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Autism Doesn’t End at 18 : Diverging Pathways, Yet Recurring Challenges in Autistic Adulthood
No full textAutism is a lifelong condition, yet it is often misunderstood as a childhood condition. In the UK, support for autistic adults remains limited, and misconceptions persist that autism prevents individuals from pursuing higher education, careers, relationships, or parenthood. Those who achieve such milestones are often described as having “mild” or “highfunctioning” autism, labels which obscure challenges. While some difficulties arise from inherent traits such as sensory processing differences and alexithymia, many stem from navigating a world not designed for autistic people. This thesis challenges deficit-based assumptions by examining autistic adulthood across two roles, students and parents, and demonstrates both fulfilment and recurring struggles. The thesis comprises a systematic literature review, an empirical research paper, and a critical reflection. The overarching aim was to qualitatively explore autistic adulthood, focusing on two diverging pathways with attention to recurring challenges across roles. The systematic literature review utilised thematic synthesis to explore the lived experiences of autistic parents. Twenty-three papers were included, representing 450 parents. Six overarching themes were identified: 1) From Late Diagnosis to Empowered Parenting, 2) Sensory Parenting, 3) The Invisible Load, 4) Seen but Misunderstood, 5) Overlooked or Over-Scrutinised, and 6) Thriving as an Autistic Parent. Findings highlighted systemic barriers and the resilience and adaptability of autistic parents. The research paper examined autistic university students’ experiences of mental health difficulties, analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Six interviews identified four themes: 1) Intertwined Stressors Inside and Outside University, 2) Belonging, Masking, and the Costs of Connection, 3) The Breaking Point, and 4) Finding Safety in Connection. These findings emphasised the need for more responsive, neurodiversity-affirming approaches in higher education. The critical reflection addresses methodological and ethical issues, limitations, and implications. Reflexivity is integrated throughout, highlighting the author’s positionality as an autistic researcher and the influence of Critical Autism Studies
What is good care, and who is it good for? : A multimodal critical discourse analysis of UK care home websites
No full textIntroducing second language assessment. By Gary J. Ockey. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2025, 266 pp., GBP27.99 (digital), ISBN 9781009067461. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009067461
Get PDFAdministrative absorption of technology : The adoption of virtual production (VP) technologies in China’s state-owned museums
No full textThis study investigates the adoption of virtual production (VP) technologies in state-owned museums in China through the framework of new institutionalism organizational theory. By analyzing interviews with 19 practitioners from these museums, the study reveals that under China’s government-led cultural governance, the adoption of VP technologies exhibits a distinct characteristic of administrative absorption of technology. Within the institutional context of government-initiated publicization, commercialization, and digitalization, state-owned museums view VP technologies as crucial tools for showcasing technological innovation and securing governmental support and resources due to their high visibility, replicability, and market appeal. Throughout the adoption process, museums, technology companies, and audiences increasingly align their actions with governmental intentions and preferences, reflecting the administrative logic. This administrative absorption has led to a new ‘support-cooperation’ relationship in China’s museum sector in the digital age, and a highly centralized cooperative cultural governance model. This study provides an institutional perspective and non-Western experience on VP technology adoption for cultural governance, highlighting the complex interactions among technology, culture, government, and audiences within the Chinese context
Mid-infrared InAs/InP quantum-dot lasers
Get PDFMid-infrared semiconductor lasers operating in the 2.0–5.0 μm spectral range play an important role for various applications, including trace-gas detection, biomedical analysis, and free-space optical communication. InP-based quantum-well (QW) and quantum-dash (Qdash) lasers are promising alternatives to conventional GaSb-based QW lasers because of their lower cost and mature fabrication infrastructure. However, they suffer from high threshold current density (Jth) and limited operation temperatures. InAs/InP quantum-dot (QD) lasers theoretically offer lower Jth owing to their three-dimensional carrier confinement. Nevertheless, achieving high-density, uniform InAs/InP QDs with sufficient gain for lasing over 2 μm remains a major challenge. Here, we report the first demonstration of mid-infrared InAs/InP QD lasers emitting beyond 2 μm. Five-stack InAs/In0.532Ga0.468As/InP QDs grown by molecular-beam epitaxy exhibit room-temperature photoluminescence at 2.04 μm. Edge-emitting lasers achieve lasing at 2.018 μm with a low Jth of 589 A cm−2 and a maximum operation temperature of 50 °C. Notably, the Jth per layer (118 A cm−2) is the lowest ever reported for room-temperature InP-based mid-infrared lasers, outperforming QW/Qdash counterparts. These results pave the way for a new class of low-cost, high-performance mid-infrared light sources using InAs/InP QDs, marking a notable step forward in the development of mid-infrared semiconductor lasers
