1,070 research outputs found
The neighbourhood effects of geographical access to tobacco retailers on individual smoking behaviour
No full textObjective: To investigate whether neighbourhood measures of geographical accessibility to outlets selling tobacco (supermarkets, convenience stores and petrol stations) are associated with individual smoking behaviour in New Zealand.Methods: Using Geographical Information Systems, travel times from the population-weighted centroid of each neighbourhood to the closest outlet selling tobacco were calculated for all 38,350 neighbourhoods across New Zealand. These measures were appended to the 2002/03 New Zealand Health Survey; a national survey of 12,529 adults. Two-level logistic regression models were fitted to examine the effects of neighbourhood locational access upon individual smoking behaviour after controlling for potential individual- and neighbourhood-level confounding factors, including deprivation and urban/rural status.Results: After controlling for individual-level demographic and socioeconomic variables, individuals living in the quartiles of neighbourhoods with the best access to supermarkets (OR1.23, 95% CI 1.06-1.42) and convenience stores (OR 1.19, 95% CI 1.03-1.38) had a higher odds of smoking compared to individuals in the worst access quartiles. However, theassociation between neighbourhood accessibility to supermarkets and convenience stores was not apparent once other neighbourhood-level variables (deprivation and rurality) were included.Conclusions: At the national level, there is little evidence to suggest that after adjustment for neighbourhood deprivation better locational access to tobacco retail provision in New Zealand is associated with individual-level smoking behaviour
Fostering engagement and peer-support
No full textFostering engagement and peer-support
A presentation given at the NTU Annual Learning and Teaching Conference 2022
Contact the authors on Twitter:
Rosemary Pearce - @rosepear
Bethany Witham - @bethanywitham
Joseph Kenney - @JosephKenney23</p
The Selected Correspondence of Michael Faraday, éd. by L. Pearce Williams with the assistance of Rosemary FitzGerald and Oliver Stallybrass, vol. 1 : 1812-1848, vol. 2 : 1849-1866
No full textSadoun Goupil Michelle. The Selected Correspondence of Michael Faraday, éd. by L. Pearce Williams with the assistance of Rosemary FitzGerald and Oliver Stallybrass, vol. 1 : 1812-1848, vol. 2 : 1849-1866. In: Revue d'histoire des sciences, tome 28, n°2, 1975. pp. 187-188
Do smoking cessation programmes influence geographical inequalities in health? An evaluation of the impact of the PEGS programme in Christchurch, New Zealand
No full textObjectives: To identify the impact of a smoking cessation programme on social and ethnic inequalities in smoking rates through social and ethnic differences in enrolment and quitting. Methods: Analysis of records of 11325 patients who enrolled in an innovative smoking cessation programme in Christchurch, New Zealand between 2001 and 2006. We compare enrolment, follow-up, quitting and impact on population smoking rates in the most and least deprived neighbourhoods and the neighbourhoods with the lowest and highest proportions of M?ori, the indigenous people of New Zealand.Results: Enrolment as a proportion of the population was higher from the most deprived areas but as a proportion of neighbourhood smokers, it was lower. Enrolees from the least deprived quintile were 40% more likely to quit than those from the most deprived quintile. Smoking rates were 2.84 (2.75 to 2.93) times higher in the most deprived neighbourhoods. If the programme had not been available we estimate that this differential would have reduced to 2.81 (2.72 to 2.90). Thus the programme made no difference to deprivation related inequalities. In neighbourhoods with the highest proportion of M?ori, smoking rates were 2.33 (2.26 to 2.41) times higher and we estimate that without the programme smoking rates would be 2.30 (2.23 to 2.37) times higher. Ethnic inequalities were also not changed by the programme.Conclusions: Although enrolees were drawn from a wide variety of backgrounds, those most likely to quit tended to reside in affluent areas or areas with a low proportion of M?ori. There was no evidence that this smoking cessation program increased or decreased inequalities within the Chirstchurch population. For smoking cessation programmes to have an impact on health inequalities more effort is required in targeting hard to reach groups and in encouraging them to quit
Book review : Reading literature at junior secondary school level in Zimbabwe by Rosemary Moyana
No full textReview of: Rosemary Moyana. Reading literature at junior secondary school level in Zimbabwe. Harare: University of Zimbabwe Publications, 200
Do general medical practice characteristics influence the effectiveness of smoking cessation programs? A multilevel analysis
No full textIntroduction: general practice is a recommended setting for the delivery of smoking cessation programs. Little is known about the types of practice that achieve higher cessation rates. To address this gap in knowledge, we assessed the impact of general practice characteristics on the outcomes of a large scale smoking cessation intervention delivered in general practice settings. Method: a cross-sectional study was undertaken of 7,778 participants enrolled on a structured cessation program comprising repeated brief interventions in one-to-one sessions and nicotine replacement therapy in Christchurch New Zealand, 2001–2007. We employed a logistic multilevel analysis of respondents nested in general practices with cessation at 6 months as the outcome measure. Results: after taking into account relevant individual-level predictors (age, sex, smoking intensity) and area-level surrogates for individual predictors (socioeconomic status and access to tobacco retail outlets), there remained significant variation in quit rates between practices. This variation reduced when practice characteristics were included. Practices with a majority of male doctors and practices with fewer male patients were associated with better quit rates. Practices with large numbers of doctors were less effective in achieving cessation with heavy smokers. Conclusions: the effectiveness of smoking cessation programs can be influenced significantly by practice characteristics. To increase quit rates, more attention should be paid to the institutional setting of smoking cessation programs. Assessments of the effectiveness of cessation programs should give appropriate recognition to the fact that some practices may find higher quit rates more difficult to achieve<br/
Performance audit, Pearce Elementary School District
No full textabstract: In fiscal year 2011, Pearce Elementary School District’s student AIMS scores were similar to peer districts’ averages. Although per pupil costs were high in some operational areas, the District was reasonably efficient overall. Pearce ESD’s per pupil administration costs were similar to the peer districts’ average, and although its plant operations, food service, and transportation program operated with higher per pupil costs than peer districts, these areas operated in a reasonably efficient manner
considering factors such as the age of the District’s buildings, number of meals served, and transportation miles driven. Although relatively efficient, the District should strengthen some of its accounting controls, including ensuring proper separation of duties for its payroll and purchasing processes and ensuring purchases are properly approved before they are made. The District should also strengthen some of its computer controls, such as the requirements for network passwords.Report (Arizona. Office of the Auditor General) ; 2013-13
is the author of many papers and reports. Tim was born in 1950.
