Testosterone replacement therapy-perceptions of recipients and partners

Background. The androgenic hormones are important determinants of sexual behaviour in men. Testosterone replacement is important treatment for pituitary disease to maintain normal functioning. Although the physical effects of testosterone replacement have been well documented, little is known about the effects on relationships, particularly from the point of view of the sexual partners of men receiving testosterone replacement.

Aims. This paper reports a study exploring the perceptions of testosterone replacement on well-being and sexual functioning.

Methods. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with five men receiving testosterone implants (recipients), their permanent partners, and five recipients without partners. Recipient serum testosterone concentration was measured at 0, 1 and 4 months after testosterone implantation.

Results. The three groups reported similar effects of testosterone on well-being and sexual functioning. Recipient and partner ratings were also similar. Strength was less affected by decreasing testosterone concentration than energy in men with partners, but both strength and energy declined in men without partners. Decreased testosterone levels had a statistically significantly different effect on libido at time zero between men with and without partners (P < 0·015) and on ability to sustain an erection, but the ability to achieve an erection persisted over the 6 months in both male groups. Intercourse frequency increased from once per week at time 0 to ≥3 per week between 1 and 4 months after implant in men with partners. There were important effects of testosterone deficiency on general and sexual relationships, and these differed between men with partners and those without.

Conclusions. Testosterone has important physical and psychological benefits that may be related to the age at which testosterone replacement commences and the indications for its use. The small sample size may limit the ability to generalize the findings outside the study.

Agreement between adolescent self-report and parent reports of health and well-being: results of an epidemiological study.

Objective To examine parent and adolescent agreement on physical, emotional, mental and social health and well-being in a representative population.
Methodology An epidemiological design was used to obtain parent–child/adolescent dyad data on comparable items and scales of a generic measure of health and well-being, the Child Health Questionnaire (parent/proxy report 50 item, self-report 80 item). Scale analysis included intraclass correlations (ICCs) to examine strength of parent–child associations and independent t-tests for differences between adolescents (with or without an illness). Where there were significant differences in scale scores, analysis of variance and two sample t-tests were used to examine the influence of social, demographic, health concern and school variables. Single items were examined for trends in response categories.
Results 2096 parent–adolescent dyads (adolescent mean age of 15.1 years, males 50%, maternal parent 83.2%, biological parent 93.5%). ICCs were strong. Overall, adolescents reported poorer emotional and social health, and clinically significant differences were observed for perceptions of general health (mean difference 8.1/100), frequency and amount of body pain (5.94/100), experience of mental health (5.14/100), and impact of health on family activities (12.43/100), which widen significantly for adolescents with illness. Social, health and school enjoyment and performance significantly widened parent–child differences.
Conclusions All adolescents were much less optimistic about their health and well-being than their parents, and were only in close agreement on aspects of health and well-being they rated highly. Adolescent reports are more likely to be sensitive to pain, mental health problems, health in general and the impact of their health on family activities.

The climate change and development nexus

The rapid economic success achieved by the developing countries in general, and India and China in particular, has brought the issue of climate change, which is a spin-off of development, to the fore. Economic growth is essential for the eradication of poverty and generation of wealth. However, it drives energy consumption and demand for energy which, in turn, produces toxic gases like carbon dioxide (CO2 ). Thus, the price of economic growth is climate change. The paradox lies in the fact that when economic growth is the only solution to poverty, the resultant climate change (characterized by emission of greenhouse gases) also affects the poor greatly. In this context, it is observed that while traditionally the developed countries were charged with polluting the environment globally, now the developing countries have overtaken their counterparts as polluters. The developing countries have emerged, over the years, as the agents responsible for growing pollution in the world, though they are also the victims, as most of the poor people belong to the developing countries. The author explores the nexus between climate change and development in the context of the economic growth of the developing countries and its impact on them.

Consumer choice, information product quality, and market implications

The paper concerns with the peculiarities of consumer choice in information product markets. This is a multidisciplinary study based on both information system research and microeconomic theory. An extension is introduced to the conventional general theory of consumer choice for explicitly taking into account the impact of information product quality on consumer behaviour. Multiple quality characteristics, considered against the price of product, are an essential reason for consumer choice of high tech product in general and information product in particular. We assume that consumers are able to aggregate their preferences of multiple product characteristics into a product preference order. On the supply side, the product quality characteristics incur costs. In the case of information product, those costs are the costs of the first copy, and marginal costs are near zero. All of the above constitute the distinctive characteristics of the competitive mechanism in the digital economy and in information product markets. A model, based on the game theory is used to consider two special cases. The first one deals with monopolistic competition for a share of the market with a limited number of customers. Conditions are derived for IT firm survival. The second one considers conditions at which a monopoly is able to successfully introduce a new version if its information product.

