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Enhancing gravitational-wave detection: a machine learning pipeline combination approach with robust uncertainty quantification
No full textGravitational-wave data from advanced-era interferometric detectors consists of background Gaussian noise, frequent transient artifacts, and rare astrophysical signals. Multiple search algorithms exist to detect the signals from compact binary coalescences, but their varying performance complicates interpretation. We present a machine-learning-driven approach that combines results from individual pipelines and utilizes conformal prediction to provide robust, calibrated uncertainty quantification. Using simulations, we demonstrate improved detection efficiency and apply our model to GWTC-3, enhancing confidence in multipipeline detections, such as the subthreshold binary neutron star candidate GW200311_103121.</p
Precarious migrant entrepreneurship: gendered in-work poverty for new migrants in the UK
Full text linkThis research project examines whether self-employment leads to social and occupational mobility for migrant entrepreneurs or traps them in low-value, low-pay sectors. The project focuses on the gendered experiences of work, highlighting the implications for men and women in precarious self-employment (low-paid/low-valued) and the support available to them. Previous studies have found that entrepreneurship for migrants can offer an alternative source of employment to overcome racialised discrimination in the labour market and achieve self-realisation and positive integration in the countries of settlement. Advantages of working self-employed include being able to escape precarious paid employment, fulfil professional aspirations, and have more independence and control in daily work life. However, previous research has also shown that migrant entrepreneurs make paltry returns on their businesses. This may lead to them experiencing ‘in-work’ poverty. While in-work poverty has been studied in terms of paid employment, there is little research on this area linked to business activity and less on migrant entrepreneurship
Coping, hoping and acting: employees' individual ethics for climate change in the oil and gas industry
No full textPrivate companies in certain activity sectors are often called out for their practices, conveying questionable ethics, if not causing harm, be it at a societal or environmental level. The same companies employ thousands upon thousands of workers, who share an affiliation with their employer, while being members of the society where they witness or endure the consequences of these harmful activities. Contributing to a developing yet still limited literature considering individual moral agency and ethical construction within organisations, this thesis comprises three research papers investigating this problematic in the oil and gas industry, against the backdrop of the worsening of climate change and polarising debates around the extraction of fossil fuels. The title of this thesis, ‘Coping, Hoping and Acting’, reflects the respective angle of each of the three papers. The first explores the mechanisms employed by oil and gas industry employees to justify their being a part of this sector, and how these mechanisms perpetuate a neoliberal approach to corporate environmental ethics. The second identifies the dynamic processes of ethical formation employees go through and how these position them in relation to their organisations’ environmental discourses and practices. Finally, the third paper conceptualises the act of ‘crafting spaces in-between’ for the development of alternative futures, through studying the stories of people who straddle the boundary between the oil and gas industry and climate activism. These studies are built on accounts from and interviews with a population typically challenging to access, made up of current and former employees of the oil and gas industry. By giving voice to this often-overlooked population, this paper highlights the untapped potential which exists in creating space for all organisational actors, at all levels, to engage with environmental ethics. Moving beyond typical managerialist approaches opens new opportunities to envisage alternative paths towards sustainable futures
Discovery of novel gut-derived <i>Klebsiella pneumoniae</i> phages and mucus-interacting gut phage proteins
No full textThe rise in antimicrobial resistance and the stagnation in antibiotic development have intensified interest in alternative therapies. Bacteriophages, viruses of bacteria, have significant potential, for both classical phage therapy and for microbiome modulation. Klebsiella pneumoniae is a high-risk pathogen due to its multidrug resistance and virulence, causing acute tissue infections as well as chronic gut colonisations that may drive other diseases, like inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Consequently, Klebsiella phages are highly sought after, yet their therapeutic application is hindered by key gaps, including the lack of standardised accessible phage and strain collections, limited understanding of the roles of Klebsiella in IBD, and poor knowledge of phage ecology in the gut. To address these, this thesis showcases the establishment of KlebPhaCol, an open-source collection of 52 newly isolated Klebsiella phages and 74 Klebsiella strains, including clinical and reference strains. This resource includes gut-relevant phages infecting the IBD-associated K. pneumoniae ST323 strain