An aggregate measure of financial ratios using a multiplicative DEA model

This paper examines the problems in the definition of the General Non-Parametric Corporate Performance (GNCP) and introduces a multiplicative linear programming as an alternative model for corporate performance. We verified and tested a statistically significant difference between the two models based on the application of 27 UK industries using six performance ratios. Our new model is found to be a more robust performance model than the previous standard Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) model.

The value of risk reporting:a critical analysis of value-at-risk disclosures in the banking sector

This paper critically reviews the evolution of financial reporting in the banking sector with specific reference to the reporting of market risk and the growing use of the measure known as Value at Risk (VaR). The paper investigates the process by which VaR became 'institutionalised'. The analysis highlights a number of inherent limitations of VaR as a risk measure and questions the usefulness of published VaR disclosures, concluding that risk 'disclosure' might be more apparent than real. It also looks at some of the implications for risk reporting practice and the accounting profession more generally.

Well-structured teams and the buffering of hospital employees from stress

Membership in well-structured teams, which show clarity in team and individual goals, meet regularly, and recognize diverse skills of their members, is known to reduce stress. This study examined how membership of well-structured teams was associated with lower levels of strain, when testing a work stressors-to-strains relationship model across the three levels of team structure, namely well-structured, poorly structured (do not fulfill all the criteria of well-structured teams) and no team. The work stressors tested, were quantitative overload and hostile environment, whereas strains were measured through job satisfaction and intention to leave job. This investigation was carried out on a random sample of 65,142 respondents in acute/specialist National Health Service hospitals across the UK. Using multivariate analysis of variance, statistically significant differences between means across the three groups of team structure, with mostly moderate effect sizes, were found for the study variables. Those in well-structured teams have the highest levels of job satisfaction and the least intention to leave job. Multigroup structural equation modelling confirmed the model's robustness across the three groups of team structure. Work stressors explained 45%, 50% and 65% of the variance of strains for well-structured, poorly structured and no team membership, respectively. An increase of one standard deviation in work stressors, resulted in an increase in 0.67, 0.70 and 0.81 standard deviations in strains for well-structured, poorly structured and no team membership, respectively. This investigation is an eye-opener for hospitals to work towards achieving well-structured teams, as this study shows weaker stressor-to-strain relationships for members of these teams.

Apple Pollination: Demand Depends on Variety and Supply Depends on Pollinator Identity

Insect pollination underpins apple production but the extent to which different pollinator guilds supply this service, particularly across different apple varieties, is unknown. Such information is essential if appropriate orchard management practices are to be targeted and proportional to the potential benefits pollinator species may provide. Here we use a novel combination of pollinator effectiveness assays (floral visit effectiveness), orchard field surveys (flower visitation rate) and pollinator dependence manipulations (pollinator exclusion experiments) to quantify the supply of pollination services provided by four different pollinator guilds to the production of four commercial varieties of apple. We show that not all pollinators are equally effective at pollinating apples, with hoverflies being less effective than solitary bees and bumblebees, and the relative abundance of different pollinator guilds visiting apple flowers of different varieties varies significantly. Based on this, the taxa specific economic benefits to UK apple production have been established. The contribution of insect pollinators to the economic output in all varieties was estimated to be £92.1M across the UK, with contributions varying widely across taxa: solitary bees (£51.4M), honeybees (£21.4M), bumblebees (£18.6M) and hoverflies (£0.7M). This research highlights the differences in the economic benefits of four insect pollinator guilds to four major apple varieties in the UK. This information is essential to underpin appropriate investment in pollination services management and provides a model that can be used in other entomolophilous crops to improve our understanding of crop pollination ecology.

Na especificidade, a evidência do impacto das intervenções do enfermeiro especialista em enfermagem de reabilitação no doente com patologia respiratória crónica, no serviço de urgência

