Towards corporate data quality management

Today, it is a well known fact that poor quality data is costing large amounts of money to corporations all over the world. Despite the increasing research on methods, concepts, and tools for data quality (DQ) assessment and improvement, little has been done about corporate DQ management. The purpose of this research is to understand the nature and complexity of corporate DQ management, through various perspectives. These include the various kind of sponsorship, type and level of collaboration between business and IS/IT, organizational position of the DQ management team, scope of the DQ initiatives, roles, services provided, DQ methodologies, techniques and tools in use, etc. This paper presents, analyzes and discusses a single pilot exploratory case study, undertaken in a fixed and mobile telecommunications company in a European Union Country. The purpose of this case study is to check the validity of some initial propositions, and eventually find new ones, to be used in a subsequent multiple-case study, in order to provide an in-depth understanding of the corporate DQ management phenomenon

Corporate data quality management in context

Presently, we are well aware that poor quality data is costing large amounts of money to corporations all over the world. Nevertheless, little research has been done about the way Organizations are dealing with data quality management and the strategies they are using. This work aims to find some answers to the following questions: which business drivers motivate the organizations to engage in a data quality management initiative?, how do they implement data quality management? and which objectives have been achieved, so far? Due to the kind of research questions involved, a decision was made to adopt the use of multiple exploratory case studies as research strategy [32]. The case studies were developed in a telecommunications company (MyTelecom), a public bank (PublicBank) and in the central bank (CentralBank) of one European Union Country. The results show that the main drivers to data quality (DQ) initiatives were the reduction in non quality costs, risk management, mergers, and the improvement of the company's image among its customers, those aspects being in line with literature [7, 8, 20]. The commercial corporations (MyTelecom and PublicBank) began their DQ projects with customer data, this being in accordance with literature [18], while CentralBank, which mainly works with analytical systems, began with data source metadata characterization and reuse. None of the organizations uses a formal DQ methodology, but they are using tools for data profiling, standardization and cleaning. PublicBank and CentralBank are working towards a Corporate Data Policy, aligned with their Business Policy, which is not the case of MyTelecom. The findings enabled us to prepare a first draft of a "Data Governance strategic impact grid", adapted from Nolan& MacFarlan IT Governance strategic impact grid [17], this framework needing further empirical support

Corporate Data Quality Management : From Theory to Practice

It is now assumed that poor quality data is costing large amounts of money to corporations all over the world. Although research on methods and techniques for data quality assessment and improvement have begun in the early nineties of the past century and being currently abundant and innovative, it is noted that the academic and professional communities virtually have no dialogue, which turns out to be harmful to both of them. The challenge of promoting the relevance in information systems research, without compromising the necessary rigor, is still present in the various disciplines of information systems scientific area [1,2], including the data quality one. In this paper we present "data as a corporate asset" as a business philosophy, and a framework for the concepts related to that philosophy, derived from the academic and professional literature. According to this framework, we present, analyze and discuss a single explanatory case study, developed in a fixed and mobile telecommunications company, operating in one of the European Union Countries. The results show that, in the absence of data stewardship roles, data quality problems become more of an "IT problem" than typically is considered in the literature, owing to Requirements Analysis Teams of the IS Development Units, to become a "quality negotiator" between the various stakeholders. Other findings are their bottom-up approach to data quality management, their biggest focus on motivating employees through innovative forms of communication, which appears to be a critical success factor1 (CSF) for data quality management, as well as the importance of a data quality champion [3] leadership

Nódulos cutâneos no cão: estudo retrospectivo comparativo de diagnóstico citológico e histopatológico

