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Navigating Institutional Dynamics for Sustainable Investment: Analyzing Entrepreneurial Efforts, National Path Dependencies, and Rationalization Processes
Get PDFSustainable investing has been increasingly studied by management scholars for its potential to transform organizational practices to realize broader collective goals such as gender equality and protecting and sustaining our global commons for the benefit of enhancing human flourishing across generations. While sustainable investing has recently blossomed worldwide, it has taken varied forms in different jurisdictions, reflecting persistent institutional path dependencies. This dissertation investigates dynamics that can promote or impede efforts to achieve collective goals such as gender equality and safeguarding our collective commons, emphasizing the role played by mechanisms of sustainable investment. The first study investigates how collective institutional entrepreneurship is affected by and can affect national institutional environments in promoting sustainable investing in the world\u27s stock exchanges. The findings reveal an informativeness channel whereby jurisdictions initially resistant to promoting sustainability within stock exchanges embrace sustainable investing as a legitimate practice consistent with their overarching institutional environment. The second study elaborates on the distinctive characteristics of Scandinavian legal origins to propose a gendered theory of legal origins that better explains persistent cross-national differences in women\u27s labor market outcomes. The findings of this study reveal more significant insights into the nuanced differences between families of legal origin that continue to reflect critical path dependencies that impact cross-national differences in economic outcomes and policy preferences. The third study uses a Weberian lens to address debates about means-ends and policy practice decoupling in socio environmental governance. A Weberian ethic of organizational responsibility is proposed that may mitigate both policy/practice and means/ends decoupling that has otherwise put into question the efficacy of sustainability standards and reporting to achieve an alignment between capital market imperatives and sustainability outcomes. Collectively, these manuscripts reveal important drivers and impediments in marshaling capital markets and corporate efforts to respond to humanity\u27s most pressing collective concerns and have important implications for management theory and practice
Interfacial Interaction Between Two Liquid Crystal Phases and Their Potential on Controlling the Dynamics of Living Microorganisms
Get PDFIn a recent study, Čopar implemented simulations using the Landau-de Gennes free energy approach and predicted that a liquid crystal (LC) phase can control the molecular alignment of a second adjacent LC material. Hence, a LC film can likely be used to align a different LC phase. We experimentally evaluate this prediction, using the interface between a lyotropic nematic LC and a thermotropic smectic liquid crystal with defects. We study the role of smectic interfaces in controlling the properties of the lyotropic film. We also investigate how the effective control of the lyotropic director field helps balance the competing forces that can control the behavior and dynamics of living microorganisms. This work paves the way for creating new procedures to control the assembly of active materials into reconfigurable assemblies that may find relevance in the field of biosensing
Unraveling the Opioid Crisis in Urban Centers: Policy Approaches and Community Strategies to Address Overdose Deaths in Boston, MA
No full textThe opioid crisis in the United States has emerged as a critical public health issue, with urban areas like Boston experiencing a significant rise in opioid overdose deaths. This dissertation addressed this complex challenge through three interrelated manuscripts, each contributing unique insights and strategies for opioid overdose prevention. The first manuscript conducted a policy analysis of the Opioid-Overdose Reduction Continuum of Care Approach (ORCCA) Practice Guide, using Russell and Fawcett\u27s conceptual model of nursing and health policy. This analysis evaluated the guide\u27s alignment with nursing practices and health policies, highlighting its potential to enhance nursing interventions in opioid crisis management. The second manuscript employed a descriptive qualitative design to explore the perspectives of 15 stakeholders, including healthcare providers, law enforcement officials, policymakers, and community leaders. Using MAXQDA software was utilized for data management and analysis, six key themes were identified: Community Empowerment and Collaborative Action, Barriers and Equity in Access, Innovative and Educational Strategies, Policy and Systemic Solutions for Socioeconomic Challenges, Integrated Mental Health and Substance Use Services, and Integrated Community Safety and Technological Recovery Solutions. These themes underscored the necessity of a holistic public health approach, emphasizing the integration of mental health services and the importance of community engagement and law enforcement collaboration. The third manuscript built on these insights by conducting a stakeholder analysis using the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality\u27s Stakeholder Analysis Tool. This analysis examined various stakeholders\u27 roles, interactions, and potential influence, providing a detailed understanding of their contributions and the dynamics of collaboration. The findings highlighted the importance of multi-stakeholder engagement and systemic policy changes in enhancing opioid overdose prevention efforts. An integrated framework for opioid overdose prevention was developed from the combined insights of these analyses, providing a comprehensive, adaptable model for public health officials. Together, these manuscripts offered a comprehensive approach to addressing the opioid crisis in Boston, emphasizing the need for integrated, evidence-based strategies and collaborative efforts. This dissertation significantly contributed to the field of public health by providing actionable insights and recommendations for more effective and inclusive opioid overdose prevention strategies
