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Using GIFscapes to examine young people's affective experiences of urban spaces
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The authors do not have permission to share data.This article proposes Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) as a novel methodology to investigate the affective experiences of young people in urban spaces, a group often excluded in urban planning processes. Drawing on children’s geographies, non-representational theory, and digital geographies, we introduce the concept of GIFscapes to evoke the relational, sensory, and emotional dynamics shaping our interactions with urban environments often overlooked by more traditional research methods. The paper is based on research for a community consultation in Uxbridge, London. It developed a participatory methodology with young people who chose GIFs to express their perceptions of Uxbridge’s town centre. We show how GIF’s affective capacity elicits insights into the youth’s affective experiences of urban environments as well as provides an engaging platform for dialogue to discuss their uses, perceptions and needs from urban environments. Our discussion reveals how important mundane urban atmospheres, such as rhythms, maintenance, and uses, are in shaping young people’s perceptions and attachments to place and highlights their views on neglected urban infrastructures, insufficient inclusive spaces, and social marginalisation. By demonstrating how GIFs enable accessing nuanced affective experiences of urban atmospheres, this research advances the field of children’s urban geographies and affective geographies. The article emphasises the value of embracing digital methods in urban studies to create cities that are physically functional and emotionally and experientially responsive.The Spanish Government and NextGenerationEU supported this work
Who’s the ‘parasite’ in anti-trafficking?
Get PDFBeyond Trafficking And Slavery: Opinion: A response letter to our new feature, 'Ten Years On, Have We Moved Beyond Trafficking and Slavery?
KG-UQ: Knowledge Graph-Based Uncertainty Quantification for Long Text in Large Language Models
Get PDFWith the commercialization of large language models (LLMs) and their integration into daily life, addressing their susceptibility to hallucinations-unfactual information in generated outputs-has become an urgent priority. Existing uncertainty quantification (UQ) methods often rely on access to LLMs' internal states, which is unavailable for closed-source models like GPTs, or are primarily designed for short text. Current research on long text typically evaluates sentences individually, overlooking smaller semantic units that better capture the text's complexity. Recognizing the potential of knowledge graphs (KGs) to extract structured relationships from unstructured text, we propose KG-UQ, a UQ method leveraging KGs to address the semantic intricacies of long text. Our approach involves constructing KGs from long-text outputs and utilizing their embeddings to estimate uncertainties. Through our analysis, we demonstrate that knowledge graphs are an effective tool for decomposing long text into fundamental statements. However, we also highlight the increased uncertainty introduced during KG construction, stemming from inherent challenges in accurately capturing all semantic information.This research was supported by the Macquarie University Research Acceleration Scheme (MQRAS) and Data Horizon funding
Towards Intelligent Threat Detection in 6G Networks Using Deep Autoencoder
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The original contributions presented in this study are included in the article. Further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.The evolution of sixth-generation (6G) wireless networks introduces a complex landscape of cybersecurity challenges due to advanced infrastructure, massive device connectivity, and the integration of emerging technologies. Traditional intrusion detection systems (IDSs) struggle to keep pace with such dynamic environments, often yielding high false alarm rates and poor generalization. This study proposes a novel and adaptive IDS that integrates statistical feature engineering with a deep autoencoder (DAE) to effectively detect a wide range of modern threats in 6G environments. Unlike prior approaches, the proposed system leverages the DAE’s unsupervised capability to extract meaningful latent representations from high-dimensional traffic data, followed by supervised classification for precise threat detection. Evaluated using the CSE-CIC-IDS2018 dataset, the system achieved an accuracy of 86%, surpassing conventional ML and DL baselines. The results demonstrate the model’s potential as a scalable and upgradable solution for securing next-generation wireless networks.This research received no external funding
Performance of Seismically Isolated and Non-Isolated Steel-Framed Buildings: Sensitivity to Amount and Form of Inherent Damping
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The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.The amount of inherent damping assumed in nonlinear response history analysis of steel buildings is typically set at 2% or less for the fundamental mode of vibration. However, many studies have shown that actual damping levels vary depending on the building characteristics and soil conditions, and methodologies used in measurements of damping in the field. Reported inherent damping values range from 1% to more than 5% for the fundamental mode of vibration. This study investigates the effects on the computed seismic performance of the assumed level and form of inherent damping in nonlinear response history analysis, focusing on seismically isolated and non-isolated buildings with special moment-resisting and concentrically braced frames. The seismic isolation systems considered are sliding friction pendulum type. The findings demonstrate that the assumed value of inherent damping has an impact on the computed floor accelerations, affecting acceleration-sensitive non-structural components, particularly with periods less than 1 s. Collapse probabilities of isolated buildings are minimally affected by the assumption of inherent damping, leading to simplifying modeling for collapse-focused analyses. Comparative studies involving conventional non-isolated buildings reveal significant sensitivity to inherent damping values across various metrics, including floor accelerations, peak story drift ratios, residual drift ratios, and collapse probabilities. It is shown that non-isolated building models exhibit reduced sensitivity of collapse probabilities and floor spectral accelerations when inherent damping is specified using different methods—specifically, capped viscous damping as compared to modal damping. This highlights that while the performance of seismically isolated buildings shows relatively small sensitivity to the model of inherent damping, non-isolated buildings exhibit notable differences.The authors received no specific funding for this work
Spices in early modern England – a cross disciplinary study
Get PDFThis thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University LondonReading popular English literature of the last hundred years would lead one to believe that English food always has been bland. This is surprising, considering that England, during the early modern period (1500-1850 AD) established the East India Company, partially for the spice trade and became the largest global spice merchant, centred on London. Hence, it cannot be that the English spice trade did not influence English Culture. What happened during the early modern period that significantly changed the usage of spices in English culture?
