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Companion animals and social media are two important factors of social interaction and well-being among the older population. This study aims to compare social media use and/or having companion animals with respect to sociodemographic variables in conjunction with loneliness, social isolation, depression, satisfaction with life and satisfaction with social support.

This cross-sectional study involves a sample of 250 older community-dwelling adults. The questionnaire comprised sociodemographic, companion animals and social media questions and scales to assess social isolation, loneliness, satisfaction with life and social support and depression. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics.

Four groups emerged: “companion animal/s, no social media” (37.6%); “none” (33.6%); “social media and companion animal/s” (14.4%); and “social media, no companion animal/s” (14.4%). Social media users (with or without companion animals) are the youngest and with higher levels of education; caregivers of companion animals (no social media use) are in-between in terms of age and level of education; and those without companion animals and no social media users are the oldest and with less formal education.

This research examines and compares two key influencers of older adults’ well-being and social interaction (social media and companion animals), that have been researched mostly separately. Findings underlined the cohort effect in the use of social media, suggesting that future older adult cohorts will use more social media whether they have or do not have companion animals.

The purpose of this paper is to study the nature and concept of emoticons/emojis. Instead of taking for granted that these user-generated formats are necessarily emotional, we empirically assessed in what extent are they and the specificity of each one. Drawing on congruent mood state, valence core and emotion appraisal theories we expected a compatible statistical association between positive/negative/neutral emotional valence expressions and emoticons of similar valence. The positive emoticons were consistently associated with positive valence posts. Added to that analysis, 21 emotional categories were identified in posts and correlated with eight emoticons.

Two studies were used to address this question. The first study defined emoticon concept and interpreted their meaning highlighting their communication goals and anticipated effects. The link between emojis and emoticons was also obtained. Some emoticons types present more ambiguity than others. In the second study, three years of real and private (Facebook) posts from 82 adolescents were content analyzed and coded.

Only the neutral emoticons always matched neutral emotional categories found in the written interaction. Although the emoticon valence and emotional category congruence pattern was the rule, we also detected a combination of different valence emoticons types and emotion categories valence expressions. Apparently the connection between emoticon and emotion are not so obviously straightforward as the literature used to assume. The created objects designed to communicate emotions (emoticons) have their specific corresponding logic with the emotional tone of the message.

Theoretically, we discussed the emotional content of emoticons/emojis. Although this king of signals have an Asian origin and later borrowed from the western countries, their ambiguity and differing specificity have never been analyzed.

Limited research focuses on the challenges that exist at the intersection of race and dis/ability for Black men on the autism spectrum in encounters with law enforcement. An interdisciplinary approach is necessary to fully comprehend and mitigate the complex challenges. This conceptual article presents Critical Dis/ability (DisCrit) Theory, a framework usually applied to education, as a lens through which to think about encounters between Black autistic men and police officers. The article concludes with recommendations for collaboration between social scientists, police scholars, law enforcement and the public to improve the outcomes of police encounters involving Black men on the autism spectrum.

Using a literature review and analysis of current events, this conceptual article explores the intersections of race and disability, specifically neurodiversity, in policing using Critical Dis/ability (DisCrit) theory, and its predecessors, Intersectionality Theory and Critical Race Theory (CRT).

An interdisciplinary approach might be a potential solution to improve police encounters with Black autistic men. Expanding the theoretical frameworks utilized in scholarship about policing might allow for innovative approaches to examine current practices in law enforcement. Collaboration and critical dialogue may yield opportunities for further research and shifts in practice.

This conceptual article uses two incidents from recent events to highlight the need for increased scholarship around the intersections of autism and race, with a particular focus on Black autistic men. It advocates for the use of social science frameworks, namely DisCrit Theory, as a novel way to approach new research regarding race and dis/ability.

The prevalence of foodborne illness remains high in Australia. In response, government initiatives have been implemented to inform consumers of ways to safely handle food. The aim of this study was to examine the accuracy of prompted and unprompted recall of messages from a safe food-handling media campaign in Western Australia, and whether this accuracy of prompted and unprompted recall differed by demographic factors and the mode of delivery of the campaign materials.

Survey responses from 121 participants (M_age = 47.15 years, SD = 15.52) who reported seeing or hearing the campaign were analysed. A series of chi-square tests were used to determine the accuracy of recall when prompted and unprompted, and the accuracy of unprompted and prompted recall across demographic factors and mode of delivery.

Results indicated that more participants accurately recalled the campaign messages when prompted (66.1%) compared to unprompted (35.5%), when they had seen outdoor advertisements (e.g. at bus stops or in shopping malls), and if they were between 30 and 45 years of age.

This study is the first to explore the uptake and comprehension of messages from a safe food-handling media campaign. Evaluation of safe food-handling media campaigns has shown some efficacy in relation to behaviour change; however, little is known about the uptake or comprehension of the campaign messages, and factors that may influence this.

