Business Commons^™

The Impact Of Uncertain Environment On Rice Supply Chain Performance In Northeast Thailand, Phatcharee T. Thongrattana, Peter W. Robertson

Sydney Business School - Papers

Rice is a key agricultural product of Thailand and plays a vital role in the Thai economy. Rice production, however, is dependent upon environmental factors. Environmental uncertainty therefore, can impact rice crop areas in term of influencing the rice yield, rice production and generating ripple effects along the overall rice supply chain. The aim of this research is to investigate the effects of uncertain rice supply caused by drought years on the rice supply chain performance in Thailand. Three stochastic simulation models in different assumptions of rough rice production situations were developed which were based on historical data of normal …

Australia And The 'War Against Terrorism': Terrorism, National Security And Human Rights, Mark D. Rix

Sydney Business School - Papers

This article considers whether in the „war against terrorism‟ national security is eroded or strengthened by weakening or removing the human rights of the individuals who constitute the polity. It starts with the view that national security is, at its most fundamental, founded upon the security and liberty of the person from criminal and violent acts, including terrorist attacks. Such attacks, and the individuals and groups who perpetrate them, constitute a grave threat to the peace and security of nations the world over and thus endanger the security and liberty of the individuals who make up their populations. Governments are …

Developing And Refining Outcome Measurement Suites: An Example From The National Continence Management Strategy, Janet E. Sansoni, Nicholas Marosszeky, Emily Sansoni

Sydney Business School - Papers

This paper provides a brief overview of the Australian National Continence Management Strategy with respect to its activities related to the assessment of incontinence, the use of measures to evaluate the outcomes of incontinence treatment interventions, and the production of Australian prevalence and burden of disease estimates.

It highlights the Continence Outcomes Measurement Suite (COMS) project, in particular, which has moved through a number of developmental stages. Stage 1 involved the scholarly review of commonly used self-report and clinical assessment measures for both urinary and faecal incontinence against the current definitions provided by the International Continence Society (Thomas, et al., …

Recent Findings: The Dementia Outcomes Measurement Suite (Doms) Project, Janet E. Sansoni, Nicholas Marosszeky, Emily Sansoni

Sydney Business School - Papers

[extract] This summary paper provides an overview of recent work undertaken to develop an outcome measurement suite for people with dementia. The aim was to review all the published instruments used for the assessment, diagnosis, screening and outcomes monitoring/evaluation of people with dementia; in order to recommend a set of psychometrically valid measures for clinicians and researchers to use, across a range of different practice settings.

Based on previous work in developing a Continence Outcomes Measurement Suite (Thomas et al, 2006), the analysis combines clinical and academic sources of knowledge in order to produce realistic and useful recommendations. Specifically the …

The Use Of Proxy / Informant Reports For People With Dementia, Nicholas Marosszeky, Emily Sansoni

Sydney Business School - Papers

The progressive deterioration of cognitive and functional abilities in people with dementia presents a number of practical problems for the measurement of health outcomes using self-report health status instruments for people with cognitive impairment; the need for better survey design for older people using universal design principles; the time constraints involved with assessment; as well as test administration issues like test-taker in attention and compliance, or alternatively, test-taker burden and distress.

A Global Analysis Of Supply Chain Trends In The Health Industry, Siti Zulkiffli, Peter Wayne Robertson

Sydney Business School - Papers

• An outlook for the pharmaceutical and medical logistics market • Achieving success in the pharmaceutical supply chain • Improving efficiency along the supply chain

With Reckless Abandon: Haneef And Ul-Haque In Australia's 'War On Terror', Mark Rix

Sydney Business School - Papers

This brief paper considers the political and social implications of the manner in which Australia has prosecuted the so-called ‘war on terror’. It does this by investigating relevant aspects of Australia’s anti-terrorism legislation and the performance of Australian security and law enforcement agencies, namely, the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) and the Australian Federal Police (AFP). Focusing on the Haneef and Ul-Haque cases, the paper will consider how the political climate created by the former Federal Government’s legislative approach to the war on terror has influenced the performance of these organisations. By focusing on these two cases, the paper …

