Stirling Online Research Repository (RIOXX)
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Future ordinaries: assembling place-based knowledges and literacies in real and imagined harmscapes
Get PDFThis paper explores the role of the everyday in real and imagined responses to climate-changed landscapes emerging from South African and UK-based activities in a project exploring local knowledges and resilience. We explore photographs and captions created by co-researcher residents in three climate-stressed settlements in South Africa. We then use participant-generated stories created in the UK to explore imagined future landscapes. We demonstrate important commonalities between the real and the imagined, and between Global South and Global North, including three key dynamics to involved in responses to harmscapes of the present that also animate imagined futures: intra-community relations, the development of place and landscape literacies and adaptations. Our process reveals the centrality of the ordinary to both present realities and future imaginaries
Drivers of moth phenology in England and Wales
Get PDFClimate change has led to changes in the phenology of Lepidoptera species. While phenological shifts have been previously measured for moth species in England and Wales, the drivers of these shifts are not well known. Here, we use data from the National Moth Recording Scheme and the Garden Moth Scheme to investigate the drivers of phenology in 149 moth species over a 50 year period from 1970 to 2019. We investigate whether there have been phenological shifts in adult emergence using three phenology metrics: First Emergence (FE), Peak Emergence (PE), and Emergence Standard Deviation (ESD) in relation to life history traits and temperature. Overwintering stage had a significant impact on moth phenology, so we analysed species that spend the winter as eggs, larvae or pupae separately. Overall phenological changes were different depending on overwintering stage category and phenological measure, with the rate of phenological shifts increasing with later overwintering life stages in response to both temperature and year. The overwintering stage larva was the only one impacted by diet, with those that feed on woody hostplants emerging ~ 17 days later than species with herbaceous hostplants. These results indicate that species that either overwinter in earlier life stages or have woody hostplants may be less adaptable to climate change, and thus should be the targets of conservation efforts
Representing Scotland: Conservative Narratives of Nation, Union, and Scottish Independence
Get PDFThe United Kingdom’s vote to exit the European Union reignited the debate about Scottish independence, requiring statewide political parties to rearticulate the case for the Union. The UK Conservative Party, as the party of government and one with a tumultuous history vis-à-vis Scotland and devolution, was at the fore in making this case. This article explores representations of Scotland, its position within the United Kingdom, and Scottish nationalism as a political force by the Conservative Party at a prolonged moment of significant political and constitutional tension. We focus, therefore, on 2019 to 2024, a parliamentary term and political period defined by protracted debates on Scotland’s place within the Union, playing out against the backdrop of the Brexit negotiations, the Covid-19 pandemic, and a worsening cost-of-living crisis. To this end, we draw upon parliamentary debates, two daily English newspapers (The Daily Telegraph and the Sun) and two online right-leaning news sites (ConservativeHome and The Spectator online). Our analysis identifies three distinct but interrelated strands in Conservative representations of Scotland, each of which is centred on a contrast. First, a distinction between an inclusive unionism versus a narrow nationalism; second, a largely economic narrative, contrasting a prosperous union with the economic risks of independence; and finally, a contrast between governmental competence at Westminster and the SNP-led Scottish Government failing Scotland. These contrasting narratives elucidate the ways in which Conservatives construct representations of Scotland, particularly at moments of constitutional contestation
Reducing alcohol harms whilst minimising impact on hospitality businesses: ‘Sweetspot’ policy options
Get PDFBackground During COVID-19, hospitality businesses (e.g. bars, restaurants) were closed/restricted whilst off-sales of alcohol increased, with health consequences. Post-covid, governments face lobbying to support such businesses, but many health services remain under pressure. We appraised ‘sweetspot’ policy options: those with potential to benefit public services and health, whilst avoiding or minimising negative impact on the hospitality sector. Methods We conducted rapid non-systematic evidence reviews using index papers, citation searches and team knowledge to summarise the literature relating to four possible ‘sweetspot’ policy areas: pricing interventions (9 systematic reviews (SR); 14 papers/reports); regulation of online sales (1 SR; 1 paper); place-shaping (2 SRs; 18 papers/reports); and violence reduction initiatives (9 SRs; 24 papers/reports); and led two expert workshops (n = 11). Results Interventions that raise the price of cheaper shop-bought alcohol appear promising as ‘sweetspot’ policies; any impact on hospitality is likely small and potentially positive. Restrictions on online sales such as speed or timing of delivery may reduce harm and diversion of consumption from on-trade to home settings. Place-shaping is not well-supported by evidence and experts were sceptical. Reduced late-night trading hours likely reduce violence; evidence of impact on hospitality is scant. Other violence reduction initiatives may modestly reduce harms whilst supporting hospitality, but require resources to deliver multiple measures simultaneously in partnership. Conclusions Available evidence and expert views point to regulation of pricing and online sales as having greatest potential as ‘sweetspot’ alcohol policies, reducing alcohol harm whilst minimising negative impact on hospitality businesses
Floral scent changes in response to pollen removal are rare in buzz-pollinated Solanum
Get PDFMain conclusion One of seven Solanum taxa studied displayed associations between pollen presence and floral scent composition and volume, suggesting buzz-pollinated plants rarely use scent as an honest cue for foraging pollinators. Abstract Floral scent influences the recruitment, learning, and behaviour of floral visitors. Variation in floral scent can provide information on the amount of reward available or whether a flower has been visited recently and may be particularly important in species with visually concealed rewards. In many buzz-pollinated flowers, tubular anthers opening via small apical pores (poricidal anthers) visually conceal pollen and appear similar regardless of pollen quantity within the anther. We investigated whether pollen removal changes floral scent composition and emission rate in seven taxa of buzz-pollinated Solanum (Solanaceae). We found that pollen removal reduced both the overall emission of floral scent and the emission of specific compounds (linalool and farnesol) in S. lumholtzianum. Our findings suggest that in six out of seven buzz-pollinated taxa studied here, floral scent could not be used as a signal by visitors as it does not contain information on pollen availability