and enables the centralised study of Klebsiella-phage interactions. It further explores the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans as a simple in vivo model for Klebsiella-driven gut inflammation, and investigates phage ecology within the intestinal mucosa, commonly disrupted in IBD. Our findings reveal genomic and functional features of KlebPhaCol, including the discovery of a novel phage family linked to the gut environment, Felixviridae. We also show Klebsiella induces intestinal distension in C. elegans, suggesting a tractable model for studying Klebsiella-driven inflammation. Finally, we uncover a repertoire of 6,302 putative phage-encoded mucus-interacting proteins, many with evidence of bacterial origin and plausible retained functionality as well as 390 hits derived from Klebsiella phages, offering insights on potential mechanisms by which Klebsiella spp. may achieve gut colonisation and contribute to disease. In conclusion, this thesis lays foundational resources and insights into Klebsiella-phage interactions, advancing phage therapy developments and deepening the understanding of phage ecology in the gut
International refugee norm sabotage: an analysis of anti-migration groups in the UK
No full textThe 2015 Refugee Crisis and 2016 Brexit referendum created a window of opportunity for anti-migration groups to strategically advance restrictive immigration agenda in the United Kingdom (UK). In recent years, the UK has introduced immigration policy and legislation restricting numerous basic rights for refugee protection. Considering the explicit aim to create barriers for asylum claimants and reduce refugee rights, this article investigates how UK anti-migration groups contest established international refugee norms. A norm sabotage framework of discursive persuasion, refuting, resisting, and obfuscating mechanisms is applied to analyse how refugee norms of non-refoulement, non-penalisation, non-criminalisation, and non-detention are undermined by UK anti-migration groups. The analysis demonstrates UK anti-migration groups using a norm sabotage strategy to undermine international refugee norms and identifies radical right populist (RRP) ideology as a tool used as moral and political leverage to defend restricting refugee rights. The findings reflect on the Nationality and Borders Act, the Rwanda Partnership, and the Illegal Migration Act which challenge international obligations regarding refugee rights in the UK. IR literature often focuses on how norm contestation legitimises norms, this case study contributes a deeper understanding of how norm saboteur strategies are used by domestic actors to challenge and undermine the legitimacy of established international norms within the context of anti-migration activism targeting refugees and asylum seekers in the UK
Surviving intimate partner violence: Chinese abused women’s coping experiences
No full textIntimate partner violence (IPV) is a form of gendered violence characterized by control and causing more harm to women than men. Feminists, such as Mies (2004; 2014) and Chodorow (1979), argue that IPV arises and persists within patriarchal societies. During capitalization, the gendered division of labour exploited women in both public and private spheres as reproduction patterns changed. IPV became a tool men used to maintain control over resources and production. Although IPV has been studied by Western feminists in recent decades, research generally focuses on white middle-class women in developed countries, rather than women in other social and cultural contexts.Adopting a feminist perspective, this study aims to explore the experiences of a triply marginalized group of female IPV-abused women in China, with a special focus on their coping strategies and processes, including self-identity construction, decision-making, help-seeking practices, and responses. This study is based on 62 interviews conducted between June 2022 and February 2023 with IPV-abused women, lawyers, social officials, and police officers. The study reveals the gender power imbalance in IPV in China and locates the causative factors of IPV in the Chinese social environment: intergenerational transmission of patriarchal culture of violence, exploitation of women's maternal labour after capitalization, and intergenerational struggles for individualization. Influenced by these features, women victimized by IPV undergo a complex and ongoing process of identity construction that transcends the “victim/survivor” dichotomy. Identity construction drives women to adopt emotion-centred, problem-centred, and maternal-protection-centred decision-making strategies when seeking help through formal and informal channels. Formal channels through which women seek help are usually patriarchal and paternalistic, while informal channels usually follow familialist values. Despite progress in survivor empowerment interventions, regional disparities are evident
A vision of air
No full textThe invisibility of air means that it is it easy to for us to ignore. Yet in recent times it has moved from being a presence that we rarely have to think about, to becoming a fear-provoking and unquantifiable substance, containing diseases and pollutants that need to be filtered out or blown away in order to be made safe. How, then, do we deal with such an invisible yet explicitly material entity? How do we see it? This article explores some of the different ways that air is exposed and visualized, from early scientific experiments with air through to the material consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic. It moves through various fields of research: science and technology, art practice, public health, and building design; taking us through the identification, conceptualization, measurement and datafication of air, as well as the actuality of our experience. Ultimately, it is argued that to have any hope of achieving clean air, we must first learn to work through its invisibility and understand its precarity, through the formation of a broad community of practice
