62880 research outputs found
Sort by
Bat echolocation in South Asia
Get PDFThe study of echolocation traits can assist in developing robust tools for the detection and monitoring of bats. The advent of non-invasive and passive acoustic monitoring techniques has increased the availability of echolocation data including in highly diverse regions, such as South Asia, where 145 of the 155 extant bat species are known to use laryngeal, nasal, or lingual echolocation. However, information remains disperse with no existing review of the state of echolocation knowledge in this region. Here we present a review that collates and catalogues echolocation data to facilitate access and reveal general patterns and knowledge gaps. We conducted a systematic review that returned 35 peer-reviewed publications containing echolocation data to which we added ~6,000 unpublished recordings from various collections (including the open-source ChiroVox database). We created a foundational database reporting on six standard echolocation functional traits to be used in identification. The dataset provides data for ~60% (n = 86) of the echolocating bat species in South Asia, with 299 distinct observations (unique combinations of recording techniques, equipment, and conditions for a given species). Mapping data locations we describe spatial biases and propose priority regions for future work in areas where species richness is high, but echolocation knowledge is limited or completely absent. These priority regions largely fell within the Western Ghats and Eastern Ghats of India, northeastern India, and Sri Lanka, with smaller clusters in peninsular, western, and eastern India. Our review offers a first assessment and a ready-to-use echolocation dataset for bats in South Asia. We hope this motivates an appraisal of functional trait data collection in diverse and data-poor regions and facilitates future research
A critical analysis of teacher capability, opportunity and motivation for evidence-based practice
Get PDFSecondary school teachers in England are increasingly expected to engage with evidence-based
practice (EBP), yet little is known about how they navigate this expectation within a high-stakes, low-trust policy environment. Existing research often frames the challenge as a research–practice gap but
tends to overlook the systemic conditions that shape teachers’ everyday opportunities to use evidence.
This thesis addresses this gap by examining the constraints teachers face, deepening understanding of
how they conceptualise, access and apply evidence, and the extent to which current policy structures
enable or hinder authentic evidence use.
The thesis critically analyses teachers’ engagement with EBP and posits an ‘accountability paradox’:
mechanisms designed to raise standards erode professional autonomy and create barriers to
meaningful evidence use. Using the COM-B model (Capability, Opportunity, Motivation–Behaviour)
as the analytical frame, the study explores how these factors interact to shape teachers’ adoption of
EBP.
Situated in a constructivist–interpretivist paradigm, the research reports a reflexive thematic analysis
of semi-structured interviews with ten teachers across two schools. The Critical Incident Technique
grounds accounts in lived episodes, and COM-B is applied as a deductive overlay on inductively
generated themes.
Findings show teachers operate a ‘tripartite epistemology’, blending formal research, professional
experience and local context in response to a technocratic–managerial model that risks de-professionalising practice. Motivation is shaped by reflective processes, automatic impulses and a
foundational ‘vocational aspiration’ that helps explain how early mastery experiences yield a
‘confidence dividend’. The study also identifies a cycle in which lack of opportunity, principally time,
erodes capability and, in turn, diminishes intrinsic motivation, producing a ‘policy paradox’. The
thesis advances the case for the ‘primacy of opportunity’, arguing that progress towards an evidence-informed profession depends on improving the systemic conditions of teachers
Examining English–Arabic freelance translators’ practices as social actors in ProZ.com: a translation sociological approach based on Bourdieu’s categorisations of Capital and Wenger’s community of practice
Get PDFThe online freelance translation marketplace is a valuable environment for the application of
sociological theories to expand the sociological turn in Translation Studies and create more
points of connection between the two fields of sociology and Translation Studies. This thesis
investigates the practices of English–Arabic freelance translators as social actors in the online
freelance translation marketplace, focusing on the largest translator platform: ProZ.com. It
takes a novel sociological approach by integrating Bourdieu’s categorisations of capital and
Wenger’s community of practice (CoP) theory into its theoretical framework and employing
two analytical approaches, namely multimodal discourse-analysis and digital conversation
analysis. Bourdieu’s categorisations of capital are applied to explore how the translators signal
their capital to prospective clients. This thesis addresses two research questions: (1) what types
of capital do English–Arabic freelance translators present in their profiles on ProZ.com? (2)
How do English–Arabic freelance translators multimodally signal their capital, using the tools
provided by ProZ.com, to capture the attention of clients and boost the salience of their capital?
