Development and psychometric evaluation of a new team effectiveness scale for all types of community adult mental health teams:a mixed-methods approach

Defining 'effectiveness' in the context of community mental health teams (CMHTs) has become increasingly difficult under the current pattern of provision required in National Health Service mental health services in England. The aim of this study was to establish the characteristics of multi-professional team working effectiveness in adult CMHTs to develop a new measure of CMHT effectiveness. The study was conducted between May and November 2010 and comprised two stages. Stage 1 used a formative evaluative approach based on the Productivity Measurement and Enhancement System to develop the scale with multiple stakeholder groups over a series of qualitative workshops held in various locations across England. Stage 2 analysed responses from a cross-sectional survey of 1500 members in 135 CMHTs from 11 Mental Health Trusts in England to determine the scale's psychometric properties. Based on an analysis of its structural validity and reliability, the resultant 20-item scale demonstrated good psychometric properties and captured one overall latent factor of CMHT effectiveness comprising seven dimensions: improved service user well-being, creative problem-solving, continuous care, inter-team working, respect between professionals, engagement with carers and therapeutic relationships with service users. The scale will be of significant value to CMHTs and healthcare commissioners both nationally and internationally for monitoring, evaluating and improving team functioning in practice.

New product development proficiency and multi-country product rollout timeliness

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to address a gap in the understanding of the indirect effects of marketing and technical factors on time efficiency in developing a new product and international new product launch. Design/methodology/approach: This paper adopts a contingency perspective in examining the relationships between antecedents and on-time completion (or timeliness) of new product development (NPD) and international new product rollout (INPR). A conceptual framework is tested based on data obtained on 232 NPD projects undertaken by Korean firms. Findings: The results show that NPD proficiencies mediate to a greater or lesser extent the effects of key antecedents (e.g. cross-functional linkages, project fit with available marketing resources, and effective coordination of headquarters-subsidiary/agents' activities) on timeliness in NPD and INPR. Research limitations/implications: Empirical research on the role of marketing and technical proficiencies in improving NPD timeliness and rollout timeliness in the context of international NPD affirms the importance of adopting a contingency perspective in examining the antecedents of NPD and multi-market entry timeliness. Practical implications: This paper lends insight into the role of overseas subsidiaries or agents in helping to build the technical proficiencies of emerging country companies. Originality/value: This is the first review focusing on the mediating influences on time dimensions (e.g. timeliness) in multi-country product launches. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Interactively developed capabilities:evidence from dyadic servitization relationships

Purpose – The paper challenges the focal firm perspective of much resource/capability research, identifying how a dyadic perspective facilitates identification of capabilities required for servitization. Design/methodology/approach – Exploratory study consisting of seven dyadic relationships in five sectors. Findings – An additional dimension of capabilities should be recognised; whether they are developed independently or interactively (with another actor). The following examples of interactively developed capabilities are identified: knowledge development, where partners interactively communicate to understand capabilities; service enablement, manufacturers work with suppliers and customers to support delivery of new services; service development, partners interact to optimise performance of existing services; risk management, customers work with manufacturers to manage risks of product acquisition/operation. Six propositions were developed to articulate these findings. Research implications/limitations – Interactively developed capabilities are created when two or more actors interact to create value. Interactively developed capabilities do not just reside within one firm and, therefore, cannot be a source of competitive advantage for one firm alone. Many of the capabilities required for servitization are interactive, yet have received little research attention. The study does not provide an exhaustive list of interactively developed capabilities, but demonstrates their existence in manufacturer/supplier and manufacturer/customer dyads. Practical implications – Manufacturers need to understand how to develop capabilities interactively to create competitive advantage and value and identify other actors with whom these capabilities can be developed. Originality/value – Previous research has focused on relational capabilities within a focal firm. This study extends existing theories to include interactively developed capabilities. The paper proposes that interactivity is a key dimension of actors’ complementary capabilities.

