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When wearable and implantable devices first arose in the 1970s, they were rigid and clashed dramatically with our soft, pliable skin and organs. The past two decades have witnessed a major upheaval in these devices. Traditional electronics are six orders of magnitude stiffer than soft tissue. As a result, when rigid electronics are integrated with the human body, severe challenges in both mechanical and geometrical form mismatch occur. This mismatch creates an uneven contact at the interface of soft-tissue, leading to noisy and unreliable data gathering of the body’s vital signs. This paper aims to predict the role that discreet, seamless medical devices will play in personalized health care by discussing novel solutions for alleviating this interface mismatch and exploring the challenges in developing and commercializing such devices.

Since the form factors of biology cannot be changed to match those of rigid devices, conformable devices that mimic the shape and mechanical properties of soft body tissue must be designed and fabricated. These conformable devices play the role of imperceptible medical interfaces. Such interfaces can help scientists and medical practitioners to gain further insights into the body by providing an accurate and reliable instrument that can conform closely to the target areas of interest for continuous, long-term monitoring of the human body, while improving user experience.

The authors have highlighted current attempts of mechanically adaptive devices for health care, and the authors forecast key aspects for the future of these conformable biomedical devices and the ways in which these devices will revolutionize how health care is administered or obtained.

The authors conclude this paper with the perspective on the challenges of implementing this technology for practical use, including device packaging, environmental life cycle, data privacy, industry partnership and collaboration.

In 2011, UNESCO recommended the application of a value-based landscape approach to cultural heritage conservation. In this framework, culture in its manifold expressions is considered as an embrace for the social, economic, and environmental pillars of sustainable development. There is a need to unveil the different cultural values generated from the interaction between people and their environment since these values will help cities maintain their unique identity and integrity. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to present the results of a survey method intended to assess the range of cultural values attributed by people to the historic urban landscape (HUL).

This paper is an experimental enquiry that combines a qualitative and a quantitative approach. It is designed to distinguish the different interpretations and outlooks of people to the HUL. It integrates landscape preference studies with investigation on representative images of the city and assesses these in relation to activities, feelings, and valued aspects of landscapes.

The main finding is that the most preferred scenes of the city are not the ones that best represent the city. Results exposed two sides of the HUL and related heritage values. The first is associated with the scenic beauty of the landscape and its aesthetic values, while the second is reflected in ordinary landscapes and everyday practices.

This paper provides an insight into the different interpretations and meanings of the HUL throughout the city. It provides an empirical evidence that ordinary landscapes are of great heritage value as they surpass all aspects of human environmental interaction to contribute to the image that societies make of themselves.

This chapter examines the internationalisation of public higher education in Brazil using the theoretical triptych of internationalisation as developed by leading scholars in the field: internationalisation at home (IaH), internationalisation abroad (IA), and internationalisation at a distance (IaD). This framework – while rooted in knowledge, systems, and scholarship from researchers and institutions in the Global North – is a constructive tool for categorising and understanding internationalisation at Brazil’s higher education institutions (HEIs) when coupled with an exploration of the history, context, policy, and dynamics of internationalisation efforts. The chapter then summarises and underscores recent and important scholarship by Brazilian researchers and others in the Global South that describes the history of the nation’s internationalisation efforts. It also critiques the powerful influence that Global North-centred objectives and priorities for internationalisation have on the process at Brazilian HEIs. Following a discussion of the theoretical framework and relevant literature, the chapter provides a case study of internationalisation efforts and initiatives of an elite public university, the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG). Content analysis of UFMG’s website and publicly available reports and data demonstrates a high level of institutional internationalisation that has unfolded in recent years, stimulated by federal funding and guided by a strategic framework developed within the Ministry of Education. An analysis of UFMG’s mission, partnerships and programmes finds that the institution serves as an example of internationalisation in Brazil’s public higher education context, as its programmes and initiatives exemplify the overarching objectives of internationalisation in Brazilian higher education.

The widespread introduction of genetically modified (GM) crops may change the effect of agriculture on the environment. The magnitude and direction of expected effects are still being hotly debated, and the interests served in this discussion arena are often far from those of science and social welfare maximization. This chapter proposes that GM crops have net positive environmental effects, while regulatory responses focus mainly on environmental concerns, giving an unbalanced picture of the regulatory context. This unbalance supports the hypothesis that environmental concerns about GM crops have been politically instrumentalized and that more attention should be paid to regulatory responses considering the environmental benefits of this technology. It is also argued that a number of environmental effects have not yet been quantified and more research is needed in this direction.

Monitoring the perception of quality by parents and the satisfaction with their children’s treatment is crucial in developing high-level health-care services. The purpose of this paper is to identify the perceived quality factors by parents of paediatric orthodontic patients according to the levels of satisfaction.

A survey with 316 parents of paediatric orthodontic patients of 45 offices in a big Brazilian city was conducted. The questionnaires included statements on the parents’ satisfaction and perception of quality concerning their children’s treatment. The data were analysed using multivariate statistics (exploratory factor analysis, cluster analysis and discriminant analysis).

Parents were classified into three clusters according to their level of satisfaction. This survey identified 11 quality factors perceived by parents of patients regarding their children’s orthodontic treatment. Among them, five factors discriminated the clusters: orthodontist’s technical skills, administrative organisation, location (accessibility and convenience), treatment duration and dental supplies.

This research identified the perceived quality factors that most impacted parents of orthodontic patients’ satisfaction, contributing to dentists in developing strategies and actions to improve the quality of services in dental offices.

This paper included 11 perceived quality factors in the hypothetical model, identified through literature review and a qualitative phase. Moreover, multivariate statistical analyses confirmed the validity and reliability of the questionnaires, classified respondents in clusters and identified the perceived quality factors that most discriminated them. Therefore, the current investigation presented a more comprehensive and robust analysis than the previous studies on this topic.

