David J. Talarico, Aaron Mazzeo and Mitsunori Denda
Advancements in aerospace technologies, which rely on unsteady fluid dynamics, are being hindered by a lack of easy to use, computationally efficient unsteady computational fluid…
Abstract
Purpose
Advancements in aerospace technologies, which rely on unsteady fluid dynamics, are being hindered by a lack of easy to use, computationally efficient unsteady computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software. Existing CFD platforms are capable of handling unsteady flapping, but the time, money and expertise required to run even a basic flapping simulation make design iteration and optimization prohibitively expensive for the average researcher.
Design/methodology/approach
In the present paper, a remedy to model the effects of viscosity is introduced to the original vortex method, in which the pitching moment amplitude grew over time for simulations involving multiple flapping cycles. The new approach described herein lumps far-field wake vortices to mimic the vortex decay, which is shown to improve the accuracy of the solution while keeping the pitching moment amplitude under control, especially for simulations involving many flapping cycles.
Findings
In addition to improving the accuracy of the solution, the new method greatly reduces the computation time for simulations involving many flapping cycles. The solution of the original vortex method and the new method are compared to published Navier–Stokes solver data and show very good agreement.
Originality/value
By utilizing a novel unsteady vortex method, which has been designed specifically to handle the highly unsteady flapping wing problems, it has been shown that the time to compute a solution is reduced by several orders of magnitude (Denda et al., 2016). Despite the success of the vortex method, especially for a small number of flapping cycles, the solution deteriorates as the number of flapping cycles increases due to the inherent lack of viscosity in the vortex method.
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Sarah E. Scales and Jennifer A. Horney
Prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, women did nearly three-quarters of the world’s unpaid work. As institutional supports, including in-person school and community-based…
Abstract
Prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, women did nearly three-quarters of the world’s unpaid work. As institutional supports, including in-person school and community-based care for children, the elderly, and the disabled vanished early in the pandemic, many women’s caregiving responsibilities increased. In some cases, opportunities for paid employment disappeared due to layoffs and furloughs, while in others, paid work was no longer possible without access to the missing institutional supports. Either way, access to needed supports – financial, practical, and social – was diminished. The lapse of needed supports also had severe impacts on subgroups of women, including pregnant and post-partum women. A range of considerations – vaccine safety, social interaction and infection risk, disease severity – have posed serious challenges for pregnant and post-partum women. Across the board, women’s need for continuous access to better social, financial, and practical supports at home, in the community, and in the workplace was made even more evident by the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Adriana Cristina Ferreira Caldana, João Henrique Paulino Pires Eustachio, Bárbara Lespinasse Sampaio, Maria Luiza Gianotto, Aurora Contiero Talarico and André Cavalcante da Silva Batalhão
This paper aims to explore whether formal, non-formal, and informal learning experiences contribute to developing sustainable development competencies (SDCs) among students in a…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore whether formal, non-formal, and informal learning experiences contribute to developing sustainable development competencies (SDCs) among students in a Principles of Responsible Management Education (PRME) signatory business school.
Design/methodology/approach
An online survey based on the students’ learning experiences and a questionnaire on sustainability competencies already validated in the literature were given to a sample of 274 bachelor students at a PRME signatory business school. Nominal variables representing students’ categories were created to test a set of hypotheses developed according to the literature. Because the data was not normally distributed, non-parametric independent-samples Mann–Whitney U test was conducted, and descriptive statistics was used to help the analysis.
Findings
The results suggest that a hybrid format with a combination of formal, non-formal and informal learning experiences is essential to maximising the development of SDCs and raising students’ sustainability literacy.
Research limitations/implications
This study is one of the first attempts to understand the importance of a hybrid approach in developing sustainable competencies (SDCs). Future studies could adopt longitudinal analysis to check the development of these competencies over time, assess students from different PRME signatory schools or comparing students to those in non-signatory business schools.
Practical implications
This study provides insight into how business schools could address challenges in developing sustainable competencies through redirecting their educational systems by balancing formal, informal and non-formal learning approaches to educate future responsible leaders.
Originality/value
This research provides evidence on how a hybrid learning approach could maximise the development of sustainable development competencies and, therefore, generating insights for educational policies.
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The importance of developing and implementing sustainable business practices has never been greater. Business schools are increasingly tasked with preparing students to contribute…
Abstract
The importance of developing and implementing sustainable business practices has never been greater. Business schools are increasingly tasked with preparing students to contribute to this imperative and although progress is being made, the impact of integrating sustainability into business school curriculum has remained uncertain as studies exploring the impact have been lacking. The purpose of this multi-case study was to examine the impact of integration efforts in two distinct undergraduate business programs at Royal Roads University. The research focused on how students' understanding of sustainability and their associated attitudes and behaviors changed as they progressed throughout their programs. In addition to considering the impact of a sustainability-infused curriculum, other factors affecting sustainability orientations were also explored. The study was unique in both its comparative nature and in its investigation of the various contextual factors shaping sustainability orientations. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and through document analysis. Findings suggest a combination of approaches to integration is most effective in impacting sustainability perspectives. While sustainability was generally understood in a multidimensional manner, there was a noticeable environmental bias and a tendency to view it within the business framework. A need for stronger and more comprehensive conceptualizations was identified. Recommendations include: (a) embed sustainability in a comprehensive manner across the curriculum, (b) move beyond a disciplinary conceptualization of sustainability and introduce stronger sustainability discourse, (c) utilize powerful experiential and place-based pedagogies, (d) pay attention to context and ensure both the formal and the informal curriculum mutually reinforce a pro-sustainability agenda.
