4101 research outputs found
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Hospitals management transformative initiatives; towards energy efficiency and environmental sustainability in healthcare facilities
No full textEnergy-saving is a growing challenge worldwide due to population growth, economic activity, and high consumption rates that are unsustainable in the long term. Healthcare facilities and hospitals face the challenge of increases in operational costs. This research aims to appraise challenges to adopting energy-saving policies, and proposes a roadmap for sustainability and energy efficiency management in hospitals and healthcare facilities.Eight hospitals were examined as case studies through qualitative interviews with hospital senior management, executives, and healthcare facilities managers in addition to collecting relevant data from the literature; there is critical appraisal, and content analysis of this data.The research established factors influencing implementation and challenges to energy-saving strategies. The research proposed guidelines for efficient energy management in hospitals and healthcare facilities. The research concluded that best performance is secured by integrating the proposed guidelines with the adoption of ISO 50001 energy management systems to achieve the United Nations’ (UN) sustainable development goal (SDGs) – SDG7 ‘affordable and clean energy.’ The study is limited to the initiatives/experiences of the hospitals studied in the MENA region.The research findings, conclusions, recommendations, and proposed guidelines enrich the body of knowledge. This will allow industry key stakeholders, hospitals and healthcare facilities managers to overcome challenges of implementing energy management. In addition, adopting the proposed guidelines will improve energy efficiency and help hospitals in green initiatives as they seek to demonstrate their support for UN SDGs
The role of student peers in HE student mental health and wellbeing
No full textPurpose: There is evidence that students’ experiences in Higher Education (HE) can be adversely affected by mental health issues, whilst wellbeing can be bolstered through a sense of belonging. This study draws from Student Minds research into student mental health to consider the importance of peers to constructing a sense of belonging.Design / Methodology / Approach: This paper draws from a thematic review of 12 focus groups - involving student services staff in six UK Universities (69 Participants) - conducted as part of the consultation and creation of the Student Minds University Mental Health Charter (2019). The schedule considered student support, service structures, and developments to enhance student wellbeing and manage mental health risks.Findings: A significant theme explored here is the positionality of student peers in terms of relatability, and the importance of orientation and belonging for student mental health and wellbeing. The findings also consider types of peer involvement (formal / informal), and the influence of structure, training and boundaries in interventions Originality / Value: Findings reveal the importance of feeling a sense of belonging in the university community to achieve wellbeing and good mental health. Peer support is an important contributor that supports transitions into university and creates a sense of belonging, which is important to all students, but more so to those less familiar with university, who lack role models and more easily feel isolated
Positive psychology pioneers: Professor Martin Seligman's power and potential to influence mental health nursing
No full textThis article introduces a series that will celebrate the work of positive psychologists and discuss how their work has the power and potential to influence mental health nursing practice. The series will provide a historical perspective of early psychologists, their contributions and the continued importance of recognising current positive psychologists, as they also revive and regenerate understanding of the study of the individual. The first paper in the series focuses on the work of Professor Martin Seligman and his interest in optimism and positivity. He is regarded by many as ’the father of positive psychology’
Investigation and Optimization of Vacuum Plasma Treatment of PA66 Fabric for Reduced Fire Retardant Consumption
No full textFlame retardant (FR) textiles were obtained by surface treatments of polyamide 66 fabrics with microwave (MW) plasma technology in order to reduce the amount of FR involved in the fabric finishing process. More specifically, MW vacuum plasma was employed for polymer surface activation by using a helium/ oxygen (He/O2) gas mixture, evaluating the effect of different treatment parameters on the affinity toward thiourea impregnation. Surface fabric modification was investigated both in terms of uniformity and increased thiourea absorption by infrared spectros-copy, wicking properties, and gravimetric characterization to define an operative window for plasma treatment conditions. According to the results obtained, the dry add-on content of thiourea improved up to 38%, thanks to the increase of the fabric surface activation. The effectiveness of plasma treatment resulted in an absolute increase up to 2% in limiting oxygen index (LOI) performance with respect to untreated fabric. As a consequence, a drastic reduction of 50% in thiourea concentration was required to achieve a similar fire retardant performance for plasma-treated fabric. On the basis of these preliminary results, a design of experiment (DoE) methodology was applied to the selected parameters to build a suitable response surface, experimentally validated, and to identify optimized treatment conditions. At the end, a final LOI index up to 43% has been reached
Potential Impact of Global Warming on Climate and Streamflow of Adhaim River Basin, Iraq
No full text• Connection between LARS-WG and SWAT models presented successful simulation for current and future climate and hydrological systems in ARB. • ARB tend to become hotter and drier by 2080 due to global warming. • Adaptation strategies should be applied in water resources management of ARB. Global warming induces to increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and plays a crucial role in determining the future trend in climatology and hydrology of a watershed. This paper aims to investigate the implications of global warming on future climate and its consequents on streamflow of the Adhaim River Basin (ARB). For this purpose, the Long Ashton Research Station-Weather Generator (LARS-WG) and Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT)-Based models were implemented. The climate and hydrologic records for the period 1990-2019 were used as a Reference Period (RP) and projected to 2080 under Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs 2.6, 4.5, and 8.5) and five Global Climate Models (GCMs). The results show that the region of ARB tends to become hotter and drier with an increase in mean temperature by 1.2, 2.9, and 4.6 °C under the considered RCPs, respectively. However, precipitation tends to decrease from 366 mm/y in RP to 320.2, 302, and 300.5 mm/y by 2080 under the considered RCPs. Consequently, the streamflow will decrease to about 28, 26, and 24 m3/s by 2080 under the considered RCPs, respectively, compared with 28.96 m3/s in RP. Therefore, adaptation strategies are highly recommended to alleviate the negative impacts of climate change, and the implications of climate change on groundwater, water demand, and adaptation plans should be investigated in future studies
