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The purpose of this paper is to explore the trend and most common themes about Lean Six Sigma (LSS) implementation in the finance sector, and also to identify gaps in the themes that may be preventing organisations from identifying benefits from their LSS strategy and developing an agenda for future research on LSS themes. The following research is based on a systematic literature review of 30 papers that were published on LSS in the finance sector, from 2005 to 2015. Many issues and important themes have emerged, which are benefits, motivation factors, limitations and reasons for implementing LSS in financial organisations. Review identified many gaps and limitations that need to be explored as future research since little have been written on LSS as a holistic strategy for business improvement. It is important for practitioners to be aware of LSS benefits, limitations and motivating factors before starting the implementation process. This paper is based on a comprehensive literature review which gives an opportunity to LSS researchers to understand some common themes about LSS implementation in depth. In addition, by highlighting gaps in the current literature and proposing an agenda for future research saves time and effort for readers looking to research topics within LSS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractPsychological autopsies refer to retrospective interviews between researchers and informants who were close to a person who died by suicide, to explore and better understand the circumstances and contributing factors to that suicide. However, several issues persist with psychological autopsy as a methodology. We assessed the academic literature regarding psychological autopsies and extracted key themes about methodological limitations and weaknesses. The aim was to formulate recommendations and present suggestions for future methodology that would protect the benefits of psychological autopsy, particularly the personal narratives, while addressing methodological limitations. A literature review of nine relevant healthcare research databases yielded twenty-two relevant papers. Each of these publications were reviewed and themes regarding methodological limitations of psychological autopsies were identified and collated. Limitations identified from the review included issues of validity and reliability, lack of standardisation, biases, control variables, cultural considerations, ethics, and data handling. New limitations regarding cultural nuance, modern communication channels, and ‘invisible informants’ were identified. Recommendations for the future development of the psychological autopsy method include embracing modern communication methods and ‘invisible informants’, cultural intersections, safeguarding of reliability and validity, and the use of feasibility trials. The emphasis remains upon collating the raw narratives at the core of these interviews which make the psychological autopsy such a unique and insightful tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Qualitative research in psychology can often maintain standards and assumptions from positivistic and experimental methodologies. Sometimes these issues are well argued against or around logically in literature, often abstractly, but cases of methodological consideration with real cases are rarer. This discussion aims to help methodological reflection and learning by presenting a case of multiple intersecting methodological considerations. The methods included a content analysis completed on interviews with women related to men participating in a violence and intervention trial. This paper presents the limitations and methodological considerations during analysis as a detailed discussion. Considerations arose from assumptions in the research design, interpreter use and leading questions. The discussion describes considerations and solutions depending on the scope required – here working with women in or near contexts of violence. Hopefully, a demonstration of full considerations within such a project encourages similar case-based examinations of research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This introduction provides some insights on this special issue of Mortality, entitled Dying and Death in Former Communist European Countries, setting the issue against the general background of death studies and, more specifically, of death studies in eastern European countries. Some relevant references to the Dying and Death in 18th-21st Century Europe International Conference, organised in Romania, at the '1 Decembrie 1918ʹ University of Alba Iulia, Romania, between 2007 and 2019, are also made. The rationale and also the limitations of this special issue are brought into attention. The papers that form this issue are briefly presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with community interpreting services for migrant women in South Korea. The number of migrant women in South Korea has increased dramatically in recent decades. Faced with demographic changes in the wake of the influx of marriage migrants, the South Korean government has implemented policies to support marriage migrants’ early settlement and adjustment to life in South Korea, and the related public services have expanded to support multicultural family life and child education. Interpreting and translation services have played a crucial role in the delivery of such migrant support programmes. The services have been provided by migrant women who have successfully settled in South Korea. The services, which are funded largely by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family