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Article
Publication date: 3 August 2018

Peter Joyce and Wendy Laverick

The purpose of this paper is to assess the advantages and disadvantages of the use of spit guards by police forces in the UK and to make recommendations regarding an…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to assess the advantages and disadvantages of the use of spit guards by police forces in the UK and to make recommendations regarding an evidence-based approach to decisions related to the use of such equipment.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper is based upon an examination of a range of primary source material, secondary sources and grey literature.

Findings

Although the use of spit guards can be justified by factors that include the need to protect police officers from contracting serious infectious diseases, there are a number of problems that concern ethical policing and human rights. Concerns arise when spit guards are deployed against vulnerable individuals, are used offensively rather than defensively and when such equipment is deployed disproportionately against persons from Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities. Additionally, the image of the police may suffer if spit guards are accompanied by the use of excessive force which may be perceived as an abuse of police power.

Practical implications

The paper makes recommendations that a comprehensive evidence base is required to assist practitioners to make informed decisions regarding the deployment of spit guards. This evidence base should include the extent to which officers are spat at, medical evidence relating to spitting and the transmission of serious diseases, the views of the public concerning the deployment of spit guards and estimations as to whether such equipment will deter spitting by suspects of crime.

Originality/value

This paper provides an original academic contribution to the ongoing debate on the use of spit guards within policing. In particular, it brings together a wide range of material that relates to this topic and presents it as a coherent set of arguments located in a single source.

Details

Safer Communities, vol. 17 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1757-8043

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 13 June 2008

Elizabeth M. LaRue

The purpose of this research is to measure the validity and the adoption of a new web page assessment tool called SPAT (Site, Publisher, Audience, Timeliness).

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this research is to measure the validity and the adoption of a new web page assessment tool called SPAT (Site, Publisher, Audience, Timeliness).

Design/methodology/approach

A convenience sample of 37 Certified Diabetes Educators (CDEs) participated in an evaluation of the web page assessment tool SPAT. Four web pages with diabetes content were selected for a pre‐ and post‐test evaluation. A follow‐up questionnaire measured adoption of the SPAT tool.

Findings

There was a significant difference when using the mnemonic SPAT to evaluate the site, publisher and timeliness of a web page. Using SPAT to evaluate the audience of a web page also showed an improvement. While there was an increase in reviewing the text of a web page for biases after the SPAT intervention, it was not significant. The CDEs easily utilized SPAT with the diabetes content web pages and their successful manipulation of the SPAT tool demonstrated face validity. After learning of SPAT, responses to the follow‐up questionnaire revealed adoption of the tool by CDEs.

Practical implications

Use of SPAT may enable health care providers to systematically evaluate health‐related web page content.

Originality/value

SPAT is a novel tool that reinforces a user to practice basic literacy concepts. The value of SPAT is that it is a people centered tool that may easily be used by anyone to evaluate web pages.

Details

Library Hi Tech, vol. 26 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0737-8831

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 4 July 2013

Erno Selos, Teemu Laine, Inger Roos, Petri Suomala and Lauri Pitkänen

This study aims to focus on the switching path analysis technique (SPAT) application to enlarge the understanding of customer switching from the business to consumer (B‐to‐C…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to focus on the switching path analysis technique (SPAT) application to enlarge the understanding of customer switching from the business to consumer (B‐to‐C) context to the processes of business‐to‐business (B‐to‐B) supplier switches.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper is a theory extension of SPAT, with nine (9) supplier switching cases in different B‐to‐B settings. The cases shed light also on the actual triggers and determinants of the B‐to‐B switches.

Findings

The study proves the applicability of SPAT in B‐to‐B settings. The B‐to‐B context adds complexity, forming a relationship flow where many driving factors act for switching. Thus, the findings suggest that a comprehensive analysis of the triggers and determinants is required to understand the switching processes. In particular, the characteristics of the active/passive behaviour should be analysed separately in the customer and in the old and new suppliers.

Research limitations/implications

The empirical findings are exploratory in nature. Further research should refine the characteristics of active and passive behaviour at the levels of the relationship, the companies and the individuals to comprehend the notion of the influential trigger in SPAT. Further research should also address the wider topic of the patterns of certain triggers and determinants that actually lead to unstable supplier relationships.

Practical implications

The B‐to‐B supplier switches appear to be complex processes. The supplier should be able to be constantly aware of the major changes in the customer's business. Based on this awareness, the supplier may actively affect the development of the relationship to avoid unwanted switches.

