Julie Trebilcock, Manuela Jarrett, Tim Weaver, Colin Campbell, Andrew Forrester, Julian Walker and Paul Moran
The purpose of this paper is to explore the views of NHS England (NHSE) and Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) commissioners about the Offender Personality…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the views of NHS England (NHSE) and Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) commissioners about the Offender Personality Disorder (OPD) pathway.
Design/methodology/approach
A thematic analysis of four semi-structured interviews with NHSE and HMPPS commissioners is conducted.
Findings
Commissioners offered a cautious but confident assessment of the potential effectiveness of the OPD pathway, drawing particular attention to its potential to enhance the confidence and competency of staff, offer better value for money and provide enhanced progression routes for offenders with personality disorders. Additionally, commissioners identified a number of potential risks for the pathway including wider system flux, funding availability, multi-agency working, offender engagement and the need to evidence effectiveness.
Research limitations/implications
The analysis is based on a small number of interviews. However, there are only a limited number of commissioners involved with the OPD pathway.
Practical implications
While the stronger focus on progression in the OPD pathway is a welcome departure from a narrow focus on high security Dangerous and Severe Personality Disorder (DSPD) services, the foundations of the OPD pathway ultimately lie with the DSPD programme and similar challenges are likely to follow. The system within which the pathway operates is subject to a great deal of flux and this inevitably poses significant challenges for pathway services, staff and offenders, as well as for those of us charged with its evaluation.
Originality/value
There has been limited empirical work with commissioners in the mental health field. The paper offers a unique insight into the perspectives of those responsible for commissioning the OPD pathway.
Details
Keywords
Julie Ann Stuart, Winston Bonawi‐tan, Sarah Loehr and Joyce Gates
To provide fashion catalog distributors with an approach to reduce costs from returns processing by considering an array of characteristics related to demand, lead‐time, and…
Abstract
Purpose
To provide fashion catalog distributors with an approach to reduce costs from returns processing by considering an array of characteristics related to demand, lead‐time, and inventory level.
Design/methodology/approach
Apparel return rates from catalog sales are frequently 10‐30 percent of shipped orders. Despite the magnitude of returns processing, return operations are characterized by high backlogs, inefficiency, and excess material handling. Typical catalog clothing returns processing considers the condition of the returned item, fashion obsolescence, and back‐order status to make disposition decisions. In the proposed algorithm, added considerations to select a disposition option for a return include inventory level, demand pattern, cost and lead‐time factors.
Findings
The current and proposed algorithms are tested using disguised data from a fashion catalog sales company. It is shown that the proposed algorithm fills back‐orders more quickly, while reducing the returns‐processing cost and time by over 20 percent.
Research limitations/implications
By combining the tasks, open packaging, credit customer, and evaluate item characteristics including backorder status at the first workstation, the training for staff at the first workstation is increased.
Practical implications
Fashion catalog distributors should examine their returns‐processing system for opportunities to reduce returns‐processing time and costs by consolidating and eliminating tasks and by considering inventory level, demand pattern, cost, and lead‐time when selecting a disposition option for a return. The proposed algorithm can be integrated into the information technology system at the fashion catalog distributor.
Originality/value
This paper addresses how to reduce inefficiency and excess material handling in returns processing at a fashion catalog distributor.
Details
Keywords
Eslyn Isaacs and Christian Friedrich
The Republic of South Africa is located on the southern most part of Africa and stretches latitudinally from 22° to 35° South and longitudinally from 17° to 33° East. Its surface…
Abstract
The Republic of South Africa is located on the southern most part of Africa and stretches latitudinally from 22° to 35° South and longitudinally from 17° to 33° East. Its surface area is 1,219,090km2. It has a population exceeding 44 million and 11 official languages namely English, Afrikaans, isiNdebele, isiXhosa, isiZulu, Sepedi, Sesotho, Setswana, siSwati, Tshivenda and Xitsonga (Burger, 2004). Since becoming a democracy in 1994 it has embarked on an ambitious process of political, economic, social and legal reforms to improve the quality of life of the people of South Africa.
Omprakash Ramalingam Rethnam and Albert Thomas
Due to the increasing frequency of extreme weather and densifying urban landscapes, residences are susceptible to heat-related discomfort, especially those in a naturally…
Abstract
Purpose
Due to the increasing frequency of extreme weather and densifying urban landscapes, residences are susceptible to heat-related discomfort, especially those in a naturally ventilated built environment in tropical climates. Indoor thermal comfort is thus paramount to building sustainability and improving occupants' health and well-being. However, to assess indoor thermal comfort considering the urban context, it is conventional to use questionnaire surveys and monitoring units, which are both case-centric and time-intensive. This study presents a dynamic computational thermal comfort modeling framework that can determine indoor thermal comfort at an urban scale to bridge this gap.
Design/methodology/approach
The framework culminates in developing a deep learning model for predicting the accurate hourly indoor temperature of urban building stock by the coupling urban scale capabilities of environment modeling with single-building dynamic thermal simulations.
Findings
Using the framework, a surrogate model is created and verified for Dharavi, India's informal urban settlement. The results indicated that the developed surrogate model could predict the building's indoor temperature in several complex new urban scenarios with different building orientations, layouts, building-to-building distances and surrounding building heights, using five different random urban representative scenarios as the training set. The prediction accuracy was reliable, as evidenced by the mean bias error (MBE) and coefficient of (CV) root mean squared error (MSE) falling between 0 and 5%. The findings also showed that if the urban context is ignored, estimates of annual discomfort hours may be inaccurate by as much as 70%.
Social implications
The developed computational framework could help regulators and policymakers engage in more informed and quantitative decision-making and direct efforts to enhance the thermal comfort of low-income dwellings and informal settlements.
Originality/value
Up to this point, majority of literature that has been presented has concentrated on building a body of knowledge about urban-based modeling from an energy management standpoint. In contrast, this study suggests a dynamic computational thermal comfort modeling framework that takes into account the urban context of the neighborhood while examining the indoor thermal comfort of the residential building stock.