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This chapter bridges cultural and political approaches to determine why elite support for movement claims may be inconsistent across the policy process. I analyze this question empirically through 16 in-depth interviews with government officials in two regions of Peru: Arequipa and Cusco. Regional officials appraised feminist advocacy in two opposing ways. First, they valued feminist advocates’ contributions to policy processes, which enabled them to advance reproductive rights and gender equity initiatives. They also perceived women as a group deserving of these initiatives and framed gender policies in terms of rights and equality. Second, they were critical of feminist advocates’ weaknesses in mobilizing support, which hindered the officials’ own ability to advance reproductive rights and gender equity initiatives. Furthermore, regional officials understood reproductive rights and gender equality to be thwarted by the State’s economic instrumentalism and by Catholic Church’s ultra-conservatism. This research shows how a cultural approach to policy elites’ support for movement claims goes beyond their individual attitudes and calculations to capture their perceptions, frames, and understandings tied to the broader cultural context. This wider conceptualization in turn helps clarify inconsistencies in policy elites’ support for movement claims across the policy process.

The demographics of rural America are rapidly changing and concerns about mental health are growing. This study examined relationships between individual, family, and community factors and depressive symptomology among rural low-income Latina and non-Latina White mothers.

The sample for this study was drawn from the study, Rural Families Speak about Health. Data from interviews with 371 rural low-income mothers (36% Latina; 64% non-Latina White) were analyzed and descriptive and multivariate analyses were performed.

One-third of mothers experienced clinically significant depressive symptomology; non-Latinas experienced twice the rate as Latinas. Limitation in daily activities due to poor physical health predicted clinically significant depressive symptomology among both groups. Among non-Latinas, high levels of financial distress and lack of healthcare insurance predicted clinically significant depressive symptomology, and use of WIC and high levels of healthful eating and physical activity routines were protective factors. Age, single marital status, unemployment, transportation barriers, food insecurity, and inadequate health insurance predicted clinically significant depressive symptomology among Latinas.

Program administrators should consider factors associated with depression among specific populations as they design programs and services.

Factors not accounted (e.g., nativity of mothers) should be explored to more fully understand predictors of depressive symptomology among rural Latina and non-Latina mothers.

This original research considers how the relationships between individual, family, and community factors and depressive symptomology differ between rural low-income Latina and non-Latina White mothers. The authors discuss potential factors and outcomes related to depressive symptomology and provide suggestions for research, programs and services.

The objective of this chapter is to discuss the pathways between climate, water, food, and conflict. Areas that are exhibiting food insecurity or have the potential to be food insecure are typically located in areas that experience poverty and government corruption. Higher rates of conflict occur in areas with lower caloric intake and poor nutrition.

We identify key pathways between these variables and discuss intervening factors and compound effects.

The pathways between water, food security, and conflict are complicated and are influenced by many intervening factors. A critical examination of the literature and an in-depth analysis of the reasons for conflict suggest that food insecurity is a multiplier, or facilitator, of the opportunities for and benefits from conflict.

To most effectively reduce the risks of conflict, policies must adequately and simultaneously address each of the four dimensions of food security – availability, stability, utilization, and access. Careful attention to alleviating food insecurity will help alleviate some of the underlying rationale for conflict.

Hospitals recently search for more accurate forecasting systems, given the unpredictable demand and the increasing occurrence of disruptive incidents (mass casualty incidents, pandemics and natural disasters). Besides, the incorporation of automatic inventory and replenishment systems – that hospitals are undertaking – requires developed and accurate forecasting systems. Researchers propose different artificial intelligence (AI)-based forecasting models to predict hospital assets consumption (AC) for everyday activity case and prove that AI-based models generally outperform many forecasting models in this framework. The purpose of this paper is to identify the appropriate AI-based forecasting model(s) for predicting hospital AC under disruptive incidents to improve hospitals' response to disasters/pandemics situations.