The EU’s promotion of transitional justice : External and internal dimensions of a patchwork of policies
Get PDFThis article presents a qualitative analysis of the EU’s approaches to human rights violations in selected states’ ‘troubled pasts’, employing insights from and critiques of the interdisciplinary field of ‘transitional justice’. By viewing the EU’s approaches to troubled pasts through the lens of transitional justice it is possible to trace a complex web of external and internal policies that have been invoked to address them. Whilst in the Common Foreign and Security Policy there is express engagement with the notion of transitional justice, its engagement with its own Member States’ troubled pasts is more obscure, involving creative use of its ‘competences’ on citizenship to pursue policies of ‘remembrance’ as well as contestation over symbolic measures by the European Parliament. That these policy areas would be invoked in the way that they have been is not self-evident, and so by employing a comprehensive understanding of the EU’s complex institutional structure, the article explains both how they were identified and, then, the range of measures adopted through them. This then facilitates a novel and extensive appraisal of the EU’s measures to address the selected states’ troubled pasts through its patchwork of transitional justice interventions
Strontium-induced phase transition and dielectric relaxation in PZT-AlSb ceramics
No full textLead zirconate titanate (PZT) ceramics remain central to high-performance piezoelectric and dielectric technologies. In this work, (Pb1-xSrx[(Zr0.52Ti0.43)(Al0.5Sb0.5)0.05]O3 (PZT-SAS) ceramics with SrO substitution levels x = 0.02, 0.04, 0.06, and 0.08 were synthesized via the solid-state reaction route to investigate the structural, microstructural, and dielectric responses arising from coupled Sr2+, Al3+/Sb5+ amphoteric co-doping. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis confirmed mixed tetragonal–rhombohedral phase coexistence across all compositions. Deconvolution of the (002)T/(200)T/(202)R reflections in the 42°–47° range showed systematic evolution of phase fractions, where the tetragonal content increased from ∼38 % at x = 0.02–∼57 % at x = 0.08. Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectra exhibited a dominant M − O vibrational band at 530.5 cm−1, characteristic of BO6 octahedral bonding in perovskites. Microstructural analysis revealed significant grain coarsening with Sr addition: average grain size increased from ∼1.8 μm (x = 0.02) to ∼4.6 μm (x = 0.08), accompanied by improved densification, where the bulk density rose from 5.26 g/cm3 to 6.12 g/cm3. Impedance spectroscopy showed typical NTCR behavior, with decreasing Z′ and Z″ across 600–700 K, and Nyquist plots exhibited single depressed semicircles indicative of non-Debye relaxation dominated by grain and grain-boundary contributions. Increasing Sr content reduced grain-boundary resistance and shifted relaxation peaks toward higher frequencies. AC conductivity followed Jonscher's power law, showing a low-frequency σdc plateau and a high-frequency dispersion region attributed to hopping conduction of localized charge carriers. These findings demonstrate that Sr/PZT-SAS ceramics offer a promising pathway for developing high-performance dielectric materials with controlled phase composition, low loss, and improved conductivity behavior
Health inequalities in risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection in England’s second wave : population-based cross-sectional analysis from the REACT-1 study
No full textObjectives The rapid spread of SARS-CoV-2 infection caused high levels of hospitalisation and deaths in late 2020 and early 2021 during the second wave in England. COVID-19 disease during this period was associated with marked health inequalities across ethnic and sociodemographic subgroups. In this paper, we aim to investigate and quantify inequalities in the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection across ethnic and sociodemographic subgroups during a key period before widespread vaccination, thereby identifying the populations that bore a disproportionate burden of risk. Methods We analysed risk factors for test-positivity for SARS-CoV-2, based on self-administered throat and nose swabs in the community during rounds 5–10 of the REal-time Assessment of Community Transmission-1 (REACT-1) study between 18 September 2020 and 30 March 2021. Results Compared with the White ethnicity, people of Asian and the Black ethnicity had a higher risk of infection during rounds 5–10, with odds of 1.45 (1.27, 1.66) and 1.34 (1.11, 1.63), respectively, adjusted for demographic factors including age, sex, region, key work status, ethnicity and deprivation. Among ethnic subgroups, the highest and the second-highest odds were found in Bangladeshi and Pakistani participants at 3.28 (2.24, 4.80) and 2.12 (1.70, 2.64), respectively, when compared with the White British participants. People in larger (compared with smaller) households had higher odds of infection. Healthcare workers with direct patient contact and care home workers showed higher odds of infection compared with other essential/key workers. Additionally, the odds of infection among participants in public-facing activities or settings were greater than among those not working in those activities or settings. Conclusion Our findings highlight the differences in the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection in a global north population during a period when the risk of infection was high, and there were substantial levels of social mixing. Planning for future waves of severe respiratory pathogens should include policies to reduce inequality in the risk of infection by ethnicity, household size and occupational activity in order to reduce inequality in disease
