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OBJECTIVE Patients with type 2 diabetes are encouraged to lose weight, but excessive weight loss in older adults may be a marker of poor health and subsequent mortality. We examined weight change during the postintervention period of Look AHEAD, a randomized trial comparing intensive lifestyle intervention (ILI) with diabetes support and education (DSE) (control) in overweight/obese individuals with type 2 diabetes and sought to identify predictors of excessive postintervention weight loss and its association with mortality. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS These secondary analyses compared postintervention weight change (year 8 to final visit; median 16 years) in ILI and DSE in 3,999 Look AHEAD participants. Using empirically derived trajectory categories, we compared four subgroups: weight gainers (n = 307), weight stable (n = 1,561), steady losers (n = 1,731), and steep losers (n = 380), on postintervention mortality, demographic variables, and health status at randomization and year 8. RESULTS Postintervention weight change averaged −3.7 ± 9.5%, with greater weight loss in the DSE than the ILI group. The steep weight loss trajectory subgroup lost on average 17.7 ± 6.6%; 30% of steep losers died during postintervention follow-up versus 10–18% in other trajectories (P < 0001). The following variables distinguished steep losers from weight stable: baseline, older, longer diabetes duration, higher BMI, and greater multimorbidity; intervention, randomization to control group and less weight loss in years 1–8; and year 8, higher prevalence of frailty, multimorbidity, and depressive symptoms and lower use of weight control strategies. CONCLUSIONS Steep weight loss postintervention was associated with increased risk of mortality. Older individuals with longer duration of diabetes and multimorbidity should be monitored for excessive unintentional weight loss.

Manufacturing competitiveness is on many policy agendas, born out of a concern for firms in high-cost economies finding themselves outcompeted by low-cost rivals. Government policy makers and manufacturing firm strategists have put their faith in what we label as high value manufacturing (HVM). We see HVM as an incipient phenomenon currently in a situation of prescience, as something that is still “in-the-making,” with manufacturing firms trying to find ways to be able to step away from having to compete on price. This paper consults relevant strategy theories with the purpose to pinpoint the issues and problems that need to be accommodated for bringing HVM into being and for creating the effects that are anticipated. We found that HVM must be seen as a distributed activity, thus realizing complex functionality for a system-of-use, while being subjected to path constitution. For HVM to function, the firms involved need to find solutions to the capability problem, the appropriation problem, and the governance problem. We suggest that further research needs to involve itself in problem-solving activity to assist in bringing HVM about while simultaneously further developing strategy theory geared toward firms that are involved in a distributed activity like HVM.

Objectives Advance care planning (ACP) involvement could be substantially different by physician specialty or sex group, with implications for training and methods to increase ACP activities. The objective of this article is to compare primary care physicians (PCPs) and other specialty physicians and female compared with male physicians' views and interactions surrounding ACP. Methods This was a secondary analysis of an online anonymous survey distributed through a survey link to healthcare providers in hospital, ambulatory, and hospice settings in the greater Dayton, Ohio area in preparation for a community-wide advance care planning multitiered intervention. The measures included demographic data and questions regarding personal ACP decisions/experiences, opinions surrounding ACP in healthcare settings, and willingness to facilitate ACP with patients. Results There were 129 physician respondents, of which 39 (30.2%) were PCPs, and 33 (25.6%) were women. Most expressed interest in ACP, responding positively to a desire for more training, and approximately 25% were willing to be trained to teach others. The respondents by specialty group were similar in age and race, the presence or absence of religious affiliation, and stated frequency of ACP conversations. More than half (52.5%) reported having ACP conversations at least twice per month. The female physicians were younger and more likely to be in primary care. Female physicians also were more likely to discuss ACP with patients (P = 0.017), report formal training for ACP (P = 0.025), and be more willing to permit other healthcare provider types to be involved with ACP. PCPs reported time as a barrier more frequently than specialty physicians (P = 0.012). Other barriers to ACP were reported, including space, personal discomfort, and concerns about patient or family distress or disagreement. Conclusions Many physicians, regardless of specialty type or sex, are interested in undertaking more ACP conversations and being trained to do so. Overall, more female physicians than male physicians were involved and interested in various aspects of ACP, and they were more accepting of the involvement of nonphysician healthcare professionals in ACP. Multiple barriers for clinicians, patients, and families were identified that will need to be addressed by work settings or through education to increase ACP.