No full textTim Pearce has responsibility for work relating to vehicle safety and institutional strengthening in developing countries. He was involved in UK transport-related research projects for 15 years before specialising in problems relating to developing countries. During the last 10 years he has been closely involved in the problems of the roadworthiness of vehicles both from the technical and institutional sides. He has worke
Playing Ethnography: A study of emergent behaviour in online games and virtual worlds
No full textThis study concerns itself with the relationship between game design and emergent social behaviour in massively multiplayer online games and virtual worlds. This thesis argues for a legitimisation of the study of ‘communities of play’, alongside communities perceived as more ‘serious’, such as communities of interest or practice. It also identifies six factors that contribute to emergent social behaviour and investigates the relationship between group and individual identity, and the emergent ways in which these arise from and intersect with the features and mechanics of the game worlds themselves.
Methodology: Under the rubric of ‘design research’, this study was conducted as an ethnographic intervention, an anthropological investigation that deliberately privileged the online experience whilst acknowledging the performative nature of both game play and the research process itself. The research was informed by years of professional practical experience in game design and playtesting, as well as by qualitative methods derived from the fields of Anthropology, Sociology, Computermediated Communications and the emerging field of Game Studies. The process of conducting the eighteen-month ethnographic study followed the progress of a sub-set of members of the ‘Uru Diaspora,’ a group of 10,000 players who were made refugees when the massively multiplayer game ‘Uru: Ages Beyond Myst’ was closed in February of 2004. Uru refugees immigrated into other virtual worlds, using their features and capabilities to create ethnic communities that emulated the culture, artefacts and environments of the original Uru world. Over time, players developed ‘hybrid’ cultures, integrating the Uru culture with that of their new homes, and eventually creating entirely new Uru and Myst-inspired content.
The outcome is the identification of six factors that serve as ‘engines for emergence’ and discusses their relationship to each other, to game design, and to emergent behaviour.
These include:
• Play Ecosystems: Fixed-Synthetic vs. Co-Created Worlds: Online games and virtual worlds exist along a spectrum, with environments entirely authored by the designer at one end, and those comprised primarily of player-created content and assets on the other, with a range of variations between. The type of world will impact the sort of emergent behaviour that occurs, and worlds that include player-created content will be more inclined to promote emergent behaviour.
• Communities of Play: Distributed groups formed around play demonstrate distinct characteristics based on shared values and play styles. The study describes in detail one such play community, and analyses the ways in which its characteristic play styles drove its emergent behaviours.
• The Social Construction of Avatar Identity: Individual avatar identity is constructed through an emergent process engaging social feedback.
• Intersubjective Flow: A social reading of the psychological notion of ‘flow’ that describes the way in which flow dynamics occur in a social context through play.
• Productive Play: Countering the traditional contention that play is inherently ‘unproductive’ as some scholars suggest, the thesis argues that play can be seen as a form of cultural production, as well as fulcrum for creative activity.
• Porous Magic Circles and the ‘Ludisphere’: The magic circle, which bounds play activities, is more porous than game scholars had previously believed. The term ‘ludisphere' is used to describe the larger context of aggregated play space via the Internet. Also identified are leakages between ‘virtual worlds’ and ‘real life’.
By identifying these factors and attempting to trace their roots in game design, the study aims to contribute a new approach to the making and analysis of user experience and creativity ‘in game’. The thesis posits that by achieving a deeper cultural understanding of the relationship between design and emergent behaviour, it is possible to make steps forward in the study of ‘emergence’ itself as a design
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I dreamed last night of our old house, Maggie
No full textA lyrical song in which the author reminisces scenes and landscapes from Newfoundland (shores, friends, berries, caplin) as well as the earlier days where he walked by them in the company of his young bride Maggie to whom the song is addressed.The song was composed by Aubrey Pearce from Maberly, Trinity Bay, in 1966 on the occasion of "Come Home Year" in Newfoundland. It was sung to the tune of "When You and I Were Young, Maggie". The song was collected from a clipping of the "Fisherman's Advocate" (no further details)
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