Navigating intersectional identities : the experiences of International Sign interpreters and deaf professionals

This doctoral thesis examines the intersectional experiences of International Sign (IS) conference interpreters and deaf professionals in high-level positions who work with IS interpreters. The study includes 33 participants with diverse gender, racial, sexual, linguistic, and geographical backgrounds. Using a multi-phased, multi-method qualitative approach, including conversations, observations, and mind map interviews, the study provides an in-depth analysis of IS conference interpreting. The theoretical framework adopts a relational approach and integrates Gender Studies, Critical Race theory, and the Sociology of Work, drawing on gender and inequality theories in the workplace, intersectionality, and identity taxation, alongside insights from Deaf Studies and Sign Language Interpreting Studies. Findings reveal that access to working as an IS conference interpreter is gendered. Feelings of not belonging are heightened for those in less privileged positions, influenced by male and hearing dominance, language background, imposter syndrome, and the lack of diverse role models. These factors shape their experiences of (not) applying for (pre/full) IS accreditation. Tokenism impacts Global Majority, female, and deaf interpreters, who often seem to be valued for their identities rather than their skills. Global Majority women face additional identity taxation, due to representational responsibilities. Despite appearing cohesive, IS interpreting networks reinforce exclusivity through selective gatekeeping and support practices. The study further explores the nature of IS conference interpreting, emphasising close collaboration with deaf professionals. Hierarchies within the field are shaped by hearing dominance, gender, age, seniority, and professional settings, including the people involved. The field demands flexibility, creating challenges for caregiving interpreters. Travel opportunities are unequally distributed, with safety concerns for female, queer, and gender nonconforming interpreters. Interpreters engage in aesthetic and gendered labour to conform to, and occasionally challenge, organisation norms. Finally, the study examines how social identities shape interpreting practices and interactions. Deaf professionals experience deaf taxation when managing interpreter attitudes and navigating tensions. They express gendered preferences, with authentic representation being critical for deaf professionals of colour and queer deaf professionals, yet they often work with interpreters who are less aligned in terms of identities. IS interpreters face identity taxation, particularly women who encounter inappropriate behaviour. Team dynamics are shaped by masculinities and femininities, with queer interpreters challenging hetero/cisnormativity. Global Majority female interpreters navigate racialised and gendered expectations, often avoiding confrontation to mitigate professional consequences. The study contributes to Gender Studies, Critical Race Theory, Sociology of Work, Deaf Studies, and Sign Language Interpreting Studies. Its findings have implications for both practice and pedagogy in the sign language interpreting field and may inform other gendered and mobile fields of work

Engaging older adults in cognitive activities through socially assistive robots and sensory feedback

This thesis investigates how the novel combination of socially assistive robots and sensory feedback can foster engagement in cognitive activities for the older adult population. Cognitive decline is a natural part of ageing, and whether it arises from pathological or non-pathological origins, nonpharmaceutical methods can retain cognitive function and delay cognitive decline. Namely, cognitive training and leisure-based cognitive activities can positively impact older adults’ cognition. While consistent long-term engagement is required to attain the cognitive benefits, adherence has been identified as a common challenge for older adults. Therefore, tools which can promote engagement in cognitive activities can benefit the ageing population. This doctoral work employed validated user-centred methodologies to investigate whether the unique combination of socially assistive robots and sensory feedback could promote older adults’ engagement in cognitive activities. This research began with a feasibility study with young adults and a usability study with older adults, which both confirmed the potential for combining socially assistive robots and sensory feedback to foster engagement in cognitive activities. This was followed by a Participatory Design workshop with older adults and therapists that identified concrete interaction designs and themes for encouraging cognitive activity engagement. These results were integrated into a prototype, and its evaluation with older adults confirmed its effectiveness in promoting engagement with cognitive activities. The subsequent study identified enhanced performance and usability of engaging with a cognitive activity through a socially assistive robot over a laptop, in addition to a preference for kinesthetic feedback over non-contact cutaneous feedback. This thesis further contributed a long-term experiment with eleven older adults to determine whether the promising results from the prior user-centred evaluations would promote sustained engagement. Contrary to other robotic experiments, this study led to a consistent level of engagement with the robot, and it was also preferred over typical interactions with cognitive activities. Haptic feedback also enhanced engagement for visual-based activities over the long term. The principal finding from this work is that the novel combination of a SAR and sensory feedback can promote short- and long-term engagement in cognitive activities for older adults, which has the potential to lead to benefits in cognition. The thesis concludes with a set of guidelines for designing socially assistive robots and sensory feedback to foster cognitive engagement for older adults. This work, along with these guidelines, can assist future researchers in human-robot interaction and human-computer interaction to develop mechanisms for enhancing cognitive engagement for the ageing population moving forward.Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) funding Grant ID: EP/S023208/

