Home About us Contact
|
Home About us Contact | ||
|
|
||
Structural Dimensions (structural + dimension)
Selected AbstractsAccessibility, continuity and appropriateness: key elements in assessing integration of perinatal servicesHEALTH & SOCIAL CARE IN THE COMMUNITY, Issue 5 2003Danielle D'Amour RN PhD Abstract A trend toward the reduction in the length of hospital stays has been widely observed. This increasing shift is particularly evident in perinatal care. A stay of less than 48 hours after delivery has been shown to have no negative effects on the health of either the mother or the baby as long as they receive an adequate follow-up. This implies a close integration between hospital and community health services. The present article addresses the following questions: To what extent are postnatal services accessible to mothers and neonates? Are postnatal services in the community in continuity with those of the hospital? Are the services provided by the appropriate source of care? The authors conducted a telephone survey among 1158 mothers in a large urban area in the province of Quebec, Canada. The results were compared to clinical guidelines widely recognised by professionals. The results show serious discrepancies with these guidelines. The authors found a low accessibility to services: less than half of the mothers received a home visit by a nurse. In terms of continuity of care, less than 10% of the mothers received a follow-up telephone call within the recommended time frame and only 18% benefited from a home visit within the recommended period. Finally, despite guidelines to the contrary, hospitals continue to intervene after discharge. This results in a duplication of services for 44.7% of the new-borns. On the other hand, 40.7% are not seen in the recommended period after hospital discharge at all. These results raise concerns about the integration of services between agencies. Following earlier work, the present authors have grouped explanatory factors under four dimensions: the strategic dimension, particularly leadership; the structural dimension, including the size of the network; the technological dimension, with respect to information transmission system; and the cultural dimension, which concerns the collaboration process and the development of relationships based on trust. [source] The "externalization" of labour lawINTERNATIONAL LABOUR REVIEW, Issue 1-2 2009Antonio OJEDA AVILÉS Abstract. The powerful process of labour law adjustment which, for some three decades, experts have looked upon as one of fragmentation , not to say disintegration , into evermore disconnected subfields is turning into a general trend that looks set to take on a structural dimension. An expansionary drive is indeed taking labour law into alien territories, seemingly jeopardizing its identity and traditional boundaries, albeit with a symbiotic interchange of reciprocal influences. This article analyses six avenues of expansion which have been observed in Europe and in some American and Asian countries. [source] Assessment of Protection Systems for Buried Steel Pipelines Endangered by RockfallCOMPUTER-AIDED CIVIL AND INFRASTRUCTURE ENGINEERING, Issue 5 2005Bernhard Pichler First, a gravel-based protection system (GBPS) is investigated, that is, a pipeline buried in sandy gravel is considered. To assess the load-carrying behavior of this structure when subjected to rockfall, a finite element (FE) model has been developed. The development and the validation of this structural model are strictly separated, that is, they are based on two physically and statistically independent sets of experiments. Subsequently, scenarios of rockfall onto a gravel-buried steel pipe are analyzed considering different boundary conditions and structural dimensions. Following the conclusions drawn from these numerical analyses, an enhanced protection system (EPS) is proposed. It consists of gravel as an energy-absorbing and impact-damping system and a buried steel plate resting on walls made of concrete representing a load-carrying structural component. The potential and the limitations of both protection systems are discussed in detail. [source] A simplified analysis of interface failure under compressive normal stress and monotonic or cyclic shear loadingINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR NUMERICAL AND ANALYTICAL METHODS IN GEOMECHANICS, Issue 4 2005Zenon Mróz Abstract Interface damage and delamination is usually accompanied by frictional slip at contacting interfaces under compressive normal stress. The present work is concerned with an analysis of progressive interface failure using the cohesive crack model with the critical stress softening and frictional traction present at the contact. Both monotonic and cyclic loadings are considered for anti-plane shear of an elastic plate bonded to a rigid substrate by means of cohesive interface. An analytical solution can be obtained by neglecting the effect of minor shear stress component. The analysis of progressive delamination process revealed three solution types, namely: short, medium and long plate solutions. The long plate solution was obtained under an assumption of quasistatic progressive growth of the delamination zone. In view of snap back response, the quasistatic deformation process cannot be executed by either traction or displacement control. The states of frictional slip accompanied by shake down or incremental failure are distinguished in the case of cyclic loading, related to load amplitude and structural dimensions. The analysis provides a reference solution for numerical treatment of more complex cases. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Blogging Practices: An Analytical FrameworkJOURNAL OF COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION, Issue 4 2007Jan Schmidt This article proposes a general model to analyze and compare different uses of the blog format. Based on ideas from sociological structuration theory, as well as on existing blog research, it argues that individual usage episodes are framed by three structural dimensions of rules, relations, and code, which in turn are constantly (re)produced in social action. As a result, "communities of blogging practices" emerge-that is, groups of people who share certain routines and expectations about the use of blogs as a tool for information, identity, and relationship management. This analytical framework can be the basis for systematic comparative and longitudinal studies that will further understanding of similarities and differences in blogging practices. [source] Mobilizing Foucault: history, subjectivity and autonomous learners in nurse educationNURSING INQUIRY, Issue 4 2008Chris Darbyshire In the past 20, years the impact of progressive educational theories have become influential in nurse education particularly in relation to partnership and empowerment between lecturers and students and the development of student autonomy. The introduction of these progressive theories was in response to the criticisms that nurse education was characterized by hierarchical and asymmetrical power relationships between lecturers and students that encouraged rote learning and stifled student autonomy. This article explores how the work of Michel Foucault can be mobilized to think about autonomy in three different yet overlapping ways: as a historical event; as a discursive practice; and as part of an overall strategy to produce a specific student subject position. The implications for educational practice are that, rather than a site where students are empowered, nurse education is both a factory and a laboratory where new subjectivities are continually being constructed. This suggests that empowering practices and disciplinary practices uneasily co-exist. Critical reflection needs to be directed not only at structural dimensions of power but also on ourselves as students and lecturers by asking a Foucauldian question: How are you interested in autonomy? [source] | |||||||||||||