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1 – 10 of over 6000Recent investigations have shown that mistakes are commonly made in preparing bottle feeds for babies. Mothers were found not to count, or to lose count of the number of scoops of…
Abstract
Recent investigations have shown that mistakes are commonly made in preparing bottle feeds for babies. Mothers were found not to count, or to lose count of the number of scoops of powder added. Some added heaped scoopsful of powder while some added an extra scoop of milk powder ‘for good measure’. Even those who thought they were following the manufacturers' instructions were still making errors.
Man has been seeking an ideal existence for a very long time. In this existence, justice, love, and peace are no longer words, but actual experiences. How ever, with the American…
Abstract
Man has been seeking an ideal existence for a very long time. In this existence, justice, love, and peace are no longer words, but actual experiences. How ever, with the American preemptive invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq and the subsequent prisoner abuse, such an existence seems to be farther and farther away from reality. The purpose of this work is to stop this dangerous trend by promoting justice, love, and peace through a change of the paradigm that is inconsistent with justice, love, and peace. The strong paradigm that created the strong nation like the U.S. and the strong man like George W. Bush have been the culprit, rather than the contributor, of the above three universal ideals. Thus, rather than justice, love, and peace, the strong paradigm resulted in in justice, hatred, and violence. In order to remove these three and related evils, what the world needs in the beginning of the third millenium is the weak paradigm. Through the acceptance of the latter paradigm, the golden mean or middle paradigm can be formulated, which is a synergy of the weak and the strong paradigm. In order to understand properly the meaning of these paradigms, however, some digression appears necessary.
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Abhaysinha Gunvantrao Shelake and Nivedita Gunesh Gogate
This study aims to develop a comprehensive framework for addressing delays in tunnel construction projects by leveraging predictable risk factors. Tunnel projects often encounter…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to develop a comprehensive framework for addressing delays in tunnel construction projects by leveraging predictable risk factors. Tunnel projects often encounter scheduling delays due to inherent complexities and uncertainties, necessitating a proactive approach to prevent project underperformance.
Design/methodology/approach
The integrated risk prioritization and determination of activity-wise delay (IRPAD) framework is divided into four phases: identification and prioritization of risk factors, determination of activity-wise risk coefficients using MCDM-based methodology, obtaining the critical risk path, and developing an activity-wise risk matrix. Fault tree analysis (FTA) and event tree analysis (ETA) are employed to determine activity-wise risk coefficients based on expert responses.
Findings
The framework’s applicability in Indian tunnel projects is demonstrated through a real-world case study with 95% validation accuracy. The IRPAD framework enhances the delay analysis process and facilitates the provision of effective activity-wise mitigation measures.
Practical implications
The IRPAD framework predicts delays in infrastructure projects thus enhancing resilience and sustainability, supporting SDGs 9 and 11. It can be applied to a wide range of construction projects to improve project performance.
Originality/value
This research introduces novel concepts such as the three fold activity-wise risk matrix and the critical risk path, contributing to the development of the IRPAD framework for delay reduction. This framework offers valuable insights to practitioners in the construction industry.
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Amir A. Abdulmuhsin and Ali Tarhini
This study draws upon the hybrid approach of the resource-based view and social capital theory, and aims to develop and empirically validate a model that examines the relationship…
Abstract
Purpose
This study draws upon the hybrid approach of the resource-based view and social capital theory, and aims to develop and empirically validate a model that examines the relationship amongst wise leadership, workplace friendships and open innovation (OI) in family firms (FFs).
Design/methodology/approach
An online survey was conducted to collect data from a sample of 381 firms from a developing country. Additionally, this study used AMOS software and structural equation model to empirically test the proposed hypotheses of the theoretical model.
Findings
Findings show that wise leadership has a significant, positive indirect effect on stimulating OI in FFs via its influence on building workplace friendships and overcoming knowledge–strategic and collaboration–organisational challenges.
Practical implications
To improve OI, top management teams of family businesses should encourage wise, intelligent, well-informed and strong leaders who drive change. Moreover, they should establish small group, “smart-world” networks for specialised innovation to facilitate friendship based on trust and competence, and develop the coordinating role of family leaders in these networks.
Originality/value
This study complements and advances previous research on OI in many ways. Firstly, the current study proposes a conceptual model that demonstrates the interrelationships amongst the main variables in Iraqi FFs. Secondly, this research explores the crucial mediating role of workplace friendship, which capitalises on the principles of friendship in the context of the acquisition, accumulation and exchange of knowledge, thereby overcoming the challenges associated with innovation.
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THE summer is not a good time for writing editorials. In the first place it has been too warm, but more particularly, no matter how hot the topic at the time of writing, it will…
Abstract
THE summer is not a good time for writing editorials. In the first place it has been too warm, but more particularly, no matter how hot the topic at the time of writing, it will be cold as mutton before it eventually reaches its readers. Secondly our thoughts seem to have been devoted to anything except libraries: a little light reading perhaps, or a gentle discussion of next season's lecture programme? So now, not an editorial proper (or improper), but some editorial miscellany, beginning with the late but unregretted printing dispute. The LIBRARY WORLD has not been affected as much as some periodicals, and this issue makes its appearance only some three weeks later than planned. We have occasionally encountered comments which suggest that our journal is not anticipated each month with undue pleasure, and is quickly placed on the Chief Librarian's desk, from which honourable position its subsequent circulation is frequently delayed. Many libraries do not appear to have a professional journal circulation scheme, and this is a regrettable state of affairs. It is important that the younger members of the profession should be well informed about library affairs, and only the regular perusal of periodicals can achieve this. May we recommend that Chiefs institute and maintain a circulation programme in their libraries; we hear that it is much appreciated in those libraries which already do so.
