Using GIFscapes to examine young people's affective experiences of urban spaces

Data availability: The authors do not have permission to share data.This article proposes Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) as a novel methodology to investigate the affective experiences of young people in urban spaces, a group often excluded in urban planning processes. Drawing on children’s geographies, non-representational theory, and digital geographies, we introduce the concept of GIFscapes to evoke the relational, sensory, and emotional dynamics shaping our interactions with urban environments often overlooked by more traditional research methods. The paper is based on research for a community consultation in Uxbridge, London. It developed a participatory methodology with young people who chose GIFs to express their perceptions of Uxbridge’s town centre. We show how GIF’s affective capacity elicits insights into the youth’s affective experiences of urban environments as well as provides an engaging platform for dialogue to discuss their uses, perceptions and needs from urban environments. Our discussion reveals how important mundane urban atmospheres, such as rhythms, maintenance, and uses, are in shaping young people’s perceptions and attachments to place and highlights their views on neglected urban infrastructures, insufficient inclusive spaces, and social marginalisation. By demonstrating how GIFs enable accessing nuanced affective experiences of urban atmospheres, this research advances the field of children’s urban geographies and affective geographies. The article emphasises the value of embracing digital methods in urban studies to create cities that are physically functional and emotionally and experientially responsive.The Spanish Government and NextGenerationEU supported this work

The Impact of Regulatory Changes on Rating Shopping and Rating Catering Behavior in the European Securitization Market

JEL classification: G21; G28.A version of the article was developed as the Working Paper Series no. 2290, available online at: https://www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/pdf/scpwps/ecb.wp2920~f44cdd68b2.en.pdf . © European Central Bank, 2024. All rights reserved. Any reproduction, publication and reprint in the form of a different publication, whether printed or produced electronically, in whole or in part, is permitted only with the explicit written authorisation of the ECB or the authors. This paper can be downloaded without charge from https://www.ecb.europa.eu, from the Social Science Research Network electronic library ( https://ssrn.com/ ) or from RePEc: Research Papers in Economics. Information on all of the papers published in the ECB Working Paper Series can be found on the ECB’s website ( https://www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/research/working-papers/html/index.en.html ). PDF ISBN 978-92-899-6400-5 ISSN 1725-2806 doi:10.2866/23087 QB-AR-24-037-EN-N...

Conceptual Aircraft Design and AI: Developing a functional relationship for the rapid realisation of future drone concepts

The use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles(UAVs) has expanded rapidly over the last decade. These systems have an almost limitless scope of application with resupply, surveillance, monitoring, and logistics representing but a few. Having such a wide scope, a means to rapidly, efficiently and accurately develop new designs fit-for-purpose would offer a significant advantage to developers given their inherent need to maximise potential within a competitive marketplace. This paper attempts to leverage the capabilities of Artificial Intelligence(AI) for this purpose through the development of functional synergies to predict maximum rated engine power from limited inputs and datasets. Overall, the use of AI techniques was found to offer the potential to substantial improve and enhance the design process with also the possibility for the creation of more cost-effective and efficient software tools that could significantly streamline the process.The work was financially supported under project “DATA3: Drone Design using AI for Transport Applications 3(Grant No 10126519)” as part of the UKRI Innovate UK Feasibility studies for AI solutions: Series 2 competition

Citizens’ Inclusion in Public Services: a Systematic Review of the Public Administration Literature and Reflection on Future Research Avenues

Data Availability Statement: Data sharing not applicable—no new data generated.Despite a resurgence of interest in social equity, citizens' inclusion in public services has attracted limited attention in the public administration literature so far, having often remained in the background of studies focusing on citizens' participation and representative bureaucracy. To fully comprehend and enhance the role of public administration in promoting inclusive public services and building inclusive societies, it is necessary to prioritize citizens' inclusion in public services as a central phenomenon. A first step in this direction is assessing existing knowledge and identifying new research avenues. Drawing on the “name, blame, claim” framework, this systematic literature review of 119 studies extends public administration scholarship by mapping and analyzing knowledge of citizens' inclusion in public services and identifying ways forward to strengthen the research and practice in this area

