Bethan R. Mead, Jessica A.C. Davies, Natalia Falagán, Sofia Kourmpetli, Lingxuan Liu and Charlotte A. Hardman
Household food insecurity and poor well-being have increased during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and resulting lockdown measures. Home food growing has been…
Abstract
Household food insecurity and poor well-being have increased during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and resulting lockdown measures. Home food growing has been associated with improved food access and well-being, but it is unknown what role it plays during food supply crises and lockdown. It is also unclear how home food growing and social restrictions may affect opinions about growing food in urban areas (i.e. urban agriculture; UA).
A cross-sectional online survey was conducted during the UK national lockdown in March-April 2020 to measure home food growing, perceived food insecurity, well-being, and opinions of UA. The participants were 477 UK-based adults (369 female, mean age 39.57 years ± 13.36); 152 participants were engaged in home food growing prior to the pandemic. Responses were compared to data collected from a separate sample of participants before the pandemic (N=583) to explore potential shifts in opinions about UA.
Participants who engaged in home food growing had lower levels of food insecurity (U=19894.50, z=−3.649, p<0.001, r=−0.167) and higher well-being (U=19566.50, z=−3.666, p<0.001, r=−0.168) than those not engaged in home food growing. Perceived food insecurity partially mediated the relationship between home food growing and well-being; home food growing was associated with less food insecurity, which in turn was associated with better well-being. There were no differences in opinions of UA compared to the sample of participants from before the pandemic.
Home food growing may have had a protective effect over perceived food security and well-being in the early stages the pandemic. Opinions of UA were positive and unchanged compared to data collected pre-pandemic. Policies that support home food growing and access to suitable growing spaces and resources may be beneficial for food system resilience and well-being.
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J. Yin, R. Hales, P. Pilidis, B. Curnock and R. Meads
A two‐dimensional high‐bypass ratio turbofan performance model was developed in order to predict accurately gas turbine transient performance. In the present model, the fan of…
Abstract
A two‐dimensional high‐bypass ratio turbofan performance model was developed in order to predict accurately gas turbine transient performance. In the present model, the fan of high bypass engines has strong radial profiles of all thermodynamic variables. It is common to average these profiles so that the fan can be represented by one or two one‐dimensional characteristics. The present paper describes how the radial profiles can be used to make an estimation of turbofan transient performance. The results are somewhat different to those produced using two one‐dimensional compressor performance maps.
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P. Sunil Dharmapala and Hussein M. Saber
To develop a methodology for faculty salary adjustment through market adjustment based on market demand for business PhDs and merit adjustment based on faculty members'…
Abstract
Purpose
To develop a methodology for faculty salary adjustment through market adjustment based on market demand for business PhDs and merit adjustment based on faculty members' performance levels in the areas of teaching, research and service.
Design/methodology/approach
The methodology is composed of two models: one for market adjustment and the other for merit adjustment. The market adjustment is handled through goal programming and the merit adjustment through data envelopment analysis (DEA).
Findings
The approach when applied to a sample of faculty salaries shows that the adjusted salary of each faculty member is higher than his/her current actual salary, and each faculty member in the particular discipline deserves a salary increase that reflects market demand and merit factors.
Research limitations/implications
The DEA model used in this research does not impose restrictions on the weights. Realistically, one may impose bounds on the weights and exclude unreasonable solutions from DEA analysis and also set multiple goals instead of the single goal used in the goal programming model.
Practical implications
Based on a goal programming model that addresses the market demand and a DEA model that addresses the merit‐based performances, this methodology may be implemented as a solution procedure for restructuring faculty salaries.
Originality/value
The novelty in this approach is that DEA is being used as a benchmarking technique for merit adjustment of faculty salaries. In that sense, this research work may be the first, where benchmarking has been used in “faculty salary equity adjustment.”
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“A Candidate, canvassing his district, met a Nurse wheeling a Baby in a carriage, and, stooping, imprinted a kiss upon the Baby's clammy muzzle. Rising, he saw a Man, who laughed.
Belinda Lunnay, Megan Warin, Kristen Foley and Paul R. Ward
This chapter uses the pandemic crisis to explore the social processes that structure happiness and shape fantasies of living a happy life. Considered herein are issues of human…
Abstract
This chapter uses the pandemic crisis to explore the social processes that structure happiness and shape fantasies of living a happy life. Considered herein are issues of human potential, gendered and classed possibility and people's differing chances in cultivating a sense of satisfaction in ‘being happy’, despite living through COVID-19. Interviews with 40 Australian women living during lockdown restrictions with varying levels of social, cultural and economic capital are utilised to make sense of women's happiness. Vastly different avenues for achieving a happiness fantasy outside of drinking alcohol were possible for more privileged women than for those in middle and working classes. The classed differences in women's gendered roles in managing emotions (their own and other people's) and their chances to be happy are exemplified in how the changes to the structure of the day that resulted from COVID-19 restrictions did not devastate or cause stress (as we heard from working-class women) or need to be filtered or blocked out using alcohol in order to retain balanced emotions (as we heard from middle-class women) but rather provided an opportunity to celebrate the achievement of their happiness fantasy. We deduce that for those with less agency available to control their chances of living a happy life, prevailing COVID-19 discourse that places happiness within individual responsibility and focuses on personal resilience rather than tending to the conditions for flourishing, is problematic.