The enormous amount of waste generated and the scarcity of natural resources worldwide have encouraged societies and industries to adopt the Circular Supply Chain (CSC) concept. With a focus on zero-waste generation, Circular Economy (CE) mimics the ecosystem cycle as an alternative to the traditional linear economic model. This paper aims to investigate the evolution of research themes in this research area, hence, trace the trajectory of development in the field of CSC.

The authors conduct scientometric analysis using Pajek and VOSviewer software to identify key themes in the Circular Supply Chain Management (CSCM) field. The Citation Path Analysis (CPA), including Main Path and Local Path analysis, has been followed by a critical review of the papers. This paper includes highlighting the interrelationships between the information flows in the topic of study as well as an analysis of keywords co-occurrence.

The analysis of keywords co-occurrence revealed that the earlier years of research in CSC were more inclined toward value chain, stakeholders and green supply chains, whereas, in recent years, topics like logistics, Industry 4.0 and food supply chain have been more focused upon. Further, the Main Path Analysis (MPA) revealed an evolving trajectory that examines challenges and opportunities in CSC, the economic aspects of implementing CSC, the impact on the firm's revenue growth and collaboration between multiple echelons of a supply chain and Industry 4.0.

The adoption of scientometrics analysis unveils the hidden flow of information, various themes of research and their interconnections. The development of research trajectories and progressive attention paid to certain topics is also discovered. The research findings could be used by researchers for further theoretical and research development.

This paper traces the path of development in the field of CSC and its emerging trends and provides a thorough understanding of the same. It enables research scholars to conduct an in-depth study in the CSC domain, adding to the body of literature.

The objective of this research is to analyze in a multidimensional perspective the individual responses to organizational change, specifically about the implementation of a new performance evaluation system, investigating some antecedents of the individual reactions to change.

Companies from the education industry were surveyed, and standardized questionnaires were applied. We obtained a sample size of 386 valid responses. The structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to assess the measurement model and test the hypotheses.

The results indicate positive reactions to the organizational change, without ambivalent responses. Employees' cognitive and behavioral reactions are influenced by the individuals' anticipation and past similar organizational change and do not depend on the perceived threat to social work life. The influence of group pressure and organizational readiness on cognitive and behavioral reactions differs in the direction that group pressure affects behaviors but not thoughts, and organizational readiness affects thoughts but not behaviors.

Limitations include the inadequate measures of individuals' emotional reaction, preventing this dimension from being tested.

This research provides theoretical contributions as the literature on organizational change lacks a multidimensional view on individuals' reactions to change. The main contribution of this study is to investigate how each of the individual and organizational antecedents of the employees' responses to the change influences the cognitive and behavioral reactions towards the change employing a multidimensional approach.

Hospital landscape is not a useless space within hospital buildings anymore. It is considered as a supportive area providing mental and physical peace. However, the planting design of the hospital landscape and the way it should be in order to not disrupt wayfinding performance is neglected. This paper, which is a case study, aims at investigating the effects of planting design in Kerman hospitals’ landscapes on the users’ wayfinding using space syntax techniques.

This research focuses on the effects of planting design on the users’ wayfinding in hospitals. In so doing, library research, computer simulation and analysis with the University College London (UCL) Depthmap software, and comparison techniques are used. Based on axial maps, the measures of integration, connectivity and intelligibility are considered for analysing the wayfinding process of individuals.

The findings show that planting configurations in the hospital landscape can affect individuals’ wayfinding. Integrated and regular planting design in addition to combining planted areas with the hospital buildings can pave the way for intelligible space and easier wayfinding.

According to the authors’ knowledge, the current study is the first to use the space syntax techniques in the health-care landscape architecture in terms of planting design and wayfinding. As wayfinding is an important issue in health-care spaces, the study findings can greatly help the health-care building designers and the related organizations to pay attention to the hospital landscape as much as hospital indoors.

This paper aims to explore the formal (i.e. contracts, standards, processes, and structure) and informal (i.e. social structure, norms, information sharing, and value system and culture) governance instruments used in supply networks and their influence on quality.

This research is qualitative-exploratory in nature, involving semi-structured interviews with 20 managers from three essential layers in the dairy industry's supply chain: companies that supply essential inputs to milk producers; milk producers; and milk cooperatives.

Analysis of the generated data show that formal governance instruments have a strong and/or weak influence on products' and operations' quality in the dairy industry context; informal instruments have a strong and/or weak influence on quality, as a counterpart to formal instruments; and the integration of verified governance instruments positively influences the quality of products and operations.

This paper offers several managerial and practical implications. The first is to encourage suppliers of primary inputs and milk producers to invest in the formal structure, primarily in formal contracts with each other. The second implication suggests the relevance of creating different training and qualification courses with members from all organizational levels. Third, there is a need for cooperatives, encompassing all industries, to consider several informal instruments, complementary to contracts and standards currently used for processes.

Governance instruments can lead to desired supply chain outcomes, including those related to quality. Although previous supply chain studies have investigated the relationship between governance instruments and the supply chain, and quality management and the supply chain, studies on governance instruments' influence on supply chain quality are limited.

This chapter presents findings from in-depth interviews with female pilgrims traveling from Turkey on their Hajj. The three main motives for the respondents were fulfilling one of the Five Pillars of Islam, visiting the center of the Muslim world, and seeing how others practiced Islam. For the majority of female pilgrims, the decision to go was made either jointly with their husbands or by others on their behalf. The long-lasting influences of this pilgrimage may include becoming more spiritual, peaceful, attentive, calm, tolerant, and careful. The experiences reported by respondents are discussed.