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Article
Publication date: 18 October 2021

Nour El-Hoda Khalifeh, Rudy Youssef, Farah Fadel, Roy Khalil, Elie Shammas, Naseem Daher, Imad H. Elhajj, Thomas Irrenhauser, Michael N. Niedermeier and Christian Poss

The purpose of this paper is to detail the design and prototyping of a smart automation solution for de-strapping plastic bonding straps on shipping pallets, which are loaded with…

209

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to detail the design and prototyping of a smart automation solution for de-strapping plastic bonding straps on shipping pallets, which are loaded with multiple containers secured by a top-cover as they move on a conveyor belt.

Design/methodology/approach

The adopted design methodology to have the system perform its function entails using the least number of sensors and actuators to arrive at an economic solution from a system design viewpoint. Two prototypes of the robotic structure are designed and built, one in a research laboratory and another in an industrial plant, to perform localized cutting and grabbing of the plastic straps, with the help of a custom-designed passive localizing structure. The proposed structure is engineered to locate the plastic straps using one degree of freedom (DOF) only. An additional strap removal mechanism is designed to collect the straps and prevent them from interfering with the conveyor.

Findings

The functionality of the system is validated by performing full-process tests on the developed prototypes in a laboratory setting and under real-life operating conditions at BMW Group facilities. Testing showed that the proposed localization system meets the specified requirements and can be generalized and adapted to other industrial processes with similar requirements.

Practical implications

The proposed automated system for de-strapping pallets can be deployed in assembly or manufacturing facilities that receive parts in standard shipping pallets that are used worldwide.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first mechanically smart system that is used for the automated removal of straps from shipping pallets used in assembly facilities. The two main novelties of the proposed design are the robustness of the strap localization without the need for computer vision and a large number of DOF, and the critical placement and choice of the cutting and gripping tools to minimize the number of needed actuators.

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Article
Publication date: 26 August 2024

Wenyao Liu, Qingfeng Meng, Zhen Li, Heap-Yih Chong, Keyao Li and Hui Tang

Construction workers’ safety behavior has been proven to be crucial in preventing occupational injuries and improving workplace safety, and organizational safety support provides…

235

Abstract

Purpose

Construction workers’ safety behavior has been proven to be crucial in preventing occupational injuries and improving workplace safety, and organizational safety support provides essential resources to promote such behavior. However, the specific mechanisms of how organizational safety support affects safety behavior have not been thoroughly explored. Therefore, this study explored the relationship between workers’ perceived organizational safety support (perceived supervisor/coworker safety support) and safety behavior (safety task/contextual behavior), while considering the mediating effects of safety motivation, emotional exhaustion, and the moderating effect of psychosocial safety climate.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on the quantitative research method, the hypothesis was tested. The data were collected from 500 construction workers using a structured questionnaire. Observed variables were tested using confirmatory factor analysis, and the path coefficient of fitted model was then analyzed including the associated mediating and moderating effects.

Findings

The study found that (1) safety support from both supervisors and coworkers directly forecasted both types of safety behavior, (2) safety motivation was primarily predicted by perceived supervisor safety support, and perceived coworker safety support better predicted emotional exhaustion. Safety motivation mediated the relationship between perceived supervisor safety support and safety contextual behavior, and emotional exhaustion mediated the relationship between both types of safety support and both types of safety behavior, (3) psychosocial safety climate moderated the pathway relationships mediated by safety motivation and emotional exhaustion, respectively.

Research limitations/implications

The samples of this study were mostly immersed in eastern culture and the construction industry, and the cultural and industry diversity of the samples deserves further consideration to enhance the universality of the results. The cross-sectional approach may have some impact on the accuracy of the results. In addition, other potential mediating variables deserve to be explored in future studies.

Originality/value

This study provides a new basis for extending current theoretical frameworks of organizational safety support and safety behavior by using a moderated mediation model. Some practical insights on construction safety management have also been proposed based on the research findings. It is recommended that practitioners should further raise awareness of the critical role of supervisor-worker and worker-coworker relationships, as high levels of safety support from the supervisor/worker respectively effectively encourage safety motivation, alleviate emotional exhaustion, and thus improve workers’ safety performance. Meanwhile, the psychosocial health conditions of workers should also receive further attention.

Details

Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-9988

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Article
Publication date: 16 July 2021

Elijah Yendaw and Anthony Mwinilanaa Tampah-Naah

This study aims to investigate the health-care-seeking behaviour and practices of West African migrants who reside and operate in Wa, Ghana, as itinerant retailers.

