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The predictive moment: reverie, connection and predictive processing
Get PDFYesAccording to the theory of predictive processing, understanding in the present involves non-consciously representing the immediate future, based on probabilistic inference shaped by learning from the past. This paper suggests links between this neuroscientific theory and the psychoanalytic concept of reverie–an empathic, containing attentional state–and considers implications for the ways therapists intuit implicit material in their clients. Using findings from a study about therapists’ experiences of this state, we propose that reverie can offer practitioners from diverse theoretical s a means to enter the predictive moment deeply, making use of its subtle contents to connect with clients
Transforming State Responses to Feminicide: Women's Movements, Law and Criminal Justice Institutions in Brazil
No full textNoGlobal concern about feminicide -- the killing of girls or women for reasons related to gender roles – started in Latin America with the epidemic of sexualised murders and disappearances in Central America and Mexico. There, the killers walked free due to state indifference and an incompetent criminal justice system. But this book tells a more positive story from the region. Brazil has high numbers of feminicides, mostly committed by intimate partners. Yet, the state’s responses to this crime have been transformed in recent years. This is the first country study to examine in detail how strategic action by the women’s movement has resulted in significant improvements in the investigation, prosecution and prevention of domestic violence and of feminicide.
This study traces the interaction between the main contributory factors to that transformation. Innovation and capacity-building in the criminal justice system has been driven by the development of norms and protocols at the inter-American level, by changes in Brazilian law and jurisprudence, and by policy entrepreneurs within the police and justice sector. Executive branch investment since the early 2000s in tackling gender-based violence created a propitious political environment. Coalitions of interest involving feminist academics, NGOs, local campaigners, bureaucrats within the state machineries for women, politicians, journalists, and criminal justice professionals were able to identify, create and use institutional spaces for change and diffuse good practices.Research Development Fund Publication Prize Award winner, Mar 2021
Archaeology and contemporary death: Using the past to provoke, challenge and engage
Get PDFYesWhile death is universal, reactions to death and ways of dealing with the dead body
are hugely diverse, and archaeological research reveals numerous ways of dealing
with the dead through time and across the world. In this paper, findings are presented
which not only demonstrate the power of archaeology to promote and aid discussion
around this difficult and challenging topic, but also how our approach resulted in
personal growth and professional development impacts for participants.
In this interdisciplinary pilot study, archaeological case studies were used in 31
structured workshops with 187 participants from health and social care backgrounds in
the UK, to explore their reactions to a diverse range of materials which documented
wide and varied approaches to death and the dead. Our study supports the hypothesis
that the past is a powerful instigator of conversation around challenging aspects of
death, and after death care and practices: 93% of participants agreed with this. That
exposure to archaeological case studies and artefacts stimulates multifaceted
discourse, some of it difficult, is a theme that also emerges in our data from pre, post
and follow-up questionnaires, and semi-structured interviews. The material prompted
participants to reflect on their biases, expectations and norms around both treatment of
the dead, and of bereavement, impacting on their values, attitudes and beliefs.
Moreover, 87% of participants believed the workshop would have a personal effect
through thinking differently about death and bereavement, and 57% thought it would
impact on how they approached death and bereavement in their professional practice.
This has huge implications today, where talk of death remains troublesome, and for
some, has a near-taboo status – ‘taboo’ being a theme evident in some participants’
own words. The findings have an important role to play in facilitating and normalising
discussions around dying and bereavement and in equipping professionals in their
work with people with advanced illness.The project ‘Continuing Bonds: Exploring the meaning and legacy of death through past and contemporary practice’ was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, Grant Number AH/M008266/1.Research Development Fund Publication Prize Award winner, Dec 2020
Tranquillity mapping in New Zealand national parks - a pilot study
Get PDFYesThe tranquillity in national parks worldwide is
currently under threat from intrusion of anthropogenic
noise of a growing tourism industry and activity related to
park management. This was addressed by creating informative
tranquillity maps, where perceived tranquillity can
be considered a key indicator of soundscape quality in natural
areas. Tranquillity of an area can be assessed using
TRAPT (Tranquillity Rating Prediction Tool), that has been
developed and refined for assessing urban green spaces,
national parks and wilderness areas in the United Kingdom.
