1993 research outputs found
Sort by
Structuring Creative Narratives: A Framework for Enhancing Creativity in Undergraduate Animation Students in China
Full text linkThis practice-based research explores how the development of a multidimensional framework, Interaction Hyperspace, can enhance creativity in narrative storytelling for undergraduate animation students in China. The framework is inspired by transdisciplinary insights, drawing parallels between quantum theory and the creative process, which are depicted as “a cultural symbiosis” (Galili and Zinn, 2007, p.453). In particular, the concept of quantum entanglement serves as an analogy for understanding the dynamic relationships and interactions in storytelling. The research proposes an eleven-dimensional framework that enables students to systematically construct and deconstruct narrative elements, offering structured guidance for creative exploration.
The study tests the framework through a series of case studies involving animation students and practitioners. These case studies integrate academic teaching and interactive narrative design, with data collection and analysis grounded in Activity Theory (Engestrom,1987) and Action Research (Costello, 2003). The results show that the Interaction Hyperspace Framework enhances students' ability to generate original story ideas, offering new possibilities for creative solutions and deeper engagement with narrative structures.
This research contributes to the fields of narrative art and animation pedagogy by providing a practical tool that bridges the gap between creative theory and hands-on application. By offering students a structured approach to storytelling, the framework helps cultivate creativity in a systematic and reproducible manner, making it a practical asset in art and design education
Metaphorical Depictions of the American and Chinese Economies during the 2010 Financial Crisis
Full text linkThis thesis contributes to the critical analysis of metaphors in economic news discourse during financial crisis, aiming to explore metaphorical images of the American and Chinese economies in economic news articles as representatives of distinct cultural and ideological backgrounds. It also examines whether these metaphorical depictions convey varying attitudes towards the two countries. In this study, I analyzed metaphors in economic news articles from The Economist during and immediately after the global American subprime mortgage crisis (2010-2011), with specific focus on China and America. To enrich this field, a corpus-based research methodology was employed within the Critical Cognitive Linguistics (CCL) framework, supplemented by the Pragglejaz Group‘s Metaphor Identification Procedure (MIP, 2007). Furthermore, to avoid relying solely on personal intuition for metaphor identification, Lakoff‘s Master Metaphor List (1991) and metaphors from relevant studies were systematically utilized for comparison. Additionally, six major categories of economic crisis metaphors generalized by Arrese (2014) and Arrese & Vara-Miguel (2016), along with Charteris-Black‘s (2004) animate/inanimate metaphor division, and van Dijk‘s (2006) Us/Them ideological polarization (Hart 2014) were applied to categorize and critically analyze metaphors.
Quantitative and qualitative analysis of the superordinate metaphor categories, frequent metaphor types, and modifications of existing metaphors revealed that both China and America were metaphorically depicted as strong economies. China emerged as a new powerful player with positive economic growth, but there was caution about its future. America was portrayed as impacted by the financial crisis, yet its outlook remained positive. Both the Chinese and American economies were framed under unilateral framing but exhibited differences in metaphor categories and types. The selected economic news articles reported on the Chinese economy using more inanimate metaphors, whereas the American economy was described using more animate metaphors, indicating different ideological distances. The selected economic news reports were not entirely objective nor biased either. These methodologies and findings offer insights for future research and practical applications examining the portrayal of countries with diverse backgrounds in economic news articles through metaphors
Improving Model Generalization of Pneumonia Detection from Chest Xray Images Using Deep Learning and Transfer Learning
Full text linkPneumonia continues to be a major global health threat and one of the leading causes of mortality, with chest X-rays serving as the primary diagnostic tool. Despite their promise, deep learning models for pneumonia detection often face limitations in generalization, performing strongly on familiar datasets but losing accuracy when applied to unseen data from different clinical environments. This study addresses that challenge by applying transfer learning with ResNet152 and DenseNet201 to improve generalization in pneumonia detection using chest Xray images. Publicly available datasets, including the COVID-19 Radiography Database and the Chest X-ray (COVID-19 & Pneumonia) dataset, were merged, pre-processed, and balanced prior to training. Model optimization involved freezing and unfreezing layers, adjusting learning rates, and applying various data augmentation strategies. Performance was evaluated with metrics such as accuracy, precision, recall, F1-score, error rate, and AUC-ROC, and further validated using an independent external dataset. Experimental results showed that DenseNet201 consistently outperformed ResNet152, reaching 93.2% accuracy with an AUC of 0.9916 on the main dataset and 88.3% accuracy with an AUC of 0.9742 on the external dataset. By comparison, ResNet152 achieved 86.4% accuracy (AUC 0.9665) on the main dataset and 84.6% accuracy (AUC 0.9573) on the external dataset. Confusion matrix analysis revealed that most errors occurred between Normal and Pneumonia classes, mirroring real world diagnostic challenges. In conclusion, DenseNet201 demonstrated superior robustness and generalization compared to ResNet152, highlighting its suitability for clinical application and underscoring the necessity of external validation in medical AI research
An Investigation into How the Advancements and Availability of Artificial Intelligence Tools have Impacted Project Management Communication and Stakeholder Management Practices
Full text linkThis dissertation investigates how recent advancements and the increasing availability of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools are impacting project management practices, focusing on communication and stakeholder management. The research addresses four main questions. How widely are AI tools being adopted by project management professionals to support these practices? How does AI adoption influence outcomes in these areas of project management? How do project management professionals see the ethical considerations relating to the implementation of AI tools to support project management impacting their roles and responsibilities? And finally, how does AI adoption affect project management professional’s job satisfaction.
