1,523 research outputs found
Displacement and the Humanities: Manifestos from the Ancient to the Present
This is the final version. Available on open access from MDPI via the DOI in this recordThis is a reprint of articles from the Special Issue published online in the open access journal Humanities (ISSN 2076-0787) (available at: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/humanities/special_issues/Manifestos Ancient Present)This volume brings together the work of practitioners, communities, artists and other researchers from multiple disciplines. Seeking to provoke a discourse around displacement within and beyond the field of Humanities, it positions historical cases and debates, some reaching into the ancient past, within diverse geo-chronological contexts and current world urgencies. In adopting an innovative dialogic structure, between practitioners on the ground - from architects and urban planners to artists - and academics working across subject areas, the volume is a proposition to: remap priorities for current research agendas; open up disciplines, critically analysing their approaches; address the socio-political responsibilities that we have as scholars and practitioners; and provide an alternative site of discourse for contemporary concerns about displacement. Ultimately, this volume aims to provoke future work and collaborations - hence, manifestos - not only in the historical and literary fields, but wider research concerned with human mobility and the challenges confronting people who are out of place of rights, protection and belonging
Exploiting Process Algebras and BPM Techniques for Guaranteeing Success of Distributed Activities
The communications and collaborations among activities, pro-
cesses, or systems, in general, are the base of complex sys-
tems defined as distributed systems. Given the increasing
complexity of their structure, interactions, and functionali-
ties, many research areas are interested in providing mod-
elling techniques and verification capabilities to guarantee
their correctness and satisfaction of properties. In particular,
the formal methods community provides robust verification
techniques to prove system properties. However, most ap-
proaches rely on manually designed formal models, making
the analysis process challenging because it requires an expert
in the field. On the other hand, the BPM community pro-
vides a widely used graphical notation (i.e., BPMN) to design
internal behaviour and interactions of complex distributed
systems that can be enhanced with additional features (e.g.,
privacy technologies). Furthermore, BPM uses process min-
ing techniques to automatically discover these models from
events observation. However, verifying properties and ex-
pected behaviour, especially in collaborations, still needs a
solid methodology.
This thesis aims at exploiting the features of the formal meth-
ods and BPM communities to provide approaches that en-
able formal verification over distributed systems. In this con-
text, we propose two approaches. The modelling-based ap-
proach starts from BPMN models and produces process al-
gebra specifications to enable formal verification of system
properties, including privacy-related ones. The process mining-
based approach starts from logs observations to automati-
xv
cally generate process algebra specifications to enable veri-
fication capabilities
Post-dam land property dynamics of the ManÄáčŁÄ«r in Kabna Al-FĆ«qqara
Dams almost inevitably displace communities from their lands. Yet despite extensive research, there is virtually no research on cases where displaced people reject formal resettlement in favour of self-directed resettlement. Furthermore, there has also been very little research addressing adaptive responses of land tenures, rights and relations in such contexts.
This study addresses this research gap through investigating the land property adaptations amongst the ManÄáčŁÄ«r people displaced by the Merowe dam in 2008. A large proportion of the ManÄáčŁir elected to stay around the damâs reservoir, remaining rooted to their homeland. Through a contextualised ethnographic case study methodology, focusing on the hamlet of Kabna al-FĆ«qqara located towards the tail end of the reservoir, this research explores the land property dynamics of their informal (re)settlement.
The methodological approach adapted the analytical framework of property developed by F. von Benda-Beckmann, K. von Benda-Beckmann and Wiber (2006) which distinguishes between categorical property, visible at the legal/institutional layer of social organisation and refers to property rules and norms, and concretised property which relates to the actual âlivedâ property relations on the ground.
The analysis reveals how adaptations occur at both these layers of property in complex, interrelated ways. The concrete actions and social practices of inhabitants in reserving and reclaiming the unoccupied wastelands above their hamlets are the primary means through which adaptations are pursued. These actions are informed by existing categorical customary rules and norms and in turn reform and update these norms. As a result, new categorical land rights are in the process of emerging. The customary institutional mechanisms which underlie these dynamics, while flexible and enabling, are pursued in the context of a wider legal/institutional rupture. The findings reveal the complexity underlying the processes of concrete property making and the wider, more contested, dynamics of âinstitution-makingâ concerning the emergence of law
Ergonomics in laparoscopic surgery: a work system analysis to reduce work-related musculoskeletal disorders across surgeons in Peruvian hospitals
Laparoscopic surgery, also called minimally invasive surgery, is a type of surgery in which the surgeon operates by viewing the surgery on a screen that projects images from a camera inserted into the patient's abdomen. Laparoscopic tools are long (usually up to 35 cm) and require fine motor skills and visual perception for manipulation, restricting the degrees of freedom to move within the patient. This restriction causes surgeons to operate with limited vision and restricted movement and force them to work with assistants who assist in conducting the cameras, acting as "the surgeons' eyes".
