...Medicine, Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium 2 Department of Applied Mathematics, State Polytechnical University of Saint Petersburg, Russia 3 Laboratorio di Tecnologia Medica, Istituti Ortopedici Rizzoli, Italy * Communicating and contact author: sintjans@ulb.ac.be Introduction Standardization of motion representation is a key element for result comparison and data exchange during motion analysis studies. The discrepancies of the results currently found in the literature can be explained by a lack of standards related to at least 3 topics: 1- motion representation; 2- selection of anatomical landmarks (ALs); 3- software resources. This literature discrepancy should be greatly reduced if a consensus on the three above points could be reached. Topic 1 is tackled by the International Society of Biomechanics (ISB) that published Standards to define body segment orientations and clinically meaningful motion representation (Wu, 1995; Wu, 2002; Wu, In Press). Efforts related to Topic 2 are currently undergoing to allow strict AL selection necessary to build anatomical reference frames in a repeatable way (Van Sint Jan, In Press). Topic 3 is the goal of this paper. The presented research aimed to propose a software interface that would allow a user to: -interactively import motion data; -to register the motion to 3D bone models (if necessary); -to select ALs; -and to create motion representation graphs according to standards. Similar commercial...
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...past two decades, a new trend towards integration and collaboration in supply chains has been recognised among researchers as well as among business practitioners. This philosophy is called supply chain management and has received enormous attention in logistics research. Collaboration based on supply chain management is expected to reduce total cost and improve service towards the supply chain’s end customers at the same time. The argumentation in existing literature is however seldom underpinned by more rigorous empirical material and becomes therefore conceptual and superficial. Furthermore, it is incongruous about what actually is done when companies collaborate and what more specific effects are achieved. Therefore more research, especially survey based, is needed in order to verify existing literature. In this thesis the perspective of a focal company is taken in order to concretise the ideas from supply chain management and investigate what it means for an individual company. Based on supply chain management literature, a questionnaire was constructed...
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...Running head: LITERATURE SEARCH TO LOCATE RESEARCH ARTICLE According to the reports published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Injury Centre (2007), falls are the third most common cause of unintentional injury death across all age groups and the first leading cause among people 65 years and older (Tzeng, H., & Yin, C. (2008). A hospital can be a dangerous and erratic place for inpatients because of its unfamiliar physical environment (different from their home settings) and because of changes in patients’ medical conditions as related to their physical and psychological health and sensory systems (Tzeng, H., & Yin, C. (2008). The following research articles focus on the nurses’ role in preventing and managing patient falls in the hospitals. As part of the assignment abstract from the articles are included. Literature Search 1: Nurses’ Solutions to Prevent Inpatient Fall in Hospital Rooms. Abstract Patient fall rates are perceived as the indicator that could be most improved through nurse-led safety strategies or interventions. A safety-driven design with a goal to prevent inpatient fall-related injuries should be a hospital design principle. In this qualitative study, researchers used inductive and deductive methods to understand the clinically accessible solutions to minimize the extrinsic risk factors of inpatient falls. The findings from the nurse interviews were compared with the intervention strategies toward...
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...Patient safety and improved patient outcomes is a leading factor into the implementation of fall prevention strategies. Therefore, to more effectively measure and implement fall and injury prevention programs, a proposed module is suggested. This module shows that high reliability organization key elements and incorporating a culture of patient safety by looking closer at each level and including nurses, should be included when evaluating effective prevention strategies. This article helps to effectively measure changes to improve patient safety related to falls. A project was developed to improve patient safety and reduce falls in an inpatient setting. The project takes place at a highly recognized hospital with many fall prevention...
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...International joint ventures (IJV) have been a topic of interest in research and literature both in the past and present. Several findings suggest that the success of IJV may be due to numerous factors (Bener & Glaister 2010), though there are many issues which underlie the performance and managerial implications in IJV. This paper aims to discuss the recent contrasting views and perspectives from the academic, peer reviewed literature in relation to numerous issues, focussing on managerial implications that surround international joint ventures. An IJV occurs when two businesses based in two or more countries form a partnership, where a company that wants to explore international trade without taking on the full responsibilities of cross-border business, to join up with a foreign partner (Yan & Zeng 1999). Firms have been relying on IJV as a strategic tool to maximise economic benefits, product expansion, manage risk, adapt to new skills and technologies, and create new products and services faster with the assistance of a foreign company (Luo 2002; Damanpour, Devece, Chen & Pothukuchi 2012). According to Bener and Glaister (2010), the level of control from the parent company, autonomy to management and the level of trust between partner firms are all crucial to the success of IJV by opening up market opportunities through which foreign companies can gain a competitive advantage. Yildiz (2013) also supports this, stating that the level of trust between partners is needed...
