Don't hold my data hostage - A case for client protocol redesign

Transferring a large amount of data from a database to a client program is a surprisingly expensive operation. The time this requires can easily dominate the query execution time for large result sets. This represents a significant hurdle for external data analysis, for example when using statistical software. In this paper, we explore and analyse the result set serialization design space. We present experimental results from a large chunk of the database market and show the inefficiencies of current approaches. We then propose a columnar serialization method that improves transmission performance by an order of magnitude

Exploring how the communication strategies in place by TLC Marketing have changed in times of uncertainty for the partners & content department : the impact of a crises on communication strategy

The current internship report is a result of a curricular internship in the TLC Marketing agency—aiming to connect the challenging times of the pandemic crisis in Portugal with business-to-business communication strategies. This report intends to identify marketing and communication strategies that can minimize and reverse the adverse effects of a coronavirus pandemic. The phenomenological research design aspires to analyze two similar campaigns launched in different years (2020 and 2021). One campaign achieved impressive results, and the other one didn’t. It plans to classify which strategies made the first campaign so successful. Following Creswell’s research design, I choose to use the qualitative method: open-ended and semi-structured interviews and participant observation during the internship period. The present research is based on three main chapters: the B2B market, the communication context, and the Covid-19 background. According to my conclusions, I was able to identify the communication strategies that were successful in a B2B setting. However, several partners closed because of challenging times like this, and there were many struggles to overcome. In times of a pandemic crisis, when firms don’t know what to count on, it’s fundamental to invest in a company’s communication and empathy approaches. A greater emphasis should be given to digital possibilities, even more so now, that all types of businesses that have the opportunity are becoming digital savvy. Furthermore, I aspire to contribute to a better knowledge of business-to-business communication and hope that new studies can strengthen this research area, promoting an academic discussion deeply connected to the marketing world.O presente relatório de estágio é o resultado de um estágio curricular que teve lugar na agência TLC Marketing. Com o objectivo de ligar os tempos difíceis da pandemia em Portugal com as estratégias de comunicação business-to-business. Este relatório pretende identificar estratégias de marketing e comunicação que possam contribuir para minimizar e inverter os efeitos negativos de uma pandemia de coronavírus. O desenho da investigação fenomenológica aspira analisar duas campanhas muito semelhantes que foram lançadas em anos diferentes (2020 e 2021), uma campanha alcançou resultados impressionantes, a outra não. Planeia classificar quais as estratégias que tornaram a primeira campanha tão bem sucedida. Na sequência da elaboração da investigação de Creswell, escolho por utilizar o método qualitativo: entrevistas abertas e semi-estruturadas, assim como a observação dos participantes, durante o período de estágio. A presente investigação baseia-se em três capítulos principais: o mercado do B2B, o contexto da comunicação, e o contexto da Covid-19. De acordo com as minhas conclusões, fui capaz de identificar as estratégias de comunicação que foram bem sucedidas num contexto B2B. Em tempos de crise pandémica, quando as empresas não sabem realmente com o que contar, é fundamental investir nas abordagens de comunicação e empatia de uma empresa. Deve ser dado, um maior ênfase às possibilidades digitais, ainda mais agora, que todos os tipos de empresas que têm a oportunidade se estão a tornar conhecedoras do digital. No entanto, através de tempos difíceis como este, vários parceiros fecharam e houve muitas lutas a ultrapassar. No fundo, ambiciono a contribuir para um melhor conhecimento da comunicação entre empresas e espero que novos estudos possam reforçar esta área de investigação, promovendo uma discussão académica profundamente ligada ao mundo do marketing

Contextualising the coordination of care in NHS trusts: an organisational perspective

This thesis has two principal aims. The first is to understand why change oriented towards improving the coordination of care for long term users of healthcare (and related) services is so difficult to achieve. The second is to identify possibilities for how these difficulties may be overcome. During the three-year period 2002-2004, two NHS Trusts instituted a particular means for coordinating care, integrated care pathways (ICRs), as 'the way that clinical work is done here'. These change efforts were instigated as part of a collaborative NHS modernisation project. Despite similarities between the Trusts and their change programmes, the organisational outcomes from the modernisation project differed. This thesis identifies factors that contributed to these differing outcomes. The research was framed within an organisational perspective drawing upon recent organisational theory and a relevant research approach; interpretative structuralism. This approach used a variety of research techniques (historical analysis, document review, surveys and interviewing) to examine the social contexts underpinning prevailing thinking within the NHS about how clinical work should be organised and managed. The results showed that many factors in the wider context of the NHS and the local clinical 'shop floor' operate to fragment thinking about how care should be organised. In one Trust several factors contributed to its greater success in implementing ICRs. These included (i) coherence and congruence amongst the senior management in conceptualising and pursuing more product oriented approaches to clinical management, (ii) clinically led services and devolution of authority, (ііі) a willingness of all staff (including senior management and clinicians) to be self critical and thoughtful in making suggestions for improving clinical performance, and (iv) an ability by senior management to interweave five key themes in clinical service provision throughout the organisation. These themes were patient experience, service redesign, financial balance, the inter-relationship between these three, and integrated governance of the resulting organisational processes and outcomes. The results also showed that local contextual factors such as the character of the local electorate and the style and expected longevity of the senior leadership can undermine success in achieving agreed goals for coordinating and managing care