A computational Monte Carlo simulation approach for modeling the thermalization of low-energy electrons is presented. The simulation methods rely on, and use, experimentally based cross sections for elastic and inelastic collisions. To demonstrate the different simulation options, average numbers of interactions and the range of low-energy electrons with initial energies ranging from 1 to 20 eV are calculated for density normalized gaseous water. Experimental gas-phase cross sections for (subexcitation) electrons of energies in the range of 1-20 eV were taken from the compilation of Hayashi. The ballistic collision-by-collision simulations provide information on the intricacies of the thermalization processes not available experimentally. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the experience of call centre employees who have been involved in high-involvement innovation (HII) activities to understand what frontline and managerial employees think of these involvement activities.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative case study approach is utilised, drawing on evidence from seven UK call centres. Various sources of data are examined, i.e. interviews, observation, call listening and documentary.FindingsFrom the analysis of the testimonies, it is found that job design, the mechanisms and practices as well as other people’s perceptions of involvement influence the experience of frontline and managerial employees. The findings highlight that HII has the potential to intensify jobs (both frontline and managerial employees) when the quantity of ideas submitted becomes a component of the employee performance appraisal system.Research limitations/implicationsThis research has shown that the heightened targets used in many of the cases have reduced the ability of employees to be involved in any innovation activities. What is not clear from the findings is that if performance measures can be used in a more participative way with employees so that they can have less time pressure allowing them to become more involved in innovation activities. Thus, an interesting direction for future research would be to consider the effects of performance measurement systems in the role they play in facilitating HII activities.Practical implicationsThe findings show that HII has the potential to enrich frontline employees’ jobs, making them feel more valued and giving them some variety and challenge in their job. Therefore, practitioners should approach employee involvement in the innovation process as something potentially fruitful and not just wasted time away from the phones.Originality/valueThis research is important as it explores what effects these involvement initiatives have on the employees and managers involved in them. This is valuable since there is no real consensus across human resource management, labour process and critical management fields resulting in a limited conceptualisation of the relationship between management practices, employee experiences and the outcomes. This research makes a contribution through the elaboration of current theory to understand the complexities and subtleties that exist between the high involvement management practices and the experience of workers and their managers.

This chapter addresses the dynamics in inter-organizational relations. The authors probe the value networks so prevalent within contemporary ­manufacturing to put forward that their basic cooperation/competition duality manifests itself in practical terms as capability, appropriation, and governance paradoxes. The authors conducted a longitudinal ethnographic study aimed at capturing the process by which inter-organizational collabor­ation in ­manufacturing value networks is enacted. Our study finds that inter-organizational relations are “nested” in that a relationship plays out over an interpersonal network where the inter-organizational relationships are a framework for action, while simultaneously interpersonal interactions affect how the inter-organizational relationships take shape and evolve. Furthermore, we found that inter-organizational dynamics is essentially a stratified process. Solving particular and concrete problems at the surface level, with regard to specific collaboration issues between organizations, simultaneously shapes truces with regard to the underlying capability, appropriation, and governance paradoxes.

