Surrogate-assisted evolutionary multi-objective optimisation of office building glazing

The quantity and positioning of glazing on a building's facade has a strong influence on the building's heating, lighting, and cooling performance. Evolutionary algorithms have been effective in finding glazing layouts that optimise the trade-offs between these properties. However, this is time-consuming, needing many calls to a building performance simulation. Surrogate fitness functions have been used previously to speed up optimisation without compromising solution quality; our novelty is in the application of a surrogate to a binary encoded, multi-objective, building optimisation problem. We propose and demonstrate a process to choose a suitable model type for the surrogate: a multilayer perceptron (MLP) is found to work best in this case. The MLP is integrated with the Non-Dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II) algorithm, and experimental results show that the surrogate leads to a significant (400x) speedup. This allows the algorithm to find solutions that are better than the algorithm without a surrogate in the same timeframe. Updating the surrogate at intervals improves the solution quality further with a modest increase in run time

The impact of the cost-of-living crisis on water poverty in Scotland: A lived-experience analysis

During the ongoing ‘cost-of-living (CoL) crisis’, households have faced increased household expenses, including water bills, which will hinder efforts towards tackling water poverty. Using a quota-based online panel survey (n = 726), we aimed to quantify the impact of the CoL crisis on water poverty in Scotland. Using lived experience rather than the typical income-based approach, we found that age and household income were significant predictors of water poverty, with younger respondents being more likely to struggle, contrary to conventional wisdom. We argue for the involvement of people with lived experience, government financial support and better targeting of that support

Chimpanzee drumming shows rhythmicity and subspecies variation

Summary Rhythmic percussion is present across human cultures and has been proposed as one of the earliest evolved forms of musical expression.1 Key features of human rhythmic percussion include individual and regional variation, as well as structural features widespread across musical cultures, such as the use of non-random timing and isochrony (i.e., evenly spaced note onsets).2,3,4,5 Comparative studies of drumming in our ape relatives contribute to understanding the evolutionary origins of human rhythmic percussion. In this context, large, diverse datasets allow testing for species-level universals and regional variation. Chimpanzees and bonobos, like humans, drum on instrumental substrates.2,6,7,8,9 Wild chimpanzees drum on resonant tree buttresses, showing individual variation during traveling and resting contexts, and often integrate drumming into their long-distance pant-hoot vocalizations.6,7,8 But whether wild chimpanzee drumming shows structural musical features and regional variation in rhythm or in its integration within pant-hoots remains unknown. We show that wild chimpanzees drum with non-random timing and isochrony, providing evidence that rhythmic drumming on instrumental substrates may have been present in our last common ancestor.2 Furthermore, we found subspecies-level regional rhythmic variation, showing that western chimpanzees drum isochronously, while eastern chimpanzees drum by alternating shorter and longer inter-hit intervals. Western chimpanzees also produce more drumming hits, drum at a faster tempo, and integrate drumming earlier in the pant-hoot vocalization, typically during the rhythmic build-up phase. Chimpanzee buttress drumming shows both species-level structural features of human musicality and stable subspecies regional differences across diverse ecologies

An Evaluation of Health Behavior Change Training for Health and Care Professionals in St. Helena

Background: Health behavior consultations support self-management if delivered by skilled practitioners. We summarize here the results of a collaborative training intervention program delivered to health and care practitioners working in a remote-island context. The program was designed to build confidence in the implementation of communication and behavior change skills and to sustain their use in work settings. The setting for the behavior change training program was the South Atlantic island of St. Helena, a remote low-middle-income country which has a population with high levels of obesity and a prevalence of long-term conditions. Objectives: We aimed to increase knowledge, confidence, and implementation of behavior change techniques (BCTs) and communication skills of health and social care staff through delivering and evaluating training using the MAP (Motivation, Action, Prompt) behavior change framework. A successful training intervention could ultimately improve self-management and patient health outcomes. Methods: Co-production with onsite representatives adapted the program for local delivery. A two-day training program was delivered face-to-face to 32 multidisciplinary staff. Pre-and post-intervention and 18-month follow-up evaluation assessed reactions, learning and implementation using multiple methods, including participant feedback and primary care patient reports. Results: Positive reactions to training and significant improvement in confidence, perceived importance, intention to use and implementation of BCTs and communication skills immediately post-training and at long-term follow-up were observed. Patient reports suggested some techniques became routinely used. Methodological difficulties arose due to staff retention and disruption through the COVID-19 pandemic. Conclusions: The delivery of health behavior change training can be effective in remote contexts with sustainable impacts on healthcare. There are challenges working in this context including staff continuity and technological reliability.Good Health and Well-BeingSustainable Cities and CommunitiesPartnerships for the Goal

