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Building deaf agency through the teaching and learning of ‘English Grammar Games’
No full textThis chapter examines data provided by two deaf master trainers and 12 deaf trainee tutors in India who were learning about ‘English Grammar Games’ (EGGs) in 2021. A common approach for teaching English to deaf signers is to explain the ‘rules’ of English in sign language. EGGs may facilitate this with a linguistic rationale that also builds the agency of deaf L2 learners and their deaf teachers. Each EGG starts with a ‘real-life English’ text. Players must find parts of it that match abstract grammatical structures given as prompts, and then create their own examples using the same structure (Papen & Zeshan, 2021). Following on from ‘Peer-to-Peer Deaf Multiliteracies’ (Webster & Zeshan, 2021a, b), the authors evaluate the reports and feedback from this training. They find that using EGGs enables deaf instructors without any background in English language to teach their deaf peers, because the materials and game choreography (Zeshan, 2020) provide an easy access point where formal knowledge of grammar is not needed. This points to the potential for democratisation of teaching and learning in this community through using EGGs. But instruction took more time than anticipated. A pedagogical model is needed wherein trainees share responsibility for creating EGGs
Children and Emerging Technologies: Ethical and Practical Research and Design
Get PDFChild Computer Interaction is concerned with the research, design, and evaluation of interactive technologies for children. Working with children in HCI is rewarding and fun but managing that work so that children are kept comfortable and can participate in meaningful ways is not always easy. This course will provide attendees with practical tips to organise sessions with children, with signposts to methods for research, design and evaluation and will specifically consider the ethics of children's participation with checklists to support us in doing our most ethical work possible. Our focus on emerging technologies makes this course especially valuable to those looking at AI, robots, XR and related technologies
The Future of Dark Tourism: Enlightening New Horizons
No full textThis book offers critical scenarios of dark tourism futures and how our significant dead will be remembered in future visitor economies. It outlines key features of difficult heritage and future cultural trauma and highlights the role of technology, immersive visitor experiences and the thanatological condition of future dark tourism
Understanding how law enforcement agencies share information in an intelligence led environment: How operational context influences different approaches
Get PDFPurpose
The importance of multi-agency information sharing is recognised as central to tackling crime and disorder in an intelligence-driven environment. However, whilst technology can facilitate and enhance this process, barriers to effective agency information exchange are consistently reported. This paper aims to categorise how information sharing takes place in a law enforcement operational setting and whether there is scope to improve the process.
Design/methodology/approach
There were two stages to the method; firstly, a select group of practitioners with intelligence-related experience (n = 28) were interviewed to identify the most common approaches to operational information sharing. This generated a categorisation model, which was tested with a larger group of practitioners (n = 73). A mixed-methods approach was adopted.
Findings
The research found consensus surrounding four different approaches to information sharing, labelled as: (1) inform and request, (2) meet and share, (3) customised database and (4) integrated systems. These are used at various levels of frequency, dependent on the operational context.
