Child maltreatment and metabolic syndrome in midlife: a life-course approach

A thesis submitted to the University of Bedfordshire, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of PhilosophyEvidence suggests that childhood adverse events are associated with an elevated risk of adult diseases in later life. However, there is limited knowledge of child maltreatment (CM) on the risk of metabolic syndrome (MetS) in adulthood. This study examined the role of CM and the mechanism through which CM influences the development of MetS in midlife. The National Child Development (NCDS) 1958 British birth cohort study in the UK consists of approximately 18,558 babies born in the same week in March in England, Scotland and Wales. At intervals, the NCDS cohort was followed up from birth to the age of 60 in 2018, and information on CM was prospectively measured at ages 7, 11, and 16 and retrospectively at age 45. Also, research professionals measured information on MetS during the biomedical survey when the cohort members were 45 years old. The association between CM and MetS was examined using suitable statistical methods such as Logistic regression and Structural equation modelling, and estimates were presented as odds ratio (OR) 95% confidence intervals (CIs), and standardised coefficients. The main finding shows an indirect path where smoking fully mediated the effect of all CM measures obtained retrospectively on the risk of MetS. Hence, the knowledge of the mechanism through which CM influences MetS should play a significant role in the prevention of MetS. Further research is required to consolidate these findings further

Roles of e-service in economic development, case study of Nigeria, a lower-middle income country

E-Government activities are still very low in Nigeria, a lower middle-income country, and this is hindering E-Service adoption. E-Service is inextricably linked to E-Government and they will not develop separately, but as one progresses the other moves forward. Having a new technology like E-service opens new opportunities for government, private and public sectors. Despite the fact that the new technology will not be without a hindrance, the overall benefits of using outweigh its lapses. Nigeria has overtaken South Africa as top Africa economy. There is still more to be done in increasing the revenue of the country, reducing the huge external debt owing the World Bank. Furthermore, there is a need to sustain the new status as top economy in Africa. There are many unresolved problems like corruption. This leads to a slow movement of files in offices, embezzlement, election irregularities, and port congestions among others. Adoption of E-Service will help to reduce these problems and increase the revenue base of the country. This study will identify e-Service roles in economic development in Nigeria, a lower middle-income country. The study is based on literature review methodology and recent online survey that shows the level of E-Service awareness and roles. We shall also examine previous conference papers related to this study and necessary recommendations will be suggested and offered to the authority in Nigeria on how best the e-service adoption will add more success to the economic development.RSS 16/4/2025 - article from 2015, not eligible

Challenges and benefits of cat fostering: a focus group study with volunteer cat fosterers in Aotearoa New Zealand

Cat fostering programs play a critical role in managing and supporting the health and wellbeing of stray abandoned or relinquished cats. Most cat fostering programs can only operate with the help of volunteer cat fosterers. Yet, there is comparatively little research on the experiences of cat fosterers. This study aimed to explore the motivations of volunteer cat fosterers, the challenges they experienced in their fostering practice, and what they perceived as the main benefits of cat fostering. We conducted focus group interviews with cat fosterers in Aotearoa New Zealand to answer our research questions. In total, 13 cat fosterers with a range of fostering experience participated in the focus groups. Data were analysed using qualitative content analysis. The primary motivations to become cat fosterers included a general love for animals, wanting an alternative to cat ownership, and the desire to help and make a difference, which was underpinned by altruistic values. Cat fostering is an emotionally challenging role that requires significant time commitment and involves substantial responsibility, which makes it a form of high-stakes volunteerism. Despite the challenges, however, cat fosterers experienced social and emotional benefits along with the satisfaction of making a meaningful impact on their fosters’ lives. These benefits fulfil basic psychological needs of autonomy, relatedness, and competence. The findings have important implications for shelter organizations and for the recruitment, retention, and training of volunteer fosterers.18m embargo https://openpolicyfinder.jisc.ac.uk/id/publication/868

Development of ultrasound inversion methods for characterising features in 3D woven composite materials

