Renewal Of Contracts Research Articles

Cost Optimization in Cloud Computing: Capacity Reservation for Intermittent Random Demand Surges

The adoption of cloud computing has been accelerating over the last decade, while enterprise cloud users (“firms”) are struggling to manage their growing cloud expenditures in the face of intermittent digital demand surges caused by planned or random events. To deal with such challenges, a firm can employ reserved instances with the standard contract length (e.g., one year) to meet the stationary base demand, which we refer to as the base contracts, complemented by additional reserved instances with either standard or shorter contract lengths, which we refer to as the supplementary contracts, to cope with the demand surges. We first analyze a model whereby the surge and inter-surge durations are deterministic, demand magnitude is random, and cancellation of the reservations is allowed. We develop a capacity management plan for the firm including not only the optimal capacity levels, which follow a newsvendor-type solution, but also the optimal policy for managing the purchase, renewal, cancellation, or expiration of the supplementary contracts, which can be characterized as a two-threshold policy. Due to the complexity of the structure of the optimal policy, we also construct an effective heuristic policy by excluding the renewal option from the action space, which can be applied to a more general setting where the surge and inter-surge durations are random. We examine two model extensions: (1) when trades of reserved instances are allowed in a secondary marketplace; (2) when the firm does not have exact information about the distributions of the surge magnitude and duration while it can adjust the capacity levels as data unveils. Our analysis shows that the optimal policy for managing the supplementary contracts depends on the relative magnitude of the surge and inter-surge durations in relationship to the cancellation fee. Moreover, our numerical results show that cloud platforms that offer a secondary marketplace are more attractive to firms from a cost standpoint than those that allow cancellation only. The latter, without the secondary marketplace, however, can achieve parity with the former by offering a deeper discount rate for the reserved instances, thereby bypassing the cost of administering the secondary marketplace.

Willingness to maintain contracts with family doctors among Chinese residents: results from one national cross-sectional study and a meta-analysis of 25 studies.

A number of studies have investigated the influencing factors regarding the renewal of contracts associated with Family Doctor Contract Services (FDCS) in different regions of China since it was officially implemented in 2009; however, none of the previous studies have been considered using a nationally representative sample in combination with a meta-analysis. A multistage stratified sampling method was used to investigate participants' socio-demographic characteristics, health status, understanding, use, and evaluation of the FDCS, and their willingness to renew contracts in Eastern, Central, and Western China from September to November 2021. We searched the PubMed, Ovid Medline, CNKI, VIP, Wanfang, and SinoMed databases to retrieve previous studies related to the willingness of Chinese residents to renew contracts with their family doctor (FD), and a meta-analysis was performed to systematically summarize the willingness to maintain contracts and influencing factors. Among 2,394 residents, 2,122 (88.64%) were willing to renew their contracts. The mixed-effect logistic regression model results demonstrated that residents who (1) preferred primary health service institutions, (2) had a better knowledge of FDCS, (3) were more willing to visit primary health service after signing the contract with FDs, (4) were not intending to change FDs, (5) were satisfied with FDCS, and (6) trusted in FDs reported a higher level of willingness to maintain contracts with FDs. Our meta-analysis confirmed that older age, being married, having chronic diseases, choosing primary medical institutions for the first contact, having a good knowledge of FDCS/FDs, being satisfied with FDCS and the medical skills of FDs, and trusting FDs were all positively associated with residents' willingness to renew contracts (p < 0.05). The willingness of consumers to maintain contracts with FDs in China varies in different areas. Giving priority services to groups of high need contributed to an improved rate of renewal. We suggest that in order to continue to increase annual contract renewal, it is necessary to strengthen consumer awareness through effective marketing and continue to work toward meeting consumer expectations, thereby increasing confidence and trust in FDCS.

