of sleep-related crashes. Taking a brief nap and stopping for a rest break are two highly publicised countermeasures for driver sleepiness and are also believed by drivers to be the most effective countermeasures. Despite this belief, there is scarce evidence to support the utility of these countermeasures for reducing driver sleepiness levels. Therefore, determining the effectiveness of these countermeasures is an important road safety concern. The current study utilised a young adult sample (N = 20) to investigate the effectiveness of a nap and an active rest break. The countermeasures effects were evaluated by physiological, behavioural (hazard perception skill), and subjective measures previously found sensitive to sleepiness. Participants initially completed two hours of a simulated driving task followed by a 15 minute nap opportunity or a 15 minute active rest break that included 10 minutes of brisk walking. After the break, participants completed one final hour of the simulated driving task. A within-subjects design was used so that each participant completed both the nap and the active rest break conditions on separate occasions. The analyses revealed that only the nap break provided any meaningful reduction in physiological sleepiness, reduced subjective sleepiness levels, and maintained hazard perception performance. In contrast, the active rest break had no effect for reducing physiological sleepiness and resulted in a decrement in hazard perception performance (i.e., an increase of reaction time latencies), with a transient reduction in subjective sleepiness levels. A number of theoretical, empirical and practical issues were identified by the current study.

Comparative effectiveness of population interventions to improve access to reperfusion for ST-segment–elevation myocardial infarction in Australia

Background Improving timely access to reperfusion is a major goal of ST-segment–elevation myocardial infarction care. We sought to compare the population impact of interventions proposed to improve timely access to reperfusion therapy in Australia. Methods and Results Australian hospitals, population, and road network data were integrated using Geographical Information Systems. Hospitals were classified into those that provided primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI) or fibrinolysis. Population impact of interventions proposed to improve timely access to reperfusion (PPCI, fibrinolysis, or both) were modeled and compared. Timely access to reperfusion was defined as the proportion of the population capable of reaching a fibrinolysis facility ≤60 minutes or a PPCI facility ≤120 minutes from emergency medical services activation. The majority (93.2%) of the Australian population has timely access to reperfusion, mainly (53%) through fibrinolysis. Only 40.2% of the population had timely access to PPCI, and access to PPCI services is particularly limited in regional and nonexistent in remote areas. Optimizing the emergency medical services’ response or increasing PPCI services resulted in marginal improvement in timely access (1.8% and 3.7%, respectively). Direct transport to PPCI facilities and interhospital transfer for PPCI improves timely access to PPCI for 19.4% and 23.5% of the population, respectively. Prehospital fibrinolysis markedly improved access to timely reperfusion in regional and remote Australia. Conclusions Significant gaps in timely provision of reperfusion remain in Australia. Systematic implementation of changes in service delivery has potential to improve timely access to PPCI for a majority of the population and improve access to fibrinolysis to those living in regional and remote areas.