Theme Deals Research Articles

Impact of hospital architecture on the birthing experience: a phenomenological study with mothers-to-be who are design experts

The birthplace has a crucial role in shaping the childbirth experience and mothers' satisfaction levels. This study aimed to identify the experiences and perceptions that may have an impact in the long-term on mothers' birthing experience, considering hospital design features in the birthing environment until discharge. Inductive thematic analysis of twenty-five hospital labor testimonies employing a phenomenological research approach and utilizing a biographical method. Participants were women with a professional background in architecture, landscape architecture, engineering, or interior design. The results are organized into four themes and seven subthemes. The first theme is "First sight and long term impression" which is subdivided into the subthemes "Depersonalized itinerary in entrances and corridors" and "Instinctive search for connection with nature". The second theme deals with "Accompaniment and tucking in during the birthing process", subdivided into "Hotel-like: space for movement and personalized adaptation" and "Helplessness, cold and uncertainty: spaces to be against one's will". The third theme is "Damage in collateral rooms", which includes "The integration of toilets in the birthing process", "Operating rooms unchangeable in the face of cesarean delivery" and "Neonatal units that do not integrate families". Finally, the fourth theme includes "Improvement proposals for new designs". This study contributes to the existing literature by deepening the understanding of the design features identified in hospitals in recent studies. Further research incorporating the experiences of women in the birthing process is needed to facilitate evidence-based design policies.

A Systematic Review in the World of the Metaverse

Metaverse uses “virtual reality” in e-commerce to create immersive virtual spaces. The philosophy behind it is to make people addicted to virtual 3d reality, and with the options of “teleportation, changing environment, and using cryptocurrency to shop,” this will be the ultimate future of technology. Apart from the benefits of the metaverse, it has many challenges, including “cyber security.” This study has synthesized past literature into nine themes based on a systematic review. All nine themes deal with the potential challenges and opportunities for users, including buyers and sellers. People can live an ideal life in the metaverse, leading to the denial mode of not accepting the real world and prefer living in the metaverse. For example, bald individuals can get a head full of hair in the metaverse. Someone with a disability can walk and fly in the metaverse. All these lucrative features will make virtual life more like heaven and real life like hell.

Effect Of Transportation Factors on Noise Pollution in Erbil City Center

Noise pollution is one of the most obvious problems in cities,As a result of population growth and technological advances in transportation, transportation of all kinds is considered the most dangerous source of noise,Because they contribute to a high proportion of noise and affect a large number of urban residents.  The main aim of this study is to identify the sound pollution sources in the city of Hawler  and its effects. The study also aims at proposing the best solution possible. Raising the awareness of people to protect the environment, following standard procedures, reducing pollution due to noises, and identifying noise sources.   Research plan  The aim of the study requires to divide the study into three sections. Section one refers to the theoretical outline of the area under study which includes three themes. The first theme discusses the technical terms and concepts, second theme deals with the major sound pollution sources, the third one is dedicated to introducing the area of the study. While in section two we have analyzed the time distribution of the noises and their sources in Hawler  city. This section also have three themes, the first one id devoted to the place of the noise, the second one presents noise time distribution, and the last one light is shed on consequences and solutions of the noises..

"I'm in a Bloody Battle without Being Able to Stop It": The Dissociative Experiences of Child Sexual Abuse Survivors.

Dissociation in child sexual abuse (CSA) survivors remains under-recognized and diagnosed, partly because of the difficulties involved in identifying dissociative symptoms. Qualitative research can contribute to a better understanding of the lived experiences of dissociation. This study focused on the experiences of dissociation in the context of CSA. In all, 22 female incest survivors, all diagnosed with different dissociative disorders, provided narratives about their experiences of dissociation. The narratives were analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. The narrative analysis revealed four central themes. The first theme deals with reliving the experience of the abuse. The second theme refers to the experience of disconnection from the body, the self, and the surroundings. The third theme covers the lack of coherence in the narrative, and the fourth theme describes the bridge between voluntary controlled and nonvoluntary uncontrolled use of dissociation. The data are discussed in light of several traumagenic constructs, including a lack of self-sense, being entrapped in a victim-aggressor relationship, and distorted time perception. It is suggested that the extent to which participants can control their dissociation and the coherency of their narratives reflects the severity of their dissociation. Clinicians can consider helping clients use dissociation as an adaptive defense mechanism.

