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    213416 research outputs found

    Assessing the quality of the time delay estimate in acoustic leak localisation

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    The problem considered in this paper is assessing the quality of the time delay estimate between leak signals measured on water pipes. This is practically important, as a quantitative assessment of the accuracy of time delay estimation (TDE) results makes it possible to infer the reliability of acoustic leak localisation results in a given situation. Three quality assessment approaches are developed by considering the statistical properties of the cross-correlation function (CCF): information-criterion, processing gain, and statistical approaches. In the information-criterion approach, the Bayes factor (BF) is employed to decide the most likely probability distribution of observed CCF peak values. The processing gain approach determines the quality of the time delay estimate using indices that indicate detectability of the CCF peak, namely, the peak-to-side lobe ratio (PSR) and the peak-to-mean ratio (PMR). In the statistical approach, an index termed inconsistency score (ICS) is used to describe the quality of TDE results based on root-mean square of deviations of time delay estimates from their statistical mode. Experimental results show that the proposed approaches provide effective means of assessing the accuracy of the time delay estimate in acoustic leak detection applications. Also, the proposed indices can be employed as figures of merit for selecting best parameters for TDE, for example, filter cut-off frequencies

    Recognising the belonging of people with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities in research through a collaborative exploration of identity

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    This work was designed to establish the belonging of people with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities within research through the undertaking of a collaborative study of identity with four people who have profound intellectual and multiple disabilities. It began with the research question: how can I do research with people with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities? The ‘with’ of this question is foregrounded against a history of research done on and for people with disabilities. Dovetailed with the emerging answering of the first question is the second question of this study: how is identity experienced within our research encounters?The philosophical foundations of this work are Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology of Perception. Building on an enactivist ontology and informed epistemologically by participatory sense-making the study involved participant observation as a methodological approach, informed by sensory ethnography. Fieldwork took place two days per week from February 2023 to October 2023 in a special school in the UK. In addition to ethics clearance, permission given by the school and informed consent given by the parents of the young people who were approached to take part, process assent was continually sought from the young people who were participants in regards to the first question of the study and researchers in relation to the second question.Data were generated in the form of ethnographic vignettes and reflexive memos. Photographs were also taken. The dataset was thematically analysed through an intuitive, iterative, inductive process and ultimately the themes of: intention, Being With, obstructions and identity were generated.In relation to question one the researcher, together with the young people involved found a research method they were able to use to meaningfully work together in the exploration of question two. This method is referred to as Being With. People with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities were able to adopt researcher identities, where identity was understood as a sense of who one is in a social location and how one acts. Working together, through the process of Being With, embodied identity was experienced as shared.This work troubles the narrative that people with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities are too difficult to include in research. The findings around identity ask us to consider ways in which identity may be held in embodied fashion and help to illuminate the experiences of people close to people with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities who often struggle to wrestle their notion of themselves separate from their notion of their loved one. Ultimately the belonging of people with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities within research is argued for based on fact, fairness, and fruitfulness: including them brings us insights we would not gain without them, their exclusion is an epistemic injustice, and as we seek to understand the human experience we cannot do that fully unless all humans are included in the models we create. <br/

    State responsiveness, collective efficacy and threat perception: Catalyst and complacency effects in opposition to crime across eight countries.

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    Collective action can be a crucial tool for enabling individuals to combat crime in their communities. In this research, we investigated individuals' intentions to mobilize against organized crime, a particularly impactful form of crime characterized by its exercises of power over territories and communities. We focused on individuals' views and perceptions of state authorities, examining how these views may be linked to intentions for collective mobilization. Using a large dataset with participants from eight countries (NTotal = 2088), we tested two distinct and opposing indirect paths through which perceived state responsiveness may be associated with collective mobilization intentions against organized crime, namely increased collective community efficacy (a CatalystIndirect Effect) and diminished perceived threat from criminal groups (a Complacency Indirect Effects). Results showed that state responsiveness was associated with stronger collective action intentions through increased collective community efficacy. There was also some evidence of reduced collective action intentions through diminished perceived threat. These findings highlight the complex role of state responsiveness in predicting people's intentions to mobilize against collective problems in their communities. Implications of the findings, limitations and future directions are discussed

    A case study of washback and test preparation of the new version of PTE academic

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    The Pearson Test of English Academic (PTE-A), a widely used high-stakes language proficiency test for university admissions and migration purposes, underwent a notable change from a three-hour to a two-hour version in November 2021. The implementation of the new version has prompted inquiries into the washback effects on various stakeholders. Focusing on a small sample of Chinese test takers (n=10), this paper explores washback effects following the revision of PTE-A and the complexity of test preparation through in-depth semi-structured interviews. The findings suggest a shorter test length is preferred and several different methods are adopted for test preparation which gives evidence to the positive washback. However, participants reported some confusion regarding certain test items, leading to the adoption of construct-irrelevant methods. This, in turn, may affect the face validity of PTE-A. While addressing the literature gap in this field, recommendations for improving the test design to better meet test takers’ needs are provided

