Search results

In order to reduce the health impacts of air pollution effectively, developing strategies that involves individual or community level is crucial. The purpose of this paper is to assess people’s protective practices for inhalable particulate matter and its significant determinants such as general characteristics, knowledge and attitude among residents of an urban residential area, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

This cross-sectional study was conducted by systematic random sampling. A total of 424 people, who lived in that area for not less than two years before the survey, were interviewed using a structured questionnaire. χ² and Fisher’s exact test were used to analyze the data.

Only a small proportion of respondents had high practice level. In addition, a little more than half has high level of knowledge about inhalable particulate matter, its adverse health effects and protective practices and almost 70 percent had high level of attitude toward air pollution. The protective practices for small inhalable particulate matter was significantly associated with age, educational level, occupation, knowledge and attitude toward small inhalable particulate matter, its adverse health effects and protective measures.

A good level of knowledge about the prevailing air pollution and related health risks can be crucial to develop more focused attempt at changing the current situation with public participation. The environmental experts and health volunteer should disseminate precise and adequate information about long-term health hazards of particulate matter and measures of exposure prevention to improve the protective practices.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the accounts of Swedish cardiologists concerning patient involvement in consultations for atrial fibrillation (AF). The questions were: how cardiologists handle and provide scope for patient involvement in medical consultations regarding AF treatment and how cardiologists describe their familiarity with shared decision-making.

A descriptive study was designed. Ten interviews with cardiologists at four Swedish hospitals were held, and a qualitative content analysis was performed on the collected data.

The analysis shows cardiologists’ accounts of persuasive practice, protective practice, professional role and medical craftsmanship when it comes to patient involvement and shared decision-making. The term “shared decision-making” implies a concept of not only making one decision but also ensuring that it is finalised with a satisfactory agreement between both parties involved, the patient as well as the cardiologist. In order for the idea of patient involvement to be fulfilled, the two parties involved must have equal power, which can never actually be guaranteed.

Methodologically, this paper reflects the special contribution that can be made by the research design of descriptive qualitative content analysis (Krippendorff, 2004) to reveal and understand cardiologists’ perspectives on patient involvement and participation in medical consultation and shared decision-making. The utility of this kind of analysis is to find what cardiologists said and how they arrived at their understanding about patient involvement. Accordingly, there is no quantification in this type of research.

Cardiologists should prioritise patient involvement and participation in decision-making regarding AF treatment decisions in consultations when trying to meet the request of patient involvement.

Theoretically, the authors have learned that the patient involvement and shared decision-making requires the ability to see patients as active participants in the medical consultation process.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of micro-level place on identity theft victimization. This study uses the 2016 Identity Theft Supplement (ITS) to investigate whether aspects of an individual’s residence affect their likelihood of becoming identity theft victims.

The authors conduct logistic regressions of whether a respondent was an identity theft victim in the past year using the following variables as key predictors: number of housing units in a residence, whether the respondent operates a business out of their residence and if residence access is restricted.

The results suggest that location influences the likelihood of identity theft to a modest degree though some aspects of location (possibly those related to rewards perceptions) may be more relevant than others. Meanwhile, though location may influence initial target selection, whether someone is victimized may be more dependent on factors such as personal behavior.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this manuscript represents one of the first investigations into the relationship between microlevel place and the incidence of identity theft. Furthermore, it provides evidence that one does exist which bears further inquiry.

In his influential study The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1971 [1959]), Erving Goffman provides an insightful account of the formation of social selves. Goffman’s work has been extensively discussed in the sociological literature. Yet, the presuppositional underpinnings, let alone the socio-ontological implications, of his conception of personhood have not been rigorously scrutinized.

The main reason for the lack of methodical engagement with the principal assumptions that lie at the heart of Goffman’s theory of the self is that his approach is widely regarded as an eclectic narrative that, while drawing on different sociological traditions, does not make any claim to universal validity.

The persuasiveness of the contention that Goffman’s analysis of the self cannot be reduced to a general theory of human personhood appears to be confirmed by the fact that both supporters and detractors of his sociological project tend to agree that it would be erroneous to deduce a foundational framework of investigation from his numerous studies concerned with the interaction between self and society.

Attention will be drawn to several controversial issues that arise when faced with the task of assessing both the strengths and the weaknesses of Goffman’s understanding of the self.

The aim of this paper is to challenge the aforementioned contention by demonstrating that Goffman provides a fairly systematic account of human personhood. More significantly, this enquiry suggests that a fine-grained examination of his key concepts permits us to propose an outline of a general theory of the human self.

The paper aims to investigate accounting's role as a mediating instrument between the tensions of creativity and control within the price competitive world of the fashion chain store.

The paper employs a case study approach, gathering interview data from key members within a UK fashion chain, and uses Goffman's work on impression management to inform its theoretical argumentation.

Drawing on Goffman, the paper considers the roles adopted by organizational actors within fashion retailing and the actions they pursue in order to maintain a team performance. The authors suggest that accounting, as a form of stage prop, helps to sustain this team impression by mediating between the creativity and control concerns inherent in fashion design. In the process, they also gain some understanding of the use of accounting by actors beyond the confines of an organization's finance function.

