GASP: Guitars with ambisonic spatial performance

‘Guitars with Ambisonic Spatial Performance’ (GASP) is an ongoing project where our expertise in surround sound algorithmic research is combined with off-the-shelf hardware and bespoke software to create a spatial multichannel surround guitar performance system. This poster was funded through the ‘Undergraduate Research Scholarship Scheme’ (URSS) and presented at the University of Derby Buxton Campus 10th Annual Learning & Teaching conference on Wednesday 1st July 2015. The theme being ‘Students as Partners: Linking Teaching, Research and Enterprise’. The poster was also utilised as a contribution to the Creative Technologies Research Group (CTRG) ‘Sounds in Space’ symposium held at the University of Derby in June 2015, at which three pieces of multichannel guitar recordings were demonstrated.‘Undergraduate Research Scholarship Scheme’ (URSS) University of Derb

Covid-19 in Africa: looking beyond the role of national governments

To understand the response to COVID-19 in Africa we must look beyond the actions taken by national governments, say Duncan Green and Tom Kirk (LSE). The roles played by various public authorities operating below the national level are crucial

Crisis communication and social media : the changing environment for natural disaster response

Over the past two years there have been several large-scale disasters (Haitian earthquake, Australian floods, UK riots, and the Japanese earthquake) that have seen wide use of social media for disaster response, often in innovative ways. This paper provides an analysis of the ways in which social media has been used in public-to-public communication and public-to-government organisation communication. It discusses four ways in which disaster response has been changed by social media: 1. Social media appears to be displacing the traditional media as a means of communication with the public during a crisis. In particular social media influences the way traditional media communication is received and distributed. 2. We propose that user-generated content may provide a new source of information for emergency management agencies during a disaster, but there is uncertainty with regards to the reliability and usefulness of this information. 3. There are also indications that social media provides a means for the public to self-organise in ways that were not previously possible. However, the type and usefulness of self-organisation sometimes works against efforts to mitigate the outcome of the disaster. 4. Social media seems to influence information flow during a disaster. In the past most information flowed in a single direction from government organisation to public, but social media negates this model. The public can diffuse information with ease, but also expect interaction with Government Organisations rather than a simple one-way information flow. These changes have implications for the way government organisations communicate with the public during a disaster. The predominant model for explaining this form of communication, the Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication (CERC), was developed in 2005 before social media achieved widespread popularity. We will present a modified form of the CERC model that integrates social media into the disaster communication cycle, and addresses the ways in which social media has changed communication between the public and government organisations during disasters

Parasitism and environmental sex determination in Daphnia

International audienceHypothesis: Daphnia exposed to cues associated with the onset of a parasite epidemic will have more males and resting eggs.Organisms: Seven clones of Daphnia magna (chosen for high levels of sexual reproduction) and the bacterial parasite Pasteuria ramosa.Methods: We explored how parasite infection (simulated by creating crowding conditions using infected hosts) might influence male and resting egg production compared with crowding conditions created using healthy hosts. We also explored the effects of putting bacterial spores in water. Conclusions: Both crowding and crowding with infected hosts led to higher numbers of males and resting eggs. Direct exposure to parasite transmission spores had no effect. Male production in response to treatment was host-clone specific, with some clones responding strongly to the presence of infected hosts, but others not responding or only responding to water crowded with healthy Daphnia. Resting-egg production in response to treatment was also host-clone specific, but differences were not affected by crowding conditions

Evading terror? Terror Attacks and Internal Migration in Israel

This paper empirically analyses the relationship between terror incidents and internal migration in Israel. Using a newly created database of region-to-region migration flows for the years 1998-2012, the empirical model regresses the annual flow of migrants from an origin subdistrict to a destination subdistrict on measures of terror incidents in the origin and the destination, respectively. The results indicate that terror in the destination subdistrict acts as a deterrent to migration into that region, whereas we find no evidence in support of the hypothesis that terror brings about outmigration

Adaptive programming and going with the grain: IMAGINE's new water governance model in Goma, DRC

Motivation: This article explores adaptive approaches to development programmes that aim at improving service provision in underperforming sectors in fragile and conflict-affected states (FCAS). It does this through a case study of the IMAGINE (Integrated Maji Infrastructure and Governance Initiative for Eastern Congo) public-private partnership model for water provision in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Purpose: The processes and decisions that culminated in the model used for IMAGINE emphasize the need for programming that is culturally and politically aware, responsive to events, learns in real-time, is entrepreneurial, and works with the grain of local institutions to support change. Detailed case studies of such ways of working are crucial for programmes that seek to challenge and reform the status quo in FCAS. Methods and approach: The article is based on 42 semi-structured interviews conducted in the summers of 2019 and 2020. They reflect the broad spectrum of actors—individuals, public authorities, and organizations—involved in IMAGINE's evolution. Findings: The narrative focuses on IMAGINE's attempts to professionalize and commercialize Goma's water sector. It shows how, as IMAGINE repeatedly adapted to ground realities, it took on the characteristics of a public authority, thereby, engendering backlashes that threated its longer-term goals. However, by revisiting its initial values and logics it was able to get things done and achieve its aims. Policy implications: IMAGINE's story suggests that adaptive programmes should put politically savvy local development professionals in key positions and enable them to carefully construct coalitions of allies across the systems they aim to disrupt. This may also require them to revisit and adapt their initial ideas, guiding principles, and values as greater understandings of development problems are gained. A public authorities approach, attuned to the logics that programmes seek to address and introduce to FCAS, may help analysts to focus on the implications of such adaptations

Fabrication, characterisation and modelling of uniform and gradient auxetic foam sheets

Large sheets of polyurethane open-cell foam were compressed (or stretched) using pins and a conversion mould whilst undergoing thermal softening and controlled cooling. Sheets (final dimensions 355 x 344 x 20 mm) were fabricated with uniform triaxial compression, with and without through-thickness pins, and also with different compression regimes (uniform triaxial compression or through-thickness compression and biaxial planar tension) in opposing quadrants. The samples fabricated under uniform triaxial compression with and without pins exhibited similar cell structure and mechanical properties. The sheets fabricated with graded compression levels displayed clearly defined quadrants of differing cell structure and mechanical properties. The graded foam quadrants subject to triaxial compression displayed similar cell structure, tangent moduli and negative Poisson’s ratio responses to the uniform foams converted with a similar level of triaxial compression. The graded foam quadrants subject to through-thickness compression and biaxial planar tension displayed a slightly re-entrant through-thickness cell structure contrasting with an in-plane structure resembling the fully reticulated cell structure of the unconverted parent foam. This quadrant of graded foam displayed positive and negative Poisson’s ratios in tension and compression, respectively, accompanied by high and low in-plane tangent modulus, respectively. The strain-dependent mechanical properties are shown to be fully consistent with expectations from honeycomb theory. The triaxially compressed quadrants of the graded sheet exhibited ~4 times lower peak acceleration than quadrants with through-thickness compression and biaxial planar tension in 6 J impact tests using a steel hemispherical drop mass