Volume 35, Number 1, March 2015 OLAC Newsletter

Digitized March 2015 issue of the OLAC Newsletter

Looking for harm in healthcare : can Patient Safety Leadership Walk Rounds help to detect and prevent harm in NHS hospitals? A case study of NHS Tayside

Today, in 21st century healthcare at least 10% of hospitalised patients are subjected to some degree of unintended harm as a result of the treatment they receive. Despite the growing patient safety agenda there is little empirical evidence to demonstrate that patient safety is improving. Patient Safety Leadership Walk Rounds (PSLWR) were introduced to the UK, in March 2005, as a component of the Safer Patients Initiative (SPI), the first dedicated, hospital wide programme to reduce harm in hospital care. PSLWR are designed, to create a dedicated ‘conversation’ about patient safety, between frontline staff, middle level managers and senior executives. This thesis, explored the use of PSLWR, as a proactive mechanism to engage staff in patient safety discussion and detect patient harm within a Scottish healthcare system- NHS Tayside. From May 2005 to June 2006, PSLWR were held on a weekly basis within the hospital departments. A purposive sample, (n=38) of PSLWR discussions were analysed to determine: staff engagement in the process, patient safety issues disclosed; recognition of unsafe systems (latent conditions) and actions agreed for improvement. As a follow-up, 42 semi-structured interviews were undertaken to determine staff perceptions of the PSLWR system. A wide range of clinical and non-clinical staff took part (n=218) including medical staff, staff in training, porters and cleaners, nurses, ward assistants and pharmacists. Participants shared new information, not formally recorded within the hospital incident system. From the participants perspectives, PSLWR, were non threatening; were easy to take part in; demonstrated a team commitment, from the Board to the ward for patient safety and action was taken quickly as a result of the ‘conversations’. Although detecting all patient harm remains a challenge, this study demonstrates PSLWR can be a useful tool in the patient safety arsenal for NHS healthcare organisations

Crisis resolution and community mental health: An Ethnography of two teams.

"Crisis Resolution" teams are a growing element of community mental health services in the England. The Department of Health intended to have 335 services established by the end of 2004 and had in fact achieved a total of 343 by mid 2005. This study focuses on two such crisis teams operating in the north east of England and aims to describe important features of their routine work. Using a fusion of observation and discourse analysis (the latter based on audio recordings made during team meetings and interviews with team members), areas such as multidisciplinary team working, expertise, user involvement and the understanding of mental health crisis itself are subjected to scrutiny, discussion and analysis. The study was funded as an ESRC CASE studentship. A variety of professional expertise comes into play in the formation of any multidisciplinary community mental health team. How these disciplines interact when delivering crisis resolution is a key focus of the study in hand. Both teams are made up of the same professional disciplines; medicine, nursing, and social work. In addition, support workers are present in both teams. This research examines the interaction of these disciplines and roles, the possibility and actuality of conflict between them and the various ways in which individuals work together to create a team. While Department of Health guidelines deliver a referral criteria with a definition of the constituents of a mental health crisis, this definition is general and cannot describe the numerous interpersonal processes involved in accepting a referral. Hence, the nature of mental health crisis itself is debatable. The study examines a variety of ways in which "crisis" is constructed and understood. Also, the practice of crisis resolution does not simply involve the work of mental health professionals; it also involves the input of the mental health service users themselves. "User involvement" is a phrase that commonly appears in contemporary Health Service literature. This study seeks to describe what this phrase actually means in the day to day delivery of the service

Is Resisting Genocide a Human Right

Closely examining the Darfur, Sudan, genocide, and making reference to other genocides, this Article argues that the genocide prevention strategies which are currently favored by the United Nations are ineffective. This Article details the failures of targeted sanctions, United Nations peacekeepers, and other anti-genocide programs. Then, this Article analyzes the Genocide Convention and other sources of international human rights law. Because the very strong language of the Genocide Convention forbids any form of complicity in genocide, and because the Genocide Convention is jus cogens (meaning that it prevails over any conflicting national or international law), this Article concludes that the Genocide Convention forbids any interference, including interference based on otherwise valid laws, against the procurement of defensive arms by groups which are being victimized by genocide. Reprinted by permission of the publisher