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1 – 10 of 14Lorraine G. Olson, George Gogos and Venkataramana Pasham
We present a new nonlinear axisymmetric finite element model for heat transfer and powder deposition in rotational molding. Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian techniques are employed…
Abstract
We present a new nonlinear axisymmetric finite element model for heat transfer and powder deposition in rotational molding. Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian techniques are employed to track the gradual growth of the plastic layer. Results using this approach compare well with earlier 1‐D models and with experimental data. Using the model to study the effects of locally enhanced heat transfer on part wall thickness, we find that controlling the relative magnitudes of radial and circumferential heat transfer is crucial in order to obtain desired wall thickness profiles.
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A television comic announces a satiric Golden Fleece Award for the faux pas of some government official. The San Diego Chicken hams it up in the stands of the baseball park. A…
Abstract
A television comic announces a satiric Golden Fleece Award for the faux pas of some government official. The San Diego Chicken hams it up in the stands of the baseball park. A Swiss mime troupe advertises the services of a communications corporation. All these may be more familiar to young people today than is a circus clown. These and other entertainers are all in the business of laughter and provide commentaries on current society.
Alysia D. Roehrig, Kristal Moore Clemons and Keely Norris
We explore how K-8 student scholars experience culturally relevant texts provided during Freedom Schools summer camps, discuss ways Freedom Schools can be a vehicle for youth to…
Abstract
We explore how K-8 student scholars experience culturally relevant texts provided during Freedom Schools summer camps, discuss ways Freedom Schools can be a vehicle for youth to become advocates for social change, and consider opportunities created by Freedom Schools for community engagement and partnerships. Mixed methods were used to investigate the experiences of 38 scholars at two different Freedom Schools sites (one rural and one mid-sized urban) in the southeastern U.S. The majority of scholars identified as African American and lived in low-income households. Primary data sources included scholar surveys and reading assessments, camp observations, and interviews with scholars, as well as our own personal reflections as the Research Director (Alysia Roehrig) and Co-Executive Directors (Kristal M. Clemons and Keely Norris) for the sites. We triangulated descriptive statistics from surveys with qualitative data, primarily from interviews, which we analyzed using open coding and axial coding to develop themes (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). The majority of scholars, who participated in the 2016 North Florida Freedom Schools, reported being able to identify with specific characters and situations in the books included in the culturally relevant reading summer program, and they expressed positive thoughts and feelings about the books. Most scholars (74%) maintained or gained in instructional reading levels and did not experience summer learning loss. Children’s confidence that they could act prosocially also increased significantly during the summer camps, which children characterized as different from regular school. Freedom Schools can offer a valuable forum for diverse community members to learn about one another, focus on their strengths, and become agents for social change. We provide suggestions for how other communities can implement the Freedom Schools model.
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Grace Khunou, Kris Marsh, Polite Chauke, Lesego Plank, Leo Igbanoi and Mabone Kgosiemang
Johan Anselmsson, Niklas Bondesson and Frans Melin
The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between an organization’s human resource management (HRM) image and its customer-based brand equity. Research into HRM…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between an organization’s human resource management (HRM) image and its customer-based brand equity. Research into HRM in relation to branding has mostly dealt with how to attract and maintain employees through employer branding. The present study attempts to link HRM directly to marketing and branding aimed at customers as an altruistic dimension of the brand image and as something that applies to customers’ sociological needs.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on a survey of Swedish customers in two different retail categories: groceries and home decoration.
Findings
The results show that HRM image is distinct from a more traditional service image and that there is a significant relationship between favourable customer perceptions of an organization’s HRM and customers’ willingness to buy and pay a premium for products provided by the retail chain. This finding leads to the conclusion that HRM is not only relevant for employer branding, internal branding and operations management but also plays a significant role in building customer-based brand equity. The results show that further integration of HRM and brand management is needed, both in theory and practice.
Originality/value
This study takes a holistic approach to marketing and is one of the first attempts to incorporate HRM and employer branding into the customer-based brand equity framework. Implications for future research, retailing and other businesses are discussed in the conclusion.
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This paper contends that the peculiar, chronic, itinerant lifestyles and precarious spaces occupied by the homeless enhance their risk and vulnerability to HIV/AIDS. These spaces…
Abstract
This paper contends that the peculiar, chronic, itinerant lifestyles and precarious spaces occupied by the homeless enhance their risk and vulnerability to HIV/AIDS. These spaces, including the streets, shacks and cardboard boxes, mine dumps and unorganised shelters, expose them to indecent lifestyles, poor choices and greater risk of HIV, as well as Tuberculosis (TB) and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs).
This study was conducted amongst street homeless people, shack and hostel dwellers in informal settlements in various locations in Johannesburg. Inferences were drawn from the personal experiences of homeless people, and inputs from individuals and organisations that are engaged and work in the field of homelessness. Types of dwellings, overcrowding, livelihoods, knowledge of HIV/AIDS and survival sex are among the issues examined.
