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Reflections on Facilitating Student-led, Undergraduate, Inter-disciplinary Research Projects; Design, Challenges and Outcomes.
No full textThis presentation looked back on an interventional study to support student transition. Key points covered the design, challenges and outcomes of the project
Removal of Escherichia coli bacteria from drinking water by dielectrophoresis
No full textWorking on a dielectrophoresis experimental system assembled in our laboratory, we find that the bacteria, Escherichia coli, can be efficiently removed from drinking water by the system. Synthetic water samples of 300 mL of E. coli were treated for 20 min at a flow rate of 1 L/h. The removal efficiency reaches 95.24% high at the voltage of 6 V, and 100% at 15 V. As the technique is featured by its simplicity and low cost for water treatment, it promises a rapid, affordable, and industry-scale removal of E. coli and other similar pathogenic microorganisms from drinking water
The making of a monster: UK press coverage of Myra Hindley
No full textOccurring between 1963 and 1965, the murders committed by Myra Hindley and Ian Brady are notorious in British criminal history. Whilst the crimes were callous and coldblooded, their infamy is largely the result of the media's enduring and relentless preoccupation with Hindley herself. Although it has been nearly 20 years since her death, Hindley continues to appear as a news story even in 2022. This chapter will critically analyse the media discourses that surrounded Hindley from her trial, through the years of her imprisonment, to the time of her death. Particularly, it will assess the detriment of press coverage to her bids for freedom in the context of public opinion and its effect upon politicians who were responsible for the setting and review of her life tariff
DocCompare: an approach to prevent the problem of character injection in document similarity algorithm
No full textThere is a constant rise in the amount of data being copied or plagiarized because of the 1 abundance of content and information freely available across the internet. Even though the systems 2 try to check documents for the plagiarism, there have been trials to overcome these system checks. 3 In this paper, a concept of character injection used to trick the plagiarism is presented. It is also 4 showcased that how the the similarity check algorithms based on k-grams fails to detect the character 5 injection. In order to eradicate the problem or error in similarity rates caused due to the problem of 6 character injection, image processing based approach of multiple histogram projections are used. An 7 application is developed to detect the character injection in the document and produce the accurate 8 similarity rate. The results are shown with some test documents and the proposed method eliminates 9 any kind of character injected in the document that tricks the plagiarism. The proposed method has 10 addressed the problem of character injection with image processing based changes in the existing 11 methods of document-similarity check algorithms based on k-grams
Perceptions of value: assessing the agent/commission model of UK higher education recruitment in Africa
No full textThe UK's higher education relationship with Africa has changed in recent years. Past associations of developmental cooperation have been superseded by market-based student recruitment seeking income for UK universities. This paper is about assessing a form of recruitment that helps underpin this new relationship: the agent/commission model. It identifies the nature of this approach to recruitment, and the processes involved. The paper also asks who benefits from the agent/commission model. The research captured a ‘snapshot’ of opinion within a case study UK university, seeking the views of agents themselves and their service users. It was found that all these actors considered the work of agents to be of value. There are certainly flaws in the agent/commission model, and wider societal implications for African states and economies, but it is suggested that agents should be given more credit for the work that they do than is presently reflected in the current literature
Views and experiences of young people, their parents/carers and healthcare professionals of the advance care planning process: A summary of the findings from a qualitative study
No full textBackground:: Advance care planning for young people is relatively new in the UK. There is a lack of understanding about the engagement of young people in their own planning process, optimal timing of discussions and the facilitators and barriers to the engagement of young people. Aim:: To explore the views and experiences of young people, their parents/carers and HCPs of the advance care planning process. Design:: A qualitative study, using semi-structured interviews with young people, their parents/carers and healthcare professionals across four case series. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. Participants:: Fifteen participants were interviewed: young people (n = 2), parents/carers (n = 5) and healthcare professionals (n = 8). Results:: Three themes were identified from the findings. Key findings related to barriers and facilitators of engaging young people in their own care planning were apparent in the following areas: misperception of terms; hierarchies of power in relationships; and a flexible and innovative organisational structure and culture. Conclusion:: Participants expressed a variety of views and experiences of advance care planning. Advance care planning was thought to be best initiated by a consultant when the young person is in their mid-teens, their condition is stable, and before they transition to adult care. Engagement was also considered to be facilitated by appropriate communication, developing relationships prior to initiating advance care planning, and written support for everyone involved in the process. These factors were supported by training and education for healthcare professionals and a flexible and innovative structure and cultures of organisations
