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1 – 10 of 143The current project aims to draft an NHS and care provider joint working protocol for patients with learning disabilities as they transition between care and NHS hospital…
Abstract
Purpose
The current project aims to draft an NHS and care provider joint working protocol for patients with learning disabilities as they transition between care and NHS hospital services. The purpose of this paper is to present the rationale behind a joint working protocol and the progress of the project to date.
Design/methodology/approach
Working in partnership, Basildon University Hospital and Estuary Housing Association have sought to investigate the experiences in hospital of the people they support with learning disabilities. This has involved ongoing work examining patient pathways from both a hospital and care provider perspective as well as engaging in discussions with key stakeholders. It is hoped that these insights will feed into recommendations to form the joint working protocol.
Findings
Current findings are limited as this paper presents an interim report on an ongoing project. Initial findings around positive joint working practices are detailed. An emerging recommendation around improved information sharing between health and care provider in acute hospital settings is also discussed.
Originality/value
It is hoped that the project will improve experiences of people with learning disabilities in hospital locally, while inspiring other hospitals and care providers to adopt a joint working approach at a wider level.
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Niamh Murtagh, Alice M. Owen and Kate Simpson
To improve building performance and meet statutory carbon reduction targets, a radical transformation of existing UK building stock is needed. Much previous research on building…
Abstract
Purpose
To improve building performance and meet statutory carbon reduction targets, a radical transformation of existing UK building stock is needed. Much previous research on building performance has focussed on large-scale construction. However, retrofit of existing housing stock – which will contribute the majority of the requisite efficiency improvement – is carried out by practitioners in the repair–maintain–improve (RMI) subsector. These practitioners are the sole traders and micro-firms who constitute two-fifths of employment in the construction sector. The study aims to examine the factors influencing these practitioners in RMI work to understand how better to engage them with improved building performance.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 31 semi-structured interviews were conducted with RMI professionals from around the UK and analysed using template analysis.
Findings
The analysis identified capabilities of the practitioners who influence building performance, including knowledge and co-ordination of people and resources; opportunities including state action and customer demand; and motivations including pride in work, customer care and satisfaction, maintaining a viable business and working relationships.
Research limitations/implications
The participants were a small, mixed group in terms of firm size and specialisation. The qualitative approach adopted provided detailed insights but does not make claims for statistical generalisability or representativeness of the findings. Future work could look to extend the findings with a statistically representative survey.
Practical implications
For a successful transition to high standards of building performance, modelling is not enough. Initiatives are needed to address the multiple factors which determine engagement in energy-efficient retrofit: capacities, opportunities and motivations. The desire of RMI practitioners to meet customer expectations could be used to develop pragmatic building performance evaluation, guided by householder satisfaction criteria.
Originality/value
The study examined the attitudes and experiences of an under-researched sector who are essential to the delivery of improved building performance. This study makes a novel contribution by applying an established psychological model of behaviour change, the capability, opportunity, motivation – behaviour model, for the first time in this domain.
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Charles B. Owen, Laura Dillon, Alison Dobbins, Matthew Rhodes, Madeline Levinson and Noah Keppers
The purpose of this paper is to present the design and evolution of the Dancing Computer project. Dancing Computer is an ongoing research project at the Michigan State University…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present the design and evolution of the Dancing Computer project. Dancing Computer is an ongoing research project at the Michigan State University, which is developing a system that aims to increase computer literacy in elementary-aged children by teaching them first to read code before they write it. The main objective is to educate children on basic concepts of computer science.
Design/methodology/approach
Children are given tablet computers that present a simple program line-by-line that they execute as they pretend to be a computer. The programs are acted out on a portable dance floor consisting of colored tiles, and the program statements instruct the child to move, turn and act out dance poses and terminology.
Findings
The Dancing Computer prototype was tested in six different locations in 2016, reaching approximately 250 students. Learning was demonstrated by significant improvements in both task duration and error performance as students performed the activities. The most common errors were movement errors, where participants failed to move the correct number of squares.
