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The evolution of soil terrestrial ecosystems is a subject with difficulties to define their maturity and evolutionary state. In the last century, thermodynamics was one of the options considered by ecologists for that goal. Difficulties in quantifying the thermodynamic parameters needed by the evolutionary theories caused that this subject has been practically locked since the end of the last century. Application of thermodynamics needs reactions and one of the main reactions in soil ecosystems are those involved in the decomposition of the soil organic matter. This paper aims to provide an initial step to study those reactions from a thermodynamic perspective. With that goal in mind, thermal analysis and isothermal calorespirometric measurements were made on soil samples collected at three depths in semi-natural oak woodlands at three different sites in southwest Ireland. It is assumed that the organic matter evolves from a less to a higher mature state as soil depth increases. The maturity state could be chemically defined by the redox state. The proposed methods yield the enthalpy change, Gibbs energy change and entropy change for the microbial catabolism and combustion reactions of the soil organic matter. The degree of reduction was calculated by the enthalpy changes. Results show the soil organic matter becomes more reduced from the soil organic surface to mineral soils. The top layer is characterized by high carbon content, organic materials with low energy content per Cmole, and fast biodegradation rates. Mineral soils are characterized by low carbon content, organic materials with high energy content per Cmole, and slow biodegradation rates. Values obtained for the entropy change were sensitive to these differences among the different soil layers. These results contribute to unlock the thermodynamics of the soil reactions and to develop the bioenergetics of soil ecosystems., It was partially funded by "Economía, Emprego e Industria" of the Galician Government (OTR02794/AGI/CISIC I+D+I 2016, OTR04174/AGI/CISIC I+D+I 2017)

ObjectiveIn 2014, an escalation plan and morning handover meetings were implemented in an intensive care unit (ICU) to reduce access block for post-operative care. In this study, the improvement intervention is revisited 5 years on with the objective to see if the changes are sustained and to understand factors contributing to sustainability.DesignA mixed-method approach was used, with quantitative analysis of ICU administrative data and qualitative analysis of interviews with hospital management and ICU staff.SettingICU with mixed surgical and non-surgical cases in a regional hospital in Australia.ParticipantsInterview participants: ICU nurses (four), ICU doctors (four) and hospital management (four).Main outcome measuresMonthly number of elective surgeries were cancelled due to unavailability of ICU beds. Staff perceptions of the interventions and factors contributed to sustainability.ResultsAfter a decline in elective surgeries being cancelled in the first year after the intervention, there was an increase in cancellations in the following years (χ2=16.38, p=0.003). Lack of knowledge about the intervention and competitive interests in the management of patient flow were believed to be obstacles for sustained effects of the original intervention. So were communication deficiencies that were reported within the ICU and between ICU and other departments. There are discrepancies between how nurses and doctors use the escalation plan and regard the availability of ICU beds.ConclusionImprovement interventions in healthcare that appear initially to be successful are not necessarily sustained over time, as was the case in this study. In healthcare, there is no such thing as a ‘fix and forget’ solution for interventions. Management commitment to support communication within and between microsystems, and to support healthcare staff understanding of the underlying reasons for intervention, are important implications for change and change management across healthcare systems.

peer-reviewed Biomass harvesting may affect the nutrient pools of forests and impact negatively on forest ecosystems in the long-term. Appropriate knowledge regarding nutrient pools and potential nutrient removal is required for a good forest management to attain sustainable productivity. The main aims of this work were to give information of nutrient status (nitrogen N, phosphorus P, potassium K, calcium Ca, and magnesium Mg) of forests by studying a chronosequence Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis (Bong.) Carr) and several mature Sitka spruce and lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta Dougl. var. latifolia) stands, and to determinate the potential nutrient removal in a site applying different harvest scenarios: stem-only harvest, stem-and-branch harvest and whole-tree harvest. The database of this study comes from selected and sampled forest harvest residue in brash bundles and from standing trees, which were divided in six components (needles, branches, deadwood, roots, stembark and stemwood). Nutrient concentrations of these samples were analysed. Both tree species showed that needles was the component with higher nutrient concentration, and stemwood that with the lowest. In general, nutrient concentration in a tree for both species was identified from large to lesser concentration: N > Ca > K > Mg > P. Nitrogen pool generally increased over time. Sitka spruce stands had larger nutrient pools than lodgepole pine stands. WTH system potentially removed approximately double the amount of nutrients than SOH system. Several investigators had suggested different percentages of harvest residues to be retained on site in order to manage the forest sustainably. More research will be needed to verify what amount of harvest residue and what type of it must be left on site.

