Stirling Online Research Repository (RIOXX)
Not a member yet
23585 research outputs found
Sort by
Books and Borrowing: Agents, Access and Accountability, c. 1600-1850
Full text linkFirst paragraph: This is the first of a pair of special issues of this journal, both deriving from a conference on reading and book circulation, organised by the AHRC-funded project Books and Borrowing 1750-1830: An Analysis of Scottish Borrowers’ Registers (Books and Borrowing 1750-1830 (stir.ac.uk); AH/T003960/1) and held at the University of Stirling in April 2023. The two special issues have slightly different remits, this one dealing primarily with books, readers, and agents of different kinds, and the second with libraries, books, and borrowers, although there is inevitably a great deal of overlap between the two. The key themes that emerge across both special issues are the importance of books as forms of capital, both symbolic and actual, and the importance of place and space in our understanding of book circulation
Iluma-nating: IQOS variant enters the Guatemalan market
Full text linkFirst paragraph: IQOS, the Philip Morris International (PMI) flagship heated tobacco product (HTP), is now available in 82 countries. According to PMI’s 2023 fourth-quarter results, IQOS has overtaken Marlboro on net revenues. Scant research is available on youth’s HTP perceptions, including in Guatemala. Among adolescents aged 16–19 years in England, Canada and the USA, susceptibility to trying IQOS has been found to be higher than for cigarettes. In Guatemala, adolescent HTP use has been found to be low, yet susceptibility to use is high, suggesting that tobacco use prevention strategies should also include HTPs. Furthermore, Guatemala faces the challenge of increased accessibility for adolescents and exposure to unregulated tobacco marketing
Do engagement and behavioural mechanisms underpin the effectiveness of the Drink Less app?
Full text linkThis is a process evaluation of a large UK-based randomised controlled trial (RCT) (n = 5602) evaluating the effectiveness of recommending an alcohol reduction app, Drink Less, compared with usual digital care in reducing alcohol consumption in increasing and higher risk drinkers. The aim was to understand whether participants' engagement ('self-reported adherence') and behavioural characteristics were mechanisms of action underpinning the effectiveness of Drink Less. Self-reported adherence with both digital tools was over 70% (Drink Less: 78.0%, 95% CI = 77.6-78.4; usual digital care: 71.5%, 95% CI = 71.0-71.9). Self-reported adherence to the intervention (average causal mediation effect [ACME] = -0.250, 95% CI = -0.42, -0.11) and self-monitoring behaviour (ACME = -0.235, 95% CI = -0.44, -0.03) both partially mediated the effect of the intervention (versus comparator) on alcohol reduction. Following the recommendation (self-reported adherence) and the tracking (self-monitoring behaviour) feature of the Drink Less app appear to be important mechanisms of action for alcohol reduction among increasing and higher risk drinkers
The use of virtual reality to support participatory design processes in environmental design for cognitive change
Full text linkThe capability of virtual reality (VR), to enable full-scale immersive experiences of architectural designs provides the potential to use VR as a co-design tool amongst underrepresented groups, such as those experiencing cognitive decline. This chapter discusses two sequential VR-supported co-design research projects which included older people living with cognitive change. It evidences the potential role of VR as an effective means of achieving equity and inclusion in the design process, achieved through removal of historic barriers to design participation. It concludes with a vision for an achievable future, where VR-supported democratisation of the design process leads to improvements in environmental design, and subsequent improvements in quality of life for people living with cognitive change
Free-living physical activity and executive function: A multi-study analysis of age groups and times of day
Full text linkBackground Executive Function (EF) is a potential mechanism linking physical activity (PA) and mental health. However, evidence regarding the association between free-living PA and EF is limited with mixed results. Across two studies, we examined associations between accelerometer-assessed moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) and facets of EF in different age groups (Study 1) and at different times of day (Study 2). Method In Study 1, we tested the association between MVPA and verbal fluency across seven days in 285 participants (children, adults, older adults). In Study 2, we tested between- and within-person associations between MVPA and working memory (afternoon, evening, next morning) across three 18-day bursts in 64 preadolescents. Results Study 1 showed no association between MVPA and verbal fluency overall, but there was an interaction by age group: a positive association was evident in older adults only. In Study 2, we observed a positive between-person association between MVPA and subsequent afternoon and next morning working memory, but not within-person. In the evening, MVPA was not related to working memory. Conclusions The association between free-living PA and EF differs between age groups and times of day. Future research should consider these factors when examining the association and its role for mental health
Reading against Reform: The Bristol Library Society and the Intellectual Culture of Bristol's Elections in 1812
Full text linkThis article pioneers a new methodological approach to the study of electoral politics by combining an analysis of the politics of reading, library association and the reading habits of electors in an English urban constituency in the early 19th century. By integrating an examination of reading practices and intellectual context into our analysis of electoral contests, political history scholars can go further in their examination of the unreformed electoral system and attempt to gauge the motivations behind voting habits and partisan identification in this period. Using electoral voting data and the records of an urban subscription library, this article explores the interrelation between the Bristol Library Society and Bristol's electoral politics, as well as conducting an analysis of which books were being borrowed and read by electors in a politically tumultuous year. Although few in number compared with the total size of Bristol's electorate, Bristol Library members were among some of the most politically and culturally influential individuals in Bristol society and were active participants in electoral contests in the city, either as candidates, campaigners, civic officials or voters. An analysis of their voting habits reveals that the library's membership reflected the Tory political hegemony that became pronounced in the city's civic politics. Moreover, an analysis of their reading habits in 1812 reveals an interest in political texts that were conservative and anti-Gallic in tone, that were representative of the political climate in Bristol in 1812, and which contributed to the defeat of candidates for reform in its electoral contests
