A Reexamination of the Relationship between Training Practices and Welfare in the Management of Ambassador Animals

There is an ethical need to document and develop best practices for meeting ambassador animals' welfare needs within the context of meeting zoo and aquarium program objectives. This is because ambassador animals experience direct and frequent contact with humans. This paper rigorously synthesizes behavioral research and theory, contemporary practices, and personal experiences to offer key concepts that can be applied to meet ambassador animal welfare needs. These key concepts include addressing an animal's recognition of choice and control, the use of the most positive and least intrusive effective interventions when training animals to participate in programming, and an overall reduction in aversive strategy use. Our model for increasing ambassador animal welfare focuses on seven main areas of concern, including the following: choosing the most suitable animal for the program; choosing the human with the right skills and knowledge for the program; using the most positive, least intrusive, effective training methods; developing a strong trusting relationship between trainer and animal; developing a comprehensive enrichment program; the need for institutional support; and creating opportunities for animals to practice species-appropriate behaviors. Our model will provide guidelines for improved ambassador animal welfare that can be refined with future research.

Establishing a national research software award

Software development has become an integral part of the scholarly ecosystem, spanning all fields and disciplines. To support the sharing and creation of knowledge in line with open science principles, and particularly to enable the reproducibility of research results, it is crucial to make the source code of research software available, allowing for modification, reuse, and distribution. Recognizing the significance of open-source software contributions in academia, the second French Plan for Open Science, announced by the Minister of Higher Education and Research in 2021, introduced a National Award to promote open-source research software. This award serves multiple objectives: firstly, to highlight the software projects and teams that have devoted time and effort to develop outstanding research software, sometimes for decades, and often with little recognition; secondly, to draw attention to the importance of software as a valuable research output and to inspire new generations of researchers to follow and learn from these examples. We present here an in-depth analysis of the design and implementation of this unique initiative. As a national award established explicitly to foster Open Science practices by the French Minister of Research, it faced the intricate challenge of fairly evaluating open research software across all fields, striving for inclusivity across domains, applications, and participants. We provide a comprehensive report on the results of the first edition, which received 129 high-quality submissions. Additionally, we emphasize the impact of this initiative on the open science landscape, promoting software as a valuable research outcome, on par with publications.

Factors Influencing Sustainable Development Literacy among Engineering Undergraduates in China: Based on the College Impact Model

Achieving carbon neutrality is a major strategy to combat climate change and achieve sustainable development. Training engineering undergraduates with sustainable development literacy is an important way to achieve this goal in the field of higher education. Based on the college impact model, this research surveyed 1070 engineering undergraduates in Chinese universities to explore the influence of institutional support on undergraduates' sustainable development literacy, and the empirical analysis was conducted using Structural Equation Modeling. The results showed that institutional support positively and significantly influenced the sustainability development literacy of engineering undergraduates, and student engagement had a mediating role in the relationship between institutional support and sustainability development literacy. Relevant recommendations for cultivating engineering undergraduates with high-level sustainability development literacy are proposed here.

How to mitigate the inhibitory effect of organizational inertia on corporate digital entrepreneurship?

As a novel way for incumbent firms to discover and utilize entrepreneurial opportunities in the digital era, corporate digital entrepreneurship (CDE) is significant for realizing digital transformation through dealing with organizational sclerosis and bureaucratization. Previous studies have identified the variables having positive effects on CDE and put forward practical solutions to promoting CDE. However, the majority of them have ignored the variables having negative effects on CDE and how to mitigate the inhibitory effects. In order to fill the research gap, this study investigates the causal relationship between organizational inertia (OI) and CDE and examines the moderating roles of internal factors such as digital capability (DC) and entrepreneurial culture (EC) as well as external factors such as institutional support (IS) and strategic alliance (SA). Based on multiple linear regression (symmetric) and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (asymmetric) using survey data from 349 Chinese firms, the results demonstrate that OI has a significant negative effect on CDE. In addition, DC, EC, and SA play negative moderating roles in the relationship between OI and CDE, which means that they could reduce the inhibitory effect derived from OI when incumbent firms implement CDE. Moreover, dividing OI into three dimensions discovers that the moderating roles of DC, EC, and SA present different features. This study enriches the literature on corporate entrepreneurship and provides valuable practical implications for incumbent firms to achieve successful CDE by revealing how to overcome the inertia deeply embedded in organizations.

