1,437 research outputs found

    An embodied approach to informational interventions: using conceptual metaphors to promote sustainable healthy diets

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    Poor diet quality and environmental degradation are two major challenges of our times. Unhealthy and unsustainable dietary practices, such as the overconsumption of meat and consumer food waste behaviour, contribute greatly to both issues. Across seventeen online and field experiments, in two different cultures (US and China), this thesis investigates if the embodied cognition approach, and more specifically, research on conceptual metaphors, can be used to develop interventions to promote sustainable healthy diets. Interventions relying on conceptual metaphors have been shown to stimulate attitudinal and behavioural changes in other fields (e.g., marketing and political communications), but are rarely adopted to encourage sustainable healthy diets. To fill in this gap in the literature, I conducted five sets of experimental studies examining the effects of different metaphors on specific sustainable healthy dietary practices, each of which forms an independent empirical paper (Chapters 2-6 of the thesis). After introducing the current perspectives on embodied cognition and conceptual metaphors in the context of this research (Chapter 1), Chapter 2 looks into the conceptual metaphor “Healthy is Up”, demonstrating that US people implicitly associate healthiness with verticality, and offering recommendations for healthy eating guidelines. Chapter 3 extends this research to Chinese samples and partially replicates the results. Chapter 4 shows that the anthropomorphic metaphor “Animals are Friends” discourages meat consumption by inducing anticipatory guilt among US omnivores, whereas Chapter 5 reveals that Chinese omnivores are more responsive to another anthropomorphic metaphor, namely, “Animals are Family”. Bringing lab insights 6 to the real world, Chapter 6 demonstrates with a longitudinal field experiment that anthropomorphic metaphors together with environmental feedback result in a higher reduction in food waste as compared to other feedback interventions. The strengths, limitations and implications of those empirical papers are discussed in the conclusive part of the thesis

    UMSL Bulletin 2023-2024

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    The 2023-2024 Bulletin and Course Catalog for the University of Missouri St. Louis.https://irl.umsl.edu/bulletin/1088/thumbnail.jp

    UMSL Bulletin 2022-2023

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    The 2022-2023 Bulletin and Course Catalog for the University of Missouri St. Louis.https://irl.umsl.edu/bulletin/1087/thumbnail.jp

    30th European Congress on Obesity (ECO 2023)

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    This is the abstract book of 30th European Congress on Obesity (ECO 2023

    ‘Inner qualities versus inequalities’: A case study of student change learning about Aboriginal health using sequential, explanatory mixed methods

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    Racism and lack of self-determination in health care perpetuate injury and injustice to Aboriginal people. To instil cultural safety at individual, organisational, community and systems levels, a key site of action has been health professional education that seeks to elicit reflexivity, cultural humility and a working understanding of Aboriginal health concepts. Studies in Aboriginal community settings show Family Well Being (FWB) empowerment education is effective in supporting personal and collective reflexivity and transformation through empowering life skills development. Implementation of FWB within educational settings shows early signs of effectiveness among students. Yet knowledge of the steps and processes of student change is lacking. This mixed methods explanatory case study sought to measure and understand change in postgraduate students of a leading Australian university learning about Aboriginal health and wellbeing through blended delivery, including through face-to-face immersion in FWB in an urban classroom. Three interrelated studies investigated fidelity and acceptability of the program, measured and analysed growth and empowerment in students, and explained processes of change observed, through thematic analysis of asynchronous online discussions using lenses based on transformative learning and empowerment. Researcher reflexivity was promoted by Aboriginal supervision. Over six years, 194 students enrolled in two different Aboriginal public health courses, 85 of them in the FWB course. As well as achieving program fidelity and acceptability, pre/post-course change in students across a range of emotional empowerment, personal growth and life-long learning processes was measured in the FWB group. Thematic analysis revealed students’ fluid and recursive processes of transformative learning in their professional selves and capacities to act in domains important to Aboriginal health. This case study contributes new knowledge critical to strengthening health professional capabilities for ever more complex, uncertain and emotionally demanding sites of practice, and to work in empowering ways—with, not for, Aboriginal people and communities

    Towards a holistic understanding of the role of green infrastructure in improving urban air quality

