13,481 research outputs found
Balancing the urban stomach: public health, food selling and consumption in London, c. 1558-1640
Until recently, public health histories have been predominantly shaped by medical and scientific perspectives, to the neglect of their wider social, economic and political contexts. These medically-minded studies have tended to present broad, sweeping narratives of health policy's explicit successes or failures, often focusing on extraordinary periods of epidemic disease viewed from a national context. This approach is problematic, particularly in studies of public health practice prior to 1800. Before the rise of modern scientific medicine, public health policies were more often influenced by shared social, cultural, economic and religious values which favoured maintaining hierarchy, stability and concern for 'the common good'. These values have frequently been overlooked by modern researchers. This has yielded pessimistic assessments of contemporary sanitation, implying that local authorities did not care about or prioritise the health of populations. Overly medicalised perspectives have further restricted historians' investigation and use of source material, their interpretation of multifaceted and sometimes contested cultural practices such as fasting, and their examination of habitual - and not just extraordinary - health actions. These perspectives have encouraged a focus on reactive - rather than preventative - measures.
This thesis contributes to a growing body of research that expands our restrictive understandings of pre-modern public health. It focuses on how public health practices were regulated, monitored and expanded in later Tudor and early Stuart London, with a particular focus on consumption and food-selling. Acknowledging the fundamental public health value of maintaining urban foodways, it investigates how contemporaries sought to manage consumption, food production waste, and vending practices in the early modern City's wards and parishes. It delineates the practical and political distinctions between food and medicine, broadly investigates the activities, reputations of and correlations between London's guild and itinerant food vendors and licensed and irregular medical practitioners, traces the directions in which different kinds of public health policy filtered up or down, and explores how policies were enacted at a national and local level. Finally, it compares and contrasts habitual and extraordinary public health regulations, with a particular focus on how perceptions of and actual food shortages, paired with the omnipresent threat of disease, impacted broader aspects of civic life
Recommended from our members
Using Digital Storytelling in Science: Meaning Making with Students aged 10-12 years old
Meaning making is an essential aspect of learning as a process of interpreting and negotiating information while sharing it with others. One way of meaning making is through (digital) storytelling. The process of creating and telling a story depends on how one can see their understanding of something come together and make sense and it is considered a (socio) constructivist strategy of learning. The purpose and contribution of this research are to explore how digital storytelling may support engagement in meaning-making as students externalise their understanding of the science topic of matter. To this aim, two digital storytelling activities were constructed – SEeDS (Sequencing of Events enabling Digital Storytelling) and Narration. The two activities included the same content but differed in structure. SEeDS presented the story scenes in an order that was not predefined and Narration in a predefined order. Both activities derived elements from the theoretical concept of Tricky Topics and Stumbling Blocks (SBs). This research was informed by the theory of Problem-based learning.
Participants were sixty-one Greek primary students aged 10-12 years old and twenty-two English secondary students aged 11-12 years old. Half students worked through the SEeDS activity and the rest through the Narration activity. Students worked cooperatively in small teams to implement the two activities. A systematic analysis of the collected data was conducted using qualitative methods. Findings revealed that the two activities had supported the Greek and English students in externalising their understanding of many scientific concepts included in the topic of matter, while it identified gaps in their prior knowledge. The two activities have also facilitated the instinctive use of exploratory talk over the other two types (cumulative and disputational talk) that can often be found in peer talk in science learning. Finally, the two activities appeared to have engaged students in the two contexts, as they allowed them to own the story creation whilst working independently. Finally, the Greek and English students viewed the SEeDS activity as challenging, making it hard to complete and at times tiring and confusing, and the Narration activity as easy to implement, giving students the opportunity to mainly focus on inventing the story plot.
This research makes a valuable contribution to the literature on making meaning in science, offering new insights about the use of problem-based stories supported by mobile technology. The findings provide opportunities to further explore the practical application of problem-based digital storytelling activities, which are hard thinking and challenging, across different age groups and cultural contexts. There is a need for teaching practices to be based on socio-constructivist learning approaches that focus on students’ thinking, not performance. Therefore, the implications of this research are relevant to a number of educational contexts and levels
Spattered with Words: a stylistic toolkit accounting for the 'theatricality' behind the playwright/screenwriter's use of real and improvised language in creating drama texts.
