You scratch my back, and I scratch yours: Bartering for qualitative data

Recruiting research participants has been one of the significant challenges faced by qualitative researchers. Barter gained momentum during the Covid pandemic across a broad spectrum of professionals, including scholars searching to recruit research participants, despite being surrounded by ethical concerns of coercion or undue influence. This reflective paper created a barter reflective and ethical protocol showing how bartering created the entrepreneurial opportunity for 16 migrant entrepreneurs to exchange an average of 60 minutes of their time for participating in a qualitative interview with an average of 2.25 hrs (145 minutes) of business counselling and translation services delivered by the researcher. This paper contributes to the methodological practice of bartering. It argues that bartering is an ethical and efficient research practice in need of a code of ethics and protocol and should not be dismissed as ethically suspect until substantial evidence is brought forwar

Ethi(cs)quette of (Re)searching with E-friends: Clicking Towards a Social Media-driven Research Agenda

Social media increasingly shapes our professional and personal lives, leveraging its size, the potential for ubiquity, and real-time communication. Ranked the most popular social media platform by the number of subscribers, Facebook is increasingly gaining momentum as a research tool, mostly used to conduct surveys, adverts, and observation-driven research. However, Facebook’s potential for supporting consented qualitative research remains largely unexplored and deemed sometimes ethically questionable in the midst of ongoing debates around data protection rules and the ambiguity surrounding e-friendship meaning. This paper is based on an interpretative phenomenological Ph.D. study, between 2017-2020, aiming to deepen our understanding of London-based Romanian migrant entrepreneurs' experiences of social inclusion through entrepreneurship. This paper contributes to the literature on research methodology reflective practice of enabling ethical research, by outlining ethical implications of sampling via Facebook and when researching with e-friends as Facebook friends. It offers context-bound insights as guidance to researchers incorporating social media in their qualitative research The significance of this ethical research practice is discussed in terms of privacy, confidentiality, and informed consent as a cross point between GDPR regulatory framework, as universal research ethical framework, Facebook data privacy settings and the researcher’s reflective approach to mitigate ethical challenges experienced when recruiting Facebook e-friends

The Quest for Deeper Understanding in Interpretative Research: Hidden Meaning in Plain Sight

This paper contributes to the literature on qualitative methodology in a novel way, by being one of a handful of studies offering context and culture-bound insights of an interpretative analysis of meaning based on non-verbal communication from 49 semi-structured, face-to-face interviews. This paper is based on an interpretative phenomenological Ph.D. study, between 2017-2020, aiming to deepen our understanding of London-based Romanian migrant entrepreneurs' experiences of social inclusion through entrepreneurship. By leveraging the cultural insider positionality of the interviewer in this study, which granted direct access to this community and also valuable cultural understanding of participants’ non-verbal communication, seeking meaning within the untapped potential of around 93% non-verbal language, widely overlooked by qualitative researchers, has become an achievable research goal. By creating its own inventory of nonverbal communication codes, this paper uses interview extracts rich in nonverbal communication as illustrative examples to showcase their interpretative significance

Spectrophotovoltaic orbital power generation

A system with 1000 : 1 concentration ratio is defined, using a cassegrain telescope as the first stage concentration (270 x) and compound parabolic concentrators (CPC) for the second stage concentration of 4.7 x for each spectral band. Using reported state of the art (S.O.A.) solar cells device parameters and considering structural losses due to optics and beamsplitters, the efficiencies of one to four cell systems were calculated with efficiencies varying from approximately 22% to 30%. Taking into account cost of the optics, beamsplitter, radiator, and the cost of developing new cells the most cost effective system is the GaAs/Si system

Exploring the roles of physical effort and visual salience within the proximity effect

Background Recent work has explored the effectiveness of the Proximity Effect, where increasing the physical distance between consumer and snacks reduces intake. Foods requiring less effort to attain, or being more visually appealing, are seen to be consumed more. Relatedly, perceived effort and visual salience are suggested mechanisms for the proximity effect, but no prior studies have directly manipulated these in association with the effect. Two between-subjects studies conducted in university laboratories are presented. Method Twenty chocolate brownies that were either wrapped or unwrapped (Study 1, N = 85), or 250g of M&M's, either colourful or plain brown (Study 2, N = 80), were presented as effort and salience manipulations respectively to participants at either 20 cm or 70 cm. Consumption was measured as ‘likelihood of consumption’ (Yes/No) and ‘actual consumption’ (units/grams). Potential moderating variables including perceived effort and perceived visual salience were also measured. Results Likelihood of consumption was positively predicted by perceived visual salience in both Studies, and by distance in Study 2. Significant main effects of distance, p  70 cm), effort, p  wrapped), and distance × effort interaction, p = .003, ȵ2 = 0.111, were observed in Study 1 for actual consumption. A main effect of distance was found in Study 2 for actual consumption, p  70 cm). Perceived visual salience positively correlated with actual consumption in both Studies. Conclusions Increasing physical effort and placing snacks further away appear to act independently and interactively to reduce snack consumption. Manipulating snack colour does not appear to influence consumption, whereas perceptions of visual salience appear to influence consumption. As such, perceived visual salience and physical effort are thought to be key mechanisms underpinning the proximity effect

