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Innovations in geotechnical engineering: from soil stabilisation to tunnel convergence modelling.
Get PDFClimate change is significantly affecting geotechnical systems, prompting urgent research into unsaturated soil mechanics and advanced computational methods. Rising global temperatures and erratic precipitation patterns are causing soils to undergo frequent wetting and drying cycles, which alter their shear strength and settlement behaviors. Understanding these changes is crucial, especially for expansive clays and slopes vulnerable to failure during extreme weather events
Interventional pharmacoepidemiology: design and evaluation of interventions to improve prescribing.
Get PDFDespite the value of modern therapeutics, many obstacles prevent their optimal use. Overuse, underuse and misuse are common, resulting in morbidity and mortality impacting billions of individuals across the world. Pharmacoepidemiology provides important insights into drug utilization, safety and effectiveness in large populations, and it is an important method to identify opportunities to improve the value of therapeutics in clinical practice. However, for these opportunities to be realized, interventions to improve prescribing must be developed, evaluated and implemented in the real world. We provide an overview of this process, focusing especially on how such interventions can be designed and deployed to maximize scalability, adoption and impact. Prescribing represents a complex behavior with barriers and enablers, and interventions to improve prescribing will be most successful when developed, piloted and refined to maximize provider and patient acceptability. Carefully developed evaluations of interventions are also critical, and varied methods are available to empirically evaluate the intended and potential unintended consequences of interventions. With illustrative examples from the peer-reviewed literature, we provide readers with an overview of approaches to the essential and growing field of interventional pharmacoepidemiology
When, how and why should we involve trusted contacts when serious concerns are raised about a student's well-being?
Get PDFThis study investigates the relationship between mental well-being (MWB) and social support (SS) whilst addressing the paucity of research on students' support for emergency contact schemes (ECSs) and their views on how and when such schemes should be implemented. In total, 113 students recruited via opportunistic sampling completed an online survey including the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List - shortened version (Cohen et al. 1985), Warwick–Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (Tennant et al. 2007) and questions about ECS. A correlational design used the Pearson product-moment correlation to explore the relationship between MWB and SS. A between-subjects design using independent measures t-test investigated differences in SS and MWB between those with and without a "trusted person" (TP). The preferred name was "Named Trusted Person Scheme" (NTPS), the preferred TP was parent/guardian or partner, and the preferred means of contact was Personal Tutor to mobile phone. Most students (96%) supported the use of an NTPS when serious concerns were raised about mental or physical health, personal safety or student engagement. Those opposed were concerned about a loss of agency, identifying a TP or the TP worsening the situation. MWB was positively correlated with SS, and those with a TP had higher levels of MWB and SS than those without. This study addresses the under-explored area of students' support for ECS, whilst enhancing our understanding of the relationship between MWB and SS especially amongst those without a person they can trust. This research provides valuable insights for universities looking to implement or refine such schemes, with the potential to improve students' MWB, academic achievement and retention by enhancing support
Entrepreneurship under patriarchy: the intersecting forces characterising everyday life for Nigeria's women entrepreneurs.
Get PDFNigeria presents something of an entrepreneurial paradox. Women in entrepreneurship dominate the economy, yet patriarchal structures dominate society. This article investigates how patriarchal factors impact entrepreneurial processes, in turn, creating unequal expectations of entrepreneurial opportunity. The study adopts an intersectionality lens to explore how patriarchy is manifest for entrepreneurs. The reflective narratives of 30 entrepreneurs are analysed, provided through semi-structured interviews. An inductive qualitative approach accesses the gendered discourse of entrepreneurship as constructed by entrepreneurs. Within this discourse, the factors of patriarchy are exposed. Findings reveal a multi-faceted patriarchy, with the informing factors of entrepreneurial gender roles, class and religion. The study explains how the interaction of these factors reinforce patriarchal ideals and create a variety of gendered images of what is acceptable entrepreneurial activity in Nigeria, and for whom. This study contributes to growing insight on entrepreneurship in Africa and challenges linear arguments of entrepreneurship-as-emancipation for women. In complex and multidimensional contexts, entrepreneurs must navigate the intersection of factors sensitively, ensuring acceptance and fulfilment of societal expectations. The power of intersectionality as a theory of contextualisation is discussed
Understanding perceptions, attitudes and experiences of nursing students during clinical placement in primary health care settings; a scoping review.
