Thesis and Research Data Repository Leeds Beckett University
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Realisation of Sustainability within the Life Cycle of Construction
No full textThe aim of the study was to determine a framework of interventions for the realisation of sustainability within the life cycle of construction. The quantitative method was adopted for the study, which entailed the completion of a self-administered questionnaire by a range of built environment professionals in the employ of parastatals, general contractors, municipalities, and consulting practices. Findings include: sustainability and environment are ranked fifth and seventh in terms of the importance of seven project parameters; prefabrication promotes health and safety, and sustainability; innovative construction methods reduce waste and promote sustainability; designers lack the competencies to conduct design hazard identification and risk assessment (HIRA); life cycle cost analysis and value engineering promote sustainability to a degree, and it is important to consider and promote sustainability during all six stages of projects. Conclusions include: cost and quality still predominate in terms of the importance of project parameters; prefabricated structures and components promote sustainability; innovative construction methods produce less waste, are cost effective, and promote sustainability; designers are not empowered to conduct HIRA; life cycle cost analysis and value engineering focus on cost saving as opposed to promoting sustainability, and sustainability should be considered during each stage of projects. Recommendations include: all project parameters should be afforded equal status during the life cycle of projects; innovative materials and construction methods should be considered; life cycle cost analysis and value engineering should be integrated within the project life cycle assessment; health and safety and sustainability should be embedded in tertiary built environmental programmes, and professional associations and statutory councils should evolve and / or promote environmental continuing professional development (CPD).</p
Mainstreaming disaster risk strategies into the built environment
No full textDisasters have become increasingly frequent and destructive worldwide; therefore, there is a need to integrate disaster resilience strategies into all aspects of society. The aim of this paper is to investigate how disaster resilience strategies can be mainstreamed into the built environment, with a focus on identifying best practices, challenges and opportunities for improvement. A comprehensive review of relevant literature was conducted, including peer-reviewed articles, reports, and case studies. The methodology adopted is a qualitative method which is purely a literature review. An extensive literature review search of electronic databases such as Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar, as well as manual searches of reference lists of relevant articles, was conducted. The findings of this study suggest that mainstreaming disaster resilience into construction processes is crucial to reduce the negative impact of disasters. Moreover, the need for collaboration between stakeholders, such as architects, engineers, contractors, and local authorities, to develop comprehensive disaster risk management plans. The need to incorporate new technologies and building materials to enhance the resilience of buildings, such as the use of earthquake-resistant materials and the adoption of passive cooling strategies. The study provides insights into how disaster resilience can be mainstreamed into construction processes, highlighting the importance of collaboration, innovation, and capacity-building. The study underscores the need for a holistic approach to disaster resilience in construction, which involves not only improving the physical structures but also considering social and economic aspects. The study provides valuable information for policymakers, researchers, and practitioners involved in the construction sector to enhance disaster resilience and contribute to sustainable development.</p
Building Information Modelling (BIM) and Energy Simulation Tools for Efficient Energy Modelling and Analysis
No full textDue to the growing concerns of climate change, the cost of energy, energy security and energy consumption in buildings has become a critical problem globally. As sustainability principles propose, a solution must be found to optimise and minimise building energy consumption due to growing global concerns. This study explored how Building Information Modelling (BIM) Technology can be integrated with energy simulation tools to identify ways to optimise building performance and reduce energy consumption. BIM technology has evolved over the years and expanded to include additional functionalities such as cost estimation, scheduling, clash detection, facility management, asset management and sustainability analysis. BIM has also become a comprehensive platform for managing the entire lifecycle of a building, from design and construction to operation and maintenance. Secondary data was extracted from existing literature and energy simulation tools. Eleven (11) energy simulation tools were identified and juxtaposed with individual capabilities and attributes. The ranking system of Simple Additive Weighting (SAW), a multi-criteria decision-making method (MCDM) was applied. The findings revealed the most compatible energy simulation tool for the BIM application for detailed energy modelling and analysis. The findings are significant and would contribute to further research on new versions of energy simulation tools compatible with BIM for improved energy modelling speed and accuracy.</p
