1993 research outputs found
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Post Foundation Training Careers Choices of Junior Doctors in NHS Wales: Investigating Motivational Drivers and Correlational Patterns
Get PDFIn Wales, the retention of junior doctors after foundational training has shown a disproportionate decline compared to the rest of the UK. Recent industrial actions driven by pay erosion and working conditions accentuate systemic flaws within NHS Wales and expose critical gaps in its workforce retention strategy. The organisation's limited responsiveness to junior doctors' professional needs and their essential motivational drivers negatively impacts service quality, workforce productivity, and patient safety.
This study investigates the motivational factors influencing junior doctors' career choices after foundation training in NHS Wales, examining links between experiences, motivations, and retention to provide evidence-based insights for future improvements and remedial actions. Adopting a mixed-methods approach within a pragmatic philosophy, the research combines a quantitative survey of 155 FY1–FY2 doctors with qualitative interviews involving 8 NHS Wales trainers and 2 BMA representatives. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Spearman's Rank-Order Correlation, and Chi-Square Tests of Independence, while qualitative data were explored through thematic analysis guided by Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory and Social Cognitive Career Theory.
Findings from the literature and empirical data indicated that FY1–FY2 doctors' career choices are mainly based on experience, influenced by training quality, interactions with trainers, and organisational culture. Along with their personal motives – which cannot be fully captured or measured with the analytical tools used due to the complexity of human behaviour – these experiences affect their decision to stay in or leave NHS Wales after their foundational training.
The study concludes that retention issues stem from structural inefficiencies, inconsistent training experiences, and limited organisational responsiveness to junior doctors' motivational drivers. Although theoretical frameworks such as Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory and SCCT are conceptually relevant, their effectiveness depends on active organisational implementation and alignment with workforce realities.
This dissertation recommends targeted interventions to address dissatisfaction areas like rota fairness, workload, and psychological safety, while also enhancing motivational drivers through mentorship, career development options, and structured professional support. Strategies that improve self-efficacy, clarify outcome expectations, reduce contextual barriers, and facilitate goal-oriented career planning are essential for boosting workforce retention and enhancing long-term NHS Wales performance
FHBDSR-Net: automated measurement of diseased spikelet rate of Fusarium Head Blight on wheat spikes.
Get PDFFusarium Head Blight (FHB), a fungal wheat (Triticum aestivum) disease that threatens global food security, requires precise quantification of diseased spikelet rate (DSR) as a phenotypic indicator for resistance breeding. Most techniques for measuring DSR rely on manual spikelet-by-spikelet observation and counting, which is inefficient and destructive. Although deep learning offers great promise for automated DSR measurement, existing intelligent detection algorithms are hampered by the lack of spikelet-level annotated data, insufficient feature representation for diseased spikelets, and weak spatial encoding of densely arranged spikelets. To address these challenges, we constructed a dataset of 620 high-resolution RGB images of wheat spikes with 5,222 spikelet-level annotations to systematically analyze spikelet size distributions to fill small-object detection data gaps in this field. We designed FHBDSR-Net, a light framework for automated DSR measurement centered on diseased spikelet detection, which features (1) multi-scale feature enhancement architecture that dynamically combines lesion textures, morphological features, and lesion-awn contrast through adaptive multi-scale kernels to suppress background noise; (2) the Inner-EfficiCIoU loss function to reduce small-target localization errors in dense contexts; and (3) a scale-aware attention module using dilated convolutions and self-attention to encode multi-scale pathological patterns and spatial distributions to enhance dense spikelet resolution. FHBDSR-Net detected diseased spikelets with an average precision of 93.8% with a lightweight design of 7.2 M parameters. The results were strongly correlated with expert evaluations, with a Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.901. Our method is suitable for deployment on resource-constrained mobile devices, facilitating portable plant phenotyping and smart breeding
Association Between Socioeconomic Status (SES) and Obesity Among Adults: A Systematic Literature Review
