Overcoming inaction through collective institutional entrepreneurship

Studies on institutional change generally pertain to the agency-structure paradox or the ability of institutional entrepreneurs to spearhead change despite constraints. In many complex fields, however, change also needs cooperation from numerous dispersed actors. This presents the additional paradox of ensuring that these actors engage in collective action when individual interests favor lack of cooperation. We draw on complementary insights from institutional and regime theories to identify drivers of collective institutional entrepreneurship and develop an analytical framework. This is applied to the field of global climate policy to illustrate how collective inaction was overcome to realize a global regulatory institution, the Kyoto Protocol

Entrepreneurs, institutional entrepreneurship and institutional change

The intersection of entrepreneurship research and institutional theory has begun to attract increasing scholarly attention. While much recent research has studied "institutional entrepreneurs" credited with creating new or transforming existing institutions to support their projects, less attention has been paid to the institutions that constitute the menus from which cho

Text me! New consumer practices and change in organizational fields

While scholars have provided increasingly well-developed theoretical frameworks for understanding the role of institutional entrepreneurs and other purposeful actors in bringing about change in organizational fields, much less attention has been paid to the role of unorganized, nonstrategic actors in catalyzing change. In particular, the role of consumers remains largely uninvestigated. In this article, we draw on a case of the introduction of text messaging in the United Kingdom to explore the role of consumers in catalyzing change in organizational fields. Text messaging has become a widely diffused and institutionalized communication practice, in part changing mobile telephony from a voice-based, aural, and synchronous experience to a text-based, visual, and asynchronous experience. As consumers innovated and diffused new practices around this product, their actions led to significant changes in the field. We suggest how and under what conditions consumers are likely to innovate at the micro level and, with the subsequent involvement of other actors, catalyze change at the field level. Our primary contribution is to show how the cumulative effect of the spontaneous activities of one important and particularly dispersed and unorganized group can lead to changes in a field. By showing how change can result from the uncoordinated actions of consumers accumulating and converging over time, we provide an alternative explanation of change in organizational fields that does not privilege purposeful actors such as institutional entrepreneurs

Production, Processes and Modification of Nanocrystalline Cellulose from Agro-Waste: A Review

Nanocrystalline cellulose is a renewable nanomaterial that has gained huge attention for its use in various applications from advanced biomedical material to food packaging material due to its exceptional physical and biological properties, such as high crystallinity degree, large specific surface area, high aspect ratio, high thermal resistance, good mechanical properties, abundance of surface hydroxyl groups, low toxicity, biodegradability, and biocompatibility. However, they still have drawbacks: (1) sources of raw materials and its utilization in the production of nanocomposites and (2) high chemical and energy consumption regarding the isolation of macro-sized fibers to nano-sized fibers. The incorporation of hydrophilic nanocrystalline cellulose within hydrophobic polymer limits the dispersion of nano-sized fibers, thus resulting in low mechanical properties of nanocomposites. Hence, surface modification on nano-sized fiber could be a solution to this problem. This review focuses on the advanced developments in pretreatment, nanocrystalline production and modifications, and its application in food packaging, biomedical materials, pharmaceutical, substitution biomaterials, drug excipient, drug delivery automotive, and nanopaper applications

