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Book part
Publication date: 21 November 2011

Pamela Block, Eva L. Rodriguez, Maria C. Milazzo, William S. MacAllister, Lauren B. Krupp, Akemi Nishida, Nina Slota, Alyssa M. Broughton and Christopher B. Keys

Purpose – Researchers use the concept of biosociality and a disability studies framework of empowerment to present and analyze examples of community formation and participation…

Abstract

Purpose – Researchers use the concept of biosociality and a disability studies framework of empowerment to present and analyze examples of community formation and participation for youth with pediatric multiple sclerosis.

Methodology – The data were collected using participant observation, individual and focus group interviews during Teen Adventure Camps held in the summers of 2004–2009 and an Educational Transition Retreat held in the fall of 2008.

Findings – Evidence of community formation and identification include the development of formal and informal systems for mutual support and mentoring, as well as transformations in self-perception and collective identity. Challenges to community formation include differing perspectives about disability-pride vs. diagnosis-specific affiliations.

Research implications – This research indicates that there are many pathways to individual and community identification which may include and even intertwine both diagnosis-specific and disability-pride approaches. The process of community formation is transformative, thus preferences with regard to community identification should not be considered stable, but rather understood as a developmental process that may change over time.

Originality/value of paper – Building upon social and minority group theories, this research moved beyond social critique to develop and implement strategies for community development, individual, and group empowerment.

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Disability and Community
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-85724-800-8

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Article
Publication date: 13 April 2015

Maria Francesca Milazzo and Francesco Spina

– The purpose of this paper is to quantify the human health impacts of soy-biodiesel production with the aim to discuss about its environmental sustainability.

668

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to quantify the human health impacts of soy-biodiesel production with the aim to discuss about its environmental sustainability.

Design/methodology/approach

The integrated use of two current approaches, risk assessment (RA) and life cycle assessment (LCA), has allowed improvement of the potentialities of both in obtaining a more complete analysis. The implementation of a life cycle indicator for the assessment of the impacts on the human health, integrating the features of both approaches, is the main focus of this paper.

Findings

It has been found that, although the biodiesel is a green fuel, it has some criticalities in its life cycle, which cannot be disregarded. In fact, even if biodiesel is essentially a clean fuel there are some phases, prior to the industrial phase, that can cause negative effects on human health and ecosystems.

Practical implications

Results suggest some measures which can be adopted to substantially reduce human health impacts. Further alternative could be analysed in future to gain more insight about the use of biodiesel fuels.

Originality/value

The estimation of the impacts of a process producing biodiesel has been made by using a novel approach. The novelty is associated with the calculation of the impacts on human health by using the transfer factors applied in RA. The use of such factors, properly modified in order to estimate the impacts on a wider scale than a site-dimension, allows defining a holistic approach, as LCA and RA are used as complete units but at the same time can be related to each other.

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Management of Environmental Quality: An International Journal, vol. 26 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1477-7835

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Article
Publication date: 14 June 2022

Soraiya Ebrahimpour-Koujan, Amir Ali Sohrabpour, Saeid Safari, Nima Baziar, Shima Hadavi, Laleh Payahoo and Samaneh Shabani

Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) is becoming a crucial health problem worldwide. Continued and high-speed mutations of this virus result in the appearance of new…

105

Abstract

Purpose

Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) is becoming a crucial health problem worldwide. Continued and high-speed mutations of this virus result in the appearance of new manifestations, making the control of this disease difficult. It has been shown that well-nourished patients have strong immune systems who mostly have short-term hospitalization compared to others. The purpose of this study is to review the major nutrients involved in the immune system reinforcement and to explain nutritional aspects during the recovery of COVID-19.

Design/methodology/approach

In this review paper, the mechanistic role of nutrients in boosting the immune system and the nutritional aspects during the recovery of COVID-19 patients were discussed. Papers indexed in scientific databases were searched using antioxidants, COVID-19, inflammation, immune system, macronutrient, micronutrient and probiotic as keywords from 2000 to 2022.

Findings

Because of the adverse effects of drugs like thrombosis, pulmonary embolism and hypercholesterolemia, a balanced diet with enough concentrations of energy and macronutrients could increase the patient's durability. The inflammatory cytokines in a vicious cycle delay patients’ rehabilitation. The main mechanistic roles of micronutrients are attributed to the downregulation of virus replication and are involved in energy homeostasis. Dysbiosis is defined as another disturbance among COVID-19 patients, and supplementation with beneficial strains of probiotics helps to exert anti-inflammatory effects in this regard. Being on a well-planned diet with anti-inflammatory properties could reverse cytokine storms as the major feature of COVID-19. Future studies are needed to determine the safe and effective dose of dietary factors to control the COVID-19 patients.

