Family members are in an optimal position to identify changes in behaviour of loved ones suffering from delirium. To date there are no known studies on educational interventions specifically targeting families of the elderly related to delirium outside of the hospital setting. Using the Knowledge to Action Process, families became involved in the development of a knowledge translation product related to delirium. It was found from two focus groups that participants’ knowledge of delirium was limited. Also, it was determined that participants were most interested in receiving an educational session in a group setting. The education session was developed using feedback from the focus groups as well as evidence based resources. The focus for the education session was on prevention and identification of delirium. There were a total of seven education sessions held and 16 eligible participants. In each session a pre and post-test for delirium knowledge was given to the participants. There was a significant increase in scores on the post-test following the session. Participants were also given a post session questionnaire to evaluate the education session. Overall the session was well received; participants were often interested in learning more about delirium. Half of the participants felt they would be able to identify delirium in someone close to them. The majority of participants thought that it is important for other families of the elderly to receive a similar session on delirium. Four to six weeks following the education session, semi-structured telephone interviews were conducted with five participants from the second phase in order to receive further feedback on the intervention. Most participants were able to recall information related to risk factors and signs of delirium. Three participants stated that the education sessions should be longer in order to provide more time for discussion. Participants still thought they would be able to recognize delirium as long as they were close to the person experiencing it. Since the education session none of the participants had witnessed anyone who was delirious. / Thesis (Master, Nursing) -- Queen's University, 2010-09-03 12:50:12.792

abstract: The greatest challenge facing humanity in the twenty-first century is our ability to reconcile the capacity of natural systems to support continued improvement in human welfare around the globe. Over the last decade, the scientific community has attempted to formulate research agendas in response to what they view as the problems of sustainability. Perhaps the most prominent and wide-ranging of these efforts has been sustainability science, an interdisciplinary, problem-driven field that seeks to address fundamental questions on human-environment interactions. This project examines how sustainability scientists grapple with and bound the deeply social, political and normative dimensions of both characterizing and pursuing sustainability. Based on in-depth interviews with leading researchers and a content analysis of the relevant literature, this project first addresses three core questions: (1) how sustainability scientists define and bound sustainability; (2) how and why various research agendas are being constructed to address these notions of sustainability; (3) and how scientists see their research contributing to societal efforts to move towards sustainability. Based on these results, the project explores the tensions between scientific efforts to study and inform sustainability and social action. It discusses the implications of transforming sustainability into the subject of scientific analysis with a focus on the power of science to constrain discourse and the institutional and epistemological contexts that link knowledge to societal outcomes. Following this analysis, sustainability science is repositioned, borrowing Herbert Simon's concept, as a "science of design." Sustainability science has thus far been too focused on understanding the "problem-space"--addressing fundamental questions about coupled human-natural systems. A new set objectives and design principles are proposed that would move the field toward a more solutions-oriented approach and the enrichment of public reasoning and deliberation. Four new research streams that would situate sustainability science as a science of design are then discussed: creating desirable futures, socio-technical change, sustainability values, and social learning. The results serve as a foundation for a sustainability science that is evaluated on its ability to frame sustainability problems and solutions in ways that make them amenable to democratic and pragmatic social action. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Sustainability 2011

Criticism concerning quality deficiencies and high production costs for housing has made many construction companies make efforts to improve performance, inspired by ideas from the manufacturing industry and in particular the car industry. This is often referred to as industrialised building. The ideas are not new but so far their spread has been limited. This study covers two years of one current effort to industrialise house building in a Swedish construction company, the Peab group. An investment in a new factory for automated production of concrete building elements had been made and start up of production in the factory took place during the time of the study. Two subunits, a contractor and a structural building element supplier were involved in the industrialisation effort and the study is confined to these. To improve performance, a prefabricated building system including Peab standards was to be developed and used across the organisation, instead of the existing local solutions. A project, Peab Gemensamt System concept (PGS), was established to conduct the task. The focus for the study is on the facilitators and barriers to make organisational changes for the purpose of industrialising house building in a construction company. Observations were made at meetings with the PGS core team and the involved Peab group staff was interviewed. Notions of organisational competence and embedded knowledge and action were applied to describe the studied company’s specific organisational context and to identify facilitators and barriers. Conclusions concern how organisational context, content of change and the change process interrelated and formed the outcome. In this case, fundamental ideas for change became local attempts. Establishing a project, PGS, for conducting change was new to the target organisation. Facilitators were not created to allow the organisation to learn to change in this new way. The PGS project could therefore not contribute directly to change. One building project introduced a prefabricated building system. It was beyond the team’s control to make necessary changes to benefit from it. Therefore, temporary adaptations to prevailing organisational conditions were made. Another building project introduced a new way of working during the detail design stage. It was within the team’s control to make necessary changes to benefit from it. Existing organisational competence could therefore be enhanced. The new factory had the potential to rationalise production of building elements, but it did not automatically solve problems related to the collaboration between the building element supplier and the contractor. Issues for improving performance through the studied ideas for industrialisation emerge from this. These concern combining the contractor’s and building element supplier’s different ways of working; meeting customer requirements while realising certain industrialisation ideas; and the roles of the permanent and temporary organisations for embedding knowledge without losing flexibility. / QC 20100924

