Provision Of Management Services Research Articles

SHOULD CALIFORNIA'S PUBLIC POLICY ON JUDICIAL NON-JURISDICTION OVER GAMBLING DEBTS BE REVISITED? BREAKING DOWN THE KELLY AND POSTLE DECISIONS

SHOULD CALIFORNIA'S PUBLIC POLICY ON JUDICIAL NON-JURISDICTION OVER GAMBLING DEBTS BE REVISITED? BREAKING DOWN THE <i>KELLY</i> AND <i>POSTLE</i> DECISIONS

Factors influencing the simultaneous adoption of risk management instruments in Mediterranean irrigated agriculture

Agriculture is highly impacted by different sources of risk. There is a wide variety of management instruments that farmers can use to cover these risks. The objective of this article is to analyze the explanatory variables for the simultaneous adoption of a large set of risk management instruments. The main innovation is the methodological approach: first, we apply a hierarchical cluster analysis to identify the groups of instruments whose adoption is correlated; second, we use multivariate probit (MVP) models to analyze the influence of different factors on the simultaneous adoption of the instruments included in each cluster. The explanatory variables capture farmers’ socio-demographic features, risk aversion and subjective perception of past risk experience; farms’ technical-economic characteristics; and local-level climate change. The results reveal significant differences in the variables influencing the adoption of the risk management instruments. The findings can support farmers, risk management service providers, and policymakers.

Value Chain Analysis of Rattan in Nepal

This study highlights the existing situations of production, value addition, marketing and uses of rattan cane in Nepal. Rattan enterprises exist as a small and medium enterprise (SME) within and outside the community forest user groups. The study was designed based on the exploratory research and was carried out in Kailali and Bardiya districts. The main objective was to assess the constraints and opportunities of rattan cane enterprise as well as design business solutions. Systematic random sampling method was followed to take the sampling of CFUGs, households and small and medium enterprises. Primary data was collected through focus group discussions, key informants interview, direct observations, open-ended questionnaires, and inventory of growing stock. Similarly, secondary data was collected from progress reports, Forest Operational Plans, audit reports and records of community forest user groups and Division Forest Offices. Sampling design was ascertained representing sampling units of rattan managed Community Forest User Groups and processing industries. The questionnaire survey was conducted to executive committee members of 8 Community Forest User Groups, 526 households and 12 rattan processing industries/ enterprises. Direct observation and interaction with CFUG and entrepreneurs were another major source of information. The quantitative data was analyzed using SPSS 20 and Microsoft Excel software tools. The identified major constraints concerning the selected value chains were: absence of detailed resource inventory in the approved Forest Operational Plans; inadequate knowledge about resource management, poor capacity to incorporate environmental policy concerns, weak business competitiveness, insufficient information about market and poor marketing knowledge. The study also identified a number of opportunities both in the community as well as enterprise perspective. For example, resource potential and monetary benefits to the community people; contribution in community development, involvement of service providers in forest resource management; employment generation and leveraging ecosystem services. The findings suggested technical and business solutions for the effective value chain of rattan cane.

Outsourcing Your Information Technology Support? Some Key Lessons in How to Make It Work for Your Organization

Outsourcing information technology (IT) within organizations is one of the more popular ways that organizations are able to maintain focus and competitiveness. To complete this outsourcing process, organizations turn to IT managed service providers (IT MSPs). IT MSPs have had no trouble acquiring customers. The problem is keeping these customers. As per Computer Weekly, the customer turnover for MSPs is as high as four customers leaving for every five that are acquired. For someone that has spent years on both sides of the table, working for the IT MSPs and experiencing the IT MSPs as a customer, here are five key lessons that will increase the odds of IT MSP success at your organization.