Healers and midwives accused of witchcraft (1563–1736) - What secondary analysis of the Scottish survey of witchcraft can contribute to the teaching of nursing and midwifery history
Full text linkBackground Nearly 4000 people were accused of witchcraft in Scotland between 1563 and 1736. Some of these were healers, midwives, and nurses. Objective To investigate Scotland's folk-healers and midwives accused of witchcraft and review their work from a nursing and midwifery perspective. Design Secondary analysis of the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft. Methods Those on the Survey with witchcraft accusations relating to folk-healing or midwifery were identified and their biographies were created from Survey data (2021). Individual biographical data were descriptively analysed. Healing/midwifery practice information was tabulated and thematically analysed. Results 142 individuals were identified (85 % women), 51 % were found guilty, 90 % were executed. Most (98 %) were folk-healers with 10 accused for midwifery reasons. Mainly their work was accused of causing harm. Three themes emerged: their use of rituals; unorthodox religious practices and treatments. Rituals included actions carried out a certain number of times. Religious practices frequently referenced Catholicism. Many of their treatments for ingestion, application or bathing used items still recognised for their health properties. Approximately, 10 % of the 142, mainly in the 1500s/early 1600s, utilised expensive items and complex treatments which had more in common with ‘elite’ knowledge rather than simple folklore. Conclusions Across all 142 people, many aspects of their work are identifiable within more contemporary nursing and midwifery practice including their use of rituals, treatments, and holism. Mostly the accused were folk-practitioners, but a few (1500s/early 1600s) appear to have been healers working akin to physicians. Following the Protestant reformation (1560) their work, unlike that of physicians, was marginalised, considered unorthodox and harmful because they were women and/or their work reflected Catholicism. European hospital nursing originates in the monastic houses, but little is known about these early religious nurses. This study is novel in suggesting that whoever taught these accused witch/healers may have been connected to the monastic hospitals pre-Reformation
Wittgenstein and Frege on Negation and Denial
Full text linkFrege maintains that there are not two distinct acts, assertion and denial; rather, denying p is one and the same as asserting not-p. Wittgenstein appears not to recognise this identity in Frege, attributing to him the contrary view that a proposition may have one of two verbs, ‘is true’ or ‘is false’. This paper explains Wittgenstein’s attribution as a consequence of Frege’s treatment of content as theoretically prior to the act of judgment. Where content is prior to judgment, the denial of p – what is rejected in asserting p – is distinct from the assertion of not-p. Wittgenstein’s own embrace of Frege’s identity is then considered, an embrace explained in part by his repudiation of Frege’s theoretical order
Bullshit consumption: What lockdowns tell us about work-and-spend lives and care-full alternatives
Full text linkCOVID-19 disrupted ‘non-essential’ work and consumption, providing an unparalleled opportunity to examine work-and-spend culture, which we do via 44 in-depth interviews that capture experiences and reflections during UK lockdowns. Deploying Graeber’s conceptualisation of ‘bullshit jobs’ and related critiques of consumption, we first consider the possibility that contemporary work-and-spend lifestyles may deny the normative separation of work as worthy toil and consumption as its pleasurable opposite. Within such experience, and in addition to Graeber’s bullshit jobs, we find a parallel in bullshit consumption at work, in order to work, and because of work. Yet our findings also highlight that when freed from bullshit, participants engage in more caring practices for the self, others, and their possessions. We propose that much of our work-and-spend lives might be bullshit: routines that promise status, virtue, freedom, and pleasure, but feel meaningless, while displacing satisfying experiences of care. We conclude that a focus on subtractive logics – cutting the bullshit! – can activate both new critiques and optimism about societal arrangements
Smallholder aquaculture diversifies livelihoods and diets thus improving food security status: evidence from northern Zambia
Full text linkBackground Much has been made of the potential for aquaculture to improve rural livelihoods and food and nutrition security in Africa, though little evidence exists to back such claims. This study, conducted in northern Zambia, assessed the benefits of adopting aquaculture by comparing a sample of households with (n = 177) and without fishponds (n = 174). Results On-farm food production was assessed by summing all crop and livestock activities and calculating a production diversity score (PDS) of key food groups. Aquaculture households had greater crop diversification and were more associated with key nutritious foods grown on the farm, possibly due to additional water irrigation capabilities. A greater diversity of cultivated crops led to better household dietary diversity scores (HDDS). We further assessed the frequency of consumption of 53 food items (including 30 fish species) over a period of 4 weeks via a Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ). Using the Simpson’s Index, aquaculture households had greater diversity and evenness in the distribution of foods and fish species consumed, particularly for foods grown on the farm. Using livelihood and dietary factors in a multilevel probit regression on the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS), we found that adopting aquaculture gave households almost two times more likelihood of improving their food security status. Households could further improve their food security outcomes by growing and consuming certain vegetables, especially those that could be integrated along pond dykes. Conclusions The study suggests three clear pathways to food security. (1) Increasing wealth and income from the sale of fish and integrated vegetables and/or crops, which can be used to purchase a diversity of foods. (2) Increasing food and nutrition security via the direct consumption of fish and vegetables grown on the farm. (3) Improving irrigation capabilities in integrated aquaculture–agriculture systems that has direct impact on pathways 1 and 2. Aquaculture should be promoted in the region for its crop diversification and food security benefits, so long as it fits the local farming system and livelihood context. Moving away from productivist approaches to nutrition-sensitive aquaculture widens the scope of uncovering the many benefits of pond farming in smallholder systems
Access Repository Dashboard
Do you manage Stirling Online Research Repository (RIOXX)? Access insider analytics, issue reports and manage access to outputs from your repository in the CORE Repository Dashboard!