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Drag reduction mechanism of a diving submersible with the double-row silk appendages based on continuous wavelet transform and dynamic modal decomposition
Get PDFThis study presents a method to reduce drag and enhance the diving velocity of a submersible through the application of a double-row of silk appendages on its surface. Initially, Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations reveal that boundary layer separation occurs in the midship of a conventional submersible, accompanied by significant vortex formation at the bow and stern. Thus, a double-row of silk appendages is applied to suppress boundary layer separation and modify the vortex structures in the wake. Torque sensors and particle image velocimetry (PIV) systems are employed to measure the drag force and wake flow field. The results show that the silk appendages effectively suppress adverse pressure gradient-induced boundary layer separation. Moreover, the wake structure is optimized, leading to a drag reduction of up to 6.67 %. To investigate the underlying mechanism, continuous wavelet transform (CWT) and dynamic mode decomposition (DMD) methods are applied. The analysis indicates that a double-row of silk appendages with appropriate length reduces low-frequency modal energy, suppresses flow separation and large-scale vortices, promotes small-scale vortex structures, and improves flow field stability. However, longer appendages may intensify local disturbances, resulting in decreased stability
Creative Health
No full textThe term civic is often associated with collective engagement in public life, community well-being, and the creation or preservation of spaces and systems that benefit the broader public.
The paper explores the role of art and design research and education in shaping civic spaces and fostering meaningful connections between communities and places, through creative health. It considers how creative practices can help define and strengthen the role of the civic in making places.
It asks, what role does creative health provision play in promoting wellbeing and connection in communities?
How can we advance community inclusivity in heritage settings, amplifying marginalised voices and fostering collective ownership of cultural narratives
Game, set, glitch: why post-match press conferences are broken and how holograms could fix them
Get PDFThis commentary presents a speculative technological solution to the future of post-match press conferences, in the form of holographic technology. Current post-match press conference formats, whether it be in person, or through the use of Zoom, present challenges. To address these issues, this paper proposes a technologically driven solution to facilitate a transformation of the press conference, in order to reshape a format that has largely been the same for over a 100 years. In particular, the authors present holographic technology as an effective means of supporting the athletes’ voice whilst engaging with the press, sponsors and fans alike. In the tennis arena, holographic technology has been used by players such as Emma Radacanu and there is the potential to for it to be used more widely. This commentary identifies the benefits and challenges holographic technology presents and highlights its significance as a communications platform in a reimagined press conference
The good and the dark side of integration and dependence for IT adoption
Get PDFIn the digitally evolving manufacturing sector, IT adoption is critical for operational efficiency and competitive edge. This research explores how systems integration, IT dependence, and inter-plant interdependence influence IT adoption, drawing on Resource Dependence Theory (RDT). It features a survey of 286 UK manufacturing plants and uses Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) and ANOVA for analysis. Results show that while systems integration boosts IT adoption, its impact is moderated by IT dependence. Interdependence with other plants also promotes IT adoption but does not significantly mediate it. Large plants tend to have higher IT adoption rates due to better resources and IT governance, unlike smaller plants which struggle with financial and technical limitations. The study underscores the dual impact of IT dependence and interdependence in manufacturing, suggesting that effective IT governance and tailored support for SMEs are vital for enhancing IT system adoption
Two sides of the same coin: discourses of ‘skill’ in further education initial teacher education
Get PDFSkill is ubiquitous with the English Further Education (FE) sector’s policy discourse and discursive practices, yet it is used in different ways to mean different things within the sector. Within the context of a deregulated FE Initial Teacher Education (ITE) system, the discourse is underpinned by a set of standards and guidance expected of providers, many of whom are, or work alongside, a Higher Education Institution (HEI). This research sought to determine the role that those working in this system have in recontextualising skills policy discourse. Building on interdisciplinary perspectives of skill and using Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), this research explored the skills discourse of 10 Teacher Educators (TEds) working within the English FE ITE sector. The discursive practices of TEds were found to be bound up with generic higher education notions of ‘graduate skills’ and ‘graduate employability’. This complements a narrow and weak discursive frame which underpins the ITE curriculum, linked to atomised standards, whereby generic teaching practices are centred to the exclusion of strongly classified theoretical and subject specialist knowledge, contributing to a narrower skills discourse and marginalisation of subject specialisms. This work has implications for policy makers and those involved in curriculum development in FE ITE
Necrology
No full textSharples’ curatorial project NECROLOGY, functioned as both exhibition and practice-led study—a speculative site of mourning offering an interface with absences, transitions, rituals, suspensions, shrines, and exhumations. The exhibition speculated on material afterlives, ecological grief, and the economies and systems of death(care) and loss. Together, the showing artists’ works and Sharples invited the public to meditate on our collective necrological matters, providing intersectional readings of the subject. The exhibition was accompanied by a small text-based publication providing specific, accessible, insights to each artist’s contribution.