The deployment of Lean methods in service work is increasingly viewed as a legitimate response to the growing requirement for more efficient front-line service delivery. However, research investigating Lean implementations is reporting mixed results with process efficiency gains frequently marginalised by losses in employee satisfaction and customer focus. It has been suggested that these sub-optimal outcomes are the result of partial adoptions of Lean where the emphasis is placed on process efficiency with employee and customer outcomes neglected. Using an Action Research approach this paper investigates the outcomes of a Lean implementation within a UK call centre. The Action Research methodology used ensured that a holistic rather than a partial implementation of Lean was achieved and this research finds that Lean when implemented properly can lead to improved process efficiency, a better customer experience and increased employee satisfaction. It suggests that to achieve these optimum outcomes Lean implementations must as a priority be focused on creating customer satisfaction and be customised to fit with particular contingencies in the organisational context such as the nature of the interface between the front-line worker and the customer.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to recognise the importance of the interplay between performance measurement, performance management, employee engagement and performance. However, the nature of this phenomenon is not well understood. Analysis of the literature reveals two dimensions of organisational control, technical and social, that are used to develop a conceptual framework for studying this phenomenon.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted explorative action research involving pilot and control groups from two departments of a UK bank.FindingsThe authors show that an intervention on the social controls has led to changes in technical controls of the performance measurement system resulting in significant improvement in employee engagement and performance.Research limitations/implicationsThe research was undertaken with two cases from a single organisation. Further fine-grained, longitudinal research is required to fully understand this phenomenon in a wider range of contexts.Practical implicationsThe paper contributes to the theory on performance measures and gives guidance on how organisations might design their performance measurement systems to enhance employee engagement and performance.Originality/valueThe study makes three contributions. First, the authors introduce a new theoretical framework based the organisational control theory providing a basis for future research. Second, through nine propositions, the authors establish a causal relationship between performance measurement, performance management, employee engagement and performance. Third, the authors identify a gap in knowledge concerning the design of organisational controls in the context of the process that is being managed.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify theories from manufacturing which can be applied to alleviate current issues within contact centre organisations. As contact centres currently adopt a mass production approach to customer service, this paper aims to examine the key issues currently facing contact centres and investigate how manufacturing has overcome some of its issues with the mass production approach.Design/methodology/approachThe research employs a qualitative case study approach using a cross section of different types of contact centre to identify the current issues with contact centres. Interview and direct observation are the chosen methods for data collection and the data are analysed using a series of deductive and emergent codes.FindingsFrom empirically investigating the issues that contact centres are currently facing it would imply that they have the same issues as manufacturing historically faced. Therefore, it can be concluded that if manufacturing can develop from an industry founded on scientific management principles, then so can the contact centre industry.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings of this paper provide a useful starting point to discuss the ability of theories developed in manufacturing to be adapted into the contact centre context. This paper is a starting point for further work into the applicability of manufacturing theories into the contact centre environment and as such it is deliberately discussed at a high level of abstraction.Practical implicationsMany of the techniques employed in contact centres originate from manufacturing's past but little of the research focuses on how contact centres can learn from manufacturing's future therefore this paper has practical implications in identifying which concepts can be transferred from manufacturing to contact centres.Originality/valueThe value of this paper is that it looks to the future of contact centre operations and discusses which techniques can be transferred from manufacturing to alleviate some of the current issues with contact centres.

Management literature prescribes innovation as a stimulus for sustained competitive advantage in companies; however, the nature of the development in this field has resulted in the literature being broad and fragmented. This paper focuses on the body of literature concerned with the factors which influence innovation management in organisations. The aim of this research is to present a holistic view of the factors that affect innovation management. Using a systematic literature review approach, using over 100 papers, this research identifies nine key factors that impact on an organisation's ability to manage innovation. These nine factors have been identified as management style and leadership, resources, organisational structure, corporate strategy, technology, knowledge management, employees and innovation process. This paper then discusses the inductively derived model that presents the important relationships identified between the factors to present a holistic view of innovation management. From this, we open up the debate on innovation management as a systemic approach rather than being focused on the singular factors. We can therefore conclude that a number of dominant relationships exist between the factors with the innovation process being the only endogenous factor within the model.

