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PRME as a curricula planning mechanism to achieve the UN SDGs
No full textThis presentation explores how we could use PRME as a curricula planning mechanism to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). Moreover, it will highlight the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Apps for students to comprehend and contribute towards achieving the UN SDGs, within the context of business school curricula planning processes
The critical factors in producing high quality and policy-relevant research: insights from international behavioural science units
Get PDFBackground There has been a rapid increase in the number of, and demand for, organisations offering behavioural science advice to government over the last 10 years. Yet we know little of the state of science and the experiences of these evidence providers. Aims and objectives To identify current practice in this emerging field and the factors that impact on the production of high quality and policy-relevant research. Methods A qualitative study using one-to-one interviews with representatives from a purposeful sample of 15 units in the vanguard of international behavioural science research in policy. The data were analysed thematically. Findings Relationships with policymakers were important in the inception of units, research conduct, implementation and dissemination of findings. Knowledge exchange facilitated a shared understanding of policy issues/context, and of behavioural science. Sufficient funding was crucial to maintain critical capacity in the units’ workforces, build a research portfolio beneficial to policymakers and the units, and to ensure full and transparent dissemination. Discussion and conclusion Findings highlight the positive impact of strong evidence-provider/user relationships and the importance of governments commitment to co-produced research programmes to address policy problems and transparency in the dissemination of methods and findings. From the findings we have created a framework ‘STEPS’ (Sharing, Transparency, Engagement, Partnership, Strong relationships) of five recommendations for units working with policymakers. These findings will be of value to all researchers conducting research on behalf of government
Examining the role of big data and marketing analytics in SMEs innovation and competitive advantage: a knowledge integration perspective
Get PDFThe age of digitisation has resulted in an explosion of studies investigating the benefits of Big Data Analytics (BDA) as a means to enhance competitive advantage in organisations. However, the best way to leverage BDA is still inconclusive. Moreover, there is paucity of studies investigating how SMEs, who are recognised as having high levels of entrepreneurial orientation, can utilise big data and marketing analytics to support innovation and competitive advantage in dynamic environments. This study employs dynamic capabilities as a lens to investigate the nuanced relationships. Adopting a partial least squares (PLS) path modelling method with 194 UK SMEs, this study finds that knowledge integration mechanisms are particularly critical value creation enablers by transforming EO and BDA into organisational wide capabilities in support of innovation and competitive advantage. These novel and nuanced insights are of value to both practitioner and researchers
The systematic development of guidance for parents on talking to children of primary school age about weight
Get PDFBackground: The prevalence of overweight and obesity in children is increasing, alongside increases in rates of children’s anxiety and worry about their weight. In many countries children’s weight is measured, and parents are made aware if a child has been classified as having overweight or obesity. However, many parents are concerned that raising their child’s awareness of their weight, and talking to children about their weight could harm their wellbeing. The aim of this project was to develop guidance for parents on constructive ways to talk to children of primary school age about weight when they need to. Methods: The project followed a mixed-methods design: Phase 1 involved the collation of evidence including (a) two previously published systematic literature reviews to identify the associations between parent-child weight talk, and broader health discussions, and children’s wellbeing, (b) interviews with children, and (c) development and refinement of narrative messaging (previously published). In Phase 2 we developed a conceptual model and mapped primary findings to techniques and content within a draft guidance document for parents on talking to children about weight. Phase 3 involved a modified Delphi process with 29 stakeholders to refine and agree a final version. Results: An acceptable draft guidance was agreed following two stages of feedback from Delphi participants. Key areas for debate and adaptation included: encouraging discussion about health and growth with lesser focus on weight; finding ways to reduce stigma and perceptions of blame; emphasising a whole-family approach; inclusive representation of diversity among children and families. Conclusions: Consensus on the content of guidance for parents on talking to children about weight was achieved through a process of evidence review and stakeholder and expert engagement. The next steps are to measure the impact of the resource on improving the experience of parents and children in communicating about weight
Victims’ voices and experiences in response and investigation: a study of police personnel in England and Wales in responding to vulnerability-related risk and harm
No full textVictims’ Voices and Experiences in Response and Investigation is a mixed-methods research project conducted by the VKPP that aimed to explore perceptions, attitudes, and behaviours towards capturing the ‘voice of the victim’ among police personnel, particularly those involved in safeguarding and investigative practice. Personnel is the term used throughout this report to refer to both police officers and staff and is inclusive of all roles and ranks. This research project is separate, but complementary, to a second project: Victim-Survivor Voices in Service Design (VKPP, 2023)
Fly green:environmentally specific servant leadership and its impact on green performance outcomes
Get PDFA careful examination of the pertinent literature denotes that no empirical study has tested the consequences of environmentally specific servant leadership (ESS) among cabin crew so far. This is surprising because the airline industry has long been at the forefront of green debate for its significant environmental problems (e.g., climate change, CO2 emission, and waste). With this realization, drawing on the stimulus-organism-response framework and social learning theory, our paper explores climate for green creativity (CGC) and green creativity (GC) as the serial mediators linking ESS to green recovery performance (GRP). Data came from cabin crew in major European low-cost carriers. The results from the PROCESS plug-in for statistical package for social sciences reveal that CGC or GC mediates the influence of ESS on GRP. More importantly, CGC and GC mediate the positive association between ESS and GRP in a sequential manner. The presence of ESS results in the establishment of the climate where cabin crew can offer novel green ideas and feedback that in turn enables them to display better GRP. Theoretical implications are discussed and implications for managers are given in the paper
