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Elevating well-being in aged-care homes: A systematic review of positive psychology interventions for enhancing well-being and quality-of-life in aged-care residents.
No full textObjective: Given the rising population of older adults, there is a need to understand ways to foster well-being and Quality-of-Life (QoL) for people residing in aged-care. The aim was to conduct the first mixed-studies systematic review synthesising the evidence on the effects of Positive Psychology Intervention (PPI) activities on aged-care residents’ well-being. Method: A pre-registered systematic review following PRISMA guidelines was conducted. CINAHL, EMBASE, PsycINFO, and Medline were searched for empirical quantitative/qualitative/mixed-method studies evaluating an intervention activity aligned with positive psychology principles to improve the well-being or QoL of people living in aged-care. Results: Of the 1058 records screened, 42 studies were included, encompassing participants from 16 countries. Study quality varied. Many of the interventions found improvements in well-being and/or QoL in people living in aged-care homes. Interventions had five different focal points, including stress-relief (e.g. mindfulness), thinking (e.g. reminiscence), engagement (e.g. social connection), play (e.g. gaming), and sensory (e.g. music therapy). Conclusion: Evidence indicates that various PPI activities can contribute to well-being and QoL for people living in aged-care. However, further research is recommended to determine the effects of these interventions in cognitively-healthy older adults living in aged-care and the potential effectiveness of multi-component PPIs in this setting.</p
Connecting to context in qualitative case study: Exploring practitioner perspectives to deepen understanding of the case.
No full textThis presentation shares preliminary findings from a qualitative case study exploring the undergraduate student experience of academic language and learning (ALL). The case study is bound by three, first year Initial Teacher Education units, all with embedded ALL workshops to develop discipline-specific academic skills. Primary data was collected via semi-structured interviews with students and focus groups with ALL advisers and lecturers teaching into these units. Using discourse analysis of one focus group with ALL advisers, I explored practitioner perspectives, revealing the ongoing marginalisation and remedial framing of ALL, despite embedding into first-year curricula. As an insider researcher and ALL practitioner, my connection to the practice context informs the research design and conduct. This positionality enables critical engagement with tensions between theoretical understandings of ALL, institutional discourse, and practitioner experience. Developing a deep understanding of the professional context of ALL practice is essential to building a foundational picture of the case. I argue that my deep connection to context in the qualitative case study, combined with reflexivity to manage my subjectivity and bias, enables a richer and more nuanced understanding of practice, particularly within the research context of developing, conducting, and analysing the focus groups and interviews.</p
Peanut cultivars' performance under elevated CO2 concentrations
No full textThe current atmospheric CO2 concentration is approximately 418 ppm, and future projections suggest it will rise to around 550 ppm by mid-century and could reach 1,000 ppm by the end of the century due to anthropogenic emissions. Plant responses to elevated CO2 are highly variable, with some species showing significant increases in photosynthesis and biomass production, while others exhibit weaker or negligible growth responses. These differences are influenced by species-specific traits, nutrient availability, and environmental conditions. Understanding these variations is crucial for predicting crop performance under future climates and developing management strategies to optimize productivity and quality. This study focused on exploring the physiological changes induced by elevated CO2 and how these changes impacted peanut yield and kernel quality. Open Top Chambers (OTC) experiments were conducted to assess the effects of elevated CO2 on growth, biomass production, yield, and nutritional composition. A study with three commercial peanut cultivars examined the entire crop cycle to evaluate changes in physiological traits, photosynthesis, biomass allocation, and kernel and forage quality. The study analysed the impact of elevated CO2 on peanut agronomy, nutritional composition, to provide insights for developing strategies to mitigate the effects of climate change on food and feed production.</p
Understanding Union Digital Centre (UDC) and its impact on service delivery at local level: Case of a successful e-governance model in Bangladesh
No full textThe Union Digital Center (UDC) is an innovation in e-governance that the government of Bangladesh developed. Its purpose is to decentralize the delivery of public services to the doorsteps of ordinary people who reside in rural regions in various sections of Bangladesh. Through information and communication technology, UDC emphasizes making information and services available and accessible to the general public quickly, simply, and cost-effectively. This allows the general public to utilize these services and information effectively across various social and economic facets of their day-to-day lives. Based on the empirical results, this chapter provides an overview of the services that UDCs are providing, as well as an explanation of how UDCs are delivering these services. The influence of UDCs on service delivery at the local level is another topic covered in this chapter.</p
The performance of authorship in published books by the Kardashians and Jenners
No full textThis chapter presents a case study of the mainstream books published under the names of several members of the extended Kardashian family. Its focus is to present a brief history of these publications, as well as to tease out the concepts of “writer” and “author” in relation to these books, which include works of memoir, fiction, and food writing. As writers other than the named authors have collaborated in the production of, or largely produced, these texts, this chapter also profiles the shadowy profession of the contemporary ghostwriter and the role of ghostwriters in the contemporary publishing industry
How do midwives learn about, understand, and integrate Cultural Safety into their care of First Nations women and families? A qualitative exploration
No full textProblem: Midwives are required to provide care based on Cultural Safety for First Nations women and families.
