bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Investigating active travel to primary school in Ireland
Authors: Daniels Natasha , Kelly Colette , Molcho Michal , Sixsmith Jane , Byrne Molly , Nic Gabhainn Saoirse 
Published: September 2014

Purpose– Active travel to school, by walking or cycling, can positively influence children's health and increase physical activity. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the context and promoters and barriers of active travel, and the required actions and actors that need to be involved to address each of these.Design/methodology/approach– Both quantitative and participative research methodologies were employed. The sample consisted of 73 children aged between 11 and 13 years from four primary schools in the West of Ireland. A self-completion questionnaire was followed by a participative protocol conducted with the class groups.Findings– Overall 30.1 per cent of children reported that they actively travelled to school. A greater proportion of children from urban and disadvantaged schools actively travelled. Proximity to the school was the most frequently reported promoter and barrier. The children identified many actors that need to be involved to eliminate the barriers and enact the promoters of active travel to school. They also highlighted the need for a multi-sectorial approach to improve active travel rates in Ireland.Originality/value– This study holds potential value in addressing the continued decline in active travel to school in Ireland as it shares a new perspective on the issue; that of the children. Adopting a participative approach allowed the children to participate in groups and develop the data themselves. The children confirmed that they have a relevant and valuable understanding of the process necessary to address active travel to school as a public health issue in Ireland.
Pedometers and participatory school-based health education – an exploratory study
Authors: Louisa Bruselius-Jensen Maria , Danielsen Dina , Kirstine Viller Hansen Ane 
Published: September 2014

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to explore how pedometers (simple gadgets that count steps) can be used as tools in participatory health education to enhance primary school children's insights into, and abilities to reflect on, physical activity in their daily life. The paper focuses on how using pedometers fosters participation and enhances reflection concerning physical activity.

Design/methodology/approach
– The paper draws on findings from an exploratory project with sixth-grade classes (12-13 years) in four Danish primary schools. The approach is called Imove. In Imove, pupils use pedometers to study their own patterns of physical activity, transform their data into statistics, and use the statistical representation to reflect on how physical activity is integrated into everyday life patterns, and how different activities constitute an active life.

Findings
– The paper concludes that pedometers support pupils’ participation in studying their own health practices, and the step data provide new insights into, and encourage pupils to reflect on, the way physical activity is formed into everyday patterns.

Research limitations/implications
– The study is an exploratory one with four participating school classes. The findings need to be further explored by employing similar methodology in studies with more participants. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that pedometers support pupils’ genuine participation in health educational processes.

Practical implications
– The findings identify simple measuring technologies, such as pedometers, as potent assets in health education learning processes and call for creative thinking in developing health promotion programmes for young people.

Originality/value
– Measuring technologies play an increasingly critical role in health research, as well as in individual health regulating practices. This paper contributes with a new perspective by demonstrating the educational possibilities of applying pedometers in participatory school health education.
Combining school and family alcohol education: a systematic review of the evidence
Authors: Cairns Georgina , Purves Richard , McKell Jennifer 
Published: September 2014

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to map and identify evidence for effective components of combined school and family alcohol education interventions. The paper describes current practice, evaluative evidence of its effects, and highlights specific elements of school and family linked education associated with effective prevention or reduction of alcohol misuse by young people aged 11-18 years.

Design/methodology/approach
– This paper takes the form of a systematic review.

Findings
– The review found evidence of small positive effects for interventions delivered over short and longer term duration and low and higher levels of direct contact with students and families. Family-based elements that correlated with positive effects were targeting information and skills development, family communications, and stricter parental attitudes to alcohol misuse. School-based components which involved life skills and social norms approaches were associated with reductions in risky behaviours. Weaker evidence indicated that peer-led programmes, external delivery agents and linkages of school-based components to community-level change may strengthen combined school and family intervention programmes.

Research limitations/implications
– The heterogeneity of the studies precluded the option to perform meta-analysis.

Practical implications
– There is a need for more focused use of planning and evaluation tools, and especially more explicit articulation of behaviours and/or behavioural determinants targeted; the methods that will be employed and the conceptual basis for the programme design could contribute to deeper understanding amongst the intervention community of how and why impact is or is not achieved.

Social implications
– Few studies provide information on the concepts, assumptions or change objectives that shape programme design. The potential benefits of combining school and family education interventions warrants further exploration.

