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The hazards that robot use present and the safety precautions now needed in industry are discussed.

One significant trend in human resource practice that dominated the 1990s was the move away from traditional, full-time employment toward a variety of different forms of alternative work arrangements. Accompanying this trend was a growing concern about the effects of alternative forms of work for well being. We first review the different forms of alternative work arrangements, which vary in terms of temporal, numerical and locational flexibility. Thereafter, the effects of different forms of alternative work arrangements (e.g. part-time employment, job-sharing, outsourcing) on psychological and physical well being, and occupational safety and health are evaluated. We conclude by noting that alternative work arrangements do not necessarily exert uniformly negative effects on well being. Instead, the importance of the volitionality with which individuals assume alternative work arrangements must be considered: When individuals choose such arrangements because they want to, any potential negative effects are minimized. In contrast, when individuals assume such work arrangements because of a lack of perceived alternatives, there is a greater risk for negative effects. Finally, the need for future research which more rigorously accounts for the conceptual differences across alternative work arrangements is noted.

This paper presents a review of published literature on robot reliability and safety. The literature is classified into three main categories: robot safety; robot reliability; and miscellaneous. Robot safety is further categorized into six classifications: general; accidents; human‐factors; safety standards; safety methods; and safety systems/technologies. The period covered by the review is from 1973 to 2001.

In recent years, school districts have faced numerous questions surrounding accommodations of transgender students. Strong objections to accommodations have been voiced in public argument and litigation, primarily in the areas of athletics, bathrooms, and dress codes. As younger transgender students express their gender identity at school, however, the existing objections are weakened by considering the context of elementary rather than high school students. Greater numbers of young transgender students will likely encourage accommodation of trans students of all ages, as well as challenge the gender binary unconsciously taught in school.

The fact that the ME has been an area of conflicts throughout its history is an indication of its utmost relevance to the strategy formulations of major powers. The ME can be called “the land bridge of civilization” because it links Africa with Eurasia, and it has been the trade route of peoples from Asia, Africa, and Europe. Ancient empires, as well as contemporary major powers, have competed for power and influence in the region to enhance their relative economic and military positions. The discovery of oil in the region escalated the struggle among major powers, created societal dislocations, and increased internal and external conflicts. The ME has been the major artery of contact for over 3000 years (Weatherby, 2001, pp. 1–4). One hundred years ago, scholar-adventurer John L. Stoddard recognized this fact when he described a small portion of the region, Palestine. According to Stoddard, “Palestine has an area only a little larger than the state of Massachusetts, while Russia occupies one seventh of the habitable globe: yet in the scales of intellectuals and moral value the little province of Judea outweighs beyond comparison the empire of Czar” (Weatherby, 2001, pp. 1–4).

Some countries prohibit the imposition of life imprisonment on women but allow it for men for the same offence (e.g. Albania, Azerbaijan, Russia and Belarus). In Khamtokhu and Aksenchik v. Russia (2017) the European Court of Human Rights rejected the claim that it was discriminatory to punish two Russian men convicted of murder to life imprisonment. Other than a handful of legal commentaries there have been no in-depth analyses of the case, in particular on the dangers of using gender stereotyping to limit life imprisonment. To address this gap, this chapter draws on criminological works on the gendered experience of life imprisonment, legal analyses of perpetual incarceration under human rights law and ECHR case law on gender stereotyping and on life imprisonment. This study critically discusses the Court’s assessment of gender stereotypes in the context of life imprisonment and considers whether its approach constitutes any improvement for women. In so doing, it illuminates how well-intended efforts to curtail some extreme forms of penal practices such as perpetual incarceration may have unintended and perverse consequences for women specifically and the landscape of punishment more generally.

This chapter combines a global value chain methodology with the case of the development of the farmed Atlantic salmon industry in Chile to inform discussions regarding the globalization of economy and society. The research documents the shifting structure of the value chain from the north to the south as Chile replaced northern Europe as the locus of production and the major world supplier of farmed Atlantic salmon. Farmed salmon was supported by the Chilean state as part of its export-oriented industrialization model that attracted foreign direct investment (FDI) from northern TNCs. Chile's low costs of production combined with growing environmental problems in the north and global retailers' demand for large quantities of low-cost product resulted in the restructuring of the farmed Atlantic-salmon value chain as northern capital sourced the south as a lucrative production platform to service northern consumers. A detailed investigation of the rise in dominance of the firm Marine Harvest is provided to illustrate the process of industry concentration the Chilean farmed-salmon industry. This model has generated a legitimation crisis related to environmental degradation and labor abuses resulting in social movement organization both nationally and internationally. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the implications of the Wal-Mart Effect on the agrifood industry in particular and in the farmed-salmon industry in particular.

The key research issue addressed in this paper is whether individuals perceive advertisements featuring themes from their own religion more positively, and advertisements featuring religious themes from other religions less positively, than neutral ads. In the process, this paper aims to test whether the in-group bias theory (IGBT) and the polarized appraisal theory (PAT) apply in a religious context.

Respondents in a large Indian University were shown advertisements featuring Hindu and Muslim themes as well as a neutral advertisement in the context of pet adoption. Cognitive and affective response measures were used for evaluation.

Respondents did not evaluate advertisements with their own religion’s symbols any more positively than neutral advertisements but did evaluate advertisements with themes from other religions more negatively than neutral ads. In sum, religious advertisements did not have any positive effect on in-group respondents, but rather worked in antagonizing out-group respondents.

Both IGBT and PAT did not work as predicted when tested on in-group respondents but worked as expected on out-group respondents.

In the Indian market, using religious themes has largely negative consequences in terms of alienating out-group members, with no commensurate advantage on in-group members. Firms are better off not using religious advertising, and this decision would likely have a positive impact on a firm’s bottom line.

Though, the general topic of religious advertising has been much researched, but this paper deals with the role of religious symbols in advertising in the Indian context, which is done for the first time in a multi-religious context. Further, the applicability of IGBT and PAT is also tested for the first time in religious advertisement context.

Purpose: In this chapter, I analyze proceedings from 2015 when the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) was asked to determine whether Dutee Chand, an Indian sprinter, could compete as a female athlete. Excluded on the basis that her naturally high testosterone levels conferred an unfair athletic advantage, Chand argued that existing policies in international sport were scientifically flawed. The purpose of the analysis is to examine whether the case led to a shift in the gender politics of sport, law, and science.

Methodology/Approach: I present a textual analysis of the arbitral award document, drawing on feminist methodology to identify where and how the adjudicating panel’s assessment of the case was gendered.

Findings: The CAS decision defined the right to compete as primarily a matter for science to decide, in the process obscuring the gendered and tilted playing field upon which scientific knowledge production takes place. Furthermore, the right to unconditional recognition as a woman was reduced to science alone.

Social Implications: My analysis reveals that Chand’s victory is a precarious one, with binary and biologized models of sex and gender prevailing when the institutions of sport, law, and science determine the policy boundaries of “fair play” for female athletes.

Originality/Value of Study: This chapter shows how the institutions of sport, law, and science work together to determine gender. As a consequence, even feminist versions of the biology of sex difference risk reifying the authority of science as the dominant knowledge form within the institutional spaces of sport and law.

Describes a set of numerical techniques which implement the rate‐dependent multi‐mechanism deformation (M‐D) constitutive model for rock salt in a finite element code for use in three‐dimensional, finite strain simulations of creep closure in deeply buried salt excavations. Presents essential details of the numerical implementation. The constitutive model is exercised in a three‐dimensional closure simulation of a large underground field experiment. Compares results from the simulation against actual closure measurements taken from the experiment.