Communication Between Process and Structure: Modelling and Simulating Message Reference Networks with COM/TE

Focusing on observable message signs and referencing structures, communication processes can be described and analysed as message reference networks which are characterized by dynamic pattern evolution. Computational simulation provides a way of obtaining insights into the factors driving such processes. Our paper describes a theoretical framework for communication-oriented modelling — the COM approach — that is centred around the notion of social visibility as a reputation mechanism. The approach contrasts with agent-based social networks on the one hand, and with bibliometric document networks on the other. In introducing our simulation environment COM/TE, typical properties of message reference networks are discussed in terms of a case study which deals with the impact of different media and styles of communication on emergent patterns of social visibility.Communication, Communication-Oriented Modelling, Message Sign, Dynamic Networks, Bottom-up Approach, Temporality, Social Visibility, Reputation, Socionics

Workforce Aging in Production Systems: Modeling and Performance Evaluation

AbstractHuman factor is considered as a cost effective alternative to expensive automated solutions, as well as an easily interchangeable high flexible resource. However, for many years the influence of human behavior on production system performance has been underestimated and a lot of unrealistic assumptions have been used to simplify the human component modeling.Nowadays, population aging is acknowledged as a global trend. Among individual factors impacting on workers’ performance, high attention is being paid to the age from scientific community, policy-makers and business leaders.The aim of this paper is to provide some highlights about the main scientific literature findings, regarding aging effects, in a quickly consultable and synthetic form; the elements characterizing human performance could then be included in models and ergonomic evaluation tools.In the initial part of the paper, demographic aspects and their implications on workforce composition are illustrated; successively, a state of the art of human behavior modeling is provided and main findings on age-related performance characteristics are summarized

The role of trait self-compassion as a moderator of the relationship between subjective memory impairment and psychological distress in older adults

Introduction: Subjective memory impairment (SMI) refers to the perception of memory difficulties in the absence of objective memory impairment. SMI is a relatively common phenomenon in later life, affecting 43-77% of people over the age 65 years (Larrabee & Crook, 1994). Experience of SMI is associated with psychological distress, e.g., SMI is predictive of symptoms of depression and anxiety (Hurt, Burns, & Barrowclaugh, 2011). Previous research has suggested that self-compassion is positively associated with aspects of well-being in older adults (Phillips & Ferguson, 2012) and has been found to moderate the relationship between subjective physical health and subjective well-being (Allen, Goldwasser & Leary, 2012). Objective: The aim of the study was to extend the research of Allen, Goldwasser and Leary (2012) and investigate whether self-compassion moderates the relationship between subjective memory impairment and memory-related psychological distress in older adults. Methods: A cross-sectional correlational design was used to examine relationships between SMI, psychological distress and trait self-compassion, while controlling for depression and anxiety. A sample of 71 adults over the age of 60 years completed a series of questionnaires to measure the constructs of interest. The Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination – 3 (Hsieh, Shubert, Hoon, Mioshi, & Hodges, 2013) was used to verify that cognitive functioning was in a normal range for the participant’s age. Results: Self-reported psychological distress was significantly positively associated with SMI (r = .51, n = 69, p <.01). The hypothesis that trait self-compassion moderates the relationship between SMI and psychological distress was unsupported (b = .01, t(63) = .51, p = .61). A second, exploratory model, was found to be the best fit for the data, explaining 49% of the variance in memory-related psychological distress. The main effect of Self-Judgement (a subscale of the Self-Compassion Scale) made a significant contribution to explained variance (b = -2.50, t(63) = -3.07 p = .003), however the interaction between Self-Judgement and SMI was non-significant. Conclusion: Self-compassion (specifically self-judgement), does partially explain memory-related distress, even when general levels of anxiety and depression are controlled for. It is not possible to unequivocally say that there is no moderation effect due to the limitations of the sample size, however any effect (if one does exist) is likely to be small and require a very large sample size to detect

