Michael Veatch and Jarrod Goentzel
Scheduling the airlift of relief supplies into a damaged or small airport during a crisis is complex yet crucial. The volume of cargo and flights can temporarily overwhelm the…
Abstract
Purpose
Scheduling the airlift of relief supplies into a damaged or small airport during a crisis is complex yet crucial. The volume of cargo and flights can temporarily overwhelm the airport’s capacity and the mix of flights adds complexity. The purpose of this paper is to better characterize airport operations during a crisis, to develop a model that can assess strategies for scheduling flights and to draw implications for decision makers.
Design/methodology/approach
First, empirical data are analyzed to characterize airport operations. Previously unreported data from the 2010 Haiti earthquake response in the form of a “flight log” are analyzed to provide new insights and parameters. Alternate scheduling strategies are drawn from review of the literature and After Action Reports. Second, a queuing model is developed to understand operations in past crises and predict the impact of alternate scheduling strategies. Empirical data provide the parameters for airport scenarios evaluated.
Findings
Unloading capacity is seen to be the bottleneck but also to not be fully utilized, suggesting that a more aggressive flight schedule is needed. Scheduling flights is shown to be a tradeoff between volume of aid delivered and flights that must be diverted. The proper mix of aircraft and prioritized divert policies also provide benefits. Finally, it is beneficial, though perhaps counterintuitive, to create a parking buffer upstream from the unloading bottleneck.
Originality/value
Analysis of previously unreported data from the Haiti earthquake provides new insights regarding airport parking and unloading operations. A new model of airport scheduling for disaster response is proposed. The model differs from other humanitarian airlift models in that it focuses on aircraft parking and unloading. It differs from commercial aircraft scheduling and gate assignment in the objective used.
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This chapter asks whether it is helpful to consider a profession to be a practice and to what extent this meshes with the idea that ‘profession’ is a moral concept. It examines…
Abstract
This chapter asks whether it is helpful to consider a profession to be a practice and to what extent this meshes with the idea that ‘profession’ is a moral concept. It examines MacIntyre’s concept of a practice as an activity that pursues internal goods, finds that MacIntyre’s articulation of the concept by itself is not enough to describe what it is to be a profession and seeks to supplement this with ideas from others, primarily Miller and Davis. This supplementation, however, still leaves open the question of the origin of a profession’s authority (or licence) to use what can be called the ‘dangerous knowledge’ that differentiates the work of professions from other occupations. For this, Veatch provides useful ideas.
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The paper aims to look at the Brian Mercer Awards for Innovation from the Royal Society.
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to look at the Brian Mercer Awards for Innovation from the Royal Society.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper investigates the Brian Mercer Awards for Innovation, which are aimed at individuals or groups working in the general area of the built environment.
Findings
The paper finds that the Brian Mercer Awards for Innovation are intended to fund the development of an already proven concept or prototype through to the creation of a near‐market product for commercial exploitation. In addition to the main awards, The Royal Society has given Brian Mercer Awards for Feasibility to seven projects that it believes could become successful products in the coming years. One of these is a new wastewater treatment system that will not only recycle waste but will also produce reusable water, enough energy to power itself, and will be smaller than traditional plants has won a top Innovation Award.
Originality/value
The paper provides useful information on Brian Mercer Awards for Innovation.
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Edmund D. Pellegrino and Richard A. Gray
Is there a sound philosophical foundation in the nature of professional activity for resolving the tension between altruism and self‐interest in favor of virtue and character? I…
Abstract
Is there a sound philosophical foundation in the nature of professional activity for resolving the tension between altruism and self‐interest in favor of virtue and character? I believe there is, and I ground my proposal in six characteristics of the relationship of professionals to those who seek their help. Considered individually, none of these phenomena is unique in kind or degree. They may exist individually in other human relationships and occupations. But as a moral cluster they are, in fact, unique; they generate a kind of “internal morality”—a grounding for the ethics of the professions that is in some way impervious to vacillations in philosophical fashions, as well as social, economic, or political change. This internal morality explains why the ethics of medicine, for example, remained until two decades ago firmly rooted in the ethics of character and virtue, as were the ethics of the Hippocratic and Stoic schools. It is found in the seminal texts of Moslem, Jewish, and Christian medical moralists. It persisted in the eighteenth century in the writings of John Gregory, Thomas Percival, and Samuel Bard, who, although cognizant of the philosophies of Hobbes, Adam Smith, and Hume, nonetheless maintained the traditional dedication of the profession to the welfare of the patient and to a certain set of values. Only in the last two decades has there been—to use Hume's terms—a “sentiment of approbation” regarding self‐interest.
Ingrid Hsieh‐Yee and Michael Smith
This survey, conducted in late 1999, found that CORC founding libraries shared a strong interest in controlling Internet resources and finding ways to catalog such resources…
Abstract
This survey, conducted in late 1999, found that CORC founding libraries shared a strong interest in controlling Internet resources and finding ways to catalog such resources quickly. Many cataloged in MARC. Although only a small number of them experimented with Dublin Core, many of them wanted to explore its potential for organizing Internet resources. Other metadata schemes were also used by some libraries. Overall, the founding libraries considered their CORC experience positive, but had several concerns. Their experience suggests that more work is needed to make fast, automated cataloging a reality. Since the findings of this study reflect experience with CORC at the developmental stage, the researchers proposed that CORC usage be monitored to identify trends in organizing Internet resources. A survey of CORC subscribers could be conducted to understand usage patterns and guide CORC’s development and improvement.
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Diego Machado Ardenghi, Wolff‐Michael Roth and Lilian Pozzer‐Ardenghi
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the transitions practitioners undergo as they move from dental school to their first job in a dental clinic and their learning in the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the transitions practitioners undergo as they move from dental school to their first job in a dental clinic and their learning in the workplace. The paper aims to investigate their use of ethical principles as they engage in practice, providing a theoretical explanation for the gap practitioners experience when moving from the school to the workplace, and also suggesting some viable alternatives for dental education.
Design/methodology/approach
The database for this study consists of videotaped interviews with dentists. To analyze our data we followed the principles of interaction analysis, analyzing the data both individually and collectively, until some hypotheses were generated. Then, discourse analysis was used to analyze the interviews.
Findings
From an activity theoretical perspective, the results show that dentists can and do learn ethical principles when working in their dental clinics, interacting with patients, and the findings and suggestions are of especial interest for curriculum planning and development in educational institutions.
Practical implications
This study suggests that theoretical discussions about ethics are not enough to provide practitioners with the skills necessary to work ethically when interacting with patients. From the findings a complementary approach to teach ethics in dental schools is suggested.
Originality/value
Workplace learning has become a preferred topic within many disciplines, such as, for example, sociology, education, and anthropology. However, although there is an established field of medical sociology, little if any attention on workplace learning has been paid to the health sciences in general and dentistry in particular.