Trends and drivers of end-use energy demand and the implications for managing energy in food supply chains: Synthesising insights from the social sciences

AbstractThe Climate Change Act commits the UK Government to an ambitious 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050; this paper provides a consumer focused framework to devise, inform and evaluate potential interventions to reduce energy demand and emissions in food supply chains. Adopting a Life cycle Assessment (LCA) framing we explore the relationship between production and consumption by reviewing trends in the food sector with implications for energy demand. Secondly, a multidisciplinary review of the literature on sustainable consumption is structured around the ISM (Individual, Social, Material Contexts) framework devised by Southerton et al., bringing insights from a range of theoretical perspectives. Combined, these frameworks complement LCA approaches to mapping and quantifying emissions hotspots in a supply chain in two ways.First, production and consumption must be considered with the ‘consumer’ interactive throughout, one of many factors affecting energy use at each stage, rather than restricted to the end of a supply chain. Second, when considering consumption patterns and how they might be changed, drawing on the insights of multiple disciplines allows for a fuller array of potential interventions to be identified. Given the complexity of the food system and the range of relevant sustainability goals, there are several areas in which the ‘preferred trajectories’ for ‘more sustainable’ consumption patterns are unclear, particularly where data on variation, causal relationships and longitudinal change is lacking. Technical and social understandings of ‘desirable’ change in the food sector must continue to be developed in parallel to achieve such challenging reductions in emissions

The role of autonomy support and integration in predicting and changing behaviour: theoretical and practical perspectives on self-determination theory

This thesis reports six studies adopting a self-determination theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 1985) approach to understanding motivation and behaviour in health and social contexts. The research focuses on the internalisation and integration of goals and motives extrinsic to the individual and the effects of internalisation on psychological and behavioural outcomes. Two studies also explore the role of social agents in facilitating internalisation through provision of autonomy support. The research addresses gaps in the SDT literature and contributes to the advancement of theory and practice. A meta-analysis of effects of autonomy support on health-related psychological and behavioural outcomes (Chapter 2), based on the methods of Hunter and Schmidt (1994), indicated the significance and consistency of adaptive effects of autonomy support across the literature. A path analysis was also used to test a modified representation of Williams et al.’s (2006) SDT process model of health-related behaviour. Results supported the motivational sequence postulated within the model, as the effect of autonomy support on behaviour was mediated by need satisfaction and autonomous motivation. The studies reported in Chapters 3 and 4 make a novel contribution to the SDT health literature by employing measures of chronically-accessible physical activity outcomes and motives to represent spontaneous motivational influences on behaviour. The results presented in Chapter 3 indicated that chronically-accessible appearance-related outcomes are associated with controlling forms of motivation, while the findings reported in Chapter 4 showed that planning-based strategies to maintain physical activity under situations of success and failure in goal striving are differentially effective for chronically autonomous and controlled individuals. These studies also offer guidance for health practitioners in promoting physical activity, by highlighting the potentially maladaptive effects of appearance-related goals and the importance of tailoring planning-based interventions to individuals’ chronically-accessible motives. The study reported in Chapter 5 substantiated a core theoretical assumption of SDT by providing empirical support for people’s inclination to distinguish between intrinsic and extrinsic goals. Adopting methods from the literature on memory and attitudes, cluster analysis was performed on participants’ self-generated and recalled physical activity goal data to determine the presence of clustering by goal type. Although findings supported individuals’ ability to distinguish intrinsic and extrinsic goals at some level of representation, participants were not able to reliably code their goals at an explicit level. It was therefore concluded that differentiation between goal types may not occur consciously. The scale-development study in Chapter 6 also supported a key tenet of SDT in establishing construct, nomological, and predictive validity of a scale measuring integrated regulation for physical activity. The factorial validity of the scale, developed through an extensive literature search, expert ratings, and confirmatory factor analyses, was supported in both a high and a lower-active sample. Consistent with predictions, latent means analysis indicated the high active sample reported significantly greater integrated regulation. The scale provides a valid and reliable tool that may be used to evaluate the process of integration following autonomy-supportive interventions in health-related contexts. Finally, Chapter 7 details the development of a brief autonomy-supportive intervention and observational checklist system for ensuring fidelity to protocol that can be modified for use in a number of contexts requiring behaviour change. The intervention was implemented in a higher education setting over the duration of a single course module and significantly increased two autonomy-supportive teaching behaviours in postgraduate tutors. However, the intervention did not significantly increase the perceived autonomy support, self-determination, or coursework grades of the experimental tutors’ students relative to the control condition, although there was a trend towards a trend towards an interaction between time and experimental condition for level of self-determination towards studying. While students in the experimental group reported an increase in self-determination over time, students within the control condition reported a decrease in self-determination between the first and second, and first and third waves of data collection. The thesis concludes with a general discussion of findings and directions for future research and practice

