60419 research outputs found
Sort by
Story completion: storying as a method of meaning making and discursive discovery in higher education
No full textThis article focuses on a method of data collection that exists in the margins of qualitative research: story completion. Story completion has a background of usage within disciplines such as psychology, feminist theory and psychotherapy. However, this method is still uncommon and underutilised, and has not been widely put to work as an approach for qualitative education research, despite its rich potential as a tool for accessing participants’ meaning-making. In this article, I argue that story completion can serve as an interesting and flexible method for researchers across the disciplines, particularly for those looking to adopt a poststructuralist lens, concerned with discursive discovery: the surfacing of discourses individuals draw upon to write. I introduce and explain a divergent approach to doing story completion from that described elsewhere in the literature, where a story completion exercise is enhanced by the addition of a traditional semi-structured interview. I also share an experimental approach to data analysis: using a rhizomatic perspective to analyse story completion data. Ultimately, I argue that story completion, the story-mediated interview, and a more experimental analytical approach, offer exciting new directions for qualitative researchers to pursue
Avoiding failures during building construction using structural fuses as load limiters on temporary shoring structures
No full textThe risk of structural failure of buildings can be significant during construction. Temporary adjustable telescopic steel shores or props are commonly used in building construction. The failure of shores is sudden and therefore structural fuses as load limiters (LL) can be introduced to provide ductility in the temporary member for a specified limit failure load. Previous work by the authors showed that the design of shoring systems can be improved using LL for standard cases of imposed loads applied during construction. This paper extends this work to cases of accidental loading where the shoring system-permanent structure interaction is less known. The main principles of LLs are discussed and implemented in advanced numerical simulations of a real case RC building during construction by means of explicit nonlinear dynamic finite element analyses. Different local failure scenarios were investigated corresponding to cases observed in practice. The comparison of the numerical results obtained with and without LLs demonstrated for the first time the benefits of using LLs in terms of: (a) mitigating the risk of failure of the temporary structure; and (b) reducing permanent damage (cracking and short-term deflections in the slab) affecting the durability and functionality of the building
The role of daylight for humans: Gaps in current knowledge
No full textDaylight stems solely from direct, scattered and reflected sunlight, and undergoes
dynamic changes in irradiance and spectral power composition due to latitude, time of day, time of
year and the nature of the physical environment (reflections, buildings and vegetation). Humans
and their ancestors evolved under these natural day/night cycles over millions of years. Electric
light, a relatively recent invention, interacts and competes with the natural light–dark cycle to
impact human biology. What are the consequences of living in industrialised urban areas with much
less daylight and more use of electric light, throughout the day (and at night), on general health and
quality of life? In this workshop report, we have classified key gaps of knowledge in daylight
research into three main groups: (I) uncertainty as to daylight quantity and quality needed for
“optimal” physiological and psychological functioning, (II) lack of consensus on practical
measurement and assessment methods and tools for monitoring real (day) light exposure across
multiple time scales, and (III) insufficient integration and exchange of daylight knowledge bases
from different disciplines. Crucial short and long-term objectives to fill these gaps are proposed
Consistently inconsistent: Multimodal episodic deficits in semantic aphasia
No full textSemantic Aphasia (SA) patients have difficulty accessing semantic knowledge in both verbal and non-verbal tasks
appropriately for the current context. Automatically activated semantic knowledge overwhelms the system,
because it is no longer able to inhibit interference from dominant meanings in order to select weaker alternatives.
Episodic memory, like semantic memory, requires control to select relevant memories amongst competing episodes.