These research questions are particularly interesting as the existing literature has concentrated on the quantitative practices of project management to date, for example cost estimation and scheduling. The interpersonal areas of communication and stakeholder management have been underexplored. Given the central role that these practices play in achieving project success, understanding AI’s influence here is both timely and important to understand.
A qualitative research design was adopted, using an interpretivist philosophy and inductive approach with a grounded theory strategy. Research data was collected by semi-structured interviews with project management professionals from different industries. It was then analysed thematically and reviewed in line with the relevant literature.
Participants largely reported that AI reduces the administrative burden, improves the speed and transparency of communications, and also supports better stakeholder engagement. It also highlighted a number of concerns around data privacy, accuracy, ethical use, and the importance of organisational readiness. While AI was found to improve job satisfaction by reducing repetitive tasks, the risks of overreliance on AI and the threat to job security were noted.
In practice the study provides recommendations for organisations to adopt AI in ways that enhance efficiency while maintaining human oversight, stakeholder trust, and accountability. Theory wise, this study contributes to the discussion on AI’s impact on the human centred areas of project management and it improves the understanding of impacts to adoption through the Technology Acceptance Model and Diffusion of Innovation frameworks. The study concludes that AI offers significant benefits but should be seen as a supportive tool rather than a replacement for project managers
Presenting Counterpoints to the Dominant Terrestrial Narrative of European Prehistory
Full text linkThe first in the multi-author series Maritime Encounters, outputs of the major six-year (2022–2028) international research initiative, funded by Sweden’s central bank. Our programme is based on a maritime perspective, a counterpoint to prevailing land-based vantages on Europe’s prehistory. In the Maritime Encounters project a highly international cross-disciplinary team has embarked on a diverse range of research goals to provide a more detailed and nuanced story of how prehistoric societies realised major and minor sea crossings, organised long-distance exchange, and adapted to ways of life by the sea in prehistory.
Recent advances with ancient DNA have brought migration back into archaeological explanation, but little attention has been paid to maritime aspects of these movements or the maritime legacies inherited from indigenous cultures.
The formation of the populations, cultures and languages of Europe are now seen largely as consequences of three great prehistoric migrations: hunter-gatherers repopulating the post-glacial landscape, followed by farmers spreading from
Anatolia, and then Indo-European-speaking pastoralists from the steppe.
There is a significant gap in this current model that we sense most acutely in Scandinavia and the British Isles. Unanswered questions include: How these groups reached the islands and peninsulas of Atlantic Europe? What types of boats were
used? How many people and animals could they carry? To what extent did indigenous coastal peoples contribute traditions and knowledge of boats, boat building, seaways, navigation, and subsistence in coastal environments. How
was the long-distance trade in metals organised during the European Bronze Age? And what was the impact of this seacrossing network on the cultures, languages, and populations of the producers and consumers of bronze
Cross-disciplinary considerations: ‘hedge’, ‘hull’, ‘fool’, and the triumph of linguistic palaeontology
Full text linkThe archaeogenetic support for the Steppe Hypothesis of the Indo-European homeland lends incidental support to the earlier methods that had led to the same conclusion independent of genetic evidence. Perhaps the chief amongst these is that called ‘linguistic palaeontology’, which is based on inherited vocabulary shared among related languages. Confirmation of linguistic palaeontology’s efficacy opens the way to using this method to locate other reconstructed languages – such as Proto-Celtic and Proto-Germanic – in time, space, and the archaeological record. The study includes case studies of three words: *kaghyo-/ā ‘unsettled enclosure’, *kup-s-o-,*kū̆p- ‘ship’s hull’ < ‘beehive’, and *dhrūto- ‘jester, buffoon’
The Role of Digital Technology in the Self- Management of Type 2 Diabetes Among the Aging Population, in the United Kingdom. A Systematic Literature Review.
