30793 research outputs found
Sort by
Reflecting on Five years of the European Health Psychology Society’s Open Science Special Interest Group
No full textSince the establishment of the European Health Psychology Society (EHPS) Open Science Special Interest Group (SIG) in 2019 (Norris & Toomey, 2020), we have been working hard to improve the awareness and uptake of Open Science practices within the European Health Psychology community. When we started, our aims were to 1) bring together health psychologists interested in Open Science behaviours, 2) share best practices/innovations in Open Science to health psychologists, 3) provide guidance and/or training on Open Science, 4) promote the role of health psychology for improving Open Science across disciplines, 5) liaise with organisations which promote Open Science and 6) encourage and reward replication and reproducibility within health psychology. Having now been established for five years and arriving back from successful SIG activities at the EHPS 2024 Conference in Cascais, Portugal, we wanted to reflect on our progress in recent years and share some of these developments.Bulletin of the European Health Psychology Society
Embodied carbon emissions of buildings: Taking a step towards net zero buildings
Get PDFData Availability: Data will be made available on request.As global concerns about climate change and environmental sustainability escalate, the construction industry is shifting significantly towards eco-resilient and sustainable building practices. This paper comprehensively explores integrating Building Information Modelling (BIM) with eco-resilient principles to create a framework for designing and constructing sustainable buildings. This research introduced a practical approach for evaluating the embodied carbon from building construction, drawing insights from a residential building in Yangon City, Myanmar. The method developed in this study aims to assess the carbon footprints associated with distinct stages of the construction process, including raw material production and material transportation. Additionally, the proposed method compares the material embodied carbon, transportation embodied carbon, and total cost in the residential building, considering two cases of traditional and low-carbon materials. The results indicate that material embodied carbon contributes merely 84% to the overall, while material transportation makes up the remaining 16% for both cases. Utilising low-carbon materials yields remarkable reductions, with a 40% decrease in material embodied carbon and a 39% decrease in transportation carbon footprint compared to conventional materials. However, adopting low-carbon materials incurs a modest increase of approximately 6.7% in total cost. This study underscores the imperative of integrating low-carbon materials into the design of future passive buildings, advancing the pursuit of a net-zero strategy. This research underlines the potential for BIM-driven eco-resilient practices in mitigating carbon emissions and the need for continued innovation and collaboration in sustainable building design and construction
Decolonising “Modern Slavery”
Get PDFBook Review Essay.Siobhán McGrath (Clark University) and Ayushman Bhagat (Brunel University of London) on Kamala Kempadoo and Elena Shih’s White Supremacy, Racism, and the Coloniality of Anti-Trafficking, Lyndsey P. Beutin’s Trafficking in Antiblackness: Modern-Day Slavery, White Indemnity, and Racial Justice, and Elena Shih’s Manufacturing Freedom: Sex Work, Anti-Trafficking Rehab, and the Racial Wages of Rescu
Gatekeeping in primary care: Analysing GP referral patterns and specialist consultations in the NHS
Get PDFData availability:
The data that has been used is confidential.This study investigates the impact of increasing the number of gatekeeper General Practitioners (GPs) on referral rates and specialist treatments. Gatekeeping is a supply-side strategy implemented to control health expenditure and improve efficiency by limiting patient access to services below marginal cost. It aims to address specialist moral hazard by reducing the overuse of expensive diagnostics and replacing them with more cost-effective GP diagnostic information. Using administrative data from 2004 to 2011, we examine whether the availability of gatekeeper GPs in local areas is associated with changes in outpatient referrals and elective admissions. Our findings reveal that increasing GP supply in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas leads to a decrease in both outpatient referrals and elective admissions. However, these effects are less pronounced in prosperous areas or regions with high GP referral rates. Interestingly, we observe that having more GP practices in a specific area implies higher referral rates and elective admissions. These findings offer valuable insights that can assist policymakers in crafting targeted policies to effectively reduce healthcare costs and enhance the overall efficiency of the health system
The refurbishment and redistribution of disability equipment from the UK to low- and middle-income countries: a case study focusing on 2016–2021 redistributions to Romania
Get PDFSupplemental material is available online at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17483107.2024.2367717#supplemental-material-section .The surplus of used disability equipment contributing to waste in the UK and the lack of access to disability equipment in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are two issues in need of solution. To address such problems, UK charities refurbish and redistribute used disability equipment to LMICs. To date, there is a scarcity of data on how LMICs could access surplus disability equipment from UK organisations. This study aimed to collate and map out the process by which equipment is refurbished and redistributed from the UK to LMIC’s and identify factors which influence the development and sustainability of the partnership. An explorative qualitative case study design was used. Nine semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants from sender (UK) and a receiver (Romania) organisation between January-February 2022, with real-time translation where necessary. Intelligent verbatim transcription was used, and data was analysed using latent thematic analysis. The process of collection, refurbishment and redistribution of disability equipment from the UK to a LMIC organisation was mapped. Three key themes were identified from the interviews: (1) Development out of need; (2) Service development requires an adequate working relationship; (3) Process consolidation and future. Strong, honest and transparent relationships between organisations was identified as underpinning the success of the initiative. Raising service provision standards to meet specific needs of LMIC organisations supports development of suitable equipment prescription. Development of similar partnerships has potential of reducing the inequity gap and waste. Global collaboration and planning are required to address challenges of access to disability equipment in LMICs.None
Gendered resistances and emotions to neo-liberalism in a post-1992 University in England
Get PDFPurpose:
In this paper we explore the gendered ways in which academic staff resistance and compliance is configured in a post-1992 University in England, including the emotions implicated in the navigation of neo-liberalisation and research intensification of their academic institution and its associated disciplinarian mechanisms.
