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Seeing is believing
No full textThere has always been a sense that when you view an image in a newspaper or on TV, it is a truthful reflection of what has happened before the eyes of the person capturing the image
Characterization of industrially pre-treated waste printed circuit boards for the potential recovery of rare earth elements
Get PDFRare earth elements (REE) are classified as critical raw materials and the environmental impact of mining them is of growing concern. The recovery of REE from electronic waste (e-waste) could offer a more sustainable practice. Waste printed circuit boards (WPCBs) are an important resource in the e-waste stream due to their content of valuable materials. However, data regarding the concentration and distribution of REE in WPCBs is very limited. The aims of this research were: (a) to analyse the chemical composition of comminuted WPCBs prior to processing (industrially pre-treated) with emphasis on REE, and (b) to determine the distribution of REE and other metals in different size fractions of the pre-treated WPCBs. The samples were supplied by commercial e-waste recycling companies, which makes them representative of the e-waste processing industry in the UK. Correlation between elemental concentrations and particle size was analysed using Spearman’s rank correlation. Most REE concentrations were inversely correlated to the particle size. Concentrations of Y, La and Gd were found up to a thousand times higher in the smaller particle size compared with coarser particles. However, most of base metals including Cu, Sn, Pb and Zn did not show this trend. The present study highlights the occurrence of REE in comminuted WPCBs, and fine fractions as potential sources of these critical elements, currently not recovered during recycling process. A cost-effective sieving step is proposed to enrich the REE content for further recovery, prevent the possible loss of REE and maximize the total material recovered from WPCBs
Children’s self-determination in the context of practice: Reflection on adults-children relationships
No full textEnvironments that enable are more than the adult and more than the child, they are contexts for intent, agendas and interests. Environments that enable have a ‘more than’ affordance and value. More than the child, more than the adult and more than the resources: they are networks of interactions structured by expectations of personal expressions that favours trust and active participation as persons rather than roles, generating dialogic forms of education' (Scollan & Farini, 2021)
Privacy, security and forensics in the Internet of Things (IoT)
No full textThis book provides the most recent security, privacy, technical and legal challenges in the IoT environments. This book offers a wide range of theoretical and technical solutions to address these challenges. Topics covered in this book include; IoT, privacy, ethics and security, the use of machine learning algorithms in classifying malicious websites, investigation of cases involving cryptocurrency, the challenges police and law enforcement face in policing cyberspace, the use of the IoT in modern terrorism and violent extremism, the challenges of the IoT in view of industrial control systems, and the impact of social media platforms on radicalisation to terrorism and violent extremism.
This book also focuses on the ethical design of the IoT and the large volumes of data being collected and processed in an attempt to understand individuals’ perceptions of data and trust. A particular emphasis is placed on data ownership and perceived rights online. It examines cyber security challenges associated with the IoT, by making use of Industrial Control Systems, using an example with practical real-time considerations. Furthermore, this book compares and analyses different machine learning techniques, i.e., Gaussian Process Classification, Decision Tree Classification, and Support Vector Classification, based on their ability to learn and detect the attributes of malicious web applications. The data is subjected to multiple steps of pre-processing including; data formatting, missing value replacement, scaling and principal component analysis.
This book has a multidisciplinary approach. Researchers working within security, privacy, technical and legal challenges in the IoT environments and advanced-level students majoring in computer science will find this book useful as a reference. Professionals working within this related field will also want to purchase this book
Populism as new wine in old bottles in the context of Germany: 'symbolic violence' as collective habitus that devalues the human capital of Turks
Get PDFPopulism in Germany is not a new phenomenon. For a long time, the alleged integration problems of Turkish workers in Germany have been at the center of the dominant discourse and academic studies. This paper demonstrates how ‘symbolic violence’ as collective habitus frames the human capital of Turks as deficient, a phenomenon which has prevailed even prior to the recent populist movements. Drawing on a company case study, interviews, and observations, our empirical investigation operationalises and expands the Bourdieusian conceptual trinity of habitus, capital, and symbolic violence through the lens of ethnicity and how it relates to populism
Development and application of an innovative approach to predicting pollutant concentrations in highway runoff
Get PDFRecognising the challenges and limitations of current methodologies to predict highway runoff concentrations, this paper presents a novel approach based on the derivation of pollutant emission factors for twelve different types of vehicle. Published emission factor data and properties of differing vehicles types are combined with annual average daily traffic volume (AADT), highway characteristics and rainfall data to determine the pollutant distributions associated with differing highway and traffic types. In this paper, the method is applied to 126 sections of highway in the Greater London Borough of Enfield (United Kingdom; UK) and results are comparable with values reported in the literature. The approach is used to identify the level of AADT predicted to result in an exceedance of environmental quality standards (EQS), with results suggesting that runoff from highways experiencing AADT values as low as 5000 may require treatment prior to discharge to receiving waters. Future scenario analyses indicate that the impact of progressively replacing petrol and diesel vehicles with electric vehicles will have negligible impact on concentrations of zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), cadmium (Cd) and total suspended solids discharging from highway environments. The approach enables identification and ranking of urban highways in terms of their pollution runoff potential and provides an important support to users in prioritising locations for the installation of sustainable drainage options in order to protect receiving water environments. [Abstract copyright: Copyright © 2021. Published by Elsevier B.V.