Energy and Techno-Economic Assessment of Cooling Methods in Blue Hydrogen Production Processes

Data Availability Statement: Data have been made available in Brunel University of London’s repository via the Brunel Figshare database at 10.17633/rd.brunel.29479115.Supplementary Materials are available online at: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9717/13/8/2638#app1-processes-13-02638 .Blue hydrogen is a promising low-carbon alternative to conventional fossil fuels. This technology has been garnering increasing attention with many technological advances in recent years, with a particular focus on the deployed materials and process configurations aimed at minimising the cost and CO2 emissions intensity of the process as well as maximising efficiency. However, less attention is given to the practical aspects of large-scale deployment, with the cooling requirements often being overlooked, especially across multiple locations. In particular, the literature tends to focus on CO2 emissions intensity of blue hydrogen production processes, with other environmental impacts such as water and electrical consumption mostly considered an afterthought. Notably, there is a gap to understand the impact of cooling methods on such environmental metrics, especially with technologies at a lower technology readiness level. Herein, two cooling methods (namely, air-cooling versus water-cooling) have been assessed and cross-compared in terms of their energy impact alongside techno-economics, considering deployment across two specific locations (United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia). A sorption-enhanced steam-methane reforming (SE-SMR) coupled with chemical-looping combustion (CLC) was used as the base process. Deployment of this process in the UK yielded a levelised cost of hydrogen (LCOH) of GBP 2.94/kg H2 with no significant difference between the prices when using air-cooling and water-cooling, despite the air-cooling approach having a higher electricity consumption. In Saudi Arabia, this process achieved a LCOH of GBP 0.70 and GBP 0.72 /kg H2 when using air- and water-cooling, respectively, highlighting that in particularly arid regions, air-cooling is a viable approach despite its increased electrical consumption. Furthermore, based on the economic and process performance of the SE-SMR-CLC process, the policy mechanisms and financial incentives that can be implemented have been discussed to further highlight what is required from key stakeholders to ensure effective deployment of blue hydrogen production.The research presented in this work has received financial support from the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) through the EPSRC Doctoral Training Partnerships (DTP) award, EP/T518116/1 (project reference: 2688399)

Formulation and Structural Optimisation of PVA-Fibre Biopolymer Composites for 3D Printing in Drug Delivery Applications

Data Availability Statement: The dataset is available upon request from the authors.Supplementary Materials: The following supporting information can be downloaded at: https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/polym17182502/s1, Figure S1: Macroscopic images of M10, S10, P10, P10F5, P10F5T5, P10F5E5, and P10F5E5T5 filaments.Additive manufacturing using fused deposition modelling (FDM) is increasingly explored for personalised drug delivery, but the lack of suitable biodegradable and printable filaments limits its pharmaceutical application. In this study, we investigated the influence of formulation and structural design on the performance of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)-based filaments doped with theophylline anhydrous for 3D printing. To address the intrinsic brittleness and poor printability of PVA, cassava pulp-derived fibres—a sustainable and underutilised agricultural by-product—were incorporated together with polyethylene glycol (PEG 400), Eudragit® NE 30 D, and calcium stearate. The addition of fibres modified the mechanical properties of PVA filaments through hydrogen bonding, improving flexibility but increasing surface roughness. This drawback was mitigated by Eudragit® NE 30 D, which enhanced surface smoothness and drug distribution uniformity. The optimised composite formulation (P10F5E5T5) was successfully extruded and used to fabricate 3D-printed constructs. Release studies demonstrated that drug release could be modulated by pore geometry and construct thickness: wider pores enabled rapid Fickian diffusion, while narrower pores and thicker constructs shifted release kinetics toward anomalous transport governed by polymer swelling. These findings demonstrate, for the first time, the potential of cassava fibre as a functional additive in pharmaceutical FDM and provide a rational formulation–structure–performance framework for developing sustainable, geometry-tuneable drug delivery systems.This research project was supported by the Fundamental Fund 2025, Chiang Mai University and Thailand Science Research and Innovation (TSRI) (FRB680102/0162)