Exploring the link between spectra, inherent optical properties in the water column, and sea surface temperature and salinity

Sea surface salinity and temperature are important measures of ocean health. They provide information about ocean warming, atmospheric interactions, and acidification, with further effects on the global thermohaline circulation and as a consequence the global water cycle. In coastal waters they provide information about sub mesoscale circulations and tidal currents, riverine discharge and upwelling effects. This paper explores the methodology to extract sea surface salinity (SSS) and temperature (SST) from ground based hyperspectral ocean radiance. Water leaving radiance is linked to the inherent optical properties of the water column, effected by the constituent parts. Hyperspectral data at ground level is then used as input to train a linear regression model against temporally and spatially matched water data of SSS and SST. Furthermore, a neural network model to be able to estimate the SST and SSS with the hyperspectral data averaged to multispectral bands to emulate the satellite use case. The neural network model is able to learn the relationship between the multispectral radiance to both SSS and SST values, and can predict these with a root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.2PSU and 0.1 degree respectively. This demonstrates the feasibility of similar algorithms applied to multispectral ocean colour satellites with enhanced coverage and spatial resolution

What time is the tide? The importance of tides for ocean colour applications to estuaries

Tides can play a major role in transitional water dynamics, being the primary driver of fluctuations in water parameters. In the last decade, remote sensing methods have become a popular tool for cost-effective systematic observations, at relatively high spatial and temporal scales. However, the presence of tides introduces complexities, given that Sun-synchronous satellites will observe a different tidal condition at each overpass, effectively aliasing the daily signal. This can create non-obvious biases when using remote sensing data for monitoring tidally-dominated systems, potentially leading to misinterpretation of patterns and incorrect estimates of periodicities. In this work, we used a six-year Sentinel-2-derived turbidity dataset to evaluate the impact of tidal aliasing on the applicability of a Sun-synchronous satellite to a tidally-dominated system (Tagus estuary, Portugal). Each satellite observation was classified according to tidal phase. Results indicate that tidal processes dominated over seasonal variability, with significant differences observed between turbidity levels of different tidal phases (p < 0.0001). Climatology analyses also revealed significant changes between all-data and per-tidal-phase data (p < 0.001), highlighting the importance of classifying satellite data by tidal condition. Additionally, tidal condition labelling at each Sentinel-2 overpass revealed that not all tidal conditions are observed by a Sun-synchronous satellite, as Low tide and Floods are always observed during Spring tides and High tide and Ebbs observed under Neap tides. Spring Low tides are overrepresented compared to all other tidal conditions. This result is particularly relevant for water quality monitoring based on remote sensing data in tidally-dominated systems

Anchoring Museum Objects in the Cold War: The Hidden Meanings of a Transatlantic Telephone Cable

This chapter uses a piece of the first transatlantic telephone cable in the collection of National Museums Scotland to interrogate the ways in which museum objects attain significance as Cold War objects. It highlights the ways in which multiple meanings – and layers of meanings – adhere to objects at the same time. Objects not only connect these meanings, but they also exhibit elements of dissonance, noise and silence. Hence, this chapter explores the potential of the concept of anchoring, developed in the context of the history of science and technology by Christian Götter, for a Cold War museology. It offers a number of conclusions about the meaning of Cold War objects in museum collections, their collection, interpretation and display. By bringing history and museology into conversation with one another, this chapter also highlights the ways in which historians can learn through engaging with museum collections and how, in turn, museum and heritage professionals might benefit from interacting with historical scholarship

