428 research outputs found

    Effects of municipal smoke-free ordinances on secondhand smoke exposure in the Republic of Korea

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    ObjectiveTo reduce premature deaths due to secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure among non-smokers, the Republic of Korea (ROK) adopted changes to the National Health Promotion Act, which allowed local governments to enact municipal ordinances to strengthen their authority to designate smoke-free areas and levy penalty fines. In this study, we examined national trends in SHS exposure after the introduction of these municipal ordinances at the city level in 2010.MethodsWe used interrupted time series analysis to assess whether the trends of SHS exposure in the workplace and at home, and the primary cigarette smoking rate changed following the policy adjustment in the national legislation in ROK. Population-standardized data for selected variables were retrieved from a nationally representative survey dataset and used to study the policy action’s effectiveness.ResultsFollowing the change in the legislation, SHS exposure in the workplace reversed course from an increasing (18% per year) trend prior to the introduction of these smoke-free ordinances to a decreasing (−10% per year) trend after adoption and enforcement of these laws (β2 = 0.18, p-value = 0.07; β3 = −0.10, p-value = 0.02). SHS exposure at home (β2 = 0.10, p-value = 0.09; β3 = −0.03, p-value = 0.14) and the primary cigarette smoking rate (β2 = 0.03, p-value = 0.10; β3 = 0.008, p-value = 0.15) showed no significant changes in the sampled period. Although analyses stratified by sex showed that the allowance of municipal ordinances resulted in reduced SHS exposure in the workplace for both males and females, they did not affect the primary cigarette smoking rate as much, especially among females.ConclusionStrengthening the role of local governments by giving them the authority to enact and enforce penalties on SHS exposure violation helped ROK to reduce SHS exposure in the workplace. However, smoking behaviors and related activities seemed to shift to less restrictive areas such as on the streets and in apartment hallways, negating some of the effects due to these ordinances. Future studies should investigate how smoke-free policies beyond public places can further reduce the SHS exposure in ROK

    A PHENOMENOLOGICAL STUDY OF INCLUSIVE AND EQUITABLE TEACHING PRACTICES AMONG FACULTY AT A RESEARCH-INTENSIVE INSTITUTION

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    The increasing enrollment of diverse students in the US higher education institutions has given rise to discussions on how to meet the academic needs of minority students. Non-faculty members have implemented programs and initiatives that indirectly improve minority students\u27 educational outcomes. Less explored is the role of faculty in ensuring that minority students thrive academically. This phenomenological qualitative study explores the general orientation of faculty toward inclusive and equitable teaching (IET). Specifically, it looked at how faculty define and experience IET, factors that motivated their use of IET, and barriers to implementing IET in higher education. Eight faculty from different disciplinary orientations, who are reputable for teaching inclusively and equitably, were interviewed. Findings revealed that faculty IET experiences revolved around including diverse authorial voices in literature, encouraging diverse voices in class discussions, and practicing the ethics of caring. However, faculty uncovered personal, organizational, and societal barriers to implementing IET in higher education

    Amplifying Marginal Voices of the Global Movement for Deeper Learning: A Case Study of a Rural K-12 Mission School in Cambodia

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    Several paradigms have been developed to define what constitutes deeper learning, how to foster it, and what desired outcomes or competencies can result from it. Much of the literature, however, has been based on studies in economically developed Western countries. There has been little, if any, that is based on developing country settings where culture and context can account for differences in the manner of promoting deeper learning. This qualitative case study explored the experiences of learners in the Mudita Mission School (MMS; pseudonym), a K-12 school in a rural part of northern Cambodia, and investigated how deeper learning was enacted, valued, and fostered there. It also examined challenges and opportunities for promoting deeper learning faced by the school. This study sought to contribute to the global movements for deeper learning by highlighting voices from marginalized communities, thus expanding the conceptual frameworks which have been exclusive of experiences of students and educators in impoverished country contexts. This study also sought to contribute to the literature that informs Cambodian educational reform. Study findings suggest that fostering eco-humanistic value-systems and respect for Khmer culture scaffold arcs of deeper learning in the MMS, and that several innovative pedagogical practices uncommon to many rural schools in Cambodia were transforming the educational experiences of students there. Based on the findings, the author proposes a theory of Epistemologies of Deeper Learning to complement frameworks in the literature

    A proteolytic landscape: understanding the role of myoepithelial cells in early-stage breast cancer progression

