Digital Commons Network^™

Quality Assessment Of Life Cycle Inventory Data For Fibre-Reinforced Polymer Composite Materials, Badr Moutik, John Summerscales, Jasper Graham-Jones, Richard Pemberton

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

Composite industry growth, driven by the demand for lightweight and high-performance structures, has intensified challenges and inquiries regarding its lifecycle environmental impact, catalysing an increase in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) studies. These studies have revealed significant concerns about the quality and reliability of Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) data, highlighting the risk of inaccuracies that could undermine LCA outcomes and produce misleading conclusions. This situation underscores the critical need for stringent data quality assurance. This study aims to critically assess LCI data quality for composite materials to enhance reliability and utility of LCA in promoting sustainable industry development. Objectives include reviewing …

The Last Resort: Reducing Avoidable Employee Harm By Improving The Application Of The Disciplinary Policy And Process, Andrew Cooper, Kevin Rui-Han Teoh, Ruth Madine, Adrian Neal, Aled Jones, Ammarah Hussain, Doris A. Behrens

School of Nursing and Midwifery

Introduction: There is growing evidence within the healthcare sector that employee investigations can harm individuals involved in the process, an organization’s culture and the delivery of its services.MethodsThis paper details an intervention developed by an NHS Wales organization to reduce the number of its employee investigations through an organization-wide focus that promoted a ‘last resort’ approach and introduced the concept of ‘avoidable employee harm’. A range of associated improvement initiatives were developed to support behavior change among those responsible for determining whether an employee investigation should be initiated.Results: Over a 13-month period, organizational records showed an annual reduction of 71% …

Sea Anemones (Actinia Equina) Show Consistent Individual Differences In Boldness And Thoroughness But Lack A Behavioural Syndrome, Samantha Simpson, Mark Briffa

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

Behavioural syndromes are suites of behaviours that corelate between-individuals but the same behaviours may also show within-individual correlations owing to state dependency or trade-offs. Therefore, overall phenotypic behavioural correlations must be separated into their between- and within-individual components. We investigate how startle response duration (an index of boldness) and time taken to reject an inert item (an index of investigation thoroughness) covary in beadlet sea anemones, Actinia equina. Anemones took longer to reject a more complex item compared to a simpler one, validating this measure of investigation thoroughness. We then quantified between- and within-individual correlations using a Bayesian analysis and …

Acceptability And Feasibility Of A Community Dementia Stigma Reduction Program In Kenya, Christine W. Musyimi, Levi A. Muyela, David M. Ndetei, Sara Evans-Lacko, Nicolas Farina

Peninsula Medical School

Background: Dementia stigma has adverse effects on people with dementia and their carers. These effects can lead to poor quality of life among other negative impacts. Objective: The aim of this study is to develop and pilot a novel dementia stigma reduction intervention in rural Kenya, leveraging existing Community Health Workers (CHWs) for its delivery. Methods: The pre-post pilot study was conducted, utilizing a parallel mixed-methods design. Ten CHWs were trained to deliver a contextually developed dementia anti-stigma intervention. These CHWs delivered four workshops to 59 members of the general public in Makueni County, with each workshop lasting between 1.5 …

An Alcohol-Related Liver Disease Multi-Stakeholder Hub (Arms-Hub) To Enhance Research Activity In Underserved Communities In The Uk, Ashwin Dhanda, Victoria Allgar, Neeraj Bhala, Lynne Callaghan, Joana Castro, Shilpa Chokshi, Amanda Clements, Wendy Clyne, Colin Drummond, Ewan Forrest, Lesley Manning, Richard Parker, Debbie Shawcross, Jennifer Towey

Peninsula Medical School

Background: Alcohol use is the third leading risk factor of death and disability in the UK and costs the NHS £3.5 billion per year. Despite the high prevalence and healthcare burden of Alcohol-related Liver Disease (ArLD), there has been minimal research addressing prevention, morbidity and mortality. Reasons for this include stigma and lack of interest from public, charitable and commercial funding bodies. The objectives of this project were to identify and develop interdisciplinary partnerships, to explore stigma in ArLD, to develop a representative Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) group, to build research capacity, and to develop interdisciplinary research …