The dynamics of business ethics: a function of time and culture-cases and models

Examines the construct of ethics in general and of business ethics in particular. Provides a conceptual discussion of the dynamics of ethics in society and the dynamics of business ethics in the marketplace. Ethics and business ethics constructs are dependent upon two principal parameters – time and culture. Eventually, ethics and business ethics are about what is perceived as acceptable or unacceptable at a specific time and in a specific cultural setting. What was ethical yesterday may not be ethical today, and what is ethical today may not be ethical tomorrow. Furthermore, both the company’s view and the views of others may determine what is acceptable or unacceptable in business ethics. This is a social construction that may differ between the parties involved in a specific context. The discussion is supported by two brief and different cases from the automobile industry. This research contributes a set of generic models that examine business ethics dynamics.

Multi-sectoral health promotion and public health : the role of evidence

Background Evidence-informed health promotion and public health is an emerging and ever-changing theme in research and practice. A collaborative approach to gathering and applying evidence is crucial to implementing effective multi-sectoral health promotion and public health interventions for improved population outcomes. This paper presents an argument for the development of multi-sector evidence and discusses both facilitators and challenges to this process.

Methods Sector-specific contacts familiar with decision-making processes were selected from referrals gained through academic, government and non-government networks and interviewed (in-person or via telephone) as part of a small scale study to scope the use of evidence within non-health sectors where decisions are likely to impact on public health.

Results The views gathered are preliminary, and this analysis would benefit from more extensive consultation. Nonetheless, information gathered from the interviews and literature search provide valuable insights into evidence-related decision-making paradigms which demonstrate similarities with, and differences from, those found in the health sector.

Conclusions Decisions in health promotion and public may benefit from consideration of the ways in which disciplines and sectors can work together to inform policy and practice.

Power and passion:remoulded teamwork in a plastics factory

Purpose: – The purpose of this paper is to document the progress made in a specified period and the experience of managers and staff in sustaining the high performance team approach in a plastics factory.

Design/methodology/approach: – Single-case analysis was conducted on data collected through semi-structured interviews and site observations made with two managers and one team of six in a multinational plastics manufacturer (Visy) headquartered in Australia.

Findings: – Based on the authors' experiences and literature review a successful high performance team requires clear targets and efficiency standards, communication, rules of behaviour, continual input of facts and feedback, and last but not least – recognition of successes.

Research limitations/implications: – The findings are based on observations and interviews conducted in one part of a multinational organization in Australia. No follow-up interviews could be undertaken to track the progress.

Originality/value: – No other similar study had been undertaken in this organisation documenting the experiences of a quality improvement team and its interactions with managers. The findings have practical implications for industrial and other kinds of organisations engaged in implementing quality improvements through enhanced teamwork.

Reflexive and critical views of leadership performance in corporate accomplishment : framework and illustration

Purpose – This paper intends to shed some light on the relationship between leadership performance and corporate accomplishment through the aid of complexity sciences. The objective is to describe leadership performance in corporate accomplishment using different teleological approaches.

Design/methodology/approach – The paper discusses the underlying criteria of the relationship between leadership performance and corporate accomplishment. Case illustration and narrative analogy are also provided.

Findings – The authors believe that the discussion highlights a potential downside of leadership performance in corporate accomplishment and its precision rarely highlighted in practice and literature.

Research limitations/implications – There is a reigning assumption in management practice that is based on the belief that a top-down approach of leadership performance in management and business practices is superior to the bottom-up approach. It proffers the assumed importance of strategic management issues, but neglects the knowledge, experience, competence and awareness inherent among employees at tactical and operational levels of business practices. It also proffers a mechanical view of employee performance and ignores the worth of the generation of ideas from subordinates in management and business practices that contribute to corporate achievements. Furthermore, it neglects the fact that it is not possible to know the future nor it is predictable.

