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Using external stimuli to design responsive supramolecular systems with predictable properties
Get PDFSupramolecular gels formed by the self-assembly of peptide-based LMWG are a class of soft materials that have attracted significant interest for a vast range of applications. Due to the non-covalent nature of the interactions underpinning the gel networks, these materials can exhibit stimuli-responsive behaviour to external triggers. By introducing this aspect in their design, a wide variety of new materials can be accessed with pre-determined properties with a high level of temporal and spatial control. In this Thesis, we describe how to harness external stimuli to induce predictable and reversible changes in supramolecular systems, achieving materials with desirable properties for different potential applications.
First, we show a dipeptide-based LMWG system undergoing pre-programmable gel-to-sol-to-gel transitions obtained by means of a pH cycle. We investigate the effect of mechanical stimuli applied during rheological measurements on the properties of these evolving materials, highlighting how varying parameters of strain and frequency can be used to obtain a wide range of gels with different properties starting from the same material. Building on these results, we then design a new system undergoing gel-to-sol-to-gel transitions capable of aligning under unidirectional shear in the solution phase. Using a novel combined technique of rheology, polarised light imaging and SAXS, we show the potential of this system to prepare gels with aligned domains using mechanical stimuli. We further highlight the versatility of this approach by inducing alignment using a magnetic field.
We then describe the use of a non-invasive light trigger to design a multicomponent system based on a LMWG and a photoacid molecule capable of switching pH under irradiation. We show how this approach yields a light-responsive system that reproducibly changes viscosity under irradiation. Using a variety of combined in situ techniques (rheology, NMR and SAXS), we elucidate the way these changes occur on a variety of length scales. We finally show how this stimuli-responsive system can be used to stop flow at specific locations using light and discuss potential applications.
Finally, we focus on the design of peptide-based gels for applications in drug storage and release by taking advantage of their unique response to mechanical stimulus. By using rheology, SAXS and release tests we show how gel mechanical properties, network morphology and choice of trigger can affect the ability of these systems to store and successfully release a cargo molecule. Based on this, we then establish a novel method to release biologics using a simple mechanical stimulus. Lastly, we test the stability of these systems under various real-world conditions for future applications in drug delivery
AI enable wireless sensing for remote speech recognition
Get PDFContactless health monitoring is becoming an area of significant attention, especially after the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. With the development of RF sensing technology, its application prospects in healthcare have garnered significant attention. Radio Frequency (RF) sensing techniques such as ultra-wideband (UWB) radar and Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) radar are used in many contactless monitoring scenarios. Compared to contact-based health monitoring methods, RF sensing technology offers users a non-intrusive experience, which enhances patients’ quality of life. Additionally, when compared to traditional non-contact monitoring technologies like imaging, RF sensing provides superior privacy protection, which effectively addresses users’ concerns. Artificial intelligence technology is also advancing rapidly and has gained significant attention due to its outstanding performance across various application scenarios. The integration of artificial intelligence with RF sensing technology can offer excellent and convenient solutions for future healthcare. This thesis proposed a multimodal speech recognition system of UWB radar data, acoustic information and visual information. The proposed multimodal approach achieves 96.89% accuracy in the word classification task, which indicates the performance improvement of the incorporation of the UWB for the multimodal system compared to the single-modal system
Exploring global citizenship development: from global, to local, to the self
Get PDFGlobal citizenship (GC) has long been promoted as an educational panacea for a plethora of global crises – from environmental degradation to poverty and war. While garnering popularity, GC has simultaneously evolved into a conceptually ambiguous and contentious concept from the perspectives of both advocates and critics. Further, global citizenship education’s (GCE) historical overemphasis on international mobility pedagogies is considered problematic because such programmes are cost prohibitive and findings from studies attempting to measure the efficacy of such programmes have been mixed. The current study sought to redress the GCE gap between educational aspirations and observed manifestations by investigating GC from the perspectives of diverse GC actors. Under an interpretivist lens, and via an exploratory sequential mixed-methods approach, this study uncovered critical methodological blind spots in prior GC research. The triangulation of quantitative and qualitative data from a scoping audit, survey questionnaire and life-history interviews, enabled the untangling of dominant (idealised and abstracted) conceptions of how GC ought to be from how it is actually embodied (in practice) through observable attitudes, values and behaviours (AVBs). The ‘Prevalence of Ambivalence’ theme that emerged from a reflexive thematic analysis (rTA) confirmed that it is problematic to assume that individuals who work in the field of GC identify as global citizens, embody GC or are even knowledgeable about it. By making such presumptions, I argue, previous studies have stripped research participants of their personal agency and exacerbated the GCE gap by conflating injunctive and descriptive norms. Contrast analysis of self-identifying and nonidentifying global citizen perspectives revealed that key GC actors are not necessarily practising what they are preaching in that not one interviewee appeared to (or claimed to) embody every dimension of GC currently promoted by international organisations (e.g., UNESCO, PISA and Oxfam).
