Clean, green, and not so mean: Can business save the world?

No matter how you define it, corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a hot topic. From community investing to business ethics to environmental sustainability and beyond, proponents of CSR view the business landscape through a lens that focuses less on profitability and more on the greater good. “Doing well by doing good” is the business world’s new mantra. Concepts of CSR, green business, social entrepreneurship, and peace through commerce have become a focus of research and are inspiring the next generation of businesspeople. The 2010 BRASS Program gave attendees an expert’s view of certain niches within the broader realm of ethical or socially responsible business practices

Aquatic therapy for children with Duchenne muscular dystrophy: a pilot feasibility randomised controlled trial and mixed-methods process evaluation.

BACKGROUND: Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a rare disease that causes the progressive loss of motor abilities such as walking. Standard treatment includes physiotherapy. No trial has evaluated whether or not adding aquatic therapy (AT) to land-based therapy (LBT) exercises helps to keep muscles strong and children independent. OBJECTIVES: To assess the feasibility of recruiting boys with DMD to a randomised trial evaluating AT (primary objective) and to collect data from them; to assess how, and how well, the intervention and trial procedures work. DESIGN: Parallel-group, single-blind, randomised pilot trial with nested qualitative research. SETTING: Six paediatric neuromuscular units. PARTICIPANTS: Children with DMD aged 7-16 years, established on corticosteroids, with a North Star Ambulatory Assessment (NSAA) score of 8-34 and able to complete a 10-m walk without aids/assistance. Exclusions: > 20% variation between baseline screens 4 weeks apart and contraindications. INTERVENTIONS: Participants were allocated on a 1 : 1 ratio to (1) optimised, manualised LBT (prescribed by specialist neuromuscular physiotherapists) or (2) the same plus manualised AT (30 minutes, twice weekly for 6 months: active assisted and/or passive stretching regime; simulated or real functional activities; submaximal exercise). Semistructured interviews with participants, parents (n = 8) and professionals (n = 8) were analysed using Framework analysis. An independent rater reviewed patient records to determine the extent to which treatment was optimised. A cost-impact analysis was performed. Quantitative and qualitative data were mixed using a triangulation exercise. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Feasibility of recruiting 40 participants in 6 months, participant and therapist views on the acceptability of the intervention and research protocols, clinical outcomes including NSAA, independent assessment of treatment optimisation and intervention costs. RESULTS: Over 6 months, 348 children were screened - most lived too far from centres or were enrolled in other trials. Twelve (30% of target) were randomised to AT (n = 8) or control (n = 4). People in the AT (n = 8) and control (n = 2: attrition because of parental report) arms contributed outcome data. The mean change in NSAA score at 6 months was -5.5 [standard deviation (SD) 7.8] for LBT and -2.8 (SD 4.1) in the AT arm. One boy suffered pain and fatigue after AT, which resolved the same day. Physiotherapists and parents valued AT and believed that it should be delivered in community settings. The independent rater considered AT optimised for three out of eight children, with other children given programmes that were too extensive and insufficiently focused. The estimated NHS costs of 6-month service were between £1970 and £2734 per patient. LIMITATIONS: The focus on delivery in hospitals limits generalisability. CONCLUSIONS: Neither a full-scale frequentist randomised controlled trial (RCT) recruiting in the UK alone nor a twice-weekly open-ended AT course delivered at tertiary centres is feasible. Further intervention development research is needed to identify how community-based pools can be accessed, and how families can link with each other and community physiotherapists to access tailored AT programmes guided by highly specialised physiotherapists. Bayesian RCTs may be feasible; otherwise, time series designs are recommended. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN41002956. FUNDING: This project was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Technology Assessment programme and will be published in full in Health Technology Assessment; Vol. 21, No. 27. See the NIHR Journals Library website for further project information

The James Webb Space Telescope Mission

Twenty-six years ago a small committee report, building on earlier studies, expounded a compelling and poetic vision for the future of astronomy, calling for an infrared-optimized space telescope with an aperture of at least $4m$. With the support of their governments in the US, Europe, and Canada, 20,000 people realized that vision as the $6.5m$ James Webb Space Telescope. A generation of astronomers will celebrate their accomplishments for the life of the mission, potentially as long as 20 years, and beyond. This report and the scientific discoveries that follow are extended thank-you notes to the 20,000 team members. The telescope is working perfectly, with much better image quality than expected. In this and accompanying papers, we give a brief history, describe the observatory, outline its objectives and current observing program, and discuss the inventions and people who made it possible. We cite detailed reports on the design and the measured performance on orbit.Comment: Accepted by PASP for the special issue on The James Webb Space Telescope Overview, 29 pages, 4 figure

The Cannabis Youth Treatment (CYT) experiment: rationale, study design and analysis plans

This paper provides a description of the rationale, study design, treatments and assessment procedures used in the Cannabis Youth Treatment (CYT) experiment. CYT was designed to (a) test the relative effectiveness, cost and benefit-cost of five promising treatment interventions under field conditions and (b) provide evidence based manual-guided models of these interventions to the treatment field. The study involved two community-based treatment programs and two major medical centers. Participants were 600 adolescents recruited from the regular intake who were between the ages of 12 and 18, had used marijuana in the past 90 days, and met one or more criteria of dependence or abuse. Participants were randomly assigned to one of five interventions: Motivational Enhancement Therapy (MET), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Family Support Network (FSN), Adolescent Community Reinforcement Approach (ACRA), or Multidimensional Family Therapy (MDFT). Self-report data were collected at intake, 3, 6, 9 and 12 months post discharge using the Global Appraisal of Individual Needs (GAIN), as well as several supplemental self-reports, collateral reports, urine testing, and service logs. This paper reports on the study's implementation including the psychometric properties of the measures (alphas over 0.8), validity of self-report (kappa over 0.6), high rates of treatment completion (81% completed two or more months), and high rates of follow-up (over 94% per wave). The feasibility of implementing the CYT manual-guided treatment and quality assurance model in community-based adolescent treatment programs is discussed

Variation in the post-copulatory guarding behavior of Neohelice granulata (Brachyura, Grapsoidea, Varunidae) in two different habitats

Crab guarding behaviors are influenced by the biological and physical characteristics that each population experiences in a particular habitat. We studied post-copulatory guarding behavior and the factors affecting it, such as the presence of burrows, female receptivity duration, operational sex ratio (OSR) and male size, in two different populations of Neohelice granulata: Mar Chiquita coastal lagoon (MCL) and San Antonio Oeste (SAO). Laboratory experiments showed that post-copulatory guarding duration varied between the study areas. In MCL, it depended upon the presence of burrows and female receptivity duration, whereas it was independent of the OSR and male size. In SAO, it was dependent upon the OSR and female receptivity duration, whereas it was independent of the presence of burrows and male size. Thus, N. granulata males display different reproductive strategies related to their post-copulatory guarding behavior pattern in different habitats. These strategies are related to the fact that this species constructs and defends a burrow that provides shelter and a place to mate, something that other varunids do not have.Fil: Sal Moyano, María Paz. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mar del Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencia Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras; ArgentinaFil: Gavio, Maria Andrea. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mar del Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencia Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras; ArgentinaFil: McLay, Colin L.. University Of Canterbury; Nueva ZelandaFil: Luppi, Tomas Atilio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mar del Plata. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ciencia Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras; Argentin