Predictors associated with new nursing faculty's intent to leave nursing academia: teaching preparation in doctoral program, institutional supports, and job satisfaction

OBJECTIVES

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among demographics, doctoral teaching preparation, nurse faculty institutional support, faculty job satisfaction, and intent to leave current nursing academic position in PhD- and DNP-prepared faculty.

METHODS

Using a survey research design, invitations to a Qualtrics survey were emailed to nursing program directors. Independent samples t-tests and logistic regression models were used to determine the nature of the relationships.

RESULTS

In total, 149 participants completed the survey. Degree type, age, and job satisfaction were significant predictors related to intent to leave nursing academia. Doctoral program teaching preparation and institutional support were not statistically associated with intent to leave nursing academia.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings suggest older age, PhD-prepared faculty, and job dissatisfaction were significant factors influencing decisions to leave nursing academia among the doctoral prepared new nursing faculty. Efforts to retain or increase the number of nurse faculty must be prioritized.

Communication in Pharmacy Higher Education to Improve Work-life and Mitigate Burnout

Objective. To identify the content, style, timing, tone, and initiation of communication that best connotes "reassurance of worth" from peers and supervisors in pharmacy academia.Methods. This study employed semi-structured interviews to acquire in-depth information from pharmacy faculty through a purposive sampling process. Academicians who had published in the area of work-life and/or were deemed likely to make substantial contributions to the interview were asked to participate. Participants represented a cross section of pharmacy faculty in terms of discipline, institution, and demographic characteristics. An interview guide was constructed based on motivating language theory and provisions of social relationships theory. Interviews were conducted via Zoom and transcribed verbatim. Themes were gleaned using open coding, then audited and checked.Results. Data saturation occurred after eight interviews. Two primary themes emerged: guidance, particularly related to professional development and tenure; and reassurance of worth through invited participation, praise, and/or rewards. Interviewees highlighted the importance of empathetic yet practical language among peers, and supervisor-initiated, meaning-making language rather than generic platitudes.Conclusion. Empathetic, personal language that provides guidance and reassurance of worth can enhance pharmacy faculty contributions and mitigate burnout. Invitations to collaborate are seen by faculty as collegial and engaging. This study demonstrated the usefulness of motivating language theory and social provisions in guiding communications among pharmacy academicians.

The association between the level of institutional support for dementia care in primary care practices and the quality of dementia primary care: A retrospective chart review

INTRODUCTION

Institutional support, encompassing financial and training support, as well as interdisciplinary teams, may be important for the quality of dementia primary care for persons living with dementia. The aim of this study was to measure the association between the level of institutional support provided to primary care practices and the quality of dementia care.

METHODS

This was a cross-sectional chart review in 33 Canadian primary care practices to measure the quality of dementia primary care using a quality of follow-up score. The score was based on the assessment of 10 indicators. Practices were chosen using a purposeful sampling method with varying levels of institutional support for dementia primary care (e.g., financial support, training, interdisciplinary team). A linear mixed-effect model was used to measure the association between the level of institutional support and the quality of dementia care.

RESULTS

There was a significant association between the level of institutional support and the quality of dementia care (mean difference = 23.5, 95% confidence interval: 16.4, 30.6).

DISCUSSION

Providing more institutional support for primary care practices could be a promising avenue to improve the care of persons living with dementia.

