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Proactive
Terms modified by Proactive Selected AbstractsThiazolidinediones: effects on the development and progression of type 2 diabetes and associated vascular complicationsDIABETES/METABOLISM: RESEARCH AND REVIEWS, Issue 2 2009Andrew Krentz Abstract In addition to reducing hyperglycaemia, the metabolic actions of TZDs (pioglitazone and rosiglitazone) in theory might improve the prognosis of patients with type 2 diabetes. However, it appears from recent data that pioglitazone and rosiglitazone have different cardiovascular risk profiles. The scope of this paper is to examine the benefits and risks of pioglitazone and rosiglitazone. Three large clinical studies (DREAM, and ADOPT with rosiglitazone; PROactive with pioglitazone) have recently been reported. A lower annual rate of decline of ß-cell function observed with rosiglitazone in the ADOPT study, compared with metformin and glyburide (glibenclamide), along with a reduced progression to insulin use seen with pioglitazone in the PROactive study, provides evidence that TZDs are effective in treating progressive hyperglycaemia. In PROactive, although the primary endpoint was not met, pioglitazone was associated with a reduction in a secondary composite endpoint of clinical cardiovascular events in high-risk patients with existing macrovascular disease who were already receiving other glycaemic and cardiovascular medications. Further evidence supporting an anti-atherogenic effect of pioglitazone was gained from the PERISCOPE study of carotid intima-media thickness. Recent controversy concerning a possible increased risk of myocardial infarction associated with rosiglitazone has fuelled uncertainty about the risk,benefit profile of this agent. In 2008, an update of an American Diabetes Association,European Association for the Study of Diabetes consensus statement on initiation and adjustment of therapy in patients with type 2 diabetes advised clinicians against using rosiglitazone. Skeletal fractures have recently emerged as a side effect of both TZDs. Available data suggest that cardiovascular benefits observed with pioglitazone might not be a class effect of TZDs. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Long-term glycaemic control with metformin,sulphonylurea,pioglitazone triple therapy in PROactive (PROactive 17)DIABETIC MEDICINE, Issue 10 2009A. J. Scheen Abstract Aims, We assessed the long-term glycaemic effects and the safety profile of triple therapy with the addition of pioglitazone vs. placebo in patients with Type 2 diabetes treated with combined metformin,sulphonylurea therapy in the PROspective pioglitAzone Clinical Trial In macroVascular Events (PROactive). Methods, In a post-hoc analysis, we identified patients treated with metformin plus sulphonylurea combination therapy and not receiving insulin at baseline (n = 1314). In those patients, we compared the effects of pioglitazone (force-titrated to 45 mg/day, n = 654) vs. placebo (n = 660) on glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) reduction, concomitant changes in medications and initiation of permanent insulin use (defined as daily insulin use for a period of , 90 days or ongoing use at death/final visit). Results, Significantly greater reductions in HbA1c and greater proportions of patients with HbA1c at target were noted with pioglitazone vs, placebo, despite a decrease in the use of other oral glucose-lowering agents. There was an approximate twofold increase in progression to permanent insulin use in the placebo group vs. the pioglitazone group: 31.1 vs. 16.1%, respectively, when added to combination therapy. The overall safety of the metformin,sulphonylurea,pioglitazone triple therapy was good. Conclusions, Intensifying an existing dual oral therapy regimen to a triple oral regimen by adding pioglitazone to the classical metformin,sulphonylurea combination resulted in sustained improvements in glycaemic control and reduced progression to insulin therapy. The advantages and disadvantages of adding pioglitazone instead of adding basal insulin should be assessed further. [source] Glitazones: the evidence from PROactive, DREAM and ADOPTPRESCRIBER, Issue 11 2007Anthony Barnett BSc Professor Barnett describes the results of three major longterm studies of glitazones in the treatment of type 2 diabetes and the advantages these new agents may have over established treatments. Copyright © 2007 Wiley Interface Ltd [source] An integrative review and meta-synthesis of the scope and impact of intensive care liaison and outreach servicesJOURNAL OF CLINICAL NURSING, Issue 23 2009Ruth Endacott Aim., To determine activities and outcomes of intensive care unit Liaison Nurse/Outreach services. The review comprised two stages: (1) integrative review of qualitative and quantitative studies examining intensive care liaison/outreach services in the UK and Australia and (2) meta-synthesis using the Nursing Role Effectiveness Model as an a priori model. Background., Acute ward patients are at risk of adverse events and patients recovering from critical illness are vulnerable to deterioration. Proactive and reactive strategies have been implemented to facilitate timely identification of patients at risk. Design., Systematic review. Methods., A range of data bases was searched from 2000,2008. Studies were eligible for review if they included adults in any setting where intensive care unit Liaison Nurse or Outreach services were provided. From 1423 citations and 65 abstracts, 20 studies met the inclusion criteria. Results., Intensive care liaison/outreach services had a beneficial