Is Britain Pulling Apart? Area Disparities in Employment, Education and Crime

This paper explores the changing extent of concentration worklessness and deprivation in Britains communities over the last twenty years and seeks to identify what shapes patterns of relative affluence and deprivation. The paper goes on to explore the evidence that there are lasting consequences from concentrated deprivation for the residents, including children. The paper address issues of employment, educational outcomes and crime victimisation. Looking at the available evidence from the UK and abroad, the evidence suggests that concentrated deprivation has little effect on employment opportunities, (e.g. moving people to more affluent neighbourhoods would make little difference), has modest effects on childrens educational outcomes and propensity to get involved in deviant behaviours but substantial effects on crime victimisation. The paper then concludes on what policy agendas could be developed to address concentrated deprivation and above all its consequences on residents outcomes.neighbourhoods, employment, education, crime

Conjoint Analysis of Price Premiums for Hotel Amenities

Metric hybrid conjoint models have received a fair amount of industry application to date. The purpose of these models is to reduce data collection time while still retaining individual differences in part-worth functions. The present paper extends this class of models to include categorical conjoint analysis in which the criterion variable is classificatory. This model is applied to an extremely large conjoint problem involving over 40 attributes and over 100 attribute levels. The study results support the viability of the model for dealing with extremely large conjoint problems. The study also shows evidence of the inability of simple functions of self-explicated utilities for components of a bundle of hotel amenities to predict respondents\u27 preferences for the total bundle

Invisible design: exploring insights and ideas through ambiguous film scenarios

Invisible Design is a technique for generating insights and ideas with workshop participants in the early stages of concept development. It involves the creation of ambiguous films in which characters discuss a technology that is not directly shown. The technique builds on previous work in HCI on scenarios, persona, theatre, film and ambiguity. The Invisible Design approach is illustrated with three examples from unrelated projects; Biometric Daemon, Panini and Smart Money. The paper presents a qualitative analysis of data from a series of workshops where these Invisible Designs were discussed. The analysis outlines responses to the films in terms of; existing problems, concerns with imagined technologies and design speculation. It is argued that Invisible Design can help to create a space for critical and creative dialogue during participatory concept development

The use of multiple-criteria decision-making theory to measure students’ perceptions of high-fidelity simulation

Background High fidelity simulation (HFS) has great potential to improve decision-making in clinical practice. Previous studies have found HFS promotes self-confidence, but its effectiveness in clinical practice has not been established. The aim of this research is to establish if HFS facilitates learning that informs decision-making skills in clinical practice using Multiple-Criteria Decision Making Theory (MCDMT). Method The sample were 2nd year undergraduate pre-registration adult nursing students. MCDMT was used to measure the students’ experience of HFS and how it developed their clinical decision-making skills. MCDMT requires characteristic measurements which for the learning experience were based on five factors that underpin successful learning and for clinical decision making an analytical framework was used. The study utilised a repeated-measures design to take two measurements: the first one after the first simulation experience and the second one after clinical placement. Baseline measurements were obtained from academics. Data were analysed utilising the MCDMT tool. Results After their initial exposure to simulation learning students reported that HFS provides a high quality learning experience (87%) and supports all aspects of clinical decision-making (85%). Following clinical practice the level of support for clinical decision-making remained at 85% suggesting that students believe HFS promotes transferability of knowledge to the practice setting. Conclusion Overall, students report a high level of support for learning and developing clinical decision-making skills from HFS. However, there are no comparative data available from classroom teaching of similar content so it cannot be established if these results are due to HFS alone