Developing a framework for best practices of governance of State Statutory Bodies (SSB) in Sarawak / Ambrose Anak Dango

According to Chief Minister Department report (2008) the total number of public complaints on poor level of services received by State Statutory Bodies in Sarawak increased to 629 in 2007 as compared to 520 in 2006. This is one clear evidence that the State Statutory Bodies have not been able to deliver the level of services up to the expectation of the customers and stakeholders in Sarawak due to unsatisfactory governance. This problem is being corroborated by the finding in the Auditor-General report on State Statutory Bodies in Sarawak (2010 and 2011). The Sarawak government is responsible to fulfill the needs, hope and aspiration of its citizen with limited resources available through best practices of governance. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the best practices of governance and its effects on the level of services in State Statutory Bodies in Sarawak. These best practices of governance were based on literature reviews from developed and developing countries and from the experiences of State Statutory Bodies in Sarawak. The level of services refers to the quality of services given by State Statutory Bodies to its stakeholders and the level of services are evaluated by survey questionnaire and interviews. Hence, the specific objectives of this study are to identify factors in best practices of governance for State Statutory Bodies in Sarawak, the predictor in best practices of governance and to recommend a framework of best practices of governance that can assist State Statutory Bodies in Sarawak.The comprehensive and extensive literature reviews on governance in the public sector in developing and developed countries clearly show the existence of factors in best practices of governance in the public sector. This finding is back up by the empirical evidence and findings obtained through questionnaires survey and rigorous data analysis of this study. An analysis on the feedback and recommendations from the openended questions further reinforce the existence of best practices of governance in State Statutory Bodies and its correlation to the level of services provided by State Statutory Bodies to its customers and stakeholders

Impossible, Infinite Illustrations

Undergraduate Winner: 2nd Place, 2008. 21st Annual Carl Neureuther Student Book Collection Competition

L’interaction sociale comme fondement de la signification logique

Our article aims to show, on the one hand, the preeminence of the interactive paradigm as a determining element in the process of constitution of logical meaning and, on the other hand, to examine the contents of the linguistic expressions of pragmatic semantics. To do this, we expose three major figures of the logic of mathematical obedience in particular those of Gottfreid Leibniz, George Boole and Gottlob Frege. If this approach to mathematical logic has seen meritorious progress, it should be pointed out that it does not favor the emphasis on epistemic and interactive aspects in the notions of logical consequences and inference. Our contribution is therefore to demonstrate that these weaknesses can be solved with the revolutionary approach of Robert Brandom based on the framework that promotes the interactive game of supply and demand of reasons. This analysis leads to the idea that interactive play is the basis of contemporary logical approaches.Notre article ambitionne de montrer, d’une part, la prééminence du paradigme interactif comme élément déterminant dans le processus de constitution de la signification logique et, d’autre part, de scruter les contenus des expressions linguistiques des sémantiques pragmatiques.Pour ce faire, nous exposons trois grandes figures de la logique d’obédience mathématique notamment celles de Gottfreid Leibniz, George Boole et Gottlob Frege. Si cette approche de la logique mathématique a connu des progrès méritoires, il faut signaler qu’elle ne favorise pas la mise en exergue des aspects épistémiques et interactifs dans les notions de conséquences logiques et d’inférence.Notre contribution vise donc à démontrer que ces faiblesses peuvent être solutionnées avec l’approche révolutionnaire de Robert Brandom basée sur le cadre qui promotionne le jeu interactif de l’offre et de la demande des raisons. Cette analyse aboutit, ainsi, à l’idée que le jeu interactif est le socle des approches logiques contemporaines

Challenges Faced by Pregnant Women in Information-Seeking in the Tamale Metropolis

The study explored the stages of pregnancy at which pregnant women seek information from various sources and the challenges pregnant women encounter in seeking information. A Mixed-method approach was used to carry out the study. A questionnaire was used to collect data from 148 pregnant women from three hospitals namely, Tamale Teaching Hospital, Tamale West Hospital, and the Seventh Day Adventist Hospital, Interviews were conducted with three midwives, one from each hospital, and a Gynecologist at the Tamale Teaching Hospital. The findings of the study revealed that the main challenges that were identified include lack of funds, non-use of the internet, and attitudes of some midwives. Most pregnant women will prefer staying in the house due to lack of funds which negatively affects their information behaviour. The research made many recommendations, including providing complete and factual information during prenatal care visits, raising awareness of services that are offered, addressing the digital divide, and encouraging culturally appropriate information dissemination strategies. Longitudinal studies are recommended to further understand the changing nature of information-seeking challenges during pregnancy and their impact on health outcomes