Implementasi Multi Akad Dalam Transaksi Ekonomi Syariah

The renewal of muamalah contracts is very important for the development of more dynamic, progressive and innovative Islamic banking products, so that they can compete with existing conventional banking products. The purpose of this study was to examine the legal basis and design of these multiple contracts and their application in Islamic banking products. The method used in this research is library research. with research. The results of this study are that one of the constructive efforts that is very helpful in developing Islamic banking products is al-jam'u bainal uqud/multi contract, this is a new contract that has never been discussed in classical fiqh books. Scholars allow these multiple contracts as long as they do not violate Islamic principles and values ​​because the purpose of the contracts is to clarify rights and obligations and avoid tyranny that leads to the benefit of humans in this world and the hereafter. Multi contracts in musyarakah mutanaqishah products, namely, syirkah, ijarah, and buying and selling, these contracts form one product, in ijarah Muntiyah bit-tamlik, namely wa'd contracts (promises), ijarah and buying and selling also form one product. These contracts become integrated or there is ta'alluq or attachment and linkages between contracts.&#x0D; Keywords: Multi Contract, Musyarakah Mutanaqisah, Ijarah Muntakiya Bit-Tamlik

비정규직 노동자의 심리적 어려움에 대한 질적 연구: 근로계약 체결 반복 경험을 중심으로

The purpose of this study is to examine the phenomenon that non-regular workers experience subjectively in the process of repeatedly signing contracts of ‘termination and renewal of contracts’ in order to maintain employment, and to derive the essence and meaning of this experience. To this end, in-depth interviews were conducted with 6 non-regular workers who had repeatedly experienced the conclusion of labor contracts while working as non-regular workers, and the collected interview data were analyzed using the descriptive phenomenology research method of Giorgi (2009). As a result of the study, the experience of psychological difficulties of non-regular workers who repeatedly signed labor contracts was derived with 6 components and 14 sub-components. The six components are ‘hope torture begins’, ‘struggling in the snare of renewal contract’, ‘relative deprivation spreads through life’, ‘employment contract shapes the meaning of work’, and ‘the responsibility of the head of the family is strict’, appeared as ‘The union becomes a support and creates tomorrow’. This study seeks to expand the understanding of the psychological difficulties of non-regular workers and their awareness of job insecurity by exploring the experiences of non-regular workers repeatedly signing labor contracts, and to provide a basis for in-depth discussions on their experiences to provide a professional solution for them. It is meaningful in that it presents the implications of assistance and intervention measures.

Assessment and Applicability of Various Elements of Quality Assurance in Histopathology Laboratory: A Study from A Tertiary Care Hospital in Eastern Region of India

Abstract Background Quality control in histopathology is relatively newer concept and less understood because of its subjectivity. Aim:The present study was conducted to assess and determine applicability of the different elements of quality assurance in the histopathology laboratory of a tertiary care hospital in eastern region of India. Material and methods: An observational, retrospective and analytic study for one year and three months was conducted. 2000 samples were selected by simple random sampling including the biopsy specimens and cell blocks received in the histopathology laboratory. Results:Of the 2000 samples, 1880 (94%) were accepted and 120 rejected (6%) due to mainly pre analytical factors. Of the rejected samples, 35 samples (29.2%) were without proper fixative, 48 samples (40%) had incomplete requisition forms, 37 samples (30.8%) had incomplete/ absent clinical history. Lack of adherence to standard tissue fixation protocols were observed in 55 cases (2.75%). Inadequate preventive maintenance and delay in renewal of maintenance contracts were the most common cause of failure of maintenance of equipment. Improper staining was found in 35 cases (1.75%). Grossing of specimens were inadequate in 104 cases (5.2%). Concurrence in diagnosis was found in majority cases (1892 cases, 94.6%). Random case review was done with adequate precision (97.5%) and accuracy (96.6 %). Maintenance of turnaround time was found in most cases (1800 cases, 90%). Conclusion: Standard operating procedures, training of staffs, equipment maintenance, alertness to maintain turnaround time and awareness, proper report documentation and storage are the key factors to successfully uphold quality assurance.

