How Supreme Audit Institutions Help to Assure the Quality of Performance Reporting to Legislatures

2018 ◽  
pp. 261-277
Author(s):  
Stan Divorski
Keyword(s):  
Performance Reporting

scholarly journals Understanding the audience: Improving the impact of public performance reporting on quality of care.

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 112
Author(s):  
Margaret Kelaher ◽  
Rachel Canaway ◽  
Marie Bismark ◽  
David Dunt
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Care ◽  
Public Performance ◽  
Performance Reporting ◽  
The Impact

scholarly journals Performance Reporting by New Zealand Central Government Agencies

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Rahmadi Murwanto
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Public Choice ◽  
Choice Theory ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Government Agencies ◽  
Performance Information ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Performance Reporting ◽  
Factors Influencing

<p>This study attempts to assess longitudinally the increase in the quality of performance information resulting from the Managing for Outcome (MfO) initiative, embarked on by the New Zealand Government in December 2001, and to identify the internal and external factors influencing the increase in quality. To measure the quality of performance information, a disclosure index was developed. The index assesses the comprehensiveness of information in compliance with available guidance, and reflects the approaches used by Marston and Shrives (1991), and Guthrie et. al. (2004). The disclosure analysis was applied to publicly available planning documents - the Statement of Intent and Annual Report of 27 New Zealand Government departments over the period 2003-2007. Agency theory, focusing on the role of information in the accountability relationship between principals and their agents, and public choice theory, focusing on the mechanisms to mitigate public choice problems, are used to explain the improvement in the quality of performance information and the external and internal factors influencing the improvement in quality. The roles performed and the activities initiated and implemented by ministers and other government agencies in the MfO initiative are identified and analysed. The data for the study was obtained from the reports of selected New Zealand central government departments and from semi-structured interviews. The findings support the Auditor General's assertion of disappointing quality in performance information. Weak incentives for reporting outcomes, the lack of authoritative reporting standards, and constraints on measuring performance have been the key factors in explaining the lack of meaningful progress in New Zealand performance reporting practice implemented under the MfO initiative. The initiatives do not include proper accountability arrangements, where the ministers responsible for outcomes also report; instead the current arrangement is that chief executives report but are not themselves accountable.</p>

scholarly journals Performance Reporting by New Zealand Central Government Agencies

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Rahmadi Murwanto
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Public Choice ◽  
Choice Theory ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Government Agencies ◽  
Performance Information ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Performance Reporting ◽  
Factors Influencing

<p>This study attempts to assess longitudinally the increase in the quality of performance information resulting from the Managing for Outcome (MfO) initiative, embarked on by the New Zealand Government in December 2001, and to identify the internal and external factors influencing the increase in quality. To measure the quality of performance information, a disclosure index was developed. The index assesses the comprehensiveness of information in compliance with available guidance, and reflects the approaches used by Marston and Shrives (1991), and Guthrie et. al. (2004). The disclosure analysis was applied to publicly available planning documents - the Statement of Intent and Annual Report of 27 New Zealand Government departments over the period 2003-2007. Agency theory, focusing on the role of information in the accountability relationship between principals and their agents, and public choice theory, focusing on the mechanisms to mitigate public choice problems, are used to explain the improvement in the quality of performance information and the external and internal factors influencing the improvement in quality. The roles performed and the activities initiated and implemented by ministers and other government agencies in the MfO initiative are identified and analysed. The data for the study was obtained from the reports of selected New Zealand central government departments and from semi-structured interviews. The findings support the Auditor General's assertion of disappointing quality in performance information. Weak incentives for reporting outcomes, the lack of authoritative reporting standards, and constraints on measuring performance have been the key factors in explaining the lack of meaningful progress in New Zealand performance reporting practice implemented under the MfO initiative. The initiatives do not include proper accountability arrangements, where the ministers responsible for outcomes also report; instead the current arrangement is that chief executives report but are not themselves accountable.</p>

scholarly journals Результати аналізу роботи хірургічного кабінету Закарпатської обласної клінічної стоматологічної поліклініки за 2012–2016 роки

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. M. Heley
Keyword(s):  
Dental Care ◽  
Statistical Processing ◽  
Dental Service ◽  
Professional Activity ◽  
Medical Work ◽  
Performance Reporting ◽  
Profound Knowledge ◽  
Manual Skills ◽  
Patient Referrals

