RSS 1.0Research from April 2016
This area brings together all research published after April 2016.
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Pedagogical love in Finland and Australia: a study of refugee children and their teachersAfter claiming asylum, refugee children work to re-build their worlds across three dimensions: safety, belonging, and success. This article examines the pedagogical practices that support this work arguing that a key, but under-examined practice draws on what we have termed pedagogical love. Building on a qualitative Finnish-Australian study, we suggest that as refugee students enter schools in their host countries, pedagogical love can be created through teacher-student interactions in a range of ways despite limited shared language. Later, pedagogical practices that foster a nurturing classroom environment and help students to build a sense of belonging become increasingly important. As students settle in their schools and societies, teachers showing a belief both in the child and their contribution to their new society are crucial. We understand that these actions may be described as teachers’ professional duty of care. Yet our findings show that teachers went beyond this duty by opening their minds and hearts to the students’ lived conditions, engaging with their histories, and constantly shaping their pedagogy accordingly. These practices, we argue, are forms of pedagogical love.
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Building the foundations for academic success: learning from the experiences of part-time students in their first semester of studyThis article examines the findings from a mixed methods research study exploring part- time students' perceptions of their transition into higher education. Drawing on wider research in the field of transition and utilising Gale and Parker's (2014) conceptual framework as a means of viewing the transition process, the article identifies how one group of part-time undergraduates experienced the process of becoming an undergraduate. The results highlight the importance of offering a well-framed early learning experience for students, which enables them to learn the skills needed for early academic success and provides continued support as they progress in their own time towards recognition of themselves as undergraduates. Furthermore, the results demonstrate that transition is not time bound, and individual students will need individual approaches. This will require institutions to consider how the support they offer can be tailored to a student's specific needs.
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Emotions and professional reflections in a post-war community: teachers’ perspectives from KosovoBackground: Teaching is more complex than dealing with the cognitive aspects of learning alone and is also influenced by affective states. Because of this, more research is needed into the role of teachers’ emotions in classroom interaction. Of special importance is research into reflective thinking and the extent to which it may be disturbed by the prior experience of trauma. Purpose: This study aimed to shed light on these issues by analysing reports of Kosovan teachers’ emotional arousal when speaking about and/or teaching topics related to war experiences, their beliefs about these experiences, their opinions about students’ reactions and their reports on professional reflective practices. Methods: Descriptive study. Data were collected by means of a structured questionnaire completed by 70 teachers. Results: Teachers reported strong emotions were triggered by discussion of topics linked to the war. Their beliefs influenced how they engaged with sensitive and emotionally charged topics, but they interpreted their professional behaviour using reflective and critical thinking. Conclusion: Both external and internal factors affect post-war teachers cognitively and emotionally. Further research is needed to identify the extent to which this impacts teachers’ ability to use critical reflection and critical emotional reflexivity in school-based practice.
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Working with/in institutions: how policy enactment in widening participation is shaped through practitioners' experienceWidening participation in higher education is driven by policy which is then enacted by individual practitioners. Practitioners bring with them a wealth of personal and employment experiences which shape their interpretations and enactments. Drawing on sixteen in-depth semi structured interviews with practitioners across seven universities in England, a classification is developed in order to conceptualise their orientations to policy enactment. Whilst nationally focused, this study has international resonance especially in marketised HE systems where policies are similarly enacted. The model developed within the paper proposes that personal and professional experience can cause practitioners to orient towards the interests of the institution or the individuals they work with. This orientation can be in compliance with institutional policy or adopt a more transgressive stance. Through deeper theorisation of practitioner positions we can better understand how to ensure work in this area better serves the individuals which it is targeted at.
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Widening the discourse on team-teaching in higher educationTeam-teaching is arguably shifting from the realm of pedagogic choice to that of necessity in a complex and demanding Higher Education (HE) landscape. This research gives a voice to staff collaborating in team-teaching, considering their motivations and approach, to identify key challenges and opportunities. Results indicate that the changing landscape of HE in the UK is promoting innovative approaches to using existing team-teaching models rather than proposing new ones. The leadership dimension of the module leader role is highlighted, suggesting a need to explore and extend debates on developing academic leadership at all levels of academic employment. Consequently, the research contributes additional perspectives on existing work relating to academic leadership, the changing academic role, increasing workloads and professional teacher identity. The findings have implications for how staff are prepared and supported as practitioners in HE and the processes whereby we record and reward individuals contributions.
