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“Hacking marketing”:how do firms develop marketers' expertise and practices in a digital era?
Get PDFThe effects of surface roughness on the calculated, spectral, conical–conical reflectance factor as an alternative to the bidirectional reflectance distribution function of bare sea ice
Get PDFhe conical–conical reflectance factor (CCRF) has been calculated as an alternative to the bidirectional re- flectance distribution function (BRDF) for three types of bare sea ice with varying surface roughness (σ = 0.1–10) and ice thicknesses (50–2000 cm) over an incident solar irradi- ance wavelength range of 300–1400 nm. The comprehensive study of the CCRF of sea ice presented here is paramount for interpreting sea ice measurements from satellite imagery and inter-calibrating space-borne sensors that derive albedo from multiple multi-angular measurements. The calculations per- formed by a radiative-transfer code (PlanarRad) show that the CCRF of sea ice is sensitive to realistic values of sur- face roughness. The results presented here show that sur- face roughness cannot be considered independently of sea ice thickness, solar zenith angle and wavelength. A typical CCRF of sea ice has a quasi-isotropic reflectance over the hemisphere, associated with a strong forward-scattering peak of photons. Surface roughness is crucial for the location, size and intensity of the forward-scattering peak. As the surface roughness increases, a spreading of the CCRF peak is ob- served. The hemisphere was split in to 216 quadrangular re- gions or quads. The peak remains specular for the smaller surface roughnesses (σ = 0.001 to σ = 0.01), whereas for larger surface roughness features (above σ = 0.05), the peak spreads out over multiple quads with a lower intensity than for smaller roughness features, and the highest value is dis- placed further out on the solar principal plane. Different types of sea ice have a similar pattern with wavelength: the CCRF increases by 30 % from first-year sea ice to multi-year sea ice at 400nm and up to 631% at 1100nm, 32% from melting sea ice to multi-year sea ice at 400 nm and a max-imum of 98% at 900nm, and 11% from melting sea ice to first-year sea ice at 400 nm and up to 86 % at 800 nm. The CCRF calculations presented in this study form the first set of complete CCRF values as an approximation of the BRDF for bare sea ice with a wide range of configuration
River Land by Theatre Alibi (2022):A Case Study of a small-scale company working with The Theatre Green Book for the first time.
Get PDFThis Case Study has been written by Siobhan Bauer and Roberta Mock (Royal Holloway, University of London), in partnership with Theatre Alibi. It is one of the outcomes of the ‘Transitioning to Sustainable Production across the UK Theatre Sector’ project, which was funded by the Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre (PEC) and Arts Council England ACE).It is intended to be of use to other small-scale theatre companies (especially those making performances for non-theatre spaces) that are either thinking about using, or starting to use, the Sustainable Productions volume of The Theatre Green Book, as well as those who work with them. For this reason, this Case Study attempts to identify the “challenges” encountered by Theatre Alibi, as well as how they responded to these challenges and what they learned from them
Plant parasitic nematode infection and control in sports turf: novel approaches using seaweed.
Get PDFChanging climates have created new and continuing problems for turf grass management. The need for sustainable fertilisers and pesticides are necessary if high quality turf for sport is going to be continually produced whilst simultaneously minimising damage to soil health and ecosystems. Climatic changes have seen a rise in drought, salinity problems, disease infection and water shortages meaning poorer soil health and a reduction in turf quality. This thesis investigates the use of a seaweed extract from the brown alga Ascophyllum nodosum on sports turf against the turf disease causing parasite, plant parasitic nematodes (PPN). Using laboratory, field and desk-based studies, this thesis begins to describe the potential for seaweed extract use against PPN. Desk-based studies include meta-analysis and Q-methodoloy, where the former outlines how prior research has found seaweed extracts to be a useful control method for species of the root knot nematode (Meloidogyne spp) and shows a species-specific effects. The latter quantifies the turf industries views on sustainability, PPN and the use of biostimulants. Laboratory work includes nematode and turfgrass assays showing the potential for seaweed extract to be used as a preventative PPN control technique and RNA-sequencing began to uncover seaweeds mode of action and shows that it can be used as a priming agent in Arabidopsis thaliana. This thesis also shows that seaweed can be successfully used in the field on an in-play golf green
Usefulness, Integrity, and Perceptions of Virtue in Voting: The Links between Young People’s Online Voting Experiences, Beliefs about Voting, and Support for Online Voting in National Elections
Get PDFOnline voting is widely used for binding non-governmental elections across the United Kingdom, including in higher education student union elections. For 2.3 million 18-24 year olds, Student Union elections are their first opportunity to vote in a binding election using the internet. Despite the technology’s prevalence in higher education, very little is known about the moderating effects of this experience on young peoples’ attitude towards online voting in national elections. This prompts the question: Does experience of online voting in low-risk elections have an effect on support for the technology in high-risk contexts, such as national elections, where the consequences of technical failures are much greater? This project also examines the changing priorities of UK electoral law, and why it has fallen short of introducing online voting in spite of the priority given to voter convenience in the recent past.Part one examines the compatibility of internet voting with the priorities of UK election law and the election procedures arising from the law. Through Hansard transcripts, Government statutes, and court records, part one highlights the tension between transparency, secrecy and security procedures and procedures which emphasise voter convenience and the accessibility of elections. The