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The Brief Symptom Inventory-18 (BSI-18) is a tool used to measure clinically relevant psychological symptoms to support clinical decision-making at intake and during the course of treatment in various settings. The BSI-18 has frequently been evaluated for construct validity via analysis of its structure. However, these studies showed mixed results of the factor solutions and no consensus on the dimensionality. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to synthesize the empirical findings about the factor structure to reach an overall conclusion about the factor structure of the BSI-18.

A meta-analysis of factor analysis results using an aggregated co-occurrence matrix approach was conducted to synthesize the factor structure. The item factor loading information from seven published studies is gathered, combined and summarized to conclude the factor structure of the instrument. Multidimensional scaling (MDS) was used to quantify the similarity between the underlying factor structures of BSI-18 from different empirical articles.

The perceptual map from MDS-found items was clustered into three distinctive factors matching the original intent. The findings highlight the consistency of the BSI-18’s factor structure. However, the findings should be used with caution owing to the small sample size and conclusions made from visual representation.

This original study contributes to research in the provision of empirically tested measures that take a focus on factor analysis and the use of meta-analysis technique to account for an understanding of the factor structure.

In this work, the authors aim to present a compact low-cost and portable spectral imaging system for general purposes. The developed system provides information that can be used for a fast in situ identification and classification of samples based on the analysis of captured images. The connectivity of the instrument allows a deeper analysis of the images in an external computer.

The wavelength selection of the system is carried out by light multiplexing through a light-emitting diode panel where eight wavelengths covering the spectrum from ultraviolet (UV) to near-infrared region (NIR) have been included. The image sensor used is a red green blue – infrared (RGB-IR) micro-camera controlled by a Raspberry Pi board where a basic image processing algorithm has been programmed. It allows the visualization in an integrated display of the reflectance and the histogram of the images at each wavelength, including UV and NIRs.

The prototype has been tested by analyzing several samples in a variety of applications such as detection of damaged, over-ripe and sprayed fruit, classification of different type of plastic materials and determination of properties of water.

The designed system presents some advantages as being non-expensive and portable in comparison to other multispectral imaging systems. The low-cost and size of the camera module connected to the Raspberry Pi provides a compact instrument for general purposes.

Brazil occupies third place in the world ranking in terms of the prison population in the National Penitentiary System, reflecting a policy of zero tolerance and mass imprisonment of citizens in conditions of vulnerability. Even though incarcerated women are a minority group in Brazil, there is an increase in the percentage of them being subjected to criminal control. According to the latest official data, the number is approximately 38,000 women, representing an increase of 675% between 2000 and 2016 – which puts Brazil in third place among those countries that most imprison women, behind the USA and Thailand. Criminal selectivity works in an explicit way, given that the majority of incarcerated women in Brazil are young, Black, poor and semi-literate. The crime of drug trafficking accounts for more than 62% of female imprisonments, which is a much higher percentage than that of men for the same crime (41%). From a feminist perspective, this chapter analyses and reflects on the specific characteristics of female criminality related to drug trafficking, highlighting how the intersection between gender, race, class and age informs the criminalisation process of women in Brazil.

The study aims to assess the impact of disruptive frugal digital technology and small and medium-sized enterprises' (SMEs') innovation performance on the food sector in Masvingo urban, Zimbabwe. A descriptive research design was used, and quantitative data were obtained using a questionnaire survey on 50 restaurant employees and 100 customers. The empirical findings demonstrated that the performance of SMEs was significantly improved by social media, cloud computing, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and robotics. The study concludes that disruptive digital technologies (social media, cloud computing, AR, VR and robots affect the performance of SMEs by improving food production, streamlining information transfer, and utilizing cutting-edge technical applications. This chapter recommends that the government, through those in charge of formulating policy, educate and encourage the adoption of disruptive digital technology. The application of social media, cloud computing, VR, AR, and robotics will increase local food producers' access to the market. Digitalization will have a significant effect on Zimbabwe's local food system in the future.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has taken society, business and industries by surprise leading to a worldwide economic recession, pushing organizations to rethink their business model in order to shift from activity shutdown toward sustainable growth. The purpose of this research is to comprehend the implications and relationship between entrepreneurship, innovation, digitization and digital transformation aspects as the levers to achieve this goal.

Following the existing literature, an empirical approach has been established involving a quantitative analysis of secondary information obtained from official datasets and reports.

