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A knowledge-driven approach for automated fire safety compliance checking in operational buildings
No full textBuilding fire safety compliance remains a critical but labor-intensive task, particularly during the operational phase when new hazards can arise from post-occupancy modifications, equipment degradation, or improper use of space. Existing automated compliance checking (ACC) methods have primarily focused on the design phase and rely on static BIM data, offering limited adaptability to dynamic, in-use conditions. This study presents a formalized, knowledge-based approach for automating fire safety compliance monitoring during building operation. The proposed approach integrates heterogeneous data, including building layouts, in-situ images, and regulatory clauses, within a unified reasoning architecture combining multimodal perception, semantic integration, and rule-based inference. Comprehensive experiments across three compliance coverage categories validated the perception-reasoning pipeline, achieving high accuracy in layout extraction (pixel accuracy = 0.90) and safety asset detection (mAP = 0.91). The domain-adapted Fire Compliance VQA further achieved notable improvements in compliance description accuracy compared with a generic vision-language baseline across BLEU and ROUGE metrics. The results confirm the feasibility of translating observational evidence into clause-grounded compliance decisions. This study extends ACC into the operational phase and establishes a foundation for automated, evidence-based compliance monitoring across dynamic building environments.</p
Acts of organising: exploring contemporary Imagining of desirable futures
No full textThis thesis is submitted for the fulfilment of the PhD programme at Loughborough University. It explores the spaces of collective imagination by focusing on how the spatiality of organising can enable the imagining of desirable futures and the nature of these futures envisioned by actors working in sustainability-aligned roles. The researcher has adopted a developmental stance and is inspired by the principles of engaged scholarship. This research uses a transdisciplinary approach to leverage concepts that address complex, real-world phenomena. It seeks to reinforce the understanding that desirable futures are dynamic, emergent, and relational. The research begins with conceptual expansion, progresses through methodological innovation, and culminates in empirical application, making transdisciplinary contributions to both theory and practice. One of the overarching contributions of this thesis is to establish the value of transdisciplinarity, research through design, and the spatial aspects of organising that enable collective imagining of desirable futures. The primary research strand is qualitative, adopting multi-sited, para-ethnographic methodologies and creative research methods. Fieldwork was conducted at 'extra-work events' in London and Brighton (United Kingdom), Helsinki (Finland), and online, exploring how organising adjacent to everyday work can support the emergence of transformative ideas and sow seeds of organisational and societal change.The thesis is structured around three stand-alone yet interrelated papers, each contributing to the understanding of collective imagining of distant desirable futures in the context of organising. The first paper seeks to develop the theoretical underpinning by contributing to the understanding of how imaginings towards long-term futures arise by developing and extending the conceptualisation of the sites of hyperprojectivity introduced by Ann Mische in 2014. The second paper is developed through the identification and research into hyperprojective field sites. It demonstrates the value of the complementary application of multi-sited and para-ethnographic methodologies in contemporary ethnography through research conducted in interstitial spaces called extra-work events. Additionally, it advocates integrating contextually adapted visual methods to enhance research in these dynamic, fast-paced, and complex settings. The third paper examines the role of organising in facilitating the emergence of distant future imaginings through both visual and textual contexts, positioning imagining as an active conceptual process enabled by organising. Furthermore, it contributes to the understanding of the nature of distant future imaginings by situating them within the context of prefigurative politics and conceptualising them as prefigurative impulses.Beyond these contributions, the thesis includes two practice-based experiments that follow an embodied approach to learning and spatiality, and are grounded in research through design (RtD). These experiments illustrate the potential of transdisciplinary academic research in shaping impactful activities and future research directions. By integrating insights from different disciplines and resisting fragmentation, this research seeks connection and synthesis. In doing so, it views the research landscape of sustainability as an evolving system of relationships.</p
Patagonian deglaciation: aquatic macroinvertebrate biodiversity in proglacial and paraglacial ponds