and partly by local governments, serve the dual purposes of providing employment to migrant women and providing language assistance to migrants and multicultural families. This paper first provides an overview of interpreting and translation services provided by the Multicultural Family Support Centres, then, based on interviews with 23 interpreters and 10 supervisors at the Multicultural Family Support Centres, discusses how it has empowered marriage migrants and what needs to be done to further their career development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Adolescents, by their very nature and need for maturity, struggle with issues of the self and identity, while challenging the very systems that are there to support them. However, gender diverse adolescents may become detached and overwhelmed as a trans identity solidifies during this time. Bullies, blades and barricades describes the challenges, hardship and dispossession that some gender diverse adolescents face from interpersonal and intrapersonal conflicts, societal pressure and hostility. Method: This paper utilizes the current research on safety and risks affecting trans youth, the authors clinical experience of trans and gender diverse adolescents, and recommendations in the literature for professional care and support of gender diverse adolescents to identify the various ways gender diverse adolescents are negatively affected by their experiences. Results: Bullying is not limited to school or peer environments and may be present in adolescents' homes, in local communities, in professional services or from sources of information such as the media. The physical dangers gender diverse adolescents face may arise from victimization, violence or rejection, or self-harming behaviors due to negative beliefs, fear or frustration. Barriers preventing disclosure and expression of gender and/or identity may stem from negative experiences, rejection, pubertal changes, imposed limitations, dependence upon school, home or legal environments, or other spheres of influence. Discussion: Affirmative approaches, individual focus, recognition of family dynamics, inclusion of significant others, advocacy in school and local community environments as well as professional training are the most commonly recommended interventions. This paper provides an inclusive review of the myriad of challenges confronting gender diverse adolescents including often unrecognized forms of pressure, oppression and restrictions. This paper aims to support clinicians by contextualizing the adversity that gender diverse adolescents face and offers strategies for engagement and intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The field of quality management (QM) captured the serious attention of industry in the 1980s. Despite this attention, it has ostensibly failed to establish itself as a genuine mainstream management paradigm. Why has this been the case? In this paper, some of the reasons for this predicament are explored. Literature, especially that which analyses QM from a more critical perspective, shows that QM as a field has some major difficulties and problems that remain unresolved. These include: its limited strategic value; credibility problems; deleterious intra-competition between the dominant approaches to implementation; problems owing to the non-falsifiable way in which it is presented; lack of a universally accepted unified theory; difficulties in successfully ‘imitating’ QM implementation; underestimation of the magnitude of change that is needed; morality problems; presence of contradictory dualisms; and, narrow intellectual bases of the field. The impact of these on QM as an internally consistent and coherent field is assessed in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I narrate the long process of my encounters with English language learning and teaching, manifesting characteristics of English teaching at different levels of schools in mainland China. After viewing the limitations of English teaching in mainland China from my fresh point of view as a UK visiting scholar, some suggestions are proposed for its improvement and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hypertension is a prevalent chronic condition worldwide that can impact patients' quality of life. Oral antihypertensive drugs are widely used to manage high blood pressure, primarily by regulating the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system. Nevertheless, limited efficacy and low compliance represent significant obstacles, arising primarily from dose, duration, and medication type restrictions. Furthermore, the prolonged use of antihypertensive medication may result in dependence and adverse effects, without any substantial improvement in achieving targeted blood pressure leves. As a result, research has focused on using exercise therapy to treat hypertension. Tai Chi, a widely-practiced Chinese health exercise, has evolved into a form of exercise therapy that might help alleviate the risk associated with hypertension. Therefore, this article aims to outline the role of Tai Chi in preventing and managing hypertension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the once-weekly psychoanalytic psychotherapy of a girl, called Ellie, aged eight at the start of her treatment. Ellie had a learning disability and displayed difficult behaviour at school and at home. In her therapy, Ellie grew in emotional intelligence, more in touch with and able to express her feelings. Her behaviour improved and so did her capacity to learn. In the therapy there were certain limitations to progress and this is discussed in terms of how Ellie's disability affected the basic achievements of emotional development, including a mind with a solid 'reality ego', able to contain anxiety, and able to maintain depressive functioning. The importance of parallel parent work, to share observations and understanding of the child's functioning is discussed. Difficulties for both child and parents in dealing with the pain of difference and how this limits emotional intelligence are discussed. The author hopes that this paper will encourage the offering of psychoanalytic psychotherapy to children and young people with learning disabilities, who are significantly more likely to suffer from mental health problems than their peers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