Analysis of differences in disputes before and after the establishment of the right to request renewal of housing lease contracts

2020년 7월 31일 주택임대차 계약갱신 요구권이 신설되었지만, 당사자 간 법익의 불균형 존재 및 분쟁 폭증 우려 속에 논란이 많은 상황이다. 이에 계약갱신 요구권의 안정적인 정착과 임차인의 주거안정 및 당사자 간 분쟁해소를 위하여 실제로 분쟁이 되어 조정위원회에 조정신청된 자료를 가지고 계약갱신 요구권 신설 전ㆍ후 분쟁 차이 의 분석을 실시하였다. 그 결과는 다음과 같다. 첫째, 계약갱신 요구권 신설 이후 임대료증감, 계약갱신, 임대기간, 손해배상, 주택반환, 기타 등 계약갱신 요 구권과 연관된 분쟁 사건이 크게 증가하고 분쟁사건 간의 비중이 변경되었다. 또한 임대차의 주 내용인 신청인의 지위에 차이가 있는 것으로 나타났고, 월세보다는 전세의 경우에 더욱 분쟁이 심화되는 것으로 확인되었다. 둘째, 계약갱신 요구권 신설 이후에는 계약갱신과 주택반환, 임대기간과 임대료 증감 간 유의수준 존재와 부의 상관관계가 있는 것으로 확인되었다. 계약갱신 요구권 신설 전에는 임대기간 만기에 근접해서 임대료 증액 분쟁이 해결이 안될 경우 주택반환 분쟁으로 이어지는 단순한 분쟁 형태가 나타났다면, 계약갱신 요구권 신설 이후에는 계약갱신과 손해배상의 분쟁이 추가되어 분쟁경로 단계가 더 늘어나는 결과로 분쟁이 다양하고 복잡해지는 등 분쟁 트렌드 변화의 차이를 확인하였다.

Experimental evidence of limited attention at the gym

In a randomized field experiment, we show that a low-cost intervention, weekly email reminders, increases the weekly exercising frequency of gym members by 13%, with the effect being larger for class training (19%) than for free training (11%). We find that nearly all types of individuals benefit from the reminders (e.g., students, nonstudents, women, men, new members, recurring members), and this effect persists in a three-month posttreatment period. Furthermore, the increase in class visits is partly driven by an increase in the number of bookings of gym classes and a slight decrease in the share of bookings that are canceled. Limited attention and habit formation can best explain these results. In contrast to the increase in gym attendance, we do not find any effect on the duration and renewal of membership contracts.

Renewal of Crop Index-Based Insurance Uptake: Evidence from Senegal

In this work, we estimate the determinants of the renewal of weather index-based insurance contracts by Senegalese farmers who practiced rain-fed agriculture in the Senegalese groundnut during the years 2014, 2015 and 2016. Based on data on 3698 producers to whom weather index-based insurance bundled with an agricultural loan was proposed, we conducted a survival analysis using an Andersen-Gill cox regression to identify the drivers of the contract renewal. Our results show that difference in gender and amount of premiums paid do not explain contracts’ renewal. However, cooperatives to whom farmers are affiliated, possibility to delay premium payment until the reimbursement of loans and whether payouts were triggered or not, were the core determinants of renewal after the first year of purchase.

La prevención y represión del abuso de la contratación laboral temporal en las administraciones públicas. Comentario a la STJUE de 19 marzo 2000 (asuntos acumulados C-103/18 y C-429/18)

El endémico problema del abuso de la contratación laboral temporal en las administra­ciones públicas españolas genera un nuevo pronunciamiento del TJUE, que sostiene que la renovación de contratos temporales para cubrir necesidades permanentes contraviene la letra y el espíritu de la Direc­tiva 1999/70. La sentencia analiza la eficacia de algunas medidas legales equivalentes para prevenir los abusos, como en particular la conversión de la relación temporal en “indefinida no fija”. Esta medida no permite alcanzar la finalidad perseguida por la cláusula 5 del Acuerdo Marco. Tampoco el consentimiento del trabajador puede considerarse que prive de carácter abusivo al comportamiento del empleador.

Clinical research: enough players to get out there?

