bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Contributing to the wellbeing of primary health care workers in PNG
Authors: Davy Carol 
Published: June 2007

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate how organisational frames of reference, which are neither not appropriately communicated nor supported, affect the wellbeing of workers.Design/methodology/approachA review of the literature is used to develop a new model linking ambiguous frames of reference with reduced levels of workers' wellbeing. This is then tested using data collected in a study involving primary health care workers in Papua New Guinea (PNG).FindingsThis paper finds that, for these particular workers, the model linking ambiguous frames of reference and reduced worker wellbeing is valid.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper shows that there is a need for further research into a variety of areas including the importance of frames of reference to worker wellbeing, the significance of reference groups to organisational frames of reference and the consequences of reduced worker wellbeing in developing countries.Practical implicationsIn this paper, recommendations for changes to current PNG primary health care management practices, including ensuring the support for as well as communicating the organisational frame of reference, are discussed.Originality/valueThe paper shows that the experiences of these particular primary health care workers not only demonstrates the validity of the new model but also brings a unique perspective to the field of worker wellbeing, which up until now has been dominated by research conducted in western countries.
System characteristics of healthcare organizations conducting successful improvements
Authors: Olsson Jesper , Elg Mattias , Lindblad Staffan 
Published: June 2007

PurposeIn a previous study, based on a survey to all clinical department and primary care center managers in Sweden, it was concluded that the prevailing general improvement strategy is characterized by: drivers for improvement are staff needs; patients and data are not as important; improvements mainly focus on administrative routines and stress management; improvements are mainly reached, by writing guidelines, and conducting meetings; the majority of managers perceive outcomes from this strategy as successful. The purpose of current research in this paper is to investigate whether there is any other improvement strategy at play in Swedish health care.Design/methodology/approachData from the study of all Swedish managers were stratified into two populations based on an instrument predicting successful improvement. One population represented organizations with exceptionally high probability of successful imrpovement and remaining organizations represented the general improvement strategy.FindingsThe paper finds that organizations with high probability for successful change differed from the comparison population at the p=0.05 level in many of the surveyed characteristics. They put emphasis on patient focus, measuring outcomes, feedback of data, interorganizational collaboration, learning and knowledge, communication/information, culture, and development of administration and management. Thus these organizations center their attention towards behavioral changes supported by data.Practical implicationsOrganizations predicted to conduct successful improvement apply comprehensive improvement strategies as suggested in the literature. Such actions are part of the Patient Centered Task Alignment strategy and it is suggested that this concept has managerial implications as well, as it might be useful in further studies on improvement work in health care.Originality/valueThis paper provides empirically based findings on a successful improvement strategy that can aid research‐informed policy decisions on organizational improvement strategies.
Learning and leading: how beliefs about learning can be used to promote effective leadership
Authors: Nailon Di , Delahaye Brian , Brownlee Jo 
Published: June 2007

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to examine the links between the core beliefs a leader holds about learning and knowing (called epistemological beliefs) and how they go about leading an organization.Design/methodology/approachA total of 15 directors in centre‐based child care organizations were interviewed about how they viewed learning and knowing in their leadership role.FindingsIn these interviews is was found that the directors who indicated transformational leadership behaviors also thought that staff learning and knowing should be active, meaningful and evidenced‐based. This means that they viewed knowledge as evolving, tentative and needing to be critiqued and evaluated in the light of evidence (known as evaluativism in epistemological belief jargon). Conversely, the director with transactional beliefs about leadership clearly demonstrated beliefs that knowledge was about his own “truths” or black‐and‐white facts that could be transmitted to others (known as objectivism).Originality/valueWhile it may be useful to reflect on the connections between core beliefs about knowing and learning and transformational leadership practice, a more important task for the field is how such leaders might be nurtured.
Cycles and common cycles in real estate markets
Authors: Hiang Liow Kim 
Published: June 2007

