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Awning design and performance considerations under winter storms in zero ground snow load zones
Get PDFThe outcomes of the Winter Storm URI in Houston (February 2021) and its impact on awnings highlighted how climate change has altered the load combinations considered in design codes such as ASCE 7-16, introducing new uncertainties due to freezing storm events. Previously unused load categories are now presenting significant challenges, as designers assumed sufficient safety factors would prevent failures. This research investigates the consequences of the storm and offers guidelines for conservative awning design in zero ground snow load zones, emphasizing wind load as the primary design load in regions with no active snow zone. Additionally, an attempt has been made in this research to examine the importance of anchor reliability in concrete structures, particularly under environmental stress such as winter storms. Factors like improper installation, edge distance, and embedment depth significantly affect anchor performance, potentially leading to premature failure modes like concrete breakout, pullout, or rusting from water accumulation. Through field investigations and theoretical analyses, the research evaluates the axial load capacity of anchors, taking into account edge distance, embedment depth, and environmental factors like ice accumulation. The study stresses the need for proper anchor geometry, drainage, and reinforcement to ensure structural safety. By following the proposed recommendations, engineers can mitigate adverse effects and enhance the durability and safety of concrete structures, even under extreme weather conditions
Identifying innovative models of urgent care in rural coastal areas in England: The Elevate study - a mixed-methods protocol
Get PDFIntroduction Urgent and emergency care (UEC) systems in England face unprecedented pressures, with record accident and emergency attendances, persistent breaches of ambulance response targets and poorer outcomes for time-sensitive conditions. National UEC recovery plans have introduced multiple innovations—such as same-day emergency care, virtual wards and specialty hubs—to manage these pressures and improve patient flow. Rural coastal areas are particularly vulnerable to excessive demand due to higher levels of deprivation, older populations with complex health needs, seasonal surges that generate unpredictable demand and challenges in attracting and retaining staff. Following the Chief Medical Officer’s 2021 Annual Report, funding research and developing bespoke solutions to manage UEC demand and address geographical disparities has been recognised as a national priority. The Elevate study responds to this priority by identifying and evaluating innovative models of UEC in rural coastal communities in England. Methods and analysis The Elevate study is a 30-month, mixed-methods evaluation that comprises three interlinked work packages: (1) National service mapping —outlining provision of innovative models of UEC in rural coastal areas of England. This will be developed through document review and interviews with regional and national service leaders. (2) Quantitative analysis —quasiexperimental and longitudinal approaches will use National Health Service (NHS) England’s Emergency Care Data Set and linked routine NHS datasets to evaluate the impact of UEC models on health and process outcomes. Standard and bespoke metrics will be developed and used to assess performance. (3) Qualitative case studies —up to 12 case studies of UEC models in rural coastal communities. Interviews with patients and staff and non-participant observation will explore how and why different UEC models influence patient experience, clinical outcomes, resource use and the workforce. Findings will be integrated using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research to identify components of UEC models that are effective, scalable and sensitive to local context, Ethics and dissemination Ethical approval for qualitative components was granted by the North of Scotland Research Ethics Committee (25/NS/0099). Dissemination will include peer-reviewed publications, policy briefs, creative media and community engagement activities to ensure findings are communicated inclusively and effectively to policymakers, health and social care practitioners and the public. Trial registration number Research Registry (researchregistry11126)
Real-time measurement of soil organic carbon and related properties across agricultural land types using mobile near-infrared spectroscopy
Get PDFNew mobile near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) technology allows more frequent nutrient analysis of soil and plant properties among farms and agricultural land uses in real-time. The aim of this study was to determine key soil organic carbon (SOC) and plant properties using real-time mobile NIRS technique, and to assess metrics for SOC and its association with plant properties across agricultural land types. A total of 101 fields of either arable, temporary ley or permanent grassland were studied across five farms in spring 2023 and 2024 in the UK. The study collected 505 soil and 505 plant samples from the same location, with nutrients analysed using NIRS. A linear mixed model was used to assess differences among land types. The main SOC associated and plant properties assessed were soil depth, SOC (g/kg, tonnes/ha, ratios with nitrogen and clay), plant height, biomass cover and common plant nutrients. Among the land types studied, the majority of soil samples from permanent grassland had a very good SOC/clay ratio (72%), whereas arable and temporary ley samples were predominantly of good (41% and 46%, respectively) or moderate (22% and 28%, respectively) levels. Regional differences were found in soil depth (ranging from 18.3 to 30 cm), SOC stock (ranging from 46.2 to 65.3 t/ha) and SOC/clay ratio (ranging from 0.12 to 0.16). The mobile NIRS analysis can aid large scale monitoring of both soil and plant nutrients, with more frequent measurements helping landowners manage organic carbon stocks