Effects of improved information and volunteer support on segregation of solid waste at the household level in urban settings in Madhya Pradesh, India (I-MISS): protocol of a cluster randomized controlled trial

BackgroundSegregation of household waste at the source is an effective and sustainable strategy for management of municipal waste. However, household segregation levels remain insufficient as waste management approaches are mostly top down and lack local support. The realisation and recognition of effective, improved and adequate waste management may be one of the vital drivers for attaining environmental protection and improved health and well-being. The presence of a local level motivator may promote household waste segregation and ultimately pro-environmental behaviour. The present cluster randomized control trial aims to understand if volunteer based information on waste segregation (I-MISS) can effectively promote increased waste segregation practices at the household level when compared with existing routine waste segregation information in an urban Indian setting.MethodsThis paper describes the protocol of an 18 month two-group parallel,cluster randomised controlled trialin the urban setting of Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, India. Randomization will be conducted at ward level, which is the last administrative unit of the municipality. The study will recruit 425 households in intervention and control groups. Assessments will be performed at baseline (0 months), midline (6 months), end line (12 months) and post intervention (18 months). The primary outcome will be the comparison of change in proportion of households practicing waste segregation and change in proportion of mis-sorted waste across the study period between the intervention and control groups as assessed by pick analysis. Intention to treat analysis will be conducted. Written informed consent will be obtained from all participants.DiscussionThe present study is designed to study whether an external motivator, a volunteer selected from the participating community and empowered with adequate training, could disseminate waste segregation information to their community, thus promoting household waste segregation and ultimately pro-environmental behaviour. The study envisages that the volunteers could link waste management service providers and the community, give a local perspective to waste management, and help to change community habits through information, constant communication and feedback.Trial registrationThe study is registered prospectively with Indian Council of Medical Research- Clinical Trial Registry of India (CTRI/2020/03/024278).

ESTABLISH A CUSTOMER PROPERTY SERVICE STRATEGY FRAMEWORK

The property management services sector in China is developing rapidly, contributing significantly to employment and income. We have made recommendations for service differentiation and low costs so that even with limited resources, property management services can distribute their services effectively, reduce unnecessary costs, and implement an optimal plan. This study helps property management service providers understand the needs and expectations of customers because it is a key factor contributing to the success of the business. Based on the consumer and service quality (SERVQUAL) theories, this study applies the fuzzy Delphi method (FDM) and the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method to construct a quality evaluation scale for property management service companies and determine key property management service items that are valued most by customers and operators in this sector. The results show that it is feasible to determine accurately factors that are used to quantify the competitiveness of the existing market and identify improvements to ensure a win–win situation for both customers and companies in this sector.

Mapping the burden of diabetes in five small countries in Europe and setting the agenda for health policy and strategic action

BackgroundDiabetes is a global epidemic affecting every country. Small countries, however, face distinctive challenges related to their health system governance and their ability to implement effective health systems’ reforms. The aim of this research was to perform a comparative assessment of existing diabetes management practices at the population level and explore governmental-related policy for Cyprus, Iceland, Luxembourg, Malta and Montenegro. This is the first time that such an evidence-based review study has been performed in the field of diabetes. The overall purpose was to set the agenda for health policy and inform strategic actions for small countries that can benefit from dealing with the diabetes epidemic at a country level.MethodsWe collected data and synthesized the evidence on dealing with diabetes for each of the five small European countries according to the (1) epidemiology of diabetes and other related metabolic abnormalities, (2) burden of diabetes status and (3) diabetes registers and national plans. We collected data by contacting Ministry representatives and other bodies in each state, and by searching through publicly available information from the respective Ministry of Health website on strategies and policies.ResultsDiabetes rates were highest in Cyprus and Malta. National diabetes registers are present in Cyprus and Montenegro, while national diabetes plans and diabetes-specific strategies have been established in Cyprus, Malta and Montenegro. These three countries also offer a free holistic healthcare service to their diabetes population.ConclusionsMultistakeholder, national diabetes plans and public health strategies are important means to provide direction on diabetes management and health service provision at the population level. However, political support is not always present, as seen for Iceland. The absence of evidence-based strategies, lack of funding for conducting regular health examination surveys, omission of monitoring practices and capacity scarcity are among the greatest challenges faced by small countries to effectively measure health outcomes. Nevertheless, we identified means of how these can be overcome. For example, the creation of public interdisciplinary repositories enables easily accessible data that can be used for health policy and strategic planning. Health policy-makers, funders and practitioners can consider the use of regular health examination surveys and other tools to effectively manage diabetes at the population level.

