Social network influences on employee responses to organizational withdrawals

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop a more detailed understanding of how embedding in different social networks relates to different types of action that individuals choose in the context of organizational closures, downsizing or relocations. To develop such insights, this paper focuses on three particular types of social networks, namely, intra-organizational; external professional and local community networks. These three types of networks have been frequently related to different types of action in the context of closures and relocations. Design/methodology/approach This is a conceptual paper. The authors develop the argument by integrating relevant recent literature on the salience related to embedding in different types of social networks, with a particular focus on responses to organizational closure or relocation. Findings The authors argue that at times of industrial decline and closure: embeddedness in intra-organizational networks can favor collective direct action; embeddedness in professional networks is likely to favor individual direct action and embeddedness in community networks can lead to individual indirect action. The authors then add nuance to the argument by considering a range of complicating factors that can constrain or enable the course (s) of action favored by particular combinations of network influences. Originality/value On a theoretical level, this paper adds to understandings of the role of network embeddedness in influencing individual and collective responses to such disruptive events; and direct or indirect forms of response. On a practical level, the authors contribute to understandings about how the employment landscape may evolve in regions affected by organizational demise, and how policymakers may study with or through network influences to develop more responsible downsizing approaches.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Needs and readiness assessments: Tools for promoting community-university engagement with Aboriginal communities

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is an important means of connecting the perspectives of community members with critical social issues, such as health and wellness. As beneficial as CBPR can be, effective engagement with community members remains a difficult goal to achieve. In this article, we draw on the international literature around needs and readiness assessments to explore their potential for establishing solid foundations for engaged research. We examine the stages and dimensions identified in the literature, and use these as a framework for a needs and readiness assessment project undertaken with a Métis Settlement community in Alberta, Canada. We share how the needs and readiness assessments helped to foster the emergence of community priorities, informing the next steps in research design, program content and evaluation methods, and heightening community-university engagement. It is our hope that our example of engagement, which focuses on the role of needs and readiness assessments in strengthening community-university partnerships, will better inform engagement approaches so that they become relevant, culturally appropriate and community specific. Keywords: Métis, Aboriginal, community-based participatory research, needs assessment, readiness assessment, community-university partnershi

Revised postglacial sea-level rise and meltwater pulses from Barbados

Reconstructions of postglacial sea-level rise have provided key insight into the rapid disintegration of ice-sheets and the discharge of large meltwater pulses during the last deglaciation. The most complete reconstruction is from Barbados where thick, backstepping sequences of the reef-crest coral Acropora palmata have been recovered in cores from the insular shelf and slope off the Island’s south coast. Differences in the depth, timing, and magnitude of meltwater pulses between the Barbados reconstruction and other reefal records, however, has led to significant uncertainty in their origin, and the consequent timing of ice-sheet collapse. Here we re-analyse the published sedimentary, stratigraphic, and chronological data from Barbados, and find evidence for ex-situ data which indicates that reefal sequences contain coral clasts generated during hurricanes. By adjusting for biases caused by these ex-situ data, we provide a revised sea-level reconstruction which shows that MWP-1b was an 8–11 m rise from –53 m in ~250 years starting at 11.3 ka, which is 5 m smaller, and 150 years younger than previous estimates. It also shows that the onset of MWP-1a cannot be determined at Barbados because the downslope core sequences are not reef-crest deposits due to their association with deeper coral assemblages and lack of depositional relief. The end of this meltwater pulse can however be determined from the upslope reef, and occurred at a similar time and depth to that documented from Tahiti

Magnetic record of deglaciation using FORC-PCA, sortable-silt grain size, and magnetic excursion at 26 ka, from the Rockall Trough (NE Atlantic)

Core MD04-2822 from the Rockall Trough has apparent sedimentation rates of ~1 m/kyr during the last deglaciation (Termination I). Component magnetization directions indicate a magnetic excursion at 16.3 m depth in the core, corresponding to an age of 26.5 ka, implying an excursion duration of ~350 years. Across Termination I, the mean grain size of sortable silt implies reduced bottom-current velocity in the Younger Dryas and Heinrich Stadial (HS)-21A, and increased velocities during the Bølling-Allerød warm period. Standard bulk magnetic parameters imply fining of magnetic grain size from the mid-Younger Dryas (~12 ka) until ~8 ka. First-order reversal curves (FORCs) were analyzed using ridge extraction to differentiate single domain (SD) from background (detrital) components. Principal component analysis (FORC-PCA) was then used to discriminate three end members corresponding to SD, pseudo-single domain (PSD), and multidomain (MD) magnetite. The fining of bulk magnetic grain size from 12 to 8 ka is due to reduction in concentration of detrital (PSD 1 MD) magnetite, superimposed on a relatively uniform concentration of SD magnetite pro- duced by magnetotactic bacteria. The decrease in PSD1MD magnetite concentration from 12 to 8 ka is synchronized with increase in benthic d13C, and with major (~70 m) regional sea-level rise, and may therefore be related to detrital sources on the shelf that had reduced influence as sea level rose, and to bottom-water reorganization as Northern Source Water (NSW) replaced Southern Source Water (SSW)