The Animate World: Posthuman Ontologies
No full textThe Animate World: Posthuman Ontologies is a book about life in the midst of an extinction event. It argues that the crisis of our time is not only political and ecological but ontological. Challenging the anthropocentric humanism that has long sustained capitalism’s nihilist vision of a dead and meaningless world, it also shows how even the most radical posthumanisms remain complicit with the catastrophe. They fail when they either explicitly affirm or refuse to fully break with the nihilist, mechanistic ontologies that have characterised modern Western philosophy.Watson offers another path. Drawing on process philosophy and indigenous cosmologies, he develops a decolonised and scientifically literate animist ontology - one that resists the reduction of being to matter and blind mechanism, and of nature to human resource. From this grounding emerges a generative ethics and politics: an invitation to fully break with humanist modernity and rejoin the animate, more-than-human world in a time of planetary crisis
Flabbergasted: Reflections on receiving the FPOP Late Career Award
Get PDFThis paper was an invited contribution to the Bulletin of the BPS’ Faculty of Psychology of Older People to reflect on the receipt of the inaugural Late Career Award. All award winners were asked to write their reactions to being nominated and receiving the award
Enhancing sustainability in surgical service delivery: Exploring the intersection of comprehensive surgery scheduling and operating room capacity management policies
Get PDFThis study examines how operating room capacity management (ORCM) policies can enhance access to surgical services and improve societal welfare by reducing cancellations and improving resource utilisation. Using a discrete event simulation (DES) model, we evaluated three ORCM policies—dedicated, flexible, and hybrid—across different hospital sizes, focusing on their intersection with elective scheduling strategies. The analysis incorporated the perspectives of both hospital managers prioritising resource efficiency and patients concerned with surgery cancellations. Results indicate that the effectiveness of each policy depends on the specific circumstances of the hospital (e.g., hospital size and the adopted scheduling strategy), with the hybrid policy generally outperforming the others. Sensitivity analysis showed that incorporating comprehensive elective surgery scheduling—addressing pre- and post-surgery resource availability, as well as the unpredictability of emergency arrivals—substantially reduced cancellations and improved ORCM outcomes. This research highlights the critical role of selecting an appropriate ORCM policy and optimising elective scheduling to ensure sustainable surgical operations, minimise disruptions from emergencies, and improve patient care. Our findings provide actionable insights for hospital managers to refine their strategies, balancing patient needs and operational efficiency in the context of sustainable healthcare delivery
Excluded by design: Barriers to human-scale travel revealed through marginalised groups’ experiences of streets
Get PDFStreets involve a compromise between engineering, regulation and behaviour, aimed at meeting the needs of a diverse range of users (motorists, pedestrians, cyclists, wheelchairs, micromobility) while often attempting to fulfil both Movement and Place functions. It is reasonable to ask to what extent these compromises prioritise the needs of some over others and what might be the consequences. This study used Q methodology with a selection of road users chosen to represent groups likely to be marginalised by compromises of regulation or design, particularly those who walk or cycle. The analysis revealed five common categories of viewpoints: ‘We are traffic’ (the need for movement in streets, comparable to motorists), ‘Safety and comfort first’ (recognition of streets’ Place function), ‘Access is not optional’ (streets currently deny access to some), ‘Designed for all’ (unless designed for everyone, many will neverchoose to walk or cycle), and ‘Rules matter’ (rules should prompt those that can harm most to take a greater share of responsibility). These themes show that more marginalised users recognise the balances between Movement and Place and perceive restrictions on their access to public spaces arising from design and regulation compromises. A clear theme was that compromise designs, which expect users of very different vulnerability to mix, are a major barrier to more active travel and that, while a reduction in intimidating behaviour from motorists would be welcome by more marginalised groups, physical separation between means of travel would contribute the most to the creation of street environments conducive to human-scale movement
What do we mean by ‘creative health’? The benefits of defining ‘creativity’ in the arts and health field
No full textThe term ‘creative health’ is increasingly used in the context of ‘arts and health’ programming, evaluation and research. In this comment, I draw on the psychology of creativity to critically examine this term (focusing on the word ‘creative’ rather than ‘health’). I argue that conceptual clarity and consistent terminology are essential for the arts and health field. This is important for two key reasons: 1) to ensure we have shared and comprehensible terms in the field; and 2) to clarify the active ingredients within arts-based interventions and activities that contribute to health outcomes
