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Weak incentives to invest in shareholder oversight and limited resources confine stewardship by large institutional investors. According to an influential argument, activist shareholders can offer ...

Long distance trails offer distinctive opportunities for people to connect with natural and cultural heritage through recreation, tourism, and stewardship. Such connections can lead to broad suppor...

Several studies have demonstrated the importance of leadership in laboratory culture, but few have explored broader ethical issues that arise in managing a scientific laboratory or the values that have a bearing on those issues. To obtain some exploratory, qualitative data on ethical issues and values in managing a research laboratory, we conducted three focus groups with experienced investigators and laboratory managers. After validating the focus group transcripts for accuracy, two coders used deductive and inductive coding to develop themes from the text. Participants regarded ethics as important in managing a laboratory (or research group) for various reasons, ranging from conducting research with integrity to exhibiting leadership and promoting an ethical research climate. Participants identified many different types of ethical issues that arise in managing a research laboratory, including issues involving the management people, financial and material resources, projects, and data. An overarching ethical dilemma identified by participants was balancing the desire for productivity against apparently competing values, such as treating people fairly and promoting the wellbeing of individuals. Participants also indicated that graduate and post-graduate education and training did not prepare them to deal with the ethical, financial, interpersonal, and other issues related to managing a research laboratory, and that communication and leadership are crucial to managing a research laboratory ethically.

This article provides ethnographic insight into the more-than-human relationships enacted through young people's participation in school grounds conservation activities. As a response to the escalating biodiversity crisis, conservation appears well-placed to facilitate young people's development of an environmental ethic of care, and a capacity to work towards addressing environmental issues. Proponents of posthuman pedagogies, however, argue that the 'stewardship' perspective underlying these activities fails to achieve the radical shift in human-environment relations required in response to the Anthropocene, given its apparent reinforcement of a perceived human/nature binary, and narrow 'solutions'-based approach. Considering these critiques, this article demonstrates that where there is openness to unplanned more-than-human encounters and the enactment of young people's own 'lived curricula', conservation activities can nonetheless enable forms of 'collective thinking with the more-than-human world' that transcend any underlying 'stewardship' perspective. We therefore point to the potential role of conservation activities within posthuman responses to the Anthropocene, provided such openness is maintained.

Citizen science, an emerging research tool employed worldwide, can encourage nonprofessionals to engage in scientific exploration. Additionally, the research strategy presents great potential to se...

Biocultural approaches promote consideration of diverse values and cultural practices into resource management. However, cultural inclusion in North American forest management is limited. Drawing o...

Around 6.5 million ha state-owned forests are certified by Forest Stewardship Council in Turkey. Roundwood originated from certified forests has been in the market for nearly a decade. Little is known about the impact of forest certification on the roundwood price. Price models were constructed to explore the price premium for certified roundwood using sales data collected from state forest enterprises in Bolu. Full sample models for sawlog and pulpwood revealed that forest certification provided a limited premium. Sawlogs had a 0.54% premium while pulpwood had none. In tree-type models, scots pine sawlog received a price premium of 1.74%, while black pine pulpwood and scots pine pulpwood fetched price premium by 1.9% and 2.2% respectively. Results of the study provide useful information to forest policymakers. WOS:000667537700001

Stewardship consists of acts of claims-making on space and caretaking of place that activate urban environments to function as social infra-structure. While stewardship practices are enacted by actors across the governance network, there is a need to better understand the role of civil society. Civic stewardship groups care and advocate for green, grey, and blue spaces, and can strengthen social trust and foster civic engagement. We conducted semi-structured interviews (n = 26) with a sample of New York City civic stewardship groups from a previous survey dataset (n = 754); the sample was stratified by network position and geographic scale. This paper analyzes how these groups operate in physical geographies and through relational networks. We describe the practices by which stewards activate and transform urban environ-ments to create more sustainable cities, finding that activation of social infrastructure depends upon the degree of group connectivity and scale at which groups work.

