8383 research outputs found
Sort by
Reflection: A Novel, with Critical Component
No full textReflection is a novel which examines Margot Saunders’s life from her childhood to a time when she believes herself to be the victim of sexual assault, through her discovery that the assault never happened – it was a misconstrual of events and facts – and onward to her finding a certain peace with which to go on into the future. The novel covers the time period from 1979 to 2023, and is set in France and various locations in the UK. The critical commentary, divided into three parts, analyses firstly the conception of the novel (from disquiet at the adamance of the ‘Believe Her’ movement which left no space for misunderstanding, memory lapses or human error) and themes of feminism and social conditioning and how these have affected women and girls throughout the decades and various waves of feminist action. The second chapter sets Reflection alongside seven contemporary novels and compares and contrasts the various technical and structural methods used by the four various authors. This chapter discusses three of Ian McEwan’s works: Atonement (2001), On Chesil Beach (2007), and Lessons (2022), as well as Kate Reed Petty’s True Story (2020), The Reader (1997) by Bernhard Schlink, J. M. Coetzee’s In the Heart of the Country (1976), and Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient (1992). The third and final chapter looks at the writing process: choices as to structure, voicing, and narrative techniques employed in the writing of Reflection
Metabolic, androgenic, and physical activity profiles in women aged over 40 years with polycystic ovary syndrome: A comparative analysis using UK Biobank data
Get PDF© The Author(s) 2025.Background: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is the most common endocrine disorder in reproductive-aged women, linked to metabolic, hormonal, and psychological issues. Management typically involves lifestyle changes, including increased physical activity and reduced sedentary behaviour.
Objectives: To compare the health profiles and behaviours of women with and without PCOS. Design: This study analysed data from the UK Biobank, which is a prospective cohort study.
Methods: Women with PCOS in the UK Biobank were identified, while age- and body mass index (BMI)-matched controls were randomly selected. Data on factors associated with PCOS severity and self-reported lifestyle behaviours were analysed. Group differences were tested for significance, and participants were categorised by health behaviours to assess morbidity risk.
Results: The study included 319 women with PCOS (mean age: 43.9 years) and 638 in each control group. Significant differences (p < 0.05) were observed in anthropometric (e.g. body weight, BMI, waist and hip circumference, and body fat), cardio-metabolic (e.g. blood pressure, triglycerides, and glycated haemoglobin), and androgenic (e.g. sex hormone-binding globulin) indices. Differences were most pronounced between PCOS and age-matched controls but remained when BMI was also considered. Women with PCOS engaged in less vigorous physical activity and had higher screen time and sedentary behaviours. Those with the lowest physical activity and highest sedentary time had the worst health profiles and highest morbidity risk, regardless of group.
Conclusion: Women with PCOS exhibit poorer health despite only slight lifestyle differences. Across all participants, lower physical activity and higher sedentary behaviour were linked to increased health risks. Further research is needed to clarify causal relationships between lifestyle factors and PCOS.Unfunde
Academics’ weak(ening) resistance to Generative AI: The cause and cost of prestige?
