Good practice transfer within small construction specialist trade contractors

Government and institutionally-driven ‘good practice transfer’ initiatives are consistently presented as a means to enhance construction firm and industry performance. Two implicit tenets of these initiatives appear to be: knowledge embedded in good practice will transfer automatically; and, the potential of implementing good practice will be capitalised regardless of the context where it is to be used. The validity of these tenets is increasingly being questioned and, concurrently, more nuanced knowledge production understandings are being developed which recognise and incorporate context-specificity. This research contributes to this growing, more critical agenda by examining the actual benefits accrued from good practice transfer from the perspective of a small specialist trade contracting firm. A concept model for successful good practice transfer is developed from a single longitudinal case study within a small heating and plumbing firm. The concept model consists of five key variables: environment, strategy, people, technology, and organisation of work. The key findings challenge the implicit assumptions prevailing in the existing literature and support a contingency approach that argues successful good practice transfer is not just adopting and mechanistically inserting into the firm, but requires addressing ‘behavioural’ aspects. For successful good practice transfer, small specialist trade contracting firms need to develop and operationalise organisation slack, mechanisms for scanning external stimuli and absorbing knowledge. They also need to formulate and communicate client-driven external strategies; to motive and educate people at all levels; to possess internal or accessible complementary skills and knowledge; to have ‘soft focus’ immediate/mid-term benefits at a project level; and, to embed good practice in current work practices.

Assessing continental-scale risks for generalist and specialist pollinating bee species under climate change

Increased risks of extinction to populations of animals and plants under changing climate have now been demonstrated for many taxa. This study assesses the extinction risks to species within an important genus of pollinating bees (Colletes: Apidae) by estimating the expected changes in the area and isolation of suitable habitat under predicted climatic condition for 2050. Suitable habitat was defined on the basis of the presence of known forage plants as well as climatic suitability. To investigate whether ecological specialisation was linked to extinction risk we compared three species which were generalist pollen foragers on several plant families with three species which specialised on pollen from a single plant species. Both specialist and generalist species showed an increased risk of extinction with shifting climate, and this was particularly high for the most specialised species (Colletes anchusae and C. wolfi). The forage generalist C. impunctatus, which is associated with Boreo-Alpine environments, is potentially threatened through significant reduction in available climatic niche space. Including the distribution of the principal or sole pollen forage plant, when modelling the distribution of monolectic or narrowly oligolectic species, did not improve the predictive accuracy of our models as the plant species were considerably more widespread than the specialised bees associated with them.

The perception of support received from breast care nurses by depressed patients following a diagnosis of breast cancer

INTRODUCTION Due to their specialist training, breast care nurses (BCNs) should be able to detect emotional distress and offer support to breast cancer patients. However, patients who are most distressed after diagnosis generally experience least support from care staff. To test whether BCNs overcome this potential barrier, we compared the support experienced by depressed and non-depressed patients from their BCNs and the other main professionals involved in their care: surgeons and ward nurses. PATIENTS AND METHODS Women with primary breast cancer (n = 355) 2–4 days after mastectomy or wide local excision, self-reported perceived professional support and current depression. Analysis of variance compared support ratings of depressed and non-depressed patients across staff types. RESULTS There was evidence of depression in 31 (9%) patients. Depressed patients recorded less surgeon and ward nurse support than those who were not depressed but the support received by patients from the BCN was high, whether or not patients were depressed. CONCLUSIONS BCNs were able to provide as much support to depressed patients as to non-depressed patients, whereas depressed patients felt less supported by surgeons and ward nurses than did non-depressed patients. Future research should examine the basis of BCNs' ability to overcome barriers to support in depressed patients. Our findings confirm the importance of maintaining the special role of the BCN.

Dual mycorrhizal associations of jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata) in a nurse-pot system

Jarrah (Eucalyptus marginata Donn ex Sm.) plants, like many other eucalypts, can form symbiotic associations with both arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) and ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungi. To study this tripartite relationship we developed a novel nurse-pot system to allow us to investigate the extent and temporal colonisation dynamics of jarrah by two AM species (Rhizophagus irregularis (Błaszk., Wubet, Renker & Buscot) C. Walker & A. Schüßler comb. nov. and Scutellospora calospora Nicol. & Gerd.) and two putative ECM species (Austroboletus occidentalis Watling & N.M. Greg. and Scleroderma sp.) and their potential effects on jarrah growth and nutrition. Our nurse-pot system, using jarrah as both the nurse plant and test plant, was developed to establish extraradical hyphal networks of both AM and ECM fungi that act as single or dual inoculum for test plants. Mycorrhizal colonisation was described and quantified, and growth and nutritional effects measured and analysed. Mycorrhizal colonisation increased with time for the test seedlings exposed to hyphae networks from S. calospora and Scleroderma sp. The nurse-pot system was effective at initiating colonisation of functioning AM or (putative) ECM systems separately but the ECM symbiosis was inhibited where a dual AM + ECM inoculum (R. irregularis and Scleroderma sp.) was present. The presence of S. calospora, A. occidentalis and Scleroderma sp. individually significantly increased the shoot biomass of seedlings compared with non-mycorrhizal controls. The two AM isolates had different physiological effects on jarrah plants. S. calospora improved growth and micronutrient uptake of jarrah seedlings whereas no positive response was observed with R. irregularis. In addition, as an interesting observation, the non-responsive AM fungus R. irregularis suppressed the ECM symbiosis in dually inoculated plants where ECM structures, positive growth response and nutritional effects were absent. When inoculated individually, ECM isolates dominated the growth response and uptake of P and other nutrients in this dual symbiotic plant. Despite the positive growth response in the A. occidentalis treatment, ECM structures were not observed in either nurse or test seedlings. From the effects of A. occidentalis on jarrah we hypothesise that this fungus forms a functional mycorrhizal-type partnership even without forming archetypal structures in and on the root

Mapping Educational Specialist knowHow (MESH): the building of a knowledge management system for research informed practice

In this invited article the authors present an evaluative report on the development of the MESHGuides project (http://www.meshguides.org/). MESHGuides’ objective is to provide education with an international knowledge management system. MESHGuides were conceived as research summaries for supporting teachers’ in developing evidence-based practice. Their aim is to enhance teachers’ capacity to engage actively with research in their own classrooms. The original thinking for MESH arose from the work of UK-based academics Professor Marilyn Leask and Dr Sarah Younie in response to a desire, which has recently gathered momentum in the UK, for the development of a more research-informed teaching profession and for the establishment of an on-line platform to support evidence-based practice (DfE, 2015; Leask and Younie 2001; OECD 2009). The focus of this article is on how the MESHGuides project was conceived and structured, the technical systems supporting it and the practical reality for academics and teachers of composing and using MESHGuides. The project and the guides are in the early stages of development, and discussion indicates future possibilities for more global engagement with this knowledge management system.