Because of its minimally invasive nature, laparoscopic surgery is well accepted by patients but is challenging and complex for the surgeon. This is due to the restriction of movement and perception that forces surgeons to adopt awkward postures with high exposition, which increases the likelihood of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WRMSD). WRMSDs are detrimental to surgeons' health and potentially may impact patient safety. Studies often highlight the problems of surgeons in high-income countries, whose solutions and clinical guides often cannot be applied to countries like Peru, which have severe deficiencies in its healthcare system.
For this reason, the thesis proposes a contextualised investigation of the Peruvian surgical work system to investigate the main factors contributing to the development of WRMSD in laparoscopic surgeons, which may affect patient safety. The analysis aimed to propose possible recommendations to support redesigning the laparoscopic surgery work system in Peruvian hospitals. Five studies were developed to achieve the aims based on the Systems Engineering Initiative for patient safety model, an ergonomics model for healthcare systems analysis. The first three studies were developed parallel with a mixed convergent design approach concluding in an integrating study. The last two studies (study four and five) had a quantitative approach.
The first study used a qualitative approach by collecting information through interviews with laparoscopic surgeons and observing their work in real surgeries. The second study adopted a quantitative approach through a questionnaire-based survey applied to 140 surgeons in Peru. The third study analysed the extent to which the postures adopted by surgeons in real surgeries increase the risk of WRMSD and their association with factors in the work system using the RULA method.
The results of the three studies were integrated into an integrative study, concluding that the raised height of the operating table and other system factors related to tasks, person and technology raises the risk of WRMSD. Based on these results, the fourth study analysed the relationship between surgeons and operating tables to understand how many surgeons could reach suitable working heights. The study concluded that no operating table available in Peruvian hospitals nor in the market would be suitable for 90% of Peruvian surgeons. The tables were too high to accommodate surgeons with optimal working surface height to perform laparoscopic surgery. Then, a fifth study was conducted to determine an acceptable working height based on surgeon preferences and system factors and concluded that surgeons would accept a working height between 49 cm to 70 cm in height, which is lower than current operating tables. The lowest height was reached when surgeons had to operate on obese patients and perform intracorporeal suturing tasks.
Finally, the thesis concludes with recommendations for redesigning working heights for 90% of the Peruvian medical population, considering work system elements of the Peruvian context
Improving the security and cyber security of companies and individuals using behavioural sciences: a data-centric approach
While security and cyber security systems literature focus on how to detect threats at a logistics, software and hardware level, there is not enough work around how to improve the security by incorporating the understanding of the human behaviour for those individuals that form part of the system. The present dissertation focus in the latter problem and has it as main research question. To do so, we study three different security and cyber security problems. We study a problem of communication framing when training employees in cyber security by deploying a two-staged survey in a British financial institution to then analyse it with a behavioural segmentation model. We find that, depending on their risk-perception and risk-taking attitudes, employees can become better cyber security sensors when correctly framed. We also study a problem of illicit drugs distribution in England to understand the territorial logic of the operators. Using public data, we analyse the problem using Spatial Analysis models. We find that gangs avoid places with a high number of knife crime events and hospital admissions by misuse of drugs. Finally, we study the transition of companies to the âNew Normalâ when the pandemic started. Using a qualitative model to understand the cyber security culture within, we find that cyber security was not a priority of the narrative of big companies during the first months of 2020. The three essays contribute to the literature in behavioural sciences applied to security and cyber security by using modern tools and frameworks of statistical learning and Natural Language Processing. By incorporating these different resources, we show how to improve the efficiency of security and cyber security systems by analysing the behaviour data extracted from them
The efficacy of a language intervention on the acquisition of past tense in children with Down syndrome
Background: Individuals with Down syndrome (DS) experience difficulties with receptive and expressive grammar and specifically morphosyntax. Despite these difficulties, there have been few studies to evaluate the effectiveness of intervention and limited evidence of generalisation to untaught items. /
Aim: To evaluate the efficacy of a language intervention on the acquisition of the regular simple past tense (RSPT) in children with DS aged 7-11 years and to explore whether any gains in the use of this grammatical rule will generalise. /
Method: A randomised controlled trial evaluated a 10-week intervention, using explicit and implicit methods, designed for children with DS. Fifty-two children with DS aged 7-11 years were randomly allocated into two groups: 1) intervention group and 2) delayed intervention group. All children were assessed at three timepoints: preintervention (t1), after the intervention group had received the intervention (t2), and 12-14 weeks later (after the delayed intervention group had received the intervention) (t3). The intervention was delivered by trained teaching assistants (TAs) in daily 20-minute sessions. /
Results: The intervention group made significantly greater gains at t2 on a composite measure of the use of the RSPT (d=1.63). These gains were maintained 12-14 weeks later at t3 when the delayed intervention group also made similar gains. The use of the RSPT generalised to untaught regular verbs. In addition, the children made errors of overregularisation on irregular verbs demonstrating they had learnt the grammatical rule. Generalisation to other tense morphemes (e.g., the third person singular) did not occur. /
Conclusions: An intervention, using explicit and implicit methods, was successful in teaching children with DS to use a grammatical rule. Furthermore, the children were able to generalise this rule to untaught items. This provides evidence for intervention targeting morphosyntax and the feasibility of training TAs to deliver this intervention
New Cold War? A comparison of Russian and US foreign policy discourses in the time of deteriorating relations
This thesis examines the role that the Cold War discourse themes play in informing and structuring the American and Russian newspaper narratives in the time period of 2014-2017. It uncovers whether the portrayal of the contemporary relationship between Russia and the US in newspaper discourse can be traced back to the historical roots of Cold War struggles.
