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Exploring the affordances of artificial intelligence for consumer brand engagement in the UAE sports and fitness industry
No full textThis research explores the effects of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on consumer brand engagement in the sports and fitness industry in United Arab Emirates (UAE). The thesis examines how AI enables personalized experiences, predictive analytics, and advanced customer service, all of which can transform consumer perspectives, emotional attachments, and brand loyalty. Using affordance and social influence theory, the study offers a sound theoretical lens through which to understand the complex interrelationship between AI technologies and consumer behaviour.The main goal of this study is to analyse how AI shapes consumer brand engagement across three stages: initial engagement, continued interaction and outcomes and consolidation. This encompasses an extensive analysis of the impact of AI-driven personalization on consumer perceptions and emotional brand affinity, how AI is reshaping customer service, and its correlation with customer satisfaction and loyalty. The study also considers how all of these inextricably related parameters shape brand engagement.The ontological stance taken is relativist, while a subjectivist epistemological stance is adopted. This reflects an interpretivist philosophical perspective. The study is thus shaped by explorative research with an inductive underpinning. Qualitative research method, comprising semi-structured interviews and focus groups were applied to understand the impact of AI on consumer brand engagement within the UAE sports and fitness sector. Purposive sampling was used across two laboratories: Consumers (n = 18) and Professionals (n = 10). A single instrumental case design was adopted, translating in-depth knowledge into multiple viewpoints and behaviours related to the context of AI technologies.Thematic analysis was employed to identify, analyse, and report patterns within the data, allowing for nuanced insights into the ways that AI shapes consumer interactions and brand relationships. The study illuminates how AI directly personalizes consumer interactions and drives greater emotional bonding and loyalty. As an aspect of customer service, AI is both responsive and adaptive, and is effective for managing consumer expectations. It often exceeds what customers perceive as acceptable service levels. This, in turn, helps build trust and satisfaction.As AI-powered interactions enhance trust and relational dynamics, they contribute to long-term consumer loyalty and advocacy. The research suggests that sports and fitness brands embrace AI platforms that focus on personalization, emotional connection and cultural relevance to foster more meaningful brand-consumer relationships. Leaders need to deploy flexible AI models, ethical data policies and mechanisms around transparency to build trust and loyalty. AI could also play a role in developing community courting experiences that resonate with local standards. The study makes contributions to theory by combining affordance and social influence frameworks to shed light on the various implications for the influence of AI on brand perception. Future research should examine how these findings may be generalized to other industries and cultures, and could explore the ethical, psychological, and temporal facets of AI engagement. Such research could expand upon the theoretical and practical applications introduced here.</p
Positive Body Image and Migration: A Comparison of Body Appreciation in British and Israeli Immigrants and Natives
No full textPrevious research suggests migration may negatively affect body image, but studies have focused only on non-Western to Western migration. This study examined body appreciation among immigrant and native women in the UK and Israel using the Body Appreciation Scale-2 (BAS-2). Strict invariance of the BAS-2 was supported, enabling between-group comparisons. British immigrants to Israel reported significantly lower body appreciation than all other groups, while Israeli immigrants to the UK showed no significant differences compared to natives. These findings indicate that immigration’s impact on body appreciation depends on context. The cross-sectional design limits insights into specific migration-related factors.</p
The pathophysiology of Peyronie's disease following radical prostatectomy