    Wetlands of Myanmar: biodiversity, livelihoods and conservation

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    Changing configurations of day of the dead / día de muertos during the Covid-19 pandemic in Mexico and beyond

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    In his illuminating study, The Work of the Dead (2016), Thomas Laqueur reminds us that the dead come in and out of cultural focus. The period of time since Covid-19 erupted into the lives of millions across the globe from early 2020 onwards has seen a painful energizing of the cultural focus of which Laqueur writes. This book explores the ways in which death in Mexico —probably most associated with the visual tour-de-force that is the Día de Muertos or Day of the Dead festival—has been reconfigured and reimagined since Covid both within Mexico and for some Mexican migrant communities beyond its boundaries. It traces these transformations as they have occurred in Mexico and takes two diasporic communities in the UK and Ireland as case studies through which to study the changing configurations of the festival and its commemoration of the dead during the pandemic time-frame of 2020-2022. It also assesses the shifting contours of the feminist response in Mexico to the Día de Muertos and charts the literary and performative ways in which this feminist protest has been channelled since the outbreak. The project reflects on the intersections of death and the pandemic with traditional Día de Muertos commemorative practices through analysis of both creative and commercial practices as well as community responses in (trans)national and diasporic contexts.This book is being written over the course of 2020-22 during the Covid-19 pandemic and as we move hesitantly into a tentative post-pandemic age. In Mexico City, the 2020 street events and parade were replaced by virtual events which played specific homage to all those who had passed due to Covid-19. The pandemic generated commercial opportunities for small businesses whereby traditional Día de Muertos products were adapted in innovative ways, and creative practitioners and activists responded to the health crisis deploying imaginative modes of artistic, literary and performative expression. The wider community has similarly revealed both resilience and creativity as demonstrated in the way they have adapted to new ways of celebrating Día de Muertos via literary expression and conferred in particular by digital technologies. Though ‘normal’ Día de Muertos global practices have been affected by the pandemic, so too does it become apparent that as a practice it is in a process of constant transformation to meet people’s needs in ever-shifting circumstances (Lavery 2021). The book charts the ways in which that transformation has occurred, and certain questions guide our examination of the topic. These include wider considerations of how the pandemic has shaped ideas about death and dying differently. It explores how commemorative and mourning practices have changed and evaluates the impact of the pandemic on the way stories are told about the dead. In addition, it asks how the pandemic has cast a light and shaped conversations on global issues such as mental health, exhaustion, and gender violence and seeks to understand how these have been captured differently in Día de Muertos rituals in Mexico and beyond through its transnational case studies in the UK and Ireland. Given that in 2020, the Día de Muertos became a particularly poignant festival considering the global death tolls due to Covid, the book reflects on these diasporic communities’ lived experiences of the pandemic and evaluates how their approaches to Día de Muertos changed from the onset of the pandemic. Notions of belonging, distance and home are all radically questioned by the pandemic’s halt to mobility and disruption of everyday life — we ask how in these radically changed circumstances do diasporic Mexican communities re-imagine these relationships, and connect to loved ones in Mexico. Finally, the book will evaluate data emerging from author-led workshops and multimedia exhibitions, as well as Día de Muertos events that seek to engage with local Mexican and non-Mexican audiences in both Ireland and England. Held in 2021-2022, the participants engage with the rich compendium of Día de Muertos symbolic and narrative systems in order to discuss how the pandemic has framed ideas of loss more widely. In this way, we can see how the Día de Muertos commemorative practices can be expanded to other societal groups and communities to take on new meanings within a dramatically altered and at times apocalyptic environment.<br/

    Looking for love: a monster-mapping

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    Invited, accepted, in progress. James Baldwin likens the artist to the lover. ‘If I love you, I make you conscious of the things you don’t see’, states the Black queer author-activist. Baldwin’s quote captures my vision as an artist, academic and agitator. I cultivate critical interventions that seek to reveal how art and mobilities can work together to make the hidden or erased visible, and catalyse conversation and action toward change. By destabilising traditional knowledge-formations, and cultivating ‘tentacles’ to connect between distinct ideas, methods and fields, I seek to develop new, liminal spaces that enable knowledge-creation in others, as seen in my efforts to diversify, decolonise and neuroqueer running studies, neurodiversity studies and leadership studies. Love is the subject, method and proposed outcome of my creative research programme Looking for Love, 2024-2029. Through theory-building, embodied and collaborative action research, I seek to diversify, decolonise and neuroqueer how we understand and do leadership as a co-creative mobilities change- and future-making practice. ‘Love’ highlights the role of art and creative practice through non-western, decolonial and intersectional prisms; ‘looking for’ celebrates the origins of the term ‘leadership’ in travelling, struggling and guidance, which I have argued are embodied in marginalised culture workers (for example, Baldwin, hooks, Lorde, Friere et al), while ‘looking’ underpins how visual arts highlights blind-spots within art, mobilities and leadership studies, and the value of entangling both. I use the term ‘monster-mapping’ as a mobilities method of ‘way-finding and re-direction during and beyond crisis’, in order to map together my research pathways so far, align it with discourses on mobilities (creative mobilities, and mobility justice), themes of leadership and the arts, and visualise/envision where this can go for future creative practice/research

