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The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically affected the fire service: stay-at-home orders and potential exposure hazards disrupted standard fire service operations and incident patterns. The ability to predict incident volume during such disruptions is crucial for dynamic and efficient staff allocation planning. This work proposes a model to quantify the relationship between the increase in “residential mobility” (i.e. time spent at home) due to COVID-19 and fire and emergency medical services (EMS) call volume at the onset of the pandemic (February – May 2020). Understanding this relationship is beneficial should mobility disruptions of this scale occur again.

The analysis was run on 56 fire departments that subscribe to the National Fire Operations Reporting System (NFORS). This platform enables fire departments to report and visualize operational data. The model consists of a Bayesian hierarchical model. Text comments reported by first responders were also analyzed to provide additional context for the types of incidents that drive the model’s results.

Overall, a 1% increase in residential mobility (i.e. time spent at home) was associated with a 1.43% and 0.46% drop in EMS and fire call volume, respectively. Around 89% and 21% of departments had a significant decrease in EMS and fire call volume, respectively, as time spent at home increased.

A few papers have investigated the impact of COVID-19 on fire incidents in a few locations, but none have covered an extensive number of fire departments. Additionally, no studies have investigated the relationship between mobility and fire department call volumes.

Research highlights that residential care experienced children and young people in Scotland have poorer educational outcomes than their peers within the wider population. Despite this, poor educational attainment is not inevitable, and further research is needed to increase the understanding of long-term trajectories. This paper aims to address a gap in contemporary literature that is of benefit to practitioners, academics and policymakers. Despite experiencing adversity, attachment, separation and loss, school attainment data on leaving care only reflects part of the educational journey.

Using a mixed methodology and social constructionist theoretical framework, a practitioner-led PhD study gathered data from questionnaires and qualitative information from 13 semi-structured interviews with young people who had experienced residential care in Scotland. Recruitment was through a gatekeeper within a national third-sector organisation. The educational trajectories for young people with experience of residential care in Scotland are complex. A lived experience perspective from a PhD study illustrates that statistical data only captures part of the journey and the author needs to reconsider how success is measured.

Of the 13 participants in the study, 12 achieved success educationally, although for the majority of those interviewed, attainment continued after leaving compulsory education. Barriers to greater success included placement uncertainty and movement, stigma, low expectations, pressure to not become a statistic, procedural obstacles and inconsistency or poor relationships.

Supportive relationships and stable placements can create circumstances conducive to effective learning, but evidence reflects that support is necessary throughout the life course if children, young people and adults with care experience are to reach their full academic potential.

Research into the educational outcomes for those with experience of residential care in Scotland is limited. This paper, from a PhD, provides lived experience accounts from a practitioner-led study.

This article focuses on the continuity and changes in the Productive Welfare Regimes and investigates how the COVID-19 pandemic and population ageing can influence the established systems in Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan.

Our research is based on document review, investigating intricate situations with numerous aspects and providing an excellent opportunity for innovation and examining theoretical presumptions in welfare regime theory, as well as exploring the complicated policy trajectories that varies among cases.

Our findings reveal that social policy responses to COVID-19 have been characterized by adopting the market-conforming role of social policy for the elderly. This is shown by many policy measures focusing on self-sufficiency and an active labour market, signalling that the COVID-19 pandemic and population ageing pressure here are viewed as an economic issue over social rights. The economic-first was adopted to maintain their proximity to the global economy as key sources of their social policy development. We can conclude by emphasizing that the responses to COVID-19 have exposed deficiencies in certain existing social policies. Yet, they have not been sufficient to catalyse substantial policy changes across domains where such change had not already been initiated, thus allowing welfare regimes to remain within productivist boundaries.

This study responds to the current debate on the welfare regime continuity and adaptation in East Asia and suggests a new perspective of policy process in the times of insecurity.

To ensure health, social and criminal justice services are suited to the complex and dynamic needs of people with learning/intellectual disabilities (LD) at risk of offending, it is important to systematically analyse the needs and characteristics of this population. This study aimed to analyse the patterns of referrals to a single community forensic LD service before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A structured audit was conducted on all referrals to the service (n = 37) across a three-year period (May 2019 – end of July 2022).

The majority of the overall sample were male (36, 97%) and Caucasian (24, 65%) with a mean age of 32.9 years and mild LD. The most prevalent current offending type was sexual offending (17, 44%), whereas the most prevalent historical offending type was violence (17, 35%). The most common service/function offered by the service was advice and consultation to other professionals and agencies (10, 19%). The service user and forensic/legal characteristics measured did not differ significantly before and during COVID-19.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the project is the first to systematically analyse and compare community forensic LD service referral patterns before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study also provides an example of how a structured audit tool can be used to benefit individual services and the wider literature on assessing the needs and characteristics of adults with LD who live in the community and are at risk of [re]offending.

An important finding of the Safeguarding Adults Review into events at Cawston Park was that the views of patients and their families were systematically ignored by the hospital. The purpose of this paper is to report on a review of people’s experiences of residential and secure in-patient services in Norfolk for those with learning disabilities and autistic people. It discusses overall reported levels of satisfaction, how well people and their families felt they were listened to by services and what people valued most in services.

The main research tools were visits to services to talk to people and observe them receiving care, along with listening sessions outside homes and interviews with relatives.

Most people spoken to were happy with how they were listened to, but there is room for improvement. People particularly valued connections with staff based on reciprocity, long-term relationships and, for some, family-like relationships, and were unhappy when these were inconsistent or absent. People also enjoyed the opportunity to develop relationships with people outside their service, and especially with non-disabled people, something that was rare for most people. Relatives appreciated transparency of communication and openness to negotiation in home managers, especially when problems or disagreements arose.

The findings suggest that the severe problems with listening at Cawston Park are not more widespread across the sector in Norfolk. However, progress is needed to improve the consistency of listening across services and to develop services informed by what people value most in services around quality relationships, communication and social inclusion.

Initiator crimes, also known as near-repeat crimes, occur in places with known risk factors and vulnerabilities based on prior crime-related experiences or information. Consequently, the environment in which initiator crimes occur might be different from more general crime environments. This study aimed to analyse the differences between the environments of initiator crimes and general crimes, confirming the need for predicting initiator crimes.

We compared predictive models using data corresponding to initiator crimes and all residential burglaries without considering repetitive crime patterns as dependent variables. Using random forest and gradient boosting, representative ensemble models and predictive models were compared utilising various environmental factor data. Subsequently, we evaluated the performance of each predictive model to derive feature importance and partial dependence based on a highly predictive model.

By analysing environmental factors affecting overall residential burglary and initiator crimes, we observed notable differences in high-importance variables. Further analysis of the partial dependence of total residential burglary and initiator crimes based on these variables revealed distinct impacts on each crime. Moreover, initiator crimes took place in environments consistent with well-known theories in the field of environmental criminology.

Our findings indicate the possibility that results that do not appear through the existing theft crime prediction method will be identified in the initiator crime prediction model. Emphasising the importance of investigating the environments in which initiator crimes occur, this study underscores the potential of artificial intelligence (AI)-based approaches in creating a safe urban environment. By effectively preventing potential crimes, AI-driven prediction of initiator crimes can significantly contribute to enhancing urban safety.

Sustainability represents innovative elements in determining the profitability of real estate investments, among other factors, including the green component in real estate. Evidence from the literature has pointed out that incorporating green features into residential buildings can reduce operational costs and increase the building’s value. Although green real estate is considered the future trend of choice, it is still being determined whether prospective buyers are willing to accept the extra cost of green residential investment. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the effect of housing attributes and green certification on residential real estate prices.

The impact of the housing attribute and green certification in the residential sectors was assessed using a transaction data set comprising approximately 861 residential units sold in Selangor, Malaysia, between 2014 and 2022. Linear and quantile regression were used in this study by using SPSS software for a robust result.

The findings indicate that the market price of residential properties in Malaysia is influenced by housing attributes, transaction types and Green Building Index certification. The empirical evidence from this study suggests that green certification significantly affects the sales price of residential properties in Malaysia. The findings of this research will help investors identify measurable factors that affect the transaction prices of green-certified residential real estate. These identifications will facilitate the development of strategic plans aimed at achieving sustainable rates of return in the sustainable residential real estate market.

Specifically, this research will contribute to achieving area 4 of the 11th Malaysia Plan, which pertains to pursuing green growth for sustainability and resilience. This will be achieved by enhancing awareness among investors and homebuyers regarding the importance of green residential buildings in contributing to the environment, the economy and society.

The regression model for housing attributes and green certification on house price developed in this study could offer valuable benefits to support and advance Malaysia in realising its medium and long-term goals for green technology.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the importance of personalisation in the relationship between the architectural design of homes and inhabitants’ psychological well-being.

This interdisciplinary mixed-method study first investigates the existence of a link between personalisation and users’ association with home through a quantitative study (n = 101) and then explores the nature of this relationship through qualitative interviews (n = 13) in a sequential explanatory approach.

The main findings of the study highlight the significance of personalisation in relation to the way people perceive home. A direct link was established between participants’ involvement in the transformation of the home and their satisfaction with the residence, as well as satisfaction with life in general. Further thematic analysis of the qualitative study revealed further conceptualisations of personalisation, which together form an umbrella concept called transformability.

The findings underscore the need for embedding flexibility as an architectural concept in the design of residential buildings for improving the well-being of occupants.

The design of homes has a great impact on inhabitants’ psychological well-being. This is becoming of greater importance in light of the global COVID-19 pandemic that has led to an increase in the amount of time spent in homes. This research contributes to this debate by proposing concepts for a deeper understanding of architectural influences on the psychology of the home.

This research aims to explore the factors influencing the adoption intention of eco-friendly smart home appliances among residents in densely populated urban areas of a developing country.

A quantitative research approach was employed to gather data from 348 respondents through purposive sampling. A comparative analysis strategy was then utilized to investigate the adoption of eco-friendly smart home appliances, combining both linear (PLS-SEM) and non-linear (fsQCA) approaches.

The results obtained from PLS-SEM highlight that performance expectancy, facilitating conditions, hedonic motivation, price value, and environmental knowledge significantly influence the adoption intention of eco-friendly smart home appliances. However, the findings suggest that effort expectancy, social influence, and habit are not significantly associated with customers' intention to adopt eco-friendly smart home appliances. On the other hand, the fsQCA results identified eight configurations of antecedents, offering valuable insights into interpreting the complex combined causal relationships among these factors that can generate (each combination) the adoption intention of eco-friendly smart home appliances among densely populated city dwellers.

This study offers crucial marketing insights for various stakeholders, including homeowners, technology developers and manufacturers, smart home service providers, real estate developers, and government entities. The findings provide guidance on how these stakeholders can effectively encourage customers to adopt eco-friendly smart home appliances, aligning with future environmental sustainability demands. The research implications underscore the significance of exploring the antecedents that influence customers' adoption intention of eco-friendly technologies, contributing to the attainment of future sustainability goals.

The environmental sustainability of smart homes, particularly in densely populated city settings in developing countries, has received limited attention in previous studies. Therefore, this study aims to address the pressing issue of global warming and make a meaningful contribution to future sustainability goals related to smart housing technologies. Therefore, this study employs a comprehensive approach, combining both PLS-SEM (linear) and fsQCA (non-linear) techniques to provide a more thorough examination of the factors influencing the adoption of environmentally sustainable smart home appliances.

The concept of aging-in-place has gained notable significance in the last decade due to a dramatic demographic shift in global population dynamics that have considerably affected the ability of societies to adequately cater for their aging population. This paper examines some of the barriers to aging-in-place in the context of health needs, housing design and the role of retrofitting/smart home technologies in overcoming these barriers.

Using a narrative literature review approach, the authors undertook a comprehensive search of recent relevant literature focusing on five core thematic areas: health and aging, aging in place, barriers to aging in place, retrofitting and smart home technologies for successful aging in place. The authors entered appropriate keywords into interdisciplinary research databases and synthesized a coherent narrative discussing the thematic areas using the data extracted from the literature search.

There is a bidirectional relationship between aging and the home environment. Barriers to aging-in-place are mainly related to progressive decline in health, which alters the environmental needs of individuals. Appropriate building designs can significantly facilitate aging-in-place. The authors, therefore, highlight the role of retrofitting and smart home technologies as practical solutions to the challenges of the aging-in-place.

Forward planning in building design is essential to guarantee that the home environment is well adapted for the challenges of aging-in-place while also promoting healthy aging.

The paper shows the relationship between aging and the home environment and how building design considerations could enhance healthy aging-in-place.