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Purpose – This chapter examines the literature on the dangers of methylmercury exposure and the 2004 Food and Drug Administration/Environmental Protection Agency (FDA/EPA) Advisory on fish consumption. It analyzes the extent to which particular groups of people living in the United States are vulnerable to toxic food consumption and the extent to which the advisories put them at risk.

Design/methodology/approach – The authors conducted a review of the literature related to methylmercury. In addition, they used archival information from government documents. They also analyzed the fish advisories and educational information posted on websites of each state's Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program.

Findings – Methylmercury is a potent neurotoxin that can seriously affect fetal brain growth and development. Although the federal government promotes canned tuna as an inexpensive, beneficial protein source, recent reports indicate that a large proportion of America's favorite fish contains unsafe levels of methylmercury. Populations at risk for overconsumption include minorities and low-income groups, particularly recipients of federal subsidies such as WIC.

Practical implications – The FDA uses a “nuanced” message to offer consumers information about both the risks and benefits of eating fish. However, the advisory is not widely distributed and information on mercury levels in fish is not available at the point of sale. Minority populations are less likely to be aware of fish advisories and to change consumption habits. Thus, the target population remains largely uninformed and possibly misled about the risks and benefits of eating canned tuna.

Social implications – Based on new data, the federal government should recognize mercury as a hazard, update its consumption guidelines, and better monitor the mercury content in canned tuna. Outreach and educational programs should target minority and at-risk groups. The authors recommend an alternative precautionary approach in dealing with the health threats posed by methylmercury in tuna fish.

Outlines the lead up to the establishment of the Network Development Office to ensure that the Library of Congress participated in national network planning. The work was vested in the Network Advisory Group set up in 1977 and later renamed the Network Advisory Committee. From this evolved a task force to be called the Network Technical Architecture Group (NTAG). The accomplishments of NTAG are described, and relate to computer links, protocol for such links, and national networks for sharing bibliographic and other data. Future considerations are also outlined.

The involvement of stakeholders such as employers, alumni, and students has always been considered a key element in improving the higher education (HE) system. While considering stakeholders as key players in serving the market and in improving HE instruction, a two-sided collaborative involvement should aim at satisfying the mutual interests and overcoming existing barriers. Quality assurance systems have always supported crossing these barriers to link with the external stakeholders. However, many of the external quality assurance agencies (EQA) in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region specify a group of external holders, limiting the various types of key stakeholders needed to enhance the academic programs. On the other hand, there are encountered risks in involving stakeholders if left with no objective guidance, especially that quality agencies are formidably urging the universities to consider the external stakeholders’ inputs to satisfy the quality assurance standards. The main objective of this chapter is to investigate the types of stakeholders’ and their levels of involvement within the local higher education institutions (HEIs). The chapter aims to provide an insight to invest in this involvement and utilize it to further improve the programs and their graduate attributes and suggests actions that would proficiently and truly enhance the involvement of external stakeholders. The outcomes of this chapter are expected to guide the EQAs and the HEIs to develop new practices in involving stakeholders, such as curriculum input, collegiate internships, aligning graduate attributes to market needs, financial support through endowments, professional development, and partnerships in service-level agreements.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a systematic review of papers in ten top scholarly journals to determine their overall examination of leadership in teams and to identify which models of teamwork and leadership have been most explored by researchers.

This paper reaches its findings through content analysis of 80 journal papers published in top academic journals from 1999 through 2012. Coding based on categories of teams, leadership and leadership styles conformed to forced choice and latent coding; two independent reviewers managed the subjectivity of the coding.

Sixty per cent of the papers studied explored a group of workers whose teamwork was expected to be permanent, which receives a strong direction from a designated leader; almost that many (58.75 per cent) explored a group working with formal leadership by the worker’s supervisor; almost 50 per cent of papers explored leadership that combined two or more leadership styles simultaneously. This heavy concentration of the literature in a few areas suggests that research on other types of teamwork and leadership is minimal.

This particular research utilized the latent coding method of content analysis and forced choice in the selections. Even though content analysis has many strengths, the latent coding method of content analysis and forced choice selections require the researcher to examine the overall content to determine whether certain variables were present or absent. After the examination of the overall content, a subjective interpretation of the data is needed from the researcher. Other researchers that look at the same data may interpret the data differently.

This research provides researchers, academics and practitioners with a comprehensive analysis on teamwork and leadership. The extensive investigation presents a pivotal starting point for further developments in this emerging area. The content analysis found a proliferation of diverse organizations utilizing teamwork, and this subject should be researched more vigorously. As organizations continue to embrace, pursue and promote teamwork, understanding the current state of the field will assist in having better understanding on how to develop effective teams.

