Search results

Discusses the requirements in environmental monitoring ‐ primarily in aqueous environments. Detection of substances below the ppb‐level may be required. Many analytes lack intrinsic properties suitable for direct detection by a sensor. Therefore, separation, concentration, and chemical conversion may be required. Sensors may require calibration and conditioning. Efforts are taken to integrate these functions with sensor components to give integrated sensor systems, which allow unattended operation in the environment.

The aim of this study is to explore the information needs and behaviors of practicing theatre artists. Psychological research into creativity provides a framework for understanding both theatre artists' information‐seeking behavior and the role of information seeking and gathering in the creative process.

The exploratory study presents findings from an online questionnaire of 73 practicing theatre artists and qualitative data gathered from eight interviews with theatre professionals.

The study reveals that theatre artists seek information for six primary purposes: understanding a work's historical, cultural, and critical background; finding sources of inspiration; learning about contemporary or historical theatre productions, artists, and events; learning technical or process information; finding performance materials; and furthering career goals. Theatre artists view the information search process as being essential to their creative activities, and their first‐hand accounts of their artistic experiences illuminate the critical role that information seeking and gathering play in the creative process.

Some theatre professions, such as lighting or sound design, were represented in the questionnaire but were not represented in the interviews.

The study has practical implications for the delivery of library and internet theatre art collections and information services.

Few studies have examined the information‐seeking behavior of practicing theatre artists. The paper demonstrates that studies of artists can be used to understand the role of information seeking and gathering in the creative processes of people working in various subject domains.

This comparative book review is concerned with two recent studies of essential workers in Germany: Jana Costas’ Dramas of Dignity and Peter Birke’s Grenzen aus Glas [literally ‘borders made from glass’]. While Costas is interested in studying how individual cleaners preserve their sense of dignity despite their widely believed stigmatizing work roles, Birke is interested in the power resources migrant workers can potentially mobilize for improving their working conditions despite the multi-dimensional (inter-sectional) precarity they confront in their life situation. In the context of German industrial and organizational sociology, both studies represent comparatively rare exemplars of detailed qualitative and ethnographic work that illuminate the labour process from taking a workers’ perspective. Using different approaches to fieldwork, both studies reveal the precarious nature of being an essential worker in areas such as meat packing, warehouse work, and cleaning. This general observation gives rise to some concluding speculations about the emancipatory potential of ethnographic research, in labour studies and beyond.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the antecedent factors – perceived usefulness (PU), perceived switching cost (PSC) and perceived web security (PWS) – affecting learners’ attitude toward online lecture website (ATW), which, in turn, affects electronic word of mouth (eWOM) and finds the factor that online lecture business should focus on the most to make learners have positive attitude.

This paper investigates the functional relationship among those five constructs; and examines the moderating role of personal interactivity. Data were collected from learners who had taken online lectures and were using social network sites, and a research model was analyzed using structural equation modeling.

The results show that PU and PSC positively influence ATW but PWS has no significant influence on ATW; PU is the most influential factor to ATW; ATW positively influences eWOM; personal interactivity has a moderating effect on some paths; and path coefficients are higher in the high-interactivity group than the low-interactivity group for all the links except the link from PU to ATW.

This paper contributes to online lecture business by understanding learners’ perception and behavior to the websites. Unlike many previous studies, this study designates eWOM as dependent variable and personal interactivity as moderation variable. This study shows interesting results occurred between low- and high-interactivity groups.

THE Reference Department of Paisley Central Library today occupies the room which was the original Public Library built in 1870 and opened to the public in April 1871. Since that date two extensions to the building have taken place. The first, in 1882, provided a separate room for both Reference and Lending libraries; the second, opened in 1938, provided a new Children's Department. Together with the original cost of the building, these extensions were entirely financed by Sir Peter Coats, James Coats of Auchendrane and Daniel Coats respectively. The people of Paisley indeed owe much to this one family, whose generosity was great. They not only provided the capital required but continued to donate many useful and often extremely valuable works of reference over the many years that followed. In 1975 Paisley Library was incorporated in the new Renfrew District library service.

The central motivation for this study was to examine alternatives against the apartment area reduction as a safe way to reduce construction costs, adopted by many construction companies. From the building economic compactness index concept, it was studied the cost and environmental impacts (material consumption, embodied energy – EE and CO₂ emission).

