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Female autonomy and intimate partner violence: findings from the Zimbabwe demographic and health survey, 2015
Get PDFIntimate partner violence (IPV) is a persistent social problem in Zimbabwe and has been linked to dominant patriarchal attitudes that promote the superiority of men in marital relationships while denying women agency. Using the 2015 Zimbabwe Demographic and Health Survey data, we examined the influence of female autonomy on IPV. Our analysis was restricted to 2847 women who were in some form of sexual union. Consistent with earlier studies, our results show that more than 40% of the women had experienced some form of IPV. The most prevalent forms of IPV was emotional violence, followed by physical violence and sexual violence. Low levels of economic autonomy and supportive attitudes towards wife-beating increased the risk of IPV, while late marriage reduced the risk of all forms of IPV. The findings provide a basis for interventions that may increase economic control and improve decision making for women, although the association between economic violence and economic decision making requires further research that examines the possibility of reverse causality
Conceptualising capabilities and value co-creation in a digital business ecosystem (DBE): a systematic literature review
Get PDFDigital Business Ecosystem (DBE) is a topical concept for business organisations to collaborate in driving product or service innovation. DBE is supported by digital technologies which aim to create and co-create values among the participated business organisations. For achieving successful collaboration, business organisations need to understand their capabilities that lead to value creation. This approach is vital for a business organisation to benefit from the values co-created when collaborating with others. Failing to do so will cause inefficient collaboration. However, there is a lack of capability and value co-creation studies in the DBE context. Therefore, this paper aims to conceptualise capabilities and value co-creation through a systematic literature review. We analysed the findings by thematic analysis. The review results produced a set of research themes surrounding the capability and value co-creation concepts. The research themes contribute to informing future avenues in digital business ecosystem research
A business analysis perspective for engineering education in Egypt
Get PDFThis work examines engineering education in Egypt provided by state (government funded) universities. There have been concerns from all stakeholders about the graduates’ knowledge and skills. The chronic problems with higher education in Egypt in general have been previously reported in the Literature, but this paper provides insights form engineering academics with many years of experience in Egyptian engineering education and a fresh look from a business perspective at the phenomenon. In this manuscript, the institutions are analyzed using the integrated business anatomy model, in order to identify the underlying causes of the problems observed. The structural, operational and environmental (both external and internal) challenges that lead to the current status are clearly detected. The analysis highlighted several constraints that hinder radical reforms. Amongst these constraints is the legal and organizational framework in which the state funded universities operate. Other social, technological and economic factors also play important parts. The recipe for improvement provided by the authors has taken all these elements into consideration. This work hopes to provide focus and direction for future reform efforts
Mapping and assessment of tree roots using ground penetrating radar with low-cost GPS
Get PDFIn this paper, we have presented a methodology combining ground penetrating radar (GPR) and a low-cost GPS receiver for three-dimensional detection of tree roots. This research aims to provide an effective and affordable testing tool to assess the root system of a number of trees. For this purpose, a low-cost GPS receiver was used, which recorded the approximate position of each GPR track, collected with a 500 MHz RAMAC shielded antenna. A dedicated post-processing methodology based on the precise position of the satellite data, satellite clock offsets data, and a local reference Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Earth Observation Network System (GEONET) Station close to the survey site was developed. Firstly, the positioning information of local GEONET stations was used to filter out the errors caused by satellite position error, satellite clock offset, and ionosphere. In addition, the advanced Kalman filter was designed to minimise receiver offset and the multipath error, in order to obtain a high precision position of each GPR track. Kirchhoff migration considering near-field effect was used to identify the three-dimensional distribution of the root. In a later stage, a novel processing scheme was used to detect and clearly map the coarse roots of the investigated tree. A successful case study is proposed, which supports the following premise: the current scheme is an affordable and accurate mapping method of the root system architecture
How to make a 'Colourful World'
Get PDFAddressing topics as varied as food supply; sustainable farming practices; climate change; green energy; transport solutions; river restoration, and air quality, Colourful World is a children’s computer game that seeks to convey complex and interconnected ideas in a way that is both comprehensible and enjoyable for young learners
Dealing children a helping hand with Book of Beasties: the mental wellness card game
Get PDFAim(s)
Play contributes uniquely to effective learning and the development of socio-emotional skills. This study investigated Book of Beasties (BoB), a school-based, socio-emotional intervention which utilises ‘playful learning’ to improve emotional literacy and wellbeing, to determine its potential as an effective resource for education staff facing increased responsibility for mental health support in schools.