SYSTEMATIC ANALYSIS OF INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION RESEARCH

This study aims to analyze international scientific articles for integrated marketing communication research systematically, both from the perspective of themes, research locations and subjects, as well as the research methods used. This study reviewed 149 scientific articles and presented four main findings. First. The first theme in marketing communications research is integrated with marketing communications and customer relationship management, the second theme deals with the concept known as value added of the plans developed for the role of communication. Second, the questionnaire is a data collection that is predominantly used. Third, research on integrated marketing communications, both in developing and developed countries, has almost the same number of studies. Fourth, based on the bibliometric technique using Vosviewer, it is divided into four clusters and recommends further research agendas to elaborate theoretical and methodological aspects by testing the four themes. By exploring these four themes, it will contribute further to the development of integrated marketing communications in the future.

Going the extra (s)mile: Countermeasures to emotional labour dysregulation in Australian reef tourism

Emotional labour is important to the performance of interactive service work in the tourism industry. However, emotional labour dysregulation, defined as a difficulty in managing emotions in daily routines, may lead to negative outcomes. This study aimed to fill an important gap by gaining a better understanding of perceived countermeasures for effectively managing emotional labour dysregulation in tourism workers. Using snowball sampling to recruit participants, eight focus groups were conducted with 42 reef workers in Cairns (Australia), using a novel scenario-based technique for knowledge elicitation. Findings outline countermeasures to emotional labour dysregulation according to two themes: (1) individual-level strategies, and (2) broader system factors. Both themes deal with the demands of emotional labour. Knowledge about countermeasures to emotional labour dysregulation has the potential to support employees and in turn influence positive tourism experiences which can help the industry to achieve business success and positive customer reviews.

Anthropocentrism in the Select American Dystopic Fictions: The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi and Claire Vaye Watkins’ Gold Fame Citrus

A conductive environment is the most crucial thing for any living being to lead life happily in the world. The environment includes both biotic and abiotic components. At present, people are facing more problems due to environmental issues. This research paper aims to see anthropocentrism through the interaction between humans and the environment in the select American dystopic fictions The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi and Gold Fame Citrus by Claire Vaye Watkins. These novels' major themes deal with climate change, water shortage, drought, and other ecological crises. In this research, a qualitative approach has been taken up as a method. The result of the study reveals that humans have more responsibilities to protect water bodies and the environment. People need to follow ethics effectively and not be involved in anthropocentric activities to come out of water shortages. The study reminds us that nature is more powerful than man.

Editorial Introduction: Policy entrepreneurs, science and learning, collaboration, and more

Editorial Introduction: Policy entrepreneurs, science and learning, collaboration, and more

The Value of Work-Related Uncertainty: Changes from Demands on Certainty to Finding Ways of Living in Uncertainty

Given the negative consequences that excessive confrontation with uncertainty can have, its positive dimension is often forgotten. The aim of this article is to show that the uncertainty associated with work, working conditions and the context in which working relationships are formed can be considered as a positive value. This will be shown through four themes. The first theme concerns the economic system. It is important to show that a certain degree of insecurity is necessary not only for individual freedom in society, but also for society as a whole, as there is a relationship between economic and political freedom. The second theme concerns entrepreneurship. In this respect, the article reminds us that uncertainty is a prerequisite for entrepreneurial activity. The third area deals with employment. Uncertainty and the life experience associated with it is an opportunity for personal development and the search for innovative ways of coping and solving problems, moreover, it is related to a sense of freedom. The fourth theme deals with the positive role of uncertainty in the context of the current crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, this positive value will only emerge if human health is protected.

Accounting, management and accountability in times of crisis: lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to discuss the themes emerging from the first studies exploring accounting, accountability and management practices during the COVID-19 pandemic and coming from a diversity of experiences, across countries, organizations and individuals. In so doing, the paper gives an overview of the most recent findings about the role of accounting and accountability in times of crisis that are hosted in this special issue of Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal (AAAJ).Design/methodology/approachThe paper draws together and identifies emerging themes related to the current COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts on accounting, accountability and management practices and considers how the studies in this issue extend one’s knowledge of accounting and contribute to accounting research.FindingsThree emerging themes are drawn and their contribution to accounting scholarship is discussed. The first theme deals with the role of accounting and numbers in supporting governmental responses to COVID-19. The second theme considers accounting practices used to make exceptional decisions at the organizational level in times of crisis. The third theme addresses a relevant frontier of research into accounting and inequalities.Practical implicationsIn considering the diverse contributions of this special issue, the paper points out how uncertainty and change can impact the design, use and understanding of accounting, management and accountability practices and can be accepted by scholars and practitioners as part of such practices.Originality/valueThis paper provides a timely and comprehensive picture of the first reflections and research findings on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on one’s interpretation of accounting, accountability and management practices.

