Technologies in caregiving: professionals’ strategies for engaging with new technology

This article explores the adoption of new technology in organisations that provide senior citizen care. Inspired by Niklas Luhmann’s systems theory, we study how technology reduces complexity by identifying client needs and ensuring predictability in service delivery. However, how technologies are adopted in practice is not determined by technology since it is also structured by care-workers' continuous decision-making. Against this backdrop, we explore how technologies alter the conditions for decision-making in two settings of elderly care, and we describe how care workers seek to adapt technologies to their practical needs as well as conception of care ethics. Developing a systems theory approach, the article eschews a priori assumptions of technological constraint on care-workers’ professional autonomy, offering a more open-ended exploration of diversified strategies for coping with new technology. Our case studies show that employees develop diversified strategies for technology adoption, including both non-usage, heated resistance, excessive embrace, and creative adaption.     

Optimal investment with vintage capital: Equilibrium distributions

The paper concerns the study of equilibrium points, or steady states, of economic systems arising in modeling optimal investment with vintage capital, namely, systems where all key variables (capitals, investments, prices) are indexed not only by time but also by age. Capital accumulation is hence described as a partial differential equation (briefly, PDE), and equilibrium points are in fact equilibrium distributions in the variable of ages. A general method is developed to compute and study equilibrium points of a wide range of infinite dimensional, infinite horizon, optimal control problems. We apply the method to optimal investment with vintage capital, for a variety of data, deriving existence and uniqueness of equilibrium distribution, as well as analytic formulas for optimal controls and trajectories in the long run. The examples suggest that the same method can be applied to other economic problems displaying heterogeneity. This shows how effective the theoretical machinery of optimal control in infinite dimension is in computing explicitly equilibrium distributions. To this extent, the results of this work constitute a first crucial step towards a thorough understanding of the behavior of optimal paths in the long run.     

基于MATLAB的风能自校正自调整PID模糊控制器仿真研究

为了提高风力发电系统综合系统性能,在传统风力发电技术的基础上,对变速风力发电机组的自校正自调整PID模糊控制进行了详细的分析和研究,从而利用模糊控制和PID控制相结合的技术,取得了很好的效果。从MATLAB仿真结果看出系统精度及效率很高而稳态误差较小,鲁棒性较好。     

A conceptual framework of anonymity in Group Support Systems

As the development and use of automated systems for collaborative work grows, the need for a better understanding of these systems becomes more important. Our focus is on one type of system, a Group Support System (GSS) and, in particular, on one important aspect of a GSS—anonymity. A conceptual framework for the study of anonymity in a GSS is presented, which describes the general classes of variables and their relationships. These variables include the factors that influence anonymity in a GSS, types of anonymity, and the effects of anonymity on a message sender, receiver, group process, and outcome. Each of these variables is discussed with working propositions presented for important group process and outcome measures. The objectives of this article are to highlight the importance and complexity of anonymity, to act as a guide for empirical investigations of anonymity, and to influence future GSS development and use.     

Accrual accounting and Australian fiscal policy

Australian governments have recently moved from cash accounting to accrual accounting. Accrual accounting has been accompanied at the national government level by the introduction of a new key fiscal policy measure: the ‘fiscal balance’. This paper explains and evaluates this new fiscal measure. It concludes that, given the present fiscal policy of the Australian government, fiscal balance is a superior fiscal policy measure to the ‘cash’ budget balance measure which it replaced. However, from the alternative ‘golden rule’ policy standpoint, fiscal balance is not a meaningful fiscal policy measure — although its stock counterpart, net financial liabilities, certainly is.     

