Search results

Individual Placement and Support (IPS) is an evidence-based employment model, effective in supporting individuals with severe mental health difficulties to gain competitive employment. Irish mental health policy recognises its value and IPS is being rolled out in a national programme. Employment is recognised an important contributor to mental health recovery and social inclusion. However, research on IPS has tended to focus on competitive job outcomes. The purpose of this study was to explore the non-vocational outcomes of IPS in an Irish context.

A qualitative research approach was used to interview participants taking part in IPS within community mental health teams. Twelve interviews were included in the data analysis process which was informed by a thematic analysis approach.

Participants experienced increased confidence and positivity, both within a work context and whilst job seeking. More purposeful time use, participation in activities and engagement with society were also experienced by those employed and those at the job search stage of IPS.

This study contributes to the literature about the non-vocational benefits of IPS within an Irish context, highlights the mental health recovery benefits of taking part in IPS and supports the need for ongoing development of IPS throughout mental health services in Ireland.

This chapter reviews the role of industrial parks (IP) as drivers of export-led industrialisation in Ethiopia. For several decades, IPs or special economic zones have been promoted as policy instruments to attract investment, create jobs and promote exports of manufactured goods. However, their popularity as policy instruments has been mainly associated with the successful export-led industrialisation of emerging economies in East Asia where IPs have played a critical role not only in attracting investment and promoting export-led growth but also transferring technology, promoting technological learning and industrial development and jump-starting the process of economic diversification and structural transformation. Ethiopia, along with other African countries, is among the latest to introduce IPs as major drivers of economic diversification and export-led industrialisation. As a newcomer, Ethiopia can learn many valuable lessons from more successful cases. This chapter explores some of the lessons that Ethiopia can draw from other countries’ experience as it continues to build additional parks to attract investment and push its industrialisation agenda.

This chapter is in part a review of the educational state of indigenous Filipino peoples (IPs) through the lens of Critical Race Theory (CRT). Reports and observations from various literature on IPs in the Philippines were cited to show that the IPs' general educational, economic, social, and cultural situations similarly illustrate the following tenets of the CRT: (1) race is a social construct; (2) racism (discrimination against IPs in this case) is pervasively common; (3) active pursuit of equality happens only when it benefits all; (4) racism (discrimination against IPs in this case) is usually intertwined with abuses, inequities, or oppressions related to gender, religion, sex, economic status, education, physical state, mental capacity, and other variables; (5) racial groups (indigenous groups in this case) have perspectives that run counter to the mainstream perspective; and (6) laws and policies are not neutral when they do not eradicate social inequality. To develop a socially just or highly inclusive curriculum for indigenous students, it is necessary to involve organic resource persons in crafting or modifying a curriculum that responds well to the needs of the IPs. This is an imperative government and education agenda if the Filipino people are aiming to attain high-level inclusive and organic education for the IPs in the Philippines.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the predictive validity of two measures of fidelity to the individual placement and support (IPS) approach to supported employment.

A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted of IPS programs. In total, 30 studies provided information characterizing 69 cohorts and 8,392 participants. Predictive validity was assessed by a precision and negative prediction analysis and by multivariate analysis of deviance.

Fidelity scores on the IPS-15 scale of 60 or less accurately predicted poor outcomes, defined as 43 percent or less of participants commencing employment, in 100 percent of cohorts. Among cohorts with IPS-15 fidelity scores of 61-75, 63 percent attained good employment outcomes defined as 44 percent or more commencing employment. A similar pattern emerged from the precision analysis of the smaller sample of IPS-25 cohorts. Multivariate analysis of deviance for studies using the IPS-15 scale examined six cohort characteristics. Following adjustment for fidelity score, only fidelity score (χ²=15.31, df=1, p<0.001) and author group (χ²=35.01, df=17, p=0.01) representing an aspect of cohort heterogeneity, remained associated with commencing employment.

