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The purpose of this paper is to describe the work between statutory sector partners in Staffordshire to establish a transformational rather than transactional health and well being board and its approach to resource allocation.

The paper describes the principles and process of achieving a shared ambition for Staffordshire, and the practical and strategic considerations of taking a broader and more ambitious approach than current guidance recommends.

Supporting individual organisations to achieve their statutory requirements within the context of the shared vision, and using customer insight intelligently to influence the decision‐making process, are critical to success. The challenge of moving resources in times of financial hardship and organisational flux should not be underestimated.

The process of moving resources into prevention and early intervention cannot be done in a “one size fits all” way and has to be considered as part of a differentiated approach. In addition, organisations must be willing to cede influence and resources to support the vision, thus challenging culture and traditional organisational boundaries and structures.

The process described in the paper is designed to improve health and well being for citizens in Staffordshire, tackling inequality in an integrated, targeted and proportionate way.

This is an emerging example of “whole system” integration.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a novel approach, underpinned by systems thinking, to structure requirements and support front-end design decision-making around the performance in-use of developments within highly complex environments, with diverse stakeholders and users, such as the case of learning spaces in higher education (HE).

Work domain analysis (WDA), a sociotechnical systems design framework, is first used to model the constraints that shape the expected performance of an informal learning space (ILS). Based on the model, the following stage involved a sector-wide survey questionnaire (n = 175) to appraise the views of different stakeholder groups in relation to ILS. These were analysed using the analytical network process (ANP).

This study provides a novel approach, using WDA, to conceptualise the constraints shaping the performance in-use, integrating the perspectives of different stakeholder groups. Furthermore, it provides a structured approach to establish priorities that can serve as the basis to support complex decision-making during early design stages. The findings and proposed WDA–ANP approach aim to support HE estate managers on better understanding and integrating perspectives in relation to campus developments.

In this paper, a novel systems-based approach is proposed as an alternative to conceptualise ILS. Furthermore, the approach is combined with ANP, a multi-criteria decision-making approach, to develop a novel tool to derive priorities and support front-end design decision-making in learning space design.

A “ Practitioner of over Forty Years' Experience ” in a letter to the Pall Mall Gazette observes that few members of the medical profession “ regard ‘ calories ’ and such like as guides to treatment of patients, simply because they cannot implicitly rely upon laboratory experiments. Anyhow, they do not impress the profession generally, as their doubts are based upon everyday experiences.” The real point that seems to have been overlooked by the so‐called experts is that, “ although the same amount of nourishment may be present in two substances, according to laboratory experiments, it does not necessarily follow we can assimilate them equally well. Here is a case in point. We know that starch and dextrine are similar, and contain very nearly the same amount of nourishment, and, chemically, are almost indistinguishable; hence biscuits should be as supporting as bread. But it is a known fact that soldiers cannot march and thrive so well on the former as upon the latter (notwithstanding that in the point of nourishment as shown by laboratory experiments, 18 ounces of biscuit are said to equal 24 ounces of freshly made bread), hence it comes about that ovens are sent to the front rather than tons of biscuits. It is not meant that biscuits are not nourishing, but merely that they cannot be assimilated so well as bread, dextrine so well as starch.”

This chapter introduces a new theoretical framework for developing emotion-related abilities according to the emotional intelligence (EI) construct definition of Mayer, Salovey, and Caruso (2006). The awareness, reflection, and management (ARM) model has been devised and demonstrates a triadic cycle of emotional ARM relating to affect, cognition, and behavior. The ARM model constitutes an approach to nurture emotion-related abilities (ability EI) and responds to criticism raised by Zeidner, Matthews, and Roberts (2009). The ARM Theory was corroborated by both learning theory and schools of counselling (SOC). The potential to develop emotion-related abilities in emotional awareness, reflection and reasoning, coping and management is discussed.

The current book chapter seeks to respond to the existing literature on early career researchers, using an autoethnographic approach to further unravel the crossroads of identity formation, research politics, and successful promotion through the eyes of early career researchers. Combining autobiography and ethnography, we systematically analyze our own experiences to make sense of wider social and political practices. Ellis, Adams, and Bochner (2010) remind us that autoethnography is not to be dismissed as a form of self-therapy but is to be presented in a rigorous manner as other research forms by carefully justifying the data sources and techniques, analyzing the data and crafting the findings. Our sources were both found texts (e.g., university policies) and created texts (our journal entries and personal communications). Using analytic techniques such as highlighting critical incidents or epiphanies, we structured coherent narratives to illuminate the complexity and uncertainty of the lives of early career academics. This chapter’s focus on early career researcher experiences makes poignant commentary on neoliberalism’s impact on and within higher education. The chapter concludes with the authors’ reflections on the dilemmas of academic and research choices made within the limitations of institutional structures, processes, and systems that shape career trajectories.

Adopting the theoretical framework of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT; Ellis, 1962, 1994), we examine the cognitive antecedents of functional behavior and adaptive emotions as indicators of emotional intelligence (EI) and test central assumptions of REBT. In an extension of REBT, we posit that adaptive emotions resulting from rational cognitions reflect more EI than maladaptive emotions, which result from irrational cognitions, because the former lead to functional behavior. The results of the first study using organizational scenarios in an experimental design confirm central assumptions of REBT and support our hypotheses. In a second correlational study we replicate the connection between rational cognitions and EI by measuring real person data using psychometric scales. Both studies indicate that irrational attitudes result in reduced job satisfaction.

Human performance, particularly that of the warfighter, has been the subject of a large amount of research during the past few decades. For example, in the Medline database of medical and psychological research, 1,061 papers had been published on the topic of “military performance” as of October 2003. Because warfighters are often pushed to physiological and mental extremes, a study of their performance provides a unique glimpse of the interplay of a wide variety of intrinsic and extrinsic factors on the functioning of the human brain and body. Unfortunately, it has proven very difficult to build performance models that can adequately incorporate the myriad of physiological, medical, social, and cognitive factors that influence behavior in extreme conditions. The chief purpose of this chapter is to provide a neurobiological (neurochemical) framework for building and integrating warfighter performance models in the physiological, medical, social, and cognitive areas. This framework should be relevant to all other professionals who routinely operate in extreme environments. The secondary purpose of this chapter is to recommend various performance metrics that can be linked to specific neurochemical states and can accordingly strengthen and extend the scope of the neurochemical model.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the realistic trade-offs young consumers make when purchasing organic T-shirts.

A full profile discrete choice design was used. The data were analysed using a multinomial logit model and desirability indices.

Price was the most important attribute to consumers followed by the place of production and then sustainability. Consumers were most willing to purchase T-shirts that are eco-friendly, Made In America, made from wrinkle-free technology and cotton jersey knit fabric, and have a price of $15. Although consumers were most willing to pay $15, some were still willing to pay $25 or even $35 for the same eco-friendly T-shirt.

Consumers in the current study were more willing to purchase eco-friendly as opposed to organic apparel. The findings suggest that retailers need to consider the language used when communicating with consumers. Also, consumers were more willing to purchase T-shirts Made In America. Retailers may want to promote their domestic manufacturing through in-depth branding and promotions.

In order to identify the attributes to be used in the current study, labels on T-shirts in stores were examined and then those attributes were verified in the literature. In addition, the inclusion of price as an attribute, rather than as a separate independent question, provides a more realistic view of young consumers’ decision making.