Bringing Anglo-governmentality into public management scholarship : the case of evidence-based medicine in UK health care

The field of public administration and management exhibits a limited number of favored themes and theories, including influential New Public Management and Network Governance accounts of contemporary government. Can additional social science–based perspectives enrich its theoretical base, in particular, analyzing a long-term shift to indirect governance evident in the field? We suggest that a variant of Foucauldian analysis is helpful, namely “Anglo-governmentality.” Having reviewed the literatures, we apply this Anglo-governmentality perspective to two case studies of “post hierarchical” UK health care settings: first, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), responsible for producing evidence-based guidelines nationally, and the second, a local network tasked with enacting such guidelines into practice. Compared with the Network Governance narrative, the Anglo-governmentality perspective distinctively highlights (a) a power–knowledge nexus giving strong technical advice; (b) pervasive grey sciences, which produce such evidence-based guidelines; (c) the “subjectification” of local governing agents, herein analyzed using Foucauldian concepts of the “technology of the self” and “pastoral power”; and (d) the continuing indirect steering role of the advanced neoliberal health care State. We add to Anglo-governmentality literature by highlighting hybrid “grey sciences,” which include clinical elements and energetic self-directed clinical–managerial hybrids as local governing agents. These findings suggest that the State and segments of the medical profession form a loose ensemble and that professionals retain scope for colonizing these new arenas. We finally suggest that Anglo-governmentality theory warrants further exploration within knowledge-based public organizations

Visual analytics for supply network management: system design and evaluation

We propose a visual analytic system to augment and enhance decision-making processes of supply chain managers. Several design requirements drive the development of our integrated architecture and lead to three primary capabilities of our system prototype. First, a visual analytic system must integrate various relevant views and perspectives that highlight different structural aspects of a supply network. Second, the system must deliver required information on-demand and update the visual representation via user-initiated interactions. Third, the system must provide both descriptive and predictive analytic functions for managers to gain contingency intelligence. Based on these capabilities we implement an interactive web-based visual analytic system. Our system enables managers to interactively apply visual encodings based on different node and edge attributes to facilitate mental map matching between abstract attributes and visual elements. Grounded in cognitive fit theory, we demonstrate that an interactive visual system that dynamically adjusts visual representations to the decision environment can significantly enhance decision-making processes in a supply network setting. We conduct multi-stage evaluation sessions with prototypical users that collectively confirm the value of our system. Our results indicate a positive reaction to our system. We conclude with implications and future research opportunities.The authors would like to thank the participants of the 2015 Businessvis Workshop at IEEE VIS, Prof. Benoit Montreuil, and Dr. Driss Hakimi for their valuable feedback on an earlier version of the software; Prof. Manpreet Hora for assisting with and Georgia Tech graduate students for participating in the evaluation sessions; and the two anonymous reviewers for their detailed comments and suggestions. The study was in part supported by the Tennenbaum Institute at Georgia Tech Award # K9305. (K9305 - Tennenbaum Institute at Georgia Tech Award)Accepted manuscrip

Rational Choice of Machining Tools Using Prediction Procedures

Introducing the methods and procedures for predictive analysis into the design process contours of a variety of machining tools (MT) of metal cutting machines is the main aim of this article. A sequence of realization of prediction object (PO) choice as an initial stage of search of perspective designs is offered. Effective in this regard is the "Tree of objectives" apparatus, on the basis of which many ways of improving MT are formed, selecting progressive (reducing the dimension of the problem) at each level of the hierarchy of the constructed graph-tree. The procedure for selecting the prediction method (PM) as a means of generating the forecast data is developed. The task of choosing a method is structured in detail and uses "Information supply"as the main criterion. To this end, assessment scales of choice criteria have been formed, on the basis of which it is possible to evaluate their effectiveness for the PM selection process. The rules forPOcoding are introduced by a three-element information code, including information source classes – static data, expert estimates and patent data. The process of forecasting the MT components by the method of engineering forecasting on the basis of a representative patent fund is realized. The General Definition Table has been built (GDT "Machining tools") and estimates of the prospects of design solutions have been obtained. A fragment of the database of 3D models of promising MT designs in the integrated computer-aided design KOMPAS-3D is proposed

Trust Evaluation for Embedded Systems Security research challenges identified from an incident network scenario

This paper is about trust establishment and trust evaluations techniques. A short background about trust, trusted computing and security in embedded systems is given. An analysis has been done of an incident network scenario with roaming users and a set of basic security needs has been identified. These needs have been used to derive security requirements for devices and systems, supporting the considered scenario. Using the requirements, a list of major security challenges for future research regarding trust establishment in dynamic networks have been collected and elaboration on some different approaches for future research has been done.This work was supported by the Knowledge foundation and RISE within the ARIES project

Images of coordination : how implementing organizations perceive coordination arrangements

A crucial challenge for the coordination of horizontal policy programs those designed to tackle crosscutting issues is how to motivate government organizations to contribute to such programs. Hence, it is crucial to study how practitioners in implementing organizations view and appreciate the coordination of such programs. Assisted by Q-methodology, this inductive study reveals three significantly different "images" centralframe setting, networking via boundary spanners, and coordination beyond window dressing Most surprisingly, different images show up among respondents within the same organizations and horizontal programs. The authors find that the images reflect elements of the literature: the resistance to hierarchical central control, the need for local differentiation and increased incentives, and a collaboration-oriented culture. Most importantly, practitioners of implementing organizations perceive top-dawn mechanisms as ineffective to achieve coordination and ask for adaptive arrangements, involvement, and deliberative processes when designing coordination arrangements and during the collaboration

Unifying the essential concepts of biological networks: biological insights and philosophical foundations

Over the last decades, network-based approaches have become highly popular in diverse fields of biology, including neuroscience, ecology, molecular biology and genetics. While these approaches continue to grow very rapidly, some of their conceptual and methodological aspects still require a programmatic foundation. This challenge particularly concerns the question of whether a generalized account of explanatory, organisational and descriptive levels of networks can be applied universally across biological sciences. To this end, this highly interdisciplinary theme issue focuses on the definition, motivation and application of key concepts in biological network science, such as explanatory power of distinctively network explanations, network levels, and network hierarchies