Originality/value
– The authors believe this is the first review to systematically examine objectives, design and impact of combined school and family alcohol education interventions.
Spatial convenience: bridging the gap between shopping malls and shopping strips
Authors: Reimers Vaughan , Clulow Val 
Published: September 2014

Purpose– Due to rising obesity levels, declining fitness levels, an aging population, and shopper lethargy, retail planners must give serious consideration to the physical demands retail centres place on their patrons. The purpose of this paper is to determine the importance consumers assign to spatial convenience, measure how consumers perceive shopping malls and shopping strips (also referred to as the downtown area, central business district, Main Street or the High Street) in relation to it, and compare them in their provision of it.Design/methodology/approach– The study utilises a household survey of consumers and as well as a retail audit. The survey was used to identify the importance consumers assign to spatial convenience, while the retail audit was used to establish how malls and strips compare in their provision of it.Findings– The results of the survey indicate that consumers regard spatial convenience as important and believe that malls are superior in providing it. The retail audit confirmed the accuracy of these perceptions, with the mall providing greater store compatibility, and a more compact shopping environment.Originality/value– The influence of spatial convenience on shopping behaviour has been largely overlooked at the level of the retail centre. Moreover, those studies that have focused on this topic, have typically done so from the singular focus of either malls or strips. This study incorporates both, and does so via an empirical analysis of consumer attitudes and a spatial comparison of both retail formats.
Universal service in the EU information society policy
Authors: Batura Olga 
Published: September 2014

Purpose– This study aims to, in the light of the Digital Agenda for Europe (DAE) objective to provide “broadband for all”, investigate how the DAE can make use of universal service as a regulatory instrument created specifically to ensure a minimum of available and affordable electronic communications services within a competitive market.Design/methodology/approach– The paper uses systematic and comparative legal analyses of the European Union (EU)’s universal service rules and contrasts them with Information Society policy measures.Findings– There are strong commonalities between the DAE and universal service on the level of objectives. However, due to heavy reliance on the measures stimulating supply-side, there are discrepancies in the mechanisms of their achievement. At the same time, an effective use of universal service instrument by the DAE is not reasonable. In its current form, universal service does not correspond to the substantive requirements of the Information Society policy and needs to be reformed. The paper calls for additional empirical and theoretical research on the role and form of universal service in the Information Society and outlines main issues for further research.Originality/value– The paper uses the perspective of the EU Information Society policy to undertake a legal analysis of the current universal service regulation. Against this backdrop, it points out obsolescence of individual elements of the scope and logical deficiencies of the review mechanism.
Optimizing transparency for users in social networking sites
Authors: Wauters Ellen , Donoso Verónica , Lievens Eva 
Published: September 2014

Purpose
– This article aims to reflect on possible ways to optimise current ways to deliver information provision to make it more transparent to users. In particular, this article will refer to the benefits (and challenges) of using more user-centred approaches to inform users in a more transparent way.

Design/methodology/approach
– In this paper we analyse individual, as well as contextual factors (e.g. cognitive differences, time constraints, specific features of social networking sites [SNS] platforms) which may have an impact on the way users deal with Terms of Use, privacy policies and other types of information provision typically made available on SNS platforms. In addition, possible ways of improving current practices in the field are discussed. In particular, the benefits (and challenges) of a user-centred approach have been referred to when it comes to informing users in a way that is more meaningful to them. Finally, it is discussed how user-centred approaches can act as mechanisms to increase transparency in SNS environments and how (alternative) forms of regulation could benefit from such an approach.

Findings
– The authors believe that it is necessary to start focussing on users/consumers’ needs, expectations and values to develop visualisation tools that can help make law (more) meaningful to users/consumers by giving them a better insight into their rights and obligations and by guiding them in making truly informed decisions regarding their online choices and behaviour.

Originality/value
– By looking at different techniques such as visual design and the timing of information, the article contributes to the discussion on how people can be made more aware of legal documents and actually read them.
Digital inclusion and user (dis)empowerment: a critical perspective
Authors: Mariën Ilse , A. Prodnik Jernej 
Published: September 2014

