The central role of communication in developing trust and its effect on employee involvement

Communication plays an important role in the development of trust within an organization. While a number of researchers have studied the relationship of trust and communication, little is known about the specific linkages among quality of information, quantity of information, openness, trust, and outcomes such as employee involvement. This study tests these relationships using communication audit data from 218 employees in the oil industry. Using mediation analysis and structural equation modeling, we found that quality of information predicted trust of one's coworkers and supervisors while adequacy of information predicted one's trust of top management. Trust of coworkers, supervisors, and top management influenced perceptions of organizational openness, which in turn influenced employees' ratings of their own level of involvement in the organization's goals. This study suggests that the relationship between communication and trust is complex, and that simple strategies focusing on either quality or quantity of information may be ineffective for dealing with all members in an organization.

Forecasting trends in the Brisbane central business district office market

The Queensland Department of Public Works (DPW) holds a significant interest in the Brisbane Central Business District (CBD) in controlling approximately 20 percent of the office space within its confines. This comprises a total of 333,903 square metres of space, of which 170,111 square metres is owned and 163,792 square metres is leased from the private sector. The department’s nominal ownership extends to several enduring, landmark buildings as well as several modern office towers. The portfolio includes the oldest building in the CBD, being the former Commissariat Stores building and one of the newest, a 15,000 square metre office tower under construction at 33 Charlotte Street.

Corneal sensitivity and slit scanning in vivo confocal microscopy of the subbasal nerve plexus of the normal central and peripheral human cornea

Purpose: To determine the subbasal nerve density and tortuosity at 5 corneal locations and to investigate whether these microstructural observations correlate with corneal sensitivity. Method: Sixty eyes of 60 normal human subjects were recruited into 1 of 3 age groups, group 1: aged ,35 years, group 2: aged 35–50 years, and group 3: aged .50 years. All eyes were examined using slit-lamp biomicroscopy, noncontact corneal esthesiometry, and slit scanning in vivo confocal microscopy. Results: The mean subbasal nerve density and the mean corneal sensitivity were greatest centrally (14,731 6 6056 mm/mm2 and 0.38 6 0.21 millibars, respectively) and lowest in the nasal mid periphery (7850 6 4947 mm/mm2 and 0.49 6 0.25 millibars, respectively). The mean subbasal nerve tortuosity coefficient was greatest in the temporal mid periphery (27.3 6 6.4) and lowest in the superior mid periphery (19.3 6 14.1). There was no significant difference in mean total subbasal nerve density between age groups. However, corneal sensation (P = 0.001) and subbasal nerve tortuosity (P = 0.004) demonstrated significant differences between age groups. Subbasal nerve density only showed significant correlations with corneal sensitivity threshold in the temporal cornea and with subbasal nerve tortuosity in the inferior and nasal cornea. However, these correlations were weak. Conclusions: This study quantitatively analyzes living human corneal nerve structure and an aspect of nerve function. There is no strong correlation between subbasal nerve density and corneal sensation. This study provides useful baseline data for the normal living human cornea at central and mid-peripheral locations

Lyprinol : is it a useful anti-inflammatory agent?

The New Zealand green lipped mussel preparation Lyprinol is available without a prescription from a supermarket, pharmacy or Web. The Food and Drug Administration have recently warned Lyprinol USA about their extravagant anti-inflammatory claims for Lyprinol appearing on the web. These claims are put to thorough review. Lyprinol does have anti-inflammatory mechanisms, and has anti-inflammatory effects in some animal models of inflammation. Lyprinol may have benefits in dogs with arthritis. There are design problems with the clinical trials of Lyprinol in humans as an anti-inflammatory agent in osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis, making it difficult to give a definite answer to how effective Lyprinol is in these conditions, but any benefit is small. Lyprinol also has a small benefit in atopic allergy. As anti-inflammatory agents, there is little to choose between Lyprinol and fish oil. No adverse effects have been reported with Lyprinol. Thus, although it is difficult to conclude whether Lyprinol does much good, it can be concluded that Lyprinol probably does no major harm.

Europe and the Media: Building a new kind of Europe; is mass media the key?

The book is a joint effort of eight academics and journalists, Europe specialists from six countries (Australia, Germany, Poland, Slovenia, the United Kingdom and the United States). They give sometimes divergent views on the future of the so-called “European Project”, for building a common European economy and society, but agree that cultural changes, especially changes experienced through mass media, are rapidly taking place. One of the central interests of the book is the operation of the large media centre located at the European Commission in Brussels – the world’s largest gallery of permanently accredited correspondents. Jacket notes: The Lisbon Treaty of December 2009 is the latest success of the European Union’s drive to restructure and expand; yet questions persist about how democratic this new Europe might be. Will Brussels’ promotion of the “European idea” produce a common European culture and society? The authors consider it might, as a culture of everyday shared experience, though old ways are cherished, citizens forever thinking twice about committing to an uncertain future. The book focuses on mass media , as a prime agent of change, sometimes used deliberately to promote a “European project”; sometimes acting more naturally as a medium for new agendas. It looks at proposed media models for Europe, ranging from not very successful pan-European television, to the potentials of media systems based on national markets, and new media based on digital formats. It also studies the Brussels media service, the centre operated by the European Commission, which is the world’s largest concentration of journalists; and ways that dominant national media may come to serve the interests of communities now extending across frontiers. Europe and the Media notes change especially as encountered by new EU member countries of central and eastern Europe.

Load–frequency control : a GA-based multi-agent reinforcement learning

The load–frequency control (LFC) problem has been one of the major subjects in a power system. In practice, LFC systems use proportional–integral (PI) controllers. However since these controllers are designed using a linear model, the non-linearities of the system are not accounted for and they are incapable of gaining good dynamical performance for a wide range of operating conditions in a multi-area power system. A strategy for solving this problem because of the distributed nature of a multi-area power system is presented by using a multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) approach. It consists of two agents in each power area; the estimator agent provides the area control error (ACE) signal based on the frequency bias estimation and the controller agent uses reinforcement learning to control the power system in which genetic algorithm optimisation is used to tune its parameters. This method does not depend on any knowledge of the system and it admits considerable flexibility in defining the control objective. Also, by finding the ACE signal based on the frequency bias estimation the LFC performance is improved and by using the MARL parallel, computation is realised, leading to a high degree of scalability. Here, to illustrate the accuracy of the proposed approach, a three-area power system example is given with two scenarios.

Central venous oxygen saturation monitoring

It has been established that mixed venous oxygen saturation (SvO2) reflects the balance between systemic oxygen deliver y and consumption. Literature indicates that it is a valuable clinical indicator and has good prognostic value early in patient course. This article aims to establish the usefulness of SvO2 as a clinical indicator. A secondary aim was to determine whether central venous oxygen saturation (ScvO2) and SvO2 are interchangeable. Of particular relevance to cardiac nurses is the link between decreased SvO2 and cardiac failure in patients with myocardial infarction, and with decline in myocardial function, clinical shock and arrhythmias. While absolute values ScvO2 and SvO2 are not interchangeable, ScvO2 and SvO2are equivalent in terms of clinical course. Additionally, ScvO2 monitoring is a safer and less costly alternative to SvO2 monitoring. It can be concluded that continuous ScvO2 monitoring should potentially be undertaken in patients at risk of haemodynamic instability.