G. Zak, M. Haberer, C.B. Park and B. Benhabib
As a way of enhancing the mechanical properties of photopolymer‐based parts produced by layered manufacturing (LM) techniques, the use of short glass‐fibre reinforcements has been…
Abstract
As a way of enhancing the mechanical properties of photopolymer‐based parts produced by layered manufacturing (LM) techniques, the use of short glass‐fibre reinforcements has been recently explored in the literature. This paper proposes a novel methodology that utilizes a modified rule‐of‐mixtures model for the prediction of the mechanical properties of such layered composites. The prediction process employs empirical data on (i) the fibre‐matrix interface, (ii) the fibres’ geometrical arrangement within the specimens (i.e. fibre‐orientation distribution), and (iii) the fibre‐length distribution. The effects of the fibre‐orientation and fibre‐length distributions are accounted for in the prediction model by the fibre‐length‐correction and orientation‐efficiency factors. Comparison of extensive experimental results and model‐based predictions of mechanical properties of layered composites demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed estimation methodology.
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José F. Rodríguez, James P. Thomas and John E. Renaud
Analytical/Computational models for the fused deposition (FD) material stiffness and strength as a function of mesostructural parameters are developed. Effective elastic moduli…
Abstract
Analytical/Computational models for the fused deposition (FD) material stiffness and strength as a function of mesostructural parameters are developed. Effective elastic moduli are obtained using the strength of materials approach and an elasticity approach based on the asymptotic theory of homogenization. Theoretical predictions for unidirectional FD‐acrylonitrile butadiene styrene materials are validated with experimentally determined values of moduli and strength. For moduli predictions, the results were found to be satisfactory with difference between experimental and theoretical values of less than 10 percent in most cases.
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Claire Bates and Rose Matthews
The purpose of this study is to explore the support needs surrounding intimate relationships and sexuality of autistic adults accessing funded social care in England.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore the support needs surrounding intimate relationships and sexuality of autistic adults accessing funded social care in England.
Design/methodology/approach
Semi-structured interviews with 15 autistic adults who were accessing funded social care examined their support needs surrounding intimate relationships and sexuality, with subsequent data analysis using reflexive thematic analysis.
Findings
Four themes were generated: Help at hand, but not too close for comfort, No “cookie-cutter rules”: personalised, inclusive approaches, Playing it safe, not leaving it too late, and Autism-informed education and support.
Practical implications
The authors produced an online learning module for social care staff in England on best practice in supporting autistic adults without learning disabilities with relationships and sexuality.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors' knowledge, there has been no other UK-based research published to date on the social care support needs of autistic adults without learning disabilities surrounding relationships, gender and sexuality.
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Udo Müller, Gilbert Ahamer, Holger Peters, Elisabeth Weinke, Norbert Sapper and Elvira Salcher
The purpose of this publication is to present a didactic concept with the targeted impact of a positive future vision. This paper reflects the effect of local educational action…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this publication is to present a didactic concept with the targeted impact of a positive future vision. This paper reflects the effect of local educational action on the development of regionally optimised visions in rural regions of a European industrial state, compared with a rural region in the developing country of Senegal.
Design/methodology/approach
An assessment and analysis of two conceptual approaches to education and technology is conducted with a view to participating in a future multicultural participatory design process, and identifying the chances that communities have to build future‐oriented structures that support local roots and development.
Findings
In the short‐term, the technological and material results are the targeted localisation of a windmill in the (physical and cultural) countryside. In the long‐term, educative and social results are expected to strengthen local civil society, which is initiated by empowering students through their self‐responsibility in the Alpine region of Greifenburg, Austria. The “windmill” in the region is a publicly visible sign and a technology‐based icon in the landscape, based on local consensus on several levels and inspiring further regional consensus on energy, climate protection and its active creation through entrepreneurship in civil society.
Originality/value
Technology serves as a catalyst to trigger social cohesion among multiple cultures in a region and to enhance conviviality.
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Timothy J. Horn, Ola L.A. Harrysson, Harvey A. West II, Jeffrey P. Little and Denis J. Marcellin-Little
The aim of this study is to describe an improved experimental substrate for the mechanical testing of patient-specific implants fabricated using direct metal additive…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this study is to describe an improved experimental substrate for the mechanical testing of patient-specific implants fabricated using direct metal additive manufacturing processes. This method reduces variability and sample size requirements and addresses the importance of geometry at the bone/implant interface.
Design/methodology/approach
Short-fiber glass/resin materials for cortical bone and polyurethane foam materials for cancellous bone were evaluated using standard tensile coupons. A method for fabricating bone analogs with patient-specific geometries using rapid tooling is presented. Bone analogs of a canine radius were fabricated and compared to cadaveric specimens in several biomechanical tests as validation.
Findings
The analog materials exhibit a tensile modulus that falls within the range of expected values for cortical and cancellous bone. The tensile properties of the cortical bone analog vary with fiber loading. The canine radius models exhibited similar mechanical properties to the cadaveric specimens with a reduced variability.
Research limitations/implications
Additional replications involving different bone geometries, types of bone and/or implants are required for a full validation. Further, the materials used here are only intended to mimic the mechanical properties of bone on a macro scale within a relatively narrow range. These analog models have not been shown to address the complex microscopic or viscoelastic behavior of bone in the present study.
Originality/value
Scientific data on the formulation and fabrication of bone analogs are absent from the literature. The literature also lacks an experimental platform that matches patient-specific implant/bone geometries at the bone implant interface.
