Ashley Wilkinson, Khater Muhajir, Patricia Bailey-Brown, Alana Jones and Rebecca Schiff
Due to ongoing inequities in the social determinants of health and systemic barriers, homelessness continues to be a significant concern that disproportionately impacts racialized…
Abstract
Purpose
Due to ongoing inequities in the social determinants of health and systemic barriers, homelessness continues to be a significant concern that disproportionately impacts racialized communities. Despite constituting a small proportion of the population, Black individuals are over-represented among people experiencing homelessness in many Canadian cities. However, although Black homelessness in Canada is a pressing issue, it has received limited attention in the academic literature. The purpose of this paper is to examine the reported prevalence of Black homelessness across Canada.
Design/methodology/approach
By consulting enumerations from 61 designated communities that participated in the 2018 Nationally Coordinated Point-in-Time Count and two regional repositories – one for homeless counts supported by the government of British Columbia and another from the Rural Development Network – this paper reports on the scale and scope of Black homelessness across Canada.
Findings
Significantly, these reports demonstrate that Black people are over-represented among those experiencing homelessness compared to local and national populations. These enumerations also demonstrate significant gaps in the reporting of Black homelessness and inadequate nuance in data collection methods, which limit the ability of respondents to describe their identity beyond “Black.”
Originality/value
This research provides an unprecedented examination of Black homelessness across Canada and concludes with recommendations to expand knowledge on this important and under-researched issue, provide suggestions for future iterations of homeless enumerations and facilitate the development of inclusive housing policy.
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Nadim S. Hmeidat, Bailey Brown, Xiu Jia, Natasha Vermaak and Brett Compton
Mechanical anisotropy associated with material extrusion additive manufacturing (AM) complicates the design of complex structures. This study aims to focus on investigating the…
Abstract
Purpose
Mechanical anisotropy associated with material extrusion additive manufacturing (AM) complicates the design of complex structures. This study aims to focus on investigating the effects of design choices offered by material extrusion AM – namely, the choice of infill pattern – on the structural performance and optimality of a given optimized topology. Elucidation of these effects provides evidence that using design tools that incorporate anisotropic behavior is necessary for designing truly optimal structures for manufacturing via AM.
Design/methodology/approach
A benchmark topology optimization (TO) problem was solved for compliance minimization of a thick beam in three-point bending and the resulting geometry was printed using fused filament fabrication. The optimized geometry was printed using a variety of infill patterns and the strength, stiffness and failure behavior were analyzed and compared. The bending tests were accompanied by corresponding elastic finite element analyzes (FEA) in ABAQUS. The FEA used the material properties obtained during tensile and shear testing to define orthotropic composite plies and simulate individual printed layers in the physical specimens.
Findings
Experiments showed that stiffness varied by as much as 22% and failure load varied by as much as 426% between structures printed with different infill patterns. The observed failure modes were also highly dependent on infill patterns with failure propagating along with printed interfaces for all infill patterns that were consistent between layers. Elastic FEA using orthotropic composite plies was found to accurately predict the stiffness of printed structures, but a simple maximum stress failure criterion was not sufficient to predict strength. Despite this, FE stress contours proved beneficial in identifying the locations of failure in printed structures.
Originality/value
This study quantifies the effects of infill patterns in printed structures using a classic TO geometry. The results presented to establish a benchmark that can be used to guide the development of emerging manufacturing-oriented TO protocols that incorporate directionally-dependent, process-specific material properties.
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To review the literature on delinquency and victimization among Caribbean youth, utilizing an ecological perspective.
Abstract
Purpose
To review the literature on delinquency and victimization among Caribbean youth, utilizing an ecological perspective.
Design/methodology/approach
The review was initiated by a search of peer-reviewed journal articles published between 1993 and 2013, which investigated any or all aspects of juvenile delinquency and/or youth victimization in the Caribbean. Studies were critically reviewed to determine whether they addressed relationships between victimization and delinquency, and the role of the social environment on youth.
