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The use of bovine colostrum in medical practice and human health: current evidence and areas requiring further examination
Get PDFMacro level factors influencing strategic responses to emergent pandemics: A scoping review
Get PDFBackground Strategic planning is critical for successful pandemic management. This study aimed to identify and review the scope and analytic depth of situation analyses conducted to understand their utility, and capture the documented macro-level factors impacting pandemic management.
Methods To synthesise this disparate body of literature, we adopted a two-step search and review process. A systematic search of the literature was conducted to identify all studies since 2000, that have 1) employed a situation analysis; and 2) examined contextual factors influencing pandemic management. The included studies are analysed using a seven-domain systems approach from the discipline of strategic management.
Results Nineteen studies were included in the final review ranging from single country (6) to regional, multi-country studies (13). Fourteen studies had a single disease focus, with 5 studies evaluating responses to one or more of COVID-19, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), Influenza A (H1N1), Ebola virus disease, and Zika virus disease pandemics. Six studies examined a single domain from political, economic, sociological, technological, ecological or wider industry (PESTELI), 5 studies examined two to four domains, and 8 studies examined five or more domains. Methods employed were predominantly literature reviews. The recommendations focus predominantly on addressing inhibitors in the sociological and technological domains with few recommendations articulated in the political domain. Overall, the legislative domain is least represented.
Conclusions Ex-post analysis using the seven-domain strategic management framework provides further opportunities for a planned systematic response to pandemics which remains critical as the current COVID-19 pandemic evolves
Dual diagnosis anonymous (DDA) and the transition to online support during COVID-19
Get PDFAbstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has been particularly challenging for individuals with concurrent mental health and addiction problems. Like other mutual aid groups, Dual Diagnosis Anonymous (DDA) of Oregon in the US and DDA-UK were forced to suspend face to face meetings during the pandemic. To continue to support its members, DDA began offering online meetings.
Objectives: this study explored attendees’ perceived effectiveness, strengths, and limitations of online support within the context of the pandemic. Methods: A total of 92 DDA members from the US (n = 71) and the UK (n = 18) completed an online survey, which included quantitative scales and open questions. Feelings of inclusion in online versus in-person meetings were assessed using an adaptation of the Work Group Inclusion Test (Chung et al., 2020). A supplementary interview was conducted with a DDA facilitator. The open survey questions and the interview were independently thematically analyzed by two investigators. Results: Attendance of meetings significantly increased after the introduction of online meetings (p < 0.001). Approximately half of the participants (51.09%) indicated that DDA online support was the most helpful form of support they received during lockdown; 98.77% of participants agreed that online support should continue after the lockdown. There was no significant difference regarding feelings of inclusion in online versus in-person meetings. Conclusions: Online meetings allowed DDA to go global and provided effective support to people with complex needs during the COVID-19 lockdown. Participants experienced a continuity of inclusion and accessibility due to the online provision. Implications: It is suggested that going forward, online support should continue alongside traditional face to face meetings due to its potential to increase convenience, accessibility, and inclusivity
Organizational learning in tourism and hospitality crisis management
No full textTourism and hospitality organizations have always been exposed to disruptions, stresses, and crises, making the management of these adversities a necessary skill for all those who are involved in running them. The prolonged and complex turbulence that the industry is often facing from epidemics and pandemics, climate change and extreme environmental phenomena, or political instability and economic crashes, raise several questions on whether these organizations learn from the crises they experience and, if so, how do they learn and what do they do with this learning? This publication brings together an array of expert academic analyses of the latest thinking and practice on these questions. Drawing on studies they conducted around the world including Spain, the United Kingdom, Greece, Turkey, Iran, Malaysia, Japan, the USA, and Mexico, the contributors apply a wide range of organizational learning and knowledge management theoretical perspectives and concepts to offer new insights into crisis-induced learning in a tourism and hospitality context. The book will be an excellent resource for scholars and students as well as managers of tourism and hospitality organizations, tourism policymakers, and government officials who are involved in tourism destination managemen
“With a young spirit, we will be young forever”: Exploring the links between tourism and ageing well in contemporary China
Get PDFThis research explores the entangled relationships between tourism, ageing and well-being in later life. We challenge the universal connotations of old age and “ageing well” and see their relationships with tourism as dynamic processes, in which older people are continuously producing different meanings and fulfilling personal quests over life courses. Using the contextualist and temporal lens, four scenarios of the evolving relationships between tourism and ageing well were identified from the lived experiences and travel histories of 48 Chinese senior travelers. The results demonstrate that how tourism affects ageing well are shaped by senior travellers’ early life and travel experiences, the personalised conceptions attached to tourism and well-being, which are indeed complex responses to their personal, social and cultural contexts. This research unveils vivid pictures of Chinese older adults’ leisure lives, and highlights the urgency to develop relevant tourism policies and marketing strategies to cater for their changing needs
