12560 research outputs found
Sort by
Randomised-controlled feasibility study evaluating the REgulate your SItting Time (RESIT) intervention for reducing sitting in individuals with type 2 diabetes:a process evaluation
Full text linkOBJECTIVES: The REgulate your SItting Time (RESIT) is a tailored intervention targeting reductions and breaks in sitting in adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). A feasibility trial of RESIT had been conducted and the purpose of this paper is to report findings from the process evaluation.DESIGN: A mixed-methods process evaluation within a randomised controlled feasibility trial.SETTING: The study was conducted remotely in the community.PARTICIPANTS: Ambulatory individuals with T2DM aged 18-85 years.INTERVENTION: A tailored intervention comprising an online education session, regular health coaching and technology for self-monitoring behaviour and prompting breaks in sitting.PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOME MEASURES: Questionnaires (intervention participants n=22 at both 3 and 6 months; control participants n=21 at 3 months, n=29 at 6 months) and interviews (n=30, with n=13 intervention participants, n=12 control participants, n=5 health coaches) to assess perceptions of the intervention components, strategies and barriers for sitting less, the role of the study evaluation measures, and reasons for taking part.RESULTS: The trial operated a largely successful online education element for those in the intervention group (82% completion; ≥76% engagement in individual educational elements). There was good use of self-monitoring and prompt technology (apps and wearables) with 73% of participants reporting using these at 6 months. Health coaching had high engagement and was perceived as enjoyable and useful. Data revealed strategies used for behaviour change (eg, active functional tasks) alongside barriers to change (eg, restrictions at work). There were also potential behavioural influences from the study evaluation measures (eg, activity measures increasing awareness and execution of behaviours) for both intervention and control participants.CONCLUSIONS: A comprehensive process evaluation identified successful intervention elements (ie, online education, health coaching, wearables and smartphone apps) alongside strategies and barriers to behaviour change. These findings can inform future sedentary behaviour interventions for adults with T2DM and a definitive randomised controlled trial evaluating RESIT.TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ISRCTN14832389.</p
Evidence-informed guidance for working with young people using abusive behaviours
No full textThe current paper offers guidance to practitioners working in some capacity with young people who are using abusive and harmful behaviours in their relationships. It highlights the significance of the working relationship between the practitioner and the young person and advocates for an approach that is holistic, supportive and judgement-free. The paper outlines literature evidencing the positive impact such an approach can have and is written for both specialist domestic abuse practitioners and practitioners working with young people across a range of sectors and organisations.</p
Language learning later in life
No full textLanguage Learning Later in Life delves into the transformative potential of learning a new language at an older age, exploring its multifaceted impact on healthy aging.<br/
The road to understanding in lecture listening: cognitive processes engaged in the integration of auditory and textual information
No full textRecent technological advances offer test developers the opportunity to develop new assessment tasks which closely replicate behaviour in real-world domains such as academic lectures, thus achieving greater ecological and cognitive validity. However, developing new task types that demand the integration of auditory and textual information relies on understanding the relationship between what is said and what is written on the slides, and how students integrate these two streams of information.With a dual focus, this study first examined the relationship between the lecturer's speech and the textual information on the lecture slides before investigating the processes students use to integrate these two streams of information to develop an understanding of the lecture content.In Phase 1, five lecture recordings were collected from universities across the UK. Following Hallewell and Crook (2019), the lecturer’s speech was segmented and mapped to slide-text units to form discourse units. The discourse units were coded according to the role that the lecturer's speech performed in relation to the slide text.In Phase 2, the most obvious speech/slide variable—the extent to which the information delivered verbally also appears in the slide text—was manipulated to assess the effect on participants’ processes. Two lecture excerpts were selected from Phase 1 and two versions of the slides were created for each lecture clip: 1) topic headings plus a short text outlining the main teaching points, and 2) topic headings only. Using a counter-balanced presentation, eye-tracking and stimulated recall were used to investigate participants' perceptual processes as they read the slides and listened to the lecture excerpts.Phase 1 resulted in a taxonomy of discourse relations and Phase 2 reported the factors which impacted participants’ ability to develop an understanding of the lecture content. The implications for teaching and assessing academic listening are discussed
Biomimetic moth‑eye structures fabricated by double‑exposure lithography using coplanar three‑beam laser interference
No full textThis study presents a coplanar three-beam laser interference lithography (LIL) method for fabricating biomimetic moth-eyestructures. The research delves into the mechanism of cross-scale two-periodic structure formation and devises a doubleexposure lithography approach based on coplanar three-beam interference to regulate the parameters of these structures. A comparison with microlens arrays of the same period reveals that the biomimetic moth-eye structure shows enhanced transmittance and a wider field of view, attributable to its internal nanoscale arrays. The contrast of diffracted light distribution between the two structures further validates that the unique structural features of the biomimetic moth-eye structure lead to a more uniform light distribution. This work offers a facile method for fabricating biomimetic moth-eye structures, holding potential applications in diverse optical domains, including high-efficiency optical sensors, anti-reflective coatings, and advanced imaging systems
Detecting and classifying the mechanics of cancer and non-cancer cells by machine learning algorithm