The research strategy takes advantage of a case study aiming to investigate the relation between design characteristics related to area (m²) and building economic compactness index (%) with cost (Research Stage 1) and with environmental impacts: (Research Stage 2). The study involved real data from social housing projects, chosen in terms in terms of very similar features like size, area and constructive method (constants), however, with dissimilar compactness (variable).

The lack of direct relation between area and cost signs the importance of including the cost of vertical plans considered in the economic compactness building. The higher the economic compactness index, the lower the cost, the lower the amount of material, EE and CO₂ emission parameters. However, due to the wide range of EE and CO₂ values available, the reduction in the amount of materials achieved by increasing building economic compactness index may not be reflected in EE and CO₂ gains.

As the limitation of this study, it must be taken into account a limited number of case buildings and the fact that the analysis is dependent on the reliability and accuracy of the data provided by constructors and the available information of EE and CO₂ emission. As well discussed in the literature, the consistent database is a great challenge for the construction sector.

There might be alternatives to higher areas with relatively low-cost increments since results from buildings with the same area present different cost estimative and suggest a strong relationship with the economic compactness index. The large variation of EE and CO₂ emission data indicates that reductions obtained by compactness increase may be impaired if the construction materials are produced with high levels of EE and CO₂ emission. Thus, there must be an integrated effort on the part of designers (design and material specification) and manufacturers (material production), since isolated solutions may not be enough.

This paper aims to analyze how psychosocial support influences caring activities toward indigenous older adults.

A descriptive study with the participation of 229 informal indigenous caregivers. The study considered both sociodemographic and medical variables. It used the mini-mental test to determine the cognitive level in the elderly. It applied the Yesavage and Zarit scales to establish depressive symptomatology and caregiver burden. Finally, the study used the MOS psychosocial support and Apgar screening questionnaires to assess the psychosocial dimension and the patient’s family functional state, respectively.

The study observed a low caregiver burden effect using the MOS questionnaire. This may be explained due to variability in the Zarit Scale Score product of other variables like years of care (−0.17 and −0.28), depressive symptoms (0.16 and 0.18), cognitive level (mini-mental) (−0.13 and −0.14) and comorbidity (0.26 and −0.27). The study obtained an incidence between (−0.02 and −0.12) when including all assessed dimensions into the model. The instrumental dimension in the social support questionnaire obtained the highest score.

Protective factors prevail in the group of indigenous caregivers allowing this activity to not trigger overload. Yet, variables such as the female gender, some comorbidities and the presence of depressive symptoms could be potential variables for dysfunction in this occupational role.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of different heating approaches during thermal rounding of polymer powders on powder bulk properties such as particle size, shape and flowability, as well as on the yield of process.

This study focuses on the rounding of commercial high-density polyethylene polymer particles in two different downer reactor designs using heated walls (indirect heating) and preheated carrier gas (direct heating). Powder bulk properties of the product obtained from both designs are characterized and compared.

Particle rounding with direct heating leads to a considerable increase in process yield and a reduction in powder agglomeration compared to the design with indirect heating. This subsequently leads to higher powder flowability. In terms of shape, indirect heating yields not only particles with higher sphericity but also entails substantial agglomeration of the rounded particles.

Shape modification via thermal rounding is the decisive step for the success of a top-down process chain for selective laser sintering powders with excellent flowability, starting with polymer particles from comminution. This report provides new information on the influence of the heating mode (direct/indirect) on the performance of the rounding process and particle properties.

Despite growing interest in the intersection of supply chain management (SCM) and management accounting (MA) in the academic debate, there is a lack of understanding regarding both the content and the delimitation of this topic. As of today, no common conceptualization of supply chain management accounting (SCMA) exists. The purpose of this study is to provide an overview of the research foci of SCMA in the scholarly debate of the past two decades. Additionally, it analyzes whether and to what extent the academic discourse of MA in SCs has already found its way into both SCM and MA higher education, respectively.

A content analysis is conducted including 114 higher education textbooks written in English or in German language.

The study finds that SC-specific concepts of MA are seldom covered in current textbooks of both disciplines. The authors conclude that although there is an extensive body of scholarly research about SCMA concepts, there is a significant discrepancy with what is taught in higher education textbooks.

There is a large discrepancy between the extensive knowledge available in scholarly research and what we teach in both disciplines. This implies that graduates of both disciplines lack important knowledge and skills in controlling and accounting for SCs. To bring about the necessary change, MA and SCM in higher education must be more integrative.

To the best of the authors knowledge, this study is first of its kind comprising a large textbook sample in both English and German languages. It is the first substantiated assessment of the current state of integration between SCM and MA in higher education.