Risk factors associated with depression in athletes include biological sex, physical pain, and history of sport-related concussion (SRC). Due to the well-documented benefits of sport and physical activity on mental health, athletes and non-athletes were recruited to assess any differences. Beyond this, athletes were also grouped by sport-type (contact/non-contact sports) due to the increased prevalence of pain and SRC in contact sports. To our knowledge, there has been no research on how these factors influence the likelihood of depression. In the current study, 144 participants completed a short survey on the above factors and the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale. Sixty-two of these reported a history of concussion. Logistic regression revealed all the above predictors to be significantly associated with the depression scale. Individuals that had previously sustained SRC, were experiencing greater physical pain and females were more likely to display poor mental health. However, we provide further evidence for the benefits of engaging in sport and physical activity as those that took part in sport were less likely to report depression. Therefore, this study provides a simple risk metric whereby sportspeople can make a better informed choice of their sporting participation, making their own cost/reward judgement.

Many governments including Malaysia imposed movement restrictions as public health measure to minimize COVID-19 (coronavirus) risks. Due to prolonged isolation, poorer physical and mental health is expected in the general population. Our aims were to examine (1) the mediating role of perceived social isolation (SI) and fear of social isolation (FSI) on the relationship between gratitude and anxiety, and (2) to explore the moderating role of age, education and socioeconomic status (SES) on the mediation model. A total of 427 participants currently living in Malaysia (Mage = 37.90, SD = 16.51, 313 females) completed a survey on isolation, gratitude and anxiety during a period of national lockdown. Results showed that that those with higher gratitude reported having less SI and FSI and less anxiety (Model 1). In Model 2 with age as moderator, young adults (YA) and middle-aged adults (MA) who had higher gratitude experienced lower SI and in turn had lowered anxiety, but such mediating role of SI was not observed among older adults (OA). As for FSI, MA who had higher gratitude had lower FSI and also lower anxiety but this relationship was not observed in YA or OA. We also examined the role of education and SES as moderators in the parallel mediation analysis. Results showed that the indirect association of gratitude with anxiety via FI and FSI was moderated by both education and SES. Specifically, among those with low education levels (regardless of SES), those with higher gratitude had lower SI and FSI which in turn reduced anxiety. This relationship is similar for those with medium level of education and from low and middle level of SES as well. Our findings highlight the importance of having some coping mechanism e.g., gratitude and social connection during the pandemic to have higher wellbeing and quality of life, especially for MA sample and people from low education and SES background.

Reliable health information is essential for decision making in the healthcare system. Information management in Kenya was considered the weakest area under the Health Information System pillar mainly due to inadequate health workers capacity. The study therefore aimed at assessing health workers skills and current training needs for information management in the selected healthcare facilities. Cross-section research design was adopted and both purposive sampling technique and censuses were used to establish the study participants. Analysis was done using SPSS version 20 and results were presented in tables, charts and graphs. It was established that capacity building was usually undertaken through on-job trainings i.e. 85.1% (103) health workers had on-job training on filling of data collection tools and only 10% (13) had received formal classroom training on the same. Further, only 9.1% (11) health workers had received information management training while 90.9% (110) had not received such training. Health workers demonstrated below average skills on information management i.e. only 17.4% (21) could check for data accuracy, only 16.5% (20) could compute trends from bar charts and only 16.5% (20) could transform the data they collected into meaningful information for use. The researcher recommended that healthcare facilities management teams develop a competency based framework for defining the desired skill mix for information management and have a yearly Training Needs Assessment for assessing training needs for information management among the health workers.

