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The study improved the overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) of machines and processes through the implementation of a total productive maintenance (TPM) approach at Company S over a three-month period. By comparing the OEE of equipment before and after the implementation of autonomous maintenance, this study concluded that autonomous maintenance improves OEE. The target of this study was one general product line at a polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) plant. Due to time limitations, the study only applied autonomous maintenance to operational activities. This research involved machine and processes selection, condition assessment, baseline OEE assessment, operator training, execution of autonomous maintenance, and OEE measurement. The approach was based on the steps of autonomous maintenance but was simplified for the conditions of the plant.

Residents who fall in SNF either sustain significant decline to quality of life or die from their injuries. The average fall costs about $34,000 per incident. On average, 19.8% of residents fall at least once per month. The purpose of this project was to assess, identify, and advance nursing practice to decrease falls by evaluating current facility standard of practice, fall policy, procedures, and protocol. The objective was to create actions that would close the communication gap between clinicians and residents. This project encourages clinicians to intertwine resident feedback and strategies into the plan of care to help reduce fall risk. A focus group was conducted with 11 residents with previous fall experience. Through structured discussion, several important gaps in communication related to residents' plan of care were identified. Examples identified include, 10 of 11 residents indicated they were never asked to participate in their plan of care, 10 of 11 residents indicated staff did not listen to them, and 11 of 11 stated they did not know they could change the plan of care that staff had put in place. Further feedback from the focus group demonstrated residents desire to be involved in their care however, they were largely excluded from this process in the past. This project contributes to positive social change by identifying ways to close the communication gaps and reduce risk for falls by intertwining clinician and resident fall practices. A highly recommended fall committee was established at the project facility to encourage staff buy in, advancement of nursing practice and resident involvement in reducing falls.

This work reconsiders the history of the Socialist Party of America during the Great Depression and the unaffiliated social-democratic movement developed by those who left the Socialist Party to join President Roosevelt’s New Deal coalition. The substance and implications of socialism’s revival in the 1930s have received insufficient attention, overshadowed by an emphasis on the character and impact of American communism. Viewed over multiple decades, socialists remained relevant in the labor movement. Their integration into the New Deal coalition confounds claims that American socialists were too rigid and programmatic in their beliefs to be effective political actors in the United States. Their shift from a revolutionary socialism to a pragmatic embrace of social democracy suggests that socialists were able to find an accommodation with both capitalism and with the Democratic Party. For much of the Depression, the Socialist Party was a vibrant political force on the American left, challenging the mainstream parties to address the economic crisis, creating a space in which women claimed leadership, and provided a cohort of skilled organizers for the labor movement. During the revival, women were central to the party’s successful organizing efforts, provided vital election support, publically debated the meanings of femininity and masculinity, and held important offices within the party. Socialists also built institutions. Highlander and Soviet House, two institutions that must be understood within their proper socialist contexts, developed out of the radicalism fostered by Reinhold Niebuhr at Union Theological Seminary. Radical young socialists, drawn to Reinhold Niebuhr’s pessimistic critique of capitalism, carried their belief that capitalism was in its terminal crisis into the SP’s Revolutionary Policy Committee. Their energy yielded impressive organization success for the labor movement. The continued intellectual coherence of socialists in the decades after the revival suggest that evolving socialist ideas survived within and at odds with the New Deal coalition. Far from abandoning socialism, those socialists who participated in the New Deal coalition maintained a distinctive set of ideas. The existence of a strong cohort of women in the Socialist Party’s revival runs contrary to scholars’ claims that women did not play a significant role in the Socialist Party after the early 1920s. Socialist women rebuilt socialist institutions during the Depression. They were central to the party’s successful organizing efforts; provided vital election support; debated the meanings of femininity and masculinity; and held offices within the party. Viewed from within the confines of parties and elections, the history of the socialist movement in the United States appears limited in its scope and importance. During the 1930s, socialists’ successful municipal projects were eclipsed by rising factionalism and the unrequited attraction of revolution. Socialists seemed much less interesting and their critiques less incisive and useful when mired in historical accounts that give primacy to factional feuds and electoral politics. This was not the entirety of the socialist experience in the 1930s. Socialists did fight amongst themselves and against communists, primarily with words but also with fists. They also served as productive forces and provided significant leadership within the labor movement. Throughout those decades, they continued to distinguish themselves from other trade unionists. Socialists retained their class-based critique of American society even as they softened their ideas about the remedies that they intended to employ to make that society more equitable.