Get PDFCritically analyse literature on undergraduate nursing students' perceptions, attitudes and experiences during Primary Health Care (PHC) placements and identify factors influencing their satisfaction. These insights may improve educational outcomes, shape career intentions and address workforce shortages. Global nursing shortage, driven by increased demands and high attrition, impacts healthcare worldwide. Australia faces projected shortfalls of 79,473 nurses by 2035, significantly in PHC. Attributing factors include remuneration disparities, inadequate training/mentorship and limited career pathways. Strengthening the PHC nursing workforce is crucial, with undergraduate nursing students providing an important workforce pipeline. Scoping Review protocol was registered using Joanna Briggs Institute's framework for scoping review methodology, Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Review's Checklist and Peer Review of Electronic Search Strategies, were applied. Grey literature was sought. Covidence facilitated article review and extraction, inductive thematic analysis identified key themes. Four key themes were developed: 1. PHC placements as a learning environment; 2. Skills development and acquisition; 3. Importance of nurse preceptor relationship; and 4. Curriculum structure and preparation. This review explores nursing students' experiences in PHC placements and factors influencing satisfaction, while highlighting gaps in optimising placements to better prepare students and strengthen the PHC workforce. Further research is needed on satisfaction, variation in experiences across PHC settings, the impact of preceptor relationships and strategies to strengthen them and stronger integration of PHC content in curricula. Addressing these gaps is essential for aligning education with workforce demands and strengthening student career intentions in PHC
Now you see them, now you don't: will technological advancement erode the gains made by women entrepreneurship in Sub-Saharan Africa? [Article]
Get PDFAs global economic activity gains momentum post-COVID-19, assessing local economic recovery remains essential for shaping policies that foster inclusive growth. In countries such as South Africa, which contends with enduring unemployment and significant inequality, cultivating economic resilience-particularly among Previously Disadvantaged Individuals (PDIs) and female entrepreneurs-is essential. The pandemic highlighted the crucial importance of digital technology in business resilience, as digitally equipped enterprises adapted more efficiently. Currently, the focus on digital adoption is intensifying, highlighting the necessity for equal digital access to enable women entrepreneurs to fully engage and prosper in the digital economy. This study builds on the 'Advancement of Women in Technology (AWT) Framework' and the 'Adaptive Efficacy Model' (AEM) to explore the capacity and readiness of women entrepreneurs to integrate digital tools into their operations. Additionally, it investigates how engagement with STEM-related fields can be enhanced to support women's digital skills development and foster long-term adaptability. The findings reveal ongoing challenges: women entrepreneurs who lacked the digital skills to adapt quickly during the pandemic often became reliant on external support, sometimes losing control over essential functions such as financial management and, in some cases, their business ownership. For many women in Sub-Saharan Africa, digital adoption is still largely confined to social media marketing, limited by gaps in digital literacy, technological infrastructure, and support systems. This study emphasises the ongoing necessity of digital transformation for women entrepreneurs and the gender inequalities that persist in influencing digital access and proficiency. This research highlights the gendered obstacles to digital integration, emphasising the necessity of promoting UN Sustainable Development Goal 5 on gender equality and women's empowerment, thereby addressing the digital gender divide amid rapid technological advancement
Geothermal cooling solutions for rural communities at Homa Bay, Kenya: a CFD modelling study.
Get PDFA Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modelling study has been presented to analyse the cooling impact of a geothermal cooling system based on the Earth-Air-Tunnel-Heat-Exchanger (EATHE) concept to provide passive cooling to heat-stressed vulnerable people in Homa Bay, Kenya. Like many places on earth, Homa Bay is experiencing extreme environmental heat. The novelty and significance of the present work lies in demonstrating the effectiveness of the technology for a field application using real-world data. Two different pipe arrangement designs, a straight pipe and a serpentine pipe, were investigated for their cooling effect. The inlet and boundary conditions were set using the air and ground surface temperature data available from the NASA Satellite for Homa Bay, Kenya. The simulation results show that the lower the air velocity the better the cooling effect and a 40 m long straight or serpentine pipe with a 0.1 m internal diameter and 1.0 m/s air velocity can provide a 3°C cooling on the hottest days of the year. The performance difference between a straight pipe and a serpentine pipe is negligible, and owing to the lower space requirements, a serpentine design is recommended
AlignLLM: alignment-based evaluation using ensemble of LLMs-as-judges for Q&A.
