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Mathematical modelling of problems with delay and after-effect
Get PDFThis paper provides a tutorial review of the use of delay differential equations in mathematical models of real problems. We use the COVID-19 pandemic as an example to help explain our conclusions. We present the fundamental delay differential equation as a prototype for modelling problems where there is a delay or after-effect, and we reveal (via the characteristic values) the infinite dimensional nature of the equation and the presence of oscillatory solutions not seen in corresponding equations without delay. We discuss how models were constructed for the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in view of the relative lack of understanding of the disease and the paucity of available data in the early stages, and we identify both strengths and weaknesses in the modelling predictions and how they were communicated and applied. We consider the question of whether equations with delay could have been or should have been utilised at various stages in order to make more accurate or more useful predictions.UnfundedAAM swapped for VoR 13/12/202
Inclusive Environments: Designing a Framework for Environmental Justice (Summary Report)
Get PDFAs we move on from COP28 and the world continues to seek to demonstrate commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals in a meaningful way, there is a clear need to ensure that disproportionate environmental burdens don’t continue to fall on already marginalised groups within society.Unfunde
Spatio-Temporal Dynamics of Wolves in the Italian Alps
Get PDFThe recolonization of wolves (Canis lupus) in Europe has become a notable ecological and conservation success in recent decades, though it presents various legislative and management challenges. These challenges are heightened by the wolves' wide-ranging distribution, which often crosses administrative boundaries. Effective management of wolves depends on robust
data from well-designed monitoring programs, which are difficult to implement in fragmented regions. Italy has taken significant steps to address these issues, conducting the first national scale monitoring of wolf abundance and distribution in 2020-2021 using non-invasive genetic sampling (NGS) combined with Spatial Capture-Recapture (SCR) modelling. This thesis explores a variety of ways to implement and optimise the current monitoring strategies by focusing on the Italian Alpine region. This area, in particular, can rely on historical information on wolves since the first surveys in the 90’s and on a highly trained network of personnel dedicated to their monitoring that has been implemented over the years. The year of national monitoring has been a great success in coordination and results, but it opens the question of the feasibility of maintaining such high quality in the long term and with possible reductions in economic funds. In fact, with both European and national management of the species expected in the next future, constantly updated abundance estimates will be essential to ensure the conservation of the species.
In this thesis I investigated how the combination of NGS and SCR to obtain population size estimates can be optimised by identifying reduction limits for the number of search transects and also for their repetitions within the sampling season. This will allow to reduce both effort and costs for the next years of population size monitoring while maintaining accuracy and precision.
Additionally, I explored the feasibility of extending large-scale monitoring of wolf abundance in the Italian Alps using more cost-effective tools, such as camera traps. I demonstrated the unsuitability of a group of statistical models, Spatial Counts or unmarked SCR, which are often used when individuals in the population are not distinguishable from each other. After identifying the limitations of the current modelling framework, I proposed a solution to address some of these issues by incorporating the group-living nature of wolves into the existing model through an extension of the Spatial Counts approach.
Finally, I tested whether the drivers of the latest phase of wolf expansion throughout the Italian Alpine region have changed over time. I used a Dynamic Occupancy model to analyse wolf presence-absence data from 2014 to 2021. This analysis revealed the increasing importance of prey richness in colonization and persistence dynamics together with the smoothed effect over
time of human densities. Additionally, I identified key areas where new potential conflicts could arise in human-dominated landscapes.
Addressing these challenges is crucial for the continued recovery and sustainable coexistence of wolves with human communities in Italy and all Europe. Finally, I discussed all the findings in light of future population management of wolves
Gender stereotyping in student perceptions of teaching excellence: Applying the shifting standards theory
Get PDF© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis GroupExisting characterisations of student conceptions of teaching excellence (TE) implicitly position it as an objective construct. This study investigated gendered differences in student-submitted nominations (n = 418) for an excellence award in a mid-sized university in England. Biernat’s shifting standards theory, which proposes that evaluative standards can shift due to stereotyping effects, was used to interpret the findings. Chi-square tests revealed significant effects of gender on the distribution and thematic content of nominations. Results suggested that students were more likely to nominate teachers of the same gender, but also that male students were disproportionately less likely to nominate a female teacher. Student conceptions of TE generally conformed to gender biases, particularly for male students. These findings indicate that students’ perceptions of high quality teaching are inextricable from sociocultural influence. Future research can continue to engage with the shifting standards theory to investigate the influence of gender and student perceptions of high quality teaching.Unfunde
Suicide risk isn't binary
Get PDFCounsellors and psychotherapists who work in private practice have much to offer clients who present at risk of suicide. They are not defined by organisational policies and process they might have had little input into and can, therefore, shape their practice within broader ethical and legal parameters. Such work does not come without additional professional considerations however, and this article aims to outline key aspects for good practice in a private practice context with clients at risk.unfundedThis article was published OA. The publisher has given permission to make the AAM Open Access. Permission granted and embargo removed 21/02/202
Women prisoners regulating prisons: Did Corston achieve networked, participatory regulation?
