Involving Children in Health Literacy Research

Despite the volume and breadth of health literacy research related to children, children’s involvement in that research is rare. Research with children is challenging, but the principles of involvement and engagement underpin all health promotion work, including health literacy. This commentary reflects on the process of setting up a Children’s Advisory Group to consult on an institutional ethnography study of health literacy work from children’s standpoint. The Children’s Advisory Group contributed feedback on the study ethics and design and piloted methods for rapport-building and data collection, including livestreamed draw-and-describe and modified Interview to the Double. Consulting with the Children’s Advisory Group highlighted the importance of listening to children and recognizing and valuing children’s imaginative contributions to methods for involving children in health literacy research. Insights from this commentary can be used to foreground equity-focused approaches to future research and practice with children in the field of health literacy

Settings for the development of health literacy: A conceptual review

Advances in conceptualizing settings in health promotion include understanding settings as complex and interlinked systems with a core commitment to health and related outcomes such as health literacy. Traditional settings for the development of health literacy include health care environments and schools. There is a need to identify and conceptualize non-traditional and emerging settings of twenty-first-century everyday life. The aim of this conceptual review is to inform a conceptual model of a “non-traditional” setting for the development of health literacy. The model uses the example of the public library to propose four equity-focused antecedents required in a setting for the development of health literacy: the setting acknowledges the wider determinants of health, is open access, involves local communities in how it is run, and facilitates informed action for health. The review concludes that a settings approach to the development of health literacy can be conceptualized as part of a coordinated “supersetting approach,” where multiple settings work in synergy with each other

The Socio-Economic Value of the Shark-Diving Industry in Fiji

Based on a survey of divers, dive operators, resort managers, estimates business revenues from shark diving and related expenditures by area; tax revenues; and economic benefit to local communities

Public Libraries as Supportive Environments for Children’s Development of Critical Health Literacy

Critical health literacy enables individuals to use cognitive and social resources for informed action on the wider determinants of health. Promoting critical health literacy early in the life-course may contribute to improved health outcomes in the long term, but children’s opportunities to develop critical health literacy are limited and tend to be school-based. This study applies a settings-based approach to analyse the potential of public libraries in England to be supportive environments for children’s development of critical health literacy. The study adopted institutional ethnography as a framework to explore the public library as an everyday setting for children. A children’s advisory group informed the study design. Thirteen children and 19 public library staff and community stakeholders were interviewed. The study results indicated that the public library was not seen by children, staff, or community stakeholders as a setting for health. Its policies and structure purport to develop health literacy, but the political nature of critical health literacy was seen as outside its remit. A supersetting approach in which children’s everyday settings work together is proposed and a conceptual model of the public library role is presented

Development of computer software to analyze entire LANDSAT scenes and to summarize classification results of variable-size polygons

The Forest Pest Management Division (FPMD) of the Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry has the responsibility for conducting annual surveys of the State's forest lands to accurately detect, map, and appraise forest insect infestations. A standardized, timely, and cost-effective method of accurately surveying forests and their condition should enhance the probability of suppressing infestations. The repetitive and synoptic coverage provided by LANDSAT (formerly ERTS) makes such satellite-derived data potentially attractive as a survey medium for monitoring forest insect damage over large areas. Forest Pest Management Division personnel have expressed keen interest in LANDSAT data and have informally cooperated with NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) since 1976 in the development of techniques to facilitate their use. The results of this work indicate that it may be feasible to use LANDSAT digital data to conduct annual surveys of insect defoliation of hardwood forests

Complex-Temperature Singularities in the d=2d=2 Ising Model. III. Honeycomb Lattice

We study complex-temperature properties of the uniform and staggered susceptibilities $\chi$ and $\chi^{(a)}$ of the Ising model on the honeycomb lattice. From an analysis of low-temperature series expansions, we find evidence that $\chi$ and $\chi^{(a)}$ both have divergent singularities at the point $z=-1 \equiv z_{\ell}$ (where $z=e^{-2K}$), with exponents $\gamma_{\ell}'= \gamma_{\ell,a}'=5/2$. The critical amplitudes at this singularity are calculated. Using exact results, we extract the behaviour of the magnetisation $M$ and specific heat $C$ at complex-temperature singularities. We find that, in addition to its zero at the physical critical point, $M$ diverges at $z=-1$ with exponent $\beta_{\ell}=-1/4$, vanishes continuously at $z=\pm i$ with exponent $\beta_s=3/8$, and vanishes discontinuously elsewhere along the boundary of the complex-temperature ferromagnetic phase. $C$ diverges at $z=-1$ with exponent $\alpha_{\ell}'=2$ and at $v=\pm i/\sqrt{3}$ (where $v = \tanh K$) with exponent $\alpha_e=1$, and diverges logarithmically at $z=\pm i$. We find that the exponent relation $\alpha'+2\beta+\gamma'=2$ is violated at $z=-1$; the right-hand side is 4 rather than 2. The connections of these results with complex-temperature properties of the Ising model on the triangular lattice are discussed.Comment: 22 pages, latex, figures appended after the end of the text as a compressed, uuencoded postscript fil

What works in advocating for food advertising policy change across an english region - a realist evaluation.

