A Meeting of Minds

Working collaboratively with other organisations is not a new phenomenon. At present however, charities are under pressure to collaborate more to cope with an uncertain political landscape, reductions in funding and the need to work more efficiently. But just how effective is collaboration in enabling the sector to do more with fewer resources? In this article, I will highlight findings from a programme of research on the management of inter-organizational collaboration that has been ongoing for two decades, and which draws on the experiences of individuals who are working collaboratively. Over the years, the insight gained has accumulated into theory called "collaborative advantage"

Understanding Leadership in Public Collaborative Context

The paper aims to contribute to theory on collaboration through problematizing and exploring the complexity that characterizes leadership in collaborative contexts and to provide some generative conceptualizations to inform future empirical and conceptual development. It draws on a substantial review of leadership theory relevant to the context of public sector collaboration and provides examples from empirical research on collaboration over the last two decades in the UK and US respectively. It does so by identifying and developing key characteristics of the context, the nature of leadership in relation to context, and leadership agency pertaining to actors who actually make a difference in the process and outcomes of collaboration

Leadership in the shaping and implementation of collaboration agendas: how things happen in a (not quite) joined-up world

This article contributes to the theory if collaboration in social settings and is based on data collected during action research interventions in a number of public and community interorganizational collaborations. We conceptualize leadership in collaborations as stemming from three leadership media - structures, processes, and participants - and argue that none of these is wholly within the control of the members of a collaboration. Leadership activities that participants undertake in order to move a collaborative agenda forward are described

Researching Leadership for Collaborative Advantage

The paper explores leadership in inter-organizational collaborative contexts where the aim is to achieve synergistic gains known as Collaborative Advantage (Huxham and Vangen, 2005). It reviews relevant literature on leadership including the theory of collaborative advantage and extant research on constructionist relational and collective leadership. It reports on empirical research undertaken in the context of a UK public sector children’s services; a context characterized by turbulence, austerity and now Brexit. It develops four ‘relational leadership dimensions’ relevant to collaborative context. These dimensions arise in the interface between: sectoral contexts; partner organizations and the collaboration; the collaboration and service users, and the individual leader and the collaboration. It concludes with some thoughts on methodological challenges for empirical research in collaborative contexts

Correlated selection responses to upwards and downwards selection for backfat and daily gains in pigs

International audienc

Sexual violence and neonatal outcomes: a Norwegian population-based cohort study

Objective The objective of this study was to explore the association between sexual violence and neonatal outcomes. Design National cohort study. Setting Women were recruited to the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study (MoBa) while attending routine ultrasound examinations from 1999 to 2008. Population A total of 76 870 pregnant women. Methods Sexual violence and maternal characteristics were self-reported in postal questionnaires during pregnancy. Neonatal outcomes were retrieved from the Medical Birth Registry of Norway (MBRN). Risk estimations were performed with linear and logistic regression analysis. Outcome measures: gestational age at birth, birth weight, preterm birth (PTB), low birth weight (LBW) and small for gestational age (SGA). Results Of 76 870 women, 18.4% reported a history of sexual violence. A total of 4.7% delivered prematurely, 2.7% had children with a birth weight <2500 g and 8.1% children were small for their gestational age. Women reporting moderate or severe sexual violence (rape) had a significantly reduced gestational length (2 days) when the birth was provider-initiated in an analysis adjusted for age, parity, education, smoking, body mass index and mental distress. Those exposed to severe sexual violence had a significantly reduced gestational length of 0.51 days with a spontaneous start of birth. Crude estimates showed that severe sexual violence was associated with PTB, LBW and SGA. When controlling for the aforementioned sociodemographic and behavioural factors, the association was no longer significant. Conclusions Sexual violence was not associated with adverse neonatal outcomes. Moderate and severe violence had a small but significant effect on gestational age; however, the clinical influence of this finding is most likely limited. Women exposed to sexual violence in this study reported more of the sociodemographic and behavioural factors associated with PTB, LBW and SGA compared with non-abused women

Experimental study of the bond performance in fibre reinforced polymer prestressed concrete