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BIRDS-bridging the gap between information science, information retrieval and data scienceThe BIRDS workshop aimed to foster the cross-fertilization of Information Science (IS), Information Retrieval (IR) and Data Science (DS). Recognising the commonalities and differences between these communities, the proposed full-day workshop brought together experts and researchers in IS, IR and DS to discuss how they can learn from each other to provide more user-driven data and infor-mation exploration and retrieval solutions. Therefore, the papers aimed to convey ideas on how to utilise, for instance, IS concepts and theories in DS and IR or DS approaches to support users in data and information exploration.
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IoT for 5G/B5G applications in smart homes, smart cities, wearables and connected carsInternet of things (IoT) is referred to as smart devices connected to the internet. A smart device is an electronic device, which may connect to other devices or are part of a network such as Wi-Fi. The increase of IoT devices has helped with advancing technology in many areas of society. Application of IoT in 5G/B5G devices has provided many benefits such as providing new ideas that can become projects for tech companies, generating big data (large volume of data which can be used to reveal trends, patterns and associations) and providing various ways of communicating. This has also had an impact on how companies improve their business with the use of advanced technology. However, the rapid growth of IoT has introduced a new platform for cybercriminals to attack. There has been published security measures on IoT to help deal with such risks and vulnerabilities. This survey paper will explore IoT in relation to smart homes, smart cities, wearables and connected cars. The benefits, risks and vulnerabilities will be discussed that comes along with using such devices connected to the internet.
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Survey on security and privacy issues in cyber physical systemsThe notion of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) is proposed by the National Scientific Foundation to describe a type of systems which combine hardware and software components and being the next step in development of embedded systems. CPS includes a wide range of research topics ranging from signal processing to data analysis. This paper contains a brief review of the basic infrastructure for CPS including smart objects and network aspects in relation to TCP/IP stack. As CPS reflect the processes of the physical environment onto the cyber space, virtualisation as an important tool for abstraction plays crucial role in CPS. In this context paper presents the challenges associated with mobility and vritualisation; accordingly three main types of virtualisation, namely network, devices and applications virtualisation are presented in the paper. These aspects are tightly coupled with security and safety issues. Therefore, different threats, attack types with corresponding subtypes and possible consequences are discussed as well as analysis of various approaches to cope with existing threats is introduced. In addition threat modelling approaches were also in scope of this work. Furthermore, needs and requirements for safety-critical CPS are reviewed. Thus the main efforts of this paper are directed on introducing various aspects of the CPS with regard to security and safety issues.
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Security challenges in cyber systemsCPS (Cyber-Physical Systems) is proposed by the NSF (National Scientific Foundation) to describe a type of necessities which conglomerates hardware and software components and being the next step in development of embedded systems. CPS includes a wide range of research topics from signal processing to data analysis. This paper contains a brief review of the basic infrastructure for CPS including smart objects and network aspects in relation to TCP/IP stack. As CPS reflect the processes of the physical environment onto the cyber space, virtualisation as important tool for abstraction plays crucial role in CPS. In this context paper presents the challenges associated with mobility and vritualisation; accordingly, three main types of virtualisation, namely network, devices and applications virtualisation are presented in the paper. The main focus of the paper is made on security. Different threats, attack types and possible consequences are discussed as well as analysis of various approaches to cope with existing threats is introduced. Furthermore, needs and requirements for safety-critical CPS are reviewed.
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Safeguarding adults and COVID-19: a sector-led improvement responsePurpose: This study aims to describe the sector-led response to the COVID-19 pandemic and national lockdown in terms of safeguarding adults. Design/methodology/approach: This study uses a case study method to examine a sector-led improvement response to COVID-19 and safeguarding adults. Findings: The study describes how safeguarding issues and concerns were identified and brought together, and then responded to. It reviews this initiative in the context of crisis intervention theory and discusses the achievements of this initiative regarding COVID-19 and safeguarding adults during the period April–July 2020. Originality/value: The study describes a unique joint initiative between the Local Government Association and the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, which worked with the Networks of Chairs of Safeguarding Adults Boards, Safeguarding Adults Boards’ managers and Principal Social Workers. This initiative developed resources and shared information and good practice to support a response in unprecedented circumstances.
