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Exotic species: the (bio)invasions of Sino-French art installations
No full textIn the visual arts, the conflicts and tensions experienced by immigrants from Sinophone countries to France are conveyed in ways that have a significant impact on the international art world, particularly through the medium of installation art. By focusing on Huang Yong Ping and Shen Yuan, two members of this sizeable, transnational group, this article explores their visual representations of border crossings, both of human beings and cultural symbols, and their potentially invasive characteristics through an analogy to the spread of other biological species. It argues that their artistic interventions as ‘exotic species’ can interrupt and alter the logic of the border and dilute the strength of dominant (western) ideologies through the creation of spaces of otherness and openness, territorial enrichment and (bio)diversity. This means that, rather than having plans for invasion, artistic or otherwise, their artworks reveal that they have strategies of survival, including that of short-term essentialism, which are closely associated with the question of mutable identity in the Third Space
LGBTQ+ inclusion and gender equity through a beginner programming event
No full textPersistent gender imbalances in computing and engineering education continue to challenge equity initiatives, despite decades of interventions aimed at recruiting and retaining women. Simultaneously, LGBTQ+ individuals in technical disciplines often face invisibility, exclusion, and a lack of culturally affirming educational experiences. This paper presents a case study of Code with Pride, an LGBTQ+-focused introductory programming event held at a UK university, which despite having no explicit gender equity objectives, resulted in an evenly balanced group of female and male participants. The event was designed to foster an inclusive, welcoming environment for queer individuals learning Python for the first time. Through mixed-methods analysis of participant registration data (n = 46) and post-event survey responses (n = 15), this study explores how intersectionally inclusive design may lead to broader gender equity outcomes. Findings show that 52\% of attendees identified as women, which is am uncommon demographic profile for software engineering education. Survey results indicated high levels of participant satisfaction, confidence gains, and strong intentions to recommend or re-engage with similar events. Correlation analysis further revealed a strong link between satisfaction and advocacy. These outcomes suggest that environments designed to affirm LGBTQ+ identities may also attract broader gender diversity by fostering belonging and psychological safety. This case study demonstrates evidence to include inclusive climate design in computing education, which would compliment representation based interventions. Findings provide new insight for women in engineering and other diversity initiatives, highlighting the effectiveness of intersectional, identity-affirming approaches for increasing participation and satisfaction among marginalized learners
Polar-domain multi-user key generation in near-field communications
No full textGiven the substantial increase in the number of antennas in extremely large-scale antenna array (ELAA) systems, polar-domain channel modeling has been introduced to capture both angular and distance information in near-field environments. The fine-grained polar-domain channel provides additional sources of randomness, making it well-suited for physical layer key generation (PLKG). To minimize the pilot overhead in multi-user key generation and leverage the randomness from the polar-domain channel paths, we implement a zero-forcing (ZF)-based precoding scheme to mitigate the inter-path and inter-user interference. Using ZF precoding, we derive an analytical expression for the sum secret key rate (SKR) as a function of the power allocation variables, and then optimize these variables in the presence of eavesdroppers. Since the ZF method may not fully eliminate interference with imperfect channel state information (CSI), there could be correlation between the measurements of polar-domain channel paths and users. We present a channel decorrelation and reciprocity compensation approach that leverages principal component analysis (PCA) and deep neural networks (DNNs) to mitigate channel correlation issues. Specifically, PCA is first applied at the base station (BS) to decorrelate the composite CSI vector that aggregates the CSI of all users. Following this preprocessing, a DNN is trained to learn the mapping from the decorrelated uplink CSI to the corresponding original downlink CSI. This trained DNN then reconstructs a new version of the downlink CSI, enhancing the cross-correlation between the BS and the users’ CSI, thereby improving uplink/downlink reciprocity. Our simulations evaluate the effectiveness of the DNN-based reciprocity compensation by assessing the normalized mean squared error (NMSE) and the correlation between uplink and downlink CSI, the bit disagreement ratio (BDR) and the randomness of secret keys after quantization
Are drugs bad for Business (Improvement Districts)? Policy mobility, security planning and frontier politics
No full textPrevious issues of this journal contain articles on policy mobility, its application to Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) and Drug Consumption Rooms (DCRs) and, separately, debates on security planning. This article fuses these debates together. Belfast has three BIDs, and, in March 2023, the council approved a DCR. However, when the DCR will be implemented and, more importantly, where it will be located remains unresolved. This article sheds light on these unanswered questions. Drawing upon theoretical debates on policy transfer, BID urbanism, and security planning, we analyse the role of policy actors involved in implementing the BIDs and mobilising the DCR proposal. We unpack the challenges - frontier politics - the DCR proposal is facing. Specifically, we analyse the tensions between planning for illegal drugs, public health, and harm reduction through the future location of the DCR and planning for safety, security, and civility through the existing location of the BIDs. Moreover, we analyse how BID urbanism - especially NIMBYism - will affect the future location of the DCR, and how prioritising safety and civility measures - security planning - in the BID areas affects the everyday lived realities and socio-spatial justice for people who use drugs
Holographic MIMO communications with orbital angular momentum and polarization multiplexing
No full textHolographic multiple-input multiple-output (HMIMO) has emerged as a promising technology for next- generation wireless communication systems with the capability to intelligently control electromagnetic waves through a nearly continuous aperture, offering unprecedented spatial degrees of freedom. In this paper, we analyze the performance of HMIMO that jointly exploits orbital angular momentum (OAM) and polarization multiplexing using a fully polarized uniform circular array (UCA) to enhance channel capacity and enable highly efficient spatial multiplexing within a compact aperture. We present the theoretical framework for the combined multiplexing scheme that utilizes the Green’s function-based polarized channel model and validate the performance of the system through extensive simulations. Furthermore, the OAM modes are approximated through the Green’s function and validated using the measurements obtained from a fabricated UCA. The results demonstrate that the proposed approach offers a significant performance gain in terms of system capacity compared to the conventional single-polarized OAM
