Theorising age and generation in development: A relational approach

This introduction outlines the analytical approach informing the articles presented in this special issue. The project of ‘generationing’ development involves re-thinking development as distinctly generational in its dynamics. For this, we adopt a relational approach to the study of young people in development, which overcomes the limitations inherent to common categorising approaches. Concepts of age and generation are employed to conceptualise young people as social actors and life phases such as childhood and youth in relational terms. Acknowledging the centrality of young people in social reproduction puts them at the heart of development studies and leads the articles comprising this special issue to explore how young people’s agency shapes and is shaped by the changing terms of social reproduction brought about by development

Embodied interaction in customer experience: a phenomenological study of group fitness

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Nudging in food waste management: Where sustainability meets cost-effectiveness

Food waste in the hospitality industry is a major problem, and solutions to change wasteful behaviours in professional kitchens are scarce. De Visser-Amundson and Kleijnen contribute to this knowledge gap by exploring how nudging can be used to stimulate employees to save more food without impacting the customer experience. In a field setting with a perspective of cost-effective service excellence (CESE), they specifically show that cost-saving behaviours realised by either a social norms nudge or a pre-commitment nudge are promising paths to explore as solutions to reduce food waste in professional kitchens and to achieve CESE. To that effect, the social norms and the pre-commitment nudge reduced daily food waste with 25.02% and with 33.50%, respectively

Adeno-associated virus-mediated gene transfer of a secreted decoy human macrophage scavenger receptor reduces atherosclerotic lesion formation in LDL receptor knockout mice.

Macrophage scavenger receptors (MSR) promote atherosclerotic lesion formation, and modulation of MSR activity has been shown to influence atherosclerosis. Soluble receptors are effective in inhibiting receptor-mediated functions in various diseases. We have generated a secreted macrophage scavenger receptor (sMSR) that consists of the bovine growth hormone signal sequence and the human MSR A I extracellular domains. sMSR reduces degradation of atherogenic modified low-density lipoproteins and monocyte/macrophage adhesion on endothelial cells in vitro. To test long-term effects of sMSR, atherosclerosis-susceptible LDLR knockout mice were transduced via the tail vein with an adeno-associated virus (AAV) expressing sMSR or control enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP), and a Western-type diet was started. Gene transfer caused a temporary elevation in alkaline phosphatase and aspartate amino transferase values without a change in C-reactive protein. sMSR protein was detected in the plasma of the transduced mice by a specific ELISA 6 months after the gene transfer. AAV-mediated sMSR gene transfer reduced atherosclerotic lesion area in the aorta by 21% (P < 0.05) compared to EGFP-transduced control mice. Even though eradication of established disease was not possible, atherosclerotic lesion formation could be modified using AAV-mediated gene transfer of the decoy sMSR