Using grounded theory to inform the design of energy interventions for the workplace

Much work has been published on using technological interventions to motivate reductions in home energy consumption. These interventions have produced promising results, but typically focus on emphasising the financial benefits of reductions in consumption to users. Motivating employees to reduce their consumption of energy in the workplace is more problematic, as they are typically not responsible for energy costs. There has been very little work to date addressing energy interventions in the workplace, and indeed, there are many challenges in doing so. This paper presents an overview of the initial user-centred design stage of a large energy research project called Electro-Magnates. Three day-long workshops were run with a total of 65 participants from 5 universities and a number of representatives from industry. The workshops’ main focus was understanding behaviour change in organisations in an energy resource and usage context, supported by designing a 12 month intervention. Audio and design task accounts were transcribed and analysed using the grounded theory approach with the developed theory forming the design requirements and implications for the Electro-Magnates intervention software. Our findings identified some of the key concepts for inclusion in a workplace energy intervention; incentivisation, openness and management buy-in

On the Manipulability of Proportional Representation

This paper presents a new model of voter behaviour under methods of proportional representation (PR). We abstract away from rounding, and assume that a party securing k percent of the vote wins exactly k percent of the available seats. Under this assumption PR is not manipulable by any voter aiming at maximisation of the number of seats in the parliament of her most preferred party. However in this paper we assume that voters are concerned, first and foremost, with the distribution of power in the post-election parliament. We show that, irrespective of which positional scoring rule is adopted, there will always exist circumstances where a voter would have an incentive to vote insincerely. We demonstrate that a voter’s attitude toward uncertainty can influence her incentives to make an insincere vote. Finally, we show that the introduction of a threshold - a rule that a party must secure at least a certain percentage of the vote in order to reach parliament - creates new opportunities for strategic voting. We use the model to explain voter behaviour at the most recent New Zealand general election

A Case Study of Perceived Self-Efficacy in Writing Center Peer Tutor Training

This explorative case study used mixed methods to examine and analyze the two following research questions using the psychological framework from Perceived Self-Efficacy Theory: 1) what variables of writing center tutor training affected the trainees’ perceived self-efficacy levels towards their work, and 2) what aspects of this training contributed to the attainment of persistence? Both questions were answered using quantitative and qualitative methods for analyses. The quantitative research revealed that the initial six week period of observation for peer tutors at the beginning of their training was highly beneficial for increasing their perceived self-efficacy levels in believing they could complete tasks and overcome challenges as they transitioned from their training into working as peer tutors in the writing center. The qualitative research further verified that the peer tutor’s levels of self-efficacy was largely due to the benefits of observing other peer tutors with more working experience, as well as learning practical skills for peer tutoring from their class readings. The findings pertaining to the trainees’ attainment of persistence showed that the most important factors involved were having a sense of belonging to the writing center community and developing a peer tutor identity

A general method for elicitation, imputation, and sensitivity analysis for incomplete repeated binary data.

We develop and demonstrate methods to perform sensitivity analyses to assess sensitivity to plausible departures from missing at random in incomplete repeated binary outcome data. We use multiple imputation in the not at random fully conditional specification framework, which includes one or more sensitivity parameters (SPs) for each incomplete variable. The use of an online elicitation questionnaire is demonstrated to obtain expert opinion on the SPs, and highest prior density regions are used alongside opinion pooling methods to display credible regions for SPs. We demonstrate that substantive conclusions can be far more sensitive to departures from the missing at random assumption (MAR) when control and intervention nonresponders depart from MAR differently, and show that the correlation of arm specific SPs in expert opinion is particularly important. We illustrate these methods on the iQuit in Practice smoking cessation trial, which compared the impact of a tailored text messaging system versus standard care on smoking cessation. We show that conclusions about the effect of intervention on smoking cessation outcomes at 8 week and 6 months are broadly insensitive to departures from MAR, with conclusions significantly affected only when the differences in behavior between the nonresponders in the two trial arms is larger than expert opinion judges to be realistic

A MUSEUM WITHOUT WALLS: A DIGITAL TOOL FOR THE ROYAL ARMOURIES

This report, prepared for the Royal Armouries Education Center located at Her Majesty\u27s Tower of London, describes the creation of three tools to assist archiving and exhibiting of information contained in the White Tower. The tools include a digital archive, a virtual tour, and a virtual Line of Kings exhibit. This project responds to the Royal Armouries\u27 staff\u27s requests for an updated archive and an increase in accessibility by providing better-maintained exhibit records and online access to the White Tower

Relaxing the independent censoring assumption in the Cox proportional hazards model using multiple imputation.

The Cox proportional hazards model is frequently used in medical statistics. The standard methods for fitting this model rely on the assumption of independent censoring. Although this is sometimes plausible, we often wish to explore how robust our inferences are as this untestable assumption is relaxed. We describe how this can be carried out in a way that makes the assumptions accessible to all those involved in a research project. Estimation proceeds via multiple imputation, where censored failure times are imputed under user-specified departures from independent censoring. A novel aspect of our method is the use of bootstrapping to generate proper imputations from the Cox model. We illustrate our approach using data from an HIV-prevention trial and discuss how it can be readily adapted and applied in other settings

Toxicity of 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) in the developing male Wistar(Han) rat II: chronic dosing causes developmental delay

We have investigated whether fetal exposure to 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) causes defects in the male reproductive system of the rat, using chronically exposed rats to ensure continuous exposure of the fetus. 5-6 week old rats were exposed to control diet, or diet containing TCDD, to attain an average dose of 2.4, 8 and 46 ng TCDD kg-1 day-1 for twelve weeks, whereupon the rats were mated, and allowed to litter; rats were switched to control diet after parturition. Male offspring were allowed to develop until kills on PND70 (25 per group), or PND120 (all remaining animals). Offspring from the high dose group showed an increase in total litter loss, and the number of animals alive on post-natal day (PND) 4 in the high dose group was ~26% less than control. The high and medium dose offspring showed decreased weights at various ages. Balano-preputial separation was significantly delayed in all three dose groups, compared to control. There were no significant effects of maternal treatment when the offspring were subjected to a functional observational battery, or learning tests, with the exception that the high dose group showed a deficit in motor activity. 20 rats per group were mated to females, and there were no significant effects of maternal treatment on the fertility of these rats, nor on the F1 or F2 sex ratio. Sperm parameters at PND70 and 120 showed no significant effect of maternal treatment, with the exception that there was an increase in the proportion of abnormal sperm in the high dose group at PND70; this is associated with the developmental delay in puberty in this dose group. There were no remarkable findings of maternal treatment on organ weights, with the exception that testis weights were reduced by ~10% at PND70 (but not PND120), and although the experiment was sufficiently powered to detect small changes, ventral prostate weight was not reduced. There were no significant effects of maternal treatment upon histopathological comparison of high dose and control group organs. These data confirm that developmental exposure to TCDD shows no potent effect on adult sperm parameters or accessory sexual organs, but show that delay in BPS occurs after exposure to low doses of TCDD, and this is dependent upon whether TCDD is administered acutely or chronically