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The Governance of Nature-Based Approaches to Flood Risk Management in the Lower Severn Catchment (England)
Full text linkThis chapter reports on a new arena of flood risk governance in the lower river catchment of the Severn, Britain’s long river. As a result of Living Lab (LL) activity directed towards the natural management of fluvial, pluvial and surface-water run-off in the county, a new governance group was established. The ‘Working With Natural Processes’ (WwNP) sub-group reports to the regional, multi-stakeholder body The English Severn and Wye Regional and Coastal Flood Committee (RFCC), which advises on the allocation of state funds for flood protection along two river catchments. The chapter outlines complexities of flood risk management in Gloucestershire, describing locally specific flood policy and protection challenges in the light of a changing climate, plans for urban expansion and in light of defined political and geographical limits that complicate catchment-wide ESS governance. The establishment of the WwNP sub-group formalises a strategic approach to ‘green’ flood risk interventions and supports the networking of flood authorities and land managers. The chapter describes how the LL facilitated the group’s establishment, not least by trying to align different interests, and particularly by helping to connect urban and rural spatial interests in natural processes for reducing flood risk, which are usually separated into rural and urban areas
SHAX: Evaluation of SVM hardware accelerator for detecting and preventing ROP on Xtensa
Full text linkReturn-oriented programming (ROP) chains together sequences of instructions residing in executable pages of the memory to compromise a program’s control flow. On embedded systems, ROP detection is intricate as such devices lack the resources to directly run sophisticated software-based detection techniques, as these are memory and CPU-intensive.
However, a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) can enhance the capabilities of an embedded device to handle resource-intensive tasks. Hence, this paper presents the first performance evaluation of a Support Vector Machine (SVM) hardware accelerator for automatic ROP classification on Xtensa-embedded devices using hardware performance counters (HPCs).
In addition to meeting security requirements, modern cyber–physical systems must exhibit high reliability against hardware failures to ensure correct functionality. To assess the reliability level of our proposed SVM architecture, we perform simulation-based fault injection at the RT-level. To improve the efficiency of this evaluation, we utilize a hybrid virtual prototype that integrates the RT-level model of the SVM accelerator with the Tensilica LX7 Instruction Set Simulator. This setup enables early-stage reliability assessment, helping to identify vulnerabilities and reduce the need for extensive fault injection campaigns during later stages of the design process.
Our evaluation results show that an SVM accelerator targeting an FPGA device can detect and prevent ROP attacks on an embedded processor with high accuracy in real time. In addition, we explore the most vulnerable locations of our SVM design to permanent faults, enabling the exploration of safety mechanisms that increase fault coverage in future works
Framing the shift to supported employment: Exploring the impacts of a person-centred programme evaluation approach through peer led participatory research
Full text linkEmployment support programs play a crucial role in assisting the unemployed in overcoming challenges to achieve their employment goals. The experiences of participants with multiple challenges provide insights into programme effectiveness in achieving personalised goals of employability, social development, and inclusion. This study contributes to the evaluation of supported employment by presenting a peer-derived framework grounded in participants lived experiences. Interviews with twelve participants revealed themes around employment barriers, participation opportunities, one-to-one support, achievements, and recommendations. Findings highlight the value of flexible, personalised pathways that not only enhance employability but also build confidence, motivation and support social inclusion. The developed framework including personalised support, meaningful activities, and self-perceived progress offers guidance for designing inclusive employment programmes and their evaluation. A key recommendation is the need for ongoing support to sustain employment among disadvantaged individuals managing social, mental, and physical health challenges. From an evaluation perspective, the framework demonstrates how participant-informed mechanisms—such as confidence and empowerment—drive employability and social skills, consistent with the Context–Mechanism–Outcome logic of realist evaluation. By situating peer-led evaluation within realist, empowerment, and utilisation-focused traditions, this study refines programme evaluation and strengthens its practical relevance. It shows how outcome-focused fidelity models, which capture structural quality, can be complemented by peer-led approaches capturing experiential quality. Together, these perspectives provide a holistic and transferable evaluation model that speaks to both programme design and lived experience. Beyond the local context, lessons learned highlight the value of inclusive, participatory evaluation methods in generating credible, stakeholder-driven insights and advancing more effective employment support practices globally
Characteristics of global datasets used to support biodiversity conservation action and policy
No full textAccess to global datasets that describe the ‘state’ of biodiversity across all nation states, are essential to provide the means by which national and international conservation agencies and organisations can: (1) identify priorities, (2) focus limited financial resources, (3) develop and enhance legislative frameworks, (4) identify capacity needs, (5) evaluate progress and compliance in relation to commitments, and (6) support biodiversity-related research. This paper reports on an evaluation of the characteristics of 336 open source global datasets in relation to whether a dataset: (1) includes ‘contemporary’ information less than five years old, (2) provides longitudinal, repeat-measure information, (3) contains missing data for one or more nation states, (4) has the ability to support trend analysis, (5) contains information on projected likely future conditions or state, and (6) requires operator extraction or manipulation prior to use. Searches were conducted for global open source datasets via the internet and grey literature. A total of 336 datasets were identified and allocated into one of three broad thematic areas (biodiversity, the