Search results

In 2005, the European Union launched a four‐year antismoking television advertising campaign across its 25 Member States. This study aims to evaluate the second and third years (2006 and 2007) of the campaign based on telephone interviews with over 24,000 consumers (smokers, non‐smokers, and ex‐smokers).

The study focuses on smokers and examines the potential for using segmentation and targeting in informing the campaign. Three important factors are used to identify clusters: attitude toward the campaign; comprehension of the campaign; and inclination to think responsibly about their smoking behaviour.

Cluster analyses identify three distinct and significant target groups (message‐involved, message‐indifferent, and message‐distanced) who respond differentially to the advertising. Furthermore, the percentage of respondents within each cluster varies across the EU Member States. Using Schwartz's cultural framework, the cultural dimension of “openness to change versus conservatism” is found to explain substantial cross‐national variation in message‐involved and messaged‐distanced respondents.

Cluster solutions are shown to be stable across the two data waves. Implications of these results are discussed.

This is the first study that seeks to better understand consumer reactions to social‐marketing advertising across different segments of the overall target group.

To solve the above problems and ensure the stability of the ad hoc network node topology in the process of wireless signal transmission, this paper aims to design a robust adaptive sliding film fault-tolerant controller under the nonlinear distortion of signal transmission in an amorphous flat air-to-ground wireless ad hoc network system.

This paper designs a robust adaptive sliding film fault-tolerant controller under the nonlinear distortion of signal transmission in an amorphous flat air-to-ground wireless ad hoc network system.

The simulation results show that the amorphous flat wireless self-organizing network system has good nonlinear distortion fault-tolerant correction ability under the feedback control of the designed controller, and the system has the asymptotically stable convergence ability; the test results show: the node topology of the self-organizing network structural stability is significantly improved, which provides a foundation for the subsequent realization of long-distance transmission of ad hoc network nodes.

Because of the chosen research approach, the research results may lack generalizability. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the proposed propositions further.

The controller can extract the fault information caused by nonlinear distortion in the wireless signal transmission process, and at the same time, its feedback matrix K can gradually converge the generated wireless signal error to zero, to realize the stable transmission of the wireless signal.

There is increasing interest in befriending services that aim to combat loneliness among older people. The purpose of this paper is to use the Equality Act 2010 as a framework for considering why older people might need these services and why some groups are over and under represented among service users.

Databases, websites and other resources were searched systematically for material on befriending. The final review consisted of 80 items, ranging from research articles, reports, and toolkits.

Individual face to face befriending has been the mainstay of the type of befriending support for older people. The increasing diversity of the older population and reductions in funding has led to adaptations of this model for different groups living in different circumstances.

The resources and time available to conduct the review were limited. It is possible that some relevant material was not identified.

Practitioners working with older people need to know about befriending schemes available in their area and consider the reasons why some groups of older people might be reluctant to use them or require specialist schemes.

Existing research on befriending rarely reports the demographic characteristics of those using the service in detail or considers why some groups of older people might have greater needs for befriending services or be reluctant to use them. The Equality Act 2010 provides a structured framework for considering diversity in access to, and use of, services.

‘No clean’ fluxes (NCFs) have been in existence for a few years now. The initial claimed advantages of these fluxes were that post flow soldering cleaning would not be required, therefore a substantial cost‐reduction could be obtained in terms of no cleaning plant or cleaning solvent being necessary, and a consequent reduction in floor space requirements. Latterly, the restrictions to be placed on the manufacture of CFCs (the major flux cleaning solvent) via the Montreal Protocol have given these NCFs a much higher level of prominence. The advantages claimed for NCFs are very attractive; however, the fluxes represent a considerable technology shift from the conventional high solids rosin type fluxes which have been successfully used for many years. Probably the most important questions to be raised when considering their use are: ‘Will any remaining residue be corrosive and will the long‐term reliability of the printed circuit boards be affected?’ This paper sets out to address the following issues: (a) A definition of corrosion and long‐term reliability and what it means in practical terms, (b) an understanding of the basic formulation of NCFs and (c) evaluation and selection of test methods to establish confidence that corrosion and reduction in long‐term reliability, as described in (a), will not occur.

Interventions intended to aid offender re-entry, rehabilitation and desistence based around specific sports and championed by sporting institutions have been introduced in custodial settings. Though research evaluating these is positive (Meek, 2012), conclusions are often hampered by the absence of control groups in such work. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the Saracens “Get Onside” rugby-based intervention at HMP YOI Feltham, while employing a non-randomised control group.

In total, 24 young offenders took part. Those in the treatment condition experienced a ten-week course which included a range of activities leading to accredited awards, exercises in functional skills in literacy/numeracy and 72 hours of rugby sessions. Those in the control condition were matched on key static factors, crime attitudes and aggression. Self-reported measures of pro-crime attitudes, aggression, self-esteem, and impulsivity were taken once before the start, once during, and at the end of the course for both groups.

As predicted, self-reported scores measuring attitudes towards aggression and crime did differ significantly across groups, with those experiencing the intervention showing more positive values by the end of treatment compared with others. However, measures of impulsiveness and self-esteem showed no change.

Revisions are suggested in respect of both the self-esteem and impulsivity measures, and future work needs better control over the match between treatment and comparison groups.

Concerns over the potentially iatrogenic effects of contact sport interventions with offender groups may be misplaced, and the benefits of sporting interventions are replicated in a between groups design.