Introduction Intraoral soft tissue infections (OSTI) are a common problem in dentistry and oral surgery. These abscesses are mostly exacerbated dental infections (OIDC), and some emerge as postoperative infections (POI) after tooth extraction (OITR) or apicoectomy (OIRR). The main aim of this study was to compare OIDC with POI, especially looking at the bacteria involved. An additional question was, therefore, if different antibiotic treatments should be used with OSTI of differing aetiologies. The impact of third molars on OSTI was evaluated and also the rates of POI after removal of third molars were specified. Materials and methods Patient data was collected from the patients' medical records and the results were statistically evaluated with SPSS (SPSS version 21.0; SPSS, IBM; Chicago, IL, USA). The inclusion criterion was the outpatient treatment of a patient with an exacerbated oral infection; the exclusion criteria were an early stage of infiltration without abscess formation; and a need for inpatient treatment. Results Periapical exacerbated infections, especially in the molar region were the commonest cause of OIDC. In the OITR group, mandibular tooth removal was the commonest factor (p=0.016). Remarkably, retained lower wisdom teeth led 91 to significant number of cases in the OITR group (p=0.022). Conclusions In our study we could not define differences between the causal bacteria found in patients with OIDC and POI. Due to resistance rates we conclude that amoxicillin combined with clavulanic acid seems to be the antibiotic standard for exacerbated intraoral infections independent of their aetiology. / Einführung Intraorale Weichteilinfektionen (OSTI) sind ein häufiges Problem in der Zahnmedizin und Kieferchirurgie. Diese Abszesse sind meist dentalen Ursprungs(OIDC), einige wiederum treten als postoperative Infektionen (POI) nach einer Zahnextraktion (OITR) oder Wurzelspitzenresektion (Oirr) auf. Das Hauptziel dieser Studie war es OIDC mit POI zu vergleichen. Ein weiteres Ziel war es, die unterschiedlichen antibiotischen Behandlungen bei OSTI unterschiedlicher Ätiologien gegeneinander abzuwägen. Die Auswirkungen der dritten Molaren auf OSTI wurde ebenfalls untersucht, und auch die Rate von POI nach Entfernung der dritten Molaren wurden angegeben. Material und Methode Die Patientendaten wurden durch die Analyse der Aufzeichnungen und Akten erhoben. Die Ergebnisse wurden statistisch ausgewertet mit SPSS (SPSS Version 21.0, SPSS, IBM, Chicago, IL, USA). Einschlusskriterium war die ambulante Behandlung eines Patienten mit dem Krankheitsbild einer intraoralen Infektion. Die Ausschlusskriterien waren ein frühes Stadium der Infiltration ohne Abszessbildung und die Notwendigkeit einer stationären Behandlung. Ergebnisse Apikale Parodontitiden, vor allem im Bereich der Molaren waren die häufigste Ursache für OIDC. In der OITR Gruppe war Zahnentfernung die häufigste Ursache (p = 0,016). Bemerkenswerterweise führte die Entfernung von unteren Weisheitszähnen zu einer erheblichen Anzahl von Fällen in der OITR Gruppe (p = 0,022). Schlussfolgerungen In unserer Studie konnten wir keine Unterschiede zwischen der bakteriellen Flora bei Patienten mit OIDC und POI erörtern. Aufgrund der aktuellen Resistenzraten, ziehen wir die Schlussfolgerung, dass Amoxicillin kombiniert mit Clavulansäure das Antibiotikum der Wahl für intraorale Infektionen, unabhängig von deren Ätiologie, zu sein scheint.

The advent of digital media has affected the nature of global communications, amplifying the interaction between populations and massively expanding the information load that an audience may be forced to consider. The Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG) has proposed a digital strategy for the 2008 Olympics, which will open up a wide range of challenges for information gathering and dissemination. My research project has two related components: The first is an exegesis which sets the context for the project, identifies its main issues and presents a background research plan that, on the one hand, focuses on journalists and their likely orientations to a Digital Media Centre such as the one I propose, and, on the other, seeks to discover in other digital media centres the elements of best practice and innovation that might be adopted for Beijing. The second is a development project to explore and present innovation in Internet-based digital media operations, as exemplified by the challenges presented by the 2008 Olympic Games.