Orientação : Rute Noiva ; co-orientação : Luís MontenegroOs nódulos são lesões cutâneas encontradas com frequência no cão e a sua etiologia pode ser diversa, sendo uma delas neoplásica. As neoplasias cutâneas são as que mais afectam o cão, motivo pelo qual são de grande importância na área de Oncologia Veterinária. A citologia a histopatologia são os mais importantes meios auxiliares de diagnóstico destas lesões. O presente trabalho teve como objectivo determinar a frequência de neoplasias cutâneas em cães, através de nódulos submetidos a análise num Hospital Veterinário do Grande Porto, durante o período compreendido entre Junho de 2007 e Maio de 2015. Foram ainda avaliados parâmetros como a idade, localização da lesão e, para as neoplasias malignas, o tempo médio de sobrevida dos pacientes. No total foram analisados 668 nódulos cutâneos. Neste estudo, a neoplasia mais diagnosticada por citologia foi o lipoma (26,9%) e a neoplasia que mais se diagnosticou através de histopatologia foi o mastocitoma (14,2%). O mastocitoma foi também a neoplasia maligna mais diagnosticada por ambas as técnicas. Determinou-se que os membros foram a localização anatómica onde mais se desenvolveram nódulos cutâneos. Por fim, verificou-se que existe concordância entre os diagnósticos obtidos por análise citológica e os resultados obtidos por análise histopatológica, quando os casos são submetidos a ambas as técnicas de diagnóstico.Nodules are skin lesions commonly found in dogs and their ethiology might be varied, being neoplastic origin one of them. Skin neoplasms are the ones which most affect the dog, being that one of the reasons that makes them so relevant in Veterinary Oncology. The most important methods to diagnose this kind of lesions are cytology and histopathology. Determining the frequency of skin neoplasms diagnosed in dogs in one Veterinary Hospital of central Oporto, between June 2007 and May 2015, was the main purpose of this study. Besides that, parameters such as age, location of the lesion and, in the case of malignant neoplasms, median survival time were also analysed. In total 668 skin nodules were submitted for analysis. In this study lipoma was the neoplasm most frequently diagnosed using cytology (26,9%) and mast cell tumor was the neoplasm most frequently diagnosed using histopathology (14,2%). Mast cell tumor was also the most diagnosed malignant neoplasm by both techniques. The limbs were the location where most nodules developed. It was also determined that the results of both methods of diagnosis were concordant, in cases submitted to both techniques of diagnosis

As birras das crianças: o papel do educador e dos encarregados de educação

Relatório da Prática Profissional Supervisionada Mestrado em Educação Pré-EscolarO presente relatório aborda globalmente uma reflexão contextualizada da Prática Profissional Supervisionada, desenvolvida em dois contextos: Creche e JI. Da caracterização dos contextos sobressai um tema de interesse de estudo - As Birras das Crianças: o papel do Educador e dos EE. Uma birra é um arranque de ira na qual a criança se atira para o chão, refila e grita. Esta faz parte do desenvolvimento normal da criança que surge, sobretudo, em idades compreendidas entre os dezoito e os quarenta e oito meses, com maior incidência entre os dois e os três anos. Foram poucos os estudos encontrados que referem a birra num contexto de ação pedagógica, e para que esta não se torne um problema no desenvolvimento da criança educadores e encarregados de educação/pais devem adotar práticas educativas adequadas para promover comportamentos desejáveis. O presente estudo analisa as birras em geral, de acordo com o desenvolvimento da criança e as práticas educativas parentais mais utilizadas, para tal foi elaborado um questionário com participação de quinze pais de crianças, entre os três e quatro anos: A Birra do seu Educando. Após as análises dos resultados, constatou-se que a birra ocorre numa fase caracterizada pela aquisição da identidade pessoal, autonomia e capacidade de resistir às adversidades da vida (resiliência). Perante a birra os encarregados de educação/pais atuam de diferentes maneiras, sendo que as práticas mais utilizadas são a punição física, o time-out (castigo) e retirar brinquedos. Conclui-se que na continuidade deste trabalho se desenvolvam ações conjuntas entre a instituição de infância e as famílias.Abstract This report globally addresses a contextualized reflexion on the Supervised Professional Practice developed in two different contexts: nursery and kindergarten. From the characterization of these contexts it stands a topic of interest regarding its study - Childrens’ Temper Tantrums: the role of the educator and parents. A temper tantrum is a situation of a rage attack when the child throws himself to the ground, screams and cries. This stage makes part of the normal child’s development which appears around the age of eighteen and forty-eight months, being more noticeable between the age of two and three years. There are not much studies which refer tantrums in the context of pedagogical action and so that this one doesn’t become a problem regarding the child’s development educators and parents must adopt appropriate educational practices to promote desired behaviors. This study analyzes tantrums in general according to the child development and the mostly used parental educational practices. So it was prepared a questionnaire with the participation of fifteen parents aged between three and five years old - Your Child’s Tantrum. After analyzing the results it was found that tantrums occur at that stage known by the acquisition of the personal identity, autonomy and ability to withstand the adversities of life (resilience). When facing the tantrum caregivers / parents act in different ways and the most commonly used practices are physical punishment, the time-outs ant taking toys from children. Regarding the continuation of this study we conclude it must be developed joint actions between the institution where the child is inserted and families