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    Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) is a non-obligate precursor of invasive breast cancer. Despite evidence suggesting that up to half of DCIS cases would remain stable and non-threatening, virtually all women with DCIS are treated, highlighting overtreatment as a pressing issue in DCIS management. To understand the role of the tumour-associated myoepithelium, we present a 3D in vitro model that incorporates both luminal and myoepithelial cells in physiomimetic conditions. We demonstrate that integrin β6-expressing DCIS-associated myoepithelial cells promote striking myoepithelial-led invasion of luminal cells via upregulation of the collagenase MMP13, through a non-canonical TGFβ/EP300 pathway. In vivo, MMP13 expression is associated with stromal invasion in a murine model of DCIS progression and is elevated in myoepithelial cells of clinical high-grade DCIS cases. In addition to the upregulation of tumour-promoting MMP13, we also demonstrate the repressive function of myoepithelial ADAMTS3, with increased invasion observed upon ADAMTS3 siRNA-mediated loss. Degradomic analysis, using a terminal amine isotopic labelling of substrates approach, combined with functional assays, implicate fibronectin as a direct ADAMTS3 substrate. We further show that loss of ADAMTS3 enhances fibronectin levels in the microenvironment and promotes invasion through canonical integrin α5β1 activation. Our data identify a key role for myoepithelial-derived MMP13 and ADAMTS3 loss in facilitating DCIS progression, pointing the way towards robust markers for risk stratification in DCIS patients

    The State as Mujahid: Jihadist Norms in International Narrative of Saudi Arabia

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    This study explored Saudi narrative for the expression of jihadist norms and tested the extent to which Critical Constructivism can account for the presence (or absence) of those norms. Rather than identifying jihadist norms, this study found that contra-norms are expressed in Saudi narrative. These are expressed in a complex way, preserving the legitimacy of Saudi Arabia in multiple theatres. Further, it found Critical Constructivism is sufficient to explain the presence of these norms given the various power dynamics

    Sustainable Value Co-Creation in Welfare Service Ecosystems : Transforming temporary collaboration projects into permanent resource integration

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    The aim of this paper is to discuss the unexploited forces of user-orientation and shared responsibility to promote sustainable value co-creation during service innovation projects in welfare service ecosystems. The framework is based on the theoretical field of public service logic (PSL) and our thesis is that service innovation seriously requires a user-oriented approach, and that such an approach enables resource integration based on the service-user’s needs and lifeworld. In our findings, we identify prerequisites and opportunities of collaborative service innovation projects in order to transform these projects into sustainable resource integration once they have ended

    Mesostoma ehrenbergii spermatocytes provide an unusual and exciting model to investigate chromosome movement, cleavage furrows and tethers during cell division

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    For my PhD thesis I studied and tracked chromosome movement in primary spermatocytes from a species of aquatic flatworm, the Mesostoma ehrenbergii, with the hope to better understand what determines the force behind these intricate and highly co-ordinated movements during meiosis. Canonical theories of chromosome movement state that microtubules are the main producers of force for chromosome movement in the meiotic spindle, however my research has shown chromosomes can not only move but can move even faster in the absence of microtubules. I also tracked the cleavage furrow and showed it was able to simultaneously move and ingress in the absence of microtubules. I worked on determining how the force is produced by using a laser microbeam to sever various components in the cell and by adding various myosin and actin inhibiting and enhancing drugs to see how chromosome movement may be altered. In addition, I discovered elastic tethers are present in Mesostoma during metaphase and anaphase and my research on functionally disabling tethers suggests they play a role in coordinating or maintaining non-random chromosome movement in these cells. In sum, my PhD research has added evidence to the non-microtubule model of chromosome movement by showing actin and myosin is involved in movement and that tethers may play a role in coordinating or maintaining non-random chromosome movement in these cells

    Strategic Development of Circular Economy Business in Established Companies : A process approach to business strategy, business model innovation, and collaboration