Findings
The search yielded 23 relevant studies: 64 percent of the studies were conducted exclusively in Jamaica, and more than 75 percent were school based. Half of the articles addressed the links between victimization and delinquency among Caribbean youth but the majority was primarily descriptive.
Research limitations/implications
Only peer-reviewed journals were included, so unpublished country and organizational reports were not covered in the review.
Practical implications
More current and longitudinal studies are needed, which examine the connections between delinquency and victimization, and the experiences in the smaller or less developed Caribbean countries.
Social implications
The review provides directions for the enhancement of positive youth development policy and practice.
Originality/value
This paper fills the gap in the understanding of the research on delinquency and victimization among Caribbean youth. The ecological framework also adds value to the understanding of the topic by highlighting the importance of various social contexts, such as the family, school, and neighborhood, on youth development in the Caribbean.
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The current study examines the performance effects of financial incentives for a simple, recurrent task designed to simulate an assembly-line setting. The study looks at early…
Abstract
The current study examines the performance effects of financial incentives for a simple, recurrent task designed to simulate an assembly-line setting. The study looks at early performance, improvement and overall performance. For a new task, performance-based incentives appear to improve the initial performance of the task but not subsequent improvement rate (Bailey et al., 1998). The current paper reports on a laboratory experiment whose results confirm the findings of Bailey et al. (1998) but also indicates that for both performance-based and fixed incentives, significant performance improvement takes place well beyond the initial performance of the task, declining gradually over time. This is in contrast with the suggestion of Bailey et al. (1998) that workers with performance-based incentives will choose to improve initial performance rather than subsequent performance. Findings also suggest that improvement peaks earlier for performance-based incentives than for a fixed incentive. Improvement persisted longer and there was better overall performance with the high fixed component quota and piece rate incentives than with the low fixed component quota implying that incentives that impose higher risk (e.g. a low fixed component quota incentive) on workers result in de-motivation and lower performance.
Junyi Chen, Bruce A. McCarl and Anastasia Thayer
Food security is at risk from climate change. In fact, climate change and its drivers already affect food production through increased temperatures, changed precipitation…
Abstract
Food security is at risk from climate change. In fact, climate change and its drivers already affect food production through increased temperatures, changed precipitation patterns, extreme event frequency, and escalated carbon dioxide (CO2) and ozone. These effects are expected to continue for the foreseeable future. This will cause changes to agricultural production worldwide with regional consequences for global food security. In the face of this, adaptations must be pursued that help agriculture maintain and enhance productivity under climate change while meeting growing demands for food. This chapter reviews the current literature on the impacts of climate change on agriculture and possible adaptation strategies to combat its effects. Specifically, this chapter focuses on research conducted on crop systems, livestock, fisheries, and food access.
This study concluded that food production systems around the world will be altered unevenly by climate change, with some gaining and many losing. Possible adaptation strategies will be suggested and successful implementation will need to include both public and private actions.
Given the inevitability of climate change impacting agricultural systems, adapting to the impacts is necessary to maintain future food security. More research is encouraged to determine how to best incorporate multiple systems, actors, and interests in adaptation, as well as how to best respond to the imminent threat to the food system.
