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Many Unexploited Opportunities to Penalise Rule-Breaking MPs - Legislative Conduct Accountability at Westminster from 1995 to 2019
Get PDFThis thesis explores to what extent MPs in Britain were punished for breaching parliamentary rules between 1995 and 2019. It first develops an original conceptual framework for analysing three distinct ‘faces’ of legislative conduct accountability: the institutional, the party and the electoral faces and suggests that there are various opportunities to punish rule-breaking MPs within each face. Using Britain as a case study, the thesis then examines what types and how many ethics violations have occurred in the House of Commons since it established a formal Code of Conduct, what characteristics have affected MPs’ propensity to breach parliamentary rules, and the extent to which existing opportunities to penalise rule-breaking MPs have been exploited in each of the three faces. Documentary analysis illustrates that the most common types of ethics violations were failures to register relevant interests, improper private gain from official resources, and failures to declare relevant interests. While less than one-tenth of all MPs who served in the Commons between 1995 and 2019 committed ethics violations, regression analysis shows that male MPs displayed a higher propensity to do so than female MPs. MPs who first entered Parliament at an older age were also less likely to violate the Commons’ Code. Most importantly, descriptive and regression analyses based on aggregate constituency-level data suggest that despite tremendous efforts at the institutional level to monitor, investigate and penalise rule-breaking MPs, the opportunities to impose penalties particularly at the party and electoral level are far from being fully utilised. Thus, in the coming years it may be especially important to focus on intra-party reforms, such as ethics bodies or binding ethical guidelines, and electoral reforms, such as increasing the competitiveness in constituencies, instead of adhering to the idea that additional institutional regulations are required to combat legislative misconduct
Popularity-Independence in Evaluation and Learning for Link Prediction and Recommender Systems
Get PDFNetworks are an important concept in many areas of business, science and technology. They describe how a group of entities interact, or link, with each other. Models that can accurately predict new links in the network are valuable. For example, social media platforms use link prediction to suggest friendships, streaming platforms use it to recommend movies, and pharmaceutical companies use it to prioritise drug candidates. In some networks, the metrics we typically use to evaluate link prediction models are highly dependent on assigning a high probability to links involving popular entities. This can lead to bad model selection because: models that appear to perform poorly can sometimes be drastically improved by trivially modifying them; performance may not generalise to unseen links; and link prediction based heavily on popularity is less meaningful and, as a result, less trustworthy. Existing work has tried to tackle this problem by attempting to counteract an estimated (or assumed) popularity bias. We take a different approach. We propose the idea of popularity-independence in link prediction. We define a criterion for link prediction metrics to be popularity-independent, and define a metric that satisfies this criterion, the Double-Edge Swap Score. We show how the Double-Edge Swap Score differs from existing metrics by conducting experiments on eight biomedical networks where node popularity is highly predictive of links. We also explore training models to optimise a popularity-independent loss function. We conduct further experiments with a model trained in this way, and show that there is no significant performance gain compared to standard loss functions
Comparing Colonialisms in Dan Simmons's The Terror and its AMC Adaptation
Get PDFWhile the AMC broadcast adaptation of Dan Simmons’ horror novel The Terror is largely faithful to the book, key differences in the portrayal of the Inuit, the British expedition members and the supernatural Tuunbaq creature, as well as in the fates of certain characters, lead to contrasting messages about colonialism and resistance from each text. Broadly speaking, the book has a less sympathetic and nuanced portrayal of native people and their resistance to colonialism, but ultimately a more optimistic view of the sustainability of their relationship with the environment; the broadcast series, in contrast, provides ample space for the native perspective on colonisation and a more complex exploration of the relationship between colonizer and colonized, but is ultimately pessimistic about the outcomes of resistance against colonialism. This paper will analyse the source work and adaptation in comparison with each other, and, finally, will explore what the differences say about the authors’ contrasting perspectives on the subject of colonialism and resistance, and about changes in the social environment between the writing of the book and the production of the broadcast series. <br/
Hyperparameter Optimization Techniques for Enhanced Machine Learning Energy Forecasting:A Comparative Analysis
