Investigating Concept Mapping and Stimulated Recall to Reveal Academic Teacher Beliefs and how they are enacted through learning designs for the Web

Increasingly, academic teachers are designing their own web sites to add value to or replace other forms of university teaching. These web sites are tangible and dynamic constructions that represent the teachers thinking and decisions derived from an implicit belief system about teaching and learning. The emphasis of this study is to explore the potential of the research techniques of concept-mapping and stimulated recall to locate the implicit pedagogies of academic teachers and investigate how they are enacted through the learning designs of their web sites. The rationale behind such an investigation is that once these implicit belief systems are made visible, then conversations can commence about how these beliefs are transformed into practice, providing a potent departure point for academic development.

Extrinsic and intrinsic factors in the Balanced Scorecard adoption: an empirical study in Portuguese organizations

In this article we aim to analyze the relationship between a set of organizational extrinsic and intrinsic factors and the adoption of the Balanced Scorecard(BSC) by privately-owned Portuguese organizations (large companies and small and médium enterprises).These factos are related to companies age,the diversity of products and services,the nature of the ownership structure,the internationalization,and the organizational size. As a primary means of data collection was carried out a postal survey through a questionnaire sent to 549 privately-owned Portuguese organizations, with na overall responserate of 28.2%. The results indicate that the degree of diversity of the products/services of the organization,the owner- ship of foreign groups,and theo rganizational size are positively associated with the implementation of the BSC.Thus,we conclude that the BSC increases with the degree of diversity of the products/services of the organization,that the Portuguese organizations that use the BSC are mainly owned by foreign groups; and larger organizations are most likely to use this tool.

O Balanced Scored como ferramenta de gestão estratégica na Clínica Oftalmológica Dr. Miguel Sousa Neves, Lda.

A sociedade está cada vez mais complexa, sendo notória a preocupação por parte das organizações no que respeita à qualidade dos serviços prestados. Tal como nas outras atividades, a atenção às mais variadas alterações internas e externas por parte das organizações que prestam cuidados de saúde deve ser uma constante, garantindo assim uma rápida e eficaz resposta aos novos desafios. Neste contexto, as organizações de saúde vêem-se obrigadas a criar e utilizar modelos de gestão mais direcionados aos seus objetivos concretos de forma a atingir os fins que visionaram sendo o Balanced Scorecard (BSC) um dos instrumentos mais vocacionados para este fim. Esta ferramenta, criada por Kaplan e Norton, visa a tradução da estratégia e missão de uma organização em objetivos e medidas divididas por quatro perspetivas diferentes: financeira, clientes, processos internos e aprendizagem e crescimento. O BSC é um modelo bastante flexível e o seu sucesso é reconhecido perante o mundo académico e empresarial. Neste sentido, foi desenvolvida uma proposta de implementação de um BSC para a Clínica Oftalmológica Dr. Miguel Sousa Neves, Lda.. Desta forma, foi definida e proposta uma ferramenta de gestão estratégica, permitindo também destacar um conjunto de melhorias que a mesma poderá trazer à organização. O método de estudo adotado foi o estudo de caso tendo sido realizada uma clarificação das orientações estratégicas da organização em questão através da definição da sua visão, missão e valores e, de seguida, a definição dos objetivos estratégicos e seleção dos indicadores de desempenho para cada perspetiva, garantindo assim o seu alinhamento. Por fim, foi delineado o mapa estratégico onde se apresentam as principais relações de causa-efeito entre as várias perspetivas do BSC. Verificou-se que a organização em análise tem os principais pilares do BSC – missão, valores e visão - bem definidos, tal como uma cultura aberta e comunicação clara, transparente e fluída. Estes elementos são muito relevantes para o início do processo de aplicação do BSC, uma vez que podem facilitar a compreensão e a aceitação do mesmo por parte das pessoas que trabalham na organização. O mapa estratégico desenhado para a Clínica Oftalmológica Dr. Miguel Sousa Neves, Lda. apresenta-se como uma ferramenta útil para a mesma nomeadamente ao fornecer aos funcionários uma linha clara da visão sobre a forma como as suas funções estão ligadas aos objetivos globais da organização; ao definir prioridades; ao identificar, racionalizar e alinhar as diversas iniciativas; ao ligar a estratégia com a afetação dos recursos disponíveis, orientando-os para o apoio ao cumprimento dos objetivos estratégicos da organização e satisfação das necessidades dos utentes; e ao incentivar a aprendizagem e a melhoria contínua dos colaboradores e da organização como um todo. Face ao exposto, o BSC poderá permitir à Clínica concentrar-se nas suas questões essenciais, estabelecendo as relações de causa-efeito para atingir os seus fins.

