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“Everybody should have the chance to play.”: A conversation reflecting on the challenges and opportunities for enhancing inclusivity in music education in England
No full textIn England, inclusion remains a central theme in educational discourse (DfE, 2015; 2022). Within music education, and particularly in instrumental learning, adapted instruments are sometimes necessary to ensure that learners with physical disabilities can participate meaningfully in music-making. Previous research (Fautley & Kinsella, 2017; Nenadic & Booth, 2024) has highlighted the benefits of such instruments in promoting inclusivity in music classrooms, yet further national-level work is needed. This article, adopting a conversational format, presents reflections from the General Manager of The OHMI Trust on the ongoing challenges and emerging opportunities for improving access to music education for physically disabled learners
The Influence of Safety-Focused Communication, Nutritional Claims and Packaging Innovation on Functional Food Adoption in Pakistan
No full textFunctional foods are gaining increasing prominence in emerging markets as consumers respond to growing health concerns, urbanization, and evolving dietary patterns. However, little is known about how consumers in developing economies interpret safety-focused communication, nutritional claims, and packaging innovation when evaluating functional foods. Pakistan represents an important context due to its rapidly growing functional food sector, weak regulatory environment, and heightened consumer concerns about product safety. This study examines how safety-focused communication, nutritional claims, and innovative packaging influence consumer trust, perceived product safety, and purchase intention within Pakistan’s developing functional food sector. Data were collected from 418 consumers across five major Pakistani cities and analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM). The results show that safety communication, nutritional claims, and packaging innovation significantly enhance perceived product safety and trust, with trust emerging as the strongest predictor of purchase intention. Moreover, communication highlighting technological advancements in packaging strengthens trust and improves perceptions of product quality. Consumer trust mediates the relationship between marketing communication and purchase intention, while health consciousness moderates these effects. The results underscore the vital role of transparent and credible marketing communication in building consumer trust and encouraging the adoption of functional foods in emerging markets. Managerially, integrating explicit safety and packaging cues into marketing strategies can enhance consumer acceptance, while policymakers should ensure regulatory oversight of nutritional and packaging-related claims
An Intersectional Perspective of Entrepreneurial Growth Aspirations: Gendering Process of Transnational Women Entrepreneurs in a Superdiverse Context
No full textEntrepreneurship is a gendered discourse that disadvantages women, with a growing trend among recent studies attending to entrepreneurial growth aspirations from the perspective of gender. Meanwhile, intersectionality theory provides a multi-layered inter-relational analysis on the effect of race, gender and migration status in the social constructions of migrant women entrepreneurs. Hence, intersectionality theory is particularly relevant in examinations of women entrepreneurs’ gendering process. Notably, Birmingham as the second largest metropole in the UK is celebrated for its superdiverse metropolitan culture and the rich entrepreneurial tradition, with continued growth of international migration from a superdiverse range of countries and regions. In particular, transnational migrants from Hong Kong and mainland China are the two major Chinese diaspora groups in the city of Birmingham, which are under-researched with reference to entrepreneurial growth aspirations from a gender perspective. Therefore, the primary objective of this research is to comprehend, critique, and deconstruct the capitalist patriarchy as experienced by Chinese women entrepreneurs from divergent migrant groups within the Chinese diaspora communities in Birmingham. Specifically, it has been witnessed by women entrepreneurs in family businesses from Hong Kong and women student entrepreneurs from mainland China. This research project employed a qualitative case study design to explore how Hong Kong and mainland Chinese women entrepreneurs interact with the Chinese diaspora communities to achieve entrepreneurial growth in a superdiverse and transnational city context of Birmingham. Taking into account the sampling strategy and data saturation, six individual cases, leading to six in-depth semi-structured interviews, were conducted for the fieldwork. This research found that the Chinese catering industry, as the main sector of Chinese diaspora entrepreneurship in the UK, demonstrated evident male dominance. Women entrepreneurs in family businesses from Hong Kong and women student