Get PDFObesity has emerged as a critical global public health challenge, contributing significantly to morbidity, mortality, and economic costs. Its development is shaped by a complex interplay of biological, behavioural, and environmental factors, yet socioeconomic status (SES) remains a central determinant of obesity risk. SES, encompassing education, income, occupation, and area-based deprivation, influences exposure to health risks, access to resources, and the adoption of health-promoting behaviours. Despite extensive research, findings on the SES–obesity relationship remain fragmented due to methodological inconsistencies, varied definitions of SES, and limited representation of diverse populations, particularly in low-and middle income countries. This systematic literature review (SLR) synthesises global evidence on the relationship between SES and obesity among adults. A structured search strategy was employed across multiple databases, including PubMed, Scopus, and EBSCOhost, with studies screened and evaluated using predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria. The PRISMA framework guided the review process, resulting in the inclusion of 15 studies published between 2015 and 2025. Findings reveal that lower SES is consistently associated with higher obesity prevalence in high-income settings, while in some low-and middle-income contexts, higher SES groups show greater obesity risk, reflecting transitional nutrition environments. Mediating factors such as gender, ethnicity, age, cultural norms, and environmental conditions further shape these associations. The review also highlights gaps in longitudinal evidence, limited integration of behavioural and environmental mediators, and an overrepresentation of studies from high-income regions. This synthesis underscores the need for more comprehensive and globally inclusive research to inform equitable public health strategies. Addressing obesity requires not only biomedical interventions but also policies that tackle structural inequalities and environmental drivers, ensuring targeted and sustainable solutions across diverse adult populations
To What Extend Has the Patristic Tradition Influenced Elizabeth Johnson's Feminist Theology, Particularly in Her Articulation of the Trinity?
Get PDFOptimising Healthcare Data Flows and Interoperability: Exploring Challenges and Opportunities in NHS Wales
Get PDFThis dissertation investigates the challenges and opportunities associated with healthcare data flows and interoperability within NHS Wales, with a particular focus on Powys Teaching Health Board (PTHB). Through a mixed-methods approach, combining qualitative insights from healthcare professionals’ survey responses with quantitative analysis of documentary sources, the research highlights the barriers posed by fragmented data systems, inconsistent data entry practices, and reliance on manual processes. The findings touch upon the potential of interoperable systems to enhance clinical decision-making, reduce delays in care delivery, and optimise resource allocation. By integrating technological advancements with real-world needs, this study recommends investment in modern systems and IT infrastructure, adoption of interoperability standards, and a cultural shift toward digital literacy, increased collaboration and data-sharing to achieve seamless data integration and improved patient outcomes. The research contributes to the ongoing digital transformation efforts within NHS Wales, aligning with broader NHS and UK Government strategies to create a more connected, patient-focused healthcare system
Decolonising Academic Integrity; A critical literature review of Global South international postgraduate students’ experiences at UK universities
Get PDFThis dissertation examines how postgraduate Global South international (GSIP) students perceive and experience academic integrity in UK higher education. Academic integrity remains central to university governance and reputation, yet its principles and procedures are often shaped by Eurocentric moral and epistemic traditions that assume neutrality while reproducing inequity. Despite growing interest in international students’ experiences, there remains a significant gap in scholarship applying a decolonial critical analysis capable of interrogating UK universities’ institutional power structures and epistemic environments. This study addresses that gap by exploring how GSIP students perceive and navigate academic integrity practices and processes and whether these create barriers to equitable learning. Using a dual decolonial theoretical approach, that combines Postcolonial Theory (PCT) (Spivak, 1988; Quijano, 2000; Said, 2003) and Critical Race Theory (CRT) (Crenshaw, 1991; Harris, 1993; Valencia, 2010), this dissertation analyses how colonial legacies and racialised hierarchies continue to shape both research and institutional practice (Mittelmeier et al., 2023). Methodologically, it adopts a critical literature and policy review, drawing on ten qualitative UK studies (the UK Corpus) and three anonymised UK university academic integrity policies. The Decolonial Analytical Framework (DAF) was developed and piloted as a novel analytical tool, synthesising PCT’s diachronic critique of colonial hierarchies with CRT’s synchronic analysis of race, whiteness, and voice to interrogate how inequities are produced and sustained across literature, policy and methodology.
