Kate Bak, Elizabeth Murray, Eric Gutierrez, Jillian Ross and Padraig Warde
The purpose of this paper is to describe a jurisdiction-wide implementation and evaluation of intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) in Ontario, Canada, highlighting…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe a jurisdiction-wide implementation and evaluation of intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) in Ontario, Canada, highlighting innovative strategies and lessons learned.
Design/methodology/approach
To obtain an accurate provincial representation, six cancer centres were chosen (based on their IMRT utilization, geography, population, academic affiliation and size) for an in-depth evaluation. At each cancer centre semi-structured, key informant interviews were conducted with senior administrators. An electronic survey, consisting of 40 questions, was also developed and distributed to all cancer centres in Ontario.
Findings
In total, 21 respondents participated in the interviews and a total of 266 electronic surveys were returned. Funding allocation, guidelines and utilization targets, expert coaching and educational activities were identified as effective implementation strategies. The implementation allowed for hands-on training, an exchange of knowledge and expertise and the sharing of responsibility. Future implementation initiatives could be improved by creating stronger avenues for clear, continuing and comprehensive communication at all stages to increase awareness, garner support and encourage participation and encouraging expert-based coaching. IMRT utilization for has increased without affecting wait times or safety (from fiscal year 2008/2009 to 2012/2013 absolute increased change: prostate 46, thyroid 36, head and neck 29, sarcoma 30, and CNS 32 per cent).
Originality/value
This multifaceted, jurisdiction-wide approach has been successful in implementing guideline recommended IMRT into standard practice. The expert based coaching initiative, in particular presents a novel training approach for those who are implementing complex techniques. This paper will be of interest to those exploring ways to fund, implement and sustain complex and evolving technologies.
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Alistair Brandon‐Jones, Niall Piercy and Nigel Slack
The aim of this review and of the papers in this special issue is to critically examine different approaches to teaching operations management (OM) in order to provoke and…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this review and of the papers in this special issue is to critically examine different approaches to teaching operations management (OM) in order to provoke and stimulate educators within the discipline.
Design/methodology/approach
The papers within this special issue include empirical assessments of a problem‐based learning enterprise resource planning (ERP) simulation; a computer‐based learning tool for material requirements planning (MRP); a simulation of assembly operations; an operations strategy innovation game; an extension of the production dice game; an experiential teaching method in different class settings; and problem‐based assessment methods in OM. A variety of data are used to support these empirical studies, including survey, interview, and observational data.
Findings
The papers within the special issue support the argument that OM is well‐suited to more applied methods of teaching focusing on the application of subject knowledge to real‐life situations through a variety of techniques.
Practical implications
It is hoped that this review and the papers within this special issue act to stimulate educators to re‐evaluate their approaches to teaching OM and encourage them to consider adopting experiential teaching methods, business simulations, role‐plays, group exercises, live cases, and virtual learning environments, instead of, or in addition to, the more conventional lectures that typically dominate many OM modules around the world.
Originality/value
A special issue on teaching OM appears timely given the significant changes to both the university landscape and to the nature of the discipline that we have witnessed over the last quarter of a century.
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The author’s story of a familial connection on the move was part of the research process of an ethnographic project about a demolished ex-industrial village. Growing up in the…
Abstract
The author’s story of a familial connection on the move was part of the research process of an ethnographic project about a demolished ex-industrial village. Growing up in the 1970s, the author’s fatherless childhood was silently lived out in its spatial geography. The author’s proximate, unknown father was a potent figure that the author would glimpse in the street spaces but was never allowed to acknowledge. Twentieth century accounts of working-class life have little to say on the personal stories of families where ‘father’ was rarely present (Steedman, 1986). Here the author offers a daughter’s emotional geography of fatherlessness. To sketch a socio-cultural backcloth to the personal subplot, the author draws on scholarship about fatherhood, fatherlessness and lone motherhood as a way to discuss men’s involvement in fathering in relation to the author’s own experience of living without a father in a paternalistic company village. Turning to the author’s return in 2015 as a researcher, the author uses autoethnography to explore the personal familial subplot bubbling underneath the main project. The author charts how the methodologies used held affordances which offered a process of coming to terms with the inter-connections of spatial and familial absence and loss: the loss of author’s home-village where memories of an absent father were played out and the revelation of the loss of an already absent father through a DNA test. In this way, it traces the shifting movements of a familial (dis)-connection through memories, photographs and mobile research encounters against the backcloth of the absent spaces of an ex-industrial community.