A New Approach To Counting Fossil And Modern Pollen Grains:: The Orderly Count, Tutku Tuncalı Yaman, Bikem Ekberzade, Hülya Caner, Ruya Y. Dagdeviren, Sena Inkaya, Nurgul K. Kılıc, Suzanne A.G. Leroy, Fabienne Marret, Cetin Senkul, Jessie Woodbridge, Meral Avci

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Palynology, the study of pollen and spores, plays a crucial role in various scientific disciplines, including earth sciences (paleovegetation and paleoclimatology), botany, allergy, archaeology, forensic sciencs and cosmetics. This study delves into the critical question in fossil pollen analysis studies: the minimum count of pollen grains required for accurate estimation of vegetation composition. Various statistical methods have been proposed over the years to address this question. Our research introduces an alternative technique, the orderly count, tailored to the nature of palynological analysis. We apply this method to diverse sediment catchments, including peat bogs, marine and lake sediments, from different geographical …

Leading Through The Covid-19 Pandemic: Experiences Of Uk Executive Nurse Directors, Alison H James, Rebecca Dimond, Aled Jones, Dianne Watkins, Daniel Kelly

School of Nursing and Midwifery

AIM: To explore the challenges experienced by Executive Nurse Directors during the COVID-19 pandemic, and to inform future nursing leadership strategies.

DESIGN: A qualitative research project involving interviews with 21 Executive Nurse Directors from England and Wales.

METHODS: Participants were purposively sampled and recruited through Chief Nursing Officers and nursing leadership networks. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and recorded online via Teams. Braun and Clarke's approach to thematic reflexive analysis was applied to data analysis.

RESULTS: Executive Nurse Directors played a critical role during the COVID-19 pandemic. Six themes are explored: tensions, and adaptive response to personal leadership styles; uncertainty and …

Reflections On The Past, Present, And Potential Futures Of Knowledge Hierarchies In Ocean Biodiversity Governance Research, Holly J. Niner, David Wilson, Kelly Hoareau, Mia Strand, Jennifer Whittingham, Dylan Mcgarry, Bolanle Erinosho, Sulley Ibrahim, Sirkka Tshiningayamwe, Senia Febrica, Alana Malinde S. N. Lancaster, Milica Prokic

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

Governance of the ocean and its biodiversity is deeply entangled within social, political and cultural histories. The evolution of marine science has been subject to similar influences, and we (the authors) consider these factors to create, embed and reinforce knowledge hierarchies in ocean governance processes and associated research that set societal patterns of prioritisation and exclusion. Such knowledge hierarchies have constructed dominant Western-oriented knowledge systems as ‘rational’ and ‘objective’ approaches to environmental governance in contrast to non-Western knowledge systems and have led to a dominance of natural (normal) sciences over centralised biodiversity governance. The extraction and incorporation of traditional knowledge …

How Can Interventions More Directly Address Drivers Of Unprofessional Behaviour Between Healthcare Staff?, Justin A Aunger, Ruth Abrams, Russell Mannion, Johanna I Westbrook, Aled Jones, Judy M Wright, Mark Pearson, Jill Maben

School of Nursing and Midwifery

Unprofessional behaviours (UBs) between healthcare staff are widespread and have negative impacts on patient safety, staff well-being and organisational efficiency. However, knowledge of how to address UBs is lacking. Our recent realist review analysed 148 sources including 42 reports of interventions drawing on different behaviour change strategies and found that interventions insufficiently explain their rationale for using particular strategies. We also explored the drivers of UBs and how these may interact. In our analysis, we elucidated both common mechanisms underlying both how drivers increase UB and how strategies address UB, enabling the mapping of strategies against drivers they address. For …

Motivators For Family Carers Of Persons With Dementia In Kenya, Christine W. Musyimi, Levi A. Muyela, David M. Ndetei, Diana Thakya, Victoria N. Mutiso, Elizabeth Mutunga, Sara Evans-Lacko, Nicolas Farina