Using Critical Discourse Analysis, the thesis seeks to identify the contexts interwoven in newspaper narratives examined in this study, and how their interactions with themes of the Cold War discourse work to create meanings for these newspapersâ audiences. The study does a qualitative textual analysis of newspaper discourse within the frame of two case studies: the 2014 conflict in Ukraine and the 2016â2017-time frame that is associated with the U.S. presidential election pre-election period and the first year of Donald Trumpâs presidency.
This thesis fills a gap in the New Cold War discourse where no thematic comparative U.S.-Russia newspaper discourse study has been done thus far.
The findings indicate that particular elements of the Cold War discourse continue structuring the narratives that different Russian and American newspapers produce while reporting events occurring in the post-Cold War time, raising critical questions about the persistence of powerful historical discourses, and about the ability of media in Russia and in the US to rearticulate and regenerate discourses of global politics in the post-Cold War world
Deep decarbonization pathways, strategies, governance, actors and roadblocks in cities: Climate change mitigation perspectives from selected Sub-Saharan African Cities
The complex and multidimensional effect of climate change, coupled with low socioeconomic development in sub-Saharan Africa, makes the region vulnerable to changing climate and threatens its inhabitants' survival, livelihood and health. Subnational actions have been widely acclaimed as an effective way to combat climate change due to their nearness to the epicenter of global warming â urban centers. This is because over 70% of global GHG emissions occur in urban areas. To reduce GHG emissions, local governments in sub-Saharan Africa have been developing and implementing climate action plans.
This research aims to extend the understanding of global decarbonization dynamics by studying four major African megacities' climate plans and actions. This research compares the strategies and governance structures recommended for local climate mitigation action in academic and grey literature to those described in the deep decarbonization plans of leading local governments to identify innovative implementation strategies and governance approaches for urban deep decarbonization in developing nations. This presents a new perspective in the quest for decarbonization to reduce anthropogenic global warming through the exploration of the concepts and visions of deep decarbonization pathways and examining the strategies toward reducing GHG emission in âuncharted territoriesâ - selected African cities.
The research is based on the case study of pathways, strategies, governance mechanisms, and actors for deep decarbonization in four leading cities in sub-Sahara Africa using the qualitative research method. The four case cities are Accra (Ghana), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Lagos (Nigeria) and Nairobi (Kenya). The studyâs methods included exploring the climate action plans of the case cities and reviewing data in the Climate Disclosure Protocol (CDP) and other city-specific deep decarbonization documents. Interviews were also conducted with the city officials involved in sustainability and climate change activities within the case cities. This was done mainly to get answers to gaps in document analysis and triangulate some of the empirical findings. The study also compared the emerged patterns from the case cities to typical cities in the global north to gain practical intricacies into the difference in climate change mitigation practices, governance and management across the divide.
The contributions of this study to the body of literature on decarbonization frameworks are in seven major areas through the extension of literature to include the innovative approaches being deployed by cities in sub-Saharan Africa to mitigate Climate change. This study contributes new insight into the following areas: decarbonization of energy and waste management, increasing local carbon sinks, climate action coordination structure, vertical integration approaches, self-regulating governance mode, the role of traditional institutions and major barriers to decarbonization efforts at the city level.
Given that it identifies emerging best practices, the study's findings can be helpful to practitioners pursuing local deep decarbonization and international organization working on deep decarbonization at the city level
LIPIcs, Volume 261, ICALP 2023, Complete Volume
LIPIcs, Volume 261, ICALP 2023, Complete Volum
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