‘This Isn’t My Expectation’: Excel in Auditing

Manuscript type: Research paper Research aims: This study examines the perceptions of undergraduate accounting students about the use of Excel in an auditing course. Design/Methodology/Approach: A qualitative interview design is employed in this study. A total of 20 participants shared their perceptions in three group interviews. Their statements were analysed using thematic analysis. Research findings: Themes of agility and undesirability appeared central to the experience of Excel usage in auditing. The agility theme refers to students’ rapid adaptation to the use of Excel for auditing purposes. The undesirability theme deals with students’ expectations of using software beyond Excel. Theoretical contribution/Originality: This study generated an understanding of expectations around technology from the perspective of accounting students, which is rarely examined. For students, the future of the accounting and auditing profession relies on up-to-date technologies, and universities should provide experiences in accessing and learning to use such technologies in accounting education. Practitioner/Policy implications: The findings of this study provide an understanding for accounting educators and higher education institutions about the expectations of students related to the type of technology that must be covered in accounting curricula. Research limitations: This study collected data from only one public university in Indonesia. Students’ perceptions in this institution may not be the same as those in other institutions. Caution must be taken when generalising and interpreting the findings to other institutions.

Mind the gap: Parental and professional perceptions of ‘risk’ for children living in poverty

AbstractThis article explores the perceptions and constructions of child risk and protection for children growing up in poverty, from the perspective of parents and social workers serving them, in an impoverished neighbourhood in Israel. Of the 50 in‐depth semi‐structured interviews conducted overall, 35 were with parents and 15 with social workers employed by the neighbourhood's social services department. The analysis yielded three themes: The first focuses on the social services' involvement in the neighbourhood. While social workers viewed the social service agency's location within the neighbourhood as positive, offering the opportunity to build a close relationship with the local population, some parents experienced this proximity as intrusive. The second theme deals with gaps in perceptions of help: Whereas parents felt that they needed material assistance, social workers preferred to offer therapeutic assistance. The third theme relates to the child‐at‐risk label, with diverging perspectives between social workers and parents regarding the extent to which living in a poor neighbourhood places a family at risk. Our findings highlight the importance of incorporating anti‐oppressive and poverty‐aware paradigms in social work practice and education.

The Effects of Transportation Modes on Noise Pollution in Koya City

Transportation means including all kinds are considered the major and most dangerous source of noise since, on the one hand, they have highest contribution rate in causing noises, and on the other hand, they affect a great number of city inhabitants. Transportation means also has an immediate influence on the peacefulness and living balance amongst people because unnatural sounds creates noise and this causes psychological unrest and ruins the surrounding peace. The study problem is the existence of sound pollution in the selected area of the research which are caused by a number of seen and unseen sources. These sources have to be unveiled pointed to. Solving these problems scientifically and practically is of great benefit for the area. The main aim of this study is to identify the sound pollution sources in the city of Koya and its effects. The study also aims at proposing the best solution possible. Raising the awareness of people to protect the environment, following standard procedures, reducing pollution due to noises, and identifying noise sources. Research plan  The aim of the study requires dividing the study into three sections. Section one refers to the theoretical outline of the area under study which includes three themes. The first theme discusses the technical terms and concepts, second theme deals with the major sound pollution sources, and the third one is dedicated to introducing the area of the study. While in section two we have analyzed the time distribution of the noises and their sources in Koya city. This section also have three themes, the first one id devoted to the place of the noise, the second one presents noise time distribution, and the last one light is shed on consequences and solutions of the noises.

Analysis of Global Research Trends on COVID-19 and Tourism : Using Keyword Network Analysis

This study aims to understand the emerging COVID-19 research in tourism and to identify research gaps. To this aim, we selected the final 62 articles published between 1 January and 17 August 2020 in 28 different journals and conducted a keyword network analysis based on the keywords of the paper. Major findings are that first, most of the COVID-19 tourism studies used a qualitative approach. Second, major topics included the impacts of COVID-19 on tourism, crisis management, and tourism recovery, health security in tourism, tourism transformation, and sustainable tourism. Also, the keyword of ‘Sustainability’ had a high value in each measure of the centrality analyses with a strong degree of connection to other nodes, demonstrating it as the central node in the network structure. In other words, this theme deals with the discussion of suggesting new paths for tourism and new ways of developing the tourism industry in order to maintain the economic, social, and environmental sustainability of tourism in the era of COVID-19.

Managers' Perceptions of Factors Affecting Employees' Uptake of Workplace Health Promotion (WHP) Offers.