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    Air pollution has been identified as a major problem in modern societies, threatening urban population health. Pedestrians, in particular, are directly exposed to one of the main sources of air pollutants: road transport, which is concentrated in proximity to the road, worsening the air. Green infrastructure (GI) has been promoted as a natural method for reducing exposure to local street air pollutants and providing additional Ecosystem Services with a range of environmental, social and economic benefits for citizens. The effectiveness of GI for improving air quality depends on the spatio-temporal context and the species-specific characteristics of the GI. Urban planting could maximise this benefit by a holistic understanding of the effects of GI in cities, balancing its benefits and constraints. However, little is currently known about the application of GI design and planning with regard to air pollution mitigation. Moreover, there is little agreement on the quantifiable effectiveness of GI in improving street air quality as its effectiveness is highly context dependent. Holistic guidance is therefore needed to inform practitioners of site- and species- specifics, trade-offs, and GI maintenance considerations for successful urban planting. This research reviews the academic literature addressing GI-related characteristics in streets, creating a holistic framework to help guide decision-makers on using GI solutions to improve air quality. Additionally, this research aims to understand how and which GI, along with other local characteristics, influence pedestrian air quality and how these characteristics are considered in real-world practice within the United Kingdom. This research progresses through three stages: First, the mechanisms by which GI is considered to influence air quality were identified through literature reviews. A specific literature review was then conducted for each mechanism to extract the associated GI and spatial characteristics that affect the potential for GI to mitigate urban air pollution. In the second stage, this list of characteristics, together with other Ecosystem Services, was discussed in consultation with practitioners in the UK. A survey was conducted to explore and evaluate the recommendations and resources available for planning plantings, as well as the practitioners’ knowledge about the characteristics associated with mitigating air pollution. Supported by results from the survey and the literature reviews, the third stage evaluated (validated) an easy-to-use computational model for its potential use in improving planting decisions for air pollution mitigation. Green infrastructure influences air quality by providing surfaces for pollutant deposition and absorption, effects on airflow and dispersion, and biogenic emissions. The relationship between the specific GI and the spatio-temporal context also influences air quality. Street structure, weather variables, and the type, shape and size of GI influence the dispersion of pollutants, with micro-and macro-morphological traits additionally influencing particulate deposition and gas absorption. In addition, maintaining GI lessens air quality deterioration by controlling biogenic emissions. According to participants in the survey, aesthetics were the principal drivers of urban planting, followed by improving well-being and increasing biodiversity and air pollution mitigation as a lesser priority. Characteristics such as airflow manipulation, leaf surface traits, and biogenic emissions were the less important influences in planting decisions in the UK, despite the fact that these characteristics influence air quality. Perhaps, a lack of communication of current information and low confidence about which specific characteristics have a tangible effect on air quality reduces the incorporation of GI for air pollution mitigation purposes. Uncertainties exist about the quantification of pollutants removed by GI. Field campaigns and computational models still need improvement to address the effectiveness of GI in real-world environments adequately and also to understand whether GI can exert a significant effect on pollutant levels under real-world conditions. This research showed that a promising and easy-to-use model used to evaluate the effectiveness of trees in removing particles was not an acceptable model to study the effect of GI on streets. The validation results showed a poor agreement between wind tunnel data and the model results. More effort is needed to develop better modelling tools that can quantify the actual effect of GI on improving street air quality. This research contributes to the air pollution mitigation field, explicitly helping to inform decision-making for more health-promoting urban settings by optimising the expected benefits of GI through a holistic understanding of their impacts. Facilitating the communication of current evidence through a holistic guide that considers both the benefits and trade-offs of planting decisions for air quality improvement. Improving information on air pollution mitigation to feed the decision-making process might maximise the benefits of GI planting for air pollution mitigation in streets.Open Acces

    An empirical evaluation of m-health service users’ behaviours: A case of Bangladesh

