100 research outputs found
Heuristic Principles and Differential Judgments in the Assessment of Information Quality
Information quality (IQ) is a multidimensional construct and includes dimensions such as accuracy, completeness, objectivity, and representation that are difficult to measure. Recently, research has shown that independent assessors who rated IQ yielded high inter-rater agreement for some information quality dimensions as opposed to others. In this paper, we explore the reasons that underlie the differences in the “measurability” of IQ. Employing Gigerenzer’s “building blocks” framework, we conjecture that the feasibility of using a set of heuristic principles consistently when assessing different dimensions of IQ is a key factor driving inter-rater agreement in IQ judgments. We report on two studies. In the first study, we qualitatively explored the manner in which participants applied the heuristic principles of search rules, stopping rules, and decision rules in assessing the IQ dimensions of accuracy, completeness, objectivity, and representation. In the second study, we investigated the extent to which participants could reach an agreement in rating the quality of Wikipedia articles along these dimensions. Our findings show an alignment between the consistent application of heuristic principles and inter-rater agreement levels found on particular dimensions of IQ judgments. Specifically, on the dimensions of completeness and representation, assessors applied the heuristic principles consistently and tended to agree in their ratings, whereas, on the dimensions of accuracy and objectivity, they not apply the heuristic principles in a uniform manner and inter-rater agreement was relatively low. We discuss our findings implications for research and practice
Licitações Sustentáveis: Um estudo nas Instituições Federais de Ensino Superior (IFES) da região sul do Brasil
TCC (Graduação) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina. Centro Socioeconômico. Curso de Ciências ContábeisEntre as ferramentas utilizadas para estimular o desenvolvimento sustentável no mercado, destaca-se a alternativa de implementação de políticas sustentáveis nas licitações feitas pelas Instituições Federais de Ensino Superior (IFES). Considerando essa implementação direcionada para as compras governamentais, este estudo tem por objetivo geral verificar o conhecimento das licitações sustentáveis nas IFES da região sul. Como objetivos específicos: verificar a utilização de critérios sustentáveis nos processos licitatórios das IFES; verificar a possibilidade da implantação das Licitações Sustentáveis nas IFES e detectar dificuldades para a implementação das Licitações Sustentáveis. Quanto à metodologia, no que se refere aos objetivos, ela é de natureza descritiva, pois nessa pesquisa o conhecimento das licitações sustentáveis nas IFES é observada segundo as diretrizes da Instrução Normativa n. 01/2010 emitida pelo Ministério do Planejamento Orçamento e Gestão. Quanto aos procedimentos técnicos trata-se de um survey. No que se refere à abordagem do problema ela é qualitativa. A trajetória metodológica divide-se em três fases: revisão teórica na qual são abordados os temas estudados, survey e discussão dos resultados. No final conclui-se que: Posicionando-se o governo no mercado, como gerador de requisitos sustentáveis e fonte de modificações na cultura de produção, existem ainda dificuldades para a execução das políticas sustentáveis no mercado. O principal deles é a falta de divulgação da informação entre os servidores públicos, visto a necessidade da atualização constante sobre legislações e normas referentes aos assuntos. Referente a aplicação das Licitações Sustentáveis, 25% das IFES pesquisadas afirmaram estar aplicando. Ressalta-se, entretanto, que aplicar as Licitações Sustentáveis no processo licitatório engloba não somente ações ambientais, mas também a análise dos benefícios que os bens ou serviços trarão à sociedade. Esse trabalho demonstra a crescente preocupação sócio ambiental das IFES, a cada ano surgem normatizações regulamentando ações que trazem benefícios para a sociedade e o meio ambiente, um exemplo de norma utilizada no trabalho é a Instrução Normativa n. 01/2010, que regulamenta a utilização das Licitações Sustentáveis, e espera-se que com esse trabalho seja divulgada para que mais IFES possam utilizar
Perspectivas profissionais do controller no Brasil e Espanha
