Business research, self-fulfilling prophecy, and the inherent responsibility of scholars.

Business research and teaching institutions play an important role in shaping the way businesses perceive their relations to the broader society and its moral expectations. Hence, as ethical scandals recently arose in the business world, questions related to the civic responsibilities of business scholars and to the role business schools play in society have gained wider interest. In this article, I argue that these ethical shortcomings are at least partly resulting from the mainstream business model with its taken-for granted basic assumptions such as specialization or the value-neutrality of business research. Redefining the roles and civic responsibilities of business scholars for business practice implies therefore a thorough analysis of these assumptions if not their redefinition. The takenforgrantedness of the mainstream business model is questioned by the transformation of the societal context in which business activities are embedded. Its value-neutrality in turn is challenged by self-fulfilling prophecy effects, which highlight the normative influence of business schools. In order to critically discuss some basic assumptions of mainstream business theory, I propose to draw parallels with the corporate citizenship concept and the stakeholder theory. Their integrated approach of the relation between business practice and the broader society provides interesting insights for the social reembedding of business research and teaching.

Men and Domestic Violence: What research tells us

Men and Domestic Violence: What research tells us In late 2000, the Department of Health and Children, in conjunction with the North Eastern Health Board, commissioned Kieran McKeown Limited, Social and Economic Consultants to prepare a literature review of research carried out in other jurisdictions Click here to download PDF 578kb Background Note PDF 10kb Peer Review 1 PDF 21kb Peer Review 2 PDF 17kb

A Survey of Poly-drug (Multiple-drug) Use Among Patients Receiving Methadone for the Treatment of their Opioid Addiction in the Northern Area Health Board

The objective of this study is to determine the extent of the problem of poly-drug (multiple-drug) use among patients receiving methadone. The study investigated levels and patterns of cocaine and cannabis use in opiate dependent patients receiving methadone treatment. This research also examines risks associated with injecting cocaine. A total number of 851 methadone patients receiving treatment for opiate related problems participated in the survey from a total number of 1082 patients receiving treatment in these clinics. This figure accounts for 80.1%. Participants reported the frequency and intensity of cocaine and cannabis use. Data collected showed that 42% of the methadone patients are using cannabis on a daily basis and that 77.47% had a history of cocaine use. The figure of cocaine use is an important indicator of the level and extent of cocaine use. It is valuable from a public health perspective to assess needs, and to plan and evaluate services. The survey concluded that cocaine abuse is emerging as a problem in the Irish drug sceneThis resource was contributed by The National Documentation Centre on Drug Use.

Ethics masterclass programme

The Department of Children and Youth Affairs (DCYA) recently launched ‘Guidance for developing ethical research projects involving children’. The Guidance considers ethical principles and concepts in research with children and presents a checklist for the design and conduct of research.  In this the third master class of the Children's Research Network for Ireland and Northern Ireland, participants will have an opportunity to respond to the Guidance and to discuss ethical issues in their work. The workshop will also provide participants with the opportunity to discuss the challenges facing the community and voluntary sector in applying and monitoring ethical standards in their work in the absence of formal/institutional ethics committees

Ethics workshop presentations

Guidance for developing ethical research projects involving children.

Fosfomycin versus meropenem in bacteraemic urinary tract infections caused by extended-spectrum β-lactamase-producing Escherichia coli (FOREST): study protocol for an investigator-driven randomised controlled trial.

