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The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of participating in an eight‐week physical training (ie. balance or weight training) on psychosocial outcomes for independently living healthy older adults. Eighteen older adults (65 years old or older) voluntarily participated in this study. Participants were randomly and evenly distributed in three different groups such as balance, weight or control group; six participants in each. Fear of falling and social activity levels were statistically tested by evaluating questionnaires validated in previous studies. Psychological factors improved in all groups after eight weeks (P < 0.05). Social interaction levels did not improve in any of the three groups, although all participants exhibited improvements in being physically independent (P < 0.05). Results suggested that being physically active as well as being socially active could result in being less fearful of falls, more confident of leaving residency, being more independent, and being more active.

This study aims to offer a comprehensive exploration of the potential and challenges associated with sensor fusion-based virtual reality (VR) applications in the context of enhanced physical training. The main objective is to identify key advancements in sensor fusion technology, evaluate its application in VR systems and understand its impact on physical training.

The research initiates by providing context to the physical training environment in today’s technology-driven world, followed by an in-depth overview of VR. This overview includes a concise discussion on the advancements in sensor fusion technology and its application in VR systems for physical training. A systematic review of literature then follows, examining VR’s application in various facets of physical training: from exercise, skill development and technique enhancement to injury prevention, rehabilitation and psychological preparation.

Sensor fusion-based VR presents tangible advantages in the sphere of physical training, offering immersive experiences that could redefine traditional training methodologies. While the advantages are evident in domains such as exercise optimization, skill acquisition and mental preparation, challenges persist. The current research suggests there is a need for further studies to address these limitations to fully harness VR’s potential in physical training.

The integration of sensor fusion technology with VR in the domain of physical training remains a rapidly evolving field. Highlighting the advancements and challenges, this review makes a significant contribution by addressing gaps in knowledge and offering directions for future research.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the current skills gap in both generic and skill areas within the construction industry in Queensland, Australia.

An internet-based survey was administered to collect the opinions of construction employees about the workplace-training environment and their perceptions towards training. The survey intended to address the following research questions, specifically in relation to the construction industry.

The survey results reveal that whilst overall participation in workplace training is high, the current workplace training environments do not foster balanced skill development. The study reveals that in the current absence of a formal and well-balanced training mechanism, construction workers generally resort to their own informal self-development initiatives to develop the needed role-specific theoretical knowledge.

The findings of the research are based on the data primarily collected in the construction industry in Queensland, Australia. The data are limited to a single Tier 2 construction company.

The findings of this study can be utilised to suggest improvements in the current (or develop new) workplace training initiatives.

The research suggests that workplace training has positive relationship with career growth. The results suggest that in the construction industry, employees are generally well aware of the importance of workplace training in their career development and they largely appreciate training as being a critical factor for developing their capacity to perform their roles successfully, and to maintain their employability.

This paper is unique as it investigates the current skills gap in both generic and skill areas within the construction industry in Queensland, Australia. So far no work has been undertaken to identify and discusses the main method of workplace learning within the Tier 2 industry in the context of Queensland Australia.

This systematic review, following preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analysis guidelines, rigorously investigates the emergent role of virtual reality (VR) technology in human movement training. The purpose of this study is to explore the effectiveness and evolution of VR in enhancing movement training experiences.

Acknowledging its pivotal role in diverse applications, such as sports and rehabilitation, human movement training is currently experiencing accelerated evolution, facilitated by the proliferation of wearable devices and mobile applications. This review conducted an exhaustive search across five different electronic databases, such as Web of Science, PubMed and ProQuest, resulting in the selection of 69 eligible articles published within the past five years. It also integrates 40 studies into a narrative summary, categorized based on the level of immersion offered by respective VR systems.

Enhanced immersion in VR potentially augments the effectiveness of movement training by engendering more realistic and captivating experiences for users. The immersive and interactive environments provided by VR technology enable tailored training experiences accompanied by precise, objective feedback. This review highlights the benefits of VR in human movement training and its potential to revolutionize the way training is conducted.

This systematic review contributes significantly to the existing literature by providing a comprehensive examination of the efficacy and evolution of VR in human movement training. By organizing the findings based on the level of immersion offered by VR systems, it provides valuable insights into the importance of immersion in enhancing training outcomes. In addition, this study identifies the need for future research focusing on the impacts of VR on learning and performance, as well as strategies to optimize its effectiveness and improve accessibility.

This study aimed to adapt existing text-mining techniques and propose a novel topic recognition approach for textual patient reviews.

The authors first transformed multilabel samples for adapting model training forms. Then, an improved method was proposed based on dynamic mixed sampling and transfer learning to improve the learning problem caused by imbalanced samples. Specifically, the training of our model was based on the framework of a convolutional neural network and self-trained Word2Vector on large-scale corpora.

Compared with the SVM and other CNN-based models, the CNN+ DMS + TL model proposed in this study has made significant improvement in F1 score.

The improved methods based on dynamic mixed sampling and transfer learning can adequately manage the learning problem caused by the skewed distribution of samples and achieve the effective and automatic topic recognition of textual patient reviews.

The peer-review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-01-2021-0059.

The study objectives were to (1) identify if providing solution-focused interaction training enables managers and employees to develop and implement actions to improve their psychosocial work environment and (2) test a recontextualization of the psychosocial work environment as social structures affecting members of the workplace and verify if social interactions effectively change the local psychosocial work environment.

The intervention involved training managers, supervisors and employees in solution-focused interaction. This study used a controlled interrupted time-series design, with an intervention and control group (CG) and pre- and post-measurements.

The psychosocial work environment improved, indicating that the training led to better social interactions, contributing to changes in the social structures within the intervention group (IG). Collective reflection between participants in the take action phase was the key to success. The recontextualization uncovered these mechanisms.

The present study supports a recontextualization of the psychosocial work environment as primarily decided by social structures that emerge in recurrent interactions within work teams. The same social structures also seem to be important for other features of the production system, like job performance.

Training designed to enable high-quality social interactions, like dialogue and collective reflection, has proven to be effective in changing social structures. Moreover, managers may need training in facilitating the collective reflection between participants. Increased focus on social interactions within work teams is suggested for future study of organizational change processes, psychosocial work environment and practical psychosocial work environment management.

The intervention was delivered in the preparation phase to enable an effective take action phase. Both phases are less studied in psychosocial risk assessments research. The recontextualization has never been fully used in psychosocial research.

When the emergency transition started in the spring of 2020 in the USA, teachers had to quickly switch from traditional in-person teaching to distance and remote teaching, regardless of their level of preparation. The distance and remote learning environments and contexts were different from traditional classrooms, which significantly changed the way teachers communicated and engaged with students in learning. The purpose of this study was to explore the workplace learning experience of K-12 educators during their work transition due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the USA.

In total, 30 qualitative, in-depth, semi-structured, one-on-one interviews were conducted with K-12 educators in Arkansas in the USA and synthesized their experiences.

This study identified four major themes in the workplace learning experiences of K-12 teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic: major challenges in workplace learning, including limited time, information overload, lack of relevance and customization and balancing priorities; challenges specific to different subgroups, such as age differences, prior experience and access to technology; strategies of workplace learning, notably collaborative learning, on-the-job training and professional development; and support for workplace learning, encompassing both formal support from schools and districts and informal support from family, friends and peers.

The paper provides original insights into K-12 teachers’ workplace learning during the COVID-19 pandemic by understanding their adaptation strategies. It fills a research gap by highlighting both the challenges and support mechanisms in educational transitions during a crisis.

Automatic optical inspection (AOI) systems have been widely used in many fields to evaluate the qualities of products at the end of the production line. The purpose of this paper is to propose a local-to-global ensemble learning method for the AOI system based on to inspect integrated circuit (IC) solder joints defects.

In the proposed method, the locally statistically modeling stage and the globally ensemble learning stage are involved to tackle the inspection problem. At the former stage, the improved visual background extraction–based algorithm is used for locally statistically modeling to grasp tiny appearance differences between the IC solder joints to achieve potential defect images for the subsequent stage. At the latter stage, mean unqualified probability is introduced based on a novel ensemble learning, in which an adaptive weighted strategy is proposed for revealing different contributions of the base classifier to the inspection performance.

Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method achieves better inspection performance with an acceptable inspection time compared with some state-of-the-art methods.

The approach is a promising method for IC solder joint inspection, which can simultaneously grasp the local characteristics of IC solder joints and reveal inherently global relationships between IC solder joints.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how employer brand experience (EBE) impacts organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). In addition, it aims to identify the mediating role of employee engagement (EE) in relationship between EBE and OCB.

To test the research hypotheses, a web questionnaire was developed and data were collected from 426 respondents working in the Indian banking sector. Hypotheses were tested using structural equational modeling.

EBE was positively related to OCB. The predicted mediating role of EE in the relationship between EBE and OCB was also supported.

The study is confined to the banking sector only, which limits the generalization of the findings.

The results imply that firms should leverage on various dimensions of employer brand (EB) i.e. compensation, work–life balance, working environment, training and corporate social responsibility to enhance EE and OCB.

The research is among the very few to confirm the role of EBE vis-à-vis current employees especially in a collectivist society like India. The study also confirmed the mediating role of EE between EBE and OCB which have not been studied previously.

Exercise has the potential to provide benefits for people living with dementia, yet the balance of evidence is uncertain. This paper aims to provide an evidence synthesis to determine whether exercise improves their health and well-being and what exercise should be recommended.

Structured search for existing literature reviews on exercise for dementia. Relevant articles were selected and critically appraised against systematic criteria. The findings from 15 high quality reviews were collated by using a best evidence synthesis approach.

The evidence is convincing for improving physical health, promising for cognitive benefits, mixed for psychological benefits and limited for behavioural outcomes. No evidence of harm was found. Overall, exercise can improve physical and mental health for people living with dementia: there is sufficient evidence to recommend multimodal exercise.

The potential beneficial outcomes are of significant importance both for people with dementia and their caregivers. In the absence of more specific findings, the current recommendation for older adults in general is pragmatically justified – some activity is better than none, more activity provides greater benefits. Adding social interaction may be important for psychological and behavioural outcomes.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to encapsulate the literature to date on exercise for dementia. Combining the findings from previous reviews enabled a novel synthesis across the range of relevant interventions and outcomes.