This study provides evidence of moderate, yet important, predictive validity of the IPS-15 scale across diverse international and research contexts. The smaller sample of IPS-25 studies limited the analysis that could be conducted.

Program implementation leaders are encouraged to first focus on attaining good fidelity, then supplement fidelity monitoring with tracking the percentage of new clients who obtain a competitive job employment over a pre-defined period of time.

The evidence indicates that good fidelity may be necessary but not sufficient for good competitive employment outcomes.

The Internet, since its commercialisation, has expanded with tremendous rapidity. This development has been still further assisted by the creation of the World Wide Web, which has caught the imagination of users around the world. As the marketing and provision of goods and services over the Web continues to grow, the missing factor appears to be a well‐accepted and well‐trusted method of paying for these products and services. This paper discusses the problem of internet payment systems (IPS) and reports the results of a research project which attempts to identify and classify effectiveness criteria for IPS. The project was undertaken by means of a Delphi survey of experts in IPS usage and classified types of IPS providers, as well as the factors which each group considers most important. This information was used in the development of our set of IPS effectiveness criteria.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of management control systems (MCS) in strategically responding to institutional pressures for sustainability (IPS). Drawing on institutional theory (DiMaggio and Powell, 1983) and strategic responses to institutional pressures framework (Oliver, 1991), the study argues that organisations strategically respond to IPS using MCS.

Data were collected by interviewing sustainability managers of a large-scale multinational apparel manufacturing organisation with its headquarters in Sri Lanka.

The study finds that organisations actively respond to IPS using acquiescence, compromise, avoidance, defiance, and manipulation strategies. The results not only reveal that formal MCS play a critical role in complying with IPS, but also in more active responses, including compromise, avoidance, defiance, and manipulation. The findings highlight that organisations use MCS as a medium to respond strategically to IPS, and in turn, the use of MCS has important implications for organisational change and improvement.

The study has implications for Western organisations, finding that suppliers committed to sustainability in Asia strategically respond to IPS as a means of strengthening outsourcing contracts, instead of blindly accepting. Findings indicate that organisational changes and success seem to be a function of strategically responding to IPS rather than operating an organisation by neglecting sustainability challenges. The organisational ability to use MCS in strategically responding to IPS has the potential for long-term value creation.

This study provides novel insights into the MCS, strategy and sustainability literatures by exploring different uses of MCS tools in strategically responding to IPS. More specifically, it shows how the use of MCS tools varies in supporting strategic responses, and with respective IPS. In doing so, it enhances our understanding of the importance of the use of MCS in dynamics of institutional change and practical variances in strategically responding to IPS.

Reducing informal payments (IPs) for health services has always been a top priority for health policymakers all over the world. As the newest attempts to reduce IPs, Iran’s Government applied a set of reforms in the health care system in 2014 called “Health Sector Evolution Plan” (HSEP). The purpose of this paper is to investigate the prevalence and nature of IPs one year after implementing this plan.

This descriptive and cross-sectional study was a nationwide survey on Iran's health sector informal payments carried out in 2016. To do this, a sample of 1,112 Iranain households was selected from all over the country using a multistage cluster-stratified sampling method. The prevalence and nature of IPs were determined through conducting face-to-face interviews using a standard questionnaire.

One year after implementing the HSEP, about 27.7 percent of sampled Iranians had at least one experience of IPs for health services. The prevalences of compulsory and voluntary IPs were 21.4 and 11.5 percent, respectively. IPs were reported by 26.1 and 12.5 percent in the inpatient and outpatient services, respectively.

According to the results, compulsory IPs are still prevalent in both the outpatient and inpatient services of Iran’s health system and it seems that the HSEP has not been completely successful in achieving the goal of eradicating IPs. It can be said that the HSEP has been the first step toward eradicating IPs in Iran and should not be the last one. The study provides useful results of the prevalence and nature of IPs after implementing the HSEP, which should be considered in designing the next steps.

