From the ship's log of H.M.S.A.S. Imhoff

No Abstrac

Master of Science

thesisAt some point, people may face an experience that causes sensory overload, mental fatigue, or stress from living in an urban environment. Recovery from the negative influences of the urban environment, according to Attention Restoration Theory (ART) and Stress Recovery Theory, is based on resting executive attention functioning and positive affect repair. Both theories highlight nature as an environment that is effective in restoring executive attention functioning and positive affect repair. This study explores the effect that setting and a meditative labyrinth experience has on affect, tranquility, and executive attention functioning. The study placed 60 participants into four treatments to explore these relationships, a labyrinth in an urban setting without meditation, a labyrinth in an urban setting with meditation, a labyrinth in a natural setting without meditation, and a labyrinth in a natural setting with meditation. After the participants participated in one of the four conditions, they were given a questionnaire to measure affect and tranquility, then an Attention Network Task (ANT). Affect was measured by the Positive Affect and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS). Tranquility was measured using a tranquility index developed for previous research. The directed attention or executive attention functioning was measured by the attention network task (ANT). iv Executive attention functioning was higher for the meditation group rather than the no meditation group. The results also found negative affect was greater in the urban area compared to the natural area. The tranquility results showed meditation depended on setting for an effect. The nature setting with no meditation had the highest effect on tranquility. The urban area with no meditation had the lowest effect on tranquility. The results from this study are important because it gives direction for experiences that may enhance recovery from attentional fatigue and positive affect repair. The study also gives implications for urban dwellers who may find meditation is the best experience for executive attention recovery in an urban environment. However, for urban dwellers who want to improve their affect and sense of tranquility, they may find spending time in nature will be more effective. This study gives reason for future research to study the recovery of attentional fatigue and positive affect when a restorative experience is meditation in nature compared to meditation in an urban environment

Factors Affecting Pubertal Timing and Perceptions of Birth Control

Menarche is the occurrence of a first menstrual period in the female adolescent. The age of menarche has been decreasing over the past 150 years. While some factors have been identified, like increased body mass index (BMI), such factors alone cannot account for the overall decrease in age. Due to the decreased age of menarche and as additional uses for oral contraceptive pills (OCPs) have been identified, it is becoming clear that females no longer use “birth control” or “oral contraceptives” primarily to prevent pregnancy, but instead for a myriad other reasons including “menstrual suppression.” Menstrual suppression is the use of hormonal methods to diminish undesirable effects of cyclicity such as changes in mood, painful cramps, and unpredictability. OCPs combine estrogens and progestins in a pill form that is taken orally for 21 days, followed by a placebo pill taken for seven days, mimicking the idealized 28-day menstrual cycle. OCPs require a prescription and are 99.7% effective at preventing pregnancy, when taken as directed. Mechanistically, most hormonal interventions prevent the positive-feedback loop between estrogen and luteinizing hormone necessary for ovulation. In addition, some also impact the endometrium and cervical mucus, making both less suitable for implantation and fertilization. Thus, young women begin using OCPs from a young age and switch their prescriptions throughout their reproductive years, yet very little research exists on these modern modifications to OCP use. One goal of this study is to better define and clarify these additional new uses of the birth control pill. The purpose of this study is two-fold. Firstly, to determine factors affecting the earlier onset of menarche in young girls. Secondly, to better define socio-cultural norms affecting the use of “birth control pills” otherwise known as “the pill.” Additionally, this study aims to document and organize an inventory of women’s OCP brands, cycle characteristics, symptoms and/or side effects, and several other factors while using OCPs. An overall goal of this study is to develop a more accurate understanding of current rationale underlying benefits to OCP use that reside outside of contraceptive-use only

Women making meaning of their desistance from offending: an interpretative phenomenological analysis

It is recognised that women who have offended comprise a vulnerable group having commonly experienced trauma and abuse. However, the dominant risk paradigm and assessment tools used within the Criminal Justice System have excluded women offenders in the research base. Similarly, current approaches to desistance, which is concerned with the cessation of offending, have neglected the perspective of women offenders. This study explores an alternative approach, based upon women offenders perspectives, to inform upon intervention and support which encourages desistance from offending. Resilience theory provides a broad framework for the study, in which in depth interviews were conducted with a purposeful sample of 15 ethnically diverse women drawn from probation services and third sector agencies. Documentary records which included offence history and Probation assessment records were utilised to provide a rich context to the research. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to explore the women’s experiences and understandings of their offending behaviour, as well as how they found meaning in the support and interventions received from these services. Findings revealed complex histories of childhood neglect and abuse, interpersonal violence in adult relationships, including rape and mental health needs. Of particular importance was the value placed by the women on interventions and approaches that focussed on enabling them to build resilience, through relational resources and self-efficacy beliefs. Barriers to building resilience were related to adaptive behaviours, including the understanding that trust in relationships was paradoxical. Another barrier was posed through lack of self-efficacy beliefs. The study concludes that desistance from offending is underpinned by the process of building resilience for recovery in women offenders. It is recommended that building resilience to support the recovery journey is translated into policy and practice and that the way in which women offenders are assessed based on risk to the public is reconceptualised to inform this