Originality/value

Being on a well-planned diet with anti-inflammatory properties could reverse cytokine storms as the major feature of COVID-19. Future studies are needed to determine the safe and effective dose of dietary factors to control the COVID-19 patients.

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Nutrition & Food Science , vol. 53 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0034-6659

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Article
Publication date: 16 August 2022

Jia-Nan He, De-wei Yang and Wu Zhenyu

For gravity dams built on foundations with directional joint sets, the seepage in the foundation possesses anisotropic characteristics and may have adverse effects on the…

164

Abstract

Purpose

For gravity dams built on foundations with directional joint sets, the seepage in the foundation possesses anisotropic characteristics and may have adverse effects on the foundation stability. A methodology for system reliability analysis of gravity dam foundations considering anisotropic seepage and multiple sliding surfaces is proposed in this paper.

Design/methodology/approach

Anisotropic seepages in dam foundations are simulated using finite element method (FEM) with the equivalent continuum model (ECM), and their effect on dam foundation stability is involved by uplift pressures acting on the potential sliding surfaces. The system failure probability of the dam foundation is efficiently estimated using Monte Carlo method (MCM) combined with response surface method (RSM).

Findings

The case study shows that it is necessary to consider the possibly adverse effect of anisotropic seepage on foundation stability of gravity dams and the deterministic analysis of the foundation stability may be misleading. The system reliability analysis of the dam foundation is justified, as the uncertainties in shear strength parameters of the foundation rocks and joint sets as well as aperture, connectivity and spacing of the joint sets are quantified and the system effect of the multiple potential sliding surfaces on the foundation reliability is reasonably considered.

Originality/value

(1) A methodology is proposed for efficient system reliability analysis of foundation stability of gravity dams considering anisotropic seepage and multiple sliding surfaces (2) The influence of anisotropic seepage on the stability of gravity dam foundation  is revealed (3) The influence of estimation errors of RSMs on the system reliability assessment of dam foundation is investigated.

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Engineering Computations, vol. 39 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0264-4401

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Book part
Publication date: 7 October 2020

Adrian Favell

In June 2016, a clear majority of English voters chose to unilaterally take the United Kingdom out of the European Union (EU). According to many of the post-Brexit vote analyses…

Abstract

In June 2016, a clear majority of English voters chose to unilaterally take the United Kingdom out of the European Union (EU). According to many of the post-Brexit vote analyses, the single strongest motivating factor driving this vote was “immigration” in Britain, an issue which had long been the central mobilizing force of the United Kingdom Independence Party. The chapter focuses on how – following the bitter demise of multiculturalism – these Brexit related developments may now signal the end of Britain's postcolonial settlement on migration and race, the other parts of a progressive philosophy which had long been marked out as a proud British distinction from its neighbors. In successfully racializing, lumping together, and relabeling as “immigrants” three anomalous non-“immigrant” groups – asylum seekers, EU nationals, and British Muslims – UKIP leader Nigel Farage made explicit an insidious recasting of ideas of “immigration” and “integration,” emergent since the year 2000, which exhumed the ideas of Enoch Powell and threatened the status of even the most settled British minority ethnic populations – as has been seen in the Windrush scandal. Central to this has been the rejection of the postnational principle of non-discrimination by nationality, which had seen its fullest European expression in Britain during the 1990s and 2000s. The referendum on Brexit enabled an extraordinary democratic vote on the notion of “national” population and membership, in which “the People” might openly roll back the various diasporic, multinational, cosmopolitan, or human rights–based conceptions of global society which had taken root during those decades. This chapter unpacks the toxic cocktail that lays behind the forces propelling Boris Johnson to power. It also raises the question of whether Britain will provide a negative examplar to the rest of Europe on issues concerning the future of multiethnic societies.

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Europe's Malaise
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83909-042-4

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Book part
Publication date: 19 March 2019

David Hearne, Rebecca Semmens-Wheeler and Kimberley M. Hill

One of the most heated discussions regarding Brexit is over the nature of any future trade deal the UK is going to sign with the EU. There have been endless discussions since the…

Abstract

One of the most heated discussions regarding Brexit is over the nature of any future trade deal the UK is going to sign with the EU. There have been endless discussions since the referendum result about this crucial aspect question and nothing has been so far agreed. Some analysts, however, have already pointed to a series of issues that anything different from the status quo could cause. The case analysed in the following pages serves as a cautionary tale, and there is an important reason for that. It is a good illustration of the issues that can emerge when countries are members of some forms of regional associations but not of others and whose consequences can produce spill-overs from pure trade matters to more serious security concerns.