Continuous and ultra-compact LiDAR mapping and localisation

Recently, Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) has gained prominence in robotics and autonomous driving for capturing precise environmental geometry, essential for simultaneous localisation and mapping (SLAM) and navigation. However, storing and updating large-scale high-definition maps presents significant challenges, making the development of memory-efficient, updatable, and localisable map representations crucial for advancing SLAM systems in dynamic environments. In this thesis, we present a series of advancements in LiDAR-based SLAM systems aimed at achieving memory-efficient representation, continuous reconstruction, and global mapping. The term continuous reconstruction refers to a continuous function that allows sampling 3D points at any resolution. We firstly introduce CURL (Continuous, Ultra-compact Representation for LiDAR), which leverages spherical harmonics (SPHARM) basis functions to encode point clouds, achieving effective compression and continuous reconstruction while outperforming contemporary deep learning methods. Building on this foundation, we propose CURL-MAP, an extension of CURL for mapping with pose estimation capabilities, utilising a set of bounding boxes containing SPHARM-encoded patches to construct a global map. To build a globally consistent map, we develop CURL-SLAM, which contains a customised CURL-based bundle adjustment (BA) with pose graph to ensure global consistency, even in large-scale scenarios and further increase the efficiency of the system by replacing quasi-conformal mapping with a mask-based method for identifying valid regions. These modifications reduce computational requirements and storage space, facilitating the integration of all newly observed patches and enhancing system robustness. Overall, CURL, CURL-MAP, and CURL-SLAM collectively offer a memory-efficient, updatable, and localisable 3D dense map representation, supporting continuous reconstruction for robust SLAM applications

A roadmap to enhanced sustainability value in built environment : an optimised impact-framework

Implementing this approach guarantees that the sustainability strategic goals and objectives of the client organisation are met and simultaneously addresses both environmental objectives and the preferences and needs of the end-user. This research emphasises the crucial necessity to equip sustainability consultants with the tools to make informed decisions that prioritise impactful sustainable solutions, rather than simply targeting high accreditation scores and levels. The research introduces an optimised framework for sustainable developments that constructs a decision-making matrix focused on achieving desired impacts, showcasing Net-Zero as an example theme. This framework integrates standards such as LEED and the WELL Building Standards. Additionally, the framework aligns with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs), striving for equilibrium among the sustainability pillars. For practitioners involved in the credit selection process, the proposed framework offers a roadmap on how to optimise sustainability value by focusing on the impact, while balancing both the business value of stakeholders and the comfort and satisfaction of end-users. Uniquely, this research employs Backcasting as a novel method within the sustainability credit selection framework, forecasting future impacts and then interpret these projections retrospectively to refine credit selection strategies for optimal sustainability results

Co-design of direct radiating array architectures and radio resource management for future broadband satellite communication systems

OVER the past years, with the transition from broadcast to broadband satellite communications, active direct radiating arrays have been seen as a key solution to guarantee high performance in terms of capacity, flexibility and reconfigurability. Such configuration gives a full flexibility in terms of coverage as beams can be steered along any desired direction within the field-of-view. However, the hardware complexity of such antenna configurations is unaffordable particularly in light of today’s on-board processors. The technological requirements lead to unrealistic architectures, especially for GEO coverages where thousands of radiating elements are needed. The proposed overlapping strategies with hybrid beamforming guarantee very strong performance by mitigating some unwanted interfering lobes which are particularly critical for satellite communications, while reducing the number of control points. While optimizing the antenna architecture is a key for reaching very high throughput, another challenge is the resource allocation. Frequency, time, beams, and power management must be achieved in order to avoid latency during the communication and fulfil the capacity demand. A full methodology is proposed in the thesis, considering a dual optimization of both the antenna architecture and a new resource allocation strategy in terms of throughput and time complexity