PurposeThe paper seeks to examine cycles and common cycles in the real estate markets of the UK, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia using a combination of time domain and frequency domain methods.Design/methodology/approachThe paper identifies the patterns of cyclical movement (if any) in the five public real estate markets, and searches for common cycle characteristics and patterns in international real estate markets. In addition to the time domain analyses, these empirical investigations are further empowered by a frequency domain method that includes spectral and co‐spectral analyses.FindingsInternational real estate markets are characterized by cyclical behavior that exhibits phenomenal fluctuations. The markets are also pro‐cyclical; they do tend to move together. Furthermore, some differences in the patterns of the common cycles and their lead‐lag linkages are evident.Research limitations/implicationsInternational investors would probably benefit from diversifying real estate stocks across the UK and Asian real estate markets, especially in the short and medium terms. However, the long‐term cyclical patterns across the national real estate stock markets are not sharply different, indicating that smaller diversification benefits are to be expected in the long term.Originality/valueCommon cycle analysis advances investors' understanding of the long‐term relationship and medium‐ and short‐term linkages across international real estate markets, thereby allowing investors and portfolio managers an opportunity to discern any contrasting cyclical patterns at all frequencies so as to assist in their portfolio decisions.
An examination of the Australian Stock Exchange and Australian Financial Review's fair values
Authors: Easton Steve , Ivanovic Irena 
Published: June 2007

PurposeThe paper seeks to examine fair values provided by the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) and reported daily in the Australian Financial Review to determine whether they violate fundamental option relationships.Design/methodology/approachValues reported in the Australian Financial Review from 4 January 2005 to 31 March 2005 are examined.FindingsThe results document that between 1 and 2 per cent violate the most fundamental option relationships, specifically the requirement for call and put option values to increase as term to expiry increases, and for call (put) option values to increase (decrease) as exercise price decreases. Further, the magnitude of these violations is too large to be explained solely by the bid‐ask spread. They are, nevertheless, consistent with staleness. Further, in nearly 30 per cent of cases these fair values violate the basic put‐call parity relationship. The type of these violations is also consistent with these values being stale.Research limitations/implicationsSimple screens should be included to remove fair values that breach the most basic relationships.Originality/valueThe paper is the first to highlight flaws in fair values provided by the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) and reported in the Australian Financial Review.
Reconsidering community and the stranger in the age of virtuality
Authors: Introna Lucas D. , Brigham Martin 
Published: June 2007

PurposeThis question of community has always been a preoccupation for the human sciences and, indeed, is a practical concern for us everyday humans in our variety ways of being. As such a preoccupation with community traverses vast territories of intellectual discourse in philosophy, sociology, anthropology, psychology, and so forth. Recent developments in continental philosophy, innovations in information and communication technology and the emergence of “virtual” communities afford an opportunity to reconsider the meaning of community in what is believed to be a rather fundamental way. Virtual communities are often critiqued for being “thin” and “shallow” lacking the depth that local proximity in face‐to‐face communities brings. It is suggested that such a critique privileges a certain view of community premised upon shared values, or shared concerns, embedded in local situated face‐to‐face interaction and practices. The paper agues that such a view of community, based on categorical and physical proximity or sameness, can be problematised by a notion of community that is based on the ethical proximity of the stranger, the otherness of the Other.Design/methodology/approachThe paper draws upon Martin Heidegger, Emmanuel Levinas and Jacques Derrida.FindingsThe paper demonstrates that community premised upon a categorical and physical proximity can be problematised by a conception of community based upon the ethical proximity of the stranger – the otherness of the Other. In developing this notion of community, the paper argues that communities always face an insider/outsider problematic that mirrors Levinas' tension between ethics and justice. Furthermore, the paper suggests that the continual working out of this problem, our ethical concern, is differently constituted in virtual communities and face‐to‐face communities. In particular, the paper draws attention to the importance of the encounter with the stranger in virtual environments.Originality/valueContributes to debates on community by developing an ethical and political philosophy through which a shared sense of community can be rethought through the primacy of the Other.
Financialisation and the ethical moment: Levinas and the encounter with business practice
Authors: Lewis Malcolm , Farnsworth John 
Published: June 2007

PurposeThe paper seeks to examine the tension between a Levinasian ethics and routine corporate activity in multinational business worlds. It investigates the calculative regimes around financialisation and places these against the absolute ethical responsibility to the other and the third, and the issues of justice and politics this produces.Design/methodology/approachThe paper draws on the notion of the deconstructive moment and uses this to investigate the ethics of key decision making by a medium‐sized international telco, Telecom New Zealand, in the construction of a submarine cable.FindingsThe paper details the irreconcilable ethical conflict between the acutely human responsibility of corporations and the sophisticated, dehumanising regimes of calculation which they both mobilise and in which they are embedded.Originality/valueThe authors utilise the notion of the deconstructive moment to investigate the ethics of corporate practice. They also show how this can be related not just to the other but to other others and to wider issues of justice.
Phenomenology of life, Zen and management
Authors: Yoneyama Etsuo 
Published: June 2007