For example, our memory for what we ate for breakfast last Saturday is affected by competition from
numerous other breakfast meals eaten on other days. Where one is unable to guide retrieval, we may rely on
automatically activated knowledge about “breakfast foods”, and therefore experience false memories. Brain
systems that support semantic control are also implicated in episodic control, and therefore deficits in semantic
control are likely to cause more widespread problems. Despite this, nearly all research to date focuses on semantic
performance alone. This study explored the impact of this semantic impairment on episodic recall. We
used a verbal and non-verbal episodic memory task: participants remembered nursery rhymes in the verbal
condition and logos and their associated products in the visual condition (e.g. BOWL OF CEREAL and COCO-POPS). For
both tasks, we manipulated a) congruency with pre-existing knowledge (e.g. expectancy of trials: BAA BAA BLACK BUILD – instead of SHEEP) and b) whether these trial types were blocked by congruency or mixed, as well as (c) distractor strength. If SA patients experience overwhelming automatic activation, they should find incongruent items more difficult to suppress, particularly when presented in an unpredictable task format. A total of 13 SA patients were compared to 33 controls across three experiments. In line with our predictions, SA patients found it more difficult to retrieve episodic memories which were in conflict with pre-existing semantic knowledge. This was true across modalities. Moreover, these deficits were accentuated when the congruency was presented in a mixed fashion, and so unpredictable across trials. Evidence of these episodic control impairments in SA cases supports the idea of a shared mechanism for semantic and episodic memory control
Study of thermal performance enhancement of geothermal energy pile using PCM
No full textThe expected demand for space heating/cooling due to increase in population and living standards worldwide is intensifying the search for renewable energy sources. The use of geothermal energy pile (GEP) offers a promising and sustainable way of generating energy needed for space heating and cooling via underground structures such as pile foundations.
Shallow concrete GEPs have been used successfully to extract heat from the ground for space heating and cooling. However, there are some constraints facing its acceptability and this includes its inability to generate enough energy as a result of shorter length of the pile.
Moreover, limited research data is available on the experimental and sustainable means of enhancing the quantity of the energy that can be generated for space heating /cooling through concrete GEP. Therefore, this study presents an experimental investigation of the thermal performance enhancement of concrete GEPs modified with bio-based phase change material (PCM) impregnated concrete made up of glass aggregates (GAs) and fly ash aggregates (FAs) sourced from waste materials.
For the first time, aggregates made up of recycled GAs and FAs were used to host bio-based PCM. In addition, a PCM leak free thermal energy storage lightweight aggregate GAs and FAs were developed. Moreover, the developed thermal energy storage GAs and FAs remained
stable under the influence of abrasive forces which make it a good material in concrete production.
The ease of flow and workability of the concrete are greatly affected depending on the percentage substitution of normal aggregates with PCM impregnated GAs/or FAs. However, the compressive strength of the concretes was greater than the minimum conventional concrete strength required (i.e. 15 MPa) for any structural application.
Heat storage capacity of concrete GEP increased with an increase in PCM incorporated. Furthermore, GEPs expanded/contracted during the test and returned to its initial strain value after test. Surrounding soil temperature ranges between 14°C and 22°C during the test. On the life cycle assessment point of view of the PCM modified GEP, incorporating PCM in GEPs reduce the manufacturing /production process impact of the pile.
