Studies on fish waste management practices in Aroor Seafood Industrial Belt, Kerala and conversion of seafood waste into a liquid plant growth supplement

This study was materialized to analyze the management issues regarding the seafood processing waste generated including its impact on the coastal community in one of the important seafood hubs of India Aroor Seafood Industrial Belt Alappuzha District Kerala The area has witnessed serious pollution issues related to seafood waste and seldom has any action been implemented by either the polluters or the preventers Further this study is also intended to suggest a low cost eco friendly method for utilizing the bulk quantity of seafood solid waste generated in the area for the promotion of organic farming The high nutritional value of seafood enables the subsequent offal to be considered as an excellent source for plant nutrition The liquid silage accepted worldwide as the cheapest and practical solution for rendering fish waste in bulk for production of livestock feed is adopted in this study to develop foliar fertilizer formulations from various seafood waste The effect of seafood foliar sprays is demonstrated by field studies on two plant varieties such as Okra and Amaranthus

Adopting web-based learning and teaching: a case study in higher education

Most universities worldwide are becoming distance education providers through adopting web-based learning and teaching via the introduction of learning management systems that enable them to open their courses to both on- and off-campus students. Whether this is an effective introduction depends on factors that enable and impede the adoption of such systems and their related pedagogical strategies. This study examines such factors related to adopting a learning management system in a large multicampus urban Australian university. The research method used case study approaches and purposively selected the sample consisting of innovative teaching academics from across the university, who used web-based approaches to teach both on- and off-campus learners. The data were analyzed using a combination of Rogers' theory of diffusion of innovations and actor-network theory and revealed a series of enabling and impeding factors faced by pioneering technology-adopter teaching academics, some of which are technology related while others are policy related and common to large multicampus institutions. The study found that safe adoption environments recognizing career priorities of academics are a result of the continuous negotiation between the evolving institution and its innovative and creative staff. The article concludes with a series of conditions that would form a safe, enabling, and encouraging environment for technology-adopter teaching academics in a large multicampus higher education setting.

Uses of management control and performance measurement systems by Deans and Heads in Australian universities: their effects on research, teaching and networking capabilities

Invoking a resource-based view (RBV), this study investigates relationships between management control systems (MCSs) use, including information use from performance measurement systems (PMSs), and organisational capabilities in the context of academic units of Australian universities. Increased competition and attention to distinctive capabilities amongst universities, particularly at their strategic operating unit level of a Faculty1 or School2, provides the setting for application of this theoretic perspective. Based on a questionnaire survey of all Faculty Deans and Heads of Schools in all 39 universities in Australia, evidence is provided on relationships between diagnostic and interactive use of MCSs, attention given to imposed and discretionary types of PMS information, the strength of capabilities of the academic unit and, in turn, overall performance of the academic unit. Highlights of findings are that Heads/Deans conceived capabilities of their unit in functional dimensions, not in generic dimensions as found in prior literature; interactive MCS use and imposed performance measures, respectively, direct relate to several types of capabilities and indirectly to performance of the academic unit, but diagnostic MCS use does not. The findings have practical implications for styles of control systems use and performance information use by management in universities.

Pediatric pain: prevalence, assessment, and management in a teaching hospital

The goal of this study was to examine the prevalence, assessment and management of pediatric pain in a public teaching hospital. The study sample consisted of 121 inpatients (70 infants, 36 children, and 15 adolescents), their families, 40 physicians, and 43 nurses. All participants were interviewed except infants and children who could not communicate due to their clinical status. The interview included open-ended questions concerning the inpatients’ pain symptoms during the 24 h preceding data collection, as well as pain assessment and pharmacological/non-pharmacological management of pain. The data were obtained from 100% of the eligible inpatients. Thirty-four children/adolescents (28%) answered the questionnaire and for the other 72% (unable to communicate), the family/health professional caregivers reported pain. Among these 34 persons, 20 children/adolescents reported pain, 68% of whom reported that they received pharmacological intervention for pain relief. Eighty-two family caregivers were available on the day of data collection. Of these, 40 family caregivers (49%) had observed their child’s pain response. In addition, 74% reported that the inpatients received pharmacological management. Physicians reported that only 38% of the inpatients exhibited pain signs, which were predominantly acute pain detected during clinical procedures. They reported that 66% of patients received pharmacological intervention. The nurses reported pain signs in 50% of the inpatients, which were detected during clinical procedures. The nurses reported that pain was managed in 78% of inpatients by using pharmacological and/or non-pharmacological interventions. The findings provide evidence of the high prevalence of pain in pediatric inpatients and the under-recognition of pain by health professionals.

