Abstract The growing importance of forest certification has been under discussion in recent decades. In 21st century the FSC certification has been spreading across the Europe, and it has caused controversies among the citizens. The standards differ within the European Union, which has led to the situation where forest owners in some countries aren’t able to adapt the FSC certification, and are losing their markets. There are two forest certification organizations in Europe, the PEFC and the FSC. These two organizations can be seen as competitors nowadays. Both have certified forest around the world, in all continents. Among the forestry experts and forest owners, there is no consensus, whether the forest certifications are affecting positively to the market situation or not. Situations vary between the countries, since the standards and the usage of certificates differ. This thesis describes the situation of the forest certifications in Finland, Sweden, Czech Republic and Austria. The results are gathered from literature, articles and forestry experts' interviews by countries. From the results of these interviews a SWOT analysis is conducted, which assess whether the FSC certification is developing the market situation with positive or negative effect. The conclusions are based on the SWOT analysis results, and include suggestions for the further development for FSC forest certification by countries.

A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Medicine. Johannesburg, 2017. / Antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) programmes along with infection and prevention control measures have been shown to reduce the burden of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in hospitals. There is a global campaign by infectious diseases physicians and other stakeholders for hospitals to implement AMS programmes. In Africa, there have been a limited number of AMS studies conducted although South African private hospitals have published some outcomes on initiation of these programmes in the continent, with the aim of improving patients’ clinical outcomes and reducing the development of resistance to prescribed antibiotics. A formal AMS programme is yet to be implemented in the surgery departments of the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital. This study was conducted in two surgical wards of the Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital (CMJAH). It was a quantitative study combining a prevalence cross-sectional observational stage, and an intervention study. It involved a retrospective review of patient records in the baseline stage followed by an intervention which took the form of a weekly antibiotic round led by an infectious diseases specialist. The appropriateness of antibiotic prescriptions was assessed using the criteria developed by Gyssens and colleagues, while the appropriateness of surgical prophylaxis was determined based on the recommendations of the South African Antibiotic Stewardship Programme (SAASP) and current Standard Treatment Guidelines and Essential Medicines Lists for South Africa. The prices of the antibiotics used were obtained from the central pharmacy of the CMJAH and Masters Price Catalogue list of the National Department of Health, while the prices of laboratory tests were obtained from the Tariff database. The volume of antibiotics consumed was determined by Defined Daily Doses (DDDs)/1000 patient days. In both stages of the study amoxicillin/clavulanic acid was the most frequently used agent. The intravenous route was the most commonly used route of drug administration in both stages of the study. There was a reduction in the proportion of patients who were treated with antibiotics for more than seven days in the intervention stage, from 6.19% in the baseline stage to 2.07% in the intervention stage. A significant reduction in the duration of antibiotic therapy for two days and more was observed from 4.74 ± 4.58 days in the baseline stage compared to 3.96 ± 2.04 days in the intervention stage (p = 0.01). A shift from empiric to culture directed therapy was also observed in the intervention stage compared to the baseline stage. There was a significant reduction in the volume of antibiotic consumption from a total of 739.30 DDDs/1000 patient days in the baseline stage to 564.93 DDDs/1000 patient days in the intervention stage (p = 0.038). Overall, there was a significant reduction of inappropriate antibiotic utilisation from 35% in the baseline stage to 26% in the intervention stage (p = 0.006). A high percentage of inappropriate surgical prophylaxis was found which was mostly due to the incorrect choice of agent with 64.75% and 61.54% in the baseline and intervention stages, respectively. The average antibiotic cost per patient was reduced from R 268.23 ± 389.32 to R 228.03 ± 326.88 in the Vascular Surgery Ward compared to the General Surgery Ward where there was an increase in average cost per patient from R 219.80 ± 400.75 in the baseline stage to R 284.06 ± 461.28 in the intervention stage. Gram-negative bacteria were the most prevalent pathogens in both stages of the study at 53% in the baseline and 54% during the intervention stage. The findings of this study show an improvement in the appropriateness of antibiotic utilisation, reduction in antibiotic consumption and cost reduction in one of the study wards, following implementation of an AMS programme. Also, there was an improvement in culture directed therapy, requests for an appropriate biological specimen for culture, with a consequent increase in the cost of laboratory investigations per patient during the intervention stage, which was due to increases in culture request. Rational antimicrobial prescribing habits, strong AMS interventions along with infection and prevention control measures, sound government policies and surveillance of resistant organisms in Africa will go a long way in preserving our antibiotics and preventing the spread of multidrug-resistant pathogens. / LG2018