This is a case study to take the Top Management Team (TMT), as the main part; moreover, the point of view in the study is to apply ¡§Resource-Building Mechanism¡¨ to explore multicultural companies how effectively building resource on their practical operation in the enterprises. Gradually, the operation leads the Group into a competitive advantage with sustainable development. The secret is not in the esoteric management theories, but in the tangible and intangible resources to integrate the unity capabilities of Knowledge, Belief, and Action. By the methods of questionnaire survey and in-depth interview on the case study of the TMT in the K Company - one of the largest instant noodle food group in the world, this research aims to understand how the Belief strongly affects TMT in common interactions between CEO and TMT in the company. In addition, the research tries to realize how they integrate the idea in the process of organizational change and jointly establish the same faith and trust for the shared vision. Based on result of the research, a key factor to comprehend the maintaining growth of high-performance and competitive advantage which makes opponents hard to imitate and surpass is the tight coherence between the CEO of the company and the Top Management Team. By resolution and perseverance practice of organizational belief, it leads to a unique true essence in the strategic business actions and management. The research proposes a significant value of the unity capabilities of Knowledge, Belief, and Action for the company and provides a practicable way for future research.

Knowledge sharing and information security have become well-established concepts in academia and within organisations. Knowledge sharing aims to encourage individuals to share tacit and explicit knowledge with colleagues and stakeholders, yet on the other hand, information security initiatives aim to apply controls and restrictions to the knowledge that can be shared and how it can be shared, where the primary focus is usually on protecting explicit knowledge or information. This thesis draws attention to the largely unexplored and under-developed area of knowledge protection ; it investigates the paradoxical and concurrent nature of knowledge sharing and information security practices by exploring their relationship and understanding how this can affect an organisation and subsequently identifies ways of achieving a balance between the two practices. The empirical work was carried out through an interpretivist case study approach in the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) an organisation that combines knowledge and expertise from partnerships with academia, industry and the UK government, in order to deliver innovative low carbon solutions. A novel team-based action learning approach was developed to generate individual, team and organisational learning and to help initiate change; the data was collected from three project teams about their knowledge and experiences of knowledge sharing and information security practices, which was then analysed and further supplemented with the ETI s organisational perspective and the researcher s own experience of collaborating with the ETI to contextualise the findings. Eight predominant overarching themes were identified that play an important role in and influence the organisation s knowledge sharing and information security practices. When looking at the practices of knowledge sharing and information security independently at the ETI, proactive and conscious efforts towards achieving the goals of each practice are evident. Knowledge is recognised as the ETI s core product and its effective dissemination is key for the organisation s success, which is why there is a keen attitude towards improving knowledge sharing internally and externally. On the other hand, a great deal of importance is given to protecting valuable knowledge and meeting stakeholders confidentiality requirements, thus, there are good systems, access controls, and information restrictions in place. In addition, strict legal and approval processes to protect information value and accuracy are implemented. However, when both knowledge sharing and information security - practices are compared from a broader perspective, evidence of issues arising from their conflicting nature is evident. Moreover, operating in a complex governance structure with various expectations and contractual agreements with stakeholders regarding confidentiality, has created a protective culture in the organisation surrounding its knowledge, which causes a hindrance to formal and informal knowledge sharing (including both, tacit and explicit forms) and makes identifying opportunities for fully exploiting knowledge and Intellectual Property an ongoing operational challenge. The research process facilitated the achievement of effective learning at individual, team and organisational level for the ETI about its practices, identification of challenges and areas of improvement, incorporation of learning and recommendations into its knowledge management strategy alongside existing activities to improve knowledge sharing. The contents of this thesis particularly the eight themes that have emerged from the research findings - are also contributing significantly to a project the organisation is carrying out to reflect on and review what has been learned from operating the ETI for the last 10 years. The thesis contributes to the existing body of knowledge, theoretically and practically, in the disciplines of knowledge management and information security; what was predominantly overlooked by previous literature, the empirical research findings surface evidence of the relationship between knowledge sharing and information security practices, showing their interconnectedness, and, the negative consequences of the two practices being treated and managed separately. For the action learning arena, a novel methodological approach underpinned by the action learning philosophy has been introduced that demonstrates how team action learning (i.e. using intact teams as opposed to conventional action learning teams) can be used to engage employees to share and combine their knowledge on real organisational issues, generate new learning and develop actions to initiate improvements in the organisation.

