This article draws on findings of an international study of social workers’ ethical challenges during COVID-19, based on 607 responses to a qualitative survey. Ethical challenges included the following: maintaining trust, privacy, dignity and service user autonomy in remote relationships; allocating limited resources; balancing rights and needs of different parties; deciding whether to break or bend policies in the interests of service users; and handling emotions and ensuring care of self and colleagues. The article considers regional contrasts, the ‘ethical logistics’ of complex decision-making, the impact of societal inequities, and lessons for social workers and professional practice around the globe.
Predation risk is a major driver of the distribution of prey animals, which typically show strong responses to cues for predator presence. An unresolved question is whether naïve individuals respond to mimicked cues, and whether such cues can be used to deter prey. We investigated whether playback of wolf sounds induces fear responses in naïve ungulates in a human-dominated landscape from which wolves have been eradicated since 1879. We conducted a playback experiment in mixed-coniferous and broadleaved forest that harboured three cervid and one suid species. At 36 locations, we played wolf sounds, sounds of local sheep or no sounds, consecutively, in random order, and recorded visit rate and group size, using camera traps. Visit rates of cervids and wild boar showed a clear initial reduction to playback of both wolf and sheep sounds, but the type of response differed between sound, forest type and species. For naïve wild boar in particular, responses to predator cues depended on forest type. Effects on visit rate disappeared within 21 days. Group sizes in all the species were not affected by the sound treatment. Our findings suggest that the responses of naïve ungulates to wolf sound seem to be species specific, depend on forest type and wear off in time, indicating habituation. Before we can successfully deter ungulates using predator sound, we should further investigate how different forest types affect the perception of naïve ungulates to these sounds, as responses to predator sound may depend on habitat characteristics.
MULTIFILE
Several studies found that classrooms' indoor environmental quality (IEQ) can positively influence in-class activities. Understanding and quantifying the combined effect of four indoor environmental parameters, namely indoor air quality and thermal, acoustic, and lighting conditions on people is essential to create an optimal IEQ. Accordingly, a systematic approach was developed to study the effect of multiple IEQ parameters simultaneously. Methods for measuring the IEQ and students' perceived IEQ, internal responses, and academic performance were derived from literature. Next, this systematic approach was tested in a pilot study during a regular academic course. The perceptions, internal responses, and short-term academic performance of participating students (n = 163) were measured. During the pilot study, the IEQ of the classrooms varied slightly. Significant associations (p < 0.05) were observed between these natural variations and students' perceptions of the thermal environment and indoor air quality. These perceptions were significantly associated with their physiological and cognitive responses (p < 0.05). Furthermore, students' perceived cognitive responses were associated with their short-term academic performance (p < 0.01). The observed associations confirm the construct validity of the systematic approach. However, its validity for investigating the influence of lighting remains to be determined.
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Mode heeft een cruciale functie in de samenleving: zij maakt diversiteit en inclusiviteit mogelijk en is een middel voor individuen om zich uit te drukken. Desalniettemin is mode ook een raadsel op het gebied van duurzaamheid, zowel aan de sociale als aan de milieukant. Er bestaan echter alternatieven voor de huidige praktijken in de mode. Dit project heeft tot doel de ontwikkeling van een van die initiatieven te ondersteunen. In samenwerking met twee Nederlandse MKB bedrijven in de mode-industrie, willen we een of meer business modellen co-designen voor het vermarkten van circulair ontworpen laser geprinte T-shirts. Door lasertechnologie te introduceren in plaats van traditionele inktopties, kunnen de T- shirts hun CO2 voetafdruk verder verkleinen en een verstandig alternatief zijn voor individuen, die op zoek zijn naar duurzame modekeuzes. Maar hoewel de technologische haalbaarheid vaststaat, vereist het vermarkten sterke, schaalbare, bedrijfsmodellen. Via een haalbaarheidsstudie willen we dergelijke businessmodellen ontwikkelen en de commercialisering van deze producten ondersteunen. Wij zijn van plan de reacties van de consument op een dergelijke innovatie te bestuderen, evenals de belemmeringen en stimulansen vanuit het oogpunt van de consument, en de inkoop-, toeleveringsketen- en financiële kwesties die kunnen voortvloeien uit de schaalbaarheid van een potentieel bedrijfsmodel. Om praktische relevantie voor de bredere industrie te verzekeren, streven we ernaar om de resultaten te presenteren op evenementen georganiseerd door een van de consortiumpartners (in 2023), als ook om een teaching case en een wetenschappelijk artikel te ontwikkelen op basis van de resultaten van het project.
The energy transition is a highly complex technical and societal challenge, coping with e.g. existing ownership situations, intrusive retrofit measures, slow decision-making processes and uneven value distribution. Large scale retrofitting activities insulating multiple buildings at once is urgently needed to reach the climate targets but the decision-making of retrofitting in buildings with shared ownership is challenging. Each owner is accountable for his own energy bill (and footprint), giving a limited action scope. This has led to a fragmented response to the energy retrofitting challenge with negligible levels of building energy efficiency improvements conducted by multiple actors. Aggregating the energy design process on a building level would allow more systemic decisions to happen and offer the access to alternative types of funding for owners. “Collect Your Retrofits” intends to design a generic and collective retrofit approach in the challenging context of monumental areas. As there are no standardised approaches to conduct historical building energy retrofits, solutions are tailor-made, making the process expensive and unattractive for owners. The project will develop this approach under real conditions of two communities: a self-organised “woongroep” and a “VvE” in the historic centre of Amsterdam. Retrofit designs will be identified based on energy performance, carbon emissions, comfort and costs so that a prioritisation strategy can be drawn. Instead of each owner investing into their own energy retrofitting, the neighbourhood will invest into the most impactful measures and ensure that the generated economic value is retained locally in order to make further sustainable investments and thus accelerating the transition of the area to a CO2-neutral environment.
The IMPULS-2020 project DIGIREAL (BUas, 2021) aims to significantly strengthen BUAS’ Research and Development (R&D) on Digital Realities for the benefit of innovation in our sectoral industries. The project will furthermore help BUas to position itself in the emerging innovation ecosystems on Human Interaction, AI and Interactive Technologies. The pandemic has had a tremendous negative impact on BUas industrial sectors of research: Tourism, Leisure and Events, Hospitality and Facility, Built Environment and Logistics. Our partner industries are in great need of innovative responses to the crises. Data, AI combined with Interactive and Immersive Technologies (Games, VR/AR) can provide a partial solution, in line with the key-enabling technologies of the Smart Industry agenda. DIGIREAL builds upon our well-established expertise and capacity in entertainment and serious games and digital media (VR/AR). It furthermore strengthens our initial plans to venture into Data and Applied AI. Digital Realities offer great opportunities for sectoral industry research and innovation, such as experience measurement in Leisure and Hospitality, data-driven decision-making for (sustainable) tourism, geo-data simulations for Logistics and Digital Twins for Spatial Planning. Although BUas already has successful R&D projects in these areas, the synergy can and should significantly be improved. We propose a coherent one-year Impuls funded package to develop (in 2021): 1. A multi-year R&D program on Digital Realities, that leads to, 2. Strategic R&D proposals, in particular a SPRONG/sleuteltechnologie proposal; 3. Partnerships in the regional and national innovation ecosystem, in particular Mind Labs and Data Development Lab (DDL); 4. A shared Digital Realities Lab infrastructure, in particular hardware/software/peopleware for Augmented and Mixed Reality; 5. Leadership, support and operational capacity to achieve and support the above. The proposal presents a work program and management structure, with external partners in an advisory role.
