Factors affecting adherence to use of hip protectors amongst residents of nursing homes - A correlation study

Background: Hip protectors are protective pads designed to cover the greater trochanter and attenuate or disperse the force of a fall sufficiently to prevent a hip fracture. Promising results from randomised controlled trials in nursing homes have resulted in hip protectors being widely recommended in the health care literature and in national guidelines. Objectives: The objectives of the study were to identify characteristics of individual residents, and the organisational features of the homes in which they live, which may affect adherence to wearing hip protectors. Design: An observational, correlation study designed to identify factors related to adherence. Setting: Forty nursing and residential homes in the UK. Participants: 1346 residents of the homes who were not confined to bed and with no pressure sore on the hip. Methods: The introduction of an evidence-based policy to offer Safehips hip protectors to residents free of charge and with support from a nurse facilitator. Adherence to wearing the hip protectors was observed over 72 weeks. Results: Initial acceptance of the hip protectors was 37.2%. Continued adherence was 23.9% at 24 weeks; 23.2% at 48 weeks; and 19.9% at 72 weeks. Greater adherence was associated with the following individual resident characteristics: a greater degree of dependency (95% CI 1.39 - m3.78) and cognitive impairment (95% CI 1.01 - 2.98); being male rather than female (95% CI 1.06 - 2.48). Greater adherence was also associated with the following organisational characteristics of homes: fewer changes of senior manager during the study period (95% CI 1.01 - 8.51), and being resident in a home with a resident profile showing a greater proportion of residents with a higher degree of dependency (95% CI 1.04 - 1.27). There was wide a variation in the degree of success in implementation between homes (adherence of 0 - 100% at 24 weeks). Conclusions: Those implementing a policy of introducing hip protectors into nursing and residential homes should consider targeting residents with cognitive impairment. Such residents are at greater risk of hip fracture and appear to be more likely to continue wearing hip protectors. Those charged with implementing changes inpractice or policy should consider how the context for implementation can be optimised to increase the likelihood of success.

An Innovative Approach to Evaluating Organisational Change

This paper addresses the difficult problem of how to improve the process of evaluating organisational change. Given that the data emergent from an evaluative exercise will strongly influence the subsequent strategic and operational decisions taken by organisational managers, it is critical that the evaluation approach itself is capable of delivering high quality, accurate and timely data. The aim of this paper is to examine the role of the IT-based Optionfinder Technology used in conjunction with focus groups, in generating management decision-making data, and reflecting the changes in key performance indicators in a utility organisation. The case study research evaluates the innovative integrative approach adopted by the utility organisation and concludes that the proposed approach contributes to improvements in the decision-making capability of managers.

Ovariole number - a predictor of differential reproductive success among worker subfamilies in queenless honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) colonies

A honeybee queen normally mates with 10-20 drones, and reproductive conflicts may arise among a colony's different worker patrilines, especially after a colony has lost its single queen and the workers commence egg laying. In this study, we employed microsatellite markers to study aspects of worker reproductive competition in two queenless Africanized honeybee colonies. First, we determined whether there was a bias among worker patrilines in their maternity of drones and, second, we asked whether this bias could be attributed to differences in the degree of ovary activation of workers. Third, we relate these behavioral and physiological factors to ontogenetic differences between workers with respect to ovariole number. Workers from each of three (colony A) and one (colony B) patrilineal genotypes represented less than 6% of the worker population, yet each produced at least 13% of the drones in a colony, and collectively they produced 73% of the drones. Workers representing these genotypes also had more developed follicles and a greater number of ovarioles per ovary. Across all workers, ovariole development and number were closely correlated. This suggests a strong effect of worker genotype on the development of the ovary already in the postembryonic stages and sets a precedent to adult fertility, so that

Responses to interactive playback predict future pairing success in nightingales

Birdsong is a sexually selected trait that serves in territory defence and mate choice. Individual song traits can be affected by the body condition of the male and thus may reflect his quality. Such relations between male quality and general singing performance raise the question whether differences in male quality also affect response strategies used in dyadic interactions. To address this question, we studied the relation between pairing success of male common nightingales, Luscinia megarhynchos, and their responses to rivals posing different levels of threat. Using interactive playback, we exposed males prior to mating to either aggressively or moderately singing rivals (by song overlapping and song alternating, respectively). Males that remained unpaired throughout the season (bachelors) interrupted their singing significantly more often after being overlapped than after alternating playback, whereas subsequently mated males kept the number of singing interruptions more constant across playback treatment. This suggests that subsequently paired males are less discriminative than are bachelors when challenged by rivals varying in aggressiveness. Regardless of playback treatment, males that later became paired responded significantly more strongly than did bachelor males. Thus, an increase in singing after a vocal interaction prior to mating predicted future mating success. (c) 2006 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Environmental shareholder value. Economic success with corporate environmental management

The links between corporate environmental protection and economic success have been analysed vigorously in several theoretical and empirical studies. Most studies are based on the hypothesis that the amount of environmental protection is somehow - negatively or positively - correlated with the economic success of the company. We argue that the amount of corporate environmental protection per se neither spurs nor reduces shareholder value, which is maybe the most important measure of economic success at present. Moreover, the effect environmental protection exerts on shareholder value is determined by the manner in which corporate environmental management is practised. Referring to the value drivers of shareholder value, we discuss the characteristics necessary to increase shareholder value, or at least to contain any reduction as effectively as possible.