States have under the right to science an obligation to prevent or mitigate harm of scientific progress and its applications. This obligation is derived from the right to be protected against the harmful effects of scientific progress and its applications, a dimension of the right to science. However, preventing the harmful effects of scientific progress and its applications can sometimes conflict with other human rights or with scientific freedom, which is also part of the right to science. In such cases, limitations on one right might be required to protect another, whereby the different interests need to be properly balanced. While the duty to prevent harm is well established in international human rights law, it is yet obscure if the anticipation of potential harms to come is possible under the existing framework of international law. While not a legal concept, entry points for anticipation are already covered under the current international law and can be drawn together by a cross-fertilisation of the obligation to prevent, the precautionary principle and due diligence. The precautionary principle and due diligence can provide guidance on when and under what circumstances situations for anticipation are triggered and conducted. Both concepts involve a necessity and proportionality test, which is also inherent to limitations under international human rights law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper the use of Creative Commons (CC) is questioned. That is done by concentrating on the following question: what is CC, in which circumstances is CC useful and what are its drawbacks? Does CC solve any problems or is there a need to change copyright laws and treaties to accommodate this use of copyright? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crowdfunding in research refers to raising funds by scientists for various research related tasks using crowdfunding platforms. In spite of growing academic interest, there is still a lack of understanding of the various aspects of the above concept. In particular, identification of antecedents, consequences, and limitations is important in predicting future intentions of scientists in the context of crowdfunding in research. We conducted qualitative research using 40 free-form interviews with management academics representing a wide spectrum of positions at public and private universities in Poland. Based on that, we hereby provide a comprehensive framework that allows you to understand why scientists will potentially turn to crowdfunding in research and how they perceive the very concept. Our results show that crowdfunding in research can be encouraged by the following factors: gaining access to funding, legal regulations, replicating successful experience of others, the possibility of obtaining feedback from the public on their research, networking, acceptance of the scientific community, and scientific and social relevance idea. In addition to funding science, building confidence in science and solving social problems are the consequences of crowdfunding in research. In turn, the limitations of crowdfunding in research include the following: uncertainty of results, ostracism on the part of the scientific community, fear of loss of reputation and trust in science, and insufficient adjustment of existing crowdfunding platforms to the requirements of science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Virtual Reality (VR) has been defined as the use of technological interfaces to simulate the behaviour of 3D entities that interact in real time with a user immersed via sensorimotor channels. The aim of this study is to explore the possibilities and limitations in the use of VR systems in mental health treatment and research. We conducted a review of articles addressing the qualities of the current state of research regarding the efficacy and clinical applications of VR as a therapeutic tool. Despite finding general consensus about anxiety disorders, there's a lack of published empirical evidence regarding other mental health disorders. Nevertheless VR components are being steadily used more often for the assessment, treatment and research for more pathologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evolution in foodstuff-monitoring processes has increased the number of studies on biogenic amines (BAs), in recent years. This trend with future perspective needs to be assembled to address the associated health risks. Thus, this study aims to cover three main aspects of BAs: (i) occurrence, physiology, and toxicological effects, most probable formation mechanisms and factors controlling their growth; (ii) recent advances, strategies for determination, preconcentration steps, model technique, and nature of the matrix; and (iii) milestone, limitations with existing methodologies, future trends, and detailed expected developments for clinical use and on-site ultra-trace determination. The core of the ongoing