The unbounded and longitudinal aspects of the life-history interviews additionally revealed that critical transformative experiences were mainly associated with what would appear to be seemingly mundane everyday interactions or occurrences. By illuminating successful, locally contexualised pathways to global engagement and global citizenship identification (GCID), which were not predicated upon international mobility experiences, this study has identified more readily accessible roadmaps to GC for educators than proffered by prior literature. Perhaps the most notable discovery this study highlights, however, is potential backlash effects of an ‘Enlightened’ GCID which confound the previously purported relationship between GC identification and embodiment. From this study, it appears that GCID is neither necessary nor sufficient to engender GC AVBs. Based on findings from this study, I argue that preoccupations with fostering global superordinate identities may be counterproductive. This study has provided evidence that GC should be conceptualised in terms of three empirically distinct domains of enactment: identification, embodiment and promotion. The aforementioned findings have significant implications for GC policymakers, researchers and practitioners as well as aspiring global citizens. There appears to exist the propensity for a global citizenship that emanates from self-interest rather than altruism and provides scope for essentially any individual to help make the world a better place in their own capacities and their own contexts
Encountering windows and mirrors in the diaspora: using Young Adult literature to explore the stories and counterstories of Asian American and British ESEA young people
Get PDFHistorically, stories have often been used to marginalize and misrepresent the Other and to disseminate stereotypes in society (Said, 2003; Adichie, 2009; Ramdarshan Bold, 2019a). This is particularly harmful for BIPOC young people who rarely see themselves represented in stories, as the lack of representation creates a version of reality which excludes them entirely (Saha, 2021). Thus, it is crucial for stories to include both ‘windows’ and ‘mirrors’ which can truthfully capture the complexity and diversity of the world in which we live (Bishop, 1990). Young Adult literature can provide some of these necessary ‘windows’ and ‘mirrors,’ especially for young people who are seeking stories that are relevant, relatable, and can provide counterstories that work against the deficit messages of society (Alsup, 2003; Cart, 2008; Hughes-Hassell, 2013; Ramdarshan Bold and Phillips, 2019).
However, the field of YA is still lacking when it comes to nuanced representation, especially regarding Asian American and British ESEA (East and Southeast Asian) stories. British ESEA stories are particularly invisible, even when compared to Asian American stories, with British Chinese stories making up only 0.3% of children’s fiction in 2020 and 2021 (Centre for Literacy in Primary Education, 2021, 2022). This is partly due to the historical differences between Asian American and British ESEA communities, as the Asian American community has a far longer tradition of community-building, political organising, and panethnic coalitions (Benton and Gomez, 2008; Lee, 2015). The impact of these historical divergences can not only be seen in YA but also in Asian American and British ESEA young people themselves, especially in their perceptions of their own diasporic, hybrid identities and the knowledge (or lack thereof) of their communal histories in the US and the UK.
This thesis sits at the centre of these theoretical threads, pulling them together in the form of an asynchronous, online book club for Asian American and British ESEA young people where they discussed representative YA from the US and the UK. Several insights were generated over the course of the book club, as participants wrestled with difficult topics such as intergenerational and intercultural family relationships, feelings of ‘identity flux,’ ESEA stereotypes, the insidious ‘single story,’ and whether it is possible to create a better world. There were also striking differences between the US and the UK participants that became clear, which I attempted to contextualise within the disparate histories of each community. In the end, several important findings emerged from this study regarding the importance of representation (and the harm of misrepresentation) across the diaspora, as well as the power of YA to create a space for young people to explore and understand their identities and the identities of others.
