292 research outputs found
Representing disability in museums: Absence and discourse
Museums have the potential to challenge societal prejudice, presenting new
perspectives and counternarratives which support social inclusion and activism (Janes
and Sandell 2019, 2019a). However, research suggests that many museums reproduce
societal discourses and power dynamics rather than challenge them (Bennett 2020,
Roque Martins 2018). This thesis intends to question how museum collections, galleries,
and programming interact with societal discourses about disability, in particular. Drawing
on Michel Foucaultâs accounts of discourse (1971, 1972), it explores how historic and
contemporary ideas about disability are reproduced and/or contested in museum
collections, galleries, and activities.
To this end, it reviews existing literature of representation in contemporary
debates in critical disability studies and museum studies; and empirically investigates
how meaning is co-created and communicated by staff and visitors in museum spaces
and practices. Using Stuart Hallâs (1980) âencoding/decodingâ model, it considers how
museums use collections and community engagement to produce and communicate
narratives about history; and how visitors experience and interpret museum galleries to
navigate issues of heritage, identity, and âfactâ. Reflecting on archival research,
interviews, and focus groups conducted at Amgueddfa Cymru â Museum Wales, the
analysis explores accounts of using museum collections, activities, and galleries to
deepen our understanding of issues surrounding disability in the past and present.
It argues that, despite AC-MWâs ambition to become an âactivistâ museum and
challenge prejudice, representations in AC-MWâs galleries reproduce societal ideas
about disabled people, who are conspicuously absent from Welsh history narratives. It
explores how complexity in communication of meaning in museum practice contributes
to this obdurate problem. In particular, it argues that meaning is negotiated between
museum professionals and visitors, influenced by different perceptions of what it means
to be disabled, historical development of collections and documentation, and
competing discourses about the nature of expertise
Regional modelling of domestic energy consumption using stakeholder generated visions as scenarios
UK Government Carbon emission reduction targets require large scale retrofitting of the built environment. Visions of a city region in 2050 have been developed through an in-depth participatory back-casting and foresight process. This paper will explore the modelling techniques required to simulate the necessary changes to achieve the retrofitting targets for dwellings. All of the visions achieve the 80% reductions required, using different pathways. Building on earlier work based on âBottom Upâ urban scale modelling, this paper will describe the modelling of large areas using extensive data sources on the existing stock. Together with the scenario work, this research builds modelling of societal changes including population and household size, with domestic energy demand. The paper discusses the methods used and the sources of the data required to model these population and household changes. The results generated from the model show the retrofit pathways from 1990, through present day emissions, to the required levels to achieve the targets set for 2050. In addition, the outcomes of the research are visualised through mapping of the pathways across a City region
Bilingual Education in Texas: Exploring Best Practices
This capstone team conducted an analysis of bilingual and English as a second language (ESL) practices in the state of Texas. Their analysis has three distinct parts. In the first part, the team developed four indicators of school success with respect to students who have limited English proficiency (LEP). In the second part, they developed a survey of teacher, classroom and program characteristics that they distributed to all elementary and middle schools with at least 30 LEP students. The final part of their analysis examined the relationship between their four measures of school success and the survey responses regarding instructional practices and program characteristics. The team found that there were no school-level differences in performance between teachers in bilingual education programs and teachers in ESL programs. They also found that consistent instruction in one language (either English or Spanish) was more effective for content learning than a mix of instructional languages, and that instructional methods identified as particularly effective by the existing bilingual/ESL literature are widely practiced in Texas
Cardiff 2050: City regional scenarios for urban sustainability
What would a sustainable future look like for
Cardiff and South East Wales
Incubation period of COVID-19: a rapid systematic review and meta-analysis of observational research
