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Iaith a Thechnoleg yng Nghymru: Cyfrol II
Get PDFMae’r gyfrol hon yn seiliedig ar rai o’r prif bapurau a draddodwyd yn ystod Symposiwm Academaidd Technolegau Iaith Cymru 2022 a 2023. Ceir ynddi benodau sy’n ymdrin â’r dechnoleg ddiweddara ym maes Deallusrwydd Artiffisial (AI), prosesu iaith naturiol (NLP) a thechnoleg lleferydd, technegau sydd yn parhau i gynnig llawer i ieithoedd llai eu hadnoddau. Yn ogystal ag adrodd ar y dechnoleg ddiweddara sydd ar gael i’r Gymraeg, ceir trafodaethau ar offer technoleg iaith ieithoedd eraill sydd mewn sefyllfa debyg megis y Llydaweg, y Gernyweg, a’r Wyddeleg
Non-contact lower limb injuries in Rugby Union: A two-year pattern recognition analysis of injury risk factors
Get PDFThe cause of sport injuries are multifactorial and necessitate sophisticated statistical approaches for accurate identification of risk factors predisposing athletes to injury. Pattern recognition analyses have been adopted across sporting disciplines due to their ability to account for repeated measures and non-linear interactions of datasets, however there are limited examples of their use in injury risk prediction. This study incorporated two-years of rigorous monitoring of athletes with 1740 individual weekly data points across domains of training load, performance testing, musculoskeletal screening, and injury history parameters, to be one of the first to employ a pattern recognition approach to predict the risk factors of specific non-contact lower limb injuries in Rugby Union. Predictive models (injured vs. non-injured) were generated for non-contact lower limb, non-contact ankle, and severe non-contact injuries using Bayesian pattern recognition from a pool of 36 Senior Academy Rugby Union athletes. Predictors for non-contact lower limb injuries included dorsiflexion angle, adductor strength, and previous injury history (area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) = 0.70) Dorsiflexion angle parameters were also predictive of non-contact ankle injuries, along with slower sprint times, greater body mass, previous concussion, and previous ankle injury (ROC = 0.76). Predictors of severe non-contact lower limb injuries included greater differences in mean training load, slower sprint times, reduced hamstring and adductor strength, reduced dorsiflexion angle, greater perceived muscle soreness, and playing as a forward (ROC = 0.72). The identification of specific injury risk factors and useable thresholds for non-contact injury risk detection in sport holds great potential for coaches and medical staff to modify training prescriptions and inform injury prevention strategies, ultimately increasing player availability, a key indicator of team success. [Abstract copyright: Copyright: © 2024 Evans et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Restless nights when sick: ectoparasite infections alter rest-activity cycles of diurnal fish hosts
Get PDFCircadian rhythms are timekeeping mechanisms responsible for an array of biological processes. Disruption of such cycles can detrimentally affect animal health. Circadian rhythms are critical in the co-evolution of host–parasite systems, as synchronization of parasite rhythms to the host can influence infection dynamics and transmission potential. This study examines the circadian rhythms in behaviour and activity of a model fish species (Poecilia reticulata) in isolation and in shoals, both when uninfected and infected with an ectoparasite (Gyrodactylus turnbulli). Additionally, the rhythmical variance of parasite activity under different light conditions as well as rhythmical variance in parasite transmissibility was explored. Overall, infection alters the circadian rhythm of fish, causing nocturnal restlessness. Increased activity of gyrodactylids on the host's skin at night could potentially contribute to this elevated host activity. Whilst migration of gyrodactylids across the host's skin may have caused irritation to the host resulting in nocturnal restlessness, the disruption in guppy activity rhythm caused by the expression of host innate immunity cannot be excluded. We discuss the wider repercussions such behavioural responses to infection have for host health, the implications for animal behaviour studies of diurnal species as well as the application of chronotherapeutic approaches to aquaculture
Wave resource characterization and co-location with offshore wind in the Irish Sea
Get PDFOne barrier affecting progress in the wave energy sector is detailed knowledge of the spatiotemporal distribution of waves in shelf sea regions, including their inter- and intra-annual variability. Here, a recent decade (2012-2021) of waves is simulated at high-resolution in the Irish Sea - a region with much offshore energy infrastructure. The spectral wave model SWAN is forced with ERA5 wind fields. There is a strong seasonal cycle in wave height and power. In all months except for July, large waves (significant wave height greater than 5 m) can penetrate into the northern part of the Irish Sea, but the most energetic region is the Celtic Sea, where monthly mean wave power exceeds 30 kW/m in December. In this region, wave power strongly correlates with the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) from September to March. To investigate the potential for co-location, i.e. to reduce costs through shared infrastructure, wave and wind power were compared at a leased floating wind site in the Celtic Sea. Over the simulated decade, r^2 ~ 0.5, demonstrating modest potential for co-location of wind and wave energy technologies in this part of the Irish Sea - considerably less favourable than other sites in the North Atlantic that experience greater swell
Knowledge mobilisation of rapid evidence reviews to inform health and social care policy and practice in a public health emergency: appraisal of the Wales COVID-19 Evidence Centre processes and impact, 2021-23
