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Near-peer led simulation and pedagogical labour in paediatric nursing education: A critical review
No full textNear-peer led simulation (NPLS) is gaining attention as a way to enhance experiential learning in pre-registration nursing programmes, particularly in areas where placement capacity is constrained and emotional preparedness is essential. Paediatric nursing education faces persistent pressures relating to clinical exposure, rising patient acuity, and the relational and affective complexity of children’s care. At the same time, higher education institutions operate within audit-driven environments where teaching is increasingly shaped by recruitment, satisfaction and employability metrics. These pressures create a tension between supporting emotionally grounded, psychologically safe learning and meeting regulatory and institutional performance demands.
This paper offers a critical review of the opportunities and challenges of NPLS through Stephen Ball’s concepts of performativity and neoliberalism “out there/in here.” Drawing on the existing literature, the paper outlines the reported benefits of NPLS, including increased confidence, stronger reflective practice, and a more approachable learning climate. It also highlights recurring challenges such as variable facilitator preparation, emotional labour, psychological safety, and the need for clear role boundaries. The analysis then considers how these pedagogical benefits and risks are shaped by the wider higher education environment, where what is most valued is often what can be easily measured.
Using Ball’s framework, the paper argues that while NPLS has significant pedagogical promise, its sustainability depends on how institutions recognise and resource the relational, emotional and supervisory labour it demands. In many workload and quality systems, this labour remains largely invisible. The conclusion identifies two areas for future inquiry: first, empirical research that examines how universities negotiate the competing demands of emotional, critical and performative priorities when implementing NPLS, and second, a small design-focused pilot that tests whether NPLS can be supported in ways that protect psychological safety while meeting institutional requirements. Together, these directions offer a balanced way to develop NPLS as both a pedagogically valuable and institutionally viable approach within contemporary higher education
Pentecostalism and religious broadcasting
Get PDFAfter considering the historical emergence of religious broadcasting, this article surveys Pentecostal broadcasting in different parts of the world and seeks to estimate its influence
Theoretical models of the nature of prayer and health: A review
No full textThere is increasing interest in the empirical effects of prayer on health. However, little attention has been paid to the theoretical causal mechanisms by which health may be affected by prayer. A critical examination of extant literature on the psychology of prayer was conducted to identify potential ways in which prayer may act to promote health. The review suggested that an array of prayer types exist ranging from prayers of attunement to petitionary prayers. Additionally, prayer may affect health by a variety of means including: (a) prayer may improve health because of the placebo effect; (b) individuals who pray may also engage in health-related behaviour; (c) prayer may help by diverting attention from health problems; (d) prayer may promote health through supernatural intervention by God; (e) prayer may activate latent energies, such as chi, which have not been empirically verified, but which nevertheless may be beneficial to health; and (f) prayer may result in a unity of consciousness which facilitates the transmission of healing between individuals. An agreement among researchers about the classification and measurement of prayer might result in an easier comparison of results across studies. Researchers should be aware of the many prayer types documented in the literature and should select a measure of prayer appropriate to their field of investigation. Additionally, researchers should give consideration to the possible causal mechanisms underlying the hypotheses they are investigating. Furthermore, if researchers offer some theoretically based argument, regarding prayer, for the hypotheses that they are testing, then results from studies involving prayer may be more meaningful. Having established the theoretical models of the ways in which prayer may promote better health, the challenge for psychology is to provide empirical evidence to confirm or disconfirm the alternate hypotheses
BPTraSha: A Novel Algorithm for Shaping Bursty Nature of Internet Traffic
Get PDFVarious researchers have reported that traffic measurements demonstrate considerable burstiness on several time scales, with properties of self-similarity. Also, the rapid development of technologies has widened the scope of network and Internet applications and, in turn, increased traffic. The self-similar nature of this data traffic may exhibit spikiness and burstiness on large scales with such behaviour being caused by strong dependence characteristics in data: that is, large values tend to come in clusters and clusters of clusters and so on. Several studies have shown that TCP, the dominant network (Internet) transport protocol, contributes to the propagation of self-similarity. Bursty traffic can affect the Quality of Service of all traffic on the network by introducing inconsistent latency. It is easier to manage the workloads under less bursty (i.e. smoother) conditions. In this paper, we introduce a novel algorithm for traffic shaping, which can smooth out the traffic burstiness. We name it the Bursty Packet Traffic Shaper (BPTraSha). Experimental results show that this approach allows significant traffic control by smoothing the incoming traffic. BPTraSha can be implemented on the distribution router buffer so that the traffic's bursty nature can be modified before it is transmitted over the core network (Internet)
Benefits arising from lay involvement in community-based public health initiatives: The experience from community nutrition
Get PDFAims: To explore the experiences of lay food and health workers (LFHW) and professionals involved in delivering local food and health initiatives, to improve understanding of the perceived benefits associated with their involvement and wider opportunities for promoting health. Study design: An interpretive qualitative inquiry. Setting: Community-based NHS LFHW programmes in 16 locations serving less-affluent neighbourhoods across England, UK. Subjects: Twenty nine (29) food and health professionals, 53 LFHW employed by and associated with the management or day-to-day implementation of 16 LFHW initiatives in the study. Findings: Salient benefits identified at service, individual lay worker and community levels were: increased service coverage and ability to reach the ‘hard to reach’; personal development; and enhanced social support. Conclusions: This study highlights previously unreported benefits related to the direct experiences of lay people used in community nutrition in the UK, which go beyond those associated with professional-led initiatives, suggesting the need to adopt a broader view of lay involvement in the UK public health workforce
Lay food and health worker involvement in community nutrition and dietetics in England: roles, responsibilities and relationship with professionals
No full textBackground- Community-based food initiatives have developed in recent years with the aim of engaging previously 'hard to reach' groups. Lay workers engaged in community nutrition activities are promoted as a cost-effective mechanism for reaching underserved groups. The main objective of the study was to explore perceptions and definitions of lay food and health worker (LFHW) helping roles within the context of National Health Service (NHS) community nutrition and dietetic services in order to define the conceptual and practical elements of this new role and examine the interface with professional roles. Findings - Narratives from both professionals and LFHWs indicated that the primary role for LFHWs was to encourage dietary change by translating complex messages into credible and culturally appropriate advice. Conclusions - The primary role of LFHWs in the 15 projects involved was to support existing NHS services to promote healthy eating amongst 'hard to reach' communities. The activities undertaken by LFHWs are strongly influenced by professionals and the NHS. Inherent to this is a fairly narrow interpretation of health, resulting in a limited range of practice
Synthesis And NMR Investigation of 1-Phenyl-1,2-propanedione-2-oxime Complexes of Trimethylplatinum(IV).