No full textThe global burden of cancer has increased in recent years, posing a major public health challenge. Generally, cancer cells are mutate from normal cells and have distinctive mechanical specifications. Despite significant progress in precision medicine, accurately distinguishing cancer cells remains challenging due to the inherent complexities in characterizing single-cell surface properties. In this study, we utilized atomic force microscopy (AFM) to obtain the mechanical properties of hepatic cells, hepatoma cells, gastric cells, and gastric cancer cells. Then, machine learning techniques were used to identify and classify the cancer and non-cancer cells through AFM-based mechanical characteristics. After computational training, the accuracy of classification and screening of four kinds of cells reached 98%, with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve value of 97.98%. Consequently, we successfully identified digestive system cancer cells and highlighted the valuable role of digital pathology in tumor cell diagnosis. This study provides an objective basis and a new research method for the diagnosis of hepatic cancer and gastric cancer, enriching the tumor cell detection scheme. IOP Publishing Threads pag
AI-enabled human activity recognition:bridging contact-based and RF-based contactless sensing paradigms — a review
Full text linkHuman Activity Recognition (HAR) underpins applications in healthcare, security, smart environments and industrial safety. This survey examines HAR systems by contrasting contact-based sensing with radio-frequency (RF)-based contactless approaches, highlighting their respective detection mechanisms, performance trade-offs and available datasets. Contact-based methods that use accelerometers, gyroscopes, magnetometers and physiological sensors deliver high precision but face issues related to comfort, portability and long-term compliance. In contrast, RF-based contactless modalities, including WiFi channel state information, radar and radio-frequency identification enable scalable and privacy-preserving monitoring. However, they remain vulnerable to environmental noise, hardware limitations and multipath fading. Although contact-based sensing is discussed for comparative analysis, this review primarily focuses on artificial-intelligence (AI)-driven RF-based contactless HAR, analyzing sensing mechanisms, signal representations, publicly available datasets and associated learning paradigms. Covered applications span healthcare, security, gesture recognition, localization and smart homes. It also discusses challenges such as robustness, data scarcity, interpretability and ethics, concluding with future directions in multimodal sensing, edge efficiency, federated learning and explainable AI for transparent and reliable HAR systems.</p
Weathering the storm of COVID-19 pandemic:a cross-sectional survey of reported changes in first contact physiotherapy services in the UK and Australia
Full text linkLimited evidence exists on early COVID-19 related changes in First Contact Physiotherapy Services (FCPS) for musculoskeletal (MSK) patients within the UK primary care (PC) and Australian emergency departments (ED), knowledge that is crucial for understanding their level of responsiveness and readiness for future crises. This study explores the initial changes in FCPS during the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK and Australia. The UK and Australia represent a function of both country and their FCPS context (UK [PC], Australia [ED]). A cross-sectional survey was conducted from January-April 2023. Data were self-reported by physiotherapists in FCPS roles, managing MSK patients in the UK and Australia. Only responses from those who recalled changes in FCPS were included, with 153 participants analysed. Descriptive statistics and two-way ANOVA were used to examine the effects of timing of change, country, and their interaction on readiness and responsiveness to MSK patient needs. Overall, 75.7% of initial changes were perceived to have occurred within three months following the World Health Organisation’s declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic. Participants from both countries differed significantly in their perceptions of how COVID-19 affected patient access to FCPS (p < 0.001). Changes in MSK patient presentation to FCPS varied significantly by both the timing of the change and the country (p < 0.001). Similarly, changes in the care delivery platform were significantly associated with the timing of change (p = 0.014) and the country (p < 0.001). While participants’ responses generally indicated inadequate readiness, the overall perceived responsiveness was higher in the UK (using an arbitrary cut-off of ≥50%) compared to Australia. No significant effects of timing or country were found on either readiness or responsiveness. This highlights the need to strengthen FCPS readiness for more responsive future crises. It also suggests the need for contextual considerations when developing readiness strategies.</p
“You can’t just say you need to breastfeed” - identifying barriers and solutions to appropriate infant feeding in emergencies
No full textThe 2017 Operational Guidance for Infant and Young Child Feeding in Emergencies and other international policies aim to enhance infant and young child feeding during emergencies (IYCF-E). However, in practice these guidelines continue to be poorly implemented. This article investigates the underlying reasons that hinder their effective implementation. Semi-structured interviews with humanitarian professionals and a literature review lead us to identify three main barriers to effective IYCF-E: Structural, socio-economic and cultural factors; the prevalence and use of infant formula; and shortcomings in humanitarian practice and IYCF emergency preparedness. Based on these findings we argue that in order to ensure appropriate implementation of infant and young child feeding policies during emergencies, IYCF needs to be prioritised and localised in non-emergency settings and within humanitarian practice. Our novel recommendations for localised infant feeding support, emergency preparedness and response are likely to improve health outcomes for mothers and children both before and during emergencies
Public perceptions of marital rape:does level of force used have an impact?
Full text linkResearch indicates that marital rape is viewed by the public as less harmful to a victim than stranger/acquaintance rape. The aim of the study is to extend the research conducted by Robinson in 2017, investigating how levels of force influence perceptions of marital rape. The study also examines how rape perception is influenced by rape myth acceptance and attitudes towards women. The current study improves on previous work by controlling for individual differences across groups using a repeated-measures design. The results indicate that as the level of force increases the perception of marital rape increases. Positive attitudes towards women and low rape myth acceptance are also found to have a positive impact on perceptions of marital rape. Based on these findings, it is possible to recommend that further awareness of legislation regarding coercion and marital rape is required within the public domain.</p
Data sources:
Access Repository Dashboard
Do you manage University of Bedfordshire Repository? Access insider analytics, issue reports and manage access to outputs from your repository in the CORE Repository Dashboard!