No full textGlacier retreat is rapidly transforming cryospheric landscapes with new pond networks establishing in deglaciated landscapes. However, our understanding of the aquatic biodiversity within these rapidly evolving landscapes has been limited, especially in southern Patagonia despite having the largest temperate icefields globally. We examined the aquatic macroinvertebrate diversity in paraglacial forest and proglacial ponds at the snout of the Exploradores Glacier (Southern Patagonia, Chile) and assessed the environmental factors influencing taxonomic richness and community composition. Alpha and estimated gamma diversity were significantly higher in periglacial forest ponds compared to proglacial ponds. Clear differences in macroinvertebrate community composition were recorded between paraglacial and proglacial ponds. Taxonomic turnover explained most of the variation in community composition with Trichoptera and Diptera taxa constituting a greater proportion of taxonomic richness in proglacial ponds, while Coleoptera and Hemiptera taxa represented a higher proportion of taxa in paraglacial forest than proglacial ponds. When taxa-environment relationships were examined, a significant negative association was recorded between dissolved oxygen and taxonomic richness. Sodium concentrations were also found to be negatively associated with LCBD. This study provides vital evidence that ponds formed naturally due to deglaciation can support a wide diversity of aquatic macroinvertebrates, and as glacial retreat continues and landscapes transition from glacial to paraglacial, pond habitats represent increasingly important freshwater habitats at the landscape scale. Future research is critical to advance understanding of proglacial and paraglacial pond networks to provide the underpinning information needed to raise awareness to support the conservation of these unique habitats.</p
Cognitive interference in the learning of multiplication facts
No full textFluency with multiplication facts provides a strong foundation for future mathematics learning. Models of number fact storage and retrieval suggest that multiplication facts are stored in an associative network whereby neighbouring facts (e.g. 6 × 7 and 6 × 8) can interfere with one another. While existing theoretical models account for the skilled retrieval of number facts, an understanding of how interference develops during learning, and hence the need for inhibitory control during learning, is poor. In a pre-registered study, we tracked adults as they learnt a set of new multiplication facts and we monitored the interference between facts throughout their learning. Our findings are the first to show that interference emerges early in the learning process as individuals acquire knowledge of new facts. Moreover, interference does not decline as learning continues, even when retrieval accuracy is high and individuals are continuing to practice facts that they already know. These findings are consistent with theoretical assumptions and models of multiplication fact networks proposed by Ashcraft (1987), Campbell (1995) and De Visscher et al., (2016), but do not support the model proposed by Verguts & Fias (2005).</p
Monic: In-network mixture-of-experts inference on programmable data planes
No full textIn-network inference has emerged as a promising paradigm for enabling intelligent packet processing at the line rate within programmable data planes. However, it is fundamentally limited by an inherent conflict between model accuracy and the resource constraints of programmable data planes. This forces a compromise: monolithic deployments can achieve high accuracy but are constrained by the resource limits of a single switch, while distributed approaches leverage the combined resources of multiple switches but are limited in accuracy due to a lack of model coordination. We resolve this trade-off by proposing Monic, a framework that enables multiple “expert” submodels to perform collaborative inference. Inspired by the Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) paradigm, Monic uses a pipeline compatible gating mechanism to selectively activate experts across the network. We enable this in practice through a resource aware mapping and co-optimization strategy that automatically identifies optimal configurations under hardware constraints. We have implemented Monic using P4 hardware switches with Intel Tofino ASIC. Our evaluation shows that Monic achieves a 17.4% relative improvement over baseline methods and maintains a 29.58% Macro F1 advantage under scalability evaluation, demonstrating that a collaborative approach can simultaneously achieve resource efficiency and superior accuracy.</p
Developing creative coaches: the necessity to acknowledge the social
No full textThe principal purpose of this chapter is to better position creativity as a workable notion for coaches. Drawing inspiration from a recently completed PhD thesis (Santos, 2023), it highlights the problematic issues of biography and ‘social norms’ when facilitating a group of coaches to be increasingly creative. In more detail, following an outline of traditional problems encountered by creativity, some related writings which form part of a ‘social turn’ within the wider field are discussed. Such work has increasingly highlighted the value of respecting the communal and cultural, while advocating the personal. We then discuss work in the discipline of sports coaching and, in particular, results from the aforementioned PhD project which sought to identify precisely what the socially related constraints and enablers were in terms of coaching creatively. We next suggest what a socially-informed creativity agenda could actually look like for coaches, both in terms of a deconstruction and a subsequent imaginative reconstruction of practice. Finally, a reflective conclusion summarises the main points made, whilst highlighting possible future avenues of inquiry.</p
