Thesis and Research Data Repository Leeds Beckett University
Not a member yet
631 research outputs found
Sort by
The Challenge of Collaboration, Partnership and Trust: Assessing the operations of Destination Management Organisations. A case study of tourism in Yorkshire (2001-2011)
No full textThis study examines the role of trust in establishing collaboration and partnership between Destination Management Organisations (DMOs). The study contributes to the existing body of knowledge by investigating how the role of trust influence collaboration and partnership development between a group of DMOs, using a case study within Yorkshire, UK. The literature provides perspectives for the rationale for collaborations and partnerships and the importance of context when applying trust theory to DMOs and their collaborative workings. The findings show that the complex and large number of partners in the Yorkshire DMO model created its challenges, but the dynamic role of trust in the partnership was underestimated as was the impact it had on commitment and collaboration between partners. Power and funding were used to drive the implementation of the Yorkshire DMO model, but at the cost of trust and commitment between the partners which eventually assisted to the demise of the partnership. Local contextual issues and the operational environment underpin the trust within the partnership and the development of the economic and cultural investment of partners’ relations and collaboration. The research framework for DMOs to assess trustworthiness within the partnerships and ways to strengthen them
Non-Decimated Wavelet Based Iris Recognition Using Curvelets
No full textApplication of iris recognition for human identification has significant potential for developing a robust identification system considering that the iris pattern of individuals is unique and is even differentiable from left to right eye and is almost stable over the time. This PhD research aims at developing novel iris segmentation and recognition techniques. Research show that the performance of iris recognition methods depend on the accuracy of their input iris images. However, the performance of existing traditional wavelet-based iris segmentation techniques is limited as the wavelet transform is shift variant. In this research the non-decimated wavelet transforms, which is a shift invariant transform, and Fuzzy reasoning are utilized to develop an iris segmentation algorithm called Non-Decimated Wavelet and Fuzzy based Iris Segmentation (NDWFIS). Experimental results on images of the benchmark image datasets show that the proposed method segments iris image more accurately, improving the recognition accuracy of any consequent iris recognition method. The proposed NDWFIS algorithm employs a histogram-based method to select a pixel within the pupil area of the input image and creates several radii vectors with respect to this pixel. It then performs a non-decimated wavelet transform on each resulting radii vector, extracting its wavelet sub bands. The transition from iris to limbus pixels generates a positive edge in wavelet high frequency sub bands. Hence, the proposed NDWFIS algorithm sets all negative wavelet coefficients to zeros. The resulting wavelet sub bands’ coefficients are normalised and fuzzified to reduce the effect of noise on detection of strongest edge in the radii vector. The information across fuzzified wavelet sub bands’ coefficients is combined using Fuzzy interstation. The coefficient with the highest Fuzzy membership value in the resulting combined vector is illustrate the location of the strongest edge. The extracted edges within the radii vectors are interpolated in a 2D matrix to create the outer boundary of the iris. A histogram algorithm is then applied on the pixels within the extracted region to determine the interior iris boundary. The performance of the proposed method on synthetic noisy step signal shows the robustness of the method in accurately locating the edge at highly contaminated step signal. Traditional wavelet-based iris recognition methods generate superior performance to their anchor image-based methods due to the time-frequency localisation property of wavelet transform. However, time-frequency localisation of the wavelet transforms is limited to horizontal and vertical directions. The aim of this research is improving the performance of the iris recognition systems using Curvelet transform. Since the Curvelet transform can extracts time-frequency information of the iris image from more than two angles that the wavelet transform does. Based on this assumption two iris recognition method named: I) an Intensity Separation Curvelet based PCA (ISC-PCA)
4
iris recognition method and II) An Intensity Separation Curvelet based Iris Recognition using Grey Level Run Length Algorithm (ISCIR-GLRL) are presented in this PhD theists. The proposed ISC-PCA method first extracts a rectangularize iris image from the input eye image using Daugman Rubber Sheet method. It then applies Curvelet transform on the resulting rectangularize iris image, divides it into its curvelet sub bands. The resulting complex coefficients within the sub bands of the same level are concatenated to form two frames. Each resulting frames’ coefficients are normalised separately and split into several bands based on their values. The coefficients in the resulting bands of each frame are then vectorized and concatenated, forming a 2D matrix. It then performs the Conventional PCA on the resulting 2D matrix computing its eigenvectors, which are used as feature for iris recognition. Experimental results on the images of CASIA-Iris-Interval benchmark eye image dataset shows the merit of the proposed method to its anchor PCA based methods. The proposed ISCIR-GLRL method takes a rectangularize iris image and applies a Curvelet transform on it, dividing the iris image into its curvelet sub bands. It then concatenates the coefficients in the resulting Curvelet sub bands, shaping a single matrix. It then uses the Grey level Run Length Matrix (GLRLM) algorithm to extract iris features. The resulting iris features are used to perform iris recognition. Experimental results on the image of CASIA-Iris-Interval benchmark eye image dataset, show that the proposed ISCIR-GLRL methods gives superior results to other curvelet based methods
TikTok: The Darkside of Surveillance