Managers are often charged with the responsibility of overseeing Workplace health promotion (WHP) for which significant amounts of resources are laid aside yearly. While there is increasing interest by employers to include WHP policies, studies show that WHP implementation and uptake by employees still need to be improved upon. Given that managers are part of organizational decision-making and implementation of new policies, they serve as the bridge between workers and management. The aim of this study is to investigate managers' perceptions of employees' WHP uptake as well as challenges encountered by managers in the execution of their WHP-related tasks.Method: This study is based on a qualitative method using semi-structured interviews. Participants in the study were managers at medium and large-scale private companies in Northcentral Sweden. To ensure that participating companies are comparable in terms of structure and policy, only companies within the private sector were eligible to participate. Furthermore, only one manager per company was interviewed. A total of nineteen managers participated and the data generated were analyzed using content analysis.Results: A total of three themes and nine subthemes emerged. The first theme deals with factors at the individual level, subthemes include awareness of WHP, work-life balance, and attitudes. The second theme comprises of factors related to the WHP offer, subthemes were design of the WHP, supportive collaborators and financing of WHP. The third theme deals with organizational factors, subthemes were the nature of the organization's operations, management as role models and resources and support for managers. Results show that most of the challenges encountered by managers in executing WHP were mostly at the organizational level.Conclusion: Addressing modifiable factors at the individual and organizational levels and those related to the WHP may improve WHP uptake among employees.

"He Who Spareth the Rod Hateth His Son": Perceptions Regarding Corporal Punishment Among Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Fathers in Israel.

Based on the findings of substantial research, Western professionals today perceive corporal punishment as a threat to child well-being. They also view it as a violation of children's rights. Nonetheless, many minority groups in Western societies still consider it to be a legitimate child-rearing practice. In response to this gap, this article presents qualitative findings from an exploratory context-informed study of Ultra-Orthodox Jewish fathers in Israel, regarding their perceptions and ascribed meanings of corporal punishment. Our exploration was guided by the following research question: What are the constructions, perceptions, beliefs, and meanings associated with corporal punishment among Ultra-Orthodox Litvak fathers in Israel? The thematic analysis of 15 in-depth semi-structured interviews yielded two central themes. The first is the view of corporal punishment as an educational tool with legitimacy based on religious sources and emotion-focused rationales. The second theme deals with different limitations on and guidelines regarding this legitimacy. Children were struck as a result of behavior that parents experienced as extreme, and striking the child in response to religious wrongdoing was viewed as problematic. The fathers interviewed stressed the need to suit the punishment to the child, in terms of the intensity of the blow, frequency, and the age of the child. The fathers also emphasized the importance of the child's subjective experience being one of education as opposed to humiliation. Implications from these findings illustrate the gaps between the Ultra-Orthodox community and professionals who espouse the Western view that prohibits corporal punishment; at the same time, they portray the fathers as expressing an intricate approach toward corporal punishment, with conditions and limitations, as opposed to absolute approval. This article advocates a context-informed approach toward dealing with corporal punishment in minority groups that legitimize the practice. Adopting such an approach may contribute to better cooperation between professionals and their clients from minority groups, and advance child well-being.

LEVERAGING TRUST: YOUTUBE ENTERTAINERS AND THE ROLE OF PROBLEM-SOLVING IN ENGENDERING TRUST.

This paper aims to better understand the role that problem-solving plays in building the trust necessary to sustain online fan audiences, and so support the careers of influential social media entertainers. Problem-solving in this context means a video, where the theme deals with the problems of modern life experienced by young fans. A mixed methods approach – in this case in-depth interviews, discourse analysis and participant observation at YouTube Creator Day events – is used to better leverage the strengths of each method and triangulate results. Sample size is at least 20 YouTubers at the most culturally significant, artistic end of the spectrum with an average of at least 1mn subscribers, established TV producers and Multi-Channel Network leaders. Preliminary results suggest that leading YouTube creators – including A-listers – use a conscious strategy of identifying the problems fans experience, so establishing trust and building audiences for their videos around their own solutions. Moreover, trust is engendered through two main means say these Australian YouTubers: first, the considerable time creators spend listening to their fans across creators’ YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Patreon channels; and second, via online and analogue interactions with fans that open their lifeworld’s to the creator, and in turn shape the themes of their short video products. This phenomenon of collaborative problem-solving, independent of traditional state, school or family structures, represents an important shift with significant potential for youth agency in an emergent public sphere.