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Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to investigate the health-care-seeking behaviour and practices of West African migrants who reside and operate in Wa, Ghana, as itinerant retailers.

Design/methodology/approach

The study was cross-sectional and used the quantitative research approach. The analysis was done on a target population comprising 122 itinerant immigrant retail traders in Wa, Ghana. Fisher’s exact test and logistic regression were used to analyse the data.

Findings

Malaria was the commonest disease among them. Five in ten of the migrants preferred to report malaria episodes to a private health facility than to a government facility. Significant associations were identified between four dimensions (health facility, self-medication, home remedy and consult others) of health-seeking behaviour, and some background characteristics. The main reason why migrants prefer government health facilities was because of their better health personnel. They self-medicated because of easy accessibility of over-the-counter medicine shops. Also, when ill, the migrants usually consulted family members who would be in a position to take them home when their ailment worsens.

Research limitations/implications

Snowball sampling was used to select the respondents which could potentially lead to a sample that is not fully representative of the population in general.

Originality/value

Studies concerning migration and health in Ghana have been focused on internal migrants. Yet, minority immigrant traders equally encounter adverse health conditions but limited studies have been conducted to espouse their health-seeking behaviour. This study imperatively contributes to the subject matter that has limited literature in the country.

Details

International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care, vol. 17 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1747-9894

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Article
Publication date: 1 November 2022

Temitope Muyiwa Adebara

The courtyard form of the traditional African house responds to people's culture and traditions. Nevertheless, in the era of globalization, the private open space (POS) is fast…

199

Abstract

Purpose

The courtyard form of the traditional African house responds to people's culture and traditions. Nevertheless, in the era of globalization, the private open space (POS) is fast disappearing in African homes due to neglect and lack of awareness of its value. This study, thus, aims to explore how culture relates to open space design in traditional houses of three major ethnic groups (Hausa-Fulani, Yoruba and Igbo) in Nigeria. This is with a view to encouraging planners and designers to create open spaces in housing developments according to people's cultural values and needs.

Design/methodology/approach

This study is based on qualitative and quantitative research approaches involving a literature review, focus group discussions and a questionnaire survey. The quantitative survey was designed based on the literature review of the concept of culture and the use of space in traditional courtyard houses. Focus group discussions were conducted to identify the specific cultural components that dictated the use of the courtyard as a POS in the Nigerian context. Subsequently, a questionnaire survey was carried out to determine the importance of each cultural component in the outdoor sociospatial design. Through systematic sampling, one of every five traditional houses in the study area was selected to determine where respondents were surveyed.

Findings

The results reveal that the cultural components that influenced the design and use of the open space were gender and privacy, family and social relations, religious practice and belief, and status and lifestyle. However, the importance attached to each of the cultural components varied from one culture to another in Nigeria. The findings also showed that the open space is used for a variety of purposes, such as ancestral worship, family gatherings and reunions, small-scale ceremonies, and leisure activities.

Research limitations/implications

This study offers professional planners and designers helpful insights to protect culture in housing development and improve daily living in residential environments.

Originality/value

Based on Amos Rapoport's theoretical framework, this study dismantles the concept of “culture” into different components and examines how they affect outdoor sociospatial design in a developing country. The study also provides researchers with ideas and inspiration to study the culture of POSs in traditional housing.

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Article
Publication date: 1 July 1987

Gilbert Kuhl

Polymethacrylates are distinguished by transparency as well as by chemical and mechanical resistivity. This overview of the current status of the thermoplastic methacrylate solid…

35

Abstract

Polymethacrylates are distinguished by transparency as well as by chemical and mechanical resistivity. This overview of the current status of the thermoplastic methacrylate solid resins discusses synthesis, production processes, binder characteristics, and major areas of application.

Details

Pigment & Resin Technology, vol. 16 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0369-9420

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Article
Publication date: 1 January 1983

BRUCE ENGLAND

Second‐order cybernetics, as developed by Foerster, has shown that the perceived environment is our invention. Cyberneticians also need to realize that this invented environment…

33

Abstract

Second‐order cybernetics, as developed by Foerster, has shown that the perceived environment is our invention. Cyberneticians also need to realize that this invented environment occurs within a particular operational state of the nervous system in humans, and that a basic modification of this state creates another operational state. In the first state, cybernetic operations create an experienced reality of differentiated duality. The second state is noncybernetic because information creation does not occur, thus it has no content and is experienced as undifferentiated unity. The transition between states depends upon the shifting of attention away and back to from content creation. Awareness of the duality‐unity model creates a framework for a cybernetic theory of reality recomputation in which the content experience of duality is impacted and changed by the no‐content experience of unity. This theory within cyberneticians can be based upon the experience of others or upon personal experience.

