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Article
Publication date: 18 December 2023

José Carlos Vázquez-Parra, Marco Cruz-Sandoval, Carlos Sotelo, David Sotelo, Martina Carlos-Arroyo and Jorge Welti-Chanes

This article aims to present the results of an exploratory pilot study that demonstrates the validity of a self-created implementation methodology to develop the students' level…

Abstract

Purpose

This article aims to present the results of an exploratory pilot study that demonstrates the validity of a self-created implementation methodology to develop the students' level of perceived achievement of the social entrepreneurship competency and explain how this is equally valid in developing the perceived achievement of the complex thinking competency.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on a multivariate descriptive statistical analysis, this article offers the results of an educational intervention carried out on a sample group of students from a Mexican university before and after a training program in social entrepreneurship.

Findings

The favorable results showed that the proposed methodology is valid for scaling social entrepreneurship and complex thinking competencies and their subcompetencies.

Originality/value

These results are not only academically valuable, as they highlight the need to delve into the relationship between these two competencies, but they also allow us to appreciate the ample opportunities for practical implementation of entrepreneurship programs by universities and other institutions to work directly with social entrepreneurs and seek alternatives to develop skills through devising, proposing and developing social entrepreneurship projects.

Details

Higher Education, Skills and Work-Based Learning, vol. 14 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2042-3896

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 13 November 2017

Misael Lopez-Ramirez, Rene J. Romero-Troncoso, Daniel Moriningo-Sotelo, Oscar Duque-Perez, David Camarena-Martinez and Arturo Garcia-Perez

About 13 to 44 per cent of motor faults are caused by bearing failures in induction motors (IMs), where lubrication plays a significant role in maintaining rotating equipment…

205

Abstract

Purpose

About 13 to 44 per cent of motor faults are caused by bearing failures in induction motors (IMs), where lubrication plays a significant role in maintaining rotating equipment because it minimizes friction and prevents wear by separating parts that move next to each other, and more than 35 per cent of bearing failures can be attributed to improper lubrication. An excessive amount of grease causes the rollers or balls to slide along the race instead of turning, and the grease will actually churn. This churning action will eventually wear down the base oil of the grease and all that will be left to lubricate the bearing is a thickener system with little or no lubricating properties. The heat generated from the churning, insufficient lubricating oil will begin to harden the grease, and this will prevent any new grease added to the bearing from reaching the rolling elements, with the consequence of bearing failure and equipment downtime. Regarding the case of grease excess in bearings, this case has not been sufficiently studied. This work aims to present an effective methodology applied to the detection and automatic classification of mechanical bearing faults and bearing excessively lubricated conditions in an IM through the Margenau-Hill distribution (MHD) and artificial neural networks (ANNs), where the obtained results demonstrate the correct classification of the studied cases.

Design/methodology/approach

This work proposed an effective methodology applied to the detection and automatic classification of mechanical bearing faults and bearing excessively lubricated conditions in an IM through the MHD and ANNs.

Findings

In this paper, three cases of study for a bearing in an IM are studied, detected and classified correctly by combining some methods. The marginal frequency is obtained from the MHD, which in turn is achieved from the stator current signal, and a total of six features are estimated from the power spectrum, and these features are forwarded to the designed ANN with three output neurons, where each one represents a condition in the IM: healthy bearing, mechanical bearing fault and excessively lubricated bearing.

Practical implications

The proposed methodology can be applied to other applications; it could be useful to use a time–frequency representation through the MHD for obtaining the energy density distribution of the signal frequency components through time for analysis, evaluation and identification of faults or conditions in the IM for example; therefore, the proposed methodology has a generalized nature that allows its application for detecting other conditions or even multiple conditions under different working conditions by a proper calibration.

Originality/value

The lubrication plays a significant role in maintaining rotating equipment because it minimizes friction and prevents wear by separating parts that move next to each other, and more than 35 per cent of bearing failures can be attributed to improper lubrication and it negatively affects the efficiency of the motor, resulting in higher operating costs. Therefore, in this work, a new methodology is proposed for the detection and automatic classification of mechanical bearing faults and bearing excessively lubricated conditions in an IM through the MHD and ANNs. The proposed methodology uses a total of six features estimated from the power spectrum, and these features are sent to the designed ANN with three output neurons, where each one represents a condition in the IM: healthy bearing, mechanical bearing fault and excessively lubricated bearing. From the obtained results, it was demonstrated that the proposed approach achieves higher classification performance, compared to short-time Fourier transform, Gabor transform and Wigner-Ville distribution methods, allowing to identify mechanical bearing faults and bearing excessively lubricated conditions in an IM, with a remarkable 100 per cent effectiveness during classification for treated cases. Also, the proposed methodology has a generalized nature that allows its application for detecting other conditions or even multiple conditions under different working conditions by a proper calibration.

