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Y-STR haplogroup diversity in the Jat population reveals several different ancient origins
No full textThe Jats represent a large ethnic community that has inhabited the northwest region of India and Pakistan for several thousand years. It is estimated the community has a population of over 123 million people. Many historians and academics have asserted that the Jats are descendants of Aryans, Scythians, or other ancient people that arrived and lived in northern India at one time. Essentially, the specific origin of these people has remained a matter of contention for a long time. This study demonstrated that the origins of Jats can be clarified by identifying their Y-chromosome haplogroups and tracing their genetic markers on the Y-DNA haplogroup tree. A sample of 302 Y-chromosome haplotypes of Jats in India and Pakistan was analyzed. The results showed that the sample population had several different lines of ancestry and emerged from at least nine different geographical regions of the world. It also became evident that the Jats did not have a unique set of genes, but shared an underlying genetic unity with several other ethnic communities in the Indian subcontinent. A startling new assessment of the genetic ancient origins of these people was revealed with DNA science
LEAP Online: striving for excellence in learning development
No full textUntil recently, academic skills support at the University of Bolton was fragmented and compartmentalised, sometimes leaving students confused as to where to go for help. In addition the focus was on remedial support. We have developed a new vision: the Learning Excellence Achievement Pathway (LEAP). This new learning development strategy has the objective of developing a skills offering that is comprehensive, co-ordinated, and trackable, offering an inclusive, personalised and relevant approach to learning development. A new Learning Development Framework (LDF) identifies skills students need to progress through their programmes. It demonstrates a holistic approach, recognising four key areas relating to the acquisition of skills, knowledge and experience: (1) academic development, (2) personal development, (3) digital literacy and (4) student engagement.LEAP support is delivered face-to-face and online. This paper will focus on the challenge of providing the online support – LEAP Online. The University’s existing online skills tutorial, BISSTO, is being transformed into LEAP Online, offering content reflecting the new LDF. Content included will be differentiated into levels designed to engage students of all abilities. LEAP Online includes badged assessments providing students with evidence demonstrating engagement with LEAP.This paper will demonstrate the challenges, achievements and opportunities offered by the LEAP Online project: (1) how the technical challenges of providing content, activities and assessments online have been overcome; (2) how students will work with their personal tutors to agree a LEAP Action Plan; (3) how LEAP Online is ideally suited to provide content for both embedded and extra-curricular skills support.The successful implementation of the strategy, underpinned by LEAP Online, will ensure that the University’s skills provision is transformed from a deficit model, to one which encourages and champions excellence
Creating a collaborative Worktown archive : Photography, place and community.
No full textThis practice-based thesis uses photography as a method to examine how photographic archives constitute community. It develops a case study of the Worktown photographs, which were taken by Humphrey Spender during Mass Observation’s experimental study of everyday life in Bolton, Lancashire, 1937 -1938, and are now held as part of Bolton Museum’s Worktown archive.As ‘old’ photographs, the Worktown photographs prompt nostalgia for an idealised community of the past, destroyed through the decline of industry. In academic contexts they have been critiqued as exemplary social documentary photographs, ideologically charged visual representations of working class life which construct history as a false national memory of community and consensus. Here, I argue that this critical narrative of photographic subjugation has limited the productive potential of the Worktown photographs, and ask instead what understandings arise if we consider the photographs as material objects which constitute community in relation to place.This theoretical perspective, derived from contemporary practices of visual and sensory anthropology, informs the practical investigation and reinterpretation of Mass Observation’s experimental use of photographic and creative research methods at the intersection of art and anthropology. By responding to this archive in collaboration with local communities, I demonstrate that processes of taking, documenting, sharing and photographs generate new meaning in relation to the contingencies of place. In this way photography may be understood as an experiential form of knowledge, and the photographic archive is reactivated as an active medium creating new understandings of past and present communities
Five millennia of player practices
No full textWhat can we learn about play by examining it from a historical perspective? Using Foucault’s archaeological methods to examine the history of player practices in terms of their artefacts, a series of cross-sections through five millennia of play are developed around the key props (in Walton’s representational sense of this term) that have been deployed in games. The specific patterns considered are the contract, the die, the board, the pawn, the set, and the coin. In each case except the first, a material object serves a prescribed role in play, requiring players to imagine specific things that make certain kinds of games possible. The changes in the representational aspects of these props demonstrate both the continuity of player practices over time, and the significant changes that have emerged over the last few centuries
A surface acoustic wave pumped lensless microfluidic imaging system for flowing cell detection and counting
No full textThe future point-of-care diagnostics requires miniaturizing the existing bulky and expensive bioanalysis instruments, where lab-on-CMOS-chip-based technology can provide a promising solution. In this paper, we presented a surface acoustic wave (SAW) pumped lensless microfluidic imaging system for flowing cell detection and counting. Different from the previous lensless systems, which employ external bulky syringe pump for cell driven, the developed system directly integrates the SAW pump on the CMOS image sensor chip to drive the cell-containing microfluid. Moreover, an efficient temporal-differencing-based motion detection algorithm is proposed for continuous flowing cell detection and counting. Experimental results show that the SAW pump can drive the cells to flow at different driven powers, and also can keep the channel temperature below 40 °C so as not to harm the cells. The human bone marrow stromal cells flowing in the microfluidic channel can be automatically detected and counted with a low statistical error rate of -6.53%. The developed system thereby is competitive for point-of-care cell detection and counting application