Originality/value
This research provides original evidence-based research to show law enforcement practitioners vary in the way they share information. By demystifying and categorising the process, it provides understanding for practitioners, policymakers and researchers, allowing barriers to be more readily tackled in a much more cost-effective manner
Food safety culture and climate prevailing in micro and small food manufacturing enterprises in Mauritius and Rodrigues
Get PDFFood safety culture and climate are strong elements of food safety performance. This study describes a mixed-methods approach to assess prevailing food safety knowledge, attitudes, practices, culture and climate in micro and small food manufacturing businesses in Mauritius. The approach included participant observation, questionnaire-based surveys and checklists, and was adopted to collect data from 6 managers/owners and 36 employees in 6 businesses. Results showed that food handlers had satisfactory knowledge in some aspects of food hygiene and safety. Mean scores of specific food safety climate indicators for employees diverged from the corresponding values for managers. Inconsistencies were observed in food safety culture maturity scores computed from survey data (quantitative), which were higher than related scores obtained from participatory observation (qualitative). This discrepancy underlines the importance of triangulation methods and the necessity to establish appropriate weightings for data obtained from different methods to gain an overall assessment of food safety culture. The results provide concrete input to develop tailor-made interventions to improve knowledge, attitudes and practices of employees and managers, and promote positive food safety cultures. Further research is needed to design theory-based interventions to improve food safety culture and interpretation grids to analyse and triangulate prevailing food safety culture data
Statistical analysis plan for the Recovery-focused Community support to Avoid readmissions and improve Participation after Stroke randomised controlled clinical trial
Get PDFBackground: Unplanned hospital presentations may occur post-stroke due to inadequate preparation for transitioning from hospital to home. The Recovery-focused Community support to Avoid readmissions and improve Participation after Stroke (ReCAPS) trial was designed to test the effectiveness of receiving a 12-week, self-management intervention, comprising personalised goal setting with a clinician and aligned educational/motivational electronic messages. Primary outcome is as follows: self-reported unplanned hospital presentations (emergency department/admission) within 90-day post-randomisation. We present the statistical analysis plan for this trial. Methods/design: Participants are randomised 1:1 in variable block sizes, with stratification balancing by age and level of baseline disability. The sample size was 890 participants, calculated to detect a 10% absolute reduction in the proportion of participants reporting unplanned hospital presentations/admissions, with 80% power and 5% significance level (two sided). Recruitment will end in December 2023 when funding is expended, and the sample size achieved will be used. Logistic regression, adjusted for the stratification variables, will be used to determine the effectiveness of the intervention on the primary outcome. Secondary outcomes will be evaluated using appropriate regression models. The primary outcome analysis will be based on intention to treat. A p-value ≤ 0.05 will indicate statistical significance. An independent Data Safety and Monitoring Committee has routinely reviewed the progress and safety of the trial. Conclusions: This statistical analysis plan ensures transparency in reporting the trial outcomes. ReCAPS trial will provide novel evidence on the effectiveness of a digital health support package post-stroke. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov ACTRN12618001468213. Registered on August 31, 2018. SAP version 1.13 (October 12 2023) Protocol version 1.12 (October 12, 2022) SAP revisions Ni
Shining a Light on Forensic Anthropology: The Use of Alternative Light Sources to Detect Skeletal Remains Underwater
Get PDFAquatic searches for human remains are time consuming and expensive, focused on locating intact cadavers rather than bone. Once a body becomes skeletonised it is more vulnerable to the destructive mechanics of currents and tides, leading to fragmentation, dispersal, and modification of the bone surface. This makes locating and identifying bone even more challenging. Alternative light sources (ALS) are a crime scene staple, routinely used to locate body fluids such as semen and saliva, by stimulating the natural autofluorescence of proteins. This process is non-contact, and non-destructive, used to reveal latent evidence and facilitate documentation and recovery. Bone also produces fluorescence when exposed to ALS, which is thought to be primarily due to the highly collagenous organic content.
This research united current strands of osseous ALS research by implementing a unique methodology combining thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) to quantify bone collagen, and a bespoke C++ computer program: The Osteo-Fluorescence Calculator (OFC) to quantify bone fluorescence, which enabled deeper interpretation of the collagen-fluorescence relationship, the taphonomic impact on bone autofluorescence, and its use in terrestrial and underwater crime scenes, not previously reported in literature.
Key results indicated that collagen is most likely the primary contributor to bone autofluorescence, and that the larger the collagen volume the greater the observed fluorescence intensity when photographed with blue light (450 nm) and orange filter in a terrestrial (p= .000) and underwater contexts (p= .000). However, differentiation and control studies suggest that bone colour, texture, and morphology may also influence fluorescence emissions, but differentiation between bone and other non-bone items is possible due to variable fluorescence intensities, including in an underwater context. Hot water was identified as a suitable preparation technique for bone undergoing ALS analysis, as it produced homogenous fluorescence, similar to pre-macerated values (p=.012), with limited collagen degradation (p= .023), whereas biological washing powder was destructive to bone collagen content (p= .000) and produced exaggerated and inconsistent fluorescence (p= .180).