The Joint Commission standards now include identification and monitoring patients at high-risk for adverse outcomes of opioid use. Our institution does not have a method to identify at-risk patients. This pilot aimed to assess feasibility of pharmacist-led identification of a population for pain management and opioid stewardship. All patients admitted to the hospital were screened; electronic health record reports identified all opioid, antidepressant, and benzodiazepine administrations within the previous 24 hours, and pertinent family and social history risk factors for Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) and opioid-induced respiratory depression (OIRD). Data were exported to spreadsheets and calculated risk scores for OUD and OIRD, and opioid utilization and morphine milligram equivalents (MME) were tabulated. Chart reviews were completed on patients identified as high risk for OUD or OIRD, if MME was 90 or greater, or those receiving four or more "as needed" opioid doses in the previous 24 hours. Potential regimen adjustments based on the primary investigator's judgment were categorized. Mean number of patients identified per day to receive stewardship was 13, and 18.6 potential interventions per day were identified. Based on results of this pilot, pharmacist-led identification of inpatients warranting pain and opioid stewardship is feasible at our institution.

As natural resource managers continue to face complex problems, cross-boundary stewardship among multiple jurisdictions becomes increasingly important. Cooperation is one strategy for achieving ste...

Physiotherapy (PT) is a key component of the rehabilitative health strategy and an effective approach to the management and treatment of a wide range of health conditions. However, it remains underdeveloped and poorly implemented in many national health systems. Previous studies show that weak stewardship of rehabilitation services is, among others, a significant barrier to equitable access to services and supports in many parts of the world, including in Iran. This study investigated the common pitfalls and potential policy solutions to improve the stewardship of PT services in Iran from the perspective of key stakeholders. Semi-structured interviews were conducted by telephone, via the internet, and in face-to-face sessions in Iran with a purposive sample of health planners and policy decision-makers, university professors, rehabilitation managers, and physiotherapists. In total, 30 individuals agreed to participate. Participants identified several pitfalls across the six dimensions of stewardship: 1) strategy formulation; 2) inter-sectoral collaboration; 3) governance and accountability; 4) health system design; 5) policy and regulation; and 6) intelligence generation. In addition, several policy options and solutions to address critical deficiencies in the system were suggested to improve the stewardship of PT services. The study identified challenges and pitfalls affecting the stewardship of the PT sector in Iran as perceived by key stakeholders. Participants' insights can inform deliberative dialogue processes, agenda-setting, and strategy formulation to support the development, expansion, and implementation of PT services.

This paper locates its relevance in the post-coronavirus era. The business and legal fraternities have been provided an opportunity to re-examine the role of companies in society, at a time when su...

Rehab El-Sokkary,1 Rania Kishk,2 Sally Mohy El-Din,3 Nader Nemr,4 Nageh Mahrous,4 Mostafa Alfishawy,5 Samar Morsi,1 Wael Abdalla,6 Mohamed Ahmed,7 Rehab Tash1 1Medical Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, Zagazig University, Zagazig, Egypt; 2Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt; 3Ministry of Health and Population, Cairo, Egypt; 4Endemic and Infectious Diseases, Faculty of Medicine, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt; 5Infectious Diseases Consultants and Academic Researchers of Egypt (IDCARE), Cairo, Egypt; 6General Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Zagazig University, Zagazig, Egypt; 7Obstetrics & Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine, Benha University, Benha, EgyptCorrespondence: Rehab El-Sokkary 12 Abd Aziz Ali Street, Zagazig, Sharkeia, EgyptTel +201005650273Fax +20 55 230 7830Email rehab_elsookary@yahoo.comIntroduction: The problem of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is rising worldwide. One of the most significant factors influencing antimicrobial resistance in low- and middle-income countries is the lack of the skills and knowledge of health care providers for proper antimicrobial use.Aim: To identify knowledge, characterize practices and describe the attitude of Egyptian prescribers towards antibiotic use.Methods: A self-administered validated questionnaire was distributed among Egyptian prescribers.Results: Five hundred Egyptian physicians responded to the questionnaire, 113 (22.6%) reported having Antibiotic Stewardship Program (ASP) at their workplace, 99 (19.8%) use international antibiotic guidelines as the main source for prescribing activity, 358 (71.6%) recorded adequate knowledge. Elder prescribers and those who work in private or university hospitals were significantly more knowledgeable (p=0.031 and 0.001, respectively). Forty-seven (9.4%) showed a positive attitude towards proper antibiotic prescription. The type of work institution; primary health clinics and private, or university hospital and the specialty are significantly associated with a positive attitude (p=0.009 and 0.015, respectively). Seventy-eight (15.6%) expressed a proper antibiotic prescription practice. Elder age, more experienced and trained prescribers showed more proper practice. The implementation of ASP and using proper sources of information were significantly associated with proper practice (p=0.012 and 0.008, respectively).Conclusion: Egyptian prescribers have a good level of knowledge about antibiotics. However, low rates of positive attitude and proper practice towards the problem of AMR and ASP are recorded.Keywords: antibiotics, resistance, stewardship, prescribers, multidrug resistance, low- and middle-income countries

