Deploying internet commerce in lottery businesses:an executive guideline

Commerce is essentially the exchange of goods and services in various forms between sellers and buyers, together with associated financial transactions. Electronic Commerce (EC) is the process of conducing commerce through electronic means, including any electronic commercial activity supported by IT (information technology) (Adam and Yesha, 1996; Kambil, 1997; Yen, 1998). In this sense, EC is not totally new. Industries have used various EC platforms such as advertising on TV and ordering by telephone or fax. Internet Commerce (IC), or Web Commerce, is a specific type of EC (Maddox, 1998; Minoli D. and Minoli E., 1997). While some traditional EC platforms such as TV and telephone have been used to build “TV-gambling” and “telephone-betting” systems for conducting lottery business, Internet Lottery Commerce (ILC) has been assessed as the most promising type of EC in the foreseeable future. There are many social and moral issues relating to the conduct of lottery business on-line. However, this chapter does not debate these but deals only with business and technology issues. The purpose of this chapter is to provide a structured guide to senior executives and strategic planners who are planning on, or interested in, ILC deployment and operation. The guide consists of several stages: (1) an explanation of the industry segment’s traits, value chain, and current status; (2) an analysis of the competition and business issues in the Internet era and an evaluation of the strategic resources; (3) a planning framework that addresses major infrastructure issues; and (4) recommendations comprising the construction of an ILC model, suggested principles, and an approach to strategic deployment. The chapter demonstrates the case for applying the proposed guideline within the lottery business. Faced with a quickly changing technological context, it pays special attention to constructing a conceptual framework that addresses the key components of an ILC model. ILC fulfils the major activities in a lottery commerce value chain—advertising, selling and delivering products, collecting payments for tickets, and paying prizes. Although the guideline has been devised for lottery businesses, it can be applied to many other industry sectors.

Hospital pharmacists' awareness of a new antibiotic guideline in the UK:implications for practice

Objectives: Pharmacists play an important role in the review of local hospital guidelines. British Thoracic Society (BTS) guidelines for the management of patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) were updated in 2001, and it is important that individual hospital recommendations are based upon this national guidance. The aim of this study was to identify UK Chief Pharmacists' awareness of these updated guidelines one year after their publication. Secondary aims were to identify whether pharmacists had subsequently initiated revision of institutional CAP guidelines, and what roles different professional staff had performed in this process. Method: A self-completion postal questionnaire was sent to the Chief Pharmacist (or their nominated staff) in 253 UK NHS hospitals in November 2002. This aimed to identify issues relating to their awareness of the 2001 BTS guidelines and subsequent revision of their hospital's guidelines. Results:188 questionnaires were returned (a response rate of 74%), of which 164 hospitals had local antibiotic prescribing guidelines. Respondents in 29% of these hospitals were unaware of the 2001 BTS publication and institutional guidelines had been revised in only 51% of hospitals where the Chief Pharmacist was purportedly aware of the new BTS guidance. Generally, more staff types were involved in revising guidelines than initiating revision. Conclusions:Variability existed in both Chief Pharmacists' awareness of new national guidance and subsequent review processes operating in individual hospitals. A lack of proactive reaction to new national guidance was identified in some hospitals, and it is hoped that the establishment of specialist "infectious diseases pharmacists" will facilitate the review of institutional antibiotic prescribing guidelines in the future. © Springer 2005.

Society of Legal Scholars Criminal Justice Section Response to Sexual Offences Guideline Consultation (Sentencing Council Consultation 2012-2013)

Consultation Report

The primacy of theory

Purpose – The purpose of this editorial is to provide indicative guidance to prospective EJM contributors of the importance of theoretical development to the success of submissions. Design/methodology/approach – The authors use a combination of conceptual thinking and theoretical literature to present key concepts of theory and its relevance to a manuscript's contribution to knowledge. Findings – The authors propose some guidelines for researchers who wish to publish the results of their work in EJM, and these also have relevance to other top academic journals. Research limitations/implications – The topic of theoretical conceptualisation and development is a complex one. Because of space constraints, the coverage of many issues is necessarily brief in this article. Practical implications – Scholars should find the thoughts contained in this article to be of significant benefit to their publication efforts in EJM and other top journals. Originality/value – While other top marketing journals have in the past provided similar guideline-style pieces, this is one of the few to be written from an inclusive perspective, with the explicit focus on the theoretical development stage.

