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This study investigates the relationship between mental well-being (MWB) and social support (SS) whilst addressing the paucity of research on students' support for emergency contact schemes (ECSs) and their views on how and when such schemes should be implemented.

In total, 113 students recruited via opportunistic sampling completed an online survey including the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List - shortened version (Cohen et al. 1985), Warwick–Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (Tennant et al. 2007) and questions about ECS. A correlational design used the Pearson product-moment correlation to explore the relationship between MWB and SS. A between-subjects design using independent measures t-test investigated differences in SS and MWB between those with and without a “trusted person” (TP).

The preferred name was “Named Trusted Person Scheme” (NTPS), the preferred TP was parent/guardian or partner, and the preferred means of contact was Personal Tutor to mobile phone. Most students (96%) supported the use of an NTPS when serious concerns were raised about mental or physical health, personal safety or student engagement. Those opposed were concerned about a loss of agency, identifying a TP or the TP worsening the situation. MWB was positively correlated with SS, and those with a TP had higher levels of MWB and SS than those without.

This study addresses the under-explored area of students' support for ECS, whilst enhancing our understanding of the relationship between MWB and SS especially amongst those without a person they can trust. This research provides valuable insights for universities looking to implement or refine such schemes, with the potential to improve students' MWB, academic achievement and retention by enhancing support.

The purpose of this study was to examine how two socio-historical contexts within the United States, the Movement for Black Lives and the COVID-19 pandemic, informed approaches to improving racial climate in science, technology, mathematics and engineering (STEM) graduate education.

The authors used a general qualitative inquiry research study design to conduct focus groups (n = 121) with graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and faculty members from across STEM disciplines as well as administrators whose work involves STEM graduate students. Participants were from two US institutions involved in a National Science Foundation networked improvement community seeking to create inclusive environments for STEM graduate students.

This study demonstrates how these socio-historical contexts illuminated and amplified on-going efforts to address racial climate for graduate students in US-based graduate education. In response to these events, STEM faculty devoted time that otherwise might have gone to purely technical or scientific endeavors to addressing racial climate. However, some faculty members remain hesitant to address racial climate and efforts appear to have further waned over time. While diversity, inclusion and equity efforts came to the forefront of the collective consciousness during this time, participants worry that these efforts are not sustainable, particularly without support from faculty and administrators.

The findings from this study will inform efforts to improve racial climate in STEM graduate programs.

This study fills an identified need to capture how socio-historical contexts, like the US Movement for Black Lives and the COVID-19 pandemic, have influenced approaches to improving racial climate in STEM graduate programs.

The Children's Hearings System is a Scottish welfare-based tribunal-based system in which decisions are made about the care and protection of children in conflict with the law and/or in need of additional care and protection. The Covid-19 pandemic resulted in the rapid implementation of a virtual Children's Hearings System. This system, which operated as the sole mechanism through which decisions were made between March and July 2020, continued to be used alongside in-person and hybrid Hearing formats for the duration of the pandemic. Early research into the use of virtual Hearings identified that their use presented significant barriers to participation, particularly in relation to the impacts of digital literacy and digital poverty. However, much of this research focused upon the experiences of adult participants in Hearings and failed to capture the experiences of children. In this chapter, we present findings from a qualitative study designed to explore the impact of virtual Hearings upon the participation and rights of children. In doing so, we demonstrate that virtual Hearings acted as both a barrier and facilitator of children's participation.

This study aims to explore the neoliberalization of higher education and its impact on gender-sensitive workplaces for international academic staff. Using a qualitative multiple-case study approach, the research examines how neoliberal policies intersect with gender-sensitive practices within academic institutions, characterized by marketization, privatization and commodification. The theoretical framework integrates Foucault’s concept of governmentality, Bourdieu’s notion of capital, intersectionality from gender theory and paradox theory to analyze the conflicting demands faced by international employees.

This study’s data comes from semistructured interviews with international academic staff and document analysis of institutional policies. The findings reveal that neoliberal policies often undermine gender-sensitive initiatives by prioritizing market-driven objectives over inclusivity, creating paradoxical tensions for international employees, especially women and minorities, who navigate both gender and nationality-based challenges.

The study concludes that while neoliberalization in higher education fosters a competitive environment, it simultaneously complicates the implementation of effective gender-sensitive practices. Institutions must address these tensions by reevaluating their policies to better support diverse international staff.

This research contributes to the literature by highlighting the complex dynamics at the intersection of neoliberalism, gender sensitivity and international employee experiences. It offers insights for policymakers and academic leaders committed to fostering inclusive and equitable workplaces.

Innovation is widely desired within healthcare organizations, yet the efficacy of programs aimed at fostering it remain largely unassessed, with little consideration given to their effects on employee experience. The Veterans Health Administration (VA) innovators network (iNET) was established to provide organizational support to improve and reimagine patient care and processes across the VA. We evaluated participant perspectives on how iNET impacted workplace experience and fostered innovation.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted using purposive sampling to maximize diversity for program roles and site characteristics, reviewed using a rapid matrixed approach, then analyzed using a hybrid inductive/deductive approach that applied a theoretical framework of innovation supportive domains.