A research agenda for political trust
No full textElgar Research Agendas outline the future of research in a given area. Leading scholars are given the space to explore their subject in provocative ways, and map out the potential directions of travel. They are relevant but also visionary.This timely book sets out an agenda for social science research on political trust, confronting contemporary conceptual, theoretical, and empirical problems. It grapples with the breakdown of reliance on political systems in democratic societies, exploring why many people perceive politicians and public administrators as corrupt and unconcerned about the public interest.Expert authors present a concise overview of political trust, providing empirical and conceptual contributions with global coverage. They demonstrate how citizens'' beliefs about their governments and leaders can impact the resilience, breakdown, or emergence of democracy. Chapters examine how politicians are seen as unwilling to address urgent problems ranging from global climate change to local poverty and social injustices. Authors investigate political support and institutional confidence through the lens of wavering trust and the increase of autocratic regimes. Guiding future scholarship, this book addresses important questions and indicates key avenues for research.A Research Agenda for Political Trust is a vital resource for scholars and students of political theory and public policy, as well as sociology and the broader social sciences. Practitioners and policymakers in regulation, governance, and public administration and management will also benefit from its valuable insights
Longitudinal social network methods for the educational and psychological sciences
No full textSocial network analysis is useful for obtaining a better understanding of antecedents and mechanisms of relationship formation and interactions between individuals in educational and psychological contexts. Research utilising descriptive and cross-sectional applications of network analysis is regularly reported, but longitudinal analyses of networks have received less scrutiny. In this methodological article, we compare three commonly applied approaches for analysing longitudinal social network data: Multiple Regression Quadratic Assignment Procedure (MRQAP), Separable Temporal Exponential Random Graph Models (STERGM), and Stochastic Actor Oriented Modelling (SAOM) with research questions about correlations, social structures and mechanisms respectively. We highlight advantages and disadvantages of the methods and illustrate differences between these methods by analysing longitudinal peer-communication network data of pre-service teachers. The key considerations by the researcher is summarised as “FACTS” (Focus, Assumptions, Conceptualisation, Time points, and Size) and aid researchers to select the most appropriate method for the analysis of longitudinal social network data
Assisting blind people with AI and audio using smart glasses: System design with YOLOv8 variants comparisons
No full textThis paper introduces a novel system design leveraging Vuzix Blade 2 smart glasses to enhance the mobility and independence of visually impaired individuals. The study critically examines existing assistive navigation and object detection technologies, identifying their limitations and gaps. The designed system integrates real-time object detection, distance estimation, and OCR, providing auditory feedback through a robust, efficient pipeline. The designed application enhances the independence and safety of visually impaired individuals, particularly in navigating university campuses. A dataset comprising 15,951 annotated images from the university campus was used for training and evaluation. A comparative analysis of three YOLOv8 models (YOLOv8-N, YOLOv8-S, and YOLOv8-M) was conducted, balancing accuracy and computational efficiency to optimise system performance. The pipeline offers a scalable framework for inclusive AR and AI-based assistive systems. Results show high object detection accuracy (precision: 0.90, recall: 0.83). Distance estimation performance was validated using a geometric size–based calculation that relates pixel width to calibrated focal length and known real-world object dimensions, achieving an average absolute error of 0.33 m. Results demonstrate the system’s capability to detect obstacles within 1 meter, provide precise distance estimation, and convert text into speech, validating its potential for real-world applications. This study emphasises the significant role of AI-driven solutions in advancing assistive technologies, paving the way for more accessible and inclusive navigation systems. Compared with recent assistive systems such as Smart Cane, OrCam MyEye, and IrisVision), the proposed system demonstrates superior integration of detection, text recognition, and real-time feedback within a lightweight wearable device
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