Rethinking NATO

Os últimos três anos testemunharam alterações de vulto nos assuntos internacionais. Os historiadores olharão sem dúvida para trás considerando que este ou aquele evento foi importante. Para os decisores políticos, que têm de lidar diariamente com estas preocupações num ambiente em evolução constante, a tarefa é ainda mais difícil. Neste artigo o autor procura ilustrar uma visão pessoal sobre como a NATO tem respondido a estas alterações, como é que as percepções dos aliados são frequentemente díspares em relação às dos que se encontram fora da Aliança. Procurará também comprovar como as mudanças ocorridas no domínio militar e civil e os acontecimentos do 11 de Setembro anunciaram uma nova fase de mudança, a qual poderá incutir alterações radicais na natureza da Aliança tal como a conhecemos nos últimos 50 anos. Esta é uma visão pessoal que não reflecte a posição oficial do Governo Britânico. Baseia-se antes em discussões com aqueles que se encontram no cerne do debate político e na experiência pessoal como funcionário civil no mundo diplomático e milita

Multidisciplinary team meetings: the epilepsy experience

Multidisciplinary team (MDT) meetings are essential for ensuring optimal and consistent management for patients with complex problems and a variety of treatment options. Epilepsy surgery MDTs are a good example of complex decision making and planning to the best possible outcomes. The meetings need to run to an agreed format, with participants from neurology, neurophysiology, neuroimaging, neuropsychology, neuropsychiatry and neurosurgery all contributing succinct opinions to enable an informed discussion. A key feature of a successful MDT is to have a clear record of complementary data and perspectives, and to document management options. It is crucial to have a debrief after the event if an outcome is less good than anticipated, with the case being gone through in as much detail as a preoperative case, and ensuring that the whole team shares the successes and the disappointments and learns from the experience

NASA gateway requirements analysis

NASA devotes approximately 40 percent of its budget to R&D. Twelve NASA Research Centers and their contractors conduct this R&D, which ranges across many disciplines and is fueled by information about previous endeavors. Locating the right information is crucial. While NASA researchers use peer contacts as their primary source of scientific and technical information (STI), on-line bibliographic data bases - both Government-owned and commercial - are also frequently consulted. Once identified, the STI must be delivered in a usable format. This report assesses the appropriateness of developing an intelligent gateway interface for the NASA R&D community as a means of obtaining improved access to relevant STI resources outside of NASA's Remote Console (RECON) on-line bibliographic database. A study was conducted to determine (1) the information requirements of the R&D community, (2) the information sources to meet those requirements, and (3) ways of facilitating access to those information sources. Findings indicate that NASA researchers need more comprehensive STI coverage of disciplines not now represented in the RECON database. This augmented subject coverage should preferably be provided by both domestic and foreign STI sources. It was also found that NASA researchers frequently request rapid delivery of STI, in its original format. Finally, it was found that researchers need a better system for alerting them to recent developments in their areas of interest. A gateway that provides access to domestic and international information sources can also solve several shortcomings in the present STI delivery system. NASA should further test the practicality of a gateway as a mechanism for improved STI access

Kansas Country Elevator Wheat Storage Practices, 1991

Crop Production/Industries,

Building user commitment to implementing a knowledge management strategy

In the IS literature, commitment is typically considered to involve organizational or managerial support for a system and not that of its users. This paper however reports on a field study involving 16 organizations that attempted to build user involvement in developing a knowledge management strategy by having them design it. Twenty-two IT-supported group workshops (involving 183 users) were run to develop action plans for better knowledge management that users would like to see implemented. Each workshop adopted the same problem structuring technique to assist group members develop a politically feasible action plan to which they were psychologically and emotionally dedicated. In addition to reviewing the problem structuring method, this paper provides qualitative insight into the factors a knowledge management strategy should have to encourage user commitment. © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Getting the best outcomes from epilepsy surgery.

Neurosurgery is an underutilized treatment that can potentially cure drug-refractory epilepsy. Careful, multidisciplinary presurgical evaluation is vital for selecting patients and to ensure optimal outcomes. Advances in neuroimaging have improved diagnosis and guided surgical intervention. Invasive electroencephalography allows the evaluation of complex patients who would otherwise not be candidates for neurosurgery. We review the current state of the assessment and selection of patients and consider established and novel surgical procedures and associated outcome data. We aim to dispel myths that may inhibit physicians from referring and patients from considering neurosurgical intervention for drug-refractory focal epilepsies. Ann Neurol 2018;83:676-690

Group perceptions of knowledge management

This paper reports preliminary results of a project investigating how staff in UK organisations perceive knowledge management in their organisation as a group. The group setting appears to be effective in surfacing opinions and enabling progress in both understanding and action to be made. Among the findings thus far are the importance of the knowledge champion role and the state of the “knowledge management life cycle” in each organisation, and continuing confusion between knowledge, information and mechanisms

Comparing knowledge management between organisations:searching for good practice

This paper reports ongoing work that is attempting to find out ‘what is good practice for knowledge management’. The data we have to analyse this issue is 109 maps of knowledge (on knowledge management) which were built during 18 group workshops with 152 people from 15 different organisations. The maps contain data on the aspirations and action plans which UK managers have to improve knowledge management practices in their organisation. So far we have attempted a number of approaches to analysing this data, both inductive and deductive, but we still feel there is more to be learned from the rich data set we have. The paper presents a flavour of the work we have done, have considered doing, and have resisted doing. The aim of the paper is to stimulate debate on the strengths of our analyses and, more importantly, on amassing views of how it can be further strengthened, and the difficulties and dilemmas which might need to be overcome

Communicating knowledge about police performance

This paper describes the organizational processes of knowledge acquisition, sharing, retention and utilisation as it affected the internal and external communication of knowledge about performance in an English police force. The research was gathered in three workshops for internal personnel, external stakeholders and chief officers, using Journey Making, a computer-assisted method of developing shared understanding. The research concluded that there are multiple audiences for the communication of knowledge about police performance, impeded by the requirement to publish performance data. However, the intelligence-led policing model could lead to a more focused means of communication with various stakeholder groups. Although technology investment was a preferred means of communicating knowledge about performance, without addressing cultural barriers, an investment in technology may not yield the appropriate changes in behaviour. Consequently, technology needs to be integrated with working practices in order to reduce organizational reliance on informal methods of communication