No full textTikTok is a new social media app that was created by the Chinese company ‘ByteDance’ in 2017. The mobile video app allows users to upload short-form videos that are typically 15 seconds long and are commonly ‘funny dances, physical stunts, short-form skits, and good-humored confessionals straight to camera’ (Long, 2020). TikTok is the fastest growing app and is increasingly popular with young people as most users are teens; people over 20 are viewed as ‘old’ in the world of TikTok. The best representation for TikTok is Charli D’Amelio, an American 16-year-old who has gained fame through sharing dancing videos and has become the first user to reach 100 million followers on the app. In a postmodern society overcome with new media, Charli D’Amelio can be deemed a martyr for new ICTs that encourage synoptic surveillance and the desire to be watched.</p
Liquid Surveillance in the Marketized University
No full textThe neoliberal project to marketize higher education (HE) has resulted in the implementation and normalisation of surveillance technologies within the university (Williamson, 2018). Alongside this, there is a crisis of mental illness amongst students. In neoliberal society, there is a tendency to solve public issues with private solutions (Fisher, 2011). The private company, Solutionpath, posits their learning analytic platform as a resolution to the problem of student mental illness (Gascoigne, 2019).</p
Preface and Editorial
No full textSociology sets out to develop the sociological imagination of those who study it, allowing us to think critically and reflexively about the social world around us and make sense of the relationship between our personal experiences and wider society. This approach to interrogating the world is embodied in this collection of critical reflections written by final year students on the Single and Joint Honours Sociology degrees here at Leeds Beckett University. The essays in this volume underline both the breadth of the subject and its power to shed light on the familiar and the taken for granted. They tackle a wide range of contemporary issues: the quantification of learning, populist politics, the appropriation of activism by big brands, migration, social media, the digitisation of fitness and, of course, the impact of COVID-19. To do this, they apply theory as an interrogative and explanatory tool, tackling these subjects through the lens of, for example, commodification, surveillance, risk and postmodernity, underlining its central role in Sociology.</p
COVID-19: A Late Modern-Day Risk and a Class Problem
No full textThe concept of risk society was coined in the late 1980s by the German Sociologist Ulrick Beck. The theory is used to explain the shift from scientifically predicted risks to socially produced risks. Predominantly, the main dangers we now face are created by ourselves rather than external natural causes (Beck, 1992). This is a key factor of reflexive modernity, a stage that Beck argues society is now in. Reflexive modernity is also characterised by the weakening of social structures and the decline in the power of scientific truth (Beck, 1992), which will be explored in this critical reflection and applied to a contemporary event. The recent Covid-19 pandemic is a sound example of a socially produced risk and will be used as the main framework in this reflection. However, Beck’s analysis has limitations, as the pandemic also shows that society is not as reflexive as Beck suggests. Societal structures are still majorly significant to an individual’s outcome and life chances. Therefore, we must still question and evaluate the accuracy of risk society when applying it to understand contemporary societies.</p
Migrant Nannies: Motivation, Treatment and Sacrifice
No full textIn recent years the number of women choosing to migrate overseas for work has largely increased. There are numerous reasons as to why the migration of females has risen in some parts of the world, including employment opportunities, economic stability and more rights as a worker (Hofmann and Buckley, 2013). Previous studies have suggested that female migration was mainly attached to women moving overseas to reconnect with their family, because of a male relative having already migrated for work (Castles, Hein De Haas and Miller, 2014). However, this is not the case in the Philippines, as demonstrated from the graph inset (Psa.gov.ph, 2018) which shows that the Philippines has more female overseas workers than male.</p
Wearable Fitness Trackers: A Reflection on the Individual’s Understanding of the Self
No full textIn this critical reflection, I will examine how individuals regard the self through the use of these self-surveillant ICTs in a society governed by neo-liberal values. I will argue that through self-tracking, the idea of a reflexive, fluid identity is developed. Here, the self is malleable, measurable and perfectible. However, literature researching these devices has discovered drawbacks for the individual, most predictably the provoking of negative emotions (Goodyear et al., 2019) as argued by Lupton (2013) to be because of increased visibility of health, which will similarly be reflected upon.</p
A National, Collaborative Analysis of the NCMP Process with Parents, Carers and Other Stakeholders
No full textDespite the overall importance of the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP), there is increasing criticism from academics, media, and parents regarding the programme. For example, negative parental reactions and experiences with the result letters were evidenced by Falconer et al. (2014) or Nnynazi et al. (2016). These experiences need to be urgently reviewed, especially among parents who received the result that their child was classed with overweight or very overweight status. In addition, reviews of the NCMP, such as those by Shucksmith et al. (2008) or Mooney et al. (2010), are dated as they focused on the system operating under Primary Care Trusts while the current NCMP operates under Local Government Associations (LGA)
Nike Sportwear: Investing More in Performance Activism Than Their Workforce
No full textReflexive modernity allows corporations to sell meaning through advertising; the consumer is sold a representation of individual identity within the confines of their brand (Mukherjee and Banet-Weiser 2012). By shifting funding from manufacturing to marketing, companies use branding to lead customers to believe they are buying something of greater significance than the physical product itself (Klein 2008).</p