review will discuss recent trends in pre-concentration toward miniaturization, automation, and possible coupling with electrochemical techniques, surface-enhanced Raman scattering, spectrofluorimetry, and lateral flow protocols to be exploited for the development of rapid, facile, and sensitive on-site determination strategies for BAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The oral administration route is considered to be the most widely used route because of its convenience of administration and manufacturing. Dosage forms, like orally disintegrating tablets (ODTs), mini tablets, and orally disintegrating mini tablets (ODMTs), are recognized as promising for use in pediatric patients. ODTs are known to be suitable drug delivery systems, especially for pediatric patients, because of their rapid disintegration properties, use without water, and no swallowing problems. In addition, in recent years, a new formulation approach has been developed. ODMTs, are the newest drug delivery systems. They combine the advantageous properties of ODTs and the small size of mini tablets, aimed for pediatric use. These tablets, which can be formulated as 2–4 mm in diameter, are known as drug delivery systems that have children acceptability age as low as 6-months old. The fact that the ODTs and the ODMTs can be formulated with acceptable flavors for children further increases the importance of these carrier systems in the treatment. The objective of this article is to highlight the development of ODTs and mini-ODTs, their significance, ideal characteristics, various techniques, and aspects related to design and formulation, marketed preparations, and future perspectives, especially for the pediatric patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After providing a short introduction to qualitative research in psychology in Spain, we report and interpret the results of an online survey in which 47 qualitative psychologists answered questions about their location, research topic, research group, and the strengths, limitations, and challenges of being a qualitative researcher in Spain. The participants enthusiastically endorsed the use of qualitative methodologies, which were especially praised for being able to bring researchers closer to the roots of psychology by acknowledging fundamental human processes such as interpretation, depth in data collection and analysis, research rapport, care, epistemological and cultural diversity, and commitment to social justice. They also pointed out some practical challenges related to methodological standardizations and feeling undervalued within Spanish psychology, which tends to be positivist, empiricist, and realist. Last, the participants provided specific suggestions to increase the knowledge, visibility, and appreciation of qualitative methodologies in psychology in Spain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Regulatory initiatives have stimulated drug research in infants, but the potential impact of drugs to improve health outcome in neonates remains underexplored. Areas covered: In this review, we focus on current limitations in drug evaluation studies and how to overcome these. The low volume of studies has additional weaknesses such as single center studies, non-commercial sponsorship, overrepresentation of high postulated risk reductions, and underrepresentation of therapeutic exploratory studies. Master protocols and selection criteria for neonatal centers to participate in studies are useful to improve logistics related to performance. Limitations also relate to inaccurate assessment of drug effects (efficacy/safety). This is because of poor symptom recognition, case definitions, and suboptimal data on adverse drug reactions (ADRs) epidemiology. To overcome these limitations, it is necessary to develop core outcome sets, reference values, and specific ADR tools. The limitations identified and approaches suggested to improve drug evaluation are illustrated using neonatal abstinence syndrome as an example. Expert commentary: We anticipate to see an evolving neonatal clinical pharmacology discipline driven by neonatal pathophysiology and knowledge. Multidisciplinary collaborative efforts between health care providers, academia, pharmaceutical industry, advocacy groups and regulatory agencies are crucial to improve the impact of drug evaluation studies in neonates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent concerns to maximize the power output and achieve the scale-up applications of microbial fuel cell (MFC) technology demand the selection of enriched electroactive consortia from diverse natural habitats such as soil, sediments and wastewater. To further improve the MFC performance, a fundamental knowledge of microbiology of electrochemically active bacteria (EAB) is required. This review presents the various enrichment strategies, engineering and microbiological approaches to optimize the microbial communities with improved electrigenic potential that could be used to enhance the MFC performances. The development of functionally stable electrigenic and electrotrophic microbial communities on anodes and cathodes of MFCs could extend the scope of this technology beyond the bioelectricity generation and wastewater treatment to the electrosynthesis of higher value products and bioremediation. Moreover, investigating the effect of various exogenous factors and limitations on the enrichment of EAB could advance the commercial applications of MFCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scaling up algal cultures to the very large volumes required for commercial production is a complex task and requires skilled and experienced