As part of the exhibition, Sharples also invited haptonomic professional Roselie Bak to facilitate Becoming Soil—a participatory workshop situated between the exhibition space and the burial grounds of St Mary’s in Wirksworth.
In the gallery, Hubble and Elves presented ceramic receptacles of ecological ruin and ceremonial remembrance. Lavorato’s sculpture was shaped through practices of care and autopsical interventions (holding, cutting, bandaging), associated with illness and a surgically transformed body. Hutchinson examined the pristine commodification of the funeral industry, while Bolland mapped judicial deathscapes honouring ‘pathologised subjects’ in the wake of systemic violence. Dawson’s roadside shrine and Lawrence’s engraved frieze commemorated the urban transience of people and places that often go unacknowledged. R. Brown’s sine-wave drawings and Bowler’s carved gravestone signified the permanence and erasure of queer and trans archives. Howard considered how photography and marble, as materials of immortality, attempt to overcome death. The surface inversions of J. Brown and Sharples held onto negative space, embalming the absence–presence of form. And Robinson’s poem and Bak’s workshop recognised our permeability and continual becoming with the more-than-human: we have always been of earth.
Guided by New Materialist thought and developed in collaboration with the New Materialist Reading/Research Group (NMRG) and Playing Fields – two artist-led curatorial initiatives – NECROLOGY foregrounds the curatorial as a method of critical analysis and ontological mediation. Calling on Rosi Braidotti’s articulation of an affirmative ethics of mourning, Sharples cultivates a space in which death and loss are recognised as generative, and in a continual process of becoming. Rather than a static presentation of objects, NECROLOGY unfolds as a field of relational intensities, where curatorial practice closes the space between academic discourse and embodied artistic processes.
In partnership with Haarlem Artspace, NMRG & Playing Fields
Supported by Academic Theme Fund (University of Derby)
Photographs: Emma Croma
Music and parental wellbeing: A position paper
Get PDFThis article sets out a collective vision for a new Music and Parental Wellbeing Alliance. It starts from the premise that challenges to parental wellbeing represent a persistent, global concern. When unchecked, these challenges can lead to negative consequences for the whole family. Music is common in the lives of many parents around the world; yet despite emerging evidence, it is not yet considered as an option in most parental care pathways. To address this requires a collaborative approach, leading to the founding of the Music and Parental Wellbeing Research Network in 2023. As a network comprising of parents, musicians, music therapists, healthcare practitioners, researchers, arts leaders, and policy experts, we set ourselves the task of proposing and setting out a direction for the field of music and parental wellbeing. We embarked on agreeing the key steps needed to advance the field, and the driving principles underpinning such endeavor, arriving at a vision for our ongoing work: To enable, sustain, and expand an international and interdisciplinary community that works towards ensuring that all parents have the opportunity – and are empowered and equipped – to engage with music that can support their wellbeing. In this short article, we articulate a mission for a new Music and Parental Wellbeing Alliance that is focused on achieving our vision through SHAPING evidence and practice, SUPPORTING professionals working in the field, and SHARING the potential of music in supporting parental wellbeing. We invite readers to join us in progressing this mission
“Like something supernatural in your house”: an interpretative phenomenological analysis to explore the experiences and psychological challenges of parents raising children with autism spectrum disorder
Get PDFBackground
Parents raising children with ASD face profound psychological challenges. While existing research predominantly focuses on parental distress, opportunities for growth and transformation remain underexplored. Addressing these gaps, this study employs an existential framework and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to provide a nuanced understanding of parental psychological experiences, emphasizing how they navigate and transcend the challenges of raising a child with ASD.
Methods
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with four parents (three mothers and one father) of children diagnosed with ASD for at least three years. Participants ranged in age from 31 to 50 years, while their children, all male, were aged 11 to 22 years. The participants represented diverse geographic backgrounds, including Canada, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Results
The analysis identified two superordinate themes: “From Existential Crisis to Enlightenment” and “Transcending Challenging Experiences.” Participants initially experienced an emotional breakdown following their child’s diagnosis, marked by grief and uncertainty. Over time, they transitioned from despair to faith, cultivating acceptance and spiritual beliefs as essential coping mechanisms. They also confronted significant emotional challenges, including guilt, fear of death, and communication struggles, ultimately fostering resilience and forming transcendent relationships with their children.