Hungry for change: the experiences of people with PKU, and their caregivers, when eating out
Get PDFFor patients with phenylketonuria (PKU), stringent dietary management is demanding and eating out may pose many challenges. Often, there is little awareness about special dietary requirements within the hospitality sector. This study’s aim was to investigate the experiences and behaviours of people with PKU and their caregivers when dining out. We also sought to identify common problems in order to improve their experiences when eating outside the home. Individuals with PKU or their caregivers residing in the UK were invited to complete a cross-sectional online survey that collected both qualitative and quantitative data about their experiences when eating out. Data were available from 254 questionnaire respondents (136 caregivers or patients with PKU 18 years and 118 patients with PKU ≥ 18 years (n = 100) or their caregivers (n = 18)). Fifty-eight per cent dined out once per month or less (n = 147/254) and the biggest barrier to more frequent dining was ‘limited choice of suitable low-protein foods’ (90%, n = 184/204), followed by ‘no information about the protein content of foods’ (67%, n = 137/204). Sixty-nine per cent (n = 176/254) rated their dining experience as less than satisfactory. Respondents ranked restaurant employees’ knowledge of the PKU diet as very poor with an overall median rating of 1.6 (on a scale of 1 for extremely poor to 10 for extremely good). Forty-four per cent (n = 110/252) of respondents said that restaurants had refused to prepare alternative suitable foods; 44% (n = 110/252) were not allowed to eat their own prepared food in a restaurant, and 46% (n = 115/252) reported that restaurants had refused to cook special low-protein foods. Forty per cent (n = 101/254) of respondents felt anxious before entering restaurants. People with PKU commonly experienced discrimination in restaurants, with hospitality staff failing to support their dietary needs, frequently using allergy laws and concerns about cross-contamination as a reason not to provide suitable food options. It is important that restaurant staff receive training regarding low-protein diets, offer more low-protein options, provide protein analysis information on all menu items, and be more flexible in their approach to cooking low-protein foods supplied by the person with PKU. This may help people with PKU enjoy safe meals when dining out and socialising with others
Modular covariants of cyclic groups of order p
Get PDFLet G be a cyclic group of order p and let V, W be kG-modules. We study the modules of covariants k[V,W]^G = (S(V^∗) ⊗ W)^G . Recall that G has exactly p inequivalent indecomposable kG-modules, denoted V_n (n = 1, . . . , p) and V_n has dimension n. For any n, we show that k[V_2,V_n]^G is a free k[V_2]^G- module (recovering a result of Broer and Chuai) and we give an explicit set of covariants generating k[V_2,V_n]^G freely over k[V_2]^G . For any n, we show that k[V_3,V_n]^G is a Cohen-Macaulay k[V_3]^G -module (again recovering a result of Broer and Chuai) and we give an explicit set of covariants which generate k[V 3 , V n ] G freely over a homogeneous system of parameters for k[V_3]^G . We also use our results to compute a minimal generating set for the transfer ideal of k[V_3]^G over a homogeneous system of parameters
Headscarves and the CJEU: protecting fundamental rights and pandering to prejudice: the CJEU does both
Get PDFThe CJEU judgment in the two latest Islamic headscarf cases was handed down in July 2021. The judgment allows employers to ban the wearing of religious and other symbols by employees, but it does specify under what conditions this can be done. This article builds on a previous article on the opinion of AG Rantos and the Shadow Opinion of former AG Sharpston and analyses the judgment in detail. It argues that the judgment is an improvement on the previous CJEU headscarf judgments in that it provides more protection for fundamental human rights. However, the CJEU also appears to allow employers to a certain extent to pander to the prejudicial wishes of their customers. The article concludes that the judgment presents a small glimmer of hope that the CJEU might be moving – albeit very slowly - towards more protection of Muslim women who want to wear headscarves at work for religious reasons
'Just have some IVF!': A longitudinal ethnographic study of couples' experiences of seeking fertility treatment
Get PDFWe present findings from a longitudinal ethnographic study of infertile couples seeking treatment following initial GP referral to specialist fertility services. Repeated observations and interviews were undertaken with the same 14 heterosexual participants over an 18‐month period. Heterosexual, non‐donor couples comprise the majority of fertility clinic patients; however, research interest in this group has dwindled over time as IVF cycles have increased. In the United Kingdom, IVF is presented as a logical response to involuntary childlessness, and as an entirely predictable, and linear, course of action. The market is well‐developed and often patients' first experience of privatised health care in the NHS. Our couples were challenged by this, and while they felt expected to move on to IVF, some wished to explore other options. While IVF is ubiquitous, the discomfort and challenge around fertility treatments remain; experiences are prolonged and characterised by recursive narratives and expressions of disequilibrium, which are rarely acknowledged and reflected in ongoing clinic‐patient interactions. Our findings develop understanding of the process of ‘mazing’ (Image ‐ The Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 1989, 21, 220), the pursuit of parenthood, by showing that the routine and normative status of IVF, at least in the current health care context, is at odds with the lived experiences of individuals