Measuring sustainable homes - a Mixed Methods approach

Background: Participation-inclusion facilitates employees with disability through employment, policies and culture, whose implementation falls below colleagues without disability. At level-6 hospitals, participationinclusion and its influence on service-delivery from employees with disability had not been studied. This research sought to determine the influence of leadership-support for participation-inclusion on service-delivery at level-6 hospitals in Kenya. The objective was informed by aspects of social and human rights models, stakeholder theory, and theory of stigma. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, data was collected from 211 employees with disability and 196 supervisors, sampled by census, in five purposively-selected hospitals. Tools used were two Likert-scale-based questionnaires (with qualitative and quantitative aspects) and observation checklists. Secondary data from study facility employee databases, strategic plans and disability mainstreaming policy documents were used. Data analysis was done using SPSS version 29 and N-Vivo version 15 for quantitative and qualitative aspects respectively, for measures of central tendency, dispersion, percentages; associations using Peason’s correlation coefficients and ANOVA for hypothesis testing, with cut of p-value < 0.05 indicating significance. Results: Response-rate for employees with disability was 211(92.1%) and immediate supervisors 196(85.6%). Quota employment representation deficit was 0.5-4.1%, influence of employment 71%, promotions 72%, database 48%, policy 75%, disability committees 72%, programs 66%, awareness 72%, support-supervision 78% and collegial-support 78%. Service-delivery from employees with disability was rated 80% and satisfaction of supervisors 86%. The value of R square was 0.423, inferring that 42.3% change in servicedelivery was accounted for by leadership-support for participation-inclusion, F statistic was 130.695 being greater than F critical at 3.909 and significant p-value 0.000. Thus, the null hypothesis, ‘participation-inclusion has no significant influence on service-delivery at level-6 hospitals in Kenya,’ was rejected. An employee with disability said, "… sometimes colleagues assume I need… help when I don't…They should ask us…." A supervisor said, “...Some outperform their colleagues without disability…” Conclusions: Participation-inclusion has positive significant influence on service-delivery from employees with disability. They have potential talent-reservoirs that can be objectively exploited through leadership-led participation-inclusion and timely data to dispel misconceptions

The relationship between creativity and executive control has long been controversial. Some researchers view creative thinking as a defocused process with little executive control involvement, whereas others claim that executive control plays a vital role in creative thinking. In this study, we focused on one subcomponent of executive control, cognitive shifting, and examined its relationship with creativity by using latent variable analysis and structural equation modeling. We also analyzed whether this relation was mediated by intelligence. The results showed that: (a) cognitive shifting ability had a positive relationship with creativity, but only on the quantitative aspects (fluency and flexibility); (b) Intelligence had a positive relationship with both quantitative and qualitative aspects (originality) of creativity, and its effect on qualitative aspect was stronger than that on the quantitative aspect; (c) There was a mediating effect of intelligence on the relationship between creativity cognitive and shifting.

This study aims to identify the factors influencing green building certification in Bali, Indonesia, with a focus on contextual sustainability, particularly socio-cultural aspects. The green building movement is gaining traction globally and has found its way to Indonesia, promoting sustainability in the construction sector through various certification systems such as Greenstar, BREEAM, LEED, DGNB and Greenship. However, implementation in Bali presents unique challenges and opportunities due to its rich cultural heritage and local architectural principles. The first green building certification in Bali began with a pilot project in Gianyar Regency in 2018, indicating a nascent but growing interest. Despite the growing global push for sustainable buildings, adoption in Bali has been modest, with only ten projects certified to date, mostly government buildings. This limited uptake highlights the need to understand the contextual factors influencing green building certification in Bali. The research used a mixed methods approach, integrating qualitative and quantitative analysis. Data collection included in-depth interviews and questionnaires distributed to stakeholders involved in green building projects in Bali. The findings revealed three main groups of influencing factors: Green Building Performance, Rules and Regulations, and Socio-Culture. Among these, socio-cultural aspects emerged as particularly significant, reflecting the importance of aligning green building practices with Balinese architectural traditions and local community values. This study highlights the critical role of contextual factors in green building certification in Bali. Integrating local cultural values and traditional architectural principles with green building standards can increase the acceptance and effectiveness of sustainable building practices in Bali. The findings suggest a pathway towards more sustainable development in Bali that respects and preserves its unique cultural identity while advancing environmental sustainability goals.

