Is corporate governance different for bank holding companies?

The authors analyze a range of corporate governance variables as they pertain to a sample of bank holding companies (BHCs) and manufacturing firms. They find that BHCs have larger boards and that the percentage of outside directors on these boards is significantly higher; also, BHC boards have more committees and meet slightly more frequently. Conversely, the proportion of CEO stock option pay to salary plus bonuses as well as the percentage and market value of direct equity holdings are smaller for bank holding companies. Furthermore, fewer institutions hold shares of BHCs relative to shares of manufacturing firms, and the institutions hold a smaller percentage of a BHC's equity. These observed differences in variables suggest that governance structures are industry-specific. The differences, the authors argue, might be due to differences in the investment opportunities of the firms in the two industries as well as to the presence of regulation in the banking industry.Bank holding companies ; Bank management ; Corporate governance ; Manufactures

Healthcare Leaders’ Translation of Patient Feedback to Quality Improvement in Integrated Care

Healthcare inequalities impact patient impression of the healthcare quality provided by healthcare institutions. This qualitative phenomenology study examined healthcare leader experiences in using patient input to enhance the quality of care within an integrated healthcare system. The primary research question involved understanding the lived experiences of healthcare leaders on using patient feedback to improve the quality of care in an integrated healthcare system. The conceptual underpinning was the patient feedback response framework. Braun and Clarke’s six-step inductive thematic analysis was used to analyze transcripts. The findings from the participants’ responses suggest that providing caring, patient-centered care was the factor that most strongly and positively influenced patient satisfaction. Patient satisfaction results identified gaps in quality of care and guided performance improvements, as well as facility cleanliness, orderliness, and privacy. Hindrances to the use of patient satisfaction results included staff limitations, resource constraints, and lack of receptivity to feedback as well as patient satisfaction and healthcare quality. Implications for positive social change include revealing a means through which integrated healthcare systems can use patient satisfaction feedback to enhance care quality and to turn patient perceptions into actionable quality improvement programs. The findings could guide policymakers to develop strategies to integrate patient feedback effectively, thereby promoting advancements in healthcare quality and performance

Dissolved carbon dioxide and oxygen concentrations in meat purge and relationship to microbial populations and shelf life

The shelf life of a fresh meat product can be measured by a total bacterial enumeration method, which is time-consuming, expensive, and destructive to conduct. Due to these issues, there is interest in developing a shelf life model from an instrument measurement, which has the capability to be less time-consuming, less expensive, and non-destructive. One instrument measurement that could be used to estimate shelf life is dissolved carbon dioxide (CO2). There are few studies published that investigate dissolved CO2 concentrations in the context of shelf life or its relationship to the microbial population. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to determine the dissolved CO2 and O2 concentrations in the purge of vacuum-packaged pork chops during storage, and to determine the relationship between dissolved CO2 and O2 concentrations to the microbial populations and shelf life. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images were also taken of the packaging film in contact with the meat product to investigate how the biofilm develops on the packaging film throughout the shelf life. These objectives were completed by taking sixty pork loin chops and placing them into twenty vacuum-packages. In each vacuum-package, a set of purge collection tubes were placed into each bag to collect the purge for the dissolved gas measurements. These packages were stored at 4°C for 60 days, and the packages were sampled randomly on days 0, 5, 15, 30, 45, and 60. On the sample days, the dissolved gases were measured and microbiological analysis conducted. The results of the experiment demonstrated that the spoilage bacteria increased the dissolved CO2 and decreased the dissolved O2 concentrations during the 60 day storage period by cellular respiration. The lactic acid bacteria (LAB) dominated the spoilage microflora, followed by Enterobacteriaceae and Brochothrix thermosphacta. Since the dissolved CO2 concentrations increased due to the increase in microbial populations, this information was used to develop mathematical models. These mathematical models estimate microbial populations and shelf life based upon dissolved CO2 concentrations in the purge of vacuum-packaged pork chops. The SEM images revealed a two-layer biofilm on the packaging film that was the result of a tri-phase growth environment

Self-Efficacy of College Students with a Learning Disability During Freshman Year

AbstractThe current study sought to understand the phenomena of educational programming and academic self-efficacy. The conceptual framework for this study was based on social cognitive theories of academic self-efficacy and motivation. This qualitative study used interpretive phenomenological analysis to gain a broader understanding of experiences of academic self-efficacy and motivation in college students diagnosed with a specific learning disability. Ten participants were recruited with snowball sampling and semi-structured interviews were conducted to guide this research study. Results of this research support additional analysis as necessary to close the gaps presented in the college transition and campus life of students with a learning disability who have experienced academic self-efficacy and positive student attainment. The self-efficacy of students with a learning disability is manifested in their awareness of their disability and motivation to succeed as college level students. Fifty percent of the participants shared feelings of isolation and limited support to campus life. Participants also shared a commitment to being part of a campus life and working to meet the rigor required of college-level students. Students who pursued accommodations and campus support reported a reduction in stress and pressure. The research findings support the need for increased understanding of learning-disabled student embarrassment and relevance to stigma and labeling research. This understanding will inform special programs as they monitor and assist college students with a learning disability, who are striving for academic self efficacy, and career goal attainment leading to positive social change

