University of Lincoln

About: University of Lincoln is a education organization based out in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Context (language use). The organization has 2341 authors who have published 7025 publications receiving 124797 citations.

Understanding embarrassment among those with autism: breaking down the complex emotion of embarrassment among those with autism

Abstract: Scenarios manipulating various factors within the emotion of embarrassment, such as whether or not an audience was present when an embarrassing act was committed, the type of audience present, empathic embarrassment, etc., were presented to high-functioning participants with autism and comparison groups of those with learning difficulties and typically developing participants matched for verbal and nonverbal mental age. Participants were required to rate the level of embarrassment of the protagonist and justify their responses. It was predicted that those with autism would differ significantly from the comparison groups in their ratings and also their ability to provide justifications. The results showed those with autism to have difficulty with such concepts as empathic embarrassment but showed a surprisingly good understanding of other variables manipulated such as the presence of an audience.

A cross‐national comparison of knowledge management practices

Abstract: Purpose – A distinguishing feature of the successful “post‐Network Age” enterprise is its intrinsic entrepreneurial character that manifests itself in key organizational knowledge practices relating to organizational culture, processes, content and infrastructure. The purpose of this article is to explore organizational knowledge‐based practices.Design/methodology/approach – The article reports on the outcome of field research in which entrepreneurial firms in four geographic regions were analyzed with the help of a diagnostic research tool specifically developed for profiling organizational knowledge‐based practices. The diagnostic tool was applied in firms located in Silicon Valley in the USA, Singapore, The Netherlands and Israel.Findings – Key practices that were found to be common to leading‐edge firms in all regions included: a propensity for experimentation; collective sharing of knowledge, and collective decision making. The paper describes the research in terms of a cross‐cultural comparison of t...

A review of robotics and autonomous systems in the food industry: From the supply chains perspective

Abstract: Background. An increasing global population means resource utilisation and food security remain the critical global challenges. Robotics and autonomous systems (RAS) have been applied to improve productivity, and their role in enhancing supply chain operations is explored here. Scope and approach. Researchers have studied ways to adopt and integrate RAS into the food industry. However, most of the current literature focuses on the technological impact of RAS. In contrast, this paper discusses the adoption of RAS in the food industry from the supply chain perspective with regard to the supply chain operations. Key findings and conclusions. The study has selected 54 papers using a nine-step systematic review process. This research analysed the use of RAS across five major themes of the food supply chain, including food quality, food safety, food waste, supply chain efficiency, and supply chain analysis. The role of RAS the data availability, cybersecurity, skill capability, and financial costs are discussed in the context of adopting RAS in food supply chains. Future research directions are proposed with the aim of enhancing the application of RAS in food supply chain operations.

Urban meadows as an alternative to short mown grassland: effects of composition and height on biodiversity.

Abstract: There are increasing calls to provide greenspace in urban areas, yet the ecological quality, as well as quantity, of greenspace is important. Short mown grassland designed for recreational use is the dominant form of urban greenspace in temperate regions but requires considerable maintenance and typically provides limited habitat value for most taxa. Alternatives are increasingly proposed, but the biodiversity potential of these is not well understood. In a replicated experiment across six public urban greenspaces, we used nine different perennial meadow plantings to quantify the relative roles of floristic diversity and height of sown meadows on the richness and composition of three taxonomic groups: plants, invertebrates, and soil microbes. We found that all meadow treatments were colonized by plant species not sown in the plots, suggesting that establishing sown meadows does not preclude further locally determined grassland development if management is appropriate. Colonizing species were rarer in taller and more diverse plots, indicating competition may limit invasion rates. Urban meadow treatments contained invertebrate and microbial communities that differed from mown grassland. Invertebrate taxa responded to changes in both height and richness of meadow vegetation, but most orders were more abundant where vegetation height was longer than mown grassland. Order richness also increased in longer vegetation and Coleoptera family richness increased with plant diversity in summer. Microbial community composition seems sensitive to plant species composition at the soil surface (0–10 cm), but in deeper soils (11–20 cm) community variation was most responsive to plant height, with bacteria and fungi responding differently. In addition to improving local residents’ site satisfaction, native perennial meadow plantings can produce biologically diverse grasslands that support richer and more abundant invertebrate communities, and restructured plant, invertebrate, and soil microbial communities compared with short mown grassland. Our results suggest that diversification of urban greenspace by planting urban meadows in place of some mown amenity grassland is likely to generate substantial biodiversity benefits, with a mosaic of meadow types likely to maximize such benefits.