Társas kapcsolatok és interakció a szabadidősportban (Social relationships and interaction in the leisure sport)

A sporttermékek iránti kereslet kialakulására a sportszocializáció meghatározó befolyással bír. A sport kiemelkedő szerepet játszik a mai modern társadalomban. Jelentős gazdasági súlyt képvisel, továbbá lehetőséget ad a személyes fejlődésre és a társas kapcsolatok kialakítására, ápolására. Az egyéni személyes előnyök mellett a sportolás támogatása révén a társadalom egészségi állapotának költséghatékony megőrzése is biztosítható. Ezzel együtt hazánkban alacsony a szabadidősportban való részvétel, a lakosság egészségi állapota romlik, az ülő életmód egyre terjed. Az elvégzett kutatás célja az volt, hogy olyan ismeretekre tegyen szert, amelyek segítségével megérthető a sportolást befolyásoló legfőbb tényezők hatása, így az egyén szűk környezetének (család, barátok, iskola) jelentősége, a társas befolyás hazai jellegzetességei. Ezek az ismeretek elősegíthetik mind a profit, mind a non-profit szféra számára a lakosság sikeresebb megszólítását, hozzájárulva egy aktívabb társadalom megteremtéséhez. _______ Sport socialization has high relevance to generate demand for sport. Sport plays an important role in today’s modern societies. It has enormous economic significance and provides opportunity for personal development and for establishing new or keeping existing social relationships. Besides individual personal benefits, supporting sport also ensures the costefficient maintenance of good health on a social level. However sport participation and sport spectatorship are both low in Hungary. At the same time the health status of residents are worsening and the society is characterized by a sitting, sedentary lifestyle. The goal of the study is to gather information on the primary factors influencing sport participation, especially the significance of the close social environment of the individual (family, friends and education). Understanding why people participate in sports and how they can be motivated to do so is of primary importance to both the private and the state sector, explained by business interest and by the need to ensure the healthy operation of the society.

Women defending themselves: Cuban Romantic feminine voices (poetry and short stories)

Throughout history, women have played an important role in literature. Nevertheless, since Sappho's poetry until now, feminine voices have had to struggle for recognition of their works. ^ Before the nineteenth century, women were almost ignored in Spanish literature. Society kept them as “ángeles de la familia,” taking care of their homes, husbands, and children. Some of them, such as María de Zayas y Sotomayor in Spain and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz in Mexico, complained about their situation in their writings. However, they expressed their fight not as a generation but as individuals. ^ In the nineteenth century, the ideas and ideals of Romanticism, were brought to Latin America from Europe. Cuba was among those countries where the new movement took roots. Initiated by Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda, a group of women began to participate in literary reunions, and to found newspapers and magazines where works authored by women, dedicated to feminist ideas, were published. They indeed through literature started to live out womanhood in order to intellectually leave the ideological prisons where society had been keeping them. ^ This study scans the literary works of all Romantic women writers in Cuba. It specifically analyzes poetry and short stories, and investigates how these authors expressed themselves in their works against the patriarchal society, where they lived and wrote their books. An eclectic critical method has been used. ^ Findings were very revealing. Only three of the fourteen writers studied in my dissertation had been previously mentioned by major critics. Most of them had been ignored. However, the greatest discovery was that they prompted something new: For the first time they projected themselves as a group, as a collective consciousness, and this fact established a difference with former women writers in Cuban literature before Romanticism. In other words, they produced a “Renaissance” in Cuba's literature. In spite of how they lived between 1820 and 1900, their struggles for women's rights have linked them to our current times. ^

Negative relationships between the nutrient and carbohydrate content of the seagrass Thalassia testudinum

This study documents relationships between plant nutrient content and rhizome carbohydrate content of a widely distributed seagrass species, Thalassia testudinum, in Florida. Five distinct seagrass beds were sampled for leaf nitrogen, leaf phosphorus, and rhizome carbohydrate content from 1997 to 1999. All variables displayed marked intra- and inter- regional variation. Elemental ratios (mean N:P ± S.E.) were lowest for Charlotte Harbor (9.9 ± 0.2) and highest for Florida Bay (53.5 ± 0.9), indicating regional shifts in the nutrient content of plant material. Rhizome carbohydrate content (mean ± S.E.) was lowest for Anclote Keys (21.8 ± 1.6 mg g−1 FM), and highest for Homosassa Bay (40.7 ± 1.7 mg g−1 FM). Within each region, significant negative correlations between plant nutrient and rhizome carbohydrate content were detected; thus, nutrient-replete plants displayed low carbohydrate content, while nutrient-deplete plants displayed high carbohydrate content. Spearman's rank correlations between nutrient and carbohydrate content varied from a minimum in Tampa Bay (ρ = −0.2) to a maximum in Charlotte Harbor (ρ = −0.73). Linear regressions on log-transformed data revealed similar trends. This consistent trend across five distinct regions suggests that nutrient supply may play an important role in the regulation of carbon storage within seagrasses. Here we present a new hypothesis for studies which aim to explain the carbohydrate dynamics of benthic plants.