Full text linkDiabetes is a growing public health concern globally, with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) being the most prevalent form. The aging population is at an increased risk of developing T2DM due to physiological changes and lifestyle factors. Effective self-management of diabetes is crucial for maintaining glycaemic control and preventing complications. In recent years, digital technology has played an increasing role in supporting self-management, offering tools such as mobile applications, wearable devices, telehealth, and artificial intelligence-driven platforms. However, the effectiveness, accessibility, and usability of these digital interventions for the aging population remain underexplored. This systematic literature review examines the role of digital technology in the self-management of T2DM among aging individuals in the United Kingdom. A comprehensive search of peer-reviewed journal articles and reports was conducted using databases such as PubMed, CINAHL, Scopus, and Web of Science. The review followed PRISMA guidelines to ensure a rigorous selection and evaluation process. Studies were assessed for effectiveness, barriers, facilitators, and best practices in digital diabetes self-management for older adults. The findings indicate that digital interventions, particularly mobile applications and continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) devices, improve self-management by enhancing patient engagement and glycaemic control. However, barriers such as digital literacy, usability challenges, privacy concerns, and cost limit widespread adoption.
Facilitators such as user-friendly design, personalized coaching, and integration with healthcare services improve adoption rates. The review highlights the need for age-friendly digital solutions that consider the specific needs of older adults. The study concludes that while digital technology offers significant potential.
l in supporting self-management for aging individuals with T2DM, targeted improvements in design, accessibility, and healthcare integration are needed. Recommendations for healthcare providers, policymakers, and app developers are provided to enhance the effectiveness and usability of digital diabetes interventions for older populations
An inspector calls! School leaders’ perceptions of inspection in Wales
Full text linkAccountability in education takes many forms. One of the most prominent in the Welsh context is school inspection, which is considered an important measure of school performance and a way of holding schools accountable for the public money they receive. However, inspections are not accepted as adding value to the system without exception, and much has been written internationally about the negative impact of inspection on teachers and leaders. This small-scale study was interested in better understanding the perception of school leaders, as those with ultimate responsibility for the direction and performance of schools, based on their experience of the inspection process in Wales. It used a series of in-depth, semi-structured interviews to explore school leaders’ feelings about and responses to inspection, using Foucauldian insights on power and discourse as a frame. Findings from the study suggest that the conduct of inspectors was more of a concern to participants than the judgements they awarded. While school leaders accepted inspection was a necessary process linked to the need to build and maintain public confidence, they were in broad agreement that the inspectors themselves did not communicate appropriately with school staff, were too authoritarian, and were at times disrespectful
The Palmyrene merchant diaspora in Egypt
Full text linkPalmyrene individuals and diaspora communities can be traced to various parts of the Europe, Africa and Asia. Some were clearly undertaking military service in different territories controlled by the Roman Empire. Others were engaged in some form of commercial (and diplomatic) activity which saw them travel to a number of regions, both inside and beyond Rome’s frontiers, such as Socotra, southern Arabia, Mesopotamia and “Skythia” (northwest Indian subcontinent). In the case of Egypt, we have clear evidence for both the presence of Palmyrene military auxilia and for a “merchant diaspora”, a settled community based in Egypt that was engaged in long-distance trade. The latter represents something more substantive and long-lasting than just individuals who may have temporarily ended up in a location due to trade, diplomacy or some other unknown factor (such as Abgar who turns up on the island of Socotra). It is the merchant diaspora in Egypt which forms the main focus of this chapter, although there are some intersections with the evidence for military units. Among the issues discussed are the character and location of this diaspora, its duration, and the expressions of identity by its member
Data sources:
Access Repository Dashboard
Do you manage University of Wales Trinity Saint David? Access insider analytics, issue reports and manage access to outputs from your repository in the CORE Repository Dashboard!