Peninsula Medical School

Objectives: The number of people with dementia is on the rise in Kenya and across Africa. Although family carers act as the main providers of dementia care in Kenya, there is still a significant knowledge gap regarding why family members care for someone with dementia. This study explores perceived drivers of care for people with dementia in a rural Kenyan context. Methods: Participants were recruited in Makueni County, Kenya. Primary data were derived from a focus group discussion (FGD) and five individual interviews with family carers of people with dementia. To complement interpretation, triangulation occurred through using data from FGDs …

The Significance Of "Time' When Finishing Time - A Case Study On Holistic Relationship-Based Approaches To Supporting Re/Integration For Criminal Justice Affected People, Julie Parsons

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences

This chapter draws on a series of externally funded research projects at an award-winning community-based resettlement charity, LandWorks. The charity makes use of an innovative, holistic, relationship-based theory of change model in its approach to resettlement and since opening in 2013 has offered over 200 six-to-twelve-month placements to people released on temporary licence from the local prison and others referred through probation (collectively called trainees). Following a narrative criminology perspective and thematic analysis of over 120 interview transcripts, from people interviewed during their time on placement and/or following their release into the community since 2015, mostly carried out for the …

Game Changer: Exploring The Role Of Board Games In The Lives Of Autistic People, Gray Atherton, Liam Cross, Francesca Belshaw, Andrea Piovesan

School of Psychology

This mixed methods paper reports findings from three studies examining the overlap between autism and hobbyist board gaming. The first was a quantitative survey of over 1600 board gamers, showing that autistic individuals are overrepresented in this hobby compared to the general population and that autistic traits measured by the AQ are significantly elevated amongst board gamers. Study 1 also assessed gamers’ motivations and preferences and reported key differences as well as similarities between autistic and non-autistic gamers. The second was a qualitative study that reported the results of 13 interviews with autistic individuals who are hobbyist board gamers. Using …

Signed, Sealed, But Not Delivered: The Credibility Of Nigeria’S Climate Change Act 2021 In Mitigating And Adapting To Climate Change In Nigeria, Goodtime Okara, Ruth Innocent

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences

Under the Paris Agreement, parties are required to submit Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). Many countries have enacted domestic climate legislation that promotes the implementation of these NDCs. This article investigates what climate legislation should include to enable countries to better achieve the Paris Agreement’s climate change adaptation and mitigation goals. It critically analyses Nigeria’s Climate Change Act (CCA) 2021 to determine the extent to which it can address climate change in Nigeria. Considering the peculiarities of Nigeria, the article compares the CCA with the UK Climate Change Act 2008. It also compares the Petroleum Industry Act as a piece of …

Barriers And Facilitators To Healthy Eating In Disadvantaged Adults Living In The Uk:: A Scoping Review, R Briazu, F Masood, Louise Hunt, Clare Pettinger, Carol Wagstaff, R Mccloy

School of Health Professions

In the UK people living in disadvantaged communities are less likely than those with higher socio-economic status to have a healthy diet. To address this inequality, it is crucial scientists, practitioners and policy makers understand the factors that hinder and assist healthy food choice in these individuals. In this scoping review, we aimed to identify barriers and facilitators to healthy eating among disadvantaged individuals living in the UK. Additionally, we used the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF) to synthesise results and provide a guide for the development of theory-informed behaviour change interventions. Five databases were searched, (CINAHL, Embase, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, and …

How Can Geomorphology Facilitate A Better Understanding Of Glacier And Ice Sheet Behaviour?, Matt Westoby, Richard Jones, Lauren Miller

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Glaciers and ice sheets are an integral part of Earth’s system, advancing and retreating in response to changes in climate. Clues about the past, present, and future behaviour of these ice masses are found throughout current and former glaciated landscapes. In this commentary, we outline recent scientific advances from a collection of articles in which geomorphological evidence is used to inform us about the behaviour of glaciers and ice sheets across a range of spatial (landform to continent) and temporal (seasons to millennia) scales. Through a diversity of approaches including field measurements, remote sensing and numerical modelling, these studies build …