The goal of antibiotic stewardship is to improve antibiotic use, often by reducing unnecessary treatment. Bedside dysphagia screening tools help identify patients at high risk of aspiration following stroke. Presence of dysphagia does not indicate a need for antibiotic treatment. Therefore, this retrospective, cohort study was developed to evaluate the association of dysphagia and antibiotic prescribing following stroke. There were 117 patients included. Patients were placed into 2 cohorts based on the results of the dysphagia screening, with 55 patients positive for dysphagia and 62 patients negative for dysphagia. Patients with dysphagia tended to be older, had higher National Institutes of Health stroke scores, and lower renal function. Patients with dysphagia were prescribed more empiric antibiotics than those without dysphagia (18.2% vs. 3.2%, p = 0.01). This resulted in 53 antibiotic days of therapy in the dysphagia cohort compared to 19 antibiotic days of therapy in the no dysphagia cohort (p = 0.1). No patients later developed pneumonia and only one patient was started antibiotics after 48 h. Two cases of Clostridioides difficile were reported. Both patients were in the dysphagia cohort and received antibiotics. Multivariable logistic regression demonstrated that positive chest x-ray findings and failed dysphagia screen were independent conditions associated with initiating antibiotics. These findings indicate that antibiotic use was higher in patients following stroke with a positive dysphagia screen. Close monitoring of stroke patients, particularly when positive for dysphagia, might be an under-recognized antibiotic stewardship opportunity.

Background: Antibiotic stewardship (ABS) is a set of strategies to optimize the use of antibiotics with the goal of reducing antibiotic resistance, improving patient outcomes and decreasing unnecessary costs. ABS affects all venues of patient care, including outpatient, inpatient, and long-term care. While many strategies for ABS exist and best practice continues to evolve, successful ABS programs utilize a multidisciplinary approach. Nurse practitioners (NPs) play an essential role in health care education and represent a valuable potential resource for ABS efforts. The purpose of this study is to describe the knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions of NPs towards ABS.Methods: A convenience sample of NPs attending the American Association of Nurse Practitioners annual conference was given a modified descriptive survey developed for use in a previous study conducted at a university-affiliated hospital in Florida. Descriptive statistics were used to assess normality. Chi-Square test of independence was used to test differences categorical scores by NP setting, gender, and level of education. Pearson r correlation was completed to measure the relationship between age and years in practice.Results: Two hundred NPs completed the questionnaire (88% female; 70% Master’s degree). The range of experience was 0-45 years (mean 11 years). Most NPs worked in a private office (23%) or community setting (29%). Factors affecting the decisions of antibiotic prescriptions included patient condition (79%) and patient cost (58%). NPs in this study also based their antibiotic decisions on the antibiogram (63%) in their setting, while 56% indicated they start with broad spectrum and tailor antibiotic choices when culture results are received. NPs reported understanding that inappropriate use of antibiotics causes resistance (97%), harms the patient (97%), and optimum antibiotic use will reduce resistance (94%). Participants also recognized that strong knowledge of antibiotics was important for their job (94%) and felt confident in their use of antibiotics (86%). However, while 94% of respondents somewhat or strongly agreed that antibiotics are overused nationally, only 62% thought antibiotics were overused in their health care setting. Conclusion: In this study, most NPs reported that antibiotic resistance is a problem and antibiotics are overused nationally. Fewer believe that antibiotic resistance is a problem locally and fewer still that they, personally, contribute to the problem. NPs recognize that knowledge about antibiotics is important to their career and would like more education about antibiotics and feedback about their antibiotic choices. Finding effective ways to provide this education could change practice and improve antibiotic use.

