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Using public spaces for male community mental health support
No full textMental health services have traditionally found men to be a difficult group to reach. Many men are reluctant to seek help when their mental health declines, often feeling stigma and responsibility for their symptoms. Most men view conventional mental health support as feminised and unhelpful, preferring the company of other men to help support their mental wellbeing. This research used focus group methods to explore the experiences of 24 men who attended four different non-clinical community based mental health support services held in public spaces. The spaces described in the study were a public house, a football stadium, a sports centre and village hall. The research found these spaces enabled men to choose a method of community connection they felt comfortable with, whilst allowing them the opportunity to reveal more about their mental health depending on the community space they chose. This research encourages service providers to rethink the way they offer and deliver targeted men’s mental health support through a ‘tiered’ model of public community spaces
Enhancing qualitative research through virtual focus groups and artificial intelligence: A review
Get PDFBackground
The rapid integration of digital technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) into qualitative research has significantly transformed traditional methods of conducting focus group discussions (FGDs). Online platforms and AI-driven analysis techniques now offer new opportunities and present distinct challenges.
Objective
This narrative review aims to critically evaluate recent developments in virtual and digital FGDs, assessing their potential benefits, methodological innovations, practical challenges, and ethical considerations.
Method
Relevant literature on virtual FGDs, AI applications, hybrid qualitative methods, and gamification strategies were systematically identified and synthesised, focusing specifically on platforms such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, WhatsApp, Facebook, and Reddit.
Results
Digital FGDs have notably enhanced geographical accessibility, facilitating the inclusion of marginalised populations previously limited by logistical or geographical barriers. Emerging AI-driven tools such as Natural Language Processing (NLP) for automated transcription and thematic analysis, alongside sentiment analysis, have streamlined qualitative data analysis, capturing complex emotional nuances effectively. Hybrid approaches blending traditional face-to-face interactions with asynchronous online discussions, as well as gamification techniques (interactive exercises, role-playing, digital storytelling, and mobile app-based FGDs), have shown significant promise in promoting participant engagement and enriching qualitative insights. Despite these advancements, key ethical and practical challenges remain, particularly regarding informed consent, data security, power imbalances among participants, and inclusivity for those with limited digital literacy.
Conclusion
Virtual and digital FGDs offer considerable advantages for qualitative research, but require ongoing methodological refinement and clear ethical guidelines. Future research should prioritise developing robust ethical frameworks, addressing current limitations, and further refining digital qualitative methodologies
The influence of athletic profile on acute neuromuscular response to a repeated sprint protocol in youth females: a pilot study
No full textAthletic profiles influence how athletes tolerate exposure to high-intensity activities and training-induced fatigue. Current understanding of athletic profiles has been derived primarily from adult male populations which limits the application of this potentially important training knowledge to females, and in particular youth females. Therefore, this study aimed to address this bias and examine the influence of athletic profiles on acute neuromuscular response in 118 female multisport athletes aged between 8 and 22 (age: 13.6 ± 2.9; stature: 155.9 ± 13.9; body mass: 50.2 ± 16.1). All participants completed sprint speed (5, 40 m, and maximal sprint speed [MSS]) and strength characteristics (Isometric mid-thigh pull) immediately pre- and post-a repeated sprint protocol. Anaerobic Speed Reserve was calculated from performance tests (MSS and maximal aerobic speed) with participants subsequently categorized (slow, hybrid or fast). Excluding relative peak force, there were significant differences in all sprint speed and strength characteristics between slow and hybrid and significant differences between slow and fast profile athletes before repeated sprinting. Dependent t-tests revealed significant (p = 0.001, d = 0.58) reductions in 40 m performance for fast athletes and a significant decrease in MSS for both hybrid (p = 0.003, d = 0.47) and fast athletes (p = 0.002, d = 0.58). This suggests that female athletes with hybrid, and fast athletic profiles may experience greater negative neuromuscular response following repeated sprints. Practitioners should therefore consider individualizing training and monitoring neuromuscular response to training to prevent athletic profile-related performance reductions, overreaching or injury accumulating over time
Clinical governance in musculoskeletal care - an online cross-sectional survey of what allied health professionals participate in, and what they value
No full textRationale: Clinical governance (CG) is a systematic approach to improving care quality, ensuring healthcare organisations and professionals are accountable for safe, effective, and continuously advancing practice. Traditionally, CG frameworks follow the ‘seven pillars’ model: risk management, education and training, patient and carer experience, information management, clinical effectiveness, clinical audit, and staff management. However, optimal CG may also require additional elements. Despite its importance, research on CG, and clinicians’ views, remains limited, particularly in musculoskeletal (MSK) care where calls for reform are growing.
