Juliane Hellhammer, Ali‐Reza Waladkhani, Torsten Hero and Claudia Buss
Phosphatidylserine (PS) extracted from both bovine cortex and soya beans has been previously reported to positively affect cognitive functioning, mood, and the capacity to cope…
Abstract
Purpose
Phosphatidylserine (PS) extracted from both bovine cortex and soya beans has been previously reported to positively affect cognitive functioning, mood, and the capacity to cope with stress. The present paper aims to investigate whether the daily intake of phospholipid concentrate (PL) rich in phosphatidylserine (PS) and sphingomyelin (SM) has similar beneficial effects on working memory, allostastic load and the acute stress response.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 46 healthy men (average 41.5 years) received either placebo or 13.5 g per day PL over a three‐week period. On the 21st day of PL intake, subjects' working memory performance and their psychological and endocrine responses to the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) were tested.
Findings
Compared to placebo‐exposed individuals, there was a tendency for shorter reaction times in the working memory task, suggesting better performance in PL‐treated subjects. The two treatment groups did not significantly differ in their endocrine stress response. However, PL‐treated subjects with a higher stress load showed a blunted psychological stress response.
Practical implications
Results of the present study show beneficial effects of PL intake on cognitive performance. Under acute stress, benefits of PL may only be visible in chronically stressed subjects.
Originality/value
This paper provides new information for practitioners, academics and food supplement industries interested in possible beneficial effects of a milk phospholipid product on memory and mental stress.
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Lisa M. Stewart, Claudia Sellmaier, Marin Henderson-Posther, Jessica Lukefahr and Eileen M. Brennan
Understanding the role of mental health stigma in the workplace and its effect on employment for parents of children with mental health disabilities is limited. Using a conceptual…
Abstract
Understanding the role of mental health stigma in the workplace and its effect on employment for parents of children with mental health disabilities is limited. Using a conceptual approach to stigma that incorporates four interrelated stigma types, a scoping review of the literature was conducted to locate research on mental health stigma within the workplace directed at parents of children with mental health disabilities. Twenty-six research articles and 12 websites met the study inclusion criteria. Findings confirm parents of children with mental health disabilities experience public, self, courtesy, and structural stigma in the workplace, which affects their workforce participation. Articles in the review report limited strategies available to parents to combat stigma and discrimination due to public mental health stigma. Gaps in the literature and opportunities for parents, parent support organizations, workplaces, and policy-makers are discussed.
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Robyn E. Metcalfe, Claudia Reino, Arriell Jackson, Jean M. Kjellstrand and J. Mark Eddy
Over 2 million individuals are incarcerated in the US criminal justice system. More than half of incarcerated Americans are also parents of minors. Parental incarceration can lead…
Abstract
Over 2 million individuals are incarcerated in the US criminal justice system. More than half of incarcerated Americans are also parents of minors. Parental incarceration can lead to a higher risk of mental illness and enduring trauma in children, as well as other problematic cognitive, developmental, and educational outcomes. Examining parental incarceration through a racial equity lens is critical, as people of color make up 67% of the incarcerated population despite making up only 37% of the US population. Further, gender-related equity issues pose important challenges for families with incarcerated parents. Here, we discuss prison-based psychosocial interventions designed both to build parenting skills and to improve parent well-being within a racial and gender equity lens. We hypothesize that effective services in these areas are essential components in a broad strategy designed to mitigate the potential negative effects suffered by families and children of incarcerated parents of color as a result of their imprisonment.
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Organizational wrongdoing researchers often look to past cases to empirically develop and support theoretical understanding. Their research is therefore conducted at a temporal…
Abstract
Organizational wrongdoing researchers often look to past cases to empirically develop and support theoretical understanding. Their research is therefore conducted at a temporal distance to focal events and frequently relies on retrospective accounts and surviving documentary evidence. These methodological circumstances define historical research practice, and we demonstrate in this paper the valuable insights that historical approaches can provide organizational wrongdoing research. Specifically, we draw on a range of practices from history and the social sciences to introduce four historically informed approaches: narrative history, analytically structured history, historical process study, short-term process study. We differentiate these based on their particular affordances and treatment of two key methodological considerations: historical evidence and temporality. We demonstrate the specific value these approaches represent to organizational wrongdoing research with several exemplars showing how they have been used in related fields of research.
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Dohyun Ahn, Yunjae Cheong and Kihan Kim
This study examines a way to enhance the effectiveness of commercials embedded in the telecasts of megasporting events. We hypothesise that embedded commercials are more likeable…
Abstract
This study examines a way to enhance the effectiveness of commercials embedded in the telecasts of mega sporting events. We hypothesise that embedded commercials are more likeable when the cues of the commercials match the motivations induced by the telecasts of sports games. Specifically, we posit that the telecasts of mega-sporting events induce motives of relatedness (rather than motives of competence) and that the advertisements embedded in these telecasts will be more effective when they appeal to the relatedness motive. The results support this hypothesis. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed and future research directions are provided.