INTRODUCTION Finding therapeutic alternatives to carbapenems in infections caused by extended-spectrum β-lactamase-producing Escherichia coli (ESBL-EC) is imperative. Although fosfomycin was discovered more than 40 years ago, it was not investigated in accordance with current standards and so is not used in clinical practice except in desperate situations. It is one of the so-called neglected antibiotics of high potential interest for the future. METHODS AND ANALYSIS The main objective of this project is to demonstrate the clinical non-inferiority of intravenous fosfomycin with regard to meropenem for treating bacteraemic urinary tract infections (UTI) caused by ESBL-EC. This is a 'real practice' multicentre, open-label, phase III randomised controlled trial, designed to compare the clinical and microbiological efficacy, and safety of intravenous fosfomycin (4 g/6 h) and meropenem (1 g/8 h) as targeted therapy for this infection; a change to oral therapy is permitted after 5 days in both arms, in accordance with predetermined options. The study design follows the latest recommendations for designing trials investigating new options for multidrug-resistant bacteria. Secondary objectives include the study of fosfomycin concentrations in plasma and the impact of both drugs on intestinal colonisation by multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacilli. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION Ethical approval was obtained from the Andalusian Coordinating Institutional Review Board (IRB) for Biomedical Research (Referral Ethics Committee), which obtained approval from the local ethics committees at all participating sites in Spain (22 sites). Data will be presented at international conferences and published in peer-reviewed journals. DISCUSSION This project is proposed as an initial step in the investigation of an orphan antimicrobial of low cost with high potential as a therapeutic alternative in common infections such as UTI in selected patients. These results may have a major impact on the use of antibiotics and the development of new projects with this drug, whether as monotherapy or combination therapy. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER NCT02142751. EudraCT no: 2013-002922-21. Protocol V.1.1 dated 14 March 2014.

In memoriam: Dr. Francesc Abel i Fabre, SJ.

The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy has been impoverished by the loss of Dr. Francesc Abel Fabre, S.J. (1933–2011), one of the founders of bioethics and a long-time member of the Editorial Advisory Board. 2011 brought the death of Dr. Francesc Abel Fabre, S.J., at the age of 78. He was the pioneer of European bioethics. Dr. Abel learned the discipline at Georgetown University, working side by side with the founder and first director of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics, André Hellegers, as bioethics itself was coming into existence. He went from this experience to establish the Institute Borja of Bioethics in Catalonia in 1976, the first center of bioethics in Spain and in Europe. Through his scholarship and teaching, he established an influential dialogue in bioethics, as well as ethics committees in hospitals and in research centers. In 1986 he joined in founding the European Association of Centres of Medical Ethics, an organization in which he was involved and participated for the last 25 years. He contributed crucially to bioethics across the world, especially through the International Study Group on Bioethics (1980–1994). He was widely recognized as an outstanding bioethics expert in Latin America.

Manipulator control board

The Mechatronics Research Centre (MRC) owns a small scale robot manipulator called aMini-Mover 5. This robot arm is a microprocessor-controlled, six-jointed mechanical armdesigned to provide an unusual combination of dexterity and low cost.The Mini-Mover-5 is operated by a number of stepper motors and is controlled by a PCparallel port via a discrete logic board. The manipulator also has an impoverished array ofsensors.This project requires that a new control board and suitable software be designed to allow themanipulator to be controlled from a PC. The control board will also provide a mechanism forthe values measured using some sensors to be returned to the PC.On this project I will consider: stepper motor control requirements, sensor technologies,power requirements, USB protocols, USB hardware and software development and controlrequirements (e.g. sample rates).In this report we will have a look at robots history and background, as well as we willconcentrate how stepper motors and parallel port work

The Swiss regulatory framework for pædiatric health research

Medical research on minors entails both risks and benefits. Under Swiss law, clinical trials on children, including nontherapeutic drug trials, are permissible. However, ethics committees must systematically verify that all clinical studies have a favorable risk-benefit profile. Additional safeguards are designed to ensure that children are not unnecessarily involved in research and that proper consent is always obtained. Federal Swiss law is undergoing revision to extend these protections beyond clinical trials to a broad array of health research. The Swiss drug agency also seeks to improve the incentives for pharmaceutical firms to develop new paediatric drugs and relevant paediatric drug labels.

Ethics Outside, Within, or Beyond OR Models

Since ethical concerns are calling for more attention within Operational Research, we present three approaches to combine Operational Research models with ethics. Our intention is to clarify the trade-offs faced by the OR community, in particular the tension between the scientific legitimacy of OR models (ethics outside OR models) and the integration of ethics within models (ethics within OR models). Presenting and discussing an approach that combines OR models with the process of OR (ethics beyond OR models), we suggest rigorous ways to express the relation between ethics and OR models. As our work is exploratory, we are trying to avoid a dogmatic attitude and call for further research. We argue that there are interesting avenues for research at the theoretical, methodological and applied levels and that the OR community can contribute to an innovative, constructive and responsible social dialogue about its ethics.