Social implications
This project has the potential to increase the level of computer literacy for thousands of children. This project’s goal is to increase understanding of what a computer does, what a program does and the step-by-step nature of computer programs.
Originality/value
This is a unique and a different approach – the norm being to start students off writing code in some language. In Dancing Computer stages children as readers of programs, allowing them to pretend to be a computer in a fun and engaging activity while also learning how computers execute real programs.
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When Alice's journey through Wonderland took her into the Queen of Hearts' croquet garden, she found a world short on logic, rules, and common sense.
Riccardo Stacchezzini, Cristina Florio, Alice Francesca Sproviero and Silvano Corbella
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the intellectual capital (IC) ontology in an integrated reporting context to explore the function that integrated report (IR) preparers…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the intellectual capital (IC) ontology in an integrated reporting context to explore the function that integrated report (IR) preparers assign to IC elements and the role of integrated thinking in this process.
Design/methodology/approach
Social ontology theory helps elucidate how an energy-sector company socially constructed an IC ontology in which IC is a core element of the value creation story told in the IR. The empirical analysis benefited from in-depth interviews with the corporate staff.
Findings
The subjective nature of IC ontology emerges, in that IC’s function is defined during the very process of IR preparation. The intangible elements drive sustainability-oriented financial value creation according to the sustainability approach embraced by the company’s business model. Integrated thinking both facilitates this perspective on IC is shared among various departments of the company and provides a procedure for scrutinising what counts as IC in this integrated reporting context.
Research limitations/implications
The research scope is limited to the IR preparation process. Further research could explore IC ontologies beyond this process.
Originality/value
This study is the first to explore IC ontology empirically within an innovative integrated reporting context. It opens paths to further research on the relationships between IC and integrated thinking.
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A writer who cannot coin a phrase soon learns that rhyme does not pay. This need not deter him, however. Lacking the ability to prey upon words, he can continue to play with…
Abstract
A writer who cannot coin a phrase soon learns that rhyme does not pay. This need not deter him, however. Lacking the ability to prey upon words, he can continue to play with words. In short, he can aspire to become Jack of all charades and good at pun. The imbecility of Jack of all japes was thoroughly exposed by Joseph Addison in several early issues of The Spectator. Isaac D'Israeli added further analyses and good illustrations in his Curiosities of Literature. A more comprehensive inventory of type vice is interwoven in the verses of the second book of Richard Owen Cambridge's satirical poem, The Scribleriad. Cambridge singled out for extinction acrostics, the amphisbaena, anagrams, antitheses, boutsrimés, centos, chronograms, conundrums, crambos, doggerels, echoes, fustian, lipograms, macaronic compositions, puns, quibbles, reciprocal verses (likewise known as retrograde or recurrent verses, including palindromes), the rhopalic sequence, riddle and rebus (“Riddle's dearest son”), and finally, rondeaus. He overlooked several other forms of literary laceration judged by Addison to be “tricks in writing as required much time and little capacity.”
The purpose of this paper is to highlight a selection of poetry titles from the Poets House Showcase of 2006.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to highlight a selection of poetry titles from the Poets House Showcase of 2006.
Design/methodology/approach
This article provides reviews of selected titles from the 2006 Poets House Showcase.
Findings
This review represents a wide‐ranging selection of contemporary poetry collections and anthologies.
Originality/value
This list documents the tremendous range of poetry publishing from commercial, independent and university presses, as well as letterpress chapbooks, art books and CDs.
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Communications regarding this column should be addressed to Mrs. Cheney, Peabody Library School, Nashville, Tenn. 37203. Mrs. Cheney does not sell the books listed here. They are…
Abstract
Communications regarding this column should be addressed to Mrs. Cheney, Peabody Library School, Nashville, Tenn. 37203. Mrs. Cheney does not sell the books listed here. They are available through normal trade sources. Mrs. Cheney, being a member of the editorial board of Pierian Press, will not review Pierian Press reference books in this column. Descriptions of Pierian Press reference books will be included elsewhere in this publication.