Overcoming mental health stigma through student's awareness and project-based inclusive pedagogy in English teaching colleges: Moderating role of institutional support in China

Mental health stigma undermines collaborative work and creates communication breakdowns for students to face real-world challenges. Moreover, project-based English learning in East-Asian nations is a significant challenge for advancing students' effective learning, while students lack mental health self-awareness. Unawareness causes distractions and results in learning inefficiencies. Furthermore, without institutional support (IS) achieving effective learning could never be possible. Therefore, this study investigates the relationships between project-based learning (PBL) and mental health awareness (MHA) with effective English language teaching among university students in China. We also tested the moderation effect of IS in the relationships between PBL and MHA with effective English language learning (EEL). Using the purposive sampling technique, we collected valid responses from 713 students studying English as a foreign language in universities and colleges in Harbin, China. The findings interestingly supported the direct hypotheses between PBL and EEL, as well as MHA and EEL. Moreover, the moderating role of IS established a significant effect on both PBL and EEL, as well as MHA and EEL, respectively. Policymakers, practitioners, and academicians should understand that integrating PBL as an inclusive pedagogy method with proper IS may enhance effective learning; however, it will consume more time.

Attitudes, perceptions, self-efficacy and knowledge levels of Israeli nurses in relation to opioid misuse: A cross-sectional survey

BACKGROUND

In an opioid epidemic that is imposing heavy health burdens on individuals, families and health systems, nurses are the main front-line caregivers in the battle against the unrelenting increase in opioid medication misuse. Yet, little research has been conducted on nurses' opinions and knowledge surrounding this issue worldwide and in Israel as well.

OBJECTIVES

To evaluate Israeli nurses' attitudes, their knowledge about opioid use and misuse, their perception of institutional support, and their perception of their role and self-efficacy in preventing and treating opioid misuse.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional study.

METHODS

The data were collected through an electronic questionnaire from 414 Israeli registered nurses using the Qualtrics platform for on-line surveys.

RESULTS

The majority of the sample perceived their role positively, held positive attitudes toward people with opioid addiction, and were willing to take care of persons who misused opioids. Nurses reported low scores on knowledge, perceived institutional support, and self-efficacy relating to the issues surrounding opioid pain medication use and misuse.

CONCLUSIONS

The results clearly indicate a lack of up-to-date knowledge among nurses concerning opioids use. This situation must be urgently corrected through revisiting the subject of opioids across undergraduate, graduate, and continuing nursing education programs. Improved knowledge, combined with a supportive organizational culture, should strengthen nursing care provided to this frequently neglected patient population.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE

Broad insight into nurses' attitudes, their level of knowledge about opioid use and misuse, and their perceptions of their own role in preventing and treating such misuse are essential for creating targeted, relevant educational interventions for nurses with the aim of providing safe and effective opioid treatment for individuals with pain.

"I had no idea the university offered"…: The support needs of postgraduate taught students

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. Introduction Medical schools have a duty to support students to ensure they fulfil their potential. Relatively little is known about the generic, or therapeutic, support needs of postgraduate taught (PGT) students. This is an important gap to address given the literature suggests that "one size does not fit all". Thus, our aim was to explore and understand PGT support needs. Methods This was a qualitative research study using semi-structured focus groups, conducted in one UK university. We recruited medical and science undergraduates as well as PGT participants to get a sense of what was unique to the PGT student experience. Questions were drawn from the literature and local evaluation data. Discussions were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim for inductive data coding and analysis. Results Six focus groups were conducted with 38 participants. Two main themes each with two sub-themes were identified: Communication (Practicalities; Fulfilled but not tailored) related to the transition into PGT, and Time and Contacts, related to managing the course. Discussion PGT students need to address non-academic, often practical, factors in a timely way to navigate university successfully. Knowing who to ask and informal supports are important. Poor and/or difficult-to-access institutional supports may leave PGT students vulnerable.

Job Satisfaction Among Methadone Maintenance Treatment Clinic Service Providers in Jiangsu, China: A Cross-sectional Survey

OBJECTIVE

Service providers' job satisfaction is critical to the stability of the work force and thereby the effectiveness of methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) programs. This study aimed to explore MMT clinic service providers' job satisfaction and associated factors in Jiangsu, China.