Working away : an expatriate case study from a South Atlantic island
No full textThe UK has several overseas territories around the world. As part of this commitment, the NHS has key responsibility for the education of the local population regarding key issues associated with mental health. This commitment has seen a rise in the number of UK educators who have settled in a variety of overseas locations. This can present several challenges for these expatriates in adapting to the new living and working cultures they are faced with. This paper will seek to examine the experiences of an expatriate educator over the course of two years. Information was gathered through the use of several semi-structured interviews during 2015-2017. The primary focus of the study was to identify and examine the key motivators and challenges with a view to identifying key traits, needed in the adjustment to new working and living contexts
Effect of lactic acid chain length on thermomechanical properties of star-LA-xylitol resins and jute reinforced biocomposites
No full textStar-shaped bio-based resins were synthesized by direct condensation of lactic acid (LA) with xylitol followed by end-functionalizing of branches by methacrylic anhydride with three different LA chain lengths (3, 5 and 7). The thermomechanical and structural properties of the resins were characterized by 13C NMR, Fourier transform IR spectroscopy, rheometry, DSC, dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), TGA and flexural and tensile tests. An evaluation of the effect of chain length on the synthesized resins showed that the resin with five LAs exhibited the most favorable thermomechanical properties. Also, the resin's glass transition temperature (103 °C) was substantially higher than that of the thermoplast PLA (ca 55 °C). The resin had low viscosity at its processing temperature (80 °C). The compatibility of the resin with natural fibers was investigated for biocomposite manufacturing. Finally, composites were produced from the n5-resin (80 wt% fiber content) using jute fiber. The thermomechanical and morphological properties of the biocomposites were compared with jute-PLA composites and a hybrid composite made of the impregnated jute fibers with n5 resin and PLA. SEM and DMA showed that the n5-jute composites had better mechanical properties than the other composites produced. Inexpensive monomers, good thermomechanical properties and good processability of the n5 resin make the resin comparable with commercial unsaturated polyester resins
Investigation of the durability and stability of piezoelectric textile fibres
No full textPolymers such as polyvinylidene difluoride, polypropylene and polyamide-11 show great promise for providing light-weight, flexible and fibrous piezoelectric materials that can be integrated into technical textile fabric structures for energy harvesting applications. Durability is an important parameter for the textiles and especially for functional and smart materials. This research work provides an insight on the piezoelectric behaviour of polypropylene, polyamide-11 and polyvinylidene difluoride in terms of peak-to-peak voltage generation capabilities after washing at 40°C with the addition of detergent as described in test method BS EN ISO 105-C06:2010. It was observed that the peak-to-peak voltage generated by polypropylene monofilaments retained similar values with only slight differences, while the monofilaments of polyvinylidene difluoride and polyamide-11 showed higher peak-to-peak voltage generation after washing. These changes have been explained using the changes in the crystallinity and phase, as determined by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analysis
Leisure experiences in Nordic walking and rambling and their contributions to mental well-being : A mixed methods study
No full textWalking is a common recreational activity enjoyed by people of all ages and fitness levels. The body of knowledge stresses the importance of physical and social environmental influences on individual decisions to walk, which benefit health and well-being. The socio-ecological approach chosen as the theoretical framework for this study provides a comprehensive understanding of how multiple psychological, social and environmental factors influence engagement in leisure walking. The purpose of this cross-sectional study is to compare Nordic walking with rambling, as examples of leisure walking activities, in terms of socio-environmental influences, which produce unique leisure experiences in order to determine how these leisure experiences benefit mental well-being. The study used mixed-method approach. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected between April 2013 and August 2014. Quantitative data were gathered from 220 Nordic walking practitioners and 288 ramblers who completed close-ended online surveys. Qualitative data were obtained from the interviews with 13 ramblers and 12 Nordic walking practitioners. The comparison of the quantitative findings revealed that Nordic walking and rambling groups scored high on mental well-being scales. However, there was no significant difference in WEMWBS scores between the groups, which suggests that in general recreational walking benefits mental well-being. The comparative qualitative analyses revealed that the walking activities enhanced well-being in different ways. Nordic walking promoted a sense of achievement through opportunities for the commitment to personal health goals and skills development. Rambling enhanced well-being by offering positive experiences of social interactions with like-minded people in aesthetically pleasing natural environments. This study is the first step to bridge the gap in knowledge by offering a broad understanding of benefits of Nordic walking, in comparison to rambling, towards mental well-being
An analytical model for the identification of the threshold of stress intensity factor range for crack growth
No full textThe value of the stress intensity factor (SIF) range threshold for fatigue crack growth (FCG) depends highly on its experimental identification. The identification and application of are not well established as its determination depends on various factors including experimental, numerical, or analytical techniques used. A new analytical model which can fit the raw FCG experimental data is proposed. The analytical model proposed is suitable to fit with high accuracy the experimental data and is capable of estimating the threshold SIF range. The comparison between the threshold SIF range identified with the model proposed and those found in the literature is also discussed. identified is found to be quite accurate and consistent when compared to the literature with a maximum deviation of 5.61%. The accuracy with which the analytical model is able to fit the raw data is also briefly discussed