Instrumental and ethical aspects of experimental research with animal models

Experimental animal models offer possibilities of physiology knowledge, pathogenesis of disease and action of drugs that are directly related to quality nursing care. This integrative review describes the current state of the instrumental and ethical aspects of experimental research with animal models, including the main recommendations of ethics committees that focus on animal welfare and raises questions about the impact of their findings in nursing care. Data show that, in Brazil, the progress in ethics for the use of animals for scientific purposes was consolidated with Law No. 11.794/2008 establishing ethical procedures, attending health, genetic and experimental parameters. The application of ethics in handling of animals for scientific and educational purposes and obtaining consistent and quality data brings unquestionable contributions to the nurse, as they offer subsidies to relate pathophysiological mechanisms and the clinical aspect on the patient.

Participation of nurses in the execution of clinical research protocol about technological innovation

AbstractOBJECTIVETo report the nurse's experience of inclusion in interdisciplinary clinical study about technological innovation, involving people with spinal cord injury.METHODDescriptive experience report. The empirical support was based on notes about perspectives and practice of clinical research, with a multi-professional nursing, physical education, physiotherapy and engineering staff.RESULTThe qualification includes the elaboration of the document for the Ethics Committee, familiarization among the members of staff and with the studied topic, and also an immersion into English. The nurse's knowledge gave support to the uptake of participants and time adequacy for data collection, preparation and assistance of the participants during the intervention and after collection. Nursing theories and processes have contributed to reveal risky diagnoses and the plan of care. It was the nurse's role to monitor the risk of overlapping methodological strictness to the human aspect. The skills for the clinical research must be the object of learning, including students in multidisciplinary researches.CONCLUSIONTo qualify the nurse for clinical research and to potentialize its caregiver essence, some changes are needed in the educational system, professional behavior, attitude and educational assistance.

Ethics outside, within or beyond OR models

Since ethical concerns are calling for more attention within OperationalResearch, we present three approaches to combine Operational Researchmodels with ethics. Our intention is to clarify the trade-offs faced bythe OR community, in particular the tension between the scientificlegitimacy of OR models (ethics outside OR models) and the integrationof ethics within models (ethics within OR models). Presenting anddiscussing an approach that combines OR models with the process of OR(ethics beyond OR models), we suggest rigorous ways to express the relationbetween ethics and OR models. As our work is exploratory, we are trying toavoid a dogmatic attitude and call for further research. We argue thatthere are interesting avenues for research at the theoretical,methodological and applied levels and that the OR community can contributeto an innovative, constructive and responsible social dialogue about itsethics.

Managing Social-Business Tensions: A Review and Research Agenda for Social Enterprise

In a world filled with poverty, environmental degradation, and moral injustice, social enterprises offer a ray of hope. These organizations seek to achieve social missions through business ventures. Yet social missions and business ventures are associated with divergent goals, values, norms, and identities. Attending to them simultaneously creates tensions, competing demands, and ethical dilemmas. Effectively understanding social enterprises therefore depends on insight into the nature and management of these tensions. While existing research recognizes tensions between social missions and business ventures, we lack any systematic analysis. Our paper addresses this issue. We first categorize the types of tensions that arise between social missions and business ventures, emphasizing their prevalence and variety. We then explore how four different organizational theories offer insight into these tensions, and we develop an agenda for future research. We end by arguing that a focus on social-business tensions not only expands insight into social enterprises, but also provides an opportunity for research on social enterprises to inform traditional organizational theories. Taken together, our analysis of tensions in social enterprises integrates and seeks to energize research on this expanding phenomenon.

Ethics and creative accounting: Some empirical evidence on accounting for intangibles in Spain

Recent research shows that financial reports are losing relevance. Mainly thisis due to the growing strategic importance of intangible assets in theperformance of a company. A possible solution is to modify accounting standardsso that statements include more self-generated intangible assets, taking intoaccount with their inherent risk and difficulty of valuation. We surveyed loanofficers who were asked to assess the credit-worthiness of a hypotheticalcompany. The only information given was a simplified version of financialstatements. Half the group got statements where research and development costshad been capitalized. The other half got statements in which these costs hadbeen treated as an expense. The findings show that capitalization wassignificantly more likely to attract a positive response to a loan request. Thepaper raises the question of whether accounting for intangibles might providemanagers with one more creative accounting technique and, in consequence, itsethical implications.