Quality of life improvements after sports injury

Over the past decade, there has been an increase in available data describing the incidence of sports injuries. However, the outcomes of such injuries remain relatively undocumented. Psychological aspects of sports injury rehabilitation have been documented in elite athletes but not in cohorts of general sports participants. The few studies that have described the financial costs of sports injuries have typically not assessed how these injuries affect quality of life. Despite recent estimates that lost quality of life accounts for 81% of total sports injury costs,1 this has received relatively little attention in the literature. The aim of this paper is to describe the quality of life outcomes associated with sports injuries and to present some preliminary observations about how these change over a six-week period.

Improvements to separation and detection for forensic analysis of illicit substances

This article gives an overview of our recent research into separation and detection of analytes of forensic interest. This work has been carried out in collaboration with local forensic service providers and is based on our previous studies of chemiluminescence detection, flow analysis and capillary electrophoresis as applied to process analytical chemistry for the pharmaceutical industry. Chemiluminescence has the potential to provide low limits of detection in combination with high selectivity, while capillary electrophoresis allows for rapid, highly efficient separations. Examples of recent forensic applications are presented and future directions are discussed.

Review of interventions to encourage SMEs to make environmental improvements

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are an important part of the world economy but they are thought to be responsible for around 60% of all carbon dioxide emissions and 70% of all pollution. SMEs often have major problems with limited resources, limited knowledge, and limited technical capabilities to deal with their own negative environmental impact. SMEs exhibit widely differing characteristics and commitment where environmental issues are concerned. Yet under these conditions they are all expected to engage in environmental improvement. Interventions that encourage environmental improvement are often polarised between regulation and legislation at one extreme and voluntary environmental agreement at the other. It is clear that a holistic mixture of interventions is necessary to achieve maximum engagement and environmental improvement by all SMEs. In this paper we categorise the different levels of environmental commitment observed in SMEs and develop a selection or ‘toolkit’ of intervention strategies that might be deployed within each category of SME.

Towards a more holistic approach to quality improvements in aluminium die casting

This work evaluates the feasibility of using a holistic approach, based on dynamical system theory,
to reduce porosity defects in high pressure aluminum die casting. Quality improvements, from a
dynamical system perspective mean the ability to move the die casting process out of its natural
equilibrium to a more beneficial state and the ability to maintain this new process state. This more beneficial state may be achieved in several ways. One way is to increase the amount of forcing to overcome natural process resistance. This forcing approach is represented by typical continuous intervention policy, with modifications in die/part design and/or process parameters. An alternative approach is to reduce the amount of natural process resistance, in particular the amount of process disturbance, allowing the process to move out of its natural equilibrium with much less forcing. This alternative uses the self-regulating ability of dynamical systems thus decreasing the amount of human intervention required. In this respect, the influence of vacuum on time on chattering at the first stage of the casting shot was identified as a good process candidate for testing using dynamical system theory. A significant reduction in porosity defects was achieved, which also set the process on a path of slow but consistent self-improvement.

Impediments to improvements in service quality in luxury hotels

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to identify the key factors that impede service quality delivery in the context of luxury hotels (four- and five-star properties) in Sydney, Australia.

Design/methodology/approach – The empirical dataset for this qualitative study was collected through 22 individual semi-structured interviews with senior hotel managers of ten luxury hotels in Sydney, Australia. The technique used for analysing the data was progressive comparative analysis, after which constant comparative methodology was applied. The key themes emerging from these techniques have been categorised to form conclusions.

Findings – Analysis of the data revealed a number of impediments to developing and maintaining distinguishable, superior service. These impediments fell into four broad areas: Budget constraints, Staff attitude, Lack of mentoring and High customer expectations.

Research limitations/implications – The limitations with the current study are primarily related to the scope of the research in terms of the number of hotel properties participating, and the fact that it incorporates the views of managers only. Furthermore, the focus of this study was on the hotel sector, and thus the findings cannot be accepted as being necessarily relevant and applicable to services across the tourism/hospitality industry as a whole. Future research needs to be conducted to incorporate the views of all stakeholders in service quality, including non-management staff and customers.

Originality/value – The findings of this research can inform hotel sector researchers and practitioners of identified impediments to service quality, whether current strategies are addressing these impediments and, if not, how strategies may be modified to address to achieve this.

Equity improvements queried

More disadvantaged students applied for university last year. But not enough, according to the experts.

Randomised controlled trials and 'unexpected' adverse events associated with newly released drugs : improvements in pharmacovigilance systems are necessary for real-time identification of patient safety risks

Adverse drug events are one of the major causes of morbidity in developed countries, yet the drugs involved in these events have been trialled and approved on the basis of randomised controlled trials (RCTs), regarded as the study design that will produce the best evidence.

Though the focus on adverse drug events has been primarily on processes and outcomes associated with the use of these approved drugs, attention needs to be directed to the way in which the RCT study design is structured. The implementation of controls to achieve internal validity in RCTs may be the very controls that reduce external validity, and contribute to the levels of adverse drug events associated with the release of a new drug to the wider patient population.

An examination of these controls, and the effects they can have on patient safety, underscore the importance of knowing about how the clinical trials of a drug are undertaken, rather than relying only on the recorded outcomes.

As the majority of new drugs are likely to be prescribed to older patients who have one or more comorbidities in addition to that targeted by a new drug, and as the RCTs of those drugs typically under-represent the elderly and exclude patients with multiple comorbidities, timely assessment of drug safety signals is essential.

It is unlikely that regulatory jurisdictions will undertake a reassessment of safety issues for drugs that are already approved. Instead, reliance has been placed on adverse drug event reporting systems. Such systems have a very low reporting rate, and most adverse drug events remain unreported, to the eventual cost to patients and healthcare systems.

This makes it essential for near real-time systems that can pick up safety signals as they occur, so that modifications to the product information (or removal of the drug) can be implemented.

Households' perceptions on sustainable home behaviour and improvements in Australia

The consumption of energy in the residential building is a major contributor to Australia's stationary energy greenhouse gas emissions. With the aim of investigating the householders' motivations and perspectives on sustainable home improvements, this study, by using an online survey instrument, collected more than 500 sets of questionnaire data from households in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Through statistical analysis of the data collected, this research has found that construction cost and government incentive were considered as major influence factors on achieving energy efficient residential building development, and the lower bills from reduced energy and water consumption were considered as the most important benefits from the households' perspectives. The research also found that although many households exhibited a high level of awareness or had implemented some sustainability improvements, the total number of potential improvements scored poorly. A suggestion, based on these research findings, is that the government should promote the reasons and benefits for sustainability home improvements that are identified in this research paper, and try to reduce material costs and improve government incentives.

Environmental sustainability awareness and academic curriculum improvements: the case of a business and law faculty in an Australian university

Climate change, global warming, rising sea levels, ice cap melting, carbon taxes and trading schemes etc. are all major environmental issues that confront the modern world. Universities are now trying to ensure that their students graduate with an understanding of environmental sustainability regardless of their field of expertise.