Ross B. Emmett and Kenneth C. Wenzer
Our Dublin correspondent telegraphed last night:
One of the commonest excuses put forward in defence of the practice of treating milk, butter, meat, and other foods with ‘preservative’ drugs no longer possesses even the…
Abstract
One of the commonest excuses put forward in defence of the practice of treating milk, butter, meat, and other foods with ‘preservative’ drugs no longer possesses even the appearance of validity. Several of the large railway companies are adding refrigerator vans in considerable numbers to their rolling‐stock, and this fact should make it no longer possible for defendants to plead that the necessity of sending food‐products a long distance by rail involves the necessity of mixing preservative chemicals with them. Although the excuse referred to will not bear examination, it is a very specious one, and in those instances where evidence has not been brought forward to refute it, it has produced some effect on the minds of magistrates and others. It cannot be too often pointed out that such substances as boracic acid, salicylic acid, and formaldehyde are dangerous drugs, and that their unacknowledged presence in articles of food constitutes a serious danger to the public. Such substances are not foods, and are not natural constituents of any food. In most instances they are purposely introduced into food‐products to avoid the expense attending the proper production, preparation, and distribution of the food, or to conceal the inferior quality of an article by masking the signs of commencing decomposition or incipient putrefaction, and thus to enable a dishonest producer or vendor to palm off as fresh and wholesome an article which may be not only of bad quality, but absolutely dangerous to the consumer. The use of these substances, in any quantity whatsoever, and the sale of articles containing them, without the fullest and clearest disclosure of their presence, is as gross and as dangerous a form of adulteration as any which has at any time been exposed. In no single instance can it be shown that these drugs are, to quote the words of the Act of 1875, matters or ingredients “required for the preparation or production of a food as an article of commerce,” nor, of course, can it be contended that such substances are “extraneous matters with which the food is unavoidably mixed during the process of collection or preparation.” In reality, even under our inadequate and unsatisfactory adulteration laws, through which the proverbial coach‐and‐four can be so easily driven in so many directions, there ought to be no loophole of escape for the deliberate and dishonest drugger of foods. While the presence of preservative chemicals in any quantity whatever in articles of food constitutes adulteration, wherever the quantity is sufficient to allow the production of the specific “preservative” effect of the substance added, that fact alone is enough to make the food so drugged a food which must be regarded as injurious to the health of the consumer—in view of the inhibitory effect which, by its very nature, the antiseptic must produce on the process of digestion. To our knowledge the food market in this country is flooded with all sorts of inferior food‐products which are rarely dealt with under the Adulteration Acts, and which are loaded with so‐called preservatives. There will be no adequate protection for the public against the consumption of this injurious rubbish until the consumer sees the advantage of insisting upon an authoritative and permanent guarantee of quality with his goods, and until manufacturers of the better class at length find it to be a necessity for their continued prosperity that they should supply, apart entirely from their own statements, an independent and powerful guarantee of this kind.
Pınar Mızrak Özfirat, Gökçeçiçek Tuna Taşoglu and Gonca Tunçel Memiş
Purchasing activities of a company form a very important part in the operation of the company. The quality of production and services mainly rely on the performance of the…
Abstract
Purpose
Purchasing activities of a company form a very important part in the operation of the company. The quality of production and services mainly rely on the performance of the suppliers. In addition, a large amount of the product's total cost belongs to the purchasing cost of its materials. Therefore, selecting the most suitable suppliers is very important for the firm. Unfortunately, most of the time, suppliers cannot provide the highest quality parts on-time at the lowest costs in the market. In other words, quality, delivery and cost objectives conflict with each other. The purpose of this paper is to determine the best supplier for the firm according to these conflicting objectives.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study a fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP) approach is employed for the supplier selection problem of a textile company. First the selection criteria according to company's objectives are determined. Then the pair-wise comparisons are made on a fuzzy basis. Similarly, in the next step, the six alternative suppliers are compared by fuzzy means.
Findings
Finally, the two suppliers which achieved the highest performance are advised to the company and this study is the first one which employs FAHP using fuzzy prioritization method in supplier selection problem.
Originality/value
There are many different applications of FAHP in literature and some of these have found applications in supplier selection problem. However, to the best of the authors’ knowledge this study is the first one which employs FAHP using fuzzy prioritization method in supplier selection problem.
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Maria Jakubik and Peeter Müürsepp
This conceptual paper aims to contribute to the knowledge management (KM) literature by seeking to determine whether wisdom management (WM) will replace KM in future.
Abstract
Purpose
This conceptual paper aims to contribute to the knowledge management (KM) literature by seeking to determine whether wisdom management (WM) will replace KM in future.
Design/methodology/approach
This exploratory paper follows the interpretivist research philosophy and the deductive approach. The data collection is based on selected literatures from three disciplines (KM, philosophy and psychology). The findings were qualitatively analysed.
Findings
The findings are threefold: (1) the discussion of wisdom has been either neglected or superficially discussed in the KM literature; (2) despite the fact that wisdom is widely discussed and researched in philosophy and psychology disciplines, there is no commonly agreed upon definition of wisdom, and a dichotomy exists between the implicit and explicit theories of wisdom; (3) wisdom research in philosophy and psychology disciplines provides valuable input to KM by identifying the dimensions, components and characteristics of wisdom and wise individuals.
Research limitations/implications
Important sources may have been unintentionally overlooked in this paper. This paper identifies the need for empirical research and discussion about WM as the next potential phase of KM. It offers several implications for researchers, managers and management educators as this paper shows that WM is emerging as a new discipline.
Originality/value
This paper makes a theoretical contribution to the fifth phase of KM by drawing attention to wisdom and WM as the next potential phase of KM.
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