Get PDFThe ionised monoxime, 1-phenyl-1,2-propanedione-2-oxime (ppdm) reacts smoothly with trimethylplatinum(IV) sulfate in aqueous acetone, to form the complex fac-[PtMe₃ (ppdm)(H₂O)] 1 in high yield. 1 Reacts with 3,5-lutidine and 2,2'-bipyridine to form stable 1:1 adducts, viz. fac-[PtMe₃(ppdm)(3,5-lut)] 2 and fac-[PtMe₃(ppdm)(bipy)] 3. In complexes 1 and 2, the ionised monoxime behaves in a N/O bidentate chelate fashion, whereas in 3, ppdm is co-ordinated to the metal moiety in a monodentate fashion, via the oximate N donor atom. The parent complex, 1, dissolves in polar solvents to form species of general formulae fac-[PtMe₃(ppdm)(solv)] (solv = DMSO, methanol or acetone), which undergo an intramolecular "windscreen-wiper" fluxional rearrangement. The stereodynamics of the fluxional process have been measured in CD₃OD and [D₆]DMSO solution by two-dimensional exchange spectroscopy; ΔG‡ (298 K) is 73.6 kJ mol⁻¹ and 88.5 kJ mol⁻¹, respectively. The effects of the solvent on the energetics and a possible mechanism for the fluxional process are discussed
Including the Excluded: Weathering the Storm
Get PDFIt has been identified that populations of students within Higher Education often report much higher levels of the symptoms of depression than the norm for their age group. In addition, levels of symptoms for anxiety can also be higher amongst students. A study found that reported levels of moderate to severe anxiety among second year students were nearly twice that of the general population (Webb et al 1996). Another later study conducted discovered that students were 1.64 times more likely to experience symptoms of mental ill health than the general population (Harrison et al 1999)
SANS and Rheology Study of Aqueous Solutions and Gels Containing Highly Swollen Diblock Copolymer Micelles
No full textAqueous micellar solutions and gels of the diblock copolymer E398B19 (E = oxyethylene, B = oxybutylene) have been investigated by rheology and small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) in the liquid, soft gel, and hard gel phases. Rheology experiments were used to confirm the microstructure and flow behavior of the system in the vicinity of the liquid−soft gel boundary previously located, as well as to identify a new liquid−hard gel transition at low temperatures. The dimensions of the micelles in the liquid phase were obtained from the micellar form factor described by a core/shell model. The parameters extracted from the modeling were in good agreement with previous results for the same system from light scattering. The micellar radius was found to decrease with temperature in the liquid phase, as a consequence of the contraction of the corona chains, caused by a decrease in solvent quality for poly(oxyethylene) at high temperature. The shape of the corona as a whole was preserved on increasing temperature, only undergoing a reduction in width. The equilibrium phase is fluid at volume fractions lower than the volume fraction for freezing of hard spheres, φf = 0.494, in good agreement with a system of hard spheres. In the hard gel, the micelles are arranged in a bcc structure, as expected for micelles with lengthy E blocks
A Survey of Applying Ad Hoc Wireless Sensor Actuator Networks to Enhance Context-Awareness in Environmental Management Systems
Get PDFSensor mesh networking is set to be one of the key tools for the future of Ambient Intelligence (AmI) due to new emerging technologies in Ad hoc Wireless Sensor Networks (AWSNs). AWSNs symbolize the new generation of sensor networks with many promising advantages applicable to most networked environments. Unfortunately, however, these practical technologies have some technical problems and, as a consequence, this fascinating field has created novel and interesting challenges, which in turn, have inspired many ongoing research projects and more are likely to follow. Almost certainly, there will be notable improvements in the management of control/actuator networks as a consequence of enhancing the sensitivity capabilities of systems. With an emphasis on Ad hoc Wireless Sensor Actuator Networks (AWSANs) this study presents a systematic analysis of the different existing techniques to improve such systems. It also discusses, analyzes and summarizes the advantages these technologies offer in certain applications and presents a generic solution, in the form of a case study, for an AmI system to enhance the overall environmental management of a campus based on a hierarchical network using an AWSAN