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Parametric Study of Environmental Conditions on The Energy Harvesting Efficiency for The Multifunctional Composite Structures
Get PDFThis paper presents a parametric study of the efficacy of an integrated vibration energy harvesting device under the environmental condition representative of an offshore wind turbine. A multifunctional glass fibre composite with an integrated Micro Fibre Composite (MFC) energy harvesting device was tested by swept sine vibration under environmental conditions that ranged from – 40°C to 70°C in temperature and 10%RH to 90%RH in humidity in order to characterise the sensitivity and dependence of energy harvesting on environmental conditions. Experimental vibration testing was complemented with theoretical analysis to investigate the relative contributions to the temperature dependence of energy harvesting. This included mechanical properties of the stiffness and strength of the cantilever structure and the electrical properties of the MFC transducer, including its dielectric constants and charge coefficients. An inverse proportionality was observed between the magnitude of harvested energy and the climatic temperature. The efficiency of energy harvesting was dominated by the stiffness of the cantilever, which displayed viscoelastic temperature dependence. The sample was also tested with a vibration profile obtained from a wind turbine in order to validate the temperature influence under typical service conditions. Numerical modal analysis was used to determine the shapes of resonance modes, the frequencies of which were temperature dependent. Humidity was observed to have a secondary influence on energy harvesting, with no significant short-term effect on the structural properties of the samples within the limits of the experimental method
“It is always going to change” – examining the experiences of managing top-down changes by sport development officers working in national governing bodies of sport in England
Get PDFThis is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Managing Sport and Leisure on 29th September 2020, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/23750472.2020.1800507Research question: This article examines how sport development officers (SDOs) employed within national governing bodies of sport (NGB) managed Sport England’s top-down policy changes from 2008 to 2015. The main research question examines the experiences of SDOs as they responded to, and managed these changes at the community level.
Research methods: In-depth, semi-structured interviews gathered qualitative data from 18 employees from four NGBs, including 6 SDOs, Chief Executive Officers (CEOs), senior managers and a representative from Sport England, with responsibility for policy formulation.
Results and Findings: SDOs felt increasingly constrained in how they worked due to the intensification of a top-down and cyclical process of change, a result-orientated approach and the sporting habitus of SDOs. These factors combined to create resistance among some SDOs as the power differentials within the interdependencies formed, which contributed to the unintentional outcome of elongating the time taken to implement policy on the ground.
Implications: This article has developed more object-adequate insights into how SDOs have responded to, and managed top-down policy implementation. The article suggests recommendations for policy-makers, Sport England and NGBs, to consider the dynamic interdependencies in which employees are bound and a more rounded and processual view to policy formulation and implementatio
How Music Accessibility can be used in Art Based Research experiences
Get PDFArts-based Research (ABR) ‘can be defined as the systematic use of the artistic process, the actual making of artistic expressions in all of the different forms of the arts, as a primary way of understanding and examining experience by both researchers and the people that they involve in their studies’ (Knowles & Cole, 2008, p. 29). However, music is an art form that in Western culture, the practice of which is usually restricted to a few individuals with specific skills. Commonly, musical activities are left out of ABR works because of the inherent difficulties of the musical process. In this article, we review and provide multiple ways of how, through accessibility processes, music can be made by a wide range of participants regardless of their musical knowledge. The argument is made that the ways of accessibility presented open up the possibilities of using a wide-ranging use of participatory musical activities in research inquiries, assessment and evaluation. This chapter thus focuses on the ways in which music making can be made accessible and so increase the possibilities of its use partially or entirely as a provocation for inquiry, in collecting and analysing data, as a means of dissemination in research, assessment and evaluation processes
National arts and wellbeing policies and implications for wellbeing in organisational life
No full textThere is general agreement nowadays of the value of the arts to our health and wellbeing, for instance, personal experience of music to lift depression, words to express our lived emotions, the aesthetic quality of a work of visual art that can take us to deeper understanding. The arts include a “broad and diverse landscape of interrelated creative practices and professions, including performance arts (including music, dance, drama, and theatre), literary arts (including literature, story, and poetry), and the visual arts (including painting, design, film) (see UNESCO 2006)” (Wall T, 2019; p. 1). For many, their relevance to mental and physical health is a given, to sustain, to prevent deterioration, or to improve the healing process. An appreciation of their value to health and wellbeing is often due to specific personal experience. Indeed, as Victoria Hume, Director of Arts Council England’s Culture Health and Wellbeing Alliance stated in an interview, (July 2020), “People get it when they’ve done it”, observing that it is a “slow, iterative process of building champions” who are conveying the necessary messages that shift attitudes. The event of the pandemic and lockdown in 2020 has caused many to consider again their priorities and how they can better sustain their own situations, as Dr Clive Parkinson, international arts and health advocate, Director of Arts for Health at Manchester Metropolitan University UK, and Visiting Fellow at the University of New South Wales Australia, observed (July 2020) “The importance of culture and the arts in all their forms, to impact of health, wellbeing and social change, has never felt so relevant”