Experiences From Patients In Mental Healthcare Accessing Their Electronic Health Records: Results From A Cross-National Survey In Estonia, Finland, Norway, And Sweden, A. J. Fagerlund, Annika Bärkås, A. Kharko, C. R. Blease, J. Hagström, I. Huvila, I. Hörhammer, B. Kane, E. Kristiansen, S. Kujala, J. Moll, H. Rexhepi, I. Scandurra, S. Simola, H. Soone, B. Wang, R. M. Åhlfeldt, M. Hägglund, M. A. Johansen

School of Psychology

Background: Patients’ online record access (ORA) enables patients to read and use their health data through online digital solutions. One such solution, patient-accessible electronic health records (PAEHRs) have been implemented in Estonia, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. While accumulated research has pointed to many potential benefits of ORA, its application in mental healthcare (MHC) continues to be contested. The present study aimed to describe MHC users’ overall experiences with national PAEHR services. Methods: The study analysed the MHC-part of the NORDeHEALTH 2022 Patient Survey, a large-scale multi-country survey. The survey consisted of 45 questions, including demographic variables and questions related to …

Chemical Analysis Of Flotsam Ambergris, Steven J. Rowland, Paul A. Sutton, C. Anthony Lewis, Timothy Knowles, Michael J. Wilde, Filipe Alves, Robert Clough

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

The natural product ambergris is only found rarely on beaches, as jetsam. Even more scarce, or even absent, are accounts of flotsam ambergris. Here, we report the chemical analysis of a rare, large piece (>100kg) of flotsam found in the Atlantic in 2019. About 95% of subsamples from the outside of the coprolith was soluble in dichloromethane. Of this, FTIR spectroscopy, APCI-MS and GC-MS indicated the presence of ambrein. Radiocarbon dating indicated that the sample was post 1950s in age. The ¹³C/¹²C isotope ratio (−22.5 ‰) was typical of those reported to date for whale ‘body’ …

Shipping-Specific Esg Rating And Reporting Framework, Michael Tsatsaronis, Theodore Syriopoulos, Stavros Karamperidis, Georgia Boura

Plymouth Business School

Strict regulatory requirements supporting environmental sustainability are consistently promoted for the shipping sector, including the IMO 2050 framework to reduce greenhouse gas implications by 50% and CO₂ emissions by 70% compared to respective 2008 levels. These requirements bear critical implications for vital investment, financing, and operational decisions of shipping company management teams. Empirical evidence, furthermore, indicates growing investor preferences in favor of companies promoting ESG (environmental, social, governance) good practices. This study develops an innovative methodology to construct an integrated ESG Index tailormade to shipping idiosyncrasies. The ESG Index offers support to shipping company sustainable policies, standardizes and facilitates …

Croning Academics: Menopause Matters In Higher Education, Marie Lavelle, Joanna Haynes, Emma Macleod-Johnstone

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences

This writing is born out of our experiences of becoming older women, academy hags, facing the performative demands of the neoliberalising patriarchal university. We are raging. With the figure of the Crone, and feminist-killjoy-croning as our creative and livid research method (Ahmed, 2023), we squeeze time out/with impossible university spaces and schedules to tend to grey matters. The paper traces the normalisation of menopause policies in workplaces and universities, following the social trending and capitalisation of menopausal and ageing matters. We question what menopause policies do and argue they constitute a failed project for the advancement of gender equality and …

Perceptions Of Advanced Practitioners In Mental Health: Findings From A Literature Review, Chloe Parkin

South West Clinical School Journal

#400WORDS: RESEARCH + ACTION

Collaborative Learning In Practice (Cliptm) In Mental Health Inpatient Settings: A Survey Of Student Nurses And Registered Nurses’ Experiences, Kerry Siau

South West Clinical School Journal

#400WORDS: CHIEF NURSING OFFICER’S RESEARCH FELLOWS EVIDENCE IMPLEMENTATION PROJECTS

The Role Of The Palliative Care Facilitator For Care Homes, Molly Mayes

South West Clinical School Journal

#400WORDS: KNOWLEDGE + ACTION

Echo Rehabilitation Project: The Context For Developing System Partner Collaboration To Overcome Challenges In Rural Community Neurological Rehabilitation Provision, Angela Gibbon

South West Clinical School Journal

#400WORDS: RESEARCH + ACTION

Implementing The New Multi-Professional Practice Based Research Capabilities Framework, Frazer Underwood

South West Clinical School Journal

Editorial

The Chief Nurse Research Fellowship: My Clinical Academic Experience, Lucy Yarnold

South West Clinical School Journal

No abstract provided.