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This article aims to explain why geography is a prime discipline for analysing globalisation and a multicultural view of Global Studies. The generic approach of human geography to…
Abstract
Purpose
This article aims to explain why geography is a prime discipline for analysing globalisation and a multicultural view of Global Studies. The generic approach of human geography to first select an appropriate methodology is taken as a key approach.
Design/methodology/approach
Concepts from aggregate disciplines such as history, economics, and geography are scanned through during a short description of the historical genesis of these sciences and the paradigmatic shifts they have encountered.
Findings
There are four main theses: (1) values are created by appreciation; (2) development is growing jointly with responsibility; (3) accumulation of material value is seen as expenditure to achieve non‐material values; and (4) spatial relations are interrelated with social relations.
Research limitations/implications
Conceptual considerations have to be further corroborated by quantitative analyses using suitable metrics of “development”.
Practical implications
“Social and cultural geography” should contribute to any curriculum of “Global Studies”.
Social implications
Dialogue and discourse between world views is the essential, ideology‐free approach for understanding globalisation.
Originality/value
Unlike other scientific articles focusing on “facts”, this article focuses on perspectives. Thus, it explains “multi‐perspectivity” and a multi‐paradigmatic approach.
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This research aims to design a green pharmaceutical supply chain (PSC) that reduces preventable pharmaceutical waste and effectively disposes of inevitable pharmaceutical waste…
Abstract
Purpose
This research aims to design a green pharmaceutical supply chain (PSC) that reduces preventable pharmaceutical waste and effectively disposes of inevitable pharmaceutical waste. The main output of this study is the formulation of an integrated green PSC model involving all critical stakeholders, leading to improved environmental, economic and safety performance in medication management and delivery.
Design/methodology/approach
The research is based on literature and on secondary resources.
Findings
To green the PSC, every producer of waste is duty bound to facilitate the safe handling and disposal of waste. A cross boundary green PSC (XGPSC) approach is proposed to identify participants' contribution to the PSC. Peripheral influences are also recognised from professional and regulatory bodies.
Research limitations/implications
This study focuses solely on community PSC in the UK where patients receive medication from local community pharmacies and thus may be limited. The proposed XGPSC approach also needs to be tested and validated in practice. It may also be difficult to transfer some of the environmental practices proposed in this research into practice.
Practical implications
The environmental practices and actions proposed provide invaluable insight into various PSC activities, including purchasing, product design, prescription patterns and processes, medication use review, and customer relationship management.
Social implications
The proposed environmental actions encourage firm commitment from everyone to reduce, recycle or effectively dispose of pharmaceutical waste, with patients becoming stewards of medication rather than only consumers.
Originality/value
A cross boundary approach is developed to green the PSC, which encourages total involvement and collaboration from all participants in PSC.
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Sergey V. Shkodinsky, Elena A. Kondratyeva, Igor V. Bulava, Igor V. Chistov and Sergey E. Zakutnev
The purpose of the research is to determine perspectives and spheres of application of innovational managerial technologies of decision-making in the sphere of digital medicine in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the research is to determine perspectives and spheres of application of innovational managerial technologies of decision-making in the sphere of digital medicine in modern business systems in the interests of improvement of the healthcare system.
Methodology
The methods of systemic, problem, logical, and structural & functional analysis and the methods of modeling of economic processes and systems and formalization are used.
Conclusions
It is shown that the most perspective innovational managerial technologies include digital marketing, digital collection of feedback, digital selection of models of managerial decisions, intellectual technologies of decision support, and digital monitoring and control over making and implementation of managerial decisions. The spheres of application of digital technologies in the sphere of digital medicine include collection of feedback from patients, collection of feedback from medical workers, usage of successful experience of other medical organizations, automated selection of managerial decisions, automated selection of the optimal decision of the existing alternatives according to the set criteria, and electronic reports of medical organizations and its administration.
Originality/Value
Wide opportunities of usage of innovational managerial technologies of decision-making in the sphere of digital medicine in modern business systems are determined; they allow improving the healthcare system. These technologies could be applied at all stages of the process of making of managerial decisions. A conceptual model of application of innovational managerial technologies of decision-making in the sphere of digital medicine in modern business systems is developed.
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Emmanuel Eze, Rob Gleasure and Ciara Heavin
The implementation of mobile health (mHealth) in developing countries seems to be stuck in a pattern of successive pilot studies that struggle for mainstream implementation. This…
Abstract
Purpose
The implementation of mobile health (mHealth) in developing countries seems to be stuck in a pattern of successive pilot studies that struggle for mainstream implementation. This study addresses the research question: what existing health-related structures, properties and practices are presented by rural areas of developing countries that might inhibit the implementation of mHealth initiatives?
Design/methodology/approach
This study was conducted using a socio-material approach, based on an exploratory case study in West Africa. Interviews and participant observation were used to gather data. A thematic analysis identified important social and material agencies, practices and imbrications which may limit the effectiveness of mHealth apps in the region.
Findings
Findings show that, while urban healthcare is highly structured, best practice-led, rural healthcare relies on peer-based knowledge sharing, and community support. This has implications for the enacted materiality of mobile technologies. While urban actors see mHealth as a tool for automation and the enforcement of responsible healthcare best practice, rural actors see mHealth as a tool for greater interconnectivity and independent, decentralised care.
Research limitations/implications
This study has two significant limitations. First, the study focussed on a region where technology-enabled guideline-driven treatment is the main mHealth concern. Second, consistent with the exploratory nature of this study, the qualitative methodology and the single-case design, the study makes no claim to statistical generalisability.
Originality/value
To the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to adopt a socio-material view that considers existing structures and practices that may influence the widespread adoption and assimilation of a new mHealth app. This helps identify contextual challenges that are limiting the potential of mHealth to improve outcomes in rural areas of developing countries.