Domestic Opposition to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Decline of Isolationism
Get PDFPresident Harry Truman’s administration witnessed the birth of the national security establishment and foreign policy institutions still used today. The devastation of the Second World War had convinced the American public of a greater need for global involvement but only under Truman did a firm set of policies develop to accomplish a specific set of goals. The policies birthed between 1947 and 1950 include the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The North Atlantic Treaty Organization represented the single most evident shift away from the philosophy of non-entangling alliances advocated by the Founding Fathers and supported by the American public for over 150 years. Nevertheless, NATO’s origins are usually written about as an afterthought of the Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan, despite its continued relevance today. However, the national debate over the alliance can shed valuable light on America’s emergence as the predominant global power in the post-World War II era. Prominent isolationist leaders in the Senate, public, and media opposed American involvement in a North Atlantic treaty. They considered the alliance unwise on political, economic, religious, and military grounds and struggled to prevent its ratification by the Senate in July 1949. The litany of criticism leveled by the alliance’s opponents is not well understood, with many authors briefly discussing one or two arguments before referencing its ratification and subsequent impact on the Cold War between East and West. This thesis will analyze the methods employed by the Truman administration to dispel or refute criticism while slowly reducing the influence of isolationist segments within American society. A more extensive list of concerns will also be noted, to provide a more thorough understanding of the numerous challenges faced by the Administration in its efforts to guarantee ratification and alter public opinion
Playing Offside: An Intersectional Analysis of Sports in Kenya\u27s Informal Sector
Get PDFThe global sports industry revenue amounted to nearly 487 billion dollars in 2022 (Gough, 2023). Yet when the revenues are distributed regionally, Africa is categorized as ‘other’. This data implies that the value of sports in Africa is unknown yet assumes that all regions contribute to the value of this industry in various ways. A factor that may result to undocumented value of sports in Africa is the existence of informal economies. Thus, this study hypothesizes that the informal nature of economies and markets in African countries like Kenya may explain the lacuna generalized as ‘other’. According to the Kenya national bureau of statistics about 1.4 million people are engaged in the community, social, and personal services sector of the informal economy (Faria, 2021). Bearing this in mind, there is a possibility that individuals also engage in unregulated or semi-regulated activities and businesses related to sports that mobilize wealth or interact with the market. Therefore, this study explores how people engage with sports in the informal sector. It asks the question: What are the characteristics of sports in Kenya’s informal sector? It focuses on women’s football and e-sports case studies to establish factors that may determine characteristics of the sector. The idea is to identify patterns that are undetected due to informality. Data was collected through in-depth interviews for women’s football with purposive sampling technique. While e-sports used both close-ended interviews of randomly sampled participants and open-ended in-depth interviews of intentionally selected participants. The target population of the dissertation not only works in the informal sports sector but also live in informal settlements. A crucial factor since those who engage with sports in informal settlements are marginalized by the nature of global sports industry that renders their labor invisible and without value. This creates a specific sports system adapted to its environment and with limited contact from the mainstream. Analytically, intersectionality is used in the dissertation to dispel oversimplifications or generalizations of a particular group of people and their lived experiences (Calow, 2022). It challenges the current analysis of the global sports industry that assumes the experiences of those in the margins as similar due to their difference from the dominant sport system. Concurrently, intersectionality determines how the social categories identified play an active role in determining the structure and functioning of economic and labor systems. Therefore, a nuanced and comprehensive approach to data analysis is applied to identify the characteristics of Kenya’s informal sector and its relation to global actors by looking for processes that are fully interactive, historically co-determining, and complex. The findings identified that Kenya’s informal sector is characterized by inequalities and inequities of gender, class, and location that impact access and voice of those that exist in the sector. The main features of the informal sports sector were: 1.) Women’s labor is categorized as care work and is inadequately compensated. 2.) Women’s football was established through a global development project, 3.) Women’s football is trapped in a cycle of aid dependency with foreign donors, unable to become an activity that interacts with the market, 4.) E-sports are exclusionary based on gender and class 5.) E-sports has adapted to its environment creating an economic activity for those who choose to engage with it