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Ethnic differences in body fat deposition and liver fat content in two UK-based cohortsObjective: Differences in the content and distribution of body fat and ectopic lipids may be responsible for ethnic variations in metabolic disease susceptibility. The aim of this study was to examine the ethnic distribution of body fat in two separate UK-based populations. Methods: Anthropometry and body composition were assessed in two separate UK cohorts: the Hammersmith cohort and the UK Biobank, both comprising individuals of South Asian descent (SA), individuals of Afro-Caribbean descent (AC), and individuals of European descent (EUR). Regional adipose tissue stores and liver fat were measured by magnetic resonance techniques. Results: The Hammersmith cohort (n = 747) had a mean (SD) age of 41.1 (14.5) years (EUR: 374 men, 240 women; SA: 68 men, 22 women; AC: 14 men, 29 women), and the UK Biobank (n = 9,533) had a mean (SD) age of 55.5 (7.5) years (EUR: 4,483 men, 4,873 women; SA: 80 men, 43 women, AC: 31 men, 25 women). Following adjustment for age and BMI, no significant differences in visceral adipose tissue or liver fat were observed between SA and EUR individuals in the either cohort. Conclusions: Our data, consistent across two independent UK-based cohorts, present a limited number of ethnic differences in the distribution of body fat depots associated with metabolic disease. These results suggest that the ethnic variation in susceptibility to features of the metabolic syndrome may not arise from differences in body fat.
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The vital role of health psychology in the response to COVID-19We had a huge response to our editorial and call for submissions of health psychology research related to the coronavirus pandemic (Arden & Chilcot, 2020). A total of 177 brief reports and papers have been submitted to BJHP since that call in March 2020. It has been a mammoth task for our associate editors, reviewers, and production team at Wiley to manage these papers (alongside non‐COVID submissions) in a shortened time frame, and the editors, Prof Arden and Dr Chilcot, would like to extend our sincere thanks to all who contributed their time and energies to this endeavour at what was a difficult time for everyone. This issue of BJHP includes a special section entitled COVID‐19: Health Psychology Theory and Research which includes the papers and brief reports on this topic accepted for publication to date.
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Health behaviour change considerations for weight loss and type 2 diabetes: nutrition, physical activity and sedentary behaviourGood nutrition, regular physical activity and low levels of sedentary behaviour are important in the prevention, management and treatment of obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Self-management requires individuals to have the capability to enact, opportunity to enable and motivation to perform relevant health behaviours. These behaviours, and the bio-psycho-social drivers of them, should be considered when working in the area of T2DM.
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Should we decolonise midwifery education?This year the Black Lives Matter movement gained momentum globally and more people are having uncomfortable but necessary conversations around race. While the recent focus on racism within healthcare has largely been on outcomes because of inequality, we must also examine how the education of healthcare professionals can also play a part in dismantling racism in clinical practice. In this article, Chelsea Beckford-Procyk discusses the ways in which student midwives, birthing people and society as a whole would benefit from the decolonisation of midwifery education.
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Dynamic mechanics of HK-2 cell reaction to HG stimulation studied by atomic force microscopyRenal tubular cell injury by exposure to high glucose (HG) stimulation mainly accounts for diabetic nephropathy (DN). To understand the mechanism of injury by HG, quantitative characterization has commonly focused on the cells that are already impaired, which ignores the signals for the process of being injured. In this study, the architecture and morphology of HK-2 cells were observed dynamically by multiple imaging methods. AFM (atomic force microscopy)-based single-cell force spectroscopy was employed to investigate the dynamic mechanics quantitatively. The results showed that the Young's modulus increased continuously from 2.44 kPa up to 4.15 kPa for the whole period of injury by HG, while the surface adhesion decreased from 2.43 nN to 1.63 nN between 12 h and 72 h. In addition, the actin filaments of HK-2 cells exposed to HG depolymerized and then nucleated with increasing Young's modulus. The absence of cell pseudopodia coincided with the reduced cell adhesion, strongly suggesting close relationships between the cell architecture, morphology and mechanical properties. Furthermore, the stages of cell reactions were identified and assessed. Overall, the dynamic mechanics of the cells facilitate the identification of injured cells and the assessment of the degree of injury for accurate diagnoses and treatments.
