Fit in to stand out : An experience perspective on value creation

In order to grow and survive, a firm must create value with consumers in ways that both fit in with consumer demands and stand out from competitors. Focusing on and understanding consumer and firm assessments of value and creation of value has become a central scope in the contemporary strategic management and marketing literature for understanding and explaining firm survival and success. Consequently, the overall aim of this thesis is to provide a conceptually and empirically grounded understanding of consumers’ and managers’ value assessments and behavior in value creation. This thesis draws on a consumer experience perspective and theories on social construction, organizational identity, self-congruence, and the theory of attractive quality, and combines multiple qualitative and quantitative studies. The findings in this thesis shed light on the interplay between consumers, firms, and contextual structures in value creation. Contextual structural, cultural, and political forces are shown to affect and be affected by the shared and individual cognitions of value creation that firms and consumers use in their assessment and creation value. The results of the study enhance the understanding of how firms can adopt various strategic schemas or organizing logics to optimize different types of use value creation when choosing between opposing and contradictive demands in their value creation. Furthermore, the thesis provides a deeper understanding of the hierarchical nature of consumer judgments of value that can be used to enhance the effectiveness of firm prioritizations and as a foundation for future value-creating strategies.

Mental health nurses’ attitudes, behaviour, experience and knowledge regarding adults with a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder: systematic, integrative literature review

Aims and objectives To establish whether mental health nurses responses to people with borderline personality disorder are problematic and, if so, to inform solutions to support change. Background There is some evidence that people diagnosed with borderline personality disorder are unpopular among mental health nurses who respond to them in ways which could be counter-therapeutic. Interventions to improve nurses’ attitudes have had limited success. Design Systematic, integrative literature review. Methods Computerised databases were searched from inception to April 2015 for papers describing primary research focused on mental health nurses’ attitudes, behaviour, experience, and knowledge regarding adults diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. Analysis of qualitative studies employed metasynthesis; analysis of quantitative studies was informed by the theory of planned behaviour. Results Forty studies were included. Only one used direct observation of clinical practice. Nurses’ knowledge and experiences vary widely. They find the group very challenging to work with, report having many training needs, and, objectively, their attitudes are poorer than other professionals’ and poorer than towards other diagnostic groups. Nurses say they need a coherent therapeutic framework to guide their practice, and their experience of caregiving seems improved where this exists. Conclusions Mental health nurses’ responses to people with borderline personality disorder are sometimes counter-therapeutic. As interventions to change them have had limited success there is a need for fresh thinking. Observational research to better understand the link between attitudes and clinical practice is required. Evidence-based education about borderline personality disorder is necessary, but developing nurses to lead in the design, implementation and teaching of coherent therapeutic frameworks may have greater benefits. Relevance to clinical practice There should be greater focus on development and implementation of a team-wide approach, with nurses as equal partners, when working with patients with borderline personality disorder.

Student digital experience tracker 2016: results from the pilot project

Building on funded work on the experiences of today’s digital students http://bit.ly/jiscdigistudent (2014-2015) and feedback from stakeholders, Jisc piloted a tracker tool with 24 education providers in Higher education (HE) and Further Education (FE) and skills. The aim of the tracker is to provide a snapshot of learners’ digital experiences at a training provider, college or university so that education providers can better understand this aspect of the learning experience. This survey report highlights key findings from the tracker pilot.

The interplay between social motivation, social experience, and developmental neural specialization for social perception

From birth, infants preferentially attend to human motion, which allows them to learn to interpret other peoples’ facial expressions and mental states. Evidence from adults shows that selectivity of the amygdala and the posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) to biological motion correlates with social network size. Social motivation—one’s desire to orient to the social world, to seek and find reward in social interaction, and to maintain social relationships—may also contribute to neural specialization for biological motion and to social network characteristics. The current study aimed to determine whether neural selectivity for biological motion relates to social network characteristics, and to gain preliminary evidence as to whether social motivation plays a role in this relation. Findings suggest that neural selectivity for biological motion in the pSTS is positively related to social network size in middle childhood and that this relation is moderated by social motivation.

