135 research outputs found
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Welfare Conditionality
No full textWelfare conditionality is about linking welfare rights to responsible behaviour. A principle of conditionality holds that that access to certain basic, publicly provided, welfare benefits and services should be dependent on an individual first agreeing to meet particular obligations or patterns of behaviour. This research studies conditional welfare in the UK via two main situations. One is where people’s access to welfare is restricted or stopped – for example, by benefit sanctions or rules. The second, equally important, is welfare support – for example, through family intervention projects or help to find work. Generally with these kinds of sanctions and support, governments aim to get people to change their behaviour. All the effects of sanctions and support on people’s lives will be looked into by asking two key questions: First, how effective is conditionality in changing the behaviour of those receiving welfare benefits and services? Second, are there any particular circumstances in which the use of conditionality may, or may not be, justifiable
Acoustic comfort in open-plan offices: The role of employee characteristics
No full textPurpose – This paper aims to determine the extent to which employees’ experiences of acoustic comfort, well-being and productivity in open-plan offices are determined by specific characteristics (including demographic information, task characteristics, and personality traits). Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire was distributed to the occupants of three open-plan office sites and was completed by 166 employees in total. Findings – The results indicated that acoustic comfort in open-plan offices is largely determined by noise sensitivity. Higher noise sensitivity was associated with more negative ratings of acoustical quality, more perceived disturbance by speech and more difficulties in concentration. More negative experiences were also reported by employees with lower interactivity with colleagues. Practical implications – There is significant inter-individual variability in experiences of acoustic comfort, well-being and productivity in open-plan offices. As such, workplace practitioners should consider acoustic and behavioural solutions for introducing a greater diversity of functional workspaces within the office, so that employees can choose the most suitable working area for their requirements. Originality/value – Whereas the majority of past acoustics research has been laboratory-based, this study is conducted in real office environments with a representative sample of knowledge workers
An experience sampling approach to the workplace environment survey
No full textThe purpose of this study was to pilot test the effectiveness of the experience sampling approach for measuring employee satisfaction with the workplace environment. Additionally, we also aimed to explore which aspects of environmental comfort have the strongest impact on momentary wellbeing and productivity. Fifteen knowledge workers in an open-plan office environment were sent a brief survey (measuring environmental comfort, momentary wellbeing, and perceived productivity) each day over an 11-day study period, and provided 78 individual survey responses in total. All but one of the measures on the survey had low test-retest reliability, indicating that employees’ experiences of environmental comfort varied significantly each time they completed the survey. Additionally, higher environmental comfort was associated with improved wellbeing and productivity. The results suggest that an experience sampling approach to the workplace occupant survey is justified to better capture the temporal variability in experiences of environmental comfort. The results also suggest that improving environmental comfort, particularly by reducing the level of distractions, will enable employees to work more productively. To our knowledge, this is the first field study which has attempted to directly address limitations in traditional occupant surveys by using an experience sampling approach rather than a one-time-only questionnaire
Number Understanding Modelling in Behavioural Embodied Robotic Systems (NUMBERS)
No full textSource code and data of the experiment
Extra Care Demand Assessor (ECDA)
No full textThe Extra Care Demand Assessor is a dataset, and associated tool, which helps local authorities and housing providers explore demand for extra care housing in a given location
Brief Public Health Interventions and Advice
No full textTranscripts and topic guide for the following qualitative research project -
Background -
Public health improvement has long been an important focus for the United Kingdom Department of Health. The Allied Health Professions (AHP) Federation has 84,000 members, such a large number of AHP professionals should play a role in public health initiatives, but it is not clear if they or the AHP students who will be the future healthcare workforce feel themselves equipped to do so. Our aim was to understand the perceptions of AHP students about their role in delivering public health advice.
Methods -
AHP students were recruited in one teaching university from different departments. Participants were final year AHP students who had completed all clinical placements related to their course. All students were emailed an invitation to participate, and those interested were asked to contact the researchers to participate in one of several focus groups. Data were recorded, transcribed, and analysed using framework analysis by two independent researchers.
