Information Technology Sophistication in Hospitals: A Field Study in Quebec

The Quebec health sector has been experiencing a period of great turmoil over the last five years. Among other institutions, hospitals are faced with huge pressures from government funding cuts. Several empirical studies in the information systems field have shown that the use of computer-based information systems could have positive impacts on organizational performance. Many agree to say that health care institutions are no exceptions. But if one wishes to identify the effects of IT on the delivery of care, one must be able to characterize IT for operationalization purposes. The objective of this research project is twofold. Our first aim consists in developing and validating a measurement instrument of IT sophistication in hospitals. Such instrument should provide hospital managers with a diagnostic tool capable of indicating the profile of their respective institutions in regard to IT use and comparing this profile to those of other similar health institutions. In this line of thought, our second objective consists in presenting the IT sophistication profile of Quebec hospitals. Le secteur de la santé au Québec vit à l'heure des grands bouleversements. Plusieurs s'entendent à dire que les hôpitaux n'ont d'autre alternative que de faire appel aux technologies de pointe afin d'assurer un niveau de qualité des soins adéquat tout en minimisant les coûts associés à ces mêmes soins. Or, si l'on veut identifier les effets de la TI sur la performance des hôpitaux, il faut être capable de définir cette TI en tant que construit et caractériser cette dernière dans un but d'opérationalisation en tant que variable indépendante, dépendante ou modératrice dans un cadre conceptuel de recherche. Cette étude vise deux objectifs particuliers. Le premier consiste à développer un questionnaire mesurant le degré de sophistication des TI en milieu hospitalier et à le valider auprès de la population des hôpitaux québécois. Notre second objectif est de présenter, de façon sommaire, le profil des hôpitaux du Québec en matière de sophistication des TI.IT sophistication, measurement instrument, hospital information systems, Sophistication des TI, instrument de mesure, SI en milieu hospitalier

Voting in Cartels: Theory and Evidence from the Shipping Industry

We examine the choice of voting rules by legal cartels with enforcement capabilities in the presence of uncertainty about demand and costs. We show that cartels face a trade-off between the commitment advantages of more stringent majority requirements and the loss of flexibility resulting from them. Expected heterogeneity in costs or demand conditions leads away from simple majority toward more stringent rules, while larger membership to the cartel leads away from unanimity toward less restrictive rules. Evidence from the shipping conferences of the late 1950s largely supports our model. With few firms, the rule favored by heterogeneous conferences is unanimity. In larger cartels, the favored rule is either 2/3 or 3/4-majority rule.

To help communities unfairly burdened with environmental hazards, policymakers should forget race or class thresholds and target the waterfront

Are areas of greater environmental pollution necessarily associated with poorer and minority communities? While this is undoubtedly the case in some parts of the U.S., new research from Diane Sicotte shows that this link is by no means a universal one. By examining the environmental hazards in 366 communities in Philadelphia, she finds that the 39 communities closest to the Delaware River were those with the greatest environmental burden. She argues that the location of these communities was the most important factor, not their racial or ethnic composition, nor how poor they were. She writes that the reasons for the present pattern of Philadelphia’s environmental inequality lie in the city’s near two centuries of industrial history which encouraged industrial land use on the waterfront, and that policymakers should focus on these areas for redevelopment and regeneration

Flaubert et la question des genres

Mille huit cent cinquante-sept est véritablement l’« année Flaubert ». Non seulement le maître de Croisset publie-t-il le roman qui le rendra célèbre, Madame Bovary, mais, fait moins connu, il donne aussi à L’Artiste la toute première version publiée de Latentation de saint Antoine. Le présent article avance que, par ces deux publications, Flaubert opère une stratégie globale de repositionnement des genres dans le champ littéraire. En effet, autant la forme dramatique (alors principalement représentée par le mélodrame) que le roman (encore largement tributaire du feuilleton et de sa nature populaire) sont à l’époque des genres dévalués qui dominent le champ de grande diffusion mais sont à peu près absents de l’avant-garde. Il y a donc chez Flaubert une volonté conquérante de s’approprier ces genres et d’en transformer la valeur, ce qui le situe au coeur de cette modernité de 1857 où quelque chose bascule de l’ancien au nouveau.Eighteen hundred and fifty-seven is truly “Flaubert’s year.” Not only does the master of Croisset publish the novel that will make him famous, Madame Bovary, but (a lesser known fact) he also presents L’artiste with the very first published version of La tentation de saint Antoine. In this paper, we suggest that with these two publications Flaubert implements a global strategy of repositioning of genres in the literary field. Indeed, the dramatic form (principally represented by melodrama) as well as the novel (still largely the tributary of the serial and its popular nature) are, at the time, devalued genres that dominate the field of mass distribution, yet are almost absent from the avant-garde. Thus there is in Flaubert a conquering will to appropriate these genres and to transform their value, which situates him in the heart of the modernity of 1857 when something swings from the old to the new