This thesis documents investigations into the success (or not) of real, spontaneous dialogue when applied to the creation of a script for dramatic performance. The accounting for such success delves into different theoretical frameworks: conversation theory, stylistics, Cognitive Poetics, narratology, and extended cognition. This is therefore an interdisciplinary perspective, with ideas emerging from the fields of psychology, philosophy, literary stylistics and linguistics; yet all applied within the context of drama and performance. As such, this thesis may be seen as a playwright's 'toolbox' where the different views, as they necessarily overlap, can be seen as elements, which, when taken together, account for (and help in) the decisions an author may make in creating a text out of improvised speech. The investigation is also a search for the notion of 'theatricality' in the context of authentic speech and uses various forms of theatrical performance as examples, ranging from amateur improvisation to TV and film productions, Commedia dell'Arte to modern, immersive theatre. Finally, application of the theoretical frameworks is made to a current theatre project, The Plant
Relaciones intergeneracionales: beneficios, satisfacción y limitaciones derivadas de la práctica de actividades presenciales y virtuales = Intergenerational relationships: benefits, satisfaction, and limitations derived from the practice of face-to-face and virtual activities
421 p.Introducción Durante las últimas décadas, el aislamiento social y la soledad entre los adultos mayores ha conducido a un mayor interés en el estudio de las relaciones intergeneracionales. Los programas intergeneracionales constituyen una gran oportunidad para que los adultos mayores conecten con personas de otras generaciones. Numerosos estudios han descrito los efectos beneficiosos de estos programas, mejorando la salud mental y fÃsica de las personas mayores y contribuyendo a una mejor formación académica y habilidades sociales en los niños.
Las tecnologÃas digitales se han vuelto necesarias para realizar las actividades diarias de personas de todas las edades, incluyendo cada vez más a las personas mayores. Las TICs y las herramientas virtuales pueden ofrecer una gran oportunidad para que los adultos mayores conecten con personas de otras generaciones, lo que producirá beneficios en su calidad de vida y bienestar.
Preguntas de investigación ¿Las intervenciones de base empÃrica empleadas para la evaluación de los efectos de las interacciones intergeneracionales cumplen los indicadores IBE y en ello influye el tipo de modalidad presencial, virtual o combinada? ¿La realización de actividades intergeneracionales de tipo presencial tiene un impacto positivo, en relación a sus beneficios, satisfacción y limitaciones, en todas las personas involucradas? ¿La realización de actividades intergeneracionales mediante el uso de herramientas virtuales tiene un impacto positivo, en relación a sus beneficios, satisfacción y limitaciones, en todas las personas involucradas? Objetivos Identificar los elementos relevantes que aseguran la eficacia de las intervenciones intergeneracionales tanto presenciales como virtuales.
Evaluar los beneficios, la satisfacción y las limitaciones de las interacciones intergeneracionales derivadas de la realización de actividades presenciales.
Analizar los beneficios, la satisfacción y las limitaciones de las interacciones intergeneracionales derivadas del uso de herramientas virtuales.
Resultados Revisión sistemática (ArtÃculo IV): Los análisis descriptivos y multivariados realizados mostraron que los programas con mayor número de controles IBE tienen mayor eficacia, independientemente del modo de intervención empleado, y que esta eficacia también está modulada por otras variables como la discapacidad de los participantes, su nivel de alfabetización o su pertenencia a una institución.
Análisis de los beneficios, la satisfacción y las limitaciones derivadas de la realización de actividades intergeneracionales presenciales (ArtÃculo VIII): El análisis de las variables sociodemográficas reveló que personas de 40 años o más, con autonomÃa personal, solteras o casadas, convivientes con su pareja y/u otro familiar y no jubilados realizaban actividades presenciales con personas de otra generación con una frecuencia significativamente mayor que el resto de grupos para cada variable. La mayorÃa de los encuestados que participaron en actividades intergeneracionales presenciales indicaron beneficios en su salud fÃsica y mental, estado de ánimo, relaciones, autodeterminación, participación social y educación académica. La mayorÃa de los participantes se mostraron bastante o muy satisfechos con la persona con la que realizaban este tipo de actividades, especialmente si esta persona era un amigo o un familiar cercano. Excepto los abuelos, las personas que participaron en actividades intergeneracionales presenciales y que no tenÃan limitaciones o discapacidades fueron las que indicaron los participantes con mayor frecuencia.