A bioinformatic approach to bioprospecting of plastic degrading enzymes
No full textPlastic waste pollution poses a major threat to environmental sustainability, and the biochemical degradation of plastics through enzymatic processes offers an attractive and viable solution to this menacing problem. However, identifying suitable plastic degrading enzymes is a significant challenge. Traditional bioprospecting methods such as high-throughput enzyme screening, although identified several experimentally validated enzymes, are largely unsuccessful, time consuming, and expensive. Bioinformatics can offer a cheaper, quicker, and more successful approach to bioprospecting of novel plastic degrading enzymes. This study describes the development of an automated bioinformatics pipeline to identify proteins homologous to a query protein using a range of criteria, including sequence similarity, evolutionary relationship, and structural alignment. Using the sequences of known plastic degrading enzymes as input, the pipeline identified four homologous proteins with a high potential for plastic degrading functionality: Lipase, Lipase 1, and two uncharacterized esterases, XCC2094 and ATU5261. These proteins and the microorganisms which produce them can be tested in vitro to confirm their plastic degrading abilities, with the aim of identifying microorganisms capable of degrading all the seven types of plastics, or simply providing better plastic degrading capabilities.</p
Anarchism and the "Fascination with Empire": George Woodcock in India, 1964-85
No full textThis article critically examines George Woodcock’s travel writings on India between 1961 and 1981, exploring the tensions between his anarchist anti-imperialism and the cultural frameworks inherited from his upbringing in the heart of empire. While Woodcock admired Gandhi and sought to understand India through a lens of philosophical anarchism, his engagement was shaped by elite literary connections and orientalist tropes that complicated his vision. The article traces how Woodcock’s political ideals, literary influences, and charitable efforts intersected with postcolonial realities, revealing the paradoxes of Western radicalism in a decolonising world. Drawing on archival sources and offering a close reading of his three major texts on India—Faces of India, Kerala, and Walls of India—the study highlights how Woodcock’s attempts to critique empire often carried unconscious cultural assumptions. Ultimately, it argues that Woodcock’s India writings offer a valuable case study in the complexities of cross-cultural intellectual encounters and the enduring shadows of imperial discourse.</p
Developing new analytical methodologies for the identification and quantification of micro- and nano- plastics
No full textPlastic pollution has emerged as a critical environmental challenge, with nano- plastics (less than 1 µm) raising growing concern due to their ubiquity, persistence, and potential biological impact. This thesis presents the development and validation of an analytical workflow for the detection, characterisation, and treatment of nano-plastics in freshwater environments. It combines a comparative study of chemical pretreatment methods with advanced particle analysis techniques, offering methodological insights and practical tools for environmental monitoring. Key objectives included assessing the efficacy of oxidative, alkaline, and enzymatic digestion methods in preserving particle integrity while removing organic matter, and evaluating the performance of dynamic light scattering (DLS) and resistive pulse sensing (RPS) in analysing nano-plastic size and concentration. RPS was found to offer superior resolution and sensitivity for sub-micron particle analysis compared to DLS. The study also introduces a novel electrochemical microfluidic treatment device that facilitates selective particle separation in environmental samples, showing potential to reduce background interference and improve sample purity. Field validation was conducted through a year-long study of three freshwater systems in Leicester, UK (King Lear Lake, the River Soar, and the Grand Union Canal). Seasonal trends in nano-particle concentrations were observed, with higher particle loads correlating with rainfall and runoff events. Combined pretreatment strategies, including electrochemical techniques, achieved up to 96% particle removal. While definitive identification of plastic polymers was limited by hardware constraints, spectroscopic and SEM-EDX analysis indicated the presence of synthetic, carbon-rich particulates. This research contributes a robust, field-applicable methodology for nano-plastic analysis, demonstrates the utility of RPS in complex environmental matrices, and pioneers electrochemical purification as a preparatory step. The work provides foundational insights for future monitoring, regulation, and mitigation of nano-plastic pollution in aquatic systems.</p
Computer vision: a 'period eye' for the 21st century?
No full textThis is a chapter in the book Artificial Intelligence and Art History: Looking at Images in an Algorithmic Culture.</p