O presente estudo decorreu no serviço de urgência do Hospital do Espírito Santo de Évora – EPE, de Setembro de 2015 a Janeiro de 2016 e enquadra-se na área da prestação de cuidados especializados em enfermagem de reabilitação. É um estudo de caso, em que objeto de estudo é “A Intervenção do Enfermeiro Especialista em Enfermagem de Reabilitação no doente com Patologia Respiratória Crónica”. A abordagem metodológica é mista pois trata-se de um caso de estudo que não é puramente qualitativo. A utilização de metodologia quantitativa com indicadores quantitativos permitirá uma melhor compreensão e visão global do caso apresentado. Trata-se de um estudo de natureza descritiva, transversal e não experimental pois tem como objetivo a recolha de dados observáveis e quantificáveis, num determinado período de tempo e não o controlo de fenómenos. População alvo: todos os utentes com Patologia Respiratória Crónica internados no Serviço de Observação no período de tempo referido anteriormente. Amostra: 4 utentes com média de idades de 78,0 anos dos quais 75% eram do sexo masculino e 25% do sexo feminino. Foram implementadas intervenções de enfermagem de reabilitação, nomeadamente, reabilitação funcional respiratória e motora, que demonstraram ser eficazes tendo-se obtido saturações periféricas de O2 de 96%, em média. Estes resultados traduzem-se em ganhos ao nível da capacidade respiratória permitindo o desenvolvimento de atividades de vida diária normais. Também foi possível a manutenção e potenciação das capacidades de mobilidade nestes utentes com uma média etária elevada e com algumas limitações físicas e/ou cognitivas o que, só por si, também traduz ganhos em saúde no que concerne à sua independência e melhoria da qualidade de vida. O Enfermeiro Especialista em Enfermagem de Reabilitação é claramente uma mais-valia no serviço de urgência pois ao colocar em prática uma dinâmica de desempenho voltado para os conhecimentos especializados adquiridos, criando ferramentas que permitam um desempenho estruturado dos cuidados, a promoção da sua continuidade, a sua avaliação e a produção de conhecimento científico baseado na evidência contribui para a redução do tempo de internamento o que se repercute na maior eficácia na Gestão de Unidades de Saúde.

Avaliação da carga de trabalho de enfermagem na unidade de cuidados intensivos Dr. Emílio Moreira em Portalegre

No âmbito do 4º Mestrado em Enfermagem com Especialização em Gestão de Unidades de Saúde, da Escola Superior de Saúde do Instituto Politécnico de Portalegre, o presente relatório pretende apresentar um documento reflexivo sobre a aquisição e o desenvolvimento de competências na área da gestão de unidades de saúde, em âmbito de estágio. O estágio decorreu na Unidade de Cuidados Intensivos Dr. Emílio Moreira da Unidade Local do Norte Alentejano, no período de Outubro de 2015 a Fevereiro de 2016. Foi aplicada a metodologia de projeto, tendo desenvolvido no decorrer do estágio o Trabalho de Projeto Avaliação da Carga de Trabalho de Enfermagem na Unidade de Cuidados Intensivos Dr. Emílio Moreira em Portalegre Os enfermeiros desempenham funções muito importantes na área da gestão dos recursos e dos cuidados, em unidades de cuidados intensivos. Uma dessas funções consiste em avaliar o índice de gravidade dos doentes internados e a carga de trabalho de enfermagem através do Therapeutic Intervention Scoring System-28. Neste sentido tornou-se pertinente o estudo retrospetivo da carga de trabalho na UCIDEM, por forma a otimizar a utilização do instrumento de gestão implementado e propor melhorias no âmbito da dotação dos enfermeiros. Concluiu-se, principalmente, que: em relação ao Índice de Enfermeiros e Score TISS, verificaram-se variações acentuadas, quer na necessidade de trabalho de enfermagem quer na gravidade dos doentes, durante 365 dias; comparando a média anual de TISS obtida com o diagnóstico atual da situação na UCIDEM, existe uma dotação desfasada de acordo com o que foi medido pelo TISS; e que a carga de trabalho dos enfermeiros não é distribuída equitativamente pelos turnos

Contributos da enfermagem de reabilitação no incremento da autonomia do utente em cuidados intensivos

Este relatório teve como objetivo a análise reflexiva das competências adquiridas e desenvolvidas durante a unidade curricular Relatório/Estágio, inserida no curso de Mestrado em Enfermagem em Gestão de Unidades de Saúde. O estágio foi realizado na Unidade de Cuidados Intensivos (UCI) Dr. Emílio Moreira do Hospital Doutor José Maria Grande, em Portalegre. Um contexto economicamente recessivo implica uma alteração da gestão de unidades de saúde, que, no entanto, não diminua a qualidade dos cuidados prestados. As intervenções de enfermagem de reabilitação realizadas tiveram como objetivo responder às necessidades dos doentes, incrementando a autonomia dos utentes da UCI, apresentando-se um estudo de caso de uma doente com problemas respiratórios. Os ganhos em saúde, avaliados através do grau de funcionalidade, da mobilidade, da qualidade de vida, aumentam significativamente após as intervenções de enfermagem de reabilitação, conforme é demonstrado pela análise dos resultados do estudo de caso, que corroboram a importância das intervenções de enfermagem de reabilitação na redução do tempo de internamento dos utentes. A presença de um enfermeiro especialista em reabilitação é uma mais-valia numa Unidade de Cuidados Intensivos, devido à vasta área a que consegue dar resposta, contribuindo significativamente para uma maior eficácia na gestão de Unidades de Saúde

