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Exploring the perceptions and experiences of older people on the use of digital technologies during the COVID-19 pandemic: a qualitative study
Get PDFBackground: Physical inactivity is an ongoing problem throughout the lifespan. For older people, inactivity has a negative impact on wellbeing, which worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic. Digital technologies can be employed to encourage uptake of social and physical activity through remotely delivered interventions to improve wellbeing, however, we need to understand older people’s perceptions and experiences of using digital technologies before implementing these interventions. Aims: To explore the perceptions and experiences of older people on the use of digital technologies during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with 16 community dwelling older people from Hertfordshire, United Kingdom who were all programme participants in a remotely delivered mind-body physical activity programme called Positive Movement. Interviews were conducted before programme participation. The audio recorded interviews were transcribed and analysed using thematic analysis. Results: Four themes emerged from the data. The perceived impact of COVID-19 on social contact, perceived impact of COVID-19 on mental wellbeing, using digital platforms for health or exercise and using digital platforms for social contact. Discussion: Participants reported reduced social contact due to COVID-19. Most participants reported using digital technologies for social inclusion rather than health reasons, and there were mixed views on the willingness to use digital technologies for physical activity. Conclusion: Digital technologies offered a lifeline during COVID-19 to maintain social contact and their use was found acceptable by older people. Digital platforms such as Zoom can be further employed to conduct remotely delivered interventions with the aim to increase uptake of social and physical activity interventions within this population.</p
Machine learning-based optimal temperature management model for safety and quality control of perishable food supply chain
Get PDFThe management of a food supply chain is difficult and complex because of the product's short shelf-life, time-sensitivity, and perishable nature which must be carefully considered to minimize food waste. Temperature-controlled perishable food supply chain provides the highly crucial facilities necessary to maintain the quality and safety of the product. The storage temperature is the most vital factor in maintaining both the quality and shelf-life of a perishable food. Adequate storage temperature control ensures that perishable foods are transported to the end-users in good quality and safe to consume. This paper presents perishable food storage temperature control through mathematical optimal control model where the storage temperature is regarded as the control variable and the deterioration of the perishable food's quality follows the first-order reaction. The optimal storage temperature for a single perishable food is determined by applying the Pontryagin's maximum principle to solve the optimal control model problem. For multi-temperature commodities supply chain, an unsupervised machine learning (ML) method, called k-means clustering technique is used to determine the temperature clusters for a range of perishables. Based on descriptive analysis, it is observed that the k-means clustering technique is effective in identifying the best suitable storage temperature clusters for quality control of multi-commodity supply chain
The mediating impact of organizational innovation on the relationship between fintech innovations and sustainability performance
Get PDFThe paper explores the impact of digital payment systems, blockchain technology, and AI/machine learning on innovation and sustainability in financial organizations. As part of the analysis, the study has adopted an explanatory research design and has used SmartPLS in order to analyze the data collected from 230 professionals of different fields through a structured questionnaire. The results show positive effects of digital payment systems and blockchain technology on organizations’ innovations with the impact of digital payments being the most pronounced. Empirical results suggest that these technologies are important to improve sustainability performance, depending on measures of internal consistency and discriminant validity among the proposed constructs. Al, also machine learning, has the highest relevance with environmental sustainability, thereby underlining the importance and work of such measures. Based on the Resource-Based View (RBV) theory, the study also explains the need for the organization to assimilate these innovations to enhance the organizational operations, customer satisfaction, and compliance with the laws. The study highlights fintech’s potential to address environmental issues and enhance societal goals, but geographical limitations may obstruct its transportability
Education paradigm shift to maintain human competitive advantage over AI
No full textDiscussion about the replacement of intellectual human labour by "thinking machines" has been present in the public and expert discourse since the creation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as an idea and terminology since the middle of the twentieth century. Until recently, it was more of a hypothetical concern. However, in recent years, with the rise of Generative AI, especially Large Language Models (LLM), and particularly with the widespread popularity of the ChatGPT model, that concern became practical. Many domains of human intellectual labour have to adapt to the new AI tools that give humans new functionality and opportunity, but also question the viability and necessity of some human work that used to be considered intellectual yet has now become an easily automatable commodity. Education, unexpectedly, has now become burdened by an especially crucial role of charting long-range strategies for discovering viable human skills that would guarantee their place in the world of the ubiquitous use of AI in the intellectual sphere. We highlight weaknesses of the current AI and, especially, of its LLM-based core, show that root causes of LLMs' weaknesses are unfixable by the current technologies, and propose directions in the constructivist paradigm for the changes in Education that ensure long-term advantages of humans over AI tools
