Managerial attitudes and perceived barriers regarding evidence-based practice: An international survey.

Evidence-based practice (EBP) in management is still in its infancy. Several studies suggest that managers in businesses and other organizations do not consult the scientific evidence when making decisions. To facilitate its uptake, we need to better understand practitioner attitudes and perceived barriers related to EBP. In medicine and nursing, an abundance of research exists on this subject, although such studies are rare in management. To address this gap, we surveyed 2,789 management practitioners in Belgium, the Netherlands, the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. Our findings indicate that most managers we studied have positive attitudes towards EBP. However, lack of time and a limited understanding of scientific research are perceived as major barriers to the uptake and implementation of EBP in management. Studies in other professions where EBP is far more established also report similar barriers. We discuss the implications of our findings for practice, education and research, providing suggestions to enhance use of EBP in management practice.

Nanofibre optic force transducers with sub-piconewton resolution via near-field plasmon-dielectric interactions.

Ultrasensitive nanomechanical instruments, including the atomic force microscope (AFM)1-4 and optical and magnetic tweezers5-8, have helped shed new light on the complex mechanical environments of biological processes. However, it is difficult to scale down the size of these instruments due to their feedback mechanisms9, which, if overcome, would enable high-density nanomechanical probing inside materials. A variety of molecular force probes including mechanophores10, quantum dots11, fluorescent pairs12,13 and molecular rotors14-16 have been designed to measure intracellular stresses; however, fluorescence-based techniques can have short operating times due to photo-instability and it is still challenging to quantify the forces with high spatial and mechanical resolution. Here, we develop a compact nanofibre optic force transducer (NOFT) that utilizes strong near-field plasmon-dielectric interactions to measure local forces with a sensitivity of <200 fN. The NOFT system is tested by monitoring bacterial motion and heart-cell beating as well as detecting infrasound power in solution.

Motivation to Develop as a Leader.

This chapter explains the role of motivation in readying leaders to succeed. Suggestions are also offered for leadership developers in harnessing motivational factors to optimize their educational programs.

Quantitative mechanical analysis of thin compressible polymer monolayers on oxide surfaces.

A clear understanding of the mechanical behavior of nanometer thick films on nanostructures, as well as developing versatile approaches to characterize their mechanical properties, are of great importance and may serve as the foundation for understanding and controlling molecular interactions at the interface of nanostructures. Here we report on the synthesis of thin, compressible polyethylene glycol (PEG) monolayers with a wet thickness of <20 nm on tin dioxide (SnO2) nanofibers through silane-based chemistries. Nanomechanical properties of such thin PEG films were extensively investigated using atomic force microscopy (AFM). In addition, tip-sample interactions were carefully studied, with different AFM tip modifications (i.e., hydrophilic and hydrophobic) and in different ionic solutions. We find that the steric forces dominate the tip-sample interactions when the polymer film is immersed in solution with salt concentrations similar to biological media (e.g., 1x phosphate buffer solution), while van der Waals and electrostatic forces have minimal contributions. A Dimitriadis thin film polymer compression model shows that the linear elastic regime is reproducible in the initial 50% indentation of these films which have tunable Young's moduli ranging from 5 MPa for the low molecular weight films to 700 kPa for the high molecular weight PEG films. Results are compared with the same PEG films deposited on silicon substrates which helped quantify the structural properties and understand the relationship between the structural and the mechanical properties of PEG films on the SnO2 fibers.