Get PDFThe Wales COVID-19 Evidence Centre (WCEC) was established from 2021-23 to ensure that the latest coronavirus (COVID-19) relevant research evidence was readily available to inform health and social care policy and practice decision-makers. Although decisions need to be evidence-based, ensuring that accessible and relevant research evidence is available to decision-makers is challenging, especially in a rapidly evolving pandemic environment when timeframes for decision-making are days or weeks rather than months or years. We set up knowledge mobilisation processes to bridge the gap between evidence review and informing decisions, making sure that the right information reaches the right people at the right time. To describe the knowledge mobilisation processes used by the WCEC, evaluate the impact of the WCEC rapid evidence reviews, and share lessons learned. Our knowledge mobilisation methods were flexible and tailored to meet stakeholders' needs. They included stakeholder co-production in our rapid evidence review processes, stakeholder-informed and participatory knowledge mobilisation, wider dissemination of outputs and associated activities including public engagement, capacity building and sharing of methodologies. Feedback on processes and evidence of impact was collected via stakeholder engagement and a stakeholder survey. Findings indicate that knowledge mobilisation processes successfully enabled use of the WCEC's rapid evidence reviews to inform policy and practice decision-makers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Wales. Realising actual public and patient benefit from this 'pathway to impact' work will take further time and resources. The WCEC knowledge mobilisation processes successfully supported co-production and use of rapid evidence review findings by scientific advisors and policy and practice decision-makers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Identified barriers and facilitators are of potential relevance to wider evidence initiatives, for setting up similar Centres during crisis situations, and supporting future evidence-based policy and practice decision-making. [Abstract copyright: Copyright: © 2024 Gal et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Commentary on “The Benefits of Precision Teaching for Educational Psychologists”
Get PDFPurpose – This commentary aims to reflect on the paper by Kubina et al. (2024). Design/methodology/approach: It offers an overview of the existing evidence base for precision teaching to support individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities and some of the wider considerations around training for educational psychologists. Findings: Precision teaching approaches can yield positive outcomes when delivered to high levels of fidelity. Originality/value: This paper advocates for training opportunities for educational psychologists so they can use precision teaching strategies with their learners and work effectively with teachers
Standard deviation: Standardized bat monitoring techniques work better in some ecosystems
Get PDFStandardized monitoring strategies are often used to study spatial and temporal ecological patterns and trends. Such approaches are applied for many study taxa, including bats (Mammalia, Chiroptera). However, local characteristics of individual field sites, including species assemblages, terrain, climatic factors, and presence or lack of landscape features, may affect the efficacy of these standardized surveys. In this paper, we completed mist-netting surveys for bats in two widely separated field sites, Calakmul Biosphere Reserve (CBR), a Mexican lowland tropical forest, and Krka National Park (KNP), a Mediterranean dry scrub forest in Croatia. Standardized surveys were conducted along predefined transects for six hours. We also completed targeted surveys in KNP that focused on the key bat activity period (the first two to three hours after sunset), with nets being deployed at sites of known or assumed value to bats (independent of predefined transects). We analyzed how survey success differed in standardized surveys between CBR and KNP and between standardized and targeted surveys in KNP. Survey success was measured through three parameters: capture rate = the number of individual bats captured per net hour, inventory rate = the number of unique bat species recorded per net hour, and inventory efficacy = the percentage of known species assemblage recorded per net hour across all surveys. Results for all three parameters indicate that standardized surveys in CBR were vastly more effective than those in KNP (e.g., mist-netting in CBR detected 69.8% of the species assemblage, compared to just 8.3% in KNP), and it was only by employing targeted mist-netting in KNP that meaningful capture rates could be achieved. This study contributes further evidence to discussions around how and when standardized survey methods should be employed, and the alternative approaches that can be taken in ecosystems where generally effective methods underperform
Enhanced Chaos Generation in Mid-Infrared Interband Cascade Lasers Under Amplitude-Modulated Optical Injection
Get PDFPushing boundaries in the measurement of language attitudes: enhancing research practices with the L'ART Research Assistant app
Get PDFThe importance of methodological developments has recently been emphasized both in language attitude research specifically (Kircher & Zipp 2022), and across linguistics and the social sciences more broadly, where there has been a particular focus on replicability (Sönnig & Werner 2021; Kobrock & Roettger 2023). One aspect of this concerns the adoptions of more open, consistent, and comparable implementations of method.We introduce a new digital application (the L’ART Research Assistant) for research in multilingualism and language attitudes. The app is specifically dDesigned specifically for work with bilingual populations who speakspeaking a majority and a regional/minority/minoritized/heritage language, the app implementing implements reference versions of some commonly used research methods and tasks. This offers benefits tobenefits the research community by enhancing consistency and comparability within and across studies and by improving replicability and reproducibility.We discuss technical and methodological considerations behind the app and illustrate its use with a brief case study of language attitudes across three European communities whose regional/minority languages receive radically different degrees of socio-political recognition: Lombard (Italy), Moselle-Franconian (Belgium), and Welsh (UK). This The case study demonstrates not only how the app facilitates research across different communities that is easily comparable, but our results also reveal fundamental differences in attitude scores depending on the methods used employed (AToL v. MGT). Consequently, we argue that there is a need to move toward both the adoption of more consistent, comparable methods as well as toward a more holistic approach to measuring language attitudes, where a battery of tests — as opposed to a single measure — should become the norm.<br/
