2,619 research outputs found

    Integrating expert-based objectivist and nonexpert-based subjectivist paradigms in landscape assessment

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    This thesis explores the integration of objective and subjective measures of landscape aesthetics, particularly focusing on crowdsourced geo-information. It addresses the increasing importance of considering public perceptions in national landscape governance, in line with the European Landscape Convention's emphasis on public involvement. Despite this, national landscape assessments often remain expert-centric and top-down, facing challenges in resource constraints and limited public engagement. The thesis leverages Web 2.0 technologies and crowdsourced geographic information, examining correlations between expert-based metrics of landscape quality and public perceptions. The Scenic-Or-Not initiative for Great Britain, GIS-based Wildness spatial layers, and LANDMAP dataset for Wales serve as key datasets for analysis. The research investigates the relationships between objective measures of landscape wildness quality and subjective measures of aesthetics. Multiscale geographically weighted regression (MGWR) reveals significant correlations, with different wildness components exhibiting varying degrees of association. The study suggests the feasibility of incorporating wildness and scenicness measures into formal landscape aesthetic assessments. Comparing expert and public perceptions, the research identifies preferences for water-related landforms and variations in upland and lowland typologies. The study emphasizes the agreement between experts and non-experts on extreme scenic perceptions but notes discrepancies in mid-spectrum landscapes. To overcome limitations in systematic landscape evaluations, an integrative approach is proposed. Utilizing XGBoost models, the research predicts spatial patterns of landscape aesthetics across Great Britain, based on the Scenic-Or-Not initiatives, Wildness spatial layers, and LANDMAP data. The models achieve comparable accuracy to traditional statistical models, offering insights for Landscape Character Assessment practices and policy decisions. While acknowledging data limitations and biases in crowdsourcing, the thesis discusses the necessity of an aggregation strategy to manage computational challenges. Methodological considerations include addressing the modifiable areal unit problem (MAUP) associated with aggregating point-based observations. The thesis comprises three studies published or submitted for publication, each contributing to the understanding of the relationship between objective and subjective measures of landscape aesthetics. The concluding chapter discusses the limitations of data and methods, providing a comprehensive overview of the research

    Taming ‘Black Swans’: A Schmittian Perspective on State-led Crisis Management

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    Using a design-thinking approach to state-led crisis management, this thesis seeks to resolve the contemporary problem of Black Swans; that is, crises that are unprecedented, unexpected, unpredictable, and uncertain.Due to their nature and composition, Black Swans cause a significant increase in state fragility (Introduction). Despite this, Black Swans remain understudied within existing literature on crisis management (Chapter One). This thesis argues that Black Swans cause a significant increase in state fragility because the strategies governments and leaders currently use to recognise and contain them are sub-optimal (Chapter Two). A resolution is found by drawing resources from the legal-political theory that Carl Schmitt (1888-1985) developed between 1918 and 1933 (Chapter Three). In particular, Schmitt’s concepts of “the exception” and “sovereign dictatorship” are used to devise new strategies that enable governments and leaders to recognise and contain Black Swans optimally (Chapter Four & Chapter Five).This thesis articulates and defends a new way for constitutional states to manage Black Swans. It achieves this end by engaging in an innovative and revealing dialogue between crisis management studies and Schmittian studies (Conclusion). Unlike previous analyses, this thesis establishes that: (i) detailed strategies can be prescribed to manage Black Swans; and (ii) Carl Schmitt’s legal-political theory can be used to resolve problems at the forefront of contemporary crisis management