Finally, it can be concluded that incorporating bio-based PCM in GEP is a promising and sustainable way of enhancing its thermal performance
Re-assessing the consistency of sentencing decisions in cases of Assault: Allowing for within court inconsistencies
No full textEmpirical research has repeatedly focused on the potential existence of sentencing disparities. In particular, a growing number of studies have used multilevel models to quantify the extent that ‘similar’ offences are treated alike in different courts. This reliance on multilevel models has resulted in a natural focus on differences in the mean sentence awarded between courts, with the amount of within group variability generally assumed to be the same in each court. In this paper we show how multilevel models can be extended by allowing the magnitude of within-court differences to be different in each court. This provides a natural framework to connect between-court disparities with the sentencing differences that are thought to originate between judges operating within the same court, particularly in the absence of more fine-grained sentencing data about the judge residing in each case. Focusing specifically on cases of assault sentenced in 2011, we show that there are substantial differences in the range of sentences awarded in different courts, with the range almost twice as large in some courts. We also find that it is those courts that appear to show the traits of more homogeneous sentencing that sentence more harshly, and that offences involving the presence of a weapon or evidence of good character and/or exemplary conduct were associated with higher levels of internal consistency
Mechanochromic and Thermochromic Sensors Based on Graphene Infused Polymer Opals
No full textHigh quality opal-like photonic crystals containing graphene are fabricated using evaporation-driven self-assembly of soft polymer colloids. A miniscule amount of pristine graphene within a colloidal crystal lattice results in the formation of colloidal crystals with a strong angle-dependent structural color and a stop band that can be reversibly shifted across the visible spectrum. The crystals can be mechanically deformed or can reversibly change color as a function of their temperature, hence their sensitive mechanochromic and thermochromic response make them attractive candidates for a wide range of visual sensing applications. In particular, we show that the crystals are excellent candidates for visual strain sensors or integrated time-temperature indicators which act over large temperature windows. Given the versatility of these crystals, this method represents a simple, inexpensive and scalable approach to produce multifunctional graphene infused synthetic opals and opens up exciting applications for novel solution-processable nanomaterial based photonics
DeFeat-Net: General Monocular Depth via Simultaneous Unsupervised Representation Learning
No full textIn the current monocular depth research, the dominant approach is to employ unsupervised training on large datasets, driven by warped photometric consistency. Such approaches lack robustness and are unable to generalize to challenging domains such as nighttime scenes or adverse weather conditions where assumptions about photometric consistency break down. We propose DeFeat-Net (Depth & Feature network), an approach to simultaneously learn a cross-domain dense feature representation, alongside a robust depth-estimation framework based on warped feature consistency. The resulting feature representation is learned in an unsupervised manner with no explicit ground-truth correspondences required. We show that within a single domain, our technique is comparable to both the current state of the art in monocular depth estimation and supervised feature representation learning. However, by simultaneously learning features, depth and motion, our technique is able to generalize to challenging domains, allowing DeFeat-Net to outperform the current state-of-the-art with around 10% reduction in all error measures on more challenging sequences such as nighttime driving
Ideologies implicated in IT innovation in government: a critical discourse analysis of Mexico’s international trade administration
No full textWe develop a perspective of IT innovation in the public sector as a process that involves three complementary areas of ideology and concomitant dispute. First, the widespread view of e-government as a transformative force that leads to major improvements of public sector functions for the benefit of society at large. Second, ideologies concerning the substantive policies enacted by public sector organizations. Third, ideology regarding public sector modernization. Our research examines how the objectives of IT projects and their actual effects in government are influenced by such ideologies and contestations that surround them. We develop our theoretical contribution with a critical discourse analysis that traces the ideological underpinnings of two consecutive IT projects for the administration of international trade in Mexico. This analysis associates the objectives of the IT projects with the emergence and ensuing contestation in Mexican politics of two ideologies: the first ideology concerns free international trade as imperative for economic development; the second ideology concerns public sector modernization which sought to overcome historically formed dysfunctionalities of public administration bureaucracies by adopting management practices from the private sector. The analysis then identifies the effects of the ideologically shaped IT projects on two key values of public administration, efficiency and legality. The insights of this research on the role of ideology in IT innovation complement organizational perspectives of e-government; socio-cognitive perspectives that focus on ideas and meaning, such as technology frames and organizing visions; and perspectives that focus on politics in IT innovation
The Lexicography of Portuguese
No full textThis chapter deals with the lexicography of Portuguese. Despite the geographical spread of Portuguese, only Brazil and Portugal have a lexicographic tradition. Both these traditions are presented, and briefly contrasted, with a focus on the lexical differences, the role of the language academies, the latest spelling reform, and an overview of recent paper and digital dictionaries
Data sources:
Access Repository Dashboard
Do you manage Surrey Research Insight? Access insider analytics, issue reports and manage access to outputs from your repository in the CORE Repository Dashboard!