62463 research outputs found
Sort by
Context matters: how river typology shapes biotic responses to fine sediment pressure
Context: Excess fine sediment is a global stressor affecting freshwater biodiversity. However, little consideration has been given to how large-scale landscape controls and temporal variability may influence the effect of fine sediment deposition and storage on biological communities.Objectives: We assess if ecological responses to deposited fine sediment are spatially and temporally consistent through the application of the river typology approach.Methods: We used 2,940 records from 391 wadable streams across England and Wales to identify taxonomic and functional community composition change points, in addition to individual family responses along the fine sediment gradient. We also examined the association of taxonomic and functional community diversity metrics and biomonitoring metrics with deposited fine sediment coverage.Results: Mid-altitude rivers displayed a lower community threshold (~ Conclusions Community and family level responses to deposited fine sediment are non-linear, which can be characterized effectively by river typologies and most notably altitude groupings. Low levels of deposited fine sediment may not act as a stressor in mid-altitude catchments as these may be resource limited. Our research underlines the need to consider context-specific effects of fine-grained sedimentation rather than seeking to generalise stressor effects.</p
Masculine and violent temporalities: examining the legacies of men’s unwanted sexual experiences
This article argues that sexual violence ruptures masculine temporalities, revealing the limits of gendered constructions of time and the ways they sustain violence and inequality. We draw upon research that explored the lives of 40 men living in England after incidents of sexual violence. Exploring the relationship between masculinized temporalities and the rupture created by sexual violence, we argue that gendered temporalities enable violence to be maintained and continued, rupturing the everyday life of survivors as they negotiate contradicting temporalities. We highlight three temporal conditions—past/present, waiting, and future imaginations—to demonstrate the ways masculinized temporalities contradict and clash with the ruptured temporalities following incidents of sexual violence.</p
Global perspectives on universities’ social licence to operate: the place of inclusion
At the National Academy of Kinesiology meeting in Pittsburgh, PA (United States), in September 2025, the lead author, Doune Macdonald, presented, with input from several international scholars, the C. Lynn Vendien International Lecture around the theme
Advancing (in) Kinesiology: Movement, Disability and Justice
. This paper explores universities’ “social licence to operate” in our respective countries and argues how inclusive practices present avenues for enhancing the profiles and purposes of universities in what are considered, in many countries, to be turbulent times. After introducing the concept of social licence, we unpack the policies and practices related to inclusion in our universities, noting tensions and contradictions. We then argue that can showcase the legitimacy, credibility, and trust of institutions that are accorded a social licence to operate. Social theories on governance, inclusion, and power frame these tensions and opportunities.</p
Law and social reproduction in Colombia’s national development plan: valuing popular economies’ re/productive labours
In this article we explore the legal and policy reforms that the current government of Colombia is pursuing to recognize and valorize the contribution that workers from popular economies make to socio-economic well-being. In particular, we analyse important claims these workers have made about the value-producing quality of their labors, before then assessing Colombian government policy responses advanced through institutional measures. Throughout, our attention is on surfacing the potential and limitations of legal arrangements that purport to valorize non-wage-labor contributions to socio-economic well-being. We offer this analysis as a distinct contribution to the work of evaluating techniques for pluralising social reproduction approaches, with a focus on law. We also contribute to the literature on law and social reproduction by exploring the constitutive role law plays in, and therefore its potential to affect, processes of value-making.</p
The role of healthy lifestyle technologies in young adults' physical activity participation and health knowledge
Young people increasingly use digital technologies, termed 'healthy lifestyle technologies' (HLT) (e.g., social media, wearable devices, health apps) to support their healthy active lifestyles, including their physical activity (PA) participation and health learning. Healthy active lifestyles established during young adulthood, are known to influence active lifestyles throughout adulthood. However, to date, most research in this area has focused on individuals under the age of 18, leaving a gap in understanding young adults' (18-20 years) experiences of HLT, which is a time when individuals typically take greater responsibility and have more autonomy for independently managing their healthy active lifestyles. This research is concerned with young adults' HLT user experiences within and beyond the formal educational setting of schools, with a particular focus on the role of HLT in supporting their lifelong PA participation and health learning. To address the above, the research comprised three studies, each designed to address specific aims and objectives, culminating in three journal articles. Study 1 involved undertaking a systematic review of existing literature identifying gaps in our understanding, for example, relating to the long-term effects of HLT, the extent of young people's critical use of HLT, and the role of relevant adults in facilitating HLT use. Studies 2 and 3 empirically addressed these gaps, alongside exploring young adults' current HLT user experiences. The data gathering for these studies spanned two phases over 10 months. The first phase included eight focus groups with 23 young adults from four universities in central England, and the second phase comprised 11 individual interviews, most of which were conducted with the same participants from the focus groups. Data were analysed using abductive thematic analysis, guided by self-regulated learning theory in Study 2 and constructivist learning theory in Study 3. The findings from Study 2 highlighted how young adults used self-regulation strategies, such as goal setting and lifestyle planning, to self-regulate their health behaviours, and manage their PA participation and health learning via HLT. This self-regulated