Details

Industrial Lubrication and Tribology, vol. 69 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0036-8792

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 20 November 2018

Ricardo Solis Rosales

This essay explores the critical vision of Francisco Barrera Lavalle about the Mexico’s Monetary Reform of 1905. In his critique, Barrera inserts an argument about the nature of…

Abstract

This essay explores the critical vision of Francisco Barrera Lavalle about the Mexico’s Monetary Reform of 1905. In his critique, Barrera inserts an argument about the nature of the balance of payments in the Mexican economy: the disequilibria in Mexico’s trade balance were structurally recurrent given the characteristics of what the country exports: commodities and raw materials. Barrera believed that the authorities made the mistake of overvaluing the peso, assigning it a value higher than what silver currency was worth at the time on international markets. Barrera also dismissed the idea that monetary stability could be achieved by suspending the free coinage of silver currency. Finally, Barrera held that banks should be obligated to pay their banknotes in gold, as they were in Great Britain and in the United States, not in silver coins.

Details

Including a Symposium on Latin American Monetary Thought: Two Centuries in Search of Originality
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78756-431-2

Keywords

Abstract

Details

Thinking Home on the Move
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83909-722-5

Article
Publication date: 16 February 2021

David du Toit and Lindy Heinecken

The nature of paid domestic work is changing, with the growth in companies delivering domestic cleaning services. Few studies have looked at why people opt to use these services…

Abstract

Purpose

The nature of paid domestic work is changing, with the growth in companies delivering domestic cleaning services. Few studies have looked at why people opt to use these services and the underlying drivers. As with the outsourcing of non-core tasks in businesses, outsourcing domestic work is motivated by similar, yet different reasons, which have to do with the personal and private nature of domestic employment. This study aims to establish the reasons why “clients”, who were former employers of domestic servants, opted to outsource domestic work to a domestic cleaning service provider.

Design/methodology/approach

Given the limited research on domestic cleaning services in South Africa, a mixed-methods research approach is used.

Findings

The findings showed that there are three key motivations: the nature of the domestic cleaning service supplier, the services rendered by domestic workers and the tripartite employment relationships. These three benefits imply that clients have access to functional and numerical flexibility, unlike employing a domestic worker directly. This study contributes to the literature on outsourcing and domestic work by showing that clients not only look to change the economic structure of the relationship with domestic workers, but it allows them to psychologically and emotionally distance themselves from domestic workers.

Research limitations/implications

This study shows that some people are no longer willing to have a relationship with the people who clean their homes, and that they believe it is simply not worth the effort to maintain a relationship. This is an aspect that needs further research, as this is the one sphere where women are united in their plight, albeit from different worldviews. Thus, a limitation is that this study only focuses on clients' views of outsourcing. Have domestic workers employed by the outsourced domestic cleaning service supplier become just like assembly-line workers, where they are anonymous to their clients, performing routine tasks with little recognition from those whose homes they are servicing? Future studies could focus on domestic workers' views on outsourcing and the effects it has on their working conditions and employment relations.

Originality/value

Firstly, studies mainly focus on the Global North where domestic work and outsourcing have different dynamics, regulation policies and social changes when compared to South Africa. Secondly, few studies have sought to establish why people shift from employing a domestic or care worker directly to an outsourced domestic agency when direct domestic help is available and affordable. Considering these shortcomings, this study aims to provide a better understanding of domestic cleaning service suppliers from the perspective of clients, often omitted from the literature. Accordingly, this study aimed to establish what the benefits are for clients (former employers of domestic workers) who use domestic cleaning service suppliers.

Details

Employee Relations: The International Journal, vol. 43 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0142-5455

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 17 June 2014

Michelle Brown

Metaphorically, the garden invokes a repertoire of skills, arts, and virtues that run counter to the act of confinement but are embedded in its disciplinary practice: spaces in…

Abstract

Metaphorically, the garden invokes a repertoire of skills, arts, and virtues that run counter to the act of confinement but are embedded in its disciplinary practice: spaces in punitive environments where care, growth, health, and cultivation are emphasized. Gardens and the force of law and labor are foregrounded in Judeo-Christian myths, in slavery, and in prison farms as spaces of expulsion and brutality. Yet as abandoned, fortress-style prisons dilapidate, and vines and weeds break through concrete, we can begin to ask, What might it mean to imagine the prison through the lens of the garden?