No‐clean flux printed board appraisal tests were conducted with all materials used in the production process. Metallic growths during environmental testing revealed that there was incompatibility between some materials used. Initial tests with two solder resists and several fluxes showed that one non solder resisted board, soldered using a synthetically activated (SA) flux, had surface insulation resistance (SIR) two decades higher than those using low solids flux (LSF) or other SAs. For boards with solder resist, the SIR of those soldered using LSFs was higher, however, than those using SA fluxes. SIR dependence on temperature and humidity was investigated. Results demonstrated that the dominant factor to determine the SIR of a no‐clean board was the characteristics of the board substrate finish. SIR changes with condensation were logged and found to be significant for solder resist finishes. Tests proved that reducing the contamination levels under and on top of the solder resist, by using hot de‐ionised water rinsing, enabled the calculated minimum SIR level to be achieved for spray fluxed boards and minimised the possibility of metallic growth. Visual examination proved to be at least as important as SIR testing. No‐clean processes were appraised using sequential environmental conditions with differing SIR pass levels. As a result of this appraisal a maximum ionic contamination level of 0·5 μg/cm2 NaCl equivalent and Dl water rinses, before and after solder resist added, will be introduced. Ionic contamination tests indicated that contamination levels reduced with elapsed time, probably due to ionic molecules locking more firmly into the board surface structure. A novel method for SIR measurements at any voltage, developed by the author, is described. It is hoped that this paper will further the understanding of no‐clean flux issues and highlight potential solutions and pitfalls.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of four different sport programs on various social and subjective health outcomes among prisoners.

Four different sport programs (endurance, strength, dance-like martial arts, soccer) were provided in 2020 and 2021 in a German prison. Participants completed paper-pencil surveys before and after the sport programs (n = 134 observations), including questions about potential social health (enjoyment of physical activity, interpersonal exchange, interpersonal trust, self-efficacy) and subjective health outcomes (health status, health satisfaction, well-being). Further information such as prisoner characteristics were added to the data.

Results of regression analyses show that the endurance program had a significant positive effect on interpersonal trust, while the soccer program had a negative effect. Subjective well-being increased significantly after the strength and the soccer program. The weekly sport hours before imprisonment had a positive association with enjoyment of physical activity and interpersonal exchange while being negatively related to health status and health satisfaction. Furthermore, the number of months of imprisonment before the survey, being a young offender, the prisoners’ body mass index, educational level and migration background were significantly associated with several social and subjective health outcomes.

This study analyzed the effects of different sport programs for prisoners on various social and subjective health outcomes, revealing differences across programs and outcomes. The findings suggest that sport can be a way to enhance prisoners’ social and subjective health, ultimately facilitating their rehabilitation process.

Femtocells are low-power, inexpensive base stations (BS) used in business enterprises or homes. They could offer higher SNR in a smaller coverage area to enhance the data rates and QoS. Deployment of femtocell is expected to the witness constant development in upcoming years. Despite of all these benefits, there are certain challenges to be resolved that includes management of overlaying MC, interference among femtocells and the resource allocation between 2 tiers.

This work analyses the issues on cross-tier interfering and resource allocation alleviation in “full-duplex (FD) Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) oriented Heterogeneous Networks (HetNets) that includes macrocell as well as underlying femtocells”. This work concerns on three foremost contributions: portraying a single objective issue including subcarrier allocation, price allocation and power allocation of macrocell–femtocell networks. Moreover, this work introduces a novel Cat Swarm Mated-Lion algorithm (CSM-LA) for solving the defined optimization problem in macrocell–femtocell networks. At last, the supremacy of adopted scheme is proved over traditional models regarding statistical and convergence analysis.

By concerning the cost function, the developed CSM-LA attained 87.5, 60, 93.75 and 93.75% better than LM, WOA, LA and CSO respectively. For utility analysis, it accomplished 70.58% better than LM, 88.23% superior to GWO, 85.88% superior to WOA and 88.23% better than CSO. For statistical analysis, the median performance of developed CSM-LA attained better results, which was 80.52% superior to LA, 80.74% better than GWO, 72% superior to WOA and 48.7% better than LA. Hence, the developed CSM-LA proved its performance in terms of improved results and revealed its betterment over the conventional models.

This paper adopts a latest optimization algorithm called CSM-LA for analyzing the issues on cross-tier interfering and resource allocation alleviation in full-duplex (FD) orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) oriented heterogeneous networks (HetNets). This is the first work that utilizes CSM-LA framework that proposes a new CSM-LA model for power control and resource allocation by considering the multi-objectives like price, subcarrier and power as well.

There is a growing interest in climate change action in the higher education sector. Higher education institutions (HEIs) play an important role as property owners, employers, education and research hubs as well as leaders of societal transformations. The purpose of this paper was therefore to benchmark how universities globally are addressing climate risks.

An international survey was conducted to benchmark the sector’s organisational planning for climate change and to better understand how the higher education sector contributes to local-level climate adaptation planning processes. The international survey focused especially on the assessment of climate change impacts and adaptation plans.

Based on the responses of 45 HEIs located in six different countries on three continents, the study found that there are still very few tertiary institutions that plan for climate-related risks in a systematic way.

The paper sheds light on the barriers HEIs face in engaging in climate adaptation planning and action. Some of the actions to overcome such hindering factors include integrating climate adaptation in existing risk management and sustainability planning processes, using the internal academic expertise and curriculum to assist the mapping of climate change impacts and collaborating with external actors to guarantee the necessary resources. The higher education sector can act as a leader in building institutional resilience at the local scale.

This review arises from a series of multidisciplinary Franco‐British workshops which were supported by a grant from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR). More than 30 participants from a range of institutions and agencies were involved in compiling the material in this review (Appendix I). The workshops offered an opportunity to exchange ideas from research on the relationships between migration, health and well‐being in Britain and France. In the following discussion we compare and contrast experiences in the two countries, with the aim of assessing the importance of international, national and local contexts, in their various cultural, social and political dimensions, for the relationships of interest. Drawing on these ideas, we suggest the definition of a future international research agenda.