How is leflunomide prescribed and used in Australia? analysis of prescribing and adverse effect reporting

Purpose To evaluate the use of leflunomide in the Australian community since introduction in 2000. Trends in adverse drug reaction (ADR) reporting were also studied. Methods Annual Australian prescription and dispensing statistics were analysed. Drug utilisation was estimated as defined daily doses (DDD)/1000 inhabitants/day. ADR data from the Therapeutic Goods Administration's Adverse Drug Reactions Advisory Committee (ADRAC) national monitoring system were compared with the World Health Organisation (WHO) Vigibase records. Results Leflunomide use in Australia (dispensing data) increased from 0.2 in 2000 to 0.4 DDD/1000 inhabitants/day in 2002. The same overall pattern was observed in the 'authority to prescribe' data. From 2000-2002, prescribing of the starter pack (3 x 100 mg loading dose plus 30 x 20 mg tablets) declined (down 74%); likewise for the 20mg (30 tablets) pack. Gradual increases were noted for the 10 mg (30 tablets) pack (up 40%). Approximately 135 reports, detailing about 370 individual ADR, were generated annually. Gastro-intestinal disorders predominated, accounting for 24% of reactions reported to ADRAC. Skin and appendages disorders constituted 14% of reported reactions. Deaths in leflunomide users were attributed to a combination of haematological and gastro-intestinal complications, but it was not possible to ascertain other medication usage or contributing factors. Trends observed with the ADRAC reports were consistent with the WHO database. Conclusions Leflunomide was the first registered DMARD in Australia in over a decade and its use has increased within the community. The ADR reports might have contributed to Australian rheumatologists gradually abandoning loading patients with high doses of leflunomide in favour of starting therapy at lower doses. Copyright (c) 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

"Action at a distance":accounting inscriptions and the reporting of episodes of clinical care

This paper reports on an aspect of the implementation of a sophisticated system of Casemix Budgeting within a large public hospital in New Zealand. The paper examines the role of accounting inscription in supporting a system of “remote” management control effected through the Finance function at the hospital. The paper provides detailed description and analysis of part of the casemix technology in use at the research site. The implementation of clinical budgeting through the Transition casemix system will be examined by describing an aspect of the casemix system in detail. The design and use of management reporting is described. Reporting to different levels of management and for differing parts of the organisation are discussed with particular emphasis on the adoption of traditional analysis of costs using standard costing and variance analysis techniques.

The pharmacist's contribution towards monitoring and reporting adverse drug reactions

The activities and function of the West Midlands Adverse Drug Reaction Study Group are described. The impact of the Group on the reporting of adverse drug reactions to the CSM by the yellow card system has been evaluated in several ways including a comparison with the Trent Region. The role of the pharmacist in the Group is highlighted. A nationwide survey of the hospital pharmacist's involvement in adverse drug reaction reporting and monitoring is described, the results are reported and discussed. The available sources of information on adverse drug reactions, both primary and secondary, are critically reviewed. A checklist of necessary details for case reports is developed and examples of problems in the literature are given. The contribution of the drug information pharmacist in answering enquiries and encouraging reporting is examined. A role for the ward pharmacist in identifying, reporting, documenting and following up adverse drug reactions is proposed. Studies conducted to support this role are described and the results discussed. The ward pharmacist's role in preventing adverse drug reactions is also outlined. The reporting of adverse drug reactions in Australia is contrasted with the U.K. and particular attention is drawn to the pharmacist's contribution in the former. The problems in evaluating drug safety are discussed and examples are given where serious reactions have only been recognised after many patients have been exposed. To remedy this situation a case is made for enhancing the CSM yellow card scheme by further devolution of reporting, increasing the involvement of pharmacists and improving arrangements at the CSM. It is proposed that pharmacists should undertake the responsibility for reporting reactions to the CSM in some instances.

