Internal Displacement and Responses at the Global Level: A Review of the Scholarship

This paper reviews the scholarship that addresses internal displacement at a global or general level. This includes research on global frameworks or processes concerned with internal displacement as well as that which addresses internal displacement in a general, or non-region/country-specific, way. It starts by describing the main internal displacement trends at the global level. It then reviews how scholarship on internal displacement at a global or general level has developed, respectively, in the fields of law and policy, other social sciences and humanities, and health and medicine. It ends by offering conclusions on the scope of existing research and directions for future study. This review of the scholarly literature seeks to identify principal trends, gaps and opportunities relating to research on internal displacement. Towards this end, the review concentrates on academic publications, including monographs, chapters in edited volumes and peer-reviewed articles, from the early 1990s until the start of 2020, a period of approximately 30 years. It thus offers not only a critical review of the state of the art in this field of study but also a key point of reference for researchers looking to develop our understanding of internal displacement from the standpoint of a variety of different disciplines and themes. The paper forms part of a series of papers published in this Working Paper Series that review the state of the scholarship on internal displacement at the global level and in particular regions as we enter the decade of the 2020s. This research forms part of the Interdisciplinary Network on Displacement, Conflict and Protection (AH/T005351/1) and Global Engagement on Internal Displacement in sub-Saharan Africa (EP/T003227/1) projects, pilots of which were supported by the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF). It should be read in conjunction with the other review papers in this series

Fun Versus Meaningful Video Game Experiences: A Qualitative Analysis of User Responses

Emerging research on video games has suggested that feelings of both enjoyment and meaningfulness can be elicited from gameplay. Studies have shown enjoyment and meaningfulness evaluations to be associated with discrete elements of video games (ratings of gameplay and narrative, respectively), but have relied on closed-end data analysis. The current study analyzed participants’ open-ended reviews of either their “most fun” or “most meaningful” video game experience (N = 575, randomly assigned to either condition). Results demonstrated that “fun” games were explained in terms of gameplay mechanics, and “meaningful” games were explained in terms of connections with players and in-game characters

Video games as meaningful entertainment experiences

We conducted an experiment to examine individuals’ perceptions of enjoyable and meaningful video games and the game characteristics and dimensions of need satisfaction associated with enjoyment and appreciation. Participants (N = 512) were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 groups that asked them to recall a game that they found either particularly fun or particularly meaningful, and to then rate their perceptions of the game that they recalled. Enjoyment was high for both groups, though appreciation was higher in the meaningful- than fun-game condition. Further, enjoyment was most strongly associated with gameplay characteristics and satisfaction of needs related to competency and autonomy, whereas appreciation was most strongly associated with story characteristics and satisfaction of needs related to insight and relatedness

A Multiwell Electrochemical Biosensor for Real-Time Monitoring of the Behavioural Changes of Cells in Vitro

We report the development of a multiwell biosensor for detecting changes in the electrochemical open circuit potential (OCP) generated by viable human cells in vitro. The instrument features eight culture wells; each containing three gold sensors around a common silver/silver chloride reference electrode, prepared using screen-printed conductive inks. The potential applications of the device were demonstrated by monitoring rheumatoid synovial fibroblasts (RSF) and HepG2 hepatocarcinoma cells in response to chemical and biological treatments. This technology could provide an alternative to conventional end-point assays used in the fields of chemotherapy, toxicology and drug discovery

Critical Interaction of Actuator Domain Residues Arginine 174, Isoleucine 188, and Lysine 205 with Modulatory Nucleotide in Sarcoplasmic Reticulum Ca 2+ -ATPase