An applied linguistic analysis of the simplification of narrative texts

Simplification of texts has traditionally been carried out by replacing words and structures with appropriate semantic equivalents in the learner's interlanguage, omitting whichever items prove intractable, and thereby bringing the language of the original within the scope of the learner's transitional linguistic competence. This kind of simplification focuses mainly on the formal features of language. The simplifier can, on the other hand, concentrate on making explicit the propositional content and its presentation in the original in order to bring what is communicated in the original within the scope of the learner's transitional communicative competence. In this case, simplification focuses on the communicative function of the language. Up to now, however, approaches to the problem of simplification have been mainly concerned with the first kind, using the simplifier’s intuition as to what constitutes difficulty for the learner. There appear to be few objective principles underlying this process. The main aim of this study is to investigate the effect of simplification on the communicative aspects of narrative texts, which includes the manner in which narrative units at higher levels of organisation are structured and presented and also the temporal and logical relationships between lower level structures such as sentences/clauses, with the intention of establishing an objective approach to the problem of simplification based on a set of principled procedures which could be used as a guideline in the simplification of material for foreign students at an advanced level.

A tree-based decision model to support prediction of the severity of asthma exacerbations in children

This paper describes the development of a tree-based decision model to predict the severity of pediatric asthma exacerbations in the emergency department (ED) at 2 h following triage. The model was constructed from retrospective patient data abstracted from the ED charts. The original data was preprocessed to eliminate questionable patient records and to normalize values of age-dependent clinical attributes. The model uses attributes routinely collected in the ED and provides predictions even for incomplete observations. Its performance was verified on independent validating data (split-sample validation) where it demonstrated AUC (area under ROC curve) of 0.83, sensitivity of 84%, specificity of 71% and the Brier score of 0.18. The model is intended to supplement an asthma clinical practice guideline, however, it can be also used as a stand-alone decision tool.

Breast clinic and life style study BLLISS

Background: Independent, strong and unequivocal evidence suggests that life style factors such as obesity and lack of physical activity along with certain reproductive choices can increase the risk of breast cancer. There are no studies measuring the effectiveness of guidelines from the Department of Health regarding life style choices made by women presenting to breast clinics. The aim of this audit was to study the prevalence of obesity, physical activity and reproductive factors in women referred to breast clinic. Patients and methods: All patients attending the Breast clinic as new referrals were invited to complete a life style questionnaire. The data was analysed for prevalence of various risk factors for breast cancer. Three hundred and 73 patients completed the questionnaire. Results: Final analyses of 373 patients demonstrated that 42% of women performed no exercise and only 24% of patients met Department of Health guideline of 30 minutes of exercise for 5 days a week. Overall 50% of patients were either obese or overweight and 22% of patients had BMI of > 30 kg/m. The median age of menarche was 13 and 18% of women started their period below the age 12. Twenty one percent of women were nulliparous and 14% had their first live birth after the age of 30. Fourteen percent of patients were on the hormone replacement therapy of which 57% have used hormones for more than 5 years. Twenty two percent of women smoked and 9% of women consumed alcohol 5 days a week of which 13% had more than 4 glasses of alcohol in a day. Conclusion: There is preponderance of high risk life style choices in women attending breast clinic. If these life style options are not modified, there could potentially be a significant rise in the number of breast cancer in West Midlands.

Is twelve years old an acceptable age at which to begin Diabetic Retinopathy Screening?

