A guide to research with care homes

Purpose - A growing older population with complex care needs, including dementia, are living in care homes. It is important to support researchers in conducting ethical and appropriate work in this complex research environment. The purpose of this paper is to discuss key issues in care homes research including examples of best practice. The intention is to inform researchers across disciplines, leading to more sensitive and meaningful care home research practice. Design/methodology/approach - Experienced care homes researchers were invited to provide methodological insights and details not already reported in their publications. These have been analysed, creating key themes and linked to project publications. Findings - The need for reflexivity was a key finding. In particular, researchers need to: appreciate that the work is complex; see participants as potential research partners; and consider how cognitive and physical frailty of residents, staffing pressures and the unique environments of care homes might impact upon their research. Other challenges include recruitment and consenting people who lack mental capacity. Research limitations/implications - As the care homes research landscape continues to develop and grow, there still remains limited reflection and discussion of methodological issues with a need for a "safe space" for researchers to discuss challenges. Originality/value - This review is an updated methodological guide for care homes researchers, also highlighting current gaps in the mechanisms for continuing to share best research practice

Collaborative learning based on a micro-webserver remote test controller

This paper presents a remote test workbench that was developed to support on-line assignments dealing with the IEEE 1149.1 standard test access port and boundary-scan architecture. The remote test controller is based on the DS80C400 networked microcontroller from Maxim-Dallas, which offers a very cost-effective solution to the development of micro-webservers enabling low complexity data acquisition and control tasks. All remote experiments are integrated into Moodle in exactly the same way as the remaining courseware that is made available to the students. The use of Moodle facilitates the implementation of collaborative learning activities based on the remote test workbench, and the development of the workbench itself is the subject of a collaborative learning project involving students from the universities of Porto in Portugal and South Australia at Adelaide

Lorentz-breaking effects in scalar-tensor theories of gravity

In this work, we study the effects of breaking Lorentz symmetry in scalar-tensor theories of gravity taking torsion into account. We show that a space-time with torsion interacting with a Maxwell field by means of a Chern-Simons-like term is able to explain the optical activity in syncrotron radiation emitted by cosmological distant radio sources. Without specifying the source of the dilaton-gravity, we study the dilaton-solution. We analyse the physical implications of this result in the Jordan-Fierz frame. We also analyse the effects of the Lorentz breaking in the cosmic string formation process. We obtain the solution corresponding to a cosmic string in the presence of torsion by keeping track of the effects of the Chern-Simons coupling and calculate the charge induced on this cosmic string in this framework. We also show that the resulting charged cosmic string gives us important effects concerning the background radiation.The optical activity in this case is also worked out and discussed.Comment: 10 pages, no figures, ReVTex forma

Model-driven engineering techniques and tools for machine learning-enabled IoT applications: A scoping review

This paper reviews the literature on model-driven engineering (MDE) tools and languages for the internet of things (IoT). Due to the abundance of big data in the IoT, data analytics and machine learning (DAML) techniques play a key role in providing smart IoT applications. In particular, since a significant portion of the IoT data is sequential time series data, such as sensor data, time series analysis techniques are required. Therefore, IoT modeling languages and tools are expected to support DAML methods, including time series analysis techniques, out of the box. In this paper, we study and classify prior work in the literature through the mentioned lens and following the scoping review approach. Hence, the key underlying research questions are what MDE approaches, tools, and languages have been proposed and which ones have supported DAML techniques at the modeling level and in the scope of smart IoT services.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Income and Subjective Financial Well-Being as Determining Factors of Life Satisfaction

The purpose of the investment is to improve the current level of life satisfaction by achieving investment goals. Investors tend to attain high levels of life satisfaction when their investment goals are achieved and lower levels of life satisfaction when goals are far from achievement. The idiosyncratic characteristics of an individual may often hamper the achievement of investment goals and ultimately influence the level of life satisfaction. These characteristics can either contribute towards low life satisfaction or high life satisfaction. Income and the subjective financial well-being play a determining role in whether an investor has a positive or negative life satisfaction. Hence, the aim of this study was to determine whether income and subjective financial well-being have an influence on the life satisfaction of investors. The results of this study reveal that a strong relationship exists between income, financial well-being, and life satisfaction. Investors who perceived themselves, to have high financial well-being were more likely to have high life satisfaction. On the contrary, investors with low perceived financial well-being were more likely to have low life satisfaction. Similar results were observed for income and life satisfaction since a positive relationship was also found

Thermogravimetric analysis of aluminised E-glass fibre reinforced unsaturated polyester composites

Novel aluminised E-glass fibre reinforced unsaturated polyester composites, originally formulated for enhanced thermal and electrical shielding properties were evaluated in terms of their thermal performance. The thermal degradation of these specimens was analysed using a thermogravimetric analyser (TGA). The samples were heated from ambient temperature to 500 °C at a heating rate of 20 °C/min. All specimens were decomposed under dry nitrogen (N2) at a flow rate of 40 ml/min to yield gases and solid char. Aluminised E-glass composites were compared alongside the unmetallised E-glass and unreinforced composite. The major weight loss occurred between 200 and 400 °C. The unreinforced polyester had a maximum weight loss, 1.25%/°C, occurring at 360 °C. For the aluminised and unmetallised E-glass composites, the maximum rate of weight loss was 0.34 and 0.55%/°C, respectively. Experimental results show the degradation of the aluminised E-glass composites obtained from TGA tests is higher compared to those of unmetallised E-glass fibre and unreinforced polyester composite. This improvement is correlated to the aluminium coating.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6TXX-4M2WP4H-2/1/bef16e64695f47cabc7a3f55ce5b745