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Cristina Fernandes, João Ferreira and Pedro Mota Veiga
The purpose of this study is use a bibliometric analysis to explore the relational nature of knowledge creation in WFM in operations. Companies live under constant pressure to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is use a bibliometric analysis to explore the relational nature of knowledge creation in WFM in operations. Companies live under constant pressure to find the best ways to plan their workforce, and the workforce emangement (WFM) is one of the biggest challenges faced by managers. Relevant research on WFM in operations has been published in a several range of journals that vary in their scope and readership, and thus the academic contribution to the topic remains largely fragmented.
Design/methodology/approach
To address this gap, this review aims to map research on WFM in operations to understand where it comes from and where it is going and, therefore, provides opportunities for future work. This study combined two bibliometric approaches with manual document coding to examine the literature corpus of WFM in operations to draw a holistic picture of its different aspects.
Findings
Content and thematic analysis of the seminal studies resulted in the extraction of three key research themes: workforce cross-training, planning workforce mixed methods and individual workforce characteristics. The findings of this study further highlight the gaps in the WFM in operations literature and raise some research questions that warrant further academic investigation in the future.
Originality/value
Likewise, this study has important implications for practitioners who are likely to benefit from a holistic understanding of the different aspects of WFM in operations.
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L. Edward Wells, David N. Falcone and Cara Rabe‐Hemp
Recent policing reforms have strongly emphasized the role of community context in determining the form and content of effective policing, along with the traditional influence of…
Abstract
Recent policing reforms have strongly emphasized the role of community context in determining the form and content of effective policing, along with the traditional influence of organizational structures. Recognizing the increasing suburbanization of US communities, this study examines the empirical support for the underlying contextual and structural premises of these reforms in a sample of midwestern suburban communities. Merging data from a telephone survey of 194 municipal police departments in the five counties of the Chicago metropolitan statistical area with data on communities from other government sources, multiple regression was used to assess the relative importance of community context and organizational structure factors in accounting for differences in departmental policing styles. The findings both support and contradict some basic assumptions of current community‐oriented policing reforms, as well as some of the findings of prior studies. They underline the importance of empirically testing our theoretical assumptions in all types of community settings.
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Alissa Pollitz Worden and Andrew Lucas Blaize Davies
Most criminal justice scholars agree that the past three decades have witnessed a punitive shift in criminal justice policy, public opinion, and political rhetoric. Have these…
Abstract
Most criminal justice scholars agree that the past three decades have witnessed a punitive shift in criminal justice policy, public opinion, and political rhetoric. Have these political trends also left their mark on policy approaches to due process rights? The provision of counsel to indigent defendants is a signature issue in debates over due process rights. The Supreme Court expanded dramatically the circumstances under which states were required to provide counsel in the 1960s and 1970s, though decisions about the implementation of this mandate were left to individual states. We examine the evolution of indigent defense policy, at the state and local level, over the past three decades, and ask two questions: First, did policies evolve in the directions expected by reform advocates? Second, to the extent that policies developed differently across states, how can we account for those differences? We find that refomers' optimistic projections about structure and funding have not been realized, and that adoption of progressive policies has been uneven across states. Most importantly, we find evidence that the politics of ideology and racial conflict have played a significant role in states' indigent defense policy over the past three decades.
Hammad Abdullah Al Nasseri, Kristian Widen and Radhlinah Aulin
The implementation and control processes of project planning and scheduling involve a wide range of methods and tools. Despite the development and modification and integration of…
Abstract
Purpose
The implementation and control processes of project planning and scheduling involve a wide range of methods and tools. Despite the development and modification and integration of the project management theory with newer scheduling approaches in particular, practitioners’ views on the efficiency and effectiveness of these methods and tools differ. This situation can be attributed in part to a lack of understanding of the most appropriate basis for implementing these methods and tools. This study, therefore, aims to overcome this deficiency by conceptualizing and adopting a taxonomy of planning and scheduling methods.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on a review and discourse analysis of the literature covering a large number of theoretical and empirical studies. The underlying theories of various planning and scheduling methods were analyzed with respect to the taxonomy criteria adopted in the study.
Findings
Using the taxonomy, the key characteristics of planning and scheduling methods considered in this study were identified and interpreted. These included concepts and theories; key features; suitability and usability; and benefits and limitations. Overall, the findings suggest that project managers should consider taxonomy as a support tool for selecting and prioritizing the most appropriate method or combination of methods for managing their projects. Recommendations include the need for more advanced or multi-dimensional taxonomies to cope with the diversity of project type and size.
Originality/value
The results of the study allow project managers to improve their current practices by utilizing taxonomy when considering the implementation of planning and scheduling methods. Moreover, taxonomy can be considered as a tool to promote learning on the part of those less experienced in planning and scheduling. Taxonomy can be considered as an initial platform for further research in this area.