    Measuring the Health and Development of School-age Zimbabwean Children

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    Health, growth and development during mid-childhood (from 5 to 14 years) are poorly characterised, and this period has been termed the ‘missing middle’. This thesis describes the piloting and application of the School-Age Health, Activity, Resilience, Anthropometry and Neurocognitive (SAHARAN) toolbox to measure growth, cognitive and physical function amongst the SHINE cohort in rural Zimbabwe. The SHINE cluster-randomised trial tested the effects of a household WASH intervention and/or infant and young child feeding (IYCF) on child stunting and anaemia at age 18 months in rural Zimbabwe. SHINE showed that IYCF modestly increased linear growth and reduced stunting by age 18 months, while WASH had no effects. The SAHARAN toolbox was used to measure 1000 HIV-unexposed children (250 in each intervention arm), and 275 HIV-exposed children within the SHINE cohort to evaluate long-term outcomes. Children were re-enrolled at age seven years to evaluate growth, body composition, cognitive and physical function. Four main findings are presented from the SAHARAN toolbox measurements of this cohort. Firstly, child sex, growth and contemporary environmental conditions are associated with school-age physical and cognitive function at seven years. Secondly, early-life growth and baseline environmental conditions suggest the impact of early-life trajectories on multiple aspects of school-age growth, physical and cognitive function. Thirdly, the long-term impact of HIV-exposure in pregnancy is explored, which indicate reduced cognitive function, cardiovascular fitness and head circumference by age 7 years. Finally, associations with the SHINE trial early life interventions are explored, demonstrating that the SHINE early-life nutrition intervention has minimal impact by 7 years of age, except marginally stronger handgrip strength. The public health implications advocate that child interventions need to be earlier (including antenatal), broader (incorporating nurturing care), deeper (providing transformational WASH) and longer (supporting throughout childhood), as well as targeting particularly vulnerable groups such as children born HIV-free

    An examination of the verbal behaviour of intergroup discrimination

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    This thesis examined relationships between psychological flexibility, psychological inflexibility, prejudicial attitudes, and dehumanization across three cross-sectional studies with an additional proposed experimental study. Psychological flexibility refers to mindful attention to the present moment, willing acceptance of private experiences, and engaging in behaviours congruent with one’s freely chosen values. Inflexibility, on the other hand, indicates a tendency to suppress unwanted thoughts and emotions, entanglement with one’s thoughts, and rigid behavioural patterns. Study 1 found limited correlations between inflexibility and sexism, racism, homonegativity, and dehumanization. Study 2 demonstrated more consistent positive associations between inflexibility and prejudice. And Study 3 controlled for right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation, finding inflexibility predicted hostile sexism and racism beyond these factors. While showing some relationships, particularly with sexism and racism, psychological inflexibility did not consistently correlate with varied prejudices across studies. The proposed randomized controlled trial aims to evaluate an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy intervention to reduce sexism through enhanced psychological flexibility. Overall, findings provide mixed support for the utility of flexibility-based skills in addressing complex societal prejudices. Research should continue examining flexibility integrated with socio-cultural approaches to promote equity

    Exploring the impact of food composition and eating context on food choice, energy intake and body mass index

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    Research suggests that traditional behaviour-based weight loss approaches requiring individuals to change their dietary habits or physical activity results in only modest weight loss which often isn’t maintained. Given the need to improve population health, the broader food environment (e.g., food price or composition) and the more immediate eating context have been identified as possible intervention targets.For product reformulation to be a successful public health strategy, consumers are required to be ‘insensitive’ to changes to the reformulated product. This raises a more general question regarding whether humans are sensitive to food composition and whether this influences food choice and energy intake. The studies presented in Part A suggest that people are sensitive to both the energy content and macronutrient composition of food. Specifically, the results presented in chapters two to four indicate a non-linear pattern in meal caloric intake in response to meal energy density (kcal/g), and this pattern was captured in a theoretical two-component model of meal size (g, chapter five). The remaining two chapters in Part A (chapters six and seven) explore human sensitivity to food macronutrient composition. Chapter six describes the development of a new paradigm and task to assess protein discrimination by humans. Chapter seven focuses on the remaining two macronutrients, fat and carbohydrate, and demonstrates that, alongside being more liked, foods containing a combination of fat and carbohydrate are selected in larger portions than foods high in either fat or carbohydrate.The effect of eating contexts (e.g., social or distracted eating) on acute energy intake is well-researched, but their chronic impact on energy balance is unclear. The results of chapter nine (Part B) indicated that more frequently watching TV was associated with a higher body mass index (BMI) in young adults. More generally, the work identified eating contexts as potential targets for public health messaging which could effect changes in BMI on a population level. Together, the work presented in this thesis highlights new complexity in human dietary behaviour which presents both challenges and opportunities for successful food reformulation as a public health strategy, and it also demonstrates that the context in which we eat our meals could be leveraged to improve population-level health