Despite the magnitude of the fashion industry and its dominance in the identity construction of both individual and streetscape, the role of accounting within this domain of popular culture has remained remarkably unexplored. This paper attempts to redress such scholarly neglect. It also furthers an understanding of the relatively unexplored role of accounting as a mediating instrument within the complex dialectic of creativity and control.

In order to understand the pros and cons of an open organization regarding the flow of knowledge between firms, this paper introduces the concept of “protective capacity”. The purpose of the paper is to elaborate the concept of “protective capacity” especially in relation to absorptive capacity, by presenting a number of propositions.

Literature on mainly interfirm relationships, absorptive capacity and resources‐based theory are reviewed and combined.

Protective capacity is defined as the “capacity to sustain, or to reduce the speed of depreciation of knowledge‐based resources by preventing knowledge from being identified, imitated, and/or acquired by direct or indirect competitors”. Owing to the strong moderating factor of organizational openness, it is argued that protective capacity is inversely related to absorptive capacity. A number of propositions that can explain and moderate the inverse relationship between protective capacity and absorptive capacity are elaborated and discussed. These propositions concern organizational openness, knowledge management practices, realized and potential absorptive capacity, and dyadic relationships.

Acquiring external knowledge is a key feature of knowledge management. In order for a firm to absorb external knowledge, it is generally argued that it has to be open towards the environment. However, according to resource‐based theory, firms have to safeguard their knowledge by, for example, having a secluded organization, thereby enhancing the uncertainty associated with tacit knowledge in order to sustain their competitive advantages. Whereas numerous studies have discussed the capacity to absorb knowledge, few studies have analyzed the capacity to protect knowledge.

In connection with the launching as a new British Standard of the revised “Code of Practice for Protective Coating of Iron and Steel Structures Against Corrosion”, the Association of Metal Sprayers published a “Plain Guide to BS 5493: 1977”. The “Plain Guide” introduces the new Code of Practice to owners and managers of structures, consulting engineers, designers, architects and all specifiers of protective systems for steel; it enables them to take advantage of the wealth of information which has been assembled in BS 5493 and which initially might appear to the engineer not intimately involved in corrosion protection. The Guide, main details of which are published below, charts the way through the Standard and should enable everybody more readily to make full use of the information and advice contained within BS 5493. Full copies of “Plain Guide to BS 5493” can be obtained from the Association of Metal Sprayers, Chamber of Commerce, Ward Street, Walsall WS1 2AG, at a cost of 40p each including postage.

Despite substantial reductions resulting from long‐sustained research by the industry, the corrosion of iron and steel still costs the United Kingdom many millions of pounds a year. The following article, by Dr. J. C. Hudson, outlines the recommendations of a new British Standard Code of Practice on the subject, CP 2008. Our acknowledgments are due to the British Standards Institution for permission to republish this article from the November 1966 issue of their BSI News.

Catastrophic failures in high-reliability installations result from technical and human factors. The purpose of this paper is to use reports of the BP Texas refinery accident and the UK Buncefield oil storage explosions as the basis for exploring how protection and safety are managed in high-reliability manufacturing organisations in South Africa.

A survey of 21 high-reliability firms was undertaken to establish how firms perceived their safety and protection systems in relation to the findings of the Buncefield and BP Texas accidents. Interviews were held with staff in two firms.

The study identifies technical and behavioural shortcomings in managing safety and protective systems in manufacturing organisations. There are profound differences in perceptions of managers, supervisors and operators regarding a number of safety-related factors. Firms fail to identify all protective systems. Essential failure data for determining appropriate policies for failure finding are not collected.

Quantitative results are based on a relatively small sample and qualitative perspectives derive from two case studies.

Managers are unsure how protective devices should be managed. The paper highlights areas where significant improvements are essential if the South African firms are to meet developed world standards.

High-reliability organisations are obliged to minimise the possibility of serious incidents whose consequences may extend far beyond the physical bounds of the organisation.

Limited research has been published on the management of protective systems. This paper highlights a number of technical and behavioural issues that should be addressed for safe operation of high-reliability manufacturing organisations.

This article explores the protective measures and the occupational health and safety (OHS) prevention strategies in place in the formal electronic equipment recycling (e-recycling) industry, more specifically in the Greater Montreal area (Quebec, Canada) and their consequences: health inequalities and level of compliance with environmental standards.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted using two respondent-specific questionnaires, one for workers and one for supervisors. Data collection and analytic procedures drew from qualitative content analysis. It was tempted to identify differences in OHS practices in relation to the workers' employment status and to link the companies' OHS concerns to their level of compliance with environmental standards.

The article highlights specific OHS issues in the formal e-recycling industry. Enforcing compliance with environmental standards as a lever for promoting OHS appears to be a promising strategy. Another main finding was the workforce diversity and related OHS vulnerabilities in this industry and the challenges they pose to employers' ability to adequately and equally reach and protect all workers involved.

To date, too little attention appears to have been paid to working conditions and worker protection in this rapidly growing sector. Specific prevention programmes could be implemented and adapted to the industry's diverse workforce and its multiple OHS vulnerabilities. This issue calls for the international community to take responsibility, as many electronic waste (e-waste) generated worldwide is shipped to developing countries, where lack of regulation and control is much more striking in a sector that remains very largely informal.