Get PDFAdvanced machine learning (ML) models are essential for power system forecasting, yet their performance critically depends on architecture structure and parameter definition. Manual parameter tuning is time-consuming and forecasting errors can significantly impact utilities economically, making ML model optimization vital. This paper presents a comparative analysis of optimization techniques for tuning ML models across diverse energy data sources (photovoltaic (PV), mains, and battery energy storage systems (BESS)) and varying dataset sizes. Evaluation with real-world data on a Deep Neural Network (DNN) for 1-second ahead predictions revealed that Bayesian and meta-learning approaches consistently deliver superior performance with lower computational time. Grid search showed unexpected strength with smaller datasets, while random search and Population-Based Training (PBT) performed well with extensive data but degraded with small datasets. The Bayesian multi objective approach performed comparably to standard Bayesian optimization but with increased computational demands. Results revealed that all models showed 10-15% lower performance with mains data compared to PV, while BESS data yielded results approximately 3% below PV performance. The significant variance across data sources underscores the importance of tailoring optimization strategies to each energy data type’s inherent characteristics, including temporal volatility patterns, noise profiles, and feature correlations. Therefore, effective hyperparameter tuning must consider both computational constraints and the fundamental stochastic properties of the underlying energy systems
Response to the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s “Proposed Accounting Standards Update—Government Grants (Topic 832):Accounting for Government Grants by Business Entities”
Get PDFThis paper summarizes a comment letter we submitted to the Financial Accounting Standards Board in March 2025 in response to its Proposed Accounting Standards Update on accounting for government grants by business entities. We submitted a comment letter at the request of the Financial Reporting Policy Committee, which is charged by the Financial Accounting and Reporting Section of the American Accounting Association with responding to requests for comment from standard setters on financial reporting issues. The proposed amendments aim to establish authoritative guidance on accounting for government grants received by business entities. We conclude that the proposed amendments will not provide decision-useful information to financial statement users. We detail the concerns underlying this conclusion and offer recommendations to address them. We also summarize findings from academic research and offer suggestions for future research
From Barriers to Belonging: Societal Perceptions, Transport Accessibility, and the role of Travel Buddies:Understanding the social processes of Travel Buddies, peer-to-peer travel support for people with learning disabilities
Get PDFPeople with learning disabilities remain socially excluded from many aspects of life, with one quarter spending less than one hour per day outside their home. Societal stigma and limited transportation options are key barriers to inclusion, with many people relying on taxis, family, or friends to attend appointments and activities. These arrangements can be costly, unsustainable, and further reinforce dependency. They also fail to challenge public perceptions, often segregating people with learning disabilities from the wider community, thus contributing to their invisibility. Travel Buddies are people with learning disabilities and/or autism, employed to support others with learning disabilities to travel. While peer support has been explored within mental health and recovery contexts, little is known about the social processes and the added value of peer support in travel contexts for people with learning disabilities. This study aimed to explore the social processes involved in peer-to-peer travel support within the context of learning disabilities. A constructivist grounded theory approach was used, alongside ethnographic methods within one inner-city Travel Buddies service in the UK. Data collection took place through nine semi-structured interviews with eight Travel Buddies and their manager, as well as five observations and audio recordings of travel journeys involving four Travel Buddies and clients. Findings revealed that Travel Buddies adopt five key roles when supporting clients: ‘care professional’, ‘advocate’, ‘protector’, ‘companion’, and ‘teacher’, often shaped by their own lived experiences, adding value to this role. The findings suggest that peer-led models offer a valuable and inclusive approach to travel support, with implications for the peer-supporter, client, service, and society
How Young People can Shape Environmental Policy in Urban Spaces
Get PDFYounger generations have become increasingly disillusioned with mainstream democratic politics in established democracies. Although young people are interested in politics and engaged in many issue-based forms of participation, it is hard for them to realise the fruits of their labour at the national level. Local democracy may provide a better opportunity for engaging effectively in the issues that affect young people’s everyday lives. This article examines how Public Value approaches work in practice for young people whose voices are usually excluded from the policy-making process. The research adopted a complex large-scale multi-stage qualitative design, that involved focus groups and interviews with young people and local civic leaders from across London. It used participatory research with young Londoners from traditionally marginalised groups. The research revealed that, although policy-makers face important structural challenges, such as the concentration of power and resources in Westminster, they have the potential to move beyond tokenistic engagement with young people. In particular, the results showed how civic and local authorities can build efficacy and trust through initiatives that provide opportunities for deliberation and the co-creation of public policy. In this way, the article makes a clear contribution to our understanding of the role of young people in environmentalism and their democratic value
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