impact on intensive care mortality, hospital mortality, unplanned intensive care admissions/re-admissions, discharge delay and rates of adverse events. A range of research methods were used; however, it was not possible to conclude unequivocally that the intensive care liaison/outreach service had resulted in improved outcomes. The major unmeasured benefit across all studies was improved communication pathways between critical care and ward staff. Outcomes for nurses in the form of improved confidence, knowledge and critical care skills were identified in qualitative studies but not measured. Conclusion., The varied nature of the intensive care liaison/outreach services reviewed in these studies suggests that they should be treated as bundled interventions, delivering a treatment package of care. Further studies should examine the impact of critical care support on the confidence and skills of ward nurses. Relevance to clinical practice., Advanced nursing roles can improve outcomes for patients who are vulnerable to deterioration. The Nursing Role Effectiveness Model provides a useful framework for evaluating the impact of these roles. [source] Proactive and reactive aggression among school bullies, victims, and bully-victimsAGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR, Issue 1 2002Christina Salmivalli Abstract Bullies, victims, bully-victims, and control children were identified from a sample of 1062 children (530 girls and 532 boys), aged 10 to 12 years, participating in the study. Their reactive and proactive aggression was measured by means of peer and teacher reports. Peer and teacher reports were more concordant with respect to reactive than proactive aggression. Comparing the children in different bullying roles in terms of their reactive and proactive aggression, bully-victims were found to be the most aggressive group of all. For this group, it was typical to be highly aggressive both reactively and proactively. Although bullies were significantly less aggressive than bully-victims, they scored higher than victims and controls on both reactive and proactive aggression. However, observations at the person level, i.e., cross-tabulational analyses, indicated that bullies were not only overrepresented among children who were both reactively and procatively aggressive but also among the only reactively aggressive as well as the only proactively aggressive groups. Victims scored higher than control children on reactive aggression, but they were not proactively aggressive. Furthermore, even their reactive aggression was at a significantly lower level than that of bullies and bully-victims. Aggr. Behav. 28:30,44, 2002. © 2002 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Integrating the Core Competencies: Proceedings from the 2005 Academic Assembly ConsortiumACADEMIC EMERGENCY MEDICINE, Issue 1 2007Sarah A. Stahmer MD Abstract The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education mandated the integration of the core competencies into residency training in 2001. To this end, educators in emergency medicine (EM) have been proactive in their approach, using collaborative efforts to develop methods that teach and assess the competencies. The first steps toward a collaborative approach occurred during the proceedings of the Council of Emergency Medicine Residency Directors (CORD-EM) academic assembly in 2002. Three years later, the competencies were revisited by working groups of EM program directors and educators at the 2005 Academic Assembly. This report provides a summary discussion of the status of integration of the competencies into EM training programs in 2005. [source] Reducing threats to species: threat reversibility and links to industryCONSERVATION LETTERS, Issue 4 2010Laura R. Prugh Abstract Threats to species' persistence are typically mitigated via lengthy and costly recovery planning processes that are implemented only after species are at risk of extinction. To reduce overall threats and minimize risks to species not yet imperiled, a proactive and broad-scale framework is needed. Using data on threats to imperiled species in Canada to illustrate our approach, we link threats to industries causing the harm, thus providing regulators with quantitative data that can be used directly in cost-benefit and risk analyses to broadly reduce threat levels. We then show how ranking the ease of threat abatement and reversal assists prioritization by identifying threats that are easiest to mitigate as well as threats that are possible to abate but nearly impossible to reverse. This new framework increases the usefulness of widely available threat data for preventative conservation and species recovery. [source] Carbon dioxide emission trading, or not?CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, Issue 4 2004An institutional analysis of company behaviour in Sweden The Kyoto Protocol opens up for market based solutions in climate change mitigation. A number of companies in Europe, North America and Asia have already practiced carbon dioxide emission trading. Sweden and Swedish companies have a tradition of being proactive in environmental policy and management. However, Swedish companies are acting reactively or even passively when it comes to emission trading. This paper aims to elucidate and explain the Swedish companies' behaviour on this matter. From our study, which focuses primarily on the energy and forestry sectors, it was found that companies are principally in favour of emission trading, but they have not developed initiatives for emission trading in practice. The study indicates that the institutional arrangements in which companies are situated do not encourage emission trading. Ambiguous government policies are claimed to prevent the companies from making long-term strategies on climate change mitigation in general and emission trading in particular. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source] Two Kinds of Creativity , But Which Ones?CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION MANAGEMENT, Issue 3 2004Geir Kaufmann It is argued that Kirton's theory of styles of creativity is conceptually and methodologically unsound. A solution to the conceptual and methodological dilemmas is offered by way of making a clear-cut distinction between novelty on the stimulus and novelty on the response side. This distinction is used as a platform for the development of a new taxonomy of different kinds of creativity and intelligent behaviour. A major feature of this new model is the distinction made between proactive and reactive creativity. The implications of this distinction for opening new avenues for a more differentiated assessment of creativity, as well as for the development of a conceptually firmer and more differentiated platform for developing new practical training programmes in creativity are suggested. [source] PROACTIVE POLICING AND ROBBERY RATES ACROSS U.S. CITIES,CRIMINOLOGY, Issue 1 2010CHARIS E. KUBRIN In recent years, criminologists, as well as journalists, have devoted considerable attention to the potential deterrent effect of what is sometimes referred to as "proactive" policing. This policing style entails the vigorous enforcement of laws against relatively minor offenses to prevent more serious crime. The current study examines the effect of proactive policing on robbery rates for a sample of large U.S. cities using an innovative measure developed by Sampson and Cohen (1988). We replicate their cross-sectional analyses using data from 2000 to 2003, which is a period that proactive policing is likely to have become more common than that of the original study,the early 1980s. We also extend their analyses by estimating a more comprehensive regression model that incorporates additional theoretically relevant predictors. Finally, we advance previous research in this area by using panel data, The cross-sectional analyses replicate prior findings of a negative relationship between proactive policing and robbery rates. In addition, our dynamic models suggest that proactive policing is endogenous to changes in robbery rates. When this feedback between robbery and proactive policing is eliminated, we find more evidence to support our finding that proactive policing reduces robbery rates. [source] Realising a resilient and sustainable built environment: towards a strategic agenda for the United KingdomDISASTERS, Issue 3 2007Lee Bosher Recent natural and human-induced emergencies have highlighted the vulnerability of the built environment. Although most emergency events are not entirely unexpected, and the effects can be mitigated, emergency managers in the United Kingdom have not played a sufficiently proactive role in the mitigation of such events. If a resilient and sustainable built environment is to be achieved, emergency management should be more proactive and receive greater input from the stakeholders responsible for the planning, design, construction and operation of the built environment. This paper highlights the need for emergency management to take a more systematic approach to hazard mitigation by integrating more with professions from the construction sector. In particular, design changes may have to be considered, critical infrastructures must be protected, planning policies should be reviewed, and resilient and sustainable agendas adopted by all stakeholders. [source] Mainstreaming Risk Reduction in Urban Planning and Housing: A Challenge for International Aid OrganisationsDISASTERS, Issue 2 2006Christine Wamsler Abstract The effects of ,natural' disasters in cities can be worse than in other environments, with poor and marginalised urban communities in the developing world being most at risk. To avoid post-disaster destruction and the forced eviction of these communities, proactive and preventive urban planning, including housing, is required. This paper examines current perceptions and practices within international aid organisations regarding the existing and potential roles of urban planning as a tool for reducing disaster risk. It reveals that urban planning confronts many of the generic challenges to mainstreaming risk reduction in development planning. However, it faces additional barriers. The main reasons for the identified lack of integration of urban planning and risk reduction are, first, the marginal position of both fields within international aid organisations, and second, an incompatibility between the respective professional disciplines. To achieve better integration, a conceptual shift from conventional to non-traditional urban planning is proposed. This paper suggests related operative measures and initiatives to achieve this change. [source] Association amongst factors thought to be important by instructors in dental education and perceived effectiveness of these instructors by studentsEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF DENTAL EDUCATION, Issue 4 2004D. W. Chambers It is hypothesised that dental educators have perceptions of their roles as effective teachers. It is expected that subject matter expertise would be amongst the components of such personal philosophies of education, but it is unclear whether faculty member self-perceptions carry over into student