Diffusing sustainability: Towards a framework for adopting sustainable procurement

Rogers (2003) presented a Diffusion of Innovations (DOI) framework which has been used to examine the factors influencing the rate of adoption of various types of innovations in a wide variety of organisational contexts. However, this has had limited application in sustainability studies. The results of a survey of Australian organisations indicate that items related to corporate attitudes and values, under Rogers category of compatibility, were more strongly predictive of the level of adoption of sustainable procurement. Compared to previous findings in other disciplines and settings, the results of this study suggest that greater consideration should be given to issues addressing existing culture for the successful implementation of sustainability programs in organisations

Guanxi and the ethical judgements and moral reasoning of Hong Kong managers

The importance of personal connections and relationships, or guanxi , when doing business with the Chinese is widely acknowledged amongst Western academics and business managers alike. However, aspects of guanxi related behaviours in the workplace are often misunderstood by Westerners with some going so far as to equate guanxi with forms of corruption. This study investigates the underlying modes of moral reasoning in ethical decisions relating to aspects of guanxi, amongst Hong Kong managers. Managers ethical judgements and underlying moral reasoning relating to a series of guanxi related behaviours, were recorded. Content analysis yielded categories that correspond with categories of moral reasoning described in Kohlberg s (1969) model. As hypothesised, it was found that harsher ethical evaluations of guanxi-related behaviours were positively correlated with the stage of moral reasoning. The most common types of reasoning were those corresponding to Kohlberg s stages four and five which relate to moral reasoning based on law and order, and on reason rather than emotion. Stage six, concerned with universal moral principles, was utilized considerably less than other stages. This finding supports the literature on ethical ideology across countries and cultures whereby Eastern cultures are generally found to be more relativistic or less universal than their Western counterparts

Something Old, Something New...Are New Organizational Practices Replacing Old Ones Or Do They Co-Exist?

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Imaging of focal seizures with Electrical Impedance Tomography and depth electrodes in real time

Intracranial EEG is the current gold standard technique for localising seizures for surgery, but it can be insensitive to tangential dipole or distant sources. Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT) offers a novel method to improve coverage and seizure onset localisation. The feasibility of EIT has been previously assessed in a computer simulation, which revealed an improved accuracy of seizure detection with EIT compared to intracranial EEG. In this study, slow impedance changes, evoked by cell swelling occurring over seconds, were reconstructed in real time by frequency division multiplexing EIT using depth and subdural electrodes in a swine model of epilepsy. EIT allowed to generate repetitive images of ictal events at similar time course to fMRI but without its significant limitations. EIT was recorded with a system consisting of 32 parallel current sources and 64 voltage recorders. Seizures triggered with intracranial injection of benzylpenicillin (BPN) in five pigs caused a repetitive peak impedance increase of 3.4±1.5 mV and 9.5±3% (N=205 seizures); the impedance signal change was seen already after a single, first seizure. EIT enabled reconstruction of the seizure onset 9±1.5 mm from the BPN cannula and 7.5±1.1 mm from the closest SEEG contact (p<0.05, n=37 focal seizures in three pigs) and it could address problems with sampling error in intracranial EEG. The amplitude of the impedance change correlated with the spread of the seizure on the SEEG (p <0.001, n=37). The results presented here suggest that combining a parallel EIT system with intracranial EEG monitoring has a potential to improve the diagnostic yield in epileptic patients and become a vital tool in improving our understanding of epilepsy

Is intraindividual reaction time variability an independent cognitive predictor of mortality in old age? Findings from the Sydney Memory and Ageing Study

Intraindividual variability of reaction time (IIVRT), a proposed cognitive marker of neurobiological disturbance, increases in old age, and has been associated with dementia and mortality. The extent to which IIVRT is an independent predictor of mortality, however, is unclear. This study investigated the association of IIVRT and all-cause mortality while accounting for cognitive level, incident dementia and biomedical risk factors in 861 participants aged 70–90 from the Sydney Memory and Ageing Study. Participants completed two computerised reaction time (RT) tasks (76 trials in total) at baseline, and comprehensive medical and neuropsychological assessments every 2 years. Composite RT measures were derived from the two tasks—the mean RT and the IIVRT measure computed from the intraindividual standard deviation of the RTs (with age and time-on-task effects partialled out). Consensus dementia diagnoses were made by an expert panel of clinicians using clinical criteria, and mortality data were obtained from a state registry. Cox proportional hazards models estimated the association of IIVRT and mean RT with survival time over 8 years during which 191 (22.2%) participants died. Greater IIVRT but not mean RT significantly predicted survival time after adjusting for age, sex, global cognition score, cardiovascular risk index and apolipoprotein ɛ4 status. After excluding incident dementia cases, the association of IIVRT with mortality changed very little. Our findings suggest that greater IIVRT uniquely predicts shorter time to death and that lower global cognition and prodromal dementia in older individuals do not explain this relationship

Reaction Time Measures Predict Incident Dementia in Community-Living Older Adults: The Sydney Memory and Ageing Study

Objective To examine the utility of intraindividual variability of reaction times (IIVRT) and mean reaction time (RT) as behavioral markers of incident all-cause dementia. Methods A longitudinal cohort study followed biennially for 4 years, the community-based Sydney Memory and Ageing Study, 861 initially nondemented participants aged 70–90. Incident all-cause dementia determined by consensus, RT measures from simple and complex tasks, Mini-Mental State Exam and neuropsychological tests, Geriatric Depression Scale and Goldberg Anxiety Scale, cardiovascular risk score, apolipoprotein ε4 status, and the Bayer ADL Scale were used. Associations of baseline IIVRT and mean RT with time to dementia were evaluated with hazard ratios (HRs) using Cox proportional-hazards models with and without controlling for dementia risk factors. Results Forty-eight cases developed dementia. Greater complex IIVRT predicted a 40% (HR: 1.43) and mean RT a 50%–60% (simple RT: HR 1.53; complex RT: HR 1.59) per standard deviation increased risk of developing dementia, remaining significant after controlling for age, education, sex, general cognitive function, mood, cerebrovascular disease, and genetic susceptibility. Prediction of incident dementia using demographical information and RT measures combined was comparable with several traditional neuropsychological measures (AUC 0.75), although lower than a full neuropsychological battery (AUC 0.90). Prediction of functional decline by RT measures combined was equal to the neuropsychological battery (multiple Rs of .233 and .238, respectively). Conclusion Brief RT measures provided information on risk of imminent dementia and functional decline within 4 years in older adults at a population level, with mean RT the stronger predictor