Aim: To explore the views of NHS MSK Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) on CG, establishing what activities are undertaken and valued. An additional objective was to identify any differences between clinical leads and non-leads.
Method: This exploratory study used an anonymous online cross-sectional survey built with Qualtrics software. Questions were informed by evidence and MSK think-tank discussions, enhancing content validity. The survey evaluated general opinions as well as perspectives on the seven pillars and 23 additional CG activities, including teamwork, culture, and leadership. It was disseminated via social media (X) and Interactive CSP (iCSP) to maximise the response rate. Predominantly ordinal data were analysed using descriptive statistics, with qualitative comments examined using content analysis.
Results: Data from 52 participants were analysed. 96.15% were physiotherapists, 90.38% worked in the NHS, and 53.85% held clinical leadership roles. Respondents viewed CG positively, with 73.08% strongly agreeing it was essential for care quality. Most participated in and valued both the seven pillars and additional activities. No substantial variance was observed between clinical leads and non-leads.
Conclusion: MSK AHPs in this study strongly supported CG and valued a broader range of activities than the seven pillars model asserts. Findings suggest current approaches may not fully reflect the scope of CG as perceived by clinicians, highlighting the need for more inclusive CG frameworks.
Keywords: Clinical governance, Musculoskeletal, National Health Service, Allied Health Professional, Physiotherapy, Quality Improvement, Safety
Accidental or Serendipity: The role of unplanned leadership in building community among volunteers
No full textPurpose – This narrative study explores leadership among spontaneous volunteers who came together at the time of the Covid-19 pandemic. In particular it focuses on the need of an individual to undertake leadership responsibilities, and the acceptance of that individual into the role.
Design / Methodology / Approach – The study considers data collected from spontaneous volunteers who emerged during the Covid-19 pandemic. It focuses on retelling their personal accounts and experiences. Adopting a case study approach and using narrative data collection, the research aims to explore and understand these individuals' experiences in depth.
Findings – The research concludes that authentic, ethical, and modelling leadership can constructively influence spontaneous volunteers who find themselves in leadership roles even when they have risen to leadership accidentally. An unanticipated, yet undoubtably importantly, insight, was the substantive impact on emotions and wellbeing of the volunteers who valued the purpose of belonging. It is suggested that accidental leaders realise accomplishment through the creation of a community culture, in which membership are empowered, motivated, and inspired to be collaborative sharing best practice while striving at a shared vision. As such the development of an appropriate and community-based culture is a critical feature of the leadership role.
