305 research outputs found
Macho, mobile and resilient? How workers with impairments are doubly disabled in project-based film and television work
© 2016. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 (CC BY-NC 3.0) licence https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ Keith Randle is Professor of Work and Organisation at the Hertfordshire Business School, UK. He has a particular interest in exclusion and inequalities in the creative and cultural industries internationally and has published widely on work and employment in the film and television industries. In 2013 he co-established the interdisciplinary Creative Economy Research Centre (CERC) at the University of Hertfordshire with the aim of bringing together research interests in Business, Humanities and the Creative Arts. Dr Kate Hardy is a Lecturer in Work and Employment Relations at the University of Leeds. Her research interests include paid and unpaid work; gender; agency; the sex industry; materialist feminism; collective organising; political economy; the body; disability and theorising work and employment. Her work has been widely published academically and disseminated through radio and news media. She has co-authored a monograph with Teela Sanders, entitled ‘Flexible Workers: labour, regulation and the political economy of stripping industry’. Kate is committed to developing methodologies which work alongside research participants, in order to undertake socially and politically transformative research.Inequalities in the creative industries are known to be persistent and systemic. The model of production in UK film and television (UKF&TV) is argued to exclude on the basis of gender, race and class. This article considers a social category that has been overlooked in these debates: disability. It argues that workers with impairments are ‘doubly disabled’ – in both the labour markets and labour processes of UKF&TV. It concludes that disability cannot simply be incorporated in an additive way in order to understand the exclusion of these workers, but that they face qualitatively different sources of disadvantage compared with other minorities in UKF&TV workplaces. This has negative implications for workers with impairments in other labour markets, as project and network-based freelance work, a contributor to disadvantage, is seen as both increasingly normative and paradigmatic.Peer reviewe
What are the stressors and coping strategies adopted by undergraduate healthcare students during placement?
This paper aims to explore what the current stressors and coping strategies are in placements for students in undergraduate healthcare programmes.
Pulido-Martos, Augusto-Landa and Lopez-Zafra (2012) suggest that stress levels among healthcare professionals are higher than other workers. Pryjmachuk, Easton and Littlewood (2009) found that approximately 25% of students withdrew from nursing courses due to emotional distress, difficulty in coping and placement. Literature highlights a lack of mentor support as a common stressor (Shivers, Hasson & Slater, 2017; Thomas & Westwood, 2016). However, the literature lacked any exploration into coping strategies. This research therefore focuses on the experiences of individuals from a variety of healthcare professions and explores the use of coping mechanisms.
A qualitative approach was used in order to gain in-depth responses about personal thoughts and experiences (Denny & Weckesser, 2018). A focus group was carried out with participants attending university who were recruited via purposive sampling from a wider convenience sample (Liamputtong, 2011). The data was then analysed using thematic analysis (Clarke & Braun, 2017).
The findings from this study demonstrate that several factors contribute to undergraduate healthcare student stress levels whilst on placement, affecting participants in different ways with some reporting thoughts of discontinuing the course. Five main themes were found in response to sources of stress: placement team, transport, academic factors, personal life and negative mood. Two common themes were found for coping strategies: socialising and distraction.
Gaining students’ perspectives is valuable in understanding issues and beginning to resolve them. This study highlights factors that impact on healthcare students’ stress levels whilst on placement, that also contribute to negative moods such as feeling tired, demotivated and angry. This study demonstrates the benefits of using socialisation and distraction. While healthcare is and will likely remain a stressful career route due to the pressures of care (Pich, 2018), this study highlights areas for improvement
Fabrication and characterisation of a nanocrystal activated Schottky barrier solar cell
Climate change is a reality and a move away from fossil fuels to renewable energy technologies is an essential part of mitigation efforts. Photovoltaics (PV) provide a way to generate clean and renewable energy from a ubiquitous source. Despite this,fossil fuels are still deeply entrenched in the global energy system, in part due to their low cost. Silicon solar cells currently dominate the PV market,however, their levelised cost is relatively high compared to other energy technologies. Therefore, if PV is to achieve its full potential, there is a need to develop low cost solar cells to enable global uptake of this promising technology.
The aim of this research was to demonstrate a nanocrystal (NC) activated Schottky barrier solar cell fabricated using relatively ambient processes. Ti film was anodised or thermally oxidised and the Schottky barrier was subsequently formed at the interface between TiO2 and the noble metal, Au, Ag, or Pt, which were sputtered, evaporated or dropcast in nanowire (NW) form. In the absence of activating nanocrystals, the Schottky barrier functions as an efficient cell but only for UV light due to the wide band gap of TiO2. Nanocrystals with a narrower band gap were deposited on the Schottky barrier to extend the response into the visible region.
The cells fabricated with Ag NWs and Pt provided the largest Schottky barrier heights of 1.02 eV and 1 eV respectively. The Pt device obtained the largest UV photoresponse of 390 μAcm-2 and 721 mV at 330 nm, and external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 18% at 330 nm. The Pt and AgNW cells were subsequently activated with CdS, CdSe, CuO, CuInS2 and CdTe NCs. The CdS-NC/Pt, CdS-NC/Ag-NW, and CuInS2-NC/Ag-NW devices, in particular, provided proof-of-concept, generating a UV photoresponse from the TiO2 and a visible photoresponse from the NCs consistent with the respective band gaps. The optimum EQE measured for the CdS-NC/Pt device was 0.04% at 470 nm. Hence, this work demonstrates the NC activated Schottky barrier solar cell and provides a possible low cost fabrication route for future development
Where Science Meets the Sea: Research Vessels and the Construction of Knowledge in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
This dissertation focuses on the ocean-going research vessel as the fundamental technology of marine scientific investigation by examining a series of ships from Great Britain, Monaco, Germany, and the United States, all built or extensively converted for the purpose of pursuing marine investigations in situ from the mid-nineteenth through the end of the twentieth centuries. It argues that oceanographic ships have served essential symbolic purposes—for individuals, disciplines, patrons, and political entities—even as they have been tools of science and platforms for the development of knowledge of the oceans, and it explicates the co-construction of ocean science, technology, and the career path of the oceanographer during this period. Knowledge of the ocean as a dynamic environment heavily depends upon the practices and technologies of ocean science. By illuminating this relationship, this dissertation uses the history of science and technology to historicize an environment often assumed to have no history.