To answer these questions, two analytical approaches from multimodal discourse-analysis are
applied to analyse the translators’ profiles: visual grammar, as proposed by Kress and van
Leeuwen (2006), and typography grammar, as outlined by Stöckl (2005). Wenger’s CoP theory
is employed to examine the patterns of interactions employed by the translators to build their
CoP in two forums on the platform: KudoZ and the Arabic-language forum. This addresses two
further questions: (3) how and in what instances do English–Arabic freelance translators use
ProZ.com’s tools to solve problems collaboratively? (4) How do English–Arabic freelance
translators build and maintain their CoP in ProZ.com? The two apparatuses of digital
conversation analysis – the sequence organisation model by Schegloff (2007b) and
membership categorisation analysis (MCA) by Schegloff (2007a) – are applied to analyse the
translators’ conversations and explore how they create and maintain their CoP. The findings
show that most of the 210 translators in the study have not made substantial use of ProZ.com’s
tools, and the issue of information asymmetry is not mitigated, despite ProZ.com’s internal
signalling system proving efficient. This thesis proposes the development of marketing courses
for translation students and trainees to build a professional persona in this competitive
marketplace. It shows that English–Arabic freelance translators collaboratively create and
maintain their CoP, making their shared repertoire a valuable source of information. This
content could be used to generate courses for translation students and trainees, leveraging the
contributors’ substantial experience. This shared repertoire would also be valuable for
translation technology developers looking to enhance their products
Superpixel-based Radial Basis Function Canonical Correlation Analysis for land cover segmentation
Get PDFThe radial basis functions (RBF) network is popularly used in many machine learning applications. Semantic segmentation of remotely sensed image which can be addressed via a clustering task, is essential in land cover applications. In this study, a novel semi-supervised spectral clustering method, referred to as SLIC-RBF-CCA, is introduced for land cover multi-band image segmentation. The proposed SLIC-RBF-CCA approach is composed of two steps: i) a Simple Linear Iterative Clustering (SLIC) algorithm is initially applied to a set of pseudo-RGB images obtained from the singular vectors of a flattened matrix of a multi-band image; ii) a novel superpixel-based Radial Basis Function Canonical Correlation Analysis (RBF-CCA) generates canonical variables which are used to achieve final image segmentation. Specifically, a superpixel-based radial basis function is defined as the first variable in the framework of Canonical Correlation Analysis, in which the RBF centers are obtained as the local mean from superpixel regions. The second variable of SLIC-RBF-CCA is based on a few labelled pixels. The associated canonical variables, related to the pixels of a full image, are then applied by a -means clustering algorithm. The proposed approach can be interpreted as an example of multi-view machine learning with attention mechanism. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm has been validated using experiments on several remotely sensed multi-band images, including two patches from TopoSys GmbH and three patches from City of Potsdam from the ISPRS, showing excellent performance with segmentation accuracy >85 %
Optimising glucosinolate profiles in Brassica oleracea
No full textBrassica oleracea vegetables are the primary dietary source of glucosinolates (GSLs) in the West. These sulfur-containing secondary metabolites and are associated with a reduced risk of developing noncommunicable diseases, most notably cancer. This is mainly attributed to GSL hydrolysis products released upon tissue damage including isothiocyanates (ITC), and nitriles. Consequently, there has been both academic and commercial interest in breeding new B. oleracea cultivars with increased GSL content. However, alkenyl GSLs including allyl (sinigrin; SIN) and (2R)-2-hydroxybut-3-enyl GSL (progoitrin; PRO) have been associated with bitter-taste and reduced consumer acceptance. This presents a substantial challenge for crop breeders aiming to improve the nutritional quality of B. oleracea while maintaining favourable taste characteristics. This review synthesises the current body of research on GSL sensory and health-related properties, and metabolic regulation in planta, highlighting environmental factors affecting GSL accumulation as well as specific genes (MYB28, MAM1 and AOP2) involved in aliphatic GSL regulation. We explore potential strategies for reducing bitter-GSLs while maximising (RS)-4-(methylsulfinyl)butyl GSL (glucoraphanin; GRA) biosynthesis to exploit the health-related advantages of GSLs with minimal impact on sensory quality
Editorial: Animal-derived foods in our diets: nutrition, health and social implications
Get PDFAnimal-derived foods (ADFs), including meat and meat products, milk and dairy
products, fish and eggs, contribute vital nutrients to the diets of people around the world
and low intakes have been linked to conditions such as stunted growth, poor bone
development and anaemia. At the same time there is concern that some ADFs may pose a
risk to health. There is also increasing worry about the environmental cost of some modes of ADF production and with the welfare of the animals involved. The aim of this Research Topic was to assemble a collection of research reports and reviews which give the reader insights into these important topics. Fourteen papers were published which included five reports on original research. Broadly, the papers have covered the whole food chain from the diet of the animal to food quality, human health, consumer attitudes, and food by-product
High-impact low-likelihood climate scenarios for the UK: summary
No full textA very short summary of high-impact low-likelihood climate scenarios developed for the U
Spinel oxides for photocatalytic water splitting: a computational and experimental study
Get PDFSpinel oxides, AB2O4, exhibit significant promise in photocatalysis due to their
favourable electronic properties, stability, compositional diversity, and tuneable
cation distribution. Their photocatalytic activity can be modified through A and
B cation substitution or by altering the cation distribution. The work in this thesis
combines advanced quantum-chemical and synchrotron-based experimental
methods to characterise various spinel materials and investigate their
photocatalytic performance. Considering Co2+, Cu2+ or Zn2+ as A cations in spinel
ferrite (AFe2O4) nanoparticles revealed significant differences in their structures
and photocatalytic abilities. ZnFe2O4 showed the highest activity for the oxygen
evolution reaction, and this was further enhanced by substituting Ga3+ into the B
sites: ZnFeGaO4 produced almost double the amount of oxygen compared to
ZnFe2O4. The activity of these samples was attributed to their suitable band gaps
(3.35 eV and 2.84 eV, respectively) and alignments, as calculated by density
functional theory. Exploring the structures of the spinel ferrites by X-ray
diffraction and X-ray spectroscopy showed clear differences between bulk and
surface cation distribution. Both CoFe2O4 and CuFe2O4 exhibited lower inversion
degrees at the surface compared to the bulk, while ZnFe2O4 showed the opposite
trend and with a more significant difference: DFT simulations showed that cation
inversion in ZnFe2O4 is energetically favourable at the surface. To further
understand the surface effects, a ZnFe2O4 (111) single-crystal surface with a well-defined bulk structure was studied. The surface preparation method was shown
to have a significant effect on the surface structure. Annealing the sample under
ultra-high vacuum resulted in zinc sublimation, leaving an iron-rich magnetite-like surface, whereas annealing under O2 maintained the bulk-like ZnFe2O4
structure. The results highlight the distinct and important behaviour of the
surfaces compared to the bulk in spinel ferrite catalysts