Systematic review of the appropriateness of eye care delivery in eye care practice

Background: Health care systems are continually being reformed, however care improvement and intervention effectiveness are often assumed, not measured. This paper aimed to review findings from published studies about the appropriateness of eye care delivery, using existing published evidence and/or experts' practice and to describe the methods used to measure appropriateness of eye care. Methods: A systematic search was conducted using Medline, Embase and CINAHL (2006 to September 2016). Studies reporting the processes of eye care delivery against existing published evidence and/or experts' practice were selected. Data was extracted from published reports and the methodological quality using a modified critical appraisal tool. The primary outcomes were percentage of appropriateness of eye care delivery. This study was registered with PROSPERO, reference CRD42016049974. Results: Fifty-seven studies were included. Most studies assessed glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy and the overall methodological quality for most studies was moderate. The ranges of appropriateness of care delivery were 2-100% for glaucoma, 0-100% for diabetic retinopathy and 0-100% for other miscellaneous conditions. Published studies assessed a single ocular condition, a sample from a single centre or a single domain of care, but no study has attempted to measure the overall appropriateness of eye care delivery. Conclusions: These findings indicated a wide range of appropriateness of eye care delivery, for glaucoma and diabetic eye care. Future research would benefit from a comprehensive approach where appropriateness of eye care is measured across multiple conditions with a single methodology, to guide priorities within eye care delivery and monitor quality improvement initiatives.</p

Saltmarsh blue carbon accumulation rates and their relationship with sea-level rise on a multi-decadal timescale in northern England

Feldwork and elemental and thermogravimetric analyses were conducted as a part of the NERC funded (NE/R010846/1) Carbon Storage in Intertidal Environments (C-SIDE) project (https://www.c-side.org/).Saltmarshes are widely thought to sequester carbon at rates significantly exceeding those found in terrestrial environments. This ability arises from the in-situ production of plant biomass and the effective trapping and storage of both autochthonous and allochthonous organic carbon. The role saltmarshes play in climate change mitigation, through accumulating ‘blue’ carbon, depends on both the rate at which carbon accumulates within sediments and the rapidity with which carbon is remineralised. It has been hypothesized that carbon accumulation rates, in turn, depend on the local rate of relative sea-level rise, with faster sea-level rise providing more accommodation space for carbon storage. This relationship has been investigated over long (millennial) and short (decadal) timescales but without accounting for the impact of higher quantities of labile carbon in more recently deposited sediment. This study addresses these three key aspects in a saltmarsh sediment study from Lindisfarne National Nature Reserve (NNR), northern England, where there is a comparatively pristine marsh. We quantify rates of carbon accumulation by combining a Bayesian age-depth model based on 210Pb and 137Cs activities with centimetre-resolution organic carbon density measurements. We also use thermogravimetric analyses to determine the relative proportions of labile and recalcitrant organic matter and calculate the net recalcitrant organic matter accumulation rate. Results indicate that during the 20th century more carbon accumulated at the Lindisfarne NNR saltmarsh during decades with relatively high rates of sea-level rise. The post-depositional loss of labile carbon down the core results in a weaker though still significant relationship between recalcitrant organic matter accumulation and sea-level change. Thus, increasing saltmarsh carbon accumulation driven by higher rates of sea-level rise is demonstrated over recent multi-decadal timescales.Peer reviewe

Holocene relative sea-level changes and coastal evolution along the coastlines of Kamaran Island and As-Salif Peninsula, Yemen, southern Red Sea

Geomorphic features (fossil terraces, notches and sea cliffs) from the southern Red Sea coasts provide valuable indicators of past sea-level change that enable the quantification of both the timing and magnitude of the mid-Holocene sea-level highstand. We demonstrate the utility of wave-cut notches in the southern Red Sea, and present U-series dated sea-level indicators from two locations on the As-Salif Peninsula that suggest a mid-Holocene highstand of ∼0.5–1 m above present mean sea level (apmsl) at about 5–5.4 ka BP. In addition, the similarity of the elevations of the different sea-level indicators at the two locations in As-Salif Peninsula and Kamran Island suggest relative tectonic stability, with limited influence of salt diapirism. Comparison of our data to other estimates of the Red Sea mid-Holocene highstand, and glacio-isostatic predictions suggest that water loading (and deformational response) is the primary factor in the spatial and temporal variability the mid-Holocene highstand, with some possible localized tectonic and neotectonic overprinting