Despite the presence of experienced and multidisciplinary staff is now essential due to the increasing complexity of clinical research, many national collective health contracts do not yet contemplate the new professional figures. This instability risks causing an alarming professional gap, especially for non-profit clinical research. For this reason, we would try to evaluate the extent to which the problem is widespread among Italian clinical research coordinators, verifying how much the Italian institutes have permanently integrated this professional figure into organic plant, through stable and specific employment contracts. In November 2016, when the Italian Government has declared for the first time its intention to prevent further renewal of contracts with atypical employment, we conducted a survey with the intent of mapping the extent of the contractual issues related to the figure of the clinical research coordinator. Two years later, we repeated the survey to see if something was changed and if it was any improvement in the employment situation. In November 2016, only a small fraction of the respondents (13.8%) was hired with a permanent contract, while the majority (73.2%) were employed with an atypical one. Regarding the impossibility to renew the atypical contracts due to the new Government provisions starting from January 2017: the 67.5% of the respondents stated that the issue would directly affect him. Two years later, the situation looks even worse: only the 11.5% of the respondents are hired on a permanent contract, while there is a very high percentage (74.8%) of atypical contracts, with even some coordinators who say they have been working for several months as unpaid volunteers. It is interesting to note that over 30% of staff with atypical contracts work in research institutes and research-related scientific societies, with a strong interest in non-profit clinical research. Adopt Clinical Trials Units officially and contractually recognized would be essential to bring back our nation on the top of the world health systems ranking, but yet the Italian research-dedicated infrastructures continue to be a ghost reality, deeply characterized by a continuous professional turnover and by the lack of long-term prospects. In the absence of a permanent solution, Italy is unlikely to reach the required standards, denying patients of possible therapeutic available options. Our non-profit research will pay the most for it.

El intangible en los clubes brasileños: un análisis de los gastos con jugadores en las cuentas anuales

Given the importance of intangibles in the context of soccer, this article identifies the intangibles present in the financial statements of the main Brazilian clubs, comparing them and identifying which part of these values are related to the expenses with training, acquisition and renewal of contracts with athletes, in light of the accounting standards that allow (or require) these practices for Brazilian teams. The results point to a nominal growth in the group of intangible assets recorded in the balance sheets. In proportional terms, they represent more than 10% of the total assets in 2/3 of the selected sample, and in some cases represent more than 30% of the assets. In 26 of the 27 teams analyzed, the representativeness of the training and professional training expenses of athletes reached levels above 97% of the intangible. On average, 16.86% of the assets are represented by intangible assets, whose content that relates to player spending reaches, on average, 98.6%. The results indicate the importance of the research on methodologies for recognition and measurement of specific intangibles for soccer clubs. In a sport where athletes take a leading role and move high figures, considering the impact of this capital on financial statements is necessary, possible and requires debate, adequacy, standardization and expansion of current policies.

Explanatory factors in the renewal of contracts for the privatisation of public services

After analysing the explanatory factors underlying the renewal of privatisation contracts, this paper examines the likelihood of local authorities renewing their contracts with private entities for the provision of public services, by studying a sample of 623 Spanish municipalities for the period 2002–2013, using a logit model. The type of service, the duration of the contract and certain political and economic factors were all found to influence the renewal or otherwise of this type of contract. Moreover, this effect differed between initial privatisation and subsequent contract renewal.

Cyber Physical System-Based Convergence Operation of Data Intensive Computing Resources

Large-scale scientific experiments involve a large number of computers. These computers generally employ grid computing to perform non-interactive, data-intensive tasks. Recent scientific studies have required multiple computers to handle massive data sets. An efficient method of supporting various research is to provide computing resources through a unified data center. This has complicated the management of computing resources in the data center. The deployment and the status of computing resources change frequently according to the requirements of each research, renewal of research support contracts, and adjustment of computing resources. This study presents a cyber physical system based on convergence operation of data-intensive computing resources to support various research groups. The proposed operation takes into account the modification of computing resources, other changes resulting from such modification, and information reflecting modification of the physical world. We first present the workload of operations and related information. Based on these relationships, we derive an optimized work process and the required physical information. For computing resources including existing equipment, we use a mobile device and a wireless network to facilitate conversion between the physical world and cyber world. The mobile device of administrator captures sequence of remote controlled management indicator lights to detect physical modification.