Purpose– This article aims to highlight the main limitations of the emancipatory potentials of digital inclusion policies and information and communication technologies (ICTs). Increasingly, empowerment is put forward as one of the main goals of digital inclusion. By applying user-centric and participatory approaches, assumptions are made that individuals will be empowered and, as such, will be re-included in society.Design/methodology/approach– These assumptions, however, tend to ignore the social, economic, political and technical conditions within which individual choices are made and within which individuals must inevitably act. Instead of attempting to narrow the existing social gap between class-divided societies, and of probing the limitations given at the macro-level by questioning the wider social structure, digital inclusion policies tend to individualize problems that are in fact social in their nature.Findings– This contribution will, therefore, aim to identify the key causes of structural (dis)empowerment and how these resonate to digital inclusion. The article positions itself within the political economy of communication research tradition and aims to confront the structural consequences of social inequalities, existing social hierarchies and power structures against mechanisms of digital inequalities and against the implementation of digital inclusion policies.Originality/value– By proceeding from a critical perspective, it aims to demonstrate the limitations of user-centric and micro-level approaches, while questioning their normative interpretations of digital empowerment which tend to be reductionist in their essence and instrumental in their aims.
Estimation of fabric opacity by scanner
Authors: Hajipour Abbas , Shams Nateri Ali , Sadr Momtaz Alireza 
Published: September 2014

Purpose– This study aimed to use a scanner as a low-cost method for measuring the opacity of textile fabric. Textile fabrics must have specific ranges of opacity according to their uses for shirting, curtaining, etc. In this way, opacity is an important property in the textile industry. Conventionally, textile opacity is estimated using a spectrophotometer, which is an expensive method.Design/methodology/approach– In this study a scanner was used as a low-cost method for measuring the opacity of textile fabric. The opacity was estimated by using red, green and blue (RGB) parameters of images of fabric against white and black background.Findings– The accuracy of opacity estimation was improved by converting RGB into several color spaces. The best opacity estimation was obtained by using the XYZ color space. In addition, using a regression method, the best estimation was obtained by using a fourth-order polynomial regression with the LSLM color space.Originality/value– The opacity of fabric has been measured by spectrophotometer, but in this study, the opacity of fabric was measured by scanner as a low cost device and also with novel and simple method. This method achieved acceptable accuracy for opacity estimation. The obtained result is comparable with spectrophotometer results.
An automatic inspection system for segment-type display module defects
Authors: Sheng Lin Chern , Yang Pei-Feng , Lin Chi-Chin , Hsu Yuen-Chang 
Published: September 2014

Purpose
– This study aimed to developed a defect detection system for a segment-type display module panel.

Design/methodology/approach
– The system included a data acquisition card, a video camera, a computer and a display module on a testing table. The video camera captured the display pattern of the display module and transferred it to the computer through the data acquisition card. The dynamic multi-thresholding method and analysis as well as back propagation neural network classification was used to classify the detected defects.

Findings
– The threshold values for the brightness at different positions in the display module image were obtained using the neural network and then stored in the look-up table, using two to six matrixes.

Originality/value
– The recognition speed was faster and the system was more flexible in comparison to the previous system. The proposed method, using unsophisticated and economical equipment, was also verified as providing highly accurate results with a low error rate.
Interactions with e-government, new digital media and traditional channel choices: citizen-initiated factors
Authors: Reddick Christopher , Anthopoulos Leonidas 
Published: September 2014

Purpose
– This paper aims to examine the factors that can predict citizen-initiated contact with e-government as an attempt to identify important differences between service channel selections. Although more than two decades have passed since the initiation of e-government, digital channel choice is still being questioned, compared to traditional channels, and the level of selection with channels is being investigated.

Design/methodology/approach
– This study states three research questions that are answered through a literature review and statistical analysis of a survey in a developed country. More specifically, it identifies the factors that impact channel choice and validates them with survey results. To this end, this paper utilizes data from a national Canadian survey, where citizens empirically evaluated their channel choice – e-government, new digital media and traditional service channels – for government contacts.

Findings
– Statistical analysis over this data return valuable findings such as that the e-government channel is more appropriate for information collection, whereas traditional service channels are more likely to establish individual problem solving. Moreover, the digital divide appears to have an impact on citizen channel choice. Furthermore, digitally literate citizens who are aware of privacy issues are more likely to use new digital media. Finally, citizens are quite satisfied from their new digital media experience, but are not as satisfied with their traditional contact experience.