Nomadic pastoralism in southern Iran

The nomadic pastoralist system in Baft district in Kerman province is well known in Iran for producing cashmere from Raeini goats. However, there is little information on the production system. Interviews were carried out with 30 Siahjel nomad families of Raen origin in proximity of about 20 km to Baft city in 2010 to characterise the production system in terms of family labour force, work sharing, livestock numbers, management and marketing practices, and diseases. The nomads move their livestock over large distances within the rangelands of the region from May to November, and the majority migrate south during autumn and winter. Of the nomad families, 87% live with and manage their animals together with one or more other related families. All household heads are males. All family members are involved in raising livestock; males and hired labourers dominate the physically harder jobs like shepherding and breeding, while women are involved in milking and caring. Of the animals, 80% are owned by adult or young unmarried males, none by daughters. Average proportion of goats and sheep per family flock are 89% and 8%, respectively, which indicates that Siahjel nomads mainly rely on goats. Adult breeding females constituted the largest group within the goat herds. The rationale for keeping a high number of male goats may be related to their greater production of cashmere. Diseases accounted for 57% of adult and 88% of young animal deaths. The most prevalent diseases were enterotoxaemia, foot-and-mouth disease, pneumonia, agalactia and diarrhoea. Animal sales, meat, cashmere and milk production are the major reasons for keeping goats. Rangeland is considered as the main source of feeding (85% of total annual feed intake); the remaining 15% is provided by stubble grazing. However, the herds do not produce enough meat, milk and cashmere to sustain the life of the nomad families, and thus, they often have to sell part of their stock which will further decrease their income.Fil: Ansari-Renani, Hamid R. Animal Science Research Institute; IránFil: Rischkowsky, Barbara. International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas; EtiopíaFil: Mueller, Joaquin Pablo. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Bariloche; ArgentinaFil: Seyed Momend, S.M. Agriculture and Natural Resources Research Center; IránFil: Moradi, Sepehr. Animal Science Research Institute; Irán. University of Mashad. Agriculture College. Animal Science Department; Irá

Effects of predisposing, reinforcing and enabling factors on self-care behaviors of the patients with diabetes mellitus in the Minoodasht city, Iran

Background: To control diabetes mellitus (DM) it is necessary to make overall changes in the life style of the patients. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of predisposing, reinforcing and enabling factors on self-care behaviors of the patients with DM in the Minoodasht city, Iran in 2012.Methods: In this quasi-experimental study, 78 people with DM were selected by convenience sampling method. In the first stage of study, the educational program was compiled and executed on six information sessions. To present the informative content, a video projector and different lecturing methods including questions and answers, dynamic group discussion and different educational materials such as pamphlets and CDs were employed. After one month, the efficiency of the educational program was determined by using the same questioner. Data were analyzed using paired sample T-test and McNemar test. Results: The mean age of participants was 49 (SD: 3.27.) years old, 87.2 were married, and 19.2 were illiterate. The results showed that the enabling factors like adopting to go on a diet and the educational classes facilitated by the staff had significant effects on health care behavior of the patients. Furthermore 69.2 of the participants adopted to go on a diet before the educational sessions; that figure increased to 94.9 after the educational sessions. According to the results the mean scores for the knowledge, attitude, and behavior, reinforcement factors and enabling factors increased significantly after of the educational intervention (p- value >0.001).Conclusion: Predisposing, enabling and reinforcement factors affected in taking self-care behavior in the patient with DM. © 2015 Borhani et al.; licensee BioMed Central

Observations on the efficiency of using different cashmere combs

The effect of using small or large cashmere combs on cashmere harvest, cashmere quality and combing time was studied on Raeini cashmere goats in nomadic goat breeding systems of the Iranian province of Kerman. Two groups of 20 goats of different ages were combed with either a large or a small comb, three times with intervals of 2 weeks in early spring when natural fiber shedding has started. Combed cashmere weight, duration of combing, fiber diameter, and down yield were measured. A sample of combed cashmere was analyzed using a Laserscan instrument. A general linear model including type of comb, stage of combing and age of goat was fitted to analyze the data. Small combs collect more cashmere (31.0 vs. 21.7 g, P 0.05) but combing time is higher (3.75 vs. 2.79 min, P < 0.01). In the first two combing sessions much more cashmere was obtained than in the last (28.1, 32.0 and 19.0 g, respectively, P < 0.01), but the weight of total combed cashmere was much less than typical shorn fleece weights. Combing can be justified only if a considerable price premium can be obtained from selling combed cashmere instead of selling shorn cashmere, or if the combed cashmere is used to add value on-farm. If this is the case, small combs with short rods are preferable since more cashmere can be collected without affecting its qualityFil: Ansari-Renani, Hamid R. Animal Science Research Institute; IránFil: Mueller, Joaquin Pablo. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Bariloche; ArgentinaFil: Rischkowsky, Barbara. International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas; EtiopíaFil: Seyed Momend, S.M. Agriculture and Natural Resources Research Center; IránFil: Ehsani, M. Agriculture and Natural Resources Research Center; IránFil: Moradi, Sepehr. University of Zanjan. Agriculture College. Animal Science Department; Irá

