Designing for Perspective Challenging Experiences in Games

Digital games are seen to be highly appropriate vehicles for supporting reflection. Researchers and game designers have concentrated on creating reflective games, in particular, games that facilitate transformative reflection. However, before a person’s perspective can be transformed, it must first be challenged. Research around how perspective challenges are experienced by players, and what explicitly prompts reflective breakdowns is scarce. Therefore, this thesis aims to understand: (1) how games challenge players’ perspectives, (2) what kinds of experiences that entails, and (3) how to support game developers to design perspective challenges. The first study involved participants reporting perspective challenging moments within games (N = 101). The results indicate that players identified perspective challenging moments in a wide variety of games, found them be enjoyable, thought provoking, and left a lasting impression. The second investigation utilised micro phenomenological interviews and systematic self-observation diaries to capture players’ lived experience (N = 16). The resulting ’Model of Perspective Challenging Experiences’ captures two types of perspective challenges: (1) endo-game (within the game) and (2) exo-game (outside the game). The model was applied towards reducing mental health stigma in two resources: (1) the ’Designing Games to Challenge the Stigma Around Mental Health’ white paper, and (2) the ’Challenging Perspectives on Mental Health’ (CPMH) Toolkit. The final study evaluated acceptability of the CPMH toolkit by observing game developers using it in practice (N = 20). A content analysis confirmed that the CPMH toolkit successfully facilitated conversations and game ideation about perspective challenging experiences, where participants attested to the toolkit’s acceptability. The thesis has four main contributions: (1) a definition for what a perspective challenge is, (2) evidence that perspective challenging experiences has two kinds of triggers: endo-game and exogame, (3) a model of perspective challenging experiences, and (4) two translational resources to support designing perspective challenging experiences

Understanding children's play and outdoor play environment in rural China under transformation

The urbanisation and industrialisation of rural China have brought significant changes to both natural and social landscapes, notably impacting the availability and quality of play spaces for rural children. Despite extensive research on children's outdoor activities in urban settings, there's a noticeable gap in understanding the specific challenges and opportunities rural children face in accessing and utilising play spaces amid rapid urbanisation. Hence, this research aims to explore the dynamics of play spaces for rural children in the context of rural transformation

Modelling of Alternative Divertor Power Exhaust

Controlled nuclear fusion on Earth is one of the most powerful technological dreams devised by humanity. The prospect of an artificial star on our planet could offer reliable, clean, and widely accessible energy for all, using the most common element in the universe as fuel. Despite all its prospects, an economic fusion power plant has not yet been developed, due to the enormity and complexity of the challenges in the way of such a feat. In tokamaks, where a high temperature plasma is confined using strong magnetic fields, one of the most pressing issues is that of plasma exhaust. As these fusion devices become more powerful and better confined, the peak heat and particle loads on surrounding surfaces is enough to erode and damage even the strongest materials. The focus of this thesis is the study of alternative divertors, one proposed solution to the tokamak exhaust challenge. By modelling edge plasmas under different shapes, conditions, and magnetic and physical geometries, this work furthers the understanding of how these different geometric features can influence divertor performance. The process of detachment, characterised by significant power and pressure loss in an edge plasma, is a key focal point for this modelling work. By developing and extending reduced models, and comparing them to hundreds of 2D simulations of alternative divertors, good agreement is found in terms of the predicted impacts of divertor features on detachment. These models are also compared with experiment, where certain broad predictions and ideas from reduced modelling seem present in experimental data. The agreement is not perfect, and when it comes to the movement of so-called detachment fronts, the location of these fronts is much more stable in 2D simulations and experiment than the reduced modelling. Notwithstanding, this work provides first of a kind verification of a reduced physics framework to understand the control of divertor detachment

Multi-Operator Control of Connectivity-Preserving Robot Swarms

Robot swarms hold the potential to help humans accomplish many challenging problems. Prior research on human-swarm interaction systems has primarily focused on the interaction with a single human operator. This inability to collaborate with multiple humans may limit the swarm’s use in practical scenarios. This thesis considers how multiple humans who are working alongside a robot swarm can effectively use the robots as a shared resource. In an environment that lacks global communication, we consider a scenario where humans freely explore the area to complete spatially distributed tasks. First, we present a framework based on formal languages that allow robots to help a pair of humans complete tasks while preserving the connectivity of the communication network between them. The framework supports automatic code generation to control the robots in a fully distributed manner. Next, we conducted a user study with 52 participants to investigate the usability of the framework under different communication constraints. The participants were each presented with a graphical user interface that provided only a local, first-person view of the environment. Finally, the framework is extended to support an arbitrary number of humans to share the control of a swarm. The framework is first verified in simulation and then through physical robot experiments to demonstrate their application in real life. Results show that the framework creates communication networks that can adapt to the movement of humans, enable humans to exchange robots depending on changing task demands, and are near-optimal with respect to network length and the number of robots required to maintain it. Moreover, they suggest that the ability to exchange robots in the swarm offers humans the flexibility to work independently or collaboratively depending on the current situation. This work can be seen as a step towards designing effective human-swarm teams

Exploring the influence of resilience on midwives’ and student midwives' career-related decisions: A Constructivist Grounded Theory Study