Focus: Free Trade and Precarity in Peru

INTERNATIONAL union rights Page 6 Volume 23 Issue 1 2016 The OTLA has issued recommendations to the Government of Peru with a view to ensuring compliance with the obligations contained United States-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement after the complaint was raised against Guatemala under the Dominican Republic-Central America FTA (CAFTA-DR), the US finally escalated the dispute to arbitration in September 2014. During that time, some 70 labour organisers in Guatemala were reported killed, but no mention was made of the systematic use of violence against trade unionists in the US’ submissions to the arbitral panel. A hearing took place in June 2015, but the disputing parties remain embroiled in trying to decipher what it means to ‘fail to effectively enforce labor laws… in a manner affecting trade or investment between the Parties’ – treaty text that is reproduced in both CAFTADR and the PTPA. Any decision in the dispute will still be years in the making. Booming trade, busting unions The PTPA entered into force in 2009. In the first five years of the agreement, revenue from non-traditional export (NTE) sectors from Peru to the US increased by 80 percent, and total export revenue from Peru to the US increased by 26 percent. As a result, the demand for labour in the NTE sectors has also grown. NTE sectors include textiles and apparel, agricultural and fishery products, jewellery , wood and paper, and non-metallic minerals. According to the OTLA’s report, the plight of workers in Peru’s NTE sectors has not been much improved by the export boom. Following the allegations of union-busting in the NTE sectors submitted in July 2015, the OTLA conducted a review of the claims between September 2015 and March 2016, entailing consultations with stakeholders (including the government of Peru, the submitters and other workers’ organisations) and a fact-finding mission to Peru. Under Peruvian law, both the government and employers must refrain from ‘any acts likely to constrain, restrict or impair, in any way, the right of workers to unionize; and intervening in any way in the establishment, administration, or maintenance of trade union organizations.’ Further legal instruments were enacted in 2007, in order to clarify that any use of short-term contracts to limit freedom of association is unlawful and deemed a ‘very serious offense’, with violations subject to hefty fines. In NTE sectors, the use of short-term contracts is governed by Decree Law 22342, the Law Promoting Non-Traditional Exports, which provides that – subject to certain exceptions – employers may hire workers on short-term contracts and that such contracts may be renewed as many times as is necessary. In all other sectors, the use of consecutive short-term contracts is limited to five years. The OTLA report found that ‘employers often do not renew the short-term contracts of workers who O n 18 March 2016, the US Department of Labor’s Office of Trade and Labor Affairs (OTLA) published its public response1 to a complaint filed under the United States-Peru Trade Promotion Agreement (PTPA) by the International Labour Rights Forum (ILRF), Perú Equidad, and seven Peruvian workers’ organisations . Under Article 17.2.1 of the PTPA, each party to the agreement is obliged to ‘adopt and maintain in its statutes and regulations, and practices thereunder, the following rights, as stated in the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work and its Follow-Up (1998): (a) freedom of association.’ Article 17.3.1(a) further states that a party ‘shall not fail to effectively enforce its labor laws, including those it adopts or maintains in accordance with Article 17.2.1, through a sustained or recurring course of action or inaction, in a manner affecting trade or investment between the Parties, after the date of entry into force of this Agreement.’ The complaint – filed on 23 July 2015 – alleged that ‘by permitting the unlimited consecutive renewal of short-term contracts under the law that governs employment contracts in the nontraditional export (NTE) sectors, the Government of Peru has failed to meet its PTPA commitment to adopt and maintain in its statutes and regulations , and practices thereunder, the right of freedom of association and the effective...

UMA ANÁLISE DA EVIDENCIAÇÃO DOS DIREITOS FEDERATIVOS NAS DEMONSTRAÇÕES CONTÁBEIS DOS CLUBES DE FUTEBOL BRASILEIROS

The purpose of this survey is to check whether the publishing of financial statements by the Brazilian football clubs adopt uniform accounting criteria for similar events that involve federative rights after publication of NBC 10.13. This survey has as contribution the development of a discussion on the comparability and the level of transparency in the dissemination of accounting information carried out by clubs, as well as how these actions can assist the decision making of possible investors and other stakeholders, such as fans, government, and other agents of society. Data analysis was undertaken by means of analysis of the accounting reporting documentation, published in the periods of 2006 and 2007, encompassing eleven clubs in the Brazilian Premier League 2007. The main results showed that there is adoption of very different accounting criteria among clubs. For example: expenditures with contracting, renewal of contracts of athletes who are recorded as fixed assets or accounted as expenditures during the period. It is highlighted that there are clubs that have not been complying to what is set forth in provisions of the NBC 10.13, therefore, they do no provide to their users with information recommended by the standard. It stands out, among implications, that there is a significant decrease in the comparability and transparency level between accounting reporting published by the Brazilian clubs.