Design/methodology/approach:
We draw on data from an interview study of a diverse sample of 32 academics of different gender, discipline and academic grade. Analysis informed by a feminist post-structuralist framework of power and discourse explored different forms of academic resistance and compliance; how the embodied academic subject was (re)negotiated within gendered discourses of neo-liberal research excellence and managerialism and the gendered emotions generated in processes of resistance and compliance.
Findings:
Institutional change and expectations to engage with research performativity generated fear, anxiety and anger. Female staff appeared to actively resist the masculinized research subject performing all hours work and individualism in the context of private and institutional gendered relations and labour. Male staff though actively resisted the feminization of higher education and the neo-liberal instrumentalization of caring and therapeutic cultures and ideologically resisted the surveillance mechanisms of higher education including the REF.
Research limitations/implications:
Our work contributes to scholarship problematizing the assumed neutrality of resistance and compliance and highlighting women’s symbolic struggle to (dis)identify with a masculine professional norm. In terms of theorising academic resistance to neo-liberalism and identity construction, further attention should be given to the mobilization and symbolic capital of academics and emotions positioned differently due to their gender and intersecting differences.
Originality/value:
Our study addresses a gap in the scholarship of academic resistance and compliance by advancing the understanding of gender inequalities and emotions implicated in the process of resistance and compliance against neo-liberalism.The study on which we drew data from was funded by the employing organisation of the second author,
An Ideological Divide? Political Parties’ Discourse in Italy’s Migration Cooperation with Libya and Albania
Get PDFData access statement: This study analyses existing data as cited in the “References” and “List of analysed documents” sections.Italy’s migration agreements with Libya in 2017 and Albania in 2023 serve as crucial cases for investigating how political parties in Europe position themselves on immigration policy. By comparing parties across the Italian political spectrum, this research assesses whether they have articulated distinct stances on the externalisation of migration in the two selected cases. A qualitative analysis of parliamentary debates reveals two dominant logics in party discourse: a security logic and a rights-oriented logic. These two logics can cut across party lines, particularly in times of crisis, with frequent references to the European Union (EU) as both an arena for Italy’s influence and a source of legitimacy
Career Choices: Exploring the Rationale Underlying Military Migrants' Enlistment in the British Armed Forces
Get PDFPurpose:
Using “on justification” theory, this article explores the rationality and justification of the West-African military migrants for joining the British Armed Forces.
Design/methodology/approach:
We utilise an interpretive qualitative research methodology in this study. We undertook semi-structured interviews with 42 military migrants who joined the British Armed Forces between 1998 and 2013.
Findings:
We identify various factors that influenced the participants’ decision to join the British Armed Forces, such as individual aspirations, the need to find a “path” at a crossroad in life (e.g. a career dilemma or the loss of a parent), economic opportunities and institutional incentives. Military migrants’ career motivations are shaped by their deep affection for the Crown and their desire to give back to the country with which they share a colonial history.
Practical implications:
The UK’s Ministry of Defence, government and policymakers could gain valuable insights from this study. The findings could significantly shape their recruitment and retention policies, thereby enhancing the attractiveness of the military profession. This could be a crucial step in addressing the recruitment challenges and personnel deficit currently faced by the British Armed Forces.
Originality/value:
This study provides a fresh perspective on the dynamics of the military service of foreign-born veterans. The article focuses on an underrepresented group (West-African military migrants) to enhance our understanding of their career motivations in the British Armed Forces. We identify and categorise the motivations and justifications for military migrants’ enlistment in the British Armed Forces according to seven justifications, each depicting a career pattern informing the participants’ motivations and justifications for their enlistment
Observer-Based Fuzzy PID Control for Nonlinear Systems With Degraded Measurements: Dealing With Randomly Perturbed Sampling Periods
Get PDFThis paper addresses the problem of observer-based fuzzy proportional- integral-derivative (PID) control for a class of nonlinear systems subject to degraded measurements and randomly perturbed sampling periods (RPSPs). In the existing results, the degraded measurements and RPSPs are handled separately, where the sampling of different sensors is usually assumed to be synchronous. In our work, a comprehensive model is built to reflect the joint effects of degraded measurements and RPSPs by using a series of stochastic variable sequences and a set of Markov processes. In this model, the sampling periods of each sensor are allowed to be diverse, time-varying and randomly perturbed, thereby fully capturing the environmental effects and device constraints. Different from the existing literature that uses proportional type controllers, an observer-based fuzzy PID controller with a modified structure is proposed which fully utilizes the system information. To overcome the difficulties of the incomplete measurement information, some auxiliary variables related to the sampling periods are introduced under which the measurement output is transformed into a form delayed with stochastic delays. Subsequently, by using the special variable separation and inequality technique, sufficient conditions are derived to ensure the exponentially ultimate boundedness of the closed-loop system in the mean-square sense. The desired gains for the observer and PID controller are obtained through the solution of an optimization problem. Lastly, the effectiveness of the developed approach is demonstrated through simulation examples.This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grants 61933007, 62273087, 62033010 and U21A2019, the Qing Lan Project of Jiangsu Province under Grant R2023Q07, the Shanghai Pujiang Program of China under Grant 22PJ1400400, the Hainan Province Science and Technology Special Fund of China under Grant ZDYF2022SHFZ105, the Royal Society of the UK, and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany
Data sources:
Access Repository Dashboard
Do you manage Open Research Online? Become a CORE Member to access insider analytics, issue reports and manage access to outputs from your repository in the CORE Repository Dashboard! 👇