Information needs and sources for health-related information among pregnant women in Tamale Metropolis

The purpose of the study is to explore the information needs and sources for health-related information among pregnant women in Tamale Metropolis. A Mixed method approach was used to carry out the study. A questionnaire was used to collect data from 148 pregnant women from three hospitals namely, Tamale Teaching Hospital, Tamale West Hospital and the Seventh Day Adventist Hospital, interviews were conducted with three midwives, one from each hospital and a Gynecologist at the Tamale Teaching Hospital. The findings of the study revealed that antenatal lessons were the most used sources of health information, and the least were newspapers and popular magazines. The information needs of pregnant women include a healthy baby and medication among others. The most highly rated need was having a healthy baby and the least was an on-sex relationship. The study recommends that the management of the hospitals set aside an office to be manned by a midwife at the entrance of every antenatal clinic where the midwife would be solely in charge of consultation on health information provision. Also, the government must pay more attention to the free maternal health policy to enhance access to quality healthcare

Developing a framework for best practices of governance of state statutory bodies (SSB) in Sarawak / Ambrose Dango

According to Chief Minister Department report (2008) the total number of public complaints on poor level of services received by State Statutory Bodies in Sarawak increased to 629 in 2007 as compared to 520 in 2006. This is one clear evidence that the State Statutory Bodies have not been able to deliver the level of services up to the expectation of the customers and stakeholders in Sarawak due to unsatisfactory governance. This problem is being corroborated by the finding in the Auditor-General report on State Statutory Bodies in Sarawak (2010 and 2011). The Sarawak government is responsible to fulfill the needs, hope and aspiration of its citizen with limited resources available through best practices of governance. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the best practices of governance and its effects on the level of services in State Statutory Bodies in Sarawak. These best practices of governance were based on literature reviews from developed and developing countries and from the experiences of State Statutory Bodies in Sarawak. The level of services refers to the quality of services given by State Statutory Bodies to its stakeholders and the level of services are evaluated by survey questionnaire and interviews. Hence, the specific objectives of this study are to identify factors in best practices of governance for State Statutory Bodies in Sarawak, the predictor in best practices of governance and to recommend a framework of best practices of governance that can assist State Statutory Bodies in Sarawak.The comprehensive and extensive literature reviews on governance in the public sector in developing and developed countries clearly show the existence of factors in best practices of governance in the public sector. This finding is back up by the empirical evidence and findings obtained through questionnaires survey and rigorous data analysis of this study. An analysis on the feedback and recommendations from the open-ended questions further reinforce the existence of best practices of governance in State Statutory Bodies and its correlation to the level of services provided by State Statutory Bodies to its customers and stakeholders. The questionnaire for this study was constructed using 50 items related to best practices of governance and distributed to 700 senior officers and employees of the State Statutory Bodies, Board of Directors, Audit Committees and Auditors yielding a response rate of 61 per cent. The respondents are well educated, knowledgeable and vastly experienced in best practices of governance in State Statutory Bodies in Sarawak. Thus, their feedback and comments on the subject matter are reliable and accurately reflect the actual practices of governance in their respective agencies. Factorial analysis involving exploratory and confirmatory factor highlighted the four new factors which determine the level of services rendered by State Statutory Bodies to its customers and stakeholders.In fact, the prime contribution of this study is the identification of these factors on best practices of governance in State Statutory Bodies. This identification of factors is very crucial as they will have direct impact on the level of services in State Statutory Bodies. In fact, the findings suggested that the best practices of governance is highly correlated with the level of services. The result of this study had determined four factors in best practices of governance in State Statutory Bodies in Sarawak namely; Human Resource, Process, Control and Direction (Cadbury Report, 1992: Monks and Minow, 1995; United Nation, 2000; Sidek, 2007; Aziuddin and Arfah, 2009). A multiple regression analysis indicates that all the factors contributed significantly towards explaining the variance in the overall level of services in the State Statutory Bodies. The findings also suggest that the correlation between the four factors and the level of services is highly positive. Finally, this study suggests a suitable and practical framework of best practices of governance for all State Statutory Bodies in Sarawak. However, this framework is only a general proposal and each State Statutory Bodies have to fine tune the framework according to each individual requirement and the uniqueness of each State Statutory Body at that period of time. In order to ensure the effectiveness of this framework, the State Statutory Bodies should have in place strategies to transform the human capital, embrace human governance, adopt knowledge management, restructuring and process re-engineering. Other suggestions include implementing the value for money model through on line services; reviewing the existing ordinances, rules and regulations; developing the integrity strategy; developing effective risk and strategic management; introducing Key Performance Indicators; implementing policy innovation and strategic value creation and adopting the blue ocean strategy. All these strategies will help in strengthening the best practices of governance and thereby improving the level of services in the State Statutory Bodies in Sarawak. This will enhance the competitiveness of Sarawak to compete with the best in the world and finally making Sarawak a develop state by 2020