THE CONSEQUENCES OF (DE)REGULATION ON EMPLOYMENT DURATION AND EFFICIENCY: AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY

I. INTRODUCTION When little is known about the future market conditions, offering an employment contract that regulates working conditions for many periods can be dangerous. If market wages drastically decline, one may hire labor more cheaply. Furthermore, an employee may turn out less reliable than expected. Such risks are by no means farfetched. Rather, they relate to crucial aspects of long-term employment. (1) So why is long-term employment still predominant and short-term employment, for example in the form of rented labor, rare, albeit increasing (see Alewell et al. 2007)? An explanation might be the increasing institutional flexibility regarding wage adjustments. Institutional downward flexibility is usually not legally codified but often a consequence of court rulings and thereby based on social norms (2) (see, for instance, Bewley 1995). In our paper, we want to investigate whether more flexibility in wage adjustment (from none to full flexibility) increases the duration of accepted employment contracts. Our first hypothesis (Hypothesis A) which we wish to test experimentally is that contract duration depends on contract flexibility. One obvious argument for long-term employment is that offering a short-term contract reveals distrust in the newly hired worker and encourages shirking. But what is wrong with long-term employment resulting from both partners, employer, and employee, repeatedly and mutually opting for rematching? Another reason for long-term employment could be that, in the long run, it allows the interacting parties more easily to overcome efficiency losses due to opportunistic behavior. In our experimental scenario, regulations prevent efficient employment contracts when workers react opportunistically. But do long-term employees care more for efficiency, and therefore invest more than optimal efforts? Deregulation (3) has been the major policy recommendation for nearly all developed market economies. For the most part, the effects of (de)regulation are predicted by rational choice analyses of labor markets. An interesting exception that takes into account the empirical evidence from behavioral labor economics (Fehr, Gotte, and Zehnder 2009) is the analysis of Agell (1999), in whose tradition we want to provide a behaviorally informed discussion of (de)regulation. Rather than doing this by field data our empirical approach is an experimental one. Our earlier (experimental) findings (Berninghaus, Bleich, and Giath 2008) question the idea that labor market efficiency is higher in deregulated markets. To determine more systematically whether the usual intuition that wage rigidities undermine efficiency is correct, or whether our earlier results are more reliable, we analyze more thoroughly the interdependency of wage flexibility and employment duration. Our second hypothesis claims that long-term contracts are substituted by renewable contracts when contracts become more inflexible (Hypothesis B). Unlike in our previous study, where we varied only the flexibility of fixed wages, in this study, piece rates may also be adapted periodically. In the experiment of Brown, Falk, and Fehr (2004), where work contracts last for only one period, long-term relationships between employers and employees can only be established if the employer offers a new contract to the same employee in each period. We too allow for voluntary renewal of contracts at the end of each period, but also the possibility of offering contracts which extend for more than one period. Our study is more systematic than previous ones because we do not just compare less with more labor flexibility but distinguish five flexibility treatments which can be at least partially ordered from less to more flexibility. For any kind of monotonicity hypothesis, this can be viewed as a real stress test. Note that already the one-off interaction of our basic labor market scenario allows for reciprocity (4) since employees choose effort after accepting a more or less favorable employment contract. …