PurposeThe purpose of this paper consists in rethinking today's management systems in order to look for ways of management which are better adapted to human life. It is assumed that a management practice which takes into consideration the characteristics of human life must be accepted by a large number of people and would be effective and sustainable. Today, the overdevelopment of science and capitalism forget individuals and condemn them to alienation. To cope with this problem, the paper tries to identify ways of management which respect human life more.Design/methodology/approachTo do this, the paper studies the phenomenology of life of Michel Henry and Zen Buddhism in order to understand the profound sense of life, knowledge and community developed by their philosophy. It then examines Toyotism and Fordism under the two dimensions of knowledge and community to illustrate how their management system considers human life.FindingsThe phenomenology of life and Zen share some common ground as both consider the importance of experienced life which constitutes the individual's subjectivity. Living experience generates embodied and tacit knowledge for men. The system of Kaizen which enables Toyota to develop significantly is based on its workers' tacit knowledge. In this dimension, Toyotism is a management system which recognizes better than Fordism the importance of living experiences and as such is better suited to human nature. The paper then discusses Toyotism, Fordism and post‐Fordism in the light of the concept of community. Toyotism appears as a constraining “total community,” whereas attempts to reintroduce a sense of community into the post‐Fordist model reveal its limits due to the fact that such a sense of community does not exist at a company level.Originality/valueThe originality of this paper lies in its comparison of the phenomenology of life with Zen in order to understand the importance of life and also in the introduction of the consideration of living workers in managerial performance.
A GIS approach to plan and deliver healthcare services to urban poor
Authors: Ramani K.V. , Mavalankar Dileep , Patel Amit , Mehandiratta Sweta 
Published: June 2007

PurposeTo provide a public private partnership (PPP) model for urban health centres (UHC) in developing countries that can be useful for urban local governments and private service providers willing to enter into meaningful partnerships so as to improve primary healthcare services.Design/methodology/approachThis research is based on geographical information system methodology to identify suitable locations to address availability, access, affordability and equity concerns and to provide a practical framework for PPP for establishing UHC. The methodology involved survey and mapping of slum communities and private healthcare facilities.FindingsThe research provides intricate details about planning healthcare services for urban poor, operational and managerial aspects of service provision and processes involved in PPP for urban health.Research limitations/implicationsThe model is developed and tested for Ahmedabad city (sixth largest city in India) and may need a certain amount of customisation for application in other cities.Practical implicationsThe outcome of the research is a working model based on a set of legal documents (memorandum of understanding) signed by all the PPP stakeholders. This model is useful for planning and managing similar healthcare facilities in other cities with adequate context‐specific modifications given the increasing importance of urban health.Originality/valueWhile a range of published work provides theoretical frameworks for PPPs in general and for urban health in particular, our model has field‐tested all the steps for establishing a PPP model for solving urban health problems. The proposed UHC will start functioning in its new premises soon.
DURABLE‐GOODS MONOPOLY WITH MAINTENANCE
Authors: Goering Gregory E. 
Published: June 2007

ABSTRACTA two‐period durable‐goods monopoly product model with a competitive maintenance market is examined. Three types of monopoly solutions are calculated and contrasted to the social optimum: rentals, committed sales and uncommitted sales. Among other things, it is shown that contrary to the conventional wisdom a seller with committed power does not wish to commit ‘to act like a renter’ when maintenance is performed by buyers. This is due to the different objective functions of the buyer and seller. Furthermore, unlike earlier works, it is shown that the socially optimal amount of maintenance/repair does not occur in any sales case.
Vascular endothelial growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor PTK787/ZK 222584 inhibits both the induction and elicitation phases of contact hypersensitivity
Authors: YAMAMOTO Aisaku , WATANABE Hideaki , SUEKI Hirohiko , NAKANISHI Takako , YASUHARA Hajime , IIJIMA Masafumi 
Published: June 2007

ABSTRACTVascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and its endothelial cell receptors (VEGFR) have been shown to be involved in the pathogenesis of the contact hypersensitivity (CHS) reaction. Previous studies have demonstrated that anti‐VEGFR‐2 antibody significantly suppresses the elicitation phase of CHS but does not affect the induction phase. PTK787/ZK 222584 (1‐[4‐chloroanilino]‐4‐[4‐pyridylmethyl] phthalazine succinate; PTK/ZK) is a potent inhibitor of VEGFR tyrosine kinases. To test the effect of PTK/ZK on the induction and elicitation phases of CHS separately, we used an established method of CHS assay‐sensitization and challenge in BALB/c mice. Either 50 mg/kg/day PTK/ZK or vehicle serving as a control was administered orally in the induction or elicitation phases separately. In the afferent phase, flow cytometry of skin‐draining lymph node cells revealed that the migration of Langerhans cells was suppressed in the mice treated with PTK/ZK at sensitization. The degrees of ear swelling at 24 and 48 h were significantly diminished in mice treated with PTK/ZK at sensitization (P < 0.05). In the efferent phase, the degrees of ear swelling at 24 h (P < 0.01) and 48 h (P < 0.05), ear blood flow at 24 and 48 h (P < 0.01), and production of VEGF in the epidermis at 24 h (P < 0.05) were significantly suppressed in mice treated with PTK/ZK at elicitation. These findings and previous demonstrations suggest that both VEGF R‐1 and VEGF R‐2 are needed during the induction phase, and that VEGFR‐2 has a pivotal role in the elicitation phase of the CHS reaction.
Psoriasiform and pustular eruption induced by infliximab
Authors: TAKAHASHI Hidetoshi , HASHIMOTO Yoshio , ISHIDA‐YAMAMOTO Akemi , ASHIDA Toshifumi , KOHGO Yutaka , IIZUKA Hajime 
Published: June 2007

ABSTRACTAlthough antitumor necrosis factor (anti‐TNF)‐α therapy provides beneficial effects on various chronic inflammatory skin diseases including psoriasis, cutaneous side‐effects have also been reported. We describe four patients who showed psoriasiform eruption following anti‐TNF‐α therapy (infliximab) for Crohn's disease. In all patients, Crohn's disease had responded well to infliximab. Three patients developed plaque‐type psoriasiform eruption on the trunk and four extremities, while one patient showed pustular eruption on the palms and soles accompanied with plaque‐type psoriasis. In all these patients, skin lesions subsided with topical application of corticosteroid ointment or psoralen plus ultraviolet A treatment.
Assessing land cover change in Kenya's Mau Forest region using remotely sensed data
Authors: Baldyga Tracy J. , Miller Scott N. , Driese Kenneth L. , Gichaba Charles Maina 
Published: June 2007

SummaryKenya's Rift Valley has been undergoing rapid land cover change for the past two decades, which has resulted in ecological and hydrological changes. An effort is under way to quantify the timing and rate of these changes in and around the River Njoro watershed located near the towns of Njoro and Nakuru using remote sensing and geographic information system (GIS) methods. Three Landsat TM images, representing a 17‐year period from 1986 to 2003 in which the area underwent a significant land cover transition, were classified and compared with one another. Vegetation diversity and temporal variability, common to tropical and sub‐tropical areas, posed several challenges in disaggregating classified data into sub‐classes. An iterative approach for the resolving challenges is presented that incorporates unsupervised and supervised classification routines in coordination with knowledge‐based spatial analyses. Changes are analysed at three spatial scales ranging from the highly impacted and deforested uplands to the watershed and landscape scales. Land cover transitions primarily occurred after 1995, and included large forest losses coupled with increases in mixed small‐scale agriculture and managed pastures and degraded areas. These changes in cover type are highly spatially variable and are theorized to have significant impacts on ecological and hydrologic systems with implications for environmental sustainability.
Year‐to‐year variability in ocean recovery rate of Columbia River Upriver Bright fall Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha)
Authors: HYUN SAANG‐YOON , MYERS KATHERINE W. , TALBOT ANDRÉ 
Published: June 2007

AbstractUnusually large returns of several stocks of fall Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) from the U.S. Northwest commonly occurred during the late 1980s. These synchronous events seem to have been due to ocean rather than freshwater conditions because natal rivers of these stocks were geographically disconnected. We examined year‐to‐year variability in cohort strength of one of these stocks, Upriver Bright (URB) fall Chinook salmon from the Columbia River Hanford Reach for brood years 1976–99 (recovery years 1979–2002). We used the ocean recovery rate of coded‐wire‐tag (CWT) fish as an index of cohort strength. To analyse year‐to‐year variability in the ocean recovery rate, we applied a log‐linear model whose candidate explanatory variables were ocean condition variables, fishing effort, age of recovered fish, and fish rearing type (hatchery versus wild). Explanatory variables in the best model included fishing effort, and the quadratic term of winter sea surface temperature (SST) measured from coastal waters of British Columbia, Canada during the fish's first ocean year. The coefficient of the quadratic term of SST was significantly negative, so the model shape was convex. Our findings can be used to infer year‐to‐year variability in cohort strength of other fall Chinook salmon whose life history and ocean distributions are similar to the URB fish.