Taphonomic studies confirmed that bone autofluorescence can be produced in terrestrial (p= .000) and submerged tap water environments (p= .000) when using blue light (450 nm) and an orange filter. Although underwater fluorescence levels were reduced compared to terrestrial findings, submersion in tap and seawater for 6-months led to a dramatic increase in bone fluorescence intensity (p= .000) and a minor reduction in collagen content (p= .000), which would aid dark, underwater searches. Comparatively, saltwater was no more destructive to porcine bone collagen than tap water, after submersion for 6-months (p= .000), indicating that ALS can be used to search for bone for at least 6-months after skeletonization.
Overall, this research demonstrated that effective ALS examination has the potential to help simplify search methodologies, reduce costs, speed up recovery, and triage findings, with implications for missing persons cases, crime scene investigation and archaeological contexts
Dynamic acetabular cup orientation during gait: a study of fast and slow walking total hip replacement patients
Get PDFThe dynamic orientation of total hip replacement acetabular cups during walking may vary sub-stantially from their assumed position at surgical implantation and may vary between individuals. The scale of this effect is of interest for both pre-clinical device testing and for pre-operative sur-gical planning. This work aimed to evaluate: 1) patient variation in dynamic cup orientation; 2) whether walking speed was a candidate proxy measure for the dynamic cup orientation; and 3) the relationships between dynamic cup orientation angles and planar pelvic angles. Pelvic movement data for patients with fast (n=20) and slow (n=19) self-selected walking speeds, was used to calcu-late acetabular cup inclination and version angles through gait. For aim 1, the range and extremes of acetabular cup orientation angles were analysed for all patients. Large patient to patient varia-tion was found in the range of both inclination angle (1° to 11°) and version angle (4° to 18°). The version angle was typically retroverted in comparison to the implantation position (greatest devi-ation 27o). This orientation is substantially different to the static, 0° version simplifying assump-tions in pre-clinical ‘edge loading’ testing. For aim 2, the cup orientation angles were compared between the fast and slow walking groups using statistical parametric mapping. The only signifi-cant differences observed were for cup version angle, for ~12% of the gait cycle, before toe-off (p < 0.05). Therefore, self-selected walking speed, in isolation, is not a sufficient proxy measure for dynamic acetabular orientation. For aim 3, correlations were recorded between the acetabular cup orientation angles and the planar pelvic angles. The cup inclination angle during gait was strongly correlated (Spearman’s coefficient -1) with pelvic obliquity alone, indicating that simple planar assessment could be used to anticipate range of inclination angle. The cup version angle was cor-related with both pelvic rotation and tilt (Spearman’s coefficient 0.8-1), indicating that cup version cannot be predicted directly from any single pelvic movement. This complexity, along with the interaction between inclination angle and range of version angle, supports the use of computa-tional tools to aid clinical understanding
Perceptions, behaviours and barriers towards exercise practices in inflammatory bowel disease
Get PDFInflammatory bowel disease (IBD), a chronic disease affecting the digestive tract, has a significant impact on health-related quality of life. Pharmaceutical treatment is typically adopted, yet exercise is increasingly becoming recognized as an adjunct therapy. This study aimed to explore the perspectives, behaviours, and barriers of IBD patients in terms of their exercise habits. A 16-item closed-ended questionnaire was completed by 463 adult IBD patients (Ulcerative colitis = 57.02%, Crohn’s dis-ease = 40.60% and Other = 2.38%) (Female = 76.67%, Male = 22.46 and Non-binary = 0.86%). The questionnaire was divided into three sections: baseline/demographic characteristics, disease characteristics, and exercise perceptions, beliefs, and behaviours. Significantly (P<0.001) more participants (63.07%) reported that they engage regularly with exercise compared to those who do not; however, engagement was significantly lower in female patients (59.72%) compared to males (74.04%). Respondents also rated significantly (P<0.001) that a combination of factors prevents engagement in exercise (74.30%). Moderate intensity exercise was the predominant (P<0.001) aerobic modality (39.04%), the majority (P<0.001) response was that patients undertake no resistance training (27.74%), and significantly more (P<0.001) patients indicated that they don’t know whether resistance training can influence IBD either positively (57.53%) or negatively (62.33%). Whilst it is encouraging that IBD patients are engaging regularly with exercise, the reduced levels of engagement in females and lack of knowledge/ engagement with resistance training, indicate that future implementation and educational developments are necessary to enhance exercise in females and resistance training engagement in all IBD patients