'The body in question': presence, paradox and the practice of nursing

Pro-vice chancellor, in my 30th year of being in nursing, it is very special to stand here today in front of family, friends and colleagues – both past and present – and give my inaugural lecture. Occasions like this are, of course, rites of passage, marking the transitions we make in life, from one status or position to another. But today is not merely a celebration of my own rite of passage to professorship. I want it equally to be a way of formally acknowledging the investment others have made in my journey of becoming. My family who have always, through thick and thin, supported my academic ambitions and aspirations. And of course colleagues both past and present, who have over the years and in many different ways influenced my thoughts and actions. This inaugural is therefore a celebration of all our efforts. I wonder what some of you might have thought, when you read the summary of the lecture content on the posters and invitations. Were you interested? Intrigued? Did you understand it? My family told me there were too many big words! So, I hope that in delivering a theoretical inaugural lecture, I can make it understandable, thought-provoking, entertaining and, perhaps most importantly, relevant to our practice as nurses and educationalists. So, let the lecture begin! With respect to the title, the lecture could be about a whole number of different bodies: the body of nursing, the statutory regulatory body, bodies of knowledge, bodies of evidence, professional bodies, a body of people, the body of the nurse, or the body of the patient. However, what I’m going to focus on is what might be described as the ‘literal’ body (as opposed to metaphors of the body) – the body of the patient in particular, and also the body of the nurse. There has been an explosion of writing over the last 20 years, across a range of disciplines on the body and embodiment – that is what it means to live in and through the body. As a predominantly ‘body-based’ profession, nursing serves to benefit significantly from these theoretical insights and yet, with a few notable exceptions, theoretical and empirical investigation of the body in mainstream nursing has remained largely neglected. So, despite the body being so obvious in the work of nurses – the body of the person ‘to-be-healed’ (the patient) and also the body of ‘the healer’ (the nurse) – its presence is strangely absent. This inaugural lecture is all about this paradox. It is arranged in three parts. The first part – ‘presence’– locates my own interest in this area and briefly describes the centrality of our bodies to our existence and identity and how our presence in the world is all body-based. In the second part – ‘paradox’ – I set out a brief history of the development of different forms of authoritative, body-knowledge before reaching the hub of my argument, which is that despite increasing interest in ‘the body’, the emphasis on ‘body theory’ has, paradoxically, left bodies out. In the final section – ‘practice’ – I ask why all this matters and how, through a process of embodied engagement, we might (with thanks to the sociologist Arthur Frank) ‘bring bodies back in’ to nursing

The Influence of Social Location on the Experience of Early Dementia

This thesis investigates the intersections of social class and gender with the early dementia experience. 20 older people with a likely dementia diagnosis were recruited from memory clinic referrals. Unstructured interviews were conducted in the person’s home in the liminal space between referral and formal diagnosis and were analysed using interpretative phenomenological traditions. Drawing on Bourdieusian concepts of habitus and capital allowed a nuanced and complex understanding of meaning creation to be explored. Understandings and meanings of memory loss and dementia were conceptualised by participants in terms of biographical flow and expectations of ageing. Prior experience of dementia caring roles promoted earlier help seeking behaviour, whilst attitudes towards classifying dementia as a mental or physical illness, was a powerful instigator of uncertainty in meaning. The desire to reduce stigma prompted avoidance coping mechanisms in terms of physical withdrawal, and social and mental distancing from potentially challenging situations, and reinterpretation of cognitive limitations. These responses were simultaneously shaped and defended by a sense of a life lived and personal biography, whilst the level of challenge to biographical flow was directly related to the meaning attributed to memory loss. These findings uphold the view that dementia is not universally understood as a wholly devastating illness by those experiencing memory loss, and that services need to take account of personal biography and the level of interruption to biographical flow in assessing the meaning making related to memory loss. ‘One size’ of memory service, does not ‘fit all’

The Diseased Brain and the Failing Mind

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. It is funded by The Wellcome Trust. The Diseased Brain and the Failing Mind charts changing cultural understandings of dementia and alzheimer’s disease in scientific and cultural texts across the 20th Century. Reading a range of texts from the US, UK, Europe and Japan, the book examines how the language of dementia – regarding the loss of identity, loss of agency, loss of self and life – is rooted in scientific discourse and expressed in popular and literary texts. Following changing scientific understandings of dementia, the book also demonstrates how cultural expressions of the experience and dementia have fed back into the way medical institutions have treated dementia patients. The book includes a glossary of scientific terms for non-specialist readers

Latent segmentation of older adults in the use of social networks and e-banking services

Introduction. This study analyses heterogeneity in the online behaviour of elderly people. Previous research has centred on the socio-demographic segmentation of the elderly regarding their Internet use. Method. The novelty that this study adds is in determining this segmentation through variables that have been especially chosen for studies of the elderly and which are related to their utilitarian use of e-banking, compared to the more hedonic nature of using online social networks. Analysis. The sample was collected using 474 students over 55 years old enrolled in a class of experience in a University in the South of Europe (Spain). We use a latent class cluster model which is appropriate in situations of a posterior segmentation. Results. In dealing with such behaviour in situations of the elderly using these technologies, we have detected the presence of five groups or segments with highly differentiated use-related profiles concerning the variables analysed: venturesomeness, technology anxiety and selfconfidence in information and communication technologies use. Conclusion. We discover the existence of heterogeneity in the behaviour of the elderly regarding services available in Internet. The results support the idea proposed. The stereotype of the elderly cut off from technology is mistaken, as is shown by the different segments found