Under market economy, financial health of businesses is one of the main determinants in achieving business objectives and building a competitive advantage. The objective of the study is to evaluate differences in the selected financial indicators across the categories of hotels in the Visegrad Group countries. This objective was achieved by testing these differences in the selected financial indicators (CF, EVA, ROE, ROCE, ROA, ROS and many others) for various hotel categories (two-to five-star hotels). Hotel category data (stars) were collected from Booking.com, financial outcomes were obtained directly from the financial statements of the analysed hotels. Testing of differences was carried out by non-parametric tests (Kruskal-Wallis test, Wilcoxon test). Statistically significant differences were found in CF, EVA, ROS, Profit margin, EBITDA margin, EBIT margin, Solvency ratio Asset, Turnover time, Current Liabilities Turnover. The outputs of the analyses reveal that hotels of a higher category show better financial outputs. Therefore, in order to increase their financial performance, lower category hotels should be inspired and focused on the activities of higher category hotels. The study points to the fact that the variable of hotel category should be taken into account in any analytical processes focused on the financial health of hotels. © Foundation of International Studies, 2020.

İşletmelerin değerini ve finansal performansını doğru ölçmek hem yatırımcılar hem de işletme yöneticileri açısından büyük önem arz etmektedir. Firma başarısının ölçülmesinde yıllardır kullanılagelen geleneksel performans ölçütlerinin yanı sıra, son yıllarda gelişen değere dayalı yönetim anlayışı ile birlikte, yaratılan hissedar değerini ölçmek amacıyla akademisyenler ve danışmanlık firmaları tarafından çeşitli sayıda ölçüt literatüre kazandırılmıştır. Bu ölçütlerden en geniş kabul görenleri EVA (Ekonomik Katma Değer) ve CFROI (Yatırımın Nakit Akım Getirisi)'dır.Bu çalışmada geleneksel ve değere dayalı ölçütlerden hangilerinin firma performansını daha gerçekçi ölçtüğü araştırılmıştır. Oluşturulan finansal modeller ile İMKB'de işlem gören 219 firmanın 2004, 2005 ve 2006 verilerinden söz konusu 3 yıla ilişkin 13 performans ölçütünün değerleri hesaplanmıştır. Ardından oluşturulan 32 ekonometrik model ile hisse getirileri ile bu ölçütler arasındaki ilişki firmaların tümü, sektörel gruplanmaları ve büyüklükleri bazında analiz edilmiştir. Uygulama sonucunda, geleneksel olarak adlandırılan ölçütler grubunda yer alan ROA ve ROE'nin hisse getirisini açıklamada hala en güçlü ölçütler olduğu, bu iki ölçüte ilaveten EVA Endeksi, ROS ve kar marjı oranlarının yatırım kararlarının alınması ve başarılı firmaların belirlenmesinde değerlendirme sürecine dahil edilmesinin uygun olacağı belirlenmiştir. EVA gibi bir diğer değere dayalı ölçüt olan CFROI ise getiriyi EVA Endeksine göre daha düşük açıklama gücüne sahip olsa da getiri ile arasındaki ilişkinin azımsanacak düzeyde olmadığı, bu ölçütün ülkemizde kullanılabileceği ve anlamlı bilgiler ürettiği bulunmuştur. It is of utmost importance for investors and corporate managers to measure the value and financial performance of corporations accurately. Alongside the traditional performance metrics that are used to measure firm success for years; recently, with the developing notion of value based management, several new metrics for determining the created shareholder value are introduced to the literature by academicians and consultancy firms. The most widely accepted metrics among these are; EVA (Economic Value Added) and CFROI (Cash Flow Return on Investment).In this study, a comparative analysis between traditional and value based performance metrics in determining company performance, with a view to identify which ones provide more realistic results is conducted. 13 performance metrics for 219 firms those are listed in ISE, for years 2004, 2005 and 2006, using the data from the respective years and the financial models created, are calculated. Successively, with the 32 econometric models created, further analysis of the relationship between the referred metrics and share returns is carried out. The analysis considered the firms under three different categories; as a whole set, as sectoral subsets and subsets w.r.t. firm size. Results of the analysis demonstrates that, ROA and ROE, which are among the traditional metrics, are still the most powerful metrics in explaining share returns, however, it would also be appropriate to include EVA, ROS and profit margin ratios to the decision making processes of investment and identification of successful firms. The results also indicate that CFROI, another value based metric like EVA, although having a lower explanatory power, has a considerable relationship with returns, provides meaningful information and is suitable to be used in Turkish context. 301

