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Between Care and Control: Age Assessments and the Regulation of Unaccompanied and Asylum-Seeking Children
Full text linkThis article offers a critical conceptual review of age assessments in England and examines their implications for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC). Drawing on Foucault's theories of biopower and governmentality, age assessments are conceptualised as technologies of control that set the parameters for who is deemed ‘deserving’ of care and protection and who is excluded from child welfare systems. Rather than serving neutral or protective functions, it is argued that age assessment processes frequently involve coercive techniques, culturally contingent assumptions and the subordination of social work ethics to border enforcement imperatives. The paper argues that strengthening safeguarding requires a shift towards participatory, rights-based approaches that presume minority in cases of doubt, centre children's voices and resist coercive assessment practices. Through a rights-based and antioppressive lens, the paper situates age assessments within a broader framework of securitized migration policy, racialized suspicion and diminishing professional autonomy. This contribution advances current debates by showing how age assessment functions as a governing practice, while identifying pathways for ethical resistance and child-centred reform
The Application of Data Mining Techniques to Learning Analytics and Its Implications for Interventions with Small Class Sizes
Full text linkThere has been significant progress in the development of techniques to deliver effective technology enhanced learning systems in education, with substantial progress in the field of learning analytics. These analyses are able to support academics in the identification of students at risk of failure or withdrawal. The early identification of students at risk is critical to giving academic staff and institutions the opportunity to make timely interventions. This thesis considers established machine learning techniques, as well as a novel method, for the prediction of student outcomes and the support of interventions, including the presentation of a variety of predictive analyses and of a live experiment. It reviews the status of technology enhanced learning systems and the associated institutional obstacles to their implementation and deployment. Many courses are comprised of relatively small student cohorts, with institutional privacy protocols limiting the data readily available for analysis. It appears that very little research attention has been devoted to this area of analysis and prediction. I present an experiment conducted on a final year university module, with a student cohort of 23, where the data available for prediction is limited to lecture/tutorial attendance, virtual learning environment accesses and intermediate assessments. I apply and compare a variety of machine learning analyses to assess and predict student performance, applied at appropriate points during module delivery. Despite some mixed results, I found potential for predicting student performance in small student cohorts with very limited student attributes, with accuracies comparing favourably with published results using large cohorts and significantly more attributes. I propose that the analyses will be useful to support module leaders in identifying opportunities to make timely academic interventions. Student data may include a combination of nominal and numeric data. A large variety of techniques are available to analyse numeric data, however there are fewer techniques applicable to nominal data. I summarise the results of what I believe to be a novel technique to analyse nominal data by making a systematic comparison of data pairs. In this thesis I have surveyed existing intelligent learning/training systems and explored the contemporary AI techniques which appear to offer the most promising contributions to the prediction of student attainment. I have researched and catalogued the organisational and non-technological challenges to be addressed for successful system development and implementation and proposed a set of critical success criteria to apply. This dissertation is supported by published wor
Can Creativity Flourish within a publicly quoted music company? : An examination of the relationship between finance and creativity within the "major" and independent music companies
Full text linkThis examines the pressures placed upon record labels owned by the media conglomerates and focuses on an issue rarely addressed within the financial or music business press, namely that there is relationship between the source of external finance and the degree of entrepreneurial creativity within music companies. The report will look at some of the successful creative and innovative independent record companies (including Chess Records, Motown, Beggars Banquet and Creation Records). It explains why most independents fail eventually and examine why they function so well, even if only for a brief period of time, and why they usually end up being acquired by the 'major' conglomerates who are rarely, if ever, able to replicate their success. The major music conglomerates are in fact driven by their need to maintain their short term share price ( "Playing with Fire" and this leads to a cycle of short term planning and signings described as a 'creative bankruptcy spiral' usually driven by a volatile and often turbulent stock market
The development and implementation processes of a travel plan within the context of a large organisation : using an embedded case study approach