Using an enhanced food choice model, this dissertation analyses how factors such as imports, exports, storage, consumer income, historical/geographical antecedents, spice production and pricing influenced the spice supply into England, which then impacted spice-buying behaviour and usage. The research has used primary data sources from the British Library’s East India Archive, UK National Archives, Newspaper Archives and English Ports Data, and relied on secondary academic data sources.
This data was used for an economic historical analysis of the English spice trade, spices used as financial assets, crimes, spice usage in food and medicine, its representation in art and literature, religion, magic, perfumes, fashion, and clothing. The findings show that spice usage was common until 1800-1850. Thereafter, cultural, political, and scientific factors led to its decline. War necessitated distinguishing bland English food from spiced French food after Waterloo; the repudiation of the medical humoral theory positing that spices heal the sick; and a rise in atheism/non-religiosity and better education combined to substantially reduce spice usage across many aspects of English Culture.
Since mid-twentieth century, the Chicken Tikka Masala curry has become the English national dish. This is no novelty. The study shows that English food has been spiced since Roman Times; the century of bland food (1850-1950) was an aberration
Illuminating oncogenic KRAS signaling by multi-dimensional chemical proteomics
Get PDFThis article is a preprint and has not been certified by peer review (https://www.biorxiv.org/about/FAQ#unrefereed).Mutated KRAS is among the most frequent activating genetic alterations in cancer and drug discovery efforts have led to inhibitors that block its activity. To better understand oncogenic KRAS signaling and the cytostatic effects of drugs, we performed comprehensive dose-dependent proteome-wide target deconvolution, pathway engagement and protein expression characterization of KRAS, MEK, ERK, SHP2 and SOS1 inhibitors in pancreatic (KRAS G12C, G12D) and lung cancer (KRAS G12C) cells. Analysis of the resulting 687,954 dose-response curves available online revealed both common and cell line-specific signaling networks dominated by oncogenic KRAS activity. Time-dose experiments separated early KRAS-MEK-ERK from CDK-mediated signaling that cause cells to exit from the cell cycle. This transition to a quiescent state occurred without substantial proteome re-modelling but extensive changes of protein phosphorylation and ubiquitylation. The collective data highlights the complexity of KRAS signaling in cancer and places a large number of new proteins into this functional context...
PARAMETRIC STUDY OF THE THERMAL-HYDRAULIC CHARACTERISTICS OF DEEP BOREHOLE CO-AXIAL HEAT EXCHANGER IN A GEOTHERMAL WELL
Get PDFGeothermal energy constitutes an additional option for energy planners and can have significant advantages when compared to other renewable sources. The work presented here relates to geothermal wells located in areas of average and high geothermal gradients, i.e. 30 and 80 K/km thermal diffusivity of 9.27 m2/s and a soil temperature of 12 oC, as an average value. A closed-loop 3 and 5 km deep borehole co-axial heat exchanger was modelled using in-house developed software (WellTH). Water flows into the annulus space of the heat exchanger and upwards in the inner pipe. Studies were conducted for two different types of commercially available inner upward flow pipes, namely a High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE) and a vacuum-insulated tubing (VIT). The mass flow rate was varied from 1 to 15 kg/s. The water inlet temperature ranged from 10 to 80 oC to allow for the varying return temperature from possible different heating or power plants using the geothermal energy at ground level. Results are presented in the form of outlet temperature and thermal output as a function of the inner pipe insulation, mass flow rate, and water inlet temperature for operational periods up to 30 years and demonstrate the importance of these parameters. The pressure drop in the heat exchanger and the power required at the pump are included in the analysis. Finally, the possible output in terms of electricity production and heating using a heat pump are calculatedEngineering and Physical Sciences Research Council under the Doctoral Mobility Programme; Pennmen Ltd for Paige Draper
Deterioration of Concrete Under the Combined Action of Sulfate Attack and Freeze–Thaw Cycles: A Review
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No new data were created or analyzed in this study. Data sharing is not applicable to this article.The synergistic interaction between freeze–thaw cycles and sulfate attack induces a more severe and complex deterioration mechanism in concrete than either factor in isolation. This review elucidates this process by first examining the individual damage mechanisms and then integrating current research to analyze the coupled effects, revealing a complex process involving the superposition and competition of physical crystallization, chemical reactions, and fatigue stresses. The deterioration is delineated into four distinct stages: (1) Pre-Inflection Acceleration, (2) Post-Inflection Acceleration, (3) Deceleration, and (4) Rapid Failure. Experimental methodologies, research materials, and study protocols are critically examined, with particular emphasis on the influence of sulfate solution type and concentration, while highlighting significant discrepancies between laboratory conditions and field exposure. Based on this, the existing durability damage models and multi-physics numerical simulation methods are summarized, emphasizing the importance of cross-scale studies. Finally, prioritized research directions are proposed, emphasizing the need for refined experimental protocols and integrated physico-chemical models to advance predictive durability assessment. This work provides a foundational reference for guiding future research in concrete durability.This research was supported by Henan Natural Science Foundation, grant number 232300420107, Henan Science and Technology Research Project, grant number 252102320092, and China Railway Major Bridge Bureau Science and Technology Research and Development Plan Project, grant number 2022-2 Major
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