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Extension of process mapping to identify “green waste”
No full textPurpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop an approach to process mapping (Pmapping) that
incorporates the identification of environmental wastes.
Design/methodology/approach – The proposed extension of the PMapping technique is
independently trialled by ten Industrial Engineers in manufacturing SMEs in SouthWales. Interviews
were conducted with each Engineer after the mapping technique was trialled, in order to understand
the benefits and difficulties of using the approach.
Findings – Integrating the identification of “green wastes” within the PMapping tool is found to be
an effective way of focusing attention upon the environmental impact of activities within processes.
Combining “green and lean” is also an approach that cements environmental issues into an organisation’s
continuous improvement efforts and can assist in it becoming part of its improvement philosophy.
Research limitations/implications – The tool has been trialled within a limited number of small- to
medium-sized manufacturing organisations. Further examination of the tool should be conducted in
organisations in different business sectors utilising a range of process technologies.
Practical implications – The proposed tool appears effective in aiding the identification of
environmental wastes in manufacturing processes. It also has value in integrating environmental
improvement initiatives with other process improvement initiatives.
Originality/value – PMapping techniques are well known in the literature, and i
Who chooses to be a nurse and why? A narrative study
No full textOver the past 30 years, as the type and number of healthcare services have changed, the role of the learning disability nurse has evolved. The numbers of learning disability nurses being trained and subsequently registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Council have declined during this period, and many learning disability nurses now work in the voluntary, private and social care sectors. Yet there is little evidence about why people choose learning disability nursing as a career. This article refers to the findings of a narrative study of the experiences of learning disability nurses working in and outside the NHS over the past 30 years. It illuminates how and why they chose their career, and provides an insight into how others could be encouraged to join the professio
Ethics and social ontology
No full textNormative theory, in various idioms, has grown wary of questions of ontology— social and otherwise. Thus modern debates in ethics have tended to take place at some distance from (for example) debates in social theory. One arguable casualty of this has been due consideration of relational factors (between agents and the social structures they inhabit) in the interrogation of ethical values. Part 1 of this paper addresses some examples of this tendency, and some of the philosophical assumptions which might underlie it. Parts 2 and 3 discuss two issues of growing prominence—disability, and environmental concern—due attention to which, I argue, highlights strong reasons why severing ethics from social ontology is neither possible nor desirable. I conclude by recommending a qualified ethical naturalism as a promising candidate through which, non-reductively, to reunite these two areas of theoretical focus
Beighton score: a valid measure for generalized hypermobility in children.
No full textTo evaluate the validity of the Beighton score as a generalized measure of hypermobility and to measure the prevalence of hypermobility and pain in a random population of school age children.Prospective study of 551 children attending various Dutch elementary schools participated; 47% were males (258) and 53% (293) females, age range was 6 to 12 years. Children's joints and movements were assessed according to the Beighton score by qualified physiotherapists and by use of goniometry measuring 16 passive ranges of motion of joints on both sides of the body
“Swamped” by anti-immigrant communications?
No full textIn July 2013, the UK Home Office launched an advertising campaign with the slogan ‘In the UK illegally? Go
Home or face arrest,’ mounted on a billboard and driven around ethnically and nationally diverse areas of
London. A few weeks later, the @ukhomeoffice Twitter account began to publish tweets about arrests at
locations around London, with the hashtag #immigrationoffenders and with some photographs of arrests,
drawing attention to increasingly visible stop‐and‐check operations by immigration officers at tube stations
and elsewhere in the capital. Later in August, further posters were displayed inside immigration reporting
centres in Glasgow and Hounslow, where asylum seekers were faced with images of aeroplanes with the slogan
‘This plane can take you home. We can book the tickets’.
What are the effects of this kind of intervention? Home Office ministers insisted that the van campaign had
been a pilot project, and that, in terms of their evaluation, it had been a success since it cost only £9,740 and
appeared to have directly or indirectly encouraged 60 people to leave the country through voluntary
repatriation]. But what of the other costs, less easily accounted for financially?ESR
Student nurses perceptions of spirituality and competence in delivering spiritual care: A European pilot study.
No full textBackground: Spiritual care is expected of nurses, but it is not clear how undergraduates can achieve competency
in spiritual care at point of registration as required by nursing/midwifery regulatory bodies.
Aims: To describe undergraduate nurses'/midwives' perceptions of spirituality/spiritual care, their perceived
competence in delivering spiritual care, and to test out the proposed method and suitability of measures for a
larger multinational follow-on study.
Design: Cross-sectional, multinational, descriptive survey design.
Methods: Author administered questionnaires were completed by 86% of the intended convenience sample of
618 undergraduate nurses/midwives from 6 universities in 4 European countries in 2010.
Results: Students held a broad viewof spirituality/spiritual care and considered themselves to bemarginallymore
competent than not in spiritual care. They were predominantly Christian and reported high levels of spiritual
wellbeing and spiritual attitude and involvement. The proposed method and measures were appropriate and
are being used in a follow-on study.
Conclusions: The following are worthy of further investigation: whether the pilot study findings hold in student
samples frommore diverse cultural backgrounds; whether students' perceptions of spirituality can be broadened
to include the full range of spiritual needs patients may encounter and whether their competence can be enhanced
by education to better equip themto deliver spiritual care; identification of factors contributing to acquisition
of spiritual caring skills and spiritual care competency.Research Institut
International law as an instrument to combat child marriage
No full textThe purpose of this article is to examine the international instruments that have an impact on child marriage in order to determine its legality from an international perspective and to assess whether international treaties are an effective means of reducing the practice. The paper argues that international law plays a significant role in the campaign against child marriage because it emphasises the gravity of the issue. It is conceded that international treaties cannot themselves secure a reduction in the number of child marriages that occur and that appropriate programmes must be developed in order to ensure that the law is implemented nationally and locally
The development of unfired clay building material using Brick Dust Waste and Mercia mudstone clay
No full textThis work reports the potential of using Brick Dust Waste (BDW) as a partial substitute for clay in the development of unfired clay building materials (brick, block and mortar). BDW is a waste material from the cutting of fired clay bricks. There are various reasons necessitating the cutting of bricks — corner bricks, construction of chimneys, and other uses needing bricks of various shapes and sizes. This results in the disposal of BDW as an environmental problem of concern. In order to investigate the clay replacement potential of BDW, four types of mixes were designed at varying BDW replacement levels — 5%, 10%, 15% and 20%. Ground Granulated Blastfurnace Slag, an industrial by-product from steel manufacture was activated using quick lime and the mixture was used to stabilise Mercia mudstone clay for unfired clay production. The 56 day compressive results using cylinder test specimens showed a significant strength gain (up to 2.1 N/mm2). Overall, the results suggest that it is possible to develop unfired clay building material using up to 20% BDW as partial substitutes for primary cla
Asymmetric Procurement in the Public Sector1
No full textCertain operational issues related to information technologies and staff training turn out to be particularly important for successful procurement practice in public emergency services. The degree of procurement maturity can differ across functions within a single organization.
The strategic procurement frameworks imply that
increasingly mature or strategic approaches to procurement are always desirable. It may be more important to consider what is an appropriate procurement strategy for an organization, department, or commodity rather than to relentlessly pursue strategic approaches in all eventualities