Details

Special Issue: The Beautiful Prison
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78350-966-9

Article
Publication date: 1 March 1997

Pierrette Hondagneu‐Sotelo

This article uses the case of paid domestic work in Los Angeles to argue that affluent and middle‐class members of U.S. society constitute important participants in the informal…

Abstract

This article uses the case of paid domestic work in Los Angeles to argue that affluent and middle‐class members of U.S. society constitute important participants in the informal economy. In‐depth, tape‐recorded interviews conducted with thirty‐five employers of nannies and house cleaners, and survey responses of 154 Latina house cleaners and nannies shows that compliance with government regulations, as indicated by payment of Social Security, Medicare and federal tax withholdings, are rare. Affluent citizens may not directly depend on informally generated income, but as employers of paid domestic workers and nannies, they do depend on informally organized and remunerated services. Employers of paid domestic workers rely on three major narrative strategies to distance themselves from the regulations, arguing that the standards should be followed by certain categories of people (attorneys, celebrities, the very wealthy), that the regulations apply only to those employing full‐time help, and that the regulations are illegitimate because both undocumented workers and the state lack legitimacy. These rationalizations allow them to simultaneously condemn Zoe Baird and yet follow the same practices. Upgrading the occupation requires state support and the education of employers. This process would lead to greater recognition of paid domestic work as an occupation, one that merits the protections and regulatory guidelines governing other jobs.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 17 no. 3/4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Book part
Publication date: 30 September 2020

Katherine Eva Maich

Laws geared toward regulating the employment relationship cling to traditional definitions of workplaces, neglecting the domain of the home and those who work there. Domestic…

Abstract

Laws geared toward regulating the employment relationship cling to traditional definitions of workplaces, neglecting the domain of the home and those who work there. Domestic workers, a population of largely immigrant women of color, have performed labor inside of New York City's homes for centuries and yet have consistently been denied coverage under labor law protections at both the state and federal level. This article traces out the exclusions of domestic workers historically and then turn to a particular piece of legislation – the 2010 New York Domestic Worker Bill of Rights – which was the first law of its kind to regulate the household as a site of labor, therefore disrupting that long-standing pattern. However, the law falls short in granting basic worker protections to this particular group. Drawing from 52 in-depth interviews and analysis of legislative documents, The author argues that the problematics of the law can be understood by recognizing its embeddedness, or rather the broader political, legal, historical, and social ecology within which the law is embedded, which inhibited in a number of important ways the law's ability to work. This article shows how this plays out through the law obscuring the specificity of where this labor is performed – the home – as well as the demographic makeup of the immigrant women of color – the whom – performing it. Using the case study of domestic workers' recent inclusion into labor law coverage, this article urges a closer scrutiny of and attention to the changing nature of inequality, race, and gender present in employment relationships within the private household as well as found more generally throughout the low-wage sector.

Details

Rethinking Class and Social Difference
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83982-020-5

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 5 June 2017

Pablo Ramirez

This one-year qualitative study examined the role Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies (Paris, 2012; Paris & Alim, 2014) had on secondary pre-service teachers in an urban school. This…

Abstract

This one-year qualitative study examined the role Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies (Paris, 2012; Paris & Alim, 2014) had on secondary pre-service teachers in an urban school. This study examined the journey of six pre-service urban high-school teachers in Arizona as they enact Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy (CSP) in a year-long student teaching residency. Pre-service teachers worked with and learned from English Language Learners in various contexts. Factors that influenced their CSP practices are discussed through themes that emerged from interviews and classroom observations.

Book part
Publication date: 29 June 2017

Sara Shostak and Norris Guscott

This paper describes how community gardens generate social capital, and with what potential implications for the health of gardeners and their communities.

Abstract

Purpose

This paper describes how community gardens generate social capital, and with what potential implications for the health of gardeners and their communities.

Methodology/approach

This analysis draws on data from focus groups with gardeners from four community gardening programs, two each in Boston and Lynn, MA. The participants represent a diverse sample of community gardeners (n=32).

Findings

We identify four mechanisms through which community gardening increases social capital, with implications for individual and community health: (1) building social networks; (2) providing opportunities for resource sharing and social support; (3) preserving cultural knowledge and practice in diaspora; and (4) reflecting and reinforcing collective efficacy. We also describe gardeners’ perspectives on gardening itself as a political activity.

Originality/value

While much of the literature on social capital and health in community gardens comes from in-depth studies of single, relatively homogenous gardens, this analysis draws on data from focus group interviews with a diverse group of participants who garden in varied neighborhood settings. In contrast to studies that have suggested that the social capital generated in community gardens does not extend beyond the group of individuals actively involved in gardening, our study identifies multiple community level benefits. Consequently, this paper lends support to recent calls to consider community gardening as strategy for amplifying community assets in support of public health.

Details

Food Systems and Health
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78635-092-3

Keywords

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