Modelling the impact of shared pathogens in wildlife communities

The thesis uses mathematical modelling to answer important eco-epidemiologial questions in scenarios where interacting species share an infectious disease. These questions are important as shared disease is often linked to successful species invasion and so the disease increases the threat for native species. Shared disease is also linked to spillover and zoonotic infection and so can pose a threat to human health. We develop a model to assess the threat of the shared disease, squirrelpox, carried by the invasive grey squirrel to the conservation of red squirrels in the UK. We show that the grey squirrel epidemiological dynamics include reinfection and partial immunity and that squirrelpox infection levels can be high. This can lead to spillover to red squirrels when the species are sympatric, leading to epidemic outbreaks in red squirrel populations. We analyse general models that examine the role of shared infectious disease on the spatial spread of invasive species and the replacement of native species. We show that shared infectious disease can increase the rate of replacement of a native species even when the disease is not supported in the native species system. We develop a model for a prey, specialist predator, and generalist predator system in which the predators can become infected through consumption of infected prey and can transmit infection back to the prey species. The analysis shows that predators can increase the persistence of infectious disease and may act as epidemic bridges that support the infection during low density phases in the prey species.UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council grant EP/S023291/

Accelerating offshore wind development in Indonesia : a case study of South Sulawesi

Abstract and full text unavailable. Restricted access until 29.11.2027. Please refer to PDF

‘Get the simple things right and the big things take care of themselves’ studies on brewing yeast, fermentation and draught beer : 1979-2025