Capturing creative practice

This paper will map the initial research surrounding capturing creative practice for the improvement of supervision and learning experiences in higher degree creative arts research in the School of Communications and Arts and the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts at Edith Cowan University. Despite differences in what constitutes ‘practice’ across creative disciplines, the difficulties in representing practice-led research processes in an academic context are shared. Through interviews and focus groups, this research explored how the failure to capture the creative process impacts on supervision and learning experiences for creative arts Higher Degree by Research (HDR) candidates and their supervisors. One of the biggest challenges for supervisors of creative arts HDR candidates is providing students with guidance on how to document the tacit knowledge that informs and underpins their creative process. As supervisors of HDR candidates in the creative arts at ECU, we see the problems that arise when key aspects of the creative process cannot be written down. The first aim of this research was to gather more concrete data on how the failure to document tacit knowledge in creative research processes can impact on supervision and learning experiences. This data was gathered from interviews with a selection of creative arts HDR supervisors and focus groups with HDR candidates at ECU

Messy never-endings: Curating inConversation as interdisciplinary collaborative dialogue

This paper will explore the curation of a collaborative exhibition amongst creative higher degree by research candidates (from the School of Communications and Arts and the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts), arts practitioners and researchers from different art forms and discipline backgrounds. It will look at the conversations between artists and researcher collaborators working together to produce a broad range of creative works, culminating in an exhibition titled In Conversation, to be staged at Edith Cowan University’s Spectrum Project Space in October 2014. The context of the inConversation exhibition aims to inform and expand on current debates about the challenges and benefits of inter- and cross-disciplinary collaboration in the arts. While collaboration within discrete artistic disciplines has been quite common, it is now becoming increasingly important for artists to look beyond their silos and invite interactions with researchers in other disciplines and art forms. The curation of this exhibition proposes to explore what complexity may mean in terms of the processes of practice-led research in probing how the push and pull of the collaborative process, by which the outcomes become more than the sum of the parts, plays out in a cross-disciplinary, creative context

The 1995-1996 Decline of R Coronae Borealis - High Resolution Optical Spectroscopy

A set of high-resolution optical spectra of RCrB acquired before, during, and after its 1995-1996 decline is discussed. All of the components reported from earlier declines are seen. This novel dataset provides new information on these components including several aspects not previously seen in declines of RCrB and other RCBs. In the latter category is the discovery that the decline's onset is marked by distortions of absorption lines of high-excitation lines, and quickly followed by emission in these and in low excitation lines. This 'photospheric trigger' implies that dust causing the decline is formed close to the star. These emission lines fade quickly. After 1995 November 2, low excitation narrow (FWHM ~12 km s-1) emission lines remain. These appear to be a permanent feature, slightly blue-shifted from the systemic velocity, and unaffected by the decline except for a late and slight decrease of flux at minimum light. The location of the warm, dense gas providing these lines is uncertain. Absorption lines unaffected by overlying sharp emission are greatly broadened, weakened, and red-shifted at the faintest magnitudes when scattered light from the star is a greater contributor than direct light transmitted through the fresh soot cloud. A few broad lines are seen at and near minimum light with approxiamately constant flux: prominent among these are the He I triplet series, Na I D, and [N II] lines. These lines are blue-shifted by about 30 km s(-1) relative to the systemic velocity with no change in velocity over the several months for whicht he lines were seen. It is suggested that these lines, especially the He I lines, arise from an accretion disk around an unseen compact companion, which may be a low-mass white dwarf. If so, R CrB is similar to the unusual post-AGB star 89 Her.Comment: 31 pages, 26 figure

This is Not an Article: a reflection on Creative Research Dialogues (This is Not a Seminar)

This is Not a Seminar (TINAS) is a multidisciplinary forum established in 2012 at Edith Cowan University (ECU) in Australia to support practice-led and practice-based Higher Degree by Research students. The Faculty of Education and Arts at ECU includes cohorts of postgraduate research students in, for example, performance, design, writing and visual arts. We established the TINAS programme to assist postgraduate research students in connecting their creative practices to methodological, theoretical and conceptual approaches whilst fostering an atmosphere of rapport across creative disciplines. The pilot programme conducted for six months in 2012 comprised dialogues with experienced creative researchers; critical reading sessions on practice-led theory; and workshops in journaling, ethics and copyright. This article is a reflection on the strengths and limitations of TINAS and future projections. More than an additional teaching and learning service, the programme has become a vital forum for creative dialogue

VCU In Motion

VCU is an active, urban university that experiences challenges with pedestrian safety, cyclist safety, and anticipated electric scooter user safety. Pedestrian crashes occur at a high frequency across the VCU campus and steps need to be taken to make pedestrians more aware of the dangers they face in traveling on foot. From 2015 to 2018, there were 84 pedestrian accidents with one fatality within the boundaries of VCU. Set against the backdrop of the ONE VCU Master Plan VCU in Motion aims to increase pedestrian safety by developing educational initiatives and signage to help pedestrians understand current state and local traffic laws and adopt best practices. Study of scholarly literature, communication with local stakeholders, and traffic accident data demonstrate a clear need for intervention in order to increase awareness of the risks to pedestrian safety on and around the ONE VCU campus