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1 – 10 of over 15000Ammar Y. Alqahtani and Surendra M. Gupta
Economic incentives, government regulations, and customer perspective on environmental consciousness (EC) are driving more and more companies into product recovery business, which…
Abstract
Economic incentives, government regulations, and customer perspective on environmental consciousness (EC) are driving more and more companies into product recovery business, which forms the basis for a reverse supply chain. A reverse supply chain consists a series of activities that involves retrieving used products from consumers and remanufacturing (closed-loop) or recycling (open-loop) them to recover their leftover market value. Much work has been done in the areas of designing forward and reverse supply chains; however, not many models deal with the transshipment of products in multiperiods. Linear physical programming (LPP) is a newly developed method whose most significant advantage is that it allows a decision-maker to express his/her preferences for values of criteria for decision-making in terms of ranges of different degrees of desirability but not in traditional form of weights as in techniques such as analytic hierarchy process, which is criticized for its unbalanced scale of judgment and failure to precisely handle the inherent uncertainty and vagueness in carrying out pair-wise comparisons. In this chapter, two multiperiod models are proposed for a remanufacturing system, which is an element of a Reverse Supply Chain (RSC), and illustrated with numerical examples. The first model is solved using mixed integer linear programming (MILP), while the second model is solved using linear physical programming. The proposed models deliver the optimal transportation quantities of remanufactured products for N-periods within the reverse supply chain.
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Public librarians throughout North America now support physical activity. One sees this function in the emergence and diffusion of new programs and services, such as librarians…
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Public librarians throughout North America now support physical activity. One sees this function in the emergence and diffusion of new programs and services, such as librarians checking out exercise equipment, as well as in librarians actually sponsoring exercise classes. This chapter focuses on understanding this type of work. The first part looks at five different frameworks – the library as place, community-led librarianship, whole person librarianship, community health, and recreation and leisure – that each in different ways enable one to understand how supporting physical activity could become part of the work of public librarians. Focus then shifts to understanding empirically how public librarians in the US and Canada enact and understand this work. Research shows that this role has become more integral and expected in youth services than in adult services. Library staff themselves are more likely to lead movement-based programs for youth than for adults. The discussion then shifts to the implications of this trend in terms of evidence-based practice and multidisciplinary discussions on how and why to increase physical activity throughout society. The conclusion suggests additional work needed to understand this and other poorly understood functions of public librarians.
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Olga L. Sarmiento, Carlos Pedraza, Camilo A. Triana, Diana P. Díaz, Silvia A. González and Sergio Montero
The CiclovĂa-Recreativa of Bogotá is a community programme in which streets are closed to motor vehicle traffic and open exclusively for people so they can enjoy a safe, free…
Abstract
The CiclovĂa-Recreativa of Bogotá is a community programme in which streets are closed to motor vehicle traffic and open exclusively for people so they can enjoy a safe, free space for walking, jogging, cycling and skating. Currently, CiclovĂa-type programmes have been implemented in cities from all the continents of the world. This case study aimed to assess the association between walking behaviours and CiclovĂa participation among adults and older adults and the potential factors associated with the sustainability and scalability of this programme. Adults who reported participating in the CiclovĂa were more likely to walk at least 150 minutes per week (POR 2.08, 95% CI 1.43–3.02). Likewise, among older adults, living in a neighbourhood with CiclovĂa corridors was marginally associated with having walked for at least 150 minutes per week (POR 1.29, 95% CI 0.97–1.73). Main factors that could contribute to the development and sustainability of the programme include policies from different sectors concurrent with community support. Factors associated with the scalability of the CiclovĂa include: (1) local officials that travelled the world to speak about Bogotá’s urban transformation, (2) a transnational network of sustainable transportation and public health advocates of the programme, (3) a network of CiclovĂa experts that shared technical and administrative details needed to organise an event and (4) the digital technologies that made the viralisation of photos and videos of Bogotá possible. The CiclovĂa is a multisectoral and scalable programme associated with the promotion of walking.
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James Mandigo, John Corlett, Pedro Ticas and Ruben Vasquez
El Salvador’s youth have faced a climate of violence for decades. Schools have been identified as the most cost-effective ways to help students develop the life skills they need…
Abstract
Purpose
El Salvador’s youth have faced a climate of violence for decades. Schools have been identified as the most cost-effective ways to help students develop the life skills they need to prevent violence. This study examined the potential role of a physical education (PE) program taught by some of the first Salvadoran teachers to be trained to foster life skills through PE within schools.
Design/methodology/approach
Fourteen schools that had hired a PE teacher trained in life skills-based PE volunteered to participate in the study. Semi-structured interviews with the school director, PE teacher, and a focus group of students at each school were conducted.