A Comparative Study on the Energy Consumption of Four Prominent Node.js Frameworks
No full textModern world is moving in a tangent such that virtual presence is equally or more important than physical presence. Web development has become so widely spread that anyone looking to have a career in the ICT sector must have good knowledge about it. But the environmental aspects of web development have always been neglected. Studies show that around two percent of total carbon emissions each year come from ICT sectors. In this research, 4 different frameworks of the popular backendbuilding language NodeJS namely ExpressJS, Fastify, NestJS, and Connect have been studied in terms of energy consumption. The experiments are set up in such a way that all the components like database, API services, API tester, etc are present and similar in every framework. Collected data were analyzed by descriptive analysis as well as inferential analysis and found that in terms of energy consumption, services of similar nature take similar energy irrespective of the framework being used. In addition, energy data was converted to GHG emissions with the help of standard conversion factor of 2022 to observe the environmental effects of each framework.</p
Analysis of containerization deployment overhead on execution time and energy consumption
No full textContainerization software has become increasingly popular in the last decades as it provides a lightweight operating system-level virtualization for a large variety of purposes, including cloud and edge computing. Even though it provides increased security, internal networking, and application isolation, it also tends to generate additional workload and overhead in comparison with native application deployment. This issue is especially relevant in regards with limited computation power and storage devices, such as mobile and IoT devices. The aim of this paper is to analyse this generated overhead of deploying applications in containerization solutions and its effect on total execution time and energy consumption. To do so, two widely used container platforms, Docker and Podman, were used. To evaluate the performance of the low-level container runtime of a platform, two OCI (Open Container Initiative) compatible container runtimes, namely runC and crun, are compared. This results in a comparison of 5 configurations - docker with runC, docker with crun, podman with runC, podman with crun, and native deployment. A test workload application that simulates CPU load was deployed on a Raspberry Pi single board computer for all configurations. The results show that in the containerization deployment models, container runtime selection seems to have a minor effect on overall execution time and energy consumption, while the container platform significantly affects both metrics. Among container platforms, Podman platform was found to be both faster and more energy-efficient than Docker. It has also been discovered that native application deployment might significantly decrease the energy consumption level at the expense of losing containerization benefits.</p
Characterising and analysing performance sequences in rugby league using match events data
No full textThe ability to accurately evaluate player and team performances in professional sport is particularly valuable. Doing so provides competitive advantages include extracting important information regarding the tactical strategies of future oppositions and producing player rating systems. A common method of evaluating player and team performances is via expected possession value (EPV) models. EPV models assign a value to every location and/or action on the pitch, which reflects the probability of points being scored within a given time period.
EPV models have been produced in several sports, including football, basketball and ice hockey. However, there is limited research surrounding these models in rugby league. Rugby league has a unique set of rules, including a six tackle attacking set and five possible scoring options at the end of a possession. These two factors, alongside the poor data availability in the sport ensure that the majority of previous methods cannot be adapted for use in rugby league. Therefore the aim of this thesis was to develop new methodologies evaluating player and team performances in rugby league.
In the first section of this thesis (studies 1 and 2), previous Markov models using zonal approaches were applied, adapted and extended in rugby league to provide insights into player and team performances. Six EPV models were produced with varying zone sizes using Markov Reward Processes. The
Kullback-Leibler Divergence was used to evaluate the zone sizes which could reproduce future team attacking performances. The model was then extended
to incorporate actions and context nodes using Markov Decision Processes. Novel methods of evaluating player and team performances were also produced.
In the second section (studies 3 and 4), novel models producing smooth pitch surfaces were developed. The spatial trends of team attacking performances were evaluated using Kernel Density Estimation. Two novel Wasserstein distance
metrics were used to provide valuable insights into team performances. A novel approach to the estimation of individual possession outcomes was also proposed using a Bayesian mixture model approach. The model used linear and bilinear interpolation techniques for its weights to produce a smooth
pitch surface. Novel performance metrics evaluating player and team performances were also created.
