Hannah Weiss, Rebecca D. Russell, Lucinda Black and Andrea Begley
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory disease of the central nervous system that causes debilitating symptoms. Currently, there is insufficient evidence to recommend a…
Abstract
Purpose
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory disease of the central nervous system that causes debilitating symptoms. Currently, there is insufficient evidence to recommend a special diet for people with MS to slow disease progression and reduce symptoms. Little is known about the dietary choices made by people with MS. This study aimed to explore the interpretations of healthy eating in people recently diagnosed with MS. Objectives were to investigate the types of changes in food choices and to describe the impact of making these changes.
Design/methodology/approach
A social constructionist approach applying qualitative secondary analysis of semi-structured interviews was conducted (n = 11). Interviews were transcribed, coded and analysed using a deductive approach.
Findings
Participants were mostly female (82%), mean age 47 years and mean time since diagnosis eight months. Four themes emerged from the data: (1) moving in the direction of the dietary guidelines, (2) modifying intake of dietary fat, (3) requiring mental effort and (4) needing input from a dietitian.
Practical implications
The directions of food choices and the absence of dietetic input highlighted in this study suggest the need for evidence-based nutrition education that enables people with MS to tailor dietary guidelines according to their preferences.
Originality/value
How people interpret healthy eating advice and the impact on making food choice changes is useful for explaining dietary changes in MS. Special diets promoted for MS provide conflicting advice, and the lack of access to dietitians means that additional mental effort is required when interpreting healthy eating messages and diets.
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Tuba Angay-Crowder, Christi L. Pace and Rebecca Rohloff
The purpose of this self-study is to examine how transformative leadership in student organizations contributes to doctoral students’ professional development in higher education…
Abstract
The purpose of this self-study is to examine how transformative leadership in student organizations contributes to doctoral students’ professional development in higher education. Drawing from Mezirow’s (1997) notion of transformative learning and Bass’s (1990) theory of transformational leadership, the researchers discuss how an academic student organization, Alpha Upsilon Alpha, provided opportunities for transformative leadership in scholarship and service thus crafted academic identities and re-envisioned student organizations as spaces of transformative professional development.
Russell Nelson, Jack Werner, Rebecca Daniels, Michael G. Kay, Russell E. King, Brandon M. McConnell and Kristin Thoney-Barletta
The purpose of this paper is to improve the air movement operations planning heuristic in the literature to generate better solutions in a shorter time period.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to improve the air movement operations planning heuristic in the literature to generate better solutions in a shorter time period.
Design/methodology/approach
Through a rigorous design of experiments (DOEs), we make significant heuristic improvements by evaluating alternative modular methodologies and tuning heuristic parameters for two scenarios. This includes a new approach to considering refueling operations.
Findings
We find the fine-tuned heuristic averages a 33% objective improvement and 70% reduction in computation time over the heuristic with original parameters for one of the scenarios. Additionally, we analyze the heuristic's quality of solution over time.
Research limitations/implications
Further analysis is required to generalize heuristic settings, which would require significant access to operational data or a portfolio of scenarios of interest.
Practical implications
Tuned heuristic parameters reduce the computation time from hours to minutes. This also makes it practically feasible to adjust parameters in the objective function to generate multiple courses of action (COAs) for a given instance.
Originality/value
This research provides novel vehicle assignment and routing heuristic improvement alternatives and demonstrates a DOEs-based heuristic tuning procedure.
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This article investigates the construction of risk within trustworthy digital repository audits. It contends that risk is a social construct, and social factors influence how…
Abstract
Purpose
This article investigates the construction of risk within trustworthy digital repository audits. It contends that risk is a social construct, and social factors influence how stakeholders in digital preservation processes comprehend and react to risk.
Design/methodology/approach
This research employs a qualitative research design involving in-depth semi-structured interviews with stakeholders in the Trustworthy Digital Repository Audit and Certification (TRAC) process, and document analysis of the TRAC checklist and audit reports. I apply an analytic framework based on the Model for the Social Construction of Risk in Digital Preservation to this data.