This paper contributes to the field by creating taxonomy to categorize the types of leaders and teams and presenting an explanation on the distinction between traditional and horizontal style of leadership. In identifying major trends in the existent literature, this examination provides valuable information for researchers.

This study reports on the evaluation of a youth‐led initiative on the promotion of emotional well‐being among young people aged 16‐25 years. Over a six month period, the Getting it Together project worked with a group of 12 young people from both the Republic and Northern Ireland in building their understanding of emotional well‐being and developing a youth friendly, needs‐led resource. Employing a mix of research methods, including participatory methods, this evaluation documents the process of actual project development, partnership working and overall experience and the impact of project participation for the young people. Following the development of the resource, its pilot implementation by the peer educators with 58 young people in the region was also evaluated. The evaluation findings indicate that the key objectives of the project were achieved and that it resulted in an intense, positive and productive experience for the participating young people, which enhanced their understanding of emotional well‐being. A resource package was successfully developed and designed with direct input from the young people, and was assessed by their peers to be youth friendly. The young people were successfully trained to deliver the resource to their peers, who assessed very positively both the resource and their experience of the training. The implications of the evaluation findings for developing this peer‐led initiative are discussed.

An overview of the mechanisms for policy implementation in Wales to better meet the mental health needs of people with learning disabilities is given. Commissioning of health services within Wales is at two levels. The complex relationships between commissioners, planners and service providers are described. Reviews of mental health services and secure services are due in 2007. Both include services for people with learning disabilities. The input of the Learning Disability Implementation Advisory Group into initiatives is outlined.

This paper aims to describe the challenges and rewards of service user and carer involvement in clinical psychology training as experienced in one training centre.

After outlining the major challenges of involvement in higher education and in clinical psychology training, the paper describes the work carried out by the authors. Members of the service user and carer advisory group Salomons Advisory Group of Experts by Experience (SAGE) recount their experiences of working with them in clinical psychology and Increasing Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) training. The challenges of inclusion and specific approaches that are used to work with these are explored.

Members of SAGE have experienced their contributions to the work in positive ways. However, inclusion in this context requires everyone involved to fully acknowledge the social and historical barriers in order to work together to overcome them.

Some of the approaches to meeting the challenges of inclusion in doctoral level clinical training may be applicable in other places.

In the authors' experience, true inclusion means openness to the authoritative voices of people not normally viewed as educators. A parallel question is the degree to which professionals feel safe to admit to service user experience or to draw upon other aspects of their personhood while working professionally. This may be crucial for successful partnership.

The authors are still on this journey of inclusion, and hope that by sharing some of their experiences of its complexities that they may help illuminate some elements of others' journeys.

This paper examines the experience of the two year action research programme Better Government for Older People within the wider context of an ambition to create ‘quality in ageing’. It argues that within the limits of the originating aims and values of the Better Government for Older People a great deal has been achieved to improve services for older people, and to encourage and recognise the direct contributions of senior citizens within 28 pilot areas and wider Networks of local authorities across the UK. However, the author suggests that such service improvements and experiments in engagement are unlikely to be sustained and developed without a wider commitment by central and local Government to the development of strategies for an ageing population.The paper describes the antecedents of the Better Government for Older People programme, its structure and operational practices. It goes on to examine the programme's achievements against its stated aims and values, seeking to identify what still needs to be achieved. In the final section it seeks to explore the barriers to realising the ambitions of quality in ageing, arguing that ageism coupled with political and professional inertia are major constraints. In conclusion it argues that legislation is likely to be a pre‐requisite for the cultural and organisational shift required in order to move to a system based on older people as citizens rather than service recipients.

This study aims to examine constituents’ political participation in the establishment of an Accounting Standards Advisory Forum (ASAF).

Based on a literature review, three hypotheses regarding political participation in global accounting standard-setting are constructed: regional disparity, professional dominance and financialization. These hypotheses are tested through a content and narrative analysis of the comment letters on the establishment of the ASAF.

Consistent with the regional-disparity hypothesis, neither Anglo–Saxon nor European Union countries were active advocates or positive supporters of ASAF’s establishment. However, no evidence supporting the professional and financialization hypotheses was found. Narrative analysis suggests a divergence of opinion among vested-interest groups in the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), emerging nations and other groups, rather than the traditional conflicts between Anglo–Saxon and European countries. This suggests the possibility of a future-destabilizing factor in global standard-setting.

By discussing the IASB’s organizational and strategic changes and the constituents’ responses, this study describes the IASB’s organizational dynamics: how various stakeholders react to each other. Although prior studies primarily focused on comment letters regarding the contents of an accounting standard or the standard itself, this study examines such letters considering the size and composition of, and membership in, the ASAF, an organization within the IFRS Foundation (IFRSF). Therefore, the study reflects constituents’ opinions regarding their participation in the IFRSF/IASB more directly.