11237 research outputs found
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Fragmentation to the Wholeness
No full textAlgorithmic design techniques based on field effects and symmetry could turn digital morphogenesis into a deeper process and can be used as a tool to create organized complexity while transforming it into wholeness</p
Restoring the Fundamental Values to Face the Critical Issues of Contemporary Architecture. The Development of a Method.
No full textThe doctoral research examines why contemporary Architecture struggles to convey its values and proposes a method to restore fundamentals by conceiving Space and Form in communion with Art and History</p
Bonding with bump: interoceptive sensibility moderates the relationship between pregnancy body satisfaction and antenatal attachment.
No full textProblem: There is limited understanding and contradictory results regarding the contribution of the pregnant bodily experience to antenatal attachment. Background: Antenatal attachment is an important aspect of pregnancy, which has been linked with positive maternal and infant outcomes. Given the profound physical process of pregnancy, it is likely that bodily experience is implicated in antenatal attachment, with research supporting the involvement of pregnancy body (dis) satisfaction. However, previous research reveals conflicting results and has only focused on exteroceptive bodily experience (appearance) rather than internal physiological sensations (interoception). Aim: To examine the relative contributions of both external and internal bodily experience in antenatal attachment.Methods: This cross-sectional study collected online survey data from 159 pregnant participants with measures capturing interoceptive sensibility (subjective experience of interoception), pregnancy body dissatisfaction and antenatal attachment. Findings: We replicated previous findings that pregnancy body dissatisfaction is related to antenatal attachment. However, the relationship between pregnancy body dissatisfaction and antenatal attachment was moderated by worry about interoceptive signals. The interoceptive construct of body trust was most strongly associated with antenatal attachment. Discussion: The results suggest that interoception is important for antenatal attachment, particularly feelings of body trust. Moreover, for individuals who were less worried about bodily sensations, high levels of body dissatisfaction were associated with low attachment scores, whilst for those who were more concerned about these sensations, the relationship between body dissatisfaction and antenatal attachment was mitigated. Conclusion: The results suggest that focusing on internal sensations may be a protective strategy against pregnancy body dissatisfaction to strengthen maternal bonds.</p
Incentivised physical activity intervention promoting daily steps among university employees in the workplace through a team-based competition
No full textIntroduction: The benefits of walking on health and well-being is well established and regarded as the most accessible form of physical activity (PA) that most individuals can incorporate into their lives. Despite the benefits, the impact of a competitive walking intervention combined with a prize incentive in the workplace is yet to be established. The aim of this intervention was to promote PA among university employees through teams-based competition with a prize incentive targeted towards the recommended 10,000 steps per day.Methods: A total of 49 employees participated and formed eight departmental teams ranging from Senior Admin management, Educational & Social work, Nursing & Midwifery, Sport & Exercise, Health Sciences, Admin Assistant, Library, and IT to compete in a walking intervention. Each team was handed an ActiGraph wGT3X-BT from Monday to Friday to record their walking steps. Steps. Post intervention participants completed an open-ended survey to provide their views about the intervention.Results: The ActiGraph findings determined that steps increased by 4,799 per day from daily baseline of 5,959 to 10,758 throughout this intervention. The themes from qualitative data showed that the prize incentive and competitive nature of this intervention has motivated staff to walk more, changed their behaviour, enjoyed the team-based competition, and improved perceived productivity in the workplace.Discussion and conclusion: This intervention increased employees’ daily steps by 4,799 and met the 10,000 steps guideline. The ‘Health Sciences’ team recorded the highest steps 531,342 followed by the ‘Education and Social Work’ accumulating 498,045 steps throughout this intervention. This intervention with prize incentive demonstrated a positive impact on employees personal and work-based outcomes as well as contributed to the workplace PA, health, and wellbeing literature, and more specifically, to the scarce research focused on university settings.</p
Envisioning and doing the energy transition: an investigation of sociotechnical imaginaries and low-carbon policy work in the city of Valencia, Spain
No full textGlobal efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change rely in part on effective urban plans towards decarbonisation. This type of local low-carbon energy transition covers a crucial role in the definition of municipal policy strategies. Therefore, the study of this requires focusing on the way the future of energy production, distribution and consumption is imagined and fostered at the institutional policy level.In this context, the overarching aim of my thesis is to investigate how low-carbon energy transition policy work takes place at the municipal level by focusing on three specific objectives, namely: 1) whether it is possible to identify a specific municipal energy transition sociotechnical imaginary, 2) the investigation of how policy work practices are reproduced through the concept of coalition of carriers, 3) the investigation of how policy workers (carriers) adhere to municipal energy transition sociotechnical imaginaries through the concept of teleoaffective formations. Doing so, I made use of qualitative methods such as: collation of publicly available policy documents, semi-structured interviews of policy workers, together with virtual focused participant observation which took place during my on-field data collection in Valencia (Spain).From a theoretical perspective, I made use of two theoretical approaches: sociotechnical imaginaries (SI) and social practice theories (SPT). The concept of sociotechnical imaginaries is inherently connected with the political imagination of municipal policies with regards to energy transition. On the other hand, I directly refer to SPT, specifically with regards to the concepts of coalitions of carriers for the investigation of the reproduction of policy work practice, and teleoaffective formations in an attempt to contribute bridging the two mentioned theoretical approaches.Findings suggest the existence of a municipal energy transition sociotechnical imaginary in Valencia (SVm) which includes ideas of energy democracy and right to energy among others. Moreover, this sociotechnical imaginary has evolved throughout the last decade towards a wider consideration of social factors in the energy transition process.The identified imaginary is generally strongly embedded by those policy workers who make part of the identified coalition of carriers (CVm). This coalition of carriers is fostered and kept together by several factors that include a favourable political context and a functional institutional reconfiguration. On the other hand, the coalition could be weakened by other political and organisational factors.The policy workers’ adherence to specific elements of SVm is investigated through the identification of a municipal teleoaffective formation functioning for policy work practices at the municipal level (TVm). In this sense, policy workers as members of the coalition of carriers, showed a general alignment with the identified sociotechnical imaginaries even if some forms of scepticism emerged, for example regarding the implementation of specific related policy measures.</p
