Heterogeneity of heart failure management programs in Australia

<b>Background:</b> Heart Failure Management Programs (HFMPs) have proven to be cost-effective in minimising recurrent hospitalisations, morbidity and mortality. However, variability between the programs exists which could translate into variable health outcomes.<br /><b>Objective:</b> To survey the characteristics of HFMPs throughout Australia and to identify potential heterogeneity in their organisation and structure.<br /><b>Method:</b> Thirty-nine post-discharge HFMPs were identified from a systematic search of the Australian health-care system in 2002. A comprehensive 19-item questionnaire specifically examining characteristics of HFMPs was sent to co-ordinators of identified programs in early 2003.<br /><b>Results:</b> All participants responded with six institutions (15%) indicating that their HFMP had ceased operations due to a lack of funding. The survey revealed an uneven distribution of the 33 active HFMPs operating throughout Australia. Overall, 4450 post-discharge HF patients (median: 74; IQR: 24&ndash;147) were managed via these programs, representing only 11% of the potential caseload for an Australia-wide network of HFMPs. Heterogeneity of these programs existed in respect to the model of care applied within the program (70% applied a home-based program and 18% a specialist HF clinic) and applied interventions (30% of programs had no discharge criteria and 45% of programs prevented nurses administering/titrating medications). Sustained funding was available to only 52% of the active HFMPs.<br /><b>Conclusion</b>: Inequity of access to HFMPs in Australia is evident in relation to locality and high service demand, further complicated by inadequate funding. Heterogeneity between these programs is substantial. The development of national benchmarks for evidence-based HFMPs is required to address program variability and funding issues to realise their potential to improve health outcomes.<br /><br /><br />

Ensuring quality during monitoring of the learning environment of government primary schools achieved through EUI-PDP for teachers and head teachers

A positive change in the learning environment in schools is visible through ongoing professional development of teachers and administrators. Monitoring the professional development program and providing support to teachers and administrators to transfer their learnings into the school environment ensures some measures of quality. Quality issues led to the launching of the Professional Development Program (PDP) for Primary School Teachers (PSTs) of Sindh by the United Educational Initiative (UEI), a consortium of five Governmental and Non-Governmental Organizations, working under the supervision of Education Sector Reform Assistance (ESRA). Implementation of the UEI-PDP in four districts of Sindh, is ensured by a team of professionals in each district. Recognising that capacity building of district education employees would improve the educational system in the country, 130 Master Trainers were selected, on merit, from the District Education Office for the training of 17,000 teachers and 3000 Head teachers/administrators over a period of two years. This paper developed the design of a Monitoring Process for a Professional Development Program for Primary School Teachers and Administrators. Data was collected through Pre/Post observations, Interviews, Questionnaires and Reports. Such tools make it possible for the monitoring teams to observe, to inquire further, and, along with the Managers, Master Trainers and School Support Team, seek to explain the progress of the program and take corrective action where indicated. Both formative evaluations as well as summative&nbsp; evaluation techniques are utilized for evaluating the program. The monitoring process that assisted in formative evaluations is described. In order to assist in summative evaluation, data collected through the monitoring process was further developed to categorize the schools where teachers and head teachers are trained. It is hoped that the categorization of the schools may lead to further improvements in those schools which fall in the group for need improvement. It may also initiate further research as to reasons behind why some schools are in the good category and why others fall in the average category.<br />

A brief review of PhDs in creative and performing arts in Australia

This paper reports on an aspect of a pilot project conducted in 2003 by the authors comprising a bibliographic analysis of all (approximately 51,000) Australian PhDs. The pilot work is both a data and methodological basis for a larger project that investigates the nature and development of PhDs in Australia as they evolved in the context of national economic, social and educational changes. This paper reviews the evidence from the bibliographic data held in library catalogues of PhDs in each Australian university. After considering the definitional properties and their operationalisation, the paper provides an overview of the first instances, locations and frequencies of PhDs in the creative and performing arts in Australia, fields which are relatively new to doctoral study and which pose challenges in terms of doctoral pedagogy and scholarship. This is contextualised in terms of the development of the contemporary university sector during the 1990s, including the growth in the creative and performing arts therein.<br />

