Co-existing Notions of Research Quality : A framework to study context-specific understandings of good research

Notions of research quality are contextual in many respects: they varybetween fields of research, between review contexts and between policy contexts.Yet, the role of these co-existing notions in research, and in research policy, ispoorly understood. In this paper we offer a novel framework to study and understandresearch quality across three key dimensions. First, we distinguish betweenquality notions that originate in research fields (Field-type) and in research policyspaces (Space-type). Second, drawing on existing studies, we identify three attributes(often) considered important for ‘good research’: its originality/novelty, plausibility/reliability, and value or usefulness. Third, we identify five different sites wherenotions of research quality emerge, are contested and institutionalised: researchersthemselves, knowledge communities, research organisations, funding agencies andnational policy arenas. We argue that the framework helps us understand processesand mechanisms through which ‘good research’ is recognised as well as tensionsarising from the co-existence of (potentially) conflicting quality notions.QC 20190903</p

Fairness, Equality and Health: Towards a Gender-Oriented Perspective

The gender perspective includes not only sex differences among human beings but rather social, cultural and economic attributes related with femininity and masculinity in a certain culture. Gender inequalities mean disadvantages and marginalisation caused by social norms and stereotypes. Most of gender inequalities impact on women; but this can happen also towards men and LGBT people. Gender equity is the process of being fair to women and men, while gender equality is the equal enjoyment by women and men of socially valued goods, opportunities, resources and rewards. Gender equity and gender equality are part of the international policy agendas since long time, but in the last decades, the emphasis on this issue has increased: UN, OECD, the European Commission and other international or national governmental organisms put in their agendas important issues concerning gender equity and equality. Gender equality is related with the protection of human rights, the functioning of democracy, the respect for the rule of law and the economic growth and competitiveness. Gender equality is a condition for human health, well-being and fulfilment

Developing an Integrated History and future of People on Earth (IHOPE)

The Integrated History and future of People of Earth (IHOPE) initiative is a global network of researchers and research projects with its International Program Office (IPO) now based at the Stockholm Resilience Center (SRC), Upsalla University, Arizona State University, Portland State University, and the Australian National University. Research linked to IHOPE demonstrates that Earth system changes in the past have been strongly associated with changes in the coupled human-environment system. IHOPE supports integrating knowledge and resources from the biophysical and the social sciences and the humanities to address analytical and interpretive issues associated with coupled human-earth system dynamics. This integration of human history and Earth system history is a timely and important task. Until recently, however, there have been few attempts at such integration. IHOPE will create frameworks that can be used to help achieve this integration. The overarching goal is to produce a rich understanding of the relationships between environmental and human processes over the past millennia. IHOPE recognizes that one major challenge for reaching this goal is developing ?workable? terminology that can be accepted by scholars of all disciplines. The specific objectives for IHOPE are to identify slow and rapidly moving features of complex social-ecological systems, on local to continental spatial scales, which induce resilience, stress, or collapse in linked systems of humans in nature. These objectives will be reached by exploring innovative ways of conducting inter and transdisciplinary science, including theory, case studies, and integrated modeling. Examples of projects underway to implement this initiative are briefly discussed

Can the impact of gender equality on health be measured? a cross-sectional study comparing measures based on register data with individual survey-based data

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to investigate potential associations between gender equality at work and self-rated health. METHODS: 2861 employees in 21 companies were invited to participate in a survey. The mean response rate was 49.2%. The questionnaire contained 65 questions, mainly on gender equality and health. Two logistic regression analyses were conducted to assess associations between (i) self-rated health and a register-based company gender equality index (OGGI), and (ii) self-rated health and self-rated gender equality at work. RESULTS: Even though no association was found between the OGGI and health, women who rated their company as "completely equal" or "quite equal" had higher odds of reporting "good health" compared to women who perceived their company as "not equal" (OR = 2.8, 95% confidence interval = 1.4 -- 5.5 and OR = 2.73, 95% CI = 1.6-4.6). Although not statistically significant, we observed the same trends in men. The results were adjusted for age, highest education level, income, full or part-time employment, and type of company based on the OGGI. CONCLUSIONS: No association was found between gender equality in companies, measured by register-based index (OGGI), and health. However, perceived gender equality at work positively affected women's self-rated health but not men's. Further investigations are necessary to determine whether the results are fully credible given the contemporary health patterns and positions in the labour market of women and men or whether the results are driven by selection patterns.Artikeln har vid publiceringen fått en annan titel än den hade vid publiceringen av avhandlingen. Tidigare titel: Do gender-equal workplaces contribute to good health?</p

Walking Time Is associated With Hippocampal Volume in Overweight and Obese Office Workers

