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‘It’s a tiger instinct – that’s my baby!’: affective practices of care in parents’ educational activism
Get PDFThis article presents findings from a qualitative study exploring parents’ struggles over their children’s education. Drawing on affective practice theory (Wetherell, 2012) and feminist care ethics (Fisher and Tronto 1990), we offer insights into the affective practices of care driving parents’ educational activism. We detail how parents’ activism is rooted in powerful feelings of responsibility for their own children as well as more altruistic concerns. Whilst ostensibly grounded in self-interest, we argue that parents’ activism challenges the traditional binary between altruism and self-interest, indicating instead that they can be mutually constitutive of collective action; a complex form of affective practice we designate altruistic self-interest. Our analysis suggests parental activism can be a force for progressive educational change in which care for intimates and care for others coincide, but also that educational authorities could adopt a more care-full approach when making key decisions affecting children, families and communities
3D view reconstruction from endoscopic videos for gastrointestinal tract surgery planning
Get PDFThis paper investigates the application of neural radiance field (NeRF) to reconstruct a 3D model from 2D endoscopic videos for surgical planning and removal of gastrointestinal lesions. It comprises three stages. The first one is video preprocess to remove frames with artefact of colour misalignment based on a deep learning network. Then the remaining frames are converted into NeRF compatible format. This stage includes extraction of camera information regarding intrinsic, extrinsic and ray pathway parameters as well as conversion to NeRF format based on COLMAP library, a pipeline built upon structure-from-motion (SfM) with multi-view stereo (MVS). Finally the training takes place for establishment of NeRF model implemented upon Nerfstudio library. Initial results illustrate that this end-to-end, i.e. from 2D video input to 3D model output deep learning architecture presents great potentials for reconstruction of gastrointestinal tract. Base on the two sets of data containing 2600 i mages, the similarity measures of SSIM, PSNR and LPIPS between original (ground truth) and rendered images are 19.46 ± 2.56, 0.70 ± 0.054, and 0.49 ± 0.05 respectively. Future work includes enlarging dataset and removal of ghostly artefact from rendered images
IoT wearables in child health: a comprehensive scoping review and exploration of ubiquitous computing
Get PDFThe increasing adoption of health technologies, especially the Internet of Things (IoT), for monitoring children's independent mobility is a growing trend. Despite this, concerns from both children and parents persist, particularly regarding the tracking of health vitals and the child's whereabouts. The integration of these technologies introduces a unique challenge, considering the diverse landscape of available options for monitoring and tracking a child's location. In this context, this review aims to provide an up-to-date analysis of emerging concerns and novel technologies related to vital signs and location tracking, exploring the implications of ubiquitous computing in the aspect of child health monitoring. By addressing these concerns, the research seeks to contribute to a better understanding of the practical considerations and potential solutions in the adoption of health technologies for monitoring and tracking children's well-being
Summary and outlook
No full textThis chapter concludes the Handbook on Smart Health. It provides an overview to the organization of the volume and summarizes the technical content of the various preceding chapters in the Handbook. Here we also highlight emerging topics in the area of Smart Health based on the material included in the whole volume. This includes identified common threads, discussion of challenges and bottlenecks, and possibilities for further development of the area
Stories of identity and becoming: a narrative inquiry into how trans and gender diverse adults aged fifty and over navigate their lives in Britain
No full textWithin Britain today, gender identity, which diverges from that assigned at birth, is a source of debate, division and ideology. Intense focus on people identifying as Trans or Gender Diverse (TGD) has led to a growing corpus of research in Britain, notably relating to adolescents and young adults. However, there is less understanding of the lived experience of middle-aged or older adults identifying as TGD with years of experience navigating their identity. Research from America suggests this group experience stigma and fear of rejection because of their so-called ‘transgression’ of cisgender normativity. This rejection is associated with significantly higher risks of poor physical health, disability, depressive symptomatology, stress, substance abuse and suicidality.
This study addresses current gaps in the field of research with middle-aged and older adults who identify as TGD. It employs a narrative inquiry methodology which prioritises subjective and intersubjective experience, emphasising social and relational connections within a temporal, social, and geographical context. Central to the creation of narrative is the researcher-participant relationship.
I conducted narrative interviews individually with seven participants. The findings were re-presented from these accounts using various analytical approaches, including structural, performative, dialogic, and reflexive thematic analyses. In re-presenting the narratives, I drew creatively on literary techniques, including poetry and fictionalisation.
Emerging from this research were rich accounts of the complexity of having to navigate life outwardly as the gender assigned at birth while experiencing the intense need and desire to be a different gender. Britain provides the backdrop to these narratives from the 1960s and 1970s, when being trans was not widely known, to the present day. All participants spoke of the anguish and difficulty they often experienced, not being acknowledged, understood, or able to live as they wanted, instead feeling obliged to conform. Similarly, they referred to the euphoria of being witnessed and recognised by others and an internalised acceptance of themselves. Further emergent themes relate to participants’ interface with healthcare provision and concerns about the impact of legislative and policy changes on the younger TGD community.