personnel. First it is necessary to consider how to optimize the process of producing enough inoculum for the large ponds or photobioreactors in order to minimize the time and cost required. In order to minimize the need for re-inoculation from stock cultures it is also essential to manage the large-scale cultures to avoid significant contamination or collapse. The maintenance of long-term, stable, high-productivity, large-scale cultures, usually under prevailing outdoor conditions of variable irradiance, temperature and rainfall, presents additional challenges most of which are not seen in the constant environment experienced by small-scale laboratory cultures. Methods and protocols to deal with these can only be developed at the large-scale and they will mostly be specific for the alga being cultured, the culture system being used and the location of the production plant. A common feature of all large-scale operations known to us is that, over time (years), both productivity and reliability of the cultures improve as the operators gather experience in managing their cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Introduction: The advent of genomic based precision medicine led to the implementation of biomarker testing in metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. Next generation sequencing (NGS) has been recently implemented to routine diagnostic requirements in lung oncology. Areas covered: Two cases of patients with metastatic NSCLC for whom NGS analysis performed on both tumor and liquid biopsy has not improved the clinical course of their disease are reported. These cases illustrate the difficulty of the so-called ‘personalized or precision’ medicine in clinical routine practice for metastatic NSCLC. Expert commentary: Discovery and detection of critical cancer-gene alterations better indicates targeted therapies that must be administered to improve the care of NSCLC patients in the personalized medicine era. There has been much interest in the literature and the scientific community for NGS tailored therapies approach for patients. However, there may be a gap between this theoretical stratified medicine and clinical practice. The advantages and drawbacks of NGS on tumor tissue and cell-free DNA for metastatic NSCLC are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

For many decades vitamin K antagonists (VKA), whilst extremely effective but associated with significant drawbacks, were the only drugs available for chronic anticoagulation. However, recently, novel direct oral anticoagulant drugs, completely different to VKA and at least as effective and safe as VKA, have been introduced in clinical practice and their use is becoming increasingly more widespread. Their availability can extend effective anticoagulant treatment to a larger number of subjects requiring anticoagulation and substantially improve the quality of life of many patients. However, these drugs and their use also have limitations. The aim of this article is to analyze these limitations and the challenges potentially associated with their use, a move crucial to promote proper, effective and safe use of the drugs in everyday practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Child sexual abuse has a serious impact on victims, their families and the broader community. As such, there is a critical need for sound research evidence to inform specialist responses. Increasingly, researchers are utilising administrative databases to track outcomes of individual cases across health, justice and other government agencies. There are unique advantages to this approach, including the ability to access a rich source of information at a population-wide level. However, the potential limitations of utilising administrative databases have not been fully explored. Because these databases were created originally for administrative rather than research purposes, there are significant problems with using this data at face value for research projects. We draw on our collective research experience in child sexual abuse to highlight common problems that have emerged when applying administrative databases to research questions. Some of the problems discussed include identification of relevant cases, ensuring reliability and dealing with missing data. Our article concludes with recommendations for researchers and policy-makers to enhance data quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article studies alternative toxicological approaches, with new (skin sensitization, ToxCast) and previous (carcinogenicity) analyses. Quantitative modeling of rate-limiting steps in skin sensitization and carcinogenicity predicts the majority of toxicants. Similarly, successful (Quantitative) Structure-Activity Relationships models exploit the quantification of only one, or few rate-limiting steps. High-throughput assays within ToxCast point to promising associations with endocrine disruption, whereas markers for pathways intermediate events have limited correlation with most endpoints. Since the pathways may be very different (often not simple linear chains of events), quantitative analysis is necessary to identify the type of mechanism and build the appropriate model. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Cloud computing is currently receiving unprecedented levels of attention despite the fact that opinion on the prospects for successful cloud adoption is both conflicting and divided. In this article, we examine the potential benefits and limitations of cloud adoption from the perspective of a client firm’s competitive priorities, identifying business motivators for each priority, mechanisms deployed in pursuing each priority, and the possible costs impacts and potential returns impacts of mechanism deployment in the context of each priority. This research is intended to add to the growing body of available business value-focused cloud computing studies and provides an additional vantage point for further conceptual and empirical work. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the peripheral arteries, a thrombus superimposed on atherosclerosis contributes to the progression of peripheral artery disease (PAD), producing intermittent claudication (IC), ischemic necrosis, and, potentially, loss of the limb. PAD with IC is often undiagnosed and, in turn, undertreated. The low percentage of diagnosis (∼30%) in this setting of PAD is of particular concern because of the potential worsening of PAD (amputation) and the high risk of adverse vascular outcomes (vascular death, coronary artery disease, stroke). A Medline literature search of the highest-quality systematic reviews and meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials documents that, due to risk of bias, imprecision, and indirectness, the overall quality of the evidence concerning diagnostic tools and antithrombotic interventions in PAD is generally low. Areas of research emerge from the information collected. Appropriate treatments for PAD patients will only derive from ad-hoc studies. Innovative imaging techniques are needed to identify PAD subjects at the highest vascular risk. Whether IC unresponsive to physical exercise and smoking cessation identifies those with a heritable predisposition to more severe vascular events deserves to be addressed. Devising ways to improve prevention of vascular events in patients with PAD implies a co-ordinated approach in vascular medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The headlong rush to automate continues apace. The dominant question still remains whether we can automate, not whether we should automate. However, it is this latter question that is featured and considered explicitly here. The suggestion offered is that unlimited automation of all technical functions will eventually prove anathema to the fundamental quality of human life. Examples of tasks, pursuits and past-times that should potentially be excused from the automation imperative are discussed. This deliberation leads us back to the question of balance in the cooperation, coordination and potential conflict between humans and the machines they create. Practitioner Summary:The reason for this work is to examine how much automation is too much. The investigational form is synthetic in nature. The major finding is – it depends? Each design decision of practitioners as to what to automate and when is, therefore, critical and fateful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bacterial resistance to antibiotics poses a serious health threat. Since research into new antibiotics is not progressing at the same rate as the development of bacterial resistance, widespread calls for alternatives to antibiotics have been made. Phage therapy is an ideal alternative candidate to be investigated. However the success of phage therapy may be hampered by a lack of investment support from large pharmaceutical companies, due to their narrow spectrum of activity in antibiotics, very large costs associated with clinical trials of the variety of phages needed, and regulatory requirements remaining unclear. Intellectual property is difficult to secure for therapeutic phage products for a variety of reasons, and patenting procedures vary widely between the US and the EU. Consequently, companies are more likely to invest in phage products for decontamination or veterinary use, rather than clinical use in humans. Some still raise questions as to the safety of phage therapy overall, suggesting the possibility of cytotoxicity and immunogenicity, depending on the phage preparation and route. On the other hand, with patients dying because of infections untreatable with conventional antibiotics, the question arises as to whether it is ethical not to pursue phage therapy more diligently. A paradigm shift about how phage therapy is perceived is required, as well as more rigorous proof of efficacy in the form of clinical trials of existing medicinal phage products. Phage therapy potential may be fulfilled in the meantime by allowing individual preparations to be used on a named-patient basis, with extensive monitoring and multidisciplinary team input. The National Health Service and academia have a role in carrying out clinical phage research, which would be beneficial to public health, but not necessarily financially rewarding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, I study the challenges that make database and material bank sharing difficult for many researchers. I assert that if sharing is prima facie ethical (a view that I will defend), then any practices that limit sharing require justification. I argue that: 1) data and material sharing is ethical for many stakeholders; 2) there are, however, certain reasonable limits to sharing; and 3) the rationale and validity of arguments for any limitations to sharing must be made transparent. I conclude by providing general recommendations for how to ethically share databases and material banks. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