Summary. This article presents an analysis of the work of a doctor-surgeon-dentist in Preventive Department of Uzhhorod Regional Dental Clinic in 2012–2016. Statistical processing of medical practice data is an important factor in assessing its professional activity, the completeness of duties, and the quality of providing surgical dental services.The aim of the study – to analyze the work of dental surgeon for the period of 5 years.Materials and Methods. According to the authors of most practitioners and dental surgeons, basic problems of organization of dental care are uneven labour load and distribution of surgical-dental care. This analysis of the work of a surgeon in the future will be able to improve the development of mechanisms for qualified medical assistance and improve the efficiency of the functioning of the dental service as a part of the health care system.Results and Discussion. Analyzing the work of a dental surgeon for five years in the study was given monthly performance reporting. The load during the year on the doctor dental surgeon was uneven. Fluctuations in cabinet loading can be explained by fluctuations in the distribution of holiday days and periods of temporary disability of the clinic staff. Accordingly, monthly in the office was worked out from 19.17 to 19.50 working changes. The data shown in the work clearly confirm the theory of cyclicity and seasonality of patient referrals for surgical-dental care, which in turn corresponds to caries morbidity and its complications according to statistical data.Conclusions. As can be seen from the analysis of the obtained data, the surgeon-surgeon dentist over 5 years completed a large amount of medical work, which required a profound knowledge of the methods of examination of patients, differential diagnosis, manual skills and abilities. Must constantly improve their skills while on pre-courses prove proficiency to apply effective methods of pharmacotherapy.

scholarly journals Analysing supermarket performance with the high-performance organisation framework

2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
André de Waal ◽  
Erjen van Nierop ◽  
Laurens Sloot
Keyword(s):  
High Performance ◽  
Quality Improvements ◽  
Content Type ◽  
High Performing ◽  
Performance Reporting ◽  
Academic Researchers ◽  
Supermarket Industry ◽  
To Come ◽  
And Performance

Purpose The Dutch supermarket industry is dominated by a small number of powerful companies which capture the majority of sales and which compete fiercely with each other. This competition is mainly quality based, in the sense of offering increasingly more products of higher quality and striving for better distribution mechanisms. Interestingly there does not seem to be much attention for the quality of the internal supermarket organisation, i.e. quality of people, internal processes, and performance reporting. Thus there seems to be a gap in both current literature and the quality improvement attention of supermarkets which needs to be addressed, to uncover new sources of improvement. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, the authors introduce the high-performance organisation (HPO) framework, a validated technique for evaluating the strength of the internal organisation of companies and for proposing quality improvements. The aim of the research is to test whether the HPO Framework can be used to analyse the strength and performance of supermarkets and to come up with recommendations for improvement. A questionnaire into the drivers of success of supermarkets was constructed which was send to 400 supermarket franchisers, and the received data were subsequently analysed. Findings On average the participating supermarkets are well-performing but they cannot yet be classified as high performing according to the HPO Framework. The supermarkets with the highest HPO scores indeed achieve better financial results (both in terms of revenue and margin achieved) than those of supermarkets with lower HPO scores. Finally, the authors find that larger supermarkets (in square metres floor area) outperform smaller supermarkets on all HPO factors. Research limitations/implications As the HPO Framework is shown to be useful for not only analysing the performance of the supermarkets but also to generate recommendations for improvement of those supermarkets, individual supermarkets should evaluate their performance and operations using the HPO Framework to come up with improvement recommendations tailored to their own situation. Originality/value The HPO Framework has been applied during the past years in many sectors but not yet in the supermarket industry. Thus this research provides a unique insight in this industry. In addition academic researchers can use the HPO Framework to further investigate specific areas and factors of the supermarkets, in order to add to the literature on the quality of supermarkets.