Purpose – Previous scholars have assumed that multinational enterprises (MNEs) can reduce the liability of foreignness and increase profitability by investing in corporate social responsibility (CSR). However, empirical validation of this assumption has rarely been attempted. This study provides empirical evidence that the adoption of multi-stakeholder initiatives, which are globally recognized as signals of CSR, helps MNEs increase profits from internationalization. Design/methodology/approach – Fixed effect models, which address model misspecification problems, and instrumental variable estimation, which controls for the endogeneity in firms’ choice of internationalization, offer empirical evidence supporting the moderating effects of global multi-stakeholder initiatives on the relationship between internationalization and firm performance. Findings – This study examines the moderating role of multi-stakeholder initiatives in the relationship between internationalization and firm performance, drawing on signaling and stakeholder theories. The results suggest that the signaling effect of multi-stakeholder initiatives can help MNEs overcome the liability of foreignness and, therefore, profit from overseas markets. Originality/value – Although the internationalization–firm performance relationship has been a subject of debate in the field of international business, the role of firms’ stakeholder engagement in this relationship has been largely overlooked in previous studies. In this study, we explore the impact of multi-stakeholder initiatives on the internationalization–firm performance relationship. Our primary contention is that multi-stakeholder initiatives have moderating effects on this relationship by reducing the liability of foreignness experienced by MNEs in host countries. Furthermore, our findings suggest that active engagement in multi-stakeholder initiatives significantly contributes to the financial success of MNEs as they internationalize.

In this paper, we discuss a framework for synthesising manufacturing process controllers using situation calculus, a well-known second-order logic for reasoning about actions in AI. Using a library of high-level ConGolog programs and logical action theories for production resources, we demonstrate how to efficiently synthesise an ‘optimal’ plan, i.e. the plant that minimises the number of actions for a target high-level program of a process recipe.

Human rights to water and sanitation have been widely recognised in legal instruments at the international, regional, and national levels of governance. More awareness of states’ obligations has provided additional impetus to promote human rights in policy advocacy. The international non-governmental organisation WaterAid, as a non-state actor specialising in the water, sanitation, and hygiene services (WASH) sector, adopts a human rights-based approach (HRBA) to WASH programming. This paper draws on the experiences from WaterAid WASH projects in four countries – Nepal, Ghana, Mali, and Burkina Faso, to evaluate the practical impacts of the HRBA to ensure that governments fulfil their responsibility to realise universal access to water and sanitation services in different contexts. The outcomes highlight that three important contributions of the HRBA: (1) generates greater awareness among rightsholders and duty bearers about responsibilities and entitlements over safe drinking water and sanitation; (2) promotes constructive engagement between the government and rightsholders; and (3) equips people with the motivation, skills, and agency which are critical dimensions to work on sustainable WASH. The WASH sector should, therefore, embrace the power of human rights and invest in the specific activities and frameworks to integrate human rights into systems strengthening the WASH sector, while continuing to analyse and learn how to adapt and improve the approach in different contexts.

Construction and demolition waste (CDW) has reached severe environmental and economic dimensions due to its large volume among all solid waste, highlighting the importance of local actions to manage, recycle, and reuse CDW. Ductile demountable connections are necessary to disassemble and reuse the concrete structural members and fast assembly of precast structures in seismic regions without generating waste. In this study, the seismic performance of CDW-based reinforced geopolymer concrete columns has been investigated. Six ½ scaled columns (half of which were demountable and the other half monolithic) were experimentally tested under reversed cyclic lateral displacement excursions, considering three different levels of constant axial loading to determine failure mechanisms, load–displacement responses, ductilities, energy dissipation capacities, stiffness degradation relations, and curvature distributions. The obtained test results were used to determine the performance of CDWbased geopolymer concrete columns and compare the performances of the demountable connection with the monolithic connection. The test results showed that the novel demountable connection for precast concrete frames exhibited better seismic performance in terms of maximum lateral load capacity, initial stiffness, energy dissipation capacity, and maximum curvature than their monolithic counterparts. Besides, increasing the axial compression ratio on the columns caused an increase in lateral load capacity, energy dissipation capacity, energy dissipation ratio, and initial curvature stiffness; however, it decreased the ductility. Finally, the capacity predictions of current codes, i.e., TS500 and ACI318, were conservative when compared with experimental results.