The diverse effects of private competitors on public service performance: evidence from New Jersey’s school system

An important question underlying government policies that aim to introduce competition from the private sector into public service markets, is whether the presence of privately managed service providers affects the performance of public providers. On the one side, neoclassical economic theory would predict that competition from the private sector has a positive effect on public service performance. However, on the other side, institutional theories would predict a negative, or no effect at all. Using a 9-year panel data set of New Jersey schools, we find some evidence for both models. In most cases, the presence of privately managed charter schools is associated with an increase in public school performance, but the expansion of charter schools is associated with a decrease in performance. Our findings suggest that the effects of private competitors on public service performance are diverse and that multiple mechanisms can be at play simultaneously.

Avoiding costly downtime – how MSPs can manage their networks

For managed service providers (MSPs), managing a network is a big responsibility. Availability is the top priority in order to provide customers with constant access to critical applications that help to ensure that their businesses are able to function. 1 When a network goes down this can be due to a variety of causes such as cyber attack, hardware failure or human error and this downtime can be extremely costly. ITIC's latest ‘Global Server Hardware, Server OS Reliability Survey’ found that a single hour of downtime now costs 98% of firms at least $100,000. 2 For managed service providers (MSPs), managing a network is a big responsibility. When it goes down – perhaps as the result of a cyber attack – the results can be costly. The need for network resilience has become even greater during the pandemic. The requirement to work from home has placed increased strain on networks and greater importance on seamless connectivity. The need for MSPs to ensure greater resilience and uptime may be here to stay, says Brendan Walsh of Opengear.

Gender-Based Violence Case Management Service

Gender-based violence (GBV) against women and girls is one of the most prevalent human rights violations being practiced across different countries, including Ethiopia. The main objective of the study is to assess the GBV case management service and associated factors on female survivors at the Association for Women Sanctuary and Development, Ethiopia. The mixed research approach that includes both quantitative and qualitative was employed with an institutional-based cross-sectional survey design. A total of 110 survivors were included in the study from two safehouses. A structured questionnaire was used as a survey instrument and interview guide employed for qualitative data collection. The factors associated with GBV were identified for analysis and categorized into individual, relationship, community, and societal level factors. A binary logistic regression and thematic analysis were used for quantitative and qualitative data, respectively. Findings indicate that survivors were brought to a safehouse due to sexual, physical, and psychological or verbal abuse. Most of the violence was committed by an intimate partner, relatives, and strangers. About 35.5% of survivors were not getting appropriate gender-based case management services. There is a need for urgent attention of those stakeholders who are engaged in the provision of case management services to improve their services regarding the four principles of GBV case management services, namely right to safety, confidentiality, respect, and dignity, plus the right to the best possible assistance without discrimination.

Knowledge mobilisation in public service reform: integrating empirical, technical and practical wisdom

Background Public service practitioners on all levels aim to solve increasingly complex policy problems by making use of different forms of evidence. While there are many complex models of knowledge mobilisation, not enough attention is paid to the types of knowledge that are mobilised for public service reform. Ward (2017) has returned to Aristotle’s knowledge types; empirical, technical and practice wisdom, to address this gap. Aims and objectives This paper applies the theoretical work of Ward (2017) and Flyvbjerg (2001) to the everyday work and practice of frontline public service providers with the aim of identifying core elements of knowledge mobilisation in the practice of public service reform in the context of local governance. Methods The data is from a case study of a Scottish local authority conducted as part of the What Works Scotland research programme. The paper derives insights from 16 qualitative interviews with service providers in housing, waste management, policing and greenspace services, and 12 observations, analysed using thematic analysis. Findings The findings suggest that empirical or technical knowledge is not sufficient on its own for sustainable solutions to localised policy problems. The practice wisdom of service providers, balancing ethical concerns with diverse perspectives, is a form of knowledge that is not fully valued or recognised in public service reform. Discussion and conclusions Future research should aim to understand how the integration of empirical, technical and practice knowledge might be achieved through more co-productive relationships between researchers, knowledge mobilisers and service providers.