It is not very often that something as common as the import and export of agricultural products – especially non-exotic fruits and vegetables – becomes the object of such a dispute across multiple states. This is what happened in the now infamous case of Chinese garlic exports, which have seen several instances of smuggling, conviction, and fraud all over Europe in the last 20 years. Most incidents have taken place in Northern Europe, particularly Sweden, Norway, the UK and Ireland. There’s a reason for that, which will be explained below.

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Brexit Negotiations After Article 50: Assessing Process, Progress and Impact
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78769-768-3

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Article
Publication date: 1 June 2004

A. Majorana, O. Muscato and C. Milazzo

Time‐depending solutions to the Boltzmann‐Poisson system in one spatial dimension and three‐dimensional velocity space are obtained by using a recent finite difference numerical…

497

Abstract

Time‐depending solutions to the Boltzmann‐Poisson system in one spatial dimension and three‐dimensional velocity space are obtained by using a recent finite difference numerical scheme. The collision operator of the Boltzmann equation models the scattering processes between electrons and phonons assumed in thermal equilibrium. The numerical solutions for bulk silicon and for a one‐dimensional n+‐n‐n+ silicon diode are compared with the Monte Carlo simulation. Further comparisons with the experimental data are shown.

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COMPEL - The international journal for computation and mathematics in electrical and electronic engineering, vol. 23 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0332-1649

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Article
Publication date: 1 March 2014

Prae Keerasuntonpong, Keitha Dunstan and Bhagwan Khanna

The statement of service performance is a mandatory report provided by local governments in New Zealand. Despite 20 years' reporting experience, the Office of the Auditor-General…

218

Abstract

The statement of service performance is a mandatory report provided by local governments in New Zealand. Despite 20 years' reporting experience, the Office of the Auditor-General (2008) criticised the poor quality of these reports. Past theoretical literature has attempted to develop a framework for the accountability expectations of documents provided by public-sector entities (Stewart, 1984). The purpose of this paper is to measure the consistency of the statements of service performance about wastewater services made by New Zealand local governments with the accountability expectations, using an accountability disclosure index. The paper reveals a moderately high level of consistency. “Probity” and “legality” accountability disclosures are high while “process/efficiency” and “performance programme-effectiveness” accountability are less emphasised. The results suggest that accountability expectations provide a useful tool for evaluating statements of service performance.

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Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting & Financial Management, vol. 26 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1096-3367

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Article
Publication date: 3 June 2019

Prae Keerasuntonpong, Pavinee Manowan and Wasatorn Shutibhinyo

Public accountability was formally imposed on the Thai Government in 1997 when the World Bank compelled public sector reforms as a condition for bailing the country from…

767

Abstract

Purpose

Public accountability was formally imposed on the Thai Government in 1997 when the World Bank compelled public sector reforms as a condition for bailing the country from bankruptcy. Despite regulating to promote public accountability for 20 years, the public accountability of Thai Government is still criticized as poor. However, the specific areas of public accountability needing improvement have not been clearly identified in Thailand. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the Thai Government discharges its public accountability.

Design/methodology/approach

Prior literature supported annual reports as essential means by which public sector entities discharge their public accountability, and addressed the desirable aspects of reporting which permit the public’s monitoring of their government’s performance. That is: the account must be publicly accessible, timely, reliable and adequate. This paper evaluates the 2016 annual reports of the Thai Central Government departments against these aspects in tandem with the reporting regulations.

Findings

The results show that reliability and timeliness of annual report disclosures are the most problematic, followed by accessibility and adequacy. It was also found that the existing regulations provide only mild sanctions on government officers for their non-compliance. Further, statistical evidence suggests that larger departments report better on voluntary items than departments with smaller revenue.

Originality/value

These weaknesses of the reporting and regulations provide immediate suggestions for public policy regulators as to how to improve the Thai Government’s public accountability. These results are also expected to be useful to international lending institutions to be aware of particular issues when considering their foreign aid programs. Theoretically, the paper supports the necessity of public accountability mechanisms, in particular public sanctions, which need to be strong enough to motivate governments’ public accountability. It also highlights that public accountability aspects can be useful to measure or evaluating public sector reporting in emerging countries such as Thailand.

Details

Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting & Financial Management, vol. 31 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1096-3367

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Book part
Publication date: 21 November 2011

Abstract

Details

Disability and Community
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-85724-800-8

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