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    A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Wolverhampton for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.Mobile health (m-health) services are revolutionising healthcare in the developing world by improving accessibility, affordability, and availability. Although these services are revolutionising healthcare in various ways, there are growing concerns regarding users' service quality perceptions and overall influence on satisfaction and usage behaviours. In developing countries, access to healthcare and low healthcare costs are insufficient if users lack confidence in healthcare service quality. Bangladesh's Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) provides the only government-sponsored m-health service available to the entire population. DGHS's m-health service, available since 2009, is yet to be evaluated in terms of users' perceptions of the quality of service and its impact on satisfaction and usage. Hence, this study developed a conceptual model for evaluating the associations between overall DGHS m-health service quality, satisfaction, and usage behaviours. This study operationalised overall m-health service quality as a higher-order construct with three dimensions- platform quality, information quality, and outcome quality, and nine corresponding subdimensions-privacy, systems availability, systems reliability, systems efficiency, responsiveness, empathy, assurance, emotional benefit, and functional benefit. Moreover, researchers in various service domains, including- healthcare, marketing, environmental protection, and information systems, evaluated and confirmed the influence of social and personal norms on satisfaction and behavioural outcomes like- intention to use. Despite this, no research has been conducted to determine whether these normative components affect m-health users' service satisfaction and usage behaviours. As a result, this study included social and personal norms along with overall service quality into the conceptual model to assess the influence of these variables on users' satisfaction and m-health service usage behaviours. Data was collected from two districts in Bangladesh- Dhaka and Rajshahi, utilising the online survey approach. A total of 417 usable questionnaires were analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling to investigate the relationships between the constructs in Warp PLS. The study confirms that all three dimensions of service quality and their corresponding subdimensions influence users' overall perceptions of DGHS m-health service quality. Moreover, overall DGHS m-health service quality has a significant direct association with satisfaction and an indirect association with usage behaviours through satisfaction. While social norms do not influence satisfaction and usage behaviours within the DGHS m-health context, personal norms directly influence users' satisfaction and indirectly influence usage behaviours through satisfaction. Theoretically, the study contributes by framing the influence of users' overall m-health service quality perceptions, social and personal norms on their actual usage behaviours rather than the intention to use. It also extends the existing knowledge by assessing and comparing m-health users' continuous and discontinuous behaviours. Methodologically this study confirms the usefulness of partial least squares structural equational modelling to analyse a complex model including a higher order construct (i.e., overall perceived service quality). Practically, the study demonstrates the importance of users' satisfaction in addition to service quality, as service quality only affects usage behaviours through satisfaction in the current study context. Additionally, knowing that personal norms significantly influence service satisfaction motivates providers of m-health services to strive to enhance users' personal norms toward m-health service to enhance service satisfaction and usage. Overall, the study will help enhance patient outcomes and m-health service usage

    Adoption of the big data concept in the construction industry

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    A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Wolverhampton for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.The Big Data (BD) boom has increased exponentially in recent years, reaching even the most traditional industries. In construction, the migration towards sustainability and new technologies that produce user and environmentally friendly projects is now a requirement in almost every country. Meanwhile, BD technology has become a possible solution to the challenges that the industry faces nowadays with some authors naming this technology as the future of construction. However, despite this reception, studies that explain in detail the factors that favour the adoption of BD are scarce or non-existent and the adoption itself has proven to be a challenge, especially in industries such as construction that are not technology driven. Understanding the critical factors that influence BD adoption has become the focus of many industries that seek to exploit the benefits offered by this technology. Therefore, the aim of this research is to explore the adoption of BD in the construction industry. First, the awareness of the Dominican Republic’s construction industry on the BD concept, its characteristics, and benefits was assessed. The key drivers, strategies, and challenges regarding the adoption of BD in the industry were also investigated. A qualitative method was selected to identify these strategies due to the lack of maturity and the scarcity of sources that address the subject. Semi-structured interviews were selected as the data collection tool, and content and thematic analysis were chosen to acquire an in-depth knowledge of the interviews. Endsley’s model of situational awareness was adapted to provide a better understanding of the industry’s awareness of BD. The sampling technique adopted was non-probabilistic due to some of the specific criteria identified during the secondary data collection process. In the data collection process, 21 interviews were conducted with representatives of 19 organisations with an undoubted presence in the construction market of the Dominican Republic. The results showed that there is an overall basic level of awareness about BD in the construction industry of the Dominican Republic. Moreover, nine key drivers for BD adoption were identified and grouped into internal and external drivers. Additionally, four main strategies or central policies for adopting the technology and seven main challenges were identified. These findings were used to develop an organisation readiness assessment tool and a strategic framework for BD adoption in the construction industry. This study concluded that new technologies such as Big Data (BD) require a change in the industry's culture and the adoption of digital approaches to be fully implemented. The findings of this research provide valuable insights that can help the construction industry adopt BD technology, thus accessing the short and long-term benefits that this technology offers.Government of the Dominican Republic through the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology
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