    The challenge of making EVs just affordable enough: Assessing the impact of subsidies on equity and emission reduction in Ireland

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    Governments support the switch to electric vehicles (EVs) through subsidies and other incentives, as this is expected to help meet climate targets. This research examines the affordability of EVs for Irish households, focusing on equity implications and the impact of affordability on achieving decarbonisation goals. Affordability is estimated for eight scenarios, considering both current and reduced EV prices, and assessed across Ireland. The research finds that flat-rate subsidies do not adequately support lower-income households, impede EV adoption, and could jeopardise the achievement of emission reduction targets. Need-based subsidies would ensure more inclusive EV uptake. If current prices are considered, the target for the number of EVs on the road by 2030 can be met only with the purchase of small-sized EVs. This suggests that achieving EV targets is unlikely without promoting smaller vehicles. The current €3500 EV grant may be insufficient for many households without extended loan terms. Therefore, differentiated subsidies based on income and household size are recommended to increase EV adoption. Households in remote rural areas, where forced car ownership is high, require higher subsidies. In contrast, urban areas could receive lower subsidies to promote the use of more sustainable transport modes, such as cycling, shared mobility, and public transport.</p

    Investigating the immunomodulatory and wound healing effects of reactive oxygen species

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    The estimated annual cost of wounds has reached over £8 billion pounds annually and is increasing. There is a need to develop treatments to improve wound healing, particularly in the case of chronic non-healing wounds. At the same time cases of antimicrobial resistance that are a major risk for non-healing wounds are increasing and it is estimated that anti-microbial resistance (AMR) related deaths could exceed cancer related deaths by 2050. There is therefore a need for new treatments that improve the wound healing and treat bacterial infection. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) form part of the innate immune system and are known to induce immunomodulation. Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), a type of ROS, is a disinfectant often used at high concentrations that are detrimental to cells when used topically. Matoke Holdings Ltd. have designed a bioengineered honey - SurgihoneyRO™ -which improved wound healing outcomes in trials and successfully produces H2O2 over time. RO1O1®, a synthetic equivalent to the honey-based product has also been created with the goal of being used for immunomodulatory and bactericidal activity.SurgihoneyRO™ and RO1O1® were able to produce steady amounts of H2O2 over 24hrs but SurgihoneyRO™ caused cell death after treatment times longer than 2h compared to 6h with RO1O1®. Only H2O2 treatment of keratinocytes showed increased expression of pro-inflammatory Interleukin 1 beta (IL1b) whereas both H2O2 and RO1O1® treatments resulted in increased expression of pro-angiogenic vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). Effects on wound healing, however, were non-conclusive according to wound scratch assays. Dermal fibroblasts, crucial cells for wound healing showed no significant responses in genes related to the remodelling of the extra cellular matrix (ECM) ROS treatment in matrix metalloproteinase 1 (MMP1), or it’s inhibitors TIMP1 and TIMP3 following treatments with H2O2 or RO1O1®. Furthermore, no changes were seen in genes related to the deposition of ECM collagen 1 and 3 (COL1A1 or COL3A1 respectively), or in the angiogenic gene VEGF following fibroblast treatment with H2O2 or RO1O1®. Wound scratch assays showed an increased time to wound resolution. However, when treated with pro-inflammatory cytokine IL1b, which this study showed to be upregulated in keratinocytes following H2O2 treatment, the expression of COL1A1 and TGFb decreased, both of which are involved in wound healing pathways. Following the changes in expressions seen in keratinocytes, RNA bulk sequencing was conducted to determine which pathways responded to treatments. Results did not show upregulation of pro-inflammatory pathways in keratinocytes, but insteaddownregulation of multiple pathways related to cell proliferation (senescence, p53 and FoxO signalling). Bulk RNA sequencing from treated fibroblasts showed consistent downregulation of senescence, apopstosis, TGFb, and leukocyte transendothelial migration. These pathways intersect with wound resolution pathways, implying ROS treatments may impact wound healing, as downregulation of some of these pathways may result in reduced complications in wound healing namely: apopstosis, senescence and the TGFb pathway. RO1O1® did not show any antibacterial properties in Pseudomonas aeruginosa or Staphylococcus aureus, whereas H2O2 treatment delayed growth. In conclusion, ROS based treatments targeting immunomodulation and wound healing should be investigated further. These further investigations could use a combination of different concentrations of H2O2 and RO1O1® prototypes, different cell types, ex-vivo or 3D wound models, and bacterial biofilms

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