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Conference report: Symposium on Peacebuilding, the Arts and the Participation of Children and Young People, Queen’s University Belfast, 2024
No full textIn March 2024 the Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace,Security and Justice at Queen’s University Belfast hosted a symposium on ‘Peacebuilding, the Arts and the Participation of Children and Young People’. The event, which ran in conjunction with Young at Art’s Belfast Children’s Festival, brought together practitioners and researchers to explore the role of the arts in facilitating the expression of children and young people and the contribution this can make to peacebuilding, historically, now and in the future. This review outlines the key themes that emerged during the symposium, which include the rights of children and young people, the significance of the creative arts as a mode of expression, the conditions for children and young people’s contribution to peacebuilding and the challenges for collaboration: both intergenerational and inter-sectoral.<br/
Tensor-triangular rigidity in chromatic homotopy theory
No full textWe study the uniqueness of enhancements of tensor-triangulated categories. To do so, we provide conditions under which these enhancements interact well with categorical decompositions. As an application we obtain new results about the uniqueness of enhancements in chromatic homotopy theory
A systematic review to explore antenatal care from the perspectives of women with intellectual disabilities and midwives
No full textBackgroundDuring pregnancy, some women with an intellectual disability encounter some challenges, and some midwives who provide them with support lack the knowledge to provide the best care. This systematic review explores the experiences of women with intellectual disability during pregnancy and midwives' experiences of providing care.MethodFour databases were searched (PubMed, CINHAL, PsycINFO and Web of Science) and the resultant studies were appraised for quality using CASP. The selected papers were published between January 2012 and December 2022 and originated from the United Kingdom, Sweden, Canada and Ireland.ResultsEight studies were included: five examined the experiences of pregnant women with intellectual disability, one investigated the midwives' experiences of caring and two analysed both groups. The primary themes amongst women included pregnancy announcements, involvement in their care and fear of losing their baby custody. The midwives expressed their lack of readiness and need for additional support. Both groups recognised the necessity for improved education and accessible communication.ConclusionWomen with intellectual disabilities who are in the context of this review revealed their requirement for improved education and assistance in understanding antenatal information. The midwives within the included studies felt inadequately prepared to support women with intellectual disabilities: they lacked specialist training and required additional support in health education and communication skills.<br/
Fostering personalized learning in data science: integrating innovative tools and strategies for diverse pathways
No full textThis paper introduces an innovative teaching approach in data science tailored for students in non-computer science pathways, specifically Business Information Technology(BIT) and Computing and Information Technology (CIT). Over a five-year period, a unique teaching approach has been developed, incorporating a virtual reality (VR) game event and ChatGPT-4as an AI-facilitated tool. To address the inherent complexities of learning data science, particularly the diverse prerequisite skills, this study introduces a framework including a diagnostic assessment centred around a specific education research question: ”How can the learning experiences of individual students be customized to address the multifaceted challenges of data science education?” Through a diagnostic assessment process, conducted via a survey completed by students, this framework identifies students’ unique requirements and skill areas, facilitating the delivery of personalized content recommendations within the initial week of teaching. By fostering a culture of self-directed learning, the approach aims to enable students to concentrate on essential, customized learning materials. This paper also emphasizes overall student satisfaction with the module, averaging 4.5 out of 5, with a deviation of 0.9, indicating a high level of contentment with the teaching approach. The discussion encompasses the framework’s implications for teaching and its alignment with educational theories. This paper contributes to the computing education field by addressing the research question and offering insights for future research and teaching practices.<br/
Voice as constellation: listening to the voices and silences of displacement in three acts
No full textThis article conceptualises voice as a constellation, examining how objects, images, and sounds (or their absence) speak to the lived experiences of displacement. Drawing from a British Academy-funded project with a Syrian artist collective and a women-led social entrepreneurship initiative in Istanbul, we explore the affective assemblages of loss, belonging, and forced displacement through an ethnographic mode of listening. Bringing together a crocheted life jacket, a painting, and a piece of music that cannot be played, we consider how a politics of listening can offer new ways of understanding forced displacement and agency beyond voice as speech or narrative. We advocate for an approach that foregrounds thick solidarity, collective expression, and intersubjective relations of vocality
Social enterprise as political work: perspectives from the Global South
No full textThe political work of social enterprises is often neglected in the ‘West; and is almost completely ignored in the ‘Global South’ where it is assumed social enterprises fill institutional voids––operating in areas where governments and markets are broken. Stimulated by calls for more studies on the political work of social enterprises and our initial discovery of cases that exhibit this aspect of social enterprises operating in the Global South, we conducted an inductive study of nine social enterprises from the Global South. We found that social enterprises in the Global South, similar to those in the west, engage in different forms of paradoxical political work––simultaneously working outside of and with governments, while also critiquing policy. Notably, however, the tactics they employ tend to be more subtle and less visible to the western eye. Our study makes a new contribution to better understand how social enterprises engage with government in different ways to achieve their goals