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...Kippie 9347861 .......................................................... Durhan Wood 3268672 .......................................................... N.B. If you do not agree to the above declaration, please do not sign the declaration form instead submit a written statement expressing your disagreement to the academic coordinator who in turn will make arrangements to investigate your claim. Should the reviewers of your work find out that your declaration is fraudulent and that you plagiarised your work or part of your submission, please note that the University policy (ies) applicable to acts of plagiarism and dishonest will apply. A study analysing the effect that collaboration, information sharing, joint relationship effort, dedicated investments, commitment and trust, satisfaction and performance have on Supply Chain Relationships in the retail food sector in the Western Cape Introduction The purpose of this study is to reflect the impact that various...
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...re-regulation, which can be best divided between those policies that directly affect employee voice and those that indirectly alter the environment in which employee voice operates. Both EU Directives on European Works Councils and Employee Information and Consultation, along with the UK government’s statutory trade union recognition procedures, have the potential to directly shape employers’ approaches to employee voice. EWCs have given a new trans- national impetus to consultation in British-based multinationals. The TUC’s newfound interest in consultation (rather than just collective bargaining) and the preparedness of trade unions to work alongside non-union representatives on EWCs, has given consultation a new lease of life. A decade ago, joint consultation appeared to be declining along with collective bargaining, eclipsed by direct communications and upward problem-solving and this led some to be concerned about a representation gap (Towers 1997; Marchington and Wilkinson, 2000)....
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...countries (Arora and Fosfuri, 2000). However, there is not a lot of consensus among these articles. A few articles mentioned the effect of language distance on entry mode choice. Keywords: Cultural distance, entry mode choice and language distance 1. Introduction In this time of globalization a lot of companies are expanding their international business activities in overseas market. The ways in which firms are expanding their business in overseas market differ per enterprise and country. The hierarchical model of market entry modes by Pan and Tse (2000) shows that there are different choices of entry modes. Entry modes can be seen as equity-based versus non-equity based. Within equity-based modes, there is a division between equity joint ventures and wholly owned operations. Within nonequity based modes, there is a division between export and contractual agreements. Prior research demonstrated that the choice of entry modes rely upon different types of components. Especially, a lot of previous studies focused on the effect of cultural distance on entry mode choices. Most of the articles exposed that as cultural distance increases, firms are likely to choose non-equity modes over equity modes (Arora and Fosfuri, 2000). There is no consensus among the articles about the relationship between cultural distance and entry mode choice. In addition to that, few articles pointed out the influence of language distance on entry mode...
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...Back to "Search By Author" Abstract Number: 002-0075 COMPARISON OF TQM AND ISO 9000 EFFECTS IN COMPANY PERFORMANCE: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY IN SPANISH COMPANIES SECOND WORLD CONFERENCE ON POM AND 15TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE, CANCUN, MEXICO, APRIL 30 - MAY 3, 2004. AUTHORS: Micaela Martínez-Costa University of Murcia, Spain mili@um.es Facultad de Economía y Empresa, Campus de Espinardo 30100, Murcia Phone: +34968367801 Fax: + 34 968 367537 Angel R. Martínez- Lorente Polytechnic University of Cartagena, Spain angel.martinez@upct.es Facultad de Ciencias de la Empresa, Paseo Alfonso XIII, 50, 30203, Cartagena Phone: +34968325618 Fax: +34968327008 POM Back to "Search By Author" COMPARISON OF TQM AND ISO 9000 EFFECTS IN COMPANY PERFORMANCE: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY IN SPANISH COMPANIES ABSTRACT The effect of Total Quality Management (TQM) and ISO 9000 on performance has been extensively analysed by researchers, but this sort of research has usually been developed in separated cells. However, there are few articles analysing the effect of both systems within the same sample of companies. Our paper analyses both the effect of a TQM system and the ISO 9000 implementation in company performance. A structured questionnaire using the Flynn et al. (1994) scale for measuring TQM has been used to get the data. A postal survey to nearly 3000 industrial Spanish companies with more than 100 employees was sent. This questionnaire...
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...on Corporate Governance Garrow A New Hypothesis on the Determinants of Acquisitions Nigel Garrow Introduction Merger and acquisition (M&A) activity is a significant factor in business in most advanced economies. According to Thomson Reuters, the value of M&A deals completed globally during the 12 months to November 2009 was US$1.8 trillion. However, the acquirers’ shareholders often lose value. Much of the literature on M&A is centred on the UK and US markets, with only a modest level of research within Australia This paper suggests a new proposition to explain why M&A activity may be value destroying for the acquirers: Success or failure for the acquiring firm’s shareholders in M&A is a function of the combined tenure, personal motivation, and recent performance of the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the acquiring firm. This examination of the combined effectiveness of the Chairman and CEO is not something that appears to have been undertaken before. The paper will present the constituent hypotheses of the main proposition, followed by a literature review, a presentation of findings from a pilot study, conclusions and next steps. Four constituent hypotheses, each of which refers to the performance of the Chairman and CEO, arise out of the pilot study: Hypothesis 1. The length of time that the Chairman and CEO of the acquiring firm have been together in their respective positions at the time of the acquisition will determine the success or otherwise of the outcome...