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This section of the survey is concerned with the historical development of English language dictionaries for children and young people through beginning college years. Excluded…
Abstract
This section of the survey is concerned with the historical development of English language dictionaries for children and young people through beginning college years. Excluded are dictionaries of eponyms, etymologies, foreign words and phrases, homonyms and homophones, regional dialect, rhymes, slang, synonyms and homonyms and other compendiums of silmilar nature. Thesauri are briefly touched upon. These limitations apply solely to this section of the column; new reference books received by the writer, no matter what their category, are reviewed in Part II.
The importance of sanitary conditions in the production, manufacture, and distribution of foods was never greater than to‐day, for less of the food consumed by the individual is…
Abstract
The importance of sanitary conditions in the production, manufacture, and distribution of foods was never greater than to‐day, for less of the food consumed by the individual is produced and prepared at home than ever before; and likewise, the necessity for sanitary laws in regard to foods was never more keenly realised. The disclosures of the insanitary conditions in our packing houses, exaggerated in many instances, has aroused public indignation. The newspapers added fuel to the flame by rehashing every case in recent history containing anything gruesome or revolting in connection with the preparation of food products. These reports, appearing day after day in the newspapers, gave the public the false impression that the manufacture of human bodies into food products was a matter of not uncommon occurrence, and that insanitary conditions prevailed in the manufacture of most foods. The discussion was continued until not only this country, but Europe, looked with suspicion on the food products of the United States.
“The Hospital” observes that with the establishment by numerous investigations of the paramount importance of those ingredients of diet which are known as vitamines (and…
Abstract
“The Hospital” observes that with the establishment by numerous investigations of the paramount importance of those ingredients of diet which are known as vitamines (and especially so in the case of the young, both of the human species and of animals) has come as a natural consequence a critical attitude towards many articles of infant and adult dietary which have hitherto been taken on trust. In a recently published research, or series of researches, conducted at the Lister Institute by Dr. HARRIETTE CHICK, and other workers, and published in the “Lancet,” some very important new facts are disclosed concerning the vitamine content of various common articles of diet. And the application of this work, and of other recent researches along the same lines, is discussed in the same journal by Dr. E. A. BARTON, medical officer to the infant department of University College Hospital, who touches also on the economic aspects of the results of these researches. Those who have followed the progress of recent medical thought on vitamines are aware that these peculiar substances, present only in the most minute quantities in fresh animal and vegetable foods, are of varying natures, as well as of varying quantity, in different foodstuffs. Some of the most important are those which ward off scurvy. Their total absence, or relative insufficiency, in the diet of man or animals is followed, sooner or later, by the symptoms, more or less severe, and not always easily recognisable in mild cases, of that peculiar disease. The conclusions reached appear, on the evidence offered, to be valid.
Tuyen Dai Quang, Vang Quang Dang, Tho Alang and Hoang Van Nguyen
Through a case study of the Po Klaong Girai temple in Vietnam, this paper explores how indigenous community perceive tourism benefit sharing (TBS) associated with their cultural…
Abstract
Purpose
Through a case study of the Po Klaong Girai temple in Vietnam, this paper explores how indigenous community perceive tourism benefit sharing (TBS) associated with their cultural tourism at sacred living-heritage sites and how this TBS enhances the equality and inclusion for indigenous community in the context of tourism in Vietnam.
Design/methodology/approach
This study employed ethnographic fieldwork and semi-structured interviews with 35 indigenous Cham priests directly associated with managing and preserving the Po Klaong Girai temple.