No full textBackground: Peyronie’s disease (PD) is defined as a fibrotic disease of the penis resulting in plaque formation and abnormal penile curvature. In the general population the incidence of PD is 0.7-8.9%, however, this increases to 16% after radical prostatectomy (RP). Tissue hypoxia has been suggested as a causative factor in development of PD after RP. The aim: to confirm the incidence of PD after RP seen in our hospital and to investigate whether hypoxia is involved in the development of the plaque.Methods: A retrospective and a prospective audit collected demographics, risk factors, assessed erectile function and PD before and after RP. A prospective study measured erectile function using nocturnal penile tumescence (NPT), penile fibrosis using ultrasound and tissue oxygen using penile oximetry before and after RP.Results: New plaque formation was observed 16.8% and 75.5% of patients in retrospective (n=107) and prospective (n=678) audits respectively. In the prospective study, 100% of the participants (n=24) developed new plaque and tissue hypoxia was evident in all of them.Conclusion: While the retrospective audit corroborates the findings of previous studies of 15.9% new PD diagnoses after RP, the prospective audit suggests that 75.5% of patients develop a palpable plaque suggesting that the incidence of PD is higher than previous estimates. The prospective study demonstrated that all patients developed a plaque on imaging suggestively due to hypoxia. This is the first study to demonstrate a significant decrease in penile tissue oxygen levels after RP which may be a causative factor in development of PD post-RP.</p
Express: Survival Processing Leads To Social Information Hoarding
No full textIn shared tasks carried out with a partner, people often encode information related to their partner even when it’s irrelevant for themselves. This social encoding may be especially adaptive in fitness relevant situations, e.g. when survival is at stake. In two experiments we asked whether this joint encoding effect would be enhanced when the joint task was a survival related task. In experiment 1, using a survival processing paradigm combined with a joint encoding task, 47 university participants imagined themselves in either a survival or a moving scenario, alone or in dyads with a confederate. The participants and confederates rated the usefulness of words from different categories for their assigned scenario. A surprise recall test showed that participants in both groups recalled more items from their partner's category than items from the unassigned category. Crucially, this joint memory effect was larger in the survival group, suggesting that participants had superior encoding of the partner’s information in the survival scenario. In a second experiment, we replicated this finding with a different sample of 50 university students and a confederate. These findings point to a ‘social information hoarding’ strategy, where participants encoded as many items from their partner's category as those of their own when in a survival-related situation. The cognitive mechanisms underpinning such a social information hoarding strategy requires further investigation .</p
Extracellular vesicles from adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells promote colony formation ability and EMT of corneal limbal epithelial cells
No full textCorneal diseases are a leading cause of visual impairment, and their treatment remains challenging. Corneal epithelial stem cells exist in the limbus, the peripheral region of the cornea, and play an important role in corneal regeneration. Here, we evaluated the effects of extracellular vesicles from human adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (AdMSC-EVs) on limbal epithelial cells (LECs). Colony formation assays showed that the colony-forming efficiency of LECs significantly increased in the presence of AdMSC-EVs. We next demonstrated that AdMSC-EVs accelerated the migration of LECs in a scratch assay, whereas the proliferation of LECs was decreased by AdMSC-EVs in the cell proliferation assay. RNA sequencing analysis of LECs indicated that AdMSC-EVs maintained their stem cell properties and improved epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Furthermore, after identifying the six most abundant microRNAs (miRNAs) in AdMSC-EVs, LEC transfection with miRNA mimics indicated that miR-25, miR-191, and miR-335 were the most probable miRNA factors within AdMSC-EVs at improving colony formation ability and EMT. Taken together, our findings indicated that AdMSC-EVs enhanced the colony formation ability and EMT of LECs, and the effects of AdMSC-EVs were in-part mediated by the miRNAs within the AdMSC-EVs.</p
An investigation of the transformative potential of spirituality in the lives of Christian (ex-) prisoners and the implications for community chaplaincy
No full textWhat Was Investigated and Why?To enable better resettlement support by community chaplaincy, more knowledge is needed of the transformative potential of Christian spirituality – the lived experience of faith – of (ex-) prisoners. This research contributes to that knowledge by presenting their voice to the tradition.How Was the Topic Investigated?Using spiritual direction as a methodology and the framework of dialogical narrative analysis, I present three prisoners’ stories of transformation, engaging in three areas of Christian experience. Firstly, traditional associations with transformation, belief, self-surrender, metanoia, and epistrophe. Secondly, the Christian narratives of cruciformity, conformity (through kenosis), and theosis with which I parallel the