David Vann’s "Legend of a suicide": Dismantling the trauma paradigm
No full textThis article argues that David Vann’s Legend of a Suicide (2008) offers us a culturally significant exploration of hegemonic theories around how we understand, or are said to understand, the temporality of trauma, its effect upon identity via its effect upon memory, and its representation in narrative. Moreover, the specific structure of Vann’s text as a short story cycle enables it to present, query and disrupt ways of thinking about chronology, narrative, and identity, such that it offers a productive modeling of the complications inherent in adhering to exclusionary and prescriptive ideas about how trauma might be narrated
Articulating a View of Entrepreneurship as Outcome of Change in Practice
No full textThis chapter is an attempt to bring about completeness to the entrepreneurship and change literature by articulating a view for entrepreneurship as an outcome of change. In achieving this task, enterprise culture, creativity, and innovation are posited as building blocks of entrepreneurship and taken to reflect the cloudy, contained, and concrete phases with varying levels of specificity and ambiguity that institute entrepreneurship. In developing the 3Cs view of entrepreneurship as outcome of change model, the discussion first outlines the distinct facets of change embodied in each of the building blocks before going on to delineate how the sequence of change in the three phases collectively serves to establish entrepreneurship in practice. The 3Cs view of entrepreneurship as outcome of change model is a useful practice-based tools for articulating the role and nature of change in relation to the formation and sustenance of entrepreneurship in practice. From this perspective, entrepreneurship can be viewed as an outcome of change as well as agent of change, bringing about harmony, complementariness, and completeness to our understanding of entrepreneurship and change
Robust extreme learning machine using new activation and loss functions based on M-estimation for regression and classification
No full textThis paper provides an analysis of the combining effect of novel activation function and loss function based on M-estimation in application to extreme learning machine (ELM), a feed-forward neural network. Due to the computational efficiency and classification/prediction accuracy of ELM and its variants, they have been widely exploited in the development of new technologies and applications. However, in real applications, the performance of classical ELMs deteriorates in the presence of outliers, thus, negatively impacting the precision and accuracy of the system. To further enhance the performance of ELM and its variants, we proposed novel activation functions based on the psi function of M and redescend the M-estimation method along with the smooth l2-norm weight-loss functions to reduce the negative impact of the outliers. The proposed psi functions of several M and redescending M-estimation methods are more flexible to make more distinct features space. For the first time, the idea of the psi function as an activation function in the neural network is introduced in the literature to ensure accurate prediction. In addition, new robust l2 norm-loss functions based on M and redescending M-estimation are proposed to deal with outliers efficiently in ELM. To evaluate the performance of the proposed methodology against other state-of-the-art techniques, experiments have been performed in diverse environments, which show promising improvements in application to regression and classification problems
Advancing the understanding of colour contrast and product design for blind and partially sighted people
No full textThis PhD by Prospective Practice was carried out over a 9-year period following an enquiryplan that was developed to fit in with work requirements. The practice draws on more thantwenty years of experience working for a major UK charity for the blind as a graphic designerand product designer. The practice is documented in a portfolio of practice that wasdeveloped over the course of the enquiry and a critical commentary that sets out theoverarching enquiry, and contribution to knowledge.The research examines elements of the author’s design and product development work andprovides insight into the existing methods of carrying out these tasks. This includeschallenging inherited guidelines and methods of working and the advice that is given toexternal graphic and product designers. There is a particular focus on the text and colourcombinations which are most readable by partially sighted people and on productdevelopment processes. which can meet the needs of partially sighted people.The methods applied in the research are:• Action research. Action Research is well aligned to the cyclical approach to workingadopted in the design work presented in the portfolio. When carrying out productdesign, the cycles of working include ideation, prototyping, and testing that leadtowards a final goal of manufacture, with lessons learned taken forward to a futureiteration.• Empirical research. The portfolio includes empirical research with partially sightedparticipants to understand more about their eye conditions and reading preferences.Research was also carried out with website designers and site owners to find outwhy they used particular colour combinations in their website designs.The principal contributions of the research are:• Identification of a range of text and background colour combinations that are morereadable for people with a particular eye conditions• A new method of product design that includes blind and partially sighted people inmore stages of the design cycle, demonstrated in the practice documented in theportfolio