The chapter explores a practical approach to place leadership within what is increasingly acknowledged as a wicked problem. County lines and drug trafficking take place within complicated landscapes as multi-agency leaders, including police leaders, develop innovative solutions based on dialogue and relational approaches to this crucial wicked issue. Recent evidence on the scale of vulnerable individuals and groups inhabiting so called ‘left behind’ places provides testament to this 21st Century social policy problem (Addidle and Liddle, 2020). The many competing and contradictory conceptualisations of the phenomena of vulnerability leave place leaders with dilemmas on how to prioritise, operationalise and respond to such placed-based problems (Addidle and Liddle, 2020). Extant literature on place leadership remains largely at the economic level of analysis and based on growth models, but public leadership literature is more extensive and recent work has added to our understanding of the social contexts of place leadership within the public realm. Our key aim in this chapter is to add theoretical, empirical and policy insights to existing understandings, with a specific focus on crime and county lines.

Nigeria is one of many countries in Africa that criminalize same-sex relations, and this has been reinforced by law enforcement agencies and the courts. As part of efforts to protect LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer) persons from various forms of discrimination and violence, the growing LGBTQ movement sometimes approaches the court for rights enforcement. There is a dearth of cases specifically focused on lesbian rights except for a 2018 case, Pamela Adie v. Corporate Affairs Commission. This limits empirical evidence for assessing the role of the courts but also strengthens the case for an enquiry into how the courts can protect lesbians in Nigeria against discrimination on the grounds of their sexual identity. This chapter analyzes how intersecting categories of gender, sexual orientation, class, and location affect lesbians’ experiences of discrimination. It also explores impediments in laws and the formal justice system that result in discrimination, thereby affecting access to justice. The analysis reveals opportunities for the courts to adopt a proactive approach to interpreting fundamental rights guarantees in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999. Pragmatic recommendations are made for a multi-stakeholder approach and cross-jurisdictional learning.

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic coincides with the tenth anniversary of the recognition of the rights to water and sanitation within the United Nations system. Although water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) remain critical for COVID-19 infection prevention and control, billions of people around the world lack access to basic WASH services in different spheres of life. Mostly affected are people living in vulnerable situations. While the pandemic has significantly impacted regulatory practices and access, key actors in the WASH sector continue to adopt diverse approaches to ensure safety, continuity, and reliability of supply. This chapter explores how COVID-19 influences WASH services and how the rights to water and sanitation can ultimately strengthen resilience to health pandemics? It makes recommendations from the perspective of inclusive development theory, for strengthening WASH sector governance towards ensuring the progressive realization of the rights to water and sanitation during and post the COVID-19 pandemic. Experiences with the coronavirus pandemic illustrate the crucial importance of access to water and sanitation as basic human rights and as necessities for the realization of health, education, food, gender equality, and other human rights (United Nations 2020). Emergent issues, particularly include the high public health risks associated with lack of water and sanitation and the disproportionate burden borne by women and girls, transgendered people, people living in informal settlements, people living with disabilities, the urban poor, migrant workers, workers in the informal sector, people who are sick or living with underlying health conditions, the elderly, school-aged children, and other groups living in vulnerable situations (Banerji 2020; Tan 2020; UNESCO n.d.). These highlight intersecting layers of inequalities in different situations of vulnerability and the interconnectedness of human rights. The pandemic has also demonstrated the imperative of leaving no one behind and ensuring universal access to water and sanitation to achieve sustainable development. From Africa to the Pan-European region, it is a similar picture: there are remarkable inequities in access to water and sanitation based on whether people live in urban or rural areas, whether people are rich or poor, and whether they have any special circumstances which render them vulnerable (Local Burden of Disease WaSH Collaborators 2020; Wang et al. 2019; World Health Organization & UN-Water 2019; United Nations 2020). Furthermore, because of the pandemic, several assumptions and modes of service delivery need to be reexamined to ensure continued suitability for promoting universal access to water and sanitation. It is in light of these realizations that this chapter examines the question: How has COVID-19 influenced water, sanitation and hygiene services and how can the rights to water and sanitation strengthen resilience in health pandemics? This question is addressed from the perspective of inclusive development theory which emphasizes the need to address the social, relational, and ecological aspects of human development (Gupta, Pouw, & Ros-Tonen 2015).