The subjective response to helicopter noise levels of
a sample group of 35 people representing the general New
Zealand population was obtained, based on visual and audio
stimuli that were collected in Aoraki/Mt Cook National
Park. These results were used to produce a revised TRAPT
equation. It was discovered that levels under 32 dBA correspond
to an excellent level of tranquillity. This thresholdwas
used to produce a noise level exposure calculation
for two national parks using noise prediction model AEDT
(Aviation Environmental Development Tool). Contours representing
tranquillity duration were then calculated and
plotted, to serve as a planning tool for use by the Department
of Conservation. A similar approach could be used
for other national parks worldwid
The significance of ECOWAS Norms and Mechanisms in Conflict Prevention and Security-Building in West Africa since 2000
No full textThis thesis examines the roles and significance of ECOWAS (Economic
Community of West Africa States) in conflict prevention, crisis response and
security-building processes in West Africa, particularly since 2000. The
importance of developing regional institutions and capacities for peace and
security-building in Sub-Saharan Africa has been widely recognised since at
least the mid-1990s. Not only has the African Union developed important peace
and security building aims and roles, but so too have several of the sub-regional
organisations in Africa, including ECOWAS in West Africa. In the late 1990s,
ECOWAS Member States achieved a number of noteworthy sub-regional
agreements on ECOWAS norms and mechanisms for conflict prevention, crisis
response, and peace and security –building in West Africa. These agreements
and mechanisms have subsequently been further developed since 2000, in a
dynamic process that was informed by experience with efforts to respond to a
range of crises and conflicts in the region. This thesis critically examines this
process, focussing particularly on the extent to which, and how, ECOWAS
norms, institutions and mechanism have continued not only to develop but also
to be influential in practice.
Our research demonstrates that the ECOWAS agreements and norms
established by 2000 have continued subsequently to be dynamically developed
and used by ECOWAS member states and West African networks, in close
interaction with several international partners. It argues that these norms and
mechanisms have played significant roles in influencing actual policies,
practices and missions. They have therefore proved to be more than shallow symbolic or paper agreements, despite the political fragility and divisions of the
region and most of its states. We argue that this cannot be adequately
understood using single explanatory frameworks, such as Nigeria’s hegemonic
influence or instrumental influence of external Actors such as UN, EU or USA,
as has often been suggested. Adequate explanations need to combine these
factors with others, including relatively consistent investment in regional norms
and institutions by coalitions of some West African states (including Ghana,
Senegal and Nigeria) together with civil society and parliamentary networks.
Our research then examines in detail the extent to which, and how, ECOWAS
norms and mechanisms on conflict prevention, crisis response and security
sector reform were significant and influential in ECOWAS’ responses to the
crises and conflicts in Cote D’Ivoire, Mali and to a lesser extent in Gambia since 2003; and also how these crises were in turn influential in the further
development of ECOWAS norms in these areas. We demonstrate numerous
weaknesses in the implementation and effectiveness in these norms; and
limitations in their diffusion and influence. However, we argue that such
weaknesses and limitations are typical of regional peace and security norms
everywhere, including much more stable and developed regions. Equally
significant is that substantial coalitions exist between ECOWAS member states
and stakeholders. Despite obvious tensions, ECOWAS, AU, UN and other
countries such as France continue to work to address inherent tensions and
develop mutually beneficial collaborations that enhance effective conflict
prevention in the sub-region. The study draws on the knowledge created within
this this thesis to propose a framework for conflict intervention.Allan & Nesta Foundatio
A novel application of deep learning with image cropping: a smart cities use case for flood monitoring
Get PDFYesEvent monitoring is an essential application of Smart City platforms. Real-time monitoring of gully and drainage blockage is an important part of flood monitoring applications. Building viable IoT sensors for detecting blockage is a complex task due to the limitations of deploying such sensors in situ. Image classification with deep learning is a potential alternative solution. However, there are no image datasets of gullies and drainages. We were faced with such challenges as part of developing a flood monitoring application in a European Union-funded project. To address these issues, we propose a novel image classification approach based on deep learning with an IoT-enabled camera to monitor gullies and drainages. This approach utilises deep learning to develop an effective image classification model to classify blockage images into different class labels based on the severity. In order to handle the complexity of video-based images, and subsequent poor classification accuracy of the model, we have carried out experiments with the removal of image edges by applying image cropping. The process of cropping in our proposed experimentation is aimed to concentrate only on the regions of interest within images, hence leaving out some proportion of image edges. An image dataset from crowd-sourced publicly accessible images has been curated to train and test the proposed model. For validation, model accuracies were compared considering model with and without image cropping. The cropping-based image classification showed improvement in the classification accuracy. This paper outlines the lessons from our experimentation that have a wider impact on many similar use cases involving IoT-based cameras as part of smart city event monitoring platforms.European Regional Development Fund Interreg project Smart Cities and Open Data REuse (SCORE)