Practical implications – The paper contends that the importance of top management tends to be inflated in respect to corporate achievements in the management/leadership literature. It also contends that it should be questioned as to whether the top management of corporations are largely responsible for the corporate results on which they attempt to justify their salaries and other benefits. Furthermore, the paper contends that it also should be questioned as to what extent corporate accomplishment may be derived from the performance of the top management in organizations.

Originality/value – The paper strives to contribute to the ongoing discussion of leadership performance in corporate accomplishment in various ways. The principal contributions are: a set of teleological sub-processes of leadership performance and a case illustration and narrative analogies of teleological leadership performance patterns, in respect to corporate accomplishment in management and business practices. These contributions provide theoretical and managerial ideas and insights to anticipate and avoid deficient or erroneous grounds of leadership performance evaluation in corporate accomplishment.

The biotechnology and marketing interface : functional integration using mechanistic and holographic responses to environmental turbulence

This paper serves to specify and ground research into interfunctional integration in a wider theoretical context with particular reference to the interaction between technology and marketing in the biotechnology sphere. The general and specific problem areas are specified as those of interfunctional relations and the dyadic relationship between marketing and biotechnical managerial functions in particular. The contextual/organisational generative mechanisms that are likely to keep interfunctional relations at the centre of scholarly attention for some time are explored from the perspective of cybernetic theory. The law of requisite variety states that in an effective open system environmental variety is matched by internal structural variety. As organisations are faced with ever more turbulent, and complex environments, this must be matched by an increased internal complexity within the organisation. The two modes of response, namely holographic and mechanistic, both highlight the need to further our understanding of interfunctional differences. Having established the problem and its genesis, a specific research agenda is outlined as the exploration of the interfunctional differences from a decision-making perspective.

Trust in mono-ethnic and mixed-ethnic association in Penang

Investigation into trust has become a topical issue in current social science research. This is, in large part, a result of a perception that trust in institutions has declined markedly in the past two decades. This paper investigates trust in some of Penang's civil associations as a way of measuring the health of social capital in Penang. It focuses on issues of trust and diversity since both are critical issues in Malaysian society in general and civil associations in particular. We began our analysis expecting higher forms of trust among members in the mono-ethnic associations, based on the power of bonding. However, findings from this study tend to suggest that rather than leading to lesser trust and infectiveness, involvement in mixed-ethnic associations have in fact generated higher trust among their members. These findings reveal an interesting corrective to more pessimistic view on the relationship between trust and diversity. Data from this study also provide important insight into how bridging between different people in associations marked by diversity can accentuate trust over and above the levels found in associations were bonding between like types is the dominant characteristic. The data also indicate that for both, mono-ethnic and mixed-ethnic associations, it is the extent of members' involvements in their associations that form trust and not vice versa.

Television viewing habits and time use in Australian preschool children : an exploratory study

The overall aim in this study was to investigate time use in Australian preschool children, paying close attention to the types of television programs and videos/DVDs they watch. Ninety-two mothers of preschool children completed five activity diaries, for three typical weekdays and two weekend days. On average, children spent around just over 1 hour per weekday watching television and 30 minutes watching videos/DVDs; on weekends they spent on average 1 hour watching television and the same amount of time watching videos/DVDs. On weekdays, children spent more time watching child informative television; on the weekend they spent more time watching child animated television programs. When not watching television, children were mainly engaged in general play or in outdoor play. Child informative television was associated positively with time spent outdoors and in general and pretend play on weekdays (and for general play also on weekend days), whereas overall television viewing was correlated negatively with reading. Our findings suggest that the content of television programs may play a critical role in the relationship between television and other daily activities.

Skill shortages in health : innovative solutions using vocational education and training

Introduction: This article reports findings of a project funded by the Australian National Council for Vocational Education Research. The project explores solutions to current and projected skills shortages within the health and community services sector, from a vocational education and training perspective. Its purpose is to locate, analyse and disseminate information about innovative models of health training and service delivery that have been developed in response to skill shortages.

Methods: The article begins with a brief overview of Australian statistics and literature on the structure of the national health workforce and perceived skill shortages. The impact of location (state and rurality), demographics of the workforce, and other relevant factors, on health skill shortages is examined. Drawing on a synthesis of the Australian and international literature on innovative and effective models for addressing health skill shortages and nominations by key stakeholders within the health sector, over 70 models were identified. The models represent a mixture of innovative service delivery models and training solutions from Australia, as well as international examples that could be transposed to the Australian context. They include the skill ecosystem approach facilitated by the Australian National Training Authority Skill Ecosystem Project. Models were selected to represent diversity in terms of the nature of skill shortage addressed, barriers overcome in development of the model, healthcare specialisations, and different customer groups.