Recent literature has suggested that midwives’ understanding of Cultural Safety and how it translates into their
practice differs widely. This disparity requires further exploration.
Background: The Australian professional midwifery codes and standards state that there is a requirement to
provide care based on Cultural Safety. It is critical to understand how First Nations people’s history and culture
impacts their health and wellbeing, requiring midwives to recognise how this may impact care.
Aim: To determine Australian midwives’ knowledge and understanding of Cultural Safety and how this translates
into their practice when caring for First Nations women and families.
Methods: A qualitative study was undertaken. Data were collected via semi-structured interviews with 12 midwives
practicing in Australia. Data were transcribed and thematically analysed.
Findings: Three themes were identified: ‘Society and Systems’, ‘Knowingness versus Understanding’, and ‘Personal
Qualities, Engagement and Partnerships’ which highlight the strengths and deficits of Cultural Safety
education and its integration into midwifery practice in Australia.
Discussion: Health systems providing maternity care remain rooted in Western biomedical philosophies, which
influences the practice of Cultural Safety at all levels. Midwives are beginning to understand the ongoing impact
of colonisation on the health and wellbeing of First Nations families, but still face challenges when striving to
provide culturally safe care.
Conclusion: Cultural Safety must be valued at an organisational level, in which midwives can engage in authentic,
maternity-based educational programs led by suitably prepared educators.
*</p
Nursing advocacy and activism: A critical analysis of regulatory documents
No full textBackground: Advocacy and activism are dynamic terms representing a spectrum of political action, aiming to achieve social or political change. The extent to which nursing advocacy and activism are legitimate nursing roles has been debated for around 50 years. Nursing regulatory documents, such as codes of conduct and professional standards, may provide direction to nurses on how they should act in the context of advocacy and activism. Aim: To explore what regulatory documents say about advocacy and activism, either explicitly or implicitly, and how they shape advocacy and activism. Research design: We used a Reflexive Qualitative Document Analysis approach with a Critical Feminist lens to analyse contemporary nursing regulatory documents from the USA, UK and Australia. Ethical considerations: This article has no human participants, and informed consent was not required. Findings: We identified eight nursing regulatory documents from the American Nurses Association, Nursing and Midwifery Council and Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia. We constructed two major themes that reveal how nursing advocacy and activism are conceived and shaped in regulatory documents. Theme 1, Ideological arena describes the gendered and neoliberal subtexts influencing advocacy and activism. Theme 2, A five-pointed star, describes the shape of advocacy and activism in the regulatory documents. Conclusions: Regulatory documents from the USA, UK and Australia support diplomatic nursing advocacy and activism for people, equity, ourselves (nurses), the profession and systems change. However, more oppositional and disruptive advocacy and activism are potentially constrained by gendered and neoliberal subtexts that depoliticise nurses’ roles.</p
Intent, Entity, and Labelled Data List.docx
No full textThe proposed research intends to improve the current service desk model by using Conversational Language Understanding (CLU) processes embedded in the chatbot model, to understand the user’s input and automate the ticket resolution process as well as improve the customer service experience and efficiency. The CLU data will be trained, thus it will be able to cover all the possible user input. The chatbot will then be designed to have five main dialogue flows consisting of, changing the user’s current password, checking the user’s mobile number that is listed in Azure Active Directory (AAD), updating the user’s mobile number in AAD, creating a new ticket to the ticketing system, and creating a follow-up ticket to the ticketing system. A trained CLU data with a high prediction score based on the proposed dialogue flow will then be embedded with the chatbot design. It would produce a next-level chatbot that is able to understand the user’s intent, classify the user’s intent, automate the user’s Level 1 (L1) proposed request without any human technician’s interaction, and create a ticket in the ticketing system for any request that is not covered by the chatbot yet.</p