A national shortage of midwives, coupled with the increasing complexity of maternal health issues and the rising age of childbearing women, has resulted in the role of the midwife being an increasingly challenging one. Many midwives experience emotional distress, low morale, and job dissatisfaction and are making the decision to leave the profession as a result. Recruiting and retaining resilient individuals who can survive and thrive in complex and demanding working environments in the NHS has been widely suggested as a key strategy for improving retention in the midwifery profession. However, limited evidence exists on the influence of resilience on midwives’ career experiences, choices, and trajectories, particularly during the early phases of stress and job dissatisfaction. This thesis presents a Grounded theory (GT) study which explored the influence of resilience on midwives’ and student midwives’ career-related decisions. Thirty-six participants from the North of England took part in individual semi-structured interviews. Data were collected and analysed following Charmaz’s (2014) Constructivist Grounded theory approach and constant comparative methods. The substantive Grounded theory (GT), ‘Time to change’ was developed comprising four core concepts: ‘Fitting in’, ‘Being valued,’ ‘Feeling in control’ and ‘Getting the balance right’. Central to the theory was the importance of confidence, experience, and perceived support on fluctuating levels of resilience, and midwives’ subsequent ability to make career related decisions including changes in role, work-life balance, and the decision to remain in the profession. Findings from the study indicate that participants perceived resilience, alongside a number of other influences, had a significant role to play in midwives’ and student midwives’ career related decisions. The findings provide novel insight into the influence of resilience in midwifery that has relevance for the profession and the potential to inform midwifery policy, practice, and education for the future

THE ORGANISATION OF CONFINED WATER IN SELF-ASSEMBLED LIPID NANOSTRUCTURES

Phospholipid-based liposomes are abundantly studied in biomembrane research and used in numerous medical and biotechnological applications. When dispersed in water, lipids hydrate to form a variety of complex nanostructures. Despite our knowledge of membrane nanostructure and its mechanical properties under various environmental conditions, there is still a lack of understanding on interfacial lipid-water interactions. In this work, we have investigated the nature of the confined water layer for variety of lipids, focusing on the phosphatidylcholine (PC) phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) species. The majority of the studies are conducted in the fluid lamellar phase of multilamellar vesicles with and without the inclusion of ions dissolved in the water phase. Additionally, a binary lipid mixture in the inverse hexagonal (HII) phase was also investigated. We are proposing a new model for describing three different water regions, which have been characterised, using a combination of Small Angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS) and volumetric data. The three regions concern (i) ‘the headgroup water’, (ii) ‘perturbed water’ near the membrane interface and (iii) a core layer of ‘free water’ (unperturbed water). The behaviour of all three layers is discussed as a function of temperature, influences of chain saturation, headgroup type and as a function of ion concentration, influenced by mono- and divalent ions. Under temperature, the overall water layer and perturbed water layer thickness increase, whilst the free water layer displays the opposite trend for PCs and, remarkably, in PEs the free water layer is completely absent. This behaviour in PEs is different when in the inverse hexagonal phase, where a free water region develops and remains relatively unchanged as the micelle packing frustration is alleviated. Most interestingly, the mechanical behaviour of the inverse hexagonal phase is different orientated towards the corners and flat sides of the Wigner Seitz cell. Understandably, the disorder is relatively enhanced within the hexagon’s corners (decompression zones), concurrently with the amount of perturbed waters in this region. The influence of ions onto the lamellar phase water layers is heavily dependent on ion valency and also on a specific ions kosmotropic or chaotropic potential. The trend of the cationic Hofmeister series is reflected in the perturbed water layer, increasing from Mg2+, Na+ to K+

Sustainable aquaculture production systems through nutrient recycling from fish farming effluents using duckweed

Shortage of water, food and mineral resources, along with the increase in waste generation, are among the main challenges that humanity will face in the coming years. Changes in consumption habits induced by the continuous increase of global population and raise of household income are creating pressures on water security and food supply systems, particularly regarding the production and supply of animal protein. As a result, the entire aquaculture sector has become a focus of attention as it provides healthier options to meat products at affordable prices. However, its higher-than-average growth in the past decades is creating negative impacts to aquatic ecosystems – i.e., untreated effluents from fish farming containing large loads of nutrients can cause eutrophication and hypoxia in receiving water bodies. Sustainable solutions like the use of aquatic plants (e.g., duckweed) for nutrient control and recovery from fish farm effluents have been studied over years, but the mechanisms governing nutrient uptake and accumulation are still unknown. Preliminary work conducted by the BioResource Systems Research Group at Leeds on the use of duckweed for phosphorus control from wastewater effluents, has demonstrated the possibility to uncouple biomass growth from luxury phosphorus uptake even under winter conditions in the UK, with the potential to meet stringent discharge consents (< 1 mg P L-1). This outcome, however, has not been tested under tropical climate conditions, nor integrated to current aquaculture systems. This work presents the opportunities and hurdles to fully develop sustainable aquaculture production systems through nutrient control using duckweed ponds and recycling by the valorisation of enriched harvested duckweed biomass. Moreover, it highlights current research gaps to efficiently control nitrogen and phosphorus discharges from fish farms effluents. At the end, the proposed research seeks to apply lab-based outcomes on nutrient recovery by duckweed to the design of plant-based ponds for the treatment of aquaculture effluents in Indonesia