Introduction: The English National Screening Programme for diabetic retinopathy (ENSPDR) states that “all people with diabetes aged 12 years and over should be offered screening” Purpose: The audit aims to assess whether the current guideline is suitable and whether diabetes duration should be taken into account when deciding at what age to start screening patients. Method: Retrospective analysis of 143 randomly selected patients aged twelve years or younger who have attended diabetic retinopathy (DR) screening in the Birmingham and Black Country Screening Programme. Results: 98% had Type 1 diabetes and mean visual acuity (VA) was 6/5 (6/4-6/36). 73 were under 12 with 7 the youngest age and 70 were aged 12. Both groups had mean diabetes duration of 5 years (1month-11years). For those under 12, 7/73 (9.6%) had background DR, of these mean diabetes duration was 7 years (6-8) and the youngest aged 8. In those aged 12, 5/70 (7.1%) had background DR; of these mean diabetes duration was 8 years (6-11). In total 12 (8.4%) patients aged 12 years or under developed DR. No patients had retinopathy worse than background changes. One patient was referred to ophthalmology for VAs of 6/12, 6/18 and was diagnosed with optic atrophy so returned to annual screening. Conclusion: The results suggest that the current guideline on when to begin screening should be readdressed as more patients under twelve developed DR than those aged 12. Diabetes duration may help when deciding what age to start screening adolescent patients as DR was not seen in those with disease duration.

Professionals' awareness of operational antibiotic prescribing controls in UK NHS hospitals

In recent years, there have been increasing recommendations for multidisciplinary collaboration between clinical pharmacists and medical microbiologists in an attempt to control the quality (and quantity) of antibiotic prescribing. A questionnaire addressing the utilization of antibiotic prescribing controls was sent to the chief pharmacist and medical microbiologist in UK NHS hospitals. Responses were received from both the chief pharmacist and the medical microbiologist employed in the same hospital from 83 hospitals (a 30% response rate from two independent studies). A high level of disagreement and poor awareness was identified between the interprofessional staff groups regarding the existence of antibiotic formulary (with disagreement between the two groups, or not known by one or both respondents, in 46% of the paired hospitals, N=38) and guideline documents (13%, N=11), performance of antibiotic prescribing audits (40%, N=33), and whether pharmacists (52%, N=43) and medical microbiologists (77%, N=64) monitored physician compliance with antibiotic prescribing control documents. This study has identified poor knowledge of the existence of basic antibiotic prescribing control mechanisms and the role of professional colleagues. It is suggested that there is some way to go before 'Agenda for Change' principles of flexible and collaborative roles are met. © 2004 The Hospital Infection Society. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Computationsl modelling of dimethyl ether separation and steam reforming in fluidized bed reactors