ratings of instructors' effectiveness. A 20-item survey of ,Teaching Characteristics' was completed by 86% of full-time and 64% of the part-time faculty members at the University of the Pacific. Respondents distributed 100 points amongst the descriptions of what makes an effective instructor. The responses were factor-analysed, resulting in four general faculty ,types' that explained about 50% of the variance in ratings: expert, enthusiast, judicial and good soldier. Student ratings for the 2 years running up to the date of the survey administration were used to gauge student perceptions of instructor effectiveness. Faculty members who placed emphasis on expertise as key to being a good instructor received significantly lower ratings for teacher effectiveness from students than did other faculty members. Faculty members who conceived their roles as motivating students, explaining difficult concepts, displaying interest in the subject, showing compassion and caring, and being proactive tended to receive high ratings for teaching effectiveness from students. [source] Dynamic zone topology routing protocol for MANETsEUROPEAN TRANSACTIONS ON TELECOMMUNICATIONS, Issue 4 2007Mehran Abolhasan The limited scalability of the proactive and reactive routing protocols have resulted in the introduction of new generation of routing in mobile ad hoc networks, called hybrid routing. These protocols aim to extend the scalability of such networks beyond several hundred to thousand of nodes by defining a virtual infrastructure in the network. However, many of the hybrid routing protocols proposed to date are designed to function using a common pre-programmed static zone map. Other hybrid protocols reduce flooding by grouping nodes into clusters, governed by a cluster-head, which may create performance bottlenecks or a single point of failures at each cluster-head node. We propose a new routing strategy in which zones are created dynamically, using a dynamic zone creation algorithm. Therefore, nodes are not restricted to a specific region. Additionally, nodes perform routing and data forwarding in a cooperative manner, which means that in the case failure, route recalculation is minimised. Routing overheads are also further reduced by introducing a number of GPS-based location tracking mechanisms, which reduces the route discovery area and the number of nodes queried to find the required destination. Copyright © 2006 AEIT [source] Institutional Investors and Shareholder LitigationFINANCIAL MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2008Sergey S. Barabanov We examine whether institutional investors are able to avoid future litigation. Our results show that institutions provide a fiduciary role by decreasing or eliminating their positions in sued firms well before litigation begins. We also find that institutional groups with high monitoring ability (independent investment advisors and mutual funds) are more proactive in their trading behavior than are institutions with low monitoring ability (banks, insurance companies, and unclassified institutions such as endowments, foundations, and self-managed pension funds). We find that percentage changes in institutional ownership are correlated with public information available more than two quarters before litigation. [source] The Role of Anxiety in Seeking and Retaining Risk Information: Testing the Risk Perception Attitude Framework in Two StudiesHUMAN COMMUNICATION RESEARCH, Issue 2 2006Monique Mitchell Turner Despite the importance of health information seeking, not all people engage in such behaviors, especially when thinking about the disease is distressing. The focus of this paper is to examine the antecedents of information seeking and retention. Based on individuals' risk perception and efficacy beliefs, the risk perception attitude framework is used to formulate four groups: responsive (high risk, high efficacy), avoidance (high risk, low efficacy), proactive (low risk, high efficacy), and indifference (low risk, low efficacy). In Study 1, a 2 (risk) × 2 (efficacy) between-subjects experiment, participants' perceived risk to skin cancer and skin cancer,related efficacy beliefs were induced to determine their information seeking, retention, and intentions to engage in future seeking. The responsive group, as predicted, was associated with the most information-seeking behaviors and information-seeking intentions. The avoidance group, however, sought information but exhibited the lowest retention scores. These results were used to derive two predictions,the incredulity hypothesis and the anxiety-reduction hypothesis,that were then tested in Study 2. Study 2, also a 2 (risk) × 2 (efficacy) between-subjects experiment dealing with diabetes, found support for the anxiety-reduction hypothesis, which argues that the high-risk, low-efficacy group experiences more anxiety, which leads to high motivations to seek, but lower ability to retain information. [source] Perceived Risk and Efficacy Beliefs as Motivators of ChangeHUMAN COMMUNICATION RESEARCH, Issue 3 2003Use of the Risk Perception Attitude (RPA) Framework to Understand Health Behaviors Evidence of a direct correlation between risk perception and self-protective behavior is ambiguous at best. Witte's (1992, 1994) extended parallel process model (EPPM) explains many contradictory findings by pointing out the moderating role played by efficacy beliefs. Working from the EPPM, this article introduces the risk perception attitude (RPA) framework that categorizes individuals into one of four attitudinal groups: responsive (high risk, high efficacy), avoidance (high