An internationalized approach to European perspectives for the safety and security in port industry

The increased internationalized competition as well as the evolvement of the transport industry as a whole, has a significant effect on quality and safety management for the ports around the world and more specifically in Europe. Quality is a complex and subjective concept, incorporating at any given time the expressed and implied needs of all those involved. Over the last two decades, new security and safety risks have been introduced by the European Union for the ports in Europe. These include new safety and security regulations for environmental as well as for other important aspects of the port operations. This paper explores ideas involved in quality and safety EU policies through a qualitative review of the literature. The qualitative analysis aims at a. to investigate contemporary issues for quality and safety/security systems integration within European port industry and b. to provide evidence for the interrelation and integration of quality and safety/security standards. Furthermore, benefits and pitfalls of the different quality and safety approaches are discussed while further study directions are provided.peer-reviewe

The participatory medicine attidutes of general practitioners in Greece: an information behaviour perspective.

In shared health decision-making, cooperation in the patient-doctor relationship is fundamental. However, lack of health literacy may act as a significant barrier in this process. Patients are expected to make decisions even though they are in an uneven position in terms of knowledge (Bernabeo & Holmboe, 2013; McMullan, 2006). In our research we examined the information seeking behaviour of doctors, their views on cooperation with their patients, and the role that information consultations play in shared decision-making. Our study involved a survey of 162 private general practitioners and private pathologists in Greece. We collected demographic characteristics and self-assessments of doctors using a five point Likert scale. We used the Kruskall-Wallis non-parametric test for the analysis of the relationship between demographics and the importance assigned to information consultations. Doctors reported that they used both electronic and interpersonal sources for diagnoses, treatment, and updating their knowledge. The barriers they experienced included lack of time, the cost of access, and the difficulty of finding information, confirming previous research in this area (Davies, 2011). Most doctors considered the cooperation of their patients as important for decision making (mean=3.69) and improving the overall clinical outcome (mean =4.19). Most agreed that they relied on patients to further developing their own information literacy (IL). Doctors expected their patients to consult health related publications they directed them to in the form of print materials (mean=3.59), medical Internet websites (mean=3.81), or the website/Facebook page of their general practice (mean=3.20). However, there was a statistically significant difference when age was factored in. More than half of the more experienced doctors (above 60 years old, 55,1%) did not share the same positive views on cooperation and did not direct their patients to different information sources. It was mostly the younger doctors who took advantage of the Internet as a health consultation tool. Doctors between 40-55 years (97%) directed their patients to articles published on medical websites, while using the website/Facebook page of the general practice was more prevalent in doctors younger than 40 years old (90%). This paper argues that doctors form the main information literacy (IL) pillar for patients as they are their first port of call for their healthcare decisions. But not all doctors are ready and willing to offer information prescriptions that will help advance their patients' IL empowerment to be able to identify and use quality health information independently for their evidence-based and informed decision-making. Title listed on conference website as The Value of Information Related Practices in Patient-Doctor Relationships

Music information seeking behaviour as motivator for musical creativity: conceptual analysis and literature review.

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the connection between musicians' information seeking behaviour and the creative process in music, providing a framework for understanding the role of information needs satisfaction in musical creativity. A number of studies in information science literature have been carried out attempting to model cognitive, affective, behavioural and contextual factors associated with music information seeking behaviour. However, only few studies have addressed the relationship between information seeking behaviour and musical creative activities such as composition, performance and improvisation, listening and analysis. Design/methodology/approach - The focus of this paper is to provide a framework for the study of information seeking behaviour for the purposes of satisfying musical creativity information needs, combining the theoretical basis of an established model of information behaviour developed by Wilson and the theoretical perspectives of a music creative thinking model proposed by Webster. The key features of the two models are synthesized in a unified model of information seeking behaviour for musical creativity and enriched with research findings identified in the literature of both musical information seeking and musical creativity. Findings - The proposed conceptual framework offers an integrated interpretation of the combinations of information needs, information resources and environmental/personal barriers, which enable musical creativity. In the authors' approach 'musical creativity' is treated as a musician's aim or ambition or drive for expression and is influenced by the way musicians seek information for that purpose. Therefore, musical creativity is an intentional behaviour which acts as motivator for information seeking and is affected by the available information and the musician's information seeking profile. The current study include three important findings: first, the design and development of music library and information services for musical creativity; second, the development of music information literacy skills for creativity; and third, the information seeking behavioural perspective for universal musical creativity, and the implications for cultural musical heritage diffusion around the world. Originality/value - An integrated information seeking behaviour model which includes musical creativity is developed through the synthesis of two already existing approaches, that of Wilson for information seeking behaviour and that of Webster for creative thinking in music. The present conceptual study presents a three stage pattern or process for modelling information seeking for musical creativity: the process initiates with the intention-motivation for creativity, then proceeds to information seeking behaviour and then concludes with the musical creativity outcomes. This is the first study that seeks to understand the relationships between creativity and information seeking behaviour