    "It's not a career": Platform work among young people aged 16-19

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    In the online gig economy, or platform work as it is sometimes known, work can be organised through websites and smartphone apps. People can drive for Uber or Deliveroo, sell items on eBay or Etsy, or rent their properties on Airbnb. This research examines the views of young people between the ages of 16 and 19 in the United Kingdom to see whether they knew about the online gig economy, whether they were using it already to earn money, and whether they expected to use it for their careers. It discovers careers professionals’ levels of knowledge, and their ability (and desire) to include the gig economy in their professional practice. This research contributes to discussions about what constitutes decent work, and whether it can be found within the online gig economy. The results point to ways in which careers practice could include platform work as a means of extending young people’s knowledge about alternative forms of work. This study also makes a theoretical contribution to literature, bringing together elements of careership, cognitive schema theory, and motivational theory and psychology of working theory, in a novel combination, to explain how young people were thinking about platform work in the context of their careers

    LIPIcs, Volume 251, ITCS 2023, Complete Volume

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    LIPIcs, Volume 251, ITCS 2023, Complete Volum

    The use of proxies in designing for and with autistic children: supporting friendship as a case study

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    Participatory Design (PD) is an approach for designing new technologies which involves end users in the design process. It is generally accepted that involving users in the design process gives them a sense of ownership over the final product which enhances its usability and acceptance by the target population. Employing a PD approach can introduce multiple challenges especially when working with autistic children. Many approaches for involving autistic children and children with special needs were developed to address these challenges. However, these frameworks introduce their own limitations as well. There is an ethical dilemma to consider in the involvement of autistic children in the design process. Although we established the ethical benefit of involving children, we did not address the ethical issues that will result from involving them in these research projects. Among other issues, the nature of design workshops we as a community currently run require working with unfamiliar researchers and communicating with them while social and communication differences are one of the main diagnostic criteria for autism. When designing for autistic children and other vulnerable populations an alternative (or most often an additional) approach is designing with proxies. Proxies for the child can be one of several groups of other stakeholders, such as: teachers, parents and siblings. Each of these groups may inform the design process, from their particular perspective, and as proxies for the target group of autistic children. Decisions need to be made about what stages in the design process are suited to their participation, and the role they play in each case. For this reason, we explore the role of teachers, parents, autistic adults and neurotypical children as proxies in the design process. To explore the roles of proxies we chose friendship between autistic and neurotypical children as the context we are designing for. We are interested in understanding the nature of children's friendships and the potential for technology to support them. Although children themselves are the ones who experience friendship and challenges around its development and peer interaction, they might find it difficult to articulate the challenges they face. Furthermore, it is unrealistic to expect children to identify strategies to help them overcome the challenges with friendship development that they are facing as it assumes children have the social skills to come up with these strategies in the first place. Hence, it is necessary in this context to consider proxies who can identify challenges and suggest ways to overcome them

    Differences in well-being:the biological and environmental causes, related phenotypes, and real-time assessment