Electronic vape fluid activates the pulmonary endothelium and disrupts vascular integrity in vitro through an ARF6-dependent pathway
No full textThe use of e-cigarettes or vapes is increasingly popular amongst a range of different demographics however the research in this area is surprisingly sparse. Clinical reports of e-cigarette- or vaping use-associated lung injury (EVALI) and vascular disruption, in both nicotine-containing and nicotine-free e-cigarette smokers, prompts the need for further research with a focus on the pulmonary endothelium. Using a common brand of e-cigarette (eVape) and an in vitro model of the human lung microvasculature, we investigated the effect of nicotine-free eVape fluid on pulmonary endothelial barrier integrity, oxidative stress and inflammation profile. Findings demonstrate reactive oxygen species-dependent breakdown of the pulmonary endothelium and release of inflammatory cytokines. These phenotypic changes, following exposure to nicotine-free eVape fluid, were accompanied by dysregulation of a number of adheren junctions-related genes of which ARF6 was most abundantly overexpressed. Further investigation of ARF6 identified it as a key regulator in eVape-induced barrier disruption and ROS accumulation. This study demonstrates, for the first time, the barrier disruptive effect of nicotine-free e-cigarette fluid on the pulmonary microvasculature and the ARF6 and ROS-dependent molecular mechanisms underlying this damage. Whilst these studies focus on a human in vitro model of the pulmonary microvasculature, the results support clinical case studies on EVALI and demonstrate a need for further investigation of the impact of nicotine-free e-cigarettes on the lung.</p
Return, Belong, Prosper
No full textDisplaced from a culture that they can't return to and frustrated with the one they're in, three military veterans imagine, paint and make real, a new world of kindness and compassion for fellow veterans, and their community.</p
The breath of life: a phenomenological investigation into the origins of cross-species empathy
No full textThis thesis investigates the origins of cross-species empathy by rethinking the connection between humans and other animals as the ontological ground that sustains the possibility of empathy. Current philosophical debates give insight into human and animal empathy, and cognitive sciences provide evidence of a common neural basis. However, their area of interest is restricted to specific aspects of the phenomenon and they both fail to answer the question of the nature of empathy. This work seeks to address the foundational premises of empathy by starting with the phenomenon of cross-species empathy. Only by understanding the ontological ground that accounts for the connection between species can we understand the nature of empathy and all the multiple aspects of its occurrences. This research combines the archaic conceptions of the early Greeks with the modern reflections of Husserl and Merleau-Ponty. The Homeric conception of the soul as a psychophysical force shared by humans and animals and Empedocles’ common origin of human and animal life show that the view of the early Greeks on humans and animals assumed equality based on a shared perceptual world; perception and communication were related to the activity of the soul. A common perceptual experience is also claimed by Husserl and Merleau-Ponty in their thoughts on empathy. Husserl lays the foundation of an animal ontology and introduces the role of corporeity within communication. Merleau-Ponty claims the intertwining of animality-humanity within the same perceived world and associates perception with communication. Both the ancients and the moderns relate the expression and recognition of emotions to perception and communication. This thesis argues that the connection between humans and animals can be traced back to a shared ontological dimension of perception that emerges through the bodily communication of emotions. Cross-species empathy is thus understood as a pre-reflective emotional communication that humans and animals share.</p
Networked image-based sexual abuse: a conceptual model
No full textThroughout the world women are subjected to violence owing to their gender (World Health Organization, 2021). The growth of the internet, the diffusion of social media, and the formation of virtual communities have presented new opportunities for the infliction of sexual harms (Henry & Powell, 2015). Despite the recent interest in image-based sexual abuse, the novelty of this phenomenon implies that some aspects may remain unknown. To date, much of the research has judiciously focussed on victimisation, leading to the implementation of new laws prohibiting the public dissemination of sexual material. While the current literature primarily frames image-based sexual abuse as an individual act, the present study explores the prospect of collective involvement. Prompted by the almost instant disappearance of image-sharing networks from the surface web following the introduction of new legislation, the current study examines image-based sexual abuse from a networked perspective. Using conceptual analysis, image-based sexual abuse is re-examined by definition, consequently altering the potential scope for this activity in relation to adult women. Guided by Schwartz & DeKeseredy’s (1997) model of Male Peer Support, and giving consideration to the advancements in technology that have transformed men’s opportunities for socialisation; the manosphere is presented as a potential arena for the formation of sub-communities in which the circulation of sexual material takes place. The term networked image-based sexual abuse is introduced to describe a specific set of conditions namely, the inclusion of dossiers, the existence of a closed community, and sexually motivated group membership, that encompass non-consensual sexual material. Findings provide the basis for a conceptual model illustrating the implications for networked image-based sexual abuse by acknowledging doxing as third-party involvement and positioning sexual images as a component of a wider exploitational process.</p
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