Ranking and Prioritization of Emergency Departments Based on Multi-indicator Systems

In this work we discuss how Emergency Departments (EDs) can be ranked on the basis of multiple indicators. This problem is of absolute relevance due to the increasing importance of EDs in regional healthcare systems and it is also complex as the number of indicators that have been proposed in the literature to measure ED performance is very high. Current literature faces this problem using synthetic (or numerically aggregated) indicators of a set of performance measures but, although simple, this solution has a number of drawbacks that make this choice inefficient: a compensation effect among the indicators; a high degree of subjectivism in the indicators weighting; opacity in the decision making; all the EDs are considered to be comparable. Indeed, the situations in which EDs are comparable (i.e. when all the performance of one ED are not lower than the performance indicators of the other) are a minority and incomparability is by itself a source of information that should be used to identify situations for which different policy actions should be designed. In this work we propose to use non compensatory composite indicators and partial ordering theory to rank and compare EDs giving value to the reasons of such an incomparability. These methods are applied on a case study of 19 EDs in an administrative region in Italy.     

A note on the multivariate generalized asymmetric Laplace motion

Abstract

In this note, we use multivariate subordination to introduce a multivariate extension of the generalized asymmetric Laplace motion. The class introduced provides a unified framework for several multivariate extensions of the popular variance gamma process. We also show that the associated time one distribution extends the multivariate generalized asymmetric Laplace distributions proposed in the statistical literature.     

Evolution of Equity Market Risk During the Crisis: Europe, Americas and Asia

A set of regional and country??s equity indices have been evaluated and analysed in their Value at Risk (VaR) and Conditional Value at Risk (CVaR) in this paper, using computational methods based on the Johnson systems. Comparing the main statistics and the values of the two cited measures of financial risk obtained using a roll-over mechanism in the period January 2008?CJuly 2012, the impact of the crisis on equity market risk can be shown. It seems that for all regions and countries the patterns are very similar: there is a peak of all the risk measures adopted at the beginning of the crisis (September 2008?CFebruary 2009) and another turbulent period in 2011 (from July to December). In other terms, the global patterns of the main financially relevant countries and their regional aggregations demonstrate that ??One Financial system??, and just one, is already at work, in theory and in practice. On the other hand, the scale of the risk measures differs from one country to another: e.g., with a probability of 1?%, the potential daily loss on an equity position in Latin America in the worst period arrives to about 25?%, the Emerging Markets as a whole show values around 20?% and Asia arrives to 15?%, while the US and European corresponding values are below 14?%. This is true whatever the risk measure and whatever the confidence interval (which, again, influences strongly the scale of the risk values). Looking in detail to the last period (April 2012?CJuly 2012), a general improvement could be appreciated: the risk measures are all around 4?% if not on one hand Italy and Spain (around 6?%), Greece (around 10?%) and on the other hand the ??virtuous?? Chile (around 1.5?%), again with reference to a probability of 1?%. Nevertheless, indices of performance (expected return over risk measure) have been evaluated and compared. They give sometimes different answers to the risk measures themselves.     

Individual and environmental factors related to job satisfaction in people with severe mental illness employed in social enterprises

Objective: The purpose of this study was to enhance understanding of the impact of individual and environmental variables on job satisfaction among people with severe mental illness employed in social enterprises.Participants: A total of 248 individuals with severe mental illness employed by social enterprises agreed to take part in the study. Methods: We used logistic regression to analyse job satisfaction. A model with job satisfaction as the dependent variable, and both individual (occupational self-efficacy and severity of symptoms perceived) and environmental (workplace) factors (provision of workplace accommodations, social support from co-workers, organizational constraints) as well as external factors (family support) as predictors, was tested on the entire sample. Results: All findings across the study suggest a significant positive impact of both individual and environmental factors on job satisfaction. People with higher occupational self-efficacy who were provided with workplace accommodations and received greater social support were more likely to experience greater job satisfaction.Conclusions: These results suggest that certain features of social enterprises, such as workplace accommodations, are important in promoting job satisfaction in people with severe mental illness. Further studies are warranted to expand knowledge of the workplace features that support employees with severe mental illness in their work integration process.     