learning underscores the potential of HLT to foster lifelong healthy active behaviours. Furthermore, the study revealed that young adults used various digital and health strategies to overcome challenges (e.g., limited health knowledge or digital techniques) they faced when using HLT in support their healthy active lifestyles in their earlier years. Accordingly, this study provided robust and detailed information on how they critically used HLT to regulate and enhance their healthy active lifestyles. Study 3 found that, whilst only a few participants had encountered any digital PE, most of which had occurred during COVID-19, this exposure had nevertheless positively influenced their digital health literacy, enabling these individuals to critically negotiate and navigate digital environments. However, given that most participants had had limited digital PE experiences, this illustrates a persistent limitation of the subject in preparing young people to use HLT effectively beyond the school settings. This highlights the need for PE to develop young people's digital health literacy from an early age, enabling them to confidently use HLT in real-life situations while managing and mitigating the associated risks. Additionally, the study underscores the importance of ongoing teacher professional development in digital techniques to support this goal. In conclusion, this research highlights the growing importance of HLT in shaping young adults' health behaviours and their healthy active lifestyles from adolescence into early adulthood. It also highlights the need for structured support, specifically within PE, and through digital PE, to help young people to navigate the challenges of using HLT to maintain a healthy active lifestyle, rather than leaving them to manage the risks and barriers alone. Key words: young people, young adults, digital technologies, physical activity, health, healthy active lifestyles</p
Bilinear secants and birational geometry of blowups of P<sup>n</sup> x P<sup>n+1</sup>
We introduce bilinear secant varieties and joins of subvarieties of products of projective spaces, as a generalisation of the classical secant varieties and joins of projective varieties. We show that the bilinear secant varieties of certain rational normal curves of Pn×Pn+1 play a central role in the study of the birational geometry of X8n,n+1, its blow-up in s points in general position. We show that X 8n,n+1 s is log Fano, and we compute its effective and movable cones, for s ≤ n + 2 and n ≥ 1 and for s ≤ n + 3 and n ≤ 2, and we compute the effective and movable cones of X 63,4</p
A human-centric framework for enhancing usability in a vineyard digital twin system
This paper develops and applies a human-centric framework to design a Digital Twin (DT) by applying a people-led approach to a vineyard automation scenario. Current DT systems in agriculture often focus on technical performance, which creates usability challenges such as data overload, lack of role-specific interfaces, and reduced trust among non-technical users. The study applies Personas to represent user groups and introduces a human-centric framework for mapping tasks and decision processes. The framework makes an original contribution by demonstrating how established human-centric methods can be systematically integrated into a coherent DT development process, addressing a recognised methodological gap in the literature. The objective of this research is to evaluate how a structured, human-centric approach can improve usability, cognitive alignment, and stakeholder engagement in vineyard automation. These processes are modeled using Personas, Decision Ladders and Control Task Analysis to align system functionality with user roles and cognitive needs. The research methodology integrates Personas, ConTA, and Decision Ladders within a real-world vineyard case study. This study showcases the impact of applying a structured human-centric DT design framework on improving decision-making support, user engagement, and system efficiency in agricultural contexts. Moreover, it provides expert-informed evidence in what way human-centric methods can be operationalised in a consistent and transparent way for DT redesign. Overall, the work demonstrates how a structured, people-led approach can enhance the usability and adoption of both new and existing DT systems, offering a transferable framework with relevance beyond agriculture.</p
A procedure for writing multi-author consensus manuscripts: implementation and reflections on conflict resolution and generalizations
A domain/field of research can often benefit from a consensus. Agreement regarding terminology and tasks used to measure specific constructs may be particularly beneficial. Our group authored such a consensus paper on measuring the Approximate Number System in young children (Krajcsi et al., 2024). In preparing that paper, we followed the procedure described here. In the current paper, we describe a method for preparing multi-author consensus papers along with our reflections on implementing and streamlining this procedure. We hope it is useful to authors interested in initiating such collaborative projects.</p
Systems level analysis of ANAMMOX bacteria for bioremediation of nutrient pollution and balancing the nitrogen (N)-Cycle
Systems level analysis of ANAMMOX bacteria for bioremediation of nutrient pollution and balancing the nitrogen (N)-Cycle</p
Dyscalculia Support in Primary School Classroom in England Interview Transcripts
The purpose of this study is to help build a better understanding of the dyscalculic learner’s classroom support experiences and contribute to the under researched area of the educational support for dyscalculic pupils in the primary schools. It sets out to identify the learning barriers dyscalculic pupils face in the mainstream classroom and to examine how their experiences align with the SEND Code of Practice (2015) Graduated Approach Cycle for SEN Support in schools alongside school’s internal SEND policy.It places the focus on listening to the student, teacher and the parent who are the agents of the study rather than the objects of research. It sets out to collect rich data from the participants on the effectiveness of the support provided, how it is received and the effectiveness of its implementation and delivery. The study seeks to collect views from the participants on the gaps, limitations and challenges that they face in the context of maths learning and teaching in primary schools in England.This is a qualitative study with interviews from three participant groups:Children with a formal dyscalculia diagnosis (confirmed by parents).Parents of children who have a formal dyscalculia diagnosis.Primary schools teachers who have experience teaching children with a formal dyscalculia diagnosis.© the authors</p