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Article
Publication date: 21 September 2015

Foad Hamidi, Melanie Baljko, Connie Ecomomopoulos, Nigel J. Livingston and Leonhard G. Spalteholz

The purpose of this paper is to describe the development and evaluation of CanSpeak which is an open-source speech interface for users with dysarthria of speech. The interface can…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to describe the development and evaluation of CanSpeak which is an open-source speech interface for users with dysarthria of speech. The interface can be customized by each user to map a small number of words they can speak clearly to commands in the computer system, thereby adding a new modality to their interaction.

Design/methodology/approach

The interface was developed in two phases: in the first phase, the authors used participatory design to engage the users and their community in the customization of the system, and in the second phase, we used a more focussed co-design methodology during which a user of the system became a co-designer by directly making new design decisions about the system.

Findings

The study showed that it is important to include assistive technology users and their community in the design and customization of technology. Participation led to increased engagement, adoption and also provided new ideas that were rooted in the experience of the user.

Originality/value

The co-design phase of the project provided an opportunity for the researchers to work closely with a user of their system and include her in design decisions. The study showed that by employing co-design new insights into the design domain can be revealed and incorporated into the design that might not be revealed otherwise.

Details

Journal of Assistive Technologies, vol. 9 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1754-9450

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 August 2023

Chris Wagstaff, Anna Davis, Elizabeth Jackson-McConnell, Matilda MacDonald, Ashley Medlyn and Sandra Pillon

Homelessness and psychoactive substance (PS) use are both determinants of physical and mental ill health, with the homeless population using, and dying of PSs more frequently than…

Abstract

Purpose

Homelessness and psychoactive substance (PS) use are both determinants of physical and mental ill health, with the homeless population using, and dying of PSs more frequently than the general population. However, there is a gap in research on the real-world implications psychoactive substance use (PSU) has on the homeless population. This study aims to explore the experiences of PSU from the perspective of homeless users.

Design/methodology/approach

Purposive sampling was adopted to recruit participants and semi-structured interviews collected data from participants, with interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) generating common themes from the data gathered.

Findings

Four participants were interviewed. The themes generated were family and close relationships; cyclical patterns; mistrust in people and services; and low self-worth.

Research limitations/implications

This study is limited by potential bias from researchers who built relationships with participants through the data collection process. Despite efforts to remove this bias, through reflexivity throughout data collection and analysis, some bias may be still present. The researchers saw the participants as vulnerable people who were striving to overcome adversity. Such conception of the participants is reflective of how the participants portrayed themselves. The small sample is suitable for IPA purposes. Of course, it could have been possible that if different participants had been recruited or more participants had been recruited, then there could have been different themes and findings. IPA prides itself on its idiographic focus.

Practical implications

More research is needed on a wider scale to assess the extent and cause of these issues. Increased education and dissemination of research such as this is required to break down stigma within the public and guide policy change in professional services.

Originality/value

This paper interpretatively presents themes generated by semi-structured interviews with four homeless PSUs. As such, these individuals are vulnerable and have faced adversity throughout life from both society and the services they use. Their vulnerability leads to a cycle of substance use and a feeling of low self-worth, which is perpetuated by the perceived views of those around them.

Details

Drugs, Habits and Social Policy, vol. 24 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2752-6739

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 July 2021

Emily Samuels and Nicola Moran

Physical health inequalities and mortality rates are higher amongst individuals with severe mental illness (SMI), including among forensic populations, than the general…

Abstract

Purpose

Physical health inequalities and mortality rates are higher amongst individuals with severe mental illness (SMI), including among forensic populations, than the general population. This paper aims to explore the experiences of individuals accessing primary health care following discharge from secure services, and the practitioners who support them.

Design/methodology/approach

Face-to-face qualitative interviews were conducted with service users (n = 4) and mental health practitioners (n = 4) within a forensic community mental health team in one NHS Trust in England in 2019. Data were analysed using the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis.

Findings

Four super-ordinate themes emerged: perceived importance of physical health, agency, responsibility and relationships. Service users mostly saw themselves as passive recipients of health care and prioritised their mental health over their physical health. Close working relationships meant that mental health practitioners were often the first contact for service users with any health issue and thus felt a sense of responsibility for their physical health care. Service users who did access primary care reported that consistency of professional, feeling understood and listened to without judgement or stigma were important.

Practical implications

Interventions for service users that include practicalities and strategies to facilitate independence in physical health care, and collaborative working between primary care and forensic mental health services, are encouraged.

Originality/value

This study highlights some of the unique challenges in forensics around improving physical health outcomes for individuals with SMI.

Details

The Journal of Forensic Practice, vol. 23 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2050-8794

Keywords

Abstract

Details

Police Occupational Culture
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-85724-055-2

Article
Publication date: 1 December 1970

‘A MAP OF THE WORLD that does not include Utopia is not worth glancing at’ wrote Oscar Wilde. ‘It leaves out the one country at which humanity is always landing. And when it lands…

Abstract

‘A MAP OF THE WORLD that does not include Utopia is not worth glancing at’ wrote Oscar Wilde. ‘It leaves out the one country at which humanity is always landing. And when it lands there it looks out and, seeing a better country, sets sail again. Progress is the realization of Utopias’.