Cognitive Mechanisms in Chronic Tinnitus: Psychological Markers of a Failure to Switch Attention

The cognitive mechanisms underpinning chronic tinnitus (CT; phantom auditory perceptions) are underexplored but may reflect a failure to switch attention away from a tinnitus sound. Here, we investigated a range of components that influence the ability to switch attention, including cognitive control, inhibition, working memory and mood, on the presence and severity of CT. Our participants with tinnitus showed significant impairments in cognitive control and inhibition as well as lower levels of emotional well-being, compared to healthy-hearing participants. Moreover, the subjective cognitive complaints of tinnitus participants correlated with their emotional well-being whereas complaints in healthy participants correlated with objective cognitive functioning. Combined, cognitive control and depressive symptoms correctly classified 67% of participants. These results demonstrate the core role of cognition in CT. They also provide the foundations for a neurocognitive account of the maintenance of tinnitus, involving impaired interactions between the neurocognitive networks underpinning attention-switching and mood

Attitudes to ageing, biomarkers of ageing and mortality:The Lothian Birth Cohort 1936

Objective: To investigate whether people with more positive attitudes to ageing are biologically younger as defined by leucocyte telomere length, accelerated DNA methylation GrimAge (AgeAccelGrim) and brain-predicted age difference, and whether these biomarkers explain relationships between attitudes to ageing and mortality.Methods: We used linear regression to examine cross-sectionally attitudes to ageing (measured using the Attitudes to Ageing Questionnaire) and the three biomarkers in 758 adults, mean age 72.5 years, from the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936. We used Cox proportional hazards models to examine longitudinally attitudes to ageing and mortality and the role of the biomarkers.Results: More positive attitude to physical change was associated with younger biological age, as measured by AgeAccelGrim and brain-predicted age difference in age-adjusted and sex-adjusted models: for an SD higher score, AgeAccelGrim was lower by -0.73 (95% CI -1.03 to -0.42) of a year, and brain-predicted age difference was lower by -0.87 (1.51 to 0.23) of a year. Both associations were attenuated by adjustment for covariates and not significant after simultaneous adjustment for all covariates and correction for multiple testing. More positive attitudes to physical change were associated with lower mortality: for an SD higher score the age-adjusted and sex-adjusted HR (95% CI) was 0.66 (0.56 to 0.78). Adjustment for AgeAccelGrim or brain-predicted age difference attenuated this association slightly. It remained significant after adjustment for all covariates.Conclusion: We found partial evidence that attitudes to ageing are linked with ageing biomarkers but they accounted for only a little of the association between attitudes and mortality

Using Spatial Manipulation to Examine Interactions between Visual and Auditory Encoding of Pitch and Time

Music notations use both symbolic and spatial representation systems. Novice musicians do not have the training to associate symbolic information with musical identities, such as chords or rhythmic and melodic patterns. They provide an opportunity to explore the mechanisms underpinning multimodal learning when spatial encoding strategies of feature dimensions might be expected to dominate. In this study, we applied a range of transformations (such as time reversal) to short melodies and rhythms and asked novice musicians to identify them with or without the aid of notation. Performance using a purely spatial (graphic) notation was contrasted with the more symbolic, traditional western notation over a series of weekly sessions. The results showed learning effects for both notation types, but performance improved more for graphic notation. This points to greater compatibility of auditory and visual neural codes for novice musicians when using spatial notation, suggesting that pitch and time may be spatially encoded in multimodal associative memory. The findings also point to new strategies for training novice musicians

Price support allows communities to raise low-cost citizen finance for renewable energy projects

Community energy groups can raise citizen finance for renewable energy projects at lower interest rates than from commercial lenders, but they often depend on price guarantee schemes. Policies providing price stability and business model innovations are needed to realize the sector’s potential contribution to the zero-carbon energy transition

Technology-enhanced learning in physiotherapy education: Student satisfaction and knowledge acquisition of entry-level students in the United Kingdom

Technology-enhanced learning (TEL) can engage students with learning and offer benefits in knowledge acquisition due to the flexibility of learning it provides. There is difficulty ascertaining best practice for the implementation of TEL in physiotherapy education. This study aims to address this through a case study with pre-registration students using a virtual learning environment (VLE) to supplement their learning. Seventy-nine students were enrolled onto a Movement & Exercise module and had access to the VLE resources. Data were captured by online survey, student focus groups, learning analytics data and comparison of examination results with a previous cohort who did not have access to all the resources. Survey data demonstrated that most students were satisfied with the resources and that they facilitated knowledge acquisition. Thematic analysis from the focus groups resulted in five higher order themes: (1) Content quality, (2) Interaction and accessibility, (3) Learning goal alignment, (4) Satisfaction with resources and (5) Suggestions for the future. Learning analytics data revealed students accessed the resources predominantly before examination periods. There were statistically significant improvements in mean examination marks compared to the previous cohort. In conclusion, satisfaction with the TEL resources was high, and there may be some positive effect on knowledge acquisition