The work reported here between 1979 and 2025, spans the heyday and decline of brewing science in the UK. The brewing industry was in rude health until the publication in 1989 of ‘Beer Orders’ by Monopolies and Mergers Commission which removed the ‘tie’ between breweries and pubs. This removed large swathes of profitability and began the long march to decline. Technical centres were downsized or closed and by 2000 the ‘big six’ UK brewers had either ceased brewing or were owned by brewing companies from the USA, Belgium and South Africa. Two themes are discussed: brewing yeast and fermentation (Chapters 2-5) and draught beer quality (Chapter 6). The guiding principle to both studies is to ‘get the simple things right and the big things take care of themselves’. The studies on yeast and fermentation were mostly performed at Bass, the biggest of the then ‘big six’ UK brewers. Although commercially driven, there were opportunities to publish less sensitive work. Indeed, the various brewing conferences around the world encouraged this and brewing science flourished with unspoken competition between brewing companies for publications of quality, impact and influence. The flavour and aroma of beer is important. It should be consistent, balanced and reflect the brand specification. The industry was in significant growth in the late 70s and, consequently, new large scale fermentation processes were introduced. This had an impact on the production by yeast of esters and higher alcohols during fermentation which distorted the aroma of the beer. The work outlined in Chapter 2 sought to better understand the synthesis of these metabolites and to be able to better control their formation. In both instances, their synthesis reflected the need to balance the flux of intermediary metabolic cofactors, acetyl CoA/CoA (esters) and NADH/NAD (higher alcohols). Yeast does what it does for good metabolic reasons and not to please the brewer! Yeast is an important contributor to the distinctiveness of beer, with different strains making different beers. A key part of Chapter 3 is the process that was developed to assure the identity and microbiological quality of yeast that was periodically ‘supplied’ to the Bass breweries. It was ahead of its time using cryogenic long-term storage of production yeasts and DNA fingerprinting to validate (blind) the identity of each strain. Allied to this work, is a study of the genetic instability of a major production yeast used in two breweries, separated by 280 miles and some 10 years apart. Other work considers the introduction of ATP bioluminescence to validate in real time the cleaning of brewery vessels. This was a cultural change as the checking of the effectiveness of the clean was performed by process operators and not the ‘white coats’ from the Quality department. Adoption of the technology and its delivery is now the norm in global brewing industry. The final piece in this Chapter describes some opportunist research that explored the unexpected metabolism by brewing yeasts of the sugar alcohol, mannitol. Brewery fermentations need to be efficient, requiring sufficient but not excessive yeast growth. The work in Chapter 4 considers the role of small amounts of oxygen added at the beginning of fermentation for the synthesis of sterols, a lipid class that determines the extent of yeast cell division and growth. Evidence is presented that at the beginning of fermentation, the yeast cell is unable to transport exogenous sugars and that the metabolic fuel for this process is provided by glucose from the breakdown of the storage carbohydrate glycogen. At the time, the efficiency of fermentation and its management was a major driver of research in the brewing industry. Although much of the work in Chapter 5 was developed in the laboratory, we were fortunate that elements were evaluated at a production scale. Initial work explored the relationship between oxygen and yeast growth. This demonstrated that yeast strains require the addition of an optimal level of oxygen to achieve the required fermentation performance and efficiency. Excess oxygen resulted in excess yeast growth and less ethanol formation. An innovative approach evaluated at a plant scale considered a more direct approach with the oxygenation of yeast. Regrettably, a change in the approach for beer taxation undermined this work which was not progressed further. Brewery fermentations are unusual in recycling yeast from one fermentation to the next. This can pose problems, as yeast quality can become compromised. Chapter 5.3 describes a ‘warm cropping’ process where yeast is recovered (‘cropped) from fermenter two days earlier than is usual. This approach improved the physiological quality of the yeast which – in extensive series of production fermentations – resulted in a step change improvement in quality metrics. Further work on the cropping process considered the heterogeneity of yeast cell populations. The age profile (and associated cell size) of individual cells was of interest together with their selection during cropping and subsequent performance in brewery fermentations. On leaving Bass - now Molson Coors - in 2004, brewing science in the UK was sadly in decline. Consultancy called and I became a ‘portfolio professional’ doing a bit of this and a bit of that. A part time role at Heriot-Watt University was enjoyable but after eight years there was appeal in working closer to home and, if possible, doing some research. A role at the University of Nottingham achieved both objectives. Although funding for yeast research was difficult, a new direction loomed. As a consumer, I was aware that the quality of draught beer can be variable and occasionally poor. With previous experience at Bass of dispense technology coupled with being a microbiologist, it made sense to develop a research programme into the factors that impact on draught beer quality. These studies are reported in Chapter 6 and, like some of the yeast studies, benefit from taking the work out of the laboratory into the ‘real world’. Draught beer systems are invariably contaminated with non-pathogenic microorganisms (yeasts and bacteria) that can grow in beer. Low levels are not a concern but the quality (flavour, aroma, clarity) of draught beer becomes progressively compromised with greater numbers of microorganisms which attach to surfaces in the dispense system as biofilms. Microbial contamination is managed by hygienic practices, primarily line cleaning where the system is flushed with dilute caustic solution. This is the weak link as the process is tedious and the recommended weekly clean can – in many accounts - slip to two weeks or more. Measurement of quality using a ‘forcing test’ (Chapter 6.3) was used with samples from public houses (Chapter 6.4) confirming that beer quality ranged from ‘excellent’ through ‘acceptable’ to ‘poor and ‘unacceptable’. Other work modelled biofilm attachment and growth by microorganisms in draught beer (Chapter 6.5). The microorganisms in different styles of draught beer from multiple public houses in different cities and towns exhibited a core microflora (e.g. Brettanomyces, Acetobacter) with some specific to individual styles (Chapter 6.6). In a parallel study, microflora were inoculated into different commercial lagers and found to vary in susceptibility to spoilage. Greater spoilage was associated with beers of higher pH and nutrient availability (Chapter 6.7). In a similar study, the susceptibility to spoilage of alcohol free and low alcohol beers was evaluated. These beers were more spoilable (rate and extent) than conventional ‘alcoholic beer’. Although alcohol free beers (AFBs) may require tuning for effective pasteurisation, a greater concern is their delivery in public houses using draught dispense. With the growth of the sector, brand owners are increasingly keen to serve their beers in this way as it is more profitable than with bottles or cans. This is a concern with these beers being more easily spoilt by microorganisms which will compromise quality. A very different concern is the absence of alcohol will allow the growth of some contaminating pathogens in alcohol free beer which is a significant concern for food safety. The recommendation that AFBs are dispensed by bespoke, stand-alone dispense systems has had limited take up which suggests there is need for other approaches to minimise this particular consumer risk