Food and fuel microalgae applications: insights from portuguese experience [Resumo]

Microalgae have a wide range of application fields, from food to fuels, to pharmaceuticals & fine chemicals, aquaculture and environmental bioremediation, among others. Spirulina and Chlorella have been used as food sources since ancient times, due to their high and balanced nutritional value. Our research group in Lisbon has developed a range of food products (emulsions, gelled desserts, biscuits and pastas) enriched with freshwater and marine microalgae (Spirulina, Chlorella, Haematococcus, Isochrysis and Diacronema). The developed products presented attractive and stable colours, high resistance to oxidation and enhanced rheological properties. Some of these products will be prepared at the Post-Congress Course “Functional Foods Development” at the University of Antofagasta. More recently, a great interest has arisen on using microalgae for biofuel production. The same group has also been exploring several marine and freshwater species for biofuel production (e.g., biodiesel, bioethanol, biohydrogen and biomethane) within a biorefinery approach, in order to obtain high and low-value co-products using integral biomass maximizing the energy revenue. Namely, supercritical fluid extraction of Nannochloropsis sp. allowed the recovery of valuable carotenoids and lipids, prior to bioH2 production through dark fermentation of the residual biomass. Also, Scenedesmus obliquus residues after sugars (for bioethanol) and lipids (for biodiesel) extraction has been anaerobically digested attaining high biomethane yields. Regarding sustainability issues, the current trend of our group is now focused on using liquid effluents and high CO2 levels for low cost microalgae growth, contributing to a lower water demand, primary energy consumption and global warming potential by reducing the need for potable water and fertilizers (P, N) and increasing CO2 mitigation. Microalgae biomass has been successfully used for urban wastewater treatment with subsequent bioH2 production, in a biorefinery approach. Presently, ammonium-rich raw effluents from piggeries and poultry industry are being effectively used for microalgae growth avoiding any pre-treatment step.

`Electronic Publishing' -- Practice and Experience

Electronic Publishing -- Origination, Dissemination and Design (EP-odd) is an academic journal which publishes refereed papers in the subject area of electronic publishing. The authors of the present paper are, respectively, editor-in-chief, system software consultant and senior production manager for the journal. EP-odd's policy is that editors, authors, referees and production staff will work closely together using electronic mail. Authors are also encouraged to originate their papers using one of the approved text-processing packages together with the appropriate set of macros which enforce the layout style for the journal. This same software will then be used by the publisher in the production phase. Our experiences with these strategies are presented, and two recently developed suites of software are described: one of these makes the macro sets available over electronic mail and the other automates the flow of papers through the refereeing process. The decision to produce EP-odd in this way means that the publisher has to adopt production procedures which differ markedly from those employed for a conventional journal.

From crime to court - an experience report of a digital forensics group project module.

This paper discusses the large-scale group project undertaken by BSc Hons Digital Forensics students at Abertay University in their penultimate year. The philosophy of the project is to expose students to the full digital crime "life cycle", from commission through investigation, preparation of formal court report and finally, to prosecution in court. In addition, the project is novel in two aspects; the "crimes" are committed by students, and the moot court proceedings, where students appear as expert witnesses for the prosecution, are led by law students acting as counsels for the prosecution and defence. To support students, assessments are staged across both semesters with staff feedback provided at critical points. Feedback from students is very positive, highlighting particularly the experience of engaging with the law students and culminating in the realistic moot court, including a challenging cross-examination. Students also commented on the usefulness of the final debrief, where the whole process and the student experience is discussed in an informal plenary meeting between DF students and staff, providing an opportunity for the perpetrators and investigators to discuss details of the "crimes", and enabling all groups to learn from all crimes and investigations. We conclude with a reflection on the challenges encountered and a discussion of planned changes.

Dietary restraint and subjective well-being in university students in Chile

Objective: To characterize university students typologies according to chronic food restriction, satisfaction with life and food consumption. Materials and method: A questionnaire was applied on a non-probability sample of 369 male and female students from five Chilean universities. The questionnaire included: Revised Restraint Scale (RRS), Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), Satisfaction with Food-related Life (SWFL) and the Health-related Quality of Life Index. The survey included food and drink consumption habits, weight and approximate height and sociodemographic variables. Results: Two factors in the RRS were detected by exploratory factor analysis: Preoccupation with Diet (PD) and Weight fluctuations (WF). A confirmatory factor analysis validated the bifactor structure of the RRS with an acceptable adjustment kindness. The cluster analysis allowed a distinction of four typologies with a significant variation in PD, WF, SWLS and SWFL scoring, number of days with mental health problems, frequency of alcoholic drinks consumption, restraint on the consumption of certain foods, drinks and spices, consumption frequency of fruit out of the main meals and types. Typologies did not differ on their body mass index. Conclusions: Both, students preoccupied with diet and those who are not, experience higher levels of satisfaction with life and with food. Lower levels of global life satisfaction and satisfaction with food are related with the fluctuations in weight.

Effect of Experience on Alibi Generation and Expectation

Members of the general population have high expectations of people who are asked to corroborate an alibi for the suspect of a crime. The general belief is that it is easy to provide an alibi if a person is innocent, and therefore guilt should be assumed when an alibi cannot be provided. The possibility that having to generate an alibi oneself could influence expectations was examined. Additionally, potential changes in opinion after being provided with positive or negative feedback were explored. Results showed a significant difference in expectations based on whether participants were correct or incorrect in identifying the suspect, that is, whether participants were able to provide an alibi. Those who were incorrect had lower expectations of themselves and of others than those who were correct. Making jurors aware of the difficulty in providing an alibi may lead to fairer treatment of suspects who have difficulty providing one.