Meaningful play: applying game and play design practices to promote agency in participatory performance
Get PDFThis is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in the International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media on 24 June 2019, available online: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14794713.2019.1633148As interactive and immersive forms of performance have proliferated, performance scholars have devoted increasing attention to gaming practices in order to describe the types of agency that these forms offer to their participants. This article seeks to problematise links that have been drawn between interactive performance and games, however, arguing that discussions of gaming in relation to performance are often limited to a textual paradigm which conceives game play as the exploratory uncovering of performance texts rather than the generative creation of emergent play narratives. This argument will be advanced by making three propositions: firstly, that performance practitioners and scholars who wish to draw upon games in their work should move beyond a textual paradigm to develop an understanding of how games can be understood as systems. Secondly, the article will propose that if the enhancement of participatory agency is desired, participatory performance designs might usefully respond to the cultural particularity of those involved. Thirdly, the article will argue that although system-based design can imply connotations of top down control, participatory performance design can be reconceived as a ‘curatorial’ practice that creates contexts for play that is co-created by participants, affirming their agency in shaping the emergent content of the work
Sarcopenia during COVID-19 lockdown restrictions: long-term health effects of short-term muscle loss
Get PDFThe version of record of this article, first published in [GeroScience], is available online at Publisher’s website: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11357-020-00272-3The COVID-19 pandemic is an extraordinary global emergency that has led to the implementation of unprecedented measures in order to stem the spread of the infection. Internationally, governments are enforcing measures such as travel bans, quarantine, isolation, and social distancing leading to an extended period of time at home. This has resulted in reductions in physical activity and changes in dietary intakes that have the potential to accelerate sarcopenia, a deterioration of muscle mass and function (more likely in older populations), as well as increases in body fat. These changes in body composition are associated with a number of chronic, lifestyle diseases including cardiovascular disease (CVD), diabetes, osteoporosis, frailty, cognitive decline, and depression. Furthermore, CVD, diabetes, and elevated body fat are associated with greater risk of COVID-19 infection and more severe symptomology, underscoring the importance of avoiding the development of such morbidities. Here we review mechanisms of sarcopenia and their relation to the current data on the effects of COVID-19 confinement on physical activity, dietary habits, sleep, and stress as well as extended bed rest due to COVID-19 hospitalization. The potential of these factors to lead to an increased likelihood of muscle loss and chronic disease will be discussed. By offering a number of home-based strategies including resistance exercise, higher protein intakes and supplementation, we can potentially guide public health authorities to avoid a lifestyle disease and rehabilitation crisis post-COVID-19. Such strategies may also serve as useful preventative measures for reducing the likelihood of sarcopenia in general and in the event of future periods of isolation
Prospective study on a fast-track training in psychiatry for medical students: the psychiatric hat game
Get PDFWhile medical students are losing interest in lectures in favor of other educational materials, many studies suggest the benefit of active learning, combined with gamified educational tools. The authors developed a psychiatric adaptation of the « Hat Game ». It was hypothesised that this game would increase both knowledge and motivation in medical students toward psychiatric semiology. The aim of the study was to assess the benefit of a Psychiatric Hat Game session for learning psychiatric symptoms in third-year medical students. Student performance was also evaluated at 3 months.
METHODS: This gamified fast-track training consists of two teams and each team has to guess as many psychiatric semiology terms as possible using different techniques (i.e. speech, mime). The study involved a pre- and post-evaluation of knowledge (Multiple Choice Questions) and a satisfaction survey. Baseline, post-immediate, and three-months scores were compared by using Friedman analysis for paired samples. Comparisons of mean scores at two different times were performed by using Wilcoxon test for paired samples.
RESULTS: One hundred and sixty-six students were proposed to take part in the study. Among them 129 completed the whole program (response rate = 77.7%). Mean scores measured at the three points in time were significantly different (p < 0.001, N = 129). Knowledge mean scores were significantly higher after the game than before (+ 28.6%, p < 0.001). Improvement was maintained 3 months after the game (+ 18.9%, p < 0.001). Satisfaction survey items highlighted that students enjoyed and would recommend this type of gamified training. CONCLUSIONS: The Psychiatric Hat Game improved knowledge of psychiatric semiology in medical students. Results suggest that it is a promising and efficient tool to playfully teach medical semiology, with transferable features, utility and acceptability from one medical field to another. This study contributes to the growing body of knowledge advocating for serious games and gamified training in medical education.Version of Recor
The resistance in management accounting practices towards a neoliberal economy
Get PDFPurpose – The purpose of this study is to investigate the resistance in management accounting practices
(MAPs) in a developing economy in the manufacturing and service sectors in Vietnam.