Mapping Transnational Crime in El Salvador: New Trends and Lessons from Colombia

Since El Salvador’s civil war formally ended in 1992 the small Central American nation has undergone profound social changes and significant reforms. However, few changes have been as important or as devastating as the nation’s emergence as a central hub in the transnational criminal “pipeline” or series of recombinant, overlapping chains of routes and actors that illicit organizations use to traffic in drugs, money weapons, human being, endangered animals and other products. The erasing of the once-clear ideological lines that drove the civil war and the ability of erstwhile enemies to join forces in criminal enterprises in the post-war period is an enduring and dangerous characteristic of El Salvador’s transnational criminal evolution. Trained, elite cadres from both sides, with few legitimate job opportunities, found their skills were marketable in the growing criminal structures. The groups moved from kidnapping and extortion to providing protection services to transnational criminal organizations to becoming integral parts of the organizations themselves. The demand for specialized military and transportation services in El Salvador have exploded as the Mexican DTOs consolidate their hold on the cocaine market and their relationships with the transportista networks, which is still in flux. The value of their services has risen dramatically also because of the fact that multiple Mexican DTOs, at war with each other in Mexico and seeking to physically control the geographic space of the lucrative pipeline routes in from Guatemala to Panama, are eager to increase their military capabilities and intelligence gathering capacities. The emergence of multiple non-state armed groups, often with significant ties to the formal political structure (state) through webs of judicial, legislative and administrative corruption, has some striking parallels to Colombia in the 1980s, where multiple types of violence ultimately challenged the sovereignty of state and left a lasting legacy of embedded corruption within the nation’s political structure. Organized crime in El Salvador is now transnational in nature and more integrated into stronger, more versatile global networks such as the Mexican DTOs. It is a hybrid of both local crime – with gangs vying for control off specific geographic space so they can extract payment for the safe passage of illicit products – and transnational groups that need to use that space to successfully move their products. These symbiotic relationships are both complex and generally transient in nature but growing more consolidated and dangerous.

Travel Marketing: Industry Relationships and Benefits

In the discussion - Travel Marketing: Industry Relationships and Benefits - by Andrew Vladimir, Visiting Assistant Professor, School of Hospitality Management at Florida International University, the author initially states: “A symbiotic relationship exists among the various segments of the travel and tourism industry. The author has solicited the thinking of 37experts and leaders in the field in a book dealing with these relationships and how they can be developed to benefit the industry. This article provides some salient points from those contributors.” This article could be considered a primer on networking for the hospitality industry. It has everything to do with marketing and the relationships between varied systems in the field of travel and tourism. Vladimir points to instances of success and failure in marketing for the industry at large. And there are points of view from thirty-seven contributing sources here. “Miami Beach remains a fitting example of a leisure product that has been unable to get its act together,” Vladimir shares a view. “There are some first class hotels, a few good restaurants, alluring beaches, and a splendid convention center, but there is no synergism between them, no real affinity, and so while visitors admire the Fontainebleau Hilton and enjoy the food at Joe's Stone Crabs, the reputation of Miami Beach as a resort remains sullied,” the author makes a point. In describing cohesiveness between exclusive systems, Vladimir says, “If each system can get a better understanding of the inner workings of neighboring related systems, each will ultimately be more successful in achieving its goals.” The article is suggesting that exclusive systems aren’t really exclusive at all; or at least they shouldn’t be. In a word – competition – drives the market, and in order for a property to stay afloat, aggressive marketing integrated with all attendant resources is crucial. “Tisch [Preston Robert Tisch, currently – at the time of this writing - the Postmaster General of the United States and formerly president of Lowe’s Hotels and the New York Visitors and Convention Bureau], in talking about the need for aggressive marketing says: “Never...ever...take anything for granted. Never...not for a moment...think that any product or any place will survive strictly on its own merits.” Vladimir not only sources several knowledgeable representatives in the field of hospitality and tourism, but he also links elements as disparate as real estate, car rental, cruise and airlines, travel agencies and traveler profiles to illustrate his points on marketing integration. In closing, Vladimir quotes the Honorable Donna Tuttle, Undersecretary of Commerce for Travel and Tourism, “Uniting the components of this industry in an effective marketing coalition that can compete on an equal footing with often publicly-owned foreign tourism conglomerates and multi-national consortia must be a high priority as the United States struggles to maintain and expand its share of a rapidly changing global market.”