Findings
The findings validate the argument that risk in digital preservation is indeed socially constructed and demonstrate that the eight factors in the Model for the Social Construction of Risk in Digital Preservation do indeed influence how stakeholders constructed their understanding of risk. Of the eight factors in the model, communication, expertise, uncertainty and vulnerability were found to be the most influential in the construction of risk during the TRAC audit process. The influence of complexity, organizations political culture, were more limited.
Originality/value
This article brings new insights to digital preservation by demonstrating the importance of understanding risk as a social construct. I argue that risk identification and/or assessment is only the first step in the long-term preservation of digital information and show that perceptions of risk in digital preservation are shaped by social factors by applying theories of social construction and risk perception to an analysis of the TRAC process.
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Eloise Labaz, Julie Nichols, Rebecca Agius and Quenten Agius
This chapter explores the Aboriginal artefacts ‘clapsticks’ as a form of cultural data – a means of disseminating cultural knowledge in the galleries, libraries, archives, and…
Abstract
This chapter explores the Aboriginal artefacts ‘clapsticks’ as a form of cultural data – a means of disseminating cultural knowledge in the galleries, libraries, archives, and museums [GLAM] sector. How might alternative methods of curation animate clapsticks as active objects that deliver effective knowledge transfer? This research aims to explore and extend current industry practices of the curation of clapsticks, within the existing parameters of technology, spatial capacity, financial support, and governance as part of the operation of the GLAM sector. The research problem, therefore, explores the past limitations of colonial framing of cultural institutions that once hindered the revealing, the disseminating, and the ‘awakening’ of the complexities of knowledge intrinsic to Aboriginal cultural artefacts. Informal communication with Aboriginal community members and academics was critical to providing cultural context as well as personal beliefs and aspirations vital to conceptualising the future of cultural representation. This investigation explores how a cultural centre offers a space and an opportunity to facilitate the clapsticks datasets in its capacity as a performance-focussed building rather than solely an exhibition space or keeping place. This potential represents a shift in thinking around the clapsticks being a lens through which the stories of Aboriginal culture can be disseminated.
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Mike Zundel, Anders La Cour and Ghita Dragsdahl Lauritzen
George Spencer Brown is best known for his book Laws of Form, which elaborates a primary algebra of distinctions and forms capable of dealing with self-referential equations…
Abstract
George Spencer Brown is best known for his book Laws of Form, which elaborates a primary algebra of distinctions and forms capable of dealing with self-referential equations reflective of paradoxes in logic. The book has received little attention in mathematics, but it has greatly influenced cybernetics, communications, and ecological theories. But Spencer Brown also published poetry and stories, often under different names, and he practiced as a psychotherapist. Our chapter elaborates the utility of Laws of Form relating to organizational paradox before considering Spencer Brown’s other works in relation to his mathematics. Invoking philosophy, psychoanalysis and art, we suggest that these indicate a further distinction that sets all forms against the “nothing”: a wholeness or unity from out of which all distinctions, all words, meaning and life – but also all silence, nonsense and death – emerge in paradoxical opposition. Reading Spencer Brown not through the prism of mathematics, but as an evocative invitation to engage with the fissures that animate art and human life, highlights the paradoxical interplay of organization and violence; and how tragedy, suffering, sympathy and love should be more prominent in organizational research.
Rebecca Nicolaides, Richard Trafford and Russell Craig
This paper reviews an array of psycholinguistic techniques that auditors can deploy to explore written and oral language for signs of deception. The review is drawn upon to…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper reviews an array of psycholinguistic techniques that auditors can deploy to explore written and oral language for signs of deception. The review is drawn upon to propose some elements of a forward research agenda.
Design/methodology/approach
Relevant literature across several disciplines is identified through keyword searches of major bibliographic databases.
Findings
The techniques highlighted have considerable potential for use by auditors to identify audit contexts which merit closer audit investigation. However, the techniques need further contextual empirical investigation in audit contexts. Seven specific propositions are presented for empirical testing.
Originality/value
This paper assembles literature on deceptive communication from a wide range of disciplines and relates it to the audit context. Auditors’ attention is directed to potential linguistic signals of fraud risk, and opportunities for future research are suggested. The paper is consciousness-raising, has pedagogic purpose and suggests critical elements for a future research agenda.