A Computer Security System for Cloud Computing Based on Encryption Technique

In recent years, progressively data proprietors have embraced cloud storage service, by which they will subcontract their data to the cloud server to significantly reduce the local storage overhead, due to the rapid growth in the cloud computing market and development. Cloud computing is the delivery of hosting services that are provided to clients over the web. It is quite common, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that may be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. Sensitive information on the cloud is developing unexpectedly and bringing up several challenges and massive security concerns of the modern-day world. The cloud data and services reside in massively scalable data centers and may be accessed ubiquitously. Some issues concern in accessing this data is the security and confidentiality of consumer data in phrases of its location, relocation, availability, and security. Numerous users are surfing the Cloud for various purposes, therefore, they have highly safe and protracted services. The long run of the cloud, especially in expanding the range of applications, involves away the deeper degree of privacy, and authentication. Because of the safety concern associated with cloud computing, this paper presents a Computer Security System for Cloud Computing by employing a simple data protection model where data is encrypted using Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) technique before it is launched to the cloud, thus ensuring data confidentiality and security which is implemented with packet tracer.

Plugging Gaps in Payment Systems: Evidence from the Take-Up of New Medicare Billing Codes

Over the last decade, the U.S. Medicare program has added new billing codes to enhance the financial rewards for Chronic Care Management and Transitional Care Management. We show that the take-up of these new billing codes is gradual and exhibits substantial variations across markets and physician groups, indicating that frictions to take-up may delay the impacts of payment reforms. We show that patterns of care and billing code substitution and complementarity can be important for assessing the costs and care access impacts of payment reforms. In our particular context, we estimate that the new Transitional Care Management codes had substantial impacts on the overall provision of evaluation and management services, flu vaccinations, and other recommended services, while the new Chronic Care Management codes did not. These patterns of complementarity shape both the costs and benefits of the introduction of these payment reforms, including the effects of the new billing codes on the overall return to specializing in primary care.

Effects of privacy concern, risk, and information control in a smart tourism destination

Smart tourism destinations are growing, with the use and implementation of technology to make travel more enjoyable. Still, the tourist's information privacy concerns generated by the big data available to the destination and service providers is a significant problem for smart tourism, which can affect the sustainability and economic benefit of the smart tourism destination. This study investigates privacy concern, perceived risk, control of information, service provider trust in a smart tourism destination, and the resulting behavioural intentions. The results were obtained using an online survey of 384 respondents that have visited the smart tourism destination Dubai. The results indicated that use context as an environmental factor helps mitigate the tourists' negative privacy concerns and perceived risk towards trust in a smart tourism destination. Furthermore, previous privacy violation experience as a personal factor was negatively related to trust in the smart tourism destination and the service providers. The study provides meaningful contributions on smart tourism to destination management organizations (DMO's) and service providers on what influences and mitigates the privacy concern of the tourists using mobile application location-based services available in a smart tourism destination, building on the social cognitive theory.

Деякі питання запобігання корупції в органах місцевого самоврядування

Today, the problem of overcoming corruption is acute for all public authorities, but its existence in local self-government bodies has dangerous consequences, because corruption manifestations in the activities of the police undermine public confidence in public authorities, which are the closest to the population. The article considers the main causes of corruption in local self-government bodies, the most common types of abuse of power, defines the components of the administrative and legal mechanism and provides a description of measures to prevent corruption in local self-government bodies. Combating corruption in local self-government bodies requires a systematic approach and the application of a set of scientifically based measures, in the process of implementation of which one of the main areas of activity, in our opinion, should be active work to identify, promote and implement in practice the moral and ethical principles of the functioning of the public service as an institution for providing management services to citizens and legal entities.