Full text linkTransport Policy in the United Kingdom from the 1950s to the early 1990s has been focused on increasing car use at the expense of investment in public transport services and infrastructure. This has culminated in a poorly integrated public transport network that has seen continued decline in use outside of London. The Competition Act (1998) has exacerbated this, as public operators risked prosecution if they were seen to collaborate. A policy shift in 1998 introduced the concept of Local Transport Plans, Organisational Travel Plans and Quality Partnerships as local policy tools for developing and implementing travel solutions using the planning process. Travel Plans today are viewed by the UK Government as a local delivery tool for transport policy, inspired by the successes in Europe and the United States in changing individual travel behaviour, where the Smart Growth Agenda has emerged as a mass transit based planning response to urban sprawl. In the UK, success in delivering significant modal shift away from private car use has seen limited success, hence the rationale for this research. Using this wider policy context, this research uses the University of Hertfordshire as a case study with the objective to research the development and implementation processes of a Travel Plan. The research conducts a review of travel behaviour within the case study, providing recommendations for implementing alternative interventions to car-based travel. Making use of national policy tools, using insights from both Smarter Travel / Smarter Choice agenda, the research includes the development process of a complex city wide Quality Partnership – a delivery mechanism for travel behaviour change incorporating multiple stakeholders. This thesis uses an embedded and reflective critical realist approach to researching Travel Plans from the perspective of a Travel Plan Coordinator. Through applying a multi-method dimension to empirical data collection, the use of structured quantitative commuter surveys, semi structured qualitative interviews and supporting secondary data sources are all utilised. Using such an approach provides the research with the flexibility for reporting complex social and empirical data, including the researcher’s embedded reflective insights throughout the process. An evaluative matrix ‘lens’ has been developed for reporting back the multitude of factors, including identifying Critical Success Factors and Key Performance Indicators that underpin the success or failure of such travel planning approaches. The research culminates in the development of a Travel Plan for the University of Hertfordshire and a voluntary Quality Partnership for the City and District of St Albans. A conclusion is drawn based on the unique perspective of an embedded reflective researcher as an active practitioner in the field of travel planning. In order to be successful a Travel Plan should feed into the wider quality partnership structures for mutual benefit where multiple stakeholders are able to influence the development of interventions at the local level, which could lead to significant travel behaviour changes. It is argued that this will ultimately help Travel Plans and quality partnerships achieve their key performance objectives and help meet government policy agenda
Scalable Stellar Parameter Inference Using Python-based LASP: From CPU Optimization to GPU Acceleration
Full text linkTo enhance the efficiency, scalability, and cross-survey applicability of stellar parameter inference in large spectroscopic datasets, we present a modular, parallelized Python framework with automated error estimation, built on the LAMOST Atmospheric Parameter Pipeline (LASP) originally implemented in IDL. Rather than a direct code translation, this framework refactors LASP with two complementary modules: LASP-CurveFit, a new implementation of the LASP fitting procedure that runs on a CPU, preserving legacy logic while improving data I/O and multithreaded execution efficiency; and LASP-Adam-GPU, a GPU-accelerated method that introduces grouped optimization by constructing a joint residual function over multiple observed and model spectra, enabling high-throughput parameter inference across tens of millions of spectra. Applied to 10 million LAMOST spectra, the framework reduces runtime from 84 to 48 hr on the same CPU platform and to 7 hr on an NVIDIA A100 GPU, while producing results consistent with those from the original pipeline. The inferred errors agree well with the parameter variations from repeat observations of the same target (excluding radial velocities), while the official empirical errors used in LASP are more conservative. When applied to DESI DR1, our effective temperatures and surface gravities agree better with APOGEE than those from the DESI pipeline, particularly for cool giants, while the latter performs slightly better in radial velocity and metallicity. These results suggest that the framework delivers reliable accuracy, efficiency, and transferability, offering a practical approach to parameter inference in large spectroscopic surveys. The code and DESI-based catalog are available via DOI: 10.12149/101679 and DOI: 10.12149/101675, respectively
Zooming in on Star-Formation in the Andromeda Galaxy: Molecular Clouds Resolved with Wideband Millimeter Interferometry and Chemical Abundances of HII Regions
Full text linkThe Andromeda Galaxy (M31), the nearest neighbouring large spiral galaxy to the Milky Way,
provides a unique external perspective on star formation and the interstellar medium (ISM).