Details

Work Study, vol. 19 no. 12
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0043-8022

Article
Publication date: 1 July 1983

John A. Meenaghan

Argues that the general area of commercial sponsorship activity, while attracting increasing interest from marketing practitioners as an important strategic option in marketing…

9490

Abstract

Argues that the general area of commercial sponsorship activity, while attracting increasing interest from marketing practitioners as an important strategic option in marketing communications, has not been the subject of sufficiently rigorous and comprehensive investigation by theoreticians. States the purpose is to establish and consolidate the available body of knowledge combining an overview of the standard conceptual approaches to marketing communication with an examination of the recent academic research in sponsorship, while maintaining a focus on current marketplace practice. Argues for a coherent and structured approach to the management of sponsorship expenditure through the application of a ‘management by objectives’ approach. Parameters are established in terms of a working definition of sponsorship, a review of its commercial development and an overview of current activity. Develops a commercially ration framework within which sponsorship activity may be undertaken. Views objective‐setting as the cornerstone of sponsorship management and outlines a classification of sponsorship objectives that subsumes current practice clarifies the range of potential benefits. Examines the criteria that govern rational sponsorship selection and proposes an evaluation strategy based on stated criteria. Methods of evaluating effects of marketing communications (sponsorship particularly) are examined and new evaluation techniques are advanced to facilitate the implementation of this rigorous scientific approach.

Details

European Journal of Marketing, vol. 17 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0309-0566

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 January 2008

Rick Lines

This paper explores the health rights of prisoners as defined in international law, and the mechanisms that have been used to ensure the rights of persons in detention to realise…

1258

Abstract

This paper explores the health rights of prisoners as defined in international law, and the mechanisms that have been used to ensure the rights of persons in detention to realise the highest attainable standard of health. It examines this right as articulated within United Nations and regional human rights treaties, non‐binding or so‐called soft law instruments from international organisations and the jurisprudence of international human rights bodies. It explores the use of economic, social and cultural rights mechanisms, and those within civil and political rights, as they engage the right to health of prisoners, and identifies the minimum legal obligations of governments in order to remain compliant with human rights norms as defined within the international case law. In addressing these issues, this article adopts a holistic approach to the definition of the highest attainable standard of health. This includes a consideration of adequate standards of general medical care, including preventative health and mental health services. It also examines the question of environmental health, and those poor conditions of detention that may exacerbate health decline, disease transmission, mental illness or death. The paper examines the approach to prison health of the United Nations human rights system and its various monitoring bodies, as well as the regional human rights systems in Europe, Africa and the Americas. Based upon this analysis, the paper draws conclusions on the current fulfilment of the right to health of prisoners on an international scale, and proposes expanded mechanisms under the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment to monitor and promote the health rights of prisoners at the international and domestic levels.

Details

International Journal of Prisoner Health, vol. 4 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1744-9200

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 October 1938

AT the Conference at Folkestone of the London and Home Counties Branch of the Library Association, Mr. Jast gave one more example of his old fire and vigour in a paper which he…

Abstract

AT the Conference at Folkestone of the London and Home Counties Branch of the Library Association, Mr. Jast gave one more example of his old fire and vigour in a paper which he entitled Publishers and Librarians. No doubt in other pages than ours the text will be given in full. Here, in summary, we may say that he dealt with some of the needs of librarians and readers for well‐produced editions of good books which for some reason were obtainable only in double‐columned small type or otherwise almost unreadable or at any rate unattractive form. He instanced Disraeli's Curiosities of Literature. He urged that if a sufficient number of public and other librarians represented this want to publishers, promising that the libraries would support such an edition, it was unlikely that the request would be ignored. A further suggestion arose from the established fact that in the welter of editions of certain books many were ill‐produced and unworthy to be placed in the hands of unsuspecting bookbuyers. Robinson Crusoe was a case in point, and as many parents desired their sons to read this they were often persuaded to buy editions which were unsuitable. Here he made a suggestion which is entirely practicable: that the Library Association should examine all of the common classics for form and for textual accuracy—a feature in which he alleged that some were deficient—and fix on suitable editions, allowing the publisher to add to their title‐pages “approved by the Library Association.” We seize upon this point first because there is nothing Utopian about it. It is a work that ought to be done.

Details

New Library World, vol. 41 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4803

Article
Publication date: 1 September 1955

THE coining of the phrase “work study” implies that someone wanted, without a noisy grinding of axes, to give time and motion study, as practised, a boost. So “work study” was…

Abstract

THE coining of the phrase “work study” implies that someone wanted, without a noisy grinding of axes, to give time and motion study, as practised, a boost. So “work study” was born, all the old techniques were dressed up in a “new look,” and the whole show was presented to industry as “different”—it was a box‐office hit.

Details

Work Study, vol. 4 no. 9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0043-8022

Article
Publication date: 1 February 1988

R.B. Turnbull

ITS: Intertrade Scientific Ltd, the UK based manufacturer of the MCT/Browne InfraRed Reflow Soldering Systems for SMT and Hybrid applications, as part of their aggressive drive…

55

Abstract

ITS: Intertrade Scientific Ltd, the UK based manufacturer of the MCT/Browne InfraRed Reflow Soldering Systems for SMT and Hybrid applications, as part of their aggressive drive into Europe, has announced the signing of a distributor agreement with Maquinaria Suiza SA of Spain. Under the agreement, Maquinaria Suiza will be the sole supplier of the highly successful product range to Spain and Portugal.

Details

Microelectronics International, vol. 5 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1356-5362

1 – 10 of 12