Treasured Garments: Exploring Value in the Wardrobe

This thesis aimed to determine how garments become treasured: the nature of those garments, and the process by which they achieve and retain their status, viewed within the spectrum of ways of valuing clothing. By privileging the wearer’s view of garments this thesis reveals a depth of emotional attachment to clothing via its material and sensory experience that impact subsequent valuing. This thesis contributes to the importance of fashion studies, through exploring the multiple and overlapping reasons why we wear and keep garments. The methodology expands the focus of wardrobe studies by concentrating attention on single garments in relation to the wardrobe. Wardrobe interviews were combined with garment analysis to deeply investigate particular garments, then used to open up attitudes to the rest of the wardrobe. A sample of five women and five men aged between 21 – 44, living in close proximity within a London neighbourhood were recruited based on location. Acknowledging the small sample, this study aimed for depth of understanding rather than generalisability. The evidence was analysed thematically under the dominant themes of acquisition, materiality, emotion, narrative and value. The importance of attachment clothing in life transitions, and in preserving intergenerational family connections is identified, as is the role of materiality in emotional connections manifest in practices of wear, care, alteration and repair. Treasuring was found to be a process of increasing singularization understood in terms of uniqueness and irreplaceability. The findings were situated within a growing body of wardrobe studies and studies of special possessions, framed by theories of exchange and value. New categories of intergenerational clothing connections are put forward such as ‘requested’ and ‘taken’ in which the receiver is the active party in clothing movement. It also offers the male perspective on attachment clothing. This research recommends expanding the term ‘investment value’ to include elements of the personal economy and rejecting ideas of nostalgic or sentimental relations, to see treasured garments as symbolically dense. A dichotomy between worn and unworn attachment clothing was identified in the literature. In this study, the majority of the garments that were treasured were also worn, creating a dilemma between wearing and wearing out. ‘Conscious wearing’ is proposed to describe how the participants rationed the use of a garment in order to preserve its lifespan and extend their enjoyment of wearing. ‘Emotional comforting’ is suggested as an expansion of the ways in which clothes can provide comfort and be described as comfortable

Strength of forensic voice comparison evidence from the acoustics of filled pauses

This study investigates the evidential value of filled pauses (FPs, i.e. um, uh) as variables in forensic voice comparison. FPs for 60 young male speakers of standard southern British English were analysed. The following acoustic properties were analysed: midpoint frequencies of the first three formants in the vocalic portion; ‘dynamic’ characterisations of formant trajectories (i.e. quadratic polynomial equations fitted to nine measurement points over the entire vowel); vowel duration; and nasal duration for um. Likelihood ratio (LR) scores were computed using the Multivariate Kernel Density formula (MVKD; Aitken and Lucy, 2004) and converted to calibrated log10 LRs (LLRs) using logistic-regression (Brümmer et al., 2007). System validity was assessed using both equal error rate (EER) and the log LR cost function (Cllr; Brümmer and du Preez, 2006). The system with the best performance combines dynamic measurements of all three formants with vowel and nasal duration for um, achieving an EER of 4.08% and Cllr of 0.12. In terms of general patterns, um consistently outperformed uh. For um, the formant dynamic systems generated better validity than those based on midpoints, presumably reflecting the additional degree of formant movement in um caused by the transition from vowel to nasal. By contrast, midpoints outperformed dynamics for the more monophthongal uh. Further, the addition of duration (vowel or vowel and nasal) consistently improved system performance. The study supports the view that FPs have excellent potential as variables in forensic voice comparison cases

Formant dynamics and durations of um improve the performance of automatic speaker recognition systems

We assess the potential improvement in the performance of MFCC-based automatic speaker recognition (ASR) systems with the inclusion of linguistic-phonetic information. Likelihood ratios were computed using MFCCs and the formant trajectories and durations of the hesitation marker um, extracted from recordings of male standard southern British English speakers. Testing was run over 20 replications using randomised sets of speakers. System validity (EER and Cllr) was found to improve with the inclusion of um relative to the baseline ASR across all 20 replications. These results offer support for the growing integration of automatic and linguistic-phonetic methods in forensic voice comparison

Strength of forensic voice comparison evidence from the acoustics of filled pauses

This study investigates the evidential value of filled pauses (FPs, i.e. um, uh) as variables in forensic voice comparison. FPs for 60 young male speakers of standard southern British English were analysed. The following acoustic properties were analysed: midpoint frequencies of the first three formants in the vocalic portion; ‘dynamic’ characterisations of formant trajectories (i.e. quadratic polynomial equations fitted to nine measurement points over the entire vowel); vowel duration; and nasal duration for um. Likelihood ratio (LR) scores were computed using the Multivariate Kernel Density formula (MVKD; Aitken and Lucy, 2004) and converted to calibrated log10 LRs (LLRs) using logistic-regression (Brümmer et al., 2007). System validity was assessed using both equal error rate (EER) and the log LR cost function (Cllr; Brümmer and du Preez, 2006). The system with the best performance combines dynamic measurements of all three formants with vowel and nasal duration for um, achieving an EER of 4.08% and Cllr of 0.12. In terms of general patterns, um consistently outperformed uh. For um, the formant dynamic systems generated better validity than those based on midpoints, presumably reflecting the additional degree of formant movement in um caused by the transition from vowel to nasal. By contrast, midpoints outperformed dynamics for the more monophthongal uh. Further, the addition of duration (vowel or vowel and nasal) consistently improved system performance. The study supports the view that FPs have excellent potential as variables in forensic voice comparison cases