Effective Sizing and Optimisation of Hybrid Renewable Energy Sources for Micro Distributed Generation System
No full textIn the modern world, Renewable Energy Sources (RES) play a crucial role in resolving the fossil fuel issues. It supports maintaining the sustainability of the environment by reducing air pollution. Predominantly, Hybrid Renewable Energy System (HRES) is the ideal mechanism that integrates diverse RES for enhancing energy efficiency and reliability in Microgrids (MGs). Conversely, the integration of HRES with MGs faces challenging issues, such as energy management, load demand, efficiency, and reliability. Several research plans have been devised to attain enhanced HRES in MGs, but such schemes lack efficiency, reliability, and accuracy. To solve this problem, the proposed model implemented a specialized set of procedures to control load demand and decrease the cost of HRES in MGs. Accordingly, the respective model used the Ant Lion Colony Optimization with Particle Swarm Optimization (ALCO-PSO) for the Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) mechanism for enhancing power efficiency. The Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) algorithm is utilized because it has the advantages of higher efficiency, better global search, and distributed nature. The classical research identified that it is limited due to computational complexity, premature convergence, etc. To resolve the issue, the Lion Optimization Algorithm (LOA) is combined with the ACO mechanism for ability to handle premature convergence, enhance complexity, sensitivity on parameter setting, etc. Conversely, ALCO is lacking certain factors such as limited scalability, global search capability, and other issues. To tackle the limitations, the PSO is incorporated with ALCO to improve accuracy through the ability to handle limited scalability and global search capability. Besides, direct current fault detection functions with the Artificial Neural Network (ANN) algorithm for improving the system’s performance with solar data. Finally, the performance of the projected system is calculated with specific performance metrics such as power, voltage, and power quality. The accuracy achieved by the model is 99.56%, the faster convergence (FC) obtained is 0.11 s, and the oscillation around (OA) gained by the model is 4.25 W. The tracking time is 0.2 s, the interruptible load is 0.009%, the cost of energy (COE) is 0.0413 /kWh.</p
An extended Belief-Desire-Intention Model for Human - Agent Collaboration
No full textThe Belief-Desire-Intention (BDI) model of agency as traditionally realised in software frameworks does not address human/agent collaboration. Rather, its focus is limited to autonomous goal directed behaviour for situated intelligent agents. Nonetheless, intelligent agents developed using BDI frameworks have been deployed in many challenging applications, such as space shuttle fault diagnosis, UAV control, air traffic control, manufacturing automation and large-scale military simulations (Jarvis, D et al. 2013). These deployments have been facilitated by the availability of commercial strength software frameworks, namely PRS (Procedural Reasoning System) (Georgeff & Lansky 1986), dMARS (distributed MultiAgent Reasoning System) (D'inverno et al. 2005), JACK Intelligent Agents (Agent Oriented Software Pty. Ltd. 2012b) and most recently GORITE (Jarvis, D et al. 2013; Rönnquist 2007). Indeed, BDI frameworks have become, along with Soar (Laird, Newell & Rosenbloom 1987) the framework of choice for the development of knowledge intensive agent applications (Jones & Wray 2006). However, BDI frameworks have experienced limited success in their application to situations that require agents to interact with humans in the achievement of goals. A key reason for this has been that while traditional BDI agents use goals internally, the representation is not explicit and consequently it is difficult for humans to directly influence agent activity and vice-versa in a collaborative manner. With the advent of GORITE, this representational constraint has been removed and the possibility now exists for BDI agents to work collaboratively with humans in goal achievement and to facilitate the development of a new generation of intelligent decision support systems. In this thesis, we present a conceptual model for collaborative BDI agent behaviour that extends the BDI model of agency. The model is then validated by providing the GORITE framework with additional collaborative functionality and then developing a number of proof-of-concept applications using the extended framework.</p