Various surveys mentioned that the commercial benefits of Internet crowdsourcing are reaped largely by people located in metro areas and smaller cities. The impact of crowdsourcing on the rural population is questionable. The aim of this research is to bridge widening urban and rural divide by providing knowledge-intensive crowdsourcing tasks to rural work force which could provide long term benefits to them as well as improve supporting infrastructure. This paper reports an initial study of the demographic of small samples of twenty two rural homeworkers in Scotland, their motivation to do crowdsourcing work, present main occupation, computer skills, views on rural infrastructure and finally their level of skill in solving three spatial visualization tests. The survey shows that flexible hours of working, extra income, and work life balance are the three important factors emphasized as motivational constructs to do crowdsourcing work. Their skills on solving a spatial visualization test is equivalent to the literature reported results, and also high correlations are identified between these tests. These results suggest that with minimum training the homeworkers could able to solve knowledge-intensive industrial spatial reasoning problems to increase their earning potentials.

Many tasks involving production software that involve spatial reasoning can only produce "good" rather than optimum solutions. It is frequently possible for humans to improve on algorithmically generated solutions computed by CAD/CAM software. The thesis motivating this research is that large numbers of industrial optimisation tasks involving spatial reasoning (such as 2D part nesting) can be outsourced as human intelligence tasks to rural workers to provide a sustainable source of skilled employment. We hypothesis that 3D spatial reasoning ability is essential to solve spatial optimization tasks. In this paper we reported the 3D spatial manipulation ability of eighty rural workers in four rural business process outsourcing (BPO) centres in India. The assessments reveal that although the average spatial manipulation ability is less than the literature reported benchmark, there are talented workers identified in all the four rural centres, and the results identify priority activities required to enable the proposed approach.

Background Little is known about diet quality with a reduced-energy, low-fat, partial meal replacement plan, especially in individuals with type 2 diabetes. The Action for Health in Diabetes (Look AHEAD) trial implemented a partial meal replacement plan in the Intensive Lifestyle Intervention. Objective To compare dietary intake and percent meeting fat-related and food group dietary recommendations in Intensive Lifestyle Intervention and Diabetes Support and Education groups at 12 months. Design A randomized controlled trial comparing Intensive Lifestyle Intervention with Diabetes Support and Education at 0 and 12 months. Participants/setting From 16 US sites, the first 50% of participants (aged 45 to 76 years, overweight or obese, with type 2 diabetes) were invited to complete dietary assessments. Complete 0- and 12-month dietary assessments (collected between 2001 and 2004) were available for 2,397 participants (46.6% of total participants), with 1,186 randomized to Diabetes Support and Education group and 1,211 randomized to Intensive Lifestyle Intervention group. Main outcome measures A food frequency questionnaire assessed intake: energy; percent energy from protein, fat, carbohydrate, polyunsaturated fatty acids, and saturated fats; trans -fatty acids; cholesterol; fiber; weekly meal replacements; and daily servings from food groups from the Food Guide Pyramid. Statistical analyses performed Mixed-factor analyses of covariance, using Proc MIXED with a repeated statement, with age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, and income controlled. Unadjusted χ 2 tests compared percent meeting fat-related and food group recommendations at 12 months. Results At 12 months, Intensive Lifestyle Intervention participants had a significantly lower fat and cholesterol intake and greater fiber intake than Diabetes Support and Education participants. Intensive Lifestyle Intervention participants consumed more servings per day of fruits; vegetables; and milk, yogurt, and cheese; and fewer servings per day of fats, oils, and sweets than Diabetes Support and Education participants. A greater percentage of Intensive Lifestyle Intervention participants than Diabetes Support and Education participants met fat-related and most food group recommendations. Within Intensive Lifestyle Intervention, a greater percentage of participants consuming two or more meal replacements per day than participants consuming less than one meal replacement per day met most fat-related and food group recommendations. Conclusions The partial meal replacement plan consumed by Intensive Lifestyle Intervention participants was related to superior diet quality.