Performance measurement systems in SMEs: A review for a research agenda

In recent years, literature has identified the increasing complexity of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and highlighted their sensitivity to differences in managerial culture and management systems. Research has shown that performance measurement systems (PMSs) could play an important role in supporting managerial development in these companies. In this paper, the literature on performance measurement in manufacturing SMEs is reviewed and the diffusion, characteristics and determinants of performance measurement in SMEs are analysed. Shortcomings in the performance measurement systems are highlighted and the many factors that seem to constrain PMSs in manufacturing SMEs are defined, e.g. lack of financial and human resources, wrong perception of the benefits of PMS implementation, short-term strategic planning. Moreover, using dimensions defined according to the information found in the literature, two PMS models specifically developed for SMEs are compared with generic PMS models. The comparison points out an evolution in PMS models over time; in particular, the models developed in the last 20 years are more horizontal, process-oriented and focus on stakeholder needs. However, it is not clear whether these changes are due to the evolution of the generic models or an attempt to introduce models suited to the needs of SMEs. To clarify this matter and better to understand PMSs in SMEs, further theoretical and empirical studies are necessary. The main issues still requiring investigation are listed in a research agenda at the end of the paper.     

Can a Previous Alliance Between an Acquirer and a Target Affect Acquisition Performance?

Throughout the 1990s, organizations have been combining resources through acquisitions and alliances in record numbers. An acquirer’s previous alliance with a target may give an acquirer target-specific information and experience that may be an advantage-producing resource in selection, valuation and integration of the target. This study investigates whether a previous alliance between an acquirer and a target affects post-acquisition performance and finds that a previous alliance between an acquirer and a target correlates positively with acquisition performance. Acquirers’ previous R&D, technology transfer, manufacturing and marketing alliances with targets benefit acquisition performance more than their previous licensing alliances with targets. Furthermore, target-specific learning effects are strongest and most beneficial to acquisition performance in acquirers’ previous technology transfer and manufacturing alliances with targets.     

Fashion,the passage,the body

Studies on transnational cultures have shown that local, national identities are not necessarily subordinated to, or erased by, the globalizing forces of the economy. Rather, the local mediates transnational cultures as well as it is transformed by the crossing of cultural boundaries. Likewise, emerging interdisciplinary and cultural studies approaches to Latin(o) popular music examine the ways in which musical production, circulation and reception create cultural spaces that challenge hegemonic notions of national identity and discrete cultural boundaries. This article examines the figure of the Queen of Salsa, Celia Cruz, and the tensions among the multiple, transnational subjectivities that are constituted through her musical repertoire, her performances on stage, the aesthetics of her body, and her public statements in interviews. Having spanned more than sixty years of performances and recordings, Celia Cruz's diverse repertoire and musical selections have served as a performative locus for the negotiations of her Cubanness (her exile and national identity) and a hemispheric, Latin American identity that also includes the United States. Likewise, her construction of blackness as an Afro-Cuban woman transforms and is transformed by her collaborations with African-American musicians and singers, from jazz to hip-hop. Celia Cruz has also crossed racial and cultural boundaries by collaborating with Anglo musicians and by tropicalizing rock music. Her staged persona and her body aesthetics also reveal the fluidity with which the Queen of Latin music assumes diverse racial, national and historical identities while she simultaneously asserts her Cubanness through the use of Spanish on stage. Celia Cruz serves as a complex and intriguing icon of the relational nature of nationalism and transnationalism.     

A pseudo-values regression model for non-fatal event free survival in the presence of semi-competing risks

Statistical Methods & Applications - During follow-up patients may experience non-fatal events related to disease progression and death. This is a “semi-competing risks” setting, as...