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Great works by great men? Rethinking linear earthworks
Get PDFIntroducing the sixth volume of the Offa’s Dyke Journal (ODJ) for 2024, the introduction surveys the contents and recent related research published elsewhere as well as the main Offa’s Dyke Collaboratory’s activities during late 2023 and 2024.Unfunde
Counselling Skills and Knowledge for SCoPEd B: Diversity, Self-Awareness, Assessment and Research
No full textThis chapter will cover devising and using a comprehensive risk assessmentUnfunde
Publisher correction: Situational factors shape moral judgements in the trolley dilemma in Eastern, Southern and Western countries in a culturally diverse sample
No full textTo access the correction please click on the DOI or the URL in the Additional Links section.Publisher correctionUnfunde
The role of social capital in SMEs for polycrisis management
No full text© 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc.Since 2020 several crises have brought unexpected and complex economic, political and social challenges to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). SMEs have had to innovate to survive but urgent responses often preclude strategic consideration for long-term repercussions. This paper explores the role of social capital in organisations and considers how it can assist in navigating external crises and buffering against future change. Using a hybrid social capital perspective we examine the prospects for SMEs to survive crises using two rounds of purposive and convenience sampling driven semi-structured interviews undertaken twelve months apart with the same respondents drawn from a diverse range of industries such as catering, digital agencies, education, and sport organisations. The interviews explored social capital through the attributes of stakeholder trust, reciprocity and shared values also discerning how integration with, and provocation from, wider networks impacts SMEs. The paper critically evaluates the role of social capital in SMEs during current times of seemingly ever-present crisis. Having clear awareness of the influence and role of social capital, its attributes and its role in shaping the continuity of an organisation through crises is a key application of this work that can be directly used within other organisations of this type.unfundedArticle published OA. AAM removed and archived and VoR uploaded to CR 19/11/202
How do Ugandan secondary school teachers from diverse Christian traditions and tribes speak about their faith within the Luwero triangle?
No full textThis thesis contends that there is a gap between the theological priorities of a school's teachers and theologies that inform White mission, postcolonialism, focused on binary distinctions and aspects of Uganda's ecclesial theology. This puzzle emerged from traumatic experiences that confronted my hitherto propositional faith. The research accessed Ugandan storytelling through a co constructed research methodology to address this vacancy. The ultimate objective was to unveil the teacher’s everyday theology through attentive listening. This empirical data modestly continues the postcolonial conversation with Ugandan voices at the fore. The research context is an educational community in rural Uganda, where I have had continual involvement since 2005. The school was resuming normal activities after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. My Whiteness and the activities I pursue as an NGO Director create a fluid outsider–insider dynamic. Reflexive attentiveness remained paramount. To inform my self-reflections, I analysed contextually relevant literature and maintained a research journal. This reflexive pursuit was critical because experientially, neither the themes of Whiteness nor colonialism would manifest overtly in the participants' accounts. That did not mean they would not be discovered hidden in their stories if I looked diligently. The teachers’ stories are captured using ten face-to-face interviews and a Talking Circle to cede narrative knowledge. The participants’ selection of ‘Key Informants’ to represent them was crucial in maintaining their voice. Data analysis identified eight interconnecting themes. These unveiled a peaceful and relational local theology. Together, they emphasise the collaborative nature of the “ordinary” miraculous whereby Christian communities participate in the saving actions of God. In addition to their transcribed stories, the teachers wanted a creative ‘takeaway’ from the research, which resulted in an unexpected aesthetic drift. We crafted a short poem to represent each motif using a hybrid Afriku-portraiture methodology. This achieved the aim of developing a theological cycle for ongoing community use. Such poetic knowledge challenged my experience of White missional theology and doctrines, where objectivity readily negates experience. Instead, the poems are a theological source open to creative imaginings. Whilst arguing that this research contributes relatable knowledge, participant numbers, context, and my subjective experience limit this claim. Further studies using a replicable approach would progress this research's findings
Dynamic pricing-driven load optimization in islanded microgrid for home energy management systems
Get PDF© 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.In order to maximize residential energy use and reduce electricity costs, home energy management systems (HEMS), are crucial. A distinct dynamic pricing-driven load optimization technique for HEMS running in islanded mode where grid access is either limited or nonexistent is presented in this paper. Incorporating important distributed energy resources like photovoltaic (PV) systems, electric vehicles (EVs), battery energy storage systems (BESS), and limited grid access, the optimal schedule is also used for real-time dynamic pricing analysis. A planned short-duration outage and a full 24-hour islanding scenario are the two different outage scenarios that are assessed. In short-duration outages, grid dependency decreases to roughly 10% in the spring and approximately 50% in the summer and winter, according to a thorough seasonal analysis conducted in the spring, summer, and winter. The suggested approach guarantees total self-sufficiency in the 24-hour outage scenario, with local resources satisfying load demands in full.unfunde
Impact of human presence and activity on urban Eurasian red squirrels' innovative problem-solving