It is crucial to note that this book club did not reveal any absolute truths about Asian American and British ESEA young people; rather, it only provided a safe space for a multiplicity of opinions, identities, and stories to be honestly discussed and exchanged. Ultimately, this study has highlighted the need for more such spaces for Asian American and British ESEA young people, where they can negotiate their hybrid identities and have the chance to define themselves
Cultural variances of representing gender in League of Legends’ English (UK) to Chinese (mainland China and Taiwan) game translations
No full textAbstract not currently available
The Party leads: Chinese air pollution as complex system
Get PDFThis research offers a complex systems framework for understanding the local national dynamics of Chinese governance, with reference to rapid improvements in Chinese air quality over the period 2008-2018. There are a number of competing explanations for the historically poor implementation of air quality laws and policies: a mismatch between local economic incentives and air quality laws; low ranking environmental bureaucracies are overpowered by other interests; environmental projects are unlikely to lead to cadre promotions; polluting SOEs are able to avoid or easily pay off environmental fines. Empirical data was collected from satellite and official pollution data, government documents and a case study of a winter heating SOE. Analysis showed that pollution abatement was caused by local government’s significant capital investment in upgrading winter heating technologies. Funding in turn was caused by greater political emphasis on air quality by central government. It is hypothesised that the core governance mechanism explaining differences in environmental implementation consists of the simple parameter financial resources and a complex parameter, policy emphasis. Computational models of winter heating governance support this hypothesis, producing an approximate measure of changing environmental emphasis over time. Overall, the proposed governance framework remains hierarchical, but local governments exercise varying degrees of policy-specific independence. This study thus highlights the dynamic roles of both decentralisation and authoritarian environmentalism in shaping Chinese environmental governance outcomes
Environmental literacies for regenerative and sustainable futures: indigenous and traditional perspectives
Get PDFEducation for Sustainability (EfS) as practiced within formal higher education institutions (HEIs), colleges and schools is seldom evidenced to engage deeply with indigenous and traditional environmental literacies (ITELs) (Blenkinsop et al., 2017; Van Poeck and Vandenabeele, 2012). Indigenous refers to environmental literacies originating from indigenous knowledge systems and traditional to those developed through long standing faith, spiritual, and/or cultural traditions. This research inquiry explores and investigates the use of ITELs for EfS and regeneration in non-formal educational contexts in Scotland and Malawi.
Foregrounding ITELs, this post-qualitative inquiry utilises a decolonial and pluriversal approach that decentres universalised, dualist, Euro-Western narratives of humans and nature as separate entities (Vásquez-Fernández and Ahenakew, 2020). Contributing to the industrial revolution, these narratives have globally propagated capitalist, materialist, notions of socio-economic development at the cost of the natural environment (Stein, 2019). This research inquiry, therefore, centres historically marginalised knowledge systems, philosophies, and literacies specifically as they relate to human-nature relationality to respond to contemporary sustainability challenges.
The decolonial and pluriversal approach informs the theoretical framework for the study that recognises plural ways of knowing and being and brings together three distinct but intertwining theoretical spaces from across geographies and time. The framework draws from: ecopedgagogy as it has developed from the theory and practice of critical pedagogy, originating from the work of Brazilian philosopher Paulo Freire (Kahn, 2010); deep ecology and the concepts behind the long-range deep ecology movement as envisioned by Norwegian philosopher and activist Arne Naess (Naess, 1986); and traditional and contemporary philosophies of Islamic Environmentalism (IE) as they relate to human-nature relationality (Gade, 2019; Nasr, 1987). These three spaces create the decolonial and pluriversal theoretical lens for the study intertwining modern educational theory with faith-based paradigms, bridging “Eastern” and “Western” thought and practice. The theoretical lens enables the creation of educational spaces that allow for a diversity of individuals and plurality of knowledges to come together and create effective responses to the environmental crisis. It also informs the participatory and creative methodologies used for the data generation activities of the study.
I designed a series of themed workshops to revive, apply, and celebrate ITELs and facilitated them with student and community participants at a HEI and community organisation in Scotland, including a condensed workshop with members of the Sustainable Futures Global Network (a social enterprise with a focus on creating ethical, equitable, partnerships for sustainability research and practice) in Malawi. I used a range of participatory methods including reflective discussions, problem solving with Ketso, Sharing Circles, embodied expressions, and arts-based inquiry to generate multimodal data.
My findings demonstrate that the use of ITELs for EfS promoted holistic material and spiritual conceptions of human-nature relationality, including reflections on articulation of interconnectedness, enabling participants to revive this core ITEL literacy. The findings also show that using an ITEL approach to problem solve for contemporary sustainability challenges enabled the articulation of strong resistance to environmentally destructive norms, greater understanding of the “other”, and expressions of hopeful resilience. Further, using an ITEL focused ecopedagogy enabled the acknowledgement and honouring of each other’s diversity, allowing us to celebrate each other and the plurality of knowledges and literacies we brought to the workshop spaces
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