International organizations (IOs) are driven by political-administrative interactions between member states and IO administrations. To model these interactions and understand their outcomes, schola...

After the large-scale creation of arm’s length agencies by governments around the globe, these governments now face the dilemma of how to manage, steer or control these arm’s length agencies. Different instruments have been developed, based on either of two theoretical models: principal-agent theory or stewardship theory. Both are based on economic models of man with a principal charging an agent or a steward with a task. Principal-agent theory is based on the principal distrusting the agent to perform as agreed, leading to a need for extra monitoring and control. Stewardship theory is based on trust, and requires very different instruments to manage at arm’s length. Using the perspective of arm’s length bodies at federal level in Australia, we will describe how they perceive the instruments that have been implemented by their portfolio departments to manage and control them. Using survey data (N = 89), we will test which of the two models is used most often in this country, one of the frontrunners in agencification. Results show that arm’s length agencies are more inclined to take a stewardship position, while a mixture of instruments from the principal-agent and stewardship model is applied. This could lead to problematic relationships.

Hunters are often assumed to possess conservation and stewardship values. Research on whether these values translate into active land management is scant and inconclusive, particularly as it relate...

Human-nature connectedness is key to foster environmental and socio-cultural sustainability in agricultural landscapes since it promotes the establishment of belonging, stewardship, and connections to nature. Cooperation, collective action, and the role of women at sustainable agroecological practices could be leverage points in which small interventions may hold great potential for system transformation. We analyse the different types of human-nature connectedness mediated by the Agrolab participatory collective farming initiative running in Madrid (Spain). Our results described and quantified a participatory collective farming initiative using the leverage point perspective, and identified factors explaining nature relatedness of participants (i.e. social importance of agricultural landscapes, linkages with farming activities, time spent outdoors, gender and a negative relationship with the rural residence). We found that women showed a stronger and broader worldview on the philosophical arguments about their connection with nature, while men identified themselves and nature through more cognitive responses. Our results give indication of participatory collecting farming as a leverage point to foster human-nature connectedness. Finally, we discussed how participatory collective farming activities are suitable for introducing nature into people’s daily lives and may help to identify pathways towards a stronger human-nature connectedness.

Australia is responsible for management and stewardship of an extensive and diverse marine domain, the world’s fourth largest exclusive economic zone, that extends from the tropics to the sub-Antar...

Managing wildlife in landscapes under private ownership requires partnership between landowners, resource users, and governing agencies. Agencies often call on landowners to voluntarily change thei...

Discourses of landscape and justice entail tensions, claims and conflicts over landed rights and identities; they reveal how landscape comes into being through land stewardship that responds to the...

This paper addresses the need to transform tourism practices with others. Its contribution is a critical conceptualization of how collaborative tourism design can facilitate sustainable transformat...

Big Earth observation (EO) data have played an important role in fields such as quantifying global forest changes (Hansen et al., 2014), tracking global urban expansion (Liu et al., 2019), and mapp...