risk, low efficacy), proactive (low risk, high efficacy), and indifference (low risk, low efficacy). We conducted two studies to test our hypotheses that these groups differ in their self-protective motivation, intention to seek information, behavioral intention, knowledge acquisition, and time spent seeking information. Results, though not entirely consistent, suggest that, when risk and efficacy are made salient (Study 1), people's risk perception guides most of their subsequent actions, but in a natural context (Study 2), risk and efficacy jointly affect subsequent action. [source] Overlooked and underutilized: People with disabilities are an untapped human resourceHUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2008Mark L. Lengnick-Hall The retirement of baby boomers along with a smaller cohort group of young people replacing them poses a challenge for employers in the future,where will they find the workers they need? One largely untapped source of human resources is people with disabilities (PWDs). Why have employers mostly ignored this large labor pool? This research used a semistructured interview approach with 38 executives across a broad array of industries and geographic regions to examine why employers don't hire PWDs and what they believe can be done to change this situation. Results show that most employers are not very proactive in hiring PWDs and that most employers hold stereotypical beliefs not supported by research evidence. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] Enhancing technology development through integrated environmental analysis: Toward sustainable nonlethal military systemsINTEGRATED ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT AND MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2010Oral S. Saulters Abstract New technologies are not only critical in supporting traditional industrial and military success but also play a pivotal role in advancing sustainability and sustainable development. With the current global economic challenges, resulting in tighter budgets and increased uncertainty, synergistic paradigms and tools that streamline the design and dissemination of key technologies are more important than ever. Accordingly, a proactive and holistic approach can facilitate efficient research, design, testing, evaluation, and fielding for novel and off-the-shelf products, thereby assisting developers, end users, and other diverse stakeholders in better understanding tradeoffs in the defense industry and beyond. By prioritizing mechanisms such as strategic life-cycle environmental assessments (LCEA); programmatic environment, safety, and occupational health evaluations (PESHE); health hazard assessments (HHA); and other innovative platforms and studies early within systems engineering, various nonlethal military technologies have been successfully developed and deployed. These efforts provide a framework for addressing complex environment, safety, and occupational health risks that affect personnel, infrastructure, property, socioeconomic, and natural/cultural resources. Moreover, integrated, comprehensive, multidisciplinary, and iterative analyses involving flexible groups of specialists/subject matter experts can be applied at various spatiotemporal scales in support of collaborations. This paper highlights the Urban Operations Laboratory process utilized for inclusive and transformative environmental analysis, which can translate into advantages and progress toward sustainable systems. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2010;6:281,286. © 2009 SETAC [source] Auditor Independence in Canada: A Historical Perspective , From Shareholder Auditors to Modern-Day Audit Committees,ACCOUNTING PERSPECTIVES, Issue 1 2006DUNCAN L. GREEN ABSTRACT This paper uses the theoretical framework of Goldman and Barlev (1974) to examine auditor independence in Canada. It traces the historical development of the auditor's role in the 19th century and the beginning of the auditor's relationship with shareholders and management. It shows how, following the separation of management from shareholding, management's ability to influence auditors undermined auditor independence. The paper traces attempts by legislators and regulatory bodies to limit management's influence over auditors and to correct the asymmetry of their relationship. It notes that recent changes to legislation and rules of professional conduct are no longer proactive, but are reactions to corporate scandals in Canada and the United States. The paper argues that although future changes will occur to redress the imbalance, only structural changes are likely to provide a real solution to auditor independence problems. However, it is likely that such changes will be resisted by the accounting profession. [source] The practice characterization model: the importance of organizational life cycles and targeted interventions in general medical practiceINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HEALTH PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2001E. M. Atkins Abstract In response to a climate of constant change and increasing demand for services, general practice in the UK has undergone significant modification over the last 10 years. It has become a multi-disciplinary organisation encouraged by funding bodies to plan for service delivery using a more structured team based approach. In Tayside in 1996, practices were charged with producing formal Practice Development Plans (PDPs) which would focus on priority areas aligned with the Health Boards own strategic plan,those were teamwork, information management and technology, and