METHODS

This secondary study used baseline data of a randomized interventional trial implemented in Jiangsu, China. A survey was conducted among 76 MMT service providers using the computer-assisted self-interview (CASI) method. Job satisfaction responses were assessed via a 30-item scale, with a higher score indicating a higher level of job satisfaction. Perceived institutional support and perceived stigma due to working with drug users were measured using a 9-item scale. Correlation and multiple linear regression analyses were performed to identify factors associated with job satisfaction.

RESULTS

Correlation analyses found a significant association between job satisfaction and having professional experience in the prevention and control of HIV, other sexually transmitted infections, or other infectious diseases (P = 0.046). Multiple regression analyses revealed that working at MMT clinics affiliated with Center for Disease Control and Prevention sites was associated with a lower level of job satisfaction (P = 0.014), and perception of greater institutional support (P = 0.001) was associated with a higher level of job satisfaction.

CONCLUSION

Job satisfaction among MMT clinic service providers was moderate in our study. Our findings suggest that institutional support for providers should be improved, and that acquisition of additional expertise should be encouraged.

Shaping Behaviors Through Institutional Support in British Higher Educational Institutions: Focusing on Employees for Sustainable Technological Change

Technology permeates all walks of life. It has emerged as a global facilitator to improve learning and training, alleviating the temporal and spatial limitations of traditional learning systems. It is imperative to identify enablers or inhibitors of technology adoption by employees for sustainable change in education management systems. Using the theoretical lens of organizational support theory, this paper studies effect of institutional support on education management information systems (EMIS) use along with two individual traits of self-efficacy and innovative behavior of academic employees in British higher educational institutions. Data for this cross-sectional study were collected through a questionnaire completed by 591 academic employees of 23 universities from 10 cities in the United Kingdom. Partial Least Square structural equation modeling was used to analyze data with smartPLS 3.2.9 software. Results indicate that institutional support promotes self-efficacy and innovative behavior that help develop positive employee perceptions. The model explains a 52.9% variance in intention to use. Post-hoc mediation analysis shows that innovativeness and self-efficacy mediate between institutional support and employee technology adoption behavior. As opposed to student samples in past studies on educational technology, this study adds to the literature by focusing on academic employees.

Bioinformatics Core Survey Highlights the Challenges Facing Data Analysis Facilities

Over the last decade, the cost of -omics data creation has decreased 10-fold, whereas the need for analytical support for those data has increased exponentially. Consequently, bioinformaticians face a second wave of challenges: novel applications of existing approaches (e.g., single-cell RNA sequencing), integration of -omics data sets of differing size and scale (e.g., spatial transcriptomics), as well as novel computational and statistical methods, all of which require more sophisticated pipelines and data management. Nonetheless, bioinformatics cores are often asked to operate under primarily a cost-recovery model, with limited institutional support. Seeing the need to assess bioinformatics core operations, the Association of Biomolecular Resource Facilities Genomics Bioinformatics Research Group conducted a survey to answer questions about staffing, services, financial models, and challenges to better understand the challenges bioinformatics core facilities are currently faced with and will need to address going forward. Of the respondent groups, we chose to focus on the survey data from smaller cores, which made up the majority. Although all cores indicated similar challenges in terms of changing technologies and analysis needs, small cores tended to have the added challenge of funding their operations largely through cost-recovery models with heavy administrative burdens.

Entrepreneurs and Environmental Sustainability in the Digital Era: Regional and Institutional Perspectives

Climate change and environmental degradation have negatively affected the sustainable development of mankind. The “green” concept has been gradually accepted by the public, thereby strongly promoting “green” business forms and social innovation. This study adopts related information and technology knowledge and experience and warm glow (altruistic value) for business initiatives as push factors, market opportunity (MO) and personal innovativeness (PI) in technology as pull factors, and institutional theory (regulatory support and normative support) as mooring factors. These factors are employed to analyze the switching intentions of individuals toward green entrepreneurship, which is a new persuasive psychological model based on Push–Pull–Mooring model (PPM). The survey questionnaires are collected from a total of 1562 respondents through WeChat in mainland China. The study findings present all variables that significantly affect individuals’ switching intentions toward green entrepreneurs. PI exhibits the most significant impact on intention of individuals toward green entrepreneurship, while the interaction between the mooring factor and MO on switching intentions to green entrepreneurship is relatively weak. Finally, the study contributes theoretical and practical implications for increasing intentions toward green entrepreneurship.

