People in Public Health. Research Summary

Members of the public are becoming increasingly important in the delivery of public health programmes. The work they do varies. They might give out information about a health issue or tell people about a local service. They might help someone who is going to a health improvement activity for the first time or organise a group that encourages healthy living. Some are paid, others are volunteers. The People in Public Health research study wanted to find out more about these lay health workers. It wanted to discover what type of things they do in public health programmes, how they are recruited, trained and supported and what is needed to make these approaches work well

Lean knowledge management : the problem of value

Lean knowledge management is defined here as: getting the right information, in the right form, to the right people at the right time. This definition highlights series of practical problems for knowledge management in the built environment which, in turn, have implications for lean theory. In the terms of TFV theory, the problems that arise from getting information to the right people at the right time are essentially flow (F) issues, but those that are concerned with defining the right information and the form in which it is to be delivered are more concerned with value (V). Here, we focus primarily on the problem of defining right information. A distinction is made between sociological 'values' and economic 'value', showing how both relate to production theory. In the course of benefits capture and realisation, both values and value are negotiated between project participants and other stakeholders. It is argued that these processes are best conceived as conversations and that this is implied in the basic formulation of V theory. The notion of objectivity and its significance for these values/value negotiations is examined. The problem of benefits realisation is considered and a set of hypotheses are generated regarding the nature of an effective benefits realization management process

Keeping afloat with a Research Pool

In light of today’s competitive economy, flexibility has become increasingly important to our research and enterprise activity and we needed to be able to respond to peaks and troughs in demand. As our current permanent academic staffing base did not have the capacity to provide support to research activity, and to avoid lengthy recruitment processes when research funding is granted and immediate start-up of projects is required, we established a Research Pool (RP) to maintain a consistent resource of research assistance so that we could be reactive to the research and consultancy opportunities that were available to us. The RP has been in place since March 2012, successfully providing support to over 50 projects with a total of 7500 hours worked. They work alongside academic researchers to deliver support to a variety of client groups; analysing data, interpreting results, performing and transcribing individual and focus group interviews, literature reviews, data collection, design of databases and providing general research assistant support to projects. The RP can be drawn on for quick/short-term and long-term input to projects. This poster outlines how the RP was established and how it has provided essential support over a three year period. Key messages: How: To establish a Research Pool; A Research Pool operates; The Research Pool contributes to research activity

Engagine me, engaging you ....Ah Haa

As a non-traditional research office, we have been heavily involved in dissemination activity and, increasingly, rather than just academic staff who are already interested in the outcome of research projects, this means attempting to engage, involve and inspire the public. Public engagement involves a range of approaches that universities or research institutes can take to involve the public with their work. An important part of any public engagement work is to think about the people you want to engage with – but who are the public and how can you ensure that you identify and engage with them effectively? Whoever you are interested in disseminating your research findings to we will consider ways to ensure your planned activity is appropriate and relevant to the target audience so they can effectively contribute to your research. The workshop will help you to identify your audience and, using new technology to track, monitor and evaluate events, to engage with them to further disseminate and promote research. This interactive workshop will involve working in groups using a range of craft materials to create a mood board to demonstrate how you would identify and engage with your audience to maximise participation for your event

Study of transient behavior of finned coil heat exchangers

The status of research on the transient behavior of finned coil cross-flow heat exchangers using single phase fluids is reviewed. Applications with available analytical or numerical solutions are discussed. Investigation of water-to-air type cross-flow finned tube heat exchangers is examined through the use of simplified governing equations and an up-wind finite difference scheme. The degenerate case of zero air-side capacitance rate is compared with available exact solution. Generalization of the numerical model is discussed for application to multi-row multi-circuit heat exchangers

Location, demographic, lifestyle and behavioural influences on household participation in Bournemouth Borough Council’s kerbside recycling scheme

Bournemouth Borough Council (BBC) is performing well in recycling and currently has a recycling rate of 63.9%, but there is still room for BBC to improve the efficiency of the existing ‘Big Bin’ dry kerbside recycling collection scheme and increase the recycling rate further. The aim of the study was to identify the socio-economic groups which participate the least, or contaminate the most, in BBC’s kerbside recycling scheme. A participation survey was carried out over three consecutive collection cycles for three recycling rounds ‘RW1, RW2 and RW5’ to measure how many times each individual household set out their recycling bin for collection. The results from the participation survey were used to calculate the participation rate (PR), set out rate (SOR) and contamination rate (CR) for the different socio-economic groups in Bournemouth. The PR’s, SOR’s and CR’s of the affluent, intermediate and deprived socio-economic groups were also compared. The overall PR for the three recycling rounds surveyed was 96.2% and each socio-economic group had a PR above 90%, a SOR above 79% and a CR below 4.4%. There was a significant difference between the socio-economic group's CR’s, with the affluent groups having lower CR’s compared to the deprived groups. This study highlights which socio-economic groups BBC should target where improvements to the scheme will have the most impact. Note: Bournemouth Borough Council was awarded highly commended as local authority team of the year at the National Recycling Awards 2012

Work placements as research-based learning – a student and employer perspective

Guest editoria