clinical service delivery. The University of Dundee's Department of General Practice successfully applied for funding to develop ways of facilitating practices so that they could a) identify their own development priorities, and b) plan and implement action and learning to see these priorities through. Using action research methodology, the project attempted to create a climate for change, provide support and training to see the changes implemented, and ensure commitment to the changes from all members of the practice team. The Facilitator adopted a flexible style varying her role between expert, guide and support. Analysis of progress made by different practices, coupled with the Facilitator's in depth knowledge of them, suggested the importance of certain key aspects of practice organisation and culture. A practice characterisation model identified practices which were stable, currently coping, proactive and ready to face the challenge of change as best placed to engage in a full scale development programme. Other profiles suggested a range of alternative interventions as more likely to be acceptable and productive. [source] Emotional stability of nurses: impact on patient safetyJOURNAL OF ADVANCED NURSING, Issue 10 2009Ching-I Teng Abstract Title.,Emotional stability of nurses: impact on patient safety. Aim., This paper is a report of a study conducted to examine the influence of the emotional stability of nurses on patient safety. Background., Individuals with greater emotional stability are less likely to exhibit strong emotional reactions to stressful situations, and tend to be more proactive and successful in problem-solving. Effectively managing patient safety is a priority concern in countries where nurses face high pressure. A heavy work load leads to burnout (a syndrome associated with negative emotions), reduced job satisfaction and increased turnover. While emotional stability influences job performance in various contexts, its influence on patient safety has not been addressed. Method., A cross-sectional design was adopted. The sample comprised 263 nurses working in two Taiwanese medical centres. The data were collected in 2007,2008, with a response rate of 92·6%. All participants were nursing college graduates aged below 50 years. Participants provided information on both their emotional stability and patient safety. Staffing adequacy, hospital, and years of nursing experience served as control variables. Findings., Hierarchical regression analysis indicated that emotional stability predicted patient safety (, = 0·18, P < 0·01). The addition of emotional stability as a predictor of patient safety increased the associated explained variance (,R2 = 0·03, P < 0·01). Conclusion., It is important for to managers create an organisational climate that promotes the emotional stability of nurses. This could help to improve global patient safety by reducing the frequency of adverse events. [source] Realizing the Potential of Real Options: Does Theory Meet Practice?JOURNAL OF APPLIED CORPORATE FINANCE, Issue 2 2005Alexander Triantis The idea of viewing corporate investment opportunities as "real options" has been around for over 25 years. Real options concepts and techniques now routinely appear in academic research in finance and economics, and have begun to influence scholarly work in virtually every business discipline, including strategy, organizations, management science, operations management, information systems, accounting, and marketing. Real options concepts have also made considerable headway in practice. Corporate managers are more likely to recognize options in their strategic planning process, and have become more proactive in designing flexibility into projects and contracts, frequently using real options vocabulary in their discussions. Thanks in part to the spread of real options thinking, today's strategic planners are more likely than their predecessors to recognize the "option" value of actions like the following: , dividing up large projects into a number of stages; , investing in the acquisition or production of information; , introducing "modularity" in manufacturing and design; , developing competing prototypes for new products; and , investing in overseas markets. But if real options has clearly succeeded as a way of thinking, the application of real options valuation methods has been limited to companies in relatively few industries and has thus failed to live up to expectations created in the mid- to late-1990s. Increased corporate acceptance and implementations of real options valuation techniques will require several changes coming together. On the theory side, we need more realistic models that better reflect differences between financial and real options, simple heuristic methods that can be more easily implemented (but that have been carefully benchmarked against more precise models), and better guidance on implementation issues such as the estimation of discount rates for the "optionless" underlying projects. On the practitioner side, we need user-friendly real options software, more senior-level buy-in, more deliberate diffusion of real options knowledge throughout organizations, better alignment of managerial incentives with long-term shareholder value, and better-designed contracts to correct the misalignment of incentives across the value chain. If these challenges can be met, there will continue to be a steady if gradual diffusion of real options analysis throughout organizations over the next few decades, with real options eventually becoming not only a standard part of corporate strategic planning, but