26013 research outputs found
Sort by
The impact of Covid-19 road-space reallocation measures: Insights from the north of England
Get PDFIn response to the Covid-19 pandemic, governments around the world initiated a programme of temporary road-space reallocation measures. These temporary measures helped to create more space for social distancing and encouraged an uptake in active travel (including walking and cycling). This paper examines the impact of the pandemic on travel behaviour in two contrasting local authorities in the North of England, and specifically, examines the deployment and impact of the temporary road-space measures introduced. This research shows that, overall, there was a substantial degree of change in usual travel behaviours amongst the sample in both locations; and this included modest shifts towards active modes (which were more pronounced in Sheffield). Notably, awareness of the temporary measures was high in both Lancashire and Sheffield (77.7% across the whole sample). Yet, actual use of the measures was relatively low (33.0%), although those using them held largely favourable views of their experiences. Increases in cycling were seen across both those who were aware of the measures and those who were not, but notably, the highest increases in cycling (for commuting, shopping, and leisure trips) were across those who were aware and then went on to use the temporary measures. For those not cycling pre-pandemic, there appears to be a positive relationship between beginning to cycle and use of the measures. In contrast, the temporary measures appeared to have little impact on levels of walking
Applying an ecological dynamics framework to mixed martial arts training
Get PDFIn this paper, we outline an ecological approach to training in mixed martial arts (MMA) to support coaches in helping fighters coordinate skilled movement solutions to the ever-changing problems they encounter in the cage. Orienting one’s perspective on the fighter-cage system may require coaches to re-align their role towards being designers of alive and representative training sessions that are filled with opportunities for (inter)actions, where constraints are purposefully manipulated to facilitate the emergence of skilled behaviours for mixed martial artists of all levels. We conclude by offering three case examples ranging from amateurs to professional champions to highlight the significance of adopting an ecological dynamics framework in MMA
Multi‐objective spectrum assignment in heterogeneous cognitive radio networks for internet of things
No full textSummaryInternet of Things (IoT) applications have massively increased in the last few years. Future‐generation IoTs are going to be massive in number, heterogeneous in nature, and extremely demanding in terms of computation and communication requirements. Therefore, effective techniques are needed to optimize the use of scarce communication resources. This work proposes a novel multi‐objective framework to investigate the channel assignment problem in cognitive radio network (CRN)‐based IoT applications. The multi‐objective optimization framework comprises three objective functions. The first objective aims to maximize the overall system throughput fairness, the second objective aims to maximize the overall system residual energy, and the third objective aims to increase the user satisfaction level by maximizing the overall priority index. The problem of channel assignment is modeled and solved using Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) and
‐constraint technique. This technique generates a set of Pareto efficient solutions, and an optimal solution among these solutions is selected using a fuzzy logic decision mechanism. Moreover, power level selection is incorporated by solving the problem multiple times for different power levels and obtaining a preferred solution for each power level. The simulations are conducted to unveil an interesting trade‐off between the conflicting system design objectives, that is, the overall throughput and the overall residual energy while incorporating the significance of primary user (PU) activity when preforming channel assignment in CRN.</jats:p
Geomorphological signature of topographically controlled ice flow-switching at a glacier margin: Breiðamerkurjökull (Iceland) as a modern analogue for palaeo-ice sheets
Get PDFIce low-switching, which can involve changes in ice flow velocity and direction, is crucial to a full understanding of ice masses and their response to climate change. A topographically controlled ice flow switch near a glacier margin was recently documented at Breiðamerkurjökull, southeast Iceland, where the central flow unit migrated eastward in response to variations in subglacial topography and the influence of Jökulsárlón glacial lagoon. This site provides an opportunity to study the geomorphic response to ice-margin reconfiguration. Investigating contemporary processes can offer valuable insights into analogous landforms created during the deglaciation of palaeo-ice sheets. The landform assemblage and topographic setting of our Icelandic study site is compared to a palaeo-example from Alberta, Canada, which was once covered by the Laurentide ice sheet.
Uncrewed aerial vehicle-(UAV) derived data was used to assess the geomorphic response to this switching and related processes across a 1.5 km2 area of the central flow unit which deglaciated between 2010 and 2023. From 2010 to 2017, the landscape featured streamlined subglacial material, a stable subglacial esker system and proglacial lakes (Landsystem A), shifting to a spillway-dominated system between 2018 and 2023 (Landsystem B). Since 2018 this section of Breiðamerkurjökull has been retreating across a reverse slope bed, resulting in the formation of quasi-annual ice-marginal spillways. Meltwater impoundment at the ice margin, formed ice-contact lakes which eventually initiated ice-margin parallel spillways draining proglacial meltwater along the local land-surface gradient, towards Jökulsárlón. As the ice retreats, an ice-contact lake forms again at the new margin and initiates the erosion of the next ice-marginal spillway. The geomorphological signature demonstrates how subglacial topography and ice-flow switching can significantly influence ice and meltwater dynamics.