Method
A single case study comprising one school (N = 8 Year 5 children; mean age 8.5 years). Four children (two boys; two girls) received the intervention and four comprised a comparison group. Qualitative data from session observations, focus groups with children, and semi-structured interviews with school staff (the delivery agents) and parents/carers were thematically analysed. Proposed quantitative measures to examine intervention effectiveness were administered pre- and post-test to determine their suitability.
Findings
Integrated findings from thematic analyses suggested that BoB benefitted recipients in terms of developing socio-emotional skills and improving subjective wellbeing and was socially valid. Findings also elicited specific components, for example, fantastical elements of the game and sensory-focussed activities that had an influence on positive child outcomes. Selected measures of children’s emotional awareness, emotional regulation, and wellbeing were deemed appropriate.
Limitations. Data were collected from a single, ‘volunteer’ school. The class teacher (delivery agent) selected the children who received the BoB intervention, potentially biasing the findings.
Conclusions
The feasibility of conducting a full-scale evaluation of BoB to examine effectiveness and understand process issues was established. Further research will help address a gap in the school-based, socio-emotional intervention literature
Developing, analyzing and sharing multivariate datasets: individual differences in L2 learning revisited
Get PDFFollowing the trends established in psychology and emerging in L2 research, we explain our support for an Open Science approach in this paper (i.e., developing, analyzing and sharing datasets) as a way to answer controversial and complex questions in applied linguistics. We illustrate this with a focus on a frequently debated question, what underlies individual differences in the dynamic system of post-pubertal L2 speech learning? We provide a detailed description of our dataset which consists of spontaneous speech samples, elicited from 110 late L2 speakers in the UK with diverse linguistic, experiential and sociopsychological backgrounds, rated by ten L1 English listeners for comprehensibility and nativelikeness. We explain how we examined the source of individual differences by linking different levels of L2 speech performance to a range of learner-extrinsic and intrinsic variables related to first language backgrounds, age, experience, motivation, awareness, and attitudes using a series of factor and Bayesian mixed-effects ordinal regression analyses. We conclude with a range of suggestions for the fields of applied linguistics and SLA, including the use of Bayesian methods in analyzing multivariate, multifactorial data of this kind, and advocating for publicly available datasets. In keeping with recommendations for increasing openness of the field, we invite readers to rethink and redo our analyses and interpretations from multiple angles by making our dataset and coding publicly available as part of our 40th anniversary ARAL article
Preventing fraud and providing services: The private healthcare insurance sector
Get PDFThe private healthcare insurance sector is rarely the subject of criminological analysis unless seen as corrupt. It is even more unusual that it is the subject of analysis as a victim of fraud. This paper is thus different in that it establishes a picture of international private healthcare insurance sectors approach in preventing fraud and providing healthcare services. We start by explaining why the private health insurance markets exist. This is followed by the methods employed to secure innovative data from the private health insurance sector. The results of the research conducted in collaboration with the International Federation of Health Plans are then presented. A discussion on key aspects of this research is then examined before we lastly, consider a way forward and the development of fraud resilience in the private insurance healthcare market
Health assessment of trees using GPR-derived root density maps
Get PDFIn this paper, a coherent framework for estimating the density and the distribution of roots using ground penetrating radar is presented. The proposed methodology is a multi-stage data processing scheme that is applied in semi-circular measurements collected concentrically around the investigated tree. The adopted processing methodology consists of three distinct and sequential steps. In the first step, the raw B-scans are subject to time-zero correction, zero-offset removal, time-varying gain and the singular value decomposition (SVD) filter. The SVD filter is used in order to effectively eliminate multiples and ringing noise from the B-Scans and increase the overall signal-to-clutter ratio. The second step consists of a tracking algorithm that aims at identifying patterns that resemble tree roots. In the last step, a continuous function is fitted to each root in order to effectively interpolate between points and subsequently estimate the density of the roots. This paper concludes with a case study on an urban tree at the Gunnersbury Park, London, United Kingdom. The top soil around the tree was excavated to 40 cm below the surface approximately in order to expose the tree root architecture. Then the exposed tree root system was used to compare the survey results for validity purposes and ultimately support the viability of the proposed data processing methods adopted in this investigation