Implications of 36Cl exposure ages from Skye, northwest Scotland for the timing of ice stream deglaciation and deglacial ice dynamics

The French national AMS facility ASTER (CEREGE, Aix en Provence) is supported by the INSU/CNRS, the ANR through the "Projets thématiques d’excellence" program for the "Equipements d’excellence" ASTER-CEREGE action, IRD and CEA. The authors would like to thank Shasta Marrero for helpful and informative discussion on the CRONUScalc online calculator. DS was supported by a SAGES studentship and fieldwork by funds from the QRA and BSG.Geochronological constraints on the deglaciation of former marine based ice streams provide information on the rates and modes by which marine based ice sheets have responded to external forcing factors such as climate change. This paper presents new 36Cl cosmic ray exposure dating from boulders located on two moraines (Glen Brittle and Loch Scavaig) in southern Skye, northwest Scotland. Ages from the Glen Brittle moraines constrain deglaciation of a major marine terminating ice stream, the Barra-Donegal Ice Stream that drained the former British-Irish Ice Sheet, depending on choice of production method and scaling model this occurred 19.9 ± 1.5–17.6 ± 1.3 ka ago. We compare this timing of deglaciation to existing geochronological data and changes in a variety of potential forcing factors constrained through proxy records and numerical models to determine what deglaciation age is most consistent with existing evidence. Another small section of moraine, the Scavaig moraine, is traced offshore through multibeam swath-bathymetry and interpreted as delimiting a later stillstand/readvance stage following ice stream deglaciation. Additional cosmic ray exposure dating from the onshore portion of this moraine indicate that it was deposited 16.3 ± 1.3–15.2 ± 0.9 ka ago. When calculated using the most up-to-date scaling scheme this time of deposition is, within uncertainty, the same as the timing of a widely identified readvance, the Wester Ross Readvance, observed elsewhere in northwest Scotland. This extends the area over which this readvance has potentially occurred, reinforcing the view that it was climatically forced.PostprintPeer reviewe

Palaeo-sea-level and palaeo-ice-sheet databases: Problems, strategies, and perspectives

Sea-level and ice-sheet databases have driven numerous advances in understanding the Earth system. We describe the challenges and offer best strategies that can be adopted to build self-consistent and standardised databases of geological and geochemical information used to archive palaeo-sea-levels and palaeo-ice-sheets. There are three phases in the development of a database: (i) measurement, (ii) interpretation, and (iii) database creation. Measurement should include the objective description of the position and age of a sample, description of associated geological features, and quantification of uncertainties. Interpretation of the sample may have a subjective component, but it should always include uncertainties and alternative or contrasting interpretations, with any exclusion of existing interpretations requiring a full justification. During the creation of a database, an approach based on accessibility, transparency, trust, availability, continuity, completeness, and communication of content (ATTAC3) must be adopted. It is essential to consider the community that creates and benefits from a database. We conclude that funding agencies should not only consider the creation of original data in specific research-question-oriented projects, but also include the possibility of using part of the funding for IT-related and database creation tasks, which are essential to guarantee accessibility and maintenance of the collected data

Asynchronous Antarctic and Greenland ice-volume contributions to the last interglacial sea-level highstand

The last interglacial (LIG; ~130 to ~118 thousand years ago, ka) was the last time global sea level rose well above the present level. Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) contributions were insufficient to explain the highstand, so that substantial Antarctic Ice Sheet (AIS) reduction is implied. However, the nature and drivers of GrIS and AIS reductions remain enigmatic, even though they may be critical for understanding future sea-level rise. Here we complement existing records with new data, and reveal that the LIG contained an AIS-derived highstand from ~129.5 to ~125 ka, a lowstand centred on 125–124 ka, and joint AIS + GrIS contributions from ~123.5 to ~118 ka. Moreover, a dual substructure within the first highstand suggests temporal variability in the AIS contributions. Implied rates of sea-level rise are high (up to several meters per century; m c−1), and lend credibility to high rates inferred by ice modelling under certain ice-shelf instability parameterisations.Universidade de VigoAustralian Research Council Laureate Fellowship | Ref. FL120100050RCN project THRESHOLDS | Ref. 2549