Developing research data management services at QUT

QUT Library and the High Performance Computing and Research Support (HPC) Team have been collaborating on developing and delivering a range of research support services, including those designed to assist researchers to manage their data. QUT’s Management of Research Data policy has been available since 2010 and is complemented by the Data Management Guidelines and Checklist. QUT has partnered with the Australian Research Data Service (ANDS) on a number of projects including Seeding the Commons, Metadata Hub (with Griffith University) and the Data Capture program. The HPC Team has also been developing the QUT Research Data Repository based on the Architecta Mediaflux system and have run several pilots with faculties. Library and HPC staff have been trained in the principles of research data management and are providing a range of research data management seminars and workshops for researchers and HDR students.

Exporting educational services : an Australian university’s experience in delivering offshore project management programs

Increasingly, Australian universities are facing the challenges of global education. While overseas students studying in Australia provide the primary source of export earnings for educational institutions, a number of institutions, including QUT, are also involved in international trade in educational services by providing services offshore. This paper discusses driving forces behind moves by Australian universities to enter the international education market. It then briefly describes Queensland University of Technology’s internationalisation strategy. The paper concludes with a case study describing how the School of Construction Management has pioneered the development of offshore courses at QUT. The introduction of the Master of Project Management and Graduate Diploma of Project Management programs in Singapore in November 1993 represented QUT’s first experience in this area. With the experience of 18 months of operation, the School now has the opportunity to reflect on the outcomes of this venture and consider future options.

The emerging management services of business transformation management

Business transformations are large-scale organizational change programs that, evidence suggests, are often unsuccessful. Our interest is in identifying the management capabilities required for the successful execution of these projects. We advance a service-oriented view of the enterprise, which suggests that different management services need to be identified and integrated in order to execute business transformation. In order to identify those management services that require integration, we conducted an exploratory empirical study of the demand for management services in US and Asia, and we show that two archetypes of management services exist in business transformation initiatives: transactional and transformational management services. We identify the relevant set of transactional and transformational services and discuss what the demand for these services implies for the execution of business transformations.

Value management : an extension of quantity surveying services in Malaysia

Value Management (VM) initially started in early 1940s in the US manufacturing industry has increasingly becoming popular within the construction industry community internationally. It has been widely accepted as an important tool in the management of projects. The structured, systematic and multi-disciplinary approach in decision making process is a niche for VM in delivering better value for money project to the client investment. It would appear to be gaining some momentum as an essential management tool in the Malaysian construction sector especially in the quantity surveying practice. Quantity surveyors increasing involvement in VM provides an opportunity for the profession to re-model some of its traditional services in a more positive light and develop leading-edge skills and promote the profession. International practice has associated VM to be part of services offered in the quantity surveying practice; especially in UK has proven to be a natural progression of QS profession. The introduction of VM as early 1980’s in Malaysia combined with increasing demand for construction project to facilitate nation progress is shedding a positive light for quantity surveying profession to take lead in developing VM as one of their niche area. Therefore, the quantity surveying profession having the opportunity to take lead of this service which reflect their traditional attributes for providing the best value-for-money advise to the client. This paper shall discuss on the development of VM in Malaysia and the challenges VM face services in QS firm to remain ahead of their competitors.

Collaborating to develop research data management services and collections

The Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Library, like many other academic and research institution libraries in Australia, has been collaborating with a range of academic and service provider partners to develop a range of research data management services and collections. Three main strategies are being employed and an overview of process, infrastructure, usage and benefits is provided of each of these service aspects. The development of processes and infrastructure to facilitate the strategic identification and management of QUT developed datasets has been a major focus. A number of Australian National Data Service (ANDS) sponsored projects - including Seeding the Commons; Metadata Hub / Store; Data Capture and Gold Standard Record Exemplars have / will provide QUT with a data registry system, linkages to storage, processes for identifying and describing datasets, and a degree of academic awareness. QUT supports open access and has established a culture for making its research outputs available via the QUT ePrints institutional repository. Incorporating open access research datasets into the library collections is an equally important aspect of facilitating the adoption of data-centric eresearch methods. Some datasets are available commercially, and the library has collaborated with QUT researchers, in the QUT Business School especially strongly, to identify and procure a rapidly growing range of financial datasets to support research. The library undertakes licensing and uses the Library Resource Allocation to pay for the subscriptions. It is a new area of collection development for with much to be learned. The final strategy discussed is the library acting as “data broker”. QUT Library has been working with researchers to identify these datasets and undertake the licensing, payment and access as a centrally supported service on behalf of researchers.