men’s narratives. Thirdly, anthropological spirituality, enabling dialogue with secular spiritualties.What Was Found?I argue that for (ex-) prisoners, Christian transformation (metanoia) is less concerned with sin, repentance, or atonement, than a vision of theosis, rooted in cruciformity and conformity to a kenotic way of life. The men’s ‘cruciformity’ was felt as isolation, institutionalisation, the need for identity and love, addictions, and the stigma of prison. Transformation included a changing picture of a God of love; being made in God’s image and epistrophic return to the true self. Self-giving and trustworthiness modelled by Christians encouraged conformity, contributing to theosis. Alcoholics Anonymous inspired an understanding of spirituality which the ‘church’ failed to develop thus increasing isolation. Community chaplaincy was vital to embed transformation in community.What Conclusions Were Drawn From the Evidence?Deeper engagement with the men’s spirituality – their lived experience of the faith – alongside the physical support offered by community chaplaincy is vital to this group of men. Volunteers or chaplains need spirituality and theological training to support prisoners’ Christian spiritual experience and knowledge of secular spirituality. Prison chaplaincy is effective at institutionalised support, but structures and models of living need to focus on resolving (ex-) prisoners’ challenges and reconciliation in the community. This requires knowledge of their experience of cruciformity, their theological imagery, and encouragement of a more epistrophic return to God affirming original self-worth and kenotic self-giving, enabling an understanding of ethical practices.</p
Multi-stage deep learning for intrusion detection in Industrial Internet of Things
No full textThe Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) facilitates enhanced automation, predictive maintenance, real-time monitoring, and data analytics across various sectors, including manufacturing, energy, transportation, agriculture, and supply chain management, thereby improving productivity, efficiency, and operational safety. However, as IIoT networks continue to expand, it is imperative to secure them against increasingly sophisticated cyber threats. Deep Learning (DL) techniques have been extensively utilized for intrusion detection within IIoT systems. Nevertheless, addressing the class imbalance problem remains a significant challenge. The underrepresentation of certain attack types in training data frequently results in the development of DL models that struggle to accurately detect these categories of malicious activities. This limitation represents considerable risks to the security of IIoT networks, as undetected attacks and false alarms may lead to severe operational disruptions. In this paper, we propose a multi-stage deep learning (MSDL) method specifically designed to enhance intrusion detection within IIoT networks by addressing the class imbalance issue. We assessed the effectiveness of our approach utilizing two highly imbalanced datasets: X-IIoTID and WUSTL-IIoT. Our experimental findings indicate that the proposed MSDL method surpasses the baseline DL models as well as state-of-the-art oversampling and undersampling techniques. Specifically, the MSDL method exhibits significant improvements in recognizing minority-class attacks that are frequently misclassified. Consequently, the implementation of the MSDL for intrusion detection is anticipated to strengthen the overall security and resilience of IIoT systems, providing stronger protection against a diverse array of cyber threats in industrial applications.</p
Siderophore production by Enterobacter kobei an environmental isolate of selected Gram-negative bacteria
No full textAntimicrobial resistance presents a significant challenge, emphasising the urgency for novel antibiotic development. A promising strategy involves utilising bacterial nutrient-import carriers, such as siderophore-dependent iron uptake pathways, for antibiotic delivery. This study explored the aquatic environment for siderophore-producing bacteria, predicting the low iron concentration and complex iron structures with organic ligands are special features of the aquatic ecology thereby a potential source for exploring siderophore-producing bacteria. Screening 110 bacterial isolates with Chrome Azurol S (CAS) assay identified 18 isolates further narrowed down to four isolates for in-depth analysis following 16S rRNA-based taxonomical identification.Optimisation conditions evaluating different media, pH, temperature, cell density, incubation time, agitation, and iron content, as well as bacterial iron-reserves were meticulously assessed to determine the parameters that resulted in the highest siderophore production. Compared to other isolates in the cohort, the top-siderophore-producing strain, Enterobacter kobei (G59) was identified using whole genome sequencing (WGS). Further analysis revealed E. kobei (G59) harbours biosynthetic genes for both hydroxamate (aerobactin) and