Findings
Interviews were content analyzed and potential themes were initially placed into one of three life skills categories using a deductive analysis based upon the World Health Organization’s (WHO) (2002) three categories of life skills: (i) Coping and Self-Management; (ii) Communication and Interpersonal; (iii) Decision Making/Problem Solving. Then, using an inductive analysis, various themes within each life skills category were identified. The findings revealed that participants in the study identified the role that PE provides in developing life skills in each of the three categories and many identified the importance of these life skills to prevent violence both in and out of schools.
Social implications
Findings from this study highlight the important role that schools play in the development of life skills and the prevention of youth violence. PE in particular offers a promising approach due to its applied nature and opportunity for students to learn through doing and the application of life skills in a safe manner. The findings also support the importance of trained PE teachers to deliver such programs.
Originality/value
Central America has and continues to be a region with high levels of youth violence. Given that PE is a mandatory school subject in Salvadoran schools (and in other Central American countries), shifting the focus toward a life skills-based approach to PE offers educators an opportunity to address the country’s number one public health concern which is youth violence. To our knowledge, this is the first study of its kind in El Salvador to explore the role of PE as it relates to youth violence and can help in future curricular revisions in schools and the development of degree programs at local universities.
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Aditi D. Joshi and Surendra M. Gupta
In this chapter, a case of reverse supply chain is considered, where a product recovery facility receives sensors and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags embedded…
Abstract
In this chapter, a case of reverse supply chain is considered, where a product recovery facility receives sensors and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags embedded End-Of-Life (EOL) products. Sensors and RFID tags can capture and store component’s life cycle information during its economic life. This technology can provide data about contents and conditions of products and components without the need of actual disassembly and inspection. It also determines the remaining lives of the components which eventually translate into their quality levels.
The example considered here presents an advanced-repair-to-order-and-disassembly-to-order system. It disassembles the components to meet the components’ demands, repairs the products to meet the products’ demands and recycles the materials to meet the materials’ demands. The received EOL products may have different design alternatives. The objective of the proposed multi-criteria decision-making model is to determine which of the design alternatives is best in fulfilling the various criteria.
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Eugene Asola and Samuel R. Hodge
This chapter is structured for teaching young learners with physical (orthopedic) disabilities in special education. Orthopedic impairments encompass a range of disabling…
Abstract
This chapter is structured for teaching young learners with physical (orthopedic) disabilities in special education. Orthopedic impairments encompass a range of disabling conditions. Orthopedic impairments are typically grouped into three main categories: (1) congenital anomalies (CA) such as absence of a member or clubfoot, (2) impairments caused by disease such as bone tuberculosis (TB) or poliomyelitis, or (3) impairments for other causes to include amputations, fractures, cerebral palsy (CP), burns, or fractures. In the chapter, the authors present definitions of various orthopedic impairments and discuss their respective etiologies followed by discussions of specific disabling conditions. Students with orthopedic impairments present both challenges and opportunities to special education teachers as is evident in the following case of Amira, a girl with asthma and CP.
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This chapter explores issues around children's voice, physical education and social, emotional and behavioural difficulties (SEBD) in England. Research has previously highlighted…
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This chapter explores issues around children's voice, physical education and social, emotional and behavioural difficulties (SEBD) in England. Research has previously highlighted the physical, social, effective and cognitive benefits of participation in physical education (PE) (Bailey, 2006). Furthermore, practical, physical and expressive creative experiences in education have been cited as being an important constituent when educating children with SEBD (Cole & Visser, 1998). However, research has yet to address the experiences of the child with SEBD alongside the ideological benefits of their participation in PE. After a period of sensitisation to the field, in a number of pilot schools, a total of 24 weeks were spent immersed in the cultures of two mainstream schools in the West of England. After six weeks of local familiarisation, during which field notes and research diaries were kept, weekly interviews with each of six case study participants commenced. This process resulted in an intensely interactive and personal process of engagement (Sparkes, 1994) which was at times magnified when working in a PE environment. In this research, a PE environment afforded opportunities to spend time and build trust through co-participation in the negotiation of socially constructed roles in the subject. The six case study participants whose experiences have been studied make reference to, amongst others, their affinity towards the physical nature of PE, the perception of it being a subject allowing for freedoms not found elsewhere in the curriculum and one which cemented both the positive and negative social systems in relation to their relationships with peers. Inductive processes of analysis utilising constant comparison methods between data sources have generated data which shows signs of both the idiosyncratic nature of multiple truths and some common ground in their experiences.
A review of the first year physics laboratory program in 1991 at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) revealed that student laboratory experiences did not: resemble the…
Abstract
A review of the first year physics laboratory program in 1991 at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) revealed that student laboratory experiences did not: resemble the practice of physicists; give a realistic picture of the contribution of physics to everyday life, or; enhance students’ capabilities of broad value, such as their communication skills. Physics academics at UTS committed themselves to reforming students’ laboratory experiences with inquiry-oriented learning as a center-piece of the reform. This chapter explores the drivers that led to the reconceptualization of the role of the laboratory in the undergraduate curriculum and the strategies and processes we adopted over more than 20 years to embed inquiry-oriented activities into first year physics laboratory programs.