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Over 8 per cent of the Dutch nursing home population is bedfast, and this number is slowly increasing. The quality of life (QoL) of this population is lower than that of residents who are still mobile. Little research has been conducted on how to improve the QoL of this bedfast population, particularly through making technological adjustments to the bed and the direct surroundings. The purpose of this paper is to gain insight into the QoL of bedfast residents and how to improve this through technology.

A mixed-method multi-case study with thematic analysis was conducted in two nursing homes with seven participants based on semi-structured interviews and Short Form-12 questionnaire.

The major causes of the experienced low QoL were the limited opportunities for engaging in social contacts with others, and coping with the dependency on other people and having limited control. Participants suggested improvements of QoL through the application of modern communication technologies to engage in social contacts and to control the bed itself and environment around the bed.

The results may help improve the design of the bed and the direct environment in order to improve the QoL of bedfast nursing home residents.

The QoL of bedfast nursing home residents has not been studied before in relation to the bed itself and technological solutions that may help improve the QoL and level of control.

Non-profit sector management represent a research topic particularly discussed. This work tries to introduce a potential reaction to the need of managerial techniques and instruments to enhance the comprehension of the phenomenon and to accomplish a more powerful management of Non-profit institutions (NPIs).

The complexity of non-profit sector can be useful for identifying the ideal trajectories of a theoretical model of reference for the management of NPIs.

The main purpose is to outline a probable path for the evolution of the non-profit sector management (at the macroeconomic level) and of NPIs that are part of it (at the microeconomic level) and whose main dimensions are: professionalization, civic-engagement and accountability/corporate social responsibility.

This research tries to fill the gap existing in the international literature and the relative absence of systemic approaches to the management of NPIs, often focused only on some specific aspects of an extremely complex and multifaceted phenomenon.

This paper investigates gender differences in reported job satisfaction and career choices revealed by a postal survey of accountants from the Queensland Division of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia. Of particular interest are levels of satisfaction with remuneration and promotion. Two moderating factors of career age and firm size are also considered. Consistent with prior research, female accountants reported dissatisfaction with their opportunities for promotion. However, unlike prior research there was no evidence of a gender effect in remuneration levels, and in reported satisfaction with remuneration. Nor were there differences in satisfaction across age bands, and public accounting firms of different size. The link between satisfaction levels of female accountants and their career choices of leaving their current employer, moving to parttime employment, or leaving the accounting profession was also investigated. Consistent with a large body of organisational and accounting research, low levels of job satisfaction were associated with higher turnover intentions for female accountants.

The aim of this paper is to present an enriched formulation of a rotation‐free (RF) triangular shell element in order to use it for shells of general shapes while, up to now, it is limited to shells without branching surfaces and progressive variations in terms of material behavior and thickness.

The formulation keeps the main characteristic of Morley's element: bending effects can be expressed with three “bending angles” only. But, for a RF element, these angles are defined with the rigid body rotations of the element itself and those of its neighbours. This usual formulation of a RF shell element can be extended provided that curvatures‐displacements relation involves the material characteristics of the element itself and of its neighbours and the same goes for thickness.

Numerous examples with regular and irregular meshes of structures involving branching surfaces point out convergence and accuracy. Large displacement analyses – including crash simulations – show the effectiveness, too. A deep‐drawing of a “U” shape and the following springback prediction highlight the fact that the curvatures are captured more exactly (when nodes slide on die radius) since they are imposed in terms of translations whereas they are traditionally computed with nodal rotations not managed by contact conditions on the tooling.

The “S3” element detailed here is implemented in RADIOSS^® software. The general conclusions are that this triangle often gives almost the same result as “DKT18” but is two times less cheaper and it is found interesting for sheet forming simulations.

Specificity of such an element clearly appears while lifting the initial restrictions quoted before.

The “Training to Communicate” research (1999‐2001) explored “communication” training needs and provision in 76 health and social care public and independent sector agencies in London and South East England, including enhancement of work with adults having communication impairments. The focus of this paper is to examine how training managers discussed their activities and constructed their identities as training “experts”.

Seventeen semi‐structured interviews with male and female managers responsible for key aspects of training (workforce development) in public health trusts or social services agencies are analysed using a narrative approach. The wider project included a questionnaire‐based survey of agency representatives and documentary analysis of training materials.

Health and social care services were undergoing extensive reorganization as part of wider managerialist agendas. Discourses of “change”, “continuous improvement” and “quality” therefore pervaded all aspects of these organizations. Interviewees identified with “new” (managerial) occupational knowledges and identities but some appeared to be in an ambiguous position, negotiating between “new” occupational knowledges and identities, and “old” identities based on occupational/practitioner expertise. Aspects of this positioning appeared gendered; female interviewees often readily embraced “new” managerialist identity(ies). Interviewees discussed collaborative processes (in “space” not “place”), including networking, managing relationships with other managers within the organization, and broader “political” awareness, to justify their own positions, responsibilities and performances as “training” experts.

This research extends theories on gendered performances in higher education contexts to public sector, work‐based education settings.

The S–O discourse includes themes that have been variously summarized as “objectivism” (Hermans, Kempen & van Loon, 1992) and “the received view of science” (or “RVS,” see Woolgar, 1996). Others, speaking of competing “paradigms” in qualitative research, have referred to some of these themes as “positivist” (Guba & Lincoln, 1994) — a confusing simplification for those familiar with the philosophy of inquiry. Relevant examples include narratives that, for example, distinguish between individuals and groups and more “macro” units such as organizations and society in ways that are overly suggestive of concrete, separately existing “things” with their own defining characteristics (Hosking & Morley, 1991).

This chapter aims to examine the nature of writing on gendered change in the Commonwealth higher education institutions and to outline the theoretical and historical contexts that have framed gendered changes. It considers how certain themes cohere around the mapping of conditions for women's entry and achievement in higher education and attempts to analyse some of the issues that have emerged from scholarship and practice relating to women in higher education.

This chapter is based on data from an international research project entitled ‘Gender Equity in Commonwealth Higher Education’ (GECHE). Funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and the Carnegie Corporation of New York from 2003 to 2005, this project examined interventions for gender equity in relation to access, staff development and curriculum transformation in Nigeria, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania and Uganda. Data were collected via literature and policy review and interview data from a sample size of 200 including students, academic staff, managers and policymakers in the five countries. The key findings suggested that gender equality was promoted by widening participation and affirmative action policy interventions, national and international policy initiatives, and community links and coalitions. Gender equality was being impeded by gender violence, gendered organisational and social cultures and micropolitics, male domination, lack of understanding of diversity, low numbers of women in senior academic and management positions and beliefs in gender neutrality rather than gender awareness.

AT the very outset of this paper it is necessary to make clear that it is not an attempt to compile an exhaustive bibliography of literature relating to special librarianship. Neither space nor time permit this. In fact, the references given can only claim to be a sample of the wealth of material on the subject and this paper is submitted in the hope that it will stimulate others to more scholarly efforts. Reference numbers throughout this paper refer to items in the ‘Select list of references to the literature of special librarianship’, section 2 onwards.