Multiple comparisons to both a negative and a positive control

This paper addresses multiple comparisons in the presence of both a negative and a positive control. The methodology of the three-arm trial is extended to the case of many experimental treatment arms or different doses of a compound. In contrast to the classic three-arm trial, the focus is on the family-wise error type I. Normally distributed data with either homogeneous or heterogeneous group variances are considered. Explicit criteria for an optimal allocation are proposed. Depending on the pattern of heterogeneity, remarkably unbalanced designs are power-optimal. As an example, the method will be applied to a toxicological experiment.     

An integrated nurse staffing and scheduling analysis for longer-term nursing staff allocation problems

The efficient and effective management of nursing personnel is of critical importance in a hospital's environment comprising a vast share of the operational costs. The adopted nurse workforce practices and policies highly affect the nurses' working conditions and the provided quality of care. Policy decisions on the staffing level have an impact on the outcome of the scheduling level and vice versa. Isolated reasoning typically leads to suboptimal decisions often resulting in ineffective outcomes of care. In order to overcome these inefficiencies, we propose in this paper a new integrative nurse staffing and shift scheduling approach. We test and assess the benefits of our approach in a reallife environment. Moreover, we examine the impact of several personnel policies on the staffing decision.     

Technological innovation and operational effectiveness: their role in achieving performance improvements

The purpose of this article is to examine the role of the alignment between technological innovation effectiveness and operational effectiveness after the implementation of enterprise information systems, and the impact of this alignment on the improvement in operational performance. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to examine structural relationships between the set of observed variables and the set of continuous latent variables. The findings from this research suggest that the dimensions stemming from technological innovation effectiveness such as system quality, information quality, service quality, user satisfaction and the performance objectives stemming from operational effectiveness such as cost, quality, reliability, flexibility and speed are important and significantly well-correlated factors. These factors promote the alignment between technological innovation effectiveness and operational effectiveness and should be the focus for managers in achieving effective implementation of technological innovations. In addition, there is a significant and direct influence of this alignment on the improvement of operational performance. The principal limitation of this study is that the findings are based on investigation of small sample size.     

Risk Analysis for Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Operations in Extreme Environments

Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) are used increasingly to explore hazardous marine environments. Risk assessment for such complex systems is based on subjective judgment and expert knowledge as much as on hard statistics. Here, we describe the use of a risk management process tailored to AUV operations, the implementation of which requires the elicitation of expert judgment. We conducted a formal judgment elicitation process where eight world experts in AUV design and operation were asked to assign a probability of AUV loss given the emergence of each fault or incident from the vehicle's life history of 63 faults and incidents. After discussing methods of aggregation and analysis, we show how the aggregated risk estimates obtained from the expert judgments were used to create a risk model. To estimate AUV survival with mission distance, we adopted a statistical survival function based on the nonparametric Kaplan‐Meier estimator. We present theoretical formulations for the estimator, its variance, and confidence limits. We also present a numerical example where the approach is applied to estimate the probability that the Autosub3 AUV would survive a set of missions under Pine Island Glacier, Antarctica in January–March 2009.     

Public Organizations Between Old Public Administration,New Public Management and Public Governance: the Case of the Tuscany Region

This paper analyzes the presence of different managerial approaches in a public organization, the Tuscany Region of Italy. In particular, it highlights the phenomenon of the plurality of frameworks working in the organization, namely Old Public Administration (OPA), New Public Management (NPM) and Public Governance (PG). The transformation and coexistence of the above-mentioned models is tested with a content analysis based on the perspectives of policy makers and top-level managers expressed in interviews and on the context of administration planning and control systems found in documents. Each managerial logic has a different relevance in the organization.     

A qualitative information system for data management

This article traces the path which led to the adaptation of the Information System approach to data management and the use of a Relational Data Base Management System in the Vitrine 2001 project, a research project looking at children's learning activities with computers using qualitative research techniques. The principles which guided the selection and design of the data base, consideration of its advantages, as well as guidelines to help others who may wish to use a similar instrument are also presented.     

Unemployment insurance: Theoretical approaches and empirical evidence

This article analyses the principal theoretical approaches to the effects on the labour market when an unemployment insurance scheme is introduced. The article also reviews the international data derived from such insurance schemes already in use in some European and American economies. The principal conclusion of this study is that an unemployment scheme does not necessarily affect employment decisions adversely, nor does it encourage long-term unemployment. Furthermore, to the extent that this analysis goes beyond the traditional limits of the employment-unemployment relationship and considers the institutional aspects, which can be at least as important as the individual benefits, the effects on employment and on the allocation of resources in the economy can be positive. Finally, the study identifies some criteria to be considered when designing the scheme, such as the level of benefits, the period for which they are granted, the type of beneficiary covered, the type of financing and its relationship to the quality of the information and its complementary role in the process of adapting the labour force to new demands.     

Nondifferentiable errors in beta-compliance integrated logistic models: numerical results

In dose-response models, there are cases where only a portion of the administered dose may have an effect. This results in a stochastic compliance of the administered dose. In a previous paper (Chen-Mok and Sen, 1999), we developed suitable adjustments for compliance in the logistic model under the assumption of nondifferential measurement error. These compliance-adjusted models were categorized into three types: (i) Low (or near zero) dose levels, (ii) moderate dose levels, and (iii) high dose levels. In this paper, we analyze a set of data on the atomic bomb survivors of Japan to illustrate the use of the proposed methods. In addition, we examine the performance of these methods under different conditions based on a simulation study. Among all three cases, the adjustments proposed for the moderate dose case do not seem to work adequately. Both bias and variance are larger when using the adjusted model in comparison with the unadjusted model. The adjustments for the low dose case seem to work in reducing the bias in the estimation of the parameters under all types of compliance distributions. The MSEs, however, are larger under some of the compliance distribution considered. Finally, the results of this simulation study show that the adjustments for the high dose case are successful in achieving both a reduction in bias as well as a reduction in MSE, hence the overall efficiency of the estimation is improved.     

What is “Qualitative” in Qualitative Research? Why the Answer Does not Matter but the Question is Important

Qualitative Sociology - What is qualitative research? Aspers and Corte (2019) make a case for a definition that they believe captures what many qualitative researchers intuitively know. Although I...