The Confidential Enquiry into Maternal Deaths (CEMD) in South Africa has been operational for 15 years. This case study describes the process of notification and independent assessment of maternal deaths, predominantly in facilities. In the earlier years of the Enquiry, institutional maternal mortality ratio increased and was 176.2 per 100 000 live births in the 2008-10 triennium; thereafter it...

The research reported in this paper aimed to identify and explore potential cultural, operational, managerial, organisational and technical barriers and risks that can affect successful long-term exploitation of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems in Chinese SOEs. The study adopted a mixed-methods research design, which consisted of a questionnaire survey and a follow-up multiple case st...

Many important strategic applications require access to and integration of disparate information resources. We refer to this category of information systems as Composite Information Systems (CIS). Issues involved in developing a CIS are categorized and exemplified to reveal the deficiencies of current practice. A methodology which incorporates Data Base Management Systems and Artificial Intelli...

The complexity of real-time embedded systems is increasing, for example due to the use of distributed architectures. An extension to the Vienna Development Method (VDM) is proposed to address the problem of deployment of software on distributed hardware. The limitations of the current notation are discussed and new language elements are introduced to overcome these deficiencies. The impact of t...

This article presents the health situation in Angola from 2000 to 2007, discussing regionalization of the health system as an important instrument for improving access and the use of health services in the country, besides highlighting the conditions and challenges for implementation. The article is based on a literature review of: (a) Brazilian authors, considering that health reform is still ...