Emotional intelligence (EI) is thought to offer significant benefit to organizational productivity through enhanced employee performance and satisfaction, decreased burnout, and better teamwork. EI may also have implications for the incidence of counterproductive workplace behavior. Survey results suggest EI is a significant predictor of individuals’ ethicality and their perceptions of others’ ethicality. Further, EI explains incremental variance in perceptions of others’ ethics over and above that which is explained by individual ethicality. High EI employees may be more adept at interpreting the ethicality of others’ actions, which has positive implications for ethical decision-making. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

This study aims to examine the relationship between Achievement Motivation (AM), Smart Work (SW), and human resources (HR) performance. It questions how moral global leadership (MGL) could moderate the relationship between AM, SW, and HR performance. A theoretical model was developed and tested on sample data representing 219 employees, educators, and educational staff of Islamic Higher education (IHE). The data were collected through surveys and applied to structural equation modeling using SEM-PLS. This study found that AM and SW significantly affect HR performance. While MGL substantially moderates the relationship between AM, SW, and HR performance. This study contributes to the literature on MGL, AM, and SW in creating HR performance that has yet to be studied so far. This study offers the concept of MGL, which plays a central role in moderating the relationship between AM, SW, and HR performance.

Scholars have examined, in various ways, the complexity of knowledge in innovation. Recently, research has begun to focus on the role of a continuous process of knowledge recombination in our understanding of a changing structure of knowledge complexity and knowledge accumulation. Furthermore, we also claim that this process may reflect changes in the underlying innovation paradigm, or in other words the arrival of the information age. Yet, little is known about how knowledge complexity is increasing in the broader context of globalization, in which the influence of a rising diversity of locational sources may feature more prominently. We consider how knowledge recombination that relies upon the global spread of innovation activities will affect our theory of the relationship through which earlier contributions to knowledge become inputs to subsequent knowledge building that generates more (or less) complex knowledge artifacts. We propose that knowledge complexity rises when recombined elements are sourced across two dimensions of distance simultaneously, namely when sources which are derived from (i) disparate knowledge fields and (ii) distinct geographic locations are combined. We thereby develop an international business perspective on knowledge complexity through recombination by better appreciating the processes that may be necessary when knowledge is combined along global value chains. We also suggest some implications for changing organizational forms by highlighting the value of connecting previously unconnected geographically distant elements, which suggests a greater potential for more informal and indirectly diffused knowledge-based connections.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had significant impacts on Jamaica's tourism industry. In an industry already exposed to a multiplicity of challenges ranging from climatic change to globalization, the imposition of the COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented in both pace and magnitude. Accommodation workers in the tourism industry are particularly vulnerable to these impacts given the travel restrictions and visitor skepticism which prompted the closure of many hotels. Such vulnerability may be compounded by intersections of gender, age, education, and skill set. A recent study by the International Labour Organization (ILO) (2020) indicates that the accommodation sector in Jamaica is dominated by female workers who are likely to be pushed into precarious employment circumstances. This chapter utilized a concurrent triangulation mixed methods approach to explore the experiences and socioeconomic impacts of COVID-19 on accommodation workers in Negril, Jamaica, and the strategies deployed to navigate challenging circumstances. The main findings indicated that while most persons were able to retain their jobs, the impacts were tremendous as experienced through decreased workdays and work hours with women being disproportionately affected in comparison to men. These impacts also had significant implications for food and financial security forcing a lot of individuals to rely on limited savings or to budget by prioritizing these needs which were among the coping methods identified. Of great importance within the coping methods was the leveraging of social capital, particularly through family networks which resulted in remittances and other resources to mitigate the impacts posed by the pandemic.

The purpose is to understand how farmers in rural American communities perceive crime, safety and policing.

An online survey, adapted from a version used in Victoria, Australia (Harkness, 2017), was modified and administered through social media and farming organizations throughout three US states. The survey covers topics relating to crime and victimization, feelings of safety or fear in rural areas, policing practices and trust in police in their areas and any crime prevention practices that respondents use.

With nearly 1,200 respondents and four scales investigated, results indicate that those respondents with more favorable views of law enforcement and the criminal justice system had the highest fear of crime, those who had been prior victims of crime had a higher fear of crime than those who did not, those with higher community involvement had higher fear of crime, and those from Nebraska compared to Colorado had higher fear of crime.

A better understanding of the agricultural community’s perceptions of crime, safety and policing will aid law enforcement in community policing efforts and in farm crime investigation and prevention. Limitations of the study, including the distribution method will be discussed.

Farm- and agriculture-related crimes have serious financial and emotional consequences for producers and local economies. Stereotypes about rural areas being “safe with no crime” are still prevalent. Rural American farmers’ perceptions of crime, safety and police are largely absent from the literature and are important for improving farm crime prevention.