国外大型调水工程渠道运行控制综述

与常规的以经验为主的运行方式相比，考虑了水动力学影响、以多渠池串联的整个渠道系统为研究对象的渠道运行控制在增加调水工程的安全性、降低运行成本、提高输水效率等方面能取得更佳的效果。国外关于调水工程渠道控制的研究起步较早，基于非线性偏微分圣维南方程组发展了多种离散化、线性化等简化方法，建立了相应的控制模型，并从不同角度确定了其控制方法以及控制算法。参考已有的研究思路和方法，总结国外渠道运行控制的成果，对我国南水北调工程的运行控制有着重要的借鉴意义。     

Internal-corrosion inhibitors for pipelines carrying deaerated heating water

The effect of internal-corrosion inhibitors on heating-system pipelines is investigated. Tests were conducted on a testing device for polarization measurements under conditions corresponding to the Rostov Heat-Supply System. The concentration of OEDP-zinc, which provides a high degree of protection from general corrosion, is determined. The reagent has been successfully incorporated into the Rostov No. 2 TPP. __________ Translated from élektricheskie Stantsii, No. 7, July 2007, pp. 37–43.     

Internal-corrosion inhibitors for pipelines in heat-supply systems carrying water with a high oxygen content

The reliability of heat-supply systems is determined primarily by internal corrosion of the pipelines. The concentration of oxygen in the water exerts a major influence on the corrosion. In systems with a standard oxygen content, OéDF-Zn is a highly effective corrosion inhibitor. However, there are systems in which the quality of deaeration of the make-up water of the heat-supply system is low (or deaeration is nonexistent), and the concentration of oxygen is considerably above the standard value. Classed among these systems, for example, are the HWS systems, which are incorporated into closed heat-supply systems. The oxygen concentration in these systems is analyzed to assess the situation. __________ Translated from élektricheskie Stantsii, No. 6, June 2007, pp. 35–39.     

Multi-Reservoir System Optimization using Chlorophyll-<Emphasis Type="Italic">a</Emphasis> Trophic Indexes

The problem of managing water scarcity by resorting to complex interconnected multi-source water systems needs to utilize management optimization techniques analyzing aspects of water quantity and quality in a common strategy. In the southern regions of Mediterranean Europe, the greater part of water resources for supply systems are derived from artificial reservoirs and water systems can become quite complex since they interconnect several sources and demand centers, as indeed occurs in the Region of Sardinia (Italy). A simplified approach to the requirement to insert water quality aspects in the mathematical optimization model can be achieved by examining the trophic conditions of reservoirs. Trophic State Indexes (TSI) based on Carlson’s (1977) make it possible to insert quality constraints in the water management optimization model also considering complex multi-reservoir and multi-user systems. Model formalization and implementation by the optimization toolkit WARGI (Water Resource system optimization aided by Graphical Interface) (Sechi and Zuddas 2000; Manca et al. 2004; Salis et al. 2005) is illustrated in this paper. The usefulness of a mixed quantity–quality optimization approach has been confirmed by WARGI application to a real multi-reservoir water resources system in southern Sardinia. The optimization model remains computationally efficient dealing with this complex multi-reservoir system and the obtained results can be seen as a reference target in a subsequent simulation phase.     

Interpreting IS alignment: A multiple case study in professional organizations

This paper centers on the interpretation attributed by organizational members to the information systems (IS) alignment concept. Its objective is to study IS alignment in professional organizations. Specifically, it reports on an interpretive study conducted in five Chilean organizations; four professional and one entrepreneurial, of which two are private and three are public. The theoretical background of our study is derived from three IS strategic alignment conceptualizations: managerial, emergent and critical. These concepts formed our theoretical framework that guided data collection and analysis. The study centers on the meanings organizational members assigned to IS strategic alignment, as well as their views on the barriers that hinder achieving this level of organizational integration. The analysis results are summarized in seven hermeneutic themes that point out the different connotations the organizations assigned to IS alignment. The significance of the findings are summarized in four insights that formulate theoretical and practical implications. These insights refer to: (1) the difficulties of achieving alignment for professional organizations, particularly public ones, (2) the limitations these organizations have in being agile, (3) the rationale for acquiring technology and determining IT skills, and (4) the imperative meaning that CIOs attribute to IS alignment. The paper concludes with a reflection on the limitations and relevance of the research.