Search results

This paper aims to provide an overview of recent literature on nurses’ and midwives’ information behaviour, with a particular focus on sources used and barriers encountered.

Comprehensive searching was undertaken and an analysis of the appropriate literature carried out.

Practitioners within the nursing profession have a marked preference for interactive and human sources of information. They habitually associate information seeking with professional development rather than with clinical practice. Lack of time is the most frequently reported problem; also, they frequently lack confidence in searching and appraising the professional literature and in applying research in practice. Cultural factors may inhibit information seeking in the workplace, and access to appropriate information technology may be limited.

As a group, nurses and midwives present significant challenges to health library and information professionals seeking to design services to meet their needs. A perceived lack of access to information resources may be associated with pervasive information literacy skill deficits, with the inability to undertake critical appraisal of material that is retrieved, or with the lack of a workplace culture that is supportive of information seeking. To reach nurses and midwives, more than diligent marketing is required; library and information professionals need to work closely with the holders of nursing and midwifery research, practice development and educational roles within their institutions on “embedded”, specific information initiatives.

An overview of recent work is presented on the information behaviour of nurses and midwives within developed economies, focusing particularly on the UK. It may be of interest and value to health librarians and to nursing and midwifery educators in facilitating evidence-based practice.

Electronic texts are an essential component of any e‐learning environment. This paper extends previous research on navigation and learning with electronic texts by examining the effects of a novel approach to navigation: allowing the learner to create their own navigation aids. We present two experimental studies investigating the effects of creating versus using A‐Z indexes and graphical maps on knowledge development and feelings of ownership for learning. Findings revealed that using a graphical map for navigation has advantages for knowledge development and for feelings of ownership, whereas creating a graphical map offers no significant benefits over plain hypertext; there were no benefits to using or creating A‐Z indexes over plain hypertext. It was also found in comparisons of using vs. creating graphical maps that high feelings of ownership were correlated with higher quality knowledge development. These findings have three major implications for designers of e‐learning environments: including graphical map navigation aids should be considered; designers should not assume that allowing learners to create their own navigation aids will improve learning; feelings of ownership for learning should be encouraged in learners.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate some numerical integration strategies used in generalized (G)/extended finite element method (XFEM) to solve linear elastic fracture mechanics problems. A range of parameters are here analyzed, evidencing how the numerical integration error and the computational efficiency are improved when particularities from these examples are properly considered.

Numerical integration strategies were implemented in an existing computational environment that provides a finite element method and G/XFEM tools. The main parameters of the analysis are considered and the performance using such strategies is compared with standard integration results.

Known numerical integration strategies suitable for fracture mechanics analysis are studied and implemented. Results from different crack configurations are presented and discussed, highlighting the necessity of alternative integration techniques for problems with singularities and/or discontinuities.

This study presents a variety of fracture mechanics examples solved by G/XFEM in which the use of standard numerical integration with Gauss quadratures results in loss of precision. It is discussed the behaviour of subdivision of elements and mapping of integration points strategies for a range of meshes and cracks geometries, also featuring distorted elements and how they affect strain energy and stress intensity factors evaluation for both strategies.

The purpose of this paper is to consider the implications of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic for future research on intersection feminist studies of foodwork.

This paper offers a brief summary of feminist domestic foodwork research and COVID-19 food-related media commentary, focusing on race, gender and class.

This paper shows how domestic foodwork during pandemic lockdowns and the wider contexts reproduced racial, classed and gendered inequalities and hierarchies.

The paper is limited by the recency of the pandemic and lack of empirical studies but still offers recommendations for a post-pandemic intersectional feminist agenda for studies and policy interventions relation to domestic foodwork.

The paper raises the importance of foodwork for feminist organisational studies, and how it consolidated and created racialised, gendered and classed inequalities during the pandemic, offering insights for future research and policy interventions around food and labour.

Digital technologies, such as big data and artificial intelligence, significantly impact entrepreneurial activities worldwide. However, research on entrepreneurial activities enabled by digital technologies is fragmented, divergent and delayed. This study aims to provide a structured review of digital entrepreneurship (DE) to identify status, hotspots, knowledge structure, dynamic trends and future developments in this field.

The bibliometric analysis was applied to offer a technological review on DE. In total 704 publications and their 34,083 references from Web of Science were retrieved as the sample set. Basic characteristics of publications, including the most influential documents, authors, journals and countries, were obtained. Then, co-citation and co-occurrence analyses were conducted to sketch the contours of the structure and evolution of DE.

DE has attracted increasing attention in the past three decades, especially after 2013. There are dozens of countries, hundreds of journals and more than 1,000 authors that have contributed to this field. Based on keyword co-occurrence clustering and co-citation clustering, the authors proposed a 3E (empower, evolution and ecosystem) framework of DE to facilitate an interdisciplinary dialogue for evidence-based policymaking and practice. In the future, researchers need to pay more attention to theoretical research and study DE from a holistic and dynamic perspective with consideration to the negative impact of digital technology on entrepreneurial activities.

This study draws an outline of the global advance on DE research. It presents an opportunity to comprehensively understand the contemporary achievements, the march of knowledge and the logical venation underlying academic developments as well as foundations for policymaking.

This paper aims to highlight recent resources on information literacy (IL) and library instruction, providing an introductory overview and a selected annotated bibliography of publications covering all library types.

This paper introduces and annotates English-language periodical articles, monographs, dissertations and other materials on library instruction and IL published in 2015.

This paper provides information about each source, describes the characteristics of current scholarship and highlights sources that contain either unique or significant scholarly contributions.

The information may be used by librarians and interested parties as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and IL.