Transforming voices: Reimagining organizational vulnerabilities of Mexican women in tourism through experimental audio-visual research
No full textPurpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse how collaborative audiovisual research methods can be used to study women’s organizational practices in tourism within the Mexican–US borderlands. By discussing the process of creating short films using an experimental methodology, the paper explores how audiovisual research can help articulate women’s vulnerability as an intersectional phenomenon. The authors argue that such articulation can benefit not only researchers but also participants, enabling all to express and share experiences and perspectives that may not conform to established paradigms of representing women’s vulnerability. The paper demonstrates how audiovisual research can foster a deeper understanding of organizational vulnerability and enhance the broader impact of research on this topic. Design/methodology/approach The research project was based on experimental collaborative filmmaking. An online platform (Transforming Voices, 2024) was used for the co-production and dissemination of experimental short films using aural testimonies of participants discussing their experiences of gendered vulnerabilities when working in the borderlands between Mexico and the USA (particularly, though not exclusively, in the region of Tijuana). The project was divided into four consecutive phases: the production of 23 interviews in Spanish; the extraction and editing of audio excerpts from the interviews, resulting in the production of over 35 short narrative soundtracks; the production of 30 short films in collaboration with musicians and filmmakers from all over the world; and a series of film screening events with Tijuana’s communities, including research participants. Findings Findings show that experimental co-produced audio-visual works can be helpful when elucidating complex intersectional dimensions of the challenges and dynamics of women organizational practices in tourism and hospitality. Segregation and stereotypification are made evident in these complexities, making it possible for women to share their organizational experiences broadly. Participants of this project expressed that Transforming Voices was particularly successful at transmitting the permanence and repetitive nature of women’s vulnerability, even in changing organizational circumstances. Research limitations/implications The methodology yielded important opportunities in terms of participatory consent and availability. By anonymizing participants and not using their images participants felt safer sharing their testimony and more in control of their own narratives. However, there is a potential risk of making primary participants invisible and only indirectly represented by other co-participants. Practical implications Foregrounding voice can be a practical way to work with participants as authors and co-creators while avoiding forms of victimization and subalternation, which might result from greater visibility. These methodologies encourage a focus on what is said, rather than on who speaks, and reflection on the account rather than on the contexts in which it is said. Social implications Research has highlighted the need to empower women involved in tourist activities through initiatives such as entrepreneurship education. The authors see that methodologies such as the one used for Transforming Voices could be useful in this regard, as they not only create a forum for hitherto silenced discourses but also opportunities where participants, artists and filmmakers can collaborate in ways that favour experimentation and, therefore, creative forms of empowerment where original distributions of authorship, voice, vulnerabilities and resistances might be performed. Originality/value The originality of this audio-visual research methodology resides in its capacity to dramatize, rather than just capture and convey, women’s experiences of organizational vulnerability, a difficult topic of inquiry and dissemination. Sounds and music, in conjunction with the images and visual tracks, result in decentred and highly affective artworks, which aesthetically amplify, expand on, complicate and qualify the participants’ testimonies. Produced in sequence by a multi-ethnic and multidisciplinary group of researchers, musicians, participants and filmmakers, Transforming Voices became a valuable and stimulating way of engaging through audio-visual interaction and reflecting on vulnerabilities in the tourism workplace
Physics-informed machine learning for ASHRAE-compliant heat transfer coefficient estimation from short-term IoT monitoring
No full textAccurate Heat Transfer Coefficient (HTC) measurement is essential for building retrofit prioritization, yet traditional co-heating tests require 2–4 weeks of vacancy at £3,000–5,000 per building—economically prohibitive for large-scale deployment. This study develops a physics-informed machine learning framework achieving ASHRAE Guideline 14-compliant HTC estimation from 7-28 day occupied monitoring data. The framework systematically integrates SAP 10.2 building physics principles with IoT sensor streams through physics-enhanced feature engineering. A Gradient Boosting model trained on 141 UK dwellings (140 SMETER dataset, 1 Energy House 2.0) achieved CV-RMSE of 9.8%, R2 of 0.967, and NMBE of −0.6% on holdout testing, with 92.9% of buildings meeting ASHRAE compliance thresholds (CV-RMSE 100 m2 with >1,500 kWh annual consumption achieve <8% error, while buildings <50 m2 with <500 kWh require extended monitoring periods. Leveraging existing IoT infrastructure, this framework enables national-scale building stock characterization supporting evidence-based retrofit prioritization without additional measurement cost