In this chapter, the approach of radical interactionism is juxtaposed against symbolic interactionism, its older conservative turned rival cousin, to highlight primarily the major…
Abstract
In this chapter, the approach of radical interactionism is juxtaposed against symbolic interactionism, its older conservative turned rival cousin, to highlight primarily the major differences between them. The five key differences identified are as follows: (1) the major progenitors for symbolic interactionism are Mead and Blumer, while those for radical interactionism are Park and, by default, myself; (2) although radical interactionism presumes that domination and power are always of great importance for understanding human group life, symbolic interactionism assumes that they now have only limited importance for understanding it; (3) radical interactionism makes it mandatory for researchers to examine the role of dominance and power during social interaction, whereas symbolic interactionism makes it only discretionary; (4) while radical interactionism stresses the impact of individuals’ and groups’ unstated assumptions on their interaction with one another, symbolic interactionism de-emphasizes their impact on it; and finally (5) radical interactionism discourages, while symbolic interactionism encourages researchers falling into the trap of linguistic phenomenalism. Thus, unlike radical interactionism, symbolic interactionism facilitates sociologists not only falling prey to linguistic phenomenalism, but also conservative and idealistic biases, while allegedly conducting “value-free research.”
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P.K. Joshi, B. Gupta and P.S. Roy
The selection of wavelength region and number of bands is a research problem for remote sensing experts for utilization of data provided by the sensor system. The present study…
Abstract
Purpose
The selection of wavelength region and number of bands is a research problem for remote sensing experts for utilization of data provided by the sensor system. The present study proposes to make an evaluation for optimum band selection and classification accuracy.
Design/methodology/approach
The entropy, brightness value overlap index (BVOI), optimum index factor (OIF) and spectral separability analysis, i.e. Euclidean distance (ED), divergence, transformed divergence (TD) and Jefferies‐Matusita (JM) distance and accuracy of MLC classification were carried out. For the present study Terra ASTER, Landsat ETM+ and IRS 1D LISS III dataset has been used. The first three methods were for the spectral evaluation of the three satellite data used and for determination of information content, variance and spectral overlap among the classes present in the natural and man‐made landscape. The fourth method is for selection of spectral band combinations with highest separability of classes using divergence matrices. These band combinations are selected for the classification and subsequent accuracy assessment.
Findings
The OIF values are clearly indicating that the performance of ASTER data is the best, having the lowest correlation between the bands; hence the separability of the feature is also highest, while LISS III have shown high correlation between the bands, with the poor separability of the features. Landsat ETM+ data are in between these two sensors, better than LISS III but poorer than ASTER. The BVOI outputs of the three datasets of man‐made landscape show that band 3 of ASTER has the least overlap of the classes, followed by band 4 of ETM+. Very high overlap of the classes has been found in LISS III data. It has been found from spectral separability analysis of all the three datasets for the man‐made landscape that ASTER data with band combination of spectral bands 123468 contains the highest value of all the measures of spectral separability, i.e. ED (291.72), divergence (2,133.37), TD (2,000.00) and JM distance (1,414.10).
Research limitations/implications
It can be inferred from the present study that spectral resolution plays a very important role in discrimination of vegetation features. ASTER data which are with the highest number of the bands amongst the satellite data used had shown highest classification accuracy, while LISS III data with lowest number of bands had shown lowest accuracy, and Landsat ETM+ stood in between the two sensors.
Practical implications
It is important to evaluate the sensor systems and their spectral regions for discrimination of vegetation features. The number of bands present in a particular sensor and the spectral regions used in it are some of the crucial factors which decide the usefulness of the data for different applications, including vegetation‐related studies. The selection of spectral wavelength region, i.e. spectral bands and the sensor system, presents the research problem for remote sensing experts to suggest the best spectral regions and satellite sensor for the discrimination of the vegetation features in different landscapes, namely man‐made and natural.
Originality/value
In the present study all the three datasets are extensively examined and tested for their vegetation discrimination capabilities using well‐established methodologies. All the parameters applied on the datasets revealed that spectral resolution definitely plays a role in the performance of the data as far as discrimination of features is concerned both in natural and man‐made landscape with desirable accuracy.
The place of G. H. Mead’s works in symbolic interactionism is both central and paradoxical. It stands at the very foundation of Hebert Blumer’s initial invention of symbolic…
Abstract
The place of G. H. Mead’s works in symbolic interactionism is both central and paradoxical. It stands at the very foundation of Hebert Blumer’s initial invention of symbolic interactionism with respect to Mead’s social behaviorism and has been discussed and debated ever since because of the problems caused by such a presumed direct filiation. Returning to Mead in order to broaden the perspective offered by Blumer is a must and has to face some fundamental issues raised in this context. This article starts by examining the ontogenetic and phylogenetic processes involved in Mead’s concept of society, in order to show the multiple dimensions involved in significant symbols. An illustration of Mead’s wider perspective is given in reference to the feminist movement as analyzed first by Mead’s student, Jessie Taft, and goes back to the origin of the movement with Mary Wollstonecraft. This leads to the analysis of the debate about the place of power in symbolic interactionism, initiated by Peter M. Hall, and addresses the alternative between domination and emancipation. This alternative has been worked out by Lonnie Athen’s radical symbolic interactionism analysis of domination on the one side, and by Kathy Charmaz and Norman K. Denzin on the other side of emancipatory symbolic interactionist practices. Another solution is proposed to this alternative, with the analysis of power being intrinsically constituted by domination and emancipation, in their respective contribution to the understanding of the symbolic dispositions of autonomy – a concept that remains relatively undeveloped in Mead’s works.