Cashmere quality of Raeini goats kept by nomads in Iran

The income of the nomads in Kerman Province depends mainly on Raeini goats that produce meat, milk and cashmere. This paper assesses the cashmere quality and its variation in Raeini herds to determine the scope for improvement. In April 2010 fleece weights (FW) and midside fleece samples were taken from a total of 686 male and female cashmere goats of 1, 2 and 3 years of age belonging to 29 herds. The herds were randomly chosen in the summer grazing area of nomads within 20 km of the city of Baft, province of Kerman, South of Iran, the main cashmere producing area in Iran. Cashmere yield (CY) was determined from the weight of dehaired cashmere to weight of shorn fiber. Cashmere fibers were analyzed using an OFDA instrument. A general mixed linear model including sex, age and sex by age interaction as fixed effects and herd as random effect was used to analyze the data and measure the relationships between different cashmere characteristics and fleece attributes. The overall means ± standard deviations were for fleece weights (FW) 507 ± 183 g, cashmere yield (CY) 56.5 ± 12.2%, mean fiber diameter (MFD) 19.7 ± 1.5 μm, fiber diameter standard deviation (FDSD) 4.5 ± 0.6 μm, fiber curvature (FC) 62.9 ± 8.5°/mm and staple length (SL) 54.2 ± 7.0 mm, respectively. Herd effect was significant for all traits except for SL and sex by age effect was only significant for MFD. One year old males and females had finer cashmere than older goats. FW and FDSD were higher in males and CY and FC was higher in young animals. Pearson correlation between MFD and FC, FDSD and MFD, MFD and FW was −0.647, 0.399 and 0.211 respectively. Raeini cashmere is white, has an excellent SL and FC but is relatively coarse. Given the differences between and within herds there seems to be substantial scope to improve the commercial value of Raeini cashmere.Fil: Ansari-Renani, Hamid R. Animal Science Research Institute; IránFil: Mueller, Joaquin Pablo. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Estación Experimental Agropecuaria Bariloche; ArgentinaFil: Rischkowsky, Barbara. International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas; SiriaFil: Seyed Momend, S.M. Agriculture and Natural Resources Research Center; IránFil: Alipour, O. Livestock Office of Agriculture Department of Baft; IránFil: Ehsani, M. Agriculture and Natural Resources Research Center; IránFil: Moradi, Sepehr. University of Zanjan. Agriculture College. Animal Science Department; Irán. Animal Science Research Institute; Irán

Impact of Correlation and Pointing Error on Secure Outage Performance over Arbitrary Correlated Nakagami Turbulent Fading Mixed RF-FSO Channel

Funding Information: Manuscript received September 8, 2020; revised February 11, 2021; accepted February 14, 2021. Date of publication February 16, 2021; date of current version March 10, 2021. This research was supported in part by the National Research Foundation of Korea grant funded by the Korean government (Ministry of Science and ICT; 2019R1A2C1083988), in part by the Ministry of Science and ICT, Korea, under the Information Technology Research Center support program (IITP-2020-2016-0-00313) supervised by the Institute for Information & Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation, and in part by Sejong University through its faculty research program (20212023). (Sheikh Habibul Islam, A. S. M. Badrud-duza, and S. M. R. Islam contributed equally to this work and co-first authors.) Corresponding authors: A. S. M. Badrudduza; Heejung Yu (e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]).)Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Security at the Physical Layer over GG Fading and mEGG Turbulence Induced RF-UOWC Mixed System

This work was supported in part by the National Research Foundation of Korea grant funded by the Korean Government (Ministry of Science and ICT) under Grant 2019R1A2C1083988, in part by the Ministry of Science and ICT, South Korea, under the Information Technology Research Center Support Program supervised by the Institute for Information and Communications Technology Planning and Evaluation, under Grant IITP-2021-2016-0-00313, and in part by Sejong University through its Faculty Research Program under Grant 20202021.Peer reviewedPublisher PD