Case studies examine US naval officer Matthew Fontaine Maury’s studies of the ocean-atmosphere system as a means to increase the safety and reliability of commercial shipping in the mid-nineteenth century; the British scientific circumnavigation by the HMS Challenger expedition, jointly sponsored by the Royal Society of London and the Admiralty in the 1870s; Prince Albert I of Monaco's use of custom-built personal yachts as platforms for oceanography and meteorology during the period from 1884 to 1921; the cooperation between German scientists and naval officers to refit the newly-built gunship Meteor for ocean-going research in the 1920s; and the use of Cold War-era scientific competition by American biologists to push for the dedicated research vessels that would help them break from the shadow of physical oceanography, which had made significant gains in funding and scale following World War II. The broad chronological and geographical frame provides a comparative canvas on which to examine historical questions surrounding shifting models of patronage, authority, and hierarchy; fluid disciplinary boundaries; and the interplay of culture, class, and gender at the overlap of the scientific and maritime environments
Hunter New England Area Health Service pilot telehealth high risk foot clinic: connecting Tamworth and Newcastle
Minority Women in the Healthcare Workforce in New England
Research on health disparities affecting people of color typically focuses on their health status, health treatment and health outcomes with a particular emphasis on the relatively high rates of morbidity and mortality from selected diseases for ethnic and racial minority groups. This fact sheet offers a different but related focus on gender and race/ethnicity in the health care workforce. Our rationale is that the Sullivan Commission on Diversity in the Healthcare Workforce concluded that the lack of minority doctors, nurses and dentists is a significant cause of racial/ethnic health disparities and that the ability to recruit, train and retain minority health care professionals is critical in any effort to reduce health disparities in the future
Patient reported outcome measures for measuring dignity in palliative and end of life care : a scoping review
BACKGROUND: Patient reported outcome measures are frequently used standard questionnaires or tools designed to collect information from patients regarding their health status and care. Their use enables accurate and relevant insight into changes in health, quality of life, and symptom severity to be acquired. The purpose of this scoping review was to identify PROMs that had been subject to rigorous development and were suitable for use in palliative and end of life care for clinical practice and/or research purposes. The review had a specific focus on measures which could be used to assess perceptions of dignity in these contexts. METHODS: A scoping review of English-language papers published between 2005 and 2015. Searches were devised in conjunction with an information science specialist and were undertaken in Medline; PsycINFO; EMBASE; CINAHL; Social Science Citation Index; ASSIA; CENTRAL; CDSR; DARE; HTA; Oxford PROM Bibliography; PROQOLID, using dignity related terms such as personhood; dignity or dignified; patient-centred care; which were linked (via the Boolean operator "AND") to care-related terms such as terminal care; hospice care; palliative care; end of life. Papers were assessed against inclusion criteria and appraised for quality. RESULTS: The search strategy produced an initial 7845 articles. After three rounds of eligibility assessment, eight articles discussing eight patients reported outcome measures were found to meet the inclusion criteria and were included in the final review. These underwent a thorough critical appraisal process. All seven studies were empirical research focused on the development and testing of a PROM. CONCLUSIONS: The eight patient reported outcome measures had all undergone some psychometric testing, and covered dignity aspects suggesting that they could be considered for use for research purposes to assess dignity. There were also indications that some could be implemented into a clinical setting. However, each measure had limitations and scope for further development
Strongholds of Ostrea edulis populations in estuaries in Essex, SE England and their association with traditional oyster aquaculture: evidence to support a MPA designation
The flat oyster Ostrea edulis has declined significantly in European waters since the 1850s as a result of anthropogenic activity. Ostrea edulis was designated a UK Biodiversity Action Plan Species and Habitat in 1995, and as a Feature of Conservation Importance (FOCI) within the UK Marine & Coastal Access Act 2009. To promote the recovery of oyster beds, a greater understanding of its abundance and distribution is required. Distribution of O. edulis across the proposed Blackwater, Crouch, Roach and Colne MCZ in Essex was determined between 2008 and 2012. Ostrea edulis were present in four estuary zones; with highest sample abundance in the Blackwater and Ray Sand zones. Size structure of populations varied, with the Ray Sand and Colne zones showing a significant lack of individuals with shell height <39 mm. Ostrea edulis occurred in highest number on shell substratum, followed by silty sediments. There were no significant associations between O. edulis abundance or size structure with water column Chl a, suspended solids, oxygen, nitrate or ammonium concentrations, temperature or pH. Highest abundance and most equitable population shell-size distribution for O. edulis were located within, or adjacent to, actively managed aquaculture zones. This suggests that traditional seabed management contributed to the maintenance or recovery of the species of conservation concern. Demonstration that the Essex estuaries were a stronghold for Ostrea edulis in the southern North sea area led to the designation of the Blackwater, Crouch, Roach and Colne estuaries Marine Conservation Zone in 2013
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