Exploring the underpinning mechanisms of the proximity effect within a competitive food environment

Objective: One method of influencing an individual's food consumption involves placing unhealthy snacks further away from individuals, known as the “proximity effect”. However, only one laboratory study has explored the effect while both an unhealthy and a healthy option are presented simultaneously. Further, little is known about the potential underpinning mechanisms of the effect. The current study aims to replicate the proximity effect in a competitive environment, and to explore the role of visual salience and effort in the proximity effect. Method: Fifty-six participants were asked to complete a two-part questionnaire under the cover story of a relaxation study. Two bowls were presented to participants, each containing either 250 g chocolate M&M's or 250 g mixed fruit pieces. Each bowl was positioned either 20 cm or 70 cm from the participant, creating four proximity conditions. Consumption of each snack was compared between proximity conditions. Results: No main effects were found. A significant interaction between snack type and chocolate position was found (p = .010, ȵ2 = 0.159), with fruit consumption being significantly higher when chocolate was at located at 20 cm compared to 70 cm (53.35 g vs 22.35 g, p = .042). Higher visual salience of each snack type correlated to more of the snack being consumed, ps < .017. Results were similar when calories consumed were analysed. Conclusions: We found an unconventional proximity effect where the consumption of a snack did not depend on its position, but rather the relative position of another snack. Implications of the study could inform café and supermarket layouts to exploit the interaction between moving healthy items closer in addition to moving unhealthy items further away, in order to maximise choice of healthy item

Magnetodielectric coupling of infrared phonons in single crystal Cu2_{2}OSeO3_{3}

Reflection and transmission as a function of temperature have been measured on a single crystal of the magnetoelectric ferrimagnetic compound Cu$_{2}$OSeO$_{3}$ utilizing light spanning the far infrared to the visible portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. The complex dielectric function and optical properties were obtained via Kramers-Kronig analysis and by fits to a Drude-Lortentz model. The fits of the infrared phonons show a magnetodielectric effect near the transition temperature ($T_{c}\sim 60$~K). Assignments to strong far infrared phonon modes have been made, especially those exhibiting anomalous behavior around the transition temperature

Quantum Diffusion and Delocalization for Band Matrices with General Distribution

We consider Hermitian and symmetric random band matrices $H$ in $d \geq 1$ dimensions. The matrix elements $H_{xy}$, indexed by $x,y \in \Lambda \subset \Z^d$, are independent and their variances satisfy \sigma_{xy}^2:=\E \abs{H_{xy}}^2 = W^{-d} f((x - y)/W) for some probability density $f$. We assume that the law of each matrix element $H_{xy}$ is symmetric and exhibits subexponential decay. We prove that the time evolution of a quantum particle subject to the Hamiltonian $H$ is diffusive on time scales $t\ll W^{d/3}$. We also show that the localization length of the eigenvectors of $H$ is larger than a factor $W^{d/6}$ times the band width $W$. All results are uniform in the size \abs{\Lambda} of the matrix. This extends our recent result \cite{erdosknowles} to general band matrices. As another consequence of our proof we show that, for a larger class of random matrices satisfying $\sum_x\sigma_{xy}^2=1$ for all $y$, the largest eigenvalue of $H$ is bounded with high probability by $2 + M^{-2/3 + \epsilon}$ for any $\epsilon > 0$, where M \deq 1 / (\max_{x,y} \sigma_{xy}^2).Comment: Corrected typos and some inaccuracies in appendix

Retrospective and prospective evaluations of mammography screening narratives: The role of own experience

We investigated the role of previous experience when providing summary judgments of mammography narratives. A total of 807 women who either did or did not have previous experience of a mammogram were presented with a written description of a mammography visit. We manipulated the presentation position of a negative element within the narrative to alter its accessibility in memory and determine whether the latter impacted equally on two types of summary judgments. After the narrative presentation, participants were asked to provide both retrospective and prospective evaluations, that is, summary judgments about the described event and an appraisal of the likelihood of participating in future instances of such event, respectively. A recency effect was observed only for retrospective but not for prospective evaluations. When examined only for the subset of women who had undergone a mammography visit themselves, prospective evaluations were shown to be predicted by the reported quality of the mammography participants experienced themselves. The findings support and extend the accessibility model of emotional self-report and suggest that own experience leaks into evaluations of hypothetical scenarios by selectively impacting on prospective evaluations