A preliminary examination of public opinion in Australia on the use of biometric devices or identifiers in everyday life

Since the September 11,2001 terrorist attacks in New York City, many countries including Australia have been able to justify the use of biometric devices for identification and surveillance of their own citizens and others in the name of national security.<br /><br />This paper reports on the preliminary findings of a survey that examined Australians' views and experiences with the use of biometric devices in everyday situations in the context of their potential to serve as a 'Panopticon' to keep the nation's citizenry under surveillance. It discusses the adoption of the new communication technology from the point of view of the Justification model that sees technology choice as social<br />gambling and the pluralist view of technology that sees technology as neutral in itself but as having negative or positive effects on society based on how It is used.<br /><br />The paper proposes the need for Australian society to balance citizens' right to privacy and civil liberties with the right to stay alive and safe from terrorism and how it may be done with the necessary legal and regulator)' safeguards.<br />

Corporate governance failure and its impact on National Australia Bank's performance

The National Australia Bank (NAB) is the largest financial services institution listed on the Australian stock exchange and is within the 30 most profitable financial services organisation in the world. In January 2004, the bank disclosed to the public that it had identified losses relating to unauthorised trading in foreign currency options amounting to AUD360 million. Thisforeign exchange debacle was classified as operational risk, the risk of loss resulting from inadequate or failed processes, people, or systems and reiterated the importance of corporate governance for banks. Concurrent issues of National Australia Bank's AUD4.1 billion loss on US HomeSide loans in 2001, the degree of strength of their risk management practices and lack of auditor independence, were raised by the US Securities and Exchange Commission in 2004, reinforcing the view that corporate governance had not been given the priority it deserved over a number of years. This paper will assess and critically analyse the impact of corporate governance failure by management and Board of Directors on NAB's performance over the years 2001-2005.<br />

Responding to terrorism through networks at sites of critical infrastructure : a case study of Australian airport security networks

The importance of effective multilateral security networks is widely recognised in Australia and internationally as being essential to facilitate the large-scale sharing of information required to respond to the threat of terrorism. Australian national security agencies are currently constructing networks in order to bring the diverse national and international security agencies together to achieve this. This paper examines this process of security network formation in the area of critical infrastructure protection, with particular emphasis on airport security. We address the key issues and factors shaping network formation and the dynamics involved in network practice. These include the need for the networks to extend membership beyond the strictly defined elements of national security; the integration of public and private &lsquo;nodes&rsquo; in counter-terrorism &lsquo;networks&rsquo;; and the broader &lsquo;responsibilisation&rsquo; of the private sector and the challenges with &lsquo;enabling&rsquo; them in counter-terrorism networks. We argue that the need to integrate public and private agencies in counter-terrorism networks is necessary but faces considerable organisational, cultural, and legal barriers.<br />

Reflection of eGovernance on websites of India and Russia

Governments of the developing countries have been exploring new ways to allow participation of citizens in the governance, enabled by the Internet revolution. In this paper, we have explored, through a preliminary analysis of national government web sites, the attempts of two developing nations -- India and Russia, to establish digital governance. We have used the KPMG E-Commerce maturity model, WiIIcoks eBusiness evolution model and the WebQual site analysis tool as a theoretical framework to analyse the website performance and content, as a social construct that reflects government intentions, attitudes, digital governance directions and policies.<br />

Acute pain management: Implications of scientific evidence for nursing practice in the postoperative context

Unrelieved acute pain remains prevalent in hospitalized patients despite advances in pain management. A decade after the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council called for improved pain management practices by health professionals, it released clinical guidelines to provide clinicians with current scientific evidence to augment their clinical decision-making. This paper examines the implications of national guidelines on nursing practice and highlights the inadequacies of current implementation policies. Pain management guidelines have failed to decrease patients' postoperative pain because organizations and researchers have ignored the impact of contextual influences on clinicians' decision-making. It is recommended that for successful implementation of national guidelines to occur at the local level of practice, organizations must assist clinicians to identify local influences on their decision-making, to address the issues specific to their own work environment and to evaluate any changes in practice.<br /><br /><br />