‘In The Future We Will Make Our Own Superheroes’: Reflections On The Future Of Broadcast For Children Aged 7–11, Dylan Yamada-Rice

School of Art, Design and Architecture

Throughout 2022 and 2023, we worked with around 200 children to better understand the future of broadcast media for 7–11-year-olds in the UK. The work formed part of a wider Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded project known as XR Stories and housed at the University of York. The project reported on here, resulted in several key findings related to (1) multi-materiality, (2) materiality and making work slows with Ai, (3) interaction and (4) mashed-up brands. This sits alongside our production of immersive applications, which emerged from deploying machine learning as a collaborative approach to broadcast media content production …

Evaluating The Impact Of A 2-Week Peer Enhanced E-Placement (Peep) On Pre-Registration Physiotherapy Students’ Attitudes, Self-Perceived Confidence, And Competence In Delivering Telerehabilitation., Christie Robinson, Sarah Buckingham, Jennifer Freeman

School of Health Professions

The COVID-19 pandemic brought about rapid digital transformation of physiotherapy practice and education. Previous studies have suggested a lack of knowledge, beliefs, and clinical acceptance of telerehabilitation as barriers to implementation and sustainability of telerehabilitation. Providing pre-registration specific teaching and practical experience of telerehabilitation may improve physiotherapy student confidence and competence in delivering telerehabilitation and support clinical acceptance of telerehabilitation in practice. A 2-week Peer Enhanced E-Placement (PEEP) was developed and evaluated to explore its impact on third year physiotherapy student attitudes, and perceived competence and confidence in delivering telerehabilitation. Students completed a Likert scale questionnaire, immediately pre and post …

Evaluating The Impact Of A 2-Week Peer Enhanced E-Placement (Peep) On Preregistration Physiotherapy Students’ Attitudes, Self-Perceived Confidence, And Competence In Delivering Telerehabilitation, Christie Robinson, Sarah Buckingham, Jennifer Freeman

School of Health Professions

The COVID-19 pandemic instigated rapid digital transformation of physiotherapy practice and education. We explored whether pre-registration specific teaching and practical experience of telerehabilitation may improve student confidence and competence in delivering telerehabilitation and support its clinical acceptance. A 2-week Peer Enhanced E-Placement (PEEP) was developed and evaluated to explore its impact on third year physiotherapy student attitudes, perceived competence, and confidence in delivering telerehabilitation. Students completed a questionnaire (pre and post PEEP), rating perceived confidence and competence in four areas of telerehabilitation: assessment, intervention, communication, and problem solving. Group discussions explored the impact of the PEEP on their attitudes towards …

The Electric Seaway, Keri Collins, Simon Ussher, Amir Bordbar, Marcin Roszkowski, Anthony Wilson

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

No abstract provided.

Beyond The Surface: A Scoping Review Of Vision-Based Underwater Experience Technologies And User Studies, Oksana Hagen, Amir Aly, Ray Jones, Marius Varga, Dena Bazazian

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

Exploring the underwater world presents significant physical and financial barriers. Telepresence technologies offer a potential solution by a providing a more accessible version of an underwater experience. Our research involved a scoping review to consolidate previous findings on vision-based technologies that aim to recreate underwater experiences and their user evaluations. We searched 5 academic databases for papers describing or evaluating technologies providing visual underwater experiences without actual submersion. We systematically searched YouTube to include immersive experiences not documented in academic publications. Our review included 45 academic papers and 23 YouTube videos classified by their level of ‘reality’, ‘degrees of freedom’, …