Leveraging symbiotic relationships for emulation of computer networks

The lack of analytical models that can accurately describe large-scale networked systems makes empirical experimentation indispensable for understanding complex behaviors. Research on network testbeds for testing network protocols and distributed services, including physical, emulated, and federated testbeds, has made steady progress. Although the success of these testbeds is undeniable, they fail to provide: 1) scalability, for handling large-scale networks with hundreds or thousands of hosts and routers organized in different scenarios, 2) flexibility, for testing new protocols or applications in diverse settings, and 3) inter-operability, for combining simulated and real network entities in experiments. This dissertation tackles these issues in three different dimensions. First, we present SVEET, a system that enables inter-operability between real and simulated hosts. In order to increase the scalability of networks under study, SVEET enables time-dilated synchronization between real hosts and the discrete-event simulator. Realistic TCP congestion control algorithms are implemented in the simulator to allow seamless interactions between real and simulated hosts. SVEET is validated via extensive experiments and its capabilities are assessed through case studies involving real applications. Second, we present PrimoGENI, a system that allows a distributed discrete-event simulator, running in real-time, to interact with real network entities in a federated environment. PrimoGENI greatly enhances the flexibility of network experiments, through which a great variety of network conditions can be reproduced to examine what-if questions. Furthermore, PrimoGENI performs resource management functions, on behalf of the user, for instantiating network experiments on shared infrastructures. Finally, to further increase the scalability of network testbeds to handle large-scale high-capacity networks, we present a novel symbiotic simulation approach. We present SymbioSim, a testbed for large-scale network experimentation where a high-performance simulation system closely cooperates with an emulation system in a mutually beneficial way. On the one hand, the simulation system benefits from incorporating the traffic metadata from real applications in the emulation system to reproduce the realistic traffic conditions. On the other hand, the emulation system benefits from receiving the continuous updates from the simulation system to calibrate the traffic between real applications. Specific techniques that support the symbiotic approach include: 1) a model downscaling scheme that can significantly reduce the complexity of the large-scale simulation model, resulting in an efficient emulation system for modulating the high-capacity network traffic between real applications; 2) a queuing network model for the downscaled emulation system to accurately represent the network effects of the simulated traffic; and 3) techniques for reducing the synchronization overhead between the simulation and emulation systems.

Campus Design: Locating a new center of international studies

FIU's campus master plan should portray an overall concept of the University's vision. Its design should represent a distinctive sense of institutional purpose. Its architecture should support the campus design in the realization of an ideal academic environment. The present master plan of Florida International University (FIU) offers neither a clear typology of architectural elements nor adequate relationships and connections between buildings. FIU needs to enhance its master plan with an architectural and urban vocabulary that creates a better environment. This thesis will examine FIU's present master plan, explaining the history of its development. Further, it will critically examine the quality of the campus, highlighting the success and failure of its various parts. The unrealized potential of the campus' original vision will be juxtaposed to the built reality. In addition, FlU's planning strategies will be parallel with the planning of several master plans of American universities. Finally, this thesis will propose a set of criteria for the inclusion of a new building in the campus master plan. The Center of International Study will be the catalyst that would bring into focus the university's vision. As a means to prove the validity of these criteria, a new location for the center of international studies will be selected, and a schematic architectural proposal will be made.

Phylogenetic relationships among hadal amphipods of the Superfamily Lysianassoidea : Implications for taxonomy and biogeography

Date of Acceptance: 30/8/15 Acknowledgements We thank the chief scientists, crew and company of the Japanese RV Hakuho-Maru (KH0703 and KH0803), the RV Tansei-Maru (KT-09-03), the RV Kairei (KR0716), the German FS Sonne (SO197 and SO 209) and the New Zealand RV Kaharoa (KAH0190, KAH1109, KAH1202, KAH1301 and KAH1310). This work was supported by the HADEEP projects, funded by the Nippon Foundation, Japan (2009765188), the Natural Environmental Research Council, UK (NE/E007171/1) and the Total Foundation, France. We acknowledge additional support from the Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland (MASTS) funded by the Scottish Funding Council (Ref: HR09011) and contributing institutions. We also acknowledge support from the Leverhulme Research Fellowship granted to SBP. Additional sea time was supported by NIWA’s ‘Impact of Resource Use on Vulnerable Deep-Sea Communities’ project (CO1_0906). From NIWA we thank Malcolm Clark, Ashley Rowden, Kareen Schnabel, Sadie Mills for logistical support at the NIWA Invertebrate Collection. We also thank Fredrik Søreide from Promare, USA, for supply of the Puerto-Rico samples, Marius Wenzel for helpful comments on manuscript drafts, and Dr. Tammy Horton (NOCS, UK) for identifying some of the earlier amphipod samples