The need for accessing historical Earth Observation (EO) data series strongly increased in the last ten years, particularly for long-term science and environmental monitoring applications. This trend is likely to increase even more in the future, in particular regarding the growing interest on global change monitoring which is driving users to request time-series of data spanning 20 years and more, and also due to the need to support the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). While much of the satellite observations are accessible from different data centers, the solution for analyzing measurements collected from various instruments for time series analysis is both difficult and critical. Climate research is a big data problem that involves high data volume of measurements, methods for on-the-fly extraction and reduction to keep up with the speed and data volume, and the ability to address uncertainties from data collections, processing, and analysis. The content of EO data archives is extending from a few years to decades and therefore, their value as a scientific time-series is continuously increasing. Hence there is a strong need to preserve the EO space data without time constraints and to keep them accessible and exploitable. The preservation of EO space data can also be considered as responsibility of the Space Agencies or data owners as they constitute a humankind asset. This publication aims at describing the activities supported by the European Space Agency relating to the Long Time Series generation with all relevant best practices and models needed to organise and measure the preservation and stewardship processes. The Data Stewardship Reference Model has been defined to give an overview and a way to help the data owners and space agencies in order to preserve and curate the space datasets to be ready for long time data series composition and analysis.

International guidelines have recommended for many years to start antimicrobials as early as possible in sepsis and shock. This concept has been challenged by the controversial results of experimental studies and clinical cohorts and resulted in intense debate in the literature. This review aims to summarize the available knowledge on early antimicrobial therapy and to consider perspectives.First, after a research using MEDLINE, we reviewed the studies that advocated the implementation of early antimicrobial therapy. We then discussed the drawbacks of these studies. Finally, we suggested possible explanations of the benefit and then absence of the prognostic impact of early antimicrobial therapy i.e. confounding factors, irreversibility of the inflammatory process, non-control of the source of the infection, pharmacodynamic considerations and the harmful effect of antimicrobial drugs.Sepsis is very heterogeneous. The first antimicrobial therapy should be personalized. The sickest patients should be given early antimicrobial therapy, whereas a 'watch and wait process' should be preferred for less severe patients, to allow confirmation of sepsis, identification of pathogens and administration of adequate antimicrobial therapy. We propose steps to personalize the first antimicrobial therapy. New early diagnostic tools will assist the physicians in the future.

Place attachment is recognized as integral to addressing place-based challenges, such as environmental degradation. In combination with place identity and place meaning, place attachment can contri...

The purpose of this study empirically investigates the influence of corporate governance structure on the firm’s financial performance of the alcohol beverage industry in the United States. Seconda...

This article tries to identify how well nonprofit organizations incorporate the four stewardship strategies into their websites. Previous literature describing the concept of stewardship in nonprofi...

A number of planetary boundaries, including climate change as a result of greenhouse gas emissions, has already been exceeded. This situation has deleterious consequences for public health. Paradoxically, 4.4% of these emissions are attributable to the healthcare sector. These problems have not been sufficiently acknowledged in health professions curricula. This paper addresses two main issues, humanistic learning and the application of knowledge acquisition to clinical practice. Humanistic learning principles can be used to emphasize learner-centered approaches, including knowledge acquisition and reflection to increase self-awareness. Applying humanistic principles in everyday life and clinical practice can encourage stewardship, assisting students to become agents for change. In terms of knowledge and skills application to clinical practice, an overview of varied and novel approaches of how sustainable education can be integrated at different stages of training across several health care professions is provided. The Health and Environment Adaptive Response Taskforce (HEART) platform as an example of creating empowered learners, the NurSusTOOLKIT, a multi-disciplinary collaboration offering free adaptable educational resources for educators and the Greener Anaesthesia and Sustainability Project (GASP), an example of bridging the transition to clinical practice, are described.