Look AHEAD (Action for Health in Diabetes) was a randomized clinical trial designed to examine the long-term health effects of weight loss in overweight and obese individuals with type 2 diabetes. The primary result was that the incidence of cardiovascular events over a median follow-up of 9.6 years was not reduced in the Intensive Lifestyle Group relative to the control group. This finding is discussed, with emphasis on its implications for design of trials and clinical treatment of obese persons with type 2 diabetes.

Initially commercial crowdsourcing services (such as Amazon’s Mechanical Turk) were focused largely on providing micro-labor services for tasks such as image labeling and text processing. However it is becoming increasingly apparent that these services can also be regarded as providing parallel, on-demand, networks of (so-called) ‘Human Processing Units’ (HPUs). Such services are able to provide specialist computational facilities in a manner analogous to the way Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) support the specialist process of high speed rendering. This paper describes how this new technology could extend the functionality of mechanical CAD/CAM or PLM systems. Crucial to the commercial feasibility of such systems is the ability to access networks of HPUs where engineering data can be processed securely (unlike open crowdsourcing sites such as mTurk). The paper reports the initial results of work done to establish the feasibility of a proposed architecture for integrating HPUs into desktop CAD that uses established BPO centers in rural India to provide a secure source of geometric intelligence.

We report rate constants for muonium addition to 1,1-difluoroethylene (vinylidene fluoride) in CO2 at 290-530 K, 40-360 bar, and 0.05-0.90 g cm(-3). Rate constants are mapped against their thermodynamic conditions, demonstrating the kinetic tuning ability of the solvent. The reaction exhibits critical slowing near conditions of maximum solvent isothermal compressibility, where activation volumes of unprecedentedly large magnitudes on the order of ±10(6) cm(3) mol(-1) are observed. Such values are suggestive of pressure being a significant parameter for tuning fluorolkene reactivity.

BHC Ltd is a family owned SME which specialises in steel fabrication for the construction industry. Due to rapid growth over the past decade the company’s current business software has evolved from a collection of semi-integrated individual packages and Excel spreadsheets. To help the company become more efficient during the current financial downturn and to ensure they are capable of future growth, BHC Ltd initiated a project with the University of Strathclyde to select and implement an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution. This paper will provide a case study of BHC’s ERP selection process. In particular it will discuss how steel specific business requirements and organisational culture led us to use multiple criteria decision analysis (MCDA) when making a final software selection. The MCDA process that was followed is further discussed and includes the success that was achieved by using this approach.

The aim of the special issue is to contribute to the debate on collaborative innovation. To achieve this, we have selected nine papers that look into particular issues that will enable further development of knowledge in this area. The criteria we set for this special issue was to look for papers that clearly focus on the needs of industry and provide robust theoretical foundations integrated with empirical studies. We believe that the articles included in this issue reflect this criteria well.

The aim of this paper is to examine the concept of open innovation and understand if it occurs and how it occurs within the High Value Manufacturing (HVM) context. There is a key theoretical relevance since open innovation has not been explored from a network based perspective. Similarly, there is a strong practical relevance for this research since policy makers in the EU (especially in the UK) are focusing on strengthening HVM in their economies but the role innovation, and especially open innovation, is not fully understood. The methodology adopts an exploratory case approach within four manufacturing firms that we consider to be operating within a HVM context. Interviews with ten technical managers across the four cases were collected. NVivo analysis and data structuring based on Gioia et al. (2012) form the basis of the data analysis. The findings suggest that many different ‘modes’ and types of innovation take place within the HVM context. Open innovation is witnessed more commonly from an ‘outside in’ perspective i.e. firms draw knowledge or technology from external sources into their internal innovation process. Our findings also suggest that open innovation occurs mainly in closed networks, with other firms within their supply chain. However, our findings also highlight that the maturity of technology and sector ‘norms’ may also have an influence on degree of openness.