also the primary valuation tool for assessing the expected shareholder effect of large capital investment projects. [source] In Defence of Entrapment in Journalism (and Beyond)JOURNAL OF APPLIED PHILOSOPHY, Issue 2 2002Neil Levy The use of ,proactive' methods of newsgathering in journalism is very frequently condemned, from within and without the media. I argue that such condemnation is too hasty. In the first half of the paper, I develop a test which distinguishes between legitimate and illegitimate uses of proactive methods by law enforcement agencies. This test combines the virtues of the standard objective and subjective tests usually used, while avoiding the defects of both. I argue that when proactive methods pass this test, they are always legitimate; but that in addition they are sometimes mandatory. In the second half, I apply this test to journalism. I show that actual uses of proactive methods by journalists pass the test, and are therefore (at least) permissible. There are other ethical considerations which are relevant to the use of such techniques by journalists, which ought to be taken into account before it is decided to employ such methods, but I show that they are rarely of sufficient weight to render proactive newsgathering impermissible. [source] Ethnicity-Related Stressors and Mental Health in Latino Americans: The Moderating Role of Parental Racial SocializationJOURNAL OF APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 9 2007Noé Rubén Chávez The current study examined the moderating role of proactive and reactive parental racial socialization on the relationship between Latino American college students' mental health and 3 ethnicity-related stressors: perceived racial discrimination, stereotype confirmation concern, and own-group conformity pressure. In hierarchical regression, greater stereotype confirmation concern predicted more mental distress in 105 Latino American college students. Both proactive and reactive racial socialization moderated the effect of own-group conformity pressure on anxiety and loss of behavioral/emotional control. Specifically, greater proactive and reactive racial socialization predicted more mental distress under greater own-group conformity pressure. Findings are interpreted in a college environment of ethnic diversity and a context of acculturative stress. [source] Does a telephone follow-up intervention for patients discharged with acute myocardial infarction have long-term effects on health-related quality of life?JOURNAL OF CLINICAL NURSING, Issue 9 2009A randomised controlled trial Aims., An earlier combined proactive and reactive telephone follow-up intervention for acute myocardial infarction patients after discharge from hospital showed positive effects after six months. The aim of the present study was to assess whether the intervention has long-term effects up to 18 months after discharge. Design., A prospective randomised controlled trial with 18 months follow-up. Method., The trial was conducted with 288 patients allocated to a telephone follow-up intervention group (n = 156) or control group (n = 132). The primary endpoint was health-related quality of life using the SF-36. Secondary endpoints included smoking and exercise habits, return to work and rehospitalisation due to chest pain. Results., There were significant improvements over time on most dimensions of health-related quality of life in both the intervention and control group to US norm population levels on most SF-36 dimensions and summary scores. The intervention group showed no overall significant improvement beyond six months in the physical or mental summary scores, but there was a significant effect for those aged 70 or above. Although there was a promising effect for rehospitalisation due to chest pain, no significant differences were found between the groups on the secondary endpoints after six months. Conclusion., This study demonstrated that despite positive short-term effects at six months, the telephone follow-up intervention had no long-term effects on health-related quality of life or secondary endpoints. However, the potential for improvement beyond six months was less than anticipated reflecting a reduced morbidity among acute myocardial infarction patients. Relevance to clinical practice., Telephone follow-up after discharge from hospital is an easy implementable follow-up intervention enabling individualised provision of information and support in a time often experienced as stressful by patients. Our study indicates that six months is an adequate support period. Despite positive results six months after discharge no significant added long-term effects of telephone follow-up, compared to usual care were found in this study. [source] Adolescents with Type 1 Diabetes: transition between diabetes servicesJOURNAL OF CLINICAL NURSING, Issue 6 2006Kate Visentin MN Aim., The research aimed to develop a sustainable and coordinated approach to facilitating the transition between diabetes services for adolescents. The objectives were to: (1) involve key diabetes health delivery stakeholders in expressing their concerns and issues about current service delivery and ways to improve same, and (2) reveal from the perspective of the adolescents living with Type 1 Diabetes their experiences surrounding the process of transition. Background., This paper presents research that sought to identify the major concerns and issues that stakeholders had about transition and to reveal the experience of transition for the adolescent with Type 1 Diabetes. Key representatives from seven public diabetes services in Adelaide, South