Industrial ecology applied to ELV management. Material and energy recovery from ASR

This PhD thesis reports on car fluff management, recycling and recovery. Car fluff is the residual waste produced by car recycling operations, particularly from hulk shredding. Car fluff is known also as Automotive Shredder Residue (ASR) and it is made of plastics, rubbers, textiles, metals and other materials, and it is very heterogeneous both in its composition and in its particle size. In fact, fines may amount to about 50%, making difficult to sort out recyclable materials or exploit ASR heat value by energy recovery. This 3 years long study started with the definition of the Italian End-of-Life Vehicles (ELVs) recycling state of the art. A national recycling trial revealed Italian recycling rate to be around 81% in 2008, while European Community recycling target are set to 85% by 2015. Consequently, according to Industrial Ecology framework, a life cycle assessment (LCA) has been conducted revealing that sorting and recycling polymers and metals contained in car fluff, followed by recovering residual energy, is the route which has the best environmental perspective. This results led the second year investigation that involved pyrolysis trials on pretreated ASR fractions aimed at investigating which processes could be suitable for an industrial scale ASR treatment plant. Sieving followed by floatation reported good result in thermochemical conversion of polymers with polyolefins giving excellent conversion rate. This factor triggered ecodesign considerations. Ecodesign, together with LCA, is one of the Industrial Ecology pillars and it consists of design for recycling and design for disassembly, both aimed at the improvement of car components dismantling speed and the substitution of non recyclable material. Finally, during the last year, innovative plants and technologies for metals recovery from car fluff have been visited and tested worldwide in order to design a new car fluff treatment plant aimed at ASR energy and material recovery.

Analysing the complexity of the model-based decision making processes within the industrial management context