Can Immersive Training Complement On-Road Cycle Training for Children? Two Intervention Studies in Urban and Rural UK Communities

Data availability: We have provided the Mendeley Data doi, and we have uploaded additional files with the manuscript.Supplementary data are available online at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214140525000684?via%3Dihub#appsec1 .Introduction: Cyclists are frequent casualties in road traffic collisions; failure to look is a contributory factor. Recent research shows that immersive training may improve children's performance, including their observational skills, when cycling on roads. However, robust data in this regard are scarce. Methods: In two related studies, we collected data from 95 children aged 9–11 years across two different UK locations – a cycling-supportive city and a rural town – to ascertain the effects of immersive cycle training on their cycling attitudes and confidence, their situation awareness, and on-road performance. In the urban study we employed a traditional control group design (immersive intervention vs. control); in the rural study, we compared two immersive interventions (with verbal prompts vs. without). At pre-intervention, post-intervention, and 4–6 weeks later (retention), the children reported their attitudes and confidence and completed video-based situation awareness tests (SATs) and on-road cycling assessments (ORCAs). Changes in parental confidence and attitudes were also recorded. Findings: In both studies, ORCA performance improved pre-to-post-intervention, irrespective of group. SATs scores did not improve but were somewhat correlated with ORCA performance. Although the children's cycling attitudes did not change, their confidence increased post-intervention. Parents' confidence in their child's ability to cycle increased significantly from pre-intervention to follow-up, after watching POV footage recorded during their child's retention phase ORCA. Conclusions: The contribution of immersive training to young children's on-road cycling ability is indeterminate. We tentatively suggest that a combination of independent on-road, immersive, and video-based cycling experiences may improve this ability and consequently increase parental confidence.These studies were part-funded by The Road Safety Trust via a Strategic Priority Grant (grant number 302_0_23), for which a related report is available here: https://www.roadsafetytrust.org.uk/small-grants-awarded/bikeability-trust

Intelligent Diagnosis of Closed-Loop Motor Drives Using Interior Control Signals Under Industrial Low Sampling Rate Conditions

Interior control signals derived from motor controllers have gained increasing attention in closed-loop motor drive systems for interturn short-circuit fault diagnosis. Mainstream diagnosis methods generally rely on the extraction of control signals within experimental settings featuring high sampling rates, such as 10 kHz or 40 kHz. However, in practical engineering, the industrial sampling rate of control signals typically reaches only 1 kHz or even lower. This limitation makes it challenging for control signals to intuitively distinguish between healthy and faulty states. To address this practical constraint, an intelligent diagnosis method, termed the prior knowledge integrated contrastive diagnosis model (PK-CDM), is proposed. First, space voltage vectors of interior control signals are extracted as inputs of the PK-CDM to detect the interturn short circuit in a closed-loop motor drive system. Second, the physical variation regularity of space voltage vectors is formulated as the prior diagnostic knowledge to compensate for the lack of information under low sampling rate conditions. Finally, a contrastive pretraining strategy is employed to facilitate the construction of the PK-CDM at an industrially low sampling rate. Experimental results demonstrated that the proposed PK-CDM solves the issue of information loss under industrial low sampling rate conditions by integration of prior diagnostic knowledge with a contrastive learning strategy, thereby yielding superior diagnostic accuracy compared to other state-of-the-art (SOTA) methods.This work was supported in part by the National Key R&D Program of China under Grant 2022YFB3402100, in part by the Key Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 52435003, in part by the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars of China under Grant 52025056, in part by Shaanxi Science and Technology Innovation Team under Grant 2023-CX-TD-15, in part by the Sanqin Scholar Innovation Team and in part by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities

Innover pour l’Anthropocène dans des écoles rurales du Lesotho

Presented at: 2025 Conference: Educating in an Uncertain World: A Global Challenge, July 2-4, 2025, Workshop 4. Educating in the Time of the Anthropocene = Colloque 2025 : Éduquer dans un monde incertain : un enjeu mondial, 2-4 juillet 2025, Atelier 4. Éduquer au temps de l’AnthropocèneSince Western-style education was introduced to Africa in the 19th century, it has played a central role in producing the Anthropocene, shaping the attributes and aspirations of young people, and facilitating their incorporation into the global bioeconomy. In rural areas of the contemporary Global South, however, many young people find themselves surplus to the needs of today’s global economy, but also alienated from rural life – both by schooling and by an increasingly hostile climate. In this paper, we describe the outcomes of an intervention in which 34 student teachers conducted action research in rural Lesotho schools, seeking to make education more meaningful to rural learners. While the student teachers found ways to engage learners in the curriculum, their interventions tended to reinforce the conventional role of schooling, rather than offering a more transformative pathway.Depuis qu’elle a été introduite en Afrique au xixe siècle, l’éducation de type occidental a joué un rôle fondamental dans l’avènement de l’Anthropocène, façonnant les caractères et les aspirations des jeunes et facilitant leur incorporation dans la bioéconomie mondiale. Dans les zones rurales du Sud global, cependant, un grand nombre de jeunes se trouvent actuellement en situation de ne représenter qu’un surplus inutile par rapport aux besoins de l’économie mondiale contemporaine, mais également aliénés de la vie rurale du fait de l’enseignement scolaire et de conditions climatiques de plus en plus hostiles. Dans cet article, nous décrivons les résultats d’une intervention au cours de laquelle 34 étudiants-enseignants ont mené une recherche-action dans des écoles rurales au Lesotho, cherchant à accroître le sens de l’enseignement pour les apprenants ruraux. Si ces futurs enseignants ont trouvé des solutions pour impliquer leurs élèves dans le curriculum, leurs interventions ont eu tendance à renforcer le rôle conventionnel de la scolarité plutôt qu’à suggérer des pistes de travail plus transformatrices.Economic & Social Research Council, grant ref: ES/V001116/1, Title: Equipping Lesotho's primary school teachers for educating and motivating rural children

Towards reducing teacher burden in Performance-Based assessments using aivaluate: an emotionally intelligent LLM-Augmented pedagogical AI conversational agent

Data Availability: The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.Background: Performance-based assessments (PBAs), such as viva voce exams and oral presentations, offer comprehensive evaluations of student knowledge and skills but place substantial burdens on teachers. The integration of emotionally intelligent, LLM-augmented AI conversational agents presents a potential solution to alleviate teacher burden while maintaining the integrity and effectiveness of PBAs. This study investigates the use of AIvaluate, a pedagogical AI conversational agent designed to support teachers during oral PBAs by offering emotionally intelligent insights and streamlining the assessment process. A counterbalanced mixed-methods study design was employed with 35 teachers and students participating in both traditional face-to-face and AIvaluate-supported assessments. Data was collected through teacher-assigned grades, System Usability Scale (SUS) questionnaires, and qualitative open-response surveys. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were conducted to compare grading outcomes, system usability, and teacher preferences between the two assessment formats. Teachers issued significantly higher grades to students in AIvaluate-supported assessments (p = 0.033), attributed to more structured, consistent questioning and emotional state reporting. The overall SUS score for AIvaluate indicated “acceptable” usability, surpassing the face-to-face format. Thematic analysis revealed key strengths of AIvaluate, including automated question prompts, real-time emotional insights, and the convenience of remote operation. However, teachers noted limitations, such as occasional technical issues and the lack of a personal connection compared to traditional face-to-face interactions. AIvaluate demonstrates the potential to reduce teacher burden in PBAs while maintaining usability and assessment quality. Its emotionally intelligent features and automated functionalities enhance the assessment process, offering a scalable, technology-driven solution for modern education. While AIvaluate shows promise in reducing teacher burden during PBAs, technical limitations, emotional disconnection, and variability in assessment impact emphasise the need for further investigation before large-scale adoption. Future research should explore building further functionality to address the diverse needs of teachers, while focusing on addressing technical limitations and assessing long-term impacts on teacher satisfaction and student outcomes.No funding was obtained for this study