Patient Safety Culture,Evidence-Based Practice and Performance in Nursing

Evidence-based practice is a problem-solving approach in which the best available and useful evidence is used by integrating research evidence, clinical expertise, and patient values and preferences to improve health outcomes, service quality, patient safety and clinical effectiveness, and employee performance. This study aimed to identify the effects of nurses’ patient safety culture perceptions and their evidence-based nursing attitudes on the hospital’s patient safety level and employee performance. A cross-sectional design was employed in this study. Participants included nurses working in a state hospital in Burdur, Turkey, and 218 nurses responded to the research instrument (participation rate: 55.7%). Data were collected through face to face interviews that were conducted from February 20–May 20, 2016. The results of the analyses revealed that evidence-based nursing attitudes and hospital safety culture dimensions explained 29.2% of the total variance in the hospital patient safety level, while evidence-based nursing attitudes and hospital safety culture dimensions explained 15.5% of the total variance in nurse performance. The “evidence-based nursing related beliefs and expectations” aspect of the evidence-based nursing attitude dimension, and the “management support for patient safety” aspect of the patient safety culture dimension were significant predictors of nurses’ performance. The present findings add to the increasing interest in improving evidence-based practice and service quality in order to achieve better patient outcomes.     

资本市场开放与企业创新质量——基于中国企业重数量轻质量的“创新陷阱”视角

基于中国资本市场“沪深港通”这一准自然实验，结合不同竞争政策，研究“资本市场开放能否助力中国企业破解重数量轻质量的“创新陷阱”具有重要的学术价值和政策意义。研究发现：资本市场开放显著促进企业创新质量，表现为专利结构逐渐向高质量的发明专利偏移，以及专利引用率的提升，说明资本市场开放的确能够显著破解中国企业重数量轻质量的“创新陷阱”，上述研究结论经过系列稳健性测试后仍然成立。异质性检验发现：资本市场开放对创新质量的促进作用在竞争性行业、境外机构持股比例较高以及融资约束较大、风险承担水平更低的样本组中更显著。研究从“中国创新陷阱”破解视角证实资本市场开放以及反垄断政策的积极意义，为进一步提高资本市场开放程度以及“反垄断政策”提供理论支撑。     

Designing a Capability-Focused Strategic Management Model for a Turkish Public Hospital: Learning from Failure

This study aims to depict a failed strategic change initiative in a Turkish public hospital by means of an action research and it strives to explain critical factors underpinning the failure, thereby proposing how such factors should be tackled with for similar initiatives elsewhere. The study calls attention to the recent challenges ongoing in the environment of hospitals, which urge them to take on a more strategic focus. In this vein, we discredit accreditation based systems, which emphasize monitoring resources and propose a capability-focused strategic management model for hospitals. A hybrid action research protocol, which combines both traditional and participatory action research methodologies in its design, is employed to formulate and implement the model in a public hospital. The phases of the project and obstacles faced during these phases are discussed. The findings suggest that although the model offers significant potential for competitive success and better resource efficiency, path-dependent characteristics of the public sector governance in Turkey have impeded the adoption of the model in our case. Both macro-systemic characteristics related mainly to the Turkish national culture and management of public institutions and situation-specific characteristics, such as top management’s decision making orientation, professional norms and patronage relationships have blocked the way for the aspired transformation despite positive attitudes of and support from higher order public authorities and internal professional groups.     

官员任期、任期交错与企业环境治理——基于环保厅长和市委书记间任期交错的实证证据

与环保厅长仅受“环境绩效”单一考核目标不同,地级市委书记需要同时平衡“经济增长绩效”和“环境治理绩效”两种目标,因而两者任期长短及其交错程度对辖区企业环境治理可能表现为“交错效应”抑或“协调效应”?以中国2006～2019年非金融类上市公司作为研究样本,使用手工搜集的环境投资数据对上述问题进行实证研究。研究发现：企业环境投资呈现显著的任期周期性规律,表现为环保厅长或市委书记任期时间越长,企业环境治理力度越大;且环保厅长和市委书记之间任期交错程度越小,辖区企业环境治理力度越大,表现为“协调效应”。上述研究揭示了官员任期交错对辖区企业环境治理的具体作用机理,为进一步完善中国环境治理体系的顶层制度设计提供理论证据。     

Operationalising “Double-Loop” Learning in Service Organisations: A Systems Approach for Creating Knowledge