Desistance and children:Critical reflections from theory, research and practice
Get PDF'Desistance' - understanding how people move away from offending - has become a significant policy focus in recent years, with desistance thinking transplanted from the adult to the youth justice system in England and Wales. This book is the first to critique this approach to justice-involved children, many of whom are yet to fully develop an identity (criminal or otherwise) from which to 'desist'. Featuring voices from academia, policy and practice, this book explores practical approaches to desistance with children in the 'Child First' context. It gives new insights into how children can be supported to move away from offending and proposes reforms to make a meaningful difference to children's lives
Cognitive insights into first and second language listening
No full text[FT]This chapter explores current cognitively informed approaches to the listening skill in terms of two main areas: (1) the nature of the signal that any listener (L1 or L2) has to decode, and (2) the precise nature of the skill that the L1 listener commands and the L2 listener has to acquire. The chapter reviews the variability of speech at the phonetic, lexical, and speaker level, and then provides a cognitive account of the listening skill, and of how listeners make sense of the speech signal, as well as the higher-level processes involved in meaning construction. It then goes on to consider ways in which an L2 user might be helped to respond to the cognitive challenges associated with listening
Mandela's legacy of leadership, old traditions, new trends: a Black British perspective on Gambia's youth landscape
Get PDFA study of employee attitudes towards AI, its effect on sustainable development goals and non-financial performance in independent hotels
Get PDFThis study explores the effect of hotel employees' readiness for and acceptance of Artificial Intelligence (AI), on hotels’ adoption of AI, and its subsequent impact on achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as well as impact on non-financial performance (NFP), within the U.S. independent hotel sector. A novel survey instrument was devised, validated and administered to 1600 employees in independent hotels across the United States. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was employed to test the hypotheses derived from a conceptual framework. The results confirmed that employee readiness and acceptance of AI significantly affects AI and SDG adoption, and also positively impacted NFP metrics such as employee optimism, satisfaction and engagement. The study finds evidence of a pathway from employee engagement with AI to greater SDG adoption, and in turn, enhanced NFP. This highlights the significance of leveraging employee attitudes toward AI for more sustainable and effective performance in the hospitality sector
Person reference and a preference for association in emergency calls
Get PDFPerson reference is pervasive in talk. Conversation analytic work has identified preferences in person reference relating to recognitional reference. However, the principles shaping nonrecognitional reference are less well understood. We propose a preference for association in an institutional setting in which recognition is not relevant. Our data are calls to the New Zealand police emergency line that were institutionally classified as family harm. Using a collection methodology, we found that nonrecognitional person reference typically takes the form my x which directly associates speaker and referent, for example, “my partner,” “my ex-partner,” “my dad.” Initial references that suggest no association (e.g. “someone” or “an abusive guy”) were subsequently revised by callers using self-repair or targeted by call takers through questions that seek clarification about association. The shifts from nonassociative to associative references demonstrate participants’ orientations to the relevance of association and are evidence of a preference for association in the setting under examination. Data are in English
From hegemony to Herrschaft? the growth and potential of a reactionary strain of politics on the British Right
No full textThis article argues that a reactionary mode of politics is emerging and informing more and more debate on the British Right. It defines reaction as 1) historicist attacks on liberal institutions or proxies, 2) the assertion of an anti-historicist ‘birth-culture’ axiom and 3) a platform of the ‘racialisation’ of welfare and the targeting of welfare in ways which promotes traditionalist values. It then assesses the published works of Nick Timothy, former chief of staff to Theresa May, and Munira Mirza, former political advisor to Boris Johnson, to assess the degree to which a reactionary mode of politics is present within the Party. I argue that both adopt political ontologies consistent with reaction, especially in mounting attacks on liberalism and “identity politics”, and that this ontological starting point allows both Timothy and Mirza to assert visions of society which serve to justify the reassertion of authority and inequality. It concludes by arguing that the Conservative Party’s increasing abandonment of pluralism in favour of Herrschaft, authority, over the British polity is an indication that the reactionary position is influential on the contemporary British Right
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