The effect of staphylococcal mastitis including resistant strains on serum procalcitonin, neopterin, acute phase response and stress biomarkers in Holstein dairy cows
Get PDFStaphylococcal mastitis (SM) is a frequent disease in the dairy cattle that is costly to treat. This study aimed to investigate the alterations in the levels of procalcitonin (PCT), neopterin (NPT), haptoglobin (HP), serum amyloid A (SAA), proinflammatory cytokines (IL-1β, IL-8, TNF-α, IF-γ) and oxidative stress (OS) biomarkers in Holstein dairy cows with SM under field conditions. In addition, we also evaluated the role of examined biomarkers in disease pathogenesis and their use as diagnostic biomarkers for the disease in dairy cows. Fifty-three dairy cows with SM, including those with infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus (n = 42) and methicillin resistant S. aureus (MRSA) (n = 11) were selected for this study. In addition, 20 healthy dairy cows were enrolled as a control group. Higher serum levels of PCT, NP, IL-1β, IL-8, TNF-α, IF-γ, HP and SAA and a state of OS was detected in SM group in comparison with the controls. Moreover, the levels of all examined biomarkers in mastitic cows with S. aureus when compared with those infected with MRSA was not significantly different. All examined biomarkers demonstrated a significant degree of discrimination between SM cows and healthy controls (the area under the curve (AUC) ranged from 83.6 for SAA to 100 for PCT). Our study showed that SM in dairy cows was associated with substantial changes in serum PCT, NPT, Acute phase proteins (APPs), proinflammatory cytokines, and OS levels. This study demonstrates that clinical examination in tandem with quantification of PCT, NPT, APPs and cytokines, OS biomarkers could be a useful assessment tool for SM in dairy cows
Implications of the identity position for dual career construction: gendering the pathways to (dis)continuation
Get PDFObjectives
To examine how gender functions in the narrative construction of dual career styles, and how these styles impact the (dis)continuation of a dual career pathway.
Design
Longitudinal qualitative study.
Method
Life story interviews with 18 talented Finnish athletes (10 cis women, 8 cis men) at four points in time – when they averaged 16, 17, 19, and 20 years of age – followed by an integrative narrative-discursive analysis.
Results
(a) contrapuntal style was gender-typically female; (b) monophonic style was gender-typically male; and (c) dissonant style was an important pathway to dual career discontinuation through which gender ideologies impacted the emergent adults with differential outcomes. Although all adolescent athletes aspired to construct a dual career pathway into adulthood, less than half (7 of 18) sustained dual career on and after graduation from upper secondary school. The life course and performance master narratives provided gender-specific scripts for life story and identity development.
Conclusions
Our findings signpost that dual career discourse practices are organised along the gender binary, which may be fortifying the assumed normalcy of gendered life choices instead of opening up the field of possibilities. To facilitate cultural change in dual career development environments, we urge for the critical examination of socio-cultural constraints on adolescent athletes' choices
Comparison of Hofstede’s and Schwartz’s cultural frameworks for enterprise social media adoption
Get PDFThe introduction of Enterprise Social Media (ESM) has been driven by many factors that can be grouped into organizational activities namely, communication, cooperation, collaboration, and connections in real-time and asynchronous times. However, research shows that organizations struggle with enterprise-wide adoption. Research also indicates that one of the factors impeding adoption is organizational culture. It is essential to further understand the cultural dimensions that contribute to readiness for ESM because such understanding could help organizations better prepare for ESM adoption. This paper, therefore, compares two of the most prominent cultural studies, Hofstede’s and Schwartz’s cultural frameworks, within the context of ESM
Smart brands and identities: building friendly bridges between design and smartness
Get PDFWhen adapting an environment toward making it smarter than it is, every user is expected to develop a certain degree of design literacy to effectively contribute with and make use of relevant data. Little research has been done regarding both the expected level of users’ design literacy in smart environments and the developmental tactics for these essential skills to be acquired. Simultaneously, there is little acknowledgement of the relevance of these environments’ brands as important assets in supporting design literacy. This paper speculates on the relevance of investing in “smart visual identities”, which configure as a meaningful and holistic branding resource. Hermeneutics informed the qualitative analysis of content in this research. Two essential dimensions of smart visual identities were identified, and a definition of “smart brand” is proposed, suggesting that highly relatable brand identities allow individuals develop their design literacy while users of a smart learning environment
Variation and phenomenography: recognising and understanding qualitatively different experiences of engineering learning
No full textPhenomenography is a research methodology well suited to exploring how engineering students and academics experience engineering education. The significance of phenomenography to engineering education research (EER) and practice lies in its potential to account for differences and changes in meanings individuals hold about concepts and practices in their discipline. By emphasizing variation, this methodology highlights that existing forms of knowledge are not fixed and therefore these are possible to change. The dataset used for hands-on analysis in this workshop has to do with how individuals understand design and knowledge creation, how this varies by professional degree program (architecture vs. civil engineering), and how student conceptualisations change or evolve over time