Damian Tago, Henrik Andersson and Nicolas Treich
This study contributes to the understanding of the health effects of pesticides exposure and of how pesticides have been and should be regulated.
Abstract
Purpose
This study contributes to the understanding of the health effects of pesticides exposure and of how pesticides have been and should be regulated.
Design/methodology/approach
This study presents literature reviews for the period 2000–2013 on (i) the health effects of pesticides and on (ii) preference valuation of health risks related to pesticides, as well as a discussion of the role of benefit-cost analysis applied to pesticide regulatory measures.
Findings
This study indicates that the health literature has focused on individuals with direct exposure to pesticides, i.e. farmers, while the literature on preference valuation has focused on those with indirect exposure, i.e. consumers. The discussion highlights the need to clarify the rationale for regulating pesticides, the role of risk perceptions in benefit-cost analysis, and the importance of inter-disciplinary research in this area.
Originality/value
This study relates findings of different disciplines (health, economics, public policy) regarding pesticides, and identifies gaps for future research.
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Development theory in college describes and explains how students develop. This chapter explores ways to balance and consolidate differentiation and integration in this theory…
Abstract
Development theory in college describes and explains how students develop. This chapter explores ways to balance and consolidate differentiation and integration in this theory. First, it traces the origins, history and current development of the theory, which evolves from an integrative understanding to a differentiated one. Subsequently, it identifies the tensions between integration and differentiation in this evolution. This chapter consider two directions towards the theoretical consolidation of differentiation and integration: (1) returning to how integrative understandings were achieved and exploring research directions that further advance integrative understandings; (2) recognizing the parallel evolution of North American student development theory in theorising about learning from a critical realism perspective, and, by overlaying this theory upon such a perspective, reconstructing it towards consolidation. This chapter concludes by discussing two implications for further higher education research that draws on student development theory.
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Audrey C. Rule, Zaid A. Alkouri, Shelly J. Criswell, Judith L. Evans, Angela N. Hileman, Harun Parpucu, Bin Ruan, Beth Dykstra Van Meeteren, Jill Uhlenberg, Olga S. Vasileva and Ksenia S. Zhbanova
Students need to learn and practice creative thinking skills to ensure success in solving everyday, national, and global problems that include those affecting economic issues. The…
Abstract
Students need to learn and practice creative thinking skills to ensure success in solving everyday, national, and global problems that include those affecting economic issues. The global economy requires workers to have research and innovation skills that depend upon creativity. However, many current educational programs focus mostly on factual content, doing little to inspire or apply the creative process. The project presented here shows an engaging activity that combines creative thinking skills with economic content. Although the activity occurred in a college course on creativity theory and practice, this challenging game can be easily adapted and embedded in the Kindergarten-12 social studies curriculum. This article discusses the set-up of the activity and its connection to creativity theory and curriculum standards. It showcases the work of eleven participants who each made a unique object or scene from a given set of craft and recycled materials, subsequently relating the resulting product to a current economic issue. Photographs of the resulting products are provided along with descriptions of the theme of each item, its connection to economics, and creative aspects of the work. Suggestions for adaptation to the Kindergarten-12 classroom are given.
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Peter Schott, Matthias Lederer, Isabella Eigner and Freimut Bodendorf
Increasingly, dynamic market environments lead to growing complexity in manufacturing and pose a severe threat for the competitiveness of manufacturing companies. Systematic…
Abstract
Purpose
Increasingly, dynamic market environments lead to growing complexity in manufacturing and pose a severe threat for the competitiveness of manufacturing companies. Systematic guidance to manage this complexity, especially in the context of Industry 4.0 and the therewith rising trends such as digitalization and data-driven production optimization, is lacking. To address this deficit a case-based reasoning (CBR) system for providing knowledge about managing complexity in Industry 4.0 is presented.
Design/methodology/approach
First, the explicit knowledge representation for managing complexity in IT-based manufacturing is introduced. Second, the CBR process step to retrieve knowledge from an artificially composed case base with in total 70 cases of data-based complexity management in the context of Industry 4.0 is set out. Third, knowledge transfer alongside several maturity levels of information technology capabilities of manufacturing systems for reuse in new problem scenarios is introduced.
Findings
The paper comprises the conceptual approach for designing a CBR system to support data-based complexity management in manufacturing systems. Furthermore, the appropriateness of the CBR system to provide applicable knowledge for reducing and managing complexity in corporate practice is shown.