University multi-user facility survey-2010

Multi-user facilities serve as a resource for many universities. In 2010, a survey was conducted investigating possible changes and successful characteristics of multi-user facilities, as well as identifying problems in facilities. Over 300 surveys were e-mailed to persons identified from university websites as being involved with multi-user facilities. Complete responses were received from 36 facilities with an average of 20 years of operation. Facilities were associated with specific departments (22%), colleges (22%), and university research centers (8.3%) or were not affiliated with any department or college within the university (47%). The five most important factors to succeed as a multi-user facility were: 1) maintaining an experienced, professional staff in an open atmosphere; 2) university-level support providing partial funding; 3) broad client base; 4) instrument training programs; and 5) an effective leader and engaged strategic advisory group. The most significant problems were: 1) inadequate university financial support and commitment; 2) problems recovering full service costs from university subsidies and user fees; 3) availability of funds to repair and upgrade equipment; 4) inability to retain highly qualified staff; and 5) unqualified users dirtying/damaging equipment. Further information related to these issues and to fee structure was solicited. Overall, there appeared to be a decline in university support for facilities and more emphasis on securing income by serving clients outside of the institution and by obtaining grants from entities outside of the university.

Building capacity for public and population health research in Africa: the consortium for advanced research training in Africa (CARTA) model

BACKGROUND

Globally, sub-Saharan Africa bears the greatest burden of disease. Strengthened research capacity to understand the social determinants of health among different African populations is key to addressing the drivers of poor health and developing interventions to improve health outcomes and health systems in the region. Yet, the continent clearly lacks centers of research excellence that can generate a strong evidence base to address the region's socio-economic and health problems.

OBJECTIVE AND PROGRAM OVERVIEW

We describe the recently launched Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (CARTA), which brings together a network of nine academic and four research institutions from West, East, Central, and Southern Africa, and select northern universities and training institutes. CARTA's program of activities comprises two primary, interrelated, and mutually reinforcing objectives: to strengthen research infrastructure and capacity at African universities; and to support doctoral training through the creation of a collaborative doctoral training program in population and public health. The ultimate goal of CARTA is to build local research capacity to understand the determinants of population health and effectively intervene to improve health outcomes and health systems.

CONCLUSIONS

CARTA's focus on the local production of networked and high-skilled researchers committed to working in sub-Saharan Africa, and on the concomitant increase in local research and training capacity of African universities and research institutes addresses the inability of existing programs to create a critical mass of well-trained and networked researchers across the continent. The initiative's goal of strengthening human resources and university-wide systems critical to the success and sustainability of research productivity in public and population health will rejuvenate institutional teaching, research, and administrative systems.

Job turnover intentions among pharmacy faculty

OBJECTIVES

To determine the primary reasons why pharmacy faculty intend to remain or leave their current institution and why they left their most recent academic institution, and the relative contribution of various organizational and individual characteristics toward explaining variance in turnover intentions.

METHODS

A survey instrument was e-mailed to pharmacy faculty members asking respondents to indicate up to 5 reasons for their intentions and up to 5 reasons why they left a previous institution. The survey also elicited perceptions on quality of work life in addition to demographic and institutional data, upon which turnover intentions were regressed using a forward-conditional procedure. Organizational commitment as a moderator of turnover intentions was regressed over the remaining variables not acting directly on employer intentions.

RESULTS

Just over 1 in 5 respondents indicated intentions to leave their current academic institution. Excessive workload, seeking a new challenge, poor salary, and poor relationships with college or school administrators were frequently cited as reasons for leaving. Turnover intentions are influenced directly by department chair support and organizational commitment, which moderates various support and satisfaction variables.

CONCLUSIONS

Pharmacy faculty members' decision to remain or leave an institution is dependent upon developing a sense of commitment toward the institution. Commitment is facilitated by support from the institution and department chair, in addition to a sense of satisfaction with the teaching environment.