Interaction et révision de croyances

This study aims to develop systems of belief revision in which acquisition of knowledge and interactive aspects of meaning are captured as a set of questions and answers with respect to an initial set of assumptions expressed in the object language. This process is performed by a progressive deployment of hypothetical insights contained in a context of interaction of information received by an agent. This study also gives the opportunity to express interactive aspects of meaning in semantics tableaux. And thus highlights the notions of speech acts by the connection between tableaux and dialogues in the context of belief revision.Cette étude vise à concevoir des systèmes de révision dans lesquels l’acquisition de connaissances et les aspects interactifs de la signification sont saisis comme un jeu de questions et de réponses par rapport à un ensemble initial d’hypothèses exprimé dans le langage-objet. Ce processus s’effectue par un déploiement progressif de contenus hypothétiques dans un contexte d’interaction en crédibilisant l’information que reçoit l’agent. Cette étude donne également la possibilité d’exprimer avec aisance les aspects interactifs de la signification dans les tableaux sémantiques. Et met ainsi en exergue les notions d’actes de langage par la connexion entre dialogues et tableaux dans le contexte de la révision des croyances

Klinische Bedeutung des Karzinoembryonalen antigen Zelladhäsionsmoleküls (CEACAM)-1 bei operablen Bronchialkarzinomen

Das Karzinoembryonale Antigen Zelladhäsionsmolekül CEACAM-1 ist an interzellulären Adhäsionen beteiligt und begünstigt die Tumorangiogenese. In dieser Studie wurde die Expression von CEACAM-1 bei operablen nicht-kleinzelligen Bronchialkarzinomen und ihr prognostischer Einfluss untersucht. Primärtumoren von 145 Patienten mit operablen nicht-kleinzelligen Bronchialkarzinomen wurden mittels eines monoklonalen anti-CEACAM-1 Antikörpers immunhistochemisch untersucht. Die CEACAM-1 Expression wurde in 3 Kategorien eingeteilt: niedrig: £33% gefärbte Tumorzellen, intermediär: >33% und <66% gefärbte Tumorzellen, erhöht: ≥66% gefärbte Tumorzellen. Die Krankheitsverläufe wurden über den Zeitraum von 10 Jahren im Rahmen der Tumornachsorge beobachtet und anhand von Kaplan-Meier-Überlebenskurven durch log-rank Analyse verglichen. Normales respiratorisches Epithel und Stromazellen zeigten keine CEACAM-1 Expression. Primärtumoren von 31 Patienten (21,4%) wurden als niedrig CEACAM-1 exprimierend eingestuft und Präparate von 42 Patienten (29%) zeigten eine intermediäre CEACAM-1 Expression. Eine erhöhte CEACAM-1 Expression wurde bei Tumoren von 72 Patienten (49,6%) beobachtet und korrelierte nicht mit dem pT-Status, pN-Status, Differenzierungsgrad oder UICC-Stadium. Bei Adenokarzinomen trat eine erhöhte CEACAM-1 Expression mit 61,9% signifikant häufiger auf als bei Plattenepithelkarzinomen mit 35,7% (p= 0.017, X2 Test). In der univariaten Überlebensanalyse war eine hohe CEACAM-1 Expression mit signifikant ungünstigen Verläufen bei pN1-pN2 Patienten (n=60; p=0.024; Log Rank Test), pT3-pT4 Patienten (n=22; p=0.009; Log Rank Test), und Stadium IIa-IIIa Patienten (n=69; p=0.012; Log Rank test) assoziiert. Die multivariate Cox Regressionsanalyse zeigte, dass die erhöhte CEACAM-1 Expression ein unabhängiger prognostischer Parameter ist (p=0.018; Relatives Risiko 1.8; 95%Confidence Intervall 1.1-2.8). Eine erhöhte Expression von CEACAM-1 ist mit einer ungünstigen Prognose von Patienten mit fortgeschrittenen operablen nicht-kleinzelligen Bronchialkarzinomen assoziiert. Diese Beobachtung spricht gegen eine bisher postulierte tumorhemmende Wirkung von CEACAM-1 und zeigt, dass gegenteilig, CEACAM-1 sogar in die Tumorprogression von operablen Bronchialkarzinomen involviert ist