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Under-mask beard cover (Singh Thattha technique) for donning respirator masks in COVID-19 patient careTight-fitting filtering facepiece (FFP3) face masks are essential respiratory protective equipment during aerosol-generating procedures in the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) environment, and require a fit test to assess mask–face seal competency. Facial hair is considered to be an impediment for achieving a competent seal. We describe an under-mask beard cover called the Singh Thattha technique, which obtained a pass rate of 25/27 (92.6%) by qualitative and 5/5 (100%) by quantitative fit test in full-bearded individuals. Sturdier versions of FFP3 were more effective. For individuals for whom shaving is not possible, the Singh Thattha technique could offer an effective solution to safely don respirator masks.
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The production of garments and textiles in Bangladesh: trade unions, international managers and the health and safety of workersThis paper offers a view of working practices within the garment and textile (G&T) industry in Bangladesh. The G&T industry accounts for over 84 per cent of Bangladesh exports and is therefore viewed as key to the country’s economic development. This importance is seen in the creation of Export Processing Zones (EPZs), which were created by that state to encourage foreign investment by offering a congenial climate free from cumbersome procedures. Trade unions are outlawed in these areas. Health and safety are poor within the G&T industry. However, the Rana Plaza disaster of 2013, which caused 1,132 deaths and over 2,500 injuries, placed the issue of workplace safety on the international agenda. Arguably, this prompted a change of attitude within Bangladesh and the G&T industry towards health and safety. The presence of international managers appears to have played a significant role in improving health and safety in the working environment, however these international managers do face a range of cultural barriers, which include both language and a different perception of the value of health and safety in the workplace. This paper has adopted a mixed method of both qualitative and quantitative data, collected through interviews and questionnaire surveys within the G&T industry in Bangladesh.
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Towards geographies of child protectionThe emergence of current and historic cases of child abuse across the globe has, in recent years, dominated the news, political agendas and popular discourse surrounding children. From serious case reviews to exploitation in post-conflict zones, from sexual abuse of children by groups to trafficking of drugs across countries, the importance of protecting children is an increasing concern in many countries. Key to, and inherent in, all of these processes and phenomena are child protection systems, working in varying degrees of effectiveness. While geographic interest has touched upon many of these areas, the role of child protection systems, and the practitioners that work within these, do not explicitly feature within this work. In this article, we seek to develop an introduction to geographies of child protection, producing an initial critical review which points to future research avenues in this field. We adopt a Foucauldian approach and review four themes to illustrate the ways in which geographical approaches might yield important insights. Drawing primarily on England as a context, we consider the historical geographies and origins of child protection, relational practices in contemporary child protection, the impact of austerity and finally we consider what future directions might require a geographical approach.
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Teenage pregnancy: strategies for preventionTeenage pregnancy is a cause and consequence of inequality, limiting the life chances of young parents and their children. It is an issue of global concern, with many countries developing programmes of prevention. This review focuses on the experience of the England strategy, launched in 1999 to address the historically high rates. It is one of the few examples of a successful long term, multi-agency programme, led by national government and locally delivered which, between 1998 and 2018, reduced the under-18 conception rate by 64%. It sets out the case for helping young people delay early pregnancy, the international evidence for prevention, how evidence is translated into a ‘whole system’ approach and the priorities for further reducing inequalities. Questions are included to encourage both investigation into local programmes on teenage pregnancy prevention, and reflection on individual practice. The review concludes with summarizing the next steps for England and the lessons that can be shared more widely.
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Entity-aware capsule network for multi-class classification of big data: a deep learning approachNamed entity recognition (NER) is one of the most challenging natural language processing (NLP) tasks, as its performance is related to constantly evolving languages and dependency on expert (human) annotation. The diverse and dynamic content on the web significantly raises the need for a more generalized approach—one that is capable of correctly classifying terms in a corpus and feeding subsequent NLP tasks, such as machine translation, query expansion, and many other applications. Although extensively researched in recent times, the variety of public corpora available nowadays provides room for new and more accurate methods to tackle the NER problem. This paper presents a novel method that uses deep learning techniques based on the capsule network architecture for predicting entities in a corpus. This type of network groups neurons into so-called capsules to detect specific features of an object without reducing the original input unlike convolutional neural networks and their ‘max-pooling’ strategy. Our extensive evaluation on several benchmarked datasets demonstrates how competitive our method is in comparison with state-of-the-art techniques and how the usage of the proposed architecture may represent a significant benefit to further NLP tasks, especially in cases where experts are needed. Also, we explore NER using a theoretical framework that leverages big data for security. For the sake of reproducibility, we make the codebase open-source.
