Coming From Good Stock: Career Histories and New Venture Formation

We examine how the social structure of existing organizations influences entrepreneurship and suggest that resources accrue to entrepreneurs based on the structural position of their prior employers. We argue that information advantages allow individuals from entrepreneurially prominent prior firms to identify new opportunities. Entrepreneurial prominence also reduces the perceived uncertainty of a new venture. Using a sample of Silicon Valley start-ups, we demonstrate that entrepreneurial prominence is associated with initial strategy and the probability of attracting external financing. New ventures with high prominence are more likely to be innovators; furthermore, innovators with high prominence are more likely to obtain financing

Parent abuse: Can law be the answer?

© Cambridge University Press 2012This article reviews the different forms of legal interventions which may be available to address parent abuse. It seeks to examine the evidence as to which are actually used currently and the problems which are inherent in them. We do this both by examining the statutory basis of the existing potential legal remedies and reported cases relating to those provisions, and by drawing on evidence from a small-scale study of relevant professional workers in one city. We conclude that while recourse to the police, and hence potentially the criminal justice system, is most frequent in practice, the criminal justice system is not suited to tackling the issue. Other interventions, such as anti-social behaviour orders and injunctions, also reveal problems. Law struggles to find an effective response to such a complex problem. Notwithstanding the acknowledged limits of law in changing behaviour, we argue that law could be used more effectively to reduce the incidence and impact of parent abuse

Aquatic Therapy for a Patient with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome: a Case Report

Background and Purpose: Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS) can have a debilitating effect on an individual’s quality of life. The purpose of this case report is to describe the use of interval training in an aquatic environment to decrease the symptoms of Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome. Aquatic therapy provides benefits for individuals with cardiovascular issues, mainly through the principle of hydrostatic pressure. Hydrostatic pressure aids in shunting the blood from the extremities back to the heart, thus increasing cardiac output while reducing the individual’s heart rate. Description: An 18 year-old female high school student who had been experiencing Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome symptoms for approximately one year. These symptoms prevented her from participating in school or recreational activities. Intervention: The patient underwent 11 sessions of an aquatic interval program. Her subjective report, heart rate, blood pressure, and rate of perceived exertion were monitored throughout each session. Outcomes: After completing physical therapy, the patient had attained all of her functional goals including standing for 45 minutes, walking between classes at school, and attending her prom. The patient reported that she had not had a fainting spell in over 4 weeks. Despite these functional gains, the patient’s Quality of Life score, as measured by the World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF questionnaire (a condensed version of the original World Health Organization Quality of Life-100), declined in the following categories: physical health, psychological health, and environment. Discussion: The patient’s exercise-specific heart rate and rate of perceived exertion decreased as sessions progressed, demonstrating an increased activity tolerance. It is hypothesized that the positive effects of hydrostatic pressure on the cardiovascular system contributed to the improvement in exercise tolerance and ultimately to her overall conditioning and activity tolerance. The results of this case report suggest that aquatic therapy may be an appropriate exercise modality for patients with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome. Continued research on the effects of aquatic therapy on the symptoms of Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome is warranted

Effect of questions used by psychiatrists on therapeutic alliance and adherence

Background Psychiatrists' questions are the mechanism for achieving clinical objectives and managing the formation of a therapeutic alliance – consistently associated with patient adherence. No research has examined the nature of this relationship and the different practices used in psychiatry. Questions are typically defined in binary terms (e.g. ‘open’ v. ‘closed’) that may have limited application in practice. Aims To undertake a detailed examination of the types of questions psychiatrists ask patients and explore their association with the therapeutic alliance and patient adherence. Method A coding protocol was developed to classify questions from 134 out-patient consultations, predominantly by syntactic form. Bivariate correlations with measures of patient adherence and the therapeutic alliance (psychiatrist-rated) were examined and assessed using generalised estimating equations, adjusting for patient symptoms, psychiatrist identity and amount of speech. Results Psychiatrists used only four of ten question types regularly: yes/no auxiliary questions, ‘wh-’ questions, declarative questions and tag questions. Only declarative questions predicted better adherence and perceptions of the therapeutic relationship. Conversely, ‘wh-’ questions – associated with positive symptoms – predicted poorer perceptions of the therapeutic relationship. Declarative questions were frequently used to propose an understanding of patients' experiences, in particular their emotional salience for the patient. Conclusions A refined defining of questioning practices is necessary to improve communication in psychiatry. The use of declarative questions may enhance alliance and adherence, or index their manifestation in talk, e.g. better mutual understanding. The function of ‘so’-prefaced declaratives, also used in psychotherapy, is more nuanced than negatively connotated ‘leading’ questions. Hearable as displays of empathy, they attend closely to patient experience, while balancing the tasks of assessment and treatment