Details

Kybernetes, vol. 12 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0368-492X

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Article
Publication date: 1 March 1984

Thomas V. Greer

The International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes, written by the World Health Organization and joined in by the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund…

147

Abstract

The International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes, written by the World Health Organization and joined in by the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), was passed by the World Health Assembly in mid‐1981. Intended as a model statute for member nations to adopt, it is now at the centre of a controversy that is both complex and dynamic. This controversy is simultaneously one of humanitarianism, community health, business, and — most of all — law. No doubt most readers are familiar with the heated campaigns of the past few years against infant formula distribution in the Third World. Today the weight of public opinion in most developed countries is with the Code, but that does not necessarily imply ultimate adoption and implementation in other countries. This article attempts, while taking no position on the Code's merits, to examine its possible future. Specifically, (1) Will the Code be adopted and implemented? (2) What is the context in which such decisions will be made?

Details

International Marketing Review, vol. 1 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0265-1335

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Article
Publication date: 1 August 1946

THE Librarian faces one of the turning times in library history. The flow of progress has not yet begun, the shortages and consequent imperious demands for food, housing and…

25

Abstract

THE Librarian faces one of the turning times in library history. The flow of progress has not yet begun, the shortages and consequent imperious demands for food, housing and clothing stand in the way of the beginning, except on paper. How long the interregnum will last none can say. The authorities, which are a reflection in some ways of the Parliamentary party in power, are well‐disposed towards libraries; the official handbook of the Labour Party proves that; but the clamour of the needs we have mentioned deafens everybody to library needs—except in certain instances. For example, the rebuilding and enlarging of the staff at Holborn is an encouraging sign. Of more potential significance is the working out of the so‐called National Charter. It has involved many towns in the task of creating an establishment for each public department. Thus, in one library system we hear that each branch or department may claim a librarian and a deputy both on the A.P.T. scale, but all the assistants are either general or clerical. Some assistants we hear have applied to be of clerical grade as the maximum salary is greater than in the general. This we suggest is putting cash before status because it is accepted as an axiom that a clerk has only clerical qualifications and potentialities, while a general assistant may aspire, when there is a vacancy and if he have certificates, to the professional status. The grading in the particular library mentioned has rather a petrifying effect in that no assistant can get into the professional grade unless his librarian or deputy departs. Possibly this sort of thing may alter, but the fact remains for good or ill—it is not all ill by any means—that no library is able to attract men from another except to a definitely higher post.

Details

New Library World, vol. 49 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4803

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Article
Publication date: 1 April 1991

Arunoday Sana

The essence of Japanese culture is said to lie in the group rather than in the individual. According to the viewpoint favoured in most writings on Japanese society and culture…

222

Abstract

The essence of Japanese culture is said to lie in the group rather than in the individual. According to the viewpoint favoured in most writings on Japanese society and culture, the Japanese are a group‐oriented people; they like to work in groups and have always worked in association with one another, and social pressures on the individual to conform happen to be irresistible. The nail that sticks out, as the popular saying goes, gets hammered down.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 11 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

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Article
Publication date: 1 February 1989

Lone de NeergaardD

After a brief description of the major Danish political discussions on the AIDS problem, the basic steps in setting up a major informational activity as the AIDS campaign are…

44

Abstract

After a brief description of the major Danish political discussions on the AIDS problem, the basic steps in setting up a major informational activity as the AIDS campaign are described. A number of positive and negative lessons have been learned, which can be used in health education and health promotion in general. The most important are: It is possible to achieve changes in awareness, knowledge and attitudes by adopting the methods of modern marketing to the special needs and demands of health education and health promotion. Behavioural changes can be achieved by supplementary activities with a direct approach and dialogue. However, it is a long and difficult process and continuous and consistent plans including resource allocation for at least two to three years have to be made ‐ and kept to. Close co‐operation between central and local initiatives is necessary and sufficient attention should be given to establishing and securing the organisation, the co‐operative network, the distribution of material etc. Certain groups of health personnel, the press and local personalities are crucial to the effect of the campaign. Special information and motivation of these groups early in the programme is necessary. Finally attention should be paid to the prevention of general problems in health education and health promotion: the short attention span of the public, together with the fact that long lasting results do not occur for years, so that the need to continue the effort seems to disappear ‐ as do the resources.

Details

Journal of Management in Medicine, vol. 4 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0268-9235

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