Design/methodology/approach – Data collection was carried out using survey questionnaires in
Vietnamese language. The questionnaires were distributed to selected respondents from the manufacturing
and service organisations in Vietnam. Textual structuralism was used to analyse different categories of data,
i.e. survey questionnaires, photos and qualitative texts obtained from the literature.
Findings –The findings indicate that the usage of MAPs is more prevalent in the manufacturing sector than in
the service sector. In addition, various traditional and contemporary MAPs are being used concurrently in
Vietnam, which challenges the classical twofold dichotomy between mere socialism and mere neoliberalism.
Research limitations/implications – The textual and photographic structuralism is used in this study to
analyse primary data (geography and society and time) in a static setting. Hence, it does not analyse the
research phenomena in a dynamic equilibrium setting to view the development of the research phenomena over
time. Further research could expand data collection to include longitudinal and dynamic settings.
Practical implications – MAPs can be implemented in economic systems ranging from command to
capitalist systems. Although most countries in the world follow a mixed economic system, specific MAPs could
be designed for a transitional economic system such as that of Vietnam. This affects both theorists and
practitioners in Vietnam applying sustainable MAPs to boost a country’s competitiveness during transition.
Originality/value – This study expands understanding of the conformity of MAPs in relation to economic
systems under the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) – the ruling party of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
Understanding the differences in the way these MAPs are utilised constitutes an essential area of the
accounting discipline to advance MAPs in Vietnamese enterprises and progress theoretical development of
sustainable MAPs
Columnar self-assembly, electrochemical and luminescence properties of basket-shaped liquid crystalline derivatives of Schiff-base-moulded p-tert-butyl-calix[4]arene
No full textThis article is not available on ChesterRepA new family of blue-light emitting supramolecular basket-shaped liquid crystalline compounds based on p-tert-butyl-calix[4]arene core to form self-assembly and columnar hexagonal phase
Effect of combined home-based, overground robotic-assisted gait training and usual physiotherapy on clinical functional outcomes in people with chronic stroke: a randomized controlled trial
Get PDFWright, A., Stone, K., Martinelli, L., Fryer, S., Smith, G., Lambrick, D., Stoner, L., Jobson, S. & Faulkner, J., Effect of combined home-based, overground robotic-assisted gait training and usual physiotherapy on clinical functional outcomes in people with chronic stroke: a randomized controlled trial, Clinical Rehabilitation, 35(6), pp. 882-893. Copyright © [2020] (Copyright Holder). Reprinted by permission of SAGE Publications.Objectives:To assess the effect of a home-based over-ground robotic-assisted gait training program using the AlterG Bionic Leg orthosis on clinical functional outcomes in people with chronic stroke.
Design:Randomized controlled trial.
Setting:Home.
Participants:Thirty-four ambulatory chronic stroke patients who recieve usual physiotherapy.
Intervention:Usual physiotherapy plus either (1)10-week over-ground robotic-assisted gait training program (n=16), using the device for 30 minutes per day, or (2)control group (n=18), 30 minutes of physical activity per day.
Measurements:The primary outcome was the Six-Minute Walk Test. Secondary outcomes included: Timed-Up-and-Go, Functional Ambulation Categories, Dynamic Gait Index and Berg Balance Scale. Physical activity and sedentary time were assessed using accelerometry. All measurements were completed at baseline, 10- and 22-weeks after baseline.
Results:Significant increases in walking distance were observed for the Six-Minute Walk Test between baseline and 10-weeks for over-ground robotic-assisted gait training (135±81m vs. 158±93m, respectively; P0.001) but not for control (122±92m vs. 119±84m, respectively). Findings were similar for Functional Ambulation Categories, Dynamic Gait Index and Berg Balance Scale (all P0.01). For over-ground robotic-assisted gait training, there were increases in time spent stepping, number of steps taken, number of sit-to-stand transitions, and reductions in time spent sitting/supine between baseline and 10-weeks (all P.05).
Conclusion:Over-ground robotic-assisted gait training combined with physiotherapy in chronic stroke patients led to significant improvements in clinical functional outcomes and physical activity compared to the control group. Improvements were maintained at 22 weeks
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