Learning organisation literature has widely discussed the connections between “double-loop” learning and its significance to organisational performance, but paying little attention to tools and systems that can operationalise “double-loop” learning in organisations. This paper investigates the impact of applying a systems approach for service operations design, expressed as the Vanguard Method (Seddon, Freedom from command and control: a better way to make the work work, 2003), in order to activate “double-loop” learning in service organisations. Two case studies were conducted in the banking mortgage operations and adults’ social care services in the UK, using the dimensions of the learning organisation questionnaire (DLOQ), semi-structured interviews, observations, and documents. The findings of the cross-case analysis support the link of applying the Vanguard Method with operationalising “double-loop” learning through three main factors, namely systematic-operations improvement, organisational capacity development, and outside-in mode of work; that are all embedded into the seven dimensions of the DLOQ. The value of this paper is the introduction of a service operations design tool that can activate “double-loop” learning performance in the fast changing knowledge era. It also provides an impetus for service organisations to creatively influence employees’ competencies to effectively improve internal systems.     

Prostitution and Human Rights in Indonesia: A Critical Systemic Review of Policy Discourses and Scenarios

This article considers policy making in practice focussing on case studies drawn from ethnographic research on prostitution in Indonesia carried out between 2012 and 2013 (this article is based on field research undertaken in Java, Indonesia, between November 2012 and 28 February 2013). Its theoretical underpinnings is that of ‘critical systemic heuristics’ which contends that policy making with respect to prostitution needs to take into account a range of factors and diverse views based on a process of ‘unfolding values’ and ‘sweeping in’ many variables before a decision is made. Applying ‘critical systemic approach’ or ‘critical heuristics’provides a means to test out the policy making ideas, as opposed to merely implementing the ideas of the powerful. The paper applies critical heuristic thinking to argue that the policy response ought to take into account the voices of those with a lived experience of poverty and prostitution, in order to protect their rights when making policy decisions.     

Regional container port competition in a dual gateway-port system

Many ocean transportation hub systems consist of two container ports that share the container handling business in the area. The container flow passing through a port is the main measurement of the port’s competitiveness. In this paper we adopt a Hotelling model to study the container port competition in a so-called “dual gateway-port system”. The system contains two ports and two terminals, one belonging to each port. The two governments in which the two ports are located compete on cargo fees and the two terminals determine service price and service quality. We study two models with different levels of competition between the terminals. In the first model, the two terminals are owned by two different operators and in the second model, the two terminals are centralized under one operator. The second model exists in practice but is not well studied in the literature. We derive the cargo fee, terminal service price, and service quality equilibria for these two models. We investigate the competition outcome sensitivity with a numerical study. The numerical results reveal that governments prefer terminals to compete with each other. If the terminals do not have competitive advantages in their service quality, then terminal centralization brings more profits to the terminal operator than the competition case.     

Dialogue and Revolution: Proposal for Critical-Pragmatic Recursive Praxis to Support Operationalisation of Methodological Virtues

Systemic Practice and Action Research (SPAR) denotes a family of approaches with different theoretical foundations, the constructive encounter between which may propel the movement forward. A persistent scholarly debate persists between the so-called emancipatory and pragmatic strands, motivating perceptions of the impossibility to jointly accomplish both ‘dialogical’ and ‘revolutionary’ commitments of the movement. This reflects that SPAR is still grappling with how to maintain a normative foundation while prioritising local change processes, thus reconciling what is universally ‘right’ with the locally ‘good’ in order to foster an operational view of the nature of reciprocity and justification. In this paper, I mobilise experiences from five action research projects in the field of natural resource governance to undertake a methodological introspection to examine how we as SPAR professionals may negotiate our approach during project implementation and the encounter of concrete realities and stakeholder interests. The objective is to offer an alternative view on the relationship between the ‘dialogical’ and the ‘revolutionary’ elements of SPAR; a view which rejects a dichotomisation in favour of a critical-pragmatic recursive praxis that depends on the capacity of the researcher to negotiate methodological virtues with co-researchers in the process.     

