Stakeholder Perspectives of an Approach to Healthcare Leadership Development Through Use of a Multidimensional Leadership Development Conceptual Model

Leadership is often the driver used to transform healthcare services. Healthcare leadership development is often situated around conceptual frameworks or leadership development models. The aim of the study reported here was to evaluate multistakeholder perspectives on leadership development when applying a Multidimensional Leadership Development Conceptual Model to post-graduate healthcare leadership programmes at a university in England. This exploratory qualitative study of healthcare leadership development comprised face-to-face interviews. Six interviews were undertaken with academics from a post-graduate leadership programme team, a family carer and service-user of health care services, and current United Kingdom students and former United Kingdom and international students who had undertaken the leadership development programme. Transcripts were thematically analysed. Three themes emerged: Expectations of the contemporary healthcare leader; Experiences of the Multidimensional Leadership Development Conceptual Model on leadership development; and Improvements to the model. We conclude that framing post-graduate leadership programmes around a conceptual model can aid identification of the key components required for effective leadership development. Evidence-informed recommendations are provided which seek to optimise healthcare leadership development using a leadership development conceptual model which (1) represents the values and beliefs of all stakeholders involved; (2) is reviewed annually to critically explore the internal and external evidence base for leadership development; gain stakeholder consensus of expectations of the healthcare leader; and provide the reality check to ensure a ?fit for purpose? programme; and (3) is constructively aligned to leadership programme curricula with sufficient flexibility to tailor an effective teaching and learning platform for preparing the individual leader, noting unique circumstances and contexts

Molecular epidemiology of Streptococcus uberis clinical mastitis in dairy herds: strain heterogeneity and transmission

Multi Locus Sequence Typing was successfully completed on 494 isolates of S. uberis from clinical mastitis cases in a study of 52 commercial dairy herds over a 12 month period. In total, 195 sequence types (STs) were identified. S. uberis mastitis cases occurring in different cows within the same herd and attributed to a common ST were classified as 'potential transmission events' (PTE). Clinical cases attributed to 35 of the 195 STs identified in this study were classified PTE. PTE were identified in 63% of herds. PTE associated cases, which include the first recorded occurrence of that ST in that herd (Index case) and all persistent infections with that PTE ST represented 40% of all the clinical mastitis cases and occurred in 63% of herds. PTE associated cases accounted for over 50% of all S. uberis clinical mastitis cases in 33% of herds. Nine sequence types (ST 5, 6, 20, 22, 24, 35, 233, 361, and 512), eight of which grouped within a clonal complex (sharing at least four alleles), were statistically overrepresented (OVR STs). The findings indicate that 38% of all clinical mastitis cases and 63% of the potential transmission events attributed to S. uberis in dairy herds may be caused by the nine most prevalent strains. The findings suggest that to a small subset of sequence types are disproportionally important in the epidemiology of S. uberis mastitis in the UK with cow to cow transmission of S. uberis potentially occurring in the majority of UK herds and may be the most important route of infection in many herds

Institutional challenges to climate change adaptation: a case study on policy action gaps in Uganda

Article purchasedDespite the considerable progress made in the last decade towards building governance systems for climate change adaptation in Africa, implementation still limits positive responses. This study applies an iterative process of field assessments and literature reviews across multiple governance levels and spatial scales to identify constraints to effective formulation and implementation of climate change related policies and strategies in Uganda. Data was collected through sex-segregated participatory vulnerability assessments with farming communities in Rakai district, policy document reviews, and interviews with policy actors at national and district levels. Findings reveal that the key challenges to effective policy implementation are diverse and cut across the policy development and implementation cycle. Policies are mainly developed by central government agencies; other actors are insufficiently involved while local communities are excluded. There is also a communication disconnect between national, district, and community levels. Coupled with limited technical capacity and finances, political interference, and absence of functional implementation structures across these levels, climate change adaptation becomes constrained. We propose strategies that enhance linkages between levels and actors, which will improve policy formulation, implementation and ultimately adaptation by smallholders

Climate Smart Agriculture Rapid Appraisal (CSA-RA): a prioritization tool for outscaling. Step-by-step guidelines.