TCC (Graduação) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina. Centro Socioeconômico. Curso de Ciências ContábeisEspanha na contratação de profissionais de controladoria/controllers. Foram consultados dez sites que anunciam vagas de controller, sendo cinco no Brasil (Case Consulting, Catho, Hays Brasil, Manager Online e Michael Page), e cinco na Espanha (Infoempleo, Infojobs, Laboris, Monster e Tabajando). Esta busca resultou numa amostra de 645 anúncios, sendo 454 do Brasil e 191 da Espanha. As vagas foram classificadas em três perspectivas sendo elas: “parceiro de negócios”, “contador de feijão” e “múltiplas funções”. Os resultados indicam significativas diferenças no perfil dos profissionais procurados nos dois países. Enquanto no Brasil não se consegue identificar um perfil claramente predominante, na Espanha, a maioria dos anúncios buscam um profissional com características de “parceiro de negócios”
Avaliação de desempenho financeiro de empresas brasileiras de energia a partir da análise fatorial e árvore de decisão
Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro Sócio-Econômico, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Contabilidade, Florianópolis, 2015.A avaliação de desempenho está tornando-se parte do gerenciamento do negócio das empresas. No ambiente corporativo os indicadores financeiros apresentam-se como uma das ferramentas para a avaliação de desempenho. Este estudo busca analisar, por meio da análise fatorial e árvore de decisão, os indicadores financeiros mais relevantes para a avaliação de desempenho das empresas brasileiras de capital aberto listadas na BM&Fbovespa, participantes do segmento de energia elétrica. Quanto a metodologia de pesquisa, esta pesquisa é de natureza descritiva em relação aos objetivos (ANDRADE, 2005), pois busca-se verificar quais são os indicadores mais relevantes no desempenho financeiro das empresas de capital aberto listadas na BM&FBovespa do segmento de energia elétrica, sendo que as variáveis estão relacionadas às medidas. A abordagem do problema de pesquisa é classificada como quantitativa, pois utiliza-se o método de análise fatorial e árvore de decisão para verificar quais são os indicadores mais relevantes no desempenho financeiro das empresas de capital aberto listadas na BM&FBovespa do segmento de energia elétrica (CORRAR; PAULO; FILHO, 2012). Mediante a realização da análise fatorial, em 25 indicadores no período de 2009 a 2013, identificou-se 3 fatores: Fator Liquidez; Fator Rotatividade dos Ativos e Fator Eficiência. Estes fatores explicam aproximadamente 85% das variações dos indicadores que participaram da análise. Posteriormente, utilizando os scores dos fatores gerados pela análise fatorial, elaborou-se um ranking da amostra de pesquisa, com o objetivo de classificar as empresas de acordo com os novos indicadores, que segundo a análise fatorial são mais relevantes na avaliação de desempenho da amostra de pesquisa. O ranking apresenta cerca de 50% das empresas que receberam o Prêmio ABRACONEE dos anos de 2013 e 2014, nas primeiras 33 posições no ranking elaborado neste estudo. Após a elaboração da análise fatorial realizou-se a análise de árvore de decisão para a amostra de pesquisa, e tomou-se 2 indicadores como variáveis dependentes para representar o desempenho financeiro, os quais são retorno sobre os ativos (ROA) e retorno sobre o Patrimônio Líquido (ROE) e as demais 26 variáveis como independentes. A árvore de decisão apresentou as seguintes variáveis independentes com maior importância nos modelos de previsão: a variável Giro do Ativo Circulante, para a variável dependente ROA e Giro do Ativo Não Circulante para a variável dependente ROE. Além disso, foram elaborados modelos de previsão para a avaliação de desempenho das empresas brasileiras de energia elétrica de capital aberto. Assim, este estudo apresentou três novos indicadores para avaliação de desempenho das empresas de energia elétrica. Três dimensões, agrupando oito indicadores e modelos de previsão da avaliação de desempenho para auxiliar os gestores a antecipar decisões e realizar a avaliação de desempenho de forma sintética e facilitada.Abstract : The performance evaluation is becoming part of the business management of companies. In the corporate environment the financial indicators are presented as one of the tools for the evaluation of performance. This study aims to analyze, through factor analysis and decision tree, the most relevant financial indicators for the evaluation of performance of Brazilian public companies listed on the BM&FBovespa, participants in the electricity segment. As the research methodology, this research