entrepreneurs from mainland China have both experienced gendered bias in their entrepreneurial growth processes, with human capital playing a crucial role in the formation of their growth aspirations, as a reflection of entrepreneurial identity in a superdiverse, transnational gendering process. It is evident that the gendering process of women entrepreneurs from both Hong Kong and mainland China was developing entrepreneurial growth aspirations with them, in order to avoid the gender bias that is rife in the male-dominated traditional Chinese catering industry, albeit with divergent contextual conditions. In the future, further examinations will attend to the various discriminatory dynamics as intersecting forms of exclusions in relation to the superdiverse entrepreneurial context, with a focus on women entrepreneurs from the disadvantaged and marginalised as well as the advantaged and privileged social groups to explore the social, cultural, and political potentials of migrant women entrepreneurs in general and Chinese migrant women entrepreneurs in particular
Masonry Bridge Inspection Using Point Cloud Data and 360-Degree Images: A Case Study on Railway Bridges
No full textIn the context of the UK's aging infrastructure and reliance on railway masonry bridges, this study addresses the vital challenge of enhancing bridge longevity and safety through effective and accurate inspection methods. Traditional inspection techniques, while established, often disrupt service, pose safety risks, and incur high costs. In contrast, digital inspection techniques, such as 360-degree imagery and point cloud data, offer increased efficiency and minimal disruption. However, these methods have not been extensively tested in real-world settings beyond the experimental conditions. Addressing this gap, our research aims to evaluate the effectiveness of these digital techniques against conventional inspections across four masonry bridges. By replicating existing examination results with digital datasets, this study explores the potential of the integration of a digital examination approach into the UK railway bridge inspection protocols, engaging industry experts to assess the applicability of broader adoption. Employing an exploratory case study methodology, the research collected and analysed data to ascertain digital detection rates for various structural defects. Findings indicate a 46% detection rate using digital methods, with joint defects and spalling achieving over 85% success when excluding repaired and tactile-related defects. However, challenges in detecting cracks, fractures, and bulging were evident, primarily due to image quality issues and physical obstructions. Proposed corrective strategies, such as improved data capture techniques and more precise specifications, suggest potential advancements in detection rates. Nevertheless, the absence of a correlation between defect severity and detection rates underscores the limitations of digital methods, particularly for defects requiring tactile examination. Despite these challenges, discussions with industry experts supported the operational viability of digital examination methods, highlighting anticipated benefits in safety, efficiency, and decision-making, thus suggesting their suitability for widespread application. This study not only advocates for the integration of digital inspection techniques into existing protocols but also underscores the necessity for further research to refine these methods for practical use
Emerging antibiotic resistance in bacterial bloodstream infections: a clinical study at the Holy Family Hospital, Nkawkaw, Ghana
No full textBackground
Bacteraemia, a critical bloodstream infection caused by various bacterial pathogens, poses significant health challenges, particularly when compounded by antibiotic resistance. This current study determined the prevalence of bloodstream bacterial isolates and their antibiotic-resistant patterns at the Holy Family Hospital, Nkawkaw, Ghana, spanning a six-year period.
Methodology
A hospital-based retrospective study was carried out to review records of bacterial isolates of bloodstream infections and their antibiotic-resistant pattern among patients who visited the Holy Family Hospital between 2018 and 2023. The data was collected into an Excel sheet version 2021, cleaned, and exported to the appropriate statistical software, SPSS v26 for statistical analysis. A P-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant for all analyses.
Results
Of 3,228 records in this study, the majority (66.0%) were found to be under 1 year of age, while 18.6% were aged 1–10 years. The prevalence of bacteraemia was 8.7% (95% CI: 7.8–9.7%). Klebsiella species was found to be the most prevalent at 30.2%, followed by S. aureus (26.0%). The highest levels of antibiotic resistance were detected against tetracycline (94.5%), penicillin (92.3%), and chloramphenicol (90.9%). Also, significant resistance was also found against vancomycin (88.3%), cefuroxime (86.5%), and cloxacillin (84.4%). Conversely, amikacin demonstrated the highest susceptibility rate (90.5%), followed by ciprofloxacin (75.0%).