Assessment of Knowledge and Associated Factors towards Palliative Care among Greek Nurses

Introduction: Nurses can have a prominent role in end-of-life care. They should however have the appropriate knowledge and practice about Palliative Care (PC) in order to provide high quality of care at the end of life of for chronically sick patients.Methods: A cross sectional quantitative study and analysis was carried through a validated questionnaire tool based on the Palliative Care Quiz for Nursing (PCQN). The study included 150 nurses working in a major public hospital in Greece. Results: The majority of nurses in Greece had poor knowledge about PC reaching a 8.9 PCQN overall score out of 20. The findings from this study confirmed the association of gender, age, work experience and level of education on nurses’ knowledge about PC. Conclusions: There is a lack of proper training and there are very few healthcare units specializing in PC provision in Greece. Special programs for PC are required in order to enhance nurses’ knowledge and attitude towards good PC practices

Keeping the score: outreach services and collaboration for academic music libraries in financially straitened times.

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to study the role of academic music libraries in financially straitened times. The academic music library aims to cover the information needs of the academic community; yet the unique nature of music information also allows academic libraries to develop services for a broad spectrum of different user groups. Design/methodology/approach - The theoretical analysis is supported by empirical evidence from a nationwide survey in Greece. The survey was carried out from July to September 2013 and presents results from interviews with the directors of all academic music libraries in Greece. Findings - The results suggest that the period of economic crisis is also a period of challenges and innovation for music libraries which calls them to redefine policies and priorities, and further consider the needs and expectations of wider audiences, i.e. musicians outside the academic community. The financial downturn can be seen as an opportunity for restructuring the academic music libraries and for the development of a wider framework of operation which calls for an outreach strategy and cooperation with external music associations and organizations. Originality/value - It is one of the very few studies providing theoretical and empirical evidence linking academic music libraries to musicians and the significance of collaborative partnerships

Information Services for Supporting Quality Management in Healthcare

In today’s world, society and the economy are placing an increasing emphasis on information and its quality. Quality and information management are interrelated, and advances in information and communication technology have led to a re-assessment of many management practices. In this paper the role of information services in supporting quality management in healthcare is considered. The importance of information to quality in healthcare is examined and an analysis of the role of the international standard ISO 9001:2000 in supporting data, information and knowledge management is conducted. A framework is presented for quality management in healthcare through the support of information services

Management Information Services for Enhancing Interoperability in Radiology through Segmentation Techniques

An efficient information sharing environment can enhance interoperability within any organization. Healthcare organizations and hospitals, in particular, are no exception. Indeed, managing hospital processes, through the appropriate techniques, may provide the basis for designing information services that can support healthcare provision. Radiology information services aid in exploding imaging modalities, generate views from different anatomical structures contained in CT data sets and perform treatment plan techniques. Important issues for the design of such information services include a) the extraction of the corresponding data from the image and b) accurate definition of the target volumes as well as organs at risk for the treatment outcome. Implementation of this radiology information could be achieved by using simulators, which are medical devices used in the oncology clinics to perform the simulation for the external beam radiotherapy treatment. Virtual Simulators in particular offer a excellent cost benefit ratio for a clinic and further assist physician to detect the tumor site from different viewpoints to design orientation, to evaluate treatment, to calculate the dose distribution around tumor and finally to design an effective planning. The implemented high-end visualization techniques allow the users to simulate every function of the real simulator, including the mechanical component movements, radiation beam projection and fluoroscopy. In this work, a hospital process map is provided and a twofold study is conducted: A. Information management for supporting the interoperability of hospital processes; and B. Design radiology information services through image segmentation techniques. Thus, we present a process that can be used for the accurate semi-automatic segmentation of the important target in use organs (like skin, lungs, spinal canal, and bronchus) in three dimensions from CT images. Our clinical experience is described using patient example (breast cancer). The advantages of virtual simulation system over classical simulation would be presented, and the clinical effectiveness would be emphasized