In recent years, there has been a remarkable rise in the number of certified green building projects in Vietnam, with industrial buildings accounting for the largest portion. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the ability to achieve points of industrial buildings in some green building systems under specific conditions of Vietnam. Another aim of the study is to point out the distinct features of industrial buildings that influence their design, including heavy industry, light industry, and industrial buildings with cleanrooms. Accordingly, this will contribute to increasing the number of industrial buildings that achieve green certification in the future. The study uses a mixed-methods approach, including expert interviews, field surveys, and meta-analysis. The research results will serve as a reference document for sustainable development-oriented design consultants and for organizations establishing green construction criteria systems to be able to upgrade to newer versions with higher adaptability for industrial works.

In recent years, entertainment content, such as movies, music, and anime, has been gaining attention due tothe stay-at-home demand caused by the expansion of COVID-19. In the content domain, research in the field ofknowledge representation is primarily concerned with accurately describing metadata. Therefore, different knowledgerepresentations are required for applications in downstream tasks. In this study, we aim to clarify effectiveknowledge representation for predicting users’ latent preferences through a case study of an anime recommendationtask. We developed hypotheses from both quantitative and qualitative aspects on how to represent work knowledgeto improve recommendation performance, and verified them by changing the structure of knowledge representationaccording to the hypothesis. Initially, we constructed a Knowledge Graph (KG) by integrating domain-specific andgeneral-purpose data sources through the process of entity matching and imposing constraints on the properties.Subsequently, we constructed multiple KGs by varying the knowledge configuration. Specifically, we changed thecomposition of the data sources considered in the KG construction or excluded a triplet associated with an arbitraryproperty. After that, we fed the constructed KGs into the graph neural network recommender model and comparedthe recommendation performance. As a result, it was shown that the recommendation performance based on the KGcomposed of multiple data sources was the best, thus supporting the hypothesis from a quantitative aspect. Next,an ablation study on the properties revealed that knowledge characterizing the work itself contributed to the recommendationperformance, thus supporting the hypothesis from a qualitative aspect. Furthermore, we constructed atext-based KG by generating a new vocabulary from the “synopsis” text. It can describe the work’s storyline andworldview in more detail. We take it as an input to a Large Language Model (LLM) and extend the existing metadatabasedKG. The results showed that the KG considering both metadata and text had the best overall recommendationperformance, again confirming the hypothesis.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine green building legislation requirements and practices in the construction project execution stage within the context of the South African construction industry. The rationale for this examination rests with the perception that the implementation of green practices (per se) has been recognised as being “behind” the legislation enacted to control the design and construction of green buildings. Design/methodology/approach – The research process consisted of a literature review to identify existing green building legislation and practices applicable to the project execution phase. This was supported by a sequential mixed-method research approach, which involved a survey of contracting companies based in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. Purposive sampling was used to undertake focused interviews with management staff and site operatives. Findings – Research findings established a number of issues, not least: a gap between green building practices and legislation requirements; a high degree of unawareness of green building legislation/practices by construction company stakeholders; selective implementation of health and safety legislative requirements; that management staff had a more “positive” attitude to green building practices than site-based staff who tended to be less motivated and open to such practices. Research limitations/implications – Results from this study are considered generalisable with the sample frame only. Research inference and projections should therefore only be made within this set, and not to the wider population of South African contractors (as this study was limited to the Western Cape Province). Practical implications – Implications from this research are applicable to construction company stakeholders within the population set. Practical considerations include the need to acknowledge a formal commitment to developing a sustainable built environment – especially cognisant of the gap between practices on site and green building legislation requirements. Moreover, this lack of awareness in respect of green building practices and legislation requirements impinges upon several wider areas, not least: construction company stakeholders’ positioning, health and safety practices; managerial and operational staff perceptions, and stakeholders’ willingness and motivation to proactively address these gaps. Social implications – Government bodies and allied professionals in charge of construction industry development are encouraged to consider the implementation of green building legislation requirements on construction sites. This reflection should encourage engagement through formative legislative provision and transparent awareness campaigns. Originality/value – This work is original insofar as it directly addresses the alignment of legislation to current practices within the context of the South African construction industry. However, similar exercises have been undertaken on green building legislation in other countries such as USA, UK and Australia.