Objectives: The aim of this study was to conduct a rapid systematic review and meta-analysis of estimates of the incubation period of COVID-19.Design: Rapid systematic review and meta-analysis of observational research.Setting: International studies on incubation period of COVID-19.Participants: Searches were carried out in PubMed, Google Scholar, Embase, Cochrane Library as well as the preprint servers MedRxiv and BioRxiv. Studies were selected for meta-analysis if they reported either the parameters and CIs of the distributions fit to the data, or sufficient information to facilitate calculation of those values. After initial eligibility screening, 24 studies were selected for initial review, nine of these were shortlisted for meta-analysis. Final estimates are from meta-analysis of eight studies.Primary outcome measures: Parameters of a lognormal distribution of incubation periods.Results: The incubation period distribution may be modelled with a lognormal distribution with pooled mu and sigma parameters (95% CIs) of 1.63 (95% CI 1.51 to 1.75) and 0.50 (95% CI 0.46 to 0.55), respectively. The corresponding mean (95% CIs) was 5.8 (95% CI 5.0 to 6.7) days. It should be noted that uncertainty increases towards the tail of the distribution: the pooled parameter estimates (95% CIs) resulted in a median incubation period of 5.1 (95% CI 4.5 to 5.8) days, whereas the 95th percentile was 11.7 (95% CI 9.7 to 14.2) days.Conclusions: The choice of which parameter values are adopted will depend on how the information is used, the associated risks and the perceived consequences of decisions to be taken. These recommendations will need to be revisited once further relevant information becomes available. Accordingly, we present an R Shiny app that facilitates updating these estimates as new data become available
Advanced EFL learners' beliefs about language learning and teaching: a comparison between grammar, pronunciation, and vocabulary
This paper reports on the results of a study exploring learnersâ beliefs on the learning and teaching of English grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary at tertiary level. While the importance of learnersâ beliefs on the acquisition process is generally recognized, few studies have focussed on and compared learnersâ views on different components of the language system. A questionnaire containing semantic scale and Likert scale items probing learnersâ views on grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary was designed and completed by 117 native speakers of Dutch in Flanders, who were studying English at university. The analysis of the responses revealed that (i) vocabulary was considered to be different from grammar and pronunciation, both in the extent to which an incorrect use could lead to communication breakdown and with respect to the learnersâ language learning strategies, (ii) learners believed in the feasibility of achieving a native-like proficiency in all three components, and (iii) in-class grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary exercises were considered to be useful, even at tertiary level. The results are discussed in light of pedagogical approaches to language teaching
Retrofit 2050: critical challenges for urban transitions
Scaling up retrofit presents a number of critical challenges for the transition
to urban sustainability. Drawing together insights from the EPSRC Retrofit
2050 project this briefing sets out key success factors that need to be in place
to deliver sustainable futures for UK cities
Different paths to the modern state in Europe: the interaction between domestic political economy and interstate competition
Theoretical work on state formation and capacity has focused mostly on early modern Europe and on the experience of western European states during this period. While a number of European states monopolized domestic tax collection and achieved gains in state capacity during the early modern era, for others revenues stagnated or even declined, and these variations motivated alternative hypotheses for determinants of fiscal and state capacity. In this study we test the basic hypotheses in the existing literature making use of the large date set we have compiled for all of the leading states across the continent. We find strong empirical support for two prevailing threads in the literature, arguing respectively that interstate wars and changes in economic structure towards an urbanized economy had positive fiscal impact. Regarding the main point of contention in the theoretical literature, whether it was representative or authoritarian political regimes that facilitated the gains in fiscal capacity, we do not find conclusive evidence that one performed better than the other. Instead, the empirical evidence we have gathered lends supports to the hypothesis that when under pressure of war, the fiscal performance of representative regimes was better in the more urbanized-commercial economies and the fiscal performance of authoritarian regimes was better in rural-agrarian economie
Effects of antiplatelet therapy on stroke risk by brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases: subgroup analyses of the RESTART randomised, open-label trial
Background
Findings from the RESTART trial suggest that starting antiplatelet therapy might reduce the risk of recurrent symptomatic intracerebral haemorrhage compared with avoiding antiplatelet therapy. Brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases (such as cerebral microbleeds) are associated with greater risks of recurrent intracerebral haemorrhage. We did subgroup analyses of the RESTART trial to explore whether these brain imaging features modify the effects of antiplatelet therapy
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