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The global ageing population places increased demands on the professional caregiver workforce. Literature reveals that although many in this workforce experience stress and fatigue, they also experience high levels of work satisfaction. These findings seem contradictory and therefore warrant further qualitative exploration. The purpose of this paper is to explore how professional caregivers describe their health and well-being and to understand the interplay of work and life on health and well-being.

Data were collected via semi-structured individual or group interviews with 31 professional caregivers from in-home or residential care situations in three geographic locations across NZ and analysed for themes. The general inductive approach was used for data analysis.

The authors present two themes: “A holistic interpretation of health” discusses caregivers’ perceptions of the meaning of health and well-being. Three interrelated sub-themes (“Fulfilment of an inherent nature”, “Obligation to look after oneself”, and “Risk management”) reflect the interplay of factors which influence health and well-being as a caregiver and make up the second theme of “Being in tune”. If balance was not achieved, caregivers recognised this as a risk to their health and well-being, especially to their psychological health, and considered leaving the profession.

The authors identified that caregivers considered health and well-being from a holistic perspective. They had insight into factors influencing their health. Despite high levels of stress, there was an overall positive perception of health and well-being that appears due in part to participating in a profession that fulfils an inherent nature. Collaborative problem solving between management and workforce, alongside recognising and affirming the unique skills of this workforce may help to empower caregiver resilience.

The disparities of COVID-19 vaccination rates between the rural and urban areas have become apparent during this pandemic. There is a need to understand the root causes of vaccine hesitancy demonstrated by the rural population to increase coverage and to contain the disease spread throughout the United States. This study aimed to explore other factors influencing vaccine hesitancy among rural dwellers besides the geography-related barriers such as poor health care access and individuals having no or suboptimal insurance coverage.

By reviewing existing data and literature about vaccination, health literacy, and behaviors, and prevailing ideologies, we discuss the potential causes of vaccine hesitancy in rural areas that could create barriers for successful public health efforts related to vaccine coverage and provide suggestions to ameliorate the situation.

Geography-related barriers, health literacy, and preconceived notions are key determinants of adopting healthy behaviors and complying with public health authorities' recommendations among rural individuals during a public-health crisis. We argue that ideology, which is much deeper than preconception or misconception on vaccination, should be incorporated as a key factor to redefine the term “vulnerable populations” in public health research.

The limitation of our study is that we have not found an effective way to encourage the populations who hold conservative religious and political ideologies to join the efforts for public health. Even though geography-related barriers may strongly impact the rural dwellers in achieving optimal health, the various forms of ideologies they have toward certain health behaviors cannot be discounted to understand and address vaccine-related disparities in rural areas. There is a need to redefine the term “vulnerable population” particularly as it relates to rural areas in the United States. During large-scale public health disasters, scholars and public health authorities should consider the ideologies of individuals, in addition to other factors such as race/ethnicity, area of residence (rural vs. urban), and socioeconomic factors influencing the existing vulnerabilities and health disparities.

Extant research documents the importance of lean thinking for organizations, however, as prior research has largely focused on hard lean practices, but little is known about the effects or the significance of soft lean practices. This research attempts to address this issue by examining how soft lean practices enhance organizational lean readiness, and in turn increase the success of lean implementation.

This research adopts a single case study design in a small-medium enterprise livestock feed manufacturing organization, and investigates the period from late 2011 through the end of 2019 covering two attempts at lean implementation – an initial failed attempt followed by a successful introduction of lean within the case organization. The research analyzes interviews with 29 managers and employees from all organizational levels and departments within the case organization. Secondary data including organizational documents and performance measures and metrics were also incorporated into the research design.

Drawing on agency theory, the authors advance a principal-agent interaction perspective to conceptualize organizational lean readiness – specifically, the authors consider the “state or condition” of four agency factors (goal conflict, information asymmetry, risk aversion and length of relationship), and explore if these four agency factors can be utilized as proxies for organizational readiness for lean implementation. The authors identify the formation of a shared vision and identity within the organization as an effective mechanism through which soft lean practices enhance organizational lean readiness. Finally, the analysis offers an understanding of how the long-term success of lean implementation is improved by the introduction of soft lean practices as a prerequisite to create organizational readiness for the implementation of hard lean practices.