21 project investees, 16 innovation specialists and 13 leadership champions participated from 15 sites nationally. Most participants reported strongly positive impacts including feeling re-energized, appreciating new experiences and expanded opportunities for connecting with others, sense of renewed purpose, better relationships with leadership and personal recognition. Negative experiences included time constraints and logistical challenges. Participants’ experiences mapped frequently onto theorized domains of supporting a curious culture, creating idea pathways and porous boundaries, fostering/supporting catalytic leadership and supporting (role) diverse teams. The program’s delivery of ready resources was critically supportive though at times frustrating.

Participants’ experiences support the conclusion that iNET fosters innovation and positively impacts participating employees. In the post-pandemic context of unprecedented challenges of healthcare worker burnout and stress, effective innovation training programs should be considered as a tool to improve worker experience and retention as well as patient care.

The purpose of this multi-voiced paper is to propose a prosocial paradigm for the field of performance management and management control systems. This new paradigm suggests cultivating prosocial behaviour and prosocial groups in organizations to simultaneously achieve the objectives of economic performance and sustainability.

The authors share a common concern about the future of humanity and nature. They challenge the influential assumption of economic man from neoclassical economic theory and build on evolutionary science and the core design principles of prosocial groups to develop a prosocial paradigm.

Findings are based on the premise of the prosocial paradigm that self-interested behaviour may outperform prosocial behaviour within a group but that prosocial groups outperform groups dominated by self-interest. The authors explore various dimensions of performance management from the prosocial perspective in the private and public sectors.

The authors call for theoretical, conceptual and empirical research that explores the prosocial paradigm. They invite any approach, including positivist, interpretive and critical research, as well as those using qualitative, quantitative and interventionist methods.

This paper offers implications from the prosocial paradigm for practitioners, particularly for executives and managers, policymakers and educators.

Adoption of the prosocial paradigm in research and practice shapes what the authors call the prosocial market economy. This is an aspired cultural evolution that functions with market competition yet systematically strengthens prosociality as a cultural norm in organizations, markets and society at large.

The objective of this paper is to develop a condition-based maintenance (CBM) scheme for pneumatic cylinders. The CBM scheme will detect two common types of air leaking failure modes and identify the leaky/faulty cylinder. The successful implementation of the proposed scheme will reduce energy consumption, scrap and rework, and time to repair.

Effective implementation of maintenance is important to reduce operation cost, improve productivity and enhance quality performance at the same time. Condition-based monitoring is an effective maintenance scheme where maintenance is triggered based on the condition of the equipment monitored either real time or at certain intervals. Pneumatic air systems are commonly used in many industries for packaging, sorting and powering air tools among others. A common failure mode of pneumatic cylinders is air leaks which is difficult to detect for complex systems with many connections. The proposed method consists of monitoring the stroke speed profile of the piston inside the pneumatic cylinder using hall effect sensors. Statistical features are extracted from the speed profiles and used to develop a fault detection machine learning model. The proposed method is demonstrated using a real-life case of tea packaging machines.

Based on the limited data collected, the ensemble machine learning algorithm resulted in 88.4% accuracy. The algorithm can detect failures as soon as they occur based on majority vote rule of three machine learning models.

Early air leak detection will improve quality of packaged tea bags and provide annual savings due to time to repair and energy waste reduction. The average annual estimated savings due to the implementation of the new CBM method is $229,200 with a payback period of less than two years.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first in terms of proposing a CBM for pneumatic systems air leaks using piston speed. Majority, if not all, current detection methods rely on expensive equipment such as infrared or ultrasonic sensors. This paper also contributes to the research gap of economic justification of using CBM.

The purpose of this paper was to examine how mid- and upper-level police commanders' occupational perceptions shifted after the COVID-19 pandemic, upsurge in police protests, and perceived crime increases in 2020. We assess the extent to which these events altered police leaders' perceptions of stress, satisfaction, burnout and turnover intentions.

This study employs repeated cross-sectional survey data of over 900 police leaders who attended the FBI’s National Academy (FBINA) program. Respondents are distinguished by whether they attended the FBINA program before or after operations were suspended due to COVID-19. Bivariate tests were conducted to compare pre- and post-respondents' perceptions of stress, satisfaction, burnout and turnover intentions.

The findings indicate that post-pandemic respondents had higher turnover intentions than pre-pandemic respondents. The groups had no significant differences regarding stress, satisfaction and burnout perceptions.

The findings suggest that despite facing a global pandemic, police protests and perceived increases in crime, police leaders demonstrated high stability and resiliency. The data comprised law enforcement leaders who participated in the FBINA program; thus, the findings may not be generalizable to all officers.

This study is one of the first to assess changes in police leaders’ work perceptions following the COVID-19 pandemic, the rise in police protests and perceived increases in crime in 2020.