environment created by these conflicting procedures is not automatically conducive to the use of internet voting, despite some accommodating elements. The recent move towards greater barriers to voting and the immediate transparency of the election count pose a high bar for the introduction of internet voting. The largely additive nature of UK election legislating also serves to complicate the UK’s body of election law, resulting in a chimera of incongruous procedures and priorities.Part two explores the online voting experiences of 18-24 year olds and the role of experience as a variable which may reinforce support for online voting in national elections. Using a combination of survey and interview data, the study finds significant correlations between salient beliefs about online voting and support for online voting in national elections. However, the study does not find a significant link between the quantity of experience of online voting and increased support for the technology in national elections. This may be because 18-24 year olds are already well acclimated to the online world. Experience of online voting does not foster increased levels of trust in the technology, but there is evidence for a significant relationship between experience levels and beliefs about the usefulness of online voting. Greater levels of experience also correlate with opposition to anti-convenience beliefs.The findings of this thesis have implications for the study of trust in voting technology and how anti-convenience beliefs may be affected by experience. Increasing trust in online voting remains a difficult task as young people remain ambivalent about online security, but reducing anti-convenience opposition to online voting may be possible with a normalisation of the technology through its regular use in low-level elections. For future studies, the indication that experience may reduce anti-voting convenience beliefs could be further explored with a larger sample size. At the level of electoral legislating, this study recommends a public consultation on whether the voting ritual has an intrinsic value and a solicitation of views on what online voting ‘ought to be’. This should occur prior to the passage of any online voting legislation in order to build consensus around the technology and avoid undermining trust in the electoral system.<br/
How does learning to read shape the neural representation of spoken and written language?
Get PDFWriting systems vary in the way they express the sounds and meanings of spoken language. Alphabetic writing systems contain information about phonological structure within the orthography due to systematic relations between graphemes and phonemes. Logographic writing systems encode less-fine-grained information about phonological structure via more arbitrary mappings between characters and syllables. We tested whether differences in orthographic structure impact on reading acquisition and the spoken language representations that underpin reading (e.g., Rastle et al., 2011). Twenty-four adult participants were trained on two artificial languages with alphabetic and logographic writing systems. Each language contained 24 words denoted by phonological, orthographic, and semantic components. Learning involved completing computerised tasks over 10 days before performance was assessed using behavioural tests. Following training, neural activity was recorded using fMRI whilst participants made meaning judgements about trained spoken and written stimuli.We assessed the development of mappings between sounds, spellings, and meanings of words and the division of labour between dorsal and ventral reading pathways. Performance was compared using linear mixed-effect models and neural activity was contrasted using paired-samples t-tests. Representational similarity analysis assessed whether alphabetic and logographic systems influence neural sensitivity to phonemic, orthographic, and semantic structure during reading and listening. Overall, alphabetic words exhibited stronger orthography–phonology mappings while orthography– semantic mappings were stronger for logographic words. The dorsal pathway showed greater activity for alphabetic written words; the ventral pathway was more active for logographic written words. Representations only encoded the phonemic/orthographic structure of alphabetic written and spoken words. No orthographic effects on spoken language were observed. These findings advance our understanding of how writing systems impact on reading acquisition and spoken language. They suggest different strategies are used to learn alphabetic and logographic languages and that orthographic transparency can impact on the division of labour and underlying representations
Divided We Hack:Exploring the Degree of Sino-Russian Coordination in Cyberspace During the Ukraine War
Get PDFChina and Russia are arguably NATO’s main strategic competitors and potential adversaries. Since 2017, Beijing and Moscow have conducted cyber-espionage operations against NATO members, and the two countries have also reportedly displayed more coordination in the cyber domain. These concerns have become more pressing since the outbreak of war in Ukraine, where multiple sources have shown alleged evidence of Chinese and Russian cyber-operations coordination. While it is commonly accepted that China and Russia coordinate at the strategic level in the cyber domain, this article aims at better understanding whether these two nation-states also have their affiliated threat groups collaborating. We investigate this, drawing on multiple open-access data and sources. Specifically, we empirically examine the activity of three Chinese groups, Mustang Panda, Scarab and Judgment Panda, to assess the presence and degree of collaboration with their Russian counterparts. Our analysis shows that, as far as the examined groups are concerned, there was no coordination between Russian and Chinese campaigns, and the latter group sometimes even targeted sensitive Russian civilian and military infrastructures. Furthermore, we observe that a possible obstacle to coordination at the operational and tactical levels is the inherently complex and secretive nature of Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) activity: proper coordination would require sharing highly sensitive and critical information among the involved parties, such as details on the infrastructures, techniques, and procedures being used
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