Changing Times at Cuban Universities: Looking into the Transition towards a Social, Entrepreneurial and Innovative Organization

Since the 1990s, the socialist higher education system has faced several reforms oriented to satisfy the social, economic, and technological demands. However, little is known about the transformation process of the socialist university system over the past two decades. This study provides a better understanding of the entrepreneurial and innovative transition of universities located in socialist economies. By adopting mixed theoretical approaches, we proposed a conceptual model to understand the social, the innovative and the entrepreneurial transformation of socialist universities. We revised/tested this model in the context of the Cuban University by implementing a prospective case study approach. Our findings show insights about the transition towards a business model innovation within the Cuban university. The determinants have been the state regulations, the closing of the complete cycle from teaching to the commercialization of results and the creation of hybrid structures to manage knowledge. Consequently, the university is facing managerial challenges related to its ability to explore/exploit its activities to generate social, innovative and economic outcomes. Our results provide practical implications for the university managers and actors involved in the transformation process of the Cuban Universit

A Hierarchical Control Strategy With Fault Ride-Through Capability for Variable Frequency Transformer

A variable frequency transformer (VFT) is being considered as a new alternative to the classical back-to-back high voltage direct current (HVDC) link for interconnection of two asynchronous networks. The VFT is a retrospective form of frequency converter using the wound rotor induction machine (WRIM), which converts the constant frequency input into a variable frequency output. The prime objective of VFT is to achieve controlled bidirectional power transfer between the two asynchronous networks. This paper presents a detailed working principle of VFT technology and proposes a new hierarchical control strategy for establishing the VFT connection with two power systems to achieve bidirectional power transfer between them. Also, to restrict the grid fault propagation from one side of the VFT to the other side, a series dynamic braking resistor based fault ride-through (FRT) scheme is proposed. The performance of the VFT during the synchronization process, steady-state, dynamic, and the grid fault conditions is evaluated using the real-time hardware in-loop (HIL) system. The plant is simulated in real time using OPAL-RT real-time simulator while the control algorithm is implemented in digital signal processor to carry out HIL study. All the important results supporting the effectiveness of the proposed control strategy and FRT scheme are discussed

Improving Patient Satisfaction with the Virtual Handoff Process through the Utilization of Educational Pamphlets in the Emergency Department

Boarding patients in the emergency room while waiting to transfer the patient to the proper unit can be harmful to clinical care and have significant financial opportunity costs. At one local hospital it was found that on average patients were being boarded in the emergency room (ED) for approximately 85 minutes waiting to be transferred. Several barriers that caused this delay were found including, delay in room cleaning, nurse staff shortage, and inability to give report to the nurse receiving the patient. In an attempt to combat this delay which may be caused by a difficulty in giving patient report, this organization is rolling out a virtual bedside handoff process. While virtual technology is not a new concept, there are many patients that may not be comfortable with the technology. The purpose of the evidence-based project was to provide a written educational pamphlet that details the how’s and why’s of the virtual handoff process to the patient to be given upon admission. The goal of the educational pamphlet was to increase the patients’ satisfaction with the process. A pre-survey was given to a group of patients after they experienced the virtual handoff process to assess their comfort level. These results were compared to the post-survey results of patients that received the educational pamphlet prior to experiencing the virtual handoff process. Ten pre-surveys and seven post-surveys were analyzed utilizing SPSS and descriptive statistics. The analysis concluded that the participants who received the educational pamphlet felt more prepared for the virtual handoff process

Report to the Childhood Development Initiative on Archiving of C.D.I. Data

This report presents the ethical and legal issues involved in depositing data-sets of research for secondary use in Ireland

PICES Climate Change and Carrying Capacity Workshop on the Development of Cooperative Research in Coastal Regions of the North Pacific, October 17-18, 1997, Pusan, Republic of Korea

(PDF contains 53 pages

The prevalence of high dysplastic colonic adenomatous polyps in a 3 year endoscopic retrospective study from a single clinical center

Introduction: Many colon neoplastic tumors come from the malignancy of adenomatous polyps (70%-90%) that were not timely diagnosed in order to be resected. Materials and Methods: We conducted a retrospective study regarding the incidence of adenomatous polyps during 1.000 consecutive colonoscopies performed in our Upper and Lower Digestive Endoscopy Laboratory during a three-year period. Results: During these colonoscopies, some targeted polyps were biopsied or completely removed and the samples had been sent to a complete anatomopathological examination. Taking into consideration the results, the polyps were classified after the histological type and the form of dysplasia, in order to determine the polyp forms that present a high risk of malignancy. Conclusion: Given the rather high frequency of malignant polyps discovered during our study, we highly recommend colonoscopy as a method of choice for routine monitoring of selected cases

Towards memory supporting personal information management tools

In this article we discuss re-retrieving personal information objects and relate the task to recovering from lapse(s) in memory. We propose that fundamentally it is lapses in memory that impede users from successfully re-finding the information they need. Our hypothesis is that by learning more about memory lapses in non-computing contexts and how people cope and recover from these lapses, we can better inform the design of PIM tools and improve the user's ability to re-access and re-use objects. We describe a diary study that investigates the everyday memory problems of 25 people from a wide range of backgrounds. Based on the findings, we present a series of principles that we hypothesize will improve the design of personal information management tools. This hypothesis is validated by an evaluation of a tool for managing personal photographs, which was designed with respect to our findings. The evaluation suggests that users' performance when re-finding objects can be improved by building personal information management tools to support characteristics of human memory

Credit and information in universal banking : a clinical study

We studied information and interaction processes in six lending relationships between a universal bank and medium sized firms. The study is based on the credit files of the respective firms. If no problems occur in these lending relationships, bank monitoring is based mainly on cheap, retrospective and internal data. In case of distress, more expensive, prospective and external information is used. The level of monitoring and the willingness to renegotiate the lending relationship depends on what the lending officers can learn about the future prospects of the firm from the behaviour of the debtors. We identify both signalling and bonding activities. Such learning from past behaviour seems to allow monitoring at low cost, whereas the direct observation of the firm's investment outlook seems to be very costly. Also, too much knowledge about the firm's investments might leave the bank in a very strong bargaining position and distort investment incentives. Therefore, the traditional view of credit assessment as observation of the quality of a borrower's investment programme needs to be reconsidered

A user's evaluation of a NASA Regional Dissemination center

Retrospective searches and information processing and retrieval in NASA Regional Dissemination Cente