Findings
This research found that Cham community perceive inequality and exclusivity on tourism benefit sharing at this religious site. While Cham Ahier priests face economic barriers in providing these services to the community, annual tourism revenue is allocated to local government budgets. Such economic pressure forces the priests to seek alternative economic avenues to support their families at the expense of their traditional commitments to communal, cultural and religious activities, significantly impacting sustainable heritage conservation. This has led to strained relations between the local community and local authorities.
Practical implications
This research provides evidence to improve living heritage management practices by proposing tourism development policies for equality and inclusion among stakeholders, especially minorities and disadvantaged groups. This can be an experiential and necessary lesson for “dealing” with sustainable heritage management in heritage living sites in other ethnic minority areas in Vietnam and globally.
Originality/value
The findings from this study address the knowledge gap on equitable revenue sharing in heritage tourism, where financial benefits from the commodification of minority cultures should be used to support local communities and the custodians of indigenous heritage.
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An Thi Binh Duong, Tho Pham, Huy Truong Quang, Thinh Gia Hoang, Scott McDonald, Thu-Hang Hoang and Hai Thanh Pham
The present study is performed to identify the propagation mechanism of the ripple effect as well as examine the simultaneous impact of risks on supply chain (SC) performance.
Abstract
Purpose
The present study is performed to identify the propagation mechanism of the ripple effect as well as examine the simultaneous impact of risks on supply chain (SC) performance.
Design/methodology/approach
A theoretical framework with many hypotheses regarding the relationships between SC risk types and performance is established. The data are collected from a large-scale survey supported by a project of the Japanese government to promote sustainable socioeconomic development for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region, with the participation of 207 firms. Structural equation modeling (SEM) is used to test the hypotheses of the theoretical framework.
Findings
It is indicated that human-made risk causes operational risk, while natural risk causes both supply risk and operational risk. Furthermore, the impacts of human-made risk and natural risk on performance are amplified through operational risk.
Research limitations/implications
This study is one of the first attempts that identifies the propagation mechanism of the ripple effect and examines the simultaneous impact of risks on performance in construction SCs.
Originality/value
Although many studies on risk management in construction SCs have been carried out, they mainly focus on risk identification or quantification of risk impact. It is observed that research on the ripple effect of disruptions has been very scarce.
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Marta Mackiewicz and Dominika Kuberska
The purpose of this study is to ascertain how cluster organisations have been fostering green transformation in Poland.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to ascertain how cluster organisations have been fostering green transformation in Poland.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper adopts a multiple case study approach. Data collection methods involved in-depth interviews with cluster organisation managers and researchers to identify support measures for green transformation and to investigate the factors influencing their actions as well as a comprehensive analysis of documents, including cluster organisations‘ strategies.
Findings
Cluster organisations manage and participate in actions that create favourable conditions for pursuing low-carbon and circular economy ventures. They not only assist their members in overcoming obstacles related to green transformation but also engage non-members – which can lead to spillovers reaching beyond their borders. Their engagement takes place across all phases of the green transformation process.
Research limitations/implications
For various reasons, the research was designed as qualitative to understand the opinions and experiences of various actors engaged in green transformation within cluster organisations’ ecosystems. The key factor influencing this decision stems from the fact that knowledge of the involvement of cluster organisations in supporting green transformation still needs to be completed and scattered. The limitations of the study include limited access to information and the fact that qualitative research allows for a certain amount of subjectivity, and the results should be generalised carefully. Moreover, the interviews were carried out with a non-random sample of participants. Another limitation of the study is related to biased views, which could have been shared by interviewees acting as representatives of the studied cluster organisations.
Practical implications
Cluster organisations have emerged as drivers of circular transition by promoting sustainable practices such as material recycling, biological recovery and parts harvesting. These initiatives contribute to reducing waste, conserving resources, and minimising the environmental footprint of industries. These organisations can be active agents of transformation, orchestrating collaborative efforts that have a far-reaching impact on industries and economies.
Originality/value
This is one of the first and most comprehensive studies on the role of cluster organisations in Poland in supporting green transformation. This paper identifies and systematises the actions undertaken to provide a clear understanding of the internal processes within cluster organisations.