Retrofit ready : redefining energy and carbon life cycle methods

Retrofits are a necessity for reducing the UK’s energy demand and carbon emissions. However, with 26 million homes to treat and massive implications for material consumption, life cycle energy and carbon impacts demand close attention; this refers to the operating impacts, as well as the embodied impacts, i.e. those expended in products for resource extraction, manufacture, and end-of-life waste treatment and disposal. Sparse data on retrofits and inconsistency in life cycle methods confounds the relationship between operating and embodied impacts at a population-level, meaning that identification of the dominant factor, and hence retrofit’s overall benefit, remains ambiguous. Variability of embodied impact data, and underrepresentation of prominent retrofit materials were found to present further barriers to robust analysis. A redefined approach for a “retrofit life cycle analysis” (RLCA) is proposed, alleviating inconsistencies present in previous studies, and pinpointing the focus on the life cycle performance of thermal measures. This enables the derivation of an operating savings and embodied expenditure balance (O:E), which facilitates better evaluation of the life cycle performance than simply describing the resulting operating or embodied impacts. Through RLCA and the O:E balance, quantifiable parameters for proceeding, redesigning, or discontinuing the retrofit may be established, described as the “Retrofit Tipping Point”. The approach is tested with two archetypal UK case study houses and proposed retrofits, plus variants. Operating impact savings were found to dominate the O:E balance in all variants, demonstrating that the retrofits achieved operating savings in excess of the embodied expenditure, indicative of a favourable energy and carbon life cycle impact. Insulation materials made the largest embodied contribution in most cases. Case study data was comparable in magnitude to other literature studies; linear regressions relating operating and embodied impacts revealed line gradients close to zero, indicating very minimal change in embodied impacts as operating energies reduce. This suggests that even extensive retrofits can be beneficial over their life cycle.EPSRC Doctoral Training Partnership fundin

Deep learning for size-agnostic two-phase flow simulation with realistic pore structures and rock-fluid properties

The study of pore-scale flow in porous media is essential across numerous fields, including petroleum engineering, environmental science, chemical engineering, and biomedicine. Recently, deep learning techniques have shown significant potential in enhancing pore-scale flow modelling. However, existing research predominantly addresses single-phase flow, and studies focusing on the prediction of two-phase flow fields remain sparse. Current deep learning research in two-phase flow typically involves simplified pore structures, limited training datasets, and fixed rock-fluid and flow parameters. In this work, I develop deep neural networks as data-driven proxy models for generating phase distributions during a two-phase, capillary-dominated drainage process, where a non-wetting phase invades a wetting-phase-saturated porous rock. My approach integrates complex Computerised Tomography (CT) images and incorporates pixel size (i.e., imaging resolution), interfacial tension, contact angle (wettability), and capillary pressure as direct inputs. Leveraging these capabilities, I showcase several real-world applications of the trained models. First, I construct an extensive and diverse dataset by subsampling both synthetic and real rock images. Next, an efficient morphology-based drainage simulator is developed, providing phase distributions for each sub-image. I evaluate various deep learning architectures and analyse their accuracy and adherence to physical principles. A recurrent encoder-decoder model outperforms the commonly used U-Net in capturing phase connectivity, though it exhibits flow-direction bias and high computational demands. I subsequently introduce a hybrid transformer-convolutional neural network that performs drainage based solely on pore size, with phase connectivity enforced as a post-processing step. This approach facilitates inference for images of various sizes and accommodates any fluid inlet-outlet configuration. The trained models exhibit high efficiency and accuracy across unseen and larger sandstone and carbonate images. I further validate the models against data from microfluidic experiments and Lattice-Boltzmann (LBM) simulations, demonstrating similar capillary pressure curves and phase distributions with significantly faster performance. These models can replace slow direct simulations or costly experiments, generate finer pressure steps between existing results, and serve as data validation tools. They deliver results in seconds to minutes with minimal preprocessing across a range of realistic rock types, rock-fluid properties, resolutions, and image sizes. I show that the final deep learning models can integrate with an efficient optimiser to estimate wettability if phase distributions are already available. I apply this inverse-problem technique to determine the average contact angle from an LBM-generated phase distribution image in a core-scale Bentheimer sandstone, where supercritical CO2 displaces brine. This scenario has applications in CO2 sequestration. I find that the model achieves results comparable to the GPU-accelerated LBM method, 5,000 times faster. I then generate phase distributions over 101 pressure steps and build the complete capillary pressure curve in minutes. Through these studies, it becomes clear that the developed models can be seamlessly integrated into downstream workflows to provide further insight into pore-scale flow.James Watt Scholarshi