This study presents a computational fluid dynamic (CFD) study of Dimethyl Ether (DME) gas adsorptive separation and steam reforming (DME-SR) in a large scale Circulating Fluidized Bed (CFB) reactor. The CFD model is based on Eulerian-Eulerian dispersed flow and solved using commercial software (ANSYS FLUENT). Hydrogen is currently receiving increasing interest as an alternative source of clean energy and has high potential applications, including the transportation sector and power generation. Computational fluid dynamic (CFD) modelling has attracted considerable recognition in the engineering sector consequently leading to using it as a tool for process design and optimisation in many industrial processes. In most cases, these processes are difficult or expensive to conduct in lab scale experiments. The CFD provides a cost effective methodology to gain detailed information up to the microscopic level. The main objectives in this project are to: (i) develop a predictive model using ANSYS FLUENT (CFD) commercial code to simulate the flow hydrodynamics, mass transfer, reactions and heat transfer in a large scale dual fluidized bed system for combined gas separation and steam reforming processes (ii) implement a suitable adsorption models in the CFD code, through a user defined function, to predict selective separation of a gas from a mixture (iii) develop a model for dimethyl ether steam reforming (DME-SR) to predict hydrogen production (iv) carry out detailed parametric analysis in order to establish ideal operating conditions for future industrial application. The project has originated from a real industrial case problem in collaboration with the industrial partner Dow Corning (UK) and jointly funded by the Engineering and Physical Research Council (UK) and Dow Corning. The research examined gas separation by adsorption in a bubbling bed, as part of a dual fluidized bed system. The adsorption process was simulated based on the kinetics derived from the experimental data produced as part of a separate PhD project completed under the same fund. The kinetic model was incorporated in FLUENT CFD tool as a pseudo-first order rate equation; some of the parameters for the pseudo-first order kinetics were obtained using MATLAB. The modelling of the DME adsorption in the designed bubbling bed was performed for the first time in this project and highlights the novelty in the investigations. The simulation results were analysed to provide understanding of the flow hydrodynamic, reactor design and optimum operating condition for efficient separation. Bubbling bed validation by estimation of bed expansion and the solid and gas distribution from simulation agreed well with trends seen in the literatures. Parametric analysis on the adsorption process demonstrated that increasing fluidizing velocity reduced adsorption of DME. This is as a result of reduction in the gas residence time which appears to have much effect compared to the solid residence time. The removal efficiency of DME from the bed was found to be more than 88%. Simulation of the DME-SR in FLUENT CFD was conducted using selected kinetics from literature and implemented in the model using an in-house developed user defined function. The validation of the kinetics was achieved by simulating a case to replicate an experimental study of a laboratory scale bubbling bed by Vicente et al [1]. Good agreement was achieved for the validation of the models, which was then applied in the DME-SR in the large scale riser section of the dual fluidized bed system. This is the first study to use the selected DME-SR kinetics in a circulating fluidized bed (CFB) system and for the geometry size proposed for the project. As a result, the simulation produced the first detailed data on the spatial variation and final gas product in such an industrial scale fluidized bed system. The simulation results provided insight in the flow hydrodynamic, reactor design and optimum operating condition. The solid and gas distribution in the CFB was observed to show good agreement with literatures. The parametric analysis showed that the increase in temperature and steam to DME molar ratio increased the production of hydrogen due to the increased DME conversions, whereas the increase in the space velocity has been found to have an adverse effect. Increasing temperature between 200 oC to 350 oC increased DME conversion from 47% to 99% while hydrogen yield increased substantially from 11% to 100%. The CO2 selectivity decreased from 100% to 91% due to the water gas shift reaction favouring CO at higher temperatures. The higher conversions observed as the temperature increased was reflected on the quantity of unreacted DME and methanol concentrations in the product gas, where both decreased to very low values of 0.27 mol% and 0.46 mol% respectively at 350 °C. Increasing the steam to DME molar ratio from 4 to 7.68 increased the DME conversion from 69% to 87%, while the hydrogen yield increased from 40% to 59%. The CO2 selectivity decreased from 100% to 97%. The decrease in the space velocity from 37104 ml/g/h to 15394 ml/g/h increased the DME conversion from 87% to 100% while increasing the hydrogen yield from 59% to 87%. The parametric analysis suggests an operating condition for maximum hydrogen yield is in the region of 300 oC temperatures and Steam/DME molar ratio of 5. The analysis of the industrial sponsor’s case for the given flow and composition of the gas to be treated suggests that 88% of DME can be adsorbed from the bubbling and consequently producing 224.4t/y of hydrogen in the riser section of the dual fluidized bed system. The process also produces 1458.4t/y of CO2 and 127.9t/y of CO as part of the product gas. The developed models and parametric analysis carried out in this study provided essential guideline for future design of DME-SR at industrial level and in particular this work has been of tremendous importance for the industrial collaborator in order to draw conclusions and plan for future potential implementation of the process at an industrial scale.

건설 프로젝트 프로세스 관리 효율화를 위한 영국과 미국의 BIM 현황 분석

World-wide efforts have been made to adopt BIM (Building Information Modelling) to improve the efficiency of construction project management processes lively. BIM means a shared digitized expression which provides a reliable source to make an informed decision over a physical or a functional character across all construction sectors including design, civil engineering and plant construction. The Korean Public Procurement Service mandates to use BIM for over 50 billion won public construction projects from 2012, and this will be extended to every project initiated by the Korean Public Procurement Service from 2016. This paper aims not only to investigate potential barriers which can be faced at the initial stage of BIM adoption, but also to explore possible solutions against them. For doing this, the BIM utilization strategies and action plans by US and UK public sectors which adopt BIM earlier than Korea were analysed. Based on the results of comparative analysis between US and UK, the proper guideline for BIM adoption in Korea will be suggested.