is descriptive in nature in relation to the objectives (ANDRADE, 2005), as we seek to ascertain what are the most relevant indicators on the financial performance of public companies listed on the BM&FBovespa?s electric energy sector, wherein the variables are related to measurements. The research problem of the approach is classified as quantitative, it uses the factorial analysis method and decision tree to see which are the most relevant indicators on the financial performance of public companies listed on the BM&FBovespa in the electricity segment (CORRAR; PAULO; FILHO, 2012). By conducting a factor analysis on 25 indicators from 2009 to 2013, we identified three factors: Liquidity Factor; Turnover of Assets Factor and Efficiency Factor. These factors explain about 85% of the variations of the indicators that participated in the analysis. Later, using the scores of the factors generated by the factor analysis, were elaborated a ranking of the sample, in order to rank companies according to the new indicators, which according to factor analysis are more relevant in the sample performance evaluation research. The ranking shows about 50% of the companies that received the Award ABRACONEE in the years 2013 and 2014, in the first 33 positions in the ranking prepared in this study. After the development of the factor analysis were elaborated the decision tree analysis for the sample of research, and took up 2 indicators as dependent variables to represent the financial performance, which are Return on Assets (ROA) and Return on Equity (ROE) and the other 26 variables as independent. The decision tree presented the following independent variables as the most important in forecasting models: the Current Assets turnover rate for the dependent variable ROA and Long-term Assets turnover rate for the dependent variable ROE. In addition, predictive models were developed to evaluate the performance of Brazilian companies of electricity traded. This study presented three new indicators to assess performance of electric utilities. Three dimensions, gathering eight performance indicators and evaluation ofpredictive models to help managers to anticipate decisions and carry out the assessment of synthetic and easier way of performance
An interactive reading environment for online scholarly journals: The Open Journal Systems Reading Tools
Gennemgang af Reading Tool
Revolutionary Reading, Evolutionary Toolmaking: (Re)development of Scholarly Reading and Annotation Tools in Response to an Ever Changing Scholarly Climate
As the online scholarly landscape changes, so too must the tools used to traverse it. The Public Knowledge Project (PKP) Reading Tools provides readers a bridge from online scholarly content to a host of contextual information, to a number of discipline-specific search engines and databases, and to other tools. A lot has changed since it was originally released, such as the rise of Google Scholar as the de facto starting point for many novice (and not-so novice) researchers; the blurring line between desktop and web applications; and the increased professional use of social networking tools and websites. Recently, the University of Victoria's Electronic Textual Cultures Lab (ETCL), in cooperation with the PKP, undertook a study to determine the role and value of the existing Reading Tools, particularly in the context of Humanities Computing. The ETCL has also developed a prototype Professional Reading Environment which has been the basis for substantial analysis. Rick Kopak and Chia-Ning Chiang at the University of British Columbia (UBC) have undertaken a broad survey of the online annotation landscape, and have written a proposal for developing an annotation system for PKP software. This paper discusses how, using this research as a base and in cooperation with UBC and the PKP, the ETCL has begun a large-scale redevelopment of the PKP Reading Tools, extending the current toolset to include new social networking and research tools, as well as a robust personal annotation system, making social annotation possible between small groups and the public
Pathways to Sexual Risk Taking Among Female Adolescent Detainees
