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Global semiotics
No full textAlmost since its inception as a disciplinary field in the second half of the twentieth-century, semiotics has been conceived as global. This globality has consisted of two immediately visible strands. For semiotics’ proponents, sign study has freed research from its disciplinary straitjacket, allowing semiosic phenomena to be approached and understood without isolation from neighbouring phenomena and with the explanatory consequences of methodological freedom. For semiotics’ antagonists, within traditional disciplines, but particularly in hitherto allied enclaves of theory such as postmodernism/poststructuralism, the wide purview of sign study amounts to an imperialist ‘grand narrative’. Yet, beyond these strands it is clear that the globality of the semiotic enterprise has much more important co-ordinates. The most obvious of these entails a transdisciplinary practice that seeks to reveal what it is, for all disciplines, acting complementarily, to be human and has been the most likely candidate to reunite the spheres of knowledge and wisdom since the Enlightenment. Second, a conception of the academy, the act of knowing and the relation of both to the natural environment which provides a critical contrast with mainstream currents of ‘globalization’ as it is promoted by governments and transnational capital. Third, an understanding of how knowing may be networked beyond the boundaries of national enclaves. This paper will survey the evolution of the idea of global semiotics with attention to the history of its traditions, the development of its theory and methodologies, plus its institutional and trans-institutional co-ordinates
Rights reversion and contract adjustment
Get PDFThis report was commissioned by the UK's Intellectual Property Office in reponse to recommendations by the DCMS Select Committee to implement changes to UK copyright law to help benefit music creators in respect of their revenues from on-demand streaming. These recommendations concern a reversion right (similar to the termination right in the US) and a right of contract adjustment (similar to adjustment right that is outlined in the European Unions's Digital Single Market Directive)
Privacy preserving context-aware framework for cardiac health monitoring
Get PDFThe impact of digital technology on healthcare delivery services is increasing as new technologies evolve and current technologies expand. These technologies have the potential to provide a platform to reason about the health condition of a patient using relevant contextual information. Context-aware reasoning is particularly important in cardiac health monitoring because of the increasing number of deaths resulting from cardiac diseases. As a result, several efforts have been made to develop intelligent systems for cardiac condition monitor-ing. Nevertheless, most of the existing systems for cardiac health monitoring are generally based on physiological information, mainly the heart rate or electrocardiogram(ECG) signals, while the few research that does integrate contextual information has not considered the privacy of the patients in the development process. This research proposes a privacy-preserving context-aware framework for cardiac health monitoring using contextual information from the patient’s behavior data to facilitate physicians’ decision-making.
The framework considers patient’s privacy by allowing the user to take control of the data generated from the sensors as information is stored in the user’s device and not transferred to any server. Furthermore, the user’s pri-vacy is also considered at the algorithm training and model generation stage by adopting a federated machine learning technique. Using federated learning for model development which is a key contribution of this research aims to maintain user privacy by allowing clients from different locations to collabo-ratively learn a machine learning model without sending datasets to a central server.
In addition, the framework addresses the issue of context acquisition by engaging healthcare professionals in the development process. A prototype tagged ”mCardiac” is presented as a proof of concept. The design, implemen-tation, and evaluation of mCardiac was made possible by constant interaction with healthcare professionals. mCardiac was also evaluated with cardiac pa-tients who were asked to use the system to validate the effectiveness of the approach
Health, wellbeing, and social interaction: an international and demographic analysis of perceived life changes and the positives and negatives of the COVID-19 lockdown
Get PDFResearch suggests that people’s experiences of COVID-19 lockdowns have been detrimental to their lives and wellbeing. The current research compared the experiences and perceptions on health, wellbeing and social interaction of 300 UK adults and 450 adults in California. Individuals reported whether aspects of their life had changed for the better, worse, or not at all during lockdown in April 2020, and what the “best” and “worst” things about lockdown were. There were more similarities than differences in the regional comparison of perceptions of changes in specific aspects of ‘health and wellbeing’ and ‘social interaction’. Both regions reported the same number and nature of best and worst things about lockdown. Overarching themes of ‘health, self and wellbeing’, ‘being with others’, and ‘concerns with daily living’ were identified. Although reports of life changes and the positives and negatives of lockdown were similar across different demographic groups, some differences were present by age, sex, relationship, and family-status. Incorporating knowledge of unified and positive experiences of lockdown can be useful in informing future lockdown restrictions and supporting the population when restrictions are lifted
Seasonal variation of physical performance, bilateral deficit, and inter-limb asymmetry in elite academy soccer players: which metrics are sensitive to change?
