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Supporting cancer screening uptake in South Asian women: the wise up to cancer public health intervention
No full textYesBritish South Asian women’s uptake of cervical, breast, and bowel cancer screening is lower than the national average. ‘Wise up to cancer’ is a public health intervention, used with the general public, partly designed to increase cancer screening uptake. This work package from a larger study aimed to assess whether the ‘Wise up to Cancer’ intervention, delivered in different community settings, would increase South Asian women’s intention to access overdue screening. We conducted a mixed methods study to implement and evaluate ‘Wise up to Cancer’ with purposively selected women of Southeast Asian origin, aged 25–74 thus eligible for one or more screenings. Trained peers delivered the initial intervention (questionnaire) and researchers delivered follow-up telephone calls. Responses to closed-ended questions were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and free-text responses were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. ‘Wise up to Cancer’ increased women’s intentions to take up cervical and breast cancer screening but not bowel screening. Pharmacies were more successful in engaging women in the intervention than community/faith-based settings. These results can be used to inform tailoring of future interventions designed to increase cancer screening uptake in this population, but more work is needed to encourage the uptake of bowel screening.Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Gov UK Tampon Tax under Grant number A1967
Electrochemical Potentials of Cobalt Oxide Nanofluid for Improved Oil Recovery with the Aid of Electromagnetic Field
No full textNoOil reservoir formation damage is a significant issue in secondary and tertiary oil recovery operations. Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) approaches can address these issues while increasing production rates and resource recovery. However, challenges include chemical degradation, high chemical volumes, and high costs. Nanotechnologies can improve oil recovery by improving subsurface porous media and pore fluids, separating fluid phases, and introducing influencing coatings. Cobalt oxide-based materials have been extensively evaluated for their amphiphilic properties, thermal stability, and high reactivity, which can modify physicochemical properties and improve crude oil recovery. CoO nanoparticles were characterized using various techniques, including Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Raman spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectronic spectrometry, and Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FSEM). Results showed that CoO nanofluid positively affects reservoir minerals with electromagnetic fields and improves oil recovery. It also improves thermal stability, promotes stable emulsion formation, decreases the interfacial tension (IFT) up to 15% for the light-crude-oil/water system at concentrations of 0.5 wt% nanofluid, and can improve thermal stability with respect to CoO in a wide range of temperatures, favouring the formation of stable emulsions
Clinician-Assisted Exploratory Data Analysis Framework for Early Diagnosis of Keratoconus
No full textYesAdvances in corneal imaging have generated vast datasets, making it challenging to extract clinically relevant insights. Machine Learning (ML) provides ophthalmologists with essential tools for keratoconus (KC) detection and clinical decision-making. However, effective Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) remains crucial for identifying trends, forming hypotheses, and selecting key parameters to build robust ML models. This paper presents a comprehensive EDA framework that fosters collaboration between AI specialists and clinicians to enable early KC detection. Using statistical and visual techniques alongside expert input, a clinical dataset with 79 features from 2,491 cases is pre-processed, analyzed, and effectively prepared for ML modelling. The analysis identified a key subset of features-just 6.3% of the original dataset-which was used to develop and evaluate the classification performance of several ML models. Among them, the Random Forest model achieved 99.6% accuracy, surpassing previous studies and demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed EDA framework
Turkish trade in eight service categories and role of the exchange rate
No full textYesA new strand of literature in international economics is now in the early stages of development, i.e., the impact of exchange rate changes on service trade. We add to this literature by considering the link between the Turkish lira's real effective exchange rate and its trade in services. Sinsectce nonlinear adjustment of the exchange rate has proved to yield more significant outcomes relative to linear adjustment, we estimate a nonlinear model (assuming the effects are asymmetric) in addition to a linear model (which assumes the effects are symmetric). When we first estimated the models using Turkish aggregate trade in services, we could only find some short-run effects. However, we disaggregated the data into eight service categories to reduce aggregation bias. We then found short-run significant effects in all eight service industries. Short-run effects lasted into long-run effects in six industries. The unaffected industries were construction and transport
Experimental and numerical investigation on seismic performance of prestressed ultra-high performance concrete frames
No full textYesTo improve the seismic resilience and reparability of structural systems, this study investigates the seismic performance of prestressed and non-prestressed ultra-high-performance concrete (UHPC) frames through low-cycle reversed loading tests and finite element simulations. Both frames exhibited plastic hinge formation at beam ends, with the prestressed UHPC frame showing superior damage control, including fewer cracks, narrower crack widths, and reduced concrete crushing. The prestressed UHPC frame demonstrated 6.0 % higher peak load capacity, improved ductility, enhanced energy dissipation, and slower stiffness degradation compared to the non-prestressed frame. As concrete strength increased, performance improved when the axial load ratio was below 0.3, but deteriorated beyond this threshold. It is recommended that the axial load ratio not exceed 0.3 for UHPC frames. Increasing the prestress level and prestressed steel strand diameter only lead to very limited improvements in lateral stiffness and load-bearing capacity. Increasing column reinforcement ratio improved load-bearing capacity and ductility, but benefits diminished at higher axial load ratios. Increasing beam reinforcement enhanced stiffness but accelerated stiffness degradation and reduced ductility. This study provides key insights and recommendations for optimizing the seismic performance of prestressed UHPC frame structures in earthquake-prone regions
