Services brands' values: internal and external corporate communication

As services brands are a cluster of values, we explore the way in which values are communicated to both customers and staff. This work is based upon a literature review and themes highlighted from depth interviews with leading edge services branding consultants. Values tend to be communicated to consumers via their experience of the brand as a whole, including their interactions with employees, external brand communications and the tangible elements of the service offering. For employees, values are communicated via HR practices and polices, internal and external brand communications and the example set by senior managers

Delivering ‘Effortless Experience’ Across Borders: Managing Internal Consistency in Professional Service Firms

This article explores how professional service firms manage across borders. When clients require consistent services delivered across multiple locations, especially across borders, then firms need to develop an organization that is sufficiently flexible to be able to support such consistent service delivery. Our discussion is illustrated by the globalization process of law firms. We argue that the globalization of large corporate law firms primarily takes place in terms of investments in the development of protocols, processes and practices that enhance internal consistency such that clients receive an ‘effortless experience’ of the service across multiple locations worldwide. Over the longer term the ability to deliver such effortless experience is dependent upon meaningful integration within and across the firm. Firms that achieve this are building a source of sustainable competitive advantage

Senior Recital:Susan Manley, Horn

Kemp Recital Hall Saturday Afternoon March 28, 1998 2:00p.m

Susan Ursin Niemcewicz with Peter and Sarah Van Horn, May 2, 1829

This legal document, between Susan Ursin Niemcewicz and Peter and Sarah Van Horn, is for the manumission (release from slavery) of Peter and Sarah Van Horn. The husband and wife were guaranteed payment, food, and clothing for future service to Susan. If one of them were to die, their wages would go to their son, Robert, at the completion of his service at the age of 25. It was signed in the presence of Mose Chandler. The file includes the original with signatures and marks, as well as a copy. There\u27s additional text on the original verso stating that Peter and Sarah were paid after Susan\u27s death, witnessed by James Crane.https://digitalcommons.kean.edu/lhc_1820s/1000/thumbnail.jp

Blending Learning: The Evolution of Online and Face-to-Face Education from 20082015

In 2008, iNACOL produced a series of papers documenting promising practices identified throughout the field of K–12 online learning. Since then, we have witnessed a tremendous acceleration of transformative policy and practice driving personalized learning in the K–12 education space. State, district, school, and classroom leaders recognize that the ultimate potential for blended and online learning lies in the opportunity to transform the education system and enable higher levels of learning through competency-based approaches.iNACOL's core work adds significant value to the field by providing a powerful practitioner voice in policy advocacy, communications, and in the creation of resources and best practices to enable transformational change in K–12 education.We worked with leaders throughout the field to update these resources for a new generation of pioneers working towards the creation of student-centered learning environments.This refreshed series, Promising Practices in Blended and Online Learning, explores some of the approaches developed by practitioners and policymakers in response to key issues in K–12 education, including:Blended Learning: The Evolution of Online and Face-to-Face Education from 2008-2015;Using Blended and Online Learning for Credit Recovery and At-Risk Students;Oversight and Management of Blended and Online Programs: Ensuring Quality and Accountability; andFunding and Legislation for Blended and Online Education.Personalized learning environments provide the very best educational opportunities and personalized pathways for all students, with highly qualified teachers delivering world-class instruction using innovative digital resources and content. Through this series of white papers, we are pleased to share the promising practices in K–12 blended, online, and competency education transforming teaching and learning today

A Qualitative Study of the Initiation and Continuation of Preschool Inclusion Programs

This is the publisher's version, also found here: http://cec.metapress.com/content/h13780v85427/?p=7691ebee5d054406b7e2d78120f572db&pi=25Initiation and continuation of preschool inclusion is a challenging task. Through interviews and focus groups of school district and special education personnel, researchers in this study examined how 5 programs in 1 Midwestern state provided such services. The investigation used a multiple-case study methodology to examine how these programs initiated and sustained inclusive services. Especially important to these programs were factors such as having a shared vision, utilizing key personnel, and developing a structure within which the program could work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR

Contextualized Treatment in Traumatic Brain Injury Inpatient Rehabilitation: Effects on Outcomes During the First Year after Discharge

Objective To evaluate the effect of providing a greater percentage of therapy as contextualized treatment on acute traumatic brain injury (TBI) rehabilitation outcomes. Design Propensity score methods are applied to the TBI-Practice-Based Evidence (TBI-PBE) database, a database consisting of multi-site, prospective, longitudinal observational data. Setting Acute inpatient rehabilitation. Participants Patients enrolled in the TBI-PBE study (n=1843), aged 14 years or older, who sustained a severe, moderate, or complicated mild TBI, receiving their first IRF admission in the US, and consented to follow-up 3 and 9 months post discharge from inpatient rehabilitation. Interventions Not applicable. Main Outcome Measures Participation Assessment with Recombined Tools-Objective- -17, FIMTM Motor and Cognitive scores, Satisfaction with Life Scale and Patient Health Questionnaire-9. Results Increasing the percentage of contextualized treatment during inpatient TBI rehabilitation leads to better outcomes, specifically in regard to community participation. Conclusions Increasing the proportion of treatment provided in the context of real-life activities appears to have a beneficial impact on outcome. Although the effect sizes are small, the results are consistent with other studies supporting functional-based interventions effecting better outcomes. Furthermore, any positive findings, regardless of size or strength, are endorsed as important by consumers (survivors of TBI). While the findings do not imply that decontextualized treatment should not be used, when the therapy goal can be addressed with either approach, the findings suggest that better outcomes may result if the contextualized approach is used

Single and multiple time-point prediction models in kidney transplant outcomes

abstractThis study predicted graft and recipient survival in kidney transplantation based on the USRDS dataset by regression models and artificial neural networks (ANNs). We examined single time-point models (logistic regression and single-output ANNs) versus multiple time-point models (Cox models and multiple-output ANNs). These models in general achieved good prediction discrimination (AUC up to 0.82) and model calibration. This study found that: (1) Single time-point and multiple time-point models can achieve comparable AUC, except for multiple-output ANNs, which may perform poorly when a large proportion of observations are censored, (2) Logistic regression is able to achieve comparable performance as ANNs if there are no strong interactions or non-linear relationships among the predictors and the outcomes, (3) Time-varying effects must be modeled explicitly in Cox models when predictors have significantly different effects on short-term versus long-term survival, and (4) Appropriate baseline survivor function should be specified for Cox models to achieve good model calibration, especially when clinical decision support is designed to provide exact predicted survival rates

Impact of Level of Effort on the Effects of Compliance with the 3-Hour Rule

Objective To determine if patients’ level of effort (LOE) in therapy sessions during traumatic brain injury (TBI) rehabilitation modifies the effect of compliance with the 3-Hour Rule of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Design Propensity score methodology applied to the TBI-Practice-Based Evidence (TBI-PBE) database, consisting of multi-site, prospective, longitudinal observational data. Setting Acute inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRF). Participants Patients (n=1820) who received their first IRF admission for TBI in the US and were enrolled for 3 and 9 month follow-up. Main Outcome Measures Participation Assessment with Recombined Tools-Objective-17, FIMTM Motor and Cognitive scores, Satisfaction with Life Scale, and Patient Health Questionnaire-9. Results When the full cohort was examined, no strong main effect of compliance with the 3-Hour Rule was identified and LOE did not modify the effect of compliance with the 3-Hour Rule. In contrast, LOE had a strong positive main effect on all outcomes, except depression. When the sample was stratified by level of disability, LOE modified the effect of compliance, particularly on the outcomes of participants with less severe disability. For these patients, providing 3 hours of therapy for 50%+ of therapy days in the context of low effort resulted in poorer performance on select outcome measures at discharge and up to 9 months post discharge compared to patients with <50% of 3-hr therapy days. Conclusions LOE is an active ingredient in inpatient TBI rehabilitation, while compliance with the 3-Hour Rule was not found to have a substantive impact on the outcomes. The results support matching time in therapy during acute TBI rehabilitation to patients’ LOE in order to optimize long-term benefits on outcomes