A Sessional Manifesto

This DOCUMENT is intended, if possible, to be an errata slip for collective agreements and is infused with the reflection that although working conditions of sessional labourers affect everyone in a department this panel did not attract that kind of broad audience. There is a need to disseminate as widely as possible the problems that beset sessional workers at universities. THE SESSIONAL MANIFESTO Institutional POWERS have aligned to discipline sessional instructors: administrations that exploit sessional labour for increased institutional profit; departments that unload supra-contractual work on sessionals under the auspices of professional development; TENURED FACULTY members who treat sessionals as second-class intellectuals, failing to respect their contractual limitations; students who are increasingly aware of, and eager to exploit, the relationship between course evaluations and the renewal of sessional contracts. In the face of the above facts, two new realities must be articulated: I. Sessional instructors have emerged as a primary component of contemporary secondary education. II. Sessional instructors, in the face of exploitation and alienation, must proclaim their RIGHTS within the context of Canadian postsecondary institutions. The time has come for a sessional manifesto that defines contractual RIGHTS, discusses professional concerns, and provides a voice of solidarity for the benefit of the thousands of academics working without the psychological and economic security of tenure-track positions. SOCIETY OF THE SESSIONAL The sessional instructor is under constant interpellation by the disciplinary gaze: those colleagues whose surveillance leaves sessionals feeling like future employment is at stake with each conversation; those students who, based on signifiers such as shared office space or a roster full of first-year courses, intuit that their professor is of lesser value than the real professors who teach upper-level courses; those friends and family who wonder why, after obtaining PhDs, sessionals continue to earn less per annum than entry-level government employees. The society of the sessional is dystopian. THE PARADOX of the INSTITUTIONAL PARADIGM The CAPITALIST MODEL that drives universities is in opposition to democratic values. While sessional instructors teach students about EQUITY, JUSTICE, ETHICS, and DIVERSITY, they do so in the knowledge of a crippling hypocrisy: the institutions that ask them to promote these values refuse to practice them. Cynicism bred by this hypocritical environment threatens the integrity of postsecondary education. Tenured and Tenure-Track Faculty Must Help Improve Working Conditions for Sessionals. Those who have been sessionals and who are now tenure-track or tenured have an OBLIGATION. In stable positions, they can speak for those who do not feel comfortable speaking (for fear of threatening their jobs or potential letters of reference). THE RIGHTS DENIED to Sessionals or the Problems which Beset Sessionals I. Access to intra-university funding is often DENIED to sessionals; therefore, the inability to travel to key forums means that many sessionals are not able to showcase their work and bolster their professional reputations within the job market. II. Too frequently, sessionals are equipped with office space that FAILS to meet the requirements of a full-time academic. III. Often, sessionals are required to teach overload courses with little, or no, remuneration. This adds to burn-out. As well, sessionals are often required to TEACH a large number of different courses. Preparation time, therefore, is more demanding for the sessional than a permanent hire. Sessionals might also teach summer courses in order to pay bills when a contract ends; this detracts from research time. IV. …

Work Motivation and Renewal of Social Contracts for Long Term Psychiatric Patients

Work Motivation and Renewal of Social Contracts for Long Term Psychiatric Patients

To competitively tender or to negotiate – Weighing up the choices in a mature market

A key attribute of competitive tendering for the periodic selection of operators of subsidised public transport services is to secure the provision of specified services at efficient cost levels. This has proved particularly effective where services were previously provided by an inefficient monopoly operator. The arguments for the adoption of competitive tendering in preference to negotiation with the incumbent operator may be less clear-cut in other cases. Consideration is given to both theoretical and practical insights into the relative merits of competitive tendering and negotiation approaches in such situations. The limited literature on the topic is reviewed and insights and lessons identified. Influencing issues include prior conditions, the nature of the supplier market, features of contracts, negotiating and competitive tendering strategies and practice, accountability and transparency, and long-term market implications. The evidence suggests that ‘one size does not fit all’, and the choice will depend on specific circumstances. The relative merits of the two approaches for renewal of bus contracts are considered with regard to Adelaide, for contracts which have previously been awarded through competitive tendering. The paper draws out the main factors that could influence the authority’s choice between the options, and discusses the relevance of the findings to other situations.

Issues in the Evaluation of Teaching Performance in Higher Education

The implementation of evaluative procedures in higher education is widespread with major concerns in the areas of: quality of teaching, curriculum content, subject relevance, coursework assessment, staff helpfulness and accessibility. In the main, the objective of this monitoring and evaluation is to maintain standards, identify weaknesses and to improve, wherever possible, the quality of courses and institutions. Often the methods employed to assess professional performance are contentious (Curling, 1994), particularly so when criteria are sought for the granting of tenure, promotion, the renewal of contracts and the dismissal of staff (College of The Bahamas Evaluation Report, 1985). Among other evaluation procedures, student evaluation of lecturer's teaching performance receives its share of faculty criticism and hostility. This paper is concerned with student evaluation of teaching performance in higher education. Initially the methodology employed in this review is described. Selected issues in student evaluation of teaching performance are presented and examined. Finally the review is summarized and suggestions made.