Doctoral research as team enterprise: the continuing legacy of Professor Rosalind Driver

Doctoral research can be a daunting prospect. Would-be scholars might be deterred from embarking on a PhD by financial stress, tales of isolation and difficult relationships with supervisors, or by the intimidating prospect of the required intellectual effort. In this article, we, the authors, offer a more positive take on the PhD process by reflecting on our own experiences. In recent years, we have all undertaken doctoral studies at King’s College London’s (KCL) Centre for Research in Education in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (CRESTEM), thanks to scholarships from the Rosalind Driver Memorial Fund. In doing so, we have continued to build on the legacy of Rosalind Driver, or Ros, as she was more commonly known, pursuing our own research interests and forging new pathways of enquiry, all while immersed in a collaborative research community at KCL. In this article, which we write at the time of the 25th anniversary of Ros Driver’s death, we reflect on some of the links between her work and our own research and demonstrate how her legacy continues to influence science education research and practice today. We hope to encourage others involved in science education to consider how they might bring their expertise to this diverse research field

The impact of behavioural risk factors on communicable diseases: a systematic review of reviews

Abstract Background The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has highlighted that individuals with behavioural risk factors commonly associated with non-communicable diseases (NCDs), such as smoking, harmful alcohol use, obesity, and physical inactivity, are more likely to experience severe symptoms from COVID-19. These risk factors have been shown to increase the risk of NCDs, but less is known about their broader influence on communicable diseases. Taking a wide focus on a range of common communicable diseases, this review aimed to synthesise research examining the impact of behavioural risk factors commonly associated with NCDs on risks of contracting, or having more severe outcomes from, communicable diseases. Methods Literature searches identified systematic reviews and meta-analyses that examined the association between behavioural risk factors (alcohol, smoking, illicit drug use, physical inactivity, obesity and poor diet) and the contraction/severity of common communicable diseases, including infection or associated pathogens. An a priori, prospectively registered protocol was followed (PROSPERO; registration number CRD42020223890). Results Fifty-three systematic reviews were included, of which 36 were also meta-analyses. Reviews focused on: tuberculosis, human immunodeficiency virus, hepatitis C virus, hepatitis B virus, invasive bacterial diseases, pneumonia, influenza, and COVID-19. Twenty-one reviews examined the association between behavioural risk factors and communicable disease contraction and 35 examined their association with communicable disease outcomes (three examined their association with both contraction and outcomes). Fifty out of 53 reviews (94%) concluded that at least one of the behavioural risk factors studied increased the risk of contracting or experiencing worse health outcomes from a communicable disease. Across all reviews, effect sizes, where calculated, ranged from 0.83 to 8.22. Conclusions Behavioural risk factors play a significant role in the risk of contracting and experiencing more severe outcomes from communicable diseases. Prevention of communicable diseases is likely to be most successful if it involves the prevention of behavioural risk factors commonly associated with NCDs. These findings are important for understanding risks associated with communicable disease, and timely, given the COVID-19 pandemic and the need for improvements in future pandemic preparedness. Addressing behavioural risk factors should be an important part of work to build resilience against any emerging and future epidemics and pandemics

Gang membership: links to violence exposure, paranoia, PTSD, anxiety and forced control of behavior in prison

Objective: Gang membership inherently links to violence, and violent experiences strongly relate to PTSD, anxiety, and paranoia. Yet to date, gang members’ mental health has received little attention, and their paranoia has not been examined. This study, using established measures, assessed street gang and non-gang prisoners’ levels of: violence exposure, symptoms of PTSD, paranoia, and anxiety, forced behavioral control, and segregation in prison. Method: Participants were 65 (32 gang & 33 non-gang) prisoners, recruited using opportunity sampling. Participants provided informed consent, and were interviewed individually. Interviews were anonymized to maintain confidentiality. Chi Square and discriminant function analyses were used to compare participants’ demographics, segregation levels, mental health symptoms, and identify predictors of street gang membership. Results: As compared to non-gang prisoners, street gang prisoners have higher levels of exposure to violence, symptoms of paranoia, PTSD, anxiety, and forced control of their behavior in prison. Street gang prisoners were not more likely to be segregated, but they were more likely to belong to ethnic minorities. Street gang prisoners were only found to be younger than non-gang prisoners, when other variables were controlled for. Conclusions: Mental health deserves more attention in gang research. The implications of findings are that gang membership may undermine members’ mental health, and/or that individuals with existing mental health problems, may be those attracted to gang membership. Moreover, justice responses, via policies and intervention strategies, need to identify and address the mental health needs in gang member prisoners, if successful rehabilitation of gang members is to be achieved

Improving the quality of hospital care provided to people aged 11-25 years with a mental health condition

The National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death undertook a detailed analysis of data from 1269 patients aged 11–25 years, admitted to hospital with intentional injury, affective disorder, or eating disorders, to assess the quality of physical and mental healthcare provided. This article summarises the findings and associated recommendations relevant for the general hospital setting