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To uncover the major government constraints to enactment and implementation of public health-targeted climate change adaptation (CCA) strategies in order to equip public health stakeholders and health advocates with the knowledge resources necessary to more effectively mobilize and support CCA for public health responses at the national level.

A mixed-methods online survey was distributed to the representatives of national public health associations and societies of 82 countries. The survey comprised 15 questions assessing national progress on CCA for public health and the effects of various institutional, economic/financial, technical and sociopolitical barriers on national adaptive capacity.

Survey responses from 11 countries indicated that national commitments to CCA for public health have increased markedly since prior assessments but significant shortcomings remain. The largest apparent barriers to progress in this domain were poor government coordination, lack of political will and inadequate adaptation finances.

This study is unique in relation to the prior literature on the topic in that it effectively captures an array of country-specific yet cross-cutting adaptation constraints across diverse national contexts. With a deepened understanding of the major determinants of national adaptive capacity, international actors can devise more effective, evidence-informed strategies to support national governments in responding to the health impacts of climate change.

This chapter explores the key role of industry partners in the adoption of challenge-based learning (CBL) in higher education institutions (HEIs). Considering that one defining feature of CBL is the use of real-world challenges situated within an authentic real-world context or scenario, partnerships that include students, academics, and industry partners are often established. These partnerships usually involve students, academics, and industry partners working together to define challenges, create and implement solutions, and provide feedback. Existing CBL literature has largely focused on the evaluation of challenges and benefits for students and academics, including disciplinary knowledge acquisition and the development of competencies and soft skills. Nevertheless, little attention has been paid to the expected input from industry partners, as well as their perceptions and benefits that they can gain from CBL partnerships. Thus, the focus of this chapter is on discussing industry partners' perceptions of the practical challenges, as well as potential opportunities that can translate into benefits, stemming from CBL partnerships. Based on empirical evidence, the chapter summarizes the current challenges of CBL within the context of HEIs. We discuss industry partners' perceptions of the practical challenges and the potential opportunities emerging from the CBL partnership, and whether these translate into benefits. We consider the practicalities of working across academia, industry, and government on the implementation of CBL, and the lessons for HEIs seeking to develop CBL activities to support innovation in their regions.

This paper aims to showcase an innovative programme of physical activity and sport to enhance the health and well-being of people with Young Onset Dementia (YOD). It is hoped that this will inspire similar collaborations between day and activity centres and exercise/sports facilities.

A case study of a collaborative programme between Peaceful Place, a day service for people with YOD and Sport for Confidence in Essex. It draws upon the observations and reflective accounts of those implementing the programme.

People with YOD chose and engaged in a range of physical activities and sports, resulting in increased fitness, flexibility and mobility. There were improvements in memory, cognition for some and reductions in anxiety and depression for most. The main benefits were fun, enjoyment, confidence, a sense of achievement, self-esteem, improved social interaction and wider relationships. Participants were also motivated to take more exercise, get outdoors and try new challenges and experiences.

Given the predicted rise in people with YOD, this paper offers insight into ways of supporting them to be active physically and socially, thus, improving health, well-being and quality of life.

This paper is the account of professionals deeply involved in all stages of negotiating, consulting, developing, overcoming challenges and implementing the programme.

Globalisation is generally defined as the “denationalisation of clusters of political, economic, and social activities” that destabilize the ability of the sovereign State to control activities on its territory, due to the rising need to find solutions for universal problems, like the pollution of the environment, on an international level. Globalisation is a complex, forceful legal and social process that take place within an integrated whole with out regard to geographical boundaries. Globalisation thus differs from international activities, which arise between and among States, and it differs from multinational activities that occur in more than one nation‐State. This does not mean that countries are not involved in the sociolegal dynamics that those transboundary process trigger. In a sense, the movements triggered by global processes promote greater economic interdependence among countries. Globalisation can be traced back to the depression preceding World War II and globalisation at that time included spreading of the capitalist economic system as a means of getting access to extended markets. The first step was to create sufficient export surplus to maintain full employment in the capitalist world and secondly establishing a globalized economy where the planet would be united in peace and wealth. The idea of interdependence among quite separate and distinct countries is a very important part of talks on globalisation and a significant side of today’s global political economy.