The main purpose of Green Buildings (GBs) is to support environmental sustainability and improve occupants’ health and well-being. Many GBs fail to achieve their sustainability goals during the operation and maintenance (O&M) phase. The majority of existing studies focus on energy performance but there is limited research about the practical management of GBs especially in the Malaysian context. The study investigates these obstacles to enhance facility management effectiveness and sustainability of Green Office Buildings (GOBs). The main reason that GOBs are targeted is because they represent a key segment of commercial real estate with high operational demands, where the gap between design intentions and actual performance is often most visible. The research employed a qualitative method which included semi-structured interviews with eight professionals who work in GOB operations. The participants were chosen through purposive sampling because they managed certified green office buildings under different ownership models such as government, REITs and corporate sectors. The NVivo software was utilised to analyse interview data through thematic analysis. The research reveals multiple connected problems which affect building performance over time. The tropical climate of Malaysia combined with outdated green technologies results in rising energy consumption and maintenance expenses. The combination of specialized vendor dependency and limited in-house expertise and owner-tenant priority conflicts makes daily operations more complicated. The additional problems include high certification renewal expenses together with inadequate water conservation measures and decreased performance in buildings with low occupancy rates. The observed challenges demonstrate a major discrepancy between the intended certification standards and actual operational practices. The research provides essential knowledge about the real-world obstacles that facility managers encounter when maintaining green performance after certification. The research demonstrates the necessity for flexible management approaches together with technical capability development and better integration between green building regulations and operational field requirements.

IntroductionMaternal morbidity and mortality are a global phenomenon with devastating effects on low-income and middle-income countries among which sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is the hardest hit. Low utilisation of maternal health...

Promoting employee participation in operation and maintenance of green office building by adopting the total productive maintenance (TPM) concept

Reengineering of Tietgen Kollegiet into a green building in terms of energy consumption and indoor climate.

Purpose The aim of this study was to extract key learning from intervention studies in which qualitative aspects of dosage, dose form, have been examined for children with developmental language disorder (DLD)-in vocabulary, morphosyntax, and phonology domains. This research paper emerged from a pair of systematic reviews, aiming to synthesize available evidence regarding qualitative and quantitative aspects of dosage. While quantitative aspects had been experimentally manipulated, the available evidence for dose form (tasks or activities within which teaching episodes are delivered) was less definitive. Despite this, the review uncovered insights of value to DLD research. Method A preregistered systematic review (PROSPERO ID: CRD42017076663) adhering to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines was completed. Included papers were quasi-experimental, randomized controlled trial, or cohort analytic studies, published in any language between January 2006 and May 2019; oral language interventions with vocabulary, morphosyntax, or phonology outcomes; and participants with DLD (M = 3-18 years). The intention was to include papers in which dose form was experimentally manipulated or statistically analyzed, while quantitative dosage aspects were controlled, such that definitive conclusions about optimal dose form could be drawn and gaps in the evidence identified. Results Two hundred and twenty-four papers met the above inclusion criteria; 27 focused on dose form. No study controlled for all quantitative aspects of dosage such that we could effectively address our original research questions. Despite this, key points of learning emerged with implications for future research. Conclusions There is tentative evidence of advantages for explicit over implicit instruction and of the benefits of variability in input, elicited production, and gestural and other visual supports. With careful design of dose form, there is potential to design more efficient interventions. Speech-language pathology research would benefit from an agreed taxonomy of dose form components and standardized reporting of intervention studies, to enable cross-study comparisons and a systematic accrual of knowledge to identify optimal dose form for clinical application.

Despite some pioneering studies, mixed-methods research approaches are uncommon in the German history education community, in contrast to the general increase in mixed-methods research in the educational and social sciences. Conversely, German history education research currently appears to favour quantitative methods as opposed to qualitative approaches – at least in larger research projects. In this paper, we argue for a more inclusive research approach combining qualitative and quantitative methods. Discussion of a pioneering study from the 1980s (Jeismann et al ., 1987) highlights implementation of this unusual approach to history education research in Germany. To illuminate the added value of such a mixed-methods research approach, we discuss two published German studies that respectively rely on quantitative (Trautwein et al ., 2017) and qualitative (Köster, 2013) research methods. A mixed-methods approach might have illuminated each study's 'blind spots'.