This thesis is a study of the work of the Committee on Australian Universities of 1957, usually called the Murray Committee after its chairman. Interpretations of the Murray Committee's work usually focus on its achievement in securing funding increases for Australian universities at a time of great financial need, and establishing an arms-length grants body that assisted what was referred to as the "balanced development" of the sector. In this thesis I look at the context of the inquiry and the text of the committee's report to place this outcome within what I consider to be the broader scope and intent of the committee's work. I argue that the committee was anxious to secure the position of the universities at the top of an educational hierarchy in a period of change and challenge. The committee responded to the Commonwealth Government's request that the future pattern of university development be in the best interests of the nation by defending what they saw as the traditional role and purpose of the university. I argue that this response is one that has at various times been put foward by universities to demands for change, a response that, to paraphrase a view popular in university circles at the time, seeks to give government what it needs rather than what it wants. In this instance the committee looked to an English model of a residential university as the "traditional" template on which Australian institutions should be fashioned. The committee argued for the value of a broad, liberal education as emblematic of university pedagogy in an era of increasing knowledge specialisation and increasing confusion of purpose in the tertiary education system. It considered that a residential university conducted on liberal principles was the best institutional representation of its ideal of a community of scholars. The committee set down in its report a range of strategies by which the ideal might be realised, or at least approached, in the Australian context. It paid particular attention to the incorporation of first year students - the newest and most vulnerable members of the community. I also argue that in setting down its ideas on the institutional form and pedagogy of the university, the committee made assumptions about the personal characteristics of "the scholar", and I analyse these assumptions. In redefining the university in the Australian context the committee also engaged in a process of defining the roles and purposes of other tertiary education institutions. The committee took a hierarchical view of social organisation to their work, and viewed the education system in this light. The committee charged the universities with oversight of the Australian education system and intellectual guardianship of the Australian community. University graduates, in the committee's view, were the natural leaders of Australian society, and their education should prepare them to undertake properly this role. In redefining the university the committee members engaged in a process of boundarysetting, consolidating an institutional hierarchy in what they saw as a confused and uncoordinated system. However, they sought to incorporate a commitment to meritocracy and expansion of education opportunity within this perspective and urged the creation of pathways between the institutions. To characterise the committee's work I extend the concept of "balanced development" to the various areas in which the committee made recommendations. The concept of balanced development can be seen to refer to the proper development of the individual in the university system (the production of a balanced personality, or the education of the whole person); to the balanced development and co-ordination of the university sector; to the development of the tertiary education system as a whole and its proper articulation with the labour market; and to the process of reconciling the needs of the universities with the demands of government

The Commonwealth parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) was established in 1913 and to the end of 1995 had produced 397 reports on government expenditure and administration, with almost all its recommendations implemented by government. However despite the Committee's prominence among the instruments parliament has used to oversight the executive, not only does it lack clear legislative authority for major areas of its activities but its specific purpose is not defined in its legislation. Among other things the latter omission renders proper evaluation of the PAC's effectiveness impossible, as objectives are a necessary prerequisite to assessment. This thesis establishes the de facto purpose of the Committee by tracing the development of standing public accounts committees generally, and by analysing the PAC's work as shown by its output of tabled reports. In that development, six evolutionary phases are identified: the PAC's roots in the move to a parliamentary control of the administration of government expenditure in Britain from the 1780s; its genesis in the 1850s with the concept of the standing public accounts committee, to be concerned with regularity and probity in government expenditure; its origins in the establishment of the British standing public accounts committee , in 1861, stressing high standards of government accounting, audit and reporting; its establishment in the Commonwealth, concentrating on information on departmental activities, efficient implementation of government programs and provision of policy advice; its re-establishment in 1951, stressing parliamentary control of government financial administration; and its operations from 1980, pressing for economic fundamentalist change in the public sector. Their output shows that in these phases the committees concerned displayed characteristic standing public accounts committee activism and independence in utilising the wording of their enabling documentation to adapt themselves to changes in their environment by pursuing a corresponding different mix of one or more of the following concurrent immediate aims: ensuring adequate systems of government accounting, audit and reporting; ensuring probity and regularity in departmental expenditure; obtaining and disseminating information on departmental activities; ensuring high standards of departmental administration and management; providing policy advice to executive government; and ensuring economic, efficient and effective government spending. Together these attributes and practices have made the PAC a parliamentary instrument of unequalled flexibility with a single continuing underlying aim - a purpose not concerning the public accounts per se, but directed at achieving high standards of management and administration in government by calling the Commonwealth's public service to account for its expenditure and activities.