Get PDFThis study aimed to report seasonal variations for: 1) physical performance, 2) inter-limb asymmetry and, 3) BLD data over the course of a competitive soccer season, and determine which metrics are sensitive to change. This study used a repeated measures observational design for 19 under-20 elite academy soccer players (age: 17.58 ± 0.61 years; height: 1.81 ± 0.09 m; body mass: 74.36 ± 7.58 kg), who conducted bilateral and single leg countermovement jumps (CMJ and SLCMJ), linear speed (5, 10, 20 and 30-m) and 505 change of direction (COD) speed tests, at pre, mid and end of season time points. For jump tests, jump height, reactive strength index modified (RSI-Mod), time to take-off and countermovement depth metrics were monitored, with inter-limb asymmetry and the bilateral deficit (BLD) also calculated for each. Significant improvements (p < 0.05) in performance were evident in all fitness tests: CMJ (ES: 0.61 to 1.03), SLCMJ (ES: 0.60 to 2.25), linear speed (ES: -0.54 to -1.96) and COD speed (ES: -0.68 to -1.14). Significant reductions in asymmetry (ES: -0.68 to -1.07) and significant increases in the BLD (ES: 1.15 to 1.57) were also evident throughout the season. Additionally, Kappa coefficients were used to determine consistency in limb dominance throughout the season, but only poor to fair levels of agreement (K: -0.17 to 0.37) were evident, highlighting the fluctuating nature of limb dominance throughout the season. Despite all tests exhibiting meaningful change, the SLCMJ and linear speed showed the most frequent and largest differences in performance, highlighting their usefulness in the ongoing monitoring process of physical capacities in elite male academy players across a competitive soccer season
Introduction: Researching racism in nursing
No full textIn writing this book, we engage with new forms of nursing knowledge which recognise the social, political and historical context in which knowledge and nursing are produced. The authors in this edited book have set themselves the task of examining the influence of race and racial ideologies on disciplinary knowledge and inquiry. To introduce the chapters which follow, this chapter sets out the argument that racism is an ideology rather than a scientific theory and that the scientific theories of race represent human beings and their social relationships in a distorted manner. We start with an historical overview of race and racism, discussing the historical legacy of economic systems and the interplay between agency and social structures which contribute (in our view) to current institutional, structural and cultural racism and its manifestation: i.e. microaggression, indirect and direct forms of racism, intentional and unintentional racism and the effect of structural and institutional racism on patient outcomes. After reviewing briefly theories of race, we outline the history of racism in nursing and midwifery and the key discourses in the field. We will refer to research on racism in nursing and midwifery where appropriate
Palladium iodide-catalyzed selective carbonylative double cyclization of 4-(2-aminophenyl)-3-yn-1-ols to dihydrofuroquinolinone derivatives
Get PDFThe PdI2/KI‐catalyzed oxidative carbonylation of 4‐(2‐aminophenyl)‐3‐yn‐1‐ols, bearing two potential nucleophilic groups in suitable position selectively leads to dihydrofuroquinolinone derivatives in fair to high yields (60%—89%) and excellent turnover numbers (180—267 mol of product per mol of Pd) over 19 examples, through a mechanistic pathway involving initial O‐cyclization followed by N‐cyclocarbonylation. In such process, the selective catalytic construction of two rings and three new bonds is achieved in one synthetic step to afford high value added fused heterocyclic structures starting from readily available materials
Live demonstration: a bioimpedance-based robotic hand control platform using a customised neural network
Get PDFThis work presents a high-accuracy hand gesture recognition platform for robotic hand control. The platform consists of a flexible 8-electrode band, a high-performance electrical impedance tomography (EIT) system, a compact customised neural network deployed on a laptop and a robotic hand. The EIT system captures the bioimpedance features from muscle contraction and bone movement in the upper arm. After training, the customised neural network can predict hand gestures using bioimpedance features. The visitor will experience smooth control of a robotic hand by performing desired gestures using this demo platform
A psychotherapeutic service for women in an independent approved premise: a case study
No full textWorking psychotherapeutically with residents in a female-only Independent Approved Premises (IAP) necessitates understanding their needs to strengthen its efficacy. This case study explored, through a reflexive lens, what providing an on-site psychotherapeutic service means to residents who have not previously engaged with the service and for the staff who refer residents. To date, there are limited studies of this phenomenon in a woman-only IAP and on what support women need from a psychotherapeutic perspective.
There are 100 Approved Premises (APs) within the Criminal Justice System (CJS) in England and Wales, mostly run by the Probation Service (PS). Twelve APs are provided by independent organisations and nine are women-only. A women-only AP houses between 15 and 26 women (residents), who have been released from custody, are on licence, bail, or community sentences.
Women are frequently referred toward APs/IAPs to support their reintegration into the broader community. The main goal is to foster women’s self-sufficiency, discourage criminal behaviour and prevent recall to prison. Communities like APs/IAPs often go unnoticed yet play an integral role in the CJS by supporting women in the latter stages of their sentences.
Five residents took part in two separate focus groups using an unstructured interview process and three staff took part in individual semi-structured interviews. To support a social constructionist-interpretative paradigm, Reflexive Thematic Analysis (RTA) (Braun and Clarke, 2006) was used to analyse the data. This led to four overall themes: focus group theme one: the therapeutic encounter in prison; focus group theme two: inhabiting an IAP; individual interviews: theme one: IAP – clarity and purpose; and individual interviews theme two: the tsunami at the door.
The research findings highlighted the importance of relational connectedness, fostering feelings of safety, value and affirmation within the therapeutic relationships, that supports working from a trauma-informed approach. This study emphasised the increasing importance of conducting comprehensive assessments before female offenders are released from prison. This is especially crucial considering the rising number of referrals to APs/IAPs with medium-to-high risk levels, prompting substantial inquiries into the potential implications for safety and risk management. This study also draws attention to the positive impact of IAP staff working with residents and raises awareness about the potential effects of vicarious trauma and burnout on them, whilst also suggesting strategies to address these challenges. Furthermore, the research emphasises the role of psychotherapy in supporting resident placements at the IAP, contributing to a reduction in prison recalls. These findings hold implications for counselling psychologists/psychotherapists, and other clinical practitioners, working within APs/IAPs, particularly those employing a non-offence-based approach