Educational Videos and Exposure to Nature as Predictors of Environmentally Responsible Behaviours among University Students

The purpose of this study was to examine if the effects of exposure to educational videos on climate change and exposure to a view of nature could elicit environmentalist behaviours and increase one’s environmental identity. It was predicted that participants who were exposed to a view of nature and saw a video on climate change would have a higher likelihood to plant a seed and experience greater connectedness to nature. Fifty-four students (38 females, 15 males, and 1 gender fluid) with ages ranging from 18 to 47 were recruited for the experiment. A 2 (type of video) x 2 (type of view) factorial design was conducted, in which participants were randomly assigned to watch either an educational video on climate change or on popsicles, and they either had a view of outdoors or indoors. There was no significant interaction for setting and video (p = .172) on whether participants chose to plant a seed or not. Likewise, there was no significant interaction for setting and video (p = .262) on planting intentions. There was a significant effect for the video on experiencing connection to nature (p = .039, ηp2 = .08). These findings suggest that this video could change one’s perception of nature.

KANGAROO CARE: MATERNAL PERCEPTION OF THE EXPERIENCE IN THE NEONATAL INTENSIVE CARE UNIT

Objective: To investigate the maternal perception of the experience in the first phase of the Kangaroo Mother Care Method in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Methods: Descriptive, exploratory and qualitative study, conducted in the period from August to October 2014, with 10 mothers of newborn preterm (NP) infants, who were admitted to the Maternity School Assis Chateaubriand (MEAC) in Fortaleza, Brazil, and had received skin-to-skin contact through the Kangaroo Care Method during hospitalization in the NICU. Data was collected by semi-structured interview, directed by guiding questions. Content analysis was used for processing the data, being established four categories: “The bond and the attachment”, “Maternal competence”, “The fear of losing the baby” and “The importance of the multidisciplinary team”. Results: The Kangaroo Care Method is a safe and pleasurable practice for mothers and relatives, in addition to providing social and psychoaffective benefits, found in the imagery of the method institutionalization and in the mothers’ experience when properly supported. The meanings of the maternal feelings of apprehension as a result of the first physical contact with the hospitalized child can be evidenced. Regarding the evaluation of its clinical practice, this method has provided better development of the newborn infant and a reduction in hospital stay. Conclusion: The study shows relevance, since the evidence of the maternal perception of this method supports its establishment as a mandatory practice in maternity hospitals, in view of the benefits to the mother and the neonate.

The experience of teaching statistics to non-specialist students in Saudi universities

Undoubtedly, statistics has become one of the most important subjects in the modern world, where its applications are ubiquitous. The importance of statistics is not limited to statisticians, but also impacts upon non-statisticians who have to use statistics within their own disciplines. Several studies have indicated that most of the academic departments around the world have realized the importance of statistics to non-specialist students. Therefore, the number of students enrolled in statistics courses has vastly increased, coming from a variety of disciplines. Consequently, research within the scope of statistics education has been able to develop throughout the last few years. One important issue is how statistics is best taught to, and learned by, non-specialist students. This issue is controlled by several factors that affect the learning and teaching of statistics to non-specialist students, such as the use of technology, the role of the English language (especially for those whose first language is not English), the effectiveness of statistics teachers and their approach towards teaching statistics courses, students’ motivation to learn statistics and the relevance of statistics courses to the main subjects of non-specialist students. Several studies, focused on aspects of learning and teaching statistics, have been conducted in different countries around the world, particularly in Western countries. Conversely, the situation in Arab countries, especially in Saudi Arabia, is different; here, there is very little research in this scope, and what there is does not meet the needs of those countries towards the development of learning and teaching statistics to non-specialist students. This research was instituted in order to develop the field of statistics education. The purpose of this mixed methods study was to generate new insights into this subject by investigating how statistics courses are currently taught to non-specialist students in Saudi universities. Hence, this study will contribute towards filling the knowledge gap that exists in Saudi Arabia. This study used multiple data collection approaches, including questionnaire surveys from 1053 non-specialist students who had completed at least one statistics course in different colleges of the universities in Saudi Arabia. These surveys were followed up with qualitative data collected via semi-structured interviews with 16 teachers of statistics from colleges within all six universities where statistics is taught to non-specialist students in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Region. The data from questionnaires included several types, so different techniques were used in analysis. Descriptive statistics were used to identify the demographic characteristics of the participants. The chi-square test was used to determine associations between variables. Based on the main issues that are raised from literature review, the questions (items scales) were grouped and five key groups of questions were obtained which are: 1) Effectiveness of Teachers; 2) English Language; 3) Relevance of Course; 4) Student Engagement; 5) Using Technology. Exploratory data analysis was used to explore these issues in more detail. Furthermore, with the existence of clustering in the data (students within departments within colleges, within universities), multilevel generalized linear models for dichotomous analysis have been used to clarify the effects of clustering at those levels. Factor analysis was conducted confirming the dimension reduction of variables (items scales). The data from teachers’ interviews were analysed on an individual basis. The responses were assigned to one of the eight themes that emerged from within the data: 1) the lack of students’ motivation to learn statistics; 2) students' participation; 3) students’ assessment; 4) the effective use of technology; 5) the level of previous mathematical and statistical skills of non-specialist students; 6) the English language ability of non-specialist students; 7) the need for extra time for teaching and learning statistics; and 8) the role of administrators. All the data from students and teachers indicated that the situation of learning and teaching statistics to non-specialist students in Saudi universities needs to be improved in order to meet the needs of those students. The findings of this study suggested a weakness in the use of statistical software applications in these courses. This study showed that there is lack of application of technology such as statistical software programs in these courses, which would allow non-specialist students to consolidate their knowledge. The results also indicated that English language is considered one of the main challenges in learning and teaching statistics, particularly in institutions where English is not used as the main language. Moreover, the weakness of mathematical skills of students is considered another major challenge. Additionally, the results indicated that there was a need to tailor statistics courses to the needs of non-specialist students based on their main subjects. The findings indicate that statistics teachers need to choose appropriate methods when teaching statistics courses.