Immunoferritin localization of intracellular antigens in positively stained frozen sections

1978 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 168-169
Author(s):  
K. T. Tokuyasu
Keyword(s):  
Surface Tension ◽  
Water Surface ◽  
Thin Layers ◽  
The Other ◽  
Positive Staining ◽  
Frozen Sections ◽  
The Past ◽  
Ultrathin Frozen Sections ◽  
Definition Of

During the past investigations of immunoferritin localization of intracellular antigens in ultrathin frozen sections, we found that the degree of negative staining required to delineate u1trastructural details was often too dense for the recognition of ferritin particles. The quality of positive staining of ultrathin frozen sections, on the other hand, has generally been far inferior to that attainable in conventional plastic embedded sections, particularly in the definition of membranes. As we discussed before, a main cause of this difficulty seemed to be the vulnerability of frozen sections to the damaging effects of air-water surface tension at the time of drying of the sections.Indeed, we found that the quality of positive staining is greatly improved when positively stained frozen sections are protected against the effects of surface tension by embedding them in thin layers of mechanically stable materials at the time of drying (unpublished).

Lithography below 100 nm

1983 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
pp. 96-99
Author(s):  
L. D. Jackel
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
Electron Beam ◽  
Electron Scattering ◽  
Electron Beam Lithography ◽  
Substrate Material ◽  
Local Electron ◽  
Electron Dose ◽  
Positive Resist ◽  
Exposure Process

Most production electron beam lithography systems can pattern minimum features a few tenths of a micron across. Linewidth in these systems is usually limited by the quality of the exposing beam and by electron scattering in the resist and substrate. By using a smaller spot along with exposure techniques that minimize scattering and its effects, laboratory e-beam lithography systems can now make features hundredths of a micron wide on standard substrate material. This talk will outline sane of these high- resolution e-beam lithography techniques.We first consider parameters of the exposure process that limit resolution in organic resists. For concreteness suppose that we have a “positive” resist in which exposing electrons break bonds in the resist molecules thus increasing the exposed resist's solubility in a developer. Ihe attainable resolution is obviously limited by the overall width of the exposing beam, but the spatial distribution of the beam intensity, the beam “profile” , also contributes to the resolution. Depending on the local electron dose, more or less resist bonds are broken resulting in slower or faster dissolution in the developer.

Convergent Beam Electron Diffraction

1978 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 304-315
Author(s):  
G. Lehmpfuhl
Keyword(s):  
Electron Diffraction ◽  
Diffraction Pattern ◽  
Crystal Surface ◽  
Diffraction Spot ◽  
Crystal Thickness ◽  
Large Area ◽  
Electron Microscopic ◽  
Additional Information ◽  
Microscopic Investigations

Introduction In electron microscopic investigations of crystalline specimens the direct observation of the electron diffraction pattern gives additional information about the specimen. The quality of this information depends on the quality of the crystals or the crystal area contributing to the diffraction pattern. By selected area diffraction in a conventional electron microscope, specimen areas as small as 1 µ in diameter can be investigated. It is well known that crystal areas of that size which must be thin enough (in the order of 1000 Å) for electron microscopic investigations are normally somewhat distorted by bending, or they are not homogeneous. Furthermore, the crystal surface is not well defined over such a large area. These are facts which cause reduction of information in the diffraction pattern. The intensity of a diffraction spot, for example, depends on the crystal thickness. If the thickness is not uniform over the investigated area, one observes an averaged intensity, so that the intensity distribution in the diffraction pattern cannot be used for an analysis unless additional information is available.

Observability of Very Thick Specimen by Using Transmission Scanning Electron Microscope

1971 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
pp. 26-27
Author(s):  
K. Shibatomi ◽  
T. Yamanoto ◽  
H. Koike
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscope ◽  
Image Quality ◽  
Scanning Electron Microscope ◽  
Chromatic Aberration ◽  
Image Contrast ◽  
Objective Lens ◽  
Thick Specimen ◽  
Transmission Electron ◽  
Scanning Electron

In the observation of a thick specimen by means of a transmission electron microscope, the intensity of electrons passing through the objective lens aperture is greatly reduced. So that the image is almost invisible. In addition to this fact, it have been reported that a chromatic aberration causes the deterioration of the image contrast rather than that of the resolution. The scanning electron microscope is, however, capable of electrically amplifying the signal of the decreasing intensity, and also free from a chromatic aberration so that the deterioration of the image contrast due to the aberration can be prevented. The electrical improvement of the image quality can be carried out by using the fascionating features of the SEM, that is, the amplification of a weak in-put signal forming the image and the descriminating action of the heigh level signal of the background. This paper reports some of the experimental results about the thickness dependence of the observability and quality of the image in the case of the transmission SEM.

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