Genetic Algorithm Optimisation of PID Controllers for a Multivariable Process

This project is about the design of PID controllers and the improvement of outputs in multivariable processes. The optimisation of PID controller for the Shell oil process is presented in this paper, using Genetic Algorithms (GAs). GAs are used to automatically tune PID controllers according to given specifications. They use an objective function, which is specially formulated and measures the performance of controller in terms of time-domain bounds on the responses of closed-loop process. A specific objective function is suggested that allows the designer for a single-input, single-output (SISO) process to explicitly specify the process performance specifications associated with the given problem in terms of time-domain bounds, then experimentally evaluate the closed-loop responses. This is investigated using a simple two-term parametric PID controller tuning problem. The results are then analysed and compared with those obtained using a number of popular conventional controller tuning methods. The intention is to demonstrate that the proposed objective function is inherently capable of accurately quantifying complex performance specifications in the time domain. This is something that cannot normally be employed in conventional controller design or tuning methods. Finally, the recommended objective function will be used to examine the control problems of Multi-Input-Multi-Output (MIMO) processes, and the results will be presented in order to determine the efficiency of the suggested control system

Community and contribution: factors motivating students to participate in an extra-curricular learning activity and implications for learning

The human desire to join and participate in communities can be seen as an attempt to satisfy some of our universal human needs (Diener & Ryan, 2009; Maslow, 1954). The theory of communities of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1998) been widely used to explain how and why humans participate in multiple communities, and a key requirement of a community of practice (CoP) is that members engage in ‘joint activities and discussions’. In the current age where social media tools have facilitated the exponential growth of online communities, the term CoP is often used to describe a group of people engaging in online discussion. In the context of online learning, the use of CoP theory can often lead to online discussion being interpreted as a joint activity. This paper argues that the concept of a joint activity as something other than online discussion has been neglected, and that while online discussion may account for the presence of an online community, evidence of joint activities beyond the simple discussion of ideas is required for the community to constitute a true CoP. Using activity theory, the authors investigated the factors motivating students on the Digital Design and Animation course at West Midlands University to participate in a non-formal learning activity involving the co-creation of a digital artifact. The authors believe that a greater understanding of the concept of joint activity, and of the link between co-creating an artifact and members’ shared emotional connection (McMillan & Chavis, 1986), has the potential to refocus our understanding and application of the theory of CoP in the networked era

Investigation and implementation of drawn two-dimensional aesthetic rules applied within digital three-dimensional animation production

This research was part of a collaborative brief to create a 3D animation visualising Benjamin Britton’s, Young Persons Guide to the Orchestra orchestral (1946). Funded by the Orchestra Network for Europe Network, the short film ‘Red and the Kingdom of Sound’ has been screened at a series of live events alongside orchestras across Europe and was shared with schools as a learning tool. To visualise the music, a two dimensional ‘UPA style’ was chosen to match the era of the music’s conception and established a research path exploring two-dimensional aesthetics/rules in 3D production. UPA (United Pictures of America / founded 1943) used a mix of an abstract /graphical 2D design style and character animation. Titles such as ‘Gerald McBoing Boing (1950)’ and the Mr Magoo series personify this approach. Replicating this kind of two-dimensional logic and applying it using 3D software is a core problem for studio production. In 2012 Disney Studios produced ‘Paperman’ using bespoke software as a response to this problem. The animation ‘Rob ‘n Roy’ (2013) by Tumbleweed Studios explored this problem further by creating two and half dimensional rigs that allowed characters to work on both two dimensional and three dimensional planes at the same time. In ‘Red and the Kingdom of Sound’, a series of possible solutions were explored in response. These included techniques, such as flattening the 3D world, replicating texture/ noise (paper), creating three-dimensional shape definition in two dimensions, shadow control, and allowing three-dimensional characters to adhere to two-dimensional line/paint logic whilst moving. A series of tests were undertaken and solutions established. These were shared with project artists and animators as the ‘rules’ for the production, including the creation of a bespoke software plug-in for use with a cast of animated characters. Film link: https://vimeo.com/250242953 Password: conducto

A radical approach to diverse meroterpenoids

Meroterpenoids are mixed terpenoid–polyketide natural products with a variety of biological activities. Now, a synthetic approach that combines biocatalytic oxidation with a range of other radical-based reactions enables the divergent synthesis of eight oxidized meroterpenoid natural products and one analogue