Molecular gas is the primary fuel for star formation and is largely contained within giant molecular
clouds (GMCs). Observing GMCs with a wide range of properties is more difficult in the Milky
Way, due to our position within the Galactic disc and uncertainties in distance measurements.
For this, M31 becomes an ideal laboratory. This thesis presents three studies, which together
characterise dust and gas properties of M31 GMCs including metallicity, CO conversion factor
and the forces acting on cloud and subcloud scales. provide insight into the initial conditions of
star formation.
Optical spectroscopy of H ii regions is used to measure elemental abundance (metallicity) variation
across the disc of M31. Metallicity generally decreases with galactocentric radius, however,
significant scatter around this gradient indicates local variation in star formation conditions suggesting
M31 has a recent history of galaxy interactions and mergers. Comparing H ii region
metallicities with properties of their associated GMCs provides further insight into how cloud
properties correlate with local chemical enrichment.
Simultaneous submillimetre observations of thermal dust emission and CO isotopologues help
constrain the CO-to-H2 conversion factor, �CO, in M31 GMCs. Dust continuum accurately
traces H2 properties, enabling a direct measurement of �′ CO, the factor relating CO luminosity
to dust mass, independent of H2 measurements. �′ CO is converted to �CO by the gas-to-dust
ratio. Results indicate that �′ CO is approximately constant for M31 GMCs, and does not vary
significantly with metallicity. Additionally, an assessment of the dynamical state of these GMCs
provides further evidence that while GMCs are bound by external forces and not self-gravity,
these observations trace dust emission from dense, gravitationally bound regions.
Lastly, the nitrogen-to-oxygen abundance ratio (N/O) is examined for the same H ii region
sample. Oxygen and nitrogen have different nucleosynthetic origins, and their ratio provides
insight into the relative nucleosynthesis rates of stars with different masses. Our findings support
recent evidence from observations and simulations suggesting that the M31 disc formed from a
more intense and rapid burst of star formation than the MilkyWay disc. The derived N/O−O/H
relationship for M31 shows that at high metallicities, N/O increases with increasing O/H, as
theory predicts. However, the trend is significantly steeper than the general Milky Way relation
for this metallicity range. Altogether these studies reveal that M31’s chemical evolutionary
history differs from that of the Milky Way’s, and that star formation occurs in gravitationally
bound regions of GMCs
Antioxidant Delivery Revisited: The Promise of Nanostructured Lipid Carriers
Full text linkNatural products have an invaluable therapeutic effect on human health. Natural antioxidants, including beta-carotene, turmeric, and polyphenols, are recognised for their health benefits but face significant barriers related to insufficient solubility, instability, volatility, and diminished bioavailability, which limit their therapeutic efficacy in drug delivery systems. Therefore, encapsulation of natural products in a carrier addresses the above concern. Drug delivery systems, such as solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs) and nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs), are promising carriers for effective release, consisting of solid and liquid lipids, which enhance efficiency, stability, and controlled release, thereby minimising bioavailability limitations. This review consolidates current studies on the formulation methodologies, mechanisms of action, and therapeutic applications of NLCs, emphasizing their use in the treatment of conditions such as cancer, neurological disorders, and cardiovascular diseases. The results demonstrate that NLCs substantially enhance the bioavailability and therapeutic efficacy of antioxidants, thereby improving their targeted administration and clinical effects. Nonetheless, difficulties in clinical translation remain, including drug loading capacity, regulatory authorisation, and the need for pervasive research on cytotoxicity. This article highlights important areas for future inquiry, specifically the optimisation of NLC formulations, the enhancement of targeting accuracy, and the resolution of safety issues to enhance their clinical application
Durability of physiological and biomechanical variables during a marathon