The study is unique in the sense that it empirically links agency theory and the role of soft lean practices in developing organizational lean readiness in a small-medium enterprise context by defining the ideal state of four agency factors as proxies for organizational readiness.

The management of children′s literature is a search for value and suitability. Effective policies in library and educational work are based firmly on knowledge of materials, and on the bibliographical and critical frame within which the materials appear and might best be selected. Boundaries, like those between quality and popular books, and between children′s and adult materials, present important challenges for selection, and implicit in this process are professional acumen and judgement. Yet also there are attitudes and systems of values, which can powerfully influence selection on grounds of morality and good taste. To guard against undue subjectivity, the knowledge frame should acknowledge the relevance of social and experiential context for all reading materials, how readers think as well as how they read, and what explicit and implicit agendas the authors have. The good professional takes all these factors on board.

LIBRARIES have come impressively into the public picture in the past year or two, and seldom with more effect than when Their Majesties the King and Queen opened the new Central Reference Library at Manchester on July 17th. In a time, which is nearly the end of a great depression, that the city which probably felt the depression more than any in the Kingdom should have proceeded with the building of a vast store‐house of learning is a fact of great social significance and a happy augury for libraries as a whole. His Majesty the King has been most felicitous in providing what we may call “slogans” for libraries. It will be remembered that in connection with the opening of the National Central Library, he suggested that it was a “University which all may join and which none need ever leave” —words which should be written in imperishable letters upon that library and be printed upon its stationery for ever. As Mr. J. D. Stewart said at the annual meeting of the National Central Library, it was a slogan which every public library would like to appropriate. At Manchester, His Majesty gave us another. He said: “To our urban population open libraries are as essential to health of mind, as open spaces to health of body.” This will be at the disposal of all of us for use. It is a wonderful thing that Manchester in these times has been able to provide a building costing £450,000 embodying all that is modern and all that is attractive in the design of libraries. The architect, Mr. Vincent Harris, and the successive librarians, Mr. Jast and Mr. Nowell, are to be congratulated upon the crown of their work.

The study aims to explore the case study method with the formation of questions, data collection procedures and analysis, followed by how and on which position the saturation is achieved in developing a centralized Shariah governance framework for Islamic banks in Bangladesh.

Using purposive and snowball sampling procedures, data have been collected from 17 respondents who are working in the central bank and Islamic banks of Bangladesh through face-to-face and semi-structured interviews.

The study claims that researchers can form the research questions by using “what” question mark in qualitative research. Besides, the qualitative research and case study could explore the answers of “what” questions along with the “why” and “how” more broadly, descriptively and extensively about a phenomenon. Similarly, saturation can be considered attaining the ultimate point of data collection by the researchers without adding anything in the databank. Overall, this study proposes three stages of saturation: First, information redundancy. Second, referring the respondents (already considered in the study) without knowing anything about the data collection and their responses. Third, through the NVivo open coding process due to the decrease of reference or quotes in a certain position or in the saturation position as a result of fewer outcomes or insufficient information. The saturation is thus achieved in the diversified positions, i.e. three respondents for regulatory, nine for Shariah scholars and officers and five for the experts concerning the responses and respondents.

The study has potential implications on the qualitative research method, including the case study, saturation process and points, NVivo analysis and qualitative questions formation.

This research defines a case study with the inclusion of “what” and illustrates the saturation process in diverse positions. The qualitative research questions can also be formed with “what” in addition “why” and “how”.