Searching for knowledge in the belly of the beast: diversity, social equity and the African graduate student mother's experience in US higher education

Diversity has become a buzz word in public discourse and in educational circles. Higher education institutions in the US have increasingly used this word as a cornerstone of their mission statements and have made increasing efforts to attract students from different backgrounds. As part of the increase in diversity efforts among US colleges, is a significant rise in the number of international students. Attracting international students has become a priority for U.S. universities regardless of size or location. This study examines the intersection between the structure of American educational environment and the blended identities of African Graduate Student Mothers. Within the context of contemporary diversity efforts in US educational institutions, this study examines both the structural environments and the socio-cultural constructs that affect the experiences of African graduate student mothers. Based on a qualitative research interview design, a total of nineteen African graduate student mothers at a Mid-Western University in the US were interviewed individually and in groups over a six weeks period. Results from this study show that apart from the difficult and often dehumanizing treatment African student mothers endure from immigration and consular officials in their various countries and ports of entry, they often find themselves at the margins of their various programs and departments with very little support if any. This is because most of them enroll into graduate programs after arriving as dependants of their spouses; a process that does not allow them to negotiate for departmental commitments and support prior to their arrival. Not only do these women face racial discrimination from white professors, staff and fellow students, but they also experience discrimination and hostilities from African Americans and other minority groups who see them as threats to the limited resources that are often set aside for minority groups in such institutions.

An interpretative phenomenological analysis of the lived experience of suicidal behaviour

Background: In Scotland, suicide prevention is a major public health challenge, with two people, on average, dying every day due to suicide. Any efforts to prevent suicide should be aided by research. Existing research on suicide is dominated by quantitative research that has largely focused on providing explanatory accounts of suicidal phenomena. Research providing rich and detailed accounts of suicidal behaviour among individuals who have directly experienced it is growing but remains relatively embryonic. This study sought to supplement existing understanding of attempted suicide specifically by exploring the processes, meaning and context of suicidal experiences among individuals with a history of attempted suicide. Methods: The study used a retrospective qualitative design with semi-structured in-depth interviews. Participants were patients (n=7) from a community mental health service in Glasgow, Scotland who had attempted suicide within the previous 12-month period. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and were analysed for recurrent themes using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Results: Three super-ordinate themes, each with inter-related sub-themes, emerged from the analysis. 1) “Intentions”: This theme explored different motives for suicide, including providing relief from upsetting feelings; a way of establishing control; and a means of communicating with others. 2) “The Suicidal Journey”: This theme explored how individuals’ thinking can change when they are suicidal, including feeling overwhelmed by a build-up of distress and a narrowing of their perspective. 3) “Suicidal Dissonance”: This theme explored how people can feel conflicted about suicide and can be fearful of the consequences of their suicidal behaviour. Conclusion: Participants’ accounts were dominated by experience of significant adversity and psychological suffering. These accounts provided valuable insights into the suicidal process, highlighting implications for clinical practice and future research.