Analysis of a Decentralized Mobility Management Support for u-City Wireless Network Infrastructure

The number of mobile devices roaming into a ubiquitous city (u-city) continues to rise as wireless systems have been widely deployed. The number of mobile devices also varies with time, and they tend to frequently change their locations. In addition, the available wireless access networks may belong to different domains, administrations, management, and internet service providers (ISPs). A fusion of overlapping heterogeneous wireless access networks (e.g., WiMax, Wi-Fi, LTE, etc.) serves the u-city in order to reach different coverage. In this context, technical challenges arise in mobility management for heterogeneous networks to realize their potential coverage and capacity benefits. This paper deals with the analysis of a decentralized mobility management support for u-City wireless network infrastructure. This scheme takes advantage of the features of the fully-distributed model of networked-based mobility management protocol to alleviate and realize the ubiquitous requirements of a u-City.

Performance of Events Management Service Providers within the Weddings Subsector, in Nairobi County, Kenya

The purpose of the study was to investigate the factors influencing performance of events management service providers in Nairobi County, Kenya with a view to highlight the most salient determinants of event management success. Event Management Body of Knowledge (EMBOK) constituted the theoretical framework for this research. The study adopted a descriptive research design. The population of the study was 196 event management companies in Nairobi. A modest sample of 39 of the companies was selected using stratified random technique. Data was collected using a structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistical techniques such as percentage frequencies, mean and standard deviations was used to analyze data. The data was presented in the form of frequency tables, charts and graphs for ease of analysis and interpretation. The study established that in terms of performance rating, customer satisfaction was the highest (M=4.77, SD=0.430), followed by time efficiency (M=4.70, SD=0.466), and budget efficiency (M=3.37, SD=0.490) while profitability was the least rated on a 5-point scale (M=2.97, SD=0.718). The results showed that on aggregate, event risk factors potentially had the greatest influence on wedding event management performance (M=4.43, SD=0.549), followed by event administration factors (M=4.30, SD=0,604) and lastly, event operation factors (M=4.19, SD=0.576). The study concluded that Event risk factors was the most salient determinant of event management success. This was reflected in the emphasis put on astuteness in decision making as a basic requirement for surviving and thriving in the wedding event management business as well as risk prevention measures through detailed security, health and safety measures as well as legal compliance to mitigate risks. Event operation followed as the second EMBOK domain that potentially influenced performance of wedding event management service providers. A number of event operation factors were especially salient such as the experience of the staff team. Time management was also a critical success factor in tow, as was budgetary issues, whereby difficulty in accurately estimating the budget due to price fluctuations was a key challenge confronting player in the wedding industry. Event operation factors also did potentially influence performance of wedding event management companies although not as much as event risk or administration domains. The study recommends that event management companies should develop risk-adjusted budgets that should inform quotation decisions. Wedding budgets need to be informed by a thorough research and forecasting of future prices and changes that may take place as the event date neared. In order to reduce exposure to price fluctuations and enhance budget efficiency, event management companies should sign hedge contracts with the main vendors and suppliers in a wedding. Further, the experience of the staff needs to form the basis of hiring decisions in an event management firm. These findings could be useful to events management service providers as they seek to deliver quality services to their clients.

Factors associated with the intensity of government remunerated and unremunerated service provision in community pharmacies.