Social Inclusion by Stakeholders’ Empowerment in Jordanian Cultural Heritage: Herit-IT Project
No full textNoIn recent years, several policies and initiatives related to social inclusion have been consolidated in the Jordanian context. These strategies have been developed and implemented by a wide range of stakeholders, including the government, private agencies, and public bodies. They have generated a strong interest in management and inclusion guidelines while raising awareness of the richness of Jordan’s cultural heritage. The Herit-IT Jordan project, funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering, brings together multiple stakeholders working at local, national, and international levels, all of whom have an interest in and influence over processes that can support the inclusive digitalization of cultural heritage in Jordan. The project’s aim is to bridge the social, cultural, and economic gap in Jordan by applying digital technologies to support heritage conservation plans. This approach was applied in two emblematic pilot case studies: the House of Art in Amman and the Qaqish House in the World Heritage City of As-Salt. The main goal of the present paper is to analyze the effectiveness of stakeholder engagement in heritage conservation projects in Jordan taking Herit-IT as a case study. The methodological process is structured into three main phases: (i) stakeholder identification, (ii) stakeholder engagement, and (iii) stakeholder empowerment. Coproduction and multi-stakeholder collaboration are discussed as crucial aspects in the development of the research methodology and design, as well as in broadening the audience that can benefit from its results. Through dissemination and awareness-raising policies, the results of the workshops and conferences incorporate key points for social inclusion and empowerment, making significant contributions to the community in terms of data transparency and engagement with stakeholders
Beyond the Pay check: Conceptualizing Employer Brand Activism
No full textNoGone are the days when a business must be a certain way and their primary objective was to generate revenue and maximize stakeholder value. Today, the aspirations and expectations of different groups have become increasingly complex; they want to attach meaning to a brand when associating themselves with it. For example, consumers, investors and employees expect organizations to speak out or take a stand on social, political and environmental issues. At the same time, today׳s leaders want to be known beyond their role. They are increasingly vocal about what they stand for and where their personal views lie. While this evolving mindset overlaps well and has the potential to form that ideal triad for all, i.e., if the management, the customer, the investor and the employee align on a value, it will have a positive impact on the organization. However, it is far from ideal because if complexity is paramount, so are the looming uncertainties of ever-changing trends and priorities, i.e., the changing preferences of consumers and investors, the changing views, inclinations and preferences of employees, and the values of executives and management. Now, organizations must understand and manage the ever-changing trends and priorities. More importantly, they must explore and define their values and ensure that they are aligned from the inside out to create value. Therefore, this book chapter aims to explore the facets of activism within the organization (i.e., corporate activism, brand activism, leadership activism, and employee activism) to explain employer brand activism, which is the interplay between employees and the organization. In doing so, we focus on employer brand activism, its short-term benefits, access to long-term effects and how these ultimately relate to other activism. This is important because if this alignment is not achieved internally, external alignment remains fragile and fraught with uncertainty. We therefore hope to shed more light on the broad discussion of how activism and business can go hand in hand and how organizations can drive value from understanding, defining, and prioritizing their values with others, be it employees, leadership, brands, consumers, or investors
Geophysical insights into soil preservation and Neolithic settlement in Kuyavia’s glacial till landscapes (Poland)
Get PDFYesBuried soil topography determines longhouse preservation, Longhouse preservation challenges detection via MAG, (Di)electric contrasts facilitate GPR and RES survey results
How to Engage Students with (Open) Science - Make it Relevant, In-Depth, and Proactive
Get PDFYesCritically engaging undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral students in science means, according to the Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes, developing their relational and extended abstract level scientific literacy. Consequently, we invite the reader to join us - four fellow educators - on a journey as we share and reflect on three case studies from our teaching practice where we have facilitated scientific literacy: i) introducing students to open science through the use of existing datasets to explore sensitive topics, ii) evaluating the evidence behind bold media claims, and iii) discussing publication bias and its influence on evidence synthesis. In practice, educators can adopt these case studies; but we go further in reflectively outlining a useful set of commonalities and practices across them that can be used by educators in developing relevant, in-depth and proactive teaching and learning activities to promote relational and extended abstract level scientific literacy