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    Well-being is a complex, and multifaceted construct that includes feeling good and functioning well. There is a growing global recognition of well-being as an important research topic and public policy goal. Well-being is related to less behavioral and emotional problems, and is associated with many positive aspects of daily life, including longevity, higher educational achievement, happier marriage, and more productivity at work. People differ in their levels of well-being, i.e., some people are in general happier or more satisfied with their lives than others. These individual differences in well-being can arise from many different factors, including biological (genetic) influences and environmental influences. To enhance the development of future mental health prevention and intervention strategies to increase well-being, more knowledge about these determinants and factors underlying well-being is needed. In this dissertation, I aimed to increase the understanding of the etiology in a series of studies using different methods, including systematic reviews, meta-analyses, twin designs, and molecular genetic designs. In part I, we brought together all published studies on the neural and physiological factors underlying well-being. This overview allowed us to critically investigate the claims made about the biology involved in well-being. The number of studies on the neural and physiological factors underlying well-being is increasing and the results point towards potential correlates of well-being. However, samples are often still small, and studies focus mostly on a single biomarker. Therefore, more well-powered, data-driven, and integrative studies across biological categories are needed to better understand the neural and physiological pathways that play a role in well-being. In part II, we investigated the overlap between well-being and a range of other phenotypes to learn more about the etiology of well-being. We report a large overlap with phenotypes including optimism, resilience, and depressive symptoms. Furthermore, when removing the genetic overlap between well-being and depressive symptoms, we showed that well-being has unique genetic associations with a range of phenotypes, independently from depressive symptoms. These results can be helpful in designing more effective interventions to increase well-being, taking into account the overlap and possible causality with other phenotypes. In part III, we used the extreme environmental change during the COVID-19 pandemic to investigate individual differences in the effects of such environmental changes on well-being. On average, we found a negative effect of the pandemic on different aspects of well-being, especially further into the pandemic. Whereas most previous studies only looked at this average negative effect of the pandemic on well-being, we focused on the individual differences as well. We reported large individual differences in the effects of the pandemic on well-being in both chapters. This indicates that one-size-fits-all preventions or interventions to maintain or increase well-being during the pandemic or lockdowns will not be successful for the whole population. Further research is needed for the identification of protective factors and resilience mechanisms to prevent further inequality during extreme environmental situations. In part IV, we looked at the real-time assessment of well-being, investigating the feasibility and results of previous studies. The real-time assessment of well-being, related variables, and the environment can lead to new insights about well-being, i.e., results that we cannot capture with traditional survey research. The real-time assessment of well-being is therefore a promising area for future research to unravel the dynamic nature of well-being fluctuations and the interaction with the environment in daily life. Integrating all results in this dissertation confirmed that well-being is a complex human trait that is influenced by many interrelated and interacting factors. Future directions to understand individual differences in well-being will be a data-driven approach to investigate the complex interplay of neural, physiological, genetic, and environmental factors in well-being

    Archaeological palaeoenvironmental archives: challenges and potential

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    This Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) sponsored collaborative doctoral project represents one of the most significant efforts to collate quantitative and qualitative data that can elucidate practices related to archaeological palaeoenvironmental archiving in England. The research has revealed that archived palaeoenvironmental remains are valuable resources for archaeological research and can clarify subjects that include the adoption and importation of exotic species, plant and insect invasion, human health and diet, and plant and animal husbandry practices. In addition to scientific research, archived palaeoenvironmental remains can provide evidence-based narratives of human resilience and climate change and offer evidence of the scientific process, making them ideal resources for public science engagement. These areas of potential have been realised at an imperative time; given that waterlogged palaeoenvironmental remains at significant sites such as Star Carr, Must Farm, and Flag Fen, archaeological deposits in towns and cities are at risk of decay due to climate change-related factors, and unsustainable agricultural practices. Innovative approaches to collecting and archiving palaeoenvironmental remains and maintaining existing archives will permit the creation of an accessible and thorough national resource that can service archaeologists and researchers in the related fields of biology and natural history. Furthermore, a concerted effort to recognise absences in archaeological archives, matched by an effort to supply these deficiencies, can produce a resource that can contribute to an enduring geographical and temporal record of England's biodiversity, which can be used in perpetuity in the face of diminishing archaeological and contemporary natural resources. To realise these opportunities, particular challenges must be overcome. The most prominent of these include inconsistent collection policies resulting from pressures associated with shortages in storage capacity and declining specialist knowledge in museums and repositories combined with variable curation practices. Many of these challenges can be resolved by developing a dedicated storage facility that can focus on the ongoing conservation and curation of palaeoenvironmental remains. Combined with an OASIS + module designed to handle and disseminate data pertaining to palaeoenvironmental archives, remains would be findable, accessible, and interoperable with biological archives and collections worldwide. Providing a national centre for curating palaeoenvironmental remains and a dedicated digital repository will require significant funding. Funding sources could be identified through collaboration with other disciplines. If sufficient funding cannot be identified, options that would require less financial investment, such as high-level archive audits and the production of guidance documents, will be able to assist all stakeholders with the improved curation, management, and promotion of the archived resource
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