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Trapped in Time and Place:Cognitive Immobility Among Diaspora Communities
Full text linkThis article adopts the interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) approach to explore the phenomenon of cognitive immobility, where individuals remain cognitively trapped in experiences or locations despite elapsed time and physical distance from those events and places. It explores how (im)mobility and life transitions hold people in the past. The study focuses on the cognitive experiences of Mrs Eve, an African-American woman who on her first visit to Dakar, Senegal, felt a deep, unexplained connection to the place. The article triangulates Mrs Eve’s experiences against those shared by other individuals in previously published peer-reviewed narratives to reveal how (im)mobility and life transitions can lead to cognitive immobility. It underscores that traumatic or memorable life experiences can result in cognitive immobility under certain circumstances and thus enriches the discourse on people who are cognitively trapped in their past
We Can’t Keep Winging It: Evidence for the Drivers of Declines and Conservation Interventions for Pollinators
Full text linkPollinator declines are a widely recognised global threat due to their role in agriculture and non-agricultural plant biodiversity. These declines are associated with habitat degradation and fragmentation, agricultural intensification, pesticide use, emerging diseases and climate change. These declines urgently require conservation interventions and policy responses. However, to be successful conservation interventions and policy responses need to be implemented with an adequate evidence base, including evaluations of the drivers of declines, conservation interventions and monitoring tools. The work presented in this thesis focuses on providing evidence for pollinator conservation. Specifically, providing evidence for emerging diseases as a driver of declines, citizen interventions as conservation measures, and the driver of pollinator communities as well as a comparison of the analytical tools used to assess pollinator communities. In the introductory chapter I provide an overview of the literature relating to the importance of pollinators, the declines of pollinators, the drivers of these declines and the potential interventions for declines. Further, I consider the pertinent literature surrounding the subsequent four chapters, including the use of protected areas, the phenomena of pathogen spillover and extent in pollinators, and the use of citizen interventions for pollinator conservation. Chapter 2 provides an overview of the methods used within the subsequent four chapters. Chapter 3 investigates the effects of landscape level and habitat quality factors on pollinator communities present in protected calcareous grasslands. This chapter uses two analyses and varying scales of assessing pollinator communities to understand the effects of drivers of pollinator communities. Here, floral species richness increased the abundance of butterflies and the species richness of hoverflies. Further, limited landscape quality effects were found. However, the use of hierarchical modelling of species communities showed species level response to habitat quality and landscape factors. Chapter 4 presents the extent of pathogen spillover of the honeybee virus, DWV-B, to wild bee species was assessed in important, often protected, grassland landscapes. The extent of pathogen spillover was assessed and the drivers of the likelihood of pathogen spillover were also considered looking at both pollinator communities present and landscape quality. Here, pathogen spillover was found to occur in 32 grassland sites across five countries in four bee species. The likelihood of infection and viral load in wild bees was found to be driven by the prevalence and viral load of DWV-B in honeybees, respectively. Further, the abundance of bumblebees was positively correlated with prevalence in wild bees, however, negatively correlated with viral load. Chapter 5 and 6 focus on the potential for altered mowing frequency as a citizen intervention for pollinators. Both chapters investigate the capacity for reduced mowing in summer to increase floral resources available and subsequently increase pollinator abundance. Chapter 5 uses a national scale study based in gardens. Chapter 6 uses the UK Ministry of Justice prison and court system as a case study for urban and semi-urban building parks. Both chapters find positive effects on floral resource availability and pollinator abundance of reduced mowing. The final discussion (Chapter 7) explores the key findings of the thesis as a whole and discusses their implications for pollinator conservation. As well as discussing the future directions from the prior chapters required for the conservation of pollinators. <br/
The lifetimes and potential change in planetary albedo owing to the oxidation of thin surfactant organic films extracted from atmospheric aerosol by hydroxyl (OH) radicals at the air–water interface of particles
Full text linkCultural Geographies III:What if…? Imagination, worldly relations, and doing research otherwise
Full text link“With Time and Space, I Can Be Me”: Black and Minority Ethnic Perspectives of the Role of Ethnicity and Social Identity in an Inpatient High Secure Setting