There is an increasing interest in the use of 3D woven composites in applications that require improved strength-to-weight ratios. In addition, the use of these structures helps to reduce CO2 emissions. Woven composites offer many benefits including many possible architectures with high ratios of strain to failure. Woven composites are structures made by interlacing some continuous fibres (known as wefts) in one direction and other continuous fibres (known as warps) in a perpendicular direction. In the case of 3D woven composites, the third direction is reinforced by other continuous fibres known as binder. This study deals with the development of ultrasound inversion methods to characterize features in 3D woven composite materials. The study focuses on orthogonal weave-type only. Both theoretical (simulated) and measured data are analysed and used to calculate features such as the warps, wefts, and binder locations. The analytical-signal response, including the definition of three instantaneous parameters, is analysed and their capabilities to calculate the warp, weft and binder locations are demonstrated. These instantaneous parameters are the instantaneous amplitude, phase and frequency. The simulated data is obtained from a 3D time domain Finite Element model whereas the measured data is acquired from scanning a built specimen using an ultrasound immersion tank. The inversion techniques developed in this study can be extended to other 3D woven weave-types

INTED2022 Proceedings

In an effort to respond to the UK's OfS (Office for Students) Gravity Assist review the Digital Learning team at the University of Bedfordshire have been experimenting with ways to improve the experiences of students' academic writing skills as part of an effective digital induction, to support students' transitions into HE (Higher Education), and for our existing student body. A key part of our efforts has focussed upon using a study support service called Studiosity which provides students with feedback on their assessments and academic work. Rather than focusing upon a service which utilises AI for feedback, we opted to utilise a service which provides feedback from a writing assessor. In this way the service mirrors, supports and provides a route for us to better understand our students' writing skills and to determine how we can feed forward and back to students and a multitude of organisational layers within the University which stretch across staff and student groups. Using a DBR (Design Based Research) approach we explore our initial considerations before approaching staff and students with the service, the technical and pedagogical considerations we made before our first engagements, and detail some of our experiences of engaging staff and students in the process of improving their academic writing. We move from these initial considerations to explain how we are engaging with academic and support colleagues within the University, the insights the data provides us about our students writing skills. We conclude the paper by providing an initial version of a potential implementation framework which other colleagues implementing similar schemes can build upon our initial mode to critique and develop their own implementations from. We also examine the possibilities for demonstrating the ways in which we can evidence and explain the ways we and our students think the service is effective. As this is our first iteration of the implementation, this paper also serves the secondary purpose of bracketing and recording our assumptions about our implementation. Our intention is to use this paper to document our initial iteration and we will return to provide an updated version of this paper as a point of reference for our next iteration

Brandalism, Cascina Cuccagna, Milan, Italy.

Wasteland Poster exhbited at Brandalism Exhbjtion, Cascina Cuccagna, Milan, Italy. Can we fight the big companies that induce consumerism, those that pollute the environment, with street-art? This is what the Brandalism project did at COP21 in Paris. Told by a protagonist, with the slogan: “He who kills the climate kills you too, tell him to stop” Brandalism is an anti-advertising campaign. A project that recovers the original spirit of street art, with unauthorized and unsettling interventions, to oppose consumerism and false needs that brands, advertising, advertising and mass media generate daily. Two days before the launch of COP21, the December 2015 , 2015, six hundred posters were installed in outdoor multimedia spaces throughout Paris. Eighty-two artists from nineteen different countries have created works of art to protest against the control exercised by multinationals, to reveal to the public the connections between advertising, the promotion of consumerism and climate change. A complaint about the influence of multinationals in climate negotiations. From 10 to 20 March 2016, a selection consisting of 30 of these six hundred opereworks in total will be on display at Cascina Cuccagna in Milan. The project is carried out by Cascina Cuccagna and Giacimenti Urbani with the collaboration of Terre di Mezzo

Non-Canonical British Writers: Moderns and Others

Despite success later in life, winning the Femina-Vie Heureuse Prize in 1932 for her last completed novel, Tobit Transplanted, and the silver medal of the Royal Society of Literature, and while popular and successful in her lifetime, Stella Benson has never been considered as part of the canon of Modernist or early twentieth century literature. Drawing on Benson’s unpublished diaries for the period in which she was writing Goodbye, Stranger, this essay, in part, discusses her position outside the canon, but it also explores the world of the changeling and the uncanny, the whimsical and the fantastical in Goodbye, Stranger, those very elements which might be considered the rationale for its exclusion from the canon, but which belie a more serious endeavour: how to find one’s place in a hostile society, when one is a stranger who sits outside of conventional societal and, perhaps, authorial norms

