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People Need (people + need)
Selected AbstractsThe Papers of Howard Washington Thurman, Volume I: My People Need Me, June 1918-March 1936 , Edited by Walter E. FlukerRELIGIOUS STUDIES REVIEW, Issue 3 2010Larry Steven Perry No abstract is available for this article. [source] Strategies in Human Nonmonotonic ReasoningCOMPUTATIONAL INTELLIGENCE, Issue 3 2000Marilyn Ford Although humans seem adept at drawing nonmonotonic conclusions, the nonmonotonic reasoning systems that researchers develop are complex and do not function with such ease. This paper explores people's reasoning processes in nonmonotonic problems. To avoid the problem of people's conclusions being based on knowledge rather than on some reasoning process, we developed a scenario about life on another planet. Problems were chosen to allow the systematic study of people's understanding of strict and nonstrict rules and their interactions. We found that people had great difficulty reasoning and we identified a number of negative factors influencing their reasoning. We also identified three positive factors which, if used consistently, would yield rational and coherent reasoning,but no subject achieved total consistency. (Another possible positive factor, specificity, was considered but we found no evidence for its use.) It is concluded that nonmonotonic reasoning is hard. When people need to reason in a domain where they have no preconceived ideas, the foundation for their reasoning is neither coherent nor rational. They do not use a nonmonotonic reasoning system that would work regardless of content. Thus, nonmonotonic reasoning systems that researchers develop are expected to do more reasoning than humans actually do! [source] Approaches to locating expertise using corporate knowledgeINTELLIGENT SYSTEMS IN ACCOUNTING, FINANCE & MANAGEMENT, Issue 4 2002Richard Crowder In many organizations people need to locate colleagues with knowledge and information to resolve a problem. Computer-based systems that assist users with ,nding such expertise are increasingly important to industrial organizations. In this paper we discuss the development of Expertise Finders suitable for use within the engineering design environment, as illustrated through the use of a scenario. A key feature of this work is that the Expertise Finder returns both recommended contacts and supporting documentation. The Expertise Finder bases its results on information held within the organization, e.g. on-line publications repositories, human resource records, and not on individually compiled Curriculum Vitaes or other forms of user-maintained records. The recommendations are presented to the user with due regard to the social context, and are supported by the documents used to make the recommendation. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Exercise Training as a Therapy for Chronic Heart Failure: Can Older People Benefit?JOURNAL OF AMERICAN GERIATRICS SOCIETY, Issue 5 2003Miles D. Witham BM Despite recent advances in pharmacological therapy, chronic heart failure remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality in older people. Studies of exercise training in younger, carefully selected patients with heart failure have shown improvements in symptoms and exercise capacity and in many pathophysiological aspects of heart failure, including skeletal myopathy, ergoreceptor function, heart rate variability, endothelial function, and cytokine expression. Data on mortality and hospitalization are lacking, and effects on everyday activity, depression, and quality of life are unclear. Exercise therapy for patients with heart failure appears to be safe and has the potential to improve function and quality of life in older people with heart failure. To realize these potential benefits, exercise programs that are suitable for older, frail people need to be established and tested in an older, frail, unselected population with comorbidities. [source] Seeing is not enough: manipulating choice options causes focusing and preference change in multiattribute risky decision-makingJOURNAL OF BEHAVIORAL DECISION MAKING, Issue 5 2008Ivo Vlaev Abstract We show that preferences depend on the attributes that can be directly manipulated when people need to integrate multiple sources of information because direct manipulation causes focusing bias. This effect appears even when all relevant information is simultaneously and explicitly presented at the time the decisions are made. Participants decided how much to save, what investment risk to take and observed the future financial consequences in terms of the mean and variability of the expected retirement income. Participants who manipulated only the future income distribution saved more and took less risk. This effect disappears when the risk-related variables are removed, which indicates that task complexity is a mediator of such focusing effects. A more balanced trade-off between the choice attributes was selected when all attributes were manipulated. However, when there is a dichotomy between manipulating versus observing choice attributes, then decisions were based mostly on the manipulated attributes. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Improving food purchasing choices through increased understanding of food labels, using itemized till receipts to measure these changesJOURNAL OF HUMAN NUTRITION & DIETETICS, Issue 4 2008P.M. Rigby Background:, Rising obesity and the associated risks of diabetes and heart disease require changes in diet to bring about healthier eating. To achieve this, people need to understand nutrition and daily requirements but are frequently confused by nutrition information on food labels. The introduction of the Food Standards Agency's ,Traffic Light' and the alternative ,Guideline Daily Amount' systems may help or further confuse the public. A previous study showed that although 63% of study participants read labels, only 25% claimed to understand them, also knowledge of nutrient requirements and functions was low (Rigby, 2004). Ransley et al., (2001) have shown that till receipts can be used to estimate fat and energy intake. The aim of the current study was to investigate whether an intervention designed to improve understanding of nutrition and labels could improve food purchases and whether these changes could be measured from till receipts. Method:, Participants were recruited from the general public (80 female; 23 males) (age <30 years (23), 31,45 years (25), 46,60 years (30), >60 years (22). Subjects were randomly assigned to either the intervention group (n = 78) who were provided with an information booklet and credit card sized nutrition and labelling information to use when shopping, or the control group (n = 25), who received the information after four weeks of normal shopping. The intervention group provided an initial till receipt pre intervention and was then given the nutrition and labelling material. Further till receipts were returned from successive shopping trips over the following 4 weeks. The nine categories of food used for comparison were: fruit and vegetables, saturated fats, monounsaturated fats, polyunsaturated fats, white cereals, wholegrain cereals, processed foods, full fat and reduced fat items. Ethics approval was obtained from NWW Wales NHS Trust ethics committee. Results:, Each of the nine food categories on till receipts were calculated as a percentage of the total shopping, excluding non-food items. General linear model repeated measures analyses showed differences between study participants' food purchases. For the intervention group, purchases in three of the nine food categories showed significant improvements: increased purchases of fruits and vegetables (P < 0.001); reduction in purchases of saturated fats (P < 0.001); and reduction of white cereal purchases (P < 0.050). The control group showed no differences in any category. Discussion:, Although the intervention group did show improvements in most of the other food categories, they were not statistically significant. Positive changes were found in seven of the nine categories, with only one, wholegrain cereals, showing a decrease in purchases rather than an increase. The control group displayed a random pattern over the four till receipts, with eight categories either showing negative change or no change; only one showed a positive change. The disproportionate group sizes may mean that it is not be possible to draw firm conclusions regarding the effectiveness of the intervention. Conclusions:, This study demonstrates that positive changes in improving food-purchasing choices, as measured by till receipts, can be made by using educational interventions. Further larger studies using routinely collected supermarket data would enable the study to be replicated on a much larger scale. References, Ransley, J.K., Donnelly, J.K., Khara, T.N., Botham, H., Arnott, H., Greenwood, D.C. & Cade, J.E. (1991) The use of supermarket till receipts to determine the fat and energy intake in a UK population. Public Health Nutr. 4, 1279,1286. Rigby, P. (2004) Effecting change. Understanding nutritional information. Can increased knowledge and understanding in relation to nutritional information bring about a change in eating habits? PhD Thesis WA: Bangor University. [source] Do personal characteristics and cultural values that promote innovation, quality, and efficiency compete or complement each other?JOURNAL OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR, Issue 2 2004Ella Miron This study examines whether the same personal and contextual characteristics that enhance innovation could also contribute to quality and efficiency. Three hundred and forty-nine engineers and technicians in 21 units of a large R&D company participated in the study. Using CFA and HLM models, we demonstrated that people have the ability to both be creative and pay attention to detail, and that an innovative culture does not necessarily compete with a culture of quality and efficiency. Yet, to reach innovative performance creative people need to take the initiative in promoting their ideas, with the possible corresponding price of low performance quality. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Radical Geography and its Critical Standpoints: Embracing the NormativeANTIPODE, Issue 1 2009Elizabeth Olson Abstract:, This paper throws down a challenge to radical geography and invites a selection of leading geographers to respond. It proposes that radical or critical geography cannot escape normative foundations in terms of some conception of the human good or flourishing, and that this is not necessarily at odds with the descriptive and explanatory aims of social science. Various attempts to define and justify critical thought without such a conception are shown to be deficient, and incapable of distinguishing oppression from well-being. Objections that such a project will be subjective, ethnocentric, essentialist and implicitly authoritarian are discussed and rejected. Normative thinking needs to go beyond liberal concern with freedom, to address what Sen and Nussbaum term "capabilities",the range of things people need to be able to have and do to flourish. The power of this kind of normative thinking is illustrated by reference to examples from development studies. The paper concludes with some basic questions for radical geographers. [source] Older patients' experiences of treatment for colorectal cancer: an analysis of functional status and service useEUROPEAN JOURNAL OF CANCER CARE, Issue 5 2004C. BAILEY msc, rgn Age and ageing are an important part of the context within which the care and treatment of people with cancer is provided. More information is needed about the effects of cancer treatment on the lives of older people following inpatient care. We conducted a 3-year study in which older people with colorectal cancer completed a detailed questionnaire on multidimensional function and service use before and after elective treatment. Here we present an analysis of changes in functional status and service use over the pre- to post-treatment period, and set out a detailed picture of older people's experiences before and after treatment. In total, 337 patients with colorectal adenocarcinoma aged 58,95 years were interviewed before treatment using the OARS Multidimensional Functional Assessment Questionnaire (OMFAQ), Rotterdam Symptom Checklist (RSCL) and a severity of morbidity score. Study end points were defined as post-treatment functional status, symptom distress, severity of morbidity and frequency of service use. Pre- and post-treatment data were compared using matched analyses. Logistic regression was used to assess associations between age and the main outcome measures, and frequency of service use after treatment was compared between age groups using the ,2 test. Overall, patients experienced both positive and negative outcomes following treatment. It was notable that patients aged ,,75 years showed improvement in only one of the principal outcome measures. Patterns of service use following treatment suggest that support at home is a key issue for patients. With the exception of nursing care, however, help at home is provided on a majority of occasions by families themselves. This raises important questions about how much preparation patients and families receive or would like before they leave hospital after treatment for cancer. A collaborative, family-centred approach to meeting people's needs is called for in the months following inpatient care. [source] A qualitative investigation into the donor lapsing experienceINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NONPROFIT & VOLUNTARY SECTOR MARKETING, Issue 4 2009Amber Nathan Donor attrition is costing charities a fortune. Previous research has examined the relative importance of the antecedents to donor loyalty versus lapsing. This study qualitatively builds on this. It reports the results of workshops and interviews that took lapsers and donors back through their donor and lapser journeys. It drills down into and unpacks their experiences,inclusive of the (previously undocumented) lapsing experience itself. It reveals striking similarities between the cancellation of a direct debit and other more conventional purchase decisions. Most worryingly, it seems that most people stop supporting a given charity because they had never really had any loyalty to it in the first place. Charities are not meeting people's needs as donors. There is a distinct lack of understanding between charities and their donors, and donors are lapsing because charities give them little reason to stay. The authors conclude with practical recommendations for the management of attrition. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Caregivers' strong commitment to their relationship with older peopleINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NURSING PRACTICE, Issue 2 2010Elisabeth Häggström RNT PhD Häggström E, Mamhidir, A-G, Kihlgren A. International Journal of Nursing Practice 2010; 16: 99,105 Caregivers' strong commitment to their relationship with older people The aim of the present study was to describe caregivers' good as well as bad experiences of working with older people. The study was based on five focus group interviews. One theme emerged from a latent content analysis: strong commitment to the relationship. This theme functioned as a thread of underlying meaning throughout the entire interpretative process of 48 caregivers' experiences of work. A delicate relationship existed that could be vulnerable and could reveal itself in feelings of lack of knowledge, guilt and fear. The caregivers' committed relationship to the older adults created independency in the ways in which they protected the older people's needs. Further studies are needed that focus on caregivers' transition from dependency to independency. The findings highlight the importance of clinical supervision to personal development and identity, and to promoting caregivers' self-esteem and maintaining a committed relationship. Commitment is a deep human feeling, and it should be promoted in order to maintain and further develop quality care for older adults. [source] Caring for older people in prehospital emergency care: can nurses make a difference?JOURNAL OF CLINICAL NURSING, Issue 9 2005MPhil, PGCTHE, Vidar Melby BSc Aims and objectives., The aim of this paper is to explore older people's experiences in prehospital emergency care, and identify benefits and difficulties associated with developing a nurse-led ambulance service. Data were collected at sites in Sweden and Norway. Focus group interviews were conducted to enable the collection of data from paramedics, ambulance nurses and nursing students, while individual interviews were utilized to gather data from older people. Background., There is little research on the quality of care older people over 65 years old receive in prehospital emergency care. Older people often present with multiple pathology and diverse needs that nurses are well equipped to deal with, but presently there is no clearly defined role for nurses in prehospital emergency care in the United Kingdom, although other countries such as Sweden and Norway are developing an ambulance nurse role. Conclusions., If the multiple needs of older people were addressed in the prehospital field, a reduction in readmissions and increased functional ability might be achieved. Comprehensive training is required for ambulance staff to enable them to meet such needs. While nurses have a great foundation for this care, additional specialist ambulance training is required alongside a need for education on older people's needs and attitudes to older people. Relevance to clinical practice., The introduction of ambulance nurses will result in role differentiation between paramedics and ambulance nurses, which has the potential for creating role conflict. To ensure a smooth transition appropriate training and education for nurses and paramedics should be provided. The end result is a potentially greatly enhanced ambulance care provision, enabling high quality care to all patients. [source] A critical cross-cultural perspective for developing nonprofit international management capacityNONPROFIT MANAGEMENT & LEADERSHIP, Issue 4 2009Terence Jackson Issues of the effectiveness of international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are becoming critical among a claim that cultural sensitivity to people's needs and the appropriateness of interventions is a competitive advantage of the sector. Here, the cross-cultural management agenda is set out, particularly in terms of the transferability or appropriateness of management knowledge and development interventions. Research propositions are presented that, if supported through future empirical findings, suggest cultural hybridization is a process that can be managed through greater stakeholder involvement, leading to greater appropriateness as well as effectiveness of international NGOs. [source] Adult day groups: addressing older people's needs for activity and companionshipAUSTRALASIAN JOURNAL ON AGEING, Issue 3 2005Tamara Tse Objective: Adult day groups (ADGs) are used by older adults living at home in the community in Australia. Their aim is to prevent social isolation and to maintain independence through supporting social networks and providing a program of activities that enhance the physical, intellectual and social well-being of the participants and carers. The purpose of this study was to examine the experience of and reasons why older people attend ADGs. Methods: An ethnographic study of four ADGs in Victoria, Australia was conducted over a 4-month period. The study included observation of the four ADGs and interviews with eight clients, comprising five women and three men. Findings: Four major themes were derived from data analysis. The first was related to the importance of companionship with staff and clients of the ADGs. The second revealed how participants valued keeping occupied in activities not achievable at home, while the third identified how home was experienced as a place where time passed slowly and there were insufficient things to do. Lastly, participants identified dissatisfactions with ADGs. Conclusion: Community based programs that foster companionship and meaningful and purposeful occupations in older age are desirable. Improvements to ADGs to better meet the occupational and activity needs of older people living at home are suggested. [source] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||