Full text linkThere is an increased number of inpatients in High Secure Forensic Hospitals from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds and an under representation of research in this area. This project aimed to explore the lived experiences of these patients in a UK High Secure Hospital (HSPS) specifically in relation to their social and ethnic identity, if and how this is considered by staff in their treatment plans and understanding of perceived threat in the system. 7 semi structured interviews were conducted. A Reflexive Thematic Analysis was conducted and revealed four themes of i) intergenerational trauma ii) racial assumptions and misperceptions iii) identity as a form of sanctuary, and iii) perceived impact of ethnicity on care. Participants spoke of the negative impacts of colonisation, and historical and present racist public attitudes on their mental health. Racial assumptions and misperceptions were found to perpetuate ongoing stress and mistrust in mental health systems and staff at the HSPS which impacted on their identity and recovery. When aspects of social and ethnic identity were considered, this facilitated trust and pathed the way for recovery. Additionally, service users made calls for further representation of BAME professionals in the HSPS and a want for advocacy in early stages of admission. Findings indicate that BAME service users need enhanced support from staff through cultural competence, recognition of social and ethnic identity in assessments and treatment plans, and peer support from service users with lived experiences. Future calls for research could consider the efficacy of considering social and ethnic identities at assessment, the impact of racial trauma and the impact on treatment outcomes through Experts by Experience (EbE) advocates. Strengths and limitations are discussed. <br/
Mott is Different: An Information Theory Description of Mott Physics
Full text linkThis thesis brings an information-theoretic perspective to strongly correlated electron physics problems. Using the paradigmatic model of interacting systems capturing the competition between kinetic and potential energy, the Hubbard model, in two dimensions on a 2 × 2 square lattice, entropy-based quantities are used to characterise the phases of the model as a function of doping. These quantities are analysed in the Mott insulating phase, through the strongly correlated pseudogap phase and correlated metallic phase, and in the superconducting phase. The local entropy and mutual information are found to exhibit an inflection at the endpoint of the pseudogap-correlated metal transition that is continuously connected to the Mott transition at zero doping, a signature of Mott physics extending away from half filling. The inflections trace out a crossover line from the endpoint. In the superconducting phase, the local entropy is found to reflect the source of the superconducting condensation energy, whilst the total mutual information reveals amplified quantum and classical correlations within the superconducting dome. Thermodynamic measures including the thermodynamic entropy and the velocity of sound are also characterised across the pseudogap to correlated metal transition, contributing to the body of work studying cuprate systems - for which the Hubbard model is a minimal model. The thermodynamic entropy in the normal state exhibits a broad maximum that is obliterated in the superconducting phase. The velocity of sound exhibits sharp dips as a function of doping and interaction, arising from Mott physics. Finally, the probability of the eigenstates of the 2 × 2 plaquette in the superconducting state is analysed. These works are presented in a series of four co-authored publications accepted to PRX Quantum [1], PNAS [2], and PRB [3,4]. The results and predictions presented in this thesis could be tested with optical lattice experiments with ultracold atomic gases, and contribute to an understanding of cuprate high temperature superconductors
Handling Grammar Cycles in the 1997 SML Definition
Full text linkFully general parsers permit the syntax specification of formallanguages to be unrestricted, allowing language designersto use a syntax specification that supports semanticsspecification, but also permitting ambiguity. Language workbenchesthat support fully general grammars need toolswhich can generate robust default behaviour but also allowexperienced designers to specify particular choices when ambiguityis encountered. The standard longest match approachto ambiguity resolution is not robust when a grammar containscycles. Although cycles can be removed from a grammar,this disrupts the syntax specification. We present analgorithm that safely removes cycles from the shared packedparse forests generated by general parsers and explore theapplication of the algorithm to the 1997 SML Definition. Thealgorithm results in a sub-forest to which further designerspecifiedor default disambiguation rules can be applied
The Value of Statelessness Legal Protection when Representing Stateless Persons Seeking Sanctuary in the UK
Full text linkNationality is a major component of refugee status. All other elements of the refugee definition have no traction if nationality is not first identified - or found to be inexistent. Identifying (the lack of) nationality also impacts refugee statusdetermination (RSD). Hitherto, statelessness can be difficult to prove - especially in cases where the applicant has lost their identity documentation, or has had it stolen or destroyed during displacement. Although not all refugees are stateless and not all stateless people are refugees, there is a significant overlap between these two categories. Indeed, statelessness can be both a cause and a result of forced displacement. Therefore, the determination of statelessness plays an important role in the success - or failure - of securing refugee status. Moreover, in cases where refugee status is difficult to prove, securing protection under the 1954 Statelessness Convention emerges as a valuable alternative. The present article explores the importance of identifying and proving statelessness for asylum-seekers. Ultimately, it argues for a reconsideration of how statelessness and its potential recognition protect people seeking sanctuary. In cases where refugee status is difficult or impossible to establish, practitioners should make use of the statelessness procedure
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