The aim of this paper is to present a novel data transfer technique to simulate, by G/XFEM, a cohesive crack propagation coupled with a smeared damage model. The efficiency of this technique is evaluated in terms of processing time, number of Newton–Raphson iterations and accuracy of structural response.

The cohesive crack is represented by the G/XFEM enrichment strategy. The elements crossed by the crack are divided into triangular cells. The smeared crack model is used to describe the material behavior. In the nonlinear solution of the problem, state variables associated with the original numerical integration points need to be transferred to new points created with the triangular subdivision. A nonlocal strategy is tailored to transfer the scalar and tensor variables of the constitutive model. The performance of this technique is numerically evaluated.

When compared with standard Gauss quadrature integration scheme, the proposed strategy may deliver a slightly superior computational efficiency in terms of processing time. The weighting function parameter used in the nonlocal transfer strategy plays an important role. The equilibrium state in the interactive-incremental solution process is not severely penalized and is readily recovered. The advantages of such proposed technique tend to be even more pronounced in more complex and finer meshes.

This work presents a novel data transfer technique based on the ideas of the nonlocal formulation of the state variables and specially tailored to the simulation of cohesive crack propagation in materials governed by the smeared crack constitutive model.

This paper supports the call for using a separate research stream for long-term recovery vs disaster relief in humanitarian studies. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the thematic shift towards service operations during this developmental phase and explores the role of social entrepreneurial organizations. It builds from the literature on service operations management and social entrepreneurship to promote theory in humanitarian operations management.

This exploratory study uses literature concepts and field data from multiple development case studies of social entrepreneurial organizations and social enterprises in Africa and the Middle East to analyze service operations.

Clear contributions to the role of social entrepreneurship in providing humanitarian and development services were identified and categorized according to service operations management stages.

This paper has important practical implications. The positioning of social entrepreneurial organizations as humanitarian service providers would open opportunities for new collaborations between donors and social organizations. Mainstream NGOs dominate the scene of servicing local communities; leaving aside social entrepreneurial organizations with substantial room for innovation that they might bring to the sector. In addition, social entrepreneurial organizations’ ability to build business models and design sustainability and scalability aspects for their operations may bring long-term development to impoverished communities. Global NGOs as well as government actors who carry out the first three stages of humanitarian operations could plan on working with (or even help creating) social entrepreneurial organizations to help with long-term recovery.

This study examines the implications of two bodies of literature; service operations management and social entrepreneurship on humanitarian operations management research. It concludes with a conceptual framework emphasizing the contributions of social entrepreneurship in planning, development, delivery, and distribution of services in the long-term recovery humanitarian and development operations.

In Scotland, the self-directed support (SDS) legislation is a catch-all payment system which brings challenges to local authorities, service delivery organisations and the service users it is intended to empower. Set against a backdrop of cuts to local authorities and third-sector funding, this policy presents third-sector organisations with both the opportunities and challenges of commercialising their activities to become more sustainable. The purpose of this paper is to provide evidence of the challenges faced by one charity as it engages in a process of hybridity to accommodate changes in its funding due to the introduction of SDS.

The paper utilises a case study approach. The paper captures the experiences and views of managers, staff and parents advocating for their children through interviews with a purposive sample from each group. The challenges of gathering data and giving a voice to caregivers advocating for children with complex needs are discussed, particularly the difficulties in accessing a hard to reach group.

The findings identifies issues which have arisen because of the proposed changed in strategic direction of the organisation due to the introduction of SDS and are all related to hybridity. The findings are arranged in four sub-sections based on the themes that emerged from the qualitative data generated from the interviews: the practical delivery of care; tensions between care and quality, the care workforce, and the parent perspective.

SDS policy has had unexpected impacts and reactions whilst rolling out across regions in Scotland, but policymakers and those involved in the care sector, including consumers, face significant challenges in gathering evidence not only from the vulnerable populations this policy affects but also from organisations already under pressure from austerity-led cuts. This paper presents the challenges to organisations involved in caring for children with complex needs, who are a particularly neglected group of stakeholders.

Organically arising barriers to organisational transition from charity to social enterprise are presented, as staff and caregivers react to the prospect of SDS uptake affecting their organisation. Proactive attempts to embrace a hybrid approach by the organisation are analysed.

Understanding how social care organisations and clients are reacting to the implementation of individual payments as opposed to the previous system of block contracts is crucial as the sector faces very real prospects of organisations closing when individuals are able to pick and choose care. A policy based on choice and control for the consumer risks removing choice through a loss of services in the marketplace, leaving vulnerable populations at risk.

This study is unique. No research has been done exploring the transition of charities servicing children with complex needs in anticipation of self-directed payments creating an open market. The paper further contributes to the existing knowledge regarding hybrid organisations within the third sector.

In recent years, there has been a proliferation of online resources that offer health information. However, there is no guarantee that all intended users will be able to use these resources effectively. This study seeks to investigate the types of help features that are available through existing internet‐based health information resources that support the use of these resources.

An investigation of 30 such resources was carried out with the objective of answering these questions. The paper intends to answer the following research questions: What types of help features are available in existing online health information resources? How can their formats and presentation styles be characterised based on existing interface design guidelines from the Human‐Computer Interaction (HCI) community? Were there any differences in the manner in which different internet‐based health information providers presented evidence‐based information?

The study discovered a range of help features being employed in these resources, ranging from step‐by‐step guides outlining the use of site features to the inclusion of links to resources that cater to user groups, who speak a language other than English. Further to this, the study also found that resources that were consumer‐based and commercially‐funded predominantly favoured the use of implicit help features to improve user access, whilst government‐funded libraries were more likely to make use of explicit help features to aid users in the use of specific features.

This study provides insightful information regarding current status and problems of the help features in existing online health information resources.