Objectives: To investigate the long-term effects on cognition and brain function after installing treadmill workstations in offices for 13 months. Methods: Eighty healthy overweight or obese office workers aged 40–67 years were individually randomized to an intervention group, receiving a treadmill workstation and encouraging emails, or to a control group, continuing to work as usual. Effects on cognitive function, hippocampal volume, prefrontal cortex (PFC) thickness, and circulating brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) were analyzed. Further, mediation analyses between changes in walking time and light-intensity physical activity (LPA) on changes in BDNF and hippocampal volume between baseline and 13 months, and multivariate analyses of the baseline data with percentage sitting time as the response variable, were performed. Results: No group by time interactions were observed for any of the outcomes. In the mediation analyses, positive associations between changes in walking time and LPA on changes in hippocampal volume were observed, although not mediated by changes in BDNF levels. In the multivariate analyses, a negative association between percentage sitting time and hippocampal volume was observed, however only among those older than 51 years of age. Conclusion: Although no group by time interactions were observed, our analyses suggest that increased walking and LPA may have positive effects on hippocampal volume and that sedentary behavior is associated with brain structures of importance for memory functions. Trial Registration: www.ClinicalTrials.gov as NCT01997970

One-Pot Synthesis and Pelletizing of Polyethylenimine-Containing Mesoporous Silica Powders for CO₂ Capture

Polyethylenimine-containing mesoporous silica powders (PEI-MSP) were prepared through one-pot synthesis from mixtures of tetraethyl orthosilicate and PEI in water/methanol. This proposed route required only 4% of reaction time and energy and used 50% of chemical reagents used in two-step synthesis of PEI-loaded SBA-15 (PEI/SBA) prepared through impregnation, thereby decreasing the cost of the resulting adsorbents. The PEI component in the one-pot route functioned not only to provide amine active sites for CO₂ capture but also as a basic catalyst and a pore-structure-directing agent. The pelletized PEI-MSP using our proposed binder solution possessed high mechanical strength, durability, and CO₂ adsorption capacity and recovery, satisfying industrial requirements and reducing the pressure drop in practical use. Dynamic adsorption–desorption cycles of PEI-MSP powders and pellets revealed high thermal stabilities. Therefore, this one-pot synthetic route is promising for preparing PEI-MSP as appropriate adsorbents for CO₂ capture when using a temperature swing adsorption technology

Treadmill workstations in office workers who are overweight or obese : a randomised controlled trial

Background: Treadmill workstations that enable office workers to walk on a treadmill while working at their computers might increase physical activity in offices, but long-term effects are unknown. We therefore investigated whether treadmill workstations in offices increased daily walking time. Methods: We did a randomised controlled trial of healthy office workers who were either overweight or obese. We recruited participants from 13 different companies, which comprised 17 offices, in Umeå, Sweden. We included people who were aged 40-67 years, had sedentary work tasks, and had a body-mass index (BMI) between 25 kg/m2 and 40 kg/m2. After the baseline measurement, we stratified participants by their BMI (25-30 kg/m2 and &gt;30 to 40 kg/m2); subsequently, an external statistician randomly assigned these participants (1:1) to either the intervention group (who received treadmill workstations for optional use) or the control group (who continued to work at their sit-stand desks as usual). Participants in the intervention group received reminders in boosting emails sent out to them at four occasions during the study period. Researchers were masked to group assignment until after analysis of the primary outcome. After the baseline measurement, participants were not masked to group belongings. The primary outcome was total daily walking time at weekdays and weekends, measured at baseline, 2 months, 6 months, 10 months, and 13 months with the accelerometer activPAL (PAL Technologies, Glasgow, UK), which was worn on the thigh of participants for 24 h a day for 7 consecutive days. We used an intention-to-treat approach for our analyses. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT01997970, and is closed to new participants. Findings: Between Nov 1, 2013, and June 30, 2014, a total of 80 participants were recruited and enrolled (n=40 in both the intervention and control groups). Daily walking time during total time awake at weekdays increased between baseline and 13 months by 18 min (95% CI 9 to 26) in the intervention group and 1 min (-7 to 9) in the control group (difference 22 min [95% CI 7 to 37], pinteraction=0·00045); for weekend walking, the change from baseline to 13 months was 5 min (-8 to 18) in the intervention group and 8 min (-5 to 21) in the control group (difference -1 min [-19 to 17]; pinteraction=0·00045). Neither measure met our predetermined primary outcome of 30 min difference in total walking time between the intervention and control group, so the primary outcome of the trial was not met. One adverse event was reported in a participant who accidently stepped on their Achilles tendon. Interpretation: In a sedentary work environment, treadmill workstations result in a statistically significant but smaller-than-expected increase in daily walking time. Future studies need to investigate how increasing physical activity at work might have potentially compensatory effects on non-work activity

Hägerstrand as Historian : Innovation, diffusion and the processual landscape

QC 20200806</p