Identifying functional stakeholder clusters to maximise communication for the ecosystem approach to fisheries management

Interaction with ecological models can improve stakeholder participation in fisheries management. Problems exist in efficiently communicating outputs to stakeholders and an objective method of structuring stakeholder differences is lacking. This paper aims to inform the design of a multi-user communication interface for fisheries management by identifying functional stakeholder groups. Intuitive categorisation of stakeholders, derived from survey responses, is contrasted with an Evidence-Based method derived from analysis of stakeholder literature. Intuitive categorisation relies on interpretation and professional judgement when categorising stakeholders among conventional stakeholder groups. Evidence-Based categorisation quantitatively characterises each stakeholder with a vector of four management objective interest-strength values (Yield, Employment, Profit and Ecosystem Preservation). Survey respondents agreed little in forming intuitive groups and the groups were poorly defined and heterogeneous in interests. In contrast the Evidence-Based clusters were well defined and largely homogeneous, so more useful for identifying functional relations with model outputs. The categorisations lead to two different clusterings of stakeholders and suggest unhelpful stereotyping of stakeholders may occur with the Intuitive categorisation method. Stakeholder clusters based on literature-evidence show a high degree of common interests among clusters and is encouraging for those seeking to maximise dialogue and consensus forming. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.

A critical ethnography of communication processes involving the management of oral chemotherapeutic agents by patients with a primary diagnosis of colorectal cancer: study protocol

Aim
To describe the protocol used to examine the processes of communication between health professionals, patients and informal carers during the management of oral chemotherapeutic medicines to identify factors that promote or inhibit medicine concordance.

Background
Ideally communication practices about oral medicines should incorporate shared decision-making, two-way dialogue and an equality of role between practitioner and patient. While there is evidence that healthcare professionals are adopting these concordant elements in general practice there are still some patients who have a passive role during consultations. Considering oral chemotherapeutic medications, there is a paucity of research about communication practices which is surprising given the high risk of toxicity associated with chemotherapy.

Design
A critical ethnographic design will be used, incorporating non-participant observations, individual semi-structured and focus-group interviews as several collecting methods.

Methods
Observations will be carried out on the interactions between healthcare professionals (physicians, nurses and pharmacists) and patients in the outpatient departments where prescriptions are explained and supplied and on follow-up consultations where treatment regimens are monitored. Interviews will be conducted with patients and their informal carers. Focus-groups will be carried out with healthcare professionals at the conclusion of the study. These several will be analysed using thematic analysis. This research is funded by the Department for Employment and Learning in Northern Ireland (Awarded February 2012).

Discussion
Dissemination of these findings will contribute to the understanding of issues involved when communicating with people about oral chemotherapy. It is anticipated that findings will inform education, practice and policy.

COMMUNICATION AND GREEK ENVIRONMENTAL ORGANISATIONS: MEANS OF COMMUNICATION AND INFLUENCING FACTORS

A basic operational objective of any environmental organisation is to raise awareness among the public on issues of environmental protection, through the dissemination of knowledge and experience to local communities, so that the conservation and ecologically sound management of natural resources can acquire a local dimension. This can be achieved either through interventions directed at the State, mainly in relation to its legislative function, or by encouraging citizens to change or improve their attitude regarding environmental matters. In order to ensure a successful outcome and the efficient functioning of any organisation, a feeling of mutual trust and understanding should exist between the latter and its various audiences, i.e. the State and society. A basic ingredient of this balance between the organisation, the broader public and the State is effective communication and activity planning. As a way of contributing to the exploration of this process, this paper describes the means of communication used by Greek environmental organisations, and presents, through a non-linear model, the differentiation amongst them, in conjunction with aspects of the profile of those running each organisation and other indicators, such as the years in operation and the membership figures in each sampled organisation. The paper concludes by arguing that the diversification of communication means is related to the head person's years as a member of the organisation and the extent of its total membership. Another important finding is that the more the involvement in activities within the organisation, the less differentiation we observe amongst the employed means of communication.

Management of long-term sickness absence: a systematic realist review

Purpose
The increasing impact and costs of long term sickness absence have been well documented. However, the diversity and complexity of interventions and of the contexts in which these take place makes a traditional review problematic. Therefore, we undertook a systematic realist review to identify the dominant programme theories underlying best practice, to assess the evidence for these theories, and to throw light on important enabling or disabling contextual factors.

Method
A search of the scholarly literature from 1950 to 2011 identified 5,576 articles, of which 269 formed the basis of the review.