Social Enterprise as a Pathway to Work, Wellness, and Social Inclusion for Canadians with Mental Illnesses and/or Substance Use Disorders Social Enterprise as a Pathway to Work, Wellness and Social Inclusion for Canadians with Mental Illnesses and/or Substance-Use Disorders’
Get PDFPeople with serious and persistent mental illnesses and/or substance use disorders are among the most economically and socially disenfranchised populations in Canada, and often present with long histories of labour market detachment and underemployment. Work engagement has the potential to improve social determinants of health while also harnessing productive capacity. This article re-ports on a five-year study examining the social, economic, and health impacts of Work Integration Social Enterprises (WISEs) in the mental health sector in Ontario, Canada. The findings shed light on the population that works in WISEs, its levels of social and labour market integration, and or-ganizational features that influence worker outcomes. Results highlight both the importance of WISEs as a means of supporting employment, and challenges to organizational sustainability
Relationships influencing organisational culture in men’s elite football clubs in Norway
Get PDFThis paper examines the relationships within and outside organisations that have the leverage to influence culture in the context of men’s elite football clubs in Norway. Participants from three clubs held positions as Performance Director (n=2), sport psychology practitioner (n = 3), and physiotherapist (n = 2) and participated in semi-structured interviews focusing on the relationships, tensions, and dynamic organisational forces in their respective clubs. Using reflexive thematic analysis, we developed two overarching themes showing (1) Organisational cultures in time frames and (2) Relationships among stakeholders influencing organisational culture. Developing these themes indicated that an organisational culture is not only a point of arrival, but also a point of departure for future activities. Hence, those charged with organisational culture work must maintain awareness of the influence of a club’s history and how it influences dynamic tensions with stakeholders within and outside clubs. It is also critical that cultural practitioners are mindful of players’ and staffs’ individual journeys, which influence how they self-organise into fluid and temporary subgroups. The findings can sharpen our understanding of working with culture in elite football by emphasising other sources of culture besides leaders’ attempts at controlling or steering it in their preferred way. Using the findings provided in this study can help practitioners recognise organisational tensions or slippage towards cultural problems before they lead to traumatic organisational crises
Forged-GAN-BERT: Authorship Attribution for LLM-Generated Forged Novels
Get PDFThe advancement of generative Large Language Models (LLMs), capable of producing human-like texts, introduces challenges related to the authenticity of the text documents. This requires exploring potential forgery scenarios within the context of authorship attribution, especially in the literary domain. Particularly, two aspects of doubted authorship may arise in novels, as a novel may be imposed by a renowned author or include a copied writing style of a well-known novel. To address these concerns, we introduce Forged-GAN-BERT, a modified GAN-BERT-based model to improve the classification of forged novels in two data-augmentation aspects: via the Forged Novels Generator (i.e., ChatGPT) and the generator in GAN. Compared to other transformer-based models, the proposed Forged-GAN-BERT model demonstrates an improved performance with F1 scores of 0.97 and 0.71 for identifying forged novels in single-author and multi-author classification settings. Additionally, we explore different prompt categories for generating the forged novels to analyse the quality of the generated texts using different similarity distance measures , including ROUGE-1, Jaccard Similarity, Overlap Confident, and Cosine Similarity
Reporting the cost-of-living crisis: A framing analysis of victims of, and solutions to, the crisis as reported in UK national newspapers 2022-23
No full textThis paper analyses 1,055 UK national newspaper articles on the cost-of-living crisis published in 18 months between February 2022 and August 2023. This study utilizes framing analysis to examine the reporting of the crisis, with a specific focus on the presentation of those identified as victims of the crisis. The paper also discusses how the news media report individual and macroeconomic solutions to the crisis. The study finds that market rationalism and individualist explanations dominate news coverage of a structural macroeconomic crisis. This study finds an apparent deviation from traditional reporting of poverty in that the news media presents the cost-of-living crisis as universal. As such, the ‘othering’ of people living in poverty is less evident here than in similar studies. The study finds that the framing devices used to communicate the crisis often seek to minimize the impact of inequality, which is at the heart of the current crisis
Chemistry teachers’ perspectives and understanding in integrating sustainability into teaching: the case of Chile
Get PDFSustainability issues are a problem in Chile because of the policies of the present and previous governments. Chile has a neo-liberal model for development and many ecological problems, which involve social and environmental injustices and an overvalue of economic growth for development. Building on the three pillars model of sustainability of interconnections among the environment, society and economy, this research aims to find out how Chilean chemistry teachers understand sustainability and its integration into teaching chemistry. Data was collected through in-depth interviews with ten teachers and an attempt to highlight teachers’ voices about what is possible to do and the impacts of connecting chemistry education and sustainability in the context of a country with a free-market approach to development, such as Chile. Findings indicate that teachers focus on using resources and environmental protection when explaining sustainability and do not relate it to political and economic implications. Teachers confirmed that sustainability integration into education promotes paramount values for living in society and foundational skills for citizenship education, such as critical thinking skills. Nevertheless, teachers focused only on personal actions and attitudes toward sustainability
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