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    Kiertotalous mahdollistaa taloudellisesti ja ympäristöllisesti kestävän kasvun. Siksi se on saanut sekä poliittisten päättäjien että yritysten huomion ympäri maailmaa ja eri toimialoilla. Yrityksille kiertotalousliiketoiminta tarjoaa kilpailuetua ja kustannussäästöjä sekä sitouttaa avainkumppaneita. Vakiintuneilla yrityksillä on kuitenkin yhä vaikeuksia toteuttaa kiertotalousliiketoimintaa sen pitkän aikavälin vaikutukset huomioiden, sillä kiertotalous edellyttää nykyisten liiketoimintamallien, liiketoimintastrategioiden ja organisaatiorajat ylittävän yhteistyön perustavanlaatuista uudelleenajattelua. Yritysten tuleekin omaksua strateginen näkökulma johtaakseen onnistuneesti monimutkaista ja -tahoista strategisen kiertotalousliiketoiminnan kehitysprosessia. Kiertotaloutta liiketoimintaparadigmana käsittelevä tutkimusala keskittyy kiertotalousliiketoiminnan operatiiviseen ja staattiseen toteutukseen, mutta epäonnistuu yrityksien kiertotalousliiketoimintamallien ja -strategioiden pitkän tähtäimen kehitysprosessien ohjaamisessa. Yhteistyö on näissä prosesseissa välttämätöntä, mutta sen oikea-aikaiset roolit ovat jääneet vähälle empiiriselle tarkastelulle. Tutkimus vastaa tutkimusaukkoihin yrityskeskeisessä, mutta yhteistyöhön perustuvassa strategisessa kiertotalouden toteutuksessa aiemmin puuttuneella, käytännön pioneeritapauksiin perustuvalla strategisen johtamisen prosessiviitekehyksellä. Strategista kehitystä kohti kiertotalousliiketoimintaa tarkastellaan kolmen tutkimuskysymyksen kautta: Kuinka vakiintuneet yritykset voivat (i) kehittää kiertotalousliiketoimintastrategiaansa ja (ii) innovoida sen kanssa yhteensopivia kiertotalousliiketoimintamalleja? (iii) Miten yhteistyö voi tukea vakiintuneita yrityksiä niiden kiertotalousliiketoiminnan strategisessa kehityksessä? Tämä pragmaattiseen tieteenfilosofiaan nojaava, neljästä julkaisusta koostuva tutkimus tarkastelee kvalitatiivisesti ja prosessuaalisesti empiirisiä moni- ja yksittäistapaustutkimusasetelmia. Runsas haastattelu- ja dokumenttiaineisto on kerätty 12 kiertotalousedelläkävijäyrityksestä, jotka toimivat ympäristöä kuormittavilla toimialoilla kiertotaloudelle suotuisissa institutionaalisissa konteksteissa Suomesta ja Italiasta, ja sen analyysi nojaa abduktiiviseen logiikkaan. Päälöydökset tiivistyvät yhdeksäksi propositioksi ja prosessimalliksi, jossa kiertotalousliiketoimintastrategiaa, kiertotalousliiketoimintamalli-innovaatiota kiertotalousliiketoiminnan yhteistyötä johdetaan yli ajan vakiintuneiden yritysten proaktiivisessa, usein radikaalissa kiertotalousliiketoiminnan strategisen kehityksen prosessissa dynaamisesti toisiinsa kietoutuen. Kiertotalousliiketoimintastrategiaa kehitetään eri painopisteitä sisältävillä strategiasykleillä ja eri ajalliset näkökulmat huomioivalla strategisella päätöksenteolla. Kiertotalousliiketoimintastrategian proaktiivisuutta ja radikaaliutta lisää ympäristöä kuormittava, aikasidonnainen konteksti ja sen toteutus peilautuu kiertotalousliiketoimintamalliin, joka voi rakentua erilaisista linkittyvistä innovaatioista varsinkin radikaaleissa tapauksissa ja tuottaa uutta liiketoimintaa joko kiertotalouslähtöisen yritysstrategian osana tai spin off -hankkeina johdettavaksi. Yhteistyön merkitys kasvaa ajassa: sen erilaiset tunnistetut johtamiskäytännöt mahdollistavat kiertotalousliiketoimintamallin, se tukee kiertotalousliiketoimintastrategian kehittämistä kiihdyttämällä palautepohjaista oppimista ja radikaalia muutosta ja se saa ekosysteemin seuraamaan yrityksen omaa kiertotalousvisiota ohjailemalla toimialan, markkinoiden ja regulaation kehitystä. Tämä tutkimus luo ja täydentää tietoa kiertotalouden liiketoimintaparadigman tutkimusalalla korostaen kiertotalouden strategisia vaikutuksia vakiintuneiden yritysten liiketoiminta- ja yritysstrategioihin ympäristöä kuormittavissa konteksteissa, peräänkuuluttaen muutoksen proaktiivisuutta, radikaaliutta, systeemisyyttä ja aikasidonnaisuuksia. Kiertotalousliiketoimintastrategian osalta tutkimus luo aiemmin puuttuneen määritelmän sen kehitysprosessille ja avaa sen proaktiivista tyyppiä samalla vaihtoehtoisten tyyppien jatkotutkimukselle pohjaa luoden. Kiertotalouden liiketoimintamallien tutkimus täydentyy prosessuaalisella ymmärryksellä erityisesti liittyen niiden radikaaliin innovointiin osana kiertotalousliiketoimintastrategian toteuttamista. Kiertotalousliiketoiminnan yhteistyön tutkimukseen tulokset tuovat uusia näkemyksiä oikea-aikaisen, erilaisia rooleja ajassa saavan yhteistyön valjastamiseen kiertotalousliiketoimintastrategian ja liiketoimintaekosysteemin kehityksen tahtien yhteensovittamiseksi. Tulokset ohjeistavat yritysjohtajia, mihin toimiin heidän tulee ryhtyä ja milloin selviytyäkseen ja rakentaakseen yritykselleen ennakoivasti kilpailuetua eri toimialoilla disruptoivassa kiertotaloussiirtymässä. Päättäjille ja muille organisaatioille tutkimus osoittaa rooleja ja keinoja tukea oikea-aikaisesti yritysten kiertotalouspyrkimyksiä ja samalla yhteisiä talouselämän ja yhteiskunnan kestävän kehityksen tavoitteita. Lopuksi summataan tutkimuksen rajoitteet ja niistä ammentavat houkuttelevat