Recognition for historic preservation work in the United States has been reserved almost exclusively for the white elites who have dominated the preservation movement since the mid-nineteenth century. In contrast, this interdisciplinary dissertation presents Black men and women operating outside of the white preservation mainstream and recounts narratives of Black Bostonians stewarding buildings, landscapes, and neighborhoods. Several arguments emerge from the four case studies. First, Black Bostonians engaged in preservation work. Second, Black preservation efforts were useful as ways to channel place-based history into reform efforts predicated on the need for change, running counter to white elites' bolstering of continuity and celebratory histories. Third, Black preservation strategies, like their interpretations of the sites, incorporated and embraced change that was expressed in variations of adaptive reuse. Fourth, different factions within the city’s Black population had different preservation interests and visions of change, and whites and Blacks often took interest in the same sites for divergent reasons. And, finally, this dissertation shows that the white mainstream has repeatedly slighted Black preservation strategies and even gone so far as to cast them as blighting actions. Chapter One centers on the group of elite Black Bostonians who purchased the Roxbury home of William Lloyd Garrison, known as “Rockledge,” with the intent to preserve it as an antislavery memorial at the turn of the twentieth century. As St. Monica's Home for Colored Women and Children, the house became a site of contestation between the followers of William Monroe Trotter and Booker T. Washington. Chapter Two examines the dispute over the future of the Charles Street Meeting House, then the Charles Street A.M.E. Church, when a proposed street widening threatened the building in 1920. Chapter Three makes a case for studying actions that result in preservation and not just people who identify as preservationists by examining the conversions of single-family houses to multi-family homes by Black middle-class homeowners from the 1930s through the early 1960s. Lastly, Chapter Four features Elma Lewis, a Black arts educator and cultural activist who in 1966 adapted the Overlook Shelter ruins in Frederick Law Olmsted’s Franklin Park into an outdoor theater to support her community.

Labeling is one way consumers evaluate products for purchase. Environmental labeling is used to provide environmental information to the consumer. If a person is familiar with a particular labeling process they may be more inclined to consume such product. This study used the Tobii© T60 eye-tracking system to determine differences in gaze durations and time to first fixation between the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) label and an unsubstantiated label. Labels were placed on two different products (toilet paper and paper plates) and four locations (top-right corner, bottom-right corner, top-left corner, and bottom-left corner). Additionally, after the participants viewed the images they were asked to complete the six-question GREEN Consumer Values scale and then asked to sort eighteen different images based on label type and price. Participants did not differentiate between the two labels. Labels placed in the bottom-right corner received the least amount of attention (as measured by fixation duration) when compared to labels placed in the other three corners. Eye-tracking data was then split at the median and two groups were created: low label fixators versus high label fixators. High label fixators scored overall higher on the GREEN Consumer Values scale than low label fixators. Participants sorted the 18 products based on price, putting the lowest-labeled product first 84% of the time. Future studies could include looking at other environmental labels and broader populations. / Master of Science

Privately owned lands provide a number of benefits to humans, including food, clean air and water, and building materials. Private lands are also home to a host of wildlife species and the habitats that they rely upon for survival. As such, balancing human and ecological needs on private lands is of critical importance. Stewardship is a term popularly used to refer to this balanced approach of managing land for a host of benefits. When landowners lack the interest, ability, or willingness to incorporate stewardship into their management strategies, incentives are often provided to spur greater conservation outcomes. This two-part case study is focused on private land stewardship. Using qualitative data analysis, I first examined the behaviors that a sample of production-oriented ranchers defined as stewardship. I then explored the environmental values underlying their behaviors. Utilitarian values dominated the four broad themes that emerged from respondents' operationalization of stewardship, including: maintaining economically productive rangelands, protecting water resources, maintaining an aesthetically pleasing property, and providing for wildlife. Next, I sought to better understand the impact of incentives on durable conservation behaviors. As incentives can reduce intrinsic motivation, I used Self-Determination Theory as a framework for surveying participants in an existing conservation incentive program. The results suggest that landowners maintained their willingness to continue protecting a threatened bird species following the removal of an incentive. Each paper concludes with an analysis of findings within the context of the empirical literature, and present potential practical implications for future conservation efforts. / Master of Science