Patients’ and physicians’ experiences of atrial fibrillation and anticoagulation therapy:a qualitative journey

Background: Oral anticoagulation (OAC) reduces stroke risk in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) however it is often underutilized and sometimes refused by patients. This programme of work included a meta-synthesis and two inter-linking studies aiming to explore patients’ and physicians’ experiences of AF and OAC. Methods: A meta-synthesis of qualitative evidence was conducted which informed the empirical work. Semi-structured individual interviews were utilised. Study 1: Three AF patient sub-groups were interviewed; accepted (n=4), refused (n=4), or discontinued (n=3) warfarin. Study 2: Four physician sub-groups (n=4 each group) prescribing OAC to AF patients were interviewed: consultant cardiologists, consultant general physicians, general practitioners and cardiology registrars. Data was analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Results: Study 1: Three over-arching themes comprised patients’ experiences: (1) the initial consultation, (2) life after the consultation, and (3) patients’ reflections. Patients commented on the relief and reassurance experienced during the consultation but they perceived the decision making process mostly led by the physician. Lack of education and take-home materials distributed during the initial consultation was highlighted. Patients who had experienced stroke themselves or were caregivers, were more receptive to education aimed towards stroke risk reduction rather than bleeding risk. Warfarin monitoring was challenging for patients, however some patients perceived it as beneficial as it served to enhance patient-physician relationship. Study 2: Two over-arching themes emerged from physicians’ experiences: (1) communicating information and (2) challenges with OAC prescription for AF. Physicians’ approach to the consultation style shifted through a continuum of compliance-adherence-concordance during the consultation. They aimed for concordance, however challenges such as time and the perceived patient trust in them as the expert, led to physicians adopting a paternalistic approach. Physicians also pointed out challenges associated with guideline adherence and the need to adopt a multi-disciplinary approach, where other health professionals could provide on-going education. Conclusion: This programme of work has illustrated the benefit of taking an in depth phenomenological approach to understanding the lived experience of the physician-patient consultation. Together with the meta-synthesis, this work has strengthened the evidence base and demonstrated that there is a need to target patients' and physicians' ability to communicate with each other in a comprehensible way.

Experiences of patients with age-related macular degeneration receiving anti-vascular endothelial growth factor therapy:a qualitative study

The societal cost for the average health authority in the United Kingdom for the care of wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) has been suggested to be around £7.4 million. It is vital that the best possible care based on the best available evidence is provided to reduce the impact of AMD on patients' lives and the financial cost to the health-care system. This study explored the experiences of AMD patients treated with intravitreal ranibizumab injections. Three semistructured interviews were conducted with seven participants over the course of 18 months. Transcripts were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Analysis identified four themes: preparing for treatment, the treatment process, patient-provider communication, and results of treatment. Patient experiences highlighted the need to move away from the reliance on letters for information provision, and the need for clearer guidelines about when to cease AMD treatment. Interviews highlighted the need for the inclusion of rigorous qualitative evidence with experiential data in future good clinical practice guideline development for AMD. © The Author(s) 2013.

Evaluation of integration technology approaches in the healthcare supply chain

Healthcare organisations are increasingly being challenged to look at their operations and find opportunities to improve the quality, efficiency and effectiveness of their supply chain services. In light of this situation, there is an apparent need for healthcare organisations to invest in integration technologies and to achieve the integration of supply chain processes, in order to break up the historical structure characterised by numerous interfaces and the segregation of responsibilities. The aim of this paper is to take an independent look at the healthcare supply chain and identify at different levels the core entities, processes, information flows, and system integration challenges which impede supply chain quality improvements to be realised. Moreover, this paper proposes, from an information systems perspective, a framework for the evaluation of different integration technology approaches, which can be used as a potential guideline tool for assessing integration technology alternatives, in order to add value to a healthcare-supply-chain management system. Copyright © 2007 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

Financial risk management for management accountants:Society of Management Accountants Canada, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and Chartered Institute of Management Accountants

Management accounting guideline