ATP plays dual roles in the reaction cycle of the sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+-ATPase by acting as the phosphorylating substrate as well as in nonphosphorylating (modulatory) modes accelerating conformational transitions of the enzyme cycle. Here we have examined the involvement of actuator domain residues Arg174, Ile188, Lys204, and Lys205 by mutagenesis. Alanine mutations to these residues had little effect on the interaction of the Ca2E1 state with nucleotide or on the HnE 2 to Ca2E1 transition of the dephosphoenzyme. The phosphoenzyme processing steps, Ca2E1P to E2P and E2P dephosphorylation, and their stimulation by MgATP/ATP were markedly affected by mutations to Arg174, Ile188, and Lys205. Replacement of Ile188 with alanine abolished nucleotide modulation of dephosphorylation but not the modulation of the Ca2E1P to E2P transition. Mutation to Arg174 interfered with nucleotide modulation of either of the phosphoenzyme processing steps, indicating a significant overlap between the modulatory nucleotide-binding sites involved. Mutation to Lys205 enhanced the rates of the phosphoenzyme processing steps in the absence of nucleotide and disrupted the nucleotide modulation of the Ca2E1P to E2P transition. Remarkably, the mutants with alterations to Lys205 showed an anomalous inhibition by ATP of the dephosphorylation, and in the alanine mutant the affinity for the inhibition by ATP was indistinguishable from that for stimulation by ATP of the wild type. Hence, the actuator domain is an important player in the function of ATP as modulator of phosphoenzyme processing, with Arg174, Ile188, and Lys205 all being critically involved, although in different ways. The data support a variable site model for the modulatory effects with the nucleotide binding somewhat differently in each of the conformational states occurring during the transport cycle

Electrochemically enhanced reduction of iron oxide from slag

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering, 1998.Vita.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 133-137).An experimental study was performed to measure the rate of reduction of iron oxide from calcia-silica-alumina slag by carbon in iron, and to determine whether the reaction rate can be increased by electrochemical means. It is shown that the reaction rate depends on both the ferric-ferrous cation ratio, and on the total amount of iron in the slag. It was observed that ferric cations are reduced at a faster rate than ferrous cations. This suggests that the overall reaction rate is limited by the rate of the ferric-to-ferrous reduction reaction when the slag contains significant quantities of ferric oxide. Results show that the rate constant decreases at low concentrations of ferrous oxide in the slag. It is concluded that mass transfer in the slag phase controls the overall reaction rate when the slag contains mainly ferrous oxide. Experiments were conducted in an attempt to increase the reaction rate by electrochemical means. The reaction rate was increased by penetrating the slag layer with a metallic rod or plate; this provided an electronic pathway from the metal bath into the bulk slag phase. A small short-circuit current was measured. In order to increase the current, a voltage was applied between the metal bath and an electrode that made electrical contact with the top of the slag layer. The reaction rate increased by 60-100%, and the increase was proportional to the current passed. A current efficiency of nearly 100% was observed for current densities on the order of 500 mA cm-2. The results of this study have been modeled with a new expression for the reaction rate: ... The rate constant k, is the chemical rate constant for the ferric-to-ferrous reduction reaction, and k2 is the mass transfer coefficient for ferrous cations in the slag; numerical values for the constants k, and k2 are offered for certain experimental conditions.by David Edward Woolley.Ph.D

HadISD: a quality-controlled global synoptic report database for selected variables at long-term stations from 1973--2011

[Abridged] This paper describes the creation of HadISD: an automatically quality-controlled synoptic resolution dataset of temperature, dewpoint temperature, sea-level pressure, wind speed, wind direction and cloud cover from global weather stations for 1973--2011. The full dataset consists of over 6000 stations, with 3427 long-term stations deemed to have sufficient sampling and quality for climate applications requiring sub-daily resolution. As with other surface datasets, coverage is heavily skewed towards Northern Hemisphere mid-latitudes. The dataset is constructed from a large pre-existing ASCII flatfile data bank that represents over a decade of substantial effort at data retrieval, reformatting and provision. These raw data have had varying levels of quality control applied to them by individual data providers. The work proceeded in several steps: merging stations with multiple reporting identifiers; reformatting to netCDF; quality control; and then filtering to form a final dataset. Particular attention has been paid to maintaining true extreme values where possible within an automated, objective process. Detailed validation has been performed on a subset of global stations and also on UK data using known extreme events to help finalise the QC tests. Further validation was performed on a selection of extreme events world-wide (Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the cold snap in Alaska in 1989 and heat waves in SE Australia in 2009). Although the filtering has removed the poorest station records, no attempt has been made to homogenise the data thus far. Hence non-climatic, time-varying errors may still exist in many of the individual station records and care is needed in inferring long-term trends from these data. A version-control system has been constructed for this dataset to allow for the clear documentation of any updates and corrections in the future.Comment: Published in Climate of the Past, www.clim-past.net/8/1649/2012/. 31 pages, 23 figures, 9 pages. For data see http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/hadobs/hadis