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...Luleå University of Technology ABSTRACT Lean construction is a relatively immature literature field in need of unbiased theoretical reasoning and case studies in order to investigate how lean thinking can be applied in a construction project context. The purpose of this paper is to increase the understanding of how various measures of lean thinking can be implemented in a construction project and how these measures work. In order to enhance unbiased theoretical reasoning a frame of reference is first developed through a literature review of peer-reviewed journal articles. The empirical part of the research utilises a lean construction pilot project as a case study. Empirical data was mainly collected through a series of three questionnaire surveys, responded by project participants that were involved in the lean implementation effort (approximately 30 responses) and three follow-up workshops in which the key individuals from all partner companies participated (15-20 individuals). The author of this paper functioned as a facilitator and action researcher, responsible for the design and analysis of the surveys and for planning and facilitating the workshops. Document studies and interviews of twelve project participants were also conducted in order to increase the richness of the case study data. The empirical results show that many of the lean related measures identified in the literature review have been utilised, either implicitly or explicitly, in the pilot project. These...
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...1,064 of published articles were identified. Of the 1,064 published articles, 279 were eliminated after screening of titles and abstracts. After reading the full-text articles, 15 studies were eligible to be included in the review. The studies involving aquatic therapy versus manual therapy had related outcomes. The settings of the therapy provided varied from heated pools to land-based exercises. The number of participants, the type of population, and the intervention also were diverse. The one thing that came out with similar results was the primary outcome of the studies. What was studied was how aquatic therapy compared to manual therapy affected the quality of life in elderly patients with muscle and joint pain. A summary of studies is presented in Table 1. [Insert Table 1] Aquatic Therapy A study conducted by by Gill, McBurney, &...
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...in the ISI databases? - Who areich is Researchers involved in the study of toxoplasmosisa in terms of number of publicationspapers, number of citations, and H- index? -Which countries have performed most of the studies on Toxoplasma sp. had done and what is the geographical distribution of the leading countries in the studylook like? - What is the frequency of the keywords used in the title and summary of the papers content in the article-based analysis of the related articlesbased on the frequency of the keywords used in the title and summary of the papers? - What is true keyword analysis contained in the study by Toxoplasma? Given how important research on toxoplasmosis is to global health, it is necessary to create a comprehensive view of the status of research in the world, and a clear picture of the production process and scientific exchanges in the field. This will also aid in any planning and policymaking. Obviously, the improvement of the scientific situation in the field of toxoplasmosis over time will lead to progress in preventing, treating and reducing complications. Thus, the aim of the present study was the bibliometric analysis of the global scientific production, and determining the top...
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...Chapter 1 Introduction In earlier civilizations, trepanization (drilling holes in the skull) was performed because of the belief that this would release demons that had entered into the skull and had to be released, if headache relief was to result. In the seventeenth century, it was suggested by Willis that the head pain of 'megrim' or migraine resulted from the swelling of blood vessels within the head. Interestingly, this explanation of blood vessel swelling is close to the belief today that such swelling is involved in migraine headaches (Edmeads, 1997). At the turn of the twentieth century, Sir William Osler proposed that headaches were due to 'muscular rheumatism' of the head. This was probably the first suggestion that muscle abnormalities might be involved. During the 1940s, Wolff carried out a series of experiments that showed that involuntary contraction of scalp and neck muscles could result in headache development. Other causes have been suggested; these were more serious than muscle dysfunction and would evidently require other medical interventions (Solomon, 1993). In the worldwide view, headache can be such a big health problem as evidenced by the establishment of the World Headache Alliance in 1997. The organization exists to alleviate the burden of headache worldwide, in particular, by sharing information among headache organizations and by increasing the awareness and understanding of headache as a public health concern with profound social and economic...
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...Auditor Independence and Non-Audit Services: A Literature Review Vivien Beattie University of Stirling and Stella Fearnley University of Portsmouth TABLE OF CONTENTS Page List of tables and list of figures About the authors v vi List of abbreviations vii Executive summary ix Part 1 Auditor independence 1 Introduction 1 1.1 1 1.2 The ‘problem’ of non-audit services (NAS) 1 1.3 The current UK regulatory and professional environment 2 1.4 Motivation for this study 3 1.5 2 The role of audit in regulating capital markets Structure of report 3 Auditor independence 4 2.1 Introduction 4 2.2 Definitions of auditor independence 4 2.3 Economic models of auditor independence not including NAS 5 2.4 Models of auditor pricing and independence in the presence of NAS 5 2.5 2.6 Economic power models of auditor independence Moral psychology, ethical reasoning and independence 8 8 2.7 Broader based studies into auditor decision making 9 2.8 Summary and comments 11 Part 2 Current regulatory frameworks 3 Auditor independence and NAS: analysis of current regulatory frameworks 3.1 Introduction 13 13 3.2 Regulation of auditor independence 13 3.3 Independence in professional and legal regulatory frameworks 13 3.4 3.5 Independence and NAS Overall economic dependence 19 22 3.6 Small companies 22 ...
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