Climate Smart Agriculture Rapid Appraisal (CSA-RA) is a prioritization tool for outscaling Climate Smart Agriculture. This manual provides step-by-step guidelines in implementing the CSA-RA. This process provides an assessment of key barriers and opportunities to CSA adoption across landscapes by collecting gender-disaggregated data, perceptions of climate variability, resource and labour allocation, as well as economic assessments at the household level. The approach combines participatory workshops, expert interviews, household/farmer interviews, and farm transect walks to gather and capture the realities and challenges facing diverse farming communities

Gauge/Gravity Correspondence from Open/Closed String Duality

We compute the annulus diagram corresponding to the interaction of a fractional D3 brane with a gauge field on its world-volume and a stack of N fractional D3 branes on the orbifolds C^2 /Z_2 and C^3/Z_2 x Z_2. We show that its logarithmic divergence can be equivalently understood as due either to massless open string states circulating in the loop or to massless closed string states exchanged between two boundary states. This follows from the fact that, under open/closed string duality, massless states in the open and closed string channels are matched into each other without mixing with massive states. This explains why the perturbative properties of many gauge theories living on the worldvolume of less supersymmetric and nonconformal branes have been recently obtained from their corresponding supergravity solution.Comment: LaTeX, 28 page

An Evaluation of the Transition from an Amateur to Professional Culture within Hong Kong's Elite Rugby Program

Currently little is known about the development of high-performance cultures in emerging nations. This study is the first of its kind examining an emerging rugby nation’s transition from an amateur to a professional full-time fifteen-a-side programme. Eleven full-time professional male rugby union players, the Head of the Hong Kong Rugby Union’s (HKRU) Elite Rugby Programme(ERP) and the HKRU’s peripatetic sport psychologist were interviewed. Inductive thematic analysis of semi-structured interview data revealed four emerging themes, namely; 1) an amateur environment that required change; 2) ERP’s professional culture building blocks; 3) leadership strategy and managing key stake holders and 4) managing on-going challenges in the ERP’s professional culture. Theoretical and applied implications for practitioners and programme leaders responsible for driving cultural change in their respective environments are discussed

Evidence-based opportunities for out-scaling climate-smart agriculture in East Africa

Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is being widely promoted as a solution for food insecurity and climate change adaptation in food systems of sub-Saharan Africa, while simultaneously reducing the rate of greenhouse gas emissions. Governments throughout Africa are writing policies and programs to promote CSA practices despite uncertainty about the ability for practices to meet the triple CSA objectives of CSA. We conducted a systematic review of 175 peer-reviewed and grey literature studies, to gauge the impact of over seventy potential CSA practices on CSA outcomes in Tanzania and Uganda. Using a total of 6,342 observations, we found that practice impacts were highly context (i.e. farming system and location) specific. Nevertheless, practice effect across CSA outcomes generally agreed in direction. While our results suggest that CSA is indeed possible, lack of mitigation data precludes a more conclusive statement. Furthermore, the inclusion of potential adoption rates changes the potential of CSA practices to achieve benefits at scale. Given the uncertainty and variable impacts of practices across regions and outcomes, it is critical for decision makers to prioritize practices based on their desired outcomes and local context

Semiclassical quantization of Rotating Strings in Pilch-Warner geometry

Some of the recent important developments in understanding string/ gauge dualities are based on the idea of highly symmetric motion of ``string solitons'' in $AdS_5\times S^5$ geometry originally suggested by Gubser, Klebanov and Polyakov. In this paper we study symmetric motion of certain string configurations in so called Pilch-Warner geometry. The two-form field $A_2$ breaks down the supersymmetry to $\mathcal{N}=1$ but for the string configurations considered in this paper the classical values of the energy and the spin are the same as for string in $AdS\times S^5$. Although trivial at classical level, the presence of NS-NS antisymmetric field couples the fluctuation modes that indicates changes in the quantum corrections to the energy spectrum. We compare our results with those obtained in the case of pp-wave limit in hep-th/0206045.Comment: 31 pages, no figures, v2 - a few typos correcte