Results
We found that the dominant programme theories in relation to effective management related to: early intervention or referral by employers; having proactive organisational procedures; good communication and cooperation between stakeholders; and workplace-based occupational rehabilitation. Significant contextual factors were identified as the level of support for interventions from top management, the size and structure of the organisation, the level of financial and organisational investment in the management of long-term sickness absence, and the quality of relationships between managers and staff.

Conclusions
Consequently, those with responsibility for managing absence should bear in mind the contextual factors that are likely to have an impact on interventions, and do what they can to ensure stakeholders have at least a mutual understanding (if not a common purpose) in relation to their perceptions of interventions, goals, culture and practice in the management of long term sickness absence.

Strategies for Effective Management of Health and Safety in Confined Site Construction

The overall aim of this research is to identify and catalogue the numerous managerial strategies for effective management of health and safety on a confined, urban, construction site. A mixed methods methodology was adopted using interviews and focus group discussions on three selected case studies of confined construction sites. In addition to these, a questionnaire survey was used based on the findings from the interviews and the focus group discussions. The top five key strategies include (1) Employ safe system of work plans to mitigate personnel health and safety issues; (2) Inform personnel, before starting on-site, of the potential issues using site inductions; (3) Effective communication among site personnel; (4) Draft and implement an effective design site layout prior to starting on-site; and (5) Use of banksman (traffic co-ordinator) to segregate personnel from vehicular traffic. The construction sector is one of the leading industries in accident causation and with the continued development and regeneration of our urban centres, confined site construction is quickly becoming the norm - an environment which only fuels accident creation within the construction sector. This research aids on-site management that requires direction and assistance in the identification and implementation of key strategies for the management of health and safety, particularly in confined construction site environments.

Organizational Attributes of Practices Successful at a Disease Management Program

Objective: To assess the contribution of organizational factors to implementation of 3 asthma quality measures: enrollment in a disease management program, development of a written treatment plan, and prescription of severity-appropriate anti-inflammatory therapy. Study design: A total of 138 pediatric clinicians and 247 office staff in 13 urban clinics and 23 nonurban private practices completed questionnaires about their practice's organizational characteristics (eg, leadership, communication, perceived effectiveness, job satisfaction). Results: 94% of the clinicians and 92% of the office staff completed questionnaires. When adjusted for confounders, greater practice activity and perceived effectiveness in meeting family needs were associated with higher rates of enrollment in the Easy Breathing program, whereas higher scores for 3 organizational characteristics-communication timeliness, decision authority, and job satisfaction-were associated with both higher enrollment and a greater number of written treatment plans. None of the organizational characteristics was associated with greater use of anti-inflammatory therapy. Conclusions: Three organizational characteristics predicted 2 quality asthma measures: use of a disease management program and creation of a written asthma treatment plan. If these organizational characteristics were amenable to change, then our findings could help focus interventions in areas of effective and acceptable organizational change. © 2009 Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.

The two-way relationship between the Balanced Scorecard and Management Control Systems in organizations:Lessons from a Case Study

This paper reports a case study conducted in Quinta da Aveleda, one of
the three largest Portuguese wine companies. Our aim was to explore the
relationship established between a newly implemented Balanced Scorecard
(BSC) and the elements of the Management Control System (MCS) in the
organization. Thus, two specific objectives were pursued. Firstly, to identify
the influences (barriers, opportunities) of the existing MCS on the implementation
of the BSC. Secondly, to identify the impacts the BSC implementation
was able to exert on the configuration of the organization’s MCS.
We found that the budgeting process, the planning system, the information
infrastructure, and the organizational structure and culture were the elements
of the previous MCS that influenced the BSC implementation process.
Eventually, the BSC implementation led to important changes in the budgeting,
planning, reporting systems and processes. In order to explain these
findings, we briefly explored the main issues and factors accounting for the
scope and nature of the BSC’s impacts on Quinta da Aveleda. These issues
and factors were the mobilized organizational resources, the implementation
approach, the communication, and the organizational support.

A randomized controlled trial of a self-management psychosocial intervention for men with prostate cancer and their partners: a study protocol.

Background
Little is known about interventions to help men and their partners cope with the after effects of prostate cancer treatment. The lack of in-depth descriptions of the intervention content is hindering the identification of which intervention (or component of an intervention) works.

Aim
To describe the development and evaluation of the content of a self-management psychosocial intervention for men with prostate cancer and their partners.

Design
A feasibility randomized controlled trial including structure, process, and outcome analysis.