Procalcitonin (PCT) is a biomarker that may help providers optimize antibiotic (AB) therapy. Numerous clinical trials have demonstrated the utility of PCT-guided decision algorithms in treating lower respiratory tract infections and sepsis, but evidence from real-world studies is limited. This study sought to evaluate the effects of PCT on select clinical outcomes in community hospitals.An observational, retrospective, case-control study was conducted. Hospitals from a large US hospital system were categorized into "treatment" and "control" hospitals. Treatment hospitals were those with in-house PCT testing, a pharmacy team tasked with PCT testing follow-up and results in the patient's electronic medical records alongside a recommendation on AB treatment. Control hospitals either did not have PCT testing available in house or sent out tests to a laboratory or neighboring facility. Patients from treatment hospitals were matched 1:1 to patients from control hospitals based on admission diagnosis code, sex, age and whether an intensive care unit admission was observed. Clinical outcomes included number of days of AB treatment, length of stay, 30 day readmissions, mortality and acute kidney injury. Comparisons were conducted using multivariable regressions accounting for clustering at the hospital level.Patients from treatment hospitals had significantly shorter hospital stays (-0.68 days, 95% CI: -1.26, -0.09;These findings suggest that PCT, along with specific treatment recommendations, may lead to shortened hospital stays with no adverse outcome on patient safety.

Research about the religion and environmental attitudes relationship in the United States has yielded mixed results. Some studies find that religion relates to heightened concern about environmenta...

With the rapid growth of the field of pediatric antimicrobial stewardship, there has been a marked increase in the establishment of programs dedicated to this specialty. Shared objectives of all pediatric antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASPs) include optimization of antibiotic use and improvement in clinical outcomes for children, while certain core operational strategies and metrics used to measure program effectiveness are typically utilized by pediatric ASPs. Antimicrobial stewardship is the responsibility of every individual who prescribes, dispenses, and administers antibiotics to children, and pediatric ASP principles are rooted in collaboration and cooperation. Pediatric ASPs are uniquely suited to meet the needs of the local populations they serve and the environments within which they practice while also fostering an awareness of the interconnected global nature of pediatric stewardship. As such, pediatric ASPs are well positioned to confront the evolving challenges of antimicrobial overuse and resistance.

Brand ambidexterity is characterized by tensions between brand consistency and brand relevance. Previous research has presented design thinking as an approach to resolve this tension. However, desi...

Applicable to nations around the world with large corpuses of rock art and disenfranchised or disempowered First Nations peoples, efforts are being implemented at locations across Northern Australi...

Transparency is a modern call for society, and is currently becoming a challenge for the Church. Despite several practical efforts at making the Church more transparent, the question regarding what kind of transparency the Church should apply as a principle seems still to be largely unanswered. In this article, we propose a path of transparent processes, solutions and decisions in the Church that could be put into practice by dioceses, parishes, schools, etc. This article has two objectives. First, we explore the various concepts of transparency in current research. In this part, we stress that although transparency is commonly requested as a necessary policy for organizations, it is a multidimensional concept not easy to put into practice. Second, we suggest that operational transparency, which is an application of the principle of transparency mostly regarding marketing ideas, could be useful for the Church. Certainly, the utility of operational transparency should respect the spiritual mission and the unique focus of the government of the ecclesial institution; the Church cannot be considered a regular business enterprise, although it has a business side. In every step, we relate transparency to stewardship as, in our opinion; they are two dimensions of the same reality.

The recent challenges for the accounting profession, relating to accountability, stewardship, ethical conduct and corporate governance, highlight the need for quality education and training of acco...

The study of contemporary mosque rehabilitation and restoration projects in Qatar reveals that the relationship between cultural heritage subjects and their actual and potential stewards is complic...

Mermaids have become increasingly present in popular culture. At the same time as this mermaid renaissance, states have been negotiating a new international legally binding instrument on the sustainable use and conservation of marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction. Faced with increased pressures on ocean ecosystems – fisheries depletion, ocean acidification and plastics pollution – urgent action is required to remedy gaps in the current regime. However, the new agreement is bound by a commitment not to undermine the existing framework. From the perspective marine biodiversity protection this is problematic, the existing framework is based on a fictionalized account of ocean space that does not accurately reflect the ecological complexities of the seas. Through the mythology of mermaids, I seek to establish a more ecologically sensitive narrative of the seas that will better protect marine biodiversity both within and beyond areas of national jurisdiction.