The context in which open space high schools were pioneered in the ACT is examined in the light of Basil Bernstein's (1971) theory of the reasons for changes in curricula and of the organisational conditions necessary for the changes which he considers to be taking place. The context which is examined is derived from analyses of the perspectives and views of the Australian Schools Commission, of the planners of the new design high schools in the ACT, of the Campbell Committee, which provided the rationale for the restructuring of the ACT secondary school system, and of the Principal and teachers of one of the original open space high schools in the ACT. From the analysis of the context of the establishment of a specific open space high school, "Windy Hill", a number of factors are seen to be significant in the process of educational change. In particular, it is claimed that any theoretical perspective on the reasons and conditions for educational change, if it is to have much influence on the change process, must take into account the perspectives of the practitioners in schools. It must also take into account the complexity of events which affect the process of educational change in systems and in schools. The relationship between imposed organisational structures and the curricular goals of schools is examined. It is claimed that changes to administrative structures must emerge from the existing aims of the system and the institution, rather than be imposed in order to effect curricular changes. Assumptions about the nature of educational change, made by the planners for the open space high schools in the ACT, are identified and related to the problems perceived by the Principal and teachers at "Windy Hill". From this analysis is derived a set of features of school settings which need to be considered when innovations in education are being contemplated. These features of the process of educational change are used to generate a number of recommendations which apply to the adoption and development of changes in education systems and schools.

This research essay examines the emergence and development of the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade and its attempts to influence foreign policy. Established as the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs in 1952, it was the first committee to have a specific portfolio alignment. The purpose of the committee was to ensure that a considerable number of parliamentarians could become informed about foreign affairs issues. The establishment of a committee for such a purpose was surprising in that proponents of parliamentary reform at that tune were strongly advocating that a comprehensive system of committees be created for the purposes of financial scrutiny of government expenditure and consideration of legislation. Against this background it is interesting that the new committee was not given - and indeed showed no intention of assuming - the role of scrutinising the activities of the Department of External (and later, Foreign) Affairs. It is also interesting that Prime Minister Robert Menzies instigated the committee despite the fact that the government - and particularly the Minister for External Affairs R G Casey - feared the committee might go beyond its terms of reference and attempt to exert influence on government policy. Consequently the government imposed severe restrictions on the committee's activities which resulted in the Opposition steadfastly refusing to participate in the work of the committee for 15 years. Once some of these restrictions were removed, the committee began to operate as a bipartisan committee in 1967 and promptly set about attempting to influence government policy in foreign affairs. Casey's worst fears were realised. Over the years the brief of the committee expanded into the areas of defence and trade. Eleven of the committee's reports address significant defence issues and since 1987 the committee has conducted extensive inquiries into trade matters. For the purposes of this research essay however I have focused on the development of the committee's interest and influence in the area of foreign affairs. Chapter One of this essay describes the background of parliamentary reform which resulted in the establishment of a comprehensive system of committees within the Australian Parliament. Against this background the emergence of the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs is outlined in Chapter Two. Chapter Three identifies the major trends in the work of the committee while Chapter Four examines the influence and some of the mechanisms through which the committee has exerted pressure on foreign affairs policy. The conclusions of my research are addressed in Chapter Five. This research essay is based on an analysis of official committee documents which address foreign affairs issues from 1967 to the present. The major sources for the essay therefore are the reports of the committee, government responses to those reports and parliamentary debates. Other works consulted include academic journals and monographs. I have also gained numerous insights into the powers and limitations of committees through informal discussions with members of various committees and colleagues. To these people I am indebted for their thoughtful and provocative remarks. In particular I thank Professor John Halligan of the University of Canberra for his assistance and encouragement in bringing this research essay to its conclusion.