jatkotutkimuskohteet.Circular economy (CE) promises a pathway to decouple economic and environmentally sustainable growth. Therefore, it has gained the attention of both policymakers and companies around the world and across industries. For companies, a shift to CE offers competitive advantage, cost-savings, and engagement with key partners. Nevertheless, established companies struggle to implement CE business in practice and absorb its long-term implications, as CE requires a fundamental rethinking of extant business models, business strategies, and collaborations with other organizations. Hence, companies need to adopt a strategic viewpoint to manage the complex, overarching strategic development process of CE business. To date, research in the field of CE as a business paradigm has focused on operational and static issues in CE implementation but not on guiding established companies in developing circular business models and strategies. Such long-term processes call for inter-organizational collaboration, but the roles and timing of collaborations have been overlooked in CE business research and remain empirically underexplored. This work addresses the gap in company-centric yet collaborative CE implementation as a strategic consideration for established companies’ business by developing a lacked processual and pragmatically valuable strategic management framework, which is based on empiric cases of companies pioneering in CE business. Three research questions are addressed to holistically explore the strategic development of CE business: How can established companies (i) develop circular business strategies and (ii) innovate circular business models aligned with circular business strategy development? (iii) How can collaboration support established companies in their strategic development of CE business? To this end, this pragmatist-based research adopts a qualitative process approach to exploring multiple- and single-case study settings. Twelve cases of CE pioneer companies are sampled from environmentally burdensome industries in CE-driven institutional contexts in Finland and Italy. Rich data obtained from these companies, via interviews, documents, and other secondary data, are analyzed from an abductive approach and the findings are presented across four publications. The key findings are summarized as nine propositions and conceptualized as a process model that captures how circular business strategy, circular business model innovation, and collaboration for CE business dynamically intertwine and can be managed over time in the overarching process of proactive, even radical strategic development of CE business in established companies. The findings reveal that circular business strategy is developed over time through strategic cycles with varied focus areas and intertemporal decision-making. Environmentally burdensome temporal contexts demand it to take particularly proactive and radical forms, and it is implemented through circular business model innovation, which can comprise diverse interlinked innovations and evolve from diversifying to transforming the linear business. Spillovers to spin-off CE business opportunities can be managed under a CE-driven corporate strategy or as spin-off ventures. Collaboration plays an increasingly important role in enabling circular business models with identified managerial practices, in accelerating circular business strategy development with feedback for learning and radical change, and in aligning the ecosystem to the company’s CE vision through the development of industry, markets, and regulation. This dissertation makes several contributions to the literature on CE as a business paradigm. It highlights that the strategic development of CE business in established companies in environmentally burdensome contexts involves proactivity, radicality, systemic change, and temporal considerations. It fills a gap in the circular business strategy stream by defining circular business strategy development and conceptualizing its proactive type, which in turn paves the way for studying other emergent types of this process. It augments the research on circular business models with processual insights on temporality and radical innovation of circular business model undertaken as part of implementing a circular business strategy. Research on collaboration for CE business is enriched with new insights on how collaborations can be harnessed timely to pace and align the development in circular business strategies and in the business ecosystem. The findings inform managerial guidelines on what actions to take and when in established companies for surviving and proactively building long-term competitive advantage in disruptive CE transition across industries. Meanwhile, policymakers and other organizations are encouraged to engage—in a timely fashion and in diverse roles—with companies’ CE efforts to promote shared sustainability goals in the economy and society. This dissertation concludes by discussing the limitations and future research avenues that stem from the insights of this research.COTUTELLE -yhteisväitöskirj
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