Risk of low birthweight and late antenatal care initiation in an ethnically diverse maternal cohort
Get PDFBackground Babies born with low birthweight (LBW,< 2500 g) are vulnerable to infant mortality, restricted growth, poorer development, and long-term health complications. Antenatal care (ANC) can improve maternal and infant outcomes; women are recommended to have first antenatal visit by 10 weeks’ gestation. Ethnic minority women are significantly more likely to initiate ANC later than recommended gestational week compared to white women. This study examined associations between late ANC initiation (first appointment >10 weeks gestation) and LBW in an ethnically diverse maternal cohort in the UK. Methods A retrospective cross sectional study using routinely collected anonymous data of singleton births during April 2015 - October 2022 from a large UK National Health Service maternity unit in an ethnically diverse area. Logistic regression models were used to examine associations between late ANC initiation and prevalence of low (<2500 g); very low (VLBW, <1500 g) and extremely low (ELBW, <1000g) birth weight. Results Of 39,785 singleton births recorded, more than one third (34.6%) were to mothers from Black African, Black Caribbean, Indian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi backgrounds. Birthweight was reported for 39,698 (99.78%) neonates; among them 8.9% had LBW, including 1.0% VLBW and 1.1% ELBW. More than one third (34.8%) of mothers had first appointment at > 10 weeks, including 26% during 11-19 weeks and 8.8% at > 20 weeks. Late ANC initiation was associated with increased risk of LBW for neonates: OR = 1.15 [95% CI: 1.07, 1.23] and 1.60 [1.44, 1.78] for ANC initiation at > 10 weeks and ≥20 weeks respectively (vs ≤ 10 weeks). Mothers who started care at ≥ 20 weeks were 5.37 times (95% CI: 4.31, 6.70) more likely to have a baby born with ELBW (vs ≤ 10 weeks). Conclusions Neonates born to mothers who started antenatal care late in ethnically diverse neighborhoods are more likely to have low birthweight, highlighting the need for targeted primary and secondary interventions
Effect of vegetation blanket cover with different materials on soil microbial community structure of opencast coal mines in arid areas
Get PDFVegetation blanket restoration of mine soils provides a diverse environment for soil microbes, but the effects of vegetation blanket cover on soil physicochemical properties, microbial structure, and diversity are not well understood, particularly in arid areas. In this study, high-throughput sequencing was used to examine the microbial community at Dafeng Mine, the Helan Mountains, Ningxia, China. Soil microbial communities were analyzed with four different materials: 100% straw, 50% straw–50% coconut, and 100% coconut vegetation blanket types, and a bare ground control (CK). The results showed that the contents of soil total nitrogen (TN), available potassium (AP), urease, and catalase were significantly increased in different types of vegetation blankets. High-throughput sequencing showed that the straw vegetation blanket increased bacterial diversity, while the coconut vegetation blanket increased fungal diversity. The main influencing factors of the dominant bacterial phylum were total nitrogen, catalase, urease, protease, soil water content (WC), soil organic carbon (SOC), and electrical conductivity (EC). The main influencing factor of the dominant fungal phylum was soil water content. These results show that compared with straw vegetation blankets, coconut, and straw–coconut vegetation blanket mulches are more likely to improve soil physicochemical properties, increase the diversity and abundance of soil microorganisms and improve the structural composition of the community, thus improving the soil environment in dryland mining areas. However, further research is needed as to which is the more significant environmental improvement, coconut or straw–coconut vegetation blankets
Utilization of a Blockchain-based reputation management system for energy trading in Smart Grid 2.0
No full textThe futuristic energy grids comprise of predom-inantly renewable generation, to align with the sustainable development goals. This would require integration of renewable energy sources at different levels of the power system out of which, consumers turning into power producers, often referred to as prosumers is an important aspect. Prosumers who generate excess power beyond self-consumption are keen on selling it to the neighbourhood in a peer-to-peer manner, expecting a profit. On the other hand, consumers expect concessions for using more of the green energy. Further, with the high intermittency of these generation, Distribution System Operators (DSO) face the challenge of securing a reliable power supply. In the envisaged grid context, deciding the price for energy trading between prosumers and consumers as well as estimating the reliability of each DSO is considered to be crucial. Hence, this study proposes utilizing an end-to-end reputation management system to maintain the past record related to the performance of each stakeholder, which can be integrated in the price determination and selection decisions. To further ensure decentralized and secure operations of such reputation management systems, a blockchain-based service architecture and smart contracts have been incorporated. The impact of this to the performance of the proposed energy trading system is analysed through cost and latency indices
Enhancing sparse data performance in e-commerce dynamic pricing with reinforcement learning and pre-trained learning
No full textThis paper introduces a reinforcement learning-based framework designed to tackle dynamic pricing challenges in e-commerce. Prior research has predominantly concentrated on algorithm selection to enhance performance in dense data scenarios. However, many of these models fail to robustly address sparse data structures, such as low-traffic products, leading to the 'cold-start' problem [4]. Through numerical analysis, our framework offers innovative insights derived from the design of the reward function and integrates product clustering with pre-trained learning to mitigate this issue. As a result of this optimization, the performance of predictive models on sparse data is expected to see substantial improvement
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