Originality/value
– These outcomes show that e-government obstacles regarding digital divide, trust and efficiency remain active and have to be addressed more carefully by governments. This study shows that e-government and new digital media are not simple channel choices, but are complex in public service delivery. These outcomes confirm the significance of channel choice for transforming government, as e-government appears to be a part of a broader channel choice agenda.
Dominant concourse about important barriers to promoting coordination in Iranian government machinery
Authors: Nikraftar Tayebeh , Shokri Reza 
Published: September 2014

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is, at first, to reveal thepresent concourseabout barriers to coordination in government web then collect thedominant concourseabout barriers to alignment along the web of governmental machinery from the perspective of Iranian practitioners and scholars. Strengthening the coordination of government machinery is one of the purposes of the Iranian Government, but one of the important influences on coordination in government is the attitudes and perceptions of governing elites.Design/methodology/approach– This study combines the strengths of both the qualitative and quantitative research traditions. It entails a set of sequential steps which involve the generation of ideas about the research topics; a sample of statements representative of different views (dominant concourse) was selected from the 107 statements (present concourse) mentioned above based on a two-round Delphi technique.Findings– The statements of this concourse are organized in two main categories: policy and administrative barriers. Researchers utilized the Delphi technique to identify the 73 most important statements concerning the diversity of opinion within the present concourse.Research limitations– Generalization of findings is not a major concern of this study, and selection of the sample in this study is not based on random sampling.Practical implications– The paper includes implications for improving coordination in the Iranian Government. The results of this study have implications for policymakers to reform the government machinery and design mechanism for better performance.Originality/value– This paper fulfills an identified need to study solutions for removing barriers to coordination in government. It proposed e-government as one mechanism for removing these barriers and strengthening consensus in Iranian Government machinery.
A fuzzy rule-based system to assess e-government technical interoperability maturity level
Authors: Sheffer Corrêa Andreiwid , de Assis Mota Alexandre , Toledo Moreira Mota Lia , Luiz Pizzigatti Corrêa Pedro 
Published: September 2014

Purpose
– The purpose of this study is to present a system called NEBULOSUS, which is a fuzzy rule-based expert system for assessing the maturity level of an agency regarding technical interoperability.

Design/methodology/approach
– The study introduces the use of artificial intelligence and fuzzy logic to deal with the imprecision and uncertainty present in the assessment process. To validate the system proposed and demonstrate its operation, the study takes into account the Brazilian technical interoperability maturity model, based on the Brazilian Government Interoperability Framework (GIF).

Findings
– With the system proposed and its methodology, it could be possible to increase the assessment process to management level and to provide decision-making support without worrying about technical details that make it complex and time-consuming. Moreover, NEBULOSUS is a standalone system that offers an easy-to-use, open and flexible structuring database that can be adapted by governments throughout the world. It will serve as a tool and contribute to governments’ expectations for continuous improvement of their technologies.

Originality/value
– This study contributes toward filling a gap in general interoperability architectures, which is a means to provide an objective method to evaluate GIF adherence by governments. The proposed system allows governments to configure their technical models and GIF to assess information and communication technology resources.
Towards the institutionalisation of parliamentary technology assessment: the case for Ireland
Authors: Csaki Csaba , Fitzgerald Ciara , O’Raghallaigh Paidi , Adam Frederic 
Published: September 2014

Purpose
– This paper aims to consider the case study of Ireland with regards to the implementation of a formal parliamentary technology assessment (PTA) capability. With emphasis on innovation and knowledge-based economies, society faces a proliferation of technological challenges with far-reaching unpredictable impacts. Elected representatives need unbiased scientific knowledge to underpin evidence-based policy-oriented decision-making. PTA is directed at policy-oriented decision-making processes within the parliament. It identifies the role played by existing agencies and the gaps that remain to be filled in the current landscape. It explores the feasibility of potential future institutional arrangements in a country without a recognised formal PTA agency.

Design/methodology/approach
– An embedded case study approach was utilised based on three main sources of evidence: relevant published documents pertaining to science and technology governance; interviews with key decision-makers; and illustrative case of “hydraulic fracturing” demonstrating key issues stemming from the lack of a formal PTA structure.

Findings
– The case revealed the interplay between key actors in the area of science, technology and innovation in Ireland. It demonstrated the need for improved citizen engagement. The analysis revealed that formal technology assessment channels should be established to provide a voice for civil society to engage in policy-making. Given the requirements and constraints, a feasible way to implement PTA seems to be the “parliamentary office” model which would seem to be a good fit in the context of Ireland’s current situation.

Originality/value
– The paper presents how PTA may be realised in a country without a formal PTA agency using a parliamentary office model to provide a channel for citizen engagement in science, technology and innovation (STI) policy-making.