Conclusion
The study highlights the significant public health burden posed by bacteraemia and the growing challenge of antibiotic resistance. The prevalence of bacteraemia, particularly caused by Gram-negative organisms such as Klebsiella species and E. coli underscores the need for targeted interventions to improve infection control in healthcare settings
Women’s broadcasting histories and the archive: National, transnational and transmedial entanglements
No full textThis provocation details varied perspectives of the International Women’s Broadcasting Histories (IWBH) network on researching the role of women in broadcasting. The conversational form allows us to roam across the topic widely, to express a range of discrete positions and distinct arguments, with the desire to bring dilemmas to the surface and explore their implications without reduction. Responding with a series of interventionist statements around the issues and challenges of doing archival research into women’s work, we opt for retaining different viewpoints in a raw state, with the aim of provoking discussion about the methodological opportunities and limitations when working within and outside of archives
Same shit, different crisis? Feminist activism against period poverty during the Covid-19 pandemic in the UK
No full textMoments of crisis, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2007 financial crisis, and the ongoing cost-of-living crisis in the United Kingdom, create unique opportunities and challenges for feminist activism. Despite increased awareness, little is known about how organisations engaged in menstrual activism responded to the increased demands of tackling ‘period poverty’ during the pandemic. This article addresses this gap through interviews and survey responses with representatives from such organisations. Findings reveal that period-poverty initiatives (1) constitute a continuation of feminist anti-austerity activism, (2) highlight the triple jeopardy faced by women, and (3) create possibilities for feminist activism that address gendered inequalities. By applying an intersectional feminist ethic-of-care lens, this article provides original insights into the challenges and opportunities organisations faced during the Covid-19 pandemic. The research underscores the necessity for policy interventions that integrate feminist principles to support period-poverty initiatives, ensuring sustainable and equitable solutions. This article contributes to the burgeoning literature on period poverty in the UK, offering implications for feminist activism, organisational practice, and policy development to mitigate gendered economic and social disparities
New Insights into Typical Development and Attention Deficits Using Behavioural and Modelling Methods
No full textThe present thesis employs an interdisciplinary approach of behavioural and computational modelling methods to examine age- and ADHD-related differences in selective visual attention. Specifically, this thesis aims to investigate efficiency when individuals are required to allocate visual attention to a particular moment in time. Selective visual attention refers to the emergent property that arises from biased competition computations. ADHD is associated with differences in neural mechanisms that give rise to selective attention; however, this has been difficult to consistently identify at the behavioural level. Two visual search tasks, preview and preview gap search, as well as a neurocomputational model, the b-sSoTS model were used to examine differences in two time-based attention functions, visual marking and temporal binding. First, performance of typically developing children was compared against adults to establish baseline performance for children and identify developmental differences in the neural mechanisms underlying this performance (Chapter 2). This chapter thus provides a version of the b-sSoTS model that was subsequently used to reflect typically developing children with low levels of ADHD-traits and serve as a baseline to further model ADHD-related differences. In Chapter 3, typically developing children with low levels of ADHD-symptoms and high level of ADHD-symptoms were first compared on the visual search tasks. Performance at the behavioural level was then simulated by the model by implementing parameter changes to reflect hypothesized ADHD-related differences. Chapter 4 extended the investigation to adults with varying levels of differences. In a first behavioural study, adults with low, borderline and high levels of ADHD symptoms are compared using the visual search tasks. In a second behavioural study, levels of impulsiveness were also considered, as adults with low, borderline and high levels ADHD symptoms (but average impulsiveness) were compared with adults with high levels of ADHD symptoms and impulsiveness on the search tasks. Taken together, the outcomes of the present thesis suggest that while top-down visual marking is likely intact in ADHD, these individuals may experience differences in bottom-up temporal binding, at least in childhood. Furthermore, any temporal binding differences arise over and above developmental differences in the basic encoding of visual features. These findings thus serve as an interesting starting point for further research where an interdisciplinary approach using both behavioural and modelling methods can yield unique insights into selective attention in ADHD. Future research could further develop neurocomputational models to reflect the ADHD brain to draw stronger connections between the behavioural and neural levels. Research on selective visual attention in ADHD, particularly when using interdisciplinary methods, provides new insights into the neural mechanisms involved in this disorder, which can ultimately be used to develop better diagnostic and treatment procedures