El proyecto de investigación Straduravius, financiado por el Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación de España, estudia la aplicación de materiales de construcción avanzados en estructuras de hormigón de altas prestaciones. Las barras de fibras reforzadas con polímeros (FRP) ofrecen una alternativa prometedora a los tendones de acero en hormigón pretensado. Sus ventajas son, una alta durabilidad y resistencia a la tracción, manteniendo un módulo de elasticidad comparablemente alto. La adherencia entre armadura y hormigón, en hormigón pretensado depende considerablemente del fenómeno llamado efecto Hoyer. Esto se debe a la expansión lateral del material cuando se somete a carga, produciendo que el diámetro de los tendones pretensados aumente y las propiedades de unión mejoren. Por el contrario esto limita el diseño, por lo tanto una comprensión fundamental del sistema de adherencia es vital para un diseño seguro. Esta tesis se fundamenta en una revisión bibliográfica exhaustiva, donde se resumen los hallazgos y fórmulas para calcular la longitud de anclaje de los tendones de FRP. Sigue la directriz de la normativa 440.4R-04 del American Concrete Institute (ACI) para pruebas de materiales FRP, mediante ensayos de tracción y extracción de la barra. Se determinaron las características del material y se definió un comportamiento sobre la adherencia. Esto con base en la prueba del prisma ECADA, que cuantifica la transferencia y la longitud de la unión por flexión de los tendones de FRP. El estudio experimental se ejecuta con barras de alta resistencia CFRP Carbopree®, barras GFRP Glasspree® FL E46 y un nuevo tipo de barra de fibra de vidrio con una resina termoplástica (TGFRP). El comportamiento elástico-lineal del material y su falla frágil se verificó por los ensayos de tracción. El módulo de elasticidad medido es superior a los definidos por el fabricante. Las demás características del material no pudieron verificarse, pero todas excedían el valor de diseño del 60 % del valor final. Se concluyó que el comportamiento de adherencia de las barras de fibra es mejor comparado con los tendones de acero, ya que la tensión de adherencia media permanece casi constante después de alcanzar su valor máximo. Se observaron fallas de anclaje debido a una presión lateral insuficiente que provocaron el deslizamiento de la barra. Cabe mencionar, que debido a una presión lateral excesiva, se produjo un fallo por fragilidad ligado a la ruptura de la fibra. En consecuencia, se deben determinar los estándares de prueba y mejorar el desarrollo del dispositivo de anclaje provisto para cada tipo de barra. La barra TGFRP no es aplicable como refuerzo porque se observó picos de tensión en la prueba de adherencia, producido por las muescas en espiral y en la prueba ECADA la barra deslizó en el anclaje por su acabado liso superficial. Sin embargo el CFRP y el GFRP son alternativas adecuadas para sustituir a los tendones de acero pretensado.The Straduravius research project, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, studies the application of advanced construction materials in high- performance concrete structures. Fibre-reinforced polymer (FRP) bars offer a promising alternative to steel tendons in prestressed concrete. Their advantages lie in a high durability and high tensile strength while maintaining a comparably high modulus of elasticity. In prestressed concrete the bond between the reinforcement and the concrete differs from the bond in conventional reinforced concrete. Due to the lateral expansion of a material when subjected to load, the diameter of pre-tensioned tendons increases towards the end of a prestressed member. This so-called Hoyer effect increases the bond properties, but also elicits design limitations. The fundamental understanding of the bond is therefore important for a safe design. This thesis is based on a well-founded literature review, that summarizes the most important findings and formulas to calculate the anchorage length of FRP prestress tendons. Following the American Concrete Institute (ACI) 440.4R-04 guideline for FRP material testing, tensile and Pull-Out Tests are performed. The material characteristics are determined and statements about the bond performance are formulated. Based on the ECADA prism test, the transfer and flexural bond length of the FRP tendons are quantified. The experimental study is carried out with CFRP Carbopree® High Strength Rods, GFRP Glasspree® FL E46 Round Bars, and a new type of glass fibre bar with a thermoplastic resin (TGFRP). The conducted tensile tests can verify the linear-elastic material behaviour with a brittle failure. The measured modulus of elasticity is on the safe side, exceeding the expected values. The other material characteristics could not be verified but were all within the design value of 60 % of the ultimate value. The bond behaviour is found to be preferable to steel tendons because the mean bond stress stays close to constant after the maximum value is reached. Anchorage failures due to insufficient lateral pressure and therefore slip-out, but also due to too large lateral pressure and therefore brittle failure as a consequence of fibre rupture are observed. Accordingly, it is recommended to determine testing standards and further develop the provided anchoring device. The TGFRP bar observed bond stress peaks at the spiral indentations and it slipped out of the anchorage as a result of the smooth surface finishing. It is therefore not applicable as FRP reinforcement. However, the CFRP and GFRP are considered to be a suitable alternatives to steel prestress tendons.Incomin