Purpose of the research Public and private organisations in sectors such as health care, construction and logistics that require satellite data for ensuring target locations are faced with a proliferation of positioning applications. Continuously Operating Reference Stations (CORS) constitutes one of the technologies designed as a supplement to Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signals to improve positioning precision (GPS.GOV, 2017). Effectively implementing this land-based augmentation system has presented difficulties for countries such as Thailand. In particular, independent ownership and management of the GNSS CORS network has led to problems of duplication and overinvestment and the lack of facility sharing has adverse effects on the budgetary requirements of individual CORS users. To resolve such complications, the various Thai government agencies involved have developed a form of collaborative innovation. But this must take account of the different levels of power among the CORS licence holders based on their number of assets and major missions. Bommert (2010) contends that collaborative innovation is closely connected the public sector concept of networked government and the private sector concept of open innovation. He argues that collaborative innovation should open the innovation cycle to innovation assets controlled by both internal and external players, and facilitate risk taking in the public sector. However, as Simon et al. (2016) argue, getting multiple stakeholders to approach innovation in a collaborative manner involves complex challenges related to knowledge boundaries, interest and ownership. The present study into the complexity of managing the GNSS CORS system in Thailand aims to analyse how different government agencies are collaborating in terms of data gathering, data management and service distribution. Our study will also evaluate the role played by prominent owners of GNSS network infrastructure in this collaboration. Design An earlier case study of interagency cooperation relating to GNSS reference station administration in Australia has shown the need to make proper allowance for the innovation capability of each participating organisation and to assign the separate key roles (Hausler and Philip, 2013; Higgins, 2008). Based on the apparent similarities, we seek to build on the Australian research findings in our own study of GNSS CORS management in Thailand. 2 A central feature of the Australian case was the establishment of ANZLIC as the top government body in Australia and New Zealand responsible for the accessibility and usability of spatial information (ANZLIC, 2019). In Thailand, nine organisations are getting involved in GNSS ground infrastructure technology, including six government agencies and three universities – for instance, the Royal Thai Survey Department, the Department of Lands, and Chulalongkorn University (Rizos and Satirapod, 2011). Our research is founded on a realist ontology combined with a multi-methodology approach including interviews and in-depth case studies. In practical terms, this involves focus group interviews with six organisations who own the base stations in Thailand and expert interviews with academics from three universities, supported by simultaneous analysis of the Australian case study documentation. The data collection phase started in the summer of 2018 and is currently ongoing. Following transcription and translation of the focus group and expert interviews, detailed content analysis is applied and findings are compared. Findings Data collection and analysis will continue for another year. But based on a preliminary analysis of the primary research data already collected, we can summarise the participants’ perspectives in two key areas; namely, the positioning of the different organisations in the collaborative innovation effort and the precise nature and shape of the coordination framework. First, the interviewees are concerned about: whether public collaborative innovation relating to GNSS technology will come into effect; which government agency (between the one who has the maximum number of the assets and the one who has core responsibility for state surveying) should be the project leader; which organisation should be the national data centre; what should be the shape of the cooperation design; what business model should be selected; and what technology should be installed for the overall network configuration. Second, the interviewees desire effective regulations or policies for inter-organisational cooperation so that each organisation is allocated a suitable role and appropriate authority is given to each office. Contribution The ultimate goal of our research is to support the adoption of the policy framework for strengthening the GNSS CORS collaborative innovation in Thailand. This will include the development of a viable business model to formulate budgetary guidance and resolve budgetary issues. From a theoretical perspective, our research contributes to a better understanding of the roles that each of the stakeholders should play in a collaborative innovation effort, taking account of their different levels of power and interest. Collaborative innovation holds considerable promise in breaking individual policy deadlocks, minimising system-wide investment costs and improving public service quality. However, Bommert’s (2010) contention still holds: there is an urgent need for empirical research, typically in the form of in-depth case studies, to substantiate such potential benefits. Our research aims to make an original contribution to fulfilling this need.