Australia worked collaboratively to answer the objectives of this inquiry. Approach., Interview data were generated and analysed using a response focus framework provided by fourth generation evaluation research. In this study, the focus was on common concerns, claims and issues raised by health care professionals (n = 21) and adolescents (n = 10) aged between 15 and 18 years about transferring from children's to adult diabetes services. Findings., Data revealed education and dietetic advice was reactive rather than proactive and that the paediatric model of care is philosophically and practically different to the adult model of diabetes care. Three phases of transition were identified: preparation, formal transition and evaluation. Our findings indicated that these stages of transition were not being fully implemented in health units. Conclusion., The project findings have set the scene to establish a multidisciplinary working party to work collaboratively across agencies to develop effective transition pathways. Relevance to clinical practice., The role of diabetes nurse educators and dietitians in South Australia is under-used throughout the transition process. Diabetes nurse educators are in an ideal position to prepare, coordinate and evaluate transitional processes. [source] Testing the developmental distinctiveness of male proactive and reactive aggression with a nested longitudinal experimental interventionAGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR, Issue 2 2010Edward D. Barker Abstract An experimental preventive intervention nested into a longitudinal study was used to test the developmental distinctiveness of proactive and reactive aggression. The randomized multimodal preventive intervention targeted a subsample of boys rated disruptive by their teachers. These boys were initially part of a sample of 895 boys, followed from kindergarten to 17 years of age. Semiparametric analyses of developmental trajectories for self-reported proactive and reactive aggression (between 13 and 17 years of age) indicated three trajectories for each type of aggression that varied in size and shape (Low, Moderate, and High Peaking). Intent-to-treat comparisons between the boys in the prevention group and the control group confirmed that the preventive intervention between 7 and 9 years of age, which included parenting skills and social skills training, could impact the development of reactive more than proactive aggression. The intervention effect identified in reactive aggression was related to a reduction in self-reported coercive parenting. The importance of these results for the distinction between subtypes of aggressive behaviors and the value of longitudinal-experimental studies from early childhood onward is discussed. Aggr. Behav. 36:127,140, 2010. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Relations of proactive and reactive dimensions of aggression to overt and covert narcissism in nonclinical adolescentsAGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR, Issue 1 2010Andrea Fossati Abstract In recent years, there has been increasing acknowledgment of the multidimensionality of narcissism and that different types of narcissism may relate differently to other domains of functioning. Similarly, aggression,a frequently discussed correlate of narcissism,is a heterogeneous construct. In this study, the relations of proactive and reactive aggression with overt and covert manifestations of narcissism were examined in a sample of 674 Italian high school students (mean age=15.5 years, SD=2.1 years). Overt narcissism was positively related to both proactive and reactive subtypes of aggression, whereas covert narcissism related only to reactive aggression. Vanity, Authority, Exhibitionism, and Exploitativeness were the components of overt narcissism related to Proactive Aggression (all remained unique correlates when controlling for Reactive Aggression), whereas Reactive Aggression was associated with the Exhibitionism, Superiority, and Entitlement subscales (only the latter was uniquely related when controlling for Proactive Aggression). Aggr. Behav. 36:21,27, 2010. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Genetic and environmental stability differs in reactive and proactive aggressionAGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR, Issue 6 2009Catherine Tuvblad Abstract The aim of this study was to examine stability and change in genetic and environmental influences on reactive (impulsive and affective) and proactive (planned and instrumental) aggression from childhood to early adolescence. The sample was drawn from an ongoing longitudinal twin study of risk factors for antisocial behavior at the University of Southern California (USC). The twins were measured on two occasions: ages 9,10 years (N=1,241) and 11,14 years (N=874). Reactive and proactive aggressive behaviors were rated by parents. The stability in reactive aggression was due to genetic and nonshared environmental influences, whereas the continuity in proactive aggression was primarily genetically mediated. Change in both reactive and proactive aggression between the two occasions was mainly explained by nonshared environmental influences, although some evidence for new genetic variance at the second occasion was found for both forms of aggression. These results suggest that proactive and reactive aggression differ in their genetic and environmental stability, and provide further evidence for some distinction between reactive and proactive forms of aggression. Aggr. Behav. 35:437,452, 2009. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||