Methods
This 9-week intervention commences on completion of treatment and consists of three group and two telephone sessions. The intervention focuses on symptom management, sexual dysfunction, uncertainty management, positive thinking and couple communication. Forty-eight couples will be assigned to either the intervention or a control group receiving usual care. Participants will be assessed at baseline, immediately postintervention and at 1 and 6 months postintervention. Outcome measures for patients and caregivers include self-efficacy, quality of life, symptom distress, uncertainty, benefits of illness, health behaviour, and measures of couple communication and support. An additional caregiver assessment will be completed by the partner.

Discussion
The main purpose of this feasibility study is to investigate the acceptability of the CONNECT programme to men with prostate cancer and their partners and to gain feedback from the participants and facilitators to make changes to and enhance the programme. Reasons why men do not want to participate will be collated to enhance recruitment in the future. We will also test recruitment strategies, randomization procedures, and the acceptability of the questionnaires. Ethical approval granted December 2010.

Design and Implementation of a Measurement-Based Policy-Driven Resource Management Framework For Converged Networks

This paper presents the design and implementation of a measurement-based QoS and resource management framework, CNQF (Converged Networks’ QoS Management Framework). CNQF is designed to provide unified, scalable QoS control and resource management through the use of a policy-based network
management paradigm. It achieves this via distributed functional entities that are deployed to co-ordinate the resources of the transport network through centralized policy-driven decisions supported by measurement-based control architecture. We present the CNQF architecture, implementation of the
prototype and validation of various inbuilt QoS control mechanisms using real traffic flows on a Linux-based experimental test bed.

Dynamic Buffer Management for Multimedia Services in Beyond 3G Wireless Networks

This paper investigates a dynamic buffer man-agement scheme for QoS control of multimedia services in be-yond 3G wireless systems. The scheme is studied in the context of the state-of-the-art 3.5G system i.e. the High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) which enhances 3G UMTS to support high-speed packet switched services. Unlike earlier systems, UMTS-evolved systems from HSDPA and beyond incorporate mechanisms such as packet scheduling and HARQ in the base station necessitating data buffering at the air interface. This introduces a potential bottleneck to end-to-end communication. Hence, buffer management at the air interface is crucial for end-to-end QoS support of multimedia services with multi-plexed parallel diverse flows such as video and data in the same end-user session. The dynamic buffer management scheme for HSDPA multimedia sessions with aggregated real-time and non real-time flows is investigated via extensive HSDPA simulations. The impact of the scheme on end-to-end traffic performance is evaluated with an example multimedia session comprising a real-time streaming flow concurrent with TCP-based non real-time flow. Results demonstrate that the scheme can guar-antee the end-to-end QoS of the real-time streaming flow, whilst simultaneously protecting the non real-time flow from starva-tion resulting in improved end-to-end throughput performance

Dynamic Buffer Management for Multimedia Services in 3.5G Wireless Networks

This paper presents and investigates a dynamic
buffer management scheme for QoS control of multimedia
services in a 3.5G wireless system i.e. the High Speed Downlink
Packet Access (HSDPA). HSDPA was introduced to enhance
UMTS for high-speed packet switched services. With HSDPA,
packet scheduling and HARQ mechanisms in the base station
require data buffering at the air interface thus introducing a
potential bottleneck to end-to-end communication. Hence, for
multimedia services with multiplexed parallel diverse flows
such as video and data in the same end-user session, buffer
management schemes in the base station are essential to support
end-to-end QoS provision. We propose a dynamic buffer management
scheme for HSDPA multimedia sessions with aggregated real-time and non real-time flows in the paper. The end-to-end performance impact of the scheme is evaluated with an example multimedia session comprising a real-time streaming
flow concurrent with TCP-based non real-time flow via extensive HSDPA simulations. Results demonstrate that the scheme can guarantee the end-to-end QoS of the real-time streaming flow, whilst simultaneously protecting non real-time flow from starvation resulting in improved end-to-end throughput performance

Evidence-based management and intervention for autism spectrum disorders

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is diagnosed along a continuum of behavioural variants in social communication and repetitive behaviours [96]. Most individuals on the autism spectrum also experience differences in sensory perception. Some individuals on the spectrum are ‘high-functioning’ and able to cope in every day environments, while others are severely affected, non-verbal, and may have co-occurring diagnoses, such as intellectual disability, epilepsy, and/or obsessional, conduct, or mental health disorders. These individuals require substantial support, caring and careful management, and evidence-based, effective interventions.