With increasing recognition of the role of commercial determinants of health, local areas in England have sought to restrict the advertising of products high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) on council-owned spaces, as part of wider strategies to reduce obesity. While there is some evidence of the impact of such policy change on behaviour, little is known about what works in the process of implementing this policy change. Guided by a realist evaluation framework that explores the interaction between context, mechanism and outcomes, this study aims to investigate the factors that influence the restriction of outdoor advertising of HFSS products in one region in England. It refines a programme theory co-produced with stakeholders from 14 local authorities within a region and uses multiple data sources from each area with an in-depth examination of four case study sites. Data sources include longitudinal realist interviews, focus groups and surveys with policy advocates and policy stakeholders. Data were analysed retroductively to understand the causal link between context, mechanism and outcomes. Outcomes were driven by five dominant mechanisms: a strategic and staggered approach to stakeholder engagement, gathering intelligence, identifying policy champions, building relationships, reframing the issue; and two secondary mechanisms of amplifying the issue and increasing public will. These led to varied outcomes with no changes in formal policy position within the evaluation period but draft policy guidance in place and changes in political will demonstrated. Dominant context factors influencing change included having a named and resourced policy advocate in place supported by an external Community of Improvement and having existing aligned local objectives. Organisational complexity and change, financial concerns, lack of local examples, ideological positions and the pandemic were also influencing contextual factors. Effecting policy change in this area requires the commitment of an extended period and the valuing of short-term policy outcomes, such as increasing political will. The importance of a resourced and well-supported policy advocate to lead this work is fundamental and the commercially sensitive nature of this policy change means that a complex interplay of mechanisms is required which may be dominated by a strategically staggered approach to stakeholder engagement. [Abstract copyright: © 2023. BioMed Central Ltd., part of Springer Nature.

Excitation spectrum of bosons in a finite one-dimensional circular waveguide via the Bethe ansatz

The exactly solvable Lieb-Liniger model of interacting bosons in one-dimension has attracted renewed interest as current experiments with ultra-cold atoms begin to probe this regime. Here we numerically solve the equations arising from the Bethe ansatz solution for the exact many-body wave function in a finite-size system of up to twenty particles for attractive interactions. We discuss the novel features of the solutions, and how they deviate from the well-known string solutions [H. B. Thacker, Rev. Mod. Phys.\ \textbf{53}, 253 (1981)] at finite densities. We present excited state string solutions in the limit of strong interactions and discuss their physical interpretation, as well as the characteristics of the quantum phase transition that occurs as a function of interaction strength in the mean-field limit. Finally we compare our results to those of exact diagonalization of the many-body Hamiltonian in a truncated basis. We also present excited state solutions and the excitation spectrum for the repulsive 1D Bose gas on a ring.Comment: 13 pages, 12 figure

Fair game: exploring the dynamics, perception and environmental impact of ‘surplus’ wild foods in England 10kya-present

This paper brings together zooarchaeological data from Neolithic to Post-medieval sites in England to explore the plasticity of cultural attitudes to the consumption of wild animals. It shows how, through time, game has been considered variously as ‘tabooed’ and ‘edible’, each having implications for patterns of biodiversity and wildlife management. The essential points being made are that deeper-time studies can reveal how human perceptions of ‘surplus foods’ have the potential to both create and remedy problems of environmental sustainability and food security. Perhaps more significantly, this paper argues that understanding the bio-cultural past of edible wild animal species has the potential to transform human attitudes to game in the present. This is important at a time when food security and the production of surplus are pressing national and global concerns

Doing public health differently: How can public health departments engage with local communities through social media interventions?

Objectives This paper evaluates a collaborative intervention between public health professionals and local social media administrators, in which the social media site Facebook was used with a view to strengthening engagement with and, dissemination of, core messages and building trust and resilience within local communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Study design A qualitative design was used, exploring the research question: how does collaboration between public health professionals and local social network group administrators create community engagement during a global crisis? Methods Fourteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with public health staff and online group administrators. Data was analysed using framework analysis. Results Collaboration between public health professionals and local group administrators created both opportunities and challenges. Local group administrators had wide reach and trust within the local community, but message credibility was enhanced through local authority involvement. Such collaborations contain inherent tensions due to perceived risks to social capital and independence but can be successful if receiving strong risk-tolerant support from the local authority. Findings are discussed in the context of Bourdieu's theory of social capital to examine how public health information can be delivered by trusted social media actors in communication tailored to the local community. Conclusions Social media provides new channels of communication for delivery of public health messages, enabling new ways of working which create long-term engagement and community building. Although the intervention was developed quickly in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, participants felt it could be mobilised to address a wider range of issues