In foregrounding stories to understand and make meaning of our lives, this study seeks to help counselling psychologists, counsellors and psychotherapists work more meaningfully, inclusively, and relationally with clients identifying as TGD
Exhibition text for Jeremy Glogan's solo show "Leanings"
No full textExhibition text for Jeremy Glogan's solo show "Leanings" at Jenny's, New York
Acute effects of repeated sprints on performance measures during the countermovement rebound jump
No full textThe countermovement rebound jump (CMRJ) test is an alternative to traditional jump assessments, providing unique insights into slow and fast stretch-shortening cycle mechanics. This study investigated the effects of repeated sprint-induced fatigue (4 sets of 6 × 40-m sprints with 20-s inter-repetition rest) on CMRJ performance metrics, including jump heights, time to take-off, ground contact time, reactive strength index modified (RSImod), reactive strength index (RSI), countermovement depth, and leg stiffness, measured at baseline, during sprints, and over a 24-hour recovery period. Twenty-four elite male team-sport athletes completed CMRJ tests before and after each sprint set, with additional assessments at 0.5-hour, 1-hour, and 24-hour post-sprints. Results showed significant reductions in CMRJ heights, RSImod, and RSI immediately following sprints (effect size = 0.27 to 1.78, p ≤ 0.040), indicating acute decrements in jump performance. Strategy-based metrics, such as leg stiffness and contact times, remained stable (effect size = 0.09 to 0.57, p ≥ 0.079), suggesting limited sensitivity to fatigue. These findings support the use of CMRJ outcome metrics to evaluate neuromuscular fatigue effectively in an athlete population with a non-invasive solution suitable for field settings
A preliminary study on the reality of autonomy in Georgian universities
Get PDFThe paper considers the issue of academic and institutional autonomy having become central to the identity of the university and remains a contemporary signifier of the relationship of scholarly activity, the university and society. This is particularly true in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) where the management of national higher education systems with different traditions seeks to find comparative consistency in the levels and quality of their awards. Specifically, this paper considers the Republic of Georgia reality, firstly, against other post-soviet signatory nations of the Bologna Process within the EHEA using secondary data from European Universities Association’s (EUA) Autonomy Scorecard (2023) and, secondly, through a qualitative analysis of key participants in the Georgian higher education sector. This reveals the simulacra of autonomy and the dependency of universities on the State’s centralised control mechanisms created through the legislation and implemented agent: the national quality assurance agenc
Association between measures of maximal and rapid force production with rowing ergometer performance in adolescent male rowers
No full textThe aim of the present study was to better understand the associations between maximal and rapid force production measures, and rowing ergometer performance in youth male rowers. Twenty-three junior male rowers (9 mid-late pubescent, 14 post pubescent, mean age: 14.89 0.60 years) volunteered to participate. For maximal and rapid force production measures, assessments included: i) isometric mid-thigh pull [IMTP], ii) isometric hip thrust, and iii) countermovement jump [CMJ]. Rowing performance was determined from a 6-stroke peak power test and 2-km time trial. Pearson’s r correlation coefficients were used to analyse relationships between physical test measures and rowing performance, with statistical significance set at p ≤ 0.0036 once a Bonferroni correction had been applied. Results showed CMJ net impulse to have a very large relationship with all rowing ergometer performance measures (power output and time). In addition, multiple isometric force production measures also exhibited large to very large correlations with rowing ergometer performance. The findings of this study suggest practitioners should look to enhance both maximal and rapid force production measures when aiming to improve junior male rowing ergometer performance. However, caution should be taken when assessing and using some early force-time data from isometric test protocols, owing to elevated variability
Toward secure SDN infrastructure in smart cities: Kafka-enabled machine learning framework for anomaly detection
Get PDFAs smart cities evolve, the demand for real-time, secure, and adaptive network monitoring, continues to grow. Software-Defined Networking (SDN) offers a centralized approach to managing network flows; However, anomaly detection within SDN environments remains a significant challenge, particularly at the intelligent edge. This paper presents a conceptual Kafka-enabled ML framework for scalable, real-time analytics in SDN environments, supported by offline evaluation and a prototype streaming demonstration. A range of supervised ML models covering traditional methods and ensemble approaches (Random Forest, Linear Regression & XGBoost) were trained and validated using the InSDN intrusion detection dataset. These models were tested against multiple cyber threats, including botnets, dos, ddos, network reconnaissance, brute force, and web attacks, achieving up to 99% accuracy for ensemble classifiers under offline conditions. A Dockerized prototype demonstrates Kafka’s role in offline data ingestion, processing, and visualization through PostgreSQL and Grafana. While full ML pipeline integration into Kafka remains part of future work, the proposed architecture establishes a foundation for secure and intelligent Software-Defined Vehicular Networking (SDVN) infrastructure in smart cities