The Development Of The Revised Urinary Incontinence Scale (Ruis), Janet E. Sansoni, Nicholas Marosszeky, Emily Sansoni, Graeme Hawthorne

Sydney Business School - Papers

This paper reports on innovative work aimed at adapting a urinary continence measure for Australian conditions. Following recommendations made by the Continence Outcomes Measurement Suite (COMS) Project (Thomas, et al. 2006), two brief urinary incontinence measures, the Incontinence Severity Index (ISI) and the Urogenital Distress Inventory (UDI-6) were included in a community population survey (N = 3015) to obtain current prevalence estimates for urinary incontinence in Australia.

This large dataset also allowed for the psychometric examination of these instruments and their item properties, e.g. examining item endorsement and discrimination, item-total correlations and Cronbach’s Alpha, as well as the use of …

Rural Palliative Care Program National Evaluation Project: Patient And Carer Experiences, Pamela E. Grootemaat, Karen Quinsey, Alan G. Owen

Sydney Business School - Papers

[extract] Palliative care services in Australia are provided across a range of inpatient, outpatient and community settings by a mix of specialist and generalist providers from the public and private sectors. There is little evidence to guide the provision of palliative care in rural areas and few large scale studies that reflect on patient and carer experiences. The national Rural Palliative Care Program was implemented to provide support for palliative care interventions and to develop evidence on their effectiveness. An important part of that evidence is whether patients and their carers actually found the interventions to be helpful to them.

A Heuristic Search Algorithm For Flow-Shop Scheduling, Joshua P. Fan, Graham K. Winley

Sydney Business School - Papers

This article describes the development of a new intelligent heuristic search algorithm (IHSA*) which guarantees an optimal solution for flow-shop problems with an arbitrary number of jobs and machinesprovided the job sequence is constrained to be the same on each machine. The development is described in terms of 3 modifications made to the initial version of IHSA*. The first modification concerns thechoice of an admissible heuristic function. The second concerns the calculation of heuristic estimates as the search for an optimal solution progresses, and the third determines multiple optimal solutions whenthey exist. The first 2 modifications improve performance characteristics of …

The Corporate Social Responsibilities In Sri Lankan Universities, Kamal Tilakasiri, Grace Mccarthy, John Glynn

Sydney Business School - Papers

Public sector universities have certain special characteristics compared to other organisations. As Neave and Pergamon (2000, p. xiv) suggest, such universities are generally known for their "knowledge production" and the fact that their acitivities are substatially funded by the government.

A Design And Input-Specific Classification Framework Of Ontology Matching Techniques, Kar Yin Leung, S. Lau, Joshua P. Fan

Sydney Business School - Papers

Ontology matching can be defined as the process of discovering similarities between two ontologies and it can be processed exploiting a number of different techniques. To provide a common conceptual basis, researchers have started to develop classifications to distinguish them. The most significant one is the classification proposed by Shvaiko and Euzenat to compare different existing ontology mediation systems as well as to design a new one. Although the classification is developed conscientiously, there are still some improper identifications and vague categories. Thus, a design and input-specific classification framework of ontology matching techniques that consists of executive approach, basic technique …

Enhancing The Reusability Of Inter-Organizational Knowledge: An Ontology-Based Collaborative Knowledge Management Network, Kar Yin Leung, S. Lau, Joshua P. Fan

Sydney Business School - Papers

Researchers have developed various knowledge management(KM) approaches that only focus on managing organizational knowledge. These approaches are developed in accordance with organizational KM strategies and business requirements without the concern of system interoperation. The lack of interoperability means that hetergeneous Knowledge Management Systems (KMS) from different organizations are unable to communicate and cooperate with one another.