Reconnaissance limnology of Tasmania VIII. Tasmanian coastal lagoons - epicentres of endemism in the Australian aquatic microbiota

Two clusters of coastal lagoons, one near Strahan on Tasmania's west coast, the other near St Helens on the north-east coast, are the prime known epicentres of novelty and endemism in the Australian freshwater algal flora. The algae inhabiting these acid, dystrophic lagoons have a very limited distribution. Other dystrophic lagoons may have one or two, but not all, of this suite of endemics. The Strahan dune lakes, especially Lake Garcia, also have the greatest microfaunal diversity yet recorded from any Tasmanian waterbody, including several endemic species. The St Helens sites are less rich in species of microfauna, perhaps because of climatic differences or perhaps because of less intensive sampling there, but they, too, contain endemic taxa. The lagoons in both areas lie outside the formal protection of national parks, but present land management does provide a measure of protection.<br />

The knowledge economy, the techno-preneur and the problematic future of the university

Knowledge economy policies are currently very powerful drivers of change in contemporary university approaches to research. They typically orientate universities to a national innovation system which both positions knowledge as the key factor of economic growth and sees the main purpose of knowledge as contributing to such growth. In this article, the authors explain the economic logic informing such policy interventions in university research and look at the conceptualisation of national innovation systems in various national and international policy sites around the world. Their interest is in what these particular sets of policies have in common, not in how they differ. They introduce three key themes of such systems and the academics they seek to produce. These themes are their techno-scientific orientation, network characteristics and commercial imperatives. The corresponding implied subjects are the techno-scientist, the knowledge networker and the entrepreneur. The authors make the case that evident in such constructions of the future of universities are some unacknowledged and under-acknowledged problems, one of which is a failure to recognise the power of the gift economies of academic culture.<br />

Depth-profile analysis of elements by glow discharge optical emmission specrometry

Glow-discharge optical emission spectrometry (GD-OES) is a powerful tool for the rapid analysis of elements in the surface of solids. One may employ GD-OES to determine quantitatively the bulk concentration of elements in a sample. With further calibration, one may also obtain elemental concentrations as a function of depth into the sample. This allows depth profiling on a host of advanced materials: treated metals, coated metals and other materials, multi-layers, painted surfaces, hard samples coated with polymers, thin films, and many others.<br /><br />A consortium of institutions in Victoria, led by Deakin University, has purchased a new glow-discharge optical emission spectrometer. This instrument has the ability to perform elemental depth profiling on a wide range of materials. This technique, the first of its kind in Australia, is of particular interest to those working on metals, ceramics, glasses, coatings, semi-conductors, and multi-layers. We present here an overview of depth profiling by GD-OES and some examples of its use. <br />

Publishing in 20 leading marketing journals – an examination of global performance

Purpose of this paper was to examine the global contribution of academics to marketing literature between 1999 and 2003. This was done based on an examination of the location of academics institution of employment, as reported in published works within the targeted journals. This was then used to examine the globally dispersion of publishing by institutions.<br /><br />Design/approach. The paper used a content analysis. The authorship of all articles in 20 leading journals was examined between 1999 and 2003. Empirical examination of institutions performance was undertaken across geographic regions. There was also an examination of whether the type of journal impacted on regional performance, using Polonsky and Whitelaw&rsquo;s (2006) A, B and C journal groupings.<br /><br />Findings. The research found that there is a significant &ldquo;bias&rdquo; of authorship within the 20 journals examined, with the majority of works published by academics at institutions in North America. There is some variation in regional performance based on the type of journal examined. However, when one considers the number of universities within each country/region, it is identified that the proportion of institutions within a country/region publishing within the targeted journals is in fact hight outside North America.<br /><br />Limitations. There was no attempt to examine why any differences exist. The study also only focused on a sample of 20 English language journals over 5 years, although these journals have been &lsquo;defined&rsquo; as a leading marketing journal for European marketing academics.<br /><br />Practical Implications. The research suggests that there may in fact be a range of differences in publishing behaviour. It is unclear if these differences relate to variations in the &ldquo;objectives&rdquo; of institutions within each country or other factors. The research posits that a marketing knowledge may be unnecessarily restricted, if there is a bias against non-north American perspectives.<br /><br />Originality. While there have been other works examining research performance of institutions, there have not been any marketing-related works that focused on the nation in which authors work. This work therefore takes a global &ldquo;snapshot&rdquo; of national research performance within marketing.<br />