Full text linkDurability is the ability to withstand the deterioration of physiological parameters and is associated with marathon performance. The aim of this study was to examine whether changes to biomechanical parameters are dependent on durability. Sixty-nine runners submitted data collected using a footworn accelerometer and heart rate (HR) recording device during a marathon (median finish time (IQR): 224.0 (60.4) mins). Biomechanical parameters (both speed-adjusted and absolute) including stiffness, duty factor, step frequency, step length , and running speed, and HR were separated into eight 5 km segments. Decoupling was used to quantify durability, defined as the ratio between HR and running speed. The magnitude of the decoupling was determined from the last full 5 km segment of the race (35–40 km) and expressed relative to the 5–10 km segment, and used to group the participants into high, moderate and low decoupling groups. Greater biomechanical deterioration was observed in the high decoupling group, but this disappeared after adjusting for speed. More durable runners (i.e., low decoupling) exhibited distinct changes in speed-adjusted step frequency and step length across the marathon. These patterns may relate to fatigue resistance, though it remains unclear whether they reflect durability-enhancing adaptations or are traits of inherently resilient runners
Kaspar Explains: An Educational Platform using Causal Explanations to Support Children with Autism with Visual Perspective Taking
No full textThe Kaspar Explains project aimed to assess the efficacy of utilising causal explanations on a social humanoid robot to address challenges in instructing autistic children. In a scoping retrospective study which looked back at nearly 18 years of research with the Kaspar robot in children's education, we first identified Visual Perspective Taking (VPT) as a challenge that children with autism often encounter and where causal explanations proved to have a strong potential to support the children. In the context of a local special needs school, we then created appropriate scenarios within the VPT domain and developed a formal causal model to support the children with common misconceptions about visual perspectives. This model was implemented in an interactive scenario for the Kaspar robot. Our approach featured formative and summative evaluation cycles. Together with teachers, parents, and children, we initially assessed the interactive games regarding their suitability for children with autism. We then evaluated the general feasibility of our explanation engine with healthy adults, (n=20), before a summative evaluation study with children with autism (n=10) at our partner school. The study design allowed all the children access to both the intervention and control phases of the study by deploying an ECE-CEC design where E represents causal explanation phases and C represents control phases without explanations. Comparing the number of correct actions in both groups, there were statistically significant differences in favour of the intervention group (p=0.04). The study shows that causal explanations can help children better understand and retain different aspects of VPT. This study contributes to advancing innovative and productive educational tools tailored for autistic children. In our future studies, we aim to apply causal explanations to other interactive educational scenarios and areas of difficulty within the curriculum to further assist pupils in reaching their desired educational outcomes
Twisted homotopy algebras: spontaneous symmetry breaking, anomalies, localisation, and supersymmetric twists
Full text linkClassical background fields are a foundational technique in quantum field theory, playing a central role in developments such as the Higgs mechanism. Independently, supersymmetric twisting à la Witten has emerged as a key tool underlying phenomena such as supersymmetric localisation. Although these constructions are traditionally treated as distinct, they arise on an equal footing within the homotopy-algebraic approach to quantum field theory. In this work, we formalise this connection by interpreting both supersymmetric twisting and classical backgrounds as instances of twisting curved quantum L∞-superalgebras. Using the language of homotopy algebras and the Batalin–Vilkovisky formalism, we provide a unified algebraic framework that encompasses topological/holomorphic twists, spontaneous symmetry breaking, computation of anomalies, and supersymmetric localisation à la Festuccia–Seiberg. We examine a variety of applications and examples illustrating this perspective in supersymmetric and general quantum fields theories alike. As a byproduct, we introduce a notion of twisting for quantum L∞-algebras and a homotopy-algebraic reformulation of the one-particle-irreducible effective action