No full textEvaluating responses generated by large language models (LLMs) is challenging in the absence of ground-truth knowledge, particularly in specialised domains such as law. Increasingly, LLMs themselves are used to evaluate the responses they generate; however, this approach is prone to bias and inherent errors. To address these issues, we propose an unsupervised ensemble method that employs multiple general-purpose LLMs as a 'collective judge', rather than relying on a single model. Here we introduce a novel application of case alignment as an aggregation mechanism, achieving higher correlation with supervised metrics than unsupervised LLM-as-a-judge baselines. Specifically, we construct two spaces for the ensemble: one for reconstructed questions by the ensemble given the model's original responses ('problem-space'), and another for the set of answers generated in response to those reconstructed questions ('solution-space'). By applying similarity-based alignment metrics across these two spaces, we gauge how closely our ensemble-based evaluation metric correlates with accuracy-based metrics that rely on ground-truth data. Our results on two legal Q&A datasets show significant correlations using this alignment strategy, suggesting that it can effectively evaluate LLM-generated responses even when ground truth is unavailable
Views and experiences of people living with obesity and food insecurity on supermarket messaging: a reflexive thematic analysis. [Preprint]
Get PDFPeople experiencing food insecurity (FI) are more likely to live with obesity and purchase foods of lower dietary quality. Retail campaigns have the potential to influence food purchasing behaviours. Still, little is known about how the retailers' messaging is perceived by people living with obesity (PLWO) and FI. This qualitative paper explores the insights of PLWO and FI on two national online and in-store campaigns targeted at i) supporting customers with increased food prices, and ii) promoting the consumption of healthier and more environmentally sustainable meals. Participants who self-reported as living with obesity and FI (n=39) expressed their perceptions of campaign images, from one retailer, through four in-person focus groups. Findings from the focus groups were then presented to the retail partner in an online participatory workshop. Themes were generated using reflexive thematic analysis. Five themes and 12 subthemes were generated from the focus groups: (i) 'Do I have the resources needed?' Finances and, or time influenced participants' food purchasing. (ii) 'Do I know what it means?' Participants did not always understand the images presented. (iii) 'Do I trust it?' Participants questioned whether the prices or images in the campaigns were authentic. (iv) 'Do I want it?' Participants questioned whether the food presented in the images appealed to them. (v) 'Recommendations for future promotional communications'. Participants outlined how they wanted messaging to apply to them by using ethnically diverse food images that are suitable for a range of health conditions. From the retail partner participatory workshop we identified one theme and three subthemes. (i) 'It is a conundrum', the diverse needs of subgroups for national campaigns make it challenging for retailers to communicate healthy sustainable food promotions. These findings provide insights for retailers on the need for tailored communications, that reflect the requirements of different customers, to support PLWO and FI to purchase healthier and more sustainable foods. Acknowledging and addressing the inherent complexity of promoting healthier and more environmentally sustainable food is vital to making meaningful improvements to the food environment
Safeguarding experiences of people in mental distress, police, and healthcare practitioners: an integrative review.
No full textGlobally, there is demand on police and emergency health services to respond to people in mental distress. Research at this intersect has focused on decriminalisation of people with severe mental health disorders, police custody care or interagency collaborative models. There is little understanding of experiences of stakeholders where mental distress is not associated with a severe mental disorder or criminal offence. To determine current knowledge about safeguarding of people in mental distress supported by police and healthcare practitioners. A rigorous integrative review with ten databases was searched January 2002 to Jan 2024. The search filtered 12,451 titles and abstracts with 41 full-text articles appraised. Three overarching themes emerged: Safeguarding and care experiences of people in mental distress: Intoxication, self-harm, and aggression: Professional perspectives and responses to people in mental distress. Experiences are varied. Whilst there is evidence of compassion, many reported negative experiences when self-harm and intoxication are involved, inconsistent professional responses, and gaps in emergency police and mental health systems. Unscheduled care and community mental health nurses have a vital role to play in identifying and influencing interdisciplinary gaps in out-of-hours emergency health and police processes to support people in mental distress to prevent repetitive distress cycles. This calls for an urgent re-imagining of unscheduled care mental health pathways, Specifically, where practice gaps impact on people who are intoxicated yet do not require inpatient care
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