Research limitations/implications
The presented research results are evaluated in the course of an embedded single case study and may therefore lack generalizability. Future research to test and enhance the appropriateness of the developed CBR system will strengthen the research contribution.
Originality/value
The paper provides a novel approach to systematically support knowledge transfer for data-based complexity management by transferring the well-known and established methodology of CBR to the rising application domain of manufacturing systems in the context of Industry 4.0.
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Jacy Downey and Kimberly Greder
The demographics of rural America are rapidly changing and concerns about mental health are growing. This study examined relationships between individual, family, and community…
Abstract
Purpose
The demographics of rural America are rapidly changing and concerns about mental health are growing. This study examined relationships between individual, family, and community factors and depressive symptomology among rural low-income Latina and non-Latina White mothers.
Design
The sample for this study was drawn from the study, Rural Families Speak about Health. Data from interviews with 371 rural low-income mothers (36% Latina; 64% non-Latina White) were analyzed and descriptive and multivariate analyses were performed.
Findings
One-third of mothers experienced clinically significant depressive symptomology; non-Latinas experienced twice the rate as Latinas. Limitation in daily activities due to poor physical health predicted clinically significant depressive symptomology among both groups. Among non-Latinas, high levels of financial distress and lack of healthcare insurance predicted clinically significant depressive symptomology, and use of WIC and high levels of healthful eating and physical activity routines were protective factors. Age, single marital status, unemployment, transportation barriers, food insecurity, and inadequate health insurance predicted clinically significant depressive symptomology among Latinas.
Practical implications
Program administrators should consider factors associated with depression among specific populations as they design programs and services.
Research limitations
Factors not accounted (e.g., nativity of mothers) should be explored to more fully understand predictors of depressive symptomology among rural Latina and non-Latina mothers.
Value
This original research considers how the relationships between individual, family, and community factors and depressive symptomology differ between rural low-income Latina and non-Latina White mothers. The authors discuss potential factors and outcomes related to depressive symptomology and provide suggestions for research, programs and services.
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Alain Girard and Asma El Mabchour
The purpose of this paper is to gain a better understanding of the meal context and the food offering in Quebec public nursing homes for non-autonomous seniors, particularly with…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to gain a better understanding of the meal context and the food offering in Quebec public nursing homes for non-autonomous seniors, particularly with respect to first-generation immigrants.
Design/methodology/approach
A focused ethnography approach was used. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with three distinct groups: non-Quebec-born residents (n=26), their families (n=24) and frontline care staff (n=51). Structured non-participative observations were made in facilities.
Findings
First-generation immigrants, however, long ago they arrived in Quebec, adapted with difficulty and often not at all to the food offering. Resident’s appetite for food offer was a problem for reasons related primarily to food quality, mealtime schedules, medication intake, physical and mental condition, and adaptation to institutional life. Family/friends often brought in food. Care staff tasks were becoming increasingly tedious and routinized, impacting quality of care.
Practical implications
Institutions should render procedures and processes more flexible and adapt their food offering to the growing diversity of their client groups. For residents, the meal experience is profoundly transformed in nursing homes in terms of form, conditions, rituals and meaning. A better understanding of lived situations shaped by a more refined cultural sensitivity would go a long way toward achieving a better quality of life not only for residents but also for their families and friends. Care aides, on whose shoulders rests the responsibility of ensuring that meals are safe and pleasant moments for socializing and maintaining social dispositions, are ambivalent about their work.
Originality/value
The paper is based on an original study. To the authors’ knowledge, the literature on the meal context and food offering in Quebec public nursing homes, regardless of population type, was non-existent. Analyzing and interpreting the results by crossing the discourses of immigrant residents, their family and friends, and frontline care staff made it possible to reveal different aspects of the phenomenon, which, if considered together, shed light on the meal context in public nursing homes.
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The rapidly expanding use of highly alloyed metals, such as stainless steels and special heat‐resisting alloys, and their fabrication by deep stamping, spinning and welding, with…
Abstract
The rapidly expanding use of highly alloyed metals, such as stainless steels and special heat‐resisting alloys, and their fabrication by deep stamping, spinning and welding, with the annealing and stress‐relieving treatments essential to these processes, have called for an entirely new outlook on methods of scale removal. From both the economic and the dimensional points of view, it is essential to minimise metal losses in all stages of manufacture, and this is achieved with the non‐electrolytic sodium hydride process, here described.