Since the glacier flow-switch, part of the central unit is now lake-terminating with areas of the margin evolving into a stagnant system, as it is now cut off from the accumulation centre. Therefore, Landsystem B could be analogous to regions of ice stream shut down and where ice masses retreated across reverse slope beds. For example, the Pakowki Lake region of Southeastern Alberta displays a similar landform assemblage and is presented as a palaeo-example in this work. Such insights are important for assessing the efficacy of numerical models in reconstructing the finer scale dynamics of past ice sheets during retreat
The State of the Coalfields 2024: Economic and social conditions in the former coalfields of England, Scotland and Wales
Get PDFIdeologies in Geospatial Futurism: a computational and critical discourse inquiry into the Arcgis and ESRI-blogs
Get PDFGeographic Information Systems (GIS) are ubiquitous building blocks of geosurveillance environments embedded in everyday social practices. This article builds on the literature on geomedia, the criticisms of GIS, and the communicative spaces to delve into the realm of GIS-software and spatial analytics. The data corpus consists of ArcGIS and ESRI blogs on the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) site, which defines itself as the global market leader in GIS software, location intelligence, and mapping.
This project assesses the impact of their discursive representations of the future and the societal implications of these views through an iterative process of computational and critical interpretive analyses - extending from LDA topic modeling to Critical Discourse Analysis - to unveil the ideological underpinnings of a corporate prescribed understanding of (GIS) future.
The analysis reveals that representations of future in the main blogs of the geospatial industry are deeply embedded in ideological principles that emphasise perceived indispensability and technosolutionism as the inherent belief that complex social, political, and economic issues can be solved primarily or exclusively through technological means. The article identifies the rhetoric and structure operations in a discourse that ultimately kidnaps any alternatives of the future. The geospatial industry's representations of the future serve as ideological tools that shape perceptions about societal development and democratic well-being. The critical engagement with these representations contributes to understanding the role of GIS technology in the shaping of fair futures built on democratic public spheres in the digital age
Learning from failure: A context‐informed perspective on RCTs
Get PDFDiscussions of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) in education that do not show an impact regularly focus on the intervention and how it failed to impact on expected measures, with typologies identifying persistent critical points of failure. This paper uses one such RCT—the Integrating English programme—to exemplify the application of a new model to explain failure in RCTs. To do so, the paper develops a set of categories of context drawing on the wider social evaluation field: backdrop, design, operation and interpretation. Thus, the paper exposes critical weak points in the commission and interpretation, as well as the implementation, of an RCT. Our aim is to work towards more robust evaluations by demonstrating that it is not simply the programme design, implementation and evaluation that can contribute to a lack of impact; there can be more fundamental system issues at play
Citizenship education in higher education: the potential of a philosophical approach to fostering citizenship
Get PDFFeasibility of Parkour-style training in team sport practice: A Delphi study
Get PDFTo better understand the potential applications of
Parkour-style training for athlete development, this study
aimed to interrogate expert consensus on the feasibility of
integrating Parkour-style training into team sport practice,
by employing a three-round, online Delphi method.
Strength and conditioning coaches and talent development coaches working in team sport settings were
invited to participate. Twenty-four coaches completed
Round One, 21 completed Round Two and 20 completed
Round Three. In Round One, coaches answered 15 open-
ended questions across four categories: (1) General
Perceptions of Parkour-style training; (2) Potential
Applications of Parkour-style training; (3) Designing and
Implementing Parkour-style training Environments; and
(4), Creating an Inclusive Learning Environment.
Responses from Round One were analysed using
reflexive thematic analysis with deductive and inductive
coding resulting in 78 statements across three dimensions
(Application of Parkour Style Training in Team Sports;
Designing and Implementing Parkour-style training
Environments; Overcoming Potential Barriers when
Integrating Parkour-style training). In Rounds Two and
Three, coaches rated these statements using a four-point
Likert scale and measures of collective agreement or
disagreement were calculated. This study established
consensus around a set of design principles for integrating
Parkour-style training into team sport practice routines