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Introduction: conjunctural geographies of post-socialist and postcolonial conditions
No full textThis special issue is part of the ongoing efforts of scholars, artists and activists to challenge knowledge production hierarchies in and about the post-socialist East. It takes the latter as its point of departure _as a site of autonomous theoretical and political practice_. The articles in this special issue focus on a range of topics, including infrastructure and mobility, protest and social contention, feminist and queer activism, property rights and human-soil relationships. All papers reveal and contest the erasure, marginalization and reductionism at play in academic, media and public discourses when it comes to the sociopolitical realities and the histories of the post-socialist East, along with the lived and embodied violence that ensue from the domination of Eurocentric models in post-socialist societies. Each paper offers its own ways of moving beyond political and epistemological deadends, offering alternative interpretations, methods, ways of theorizing, and academic, activist and artistic practices, in an effort to contribute towards decolonizing knowledge production and political practice in the region. These contributions offer different strategies through which to navigate and push against our marginalization in knowledge production by engaging with post- and decolonial thinking, unearthing forgotten or marginalized histories, or creating new spaces for knowledge production for post-socialist lives beyond conventional Western paradigms
Exploring the motivations and social organisation of intoxication in prison settings
No full textStudies on drug and alcohol use in prison settings have primarily focused on prevalence, harms, treatment and policies, whereas the topic of ‘intoxication’ in prison settings has rarely been explored. In this chapter, we aim to synthesise existing social science literature on the use of drugs in prisons with theoretical perspectives from penology and drug studies in order to investigate prisoners’ motivations for drug use and intoxication in prisons, the role that drugs play as part of the social organisation of people in prisons, and the possible relationship between intoxication and pleasure in the prison context. The chapter also offers an overview of prevalence rates of drug use before, during and after prison to contextualise the analysis. We hope that the chapter can inspire future research on the many meanings drugs and intoxication take in prison settings and the many diverse practices of both prisoners and staff related to drug and alcohol issues
Digital twin technology heritage restoration as a use case - predictive digital twin opportunities in heritage management
No full textDigital Twin represents the interconnection and convergence between a physical system and its digital representation created as an entity of its own. Both entities, the physical object and the digital object are fully integrated and can exchange information in both directions. Thus, the digital object could act as a controlling instance of the physical object and vice versa. Internet of Things (IoT) is used to automatically collect data from the physical entity in real-time while the digital twin along with big data analytics could use the data to predict, estimate and analyze the dynamic changes within the physical object. An optimized solution is then fed back to the physical object that would adapt accordingly. This makes the digital twin technology the focus of the global digital transformation within a wide range of areas, such as: manufacturing, infrastructure, healthcare, transportation, etc. as it has the potential to optimize the operational processes. In this talk, we focus on the concept and the current stage of the digital twin technology and its development for heritage restoration. We will study heritage situation in Egypt as a case study, as part of our work at London Digital Twin Research Centre
Using virtual avatars to explore the impact of instructors' gender, race, and qualification on perceived learning in an online classroom
No full textThere is substantial evidence that students' perceptions and evaluations of instructors are influenced by their expectations and implicit biases, which further impacts their learning and motivation in higher education. Two ongoing studies with an experimental design examine the impact of A) gender (male, female) and race (South Asian, White) and B) gender and qualifications (MA, Ph.D.) on perceived learning and interest in further learning from the same lecturer. 220 and 325 UAE-based students, respectively, were shown a video of an avatar delivering a short online lecture. Virtual avatars' characteristics were manipulated one at a time while keeping content, tone, delivery, environment, and overall appearance consistent. In the first study, gender and race did not significantly facilitate learning. A non-significant trend suggested that participants showed greater interest in further learning from a male lecturer F (1, 220) = 3.12, p = 0.07, while race remained not significant. Gender and qualification, when race was fixed to South Asian, also did not significantly facilitate learning. However, a significant cross-over interaction F (1, 321) = 6.43, p = .01 showed that participants had a greater interest in further learning from a female lecturer with M.A. and a male lecturer with a Ph.D. In line with previous research, findings indicate gender disparity based on educational qualifications. Importantly race does not show discriminatory bias. Given there is limited information in the context of Middle East and South Asia, findings highlight differences specific to the region. Analysis with the full dataset will be presented at the conference
Correlation between safety attitudes and early adoption of cognitive aids in the German culture sphere: a multicenter survey study
Get PDFBackground: Cognitive Aids (checklists) are a common tool to improve patient safety. But the factors for their successful implementation and continuous use are not yet fully understood. Recent publications suggest safety culture to play a key role in this context. However, the effects on the outcome of implementation measures remain unclear. Hospitals and clinics that are involved in cognitive aid development and research might have significantly different safety cultures than their counterparts, resulting in skewed assessments of proper implementation. Therefore, the objective of this study was to assess the correlation between cognitive aid implementation and safety attitudes of staff members in early adopting and later adopting clinics. Methods: An online survey of the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ) was carried out in German anaesthesiology departments during the initial implementation of a new checklist for emergencies during anesthesia (“eGENA” app). Subsequently an analysis between subgroups (“eGENA” app usage and occupation), with Kruskal–Wallis- and Mann–Whitney-U-Tests was carried out for the general SAQ, as well as it six subscales. Results: Departments that introduced “eGENA” app (Median 3,74, IQR 0,90) reported a significantly higher median SAQ (U (NeGENA = 6, Nnon eGENA = 14) = 70,0, z = 2,31, p = 0,02, r = 0,516) than their counterparts (Median 2,82, IQR 0,77) with significant differences in the dimensions teamwork climate, work satisfaction, perception of management and working conditions. Conclusion: Early adopters of cognitive aids are likely to show a significantly higher perception of safety culture in the SAQ. Consequently, successful implementation steps from these settings might not be sufficient in different clinics. Therefore, further investigation of the effects of safety culture on cognitive aid implementation should be conducted
Migratory bodies express markers of tumour initiating cells and may represent an early stage of osteosarcoma sarcosphere initiation and metastasis
No full textAchieving sustainability: from innovation to valorisation and continuous improvement
Get PDFThe Software Process Improvement methodology plans and implements improvement activities to achieve specific goals, for example, increasing development speed, achieving higher product quality, and reducing costs. The approach paves way for the implementation of SPI innovations in software organisations. Innovation is the successful implementation of novel and appropriate ideas within an organisation. Innovation is underpinned by the concepts of creativity and invention. Often organisations, projects and individuals fail to gain adequate value let alone added value from their innovations. The term valorisation encompasses all activities that maximise the achievements of a project and innovation. The emphasis is on optimising the value of the project and innovation for diverse stakeholders (society, community, institutions, and individuals) and boosting its impact.