Police interviews with women reporting rape: a critical discourse analysis

This study investigates the discursive patterns of interactions between police interviewers and women reporting rape in significant witness interviews. Data in the form of video recorded interviews were obtained from a UK police force for the purposes of this study. The data are analysed using a multi-method approach, incorporating tools from micro-sociology, Conversation Analysis and Discursive Psychology, to reveal patterns of interactional control, negotiation, and interpretation. The study adopts a critical approach, which is to say that as well as describing discursive patterns, it explains them in light of the discourse processes involved in the production and consumption of police interview talk, and comments on the relationship between these discourse processes and the social context in which they occur. A central focus of the study is how interviewers draw on particular interactional resources to shape interviewees? accounts in particular ways, and this is discussed in relation to the institutional role of the significant witness interview. The discussion is also extended to the ways in which mainstream rape ideology is both reflected in, and maintained by, the discursive choices of participants. The findings of this study indicate that there are a number of issues to be addressed in terms of the training currently offered to officers at Level 2 of the Professionalising Investigation Programme (PIP) (NPIA, 2009) who intend to conduct significant witness interviews. Furthermore, a need is identified to bring the linguistic and discursive processes of negotiation and transformation identified by the study to the attention of the justice system as a whole. This is a particularly pressing need in light of judicial reluctance to replace written witness statements, the current „end product? of significant witness interviews, with the video recorded interview in place of direct examination in cases of rape.

Corporate responsibility reporting of biodiversity in the supply chain

Industrial development, accompanying human population growth, has had a major role in creating the situation where bio-diverse materials and services essential for sustaining business are under threat. A major contributory factor to biodiversity decline comes from the cumulative impacts of extended supply chain business operations. However, within Corporate Responsibility (CR) reporting impacts on biodiversity due to supply chain operations have not traditionally been given equal weighting with other environmental issues. This paper investigates the extent of CR reporting in managing and publicising company biodiversity supply chain issues by reviewing a cross-sector sample of publicly available CR reports. The report contents were examined for suggestions of industrial sectorial trends in the level of biodiversity consideration. The reporting of environmental management system use within company supply chain management is assessed in the samples and is considered as a mechanism for responsible supplier partnership working.

Ethical reporting in Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited (1983-2010)

The main aim of this study is to undertake a critical examination of the ethical and developmental performance of an Islamic bank as communicated in its annual reports over a period of 28 years (1983-2010). Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited's (IBBL hereafter) ethical performance and disclosures are further analyzed through interviews conducted with the bank's senior management. The key findings include an overall increase in ethical disclosures during the study period. However, the focus on various stakeholders' needs has varied over time reflecting the evolving nature of the Islamic finance industry over the last three decades. Based on a secular economy, IBBL focused in the first two decades on the "Particular" Shariah compliance disclosure as a way of establishing its reputation and differentiating itself from conventional banks in a dual banking system. Post 2005, the ethical performance and disclosure shifted to more "Universal" disclosures such as sustainability, charity, employees, and community related disclosures signaling responsible conduct and the bank's adoption of a "wider stakeholder approach." However the bank is still failing to provide full disclosure on certain significant categories such as sources and uses of disposable income, thereby contradicting the principles of full and comprehensive disclosure and accountability. In addition, the structure of IBBL's investment portfolio reveals an overreliance on debt-based financial instruments and a shortcoming in fulfilling the developmental and social objectives of Islamic finance. This is evidenced by the "qualified" Shariah Supervisory Board reports that the bank consistently received. This research provides further evidence that Islamic banking and Finance in its current practices reflect the "global" and the "local" influences in an era dominated by global conventional finance. © 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.

Interactive data in financial reporting:the construction of the non-professional investor

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the United States and in particular its immediately past chairman, Christopher Cox, has been actively promoting an upgrade of the EDGAR system of disseminating filings. The new generation of information provision has been dubbed by Chairman Cox, "Interactive Data" (SEC, 2006). In October this year the Office of Interactive Disclosure was created(http://www.sec.gov/news/press/2007/2007-213.htm). The focus of this paper is to examine the way in which the non-professional investor has been constructed by various actors. We examine the manner in which Interactive Data has been sold as the panacea for financial market 'irregularities' by the SEC and others. The academic literature shows almost no evidence of researching non-professional investors in any real sense (Young, 2006). Both this literature and the behaviour of representatives of institutions such as the SEC and FSA appears to find it convenient to construct this class of investor in a particular form and to speak for them. We theorise the activities of the SEC and its chairman in particular over a period of about three years, both following and prior to the 'credit crunch'. Our approach is to examine a selection of the policy documents released by the SEC and other interested parties and the statements made by some of the policy makers and regulators central to the programme to advance the socio-technical project that is constituted by Interactive Data. We adopt insights from ANT and more particularly the sociology of translation (Callon, 1986; Latour, 1987, 2005; Law, 1996, 2002; Law & Singleton, 2005) to show how individuals and regulators have acted as spokespersons for this malleable class of investor. We theorise the processes of accountability to investors and others and in so doing reveal the regulatory bodies taking the regulated for granted. The possible implications of technological developments in digital reporting have been identified also by the CEO's of the six biggest audit firms in a discussion document on the role of accounting information and audit in the future of global capital markets (DiPiazza et al., 2006). The potential for digital reporting enabled through XBRL to "revolutionize the entire company reporting model" (p.16) is discussed and they conclude that the new model "should be driven by the wants of investors and other users of company information,..." (p.17; emphasis in the original). Here rather than examine the somewhat illusive and vexing question of whether adding interactive functionality to 'traditional' reports can achieve the benefits claimed for nonprofessional investors we wish to consider the rhetorical and discursive moves in which the SEC and others have engaged to present such developments as providing clearer reporting and accountability standards and serving the interests of this constructed and largely unknown group - the non-professional investor.