The research provides new methodologies for use within rugby league, providing zonal and smooth EPV models through which player and team performances can be evaluated. Professional experts were impressed with the
results they provided and validated their use within the sport
Tackling Health Inequalities Amongst Street Sex Workers –The Leeds Managed Approach as a case study
No full textFocus
This thesis gathers data from street sex workers who work in the Managed Approach (MA) in Leeds.
Current literature fails to focus on physical or mental health measures, or long-term conditions. Rather, there is a tendency in the sex worker literature to focus on harm reduction, drug use and addiction, and to consider only the risks they pose to others (Department of Health, 2014, Putnis and Burr, 2019). Street sex workers face extreme health inequalities, and without fully understanding the nature or extent of their experiences, from the women’s perspective, little can be done to address these. This thesis addresses this gap in the literature using the following research questions.
• From the women’s perspectives, what are sex-working women’s patterns of engagement with health care providers?
• From the women’s perspectives, what are the critical junctures at which they do and do not seek professional assistance?
• What is the impact of criminalisation, stigma, bias on their health outcomes?
• What are the implications of these findings for future policy and service provision?
Methods
Using Feminist Constructivism, timelines were used alongside semi structured qualitative interviews to capture the women’s critical decision-making in their health seeking behaviours. Thematic Analysis (TA) was used to analyse both the timelines and the transcribed interviews – comprising of 16 interviews and timelines from seven interviewees.
Findings and Discussion
From the TA, 3 meta narrative threads were generated: service provision; stigma and bias; and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), trauma and experiences. A key unique contribution of this thesis is the evidence that substantiates both the need to advocate for decriminalisation of sex work, and the decriminalisation of possession of drugs for personal use, if street sex worker health inequalities are to be addressed. Additionally, the rich narrative data provided by the creative methods used that gives a first-hand account of the sex workers’ experiences in healthcare. Activist Pedagogy (Aslet, 2014) is identified as a strategic tool for development. A further contribution is methodological, and this thesis demonstrates effectively how creative methods can be used to work with underserved populations.</p
‘Love Island’: The Reality of Reality TV
No full textLove Island is a reality TV dating gameshow, which sees men and women, flying to Majorca looking to find love over a course of eight weeks in the summer. With £50,000 standing as prize money, couples must win over the audience to be in for a chance of winning. Contestants can either apply or be scouted through social media, normally through the social sites such as Instagram and Twitter. Contestants throughout the duration of the show gain followers and ‘fans’ across social media apps, which are later used for the purpose of advertisement and promoting different things. Reality TV can be seen as a guilty pleasure (Skeggs, 2009) however, is a huge influence on individuals’ choices and the nature of today’s society. Arguably our reality has been distorted by reality TV, affecting society and how it functions.</p
The Rigged Education System: How Neoliberalism Leaves Vulnerable Schoolchildren Behind
No full textYoung people are expected more than ever to take charge of their own lives, yet they live within a system that works against them. Reflexive modernisation has produced new forms of individualisation and standardisation, expecting individuals to accept that it is their role to be the creators of their own lives (Kelly, 2001).</p
Consuming: ‘Mukbangs’
No full textUntil the creation of YouTube in 2005, the most common form of marketing, advertisement and entertainment was through television (Sinclair, 2012). Due to YouTube’s rapid growth, it became one of the biggest platforms on the internet, attracting 2 billion users monthly. In 2009 the internet experienced a large inflow of YouTubers and bloggers which initiated the influencer phenomenon, allowing individuals to create careers through platforms such as YouTube. The ease of sharing and accessing videos through social media has meant that YouTube has enabled a vast number of videos to go viral (Broxton et al, 2013). This expansion of the viral phenomena, also considered as ‘the cultural politics of network culture’ (Taylor, 2001), gives viewers the power to both create and spread viral content.</p