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Building castles in the Cloud: an exploration of EU Small Medium Enterprise's (SME) challenges in the Digital era.
No full textA conceptual framework towards continuous transformation of sustainable food manufacturing and logistics
No full textSustainable food manufacturing and logistics is becoming popular in the face of maintaining food security and keeping a good track with the sustainable development goal. Continuous transformation within most manufacturing sectors could be very useful in maintaining a good sustainability and competitive business environment of which the food manufacturing supply chain environment is not an exception. Sustainable food manufacturing could help reduce the negative environmental and social impact to the barest minimum as the economic situation is improved thereby contributing to the success of the set Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This study presents an overview of sustainable food manufacturing supply chain environment, Continuous Transformation of Food Manufacturing and Supply Chain, Sustainability Drivers within Food Manufacturing and Supply Chain Environment. The other part shows a methodology that proposes a conceptual framework from the literatures. This conceptual framework design comprises of steps that include Orientation and Commitment, Environmental and lifecycle impact assessment, Definition and implementation and, Measurement and communication. This proposed framework is expected to help in the continuous transformation within food manufacturing supply chain environment
Triple Helix as a Tool for Knowledge Management, Transfer and Entrepreneurial Outcomes on a European Scale: A Case Study of the RAGE Project.
No full textThe impact of Workers’ Welfare Programme on the migrant workers: insights from Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup
No full textFor the past decade, FIFA’s decision to award World Cup hosting rights to Qatar has placed the country in the spotlight of international scrutiny and criticism, particularly for the treatment of migrant workers delivering infrastructure projects and venues for the upcoming mega event. The Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy (SC), chief body responsible for the successful delivery of the 2022 World Cup and post-event legacy, has taken steps beyond Qatar’s current labour law requirements and created the Workers’ Welfare Programme (WWP). It entails a unique and comprehensive approach to screening, auditing and retaining contractors that fulfil a specific set of requirements designed to protect migrant workers from abuse and provide them with working and living conditions of high standards.Currently, research on the effectiveness of this Programme as well as other efforts to protect migrant workers – both in Qatar and globally – is rather limited in its scope and depth. Existing studies mainly focus on post-event analyses with inadequate primary data collection efforts, failing to give voice to all parties involved. This study aims to bridge this knowledge gap by investigating the factors affecting the migratory construction workers involved in the preparations for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. It does so by examining the implementation of various aspects of the SC’s WWP and the extent to which it has impacted migrant workers and other relevant stakeholders.The study adopted a mixed-method approach to data collection and analysis by conducting a quantitative survey of migrant workers and juxtaposing it with findings from qualitative interviews with high level stakeholders. The results indicate that great strides have been achieved in improving different aspects of migrant workers’ lives such as their living conditions and workplace safety standards. However, a number of concerns remain to be fully resolved, including the illegal practice of levying recruitment fees, comprehensive training, salary satisfaction as well as access to healthcare. The study suggests a number of policy recommendations to effectively address the issues and preserve Qatar’s post-World Cup legacy
Prevalence, nature and predictors of omitted medication doses in mental health hospitals: A multi-centre study.
No full textOBJECTIVE:Limited evidence concerning the burden and predictors of omitted medication doses within mental health hospitals could severely limit improvement efforts in this specialist setting. This study aimed to determine the prevalence, nature and predictors of omitted medication doses affecting hospital inpatients in two English National Health Service (NHS) mental health trusts. METHODS:Over 6 data collection days trained pharmacy teams screened inpatient prescription charts for scheduled and omitted medication doses within 27 adult and elderly wards across 9 psychiatric hospitals. Data were collected for inpatients admitted up to two weeks prior to each data collection day. Omitted doses were classified as 'time critical' and 'preventable' based on established criteria. Omitted dose frequencies were presented with 95% confidence intervals (CI). Multilevel logistic regression analyses determined the predictors of omitted dose occurrence, with omission risks presented as adjusted odds ratios (OR) with 95% CI. RESULTS:18,664 scheduled medication doses were screened for 444 inpatients and 2,717 omissions were identified, resulting in a rate of 14.6% (95% CI 14.1-15.1). The rate of 'time critical' omitted doses was 19.3% (95% CI 16.3-22.6%). 'Preventable' omitted doses comprised one third of all omissions (34.5%, 930/2694). Logistic regression analysis revealed that medicines affecting the central nervous system were 55% less likely to be omitted compared to all other medication classes (9.9% vs. 18.8%, OR 0.45 (0.40-0.52)) and that scheduled doses administered using non-oral routes were more likely to be omitted compared the oral route (inhaled OR 3.47 (2.64-4.57), topical 2.71 (2.11-3.46), 'other' 2.15 (1.19-3.90)). 'Preventable' dose omissions were more than twice as likely to occur for 'time critical' medications than non-time critical medications (50.4% vs. 33.8%, OR 2.24 (1.22-4.11)). CONCLUSIONS:Omitted medication doses occur commonly in mental health hospitals with 'preventable' omissions a key contributor to this burden. Important targets for remedial intervention have been identified
Living Mathematics
No full textI define my ‘living mathematics’ as my living-educational-theory of teaching and researching mathematics. I define ‘Living Mathematics’ as the overarching values-based approach to the teaching and research of mathematics as a parallel to the distinction made between ‘living-educational-theory’ and ‘Living Educational Theory research’. In this article I ask the question ‘how do I improve my practice of teaching and researching here?’ by exploring how I:As a teacher can support mathematical thinking and the understanding of textbook concepts using a value based approach and, As a researcher can enhance my mathematical thinking and modify, or create, mathematical models by calling upon my lived experiences, capturing and representing them in a symbolic form.I define teaching and research pathways in Living Mathematics as sequences of useful and focused key actions. Four exemplar case studies of my living mathematics are discussed; two from the teaching pathway and two from the research pathway