Architecture and Implementation of Reporting Means in Adaptive Dynamically Extended Information Systems

This article describes architecture and implementation of subsystem intended for working with queries and reports in adaptive dynamically extended information systems able to dynamically extending. The main features of developed approach are application universality, user orientation and opportunity to integrate with external information systems. Software implementation is based on multilevel metadata approach.

The Digital Observatory for Protected Areas (DOPA) as a support tool for protected area planning, financing and reporting

The Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission has developed, in consultation with many partners, the DOPA as a global reference information system to support decision making on protected areas (PAs) and biodiversity conservation. The DOPA brings together the World Database on Protected Areas with other reference datasets on species, habitats, ecoregions, threats and pressures, to deliver critical indicators at country level and PA level that can inform gap analyses, PA planning and reporting. These indicators are especially relevant to Aichi Targets 11 and 12, and have recently contributed to CBD country dossiers and capacity building on these targets. DOPA also includes eConservation, a new module that provides a means to share and search information on conservation projects, and thus allows users to see “who is doing what where”. So far over 5000 projects from the World Bank, GEF, CEPF, EU LIFE Programme, CBD LifeWeb Initiative and others have been included, and these projects can be searched in an interactive mapping interface based on criteria such as location, objectives, timeframe, budget, the organizations involved, target species etc. This seminar will provide an introduction to DOPA and eConservation, highlight how these services are used by the CBD and others, and include ample time for discussion.

A case study of the assignment of withdrawal codes for reporting dropout in two disciplinary alternative schools

Dropout rates are major issues facing any nation's continued economic and social progress. The seriousness of this issue in the United States is evidenced by the recent legislation of the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act. The purpose of this study was to use the richness of qualitative methodology to analyze inaccuracies in the assignment of withdrawal codes by school administrators in two different disciplinary alternative schools. The primary codes examined were Code 05, any students over the age of 16 who leaves school voluntarily with no intention of returning; Code 15, any PK–12 student who is withdrawn from school due to nonattendance; Code 22, whereabouts unknown; Code 23, no other code can be used to identify the student's reason for leaving school, and Code 26, entering an adult program. ^ The cross-case method was used for this study. The participants were comprised of 19 school personnel and 25 students from two disciplinary alternative schools, designated X and Y, in the Miami-Dade County Public School system, Miami, FL. Data collection procedures included semi-structured interview, observations, field notes, and district documents. With a matrix, these data were analyzed to compare patterns and themes that emerged within both schools. ^ Results indicated that withdrawal codes were assigned inaccurately for two distinct reasons. At School Y, withdrawal codes were inaccurately assigned intentionally to keep the students from returning to a regular school without notification. At School X, withdrawal codes were inaccurately assigned due to lack of ability to properly track students and ascertain the real circumstances for their departure from school. The end result in both cases was that the school systems were not accurately identifying the whereabouts of students. It was recommended that further investigation be conducted to compare the accuracy of reporting dropouts among traditional/regular high schools and disciplinary alternative schools. ^

Manufacturing Performance Reporting For Continuous Quality Improvement

Recently many plants have implemented the new manufacturing strategy of continuous quality improvement. The central hypothesis in this paper is that the implementation of a policy of continuous quality improvement results in a shift in the management control system. This article tests this hypothesis by examining the shop floor reporting policies of forty-two plants located in the United States. The paper documents that the extent of information concerning the current status of manufacturing, such as charts on defect rates or schedule compliance and productivity information, provided to workers on the shop floor is positively related to the implementation of continuous quality improvement programs.

Integrating a mobile accessible electronic system into dockside monitoring: How can small-scale fisheries data collection programs transition from paper-based to digital data collection?