Zwitterionic and charge-balanced polyampholyte copolymer hydrogels

Zwitterionic copolymers were synthesised from N,N-dimethyl-N-(2- acryloylethyl)-N-(3-sulfopropyl) ammonium betaine (SPDA) and 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) produce a series of polyzwitterion hydrogels. For the synthesis of the charge-balanced copolymer hydrogels, two cationic monomers were selected: 2-(diethylamino) ethyl methacrylate (DMAEMA) and 3-(dimethylamino) propyl methacrylamide (DMAPMA), and an anionic monomer; 2-acrylamido-2- methylpropane sulphonic acid (AMPS). Two series of charge-balanced copolymers were synthesized from stoichiometrically equivalent ratios of DMAEMA or DMAPMA and AMPS with HEMA as a termonomer. All synthesized copolymers produced clear and cohesive hydrogels. The zwitterionic and charge-balanced copolymers displayed similar equilibrium water contents together with similar mechanical and surface energy properties. The swelling of the zwitterionic and the charge-balanced copolymers shows some features of antipolyelectrolyte behavior.

Retrieving designs from a sketch using an automated GT coding and classification system

While the retrieval of existing designs to prevent unnecessary duplication of parts is a recognised strategy in the control of design costs the available techniques to achieve this, even in product data management systems, are limited in performance or require large resources. A novel system has been developed based on a new version of an existing coding system (CAMAC) that allows automatic coding of engineering drawings and their subsequent retrieval using a drawing of the desired component as the input. The ability to find designs using a detail drawing rather than textual descriptions is a significant achievement in itself. Previous testing of the system has demonstrated this capability but if a means could be found to find parts from a simple sketch then its practical application would be much more effective. This paper describes the development and testing of such a search capability using a database of over 3000 engineering components.

Casemix accounting systems and medical coding:organisational actors balanced on "leaky black boxes"

The adoption of DRG coding may be seen as a central feature of the mechanisms of the health reforms in New Zealand. This paper presents a story of the use of DRG coding by describing the experience of one major health provider. The conventional literature portrays casemix accounting and medical coding systems as rational techniques for the collection and provision of information for management and contracting decisions/negotiations. Presents a different perspective on the implications and effects of the adoption of DRG technology, in particular the part played by DRG coding technology as a part of a casemix system is explicated from an actor network theory perspective. Medical coding and the DRG methodology will be argued to represent ``black boxes''. Such technological ``knowledge objects'' provide strong points in the networks which are so important to the processes of change in contemporary organisations.

The application of analysis of variance (ANOVA) to different experimental designs in optometry

Analysis of variance (ANOVA) is the most efficient method available for the analysis of experimental data. Analysis of variance is a method of considerable complexity and subtlety, with many different variations, each of which applies in a particular experimental context. Hence, it is possible to apply the wrong type of ANOVA to data and, therefore, to draw an erroneous conclusion from an experiment. This article reviews the types of ANOVA most likely to arise in clinical experiments in optometry including the one-way ANOVA ('fixed' and 'random effect' models), two-way ANOVA in randomised blocks, three-way ANOVA, and factorial experimental designs (including the varieties known as 'split-plot' and 'repeated measures'). For each ANOVA, the appropriate experimental design is described, a statistical model is formulated, and the advantages and limitations of each type of design discussed. In addition, the problems of non-conformity to the statistical model and determination of the number of replications are considered. © 2002 The College of Optometrists.

Country escapes and designs for living:Christa Wolf, Sarah Kirsch and Judith Hermann

Country escapes and designs for living in the Works of Two Generations of (East) German Women Writers: Christa Wolf’s Sommerstück and Sarah Kirsch’s Allerlei-Rauh as Precursors to Judith Hermann’s Sommerhaus, später

Carrier lifetime and exciton saturation in a strain-balanced InGaAs/InAsP multiple-quantum-well

The bleaching of the n = 1 heavy-hole and light-hole exciton absorption has been studied at room temperature and zero bias in a strain-balanced InGaAs/InAsP multiple quantum well. Pump-probe spectroscopy was used to measure the decay of the light-hole absorption saturation, giving a hole lifetime of only 280 ps. As only 16 meV separates the light- and heavy-hole bands, the short escape time can be explained by thermalization between these bands followed by thermionic emission over the heavy-hole barrier. The saturation density was estimated to be 1 × 1016 cm-3; this is much lower than expected for tensile-strained wells where both heavy and light holes have large in-plane masses. © 1998 American Institute of Physics.