Análisis de los beneficios, la satisfacción y las limitaciones derivadas de la realización de actividades intergeneracionales virtuales (ArtÃculo IX): El análisis de los datos sociodemográficos de los encuestados mostró asociaciones significativas entre el uso de redes sociales y todas las variables analizadas, excepto su nivel de autonomÃa. La mayorÃa de los participantes que participaron en actividades intergeneracionales virtuales refirieron beneficios en su participación social, relaciones, estado de ánimo, salud mental y educación académica. Además, la mayorÃa de los participantes estaban bastante o muy satisfechos con la persona con la que utilizaron las herramientas virtuales, especialmente si esta persona era un amigo, su pareja, un hermano, otro familiar o un colega. Excepto los abuelos, las personas que participaron en actividades intergeneracionales virtuales y que no tenÃan limitaciones o discapacidades fueron las indicadas por los participantes más frecuentemente.
Conclusiones El uso de herramientas digitales ofrece una gran oportunidad para el desarrollo de programas intergeneracionales con beneficios tanto para los niños y jóvenes como para los adultos mayores. Sin embargo, se ha identificado la necesidad de incrementar el número de intervenciones de tipo virtual que puedan mejorar la eficacia de las actividades realizadas y, al mismo tiempo, asegurar que se cumplan los indicadores de base empÃrica.
Las interacciones intergeneracionales, tanto de tipo presencial como aquellas basadas en el uso de herramientas virtuales, pueden contribuir a mejorar la salud tanto fÃsica como mental, las habilidades y las relaciones sociales de todas las personas involucradas
School Reintegration Following Hospital Treatment for an Eating Disorder; Two Case Studies with Multiple Perspectives on the Reintegration Process
School reintegration following hospitalisation has been explored for children and young people (CYP) with medical and mental health needs. No previous research was identified that specifically focused on the experiences of CYP who have returned to school following inpatient care for an eating disorder. A multiple case study design was used to retrospectively explore the experiences of two young people who successfully reintegrated to school following hospital support for an eating disorder. The study compromised of two case studies. The research focused on exploring ‘what went well’ and ‘what could have been even better’ during the school reintegration process.
Semi-structured interviews were used in two case studies of a young person who had spent time at inpatient unit for over 6 months for support with anorexia nervosa before reintegrating into sixth form. Views were gathered from four participants in each case study: the young person, their parent, the young person's previous hospital school key teacher and the home school key person (who supported with the reintegration). The interviews were carried out remotely, via Microsoft Teams, due to the coronavirus pandemic. The dataset from each case study was analysed separately using thematic analysis and an overall thematic map was presented for the findings from each case study.
Three themes were identified in Case Study One: young person’s strengths, preparation for young person’s return and supportive relationships and environment. Four themes were identified in Case Study Two: young person’s internal motivators and external motivators, preparing for school return, support systems, and sense of school belonging and connectedness. Findings are discussed in relation to previous research that has explored school reintegration following hospital support for mental health difficulties more broadly and psychological theory. Strengths, limitations and implications for schools, families and educational psychologists are highlighted. Recommendations for future research are also discussed
Visuospatial Executive Functions are Improved by Brief Brain Training in Young Rugby Players - Evidence of Far Transfer Test Effects: A Pilot Study
Brain training apps are becoming increasingly popular for at home use and as an adjunct to more traditional therapies. There is uncertainty about whether the effects of brain training transfer to real-world cognition, or performance on other cognitive assessment tests, or is specific only to the brain training app. Executive functions (EF’s) are higher-order cognitive processes important for activities of everyday living and autonomous goal-directed behaviour [1]. EF’s are associated with frontal brain networks that are susceptible to injury after head trauma and concussion so it is important to know whether these functions can be trained after a short training period (transfer effects beyond gains on app play), to general cognitive ability but findings so far have been mixed. The present study investigated efficacy of brief computerised brain training to in producing far-transfer effects to performance on standardised clinical tests of cognition in young rugby players with mixed concussion history, over a 4-week period. Athletes cognitive ability was assessed at baseline and after the training period on standardised tests to establish whether there were transfer effects. The putative relationship between concussion frequency and severity on baseline cognitive performance was also investigated. Results showed effective transfer effects from initial training to selective visuospatial executive functions. There was also a decline over the training period in non-verbal strategy initiation, although ability remained at average levels. Players showed no cognitive deficits at baseline, but correlational analyses and MR results indicated that concussion frequency, not severity, was a significant predictor of some visuospatial executive function scores at baseline. These preliminary findings hold promise for full scale studies investigating efficacy of brief brain training and association between sport-related concussion and cognition
- …