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

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

Exploring the generation and use of acylketenes with continuous flow processes

The generation and use of reactive intermediates is well suited to continuous flow processing owing to the ability to scale up reactions, contain hazards and heat solvents past their atmospheric temperature boiling points. Herein we explore the chemistry of acylketenes, generated from commercially available 2,2,6-trimethyl-4H-1,3-dioxin-4-one (TMD, 10) under continuous flow conditions. The developed flow chemistry system is capable of permitting a wide range of applications of these acylketene intermediates, including access to equilibrating processes that result in ketone exchange. Some of the dioxinone products resulting from this study are destabilised towards acylketene generation, this is demonstrated through their ability to generate acylketene at lower reaction temperatures

Solar power investment under uncertainty : a real option approach

In this thesis a real option model is adopted in order to evaluate the profitability and timing of investment in solar power generation in Sweden. Investment in solar power is viewed as a call option. The real option pricing model used in this research is based on a binomial framework with discrete time intervals, illustrating the evolution of the value of a potential investment for the installation of solar panels on a commercial rooftop. The empirical analysis in this thesis is built using price data from Statistics Sweden and case-study data provided by the Swedish solar power company Save-by-Solar Sweden AB. The evolution of the electricity price in Sweden is modeled as a stochastic process. A sensitivity analysis concerning several crucial parameters is undertaken in order to investigate their impact on the considered investment project and draw conclusions about the investment potential under different economic scenarios. In this respect, variables considered are volatility, investment cost, discount rate and the level of subsidies supporting investment in solar power generation. The changed variables are the volatility, the investment cost, discount rate and the level of subsidies. The results illustrate the importance of volatility in the electricity price, for the determination of project value and investment timing. The results have also implications for the definition of optimal subsidies for the stimulation of investment in solar power