Get PDFThe version of record of this article, first published in [Postdigital Science and Education], is available online at Publisher’s website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s42438-024-00524-xThe disruptive potential of generative AI (GenAI) tools to academic labour is potentially vast. Yet as we argue herein, such tools also represent a continuation of the inequities inherent to academia’s prestige economy and the intensified hierarchy and labour precarisation endemic to universities as prestige institutions. In a recent survey of n = 284 UK-based academics, reasons were put forward for avoiding GenAI tools. These responses surface concerns about automative technologies corrupting academic identity and inauthenticating scholarly practice; concerns that are salient to all who participate within and benefit from the work of scholarly communities. In discussion of these survey results, we explore ambivalence about whether GenAI tools expedite the acquisition or depletion of prestige demanded of academics, especially where GenAI tools are adopted to increase scholarly productivity. We also appraise whether, far from helping academics cope with a work climate of hyper-intensifcation, GenAI tools ultimately exacerbate their vulnerability, status-based peripheralisation, and self-estrangement.Unfunde
Enhancing workplace eLearning with branching scenarios: An action case study
Get PDF© Emerald Publishing Limited. This AAM is provided for your own personal use only. It may not be used for resale, reprinting, systematic distribution, emailing, or for any other commercial purpose without the permission of the publisher.Purpose: This study explores how learner engagement evolves over time in workplace eLearning when branching scenarios are used to simulate real-world decision-making. It addresses a gap in understanding how instructional design influences sustained motivation and cognitive processing across multiple stages of digital training. Design/methodology/approach: A quasi-longitudinal Action Case Research design was employed. Ten adult learners participated in thirty semi-structured interviews conducted before, during, and after completing a branching scenario-based e-learning module. Thematic analysis was used to explore shifts in engagement, motivation, and cognitive responses over time. Findings: Engagement was strongest when scenarios mirrored real job tasks, enabling learners to make contextual decisions and experience “safe failure". Structured progression, authentic relevance, and timely feedback supported sustained motivation. However, engagement declined when content became repetitive, insufficiently challenging, or cognitively overwhelming. The findings highlight how scenario design can balance cognitive load and foster experiential learning. Practical implications: The findings provide guidance for learning and development professionals seeking to implement engaging, job-relevant digital learning programmes. Design recommendations include using authentic scenarios, scaffolding task complexity, and incorporating adaptive feedback mechanisms. Originality: This study contributes to the limited body of workplace longitudinal research on digital learning engagement by applying Cognitive Load Theory and Experiential Learning Theory to examine how branching scenarios influence learner engagement, motivation and knowledge retention over time. It offers practical insights for designing scenario-based training that is both cognitively efficient and contextually relevant.Unfunde
Exploring the role of embodiment in the production and experience of wild atmospheres in nature
Get PDFThis document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a published work that appeared in final form in [Marketing Theory]. To access the final edited and published work see http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/14705931251335856Embodied and emotional experiences are heightened in encounters with nature, especially in blue spaces. Thus, drawing on the works of Husserl and Merleau-Ponty, we analyse the role of the body in the production and experience of wild atmospheres through the practice of wild swimming in natural blue spaces. Using an interpretive approach involving interviews and ethnographic observations with forty-six wild swimmers, our analysis foregrounds embodiment and illuminates the central role of the body in the relational production and experience of atmospheres in nature. In so doing, we extend current understandings of embodiment by advancing a granular account of the emergence of ‘wild swimming atmospheres’ produced and experienced haptically and somatically through intimate and personal connections and entanglements between human bodies and natural surroundings. The paper concludes with suggestions for exploring embodied haptic and somatic experiences in other consumption contexts within natural settings.Unfunde
Daily variability in sedentary behaviour and physical activity responsiveness in older women
Get PDF© 2025 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.Free-living physical behaviour (PB), from sedentarism through to vigorous physical activity (PA), is increasingly studied due to its links to health outcomes. However, it remains unclear whether pre-existing day-to-day regularity in certain PB patterns influences intervention responsiveness. Therefore, this study hypothesized that (1) inter-day variability in certain PBs would decrease following a sedentary behaviour (SB) reduction intervention, and (2) those with high inter-day variability (low regularity) at baseline would be less likely to alter their behaviour compared to those with low inter-day variability (high regularity). Thirty-six older women (73 ± 5 years) were allocated to one of three groups: (1) daily SB fragmentation (SBF) (n = 14), (2) single daily bout of continuous light-intensity PA/LIPA (n = 14), or (3) control (n = 8), where no instructions vis-à-vis altering daily physical activity or sedentary behaviour were given. PB was objectively assessed (weeks 0 and 8) using three-dimensional accelerometry. Participants (48% of the study sample) with high regularity at baseline (<25th sample percentile for SB and PA bout length), showed greater SB reduction, and increased average PA bout length (p < 0.05) at week 8. These findings suggest that baseline regularity in physical behaviour may enhance intervention responsiveness. This aligns with theories of habit formation and self-regulation, indicating that personalised interventions would benefit a wider range of populations.Unfunde