Lessons learned in the design and erection of box girder bridges from the West Gate collapse

Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2007.Includes bibliographical references (p. 73-74).The West Gate Bridge, intended to span the Yarra River in Australia, collapsed during its third year of construction in 1970. Investigation into the project revealed numerous issues in the bridge's design and construction. The West Gate Bridge is one of a number of box girder bridges built during the mid 20th century, and was one of four to fail in a three year period. An overview of the design and erection issues is presented, particularly those dealing with thin elements in compression. A comparison of moments and stresses resulting from the use of concrete blocks and jacks to reduce the camber difference encountered on span 10-11 shows that the latter method would have been preferable. The failure of three other box girder bridges between 1969 and 1971, and the required strengthening of dozens of others, reveal the lack of understanding of the slender compressive elements present in such structures. A brief literature review presents the buckling and deformation modes found in stiffened plates under compressive loading, showing the development of understanding of these systems from papers written or published in 1997, 2001, 2004 and 2006 - over three decades after the West Gate collapse.(cont.) Criteria by AASHTO and by B. H. Choi and C. H. Yoo for the minimum moment of inertia of longitudinal and transverse stiffeners of box girders are presented. The resulting values are compared to the moment of inertia of sections used to strengthen the West Gate Bridge after the collapse of a similar bridge. This comparison shows that the requirements are quite sensitive to scale and can provide inconsistent requirements for stiffness. Thus, there is currently a lack of guidance and regulation from codes for the design of wider single-cell box girders. The complex and non-linear nature of the slender elements in compression used in box girders does not allow the extrapolation of simpler rules developed for the design of smaller bridges. Despite the complex behavior of box girders, they offer a number of advantages and further research is needed to improve their analysis, design, construction, repair and maintenance.by Alia Christine Burton.M.Eng

Misfit and milestones: structural elaboration and capability reinforcement in the evolution of entrepreneurial top management teams

We examine how "top management team (TMT) misfit," or discrepancies between the TMT's functional roles and the qualifications of the managers who fill those roles, affects the evolution of TMT composition and structure in a longitudinal study of entrepreneurial ventures. We distinguish two types of misfit--overqualification and underqualification-- and study how each is associated with TMT changes. We further consider the moderating effect of firm development. Results reveal that underqualified TMTs hire new managers to reinforce existing capabilities whereas overqualified TMTs elaborate their role structures. However, achieving developmental milestones (i.e., obtaining venture capital funding and staging an initial public offering) is a critical contingency to TMT change: absent these milestones, firms neither hire new managers nor add roles, even when they seemingly need to do so. These findings contribute to knowledge of how TMTs and new ventures evolve by underscoring the importance of simultaneously attending to TMT composition and structure

Beyond silence: protocol for a randomized parallel-group trial comparing two approaches to workplace mental health education for healthcare employees

© 2015 Moll et al.; licensee BioMed Central. Background: Mental illness is a significant and growing problem in Canadian healthcare organizations, leading to tremendous personal, social and financial costs for individuals, their colleagues, their employers and their patients. Early and appropriate intervention is needed, but unfortunately, few workers get the help that they need in a timely way due to barriers related to poor mental health literacy, stigma, and inadequate access to mental health services. Workplace education and training is one promising approach to early identification and support for workers who are struggling. Little is known, however, about what approach is most effective, particularly in the context of healthcare work. The purpose of this study is to compare the impact of a customized, contact-based education approach with standard mental health literacy training on the mental health knowledge, stigmatized beliefs and help-seeking/help-outreach behaviors of healthcare employees. Methods/Design: A multi-centre, randomized, two-group parallel group trial design will be adopted. Two hundred healthcare employees will be randomly assigned to one of two educational interventions: Beyond Silence, a peer-led program customized to the healthcare workplace, and Mental Health First Aid, a standardized literacy based training program. Pre, post and 3-month follow-up surveys will track changes in knowledge (mental health literacy), attitudes towards mental illness, and help-seeking/help-outreach behavior. An intent-to-treat, repeated measures analysis will be conducted to compare changes in the two groups over time in terms of the primary outcome of behavior change. Linear regression modeling will be used to explore the extent to which knowledge, and attitudes predict behavior change. Qualitative interviews with participants and leaders will also be conducted to examine process and implementation of the programs. Discussion: This is one of the first experimental studies to compare outcomes of standard mental health literacy training to an intervention with an added anti-stigma component (using best-practices of contact-based education). Study findings will inform recommendations for designing workplace mental health education to promote early intervention for employees with mental health issues in the context of healthcare work. Trial registration: May 2014 - ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT02158871