Exploring food system assessments as a contribution to sustainability and equity: a case study of the Thunder Bay + area food strategy community food system report card

The corporate food regime has contributed to a number of negative outcomes that include land, water, and ecosystem degradation; human health concerns; marginalization of smallholder farmers and urban agriculture producers; and negative social impacts on their livelihoods, particularly in the context of climate change. As a response, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) have emerged, attempting to transform the food system. One of the primary alternative food system discourses questioning the limitations of dominant agri-food system practices has been focused on the concept of sustainability. Sustainability is a contested concept and has different interpretations depending on one’s political and ideological perspective. As a result, sustainable food system assessments have been used to analyze the way that sustainability might be an alternative to the corporate food system and assess progress toward stated sustainability goals. The outcomes of a sustainable food system assessment are notably influenced by the selection of a sustainability framework, which brings particular approaches and specified measurement metrics into play. Many food system assessments, however, neglect to identify their underlying assumptions and motivations for change. This research explores the use of sustainable food system assessments and their potential contributions and impacts. Three interconnected aspects influencing outcomes of assessments were identified in the literature, including food system governance, sustainability frameworks, and choice of indicators. [...

Exploitation of public sector R&D and the open invitation paradigm: Governance of knowledge transfer within public research organisations (PROs)

In the current challenging business environment, where firms need to rapidly seize new technological and business opportunities in order to stay competitive, public sector research and development (henceforth: R&D) can provide an important source of frontier knowledge. The determinants, effects and impacts of firms’ use of public R&D have been studied in the context of firms’ collaborations with universities, while the role of public research organisations (henceforth: PROs) in knowledge transfer (henceforth: KT) remains under-researched. In light of the efforts of governments and PROs to seek new strategies and approaches to boost the effectiveness of their R&D, and in light of the increasingly ‘open’ nature of innovation processes, PROs’ engagement in KT with businesses and other external partners is encouraged. This doctoral thesis aims to investigate what organisational approaches and managerial practices PROs use in order to engage in the transfer of their knowledge and R&D outcomes, including the commercial exploitation of their research output. Particularly, this doctoral thesis intends to fill this important research gap by investigating three key research questions: (i) How do PROs organise their KT activities? in particular, what factors are associated with different ways to organise their KT management functions? (ii) What managerial practices are associated with PROs’ KT activities within the open innovation paradigm? (iii) How well do PROs’ performance measurements reflect the specificities of their heterogeneous missions and KT engagement? This thesis is structured using a three-paper format, with each question being addressed in a different paper; the three papers constitute chapters 3, 4 and 5 of the thesis. The thesis also includes an Introduction (chapter 1), a chapter setting out the context of PROs in the UK (chapter 2) and a conclusion chapter (chapter 6)

Representation the characteristics of the successful Professors in the virtual education in Iran’s higher education system from the viewpoint of students and professors, a phenomenological study

Professors and trainers are the main pillars of the teaching-learning process who play an undeniable role in improving the quality of the educational system. The present study was conducted to identify the characteristics of successful instructors of virtual education. For this purpose, phenomenological method was used to identify and delineate the depth of the phenomenon under the study. Data from 14 semi-structured interviews with students and professors of the University of Tehran were gathered and analyzed. Data analysis was conducted based on Colaizzi's strategy.  Analysis of the data from the interviews itenfited four main categories including: electronic skills, educational features, researchist features and moral characteristics and behavior. The findings showed that effective teaching in virtual education requires special capabilites and the current status is far from the ideal situation

Evaluating Architecture and Urbanism Regulations in Establishing High Buildings (Case study: Hamadan City)

High buildings in modern cities are always one of effective cases in urban scene. Semiotic, aesthetic, identity and legibility of environment are researchable aspects of high buildings in urban face but despite important effects of these buildings in cities, their absence is always felt in urban macro decisions and their effects on Hamadan urban scene are always felt. Nevertheless, regulations related to these buildings in most cities of world have very widespread dimensions that include primary stage of justifying design, evaluating environmental and visual effects, project design, approval steps and accurate implementation plans but in Iran' cities including Hamadan, these regulations are very primary. Valuable works of city regarding historical, semiotics, architecture and other factors should not be compromised by high buildings. With locating of high buildings in suitable part of the city, we can use them as urban signs. This research tries to improve architecture criteria and urbanism criteria in establishing high buildings. This is an analytical-comparative research and library research and has used pictures and field studies for more examination and SWOT analysis is used. Findings show that current high buildings in Hamadan are located from Buali Square toward west and south to Eram Boulevard and People Park, sparingly. Therefore, because urban city in this part of the city is more suitable than other parts, tendency to build higher building is higher in this part of city