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2016-06

REPORTING OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IN BRAZIL

Objetivo: Apresentar o quadro de violência sexual contra a mulher no Brasil, com base nas notificações realizadas no Sistema de Informação de Agravos de Notificação (SINAN). Métodos: Trata-se de um estudo descritivo, com abordagem quantitativa, que analisou informações referentes às notificações de violência sexual contra a mulher, no período de 2009 a 2013, considerando a unidade da federação, perfil das mulheres, características da ocorrência e encaminhamentos realizados pelo setor saúde. Os dados foram analisados por meio da estatística descritiva, sendo apresentados números absolutos e relativos derivados das notificações. Resultados: No Brasil, foram registradas 21.871 notificações no período estudado. Observaram-se maiores taxas de registros no ano de 2013 e na região Norte. Predominou o ciclo de vida de 10 a 19 anos (10.806/49,4%), as raças branca (8.894/40,7%) e parda (8.535/39,0%), e a escolaridade ensino fundamental incompleto (5.444/24,9%). Os casos de violência sexual ocorreram com maior frequência na residência da mulher (13.259/60,6%), com agressor conhecido (5.649/25,8%) e sem suspeita do uso de álcool (9.249/42,3%). A maior parte do atendimento no setor saúde foi de nível ambulatorial (15.842/72,6%), e os casos evoluíram para alta (16.879/77,2%). Conclusão: As notificações cresceram progressivamente no período estudado, e a violência sexual contra a mulher no país, registrada pelo setor saúde, atingiu, principalmente, adolescentes, no ambiente doméstico e com agressor conhecido.

Tutors as mediators of exchange student experiences: evaluation of the international student tutor system at the University of Turku

As academic student mobility is increasing, improving the functionality of international operations is recognised as a competitive advantage at tertiary education institutions. Although many scholars have researched the experiences of exchange students, the role of student tutors and their contribution to exchange students’ experiences is still an unknown factor. This research examines international tutoring at the University of Turku, and aims to understand better the way tutoring contributes to exchange experiences and to explore the functionality of the tutor system and discover areas for improvements. To achieve these goals, the research seeks to answer the fundamental research question: What is the role of tutors in mediating exchange experiences? The theoretical framework combines literature on mediating exchange experiences, the phenomenon of studying abroad, the process of adaptation, the importance of cross-cultural communication, and the role of student tutors as mediators. Based on the literature review, a theoretical model for studying the mediation of exchange experiences is introduced. The model’s applicability and validity is examined through a case study. Three methods were used in the empirical research: surveys, participant observations, and interviews. These methods provided extensive data from three major parties of the tutor system: tutors, exchange students, and the international office. The findings of the research reveal that tutoring – instrumental leading and social and cultural mediating – generates both negative and positive experiences depending on the individuals’ expectations, motivations, relationships, and the nature of the tutoring. Although functional, there are a few weaknesses in the tutor system. Tutors tend to act as effective instrumental leaders, but often fail to create a friendship and contribute to the exchange students’ experience through social and cultural mediation, which is significantly more important in the exchange students’ overall experience in terms of building networks, adapting, gaining emotional experiences, and achieving the stage of personal development and mental change. Based on the weaknesses, three improvements are suggested: (1) increasing comprehensive sharing of information, effective communication, and collective cooperation, (2) emphasising the importance of social and cultural mediation and increasing the frequency of interaction between tutors and exchange students, and (3) improving the recruitment and training, revising the process of reporting and rewarding, and finally, enhancing services and coordination.

Development of business processes and sales reporting - Case recovered paper

The purpose of this research is to discover development points for business processes and sales reporting in the recovered paper sourcing organization. The processes under development are both sales and sourcing processes that were determined by the commissioning company. All of these processes have in common that there are used sales orders to organize the money flows correctly. Although the main objective is to source only recovered paper, the sourcing also brings by-products that cannot be utilized and are thus sold. As the purpose of the sales function is to only support the sourcing strategy, it should be organized as efficiently as possible. Investigating the current status of the processes and finding development points help in building proposals for enhanced process descriptions. In order that sales function could be analyzed, should the sales reporting be accurate and present the needed key figures. The current status of the processes as well as the possible problems and development ideas were researched with the help of interviews. Best practices could also be brought from other business lines in the commissioning company. The theory part was build according to relevant literature and scientific articles. The research indicates, that processes have shaped differently in sourcing organization’s business units. Local infrastructure and legislation sets certain limitations to the sourcing of recovered paper, and these circumstances cannot be changed. Customer-supplier power relations also affect to the formulation of business processes. In order to steer the processes, there has to be more internal controls. Still, the enterprise resource planning system also sets boundaries how the processes can be made more efficient.