This dissertation demonstrates that these inequities persist: GSIP students can perceive and experience academic integrity in UK universities as a complex site of compounded exclusions, where deficit discourses, moral suspicion, and punitive approaches continue to position them as conditional or suspect members of academic communities, regardless of whether misconduct is alleged. Academic integrity procedures are experienced as opaque, disciplinary systems that can conflate misunderstanding with dishonesty, while institutional language and surveillance framings perpetuate fear and mistrust. Policies reproduce epistemic dominance by naturalising UK academic integrity conventions as universal, excluding diverse epistemologies and linguistic practices. Across research and governance, GSIP students are often homogenised as “international students” erasing intersectional realities of race, gender and visa precarity. At the same time, acts of resistance through multilingual counter-storytelling, reflexive scholarship and participatory research, demonstrate emerging pathways toward decolonial practice. Through the DAF, these findings expose how academic integrity discourses can reproduce diachronic colonial legacies and synchronic racialised exclusion, revealing academic integrity as a deeply political question of epistemic justice (Meghji, 2022).
This dissertation concludes that academic integrity cannot remain defined by procedural compliance or assumed neutrality under the guise of Enlightenment ideals. Instead, it must be re-imagined as a site of epistemic and methodological justice; how UK universities legitimise diverse ways of knowing within an increasingly interconnected and rapidly evolving educational landscape. This study contributes a practical framework for embedding decolonial analysis into higher education research, policy and governance. It argues for systemic reform: academic integrity must be decolonised; moving beyond punitive compliance to become collaborative, equitable, and a reflexive practice that fosters belonging and epistemic dignity for GSIP students
A Harmony Perspective: Addressing Nature-Deficit Disorder in Children Through Educational Frameworks in Wales to Combat Current Ecological Crisis.
Get PDFUnderstanding and Addressing Harms of Inhumanity: Mogobe Bernard Ramose and Souleymane Bachir Diagne on Ubuntu
No full textThis opening chapter examines the multidimensional harms of inhumanity—physical, psychological, relational, moral, and spiritual—and explores pathways for healing through the lens of Ubuntu. It is organized into three sections. In the first section, I trace the history of transatlantic slavery and investigate the paradoxical roles of Christianity in both helping justify the enslavement of millions of Africans and in advocating for its abolition. This section also highlights the emancipatory power of traditional African religions and ethical practices, such as those reflected in the notion of Ubuntu, which provided enslaved peoples with spiritual resources for resilience and resistance. The second section delves into Ubuntu, drawing on Mogobe Bernard Ramose’s articulation of Ubuntu ontology and Souleymane Bachir Diagne’s reflections on Ubuntu cosmology. It explores Ubuntu’s historical roles as a spiritual practice and its contemporary contribution as decolonial epistemology, ethics, and praxis. This analysis underscores how inhumanity harms not only the subjugated but also results in moral and spiritual damage on its perpetrators and beneficiaries. The final section discusses Ubuntu’s transformative potential in addressing transgenerational trauma and fostering collective healing, social justice and global flourishing. The chapter concludes by arguing that Ubuntu offers a profound antidote to systemic dehumanization, enabling humanity to reconcile, renew and regenerate.
