A narrative exploration of changing personal values of Gen Z students on undergraduate programmes in an English university

Narrative inquiry conducted with Gen Z undergraduate students from an English university (studying between 2020 and 2023) indicates that personal values change from the year before starting their degree until their final year, and often as a result of critical incidents or turning points. In this study, personal values were elicited by listening to the voices of Gen Z students through narrative short stories. These include: Rose’s mental health journey, Florence speaking out about her sexuality, James’ consciousness about education and student voice, Joy’s double-life as a commuter student, Teagan’s adventures at a Japanese university and Ann’s terrifying experience of an intruder. This research into the undergraduate student experience was explored through three lenses, with areas identified as original contributions to knowledge. Firstly, a contribution is made to the field of knowledge about Gen Z through a generational lens, providing stories of their changing values between the year before university and their final year. Uniquely, for these Gen Z students, COVID-19 national lockdowns impacted their values of security, sense of belonging, benevolence and hedonism. These findings from short story narrative interviews can be used to better understand the experience of Gen Z students and inform policy and practice, through the development of pedagogical, pastoral and student support approaches. Secondly, a contribution to the development of methodology is made through a narrative lens, via the creation of a bespoke, triad narrative analysis approach. This novel approach to data analysis enabled layered engagement with the data. Noting the importance of reflexivity, working with a peer debriefer supported credibility throughout the data processing, and contributed to the creation of rich, authentic restoryings. Thirdly, a contribution to theory is made through a values lens, using Schwartz’s well-established theory of ten universal personal values (1987,1990). The terms used to expand upon the various meaning of each value (Schwartz, 2006) are presented as part of the restoryings. The study revealed that Schwartz’s theory is applicable within an interpretive paradigm. The research shows that, for Gen Z, the lexicon of Schwartz's model needs modifying. This is because the restoryings showed that the value of mental health is important for Gen Z students, especially those from the LGBT+ community. Therefore, the value of mental health needs to be a priority in universities. In summary, wide-ranging responses in the narrative data illustrate that personal values of Gen Z students are individual and not homogenous

The influence of false interoceptive feedback on emotional state and balance responses to height-induced postural threat

Postural threat elicits a robust emotional response (e.g., fear and anxiety about falling), with concomitant modifications in balance. Recent theoretical accounts propose that emotional responses to postural threats are manifested, in part, from the conscious monitoring and appraisal of bodily signals (‘interoception’). Here, we empirically probe the role of interoception in shaping emotional responses to a postural threat by experimentally manipulating interoceptive cardiac feedback. Sixty young adults completed a single 60-s trial under the following conditions: Ground (no threat) without heart rate (HR) feedback, followed by Threat (standing on the edge of a raised surface), during which participants received either false heart rate feedback (either slow [n=20] or fast [n=20] HR feedback) or no feedback (n=20). Participants provided with false fast HR feedback during postural threat felt more fearful, reported feeling less stable, and rated the task more difficult than participants who did not receive HR feedback, or those who received false slow HR feedback (Cohen’s d effect size = 0.79 – 1.78). However, behavioural responses did not significantly differ across the three groups. When compared to the no HR feedback group, false slow HR feedback did not significantly affect emotional or behavioural responses to the postural threat. These observations provide the first experimental evidence for emerging theoretical accounts describing the role of interoception in the generation of emotional responses to postural threats

Religious Education and Its Interaction with the Spiritual Dimension of Childhood: Teachers’ Perceptions, Understanding and Aspirations

In England, religious education (RE) is a part of the basic curriculum mandatory for all pupils in the compulsory years of schooling. This paper explores how RE and spirituality interact and whether one can contribute to the effective delivery of the other. It explores the experience of a small group of subject leaders working in schools in one local authority area in the West Midlands of England, drawn from schools with a religious affiliation and those without. Using in service training activities, questionnaires and reflective processes, it seeks to elicit their aspirations for the interaction between RE and spirituality (also referred to as meaning-making). The findings suggest the subject leaders have an intention to develop both activity to promote learning and activity to apply that learning to real life experience. This suggests that developing a spiritual dimension to religious education requires a move from the abstract or theoretical and from knowledge acquisition towards increased engagement, making a personal response and considering what difference can be made as a result. As such, a spiritual dimension to learning cannot be passive. The project has the potential to impact policy and practice on both national and international levels, given its focus on values and pedagogy rather than specific curriculum content

Using a bespoke, triad narrative analysis approach with Gen Z students: telling the story of their values

