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Much louder than I am: a musical collaboration
Get PDFOne challenge of performative research is that a performance is a one-time unique event. It cannot be preserved or returned to in its own form. Here, we offer a more durable artefact to preserve some aspects of the collaborative performance autoethnography we performed at ICQI in 2018. We write to communicate not only what we performed during the session but also our sentiments concerning singing and playing music as autoethnography. Because so often in our work we use songs, songwriting, music and performance, we propose rhythm, melody and harmony as alternative acts of autoethnographic collaboration. In this way of doing autoethnography, it may be that no words are spoken. But the burden of work is shared. This is the kind of collaboration we seek … in the here and now
Singing in troubled times. ‘This Country’ reflections on song writing and singing qualitative research
Get PDFThe first song I ever heard sung during a session at the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry (ICQI) was in 2006 when David Carless sang “We Crossed the Tamar” (Carless, 2005), a song he’d written as part of a commissioned research project. The following year he returned to sing two songs, “Cold Soul” and “Stumble,” (Carless, 2007), through which he tried to incorporate his “singing self” within the straitjacket of evidence-based medicine, a culture that expects a researcher to be neutral and unaffected and is hostile toward those who use their selves in their work. In this chapter I reflect on the songwriting journey
A frequency spectrum-based processing framework for the assessment of tree root systems
Get PDFThe monitoring and conservation of natural assets are nowadays increasingly important, as the emergence of unknown pathogens endangers tree survival. In this respect, root systems are affected by fungal infections that cause root rot and ultimately contribute to the death of trees. Such diseases can quickly spread to surrounding trees and affect wider areas. Since these decays do not usually show visible symptoms, early identification is key to the protection of trees.
Within this framework, non-destructive testing (NDT) methods are becoming increasingly popular, as they are faster and more flexible than destructive methods. Specifically, ground penetrating radar (GPR) is emerging as an accurate geophysical tool for tree roots mapping. Recent research has focused on the implementation of automated algorithms for root mapping in a 3D environment and the investigation of root mass density.
This research aims to investigate the changes occurring in the frequency spectrum of the GPR signal during root system surveys. To this extent, advanced signal processing techniques (both in time and frequency domain) are applied, to eliminate noise-related information and the disturbance induced by the presence of other features (i.e. pavement layers or underground utilities). The proposed processing framework can be applied for expeditious analyses or on trees difficult to access, where more comprehensive survey methods are not applicable. The results of the application of this methodology to a real-case scenario showed the potential of the applied procedure and will lead to the development of a new approach for investigating root systems using GPR
Bridge monitoring and assessment by high-resolution satellite remote sensing technologies
Get PDFSatellite Remote-Sensing has been successfully applied for detection of natural-hazards, (e.g. seismic events, landslides and subsidence) and transport infrastructure monitoring over the last few years. Persistent Scatterer SAR Interferometry (PSI), is a satellite remote sensing technique able to measure ground displacements over the time. More specifically, the PSI technique is an evolution of the DInSAR technique and it is based on a statistical multi-temporal differential interferogram analysis. This allows to determine coherent stable-pixels over a data-stack of SAR images, in order to identify potential ground displacements. This study aims at demonstrating the potential of the PSI technique as an innovative health-monitoring methodology for the structural integrity of bridges. For this purpose, X‐Band COSMO‐SkyMed images provided by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) were acquired and processed in order to detect structural displacements of the Rochester Bridge in Rochester, UK. Outcomes of this investigation outlined the presence of various PSs over the inspected bridge, which were proven useful to achieve a more comprehensive monitoring methodology and to assess the structural integrity of the bridge. This research paves the way for the development of a novel interpretation approach relying on the integration between remote-sensing technologies and on-site surveys to improve upon current maintenance strategies for bridges and transport assets
Positive and negative well-being of older adults with symptomatic peripheral artery disease: A population-based investigation
Get PDFObjective
We investigated positive and negative subjective well-being in relation to lower-extremity peripheral artery disease (PAD) in a sample of older adults.
Method
4760 participants in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) provided baseline data on symptomatic PAD, sociodemographic characteristics, lifestyle risk factors, and co-morbid conditions. Baseline and two-year follow-up data were available for life satisfaction, quality of life, and depressive symptoms.
Results
Participants with PAD symptoms had lower baseline levels of life satisfaction (β = −0.03, p < .05) and quality of life (β = −0.04, p < .01), and more depressive symptoms (β = 0.03, p < .05). These associations remained statistically significant in multivariate analyses. Baseline PAD did not, however, influence well-being levels at two-year follow-up.