Getting ‘there’: the process of co-creating a good supervisory relationship

A thesis submitted to the University of Bedfordshire, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.This thesis outlines the findings of a four-and-a-half-year study focusing on clinical supervision and the supervisory relationship. This professional doctorate is rooted in my experience as a systemic family therapist, trainer, and supervisor. Clinical supervision is widely recognised as fundamental to the professional development of individuals in the helping professions, and there is a consensus that the supervisory relationship is central to effective supervision. Despite the existing research on clinical supervision and the supervisory relationship, there is a notable gap in the literature regarding the essential factors that supervisors and supervisees consider necessary for good supervision, particularly how they perceive themselves to contribute to these factors. This study aims to better understand the key elements identified by supervisors and supervisees that foster a positive supervisory dynamic and the actions they take to co-create this relationship. Two main research questions guide the research: *What factors are considered essential for a ‘good’ clinical supervisory relationship? *What steps do supervisors and supervisees take to co-create a 'good' clinical supervisory relationship? I employed a reflexive collaborative methodology within a qualitative research framework to explore these questions. The reflexive aspect acknowledges my influence as a researcher, recognising the limitations of my perspective and the inevitability of my subjectivity. Reflexivity allows me to consider my position, its implications, my knowledge, my interpretations and my own reflective processes. The collaborative approach emphasises that my research is a partnership with the participants, the literature and the supervisees I work with, recognising that cultural and social discourses shape knowledge and that all voices contribute equally valid interpretations. Eleven research conversations with fifteen supervisors and supervisees were recorded, watched, and listened to, and the transcripts were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Six factors were identified as essential in supervision: availability, clarity, disclosure, feedback, power and contextual consciousness. However, these factors do not exist in isolation; they are framed by the meaning-making processes of the participants, informed by their reflectivity and reflexivity. Through a deeper understanding of the critical role that reflectivity and reflexivity play in learning, I argue that these concepts are essential tools for practitioners and ethical imperatives in practice and for learning. I advocate a structured use of reflectivity, critical reflectivity, and reflexivity, which has led to the creation of a model that organises these concepts. This model, the reflect/xivity pendulum, three strolls with an emphasis on reflectivity, critical reflectivity and reflexivity, each consisting of ten steps, is a new model that contributes to the field of life-long learning for practitioners in the helping professions

The socio-cultural dynamics of children’s relationships and mental health: an investigation of street children in Pakistan

A thesis submitted to the University of Bedfordshire, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.The phenomenon of street children in Pakistan is complex and multifaceted, deeply intertwined with social and cultural dynamics. Previously, the topic has not been examined through a comprehensive lens. Therefore, this PhD project was designed to thoroughly investigate the phenomenon, from exploring the lived experiences of street children to proposing targeted interventions for the future. The project is structured into three progressive studies, each building on the findings of the previous one. Study 1 was exploratory, involving interviews with 25 street children in Lahore, Pakistan, to understand the reasons they end up on the streets. Through narrative analysis, seven themes were identified, leading to three core narratives: "Born in Poverty," "Parental Illness/Death," and "Working while Attending School." The findings suggest that street life is primarily a consequence of factors such as poverty, an inadequate education system, abuse, or the need to escape adverse conditions. These factors are understood through the lenses of cultural and socioeconomic perspectives. Study 2 was quantitative and assessed common mental health symptoms among street children compared to their school-attending peers. The study involved 116 street children and 116 school-going children, using measures to evaluate mental well-being, trauma, and relationships. The results showed significant differences, with street children exhibiting greater vulnerability to poor mental health outcomes. Study 3 incorporated grounded theory to engage directly with the target population (street children), their parents, the general public, and stakeholders to determine the needs for a potential intervention. The results yielded that a holistic approach is necessary to address the multifaceted issues faced by street children in Pakistan. This approach would integrate financial, psychological, social, and educational support to ensure long-term sustainability. In conclusion, this PhD project highlights important theoretical and practical implications for policymakers and provides a foundation for addressing the needs of street children in the local context of Pakistan. The research underlines the urgency of developing informed, culturally sensitive policies and interventions that address both the immediate and long-term needs of street children