El discurso retórico en Trilce (1922), perlocutivo para el afianzamiento del núcleo familiar

The present work analyzes the poems «III» and «XXVIII» of Trilce (1922) of the Peruvian writer Cesar Vallejo, considering that its theme deals with the idealized composition of the family from an unfavorable position for the poetic self and that, when it is established from that way, he achieves the perlocution in the reader (persuades him and convinces him of a specific reality). This semantic configuration is demonstrated by the analysis of rhetorical discourse, investigated by C. Fernandez Cozman, who adopts the postulates of G. Lakoff and M. Johnson, who resort to macro concepts (megametaphors) and micro (specific metaphors), essential for the formation of the typological classification, arranged in orientational, ontological and structural metaphors. Likewise, it is confronted with associated approaches, such as those of the interlocutors, the cosmovision and interdiscursivity.

“What do I Share?” Personal and Private Experiences in Educational Psychological Counselling

ABSTRACTThe aim of the study is to explore and develop knowledge about how educational psychological counsellors’ personal and private experiences appear in their counselling practice. We conducted four focus group interviews with twelve counsellors from Educational Psychological Counselling Service. Through Thematic Analysis four themes emerged. The first is that counsellors’ personal and private experiences functioned as a backdrop for their counselling practice. The second theme is the counsellors’ use of different types of stories. The third theme deals with how the counsellors were holding back relevant stories. Finally, the fourth theme comprises the purposes of counsellors’ self-disclosure. The conclusion is that personal experiences form a backdrop for counselling practice and are relevant for how a counsellor makes sense of and understands a situation or a problem. Self-disclosure is in some situations used explicitly in the counselling setting. On the other side the counsellors sometimes consciously hold their experiences back.

Extended Book Review: Freedom and republicanism in Roberts’ Marx

Freedom and republicanism in Roberts' Marx William Clare Roberts Marx's Inferno, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2017; 282 pp.: ISBN 9780691172903, $35.00 William Clare Roberts' new book undertakes to extract the critical kernel out of Marx's critique of political economy. Marx's Inferno is absorbing, wide-ranging, and original. Roberts enlists Inferno, the first part of Dante's Divine Comedy, to construct a structural analogy with the argument of Volume 1 of Capital. Roberts argues convincingly that Volume 1 (hereafter: Capital) is a self-contained work in political theory that mounts a freedom-based critique of capitalism. This critique, much like Dante's journey towards absolution, requires descent into a 'social Hell', the infernal depths of the capitalist mode of production. The book's overarching argument is that Capital must be understood as the 'self-consciousness of novel institutions of domination' and that 'therefore, if the laboring classes want to free themselves from this domination, they must get to the bottom of political economy itself, and destroy the social basis of its existence as a scientific discourse' (p. 17). In what follows, I take issue with three main themes of the book. The first theme deals with the 'impersonal' nature of domination embodied in the capital relation, the second with the putative connection between domination and republicanism, and the third with the political ramifications of this connection. Impersonal domination Chapter 3 of Marx's Inferno contains the basic ingredients of Roberts' account of capitalist domination. The chapter associates Marx's critique of political economy with its radical republican background, especially the work of William Thompson, John Francis Bray, Robert Owen in England, and Charles Fourier and Pierre Joseph Proudhon in France. It then argues for three main claims: (1) Marx kept the emphasis of republicanism on domination as subjection to arbitrary power, but (2) complemented it with an 'impersonal' account of domination of labour by capital that is at once anti-moralistic and structural, and (3) Marx's account of fetishism is, fundamentally, about 'a form of domination, rather than a form of false consciousness' (p. 85). The rest of this section discusses claims (2) and (3). I shall take up (1) in the next section. According to Roberts' Marx, the opening chapters of Capital 'contain, not a theory of price, but an account of the structure of human relations in commercial society. The concept of value they elaborate is, first and foremost, a tool for understanding the dominating form that these relations take' (p. 102). Because decisions about what to consume and produce are fundamentally dependent on prices, 'deliberate judgments about the place of commodities in a decent life' become 'extremely fragile' (pp. 84-85). Moreover, because capitalist social relations are price-mediated, that is, mediated by properties of things, 'there is no way to ensure that one's labor power, or one's commodity in general, is marketable' (p. 88). It follows that both capitalists and workers are dominated under capitalism: The capitalist, dominated by market imperatives, is compelled thereby to exploit labor, and to do so within the confines of competitive market transactions that secure for the laborer the fair value of his ... labor power, (p. 102) Therefore, Roberts thinks, 'the dominant class in modernity, the class of capitalists, is as subject to ... impersonal domination as are the laboring classes' (p. 102). The worker is, in this sense, 'a slave of a slave' (p. 103). Roberts infers--correctly, I think--that capitalist domination is not equivalent to class domination. There is, however, an ambiguity in his claim that the capitalist is 'dominated by market imperatives'. Are market imperatives the ground of domination or its subject? The former idea is coherent: markets are the structure in virtue of which capitalists dominate workers. …