Originality – The paper considers the development of leadership and the impact of an unexpected chain of events that may be useful to consider in the context of a number of events that occur unexpectedly
Pictures at an Exhibition—AI-Driven Surrealist Futures: The Case of Reimagining Higher Education through Aesthetic Critique
No full textThis chapter explores the problematic of critique in the era of human-AI interaction. Drawing on Benjamin’s conception of dialectics at a standstill, the research makes use of an AI image generative application to construct an ‘exhibition’ of six imaginations—previously published as part of an imminent critique of entrepreneurial capitalistic economics. The research aim is to explore the potential of AI as a critical tool to unlock, access, or make visible, the value of human imagination. It addresses the question: can we (collectively) cultivate the use of genAI as a tool for a more general aesthetic engagement with a critical understanding of our future potential as a society? The chapter adopts a methodology of Applied Negative Dialectics, drawing implications from a single-case method, using AI-generated images of the future of Business Schools in Higher Education. The conclusion drawn is that the use of AI to garner the intrinsic value of ‘an empirics of the imagination’, in relation to the immanent critique of a defined area of socio-economic activity, provides the excitement of an AI that has value in facilitating the curation, exploration and enhancement of—rather than merely the replication and imitation of—the human experience. The chapter may benefit critical scholars, social and cultural theorists, artists and AI researchers by offering a new approach to utilising AI and aesthetically-informed judgment in socio-economic knowledge production
Spatial Pattern and Decomposition Analysis of the Educational Status Gap in Factors Associated with Risky Sexual Behavior Among Women with Disabilities in Ten African Countries
Get PDFDespite significant improvements in access to sexual and reproductive health services worldwide, many people with disabilities, particularly in low-income settings, remain vulnerable to risky sexual behaviors, predisposing them to sexual and reproductive health problems. This study examined the spatial patterns and performed a decomposition analysis of the educational status disparity in factors associated with risky sexual behavior among women with disabilities in 10 African countries. We utilized the latest secondary dataset with a disability module from demographic health surveys conducted in these countries between 2010 and 2022, including a sample size of 16,517 women with disabilities. Spatial analysis was employed to reveal the patterns of risky sexual behavior, while multivariable Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition regression analysis examined the disparity between educational status and risky sexual behavior. The analysis accounted for the complex survey design and results were presented using percentages and adjusted coefficients. The spatial pattern of risky sexual behavior among women with disabilities varied widely across the 10 African countries studied, with proportion ranging from 20 to 80%. Kenya leads with the highest prevalence at 94%, followed by Mali at 90%, while Mauritania reported no occurrence at 0%. Most of the disparity (81.93%) in risky sexual behavior related to educational status among women with disabilities was due to differences in coefficients, with the remaining 18.07% attributed to differences in characteristics. The findings indicate that women with disabilities, whether with formal or informal education, are highly exposed to risky sexual behavior in Africa. Therefore, targeted interventions are needed to minimize risky sexual behavior among women with disabilities in these countries
Alan Garner and the Work of Time
No full textAlan Garner has been described by Philip Pullman as ‘the most important British writer of fantasy since Tolkien’. This book is the first collected edition to critically analyse Garner’s body of work. This comprehensive analysies stretches from Garner’s early work, from the straightforward magical world of The Weirdstone of Brisingamen (1960) to the more challenging ‘adolescent fiction’ of The Owl Service (1967) and Red Shift (1973). It then moves to analysis of Garner’s subsequent corpus of work that is remarkable for both its thematic continuity and imaginative range, including Strandloper (1996), Thursbitch (2003) and Boneland (2012). His most recent novel, Treacle Walker, was shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize and recent criticism centred on folk horror and hauntology has reignited a critical and public acknowledgement of Garner’s work
Mapping evolving immersive customer experiences (CX) and virtual engagement in the metaverse: insights from bibliometrics-topic modelling synthesis
Get PDFThis study maps the research landscape of immersive customer experience (CX) in the metaverse by synthesizing bibliometric analysis and topic modelling. Using 1,460 Scopus indexed journal articles (2000–2025), we examined publication trends, prolific authors, journals, and country contributions, and applied Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic modelling, uncover thematic structures. Findings show 22.78% in publications, with increasing global contributions from countries like India, Malaysia, and South Korea. Seven core themes emerged: CX enhancement, brand engagement and virtual services, marketing research trends in CX, digital marketing and NFT adoption, AI-driven engagement, immersive business value creation, and consumer behaviour in virtual retail. While the field is developing, metaverse-specific CX models and measurement tools remain underdeveloped. The study advances theory by CX frameworks to immersive, co-created, and avatar-mediated experiences, and offer practical guidance for firms to adopt customer-centric strategies that leverage AI, gamification, and virtual branding. To our knowledge, this is the first work to combine bibliometric and topic modelling to chart CX research in the metaverse, highlighting current research frontiers and future research agenda