Transformative Practice in Higher Education: Innovative Approaches to Teaching and Learning
No full text"This is an Accepted Manuscript of a book chapter published by Routledge in [Transformative Practice in Higher Education: Innovative Approaches to Teaching and Learning] on [31/03/2025], available online: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003503149-22/democracy-action-taught-student-empowerment-andrea-toddA seed that was sown during lockdown – testing the boundaries of student agency and democratic participation – came to fruition two years later. This chapter reflects upon the journey from 2020, when the author explored ‘emergency’ democracy by way of students making online delivery decisions within the constraints of a pre-existing modular framework, to 2022, which saw students being handed the reins to create an entire module from a blank piece of paper. The chapter provides a practical insight into the process and timeline of facilitating students as module leaders as well as students’ views on the benefits of building a module’s learning outcomes, module content, delivery methods, and assessment techniques to meet their employability requirements. It closes with the author’s top three tips for those considering a process within their setting.Unfunde
The Mental Health Bill (2025) for England and Wales: Professional and carer consensus statement summarising concerns and unintended consequences from proposed changes to autism and learning disability
Get PDF© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Royal College of Psychiatrists.The Mental Health Bill, 2025, proposes to remove autism and learning disability from the scope of Section 3 of the Mental Health Act, 1983 (MHA). The present article represents a professional and carer consensus statement that raises concerns and identifies probable unintended consequences if this proposal becomes law. Our concerns relate to the lack of clear mandate for such proposals, conceptual inconsistency when considering other conditions that might give rise to a need for detention and the inconsistency in applying such changes to Part II of the MHA but not Part III. If the proposed changes become law, we anticipate that detentions would instead occur under the less safeguarded Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards framework, and that unmanaged risks will eventuate in behavioural consequences that will lead to more autistic people or those with a learning disability being sent to prison. Additionally, there is a concern that the proposed definitional breadth of autism and learning disability gives rise to a risk that people with other conditions may unintentionally be unable to be detained. We strongly urge the UK Parliament to amend this portion of the Bill prior to it becoming law.Unfunde
Utilizing a Delphi Panel Approach to co-create the PROTECtoolkit designed to safeguard care home staff and residents during pandemics
Get PDF© 2025 Journal of Nursing Science and Professional Practice.CONTEXT: The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in upward of seven million deaths worldwide. In the United Kingdom, the Government was unprepared for the pandemic, which was especially evident in the care home sector, where thousands of residents lost their lives.
AIMS: This research addressed the need for care homes to have robust, user-friendly solutions to planning for, and reacting to, infectious disease outbreaks. The intention was to develop a toolkit to safeguard residents, staff, and others visiting care homes.
DESIGN AND METHODS: The research adopted an appreciative inquiry approach that involved working collaboratively with stakeholders. A scoping review identified relevant information and informed the development of the Toolkit. A Delphi panel of relevant experts was established to co-create and develop the PROTECToolkit. An online survey captured the experience of nurses working in care homes during the pandemic. The prototype toolkit was feasibility tested by care home staff.
RESULTS: In addition to refining the content of the Toolkit, the scoping review demonstrated that co-creation in the care sector improves safety and quality of care. The survey revealed how care homes strengthened infection prevention and control and addressed challenges. The Delphi panel quickly reached a consensus on the online survey and Toolkit contents, with feasibility testing confirming the Toolkit content while highlighting issues regarding completion.
CONCLUSIONS: The collaborative approach to developing the Toolkit resulted in a user-friendly instrument that is relevant to practice. The Toolkit offers an adaptable framework for use alongside existing safety and quality metrics to plan for, and address, infectious disease outbreaks in care homes. The Toolkit also empowers nurses working in care homes to identify good practices and where improvements are needed.Burdett Trust for Nursin
How much History is in the Passion Narratives? Violence, Ideology, Historicity, and the Seditious Jesus Hypothesis
Get PDFThis article reviews Fernando Bermejo-Rubio’s monograph, They Suffered under Pontius Pilate: Jewish Anti-Roman Resistance and the Crosses at Golgotha (2023). This book is the latest publication arguing for the ‘seditious Jesus’ hypothesis, the idea that
Jesus was an armed revolutionary. It is argued that the volume rightly critiques some theological tendency in New Testament scholarship to downplay or ignore violence inherent in the Jesus tradition, but the argument that the men crucified with Jesus were either some of his disciples or sympathetic to his violent cause fails to convince. Despite arguing for historical minimalism in relation to the Gospel material, Bermejo-Rubio builds his case on the material he judges to be historical, but that is better explained by the imagination of the evangelists.unfunde
Data sources:
Access Repository Dashboard
Do you manage ChesterRep? Access insider analytics, issue reports and manage access to outputs from your repository in the CORE Repository Dashboard!