Results: Key barriers to the development of innovative solutions to skills shortages identified were: policy that is not sufficiently flexible to accommodate changing workplace needs; unwillingness to risk take in order to develop new models; delays in gaining endorsement/accreditation; current vocational education and training (VET) monitoring and reporting systems; issues related to working in partnership, including different cultures, ways of operating, priorities and timelines; workplace culture that is resistant to change; and organisational boundaries. For training-only models, additional barriers were: technology; low educational levels of trainees; lack of health professionals to provide training and/or supervision; and cost of training. Key enhancers for the development of models were identified as: commitment by all partners and co-location of partners; or effective communication channels. Key enhancers for model effectiveness were: first considering work tasks, competencies and job (re)design; high profile of the model within the community; community-based models; cultural fit; and evidence of direct link between skills development and employment, for example VET trained aged care workers upskilling for other health jobs. For training only models, additional enhancers were flexibility of partners in accommodating needs of trainees; low training costs; experienced clinical supervisors; and the provision of professional development to trainers.

Conclusions: There needs to be a balance between short-term solutions to current skill shortages (training only), and medium to longer term solutions (job redesign, holistic approaches) that also address projected skills shortages. Models that focus on addressing skills shortages in aged care can provide a broad pathway to careers in health. Characteristics of models likely to be effective in addressing skill shortages are: responsibility for addressing skills shortage is shared between the health sector, education and training organisations and government, with employers taking a proactive role; the training component is complemented by a focus on retention of workers; models are either targeted at existing employees or identify a target group(s) who may not otherwise have considered a career in health.

Contractual thinking and responsible government in China: A constructivist framework for analysis*

Responsible government is often seen as contingent on democracy. Yet despite China's continued lack of notable progress in democratization, recent years have witnessed some limited moves towards responsible governance. In the absence of free elections and other institutional arrangements, how can an authoritarian regime become responsible? This paper turns to the role of ideas and culture in general and contractual thinking in particular for an explanation. Contractual thinking, defined as a particular kind of intersubjective understanding between the government and citizens with regard to their mutual interests, is present in both China's contemporary official discourse on "responsible government" and traditional Chinese culture. Taking a constructivist approach, the paper focuses on two interrelated aspects of the role of contractual thinking in the construction of responsible government. First, it examines how contractual thinking, by helping redefine the identity and interest of the government in line with citizens' loyalty, could allow more responsible government behaviour. It then illustrates that in the case of government irresponsibility, contractual thinking sets the discursive context for rightful resistance from citizens as well as for a more sympathetic reading of such resistance by the government, both of which, the paper argues, could facilitate the development of responsible governance.

Manual on application of molecular tools in aquaculture and inland fisheries management. Part I : conceptual basis of population genetic approaches

The aim of this manual is to provide a comprehensive practical tool for the generation and analysis of genetic data for subsequent application in aquatic resources management in relation to genetic stock identification in inland fisheries and aquaculture. The material only covers general background on genetics in relation to aquaculture and fisheries resource management, the techniques and relevant methods of data analysis that are commonly used to address questions relating to genetic resource characterisation and population genetic analyses. No attempt is made to include applications of genetic improvement techniques e.g. selective breeding or producing genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The manual includes two ‘stand-alone’ parts, of which this is the first volume: Part 1 – Conceptual basis of population genetic approaches: will provide a basic foundation on genetics in general, and concepts of population genetics. Issues on the choices of molecular markers and project design are also discussed. Part 2 – Laboratory protocols, data management and analysis: will provide step-by-step protocols of the most commonly used molecular genetic techniques utilised in population genetics and systematic studies. In addition, a brief discussion and explanation of how these data are managed and analysed is also included. This manual is expected to enable NACA member country personnel to be trained to undertake molecular genetic studies in their own institutions, and as such is aimed at middle and higher level technical grades. The manual can also provide useful teaching material for specialised advanced level university courses in the region and postgraduate students. The manual has gone through two development/improvement stages. The initial material was tested at a regional workshop and at the second stage feedback from participants was used to improve the contents.