Results -
Nineteen students were recruited and participated in four focus groups. The main themes produced by the data analysis were: understanding of public health issues, perceptions of their role in this, challenges and opportunities to develop a public health role, and preparation for a public health role.
Conclusions -
AHP students felt that they had a role in public health advice-giving, but barriers to providing this advice included their own lack of confidence and knowledge, time, and the environment of the clinical placement. They considered that there should be more teaching on public health issues, and that these should feature in both the curriculum and on clinical placement
Contrasting effects of short-term Mediterranean and Vegan diets on microvascular function and cholesterol in younger adults: a comparative pilot study
No full textBackground: The Mediterranean diet has been shown to improve cardiovascular health. Vegan diets have demonstrated similar benefits, albeit in fewer studies. In a comparative pilot study, we compared the effects of a short-term Mediterranean (MD) and Vegan Diet (VD) on microvascular function and cholesterol levels in a healthy population.
Methods: 24 young (aged 18 to 35 years) healthy volunteers followed a 4-week intervention (MD = 12; VD = 12) ad libitum. Pre and post-intervention anthropometrics, microvascular function (assessed via LDF and expressed as raw CVC and %CVC MAX), dietary-analysis data (Calories, Protein, Carbohydrates, Total Fat, Saturated Fat, Fibre), Mean Arterial Pressure (MAP), Blood Pressure, Total Cholesterol (TC), High Density Lipoprotein (HDL-C) and TC:HDL-C were compared.
Results: MD participants reduced Total Fat intake (P = 0.05). Saturated Fat decreased (MD: P = < 0.001; VD: P = 0.004) and Fibre increased (MD: P = 0.02; VD: P = < 0.001) in both groups. Dietary changes reflected improvements in plateau raw CVC in the MD group (P = 0.005), and a reduction in TC (P = 0.045) and weight loss (P = 0.047) in the VD group.
Conclusions: The MD led to improvements in microvascular function; the VD led to reduced TC and weight loss. Although both diets might offer CVD risk-reduction benefits, evidence for the MD appeared to be stronger due to changes in vasodilatory ability and NO bioavailability
Designing A Mobile Learning Application Based On The MOBIlearn Task Model
No full textIn the past few years, there are an increasing number of higher
educational institutions offer courses using mobile technologies as a
supplementary to traditional learning. However, there is a challenge to set
guidelines for appropriate use and to provide tools and resources for personal
learning activities across contexts. The purposes of this research study therefore
are to provide guidelines for appropriate use of a mobile learning application
and design it as tools based on MOBIlearn task model to support personal
learning activities in formal, informal and non-formal educational contexts. The
study begins by conducting a systematic review to synthesize pedagogical
requirements from the task model. In the next part, the study adopts multiplecase
study as a methodology to evaluate learners' experiences of using the
application designed based on the requirements. At the end, a cross-case analysis
is conducted in effort to find emerged patterns of data from all the case studies.
This study successfully produces guidelines for appropriate use of mobile
learning application based on learning contexts and finds that different priority
needs to be considered for each context in order to provide it as personal
learning tools for mobile learners. In addition, the study generates a series of
implementation steps to employ a mobile learning application into a blended or
hybrid learning and finds that the task model should be enhanced to provide
better understanding and to keep it relevant for future reference. Importantly,
this study contributes a new deep understanding and insight on the task model
and provides guidelines for appropriate use and designing a pedagogically sound
mobile learning application to support learning activities. Furthermore, the
study significantly expands research into how mobile learning applications are
actually used by students to support their personal learning in educational
contexts
Gaming Horizons Stakeholder Interviews - anonymised
No full textAnonymised transcripts of interviews carried out between March and June 2017. The interviews involved representatives from five stakeholder groups: game developers, researchers, educators, young players, and policy makers. The interviews explored the cultural, educational and ethical implications associated with the design and the usage of video games in European society. A report based on the findings can be downloaded from https://www.gaminghorizons.eu/deliverables/
A CSV file called Interviews metadata reports basic information for each interviewee: stakeholder type, gender and provenance