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Tammie Preston-Cunningham, Barry L. Boyd, Chanda D. Elbert, Kim E. Dooley and Kelli Peck-Parrott
This study investigates the perceptions of leadership of African American undergraduate males who attend a predominately-White institution in the Southwest after participation in…
Abstract
This study investigates the perceptions of leadership of African American undergraduate males who attend a predominately-White institution in the Southwest after participation in a leadership development program. Research concerning African American undergraduate males in education has been from a deficit-orientated narrative and focused primarily on academic achievement or lack of involvement, with little attention paid to African American males performing leadership. As society continues to focus on graduation and college attendance by African American males, it is important to explore African American undergraduate male leadership as a viable method to engage and influence graduation and attendance. This study examines the way in which African American undergraduate males make meaning and define leadership. Results indicated that African American undergraduate males defined leadership as either leader behaviors or specific characteristics that leaders possess. The study indicates a need for leadership educators and student affairs professionals to develop and implement a common language concerning leadership with student leader
Lerato Aghimien, Clinton Ohis Aigbavboa and Douglas Aghimien
In the quest for better construction workforce management, this chapter explored the background of workforce management and related theories, models, and practices. Through a…
Abstract
In the quest for better construction workforce management, this chapter explored the background of workforce management and related theories, models, and practices. Through a review, the chapter provided meaning to the concept of construction and workforce management. The chapter concluded that while the construction industry worldwide is important to the economic growth of the countries where it operates, the industry’s management of its workforce is challenged by several problems. These problems include the nature of the industry, skill shortage, unhealthy working environment, and poor image of the industry, among others. Also, while the construction industry is rich in diversity, this has been a major source of problems for workforce management. The chapter further revealed that to improve workforce management and attain better-performing construction organisations, careful recruitment, effective training, providing a safe working environment, putting policies to promote diversity, and ensuring innovativeness, among others, are essential.
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Racism in the United States is complex given the cultural logics that uphold notions of “post-race” or “colorblindness” as a means for understanding racialized events. The various…
Abstract
Racism in the United States is complex given the cultural logics that uphold notions of “post-race” or “colorblindness” as a means for understanding racialized events. The various forces at play within media institutions create paradoxes in the power that the media wields in society. Utilizing the concept of “media spectacle” and putting it into dialogue with colorblind racism, the author looks at local coverage of the 2009 arrest of Henry Louis Gates. The author’s primary concern is to identify not only the narratives that uphold or challenge colorblind racism during racialized events, but also the dynamic in which racialized events are mediated in contemporary society. Through a critical discourse analysis of two Boston newspapers, the author demonstrates the way colorblind racism adapts during a racialized event. This study demonstrates the contested nature of the media and nuance to the ways we understand colorblind racism in an increasingly mediated society.
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Alan Tapp and Tim Hughes
The purpose of this paper is to highlight what the authors regard as serious problems with the continuing dominance of a “hard science” view of what constitutes “top quality”…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to highlight what the authors regard as serious problems with the continuing dominance of a “hard science” view of what constitutes “top quality” research, and to present evidence that a “softer” approach will yield work that more closely aligns with the everyday reality of marketing.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use a contrast between the marketing discipline and chemistry to illustrate their concerns about the use of “hard science” in academic marketing. This was supplemented with analyses of academic marketing work already published to illustrate particular points.
Findings
The authors propose that academic marketers need to take a “horses for courses” approach and ground their research in the reality of the discipline. Different areas within the discipline of marketing are debated, and it is concluded that some areas may still respond well to scientific approaches, while others may benefit from a relaxation into interpretive approaches. The paper argues the need to concentrate more on reflecting a reality that is recognised by the wider marketing community, rather than getting wound up in methodological strait‐jackets. To illustrate these points, the lack of recent progress in research on market segmentation is considered, and a “typical hard science paper” is critiqued. The authors summarise the reasons why it is wrong to apply a “hard science” approach on a carte blanche basis and argue for a more pluralist critical realist approach.
Practical implications
The contention is that the over‐heavy trappings of science in much academic work have the effect of removing that work from practical norms. Therefore the practical implications of this paper are potentially significant.
Originality/value
The paper promotes the soft science stance as the most appropriate epistemology for mainstream academic marketing research.
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Philip Rambaut practises what he preaches. The chairman of Richard Johnson and Nephew tells Ken Gooding that, for the bold industrialist, there has never been a better time to…
Abstract
Philip Rambaut practises what he preaches. The chairman of Richard Johnson and Nephew tells Ken Gooding that, for the bold industrialist, there has never been a better time to invest—and he is spending £2½ million on modernizing his Manchester plant.