Positive addiction recovery therapy: A pilot study
No full textThe purpose of this study is to evaluate a new programme of work designed to improve the recovery and wellbeing of people in early addiction recovery. The programme, known as positive addiction recovery therapy (PART), is attentive to the recovery process through the G-CHIME (growth, connectedness, hope, identity, meaning in life, and empowerment) model of addiction recovery. It also uses the values in action character strengths and includes a set of relapse prevention techniques.An experimental design using repeated measures has been adopted. Measures for recovery capital, wellbeing, and level of flourishing were selected and pre and post data collected. Primary data analysis was conducted using the non-parametric Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Participants (n=30) were required to be in early addiction recovery, classified as having been abstinent for between 3 and 6 months.The results showed a statistically significant improvement in participant wellbeing. This was also true for recovery capital and flourishing. Whilst a meaningful increase was seen in all measures, exploratory analysis found females responded better to the PART programme.This study emphasises the importance of adopting an holistic therapeutic approach, one that considers multifaceted components of recovery such as those outlined in the G-CHIME model.This study evaluates a new programme of work designed to improve the recovery outcome and mental wellbeing of people who are in early addiction recovery
PE teachers’ perceived expertise and professional development requirements in the delivery of muscular fitness activity: PE Teacher EmPOWERment Survey
No full textMuscular fitness (MF) is an important modifiable factor to improve overall health. Schools offer a unique opportunity to deliver MF activity during physical education (PE) and develop competence to engage in various activities across the life course. However, the implementation of school-based MF activity may be impaired by some teachers reporting a lack of expertise and low confidence in the delivery of MF activity. Understanding teachers’ thoughts and perceptions regarding the delivery of MF in schools may help guide future research and policy to support MF delivery in UK schools. Following ethical approval, a survey of secondary school PE teachers across the UK was distributed via Twitter. Survey responses were analysed and reported descriptively and thematically. Completed surveys were returned by 194 teachers (61.9% male) from England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Relative to less experienced teachers, those with at least five years’ service were 2.2 times more likely to have completed continued professional development (CPD) in MF activity (OR = 2.16; ß = 0.77; 95% CI: 1.25-3.74; p < 0.01), and 1.8 times more likely to use assessments of MF to inform PE programme decision-making (OR = 1.83; ß = 0.60; 95% CI: 1.18-2.82; p < 0.01). Despite the promising contribution school-based PE may have to developing MF, we report a poor understanding of MF activity amongst UK-based PE teachers. CPD is warranted to deliver successful MF interventions in a school setting
Prediction of abnormal pregnancy in pregnant women with Advanced maternal age and Pregestational Diabetes using Machine learning models
No full textNumber of women with advanced maternal age is increasing along with some preexisting medical condition like diabetes. The objective of this paper is to use machine learning models to predict number of women above 35 with pregestational diabetes having high risk of abnormal pregnancy. Using data from Open access CTG database and Mother's Significant Health dataset we compare women older than 35 with preexisting medical conditions to determine the risk prediction. The outcomes were compared between women 18 to 70 years and women above 35 years to see contrast in risk prediction and also the affected women already medical condition. Machine learning models of Random Forest, Logistic Regression and Decision tree were used to predict the outcomes. The target variable was set as pregestational diabetes. Random Forest and Logistic Regression performed equally better in both provided cases for women 18 to 70 years and women above 35 years of 87% and 83% respectively. Pregnant women above 35 having pregestational diabetes are at high risks of experiencing abnormal pregnancies. Future research and machine learning models may be able to detect the factors of the high risks involved for older pregnant women
Secured protocol with collaborative IoT-enabled sustainable communication using Artificial Intelligence Technique
No full textIn recent years, 5G and the Internet of Things (IoT) have been integrated into a variety of applications to support sustainable communication systems. In the presence of intermediate hardware, IoT devices collect the network data and transfer them to cloud technologies. The interconnect machines provide essential information to the connected devices over the Internet. Many solutions have been proposed to address the dynamic and unexpected characteristics of IoT-based networks and to support smart developments. However, more work needs to explore efficient quality-aware data routing for distributed processing. Additionally, to handle the massive amount of data created by smart cities and achieve the transportation objectives for resource restrictions, artificial intelligence (AI)-oriented approaches are necessary. This research proposes a secured protocol with collaborative learning for IoT-enabled sustainable communication using AI techniques. This approach increases systems' reaction times in critical conditions and also controls the smart functionalities for inter-device communication. Furthermore, fitness computing can help in balancing the contribution of quality-aware metrics to achieve load balancing and efficient energy consumption. To deal with security, IoT communication is broken down into stages, resulting in a more dependable network for unpredictable environments. The simulation results of the proposed protocol have been compared to existing approaches and improved the performance of response time by 17%, energy consumption by 14%, number of re-transmissions by 16%, and computing overhead by 16%, under a varying number of nodes and data packets
A guide to practitioner research in education
No full textThis book is a guide to research methods for practitioner research. Written in friendly and accessible language, it includes numerous practical examples based on the authors' own experiences in the field, to support readers.The authors provide information and guidance on developing research skills such as gathering and analysing information and data, reporting findings and research design. They offer critical perspectives to help users reflect on research approaches and to scrutinise key issues in devising research questions.This book is for undergraduate and postgraduate students, teachers and practitioners in practitioner research development and leadership programmes