Due to the complexity of running distributed and networked systems, we can recognise a trend of virtual re-centralisation of distributed systems. Since outsourcing IT resources, IT service providers are born. The aim of service providers is to run IT components offering qualified IT services to customers, who specify quality demands as service level agreements (SLAs). Service providers use mana...

Depuis la fin de Deuxieme Guerre mondiale, le systeme educatif japonais a longtemps ete marque par l’egalite des chances – surtout propos l’enseignement obligatoire et centralisation. les annees 1980 toutefois, reformateurs se sont interesses l’elimination l’uniformite rigide standardisation, en diversifiant formation decentralisant l’administration (Shimahara, 1989). Aujourd’hui, accorde une p...

Background Following centralisation of breast cancer services in Ireland, the number of patients attending symptomatic breast units (SBU) has increased significantly. A considerable proportion of patients referred to SBU present with non-suspicious symptoms and fall into a “low-risk” category for breast cancer. It has been proposed that consideration be given to a GP-delivered service for these...

For more than 20 years, many countries have been trying to set up a standardised medical record at the regional or at the national level. Most of them have not reached this goal, essentially due to two main difficulties related to patient identification and medical records standardisation. Moreover, the issues raised by the centralisation of all gathered medical data have to be tackled particul...

Formant values of oral vowels are automatically measured in a total of 50000 segments from four hours of journalistic broadcast speech in French and German. After automatic segmentation using the LIMSI speech alignment system, formant values are automatically extracted using PRAAT. Vowels with unlikely formant values are discarded (4%). The measured values are exposed with respect to segment du...

Recent years have seen a marked reduction in the mortality of children with meningococcal disease in paediatric intensive care units (PICU); the reasons for this improvement are multifactorial. The mortality rates for critically ill children overall have improved and reasons for this are probably increased centralisation of PICU services and that fewer critically ill children are now looked aft...

This article provides the first comprehensive analysis of Finns Party’s (Perussuomalaiset [PS]) formal organisation and how it operates in practice. Following framework this thematic issue, to what extent does PS’s follow mass-party model centralised is party its internal decision-making? Analysis documents, association registries, in-depth interviews with 24 elite representatives reveal that P...