Originality/value

The paper combines the relatively mature research stream of B‐to‐C supplier switches and access to B‐to‐B supplier‐switching cases. The theory contribution of the paper is the extension of the theory to the B‐to‐B context, with relevant research implications.

Details

Managing Service Quality: An International Journal, vol. 23 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0960-4529

Keywords

Executive summary
Publication date: 12 December 2017

UK/US: Twitter spat unlikely to sink long-term ties

Details

DOI: 10.1108/OXAN-ES227430

ISSN: 2633-304X

Keywords

Geographic
Topical
Executive summary
Publication date: 5 July 2017

CHINA/INDIA: Border spat will worsen before subsiding

Details

DOI: 10.1108/OXAN-ES221965

ISSN: 2633-304X

Keywords

Geographic
Topical
Article
Publication date: 8 June 2012

Maria Rosário Bastos, João Alveirinho Dias, Ana Cristina Dias, Silvia Dias Pereira, Nanci Vieira de Oliveira and Maria Antonieta Rodrigues

The purpose of this paper is to perform a comparative analysis between Aveiro's Lagoon (Portugal) and Sepetiba Bay (Brazil), in order to understand the similarities and…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to perform a comparative analysis between Aveiro's Lagoon (Portugal) and Sepetiba Bay (Brazil), in order to understand the similarities and differences between these two coastal zones, in terms of human occupation.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper is supported by works (papers and scientific projects being developed) produced in Portugal and Brazil, by researchers from different areas of expertise.

Findings

These two coastal zones have a similar geomorphologic evolution, due to the fact that both appeared because of a sandy spit, which started to grow and separated these areas from the sea, converting them into sheltered coasts. It was because they are protected that these two study cases early became targets for human occupation. The anthropic impacts in the systems were sustainable until the middle of the twentieth century. Since then, however, the economic development options, based first in industry and second in tourism exploration, have compromised the natural healthy balance.

Practical implications

This paper could be a contribution to a scientific support for political decisions on the coastal zone management (namely in these studied areas).

Social implications

The paper provides and increases the knowledge of the coastal zones’ evolution and occupation – from a multidisciplinary perspective – produced and made available to scientists, local politicians, students and local populations.

Originality/value

The paper provides a truly interdisciplinary approach, which allows a better understanding of the evolution of these two systems, discussing the causes and consequences of human activities in both coastal areas.

Details

Management of Environmental Quality: An International Journal, vol. 23 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1477-7835

Keywords

Executive summary
Publication date: 14 August 2017

CAMBODIA/LAOS: Border spat will cool, for now

Book part
Publication date: 2 August 2023

Stevie Simkin

The figure of the female revenger has haunted the western imagination as far back as some of the earliest extant texts, most starkly in Euripides' tragedies Hecuba and Medea (c…

Abstract

The figure of the female revenger has haunted the western imagination as far back as some of the earliest extant texts, most starkly in Euripides' tragedies Hecuba and Medea (c. 430–420 bc). She has tended to take on one of three forms: the scorned woman, the vengeful mother or the victim of physical violence, almost always sexual violence.

This chapter presents an interdisciplinary and transhistorical understanding of the troubling figure of the violent female revenger in her shifting incarnations. The investigation traces conceptual strands through a variety of cultural texts, focusing on specific instances that are both situated historically and simultaneously analysed for the ways in which they reflect recurring priorities and cultural anxieties through the centuries.

After considering key ideas such as revenge and justice and gender and revenge, the chapter looks more closely at the so-called rape-revenge genre, moving from the earliest examples such as I Spit on Your Grave (1978) to more recent films which are considered for the ways they intersect with the global feminist protest movement #MeToo, and other key cultural moments such as the Harvey Weinstein case and the very public trial of the USA Gymnastics national team doctor Larry Nassar: Revenge (2017), The Nightingale (2018) and Promising Young Woman (2020). The chapter draws direct lines of connection between imaginative works, cultural types and stereotypes, and lived reality in order to come to a fuller understanding of the female revenger.

Details

The Emerald International Handbook of Feminist Perspectives on Women’s Acts of Violence
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80382-255-6

Keywords

Executive summary
Publication date: 18 July 2023

IRAN: Diplomatic spat with Russia will be short-lived

Details

DOI: 10.1108/OXAN-ES280587

ISSN: 2633-304X

Keywords

Geographic
Topical
Executive summary
Publication date: 25 April 2023

ROMANIA/UKRAINE: Danube Delta spat will not escalate

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