Get PDF© 2025 The Author(s). The Howard Journal of Crime and Justice published by Howard League and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.Prison regulators across scales hold potential to illuminate harms of imprisonment and influence alternatives, yet criminologists rarely engage with these mechanisms. We analyse prisoners’ participatory roles in the ‘transformative’ Corston Report (2007) and The Corston Report 10 Years On (Women in Prison, 2017), using actor-network-theory to guide document analysis. Corston called for a radically different, woman-centred approach to criminal justice, but women’s voices were often peripheral, or they were constructed as ‘pathetic’. There is unrealised potential for regulatory efforts to network imprisoned women and their families with other regulators, deepening understanding of problems connected to prisons, for broader social benefit.UK Research and Innovation, Economic and Social Research Council grant number MR/T019085/1.AAM removed and archived and VoR uploaded 30/06/2025 as published O
A guide to supporting student parents at university: part two
Get PDFThe second in a three-part series provides detailed, practical guidance on how student parents can be supported to succeed at UK universitiesn/
In two minds: what happens when we think in Role?
Get PDF‘In two Minds’ proffers a detailed concept of the in-role process. It illuminates hitherto underexplored phenomena regarding thinking and existing in the drama classroom. The contradictory dynamic of ‘escaping’ and ‘facing’ something ‘at the same time’ is unpacked revealing that the two are not, in this context, opposite processes but are necessary as bound forces progressing in the same emancipatory direction. This has significant implications for classroom drama practice reaching beyond the drama lesson, studio, and exam results, analysing how the in-role process facilitates self-transformation: the essential purpose of education.
The research involves the stories of two 12-year-old girls, some 30 years apart. The first testimony provides the background to the thesis. The second provides the focus for the thesis, featuring the stimulus quote above, which forms the basis of an interview which took place in 2019 just before Covid lockdown. The interview fuels an online drama workshop for a group of contemporary PGCE students to excavate this paradox in their own way.
The workshop takes place during the Covid lockdown, summer 2020. These unprecedented circumstances demanded new, creative dramatic online classroom pedagogies and research methodologies which capture unusual online video footage of the drama process and enable fresh ground to be explored.
The work of three practitioners is drawn upon to illuminate the data arising from the interview and workshop, Konstantin Stanislavski’s work provides the early theoretical basis of how a role is adopted and sustained both physically and mentally. Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s later phenomenological ideas about the unity of the mind and body and how this relates to learning casts more detailed theoretical light onto the in-role process. In addition, some aspects of Jacques Lacan’s thinking are brought into the study to consider our existential context while in role and its impacts on the thinking process. These theoretical lenses are considered alongside the work of Drama Educationalists, like Dorothy Heathcote, Gavin Bolton and Cecily O’Neill.
The research illuminates internal role processes, considering embodiment in the here-and-now, alongside realms of existence in the not-here and not-now. While the focus is on positive self-transformation, the limitations of the study are also recognised. However, the limitations depend directly upon the skills, insight and education of the drama teacher. Consequently, the study provides strong arguments for the value of drama in schools as a subject in its own right, taught by subject specialists
B2B Marketing: An exploratory study into how B2B brands influence the purchase decision in a SME context
No full textTraditionally, the Business to Business (B2B) brand has been regarded as relatively unimportant, and that the decision making unit is focused on making rational purchase decisions with emotional factors being considered as having minimal influence. The increasing need for B2B suppliers to find new ways of maintaining a competitive advantage has strengthened the importance of the B2B brand. This shift has intensified the need to examine the influences on the B2B purchase decision including examining the buying process, the characteristics of the decision making unit and the potential role of the brand as a significant influence on the purchase decision. Drawing on Mudambi’s (2002) assertion that “branding is not important to all organisational buyers, or in all situations” (p. 527), and addressing the lack of recent studies examining the buying process and decision making unit in the context of significant purchases in Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs), the purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of the B2B brand on the decision making unit in reaching the purchase decision. In fulfilling the purpose of this thesis, this researcher adopted a constructivist ontology and interpretivist epistemology. Within a case study research method, semi structured in-depth interviews were conducted with the members of the decision making unit which consisted of senior managers of SMEs based in the northwest of England and thus resulted in gaining a greater understanding of the experiences, perceptions and observations of how the B2B brand impacts on B2B purchase decision. The findings from this study revealed that the B2B brand exerts a strong influence on the decision making unit in making significant complex purchase decisions. The insights from this research illustrate that the B2B brand is more than just a discrete purchase criterion. It represents key tangible and intangible brand benefits. Although the decision making unit places a high priority on the tangible benefits, this study uncovers that it is the intangible brand attributes that have the greatest influence on the final purchase decision. As a result, a significant contribution of this study is the recognition that the purchase decision is shaped not only by the rational evaluation iv of the high priority tangible benefits, but also by the emotive elements that play a critical role in the decision making unit’s evaluation of the suppliers’ offerings. In examining the role of the brand in the purchase decision, the findings also revealed that the decision making unit within SMEs display distinct characteristics of a core and peripheral elements and distinguish between the role of selector from influencers. Finally, the findings uncovered an alternative buying process characterised by a set of iterative steps, reflecting how SMEs reach complex purchase decisions. It is recommended that B2B suppliers invest in brands that take into consideration the importance of the different brand attributes and priorities of the decision making unit
Building the Future One Health Workforce
Get PDFA ‘new normal’ in public health and healthcare has arisen with socioeconomic shifts, technological developments, political strife,
climate change, environmental degradation, and COVID-19. Challenges cannot be solved by one discipline or profession alone, but requires multiple sectors coming together, combining knowledge, expertise and methods. One Health is an integrated epidemiological and economic approach aiming to sustainably optimise the health of people, animals and ecosystem. This article reflects on the roles of Association of Schools of Public Health in the European Region (ASPHER) and European Health Management Association (EHMA) and the concrete steps needed to address skills for One Health.Not funde
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