Preliminary findings indicate that, firstly, poverty is a leading cause of precarious housing among the homeless. Secondly, behavioural practices, especially survival sex, make homeless people vulnerable to HIV. As a result, there is an increase in mortality rates from both HIV and AIDS amongst this group of people. Thirdly, the difficulties homeless people experience in gaining access to water, sanitation and health care services also compromises the care of those who are infected or affected by HIV/AIDS. Finally, other barriers to care and determinants of vulnerability to HIV/AIDS are the lack of knowledge, judgemental attitudes of the care providers overcrowding and lack of adequate nutrition amongst the homeless.
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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the form of young male socialisation referred to as birzha, in its relation to public space in Georgia. Birzha defines a group of young…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the form of young male socialisation referred to as birzha, in its relation to public space in Georgia. Birzha defines a group of young men who meet regularly in urban open spaces in Tbilisi’s neighbourhoods. Partly considered as the initial step of a criminal career, belonging to birzha is a mark of identification with one’s local group. The contested nature of public space is illustrated by the conflicting relation between birzha’s bottom-up use of public space and top-down projects of urban renovation sought by Saakashvili’s government.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing upon literary and media sources, and analysing fieldwork data collected in 2008-2009 and 2014, this study explores how the announced (re)construction of public space under Saakashvili resulted in institutional interventions from above which curtailed public space’s accessibility.
Findings
The present analysis points out contradictions in Saakashvili’s government’s political narrative on public space. In the institutional focus on a future of order, transparency, and democracy, birzha is an insistent reminder of an informal and corrupted past. Banned from futuristic projections of the public space, in the present birzha is annihilated by state repression, enforced in opaque zones out of public sight.
Originality/value
Focusing on a largely overlooked phenomenon in social science research, the paper highlights the ways in which conflicting approaches to public space affect the relation between political institutions and citizens. Delving into ambivalent public/private divides in post-socialist societies, the study of Georgian birzha offers an original angle for investigating the contestation of urban public space in relation to political legitimacy and transparency.
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Babak Zendehdel Nobari, Aryan Gholipour, Elham Ebrahimi and Ali Shoja
The performance evaluation process is a key step in any management system and constitutes the basis for continuous improvement. Resistance to change is considered as a critical…
Abstract
Purpose
The performance evaluation process is a key step in any management system and constitutes the basis for continuous improvement. Resistance to change is considered as a critical factor in any change management project; so, development of employee performance appraisal systems like all of the change management projects has always faced many challenges. This study seeks to illustrate the two-year experience (2018–2020) and lessons learned by developing an employee performance appraisal system in the National Library and Archives of Iran (NLAI) as a cultural public sector organization.
Design/methodology/approach
This study was carried out by using soft operational research (OR) approaches, using a novel combination of two methods, soft system methodology (SSM) and importance performance analysis (IPA). For this purpose, at the beginning, with the help of the SSM approach, the challenges of implementation was identified, then, using the opinions and experiences of the system's stakeholders, improvement actions were defined and prioritized using the IPA method.
Findings
The research findings showed that “coaching development,” “optimizing the forced distribution rating system (FDRS)” and “customizing the system” are the most important improvement actions.
Originality/value
The research has bridged the gap between research and practice in the field of employee performance appraisal system in national libraries.
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Stilian Stanev, Hardy Krappe, Hischam Abul Ola, Konstantinos Georgoulias, Nikolaos Papakostas, George Chryssolouris and Jivka Ovtcharova
The purpose of this article is to introduce an innovative methodology to support manufacturing changes in the foundation of flexibility measurements and evaluations and to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to introduce an innovative methodology to support manufacturing changes in the foundation of flexibility measurements and evaluations and to integrate this in the companies' internal as well as companies' cross‐organisational processes of change management.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach consists of two phases: first, a consistent systematics for the production systems flexibility evaluation is presented; second, the change processes are analysed and quantified flexibility indicators are integrated to support the decision – making process.
Findings
The application of the methodology in manufacturing environments has demonstrated that consideration of flexibility in the production and its integration into the manufacturing change processes has a great potential.
Originality/value
The originality of this work is in the integrated approach to consider flexibility as support for the change management. In particular the integration of quantified flexibility measurements into the change processes comes out to be the real innovation of the project.
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Kumari Youkta and Rajendra Narayan Paramanik
This study aims to measure the level of satisfaction among women with childbirth services provided at public health facilities. Further, to analyse the impact of their…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to measure the level of satisfaction among women with childbirth services provided at public health facilities. Further, to analyse the impact of their socio-economic and obstetric characteristics on their level of satisfaction.
Design/methodology/approach
To accomplish these objectives a cross-sectional survey was conducted in two districts of an Indian state, Bihar. Structured questionnaire was developed based on the scale proposed by Okumu and Oyugi (2018) both for vaginal and caesarean birth patients. For empirical analysis multiple linear regression model was employed.
Findings
Results suggest that majority of mothers are satisfied with the care they received during childbirth, regardless of whether they chose a caesarean (55%) or vaginal delivery (53%). Women report the lowest levels of satisfaction with postpartum care and the privacy that was preserved by healthcare personnel at health facility. Further the study also confirms the association between patient’s socio-economic characteristics and their satisfaction level.
Originality/value
This is the first study of its kind to highlight the situation of public healthcare system in Bihar, which is the third most populated state in India with poor social and health indicators.
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