Identifying The Critical Factors Influencing The Adoption Of Information Systems Among International Hotels In Klang Valley

This study identifies the critical factors that influencing the adoption of Business Information Systems among international hotels in Klang Valley. The results of review literatures stated that the factors are significantly affecting the adoption decision of Business Information Systems (BIS) could be devided into three major categories which are organization related factors, operational related factors and strategic related factors

Intrinsic and strategic complementarity of research and knowledge transfer activities as determinants of knowledge transfer management: evidence from public research organisations

While public research organisations (PROs) are increasingly expected to actively transfer knowledge to business, government and wider society, limited research exists about how they manage this important function. Particularly, we do not know under what conditions it is more effective for PRO to vertically integrate knowledge transfer management, or to outsource it to specialist providers. Extending the theory of firm boundaries to PROs, we argue that this choice is influenced by two types of complementarity between research and knowledge transfer: intrinsic complementarity (occurring when the knowledge transfer process requires unique tacit knowledge) and strategic complementarity (occurring when the nature of the knowledge recipients matters to the PRO). By exploiting a unique 6 years panel dataset of 33 PROs in the United Kingdom, we confirm that higher degrees of both types of complementarity are associated with greater likelihood to vertically integrate knowledge transfer management, and that these effects are independent of economies of scale and sector specificities

The importance of management’s response to staff speaking up in the healthcare setting

Melika Ghorbankhani and Aled Jones highlight the role of the ‘recipient’ of concerns raised by healthcare staff, and discuss ways that managers can create a culture of psychological safety that promotes speaking up

Diagnosis of liver and pulmonary Hydatid cyst by Dot-ELISA, IFA and IHA tests

History and Objectives: Although some serological tests are not highly sensitive in diagnosis of pulmonary hydatid cyst however Dot-ELISA is introduced as a simple, sensitive and a very efficient means of pulmonary hydatid cyst diagnosis. In the present study, we compared the validity of IHA, IFA and Dot-ELISA techniques in diagnosis of anti-echinococcal antibodies caused bu Echinococcus granulosis in cystic liver and lung hydatid disease. Materials and Methods: 244 sera of which 30 samples from hydatid patients, 104 sera from patients suffering a disease other than hydatidosis and 110 sera from healthy individuals were collected mainly from Tehran's hospitals. The hydatid patients were confirmed by surgery and consisted of 14, 10, 6 patients with liver, lung and liver-lung hydatid cysts respectively. The sera were tested by IHA, IFA and Dot-ELISA techniques. Sensitivity, specificity, predictive values, false positivity and false negativity of each test were evaluated in diagnosis of liver and lung hydatid cyst. Results: The results indicated that the sensitivities of IHA test for liver, lung and liver-lung cysts were 78.7, 60 and 100 respectively, while the sensitivities of IFA in detecting liver lung and liver-lung cysts were 93, 80 and 100 respectively. In this regard, the Dot-ELISA showed the best results whereas its sensitivities for liver, lung and liver-lung cysts were 100 each. Conclusion: These results indicate that detection of anti-echinococcal antibodies in human sera is superior by Dot-ELISA compared to IHA and IFA tests. Hence, the application of this test in medical laboratories for hydatid cyst diagnosis can be recommended

Intrinsic and strategic complementarity of research and knowledge transfer activities as determinants of knowledge transfer management: evidence from public research organisations

While public research organisations (PROs) are increasingly expected to actively transfer knowledge to business, government and wider society, limited research exists about how they manage this important function. Particularly, we do not know under what conditions it is more effective for PRO to vertically integrate knowledge transfer management, or to outsource it to specialist providers. Extending the theory of firm boundaries to PROs, we argue that this choice is influenced by two types of complementarity between research and knowledge transfer: intrinsic complementarity (occurring when the knowledge transfer process requires unique tacit knowledge) and strategic complementarity (occurring when the nature of the knowledge recipients matters to the PRO). By exploiting a unique six-year panel dataset of 33 PROs in the United Kingdom, we confirm that higher degrees of both types of complementarity are associated with greater likelihood to vertically integrate knowledge transfer management, and that these effects are independent of economies of scale and sector specificities