No full text© The Author(s) 2025. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Society for Behavioral Ecology.Humans impact wildlife positively and negatively, and increasing evidence shows that humans potentially play a major role in shaping urban wildlife cognition. However, it remains unclear which, and how specific anthropogenic factors shape animal cognitive performance. Here, across 15 urban areas in Oulu, Finland, we investigated how varied levels of human presence nearby, types of human activity (walking, dog walking, cycling, and playground activities), and distance to the nearest footpaths influenced 64 squirrels’ innovative problem-solving ability – measured as the proportion of solving success at the site level, solving outcome at the individual level as well as individuals’ first-success latency. Higher mean human presence nearby and all measured human activities significantly decreased the proportion of success at the site level. Playground activity showed the highest negative impact on both the first and subsequent visit success rate at the site level. Increased mean human presence and walking decreased the likelihood of a squirrel successfully solving the novel food-extraction problem. Increased mean human presence also decreased individuals’ first-success latency, and dog walking was the outstanding factor affecting first-success latency. These results show the negative effects of specific human-related factors on an important cognitive trait, problem-solving ability. These factors may also potentially exert selective pressure on shaping urban wildlife cognition.The University of Oulu; The Academy of Finland Profi Biodiverse Anthropocenes (Grant number: 24630100); Kone Foundation (Grant number: 202010852)AAM removed and archived and VoR uploaded to CR 15/10/202
Characteristics of urban environments and novel problem-solving performance in Eurasian red squirrels
Get PDFUrban environments can be deemed 'harsh' for some wildlife species, but individuals frequently show behavioural flexibility to cope with challenges and demands posed by life in the city. For example, urban animals often show better performance in solving novel problems than rural conspecifics, which helps when using novel resources under human-modified environments. However, which characteristics of urban environments fine-tune novel problem-solving performance, and their relative importance, remain unclear. Here, we examined how four urban environmental characteristics (direct human disturbance, indirect human disturbance, size of green coverage and squirrel population size) may potentially influence novel problem-solving performance of a successful 'urban dweller', the Eurasian red squirrel, by presenting them with a novel food-extraction problem. We found that increased direct human disturbance, indirect human disturbance and a higher squirrel population size decreased the proportion of solving success at the population level. At the individual level, an increase in squirrel population size decreased the latency to successfully solve the novel problem the first time. More importantly, increased direct human disturbance, squirrel population size and experience with the novel problem decreased problem-solving time over time. These findings highlight that some urban environmental characteristics shape two phenotypic extremes in the behaviour-flexibility spectrum: individuals either demonstrated enhanced learning or they failed to solve the novel problem.This project is funded by the Japan Society for Promoting Science to P.K.Y.C. (grant no. PE18011)
The ACPGBI AI taskforce report: A mixed‐methods roadmap for AI in colorectal surgery
Get PDF© 2025 The Author(s). Colorectal Disease published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Association of Coloproctology of Great Britain and Ireland.Aim: The ACPGBI has commissioned a taskforce to devise a strategy for integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into colorectal surgery. This report aims to (i) map current AI adoption amongst UK colorectal surgeons; (ii) evaluate knowledge, attitudes, perceptions and experience of AI technologies; and (iii) establish priority recommendations to drive innovation across the specialty.
Methods: A prospective 45‐item questionnaire was circulated to the ACPGBI membership. Questionnaire findings were explored at a multidisciplinary round table of surgeons, allied professionals, computer scientists and lawyers. Strategic recommendations were then generated.
Results: 122 members responded (75.4% consultants; 72.1% male; modal age 41–50 years). Although 43.5% used AI daily, only one third said they could explain key concepts within AI. 86.9% anticipated routine future‐AI use, with documentation and imaging ranked highest. 88.5% endorsed formal AI training. Major obstacles were unclear regulation, cost, medicolegal liability and professional or patient distrust. The round table generated 17 recommendations across clinical, educational and research domains and a ten‐point action plan, including the establishment of a Colorectal AI Committee and the creation of an open‐source colorectal foundational data initiative.
Conclusion: This taskforce report combines questionnaire insights from the ACPGBI membership and expert debate into 17 key recommendations and a ten‐point action plan that will set the direction of future colorectal AI practice. The objective is to establish a framework through which colorectal surgical practice can be augmented by safe, trustworthy AI.Unfunde
Purification of olive mill waste: a circular economy model for the Mediterranean region
Get PDFCopyright © 2024 by author(s) and UAB Sustainability for Regions This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY).When olive mill wastewater is given directly to nature without being treated, natural waters become coloured, aquatic life is adversely affected, surface and underground waters are polluted, bad odours occur, and soil quality deteriorates. For these reasons, waste water is not allowed to be poured into soil and water without being discharged. This problem has become a problem that needs to be solved for the Mediterranean countries. With this study, acid cracking and chemical treatability studies achieved the conversion of the physicochemical pretreatment process of olive black water to an automation system. With the applied processes, removal efficiencies of 85% for Chemical Oxygen Demand, 99% for suspended solids, 97% for oil grease and 92% for phenol were obtained. Since the mixing processes of the tanks in the chemical additions are long, the heating chamber in the acid cracking process is designed larger than the tanks. Thus, when there is a black water density in the system, the heating tank in this system can be used as a heating and resting tank in sudden densities in this system. This waste separation process includes producing raw materials, protecting natural resources, and increasing sustainability. In particular, separating the phenol material and making it usable have been essential gains.Unfunde
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