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This article aims to encourage universities to go beyond the significant obsession with the technical advances of the knowledge society and carefully assess both the epistemological and ethical principles that govern their existence. Ultimately, these principles will shape the future well being of both universities and civilization itself.

Provides a useful discussion on the future of universities.

The advance of modern technology is assessed within a context of philosophical assumptions such as promethean successism, platonic order, Cartesian rationalism, Newtonian certainty and modern materialism which are challenged by the uncertainties, complexities, and subjectivity promoted by existentialism, quantum physics, and chaos theory. The quest for wisdom takes us beyond the confines of the knowledge society to a values‐based, open, humble, caring and sharing community experience.

People, institutions and communities need to carefully assess their future development in terms of a carefully considered code of ethics and a clear understanding of the limits of their capacity for knowledge.

The thesis is not uncommon. The important difference is in the wide contextual and conceptual perspective together with a focus on urgency as we enter a very different future shaped by nanotechnology, biotechnology, computer science and robotology.

Health systems are changing at variable rates. Periods of significant change can create new challenges or amplify existing barriers to accreditation program credibility and reliability. The purpose of this paper is to examine, during the transition to a new Australian accreditation scheme and standards, challenges to health service accreditation survey reliability, the salience of the issues and strategies to manage threats to survey reliability.

Across 2013-2014, a two-phase, multi-method study was conducted, involving five research activities (two questionnaire surveys and three group discussions). This paper reports data from the transcribed group discussions involving 100 participants, which was subject to content and thematic analysis. Participants were accreditation survey coordinators employed by the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards.

Six significant issues influencing survey reliability were reported: accreditation program governance and philosophy; accrediting agency management of the accreditation process, including the program’s framework; survey coordinators; survey team dynamics; individual surveyors; and healthcare organizations’ approach to accreditation. A change in governance arrangements promoted reliability with an independent authority and a new set of standards, endorsed by Federal and State governments. However, potential reliability threats were introduced by having multiple accrediting agencies approved to survey against the new national standards. Challenges that existed prior to the reformed system remain.

Capturing lessons and challenges from healthcare reforms is necessary if improvements are to be realized. The study provides practical and theoretical strategies to promote reliability in accreditation programs.

The following is an annotated bibliography of materials published in English in 1975 on orienting users to the library and on instructing them in the use of reference resources. Included are publications on user instruction in all types of libraries and for all types of users from elementary to graduate students. It should be noted that the literature on this subject is increasing and a growing number of the publications listed are concerned with evaluating library instruction and its effect on users and libraries. As in previous years, the library literature also includes many references to publications on user instruction in foreign countries. However, such publications, except for British and Australian references, have been omitted from this annual review.

Research on accreditation has mostly focused on assessing its impact using large scale quantitative studies, yet little is known on how quality is improved in practice through an accreditation process. Using a case study of an acute teaching hospital in Portugal, the purpose of this paper is to explore the dynamics through which accreditation can lead to an improvement in the quality of healthcare services provided.

Data for the case study was collected through 46 in-depth semi-structured interviews with 49 clinical and non-clinical members of staff. Data were analyzed using a framework thematic analysis.

Interviewees felt that hospital accreditation contributed to the improvement of healthcare quality in general, and more specifically to patient safety, as it fostered staff reflection, a higher standardization of practices, and a greater focus on quality improvement. However, findings also suggest that the positive impact of accreditation resulted from the approach the hospital adopted in its implementation as well as the fact that several of the procedures and practices required by accreditation were already in place at the hospital, albeit often in an informal way.

The study was conducted in only one hospital. The design of an accreditation implementation plan tailored to the hospital’s context can significantly contribute to positive outcomes in terms of quality and patient safety improvements.

This study provides a better understanding of how accreditation can contribute to healthcare quality improvement. It offers important lessons on the factors and processes that potentiate quality improvements through accreditation.

So far as the various British Food and Drugs Acts are concerned, the meaning of “sophistication” or “adulteration,” which includes “substitution,” is now very wide.

The purpose of this paper was to document the development of a major regional department store from the firm’s start to the completion of a single block structure including the warehouses required to support its operations.

The study is based on a survey of historic materials including the recently available archival materials in the Oregon Historical Society Research Library.

The study reveals the interaction of vision, planning and risk taking in a family enterprise over two generations. It illustrates the search for information as to what was required and the importance of architectural elements in the construction and operation of their store.

The archival materials are extensive; however, over the years, much of the operating data were destroyed or lost. Although family members remain in Oregon, they are reluctant to discuss the store’s history, even though the matters that affected them took place many years after the study’s period.

Much of the information collected in the study had never been used in previous work.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate if there is a difference in hygiene parameters of raw milk produced in organic and conventional farm of similar size. In parallel, the aim was to determine if there are differences in pasteurized organic and conventional milk samples delivered on the market.

Raw milk samples were analyzed for aerobic colony count (ACC), somatic cell count (SCC), acidity, temperature, fat and protein content. On the other side, final products of organic and conventional pasteurized milk with 2.8 percent declared milk fat were analyzed for Raman spectroscopy, color change and sensorial difference.

Results of raw milk analysis showed statistically significant differences in fat content, SCC, acidity, temperature and ACC (p<0.05). It is of note that ACC for organic milk were lower for approx. 1 log CFU/ml compared to conventional milk samples. Pasteurized organic milk samples had a significantly higher L* value than those samples originating from conventional farms, indicating that organic is “more white” compared to conventional milk. According to the results of triangle test, with 95 percent confidence no more than 10 percent of the population is able to detect a difference.

A limitation of this research is the fact that good veterinary practices at farms, namely, animal health and adequate usage of medicine for treating the animals, animal welfare and animal feeding were not analyzed.

This study analyzed potential differences in organic and conventional milk at two important production stages of the milk chain – at receipt at dairy plant (raw milk) and perceived by consumers (final product).