There has been a growing backlash against top-down approaches to environmental management throughout the world because of its tendency to prioritise and solely appreciate professional and scientific “expert” knowledge. This lends the approach a potentially exclusive and paternalistic nature, which can be alienating to local people and their internal resource management schemes. Hence there has been a growing acceptance of bottom-up approaches that characteristically both appreciate and incorporate local people and their local knowledge, skills, needs and experiences (National Capital Development Commission, Government and community involvement in the planning and development of Canberra, Canberra 1977; Hickey and Mohan, Towards participation as transformation: critical themes and challenges, in: Hickey and Mohan, Participation: from tyranny to transformation? Exploring new approaches to participation in development, London: Zed Books 2004; Tsing et al., Community as conservation: raising questions, in: Brosius et al., Communities and conservation: histories and politics of community-based natural resource management, New York: AltaMira Press 2005). However, whilst the top-down approach certainly has its limitations, so too does the bottom-up approach. Problematic aspects of the bottom-up participatory approach need to be critically analysed and appreciated so as not to fall into the trap of romanticising and essentialising the grassroots movement. Therefore, this article explores four fundamental critiques of the participatory bottom-up approach, including tokenism (McIvor, Community participation in water management experiences from Zimbabwe, Frankfurt: DSE 2000), the myths of “communities” as coherent and cohesive bodies (Nicholson and Schreiner, Community participation in city decision making, Milton Keynes, UK: Open University Press 1973; Guijt and Shah, The myth of community: gender issues in participatory development, London: Intermediate Technology 1998), the fundamental lack of resources (Cleaver, Institutions, agency and the limitations of participatory approaches to development, in: Cooke and Kothari, Participation - the new tyranny?, London: Zed Books 2001) and the often critical lack of knowledge about the actual process and how to successfully facilitate it (Carr, Grass roots & green tape: principles and practices of environmental stewardship, Sydney: Federation Press 2002). Whilst the focus of this article is a critical analysis of the bottom-up approach, the aim is to encourage critical reflection, so that the potential limitations of the approach can be appropriately appreciated and addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teacher candidates and teacher-preparation faculties have long valued authentic experiences serving students in elementary, middle, and secondary schools. In the last two decades, the popularity of school-community partnerships, service learning, and other forms of civic engagement by universities has increased. At the same time, limitations on local school resources, the shortage of qualified teachers in distressed areas, and the stress to perform on high stakes testing has led to abuses of the partnerships from both sides. In this article, the authors elucidate some of the pitfalls experienced in a partnership with a distressed school district and suggest means to avoid these problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A first-year seminar general education course provides a good opportunity to search for mathematical topics associated with the popular culture represented in the course's required films and readings. We discuss mathematical connections to several books, including Life of Pi and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, and to the film Goodbye, Lenin! We also describe a few games and tricks to explore the use of logical reasoning as a component of the "ways of knowing" theme for the first-year seminar course and we consider the potential limitation of a lack of quantitative reasoning skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to support the development of accessibility research, the main objective of this study was to explore how functional capacity, i.e. the personal component of the concept of accessibility, can be operationalized at group level, and to study its complexity in an ageing process perspective. Prior to this exploration it was necessary to elucidate the relationship between self-reported diagnoses and profiles of functional limitations, and to investigate the frequency of functional limitations longitudinally. At baseline and at six-year follow-up, data were collected with 72 elderly persons. Self-reports on diagnoses were accomplished and functional limitations were assessed by means of a standardized assessment. No general patterns of profiles of functional limitations related to any of the diagnoses could be found. Profiles of functional limitations were classified by means of hierarchical cluster analyses, and common denominators were identified. The results revealed increasing complexity with increasing age. The ultimate goal for accessibility research is to outline a set of profiles of functional limitations representing different user groups that could be utilized in more efficient analyses prior to physical planning decisions at society level, and this study is a first step in this direction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article entitled 'Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies (REMS) for Extended-Release and Long-Acting Opioid Analgesics: Considerations for Pain and Palliative Care Practice' that appears in this issue of the journal addresses the important new Food and Drug Administration (FDA) REMS program. This commentary expands on themes introduced by Dr. Gudin, projects future directions for REMS, and discusses possible benefits, limitations, and risks associated with the extended-release long-acting opioid REMS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]