Being in shadow and light: academics in post/conflict higher education
No full textAcademia and its citizens, during periods of political violence and social conflict, are often overlooked. When attention is given, the focus tends to be on student activism, access to higher education, or curriculum development. The experiences of academics affected by conflict remain under-researched, despite the crucial role they play as educators and in generating, documenting, preserving and challenging knowledges. This is particularly concerning given that academics have−and continue to be−at risk as targets of sanction, persecution and oppression.This edited volume seeks to address this gap by exploring, and evoking, the complexities of academic subjectivity, place and practice in contexts where intellectual and state authority are contested or in transition. It features contributions by academics, artists and memory activists who have stepped bravely outside of the parameters of their disciplines, with modes of enquiry and representation that include conversations, vignettes and case studies, critical ethnographies, oral life histories, interviews, poetry and collage. Within the ten chapters are consideration of conflicts within Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, England, Mexico, Nigeria, Northern Ireland, Palestine, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Syria and Venezuela.Being in Shadow and Light encourages a deeper understanding of academics’ navigation of these difficult conditions. The authors’ insider-outsider positioning brings forth the richness of ways through dilemmas−of omission, trauma, displacement, inheritance, injustice, distortion, desire. Grounding the many social, cultural, economic, and epistemic politics within academia, troubles the enclosure of ‘conflict’ in politics at the grand level, as if only within the realm of interest for state and international actors. Against sanitising the uncertainties and particularities of being an academic figure, the authors reflect on the states and sites of conflict as spaces which shape living.This work is a call to recognize, document and study the often-overlooked subjectivities and contributions of academics thinking and practicing within societies undergoing conflict(s) and in their aftermath. As such, it will be of interest to academics, students and staff working within universities, as well audiences interested in intellectuals and institutions in contexts undergoing change
A 3D-printing metasurface-augmented half-circle Maxwell fisheye lens for millimetre-wave analogue beamforming
No full textThis article presents a 2D metasurface-augmented half-circle Maxwell fisheye lens (HMFL) designed to move its focal axis to a targeted direction with a maximum elevation angle of 45◦, suitable for switchers and power division networks in the millimetre wave (mmWave) band. This metasurface-augmented beamformer enables consistent analogue performance across a bandwidth of 22 - 32 GHz. The proposed beamformer features a reflective metasurface consisting of 2 × 40 Phoenix unit cells and is integrated with a 10- dielectric zone HMFL in the diameter segment opposite the antenna source. A horn antenna feed is used for excitation in normal and oblique incidences of ϕi = −15◦ and ϕi = −30◦. The designed lens prototype was fabricated with 3D-printing technology and printed metasurfaces for several particular cases of focal displacement. The measurements of the proposed HMFL beamformer are presented, demonstrating a close correlation between simulated and experimental results.<br/
The effects of controlled acute psychological stress on serum cortisol and plasma metanephrine concentrations in healthy subjects
No full textBackgroundAs cortisol and metanephrine are involved in the stress response, it is often recommended that individuals are relaxed at the time of venepuncture, however, evidence behind these recommendations is lacking. We investigated the effects of acute psychological stress on serum cortisol and plasma metanephrine concentrations in healthy individuals exposed to varying levels of psychological stress and compared these results to self-reported measures of stress.MethodsTen medical students completed two medical in-person simulations (one low-complexity, one high-complexity) in a random order. At four times, participants completed the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and serum cortisol and plasma metanephrine/normetanephrine were tested.ResultsMedian (interquartile range) STAI prior to the low-complexity simulation was 44 (18) versus 33 (13) afterwards (P = 0.050). STAI prior to the high-complexity simulation was 33 (10) versus 48 (17) afterwards (P = 0.007). Cortisol prior to the low-complexity simulation was 272 nmol/L (115) versus 247 (115) afterwards (P = 0.333). Prior to the high-complexity simulation, cortisol was 246 (70) versus 261 (137) afterwards (P = 0.859). Metanephrine prior to the low-complexity simulation was 242 pmol/L (79) versus 247 (93) afterwards (P = 0.515). Metanephrine prior to the high-complexity simulation was 220 (81) versus 251 pmol/L (120) afterwards (P = 0.074). Normetanephrine prior to the low-complexity simulation was 593 pmol/L (247) versus 682 (281) afterwards (P = 0.047 for the difference). Normetanephrine prior to the high-complexity simulation was 696 (123) versus 705 pmol/L (224) afterwards (P = 0.169).ConclusionsThe trend in cortisol levels largely reflected changes in STAI. We outline some implications of these findings for current practice and future research.<br/
Microenvironment accessibility enables rare oxidation type of triterpenoids by plant P450
No full textTriterpenoids are valuable medicinal scaffolds, characterized by excellent pharmacological properties and the presence of hydroxyl and carboxyl groups that allow for further structural modifications. Expanding the scope of oxidative modifications on these molecules is crucial for increasing their synthetic structural diversity and unlocking new potential pharmacological activities. However, the progress has been limited by the scarcity of suitable tailoring enzymes. Here, we reported a break-through in achieving targeted and remote dual-site oxidation of licorice triterpenoids using a single P450 mutant. This approach successfully enabled the selective synthesis of the rare triterpenoid, liquiritic acid and 24-OH-liquiritic acid. Our findings demonstrate that microenvironmental accessibility engineering of triterpenoid substrates within the P450 enzyme is essential for continuous and regioselective oxidation. This study not only sheds light on the mechanistic aspects of P450 catalysis but also expands the enzymatic toolkit for selective oxidative modifications in triterpenoid biosynthesis