Nano Curcumin as a Photosensitizer for Photodynamic Therapy Treatment of Oral Lesions
No full textThe capability of curcumin and its analogs to inhibit various processes involved in cancer development and progression has been extensively studied. Curcumin is also a photoactive compound, which can be activated with blue light to initiate photochemistry. Motivated by this and its inherent anti-cancer properties, we examined the practicality of using a commercially available nano-cumin formulation as a photosensitizer for the photodynamic therapy (PDT) treatment of oral cancers. Despite the significant limitation of curcumin in only absorbing blue light, which lies outside the optical window and suffers from poor penetration depths, we meticulously investigated its potential. Our systematic examination using optical phantoms that mimic the scattering and absorption of human tissues has provided robust evidence. We measured fluorescence photobleaching as a reporter of the depth of photodynamic action of the curcumin-photosensitized phantoms. We observed that the extent of photobleaching after PDT varies with the constitution of scattering components in the Phantoms. Photobleaching depths of 5-10 mm were measured depending on the phantom composition. Similarly, with hemoglobin as a light-absorbing component in the phantom, the Photobleaching depth of 3-4 mm was reported, ensuring Curcumin PDT could be an alternative Therapy to treat oral lesions of thickness up to 4 mm
How Families Can Empower Youth with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD) from Racially and Ethnically Diverse Backgrounds
Get PDFThis brief shares the perspectives and experiences of culturally and linguistically diverse family members of four youth who shared their employment and community engagement stories. It outlines the pivotal role these families played to support youth with IDD to find and maintain competitive integrated employment and to meaningfully engage with their communities. It draws from in-depth, semi-structured interviews with youth with IDD, their family members, and job coaches
Trauma-Informed Servant Leadership Training
Get PDFDue to the high rate of employee burnout and toxic workplace environments, organizations and managers are looking toward better leadership approaches to retain employees and promote engagement in the workplace. This training course was developed through surveys and scholarly research to train managers in a Trauma-Informed Servant Leadership approach to create psychologically safe work environments. Psychologically safe work environments have lower turnover rates, greater creativity and engagement, and higher employee satisfaction. The Trauma-Informed Servant Leadership approach reduces institutional betrayal and promotes psychological safety by adopting a transparent, results-driven framework. The training gives leaders a basic understanding of trauma, its impact on the brain, and employee well-being. The training instruction shows managers how to identify signs of trauma when they appear in the workplace and how to respond appropriately. The asynchronous self-driven eLearning course comprises six learning modules that can be completed at the learners’ pace
Inclusive Postsecondary Education Programs and Centers for Independent Living: A Partnership Worth Pursuing
Get PDFThis publication provides an in-depth description of the purpose and function of Centers for Independent Living (CILs) and describes how CILs and inclusive postsecondary education (IPSE) programs can work together
A Patient and More: Exploring How Patients\u27 Identities Affect Their Satisfaction
No full textPatient satisfaction is a pivotal component of effective patient care delivery, linked to better outcomes and quality of life. Unfortunately, current patient satisfaction surveys do not always accurately measure the patient experience. Using identity theory, this mixed methods study sought to understand how a patient’s identities affect satisfaction Quantitative findings show that greater patient identity salience and prominence leads to higher satisfaction. Staff recognizing a patient’s other salient identities also increases satisfaction. Qualitative findings show that hospitalized patients appreciate getting information, feeling safe, staff attentiveness, and verification of other salient identities. Post-hospitalization the patient identity was still very prominent. This was linked to identity commitment via connections on an online support group. Patients liked feeling that they were on a shared journey, could help others and be an inspiration. The study also addressed the role of context in determining the likelihood a patient will tell others about their diagnosis (identity salience). Who the conversational partner is, why they might tell others, and visual cues associated with the diagnosis were themes. Findings show identity theory has a place in patient satisfaction research. It also adds to emergent research on the value of context in identity salience measures