catecholate (enterobactin) siderophore. Advanced techniques, including high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS), confirmed aerobactin production, while enterobactin presence was confirmed through alternative methods such as thin-layer chromatography (TLC) and biochemical assays. Gene expression profiling via qPCR provided insights into siderophore biosynthesis regulation, particularly for the entA gene (enterobactin biosynthesis gene), under varying time intervals and iron levels. Comparative genetics analysis of E. coli and E. kobei (G59) uncovered evolutionary links in their siderophore production pathways, highlighting their shared use of enterobactin biosynthesis genes and receptors.Notably, the study employed siderophore produced by E. kobei (G59) as an exogenous-siderophore source for an entA deleted E. coli mutant (ΔentA), which cannot produce the key precursor, 2,3-dihydroxybenzoic acid (DHB). Results showed that under iron-deficient conditions, the ΔentA strain could utilise non-self-siderophores from E. kobei (G59) for iron acquisition. This finding suggests potential therapeutic applications of using siderophore-mediated iron transport systems to enhance antibiotic delivery and efficacy.</p
Mitigation strategies for meso-plastics and micro-fibers in terrestrial ecosystems
No full textPlastics have been found in soil systems, posing detrimental impacts on biodiversity, soil health, and ecosystem functioning. Various types of plastics (microplastics, mesoplastics, macro-plastics, fibers), are found in our terrestrial environments, presenting a complex challenge for mitigation efforts. This study provides an overview of mitigation strategies tailored to address different types of plastics in our terrestrial ecosystems. The study begins with a review and analysis of literature on the how soil properties are affected by microplastics, and the results of the review showed that although there has been several research on plastics effects, especially microplastics on soil properties, there are few research on how plastic contamination on terrestrial ecosystems can be remediated. A houseplant experiment was then carried out to investigate the ability of houseplants, an example of bioremediation to filter microfibers. The experiment concluded that houseplants having wide and sticky leaf surface could be used to reduce indoor microfiber contamination, providing a cost-effective, environmentally friendly method of reducing air contamination in our homes.Finally, laboratory research was carried out to determine if organic amendment (compost) can be used to remediate soil contaminated by meso-plastics. In the experiments, some soil properties were examined with and without compost. Also, the degradation of the meso-plastics was measured over time by weighing the mesoplastics, then enzyme activities were measured to determine if the presence of enzymes in the test soil that might aid in the meso-plastics breakdown. Finally, H. vulgare performances were measured to determine the difference between soil with meso-plastics and soil without meso-plastics. The results showed that the different meso-plastic with and without amendment by compost impacted soil properties such as pH rate over time and some of the major soil nutrients (magnesium, calcium, sodium, potassium, phosphorus) significantly (pMeso-plastics had a significant (p80%. The results from the different research in this study showed that mitigation strategies for plastic pollution in terrestrial ecosystems encompass a multifaceted approach, including remediation. Remediation strategies in the study focused on the removal and cleanup of plastics from terrestrial environments using mechanical methods/ phytoremediation such as trapping fibers using plants surface, while nature-based solutions such as bioremediation harness the ecological processes of microorganisms to degrade and metabolize plastic pollutants in soil systems. Implementing a combination of strategies tailored to different types of plastics and specific environmental contexts can possibly help to mitigate plastics contamination impacts, safeguard the health and the integrity of terrestrial ecosystems for future generations.</p
Simulation-Based Learning - a pedagogical approach to teacher education
No full textThis reflective piece sets out the rationale for using low tech Simulation-Based Learning (SBL) as a pedagogical approach in Initial Teacher Training. It charts how SBL is woven throughout a UK University based course which trains Primary School teachers. The journey of decision making leading to the curriculum approach is described and detailed examples of how some of the sessions work in practice are included. There are personal reflections on the process which has included collaboration with another University and School Partners; both activities have been instrumental in creating materials for use in SBL sessions. In the conclusion, next steps are identified including signposts to future research.</p
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