In this paper, the authors report on the understandings and collective experience gained over several years in industry as well as academia culminating in the design and implementation of the European Union VALO Project which dissemination and exploitation. VALO outputs include the elements of the training and online examination for possible certification to become Valorisation experts. The insights gained from the VALO project, enabled the development of a valorisation strategy which is used, alongside quality strategies to enable the development of a Quality and Valorisation of Projects Framework. The genericity of the framework provides the potential foundations for successful projects of high quality and maximises the valorisation of project and innovation results.
Software development projects (and projects in general) fail regularly. These quality failures manifest themselves in late deliveries, over-budget, not satisfying the users’ requirements and more importantly poor reliability. Quality attributes are system qualities (such as availability, modifiability, performance and security), business qualities, (such as time to market, cost and benefit, product lifetime and target market), and architectural qualities (such as conceptual integrity, correctness and completeness). Whenever any of these qualities are compromised a system can be considered a total or partial failure. Moreover, after a project’s completion, there is often evidence that it fails to deliver sustained value to stakeholders. In this paper, we examine the challenges and benefits of sustainability viewed from a STEEPLED multidimensional analysis
Digital twins: a survey on enabling technologies, challenges, trends and future prospects
Get PDFDigital Twin (DT) is an emerging technology surrounded by many promises, and potentials to reshape the future of industries and society overall. A DT is a system-of-systems which goes far beyond the traditional computer-based simulations and analysis. It is a replication of all the elements, processes, dynamics, and firmware of a physical system into a digital counterpart. The two systems (physical and digital) exist side by side, sharing all the inputs and operations using real-time data communications and information transfer. With the incorporation of Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), 3D models, next generation mobile communications (5G/6G), Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), distributed computing, Transfer Learning (TL), and electronic sensors, the digital/virtual counterpart of the real-world system is able to provide seamless monitoring, analysis, evaluation and predictions. The DT offers a platform for the testing and analysing of complex systems, which would be impossible in traditional simulations and modular evaluations. However, the development of this technology faces many challenges including the complexities in effective communication and data accumulation, data unavailability to train Machine Learning (ML) models, lack of processing power to support high fidelity twins, the high need for interdisciplinary collaboration, and the absence of standardized development methodologies and validation measures. Being in the early stages of development, DTs lack sufficient documentation. In this context, this survey paper aims to cover the important aspects in realization of the technology. The key enabling technologies, challenges and prospects of DTs are highlighted. The paper provides a deep insight into the technology, lists design goals and objectives, highlights design challenges and limitations across industries, discusses research and commercial developments, provides its applications and use cases, offers case studies in industry, infrastructure and healthcare, lists main service providers and stakeholders, and covers developments to date, as well as viable research dimensions for future developments in DTs
Turning towards discomfort in postdevelopmental approaches to childhood art: The potentials of multimodal mediated discourse analysis
Get PDFPostdevelopmental approaches to childhood art aim to go beyond the constraining parameters and trajectories of the dominant paradigm of developmentalism. Postdevelopmental researchers embrace methods that enable us to engage more fully with children’s art-making by actively turning towards aspects of the experience that may be uncomfortable or disruptive. Multimodal mediated discourse analysis (MMDA) is a methodological tool that can be used as a way to tune into ‘pivots’ in the action of children’s art-making. In doing this, MMDA can be used as a means to provoke a wider and richer discussion of children’s art-making. In this article, I show how working with MMDA can deepen our dialogues about taboo, disgust, mess, cleanliness, waste and scarcity in relation to children’s art-making
Deaf women's experiences of maternity in primary care: an integrative review
Get PDFBackground: An estimated 24,000 people in the UK report using British Sign Language (BSL) as their first language. Misconceptions about deaf culture and language mean that deaf people have less access to health information and their health literacy is lower. Deaf people's health needs go under the radar in primary care with ensuing poorer health outcomes. Deaf women's experiences of maternity care are poorly understood.
Methods: Using Whittemore and Knafl's method for an integrative review, the following databases were searched: EMBASE, MedLine, CINAHL and Maternity and Infant Care. After reviewing 430 journal article titles and abstracts against the inclusion/exclusion criteria, 11 articles were included for final review. Selected studies were conducted internationally and were available in English. 10 were qualitative studies, 1 used survey design. They were reviewed using the Caldwell Framework.
Findings: These show that deaf women avoid seeking care, have a lack of access to health information and healthcare providers, including midwives, have a lack of deaf awareness. For deaf women, during pregnancy, birth and postnatal periods, this can mean having longer hospital stays and more complex postnatal care needs in both the hospital and community setting.
Conclusions: Current care provisions do not always meet the needs of the deaf BSL using women who use maternity services. Midwives should be aware of deafness as a culture and how to best meet the needs of the community to improve health outcomes for women and their babies