公共交通设施规模对绿色经济效率的影响

公共交通与人们的生产和生活息息相关，是城市经济发展的“动脉”。基于“公交优先”背景，利用2004~2016年中国265个地级及以上城市的面板数据，实证考察公共交通设施规模对绿色经济效率的影响作用。结果表明：公共交通设施规模与绿色经济效率之间存在显著的“U型”曲线关系；相对西部地区，两者之间的“U型”曲线关系在东部和中部地区表现更为明显；相对中等城市，两者之间的“U型”曲线关系在大城市表现更为明显，而在小城市呈“倒U型”曲线关系，且不显著。本研究为交通基础设施影响城市经济发展提供了新的证据和视角。     

女性创业者社会认知特征对新创企业绩效影响机理：基于SCT理论视角

近年来,随着女性创业力量的崛起, 有关女性创业者的社会认知特征研究逐渐引起关注。基于社会认知理论(Social Cognitive Theory,SCT) ,以女性创业者为研究对象,将创业自我效能、创业激情、坚毅和自我控制4种认知特征作为认知因素,机会识别作为行为因素, 关系网络和性别歧视作为环境因素, 构建了一个“认知-行为-环境”三元交互模型, 系统探究女性创业者社会认知特征与新创企业绩效之间的复杂关系。研究结果表明: 女性创业者社会认知特征(创业自我效能、创业激情、坚毅、自我控制) 对新创企业绩效具有正向影响; 机会识别在女性创业者社会认知特征和新创企业绩效关系之间发挥中介作用, 且关系网络和性别歧视两个环境因素调节该中介作用。本研究以女性创业者“社会认知特征-机会识别-新创企业绩效”为研究路径, 探究女性创业者社会认知向行为转化并进一步影响新创企业绩效的内部机理, 并且通过引入关系网络和性别歧视, 拓展了环境因素作用于女性创业者社会认知和行动的路径。     

A SUSTAINABLE PLATFORM FOR E-SERVICE SYSTEM DESIGN

1. Introduction We all know that service business is a verycomplex and dynamic system, which meansthat many elusive and interrelated componentsor objects are involved in the service business,and they are dynamically interrelated.Accord…     

Smart Cities and M<Superscript>3</Superscript>: Rapid Research,Meaningful Metrics and Co-Design

The research described in this paper is undertaken under the banner of the smart city, a concept that captures the way urban spaces are re-made by the incursion of new technology. Much of smart is centred on converting everyday activities into data, and using this data to generate knowledge mediated by technology. Ordinary citizens, those that may have their lives impacted by the technology, usually are not properly involved in the ‘smartification’ process. Their perceptions, concerns and expectations should inform the conception and development of smart technologies at the same extent. How to engage general public with smart cities research is the central challenge for the Making Metrics Meaningful (MMM) project. Applying a rapid participatory method, ‘Imagine’ over a five-month period (March – July) the research sought to gain insights from the general public into novel forms of information system innovation. This brief paper describes the nature of the accelerated research undertaken and explores some of the themes which emerged in the analysis. Generic themes, beyond the remit of an explicit transport focus, are developed and pointers towards further research directions are discussed. Participatory methods, including engaging with self-selected transport users actively through both picture creation and programmatically specific musical ‘signatures’ as well as group discussion, were found to be effective in eliciting users’ own concerns, needs and ideas for novel information systems.     

Critical considerations in the development of systems thinking and practice

This paper is concerned with the development of ‘Systems Thinking.’ In particular, it considers and critiques ‘traditional Systems Thinking’ within the framework of Critical Systems Thinking. Before embarking on such a venture it is necessary to derive a base context from which to develop argument and analysis. Therefore the outline of this paper is as follows: A contextual setting for Systems Thinking, Theoretical Considerations, Soft Systems Thinking and Methodology, and A Critical Systems Thinking (CST) approach. The account of the development of Systems Thinking is followed by a synopsis of a theoretical framework for Systems Thinking which will allow us to gain an understanding of contemporary views. The paper then goes on to review SSM and CST in order to provide a platform for a critique of traditional forms of Systems Thinking. The final section briefly discusses the applicability of CST to the ‘real-world’ context by outlining some current studies being undertaken by the author.     

小子样变总体下的Bayes测试性验证方法

现有测试性验证试验方案一般都需要较大的故障样本量,利用装备研制阶段的测试性数据则可能有效解决这一问题。但研制阶段的测试性数据和现场试验数据一样属于“小子样”且具有“变总体”特点,为此提出一种基于Bayes理论的测试性验证方法。首先根据装备研制各阶段积累的测试性试验信息构建装备测试性参数故障检测/隔离率(fault detection rate/fault isolation rate,FDR/FIR)的动态增长模型,用以揭示装备测试性水平的动态变化规律,并对其测试性指标进行预测。然后根据最大熵原理计算系统FDR/FIR的先验分布。最后结合少量现场试验数据,根据Bayes最大验后风险准则制定装备测试性验 证方案,对装备测试性指标进行验证。通过实例对比分析表明,该方法有效融合了研制阶段数据与现场试验数据,能在小样本的情况下提高验证结论的置信度,降低评估风险。     