This study investigated internal factors, including company's size, age, growth, capital structure and ISO 9000 registration, and an external factor, the category of industry, which impact corporate performance in a sample of Malaysian companies. To achieve this objective, the annual reports of 162 companies were collected and an seven-factor corporate performance evaluation model was tested based on the hypotheses created. The study has utilised seven different measures of company performance: Return on Assets (ROA), Return on Equity (ROE), Working Capital (WC), Return on Sales (ROS), Cash Flow (CF), Economic Value Added (EVA) and Tobin's Q (TQ) ratio, to act as dependent variables in order to examine their relationships with company's size, age, growth, capital structure, ISO 9000 registration and category of industry. This study found that the significant dependent variables that determined Malaysian corporate success were ISO 9000, capital structure, company size and category of industry. On establishing the relationship between ISO 9000 registration and the seven financial performance measures, ROA, EVA, ROS and WC appeared to have significant positive associations with ISO 9000 registration. On establishing the relationship between ISO 9000 registration and the financial performance of Malaysian companies, this study reveals that ISO 9000 registered companies in Malaysia outperformed their non-ISO 9000 registered counterparts in terms of ROA, ROE, WC, ROS, CF, EVA and TQ during the period of this study. Thus, this study lends support to some of the findings reported in Haversjo (2000), Heras et al. (2002) and Corbett et al. (2002) regarding the impact of ISO 9000 registration on company performance. ISO registered companies were also found to be younger than their counterparts, and they also tended to be larger in size, based on total assets. The growth of ISO companies was better than that of non-ISO registered companies and their capital structure was much less than their counterparts. In addition, company's capital structure was found to be another influential factor in determining Malaysian corporate success. On establishing the relationship between capital structure and the seven company financial performance measures, ROA, ROS and WC were found to have significant negative associations with capital structure. Another factor that was found to determine Malaysian corporate success was company size. This was based on the relationship established between company's size and the seven financial performance measures, wherein CF was found to have a significantly positive association with company size. Category of industry was also found to determine Malaysian corporate success. This was based on the relationship established between category of industry and the seven financial performance measures. With regard to the Pearson's correlation analysis, this study found that CF values rise with an increase in the size of the corporation they also increase with growth rates. This would suggest that larger firms experiencing high growth rates would tend to have high CF. This supports earlier work that found that organizational attributes were associated with more positive cash flows (Brush and Van der Werf 1992; Cooper 1993; Brush and Chaganti 1999). This study also conducted a questionnaire survey in order to assess the impact of ISO 9000 accreditation on non-financial performance measures. Among the findings, ISO 9000 registered companies performed better than non-ISO 9000 registered companies in terms of managing information and analysis factors, strategic quality planning factors, human resource development and management factors, management of process quality factors, and comparative business outcome factors.