Evaluation of the Integrated Services Pilot Program from Western Australia

Independent evaluation of refugee-focused programs in developed nations is increasingly a mandatory requirement of funding bodies and government agencies. This paper presents an evaluation of the Integrated Services Centre (ISC) Pilot Project that was conducted in Australia in 2007 and early 2008. The purpose of the ISC program was to provide integrated support to humanitarian refugees in settlement, physical health, mental health and employment. The Pilot Project was based in two primary schools in Perth, Western Australia. The evaluation utilized a flexible qualitative ‘engaged’ methodology and included interviews, focus groups and telephone interviews with the key stakeholders, project staff and a small number of refugee families. The strength of the qualitative methodology (including data that is narrative rich) is that it highlights issues as perceived by each stakeholder and provides insights into the daily work by ISC staff that helped to uncover unintended outcomes. Despite the fact that the ISC evaluation was supposed to be a ‘before and after’ design, the researchers acknowledge a common weakness in many evaluations (including the ISC) that when baseline data is required, evaluators are recruited after the project has begun. This issue is discussed in the paper. It is critical that independent evaluators are able to begin collecting baseline data as soon as programs are launched, if not before.     

Using words to network images: indexing and interaction strategies in a digital archive

Visual access to the content in digital archives extends the classical text search and list view of graphical user interfaces. Currently, there are several strategies employed to correlate images in the user interface of digital archives for semantic purposes. Some of the most useful strategies explore innovative techniques used to gain and execute metadata in a suitable manner. These approaches are elaborated on primarily in the context of scientific questions. Amidst these models, this article proposes a very simple strategy of networking images using only words. At present, this concept is realised at Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) through utilisation of the ‘Media Archive of the Arts’, an in-house, open source software product. It responds to user heterogeneity, the variety of intellectual genres and the multiplicity of media formats that are distinctive of an art academy such as ZHdK.     

The Use of Risk Assessment to Decide the Control Strategy for Bluetongue in Italian Ruminant Populations

The affiliation, assessment and management of risks is a traditional part of veterinary medicine. In the past, veterinary services involved in this type of activity usually assessed risks qualitatively. However, since the 1990s, quantitative methods have become increasingly important. The establishment of the World Trade Organization in 1994, and the promulgation of its Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (the "SPS Agreement") led to an increased application of import risk analysis and to significant improvements in the methodology of risk analysis as applied to international trade policy for animals and animal products. However, there was very little development of risk analysis in veterinary fields other than international trade and management of health risks to consumers of animal products and little has been published on its use in the choice and definition of control or prophylaxis strategies for animal diseases. This article describes a quantitative risk assessment, which was undertaken in Italy to help choose an appropriate national response strategy following an incursion of bluetongue, an infectious disease of sheep and goats. The results obtained in this study support the use of risk analysis as a tool to assist in choosing an appropriate animal disease management strategy. The use of risk analysis in the evaluation of disease management strategies also offers advantages in international trade. It makes easier the comparison of different strategies applied in the various countries, and thus facilitates the assessment of equivalence of the guarantees provided by different strategies.     

Dialog als kreativer Denkraum in lernenden Organisationen

Dialogue — a space for creative thinking in learning organisationsToday almost every enterprise or institution has to face growing pressure, has to deal with unexpected unusual problems which cannot be solved by conventional standard strategies. New creative ways to diagnose and solve expected problems are to be found and integrated. Thus can dialogue be a useful instrument? And if this is the case, how can this unusual form of discussion be integrated into the daily fully-organized life? Can dialogue essentially change culture and communication in an enterprise? An empirical study carried out at two international companies allows us the gain an insight into the companies and shows us possible ways.     

Wissen managen in Wirtschaftsunternehmen

Since our society has developed to a so called knowledge society, businesses are increasingly recommended to use their knowledge resources in an effective and goal-oriented way in order to ensure their competitiveness and survivability. For this purpose, the choice of instruments should be based on the specific areas and requirements that knowledge management should find answers to.Taking into consideration the success prerequisites and avoiding failure traps can make knowledge management provide valuable and often fallow richness.     

A Cautionary Note on the Use of the Grønnesby and Borgan Goodness-of-Fit Test for the Cox Proportional Hazards Model

Grønnesby and Borgan (1996, Lifetime Data Analysis 2, 315–328) propose an omnibus goodness-of-fit test for the Cox proportional hazards model. The test is based on grouping the subjects by their estimated risk score and comparing the number of observed and a model based estimated number of expected events within each group. We show, using extensive simulations, that even for moderate sample sizes the choice of number of groups is critical for the test to attain the specified size. In light of these results we suggest a grouping strategy under which the test attains the correct size even for small samples. The power of the test statistic seems to be acceptable when compared to other goodness-of-fit tests.