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Rates of less perceptible social–behavioral–emotional disorders thought to be based in neurobiological brain differences have burgeoned, though much of disability studies remains…
Abstract
Purpose
Rates of less perceptible social–behavioral–emotional disorders thought to be based in neurobiological brain differences have burgeoned, though much of disability studies remains focused on the need to challenge compulsory able-bodiedness. This chapter examines instead diverse families living with adult sons’ and daughters’ invisible disabilities, asking how mothers may challenge compulsory able-mindedness.
Methodology/Approach
This chapter is based on 15 in-depth interviews conducted in 2017 and 2018 with mothers originally interviewed between 2003 and 2008.
Findings
The accounts foreground tensions for those at the boundaries of “normality” in a culture that valorizes citizen’s independence, productivity, and heroic overcoming of any inability. Mothers of “precariously normal” adult sons and daughters invited to reflect on their earlier accounts reveal both the power of such dominant narratives and the possibilities to disrupt and challenge this public storytelling.
Implications/Value
Findings of this study point to the alternative narratives and identities sought by disability studies and bring invisible social–behavioral–emotional disabilities into discussions that have largely centered on visible physical disabilities. These findings also underscore the complex similarities and differences in families’ experiences of disability across class and race divides, while suggesting the need for institutional change and greater, less punitive, public resources.
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The purpose of this paper is to examine the question of parents’ rights to make choices regarding the education and upbringing of their children.Article 26(3) of the Universal…
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to examine the question of parents’ rights to make choices regarding the education and upbringing of their children.
Article 26(3) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: ‘Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children’. However, authors including Joel Feinberg also argue children have a right to an ‘open future’, implying parents and the state have obligations to ensure certain elements are present in a child’s care and education. Commodifying education and early childhood care where it occurs in many developed societies, ostensibly provides parents with greater choice regarding the education and upbringing of their children. However, following the work of Brenda Almond, I argue that parents do have some rights to make choices about the care and education of their children. But just having the freedom to choose from alternative schooling or caring options may be insufficient to provide a choice in any significant sense, if one is only choosing between service providers all offering essentially the same service.
It would seem then, that responsible leadership and ethical decision-making by the state and by service providers requires them to engage in consultation with parents and facilitate their participation in determining the nature and content of educational and developmental programmes for children.
Leaders in these roles will also need to have a strong sense of the competing demands on content coming from this array of ethical requirements.
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Cláudia C.E. Muiambo, Isabel M. Joao and Helena V.G. Navas
The purpose of this paper is to make a lean assessment of a chemical analyst training laboratory in a higher education institution and identify the main types of waste on a daily…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to make a lean assessment of a chemical analyst training laboratory in a higher education institution and identify the main types of waste on a daily basis and understand the lean maturity of the laboratory and establish priority areas of intervention to make the laboratory leanest.
Design/methodology/approach
A single descriptive case study methodology was used to carry out the lean laboratory evaluation. The lean manufacturing waste terminology was adapted to a lean analytical laboratory environment, and a lean waste assessment step-by-step procedure was developed to reach the study goal.
Findings
Three types of waste (i.e. transport, waiting and defects) were the main contributors of the problem. The Pareto analysis results showed that 37.5% of the different types of waste contributed to almost 51.4% of the problems. The case study allowed on diagnosing wastes, understanding the lean maturity in a teaching laboratory setting and priority areas of intervention
Practical implications
Some data collection methods were used, and tools were developed to answer the research questions. A waste measurement instrument was created to evaluate lean waste in a chemical analytical laboratory, and a lean classification scheme was built to understand the lean maturity of the laboratory. The lessons learnt of the lean assessment in a teaching laboratory and the developed tools will be helpful for future research and for practitioners in a teaching chemical analytical laboratory setting.
Originality/value
The number of lean assessment studies in teaching laboratories is not very significant, and this work contributes to overcome this gap illustrating the lean waste assessment foundation with a step-by-step procedure and tools used in a teaching laboratory to perform a lean assessment and identify opportunities for improvement. A generic roadmap to lean laboratory waste assessment and continuous improvement is proposed with the key elements to take into consideration.
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Scholars have long argued that churches play a critical role in mobilizing communities marginal to the political process, primarily by pooling resources, disseminating…
Abstract
Scholars have long argued that churches play a critical role in mobilizing communities marginal to the political process, primarily by pooling resources, disseminating information, and providing opportunities for members to develop community networks, leadership, and civic skills. However, recent research suggests that churches only serve as effective mobilizing institutions when they engage in direct political discussion and recruitment. Even so, churches may face economic, legal, and institutional barriers to entering the political sphere, and explicit political speech and action remain rare. Through an analysis of two years of ethnographic fieldwork following faith-based community organizers attempting to recruit Spanish speakers throughout a Catholic Archdiocese into a campaign for immigrant rights, this paper explores the institutional constraints on church political mobilization, and how these are overcome to mobilize one of the most politically marginal groups in the United States today: Hispanic undocumented immigrants and their allies. I argue that scholars of political engagement must look beyond the structural features of organizations to consider the effects of their institutionalized domains and practices. While churches do face institutional barriers to political mobilization, activists who specialize their recruitment strategy to match the institutional practices of the organizations they target can effectively overcome these barriers to mobilize politically alienated populations.