Many community pharmacies provide medication and disease state management services with and without specific remuneration. Availability of these services is often reported, however little is known about factors influencing the intensity of their provision. To investigate factors associated with the intensity of provision of selected government remunerated and unremunerated community pharmacy services in Western Australia (WA). A questionnaire was mailed to a random sample of 421/628 (67%) community pharmacies in WA. The first dependent variable was intensity of government remunerated MedsCheck and Diabetes MedsCheck service frequencies per month. The second was the intensity of the sum of government unremunerated asthma screening, blood glucose testing, cholesterol testing and smoking cessation disease state management service frequencies per week. Principal Component Analysis defined attitudinal components influencing service provision. Linear regression with bootstrap confidence intervals determined variables associated with intensity of provision of the selected services. The variables were: pharmacist; pharmacy setting characteristics; and, attitudinal factors. The questionnaire yielded a response rate of 49.2%. Attitudinal components that facilitated service provision were: general practitioners (GPs) willingness to collaborate; pharmacists are capable and ready; and pharmacists require further training. Staff capability and low return on investment were barriers to increased service provision. The intensity of government remunerated services was independently associated with pharmacies having pharmacy interns, fewer dispensary technicians, and being capable and ready to provide the services. Higher intensity of the provision of the unremunerated disease state management services was independently associated with the intensity of provision of MedsCheck and Diabetes MedsCheck services. Improved pharmacy workflow, achieved by the availability of pharmacy interns, and pharmacists being capable and ready, were important factors in the intensity of MedsCheck and Diabetes MedsCheck services. Intensity of the provision of government remunerated services facilitated a higher prevalence of disease state management services provision.

Reducing Attribute Non-Attendance Risk in Choice Experiment: An application of Design Attribute Relative Importance Index for Waste Management Service Provision in Segmented Markets

Attribute non-attendance is an estimation problem that biases welfare estimates in the economic valuation of environmental goods when choice experiment (CE) is used. The potential for observing the problem is increased when segmented markets with dissimilar preferences exist for environmental goods but not captured in the experimental design for CE. The current procedure for avoiding this problem relies on qualitative techniques, which limits applications to large samples and thus prone to bias. To reduce such bias, this study used an alternative technique based on the design-attribute relative importance index (DARII) to determine respondents’ prioritization of attributes within and across markets. Our results in solid waste management services demonstrate that all selected attributes were highly ranked across markets. While such finding conforms to expectations based on the interview, we found a statistically significant difference in attributes prioritization across markets. We thus conclude that assuming equal priority for attributes in different market segments may be improper but possibly tangled when the qualitative method is used. As such, the study recommends CE studies to use DARII before the experimental design stage.

A new kind of gatekeeper: The increasing prevalence of Advanced Practice Nurses as case managers in US hospitals.

Case management is a representation of managed care, cost-containment organizational practices in healthcare, where managed care and its constitutive parts are situated against physician autonomy and decision-making. As a professional field, case management has evolved considerably, with the role recently taken up increasingly by Advanced Practice Nurses in various health care settings. We look at this evolution of a relatively new work task for Advanced Practice Nurses using a countervailing powers perspective, which allows us to move beyond discussions of case management effectiveness and best practices, and draw connections to trends in the social organization of healthcare, especially hospitals. We evaluated organizational (hospital-level) and environmental (county and state-level) characteristics associated with hospitals' use of Advanced Practice Nurses as case managers, using data from U.S. community acute care hospitals for 2016-2018, collected from three data sources: American Hospital Association annual survey (AHA), Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and Area Resource File. Among organizational characteristics, we found that hospitals that are a part of established Accountable Care Organizations (OR = 2.55, p = 0.009; 95% CI = 1.26-5.14) and those that serve higher acuity patients, as indicated by possessing a higher Case Mix Index (OR = 1.32, p = 0.001; 95% CI = 1.13-1.55), were more likely to use Advanced Practice Nurses as case managers. Among environmental characteristics, having higher local Advanced Practice Nurses concentrations (OR = 1.24, p < 0.001; 95% CI = 1.11-1.39) was associated with hospital Advanced Practice Nurses case management service provision. Beyond the health impacts of Covid-19, its associated recession is placing families, governments and insurers under unprecedented financial stress. Governments and insurers alike are looking to reduce costs anywhere possible. This will inevitably result in increasing amounts of managed care, and decreasing reimbursements to hospitals, likely resulting in higher demand for APRN patient navigators.