Sexual risk taking among female delinquents represents a significant public health problem. Research is needed to understand the pathways leading to sexual risk taking among this population. This study sought to address this issue by identifying and testing two pathways from child maltreatment to non-condom use among 329 White and 484 African American female adolescent detainees: a relational pathway and a substance use coping pathway. The relational pathway indicated that child maltreatment would be related to non-condom use via depressive self-concept and condom use self-efficacy. The substance use coping pathway suggested that depressive self-concept and alcohol-based expectancies for sexual enhancement would mediate the relationship between child maltreatment and non-condom use. As hypothesized, the relational pathway variables were associated with one another in the expected directions; however, evidence of mediation was not found. Support for mediation was found for the substance use coping pathway. Exploratory across group comparison analysis indicated that the relational pathway was significant for White girls whereas the substance use coping pathway was significant for African American girls. Limitations and implications for future research are discussed
How coping styles, cognitive distortions, and attachment predict problem gambling among adolescents and young adults
Background and aims: Recent research suggests that youth problem gambling is associated with several factors, but little is known how these factors might influence or interact each other in predicting this behavior. Consequently, this is the first study to examine the mediation effect of coping styles in the relationship between attachment to parental figures and problem gambling. Methods: A total of 988 adolescents and emerging adults were recruited to participate. The first set of analyses tested the adequacy of a model comprising biological, cognitive, and family variables in predicting youth problem gambling. The second set of analyses explored the relationship between family and individual variables in problem gambling behavior. Results: The results of the first set of analyses demonstrated that the individual factors of gender, cognitive distortions, and coping styles showed a significant predictive effect on youth problematic gambling, and the family factors of attachment and family structure did not reveal a significant influence on this behavior. The results of the second set of analyses demonstrated that the attachment dimension of angry distress exerted a more indirect influence on problematic gambling, through emotion-focused coping style. Discussion: This study revealed that some family variables can have a more indirect effect on youth gambling behavior and provided some insights in how some factors interact in predicting problem gambling. Conclusion: These findings suggest that youth gambling is a multifaceted phenomenon, and that the indirect effects of family variables are important in estimating the complex social forces that might influence adolescent decisions to gamble
Interventions for drug-using offenders with co-occurring mental health problems
Background
This review represents one from a family of three reviews focusing on interventions for drug‐using offenders. Many people under the care of the criminal justice system have co‐occurring mental health problems and drug misuse problems; it is important to identify the most effective treatments for this vulnerable population.
Objectives
To assess the effectiveness of interventions for drug‐using offenders with co‐occurring mental health problems in reducing criminal activity or drug use, or both.
This review addresses the following questions.
• Does any treatment for drug‐using offenders with co‐occurring mental health problems reduce drug use?
• Does any treatment for drug‐using offenders with co‐occurring mental health problems reduce criminal activity?
• Does the treatment setting (court, community, prison/secure establishment) affect intervention outcome(s)?
• Does the type of treatment affect treatment outcome(s)?
Search methods
We searched 12 databases up to February 2019 and checked the reference lists of included studies. We contacted experts in the field for further information.
Selection criteria
We included randomised controlled trials designed to prevent relapse of drug use and/or criminal activity among drug‐using offenders with co‐occurring mental health problems.
Data collection and analysis
We used standard methodological procedures as expected by Cochrane .
Main results
We included 13 studies with a total of 2606 participants. Interventions were delivered in prison (eight studies; 61%), in court (two studies; 15%), in the community (two studies; 15%), or at a medium secure hospital (one study; 8%). Main sources of bias were unclear risk of selection bias and high risk of detection bias.