Conclusions
The findings illuminate the dual dimensions of the parental experience, encompassing both distress and growth. This study offers deeper insights into the emotional and existential aspects of parenting a child with ASD and underscores the need for tailored interventions to support parents in navigating these transformative journeys
Reimagining how organisations can design, build, and maintain effective net zero Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships: embracing the enabling Mechanisms to help the UK accelerate to its net zero by 2050 Grand Challenge
Get PDFThe net zero by 2050 policy Grand Challenge is a complex, multifaceted change project that impacts every aspect of society. As of 2024, the UK is behind its intended net zero policy trajectory; accelerated decarbonisation is now crucial and organisations play a key role. Prior research has highlighted the significance of organisational Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships (MSPs) in addressing society’s Grand Challenges, including net zero. MSPs share resources, risks, and benefits, and their scale facilitates the necessary levels of change to deliver impact. This study builds upon this thinking, advancing it by reimagining how organisations can design, build, and maintain MSPs more easily, ultimately decarbonising faster. The study adopts a realist-based philosophy and employs a Context, Mechanism, and Outcome approach as its central framework. By understanding the UK’s net zero Context and the Mechanisms that shape the net zero logic, the study identifies important organisational barriers and enabling Mechanisms that can encourage organisational collaboration and more effective MSPs. Employing a mixed methods approach, this research delves into the organisational reality of sustainability leaders and their decarbonisation challenges. By employing a range of theories and concepts, including stakeholder and institutional theory, Grand Challenge and Boundary Spanners, the study uncovers four key themes providing a comprehensive understanding of how to design, build, and maintain stronger MSPs, ultimately enabling the outcome of faster decarbonisation. The study reveals that while net zero MSPs are ideally suited to this societal Grand Challenge, only 22% of organisations in the UK are engaged in them. Instead, simpler Dyadic-Stakeholder Partnerships (DSPs) are more common. To address this reality and lead organisations to successful net zero outcomes, the study provides three novel contributions. Firstly, it designs a net zero MSP framework plus a transition pathway organisations can follow to convert DSPs to MSPs. These use a range of enabling Mechanisms including the power derived from aligning the key attributes from stakeholder and institutional theory. Secondly, the study reframes net zero as a Grand Challenge brand. This is also an MSP enabling mechanism. Sorting and resolving net zero is unrealistic, but by being flexible, agile and recognising that obstacles need to be overcome, organisations can navigate net zero’s complexity by embracing the cross-functional enabling power of the Grand Challenge brand. The third contribution reinvents the Boundary Spanner as a net zero MSP designer, builder, and maintainer with enabling agency power. Furthermore, adding practical value to this contribution, the study details the role, responsibilities and behaviours of the net zero MSP Boundary Spanner and proposes the ‘Six Characteristics of a net zero MSP Boundary Spanner’. These contributions, as net zero MSP enabling mechanisms, have causal power to effect organisational change, giving organisations of all sizes the potential to participate in net zero MSPs and help accelerate the UK to net zero by 2050
Constructing Reality in Theatrical Spaces by Balancing Rhythm and Harmony of Lighting to Grant Performers Health and Wellbeing
No full textNatural or artificial light is used in the psycho-cognitive approach as a tool to aid in constructing and classifying reality and to determine the syntactic norms of visual perception. The aim of this research is to critically assess current theatrical spaces to identify the effect of stage lighting quality on performers' health and wellbeing. It introduces an architectural strategy for the design of lighting conditions in theatrical spaces. Until now, research interest in the field of lighting has not paid significant critical attention to the health and wellbeing of performers. Therefore, this study is designed to fill the literature gap regarding this issue by answering the following question:
What are the effects of stage lighting in theatrical spaces on the health and wellbeing of performers on stage?
This research question was tested using the following main tools. A preliminary study was conducted to gain knowledge of the research problem. The Biophilic Healing Index for the Theatrical Stage was used to give a percentage score evaluation of how biophilic a stage design is, and the Lighting Beliefs Questionnaire was used to measure the stage lighting effect on performers. After analysing the findings from the surveys, the topology of proscenium and end stages were selected for further study. Finally, the main case study on Theatre A in Northern England was conducted by analysing the two different stage typologies (the proscenium and the end stage) and specific rehearsal spaces this theatre has.
A mixed methodology was adopted to analyse the two theatrical stages and their rehearsal spaces and to measure the performers’ health and wellbeing. The theatrical venues were subsequently evaluated using a mix of qualitative and quantitative data.
The research outcome adds a comprehensive understanding of the psychobiology of performers and the technical variables that impact performers’ individual reactions to the theatrical environment to the existing literature. The findings have significant implications for the development and implementation of theory-based interventions aimed at managing performers’ health and wellbeing and improving performance quality, while also producing recommendations for the future of theatrical designs