War and Foreign Debt Settlement in Early Republican Spanish America

Upon gaining independence, most Spanish American countries had accumulated a substantial external debt, and by 1829 each defaulted. It took decades for these countries to settle their debts and even longer for them to access new loans. We argue that a major factor influencing the pattern of debt service was the incidence of war. War created incentives for governments to channel scarce resources to «emergency» spending and domestic debt service, rather than to the repayment of the foreign debt. Interestingly, we detect an asymmetry between countries long in good standing with creditors and those that had only recently settled. Countries that had established a longer record of continuous debt service were far less likely to default in times of war. We also find that international wars were responsible for the largest effects.En este artículo sugerimos que un factor que determinò en buena medida la trayectoria del pago de la deuda externa de los países hispanoamericanos en las primeras décadas de su vida independiente, fue la enorme incidencia de conflictos armados en la región. Las frecuentes guerras crearon incentives para que éstos dirigieran sus escasos recursos a gastos militares y al servicio de la deuda interna en vez de a la deuda exterior. Un resultado interesante es la asimetría que se registra entre los países que llegaron a renegociar su deuda exitosamente y mantuvieron su servicio por largos períodos de tiempo, y la de aquellos que no tuvieron mayor éxito en sus renegociaciones. En el caso de estos Ultimos, las guerras registraron efectos negativos mayores. También demostramos que las guerras internacionales tuvieron los efectos más dramáticos

Écrits de Gilles Marcotte : bibliographie 1948-1995

Collection : Cahiers de recherche (anciennement «Rapports de recherche») ; 7La collection « Cahiers de recherche » (anciennement : « Rapports de recherche ») est publiée sous la responsabilité du Centre d’études québécoises du Département d’études françaises de l’Université de Montréal. Elle présente des recherches en cours, des bibliographies, des index ou d’autres types de travaux analogues sur la littérature québécoise, réalisés par des chercheurs, étudiants ou professeurs du Département d’études françaises

Dispersal in male ursine colobus monkeys (Colobus vellerosus): Influence of age, rank and contact with other groups on dispersal decisions

Dispersal is male-biased in ursine colobus monkeys (Colobus vellerosus), although female dispersal also occurs (Teichroeb et al., 2009). Here we describe the process of male dispersal and its connection with between-group encounters (BGEs, N = 444) and male incursions (when males left their group and approached within 50 m of another group; N = 128) at the Boabeng-Fiema Monkey Sanctuary in central Ghana. Through BGEs and incursions, particularly those with non-aggressive interactions between individuals in different groups (BGEs, N = 17; incursions, N = 4), males could probably assess other groups for dispersal opportunities. There was a trend for males to perform incursions more frequently before emigrating voluntarily than involuntarily. Incursions were often performed towards the group that the male eventually transferred to. Incursions by alpha males were temporally shorter and more aggressive than those by non-alpha males. We suggest that non-alpha males used incursions to assess other groups for breeding or dispersal opportunities, whereas alpha males performed incursions mainly to convey information about their quality to neighbouring males and females. Male emigrations/disappearances (natal N = 20, secondary N = 43, unknown N = 9) and immigrations (N = 62) were recorded for seven groups during ten years (2000- 2010). Alpha males always emigrated involuntarily. Parallel emigration and immigration occurred. Males often immigrated into groups with a more favourable adult male/adult female ratio and improved their rank, both of which likely increased their mating opportunities. The most fitting ultimate explanation for both natal and secondary male dispersal in this population was the intrasexual competition for mates hypothesis, as males of all ages appeared to emigrate to improve their reproductive opportunities. © 2011 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden