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Clinical staff working in mental health services experience high levels of work-related stress, burnout and poor well-being. Increased levels of stress, burnout, depression and anxiety and poorer mental well-being among health-care workers are associated with more sick days, absenteeism, lower work satisfaction, increased staff turnover and reduced quality of patient care. Virtual reality (VR) relaxation is a technique whereby experiences of pleasant and calming environments are accessed through a head-mounted display to promote relaxation. The purpose of this paper is to describe the design of a study that assesses the feasibility and acceptability of implementing a multi-session VR relaxation intervention amongst mental health professionals, to improve their relaxation levels and mental well-being.

The study follows a pre–post-test design. Mental health staff will be recruited for five weeks of VR relaxation. The authors will measure the feasibility and acceptability of the VR relaxation intervention as primary outcomes, alongside secondary outcomes evaluating the benefits of VR relaxation for mental well-being.

The study aims to recruit 20–25 health-care professionals working in both inpatient and specialist community mental health settings.

Research indicates the potential of VR relaxation as a low-intensity intervention to promote relaxation and reduce stress in the workplace. If VR relaxation is shown to be feasible and acceptable, when delivered across multiple sessions, there would be scope for large-scale work to investigate its effectiveness as an approach to enable health-care professionals to de-stress, relax and optimise their mental well-being. In turn, this may consequently reduce turnover and improve stress-related sick leave across health-care services.

This study aims to assess the nature and scope of dog-based programmes in prisons, assessing critically the potential opportunities, benefits, challenges and risks of developing innovative dog-based programmes for older prisoners in England and Wales. This paper outlines the potential benefits and challenges of developing dog-based programmes for older prisoners and sets out next steps for future research and practice.

This study is based on a scoping review of published research literature on prison dog programmes (PDPs) in the USA, the UK and other countries, with particular reference to older people in prison, followed by semi-structured interviews with six members of an expert advisory group. The literature review and data from the qualitative interviews were analysed thematically.

There is a substantial body of published research literature which supports PDPs as having identifiable positive impacts for people and also dogs, and also published research which highlights the benefits to older people of dog ownership or participation in dog-based activities. However, much of this research is small-scale and qualitative, and it has been argued that there is a lack of a quantitative evidence base. This research concludes that findings from the literature review and the semi-structured interviews support further research and the creation of pilot projects to develop dog-based projects for older people in prison.

This study was small-scale, and the findings need to be approached with caution. The literature review searched a small number of databases and filtered out articles published in languages other than English, and the review of the grey literature focused on reports from the UK. The number of experts interviewed was small and there was no direct consultation with older people in prison nor with older people with recent personal lived experience of imprisonment and community resettlement. A more extensive future study would benefit from a more extensive literature review, a larger group of participants and the inclusion of service users, prison managers and government policymakers, subject to the appropriate ethical and security approvals. At the time the research took place, ongoing COVID-19 restrictions on prison research meant that research with current prisoners and prison managers would not have been approved by the HMPPS NRC.

This research provides a research-based justification for future dog projects for older prisoners, leading potentially to improved well-being for older people in prison.

This study brings together the published research literature on PDPs with the research literature on the needs and experiences of older people in prison for the first time, and identifies potential directions for future research.

During the pandemic, people have been experiencing the effects of the VUCA era, which has led to changes in lifestyle, including the way we approach tourism. In the past, tourism focused on enjoying nature and cultural heritage, but now there are many different forms, such as sports adventure, edu-tourism, and Sustainable Tourism. Recently, there has been a new trend in tourism called ‘healing’, which emphasises activities that promote relaxation and wellness, such as meditation, yoga, herbal therapy, and forest healing. In Indonesia, there have been over 100 promotional activities for healing tourist attractions, and the term has become increasingly popular in tweets and online searches. This trend reflects the growing need for people to restore their fitness and energy, not just seek pleasure. Studies have shown that travel can help reduce stress and improve mental health, making healing tourism an attractive option for many. By analysing digital data, this article seeks to explain this phenomenon and how it relates to the demands and stresses of modern life. The COVID-19 pandemic has only heightened the need for healing tourism as people seek to fulfil their basic human needs for relaxation and rejuvenation.

This study explores the effects of parents' attending status and alcohol consumption (scenario based) on their feelings of happiness, relaxation, family cohesion and family satisfaction.

This study uses a 2 (attending status: with a child or without a child) X 3 (alcohol consumption: water, a cup of beer or four cups of beers) between-subjects experimental design on an art festival and employs relational cohesion theory while spillover theory.

The results reveal (1) significant differences between parents' attending status on happiness and relaxation; (2) significant differences between alcohol consumption on happiness, family cohesion, and family satisfaction and (3) happiness significantly mediates the effect of parents' alcohol consumption on family cohesion and family satisfaction.

Attending art festivals provides families with a chance to consolidate family relationships. Art festival planners could promote the festival through enhancing participants' family cohesion and satisfaction through potential family leisure activities.

Events are an emerging topic in the hospitality and tourism discipline in recent years. Social impacts, especially family-related outcomes, on art festivals are barely examined. Additionally, while alcohol consumption is common in festivals, the influence of alcohol consumption on the attendees' emotions and behaviors is under-researched.

Residing in a densely populated urban area possesses its allure; nonetheless, it can significantly impact physical and mental well-being owing to the persistent stress and information overload inherent in urban settings. This study aims to introduce a neuro-urbanism framework that can guide urban planners and designers in quantitatively evaluating individuals' responses to virtual simulated environments.

Our study consisted of two phases after randomly selecting six locations representing three types of urban areas in Bratislava, Slovakia: urban spaces, urban streets, and public parks. First, we conducted a Mentimeter live polling (dialogic survey fusion), followed by an experiment involving volunteer participants from the Slovak University of Technology. This experiment employed an electroencephalogram (EEG) with virtual reality headsets to virtually explore participants' responses to the selected locations.

The EEG signal analysis revealed significant differences in relaxation levels across the selected locations in this study. Urban streets with commercial activities promote mental well-being more effectively than public parks, challenging the preconception that restorative environments are exclusively confined to public parks.

The results demonstrate a replicable neuro-urbanism framework comprising three distinct stages: problem-based technology rooted in neuroscience, experimental setup and deliverables, and identification of restorative environments.

This study examines the dualities of digital services – that is, how customers’ favorite everyday digital services can positively and negatively contribute to their well-being. Thus, the study describes the meanings of favorite digital services as part of customers’ everyday lives and the types of well-being to which such services can contribute.

We used a qualitative research approach through semi-structured interviews conducted in 2021 to collect data from 14 young adults (22–31 years old) who actively used digital services in their daily lives.

Our findings revealed that customers’ favorite everyday digital services can contribute to their mental well-being, social well-being, and intellectual well-being. Within these three dimensions of well-being, we identified nine dualities of digital services that describe their positive and negative contributions: (1) digital escapism versus digital disruption, (2) digital relaxation versus digital stress, (3) digital empowerment versus digital subjugation, (4) digital augmentation versus digital emptiness, (5) digital socialization versus digital isolation, (6) digital togetherness versus digital exclusion, (7) digital self-expression versus digital pressure, (8) digital learning versus digital dependence, and (9) digital inspiration versus digital stagnation.

These findings suggest that everyday digital services have the potential to contribute to customer well-being in various aspects – both positively and negatively – accentuating the need for service providers to decipher the impacts of their offerings on well-being. Indeed, understanding the relationship between digital services and customer well-being can help companies tailor their services to customers’ needs. Companies that prioritize customer well-being not only benefit their customers but also create sustainable growth opportunities in the long run. Further, companies can use the derived information in service design to develop marketing strategies that emphasize the positive impacts of their digital services on customer well-being.

Although prior transformative service studies have investigated the well-being of multiple stakeholders, such studies have focused on services related to the physical and healthcare domains. Consequently, the role of everyday digital services as contributors to customer well-being is an under-researched topic. In addition, the concept of well-being and its various dimensions has received limited attention in previous service research. By investigating everyday digital services and their multidimensional contribution to customer well-being, this study broadens the perspective on well-being within TSR and aids in refining a more precise conceptualization.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of electric current stressing on damping properties of Sn5Sb solder.

Uniformly shaped Sn5Sb solders were prepared as samples. The length, width and thickness of the samples were 60.0, 5.0 and 0.5 mm, respectively. The damping properties of the samples were tested by dynamic mechanical analyzer with a cooling system to control the test temperature in the range of −100 to 100°C. Simultaneously, electric current was imposed to the tested samples using a direct current supply. After tests, the samples were characterized using scanning electron microscope, electron backscatter diffraction and transmission electron microscope, which was aimed to figure out the damping mechanism in terms of electric current stressing induced microstructure evolution.

It is confirmed experimentally that the increase in damping properties is due to Joule heating and athermal effects of current stressing, in which Joule heating should make a higher contribution. G–L theory can be used to explain the damping properties of strain amplitude under current stressing by quantitative description of geometrically necessary dislocation density. While the critical strain amplitude and high temperature activation energy decrease with increasing electric current.

These results provide a new method for vibration reliability evaluation of high-temperature lead-free solders in serving electronics. Notably, this method should be also inspiring for the mechanical performance evaluation and reliability assessment of conductive materials and structures serving under electric current stressing.

The outbreak of COVID-19 endemic forced people not only to think but also to pause and objectively reflect how to deal with the situation that has arisen and how to develop well-being and resilience strategies for the welfare of humanity. The endemic brought a global economic shock of enormous magnitude in most of the countries. Policymakers across the globe today have been facing alarming situations and unpredictable challenges as they try to find solutions to problems in the areas of tourism, at macro-economic levels and in socio-cultural arena. People in developing countries are concerned with earning livelihood and supporting their families and find some opportunities to survive by increase in tourist arrivals. Conversely, industralized countries struggle to improve the general psychological and physical health of their citizens. Travelling for well-being appears to be a sensible and uplifting resilience tactic in such a situation. This piece discusses how, in such a situation, cultivating resilience and well-being techniques may enable us to overcome a variety of obstacles in the travel and tourist industry. According to the author, policies aimed at enhancing well-being through travel should give priority to factors like affordability, accessibility, sustainability, safety and education. By promoting an environment where travel is affordable, accessible and sustainable, policymakers can guarantee that more people can take advantage of the positive experiences and enrichment that travel can provide to their lives, while also benefiting the greater community and environment.

There is evidence that both hypnotherapy and virtual reality (VR) can be helpful in reducing perceived stress in the general population. This is a feasibility and acceptability trial of an intervention combining hypnotherapy and VR to establish its acceptability in students. This study aims to establish whether students found the experience acceptable, described any adverse effects and whether they reported feeling calmer after the experience.

The study was testing the hypothesis that students would attend the sessions and find the experience acceptable. A secondary hypothesis was that preliminary qualitative and quantitative evaluation of measures of stress and wellbeing would signal potential improvements.

All participants completed all three sessions. No side effects were reported. Visual analogue scales recorded each day assessing the immediate effect improved. At the end of the intervention, there was an increase in wellbeing of 2.40 (95% CI: 1.33, 3.53, p = 0.006), and a decrease in depression of 0.73 (95% CI: 0.40, 1.07, p = 0.010), reflecting large effect sizes of 0.76 and 0.83, respectively. Qualitative feedback was generally very positive.

This study is small with just 15 students and was over a short period of time. The recruitment method meant there was no way to establish whether the volunteer students were representative of the general student population in terms of mental wellbeing. There was no control arm.

The preliminary results suggest that a larger controlled trial is justified.

This VR experience may have benefit to university students and to the wider population.

This described the evaluation of a novel intervention for perceived stress combining hypnotherapy and virtual reality in a group of healthcare students, with promising results suggesting further evaluation is needed.

The research aims to investigate the impact of thermo-mechanical aging on SBR under cyclic-loading. By conducting experimental analyses and developing a 3D finite element analysis (FEA) model, it seeks to understand chemical and physical changes during aging processes. This research provides insights into nonlinear mechanical behavior, stress softening and microstructural alterations in SBR compounds, improving material performance and guiding future strategies.

This study combines experimental analyses, including cyclic tensile loading, attenuated total reflection (ATR), spectroscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) line scans, to investigate the effects of thermo-mechanical aging (TMA) on carbon-black (CB) reinforced styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR). It employs a 3D FEA model using the Abaqus/Implicit code to comprehend the nonlinear behavior and stress softening response, offering a holistic understanding of aging processes and mechanical behavior under cyclic-loading.

This study reveals significant insights into SBR behavior during thermo-mechanical aging. Findings include surface roughness variations, chemical alterations and microstructural changes. Notably, a partial recovery of stiffness was observed as a function of CB volume fraction. The developed 3D FEA model accurately depicts nonlinear behavior, stress softening and strain fields around CB particles in unstressed states, predicting hysteresis and energy dissipation in aged SBRs.

This research offers novel insights by comprehensively investigating the impact of thermo-mechanical aging on CB-reinforced-SBR. The fusion of experimental techniques with FEA simulations reveals time-dependent mechanical behavior and microstructural changes in SBR materials. The model serves as a valuable tool for predicting material responses under various conditions, advancing the design and engineering of SBR-based products across industries.