This paper presents an innovative narrative data analysis approach, used in a narrative research project exploring student values. The work of three different authors was drawn upon to create a novel, rigorous and synergistic analysis tool. A novel approach to data analysis, using the stories told by one Generation Z (Gen Z) student and the personal values elicited, which are drawn from Schwartz’s theory of universals in basic human values is presented. This leads to a restorying of the data, from which the reader finds meaning. The participant was interviewed at the beginning of their first year as undergraduate and is presented as an example from the larger study of seven Gen Z students. How this approach is effective is examined, demonstrating that combining theory and the narrative analysis approach enabled the values of self-direction, security, benevolence and power to be exposed within the resulting restorying. This is a new and innovative approach to narrative analysis that can be applied in a wide range of contexts internationally and utilised in future studies

Diurnal cycle of the semi–direct effect from a persistent absorbing aerosol layer over marine stratocumulus in large–eddy simulations

The rapid adjustment, or semi–direct effect, of marine stratocumulus clouds to elevated layers of absorbing aerosols may enhance or dampen the radiative effect of aerosol–radiation interactions. Here we use large eddy simulations to investigate the sensitivity of stratocumulus clouds to the properties of an absorbing aerosol layer located above the inversion layer, with a focus on the location, timing, and strength of the radiative heat perturbation. The sign of the daily mean semi–direct effect depends on the properties and duration of the aerosol layer, the properties of the boundary layer, and the model setup. Our results suggest that the daily mean semi-direct effect is more elusive than previously assessed. We find that the daily mean semi-direct effect is dominated by the distance between the cloud and absorbing aerosol layer. Within the first 24 hours the semi–direct effect is positive but remains under 2 Wm-2 unless the aerosol layer is directly above the cloud. For longer durations, the daily mean semi–direct effect is consistently negative but weakens by 30%, 60%, and 95% when the distance between cloud and aerosol layeris 100m, 250m, and 500m, respectively. Both cloud response and semi–direct effect increase for thinner and denser layers of absorbing aerosol. Considerable diurnal variations in the cloud response mean that an instantaneous semi–direct effect is unrepresentative of the daily mean, and that observational studies may under– or over–estimate semi–direct effects depending on the observed time of day. The cloud response is particularly sensitive to the mixing state of the boundary layer: well-mixed boundary layers generally result in a negative daily mean semi–direct effect, and poorly mixed boundary layers result in a positive daily mean semi–direct effect. Properties of the boundary layer and model setup, particularly the sea surface temperature, precipitation, and properties of the air entrained from the free troposphere, also impact the magnitude of the semi–direct effect and the timescale of adjustment. These results suggest that the semi–direct effect simulated by coarse–resolution models may be erroneous because the cloud response is sensitive to small–scale processes, especially the sources and sinks of buoyancy

Biomarkers as diagnostic or prognostic indicators of delirium: examining the current evidence

Delirium is a substantial global health concern. Delirium can lead to longer hospital stays and increased healthcare costs. Effective detection and prevention of delirium is still a major challenge for health-care organisations globally. This is largely because the cause(s) of the condition are still unknown. There are multiple factors which may contribute to the aetiology of delirium and a range of neurobiological processes that may be associated with its pathophysiology. With this said, evidencing these processes is a significant challenge as there is a dearth of existing methods of identification. Recently, the use of biomarkers has become a popular method in the identification of delirium and its risk of development. The identification of biomarkers associated with delirium may provide insight into its pathophysiology and aid in diagnosis and management. However, there is a lack of research that has synthesised the diagnostic and prognostic value of biomarkers associated with delirium, and how they can be employed to improve patient outcomes. A systematic review by Dunne et al. 2021 was undertaken to explore this association of biomarkers and delirium. This commentary aims to critically appraise the methods used within the review by Dunne et al. (2021) and expand upon the findings in the context of clinical practice

Open Problems in DAOs

Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) are a new, rapidly-growing class of organizations governed by smart contracts. Here we describe how researchers can contribute to the emerging science of DAOs and other digitally-constituted organizations. From granular privacy primitives to mechanism designs to model laws, we identify high-impact problems in the DAO ecosystem where existing gaps might be tackled through a new data set or by applying tools and ideas from existing research fields such as political science, computer science, economics, law, and organizational science. Our recommendations encompass exciting research questions as well as promising business opportunities. We call on the wider research community to join the global effort to invent the next generation of organizations