In just over a decade, exome sequencing and genome sequencing (ES/GS) has transitioned from a research method to an implemented test for patients with suspected rare genetic diseases (RGDs) worldwide, and healthcare systems are challenged to optimize its use within their jurisdictions. This thesis aimed to examine the rapidly evolving scientific evidence base related to ES/GS and how it has been translated into diagnostic care for families with RGDs to inform practice and policy in the future. Guided by the Knowledge-to-Action (KTA) conceptual framework, I designed and conducted three original studies: two aimed to generate evidence related to the KTA concept of Knowledge Creation, and the third studied the Action Cycle. In Article 1, we examined the knowledge base and determined that evidence related to the etiologies of RGDs and analytical processes related to ES/GS testing are progressing at a pace that has diagnostic implications. Next, in Article 2, we examined knowledge refinement and found that one knowledge user, organizations representing genetics professionals, have produced clinical recommendations related to a broad range of topics connected to ES/GS for RGD diagnosis, but the quality of clinical guidance documents is low, overall, and with specific reference to the rigour of the methods developers used. Finally, in Article 3, we studied the Action Cycle and found that implementing publicly-funded ES/GS using a set of clinical eligibility criteria in the Ontario healthcare system resulted in clinically-valid diagnoses for patients that met provincial benchmarks for diagnostic yield. Together, the results of these studies informed eight considerations for optimizing ES/GS testing with implications for healthcare practitioners, patients, guidance developers, payers, and researchers. Importantly, this thesis provides evidence of the necessity for continued evaluation and improved guidance development related to ES/GS to optimize this testing. It offers a foundation for future studies that may investigate knowledge translation into policy and practice in this and other rapidly evolving fields. Ultimately, these findings will enable better diagnostic care for families with RGDs.

The pursuit of harmony has always been a great concern of Chinese thinkers. In this process, especially prior to the Ming dynasty, a significant “borrowing” of their basic philosophical elements and their mutually syncretic metamorphosis was a common practice among three religious communities, particularly disseminated during times of crisis. The work of Wang Yangming proved to be an epitome of this philosophical “collaboration”, capable of producing new synthetic teachings that directly or indirectly linked two or more polarized teachings. He succeeded in modifying the existing Buddhist idea of inherited Buddha Nature to be now understood as an innate insight, while also promoting the practice of meditation, as a clear example of Chan and Daoist influence. Wang Yangming is probably best known for his emphasis on the simultaneity of the two functions – knowledge and action, viewed as a reinterpretation of non-Confucian ideas in a new Neo-Confucian framework.

The pursuit of harmony has always been a great concern of Chinese thinkers. In this process, especially prior to the Ming dynasty, a significant “borrowing” of their basic philosophical elements and their mutually syncretic metamorphosis was a common practice among three religious communities, particularly disseminated during times of crisis. The work of Wang Yangming proved to be an epitome of this philosophical “collaboration”, capable of producing new synthetic teachings that directly or indirectly linked two or more polarized teachings. He succeeded in modifying the existing Buddhist idea of inherited Buddha Nature to be now understood as an innate insight, while also promoting the practice of meditation, as a clear example of Chan and Daoist influence. Wang Yangming is probably best known for his emphasis on the simultaneity of the two functions – knowledge and action, viewed as a reinterpretation of non-Confucian ideas in a new Neo-Confucian framework.

Alors que l’enseignement de l’entrepreneuriat s’est souvent orienté vers la création d’entreprise, de nouvelles conceptions émergent autour de la notion de processus entrepreneurial. Au sein de cette notion, la mise en situation acquiert une place importante en tant que source favorisant l’action entrepreneuriale. Nous soulignons, dans la première partie de cette thèse, que les approches classiques focalisées uniquement sur la création d’entreprise demeurent insuffisantes pour répondre aux besoins d’apprentissage des étudiants porteurs de projet. Dans cette perspective, nous avons orienté notre travail de recherche vers l’enseignement de l’entrepreneuriat en considérant l’aller-retour entre la réflexion et l’action. Pour cela, nous proposons, dans la deuxième partie, une nouvelle façon d’aborder la Méthode des cas en adoptant un cadre conceptuel autour de la démarche de recherche-intervention appliquée au Pôle Entrepreneuriat Etudiant de Lorraine (PeeL). Il s’agit de montrer que la valorisation des expériences vécues dans la mise en situation permet de favoriser la construction de savoirs utiles pour l’action entrepreneuriale / Even when the entrepreneurship teaching has generally been oriented to the company creation new proposals focused on the notion of the entrepreneurial process has emerged. Within this concept the contextualization gains great importance as a becoming element in the entrepreneurial process. As we have demonstrated in the first part of the thesis, the classic theories focused only on the creation of companies seem to be insufficient to face the learning needs of the entrepreneurship students. From this perspective, our research has been pointed to the entrepreneurship teaching attending the double link between reflection and action. To do this, in the second part of our thesis, we proposed a new way of adopting the case method by a process of intervention at the Pôle entrepreneuriat étudiant de Lorraine (PeeL). We try to show that the appreciation of experiences when students are part of a real situation can benefit the construction of useful knowledge to the entrepreneur

Schriftenreihe hrsg. von den Professoren des Instituts für Psychologie I, Arbeitsgruppe 'Wissen - Denken - Handeln' an der TU Dresden