Knowledge sources, innovative activity and the performance of UK new technology based firms

We present an innovation value chain analysis for a representative sample of new technology based firms (NTBFs) in the UK. This involves determining which factors lead to the usage of different knowledge sources and the relationships that exist between those sources of knowledge; the effect that each knowledge source has on innovative activity; and how innovation outputs affect the performance of NTBFs. We find that internal (i.e. R&D) and external knowledge sources are complementary for NTBFs, and that supply chain linkages have both a direct and indirect effect on innovation. NTBFs' skill resources matter throughout the innovation value chain, being positively associated with external knowledge linkages and innovation success, and also having a direct effect on growth independent of the effect on innovation. ©2010 IEEE.

Knowledge sources, innovative activity and the performance of UK new technology based firms

We present an innovation value chain analysis for a representative sample of new technology based firms (NTBFs) in the UK. This involves determining which factors lead to the usage of different knowledge sources and the relationships that exist between those sources of knowledge; the effect that each knowledge source has on innovative activity; and how innovation outputs affect the performance of NTBFs. We find that internal (i.e. R&D) and external knowledge sources are complementary for NTBFs, and that supply chain linkages have both a direct and indirect effect on innovation. NTBFs' skill resources matter throughout the innovation value chain, being positively associated with external knowledge linkages and innovation success, and also having a direct effect on growth independent of the effect on innovation. ©2010 IEEE.

Molecular analysis of evolutionary relationships of Phaseolus dumosus with the gene pool of common bean

Valuable genetic variation for bean breeding programs is held within the common bean secondary gene pool which consists of Phaseolus albescens, P. coccineus, P. costaricensis, and P. dumosus. However, the use of close relatives for bean improvement is limited due to the lack of knowledge about genetic variation and genetic plasticity of many of these species. Characterisation and analysis of the genetic diversity is necessary among beans' wild relatives; in addition, conflicting phylogenies and relationships need to be understood and a hypothesis of a hybrid origin of P. dumosus needs to be tested. This thesis research was orientated to generate information about the patterns of relationships among the common bean secondary gene pool, with particular focus on the species Phaseolus dumosus. This species displays a set of characteristics of agronomic interest, not only for the direct improvement of common bean but also as a source of valuable genes for adaptation to climate change. Here I undertake the first comprehensive study of the genetic diversity of P. dumosus as ascertained from both nuclear and chloroplast genome markers. A germplasm collection of the ancestral forms of P. dumosus together with wild, landrace and cultivar representatives of all other species of the common bean secondary gene pool, were used to analyse genetic diversity, phylogenetic relationships and structure of P. dumosus. Data on molecular variation was generated from sequences of cpDNA loci accD-psaI spacer, trnT-trnL spacer, trnL intron and rps14-psaB spacer and from the nrDNA the ITS region. A whole genome DArT array was developed and used for the genotyping of P. dumosus and its closes relatives. 4208 polymorphic markers were generated in the DArT array and from those, 742 markers presented a call rate >95% and zero discordance. DArT markers revealed a moderate genetic polymorphism among P. dumosus samples (13% of polymorphic loci), while P. coccineus presented the highest level of polymorphism (88% of polymorphic loci). At the cpDNA one ancestral haplotype was detected among all samples of all species in the secondary genepool. The ITS region of P. dumosus revealed high homogeneity and polymorphism bias to P. coccineus genome. Phylogenetic reconstructions made with Maximum likelihood and Bayesian methods confirmed previously reported discrepancies among the nuclear and chloroplast genomes of P. dumosus. The outline of relationships by hybridization networks displayed a considerable number of interactions within and between species. This research provides compelling evidence that P. dumosus arose from hybridisation between P. vulgaris and P. coccineus and confirms that P. costaricensis has likely been involved in the genesis or backcrossing events (or both) in the history of P. dumosus. The classification of the specie P. persistentus was analysed based on cpDNA and ITS sequences, the results found this species to be highly related to P. vulgaris but not too similar to P. leptostachyus as previously proposed. This research demonstrates that wild types of the secondary genepool carry a significant genetic variation which makes this a valuable genetic resource for common bean improvement. The DArT array generated in this research is a valuable resource for breeding programs since it has the potential to be used in several approaches including genotyping, discovery of novel traits, mapping and marker-trait associations. Efforts should be made to search for potential populations of P. persistentus and to increase the collection of new populations of P. dumosus, P. albescens and P. costaricensis that may provide valuable traits for introgression into common bean and other Phaseolus crops.