Using agency and stewardship theories, this article investigates conditions that affect the impact of performance management in the ministerial steering of agencies. Agency theory assumes that agencies act opportunistically, leading to low trust between the ministry and the agency. Conversely, stewardship theory assumes that agencies act trustworthily. Arguably, however, in the steering of agencies, the impact of performance management depends on performance management practices and the type of ministry–agency relation. The effect of performance contract design and a top-down or bottom-up approach to performance management on the impact of performance management is analyzed in the context of whether the ministry–agency relation tends toward the principal–agent or principal–steward type. The data were obtained from a survey of bureaucrats employed in government agencies in Norway and a systematic analysis of official policy documents. The results show that a bottom-up approach increases the impact of performance management in principal–steward relations but not in principal–agent relations. Performance contract design has no effect on the impact of performance management, irrespective of relationship characteristics.

Based on Stewardship Theory, it is posited that commercial organizations, governments, and citizens would all benefit the co-creation in Smart City Projects. To obtain valuable insights, a qualitat...

Research question/objective: Across North America climbers are mobilizing to address the challenges associated with their sport through local climbing organizations (LCOs). Despite LCOs’ importance...

Purpose: This study sought to investigate agricultural extension practitioners’ response to an in-service training program offered by the University of the West Indies intended to foster effective ...

Urban greening can enhance sustainability and liveability, through conserving biodiversity, mitigating urban heat and enhancing people’s health and wellbeing. However, urban greening is complex, as...

Values are considered an essential but ill-defined element in sustainability transformations. This perspective article explores: What kinds of values guide thinking and action in the context of caring for nature and engaging for landscape sustainability? How do these different values relate to each other? To frame our study, we discuss three basic principles in ethical reasoning. Prudence highlights the instrumental values of nature. Justice puts general moral obligations at the center. The Good Life focusses on relational values that are important to people in terms of personal life-goals. We show that all three types of values are expressed in landscape stewardship conceptualizations. As two case studies demonstrate, the relevance of these ethical claims may diverge among actors, which can lead to different goals and pathways. It is therefore crucial to develop multifaceted strategies that are tailored to the complexity of values at stake. A lack of communication on ethical claims may result in conflict and blockade of sustainability initiatives. For harnessing the full potential of values for sustainability transformations, the specific ethical dimensions of reasoning need to be made explicit and partial interests and common goods and rights need to be distinguished as arguments with different levels of legitimacy and power.

This new volume, published by experienced American museum practitioner Steven Miller, claims to be the first to specifically examine museum collection ethics in detail. As any recordkeeping profess...

Over 25 years ago Professor Cookson [1] opined that ‘damage limitation policies such as control of antibiotic prescribing are the sensible way forward.‘ In an effort to provide such stewardship con...

Research question: This study investigates how boards of directors perceive their roles in Scottish football clubs. With previous studies focusing on amateur and non-profit sport organisations (pri...

Responding to the perceived dysfunctions of New Public Management (NPM) and Agency theory, New Public Governance (NPG) and Stewardship theory offer conceptualizations of the behaviour of the for-profit service provider as well as a governance system that better meet community expectations as to the performance of privatized public infrastructure. Empirical research involving privatized water services was carried out to test if these conceptualizations adequately explain the reality of modern governance systems and organizational behaviour. NPG presented as a framework appropriate for understanding the reality of governance systems establishing a context for the foundational level stewardship behaviour of the for-profits.

Collaborative conservation has been touted as a viable option for addressing contentious natural resource stewardship issues in a way that represents the diverse voices impacted by, and involved in...

To qualify for payments from the public purse, farmers will not only have to produce food but, also, demonstrate good stewardship by delivering public goods: arresting soil erosion, abating floods,...