PURPOSE The decision-making process plays a key role in organizations. Every decision-making process produces a final choice that may or may not prompt action. Recurrently, decision makers find themselves in the dichotomous question of following a traditional sequence decision-making process where the output of a decision is used as the input of the next stage of the decision, or following a joint decision-making approach where several decisions are taken simultaneously. The implication of the decision-making process will impact different players of the organization. The choice of the decision- making approach becomes difficult to find, even with the current literature and practitioners’ knowledge. The pursuit of better ways for making decisions has been a common goal for academics and practitioners. Management scientists use different techniques and approaches to improve different types of decisions. The purpose of this decision is to use the available resources as well as possible (data and techniques) to achieve the objectives of the organization. The developing and applying of models and concepts may be helpful to solve managerial problems faced every day in different companies. As a result of this research different decision models are presented to contribute to the body of knowledge of management science. The first models are focused on the manufacturing industry and the second part of the models on the health care industry. Despite these models being case specific, they serve the purpose of exemplifying that different approaches to the problems and could provide interesting results. Unfortunately, there is no universal recipe that could be applied to all the problems. Furthermore, the same model could deliver good results with certain data and bad results for other data. A framework to analyse the data before selecting the model to be used is presented and tested in the models developed to exemplify the ideas. METHODOLOGY As the first step of the research a systematic literature review on the joint decision is presented, as are the different opinions and suggestions of different scholars. For the next stage of the thesis, the decision-making process of more than 50 companies was analysed in companies from different sectors in the production planning area at the Job Shop level. The data was obtained using surveys and face-to-face interviews. The following part of the research into the decision-making process was held in two application fields that are highly relevant for our society; manufacturing and health care. The first step was to study the interactions and develop a mathematical model for the replenishment of the car assembly where the problem of “Vehicle routing problem and Inventory” were combined. The next step was to add the scheduling or car production (car sequencing) decision and use some metaheuristics such as ant colony and genetic algorithms to measure if the behaviour is kept up with different case size problems. A similar approach is presented in a production of semiconductors and aviation parts, where a hoist has to change from one station to another to deal with the work, and a jobs schedule has to be done. However, for this problem simulation was used for experimentation. In parallel, the scheduling of operating rooms was studied. Surgeries were allocated to surgeons and the scheduling of operating rooms was analysed. The first part of the research was done in a Teaching hospital, and for the second part the interaction of uncertainty was added. Once the previous problem had been analysed a general framework to characterize the instance was built. In the final chapter a general conclusion is presented. FINDINGS AND PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS The first part of the contributions is an update of the decision-making literature review. Also an analysis of the possible savings resulting from a change in the decision process is made. Then, the results of the survey, which present a lack of consistency between what the managers believe and the reality of the integration of their decisions. In the next stage of the thesis, a contribution to the body of knowledge of the operation research, with the joint solution of the replenishment, sequencing and inventory problem in the assembly line is made, together with a parallel work with the operating rooms scheduling where different solutions approaches are presented. In addition to the contribution of the solving methods, with the use of different techniques, the main contribution is the framework that is proposed to pre-evaluate the problem before thinking of the techniques to solve it. However, there is no straightforward answer as to whether it is better to have joint or sequential solutions. Following the proposed framework with the evaluation of factors such as the flexibility of the answer, the number of actors, and the tightness of the data, give us important hints as to the most suitable direction to take to tackle the problem. RESEARCH LIMITATIONS AND AVENUES FOR FUTURE RESEARCH In the first part of the work it was really complicated to calculate the possible savings of different projects, since in many papers these quantities are not reported or the impact is based on non-quantifiable benefits. The other issue is the confidentiality of many projects where the data cannot be presented. For the car assembly line problem more computational power would allow us to solve bigger instances. For the operation research problem there was a lack of historical data to perform a parallel analysis in the teaching hospital. In order to keep testing the decision framework it is necessary to keep applying more case studies in order to generalize the results and make them more evident and less ambiguous. The health care field offers great opportunities since despite the recent awareness of the need to improve the decision-making process there are many opportunities to improve. Another big difference with the automotive industry is that the last improvements are not spread among all the actors. Therefore, in the future this research will focus more on the collaboration between academia and the health care sector.

An Investigation into the Use of Computer-based Simulation Games for Learning and Teaching in Business Management Courses

Computer-based simulation games (CSG) are a form of innovation in learning and teaching. CGS are used more pervasively in various ways such as a class activity (formative exercises) and as part of summative assessments (Leemkuil and De Jong, 2012; Zantow et al., 2005). This study investigates the current and potential use of CGS in Worcester Business School’s (WBS) Business Management undergraduate programmes. The initial survey of off-the-shelf simulation reveals that there are various categories of simulations, with each offering varying levels of complexity and learning opportunities depending on the field of study. The findings suggest that whilst there is marginal adoption of the use CSG in learning and teaching, there is significant opportunity to increase the use of CSG in enhancing learning and learner achievement, especially in Level 5 modules. The use of CSG is situational and its adoption should be undertaken on a case-by-case basis. WBS can play a major role by creating an environment that encourages and supports the use of CSG as well as other forms of innovative learning and teaching methods. Thus the key recommendation involves providing module teams further support in embedding and integrating CSG into their modules.