Ways Out of the Void? Postcolonial and Decolonial Theories in Relation to Armenia and Armenianness

The application of postcolonial theory to former Soviet socialist republics is much debated. For Tlostanova, ‘Western’ theorisations of colonialism consign former Soviet socialist republics including Armenia to an undifferentiated ‘void’, not fully part of the Global North or South. Spivak’s (2008) discussion of the Armenian case highlights the inability of conceptualisations of colonialism focused on the nation-state to account for the imperial forces at work in the Caucasus. She argues instead for the potential of a non-ethnic, critical regionalism highlighting local and highly specific histories. Tlostanova and others meanwhile have called for the development of more decolonial approaches drawing on Southern epistemologies and broader, intersectional explorations of national identity in relation to the Caucasus and other regions of the former Soviet East. In this article, we contribute to these debates by reassessing how well postcolonial analyses can illuminate the complex global power relations and identity formations in the Republic of Armenia. Furthermore, we explore the relevance of these theories to different groups resident there. The first section focuses on postcolonial theory and explores different periods of Armenian history and their legacies in terms of colonialism. The second section explores the (little) everyday salience of these theories to residents of a country dominated since independence by war with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh), drawing on a research project on migration to and from Armenia carried out in the early 2020s and led by the first author. The third section discusses potential theoretical ways forward, and uses for, theories of post and decoloniality in such complex and unstable circumstances. The experience and multiple viewpoints of Armenia’s diverse internal diasporan communities -and particularly those resident in Armenia since the Syrian, Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) and Ukraine wars – are threaded throughout.Sustainable Cities and Communitie

Duties of persons with disabilities under the African disability rights protocol: a sceptical argument

Although the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights on the Rights of Persons with Disability 2018 (‘African disability rights protocol’) is inspired by the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2006 (CRPD), it departs from it by grounding disability rights in an African philosophy of human rights. It achieves this in various ways, particularly by assigning duties to people with disabilities, which is generally uncharacteristic of disability human rights discourse. This article explores what the allocation of these duties implies for people with disabilities. It argues that whilst such recognition may uphold the equal humanity and belonging of people with disabilities, the African disability rights protocol is not sufficiently attentive to duties owed to them by other individuals. Given the widespread exclusions and injustices faced by disabled people across Africa, it is argued that the priority should be individual duties to (rather than of) people with disabilities. The significance of individual duties to people with disabilities is not only underemphasized by the African disability rights protocol but is insufficiently addressed by the CRPD and under-theorized in disability justice literature. A duty-based approach remains a significant yet an unexplored approach to disability justic

Practical Routes to Preregistration: A Guide to Enhanced Transparency and Rigour in Neuropsychological Research

Preregistration is the act of formally documenting a research plan before collecting (or at least before analysing) the data. It allows those reading a final research report to know which aspects of a study were decided before sight of the data, and which were added later. This enables informed evaluation of the severity with which scientific claims have been tested. We, as the British Neuropsychological Society Open Research Group, conducted a survey to explore awareness and adoption of open research practices within our field. Neuropsychology involves the study of relatively rare or hard-to-access participants, creating practical challenges that, according to our survey, are perceived as barriers to preregistration. We survey the available routes to preregistration, and suggest that the barriers are all surmountable in one way or another. However, there is a tension, in that higher levels of bias control require greater restriction over the flexibility of preregistered studies, but such flexibility is often essential for neuropsychological research. Researchers must therefore consider which route provides the right balance of rigour and pragmatic flexibility to render a preregistered project viable for them. By mapping out the issues and potential solutions, and by signposting relevant resources and publication routes, we hope to facilitate well-reasoned decision-making and empower neuropsychologists to enhance the transparency and rigour of their research. Although we focus neuropsychology, our guidance is applicable to any field that studies hard-to-access human samples, or involves arduous or expensive means of data collection