Discussion
Greater awareness of the potential for chronic vascular morbidity to disrupt the lives of older adults is needed to inform effective multidisciplinary support and interventions that help maintain the quality of life of those affected
Research on the influence of abrupt climate changes on the analysis of typical meteorological year in China
Get PDFThe conventional, typical meteorological year (TMY) based on continuous-year original meteorological records without considering abrupt climate changes (ACC) may not be able to represent a real “typical” climate properly. Consequently, building performance analyses and simulations based on TMY may be not accurate. Current research rarely tackles this issue in TMY development. This paper presents an innovative TMY development with the consideration of ACC in the original meteorological records. It is based on the Chinese standard weather database method (CSWD) with the meteorological records of six Chinese cities in different climate zones. It applies the Moving t-test method to identify and exclude ACC points and to refine the timescales for TMY development. It also depicts the development of individual typical meteorological months again with the ACC impact to improve the accuracy of TMY. The method has been verified in several building energy consumption and thermal comfort analyses. The results demonstrate that the analysis based on the new TMY climate datasets when considering ACC will end up with less energy consumption and better thermal performance compared to the analyses based on the conversion dataset without considering ACC. This experimental research will refine TMY development, and further improve building energy performance analysis and design
A systematic review of the factors - barriers and enablers - affecting the implementation of clinical commissioning policy to reduce health inequalities in the National Health Service (NHS), UK
Get PDFObjective
The aim of the present study is two-fold. First, it attempts to identify the barriers and enablers of implementing clinical commissioning policy. Second, it synthesises how these barriers and enablers affect the success of National Health Service (NHS) efforts to reduce health inequalities in the UK.
Methods
A systematic review was conducted. We searched large biomedical bibliographic databases, namely MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, Allied & Complementary Medicine, DH-DATA, Global Health and CINAHL for primary studies, conducted in the UK, that assessed the factors - barriers and enablers related to health inequalities, published from 2010 onwards and in English, and reported in accordance with Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement. We used Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) Critical Appraisal and Mixed Methods Appraisal tools to assess the methodological qualities, and synthesised by performing thematic analysis. Two reviewers independently screened the articles and extracted data.
Results
We included six primary studies (including a total of 1155 participants) in the final review. The studies reported two broad categories, under four separate themes: (1) the agenda of health inequalities has not been given priority; (2) there was very little evidence for reducing health inequalities through the clinical commissioning (CC) process; (3) CC was positively associated with the restructuring of NHS; and (4) CC brings better collaboration and engagement, which led to some improvements in health services access, utilisation and delivery at the local level.
Conclusion
This study provides useful factors – barriers and enablers – to implement and deliver clinical commissioning policy in improving health and well-being. These factors could be assessed in future to develop objective measures and interventions to establish the link between commissioning and health inequalities
An echo state network architecture based on quantum logic gate and its optimization
Get PDFQuantum neural network (QNN) is developed based on two classical theories of quantum computation and artificial neural networks. It has been proved that quantum computing is an important candidate for improving the performance of traditional neural networks. In this work, inspired by the QNN, the quantum computation method is combined with the echo state networks (ESNs), and a hybrid model namely quantum echo state network (QESN) is proposed. Firstly, the input training data is converted to quantum state, and the internal neurons in the dynamic reservoir of ESN are replaced by qubit neurons. Then in order to maintain the stability of QESN, the particle swarm optimization (PSO) is applied to the model for the parameter optimizations. The synthetic time series and real financial application datasets (Standard & Poor's 500 index and foreign exchange) are used for performance evaluations, where the ESN, autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMAX) are used as the benchmarks. Results show that the proposed PSO-QESN model achieves a good performance for the time series predication tasks and is better than the benchmarking algorithms. Thus, it is feasible to apply quantum computing to the ESN model, which provides a novel method to improve the ESN performance
Stuart Hall as a criminological theorist-activist
Get PDFWhat is the legacy of Stuart Hall for criminology, beyond just Policing the Crisis? In this article I highlight two other engagements by Hall in race and policing one in the 1980s through an independent inquiry, the other in the 1990s through a major public inquiry. Beyond bringing this work to light, this article shows how these engagements reveal Hall’s unique style of theorizing the concrete politics of the present through his stress upon conjunctures and context, and via the concept of articulation. Hall’s interventions in these two cases underscore an analytical and theoretical stance in public forums that made him more than a ‘scholar-activist’ but rather a ‘theorist-activist’ who drew on theory for strategic and ‘applied’ purposes. The ways in which he did this can, I suggest, point to different ways of ‘doing race’ in a critical criminology