The COVID-19 pandemic was found to be an unfortunate accelerator regarding both consumers' habits and organizations' innovation and digital transformation, breaking with the past leading to new sustainable growth business models.

The research provides an underlying outcome that addresses how wealth and economic value could be generated within the framework of new economic models in a post-pandemic environment.

The research highlights how the pandemic has disrupted what was known about sustainable business growth, and how this affects the future of business beyond the pandemic scenario, transforming the way society, businesses and customers interact.

The purpose of this study is to comprehend and determine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on business organizations and society, together with its relationship to entrepreneurship, innovation, digitization or digital transformation, by means of analysis of the Spanish Internet domains registration data set.

Following existing literature regarding time series analysis, the authors have designed a SARIMA methodology involving the forecasting of a non-COVID-19 data set from the available data and compared it to the existing COVID-19 data set in order to validate the formulated hypothesis.

The COVID-19 pandemic was found to be an unfortunate accelerator, regarding entrepreneurship and innovation as a digitization and digital transformation lever, with the results of the Internet domain registration analysis as a reliable indicator.

This research confirms the existence of new non-invasive approaches to complementary information, such as Internet domain registration analysis, that could serve as an early and quick indicator of innovation and entrepreneurship initiatives within business activities.

This chapter reports on the difficulties and challenges faced by a woman in Mexico to generate an enterprise whose objective is education. This is achieved by taking up the story of Sharon Zaga and Mili Cohen, two Jewish women who set themselves the goal of founding a museum that would speak of the relevance of historical memory, but also of the importance of tolerance. The emergence of COVID-19 presented them with a new challenge: the museum had to remain closed for more than a year. We will explore the strategies that allowed them to keep their organization afloat, a circumstance that can be taken up by more Latin American women who intend to undertake also on their own.

This case involves the March of Dimes (MOD) Foundation, the “leading nonprofit organization for pregnancy and baby health.” MOD’s mission was to support medical research, organize volunteer workers, and provide community services and education to save babies’ lives (www.marchofdimes.org). The strategic issue in the case involves creating awareness of both the mission and services of MOD and the critical issue driving that mission – premature births. The organization must create a desire for various target markets to take action in response to the problem. The main protagonist is Doug Staples, Senior Vice President for Marketing and Communications.

Data were collected via personal interviews with the primary protagonists, Doug Staples, and Mike Swenson of the Barkley agency. The MOD provided quantitative Gallup studies they commissioned, as well as documents unveiling the roll-out in the San Jose, CA region. The Barkley Agency provided qualitative data from a study which consisted of eight focus groups conducted in two markets and ten personal interviews. Secondary research was used to provide a support for industry and market data, to supplement organizational facts provided by the MOD, and to identify and link marketing theory to the situations provided in the case. The organization, facts and characters in this case were not disguised. MOD was consulted throughout the case development process.

This case study is recommended for marketing courses at the undergraduate level. It is most appropriate for marketing management, introductory marketing, or marketing strategy classes. Additionally, this case is a good fit for courses focused upon not-for-profit marketing issues.

The strongest opportunities to apply theory using this case relate to branding (see De Chernatony and Dall’Olmo Riley, 1998 for a content analysis of the brand literature). These theories include brand image and personality (Aaker, 1997; Belk, 1998; Grohmann, 2009), brand awareness (Aaker, 2002), brand involvement and customer loyalty (Brakus et al., 2009), brand engagement (Sprott et al., 2009), brand relationships (Breivik and Thorbjornsen, 2008), and brand equity (Aaker, 2002, 2008). Specifically, question 2 addresses brand personality, and questions 3 and 4 explore relationships with the brand such as the emotional power of the brand and brand association. Question 6 focuses on positioning strategy.

Education is both a human right and an indispensable means of achieving other rights. Provision of education for irregular status migrant children tests the commitment of nation states to this basic right even as states curb irregular immigration. In the US, the right to go to school was guaranteed to irregular migrant children, by the case of Plyler v. Doe in 1982. This article argues that the right enshrined in that decision faces considerable risk of being eroded in the current political context. The article presents a detailed critical analysis of the rationale in the case, with a full consideration of the shaky constitutional framework on which the decision was based. It also examines the direct legal challenges to the right to education since Plyler, and the potential impact of new political and legal changes in contemporary times.