Financing Community Energy Case Studies : Edinburgh Community Solar Cooperative

This report presents the first of four case studies of UK community energy organisations conducted during 2018/19. These will later be included as part of a synthesis briefing alongside findings from a series of sectoral-level interviews. The case study makes use of a combination of qualitative (e.g. interviews, organisation reports) and quantitative (e.g. financial reports) data. Key summary lessons include: The ability of community energy organisations to raise community finance is underpinned by government subsidies (e.g. feed-in-tariff). By providing a long-term guaranteed revenue stream, they de-risk the energy project. Their removal presents investors with a less attractive proposition, potentially closing down an important stream of finance. Local authorities are a key facilitator of community energy projects. For example, they may purchase power from community energy organisations, as well as provide space for power generation. The latter is highly dependent on the extent to which the procurement process and council leadership values locally supplied, low-carbon energy from not-for-profit organisations. Intermediaries are a key provider of economic, technical, social and political capital to community energy organisations. A key example are project developers such as Energy4All. Choices around legal structure have an important bearing on the financing and governance of a community energy organisation, including the: * Extent to which 'community benefit' is incorporated into the legal entity. * Level and type of finance it can raise. * Degree of risk it exposes its investors to. * Way in which control is exerted over the organisation's strategic direction and who wields this power

Perspectives on the Restatement (Fourth) Project

Good morning, everyone, and thank you all for coming. It is great to have this conversation, particularly with so many people who are already helpfully contributing to this project. As Bill said, I just wanted to say a little bit about the treaty prong of the project that was approved for consideration by the ALI a couple of years ago. First of all, I should note we get a lot of questions about whether or not we are addressing executive agreements and congressional executive agreements, in addition to Article II treaties. And the current answer is that we are not. We were originally tasked by the ALI to take up the status of Article II treaties in U.S. domestic law, and that is the current character of the project

Financing Community Energy Case Studies : Brighton and Hove Energy Services (BHESCo)

This report presents the final of four case studies of UK community energy organisations conducted during 2018/19, which will later be included as part of a synthesis briefing alongside a series of sector-level interviews. The case study makes use of a combination of qualitative (e.g. interviews, organisation reports) and quantitative (e.g. financial reports) data. Summary of key lessons includes: Energy efficiency and heating services can constitute a core offering of community groups. Unlike many other community organisations, BHESCo has been able to develop a compelling value proposition, centred on delivering affordable comfort and warmth, through a combination of efficiency and generation measures. By employing a Pay As You Save model, it has unlocked a previously untapped revenue stream for communities, which importantly is less reliant on generation subsidies such as the Feed-in-Tariff (FiT). However, we find the model is limited in its ability to assist the fuel poor, who cannot be expected to share any cost savings generated, and tenants of rented properties where landlords are uninterested in investing in energy savings. Financing a serviced based model presents uncommon challenges in the community energy sector. Compared with other community energy groups, BHESCo’s investors must consider higher operating costs, on-going capital needs and a more complex offering, based on its business model rather than a singular asset. However, BHESCo has negotiated these challenges deftly and is open to alternative approaches, involving blended finance and working in consortia, as it explores potential larger scale projects. The complexity of BHESCo’s business model presents both advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, its relative complexity makes the venture less dependent on any single technology, customer, revenue stream or subsidy (such as the FiT), versus most other community energy groups. This helps to insulate the organisation from market and policy shocks. On the other hand, the complexity of BHESCo’s business model and the novelty of its proposition mean it has taken time to mature as a venture. For a time, it relied strongly on grants and the commitment of its key founder and CEO. The adoption of the bona fide co-operative legal structure stems from both financial and ethical considerations. A co-operative model was adopted largely as a means of raising relatively low cost community shares. This was largely a reaction to a lack of affordable finance being offered to community-led energy efficiency oriented businesses like BHESCo, even from ethical investors. Beyond finance, the co-op model was also selected on ethical grounds. Specifically, the cooperative model's 'one shareholder-one vote' model provides a broader distribution of power versus the 'one share-one vote' model employed by companies limited by shares. Furthermore, the absence of an asset lock provides its citizen investors with the option that assets can be liquidated to pay back their investment