THE Reference Department of Paisley Central Library today occupies the room which was the original Public Library built in 1870 and opened to the public in April 1871. Since that date two extensions to the building have taken place. The first, in 1882, provided a separate room for both Reference and Lending libraries; the second, opened in 1938, provided a new Children's Department. Together with the original cost of the building, these extensions were entirely financed by Sir Peter Coats, James Coats of Auchendrane and Daniel Coats respectively. The people of Paisley indeed owe much to this one family, whose generosity was great. They not only provided the capital required but continued to donate many useful and often extremely valuable works of reference over the many years that followed. In 1975 Paisley Library was incorporated in the new Renfrew District library service.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the yield, physico-chemical and microbiological parameters during the shelf life of the Minas Frescal cheese hand-manufactured by family farms.

In the milk, analyses of total bacterial counts, somatic cell counts and centesimal composition were performed. The milk coagulation was analyzed, with different curd times (40, 80 and 120 min), with respect to the proximate composition, pH, titratable acidity, yield and microbiological counts. The means were compared using the Tukey test with a significance level of 5 per cent. The most probable number of microorganisms were also determined in water.

The results for milk quality were within the requirements established in Normative Instruction 62, except for total dry extract. It was found that curd time did not influence the protein and fat in dry matter contents; however, the ash content in cheese of 40 min of curd time (2.8 g/100g) is significantly higher (p = 0.02) than the values found for the other curd times. The same behavior was observed for moisture content (p = 0.04). The parameters determining the cheese quality were outside the standards for human consumption, but this result is directly related to the water conditions, which were outside of potability levels. To meet the requirements established in the legislation, dairy products must follow strict standards of quality hygiene, both the raw material (water, milk) and their employees who act directly in the process.

For the preparation of the Minas Frescal cheese, it takes several steps, from obtaining the milk to the product ready to be consumed, so the importance of doing this monitoring and evaluating its quality.

The purpose of this study is to examine what teachers notice in their own enactment of eight high leverage practices as well as the patterns of interactions between the teachers and their peers when participating in video-based lesson study.

Each teacher taught and uploaded video from one lesson to a platform, which allowed video annotation, for their lesson study team. There were nine lesson study teams. This study used a qualitative design to examine the teachers' comments on their own videos as well as the patterns in the comments between peers on lesson study teams.

Teachers noticed both positive instantiations as well as opportunities for growth in their enactment of: using and connecting mathematical representations, posing purposeful questions and supporting students' productive struggle. Analysis displayed a pattern of exchanges where peers coached, validated, empathized and pushed each other beyond their comfort zone as critical peers.

Although not all lesson study teams were made up of school-based teams and the teachers shared short recordings of their teaching, this research contributes to the understanding of how adapting lesson study by using video can help teachers notice their instantiation of teaching practices and peers can support and push one another towards ambitious instruction. Future research could extend this work by investigating the impact of video-based lesson study on teachers in isolated areas who may not have professional learning networks.

Video-based LS may help to overcome barriers to the implementation of lesson study, such as the challenge of scheduling a common release time for lesson observation and the financial burden of funding substitute teachers for release time.

The current realities of COVID-19 creates an opportunity for mathematics educators to reimagine teacher professional development (PD) in ways that push the field forward. In light of this disruption, the authors propose an innovative model of utilizing video-based Lesson Study (LS; Lewis, 2002) with peer coaching to offer PD opportunities with methodological considerations for both mathematics researchers and teacher practitioners. The authors document and analyze a collection of online LSs that were taught by a focal teacher and recorded for the peers in the LS group. Video-based LS PD structure allowed the authors to examine how they can leverage this online model of LS to analyze student thinking and learn about teaching rich tasks in an online environment using eight teaching practices. Through their paper the authors will detail the necessary features of online LS specifically using a video annotation tool like Goreact and how video can be used to enhance the professional learning of the mathematics teaching practices (MTPs; NCTM, 2014) and the noticing of student thinking (Jacobs et al., 2010; Sherin and van Es, 2009; van Es and Sherin, 2002, 2008). In addition, the authors will document the norms that were established in the online LS community that impacted collaboration of LS teams and developed strong peer coaching relationships. The online LS PD design also supports collaboration of teachers from varying contexts, promotes professional growth and demonstrates how educators might leverage peer coaches as social capital within their schools to develop teachers along the professional continuum.