Adding University to work and life: The work-life balance and well-being experiences of women who combine employment, HE learning and care of the family
No full textIn this article, we considered women’s experiences of undertaking Higher Education (HE) study (Foundation Degree in Early Years (EY)) drawing on research based in the North of England, UK. The study, informed by a social constructionist approach, explored ten women’s experiences of work-life balance and well-being alongside Higher Education (HE) study through semi-structured interviews. A focus group explored women’s personal perceptions of work-life balance and well-being. The findings were analysed thematically and we argue that the formation of a third sphere of commitment (HE study) disrupted WLB and created some disequilibrium, which impacted upon the women’s well-being. The women underwent a transformative process as initial academic inexperience and lack of belonging in University was replaced by confidence and student identity. This transformation was made possible through personal adaptations, diverse strategies and motivation that indicated individual and collective resilience. One noticeable strategy involved the overlapping of commitment spheres, including HE study taking place at home.While being challenging to manage, this contributed to an important cultural shift as study became normal for households, creating the ‘learning family’
Alice and the North: an exploration, through the prose poem, of place and notions of ‘northernness’
No full textThis thesis charts the development of my poetics through the writing of a prose poetry collection on the theme of the North. The practice-led research has as its focus the role of prose poetry in responding to place. It seeks to challenge my prior understanding of more traditional, poetic forms by creating work that sits between poetry and prose, in a hybrid space suited to exploring ‘northernness’. In terms of poetics, this thesis aims to extend the reach of the prose poetry form by using ekphrasis and cross-art form practice to represent place and space. My work draws on the disciplines of architecture, cartography and photography to enable me to formulate a multi-disciplinary approach to creative practice and develop a richer understanding of how to represent place in prose poetry. I argue that the prose poetry form, with its qualities of hybridity and indeterminacy, is an ideal vehicle for exploring the instability of place and I explore whether the form itself has helped shape the way that the North is portrayed in my writing. By using the methodology of walking, the research moves away from initial ideas of place as being rooted to particular location, placing prose poetry within the context of new developments in psychogeography and and the idea of the female writer as a flâneuse. I demonstrate how I have contextualised my prose poetry at the cutting edge of contemporary eco-poetics, and explore whether it is possible to forge a new understanding of a poetic relationship with the environment, appropriate to the Anthropocene age, where the human and more than-human are in a state of balanced reciprocity
Society for Acute Medicine Benchmarking Audit 2019 (SAMBA19): Trends in Acute Medical Care
No full textIntroduction: The eighth Society for Acute Medicine Benchmarking Audit (SAMBA19) took place on Thursday 27th June 2019. SAMBA gives a broad picture of acute medical care in the UK and allows individual units to compare their performance against their peers. Method: All UK hospitals were invited to participate. Unit and patient level were collected. Data were analysed against published Clinical Quality indicators (CQI) and standards. This was the biggest SAMBA to date, with data from 7170 patients across 142 units in 140 hospitals. Results: 84.5% of patients had an Early Warning Score measured within 30 minutes of arrival in hospital (SAMBA18 84.1%), 90.4% of patients were seen by a competent clinical decision maker within four hours of arrival in hospital (SAMBA18 91.4 %) and 68.6% of patients were seen by a consultant within the timeframe standard (SAMBA18 62.7%). Ambulatory Emergency Care is provided in 99.3% of hospitals. 61.8% of patients are initially seen in the Emergency Department (ED). Since SAMBA18 death rates and planned discharge rates, while the use of NEWS2 increased from 2.5% to 59.2% of hospitals. Conclusion: SAMBA19 highlighted the evolving complexity of acute medical pathways for patients. The challenge now is to increase sample frequency, assess the impact of SAMBA open a broader debate to define optimal CQIs
Incorporating sustainability into software projects: a conceptual framework
No full textPurpose The paper aims to present a conceptual framework that helps in incorporating sustainability into software projects, highlights the importance of project sustainability and provides an extensive review of recent relevant contributions across various fields. Design/methodology/approach The authors carried out a systematic bibliographic search on relevant published materials to analyse links between the two disciplines (sustainability and software projects). Furthermore, content analysis was applied to the final selected publications to identify and classify relevant triple bottom line (TBL) aspects to develop the framework. Findings The inclusion of TBL-related aspects is the most efficient and effective method used to incorporate sustainability into projects. Most of the relevant contributions in the software literature have focussed on either project product or project process or on one or two dimensions of sustainability rather than the three dimensions of the TBL theory. This study contributes by proposing a conceptual framework that encompasses TBL-related aspects for incorporating sustainability into processes and products of software projects. Research limitations/implications Validating the proposed framework empirically could be an interesting research issue. In addition, future works may focus on different types of industries, such as information systems, telecommunications and service sectors, which have seldom been studied in the literature. Practical implications Software companies - or other relevant organisations - may use the proposed framework as a measurement tool to evaluate the environmental and social impacts of their current products and project management practices. Consequently, these organisations may pay more attention to incorporating sustainability into their project management practices. Originality/value The proposed framework may contribute towards a more sustainable orientation by providing a unique combination of TBL-related aspects that gives academics and practitioners a better understanding of how software projects can be managed sustainably