Keywords: Ubuntu, spiritual harms of inhumanity, humanity, community
You Didn’t Have To Be There: Evidence of Humour in the Creation and Use of Material Objects From the Near East, Eastern Europe and Mediterranean, From the Neolithic to the Middle Bronze Age
Get PDFWhen Malinowski said, “Anthropology is the science of the sense of humour” in 1966, the theories of the study of humour itself were still being developed, and yet he so clearly summarises why it is important to find our shared funny bones. Through humour we gain sympathetic understandings with each other in a way that goes beyond words; indeed humour may have preceded language in our evolutionary development and has been seen in primates. Such longevity of humour suggests it would have been found in pre-literate societies, such as in the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age in the Mediterranean and Near Eastern; areas where the marrying of two incongruous ideas can be found in ancient examples of ritual and/or art objects, a thought process facilitated by humour and perhaps even motivated by it. Therefore in this dissertation I seek to identify ancient examples of humour which I will explain and interpret using such theories as 'Benign Violation’ by McGraw & Warren (2010) and Apter’s ‘Reversal Theory’ from 1982. My aim is to explain why objects could have been funny and may have acted as powerful social tools, catering to our strong psychological drive to laugh. Drawing upon a number of interactive clay objects from the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age in the East Mediterranean I aim to demonstrate that these objects are perhaps the earliest tangible evidence we have for ‘jokes’
Y Plentyn Hapus: Ymchwiliad i ddehongliadau a phrofiadau plant 3 – 7 oed o’r hyn sy’n creu ymdeimlad o hapusrwydd ynddynt o fewn yr ysgol.
Get PDFEr bod llais a lles y plentyn yn flaenoriaeth o fewn ein system addysg yma yng Nghymru, prin yw’r dystiolaeth sydd yn seiliedig ar holi ein dysgwyr ifainc am eu profiadau o hapusrwydd o fewn yr ysgol. Er bod yr awydd yn gryf i sicrhau amgylcheddau a phrofiadau addysgegol ysgogol a fydd yn apelio at y plant ac yn cyfrannu at eu hapusrwydd, ychydig o waith ymchwil a wnaed i’r perwyl hwn.
Mae Cwricwlwm i Gymru (2022) yn dathlu cyfraniadau plant fel rhan o gynllunio gan annog addysgwyr i ymateb i anghenion emosiynol a datblygol y plentyn fel rhan o’r dylanwadau ar hapusrwydd plant tra yn yr ysgol, ac o ganlyniad, egwyddorion sy’n sylfaen iddo. Mae’r ymchwiliad ansoddol hwn yn ystyried sut y gall y wybodaeth am eu hapusrwydd gyfrannu at ddealltwriaeth athrawon o hoffterau eu disgyblion er mwyn creu darpariaethau cyfranogol.
Safiad damcaniaethol lluniadaeth gymdeithasol (social constructivist) a berthyn i Vygotsky (1978) a model sosioecolegol Bronfenbrenner (1979) a ystyria’r plentyn fel unigolyn medrus a rhagweithiol sy’n sail i’r ymchwil. Credir bod y bydoedd mae’r plentyn oddi mewn iddynt yn dylanwadu ar eu hoffter, dymuniad a’u brwdfrydedd i ymglymu a magu ymdeimlad o berthyn emosiynol. Casglwyd y data gan gyfuno moddau cymysg dull Mosaic (Clark a Moss, 2017; Ungar, 2010) a fu’n fodd o adeiladu darlun cyflawn o hapusrwydd y plant; a gweithredwyd dull dadansoddi Braun a Clarke (2022) o adnabod themâu o fewn y data.
Dengys y casgliadau bod ffactorau amrywiol yn dylanwadu ar hapusrwydd plant ifainc tra yn yr ysgol; gyda gofodau, offer, cyfleoedd, pobl a gweithgareddau amrywiol yn eu plith. Cynigir y gall cywain mwy am hapusrwydd plant yn ystod eu haddysg gyfrannu at ein dealltwriaeth o rym lleisiau plant am eu profiadau ar y pryd, a bod yn offeryn amhrisiadwy o fewn arfogaeth addysgegol addysgwyr
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