A case study of teaching and learning practice in a Chinese adult institution

Résumé: Cette recherche s'est réalisée dans une institution chinoise de formation des adultes. Il existe très peu d'études présentant la pratique de l'enseignement et de l'apprentissage en Chine. Aussi, il semble que cette étude de cas puisse être utile. Elle porte sur le personnel de formation en administration économique dans un centre de formation de Tianjin. Le but premier de cette recherche est de décrire ce qui se fait à cet institut de formation des adultes. Les aspects couverts vont de la sélection du contenu de formation et des modalités d'enseignement jusqu'à la compréhension de l'enseignement et de l'apprentissage. À partir de l'expérience des professeurs de ce centre de Tianjin, cette étude cherche précisément à décrire leurs perceptions et leurs attitudes en regard d'un enseignement centré sur l'apprentissage et développé selon un mode de collaboration. Les fondements théoriques retenus s'inspirent des conceptions andragogiques de Knowles, de celles de Brookfield qui ont trait aux rôles des formateurs et formatrices d'adultes et de Conti qui présente une conception de l'enseignement qui se développe selon un mode de collaboration. Les données sont été retenues à la suite d'interviews et de questionnaires. Ce dernier instrument a été administré à 70 professeurs de formation aux adultes. Les résultats obtenus sont décrits et analysés. Les principaux éléments indiquent que la pratique actuelle de formation des adultes à ce centre de Tianjin ne tient pas compte des principes de l'éducation des adultes présenté selon un mode de collaboration. La formation est centrée sur l'enseignement. Il est à souhaiter que cette recherche contribuera à développer une meilleure compréhension de l'enseignement et de l'apprentissage en Chine tel que perçus par les formateurs et formatrices. Quelques suggestions de recherche complémentaires sont proposées à la fin.||Abstract: The present study grew out of one Chinese adult institute. Relatively few works are available that present a view of what actually happens in Chinese adult teaching and learning practice. Accordingly, it is believed that a case study on Tianjin Institute of Training Economic Management Personnel (TITEMP) which has been working for years in varions forms of adult programs, will be very useful addition to the knowledge of Chinese adult teaching and learning. The primary purpose of the present study is to serve as an introduction to one Chinese adult institute (TITEMP) in terms of characteristics of teaching, including selecting teaching content and teaching pattern, and to expand the understanding of Chinese adult teaching and learning. Based on the experiences of teachers at TITEMP, the study seeks to investigate the issues of teacher's perceptions and attitudes of teaching and learning to obtain implications toward learning-centred and collaborative mode. The theoretical foundations include andragogical conceptions (Knowles), roles of adult teachers (Brookfield), and conceptions of collaborative teaching and learning mode (Conti). The main sources of data are: the interviews and results of the questionnaire. Questionnaire responses from 70 teachers with knowledge of adult teaching and learning are described and interpreted. The general findings of the study are that the existing adult teaching practice at TITEMP does not adequately account for the principles of adult learning in a collaborative mode with adult students. Adult learning is teaching-centred. Some suggestions for further research are offered. It is hoped and believed that this research will contribute to a better understanding of Chinese adult teaching and learning in general, more particularly to the empirical study of the teachers from teaching and learning perspective in a Chinese adult higher learning setting. The research findings will be used as basis for the exploration of Chinese adult teaching.

Discrepancy between human resource research and practice : comparison of industrial/organisational psychologists and human resource practitioners' beliefs

There is a large and growing body of research to show that human resource (HR) practices affect individual performance, organisational productivity and organisational performance. Academic findings about effective HR practices, however, have not readily been adopted by practitioners. A variety of theoretical and practical explanations have been advanced about the research-practice gap. Research by Rynes, Colbert, and Brown (2002) suggested that the research-practice gap is due to a lack of knowledge, but the extent to which these findings apply to the Australian context is unknown. The sample consisted of 102 industrial/organisational (I/O) psychologists and 89 HR practitioners. The main aim of the present study was to replicate and extend the work of Rynes et al. by examining and comparing the knowledge of I/O psychologists and HR practitioners. It was found that overall I/O psychologists were better informed about HR research than HR practitioners; in particular, they were more knowledgeable about management practices and recruitment and selection. In both groups, of the five content areas examined (Management Practices; General Employment Practices; Training and Development; Recruitment and Selection; and Compensation and Benefits), the greatest gaps were in Recruitment and Selection.

It really is black and white when you look at it like this : reporting on a study into Australian professors' research and teaching priorities

Despite optimistic claims about the research-teaching nexus, Australian academics still face tension between research and teaching. The teaching and research priorities, beliefs and behaviours of 70 Professorial and Associate Professorial academics in Science, Information Technology and Engineering were examined in this study. The academics from 4 faculties in 3 Australian universities, were asked to rank 16 research activities and 16 matched learning and teaching (L&T) activities from each of three perspectives: job satisfaction, leadership behaviour, and perceptions of professional importance. The findings, which were remarkably consistent across the three universities, were unequivocally in favour of Research. The only L&T activity that was ranked consistently well was “Improving student satisfaction ratings for Teaching”. The data demonstrates that Australian government and university initiatives to raise the status of L&T activity are not impacting significantly on Australia’s future leaders of university learning.