An examination of the globalisation of authorship in publishing in 20 leading marketing journals

<b>Purpose &ndash; </b>The purpose of this paper is to examine the global contribution of academics to marketing literature between 1999 and 2003, based on an examination of the location of academics institution of employment, as reported in published works. The data is used to evaluate the global dispersion of publishing. <br /><br /><b>Design/methodology/approach &ndash;</b> The paper uses the method of content analysis where the authorship of all articles in 20 leading marketing journals between 1999 and 2003 is examined. An empirical examination of performance was undertaken across geographic regions. There was also an examination of whether the quality of journal affected regional performance. <br /><br /><b>Findings &ndash; </b>The research found that there is a significant &ldquo;bias&rdquo; of authorship within the 20 journals examined, with the majority of works published by academics at institutions in North America. There is some variation in regional performance based on the type of journal examined. <br /><br /><b>Research limitations/implications &ndash;</b> There was no attempt to empirically examine why differences might exist. The study only focused on a sample of 20 English language journals over five years. These journals have been included in studies that list the leading marketing journal for US and European academics. <br /><br /><b>Practical implications &ndash;</b> The research suggests that there may in fact be regional differences in publishing behaviour. It is unclear if these differences relate to variations in the &ldquo;objectives&rdquo; of institutions within each country or other factors, such as the North American publish-or-perish mentality. The research posits that a marketing knowledge may be unnecessarily restricted, if there is a bias against non-North American perspectives. <br /><br /><b>Originality/value &ndash;</b> While there have been other works examining research performance of institutions, there has been limited examination in marketing on the nation in which authors work and none have used a broad cross-section of journals. This work takes a global &ldquo;snapshot&rdquo; of national research performance within marketing.<br />

Board involvement in strategy : advancing the governance of sport organizations

This study investigated how boards of national sport organizations might enhance their strategic capability. Utilizing an action research method and focusing on the case of New Zealand Football (soccer), findings established that greater board involvement in strategy advanced the board's ability to perform its strategic function. Further findings determined the importance of shared leadership between the board and the CEO, the complex interplay in balancing this relationship and the need to integrate strategy into board processes.

Money laundering control and suppression of financing of terrorism : some thoughts on the impact of customer due diligence measures on financial exclusion

<b>Purpose</b> &ndash; The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between anti-money laundering (&ldquo;AML&rdquo;) and combating of financing of terrorism (&ldquo;CFT&rdquo;) customer due diligence (&ldquo;CDD&rdquo;) measures in the financial services industry, and exclusion from financial services.<br /><b>Design/methodology/approach</b> &ndash; An introduction to the concept of financial exclusion is provided as well as an overview of international AML/CFT CDD standards. The paper highlights a softening of national CDD measures in South Africa and the UK to lessen the impact on financial exclusion.<br /><b>Findings</b> &ndash; Countries should consider the impact that CDD requirements may have on financial exclusion when they design their AML/CFT systems.<br />Research limitations/implications &ndash; Multi-discilinary research is required to improve the understanding of the broader interaction between AML/CFT objectives, financial exclusion and economic development, especially in countries with a large informal economy.<br /><b>Practical implications</b> &ndash; CDD requirements may unnecessarily exacerbate financial exclusion if they are not formulated with care to reflect the reality of the particular country setting.<br /><b>Originality/value</b> &ndash; The paper offers insights into the international standards resulting to the identification of clients and the experiences in the UK and South Africa regarding the implementation of these standards on financial exclusion.<br />