The authors select the appropriate AI-based forecasting models according to the deduced criteria from hospitals' framework analysis under disruptive incidents. Artificial neural network (ANN), recurrent neural network (RNN), adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) and learning-FIS (FIS with learning algorithms) are generally compliant with the criteria among many AI-based forecasting methods. Therefore, the authors evaluate their accuracy to predict a university hospital AC under a burn mass casualty incident.

The ANFIS model is the most compliant with the extracted criteria (autonomous learning capability, fast response, real-time control and interpretability) and provides the best accuracy (the average accuracy is 98.46%) comparing to the other models.

This work contributes to developing accurate forecasting systems for hospitals under disruptive incidents to improve their response to disasters/pandemics situations.

Interdisciplinary approaches to sustainability curriculum and pedagogy remain a particular challenge internationally. This chapter shares insights from a 2016 attempt to establish a first-year undergraduate Design course with an interdisciplinary approach to sustainability education. A series of video dialogues between university and community-based sustainability experts was created to enable students to access understandings and research evidence about sustainability issues and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, through different disciplinary lenses. The video dialogues provided students with opportunities to learn reflexively through exposure to differing visions for sustainable development, including Indigenous perspectives. In doing so, the video dialogues provide material for critical, creative, and iterative design thinking. Drawing on feedback from students enrolled in the course, this chapter offers reflections about enhancing course design through using video dialogues to support students’ critical openness to addressing sustainability concerns.

Fewer than half of UK start-up businesses survive beyond five years (ONS, 2020). The Scottish Small Business Survey of 2019 found competition in the market and uncertainty as to how to face it were considered the most significant barrier to success by almost half of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) (Scottish Government, 2020). This chapter considers how four Scottish breweries have formulated start-up strategies to respond to competition in an ever-increasingly crowded marketplace in order to maximise their likelihood of survival. The findings from each of these case studies are presented in an accessible format, and indicate that a variety of approaches to the development of the businesses can be adopted, albeit planned approaches dominate. Drawing on real life experiences of four successful businesses, the practical choices they took provide guidance and inspiration for other aspiring craft beer entrepreneurs in selecting an appropriate approach to and content of their founding strategy.

This chapter is concerned with academic citizenry in higher education, and the conditions created within institutions for transformative leadership. This is central to the fitness-for-purpose of higher education institutions to drive the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Drawing from a mixed-method study, the chapter explores the patterns which emerged from literature, questionnaire responses, and semi-structured interviews about the problematics at play within six institutions in the post-colonial contexts of India and South Africa. The two upper middle-income contexts have strong constitutional commitments to democracy and social justice at the macro-level, with bold policy interventions undertaken at meso-level to address the legacies of exclusion and oppression in student enrollment and staff composition in HE. However, recent fraught dynamics and unrest within the sector in each country have brought renewed attention to the politics of participation and a breakdown in trust of governance and management.

In this study, the standpoint of key stakeholders was prioritized, including those in assigned leadership positions and academic staff. Particular attention was paid to gender and intersectional inequalities, impacting academic staff, and what they revealed about the persistence of policy-implementation gaps and their relation to principle-implementation gaps. Concerns are raised about impoverished comprehensions of, and conditions for, sustainable ethical leadership which emerged across both contexts.

Advancing social responsibility through higher education (HE) is a crucial goal given today’s fragmented and polarized society. Based on a qualitative survey among lecturers at a British university long committed to HE access, this chapter explores the values that underpin their approach to HE and how these inform how they conceptualize “social responsibility” and embed it in the curriculum. Respondents revealed how core values – inclusivity, social justice, empathy, respect, fostering student engagement, empowerment and critical thinking – aligned to shared notions of social responsibility – enabling equal access, developing informed, aware and active citizens who can contribute for the benefit of society – are infused into choice of content, teaching, learning and assessment activities, and management of the learning environment. Perceived outcomes for students included becoming more motivated, independent and empowered learners ready to face the world, more aware of self and the world around them, feeling valued and respected, and growing in confidence, self-esteem and capacity for critical thinking. It was in the curriculum space of interaction among teachers and students that lectures could, in the face of work constraints, still exercise relative academic freedom and find inspiration and opportunities to advance educational practices connected to their values and HE social responsibility.