HEALTH CONSUMER DIVERSITY AND ITS IMPLICATIONS

1. Introduction The health care scene in the Western world is shifting rapidly. Health care consumers have abandoned their traditionally respectful attitudes and behaviours. In the past the roles of the health consumers and providers were quite clear. The patients consumed and the health care providers provided (Edgren 1998). Today theJOURNAL OF SYSTEMS SCIENCE AND SYSTEMS ENGINEERING 35 picture is more complex. Many health care consumers no longer want to be passive receiv…     

关键核心技术及其攻关策略研究——基于产业链供应链安全稳定视角

突破关键核心技术，提升我国重要产业链供应链的安全稳定性，是事关国家安全和高质量发展全局的重大战略任务。考虑我国这类后发国家的发展现实，分别从产业发展和国家间竞争视角诠释了关键核心技术的概念和特点，厘清了“卡人”和“被卡”“我无人有”与“我有人优”等不同类型的关键核心技术；分析了提升产业链供应链安全稳定性的途径及其相应的关键核心技术攻关任务，明确需要同时推进“卡人”和“被卡”两类关键核心技术攻关。最后，提出了通过开发自主品牌高档新产品、替代性新产品、颠覆性新产品和全新产品等多类新产品带动不同类型关键核心技术攻关的策略。     

公平关切下闭环供应链的决策与创新投入

新旧动能转换政策的出台对闭环供应链提出了新的要求与挑战,考虑政府奖励机制,构建公平中性的分散决策、零售商公平关切的分散决策以及集中决策3种决策模式.给出3种模式的最优决策,并分析新动能创新投入成本、公平关切系数对闭环供应链定价、新动能创新投入以及回收率和各方利润的影响.在此基础上,设计"收益共享联合固定费用-成本共担"...     

Exploring Sustainable Development of Cultural Living Circles Through Action Research: The Case of Sanyi Township, Miaoli, Taiwan

A cultural living circle comprises a “living cultural space” with local characteristics established via interactions between resident daily behaviors and the surrounding environment. In studying the long-term promotion of a cultural living circle in Sanyi Woodcarving Village, Miaoli, Taiwan to explore the sustainable development of cultural living circle, the authors engaged in local community building to identify its dynamic composition through Action Research, and conducted a field study examining cultural living circles and main interaction networks through literature review and in-depth interviews. This study obtains three findings. First, cultural living circles are created through interactions among four main systems, educational, community, professional and administrative. Second, in the interaction network, a core “leading system” guides other “subservient systems” to establish a “core-satellite” model. Third, the role changing that occurs during cultural living circle development constructs a solid and flexible link that can realize sustainable development of cultural living circles.     

Stochastic Petri Net Based Modeling of Emergency Medical Rescue Processes during Earthquakes

The post-disaster emergency medical rescue(EMR) is critical for people's lives. This paper presents a stochastic Petri net(SPN) model based on the process of the rescue structure and a Markov chain model(MC), which is applied to the optimization of the EMR process, with the aim of identifying the key activities of EMR. An isomorphic MC model is developed for measuring and evaluating the time performance of the EMR process during earthquakes with the data of the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake.This paper provides a mathematical approach to simulate the process and to evaluate the efficiency of EMR. Simultaneously, the expressions of the steady state probabilities of this system under various states are obtained based on the MC, and the variations of the probabilities are analyzed by changing the firing rates for every transition. Based on the concrete data of the event, the authors find the most time consuming and critical activities for EMR decisions. The model results show that the key activities can improve the efficiency of medical rescue, providing decision-makers with rescue strategies during the large scale earthquake.     

具有冲突特性的谈判与决策支持系统

具有冲突特性的谈判与决策支持系统顾培亮（天津大学系统工程研究所，３０００７２）ＮｅｇｏｔｉａｔｉｏｎａｎｄＤｅｃｉｓｉｏｎＳｕｐｐｏｒｔＳｙｓｔｅｍＩｎｖｏｌｖｅｄｗｉｔｈＣｏｎｆｌｉｃｔｉｎｇＦａｃｔｏｒｓＧｕＰｅｉｌｉａｎｇ（Ｉｎｓｔｉｔｕｔｅｏ...