Nurses working at nursing homes can play a pivotal role in mental health as a high proportion of residents diagnosed with dementia are in these facilities. Many institutionalized residents diagnosed with dementia develop clinical complications and symptoms that reduce the quality of dying. A mixed-methods approach can help nurses with the difficult task of assessing the quality of dying among these residents and identify inconsistencies that cannot be found using scales alone, but no studies were found in this topic. Through the Quality of dying in Long-Term Care Scale (QoD-LTC), nurses described symptom management, quality of care, and end-of-life appearance as adequate and end-of-life communication as lacking. Generally speaking, the scores on the scale were consistent with the data from semi-structured interviews conducted with nurses. In the semi-structured interviews, some of the concepts on the scale, including 'dignity', 'holistic' care, 'good relationships with healthcare professionals', and 'a peaceful death', are complex and not fully incorporated into nurses' practice in nursing homes when assessing residents diagnosed with dementia. This could be improved by using the SENSES Model or person-centred care frameworks. WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE?: There is evidence of shortcomings among professionals in the correct use of concepts linked to psychological wellbeing, communication, therapeutic relationship, safety and participation, preservation of dignity, decision-making, and resident autonomy, which can be addressed using specific theoretical approaches developed in the field of mental health nursing. Introduction The complex nature of end-of-life assessment of individuals diagnosed with dementia would benefit from a mixed-methods approach that simultaneously assess the perception and response of nurses to standardized tools. Aim/Question To examine nursing professionals' perceptions of the quality of dying among residents diagnosed with dementia using the Quality of Dying in Long-Term Care settings (QoD-LTC) questionnaire and to identify consistencies and inconsistencies in their narratives. Method Mixed-methods study using concurrent triangulation with data integration for results and interpretation. Nurses from eight nursing homes assessed 117 residents diagnosed with dementia who died in the previous 3 months using the QoD-LTC scale. After informed consent was obtained (nurses/caregivers), 17 semi-structured scale-based interviews were conducted. Results Symptom management, quality of care, and end-of-life appearance were found to be adequate, while end-of-life communication was deemed insufficient. The qualitative and quantitative data were consistent for most of the items on the QoD-LTC. Discussion Concepts such as dignity, holistic care, good relationships, and peaceful death are complex and not fully incorporated into professional practice. Implications for Practice The results highlight the need for greater involvement of mental health nurses as well as improved communication, training, and specific tools tailored to residents diagnosed with dementia.

This study is to assess developers' market readiness to green construction including their ideas on green construction, their understanding of current green building policies, their awareness and familiarity with green building and related industries, and the barriers they are facing for implementing green building projects. By eleven face-to-face semi-structured interviews with locally-based developers, the study finds that the Green Building Market in Hong Kong is basically ready in technology level. However, the motivation for green development is confined to commercial buildings for lease. Legislation is agreed by developers as an effective motivator to green building development. An effective mechanism to provide incentives for market players to adopt green voluntarily is explored in this paper. Expedited permits and density bonus are thought to be major incentives.

The building industry is an important contributing element to the economy of the country. Evidence revealed that the building industry has contributed to the environmental impact in so many ways. Realizing this important role played by the building industry, most building projects have now adopted the concept of green building. In Malaysia, the green building concept has been gradually initiated into the building industry. Reference to the Green Building Index (GBI Malaysia) database shows an increasing number of buildings being certified day by day. Not only that, the green building concept indicated a positive escalation especially within the commercial and residential property sectors. In conjunction with the growing number of green buildings in Malaysia, several questions have arisen; one of which is whether this is just a passing trend or is it because of the benefits received from it. Therefore, this study is conducted mainly to investigate the reasoning behind the corporation’s involvement in green building industry. This study used the qualitative method whereby, semi-structured interview has been chosen as the best data collection method. Seven participants from different sectors were selected to generalize the results. Results indicated that at the initial stage of involvement in green building concept, most of the corporations were in it for the trend and novelty of trailblazing the evolutions of the world building industry. It was only recently that green building concept is embedded by corporations due to the benefits they received which indirectly boosted their business operations. Nevertheless, the government, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and corporations still need to increase efforts to mould and embed the green culture for every Malaysian because the awareness level in the implementation of green building concept is still at an early stage.