abiotic environment, and socio-economics), and further into 17 sub-areas. Of the 336 datasets evaluated 37% provided information that was more than five years out of date. Nearly a fifth of all datasets (18%) provided only a ‘snap-shot’ information i.e. data that were not longitudinal, and trend analysis was not possible for 22% of datasets. Only 5% of the collated datasets provided information about future potential ‘state’, and 29% had missing data (i.e. with one or more countries not providing information). In terms of the readiness for immediate use of the data, 11% of the datasets required some form of post-access management. Characterising available datasets is an essential element of supporting improvements to the information and evidence available for conservation practitioners. Our evaluation suggests that despite a range of important initiatives and national structural changes in the way data are collected, there is still some way to go before truly high utility data are available to the global conservation community
Payments for Ecosystems Services—Their Role in Creating Rural-Urban Synergies
Full text linkIn this chapter, rural-urban synergies are examined in the context of land and water management interventions and how these are stimulated by payments for ecosystems services (PES). A review of PES literature highlights, by drawing on 10 European case studies, that PES are based on core principles of (i) the recognition of both ESS suppliers and users; and (ii) that payment is conditional on ESS improvements flowing from ESS interventions. Key findings from the analysis include that the most successful PES schemes are cross-sectoral and multi-scalar in their impacts and may represent a correction of prevailing market relations of subsidy dependencies. The opportunities to combine the valorisation of rural distinctiveness with the enhanced opportunity for urban ESS delivery should be an ambition of PES schemes. Such objectives demand clear compensations for lost earnings in PES schemes, a flexible (or ESS-centric) territorial approach to developing PES partnerships and a greater understanding of public-private blended finance to devise PES innovations
EU Policy Framework for Ecosystem Services Promoting Rural-Urban Synergies
Full text linkThis chapter offers a review of eight selected European Union policies and strategies which, to a greater or lesser extent, engage with ecosystem services (ESS). The review reveals three types of policy reference to ESS. Some policies include explicit objectives and mechanisms designed to underpin different types of ESS; others mention ESS explicitly but without suggesting specific policy actions. Lastly, implicit mentions of ESS functions also appear without any direct mention of the term. Our analysis seeks to examine the extent to which EU policies with an explicit or implicit focus on ESS might better secure rural urban synergies. Findings suggest that EU policies which focus on ESS are more likely to support rural-urban synergies if they have eco-social objectives, for example sustainable agriculture or rural development, as outlined for example in the Farm2Fork Strategy and the Long-Term Vision for Rural Areas. Such policies foresee functioning rural-urban links including producer-consumer relations and the economic interaction of rural and urban dwellers. Policies more narrowly concerned with the biological functioning of ecosystems, such as the Soil Strategy or the Biodiversity Strategy are less synergistic, not least because their arena of operation remains predominantly rural
Seeing the bigger picture: an investigation into the impact of process mapping on the management of change in a university library
No full textThis paper examines the impact of process mapping on the management of change in an academic library in a UK higher education institution. Book ordering has been highlighted by a group of subject librarians as being time-consuming and inefficient, detracting from their ability to respond to new challenges and opportunities. An action research approach is used to bring the subject librarians together to draw book ordering process maps, identify on the maps where perceived problem areas lie and discuss potential solutions. Analysis of the empirical data suggests that process maps used in an action learning setting are impactful in terms of demonstrating readiness for change, showing where change is needed and creating a vision for change. The value of investigating the impact of process mapping through the lenses of different change models is discussed and the applicability of this approach to other professional services settings in higher education is explored
The ‘Worlds of Cinema’ and the ‘Cinema of Worlds’: A Heideggerian Phenomenology
Full text linkWithin a range of academic disciplines like film studies, philosophy of film, and narratology, scholars talk about ‘worlds.’ In this essay, I present various ‘ontic’ and ‘ontological’ descriptions of ‘world’ according to a Heideggerian phenomenology. My aim is to distinguish between what I call the ‘worlds of cinema,’ which bring about a particular subject-object relationship experienced as absorption, immersion, distraction, or distancing, and the ‘cinema of worlds,’ where film as art unsettles us as an ontological event, disrupting the subject-object dynamic in which we understand the depthlessness of our Being. Where the once familiar webs of meaning that made up our lives to which movies normally appeal, are now made strange to us through an onto-cinematic event. Here the actuality of my world is only known via its possibilities to which the film, as art, now draws my attention
The visibility of ethics within early childhood research; revised standards for our international community of practice
Full text linkEECERA ethical code for early childhood researchers
Full text linkThe EECERA Ethical Code for Early Childhood Researchers outlines underpinning ethical principles as well as practice guidance to ensure that research undertaken globally within the field of early childhood is done so ethically. This revised ethical code has been expanded to ensure that current global issues such as sustainability and the advancement of technology are evident. It also considers a rising prevalence of desk-based research as we recognise that all research warrants sufficient ethical consideration. International early childhood researchers, under the direction of the EECERA board of trustees, have drawn upon their research experience in this collaborative document which has been reconsidered in light of specific challenges to our field. It is hoped that this revised EECERA Ethical Code will encourage all researchers to acknowledge the layers of ethical complexity that invariably occur when working within the field of early childhood research
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