The purpose of this paper is to report on a study to produce wheatless bread from acha/fonio (Digitaria exilis) flour with sprouted soybean flour (SSF) using Irish potato starch (IPS) as gluten replacer and determine the sensory qualities of the product.

Acha bread (AB) was baked from acha flour with varying quantities of yeast and IPS added as determined by the 3² factorial design arrangement. Nine different formulations of acha were produced. The loaves were assessed for loaf volume (LV), specific loaf volume (SLV), loaf firmness (LF), proximate composition and consumer acceptability to determine the effect of IPS, yeast and SSF.

The different levels of yeast and IPS gave significant (p < 0.05) changes in firmness of the loaves. A negative effect was observed for yeast and positive effect for IPS. Beyond 4 per cent yeast the effect of yeast on LV was not significant. Hence, the optimal level of yeast was between 2 to 4 per cent. The effect of IPS significantly (p < 0.05) increased the LV. The product with 2 per cent yeast +20 per cent IPS +5 per cent SSF was judged the best recipe for consumer acceptable acha bread. Addition of SSF made the bread softer and significantly increased the crude protein and fibre content of the loaf. The acha bread had apparent yield stress of 286.6 to 546.8 kN/m² and specific loaf volume of 2.05 to 2.16 cm³/g.

A deliberate attempt was made to remove sugar from this product and as such is believed to serve as a good alternative to wheat bread for diabetic individuals and those allergic to gluten. Further research will investigate the functionality of IPS and SSF in AB making and nutritional qualities of the product.

The study demonstrates that IPS was effective in retaining gas evolved during baking and that SSF significantly increased the nutritional quality of acha bread.

The results of this research contribute to development of specialty cereal based foods for diabetic individuals in Africa and Dominican Republic where acha (fonio) is grown.

This study aims to explore the spatial distribution characteristics and spactial reciprocity between industrial parks (IPs) and vocational education parks (VEPs): agglomeration density, functional matching, spatial organization efficiency, as well as space intensive utility. To achieve this objective, IPs and VEPs in urban centers of Jiangsu Province are selected as the objects of the study. First, spatial analysis of thermodynamic diagrams is employed in this study to qualitatively analyze the evolutionary characteristics of the spatial distribution of IPs and VEPs to explore the spatial aggregation characteristics of their clustering, integration, and comprehensive crossover. Second, a horizontal comparison of the data and indexes concerned reveals that areas with high agglomeration and functional matching exhibit a sound spatial reciprocity. Third, this study crystallizes the four structural prototpye paradigms formed during the reciprocity evolution between IPs and VEPs; it compares spatial organization efficiency, with the agglomeration–core structure ranking first, followed by the circle–core structure. Finally, SPSS is used to analyze the space intensive utility in order to verify the conclusions of qualitative analysis. The findings can comprehensively explain the regularities of the spatial distribution and reciprocity between IPs and VEPs. The findngs can also elucidate the design of regional industrial development and educational programs.

Industrial product service systems (IPS²) are required to meet current customer needs in order to provide solutions to current customer problems. Furthermore, adaptability to changing customer decision drivers is required in order to account for customers' preference changes over time. The purpose of this paper is to present an approach where customer preference drivers for different IPS² are identified and their directions analyzed.

A theoretical, literature‐based analysis, drawing on different fields of economic research, is made use of. A tool to anticipate customer decisions based on the identified preference drivers is devised.

Nine main preference drivers are identified. These are customer resources, know‐how, number of employees, core competences, value‐based figures, process intricacy, process standardization, process frequency and process significance.

The drivers identified on a theoretical basis should be investigated empirically. Special consideration should be given not only to the direction of their effect, but also their strength and interdependency.

The paper helps IPS² suppliers to analyze customers' preferences and helps decide about the design and the business model for the IPS².

The paper is the first paper that focuses on the relevant influence factors of a customer's decision about the IPS²‐design.