Four studies compared a therapeutic community intervention versus (1) treatment as usual (two studies; 266 participants), providing moderate‐certainty evidence that participants who received the intervention were less likely to be involved in subsequent criminal activity (risk ratio (RR) 0.67, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.53 to 0.84) or returned to prison (RR 0.40, 95% CI 0.24 to 0.67); (2) a cognitive‐behavioural therapy (one study; 314 participants), reporting no significant reduction in self‐reported drug use (RR 0.78, 95% CI 0.46 to 1.32), re‐arrest for any type of crime (RR 0.69, 95% CI 0.44 to 1.09), criminal activity (RR 0.74, 95% CI 0.52 to 1.05), or drug‐related crime (RR 0.87, 95% CI 0.56 to 1.36), yielding low‐certainty evidence; and (3) a waiting list control (one study; 478 participants), showing a significant reduction in return to prison for those people engaging in the therapeutic community (RR 0.60, 95% CI 0.46 to 0.79), providing moderate‐certainty evidence.
One study (235 participants) compared a mental health treatment court with an assertive case management model versus treatment as usual, showing no significant reduction at 12 months' follow‐up on an Addictive Severity Index (ASI) self‐report of drug use (mean difference (MD) 0.00, 95% CI ‐0.03 to 0.03), conviction for a new crime (RR 1.05, 95% CI 0.90 to 1.22), or re‐incarceration to jail (RR 0.79, 95% CI 0.62 to 1.01), providing low‐certainty evidence.
Four studies compared motivational interviewing/mindfulness and cognitive skills with relaxation therapy (one study), a waiting list control (one study), or treatment as usual (two studies). In comparison to relaxation training, one study reported narrative information on marijuana use at three‐month follow‐up assessment. Researchers reported a main effect < .007 with participants in the motivational interviewing group, showing fewer problems than participants in the relaxation training group, with moderate‐certainty evidence. In comparison to a waiting list control, one study reported no significant reduction in self‐reported drug use based on the ASI (MD ‐0.04, 95% CI ‐0.37 to 0.29) and on abstinence from drug use (RR 2.89, 95% CI 0.73 to 11.43), presenting low‐certainty evidence at six months (31 participants). In comparison to treatment as usual, two studies (with 40 participants) found no significant reduction in frequency of marijuana use at three months post release (MD ‐1.05, 95% CI ‐2.39 to 0.29) nor time to first arrest (MD 0.87, 95% CI ‐0.12 to 1.86), along with a small reduction in frequency of re‐arrest (MD ‐0.66, 95% CI ‐1.31 to ‐0.01) up to 36 months, yielding low‐certainty evidence; the other study with 80 participants found no significant reduction in positive drug screens at 12 months (MD ‐0.7, 95% CI ‐3.5 to 2.1), providing very low‐certainty evidence.
Two studies reported on the use of multi‐systemic therapy involving juveniles and families versus treatment as usual and adolescent substance abuse therapy. In comparing treatment as usual, researchers found no significant reduction up to seven months in drug dependence on the Drug Use Disorders Identification Test (DUDIT) score (MD ‐0.22, 95% CI ‐2.51 to 2.07) nor in arrests (RR 0.97, 95% CI 0.70 to 1.36), providing low‐certainty evidence (156 participants). In comparison to an adolescent substance abuse therapy, one study (112 participants) found significant reduction in re‐arrests up to 24 months (MD 0.24, 95% CI 0.76 to 0.28), based on low‐certainty evidence.
One study (38 participants) reported on the use of interpersonal psychotherapy in comparison to a psychoeducational intervention. Investigators found no significant reduction in self‐reported drug use at three months (RR 0.67, 95% CI 0.30 to 1.50), providing very low‐certainty evidence. The final study (29 participants) compared legal defence service and wrap‐around social work services versus legal defence service only and found no significant reductions in the number of new offences committed at 12 months (RR 0.64, 95% CI 0.07 to 6.01), yielding very low‐certainty evidence.
Authors' conclusions
Therapeutic community interventions and mental health treatment courts may help people to reduce subsequent drug use and/or criminal activity. For other interventions such as interpersonal psychotherapy, multi‐systemic therapy, legal defence wrap‐around services, and motivational interviewing, the evidence is more uncertain. Studies showed a high degree of variation, warranting a degree of caution in interpreting the magnitude of effect and the direction of benefit for treatment outcomes
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