“We don’t know who be who”: post-party politics, forum shopping and Liberia’s 2017 elections
Get PDFYesLiberia’s 2017 elections represented a watershed moment in the country’s political history. In addition to completing the first democratic transfer of power from one president to another since 1944, it resulted in wide representation across many different parties and independents as well as high levels of legislative turn-overs. Additionally, these polls brought forward unprecedented numbers of party reconfigurations, increased levels of defections, and politicians/parties losing abysmally in presumed ethno-regional bases. In this article, we argue that Liberia currently exists in a post-war arena of “post-party” politics where a profound disregard for parties is the norm, and in which the electorate and politicians alike forum shop for candidates and/or political configurations they presume will deliver the best results at national, sub-national and local levels. Although literature exploring electoral trends in Africa tends to over-emphasize ethno-regionalism as a driver and constraint in the choices of voters and politicians, we demonstrate instead that Liberians make relatively informed, strategic decisions about political alliances and ballot casting thereby subverting allegiances to ethnicity and region. By further eschewing party loyalties, Liberians have gradually become astute forum shoppers in a political marketplace that makes running for office and voting complex undertakings
Serious games, gamification and serious mental illness: A scoping review
No full textNoThe use of serious games and gamification to promote learning has a long history. More recently, serious games and gamification have been used in clinical settings to promote treatment and recovery. Yet there is little evidence to support their use with populations that experience serious mental illness.
A scoping review was used to answer the following research question, What is the current state of knowledge about how games and gamification are used to promote treatment of serious mental illness? Scoping reviews clarify, define, and develop conceptual boundaries within a topic area. Twenty studies were identified and reviewed by using thematic content analysis.
A range of game types, formats, and technology were assessed. Six themes emerged from analysis. Serious games and the use of gamification to promote treatment have potential to engage persons with serious mental illness in game content and promote treatment outcomes. Game design that supported clear instruction, a coherent narrative, a smooth interface between mechanics and play, and service user involvement early in the process of game design were important for the successful promotion of engagement and learning. Games reviewed offered the opportunity for problem solving, collaboration, and goal-oriented activity that supported the delivery of therapeutic outcomes.
The use of serious games and gamification to promote treatment of serious mental illness had high levels of feasibility and acceptability among both users and providers. The potential treatment value of games, however, is dependent on key features related to the games’ design, operation, and rationale
The Arp2/3 complex is critical for colonisation of the mouse skin by melanoblasts
Get PDFYesThe Arp2/3 complex is essential for the assembly of branched filamentous actin but its role in physiology and development is surprisingly little understood. Melanoblasts deriving from the neural crest migrate along the developing embryo and traverse the dermis to reach the epidermis colonising the skin and eventually homing within the hair follicles. We have previously established that Rac1 and Cdc42 direct melanoblast migration in vivo We hypothesised that the Arp2/3 complex might be the main downstream effector of these small GTPases. Arp3 depletion in the melanocyte lineage results in severe pigmentation defects in dorsal and ventral regions of the mouse skin. Arp3 null melanoblasts demonstrate proliferation and migration defects and fail to elongate as their wild-type counterparts. Conditional deletion of Arp3 in primary melanocytes causes improper proliferation, spreading, migration and adhesion to extracellular matrix. Collectively, our results suggest that the Arp2/3 complex is absolutely indispensable in the melanocyte lineage in mouse development, and indicate a significant role in developmental processes that require tight regulation of actin-mediated motility.Cancer Research UK, (A180076), Medical Research Council (MR/R017255/1), Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/P001114/1), Helmholtz-Gemeinschaf
Differences and Similarities between Coronavirus and other Viruses
No full textYesCoronavirus is the most dangerous virus in the world wide and it can easy spread between people, animals and plants because it is existing on one strand of RNA (Ribonucleic Acid) and it can duplicate faster than any virus. The source of coronavirus is still unknown, but some sources said that it came from seafood market and other sources said that it came from bat and snakes. It starts in Wuhan; China and every day the fatality increases. The symptoms are like a SARS-CoV (acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus)) and MERS-CoV (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus). By using nucleotide sequence of coronavirus from NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information) and some programs that ran on Matlab, the results show that there are some differences and similarities between coronavirus and other viruses such as Ebola, Flu-b, Hepatitis B, HIV and Zika especially for DEBs (distinct excluded blocks) program that shows at 5bp (base pair) there is a common with slightly difference between coronavirus “cgggg” and Ebola virus “cgtgg”. The aim from this study is to find a way to help doctors and scientists to stop spreading the coronavirus or to destroy it