Effect of different types of exercise on quality of life in breast cancer patients and survivors : an umbrella review

Purpose: To present an umbrella review on previous meta-analysis and systematic reviews addressing the relationship between quality of life (QoL) among breast cancer (BC) patients and survivors and exercise. Methods: Pubmed, Web of Science, the Cochrane Library, and PEDro databases were searched to identify relevant systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Reviews assessing exercise interventions on QoL as one of the primary outcomes in breast cancer patients and survivors were included. The Grade of Recommendation, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) tool was used to evaluate the quality of evidence. The methodological quality of the included studies were evaluated by the Assessment of Methodologic Quality of Systematic Reviews (AMSTAR) appraisal. Results: Twenty-five studies met all the inclusion criteria. The AMSTAR score varied from 3 to 11 points with an overall mean of 7.4 points. Out of 25 studies, 23 found beneficial effects of aerobic, resistance, combined, and mind and body exercise in BC patients and survivors, and 2 reported no effects of exercise on QoL. As for GRADE, 7 studies were rated as “high”, 10 as “moderate, 6 as “low”, and 2 as “very low”. Conclusion: Exercise of any kind can be regarded as beneficial to QoL in BC patients and survivors. Mind and body exercise is emerging as a viable option in the BC field and has shown to have the same benefits as the more conventional forms of exercise. More high-quality studies are needed in BC patients at any stage and BC survivors.Objetivo: Apresentar uma umbrella review de revisões sistemáticas e meta-análises anteriores que abordem a relação entre qualidade de vida em pacientes e sobreviventes de cancro da mama e exercício. Métodos: As bases de dados da Pubmed, Web of Science, the Cochrane Library, e PEDro database foram usadas para identificar revisões sistemáticas e meta-análises relevantes. As revisões que analisavam as intervenções de exercício com a qualidade de vida como um dos outcomes principais em pacientes e sobreviventes de cancro da mama foram incluídas. A qualidade de evidência foi avaliada pelo GRADE (Grade of Recommendation, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation). A qualidade metodológica dos estudos incluídos foi avaliada pelo AMSTAR (Assessment of Methodologic Quality of Systematic Reviews). Resultados: Vinte e cinco artigos atenderam a todos os critérios de inclusão. A pontuação do AMSTAR variou entre 3 e 11 pontos com uma média geral de 7.4 pontos. Dos 25 estudos, 23 chegaram a resultados positivos sobre o efeito do exercício aeróbio, de força, combinado e exercício “mind and body” em pacientes e sobreviventes de cancro da mama, e 2 não reportaram efeitos do exercício na qualidade de vida. Quanto à avaliação feita pelo GRADE, 7 estudos evidenciaram resultados de alta qualidade, 10 de qualidade moderada, 6 baixa e 2 muito baixa. Conclusão: O exercício de qualquer tipo pode ser considerado benéfico para a qualidade de vida em pacientes e sobreviventes de cancro da mama. Os exercícios “mind and body” estão a ganhar cada vez mais destaque no cancro da mama mostrando os mesmos benefícios que as formas mais convencionais de exercício. São necessários mais estudos de elevada qualidade em pacientes em qualquer estadio e sobreviventes de cancro da mama