This research studies the effects of group stewardship and group learning on permanent work groups performing the core work and service processes in their organizations. Stewardship has been proposed as a potentially significant form of intrinsic motivation that causes people to act collectively in the best interests of their organization's stakeholders. However, stewardship has not been operationalized nor have its antecedents and consequences been empirically tested in prior field research. After defining group stewardship, the construct is shown to be distinct from related concepts such as psychological ownership and identification with the organization. While previous research has studied the concepts of individual and organizational learning, the concept of group learning is just emerging in the group effectiveness literature. Group learning is shown to be a multidimensional concept including integration of external perspectives, within-group collaboration, and practical application through experimentation. Within and between analysis (WABA) is utilized to determine which task, group and organizational constructs relate to the development of group stewardship at the individual, group and organizational levels of analysis. Four constructs, the need for analysis in doing the group's work, group potency, affective trust, and identification with the organization, are shown to be especially significant in developing group stewardship. Additionally, each of these four factors is shown to support different aspects of group learning. Finally, group stewardship is shown to be highly correlated with the presence of group learning, proactive behaviors, group performance, and employee job satisfaction. / Ph. D.

Yes / We explore the process of professionalization pre- and post-buyout (MBO) or buyin (MBI) of former private family firms using longitudinal evidence from six UK family firms undergoing an MBO/I in 1998. Professionalization behaviour was monitored up to 2014. Previous studies have conceptualized professionalization as a threshold to be attained. We demonstrate that professionalization is a complex process occurring in waves, triggered by changes in firm ownership and management. Waves of professionalization converge during the MBO/I process. Buyouts provide a funnelling mechanism enabling diverse control systems to be standardized. Post-MBO/I, divergence in the professionalization process reoccurs contingent on firm-specific contexts. Professionalization focuses on operations when stewardship relationships predominate, but on agency control mechanisms when there is increased potential for agency costs. Buyout organizational form is an important transitory phase facilitating the professionalization process. Professionalization is not a once-for-all development stage.

Yes / We explore the process of professionalization pre- and post- buyout (MBO) or buyin (MBI) of former private family firms using longitudinal evidence from six UK family firms undergoing an MBO/I in 1998. Professionalization behaviour was monitored up to 2014. Previous studies have conceptualized professionalization as a threshold to be attained. We demonstrate that professionalization is a complex process occurring in waves, triggered by changes in firm ownership and management. Waves of professionalization converge during the MBO/I process. Buyouts provide a funnelling mechanism enabling diverse control systems to be standardized. Post-MBO/I, divergence in the professionalization process reoccurs contingent on firm-specific contexts. Professionalization focuses on operations when stewardship relationships predominate, but on agency control mechanisms when there is increased potential for agency costs. Buyout organizational form is an important transitory phase facilitating the professionalization process. Professionalization is not a once for all development stage. / The Enterprise Research Centre is an independent research centre which focusses on SME growth and productivity. ERC is a partnership between Warwick Business School, Aston Business School, Imperial College Business School, Strathclyde Business School and Birmingham Business School. The Centre is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC); the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS); Innovate UK; and, through the British Bankers Association (BBA), by the Royal Bank of Scotland PLC; HSBC Bank PLC; Barclays Bank PLC and Lloyds Bank PLC. The support of the funders is acknowledged. The views expressed in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the funders.