This paper aims to examine how effective higher education institutions have been in harnessing the data capture mechanisms from their student information systems, learning management systems and communication tools for improving the student learning experience and informing practitioners of the achievement of specific learning outcomes. The paper seeks to argue that the future of analytics in higher education lies in the development of more comprehensive and integrated systems to value add to the student learning experience.

Literature regarding the trend for greater accountability in higher education is reviewed in terms of its implications for greater “user driven” direction. In addition, IT usage within higher education and contemporary usage of data captured from various higher education systems is examined and compared to common commercial applications to suggest how higher education management and teachers can gain greater understanding of the student cohort and personalise and enhance the learning experience much as commercial entities have done for their client base. A way forward for higher education is proposed.

If the multiple means that students engage with university systems are considered, it is possible to track individual activity throughout the entire student life cycle – from initial admission, through course progression and finally graduation and employment transitions. The combined data captured by various systems builds a detailed picture of the activities students, instructors, service areas and the institution as a whole undertake and can be used to improve relevance, efficiency and effectiveness in a higher education institution.

The paper outlines how academic analytics can be used to better inform institutions about their students learning support needs. The paper provides examples of IT automation that may allow for student user‐information to be translated into a personalised and semi‐automated support system for students.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the crisis communication strategies used by the Caribbean medical tourism industry in the 2017 hurricane season, and also evaluate the quality of the disaster communication messages delivered via digital mediums.

This study includes a comprehensive, qualitative content analysis of 149 risk and crisis messages from 51 healthcare organizations distributed through digital media. The medical tourism providers (MTPs) include hospitals, medical tourism facilitators, practitioners/private physicians, specialty clinics, and dental and cosmetic providers.

Nearly half of the MTPs included in the data set delivered no post-disaster information to external audiences. The most prominent post-disaster message strategy utilized was conveying operational messages. Furthermore, an unexpected finding was the sheer magnitude of unrelated health-oriented and promotional destination marketing content disseminated before, during and after these events.

This analysis excludes internal organizational channels of communication which may have been used to communicate risk and crisis messages during these events (i.e. employee e-mails, announcements made through intercom systems, etc.). Our analysis does not include content disseminated through medical tourism forums (i.e. Realself.com, Health Traveler’s Forum, FlyerTalk Forum).

Small-scale MTPs can improve on any weaknesses through proactive planning and preparation by creating organizational goals to complete basic crisis communication training courses and in doing so support the applied professional development of disaster and crisis responders in the Caribbean region. Second, MTPs exposed to similar risks of natural disasters may use these findings for comparative analysis purposes to support their own organizational planning. Finally, this study supports the continued utility of the National Center for Food Protection & Defense guidelines for analyzing and evaluating organizational performance.

Currently much of the academic scholarship of applied disaster communication narrowly focuses on the response strategies of one organization, or analyzes one social media platform at a time (i.e. Twitter). A strength of this analysis is the inclusion of an organizational sector (i.e. Caribbean medical tourism providers) and the range of platforms from which the content was captured (e.g. websites, org. blogs and social media networks).

This paper aims to investigate the dynamics of ephemerality within consumer tribes by conceptualizing how tribes constitute, disperse and reconstitute. Building upon assemblage thinking, a philosophical approach that redistributes agency from the subject to a web of interconnected human–material actants, this paper shows that tribes manifest via hybrid assemblages of people, things and ideas.

Insights are drawn from a three-year assemblage-oriented ethnographic study of a salsa-dancing tribe, specifically their ephemeral gatherings across multiple sites without hierarchical organization. Methods include observations as a consumer–participant, producer–participant and in-depth interviewing.

Introduces a framework documenting how tribes disperse temporarily and reconstitute via a dual process of ascription and distribution. Tribes reconstitute when consumers reproduce an assemblage that effectively overcomes a meshwork of practical challenges. Consumers ascribe to the standards of the tribe while, alternatively, tribes distribute the assemblage beyond the immediate group.

Conceptualizes the socio-technical dynamics that tribes mobilize to disassemble and reassemble through ephemeral gatherings. Proposes a framework on hybrid interdependencies, including not only participants but also techniques, devices and sites.

While previous research shows that tribes can collapse, the authors propose that marketers can intervene to foster long-term resilience. As tribes disperse, consumer and marketing efforts operate at different temporal sequences to enable tribal reconstitutions.

Contributes to the literature on consumer tribes by theorizing ephemerality per ascription and distribution mechanisms.