Developing a framework for best practices of governance of State Statutory Bodies (SSB) in Sarawak / Ambrose Anak Dango

According to Chief Minister Department report (2008) the total number of public complaints on poor level of services received by State Statutory Bodies in Sarawak increased to 629 in 2007 as compared to 520 in 2006. This is one clear evidence that the State Statutory Bodies have not been able to deliver the level of services up to the expectation of the customers and stakeholders in Sarawak due to unsatisfactory governance. This problem is being corroborated by the finding in the Auditor-General report on State Statutory Bodies in Sarawak (2010 and 2011). The Sarawak government is responsible to fulfill the needs, hope and aspiration of its citizen with limited resources available through best practices of governance. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the best practices of governance and its effects on the level of services in State Statutory Bodies in Sarawak. These best practices of governance were based on literature reviews from developed and developing countries and from the experiences of State Statutory Bodies in Sarawak. The level of services refers to the quality of services given by State Statutory Bodies to its stakeholders and the level of services are evaluated by survey questionnaire and interviews. Hence, the specific objectives of this study are to identify factors in best practices of governance for State Statutory Bodies in Sarawak, the predictor in best practices of governance and to recommend a framework of best practices of governance that can assist State Statutory Bodies in Sarawak. The comprehensive and extensive literature reviews on governance in the public sector in developing and developed countries clearly show the existence of factors in best practices of governance in the public sector. This finding is back up by the empirical evidence and findings obtained through questionnaires survey and rigorous data analysis of this study. An analysis on the feedback and recommendations from the open-ended questions further reinforce the existence of best practices of governance in State Statutory Bodies and its correlation to the level of services provided by State Statutory Bodies to its customers and stakeholders. The questionnaire for this study was constructed using 50 items related to best practices of governance and distributed to 700 senior officers and employees of the State Statutory Bodies, Board of Directors, Audit Committees and Auditors yielding a response rate of 61 per cent. The respondents are well educated, knowledgeable and vastly experienced in best practices of governance in State Statutory Bodies in Sarawak. Thus, their feedback and comments on the subject matter are reliable and accurately reflect the actual practices of governance in their respective agencies. Factorial analysis involving exploratory and confirmatory factor highlighted the four new factors which determine the level of services rendered by State Statutory Bodies to its customers and stakeholders. In fact, the prime contribution of this study is the identification of these factors on best practices of governance in State Statutory Bodies. This identification of factors is very crucial as they will have direct impact on the level of services in State Statutory Bodies. In fact, the findings suggested that the best practices of governance is highly correlated with the level of services. The result of this study had determined four factors in best practices of governance in State Statutory Bodies in Sarawak namely; Human Resource, Process, Control and Direction (Cadbury Report, 1992: Monks and Minow, 1995; United Nation, 2000; Sidek, 2007; Aziuddin and Arfah, 2009). A multiple regression analysis indicates that all the factors contributed significantly towards explaining the variance in the overall level of services in the State Statutory Bodies. The findings also suggest that the correlation between the four factors and the level of services is highly positive. Finally, this study suggests a suitable and practical framework of best practices of governance for all State Statutory Bodies in Sarawak. However, this framework is only a general proposal and each State Statutory Bodies have to fine tune the framework according to each individual requirement and the uniqueness of each State Statutory Body at that period of time. In order to ensure the effectiveness of this framework, the State Statutory Bodies should have in place strategies to transform the human capital, embrace human governance, adopt knowledge management, restructuring and process re-engineering. Other suggestions include implementing the value for money model through on line services; reviewing the existing ordinances, rules and regulations; developing the integrity strategy; developing effective risk and strategic management; introducing Key Performance Indicators; implementing policy innovation and strategic value creation and adopting the blue ocean strategy. All these strategies will help in strengthening the best practices of governance and thereby improving the level of services in the State Statutory Bodies in Sarawak. This will enhance the competitiveness of Sarawak to compete with the best in the world and finally making Sarawak a develop state by 2020